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Identifying the Enemy: Radical Islamist Terror On Thursday, September 22, 2016, Muslim Reformer Shireen Qudosi will testify before Chairman Scott Perry for the Subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency of the House Homeland Security Committee of the U.S. Congress. The hearing, titled “Identifying the Enemy: Radical Islamist Terror,” is one of a series of hearings this year that has been instrumental is drawing political attention to political Islam and the obstructions to effectively dealing with the problem with the full potential and resources of the United States government. Along with co-reformer Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, Qudosi will testify on the importance of identifying the real enemy to American freedom and national security. That enemy is radical Islamic ideology that is a political parasite protected under freedom of religion. Pivotal to her testimony are three key areas that impact national dialogue on radicalism and its offshoot, Islamism: 1. Muslim Reform acknowledges that Islam must change in order to be compatible with life in our free society. 2. Islamism is neither a harmless alternative lifestyle nor a collection of harmless beliefs; it is a political system with definable ideas, an intellectual history and, alarmingly, a relatively robust base of support within the United States. 3. A government and civil society emphasis on combatting “Islamophobia” actually prevents any hope at Muslim Reform, because it protects Islam from criticism from non-Muslims and Muslims alike. It must be stopped. Qudosi stresses that Islam is both “peace and war,” and that repeating a mantra of peace in response to growing extremism is detrimental to greater efforts to combat Islamic ideology. She denounces Islam as a race and with it the accusation that attacking the idea of Islam is somehow “Islamophobic.” Islam is not a race. It is an idea and just like any other idea, it needs to be pushed, provoked, and tested. In addition to outlining the case for reform, Qudosi’s testimony calls on political leaders to cut the reigns on language so that Americans can have a free and full dialogue without the threatening our First Amendment rights with “hate speech” or “racism.” Her testimony offers three key recommendations for immediate impact. First, identify and understand the ideological convey-belt Islamists use to create jihadists, both outside and inside the United States. Second, immigrants need to share our values, which means restricting the ability of known Islamists to travel and gain residency or citizenship. And finally, initiate outreach efforts that require new Muslim immigrants to engage outside of ethnic and religious enclaves; this means engage with Muslim Reformers and other secular Muslims. Qudosi is a conservative, a feminist, and an American Muslim of Pakistani and Afghan heritage. She traveled through Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey, and was a refugee in Germany before becoming an American citizen. The experience that shape her identity offer a unique position from which to view the war against radical Islam.
Globigerina () is a genus of planktonic Foraminifera, in the order of Rotaliida.[1] It has populated the world's oceans since the Middle Jurassic. Globigerina ooze [ edit ] Vast areas of the ocean floor are covered with Globigerina ooze, dominated by the foraminiferous shells of Globigerina and other Globigerinina. The name was originally applied to mud collected from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean when planning the location of the first transatlantic telegraph cables and it was mainly composed of the shells of Globigerina bulloides.[2] Description [ edit ] Globigerina has a globose, trochospirally enrolled test composed of spherical to ovate but not radially elongate chambers that enlarge rapidly as added, commonly with only three to five in the final whorl. The test (or shell) wall is calcareous, perforate, with cylindrical pores. During life the surface has numerous long slender spines that are broken on dead or fossil shells, the short blunt remnants resulting in a hispid surface. The aperture a high umbilical arch that may be bordered by an imperforate rim or narrow lip. No secondary apertures. Species [ edit ] Globigerina includes the following species (extinct species marked with a dagger, †) References [ edit ]
Senate Republicans deployed the so-called “nuclear option” Thursday in their drive to confirm Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, dramatically changing the way the Senate does business in order to overcome a Democratic filibuster. In a fast-paced chain of events that clears the way for Gorsuch to be confirmed by Friday morning, majority Republicans changed Senate precedent so that a high court nominee can advance to a final vote with a simple majority of 51 senators, as opposed to 60. By Senate standards, this was ground-shaking. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., declared he did so to “restore norms” and get past what he called an “unprecedented” Democratic filibuster. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., countered that the changes could send the Senate and the nomination process “over the cliff.” GORSUCH VOTE TRACKER Republicans succeeded in making the change on a party-line vote Thursday afternoon. The body then swiftly took another, 55-45 vote to end debate and tee up a final confirmation vote expected at 11:30 a.m. ET Friday. This was after Democrats initially blocked Gorsuch in a filibuster earlier in the day. Four Democrats broke ranks -- Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.; Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.; Joe Donnelly, D-Ind.; and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. – but Republicans still fell short of the 60 votes needed to proceed, prompting McConnell to overhaul the way the Senate works. He said he did so “for the sake of our country.” Bennet later opposed Gorsuch on the do-over vote. While congressional Republicans and President Trump are now virtually guaranteed to get Gorsuch on the high court, the impact of the events that played out Thursday could be felt for years, if not decades, to come. Each party blamed the other for the escalation and the breakdown in the Senate’s parliamentary decorum. Indeed, McConnell’s predecessor as Senate majority leader Harry Reid, now retired, took the first step down the “nuclear” road by lowering the threshold for other nominees in 2013 – a controversial move Republicans frequently brought up on the road to Thursday’s proceedings. But lowering the threshold for a Supreme Court pick is a more significant step. It means for the foreseeable future, the minority party will have significantly less leverage to oppose any nominee to the highest court in the land, no matter who is president. Schumer said there will be “less faith in the Supreme Court” going forward. McConnell, kicking off Thursday’s session, blasted Democrats for the filibuster attempt and accused them of driving the upper chamber to this point. He said their opposition to Gorsuch isn’t about the nominee but “the man who nominated him” – and part of an “extreme escalation in the left’s never-ending drive to politicize the courts and the confirmation process.” Republicans say Democrats have been unfair to an otherwise eminently qualified nominee and have wrongly cast him as an ideologue. However, despite exhaustive confirmation hearings where Gorsuch, like many nominees before him, declined to take clear stances on hot-button issues, Democrats largely are convinced he would be a staunch conservative in the mold of the late Antonin Scalia, whose seat he would fill on the nine-member court. They pointed to past rulings on cases where he sided with businesses against workers, though his allies maintain he was merely applying the law as written. Democrats also are still furious over Republicans’ refusal to consider former President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland. Democrats, meanwhile, howled over the GOP majority’s move to deploy the “nuclear option” to get Gorsuch approved in the end. They warn it will drastically change the way the Senate operates for the worse. “It doesn’t have to be this way,” Schumer said. “The answer is not to change the rules, it’s to change the nominee.” He also said Gorsuch “may very well turn out to be one of the most conservative justices on the bench.” The actual deployment of the nuclear option was cloaked in obscure parliamentary-speak. McConnell, after the initial Democratic filibuster, asked for a simple majority vote “on all nominations.” The presiding officer said the point of order was not sustained. McConnell, with seven fateful words, said: “I appeal the ruling of the chair.” His party backed him, eliminating the 60-vote requirement for Supreme Court nominees. Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
2015 studio album by Galantis Pharmacy is the debut studio album by Swedish electronic music duo Galantis,[3] released on 8 June 2015.[4][5] The album features six singles ("Runaway (U & I)", "You", "Peanut Butter Jelly", "Gold Dust", "In My Head" and "Louder, Harder, Better"). Artwork [ edit ] Overall, four "Seafoxes" are included in the album artwork. The cover features a unique Seafox, only seen on the album artwork. The booklet features a Seafox also used for the "You" single artwork, and also appears on the cover of the Galantis EP. The inside panel of the digipak features a Seafox used for the "Peanut Butter Jelly" single artwork, and also the YouTube audio for "Louder, Harder, Better". Behind the CD tray is a Seafox also used to front the "Gold Dust" single artwork, and also appears on the cover of the Galantis EP. The booklet included also includes a picture of Galantis themselves (Christian "Bloodshy" Karlsson, Linus "Style of Eye" Eklöw), standing back to back. Singles [ edit ] The first single "You" was originally on their self-titled EP and currently has over eight million plays on Spotify. However, it was not intended to promote Pharmacy, making "Runaway (U & I)" the album's first official single. Galantis released the single "Gold Dust" on 19 February 2015 as the album second official single. It reached number one on Hype Machine's Popular Chart.[6] "Peanut Butter Jelly" was later released as the third official single on the pre-release of the album[7] on 20 April 2015. "In My Head" was released as the album's fourth official single on 30 October 2015 and "Louder, Harder, Better" was released as the album's fifth official single on 12 February 2016. Critical reception [ edit ] John Cameron from We Got This Covered gave Pharmacy 3.5/5 stars stating, "Galantis may have set our expectations a little too high with their 2014 releases" (referencing "Runaway (U & I)", 'You" and "Smile"), and added that although the album's production values were good, "most of the songs seem to lack originality". Cameron also mentioned that the tracks on Pharmacy are "not poorly done by any means – it's just that very few of the new ones are all that memorable."[8] A more positive review came from Lucas Sachs from Your EDM, as he gave the album a "respectable 8.5/10" pointing out tracks "Louder, Harder, Better" and "Firebird" as his "two new songs from this album that stick out to me due to their excellence in production and writing." He wrote that "Louder, Harder, Better" encompasses all that Galantis stands for, and that "Firebird" was his favorite track on the album due to the nostalgic feeling in the lyrics and the added reverb on the word "bird".[9] Tour [ edit ] On May 21, 2015 Galantis began their summer festival tour in support of Pharmacy which ended on August 6, 2015. There were 22 dates on the tour in total. There were performances in multiple continents including Europe and North America.[10] Track listing [ edit ] Notes[11] The CD is packaged only as a digipak. Track 1 features uncredited production from Svidden and uncredited vocals from Jennifer Decilveo and Stephen Simmonds. Track 2 features uncredited production from Svidden and uncredited vocals from Vincent Pontare. Track 3 features uncredited production from Svidden and uncredited vocals from Vincent Pontare and Jennifer Decilveo. Track 4 features uncredited production from Svidden and uncredited vocals from Cathy Dennis and Julia Karlsson. Track 5 features uncredited production from Svidden and uncredited vocals from Nicole "Coco" Morier and Vincent Pontare. Track 6 features uncredited production from Svidden and uncredited vocals from Cathy Dennis. Track 7 features uncredited vocals from Vincent Pontare. Track 8 features uncredited production from Svidden and uncredited vocals from Blackbear and Vincent Pontare. Track 9 samples the 1974 song "Kiss My Love Goodbye" by Bettye Swann. Track 9 features uncredited production from Svidden and The Young Professionals and uncredited vocals from Martina Sorbara of Dragonette. Track 10 features uncredited production from Svidden and uncredited vocals from Martina Sorbara. Track 11 features uncredited production from Svidden and East & Young and uncredited vocals from Leon Jean-Marie. Track 12 features uncredited production from Vincent Pontare and uncredited vocals from Vincent Pontare and Britney Spears Track 13 features uncredited production from Svidden and uncredited vocals from Andrew Jackson. Charts [ edit ]
Drinking vinegar for weight loss? The fad may be appearing all over social media, but it's "as gross as it sounds," and sipping vinegar is not the weight-loss miracle it's purported to be, reports Glamour after talking to dietitians. While drinking vinegar may aid in weight loss, "it is not magic," says one of them, author Beth Warren. Another says drinking vinegar could cause stomach discomfort and acid reflux. (Some researchers think it's those adverse effects that actually curb the appetite.) The recent hubbub about vinegar seems to stem from a 2009 Japanese study, in which obese adults dropped two to four pounds in 12 weeks after taking up to two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar daily. Other outlets echo Glamour's findings. Nutritionist Carol Johnston tells the New York Times that vinegar can help you shed pounds "if you're a very, very patient person," but, she adds in a now-common refrain, it's not a "magic bullet." Vinegar may help, Johnston tells the Washington Post, by inhibiting enzymes that help digest starch. The less starch you digest, the less your blood sugar spikes after eating carbs. Over time, those undigested calories may add up to "very modest" weight loss. To those who want to give vinegar a shot, experts advise ingesting just one tablespoon in eight ounces of water during the first bites of a meal. And Johnston notes, it needn't be apple cider vinegar—red wine vinegar or white vinegar will do. But take with caution: Consumption of vinegar, per the Times, has been linked to vocal cord spasms, fainting, damage to the esophagus, and tooth erosion. (Capsules filled with freeze-dried poop may some day help people lose weight.) This article originally appeared on Newser: Vinegar for Weight Loss? It's Not a 'Magic Bullet' More From Newser
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was one of the first to congratulate "the great European leader" Alexander Lukashenko on his re-election, calling the Belarusian leader's country a "bastion of dignity and prosperity in the middle of a Europe agitated by the insatiable greed of transnational capital." In his congratulatory cable, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad referred to "yet another golden chapter of the brilliant history of the great people of Belarus." Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also offered his congratulations, though with a touch of a guilty conscience. The election in Minsk, he said, was an "internal affair," characterizing Belarus as one of the countries that is "closest to Russia, regardless of its political leadership." The "golden chapter" Iranian President Ahmadinejad mentioned was a reference to the election in Belarus, in which, according to the official count, 7.8 million people voted for their next president on the Sunday before last. But the chapter was not golden; it was bloody. It had hardly been announced that autocratic leader Lukashenko would remain in power (it was his fourth election victory in a row, and this time his official tally was 79.7% of the votes), when more than 10,000 citizens took to the streets in the capital Minsk. An attempt to storm the government headquarters building failed. The secret police, which appeared to have been well prepared, clubbed down the demonstrators, arrested several hundred and carried off seven of the opposition presidential candidates. Weekend Raids The old and new president said that "bandits" had triggered mass unrest, and that he would not allow a revolution to take place in his country. In expedited proceedings, he had about 600 regime critics sentenced to prison terms. His justice ministry threatened to ban all parties, movements and trade unions whose members had taken part in the protest -- as if many such organizations still existed. Over the weekend, police raided the homes and offices of several opposition activists. It was an ugly reversion to former times, and it triggered a public relations crisis for Western Europe. Two days after the election, the 27 member states of the European Union noted that they had had a "bad feeling" about the images coming from Minsk. In January, the EU will decide whether to reinstate earlier sanctions against the regime in Minsk. Only last year, politicians in Brussels, citing the easing of political tensions in the realm of long-time dictator Lukashenko, had lifted a ban on entry into the EU imposed in 2006 on Lukashenko and about three dozen of his followers. The Europeans had argued that the Belarusian had taken some positive steps, including the release of political prisoners and the acceptance of two opposition newspapers. He was promptly invited to attend the inauguration of the EU's Eastern Partnership program in Prague. The move prompted the Minsk newspaper Komsomolskaja prawda to rejoice, calling Lukashenko "a legitimate player in European politics." But as the recent election in Minsk shows, this is precisely what he is not. Once again, observers are asking themselves what drives the 56-year-old son of a textile worker, and how he consistently manages to gain the support of a majority of his people, despite all protests. A Silent Majority Stability and modest prosperity, a nationalist course and a toothless opposition -- these are the three sources from which Lukashenko derives his power and self-confidence. In the months before the election, he gradually increased the benefits paid to 2.5 million retirees by more than 20 percent, and next year he plans to double the wage and salaries of doctors and teachers. The country that was once both the engineering hub and weapons producer for the Soviet Union has indeed had some successes recently. The economy has grown by more than a third since 2005. Agricultural exports increased sixfold in the last 10 years, because Lukashenko had milk combines modernized and 15,000 tractors purchased. The government boasts that no other country in the post-Soviet region builds as much residential space per capita as Belarus. According to a survey by the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies, which is based in Lithuania, 51 percent of Belarusians believe that their country is developing satisfactorily, up from only 38 percent in 2001. The poll also showed that a majority of young people is loyal to Lukashenko. It would seem as if the Minsk dictator is the president of a silent majority, one that will continue to tolerate him for as long as it feels that an economic recovery is underway. Almost in the heart of Europe, less than 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) from Berlin, Lukashenko's realm symbolizes a development that is not in keeping with what the West had envisioned. Almost 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, authoritarian systems have become established in most of its former republics. Sability, Order and Calm President Nursultan Nazarbayev has controlled Kazakhstan for more than two decades. In Uzbekistan, dictator Islam Karimov once had his security forces shoot down hundreds of demonstrators. The pro-Western "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine was a failure, and now the country is returning to an authoritarian style of leadership. Finally, in Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has established a system of one-party rule whitewashed with obedient bloc parties. All of these regimes depend on an inherited system of repression carried out by the intelligence agencies and police. And the leadership in each country is counting on a population plagued by currency devaluation, crises and uncertainty rejecting change and betting on stability, order and calm. This is also the case in Lukashenko's Belarus, where the intelligence service still goes by the name KGB. "Many feel that the Soviet system was not bad. The people perceived the early 1990s as a shock and believe that Lukashenko delivered them from it," says Minsk political scientist Pavel Morosov. "Many want things to be the way they used to be." Lukashenko also portrays himself as a champion of Belarusian sovereignty and a "man in the middle," holding the fort between the siren calls of the European Union and the increasingly brusque Russians, who want to put their junior partner on a tighter leash. The Belarusians fear that closer ties to Russia could allow Moscow's state-owned companies to buy up their businesses, whereas the market economy reforms that the EU wants to see put in place would trigger rising inflation and unemployment. Instead, Lukashenko is pinning his hopes on new sources of capital: Venezuela, Iran and China. Beijing wants to modernize the railroad in Belarus and the Minsk airport, and it will receive a communications intercept station in return. Missed Irony The weakness of the opposition is one of the reasons Lukashenko will not be chided for the sort of police brutality that unfolded on the day of the election. The population does not hold the opposition leaders in high esteem. They are seen as narcissistic, authoritarian and controlled by foreign powers. But there is a reason why they depend on donations from the West: The opposition lacks the support of a private entrepreneurial class. The US Embassy in Minsk, which is very active, has repeatedly pointed out this deficit in its reports to Washington. In a cable written in February 2006, before that year's presidential election, US Ambassador George Krol characterized Lukashenko's support as "considerable" and the regime as "strong." The opposition, Krol continued, had not been able to convince Belarusians that life would improve under a new leader. But the opposition also has little opportunity to discuss alternatives to Lukashenko, because the intelligence service constantly imprisons and demoralizes regime critics. This fall, RockerJocker, a Minsk pop group, came out with the hit single of the year, a song called "Stay With Us, Sanja." Sanja is Lukashenko's nickname. The lyrics tout the country's blue skies and happy mothers, clean streets and reliable bus service, and describe Belarus as the "cleanest place on Earth." Lukashenko shrewdly bought the rights to the song and had it played during his campaign appearances. It was also played several times a day on the government-owned radio stations. Most Belarusians were enthusiastic about the song and believed that the lyrics were promises their president was making to them. Hardly anyone noticed that the words were meant to be ironic.
“This [Brain Jonestown Massacre performance] was from when we had no fans or friends, just haters and enemies,” says guitarist Ricky Maymi about a 1993 bootleg he posted recently on Facebook. The comment is revealing, coming from a member of a band that many feel revitalized rock at a time when mainstream “alternative” music was descending into nihilism and self-parody — a band that now packs every venue to capacity any time they tour. It’s a reminder that artists with meaningful influence share one thing in common: they stopped caring what anyone thought and did things their own way. “Developing our own rules and ideology was one of the main reasons we started” For Alberto González and Lorena Quintanilla, the dissolution of their band Soho Riots was an opportunity to pursue a creative vision on their own terms with a project called Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, whose growing fanbase eagerly awaits their forth LP Balance set for release on September 16. With freedom to play and record everything themselves with no outside expectations, the band began to uncover new pathways into psychedelic music, evolving the smacked-out no-wave garage vibes of early works On Welfare and Corruptible Faces into the beautifully vivid and intricate tapestry that is Balance. Balance by Lorelle Meets The Obsolete “Developing our own rules and ideology was one of the main reasons we started Lorelle Meets The Obsolete,” agrees Lorena. Formed in Guadalajara, the band soon moved to Mexico City, but living in the capital didn’t agree with the pair, and they relocated to the border town Ensenada after the release of their Corruptible Faces LP. “It was a period where we got bored of living in the same place and we couldn’t find any jobs related to our college degrees in Guadalajara, so we decided to try something else in Mexico City. On Welfare, our first album, was about to come out, so it made sense to have a fresh start in a new city. “Moving to Ensenada was absolutely driven by music and it was a decision we made soon after we agreed on turning music into our profession and way of life. By moving to Ensenada, which is only a few miles south from the US border, touring in the States is much easier.” Lorelle Meets The Obsolete’s output caught the interest of analog tech wizard and musician Cooper Crain, the Chicago-based keyboardist for CAVE and Bitchin’ Bajas and mixing/mastering professional at Real Reel Pro. “I don’t know why we sound like we do. It’s a mystery. Our filters are just the way they are and we try to keep them clean.” “We’ve known him for a while now, as he mastered Corruptible Faces and recorded and mixed Chambers,” says Lorena. “We love and respect his work, so we always had him in mind at some extent when we were recording Balance. “In fact, once the tracking was done, we had to wait around five months for a clear space in his schedule, because he was so swamped with touring and recording other bands that he couldn’t start working on our album until late January. “It was worth the wait.” Further demonstrating Lorelle Meets The Obsolete’s impact in certain musical spheres, the band was able to recruit one of their own musical heroes, Sonic Boom, to master third album Chambers. But for LMTO, the journey of creation began with finding a shared musical vocabulary. Lorena describes the band’s sound as “pattern music” for its roots in repetitious groove. Drowned in fuzz and reverb, billowing synths, and motorik rhythm, it’s LMTO’s ear for melody that provides a counterweight to the hypnotic elements within the music, setting it apart from the usual garage psych fare. “I just really like repetition, groove, noise, and nice melodies, and all of these can be found in all kinds of music,” Lorena says of the band’s influences. We asked whether a straight line can be drawn back to prototypical ’70s fuzz, krautrock, and kosmiche, or if their sound is a more a melting pot of influences. “Yes, we listen to the genres you mention, but not as much as we listen to other styles. I don’t know why we sound like we do. It’s a mystery. Our filters are just the way they are and we try to keep them clean.” Put on the spot to name a piece of gear and a single album fundamental in shaping the band, they answer with little hesitation: “The Shin-ei Fuzz Wah and Exploding Now! by Los Llamarada,” says Lorena. “The Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man, and Sonic Youth’s Murray Street,” answers Alberto. With fuzzy, repetitious, effects-heavy structures, Balance is still rooted in garage-psych tradition, but it gathers its influences from everywhere into vast and spacious compositions, making it an enthralling and deeply satisfying listen. “I’ve never judged music based on its nationality either. To me it is just music.” Whether it be double-tracked Bardo Pond vocal harmonies, funky Afrobeat guitar and drum rhythms, chiming Byrds progressions, or the spacey whoops and squalls of Hawkwind, the variety of sound reflects the effort that’s gone into every track while showing a band that resists being defined by a single influence. Describing the process of writing the album, Alberto says, “It’s a constant ping-pong between the two of us. We try to detach from the songs and stay critical. For the last album we developed this rule where both had to love something in order for it to stay.” “I took one singing lesson … the teacher laughed when she heard my voice, so I never went back.” “Also,” says Lorena, “On this album we tried this method where I would do my version of a song and Alberto would do his, and at the end, we would go with the one we liked the most. “Both versions always sounded very different from one another. It was interesting and fun.” Balance seems to be a branching out for the band. I suggest the music is similar to Pinkunoizu’s remarkable album The Drop. While he’s never heard it, Alberto agrees about an expanding scope, adding that it took almost three years to get a result both were satisfied with. “We started crafting the songs in the beginning of 2013 and slowly reworked them during the next couple of years. We did alternate versions of most of them until we decided it was time to record. “We did the tracking at home during the spring of 2015, but as a consequence of isolation and the ping-pong I mentioned before, it got to a point where we felt we’d lost perspective. “As a consequence of isolation, it got to a point where we felt we’d lost perspective.” “Ben from Captcha gave us feedback, so we added some final touches with a refreshed point of view in mind and finally Cooper worked on the mix in a beautiful way.” I ask what role music plays in daily life in Mexican culture, and whether the band grew up on Mexican folk or pop, or if music from outside the country exerted the stronger pull. “Music has a very important role in México, and when I grew up with my parents, it wasn’t the exception,” says Alberto. “They didn’t listen to a lot of traditional Mexican music like mariachi or norteño, but they were fond of pop interpreters such as Alberto Vázquez and Marco Antonio Muñiz. Pérez Prado, The Beatles and Mecano were also in the mix. “It’s important to mention that all media in México is globalized, so the music supply was wide within the spectrum of ‘mainstream music’. Radiohead and Café Tacuba were thrown in the same basket as I grew up. “In high school and college, I guess I developed some kind of preference towards foreign music, but never stopped listening to Mexican music, and I’ve never judged music based on its nationality either. To me it is just music.” Lorena says she also came from a musical family, and grew up in alongside other families passionate about music. “There was always music in the house, and in my father’s car we would listen to the radio or we would play cassettes on the way to school. “I have an uncle who was in a psych band in the ’70s, and my father, who plays very well, taught one of my brothers and me to play as a trio and play Beatles songs on guitar. “I also grew up with MTV, and through my brothers I got to know about the usual big names. And like Alberto, I didn’t think a lot about nationalities. To me it was just music as it still is.” “I love the cracking voice of Karen Dalton and also strong and loud voices such as Dorothy Moskowitz” A defining quality of Lorelle Meets The Obsolete is Lorena’s vocals. I wonder if she could always sing, if her siblings gave her a hard time for trying, and if there is anything she wishes she could change about her voice. “Yes, I do remember I annoyed some of my brothers when I was a kid. In fact, all my family used to say that I couldn’t sing at all, so they used to tell me to shut up! “Then, when I was 13 or 14, I took one singing lesson, but I quit immediately after I noticed all the girls in the class could sing loud and beautiful. The teacher laughed when she heard my voice, so I never went back. “But I don’t know. I just couldn’t resist singing. I tried it again, with the right songs for my voice, the right amount of reverb, and surrounded by friends, and realized I wasn’t so bad at it. I’m still getting used to my range and type of voice. “Can’t wait to start playing live again. It’s been almost two years.” “As for vocalists I admire, I love the cracking voice of Karen Dalton and also strong and loud voices such as Dorothy Moskowitz and Catherine Ribeiro. “One of my all-time favorites is [Sonic Youth’s] Kim Gordon. I would love to sound louder, that’s for sure.” Having toured around the world, what does the band feel like when they come home? Is there a sense of worry or frustration with the political situation? Are they content? “I love living in México,” says Alberto. “Ensenada is a beautiful and very benevolent town, but there is so much shit happening in the country right now, as in many places in the world really, that I can’t help getting furious and frustrated every day as soon as I read the news. “This is a country where disappearing 43 students, dissolving social protests with the extreme use of force, murdering journalists, acquiring mansions where conflict of interest is evident, and exploiting the national wealth in favor of the few in power, are not crimes. “Somehow Mexico’s illegitimate president Peña Nieto is still in charge and getting away with it.” Moving on to a more optimistic topic — touring — and Alberto is hyped again, particularly about the band’s much-anticipated appearance at Liverpool Psych Fest September 23 and 24 and Oslo Psych Fest November 11-12. “TOURING!!! Can’t wait to start playing live again. It’s been almost two years. Lorena also has an album coming out under the name of J. Zunz, which we are excited about.” Joining Lorelle Meets The Obsolete for their live shows on the European leg of their tour will be Fernando Nuti on bass, José Orozco on synth, and Andrea Volpato on drums. Balance is available for pre-order on vinyl, CD, and digital download via Captcha Records in the USA and Sonic Cathedral Records in the UK.
The Book of Daniel is a 2nd-century BC biblical apocalypse combining a prophecy of history with an eschatology (a portrayal of end times) which is both cosmic in scope and political in its focus. In more mundane language, it is "an account of the activities and visions of Daniel, a noble Jew exiled at Babylon," its message being that just as the God of Israel saved Daniel and his friends from their enemies, so he would save all of Israel in their present oppression. In the Hebrew Bible it is found in the Ketuvim (writings), while in Christian Bibles it is grouped with the Major Prophets. The book divides into two parts, a set of six court tales in chapters 1–6 followed by four apocalyptic visions in chapters 7–12. The deuterocanon contains three additional stories: the Song of the Three Holy Children, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon. The book's influence has resonated through later ages, from the Dead Sea Scrolls community and the authors of the gospels and Revelation, to various movements from the 2nd century to the Protestant Reformation and modern millennialist movements—on which it continues to have a profound influence. Structure Nebuchadnezzar's dream: the composite statue (France, 15th century). Divisions The Book of Daniel is divided between the court tales of chapters 1–6 and the apocalyptic visions of 7–12, and between the Hebrew of chapters 1 and 8–12 and the Aramaic of chapters 2–7. The division is reinforced by the chiastic arrangement of the Aramaic chapters (see below), and by a chronological progression in chapters 1–6 from Babylonian to Median times, and from Babylonian to Persian in chapters 7–12. Various suggestions have been made by scholars to explain the fact that the genre division does not coincide with the other two, but it appears that the language division and concentric structure of chapters 2–6 are artificial literary devices designed to bind the two halves of the book together. The following outline is provided by Collins in his commentary on Daniel: PART I: Tales (chapters 1:1–6:29) 1: Introduction (1:1–21 – set in the Babylonian era, written in Hebrew) 2: Nebuchadnezzar's dream of four kingdoms (2:1–49 – Babylonian era; Aramaic) 3: The fiery furnace (3:1–30/3:1-23, 91-97 – Babylonian era; Aramaic) 4: Nebuchadnezzar's madness (3:31/98–4:34/4:1-37 – Babylonian era; Aramaic) 5: Belshazzar's feast (5:1–6:1 – Babylonian era; Aramaic) 6: Daniel in the lions' den (6:2–29 – Median era with mention of Persia; Aramaic) PART II: Visions (chapters 7:1–12:13) 7: The beasts from the sea (7:1–28 – Babylonian era: Aramaic) 8: The ram and the he-goat (8:1–27 – Babylonian era; Hebrew) 9: Interpretation of Jeremiah's prophecy of the seventy weeks (9:1–27 – Median era; Hebrew) 10: The angel's revelation: kings of the north and south (10:1–12:13 – Persian era, mention of Greek era; Hebrew) Chiastic structure in the Aramaic section There is a clear chiasm (a concentric literary structure in which the main point of a passage is placed in the centre and framed by parallel elements on either side in "ABBA" fashion) in the chapter arrangement of the Aramaic section. The following is taken from Paul Redditt's "Introduction to the Prophets": A1 (2:4b-49) – A dream of four kingdoms replaced by a fifth B1 (3:1–30) – Daniel's three friends in the fiery furnace C1 (4:1–37) – Daniel interprets a dream for Nebuchadnezzar C2 (5:1–31) – Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall for Belshazzar B2 (6:1–28) – Daniel in the lions' den A2 (7:1–28) – A vision of four world kingdoms replaced by a fifth Content Introduction in Babylon (chapter 1) In the third year of King Jehoiakim, God allows Jerusalem to fall into the power of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon.[Notes 1] Young Israelites of noble and royal family, "without physical defect, and handsome," versed in wisdom and competent to serve in the palace of the king, are taken to Babylon to be taught the literature and language of that nation. Among them are Daniel and his three companions, who refuse to touch the royal food and wine. Their overseer fears for his life in case the health of his charges deteriorates, but Daniel suggests a trial and the four emerge healthier than their counterparts from ten days of nothing but vegetables and water. They are allowed to continue to refrain from eating the king's food, and to Daniel God gives insight into visions and dreams. When their training is done Nebuchadnezzar finds them 'ten times better' than all the wise men in his service and therefore keeps them at his court, where Daniel continues until the first year of King Cyrus.[Notes 2] Nebuchadnezzar's dream of four kingdoms (chapter 2) In the second year of his reign Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. When he wakes up, he realizes that the dream has some important message, so he consults his wise men. Wary of their potential to fabricate an explanation, the king refuses to tell the wise men what he saw in his dream. Rather, he demands that his wise men tell him what the content of the dream was, and then interpret it. When the wise men protest that this is beyond the power of any man, he sentences all, including Daniel and his friends, to death. Daniel receives an explanatory vision from God: Nebuchadnezzar had seen an enormous statue with a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of mixed iron and clay, then saw the statue destroyed by a rock that turned into a mountain filling the whole earth. Daniel explains the dream to the king: the statue symbolized four successive kingdoms, starting with Nebuchadnezzar, all of which would be crushed by God's kingdom, which would endure forever. Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges the supremacy of Daniel's god, raises Daniel over all his wise men, and places Daniel and his companions over the province of Babylon. The fiery furnace (chapter 3) Daniel's companions Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to bow to King Nebuchadnezzar's golden statue and are thrown into a fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar is astonished to see a fourth figure in the furnace with the three, one "with the appearance like a son of the gods." So the king called the three to come out of the fire, and blessed the God of Israel, and decreed that any who blasphemed against him should be torn limb from limb. Nebuchadnezzar's madness (chapter 4) Nebuchadnezzar recounts a dream of a huge tree that is suddenly cut down at the command of a heavenly messenger. Daniel is summoned and interprets the dream. The tree is Nebuchadnezzar himself, who for seven years will lose his mind and live like a wild beast. All of this comes to pass until, at the end of the specified time, Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges that "heaven rules" and his kingdom and sanity are restored. Belshazzar's feast (chapter 5) Belshazzar and his nobles blasphemously drink from sacred Jewish temple vessels, offering praise to inanimate gods, until a hand mysteriously appears and writes upon the wall. The horrified king summons Daniel, who upbraids him for his lack of humility before God and interprets the message: Belshazzar's kingdom will be given to the Medes and Persians. Belshazzar rewards Daniel and raises him to be third in the kingdom, and that very night Belshazzar is slain and Darius the Mede takes the kingdom.[Notes 3] Daniel in the lions' den (chapter 6) Darius elevates Daniel to high office, exciting the jealousy of other officials. Knowing of Daniel's devotion to his God, his enemies trick the king into issuing an edict forbidding worship of any other god or man for a 30-day period. Daniel continues to pray three times a day to God towards Jerusalem; he is accused and King Darius, forced by his own decree, throws Daniel into the lions' den. But God shuts up the mouths of the lions, and the next morning Darius rejoices to find him unharmed. The king casts Daniel's accusers into the lions' pit together with their wives and children to be instantly devoured, while he himself acknowledges Daniel's God as he whose kingdom shall never be destroyed. Vision of the beasts from the sea (chapter 7) In the first year of Belshazzar Daniel has a dream of four monstrous beasts arising from the sea.[Notes 4] The fourth, a beast with ten horns, devours the whole earth, treading it down and crushing it, and a further small horn appears and uproots three of the earlier horns. The Ancient of Days judges and destroys the beast, and "one like a son of man" is given everlasting kingship over the entire world. A divine being explains that the four beasts represent four kings, but that "the holy ones of the Most High" would receive the everlasting kingdom. The fourth beast would be a fourth kingdom with ten kings, and another king who would pull down three kings and make war on the "holy ones" for "a time, two times and a half," after which the heavenly judgement will be made against him and the "holy ones" will receive the everlasting kingdom. Vision of the ram and goat (chapter 8) In the third year of Belshazzar Daniel has vision of a ram and goat. The ram has two mighty horns, one longer than the other, and it charges west, north and south, overpowering all other beasts. A goat with a single horn appears from the west and destroys the ram. The goat becomes very powerful until the horn breaks off and is replaced by four lesser horns. A small horn that grows very large, it stops the daily temple sacrifices and desecrates the sanctuary for two thousand three hundred "evening and mornings" (which could be either 1150 or 2300 days) until the temple is cleansed. The angel Gabriel informs him that the ram represents the Medes and Persians, the goat is Greece, and the "little horn" is a wicked king. Vision of the Seventy Weeks (chapter 9) In the first year of Darius the Mede, Daniel meditates on the word of Jeremiah that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years; he confesses the sin of Israel and pleads for God to restore Israel and the "desolated sanctuary" of the Temple. The angel Gabriel explains that the seventy years stand for seventy "weeks" of years (490 years), during which the Temple will first be restored, then later defiled by a "prince who is to come," "until the decreed end is poured out." Vision of the kings of north and south (chapters 10–12) Daniel 10: In the third year of Cyrus[Notes 5] Daniel sees in his vision an angel (called "a man", but clearly a supernatural being) who explains that he is in the midst of a war with the "prince of Persia", assisted only by Michael, "your prince." The "prince of Greece" will shortly come, but first he will reveal what will happen to Daniel's people. Daniel 11: A future king of Persia will make war on the king of Greece, a "mighty king" will arise and wield power until his empire is broken up and given to others, and finally the king of the south (identified in verse 8 as Egypt) will go to war with the "king of the north." After many battles (described in great detail) a "contemptible person" will become king of the north; this king will invade the south two times, the first time with success, but on his second he will be stopped by "ships of Kittim." He will turn back to his own country, and on the way his soldiers will desecrate the Temple, abolish the daily sacrifice, and set up the abomination of desolation. He will defeat and subjugate Libya and Egypt, but "reports from the east and north will alarm him," and he will meet his end "between the sea and the holy mountain." Daniel 12: At this time Michael will come. It will be a time of great distress, but all those whose names are written will be delivered. "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt; those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever." In the final verses the remaining time to the end is revealed: "a time, times and half a time" (three years and a half). Daniel fails to understand and asks again what will happen, and is told: "From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days." Additions to Daniel (Greek text tradition) The Greek text of Daniel is considerably longer than the Hebrew, due to three additional stories: they remain in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles but were rejected by the Protestant movement in the 16th century on the basis that they were absent from Jewish Bibles. Historical background Daniel refusing to eat at the King's table, early 1900s Bible illustration The visions of chapters 7–12 reflect the crisis which took place in Judea in 167–164 BC when Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Greek king of the Seleucid Empire, threatened to destroy traditional Jewish worship in Jerusalem. When Antiochus came to the throne in 175 BC the Jews were largely pro-Seleucid. The High Priestly family was split by rivalry, and one member, Jason, offered the king a large sum to be made High Priest. Jason also asked—or more accurately, paid—to be allowed to make Jerusalem a polis, or Greek city. This meant, among other things, that city government would be in the hands of the citizens, which meant in turn that citizenship would be a valuable commodity, to be purchased from Jason. None of this threatened the Jewish religion, and the reforms were widely welcomed, especially among the Jerusalem aristocracy and the leading priests. Three years later Jason was deposed when another priest, Menelaus, offered Antiochus an even larger sum for the post of High Priest. Antiochus invaded Egypt twice, in 169 BC with success, but on the second incursion, in late 168 BC, he was forced to withdraw by the Romans. Jason, hearing a rumour that Antiochus was dead, attacked Menelaus to take back the High Priesthood. Antiochus drove Jason out of Jerusalem, plundered the Temple, and introduced measures to pacify his Egyptian border by imposing complete Hellenisation: the Jewish Book of the Law was prohibited and on 15 December 167 BC an "abomination of desolation", probably a Greek altar, was introduced into the Temple. With the Jewish religion now clearly under threat a resistance movement sprang up, led by the Maccabee brothers, and over the next three years it won sufficient victories over Antiochus to take back and purify the Temple. The crisis which the author of Daniel addresses is the defilement of the altar in Jerusalem in 167 BC (first introduced in chapter 8:11): the daily offering which used to take place twice a day, at morning and evening, stopped, and the phrase "evenings and mornings" recurs through the following chapters as a reminder of the missed sacrifices. But whereas the events leading up to the sacking of the Temple in 167 BC and the immediate aftermath are remarkably accurate, the predicted war between the Syrians and the Egyptians (11:40–43) never took place, and the prophecy that Antiochus would die in Palestine (11:44–45) was inaccurate (he died in Persia). The obvious conclusion is that the account must have been completed near the end of the reign of Antiochus but before his death in December 164 BC, or at least before news of it reached Jerusalem, and the consensus of modern scholarship is accordingly that the book dates to the period 167-163 BCE. Composition Nebuchadnezzar's dream: the felled tree (France, 15th century). Development It is generally accepted that Daniel originated as a collection of Aramaic court tales later expanded by the Hebrew revelations. The court tales may have originally circulated independently, but the edited collection was probably composed in the third or early second century BC. Chapter 1 was composed (in Aramaic) at this time as a brief introduction of to provide historical context, introduce the characters of the tales, and explain how Daniel and his friends came to Babylon. The visions of chapters 7–12 were added and chapter 1 translated into Hebrew at the third stage when the final book was being drawn together. Authorship Daniel is one of a large number of Jewish apocalypses, all of them pseudonymous. The stories of the first half are considered legendary in origin, and the visions of the second the product of anonymous authors in the Maccabean period (2nd century BC). Although the entire book is traditionally ascribed to Daniel the seer, chapters 1–6 are in the voice of an anonymous narrator, except for chapter 4 which is in the form of a letter from king Nebuchadnezzar; only the second half (chapters 7–12) is presented by Daniel himself, introduced by the anonymous narrator in chapters 7 and 10. The real author/editor of Daniel was probably an educated Jew, knowledgeable in Greek learning, and of high standing in his own community. The book is a product of "Wisdom" circles, but the type of wisdom is mantic (the discovery of heavenly secrets from earthly signs) rather than the wisdom of learning—the main source of wisdom in Daniel is God's revelation. It is possible that the name of Daniel was chosen for the hero of the book because of his reputation as a wise seer in Hebrew tradition. Ezekiel, who lived during the Babylonian exile, mentioned him in association with Noah and Job (Ezekiel 14:14) as a figure of legendary wisdom (28:3), and a hero named Daniel (more accurately Dan'el, but the spelling is close enough for the two to be regarded as identical) features in a late 2nd millennium myth from Ugarit. "The legendary Daniel, known from long ago but still remembered as an exemplary character ... serves as the principal human 'hero' in the biblical book that now bears his name"; Daniel is the wise and righteous intermediary who is able to interpret dreams and thus convey the will of God to humans, the recipient of visions from on high that are interpreted to him by heavenly intermediaries. Dating The prophecies of Daniel are accurate down to the career of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, king of Syria and oppressor of the Jews, but not in its prediction of his death: the author seems to know about Antiochus' two campaigns in Egypt (169 and 167 BC), the desecration of the Temple (the "abomination of desolation"), and the fortification of the Akra (a fortress built inside Jerusalem), but he seems to know nothing about the reconstruction of the Temple or about the actual circumstances of Antiochus' death in late 164 BC. Chapters 10–12 must therefore have been written between 167 and 164 BC. There is no evidence of a significant time lapse between those chapters and chapters 8 and 9, and chapter 7 may have been written just a few months earlier again. Further evidence of the book's date is in the fact that Daniel is excluded from the Hebrew Bible's canon of the prophets, which was closed around 200 BC, and the Wisdom of Sirach, a work dating from around 180 BC, draws on almost every book of the Old Testament except Daniel, leading scholars to suppose that its author was unaware of it. Daniel is, however, quoted in a section of the Sibylline Oracles commonly dated to the middle of the 2nd century BC, and was popular at Qumran at much the same time, suggesting that it was known from the middle of that century. Manuscripts The Book of Daniel is preserved in the 12-chapter Masoretic Text and in two longer Greek versions, the original Septuagint version, c. 100 BC, and the later Theodotion version from c. 2nd century AD. Both Greek texts contain three additions to Daniel: The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children; the story of Susannah and the Elders; and the story of Bel and the Dragon. Theodotion is much closer to the Masoretic Text and became so popular that it replaced the original Septuagint version in all but two manuscripts of the Septuagint itself. The Greek additions were apparently never part of the Hebrew text. Eight copies of the Book of Daniel, all incomplete, have been found at Qumran, two in Cave 1, five in Cave 4, and one in Cave 6. Between them, they preserve text from eleven of Daniel's twelve chapters, and the twelfth is quoted in the Florilegium (a compilation scroll) 4Q174, showing that the book at Qumran did not lack this conclusion. All eight manuscripts were copied between 125 BC (4QDanc) and about 50 AD (4QDanb), showing that Daniel was being read at Qumran only about 40 years after its composition. All appear to preserve the 12-chapter Masoretic version rather than the longer Greek text. None reveal any major disagreements against the Masoretic, and the four scrolls that preserve the relevant sections (1QDana, 4QDana, 4QDanb, and 4QDand) all follow the bilingual nature of Daniel where the book opens in Hebrew, switches to Aramaic at 2:4b, then reverts to Hebrew at 8:1. Genre, meaning, symbolism and chronology Daniel in the lions' den saved by Habakkuk (France, 15th century). (This section deals with modern scholarly reconstructions of the meaning of Daniel to its original authors and audience) Genre The Book of Daniel is an apocalypse, a literary genre in which a heavenly reality is revealed to a human recipient; such works are characterized by visions, symbolism, an other-worldly mediator, an emphasis on cosmic events, angels and demons, and pseudonymity (false authorship). The production of apocalypses occurred commonly from 300 BC to 100 AD, not only among Jews and Christians, but also among Greeks, Romans, Persians and Egyptians. Daniel, the book's hero, is a representative apocalyptic seer, the recipient of divine revelation: he has learned the wisdom of the Babylonian magicians and surpassed them, because his God is the true source of knowledge; he is one of the maskilim (משכלים), the wise ones, who have the task of teaching righteousness and whose number may be considered to include the authors of the book itself. The book is also an eschatology, as the divine revelation concerns the end of the present age, a predicted moment in which God will intervene in history to usher in the final kingdom. It gives no real details of the end-time, but it seems that God's kingdom will be on this earth, that it will be governed by justice and righteousness, and that the tables will be turned on the Seleucids and those Jews who have cooperated with them. Meaning, symbolism and chronology The message of the Book of Daniel is that, just as the God of Israel saved Daniel and his friends from their enemies, so he would save all Israel in their present oppression. The book is filled with monsters, angels, and numerology, drawn from a wide range of sources, both biblical and non-biblical, that would have had meaning in the context of 2nd-century Jewish culture, and while Christian interpreters have always viewed these as predicting events in the New Testament—"the Son of God", "the Son of Man", Christ and the Antichrist—the book's intended audience is the Jews of the 2nd century BC. The following explains a few of these predictions, as understood by modern biblical scholars. The four kingdoms and the little horn (Daniel 2 and 7): The concept of four successive world empires stems from Greek theories of mythological history; most modern interpreters agree that the four represent Babylon, the Medes, Persia and the Greeks, ending with Hellenistic Seleucid Syria and with Hellenistic Ptolemaic Egypt. The symbolism of four metals in the statue in chapter 2 comes from Persian writings, while the four "beasts from the sea" in chapter 7 reflect Hosea 13:7–8, in which God threatens that he will be to Israel like a lion, a leopard, a bear or a wild beast. The consensus among scholars is that the four beasts of chapter 7, like the metals of chapter 2, symbolise Babylon, Media, Persia and the Seleucids, with Antiochus IV (reigned 175–164 BC) as the "small horn" that uproots three others (Antiochus usurped the rights of several other claimants to become king of the Seleucid Empire). and the (Daniel 2 and 7): The concept of four successive world empires stems from Greek theories of mythological history; most modern interpreters agree that the four represent Babylon, the Medes, Persia and the Greeks, ending with Hellenistic Seleucid Syria and with Hellenistic Ptolemaic Egypt. The symbolism of four metals in the statue in chapter 2 comes from Persian writings, while the four "beasts from the sea" in chapter 7 reflect Hosea 13:7–8, in which God threatens that he will be to Israel like a lion, a leopard, a bear or a wild beast. The consensus among scholars is that the four beasts of chapter 7, like the metals of chapter 2, symbolise Babylon, Media, Persia and the Seleucids, with Antiochus IV (reigned 175–164 BC) as the "small horn" that uproots three others (Antiochus usurped the rights of several other claimants to become king of the Seleucid Empire). The Ancient of Days and the one like a son of man (Daniel 7): The portrayal of God in Daniel 7:13 resembles the portrayal of the Canaanite god El as an ancient divine king presiding over the divine court. The "Ancient of Days" gives dominion over the earth to "one like a son of man", and then in Daniel 7:27 to "the people of the holy ones of the Most High", whom scholars consider the son of man to represent. These people can be understood as the maskilim (sages), or as the Jewish people broadly. [Notes 6] and the (Daniel 7): The portrayal of God in Daniel 7:13 resembles the portrayal of the Canaanite god El as an ancient divine king presiding over the divine court. The "Ancient of Days" gives dominion over the earth to "one like a son of man", and then in Daniel 7:27 to "the people of the holy ones of the Most High", whom scholars consider the son of man to represent. These people can be understood as the (sages), or as the Jewish people broadly. The ram and he-goat (Daniel 8) as conventional astrological symbols represent Persia and Syria, as the text explains. The "mighty horn" stands for Alexander the Great (reigned 336–323 BC) and the "four lesser horns" represent the four principal generals (Diadochi) who fought over the Greek empire following Alexander's death. The "little horn" again represents Antiochus IV. The key to the symbols lies in the description of the little horn's actions: he ends the continual burnt offering and overthrows the Sanctuary, a clear reference to Antiochus' desecration of the Temple. (Daniel 8) as conventional astrological symbols represent Persia and Syria, as the text explains. The "mighty horn" stands for Alexander the Great (reigned 336–323 BC) and the "four lesser horns" represent the four principal generals (Diadochi) who fought over the Greek empire following Alexander's death. The "little horn" again represents Antiochus IV. The key to the symbols lies in the description of the little horn's actions: he ends the continual burnt offering and overthrows the Sanctuary, a clear reference to Antiochus' desecration of the Temple. The anointed ones and the seventy years (Chapter 9): Daniel reinterprets Jeremiah's "seventy years" prophecy regarding the period Israel would spend in bondage to Babylon. From the point of view of the Maccabean era, Jeremiah's promise was obviously not true—the gentiles still oppressed the Jews, and the "desolation of Jerusalem" had not ended. Daniel therefore reinterprets the seventy years as seventy "weeks" of years, making up 490 years. The 70 weeks/490 years are subdivided, with seven "weeks" from the "going forth of the word to rebuild and restore Jerusalem" to the coming of an "anointed one", while the final "week" is marked by the violent death of another "anointed one", probably the High Priest Onias III (ousted to make way for Jason and murdered in 171 BC), and the profanation of the Temple. The point of this for Daniel is that the period of gentile power is predetermined, and is coming to an end. and the (Chapter 9): Daniel reinterprets Jeremiah's "seventy years" prophecy regarding the period Israel would spend in bondage to Babylon. From the point of view of the Maccabean era, Jeremiah's promise was obviously not true—the gentiles still oppressed the Jews, and the "desolation of Jerusalem" had not ended. Daniel therefore reinterprets the seventy years as seventy "weeks" of years, making up 490 years. The 70 weeks/490 years are subdivided, with seven "weeks" from the "going forth of the word to rebuild and restore Jerusalem" to the coming of an "anointed one", while the final "week" is marked by the violent death of another "anointed one", probably the High Priest Onias III (ousted to make way for Jason and murdered in 171 BC), and the profanation of the Temple. The point of this for Daniel is that the period of gentile power is predetermined, and is coming to an end. Kings of north and south : Chapters 10 to 12 concern the war between these kings, the events leading up to it, and its heavenly meaning. In chapter 10 the angel (Gabriel?) explains that there is currently a war in heaven between Michael, the angelic protector of Israel, and the "princes" (angels) of Persia and Greece; then, in chapter 11, he outlines the human wars which accompany this—the mythological concept sees standing behind every nation a god/angel who does battle on behalf of his people, so that earthly events reflect what happens in heaven. The wars of the Ptolemies ("kings of the south") against the Seleucids ("kings of the north") are reviewed down to the career of Antiochus the Great (Antiochus III (reigned 222–187 BC), father of Antiochus IV), but the main focus is Antiochus IV, to whom more than half the chapter is devoted. The accuracy of these predictions lends credibility to the real prophecy with which the passage ends, the death of Antiochus—which, in the event, was not accurate. : Chapters 10 to 12 concern the war between these kings, the events leading up to it, and its heavenly meaning. In chapter 10 the angel (Gabriel?) explains that there is currently a war in heaven between Michael, the angelic protector of Israel, and the "princes" (angels) of Persia and Greece; then, in chapter 11, he outlines the human wars which accompany this—the mythological concept sees standing behind every nation a god/angel who does battle on behalf of his people, so that earthly events reflect what happens in heaven. The wars of the Ptolemies ("kings of the south") against the Seleucids ("kings of the north") are reviewed down to the career of Antiochus the Great (Antiochus III (reigned 222–187 BC), father of Antiochus IV), but the main focus is Antiochus IV, to whom more than half the chapter is devoted. The accuracy of these predictions lends credibility to the real prophecy with which the passage ends, the death of Antiochus—which, in the event, was not accurate. Predicting the end-time (Daniel 8:14 and 12:7–12): Biblical eschatology does not generally give precise information as to when the end will come, and Daniel's attempts to specify the number of days remaining is a rare exception. Daniel asks the angel how long the "little horn" will be triumphant, and the angel replies that the Temple will be reconsecrated after 2300 "evenings and mornings" have passed (Daniel 8:14). The angel is counting the two daily sacrifices, so the period is 1150 days from the desecration in December 167. In chapter 12 the angel gives three more dates: the desolation will last "for a time, times and half a time", or a year, two years, and a half a year (Daniel 12:8); then that the "desolation" will last for 1290 days (12:11); and finally, 1335 days (12:12). Verse 12:11 was presumably added after the lapse of the 1150 days of chapter 8, and 12:12 after the lapse of the number in 12:11. Influence Engraving of Daniel's vision of the four beasts in chapter 7 by Matthäus Merian , 1630. Religion The concepts of immortality and resurrection, with rewards for the righteous and punishment for the wicked, have roots much deeper than Daniel, but the first clear statement is found in the final chapter of that book: "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame and contempt." Without this belief, Christianity, in which the resurrection of Jesus plays a central role, would have disappeared, like the movements following other charismatic Jewish figures of the 1st century. Daniel was quoted and referenced by both Jews and Christians in the 1st century AD as predicting the imminent end-time. Moments of national and cultural crisis continually reawakened the apocalyptic spirit, through the Montanists of the 2nd/3rd centuries, persecuted for their millennialism, to the more extreme elements of the 16th-century Reformation such as the Zwickau prophets and the Münster Rebellion. During the English Civil War, the Fifth Monarchy Men took their name and political program from Daniel 7, demanding that Oliver Cromwell allow them to form a "government of saints" in preparation for the coming of the Messiah; when Cromwell refused, they identified him instead as the Beast usurping the rightful place of King Jesus. Daniel remains one of the most influential apocalypses in modern America, foretelling the history of Jesus and the Second Coming. The influence of Daniel has not been confined to Judaism and Christianity: In the Middle Ages Muslims created horoscopes whose authority was attributed to Daniel. More recently the Bahá'í movement, which originated in Persian Shi'ite Islam, justified its existence on the 1260-day prophecy of Daniel, holding that it foretold the coming of the Twelfth Imam and an age of peace and justice in the year 1844, which is the year 1260 of the Muslim era. Western culture Daniel belongs not only to the religious tradition but also to the wider Western intellectual and artistic heritage. It was easily the most popular of the prophetic books for the Anglo-Saxons, who nevertheless treated it not as prophecy but as a historical book, "a repository of dramatic stories about confrontations between God and a series of emperor-figures who represent the highest reach of man". In the early modern period the physicist Isaac Newton paid special attention to it, and Francis Bacon borrowed a motto from it for his work Novum Organum. Philosophers, such as Baruch Spinoza drew on it. In the 20th century its apocalyptic second half attracted the attention of Carl Jung. The book has also inspired musicians, from medieval liturgical drama to the 20th century compositions of Darius Milhaud. Artists including Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Eugène Delacroix have all drawn on its imagery. See also Notes ^ Jehoiakim: King of Judah 608–598 BC; his third year would be either 606 or 605, depending how years are counted. ^ Cyrus: Persian conqueror of Babylon, 539 BC. ^ Darius the Mede: No such person is known to history (see Levine, 2010, p. 1245, footnote 31). "Darius" is in any case a Persian, not a Median, name. The Persian army which captured Babylon was under the command of a certain Gobryas (or Gubaru), a Babylonian and former provincial governor who turned against his royal master, on behalf of Cyrus, the Persian king. The author of Daniel may have introduced the reference to a Mede in order to fulfill Isaiah and Jeremiah, who prophesied that the Medes would overthrow Babylon, and confused the events of 539 with those of 520 BC, when Darius I captured Babylon after an uprising. See Hammer, 1976, pp. 65–66. ^ First year of Belshazzar: Probably 553 BC, when Belshazzar was given royal power by his father, Nabonidus . See Levine, 2010, p. 1248, footnote 7.1–8. ^ "Third year of Cyrus": 536 BC. The author has apparently counted back seventy years to the "third year of Jehoiakim," 606 BC, to round out Daniel's prophetic ministry. See Towner, p. 149. ^ "Son of man" (bar 'enaš in Hebrew) simply means "a human being", but in the context of Daniel 7 it may be a heavenly figure, possibly the archangel Michael functioning as a representative of the Jewish people (Collins 1977:144–46; opposed by Davies 1985:105–106). Scholars almost universally agree that this human figure represents "the people of the holy ones of the Most High" of Daniel 7:27, originally the maskilim community or group responsible for the composition of Daniel, but in later interpretation it is taken to mean the Jewish people as a whole. See Grabbe 2002a. References Citations Bibliography Jewish translations Christian translations
400 CS Shaco rips World Elite apart in today's LPL IG and WE would not showcase their dominance in today's games after OMG and LM fought hard to knock them out in day 3 of this week. WE feeling the pain of IM's siege potential. VOD Woops...that's not our jungle. The manliest of mantheons man-drops onto 3 alone...like a man. VOD Poor iG bottom lane... VOD Michale “DreXxiN” Lalor Starcraft: Brood War Veteran and League of Legends Crew Lead. Events Attended 2013 [f]Poland[/f] Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2013 [f]Germany[/f] Intel Extreme Masters World Championships Fresh from their victory against Invictus Gaming last night,would drive that energy into this game, but struggling to keep even with the underestimatedWhile by no means losing their edge early, World Elite was certainly pressed against their seat this game, feeling the pressure from the siege and assassin-like composition from LiveMore includingEventually, World Elite would fall behind in towers but stay even in the gold untilWorld Elite found themselves hard pressed at this point, looking to create opportunities that were slowly diminishing.Where World Elite would find excellent kill opportunities, an inhibitor trade gone wrong would leave LM's standing with Shaco crushing through the inhibitor and one of the Nexus turrets. Despite this loss, World Elite would manage to utilize their experience in the scene by pushing back into Livemore's base as a solid team, a more than opportune moment for Malphite to greet them at their doorstep with a fantastic ultimate. on all 5 of the enemy team.versusstarted with at a snail's pace with nothing too extravagant starting at level 1. However, a gank on the mid lane would allowto pick up an early game, followed shortly bygoing bottom for a gank.Even 15 minutes into the game, the teams would remain dead even with the gold distribution fairly strong for each team. This would continue on until a single miss-step would throw the lead in Royal Club's favor heavilyWhile fights would go back and forth, WoA would prove to scale worse in the end and the global presure of Royal Club was too high after the exposing of their base. An ace at the 38 minute mark would allow Royal Club to drive the game home.vs. Waiyi Spider would be a showcase of talents in some very obscure champions, making for the perfect prelude before the last game of the night. Champions picked in this game includeand. Yet another game of the night would prove to stall at a stalemate for quite some time with the only noteable difference being Kennen way far of his opponent 'Leaf' on Pantheon.Bravery runs strong in China with a well prepared Pantheon ultimate from 'Leaf' causing havoc onto Urgot in the early game, catching him off guard. However, the bane of all Pantheons would be displayed as the game drifted into midgame. Eventually, Pantheon began falling off in fights and Positive Energy gained an astounding lead, being up 17-9 at 23 minutes.The lead would prove too much and Positive Energy would just crush into Spider's base, making short work of their nexus and taking the win.The final game of the night would be. Both teams would decide to start the game off passively, favoring the safety in the early jungle phase. An early first blood in the very beginning of the game with the help of Volibear would allow OMG to capitalize on an early 1-0 lead, making for a scary Zac in the early game.The camp was brutal in the bottom lane for Invictus Gaming and Volibear with the help of Zac would rip them a new one, starting 3-0 and pulling shockingly ahead of the dominant iG. The fight was not over yet, however, as Invictus Gaming would persevere and find some kill opportunities of their own -- but was it enough with the map and global advantage of OMG?Things became even darker and more grim for iG when Ahri started becoming a monster as well, becomingand having incredible assassination potential. The lead would be driven by OMG and well executed enough to tear iG apart -- an outcome that no one would have anticipated.
by Taylar Kobylas With a name like Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, concertgoers at the inauguration of the 19th annual Arts, Beats and Eats correctly anticipated a set full of angst, rebellion and hard rock. Accompanied by a simple black banner and leather-clad band mates, Joan Jett ruled with volume, anthems, and fists held high. Classics like “Bad Reputation” and “Cherry Bomb” reminded me of punk’s eternally cool nature. After all Jett’s experienced and accomplished, she still doesn’t give a damn about her reputation. Moreover, years as frontwoman in a punk band haven’t diminished her vocal qualities. She can strut on stage and work a crowd with lyrics rather than flash, gimmicks or auto tune. Though the crowed manifested love for the classics, Jett and the Blackhearts’ newer cuts received less enthusiasm. Clearly, many people had come to experience the highlights. While the band was performing newer songs, some attendees chattered, others came and went, and a few managed to spill beers on the suburban couples and families that only Arts, Beats and Eats attracts. The middle of the set was too sing-songy, particularly “TMI” and “Fragile”, but their experimental approach deserved a nod. Humor struck when, on tracks parallel to the stage, a mammoth train chugged by and interrupted the show. The noise must have struck a wrong chord with lead guitarist Dougie Needles, who flipped it the bird. Ah, the beautiful anger of punk rock. Eventually, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts returned to classical territory and performed “Crimson & Clover”, “I Hate Myself for Loving You”, “Do You Wanna Touch Me?” and “I Love Rock and Roll”, before closing with their version of “Everyday People.” Although the concert received side glances from “real-deal music aficionados,” one aspect should have been evident to everyone: Jett’s still got it. Punk ain’t dead, yet.
Sign up to get the latest news delivered to your inbox every week! In a discovery that advances the understanding of how marijuana works in the human body, an international group of scientists, including those from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), have for the first time created a three-dimensional atomic-level image of the molecular structure activated by tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active chemical in marijuana. The new insights into the human cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) will provide an essential tool for understanding why some molecules related to THC have unexpectedly complex and sometimes harmful effects. The findings also have the potential to guide drug design for pain, inflammation, obesity, fibrosis and other indications. The new study, published by the journal Cell, was led by a quartet of scientists: TSRI's Laura Bohn, Northwest University's Alexandros Makriyannis, Shanghai Tech University's Zhi-Jie Liu and Raymond C. Stevens (also of the University of Southern California). Advertisement At the beginning of the study, the team struggled to produce a crystal form--needed to obtain data to recreate the high-resolution structure--of the receptor bound with AM6538, a stabilizing a molecule that blocks the receptor's action. "The CB1 receptor proved as challenging for crystallization as it did for understanding its functional regulation and signaling," said Bohn, who is a professor in TSRI's Department of Molecular Therapeutics. When the scientists succeeded in crystalizing the receptor and collecting the data, the structure of the cannabinoid receptor complex revealed an expansive and complicated binding pocket network consisting of multiple sub-pockets and channels to various regions of the receptor. Cannabinoid receptors are part of a large class of receptors known as G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR), which account for about 40 percent of all prescription pharmaceuticals on the market, and play key roles in many physiological functions. When an outside substance binds to a GPCR, it activates a G protein inside the cell to release components and create a specific cellular response. AM6538, is an antagonist/inverse agonist that binds tightly to the receptor; it has a long half-life, making it potentially useful as a treatment of addiction disorders. "As marijuana continues to become more common in society, it is critical that we understand how it works in the human body," said Liu, who is professor and deputy director of the iHuman Institute of Shanghai Tech and is also affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
By Rachel Lee Coffee has become so popular in Korea that many people now prefer a cup rather than having rice or kimchi. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, coffee is the most frequently consumed food item, at 12.2 times a week. Kimchi, traditional fermented vegetables, was second (11.9 times), followed by sugar (9.7) and multigrain rice (9.7). Thanks to coffee’s rising popularity, 65,000 tons of coffee was produced in the country in 2013, an increase of about 63 percent from 2009. Of the total production, instant coffee accounted for about 39.2 percent in 2013, a 54 percent increase over the past five years. “The instant coffee market has started to shrink, with a variety of takeaway flavors and instant brew coffee becoming increasingly popular,” the ministry spokesperson said. The penchant for coffee is particularly apparent in Seoul, where many buildings have coffee shops on the first floor. Coffee chains have grown sharply since Seattle-based Starbucks Coffee entered Korea in 1999, triggering a coffee chain boom in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy. Other multinational brands such as The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf from California and Pascucci from Italy, jumped on the bandwagon as did local conglomerates such as Lotte Group and CJ Group. In 2012, Korea ranked 30th in the world in terms of coffee consumption, according to the National Coffee Association of the United States.
President Obama has won reelection, and his administration has asked state officials to decide by Friday, November 16, whether their state will create one of Obamacare’s health-insurance “exchanges.” States also have to decide whether to implement the law’s massive expansion of Medicaid. The correct answer to both questions remains a resounding no. State-created exchanges mean higher taxes, fewer jobs, and less protection of religious freedom. States are better off defaulting to a federal exchange. The Medicaid expansion is likewise too costly and risky a proposition. Republican Governors Association chairman Bob McDonnell (R.,Va.) agrees, and has announced that Virginia will implement neither provision. There are many arguments against creating exchanges. First, states are under no obligation to create one. Second, operating an Obamacare exchange would be illegal in 14 states. Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia have enacted either statutes or constitutional amendments (or both) forbidding state employees to participate in an essential exchange function: implementing Obamacare’s individual and employer mandates. Third, each exchange would cost its state an estimated $10 million to $100 million per year, necessitating tax increases. Fourth, the November 16 deadline is no more real than the “deadlines” for implementing REAL ID, which have been pushed back repeatedly since 2008. Fifth, states can always create an exchange later if they choose. Sixth, a state-created exchange is not a state-controlled exchange. All exchanges will be controlled by Washington. Seventh, Congress authorized no funds for federal “fallback” exchanges. So Washington may not be able to impose Exchanges on states at all. Eighth, the Obama administration has yet to provide crucial information that states need before they can make an informed decision. Ninth, creating an exchange sets state officials up to take the blame when Obamacare increases insurance premiums and denies care to the sick. State officials won’t want their names on this disastrous mess. Tenth, creating an exchange would be assisting in the creation of a “public option” that would drive domestic health-insurance carriers out of business through unfair competition. Eleventh, Obamacare remains unpopular. The latest Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that only 38 percent of the public supports it. Twelfth, defaulting to a federal exchange exempts a state’s employers from the employer mandate — a tax of $2,000 per worker per year (the tax applies to companies with more than 59 employees, but for such companies that tax applies after the 30th employee, not the 59th). If all states did so, that would exempt 18 million Americans from the individual mandate’s tax of $2,085 per family of four. Avoiding those taxes improves a state’s prospects for job creation, and protects the conscience rights of employers and individuals whom the Obama administration is forcing to purchase contraceptives coverage. Finally, rejecting an exchange reduces the federal deficit. Obamacare offers its deficit-financed subsidies to private health insurers only through state-created exchanges. If all states declined, federal deficits would fall by roughly $700 billion over ten years. For similar reasons, states should decline to implement Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. The Supreme Court gave states that option. All states should exercise it. Medicaid is rife with waste and fraud. It increases the cost of private health care and insurance, crowds out private health insurance and long-term-care insurance, and discourages enrollees from climbing the economic ladder. There is scant reliable evidence that Medicaid improves health outcomes, and no evidence that it is a cost-effective way of doing so. My colleague Jagadeesh Gokhale estimates that expanding Medicaid will cost individual states up to $53 billion over the first ten years. That’s before an emboldened President Obama follows through on his threats to shift more Medicaid costs to states. Neither the states nor the federal government have the money to expand Medicaid. If all states politely decline, federal deficits will shrink by another $900 billion. Now is not the time to go wobbly. Obamacare is still harmful and still unpopular. The presidential election was hardly a referendum, as it pitted the first person to enact Obamacare against the second person to enact it. Since the election, many state officials are reaffirming their opposition to both implementing exchanges and expanding Medicaid. If enough states do so, Congress will have no choice but to reopen Obamacare. With a GOP-controlled House, opponents will be in a much stronger position than they were when this harmful law was enacted. Michael F. Cannon is director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute and coauthor of Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It.
The United Nations should review Cambodia’s membership status and member states must implement stronger measures against Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government ahead of elections next year, according to participants in a panel discussion on the country’s recent crackdown on democracy. Tuesday’s discussion organized by the U.S. and EU on the “Devolution of Democracy in Cambodia” at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York highlighted the government’s targeting of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), as well as restrictions to NGOs and the media, and considered approaches to ensuring the country returns to democratic norms ahead of the July 2018 ballot. Joanne Adamson, deputy head of the EU Delegation to the U.N., opened the meeting by expressing concerns about the political situation in Cambodia, given the arrest in September of CNRP president Kem Sokha on charges of “treason” and the Supreme Court’s ruling last month that his party be dissolved for its part in the alleged “plot” to topple the government. Kem Sokha’s arrest and the CNRP’s dissolution amounted to “a step away from the path of pluralism and democracy that we see enshrined in Cambodia’s constitution, and which has been supported for more than two decades by Cambodia’s international partners, including the European Union,” Adamson said. “We expect the electoral process to be legitimate and we want to make sure that all voters are enfranchised to choose the parties that they wish to vote for,” she added, noting that the EU is currently assessing its development cooperation with Cambodia after recently deciding to withdraw funding for next year’s ballot. Adamson called on Cambodia’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), and all political parties in Cambodia, to hold more structured dialogue in a bid to “find a way out of this impasse.” Kelley Currie, U.S. representative to the U.N.’s Economic and Social Council, said that the government’s crackdown on the opposition “is about the disenfranchisement of the Cambodian people—the effort to remove their choices and their voices from the discussion about Cambodia’s future.” “That is what concerns us as a longstanding partner in Cambodia’s process of political reconciliation, democratization, and economic development. The United States and the international community are greatly concerned about Cambodia’s abrupt reversal in course.” Last week, the U.S. and EU said they plan to compile lists of individuals who spearheaded the dissolution of the opposition and other rights violations in Cambodia, with a view to level sanctions against them, and have pledged to review trade agreements with the country. Both the U.S. and EU have withdrawn funding of the election next year, and Washington recently placed visa restrictions on “individuals responsible for undermining Cambodian democracy” in response to the arrest of Kem Sokha and the dissolution of the CNRP. Call for review Speaking at Tuesday’s panel, Kem Sokha’s daughter, Kem Monovithya, said that U.N. member states—and particularly signatories to the 1991 Paris Peace Accords that ended civil war in Cambodia and set the stage for multi-party elections—could no longer deny that her country had strayed from the path of democracy, amid the ongoing crackdown on the opposition, civil society, and the media. “Those are all the pillars of a multi-party democracy, so if we do not have that, you cannot pretend that there is democracy or that the Paris Peace Accords are being implemented,” said Kem Monovithya, who is also a member of the permanent committee of the CNRP. Signatories to the Paris Peace agreement “have an obligation to ensure the spirit of the accords is respected,” she said, adding that “we need more than statements at this point.” Kem Monovithya said that member states should encourage the U.N. to include Cambodia on the agenda of the General Assembly in January, request the U.N. send a fact-finding mission to the country, and “review Cambodia’s membership” in the international body. She noted that Cambodia’s commune elections held in June were considered successful and applauded by the international community, but months later the elected seats won by the CNRP were “stolen” from the party and redistributed, following the Supreme Court decision to disband it. “How can we have confidence going into 2018 that the election would be free and fair … and even if it is free and fair, how can we expect that the result won’t be robbed from us again?” she asked. “This is the job of the U.N., and I think it has to do with peace and security as well in Cambodia and in the region.” Pa Ngoun Teang, founder and executive director of the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, highlighted increasing restrictions on the freedom of the press and echoed Kem Monovithya’s call for the U.N. to review Cambodia’s membership. John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said that Hun Sen and the CPP had committed “numerous human rights abuses” while ruling Cambodia, and called the recent crackdown “a wakeup call to the international community to come to realize that this man and this party are not good-faith actors and need to be dealt with in … a transactional way.” “We are calling for targeted economic sanctions [by UN member states] on the leaders of Cambodia—Hun Sen and the leaders of the CPP implicated in human rights abuses and crackdowns,” he said. “In our view, focusing on them is what will get them to realize that the costs of what they are doing outweigh the benefits that accrue to them in terms of continuing the CPP’s dominance and not having to worry about the opposition.” Sifton called for member states to hold a special session on Cambodia at the U.N. Human Rights Council in March to “set the stage” for an international condemnation of July elections widely seen as having lost their legitimacy with the dissolution of the only party that could challenge the CPP next year. Ahead of Tuesday’s panel discussion, Cambodia’s Permanent Mission to the U.N. registered its “strong protest,” saying in a statement that the event was “politically motivated with the clear intent to mislead international public opinion” and runs “counter to the principle of respect for sovereignty and non-interference.” On Wednesday, Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Chum Sounry told the pro-government FreshNews that “the attempt to have Cambodia’s seat in the U.N. withheld is like beating a hollow drum—it is highly unlikely to happen.” Done talking Also on Wednesday, Hun Sen vowed to “stop talking” about the reinstatement of the CNRP in a speech to more than 10,000 factory workers in the capital Phnom Penh, saying the decision was final and reiterating his suggestion from earlier this week that the party’s officials create a new party to take part in the July ballot. “Some people mocked me after I said that those who are not banned from politics should form a new political party to join the next elections,” he said. “Let me tell them that if they do not partake in the next elections, we still have the elections anyway. I have already told you that the dissolved party will never be reinstated again. I will stop talking about that anymore.” The prime minister said that Cambodia would not be held “hostage” by the opposition. “I am not going to talk to you and I would also like my officials to not talk to those outlawed people from now on,” he said. “The opposition party is dead now. But will Cambodia die too? Cambodians are not concerned with that. What they are worried about now is whether they have enough rice for their children to eat.” Meanwhile, a prosecutor intends to question CNRP President Kem Sokha on Thursday and Friday about his role in what authorities say was a plot to incite a rebellion at the behest of the U.S.—charges both the opposition leader and Washington have denied. Kem Sokha’s lawyer, Hem Socheat, has submitted a motion for his client to be transferred to detention in the capital Phnom Penh from remote Trapeang Phlong prison in Tboung Khmum province, where he has been held since early September. Kem Sokha has been questioned by a prosecutor in his cell twice—once on Nov. 24 and again on Dec. 14. In both cases, members of his legal team took issue with the investigator’s line of inquiry, which they said assumed their client’s guilt. Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service and Joshua Lipes. Translated by Nareth Muong. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
The first issue in bicycle security against theft is what kind of bicycle you are locking up. A bicycle that looks like a junker can ride like a dream. An older frame with scratched and chipped paint and nice but undistinguished-looking components is a good choice. Let it get dirty. Sheldon's Mead Ranger is a good example. That's the original paint, or what's left of it. This bicycle is really old. (1916! -- maybe too old, it's collectible, but most thieves wouldn't understand such subtleties. In any case, this isn't a daily ride-to-work bike.) If you don't have secure parking at your workplace, or will be locking your bicycle in unsecured areas, you should have a serious lock, such as a Kryptonite. You need not carry it home every night unless you also are locking the bicycle in high-crime areas on the way home. The weight of a typical U-lock represents the difference between a $400 bike and a $1000 bike. People tend to buy big, clunky U-locks because they don't know how to use them properly. A U-lock can go around the rear rim and tire, somewhere inside the rear triangle of the frame without looping it around the seat tube: the wheel cannot be pulled through the rear triangle. A lock which passes around a rim makes the bicycle unrideable even if the object it is locked to can be broken or disassembled. The best U-locks, if you must carry one on the bike, are the smallest. The Kryptonite Mini is much smaller and lighter than the more popular models, but just as secure. It may be even more secure, because of the limited room to put an automotive jack inside it. It also gives less purchase for leverage-based attacks. Some will object that felons might cut the rear rim and tire to remove a lock. This just doesn't happen in the real world. It is possible to cut the rim with a hacksaw, working from the outside to the inside, but first, the tire must be removed or cut through. It would be a lot of work to steal a frame without a usable rear wheel, the most expensive part of a bike after the frame. On the other hand, a slightly longer lock would fit around the rim, and the chainstays or seatstays...or locking from the left side might allow a smaller lock because the chain doesn't get in the way...you might need a longer lock too, for when you can't get the bike as close to a pole. Lock the bicycle in one way or another, or at the very least disable it, whenever it is out of your sight. Theft can occur at unexpected times and places. John had his bicycle parked in the fenced-in back yard of a friend's house when it a guest who left a Thanksgiving dinner early rode away on it. A general invitation had been issued to people who attended the same church. This person evidently did not subscribe to the teachings of the church. A simple cable lock would have prevented this theft, and there was one in the bicycle's touring bag... Some workplaces have secure bicycle parking. You may be able to take the bicycle inside your workplace, or there may be a secured parking area. The bike cage shown in the photos below is next to the parking-garage entrance at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. The entrance is under video surveillance and the door has an electrically-operated lock. Employees enter by swiping a smart card; others must press a button to speak over an intercom with a guard who releases the door. Still, lock the bicycle and remove valuable items. Lacking this level of security, you can leave a heavy lock at work, locked to whatever you normally lock your bike to. Carry a light cable lock with you for quick errands or emergencies. It is easily cut, but you are making a trade-off between security and convenience. If you must lock your bike in an unsecured area, choose an area exposed to public view if possible. You may be able to lock your bike in a praking garage in view of the attendant. If you use both the U-lock and the cable lock, you are more than twice as safe as you would be with either of them alone. Either type of lock can be defeated, but each requires a different large, bulky tool which is useless against the other. The cable lock will secure your front wheel to the frame and any convenient object, and the U-lock will secure the rear wheel and frame. If you have a quick-release seatpost bolt, replace it with an Allen-head bolt, put a cheap saddle on your commute bike, and then you won't worry. The best cable locks have the lock built-in, rather than relying on a padlock. The padlock is the weak link, easily cut with bolt cutters, the tool of choice for most bike thieves. A new, sharp bolt cutter will cut a cable too, but an old, worn-out one will only crush a cable. Lock to an object which would be difficult to cut or disassemble, and where the bicycle can't be lifted over the top. Good, secure bicycle racks are becoming common these days: "dishdrainer", wheel-bending racks are seen less often. A thick signpost, cast-iron fencepost, parking meter post etc. is good, as long as locking there is legal: bicycles also may be removed by police and maintenance crews. Check before locking: some posts can be lifted out of the ground, and thieves have been known to cut bicycle racks, taping over the cuts to hide them. If you are stuck with a dishdrainer rack, lock to the end of it if you can. If one is in a secure area, back the bicycle in:: the rear wheel, unlike the front, will hold the bicycle steady. Lock the rear wheel to the rack and the frame to the wheel for additional security. Face the keyhole of your lock down, so water doesn't run into it. Some locks have sliding covers for the combination dials or keyhole.
The Cosgrave family’s involvement in national politics – which stretches back to the foundation of the State – ended in 2002 when Liam Cosgrave jnr, son of former taoiseach Liam Cosgrave, decided not to stand for re-election to the Seanad after a failed attempt to make a return to the Dáil. Mr Cosgrave jnr was first elected to the Dáil in 1981 at the age of 25, to the seat in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown that had been occupied by his father since 1948. He retained the seat in the two general elections of 1982, but lost it in the general election of 1987. One of the people elected in the constituency that year was Geraldine Kennedy, then political correspondent of The Sunday Press and later the editor of The Irish Times. Mr Cosgrave jnr failed to win re-election to the Dáil in 1989 and again in 1992. In 1989, he was elected to the Seanad on the Industrial and Commercial Panel and served in the Upper House until 2002. During the period of the rainbow government led by John Bruton, he was elected cathaoirleach of the Seanad, and after 1997 he was leas-chathaoirleach of the Upper House. After his failed attempt to make it back to the Dáil as a TD for Dún Laoghaire in the general election of 2002, he decided not to contest the Seanad election of that year. During his period in politics, he was elected to Dún Laoghaire Borough Council and in 1985 he was elected to Dublin County Council. He served as a councillor for almost 20 years. The Mahon tribunal, set up to investigate allegations of corruption among Irish politicians, heard in 2003 that Mr Cosgrave had accepted illegal payments from lobbyist Frank Dunlop on behalf of property developers. Resignation He resigned from the Fine Gael party when this became known and did not seek re-election to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown council in the local elections of 2004 and took no further part in politics. In his evidence to the Mahon tribunal, Mr Cosgrave said the donations he had received from Mr Dunlop did not influence his decision to support rezoning of lands at Cherrywood in Co Dublin. Mr Cosgrave was formally charged in 2010 with receiving corrupt payments between 1992 and 1997, but the subsequent trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court collapsed and the charges were withdrawn. Mr Cosgrave’s brother Ciarán had no involvement in politics. His sister Mary Cosgrave worked in the tourism industry with Bord Fáilte and more recently with Fáilte Ireland.
Guest Post: NY Skategeezer vs A Bowl Full Of Dirt (2011) Today we’re proud to present the latest in our series of guest posts. (Interested in writing for NYSB? Drop us an email.) Here, New York O.G. photographer/skateboarder Charlie Samuels tells his firsthand account of what it takes to get a local government to reopen a bowl. Dirt is not a skateboarder’s friend. But I never thought about that until the city of Saratoga Springs dumped 120 cubic yards of dirt into our skateboard pool, in New York State’s first municipal skatepark (est. 1989). This all started in the spring of 2010 without any warning: there had been no lawsuits, no injuries, no complaints, and no public input. At the time, the talk was of graffiti, lack of funding for staff and, of course – the Achilles heel of skateboarding – safety liability. We Capitol-area skateboarders still don’t know exactly why the city did it. The local newspaper kept referring to me as a “50-year-old skateboarder” on a “mission” who thought of cement pools as the “holy grail.” But I’m simply a photographer/filmmaker who is obsessed with skateboarding, and I happen to think that pools are a great way to exercise, but vert ain’t even my strength. After first loving baseball, creativity set in and I began skating in the late 1970s then joined a competitive team (a documentary I directed called “Virgin Blacktop,” about our team, is currently in post production). Yes – that pool was actually one of the reasons I moved to Saratoga Springs, New York four years ago, and, yes – I was on the city from the moment I heard they filled our beloved kidney-shaped pool with dirt. After a full year of loudly voicing my displeasure at city council meetings, writing letters to the local papers, filing a FOIL (Freedom of Information Act), and attempting to contact the city, the situation looked bleak. They were stonewalling me, but little did I know that another local skater, Chris Wildy, had started a “Save the Skatepark” Facebook page, dedicated to unearthing the bowl, that was pushing 2000 “likes.” I got fed up. I told the city council, “I won’t take no for an answer,” and the Saratogian quoted me the next day. Myself and local skater Benj Gleeksman, 37, got a bunch of core skaters together for a “board meeting.” Most of them had celebrated the 2004 installation of the $30,000.00 pool. Although the cause was about the loss of a privilege to skate in a pool and not a rights issue, I was inspired by “Freedom Riders,” a part of the U.S. civil rights movement that took place the summer I was born, and also Manifesto, a skateboarding book by Rudy Barzoda. We came up with our own manifesto: 1. We don’t care why or who filled the bowl with dirt. 2. We don’t need no stinkin’ supervision – the days of staffed parks are over. 3. The longer we try to solve this diplomatically, the more likely the press will side with us. 4. We will request permission from the mayor to dig the pool out ourselves, and at no cost to the city. Our goal was to get the pool dug out before the ground froze – we had less than four months. The next day, we cemented our plans via emails with Plan A, B, C and D – the last being an unauthorized dig out. But the mayor’s deputy was mistakenly included (my bad) on the email string broadcasting our exact plans to city hall. “Oooops,” wrote one of the skaters. But we had already dropped in. We mobilized the “Save the Skatepark” troops by posting email addresses, phone numbers, and names of everyone in city hall. Who knows how many contacted them, but words reportedly uttered by city officials were “onslaught,” “deluged,” and “I don’t know how many.” A local TV station ran a story right after a segment entitled “Dog found dead.” Still no response from the mayor. I was livid – why on earth would an elected official refuse to communicate with a group of, by then, almost 3000? I had to write a killer speech for the next city council public comment period ending with a challenge to the city to respond to us. And I did my best to summon the spirit of a friend of mine — the late Andy Kessler, who was key in making New York City the mecca of skateparks it is today. At the next city council meeting, I made sure I was the first one at the mic. I felt like I had nothing to lose at this point, so I took advantage of the fact a silly rule that city officials aren’t supposed to talk back during the public comment period. And I based my comments on the mayor’s lack of communication with us by scolding him for not returning our calls and letters. I even stated that I have had “less trouble getting in touch with Mike Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York City.” (I had previously photographed him for Business Week magazine.) Then, without knowing it, ignorant me basically lectured a very successful liability lawyer about liability – the mayor (who made a mint as a liability attorney suing tobacco companies) – saying that Saratoga Springs has a case of “liability paranoia.” Then I broke the rules. I outright asked the mayor to have coffee the next day and waited for a response. That’s when I looked at him for the first time, and he appeared to be fuming. Uh oh, had I gone too far? The mayor restated the rules of public comment periods and informed me that I’d gone way over the two-minute time limit. (I was pushing seven minutes.) But I continued to the next city official, asked him for coffee, and I was prepared to go down the line, but Accounts Commissioner John Franck agreed to meet me the next morning at 8 a.m. The paper printed the ruckus, and most of the surrounding newspapers starting writing about our cause, too – most notably the Albany TimesUnion. But, most crucially, Commissioner Franck rescued us by arranging a bunch of meetings with city officials. I slapped together a slide show of all the cement parks in eastern New York (I went on a skate tour!) with statistics showing that, as a participant sport, skateboarding is now more popular than baseball, that it’s safer per person than most popular sports and we showed them how other skateparks in N.Y. state manage to have no staff, no fees, and no problems with graffiti or liability. But the cornerstone seemed to be referencing the New York Recreational Use Statute that almost absolves municipalities from liability claims by leaving the onus on the individual. City officials began calling, non-skaters started offering to dig, and since the mayor’s opponent was running on a platform of open communication, his campaign posted a clever video cut with city footage of my speech showing the current mayor’s lack of communication. The skate “bowl” literally became an election issue. Early November came and, at least to my 6 year-old daughter, this skategeezer was a bit of a small-town celebrity. At the next city council meeting, I softened my tone, became diplomatic, and thanked everyone for reaching out to us. But the pool was still filled with dirt with snow predicted in a few days. I bit my tongue when it came to the subject of the skate “bowl.” Franck and Department of Public Works head Skip Scirocco got into a very heated debate over how to inspect the pool’s integrity. Franck’s point was that we couldn’t fully know until the dirt was removed, and Skip wanted the city engineer to inspect it before that happened. The next day, Skip called and asked me over to the skatepark. As I approached the skatepark, I saw dump trucks carting dirt out and next to the pool was a backhoe filling them. It was almost too good to be true, and I even found a baseball at the bottom of the bowl. Despite the fact that I begged them to leave some dirt in there for a bucket brigade dig, they sucked it all out with some new vacuum truck and power-washed it. Dang. The next Saturday we held a “ceremonial dig-out party,” and the whole city council climbed into the empty pool and posed for a picture that ended up on the next day’s front page with the mayor holding a skateboard. And everyone lived happily ever after.
We’ve turned a horrible new page in the War on Terror as the FDNY — The Fire Department of the City of New York — have joined with the Department of Homeland Security to spy on residents. The FDNY, as you know, made their place in history on 9/11 when 343 responders gave their lives. The FDNY not only fight fires, they also have an elite EMS paramedic team that responds to people in distress. The FDNY is the largest municipal fire department in the world with nearly 12,000 firefighters and 3,000 providing EMS. Since 9/11, the FDNY have become even more of the fabric and stone of the City as they are revered and honored in the ordinary and the every day. The hallmark of the Bush administration’s War on Terror is, if anything — creative in its cruelty and audacious in its daring — and that’s why the FDNY and its sparkling reputation were picked to test a new anti-terror program to spy on citizens. The brilliance in this despicable effort is that the FDNY — unlike the police and other law enforcement agencies — do not need a warrant to enter your home. If the FDNY senses or is merely made aware of a possible emergency in a home, they are required by law to forcefully enter to investigate. My first entertainment agent in New York City actually helped make that requirement to enter an apartment the law when his elderly mother called 911 for emergency assistance. When paramedics arrived at her apartment, and knocked on her door, she did not answer. The paramedics left. She was later found dead in her apartment. My agent promptly sued the City claiming — rightfully so — that if a person is in emergency distress and calls 911 for help it is the DUTY OF THE CITY to break into an apartment or home to see why the person is unable to answer the door: Are they dead? Are they unable to move? Are they being held against their will? That Must Enter law is a good law — and my agent made a tidy sum of money teaching that lesson to New York City in court — but, like all good things in life, there are those who will abuse the law and nudge the power of proper intentions for their darker, self-serving, needs and demands. Enter the Department of Homeland Security. Once the FDNY has access to your home, the Homeland Security surveillance program begins, as reported by WCBS-TV: In times of emergencies, firefighters are trusted to help those in need – often putting their lives on the line to save others, but imagine having the FDNY telling police what they see in your or your neighbor’s home. Unlike the police, firefighters and paramedics do not need warrants to get into private homes and buildings – that is why there’s a new push to make them an important part of the war on terror and crime. The Department of Homeland Security is testing a program with New York City firefighters — the idea is to give fire departments a way to share intelligence information with the appropriate agencies — a system that did not exist before. According to the AP, Homeland Security is training New York firefighters to spot unusual or dangerous chemicals, surveillance equipment, maps, photos, blue prints, and also firearms or weapons. We now have FDNY firefighters — first trained to put out fires and to save lives — now secondarily looking at your bookshelf for bomb-making materials or anti-American propaganda and then reporting you to the government for further investigation. If you have too many nails in your home are you planning to make a pipe bomb? Better report it, just to be safe. If the Koran is on your nightstand — does that indicate a loss of American faith? Better report it just to get it on the record. How do you feel about the FDNY spying on civilians as they put out kitchen fires and rescue dying mothers with one eye — while looking at your magazine subscriptions with the other eye on their way out the door? Is the next logical step in this FDNY/Homeland fiasco leaving behind listening devices or lipstick video cameras in the homes they now “protect and serve” and, perhaps, even answering phony “911 calls” in order to get firefighters into homes faster than the police? How soon will the FDNY be issued sidearms and bullet-proof vests along with their axes and fire hoses as their “New York’s Bravest” motto inevitably becomes: “New York’s Bravest Spies.” Like this: Like Loading...
In an abrupt reversal, US Attorney General Eric Holder has decided that alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will not be tried in a civilian federal court in the US, but instead will face justice before a special military tribunal at Guantánamo Bay. Mr. Holder made the announcement in a press conference in Washington on Monday, the same day the president announced his reelection campaign. Holder said the massive, high-profile terror conspiracy case was being turned over to Defense Department officials by prosecutors in New York City. Holder spoke with a tone of resignation, acknowledging that the administration’s hands had been effectively tied by members of Congress opposed to any transfer of Guantánamo detainees to the US. “Sadly, this case has been marked by needless controversy since the beginning,” Holder said. “The prosecution of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-conspirators should never have been about settling ideological arguments or scoring political points.” In November 2009, Holder conducted a similar press conference to announce that Mr. Mohammed and four co-conspirators would be tried in a federal court in New York City. But the Obama administration faced substantial pushback from citizens and leaders in New York who were concerned that a major terror trial might spark a new round of deadly attacks. Holder said he studied other options, including conducting the trial at a federal prison outside New York City. But new restrictions by Congress made even that proposal a dead letter. “While we will continue to seek to repeal those restrictions, we cannot allow a trial to be further delayed for the victims of the 9/11 attacks or their families,” he said. “I have full faith and confidence in the reformed military commission system to appropriately handle this case as it proceeds,” he said. Praise and criticism Holder’s switch drew immediate praise from Republicans in Congress. “This is the right outcome to the long and spirited debate that preceded this decision,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell in a statement on the Senate floor. “Military commissions at Guantánamo, far from the US mainland, were always the right idea.” Human rights and civil liberties groups who had earlier praised Holder for his decision to conduct the terror trial in a civilian court in New York City, blasted the attorney general’s reversal as a setback for rule of law. Some said the decision was “purely political,” driven by the unpopularity among Americans of the Guantánamo detainee issue. Others said it would erode US standing internationally. “Any trial in the military commission system will carry the stigma of Guantánamo, be subject to challenge and delay, and keep the world focused on how the defendants were treated rather than the crimes they are accused of committing,” said Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel with Human Rights Watch, in a statement. She added: “A verdict in the federal court system, in contrast, would be recognized throughout the world as legitimate.” Holder's faith in civilian courts As part of the Justice Department’s referral of the case, prosecutors asked a federal judge on Monday to unseal and dismiss a 10-count, 80-page indictment against Mohammed and four alleged codefendants. The indictment had been returned by a federal grand jury in New York in December 2009. It charged Mohammed as the mastermind and Al Qaeda’s operational leader of the 9/11 plot. The charges included terror conspiracy, destruction of aircraft, aircraft piracy, and murder of US officers and employees. The indictment identifies Mohammed and the four other defendants as being involvement in the destruction of the World Trade Center towers, destruction of four aircraft, the attack on the Pentagon, and the deaths of 2,976 persons. Holder said he still believed the best venue for the 9/11 terror trial was a civilian federal courtroom. He said he stood by his earlier decision to conduct the trial in New York City. In earlier comments Holder had made no secret of his concern about entrusting such a high-profile case to the still largely untested military commission process at Guantánamo. After nearly a decade of on-again, off-again proceedings, new legislation, and Supreme Court rulings, the military commission system has yielded only a handful of guilty pleas and convictions. The attorney general said he is not sure the military commission system would permit the death penalty for a defendant who pleads guilty. Are military tribunals up to the task? Holder emphasized that the Obama administration had worked with Congress to refine military commission procedures at Guantámamo. But some legal analysts say the procedures still lack the legitimacy of the federal court system. “The Obama administration’s decision to use the broken and deficient military commissions system to prosecute the most important terrorism cases of our time is completely wrong,” American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement. “There is a reason this system is condemned,” he said. “It is rife with constitutional and procedural problems and undermines the fundamental American values that have made us a model throughout the world.” Tom Parker of Amnesty international called the administration’s switch “another shameful political compromise by the Obama administration.” “President Obama came into office pledging to restore America’s reputation by closing the detention facility at Guantánamo and doing away with the widely discredited kangaroo court system cobbled together by the Bush administration,” Mr. Parker said. “That pledge finally was resoundingly revoked today.” In addition to Mohammed, the four codefendants in the case are: Walid Bin Attash, Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Al-Hawsawi. Mr. Bin Attash is accused of gathering information on airport and airplane security for the Al-Qaeda plot. Mr. Bin Al-Shibh is alleged to have sent money to the hijackers. He was initially tapped to serve as a pilot, but was unable to obtain a visa to enter the US, according to prosecutors. Mr. Ali is accused of sending money to the hijackers. Mr. Al-Hawsawi allegedly helped facilitate the hijackers' travel to the US.
Kevin Spacey is the star of the critically acclaimed Netflix show "House of Cards." Netflix Revenue generated from electronic home video is expected to surpass that of the US cinema by 2018, making it the lead revenue generator in the filmed-entertainment market, according to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). Electronic home video — which encompasses video streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, premium-cable channels like HBO and Starz, and on-demand programming — will generate $13.8 billion in revenue in 2018 in the US, compared to $13.1 billion in revenue for the cinema industry. Electronic home video revenue includes rentals and subscriptions to premium-cable services and streaming platforms, while cinema revenue comprises the box office and advertising. Overall, electronic home video service is expected to double in revenue from $8.4 billion in 2014 to $16.54 billion in 2019, making the annual growth rate 14.6%. Over that same time, cinema revenue is expected to grow at a more modest rate of 3.9%, from $11.2 billion in 2014 to $13.5 billion in 2019. PwC determined these numbers in their Global Entertainment and Media Outlook for 2015 to 2019, released on Tuesday. In it, the firm forecasts what will drive consumer spending and advertising revenues directly related to entertainment and media content over the next five years. "Film's status as the prime storytelling medium in pop culture is still acknowledged but, in an era of Netflix, HBO and Showtime, high-end TV drama is making inroads into cinema's dominance, and many OTT services (services that provide content through the internet) have announced they will start making films," said Todd Supplee, Senior Director with PwC's Entertainment, Media & Communications practice. Deadline Hollywood film critic Mike Fleming recently wrote that watching the HBO drama "True Detective" and the critically acclaimed Netflix series "House of Cards" got him "really depressed" about the movie business. "Those series and 10 more like them are better than anything I see on a movie screen," Fleming said. "Movies seem at a low creative ebb, compared to pay and basic cable outlets soaring with boldness and creativity." The PwC data is below:
0 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard The signs are growing that Trump’s base is shrinking. The new Marist Poll finds that Republican support for Trump has dropped 12 points and strong Republican support for the President has dipped 14 points. According to The Marist Poll:x Although still popular among his key constituency, notably, his job performance rating has dropped among strong Republicans from 91% in June to 79% now. ….. More Americans also have a negative impression of the president. 60% of residents, including one in five Republicans, view Trump unfavorably, representing his most unpopular standing since assuming office. Only 34% have a favorable view of him. When this question was last reported in June, Trump’s negative score was 56%, and his positive rating was 37%. There has been a drop in the proportion of strong Republicans who have a positive view of the president from 94% in June to 80% this time. When a president starts losing the strong support of the members of his own party, that president is in big trouble. If Republicans are not motivated to support Trump, the odds of them showing up at the polls to support Republican candidates in 2018, or the President’s reelection in 2020 diminishes. Trump is losing Republicans, and the even worse news for the White House is that this poll was conducted before Trump’s Charlottesville press conference. Trump’s numbers are likely to drop even more in the coming days and weeks. If Trump loses Republicans, the opportunity will be there for a third party candidate to scoop up those who on the right who don’t support this president. The support for Trump during the 2016 Republican primary was a mile wide, but an inch deep. Trump doesn’t inspire the kind of devotion that George W. Bush and Barack Obama had in their own parties. Republicans are weakening on Trump, as the stage is being set for a big Democratic year in 2018. If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:
Slogan should be 'Journalism dies at the Washington Post,' NRA says NRA and Bill of Rights supporters participate in a counter protest at the Women's March protest in front of the NRA Headquarters in Fairfax, Va. (Photo11: Mary Mathis, USA TODAY) The National Rifle Association targeted The Washington Post in an NRA TV video posted to social media Monday, suggesting the paper should change its slogan from "Democracy dies in darkness" to "Journalism dies at The Washington Post." "For years, The Washington Post has tarnished gun owners in an effort to take away our Second Amendment freedoms," says the video, which is narrated by conservative radio personality Grant Stinchfield. “Your paper’s new slogan may read Democracy Dies in Darkness. It should say Journalism Dies at the @washingtonpost” @stinchfield1776. #NRApic.twitter.com/BmolBOQuX7 — NRATV (@NRATV) July 17, 2017 The "fake news outlet" ran a "blatantly false" report tying the NRA to Russia, Stinchfield says. "But The Washington Post isn't mad about the lack of guns, it's upset about an abundance of truth," Stinchfield says. "The truth about their role in the organized anarchy of the 'violent left by spreading lies about those who disagree with their radical agenda." Stinchfield also accuses the Post of "refusing to cover the extremist beliefs and tactics" of activists like DeRay McKesson and Carmen Perez. "And liberal politicians like Chuck Schumer and Al Franken who refuse to condemn them," Stinchfield continues, as ominous music plays. He also went after the paper for its story looking at new NRA videos that focus on politics rather than firearms. One of the NRA's recent videos, in particular, drew criticism and was seen by some as inciting violence toward liberals. That video was part of the inspiration for last week's protest in front of NRA headquarters in Fairfax, Va., which was organized by the Women's March. Related: "We talk about more than guns because every freedom is connected," Stinchfield says. "If one is threatened, they all are threatened." As images of masked protesters are shown, including one clip of graffiti and another of protesters pushing over a trash can, Stinchfield says the "organized anarchy" promoted by the media is "destroying our country." "You people do more to damage our country with a keyboard than every NRA member combined has ever done with a firearm," he says. Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2uCmuPp
It's official. The San Francisco 49ers have just clinched the 2006 Super Bowl. After all, in '06, their star running back Frank Gore rushed for 1,695 yards, caught 485 yards' worth of passes, and scored nine total touchdowns. And Monday's free-agent signee, Brian Westbrook, rushed for 1,217 yards and amassed 699 yards via the air for the Philadelphia Eagles, accounting for 11 touchdowns. Too bad that was four years ago. Brian Westbrook has averaged a catch for every three rushing attempts in his career. Cliff Welch/Icon SMI Now Westbrook is 30 (he'll be 31 before the '10 regular season starts) and coming off a year that saw him limited to eight games and just 61 carries because of a knee injury and a concussion. And like Thomas Jones in Kansas City, Westbrook is forced to take a job on a team with an established back. Such is life when you're a running back on the wrong side of 30. Though I do have him rated as my No. 6 running back, Gore provokes angst in me this year. He hasn't made it through a full season since those halcyon days of '06. He wasn't consistently effective last year, with 10 straight starts in the middle of the season where he exceeded 20 carries just once, plus with a sub-4.0 yards per carry average if you remove three exceedingly long runs (two of which came in the same game). I have him at No. 6 because everyone after the first four running backs has warts, and Gore figured to be in a relatively unthreatened starting position in the 49ers' backfield, something not many rushers can say these days. Gore can still say it. Westbrook can still be explosive in bursts (he averaged a respectable 4.5 yards per carry in his limited action last year), but there are real questions about his knee holding up for a full season. The Westbrook signing seems a direct response to Glen Coffee's abrupt retirement, which to me means that this is San Francisco trying to find another body who can contribute if and when Gore gets hurt. Westy is that, but I'm afraid he's not much more. I'm not changing my rank of Gore one bit on this news. He's still scary to me, but he's also still pretty clearly a No. 1 fantasy back. This is worse news for rookie rusher Anthony Dixon, who racked up 103 yards rushing and a touchdown on 21 carries Sunday against the Colts' reserves, but who doesn't offer much in the way of quickness or elusiveness. Whereas it seemed possible that Dixon would be an unquestioned second-stringer behind Gore once Coffee retired (I think we've all seen enough of Michael Robinson to know he wasn't going to be in the mix), now Dixon looks like a third-stringer, and perhaps a short-yardage option. His future is still intriguing, because he's a load. But this year, he's not draftable.
Product name: Ring Clock Price: $195 on Indiegogo Who would like this?: Early adopters, technophiles, people who run late and hate watches Move over wristwatch, there’s a new time-teller in town and it doesn't need a fancy “smart” interface to attract techies. Meet the Ring Clock, a watch for your digits that is nothing –- absolutely nothing –- like the ring watches you wore and subsequently abhorred in middle school. The trend from the early '00s has gotten a major overhaul, and the result is something that feels akin to a gadget James Bond might wear. And that’s just the feeling you get before you watch the opening to the video. Using a wirelessly charging battery and LED lights, the Ring Clock displays the time when you rotate the ring, lighting up three different rows that represent the hour, minute and each second as it passes by. Each turn on the device lights up the time for up to a minute. The gadget is water-resistant, so you don't have to take it off when you wash your hands — though showering, swimming, snorkeling or submerging the device in water for long periods of time are not recommended. Much like high-quality wristwatches, the Ring Clock is made of stainless steel, is allergy free and won't oxidize or turn black. You’ll get up to a week's worth of lifetime from one full charge (assuming 15 activations per day) or two hours of constant use. Charging time takes at most two hours, and the charger itself looks akin to a mini UFO. Image: Courtesy of Ring Clock The ring was first designed by Gusztav Szikszai for a challenge hosted by CGSociety.org called Moving Innovation. The goal was to create a product that couldn't exist at the time, but could ten years from then, with the right technological innovations. After photos of the product leaked online, Szikszai was flooded with inquireis about where to purchase the device, and he set up an Indiegogo for the project. On that platform, the team raised more than $100,000 over the original monetary goal, and the Ring Clock became a reality. “I never wore a watch on my wrist because I don't like the feeling, but I like watches in general,” said Szikszai on Indiegogo. “So I used that opportunity to let my mind come up with something that I could wear, the Ring Clock.” The ring comes in sizes 5 to 15 and is currently selling for $195. Though earliest estimated delivery is April 2014, the Ring Clock still makes a great gift for anyone into the next new thing, or anyone tired of these: Image: Courtesy of Ring Clock
It took far too long coming but British business is finally beginning to pay close attention to the Scottish referendum, which is now just nine months away. For the first time, chief executives and City bankers are beginning to raise the issue privately and to discuss the possible fallout of a pro-independence vote, after months of sticking their heads in the sand. Many are worried; but as ever with the modern City of London, far too few have the guts to speak out publicly, fearful of losing business if the Scots vote to leave the UK. That is a great shame. The truth, even if not enough of our captains of industry are willing to say so openly, is that the last thing the economy needs is the extreme uncertainty and disruption that a “yes” vote would cause. The fact that a UK rump would guarantee all of the national debt is bad enough and would hammer its credit rating; but there would be lots of other issues, including whether Scotland would eventually adopt the euro, the question of what would happen were the rest of the UK to leave the EU but Scotland to stay in, the vexed issue of who would back the deposits of Scottish banks and be in charge of dismantling them were they ever to go bust again, whether Scotland’s departure from the UK would also lead to an independent Wales, and what would happen to Northern Ireland under such a doomsday scenario. The political consequences would be tragic and self-defeating and lead to a huge loss of geopolitical influence for all concerned; precious time and energy would be wasted disentangling two closely integrated nations. But that doesn’t mean that the status quo is right either. The UK’s constitution has been an irrational and unsustainable shambles since the Scotland Act of 1998; this can only be resolved satisfactorily if the process that started with Scottish devolution is now taken to its logical conclusion. Following what we must hope will be a resounding “no” vote, we need to adopt a new, fully federal model for the UK inspired by the US, Canadian, Swiss and other similar systems that share power properly between the centre and autonomous provinces or states. England needs to have its own parliament, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland must be given greater rights and responsibilities, and all component nations of the UK need to start living within their means, raising as much tax as they spend. Not only would this rejuvenate UK politics but it would also be hugely beneficial for the economy. The UK’s component nations would be incentivised to experiment with radical, pro-growth measures and public sector reforms that are unthinkable under the current structure. The central government should control defence, foreign policy, trade relations, monetary policy, financial regulation and a few other key areas. Everything else should be decentralised: the new English Parliament and its Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish counterparts should have complete control of health care, education, welfare, pensions, labour market rules, parts of transport and energy and as many other areas as possible. In some cases, federal assistance may be needed to ease the transition; but over time the UK should become even more decentralised than the US. Being a UK-wide MP would become a part-time job; and the Prime Minister’s role would be much reduced. By contrast, being an elected representative in the devolved parliaments would suddenly become far more significant a position, and the first minister of England would wield fearsome powers. Crucially, the UK’s four component-nations should not merely have the right to spend money but also the responsibility to raise it; they would have their own tax systems, running in parallel with a much reduced UK-wide HMRC. The four nations ought to be able to cut and hike taxes, and would be under great pressure to balance their budgets. They should have the right to issue their own debt, which would not have sovereign status and would not be guaranteed by the UK. Instead of pushing for ever more public spending or “free” handouts, safe in the knowledge that somebody else will foot the bill, the new fully devolved parliaments would suddenly become far more fiscally responsible. Granting the nations dramatically enhanced powers would make the UK much more like the US or Switzerland: it would inject a healthy dose of competition and would ensure that good policies attract investment and people – and bad ones trigger an exodus. Like in North America, people and companies would vote with their feet; good tax policy is one reason why Texas has attracted so many corporate headquarters in recent years, for example, and why California is in relative decline, despite Silicon Valley. Some US states are ahead of the game when it comes to exploiting shale gas, and others continue to lag; and states with benign labour market regulations attract car makers and other manufacturers, while others don’t. The various Swiss cantons also vie for investment, as do the provinces in Canada, the lander in Germany and the states in Australia. If one of England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland were foolish enough to introduce punitive taxes on business or capital, the effects would be felt very quickly as jobs moved out; fiscal autonomy is a great way of disciplining economically illiterate wayward politicians. Competition works almost as well between political units – as long as labour and capital can move freely and with limited transaction costs – as it does between companies. There is a vast economic literature made up of dozens of studies that shows that fiscal decentralisation tends to lead to smaller and more efficient government, better pro-growth policies, lower taxes and higher incomes per person. One seminal study by the German CESifo analysing 21 economies found that a 10 percentage point increase in local and regional governments’ share of total tax revenue improves public sector efficiency by 10pc; translated to the UK, the savings could easily be in the tens of billions of pounds. The Spanish institute for fiscal studies, which analysed 23 countries, found that each one percentage point of GDP increase in the share of tax accounted for by local or regional government increased GDP growth by 0.06pc; so a 20-point shift would boost growth by a massive 1.2pc per year. In a federal UK, England would probably be run by a pro-market Tory government (or, intriguingly, a Tory-Ukip coalition) with the UK as a whole controlled by Labour, at least in the short term. We could see radical tax cuts in England and elsewhere as leaders vie to grab business. Northern Ireland, in particular, is ripe for drastic supply-side reforms to rejuvenate its economy. This new dynamic would better reflect electoral preferences and would allow rival political ideologies to be tested simultaneously in different parts of the country. We desperately need to save the union – but we must also make it work better, for all of our sakes. Allister Heath is editor of City AM
During Wednesday night's press conference, President Obama said that he's been "sobered by the fact that change in Washington comes slow" and "humbled by the fact that the presidency is extraordinarily powerful, but we are just part of a much broader tapestry of American life and there are a lot of different power centers." Well, one of those different power centers -- the entrenched special interests that continue to call so many shots on Capitol Hill -- is the main reason change in DC comes so slow. This, of course, will not come as news to anyone who has paid even the briefest attention to Washington over the last 30 years. Indeed, I've been writing about it for over a decade. But despite all that I know about the reform-killing power unleashed by the nexus of lobbying, campaign cash, and legislation, I have been flabbergasted by the amount of behind-the-scenes influence recently being wielded by the banking lobby. Just this week, the bankers and their lobbyists -- who you might have reasonably thought would be the political equivalent of lepers in the halls of power these days -- have kneecapped substantive bankruptcy reform in the Senate, helped pull the plug on a government-brokered deal with Chrysler, and tried feverishly to throw up a roadblock in the way of credit card reform in the House. You heard me right. America's bankers -- those wonderful folks who brought us the economic meltdown -- are still being treated as Beltway royalty by those in Congress. According to Sen. Dick Durbin, the banks "are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place." When it comes to reforming our financial system, we are truly through the looking glass. I mean, since when did it become "to the vanquished go the spoils"? How do the same banks that have repeatedly come to Washington over the last eight months with their hats in their hands, asking for billions to rescue them from their catastrophic mistakes, somehow still "own the place"? But the banks continue to be rewarded for their many failures. Let's start with bankruptcy reform. The banks scored a lopsided victory on Thursday when the Senate rejected an amendment that would have allowed homeowners facing foreclosure to renegotiate their mortgages under the guidance of a bankruptcy judge. The measure would have helped 1.7 million homeowners keep their houses, and preserved an additional $300 billion in home equity. Given the tidal wave of foreclosures that have so destabilized our economy, this seems like a no-brainer piece of legislation. There were over 800,000 foreclosures in the first three months of 2009 -- more than 341,000 in March alone. But the banking lobbyists went after it with guns a-blazing - even after Durbin and the measure's other backers seriously diluted the bill. These concessions did nothing to sway the Mortgage Bankers Association (whose members' subprime schemes have helped bring us to the point of collapse), the Financial Services Roundtable, and the American Bankers Association, among other hired guns (check out this video of the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual meeting, held the night before the cramdown vote, and note the overpowering scent of self-congratulations). And their aim was true -- and deadly. Heading into the vote, those pushing for reform hoped to gather the 60 supporters needed to bring the cramdown amendment to a final vote. Instead, Durbin struggled to find 45 Senators willing to side with consumers. The final tally: Bankers 51, Consumers 45. Twelve Democrats sided with the banks -- Max Baucus, Michael Bennet, Robert Byrd, Tom Carper, Byron Dorgan, Tim Johnson, Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Mark Pryor, Arlen Specter, and Jon Tester -- as did every Republican who voted. As HuffPost's Ryan Grim reported, some of the key Democrats who voted against the measure have been on the receiving end of major banking industry campaign contributions: The banking and real estate industry have funneled roughly $2 million into Landrieu's campaign coffers over her 12-year career, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. The financial sector is Nelson's biggest backer; he's taken $1.4 million from banks and real estate interests... Tester has fielded roughly half a million in his two years in office. Lincoln has taken $1.3 million from banking and real estate interests. In the run-up to the vote, Durbin called it a "test": "Who is going to win this debate?" he asked. "The mortgage bankers and the American Bankers Association or the consumers across America?" We just got our answer. The shocking swagger of those in the financial sector was also evident in the negotiations that resulted in Thursday's announcement that Chrysler would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. For much of the back-and-forth between Chrysler, its lenders, and the Treasury Department, those lenders (comprised of banks, including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and JP Morgan -- all recipients of bailout money -- and private equity firms) were playing hardball. They repeatedly rejected attempts by Treasury to get them to lower the amount of Chrysler's debt. The car company owes its creditors $6.9 billion. Treasury proposed that the banks and private equity firms accept 15 percent of what they are owed. The creditors scoffed at that and suggested they'd settle for getting 65 percent of what they are owed (around $4.5 billion), plus a 40 percent stake in Chrysler and a seat on the company's board. Picture this for a moment. On one side you have the Treasury, which has helped funnel tens of billions of dollars to these banks, making what it considers an equitable proposal. On the other side, you have the bankers, the recipients of that government largess, showing their gratitude by scoffing at Treasury's proposal and demanding a much, much better deal. Clearly, Goldman has gotten way too used to sweetheart deals like the 100-cents-on-the-dollar payout it received as part of the AIG bailout. Treasury eventually upped the proposal to $1.5 billion (22 percent of what the creditors were owed) and a 5 percent equity stake in the carmaker. Again the bankers scoffed, before finally, at the 11th hour, agreeing to accept $2 billion (around 29 percent) and a small equity stake. A Treasury official took a victory lap, calling the deal "an exceptional accomplishment in line with the President's firm commitment that all stakeholders sacrifice to make this deal succeed." Then the 12th hour arrived and the hedge fund managers, who hold around 30 percent of the Chrysler debt, decided they didn't want to sacrifice that much after all and refused to sign off on the deal -- even after the offer was sweetened with an additional $250 million. At least the hedge funds had not improved their balance sheets with billions in taxpayer dollars and government loan guarantees before scuttling the deal. As for credit card reform, the House's resounding 357-70 passage of Carolyn Maloney's Credit Card Holders' Bill of Rights would seem like a rare defeat for the banking lobbyists who furiously opposed it. But a number of elements of the legislation demonstrate that even when the bankers lose, they still win. For instance, despite the desperate urgency of the situation, all but one of the consumer-friendly provisions of the bill won't take effect for a year. And the bill doesn't contain any cap on credit card interest rates -- an amendment to cap rates at 18 percent never got any traction. And, of course, the bankers will get another crack at derailing credit card reform when the Senate takes up its version of the bill, sponsored by Chris Dodd, later this month. So no matter how badly the banking industry fails and how much its failures cost us, it continues to be Washington's 800 lb gorilla -- and the greatest risk to Barack Obama's presidency. At his press conference, Obama bemoaned the fact that he "can't just press a button and suddenly have the bankers do exactly what I want." It's too bad the same can't be said for the bankers, who keep pressing Congress's buttons, and getting pretty much what they want. P.S. The Huffington Post Investigative Fund is looking for freelance journalists to help delve into the financial crisis/bank bailout. We are accepting investigative story pitches -- and also looking for writers able to take on assignments in this area. Send your resumes and story ideas here.
In studies of visual attention, and related aspects of cognition, race (continent/s of ancestry) of participants is typically not reported, implying that authors consider this variable irrelevant to outcomes. However, there exist several findings of perceptual differences between East Asians and Caucasian Westerners that can be interpreted as relative differences in global versus local distribution of attention. Here, we used Navon figures (e.g., large E made up of small Vs) to provide the first direct comparison of global–local processing using a standard method from the attention literature. Relative to Caucasians, East Asians showed a strong global advantage. Further, this extended to the second generation (Asian-Australians), although weakened compared to recent immigrants. Our results argue participants’ race should be reported in all studies about, or involving, visual attention to spatially distributed stimuli: to continue to ignore race risks adding noise to data and/or drawing invalid theoretical conclusions by mixing functionally distinct populations.
Most people detest the idea of the “Big Brother” type society, always being watched, monitored and effectively having your natural behaviour and reactions manipulated by the presence of the all-seeing eyes that we all have become oblivious to, that’s right cameras. But why is it then that sales of vehicle born cameras are at an all-time high. Those same people who in one breath will condemn an intrusion into their privacy at one level will be more than happy to strap a sports style action camera to the front of their bike or cycle helmet, and motorists will eagerly stick a “dashcam” into their car. Some will say it is for their own protection, it’s a safeguard, others will be accused of being “wanna be traffic cops”, and lastly some have to, they have no choice, fleet and company policies will dictate the use of a camera. We’ve been promising this one for a while, but such is the amount of interest in this subject I felt it only right that we wait, and knowing that the West Midlands Police was going to introduce a new way of “self-reporting” due care and attention type road traffic offences, I wanted a couple of test cases to show exactly what can go right and wrong. But more importantly I wanted to experience the use of cameras and their effectiveness in reporting and prosecuting road traffic offences from a member of the public’s viewpoint. You see even though as a traffic officer I drive a car that has its every move and sound recorded from the moment I get in to the moment I hang up the keys and go home, I have never had any interest in having that same security, or is it scrutiny?, in my social, domestic and pleasure road going experiences. So to do it properly early this year I purchased a high definition camera that has been accompanying me on all my cycling adventures and commutes. Prior to this I have never felt it necessary to have a camera, whether that’s because our day to day experiences as traffic officers make us immune to the fears and worries others have when using the roads, or maybe it’s because our enhanced road sense and occupationally trained defensive style of road use results in us experiencing far less moments of worry than other road users. Which ever it was the results have been interesting and not what you may expect. In 5 months of riding with a camera, day in, day out I have only been involved in one incident that I have considered worthy of reporting. I don’t for a minute think this is the “norm” though, looking at the experiences of other “vulnerable” road users I know it must be because of my defensive riding style and my abnormal perception of what others might rate as a “reportable incident”, which is altered greatly by my day to day experiences as a traffic officer. After all, I’ve become accustomed to being rammed and driven at regularly, so witnessing a blatant offence, a close pass or having to take avoiding action due to a driver’s ill discipline just counts as a little unwanted attention to me, I’m not saying this is right, it’s just the way I’ve been conditioned through 16 years of being a police officer. You could say I save my reporting efforts for when the uniform is on. Camera’s everywhere As well as the obvious cameras on our traffic cars you’d be surprised at just how many road going cameras are out there at the moment. Some ambulances and fire service vehicles carry cameras, as well as the cyclist’s and motorcyclists who have a camera on their helmets or bike, sometimes both front and rear facing. Increasing numbers of private motorists are fitting dashcams, you can even get them incorporated into your sat nav now. Lots of HGV’s have camera’s in the cab, most buses have cameras as do some taxi’s. It’s not improbable to foresee a time when road users without a recording device will be in the minority, after all the technology is now cheap, reliable and readily accessible. Won’t be long before a vehicle manufacturer offers camera’s as an optional extra on all its models, just wait and see. It’s not all a bed of roses…. It really isn’t a bed of roses you know, in fact camera use can be a proverbial crown of thorns. Camera’s capture all the good and all the bad in all road users, including the camera carrier. They can work against you as well as for you, take it from someone who is recorded and scrutinised in everything I do on the road whilst at work. So just to start we’ll run through some of the positives and negatives of using your own recording device on the road. The obvious benefit is in the event of a collision, it can show the reason for the collision and liability. But this could work in favour of the both the camera user and the non-camera user. Footage might show the camera user was liable for the collision, if someone see’s you have a camera and you don’t make the footage available questions will be asked, liability assumed, what is the camera user hiding ?, integrity and honesty questioned, are you starting to see the pitfalls already. The footage of an incident is all well and good but when presenting camera evidence you will need to also show the period prior and post incident. This reveals or dismisses any events or alleged events that may lead to an incident. The standard of your driving or riding prior to an incident will be looked at, your demeanour prior and post incident will be scrutinised, everything about you will be questioned. Footage from a dashcam that reveals blaring in vehicle music, a mobile phone conversation, or the road user displaying an aggressive demeanour using language littered with profanities all paints a picture and will affect both liability, prosecution and court decisions. So if you’re running a camera, its best behaviour at all times. One of the less obvious effects of an easily spotted camera is the way other road users start interacting with you. When I cycle with a camera on top of my helmet, which stands out, it is amazing how better vehicles start interacting with you on the road, passes become more considered, more space is given, I’ve got into the habit of almost turning my head to a side profile to display the fact I have a camera to traffic to the traffic approaching from the rear, the difference is significant. Put the camera on the handle bars where it is less obvious and traffic from the rear can’t see it and we’re back to the usual ill-considered passing. Maybe someone should start making cycling clothing with “Camera on Board” emblazoned across it and providing stickers for vehicles with the same message. The psychological and behavioural effect on road users if they realise they are being recorded and it can be used against them if their road use falls below the expected safe and competent standard is significant. Maybe we should make them compulsory,……hhmmmm anyone thinking George Orwells 1984 yet? Don’t change your behaviour if you use a camera. Don’t go looking for incidents or those committing offences. If this is the adventure that you do seek then consider joining the police instead, dealing with those who’s road use falls below the required standard is highly confrontational. Road rage is common and in the most unfortunate of cases people have lost their lives at the side of a road in altercations that commenced following a minor traffic incident. I’ve often said that aside from domestic incidents, when we go into someone’s home and start taking control, I’ve never seen an average person anger so quickly and become so confrontational with the police as when their standard of driving or riding is criticised, often despite the presence of insurmountable evidence proving their road use was sub-standard. This is because of firstly, the impact of any prosecution is often highly significant on their day to day lives, points will effect insurance, employment, fines are high and costly, and secondly it’s also because most road users take it as a personal infringement on their character, mainly due to the fact that most have never stopped and considered the standard of their own riding or driving. If an incident does occur and you capture it on camera, stay calm, do not interact with the offender, and remember you’re being recorded also by your camera. There will be a few that submit evidence of a minor traffic offence being committed which then goes on to show themselves committing a far more serious public order offence. Own goals are common in such situations, the offending road user ends up with an educational course or points, the reporting camera user ends up with a criminal record !. The reporting process and its inevitable consequences So you’ve got your camera, you’ve completed your journey during which you’ve been unfortunate to be involved in or witness an incident that you feel needs reporting and action being taken against the offending road user. What do you do next? Well if the incident was a collision and the police did not attend as it was a non-injury damage only collision, then you will need to report in the West Midlands Police area by way of a self-reporting form available from any Police Station front office or by calling 101. The report is completed by you and returned with the all important video, it goes to our traffic process offence and they will investigate the collision and deal with any resulting prosecutions. If the incident does not involve a collision and it is a “Due care and attention” type offence you wish to report then again it’s a trip to your nearest Police Station or call 101, only this time it’s the “Due Care / Driving Standards” self reporting form you will require. Again, the report is completed by you and returned with the all important video, it goes to our traffic process offence and they will investigate the incident and deal with any resulting prosecutions. With both submissions remember independent witnesses are just as important as quality video coverage. Video won’t show everything, trust me we have seen the best video footage miss vital evidence due to a fixed focus and direction, helmet cams usually don’t suffer from these deficiencies but dash cams and fixed point cameras on bikes will. Once your report is submitted the wheels of justice start turning, but please be aware they can turn very slowly due to necessary legal process and the usual administrative holdups that all prosecutions encounter. You see once your report is submitted the member of WMP staff dealing must send out a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) to the vehicles keeper requesting driver details at the time of the incident. This must be done within 14 days of the incident. The recipient of the NIP then has 28 days to respond. If the keeper states someone else was driving then another NIP is sent to that person, with another 28 days to respond. Already you see you could have a maximum of 70 days before we are even in a position to commence a prosecution. The wheels can turn slowly and if your incident results in a court case this can be sometimes be up to 12 months after the actual incident. So don’t go expecting instant results, there are no such things as instant results when it comes to road traffic law. What should I report? Firstly only report if you are prepared to attend court. The offender in your incident may settle for an educational type resolution or a conditional offer of points and a fine, but as we know all too well, most will defend their licences with the same tenacity as their family’s wellbeing, so always expect to attend court. To attend court you may need to take time off work, at court you can be cross examined by the defendant or their legal representative and enjoy all the same experiences we as traffic officers endure on a weekly basis. The rule here is the offending road users standard of driving or riding must have fallen below that expected of a safe and competent driver or rider. To put it in simple terms we are looking at single standalone incidents that would cause you to fail a driving test. Examples of this are contravening a give way at a junction, running a red light, mobile phone use, a close pass (by close we mean inches not feet), you get the idea. Examples we have recently prosecuted using camera footage include a cyclist who was forced to come to a stop to avoid a HGV that failed to give way at a traffic island, if the cyclist hadn’t stopped the results would have been unthinkable. Also a vehicle that carried out an overtake that contravened a keep left bollard and as a result nearly hit the reporting driver head on. These are the sorts of incident we want to know about and if the evidence is presented will gladly deal with the offender. We will only proceed if there is a realistic probability of a successful prosecution, a prosecution that must be in the public interest. If I tell you that two traffic officers with accompanying in car video can struggle to convince a court of an offending drivers offending you will start to get an idea of how convincing your self-reported incident and accompanying evidence will need to be. Last but not least if you are going to report an incident don’t post the footage on any social media site or the like until any proceedings have been finalised. Such clips bring with them views and comments, all might effect proceedings or prevent them. So if you feel you must share it with the Social Media masses prior to a court, take your 15 minutes of fame but reconsider reporting it to ourselves as you could jeopardise any prosecution before it has even started. A New Dawn Now after reading this you might think why even bother, well despite the popular misconception that we are not interested in these incidents, we truly are. The standards of road use are important to you and so they are important to us. We know how low the standards of road use can drop, we are out there 24/7 combatting the most dangerous. But we also know that we can’t be everywhere at once, some will always get away with it. But if the ever increasing amount of road going cameras means that those that previously got away with it will now see the their law breaking actions answered for, then it can only be a good thing. This is a new work stream for WMP, its new and developing, so please bear with us. We need a shift in the viewpoint of the masses to one where road traffic offending and its sometimes tragic consequences become socially unacceptable. If the growing trend of those with road going camera’s reporting offending becomes part of that, then we welcome it with open arms, please just stay safe and don’t become disillusioned if you don’t get the result you wanted when reporting or at court. Oh and also please realise this article has mentioned new and developing WMP policy and procedures regarding the public reporting road traffic offending and the submission of camera evidence in support. Your local force may not do the same, please be patient with them, due to the administrative and staff commitments such new work streams demand, some may struggle to keep pace with demand for a like approach given the current resource vs demand equation faced by police forces. One day hopefully it will be the accepted norm. Until next time Safe journey’s all………..”CUT…. its a wrap” Advertisements
Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud is much likely to step down in favor of his son Mohammed, the new crown prince, within the next five months, a leading Arab daily reported on Monday. Al-Ray al-Youm newspaper quoted informed sources in the Saudi royal family as saying that King Salman is likely to step down from power in the next five months. They referred to the past and future steps to be taken by the king to empower his son, and said the first step was replacing former crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef by his own son, Mohammed bin Salman. "The second step is that the Saudi king wants to travel to his beach villa in Tangier, Morocco, for a two-month vacation and entrust the new crown prince and his aides with management of the country," they added. Therefore, bin Salman will be the Saudi king during August and it will be a test for him until King Salman will confirm quitting power in favor of his son, the sources said. They added that the countdown for bin Salman's ascending to thrown will start somewhere between October and December and then King Salman will officially embark on stepping down under the pretext of protecting Saudi Arabia's interests. The report by Al-Ray al-Youm comes as Western, specially US, media outlets said last Thursday that the King has already recorded a message to declare Mohammad as his successor. Sources in the Royal family in Riyadh disclosed last Thursday that Saudi King Salman bin Abdolaziz al-Saud has pre-recorded a statement to soon abandon power in favor of his son Mohammed bin Salman in the next few weeks as former crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef is still under house arrest. According to Reuters, with Mohammad Bin Salman's sudden ascent, there is now speculation among diplomats and Saudi and Arab officials that King Salman is poised to abdicate in favor of his son. Quoting a witness at the palace, one Saudi source said that King Salman this month pre-recorded a statement in which he announces the transfer of the throne to his son. The announcement could be broadcast at any time, perhaps as soon as September. Also, the source close to Mohammed Bin Nayef disclosed that he would like to take his family to Switzerland or London but the king and his son had decided that he must stay, adding that "he wasn't given any choice." A source close to Mohammed Bin Nayef also announced that he remains under house arrest to keep him out of circulation following his overthrow, with no visitors allowed except close family members. He is not taking calls. In the past week he was only granted permission to visit his elderly mother with the new guards assigned to him. According to a report, on June 20 Mohammed bin Nayef was summoned to meet King Salman on the fourth floor of the royal palace in Mecca. There, according to a source close to Nayef, as he is known, the king ordered him to step aside in favor of the king's favorite son because of his alleged drug addiction. "The king came to meet Mohammed bin Nayef and they were alone in the room. He told him: 'I want you to step down, you didn't listen to the advice to get treatment for your addiction which dangerously affects your decisions'," the source close to bin Nayef said. At dawn bin Nayef gave up, telling a palace adviser that he was ready to see the king. The meeting was short and bin Nayef agreed to step down and signed a document to that effect. According to the adviser, when Mohammad bin Nayef left the king's quarters, he was surprised to see Mohammad bin Salman waiting for him. bin Nayef was embraced and kissed by bin Salman while television cameras rolled. The source close to Mohammed bin Nayef acknowledged that he had health issues, which were aggravated after an al-Qaeda attacker tried to blow himself up in front of him in his palace in 2009. The health issues were corroborated by three other sources in Saudi Arabia and Arab official sources with links to the royal family. The sources also announced that bin Nayef had shrapnel in his body that could not be removed and he depended on drugs such as morphine to alleviate the pain, as, according to one source, he had been treated in clinics in Switzerland on three occasions in recent years. Fars News Agency (FNA) could not independently confirm Mohammed bin Nayef's addiction issues but it had earlier this month reported the possibility of Saudi king's leaving power to his son.
JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities have resumed excavations in Mamilla graveyard in West Jerusalem as part of the "Museum of Tolerance" project, a local committee said Tuesday. The head of the Islamic cemeteries preservation committee, Mustafa Abu Zahra, said large machinery was placed in the cemetery. It poured reinforced concrete in preparation for the building of the structure of the museum. Abu Zahra added that the structure is scheduled to be built over the "remains of icons, martyrs, grandparents and parents," and he said that the project is being implemented by a California-based center in cooperation with the Jerusalem municipality and other Israeli departments. The project was started by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in 2001, and 12 dunams of the cemetery ground were seized including 70 percent which was transformed into "Independence Park," he explained. Abu Zahra said that the construction was a grave assault on Muslim heritage and history.
The Indian rupee has stabilized around 60 per dollar after hitting a record low of nearly 69 against the greenback in August 2013. And given the economic backdrop - hopes of faster growth, structural reforms and optimistic balance of payments outlook - investors should expect the rupee to keep appreciating. According to Morgan Stanley, investments in India are likely to treble from $600 billion to $1.9 trillion between 2014-24; foreign direct investment (FDI) is likely to rise to an average of 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2024 from 1.5 per cent of GDP now, and the current account deficit may remain at about 2.5 per cent of GDP over the next decade. All these factors are likely to support the rupee over the next decade. Still, the investment bank expects the rupee to depreciate by nearly 30 per cent to 75-85 per dollar by 2024. The biggest pressure on the rupee might come from the Reserve Bank's monetary management. According to Morgan Stanley, the RBI will remain a buyer of dollars over the next few years to safeguard the rupee from external shocks such as a sudden spike in crude prices or a rise in interest rates in the US, which may lead to flight of capital from the country. This will slow any aggressive rupee appreciation on the back of capital inflows in the country. "India's import cover deteriorated significantly following the global financial crisis, and the RBI will need gradually to build up $100-150 billion of reserves to take the import cover back over 12 times... Similarly, India's external coverage ratio at 2.26 times is also below the average of 4 times for EM economies, making a strong case for building forex reserves," say Chetan Ahya and Ridham Desai of Morgan Stanley. High inflation will be the other big challenge for the rupee as it impacts the purchasing power of the rupee relative to other currencies. Countries with higher inflation tend to witness depreciation in their currency in relation to the currencies of their trading partners. "Assuming that US CPI inflation remains close to its inflation target of 2 per cent and India follows a disinflationary path over the next few years, the inflation differential against the US would still be equivalent to a 30-35 per cent decline in the purchasing power parity fair value for rupee, taking our nominal fair value estimate 10 years out to a 75-85 range," the investment bank said.
NEWARK -- Newark Mayor Ras Baraka's second "State of the City" address on Tuesday night took aim at the presidential race and the media, while emphasizing what he said were numerous positive strides Newark has made, despite a legacy of poverty. 3 takeaways from Newark's first state of the city speech The event took place March 15 at 6 p.m. at the the New Jersey Performing Arts Center's Victoria Theatre. While Baraka touched on many topics, here are six key aspects of the speech: Newark is adding counseling to policing, among other efforts to help troubled youth, and not alienate the community. While Baraka acknowledged a rash of killings, carjacking and shootings starting around March 2015, he said that "80 percent" of Newark's blocks did not experience a violent crime in a year, and most of the homicides in 2015 happened in the south and west wards. Because robberies, an "entry-level" crime, were generally carried out by 16-24 year olds, he said that for every 25 police officers hired, the city will hire a trained social worker to the robbery task force. He said he secured $1 million in grant funding for a crime reduction plan. Unemployment is a priority. According to Baraka, of 40 or more anchor stores in the city, Newarkers have only 18 percent of their jobs. He also said that Newark's 50,000 college students include a "woefully insufficient number" of Newarkers. He touted movements like the Newark City of Learning Collaborative, which he said has a goal to increase the number of residents with degrees from 17 to 25 percent by 2025. He said he is authoring legislation that will give payroll tax abatements to businesses with more than 50 percent Newarker employees. Also, he said he had given a $1 billion "comprehensive jobs plan" to create 17,000 jobs to the president and presidential candidates. He is pledging to improve services for residents. "We have to respond to every resident even if we can't help them," the mayor said. "Tonight I pledge to make a very visible improvement in that area." He also referred to a snow-plowing disaster this winter saying "I can't complain that we don't have (snow) trucks. I have to find a way to get some." He pledged to improve the response time of police and fire officials by revamping the entire communications department. His pet-peeves: namely Gov. Chris Christie, the Republican presidential race, and the media. He took aim at Donald Trump ("there is no king!") and Christie's Bridgegate scandal ("This is Newark, not Fort Lee, and you can't just stop traffic here without repercussions"). He also blamed the media for allegedly creating a false perception of Newark. Baraka said that a Newark's public magnate school's PARCC success was overlooked by "journalists trying to drive traffic to their sites." Murder coverage by The Star-Ledger and News 12 New Jersey was also a point of contention, since Baraka claimed the media chased Newark's violence but not its poverty. He thinks Newark should get back control of its schools, now. "Newark had more children in 'beating the odds' schools than many cities around the nation," Baraka claimed, both district and charter. "Though we are constantly forced to shoulder the blame for the performance of the district, it has not been under our control for 20 years." He said the governor gave Newark $27 million for its schools to offset the expansion of charters, and that Newark is creating "street academies" to for 16- to 24-year-olds who are not in school and unemployed. He wants Newark's downtown to be developed into a "24-hour community." He noted that the city broke ground on a development with a Whole Foods, and close to 1,000 units of residential space are under construction downtown. Laura Herzog may be reached at lherzog@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LauraHerzogL. Find NJ.com on Facebook
In both cases, the microbes did their work over the course of weeks or months, which is impressive since plastics can last for decades without decay. But Bertocchini saw that her waxworms—from a different species called the greater wax moth—were working much faster. When she put them in a polyethylene shopping bag, holes would appear within 40 minutes. After a few hours, the bag would be a shredded mess. To check that the insects were truly digesting the plastic, rather than just chewing holes in the bags, Bertocchini mushed them up and applied the resulting paste to polyethylene. After half a day, around 13 percent of the plastic had disappeared. Even a waxworm smoothie can destroy polyethylene. Finally, Bertocchini teamed up with biochemists Paolo Bombelli and Christopher Howe at the University of Cambridge to analyze the chemical composition of the plastic as it reacts to the waxworm paste. By looking at how the polyethylene absorbs or reflects infrared radiation, they showed that some of the substance is converted into ethylene glycol—a sign that it was genuinely being degraded. Why should waxworms have the ability to digest plastic so quickly? Bertocchini think it’s a coincidence. The carbon-carbon bonds that are found in polyethylene are also present in the wax that the caterpillars eat. By evolving to digest the latter, they may have inadvertently gained the ability to degrade the former. People produced 311 million tons of plastic in 2014, and that figure is set to double in the next 20 years. Around 40 percent of that consists of polyethylene, in the form of plastic bags, containers, and other products, much of which ends up in landfills. Could the waxworms help to break down that mountain of persistent trash? Ramani Narayan from Michigan State University, who looks for ways of degrading plastics, isn’t convinced. He says the evidence that the waxworm paste was producing ethylene glycol is “tenuous at best,” and could be explained by other chemical changes. And even if Bertocchini is right about the degradation, Narayan says that it’s unlikely to have practical use. An army of bag-chewing caterpillars might consume a lot of plastic, but they would also end up releasing small fragments or microplastics into the environment, which can “pick up toxins like a sponge, transport these toxins up the food chain, and can cause harm to the environment and human health,” he says. “Biodegradation isn’t a magical solution to plastics waste management.” Susan Selke, director of the Michigan State University School of Packaging, adds that caterpillars wouldn’t survive in the oxygen-free conditions within landfills, and it’s unclear if they would go for plastics over, say, other sources of food nearby. “There’s a long way between demonstrating that biodegradation can occur and the development of a system that provides benefit from biodegradation,” she says.
Panasonic has developed a recycling technique that uses titanium oxide to convert unrecoverable plastic and other organic compounds to a "harmless" gas. The key focus is on separating wires from their coatings and extract the other rubbers and plastics that make up the non-recyclable 20% of home-appliance waste. Panasonic's stated goal is to "completely eliminate mixed plastic waste." And if that ain't bold enough, the process reduces CO2 emissions, too, because the gasification process itself doesn't require much energy. Here's how it works: The mixed materials are bathed in titanium oxide (TiO2), jostled about by machinery to ensure an even distribution of the good stuff. The chemicals react to the plastics and other organics, generating tremendous heat. Water is used to maintain a 500°C temperature, ideal for the gasification. One by-product of the gasification of vinyl chloride is hydrogen chloride; that is "neutralized" with lime. Advertisement Panasonic doesn't mention any other by-products. In fact, the company insists that the output consists of "harmless gases," and that there are no "hazardous side-effects." If this is all true, then maybe Panasonic should think about building a compact one for every kitchen in the world. What do you think? Ten years? Press Release: Panasonic Uses Catalytic Reaction to Decompose Plastics Into Harmless Gas for E-Waste Recycling -Eliminating need for incinerating or dumping plastic waste in landfill- Osaka, Japan - Panasonic, by which Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is known, today announced that the company has developed together with Kusatsu Electric Co., Ltd. a recycling technology that enables the recovery of metals from plastic-coated wires and plastics used in electric and electronic equipment without causing hazardous side-effects. Using the catalytic properties of titanium oxide (TiO2), the innovative technology facilitates recovery of inorganic substances such as metals by transforming organic substances such as plastics into harmless gases. Panasonic is successfully using the new technology at the Matsushita Eco Technology Center (METEC) to recover copper from degaussing coils covered with vinyl chloride tape found in CRT TVs. In addition, mixed plastic waste destined for incineration or landfill is treated and changed into non-toxic gases at METEC. The method not only contributes to "zero waste," but also helps reduce CO2 emissions as little external energy source is required in the gasification process. Today, about 80 percent, by weight, of all collected home appliances is recycled into metallic and plastic materials. The remaining 20 percent is currently regarded as non-recyclable waste e.g. rubber, mixed glass and mixed plastic waste which is difficult to sort further as it is comprised of many different types of resins or contains metals. Although some mixed plastic waste can be used as fuel in general, the waste containing certain chemicals such as vinyl chloride needs to be treated in a high-temperature incinerator to avoid dioxin emissions. The new recycling method combines Kusatsu Electric's non-incineration plastic disposal technology using TiO2 and Panasonic's high grade materials recovery technology that is used by Panasonic to recycle old home appliances. The method uses unique mixing and carrier systems that allow plastics to contact the catalyst efficiently for gasification, leaving the valuable metals. As the catalytic reaction of TiO2 generates heat to promote gasification, an additional heating source is not required in the process. The method uses cooling water to maintain temperature (500°C) for optimal catalytic reaction. The subsequent heated water from the process can be used for other purposes. Hydrogen chloride produced during the gasification process of vinyl chloride is neutralized with lime. Panasonic aims to completely eliminate mixed plastic waste and spread the use of this environment-friendly technology to recycling-related facilities and further to production facilities in and out of the Panasonic group.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A Chicago parks protection group sued the city on Thursday over a planned museum by “Star Wars” filmmaker George Lucas, saying the site is on a lakefront spot that cannot be handed over to a private entity. The Friends of the Parks group said in its federal lawsuit that the proposed Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which will include artifacts from the filmmaker’s hit science fiction film series, violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection and due process clause. “Let’s use the Force to do good in Chicago,” Cassandra Frances, president of the Friends of the Park, told reporters in borrowing a “Star Wars” line. The museum was to be located on the same area on Lake Michigan as Soldier Field, Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium. The proposed site currently is used for parking lots. The lawsuit seeks to block the transfer of the land from the city to the museum. By allowing the development, the suit said the nation’s third-largest city will interfere with the right of citizens to “use and enjoy property held in trust by the state of Illinois as a natural resource and pristine physical environment.” Francis told reporters she objected to “humongous scale” - seven levels and 400,000 square feet - of the project. “The structure will interfere with keeping the lakefront clear and free,” she said. Francis said the museum would be better in another, underdeveloped part of the city. Adam Collins, a spokesman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, said the administration has not seen the lawsuit and could not comment. He said the museum would create jobs and will be treated like others on the lakefront museum campus and comply with all laws. “This museum is a generous gift that will expand the rich cultural and educational opportunities for children and families in every neighborhood, and visitors from around the world,” Collins said. The museum will feature Lucas’ collection of paintings, illustrations and digital art, including works by Norman Rockwell, John Tenniel and Maxfield Parrish. Lucas had wanted to build it in San Francisco but the proposal was rejected by a trust that governs its intended site. Lucas’ wife, Mellody Hobson, is from Chicago. The museum said it selected the site because of its central location and accessibility to public transportation. A white, space-mountain-like design for the proposed museum was released last week, and has already caused controversy in a city known for its architecture. A spokeswoman for the Lucas Museum had no comment.
Interested in this kind of news? Receive them directly in your email box. Delivered once a week. Sign Up Even in countries with the highest GHG intensity of electricity generation – Poland and Germany – the EV performs better on a lifecycle basis (including the emissions in manufacturing the battery and vehicle) than the diesel car. Using the Polish average, an electric vehicle emits 25% less CO2 over its lifetime, while in Sweden an EV emits 85% less. Meanwhile, EVs’ sustainability will improve further with battery technology advances and as more batteries are re-used for electricity storage or recycled. Yoann Le Petit, clean Vehicles and emobility officer at T&E, said: “Today an electric vehicle driving on Polish electricity – the most carbon intensive in the EU – still has a lower impact on the climate than a new diesel car. With the rapid decarbonisation of the EU electricity mix, on average electric vehicles will emit less than half the CO2 emissions of a diesel car by 2030 including the manufacturing emissions.” Further research by T&E shows the availability of critical metals for batteries, such as cobalt and lithium, will not be constrained in the coming decades and won’t stop the EV transition, as some have argued. In the case of lithium, reserves could last for an estimated 185 years. T&E said the extraction of these materials should be certified against high standards to manage environmental and social impacts. However, in the long-term, innovation will help reduce the quantity of critical metals used in EVs. Yoann Le Petit concluded: “The electric vehicle revolution will lead to a sharp increase in demand for critical metals. But the evidence shows there will be no supply constraints if there are investments in new mines and processes. The industry must however ensure that minerals are sourced sustainably.” EVs account for just 1.7% of new vehicles sold in Europe. The European Commission is considering including a zero-emission vehicle sales quota in its proposal for the cars and vans CO2 regulation which is expected in early November. Read more: Study and briefing: Electric vehicle life cycle analysis and raw material availability
Many people were thinking the Samsung Galaxy S5 would be announced with a 2560 x 1440 display, but to the dismay of many they stuck with the same 1080p display from yesteryear. It appears Samsung could be looking to satiate those who had a problem with the device, though, as a new Samsung phone has appeared over at GFXBench with a 2560 x 1440 display. The phone has a model number of SM-G906S, which is somewhat close to the Galaxy S5’s SM-G900 being used. That doesn’t guarantee that this is a direct derivative of Samsung’s 2014 flagship, but it’s possible. Unfortunately there’s nothing to know about the device just yet, though you should know the device outperformed the Exynos-based Galaxy S5 in a couple of different areas. We’re not quite sure what that means just yet, but the fact that it did the deed with a much higher resolution must mean good things. It might be a while before we hear from this guy again — heck, we might not hear anything about it at all — so it probably wouldn’t be worth shelving those plans to grab the Galaxy S5 if you’ve been highly anticipating it. [GFXBench via PhoneArena]
WASHINGTON -- As the GOP presidential candidate faced pressure over the past year to release more financial information, it was widely presumed that at some point he would buckle and follow a tradition started by his father, who released 12 years of tax returns. People who knew him, however, warned that there was no chance he'd release the returns. They were right. Mitt Romney made it. But the journey has left him broken and battered. For the first time in presidential politics, the words "Cayman Islands" and "Swiss Bank account" became campaign catch-phrases. President Barack Obama's team produced a blistering ad featuring tropical locations and press clippings of stories about Romney’s aggressive tax avoidance. Did Romney receive amnesty under an IRS program for UBS tax cheats? Did he illegally manipulate foreign tax credits? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid claimed to have been told by a source who invests with Bain Capital that Romney did not pay federal income taxes for a decade. Bain Capital executives told HuffPost that Romney never would have run for president if he'd thought he'd have to release his tax returns. As the pummeling continued, Haley Barbour, Michael Steele, Rick Perry, Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), and other prominent conservatives said Romney should just release some earlier tax returns and end the abuse. "The cost of not releasing the returns are clear,” conservative columnist George Will said on ABC’s "This Week" in July. “Therefore, he must've calculated that there are higher costs in releasing them.” The public never learned what those higher costs may have been caused by. In the final days of the race, Romney's pre-2010 tax returns are still nowhere to be seen. But while he escaped releasing them, the still-secret tax returns haunt Romney on the eve of the election. The Obama campaign, bucking the advice of the pundit class, bludgeoned Romney for his secrecy and for his offshore investments. Top Obama aide Stephanie Cutter even floated the possibility that Romney had committed a felony by giving false information on a previous disclosure (a charge that was deemed silly by reporters and dismissed by the Romney campaign, but which was based on the plain fact that his returns and his disclosure differed in meaningful ways). The focus on Romney's offshore investments and his missing tax returns -- heightened by Reid's incendiary charge -- drove the former private equity executive into the ground, defining him at a crucial period before Romney had a chance to redefine himself after the primary. "Romney's refusal during his campaign to release his past tax returns betrayed a contempt for the electorate and for the democratic process, which relies on voters having the requisite information to make informed decisions," said University of Southern California law professor Ed Kleinbard. "The reason for the tradition of releasing past tax returns -- not returns prepared in the years an individual is running for the presidency -- is to demonstrate that the candidate fully and fairly complied with the tax laws when the spotlight of the election was not already on him." What little tax information Romney actually released has critical implications for his campaign’s most fundamental argument: anti-business tax policy is crippling the economy, and Romney’s Bain experience makes him uniquely qualified to fix it. Romney’s taxes not only serve as a window into his own personal finances, they’re a record of his own active tax avoidance on behalf of others. Many of the offshore corporations on Romney’s 2010 tax return were not simply personal investment preferences –- they were shell companies established by Bain Capital. “The thing that bothered me the most about his offshoring investments was not that he or his partners at Bain avoided paying taxes, but that they made it really easy for investors to cheat on their taxes,” said Rebecca Wilkins, senior counsel for federal tax policy at Citizens for Tax Justice. “If you wanted to cheat, Bain Capital just made it really easy for you.” Both Bain and Romney flirted with the edge of legality by using sham derivative transactions to mask investments in U.S. stocks, lowering their American tax burden. The IRS has been cracking down on this activity since 2010, as HuffPost reported in August. Thousands of pages of Bain documents released by Gawker also reveal that Bain gamed its management fees in order to help its investors avoid paying taxes –- a tactic that is straightforwardly illegal, according to Victor Fleisher, a tax expert and professor of law at the University of Colorado. To the extent that Romney has offered a coherent vision of a just American tax code, he has largely defended the very policies that he profits from. Romney acknowledged Wilkins' point in a July interview with National Review's Robert Costa. "The so-called offshore account in the Cayman Islands, for instance, is an account established by a U.S. firm to allow foreign investors to invest in U.S. enterprises and not be subject to taxes outside of their own jurisdiction," Romney said. Marc Wolpow, former managing director for Bain Capital, said that if the company set up offshore accounts as Romney indicated in the National Review story, it was to help investors minimize their tax burden. "We are paid by our investors to optimize our investments," Wolpow wrote in an email to HuffPost. At least as an individual, Wolpow wrote that he thought the rich could pay more in taxes. "I am willing to pay more taxes to create a better sense of fairness in the tax system; i.e., I agree with Warren Buffet," he wrote. Of Romney's own unknown tax records, he added "I'd be shocked if Mitt did anything that wasn't 100% legal and legitimate." In an interview with "60 Minutes"’ Scott Pelley shortly after Romney released his 2011 return, the GOP candidate said that it was fair for him to pay a lower tax rate than middle-class earners, because his tax perk encourages investment. "You paid 14 percent in federal taxes. That's the capital gains rate. Is that fair to the guy who makes $50,000 and paid a higher rate than you did?" Pelley asked. "It's the right way to encourage economic growth, to get people to invest, to start businesses, to put people to work," Romney responded. The sheer scope of Romney’s personal tax avoidance efforts also shed light on iniquities in the tax code. Very wealthy Americans have many perfectly legal options to reduce their tax burden -– tactics not available to poor and middle-class taxpayers. "This garbage is finally floating to the surface where it can be seen in the light of day," Thomas Krouse, a portfolio manager and former hedge fund chief financial officer, told HuffPost. "America needs to know how we are going to stop it. No matter who wins this election -- how is this going to be stopped? It must be stopped. It's worse than Chinese manufacturers stealing American jobs. ... With the speed of paperwork, you can bleed America dry through tax evasion practically overnight." "The most interesting thing he disclosed was what we saw initially on the 2010 return -– the vast array of offshore investment vehicles that plainly reflected a lot of aggressive tax planning," said New York University Law School professor Daniel Shaviro. The Huffington Post detailed those efforts for much of the year. Romney recognized $787,455 in foreign tax credits in 2010 -– an option only available to the global investor class, and an amount high enough to raise eyebrows among some tax experts who questioned the validity of the credits, which had been a hotbed for abuse by other taxpayers. Legal tax deductions Romney took in 2010 assumed an "active" role for Romney at Bain Capital, where he had repeatedly stated that he has not been making managerial decisions for years. A full 267 pages of Romney’s 379-page 2011 tax return are devoted to listing investments in 34 offshore corporations and partnerships, including 15 in the Cayman Islands. Of the 34 offshore companies, 30 are located in countries considered to be offshore tax havens by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The same year, Romney shifted $111,081 offshore to a Bain Capital affiliate based in the Cayman Islands during 2011, and an additional $296,471 to a Golden Gate Capital fund, also organized in the Caymans. "Governor Romney's limited disclosures revealed hints of troubling issues, and his stonewalling of the electorate therefore left many troubled by the unknown breadth of the gulf between the carefully cultivated image of the candidate, on the one hand, and the authentic man, on the other," Kleinbard said. Even Romney's charitable giving pushed the tax avoidance limits. He was grandfathered into a tax scheme that is no longer allowed. It allows him to receive tax-free investment income from a designated charity, as Bloomberg uncovered. He also claimed a roughly $1 million tax break in 2010 and 2011 by transferring stock from his own account to one controlled by a 501(c)3 that he set up and ultimately controls. The company is Sensata Technologies, owned by Bain Capital. Bain is in the process of shutting down a factory in Illinois and shipping the jobs to China. Bain Capital evaded about €80 million (or $102 million) in taxes by using a financial loophole in the Netherlands, according to a HuffPost translation of an article in the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant Monday. De Volkskrant and the website Follow the Money claim that by routing its 2004 investments in the Irish pharmaceutical company Warner Chilcott through the Netherlands, Bain was able to dodge dividends and capital gains taxes. Financial adviser Jos Peters estimates that the loophole allowed Bain to save about $102 million. The questions raised by this information -- and lack of information -- gain importance with Romney’s vague tax reform proposal. In August, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center published a study indicating that the tax rate reductions Romney had been promising wealthy Americans simply are not mathematically possible without either raising taxes on the middle class or expanding the federal budget deficit. Romney responded not with a more narrowly tailored plan, but by insisting that other studies showed that his math did work. Most of those studies, however, were actually blog posts. And all of them indicated that Romney would have to eliminate a host of popular tax preferences, including the mortgage interest deduction, for people making as little as $100,000 a year –- an income level often considered to be middle-class.
The White House and its allies have scrambled to create a robust outside operation to punch at FBI Director James Comey during his high-stakes testimony on Thursday, but West Wing aides — fearful that they could get further sucked into the Russia probe — are trying to avoid being the messengers themselves. Thursday’s hearing is among the most serious threats that Trump has ever faced. That it will play out on live television is fitting for the real estate mogul who rode reality television stardom to the presidency. Story Continued Below Comey is expected to allege, in precise detail, that Trump tried to score a loyalty pledge from him, tried to quash an investigation into one of Trump’s closest allies, and grew increasingly obsessed with the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election — all in his opening remarks, shown live on national TV. But for a president whose allies have endured crises and controversies since the day he entered the political scene, Thursday is seen as a challenge that, while serious, is not exactly unprecedented for a cohort that has battled sexual assault allegations, defended repeated unfounded claims, and won an election that many thought was unwinnable. "It's fair to say a storm is coming," one administration source said. "We're boarding up the windows for the impending hurricane." Trump’s aides are also aware of the legal risk they face themselves – and have mostly been careful to outsource the Comey attack efforts. The Republican National Committee is taking the lead in the response and has prepared a surrogate operation. It will be using the same rapid-response machinery it honed during presidential debates to provide counter-programming and leap on any dubious claims or statements that contradict previous accounts. “The RNC’s role is to support and defend the president and this White House and this week is no different,” said Ryan Mahoney, the RNC communications director. “And we prepare for everything, and we’re prepared for the hearing this week.” The most reliable politics newsletter. Sign up for POLITICO Playbook and get the latest news, every morning — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. Local and national surrogate operations are ready to go. Talking points will be widely distributed and briefing calls will be held to prep surrogates during the day. Two former Trump White House officials — former deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh and former communications director Mike Dubke — are helping coordinate the effort. Press secretary Sean Spicer was at the RNC on Wednesday as preparations took place. The aim at the RNC is to depict Comey as a disgruntled former employee out to destroy the president who fired him. The talking points also note that Democrats had previously been critical of Comey and stress that there is still no evidence of any collision between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Meanwhile, an outside PAC, the Great America Alliance, is prepared to run television adds slamming Comey as a “showboat” — the same epithet Trump used against him — and painting him as a political hack, according to The Associated Press. But White House aides are nervous about personally attacking Comey for his testimony, fearing it could boomerang back against them. For official comment, the White House has directed all questions to the office of Trump’s outside counsel, Marc Kasowitz. Kasowitz’s office, in turn, has directed inquires to Emily Thall, the law firm’s director of business development and marketing. On Tuesday, Thall declined to comment in a brief conversation with POLITICO about Comey testimony. By Wednesday, inquiries to Thall were met with an automatic response: She would be out of the office on vacation until next week. By Wednesday night, Kasowitz's firm had retained longtime political communications pro Mark Corallo to handle media inquiries. The White House office of legislative affairs, which works closely with members of Congress, is not distributing talking points ahead of the hearing, according to one official. The office is attempting to stay focused on health care reform — but is also wary of being seen as interfering in an ongoing investigation, the official said. One White House adviser said administration officials have told surrogates to question Comey's credibility — but the White House is cautious about doing it, given Trump’s campaign aides and allies are operating under the cloud of investigation. White House officials "want it particularly noted," this person said, that Comey had previously said the investigation had not been obstructed. (Comey’s comments, however, were specifically about potential interference from the attorney general or senior Justice Department officials.) They also want to highlight Democrats’ past criticism of Comey, this adviser said. "If the Democrats are praising Comey and saying how honorable he is, it seems as good a time as any to remind them what they said previously,” the official said. But that task will be easier for those outside the White House rather than in it. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s mandate from the Department of Justice isn’t just to pursue potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. He also has a green light if his investigators uncover obstruction of justice, perjury and evidence destruction. That broad reach has veterans of past federal and congressional investigations warning Trump and his inner circle to be mindful since any public statements they make related to the Russia probes could end up being used as evidence in any potential criminal cases. Trump, who is distrustful of many in his administration and kept his decision to fire Comey away from many senior administration officials, often doesn't trust others to get his message out. So while aides say they are trying to manage Trump's tweets, and keep his public exposure limited amid the investigations, he is lashing out and wants to defend himself even more, in the words of one person who has spoken to him. White House aides are trying to keep Trump busy Thursday morning with meetings so he won't watch TV and tweet during the hearing. "But if he wants to watch it, it's not like we can say, ‘oh, the TV doesn't work,’" one official said. But the outsider dominance of the operation underscores the conundrum for White House officials: As possible witnesses in any case themselves, attacking Comey for his testimony could be a legally perilous task. For example, several of Trump’s posts on Twitter about the investigation, calling it a “witch hunt” and that Comey “better hope that there are no tapes” of their conversation “could well be interpreted as an effort to intimidate a witness,” said Michael Forde, a trial lawyer who represented then-mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel in litigation challenging his qualifications to run for office. The risks are real given the range of topics Mueller and his team could explore. After all, White House aides who in their day jobs are being tasked with responding to the Russia probe are also being urged to hire lawyers if they end up on the receiving end of any informal or official requests for testimony and documents related to the investigation. “The potential consequences and roads that they’re going to go down are not clear. Even if they feel they’ve done nothing wrong, the complicated nature of this means they’re not in the best position to explain or defend themselves,” said a former GOP White House attorney. But attacking Comey, or even Mueller, from the White House certainly wouldn’t be without precedent. The Clinton White House famously went after Ken Starr on a frequent basis during his investigations that ultimately led to House impeachment and a Senate trial. “People in the White House have a right to defend themselves,” said former Clinton White House counsel Jack Quinn. “That said, I think that in circumstances like this it is difficult but important to hold one’s fire. If people react instantaneously to testimony that’s provided, there’s a significant risk that the response is going to get something wrong. If experienced counsel who’ve been through these investigations before are counseling the people who tend to talk, they’re more likely than not going to be told that instead of giving off the cuff rebuttal to what they’re hearing to be thoughtful about it.” “The instantaneous response without the benefit of careful consideration and in some cases investigation is just not a good idea,” Quinn added. Alex Isenstadt contributed to this report.
stockmonkeys.com Companies pay doctors millions of dollars to promote not their most innovative or effective drugs, but some of their most unremarkable. In the last five months of 2013, drug makers spent almost $20 million trying to convince physicians and teaching hospitals to give their freshly-patented drugs to patients, but many of them are near-copies of existing drugs that treat the same conditions. A hefty portion are also available as generics, chemically identical copies that work just as well at a fraction of the price. And still others have serious side effects that only became apparent after they were approved by the FDA. That's all according to a thorough analysis from ProPublica's Charles Ornstein and Ryann Grochowski Jones, who combed through federal data on payments made by pharmaceutical and medical device companies to doctors and teaching hospitals and released publicly for the first time last fall under the Affordable Care Act. That data is now available (in a semi-understandable form) on the government website Open Payments. So why are companies paying so much to try to get doctors to prescribe their products? In a word: competition. In ProPublica's list of the top 20 drugs that companies are paying the most to promote, nine had a competitor also ranked within the top 20 that treated the same condition. Most of these competing drugs treat diabetes, schizophrenia, blood clotting, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Here are the top 20 and the conditions they're used to treat: 1. Victoza, type-2 diabetes 2. Eliquis, anti-clotting drug 3. Brilinta, blood-thinner 4. Invokana, type-2 diabetes 5. Latuda, schizophrenia 6. Xarelto, anti-clotting drug 7. Humira, arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn's disease 8. Tudorza, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 9. Daliresp,chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 10. Abilify Maintena, schizophrenia 11. Abilify, schizophrenia 12. Linzess, irritable bowel syndrome with constipation, chronic idiopathic constipation 13. Pradaxa, anti-clotting 14. Tradjenta, type-2 diabetes 15. Belviq, weight loss drug 16. Copaxone, multiple sclerosis 17. Samsca, hyponatremia (low sodium levels in the blood) 18. H. P. Acthar, infantile spasms, multiple sclerosis, endocrine disorders, arthritis, lupus 19. Symbicort, asthma 20. Aubagio, multiple sclerosis Take multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca's blood-thinning drug Brilinta, for example, ranked third in ProPublica's list of the highest payments to doctors. One of Brilinta's biggest competitors, Plavix, has been available generically since 2012 at a fraction of the price. In order to make a profit in such a crowded market, producers of new drugs — who have often spent a fortune on research and development — must make them appealing to the doctors who prescribe them. A study published by Ornstein and Jones in March found that doctors often accept thousands of dollars in speaking and consulting payments from drug companies that also sponsor their research. During the last five months of 2013 (the period that Ornstein and Jones looked at for their most recent report), Brilinta's manufacturers made 63 payments to doctors, totalling $282,000 in consulting fees. Novo Nordisk, the makers of the most aggressively promoted drug on their list, Type-2 diabetes drug Victoza, spent $816,000 on consulting (doled out in 166 payments). AstraZeneca told us via email that their efforts are geared towards educating the healthcare community and bringing new medicines to patients. Novo Nordisk said in an email that the company "work[s] closely with physicians to advance the understanding of the appropriate use of our medicines. Because Victoza falls into a relatively new class of drugs, additional education is required to educate physicians." Here's the definition of "consulting" from the US Centers for Medicaid and Medicare: Payments made to physicians for advice and expertise on a particular medical product or treatment, typically provided under a written agreement and in response to a particular business need. These payments often vary depending on the experience of the physician being consulted. It's super vague, which is part of the reason advocacy organizations have been pushing drug makers to be more transparent about their payments in recent years. The drugs we're getting, the thinking goes, should be the best that are out there rather than the ones payments from drug companies may have convinced doctors to prescribe. (Researchers recently found that such payments, while they may not technically compel doctors to do anything in particular, do indeed affect which drugs doctors prescribe to their patients.) At least partially as a result of efforts by advocacy groups to push drug makers to be more transparent about the money they give to doctors, consulting payments have begun to drop a bit. Hopefully, the trend will continue. As of this fall, as part of the Affordable Care Act, all drug makers were required — for the first time in history — to publicly disclose their payments to doctors. Look up your own doctor here, and read ProPublica's full investigation here.
Say “speed trap,” and people instantly know you’re talking about a spot where police officers sit with radar guns, hoping to catch speeders, write tickets and generate revenue for their city. Keller police say they write a lot of tickets, but it’s not intended to stuff city coffers. “People call it a speed trap, which is goofy, because the speed limit is posted,” said officer Stephen Grossman, assigned to traffic patrol in Keller. “Our main objective is to slow people down.” Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to the Star-Telegram In Keller, police officials don’t mind motorists flashing their headlights to warn others that a cop armed with radar is up ahead; it tends to make people slow down. And March 10, they started using social media sites to post the locations of police with radar guns. They tell people where Keller traffic officers will be on patrol Monday through Friday. They also post locations in Westlake, which contracts with Keller for police protection. Reading a post on Facebook or Twitter is like spotting a patrol car up ahead: Drivers immediately check their speedometers, officials said. “Some folks wonder if we have ulterior motives,” said Capt. Tommy Simmons, Keller’s patrol commander. “But there’s no catch. We’re not trying to trap people into anything. “Just slow down, drive safe, and let’s all have a good day.” Don’t leave home without it Simmons said it’s too early to tell if the posts are getting motorists to slow down. But officials are pleased with the public feedback. Two weeks after starting the routine, Keller police added 1,113 followers on Twitter and 2,187 new friends on Facebook, said Rachel Reynolds, a city spokeswoman who helps police use social media. “Good morning, Keller!” announced a Police Department Facebook post on Wednesday. “Traffic officers in Keller today will be on Keller-Smithfield Road and Rufe Snow Drive. In Westlake, they’ll focus on Hwy. 170, Hwy. 114 and the Hwy. 114 and Trophy Club intersection.” That post, by midafternoon, had 31 “likes,” and three people commented. One woman simply wrote, “Thank you.” Another quipped that she couldn’t leave the house until she had the information. “I was waiting all morning to leave,” she wrote. “Lol. J/k.” No need for speed Keller police were looking for ways to reduce wrecks. The city is 20 square miles with a population of about 40,000. There were 253 wrecks in the city in 2012, including one May 2 in which a 22-year-old man died when his sport utility vehicle crashed into a tree in the 500 block of Keller-Smithfield Road. The driver had been speeding, according to a news report. Then in 2013, there were 321 wrecks, a 27 percent increase, Simmons said. Wrecks in Westlake decreased in the same period. But with a population of only 900 over 6 square miles, 343 wrecks in 2012 and 322 in 2013 seemed high. Back in Keller, Simmons said, 9,209 traffic citations brought $741,708 to Keller’s general fund in 2012. A year later, police wrote 10,732 citations, which generated $764,569 in revenue, Simmons said. But, he said: “By simply writing more tickets, we’re not changing the driving behaviors, and we’re having more accidents. We have to figure out ways to get the drivers’ attention so we can try to lower our accident rate.” If fewer tickets meant fewer revenues, Simmons said, “We would not cave. And if the accident rate goes down with that, we’d be in a good way.” No downside The challenge to reduce the number of wrecks flashed in Simmons’ mind during a meeting early this year with Police Chief Mark Hafner, who challenged police commanders to consider new ways to use social media. Simmons instantly thought of tweeting traffic enforcement locations, but then paused. “I’m sitting there thinking to myself, ‘That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard,’ ” he said. “But then I started thinking, ‘What’s the downside?’ And there is none.” A driver who slows down when he sees a patrol car or officer on a motorcycle “is a mindset.” But, Simmons said, “This way you get it before you leave the house.” Simmons turned to Reynolds, who assured him that the routine could be swiftly implemented. Reynolds noted that since the postings started, the department is also getting more tips from residents about suspected drug deals and the sale of phony ID cards. “Our citizens like it,” Reynolds said. “It’s easy for our officers, and the benefits we’re getting have been really positive so for.” ‘People fly through there’ The Keller Police Department has 50 officers, with four assigned to traffic. On any given weekday, two will be on patrol in Keller while the other pair handles Westlake, Simmons said. Grossman said many of the tickets he writes are to drivers from other cities who may not follow Keller police on social media. “Keller is used as a cut-through for a lot of people headed to [DFW] airport,” Grossman said. “I could write a ton of tickets and not put six miles on the bike.” A lot of people speed through the south side of Keller on U.S. 377. “I don’t know if it feels wide open out there, or what, but people fly through there,” Grossman said. “It’s 45 mph and I mostly stop people going 60-65. But I also get people going through there in the 90s. It happens at least once a month. “It could be a kid just messing around, but it could be a soccer mom with a van full of kids.” Grossman said he wasn’t sure about the social media routine at first, but he soon realized it would be no burden on traffic officers. Each morning they simply tell Reynolds where they plan to patrol, and she posts it on Facebook and Twitter. “Right now, I just send a two-sentence email to Rachel and we’re done,” he said. Dallas does it, too Posting the traffic enforcement locations on social media does not appear to be popular elsewhere. Try a Google search on the topic, and Keller police dominate the results. Simmons said he did that, too, and found only Dallas. Dallas police started the routine recently. The idea was fast-tracked after the department announced a comprehensive social media push in February, said Dallas police Lt. Max Geron, a police spokesman. “One person commented that, ‘If DPD started tweeting where they were running radar, I’d follow them,’ ” Geron said. “I thought, ‘That’s a great idea.’ And ‘Why wouldn’t we?’ “We’re not out there to generate revenue. It’s to influence driving behavior. If we can get you to do that voluntarily, it’s a win-win.” Geron said Keller started doing it a couple of days before Dallas. “I thought, ‘Aw, man, Keller beat us to the punch,’ ” Geron said. “Of course you want to be the first to do something. But kudos to them for getting on it because it’s a great idea.”
If the new Location-Aware Browsing (a.k.a. Geolocation) feature in Firefox 3.5 makes you worried about your privacy, you can turn the feature off with a simple about:config tweak. A Quick Look at Location-Aware Browsing For those who are curious about this new feature, here is a quick look at what happens when you encounter a website that triggers the function in Firefox. You can also visit a website that has been set up as a Geolocation demo (link at the bottom of the article). Note: The Location-Aware Browsing feature uses Google Location Services to determine your location with the following: your computer’s IP address, information about nearby wireless access points, and a random client identifier (that is assigned by Google and expires every 2 weeks). When you encounter a website that asks for your location, you will see this bar pop up at the top of your browsing window. Here is a closer look at each side of the pop up bar. At this point you can choose to either share or not share your location. Turn Location-Aware Browsing off The first thing that you will need to do is type “about:config” (without the quote marks) into the address bar and hit “Enter”. This is the message that you will see once you have hit “Enter”. Click on “I’ll be careful, I promise!”. Once you have clicked through, your browser window is going to look like this and now you are ready to do some tweaking magic. Type or paste “geo.enabled” (without the quote marks) into the “Filter” address bar. Once you have the “geo.enabled” about:config entry displayed, right click on “true” and click “Toggle”. Now the Geolocation feature is disabled. Notice that the “Status” for this about:config entry is now set as “user set” and the entire value is in bold. Restart Firefox and you are all finished! Note: If you are curious and want to test it (and did not click “Share” if you tried it earlier), visiting the demo website linked to below will simply show the webpage itself with no request to share your location. If you clicked “Share”, use the following instructions to “clean” your browser. What if you have been using Location-Aware Browsing and want to revoke permissions and clear the “history”? 1. If you have already started using the Location-Aware Browsing feature and have shared your location with a website (or multiple websites), here is how to undo the permission granted to share. Go to the website that you have shared your location with. Once there, go to your “Tools Menu” and select “Page Info”. In the new window, select the “Permissions Tab” and deselect “Always Ask” in the “Share Location” section. Notice that where “Block” is selected it is no longer greyed out. 2. What about the “random client identification number”? Go to your “Tools Menu” and select “Clear Recent History”. Here is what the window looks like. Select the “Time range to clear” that you need or desire (for our example, “Everything” will be chosen). Choosing “Everything” will cause the following message to display. Click on the “Details Arrow” to expand the window. Once you have the window expanded, make certain that “Cookies” is selected and click on “Clear Now”. Now you are all finished and once again have a “Geolocation clean” browser! Try a Geolocation Demo Visit the Geolocation demo website pictured above
FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe faced about eight hours of questioning behind closed doors during the House Intelligence Committee yesterday. Unlike prior HPSCI closed hearings remarkably there were no leaks; which would generally indicate the content was adverse to the interests of Democrat party investigators within the hearing. From scant reporting it appears the questioning surrounded potential conflicts of interest and anti-Trump bias amid the entire cabal of FBI officials. Fox News James Rosen provides some overall information from congressional investigators. According to Rosen’s reporting Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, bringing a full contingent of FBI/DOJ lawyers, has apparently lost much of his memory surrounding how the Steele Dossier was financed, constructed and later utilized by the FBI Counterintelligence unit (Bill Priestap, Peter Strzok) in their quest for 2016 surveillance and wiretaps against candidate Donald Trump within their FISA applications. James Rosen – Congressional investigators tell Fox News that Tuesday’s seven-hour interrogation of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe contained numerous conflicts with the testimony of previous witnesses, prompting the Republican majority staff of the House Intelligence Committee to decide to issue fresh subpoenas next week on Justice Department and FBI personnel. While HPSCI staff would not confirm who will be summoned for testimony, all indications point to demoted DOJ official Bruce G. Ohr and FBI General Counsel James A. Baker, who accompanied McCabe, along with other lawyers, to Tuesday’s HPSCI session. The issuance of a subpoena against the Justice Department’s top lawyer could provoke a new constitutional clash between the two branches, even worse than the months-long tug of war over documents and witnesses that has already led House Speaker Paul Ryan to accuse DOJ and FBI of “stonewalling” and HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., to threaten contempt-of-Congress citations against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray. “It’s hard to know who’s telling us the truth,” said one House investigator after McCabe’s questioning. Fox News is told that several lawmakers participated in the questioning of McCabe, led chiefly by Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. […] The sources said that when asked when he learned that the dossier had been funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, McCabe claimed he could not recall – despite the reported existence of documents with McCabe’s own signature on them establishing his knowledge of the dossier’s financing and provenance. (read more) “The chairman of the Judiciary Committee is going to subpoena Lisa Page,” Jordan said, The Hill reported. “He’s going to subpoena Bruce Ohr and he’s going to subpoena Peter Strzok and we’re also going to get eventually to Andrew McCabe, as well. We need those people to come in, to be deposed and to put those people on the same stand that [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions and [Deputy Attorney General Rod] Rosenstein sat on in the past few weeks.” (Washington times Story Continues) [My hunch is if you put the Steele Dossier together with the ridiculous FBI/CIA Joint Analysis Report, you will find 90% of the underlying FISA application documentation.] The entire crew who stand behind the 2016 operation, Obama Administration officials and current career people within the DOJ/FBI, etc., who played a role in the larger scheme, needed ongoing people to continue ensuring the story was maintained. That need drove the narrative, that created the origin of Special Counsel investigation. In essence, Mueller’s investigation was really just another way the players within the original scheme would keep a lid on the 2016 events. The need to protect their interests is why many of the FBI/DOJ “small group”, the crew who cleared Hillary in the email investigation, were also assigned to the Mueller investigation. Controls were needed. The assignments didn’t come from Robert Mueller himself per se’, but were recommendations from insiders who were looking to position and protect the larger interests of career officials and the prior administration. Inside Mueller’s crew, the current “small group” essentially works to watch over what information the Trump officials or congress could possibly be discovering…. under the auspices of investigating ‘Muh Russia’ etc. If the “small group” comes across a risky trail being followed, they work to impede, block, delay or deflect anyone from that trail. That’s the way things look from a researched perspective. However, there’s one guy at the heart of this operation who can blow the lid off EVERYTHING. E.W. “Bill” Priestap – Asst. FBI Director in charge of Counterintelligence. His name is Bill Priestap. FBI Asst. Director in charge of Counterintelligence Bill Priestap was the immediate supervisor of FBI Counterintelligence Deputy Peter Strzok. When you understand how central Bill Priestap is to the entire 2016/2017 ‘Russian Conspiracy Operation‘, the absence of his name, amid all others, creates a curiosity. I wrote a twitter thread about him recently because it seems rather unfathomable his name has not been a part of any of the recent story-lines. His importance is outlined HERE. Priestap’s position in 2016 was Director of Counterintelligence for the FBI. It’s jaw-dropping that amid all of the discussions, reports of subpoenas, demands for questioning and congressional inquiry, no-one is talking about Bill Priestap. The absence of his name amid the myriad of conversations is like a deafening warning siren echoing in the background and no-one, repeat, NO-ONE, is asking about him. Ask yourself: how it is possible the one person, who all other people would have encircled, the key and central player in the entire enterprise, could be so conspicuously absent from inquiry? Start asking about him. . RESOURCES: IG Stimulated Releases of Information: ♦Release #1 was the FBI Agent Strzok and Attorney Lisa Page story; and the repercussions from discovering their politically motivated bias in the 2015/2016 Clinton email investigation and 2016/2017 Russian Election investigation. ♦Release #2 outlined the depth of FBI Agent Strzok and FBI Attorney Page’s specific history in the 2016 investigation into Hillary Clinton to include the changing of the wording [“grossly negligent” to “extremely careless”] of the probe outcome delivered by FBI Director James Comey. ♦Release #3 was the information about DOJ Deputy Bruce Ohr being in contact with Fusion GPS at the same time as the FISA application was submitted and granted by the FISA court; which authorized surveillance and wiretapping of candidate Donald Trump; that release also attached Bruce Ohr and Agent Strzok directly to the Steele Dossier. ♦Release #4 was information that Deputy Bruce Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr, was an actual contract employee of Fusion GPS, and was hired by F-GPS specifically to work on opposition research against candidate Donald Trump. Both Bruce Ohr and Nellie Ohr are attached to the origin of the Christopher Steele Russian Dossier. ♦Release #5 was the specific communication between FBI Agent Strzok and FBI Attorney Page. The 10,000 text messages that included evidence of them both meeting with Asst. FBI Director Andrew McCabe to discuss the “insurance policy” against candidate Donald Trump in August of 2016. DAVENYIII is entirely correct when he shares: “OIG Michael Horowitz set up the twitter account @OversightGov in May of 2017 and the OIG website in October 2017. He wants the public involved in IG findings so that the media and agencies can’t bury them.” Oversight Investigations Website HERE Oversight Investigative Reports HERE Inspector General Michael Horowitz knows how the Uniparty works within the administrative state to defend itself behind closed doors and in the cover of darkness. Follow the lead of IG Horowitz, demand sunlight. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Advertisements
By Tom McHale USA –-(Ammoland.com)- On the first day of Christmas, I hope my true love gives to me… A Smith and Wesson M and P… We’ve got a love / hate relationship with the .357 Sig cartridge. Love the power, feeding characteristics, reliability, .357 Magnum-like ballistics from a semi-auto, and sheer joy of shooting it. Hate the price of factory ammo, leaving precious .357 Sig brass on the ground at lost-brass matches, and some of the quirks of reloading. However, we’re thinking the Smith and Wesson M&P would make an outstanding platform for this round. There’s something about the shape of the Smith and Wesson M&P grip that is just, well, shootable. The more round profile makes it particularly comfortable and facilitates control under recoil We’ve shot the M&P in .40 S&W and found it outstanding. And fun. Smith and Wesson’s M&P in .357 Sig offers a polymer frame with 15+1 round capacity. Tritium sights would be on it – of course. And ours would not have the optional frame mounted safety. Personal preference there. Want that. About: Tom McHale describes himself as a conservative gun-totin’ bible-clingin’ literary assault dude who enjoys finding humor in just about anything. His web blog My Gun Culture is an irreverent, twisted look at gun news bordering on the ridiculous. It covers shootin’ stuff, loud noises, defending your own, the occasional mall ninja, and about 200 years of the American way. “These are the (partially) true stories of… My Gun Culture” says Tom. Visit: www.mygunculture.com
Story highlights Hillary Clinton's path to victory relied on reassembling the Obama coalition But she failed to bring minorities and young people in the same numbers (CNN) Hillary Clinton just couldn't hold onto the Obama coalition. And that proved to be a large part of her undoing. African-American, Latino and younger voters failed to show up at the polls in sufficient numbers Tuesday to propel Clinton into the White House. Clinton conceded the race after 2 a.m. ET. Before polls closed her campaign had been confident of victory. In the end, however, she lost even some states thought to be safely in her column, like Wisconsin. She trailed in others, like Pennsylvania and Michigan. While she won the key demographic groups her campaign targeted, she underperformed President Obama across the board, even among women, according to exit poll data. A slightly larger share of black and Latino voters cast ballots for Trump than supported Mitt Romney in 2012, despite Trump's disparaging remarks on African-Americans, Mexicans and undocumented immigrants. Read More
Gillingham came from behind to beat Southend United 3-1 for the second time in four days. Loan striker Jay Emmanuel-Thomas came off the bench and delivered a masterclass, scoring twice, to secure Gills a place in round two of the League Cup. It wasn’t all good news for the Gills, however, as they suffered more injury woes. Gillingham loan striker Jay Emmanuel-Thomas Picture: Barry Goodwin Gillingham were a goal behind at the break, through Stephen McLaughlin, but more of a concern was injuries to Max Ehmer and Bradley Dack. Ehmer was stretchered off after appearing to have been knocked out in a collision with Southend’s Luke O’Neill. Dack lasted less than half an hour when he hobbled off clutching his knee following an innocuous looking challenge in the middle of the park. But goals from Cody McDonald and two from substitute Emmanuel-Thomas turned the first round tie on its head. Gills boss Justin Edinburgh made four changes to his team, resting Emmanuel Osadebe, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, Deji Oshilaja and Mark Byrne from the side which beat Southend 3-1 at the weekend. Joe Quigley came in to partner Cody McDonald upfront, Billy Knott and Jake Hessenthaler played in midfield while newly signed West Ham loanee Josh Pask played alongside Ehmer in central defence. Within 30 minutes the starting XI was disrupted by injuries as Ehmer and Dack both went off injured. Shortly after Dack had limped off Southend took the lead. A knock-down from Jakub Sokolik was pounced upon by Stephen McLaughlin and Gills keeper Stuart Nelson was unable to get two hands on the ball to prevent the ball crossing the line. Prior to that neither keeper has been properly tested. Before the break the Gills came close with a header from McDonald, going just wide off a Josh Wright cross, while Jake Hessenthaler also shot wide. The early second half chances went Southend’s way. Simon Cox put an effort wide of the post and Ben Coker’s wicked cross from the left just needed a touch. McDonald levelled the scores with 56 minutes gone. Knott’s corner was cleared back to him and when the cross came back in, Southend failed to clear their lines allowing the Gills striker to smash the loose ball home. Emmanuel-Thomas caused problems when he came on. Paul Konchesky ran onto his ball through the defence but was just offside. Moments later the striker’s cross almost found Hessenthaler at the back post but Ben Coker made a vital interception. The Gills took the on 76 minutes when McDonald laid the ball off to Emmanuel-Thomas, he turned on the edge of the box and fired low past keeper Mark Oxley. Emmanuel-Thomas continued to enjoy himself, taking on Coker before shooting narrowly wide with six minutes left. He then made it 3-1, dancing past the keeper from a Nelson clearance before rifling the ball home with two minutes left. The draw for round two takes place on Wednesday night on Sky Sports 1. Gillingham: Nelson, Jackson, Konchesky, Ehmer (Oshilaja 17mins), Pask, Knott, Hessenthaler, Wright, Dack (Osadebe 30mins), Quigley (Emmanuel-Thomas 63mins), McDonald. Subs not used: Hadler, Oldaker, Byrne, Donnelly. Southend: Oxley, Demetriou, White, Sokolik, Coker, O'Neill, Leonard, King (Williams 87mins), McLaughlin (McGlashan 79mins), Mooney (Bridge 79mins), Cox. Subs not used: Smith, Thompson, Barrett, Atkinson. Attendance: 3,175 (359 away)
Around the World in Eighty Days (French: Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours) is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, published in 1873. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager (£2,075,400 in 2017)[3] set by his friends at the Reform Club. It is one of Verne's most acclaimed works.[4] Plot [ edit ] The story starts in London on Wednesday, 2 October 1872. Phileas Fogg is a rich British gentleman living in solitude. Despite his wealth, Fogg lives a modest life with habits carried out with mathematical precision. Very little can be said about his social life other than that he is a member of the Reform Club. Having dismissed his former valet, James Forster, for bringing him shaving water at 84 °F (29 °C) instead of 86 °F (30 °C), Fogg hires Frenchman Jean Passepartout as a replacement. At the Reform Club, Fogg gets involved in an argument over an article in The Daily Telegraph stating that with the opening of a new railway section in India, it is now possible to travel around the world in 80 days. He accepts a wager for £20,000 (£2,075,400 in 2017),[3] half of his total fortune, from his fellow club members to complete such a journey within this time period. With Passepartout accompanying him, Fogg departs from London by train at 8:45 p.m. on 2 October; in order to win the wager, he must return to the club by this same time on 21 December, 80 days later. They take the remaining £20,000 of Fogg's fortune with them to cover expenses during the journey. Fogg and Passepartout reach Suez in time. While disembarking in Egypt, they are watched by a Scotland Yard detective, Detective Fix, who has been dispatched from London in search of a bank robber. Since Fogg fits the vague description Scotland Yard was given of the robber, Detective Fix mistakes Fogg for the criminal. Since he cannot secure a warrant in time, Fix boards the steamer (the Mongolia) conveying the travelers to Bombay. Fix becomes acquainted with Passepartout without revealing his purpose. Fogg promises the steamer engineer a large reward if he gets them to Bombay early. They dock two days ahead of schedule. After reaching India, they take a train from Bombay to Calcutta. Fogg learns that the Daily Telegraph article was wrong; a 50-mile stretch of track from Kholby to Allahabad has not yet been built. Fogg purchases an elephant, hires a guide, and starts toward Allahabad. They come across a procession in which a young Indian woman, Aouda, is to undergo sati. Since she is drugged with opium and hemp and is obviously not going voluntarily, the travelers decide to rescue her. They follow the procession to the site, where Passepartout takes the place of Aouda's deceased husband on the funeral pyre. During the ceremony he rises from the pyre, scaring off the priests, and carries Aouda away. The twelve hours gained earlier are lost, but Fogg shows no regret. The travelers hasten to catch the train at the next railway station, taking Aouda with them. At Calcutta, they board a steamer (the Rangoon) going to Hong Kong. Fix has Fogg and Passepartout arrested. They jump bail and Fix follows them to Hong Kong. He shows himself to Passepartout, who is delighted to again meet his travelling companion from the earlier voyage. In Hong Kong, it turns out that Aouda's distant relative, in whose care they had been planning to leave her, has moved to Holland, so they decide to take her with them to Europe. Still without a warrant, Fix sees Hong Kong as his last chance to arrest Fogg on British soil. Passepartout becomes convinced that Fix is a spy from the Reform Club. Fix confides in Passepartout, who does not believe a word and remains convinced that his master is not a bank robber. To prevent Passepartout from informing his master about the premature departure of their next vessel, the Carnatic, Fix gets Passepartout drunk and drugs him in an opium den. Passepartout still manages to catch the steamer to Yokohama, but neglects to inform Fogg that the steamer is leaving the evening before its scheduled departure date. Fogg discovers that he missed his connection. He searches for a vessel that will take him to Yokohama, finding a pilot boat, the Tankadere, that takes him and Aouda to Shanghai, where they catch a steamer to Yokohama. In Yokohama, they search for Passepartout, believing that he may have arrived there on the Carnatic as originally planned. They find him in a circus, trying to earn the fare for his homeward journey. Reunited, the four board a paddle-steamer, the General Grant, taking them across the Pacific to San Francisco. Fix promises Passepartout that now, having left British soil, he will no longer try to delay Fogg's journey, but instead support him in getting back to Britain so he can arrest Fogg in Britain itself. In San Francisco they board a transcontinental train to New York, encountering a number of obstacles along the way: a massive herd of bison crossing the tracks, a failing suspension bridge, and the train being attacked by Sioux warriors. After uncoupling the locomotive from the carriages, Passepartout is kidnapped by the Indians, but Fogg rescues him after American soldiers volunteer to help. They continue by a wind powered sledge to Omaha, where they get a train to New York. In New York, having missed the ship China, Fogg looks for alternative transport. He finds a steamboat, the Henrietta, destined for Bordeaux, France. The captain of the boat refuses to take the company to Liverpool, whereupon Fogg consents to be taken to Bordeaux for $2,000 ($207,540 in 2017) per passenger. He then bribes the crew to mutiny and make course for Liverpool. Against hurricane winds and going on full steam, the boat runs out of fuel after a few days. Fogg buys the boat from the captain and has the crew burn all the wooden parts to keep up the steam. The companions arrive at Queenstown (Cobh), Ireland, take the train to Dublin and then a ferry to Liverpool, still in time to reach London before the deadline. Once on English soil, Fix produces a warrant and arrests Fogg. A short time later, the misunderstanding is cleared up – the actual robber, an individual named James Strand, had been caught three days earlier in Edinburgh. However, Fogg has missed the train and arrives in London five minutes late, certain he has lost the wager. The following day Fogg apologises to Aouda for bringing her with him, since he now has to live in poverty and cannot support her. Aouda confesses that she loves him and asks him to marry her. As Passepartout notifies a minister, he learns that he is mistaken in the date – it is not 22 December, but instead 21 December. Because the party had travelled eastward, their days were shortened by four minutes for each of the 360 degrees of longitude they crossed; thus, although they had experienced the same amount of time abroad as people had experienced in London, they had seen 80 sunrises and sunsets while London had seen only 79. Passepartout informs Fogg of his mistake, and Fogg hurries to the Reform Club just in time to meet his deadline and win the wager. Having spent almost £19,000 of his travel money during the journey, he divides the remainder between Passepartout and Fix and marries Aouda. Background and analysis [ edit ] Around the World in Eighty Days was written during difficult times, both for France and for Verne. It was during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) in which Verne was conscripted as a coastguard; he was having financial difficulties (his previous works were not paid royalties); his father had died recently; and he had witnessed a public execution, which had disturbed him.[5] Despite all this, Verne was excited about his work on the new book, the idea of which came to him one afternoon in a Paris café while reading a newspaper. The technological innovations of the 19th century had opened the possibility of rapid circumnavigation and the prospect fascinated Verne and his readership.[5] In particular, three technological breakthroughs occurred in 1869–70 that made a tourist-like around-the-world journey possible for the first time: the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in America (1869), the linking of the Indian railways across the sub-continent (1870), and the opening of the Suez Canal (1869).[5] It was another notable mark in the end of an age of exploration and the start of an age of fully global tourism that could be enjoyed in relative comfort and safety. It sparked the imagination that anyone could sit down, draw up a schedule, buy tickets and travel around the world, a feat previously reserved for only the most heroic and hardy of adventurers.[5] Verne is often characterized as a futurist or science-fiction author, but there is not a glimmer of science fiction in this, which is his most popular work (at least in English).[5] Rather than any futurism, it remains a memorable portrait of the British Empire "on which the sun never sets" shortly before its peak, drawn by an outsider.[5] Until 2006, no critical editions were written due to both the poor translations available and the stereotypical connection between science fiction and "worthless" boys' literature. However, Verne's works began receiving more serious reviews in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, with new translations appearing. The book is a source of common notable English and extended British attitudes in quotes such as "Phileas Fogg and Sir Francis Cromarty ... endured the discomfort with true British phlegm, talking little, and scarcely able to catch a glimpse of each other," as well as in Chapter 12 when the group is being jostled around on the elephant ride across the jungle. In Chapter 25, when Fogg is insulted in San Francisco, Fix acknowledges that clearly "Mr. Fogg was one of those Englishmen who, while they do not tolerate dueling at home, fight abroad when their honor is attacked." Post-Colonial readings of the novel elucidate Verne's role as propagandist for European global dominance, as a Victors' historian. "Perhaps the leading excuse for the European colonization of India was found in the Hindu practice of the suttee".[6] Verne's novel, one of the most widely read of the 19th century, played a major role in shaping European attitudes of the colonized lands. The closing date of the novel, 21 December 1872, was the same date as the serial publication.[5] As it was being published serially for the first time, some readers believed that the journey was actually taking place – bets were placed, and some railway companies and ship liner companies lobbied Verne to appear in the book.[5] It is unknown if Verne submitted to their requests, but the descriptions of some rail and shipping lines leave some suspicion he was influenced.[5] Although a journey by balloon has become one of the images most strongly associated with the story, this iconic symbol was never deployed by Verne – the idea is, briefly, brought up in Chapter 32, but dismissed, as it "would have been highly risky and, in any case, impossible." However, the popular 1956 movie adaptation Around the World in Eighty Days used the balloon idea, and it has now become a part of the mythology of the story, even appearing on book covers. This plot element is reminiscent of Verne's earlier Five Weeks in a Balloon, which first made him a well-known author. Concerning the final coup de théâtre, Fogg had thought it was one day later than it actually was, because he had forgotten this simple fact: during his journey, he had added a full day to his clock, at the rhythm of an hour per fifteen degrees, or four minutes per degree, as Verne writes. In fact, at the time and until 1884, the concept of a de jure International Date Line did not exist. If it did, he would have been made aware of the change in date once he reached this line. Thus, the day he added to his clock throughout his journey would be removed upon crossing this imaginary line. However, in the real world, Fogg's mistake would not have occurred because a de facto date line did exist. The UK, India and the US had the same calendar with different local times. He would have noticed, when he arrived in San Francisco, that the local date was actually one day earlier than shown in his travel diary. As a consequence he could not fail to notice that the departure dates of the transcontinental train in San Francisco and of the China steamer in New York were actually one day earlier than his personal travel diary. Real-life imitations [ edit ] Following publication in 1873, various people attempted to follow Fogg's fictional circumnavigation, often within self-imposed constraints: Origins [ edit ] The idea of a trip around the world within a set period had clear external origins and was popular before Verne published his book in 1873. Even the title Around the World in Eighty Days is not original. Several sources[5] have been hypothesized as the origins of the story. The most obvious took place between 1869 and 1871, when American William Perry Fogg traveled the world, describing his tour in a series of letters to The Cleveland Leader newspaper, entitled, Round the World: Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (1872). But long before Fogg, Greek traveller Pausanias (c. 100 AD) wrote a work that was translated into French in 1797 as Voyage autour du monde ("Around the World"). Verne's friend Jacques Arago had written a very popular Voyage autour du monde in 1853. In 1869–70 the idea of travelling around the world reached critical popular attention when three geographical breakthroughs occurred: the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in America (1869), the linking of the Indian railways across the sub-continent (1870), and the opening of the Suez Canal (1869). In 1871 appeared Around the World by Steam, via Pacific Railway, published by the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and an Around the World in A Hundred and Twenty Days by Edmond Planchut. In early 1870, the Erie Railway Company published a statement of routes, times, and distances detailing a trip around the globe of 23,739 miles in seventy-seven days and twenty-one hours.[9] Another early reference comes from the Italian traveler Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri. He wrote a book in 1699 that was translated into French: Voyage around the World or Voyage du Tour du Monde (1719, Paris).[10] The novel documents his trip as one of the first Europeans to circle the world for pleasure rather than profit, using publicly available transportation. Gemelli Careri provides rich accounts of seventeenth-century civilization outside of Europe. These include Persia during the Ottoman Empire, Hindustan during the reign of Aurungzebe, the Chinese Lantern Festival and the Great Wall, and the native people of Meso-America. References to his books can be found in other historical publications like the Calcutta Review. In 1872, Thomas Cook organised the first around-the-world tourist trip, leaving on 20 September 1872 and returning seven months later. The journey was described in a series of letters that were published in 1873 as Letter from the Sea and from Foreign Lands, Descriptive of a tour Round the World. Scholars have pointed out similarities between Verne's account and Cook's letters, although some argue that Cook's trip happened too late to influence Verne.[5] Verne, according to a second-hand 1898 account, refers to a Cook advertisement as a source for the idea of his book.[5] In interviews in 1894 and 1904, Verne says the source was "through reading one day in a Paris cafe" and "due merely to a tourist advertisement seen by chance in the columns of a newspaper."[5] Around the World itself says the origins were a newspaper article. All of these point to Cook's advert as being a probable spark for the idea of the book.[5] The periodical Le Tour du monde (3 October 1869) contained a short piece titled "Around the World in Eighty Days", which refers to "140 miles" of railway not yet completed between Allahabad and Bombay, a central point in Verne's work.[5] But even the Le Tour de monde article was not entirely original; it cites in its bibliography the Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, de la Géographie, de l'Histoire et de l'Archéologie (August, 1869), which also contains the title Around the World in Eighty Days in its contents page.[5] The Nouvelles Annales were written by Conrad Malte-Brun (1775–1826) and his son Victor Adolphe Malte-Brun (1816–1889).[5] Scholars[who?] believe that Verne was aware of the Le Tour de monde article, the Nouvelles Annales, or both, and that he consulted it and/or them, noting that the Le Tour du monde even included a trip schedule very similar to Verne's final version.[5] A possible inspiration was the traveller George Francis Train, who made four trips around the world, including one in 80 days in 1870. Similarities include the hiring of a private train and being imprisoned. Train later claimed, "Verne stole my thunder. I'm Phileas Fogg."[5] dénouement (page 312 in the Philadelphia – Porter & Coates, 1873 edition)[11] The book page containing the famous(page 312 in the Philadelphia – Porter & Coates, 1873 edition) Regarding the idea of gaining a day, Verne said of its origin: "I have a great number of scientific odds and ends in my head. It was thus that, when, one day in a Paris café, I read in the Siècle that a man could travel around the world in 80 days, it immediately struck me that I could profit by a difference of meridian and make my traveller gain or lose a day in his journey. There was a dénouement ready found. The story was not written until long after. I carry ideas about in my head for years – ten, or 15 years, sometimes – before giving them form."[5] In his April 1873 lecture, "The Meridians and the Calendar", Verne responded to a question about where the change of day actually occurred, since the international date line had only become current in 1880 and the Greenwich prime meridian was not adopted internationally until 1884.[5] Verne cited an 1872 article in Nature, and Edgar Allan Poe's short story "Three Sundays in a Week" (1841), which was also based on going around the world and the difference in a day linked to a marriage at the end.[5] Verne even analysed Poe's story in his Edgar Poe and His Works (1864). Poe's story "Three Sundays in a Week" was clearly the inspiration for the lost day plot device.[5] Adaptations and influences [ edit ] The book has been adapted or reimagined many times in different forms. Literature [ edit ] The science fiction novel The Other Log of Phileas Fogg by Philip José Farmer gives an alternative interpretation of the story. by Philip José Farmer gives an alternative interpretation of the story. The novel Around the world in 100 days by Gary Blackwood serves as a sequel to the events in 80 days. The book follows Phileas's son as he tries to travel around the world by car instead of train, hence the longer time limit.[12] Theatre [ edit ] Radio [ edit ] Film [ edit ] Television [ edit ] Games [ edit ] Internet [ edit ] Flightfox created a trip, "Around the World in 80 Hours", to see if flight experts could find flights following the same path as described in the book (for cheap).[20] The online travel company then wrote a fictional eBook based on the results of the contest.[21] Other [ edit ] References [ edit ] Sources [ edit ]
Updated with a Shrine Extra dmg Piety video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVVJTk6LMYk&feature=youtu.be Updated with a Palace Dominus(extra life) video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VCzXAKd08s&feature=youtu.be Introduction This build is built around the Uber Axe, Atziri's Disfavour, and the newly buffed support gem Curse on Hit. This build is not damage oriented, but it has sufficient dps and survivability to handle most of the end game content. More importantly, this build provides a substantial boost to other players' safety in the party since mobs would essentially get pinned at where they are.The character is currently level 89 on rampage. I have been trying to get a six link on my axe (800 fusing so far back to a 5l), as soon as I get it I will re-roll a templar to do an more extreme version of the build, triple 52%q curse on hit. (Whisper of Doom and +1 from amulet or boots.) The Core idea Instead of making a regular cyclone character using Disfavour, I decided to go further and do something fun. The +2 lvl to support gem mod allows us to have a lvl 5 enhance gem linked in the set up, giving 32% extra quality to the linked active skill. Notice that this extra 32% is also given to the supported curse. So now we have a 52%q cyclone and a 52%q curse. Screen shots of quality on Cyclone and Temp Chain Cyclone Base weapon range of two handed axe is 7, with 2 from Master of the Arena and the Axe we have a base weapon range of 11. With the extra 52% increase AoE from the cyclone, we don't really need to scale the area of effect in order to hit an entire pack. Temporal Chains This is one of the curses which have the most powerful boost on extra quality. Each quality on temporal chain gives 0.5% slower movement on the enemy, so 52% will give us 26%. A lvl 20 non-quality temp chain gives us 29% slower. 26%+29%=55%. With the 21% increase curse effect on a max lvl quality curse on hit (22/20 on disfavour), the slow is effect will become 67%. With a enhance 4 it will reach 70%. Temp Chains has great synergy with the build because it also make the mobs bleed and burn(from herald of ash) twice as long. And of course all the dot or element ailments your party members bring. (Thanks to TheEnforcer's idea in the reply section, this build now uses lv 1 arctic armor supported by increase duration for longer chilling path it leaves behind. I swapped out Herald of Ash and now run a lv 8 clarity. Respec one of my frenzy charge and grabbed Mana Flows on the Duelist tree. A new video is posted showing just how slow a mob can be.) Note that both my temp chain and curse on hit is lvl 18 atm, and curse on hit has no quality yet. It will gradually become 56% and 21% increase effect on curse. Duelist Tree Duelist tree http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgQAAdwFtQthD6sS4RRSFHUWvxm0I_YmlScvLOkwcTB8Mfs1kjY9OQ46QjqzQXRHfkp9SshLeE2SUUdVS1W1VvpXDVltWhpfP1-YYSFh4mKsZU1noGqTbIxtbG5pbqp2K3fXeA15aH11fyt_44TZh2qHdow2jX2Nv5Bskc6ZK5tYnaqezaXLpzSpbqlzqZS1SLXytkG8n72Bvoq-p8APwJzBBMS4ytPPMtIh0k3TftQj1e3V-NaK2L3ZYd0N3aji6uOE45_kUed06NbuDu8O73r3TfzF_ro= I went to the shadow tree for the mana leech passive since cyclone is a pretty mana hungry skill. Also pick up all the frenzy charges while lvling for extra clear speed. Didn't went for RT since my jewelry provides me a good amount of accuracy. But RT is better if i dont have the multiplier on Abyssus. I went to the shadow tree for the mana leech passive since cyclone is a pretty mana hungry skill. Also pick up all the frenzy charges while lvling for extra clear speed.Didn't went for RT since my jewelry provides me a good amount of accuracy. But RT is better if i dont have the multiplier on Abyssus. Templar Tree with RT, IR and Whisper of Doom Spoiler http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUAAdwFLQthD1QS4RNMFCAUTRhqGJEZLho4G_odFCXfJy8n7SmlLdIwTzWSNuk5DjrYPAVAoEF0RHJKyE3YTipQR1W1Vw1YB1ltWfNen18_X5hhIWaeapNsFm5pbqpyqXYreA14L3lofEt8u3zZfOWDOITEhNmHGYdqih-KdIx2j0aQVZHOm6GezZ_fogCi6qQZpzCnhKloqW6pc6yqrlC18rZBvoq-p8APwBrBBMGjxPbFis8y0iHSTdXt2L3ZYeLq42rjn-w47w7vTu988B_3TfrS_Es= Bandits: All help oak. Current Gear Rares are all self found. Just some lvling gear. Rares are all self found. Just some lvling gear. Gear and Gem Setup Weapon (Disfavour) 5L: Cyclone + Melee Phys + Enhance + Curse on Hit + Temp Chains Chest Armor (Daresso's Defiance) 4L: Vaal Haste/Vaal Grace + Lv 1 Arctic Armor + Immortal Call + Increase Duration. Quality on Immortal Call and increase duartion is important. With a 5 link plug an enhance in there for longer immortal call. Two vaal skills comes in very handy when dealing with bosses or exiles. With 5 max endurance charge (planing to change bandit reward for one more) at the moment, my IC last around 10.5 seconds. Vaal Haste and Vaal Grace lasts 12.66 seconds. I use Daresso's because it has great synergy with the build. Since we are Evasion/Acrobatics based and always moving among slowed mobs. 70% of the time we will not be hit. With the frequent generation of endurance charges it is easy to keep a perma up IC using an appropriate play style. Chest piece can be totally switch off with a Carcass jack or a rare evasion armor. Use increase duration arctic armor for the chill path. My chill path has a duartion of 2.33 seconds, works out pretty awesome slowing monsters. Helm: (Abyssus) 4L: Hatred + Herald of Ash + Reduced Mana + Clarity Abyssus is totally optional. I use Abyssus for the extra clear speed and my personal liking for the item. Since we are mostly under immortal call, the extra phys damage taken does not affect my survivability much. Run a lv 8-10 clarity to sustain the arctic armor and turn off herald of ash for a larger unreserved mana pool. Gloves: 4L: Leap Slam + Concentrated Effect + Faster Attack + Melee Phys I use leap slam not only for movement but also for damage. After scaling it with two multiplicative damage booster, leap slams provides a huge single hit. Since the bleed mechanics scales on the initial hit, similar to crit puncture, this will make the target bleed a massive amount. I once happened to land a crit leap slam on Shock and Horror (Torture Chamber Boss), it bleed till death with that single hit. Boots: 4L: Heavy Strike + Faster Attack + Melee Phys + Multistrike Single target. Notice that knocking back the target will amplify the bleed damage. Blood Rage and Enduring Cry on spare gem slots. Use Blood Rage when soloing for better clear speed. The decent amount of leech provided by blood rage will overcome the degen. Look for life, resist, phys dmg on jewelries. ScreenShots Cyclone Heavy Strike Leap Slam CycloneHeavy StrikeLeap Slam Videos: 71 Strand map run through: 77 rare Shipyard 2 exiles: 73 dark forest with Arctic Armor/Slow Motion in POE : 77 Extra dmg Shrine Piety: The character is still in progression. Next goal is to get 6l on my axe and put in vulnerability(or any other curse such as enfeeble, since most curse is blue). With this setup i can get vulnerability up to 88% increase phys damage taken on mobs. Along with the DoT damage increase, it will substantially magnify the bleed damage. Feel free to post your suggestions or question and I will be happy to answer them. This build is built around the Uber Axe, Atziri's Disfavour, and the newly buffed support gem Curse on Hit.This build is not damage oriented, but it has sufficient dps and survivability to handle most of the end game content. More importantly, this build provides a substantial boost to other players' safety in the party since mobs would essentially get pinned at where they are.The character is currently level 89 on rampage.I have been trying to get a six link on my axe (800 fusing so far back to a 5l), as soon as I get it I will re-roll a templar to do an more extreme version of the build, triple 52%q curse on hit. (Whisper of Doom and +1 from amulet or boots.)Instead of making a regular cyclone character using Disfavour, I decided to go further and do something fun. The +2 lvl to support gem mod allows us to have a lvl 5 enhance gem linked in the set up, giving 32% extra quality to the linked active skill.So now we have aCycloneBase weapon range of two handed axe is 7, with 2 from Master of the Arena and the Axe we have a base weapon range of 11. With the extra 52% increase AoE from the cyclone, we don't really need to scale the area of effect in order to hit an entire pack.Temporal ChainsThis is one of the curses which have the most powerful boost on extra quality. Each quality on temporal chain gives 0.5% slower movement on the enemy, so 52% will give us 26%. A lvl 20 non-quality temp chain gives us 29% slower. 26%+29%=55%. With the 21% increase curse effect on a max lvl quality curse on hit (22/20 on disfavour), the slow is effect will become 67%. With a enhance 4 it will reach 70%.Temp Chains has great synergy with the build because it also make the mobs bleed and burn(from herald of ash) twice as long. And of course all the dot or element ailments your party members bring.(Thanks to TheEnforcer's idea in the reply section, this build now uses lv 1 arctic armor supported by increase duration for longer chilling path it leaves behind. I swapped out Herald of Ash and now run a lv 8 clarity. Respec one of my frenzy charge and grabbed Mana Flows on the Duelist tree. A new video is posted showing just how slow a mob can be.)Note that both my temp chain and curse on hit is lvl 18 atm, and curse on hit has no quality yet. It will gradually become 56% and 21% increase effect on curse.Duelist TreeTemplar Tree with RT, IR and Whisper of DoomBandits: All help oak.71 Strand map run through: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG9jMDJn0Lg 77 rare Shipyard 2 exiles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMnALadK0qc 73 dark forest with Arctic Armor/Slow Motion in POE : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvjgamZfbO4&feature=youtu.be (updated)77 Extra dmg Shrine Piety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVVJTk6LMYk&feature=youtu.be The character is still in progression. Next goal is to get 6l on my axe and put in vulnerability(or any other curse such as enfeeble, since most curse is blue). With this setup i can get vulnerability up to 88% increase phys damage taken on mobs. Along with the DoT damage increase, it will substantially magnify the bleed damage.Feel free to post your suggestions or question and I will be happy to answer them. 2.0 ain't no melee patch. Last edited by exodus820 on Dec 1, 2014, 7:05:53 PM
With El Capitan and Bridal Veil Falls in the background, Karl Bastian, of Parker Colorado, walks on a log on the Merced River on Thursday, May 25, 2017, at Yosemite National Park, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group) To buy this photo or others go to bangphotos.smugmug.com Water flows down the Merced River near Happy Isles on Thursday, May 25, 2017, at Yosemite National Park, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group) Sound The gallery will resume in seconds A sign warns of the dangers of Yosemite Creek before in plunges over a cliff, creating Yosemite Falls, on Friday, May 26, 2017, at Yosemite National Park, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group) Tethered by a rope, Nicky Bunn jumps into the Merced river to grab Dede Gordon during a swift water rescue drill performed by Yosemite Search and Rescue on Thursday, May 25, 2017, at Yosemite National Park, Calif. (Elliott Almond/Bay Area News Group) Tethered by a rope, Nicky Bunn holds onto Dede Gordon during a swift water rescue drill performed by Yosemite Search and Rescue in the Merced River on Thursday, May 25, 2017, at Yosemite National Park, Calif. (Elliott Almond/Bay Area News Group) Yosemite Creek flows under a hiking bridge before in plunges over a cliff, creating Yosemite Falls, on Friday, May 26, 2017, at Yosemite National Park, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group) Hikers walk past a sign warning of the dangers of Yosemite Creek before in plunges over a cliff, creating Yosemite Falls, on Friday, May 26, 2017, at Yosemite National Park, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group) A rainbow is created from the mist of Yosemite Falls as seen from above the falls on Friday, May 26, 2017, at Yosemite National Park, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group) With Upper Yosemite Falls in the background, a hiker traverses down Yosemite Falls trail on Friday, May 26, 2017, at Yosemite National Park, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group) Tethered by a rope, Nicky Bunn jumps into the Merced river to grab a swimmer during a swift water rescue drill performed by Yosemite Search and Rescue on Thursday, May 25, 2017, at Yosemite National Park, Calif. (Elliott Almond/Bay Area News Group) Tethered by a rope, Nicky Bunn grabs a swimmer during a swift water rescue drill performed by Yosemite Search and Rescue in the Merced River on Thursday, May 25, 2017, at Yosemite National Park, Calif. (Elliott Almond/Bay Area News Group) Upper Yosemite Falls is seen from across the valley floor on Thursday, May 25, 2017, at Yosemite National Park, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group) Upper Yosemite Falls is reflected in marsh water in Yosemite Valley on Thursday, May 25, 2017, at Yosemite National Park, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group) (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group) The Merced River flows through Yosemite Valley with Half Dome in the background on Thursday, May 25, 2017, at Yosemite National Park, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group) Karl Bastian, of Parker Colorado, looks up at El Capitan from a log on the Merced River on Thursday, May 25, 2017, at Yosemite National Park, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group) A raven flies over the Merced River with El Capitan and Bridal Veil Falls in the background on Thursday, May 25, 2017, at Yosemite National Park, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group) YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK — The Merced has no mercy. Not now, when a frothy, white torrent of water charges out of Yosemite’s glacially sculpted rock walls like rampaging elephants. Not after record snowpack undergoes a late-spring melt off that has turned favorite summer swimming holes into potential death traps, leading Yosemite National Park rangers to launch a campaign to keep people away from the water’s edge. “It’s essentially a freight train barreling down the riverbed,” said Moose Mutlow, swift-water coordinator for Yosemite Search and Rescue. “If you step in front of it it is going to take you with it.” The season’s first major incident unfolded Monday when a man described in his 20s fell into the boulder-strewn Merced River while hiking on the steep and slick Mist Trail. Rangers were searching for the body. Officials have reported 16 drownings in the park since 2007, including four last year when rivers and streams were running at a fraction of the current rate. Mutlow, of Yosemite West, expects emergency crews to experience a busy summer as temperatures rise and the Merced looks inviting to uninitiated guests. Yosemite crews face safety issues shared throughout the West when rivers swell after wet winters. The deadly conditions of a “big-water season” already are taking a toll as summer vacation season gets under way. Three people died and 24 were rescued in multiple incidents over Memorial Day weekend along the Kern River, one of the state’s deadliest stretches of water. Ten people have died in Kern and Tulare County rivers this year, according to news reports. Three others drowned on Memorial Day on the Provo River in Utah when a 4-year-old girl fell from a rock and her mother and a bystander jumped in to try to save her. As Yosemite’s annual visits swelled past 5 million people, so have the number of search and rescue operations. Crews responded 329 times last year for an 82 percent increase since 2014. Rangers keep a running account of Yosemite’s missing persons, providing an unequivocal reminder of the hazards of this harsh landscape that can seem so benign. Officials try to minimize the risk by closing the Merced to recreational activities when the river rises above the seven-foot mark at the Pohono Bridge. A park spokeswoman couldn’t predict when the river would open this summer. But once the runoff slows and the river depth decreases tourists won’t hesitate to swim, raft, canoe and kayak the river that cuts through the heart of Yosemite Valley. “It’s guaranteed things will go wrong even if the river is — quote — closed,” said Michael Ghiglieri, co-author of “Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite.” Ghiglieri, a veteran wilderness river guide with a doctorate degree in wildlife ecology from UC Davis, said many people “do not understand what water does because they are used to swimming pools and small lakes.” An entry in a Yosemite Search and Rescue blog from last year emphasizes the point: “A 60-year-old male unties his inflatable raft from a group of other rafts. Although he recently inflated his raft, it is now roughly half deflated which affects its buoyancy and maneuverability. He misses the take-out point, ditches his raft, and tries to swim to shore. He is not wearing a PFD (life jacket). He is able to grab a buoy and a companion is briefly able to assist him. When he tries to stand, the combination of poor footing and strong current carries him downstream and he disappears. An active search is underway as of this writing.” The deadly mix of cold and fast water It’s easy to imagine a life-altering episode while standing on a footbridge at Happy Isles in the eastern end of Yosemite Valley as a misty film of water swirls in the hard afternoon light. The roiling Merced looks and sounds intimidating as it splashes its way to the San Joaquin River. The problem, it seems: Visitors don’t always listen to their inner voice of caution. Ghiglieri, who also co-authored “Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon,” said it’s practically a cliche that people jump in without thinking. This is particularly true as the Valley heats up and the Merced meanders past crowded campgrounds where the rocky banks provide beach-like settings. Guests want to cool off after hikes, bike rides and other physical activity. Yet, the river’s average temperature in early summer is dangerously cold — from 42 degrees to 50 degrees. A park spokeswoman said the river currently is running at 3,600 cubic feet per second, or three school buses of freezing water bombing downriver by the second. The mixture can be fatal for even strong swimmers because it is difficult to make practical decisions in freezing water. “If you fall in, the first thing you should say to yourself is, ‘I am going to survive,’” says Mutlow, a long-time staff member at environmental education institute NatureBridge. Then, he said, get the head above water. The safest position is to lie on the back with feet pointing downstream. The feet and butt can act as little bumpers to push away from rocks and boulders lying across the riverbed. Mutlow, 52, said people must locate an exit point and then aggressively swim to the bank. It’s important to get out quickly because cold water accelerates the rate of hypothermia. Ghiglieri and his co-authors wrote the Grand Canyon and Yosemite books with hopes of preventing more tragedies. After reviewing fatality incident reports, they concluded almost all were avoidable. “They weren’t acts of God,” Ghiglieri said. “They were acts of human erroneous thinking, negligent behavior or arrogance.” The Grand Canyon river guide isn’t sure national parks can do more than post warning signs at natural entry points on hazardous waterways. “You can’t patrol the whole river,” he said a day after being medevacked out the Grand Canyon with a knee injury. An act of retrieval From its headwaters, 81 miles of the Merced flow within Yosemite park boundaries, making rescues almost miraculous due to the amount of territory to cover. As a result, crews expend most of their energy on the morbid act of body recovery, whether racing up the muscle-aching granite steps of the famous Mist Trail or combing the Merced’s depths for missing persons. Breathtaking granite monoliths rise out of the Valley to create a risky haven for rock climbers who continually push boundaries of sanity. But drownings — and not grisly free falls from sheer, jagged rocks — comprise most of the park’s 12 to 15 annual fatalities. Mutlow once responded to an emergency at the bottom of Bridalveil Falls on the western side of Yosemite Valley. “I went up there and watched a young man die,” he said. “All people are trying to do is have a good time. It shouldn’t be about dying.” Mutlow gets chills when recounting such incidences. The British wilderness expert has served as a family liaison in an effort to help loved ones come to terms with an unfathomable ordeal. “The water has robbed that person of all dignity,” he said of stripping away a victim’s clothes. “It’s naked exposure to the world. When you have a bank recovery and you are gently manhandling them into the bag and zipping it up — that’s different than having to pluck them from the grip of the river.” In the age of knee-jerk opinion, Mutlow reminds people that every victim is somebody who has left behind grieving families. “The noise a mother makes when they know they’ve lost a child, it is beyond haunting,” he said. It’s a cry Mutlow has heard too many times along this stretch of raging water.
By Samuel Burke & Lucky Gold, CNN In the movie "The Terminal," actor Tom Hanks plays a man who suddenly finds himself stateless when his country ceases to exist. New York’s JFK Airport becomes his only home. That movie was loosely based on a true story, but for Mikhail Sebastian being stateless is a dilemma that is all too real. Sebastian is stateless. He is an ethnic Armenian born in Azerbaijan in what was the Soviet Union. He was forced to flee when the Soviet bloc began to crumble in the 1990s. He tried to take refuge in Armenia but eventually wound up in the newly independent nation of Turkmenistan. But Sebastian is gay and homosexuality is illegal there. So once again, he had to search for a home. He came to the United States and was allowed to stay as a “stateless person.” There was only one catch: Since he still held the passport from the Soviet Union, a place that no longer existed, he could not travel outside the United States – a tough reality for a man who loves to travel. So Sebastian set out from his home in Los Angeles to too many parts of the United States, including the American territories of Guam and Puerto Rico. Last December, he was allowed to fly to American Samoa – a U.S. territory in the South Pacific – for a brief vacation. But while Sebastian was there, he took a short side trip to Western Samoa, not realizing that it is a separate and independent nation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deemed that self-deportation and so for the past year, Sebastian's been trapped in limbo, unable to leave American Samoa and return to the United States. Sebastian says his only wish this Christmas is to get back home to Los Angeles.
A historic moment has arrived for football in Bosnia and Herzegovina with this weekend's kick-off of the first united women's national Premier League. UEFA has made a significant contribution to getting the united competition underway in conjunction with the Bosnia and Herzegovina Football Federation (NFSBiH), as part of the UEFA women's football development Programme (WFDP). Eight teams will take part in the league – five from the NFSBiH league: SFK 2000 Sarajevo, ZNK Zenica Čelik, ZNK Gradina Srebrenik, ZNK Salt City Tuzla and ZNK Mladost Nević Polje; and three from the league of the Republic of Srpska: Banja Luka, Radnik Bumurang (Bijeljina) and Mladost Novi Grad (Bosanski Novi). The competition will be played over 14 rounds from autumn to spring. Until now, the women's championship had been played in the separate leagues, with the national champion emerging from a final round. Thanks to the new league, women's football is sure to receive a massive boost at all levels in Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the country's campaign to raise interest in the women’s game and attract more women and girls to take part in the sport, either as players, referees, volunteers or officials. In their WFDP project, the NFSBiH aimed to create a united women's Premier League, and pledged to help create stable clubs who will be able to attract youth players and sponsors. The new competition will also promote women's football through the development of stronger clubs, and another key objective is to increase both the number of registered female players and the number of registered women's football clubs – while at the same time promoting key values such as tolerance and fair play. The new Premer League is seen as a long-term project with new clubs joining each season – thereby giving more women and young girls an opportunity to play football in a country which has a great passion for the game. Close links will be formed between the national association and regional bodies, and UEFA's financial assistance is seen as essential in helping the new competition and women's football in Bosnia and Herzegovina look forward to a sound future. A more long-term goal is the creation of a second division, along with regional Under-19 and U17 competitions. SFK 2000 Sarajevo has enjoyed success in women's competitions, and has won the title ten times in a row. The club is confident of further success in the new Premier League, but is aware that competition will be stiff. "This is a major breakthrough for women's soccer, and after the first season of the joint league, the results will be visible," said Samira Hurem, coach of both Sarajevo and the national team, who finished fourth in their qualifying group for UEFA Women's EURO 2013. "Our goal is for our clubs, as well as the national teams, to have more success in the UEFA competitions," she added. "More young girls will also be 'stepping into the water' to play football." Earlier this month, SFK 2000 Sarajevo hosted qualifying round Group 1 matches in this season's UEFA Women’s Champions League, and finished second, narrowly missing out on qualification after beating Cardiff City FC and FC NSA Sofia but losing to Konak Belediyespor.
Jeff Hirsch. Courtesy Institute for Justice More than two years ago, the IRS used a controversial policy known as civil forfeiture to empty the bank account of a small business owned by three Long Island brothers. The brothers, Jeff, Mitch, and Rich Hirsch, haven't even been charged with a crime. But the IRS is holding their $446,651 hostage while they struggle to run their convenience-store distribution business without that cash. "We're very angry about this," Jeff, 55, said recently over the phone. "I think it's wrong, especially when you do nothing wrong, and you can prove you've done nothing wrong, and they still have your money." The process of civil forfeiture allows the government — often the police, but in this case, the IRS — to seize money thought to have been obtained illegally. The IRS has been seizing funds it believes were deposited in an illegal way. Banks must report deposits of over $10,000 to the federal government. Anybody who makes repeated deposits of just under $10,000 specifically to avoid this requirement is guilty of a crime called restructuring (also known as "smurfing"). The problem is local businesses often have legitimate reasons for making large cash deposits — including the Hirsches' business, Bi-County Distributors, which deals with bodegas (convenience stores) that pay them in cash. Jeff Hirsch had never heard the term "restructuring" before a Monday in May 2012 when his brother tried to make a deposit in the business' account. "My brother went to the bank with the deposit, and the teller said, 'I don't know if you want to make the bank deposit today because it looks like your account is frozen," Jeff said. That very day, the Hirsches had to open up a new account so they had somewhere to deposit their money. After 60 days, the IRS drained the nearly $447,000 from the first account. The brothers hired a lawyer, Joseph Potashnik, who advised them to have a CPA firm, Baker Tilly, do a forensic audit of the business' accounts. That firm found Bi-County had properly reported cash transactions to the IRS and, in the opinion of the firm, had not tried to avoid reporting requirements. (This is according to a new court filing on behalf of the brothers, filed by their new lawyer, Lawrence Salzman of the Institute for Justice.) The government has offered to "settle" the case, meaning it would get to keep some of money it seized. The recent court filing by the brothers doesn't quote an exact settlement amount but says the brothers considered it "excessive." In October, the Institute for Justice filed a "motion for return of property" that could ultimately result in the return of the brothers' money — nearly two and a half years after it was seized. For now, here's how Jeff describes the status of his forfeiture case: "It's still the same as it was in 2012."
It’s been a long slog for New York City’s bike-share program. Citi Bike, named for its primary sponsor, Citibank, was first announced by the Department of Transportation in 2010, and, at that time, it was expected to be up and running by the spring of 2012. The launch was delayed by software problems and by Hurricane Sandy, but, two months ago, docking stations finally began appearing around Manhattan and Brooklyn. On Memorial Day, the bikes rolled out, offering rides to and from hundreds of locations. We examined how the first few weeks of the program fared by tracking when the bikes appeared at different docks. After a Citi Bike is unlocked (through a code or a key), it can be used for up to forty-five minutes before it must be redocked. Using live data provided by the Citi Bike Web site, it’s possible to see how many bikes are checked into each station at any particular moment. Other Citi Bike-trackers have used this data to develop insightful live views of the program, or to follow it closely for a single day. We chose to take a long look, grabbing information at fifteen-minute intervals each day for a month, from June 8th through July 8th. Plotted on a time-lapse map, our data shows that Citi Bike is creating new ways to navigate the city. As more New Yorkers joined the program, commuting and recreational-riding patterns appeared. Citi Bike is already influencing how people get to and from work. And, because it’s New York, there’s been speculation about how much of a premium bike-friendly real estate can command. [#image: /photos/590952b76552fa0be682c340] Here are some highlights from the map: A commuting pattern first emerged in our data on Tuesday, June 11th, when bikers travelled to a central corridor, which begins in midtown Manhattan and moves south, through the Flatiron District and down to the Financial District. The bikes arrived in this “workplace” area at around 9 A.M., and they remained there until around 7 P.M. The next day, an evening-commute shape materialized, with bikers moving toward certain residential neighborhoods: the East Village, the West Village, and Williamsburg. The pattern fell off somewhat on Thursday, but it returned the following week, and thereafter grew increasingly distinct, with workdays attracting bikes to the center of the city. Temperatures and precipitation also influence bike use, so the map displays weather information alongside bike movement. For instance, the weaker commuting pattern on Thursday, June 13th, can be attributed, in part, to colder temperatures and over an inch of rain. It’s possible that the Citi Bike system may be too successful for its own good. As the program becomes a more popular method of commuting, the workday leaves some areas bereft of bikes, making it more difficult for those with reverse or off-hour commutes to participate in the program. Citi Bike crews do redistribute the bikes, but the empty areas on the map show how challenging it is to balance their availability across the stations. On weekends, the commutes are replaced by patternless, recreational movement, in which bikers meander around the city. The continuous weekend use also results in more over-all activity than Citi Bikes see on weekdays. Greg Estren, who compiles data on Citi Bike, calculated that over the six-week period from June 8th through July 19th, there was ten per cent more station activity on weekends than on weekdays. July Fourth was a bikers’ holiday. As the night grew dark, Citi Bike members pedalled to the Hudson River to see the fireworks. Click here to see our interactive Citi Bike map. Interactive by Larry Buchanan, Michael Guerriero, and Nick Traverse.
Imagine a gangster, crime lord or drug lord and you probably think of bloodshed, guns, fast money and a rich lifestyle. Gangsters are also known to make a lot of money, even though the ways they do so often lack legitimacy. From drug trafficking to different forms of financial scams, crime is extremely lucrative. Al Capone Al Capone, the American gangster who ran the Chicago Mafia, made most of his money during prohibition. By 1929, Capone's income from the various aspects of his business included: $60 million from illegal alcohol, $25 million from gambling establishments, $10 million from vice and another $10 million from various other rackets. It is claimed that Capone was employing over 600 gangsters to protect his business from rival gangs. Based on inflation, his empire would be worth about $1.3 billion today. Pablo Escobar Pablo Escobar controlled the majority of the cocaine in Colombia and built his wealth by flooding the U.S. market with the drug. Forbes named Escobar one of the richest men in the world seven years in a row. By 1987, Escobar controlled an estimated 40 percent of the Medellin drug cartel's business. In 1989, based on public records, Forbes valued his net worth at $3 billion. Clearly this was a very conservative estimate, considering he offered to pay off the national debt of Colombia, which stood at $10 billion at the time. According to CelebrityNetWorth.com, his net worth was $30 billion, all profits from his cocaine business. Frank Lucas Frank Lucas had a unique business model. He would procure heroin directly from opium king Khun Sa in Vietnam. Lucas hid heroin in coffins and flew them in from Vietnam to the United States. He was supposedly making $1 million a day at the peak of his business, and had an estimated $52 million stashed away in the Cayman Islands. Griselda Blanco Griselda Blanco, also known as the Black Widow, was a drug lord for Pablo Escobar's Medellin cartel. Reports claim that she was worth $2 billion at her peak. She was best known for her ruthless contract killings. Ironically, she was recently shot by a contract killer in Medellin. Dawood Ibrahim Dawood Ibrahim allegedly orchestrated the Mumbai bomb blasts in 2008. Starting off as a small time hustler, he has now become a global player in the terror network. He is said to have close ties with terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda. He is also said to be worth about $6.7 billion. Xie Caiping Xie Caiping ran a gambling racket in cahoots with several government officials. She is currently serving 18 years in jail. Her gambling den has made $293,000 since 2004. Semion Mogilevich As an economics graduate, Semion Mogilevich has a diversified portfolio. His financial crimes include wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and securities fraud. He is said to be worth $10 billion.
officer-involved shooting, in Oakland's Fruitvale District. Police at the scene where a suspect who allegedly urinated in public and attacked police was shot by an officer. OAKLAND (CBS SF) — A police officer shot a male suspect in Oakland Friday night after he allegedly attacked officers when they attempted to detain him for urinating in public, police said. Officers attempted to detain the man, an Oakland resident, for public urination in the 2100 block of Fruitvale Avenue at around 7:40 p.m. Police said the man became violent, assaulted an officer, and attacked the officers with a long, metal blunt object. An officer pulled out her firearm and shot the suspect to defend the officers, according to police. The suspect was taken to Alameda County Medical Center for his injuries and was expected to survive. An officer was also injured during the incident. She was taken to Summit Hospital and was treated and released. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the department’s homicide section at (510) 238-3821. (Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
0 If you watched John Wick and thought to yourself, “There couldn’t possibly be any more action in this story,” get ready for John Wick: Chapter 2. The first poster for the follow-up arrived earlier today, showing star Keanu Reeves getting fitted for a dapper new suit, gun in hand. But in addition to the poster debut, we also learned a bit more about the film. Specifically, expect a lot more action. Speaking with EW, director Chad Stahelski revealed that there is twice as much action in John Wick 2 as there was in John Wick: “I would say we had twice as much action as the first movie,” he says about the shoot. “We took it all a full notch up as far as the driving car stuff went. A great portion of the car chase in the opening of the film is Keanu, which is very impressive.” Stahelski made his feature directorial debut with the first John Wick alongside co-director David Leitch after the two had a long and successful career as stunt coordinators and second unit directors on films like The Wolverine, Jurassic World, and Captain America: Civil War. While Leitch was originally set to return and co-direct John Wick 2, he became busy with his own directorial project The Coldest City starring Charlize Theron and simply serves as an executive producer on the John Wick sequel. The story of John Wick: Chapter 2 will delve deeper into the criminal network of hotels that was glimpsed briefly in the first movie and will also relocate to Rome. Moreover, Stahelski gets the chance to reunite with Laurence Fishburne after serving as a stunt coordinator on the Matrix sequels, with Fishburne playing a secretive character known only as The Bowery King. New cast members for John Wick: Chapter 2 also include Ruby Rose and Common, with John Leguizamo, Lance Reddick, and Ian McShane reprising their roles from the first movie. John Wick: Chapter 2 opens in theaters on February 10, 2017.
Morgan Maassen photographs the biggest stars in surfing like they're his friends. And oftentimes, they are. The 23-year-old Santa Barbara, California native has earned himself recognition in the surf photography world with his loose and vibrant aesthetic that’s rich in color, motion and quiet intimacy. The calm of his photos is surprising considering his usual work conditions. He works on sets, both commercial and editorial, that can be chaotic and crammed with people – athletes, drivers, caterers, handlers, personal assistants, public relations staff – all working in a tight space with their own array of deadlines. “Photographers can get lost in the shuffle,” says Maassen. Through this flurry of activity and agenda, Maassen has an uncanny ability to set himself apart. He finds the quiet nuances of character in some of the most recognizable faces in the surfing world, like the legendary Kelly Slater, which he attributes to, for lack of a better term, being human. He says he puts down the camera and takes time to converse and bond with the athletes and other subjects during travel and downtime. And then they become friends. Maassen’s path to success, like many others', is a blend of hard work and serendipitous good fortune. The son of a fisherman, Maassen grew up surfing, spearfishing and boating in the waters of the Pacific. Once he developed an interest in photography as a teenager, it seemed like a natural fit to start photographing his surroundings. After high school, Maassen says he didn’t have the money to attend a pricey school like Brooks Institute, but now celebrates what felt like an impediment as roundabout good fortune. He has a client list that most photographers would consider bargaining their soul for: Apple, Nike, Mini Cooper, Corona, etc. “I would have done anything to go to Brooks when I was 17,” Maassen says. “In hindsight now, I’m so lucky that I didn’t go.” He also partially credits social media as a conduit for his current status. As Maassen honed his photography skills, he developed a healthy (over 20,000) Instagram following online. One of his followers showed a photograph from his feed to his wife, who happened to be a marketing director at Billabong, the colossal surfboard maker and surf apparel company. And that was Maassen's "big break." He now spends three weeks of every month traveling the world to document surfing, surf culture and fashion. “I try to bring my own style to it,” Maassen says. “I can only shoot photos that make me happy. I’d rather not do photography than take photos that don’t make me happy.” Maassen uses the usual spread of digital gear, such as the Nikon D4, for his action sports work and minimal post-production in Photoshop. For the rest, he carries a humble array of camera equipment, much of which are hand-me-downs from the '60s and '70s; prime, manual focus lenses from his father; and an old Hasselblad with Chrome and Sonnar lenses. For inspiration, Maassen looks to artists like Wassily Kandinsky, Jean Michel Basquiat and Ashley Bickerton. But he'd really like to get into filmmaking, citing Werner Hertzog, Darren Aronofsky and Gaspar Noe as his inspiration. While Maassen loves surfing, and he loves photography, he's much more interested in the two on separate planes. The one constant is the ocean, which has always been a source of calm and inspiration for the young photographer. “Shooting from the water is connecting all the dots of my life,” Maassen says.
Background Americas Gun violence and the politics of the right to bear arms Legal restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms are usually put in place by legislators because they believe that they will reduce gun related violence.[14][15][16] Their actions are frequently the result of pressure for such controls. The Brady, Snowdrop Campaigns, and the Million Mom March are recent examples of campaigns calling for tighter restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms. Accident statistics are hard to obtain, but much data is available on the issue of gun ownership and gun related deaths. The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) has made comparisons between countries with different levels of gun ownership and investigated the correlation between gun ownership levels and gun homicides, and between gun ownership levels and gun suicides. A strong correlation is seen in both. During the 1989 and 1992 International Crime Surveys, data on gun ownership in eighteen countries have been collected on which WHO data on suicide and homicide committed with guns and other means are also available. The results presented in a previous paper based on the fourteen countries surveyed during the first ICS and on rank correlations (Spearman's rho), suggested that gun ownership may increase suicides and homicides using firearms, while it may not reduce suicides and homicides with other means. In the present analysis, four additional countries covered by the 1992 ICS only have been included, and Pearson's correlation coefficients r have been used. The results confirm those presented in the previous study.[17] UNICRI also investigated the relationship between gun ownership levels and other forms of homicide or suicide to determine whether high gun ownership added to or merely displaced other forms of homicide or suicide. They reported that "widespread gun ownership has not been found to reduce the likelihood of fatal events committed with other means. Thus, people do not turn to knives and other potentially lethal instruments less often when more guns are available, but more guns usually means more victims of suicide and homicide." Speculating on possible causes the researchers concluded that "all we know is that guns do not reduce fatal events due to other means, but that they go along with more shootings. Although we do not know why exactly this is so, we have a good reason to suspect guns to play a—fatal—role in this".[18] The research reporter found that guns were the major cause of homicides in 3 of the 14 countries it studied; Northern Ireland, Italy, and the United States. Although the data seem to indicate that reducing the availability of one significant type of arms—firearms—leads to reductions both in gun crimes and gun suicides and in overall crimes and overall suicides, the author did caution that "reducing the number of guns in the hands of the private citizen may become a hopeless task beyond a certain point", citing the American example.[18] In contrast to the 1993 study however, a more recent study by UNICRI researchers from 2001 examined the link between household gun ownership and overall homicide, overall suicide, as well as gun homicide and gun suicide rates amongst 21 countries. Significant correlations between household gun ownership and rates of gun suicides for both genders, and gun homicide rates involving female victims were found. There were no significant correlations detected for total homicide and suicide rates, as well as gun homicide rates involving male victims.[19] See also Notes and references
@PatriciaMazzei A few days before the Democratic National Committee is slated to pick its next chairman, one group of Florida Democrats has made an endorsement in the race. The Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida announced Tuesday it has endorsed Tom Perez for chair. Perez, the only Hispanic in the running, was secretary of labor under former President Barack Obama. He's also a former assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights. "Tom's perspective and powerful life story will be assets in the fight ahead, standing up to the Trump Administration and expanding our party's big tent," Democratic Hispanic Caucus John A. Ramos said in a statement. "In our experience, our party can only succeed when the stakeholders involved are as diverse as possible. Tom will create an inclusive DNC and speak to everyone who shares our values of opportunity to get our party winning in Florida and across the country." Earlier this month, the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida endorsed one of Perez's rivals, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, calling him a "clear and passionate voice for all people." The DNC election will take place Saturday in Atlanta. Caucuses don't have a vote. Photo credit: David Wallace, The Arizona Republic via Associated Press
Ontario’s principal public service union says it will not support the province’s basic income experiment if it means job losses for social workers. "Frontline social assistance staff are open to seeing their job descriptions evolve, but there is no way we will support any new model of social assistance delivery that doesn't involve them," said Warren Thomas, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU). Thomas said he is “all for” the basic income if it helps raise people out of poverty, "but people in poverty need more than money. They need employment counseling, housing supports, crisis intervention, and personal advocacy. And those things can only be provided by real live human beings who care for a living." Ontario Public Service Employees Union president Warren Thomas says there is "no way" his union will support a basic income if its delivery does not involve the use of social assistance staff. (Photo: The Canadian Press/Nathan Denette) The province of Ontario recently released the results of its public consultations on the basic income in a document titled “What We Heard.” “‘What We Heard’ clearly didn't hear the voices of frontline social assistance workers," Thomas said in a statement. The provincial report “doesn't ... mention frontline social assistance staff at all,” he added. Many advocates of the basic income — including Hugh Segal, the former Senator hired by the provincial Liberals as a consultant on the basic income project — say part of its benefit is to reduce the intrusiveness of government into people’s private lives. Unlike “means-tested” programs like welfare and unemployment insurance, a basic income wouldn’t require public servants passing judgment on individuals, they argue. But the flipside of this is that there could be far less demand for the social workers involved in dispensing public assistance. A homeless camp in Vancouver. Advocates of a basic income say it would help lift people out of poverty, but some unions fear job losses if a basic income were to replace other forms of social assistance. (Photo: The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck) In its submission to the province, the OPSEU argued that the government wouldn’t be able to save much money by replacing some existing programs with a basic income. The cost of administering Ontario’s welfare and disability programs, including labour costs, amounts to just 3.7 per cent of the total cost, the submission stated. As basic income experiments proliferate around the world — including in Prince Edward Island, the Netherlands, Finland and Kenya — some labour unions are starting to voice opposition to a plan they fear could make many public service jobs redundant. Finland’s largest labour union, SAK, recently called the country’s basic income experiment “useless” and made what would ordinarily be a conservative argument against it — that it would encourage people to drop out of the workforce, harming economic productivity. Hugh Segal, a former Progressive Conservative senator, is working as a leading consultant on Ontario's basic income pilot project. (Photo: The Canadian Press) Ontario announced a basic income pilot project as part of its spring 2016 budget, and hired Segal to lead the effort. Segal’s report, released last fall, proposed two different experiments in which low-income earners would receive a top-up to $1,320 a month, or 75 per cent of the province’s low income mark. A third experiment would see recipients receive 100 per cent of the low income mark, and each group would try out different ways of calculating taxes on additional earned income. Those with disabilities would be granted additional money. The pilot projects would replace the Ontario Works welfare program and the province's disability support program. The province is expected to announce the locations and details of the basic income pilot projects later this year. Segal has suggested the projects run no less than three years. Also on HuffPost
It’s been a turbulent week for Jose Aldo. The 12-year MMA veteran recently requested to leave the UFC following a fallout with the company over conflicting issues. Aldo’s request came after it was announced that Conor McGregor would challenge Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title instead of rematching ‘Scarface’ in a featherweight title unification bout. Aldo, though, says this wasn’t the reason for his sudden demands and claims he’s been on shaky ground with the UFC for a long time. The interim featherweight champion elaborated to ‘Tap Nap Snap’, claiming that the top athletes are drawing negativity to the sport by ‘snorting cocaine’ and ‘throwing objects at press conferences’. Earlier this week, Jose Aldo Junior asked for his release from the UFC. He just further elaborated on his reasoning as... Posted by Tap.Nap.Snap on Friday, September 30, 2016 It’s understood that Aldo is referring to McGregor’s bottle-throwing war with team Diaz at the UFC 202 pre-fight press conference, and is likely referring to Jon Jones’ failed UFC 182 drug test for cocaine. McGregor, Diaz and Jones will stand before the Nevada State Athletic Commission on October 10 -- two days after the middleweight championship bout between Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson at UFC 204 -- where all three athletes could face suspension. Jones, though, will be disciplined for a separate issue. The former light heavyweight champion recently tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and was subsequently pulled from UFC 200’s main event with Daniel Cormier. Per Bob Bennett of NSAC, McGregor/Diaz (water bottles) and Jones (failed test) hearings are all scheduled for its meeting on Oct. 10. — Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) September 22, 2016 Aldo, who also criticized the UFC’s sponsorship deal with Reebok, captured the interim 145-pound title when he cruised to a unanimous decision win over Frankie Edgar at UFC 200. The Brazilian was promised a rematch with McGregor, but the Irishman’s superfight with Alvarez proved too enticing for the head brass. If Aldo can come to terms with the UFC, the Nova Uniao product is likely to face top-ranked Max Holloway in his next bout.
When you meet older people: 1. Address elders as 'uncle' or 'aunty', alternatively 'pak cik' or 'mak cik' in Malay. Image via SAYS When you visit a friend's house: 2. Remove your shoes before entering someone's home. Image via SAYS 3. If invited to someone's home for dinner, bring a small gift of food such as fruit or cake. Image via SAYS 4. Ask if anyone is going for that last piece of food before helping yourself to it. Image via SAYS 5. Don't cross chopsticks on the table or stick them vertically into rice as it symbolises death. Image via SAYS When you are on the road: 6. Extend your hand as a way of saying thanks when you’re given way on the road. Image via SAYS 7. If a car has its signal light indicating that it needs to pass before you, give way. Image via SAYS 8. If you MUST double park, keep watch and leave your number on the dashboard. Image via SAYS When you are eating out: 9. At a busy restaurant, quickly leave when you are done with your meal to accommodate waiting patrons. Image via SAYS 10. Fold the top half of the banana leaf toward you to signify that you've enjoyed your meal and will return. Image via SAYS 11. When eating communal dishes, take moderate portions so others get a fair share. Image via SAYS When you are given a gift: 12. If someone offers to pay for your meal or gives you an unexpected present, politely refuse the first time and accept after they insist that you receive it. Image via SAYS 13. Never open ang pows or presents in front of the giver unless asked to. Image via SAYS When you are pointing your finger: 14. Instead of your forefinger, point at places, things or people with your thumb with the other four fingers closed in a fist. Image via SAYS When you eat with your hands: 15. Always use your right hand when eating or handling food. The left hand is considered unclean as it is used to cleanse yourself. Image via SAYS When you give face: 16. Do not openly shame, critique, insult, or put someone down in public. Image via SAYS When you show respect: 17. Different people and communities in Malaysia practice different customs. Always be sensitive and respect local beliefs, customs, and culture. Image via SAYS 18. If you need to excuse yourself by walking across seated guests, bend to lower your posture politely. Image via SAYS When you attend a wedding: 19. Do not wear pure white or black to a wedding reception. These colours are typically worn at funerals and signify mourning. Image via SAYS 20. It is acceptable and usually preferred to give the gift of money to the wedding couple. Put the money in a red packet or in the wedding invitation envelope. Image via SAYS When you meet someone new: 21. Some women may not shake hands with men. Wait for the lady to offer her handshake first or else greet her with a smile and a nod of the head. Image via SAYS When you drink alcohol:
As a freshman, Ashley Gilles and three roommates squeezed into a teensy dorm room in one of the University of Minnesota’s oldest residence halls. There was no elevator, no kitchen and doing laundry required a five-minute walk. “It was like an insane asylum,”said Gilles, describing the building’s white block walls and narrow halls. “It didn’t have air conditioning and all the basic things that I grew up with.” Gilles now shares an upscale apartment two blocks from campus at 412 Lofts, one of the student apartment buildings sprouting up around the U. Not only is Gilles loving her new kitchen with granite countertops, she no longer has to schlep her laundry around campus because a washer and dryer are in the unit. “It feels more like home,” said Gilles, now a senior. Gilles is part of a generation of 20-somethings fueling a housing boom around the U, where mostly private developers are building more than 2,500 upscale apartments and have approvals for another 1,800 units. The new housing has transformed campus living, offering students upper-crust amenities like yoga studios, heated garages and rooftop party rooms. “There has been a flight to quality,” said Mary Bujold, president of Maxfield Research Group. The Bridges apartments at 950 University Av. SE. will have a yoga studio and views of the Mississippi River. Experts say the trend reflects changing demographics and higher expectations among young people. Studies show that a growing number of students, mostly Gen Y-ers aged 18 to 34, want to live close to work and school. Bujold said that just in the past decade, the number of campus commuters is down 20 percent. Those students are more than willing to sacrifice space for high-end finishes in well-appointed apartments. Brent Wittenberg, a market expert with Marquette Advisors, calls it a desire for “shared luxury.” But such upscale living has been in short supply around the U, where student housing has been more synonymous with keggers and code violations than fancy digs. Kelly Doran of Doran Companies is trying to raise the bar. He is starting construction on his fifth and most ambitious student housing project, an 11-story concrete and glass tower called The Bridges. The building at the corner of 10th and University avenues SE. next to Interstate 35W promises views of downtown Minneapolis and the Mississippi River, along with a yoga studio and an outdoor kitchen for its student renters. “It will be an iconic building as you enter campus,” Doran said. He expects it to be ready for occupancy by fall 2014. Daniel Oberpriller, co-founder of CPM Development, said there has been a dearth of construction around the U, compared with what’s happening across the country. The U is “just catching up to where other markets are now,” he said. Opus Development Corp., which has done student housing around the U, has more than 700 units in development in other Midwestern cities. Fears in Dinkytown Competition for undeveloped sites near the U — mostly surface parking lots — is stiff, so Oberpriller and others are focusing on finding redevelopment opportunities. That means tearing down existing buildings, which raises the hackles of some who believe those neighborhoods will lose their character. That tension has been especially strong in Dinkytown — the eclectic commercial district just north of campus — where a new group called Save Dinkytown has a slogan that says, “It’s Dinkytown, not Megatown.” “It’s been really exciting, and the U of M is seeing a lot of change,” said Gilles. “But a lot of people are feeling like there are already too many new buildings and they don’t want to see high-rises in the heart of Dinkytown.” Oberpriller recently announced plans to build WaHu, a 333-unit apartment building that will replace an Arby’s and CSL Plasma at Huron Boulevard and Washington Avenue SE. In Dinkytown, Chicago-based GEM Realty Capital Inc. plans to build more than 300 apartments on the former site of Marshall University High School. Across the street, Opus has created a stir with its plans to build a 140-unit apartment building on several parcels, including one that’s home to the House of Hanson grocery store. Dave Menke, senior vice president and general manager with Opus, recognizes that such projects will bring change to the neighborhood, but he said market forces are strong. “A large number of colleges and universities are underserved in their housing stock,” he said. The U is responding to those housing demands. MA Mortenson is nearing completion of the 17th Avenue Residence Hall, a $62 million facility being built by the U. It will have more than 300 units with 600 beds and will cater to freshmen and members of nearby fraternities and sororities. ‘All I’ve really ever known’ Students like Alex Johnson, are thrilled with apartment living. The architecture major at the College of Design lives in a two-bedroom, two-bath corner unit at Opus’ Stadium Village Flats. Ashley Gilles checked the view from her window at her apartment. “The U of M is seeing a lot of change,” Gilles said. His apartment has big windows and is less than a block from the heart of campus. He pays $644 per month and shares the space with three roommates. He knows that’s not cheap for a shared bedroom, but he appreciates the luxury. “I just turned 20 years old a couple of days ago and live in a place with granite countertops, quality furniture and a view like none other,” he said. “I have to say that the reason I’ve grown to expect apartments to be so luxurious is because that’s all I’ve really ever known.” This fall, Johnson will move to the Elysian, a 56-unit building on 4th Street SE. that’s being developed by CPM. He’ll share a three-bedroom, two-bath apartment with five roommates, but the top-floor apartment has more than 2,000 square feet, including a den and a 400-square-foot balcony. He’ll pay $680. “Once you live in one of these properties, it’s hard to get out and learn to expect less,” Johnson said. He’s not surprised that demand has been strong at the Elysian, which is fully leased for fall move-ins. Residents will have access to a tanning bed, a lounge with free coffee and a patio with a fireplace. “I can’t tell if it’s a good thing or a bad thing,” Johnson said. “I can’t tell if these over-the-top luxurious units are creating monsters out of students or rather if they are instilling a drive in them to work hard so that one day when they get out of college they can own a place like these units rather than rent them.”
Former presidential candidates, Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, will debate the future of Obamacare on CNN. Moderated by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and chief political correspondent Dana Bash, the Town Hall Debate will air at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at George Washington University. "President Donald Trump has made repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act one of his top priorities while Congressional Democrats are opposed. Sanders, an opponent of repealing Obamacare, and Cruz, a supporter of the President's healthcare agenda, will join Tapper and Bash to debate the fate of former President Barack Obama's signature legislation and the GOP's approach to healthcare. "Sanders and Cruz, runners-up for their respective presidential party nominations, will also field questions from voters around the country," CNN announced in a press release. The news network recently hosted a primetime town hall with former House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.. "I know I speak for virtually all Democrats in saying that we have deep concern about the Republican proposal, which would repeal the Affordable Care Act without having any alternative plan in place," Sanders said on the Senate floor Wednesday, according to Vox. "And we think the idea of throwing some 30 million Americans off of the health insurance that they have — significantly reducing funding for Medicaid, which will not only be very problematic for lower-income people, but also impact middle-class people who depend on Medicaid to help pay for the nursing home care their parents get."
It is high time we rediscovered the role of the financial cycle in macroeconomics. In the environment that has prevailed for at least three decades now, it is not possible to understand business fluctuations and the corresponding analytical and policy challenges without understanding the financial cycle. This calls for a rethink of modelling strategies and for significant adjustments to macroeconomic policies. This essay highlights the stylised empirical features of the financial cycle, conjectures as to what it may take to model it satisfactorily, and considers its policy implications. In the discussion of policy, the essay pays special attention to the bust phase, which is less well explored and raises much more controversial issues. JEL classification: E30, E44, E50, G10, G20, G28, H30, H50 Keywords: financial cycle, business cycle, medium term, financial crises, monetary economy, balance sheet recessions, balance sheet repair
A U.S.-based group is preparing a pilot program in Kenya that will test the effects of a universal basic income—the increasingly popular concept of giving virtually everyone in a community unconditional payments on a regular basis. Unlike past large-scale experiments of this sort, this one is being run and funded privately. The organization behind the effort is GiveDirectly, a charity whose work in Africa is based on the idea of giving people cash without restrictions on how the money can be spent. (The underlying anti-paternalist principle is that the needy know their needs better than outsiders do.) That outlook led naturally to an interest in the basic income, and so the organizers conceived a randomized control trial: • In one set of villages, every adult will receive monthly payments equivalent to 75 cents a day for two years. • In another set of villages, every adult will receive such payments for 12 years. • In yet another set of villages, the adults will receive a single lump-sum payment equivalent to what the two-year group will be receiving. • The last set of villages is the control group, so they don't get any money at all. The aim here, GiveDirectly's Ian Bassin explains, is "to isolate the effects of what most people consider a 'basic income'—that is, a permanent payment over time—from something resembling more traditional temporary supports. For example, when someone knows they have a long-term, guaranteed floor below which they cannot fall, do they take more risks like starting a business or going back to school? And does that security produce greater overall returns?" The current plan is for 41 villages to go on the 12-year plan, 80 to go on the two-year plan, 80 to get the lump sums, and 100 to be in the control group. (The size of each category could shrink if GiveDirectly doesn't hit its fundraising target.) To answer the first question that probably popped into your minds: No, a villager can't change which deal he's getting by moving from one town to another. Once enrollment has started in a village, no new arrivals can take advantage of the payments there. Conversely, if you're already enrolled in the program, you still get the money if you leave your village. After all, one potential outcome the researchers want to look for is whether people will use their payments to move somewhere with greater opportunity. The group expects the experiment to cost about $30 million, and they have thus far raised around $23 million toward that. (The lump-sum payments are being funded separately, with the money coming from GiveDirectly's ongoing efforts in Kenya. They expect the costs there to be a little higher than $6 million, which is well within the program's usual annual budget.) One village in the 12-year group is already receiving funds—sort of a test case to work out any logistical kinks in advance. If all goes according to plan, the rest will start receiving their money early next year.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Police arrested more than 400 protesters outside the U.S. Capitol on Monday from Democracy Spring, an organization seeking to remove big money from politics and combat restrictive voter identification laws. The mostly calm and orderly demonstration resulted in arrests for what the U.S. Capitol Police called “unlawful demonstration activity” such as crowding and obstruction. Organizers vowed to repeat the demonstration every day for a week. The protest was held “to demand Congress take immediate action to end the corruption of big money in our politics and ensure free and fair elections,” Democracy Spring said on its website. The group lists actor Mark Ruffalo and academic Noam Chomsky and dozens of well-known activist groups among its supporters. “We believe this is the people’s house, and Congress should be responsive to the people. We need to protect voting rights,” said Peter Callahan, the group’s communications coordinator. Protesters hoisted a scarecrow-like effigy of a corporate lobbyist holding money bags and a sign reading, “Warning: Massive civil disobedience is next.” Police arrested those who sat on the stairs of the East Front of the Capitol, the seat of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Democracy Spring traces its roots to the end of the Occupy Los Angeles movement, and its rise coincides with the presidential campaigns of Democrat Bernie Sanders and Republican Donald Trump, both of whom speak against the influence of campaign contributions on politicians. While most of the groups involved are associated more with Democrats than Republicans, Callahan said the group was nonpartisan. “We see populism on the rise on both sides of the spectrum. Americans are sick and tired of their politicians being bought and paid for,” Callahan said.
The second video in James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas investigation of the 2016 election reveals what O’Keefe describes as “Democratic Party operatives tell[ing] us how to successfully commit voter fraud on a massive scale.” Part one in O’Keefe’s investigation unraveled what appears to be an elaborate web of Democrat-trained provocateurs who have been instigating violence at Republican events nationwide throughout the 2016 election cycle, including at several Donald Trump rallies, using a tactic they called “bird-dogging.” O’Keefe’s team has also uncovered evidence that Democratic consultants may have been relaying messages to and from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and super PACs using a system one consultant called “the Pony Express.” Campaigns and Super PACs are not permitted by law to coordinate with each other. In the preface to the second video, O’Keefe states that the first video “blew up on social media, but sources have told us that several large corporate media outlets are afraid to cover our discoveries for fear of future retribution from a Hillary Clinton administration. Truth is dangerous especially when it challenges power.” This second investigation features an undercover Project Veritas reporter posing as a Democratic Party donor brainstorming an elaborate voter fraud scheme to fraudulently register people to vote in various states using the lax voter registration policies currently in place. Like O’Keefe’s first video, the second also prominently features Democratic operatives Robert Creamer and his colleague Scott Foval, who was removed from his position at the leftwing advocacy group Americans United for Change on Monday as a result of O’Keefe’s investigation. O’Keefe notes that at the time the second video was shot, Foval “worked for People for the American Way, an organization funded in large part by George Soros.” In the video, Foval is heard saying, “We manipulated the vote with money and action, not with laws.” He then explains: It’s a pretty easy thing for Republicans to say, ‘Well, they’re bussing people in!’ Well, you know what? We’ve been bussing people in to deal with you fuckin’ assholes for fifty years, and we’re not going to stop now. We’re just going to find a different way to do it. So, I mean I grew up with that idea. They used to bus people out to Iowa. If they needed people there we’d bus people out to Iowa. Foval also discusses the problem of being caught, stating, “The question is, whether when you get caught by a reporter, does that matter? Because does it turn into an investigation or not? In this case, this state, the answer is no, because they don’t have any power to do anything.” Foval suggests that the voter fraud scheme could potentially be implemented “on a much bigger scale. You implement a massive change in state legislatures and in Congress. So you aim higher for your goals, and you implement it across every Republican-held state.” He then speculates on “the ripest environment to do it in”: Honestly the ripest environment to do it in? Two, within striking distance. Michigan, Indiana. Least restrictive donation caps and campaign finance laws and investigative arms, and any of that. Like they have weakened it so bad in those three states, you could fuck your mother in front of the governor and not go to jail. If you have enough money to do this. Creamer, as Breitbart’s Joel Pollak reported, is “a veteran Chicago activist and convicted felon who is thought to have planned Democrats’ political strategy during the push for Obamacare in 2009 and 2010. Creamer is also the co-founder of Democracy Partners, a consulting group that, according to Project Veritas videos, apparently contracts directly with the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC, and that works with an array of super PACs and consultants to organize, film and publicize their provocations.” Foval is heard in the second video saying: Bob Creamer is diabolical and I love him for it. I have learned so much from that man over the last twenty years, I can’t even tell you. And he calls me to be his firefighter a lot of the time, because there are people who in our movement will not do what it takes to get shit done. And I’m not that person. I’m the one they send when everything has gone to shit. And so he spends a lot of time on the phone with my boss asking me to go places that I don’t wish to go. While the second video captures Foval and the Project Veritas undercover reporter brainstorming about the voter fraud scheme, O’Keefe notes that “Creamer hesitated to help our ‘donor’ pull off the voter fraud scheme that Foval crafted.” However, Foval did put the Project Veritas “donor” in touch with another leftwing operative who appeared more receptive: Cesar Vargas. As O’Keefe explains: “Vargas is an interesting character. He is the co-founder of the Dream Action Coalition, a New York lawyer, and is a dreamer himself. Born in Mexico, Vargas is an undocumented alien. He has known Bob Creamer for years.” In the video, Vargas is heard saying about the voter fraud scheme: Like I said, this is not gonna happen this election. So I think it’s about, for us, let’s see who the next president is. If it – if it’s Donald Trump, it even makes more sense. The issue will be more credible and it’ll give us more opportunity to jump in there. If it’s Secretary Clinton, and the voter ID laws are losing and we have much more opportunity to vote, and we have immigration reform, it’s not going to be as significant, right? When the Project Veritas reporter points out that this would be “voter fraud,” Vergas replies, “It’s civil disobedience.” The video ends with a clip of Foval stating, “We have to do a better job of making our people do what they’re supposed to do. Not asking them. Making them. Not expecting them and taking them for granted, but beating the shit out of them.” O’Keefe notes that more videos in this undercover investigation “will continue through the election.” Update: J. Christian Adams, the President and General Counsel of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, has filed a legal complaint with the Federal Election Commission against “Hillary for America, the Democratic National Committee, Democracy Partners, Americans United for Change, and other known and unknown individuals and groups” based on O’Keefe’s second video investigation. Adams issued the following statement to Breitbart News: American voter rolls are corrupted with unacceptable numbers of aliens who are illegally registered to vote. Groups should not be coordinating with campaigns and political parties to exploit vulnerabilities in our election system. We hope this matter is fully investigated and that if aliens are voting, they are prosecuted by the Justice Department. That would mark a change in DOJ policies of the last 7 years. As the complaint notes, the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is “is a non-profit educational and legal foundation dedicated to protect the right to vote, preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections, and educate the public on the issue of election integrity.” Read their complaint here.
Meet Noam Chomsky, Academic Gatekeeper Published on Oct 26, 2013 SHOW NOTES AND MP3: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=8169 Is Noam Chomsky an anarcho-syndicalist or proponent of the Federal Reserve? A fearless political crusader or defender of the Warren Commission JFK orthodoxy? A tireless campaigner for justice or someone who doesn't care who did 9/11? Join us this week on The Corbett Report as we examine some of the subjects that Chomsky would prefer you didn't think about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEDf7OkRCxk Audio: http://www.corbettreport.com/?powerpress_pinw=8169-podcast Documentation Steven Pinker on Noam Chomsky Time Reference: 02:54 Chomsky: Obama Worse Than Bush Time Reference: 03:13 ‘Drone strikes a terror-generating machine’ Time Reference: 10:02 Noam Chomsky to RT: Bush torturer, Obama just kills Time Reference: 10:48 Chomsky On Obama’s Election Campaign Time Reference: 11:05 Chomsky on US Foreign Policy Time Reference: 11:33 Manufacturing Consent – Noam Chomsky and the Media Time Reference: 14:54 Noam Chomsky Loves the Federal Reserve Time Reference: 19:13 Noam Chomsky and the JFK Assassination Time Reference: 26:43 Deep Politics and the Death of JFK Time Reference: 35:24 JFK and the Unspeakable Time Reference: 35:48 Noam Chomsky discusses 9/11 Conspiracy Theorists Time Reference: 38:25 Chomsky on 9/11: “Who cares?” Time Reference: 42:52 Truth in the Academy? Time Reference: 47:28 MemoryHoleBlog Time Reference: 47:37 After Multiple Denials, CIA Admits to Snooping on Noam Chomsky Time Reference: 54:34 Rethinking Noam Chomsky Time Reference: 55:48 Reggae Noam Chomsky Classical Old Skool Hip Hop Groove – Oh YES Time Reference: 35:48
At a launch party for a new local coffee shop a few nights ago—the kind of thing that draws people as much to network and get free as it does to support what’s being launched—I ended up discussing humanism, as I often do, with a few new faces. Two men stuck out to me, because they had never heard the term humanism before. And after I explained what it was, both of them immediately told me they were humanists. The first man told me that, while he’s been an atheist for quite some time, he’s never sought out any fellow atheists because they’re “too anti-theist, like, have you heard of Richard Dawkins?” I explained that the humanist community I, and many others, are building is a community aimed at mutual support and the greater good for humanity—all humanity. I told him that humanism, as I know it, requires the affirmation in the equality of all people. I wish more conversations about humanism with strangers went so smoothly, because then he asked me how to get involved. After I explained humanism to the other man, he declared himself a “spiritual humanist,” unwittingly countering the much more common “secular humanist.” In my definition of humanism, I mentioned that humanism doesn’t base its ethics on the supernatural. Taking my point, he told me that “spiritual,” for him, had nothing to do with deities, but everything to do with those things that are beyond human understanding. For clarification, I asked him if he meant those things that we have not yet come to understand or things that defy human understanding. Things that are unexplainable, he said, like how we are all connected to each other in ways that defy physics and how those connections drive us to help each other even if we are strangers. That second part is why he so easily adopted the humanist label in our conversation, while the first part seemed supernatural. These two conversations illustrate two common issues with humanist as a label—it’s not widely known and it’s meaning is confused. Never mind the people trying to adopt humanist as alternative for feminist because of a misguided and groundless belief that feminist is synonymous with man-hating or female supremacy. Rather, there’s disagreement about what the essential quality of humanism is, if there even is one. And if so, is it atheism? I’d like to add a few more voices to the mix. I have a religious family member who considers himself a humanist—at least he’d like to be. “I believe in humans too,” he tells me, lamenting the state of affairs that banishes him from a philosophy he believes in because he has religious beliefs. He also has a point. Looking at humanism historically , it was not separate from religious beliefs, but concurrent. A few more friends describe themselves as “secular humanists,” one appending this second word specifically out of fear that humanism clouds her atheist identity. Like many atheists, my friend feels it is important to be open and public about her atheist identity, even though she identifies primarily as a humanist. The problem is that so many people don’t know what humanist means that too many people don’t realize that humanists and atheists often overlap. Adding secular does that job. A fellow blogger at Applied Sentience, Paul Chiariello, recently wrote about the need for malleability of labels—specifically, the malleability that comes from internal discussion and debate. Humanism certainly could benefit from such a debate. There are other points worth discussing about the humanism label, but I think the question here boils down to whether humanism is essentially atheist. For atheists who don’t want to rally around an absence, humanism provides an ethical framework and positive orientation to identify with. It also provides a community of atheists hoping to do some good in the world together. From this point of view, letting the spiritual humanists in might undermine an essential part of what makes the community what it is—no matter how it started, it’s an atheist movement now. But, as a secular humanist myself, I think these spiritual humanist voices have a point. Originally, humanism was not a reaction against supernatural, but an ethical orientation that is founded on human agency and reason. Why shouldn’t a person be able to adopt this orientation in how they engage the world even if in other aspects of their lives they have some supernatural beliefs? It wouldn’t force the supernatural into humanism, but it would make for a more diverse humanist community. So the question is: Is secular humanism redundant? Or, to put it another way, are spiritual and secular equal subsets of the umbrella humanism?
Recently, we wrote about the fuel consumption of some common US military vehicles (f.ex., the M2A3 and M3A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles get about 1.7 MPG and the M1A1 Abrams Battle Tank gets about 0.6 MPG). This matters because we're not talking about small amounts of fuel: according to NPR , all the tanks, planes and ships of the U.S. military burn about 340,000 barrels of oil per day, making it the "single-largest purchaser and consumer of oil in the world." One way to make tracked vehicles both more eco-friendly and safer and more comfortable for the people inside them is to use new high-tech rubber tracks. Read on for more details. Photo: Soucy International, who also makes rubber tracks for construction and agricultural equipment. The Economist has an interesting piece about this in their technology quarterly edition. But let's start from the beginning... The Washing-Machine, and Not a Delicate Cycle Most tracked military vehicles use tracks with metal plates. This has several inconvenients, including severe vibrations (some soldiers call Armored Personnel Carriers (APC) washing-machines) that are bad both for the health of the people inside and for the mechanical health of vehicles, leading to more frequent breakdowns. These metal tracks are also bad for roads, causing a lot of damage that must be repaired, and they wear out fast. "On average, the segments of a steel track must be repaired or replaced after just 400 km (250 miles) of use." The new rubber tracks last more than 3,000 km (1865 miles) before they need to be replaced. Fuel economy is also affected: Metal tracks are heavy, and you also need to carry replacement tracks, which means you need a beefier suspension. All things considered, rubber tracks could improve fuel economy by about 1/3, according to TACOM, the American army’s Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command. That's significant when you think about what kind of MPG Tanks and APCs get. Rubber tracks also provide more traction, in part because, being lighter, they can be made wider than steel tracks. That means vehicles fitted with them do not get stuck in the mud. The vehicles accelerate faster, too, and drivers say they handle almost as well on paved roads as wheeled vehicles do. On top of this, they are quieter. The only problem is that so far these rubber tracks (many of which are made in Quebec, Canada, by Soucy International) are not yet strong enough for 50-tonne battle tanks. But they are getting there, and already some 30-tonne vehicles are being tested with them. Via The Economist See also: 7 Gas Guzzling Military Combat Vehicles
Max Stirner (pseudonym for an early European Anarchist and Johann Caspar Schmidt) is best known as a central figure in the dissolution of the post-Hegelian philosophical milieu during the years leading up to the Prussian Revolution (and wider revolutionary events) of 1848. Born in 1806, he went to universities in an education system dominated by Hegelianism, studying philosophy, philology and religion — at times in lectures from Hegel himself. After achieving only limited success in his university exams, Stirner taught at a girls’ gymnasium in Berlin by day while frequenting coffee houses and wine bars during his off hours. He began associating with die Freien, often at Hippel’s wine bar on Friedrichstrasse, where he developed friendships with some of the major members of this rebellious intellectual circle like Bruno Bauer, Friedrich Engels (with whom he became dutzbruder ), and Arnold Ruge. Stirner’s notoriety is almost entirely due to his masterwork, Der Einzige und sein Eigentum. Although Stirner had written and published earlier essays and reviews, the appearance of this book in late 1844 came as a shock to both his comrades of die Freien and the larger liberal and radical socio cultural milieu in contemporary Prussia. Not only was his text far more radical than any other of the time (or, arguably, since), but it dealt devastatingcritical blows to Hegel’s philosophical system, the humanism of Ludwig Feuerbach, the critical criticism of Bruno Bauer, the communism of Wilhelm Weitling, the mutualist-anarchism of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and even the nascent Feuerbachian communism of Karl Marx. Following the immediate reactions to his text by Moses Hess, Feuerbach, and Bauer, Stirner published a reply titled Recensenten Stirners to clarify their rather obvious misreadings. Engels’ initial enthusiasm for Stirner’s text was quashed by Marx’s harsh discipline; soon after Marx recruited Engels to co-author a monumentally incoherent polemic in response which, unfortunately, Stirner was never able to see (and dispense with), not least due to the unpublishability of Die Deutsche Ideologie. Then, as quickly and surprisingly as his major work had appeared in 1844, it was overshadowed and almost forgotten during the uprisings and confrontations of the 1848 revolutions, and the Reaction which followed. There had certainly been plenty of de facto anarchists before the European anarchist milieu began to arise at the end of the 1700s and the beginning of the 1800s — most notably throughout prehistory. Max Stirner was not only one of the first to elaborate a consistently anarchist theoretical orientation; he was also the most sophisticated and important anarchist critic of philosophy then and since. Nevertheless, his influence both within and without the anarchist milieu has always been extremely controversial. Stirner’s descriptive, phenomenological egoism and absolute refusal of any and all forms of enslavement have been a perennial source of embarrassment for would-be anarchist moralists, ideologues, and politicians of all persuasions (especially leftists, but also including individualists and others). By clearly and openly acknowledging that every unique individual always makes her or his own decisions and cannot avoid the choices of self-possession or self-alienation and enslavement presented at each moment, Stirner scandalously exposes every attempt not only by reactionaries, but by self-proclaimed radicals and alleged anarchists to recuperate rebellion and channel it back into new forms of alienation and enslavement. In Der Einzige und sein Eigentum Stirner has harsh criticisms of those who attempt to legislate slavery through the imposition of compulsory morality, ideologists who attempt to justify submission to the political state and capitalist economy (or equivalent institutional forms), and politicians who ride herd on the rabble in an attempt to keep everyone in line. Throughout their history, Marxist ideologists, militarists, and politicians have treated Stirner as the arch-anarchist. But even within the anarchist milieu, from Proudhon to Bakunin, from Kropotkin to Faure, from Maximoff to Arshinov, and especially amongst the rank-and-file ideologues of the anarcho-left throughout the twentieth century, the words of Max Stirner have been anathema — or worse! Still, (and quite infuriatingly to anarcho-leftists) there has always been a minority of spirited radicals, including the undomesticated and undisciplined uncontrollables among the anarchists, who have heeded Stirner’s warnings and criticisms, refusing to allow any words, doctrines, or institutions to dominate them. As Stirner proclaimed, “Nothing is more to me than myself!” This clearly implies that I am only free when I choose how to live my own life. Politicians, economists, ideologists, priests, philosophers, cops, and every other con artist with or without official papers, plans, and/or bombs and guns: get the fuck out of our lives! And that includes any fake anarchists who think they can pull the wool over our eyes! Roughly equivalent to a college prep school. “The Free,” a group of free-wheeling Young Hegelians. Someone familiar enough to be addressed by the informal “you”(du in German, combined with bruder [brother]). Literally, “The Unique One and Its Property,” which is usually translated into English under the misleading title of The Ego and Its Own. The original title was Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum; the standard German spelling of the latter word has changed sometime around 1900 to “Eigentum.” The publication date was 1845, but the book appeared some time in the summer of 1844, and had already been read by Engels before December of that year, when he wrote about it to Marx. “Stirner’s Critics”; this lucid (but usually ignored) defense appeared in Wigands Vierteljahrsschrift in September, 1845. After Marx became a god in the lands of gulags, commissars, and secret police The German Ideology finally appeared in print, but almost always with the nearly unreadable bulk of the book dealing with Stirner expurgated.
When an industry’s employees push 96% of its reportable campaign contributions to one candidate, it’s fair to say it has a bias in a particular direction. When that industry is the national media, much of which purports to deliver objective reporting and analysis of said campaign, it’s more than fair to assume that the bias enters into their product. Washington Post analyst Callum Borchers tries to argue today that not all media figures are equal, and that political contributions do not measure media bias: The donation discrepancy certainly won’t boost confidence in the neutrality of news reports, but numbers don’t tell the whole story. There are no campaign trail reporters on the list of Clinton contributors named in the Center for Public Integrity’s report; the only name that could be classified as covering the presidential politics beat in any way this year would be RT host Larry King, whose celebrity-oriented show features occasional political interviews … The Center for Public Integrity’s findings would be far more concerning if they included the journalists who shape coverage of the race for the White House. One could argue that people who work in the media — in any capacity — should refrain from making political donations. But because not everyone subscribes to that philosophy, let’s be clear about who the donors are: They are TV and food critics, sports and fashion editors, and local news reporters. Borchers is correct that donations do not measure bias in reporting, although they can certainly indicate some bias in the reporters themselves. Fortunately, we don’t need to look far to corroborate what the CPI research suggests. The Shorenstein Center has conducted two surveys of media coverage in this cycle, the latter of which focused on media coverage of the four-week period in which the two major-party conventions took place. In my column for The Week, I contrast the coverage given to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and the disparity becomes pretty obvious — and spectacular: A study from Harvard’s Shorenstein Center of the four weeks encompassing and surrounding the two major-party political conventions makes this obvious. Trump’s news coverage during this period was 75 percent negative; the friendliest week Trump got from the media was the week of the convention itself — when it was “only” 55 percent negative. Contrast that with the treatment Hillary Clinton received in the same period, which overall was 44 percent positive. Where no news outlet in the Shorenstein study managed to get to 40 percent positive coverage of Trump, all but one (Washington Times) had 40 percent or more positive coverage of Clinton. Four of the 11 media outlets offered better than 50 percent positive coverage to Clinton. While coverage of Trump’s qualifications only generated 22 percent positive coverage, 69 percent of the coverage of Clinton’s leadership qualities was positive. Unlike Borchers’ argument, this relates directly to news coverage, not talking-head punditry or food reviews. Recall too that both conventions had divisive atmospheres, so there’s not much of an excuse for disparity of treatment. The first day of the Democratic convention was dominated by booing and protests from Bernie Sanders’ delegates, and at one point they “occupied” the media tent to get more attention from the press. This cuts both ways, though, as the first Shorenstein study proved in July. Trump benefited from a bias in both scope and tone of coverage from the national media, with a 2:1 positive ratio on the latter throughout 2015. Thomas Patterson, the author of both studies, noted the dramatic change in coverage in his second analysis. “From the time he announced his candidacy until the start of the conventions,” he points out, “Trump had not experienced anywhere near the press criticism directed at him during the final two weeks of the convention period.” Until then, Trump and his backers assumed that he had a winning formula of manipulating the media, but that turned out to be an illusion: Republicans have long contended with media bias. That was one of Trump’s supposed selling points — that his celebrity would outmatch any bias in the media, and that his own media savvy would make him unbeatable. Republicans who prized victory over policy or character backed Trump because he would hold nothing back, taking the fight to the Clintons and using his mastery of media manipulation to benefit the GOP. Skeptics pointed out that Trump’s long and controversial history in business and the media made him particularly vulnerable to late-season attacks based on opposition research — and that primary media coverage patterns would not hold up in the general-election season. Clearly, the skeptics got it right. In a way, everyone’s right. Trump is correct that the media is trying to “rig” the election through its coverage and influence with voters. However, Trump might not be here at all had it not been for media manipulation in the primary, either through his own power or as a longer-term strategy from the media itself. It’s also a lesson that running an unvetted and inexperienced candidate in a general election will usually backfire, especially for Republicans facing a hostile media environment. But there is absolutely no doubt that this media bias exists.
Preliminary architectural rendering for the UNLV Medical School building. (UNLV) Barbara Atkinson, founding dean of UNLV's School of Medicine, announces the school's receipt of a $3 million grant from United Health Foundation, April 5, 2016. (Jason Ogulnik/Las Vegas Review-Journal) It’s official: UNLV’s burgeoning medical school has been granted preliminary accreditation, allowing the institution to begin recruiting and accepting students for its first class in 2017. University officials received the good news Tuesday from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which accredits medical degree-granting institutions in the United States and Canada. In addition to announcing the decision, they released a preliminary rendering of the school’s planned academic building. The accreditation decision eliminates one of the final regulatory barriers to the medical school’s debut and allows admissions officials to move forward with student recruitment for the UNLV School of Medicine’s charter class of students, who are expected to begin courses July 17. It also clears the way for the UNLV School of Medicine to become the first accredited allopathic medical school capable of granting MD degrees in Southern Nevada. UNLV President Len Jessup said the accreditation decision moves the university one step closer to its goal of becoming a top-tier research institution and affirms the quality of the developing medical program. “This is truly significant for the university,” he said. “It’s the permission that we’ve been waiting for to begin admitting students.” The approval follows a site visit and report by a team sent by the accreditation committee over the summer to assess the nascent school. That committee’s report complimented the UNLV School of Medicine’s planned curriculum, community collaboration and staffing, while suggesting improvement in diversity planning and details of student health care, said school Dean Barbara Atkinson. She emphasized that full accreditation is a years-long process, but preliminary accreditation authorizes the school to open its doors. “This is the main step,” Atkinson said. “This is the one that really says that we’re an accredited medical school.” The UNLV School of Medicine can now join the Association of American Medical Colleges, which runs a central database that schools can use to process admissions applications. Within a week, the school should have access to the database and will have the ability to solicit applications from interested students. The school’s admissions committee will then assess applications and is expected to select the first class of students by March, Atkinson said. The medical school awaits a $100 million donation before beginning work on a planned building in the Las Vegas Medical District. In the meantime, it’s completing renovations to a space atop the UNLV School of Dental Medicine building on the Shadow Lane campus as its temporary quarters. That space, which will be used for classes and other student space, should be complete and furnished within a month, Atkinson said. “It’s unbelievably quick,” she said of the school’s development. “This is as fast as you can do it. There’s no way it can be done any faster than this.” The university, in conjunction with the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents, has arranged to transition many of the health clinics and graduate medical education programs operated by the University of Nevada, Reno, School of Medicine in Southern Nevada to UNLV’s control. With the introduction of a new medical school in the southern part of the state, the Reno school will shift its focus to Northern Nevada. Many of the Reno school’s Southern Nevada-based faculty also will transition to UNLV by next July. Contact Pashtana Usufzy at pusufzy@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4563. Follow @pashtana_u on Twitter.
Santa Claus has the Village full of new fun this year for both kids and parents. Check your Naughty or Nice rating on the new Nice- O- Meter ™. Visit the new Toy Workshop to choose your personal Elf Buddy and see the most incredible Toy Making Machine yet. At Santa's House, see him playing basketball and having snowball fights on the The Santa Show. You can even listen to original Claus.com Christmas songs and see a fully animated cartoon! Play with the reindeer in the new Reindeer Barn. Play games in Elf School. Print your Honorary Elf Diplomas. Try funny holiday recipes. Send e- mail to Santa Claus. Follow Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. And much more. To get started, click on any Village building or the text links below. Have fun and come back often!
February 12, 2017 • Beef Dish • home cooking • Noodles This Beef Tendon Noodle Soup is one of the traditional noodle soups in China. This style of noodle soup is mostly popular in Northern China and Northwestern China. To create the thick and fragrant beef soup, many spices are used using the traditional method, including some spices uncommonly seen and used in other part of world. But thanks to the ready-to-use Shengchubao braised sauce, the process to create a delicious soup base becomes much easier, especially for those not in China. Before you proceed with the following recipe, you need to be aware that to create your own beef noodle soup base is time-consuming (4-5 hour boiling soup, 30 min beef preparation, 10 min to cut beef tendon into slices, 10 min to cook noodles). But you won't regret it once you sit in front of the hot noodle soup. Prepartion Time: 30 min Cooking Time: 5 hour Food Materials: For Noodle Soup Base: 1. Beef Tendon 500g 2. Beef Bone (preferably Beef Shank Bone) 1000g 3. Chicken Bone (whole bone frame) 200g 4. Shengchubao Braised Chicken Sauce: 150g 5. Salt: 20g or to your preference For Noodles: 5. Noodles: 200g 6. Cilantro Pieces: 5g Instructions: 1. Simmer beef shank bones, chicken bones, beef tendon in a big pot of boiling water for 2-3 min and get rid of the foams on the top of water (mostly composed of blood) 2. Add 20g salt and 150g braised chicken sauce in the pot; 3. Use high heat with the pot for 5 hours (add water during the process when the soup is less than 2/3 of pot) 4. Turn off the heat and get out Beef Tendon in a bowl to cook down 5. Cut the beef tendorn into thin slices after it's cool or cut it into cubes 6. Use another pot to cook the noodles (add noodles into the boiling water, get the noodles out in a bowl after it's fully cooked - 1-10 minutes depending on what type of noodles) 7. Put the beef tendon slices on top of the noodle bowl; 8. Add beef soup base from the pot to the noodle bowl, let the noodel fully indulged in the soup; 9. Spray the cilantro pieces on top of the noodle bowl You can also add chili oil for extra layer of taste as shown below. Below is the brief video for your reference
Less than 24 hours after losing in double overtime to Tennessee, Georgia Tech began preparations for its Saturday matchup with Jacksonville State at Bobby Dodd Stadium. The Yellow Jackets had a brief practice Tuesday to address mistakes made in the 42-41 loss in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff game and to do conditioning work. The team will not practice in pads this week, a rarity for a Johnson-coached team. “It seems like we were just playing,” Johnson said following the Tuesday practice. “It’s going to be a challenge for them mentally and physically.” Johnson did not have updates on defensive tackle Kyle Cerge-Henderson, who suffered a leg injury in the Tennessee game and was on crutches afterward. Johnson said he thought A-back Clinton Lynch, who sat out of Monday’s game with a lower-body injury, was getting closer to being cleared to play. Johnson said Lynch was supposed to run in Tuesday’s practice, but he had not yet received a report. Johnson said there were a couple other players “banged up” in the game. Part of Tech’s challenge this week will be rebounding from a crushing loss – Tech had led by 14 points early in the fourth quarter and then lost on the final play of the game, a failed two-point conversion attempt – and prepare for a team that is at the FCS level but has on occasion punched above its weight. Jacksonville State, ranked No. 5 in FCS, took Auburn to overtime in 2015 and beat Ole Miss in overtime in 2010. “These guys are pretty good,” Johnson said. Further, the Tech offense played 96 snaps against Tennessee, the most in Johnson’s tenure, according to sports-reference.com.
IAC (InterActiveCorp) is an American holding company, that owns over 150 brands across 100 countries, mostly in media and Internet[1] headquartered in New York City.[2] Joey Levin, who previously led the company's Search & Applications segment,[3] has been the company's Chief Executive Officer since June 2015.[4] History [ edit ] 1980s and 1990s [ edit ] IAC was established in 1986 as Silver King Broadcasting Company, as part of a plan to increase viewership of the Home Shopping Network (HSN) by purchasing local television stations.[5][6] By 1988, Silver King had bought 11 stations for about $220 million.[6] The company was later renamed as HSN Communications, Inc., and then Silver King Communications, Inc.[5] In 1992, Silver King was spun off to HSN shareholders as a separately traded public company.[7] In August 1995, Barry Diller acquired control of Silver King, in a deal backed by the company's largest shareholder, Liberty Media.[8][9] Diller, who had led the creation of the Fox network, reportedly hoped to use Silver King's stations as the foundation for a new broadcast network.[9] In December 1996, Silver King acquired an 80% stake in HSN for $1.3 billion in stock, and changed its own name to HSN, Inc.[10][11][12] At the same time, the company acquired Savoy Pictures, a failed film studio that owned four Fox affiliate stations through SF Broadcasting, for $210 million in stock.[13] The company acquired several assets in the late 1990s. HSN purchased a controlling stake in Ticketmaster Group in July 1997,[14] and then acquired the rest of the company in June 1998.[15][16] In February 1998, it acquired the television assets of Universal Studios (including USA Network, Sci-Fi Channel, and Universal Television's domestic production and distribution arms) for $4.1 billion.[17][18] The company's name was changed to USA Networks, Inc. at this point.[18] Continuing its acquisition strategy, the company acquired the Hotel Reservations Network in May 1999 for $149 million.[19][20] USA Networks merged the online division of Ticketmaster with city guide website CitySearch in September 1998, establishing a new company that went public as Ticketmaster Online–CitySearch (TMCS).[21][22] USA then sold Ticketmaster proper to TMCS in 2001, retaining a 61 percent share in the combined company, which became known as simply Ticketmaster.[23][24] USA brought Ticketmaster back under full ownership in 2003, purchasing all outstanding shares.[25] 2000s [ edit ] In the early 2000s, USA Networks began divesting itself of its traditional television broadcasting and production units. In May 2001, Univision Communications acquired USA Broadcasting (a division of USA Networks including 13 local stations).[26] The next year, Vivendi bought the rest of USA's broadcast entertainment businesses, including the USA Network and Sci-Fi Channel.[27] This led to the creation of a new company named Vivendi Universal Entertainment, led by Diller.[28] Throughout this transition, USA Networks continued to build up its online portfolio. In July 2001, the company entered the online travel business with its acquisition of Expedia,[29] followed the next year by an acquisition of Interval International.[30] Following the shift in focus to online assets, the company changed its name to USA Interactive (USAI)[31] in May 2002;[32] InterActiveCorp in June 2003;[33] and finally to IAC/InterActiveCorp in July 2004.[34] In August 2003, IAC acquired the online mortgage comparison site LendingTree,[35] and in September, the company added discount travel website Hotwire.com to its growing list of acquisitions.[36] In October, IAC agreed to buy French travel site Anyway.com from Transat A.T. for $62.7 million.[37] In 2004 and 2005, IAC continued its growth through acquisition, adding assets including TripAdvisor,[38] ServiceMagic,[39] and Ask Jeeves.[40] It also launched Gifts.com during this period.[41] In August 2005, the company bundled together its travel-related sites and spun them off as a new public company, Expedia, Inc.[42] Additional acquisitions in 2006 included Shoebuy.com[43] and Connected Ventures including CollegeHumor and Vimeo.[44] In May 2008, IAC and Ask.com acquired Lexico, the owner of Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com.[45] In August 2008, IAC spun off several of its businesses, including: Tree.com (formerly LendingTree), the Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster, and Interval International.[46] 2009 saw the acquisition of Urbanspoon[47] and People Media,[48] and the launch of production company Notional.[49] In July 2009, IAC partnered with Ben Silverman to create Electus, a company focused on multimedia production and online distribution.[50] 2010s [ edit ] IAC's long-time largest shareholder, Liberty Media, exited the company in 2010, following a protracted dispute over the 2008 spinoffs.[51][52] Liberty traded its IAC stock for $220 million in cash, plus ownership of Evite and Gifts.com.[51] On the same day, Diller stepped down as CEO, though he remained as chairman, with a 34% voting stake in the company; Match.com CEO Greg Blatt was appointed to succeed him.[51] In 2010, IAC acquired dating site Singlesnet[53] and fitness site DailyBurn.[54] In February 2011, IAC acquired the free-to-contact dating site, OkCupid, for $50 million.[55] In April 2011, IAC extended its deal with Google, originally worth $3.5 billion, to hand over all search advertising on Ask.com and other IAC search products through March 31, 2016.[56] On February 14, 2012, Barry Diller introduced Aereo, an Internet television service. In March 2012 in New York City, Aereo started streaming all of the broadcast networks to smartphones, tablets and televisions with Internet capability.[57] On June 25, 2014, in a 6-3 Opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Aereo. The Court found that Aereo infringed upon the rights of copyright holders.[58] On August 26, 2012, IAC acquired About.com from the New York Times.[59] In January 2013, IAC acquired online tutoring firm Tutor.com.[60] On August 3, 2013, IAC sold Newsweek to the International Business Times on undisclosed terms.[61] In November 2013, IAC acquired Investopedia and PriceRunner from ValueClick.[62] On December 22, 2013, IAC fired their Director of Corporate Communications, Justine Sacco after an AIDS joke she posted to Twitter went viral,[63] being re-tweeted and scorned around the world.[64] The incident became a byword for the need for people to be cautious about what they post on social media.[65] In January 2014, IAC acquired a segment of ValueClick's business, including Investopedia and PriceRunner.[66] Later that year, in August, IAC acquired ASKfm for an undisclosed sum.[67] In January 2015, IAC sold Urbanspoon to Zomato for $52 million.[68] In June 2015, IAC announced its intent to pursue an IPO of Match Group,[69] which officially filed documents for an initial public offering on October 16.[70] Shares of Match Group (MTCH) debuted on the Nasdaq on November 19, and finished that first day up 23% from the initial public offering price of $12.[71] On July 14, 2015, the dating service PlentyOfFish was purchased for $575 million in cash to become a part of Match Group.[72] On December 9, 2015, IAC announced the creation of IAC Publishing, a unit that combines The Daily Beast, About.com, Dictionary.com and Investopedia into a single operating group.[73] On January 21, 2016, IAC announced a realignment of its reportable segments and a change of its ticker symbol to IAC from IACI.[74] In March 2016, IAC completed the sale of PriceRunner to NS Intressenter AB, a Swedish private equity firm.[75] On May 2, 2016, IAC's Vimeo announced the acquisition of VHX, a platform for premium over-the-top subscription video channels.[76] On October 10, 2016, IAC's HomeAdvisor announced the acquisition of MyHammer, a home services marketplace in Germany.[77] On December 30, 2016, IAC completed the sale of ShoeBuy to Jet.[78] On February 9, 2017, IAC's HomeAdvisor announced the acquisition of HomeStars, a Canadian home services platform.[79] On March 27, 2017, IAC's HomeAdvisor announced the acquisition of MyBuilder, a home services marketplace in the UK.[80] On May 1, 2017, IAC announced it had entered into a definitive agreement with Angie's List to combine IAC's HomeAdvisor and Angie's List into a new publicly-traded company, to be called ANGI Homeservices Inc.[81][82] Businesses [ edit ] In January 2016, IAC categorized its businesses into distinct segments for the purposes of financial reporting. Those segments are labelled by the company as Match Group, Publishing, Applications, Video, and HomeAdvisor. Each business listed may have multiple brands connected to it.[74] HomeAdvisor ceased to be one of these when it became part of the publicly-traded ANGI Homeservices Inc. in 2017 which is 90% owned by IAC [83][84] Corporate affairs [ edit ] Board of directors [ edit ] IAC's board of directors consists of the following members:[4] See also [ edit ]
Get the biggest daily news stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Couples can literally take the plunge into married life after an aquarium became the first venue in Britain - to hold ‘underwater weddings’. The tourist attraction will be able to marry couples either in the aquarium or in the shark tank. And staff at the Sea Life Centre in Blackpool, Lancashire, have already received some enquiries for the venue, better known for sharks and stingrays than brides and grooms. Couples can choose to either don an alternative underwater look, complete with wetsuit and flippers, or stick to traditional wedding attire. (Image: Cavendish Press) (Image: Cavendish Press) (Image: Cavendish Press) They’ll then be lowered into the main display tank alongside sharks , stingrays and other marine creatures. The happy couple then exchange their vows in the water, with their heads just above the waves so the registrar can hear them clearly to comply with the law. They can also choose to be married in other, drier parts of the aquarium, if they wish, such as in the shark tunnel or in front of the giant ocean window, with colourful sea creatures making a spectacular backdrop. (Image: Cavendish Press) (Image: Cavendish Press) (Image: Cavendish Press) The attraction can also provide champagne and canapes for guests on arrival, as well as a full wedding breakfast to follow the ceremony. Sea Life general manager Matthew Titherington said: “We’ve taken a number of enquiries already from couples, especially diving enthusiasts, who want to get married amongst the underwater creatures. (Image: Cavendish Press) (Image: Cavendish Press) “The registrar will stand in front of the display to conduct proceedings rather than actually climbing into the tank. “Blackpool Register Office were pleasantly surprised by our request and think it makes an exciting venue. “We can promise couples a truly memorable and unusual wedding day.”
If you’ve decided to move a few tables from MySQL to PostgreSQL, these few tips might help. I won’t get into any reasons why to move to PostgreSQL or not. There are already many discussions on the topic. Create Syntax The first five listed need to be done in order; the rest can be in any. Replace mediumint with int with Replace tinyint with smallint with Replace int$[0-9]+$ with int . (This is a regular expression that will find any instance of int() where there is at least one number between the parenthesis) with . (This is a regular expression that will find any instance of int() where there is at least one number between the parenthesis) Remove all instances of NOT NULL I don’t know what I was thinking here. I don’t know what I was thinking here. Replace int \s +auto_increment with SERIAL (Another regular expression that will catch a case with multiple spaces between int and auto_increment). UPDATE : try int(\s+\|\s+NOT NULL\s+)auto_increment instead to catch when not null is in between int and auto. UPDATE : try (smallint\|int)(\s+\|\s+NOT NULL\s+)auto_increment so it will catch the case when it is smallint as well. with (Another regular expression that will catch a case with multiple spaces between int and auto_increment). Remove ENGINE=MyISAM (Change if you use a different engine, i.e. innodb) (Change if you use a different engine, i.e. innodb) Remove DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 (Change if you use a different character set) (Change if you use a different character set) Remove AUTO_INCREMENT=[0-9]+ (Another regular expression to find all cases of an auto increment number) (Another regular expression to find all cases of an auto increment number) Remove IF NOT EXISTS Remove all ` phpMyAdmin phpMyAdmin has options when exporting that may make some of these steps unnecessary. If you keep the create sql in a separate file from the insert sql, you save yourself from changing any data that may look like some of the above when it isn’t actual sql syntax. Auto Increment and Serial After running the create table SQL, a sequence table will be created for the serial column. This sequence will need to be altered if the auto increment won’t be starting at one. A query like the one below will need to be done for each table. ALTER SEQUENCE tab_name_col_name_seq RESTART WITH #; Indexes To define a column to be indexed, it is done in a separate query. Remove anything that looks like KEY username (username). The query to run after the create table query should look like CREATE INDEX index_name ON table_name ( column_name ) ; Insert Syntax The syntax here is pretty close, just one thing needs to be changed. Replace “” with \”. (MySQL and PostgreSQL use different methods of escaping these quotes.) Make sure the complete inserts option is enabled and extended inserts isn’t. PosgreSQL doesn’t support multiple inserts with one query the same way. (As far as I know at the moment) Your Mileage May Vary This was tested using phpMyAdmin export and phpPgAdmin SQL executing. The regular expressions and other replace commands were done in jEdit. With my few test cases I probably didn’t catch everything. Let me know how it works out for you. I use webfaction to host a lot of my django projects. It has an easy setup that will get you developing quickly and a great community of talented programmers. There is also a quick setup for rails, wordpress, and a lot more. Related posts:
Aurora, Kim Stanley Robinson’s latest novel, is his version of the generation ship science fiction novel. The book, in some ways, can also be seen as a companion piece to his Nebula Award winning 2312. That novel postulated a possible future three hundred years from now, when humanity has spread across the solar system. This book extends that concept to tell a story about humanity’s future attempts to extend itself outside the solar system. Robinson takes the concept of a generation ship, a trope used in many science fiction stories, and applies exacting and cutting-edge scientific detail to question what it will actually be like when humanity tries to travel to the distant stars. The answer isn’t pretty, though the novel itself is quite stunning. Most of the novel is set on a generation ship travelling at one tenth the speed of light for almost 200 years to a moon orbiting Planet E in the Tau Ceti system twelve light years away from Earth. The ship contains 24 ecosystems representing all the diverse climates on Earth and is packed full with as many animals and plants as it can carry (allowing for an optimal balance between weight and fuel). Each biome contains a fully functional society making up a total population of a little over 2,000 people. This is obviously a multigenerational endeavour and birth control technologies are used to ensure that the population of the ship is maintained at a constant level. Each generation keeps the ship functioning, along with the artificial intelligence inhabiting a quantum computer at the core of the ship, and teaches each subsequent generation the knowledge and skills they need to do the same. Therefore, whole generations are born and die on the ship without ever knowing Earth or their destination planet in Tau Ceti. Readers pick up the story as the ship enters the last leg of its journey towards their destination in Tau Ceti, which is a moon the crew have named Aurora. Early in the novel readers are told “A narrative account focuses on representative individuals, which creates the problem of misrepresentation by way of the particular overshadowing the general.” In this case, the story focuses on a young girl named Freya, and it’s through her narrative that readers experience the fate of the entire expedition to Tau Ceti. Freya lives in the biome known as Nova Scotia and is the daughter of two prominent individuals onboard the ship. Her father, Badim, is the person Freya spends most her time with, and he is one of the medical officers onboard. However, it’s Freya’s mother, Devi, an engineer, who is most respected, not only by Freya, but also almost the entirety of the ship’s passengers. Devi has a close relationship with the ship’s AI, and is most instrumental in keeping everything functional. Devi has a massive weight on her shoulders, because as the ship draws nearer to Aurora the problems faced by the crew are increasingly escalating. The ecosystems in the self contained biomes begin to unbalance after two centuries of travelling and parts of the ship itself are starting to malfunction as a result of the pressures exerted during a decades long deceleration. Compared to her mother, Freya seems unexceptional, or perhaps even the victim of a process of devolution which is beginning the affect those onboard, another source of frustration and fear for Devi. However, it turns out that Freya has many qualities that endear her to the people of the ship. For example, she is unusually large and very practically minded, making her an ideal person to help out with many odd tasks in the diverse communities living within the ship. Surprisingly, by the time the ship reaches Aurora, Freya is in her prime and a leader amongst the passengers. Of course, when the ship arrives at Aurora is when the crew is truly tested. I have sometimes seen science fiction described as a mode of writing, rather than a genre. The theory goes that science fiction more often than not must be combined with another genre. There are many prominent examples of science fiction thrillers or science fiction war stories. Aurora seems to me to be very much proof that science fiction can be a stand-alone genre. Not only is this book pure science fiction, it is also a book that is in dialogue with science fiction. It takes the now venerable notion that it will one day be possible for humans to travel and live around distant stars, and dissects it with startling logic and clarity. But there are two things that make Robinson’s books read like works of art, rather than pop science. The first thing is the audacity of his imagination, which is on full, widescreen display here. I daresay there will not be another book that evokes the same magical level of sense of wonder produced in the field this year. The second thing is Robinson’s deep and penetrating sense of humanity. Despite the rich scientific content, Robinson never loses sight of the human element of his story, and he contextualises the ideas he explores within deeply personal and relatable experiences. Having just gushed about the book, I do have to acknowledge that Robinson writes books in which the strengths for some readers will be the weaknesses for others, and Aurora is no exception. Aurora is a book full of dense and long techno dumps, and though, in my opinion, Robinson has long been able to make these flow like poetry, readers bored by exacting scientific detail will struggle with Aurora. 2312 was criticised by some for having a plot that was low on the list of priorities compared to other elements of the book. While Aurora undoubtedly has more narrative pull than its predecessor, it is nevertheless a very slow moving affair, which will frustrate those looking for a driving story. The book is also, on what I regard as a somewhat superficial level, born from a deep source a pessimism, that many science fiction readers may object to. I say on a superficial level because, though the book (without giving away too many spoilers) is against the idea that humanity will ever travel to, and colonise, other star systems, it is ultimately a very hopeful novel. By the end of the book readers should have a new sense of affection for the blue planet that cradled us, and be inspired to find solid footing on the ground underneath us. Any new science fiction book from Robinson is a major event. Like many of his novels in the past, I predict Aurora will make the shortlist for many awards in 2015, both popular and juried. In my opinion, it is a book that also deserves to win one or two too. He is a writer that is both in deep conversation with the history of the genre, and at the forefront of pioneers crafting a literature of challenging and exciting ideas into the future. With Aurora he has written a book that will make you look at blue skies and blue oceans with a renewed sense of value and possibility. Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson Published by Orbit, July 2014 480 pages ISBN: 9780316098106 Review copy received from publisher Review by Luke Brown, June 2015 Share this post: on Twitter on Facebook on Google+
A Horde of New 5th Edition Monsters! DM: “A collection of hundreds of eyes floats down the corridor toward you, trailing ganglia and dripping caustic fluid that sizzles when it hits the ground. What do you do?” PLAYER: “I retire, and become a farmer.” Whether you need dungeon vermin or a world-shaking personification of evil, the Tome of Beasts has it. Here are more than 400 new foes for your 5th Edition game-everything from tiny drakes and peculiar spiders, to demon lords and ancient dragons. Tome of Beasts includes monsters from the entire history of Kobold Press, with longtime favorites such as: Clockwork creatures Drakes and dragons Devils and arch-devils Dangerous flavors of the fey Undead-and much more! Use them in your favorite published setting, or populate the dungeons in a world of your own creation. Pick up Tome of Beasts and give your players an encounter they won’t soon forget! *** Also Available: One-shot adventures using creatures from Tome of Beasts, in the Book of Lairs and in the Prepared collection. Pawns: A full 300 pawns are available to complement the Tome of Beasts on your battlemat, from small to HUGE.
The model in the controversial "racist" advert for Dove says it was actually meant to represent diversity. Lola Ogunyemi has defended the Facebook ad which caused an internet backlash after it appeared to show her turning white after using the body wash. She told Newsbeat she was excited to be part of the campaign as it was "supposed to be about all skin types deserving gentleness". She says the ad was taken out of context but gets why people were upset. The ad posted on Facebook showed Lola pulling her t-shirt off to reveal a white woman underneath, followed by her doing the same to reveal an Asian woman. It was part of a longer ad which featured five women of different ethnicities. Lola says she was excited to be the "black face in the campaign". "I wanted to get involved because as a black woman, my race and colour in beauty and media tends not to be represented. "Sometimes, if my skin tone is represented, it usually about skin lightening products so I was excited to be the black face in this campaign. "I knew the concept and understood what they were trying to do creatively. I wasn't aware of the order of which we would appear, but we were all excited about it," says Lola. A screenshot of the ad went viral which featured Lola and the white model. Several people took to twitter to criticise the beauty brand. "The social ad wasn't a fair representation of the full thing," Lola says. But she admits Dove has previously faced backlash about the way they've dealt with race in its ads. "While I think Dove has been celebrated and congratulated about campaigns in the past, they've also faced significant backlash about the way they've handled race." Lola, who was born in London and raised in Atlanta in the US, says she was overwhelmed by all the comments online about the ad. "To wake up one morning to all of these messages, was unbelievable. I think the main issue is the outrage being sparked by screenshots that were posted. "It wasn't even the full ad that people had issue with. Because of this, a different narrative has been presented. "Once Dove pulled the ad, it left no room for the public to get the full story." Lola adds: "I'm not necessarily defending Dove wholeheartedly but I would say Dove had good intentions. "Given the backlash they've faced in the past, you can see why people are upset. The fact that this could have happened should have been discussed." Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat
The ASD (Australian Signals Directorate, formerly the Defence Signals Directorate) has taken a more prescriptive approach to the advice it has been giving Australian departments and agencies by stepping up the technical advice it has made available. As part of recent changes to the Australian government's Protective Security Policy Framework, all government agencies are now required to put in place the ASD's Top 4 Strategies. ASD believes that if agencies do so, they will mitigate at least 85 percent of all intrusions that it sees via the Cyber Security Operations Centre. While the strategies were updated in October last year, agencies have had to rely on their own expertise to implement them. However, ASD has now released a more definitive technical guide for agencies to follow to meet their mandatory security requirements. The new advice is meant for system administrators and integrators, and would assist those organisations that are running a Microsoft Windows Active Directory domain, Windows 2008 R2 servers, and Windows 7 workstations. It goes through each of the four strategies — application whitelisting, patching applications, patching the operating system, and minimising administrative privileges — even going as far as to step through each of the dialog boxes required to implement local security policies. In a similar manner, ASD has also released advice on the security considerations and controls for virtual private networks, and updated its advice for assessing security vulnerabilities and patches.
The timekeepers responsible for allowing the first round of the Gennady Golovkin-Daniel Geale middleweight world title fight to run for four minutes -- one minute longer than rounds are supposed to last -- were suspended by the New York State Athletic Commission on Monday. Daniel Geale suffered a KO loss to Gennady Golovkin last July, but recovered to beat Jarrod Fletcher in December. Mike Stobe/Getty Images Timekeeper Catherine Paolillo and backup timekeeper Clarence McMillan, neither of whom has worked an event since the fight, were each suspended for six months beginning from the date of Monday's 3-0 vote at the NYSAC meeting. Golovkin retained his 160-pound title for the 11th time and scored his 17th knockout in a row by stopping Geale in the third round July 26 at Madison Square Garden. "Timekeeping is an exacting function. It takes complete focus and care. We owe it to boxers and the entire boxing community to show that care and get it right," NYSAC executive director David Berlin told ESPN.com. "Although we cannot undo the error of July 26, we immediately investigated the matter and proceeded to hold accountable the timekeepers who allowed the first round of the Golovkin-Geale bout to run for four minutes. We strive to maintain the integrity and fairness of the sport and to ensure that such an error does not occur again." After the fight, the commission filed a complaint against Paolillo, and a hearing was held Oct. 2 before an administrative law judge, whose written recommendation to the commission was for a six-month suspension. "It is very clear from the evidence that [Paolillo] permitted the round to run an extra minute because she allowed herself to be distracted," the commission wrote in Monday's ruling, which was obtained by ESPN.com. "Most significant is the evidence showing that rather than watching the clock as she should she engaged in an animated conversation with other persons which distracted her from her duties." The ruling later said, "It is of some significance that the fighter [Geale] who eventually lost the bout was cut at the end of the extra, improper minute. While the tribunal cannot speculate on what the result of the fight would have been without that cut, that it occurred does establish that harm was done by the failure of the respondent to fulfill her duties properly. "Clearly, the respondent's conduct rises to the level of negligence. To the extent that the she allowed herself to be distracted from her duties by a conversation with other persons her conduct may be characterized as willful." According to the commission, the complaint against McMillan was resolved without a hearing, as he agreed not to apply for a license until 2017. However, it was modified to match the penalty given to Paolillo, meaning both will be eligible to apply for a license on July 5.
Press Release for Chainthon the 1st Blockchain & Bitcoin Hackathon in Greece Theme: “We Hack The Crisis” (Refugee Crisis & Economic Crisis) FOR RELEASE October 11, 2015 We are pleased to announce that the Hellenic Blockchain Community is taking a giant leap forward and announcing the 1st Bitcoin & Blockchain Hackathon in Athens, Greece on October 17, 2015. After a lot of thinking and while observing the ongoing crises that surround our geopolitical region, we have decided to organise an event in order to tackle the problem of Value Transfer during socioeconomic crises. This year, we are witnessing an economic crisis escalate into a humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of thousands are fleeing the war in the Middle East in search of a better life, only to find different obstacles in Europe. Many of the countries they travel through are facing a severe economic crisis, making it difficult to transfer money or receive donations. In Greece, capital controls restrict the free movement of capital through the traditional banking system, leaving the unbanked to rely on expensive alternatives or risk carrying large amounts of cash with them through their dangerous journey. We decided to move forward in organising an event in order to bring together people who can assist in providing solutions to fundamental problems. Our mission is to use the blockchain technology in order to assist those in need with solutions around the transfer of value during economic and geopolitical crises. Our community members are committed to making this very first event a success and a driving force for local and global change. Our mission is to create a series of events that will result in actionable solutions. We look forward to seeing you at Orange Grove (Leoforos Vasileos Konstantinou 5, 10674 Athens, Greece) on Saturday October the 17th. Anyone interested in getting involved as a sponsor, participant, member of the press, or volunteer should contact block@chainthon.com For more information, please visit www.chainthon.com & @chainthon Media Contact: The Hellenic Blockchain Community block@chainthon.com
PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) - Trinidadian hunger striker Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh, in his 65th day of consuming no food or water, says he is prepared to continue his fast, even if it means giving up his life to stop construction of a controversial highway. Highway Re-route Movement leader Wayne Kublalsingh displays a message he has written in a book signed by supporters, on the 13th day of his hunger strike outside the office of the Prime Minister in St Clair, Port-of-Spain November 27, 2012. REUTERS/Andrea De Silva “Of course, I’m prepared to die for this cause,” Kublalsingh, 55, told Reuters in a raspy whisper during a visit on Thursday to his home in D’Abadie, 20 miles east of the capital, Port of Spain. The former university lecturer embarked on his extreme form of protest over the building of part of a highway which he says will affect fragile wetland eco-systems and several close-knit communities. It’s the second time that Kublalsingh has embarked on a hunger strike over the same issue. In 2012, he staged a 21-day hunger strike outside the prime minister’s office. That ended when he supported the formation of an independent review committee to re-examine the highway construction project. The government says the new road will link two key cities and is vital to the country’s economic development. Kublalsingh began his second hunger strike after construction of the four-lane highway continued in the southern region of the country. The environmentalist said the government was given an amended proposal by supporters of his Highway Re-route Movement based on a series of connector roads and bypasses that dovetails with the state’s architect plans. Kublalsingh said if the government agrees to mediation and suspends work on the controversial portion of the highway, he will end his hunger strike. Despite many calls for the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, to intervene, she has not sought to meet with the hunger striker. Kublalsingh, while very weak and severely dehydrated, said he is mentally alert and “spiritually connected.”
Agassi claims to have taken the drug in 1997The ATP accepted his version of events Andre Agassi, one of the greatest players in modern tennis, has confessed to using the highly addictive illegal drug crystal methamphetamine while a player. The winner of eight grand slam titles including Wimbledon in 1992 has revealed he lied to the game's governing body, the Association of Tennis Professionals, by claiming he had taken the drug by accident. In his forthcoming book, serialised in the Times, Agassi says he took crystal meth at a time of personal and professional turmoil in 1997. To the outside world Agassi had it all: a glamorous fiancee – the actor Brooke Shields – wealth, fame and respect from fans of tennis. He writes of taking the drug while at home with an assistant he refers to only by the name of Slim. "Slim is stressed too … He says, You want to get high with me? On what? Gack. What the hell's gack? Crystal meth. Why do they call it gack? Because that's the sound you make when you're high … Make you feel like Superman, dude. "As if they're coming out of someone else's mouth, I hear these words: You know what? Fuck it. Yeah. Let's get high. "Slim dumps a small pile of powder on the coffee table. He cuts it, snorts it. He cuts it again. I snort some. I ease back on the couch and consider the Rubicon I've just crossed. "There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness. Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I've never felt so alive, so hopeful – and I've never felt such energy. "I'm seized by a desperate desire to clean. I go tearing around my house, cleaning it from top to bottom. I dust the furniture. I scour the tub. I make the beds." In the book Agassi tells of the moment he received the call from a doctor working for the ATP, telling him he had tested positive for drugs. "There is doom in his voice, as if he's going to tell me I'm dying," the grand slam champion writes. "And that's exactly what he tells me. "He reminds me that tennis has three classes of drug violation," Agassi writes. "Performance-enhancing drugs … would constitute a class 1, he says, which would carry a suspension of two years. However, he adds, crystal meth would seem to be a clear case of class 2. Recreational drugs." That would carry a much lower suspension of three months. Agassi goes on to tell how he duped the ATP: "My name, my career, everything is now on the line. Whatever I've achieved, whatever I've worked for, might soon mean nothing. Days later I sit in a hard-backed chair, a legal pad in my lap, and write a letter to the ATP. It's filled with lies interwoven with bits of truth. "I say Slim, whom I've since fired, is a known drug user, and that he often spikes his sodas with meth – which is true. Then I come to the central lie of the letter. I say that recently I drank accidentally from one of Slim's spiked sodas, unwittingly ingesting his drugs. I ask for understanding and leniency and hastily sign it: sincerely. "I feel ashamed, of course. I promise myself that this lie is the end of it." The ATP accepted Agassi's version of events. Agassi, now 39, has retired from professional tennis.
By Ellery Hamann CONTRIBUTOR With the intention to bust unions and repair the deficit, Governor Scott Walker has taken a radical and unprecedented move: proposing a bill that would strip away the rights of hundreds of thousands of state workers. The bill would affect teachers, doctors and nurses, librarians, and public safety workers — just to name a few. The proposed “repair bill” would deny union rights to public school teachers and other state employees, thus disallowing legitimate collective bargaining on things like salaries, rights in the workplace, and health and retirement benefits. Wisconsin has had a 50-year history of strong unions that protect the rights of state employees. You might think workers and supporters will be able to continue protests if and when the bill is passed, but Governor Walker has said that any worker who protests or walks out on the job will be fired and replaced — he has even threatened to do something not done since the 1930s: call in the National Guard. If and when this bill is passed, my family and hundreds of thousands of families across Wisconsin will be affected drastically. My mother has been a public school teacher in the Madison school district for more than 35 years and with her colleagues has fought long and hard for union rights. I have seen the ways in which the union has helped and affected my mother’s life and work and the ways in which it protects education and families. A previous art teacher of mine, whose husband is also a state employee, has said they would both have to look for new jobs if this bill is passed. This bill is not only an attack on Wisconsin families and public education but on democracy and civil rights in the United States. Few know that Governor Walker created most of the deficit within his first six weeks in office. Wisconsin was relatively well managed given the difficult economic times. According to the Cap Times, Governor Walker and his allies spent $140 million dollars in January alone in a new spending scheme to support special interests. He did not inherit a significant deficit, but even opponents of the bill widely believe he has. Former Senator Russ Feingold said Walker claiming this is about budget repair is simply “phony.” Either way, taking away the civil, if not human, rights of state workers is not the way to repair any deficit, no matter what the size. State workers and their supporters have been outraged, and protests have been held at the state capitol all week, lasting 24 hours a day. Protesters even slept in the capitol overnight Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and will likely continue to do so through the weekend. State workers and UW-Madison students have organized and protested together hoping to convince many of those legislators who are on the fence to vote “no.” This past week, school districts across Wisconsin have been closed due to teachers calling in “sick” to attend the rallies. Protesters have filled the capitol rotunda, occupying it 24 hours a day. I drove up to Madison to take part in the protest Wednesday and plan to return to Madison to continue protesting this coming weekend. I stood in solidarity with many of my previous teachers and hundreds of other state employees. Non-modest estimates of attendees reached 30,000 Wednesday and an estimated 50,000 Thursday in what are being called the biggest protests in Wisconsin’s history. There were angry faces and high spirits everywhere. Chants this week have echoed: “Hey-hey, ho-ho, Scott Walker has got to go,” “Kill this bill,” “Show me what democracy looks like — this is what democracy looks like,” “What’s disgusting? Union busting!” There has been cheering, yelling, chanting, dancing and singing — there has been democracy in action. For the first time in a long time, Democrats have proved themselves not to be afraid; they have not kowtowed to the Republicans. Around noon on Thursday it was announced that 14 Democrats failed to show up at the capitol and the vote had to be stalled. Protesters in and around the state capitol were elated upon hearing the update. The Democrats, all of whom are strongly opposed to the bill, left the state in objection. Rumors quickly spread that state troopers were sent to find them. As of Thursday afternoon they were known to be in different secure locations outside of state borders. These 14 Democrats have said they refuse to return until Governor Walker agrees to sit down with union leaders for negotiations. Republicans hold a 19-14 majority but need at least one Democrat to be present in order to proceed with voting. Thursday afternoon, protesters began sitting in groups to block doorways in order to physically block Senate members from entering the chamber. Nine arrests occurred Thursday afternoon. Having made national news Wednesday, the protests will continue into the weekend until the bill is voted on or negotiations begin, which may not occur until early next week. What exactly will happen in the next few days is entirely unknown, and what the response to the bill passing would be like is also unknown. What Governor Walker is doing is unprecedented in the state of Wisconsin. Drastic measures like these have rarely been seen in U.S. history. Taking away the civil rights of state employees is undemocratic and, in my mind, simply not an option when it comes to budget repair — especially when the deficit is a result of new spending to support party allies and special interests. The issue is not just about teacher salary and changes in benefits; it is about the civil right to collectively bargain being taken away. The bill is an attack on democracy in our country. If you would like to take some sort of action, there are several things you can do: you can make your way up to Madison for a weekend of protests, you can join in the Beloit student-led protests next Monday and you can call the Wisconsin legislators listed below who are believed to be on the fence about whether to vote “no”: Michael Ellis (19th Dist.) 608-266-0718 Scott Fitzgerald (13th Dist.) 608-266-5660 Randy Hopper (18th Dist.) 608-266-5300 Dan Kapanke (32nd Dist.) 608-266-5490 Luther Olsen (14th Dist.) 608-266-0751 Dale Schultz (17th Dist.) 608-266-0703 Van Wanggaard (21st Dist.) 608-266-1832 Advertisements
Alan Tennyson holds more than 20 fossilized kakapo beaks. Just 154 of the birds are alive today. Courtesy Te Papa The lush vineyards of Martinborough, New Zealand, sit upon a thick crust of limestone. At one time, a few thousand years ago, the rocky landscape was entirely covered with thick native bush, and was home to countless reptiles and flightless birds, carousing and careening beneath the canopy, with nary a human in sight. The forest also concealed the limestone’s pits and troughs—presenting a fatal risk to clumsy or unwary kakapo or takahe. Thousands of these birds met their demise in one particular hidden limestone cave, known technically as a “pitfall trap.” Once they fell in, there was no way out without flight-functional wings. Over the last century, enthusiasts and scientists have collected fossils from as many as 1,000 individuals from this cave, making it the richest site in the whole country for avian and reptilian fossils. From the outside, the cave seems unspectacular, but no one knows quite how deep it goes. A deer hunter first stumbled across it in 1914, without imagining the vast paleontological treasures within. Beginning in 1920, regular expeditions have been made, with several tons of earth and bones excavated so far. Most recently, New Zealand’s national museum, Te Papa, sent vertebrate curator Alan Tennyson in as part of a digging party. It is thought that the first 1,000 skeletons barely scratch the surface. There could be thousands more. The pit is located in the town of Martinborough in the Wairarapa. Courtesy Te Papa In this last dig, so many samples were extracted that only about half have been sorted. So far, Tennyson has identified seven North Island takahe, 80 kakapo, 25 moa, 30 kiwi, 90 Finsch’s ducks, 11 weta, and 22 adzebills. The adzebills (a three-foot-tall, dodo-like bird) and moa were both hunted to extinction not long after the first Polynesian settlers arrived in the 13th century. Finsch’s duck, a flightless waterfowl that was at one time the most common duck in the country, seems to have gone extinct around 1870, again related to hunting, and human-introduced mammals. And of the five species of kiwi native to New Zealand, two are endangered, two vulnerable, and the last at risk. Just 154 kakapo, a cuddly flightless parrot, remain, and about 300 takahē, a flightless rail. (The weta, a large and horrible bug, is also endangered.) These fossils suggest that these currently extinct, rare, or special birds were once unexceptional, even commonplace, in the region. For now, as scientists catalog their treasures, the cave continues to hide its true depths. “In the future,” Tennyson said, in a statement, “better technology might come along that helps us do a more systematic excavation and allows us to know how deep the pit goes.”
Las pantallas con la información minuto a minuto cambian de color. De pronto, las cotizaciones dejan de mostrarse en rojo y reflejan un verde inobjetable. Nada que pase de rojo a verde puede ser malo, y en el mercado bursátil, es sinónimo de alegría. Muchos compran y venden día a día acciones de las empresas más variadas: Apple, Banco Galicia, Disney, MercadoLibre, Procter & Gamble o Tenaris. Todas forman parte de un universo del que muchos quisieran participar, aunque no saben cómo. Por eso, no está de más repasar los aspectos básicos para quienes busquen revisar diariamente la cotización del Merval, el Nasdaq o el Bovespa. Además, las particularidades de las cotizaciones en el mercado argentino. Paso a paso Lo primero a saber es que una persona, por su cuenta, no puede comprar acciones. Necesita de un intermediario como es un agente de Bolsa o una sociedad de Bolsa. En el caso de que se quiera comprar acciones en otro país, se deberá tener un operador radicado en ese mercado (por eso esta nota se enfoca en la Argentina). Tras realizar el vínculo con su agente, el comprador necesita de una cuenta comitente, es decir, una cuenta de Bolsa en el mercado donde operará. Esa cuenta –abierta por el agente- se abre en la Caja de Valores bajo el nombre del comprador y funciona como una suerte de escribanía que da fe de quién tiene cuántas acciones y de qué empresas. La vieja escena vista en las películas, donde el accionista se llevaba “papeles” a su casa donde figuraba la compra, no existe más. Hoy en día todo está registrado en esa cuenta, donde también figuran los movimientos de compra y venta. El siguiente paso consiste en tener una cuenta colectora de fondos. Ahí el cliente de la sociedad de Bolsa deposita cuánto desea invertir. Y el día que decida vender las acciones, el dinero se le depositará en el mismo lugar. Mientras tanto, existen requisitos formales. El comprador debe tener 18 años, presentar su DNI y, en caso de que el dinero no esté bancarizado, su agente de Bolsa le solicitará, a pedido de la Unidad de Información Financiera (UIF), que justifique el origen de sus fondos. El dinero, a la hora de comprar acciones, debe estar en la moneda de curso legal del país donde se hará la operación. En caso de que se deseen comprar activos (sinónimo utilizado en la city para hablar de acciones) en el mercado estadounidense, se deberá tener el dinero en ese mercado, ya que las medidas restrictivas para sacar dólares impedirían la transacción. Listos para la acción “Si bien no hay un monto mínimo, creemos que con $ 5000 tenés un punto de partida. A partir de $ 20 mil y $ 30 mil podés tener un portafolio bastante diversificado de acciones”, sostuvo Víctor Poma, coordinador de Invertir Online University, en diálogo con Apertura.com. “Las ganancias de pasar de invertir de $ 5 mil a $ 20 mil es mayor que la que se nota si se pasa de $ 20 mil a 30 mil”, explicó Poma y brindó una regla para tener en cuenta: lo mejor es diversificar el riesgo, es decir, tener un poco de todo. “Así como el valor de una acción no dice nada, se recomienda diversificar la acción para evitar enormes pérdidas en caso de una tragedia con una acción. Cuando dividís $ 10 mil en tres compañías, estás bastante protegido”, aseguró. Y si bien se puede comprar una sola acción, al momento de pagar la comisión, el valor del título se desvanecerá. “Podés comprar una acción –por ejemplo, la de EDENOR, que no vale ni un pasaje de colectivo-, pero el tema es que hay que pagar la comisión del agente de bolsa, que tiene una comisión mínima”, detalló Poma y aseguró que en una operación menor a los $ 3000 se paga una comisión de $ 20, mientras que a partir de los $ 3000 pasa a ser un porcentaje del valor –el 0,06 por ciento -. Mientras tanto, se encargó de desterrar un mito escuchado a diario por entre quienes se acercan al mercado de valores: la Bolsa no es una timba ni está cerca de serlo. “No hay receta para tener las acciones por un tiempo determinados. Depende del contexto del mercado. Hay inversionistas que creen que es una timba”, afirmó Poma y destacó: “Hay que tener paciencia de no pedirle minuto a minuto ganancia a las acciones”. En ese sentido, narró que existen clientes que, tras asegurarles que una acción ganaría cerca del 25 por ciento, se la pasan viendo las cotizaciones esperando que los resultados se den de a poco, sin considerar que el repunte de un título puede darse en un solo día. Por su parte, Augusto Polesman, gerente de Banca Privada de Puente, en diálogo con este medio, se refirió a otras cuestiones que deben ser tenidas en cuenta. “Lo primero que tenés que entender es el tipo de riesgo de activos en los que se invierte. Tenés dos grandes grupos de activos: de renta variable (las acciones), y de renta fija (los bonos). Los primeros no recibís nunca una misma renta. Depende de su variación del mercado. Pero en el caso de los bonos sabés la tasa de interés en el tiempo que tiene, por su emisión”, explicó. Y si bien aseguró que, para el que recién comienza, lo mejor es iniciarse con bonos, dijo que siempre buscan que “la persona entienda el riesgo de los activos en los que va a invertir. Hay que entender el perfil de cada inversor, la liquidez (la facilidad con la que uno se puede desprender) y el plazo de la inversión”. “El servicio de estar hablando con cada cliente y viendo la cartera periódicamente hace la diferencia en este negocio”, consideró y subrayó que, si bien hay un seguimiento de los papeles, la idea que muchos tienen donde el agente grita “¡Vendé o comprá!” no es tal. “No le decimos “comprá o vendé ahora”, porque eso es hacer futurología. Le damos una visión del papel y desde ahí el cliente decide”, sentenció Polesman. Curiosidades Modus Operandi. El teléfono, Internet o el mail son opciones para operar. El cliente sólo tiene que llamar a su operador e indicarle su deseo. “Comprá Tenaris”, “Vendé Repsol”, “Comprá Banco Francés”, se escucha por cualquier medio de comunicación. La duda no tarda en formularse: ¿Cómo constata el agente quién es realmente el que da las órdenes? Polesman resolvió el misterio: “Cuando comenzamos a trabajar con un cliente, firma un contrato donde dice que autoriza las operaciones mediante teléfono o mail. Además, las conversaciones telefónicas quedan grabadas. Por eso el 99 por ciento de las operaciones se hacen por teléfono”. Mientras tanto, Invertir Online ofrece la posibilidad de operar a través de su plataforma web. En ella el cliente carga su orden y luego su operador la lleva a cabo. No todo es lo que parece. ¿Quién rechazaría acciones de una compañía como Facebook, con una popularidad indiscutida en la Web? Si bien muchos las aceptarían, el mercado no las recibió como se esperaba en Silicon Valley. Comenzaron a ofrecerse a un valor de US$ 38 por acción. Sin embargo, la falta de demanda y dudas sobre el desarrollo de la estrategia de publicidad de la compañías las llevaron a tocar un mínimo de US$ 20, valor del cual no han podido despegar. Quién controla a quién. El Mercado de Valores de Buenos Aires (Merval) es una entidad autorregulada que reúne a los Agentes y Sociedades de Bolsa. Los valores se negocian en la Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires(BCBA) y son depositados en custodia en la Caja de Valores S.A. (CVBA). A su vez, es la Comisión Nacional de Valores (CNV), el ente público dependiente del Ministerio de Economía, quien tiene por función autorizar la oferta pública de los valores, regular y controlar a todas las bolsas y mercados del país, como así también dictar medidas de protección al inversor. Dónde mirar. Al momento de consultar las cotizaciones, se puede acceder al sitio del Merval o apelar a sitios como Yahoo!, Google o los portales de las casas de Bolsa, donde figuran los resultados minuto a minuto.
Adult film actress Jenna Jameson Hurt by a flagging economy and changes in technology, the adult film industry is making fewer feature-length narrative movies in favor of shorter, Internet-ready “vignettes,” according to a July 7 New York Times article. Is writing a porno feature different from writing a regular feature? Yes. For one thing, the scripts are a lot shorter. Whereas Hollywood screenplays generally run between 90 and 120 pages, porn scripts clock in at 25 to 28 pages, for obvious reasons. Your average 90-minute porn film will have between five and seven sex scenes. At five to 10 minutes each, that leaves only about a half-hour for dialogue. As a result, there’s not as much room for character development, plot, surprise endings, and all the other dramatic elements you associate with feature films. Porn writers also get paid a lot less. Whereas Hollywood screenplays sell for anywhere from a few hundred dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars, pay for porn scripts for even big productions generally caps out at around $1,000. (Writers unions don’t accept porn writers unless they also work on mainstream film and TV projects.) And since adult films usually have low budgets—a few thousand dollars—writers can’t compose scenes that would be expensive to shoot, like fighting sequences atop a moving train. They try to limit the action to the rooms of a house—bedroom, bathroom, kitchen. In general, the screenwriter isn’t supposed to write the sex scenes. Instead, he or she will write the dialogue right up to the moment the sex scene begins and pick up where it ends. The content of the sex scene—positions, dialogue, etc.—is left up to the director and the actors. Exceptions are made, however, when key moments in the story occur during sex. For example, if the movie is about a woman who has never had anal sex, the type of sex in the scene is a relevant plot point. Screenwriters also generally stay away from camera directions. Whereas a regular script will often specify close-ups or establishing shots, porn cinematography is left up to the director. (Although, in the porn industry, the director and the screenwriter are often the same person.) While many adult scripts are simply porn versions of mainstream films—i.e., This Ain’t Star Trek XXX—others have elaborate, original story lines. The recent movie Fallen, for example, is about a woman who goes to heaven and comes back as an angel to help her husband find love with another woman. It’s also common for one porno to riff on a classic, older porno. Throat: A Cautionary Tale reimagines the 1972 classic Deep Throat—about a woman with a clitoris in her throat—as a tragedy rather than a comedy. The AVN Awards even has a category for best screenplay. Recent winners include Manhunters, Layout, and Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge. Got a question about today’s news? Ask the Explainer. Explainer thanks Mark Kernes of the AVN Media Network, Joy King of Wicked Pictures, and Steve Harper of the Adult Business Academy.
Legislators and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority workers blasted potential plans to outsource jobs in the MBTA’s warehouse operations, as officials on Monday made their case for privatizing the department. Saying the warehouse operations system is “completely broken,” T officials are pushing to outsource about 38 jobs in a department that costs approximately $4.2 million annually. That has drawn the ire of the Boston Carmen’s Union and several legislators, who packed into Monday’s fiscal control board meeting to protest the move. Also Monday, MBTA officials revealed that they had quietly replaced Transit Police officers with private security agents at the “money room” where employees count cash fares — a move that sparked criticism from police union officials who said they had little notice and noted that the T had hired the security agency that employed the gunman in this weekend’s mass shooting in Orlando. Advertisement Much of the public testimony Monday was dominated by union backers who argued that privatization would not save as much money as intended. Get Metro Headlines in your inbox: The 10 top local news stories from metro Boston and around New England delivered daily. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here “Cost savings are never a guarantee with privatization,” said state Representative Josh Cutler, a Democrat from Duxbury. “Public transportation is a public good and it should remain so.” MBTA officials say they believe privatizing the department is necessary, since updating the warehouse facilities would require at least $14 million more. Gerald J. Polcari, the T’s chief procurement officer, said warehouse problems have festered for years — and have slowed necessary maintenance for the delay-plagued transit system. “The problem we have wasn’t created one year, two years ago,” he said. “It was decades in the making.” Polcari and a consultant on Monday painted the warehouse system as dysfunctional: It takes more than three days to transport parts from the warehouse to maintenance garages; warehouse workers are less productive than their private sector counterparts; and the MBTA has more than $22 million in excess inventory. Advertisement But Michael Keller, a Boston Carmen’s Union delegate, called warehouse employees the “backbone” of the MBTA. He blamed the T’s system, noting that it runs the central warehouse only 40 hours a week, despite 24-hour maintenance. He also said the system encourages mechanics to take parts even when a stockperson isn’t there to track the inventory — which contributes to the system’s inaccuracies. “I’m still not sure why employees are facing outsourcing when we all agree it’s a management problem,” said Keller. Union supporters came to the meeting in force, with a few dozen people standing behind Louis Antonellis, president of a union for fare collection maintenance workers, as he testified. Before asking board members to reconsider the privatization, he told them, “Shame on you.” The path to privatization comes after Governor Charlie Baker pushed for legislation suspending a state law that put up hurdles to outsourcing state jobs. Though some lawmakers had reservations about the suspension, the Legislature allowed it to become state law as part of the budget. Advertisement Monday’s hearing also drew several supporters of the privatization plans, including Michael Gaffney, vice chairman of the Worcester City Council. He mentioned Worcester’s own management of a golf course as an analogous situation. “There are things the government can do efficiently and effectively, and things we cannot do efficiently and effectively,” he said. Amesbury Mayor Ken Gray also told the board they should “strongly consider” privatizing areas with issues, such as its fare collection department. “You need to solve it,” he said, “And you need to solve it now.” So far, the T has made public its plans to push for outsourcing jobs in its fare collection and warehouse departments, and is likely to also consider jobs in its marketing and retail departments. None of the changes has yet been approved by the fiscal and management control board. The T has already made quick moves to replace some public employees, though without apparent layoffs. Last Monday, officials installed a private security firm, G4S, to replace Transit Police officers to guard the department that counts cash fares. MBTA officials said they were following recommendations from consultants from Alvarez & Marsal Public Sector Services, who reviewed security tape and found that outside gates and doors were left open, and that people were able to enter and leave the facility with minimal screening. Officials said that armed revenue collection agents were also not regularly checked for up-to-date firearms licenses. Police union representatives, who said they had one business day’s notice before the firm took over, cried foul over the change. Patrolman Bob Marino, president of the MBTA Police Association, argued that private security firms’ background checks are not as rigorous as a police department’s. He noted that G4S employed Omar Mateen, the shooter identified as killing 49 victims at an Orlando gay nightclub. The transit police does “due diligence to make sure that they know who you are, when you’re offered the job,” he said, adding that the union plans to file a grievance. MBTA officials say they used to pay $750,000 a year for the security, but now will pay $400,000. T spokesman Joe Pesaturo said the matter did not go before the fiscal and management control board for a public vote because the contract didn’t reach the $1 million threshold. Nicole Dungca can be reached at nicole.dungca@globe.com . Follow her on Twitter @ndungca
Secret Millionaire Screengrab The board of RadiumOne has fired its CEO Gurbaksh Chahal, the company announced today. Kara Swisher of Re/code was the first to report that Chahal was out. Bill Lonergan, the COO, will be RadiumOne's new CEO. This comes just a few hours after Chahal wrote a blog post saying he did not beat his girlfriend. Chahal said his girlfriend was having sex with other people for money and that's why he lost his temper. But though he lost his temper, he claims there was no beating and actually it was the police who roughed him up. He also said he wasn't going to step down. Here's the full statement from the company: San Francisco (April 27, 2014) - At a board meeting yesterday evening, RadiumOne's board of directors voted to terminate the employment of Gurbaksh Chahal as CEO and Chairman of the company. Bill Lonergan, the company COO, will take over as CEO of the Company immediately. Bill has an extraordinary professional background and has helped build Blue Lithium and RadiumOne into industry leading brands. We are confident he will continue Radium One's impressive trajectory. RadiumOne builds software that automates media buying, making big data actionable for digital marketers. RadiumOne uses programmatic advertising to connect brands to their next customers by incorporating valuable first-party data about behaviors, actions and interests demonstrated by consumers across web and mobile touch points. Based in San Francisco, RadiumOne has offices across the US, Canada, Europe and Australia.
When crowds rush to the malls for Black Friday and log on to Amazon for Cyber Monday, most of the small businesses in Kaimuki get left behind. But this year, Kaimuki merchants are hoping to create their own buzz. This Saturday the Kaimuki Business & Professional Association is teaming with EnVision Kaimuki, Ten Tomorrow, The Public Pet and 94.7 KUMU to host its first-ever Small Business Saturday event. Though some small businesses have participated in the Saturday event before, this year organizers say they are going big. “Black Friday is all about being in the mall and being in high-commercial areas, but Saturday is a chance to claim that day for small businesses and let the consuming population know that there’s a lot more to shop for,” said Jordan Lee, co-founder and creative director of The Public Pet. Cory Lum/Civil Beat “The main thing is to combat big stores, so this is an effort to support small businesses,” said Mahlon Moore, president of KBPA. Shoppers coming to the Kaimuki neighborhood will find an information booth at Kaimuki Park, food and drinks, local pop-up vendors, discounts and deals, shopping maps, prizes, music and even valet parking and shuttle services. “Parking is the No. 1 issue in Kaimuki,” said Malone. “People come up here and they can’t find parking, so they leave. It’s easier to find parking at Ala Moana Mall and Ward Center.” That’s why KBPA hired a valet company to provide parking at Liliuokalani School, Kaimuki High School and the Honolulu Board of Realtors lot. Each vehicle will be charged $3 for the day. To make shopping easier, a free trolley will make stops up and down Waialae Avenue from KokoHead Avenue to Kaimuki High School from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cory Lum/Civil Beat American Express launched Small Business Saturdays in 2010. Any small business can register for free and American Express will send a support-small-shops kit including business advice, pins and stickers. The credit card company aims to support small and local businesses nationwide, which benefits Kaimuki business owners who often cannot afford advertising outside of social media and word of mouth. “Kaimuki is very robust, there’s a lot of growth. The restaurant scene is unbelievable,” Malone said. In Hawaii, there are nearly 126,000 small businesses, according to the Office of Advocacy’s Small Business Profiles. Small businesses are firms with less than 500 employees. In 2014, more than half of the state’s employees worked for small businesses. In Kaimuki some businesses like Surf N Hula and The Public Pet are run by just a handful of employees. When Lee and Summer Shiigi of Ten Tomorrow had a conversation on the streets in August, they decided to “activate the neighborhood.” While Kaimuki resembled areas like Kakaako and Chinatown that are booming with small and local businesses, Lee thought Kaimuki lacked the full potential of neighborly interconnectedness. That’s why Lee spearheaded the Keep It Kaimuki movement. In addition to opening his own business with Matthew Guevara barely two years ago, Lee branded Keep It Kaimuki with T-shirts, totes and social media, #KeepItKaimuki. T-shirts can be purchased at The Public Pet, and totes can be purchased in about 15 locations around Kaimuki. For every tote purchased, $5 goes to Envision Kaimuki, which aims to beautify the neighborhood. Cory Lum/Civil Beat Keep it Kaimuki “is an effort to get people to this side of Honolulu and see what this neighborhood has to offer. There’s something for everyone,” Lee said. One conversation on the streets in August turned into Kaimuki’s Small Business Saturday event with 40 participating businesses. “Kaimuki is very unique, it’s a very eclectic neighborhood made of all these small businesses. Together, we are stronger than just one business,” Lee said. Lee lived in San Francisco for 10 years where he experienced a strong sense of community. He hoped to muster this feeling in Kaimuki when he opened The Public Pet. Though Lee was born and raised in Mililani, he’s “always felt an affinity toward Kaimuki and the surrounding neighborhood.” It’s got the right mix of small businesses, suburban and urban vibes and charming buildings and people. Supporting the small businesses of Kaimuki will not end on Saturday. Between Saturday and Dec. 3, shoppers who bring their Keep It Kaimuki tote bag into participating businesses can redeem discounts and deals. Cory Lum/Civil Beat This year is an opportunity for Kaimuki businesses to find what works and how to challenge the big stores and online shopping. “We want to make it an annual event and even bigger than what we’re doing this year,” Malone said. “We hope small, independent businesses in Kaimuki see a big increase in sales and hopefully get some repeat customers.”
Share Email 75 Shares As Republicans in Congress vow to defund Planned Parenthood, leaders in Vermont warn access to basic health care for thousands of Vermonters could be affected. The organization is the only federally designated family planning provider in Vermont. Planned Parenthood has more than 18,000 patients at 12 different health centers, and serves a large proportion of women of reproductive age in Vermont communities. Get all of VTDigger's daily news. You'll never miss a story with our daily headlines in your inbox. Across 10 Vermont counties, the organization serves at least one-tenth of women of childbearing age, according to data from Planned Parenthood of Vermont Action Fund. In Rutland County, 26 percent of women between ages 18 and 34 use Planned Parenthood, the highest proportion in the state. Defunding Planned Parenthood, according to Kaiser Health News, means not allowing the organization to accept payments from low-income and disabled patients who have Medicaid for health insurance. More than 50 percent of Planned Parenthood patients in Vermont have Medicaid for health insurance, according to Meagan Gallagher, the president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund. The reimbursement from Medicaid patients was about $1.3 million in fiscal year 2016, according to the Department of Vermont Health Access. That’s higher than the roughly $1 million the organization gets in federal Title X funding for being a designated family planning provider. Many of the Medicaid patients come in for reproductive health needs—such as birth control, pregnancy tests, and screening for sexually transmitted infections—and the doctor will use the appointment to encourage them to treat other health care needs, according to Gallagher. Although Planned Parenthood clinics are the largest abortion providers in Vermont, the federal Medicaid program does not fund the vast majority of those abortions because of a federal law known as the Hyde Amendment passed in 1976, which only allows federal money to fund abortion in very rare circumstances. VTDigger is underwritten by: “For many women we are serving as their primary care provider, or the only health care provider they see throughout the year,” she said. “Without Planned Parenthood, people would not be able to access basic health care services.” The organization also allows people to book appointments online. “If you just Google ‘Planned Parenthood’ and want to make an appointment, even at the Google level you can choose one, come into the health center, and get care,” she said. Auburn Watersong, the policy director for the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, said many of the domestic violence victims she works with identify a local Planned Parenthood clinic as a primary care provider. “The Network stands in solidarity with Planned Parenthood,” Watersong said. “We are deeply concerned that Vermont’s victims of domestic and sexual violence remain able to access affordable reproductive health care.” Cory Gustafson, the commissioner of the Department of Vermont Health Access, declined to comment on the potential defunding of Planned Parenthood, but said the state’s “commitment to preserving quality access will continue” well into the future. Judy Stermer, the spokesperson for the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, said the association has not yet analyzed how hospitals might provide women’s health care services if Planned Parenthood is defunded. “Vermont hospitals are always ready to work with community partners and other providers to ensure that gaps in services aren’t there for patients,” Stermer said. “That’s what hospitals are set up to do and that’s what we’ll continue to do.” Gallagher said Republicans in Congress voted in 2015 to defund Planned Parenthood and “the only thing that has prevented that defunding from happening is President Obama’s veto.” She said there’s no guarantee of a veto anymore. “We’re hoping that the gravity of the situation will cause senators to think more deeply about what defunding Planned Parenthood means in their communities,” Gallagher said. “In Vermont, as a statewide family planning provider, it means the difference between being able to access health care services or not,” she said.
It pays to go to university or college in Alberta — especially if you oversee one. Annual reports show presidents and vice-presidents at several post-secondary schools across the province are paid more, sometimes much more, than many of their counterparts at top-tier schools and are among the highest paid public officials in Alberta. And that has renewed calls for the province to examine executive compensation at universities and colleges. “When looking at salaries there doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason to what Alberta university presidents are making,” said Kent Hehr, advanced education critic for the Alberta Liberals. “This government needs to look at whether they’re compensating people in a reasonable fashion with an eye to protecting the public purse.” The reports, which the schools are required to submit to the provincial government by Dec. 31, detail base pay as well as cash (such as bonuses) and non-cash (medical benefits and pension contributions) benefits. The province’s four academic and research universities (University of Alberta, University of Calgary, University of Lethbridge and Athabasca University) forked out nearly $12.5 million in total compensation to their presidents and vice-presidents in the 2013-2014 fiscal year. Presidents at those universities received just over $3 million in total compensation. Outgoing U of A president Indira Samarasekera led the pack with a salary of $544,000 and just over $1.1 million in total compensation last year. Overall, base pay for the entire U of A executive team was almost $3.2 million, and nearly $5.3 million in total compensation. Salaries for the school’s six vice-presidents ranged between $383,000 and $496,000. In comparison, presidents at McGill University, the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia earned salaries, on average, of $373,000. Former advanced education minister Thomas Lukaszuk promised to launch a review of compensation for post-secondary officials two years ago. But that review never materialized while Lukaszuk oversaw the portfolio, and no minister since has taken up the cause. “You have a situation where an administrator of a university, as complex as the job may be, is making more than the prime minister, President Obama and throw in a couple premiers into the mix,” Lukaszuk said in a recent interview. “Intuitively, you know something is wrong. “Every VP at the U of A gets paid more than the second-highest paid (university) president in Canada,” he added. “And this is happening while we’re introducing market modifiers on tuition.” In December, the government gave the greenlight for 10 post-secondary schools to hike tuition in 25 professional programs (up to 56 per cent) above provincial legislation that caps increases to the annual rate of inflation. Don Scott, minister of innovation and advanced education, was unavailable for comment. But his press secretary said the government has no plans to review salaries at universities and colleges. “The institutions are independent, they’re board-governed and they can look after their business,” Craig Loewen said. In Calgary, the U of C, Mount Royal University, SAIT and Bow Valley College paid out more than $5.1 million in base pay and another $3.1 million in compensation last year, combined. The U of C paid its top officials nearly $2.4 million last year, and $3.4 million in total compensation, including $732,000 (total) to its president, Elizabeth Cannon. Bonnie DuPont, board chairwoman at the U of C, said Cannon’s compensation was well-earned, crediting the president and her “exceptional leadership” for advancing the school’s ranking and attracting an “unheard of” $572 million in donations in her first term. “In her first term with us we became Canada’s top-ranked university under the age of 50, we’re No. 9 in the world and second in North America,” DuPont said. “We do know that our ability to attract donations and to build the strength of the university is in some ways tied to our performance in the rankings. “It’s important to keep in mind that universities and colleges have had a little less certainty around support from government institutions,” she said, referring to the province’s 2013 budget that slashed post-secondary funding by seven per cent. Scott Hennig, of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said universities and colleges should be able to offer competitive salaries to attract top talent, but must be able to justify compensation packages that are significantly higher than other top-ranked Canadian schools. “I don’t think anyone would begrudge the president of the University of Calgary making $1 million if in her first couple of years she was signing up partnerships or bringing in donations for the university that were 100 times that of what were … coming in before,” Hennig said. At SAIT, president David Ross was paid a salary of $340,000 — almost $100,000 more than his predecessor, Irene Lewis — and another $266,000 in cash and non-cash benefits, lifting his total compensation to $606,000 last year. That’s roughly three times more than what he was paid for his last year as president at Langara College in B.C. SAIT officials declined to comment for this story. “I would think that you wouldn’t start higher than the guy that just left who had been there for a number of years,” said Doug Short, president of the Alberta Colleges and Institutes Faculties Association. “If you take a look at the trend of CEOs and presidents relative to workers, there’s been a tremendous increase in the differential between them,” Short said. “And certainly in post-secondary institutions … what they traditionally got (compared) to instructors, that has increased over the last number of years significantly. It’s not as extreme as it is in the private sector, but it is a trend.” MRU paid out $1.7 million in total compensation, including $401,000 to president David Docherty. And Bow Valley College forked over $1.1 million to its executives, with president Sharron Carry earning $332,000 in salary and benefits. thowell@calgaryherald.com Clarification: In the original version, U of C chair Bonnie Dupont said the university was ranked 13th in the world for post-secondary institutions under the age of 50. A spokeswoman for the U of C clarified the school placed 9th. The story has been edited to reflect this.
Looking for news you can trust? Subscribe to our free newsletters. Y’all remember David Daleiden, the guy behind the attack videos against Planned Parenthood, don’t you? Well, his videos generated a bunch of state investigations that turned up no evidence at all of any wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood. But how about wrongdoing by Daleiden? That’s a whole different kettle of fish. A second state is now going after him: Investigators with the California Department of Justice on Tuesday raided the home of David Daleiden, the anti-abortion activist behind a series of undercover videos targeting Planned Parenthood, the activist said. Authorities seized a laptop and multiple hard drives from his Orange County apartment, Daleiden said in an email. The equipment contained all of the video Daleiden had filmed as part of his 30-month project, “including some very damning footage that has yet to be released to the public,” he said. Daleiden is now in trouble with both Texas and California. But I suppose it’s all good PR as long as they spell his name right. At this point, Daleiden can probably do better as a martyr for the cause than he can as a straightforward activist. After all, his activism produced squat—except for lots of death threats against abortion providers. But maybe that was the whole plan.
US Geological Survey says quake struck on Thursday afternoon and was centered near the city of Dover, but was widely felt around the mid-Atlantic region An earthquake has jolted the mid-Atlantic region of the east coast, but there are no immediate reports of damage or injuries. Upsurge in big earthquakes predicted for 2018 as Earth rotation slows Read more The US Geological Survey says the 4.1 magnitude quake struck just after 4.45pm Thursday, and was centered about six miles (10km) east-north-east of Dover, Delaware. People from as far away as Washington and New York City reported that they felt the movement. The quake jolted downtown Dover, sending lawmakers and workers in the statehouse outdoors to see what happened. Police and emergency officials did not have any immediate reports of damage or injuries. Paul Caruso is a geophysicist with the USGS’s earthquake information center in Colorado. He said the quake was widely felt around the mid-Atlantic region. Caruso said he did not expect any significant damage, given the small size of the quake. John Bellini, a geophysicist USGS’s earthquake information center in Colorado, said, “It would mostly be a few items knocked from shelves, cracks in plaster.” The jolt was strong enough in downtown Baltimore that a smattering of residents streamed out of office towers and into the streets. Husam Albarmawi, a 30-year-old graduate student at the University of Maryland, rushed out of an apartment tower with his wife when they felt two separate jolts, roughly 20 seconds apart, in their 23rd-storey apartment. “When we felt it we looked at each other like, ‘Are we losing it?”’ said Albarmawi as they ventured back upstairs after waiting for a few minutes outside. “It was actually pretty scary and pretty surprising.”

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