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Apparently the propaganda myth that Clinton's people vandalized the White House before leaving it to Bush & Co. (I remember hearing it from Bob Novak on CNN) has become "the truth," at least according to both NBC and ABC News.
From Stephen Schneider:
MCM:
Yesterday, I personally heard both NBC and ABC propagate the long-since debunked story that the outgoing Clintonistas in 2001 removed the "W"s from the White House computers. Whoever said it on ABC (I was in a pizza place at the time, and the sound was kinda low, so I didn't get an ID) appeared to present it as an accepted fact.
NBC's Brian Williams was a bit cagier, saying, "We all remember the story about ... " and then doing nothing to discredit its veracity.
In each case, the context was to laud President Bush's alleged grace and gentility in ceding the office to Obama, as opposed to the rudeness he himself had purportedly weathered.
I didn't hear any such commentary on CBS, but it's entirely possible it got in there somewhere.
Bush: booed by 2 million, buoyed by 2 networks. And they wonder where blogging came from.
SS |
BY: Follow @DavidRutz
Sean Hannity played a montage Thursday night on his Fox News show of Obama administration officials, including then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton, falsely casting blame for the Benghazi terrorist attack on an anti-Muslim video when her own emails reveal that Clinton knew almost immediately it was an orchestrated assault.
During Clinton's day of testimony Thursday before the Benghazi Select Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) showed Clinton had told the Egyptian prime minister, the president of Libya and her own family in the days following the attack that she knew the attack was pre-planned and had nothing to do with any video.
Interviewing former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Hannity played for the audience "the lie they told you."
"We've seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with," Clinton said on Sept. 14, 2012.
"We have no information to suggest that it was a pre-planned attack," White House press secretary Jay Carney said the same day. "The unrest we've seen around the region has been in reaction to a video that Muslims, many Muslims find offensive."
"What sparked the recent violence was the airing on the Internet of a very hateful, very offensive video that has offended many people around the world," Susan Rice said during a Fox News Sunday appearance Sept. 16, 2012. Rice was slammed later on for repeating that falsehood on every Sunday show that day.
"As offensive as this video was, and obviously, we've denounced it and the United States government had nothing to do with it, that's never an excuse for violence," President Obama said on The Late Show Sept. 18, 2012.
The Weekly Standard reported in 2013 on edited talking points revealing that even before the Benghazi attack had concluded that officials knew an al-Qaeda linked group was involved. Jordan made a familiar charge: it appeared the video was blamed in order to assist Obama's re-election campaign narrative that he had al-Qaeda "on the run."
"You did it because Libya was supposed to be this great success story for the Obama White House and the Clinton State Department, and a key campaign theme that year was GM’s alive, bin Laden’s dead, al-Qaeda’s on the run," Jordan said. "Now you have a terrorist attack, and it’s a terrorist attack in Libya and it’s just 56 days before an election. You can live with the protest about a video. That won’t hurt you, but a terrorist attack will. So you can’t be square with the American people."
Hannity called the exchange between Jordan and Clinton "an amazing rebuke of what they had been telling you, the American people."
"Well, this actually seals the case in the sense that before, you don't know whether she's incompetent or she's lying," Giuliani said. "Now we know they're lying." |
McDonald's has filed a lawsuit with the arbitration court in the Russian city of Voronezh asking it to rule the decisions and actions of the local department of the country's consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor illegal.
Voronezh, September 24 (RIA Novosti) - McDonald's has filed a lawsuit with the arbitration court in the Russian city of Voronezh asking it to rule the decisions and actions of the local department of the country's consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor illegal.
"The arbitration court has received a lawsuit by McDonald's against Voronezh region's Federal Service on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-being," a spokesperson for the court told RIA Novosti.
According to court documents, the company requests that the decisions and actions of Rospotrebnadzor be ruled illegal.
The hearing is scheduled to take place on October 21.
Earlier, Rospotrebnadzor found violations in two of the city's McDonald's restaurants during an audit and filed a suit to bring the company to administrative liability under the article of "violations of technical regulations requirements by the manufacturer, executor and seller".
The penalty for the article is a fine in the amount of 300,000 rubles ($ 7,700) to be imposed on the corporate entity.
Mass audits into McDonald's have been going on in Russia since August. About 10 restaurants have already been shut down, with the company having constantly stated it would appeal the decisions.
McDonald's, which is one of the biggest fast food restaurant chains in the world, has 444 restaurants in 75 regions of Russia.
Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets stated that Rospotrebnadzor did not intend to conduct a total check in all the restaurants of the fast food chain in Russia. According to her, checks are proceeding according to plan. |
(CNN) -- When a classmate started choking on a Cheeto during lunch Wednesday, Tyler Hudson took action.
Tyler, a fourth-grader from Frank Elementary School in Houston, Texas, quickly performed the Heimlich maneuver to save the girl's life.
"I put my hands around her under her arms," he told KHOU on Thursday. "It was just instincts."
After three squeezes from Tyler, the girl swallowed the Cheeto. Now Tyler is being hailed as a hero.
"We're all very proud of him," said Theresa Scardino, the school's associate principal.
Tyler told KHOU he didn't know exactly what the Heimlich maneuver was called. He referred to it as "the hammer," a move that his father, a Houston firefighter, would use on him during their playful wrestling matches at home.
"I was like, 'How did you learn to do that?' " Rodney Hudson said. "And he was like: 'You, daddy. You.' "
Read the KHOU story for more on Tyler's heroic actions |
Welcome to Fox Day! Also known as April 1, the day that BabyMetal 's new album Metal Resistance hits stores and also the day that said disc is crowned as the Loudwire April 2016 Release of the Month.
The Loudwire readers have responded overwhelmingly positive toward the disc, with BabyMetal's Metal Resistance receiving just over 62 percent of the final tally in our release of the month poll. Overall, it's a strong month for new rock and metal releases, with Tremonti's Dust , Sixx: A.M.'s Prayers for the Damned , Deftones' Gore and Black Stone Cherry's Kentucky all racking up significant voting totals as well.
So far, fans have been treated to a pair of tracks -- the infectiously catchy " KARATE " and the progressive sounding rocker " The One ." But that's just the beginning of a solid album, which you can now get by ordering Metal Resistance via iTunes .
Commenting on the album early on, Su-Metal stated , “I will be putting my everything into the production of our upcoming album because I believe that many of you are waiting for it. We are looking forward to meeting our fans abroad again at Wembley Arena right after the release of our second album, so you can expect to hear our new songs for the very first time live there.”
“Since the release of BabyMetal’s debut album in 2014, we have been racing across the globe non-stop on our world tour," adds creative mastermind Kobametal . "Through the last tour, I have come across people from all over the world and have had the chance to feel that miraculous moment when everyone came together via BabyMetal.”
BabyMetal will be hitting the road during the month of April to promote their new album. See where they'll be playing here , and look for the group appearing on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on April 5.
Once again, congrats to BabyMetal as Metal Resistance has been voted by Loudwire's readers as the April 2016 Release of the Month!
Watch BabyMetal Play 'Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction?'
BabyMetal on Meeting Metallica + Opening for Lady Gaga |
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. We continue our coverage of the historic trial of former U.S.-backed Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Allan Nairn joined us in our studio last week before he flew to Guatemala. I began by asking him to describe just who Ríos Montt is.
ALLAN NAIRN: Ríos Montt was the dictator of Guatemala during 1982, '83. He seized power in a military coup. He was trained in the U.S. He had served in Washington as head of the Inter-American Defense College. And while he was president, he was embraced by Ronald Reagan as a man of great integrity, someone totally devoted to democracy. And he killed many tens of thousands of civilians, particularly in the Mayan northwest highlands. In this particular trial, he is being charged with 1,771 specific murders in the area of the Ixil Mayans. These charges are being brought because the prosecutors have the names of each of these victims. They've been able to dig up the bones of most of them.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about how this campaign, this slaughter, was carried out and how it links to, well, the current government in Guatemala today.
ALLAN NAIRN: The army swept through the northwest highlands. And according to soldiers who I interviewed at the time, as they were carrying out the sweeps, they would go into villages, surround them, pull people out of their homes, line them up, execute them. A forensic witness testified in the trial that 80 percent of the remains they’ve recovered had gunshot wounds to the head. Witnesses have—witnesses and survivors have described Ríos Montt’s troops beheading people. One talked about an old woman who was beheaded, and then they kicked her head around the floor. They ripped the hearts out of children as their bodies were still warm, and they piled them on a table for their parents to see.
The soldiers I interviewed would describe their interrogation techniques, which they had been taught at the army general staff. And they said they would ask people, “Who in the town are the guerrillas?” And if the people would respond, “We don’t know,” then they would strangle them to death. These sweeps were intense. The soldiers said that often they would kill about a third of a town’s population. Another third they would capture and resettle in army camps. And the rest would flee into the mountains. There, in the mountains, the military would pursue them using U.S.-supplied helicopters, U.S.- and Israeli-supplied planes. They would drop U.S. 50-kilogram bombs on them, and they would machine-gun them from U.S. Huey and Bell helicopters, using U.S.-supplied heavy-caliber machine guns.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s turn to a clip of you interviewing a soldier in the highlands. This is from a Finnish documentary—is that right? And when was this done? When were you talking to soldiers there?
ALLAN NAIRN: This was in September of 1982 in the Ixil zone in the area surrounding the town of Nebaj.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go to a clip of this interview. GUATEMALAN SOLDIER: [translated] This is how we are successful. And also, if we have already interrogated them, the only thing we can do is kill them. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] And how many did you kill? GUATEMALAN SOLDIER: [translated] We killed the majority. There is nothing else to do than kill them. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] So you killed them at once? GUATEMALAN SOLDIER: [translated] Yes. If they do not want to do the right things, there is nothing more to do than bomb the houses. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] Bomb? With what? GUATEMALAN SOLDIER: [translated] Well, with grenades or collective bombs. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] What is a collective bomb? GUATEMALAN SOLDIER: [translated] They are like cannons. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] Do you use helicopters? GUATEMALAN SOLDIER: [translated] Yes. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] What is the largest amount of people you have killed at once? GUATEMALAN SOLDIER: [translated] Well, really, in Sololá, around 500 people. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] And how do they react when you arrive? GUATEMALAN SOLDIER: [translated] Who? ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] The people from the small villages. GUATEMALAN SOLDIER: [translated] When the army arrives, they flee from their houses. And so, as they flee to the mountains, the army is forced to kill them. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] And in which small village did the army do that kind of thing? GUATEMALAN SOLDIER: [translated] That happened a lot of times. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] Specifically, could you give me some examples where these things happened? GUATEMALAN SOLDIER: [translated] In Salquil, Sumal Chiquito, Sumal Grande, Acul.
AMY GOODMAN: When did you interview this soldier, Allan?
ALLAN NAIRN: This was in September of ’82.
AMY GOODMAN: What were you doing there?
ALLAN NAIRN: Making a documentary for Scandinavian television.
AMY GOODMAN: So you have soldiers talking about killing civilians, the brutal interrogations that they were engaged in. Why would they be telling you this? You’re a journalist. They’re talking about crimes they’re committing.
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, because this is their everyday life. They do this all the time. They do it under orders from the top of the chain of command, at that time Ríos Montt. And they had hardly ever seen journalists at that time. It was very rare for an outside journalist or even a local journalist to go into that area.
AMY GOODMAN: So let’s take this to the current day, to the president of Guatemala today, because at the same time you were interviewing these soldiers, you interviewed the Guatemalan president—at least the Guatemalan president today in 2013.
ALLAN NAIRN: Yes, the senior officer, the commander in Nebaj, was a man who used the code name “Mayor Tito,” Major Tito. It turns out that that man’s real name was Otto Pérez Molina. Otto Pérez Molina later ascended to general, and today he is the president of Guatemala. So he is the one who was the local implementer of the program of genocide which Ríos Montt is accused of carrying out.
AMY GOODMAN: This is a huge charge. I mean, right now, it’s an historic trial when it’s 25 years after a past president is now being charged. Let’s go to a clip of Otto Pérez Molina, the current president of Guatemala, but this is 1982 in the heartland area of Quiché in northwest Guatemala, northwest of Guatemala City. In this video clip, Otto Pérez Molina is seen reading from political literature found on one of the bodies. This is your interview with him. MAYOR OTTO PÉREZ MOLINA: [translated] “The poor artisan fights alongside the worker. The poor peasant fights alongside the worker. The wealth is produced by us, the poor. The army takes the poor peasants. Together, we have an invincible force. All the families are with the guerrilla, the guerrilla army of the poor, toward final victory forever.” These are the different fronts that they have. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] So here they are saying that the army killed some people. MAYOR OTTO PÉREZ MOLINA: [translated] Exactly.
AMY GOODMAN: I mean, this is astounding. This is the current president of Guatemala standing over these bodies. Tell us more.
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, as one of the soldiers says in the sound in the background, the—Pérez Molina interrogated these men. And soon after, they were—they were dead. And one soldier told me off camera that in fact after Pérez Molina interrogated them, they finished them off.
AMY GOODMAN: This man, Pérez Molina, the president, actually was going by a code name at the time. When was it clear that this is Pérez Molina? Though we have a very clear shot of him.
ALLAN NAIRN: For a long time, Pérez Molina was trying to obscure his past and apparently hide the fact that he played this role in a supervisory position during the highland massacres. During the Guatemalan presidential campaign, which Pérez Molina eventually won, about two years ago, I got calls while I was in Asia from the Guatemalan press, from The Wall Street Journal, asking whether I could vouch for the fact that Mayor Tito, the man in the video who I encountered in the northwest highlands in the midst of the massacres—whether I could vouch for the fact that Mayor Tito was in fact General Otto Pérez Molina, the presidential candidate. And I said that I couldn’t, just from looking at the current videos. You know, people can change a lot visually over 30 years, so I said I couldn’t be sure. It turns out that—and during the campaign, when reporters would ask the Pérez Molina campaign, “Is Pérez Molina Mayor Tito?” they would dodge the question. They would evade. They were running from it. It turns out, though, we just learned this week, that Pérez Molina had admitted back in 2000 that he was Mayor Tito. But then, apparently afterward, he thought better of it and was trying to bury it. And now, this is potentially trouble for him. He’s currently president, and so, under Guatemalan law, he enjoys immunity. But once he leaves the presidency, he could, in theory, be subject to prosecution, just as Ríos Montt is now being prosecuted.
AMY GOODMAN: That could be a serious motivation for him declaring himself president for life.
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, Ríos Montt seized power by a coup, but one of the important facts about the situation now is that the military men don’t have the power that they used to. The fact that this trial is happening is an indication of that. This trial is happening because the survivors refused to give up. They persisted—the survivors have been working on this for decades, pushing to bring Ríos Montt and the other generals to justice. They refused to give up. They got support from international—some international human rights lawyers. And within the Guatemalan justice system, there were a few people of integrity who ascended to positions of some authority within the prosecutorial system, within the judiciary. And so, we now have this near-political miracle of a country bringing to trial its former dictator for genocide, while the president of the country, who was implicated in those killings, sits by.
AMY GOODMAN: Allan, this video that we have of you interviewing Pérez Molina—again, as you said, he admitted to the Guatemalan newspaper, Prensa Libre, in 2000 that he used the nickname Tito—is quite astounding. So let’s go to another clip, where you’re talking to him about the kind of support that he wants. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] The United States is considering giving military help here in the form of helicopters. What is the importance of helicopters for all of you? MAYOR OTTO PÉREZ MOLINA: [translated] A helicopter is an apparatus that’s become of great importance not only here in Guatemala but also in other countries where they’ve had problems of a counterinsurgency. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] Like in Vietnam? MAYOR OTTO PÉREZ MOLINA: [translated] In Vietnam, for example, the helicopter was an apparatus that was used a lot. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] Can you also use it in combat? MAYOR OTTO PÉREZ MOLINA: [translated] Yes, of course. The helicopters that are military types, they are equipped to support operations in the field. They have machine guns and rocket launchers. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] What type of mortars are you guys using? MAYOR OTTO PÉREZ MOLINA: [translated] There’s various types of mortars. We have small mortars and the mortars Tampella. ALLAN NAIRN: Tampella. MAYOR OTTO PÉREZ MOLINA: [translated] Yes, it’s a mortar that’s 60 millimeters. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] Is it very powerful? Does it have a lot of force to destroy things? MAYOR OTTO PÉREZ MOLINA: [translated] Yes, it’s a weapon that’s very effective. It’s very useful, and it has a very good result in our operation in defense of the country. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] Is it against a person or…? MAYOR OTTO PÉREZ MOLINA: [translated] Yes, it’s an anti-personnel weapon. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] Do you have one here? MAYOR OTTO PÉREZ MOLINA: [translated] It’s light and easy to transport, as well. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] So, it’s very light, and you can use it with your hand. MAYOR OTTO PÉREZ MOLINA: [translated] Exactly, with the hand. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] Where did you get them? MAYOR OTTO PÉREZ MOLINA: [translated] These, we got from Israel. ALLAN NAIRN: [translated] And where do you get the ammunition? MAYOR OTTO PÉREZ MOLINA: [translated] That’s also from Israel.
AMY GOODMAN: So, this is, again, the current president, Pérez Molina, of Guatemala, the general you met in the highlands in 1982, asking for more aid. Talk about the relationship between Guatemala then and the United States.
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, the U.S. was the sponsor of the Guatemalan army, as it had been for many decades, as the U.S. has and continues to sponsor dozens and dozens of repressive armies all over the world. In the case of Guatemala, if you go into the military academy and you see the pictures of the past presidents of military academy, some of them are actually Americans. They’re actual American officers there who were openly running the Guatemalan military training. By the ’80s, when the Ríos Montt massacres were being carried out, the U.S. Congress was under the impression that they had successfully stopped U.S. military aid to Guatemala. But in fact it was continuing. The CIA had an extensive program of backing the G-2, the G-2, the military intelligence service, which selected the targets for assassination and disappearance. They even—they even built a headquarters for—a secret headquarters for the G-2 near the Guatemala City airport. They had American advisers working inside the headquarters. Out in the field, Guatemalan troops were receiving from the U.S. ammunition, weapons.
And most importantly, the U.S., beginning under the Carter administration but continuing under Reagan and after, asked the Israelis to come in and fill the gap that was caused by congressional restrictions. So Israel was doing massive shipments of Galil automatic rifles and other weapons. And Pérez Molina, as you saw in the video, actually had one of his subordinates come over and show me an Israeli-made mortar. That mortar and the helicopters he was asking for from the U.S., those were the kind of weapons they would use to bomb villages and attack people as they were fleeing in the mountains. In listening to the testimony in the trial up to this moment, I was struck by the fact that almost every witness mentioned that they had been attacked from the air, that either their village had been bombed or strafed or that they were bombed or strafed as they were fleeing in the mountains. This testimony suggests that the use of this U.S. and Israeli aircraft and U.S. munitions against the civilians in the Ixil highlands was actually much more extensive than we understood at the time.
Beyond that, beyond the material U.S. support, there’s the question of doctrine. Yesterday in the trial, the Ríos Montt defense called forward a general, a former commander of the G-2, as an expert witness on the defense side. And at the end of his testimony, the prosecution read to this general an excerpt from a Guatemalan military training document. And the document said it is often difficult for soldiers to accept the fact that they may be required to execute repressive actions against civilian women, children and sick people, but with proper training, they can be made to do so. So, the prosecutor asked the Ríos Montt general, “Well, General, what is your response to this document?” And the general responded by saying, “Well, that training document which we use is an almost literal translation of a U.S. training document.” So this doctrine of killing civilians, even down to women, children and sick people, was, as the general testified, adopted from the U.S. Indeed, years before, the U.S. military attaché in Guatemala, Colonel John Webber, had said to Time magazine that the Guatemalan army was licensed to kill guerrillas and potential guerrillas. And, of course, the category of potential guerrillas can include anyone, including children.
And the point of guerrilla civilians is actually very important to understanding this. Those bodies that Pérez Molina was standing over in Nebaj in 1982 in the film we saw, those were actually an exception to the rule, because the truth commission which investigated the massacres in Guatemala found that 93 percent of the victims were civilians killed by the Guatemalan army. But there was also some combat going on between the army and guerrillas. And in that case, in the video we saw, the bodies Pérez Molina was standing over were guerrillas, guerrillas that the army had captured. And one of them in captivity had set off a hand grenade as a suicide act, but apparently, from what I saw and what the soldiers told me, apparently they survived the blast, and they were then turned over to Pérez Molina for interrogation. He interrogated them, and then, as we saw, they turned up dead. But in the vast majority of cases, they were civilians, completely unarmed people, who were targeted by Ríos Montt’s army for elimination.
And I asked Ríos Montt about this practice on two different occasions, first in an interview with him two months after he seized power in 1982, and then later, years later, after he had been thrown out of power. And when I asked him in ’82 about the fact that so many civilians were being killed by the army, he said, “Look, for each one who is shooting, there are 10 who are standing behind him,” meaning: Behind the guerrillas there are vast numbers of civilians. His senior aide and his spokesman, a man named Francisco Bianchi, who was sitting next to him at this interview, then expanded on the point. Bianchi said the guerrillas—well, the indigenous population—he called them “indios,” which is a slur in Guatemalan Spanish—
AMY GOODMAN: For Indians.
ALLAN NAIRN: Yes—were collaborating with the guerrilla, therefore it was necessary to kill Indians. “And people would say,” Bianchi continued, “'Oh, you're massacring all these innocent Indians”—”innocent Indios,” in his words. But Bianchi then said, “But, no, they are not innocent, because they had sold out to subversion.” So this is the—this is the doctrine of killing civilians, and particularly Mayans, because the army saw them collectively as a group. They didn’t view them as individuals, but they saw them collectively as a group as sold out to subversion. And this was a doctrine that the U.S. supported.
AMY GOODMAN: Journalist Allan Nairn. The interview we did was recorded last week just before he left for Guatemala to testify in the trial against the Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt. But at the last minute, his testimony was canceled late yesterday. The trial was canceled. We’ll continue with the interview in a minute.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: Mercedes Sosa, here on Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report, as we continue our coverage of the historic trial of former U.S.-backed Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Allan Nairn joined us in our studio last week before he flew to Guatemala. His testimony was canceled. The trial was canceled last night. But I asked Allan to talk about how he managed to interview the Guatemalan dictator, Ríos Montt, two months after he seized power in the 1980s.
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, he was—he was giving press interviews. This was an interview in the palace. I was there with a couple of other reporters. Ríos Montt was very outspoken. He would go on TV and say, “Today we are going to begin a merciless struggle. We are going to kill, but we are going to kill legally.” That was his style, to speak directly. And it’s in great contrast to what he’s doing today. I mean, it’s very interesting from point of view of people who’ve survived these kind of generals who live on the blood of the people, not just in Guatemala but in Salvador, in East Timor, in Indonesia, in countless countries where the U.S. has backed this kind of terror. You have the spectacle now of this general, who once made poor people tremble at the sight of him, at the mention of him, now he’s hiding. In the trial, he refuses to talk. He will not defend himself. He’s like a common thug taken off the streets who invokes his Fifth Amendment—invokes his Fifth Amendment rights. But back then, when he had the power, when no one could challenge him, he would speak fairly openly. In fact, the second time I spoke to him, a number of years after, I asked Ríos Montt whether he thought that he should be executed, whether he should be tried and executed because of his own responsibility for the highland massacres, and he responded by jumping to his feet and shouting, “Yes! Put me on trial. Put me against the wall. But if you’re going to put me on trial, you have to try the Americans first, including Ronald Reagan.”
AMY GOODMAN: Allan Nairn, at the time in Guatemala, you not only were interviewing, well, now the current president, Pérez Molina, who was in the highlands at the time standing over dead bodies, but you were also talking to U.S. officials, and I want to go to this issue of U.S. involvement in what happened in Guatemala. Tell us about U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs Stephen Bosworth, a man you got to interview at the time during the Ríos Montt years.
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, Bosworth was, at the time, an important player in U.S. Central American policy. And he, along with Elliott Abrams, for example, attacked Amnesty International when Amnesty was trying to report on the assassinations of labor leaders and priests and peasant organizers and activists in the Mayan highlands. And he also was denying that the U.S. was giving military assistance to the Guatemalan army that was carrying out those crimes.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s turn to the interview you did with then U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs Stephen Bosworth. STEPHEN BOSWORTH: Well, I think the important factor is that there has been, over the last six months, evidence of significant improvement in the human rights situation in Guatemala. Since the coming into power of the Ríos Montt government, the level of violence in the country, politically inspired violence, particularly in the urban areas, has declined rather dramatically. That being said, however, I think it’s important also to note that the level of violence in the countryside continues at a level which is of concern to all. And while it is difficult, if not impossible, to attribute responsibility for that violence in each instance, it is clear that in the countryside the government does indeed need to make further progress in terms of improving its control over government troops.
AMY GOODMAN: You also, Allan Nairn, asked the then-U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs Stephen Bosworth precisely what was the U.S. military presence and role in Guatemala. This is how Bosworth responded. STEPHEN BOSWORTH: We have no military presence or role. We have, as a part of our diplomatic establishment, a defense attaché office and a military representative. But that is the same sort of representation that we have in virtually all other countries in the world. We do not have American trainers working with the Guatemalan army. We do not have American military personnel active in Guatemala in that—in that sort of area. ALLAN NAIRN: There are no American trainers there? STEPHEN BOSWORTH: No. ALLAN NAIRN: None performing the types of functions that go on in El Salvador, for instance? STEPHEN BOSWORTH: No, there are not.
AMY GOODMAN: That was then-U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs Stephen Bosworth. Respond to what he said, and tell us who he later became, who he is today in the U.S. government.
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, first, just about everything that Bosworth said there was a lie. He said that the killings were down. In fact, they increased dramatically under Ríos Montt. He said, quite interestingly, that it was impossible to know and attribute responsibility for what was happening. Well, the Conference of Catholic Bishops had no difficulty knowing and attributing responsibility. They said that the killings have reached the extreme of genocide. They were saying this at the moment that the massacres were happening and at the moment that Bosworth was denying it. And they and the survivors and the human rights groups were all clearly blaming it on the army.
And then, finally, he said that the army has to be careful to maintain control over its troops. Well, there was a very strict control. In fact, the officers in the field in the Ixil zone that I interviewed at the time said they were on a very short leash and that there were only three layers of command between themselves in the field and Ríos Montt. And, in fact, a few weeks earlier, there had been only two layers of command between themselves and Ríos Montt.
Then, Bosworth went on to say that the U.S. was not giving any military assistance to Guatemala, but I guess it was a couple weeks after that interview when we went down to Guatemala, I met a U.S. Green Beret, Captain Jesse Garcia, who was training the Guatemalan military in combat techniques, including what he called how—in his words, “how to destroy towns.” This was apart from the weapons and U.S. munitions that I mentioned before, apart from the CIA trainers who were working in the CIA-built headquarters of the G-2, the military intelligence service that was doing the assassinations and disappearances.
AMY GOODMAN: The G-2 being the Guatemalan G-2. Now, today Stephen Bosworth is the dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University. But before that, in 2009, well, he played a key role in the Obama administration.
ALLAN NAIRN: Yes, rather than being—you know, in what you might consider to be a normally functioning political system, if a high government official lied like that about matters of such grave, life-and-death importance and was involved in the supply of arms to terrorists, in this case the Guatemalan military, you would expect him at the minimum to be fired and disgraced, or maybe brought up on charges. But Bosworth was actually promoted. And under the Obama administration, Hillary Clinton chose him as the special envoy to North Korea. He’s been in the news a great deal in recent times because of his very prominent role there.
AMY GOODMAN: In 1995, Allan Nairn was interviewed on Charlie Rose about his piece in The Nation called ”CIA Death Squad,” in which he described how Americans were directly involved in killings by the Guatemalan army. He was interviewed alongside Elliott Abrams, who challenged what he was saying. Abrams had served as assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs under President Reagan from 1981 to 1985. This clip begins with Elliott Abrams. ELLIOTT ABRAMS: Wait a minute. We’re not here to refight the Cold War. We’re here to talk about, I thought, a specific case in which an allegation is being made that—of the husband of an American and, another case, an American citizen were killed, and there was a CIA connection with—allegedly with the person allegedly involved in it. Now, I’m happy to talk about that kind of thing. If Mr. Nairn thinks we should have been on the other side in Guatemala—that is, we should have been in favor of a guerrilla victory—I disagree with him. ALLAN NAIRN: So you’re then admitting that you were on the side of the Guatemalan military. ELLIOTT ABRAMS: I am admitting that it was the policy of the United States, under Democrats and Republicans, approved by Congress repeatedly, to oppose a communist guerrilla victory anywhere in Central America, including in Guatemala. CHARLIE ROSE: Alright, well, I— ALLAN NAIRN: A communist guerrilla victory. CHARLIE ROSE: Yeah, I— ALLAN NAIRN: Ninety-five percent of these victims are civilians—peasant organizers, human rights leaders— CHARLIE ROSE: I am happy to invite both of you— ALLAN NAIRN: —priests—assassinated by the U.S.-backed Guatemalan army. Let’s look at reality here. In reality, we’re not talking about two murders, one colonel. We’re talking about more than 100,000 murders, an entire army, many of its top officers employees of the U.S. government. We’re talking about crimes, and we’re also talking about criminals, not just people like the Guatemalan colonels, but also the U.S. agents who have been working with them and the higher-level U.S. officials. I mean, I think you have to be—you have to apply uniform standards. President Bush once talked about putting Saddam Hussein on trial for crimes against humanity, Nuremberg-style tribunal. I think that’s a good idea. But if you’re serious, you have to be even-handed. If we look at a case like this, I think we have to talk—start talking about putting Guatemalan and U.S. officials on trial. I think someone like Mr. Abrams would be a fit—a subject for such a Nuremberg-style inquiry. But I agree with Mr. Abrams that Democrats would have to be in the dock with him. The Congress has been in on this. The Congress approved the sale of 16,000 M-16s to Guatemala. In ’87 and ’88— CHARLIE ROSE: Alright, but hold on one second. I just—before—because the— ALLAN NAIRN: They voted more military aid than the Republicans asked for. CHARLIE ROSE: Again, I invite you and Elliott Abrams back to discuss what he did. But right now, you— ELLIOTT ABRAMS: No, thanks, Charlie, but I won’t accept— CHARLIE ROSE: Hold on one second. Go ahead. You want to repeat the question, of you want to be in the dock? ELLIOTT ABRAMS: It is ludicrous. It is ludicrous to respond to that kind of stupidity. This guy thinks we were on the wrong side in the Cold War. Maybe he personally was on the wrong side. I am one of the many millions of Americans who thinks we were happy to win. CHARLIE ROSE: Alright, I don’t— ALLAN NAIRN: Mr. Abrams, you were on the wrong side in supporting the massacre of peasants and organizers, anyone who dared to speak, absolutely. CHARLIE ROSE: What I want to do is I want to ask the following question. ALLAN NAIRN: And that’s a crime. That’s a crime, Mr. Abrams, for which people should be tried. U.S. laws— ELLIOTT ABRAMS: Why don’t you—yes, right, we’ll put all the American officials who won the Cold War in the dock.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Elliott Abrams—he served as assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs under President Reagan from ’81 to ’85—debating investigative journalist Allan Nairn on the Charlie Rose show. Actually, Congressmember Robert Torricelli, then from New Jersey, before he became senator, was also in that discussion at another point. Allan, the significance of what Mr. Abrams was saying? He went on, Abrams, to deal with the Middle East.
ALLAN NAIRN: Yes. Well, he—when I said that he should be tried by a Nuremberg-style tribunal, he basically reacted by saying I was crazy, that this was a crazy idea that you could try U.S. officials for supplying weapons to armies that kill civilians. But people also thought that it was crazy that Ríos Montt could face justice in Guatemala. But after decades of work by the survivors of his Mayan highland massacres, today, as we speak, Ríos Montt is sitting in the dock.
AMY GOODMAN: Award-winning journalist Allan Nairn, speaking last week before he flew to Guatemala. On Thursday, a landmark genocide trial against former Guatemalan dictator Ríos Montt was suspended after the trial threatened to implicate the current president of Guatemala in the mass killings of civilians. Allan reports Guatemalan army associates had threatened the lives of case judges and prosecutors and that the case had been annulled after intervention by Guatemala’s president, General Otto Pérez Molina. Some of the video footage used in the show comes from a 1983 documentary directed by Mikael Wahlforss. We’ll link to it at democracynow.org and to Allan Nairn’s website, allannairn.org.
That does it for our show. Juan González will be speaking tonight in Chicago at 8:15 at the Gene Siskel Film Center at North State Street and tomorrow at noon at Wayne State University [in Detroit] at noon. |
Just like we did location hunting in our Star wars Tunisia special, this article will focus on the saga's last installment: The Last Jedi. The exotic planets that come to life in theatres are based on real life locations. Most of the movie was shot in Pinewoord Studio's near London, but many outdoor scenes are filmed on location. Here is an overview.
Hint: Open a new tab showing Google Maps next to this page. Copy/paste the given Lat/Long coordinates in Google map's searchbox to see the Star Wars locations on a map.
Skellig Michael, Ireland as Ahch-To
Lat/Long coordinates 51.771550, -10.542210
The movie starts where The Force Awakens has left us: the ocean planet of Ahch-To, where Rey finds Luke. The remote and isolated location in the Atlantic ocean was just perfect as a refuge for a Jedi who didn't want to be found and lives here as a hermit. (Just as Dagobah was for Yoda and Tatooine for Obi-Wan) The old stone steps and structures give just the perfect atmosphere.
Skellig Michael was uninhabited before a monastery was founded there in the 8th century. The monastic site on the island is on a terraced shelf 600 feet (180 metres) above sea level and consists out of dry-built corbel constructions. A system for collecting and purifying water in cisterns was developed because no fresh water source was available to the monks. It has been estimated that no more than twelve monks and an abbot lived here at any one time. The steps we see in the films were also carved out by the monks. After the Middle Ages the site was abandoned again and became recently a Unesco World heritage site.
Now different tour operators run boat trips to Skellig Michael during the summer season (May to October). For safety reasons, because the steps up to the monastery are rocky, steep, and old, climbs are not permitted during very wet or windy weather.
Skellig Michael, a perfect hideout
Ceann Sibeal, Ireland as ancient Jedi temple
Lat/Long coordinates 52.179301, -10.445073
Ceann Sibeal is a well known golf court on the Dingle Peninsula in western Ireland. Now it is the location of the old Jedi temple where Luke begins Rey's training in the ways of the force. The rugged coastline and a lush, green scenery blend in with Skellig Michael (not so far away from Ceann Sibeal) as ocean world Ahch-To.
Ceann Michael, from golf court to Jedi training grounds
Dubrovnik, Croatia as casino city Canto Bight
Lat/Long coordinates 42.641327, 18.109114
The city of Dubrovnik was already famous by starring as King's Landing in Game of Thrones. Now it welcomes the franchise as casino city Canto Bight. Stradun, the city's main street received a makeover in the typical Star Wars style and was closed for public for almost 2 weeks during filming. The medieval architecture pimped with future tech and actors dressed up in formal clothing gives it a sort of Monaco feeling, but this time in another Galaxy.
Dubrovnik in another galaxy
Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia as Crait
Lat/Long coordinates -20.133872, -67.578443
The world's largest salt flat, located near the crest of the Andes served as remote mineral mining planet Crait, location of a former Rebel base and gem mining operation of the resistance.
The Salar was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. It is covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness. The salt crust covers a pool of brine, which is exceptionally rich in lithium. It contains 50 to 70% of the world's known lithium reserves.
This unearthy place is the location of the final battle. The resistance makes a last stand in their shielded mining hangar while the First Order sends an assault force to the planet surface to cut their way in with a giant plasma cannon supported by walkers. These are the All Terrain MegaCaliber Six (AT-M6) or also known as the Gorilla Walker. This mobile heavy artillery walker is much larger than the AT-AT used by the Galactic Empire features a MegaCaliber Six turbolaser cannon mounted to its back, hence it's name.
The Bonneville Salt Flats host a spectacular battle |
Stephanie @ Plain Chicken
Where's The Crust Pizza - pizza crust made with cream cheese, eggs, garlic and parmesan cheese - no gluten! Top with favorite sauce and toppings. SOOOO good! We love to make this for our weekly pizza night!
Yield: 4 to 6 Print Recipe Where's The Crust Pizza prep time: 5 MINS cook time: 20 MINS total time: 25 mins INGREDIENTS:
1 (8-oz) package of full fat cream cheese, room temperature
2 eggs
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese Crust
1/2 cup pizza sauce
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
toppings - pepperoni, ham, sausage, mushrooms, peppers
Garlic powder Topping INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly spay a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray. With a handheld mixer, mix cream cheese, eggs, pepper, garlic powder and parmesan cheese until combined. Spread into baking dish. Bake for 12-15 minutes, our until golden brown. Allow crust to cool for 10 minutes. Spread pizza sauce on crust. Top with cheese and toppings. Sprinkle pizza with garlic powder. Bake 8-10 minutes, until cheese is melted. http://www.plainchicken.com/2012/03/wheres-crust-pizza.html ©Plain Chicken, Inc.
This pizza is low-carb and gluten free. For me, that usually translates into no taste, but this was really good! The "crust" is made with cream cheese, eggs and parmesan cheese. It doesn't sound like it would work, but it does. You can make the crust ahead of time if you are pressed for time. It can be stored in the refrigerator or in the freezer. We were really surprised at how good this pizza was. We both really enjoyed it, and actually didn't miss the traditional crust. It is definitely going in the rotation for pizza night. |
Coming soon to an Azeroth near you: the WoW Token, a new in-game item that allows players to simply and securely exchange gold and game time between each other.
Players will be able to purchase a WoW Token through the in-game Shop for real money, and then sell it on the Auction House for gold at the current market price. When a player buys a WoW Token from the Auction House for gold, the Token becomes Soulbound, and the player can then redeem it for 30 days of game time.
Want to buy a WoW Token for gold? Head to the new Game Time tab in the Auction House, and purchase one immediately for the current gold buyout price—there’s no bidding involved. When you put a WoW Token up for sale, you’ll be quoted the amount of gold you’ll receive once someone buys it—you’re guaranteed to get that amount no matter how the market moves.
The WoW Token was created to give players with lots of extra gold the option to use it to help cover their subscription cost, and give those who want to purchase gold a way to do so from fellow players through a secure, easy-to-use system. The Token will be making its debut in an upcoming patch—in the meantime, check out the FAQ below for details on how it works.
FAQ
THE BASICS
Q: How do I buy a WoW Token for real money?
A: WoW Tokens will be available for purchase for real money through the World of Warcraft in-game Shop. You can access the Shop through the row of feature buttons next to your character’s bags.
Q: I need gold! How do I sell a WoW Token to another player?
A: You’ll be able to sell WoW Tokens through a dedicated Token exchange in the Auction House, located in a new Game Time section. WoW Tokens cannot be traded or sold any other way.
Q: How much gold will I receive when I sell a WoW Token?
A: The gold value of a Token will be determined dynamically based on supply and demand. When you put a Token up for sale, you’ll be quoted the amount of gold you’ll receive upon a successful sale. If you then decide to place the Token up for sale, that amount is locked in, and the gold will be sent to your mailbox after another player purchases your Token.
Q: I need game time! How do I buy a WoW Token from the Auction House?
A: When you visit the Auction House, you’ll be presented with the current market price for a WoW Token in your game region—there’s no bidding involved, and all Tokens in a game region are priced the same at any given moment. If you decide to purchase one, you’ll receive it in your mailbox, and can then immediately redeem it for game time.
Q: How much game time do I get by redeeming a WoW Token?
A: You’ll receive 30 days of game time when you redeem a WoW Token.
Q: Can I resell a WoW Token after I’ve purchased it for gold?
A: No, each WoW Token can only be sold once. After you purchase a Token for gold, it becomes Soulbound. At that point, it can only be redeemed for game time.
THE DETAILS
Q: How much will a WoW Token cost on the Shop?
A: Pricing details will be announced at a later date.
Q: Why are you introducing the WoW Token feature?
A: We’ve heard feedback from players that they’d be interested in a secure, legitimate way to acquire gold that doesn’t involve the use of unauthorized third-party gold-selling services—one of the primary sources of account compromises. We also know players who’ve amassed large amounts of gold through regular play would be interested in the ability to trade some to other players in exchange for game time, helping cover their subscription costs. The WoW Token feature gives players on both sides of the equation a secure and straightforward way to make that exchange. It opens up a new kind of payment option for World of Warcraft players, and we hope that it will also help lead to fewer account compromises and a better game experience overall.
Q: How is acquiring gold by selling a WoW Token different from buying gold from third-party services?
A: Buying gold from third-party services negatively impacts the game experience for everyone. The overwhelming majority of the gold these services provide comes from stolen player accounts, halting the victims’ ability to play the game and contribute to their guilds. On top of this, gold selling companies often farm resources using hack programs, sell fake product codes as a scam, and spam entire realms with ads to buy gold, disrupting the game in very real ways.
The WoW Token allows players to exchange real money for gold in a secure and sanctioned way—together with the ongoing efforts of our developers, support staff, and anti-hack teams to stop the exploits these companies use and help players who have become victims of their operations, we hope the Token can help make World of Warcraft a safer and more enjoyable game for all of our players.
Q: Why can’t players set their own prices for the WoW Token?
A: The WoW Token feature is designed to facilitate the exchange of gold and game time between players in as secure, convenient, and fair a way as possible, and without making players feel like they’re playing a game with their hard-earned money. Having a set current market price and a straightforward exchange system is the best way to achieve that—you don’t need to worry about whether your Token will sell or not due to being undercut or the market shifting, and everyone receives exactly the amount of gold they were quoted.
Q: What happens if the price quoted to me is different from what the Token actually sells for?
A: You will always receive the gold amount quoted to you at the time you place a Token up for sale, regardless of what the current price is when the item actually sells.
Q: How long should I expect to receive my gold after putting a Token up for sale? How does the game determine whose Token to sell?
A: The amount of time it takes to receive your gold after putting a Token up for sale depends on a variety of factors, including the current supply and demand. When you list a Token, you’ll be quoted an estimated time based on the current Token supply and the rate of recent transactions, but the actual amount of time it takes to sell is likely to vary (note that Tokens do not expire). In most cases, Tokens are sold in the order in which they were put up for sale; however, there are some exceptions to this, such as when a Token purchase is undergoing verification.
Q: If I buy a WoW Token from the Auction House, how long does it take to receive the Token?
A: Just like a standard Auction House purchase, it will normally arrive in your mailbox nearly instantaneously.
Q: If I’m buying a WoW Token for real money from the in-game Shop, how long does it take to receive it?
A: Once you successfully complete a purchase, your Token should arrive in your inventory (or mailbox, if your inventory is full) almost immediately.
Q: Do Tokens expire? What happens if I accidentally delete one?
A: No, Tokens do not expire. They also can’t be deleted, so no need to fear accidentally trashing them.
Q: Can I stop my auction or receive a refund after it was purchased (for gold or real money)?
A: All transactions are considered final and auctions cannot be cancelled, so make sure you’re certain you want to proceed before listing or buying a Token. To help prevent unintentional transactions, you will be prompted to confirm your purchase or sale before it’s finalized.
Q: Is there a deposit? Does the Auction House take a cut of the Token seller’s gold?
A: There’s no deposit, and the Auction House does not take a cut of the gold for WoW Token sales. The standard deposit is designed to dissuade players from spamming the auction house with items that aren’t selling, and the standard cut is designed to dissuade players from buying and reselling items for minuscule markups. These issues don’t apply to the WoW Token, so there’s no need for a deposit or cut.
Q: Will each game region have its own WoW Token exchange? Will everyone in a game region have access to it?
A: Each game region—Americas (including ANZ realms), Europe, Taiwan, Korea, and China—will have its own shared WoW Token exchange. We’ll share additional details at a later date. |
The IRS singled out pro-border-security groups for intrusive scrutiny along with tea party, conservative, Occupy movement and progressive organizations, the tax agency’s inspector general said in an audit Thursday that confirmed the depths of tea party targeting.
Dozens of liberal groups were also snared by the scrutiny from 2004 through 2013, as were groups that dealt with specific issues such as health care, marijuana legalization or immigration, said the Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration.
Tea party and conservative groups still faced the brunt of targeting, with the liberal and issues groups significantly less affected, investigators said. There also is no evidence that the liberal groups faced the sensitive case treatment en masse, the way tea party groups did under former IRS senior executive Lois G. Lerner.
Still, other groups did encounter long delays in getting approvals, and some faced the same kinds of intrusive questions about donors, personal beliefs and even their activities at their unrelated jobs.
Democrats said the report contradicted the long-standing narrative about tea party targeting by proving the Obama administration didn’t single out conservatives.
“This was a case, as I said in the beginning, of gross mismanagement at the IRS, not political targeting,” said Rep. Sander M. Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the chief tax oversight committee in the House. “But that’s not the political narrative the Republicans wanted, so they selectively ignored important facts to skew their ‘investigation.’”
Republicans said the report shows an agency bungling its core duty of treating groups without bias no matter what their political views.
“This report reinforces what government watchdogs and congressional investigators have confirmed time and time again: Bureaucrats at the IRS, such as Lois Lerner, arbitrarily and haphazardly administered the tax code and targeted taxpayers based on political ideology,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, Texas Republican.
The latest audit follows the original 2013 TIGTA report that spotted the illegal targeting of conservative groups, which were pulled out of the usual processing based on conservative-sounding names such as those that included the word “patriot.”
That 2013 investigation found that while most of the targets snared were tea party groups, some liberal organizations were also targeted.
Members of Congress asked investigators to go back and see what other inappropriate screens the IRS used, and Thursday’s report was the result.
Groups related to the Occupy movement, some health care organizations, medical marijuana advocates and even groups that wanted a crackdown on illegal immigration — essentially advocating for enforcement of existing law — were scrutinized by the IRS.
The TIGTA report redacted the names of the seven “Border Patrol” groups targeted and said the IRS was unable to say why it went after them beginning in 2006.
The IRS on Thursday didn’t respond to a request for comment about why it targeted border security groups.
Another 14 targets were groups that sprouted out of ACORN, the troubled community organizers. In those cases, the IRS said, they were targeted because the parent organization had been under federal investigation for years.
Nearly half of the ACORN-related groups faced long delays, had their cases reviewed in Washington as well as Cincinnati, where nonprofit applications are supposed to be decided, and were asked inappropriate questions, the audit found.
Questions included names of donors, details on people who attended meetings, demands that group officials disclose their own political leanings and plans, and inquiries about their other work.
The audit said it relied on the IRS to turn over documentation and tried to interview current and former agency employees to piece together why groups were targeted. TIGTA said only three of the 21 former employees they reached out to agreed to talk to them.
Some employees who did talk had hazy memories about the targeting.
In one troubling appendix to the report, the inspector general says the IRS was unable to produce files for eight of the groups investigators were tracking.
The IRS, which did not respond to a question from The Washington Times about the lost files, in its official response said the issues highlighted in the report were in the past.
“Since the time period covered by the report, the IRS has made significant changes in the way we handle the review process for tax-exempt applications,” said Sunita B. Lough, commissioner for the tax-exempt entities division at the IRS.
The commissioner said that includes no longer asking for donor information.
The audit says the agency’s inappropriate behavior spanned at least the period from 2004 to 2013, and the agency used more than 250 criteria to single out applications for extra review. Some 17 of those criteria seemed to be centered on politics, the audit said, snaring at least 83 groups.
By contrast, more than 400 mostly conservative groups were deemed to have been snared by the anti-tea-party targeting that spanned 2009 to 2013.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission. |
This week we had an in depth session with Portalarium’s Richard Garriott. Richard is leading the charge into what he calls the third phase of gaming that has come over the decades. We got an in depth look at his history as well as some insight into the next decade of gaming. More importantly we got to hear a little about what Portalarium has planned for Ultimate Collector and Ultimate RPG/New Britannia (working title). A true veteran in the industry Richard is best known for Ultima throughout the ages. Here is what he had to say about the games he is creating and the marketplace for online gaming in the future.
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First off we laughed about the mobile and social game markets. Richard said that two or three years ago when all of the hardcore MMOs were being made and all of the hardcore games were coming out no one believed in the mobile or social game platforms. The early offerings at that time were not something hardcore players would pick up. It reminded him of the early days with Ultima Online when they were building the game and no one believed in the idea of a mainstream online game experience. He explained that what social gaming has done really is broaden the game audience tenfold with the addition of casual and new gamers coming into the market who would never dream of playing the hardcore games. Like anything else though this audience is hitting the learning curve and are starting to look for more depth in the games they seek out.
I asked about the recent financing that Portalarium received and Richard explained that it really comes down to finding the right partners. The investors had the same understanding of the market and also saw that the development team was on the right path. This is what Richard described as the third era of gaming. This third era really is about bringing in depth to the social and mobile markets. In the beginning console games and single player RPGs made up the first era for players. These games were a big hit and still are today. The second era was moving those types of games online. Whether in the MMO market or into the online space with tools like Xbox Live at this point gamers were now playing together. The third era comes in on the mobile and social spaces which have dominated our digital landscape over the last few years. But there are definitely some challenges.
“The big one,” said Richard “is that without the $50 fee of buying a console or PC game, you cannot make people wait to be invested in your game. People will buy a game on the App store and decide in minutes whether they like it or not. If you are spending only a few dollars on a game, then the time to capture your audience is much shorter. So right away you have to convince the players that it is a good solid game.”
Garriott explained the similarity to modern action movies where they are bringing action to the screen before you are even seeing the opening credits. The same is now being done to capture new players to the smaller games on the mobile and social platforms. So getting players early is critical.
This brought up another three point plan for Portalarium itself. The first was to launch the series of casino style games on the App market and on Facebook to test the stability of the system. These games have been established, now the company is preparing for Ultimate Collector which will follow some of the format for current social games. The game contains your own avatar, housing, trade system, shops, and brings collecting to life for the player. Your goal is to travel and find objects with different attributes to collect for your homestead. Everything has different values and impacts on your own area. Obviously you can trade and shop for objects as well. Richard talked about his passion for collecting automatons and how much he has learned about them over time simply from collecting them. He wanted to bring that same experience to people so they can learn something about the objects they are collecting. The game sets the stage for Ultimate RPG (also tentatively titled “New Britannia”) by having all of the groundwork in a game except for combat and magic. Richard hopes that by trying Ultimate Collector more hardcore players will see that Portalarium is on the right track for creating the third stage of the plan with Ultimate RPG.
When talking about some of the challenges with these types of games Richard wants to make sure that Ultimate RPG has a very deep soul. As an old school developer and someone who gave us Ultima 4 and Ultima 7 to dearly remember, he said it is critical to have depth in the game for players, especially in an RPG. Also, he said that while having a great team of designers is one thing, it is also very important to have that constant conversation with the community. To know that players have a voice and listen to what they say.
So while we did not get into the full scoop of Ultimate RPG (I was hoping too), but what we did learn is Richard’s clear philosophy for the game. He wants to make sure hardcore players know they are not abandoned. It is one of the guiding principles of the design for the game. It is being made with the hardcore players at the very heart and soul of the title. Also, it is very important for the team to meet their goals on the game and create that RPG experience which made Richard’s Ultimas so memorable.
Richard said that you will find your way into the game through a portal, hence Portalarium, similar to the idea in Ultima 4. The game will have personal ethics, social events, and be founded on a very strong story system. You will have plenty of challenges as a player in this game. He really wants to create a new body of fiction. He really wants the great story of the game to transcend the setting. With the story at its core for the RPG it will have a new setting and a new fictional wrapper for players to delve deeply into.
The best part of the interview was that Richard said the game has sandbox interaction at its core. He said it is styled after Ultima Online and Ultima 7 in that regard. That news should really get everyone excited! Even though the game is set for social and mobile networks Richard was very clear that it is not MMO Light. He said that too many of the free to play games right now don’t have the story or substance behind them for the long term investment by players. He does not want a game that forces you to play for hours to earn your rewards.
I ended the interview by asking Richard where he thought games were going over the next few years and he said that free to play is the typical conventional answer. However he said if you look back at the beginning you started with solo player RPGs. You moved into MMOs and companies who embraced the MMO model early on have become hugely successful, like Blizzard. So as World of Warcraft took us into the tens of millions of players, now mobile and social games like Angry Birds and Farmville are taking us into the hundreds of millions-of-players zone. These games have truly broken ground into entire new player bases. When will a true MMO break that same ground?
Richard listed out the core things that these new games need to have to succeed. They are definitely an impulse buy. The game needs to capture players within minutes of time to keep them interested. With the addition of Free-to-Play the game needs to convince a player that it is worth spending money on. Also the game needs to be distributed digitally to keep costs down. Richard ended the interview by stating very matter-of-factly that the MMO audience is still his target audience. He holds a special place for hardcore gamers and that is who he wants to get playing his New Britannia. He feels very strongly about these social and mobile games having more depth and hopes to deliver that to the core MMO players out there so that they have a game they’re proud to play and call their own. It was great chatting with Richard and I think his insight and experience will take some of the new aspects of games we are seeing into a much deeper experience for all of us. |
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More than the Score: Ihm ranked 54th in current Web.com standings |
Craft beer companies across America are embracing a "less is more" attitude when it comes to the booziness of their brews.
This summer, the popularity of so-called "session beers" -- craft beers with an alcohol content that hovers around 5.5 percent or lower -- has been making waves in the industry as consumer eschew big, hoppy bombers with double-digit alcohol content for an easier drink.
"The return to session is a return to what we were doing beforehand," Adam Vavrick, beer manager for Chicago beverage depot Binny's told The Huffington Post. "We’ve gotten on the highway and gone 100 mph, but now we’re dialing it back -- and saving some gas."
Though session beers have always spiked in popularity during the summer, popular regional breweries like Founder's (Grand Rapids, Michigan), Deschutes Brewery Inc. (Bend, Oregon) and Lagunitas Brewing Co. (Petaluma, California) are now are making session beers year-round, according to Crain's Chicago Business.
"Really strong beers are great when it’s cold outside and you’re hunkering down next to a fireplace or a radiator and just trying to forget the cold and the troubles in your life," Austin Harvey, director of beer at Chicago-based craft beer cafe Beermiscuous told HuffPost. "But summer also exists. And heavy beers just aren’t as pleasurable to drink.
Harvey said the preference for the "lower gravity" beers signals a larger change in the craft beer world.
"You’re seeing a widening of the audience of craft beer," Harvey said. "It’s easiest to get [consumers] into something when it’s not as overwhelming -- not just in the flavor department but also alcohol-wise. Breweries are trying to make the audience for craft beer bigger while also providing something the average craft beer fan can drink every day."
Getting a greater number of beers into the customers' bellies is a savvy economic move for breweries, and Harvey adds that session beers are also "a little cheaper" to make, since fewer key ingredients in the fermentation process are needed.
"It's really the market maturing," Vavrick said. "There’s a reason the macro-lagers became light and easy-drinking alcohol: You want to be able to sit down with your friends and have an easygoing drinking experience, and having more than one.”
Consumers ages 35-49 make up 41.5 percent of the craft beer-drinking market, followed by 26-34-year-olds, who accounted for 26.4 percent, according to figures from The Journal of Consumer Marketing and The British Food Journal.
"Folks who have been getting into craft beer for a while are getting older," Harvey said. "When you sit down to a craft beer that’s lower in alcohol during dinner, you’re not going to embarrass yourself in front of your kids or your spouse."
Though craft beers sales account for a roughly 7.8 percent of the U.S. beer market, the craft segment is growing as the overall beer market slows.
“Companies are trying to attract an audience beyond the beer nerd consumer of a few years ago,” Vavrick said, adding, "The American palate is also changing. They don’t like [beers] as bland or sweet; there’s a desire for more flavor, maybe something a little rougher around the edges and maybe a taste that links more to the agriculture around it.”
Though there will always be a place for mass-market brews and light beers "consumed ice cold and slammed at a ballpark," Vavrick said session beers at the very least keep beer fans in the game instead of under the table. |
1. Soothfast
What it means: Truthful, honest.
As in: Be soothfast with me, bro: did you drunk-eat my Pringles last night?
2. Erotographomania
What it means: A mania for writing love letters.
As in: How are things going with Greg?/ Oh, we broke up. I think he has erotographomania./ Oh my gosh I’ve heard of that — it’s like gonorrhea but worse, right?
3. Mammothrept
What it means: A spoiled child.
As in: Want to go to the pool?/ No!/ How about we watch a movie?/ No!/ Are you hungry?/ No!/ Well then what do you want to do?/ iPad!/ iPads are for grown-ups, you mammothrept.
4. Ganch
What it means: To execute by impaling on stakes or hooks.
As in: You picked up our dinner from Trader Joe’s instead of Whole Foods? What do I look like, one of those flash-in-the-pan yoga-lovers who try to pass bargain brands off for Lululemon? I will ganch you if you ever shop at Trader Joe’s again, do you understand me?
5. Keelivine
What it means: Lead pencil.
As in: Pop quiz, suckers, Scantron style! No. 2 keelivines only!
6. Whisternefet
What it means: A sharp slap.
As in: Nice whisternefet, buddy! You show that Franzia who’s boss!
7. Diversivolent
What it means: Looking for an argument.
As in: Are you kidding me? Harry Potter is far superior to Star Wars./ Ha! You wish. I’d put my money on Obi Wan over Dumbledore any day./ You’re kidding, right?/ No way. The Force is much stronger than some dumb “wand” that can supposedly perform “spells.”/ Now you’re just being diversivolent.
8. Lasslorn
What it means: Sadness due to being stood up by one’s lady.
As in: Why has Joe been karaoke-ing Jewel songs all night?/ Give him a break, man, he’s super lasslorn.
9. Palpebrate
What it means: To wink.
As in: This one time, I saw John Stamos on a plane, and he totally palpebrated at me. Swoooooooon.
10. Epicaricacy
What it means: Taking pleasure in others’ misfortune.
As in: Have you noticed how all of Maury’s shows revolve around paternity testing?/ Yeah. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he engaged in the epicaricacy of it all just for fun./ You don’t know any better./ Hey, Maury’s not like that, okay?
11. Absquatulate
What it means: To leave hurriedly, suddenly, or secretly.
As in: Where are we going, Fraulein Maria? It’s the dead of night!/ We must absquatulate to the Swiss Alps, children, where we can sing and dance and have puppet shows forever.
12. Widdershins
What it means: Backwards.
As in: You bought your wedding dress before he even proposed? The one you Pinned last week?! That’s positively widdershins! Brilliant, but widdershins!
13. Fussock
What it means: A big, fat lady.
As in: It ain’t over till the fussock sings.
14. Elumbated
What it means: Weak in the loins.
As in: So did you and Scott hook up last night?/ Ehh, he was a little elumbated, if you know what I mean.
You should follow Thought Catalog on Twitter here. |
Yesterday I did my usual angst-ridden tapdance as I wrote that we need to talk about "Jewish money" in American politics. Here are Jim Lobe and M.J. Rosenberg speaking logically about the issue in a recent post by Lobe, which shows how even delicate issues can be addressed by smart journalists.
Despite their relatively small number – about two percent of the total U.S. population and about three percent of voters in most elections, Jewish Americans are major donors to political campaigns, accounting for as much as 25 percent of all financial contributions to national campaigns and as much as 40 percent of all contributions to Democratic candidates, in particular. They are also widely – if often mistakenly – seen by political candidates as virtually unconditional supporters of Israel prepared to reward or punish candidates based on their positions on the Jewish state. "Every Democrat assumes that the biggest discernible group that contributes to their campaign is Jews," according to M.J. Rosenberg, a Middle East analyst who worked for the most powerful Lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), in the 1980s. "…(I)f a donor has a Jewish name, or is known to be Jewish, the assumption is that he or she is pro-Israel and will be offended by any deviation from the [Lobby’s] line," he said.
A few comments. The old dodge was, Jewish voters were in key states. The great thing about Lobe’s post is that it dispenses with this hypocrisy. Lobe’s 40 percent to Dems has been estimated at 60 percent for Democratic presidential candidates, by the Washington Post. Also, Lobe’s statement that political candidates are often mistaken in regarding the Jewish community as monolithic on the Israel question, well, I differ from my good friend here. As the J Street experience shows, the Jewish community has been overwhelmingly supportive of rightwing Israeli policies. Has any candidate shown that individual Jewish donors, as Jews, are going to support liberal policies vis-a-vis Palestinians? I don’t see it. Yes we are building a movement inside Jewish life to oppose existing policies. But how significant is it?
Finally, isn’t it interesting that the Wikipedia entry on the Israel lobby describes it as chiefly Christian? What an irresponsible dodge. Until the Jewish community takes responsibility for its role in Israel’s militarism — as leading Zionist historian Melvin Urofsky did, when he wrote a book called We Are One!, and described the relationship between American Jews and Israel as a "marriage"– we won’t be able to get out of this political puzzle. In the end, it really does involve Jewish identity. |
The world record holder for the distance ran the race in Leeds for the Jane Tomlinson Appeal, which raises money for children's and cancer charities.
She completed the course in a time of 45 minutes and 35 seconds and ran the final 100 metres with her daughter Isla Lough.
After the run, the 36-year-old said: "It was a fantastic occasion and I had a lot of fun.
"It's a tough course and we have to say thank you to all of the people who turned out today.
"I run every day and it felt good today. I was not concerned about running a time, it was about enjoying the day.
"There were people cheering all the way round, the atmosphere was great."
Radcliffe, who ran 10km in the fastest ever time of 30 minutes and 21 seconds in 2002, paid tribute to Jane Tomlinson, who set up the charity before she died of cancer.
She said: "Jane Tomlinson was such an inspirational person, she never let anything get her down, and this race is really in her image. It is about something so serious but it deals with it in such a positive way, with a lot of joy for a lot of people.
"I've not done this event before but I have known Jane since 2002 and she was a great person."
The event in Leeds was run for the first time in June 2007, just three months before Mrs Tomlinson died following a long battle against cancer.
It has become an annual fixture in the athletics calendar, raising thousands of pounds for the appeal.
Radcliffe ran the New York Mini 10k last month, finishing with a time of 44 minutes 36 seconds – almost a quarter of an hour longer than her world record road 10k time of 30 mins 21 secs, set in 2003.
The 36-year-old is the world record holder for the marathon, 20km and 10km road runs.
Mrs Tomlinson raised £1.85 million through a series of remarkable challenges as she fought her illness.
The fund-raising efforts have continued since her death, led by her husband Mike and her three children.
Mr Tomlinson said: "Suzanne, Rebecca, Steven and myself are delighted that Paula has agreed to be a patron of the charity and know that Jane would have been thrilled.
"That Paula has agreed to come and take part in the Leeds 10k whilst being pregnant speaks volumes and I'm sure the people in Yorkshire will be out in their thousands to cheer her on." |
It is a new day in Washington—with a Republican back in the White House—and the time is now for us to address our country’s roads, bridges and waterways. When it comes to finding agreement on infrastructure, partisanship has never been an issue for me.
This Congress, as chairman of the Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I), I plan to build on the successes of the last two years, and work in tandem with the White House, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and our agencies to improve infrastructure across the country.
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Last Congress, then-Sen. Barbara Boxer Barbara Levy BoxerHispanic civil rights icon endorses Harris for president California AG Becerra included in Bloomberg 50 list Climate debate comes full circle MORE (D-Calif.) and I led the charge in passing the much-needed Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act—the sixth reauthorization bill I’ve worked on and the biggest since 1998—however, the current investment falls short of fully addressing our country’s needs. The FAST Act authorizes about $305 billion over the course of five years but DOT estimates the backlog of highway and bridgework in the United States is close to $836 billion.
In 1987, when I was first elected to the House of Representatives, the biggest problem we had with the Highway Trust Fund was that it had too much money. Those days are long gone, but this year the president and DOT Secretary Elaine Chao, along with Congress, will consider a trillion-dollar infrastructure package; a package that will address ports, waterways, airports and energy needs, in addition to roads and bridges.
The federal government has been and will continue to be the leader in addressing our infrastructure needs, but it is necessary that our state and local partners meet us part of the way.
The federal government provides an 80 or 90 percent match towards most projects and states should make it a priority to match the remaining percentage, recognizing the value infrastructure projects provide to their economies especially in attracting businesses, and providing for safe transportation nationwide.
Even as state and local partners emphasize infrastructure, we need to find responsible and meaningful ways to attract and leverage additional private investment to help further close the gap. All options are on the table and we should look for ways to incentivize our non-federal partners to use them.
One of these options is the use of public-private partnerships, which leverage private investments to break ground on projects. Public-private partnerships also give states freedom to address specific priorities when public funding at the full cost may not be available. While public-private partnerships are not a solution everywhere, the administration, Secretary Chao and I are looking at all the ways we can encourage infrastructure investment to ensure long-term results while creating jobs and promoting economic development.
This infrastructure week, the EPW Committee heard from Secretary Chao herself, who reaffirmed her commitment to working with Congress to enact the administration’s transportation and infrastructure priorities. Soon, the administration will announce its infrastructure principles, which will help keep the ball rolling in Congress.
I am committed to continue taking the lead as chairman of T&I, along with EPW Chairman John Barrasso John Anthony BarrassoOvernight Energy: Trump ends talks with California on car emissions | Dems face tough vote on Green New Deal | Climate PAC backing Inslee in possible 2020 run Dems face tough vote on Green New Deal Dems slam EPA plan for fighting drinking water contaminants MORE (R-Wyo.), in passing yet another infrastructure bill. I look forward to working with my friends and colleagues to ensure our roads, bridges, ports, waterways and energy infrastructure work for this country. |
Here's a quick roundup of stories you may have missed today.
Ali Stroker to Sing Out in Two NYC Concerts
Ali Stroker, the Glee veteran who broke ground as the first-ever performer in a wheelchair in a Broadway show with her performance in Deaf West's Spring Awakening, will offer two solo concerts at the Yotel's Green Room 42 on September 17 and 18 at 8:00pm. The show, titled Burning Old Dresses!, will take the audience on an entertaining musical journey from Glee to Spring Awakening and beyond. The multi-talented Stroker will appear as a series regular on the previously announced ABC drama Ten Days in the Valley, which debuts on October 1.
Nancy Anderson, Mara Davi & More to Lead Rachel Crothers' A Man's World
Broadway veterans including Nancy Anderson, Mara Davi and Robert Cuccioli are set to perform Rachel Crothers' 1910 drama A Man's World for one night as part of the Project Shaw series. Jenn Thompson will direct the performance set to take place on September 18 at 7:00pm at Symphony Space's Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre. Crothers' provocative play about aspiring Greenwich Village artists broke ground when it was first produced. Joining Anderson, Davi and Cuccioli will be Arnie Burton, Finn Douglas, Ariel Estrada, Brandon Jones and Talene Monahan.
Broadway's Brenda Braxton & Todd Buonopane to Show Off Their Improv Skills in Villain DeBlanks
A slew of stage veterans are part of the lineup for Billy Mitchell's Villain: DeBlanks, playing weekly on Wednesdays at the Yotel's Green Room 42. Presented by Tony nominee Brenda Braxton, the upcoming August and September editions will feature Braxton along with fellow Tony nominee Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Todd Buonopane, Molly Pope, Nikka Graff Lanzarone and Ryann Redmond. Described as "Clue meets adult Mad Libs," Villain DeBlanks is performed by some of the funniest people in show biz. For the full schedule of performers and dates, click here.
TedX Broadway Sets Return Date at New World Stages
Industry professionals from across the Rialto will come together for the 2018 edition of TedX Broadway, set for February 27 at off-Broadway's New World Stages. TEDxBroadway comprises speakers from different perspectives and expertise from all theatricals fields. TEDxBroadway, now in its seventh year, has welcomed past speakers including Dear Evan Hansen Tony winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, SpongeBob SquarePants director Tina Landau and Broadway actor Alton Fitzgerald White. Speakers for the 2018 edition of TedX Broadway will be announced at a later date.
Jason Gotay & More to Lead Prince of Egypt Musical Debut in California
Broadway vet Jason Gotay will lead the company of The Prince of Egypt, the new stage adaptation of the beloved animated film! The show will appear at California's TheatreWorks Silicon Valley for a run from October 6 through November 5. The Prince of Egypt follows the saga of Moses and Ramses, his Pharaoh brother, and the indomitable people who changed them both forever. Featuring a book by Philip LaZebnik, a score by Stephen Schwartz, and directed by Scott Schwartz, The Prince of Egypt will feature Gotay as Ramses alongside Brennyn Lark as Tzipporah, Tom Nelis as Pharaoh Seti, Christina Sajous as Queen Tuya, Julia Motyka as Miriam, Will Mann as High Priest Hotep, David Crane as Aaron, Ayelet Firstenberg as Youcheved, Jamila Sabares-Klemm as Nefertari, Paul-Jordan Jansen as Jethro, with Natalie Schroeder and Alexandra Van De Poel rotating in the role of Young Miriam. The TheatreWorks run will be followed by a 2018 mouning in Denmark.
Amanda Peet Among Playwrights Set for MCC Theater's Playlabs Reading Series
Our Very Own Carlin McCullough, a new work by Broadway and off-Broadway veteran Amanda Peet, will receive a one-night reading as part of MCC Theater's Playlabs Reading Series. Tyne Rafaeli will direct the play, set to appear at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on September 11 at 7:00pm. The play centers on Carlin McCullough, a tennis prodigy with the chance for greatness. Additional playwrights set for the full Playlabs Reading Series include Jocelyn Bioh, Lily Houghton and Charise Castro Smith.
P.S. The filmed version of Broadway's Newsies will arrive on Netflix on September 5! |
A 16-year-old boy charged with attacking a young man who suffered serious facial injuries in an incident in Dublin city centre would not get out of bed to come to court today.
The boy, who cannot be named because he is a minor, is charged with assault causing harm to Andrew Cusack (21), who was taken to St James’s Hospital to be treated for lacerations to his face following the alleged incident in the early hours of May 2nd at Dame Lane.
A bench warrant was issued by Judge John O’Connor at the Dublin Children’s Court on Monday when the boy failed to turn up for his case.
He was initially granted bail on Friday, May 6th with strict conditions, including a ban on going into Dublin city centre, but he was arrested there again within hours of being released and was allegedly possessing a knife.
Remanded in custody
He was remanded in custody for a week, and on May 16th was readmitted to bail with stricter conditions. The teenager was barred from the Dublin 1, 2, 7 and 8 areas, had to sign on daily at his local Garda station, obey a 9pm-8am curfew and abstain from alcohol. His mother told the court she would supervise him.
The case resumed on Monday, but Judge John O’Connor was told the teenager had a row with his mother and refused to get out of bed to come to court.
Judge O’Connor issued a bench warrant for his arrest. |
France has sought to keep a computer hack of frontrunner Emmanuel Macron's campaign emails from influencing the outcome of the country's presidential election, warning that it could be a criminal offence to republish the data.
Key points: As much as 9 gigabytes of data was posted online
The commission, which supervises the electoral process, says data was fraudulently obtained
Intelligence expert says review indicates Russian military intelligence behind the leak
Mr Macron's team said a "massive" hack had dumped emails, documents and campaign financing information online just before campaigning ended on Friday (local time) and France entered a quiet period, which forbids politicians from commenting on the leak.
French electoral laws impose a news blackout on Saturday and for most of Sunday on any campaigning and media coverage seen as swaying the election.
"On the eve of the most important election for our institutions, the commission calls on everyone present on internet sites and social networks — primarily the media, but also all citizens — to show responsibility and not to pass on this content, so as not to distort the sincerity of the ballot," the French election commission said in a statement.
Hack probably won't impact vote We know the fact they've called in the cyber security agency means that it must have been massive and very significant.
They're only brought in on cases if they are big. And that's what the Macron campaign had suggested.
Francois Hollande has spoken out and said he will deliver a response. They're going to take some kind of action.
But the odd thing is because of this campaign restriction — and it occurred an hour before midnight on Friday — no-one has been able to talk about it.
If you turned on the French television today, as I did, it wasn't mentioned. So not a lot of details.
Because it hasn't had a lot of publicity in the mainstream media, the suggestion is it probably won't have an impact on the vote.
But how much of it is being picked up online? How much of it is being pushed and spread by Mr Macron's rivals is a question that we won't know.
But the reality is that the polls are so wide and appear to be so stable for him in the lead that it's going to take an extraordinary event for him not to take out the election.
Analysis from Europe correspondent Lisa Millar
As much as 9 gigabytes of data was posted on a profile called EMLEAKS to Pastebin, a site that allows anonymous document sharing, late on Friday.
France's government cybersecurity agency will investigate the attack, according to a government official who said it appeared to be a "very serious" breach.
But outgoing French President Francois Hollande said the attack was not a surprise.
"We knew that this kind of risk would be present during the presidential campaign, because it has happened elsewhere. Nothing will be left without a response," he told French news agency AFP.
The data leak emerged as polls predicted Macron was on course for a comfortable victory over far-right leader Marine Le Pen in Sunday's election.
The last surveys showed his lead widening to around 62 per cent to 38.
Fake information mixed in leak to 'sow doubt'
The commission, which supervises the electoral process, said after a hastily called meeting on Saturday (local time) that the data had been fraudulently obtained and could be mixed with false information.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the hack, but Mr Macron's political movement said in a statement the hack was an attempt to destabilise democracy and to damage the party.
"The En Marche! (Onwards!) Movement has been the victim of a massive and co-ordinated hack," it said.
En Marche! said the leaked documents dealt with the normal operations of a campaign and included some information on campaign accounts.
It said the hackers had mixed false documents with authentic ones to "sow doubt and disinformation".
The Macron team asked the campaign oversight commission to bring in cybersecurity agency ANSSI to study the hack, according to a government official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
ANSSI can only be called in for cases where the cyberattack is "massive and sophisticated" — and the Macron hack appears to fit the bill, the official said.
French media covered it in various ways, with left-leading Liberation giving it prominence on its website, but television news channels opting not to mention it.
The electoral commission's rules may be difficult to enforce in an era where people get much of their news online, information flows freely across borders and many users are anonymous.
Russia likely tied to leak: expert
France is the latest nation to see a major election overshadowed by allegations of manipulation through cyber hacking.
In January, US intelligence agencies said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered hacking of parties tied to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to influence the election on behalf of Republican Donald Trump.
The Kremlin has denied it was behind any such attacks, although Mr Macron's camp renewed complaints against Russian media and a hackers' group operating in Ukraine.
Vitali Kremez, director of research with New York-based cyber intelligence firm Flashpoint, told Reuters his review indicated that APT 28 — a group tied to the GRU, the Russian military intelligence directorate — was behind the leak.
APT 28 last month registered decoy internet addresses to mimic the name of En Marche!, which it likely used to send tainted emails to hack into the campaign computers, Mr Kremez said.
"If indeed driven by Moscow, this leak appears to be a significant escalation over the previous Russian operations aimed at the US presidential election," he said.
"… Expanding the approach and scope of effort from simple espionage efforts towards more direct attempts to sway the outcome."
Macron's campaign has previously complained about attempts to hack its emails, blaming Russian interests in part for the cyber attacks.
Reuters/AP/ABC |
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-826
Distributed solar capacity in the United States, which includes all solar power capacity other than utility-scale installations 1 MW or larger, totaled 12.3 gigawatts (GW) as of September. About 30% of that amount (3.7 GW) was owned by third-party owners. Third-party owners are private companies that provide either solar electricity or equipment to generate it to building owners or tenants, typically with little or no upfront costs.
There are three primary distributed solar ownership options: self-financing, utility/public financing, and third-party ownership (TPO). EIA recently included TPOs on its monthly and annual surveys of utility operations to help capture ownership trends across states. TPOs commonly enter into either power purchase agreements or solar leases. In EIA’s reporting, TPOs are defined as energy service providers, independent of how the payments are structured.
TPOs tend to be more common in the residential sector than in the commercial and industrial (C&I) sectors. TPOs own 44% of distributed solar capacity in the residential sector, compared with 11% in the C&I sectors. The residential sector accounts for 56% of distributed solar capacity but 84% of third-party-owned solar capacity.
California has the highest distributed solar capacity at 4.9 GW. Of that amount, about one third is owned by third parties. Arizona and Maryland have the highest shares of TPO capacity, and third parties own slightly more than half of their distributed solar capacity. Utilities did not report any TPO capacity in 20 states, all which have relatively low distributed solar capacity (about 0.3 GW total). Some states have (or had) laws restricting TPOs.
Principal contributors: David Darling, Cara Marcy |
By Laura Prudom
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 has cast Brian Tee (The Wolverine) as iconic villain Shredder, Variety has learned exclusively.
He’ll join Megan Fox (April O’Neil), Will Arnett (Vern Fenwick), Stephen Amell (Casey Jones) and Tyler Perry (Baxter Stockman) in the Paramount sequel. Michael Bay will once again produce with his Platinum Dunes partners Brad Fuller and Andrew Form. David Green is set to direct from a script by Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec.
The 2014 reboot of the beloved franchise brought in more than $485 million worldwide on a budget of $125 million. Tohoru Masamune played the villain in the 2014 movie.
Tee recently finished filming NBC drama pilot Love is a 4 Letter Word from director George Tillman Jr. and writer/producer Diana Son. He’ll next be seen in Universal’s Jurassic World, playing the role of Takashi Hamada.
Tee is repped by Abrams Artists Agency, manager Lisa DiSante-Frank, Sabrina Hutchinson Public Relations and attorney Mark Johnson of Behr, Abramson, Levy.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 will hit theaters on June 3, 2016. |
What's the Deal with Ron Paul?
toggle caption David Lienemann/Getty Images
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul's got a rabid following, plenty of buzz, surprising endorsements and fundraising records, but his poll numbers keep him in the second tier.
Tucker Carlson, who has been following Paul for an article in the New Republic, describes Paul as being so deeply libertarian that he's uncomfortable telling his campaign staff what to do — even choices as small as whether to turn down the heat in the campaign van.
Paul's platform includes support for getting troops out of Iraq and opposing both abortion and the income tax. But Carlson says it's the issue of the gold standard, and specifically distrust of the Federal Reserve, that fires his base.
"The single biggest applause that I heard in the Ron Paul speeches was 'The Constitution does not provide for a central bank,' " Carlson reports. "It sounds like a parody."
Carlson calls Paul the most genuine, unpretentious candidate he has ever covered. Carlson says he's also the most radical candidate in a long time. "Ron Paul really doesn't think the government should be in charge of your life in any way," he says. "He thinks every person ought to be free from government surveillance."
By extension, the writer continues, that means Paul thinks there should be no "government-sponsored safety net" — a concept almost unimaginable to most voters. "I think if some of them thought that through, they would no longer be on Ron Paul's side," Carlson says.
On our blog, an open thread: What Ron Paul Believes |
(JTA) – Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States rose by more than one-third in 2016 and shot up 86 percent in the first three months of 2017, the Anti-Defamation League reported.
There has been a massive increase in harassment of American Jews, largely since November, and at least 34 incidents linked to the presidential election in November, the ADL reported Monday in its annual Audit of Anti-Semitic incidents.
There were a total of 1,266 acts targeting Jews and Jewish institutions during 2016, a 34 percent increase of incidents of assaults, vandalism, and harassment over the previous year. Nearly 30 percent of those incidents, or 369 of them, occurred in November and December.
The acts included 720 harassment and threat incidents, an increase of 41 percent over 2015; 510 vandalism incidents, an increase of 35 percent; and 36 physical assault incidents, a decrease of 35 percent.
There are preliminary reports of 541 anti-Semitic incidents for the first quarter of 2017. One reason for the jump in incidents in the first quarter of 2017 appears to be the bomb threats called in to Jewish community centers and other Jewish institutions around the country, mostly by an Israeli-American teen who has been arrested in Israel and charged in the U.S.
The 541 anti-Semitic incidents so far in 2017 include: 380 harassment incidents, including the 161 bomb threats, an increase of 127 percent over the same quarter in 2016; 155 vandalism incidents, including three cemetery desecrations, an increase of 36 percent; and six physical assault incidents, a decrease of 40 percent.
“What’s most concerning is the fact that the numbers have accelerated over the past five months,” ADL CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt said in a statement. “Clearly, we have work to do and need to bring more urgency to the fight.”
The states with the highest number of incidents were those with large Jewish populations, including California, New York, New Jersey, Florida and Massachusetts.
While incidents on college campuses stayed mostly static, after nearly doubling in 2015, incidents in non-Jewish elementary, middle and high schools increased 106 percent from 114 in 2015 to 235 in 2016, with another 95 incidents reported for the beginning of 2017.
This story "Anti-Semitic Incidents Surge By 86%" was written by JTA. |
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Peter V’landys the Chief Executive ofRacing NSW has taken to twitter for the first time to announce that all 12 slots for the $10million dollar The Everest have been sold.
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This painting was plundered by the Nazis in 1943 and ultimately made its way to an auction house in Austria. (Image used with permission of im Kinsky)
As the Nazis marched toward France, the Schloss family knew Hitler's agents would come for their father's art.
Adolphe Schloss, a Jewish art collector, had compiled more than 300 paintings by Flemish and Dutch artists — still regarded as one of the best collections of his time. When he died, he left the collection to his wife, and it passed to their children before the outbreak of World War II.
But Adolf Hitler wanted the collection for his museum, part of the Nazi's plan to simply take cultural artifacts owned by Jews. Nazi officials began the hunt soon after the invasion of France, co-opting local police forces and leaning on informers to track down the paintings, which had been secreted away by Schloss's children.
The Nazis found the family's art in 1943, hidden in a chateau in central France, according to a history compiled by the Schlosses, and began the process of transferring the paintings to Germany — more prizes for Hitler's planned führermuseum.
This Bartholomäus van der Helst painting was stolen by the Nazis before resurfacing at an auction house. The heirs of the original owner want it back. (Courtesy of iM Kinsky auction house)
But the artwork outlasted the Nazi regime. And one piece has resurfaced and found itself at the center of a dispute between its current owner, who wants to auction it, and the heirs of Adolphe Schloss, who want the painting back.
The painting is Bartholomäus van der Helst's “Portrait of a Man,” an oil print on wood. It features an unsmiling man wearing a cap. It's valued at $16,000 to $32,500 on the auction site im Kinsky, which makes no secret of the painting's checkered past.
Antoine Comte, an attorney for the Schlosses, said his client's argument is simple: The painting is stolen and should be returned.
“There’s no way they can ignore that the painting was looted,” Comte told The Washington Post. “We stopped the sale last year and we asked the prosecutors in Vienna to have the painting listed on Interpol.”
Ernst Ploil, director of im Kinksy, said a solution is not so simple, especially because the woman who owns the painting does not want to simply give it to the Schlosses. And Austrian law can't compel her, Ploil said. In Austria, a person who buys a looted painting can't be prosecuted or forced to turn over the artwork if they can show they purchased it in good faith.
Thousands of people from all over the world took part in a Holocaust memorial march on April 24, walking down a path linking the World War II Nazi death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oswiecim, Poland. (Reuters)
[‘Flea market’ Renoir returns to the Baltimore Museum of Art six decades after its theft]
Ploil, who is also an attorney, said he shared that fact with the Schloss family lawyers and the woman who now owns the painting. He said the owner, whom he wouldn't identify, was willing to work out a compromise: Sell the painting and split the proceeds.
But the Schlosses want the painting, not the money.
“It was not our idea that the Nazi crimes should be paid twice,” Comte told The Post. “If this were in France, it would be seized by the police and these people would be indicted. In Austria, the legal technicalities are not the same.”
The painting's journey through Europe over the past seven decades gives a glimpse into the messy world of plundered art.
No one disagrees that the Nazis' theft of treasures from Jews — often before shipping them off to concentration camps — was wrong.
But those artifacts continued to circulate well after the Nazis were relegated to the history books. Some have been valued at millions of dollars. Upon learning the murky history of their art, some organizations and individuals have returned them without question. Others, like the owner of “Portrait of a Man,” believe they don't have a moral obligation to give paintings back.
Ploil, who has represented people on both sides of the issue, said he hopes Austrian law is changed.
“I know it is unsatisfying, but it is legal here,” he said. “I don't want it to be. If someone would go to the government and complain there, then I'd say ‘Yes, please change the law.’ ”
He said his position crystallized as he studied the history of the painting he hopes to auction off.
It was stolen twice, he said: first by the Nazis, then by someone who looted an unguarded repository in the chaos near the end of World War II. It surfaced again in Germany in the late 1980s or early 1990s, along with others from the Schloss collections. Many made their way into the hands of legitimate art dealers, where they changed hands again and again.
They joined a tide of plundered art whose origins sometimes even shocked the people who owned them.
According to the Jewish Virtual Library, “The Third Reich amassed hundreds of thousands of pieces of artwork — worth billions of dollars — and stored them throughout Germany.”
Allies found stolen art in 1,000 repositories across Germany and Austria. Nearly 700,000 pieces were returned to rightful owners or their heirs, aided by databases, updated guidelines and stricter laws, but some pieces still remain in museums or private art collections.
In 2000, the National Gallery of Art relinquished a Frans Synders still-life after a French Jewish family said it was looted by the Nazis during World War II.
“It's a wonderful painting,” Arthur Wheelock, curator of northern baroque painting at the National Gallery, told The Post's Michael Dobbs. “We hung it with great pride.”
According to the Schlosses, more than 171 paintings initially plundered from their family have not been recovered.
Read more:
‘No one escaped’: Poland accuses 98-year-old Minnesota man of ordering a Nazi massacre
Was Anne Frank’s family betrayed? After 72 years, historians have a new theory.
Amelia Earhart didn’t die in a plane crash, investigators say.
A military historian’s find could unlock the mystery of 136 sailors missing since World War II |
"The left is intentionally fighting to remain relevant," remarks Armstrong Economics' Martin Armstrong, adding that "the hatred spewing out of their mouths is really off the wall." Furthermore, Armstrong warns the Obama administration is behind the so-called 'soft coup' under way and as The Post reports, an Obama-tied activist group training tens of thousands of agitators to protest Trump's policies plans to hit Republican lawmakers even harder this week.
Organizing for Action, a group founded by Obama and featured prominently on his new post-presidency website, is distributing a training manual to anti-Trump activists that advises them to bully GOP lawmakers into backing off support for repealing ObamaCare, curbing immigration from high-risk Islamic nations, and building a border wall. As The NY Post details,
In a new Facebook post, OFA calls on activists to mobilize against Republicans from now until Feb. 26, when “representatives are going to be in their home districts.”
The protesters disrupted town halls earlier this month, including one held in Utah by House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, who was confronted by hundreds of angry demonstrators claiming to be his constituents.
The manual, published with OFA partner “Indivisible,” advises protesters to go into halls quietly so as not to raise alarms, and “grab seats at the front of the room but do not all sit together.” Rather, spread out in pairs to make it seem like the whole room opposes the Republican host’s positions. “This will help reinforce the impression of broad consensus.” It also urges them to ask “hostile” questions — while keeping “a firm hold on the mic” — and loudly boo the the GOP politician if he isn’t “giving you real answers.” “Express your concern [to the event’s hosts] they are giving a platform to pro-Trump authoritarianism, racism, and corruption,” it says. The goal is to make Republicans, even from safe districts, second-guess their support for the Trump agenda, and to prime “the ground for the 2018 midterms when Democrats retake power.” “Even the safest [Republican] will be deeply alarmed by signs of organized opposition,” the document states, “because these actions create the impression that they’re not connected to their district and not listening to their constituents.”
After the event, protesters are advised to feed video footage to local and national media.
“Unfavorable exchanges caught on video can be devastating” for Republican lawmakers, it says, when “shared through social media and picked up by local and national media.” After protesters gave MSNBC, CNN and the networks footage of their dust-up with Chaffetz, for example, the outlets ran them continuously, forcing Chaffetz to issue statements defending himself. The manual also advises protesters to flood “Trump-friendly” lawmakers’ Hill offices with angry phone calls and emails demanding the resignation of top White House adviser Steve Bannon. A script advises callers to complain: “I’m honestly scared that a known racist and anti-Semite will be working just feet from the Oval Office … It is everyone’s business if a man who promoted white supremacy is serving as an adviser to the president.”
None other than Robert Reich is front and center in the "Townhall Disruption Guide"...
Additionally, as Axios notes, Progressive groups are circulating information about town hall meetings on a MoveOn.org-powered website, "Resistance Recess."
More than a dozen major groups in the institutional left are involved, with groups like Planned Parenthood and unions like SEIU organizing protests. The former Hillary Clinton super PAC Priorities USA is running localized digital ads — its first paid ads since the election — to spotlight Republican town halls. Democratic leaders like Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer will lead events. What's in store: "Resistance Events" will target everyone from Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton (Wednesday evening) to Indiana Rep. Jackie Walorski (Tuesday morning) to Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz (Saturday morning). Protesters can find them by locale or zip code on resistancerecess.com.
Nobody is safe. Not even the members ducking town halls. Our Revolution, the group that spun off from Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign, will launch a map tomorrow showing every congressional district in the country that they intend to swarm next Saturday.
Shannon Jackson, Our Revolution's executive director, says they've already got close to 200 events planned around the country and will be rallying outside nearly every Republican congressional office. Resisting the resistance: House Republicans have been intensely prepping for these confrontations. At least 175 members attended Obamacare "listening sessions" — which were really detailed policy briefing sessions — convened by House Majority Whip Steve Scalise.
Finally, Martin Armstrong concludes by remarking that the Obama administration intentionally set the stage knowing what they were doing was designed to undermine and cripple the Trump Administration. The sanctions on Putin were also intended to prevent Trump from reversing the tension created by Obama to create an international conflict. These leaks appear to be part of an intentional plot by Obama/Left to allow his supporters within the intelligence community to topple Trump if they can. Obama waited until he had just 17 days left in office to sign an executive order to expand the power of the National Security Agency (NSA) allowing it to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before any application of top secret or privacy protection would be attached. Obama never did this while he was in office. Whenever a politician does something like this, there is ALWAYS a hidden agenda. This Obama executive order changed everything with regard to national security that was put in place by an executive order dating back to Ronald Reagan. Obama opened the flood gates and this I personally believe was a treasonous act showing the Democrats adopted a strategy to under,mine Trump from the outset and to create massive civil unrest.
Trump must reinstate the national security procedures that have been in place since Ronald Reagan and fire everyone in intelligence appointed by Obama. Clean the swamp must start right there and NOW! Obama knew he would set up a shadow government and refuse to leave Washington. He seems to be working harder now while as President he may have played golf more than any other president.
Proof that Obama is behind the civil unrest is the fact he has taken to Twitter.
As he states boldly to believe in that the people can bring about change through their own action. He is implying to rise up and create civil unrest on a massive scale.
Obama has been behind this entire affair of creating civil unrest and I believe is deliberately undermining national security with his moles strategically placed within the intelligence community to undermine the government. That is unquestionable TREASON and the press will only attack Trump and never defend the country. When Obama won, you did not see the other 46% set fires and try to bring down the government. The left always demands it is their way or no way. This is why we will move into civil war in the years ahead. Independents just say live and let live – don’t bother me and I will not bother you. Leftists say you can live only as they command – they cannot sleep at night worrying what independents are doing. It’s like the Hunger Games – suppress all freedom is their agenda. |
In a conference call with reporters today, John McCain's lawyer John Dowd claimed that the Keating Five ethics investigation into McCain and four other senators was a "political smear job."
That seems to put him at odds with what McCain has claimed over the years. In fact, in 1999, McCain told a hometown reporter, "The appearance of it was wrong. It's a wrong appearance when a group of senators appear in a meeting with a group of regulators, because it conveys the impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the wrong thing to do."
McCain has often referred to the Keating Five scandal as the defining moment of his career - a moment in which he became a reformer. But the recent twist of historical fact by his lawyer undercuts what McCain has insisted for years - that he learned a lesson from the Keating Five scandal.
If that lesson was to fight for reforming the campaign finance system, it's a lesson he left behind years ago. McCain used to be the lead author of a bill to fix the presidential public financing system back in 2003, but he's refused to cosponsor it since then. He used to call the Arizona Clean Elections public financing law a national model, but now he says he opposed reform for federal offices.
If that lesson was that appearances matter, then he ought to have a look around his campaign office. His campaign is run, staffed, advised, and funded with the help of some of Washington's most successful - and infamous - lobbyists. From lobbyist Rick Davis, his campaign manager, who lobbied for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and received secret payments from Freddie for a no-show job, to lobbyist Charlie Black, his senior advisor, who has received payments from some of the most vile dictators in the past several decades, McCain's campaign has some of the worst "optics" of any presidential campaign in recent memory. |
With the affidavit episode, the Indian National Congress has broken all its records of political nepotism. The party’s West Bengal MLAs swore vide an affidavit, unqualified allegiance to the INC led by their “Hon’ble” President Smt. Sonia Gandhi and their “Hon’ble” Vice President Rahul Gandhi. This marks the official declaration of the fascist ideology of the Indian National Congress where an average representative of the citizens of our country is made to strictly conform to a Mussolini (the popular ‘Italian’ dictator) like figure.
Even though Congress clarified in a Press Conference later in the day that the affidavit was a mere restriction of ‘freedom of expression’ and the concerned MLAs were allowed to retain the ‘right to disagree’.
Thus, the grand old party showed a big heart and extended the precious right of even thinking against the Mussolinis. This article is an open letter to the Gandhis (the Mussolinis of the Congress Party), their extended family and an average Congress representative.
The Mussolinis of the Congress:
‘Hon’ble’ Rahul Gandhi ji, I still remember that you were one of the most vocal leaders when some ‘JNU kids’ had shown the audacity of speaking against our Nation and even propagate the division of our country. You had then emphatically declared that the freedom of speech and expression extends to speaking against our Nation clearly showcasing your lack of knowledge about the Constitutional and Political philosophy of India. It is painful to know today that even though you promoted the idea of speaking in the voice of breaking this Nation and calling the Hon’ble Supreme Court Judges, the murderers of certain convicted terrorists, you cannot tolerate rational criticism within your own party. But let me make it very clear coercive methods such as affidavit for loyalty, will not get ensure any electoral or political success in your failed career which has been given unnecessary hype by your comrades and sold Media.
‘Hon’ble’ Sonia Gandhi ji, you are a much bigger threat to this Nation for you are not as inefficient as your son. Everyone knows about the damage you can do to this country from the very fact that you controlled, in fact, undermined the Prime Minister of the Nation of this country for a period of ten years and became a De Facto ruler of this Nation. As far as your claims of PM Modi being a fascist or a merchant of death are concerned, those claims have been busted today and it has been established that you are a fascist in the true sense of the term. In fact, we have seen Mussolini like features in you every now and then. Whether it was your arrogant statement that no one can do anything to you just because you happen to be Indira’s Bahu or your horrifying gaze just because one of your Party MPs happened to have shared a friendly laugh on a statement given by the Prime Minister of India.
The Aides of congress Mussolinis:
This part is addressed to Congress leaders such as Digvijay Singh, Ambika Soni and company who chose to toe party line in the affidavit episode. Make no mistake, if the Indian growth story is somehow stalled due to your antics some ten years down the line, you will be wholly responsible and recognized as the Mir Jafars of Modern India. It is you who have upheld and protected the unnecessary stronghold of the Gandhi Family in the Congress which in turn has affected the Governmental structure of India several times and continues to disturb political stability of several states as 10 Janpath has been time and again vested with illegitimate power of governance. Interestingly, you were the ones who proclaimed India to be intolerant and continue to assert the same but today’s insidious and perfidious act of your party has shown that it is not our Nation but it is only your party and in fact only your faction within your party which is actually intolerant.
An average Congress Legislator:
Even though the INC is a sinking ship and is reaching greater lows day by day, the grand old party still boasts of more than 800 Members of Legislative Assembly apart from a majority of Parliamentarians in the Rajya Sabha. Thus, the Congress legislators as a whole do have a considerable say in the governance of our nation even in today’s time.
I am extremely sorry for this but I am compelled to draw an analogy between you and those who had been coercively vasectomised in the black days of National Emergency for you seem as helpless and as victimized. A large chunk of the Congress MLAs have already given severe blows to your Party in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh by leaving this Fascist den for the betterment of their States and their Nation and you better follow the suit. For the Mussolinis of your party will never give you the autonomy and respect that a representative of the citizens of the country deserve and today’s affidavit episode is a mere testimony to the same. Moreover, your party does not have a bright future and leaving this party seems to be the only option for you to save your political careers.
Conclusion:
The biggest and the most dangerous paradox with our Nation is that those who give sermons about democracy and free speech are actually its greatest enemies. The affidavit episode though is only going to quicken the process of the death of the major constituent of disguised liberalism in India. |
At this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix, the drivers have an extra battle on their hands: dehydration! In the high-tech world of F1 where millions are spent in using the latest technology to develop the fastest car, their response is surprisingly simple. Each car will be equipped with a drinks system for the driver, no more complex than the humble windscreen washer fitted to your road car.
In the heat and humidity of Malaysia, the driver has a tough environment to work in. Along with the heat generated by the electronics tucked away alongside the driver, the cockpit can reach over 50c degrees. Along with the driver’s physical exertion, while dressed in several layers of fireproof clothing, means they are going sweat, and sweat a lot. The driver loses nearly two kilogrammes of fluid during the race -- this along with heat stress can lead to the drivers losing performance and even passing out.
The F1 car drinks system aids the driver to maintain his fluid levels during the race. To deliver this, there is nothing more than a flexible bag of drink attached to the side of the cockpit. To save the driver having to suck the drink up from the bag, it is delivered by a pump. Rather than an expensive titanium-carbon fibre pump, the teams use nothing more extravagant than a road car windscreen washer pump, with the pump linking the fluid bag to the driver’s helmet via a long tube. On the steering wheel, the “drinks” button powers the pump, squirting some of the drink into his mouth. The drivers will call for a squirt of drink most laps when they are on the longer straights.
Even though before the race, the driver is continually topped up with the special hypotonic drink, during the race they will consume around one and a half litres of fluid. No more fluid is needed than that, as the driver only needs to be replacing the fluid they've lost. This hydration process starts before the Grand Prix weekend and the driver's physio will be ever-present with another bottle of drink.
The drink varies from driver to driver, but usually it’s a high-concentration drink, not a refreshing cool watery drink, mostly made from a glucose-based fluid with vitamins and minerals to boost the immune system and stabilise blood chemistry; much like the sachets of minerals you drink after having a bad stomach. In fact, water would be a bad choice of fluid as it’s not as efficient at replacing the body's fluids as an isotonic drink. Despite the driver needing to keep cool, the drink is not kept cold within the car. The drink soon warms up, and with its sugary and salty taste in the heat, the drink actually resembles warm tea.
Of course, what goes in must come out; it’s not unusual for drivers to head off to "take a leak" before the race. However, some drivers have a preference for sitting in the car for a longer period before the race starts, with several drivers being well known to take their comfort break while actually sat in the car. The puddle of fluid gathering under the car can often catch out the inexperienced mechanic, who thinks it’s come from the car itself. Much to the hilarity of the older mechanics, you can imagine, who ask the youngsters to find out what has caused the leakage from the car.
So while you’re sat watching the race and enjoying a beer, spare a thought for the drivers who are having this unsavoury, warm tea-like drink squirted into their mouth every lap. Give us a cold brewski and a comfortable chair any day of the week.
Image Credit: IB Times |
This week ESPN NFL Nation reporters Mike Wells, Paul Kuharsky, Mike DiRocco and Tania Ganguli will give awards to the AFC South's top players and teams. We continue with our rookie of the year after Monday's reveal of the offensive player of the year, Tuesday’s defensive player of the year, and Wednesday’s All-AFC South Team.
Jacksonville quarterback Blake Bortles' big yardage and touchdown totals over 16 games won him the quarterback spot on our All-AFC South Team.
But it’s Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota who was the unquestioned rookie of the year in the division.
Mariota quickly quieted concerns about whether his skill set and experience at Oregon leading a spread offense would translate to the NFL.
They do.
Marcus Mariota had three four-touchdown games and another three-touchdown one. Christopher Hanewinckel/USA TODAY Sports
The poised and unflappable quarterback proved to be a quick learner capable of giant games. He accounted for four touchdowns in a game three times and for three TDs in another.
Despite taking 38 sacks in 12 games, he never grumbled about protection or a lack of weapons, instead boosting his teammates at every chance and taking blame for things he couldn’t have possibly fixed. He missed four games because of two knee injuries, but still offered the Titans more than enough evidence that, for all the franchise’s troubles, they’ve got their quarterback.
Jaguars reporter Mike DiRocco: It's a no-brainer to give Mariota the division's rookie of the year. He didn't throw for a lot of yards (2,818) but he did have nearly a 2-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio (19 TDs, 10 INTs), which is impressive considering what he went through. His offensive line struggled, especially early, and he was sacked 38 times. He had virtually no help from the running game (92.8 yards per game, 25th in the NFL). His top receiver was TE Delanie Walker, whose 1,088 receiving yards were nearly double that of the Titans' leading wide receiver (Dorial Green-Beckham had 549 yards). Mariota certainly answered the pre-draft questions about whether he could handle playing in pro offense, and now it looks like the AFC South has a good group of young quarterbacks -- with the exception of Houston, of course.
Texans reporter Tania Ganguli: Texans coach Bill O’Brien was very complimentary of Mariota heading into the last year’s draft, but the Texans weren’t in any kind of position to get him. Mariota showed this season he has the skills to be a good NFL quarterback. While the Texans' draft class had a solid year (led by cornerback Kevin Johnson, who played through injuries, linebacker Benardrick McKinney and receiver Jaelen Strong, all of whom made significant strides), none was given the kind of responsibility Mariota was. My only concern going forward will be how his body holds up at this level.
Colts reporter Mike Wells: The key to a team's success starts at quarterback; look no further than Indianapolis when Andrew Luck was lost for the season for proof of that. The Titans have that player in Mariota. Now all they have to do is put some better players around their franchise quarterback so they can close the gap between them and the other teams in the division. |
San Francisco’s designer Randy Sarafan has created a bra that can be undone simply by clapping. The battery-powered design uses an electromagnet that controls a switch which opens the clasp of the bra when someone claps nearby.
He was inspired by the weird and wonderful hi-tech bras found in Syrian bazaars and has created a step-by-step guide on how to make your own. Sarafan says, “The first time I read about Syrian Lingerie I was quite moved. It became my mission to fast-forward lingerie technology in the West. I figured the first step in this critical mission was to replicate some of the advancements made in Syria.
The article of lingerie that resonated most with my inner sensibilities was the clap-off bra.”
Although created as a novelty item, Sarafan’s technology could be used by arthritis sufferers as well as people with physical disabilities. However for normal users, make sure not to wear it when going to the next award function!
How to make your own?Cut the clasp off of the bra. Carefully break open the casing for the relay to expose the electromagnet. Put your relay into the centre of a prototype circuit board and make cut marks around the outline of the relay. Cut two prototype circuit boards to size.
One board should have a 1/4 trimmed off of each long end, such that you are a left with a long strip. The other board should be cut to a small square using the markings you made in the outline of the relay. Put together the circuit using the 28-pin socket in place of the ATMEGA168 chip.
Cut the ends off a USB cable to leave a section of cable roughly 6” to 8” long.
Cut a small bow-tie shaped section of fabric that will fold over the front of the bra - the part the clamp is attached to.
In the centre of this bow-tie cut a small opening and fasten a grommet.
Insert a bolt through the grommet from the back towards the front and fasten it with a nut. |
For Sci-Fi book fans who have too many things going on in their life to be able to sit down for hours at a time, the solution is a great short story book. The Sci-Fi short story collections in this list are the best ever written, based on user reviews and sales figures.
Sci-Fi Short Stories
Isaac Asimov wrote this classic collection of stories as the first in his Robot novel series. It deals with the relationships between human and robot. It introduced the Three Laws of Robotics that have set the standard for the use of robots in science fiction. In fact, Asimov was the acknowledged creator of the term “robotics.”
Ray Bradbury wrote these short stories in the late 1940s at a time when we knew almost nothing about Mars. This book is not a novel per se, but rather a collection of separately linked stories that chronicle, in about as many ways as you can imagine, Man’s experiences with Mars
Stories of Your Life and Others is a wonderful collection of short stories. It’s engaging, intelligent, well researched, creative, and puzzling among many other reasons why you should read this book.
This is an amazing short story collection whose common denominator is the quality of the writing. This collection really shows just how much William Gibson has done to take Science Fiction to a whole new level.
Some of these stories are downright shocking, some are bizarre, and some have the great social commentary and human drama that most sci-fi writers would kill to be capable of.
Axiomatic is utterly fascinating and mind-blowing. The stories are wonderfully original and distinct, but two philosophic threads tie them together. The stories explore questions of determinism and free will or questions of where our identity resides and what are its irreducible components.
This is a collection of rich, wonderfully written stories about a wide assortment of subjects. Kurt Vonnegut is a great writer, pure and simple. Many of the stories deal with the future and the state of society, and blended with Vonneguts somewhat cynical yet witty view of the subject.
Philip K. Dick manages to incorporate the fears and projections of his era (such as the angst of nuclear holocaust) and distill it all in a remarkable collection of short stories. The stories are dynamic and this collection is an excellent way to get to know the works of Phillip K. Dick. |
GENDER will be removed from resumes submitted to the Bank of Queensland under a new measure aimed at boosting the number of executive women in the company’s ranks.
Concerned that there is an “unconscious bias” working against women in the selection process, the Bank of Queensland is removing all identifying factors on CVs to make sure they pick the best person for the job.
Court gender ruling has reach: lawyer
Merit system counterproductive for gender equality
The move will come into effect immediately for all executive roles.
Bank of Queensland chief executive Stuart Grimshaw hopes the move will help to increase the number of female executives.
“On a personal note, I have a son and two daughters and I want to create a positive change within the industry where everyone – regardless of their gender, race, age or physical ability – has the same opportunities to succeed,’’ he said.
BoQ HR general manager Ian Doyle said all identifying factors – name, age, gender, address – would be removed from resumes submitted for senior roles.
“It is a brave approach, but you can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different outcomes,’’ he said.
“Our objective is to get people making decisions on the basis of competency – not based on other factors – and we’re hoping we will get a stronger pool of females coming through.’’
Mr Grimshaw, one of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner’s male “champions of change”, has increased the number of women in the company’s leadership team from nine to 19 during his tenure. However, he is working towards an even gender balance.
The bank’s general manager of branches, Philippa Bartlett, 34, joined the firm 10 months ago and during that time has seen her team transition from 100 per cent male to a 50-50 gender split.
“It is important when you run a customer business that people making the decisions reflect the needs of our customers, and that of course is very gender diverse,’’ she said. “Removing names and details from CVs will remove any unconscious bias, and ensure we are picking the best team.’’
Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick said the initiative was “quite revolutionary’’.
“There are a whole lot of gender-based stereotypes which are made at the time of recruitment, particularly around work and family, and this will mean it is not possible to have that unconscious bias,’’ she said.
Join the conversation on Facebook |
What Urban Meyer and his staff have done with the Buckeyes on the field has been spectacular including of course winning a national championship! The results on the recruiting front have been the same, and Meyer and company are headed for a spectacular 2017 recruiting class. It is a class that is currently ranked No. 1 in the country in the 247Sports recruiting rankings.
It will be harder than normal for this class to finish with the No.1 class in the country because the Buckeyes won’t have the space to sign the maximum 25 prospects. But while there won’t be maximum quantity, all signs point to absolutely tremendous quality entering the program.
At this point Meyer has 14 commitments from the class of 2017. When all is said and done I expect the class to number at least 18 and probably more like 20, and it is hardly going out on a limb to say this class will be tremendous.
But who fills those remaining spots – that is the big and very tough question to answer.
So even though there is still a long way to go until National Signing Day – over a half year - and since I have been asked to take a swing at this, it is a good time to go with my “class of 2017 prediction update.”
As mentioned, Meyer currently has 14 commitments for a recruiting class that will likely number close to 20 on National Signing Day.
Back in what now seems like another life, the days of the 900 number, one of my most popular updates was what I called my ‘prediction update.’ Once every couple of months or so starting in the fall and going trough National Signing Day, I would predict what the Buckeyes’ recruiting class for that year would look like come February.
I now bring my ‘prediction update’ to the internet and Bucknuts.com for Ohio State’s 2017 recruiting efforts. Today I go out on the ledge and make my predictions for the Buckeyes’ 2017 class.
Martell is one of the Buckeyes' 14 current commitments.
Predicting what a 17 or 18 year old high school senior is going to do is certainly no easy task, especially when so many of the prospects Meyer has a shot at are among the country’s elite prospects.
But it is time to go for it, so let’s get started.
The Buckeyes have a commitment from two quarterbacks for their 2017 class, Tate Martell and Danny Clark. There certainly won’t be any additions at quarterback and while some have speculated that Clark might go elsewhere, I am going with both Martell and Clark in the class.
The Buckeyes also have a commitment from one running back, J.J Dobbins. But there is no doubt the staff is looking to add another one and that one is Cam Akers. This is a tough call at this point, but I am going with Akers picking the Buckeyes.
We now move to wide receiver/slot. The Buckeyes don’t have any commitments here, but the talent they could land is staggering. Trevon Grimes, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Tyjon Lindsey and Jaylen Harris are the main names right now. In the end I am going with the Aquinas connection and Grimes as a Buckeye, and Lindsey to Ohio State as well.
After landing two great 2016 tight ends in Jake Hausmann and Luke Farrell, the goal for 2017 was to add one more great one to the program. But I don’t see that happening and I look for the staff to pass on tight ends and look to land a great one or two for their 2018 class.
The Buckeyes signed five 2014 offensive linemen, five in 2015, and five in 2016. They have a spectacular trio committed for 2017 starting with the country’s No. 1 offensive tackle Josh Myers and moving to the No. 1 guard in Wyatt Davis. They also have a commitment from Jake Moretti who really impressed me when I saw him in-person at Ohio State’s camp the summer of 2015. The other elite offensive lineman to keep in mind is Trey Smith who over the weekend named Ohio State among his Top 6. But in the end I am going with Myers, Davis and Moretti as the three offensive linemen in the class.
The Buckeyes signed two 5-star defensive ends in their 2016 class in Nick Bosa and Jonathon Cooper. They are looking to land one elite defensive end for their 2017 class and their target is 5-star Chase Young. There are others they are in contact with including Hunter Echols, but I like the chances they get Young and then they call it a day at defensive end so to speak.
As far as tackle goes, the Buckeyes have the best one in Ohio in Jerron Cage. They also have an elite out-of-state defensive tackle commitment in Haskell Garrett. The other two big names that are still associated with Ohio State are Jay Tufele and Marvin Wilson. Wilson isn’t going to be a Buckeye, but right now I am going with Tufele saying he is headed to Ohio State.
After landing linebackers Keandre Jones and Tuf Borland for 2016, I look for likely three more to enter via 2017. The hard hitting Antjuan Simmons has committed to Ohio State and I think athlete Brendon White will end up as a linebacker for the Buckeyes. That leaves Baron Browning, Dylan Moses and Anthony Hines as three remaining top possibilities. I don’t see Moses leaving the South. Hines is very hard to predict right now. Browning is too. Going into The Opening I gave the Buckeyes a slight nod on landing Browning. But after being told a couple things after The Opening I am giving UCLA the advantage over Ohio State as the winner for Browning with Texas and Alabama next.
Jeffrey Okudah would be a huge addition to the Buckeyes' class.
Moving to the secondary, the Buckeyes already have commitments from three great prospects in Isaiah Pryor, Shaun Wade and Marcus Williamson. And the list of remaining possibilities is impressive. It includes Amir Riep, Jeffrey Okudah, Darnay Holmes, Jamyest Williams and Lamont Wade. I think it is going to be hard to hold on to Shaun Wade, but definitely not impossible. But for now I am going with him flipping, but the Buckeyes adding Okudah and Riep to end with a spectacular group of four defensive backs.
And finally, there will be one specialist in the class, Buckeye commitment Blake Haubeil who is the country’s No. 1 kicker.
So there you have it, the Ohio State 2017 recruiting class of 20 commitments. I am not sure right now how they are going to get to 20 open spots to fit all of these guys in, but I’m still going with 20 for now. Haubeil won’t go on scholarship until January of 2018 so that helps. Take it to the bank? Not quite. Will there be changes next time I do this – probably. But for now I will go with these 20. And if you are counting – and you probably are – seven of the 20 are 5-star prospects and if Shaun Wade were to stay it would be eight. And Martell misses being a 5-star by one spot as the Top 32 prospects in the 247Sports Composite are 5-stars and he is currently ranked at No. 33.
QB: Tate Martell
QB: Danny Clark
RB: Cam Akers
RB: J.K. Dobbins
WR: Trevon Grimes
WR: Tyjon Lindsey
OL: Josh Myers
OL: Wyatt Davis
OL: Jake Moretti
DE: Chase Young
DT: Haskell Garrett
DT: Jerron Cage
DT: Jay Tufele
LB: Antjuan Simmons
LB: Brendon White
DB: Isaiah Pryor
DB: Marcus Williamson
DB: Amir Riep
DB: Jeffrey Okudah
K: Blake Haubeil |
The Kubuntu team is excited and delighted to announce the release of Kubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus.
This is the first release from the team since we became a completely volunteer group, just after the release of 15.10. Delivering an Long-Term Release (LTS) release is a superb achievement, and testimony to our community’s commitment to Ubuntu and KDE.
Beta-tester feedback has been resounding and positive. This confirms the amazing work that is being undertaken by our upstream KDE community. Plasma 5, KDE Frameworks 5 and all of KDE continue to demonstrate how Free/Libre Open Source Software sets world class standards for innovation, usability and integration.
What can you expect from this latest release?
Our new software center: Plasma Discover brim-full of software to choose from.
The latest KDE PIM with lots of features and fixes Including the latest Akonadi support and integration with MySQL 5.7.
Plasma 5, the next generation of KDE’s desktop has been rewritten to make it smoother to use while retaining the familiar setup.
Kubuntu 16.04 comes with KDE Applications 15.12 containing all your favourite apps from KDE, including Dolphin. Even more applications have been ported to KDE Frameworks 5 but those which aren’t, should fit in seamlessly. For a complete desktop suite of applications we’ve included some non-KDE applications such as LibreOffice 5.1 and Firefox 45.
Keen developer types and friends of Muon Package Manager will be delighted to know that the project has got a new team of maintainers, and a new release just in time for this Kubuntu LTS.
What are you waiting for? Download the ISO from our downloads section, or upgrade now from 15.10!
Warning: 14.04 LTS to 16.04 LTS upgrade is currently problematic and should not be attempted by the average user. Please install a fresh copy of 16.04.1 instead. To prevent messages about upgrading, change Prompt=lts to Prompt=normal or Prompt=never in the /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades file.
The Kubuntu Podcast team will be reviewing the latest release, and discussing feedback from the community on the next show. More details available in the podcast section.
Please also check out our release notes. |
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Written by By John McIlroy, for CNN
John McIlroy is Deputy Editor of Auto Express and Carbuyer
There are relatively few icons in the world of modern cars -- but when the Dodge Viper finally spits out its last bit of venom in 2017, it'll be a sad day indeed for a hardcore group of enthusiasts who have long viewed it as a link to a different era.
Introduced in 1992, the Viper has not been a global sales phenomenon; Dodge has produced around 30,000 examples in total over 25 years but then, Ford makes that many F-150 trucks in a month.
However, the devotion of Viper followers remains strong; a limited edition of 28 motorsport-influenced Vipers, one of a string of special versions designed to mark the Dodge's 25th birthday, sold out recently in just 40 minutes.
According to a statement by Dodge, fans can expect one more special edition -- the Dodge Viper Snakeskin ACR -- and are building as many as 31 units to respond to customer requests. Orders for those are expected to open in mid-July.
Why the Viper turned heads
It's easy to forget that the original Viper was not so much a reaction to customer demand but rather a gift from Dodge to itself. The company had flirted with bankruptcy in the late seventies, but had returned to profitability by building a line-up of pretty dull vehicles that nonetheless had mainstream appeal.
The Viper was the antidote to this. Jaws dropped when a near-production-ready concept of the car was shown at the 1989 Detroit motor show, equipped with side exhausts, a cabin perched near the rear wheels and a bonnet that seemed to stretch into the next county.
Early prototypes were powered by V8 engines but by the time the production version arrived in 1992, it had been fitted with a Lamborghini-tuned aluminium V10 producing a relatively heady 400bhp (brake horsepower).
This was but the starting point, though; the first generation of the Viper ended its life with a 450bhp version of the engine, and its successor - the Viper SRT-10, made its debut as a coupe and a convertible in 2003, with an even larger V10 engine producing 500bhp.
All the while, the Viper was a car that made no apologies for its brutish performance. Early cars had no anti-lock brakes to help you stop safely, and no traction control to help you tame the motor's prodigious power mid-corner or in wet conditions. Drivers loved and feared it in equal measure.
A new generation
Then in 2010, Dodge said it was killing the car off -- only for Fiat Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne to wheel out a prototype in front of dealers at that year's annual conference.
Dodge showed the car to enthusiasts at an invitation event soon after, hoping to gauge reaction and use the people most likely to buy another generation of the car to help develop its specifications.
In 2012, two years after its apparent demise, the Viper returned - as a coupe only, and with an even more extreme V10 engine, stretched out to 8.4 litres in capacity and producing a thumping 640bhp. The top speed was now 208mph, making the Viper one of the most credible American rivals to Italian supercars.
Except it wasn't really. Dodge enthusiasts quote ludicrous cornering ability, acceleration figures and track lap times -- and there's no reason to dispute them -- but the Viper has never quite been able to shake off that slight whiff of muscle car.
Deep down, that common slice of Americana may be the reason lots of owners have chosen it over a Porsche 911 or Audi R8. It has represented an era when Detroit still had the ability to raise a middle finger at environmentalists and accountants, to just build something not because it really made sense, but just because it was so damn cool.
And that is why, even as the final models roll down the line over the next 12 months or so, we should not discount the possibility that the Viper badge may not be dying at all, but just going into another period of hibernation. Stranger things have happened. |
President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly made another appointment to his cabinet: Elaine Chao, the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for Secretary of Transportation.
Chao, who came to the United States as an eight-year old immigrant from Taiwan knowing no English, has extensive experience in government, as she has served in both of the Bush administrations. In George H.W. Bush's administration, Chao served as the Transportation Department's deputy secretary from 1989 to 1991. She was the Labor Secretary under President George W. Bush throughout his entire presidency, which is "the longest tenure in the position since World War II," according to CNN; Chao was also the first Asian woman to be appointed to the position. Chao also directed the Peace Corps for a year under the elder Bush until he lost his re-election bid.
Additionally, Chao served in the Reagan administration in the Federal Maritime Commission as the deputy administrator and chaired the commission for a year.
When she hasn't been working in government, Chao has served as a fellow at The Heritage Foundation, where she has produced several conservative publications. She was also the president and chief executive officer of United Way of America from 1992 to 1996, turning around a company that had been plagued with mismanagement.
Chao first met McConnell on a blind date, and the two were married in 1993. As Heavy.com notes, Chao is the family's breadwinner, since her father founded the Foremost Group shipping and trading company, and she received a massive inheritance when her mother passed away–the couple's net worth skyrocketed from $7.8 million to $22.8 million from the inheritance. Chao is following in the footsteps of Elizabeth Dole, who also served as Transportation Secretary while her husband, Bob Dole, served as the Republican Senate Majority Leader. Chao also ardently campaigned for her husband in the 2014 Senate campaign.
There is a concern for conservatives about Chao becoming Transportation Secretary–it all but guarantees that Trump's $1 trillion infrastructure proposal will pass. Conservative Review's Chris Pandolfo points out that "Sen. McConnell has worked on behalf of President Obama to shove a $305 billion highway bill through Congress, in addition to multiple other spending boondoggles. Now, McConnell’s wife will be whispering in Trump’s ear as the head of the department that requests infrastructure funding from Congress."
Another troubling sign about Chao's appointment for conservatives–she served on the board of Bloomberg Philanthropies, which had invested in the Sierra Club.
Chao certainly has the credentials for the position as Transportation Secretary, but she hardly seems like a "Drain the Swamp" pick and would likely help persuade Trump to go along with her husband's agenda as Senate Majority Leader; his agenda is pure establishment. |
The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it will extend the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar for availing various services and welfare schemes till March 31.
The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it will extend the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar for availing various services and welfare schemes till March 31. The deadline for Aadhaar linkage for these services is currently December 31. Attorney-general KK Venugopal told a bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that the government intends to issue a notification on Friday (December 8), extending the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with services from December 31 to March 31, 2018. This extension will include 139 government subsidies, benefits or services like the mandatory linking of Aadhaar with bank accounts but not the linking of mobile phone numbers with Aadhaar, he said. The deadline for linking of mobile phone numbers with the 12-digit unique biometric identification number is February 6. The attorney-general, however, made it clear that February 6 next year would continue to remain the deadline for linking Aadhaar for availing uninterrupted mobile services as it had been mandated by the apex court.
He said that it would require a judicial order from the top court itself to extend the deadline to March 31, 2018, as the government was complying with its another order of February 6, 2017 in the Lok Niti Foundation case that directed the verification process of mobile phone users through Aadhaar linkage, citing national security. The bench assured the parties that it will set up a five-judge Constitution bench next week to hear several pleas seeking an interim stay on the Centre’s decision on mandatory linking of Aadhaar. It indicated that it would be left to the bench to give dates for the final hearing of the petitions.
Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for petitioners opposed to the Aadhaar scheme, argued that that the central government should give an undertaking that no coercive steps would be taken against those who fail to link their Aadhaar with various services. The hearing also assumes importance as a nine-judge Constitution bench had held that the right to privacy is a fundamental right under the Constitution. The petitions had challenged several aspects of Aadhaar scheme, including the mandatory parting of biometric details like iris scans and fingerprints, thus alleging violation of the citizens’ right to privacy.
Some petitioners have termed the linking of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) number with bank accounts and mobile numbers as “illegal and unconstitutional”. Earlier, the Supreme Court had passed a slew of orders asking the government and its agencies not to make Aadhaar mandatory for extending benefits of their welfare schemes, but had allowed the government to use unique ID for a large number of purposes like welfare schemes and income tax return filing, with a rider that it would not be made mandatory. |
parsec
Ancienne définition du parsec (la représentation schématique n'est pas à l'échelle). Informations Unité de… longueur Symbole pc
Le parsec (/paʁ.sεk/), de symbole pc, est une unité de longueur utilisée en astronomie. Il est défini comme valant exactement 648 000/π unités astronomiques, soit environ 3,26 années-lumière .
Le nom parsec est la contraction de « par allaxe- sec onde », une expression se rapportant à sa définition historique, désormais obsolète (cf. figure).
« Parsec »[1],[2],[3],[4] est emprunté à l'anglais parsec[2], mot-valise[5] proposé par l'astronome britannique Herbert Hall Turner à partir de par[allax] (en français, « parallaxe ») et de sec[ond] (« seconde »)[2].
« Parsec » est prononcé /paʁ.sεk/ (parsèk) en français[2].
D'après Frédéric Arenou[5], le parsec a été utilisé pour la première fois en par l'astronome allemand Hermann Kobold, sous le nom de Sternweite (littéralement « distance stellaire » en allemand)[6]. En 1913, l'astronome britannique Frank Watson Dyson propose de nommer l'unité macron[7] et Turner astron[8]. Le terme de macron fut rejeté par Frank Watson Dyson, par crainte d'une confusion avec le terme micron[9].
En , la commission « Notations » de l'Union astronomique internationale suggère l'utilisation de l'année-lumière, « surtout dans les articles populaires », et du parsec, « ou de préférence une unité dix fois plus grande avec un nom distinct »[10].
Historiquement, le parsec est défini comme la distance à laquelle une unité astronomique (ua) sous-tend un angle d’une seconde d'arc. Autrement dit, la distance à partir de laquelle on verrait la distance terre-soleil, sous un angle d'une seconde d'arc. Cette définition est néanmoins légèrement ambiguë et n'avait par ailleurs jamais été officialisée, ce qui conduisait à des variations, certes faibles mais inutilement présentes, de la valeur (en unités du Système international) adoptée pour cette unité. La définition du parsec a donc été précisée et à la même occasion officialisée en note de la résolution B2 adoptée lors de l'assemblée générale de l'Union astronomique internationale de 2015.
Selon la note 4 de la résolution B2 adoptée lors de l'assemblée générale de l'Union astronomique internationale de 2015, « le parsec est défini comme [valant] exactement (648 000/π) unités astronomiques »[N 1],[11].
Interprétation physique et lien avec la définition historique [ modifier | modifier le code ]
La définition actuelle (2015) donne une valeur exacte au parsec en termes d'unités astronomiques (l'unité astronomique a été définie exactement en 2012 en unités du Système international) mais la définition officielle ne donne aucune interprétation physique de celle-ci et ne la relie pas à la définition historique. Le lien entre la définition historique et la définition actuelle peut s'exprimer simplement : le parsec est la longueur du rayon d'un cercle dont l'arc soutenu par un angle au centre d'une seconde d'arc mesure exactement une unité astronomique.
Démonstration
Un demi-cercle (arc de cercle d'un support angulaire de π radians) d'un parsec de rayon a une longueur de π parsecs, soit exactement 648 000 unités astronomiques selon la définition précédente. π radians étant strictement égaux à 648 000 secondes d'arc [N 2], l'arc de cercle soutenu par un angle d'une seconde d'arc mesure exactement 1 unité astronomique.
L'unité astronomique étant exactement définie dans le Système international comme valant 149 597 870 700 mètres (résolution de l'UAI de 2012), un parsec vaut exactement (96 939 420 213 600 000/π) mètres , soit environ 3,085 677 581 × 1016 mètres [11]. L'année-lumière étant également définie exactement dans le Système international (1 a.l. = 365,25 j × 86 400 s/j × 299 792 458 m/s = 9 460 730 472 580 800 mètres), un parsec vaut exactement (96 939 420 213 600 000/(9 460 730 472 580 800×π)) années-lumière , ce qui se simplifie en (10 246 429 500/(999 992 651×π)) années-lumière, soit environ 3,2616 années-lumière .
En résumé :
1 parsec = (648 000/π) unités astronomiques ≈ 206 264,806 247 unités astronomiques ;
1 parsec = (96 939 420 213 600 000/π) mètres ≈ 3,085 677 581 × 10 16 mètres ;
≈ 3,085 677 581 × 10 ; 1 parsec = (96 939 420 213 600 000/(9 460 730 472 580 800×π)) années-lumière (= (10 246 429 500/(999 992 651×π)) années-lumière) ≈ 3,2616 années-lumière .
Le symbole du parsec est pc[3],[4],[12]. Ses multiples et sous-multiples utilisent les préfixes du Système international d'unités : kpc pour le kiloparsec (1 000 parsecs), Mpc pour le mégaparsec (1 million de parsecs), Gpc pour le gigaparsec (1 milliard de parsecs).
Cette unité résulte de l’application d’une méthode trigonométrique dite « méthode de la parallaxe », servant à déterminer la distance séparant un observateur d’un objet éloigné quelconque, à la mesure de la distance des objets célestes. Pour des raisons pratiques, les astronomes expriment souvent les distances des objets astronomiques en parsecs plutôt qu’en années-lumière. Cette unité permet une conversion directe des valeurs observées en distance : si la parallaxe annuelle d’une étoile est mesurée en secondes d’arc, alors la distance entre cette étoile et le Soleil, exprimée en parsecs, est égale à l’inverse de cette valeur. La magnitude absolue et le module de distance sont deux unités dérivées du parsec, et l'expression des distances en parsecs facilite la manipulation de ces données.
Les premières mesures de distance interstellaire (l’étoile 61 Cygni par Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel en 1838) furent effectuées en utilisant la largeur de l’orbite terrestre comme référence. Le parsec dériva de cette méthode. La détermination des distances des corps célestes est l’objet principal de l’astrométrie.
L’étoile la plus proche du Soleil, α Cen C (Proxima Centauri), se trouve à 1,316 parsec (4,28 années-lumière). Les distances des autres objets célestes n’appartenant pas au système solaire sont bien plus grandes et se mesurent couramment en kiloparsecs (symbole kpc) ou mégaparsecs (symbole Mpc).
Les parallaxes ont des valeurs faibles : 0,76″ pour Proxima Centauri ; aussi, la méthode parallactique ne permet guère de déterminer des distances stellaires supérieures à 100 parsecs environ, ce qui correspond à des mesures de parallaxe inférieures à dix millisecondes d’arc.
Entre 1989 et 1993, le satellite Hipparcos, lancé par l’Agence spatiale européenne, a mesuré la parallaxe d’environ cent mille étoiles avec une précision supérieure à la milliseconde d’arc, ce qui a permis de déterminer la distance d’étoiles éloignées de nous de plus d’un kiloparsec.
Calcul de la valeur d'un parsec [ modifier | modifier le code ]
Selon une possible interprétation de la définition historique [ modifier | modifier le code ]
Sur la figure 1, (d’échelle très réduite et ne respectant pas les valeurs angulaires), S est le Soleil, T la Terre et P un objet situé à un parsec du Soleil : par définition, l’angle S P T ^ {\displaystyle \scriptscriptstyle {\widehat {SPT}}} est égal à une seconde d’arc (1″) et la distance T S {\displaystyle TS} vaut une unité astronomique (1 UA ). Grâce aux règles de trigonométrie, il est possible de calculer S P {\displaystyle SP} :
S P = T S tan 1 ′ ′ ≈ 206 264,806 245 48 UA {\displaystyle SP={\frac {TS}{\tan 1^{\prime \prime }}}\approx 206\,264{,}806\,245\,48\!\ {\mbox{ UA}}}
Comme
on a
1 pc ≈ 206 264,806 245 48 × 1,495 978 707 00 × 10 11 m {\displaystyle 1{\mbox{ pc}}\;\approx \;206\,264{,}806\,245\,48\times 1{,}495\,978\,707\,00\times 10^{11}{\mbox{ m}}}
et
1 pc ≈ 3,085 677 581 467 2 × 10 16 m {\displaystyle 1{\mbox{ pc}}\;\approx \;3{,}085\,677\,581\,467\,2\times 10^{16}{\mbox{ m}}}
donc
1 pc ≈ 30 856 775 814 672 000 m {\displaystyle 1{\mbox{ pc}}\;\approx \;\color {Red}30\,856\,775\,814\,672\,000{\mbox{ m}}}
Le choix d'une définition arbitraire mais désormais fixe de l'unité astronomique explique la précision des valeurs précédentes.
Sur le schéma ci-dessus, l'angle censé être d'une seconde a une valeur bien supérieure, et par conséquent l'hypoténuse est clairement plus longue que le côté adjacent. En réalité, pour un angle aussi petit, la différence de longueur entre les deux est très faible en valeur relative, et finalement l'hypoténuse vaut à peine plus d'un parsec (autrement dit, un parsec est aussi bien la distance du Soleil à l'étoile lointaine que de la Terre à l'étoile lointaine).
Pour les très faibles valeurs d'angles (exprimés en radians), on peut faire l'approximation (développement limité au premier ordre) tan ( x ) ≈ x {\displaystyle \scriptstyle \tan(x)\;\approx \;x} ; de même cos ( x ) ≈ 1 − x 2 / 2 {\displaystyle \scriptstyle \cos(x)\;\approx \;1-x^{2}/2} , d'où l'affirmation suivant laquelle le côté adjacent et l'hypoténuse sont quasiment égaux. Dans le cas du parsec, x {\displaystyle x} valant π 180 × 60 × 60 {\displaystyle \textstyle {\frac {\pi }{180\times 60\times 60}}} , l'erreur relative commise en confondant les deux côtés est inférieure à x 2 / 2 {\displaystyle x^{2}/2} , donc on commet (en utilisant ces formules) une erreur de l'ordre de la distance Paris-Brest, ce qui peut sembler important, mais est évidemment négligeable aux échelles astronomiques considérées.
Notes et références [ modifier | modifier le code ]
↑ Traduction de l'anglais « The parsec is defined as exactly ( 648 000/π ) au » . ↑ Un demi-cercle supporte un angle de π radians, soit 180 degrés. Chaque degré étant égal 3 600 secondes d'arc, un demi-cercle est supporté par un angle de 180×3600 = 648 000 secondes d'arc. |
In northeast Ohio, where cities are shrinking and communities are struggling, many lifelong Democrats are 'crossing over' to vote for Donald Trump.
YOUNGSTOWN – The first sign that something was different about this presidential election hit Mark Munroe in the weeks before Ohio’s Republican primary in March. Munroe is chairman of the Mahoning County GOP, and he began getting phone calls from people who wanted to know what the process was to vote in the upcoming primary.
“These were people who had never voted in a Republican primary before. It was obvious that something was going on,” he says. “And 90 percent of them were voting for Trump.” According to Munroe, the GOP in Mahoning County has registered tens of thousands of new voters—Democrats and Independents—since the March primary.
Trump got nearly as many votes as Clinton did back in March. That’s notable because Youngstown, the seat of Mahoning County, hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since Richard Nixon narrowly won here in the landslide election of 1972. Like much of northeastern Ohio, the city has been reliably Democrat since the Great Depression, when organized labor forged an alliance with the Democratic Party that would persist even through the infamous decline and fall of Youngstown’s steel industry in the 1970s.
For Democrats crossing over this election, the shift in their loyalties has been a long time coming. In 2014, for the first time in decades a Republican in Mahoning County won elected office, defeating the incumbent county auditor, a Democrat, who was facing indictment for political corruption.
“They all say the Democratic Party isn’t the party they grew up with,” Munroe tells me, noting that it’s not necessarily because of Trump, but that Trump has accelerated the pace. “The Democratic Party here was the party of JFK, and that’s not what a lot of people see when they look at the party now.”
Trumpism Is the Political Legacy of ‘Black Monday’
Driving around the neighborhoods of Youngstown, it’s clear that a change is afoot. It’s common, for example, to see Trump yard signs alongside signs for Anthony Trafficanti, a Democrat running for reelection as county commissioner. The old Democratic Party loyalties persist at the local level but not as much nationally, which makes perfect sense given the history of Youngstown.
On a September morning here 39 years ago, thousands of steel workers showed up to work at Youngstown Sheet and Tube only to discover that a large portion of the mill had been closed. That became known as “Black Monday,” and what followed was the permanent loss of tens of thousands of steel jobs and jobs tied to Youngstown’s steel industry, which in 1977 was the second largest steel-producing city in the world.
The years of decline that followed would turn Youngstown into a harrowing exemplar of what Americans came to know as the “Rust Belt”—shuttered factories, hollowed out downtowns, crime-ridden and dying cities across a region of the country that was once the cradle of the middle class. The people of Youngstown were furious, and they blamed a cast of characters and impersonal forces well familiar to Trump supporters: corrupt politicians, greedy corporations, and the indifferent vicissitudes of globalization and free trade.
As their city declined and the mob moved in, Youngstown in 1984 elected to Congress a politician whose visceral hatred of the political class (and feigned hatred of the mob) presaged the rise of Trump: Jim Traficant.
He was the only newly elected Democrat to Congress in an election year when Ronald Reagan carried 49 states. But Traficant wasn’t a normal Democrat. If there had been reality TV in the 1980s, he would have been a star. Impetuous and arrogant, politically incorrect, flamboyantly dressed in a skinny tie and bell-bottoms, the congressman from Youngstown broke all the rules and refused to play nice with political establishment—or even his own party leadership.
After he voted for Republican Dennis Hastert for speaker of the House in 2001, Democrats stripped him of his seniority and refused to give him any committee assignments. The Republicans didn’t give him any, either, so Traficant became the first U.S. representative in a century to have no committee assignments.
But his district loved him. Traficant kept getting reelected until he was expelled from the House of Representatives in 2002 after being convicted for taking bribes, racketeering, and filing false tax returns—crimes for which he served seven years in federal prison (during which time he ran again, and lost).
During his years in office, he railed against many of the things Trump now rails against. He was a hardliner on illegal immigration, and wanted less immigration overall. When he ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1987, one of his campaign slogans was, “America First.”
A 2015 documentary, “TRAFICANT: The Congressman of Crimetown,” chronicles Traficant’s rise and fall—and heralds the age of Trump. Angry working-class voters in a forgotten Rust Belt city wanted someone who would smash the system apart, or at least give Washington the middle finger on their behalf. And that’s exactly what Traficant did.
Trump Is Channeling Anger—And Despair
If Traficant’s belligerence was partly a reflection of his Rust Belt origins, Trump appears to be tapping into that feeling among voters here. Trump can’t win Ohio—one of the many swing states he needs to defeat Hillary Clinton—without winning Youngstown and rest of northeast Ohio outside of Cleveland, including Stark and Trumbull counties.
The cities in this region are rough places. The highway connecting Youngstown to Warren (the seat of Trumbull County) is dotted with billboards advertising treatment centers for opioid addiction. The west side of Warren is riddled with abandoned buildings and post-industrial blight. The downtown, with its many ornate turn-of-the-century buildings, is a tragic spectacle of decline.
In Stark County, the City of Canton has been shrinking, like all these cities, for nearly 70 years. It lost almost 10 percent of its population between 2000 and 2010, but nevertheless went from being the ninth to the eighth largest city in the state—because Youngstown suffered a worse decline.
Further south, in East Liverpool along the Ohio River, you see this same decline on a smaller and in some ways more dramatic scale. Once known as the “Pottery Capital of the World,” the city’s downtown is now all but abandoned, its neighborhoods full of crumbling houses and broken streets. Residents are candid about the bleakness. “We have a lot of welfare here,” the bartender at the Elks Lodge tells me, “and a lot of heroin.” One young woman says to me bluntly: “Why would you come here? You shouldn’t be here.”
An image from East Liverpool recently went viral when the police posted it on Facebook as a warning: a man and woman slumped in their car seats, mouths agape, overdosed on heroin. In the backseat, a four-year-old boy looks on. The police found them like that, and they posted the photo to show the world just how bad the heroin epidemic has gotten there.
If you’re a voter in one of these towns, a lifelong Democrat who has watched factories and steel mills close, jobs flee, heroin and crime come sweeping in, what would you say to a billionaire celebrity businessman who blamed it all on corrupt politicians and vowed to make your country great again?
Maybe you would hear him out. Maybe you would get involved. Maybe you would let yourself believe that things could change even here, in your own dying town. At that point, you might not care if this man knew a lot about public policy, or if he contradicted himself, or even if it turns out he’d said some degrading thing about women and minorities.
And you certainly wouldn’t care if he called himself a Republican. |
HTC Vive owner Aaron Stanton recently published the findings of an interesting experiment via a Facebook note. The intrepid early VR adopter set out to discover which of his Vive games would get his heart rate the highest.
As Stanton wrote, “In the 8 weeks that I have owned it, the HTC Vive has become the most used piece of exercise equipment I’ve ever owned.”
Other VR fans have reported similar athletic benefits when using the Vive. Stanton’s goal, however, was to determine if, “Augmented Exercise, as I call it, is actually exercise.”
To do this he devised an experiment. After fiddling with the heart rate tracking on an Apple Watch, Stanton decided to go all in and purchase a Polar H7 chest strap heart monitor. Using an app called Motifit to track his gameplay, Stanton fired up seven of the Vive’s most physically demanding games and began to collect his data.
For some of the experiences, Stanton added weight resistance to increase his training, but for others he did not. These are the results he saw in heart rate and calories burned as the experiment concluded:
Audioshield w/o weights – 96.75 bpm – 413 calories/hr
Audioshield w weights 118.2 bpm – 610 calories/hr
Hover Junkers w/o weights – 105 bpm – 487 calories/hr
Holopoint w/o weights – 168 bpm – 764 calories/hr
Thrill of the Fight w weights – 144 bpm – 851 calories/hr
Spell Fighter w/o weights – 86 bpm – 314 calories/hr
Orc Hunter w/o weights – 105 bpm – 500 calories/hr
Quiver Aplha w/o weights – 87 bpm – 322 calories/hr
To put that into perspective, the common consensus in the fitness community is that running a mile burns between 100-150 calories on average. This means that by some estimates playing Audioshield for an hour, even without weights, is equivalent to running about four miles in terms of burned calories.
The clear winner in this experiment is clearly Thrill of The Fight. This VR boxing experience burned a whopping 851 calories in an hour and rocketed Stanton’s heart rate up to 144 bpm. Again, to add some perspective, a well trained sprinter’s maximum heart rate is around 168 beats per minute and they will usually hit 90 percent of that when going all out.
It’s good to keep in mind that Stanton did use wrist and chest weights for some of these tests, but by all accounts it seems that the Vive is capable of offering a substantial workout experience to its users.
If you or someone you know is attempting to lose weight with the Vive give us a shout in the comments!
Tagged with: audioshield, exercise, fitness, htc vive, thrill of the fight, Vive, weight loss |
Three Democratic lawmakers are seeking answers from the real estate company owned by the family of President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, over its use of a program designed to help foreign investors obtain U.S. visas.
In a Thursday letter to Kushner Companies President Laurent Morali, Sen. Patrick Leahy Patrick Joseph LeahySenate plots to avoid fall shutdown brawl Booker wins 2020 endorsement of every New Jersey Democrat in Congress The Hill's Morning Report - Can Bernie recapture 2016 magic? MORE (D-Vt.) and Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said they were concerned that the real estate developer was using Kushner's White House post to attract foreign investors through the EB-5 visa program.
"We are concerned about recent reports detailing Kushner Companies’ use of the EB-5 Regional Center program, especially in light of Jared Kushner’s role in the Trump administration and the potential for conflicts of interest," the letter reads.
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Also at issue, the lawmakers said, are reports "that luxury developers have aggressively lobbied Congress to prevent reforms to the EB-5 program."
"Such lobbying appears intended to benefit luxury development projects like those built by Kushner Companies, and thus presents the appearance of a conflict of interest given Mr. Kushner’s new position in the administration," the letter reads.
Kushner resigned as the company's chief executive in January to serve in the White House. But he has retained a stake in the real estate company and other investments worth up to $600 million.
His sister Nicole Meyer, who took over the company after Kushner left, came under fire last month after she appeared to reference her family's White House connections during a presentation to potential investors in Beijing.
The New York Times reported last month that the Beijing-based immigration company Qiaowai had allegedly told clients that it was working on behalf of Kushner Companies and that Trump would ensure that their EB-5 visas were approved. |
In the last few years, sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo have revolutionized the world for startups. Ideas that didn't have mainstream business appeal were not only getting off the ground, but flourishing. Blockchain crowdfunding might just be the next step in startup evolution, helping important and interesting projects come to fruition.
Crowdfunding provides an excellent way for creative projects to find cash. Many small or obscure projects lay outside of the scope of traditional investment. This makes it very difficult for them to get their ideas off the ground. Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and others changed that, by allowing startups to connect directly with potential consumers in order to seek funding. They acted as a trusted third party to keep the money in escrow, helping to protect potential investors from being scammed. If the funding succeeds, customers get whatever was promised to them as part of the campaign. If not, their money will be sent back.
Blockchain Meets Kickstarter: Is This The Future?
The problem with these established crowdfunding companies is that they are centralized bodies, charging high fees and also influencing the projects. Blockchain-based crowdfunding is set to be a game changer because it decentralizes the funding model from the likes of Kickstarter and other companies.
Kickstarter provides a service and there are costs to run that service, so it's hard to blame them for charging 5% of the total funds received, with an additional 3-5% going towards payment processing. Despite this, it is still expensive. With blockchain's distributed ledger, there is the potential to remove this third party, which will save a considerable amount of the fundraising costs.
Blockchain crowdfunding works by allowing startups to create their own digital currencies and sell them. This allows them to raise funds from early investors, while the investors also have the potential to make money if the value of their cryptographic shares increases.
Some advocates consider this a more pure form of crowdfunding, because it removes any intermediaries standing between the backers and the startup. It also has the potential to boost new blockchain platforms, because it will give the blockchain community a new way to fund its own projects. It appeals to the more anarchistic blockchain enthusiasts as well, because it allows them to avoid traditional funding methods.
How Does Blockchain Crowdfunding Work?
It is similar to Kickstarter, with the creators posting their project and then soliciting funds from a community of interested people. Where it differs is that the startups will be able to make their own cryptocurrency to sell to potential backers. These cryptocurrency tokens will be accounted for and kept track of by the blockchain, which makes it immutable and impossible to forge. The tokens represent shares in the project, and just like normal shares in the stock market, they have the potential to go up in value. These investments are referred to as cryptoequity.
OpenLedger by CCEDK
OpenLedger is one of the numerous projects that are popping up to apply blockchain technology to the field of crowdfunding. The parent company, CCEDK, saw OpenLedger as a new opportunity to provide something valuable to their users. According to Forbes, the OpenLedger platform aims to bring "great new ideas and people" to investors throughout the world. OpenLedger functions as a trading platform, where investors can immediately trade their cryptoequity. CCEDK will hold the money in escrow, which allows companies to access much-needed funds and also reduces the risks for investors.
When a company wants to begin crowdfunding, they will release Initial Coin Offering OpenLedger (ICOO) assets, which are the cryptoequity. If the company does well, these tokens can increase in value, as well as be traded on OpenLedger according to the desires and speculation of investors.
Stratis Raised Over $100 000 Through Blockchain Crowdfunding
On the opposite side of the equation is Stratis, a UK-based company that is working on a unique blockchain development platform that aims to reduce the time it takes to create blockchain apps. As you can imagine, it is often difficult to secure funding when you work with technology that the establishment is dragging its feet on.
Stratis turned to blockchain-based crowdfunding to acquire the much needed funds. They are developing a Bitcoin full node framework, which will serve as the foundation for their own service. They sought funds with an initial coin offering (ICO) and the tokens are used for the parent and side chains of the network. Investors can use the tokens to pay for the use of blockchain as a service or for dapp hosting functionality.
The ICO only accepted Bitcoins, but over $100 000 was raised for the project. The funds are stored in a multisig account, but only one of three keys is held by Stratis. This ensures that an employee can't run off with the money and it protects the investors.
Conclusion |
Commercial Drive is an old Vancouver working class neighbourhood where community street festivals are the norm and Grandview Park doubles on weekends as an informal flea market. It's the antithesis of Robson Street or Fourth Avenue, where consumerism rules.
But no neighbourhood is immune to change, and city planners have spent a large part of their year coming up with a community plan that will densify the Grandview-Woodlands area with a series of residential towers.
Community plans are under way for four Vancouver neighbourhoods. However, resident backlash against some of the proposals, particularly for towers, has been so fierce that on Sept. 24 the city will consider a motion to extend the consultation process by at least six months.
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"We heard loud and clear from the community that they were concerned about the scale and height and extent of towers shown in the emerging direction we put out in June," says the city's assistant director of planning, Matt Shillito.
"We are now looking at alternative forms of density," he says. "I wouldn't say there won't be any towers in the revised plan, but the concern is the number of towers and height."
The decision to delay the plan worries a Commercial Drive non-profit group that is long overdue for an expansion that would include low-income housing and a rebuilt centre for their clientele. Bereft of government funding, the Kettle Friendship Society has formed a unique partnership with a local developer to fund expansion of their facility, at the northeast corner of Commercial and Venables.
The Society has 47 signatures on a petition so far, urging the city to make an exception and allow their application to go forward immediately.
Daniel Boffo, a young developer who wants to build a mid-size tower at the corner, is keenly aware of potential push back. He might have an appetite for challenge, with another controversial project proposed in the heart of the Downtown Eastside, a 29-unit market and non-market housing project at 555 Cordova.
The mixed use project he plans for Commercial Drive will take over the corner best known for Astorino's banquet hall. A residential tower there already fits with the city's community plan for more density, but it's unique in that Mr. Boffo's project will subsidize several units of non-market housing.
Mr. Boffo, who lives in the area, purchased several properties around the Kettle building and is working to acquire a city-owned parking lot to the north. When the community plan is completed, he will apply for rezoning. Mr. Boffo is hoping for a 15-storey tower on the site, which will have several buildings of varying scale.
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"I think we are looking at 20 per cent non-market," says Mr. Boffo. "But it depends on what we can get on the density side, to be able to put residential, retail and an office component together. We are proposing 25 to 30 units [of non market], and we are hoping to target about 150 market units, give or take. It's all variable depending on how this process plays out."
They are also hammering out a plan that would take the 37-year-old Kettle facility from 7,000 square feet to 12,000 square feet.
"I would be thrilled if we got that," says Nancy Keough, the Kettle's executive director.
The society owns the existing building, a former egg factory, and started looking at expansion plans in 2006. Their neighbour Leo Astorino asked if they'd be interested in purchasing his building, but the society didn't have the resources.
"With government cuts, there was no money, even though we went to everybody with our plan," Ms. Keough said. "Then when Daniel bought Astorino's, and started talking to us about possibilities on the site, it was synchronistic."
Ms. Keough says that, gauging from reaction at open house meetings, residents are mostly positive.
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"It's hard for people to get behind it until they really know what we are talking about," she says. "There were a couple of people who don't want any change at all."
Ms. Keough said the project's chief architect, Seattle-based Tom Kundig, played a key role in helping explain to residents how the Society would benefit from the plan. Mr. Kundig has worked in B.C. before, but he's just become acquainted with the Commercial Drive area.
He is no stranger to transitioning communities. It's become part of the job for urban architects. In Seattle, he's worked on mixed market-non-market housing projects, including a Lutheran church. Supporting non-market housing with for-profit housing is a workable model in a world of government cuts and expensive real estate, he says.
"Kettle is overbooked in a marginal facility. This will provide them with a better facility, more housing a more commodious gathering area – not only internally but externally," Mr. Kundig said on the phone from Seattle. "The courtyard would be like an urban courtyard and it will accommodate people from all walks of life – which is the strength of Commercial Drive because as a true urban centre, it represents the complete urban condition, rather than a sanitized version."
The Drive, which is part of Grandview-Woodlands, isn't the only neighbourhood getting ready for transformation. City staff are devising community plans for the Downtown Eastside, the West End and Marpole, looking at building heights, parks, public amenities, transportation and heritage issues within a 30-year framework. The idea is to move away from one-off rezoning.
There was major resident pushback against the proposal of towers ranging from 22 to 37 stories around the transit SkyTrain hub at Commercial and Broadway, which was revealed in June.
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The more likely scenario for the major transit intersection is the development of mid-rise buildings, which are 10 to 12 stories. Mr. Shillito said the Boffo development might have to fall within that restriction.
"It would be more of a move to mid-rise form in that area as well," he said.
For his part, Mr. Kundig is just waiting for the city to tell him the rules. He'll also be sympathetic to the community when the project does get under way, knowing full well that any tower in the area has the potential to be a lightning rod.
"We have similar neighbourhoods here in Seattle and all over California," says Mr. Kundig. "Commercial Drive is a beloved neighbourhood, like a lot of those neighbourhoods are. They were ignored for a while, then had their own sort of character develop, and now it's changing. This is what architects and planners all have to deal with – every day it's a changing world.
"And I think the pressure in Vancouver is higher than even Seattle," he adds. "Vancouver is more like San Francisco, where it's unbelievable what's happening there with housing prices. You have that offshore money that's driving the inflation in Vancouver … and it's absolutely impactful for a community.
"It really does have an effect on a community that's been born and raised there, and has developed the culture of a place. I wish I had the answer for how to deal with that." |
A COMMUNITY has clubbed together to buy Tom Hanks a vintage Polish-made car.
The Hollywood star, worth £300million, has been given the classic car from townsfolk in Bielsko-Biala, Poland, after posting photos of himself next to 1974 Fiat 126s in Budapest last year.
9 Tom Hanks posed with this Polish-made Fiat 126 in Budapest last year, posting the snap on Instagram
9 The townsfolk held a fundraiser to buy the Hollywood star, worth £300 million, his very own version of the 1974 vehicle
EPA 9 The car was fully renovated at a private garage, at no charge
The economy cars were made in Bielsko-Biala from 1973-2000 and the Poles still have warm feeling for it.
Organiser Monika Jaskolska held a fundraiser for Tom, 61, after seeing his Twitter and Instagram posts and raised 8500 Zloty, about £1,700, to purchase the vehicle.
The car, which was originally turquoise, then underwent a major overhaul at a private garage, at no charge.
It will soon be flown to the Toy Story star in Los Angeles.
EPA 9 Members of the Polish community unveil a wrapped-up vintage Fiat 126 for Tom Hanks
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Rex Features 9 The economy cars were made in Bielsko-Biala from 1973-2000 and the Poles still feel warmly about them
EPA 9 The community came together to raise £1,700 for the Hollywood actor
EPA 9 A close up view on a bag with the inscription 'Bielsko-Biala for Tom Hanks'
EPA 9 People sign and write wishes for Tom Hanks on a cover for the renovated vintage car |
"AirTran" redirects here. For other uses, see AirTran (disambiguation)
AirTran Airways, most commonly stylized as airTran, was an American low-cost airline that was originally headquartered in Orlando, Florida and ceased operation following its acquisition by Southwest Airlines.
AirTran Airways was established in 1993 as Conquest Sun Airlines by the management of two small airlines: Destination Sun Airways and Conquest Airlines, with Conquest Airlines co-founder Victor Rivas being heavily involved in the establishment of Conquest Sun. The airline was purchased by the AirTran Corporation in 1994 and was renamed to AirTran Airways, the airline was later spun off under the new Airways Corporation holding company by the AirTran Corporation.
The airline and the Airways Corporation holding company was purchased in 1997 by the ValuJet holding company which owned the struggling ValuJet Airlines, the ValuJet holding company became known as AirTran Holdings and merged ValuJet Airlines into AirTran Airways; ValuJet Airlines was renamed to "AirTran Airlines" first before it was merged into AirTran Airways, this caused confusion with the public and the media into believing that AirTran Airways was merged into ValuJet Airlines and ValuJet Airlines was renamed to AirTran Airways due to the AirTran management at the time was the former ValuJet management. AirTran Airways was indeed the surviving airline while the airline formerly known as ValuJet did not survive.
AirTran Airways and parent AirTran Holdings were acquired by Southwest Airlines on May 2, 2011, and gradually integrated with the final revenue flight operating on December 28, 2014.[1]
AirTran operated nearly 700 daily flights, primarily in the eastern and midwestern United States, with its principal hub at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport where it operated nearly 200 daily departures. AirTran's fleet consisted of Boeing 717-200 aircraft, of which it was the world's largest operator, and Boeing 737-700 aircraft.
History [ edit ]
Establishment & early years [ edit ]
AirTran Airways was founded in 1993 as Conquest Sun Airlines[2] and began operations as a start up Boeing 737-200 operator with service to/from Orlando.
AirTran Airways was established by both the management of Destination Sun Airways and the management of regional airline Conquest Airlines. The establishment of Destination Sun Airways is unclear. It is claimed that Destination Sun was established in 1991 by former Northeastern International Airways CEO Guy Lindley and that the airline was formerly known as SunExpress and based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Another source claimed that Destination Sun was established in 1990 by a bunch of pilots that are presumably ex-Eastern Air Lines pilots since it is claimed later on by the AirTran management that the establishment of AirTran involved former Eastern Air Lines employees. As for Conquest Airlines, Conquest was founded by Rafael Rivas and Victor Rivas in April 1988 in Texas. Victor Rivas, co-founder of Conquest Airlines, was heavily involved in the establishment of Conquest Sun Airlines the most.[3][4]
In 1994, the airline was purchased by the AirTran Corporation which was the holding company of the Minneapolis based Mesaba Airlines, an operating carrier for Northwest Airlines's Northwest Airlink with hubs in Minneapolis and in Detroit. After the purchase, the airline was renamed from Conquest Sun Airlines to AirTran Airways to reflect the name of the holding company. The airline now called AirTran Airways, moved its headquarters to Orlando and grew to 11 Boeing 737 aircraft serving 24 cities in the East and Midwest providing low-fare leisure travel to Orlando.
In 1995, AirTran Corporation created a new subsidiary called Airways Corporation and placed AirTran Airways under the new subsidiary; AirTran Corporation then spun off the new Airways Corporation as an independent holding company which includes AirTran Airways. After the spun off, AirTran Corporation was renamed to Mesaba Holdings after its subsidiary Mesaba Airlines to distance itself from AirTran Airways; AirTran Corporation/Mesaba Holdings was finally renamed to MAIR Holdings, MAIR Holdings was finally dissolved in July 2012.
Merger with ValuJet [ edit ]
The process [ edit ]
On July 10, 1997, ValuJet (ValuJet, Inc.), the parent company of the struggling ValuJet Airlines, entered into an agreement to acquire AirTran Airways and its parent Airways Corporation. ValuJet Airlines was plagued with the serious accidents of ValuJet Flight 597 and ValuJet Flight 592 in which both accidents were blamed on a lax corporate culture on safety at ValuJet.[5]
ValuJet purchased Airways Corporation on November 17, 1997, AirTran Airways and its parent Airways Corporation now becomes subsidiaries of ValuJet. The ValuJet holding company changed its name to AirTran Holdings, Inc. and renamed ValuJet Airlines to AirTran Airlines, the ValuJet holding company now called AirTran Holdings now operates two airlines with the AirTran name: AirTran Airways and AirTran Airlines (formerly ValuJet Airlines).[6][7][8] The now called AirTran Holdings retained the ValuJet stock price history. The AirTran name was chosen by the management in hopes of distancing itself from the troubled ValuJet past. The now called AirTran Holdings moved it's headquarters to the AirTran Airways headquarters in Orlando on January 28, 1998, the AirTran Airways headquarters was previously occupied by the former parent Airways Corporation with AirTran Airways. The ValuJet Atlanta hub remained the hub for the combined AirTran airline operation.
In April 1998, AirTran Holdings transferred all of AirTran Airlines fleet and operations to AirTran Airways and the FAA certificate for AirTran Airlines was canceled, AirTran Airways now becomes the only airline operator for AirTran Holdings and AirTran Airlines now becomes an inactive subsidiary of AirTran Holdings. In August 1999, AirTran Airlines was merged into AirTran Airways, AirTran Airways becomes the surviving airline and AirTran Airlines becomes the non-surviving airline; the airline formerly known as ValuJet Airlines ceases to exist.[9][10]
Criticism [ edit ]
Even though AirTran Airways is the surviving airline with its absorption of the former ValuJet Airlines which ended its operations as AirTran Airlines, the general public and the media thought for years that ValuJet Airlines was the nominal survivor that changed its name to AirTran Airways because the AirTran management was the former ValuJet management. Even the AirTran management didn't put an effort into explaining the correct history of AirTran thoroughly.[11]
The AirTran airline operation received criticism for the name change with Time magazine writing, "In a corporate disappearing act, the troubled airline bought a smaller rival and adopted its name, becoming AirTran Airways."[12] The Los Angeles Times wrote in the Summer of 1997, "After more than a year of reminding too many people of a disaster rather than low fares, ValuJet on Thursday said it would take a new name. ValuJet is buying a much smaller airline, AirTran Airways, from Airways Corp. for $66.3 million worth of stock and taking its name."[13]
In an article in The Atlantic entitled "The Lessons of ValuJet 592," William Langewiesche presents a case in which the May 11, 1996 crash in the Florida Everglades as an example of a system accident, in which the complexity of the overall operation was the major contributing factor.[14] Taking a contrary position, Brian Stimpson argues in the Manitoba Professional Engineer that there are other examples of studied complex operations which have been routinely performed safely for many years, with such examples including large aircraft carriers and the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Station in California.[15]
AirTran management made almost no mention of the ValuJet past. On the 10th anniversary of the Flight 592 crash, AirTran management made no major corporate announcements out of respect for the victims' families.[16]
Turnaround [ edit ]
In January 1999, a new management team led by Joe Leonard, a veteran of Eastern Air Lines and Robert L. Fornaro, of US Airways, took the reins at the airline. The two recruited a new senior management team including Stephen J. Kolski, Operations, Kevin P. Healy,[17] Planning, and Loral Blinde, Human Resources. The immediate goals were to stabilize the balance sheet and prepare to refinance debt due in early 2000, fix the operations, increase and establish revenue streams and prepare for delivery and operation of the Boeing 717. AirTran was the launch customer and ultimately the largest operator of this brand new aircraft. At the same time, Leonard was determined to not only lead the turn around of the carrier, but establish a culture of trust and entrepreneurship at AirTran.
2000s [ edit ]
AirTran received the last 717 built in 2006
AirTran reported a $30 million operating profit for 1999.
On August 15, 2001, the company's stock began trading under the ticker symbol AAI on the New York Stock Exchange.
In 2002, AirTran created a regional brand, AirTran JetConnect, operated by Air Wisconsin.
In 2003, following an order for 100 Boeing 737 aircraft, AirTran began service to Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National Airport and to San Francisco.
On January 5, 2004, AirTran's last McDonnell Douglas DC-9 was retired, leaving it with a fleet of more than 70 Boeing 717s. Shortly after, the first Boeing 737 entered AirTran's fleet in June 2004.
In August 2004, AirTran JetConnect (operated by Air Wisconsin) ceased all operations.
On May 23, 2006, AirTran accepted one of the last two Boeing 717s delivered in a ceremony with Midwest Airlines, who accepted the other 717.[18] Boeing closed the 717 line due to an overlap with the 737.
In November 2007, Robert L. Fornaro took over as CEO, as well as President.[19] Joe Leonard remained Chairman of the Board of Directors until June 2008. Upon his retirement, Fornaro then became Chairman making him Chairman, President and CEO.[20]
In 2009, AirTran was the first major airline to have 100% of its fleet outfitted with Gogo Inflight Internet, although other airlines had begun adding Internet before AirTran.
By 2009 AirTran underwent major expansion in smaller cities such as Yeager Airport (Charleston, W.V.); Asheville Regional Airport, N.C.; and Harrisburg International Airport, Pa.[21]
Failed acquisitions [ edit ]
In 2004, AirTran sought a major expansion at Chicago-Midway Airport by buying the leases of ATA Airlines' 14 gates. Southwest Airlines made a higher bid for the gates, and AirTran lost the deal.
In December 2006, Air Tran Holdings announced that it had been trying to acquire Midwest Air Group. On August 12, 2007, AirTran announced its attempt to purchase Midwest Airlines had expired, while TPG Capital, in partnership with Northwest Airlines, had entered into an agreement to purchase Midwest Airlines for an amount larger than the AirTran Airways' proposal. However, on August 14, 2007, AirTran increased its offer to the equivalent of $16.25 a share, slightly more than the $16 a share from TPG Capital investors group.[22] However, Midwest announced TPG would increase its offer to $17 per share and a definitive agreement had been reached late on August 16, 2007.[23]
On September 21, 2007, AirTran pilots, represented by the National Pilots Association, rejected the carrier's contract proposal. Two weeks earlier, the pilots voted to dump the union president and vice president. On April 10, 2009, 87% of the pilots at AirTran voted to merge the National Pilots Association with the world's largest pilot union, Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA).[24]
2010s [ edit ]
An AirTran 737-700 which the airline continued to receive until the acquisition by Southwest
On April 6, 2010 AirTran Airways opened their second crew base, at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, the same day they officially announced Milwaukee as their second hub.
On July 27, 2010, AirTran Airways hosted the grand opening of their new System Operations Control (SOC) Center at Orlando International Airport. This 16,000-square-foot (1,500 m2), $6.9 million state-of-the-art command center serves as the 24-hour nerve center for the entire airline with over 700 flights per day. The company employs more than 1,000 crew members in central Florida at several facilities, including their corporate headquarters, the SOC and a maintenance facility in addition to passengers operations at the airport. After considering putting the SOC Center in Atlanta where AirTran has their largest hub, the decision was made to expand the facility in Orlando adjacent to AirTran's headquarters.
In October 2010, a new crew base opened at Orlando International Airport in Orlando, Florida.[25] The base initially employed 100 pilots, including a chief pilot.
In April 2011, AirTran had the best safety record among U.S. carriers as measured by the number of incidents such as bird strikes. AirTran was first with only 0.0000196 incidents per flight, Southwest second with 0.0000203, and US Airways third with 0.0000203 incidents per flight. Bill Voss, who was then head of the Flight Safety Foundation, said "the safety record in the U.S. is so good that it's very difficult to find enough accidents or incidents to draw much of a conclusion about who's safest."[26]
Prior to the winding down of the airline, AirTran grew to serve more than 70 cities coast-to-coast as well as in the Caribbean and Mexico with more than 700 flights per day and over 8,500 crew members serving nearly 25 million passengers per year.[20]
Buyout and wind-down [ edit ]
On September 27, 2010, Southwest Airlines announced they would acquire AirTran Airways and parent AirTran Holdings for a total cost of $1.4 billion. The acquisition gave Southwest a significant presence at many of AirTran’s hubs such as Atlanta (then the largest U.S. city without Southwest service), Milwaukee, and expanded service in Baltimore and Orlando. With the acquisition, Southwest added international service to several leisure destinations such as Cancún, Montego Bay and Aruba. Southwest integrated AirTran's fleet of Boeing 737-700 series aircraft into Southwest Airlines brand and livery, and the Boeing 717 fleet was then leased out to Delta Air Lines starting mid-2013.[27] The airlines planned to have the acquisition completed and finalized within two years with the two carriers operating as separate airlines in the interim.[28][29][30] The deal closed on May 2, 2011, and a single operating certificate for the combined carrier was achieved March 1, 2012.[31] Total integration of all employee groups between the two carriers was completed in 2015.
On February 14, 2013, Southwest Airlines announced that they had begun codesharing with AirTran. They took the first step on January 25, 2013, by launching shared itineraries in five markets. Southwest continued launching shared itineraries with 39 more markets beginning February 25, 2013. By April 2013, shared itineraries were scheduled to be available in all Southwest and AirTran cities (domestic and international).[32]
AirTran's final flight operated with a Boeing 737-700 on November 30, 2014 from Atlanta to Tampa
Southwest announced that the integration would be completed on December 28, 2014, with AirTran Airways Flight 1 as the final scheduled departure for the airline flying from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) to Tampa International Airport (TPA). The flight used the callsign "Critter" as a nod to ValuJet. This route was ValuJet's first flight.[33]
Currently, AirTran Airways and AirTran Holdings both still exist as inactive subsidiaries of Southwest as of December 31, 2017.[34]
Corporate affairs [ edit ]
Prior to the acquisition, the corporate headquarters of AirTran were located in Orlando, Florida.[35] The airline moved its headquarters to Orlando in 1994. Prior to that period, the headquarters were in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[36]
Employee relations [ edit ]
AirTran adopted an approach to employee recruitment similar to Southwest Airlines with an emphasis on functional skills and relational competence.[37] The airline had clear job specialization with the expectation of flexibility between jobs as required by day-to-day operational circumstances. AirTran's training approach involved drawing the link between individual job performance, the airline's overall financial performance and the importance of achieving high levels of customer service and efficiency.[37]
Destinations [ edit ]
When the acquisition by Southwest was announced, AirTran served 69 destinations throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and abroad.[38]
Top served cities [ edit ]
AirTran Airways top served cities (As of March 2013)[39] City Daily departures Number of gates Cities served nonstop Service began Atlanta 171 31 43 1993 Orlando 56 8 23 1993 Baltimore-Washington 47 7 15 2001 Milwaukee 30 8 6 2002 Fort Myers 19 3 13 1997 Tampa 17 3 12 1993 Fort Lauderdale 15 3 7 1993 Washington, D.C. (Reagan) 11 3 3 2003 Pittsburgh 12 2 5 2000 Akron-Canton 10 4 6 1996
Codeshare agreements [ edit ]
AirTran did not participate in any major global airline alliances, but the airline had a codeshare agreement with its parent airline, Southwest Airlines.[40]
Fleet [ edit ]
Prior to being acquired by Southwest, the AirTran fleet maxed at the following aircraft:[41]
AirTran Airways fleet Aircraft Total Orders Passengers J Y Total Boeing 717-200 88 0 12 105 117 Boeing 737-700 52 65 12 125 137 Total 140 65
Before the Southwest acquisition, AirTran had orders for 65 additional 737-700s. These orders were transferred to Southwest Airlines.
In addition, AirTran's 717 fleet included the first and last 717 ever built.
Since Southwest operates an all-737 fleet, AirTran's 88 former 717s are currently on lease with Delta Air Lines.
Retired or transferred [ edit ]
Ryan International Airlines operated Airbus A320 jets for AirTran on new flights to the U.S. west coast prior to AirTran receiving new Boeing 737-700 aircraft
Cabin [ edit ]
AirTran Airways operated a two-class configuration featuring Business Class and Economy Class. Business class included rows 1–3 and coach began with row 10; rows 4–9 were skipped for numbering purposes and 13 was skipped due to superstition.
Livery [ edit ]
AirTran plane at the gate
AirTran's livery was primarily white, with teal on the ventral side. The sections were divided by parallel red and pink stripes, which ran horizontal at the front, and started to curve upward at the wings until they reached the top side of the plane at the back of the vertical stabilizer. The nacelles were royal blue, with "airtran.com" written in white Helvetica font. The logo version of "AirTran" was written toward the front on either side in teal above the passenger windows and the vertical stabilizer was teal with a prominent white cursive "A", just like the beginning of the logo.
AirTran Airways also created several special livery aircraft. They included an aircraft featuring Elton John and Danica Patrick. AirTran also partnered with the Orlando/Orange County CVB to create a Boeing 717 aircraft emblazoned with a "Say YES to Orlando" logo on each side and a second Boeing 717 saying "Orlando Makes Me Smile," which celebrated AirTran Airways' partnership with the OOCVB to promote travel to the city. The airline also had an aircraft paying tribute to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando.
Several aircraft featured sports-related liveries. The teams represented were the Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Indianapolis Colts, Orlando Magic, and Milwaukee Brewers.
On February 12, 2010, AirTran Airways celebrated Little Debbie's 50th anniversary by launching a one-of-a-kind, custom-designed Boeing 717, dubbed Little Debbie 1.
Incidents and accidents [ edit ]
See also: Previous Incidents and Accidents at ValuJet
ValuJet and AirTran Incidents and Accidents Flight Date Aircraft Location Description Injuries Fatal Serious Minor ValuJet Flight 597
June 8, 1995 Douglas DC-9-32 Atlanta, Georgia The flight suffered an aborted takeoff after a catastrophic engine failure which was caused by rusted engine components. Shrapnel from the right engine penetrated the fuselage and the right engine main fuel line erupting a cabin fire. The airplane was stopped on the runway, and captain Greg Straessle ordered evacuation.[42] One flight attendant received serious puncture wounds from shrapnel and thermal injuries, and another flight attendant received minor injuries. Of the 57 passengers on board, five suffered minor injuries.[43] 1 6 ValuJet Flight 592
May 11, 1996 Douglas DC-9-32 Florida Everglades This flight crashed in the Everglades due to a fire caused by the activation of oxygen generators which use a high-temperature chemical reaction that were illegally shipped in the cargo hold. The fire damaged the airplane's electrical system and eventually overcame the crew, resulting in the deaths of all five crew members and 105 passengers on board. The airplane was on its way from Miami to Atlanta.[44] 110 AirTran Airways 426
May 7, 1998 Douglas DC-9-32 Calhoun, GA Flight crew failed to maintain adequate separation from hazardous meteorological conditions. The investigation revealed that the captain had been involved in two other air carrier incidents involving adverse weather conditions. It also revealed that the airline lacked adequate training and guidance regarding hazardous weather interpretation and avoidance, as well as adequate procedures to notify flight attendants about potential turbulence. A flight attendant and a passenger were seriously injured during a turbulence encounter. 2 AirTran Airways 867
November 1, 1998 Boeing 737-200 Atlanta, GA Lost control and skidded off of the runway while landing, with main landing gear in a drainage ditch and its empennage extending over the taxiway. The nose gear was folded back into the electrical/electronic compartment and turned 90 degrees from its normal, extended position. The cause was an improperly repaired hydraulic line leak. 13 AirTran Airways 913
August 8, 2000 Douglas DC-9-32 Greensboro, NC The flight crew executed an emergency landing at Greensboro. Shortly after takeoff the flight crew declared an emergency due to an in-flight fire and smoke in the cockpit. An emergency evacuation was performed. Of the 58 passengers and 5 crewmembers on board, 3 crewmembers and 5 passengers received minor injuries from smoke inhalation. Five passengers and one ground crewmember received minor injuries during the evacuation. The airplane sustained substantial fire, heat, and smoke damage and was written off. The flight was operating to Atlanta. 13 AirTran Airways 956
November 29, 2000 Douglas DC-9-32 Atlanta, GA The flight crew executed an emergency landing at Atlanta. Shortly after takeoff the flight crew observed that several circuit breakers had tripped and several annunciator panel lights had illuminated. After the landing, one of the flight attendants reported to the flight crew that smoke could be seen emanating from the left sidewall in the forward cabin; air traffic control personnel also notified the flight crew that smoke was coming from the airplane. The flight crew then initiated an emergency evacuation on one of the taxiways. Of the 2 flight crewmembers, 3 flight attendants and 92 passengers on board, 13 passengers received minor injuries. The airplane sustained substantial damage and was written off. The flight was operating to Akron, OH. 13 AirTran Airways 527[45]
November 10, 2006 Boeing 717 Memphis, TN The flight crew taxied the aircraft into a grass median. The nose landing gear impacted a concrete drainage ditch. The nose landing gear assembly had collapsed and the forward pressure bulkhead was punctured. According to the Airport Safety and Certification Division, FAA Southern Region, all of the taxiway signs and taxiway lights were lit and working properly at the time of the accident. The cause was the captain's inadequate visual look out during taxi.
References [ edit ]
, AirTran Airways website (redirects to Southwest Airlines main website) |
...
Mizumi had to admit, the water witch had risen to the occasion of the holiday. When Mama Mua entered the mansion of Chao Erliao there was not a single eye that landed on her that did not stay transfixed. Her hips alone were enough to cause a scandal. Although Mua was taller than Ayika both women shared a certain characteristically Tribal set of measurements and here those features were magnified by multicolored layers of ruffled cloth that swished above the shaman's thighs with each step. On a night when Mua could have disguised herself as anyone or anything she had chosen to magnify her foreign identity. Her smooth dark skin was highlighted and exposed by as many slashes in the costume's brilliantly colored fabric as could be supported. If Ayika was dressed as the moon, the sacred and true heart of the tribes, then Mua was every worst stereotype reclaimed, savage and lascivious and the object of terrifying longing. Her mask was a simple net of blue beads held across her face by ribbon. It was stylized in the shape of a jawless skull. Tonight Mua had come as beautiful death.
Mizumi looked away from Mua in sudden fear that someone had seen her staring but she need not have worried. The other party-going women were staring with comparable agog, while half the men seemed to be looking around expecting that this display was somehow a trap meant to test them. Ayika took a purposeful step forward towards the front of the mansion but Mizumi caught hold of her arm. Mizumi trusted Ayika and her judgement but she had proved to have a remarkably low tolerance for alcohol. It might have been best to encourage a pause before any decision was made. In fact Mua was rapidly striding through the halls in complete disregard for the ordered path of the party. She might spot them at any moment. Mizumi pulled Ayika in close a if they were in huddled conversation. Mizumi felt her heart beating strongly in her chest as the ripples of Mua's passing echoes though the party's population but she tried to concentrate on that instead of the heat and scent of Ayika who was proving to be very distracting even while standing perfectly still.
After a moment Ayika whispered, "She went on. We need to follow."
In a moment she managed to wriggle free of Mizumi's hand and confidently strode off in the direction Mua had gone. Mizumi made a note that Ayika sometimes had sashaying way of walking as well before she shook her head to focus on the potentially deadly matter at hand. With a liquor-induced blush creeping into Ayika's cheeks one of them needed to be clear headed.
The final large room of the party route through the mansion was centered around three long tables which would at any movement be covered with a dazzling display of edibles. The large concentration of guests attracted by this prospect were reigned over by the host, Sub-Minister of Culture and Worthy Expression Chao Erliao. The host had chosen the heavy yellow-gold robe costume option from among the appropriate noble's selections. He seemed to be enjoying the party although as Mizumi entered she saw him shoot a quick dark look at Mister Gaoli who had gathered his own group in the corner. Whatever rumors Goli had been spreading, Erliao did not appreciate them. Yet he did not have any more opportunity to dwell on Lili's father because Mua had stepped forward into the center of the room.
Erliao had been deep in some conversation with a few guests but the instant he saw the tribal woman he stopped in mid sentence. His first look was one of pure disbelief. That expression then melted to confusion as Mua did not continue to stride towards him but instead swept past through the party room and out a back door to the courtyard outside. Mizumi would have thought the minister would have run for the hills at the first opportunity given how his last interaction with Mua had gone, however, she heard Erliao make a hurried excuse about seeing what this commotion was all about before he rushed out after her. The remaining party goers erupted into a flurry of mutters and whispers and many cast pained looks at the twice-used exit, wishing that the rules of etiquette did not forbid them from following that mysterious pair for at least five minutes. Fortunately, Mizumi and Ayika were not bound by etiquette. Together they moved around the side of the room to sneak unseen out another exit to the courtyard a little ways away.
There were no lights lit in the outside courtyard but the mansion that surrounded three sides was filled with such vibrant illumination that what spilled outside was enough to provide a reasonable facsimile of late afternoon. Despite Mizumi's emphatic gestures Ayika insisted on leading the way as they crept into eavesdropping position. She was still buoyed on by whatever amount of alcohol she had in fact drunk. Fortunately they needed not creep far. Mua was standing in the open beside an ornamental koi pond near the center of the courtyard. The two girls took up positions behind an large and pitted scholar's rock.
Erliao stormed up to Mua out of the long crossing shadows. "Nia?! How did you get in here? After your last ridiculous attempt to frighten me I could have you executed!"
Mua's languidly accented voice drawled as she gave her reply. "Don't pretend ya haven't tried. It's not my fault ya couldn't find me, Chao. Fate has a way of working against murderers."
Erliao was now even angrier but there was also a small note of fear. However, it was still not as much as Mizumi thought would be reasonable given Mua's last attack. For some reason he was convinced she would not hurt him.
"I had absolutely nothing to do with Chen Lizhen's death and I don't know how you think I did. I am searching for those responsible! I have sent orders to comb every possible hiding spot for that wretch. Now you must stop this posturing. If you were actually intending to kill me in a misguided pursuit of justice you would have done so already." He spread his hands, his self assurance returning. "You are a bender, I am not. And you would not have walked in through the front door where half the city saw you behind that paltry beaded veil if you actually intended to commit such a brazen crime. There is nothing you could get away with. So, Nia, with that settled I need you to tell me how you got into the Inner Ring!"
Mua did not like that tone, or the minister's curious habit of addressing her by her first name. "I received an invitation."
Erliao took a sudden step back. He looked around at the surrounding mansion walls and windows. That simple sentence was what brought him to the point of fear. He spoke quickly, mostly to himself. Mizumi could barely make out his muttered words from her hiding spot. "You are a planted distraction! Some adversary is going to use tonight as an opportunity to take me out of the equation! Someone knew about our past and made use of that knowledge in their plans. You were dumbly sent in to throw me off balance. I would think Gaoli was behind it but he has been making a public scene of himself here for an hour."
Mua did not like being ignored, "You've no hold over me any more. Our past's finally irrelevant. I'm willin to pay for the betrayal Ah committed to Chen. And there's one crucial thing ya missed in your calculations. You've overestimated how much Ah care about leaving here alive." She opened her palms in front of her and strands of mist began to rise from the pond-water behind her.
True terror finally began to dawn on Erliao. In an instant, a profound re-estimation of Mua flashed across his face and he realized he had made a mistake. After a split second he turned and started to ran towards a nearby wing of the mansion but a whip of water shot out and knocked him off his feet. He yelled out as he landed heavily, "Zhang! Help!"
A window slammed open somewhere in the mansion above but at that moment the courtyard exploded into an all-concealing fog. There was no chance of some hired earthbender picking off Mua was a projectile now. Erliao rolled over and tried to push himself backwards as his panicked words came tumbling out of his mouth "Nia, I've never done anything against you! I never stole you away from Chen. You know that! And I never wanted him to die! Someone has twisted something and things are getting out of control..."
Nia Mua loomed over Erliao. In the fog she was a black shadow rising over a huddled form on the ground. "Given the time Ah'd love to find out just what you've done to tear apart the spiritual stability of this land. Chen was trying to undo it, Ah know. But Ah have little time. In a choice between personal desire or even protectin the city, and justice for Chen, Ah know my answer. I'll choose Chen every time. I learned that lesson. And I'll gladly pay for my crimes against love."
Erliao was flat on his back with his gold costume grinding into the dirt as he darted his head left and right looking for any openings to escape. There were none. Ropes of water rose up out of the pool behind Mua like air-born snakes undulating to arcane rhythms. Mua raised up her open palm to deliver the slicing waterbending blow. Then she felt a knife blade against her throat.
Mizumi whispered into Mua's ear. "Lovely holiday this city has. These costumes allow you to conceal so many things." The water ropes splashed down, now freed of their motive force as Mua halted.
No one could accuse Erliao of being slow to seize an opportunity. He was already on his feet and dashing off to the safety of the other wing of the mansion before he would even have time to recognize who Miumi was.
Mua growled at Mizumi as she stood still, held by the biting metal against her skin. "You!"
"Yes, her." Ayika ran around to reveal herself to the shaman. "Mama Mua, please. You can still get away without this ending in tragedy. Erliao wronged you in the past but I know you still do not know that he is responsible for Lizhen's death! You have no evidence!"
"Wronged me? You don't understand a thing you're talkin about." Her hands twitched up but Mizumi responded by pressed the knife blade tighter and Mua stopped struggling.
"I know that Lizhen wouldn't want you to be a murderer! He wouldn't have kept your picture all those years! He cared about you more than that, no matter how things ended between you two!"
Mua looked around as if seeing past Ayika. Then she closed her eyes. A smile crept on her lips. "You've got it wrong again, girl. I was the one who wronged him. And now Ah mean to secure some small measure of forgiveness."
She suddenly stuck back with her elbow and pushed Mizumi back off her. Mizumi yelled in surprise as she felt her knife slide across the woman's throat but Mua dashed off unharmed. Mizumi looked down and saw that the blade was now encased in a thick sheath of ice. She cursed loudly as Ayika ran over to check on her.
Mizumi said, "Ayika! We need to get out of here or we will be arrested any minute! No one else has seen us out here yet but that will change."
Ayika looked at the swirling vaporous whiteness that had enveloped Mua. This burst of violence had a very sobering effect which had left her head alarmingly clear. Then she nodded as she started to move back across the courtyard. "Right, we need to get back to..."
Suddenly a scream rang out from the mansion. It was a man's scream and came from where Mua had chased after Erliao.
Ayika was horrified. "She caught him!"
Mizumi on the other hand was perplexed. "Already? He had a head start and looked fit. Being able to bend does not make you run faster. If..."
Whatever else Mizumi had intended to say was cut off by sound of smashing wood. Then they heard a similar sound again along with the sounds of general destruction inside the building. Some powerful fighters were fighting fiercely. Erlaio's guards must have gotten to Mua and she was not going down quietly. As Ayika spun around she saw that Mizumi and her were no longer alone in the courtyard. There was a hooded black shadow standing off to the side of them. Distracted from the cloud of alcohol Ayika could feel the reach of the spirit world. The Nine-Step-Shadow had appeared to complete his announcement of Mua's death.
Ayika wondered if Mua had seen the spirit in that final moment. She wondered if Grandma Aka had been right and it had provided some measure of comfort. Even as she felt the sinking feeling knowing what sad end Mua was coming too she could not help feeling relief. The omen had not been meant for her or Mizumi. Then that hypothesis was spoiled by a loud roaring howl that blasted from the direction Mua and Erliao had run to. That was not a spiritual omen. It was a material, physical sound. This noise bounced across every wall of the mansion and vibrated through their very bones. The smashing sounds continued.
Mizumi stopped suddenly in the middle of their escape as she spun to face the noise. "What was that?!"
Ayika felt a shiver run up her spine. She recognized that feeling, that sense beyond the material. She knew what was back there.
Suddenly there was a splintering crash and a thump several meters behind them. This was followed by a human form rolling and sliding across the courtyard floor. Then that form coughed and rolled over once more. Mama Mua raised herself up off the ground on scraped and bloody arms.
Panting, she said, "Your Masks are here. It seems ya were right. They don't like Chao either."
Without Mua maintaining her magic the fog was dissipating. One gap in the wisps was big enough for them to see a man step out through the hole of a broken paper-screen door leading to the mansion. He was wearing a simple thin shirt and light trousers but obviously this man did not have to worry about the coming autumn chill. Red eyes glowed from behind the purple mask he wore and even Mizumi saw him obscured by shifting violet shadow-like smoke clinging to his back. It formed the suggestion of a second creature clinging to the back of each limb and moving the human like a puppet. Ayika had been right. The Masks were merging with spirits.
Ayika could understand the hatred of jilted love and festering guilt. She could even imagine hatred of change battling with tradition. But within those carved sockets there was no hatred, or any emotion that could be matched by a human heart. The Mask jerked slightly as he stood in the hole broken by Mua's body, as if his limbs were a new machine who's operation he was still learning. Then he let out a laugh like grinding ice and turned on the three women in the courtyard, his fingers curled like grasping claws.
...
Ayika panted as she ran through the mansion halls. Screaming guests fled in every direction around her. She was now terrifyingly clear headed. Few things were more sobering than fleeing for your life. Ayika remembered Mua waving her arms to send the fog in the courtyard flying together to solidify around the Mask in an imprisoning armor of ice. She also remembered that man breaking his arm free of his frozen bonds in a matter a second. The three woman had ran inside but the only reason they had escaped was by running into the guards who had been rushing out to defend Erliao against Mua. In that instant of collision the waterbender, now bashed and bloody, had not provoked as much alarm as had the masked attacker racing up behind them. The Mask launched himself forward and proceeded to smashed in amongst the mansion security. Ayika had grabbed Mizumi and Mua's arms as they fled with the rest of the partygoers.
"How did they get here?" Mizuni yelled as she ran down the hallway while trying to support a battered Mua.
Mua gritted her teeth as the two girls accidentally half flung her into a wall rounding a corner. "Ah don't know! Chao was running to hide in his bedroom but someone must've been hiding in there already! Ah'd just saw the door close when he suddenly screamed bloody murder. It sounded like a bear was loose in there and then next thing that monster was bursting out through a wooden wall! Ah couldn't hit the blasted thing more than once and when Ah did it was only 'cus he was a little busy throwing me through a door!"
"Another time maybe, ladies!" Ayika was just concentrating on running. Her head may have been clear but she as she panted she was noticing her feet were a little more uncertain than she would prefer while running for her life. If she every had another moment to think in her life she would use it to curse Inner Ring alcohol.
Mizumi seemed to have infinite breath to spend talking while running. "But Erliao had to be their target, correct? The nationalists would have no reason to chase us? No one could even know we were going to be here!"
"The nationalists shouldn't be attacking Erliao either but you saw that thing. I'm not sure that was just a human!" By the end of that sentence Ayika could barely find air to push out the words. Screams rang out behind them. At one point they had to fight past green-badged men who were running towards the disturbance but no one questioned three women fleeing from screams.
They made it out the mansion's front doors and halfway to the compound gate before they stopped and turned around. They could hear the clatter of a carriage rushing off down the outer road in a hurried escape. The driver could not be blamed. Mua braced her hands against her thighs as she regained her breath. Mizumi looked back across the carriage yard at the illuminated facade which looked so deceptively peaceful.
To Ayika's irritation and admiration the other Islander girl was barely winded. "Well, that was a disaster. Mua, I hope this satisfies you desire for revenge on Erliao and we can now move past that. Whatever they want with him I doubt the Masks will give the minister over to you, and by now that assassin is concerned with his own escape. Let us find a servant. The coachmen should be just as eager to get away from this as we are to get to the station."
Mua was clearly in pain but she still chuckled mockingly even if it made her wince. "Always so confidant. Always sure ya know how the world works. Your people never really understand spirits. That was a possession. To spirits manifested like that in the material world shamans stand out like beacons. And we've got maybe the only two in this damn city standing right here."
Ayika was about to say something but her planned speech died on her lips as the main doors of the mansion were flung open. Or perhaps open was the wrong word. The righthand door was flung off. The three meter tall slab of wood pattered with embossed bronze briefly hung in the air before it crashed and screeched its way down the long slope of stone steps. The Mask stepped forward, a dark shape casting a long shadow in the light that spilled out from the main hall. The purple aura around him was the most concentrated Ayika had ever seen it. It seemed almost like a transparent second body fastened to the man's back.
She did not stick around to look any closer. All three women spun at the same moment and dashed towards the open gate to the road beyond the compound. Ayika glanced to the side and saw Mizumi once more held her knife in her fist, though what she planned to do with that against such a monster Ayika did not know. Outside the compound wall it was dark. No one tried to close the gate. It would have taken all three of them to have any hope of moving the massive thing and the Mask was likely to just jump over it or punch through it. That was not to say they had a better plan.
Thus far their flight had been directed purely by instinct. Now that they had gotten outside it was clear that was not enough. The carriage path wound its way over the small bridge over a small stream and out through open fields and low grassy hills towards the distant tram terminal. That destination could have been outside the Outer Wall for all the good it did them.
Mua ran a few steps off the path and then stopped once more. So, she had seen their hopeless situation as well. Mizumi skidded to a halt beside Ayika. In a distant way Ayika managed to admire how the other woman's costume did nothing to obstruct her movements. She had also acquired yet another knife from somewhere.
Mizumi planted herself facing the gate behind them. "Ayika, run! Those masks hate foreigners so I should be able to convince him to face me for a few moments. That can give you time to hide!"
Ayika grabbed Mizumi by the arm and spun her so forcefully that she nearly impaled herself on the knife blades. Ayika was gripping onto Mizumi's arm so tightly her fingers hurt.
"You're not a damn hero! You're coming!"
Her throat hurt like she was screaming but for some reason she could barely hear her own voice over the blood pounding in her ears. If the Nine-Step-Shadow had appeared in that moment she would have ripped off its ill-omened arms.
Mizumi looked up with pain widened eyes behind her gold mask but somehow managed a smile. Backlit by the glow washing out from the mansion gate she looked like some ancient warrior out of legend. She was beautiful. "Like she said, it is after shamans. He will probably just push me to the side but that will still be a distraction." A roar echoed from inside the compound, breaking the silence of gurgling water and faintly chirping insects as it underlined the unspoken lie of Mizumi's words. "So run! Now!"
In that moment Mua interrupted. "If ya all are done with the dramatic speeches, perhaps we could all get outa here? If ya don't mind."
Ayika and Mizumi both turned back to see Mama Mua standing in the middle of the little stream, floating on a small raft of ice. The two girls shared a look that confirmed that both had temporarily forgotten about the existence of waterbending. Both then ran and leaped out over the water as behind them the Mask darted out of the open gate. Ayika found her traction on the little ice raft and grabbed hold to arrest Mizumi's slipping on the strange frozen construct.
Mua had other things to worry about as she raised her arms and the advancing Mask vanished as their whole world exploded into vaporous white. Mua then flung her arms forward and Ayika heard the faint sounds of fog bursting into existence down the path of the river, providing them with cover. The ice below their feel lurched and Ayika grabbed one arm around both Mua and Mizumi's waists as they rushed into waterbending powered motion down the stream. It was not until they burst into the starlight a moment later that Ayika noticed what had happened. Turning her head back she saw a line of fog stretching back in the opposite direction across the undulating landscape of the Upper Ring.
"You tricked it!" she said and immediately felt that such a statement was as painfully obvious as the night wind that was whipping through her hair.
Mua continued concentrating on her sweeping arm motions that carried them along the narrow watercourse at an incredible speed. "It won't last for long, even if spirits are easily distracted. But what do Ah know? I've never seen a possession like that."
Mizumi chimed in through gritted teeth. "Just go!"
Their tiny raft of magical ice skipped and jumped as Mua guided it at bone-breaking speed along the narrow ornamental stream through the night-shadowed green fields and rolling hills under the white moon. Behind them, the upper floors of Erliao's golden mansion stood happily shining out over the compound wall with their thousand twinkling lamps, oblivious to the tragedy within.
... |
The Obama administration is obsessed with race and sex. Many know about the administration’s scheme to collect information on the racial composition of American communities in an effort to force neighborhoods to “diversify.” Now the government is applying the same philosophy to businesses in order to “equalize” wages. It’s an effort, critics point out, that will make it harder for white men to find jobs. Writes the New York Post’s Betsy McCaughey:
Claiming women aren’t getting paid enough, President Obama wants to make it easier to accuse employers of gender discrimination and hit them with class-action lawsuits. A new regulation proposed on Friday will require all employers with 100 or more workers to report how much their workforce is paid, broken down by race and [sex].
The rule, slated to go into effect in September 2017, will cause headaches for employers and anyone — man or woman — who works hard and expects to get ahead based on merit. The winners are federal bean counters, class-action lawyers and the Democratic Party, which is playing up the [inter-sex] “wage gap” as usual during this election year.
McCaughey points out that this regulation will hit white men the hardest, and this is echoed by American Thinker’s Thomas Lifson:
Your employer will have to lump workers into 12 salary bands. If you’re a white male up for a raise, but the band above yours already includes too many while males, tough luck. Your boss will be pressured to give the raise to a woman or minority to avoid triggering EEOC scrutiny.
This data collection is a godsend for EEOC regulators looking for targets, and it hands class-action lawyers the statistics they need on a silver platter.
Even worse: the presumption is that the employer discriminates, unless proven otherwise.
The “guilty until proven innocent” standard Lifson refers to seems to reflect “disparate impact” theory; this principle states that if a group cannot measure up to a standard as well as another group, that standard is by definition considered unjustly discriminatory. Applied by the government for decades, it has been used to compel police departments and other entities to scrap qualification exams because women and minorities underperformed on them. As an example, the Obama administration sued the Pennsylvania State Police in 2014 for treating women equally — because doing so yielded unequal outcomes.
As for different salary outcomes in business, McCaughey explains the consequences of the new regulations:
Employers will have to change their policies to avoid these differences — for example, not preferring the job applicant who has a college degree over the applicant who doesn’t, unless the job can be shown to require college skills. The burden is on employers. It’s assumed they’re discriminating, in other words, and they have to prove they’re not.
Jenny Yang, chairwoman of Obama’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, defends the massive fishing expedition, saying, “pay discrimination goes undetected because of a lack of accurate information about what people are paid.”
Of course, it’s impossible not to discover pay “discrimination.” All that term refers to is the process of choosing one or some from between/among two or many. And since meritocracy dictates we discriminate between the intelligent and the stupid, the educated and the ignorant, and the qualified and the unqualified — and since groups have different proclivities and interests — it follows that Yang cannot fail in her mission. But she clearly isn’t interested in the real question: Are inter-group pay gaps actually caused by prejudice?
Demagogues love the slogan “Women make only 79 cents on a man’s dollar!” Yet the same data-collection entities reporting that fact also tell us why — and it has nothing to do with unfair discrimination. I explained this in the 2014 New American piece “Equal Pay for Equal Work: Means Paying Men More,” but female commentators such as Carrie Lukas have made the same points. Here are some of the main factors influencing the inter-sex pay gap:
Men tend to choose more lucrative fields than women do (e.g., the hard sciences as opposed to the soft ones).
Related to the above, women avoid the most dangerous and dirtiest jobs — such as iron-working and commercial fishing — which often bring great compensation.
Full-time men work more hours on average than “full-time” women.
When climbing the corporate ladder, women are six times more likely than men to change positions and career tracks; consequently, men generally have more seniority and experience.
Women are more likely to decline promotions and “tend to place a higher priority on flexibility and personal fulfillment than do men, who focus more on pay. Women tend to avoid jobs that require travel or relocation, and they take more time off and spend fewer hours in the office than men do,” as Lukas wrote in 2007.
The reality is that women don’t get less money for equal work — they get less money for lesser work. Moreover, it seems that some pay gaps are more equal than others. There was much talk late last year about Hollywood actresses making less than actors (poor Jennifer Lawrence had to settle for $52 million, $28 million less than Robert Downey Jr.). Yet no one troubles over the top 10 female fashion models earning more than 10 times as much as their male counterparts do. And even among rank-and-file models, the women make 148 percent more.
But isn’t this “sex discrimination”? Aren’t the models doing equal work? This question gets at a generally ignored but central issue: What constitutes equal work, anyway?
Models don’t get paid because they’re capable of posing, wearing clothing, standing under hot lights or parading down runways; I could do that. They earn wages because their “work” helps satisfy a market — and the female models command more because their “work” satisfies a bigger market than the men’s work does. This is the same reason NBA players make more than WNBA players and heavyweight boxers generally out-earn lightweights. The “work” isn’t just shooting baskets and throwing punches; it involves succeeding in, respectively, the NBA and heavyweight ranks.
This brings us to another significant point: Is it really true that sex and racial discrimination is always unjust? Consider that a quality integral to doing the women models’ work is being female. If the male models were women, they might be able to do the same “work” and satisfy the market equally. There are many other such examples. As I wrote in 2014:
My local hardware store provides knowledgeable workers, all men, who render valuable advice on products and how to perform various home repairs. If it was determined that people found a female in that role less credible and were then not quite as likely to buy from the establishment, would even a highly competent woman be able to do “equal work” in that capacity?
What about the little West Indian restaurant, with all-black workers, I loved when I spent a few weeks in Tampa? If hiring a white person made the eatery seem less authentic and negatively affected its appeal, would that individual be able to do “equal work”? The same, of course, could be asked about a black person working in a German restaurant. In these cases race would be integral to the “work.”
The reality is that the government has no idea what constitutes “equal work,” yet it feels qualified to mandate equal pay. But while one might not expect bureaucrats to have pondered deeper issues such as the above, simple facts can be easily apprehended. And here’s one: Women in the Obama White House make only 84 cents on every male staffer’s dollar. Is this driven by bad intentions? If not, a desire to ascribe such motives to a wider society exhibiting the same phenomenon just might be driven by bad intentions itself. |
Autumn Crittendon is a married woman–just one month after getting together with the man who is now her husband!
The 16 and Pregnant Season 5 star, who is the mother of four-year-old Drake, got hitched this weekend in a surprise ceremony in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She got into a relationship with her now-husband, Brad Oxley, in April.
The couple sealed their marriage with corresponding “King” and “Queen” finger tattoos (as you do), in addition to a set of wedding rings.
According to photos that Autumn posted on her Facebook page, the wedding took place in a church, and Autumn wore a white wedding gown. Autumn’s son Drake was front-and-center at the ceremony.
Autumn’s episode of “16 and Pregnant” was memorable for several reasons, including because she was pregnant by a man named Dustin Franklin, whose passion for “the weed” was almost as strong as his passion for Autumn and his son. (Who could forget Dustin showing up to Autumn’s hospital room for the birth of his son, with his marijuana leaf blanket in tow?) Fans may also remember that Autumn and Dustin had fondness for camouflage print.
After her episode aired, Autumn and Dustin broke up, but Autumn legally changed her last name to Franklin so that she would have the same last name as her son. It is unknown if Autumn will take her husband’s last name now, though.
To read The Ashley’s recap of Autumn’s episode of “16 and Pregnant,” click here!
Check out some photos from Autumn’s wedding below:
(Photos: Facebook) |
Jordan Brand and Kaws will be collaborating for Spring 2017. While it’s unclear on what exactly they’ll be working on, Kaws himself confirmed that the “Jordan x Kaws” project is indeed happening soon. Previous images that surfaced show us an Air Jordan 4 in various colorways. An Air Jordan 4 featuring black suede, gold and glow in the dark outsoles displaying Kaws’ signature X on the bottom surfaced (Not to be confused with the Royalty IV) is confirmed to be one of them.
Update: Kaws teases a suede hangtag that will be coming on the Air Jordan 4 x Kaws series. Kaws also mentioned that the Air Jordan 4 would be releasing this spring. No other info has been provided but stay tuned with Modern Notoriety for more news on the Air Jordan 4 x Kaws collab. |
Given that the Seahawks won nine-straight home playoff games since 2005 (longest active streak in the NFL), they should have little to worry about when they face the Detroit Lions Saturday night at CenturyLink Field.
The Lions haven’t won a playoff game since 1991 or a postseason road game since 1957. That’s right, 1957.
To try to put that into perspective, take a look at what was going on in the world that year (courtesy of On This Day).
January 3, 1957: The first electric watch is introduced.
February 4, 1957: First electric portable typewriter placed on sale.
March 23, 1957: United States army sells last homing pigeons.
April 7, 1957: Last of New York’s electric trolleys completes its final run.
May 1, 1957: Larry King’s first radio broadcast.
June 3, 1957: Howard Cosell’s first TV show.
July 12, 1957: President Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the first president to fly in a helicopter.
August 9, 1957: 24th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: NY Giants 22, All-Stars 12 (75,000).
September 19, 1957: First underground nuclear explosion at Las Vegas, Nevada.
October 30, 1957: Soviet Union launches Sputnik II, carrying a dog named Laika.
November 16, 1957: Celtic Bill Russell sets NBA record of 49 rebounds in a win over Philadelphia.
December 29, 1957: Detroit Lions beat Cleveland Browns 50-14 in NFL championship game. (Lions were home team in that game, but won on the road against the San Francisco 49ers the previous week).
Good luck, Detroit. You’re going to need it.
Related Why the Seahawks should be worried about the Lions |
I was re-reading some of the recent overshooting debate and it occurred to me that it is comical that we are even having this discussion. The Fed is not going to deliberately overshoot inflation, period. That train left the station long ago. So long ago that you can't even here the rumble on the tracks.
The train left the station on January 25, 2012, with this statement by the Federal Reserve:
The Committee judges that inflation at the rate of 2 percent, as measured by the annual change in the price index for personal consumption expenditures, is most consistent over the longer run with the Federal Reserve's statutory mandate.
On that day, the Federal Reserve locked in the definition of price stability. They locked it in specifically to prevent even the appearance they might deliberately overshoot as a result of extraordinary monetary policy. They locked it in as a commitment device to tie the hands of future policymakers as they would need to justify changing the definition of price stability, presumably a very high bar for any central banker to cross.
On that day, the Federal Reserve took higher inflation expectations off the table. They pulled it from the toolkit. They made clear there is one and only one inflation target for all time. The only tolerable deviations from that target are essentially forecast errors. That's it.
Moreover, I would argue that their behavior has been entirely consistent with maintaining that expectation. Inflation expectations - as measured by TIPS - have been more volatile than prior to the recession, but have cylced around pre-recession levels, or, arguably, a little below:
There is no reason to believe that the Fed has acted to try to sustain inflation expectations beyond those in place prior to the recession. Perhaps thay came close in late-2012, as measured by the five year, five year forward breakevens:
But that was soon met by official pushback. Via Bloomberg:
“Distant inflation expectations from the TIPS market seem to suggest that investors do not completely trust the Fed to deliver on its 2 percent inflation target,” Bullard said today in a speech in Memphis, Tennessee, referring to Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities... ...The five-year, five-year forward break-even rate, which projects the pace of price increases starting in 2017, rose to 2.88 percent on Sept. 14, the day after the FOMC announced a third round of quantitative easing. That was up half a percentage point from July 26. It dropped to 2.77 percent on Oct. 2.
Soon thereafter began the tapering chatter that ultimately culminated in then-Chairman Ben Bernanke's press conference in which he introduced the 7% trigger for asset purchases. The result was a sharp snap-back in real yields:
If the Fed has already proved they can't stomach inflation expectations hovering just below 3% (remember that this is on a CPI basis by which TIPS are calculated, not on a PCE basis that is the Fed's target) for even a few months, they really can't wrap their minds around inflation actually reaching 3% as suggested by Karl Smith:
The Evans Rule was nice, but addressing the overshoot directly would be better. For example, a statement like: “In the committee’s view the appropriate path for the federal funds rate would, in the medium term, allow inflation to rise above 2 per cent, but not above 3 per cent, for a period no less than three months but no greater than one year. Within those parameters the committee will continue to adjust the target for the federal funds rate so as to achieve maximum employment and keep long term inflation expectation well anchored.”
And note that I am being generous by trusting that the Fed's inflation target is actually 2%. David Beckworth suggests it is actually the range of 1% to 2%.
Ultimately, I think Robin Harding correctly identifies the mood at the Fed:
Even Janet Yellen, in her “optimal control” speeches in 2011 and 2012, never argued that the Fed should promise extra inflation in the future. There has never been much support for it on the FOMC and the Fed’s statement of long-run goals would have to be modified to allow for it. At this stage in the game, when the Fed is slowing down its stimulus via asset purchases, it makes little sense to add more stimulus in another way. What remains the case is that Fed doves think there is slack in the labour market and are willing to risk some above target inflation – while targeting 2 per cent – in order to bring joblessness down more rapidly. I think the centre of the committee under Janet Yellen agrees (and their fairly aggressive forward rate path reflects that). In an ideal world, though, the Fed would gracefully stabilise inflation at 2 per cent with no overshoot or undershoot, creating a soft landing as the economy regains full employment.
The Evans rule was never about higher inflation expectations. It only clarified the acceptable range of forecast errors around the 2% target for a given unemployment rate. And note that it is clear that a forecast error in the other direction is also acceptable with below target outcomes in the labor market. That acceptability is evident in the eagerness to end asset purchases and telegraph the first rate hike. Does anyone believe that the Fed would find a 2.5% inflation rate acceptable if unemployment is at 6%? Or would it be cause of worry and hand-wringing among policymakers? The latter, I think. Yes, they are willing to risk some above target inflation, but should it actually emerge, they would act quickly to snuff it out.
Bottom Line: Expect the Fed to manage policy to contain disinflation and deflationary expectations. But overshooting in the sense of raising inflation expectations to lower the real interest rate further? It very much seems like they made clear long ago that wasn't an option. |
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Records in the Northeast: Not only is record-cold weather gripping the Northeast USA, with wind chills as low as 50°F below zero and New York City hitting a new low, but also cold is spreading across Great Britain. The cold is also expected to sweep across Europe by early this week. Spring is nowhere in sight and people are growing weary of winter.
The Daily Mail here reports that temperatures in Scotland fell to as low as -14°C this morning, the lowest recording in Britain in four years. Temperatures expected to fall to -15°C later in the week.
Taipei coldest temperature in 44 years
Unusual cold has also gripped Southeast Asia, especially Taiwan. German Bild here reports of “85 deaths in record cold in East Asia“. The German online daily writes that the temperature fell to just 4°C in the capital city of Taipei Sunday morning. Southeast Asia has been gripped by severe cold over weeks.
Heaviest snowfall in 32 years
According to the weather service it was the lowest reading in 44 years. Bild also reports that over 80,000 visitors were stranded on the southern resort island of Jeju due to the “heaviest snowfall in 32 years“.
9000 domesticated animals freeze in Vietnam
Two weeks ago the Austrian heute.at/news reported here of bitter cold gripping Vietnam, freezing to death some 9000 in total cows, pigs, sheep and horses in what they write as the “roughest cold wave in almost 40 years“.
Also the Austrian online kleinezeitung.at reports that winter has reached its zenith as temperatures dip down to -50°C in Siberia and meters of snow pile up in Japan. |
About This Game
Features
You are in control: build a fleet of Habitats or combine them all into one massive Habitat.
Explore procedurally generated space around the Earth, the Moon, and Mars
Experiment with various space debris such as leftover weaponry and unusual space junk, and hunt for rare pieces of debris to help build and expand your Habitat including a militarized T-Rex Head complete with flame thrower!
Physics based gameplay using weight, thrust, and zero gravity.
Embark on Campaign missions and lead your engineers and citizens to safety.
Get creative in Sandbox Mode. Build and experiment at your leisure.
Hundreds of building blocks for you to create and customize whatever you can think of.
Help humanity thrive in space, with civilian rescue, engineer combat, and even space zombies!
Fight with the elements - manage fires, ice storms, electrical and EMP bursts
Soundtrack by Alexander Brandon (Deus Ex)
Earth is doomed and our only hope is getting a survivable habitat up in space using whatever resources are scattered in orbit. You’re left with debris, junk, and other oddities to use for humanity’s survival. Build, upgrade, and control the Habitats that you create as you see fit. The main Campaign will take you through narrative-driven missions while Sandbox mode will give you a blank slate and pure creative control to build and explore at your leisure.Leading your team of engineers, you will have to build and fly your space stations in a zero gravity setting. Learn to scavenge and thrive with whatever you find floating around in space, or go on the hunt to take what you need from other factions trying to survive. In the event of a threat, get creative and turn your space stations into deadly weapons using pieces of debris you pick up such as rockets, lasers and particle accelerators, to fight with. Crisis is guaranteed; your only chance of survival is to get creative and to be decisive in the face of disaster. |
The mystery priest who seemingly came from nowhere to pray with an accident victim at the scene of a head-on car crash in Missouri has come forward to say that he was only doing the basic job of a priest and most of the credit goes to God, who "took such good care of" the injured woman.
"I have no doubt the Most High answered their prayers and I was part of his answer, but only part," the Rev. Patrick Dowling told ABC News Monday.
First responders had said they were convinced the mystery priest was sent from above.
Dowling, a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City, was the clergyman who showed up when an allegedly drunken driver hit Katie Lentz, of Quincy, Mo., head-on Aug. 4 while traveling on Route 19 near Center, Mo. The accident pinned the 19-year-old in the front seat of her vehicle.
"I was coming from 8:30 a.m. mass and shortly after that I saw this line of cars," Dowling recounted.
Lentz was barely clinging to life and her vital signs were failing fast when she asked rescue crews to pray with her. That's when first responders say a man who looked like a Catholic priest seemed to appear out of nowhere, despite a 2-mile perimeter blocking the scene.
"One of the rescuers said to me, 'We need all the help we can get right now,'" Dowling said.
Dowling had anointing oil with him. He prayed, gave Lentz the anointing of the sick, as well as absolution.
"There was a calmness that, to me, seemed to come over the entire scene," New London Fire Chief Raymond Reed said.
But that's not the only seemingly divine detail. Firefighters say their equipment kept failing until the mystery man appeared.
After Dowling performed his duties, he left the scene. But his sudden disappearance only added to the air of mystery. Dowling wasn't in any of the nearly 70 photos or videos taken near the scene, which left many wondering whether he was an angel from above.
It wasn't long before the entire town and soon the country were searching for this seemingly heavenly hero who was dubbed the "angel priest."
Lentz was eventually airlifted to a local hospital with broken legs and ribs. Dowling had a chance to meet with Lentz Saturday in the intensive care unit.
"I told her I'm the priest who stopped by the site and she started to cry. I don't know why," Dowling said. "I think it was the most disappointing moment of all that I wasn't an angel or something."
While Lentz's savior might have salt and pepper hair instead of a halo, those closest to the teen say they still believe Dowling is an angel among men.
"Let's remember it was the all mighty who loved that little girl so much and took such good care of her," he said.
A native of Ireland, Dowling was ordained a priest for the Jefferson City Diocese in 1982. He serves in the prison ministry, and also ministers to the Spanish-speaking population of the Diocese of Jefferson City, according to the National Catholic Register. |
One month after the Beatles receive the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys, another institution is honoring them: Vans will be releasing its first-ever footwear collaboration with the Fab Four on March 1st. The collection, which contains four pieces, all feature artwork from the Yellow Submarine album and film and retail between $65 and $75.
The most expensive of the bunch, the Sk8-Hi Reissue, features stylized portraits of all four Beatles running up the ankles apropos to cartoon portraits of each as they were animated for the film. The other shoes each feature psychedelic tableaus from the film. The Classic Slip-Ons play off the movie's Sea of Monsters, showing trippy marine life swimming in an ocean of pink. The Era shoes depict all four band members, some wearing rainbow pants, hanging out in a yellow garden. And the final pair, a model called Authentic, is adorned with a pattern that reads "Allyouneedislove" running over and over again and into itself in purple, yellow and green.
Where Does 'Yellow Submarine' Rank Among the 100 Greatest Beatles Songs?
The Beatles and their families have much to celebrate this year, as it marks the 50th anniversary of their arrival in America. In addition to being the subjects of a Rolling Stone cover story that recounted that legendary moment this year, the band's living members have announced separate performances at the Grammys. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will both perform at awards ceremony on Sunday. Starr was also recently honored by the David Lynch Foundation with an all-star tribute concert.
On February 9th, the Beatles will be the subject of a two-hour CBS special that will commemorate their arrival in the United States. The members of the synth-pop duo the Eurythmics will reunite for the broadcast, which will feature duets by Alicia Keys and John Legend, John Mayer and Keith Urban as well as a performance by Maroon 5.
Starr recently told Rolling Stone about the experience of playing in America for the first time on The Ed Sullivan Show. "We were playing that 70 million people were watching, but it was being in America that was so exciting," he said. "All the music we loved was in America; it came from America to England. . . . I could feel the buzz, even on the plane, it was so exciting."
Related
This article originally appeared on Rolling Stone: The Beatles Team With Vans for 'Yellow Submarine' Shoes |
In the United States marijuana is considered a highly addictive illicit drug. If you are caught possessing such drug, depending on the quantity, you will be given a permanent record with a felony and possibly finding yourself a new roommate in a much smaller room. Marijuana is unlike other drugs because it is a naturally occurring plant that some people have illegally manipulated to carry higher levels of tetra hydrochloride (THC), which gives the user the ‘high’ feeling.
Marijuana hurts everyone around the user. Those under the influence may become very lazy and unlike their drunken buddies they may not want to be included in destructive behavior. It is also typical, because of the lack of motivation, that they do not want to drive; when a drunk person is driving usually they will speed and swerve between lanes without warning. Drivers, who are high, prefer to have high-speed endeavors at fifteen to twenty mph. This style of driving is much more dangerous because people may not be ready for the overly cautious driving.
Because marijuana is illegal, the underground trade network that has been established produces no money for the government like alcohol or tobacco. The only money the government gets is when it searches a possible drug dealer’s house. The best part for the government is the cost it takes to enforce laws about marijuana. This usually much greater than the money recovered could ever add up to. If marijuana was sold in stores like alcohol and tobacco, the government could establish a tax on it that could help repay some of the billions of debt our country has established, not to mention Law enforcement could also concentrate on crimes that don’t involve only one person like murders and rape.
Another reason marijuana is illegal is because unlike alcohol, which is legal, if you use too much, you won’t suffer from poisoning and you don’t run the risk of dying. When a marijuana addict uses too much pot, they suffer with severe hunger and become very lethargic. However, when a person consumes alcohol they tend to ride a rollercoaster of energy. The first few drinks a person ingests tend to relax them, the next round gets them a little more obnoxious by becoming louder and wanting to be more active. The drinker soon becomes uncontrollable, often become excessively rowdy, even being unable to walk and talk logically. Finally, if the person consumes even more alcohol they may pass out from alcohol poisoning, which left untreated can become blinding or fatal. Logically marijuana, ‘the harder drug ‘is illegal.
Tobacco, which is legal is generally not grown organically and contains lots of harmful chemicals. When smoked carbon monoxide is inhaled. Marijuana is usually organically grown but still contains a lot of the same chemicals that tobacco has. Tobacco has always been legal in the United States and has very high taxes on the products that help support government’s funding. Because marijuana is illegal, it complicates the process the government would have to go through to apply a considerably large tax on it. Because the trade of marijuana is done with any and all avoidance of Law enforcement, the government knows no one would claim and profits they may have made from selling illegal substances.
There would be no beneficial effects on the community like alcohol and tobacco bring. Not to mention all the extra paperwork the government would have to do and the cut down on the percent of the population that would remain incarcerated. For all these reasons it is extremely logical why marijuana remains illegal. |
Source: TV3
JOURNALIST DONAL MACINTYRE has revealed how he and his crew were threatened and had an expensive camera destroyed when they tried to film in Dublin’s Sheriff Street area recently.
The presenter is fronting a series of documentaries examining crime and related social issues in various Irish urban areas. The first episode, broadcast on Monday of this week, focused on Limerick, while Cork will also feature in a future ‘Breaking Crime’ installment.
The attack happened on what was “a sleepy Bank Holiday morning” at around 11am, McIntyre told TheJournal.ie.
“I’ve been shot at so in the context of serious crime it’s not a big issue,” he said.
He added that while he’s never had to seek police protection filming anywhere else in the world “after we were attacked in Sheriff Street we couldn’t really film down there without contacting the local Gardaí”.
The crew were verbally abused and threatened by a group aged from their teens to mid-20s. The camera was badly damaged after the angry mob poured cans of soft drink over it.
“You’d have thought a lot of the serious criminals would have been in bed even at that stage,” MacIntyre said.
Out they came. We were abused. We were threatened and our camera was destroyed.
Source: TV3
MacIntyre and his crew observed open drug dealing during their time in the area — which saw a bloody feud break out eight years ago, and a series of fatal shootings.
Community workers, reformed criminals and senior police officers are all interviewed as part of the Sheriff Street documentary, which airs next Monday at 9pm.
“To my mind, to see open drug dealing there is an offence to the Irish taxpayer. It’s an offence to anyone who’s put money in on those streets.”
It shouldn’t happen, it should’ve been stopped a decade ago, it should’ve been stopped five years ago, it should’ve been stopped five weeks ago, and today, raid after raid, it’s still going on and it’s unacceptable.
Source: TV3 |
West Virginians Down to Last Mountain – Yet Wind Income Would be 50 Times More
November 20th, 2010 by Susan Kraemer
Desperate local residents of Coal River Valley banded together and formed the Coal River Mountain Wind Project. They financed an independent study to compare the economics of a wind project instead. What they found is truly staggering.
Their study found that one typical sized 392 MW wind farm on Coal River Mountain would provide provide 80-90 permanent jobs for the community and pay the county a staggering $1.7 million in revenue every year. The site is rated as a prime wind power resource – at least if the mountain remains.
By contrast, continued mountaintop removal would provide the county with only $36,000 in annual revenue—and only for 17 years, till it runs out… Read more… |
Shirley Jane Temple Black, 1928-2014
One of Hollywood's most precious stars has fallen.
Shirley Temple, the curly-haired and dimpled girl who taught us all how to eat animal crackers in our soup, has died at age 85.
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Though Temple's last film role was over 60 years ago, and she last made a television guest appearance in The Red Skelton Hour in 1963, she was nonetheless a beloved child star who defined her generation and inspired those to come.
Her family released a statement Tuesday morning that the actress and diplomat passed away from natural causes in her Woodside, California, home late Monday evening.
"We salute her for a life of remarkable achievements as an actor, as a diplomat, and most importantly as our beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and adored wife for 55 years of the late and much missed Charles Alden Black," the statement read.
Temple began her career in the 1930s and had a successful run for about two decades. In one of her first major starring roles, Temple played the wise-beyond-her-years Marky Jane in Little Miss Marker in 1934 opposite Adolphe Menjou. She was only six years young.
In the years -- and films -- to come, arguably one of her most memorable film roles was Curly Top in 1935.
Her ambitious nature and glowing smile lent itself perfectly for success in Hollywood, especially during a time when the nation was grieving the Great Depression.
"People in the Depression wanted something to cheer them up, and they fell in love with a dog, Rin Tin Tin, and a little girl," said Temple.
Once her ringlets grew and her dimples were less pronounced, audiences were less captivated by a young adult Temple. Retiring from the movie-making business at only 22-years-old and entering into a second marriage, she decided to lend her talents in a business that could use her sunny disposition: politics.
According to the New York Times, Temple was appointed a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in 1969 by President Nixon, and "she went on to win wide respect as the United States ambassador to Ghana from 1974 to 1976, was President Gerald R. Ford's chief of protocol in 1976 and 1977, and became President George H. W. Bush's ambassador to Czechoslovakia in 1989, serving there during the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe."
Temple once recalled how she wondered why people were screaming her name and why she was famous, "I asked my mother and she said, 'Because your films make them happy.'" They will surely continue to do so in the wake of her passing for years to come.
Shirley Jane Temple Black was born April 23, 1928 and died of natural causes on February 10, 2014. She is succeeded by her three children and her many grandchildren.
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University Grants Commission has created ripples across the higher education sector in India, as they have prohibited some of the most reputed, and popular institutions from using ‘University’ tag in their names.
These institutions were deemed varsities, and the term University was used rampantly, giving an impression that they are approved Universities.
In their defence, UGC is simply following Supreme Court’s orders regarding this issue; but from the point of view of the students, this development sounds like catastrophe.
In a related news, UGC has decided to discredit engineering degrees issued by 4 such deemed varsities, between 2001 and 2005.
123 Deemed Varsities Cannot Use ‘University’ Tag – UGC
The power and influence of institutions such as IISc, Lingaya’s University, Indian Institute Of Science (IISc), Sikkim Manipal, NITTE, Bharati Vidyapeeth, Symbiosis, Vellore Institute of Technology.
However, from now on, they won’t be able to use the term ‘University’ in their tagname, until further notice from UGC.
A total of 123 deemed varsities would be directly affected by this major decision.
UGC has sent a letter to all these 123 Universities, with the subject line: “UGC Letter to Deemed to be Universities regd. Use of the word ‘University’ by Institutions Deemed to be Universities-Directions issued by Hon’ble Supreme Court.”
In the letter, UGC can referenced Supreme Court’s November 3rd ruling, which states that deemed Universities cannot grant Engineering degrees in India.
The letters states:
“The Hon’ble Supreme Court vide orders dates 03.11.2017 under para 51 and 53 (XII) observed and directed as under- Para 51- “we must also put on record what we have observed during the course of the hearing and consideration of the present matters. It has come to the notice that many institutions which are conferred the status of Deemed to be university are using the word “University”, which in our view is opposed to the spirit of Section 23of the UGC Act. The UGC shall take appropriate steps to to such practice.”
As per the letter, strict action would be taken under UGC (institutions deemed-to-be-universities) Regulations, 2016; against those which fail to comply with this new direction.
Interestingly, these 123 institutions can use the word ‘Deemed to be University’ within parenthesis in near future.
As per UGC secretary P K Thakur, these 123 Universities can approach HRD Ministry for more clarifications, and for suggesting another term which can be used.
Here is the list of all 123 deemed Universities, which are now prohibited from using University tag:
Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management (GITAM), Visakhapatnam Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, Guntur Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, Tirupati Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Anantapur Vignan’s Foundation for Science, Technology and Research, Guntur North Eastern Regional Institute of Science & Technology Nava Nalanda Mahavihara Punjab Engineering College Indian Agricultural Research Institute Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) Indian Law Institute Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) Jamia Hamdard National Museum Institute of History of Art, Conservation and Musicology National University of Educational Planning & Administration Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthana Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapith TERI School of Advanced Studies Gujarat Vidyapith Sumandeep Vidyapeeth Lingaya’s University Maharishi Markandeshwar University Manav Rachna International University National Brain Research Centre National Dairy Research Institute National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship & Management Central Institute of Buddhist Studies Birla Institute of Technology-Mesra B.L.D.E. University Christ University Indian Institute of Science (IISc)-Bangalore International Institute of Information Technology Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeswara University Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research Jain University K.L.E. Academy of Higher Education and Research Manipal Academy of Higher Education NITTE University Sri Devraj Urs Academy of Higher Education and Research Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana Yenepoya University Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology Kerala Kalamandalam Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education Bharati Vidyapeeth Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Fisheries D.Y. Patil Educational Society Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences Deccan College Postgraduate & Research Institute Dr. D.Y. Patil Vidyapeeth Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics Homi Bhabha National Institute Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research Institute of Armament Technology International Institute for Population Sciences Institute of Chemical Technology Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences MGM Institute of Health Sciences Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies Padmashree Dr. D.Y. Patl Vidyapeeth Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences SYMBIOSIS International University Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Tata Institute of Social Sciences Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth Kalinga Insitute of Industrial Technology Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences Shiksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology (SLIET) Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth Banasthali Vidyapith Birla Institute of Technology & Science Institute of Advanced Studies in Education I.I.S. (Deemed to be University) Jain Vishva Bharati Institute Janardan Rai Nagar Rajasthan Vidyapeeth LNM Institute of Information Technology Academy of Maritime Education and Training Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science & Higher Education for Women Bharath Institute of Higher Education & Research B.S. Abdur Rahman Institute of Science & Technology Chennai Mathematical Institute Chettinad Academy of Research and Education (CARE) Gandhigram Rural Institute Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science (HITS) Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Higher Education Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences Karpagam Academy of Higher Education M.G.R. Educational and Research Institute Meenakshi Academy of Higher Education and Research Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education, Periyar Maniammai Institute of Science & Technology (PMIST) Ponnaiyah Ramajayam Institute of Science & Technology (PRIST), S.R.M Institute of Science and Technology Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy (SASTRA) Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Vishwa Mahavidyalaya Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute St. Peter’s Institute of Higher Education and Research Vel’s Institute of Science, Technology & Advanced Studies (VISTAS) Vellore Institute of Technology Vinayaka Mission’s Research Foundation Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr. Sagunthala R & D Institute of Science and International Institute of Information Technology, ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology & Sciences Bhatkhande Music Institute Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies Dayalbagh Educational Institute Indian Veterinary Research Institute Jaypee Institute of Information Technology Nehru Gram Bharati Vishwavidyalaya Shobit Institute of Engineering & Technology Santosh University Forest Research Institute Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya Graphic Era University Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute
Source
Engineering Degrees Will Be Cancelled
Meanwhile, after Supreme Court’s November 3rd order, under which deemed varsities cannot grant engineering degrees, engineering degrees provided by JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth, Institute of Advanced Studies in Education in Rajasthan, Allahabad Agricultural Institute and Vinayaka Mission Research Foundation, Tamil Nadu, between 2011 and 2015 has been terminated.
While students from these 4 institutions between 2001-2005 would be required to give a test to prove their capability; students who opted to join these institutions after 2005 would be invalid engineers.
Besides, Govt. has also initiated a CBI enquiry as to how these colleges were able to give engineering degrees, and why UGC didn’t intervene before.
We will keep you updated as more information comes in. |
Image caption The Scottish jobless rate now stands at 8.1%, which is below the UK average
Unemployment in Scotland fell by 12,000 to 219,000 in the three months to February, according to new official figures.
The Scottish jobless rate now stands at 8.1%, below the UK average of 8.3%.
The number of unemployed is still 4,000 higher than a year ago.
Office for National Statistics (ONS) data also showed employment in Scotland increased by 17,000 over the period, with the number of those in work at 2,484,000.
The number of people claiming Job Seeker's Allowance rose by 900 from February to reach 143,800 in March.
That figure was 5,100 higher than March 2011.
The unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds in Scotland was 94,000, or 22.9% for the three months to February.
Analysis Winter wasn't as bad as all that. There were many grim figures through the dark months, but now we learn the jobs market was picking up. It's not just that the unemployment figures were improving, but also that job creation looked more robust. Underlying it, however, there remain concerns about gradually rising female and long-term unemployment, as well as a big rise in part-time work because people can't find full-time jobs. For the Scottish economy, it's worth noting that unemployment rose by 4,000 over the year, while in England it was up by 165,000. Those in work increased by 6,000, while for England, it was down by 94,000. And it's a relief that the contraction in the economy in the fourth quarter of last year wasn't as had been feared, or as bad as the UK as a whole. While growth stalled in other sectors, it was only put into negative territory by construction.
The youth employment rate was 52.5%, 3.5% higher than the UK figure of 49%.
At 66.6%, the rate of female employment in Scotland was higher than the UK as a whole
Scottish Secretary Michael Moore said the figures were welcome news.
He said: "We can be hopeful this is a sign that the Scottish labour market is stabilising, but there is clearly still a big challenge ahead to bring down unemployment and get more people back into jobs.
"We still have a lot of work to do and there is absolutely no room for complacency."
He added: "While these are challenging times for the economy, the UK government is doing all it can to create the right conditions for businesses to create long-lasting jobs."
First Minister Alex Salmond said: "This is the biggest fall in unemployment in Scotland for over a year, and Scotland now has lower unemployment, higher employment, and lower economic inactivity than the UK as a whole."
Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont welcomed an improvement in the jobs figures but sounded a note of caution about Scotland's economic recovery.
She pointed to the 0.1% fall in Scottish GDP in the final three months of last year as one cause for concern.
Ms Lamont said: "While we are pleased that the jobs figures have increased, it is clear that Scotland still has a long way to go before the tide has turned.
"The fact that the Scottish economy slipped back in the last quarter is evidence we are not out of the woods yet."
The Scottish Chambers of Commerce said the figures represented "a significant fall" in unemployment and brought Scotland's jobless rate back below the UK average.
Youth unemployment
Chief executive Liz Cameron said: "We believe that tackling high levels of youth unemployment remains a priority and Scottish Chambers of Commerce have been active in progressing our plans with the Scottish government and others to focus on graduate unemployment, ensuring that Scotland does not lose out on the wealth of untapped talent our young people possess."
The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) said the latest figures were both welcome and surprising but warned the overall picture was much more complex.
General Secretary Grahame Smith said: "Rapidly rising unemployment amongst women in Scotland continues to be a major concern.
"Long-term youth claimant count unemployment also continues to rise and if Scotland is following the UK trend, we can also anticipate that most of the new jobs being created are part-time or self-employment.
"The increase in involuntary part-time employment continues to be the great hidden story of the labour market post-recession". |
Continuing his regular mockery of the president, “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert ended his Friday night monologue by paying tribute to all the Stephens/Steves of the world who, as he suggested, are suffering for sharing the same name as key aides to President Trump.
“There are so many Stephens in the Trump administration. It’s a rough time for the Stephen community,” Colbert said, noting the obvious, of course — that he, too, shares the name. “So tonight, I stand up for Steves, because we, Steves, are your neighbors. We’re your mailmen. We are your brothers-in-law.”
Steves “might represent the lesser Baldwins,” Colbert said, but “we’re proud.”
“When you want to read about a demon who kills New England children, do you pick up a book by Bernie King? No. You go to Stephen King every time. Stephens invented the Stone Cold Stunner,” Colbert said, referring to professional wrestler Steve Austin’s signature move.
Colbert made special mention of Stephen A. Feinberg, a New York billionaire who might be in line to lead a broad review of U.S. intelligence agencies. The president has repeatedly and publicly assailed those agencies for leaking information to the news media. During a news conference Thursday, Trump downplayed the possibility of Feinberg launching a review of the country’s intelligence agencies and said the move might not be necessary once his team is in place, The Washington Post’s John Wagner and Renae Merle reported.
[Stephen Colbert’s anti-Trump experiment is starting to work]
Feinberg, a longtime friend of Trump and co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management, “offered his services,” the president said, but he also added he doesn’t think his administration will need them.
Colbert said the other controversial Stephens or Steves in the Trump administration, obviously, are Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s chief strategist and former executive chairman of Breitbart News; Steve Mnuchin, who ran a bank that foreclosed on tens of thousands of Americans and is now the treasury secretary; and Stephen Miller, Trump’s senior policy adviser who wrote the executive order on the president’s travel ban and spouted falsehoods about alleged voter fraud.
“I’m looking forward to a Doris Kearns Goodwin book about the administration, ‘Team of Steves,'” Colbert said.
Colbert devoted the first part of his monologue with highlights of Trump’s tumultuous past week.
“The president has hit a bit of a rough patch,” Colbert said, starting with the news of the resignation of Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, over revelations that Flynn discussed Obama administration sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before the inauguration and later mischaracterized those communications with Vice President Pence and others.
The Post’s Sari Horwitz and Adam Entous reported that Flynn, before his resignation, denied to FBI agents that he had discussed the sanctions with the Russian ambassador.
[‘Words fail me’: Colbert and other late-night hosts skewer Trump’s news conference]
“Now, it turns out, lying to the FBI is a felony,” Colbert said. “Flynn’s silver lining here, any decision to prosecute would fall to Trump’s Justice Department.”
Colbert also spent a few minutes talking about Trump’s campaign rally Saturday, just a month into his presidency.
“Is it election time already? Again? I know it does feel like he’s been in office for four years, but that does seem fast. Here’s why Trump’s doing it. Trump can’t enjoy being president because the buzzkills in our intelligence agencies keep leaking that Vladimir Putin might be the real president.”
Former Daily Show host Stephen Colbert weighed in on the presidency of Donald Trump during an interview with CBS News' Face the Nation on Dec. 25, 2016. (Reuters)
Colbert’s regular lampooning of Trump and his administration seem to have paid off, The Post’s Callum Borchers said.
Borchers said Wednesday:
Stephen Colbert dropped the “L” word (lie) and the “F” word (you know) on the Trump White House on Monday night. It was the late-night comedian’s latest blast of politically charged commentary — primarily directed at the 45th president. And it was the kind of performance that just a short time ago seemed to risk alienating large numbers of potential viewers but now appears to be making the “Late Show” host a very big draw.
Earlier this month, Colbert beat rival Jimmy Fallon in total viewership for the first time since he replaced David Letterman in 2015.
READ MORE:
Stephen Colbert taunts Trump with a picture of a little girl posing as the president
Colbert show to air live after Trump’s address to Congress
Jake Tapper to Stephen Colbert: ‘The job is to not be liked’ |
Despite Sony renaming film ‘Super Power Dare-to-Die Team’ for China, censorship laws prohibiting promotion of cults and superstitions look set to scupper its chances of release
Ghostbusters is unlikely to be let loose in China due to its supernatural themes, according to Variety.
Paul Feig’s reboot stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon as the spectre-smashing quartet. It has not yet been screened for Chinese censors, but Variety’s source suggests it is likely to be snared by rules banning films that prohibit the promotion of “cults and superstitions”. Studio Sony have attempted to sway the censors by renaming the film. If it were released in China it would be called “Super Power Dare-to-Die Team”.
Under China’s censorship laws any films suggesting the existence of the supernatural can be banned from distribution. Exceptions are made for ghost stories based on Chinese mythology or films in which the supernatural is explained by a realistic rationale (eg drug use or dream sequence). Among the films that have fallen foul of the ruling in the past is Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Crimson Peak, Guillermo del Toro’s gothic horror starring Tom Hiddleston.
Ghostbusters review: call off the trolls – Paul Feig's female reboot is a blast Read more
China runs a quota on the number of American films allowed into the country, yet Chinese audiences have often offered a lifeline for US productions that struggled at home. Warcraft, Duncan Jones’s adaptation of the popular video game, bombed in the US, but dominated the Chinese box office chart last month. Known locally as “World of Magic Beasts”, it made more than half of its $430.1 m revenue in China.
Feig’s comedy is expected to face a tough time at the US box office this week, with analysts expecting it to take a maximum of $50m (from a reported $144m budget) in its opening weekend. The film, which has received generally good reviews, has been hit by a wave of criticism from those who are annoyed at the idea of female Ghostbusters.
Sony has so far not commented, though Deadline reports a source has said the film has not yet been officially submitted to China Film Group, the state-owned organisation that operates imported films. |
The billionaire and presumed Republican presidential nominee said that his support for the UK leaving the EU was a personal belief, not a ‘recommendation’
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has come out in support of Brexit, saying the UK would be “better off” outside of the European Union and lamenting the consequences of migration in the continent.
The billionaire, who secured the backing of Republican voters on a staunchly anti-immigration platform, said that his support for the UK leaving the EU was a personal belief and not a “recommendation”.
“I think the migration has been a horrible thing for Europe,” Trump told Fox News late on Thursday. “A lot of that was pushed by the EU. I would say that they’re better off without it, personally, but I’m not making that as a recommendation. Just my feeling.”
“I know Great Britain very well,” Trump continued. “I know, you know, the country very well. I have a lot of investments there. I would say that they’re better off without it. But I want them to make their own decision.”
The Republican frontrunner, who benefited this week from his last two rivals dropping out of the race, had previously resisted commenting on whether Britain should vote to leave the EU in its referendum next month.
Earlier this week, Trump criticized Barack Obama for coming out against Brexit, telling the Daily Mail the current incumbent of the White House should be “more neutral” on the subject.
“I didn’t think it was a good thing for him to do it,” he said at the time. “I would say that I’m not going to give Britain any advice, but I know there are a lot of people that are very, very much against being in the EU.”
In March, Trump said he suspected Britain may leave the EU because “they’re having a lot of problems” but stressed he did not want to intervene.
“I don’t want to make a comment about the UK leaving but I think they may leave based on – I’m there a lot, I have a lot of investments in the UK, and I will tell you that I think they may leave based on everything I’m hearing,” he said at the time. |
The Winchester brothers have been fighting off evil since before they could walk or talk — just ask Sam, who met his first demon when he was six months old. But when Supernatural returns for season 11, there’s a new kind of monster in town: the Darkness, which enveloped the brothers at the end of season 10.
From what we know of the Darkness, it’s a prebiblical entity that will appear to the brothers in the form of one person, and more than likely, that person will be a woman. We also know that the “prebiblical” element of the Darkness could lead the boys to need God’s help.
For everything else, we asked what you all wanted to know, and then took your questions right to stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. Here’s what they had to say about what lies ahead (or beneath or whatever):
What will the dynamic of their relationship be like this season? —@kitty_kat2015
JENSEN ACKLES: Once again we find Sam and Dean in the threshold of some earth-shattering, catastrophic, apocalyptic event. This is a story that predates the bibical Revelations, so it’s something they have never dealt with. What that does as far as the dynamic goes is it puts them back in the car on the same team together, having one target and being unified in that mission.
JARED PADALECKI: I think a lot of the fandom is going to be happy to learn that we’re finally accepting the fact that we’re stronger together than apart. And this far into the season, they’re certainly acting on that and I like it, personally. I am a brother and I have a big brother and Jensen is a brother, so I like the dynamic and I like the story that we’re able to tell with the brothers working together.
Does this season remind you of any past seasons? —@TVDSweetness
ACKLES: It’s a bit of a throwback to maybe season 1 or season 2, when the brothers were fighting less with each other and fighting more for humanity as a team. Because over the years there’s been a flip-flop of Sam being afflicted and Dean doing everything he can to save his brother, and then the next year, Dean makes some terrible choice like the Mark of Cain and then it’s Sam trying to do everything he can to save his brother. We’ve done that now. The brothers have been saved; the Mark is gone. And now they’ve kind of unleashed this unknown entity and they’ve got to team up and pool their resources and figure out how they’re going to deal with it.
PADALECKI: It feels season 4-ish, where we’re fighting against something that’s so much bigger than we are. The boys are always fighting against something so grand and something so beyond themselves that I guess it has a little bit of a lot of seasons, but maybe even season 5. It’s the boys realizing that they can’t do this on their own, and they’re going to have to reach out to get all the help they can get.
Will Dean be bonded somehow with the Darkness since he was the bearer of the Mark? —@AcklesUniverse
ACKLES: Because of the time that he spent with the Mark, there is certainly an imprint left on Dean. It certainly pulls on some sort of strings inside him that he doesn’t understand why. He’s not necessarily drawn to it or affected by it but there’s something that resonates with Dean regarding the Mark because he was afflicted with it for so long that it did leave an impression on him. So now there is that kind of connection that only he can have and he can understand, so that is going to be something that he’s going to find himself faced with and struggle with.
WATCH: EW’s Sam Highfill on the potential of a shirtless car-wash scene on Supernatural
Also, he killed Death in the finale. What consequences this will bring to him? —@JustJensenDean
ACKLES: Maybe not specifically for Dean but there’s a consequence in general for Death being slain. What does that mean for all the reapers? And what does that mean for that part of the equation? And how is that going to rear its ugly head, which you know it will. So I think it’s less of a bounty on Dean’s head and more of a, “Well you just screwed up the whole natural order of things and things are going to go pretty haywire.”
How will Sam’s visions play into this season? —@kristyl_
PADALECKI: Sam and Dean are both struggling with the idea that they don’t always know what’s real and what’s not and they’re both having visions of sorts, or they both think they’re having visions. And Sam’s natural instinct is to back away from it at first because it takes him back to a deep dark place and he doesn’t know what they’re for. I say this with an asterisk because it is supernatural, but Sam’s pretty grounded, pretty rooted in the reality of the situation and he tries to go about it in a scholastic way. When these visions start, he’s less concerned with what’s happening in the visions and more concerned with why he’s getting them and who’s sending them to him. We’ll see Sam doing something we’ve never really seen him do — pray. He doesn’t know who he’s praying to but just asking for some help because he realizes it’s beyond him and it’s beyond Dean.
I want to know what will happen with Rowena and the Book of the Damned? Will the book be important for the mythology? —@AcklesLogic
PADALECKI: I think so and I hope so. Rowena’s out in the wind and she certainly doesn’t want to be found and the boys are hitting a bunch of dead ends. Although Sam’s kind of the researcher, there’s not really a lot written about the Darkness, so we have to reverse engineer the situation and we are unfortunately going to have to either ask for help from our enemies or beat some help out of our enemies. We’ll see which category Rowena falls into but we do love Ruth [Connell] over here and I’m excited to have her back whenever she gets to come back.
I’m hoping for some lighter, fun episodes this season. Will we see any? —@SPN_Sherry
ACKLES: Oh yeah, after all it is a show that really made its mark at how we balanced the dark episodes with the light episodes and everything in between. I think that juxtaposition has always been a signature of ours. Even though the last couple of seasons have been pretty heavy and pretty dramatic, I think now that we’ve got the brothers back in the saddle so to speak, it is going to lend itself to some more of those moments. In fact, I foresee a lot of T-shirt and bumper sticker sayings [about episode 4].
PADALECKI: I’ll give you a hint: I am on my way to shoot a car-wash scene.
Supernatural returns Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 9 p.m. on The CW.
To continue reading more about EW’s Fall TV Preview, pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on newsstands now, or buy it here.
RELATED VIDEO: Misha Collins on the Darkness — the next big bad on ‘Supernatural’
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•Jared Padalecki talks God in Supernatural season 11: ‘We may have to invite him along for the ride’
•Jensen Ackles talks the Darkness in Supernatural: ‘We don’t know the scope of her powers’ •#50Scoops50Days: Keep up with the latest in fall TV news
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WANT MORE EW? Subscribe now to keep up with the latest in movies, television and music. |
The president’s sons are in town to open the new venture, but many residents of a city that prides itself on diversity are making their dissent known
Vancouver is bracing for protests as the Trump family prepares to launch its latest venture in Canada amid a growing backlash from local residents.
The US president’s sons, Donald Jr and Eric, will attend the launch on Tuesday of the Trump International Hotel and Tower, a C$360m ($273m) development where one-bedroom apartments start at around C$1m and hotel rooms go for at least C$300 a night.
But the addition of the Trump name to the skyline of a city where nearly half the population is foreign born has prompted widespread anger. For many, the name conjures up the president’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, vows to temporarily ban Muslims from the country and reversal on transgender rights.
“We want to push back against this emboldening of hatred and misogyny and xenophobia and racism,” said Mathew Kagis, one of the organisers behind the Trump Welcome Party, a day-long protest being planned outside the gleaming, twisting tower on Tuesday. “Those aren’t values that we have and we want it to be made really clear.”
Canada PM Trudeau pressured to tackle influx of asylum seekers over US border Read more
Trump’s election has already had ripple effects north of the border, said Kagis. Flyers endorsing white supremacy and railing against the LGBTQ community have peppered metro Vancouver while a growing number of asylum seekers in the US are putting their lives at risk to enter Canada by foot.
“This is really scary stuff so we just felt that there needed to be a really vocal and public pushback,” Kagis said. The protest is one of two anti-Trump rallies being planned.
The tower, designed by the late Canadian architect Arthur Erickson, was first conceived as part of the Ritz-Carlton brand but cancelled in the wake of the global financial crisis. In 2013 the property developer, Holborn Group, found a new partner for the project. “It’s a beautiful city,” Donald Trump told reporters as he announced the relaunch of the project. “And we’re going to make it more beautiful.”
As Trump worked the campaign trail last summer, Holborn said the building – which at 69 storeys now ranks as one of the city’s tallest – had reached record-setting prices for a new condo project in Canada.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The still-under-construction Trump International Hotel and Tower in Vancouver. One-bedroom apartments start at around C$1m. Photograph: Darryl Dyck/AP
Many, including Kagis, pointed to the city’s overheated housing market, which has helped make Vancouver one of the most expensive places in the world to live. “So in one way the Trump name does kind of fit as it is a symbol of rampant capitalism,” he said. “But in terms of a social perspective, the diversity of this city, the welcoming-ness of this city as an international port, it doesn’t fit at all.”
Vancouver slaps 15% tax on foreign house buyers in effort to cool market Read more
The jarring contrast between the city and the values espoused by the building’s namesake was laid bare in late 2015, after several city councillors launched a campaign to have Trump’s name removed from the building.
“It has become a beacon of racism and a temple to intolerance,” said Vancouver city councillor Kerry Jang. “When you think about Vancouver, it’s the most multicultural city in Canada … We have 48% of our population foreign born and we have a history here in Canada of giving everybody a chance.”
Tens of thousands added their names to an online petition while Vancouver’s mayor and the premier of British Columbia also backed the call. “Trump’s name and brand have no more place on Vancouver’s skyline than his ignorant ideas have in the modern world,” the Vancouver mayor, Gregor Robertson, wrote in a 2015 letter to Holborn.
Last week, developer Joo Kim Tiah – the son of one of Malaysia’s richest men – said he had been torn between addressing the city’s concerns and the legal implications of the agreement signed with the Trump Organization. “I was terrified,” Joo Kim told the Associated Press. “The people who ran the city were not happy with me. I was scared, but I think they understand. They understand that I’m trapped into – not trapped, locked into – an agreement.”
The terms of his licensing deal have not been publicly released.
Jang said he did not think anyone from city of Vancouver would be attending Tuesday’s opening. “I don’t think anyone’s been invited because we made it very clear no one would go,” he said.
The tower’s opening would do little to dampen the ongoing campaign to erase the Trump name from the city skyline, he added. “Vancouver is a very active city,” he said. “We’re Canadian, so we’re very polite but we’re persistent.” |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Anxious investors sought shelter in gold, Treasuries and the yen on Tuesday after reports that Syrian warplanes dropped barrel bombs on rebel-held areas a day after the United States said their use could lead to further U.S. strikes in Syria.
A man looks at an electronic board showing market indices outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, March 2, 2016. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/Files
Also, North Korea state media warned of a nuclear attack on the United States if provoked, as a U.S. Navy strike group moved toward the western Pacific en route to the Korean peninsula.
U.S. stock indexes were down in afternoon trading but still above session lows after the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights report of the bombing, which a Syrian military source denied.
The United States and other countries blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a deadly gas attack last week and U.S. President Donald Trump responded by firing cruise missiles at a Syrian air base while Russian President Vladimir Putin has stood by Moscow’s ally Assad, who denies blame.
“There’s some questions now in the market if Trump’s going to change his policy and work for the ouster of Assad and there’s tensions with the Russians, not to mention North Korea,” said Paul Christopher, head global market strategist for Wells Fargo Investment Institute in St. Louis, Missouri.
On top of political concerns investors also have last Friday’s weak U.S. payroll number weighing on them ahead of the first-quarter GDP report next week, according to Christopher, who says stocks have already priced in the year’s economic growth.
“Investors should get accustomed to uncertainty because of U.S. foreign policy questions and trade questions,” as well as uncertainty over tax reform here, he said. “The market will see good days and bad days and end the year roughly where it is.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was down 22.85 points, or 0.11 percent, to 20,635.17, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 6.02 points, or 0.26 percent, to 2,351.14 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 22.78 points, or 0.39 percent, to 5,858.14.
U.S. Treasury yields were down for a second day as international tensions boosted demand for low-risk assets.
However, yields lifted from earlier lows after soft results from a $20 billion 10-year note supply, part of this week’s $56 billion in coupon-bearing U.S. government bond auctions.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield US10YT=RR was last down 4 basis points at 2.323 percent, while the 30-year bond yield US30YT=RR was at 2.955 percent, 3 basis points lower than late on Monday.
The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was down 0.3 percent. The U.S. dollar JPY= was down 1 percent against the Japanese yen while the euro strengthened against the yen with a 0.1 percent rise. The euro EURJPY= hit an almost five-month low versus the yen earlier in the day.
Gold XAU= last traded up 1.6 percent on the day at almost $1,274.26 an ounce and hit its highest point since November 11. It was on track for its biggest one-day rise since March 15.
Oil reversed course to end the day higher after reports that Saudi Arabia told OPEC officials it wants to continue OPEC cuts for an additional six months.
Global benchmark Brent LCOc1 settled up 0.5 percent at $56.23 a barrel in its seventh straight day of gains. U.S. crude CLc1 settled up for the sixth day in a row with a 0.6 percent rise to $53.40. |
Media playback is not supported on this device Highlights: St Johnstone 0-4 Celtic
Celtic broke their own 100-year-old British record of 62 domestic games without defeat with a convincing win over dogged but toothless St Johnstone.
Brendan Rodgers' side dominated possession before Scott Sinclair side-footed home Stuart Armstrong's low corner just before the half hour.
It was one-way traffic thereafter in Perth and Moussa Dembele fired in from close range with 18 minutes remaining.
Steven Anderson's own goal and Olivier Ntcham's strike completed a famous day.
St Johnstone, who started the day sixth in the table, were the last Scottish team to defeat the Premiership leaders and drew 1-1 in their most recent meeting.
But Tommy Wright's injury-hit side went into this encounter without a goal in a run of five games without a win and against a team who had only conceded six times in their opening 11 league matches this season - their best start to a season since 2003-04.
The Perth side had been unable to muster a win in five meetings with Celtic since that 2016 win at McDiarmid Park, losing four in a row until that August draw in Glasgow, and never looked like denying Rodgers' side another significant milestone.
You get the feeling the weight of history sits fairly comfortably on the shoulders of the Celtic players.
Celtic broke the record established by Willy Maley's 1917 side
After becoming treble-winning invincibles last year, the domestic unbeaten run record was simply another step in their quest to steamroller mercilessly over the rest of Scottish football.
Rodgers was taking no chances though and named the same 11 who had impressed in the midweek Champions League defeat by Bayern Munich.
In stark contrast, they were facing a St Johnstone side who had failed to find the net since the end of September - it was a fixture that screamed away win.
Celtic took control as expected, but despite early waves of attack in the Perthshire sunshine, the home side stood firm.
Dembele and Sinclair linked up well inside the box and looked dangerous, but Celtic were giving the Saints the odd sniff in the form of some central-defensive mix-ups.
Celtic's patience this year has been every bit as deadly as their high press. They push and probe and bide their time, knowing the chances will come.
Armstrong fired in a low corner from the right-hand side and Sinclair was deadly from five yards out, sweeping the ball past goalkeeper Zander Clark to secure the lead.
It was the cue for the travelling support to start their party and, as the fans increased the noise levels, the Celtic players responded and upped the tempo.
Olivier Ntcham scored Celtic's fourth goal in Perth
In the late autumn sunshine, St Johnstone were left chasing shadows.
So it continued into the second half and Aaron Comrie was forced to header off the line and on to the bar from a Dedryck Boyata header.
In the rare St Johnstone forays forward, they lacked belief and conviction and a Celtic back line, which at times looked a little shaky, was rarely threatened.
The new record was in the bag midway through the second half when the green and white machine once again breached the wall of blue.
Armstrong powered down the left-hand side and his cross was delicately clipped in from close range by Dembele.
The celebrations were barely over when Anderson turned the ball into his own net to compound the home side's misery.
It was exhibition stuff for the league leaders after that as they toyed with and tormented St Johnstone with slick one-touch football that was a joy to watch.
When substitute Ntcham drilled in number four at the end of another fabulous passage of play, a century-old record was smashed.
At the end, they took their bow in front of the thousands who had come to watch history. Sixty three and counting. |
Tampa Maoist Collective, Dec 6th 2017:
When we think about the forces that inspired the creation of our collective, we immediately think of our comrades in Parti Communiste Maoïste. The PCM shows us that even in the centers of imperialism, it is right to rebel. Because of our tremendous respect, love, and international solidarity with the PCM, it was with great sadness that we learned of the death of Comrade Pierre. At the age of 81, this comrade never ceased to serve as a shining example of what it means to be a communist. Comrade Pierre took up the mantle of Maoism at the precise moment when the left in imperialist states was defecting in droves to post-modernism, he never apologized for his support of revolution and taught new generations of revolutionaries what it means to serve the people.
Much has been said about the life of Comrade Pierre by our comrades across the world and within the US, to this symphony of honor and respect our collective can only add very little. None of us knew or had met Comrade Pierre, but his example still reached us though a great distance stood between our two organizations. To us, Comrade Pierre is immortal and lives on in the actions of his comrades in France and across the world. With each advance we take, in Fance, the US, India, or Turkey, the memory of Comrade Pierre and all our martyrs marches with us.
To the Parti Communiste Maoïste, we offer your party, its mass organizations, and supporters our love and condolences on a loss that has affected you all so profoundly. The outcry of working people at the death of Comrade Pierre from one continent to another is a tribute to the work not only of that comrade, but of your entire party. The Tampa Maoist Collective sends you all red internationalist solidarity as you carry on the outstanding legacy of your comrade and friend Pierre.
Long live the revolutionary memory of Comrade Pierre!
Long Live the World Proletarian Revolution!
Comrade Pierre, Lal Salaam!
Forward to Communism! |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - So much for the $1 trillion platinum coin idea.
The U.S. Treasury building is seen in Washington, September 29, 2008. REUTERS/Jim Bourg
The U.S. Treasury Department said on Saturday it will not produce platinum coins as a way of generating $1 trillion in revenue and avoiding a battle in Congress over raising the U.S. debt ceiling.
The idea of creating $1 trillion by minting platinum coins has gained some currency among Democrats in recent days as a way of sidestepping congressional Republicans who are threatening to reject a necessary increase in the debt ceiling unless deep spending cuts are made.
The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve, both independent of one another, each concluded this was not a viable option.
“Neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve believes that the law can or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the purpose of avoiding an increase in the debt limit,” said Treasury spokesman Anthony Coley in a statement.
Congress’ refusal in 2011 to raise the debt ceiling unless the White House agreed to large spending cuts brought the United States close to the brink of a debt default and dealt the weak recovery a setback.
Another crisis is brewing as the United States is expected to reach its authorized debt limit of $16.4 trillion in February.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said that with the platinum coin question resolved, the pressure is on congressional Republicans now to act to raise the debt ceiling.
“Congress can pay its bills or they can fail to act and put the nation into default,” he said. “When congressional Republicans played politics with this issue last time, putting us at the edge of default, it was a blow to our economic recovery, causing our nation’s credit rating to be downgraded.”
There was also no change in Obama’s opposition to another possible way to get around Congress that some Democrats support - that of invoking a line in the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Part of the 14th amendment says the validity of the public debt should not be questioned, which some Democrats take to mean that the president can raise the debt ceiling on his own. The White House says it does not believe that approach would stand up legally.
“Congress needs to do its job,” said Carney.
The idea behind the platinum coin was that Treasury would mint a coin or coins from the precious metal and that the value would be placed at $1 trillion.
For the plan to work, the Federal Reserve would have to deposit it in the Treasury account and credit the account $1 trillion that could be used to pay the nation’s bills.
But if the Federal Reserve does not believe that the coin is worth $1 trillion and refuses to buy it, then the plan falls apart.
Some liberals, like New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, had supported the idea and a petition submitted to the White House website had thousands of signatures. This kind of momentum prompted both the Fed and the Obama administration to consider the concept, and they ultimately decided it would not work. |
Starting today, the Star Wars™ Classic Skin Pack will be available for Minecraft only on Xbox One and Xbox 360. Disney, Lucasfilm and Microsoft have teamed up to bring downloadable content packs to Minecraft for Xbox, featuring a collection of 55 skins from Episode IV through Episode VI. Play as your favorite characters from the Galactic Civil War, like the courageous Luke Skywalker, scoundrel Han Solo, or brave and lovable Wicket in this new pack. These may just be the blocks you’re looking for.
Priced at $2.99 USD, the Star Wars Classic Skin Pack includes:
Luke Skywalker, Tatooine
Luke Skywalker, X-wing Pilot
Luke Skywalker, Bespin
Luke Skywalker, Hoth
Luke Skywalker, Dagobah
Luke Skywalker, Endor
Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight
Han Solo, Smuggler
Han Solo, Hoth
Han Solo, Endor
Chewbacca
Princess Leia Organa, Senator
Princess Leia Organa, Yavin 4
Princess Leia Organa, Hoth
Princess Leia Organa, Bespin
Princess Leia, Jabba’s Palace
Princess Leia Organa, Endor
Tusken Raider
Stormtrooper
Darth Vader
Blockade Runner Soldier
C-3PO |
Keller Chryst is livin’ right. He didn’t win Stanford’s starting job in training camp, and that was the best thing that could have happened to the redshirt sophomore.
Edged out by the slightest of margins, Chryst watched as Ryan Burns was sent to face the lions — and to do it without the benefit of having healthy playmakers around him.
Eventually, the offense became so offensive that Burns was pulled in favor of Chryst … just in time for the lions to get replaced on the schedule by house cats.
Here are the national defensive rankings of the seven teams Burns faced:
12 Colorado
17 Washington
32 Kansas State
38 UCLA
49 USC
51 Washington State
54 Notre Dame
Okay, now here are the national defensive rankings of the five teams Chryst will face (presuming he stays in the lineup):
108 Arizona
99 Oregon State
127 Oregon
123 Cal
128 Rice
Oh, and guess who’s healthy: Yep, Chryst’s first start was the first time Bryce Love and Christian McCaffrey have been healthy/full speed at the same time.
Could Burns have directed the offense to 34 points against Arizona under the same circumstances?
Yep.
Did Burns actually play better in his debut (Kansas State) than Chryst did in his debut (Arizona)?
Absolutely.
Is Burns getting a raw deal?
You could make that case.
Will he get another chance?
Probably not, because Stanford will win all/most of the remaining games, and there’s no chance of a QB change during an uptick in success.
Will the level of competition in the closing month give Stanford an accurate evaluation of Chryst’s ability to lead the Cardinal to a division title next season?
That’s a good question.
(Thank you.)
There is no doubting Chryst’s physical talent. He can deliver the ball anywhere on the field and he has more than enough mobility to extend plays. Related Articles College Hotline: Pac-12 football rewind (it’s all about the state of Washington, and Washington State)
But because of the bizarre, bifurcated nature of the schedule … because Chryst will face five weeks of dreadful defenses … it’s entirely possible that Stanford won’t really know what he’s capable of — either good or bad — until the middle of next season.
Result: Won at Arizona 34-10
Grade: B+
Comment: Yes, the running game returned to form and the defense dominated, but the grades, as I’ve noted numerous times, are based on both performance and competition
Arizona is injury-riddled, talent-deficient and winless in conference play. Assign the Cardinal an A-range grade for beating up on a bad team, then what’s left for a victory over a good team.
(Not that Stanford has a chance to record a victory over a good team in November: Oregon State, Oregon, Cal and Rice are a combined 10-22.)
*** Given the topic addressed above, it’s worth noting that I asked David Shaw exactly that question last week after he announced the quarterback change:
With the stark disparity between the defenses Burns faced and the defenses Chryst will face, was he 1) being fair to Burns and 2) getting an accurate read on Chryst.
“I’m not sure how to answer that,” he said.
That’s a perfectly legitimate response on his part. I’m not sure how he should have answered that, either, because coaches don’t … coaches can’t … treat Opponent A any differently than Opponent B.
(They look at the film, compare the reads/throws the QB should have made to those he did make, and go from there.)
But it also seems like a legitimate issue to track as the Cardinal moves through November and even into the offseason.
I’m not suggesting that Chryst can’t become a high-level Pac-12 quarterback. But what he does in this final month won’t prove he can.
Have you seen Oregon and Cal play defense?
*** Now that we’ve addressed the big picture …
How did Chryst perform against Arizona?
The best that can be said about his debut was that he made no major mistakes, no game-altering miscues, that jeopardized Stanford’s prospects for victory. And that’s not nothing.
But he completed less than 50 percent of his passes, threw for just 104 yards, tossed an interception, took four sacks, missed targets downfield and had game-management issues.
In other words: He looked like a first-time starter.
Said Shaw: “He was not going to be Johnny Unitas out there. We know he’s going to continue to grow.”
*** The Cardinal defense has allowed more than 13 points only twice this season, and both occasions came with starting cornerbacks Alijah Holder and Quenton Meeks unable to play.
(Not that Stanford would have beaten the Washington schools with Holder/Meeks healthy.)
Stanford had occasional trouble containing Arizona quarterback Brandon Dawkins when he became a runner, but on the whole, it was a dominant performance.
Solomon Thomas controlled the line of scrimmage (2.5 tackles for loss), the Cardinal held Arizona to just 286 yards, it produced three turnovers and held the Wildcats to three conversions on third down (out of 14 opportunities).
*** Question of the week:
Are the best players in school history at two different positions — Thomas up front and Meeks on the edge — playing together on this defense?
Next up: vs. Oregon State
Matchup: If it’s not over by halftime, it should be over by the end of the third quarter … and if it’s not over by the end of the third quarter, Stanford has major problems.
The Beavers have improve over the course of the past few weeks and have a top-tier tailback in Ryan Nall. But they’re average (at best) on the lines of scrimmage and have major issues at quarterback.
Starter Darell Garretson is out for the year, and backup Conor Blount has been hurt. That left third-stringer Marcus McMaryion to face Washington State last week.
McMaryion threw for 327 yards, but most of his success came early, while WSU was going through the motions. Once the Cougars played with urgency, OSU’s offense came to a stop.
Stanford should have little trouble limiting the Beavers to a touchdown or two while the game is in doubt.
*** The Cardinal is favored by two touchdowns, which should be the point spread for the first half:
In two conference road games, the Beavers have lost by 41 (Colorado) and 24 (Washington).
Look for McCaffrey to bust loose a few times, for Love and the receivers to make big plays, for Chryst to look sharp … for Stanford to dominate in every facet.
This is another early start (12:30). But the Hotline would hazard to guess that if you’re running late and show up two minutes before kickoff, you won’t have trouble getting in the stadium.
*** The Hotline podcast is available on iTunes.
*** Here’s episode 6, recently published, with guest Rick Neuheisel, the former Pac-12 coach and TV analyst. We discussed Colorado’s staying power as a North contender, Oregon’s need to reinvent itself, Washington’s return to powerhouse status, UCLA’s search for an offensive identit ty and much more. |
Benedict Cumberbatch has been named the greatest ever on-screen Sherlock Holmes.
Over 2,000 people voted in a poll for Digital Spy and the current star of BBC One's Sherlock won the title with a whopping 58% of the vote.
BBC
Jeremy Brett, who played the detective in four Granada TV series between 1984 and 1994, was in second place with 18.6% of the vote.
Robert Downey Jr, the star of Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, was placed third, with 15.6%.
The full top five was as follows:
1. Benedict Cumberbatch - 58%
2. Jeremy Brett - 18.6%
3. Robert Downey Jr - 15.6%
4. Basil Rathbone - 5.1%
5. Peter Cushing - 1.1%
Other Sherlocks you favoured who didn't make our shortlist included Michael Caine, who starred opposite Ben Kingsley in 1988 comedy Without A Clue and Douglas Wilmer, who had a non-speaking cameo in last weekend's season finale of Sherlock.
Last but not least, also grabbing a single vote was Basil the Great Mouse Detective, the lead character in the 1986 Walt Disney feature animation!
> 'Sherlock' series three confirmed by Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss
> 'Sherlock' and 'The Reichenbach Fall': How did he fake his own death?
Watch a trailer of Benedict Cumberbatch in BBC One's Sherlock below: |
With two of India's main bowlers coming out of injuries and two of Australia's yet to play a Test in India, this series looks to be a battle of attrition © AFP
Ten seasons ago, with cricket still smarting from the match-fixing blows, India and Australia created magic over three unforgettable Tests. Along with the 2005 Ashes, that series has without doubt been the best Test series in a long, long time. Since then, every arrival of the Australians in India gives Indians an excuse to reminisce about that heady series. It is an indulgence, but the memories of that series alone are enough to create anticipation every time Australia come calling.
Ten seasons later, not much has changed. Match-fixing has changed its name to spot-fixing. Hardly any high-profile series goes by without controversy - look no further than the IPL, India in Sri Lanka, Pakistan in England, or even the ICC Test rankings. Cricket can definitely do with a high-quality Test series free of controversy. The controversies have so far stayed away, but the buzz that an India-Australia series should bring is building only slowly. Having been in Chandigarh for the last week or so, it just doesn't feel like an India-Australia series is around the corner.
The reasons are various. Perhaps what has happened in England has disillusioned some. Perhaps the Champions League Twenty20 kept some involved - not least four first-choice players who landed two days before the start of the series. There is, of course, the small matter of the mess masquerading as the Commonwealth Games that is hogging all sorts of headlines in India. The Ashes are an obvious distraction back in Australia.
For some, India and Australia are playing each other too often - Australia have been here for some series or other for each of the last three years. The cricketing world is already limited, and these two powerful boards' manipulation of schedules to exploit the financial opportunities in the two countries doesn't help much either. More importantly, two Tests hardly a series make. Even earlier this year, the two-Test series against South Africa ended as soon as we had started to smack our lips with India's rousing comeback after South Africa's dominant start.
Most importantly, perhaps, India loves it when a team comes here looking to complete its world supremacy, a sort of final frontier. The phrase rings a bell, doesn't it? Australia are no longer that team, the team to beat. This is the first time since that 2000-01 tour that they have come here as one of the pack. Nathan Hauritz is almost in awe when he talks of the Indian batting. Michael Clarke is talking up Harbhajan Singh, even his batting. Mitchell Johnson ruins the effect of the short-ball threat when, in the same sentence, he says Virender Sehwag can reach 50 by the time you look up at the scoreboard.
Earlier this year, when Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel arrived as arguably the best new-ball pair in the world (well, that was before Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif came together), there was so much anticipation that you wanted India to bat first and get on with the contest between them and Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. That kind of excitement has so far been missing in the build-up to this series.
Like India's recent tour of Sri Lanka, this one promises to be a contest between two heavy-scoring batting line-ups. Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting alone have more than 25,000 Test runs between them, and 87 centuries. Two of India's main bowlers are coming out of injuries, two of Australia's main ones have never played a Test in India before. India's lead spinner has averaged 46 over the last 12 months; Australia's is not expected to run through sides either. A lot about this series is pointing to a battle of attrition.
Perhaps it's not such a bad thing to let the actual cricket benefit from low expectations. Australia may not be the best Test team in the world, but they are still a really good one. Good enough to challenge any team anywhere. They have the advantage of having gathered here early, and having put in more than a week of training. India arrived disjointedly, and have only now started functioning as a unit. If Australia feel their preparations have been disrupted by the Champions League, India's captain was in South Africa too.
Perhaps once the first Test starts on Friday morning, the cynicism will go away. When Johnson bowls the bouncers to Sehwag. When Harbhajan goes at Ponting again. When Doug Bollinger shouts at his captain from the boundary, asking for another spell. When VVS Laxman comes out to face his favourite opponents. When Gambhir and Shane Watson come face to face again. Who knows a new star might be on the horizon? Even in 2000-01, Harbhajan and Matthew Hayden were largely unknowns. Here's to the new rivalries, the new Harbhajans and Haydens.
Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at Cricinfo
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd. |
The snow was days old. It crunched icily as Wilze crawled on his belly towards the ridge line, white against palest blue sky. The temperature was well below zero, but Wilze had long ago forgotten how cold he felt.
There in a cleft between two snow drifts Wilze stopped and brought up his rifle. The next valley curved gently down and then up to some thin woodland on the next slope.
Near the bare trees sat a black angular shape.
“I see it,” said Wilze.
Hu had set up his scope on a block of snow behind. “Roger. Coordinates match. That’s our target.”
“Range 425,” Wilze said, adjusting the scope.
“425, roger.”
“Windage … two.”
“I make two point five.”
“Two point five, aye.”
Wilze sighted the thing. It was big as a house, irregular in shape, as if it were put together from slabs of coal. Despite the winter sun and the snow, it was so dark he almost couldn’t see where its many planes came together.
“That doesn’t look like any downed spy plane I’ve ever seen,” Wilze said.
“Who said it’s a spy plane?” said Hu. “They sent us out here to check it out, not to have opinions.”
“Whatever,” Wilze said. He scanned left, then right, seeing no footsteps in the snow. When he scanned back, it wasn’t there anymore. Wilze raised his head, squinting across the valley.
“It’s gone,” he said.
Hu peered through his scope. “It’s still there,” he said. “Only it just turned transparent.” |
CHICAGO, Ill. (Wednesday, August 14, 2013) – The Chicago Fire Soccer Club announced Wednesday that the club has signed Uruguayan midfielder Arévalo Ríos from Italian side Palermo. Ríos will be added to the Fire’s roster pending receipt of his International Transfer Certificate and P1 Visa and will occupy a Designated Player slot. Per club and league policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Arévalo is a midfielder with a wealth of international experience,” said Fire President of Soccer Operations Javier Leon. “He provides another talented option for our midfield and will help us make the push for the second half of the season.”
Nicknamed El Cacha, Ríos made his professional debut for his hometown Paysandú Bella Vista in 2000 and went on to appear in a total of 35 matches. In 2002 Rios featured for Bella Vista, scoring six goals across 108 appearances before moving to Peñarol in 2006, where he scored six goals in 29 appearances.
The Paysandú, Uruguay native’s career included a stop in Brazil with Botafogo before he joined Tijuana in 2011, where he led the Xolos to the 2012 Liga MX Apertura championship. In July 2012, Rios signed with Italian side Palermo where the right-footed midfielder scored two goals in 27 appearances.
A veteran Uruguayan international who has earned 46 caps for his country, Rios made seven appearances in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, helping Uruguay to a fourth place finish. Named one of the three players over the age of 23-years-old for the 2012 London Olympics, Rios most recently competed in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup where he made three appearances.
The Fire additionally announced Wednesday that the club and forward Sherjill MacDonald have mutually agreed to part ways.
MacDonald signed with the Fire on July 24, 2012 from Belgian club Beerschot AC. The 28-year-old forward scored four goals and tallied five assists in 27 matches for the Men in Red.
Player: Arévalo Ríos
Pronunciation: ah-rey-vah-low ree-yos
Position: Midfielder
Height: 5’6”
Weight: 160 lbs.
Born: January 1, 1982
Place of Birth: Paysandú, Uruguay
Citizenship: Uruguay
How acquired: Signed by the Fire on August 14, 2013 |
Packers' coach Mike McCarthy said Monday that Rodgers would have surgery "in the near future," and that his season could "potentially be over," depending on how quickly he bounces back. In 2013, Rodgers broke his left collarbone and returned after seven games, though that injury was to his left (non-throwing) side, and did not require an operation.
McCarthy's Monday press conference kept alive a controversy about Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr, who administered the drive-you-into-the-ground hit that knocked Rodgers out of the game. McCarthy says Barr's play was "an illegal act," adding: "It was unnecessary... totally unnecessary, in my opinion."
Vikings coach Mike Zimmer (surprise!) takes Barr's side in the argument, saying Monday that Rodgers' injury was just an "unfortunate" outcome from a clean play.
"We're not a dirty football team," Zimmer told reporters. "We'll never be a dirty football team as long as I'm here. We're going to play within the rules and sometimes things happen."
So, now that that controversy's completely unsettled, let's address another: Are Vikings fans assholes? Or what?
It sure seems like they are, if you spent any time on Twitter Sunday. (And how could you not? What, is your account suspended?)
After the Rodgers hit, numerous Twitter accounts, including one belonging to a Wisconsin television journalist, reported that Vikes fans at U.S. Bank Stadium had cheered when Rodgers stayed down after Barr's hit.
If you had the sound off- unfortunately you missed Vikings fans cheering Rodgers getting hurt. https://t.co/Yl3oTneCnq — Brian Baumgartner (@BBBaumgartner) October 15, 2017
Hit on Rodgers was clean. That said Vikings fans celebrating his injury can go fuck themselves. Packers didn't celebrate Teddy getting hurt. — Ｄ Ｏ Ｇ Ｌ Ｏ Ｒ Ｉ Ｏ Ｕ Ｓ (@saveusdog) October 15, 2017
Wow. Lot of classless Vikings fans. Cheers were VERY noticeable when Rodgers down. WTF people? — badgermaniac (@THEbadgermaniac) October 15, 2017
Here's a video clip of the moment in question. As you'll see, Rodgers' pass is dropped by Martellus Bennett, which would bring up a third-and-long situation for Green Bay. For a Vikings fanbase counting on the team's staunch defense, this is a result worth cheering!
The question is whether there was a second wave of cheering as fans realized Rodgers was lying supine on the turf, clutching his right arm. Judge for yourself, but it certainly sounds like an uptick in volume around the 12-second mark of this clip.
That's not nice! Then again, as coach Zimmer pointed out these guys were "playing football," and hitting people is a big part of that. At that early moment, Rodgers' condition was of the murky "shaken-up" variety, which merely means making contact with Anthony Barr does not make one want to leap back to his feet.
What about later, though, as the former Super Bowl MVP was getting carted off the field, bearing the unmistakably sad face of a guy who knows he's not coming back? Here are two clips recorded from the stands near where Rodgers was leaving the field. The evidence is in, Vikings fans, and... it doesn't sound good.
Note that in one clip, one guy says, "Bye, Rodgers," while another inexplicably screams out "Brett Favre! Brett Favre!"
Zimmer, McCarthy, Rodgers, Barr, and fans on both sides can fight all they want about whether this was a good football play or a violation of the rules.
The stuff that came after it is inarguable. Though it may not have been "illegal," Minnesota's dirtiest action on Sunday came after the hit, from up in the stands. |
Home » Music & Audio TRAKK Bluetooth Speaker Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals 2017 Music & AudioSpeakers TRAKK Bluetooth Speaker Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals 2017 82 Views Save Saved Removed 0
TRAKK Speaker Black Friday & Cyber Monday Summary
Get Music on the Move this Black Friday & Cyber Monday with TRAKK Waterproof Bluetooth Speakers
TRAKK specialize in high quality Bluetooth speakers, bags and phone cases designed for durability. TRAKK gear is great for expeditions. Their range of Bluetooth speakers feature durability, being shockproof, waterproof and dustproof. We’ve summarized and compared some of the features below. If there are any TRAKK waterproof Bluetooth speaker Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals for 2017, you might be able to find them above.
TRAKK GO Waterproof Bluetooth speaker Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals 2017
The GO is TRAKK’s entry level adventure speaker, but it still packs a punch! Whether you’re hiking, at the beach or just in the shower, you can take this little speaker with you. What we love about these speakers is that they still deliver great sound quality, whilst being super rugged and tough.
Key Features:
Waterproof & dustproof – The TRAKK GO has a IP67 rating against water and dust, so can withstand waves, jets of water and sand!
The TRAKK GO has a IP67 rating against water and dust, so can withstand waves, jets of water and sand! Shockproof – Rubberized exterior and aluminum grill make this a tough little speaker.
Rubberized exterior and aluminum grill make this a tough little speaker. Advanced Bluetooth connection – Connect from up to 33 feet away.
Connect from up to 33 feet away. Up to 12 hour battery life – Will likely vary with usage.
Will likely vary with usage. Charge up USB devices – Because of the awesome battery life, the GO can also charge other devices from a USB port. Cool huh?
– Because of the awesome battery life, the GO can also charge other devices from a USB port. Cool huh? 20W speaker – Produces immersive sound quality and great bass.
Produces immersive sound quality and great bass. Built in mic – Allows you to make/receive phone calls.
– Allows you to make/receive phone calls. Extras – Handy carabineer clip helps you connect your speaker to bags, tents and more! It also comes with a waterproof bag.
TRAKK ACTIV Waterproof Bluetooth speaker Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals 2017
The ACTIV is TRAKK’s latest offering, and they have really stepped up their game with this one! TRAKK have jacked up a load of the existing features in this model, whilst also introducing some new things. It’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into making this speaker the perfect companion for cyclists & mountain bikers. Read on to find out what’s been changed in the ACTIV.
Key Differences & New Features:
360⁰ surround sound – The ACTIV blasts sound from the centre, so sound isn’t focused in one place.
The ACTIV blasts sound from the centre, so sound isn’t focused in one place. Up to 30 hour playtime – TRAKK really ramped up the battery life in the ACTIV, you can now play music/charge devices for even longer. Again, battery life will likely vary with usage.
TRAKK really ramped up the battery life in the ACTIV, you can now play music/charge devices for even longer. Again, battery life will likely vary with usage. Bike Mount – Along with a D-clip for hanging, it also includes a bike mount and waterproof case so you can attach the speaker to a bike for tunes while you ride!
Along with a D-clip for hanging, it also includes a bike mount and waterproof case so you can attach the speaker to a bike for tunes while you ride! Stronger Bluetooth connection – Stay connected to the ACTIV from up to 100 feet away.
Stay connected to the ACTIV from up to 100 feet away. Remote controller – This awesome new feature allows you to control the music, answer calls and even sound a bell whilst on the trail. It also includes a handy Velcro strap to attach the speaker to the bike.
This awesome new feature allows you to control the music, answer calls and even sound a bell whilst on the trail. It also includes a handy Velcro strap to attach the speaker to the bike. 16W Speaker – The speakers are a tad less powerful in the ACTIV, but this was traded in for more battery life.
The speakers are a tad less powerful in the ACTIV, but this was traded in for more battery life. 2 Colours – Comes in a cool blue or black.
TRAKK MAMBA Waterproof Bluetooth speaker Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals 2017
It’s all about the music in the MAMBA, one of TRAKK’s most powerful speakers. It’s basically an upgraded version of the GO, featuring more power and better bass. This is an awesome speaker, so we are hoping for some good TRAKK Mamba Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals for 2017! But first, here’s what’s new.
Key Differences & New Features:
30W Speaker – More powerful speakers deliver louder volumes in the MAMBA. It also features 4 subwoofers for extra bass.
More powerful speakers deliver louder volumes in the MAMBA. It also features 4 subwoofers for extra bass. Up to 10 hour battery life – That extra power comes at a cost! The MAMBA has slightly reduced battery life compared with the GO. Again, the battery life may vary with your usage.
Summary
TRAKK are making waves by offering an innovative and durable product. If you are looking for a discount, Black Friday could be a good time to get a deal on TRAKK speakers. Cyber Monday might also be promising. We will keep updating this page as Black Friday draws closer if we find any news. For this reason, you should keep checking back for up to date info! |
lingers over claims that DiCaprio was raped by the bear- twice - in the movie opening Christmas day
Viciously mauled by a 'monster' grizzly bear, bloodied and left to die in the wilderness with no weapons or food, Hugh Glass dragged himself across rivers and rough terrain 200 miles to seek vengeance on the two men who abandoned him: it's the amazing true story of the American frontier trapper who inspired Leonardo DiCaprio's latest film.
The brawny and bearded mountain man, an expert marksman and hunter, earned his heroic stature after battling and surviving an attack by a massive female grizzly bear during an expedition – part of the American fur trade -- to the Rocky Mountains in 1823.
His incredible story has become legend, the subject of at least a half-dozen books, including a 2013 biography entitled 'Here Lies Hugh Glass: A Mountain Man, a Bear, and the Rise of the American Nation,' and now a film - The Revenant- starring DiCaprio as Glass that opens Christmas day.
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Fearless: The brawny and bearded Glass, an expert marksman and hunter, earned his herculean stature after battling and surviving an attack by a massive female grizzly bear during an expedition – part of the American fur trade -- to the Rocky Mountains in 1823
Star turn: Glass's incredible story has become legend, the subject of at least a half-dozen books and now a film - The Revenant- starring DiCaprio as Glass that opens Christmas day
Controversy surrounding the film based on a popular novel about Glass, was ignited when the Drudge Report claimed that DiCaprio's Glass was graphically raped by a massive bear twice.
Drudge went on to reveal that the 'bear flips Leo over and thrusts and thrusts during the explicit mauling.'
But the film's studio, Fox, issued a strong denial: 'As anyone who has seen the movie can attest, the bear in the film is a female who attacks Hugh Glass because she feels he might be threatening her cubs. There is clearly no rape scene with a bear.'
The true story of Hugo Glass is sensational enough.
Glass was born in 1780, four years after America declared its independence, and with the Revolutionary War between Great Britain and America's original thirteen colonies still raging. He was the son of Irish parents who had settled in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Among the many trappers, pioneers and explorers of the American West like Lewis and Clark, Hugh Glass was not well known - until his tale of the bear attack was revealed after his death.
Overnight, he became a frontier folk hero, inspiring newspaper articles and books. Oddly, an epic poem, 'The Song of Hugh Glass,' published in 1915 barely mentions Glass's near-fatal wrestling match with the possessive mama grizzly but rather his battles with hostile Indians, and fellow trappers who betrayed him.
Flap: Controversy surrounding the film was ignited when the Drudge Report claimed that DiCaprio's Glass was graphically raped by the massive bear twice. The studio has denied it
According to one story, Glass was captured by privateers off the coast of Texas in 1816, and forced to become a pirate for two years. He allegedly escaped by swimming to shore near what is now Galveston.
Later, the legend goes, he was captured by Native Americans, spent a few years with the tribe, and married a squaw.
In the early 1820s the Missouri Gazette and Public Advertiser began running an advertisement placed by an Army general seeking men to join him in the fur trade, a lucrative business in those days.
The route of the 1823 odyssey of Hugh Glass from the forks of the Grand River to Fort Kiowa
Glass, in his early thirties, responded along with a number of so-called mountain men who joined the enterprise that became known as 'Ashley's Hundred,' named for General William Henry Ashley who was behind the moneymaking enterprise.
But there was much trouble ahead for the expedition, and especially for Hugh Glass, a man who seemed to have little luck in life.
In the Spring of 1823, while traveling up the Missouri River, warriors of the semi-nomadic Arikara Indian tribe attacked Ashley's Hundred. There was a vicious battle and Glass was wounded, taking a bullet in one of his legs.
That brought an end to the trek for some of the members of Ashley's Hundred, including the wounded Glass.
But even worse was in store.
In August, 1823 Glass came face to face with one angry mama Grizzly. It happened by accident.
Glass had been hunting for game in Perkins County, South Dakota, when, according to an account in the Milwaukee Journal newspaper a century later, he suddenly came upon a monster female grizzly bear with her her two cubs. She rose and attacked him before he had the time' to fire his weapon, or try to escape.
'The bear seized him by the throat and lifted him from the ground. Then hurling him down, the ferocious beast tore off a mouthful of his flesh and lumbered to her cubs, which were close by.
'Glass now tried to escape, but the bear, followed by her cubs, attacked him again. Seizing him by the shoulder she crunched his hands and arms between her teeth.'
The Milwaukee Journal article describing the included a frightening drawing by artist Charles M. Russell of a ravaged and bloodied Glass holding on to a tree limb as a giant grizzly bear, standing erect on its hind legs, was trying to drag him away in order to kill him. In the background is a frolicking grizzly cub whose mother was protecting it from the great white hunter
The grizzly bear averages about six feet in length from 'nose to tail tip,' although some measured as high as fourteen feet. They weigh at least five hundred pounds
The article included a frightening drawing by artist Charles M. Russell of a ravaged and bloodied Glass holding on to a tree limb as a giant grizzly bear, standing erect on its hind legs, was trying to drag him away in order to kill him. In the background is a frolicking grizzly cub whose mother was protecting it from the great white hunter.
The article pointed out that the grizzly bear averages about six feet in length from 'nose to tail tip,' although some measured as high as fourteen feet. They weigh at least five hundred pounds.'
It called the grizzly a 'powerful brute,' and noted, 'The female, when her cubs are small, is savage and dangerous' and when roused – the mistake Glass had made – 'shows terrible rage and strength.'
Glass, bleeding profusely and in agonizing pain, had given himself up for dead, when other members of his hunting party came upon the grisly scene.
Shots were fired by the critically injured Glass's compatriots, and one of the cubs, half-grown – was killed. More shots were fired and the furious mother bear was fatally brought down – her huge body actually falling on the near-dead Glass.
Incredibly, he survived the deadly attack, but 'his whole body was mangled, he could not stand and suffered excruciating pain. No surgical aid could be given and it was impossible to move him.'
One of the officers in the group, an Army major, offered two underlings a sum of eighty-two dollars to stay with Glass until he died because no one believed he'd make it.
The duo watched over him for a full five days, but he had the willpower to ward off death.
When he failed to succumb to his severe injuries, they took his rifle and his other belongings and abandoned him with no shelter or any means of defense. When the two reached their group they claimed Glass had died, and that they had given him a burial.
An historic marker that overlooks Shadehill Reservoir in northwestern South Dakota tells the saga of Glass
But Glass's will to survive was extraordinary.
According to one account, the critically injured Glass had a broken leg, open and festering wounds, bites from the battle with the bear that had exposed bare ribs, and there were major cuts on his back.
Incredibly, he set his own leg, wrapped himself in the bear hide that had been the shroud left by the men who abandoned him. And amazingly, he let maggots eat the dead flesh on his body as a way to prevent gangrene.
When he was up to it he reportedly crawled overland, and for river crossing he crafted a raft in order to reach the first civilized settlement, as far as 200 miles away.
It was a treacherous trek that took him six weeks, subsisting mainly on wild berries and roots.He was determined to track down the two men who had abandoned him.
His trek would take him to a trading post, along the way eating meat from a buffalo calf that had been attacked by wolves – driven off by Glass who brandished only a stick.
When he reached the trading post, he rested, regained his health, and then joined a group of trappers in hopes of finding the men who had left him for dead.
He had an 'overwhelming desire for revenge.'
He eventually tracked down one of them at Fort Atkinson, near what became the city of Omaha. The other man he sought had disappeared. Glass, however, was talked out of killing, under threat of a murder charge, a trial, and execution.
Not much is known of Glass's later life, other than he worked as a hunter for Fort Union, at the mouth of the Yellowstone River.
One account of his death in 1833 at 53 was given by a visitor at Fort Union, reported by the Milwaukee newspaper.
'Old Glass with two companions had gone to Fort Cass to hunt bear on the Yellowstone, and as they were crossing the river on the ice all three were shot and scalped by a war party of 30 Aricaras.' |
Groups of students flooded the streets dressed in animal prints and bright orange t-shirts as part of the Animal Instinct 'Unleash the Beast' tour, which will stop at 36 towns and cities across Britain.
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A university student is helped by her two friends as she vomits in the street during the Carnage pub crawl event in Bristol Sunday night
Hundreds of students have been hitting the streets in city centres around the UK for the latest Carnage bar crawl. Pictured: A young girl gets a piggy back from her friend in Huddersfield (left), while another woman is supported by her friends nearby (right)
One student got a little too excited about the cheap deals and had to be helped by door staff after vomiting and collapsing in Huddersfield
Dubbed Britain's most debauched student event, the night lived up to its name as young women clung onto the remains of their dignity in both Huddersfield (left) and Lincoln (right) and groups of rowdy men clowned around in the street
Dubbed Britain's most debauched student event, the night lived up to its name as young women clung onto the remains of their dignity and groups of rowdy men clowned around in the street. |
You push open the brass-handled door to your apartment building; the familiar welcoming comfort and faint floral aroma of the entrance lobby helping to soothe your anxious mind. The beautiful Victorian facade and elegant lobby were what initially tempted you into buying your apartment. This beautiful building now represents a haven of calm in your troubled life, a place where you can retreat and shut the door against your worries.
You stride across the well-maintained parquet floor towards the double staircase. It has been a difficult few months for you and today’s events have made it even worse. As a leading cryptologist, your services had always been very much in demand. Until now. The rapid growth of the internet at the start of the millennium meant that protecting data and moving it in a safe way became of paramount consideration for anyone doing business online. It was a great time to be an expert in cryptology. You, and the company you founded, specialised in producing encryption algorithms which not only protected data but also allowed it to be transferred securely. The explosion of the internet meant the demand for your skills had increased hugely. Your business grew rapidly and you became the marketable face of encryption.
But your sudden meteoric rise was soon to come plummeting down. A series of unfortunate, high-profile events involving the loss of data encrypted with your programs resulted in businesses moving away from you, to be snapped up hungrily by your gleeful competitors. If you had been of a paranoid disposition you could believe that some of those unfortunate events were not as random as they first appeared. The result was that demand for your skills had started to dry up – putting pressure on your company’s cash flow and pushing you to the brink of bankruptcy.
However, the final nail in the coffin came today when a major research partner announced that they would be removing their grant funding from you, leaving your company in a very sticky financial position. You can’t quite believe their short-sighted move – coming as it does at such a critical point in the project. You know that you were within inches of a major advance in encryption technology that would stop hackers in their tracks. The benefits to society in combatting cyber-crime would be immense. Now, however, with the funding removed, the research would stop. Without a quick solution to your financial problems, your business will collapse.
You are not worried for yourself; you know that you can start again. You have a number of teaching positions at some leading Universities and consultancy has always paid well, even with a slightly tarnished reputation. Your concerns are for those who work for you. They have worked alongside you and have built the company from humble beginnings. They have stood by you through the good times and even through these recent difficulties. But if this last-ditch attempt at success fails then they will all lose their jobs. This is what gives you a heavy heart. As you walk up the stairs to your apartment, you rack your brains as to how the situation can be turned around. A solution does not present itself.
You fumble in your bag for the keys to your front door. As you find them and go to open the door you notice an envelope sticking out of your letter box. You open the door and pull the envelope through, the letter box snapping shut loudly behind it. The letter has obviously been hand-delivered. There is no address on the envelope, just your name, hand-written on the front. The envelope, made from thick parchment paper, is embossed with a coat of arms. The crossed keys on a shield are familiar to you but you can’t remember why. But what is clear is that whoever has sent this letter is prepared to pay for quality. You open the envelope and pull out what seems to be an invitation. Turning it over you read what it says:
Your heart skips a beat as you read the name. Ian Mortale – the secretive IT entrepreneur who made his fortune in encryption. The stark contrasts between yourself and Mortale are readily apparent. Where your star has faded his has shone ever more brightly. You approached encryption as an intellectual, almost noble, pursuit, but for Mortale it was a license to print money. His skill was in creating clever encryption algorithms and selling them onto the highest bidder; yours was to use encryption for the greater good of society. Sadly, your honourable approach has not created the riches enjoyed by Mortale.
But you are aware that, despite his wealth and connections, very little is actually known about the man other than his much-vaunted successes. From dominating the field of encryption he has branched out into data manipulation and artificial intelligence. By using AI to interpret big data sets he was able to provide incredibly useful insights to any company willing to pay for the privilege. It was this unique service that was to push Mortale into the big league of the super-rich. No longer would he have to bang on doors, like everyone else, to get his voice heard. They now opened for him, and at the highest levels. There were, for example, rumours that Mortale’s influence could be seen in the shock vote for the UK to leave the European Union.
All this leads to the question – why would Mortale be contacting you now? Surely a connection with you is not going to be of any benefit to him? This invitation just doesn’t make sense.
You are however, intrigued by the idea of a challenge and the possibilities of how a meeting might be of benefit to you. Interestingly, there is no address on the invitation. So how can you accept or reject Mortale’s offer? You realise that Mortale will not countenance rejection and simply expects you to attend. Will you? Do you decide to accept the invitation and discover Mortale’s Challenge?
Accept Mortale’s Challenge. |
Best Indie Games of 2011
A year, is an eon in gaming industry time, particularly in times like these where the tools and intent have matched up with Moore’s law to provide an embarrassment of riches to indie gaming fans. Of course, there are countless titles that are DOA, just as there are countless titles meriting as much of the spotlight as all the elements that made them as good as they are.
At IGR, we polled the writers, the gamers, the communities, we argued and opined about how to create a list of ten titles from the mass of possibilities. We wondered and were often challenged by the idea that perhaps we should nominate and select games for each genre, but ultimately the answer is – no, we set up the challenge to identify the top ten games and so had weigh in heavily on impact, innovation, creativity, technical excellence, reception, adoption, implementation and so on.
Games from Far and Wide, All Shapes and Sizes
In that context, we have selected ten games to represent all genres, known and emergent, that ultimately left the greatest mark, that either moved their genres forward or best represented them in their respective categories. These games will never form the definitive list, but we trust you will afford us the bandwidth that believes, we tried our best to help you remember what a truly amazing year it was for independent game development around the world.
Finally, some may challenge the definition of an indie game an whether some of the titles on our list qualify for this special category. We define an indie game as any title that is not created by an established studio with an annual budget that has a yearly development slate. In other words, small teams that generally form around the creation of a specific title and then reassemble to build subsequent titles.
Because indies are becoming bigger business and the audience is becoming bigger in step with such growth, budgets are also growing. Therefore we set the total budget cap at any title under two and a half million. That may sound like a lot, but if you compare it to the film industry where indies are made for as much as fifteen million, then it shouldn’t seem so inordinate.
Finally, an important distinction is that an indie title that is published by a studio (like Bastion being published by Warner Bros.) still qualifies so long as that publisher did not have a say in the game’s development. Again, in the film world, this is called a “negative pickup” – when an independent production company creates a film on their own, and a distributor or studio later picks up the negative film master in a marketing and release deal.
For this reason, we did not include From Dust which was designed by Eric Chahi and developed by Ubisoft Montpellier (which is sad because they made a great game and Ubisoft muddled its release with stupid DRM issues). [From Dust – Wikipedia reference]).
Looking at the SuperGiant site (the devs behind Bastion) – we can see from their description:
“Supergiant Games is a small developer with big ambitions: to make games that spark your imagination like the games you played as a kid.
We’re supergiant in name only. We’re seven people whose headquarters is the living room of a house in sleepy San Jose. But we make for a superstar team. We walked away from our jobs building major franchises for huge publishers to make original downloadable titles for people who love games and their loved ones.”
The Witcher 2, while by all appearances, a AAA title, is technically an indie title from Polish developer CD Projekt RED. We did not include it because, like Minecraft, we wanted focus on slightly smaller or lesser established developers. (Again, designing a top ten amidst such an embarrassment of riches is near to impossible).
Similarly, we spoke to Frozenbyte, the team behind Trine 2 about their indie cred, see the review for their response and why we decided they qualify.
Many thanks to the writers, developers and gamers who took the time not only to chime in, but to support the independent game community.
We look forward to your thoughts.
Click next or use our QuickJump menu below to see the Games! |
Well, as the title says, magpul have decided to discontinue ALL of their PTS Range. You may be thinking ‘so, what’s wrong with that?’ Well, it means;
No more PMAG’s or EMAG’s
No more snazzy foregrips or pistol grips
No more magpul stocks
No more MOE grips, trigger guards, grips or hand guards
And no more PTS Masada’s
By this point, you may be pretty upset, maybe even beginning to shed a tear? Well you’ve every reason to. You may also be thinking, ‘What is this? Who is this guy trying to tell us our beloved Magpul range is to be discontinued!? It cannot be true!’ Well, I’m afraid, it is and it has come from good authority. One condolence us Airsofter’s could draw from this though is; Chinese clones. Now you may be thinking, ‘what’s that got to do with anything?’ Well if you have ever purchased anything Magpul before you may have noticed all the cheap clones out there on the market. The thing is, they may not be genuine Magpul, nor even licensed by Magpul, but do they do the job? Some would argue they do. When it comes to Airsoft requirements most Chinese clones do the job. So is this the way forward or do we sit and mourn over the loss of our dear Magpul PTS range?
Comments |
CLOSE Union leaders announce Phoenix bus strike to begin Friday, Jan. 8, 2015. Brenna Goth/The Republic
The Phoenix bus union voted to go on strike starting midnight Friday, Jan. 8, 2015. (Photo: Mike Meister/The Republic)
Phoenix bus drivers will strike beginning Friday, affecting dozens of routes used by nearly 80,000 riders each weekday.
Officials from Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1433 announced Thursday night that 91 percent of their members rejected the latest "best and final" offer from transit company Transdev. The union then called a strike, starting at midnight.
The union warned last month that a strike could affect festivities surrounding this week's College Football Playoff national championship game. Union leaders originally set a Monday deadline to come to an agreement or strike, but held off to continue negotiations. Transdev then came back with its latest offer, which the union recommended against.
Thirty-four routes operated under Phoenix's Transdev contract — which pass through other Valley cities in several cases — won't operate Friday. Other Valley routes and light rail will run as usual.
Moments after the announcement, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton posted on Twitter, "I demand that ATU & Transdev continue to negotiate through the strike & expect them back at the table in AM. Disappointed it's come to this."
The Rev. Jarrett Maupin, a civil-rights activist working with the union, said the sticking points came to issues including bereavement, better access to restrooms and opposition to a two-tier pay system. The union is willing to go back to the table, he said.
"We are committed to talks," Maupin said.
Union treasurer Michael Cornelius said, "Nobody wants to keep a strike out forever."
Transdev has five days to provide Saturday-level service, according to the city. Transdev's contract with Phoenix does not include a formal strike plan.
A statement released by Transdev shortly after the announcement said, "We are very disappointed that our operators are being instructed by ATU 1433 to strike tonight at midnight. Our focus now will shift in preparing to provide Valley riders with the service they have come to expect with as few interruptions as possible during the strike."
Phoenix's Public Transit Department warned riders this week of service disruptions. The department recommends telecommuting, identifying carpools or using valleymetro.org to register for a vanpool seat. The department does not offer fare refunds for missed rides or for multi-day passes.
The Phoenix Union High School District also prepared this week by sending texts and voice messages to 27,000 households Monday evening warning of the strike, said Craig Pletenik, the district’s spokesman. About half of the students in the district rely on public transportation to get to and from school, he said.
Phoenix holds a five-year contract estimated at $373 million with Transdev to run 34 routes, including neighborhood circulators and RAPID service. The average weekday ridership on the company's routes was about 78,000 in October, according to the city's Public Transit Department.
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Contract negotiations began in April. Transdev's latest offer did not fully address sticking points such as discipline and opposition to a tiered wage system, Maupin said.
Transdev officials noted changes on previous points of contention, including agreeing to provide employees with a uniform allowance instead of a voucher. A 3 percent annual wage increase retroactive to July was also included, said General Manager Katrina Heineking.
Transdev runs the following routes:
0-Central Avenue; 1-Washington/Jefferson; 7-Seventh Street; 8-Seventh Avenue; 10-Roosevelt/32nd Street; 12-12th Street; 15-15th Avenue; 16-16th Street; 19-19th Avenue; 27-27th Avenue; 28-Lower Buckeye; 35-35th Avenue; 39-40th Street north Phoenix; 44-44th Street/Tatum; 50-Camelback; 52-Roeser; 60-Bethany Home; 70-Glendale/24th Street; 80-Northern/Shea; 90-Dunlap/Cave Creek; 106-Peoria; 122-Cactus; 138-Thunderbird; 154-Greenway; 170-Bell; 186-Union Hills/Mayo; the SMART (Sunnyslope) and DASH (downtown) circulators; and all RAPID commuter routes: Central South Mountain East, Central South Mountain West, Interstate 10 East, I-10 West, I-17 and State Route 51.
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Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has told kicker he believes progress is being made on plans to introduce a salary cap in European football.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said earlier this year that he is considering the introduction of a salary cap in order to close the gap between football's biggest clubs and the rest.
Rummenigge has served as European Club Association (ECA) chair for just over a decade and hit out at European politicians for refusing to back his plans to limit players' salaries in the past.
He said: "I went to Brussels [where the European Union is based] a few times with then UEFA president Michel Platini. Platini wanted to give football its own culture and bring in a salary cap, like in U.S. sport, but it was rejected time after time. That was a mistake back then from European politicians.
"Today there are signals from Brussels for a reassessment of the situation. Therefore, I call for a collective initiative, then politicians will take a favourable view."
Renewed questions have been raised over financial fair play (FFP) this summer after Paris Saint-Germain broke the world transfer record to sign Neymar from Barcelona for €222 million, with a deal for Kylian Mbappe from Monaco set to follow.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is chairman of the European Club Association. FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images
Rummenigge said he does not believe FFP, which UEFA introduced from the 2011-12 season, has been a total failure, with clubs including PSG and Manchester City having been punished in the past.
However, he said: "More consistent punishments should have been enforced, if necessary testing whether clubs would have taken legal action against UEFA at the European Court of Justice.
"A lot of clubs wouldn't have dared to."
Rummenigge says current UEFA president Ceferin "will not be influenced" as he seeks to enforce the rules.
"He's ready to seriously implement financial fair play in line with the [UEFA] statutes," he said.
Rummenigge wants a combined effort to promote "more controlled and rational competition" in football.
"It's important that the ECA now tries with FIFA and UEFA, and also with the players union FIFPro, to work out criteria to make the whole thing a little more rational once again," he said. "These four groups have to try among each other and together with politicians to find solutions.
"Football must retain its roots. Everyone has to play their part, including the clubs."
This summer, Bayern have broken their transfer record with the signing of Corentin Tolisso from Lyon, as well as bringing in Germany internationals Niklas Sule, Sebastian Rudy and Serge Gnabry and taking James Rodriguez on loan from Real Madrid for two years for a reported fee of €6.5m a year.
Speaking about the explosion in transfer fees: "They've moved away from reality, but that is nothing new actually. For many people these sums are no longer realistic. Therefore, it's important that club football faces its responsibilities." |
I, Erik ORION declare that the alleged Freemason Curse on Oak Island is now over!
The truth ended the alleged curse!
This book provides original, new theories which solve
the centuries old mystery of Oak Island, Nova Scotia!
It Contains Never Before Published Theories, Photos, Diagrams & Treasure Maps of Oak Island, Birch, Quaker & Others.
Erik ORION's "Amazing" Book, The Pyramids of Oak Island is Available for Immediate Download for only $9.99
Press The Amazon Link Above to Download a
Copy to Your Kindle for Only $9.99
Here's what Oak Island probably looked like around 2,500 B.C.
*Notice the extra pyramid by the round disk shape structure to the left & the U-shape structure
to the right of the photo. The fourth pyramid is known as the Djedefre's Lost Pyramid.
Here's an Egyptian "Spiralveien" like the one the Restall Family discovered on Oak Island. One week later they all died.
*It is my opinion that Fred Nolan & his Freemason tomb robbing buddies' murdered the Restalls with fumes from a generator
to prevent them from telling the world about the ancient Egyptian Pyramid & Spiralveien tunnel they had discovered!
The Egyptians used "Spiralveien" corkscrew spiral tunnel structures to move cargo & or people up or down steep mountain-like areas.
-----------------------------------
Here's ORION's Most Recent "Theory" About Where the Pyramids of Oak Island Are Located.
Here are the Pyramids of Oak Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Here are the Pyramids of Oak Island with the Tree of Life overlay which represents
the original tunnel system hiding under Oak Island.
Here are the exact locations for at least 58 of the "Lost" Templar Fleet ships.
The "Lost" Templar ships were stacked perfectly between the rows of smaller pyramids which acted as ship cradles.
This enabled the Templars to create a level "Oak" surface platform to build Oak Island one shovel full of dirt at time,
over a very long period of time...
Here are old photos of the Pyramid of Khufu mine entrance, Oak Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. 1931.
Shortly after these photos were taken, the Freemasons changed the appearance of Oak Island
to disguise the location of this pyramid. Now the pyramid is underwater infront of the late
Fred Nolan's dock. The secret top entrance to the pyramid is underwater, but accessible,
if you know where to look...
Pyramids exist on Oak Island & all over the world, despite denials from World Governments
& certain religious groups.
Here are a few of my other theories'...
The American Government along with the Canadian Government & Freemasons have been lying to the world about what exists on
Oak Island for their own monetary benefit.
King Solomon's New Temple Pyramid aka: The Northen Cross Island is located under
Big Fish Island in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia Canada
----------------------------------------------------
Email Contact: erik@thebushconnection.com or orionstar123@gmail.com
These two books are a big "poke in the eye" to the Illuminati New World Order compliments of Erik ORION.
For the "mother" of all true conspiracy books please visit my other website: www.thebushconnection.com.
It's an anti-Nazi true history book. |
General
The Icelandic Coast Guard‘s helicopter rescue team conducted a record number of 214 missions in 2015
By Staff
To the rescue The rise in search and rescue missions can be directly linked to the increasing numbers of foreign travellers visiting Iceland. Photo/Vilhelm
The Icelandic Coast Guard‘s helicopter rescue team conducted a record number of 214 missions this year. According to Vísir, the previous record was 195 missions in 2013.
The helicopter rescue team is responsible for maritime safety and responds to emergency situations when the nature of the injury or terrain requires service by air.
Ásgrímur Lárus Ásgrímsson, head of operation with the Icelandic Coast Guard, says the rise in search and rescue missions can be directly linked to the increasing numbers of foreign travellers visiting Iceland. A survey conducted by the Icelandic Tourism Research Centre supports that, showing that half the rescue missions conducted between 2009 and 2013 were to assist foreign travellers.
“The helicopter rescue team was originally established to conduct rescue at sea and to evacuate injured or sick seamen. This has changed and now 75% of our missions are land-rescue operations that, among other things, involve evacuating people from inaccessible terrain.”
Helicopter rescue missions are highly expensive. Ásgrímur estimates that each hour costs around 680 thousand ISK (4,793 Euros/ 5,233 USD). However, the Coast Guard does not charge for rescue.
“We don’t want people in need to be hesitant about calling for help because they are worried about cost,” Ásgrímur concludes.
Below is a video of the helicopter rescue team in action. |
Welcome former book blogger Anne Chaconas!
Book bloggers are right next to readers on the “Writers’ Best Friends” list. In fact, book bloggers might even rank just a teensy bit higher, because they’re a writer’s link to readers. A trusted link. Readers often hold the opinions and reviews of their favorite book bloggers in very high regard, and look to them for guidance when making book-purchasing decisions. Trust me; I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it because, for about a year, I was a book blogger myself (I used to run Indie Author Book Reviews; I’ve since had to stop due to toddler mayhem, newborn needs, running a business, and the general need to occasionally sleep for a few hours. I miss it, though).
In that year, I got an seemingly endless stream of requests to review books; the majority of them were from indie authors. I love indie authors. Some of the best modern literature I’ve read over the past few years has come from indie authors. I love that they are often approachable and fun, and that interacting with a new favorite writer is no longer an impossibility. All I need to do is find them on social media and—voilá!—I can be exchanging pleasantries in the 30 seconds it takes me to type 140 characters.
However, despite my love for them, I do have a bone to pick: Y’all make some silly mistakes when contacting book bloggers. Oh-so-silly. Mistakes that at best can cause you to be ignored by the book blogger, and at worst can cause you to become a laughingstock or informally blacklisted in the book blogging community. Don’t forget: we talk. We share stories. And when silly things are done by authors, chances are pretty good word will get around. Don’t be that guy (or gal).
Here are the five most common mistakes I saw authors make:
1. Not checking out the blog first.
So you found a list of book bloggers somewhere (it could be the Book Blogger List, the Book Blogger Directory, or the IndieView Reviewer List (there are others, too, of course) and you start emailing them immediately, without bothering to check out the blog first. What’s the big deal about that? I hear you asking. Well, it’s akin to buying a dress online: chances are pretty good it won’t fit. The first thing you need to do before emailing any book bloggers is make sure their blog is a good fit for your book, and vice-versa. Otherwise, you’re just wasting everyone’s time. You also need to check if the blog is still active and (more importantly) if the reviewer is currently accepting books. And, on your end, you should check out the blog to make sure it’s a place where you’d want your book reviewed. Check out past posts and reviews. Do you like what you see? Are the reviews and posts professional? Do they get a lot of reader interaction? Does the blog have an active social media presence (Facebook page, Twitter, Google+, Goodreads)? This has to be a mutually beneficial experience, after all. Just like the book blogger wants to get the best books and authors possible on their site, you want to make sure to get the best bloggers for your book.
2. Ignoring review policies.
I cannot stress this enough. Read the policies. READ THE POLICIES. READ THE DAMN POLICIES. It doesn’t take long. This is the number one issue I ran into as a book blogger. It’s probably also the one that made me the angriest, because it just felt rude. Here you are, emailing me, asking me to read your book, asking me to review it, asking me to post about it, asking me to spend a chunk of my very limited time doing all this, and you didn’t bother to check if I even reviewed your genre, or what I needed to receive from you as part of your inquiry? Read the policies. Find out what I read. Find out what I need from you. And then follow the directions. Most bloggers will lay out very specific directions on what they want from authors. We do this not to be difficult or feel important, but because we know what works for us and what we need to decide if a book is right for us. If you start by visiting the blog, chances are good you’ll check out my reviewing policies. And if you check them out, follow them.
3. Sending out a mass email.
When I get an obvious mass email, I usually delete it. Typically without reading it. I do this with any mass-looking email that I didn’t sign up for, regardless of whether it’s asking me to review a book or not. And if I don’t immediately delete it, I’m going to read it with different expectations. I’m going to need to be impressed for me to take the next step, whatever it may be. A mass email tells me that you didn’t take the time to personalize things, you probably didn’t go to my blog, you likely didn’t check out my policies. Heck, you probably didn’t bother finding out my name. You just needed my email address, after all. Mass emails = impersonal = bad. When contacting book bloggers, take the time to get personal. Don’t just find out their email. Find out their name. Click around the blog a little bit; find something interesting to comment on when contacting them. Start your email with their name and that little tidbit you found. It makes a world of difference. I know this not just from my past book blogger days, but from my current book marketing business. When I set up a blog tour for an author client, my response rate increases exponentially when I personalize the email I send to book bloggers and take the time to make it clear I specifically wrote it for them after checking out their site.
4. Asking a book reviewer to buy the book in order to review it.
Yes, believe it or not, this happens urprisingly often. DO NOT ASK BOOK BLOGGERS TO BUY YOUR BOOK. I won’t explain why. You should already know why. Your options are: (1) Provide the blogger with a coupon code to Smashwords where they can get your book in their preferred format for free; (2) Gift them the book through Amazon; (3) Ask their preferred format, then email the file to them once they’ve responded (make sure you have .mobi, .epub, and .pdf on hand; that covers the bases). Just don’t ask them to buy your book.
5. Making too many demands.
Please post on such-and-such a date. Please email me once the link is live. Please cross-post on Amazon, Smashwords, Goodreads, LibraryThing, and Shelfari. Please tweet it out five times on the day you post. Please tag my Facebook author page when you post about the review. Please include this photo. Please include this book trailer. Please do this. Please do that. And please do these other five things, as well. And, often, without saying please.
Look, we get it. If you’re getting a review, you want it posted. You want to know when the review is up. You want the link. You want it to be available everywhere your book is sold. But if you start off our bloggy relationship by making fifty bajillion demands, I’m probably just going to reply and say that this is probably not such a great idea, and I’ll pass. Because if you’re like this at the outset, what will you be like once I’ve got the book in hand? That thought is just scary.
Book bloggers love to read. They love to tell others about what they read. They love to establish relationships with authors, and they love to help their favorite authors out. Get on a book blogger’s good side, and you’ve got an extremely helpful, trusted marketing machine on your team. Get on their bad side, and you could get majorly badmouthed.
At the end of the day, it boils down to being nice, being personable, and doing your homework. Take the time to research bloggers, take the time to email them, and make it as easy as possible for them to say YES, PLEASE to your book.
About the author: Anne Chaconas was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, attended a small private university in New Haven, Connecticut, and currently lives in North Carolina with her husband, two kids, four cats, two dogs, and entirely too many books. Anne writes many things, but has found her true love in humorous non-fiction and parenting essays.
She is currently working on EMBRACE YOUR WEIRD (a how-to guide on how to be happy from someone not academically qualified to write such a guide) and A STORK FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (a collection of essays, limericks, and assorted musings on pregnancy, childbirth, parenthood, and other unnatural acts). She also offers marketing services for authors. You can find out more about Anne online.
Enjoy this article? Subscribe to my blog and you’ll never miss my weekly posts! (Your email address will NOT be sold, shared, or rented – that’s a promise.)
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Today, 29 states and Washington D.C. have legal medical marijuana programs, but the history of medical cannabis is long, and fraught with political intervention that oftentimes seemed to disregard the legitimate needs of people suffering from chronic conditions.
For millennia, the herb was used to treat a host of ailments including asthma, nausea, and depression. As early as 2900 BCE, the Chinese Emperor referenced it as a popular medicine that “possessed both yin and yang,” and in 1652, British herbalist Nicholas Culpeper wrote that hemp extract “allayeth Inflammations in the Head … eases the pains of the Gout … Knots in the Joynts, [and] the pains of the Sinews and Hips.”
Throughout the 19th century, cannabis was commonly used as medicine (usually as an extract), but in the midst of prohibitionist frenzy, Massachusetts became the first state to outlaw the herb in 1911. Other states followed suit, until, in 1930, the use of cannabis as medicine was dealt a crushing blow when Congress established the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and named Harry J. Anslinger as its first commissioner. Anslinger had what would today be characterized as a horribly racist attitude toward cannabis and its users.
“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S.,” Anslinger said, “and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.”. He added, “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.” Wow, what a guy.
By the mid-1930s, all 48 states had passed laws designed to regulate marijuana, and in 1937, the federal government passed the Marijuana Tax Act which aimed to stop all use and sale of cannabis by requiring registration with the government and heavy taxation.
It wasn’t until six decades later that, in 1996, California became the first state to buck the trend and legalize medical marijuana. In the ensuing 20 years, American citizens have pushed back against regulations that many see to be foolish at best, and racist at worst.
At The Green Solution, we know that cannabis is a safe and effective treatment for a number of chronic ailments, and we don’t think a person’s physical location should hinder her ability to acquire the medicine she needs. That’s why we welcome medical cardholders from all 29 states (and D.C.) with existing medical marijuana programs and offer them a 15% discount every day, at all of our retail locations (must be 21 or older with a valid ID and a valid state-issued medical cannabis card). |
We tend to think of inflation as a singular force that affects everyone the same way. It turns out however that the poorest households may have m'ore to lose as the peso shrinks. In this photo is a 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollar bill, commonplace during its period of hyperinflation. (Photo: Paul/Flickr , CC BY 2.0)
This content is also available on Medium
Everyone knows about inflation - a pervasive, unstoppable force that moves prices (and hopefully wages) upward in the economy, but do we really understand it? Further analysis reveals that official overall inflation statistics understate the effect of rising prices on the poor.
Understanding Inflation
Inflation is measured through changes in what is called the Consumer Price Index or CPI. This is an aggregate measure of prices based on a certain ‘basket’ of goods composed of those typically consumed by households. It seems like a fair enough way to measure general price increases, but it has the effect of making you think that inflation affects everyone equally - it does not.
The basket of goods is an approximation of the average proportions that households consume. It turns out, however, that there are significant differences in the basket of goods for households from different income levels:
Lower income classes tend to spend more of their income on Food & Beverage, and this proportion drops as we move up the income scale. This is because the absolute level of food consumed in the household is limited, and extra income is allocated to certain ‘luxuries’ and other necessities, evidenced by the fact that higher income households spend more of their income on the other, non-food categories.
Just as a validity check: the data that we generated from the FIES raw data closely approximates the official NSO weighting, except for food and housing. I suspect that imputed rental value was used by the NSO instead of actual rentals paid, but since there was no breakdown in the CPI Technical Notes, I can’t say for sure. Nevertheless, it is the variance in the effect, not the absolute effect, that we are interested in.
So what does this mean? Different income classes will experience different inflation burdens because the prices of goods and services that they consume rise at different rates:
Since the base year 2006, essentials such as food and beverage and education have risen much more than the overall inflation rate. This means that poorer households that spend more of their income on food and beverage will feel a stronger pinch from price increases. Non-essential goods’ prices have risen slower than inflation except for Alcohol & Tobacco which were affected by the 2013 sin tax hike.
Re-weighting the Consumer Price Index
To illustrate, let us use the data on expenditure shares and the CPI to re-weight the baskets for various income classes. In other words, we will create a different basket for each income class to measure the inflation burdens that different households face:
As you can see, since 2006, high rates of inflation tend to affect the poorest income classes more, because food and beverage prices rose more than the prices of other goods. This means that it gets more expensive to be poor - poorer households feel the impact of price increases more than their richer counterparts.
This phenomenon is recognized by the government, which is why we not only come up with official inflation statistics for the entire population, but also for the bottom 30% households in terms of income:
The official inflation rate for the bottom 30% of the population has been consistently higher than that for the general population, and particularly worrisome is the divergence that’s occurred since January 2014.
There is the other side of the equation that this analysis is ignoring: wage growth. If inflation is the result of inclusive economic growth and wages are rising faster than the cost of living, then there would be no issue. However, if such is not the case, then it really is getting more expensive to be poor.
Thanks for reading! If you found this post interesting, I’d appreciate if you can share it with your friends on social networks, or otherwise shared your thoughts below. Data and computation requests can be accommodated through the contact form.
Hat tip to FiveThirtyEight for the idea. This journal article (paywalled) should also provide formal understanding of the Phenomenon
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Did you ever notice the branding elements shared by the Adidas logo and a marijuana leaf? Those design similarities popped into focus when an Adidas commercial called "Your Future Is Not Mine" appeared on screen Monday evening during ABC Television's airing of 2016's first Presidential debate.
At the 18-second mark, the short film's free form, forward-moving narrative passes through the center aisle of what looks like a professional-scale marijuana grow facility.
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Outside of its commercial context, the message of "Your Future Is Not Mine" as it pertains to the televised political event might be interpreted as a summation of millennial dissatisfaction with both candidates.
Directed by Terence Neale, the minute-plus spot has been living on the Internet since January 2016 and has racked up more than 1 million YouTube views. Chances are, a meaningful percentage of those viewers salivated at the quick flash of an emerging marijuana industry at the start of the clip. But viewers didn't really need a hit until they saw that "Future" weed in conjunction with the Presidential choices facing them. |
Will Mel Gibson direct Iron Man 4?
While it may be a long shot, in the latest issue of Total Film, Mel Gibson at least considers the possibility of Iron Man 4.
The issue has a featured interview with Mel Gibson about his latest movie, with the article mentioning the Marvel rumors surrounding Mel Gibson directing Iron Man 4, as Robert Downey Jr. teased a while back he would do Iron Man 4 if Gibson directed, which saw Gibson follow up that he would "of course" consider it and also said Iron Man 4 with Robert Downey Jr. would be "bananas."
"It might be fun," Mel Gibson told TF about Iron Man 4, with the article noting Gibson merely shrugged at the idea. "You'd have to figure out a way to be different with that."
Mel Gibson's response about being different for Iron Man 4 is rather interesting as it seems to mirror comments from Robert Downey Jr. where the actor offered Iron Man 4 should be Tony's swan song as a villain.
Mel Gibson also recently offered his take on the Marvel movies, which if he ever did direct one, sounds like it would be a lot different than the "popcorn" MCU movies we're used to.
“To talk about the violence question, look at any Marvel movie,” Gibson told The Washington Post. “They’re more violent than anything that I’ve done, but [in my movies,] you give a s--- about the characters, which makes it matter more. That’s all I’ll say.”
Would Mel Gibson be a good choice to direct Iron Man 4? Let us know in the comments below. |
Three months ago a California think tank published a tabulation of the federal and state dollars that boost the incomes of Americans who work but earn so little they qualify for government aid. The authors of the report as well as many readers seemed shocked by cost of the aid. Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education estimated that the national and state governments paid out $153 billion in 2013 to finance health benefits, food stamps, and cash assistance to people in families containing a breadwinner who works at least part time and at least half the year.
A remarkable feature of the reaction to the report is that many readers interpreted the government aid dollars to represent a subsidy to low-wage employers (for example, here, here, and here). According to this view, government assistance to low-income families constitutes a handout to Walmart, McDonalds, and other low-wage employers. The assistance allows these companies to pay their workers lower wages than would be possible in the absence of the government aid.
For the majority of programs analyzed by the Berkeley researchers, this interpretation of government assistance payments is flatly wrong. Instead of subsidizing low-wage employers, most assistance programs reduce the availability of low-skill adults who are willing to work for low pay and lousy benefits. By shrinking the pool of workers willing to take the worst jobs, the programs tend to push up rather than push down wages at the bottom of the pay scale. Low-wage employers do not receive an indirect subsidy from the programs. Many must pay somewhat higher wages or recruit more intensively to fill their job vacancies.
There are two important exceptions to this generalization: the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and child care subsidies targeted on working parents who earn low incomes. Because benefits under these programs are only payable to low-income families containing a parent who is gainfully employed, this kind of government subsidy encourages adults in eligible families to enter or remain in the job market rather than to drop out of it. By boosting the supply of potential low-wage workers, the two programs can put downward pressure on pay, indirectly benefiting employers who depend on less-skilled workers. Even in these cases, however, the main effect of the aid is to lift the net incomes of breadwinners earning low pay.
The authors of the Berkeley study highlighted the cost of four main programs: Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the EITC, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or food stamps). In all four programs a sizeable slice of benefit payouts goes to families containing a poorly paid wage earner. In three of the programs, however, a sizeable or even bigger slice of payouts goes to families without a worker. For many income-tested aid programs, including both TANF and SNAP, monthly benefits are typically more generous when family earnings are low or zero rather than high. As family earned incomes increase, benefits under the programs are cut back or eliminated.
Most careful analysis of the impact of this kind of means-tested program concludes the programs discourage work. The availability of health insurance, food coupons, and cash assistance when potential breadwinners do not work means that paid employment is less necessary. The fact that government benefits are reduced when the breadwinner’s earnings rise means that work is financially less rewarding. Both these effects tend to reduce, at least modestly, the amount of paid work that eligible breadwinners are willing to do. I do not argue the impact is large or that it affects most adults who are potentially eligible to collect means-tested benefits. On balance, however, benefit programs offering more generous payments to people with zero earnings than to people with comfortable incomes tend to reduce the supply of workers who are willing to accept very low pay.
Three decades ago an overwhelming share of government aid to working-age families followed this pattern. Benefits were substantially higher for working-age adults who did not work at all compared with working-age adults who had modest earnings. For example, adults who had low earned incomes found it hard to obtain government-subsidized health insurance, and this was the case even if the adults headed families containing children. In order to qualify for Medicaid, working-age adults and their children might have to qualify for cash public assistance. In many states, this required families to have no or very low earned incomes.
Eligibility limits for Medicaid and a new program, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), have since been raised, making it easier for children and parents to qualify for government-subsidized insurance. This does not represent a subsidy to low-wage employers. It is a humane form of aid that ensures low-income adults and their children have access to affordable health care. Such assistance in combination with food stamps also permits low-income adults to be a bit choosier about accepting or declining low-pay or very inconvenient jobs.
The EITC and government child care subsidies offer direct inducements for low-wage workers to enter the job market, even if they must accept positions that do not offer adequate pay, decent fringe benefits, or convenient hours of work. The wage supplement offered by the EITC and the price discount implicit in a daycare subsidy make it feasible for some parents to work who would otherwise be better off remaining at home. Voters and policymakers understood this logic when the EITC and daycare subsidies were liberalized in the late 1980s and 1990s. The goal of the programs was to improve the standard of living of low-income families while simultaneously encouraging parents in these families to increase the share of family income derived from gainful employment. These incentives worked, especially when we were at or near full employment. The percentage of single mothers who held jobs increased.
The success of these two programs in boosting employment rates also succeeded in boosting these families’ net incomes and self-support, the primary goals of the policy shift. An indirect consequence of this success is that some parents who would have been out of the job market before the late 1980s are now working or looking for work. Their availability for work helps hold down wage costs for low-wage employers. If voters think this indirect effect of the EITC and child care subsidies is undesirable, they should push lawmakers to boost the minimum wage or improve the fringe benefits available to poorly compensated workers.
The public programs singled out in the Berkeley report are aimed at improving the health care access, nutrition, and net incomes of the nation’s most disadvantaged families. Three of the programs provide more assistance to nonworking Americans and their dependents than to families containing a working breadwinner. It is hard to see how this kind of program can be said to provide a subsidy to low-wage employers. Two programs that restrict benefit payments to working breadwinners—EITC and daycare subsidies—surely succeed in improving the net incomes of working but struggling parents. Indirectly the two programs increase the supply of low-wage workers, putting some downward pressure on wages. Labeling these programs as “subsidies” to low-wage employers has some merit, but it fundamentally misrepresents the distribution of benefits conferred by the programs. The main effect of the subsidies is to lift the net incomes of the working families that receive them. |
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea announced Friday the arrest of a man who graduated from high school in Cincinnati for what it called a "hostile act" orchestrated by the American government to undermine the authoritarian nation.
Pyongyang's state media said Otto Frederick Warmbier, a University of Virginia student and Wyoming High School graduate, entered the country under the guise of a tourist and plotted to destroy North Korean unity with "the tacit connivance of the U.S. government and under its manipulation."
The North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a short report that Warmbier was "arrested while perpetrating a hostile act," but didn't say when he was detained or explain the nature of the act.
Wyoming City Schools spokeswoman Susanna Max said Warmbier was the salutatorian of his 2013 graduating class and played soccer for Wyoming High School, a highly rated public school north of Cincinnati
Max says school officials are in communication with Warmbier's family, which includes two sisters in Wyoming schools. She says the school district asks that everyone respect the family's privacy.
Another southwest Ohio native was detained by North Korea in 2014. Jeffrey Fowle of the Dayton area was held nearly six months. The married father of three children said he was held after leaving a Bible he hoped would get to "underground" Christians.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, campaigning in New Hampshire as a Republican presidential candidate, called the arrest "inexcusable." His Columbus office released a letter he sent to President Barack Obama, urging his administration "make every effort to secure Mr. Warmbier's immediate release and keep (his) family constantly apprised." Kasich said North Korea should either provide evidence of alleged anti-state activities or immediately release Warmbier.
The U.S. State Department said in an earlier statement that it was "aware of media reports that a U.S. citizen was detained in North Korea," but had "no further information to share due to privacy considerations."
Our office is reaching out to the State Dept this morning through multiple channels to assist however possible in getting Mr. Warmbier home — Brad Wenstrup (@RepBradWenstrup) January 22, 2016
A China-based tour company specializing in travel to North Korea, Young Pioneer Tours, confirmed that one of its customers, identified only as "Otto," had been detained in Pyongyang, the North's capital, but provided no other details.
Social media accounts for Warmbier show interests in finance, travel and rap music; he was on the University of Virginia's dean's list.
"I can tell you he's a very intelligent, wonderful young man," said Jeremy Marcel, a professor at the university's school of commerce.
"He's an incredible guy," added Miles Kirwin, who said he was a Theta Chi fraternity brother.
North Korea's announcement comes amid a diplomatic push by Washington, Seoul and their allies to slap Pyongyang with tough sanctions for its recent nuclear test.
In the past, North Korea has occasionally announced the arrests of foreign detainees in times of tension with the outside world in an apparent attempt to wrest concessions or diplomatic maneuvering room.
North Korea also regularly accuses Washington and Seoul of sending "spies" to overthrow its government to enable the U.S.-backed South Korean government to control the entire Korean Peninsula. Some foreigners previously arrested have read statements of guilt that they later said were coerced.
A few thousand Westerners are thought to visit North Korea each year, and Pyongyang is pushing for more tourists as a way to help its dismal economy.
The U.S. State Department has warned against travel to the North, however, and visitors, especially those from America, who break the country's sometimes murky rules risk detention, arrest and possible jail sentences, although most have eventually been released.
Earlier this month, CNN reported that North Korea had detained another U.S. citizen on suspicion of spying. It said a man identified as Kim Dong Chul was being held by the North and said authorities had accused him of spying and stealing state secrets.
North Korea has yet to comment on the report. The U.S. State Department has said it could not confirm the CNN report. It declined to discuss the issue further or confirm whether the U.S. was consulting with Sweden, which handles U.S. consular issues in North Korea because Washington and Pyongyang do not have diplomatic relations. North Korea has previously released or deported U.S. detainees after high-profile Americans visited the country.
In late 2014, for instance, North Korea released two Americans after a secret mission to the North by James Clapper, the top U.S. intelligence official. Critics say such trips have provided diplomatic credibility to the North. The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea.
North Korea is holding at least three South Koreans and one Canadian. Last month, North Korea's Supreme Court sentenced a Canadian pastor to life in prison with hard labor for what it called crimes against the state.
The offenses he was charged with included harming the dignity of the North's leadership and trying to use religion to destroy the North Korean system, according to the North's state media.
An attorney who represented Jeffrey Fowle, the Dayton-area man held by North Korea in 2014, advised caution for those involved with the student.
"They (North Korea) kind of trickle information out, but what's actually going on can be very different," said attorney Timothy Tepe of Lebanon, Ohio, adding that he learned that North Korean authorities monitor reports and comments about detainees. "You have to be careful what you say."
He said Fowle is "doing wonderful" and seems to have adjusted well to life at his home near Dayton. The married father of three attends church regularly with his family and returned to a job in the city of Moraine's street department, Tepe said. |
You are here: Home All Stories / Bell will end bandwidth throttling next March
Bell will end bandwidth throttling next March
Posted by Hugh Thompson on December 20, 2011 · 1 Comment
In a letter sent dated December 19, 2011, Bell Aliant and Bell Canada have informed the CRTC that they’ll stop the practice of Internet Traffic Management Practice (ITMP), commonly known as bandwidth throttling, on March 1st, 2012.
For the past several years, Bell has been slowing down peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing application traffic between 4:30 p.m. and 2 a.m. because these programs were clogging the networks and negatively affecting time sensitive applications.
The companies say that over the last three years, their network capacity has increased significantly while P2P traffic, as a proportion of total traffic, has been declining which means the company can withdraw the shaping of P2P traffic on the companies’ networks.
The Companies say they will continue to monitor traffic levels and take steps to ensure a good user experience for the majority of end-users served by their networks in accordance with their ITMP Framework.
Bell Aliant and Bell Canada will also be issuing a separate letter to their customers to ensure that they are aware of this change.
Readers should note that this only affects the speed of P2P speed during peak hours. A Bell Internet subscriber will still be subject to their monthly bandwidth cap which is the maximum amount of data they can download every month before they are charge for additional usage.
Discuss the changes in Digital Home’s Canadian Phone and Internet forum. |
A malfunction with your experimental R-COIL engine has torn a hole in reality and you have fallen through it. You find yourself under attack by a horde of unfamiliar and hostile creatures. Your main thruster and weapons systems have been fused and your stabilizer is offline; you cannot fire your weapons without moving. Will you find your way home, or will you die trying?
...
R-COIL is an old-fashioned multidirectional shooter with a unique single button control scheme.
R-COIL IS NOT A TWIN-STICK SHOOTER!
Use the stick to aim and a single button to fire and thrust. Tap to fire. Hold to thrust. Each time you fire your bullet will push you back a little. You'll have to balance shooting and thrusting to maintain control. Once you master it you'll be cruising through the cosmos like a space boss in no time. Just try not to get yourself killed.
Easy right? Wrong!
This is not the friendly part of space and whatever you run into isn't going to be happy to see you. There are shielded sharpshooting saucers, bullet spewing spinners, laser towers, and kamikaze buzz-saws to name a few. In fact, if it's not a rock, you're probably going to have to try to kill it before it kills you.
Hordes of dangerous enemies
But, don't worry. With over 25 and counting power-ups at the time of this campaign, you'll have lots of tools at your disposal for dishing out cold space death.
Lots of power-ups
...
Space is lonely...
But you won't have to be because R-COIL supports up to eight simultaneous local players. You can play in Co-op Mode and help each other take on the universe or in Duel Mode where you'll go head to head to see who is the true master of space.
...
Sounds and Music...
It would be odd to make a retro vector space game without old-school bleepy bloopy sounds and music to go with it. That why we got in touch with weirdo extraordinaire Rainbow Kitten to make the sound effects and music for R-COIL. You can't tune a piano but you can tuna chip..or something.
...
Runs on...
*supports PC, MacOS, & Linux
The R-COIL engine might be experimental future technology, but odds are your home computer is not. Honestly, we don't know what kind of computer you've got, and we don't care. R-COIL will run just about everywhere!*
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The Game - For twenty quarters you'll get the whole game. In fact, you'll get it twice! You'll get a Steam download key as soon as the game is completely finished and on Steam. You'll also get an Itch.io download key as soon as this campaign ends so you can play the game as I work on it if you're into that. You can keep them both or give one to a friend or sell the extra on ebay or whatever you want. They're yours! You can even give them both away if you want.
Some Music - R-COIL is too old school to have more than two songs in it, so in addition to those two songs you'll get a few more songs remixed and reassembled from the game's soundtrack and sound effects by the one and only Rainbow Kitten.
Become Immortal - Your name will be included in the game's default high-score table. Everyone will see your name lit up in pixels until they beat you. Your score will be the amount of pennies that you pledge, so aim high!
Be my hero!
...
Game Design, Art, & Programming - It's me, Mike T! I'm a Senior Engineer at Schell Games where I have worked for over 10 years. In that time I've worked on tons of titles including Enemy Mind, Orion Trail, and I Expect You to Die. I've been playing games since the early 80's. All of my happiest memories are in arcades.
Music & Sound Effects - It's also me, Rainbow Kitten! I've done the soundtracks for Orion Trail & Enemy Mind and lots of non-game related weirdo-electronic music. You can listen to lots of it here.
...
Why Kickstarter?
Simple. To raise money. That's right; making and selling a game costs money! I've spent countless hours working on this in the middle of the night and I'll spend countless more before it's done. I'm not going to try to put a dollar value on that time, but surely it's worth something.
Also, I'd like to sell this game though Steam to reach as many people as possible and Steam charges developers $100 for the privilege of being in their store. Yes, I could put that money in up front and hope to make it back, but honestly, If I can't find twenty people willing to pay $5 for this during this campaign, well... that would be good know.
Risks and Challenges
I have lots of experience getting these kind of things done on time, and the game is already playable and fun, so there's not too much to worry about there.
https://vitekim.itch.io/r-coil
I'll certainly be open and honest with you throughout the development process. If there are any delays, you'll know about it and you'll know why.
So, you've seen the game and the rewards. If you're still reading this, you probably saw something that you liked! Now's your chance to get the game and to help me get R-COIL finished up and released on stream.
It's all up to you! Thanks!
...
... |
About
I would have liked to have made a video for this project but my camera skills are left to be desired.
The bee population is in decline and I would like try to and preserve the bee population while at the same time cultivate the honey that bees produce to ensure that the bee sanctuary can be maintained.
I want to set up an online store that caters for most crypto currencies(not just Bitcoin) as well as traditional currencies. This should give the business a competitive edge to most online stores
The online store will sell a wide range of goods. But the start-up product will be honey products.
I live in the countryside and the surrounding area has many fields that could be used. What's perfect about bees is that they impede on the natural beauty of the countryside. These locations are ideal for the creation of a bee sanctuary.
Like here...
... and here.
Honey is perfect from a business perspective as you can formulate and create a number of products:
Products.
This is great as it allows you to draw upon a wider market of possible customers and with the option of buying the goods with crypto currencies as well traditional currencies extends the possibility of customers even further. |
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