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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday slammed Republicans calling for Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump says he hasn't spoken to Barr about Mueller report Ex-Trump aide: Can’t imagine Mueller not giving House a ‘roadmap’ to impeachment Rosenstein: My time at DOJ is 'coming to an end' MORE to recuse himself from investigations into Russia, saying that’s not nearly enough.
“We are far past recusal. Jeff #Sessions lied under oath. Anything less than resignation or removal from office is unacceptable,” Pelosi tweeted.
We are far past recusal. Jeff #Sessions lied under oath. Anything less than resignation or removal from office is unacceptable. — Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) March 2, 2017
Pelosi first called for Sessions to resign late Wednesday, shortly after reports that Sessions spoke with Russia’s U.S. ambassador twice during last year’s campaign.
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Sessions said during his January confirmation hearings that he "did not have communications with the Russians.”
Since the revelation, Sessions has faced rising calls from Republicans to recuse himself from any investigations into Russia’s connections to President Trump’s administration.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz Jason ChaffetzTop Utah paper knocks Chaffetz as he mulls run for governor: ‘His political career should be over’ Boehner working on memoir: report Former GOP lawmaker on death of 7-year-old migrant girl: Message should be ‘don't make this journey, it will kill you' MORE (R-Utah) are among the key GOP voices who have called for recusal.
Sessions said early Thursday that he would be willing to recuse himself if it's "appropriate.”
Other top Democrats, including Oversight Committee ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann WarrenSanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' House to push back at Trump on border GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration MORE (D-Mass.), have joined Pelosi in demanding Sessions’s resignation. |
Looking to hook your laptop up to your Kindle 2 and do a bit of free-riding on its built-in 3G modem? Then this is not the hack for you. If, on the other hand, you've been pining to browse the web on your Kindle and eschew the convenience of wireless connectivity, then you're in luck! Apparently, the Kindle 2 has a few surprises in its debug mode that the original Kindle didn't have, one of which is a USB networking facility that will let you bypass the usual 3G option and instead take advantage of the internet connection on a connected computer. Not the most practical option, to be sure, but it also probably won't cause Amazon to start breathing down your neck (as the other, as yet not possible option, likely would). Hit up the link below for the complete how-to.[Via SlashGear |
Match day six?! What happened to match day five?!
Well, I did not see the 1:0 loss in Hannover. I have still not, in fact, even seen highlights. I know the match featured the first goal against and, of course, the first match in which we came away empty-handed. So much is clear. I’ve also inferred from many comments about the match that it was probably what is often called “an undeserved loss.” Sounds like the play was slanted to one side, that side featuring the goal on which the Effzeh were shooting.
More than this, I do not know, but it seems safe to say the offensive finishing continues to be a real problem.
The tough part of this is that it left me knowing the next 1. FC Köln match I would get to watch was going to also be, in all likelihood, the second part of a two-match losing streak. You can point to my match tip (if you’re part of the FC Echo match prediction group, that is) and say, “But you clearly predicted the Effzeh would win,” and you would be correct. I am never willing to publicly predict my team to lose a match, even if my head knows better. When the Detroit Lions of the NFL cruised to the league’s first-ever 0-16 season, I was proudly proclaiming for fifteen consecutive games that each would end the victory drought, even as it was clear to the more-analytical side of my fandom that mismanagement of the personnel situation and an incredibly poor choice of head coach had doomed this team to more failure than what would seem reasonable.
Don’t believe me? Ask the Missus who just a few days ago rolled her eyes when I started going crazy about how the Lions have started 3-1 and look as good as they’ve looked in some time. If I’m honest, I would admit to seeing the flaws, but that’s not going to really happen . . . at least not anywhere fellow Lions fans can see it (except for my boy Mingus, because we have an understanding about our Lions and the eating of the cornbread).
Before I drop too many references that will make no sense to people who come here for the football stuff . . . let’s get back to the business of Saturday’s mandatory 90 minutes of irritation that must come twice a year for most sides playing in the Bundesliga.
Starting Eleven
Timo Horn: I was asked by an English-language Bayern fan site to answer some questions about 1. FC Köln as part of their match preview. One of the questions was with regards to whether Horn is the “next big Bundesliga keeper.” My response was, essentially, that he may very well be, but the impressive start to his top-flight career has been aided hugely by the defense in front of him. I also threw the readers, most of whom are bound to be Bayern fans, a bone by offering that it might be their club that truly tests young Timo’s abilities in a way he has yet to see this season.
Of course, no number of amazingly athletic saves would earn a home win if you don’t get goal support, but I think those getting their first look at our Timo were given nothing to disappoint.
The same four we always see: Just because the defense finally conceded a goal is not reason enough to make unnecessary changes to the back line. Brecko and Maroh had plenty of opportunity to defend, but a lot more of the action was sent through the side where Wimmer and Hector were stationed. It was overwhelming at times, but I thought the youngsters mostly held their own against the world-class attack. In particular, I quite enjoyed some of Wimmer’s success against Arjen Robben, some highlights of which can be seen in a video Wimmer posted on his Facebook page (worth the click. trust me).
Lehmann, Matuschyk, and Gerhardt?!: Wasn’t sure what to think here. Hadn’t seen Matu in the starting eleven since match day one, and Gerhardt got his Bundesliga debut as a starter against the most-dominant club in Germany. It quickly became evident that we were either looking at a trio of defensive midfielders or maybe even playing with a seven-man back line. The role this trio played really seemed to inform the overall strategy: don’t get killed.
Olkowski and Halfar: I guess you’d say these two were meant to support Ujah as the lone striker, even though Olkowski arrived ostensibly as an alternative to Brecko at right back, or so we all thought. So now you have a defensive-oriented player as 50% of your offensively stationed midfielders/flankers . . . well, Olkowski did get a crack at the Ponies’ goal in the derby, so it’s not all defense over there, but you have to think that was why he was selected.
Ujah: Well, he was in the match. I know he was in the match because my son pointed him out several times. Other than that, though. nothing in the way the match played out had much to do with the concept of a striker, which is why there is suddenly so much talk of a crisis in the offensive portion of the club.
So . . . offensive crisis then?
Look, if we were suffering a crisis in offense, it seems completely idiotic to raise the alarm after a match with FC Bayern. They are an offensive juggernaut who can comfortably hold the ball for most of the match and are backstopped by the best goalkeeper in the world. Stöger’s crew could have entered that match averaging three goals per 90 minutes and still been held without a goal by Bayern. That’s just the reality, so let’s not do this right today.
That said, yeah, there is a problem. And I can say this because I was saying it even before the loss at Hannover, which seemed to really put the problems on display from what I’ve read. Nobody is going to feel great about it until we see more goals, especially some not assisted by Stuttgarters, but don’t pull the fire alarm the week after a match with Bayern. Bitte?
That was the plan, too . . .
I’m too lazy to go find it right now, but I know I read that the coach said there was a decidedly defensive stance Saturday because they knew they were outclassed and approached the match with an eye toward limiting the damage.
I see no problem with this. We’re just arrived from the second division facing a team packed with World Cup winners and league-leading scorers and guys with contracts bigger than the annual domestic product of some nations. There is absolutely no benefit to risk being saddled with a huge, lopsided result this early in the season just to stubbornly play into the “on any given day” idea of sporting competition.
Even with the way the match was played almost exclusively in our own defensive half, Bayern got their first goal due to a really poor decision by Daniel Halfar while under pressure along his flank and maybe a missed hand ball (my rules knowledge is a big dodgy, but I would have been fine with a whistle there . . . assuming it was handled, which I thought it was).
The second goal was all Halfar stumbling in defense and scoring into the unguarded side of Horn’s goal. Halfar was trying to keep pace with David Alaba, who probably hammers that cross home if Halfar doesn’t do it for him (you know, unless Halfar actually clears it).
And then there is the fact that there was a pair of huge chances from out of nowhere that could have dramatically altered things. There was a cross (delivered by Gerhardt, I think) that ended with Manuel Neuer having to parry away a shot by Matushcyk and a rebound effort by Ujah in quick succession.
A big “why don’t you go get stuffed” for Robben and several Bayern fans
“Oh, I don’t understand what their offensive plan was. They just sat back and didn’t seem to want the ball.”
Admittedly, I don’t have as huge a problem with the captain of the Dutch diving team pointing this out after the match as I do with Bayern fans talking about it in a condescending “why aren’t you even trying” tone, especially those doing it while using the Effzeh hashtag on Twitter, making it plain they are taunting Köln fans.
I equate this to being in a stand-off situation with an unarmed person while wielding a baseball bat and saying, “why aren’t you trying to attack me?”
And I HATE making this simile, because it feeds into the fevered egos of the glory hounds who love to hear how dominant their team is. The fact remains, though, that they compete an a whole other plane. They leverage their fiscal power to assure they have their pick of the top talent in Germany. Should you somehow threaten their primacy by making it hard for them to beat you on the pitch, as Borussia Dortmund did a few years ago, they will beat you with their bank statements and pluck your top talent away.
It’s all within the rules, so it’s fine. It’s a practical matter for clubs with the resources to fund their aspirations. Buy’em is looking to dominate three separate competitions, requiring depth and talent beyond what would otherwise be needed for strictly domestic play with maybe some slight aspirations toward limited European glory.
But don’t jump on that bandwagon and then pretend it’s something that it isn’t. The fact is, just as you know that most of the Bundesliga clubs are not really able to compete with you, we don’t consider you our competition either. You win, well, you’re expected to win. You drop points, and it’s momentous for us.
I’d think that would be a bit of a lonely way to spend weekends during the football season, but y’all seem to enjoy yourselves.
But now just take your three points and go away.
Moving along . . .
If we’re going with the idea that it’ll take 40 points to secure, at worst, 15th place in the league, which is the stated goal of the club, then we need to average a bit more than a point per match. Heading into the Bayern match, we were well above that rate. Now we’re slightly below that.
First, I don’t believe it’s going to take 40 points to survive this league the way some of the clubs below have been playing.
Second, I think we’ll get 40 anyhow.
Third, we’re six matches into a 34-match season. Hardly time to worry about anything just now. This team plays well together, and the coach will get what he needs from it.
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It is “practically impossible to write French correctly using a keyboard that has been bought in France.” Who says this? The French Ministry of Culture.
France uses the AZERTY keyboard, which was introduced 100 years ago as its counterpart to the standard English-language QWERTY keyboard. Though the keyboard is French-designed, it’s become nearly impossible for the French to properly write in French.
Noting that computers in Germany and Spain allow French speakers to write in French better than the French “because their keyboards permit it,” France announced plans this week to overhaul the French-language keyboard (link in French).
The main problem with the current set-up is a lack of standardization, which allows manufacturers to produce a variety of different models in the French market. This has resulted in some keys—such as @ and €—not being in the same place and different brands making different shortcuts. It’s difficult to find French quotation marks, known as double chevrons, the character ç, and ligatures. Instead, the rarely-used character ù has it’s own key and you often have to press shift to get a period.
The Ministry claimed that the lack of regulation has resulted in users ignoring important French grammar rules, such as ignoring accents on capitalized letters as they’re hard to create. The Academie Française—seen as the guardians of the French language—is not happy with this (link in French).
In a bid to prevent these errors from being normalized, and to save the French language, the Ministry of Culture has partnered up with French internet consultancy ANFOR to develop a new keyboard that will gradually replace the current models of AZERTY keyboard. (That said, it will not be compulsory for manufacturers to use them.) |
Ukraine Accused Of Trying To Storm Crimea
Ukraine Accused Of Trying To Storm Crimea
A rally, earlier this year, marking the second anniversary of Crimea voting to leave Ukraine and join Russia
Russia has accused Ukraine of attempting to storm into Crimea, the territory seized and annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Russian officials said one of its spies and a soldier were killed in separate assaults near to the border between Crimea and Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine was playing a "dangerous game" and had chosen "terror over peace".
He said extra security measures would be put in place.
Image: Vladimir Putin says Ukraine is playing a 'dangerous game'
But Ukraine responded saying that Russia was only interested in causing "more war".
Ukraine is accused by Moscow of trying to destabilise Crimea in the run-up to elections in the territory and Russia in September.
Russia seized the Black Sea region from Ukraine in March 2014 and at least 9,000 people have died in the conflict that followed.
:: How Will Theresa May Tackle The Challenge Of Russia?
The FSB, the Russian spy agency, said that its officer was killed on Saturday near Armyansk by the border between Crimea and Ukraine.
The FSB said its officers engaged with "Ukrainian saboteurs" and 20 bombs, ammunition and mines were found.
Russian Army Could Out-Gun British Troops
The agency said two more groups of saboteurs tried to force their way into Crimea late on Sunday, backed by Ukrainian artillery.
The FSB said one Russian soldier died in the incoming fire. Russia described the incidents as "foiled terrorist attacks".
It accused Ukrainian military intelligence of plotting to target crucial parts of Crimea's infrastructure ahead of the elections.
:: Revealed: Russia's 'Secret Syria Mercenaries'
Ukrainian Security Service chief Yuri Tandit denied the FSB's report, insisting Kiev had no intention of taking back the territory "by force".
Kiev is preparing to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Ukrainian independence on 24 August.
Ukrainian officials suggest Moscow may try to disrupt the celebrations.
They said Russian forces in Crimea were building up near the border with Ukraine.
This "could mean Moscow's preparing for offensive operations", the officials added. |
Like a true sucker, I've been lathering myself with Aveeno while prancercising on the treadmill. This tank top could have saved me a lot of time and cleanup.
Hammacher Schlemmer This $85 tank top is infused with caffeine and promises to slim you down.
Hammacher Schlemmer – purveyor of wonderfully weird items – has finally outdone itself with this $85 tank top.
This magical article of clothing is somehow laced with coffee and green algae, which Hammacher claims will “rev up the body’s fat metabolism while creating a slimmer appearance.”
There’s more. “The soft, stretchy fabric contains micronized caffeine that stimulates lipolysis, the natural breakdown of stored fats, while the embedded brown algae moisturizes and smooths skin,” says Hammacher.
So this is like a workout and body lotion in one! Like a true sucker, I’ve been lathering myself with Aveeno while prancercising on the treadmill. This tank top could have saved me a lot of time and cleanup. Yes, it’s only available for women, but I’ll take my chances and try to stuff myself into a XXL.
For the magic to work, you’ll have to commit to wearing this thing eight hours a day for 21 days. The payoff, according to Hammacher, is up to an inch off the hips and up to 1.25 inches off the thighs. You can only machine-wash the tank top 20 times before all the juju wears off, too. After that, it’s just a plain black tank with a great story to tell.
The Caffeine Infused Slimming Tank Top [Product Page] |
Social Security is Strong
A new report on Monday by Social Security trustees showed the retirement program's trust fund has $2.7 trillion in reserves and will grow to $3.06 trillion by 2021, enough to maintain the unbroken record of paying every nickel owed to every beneficiary in full for another two decades. Sen. Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation to strengthen Social Security and guarantee benefits for 75 years by extending the payroll tax that most Americans already pay to those who earn above $250,000 a year.
"The most effective way to strengthen Social Security for the next 75 years is to eliminate the cap on the payroll tax on income above $250,000. Right now, someone who earns $110,100 pays the same amount of money into Social Security as a billionaire. That makes no sense," said Sanders, the chairman of the Defending Social Security Caucus. He also chairs the Senate aging subcommittee.
Under the proposed legislation, the wealthiest Americans would pay the same payroll tax rate already assessed on those with incomes up to $110,100 a year. Social Security officials have calculated that the simple change would keep the retirement program strong for another 75 years. The legislation also follows through on a proposal that President Barack Obama made in 2008 when he was running for president.
The Keeping Our Social Security Promises Act is cosponsored by Sens. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Barbara Mikulski, (D-Md.), Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D- R.I.).
Since it was signed into law 76 years ago, Social Security has kept millions of senior citizens, widows, widowers, orphans, and the disabled out of poverty. Before Social Security, about half of senior citizens lived in poverty. Today, less than 10 percent do.
"I strongly disagree with some of my colleagues who want to balance the budget by cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other programs that are of enormous importance to seniors and the working families of our country. There are ways to address the deficit crisis without attacking some of the most vulnerable members of our society. As chairman of the Defending Social Security Caucus, I will do everything in my power to make sure that the promises made to seniors will be kept."
Social Security provides support for 55 million people, including 38 million retired workers, 6 million widows, widowers and orphans, and 11 million disabled workers. The most successful government program in our nation's history has not contributed one dime to the federal deficit. |
It seem Wargaming Asia decided to share all T-35-85M Missions. It’s a very easy marathon to complete, so if you want a decent Tier VI Premium, you will be more than able to pick it up. Or if you already own it these will be the easiest 1,500,000 Credits you ever got.
Update #1 Article updated with confirmed information from World of Tanks Asia Portal.
Day 1
Conditions: Play 5 random battles.
Play 5 random battles. Rewards: 1 Personal Reserve: 100% EXP for 2 hours
Day 2
Conditions: Rank Top 5 by damage in a random battle.
Rank Top 5 by damage in a random battle. Rewards: 1 Personal Reserve: 300% Crew EXP for 2 hours
Day 3
Conditions: Destroy 5 enemy vehicles in any amount of random battles.
Destroy 5 enemy vehicles in any amount of random battles. Rewards: 5x Automatic Fire Extinguishers
Day 4
Conditions: Deal 3000 damage in any amount of random battles.
Deal 3000 damage in any amount of random battles. Rewards: 5x Large Repair Kits
Day 5
Conditions: Damage 5 enemy vehicles in any amount of random battles.
Damage 5 enemy vehicles in any amount of random battles. Rewards: 5x Large Repair Kits
Day 6
Conditions: Rank top 5 by EXP in a random battle.
Rank top 5 by EXP in a random battle. Rewards: 1 Personal Reserve: 100% EXP for 2 hours
Day 7
Conditions: Deal damage to enemy vehicles in random battles 10 times over any amount of battles . Get 750 base EXP over any amount of random battles.
. Get 750 base EXP over any amount of random battles. Rewards: 1 Personal Reserve: 300% EXP for 2 hours
Day 8
Conditions: Get 1,500 EXP over any amount of random battles.
Get 1,500 EXP over any amount of random battles. Rewards: 1 Personal Reserve: 300% EXP for 2 hours
Day 9
Conditions: Damage at least 5 enemy vehicles in any amount of random battles.
Damage at least 5 enemy vehicles in any amount of random battles. Rewards: 1 Personal Reserve: 100% EXP for 2 hours
Day 10
Conditions: Spot 10 enemy vehicles over any amount of random battles.
Spot 10 enemy vehicles over any amount of random battles. Rewards: 5x Large Repair Kits
Day 11
Conditions: Destroy 5 enemy vehicles in any amount of random battles.
Destroy 5 enemy vehicles in any amount of random battles. Rewards: 1 Personal Reserve: +50% Credits for 2 hours
Day 12
Conditions: Deal 1,000 damage in 1 random battle.
Deal 1,000 damage in 1 random battle. Rewards: 1 Personal Reserve: 300% Crew EXP for 2 hours
Day 13
Conditions: Damage 5 enemy vehicles in any amount of random battles.
Damage 5 enemy vehicles in any amount of random battles. Rewards: 5x Large Repair Kits
Day 14
Conditions: Damage/injure 5 enemy modules/crew members in any amount of battles
Damage/injure 5 enemy modules/crew members in any amount of battles Rewards: 5x Large Repair Kits
Day 15
Conditions: Damage 5 enemy vehicles over any amount of random battles.
Damage 5 enemy vehicles over any amount of random battles. Rewards: 1 Personal Reserve: 100% EXP for 2 hours
Day 16
Conditions: Deal at least 5% of your team’s total damage to enemy vehicles in the same random battle.
Deal at least 5% of your team’s total damage to enemy vehicles in the same random battle. Rewards: 1 Personal Reserve: 300% Free EXP for 2 hours
Day 17
Conditions: Deal 3,000 damage over any amount of random battles.
Deal 3,000 damage over any amount of random battles. Rewards: 5x Automatic Fire Extinguishers
Day 18
Conditions: Get 1,500 EXP in any amount of random battles.
Get 1,500 EXP in any amount of random battles. Rewards: 1 Personal Reserve: +50% Credits for 2 hours |
The number of police officers per person is falling nationally, along with reported crime. A report released Thursday by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) shows there were 15.1 police officers per 10,000 U.S. residents in 2013. That’s down from 15.4 police officers per 10,000 residents in 2007, the last time the BJS surveyed police departments around the country.
The country’s biggest police departments are responsible for a big part of the decline, as big-city forces have shrunk even as the populations they serve have grown. While the raw number of sworn officers (those with general arrest powers) has risen since 2007, it didn’t grow as fast as the U.S. population. And the number of officers working in the country’s 50 biggest departments fell during that time, by about 2,000 officers. Since the overall population of the jurisdictions that house those departments increased by about 4 percent during those six years, that means the proportion of people in those places every day who are police officers has declined by about 5 percent, to 28.5 police officers for every 10,000 residents.
Remarkably, the total number of officers in the biggest forces has declined even since 1997, a period in which the population of people covered by those departments grew 12 percent.
The BJS numbers reflect quirks in individual jurisdictions’ situations or borders. New Orleans saw a big spike between 2003 and 2007 in the number of police officers per capita, largely because the city’s population plummeted after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Then the per capita number dropped again, as the city’s population partially rebounded and the department shrank by more than 150 officers. Per capita police size could also depend on how tightly a jurisdiction’s borders envelop a city center or whether they include suburban areas. And cities that many people commute into may look like they have unusually large police presences because their official population figures underrepresent the number of people who spend time there; the daily influx of hundreds of thousands of people into Washington is one reason why the capital has the highest per capita police presence.
The biggest changes in per capita police-force sizes aren’t necessarily driven by crime rates and policing needs. City budgets play a big role. Prince George’s County, Maryland, just outside Washington, has increased its number of sworn officers by 56 percent per capita since 1997, the largest increase among big departments. The county had budgetary leeway beyond the police department: It also hired more firefighters. The police department in San Jose, California, which has shrunk the most since 1997, has experienced what the Mercury News called a “running exodus of officers” because of a budget crunch.
Budget constraints also affect our ability to analyze police-force sizes. Thursday’s report, which gave results of the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) Survey, a semiregular study of local policing, is the first BJS update of local police-force sizes in six years, and the data is already two years old.
The BJS report updates many other stats about police departments. It shows that just 12.2 percent of sworn police officers are women, up just 2 percentage points from 2000. One in 8 police officers is black, in line with the U.S. as a whole. One in 9 police officers is Hispanic, more than double the ratio in 1990, but below Hispanics’ share of the U.S. population of roughly 1 in 6. |
The Hawaiian language (Hawaiian: ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, pronounced [ʔoːˈlɛlo həˈvɐjʔi])[3] is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaiʻi, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the State of Hawaii.[4] King Kamehameha III established the first Hawaiian-language constitution in 1839 and 1840.
For various reasons, including territorial legislation establishing English as the official language in schools, the number of native speakers of Hawaiian gradually decreased during the period from the 1830s to the 1950s. Hawaiian was essentially displaced by English on six of seven inhabited islands. In 2001, native speakers of Hawaiian amounted to less than 0.1% of the statewide population. Linguists were unsure that Hawaiian and other endangered languages would survive.[5][6]
Nevertheless, from around 1949 to the present day, there has been a gradual increase in attention to and promotion of the language. Public Hawaiian-language immersion preschools called Pūnana Leo were established in 1984; other immersion schools followed soon after that. The first students to start in immersion preschool have now graduated from college and many are fluent Hawaiian speakers. The federal government has acknowledged this development. For example, the Hawaiian National Park Language Correction Act of 2000 changed the names of several national parks in Hawaiʻi, observing the Hawaiian spelling.[7] However, the language is still classified as critically endangered by UNESCO.[8]
A creole language spoken in Hawaiʻi is Hawaiian Pidgin (or Hawaii Creole English, HCE). It should not be mistaken for the Hawaiian language nor for a dialect of English.
The Hawaiian alphabet has 13 letters: five vowels (each with a long pronunciation and a short one) and eight consonants, one of which is the glottal stop called ʻokina.
Name [ edit ]
The Hawaiian language takes its name from the largest island in the Hawaiian state, Hawaii (Hawaiʻi in the Hawaiian language). The island name was first written in English in 1778 by British explorer James Cook and his crew members. They wrote it as "Owhyhee" or "Owhyee". Explorers Mortimer (1791) and Otto von Kotzebue (1821) used that spelling.[9]
The initial "O" in the name is a reflection of the fact that unique identity is predicated in Hawaiian by using a copula form, o, immediately before a proper noun.[10] Thus, in Hawaiian, the name of the island is expressed by saying O Hawaiʻi, which means "[This] is Hawaiʻi."[11] The Cook expedition also wrote "Otaheite" rather than "Tahiti."[12]
The spelling "why" in the name reflects the [hw] pronunciation of wh in 18th-century English (still used in parts of the English-speaking world). Why was pronounced [hwai]. The spelling "hee" or "ee" in the name represents the sounds [hi], or [i].[13]
Putting the parts together, O-why-(h)ee reflects [o-hwai-i], a reasonable approximation of the native pronunciation, [o hɐwɐiʔi].
American missionaries bound for Hawaiʻi used the phrases "Owhihe Language" and "Owhyhee language" in Boston prior to their departure in October 1819 and during their five-month voyage to Hawaiʻi.[14] They still used such phrases as late as March 1822.[15] However, by July 1823, they had begun using the phrase "Hawaiian Language."[16]
In Hawaiian, ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi means "Hawaiian language", as adjectives follow nouns.[17]
Family and origin [ edit ]
Hawaiian is a Polynesian member of the Austronesian language family.[18] It is closely related to other Polynesian languages, such as Samoan, Marquesan, Tahitian, Māori, Rapa Nui (the language of Easter Island) and Tongan.[citation needed]
According to Schütz (1994), the Marquesans colonized the archipelago in roughly 300 CE[19] followed by later waves of immigration from the Society Islands and Samoa-Tonga. Their languages, over time, became the Hawaiian language within the Hawaiian Islands.[20] Kimura and Wilson (1983) also state:
"Linguists agree that Hawaiian is closely related to Eastern Polynesian, with a particularly strong link in the Southern Marquesas, and a secondary link in Tahiti, which may be explained by voyaging between the Hawaiian and Society Islands."[21]
Methods of proving Hawaiian's linguistic relationships [ edit ]
The genetic history of the Hawaiian language is demonstrated primarily through the application of lexicostatistics, which involves quantitative comparison of lexical cognates, and the comparative method.[22][23] Both the number of cognates and the phonological similarity of cognates are measures of language relationship.
The following table provides a limited lexicostatistical data set for ten numbers.[24] The asterisk (*) is used to show that these are hypothetical, reconstructed forms. In the table, the year date of the modern forms is rounded off to 2000 CE to emphasize the 6000-year time lapse since the PAN era.[citation needed]
Numbers in Austronesian languages Language 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 PAN, c. 4000 BCE *isa *DuSa *telu *Sepat *lima *enem *pitu *walu *Siwa *puluq Yami asa doa atlo apat lima anem pito wau siyam pao Amis cecay tusa tulu sepat lima enem pitu falu siwa pulu' Tagalog isá dalawá tatló ápat limá ánim pitó waló siyám sampu Ilocano maysá dua talló uppát limá inném pitó waló siam sangapúlo Cebuano usá duhá tuló upat limá unom pitó waló siyám napulu Chamorro maisa/håcha hugua tulu fatfat lima gunum fiti guålu sigua månot/fulu Malagasy isa roa telo efatra dimy enina fito valo sivy folo Malay/Indonesian sa/se/satu dua tiga empat lima enam tujuh lapan/delapan sembilan sepuluh Minangkabau ciek/satu duo tigo ampek/empat limo anam/enam tujuah/tujoh salapan/lapan sɔmbilan sapuluah/sepuloh Javanese siji loro telu papat limo nem pitu wolu songo sepuluh Tetun ida rua tolu hat lima nen hitu ualu sia sanulu Fijian dua rua tolu vā lima ono vitu walu ciwa tini ( archaic: sagavulu) Kiribati teuana uoua teniua aua nimaua onoua itiua waniua ruaiua tebuina Tongan taha ua tolu fā nima ono fitu valu hiva -fulu Sāmoan tasi lua tolu fā lima ono fitu valu iva sefulu Māori tahi rua toru whā rima ono whitu waru iwa tekau ( archaic: ngahuru) Tahitian hō'ē piti toru maha pae ōno hitu va'u iva 'ahuru Marquesan tahi 'ua to'u hā 'ima ono hitu va'u iva 'ahu'u Leeward Islands (Society Islands) language tahi rua toru fā rima ono fitu varu iva 'ahuru Hawaiian kahi lua kolu hā lima ono hiku walu iwa -'umi
Note: For the number "10", the Tongan form in the table is part of the word /hoŋo-fulu/ ('ten'). The Hawaiian cognate is part of the word /ana-hulu/ ('ten days'); however, the more common word for "10" used in counting and quantifying is /ʔumi/, a different root.[citation needed]
Application of the lexicostatistical method to the data in the table will show the four languages to be related to one another, with Tagalog having 100% cognacy with PAN, while Hawaiian and Tongan have 100% cognacy with each other, but 90% with Tagalog and PAN. This is because the forms for each number are cognates, except the Hawaiian and Tongan words for the number "1", which are cognate with each other, but not with Tagalog and PAN. When the full set of 200 meanings is used, the percentages will be much lower. For example, Elbert found Hawaiian and Tongan to have 49% (98 ÷ 200) shared cognacy.[25] This points out the importance of data-set size for this method, where less data leads to cruder results, while more data leads to better results.[25][citation needed]
Application of the comparative method will show partly different genetic relationships. It will point out sound changes,[26] such as:
the loss of all PAN word-final consonants in Tongan and Hawaiian; lowering of PAN *u to Tagalog [o] in word-final syllables; retention of PAN *t in word-initial and word-medial position in Tagalog and Tongan, but shift to /k/ in Hawaiian; retention of PAN *p in Tagalog, but shift to /f/ in Tongan and /h/ in Hawaiian.
This method will recognize sound change #1 as a shared innovation of Hawaiian and Tongan. It will also take the Hawaiian and Tongan cognates for "1" as another shared innovation. Due to these exclusively shared features, Hawaiian and Tongan are found to be more closely related to one another than either is to Tagalog or PAN.[citation needed]
The forms in the table show that the Austronesian vowels tend to be relatively stable, while the consonants are relatively volatile. It is also apparent that the Hawaiian words for "3", "5", and "8" have remained essentially unchanged for 6000 years.[citation needed]
History [ edit ]
For Hawaiian language history before 1778, see § Family and origin
In 1778, British explorer James Cook made Europe's initial, recorded first contact with Hawaiʻi, beginning a new phase in the development of Hawaiian. During the next forty years, the sounds of Spanish (1789), Russian (1804), French (1816), and German (1816) arrived in Hawaiʻi via other explorers and businessmen. Hawaiian began to be written for the first time, largely restricted to isolated names and words, and word lists collected by explorers and travelers.[27]
The early explorers and merchants who first brought European languages to the Hawaiian islands also took on a few native crew members who brought the Hawaiian language into new territory.[28] Hawaiians took these nautical jobs because their traditional way of life changed due to plantations, and although there were not enough of these Hawaiian-speaking explorers to establish any viable speech communities abroad, they still had a noticeable presence.[29] One of them, a boy in his teens known as Obookiah (ʻŌpūkahaʻia), had a major impact on the future of the language. He sailed to New England, where he eventually became a student at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut. He inspired New Englanders to support a Christian mission to Hawaiʻi, and provided information on the Hawaiian language to the American missionaries there prior to their departure for Hawaiʻi in 1819.[30]
Folk tales [ edit ]
Like all natural spoken languages, the Hawaiian language was originally just an oral language. The native people of the Hawaiian language relayed religion, traditions, history, and views of their world through stories that were handed down from generation to generation. One form of storytelling most commonly associated with the Hawaiian islands is hula. Nathaniel B. Emerson notes that "It kept the communal imagination in living touch with the nation's legendary past".[31]
The islanders' connection with their stories is argued to be one reason why Captain James Cook received a pleasant welcome. Marshall Sahlins has observed that Hawaiian folktales began bearing similar content to those of the Western world in the eighteenth century.[32] He argues this was caused by the timing of Captain Cook's arrival, which was coincidentally when the indigenous Hawaiians were celebrating the Makahiki festival. The islanders' story foretold of the god Lono's return at the time of the Makahiki festival.[33]
Written Hawaiian [ edit ]
In 1820, Protestant missionaries from New England arrived in Hawaiʻi.
Adelbert von Chamisso might have consulted with a native speaker of Hawaiian in Berlin, Germany, before publishing his grammar of Hawaiian (Über die Hawaiische Sprache) in 1837.[34] When Hawaiian King David Kalākaua took a trip around the world, he brought his native language with him. When his wife, Queen Kapiʻolani, and his sister, Princess (later Queen) Liliʻuokalani, took a trip across North America and on to the British Islands, in 1887, Liliʻuokalani's composition Aloha ʻOe was already a famous song in the U.S.[35]
Headline from May 16, 1834, issue of newspaper published by Lorrin Andrews and students at Lahainaluna School
In 1834, the first Hawaiian-language newspapers were published by missionaries working with locals. The missionaries also played a significant role in publishing a vocabulary (1836)[36] grammar (1854)[37] and dictionary (1865)[38] of Hawaiian. Literacy in Hawaiian was widespread among the local population, especially ethnic Hawaiians. Use of the language among the general population might have peaked around 1881. Even so, some people worried, as early as 1854, that the language was "soon destined to extinction."[39]
Suppression of Hawaiian [ edit ]
The decline of the Hawaiian language dates back to a coup that overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy and dethroned the existing Hawaiian queen. Thereafter, a law was instituted that banned the Hawaiian language from being taught.[40] The law cited as banning the Hawaiian language is identified as Act 57, sec. 30 of the 1896 Laws of the Republic of Hawaiʻi:
The English Language shall be the medium and basis of instruction in all public and private schools, provided that where it is desired that another language shall be taught in addition to the English language, such instruction may be authorized by the Department, either by its rules, the curriculum of the school, or by direct order in any particular instance. Any schools that shall not conform to the provisions of this section shall not be recognized by the Department. The Laws of Hawaii, Chapter 10, Section 123[41]
This law established English as the medium of instruction for the government-recognized schools both "public and private". While it did not ban or make illegal the Hawaiian language in other contexts, its implementation in the schools had far-reaching effects. Those who had been pushing for English-only schools took this law as licence to extinguish the native language at the early education level. While the law stopped short of making Hawaiian illegal (it was still the dominant language spoken at the time), many children who spoke Hawaiian at school, including on the playground, were disciplined. This included corporal punishment and going to the home of the offending child to strongly advise them to stop speaking it in their home.[citation needed] Moreover, the law specifically provided for teaching languages "in addition to the English language," reducing Hawaiian to the status of a foreign language, subject to approval by the Department. Hawaiian was not taught initially in any school, including the all-Hawaiian Kamehameha Schools. This is largely because when these schools were founded, like Kamehameha Schools founded in 1887 (nine years before this law), Hawaiian was being spoken in the home. Once this law was enacted, individuals at these institutions took it upon themselves to enforce a ban on Hawaiian. Beginning in 1900, Mary Kawena Pukui, who was later the co-author of the Hawaiian–English Dictionary, was punished for speaking Hawaiian by being rapped on the forehead, allowed to eat only bread and water for lunch, and denied home visits on holidays.[42] Winona Beamer was expelled from Kamehameha Schools in 1937 for chanting Hawaiian.[43]
1949 to present [ edit ]
In 1949, the legislature of the Territory of Hawaiʻi commissioned Mary Pukui and Samuel Elbert to write a new dictionary of Hawaiian, either revising the Andrews-Parker work or starting from scratch.[44] Pukui and Elbert took a middle course, using what they could from the Andrews dictionary, but making certain improvements and additions that were more significant than a minor revision. The dictionary they produced, in 1957, introduced an era of gradual increase in attention to the language and culture.
Efforts to promote the language have increased in recent decades. Hawaiian-language "immersion" schools are now open to children whose families want to reintroduce Hawaiian language for future generations.[45] The ʻAha Pūnana Leo’s Hawaiian language preschools in Hilo, Hawaii, have received international recognition.[46] The local National Public Radio station features a short segment titled "Hawaiian word of the day" and a Hawaiian language news broadcast. Honolulu television station KGMB ran a weekly Hawaiian language program, ʻĀhaʻi ʻŌlelo Ola, as recently as 2010.[47] Additionally, the Sunday editions of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the largest newspaper in Hawaii, feature a brief article called Kauakukalahale written entirely in Hawaiian by teachers, students, and community members.[48]
Today, the number of native speakers of Hawaiian, which was under 0.1% of the statewide population in 1997, has risen to 2,000, out of 24,000 total who are fluent in the language, according to the US 2011 census. On six of the seven permanently inhabited islands, Hawaiian has been largely displaced by English, but on Niʻihau, native speakers of Hawaiian have remained fairly isolated and have continued to use Hawaiian almost exclusively.[49][40][50]
In 2018, Duolingo released a Hawaiian language learning course.[51]
Niʻihau [ edit ]
“ Niʻihau is the only area in the world where Hawaiian is the first language and English is a foreign language. Because of many sufficiently marked variations, Niihau people, when visiting or living in Honolulu, substitute the Oahu dialect for their own – apparently easy to do – saying that otherwise people in Honolulu have trouble understanding them. Niihau people speak very rapidly; many vowels and entire syllables are dropped or whispered.[52] ” — Samuel Elbert and Mary Pukui, Hawaiian Grammar (1979)
The isolated island of Niʻihau, located off the southwest coast of Kauai, is the one island where Hawaiian is still spoken as the language of daily life.[49] Elbert & Pukui (1979:23) states that "[v]ariations in Hawaiian dialects have not been systematically studied", and that "[t]he dialect of Niʻihau is the most aberrant and the one most in need of study". They recognized that Niʻihauans can speak Hawaiian in substantially different ways. Their statements are based in part on some specific observations made by Newbrand (1951). (See Hawaiian phonological processes)
Orthography [ edit ]
Hawaiians had no written language prior to Western contact, except for petroglyph symbols. The modern Hawaiian alphabet, ka pīʻāpā Hawaiʻi, is based on the Latin script. Hawaiian words end only[53] in vowels, and every consonant must be followed by a vowel. The Hawaiian alphabetical order has all of the vowels before the consonants,[54] as in the following chart.
Aa Ee Ii Oo Uu Hh Kk Ll Mm Nn Pp Ww ʻ /a/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /u/ /h/ /k~t/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /p/ /v~w/ ʔ/
Origin [ edit ]
This writing system was developed by American Protestant missionaries during 1820–1826.[55] It was the first thing they ever printed in Hawaiʻi, on January 7, 1822, and it originally included the consonants B, D, R, T, and V, in addition to the current ones (H, K, L, M, N, P, W), and it had F, G, S, Y and Z for "spelling foreign words". The initial printing also showed the five vowel letters (A, E, I, O, U) and seven of the short diphthongs (AE, AI, AO, AU, EI, EU, OU).[56]
In 1826, the developers voted to eliminate some of the letters which represented functionally redundant allophones (called "interchangeable letters"), enabling the Hawaiian alphabet to approach the ideal state of one-symbol-one-phoneme, and thereby optimizing the ease with which people could teach and learn the reading and writing of Hawaiian.[57] For example, instead of spelling one and the same word as pule, bule, pure, and bure (because of interchangeable p/b and l/r), the word is spelled only as pule.
Interchangeable B/P. B was dropped, P was kept.
was dropped, was kept. Interchangeable L/R. R and D were dropped, L was kept.
and were dropped, was kept. Interchangeable K/T. T was dropped, K was kept.
was dropped, was kept. Interchangeable V/W. V was dropped, W was kept.
However, hundreds of words were very rapidly borrowed into Hawaiian from English, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Syriac.[58][59][60] Although these loan words were necessarily Hawaiianized, they often retained some of their "non-Hawaiian letters" in their published forms. For example, Brazil fully Hawaiianized is Palakila, but retaining "foreign letters" it is Barazila.[61] Another example is Gibraltar, written as Kipalaleka or Gibaraleta.[62] While [z] and [ɡ] are not regarded as Hawaiian sounds, [b], [ɹ], and [t] were represented in the original alphabet, so the letters (b, r, and t) for the latter are not truly "non-Hawaiian" or "foreign", even though their post-1826 use in published matter generally marked words of foreign origin.
Glottal stop [ edit ]
ʻOkina (ʻoki 'cut' + -na '-ing') is the modern Hawaiian name for the symbol (a letter) that represents the glottal stop.[63] It was formerly known as ʻuʻina ('snap'[64][65]).
For examples of the ʻokina, consider the Hawaiian words Hawaiʻi and Oʻahu (often simply Hawaii and Oahu in English orthography). In Hawaiian, these words can be pronounced [hʌˈʋʌi.ʔi] and [oˈʔʌ.hu], and can be written with an ʻokina where the glottal stop is pronounced.[66][67]
Elbert & Pukui's Hawaiian Grammar says "The glottal stop, ‘, is made by closing the glottis or space between the vocal cords, the result being something like the hiatus in English oh-oh."[68]
History [ edit ]
As early as 1823, the missionaries made some limited use of the apostrophe to represent the glottal stop,[69] but they did not make it a letter of the alphabet. In publishing the Hawaiian Bible, they used it to distinguish koʻu ('my') from kou ('your').[70] In 1864, William DeWitt Alexander published a grammar of Hawaiian in which he made it clear that the glottal stop (calling it "guttural break") is definitely a true consonant of the Hawaiian language.[71] He wrote it using an apostrophe. In 1922, the Andrews-Parker dictionary of Hawaiian made limited use of the opening single quote symbol, called "reversed apostrophe" or "inverse comma", to represent the glottal stop.[72] Subsequent dictionaries have preferred to use that symbol. Today, many native speakers of Hawaiian do not bother, in general, to write any symbol for the glottal stop. Its use is advocated mainly among students and teachers of Hawaiian as a second language, and among linguists.[73]
Electronic encoding [ edit ]
ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi « (Hawaiian: Hawaiian language) within single « (Hawaiian:) within single quotes , font: Linux Libertine . The glyph of the two ʻokinas is clearly different from the one of the opening quote.
The ʻokina is written in various ways for electronic uses:
turned comma: ʻ , Unicode hex value 02BB (decimal 699). This does not always have the correct appearance because it is not supported in some fonts.
, Unicode hex value 02BB (decimal 699). This does not always have the correct appearance because it is not supported in some fonts. opening single quote, a.k.a. left single quotation mark: ‘ Unicode hex value 2018 (decimal 8216). In many fonts this character looks like either a left-leaning single quotation mark or a quotation mark thicker at the bottom than at the top. In more traditional serif fonts such as Times New Roman it can look like a very small "6" with the circle filled in black: ‘ .
Because many people who want to write the ʻokina are not familiar with these specific characters and/or do not have access to the appropriate fonts and input and display systems, it is sometimes written with more familiar and readily available characters:
the ASCII apostrophe ' , Unicode hex value 27 (decimal 39), [74] following the missionary tradition.
, Unicode hex value 27 (decimal 39), following the missionary tradition. the ASCII grave accent (often called "backquote" or "backtick") ` , [75] Unicode hex value 60 (decimal 96)
, Unicode hex value 60 (decimal 96) the right single quotation mark, or "curly apostrophe" ’ , Unicode hex value 2019 (decimal 146)[76]
Macron [ edit ]
A modern Hawaiian name for the macron symbol is kahakō (kaha 'mark' + kō 'long').[77] It was formerly known as mekona (Hawaiianization of macron). It can be written as a diacritical mark which looks like a hyphen or dash written above a vowel, i.e., ā ē ī ō ū and Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū. It is used to show that the marked vowel is a "double", or "geminate", or "long" vowel, in phonological terms.[78] (See: Vowel length)
As early as 1821, at least one of the missionaries, Hiram Bingham, was using macrons (and breves) in making handwritten transcriptions of Hawaiian vowels.[79] The missionaries specifically requested their sponsor in Boston to send them some type (fonts) with accented vowel characters, including vowels with macrons, but the sponsor made only one response and sent the wrong font size (pica instead of small pica).[72] Thus, they could not print ā, ē, ī, ō, nor ū (at the right size), even though they wanted to.
Pronunciation [ edit ]
Due to extensive allophony, Hawaiian has more than 13 phones. Although vowel length is phonemic, long vowels are not always pronounced as such,[78] even though under the rules for assigning stress in Hawaiian, a long vowel will always receive stress.[80][81]
Phonology [ edit ]
Consonants [ edit ]
Consonants Labial Alveolar Velar Glottal Nasal m n Plosive p t ~ k ʔ Fricative h Sonorant w ~ v l
Hawaiian is known for having very few consonant phonemes – eight: /p, k ~ t, ʔ, h, m, n, l, w ~ v/. It is notable that Hawaiian has allophonic variation of [t] with [k],[82][83][84][85] [w] with [v],[86] and (in some dialects) [l] with [n].[87] The [t]–[k] variation is quite unusual among the world's languages, and is likely a product both of the small number of consonants in Hawaiian, and the recent shift of historical *t to modern [t]–[k], after historical *k had shifted to [ʔ]. In some dialects, /ʔ/ remains as [k] in some words. These variations are largely free, though there are conditioning factors. /l/ tends to [n] especially in words with both /l/ and /n/, such as in the island name Lānaʻi ([laːˈnɐʔi]–[naːˈnɐʔi]), though this is not always the case: ʻeleʻele or ʻeneʻene "black". The [k] allophone is almost universal at the beginnings of words, whereas [t] is most common before the vowel /i/. [v] is also the norm after /i/ and /e/, whereas [w] is usual after /u/ and /o/. After /a/ and initially, however, [w] and [v] are in free variation.[88] "A consonant occurs only before a vowel; thus two consonants never occur in succession and a syllable always ends with a vowel".[68]
Vowels [ edit ]
Hawaiian has five short and five long vowels, plus diphthongs.
Monophthongs [ edit ]
Monophthongs Short Long Front Back Front Back Close i u iː uː Mid ɛ ~ e o eː oː Open ɐ ~ ə aː
Hawaiian has five pure vowels. The short vowels are /u, i, o, e, a/, and the long vowels, if they are considered separate phonemes rather than simply sequences of like vowels, are /uː, iː, oː, eː, aː/. When stressed, short /e/ and /a/ have been described as becoming [ɛ] and [ɐ], while when unstressed they are [e] and [ə][citation needed]. Parker Jones (2017), however, did not find a reduction of /a/ to [ə] in the phonetic analysis of a young speaker from Hilo, Hawaiʻi; so there is at least some variation in how /a/ is realised.[89] /e/ also tends to become [ɛ] next to /l/, /n/, and another [ɛ], as in Pele [pɛlɛ]. Some grammatical particles vary between short and long vowels. These include a and o "of", ma "at", na and no "for". Between a back vowel /o/ or /u/ and a following non-back vowel (/a e i/), there is an epenthetic [w], which is generally not written. Between a front vowel /e/ or /i/ and a following non-front vowel (/a o u/), there is an epenthetic [j] (a y sound), which is never written.
Diphthongs [ edit ]
Short diphthongs Ending with /u/ Ending with /i/ Ending with /o/ Ending with /e/ Starting with /i/ iu Starting with /o/ ou oi Starting with /e/ eu ei Starting with /a/ au ai ao ae
The short-vowel diphthongs are /iu, ou, oi, eu, ei, au, ai, ao, ae/. In all except perhaps /iu/, these are falling diphthongs. However, they are not as tightly bound as the diphthongs of English, and may be considered vowel sequences.[89] (The second vowel in such sequences may receive the stress, but in such cases it is not counted as a diphthong.) In fast speech, /ai/ tends to [ei] and /au/ tends to [ou], conflating these diphthongs with /ei/ and /ou/.
There are only a limited number of vowels which may follow long vowels, and some authors treat these sequences as diphthongs as well: /oːu, eːi, aːu, aːi, aːo, aːe/.
Long diphthongs Ending with /u/ Ending with /i/ Ending with /o/ Ending with /e/ Starting with /o/ oːu Starting with /e/ eːi Starting with /a/ aːu aːi aːo aːe
Phonotactics [ edit ]
Hawaiian syllable structure is (C)V. All CV syllables occur except for wū;[90] wu occurs only in two words borrowed from English.[91][92] As shown by Schütz,[58][80][93] Hawaiian word-stress is predictable in words of one to four syllables, but not in words of five or more syllables. Hawaiian phonological processes include palatalization and deletion of consonants, as well as raising, diphthongization, deletion, and compensatory lengthening of vowels.[83][94] Phonological reduction (or "decay") of consonant phonemes during the historical development of the language has resulted in the phonemic glottal stop.[95][96] Ultimate loss (deletion) of intervocalic consonant phonemes has resulted in Hawaiian long vowels and diphthongs.[96][97][98][99]
Grammar [ edit ]
Hawaiian is an analytic language with verb–subject–object word order. While there is no use of inflection for verbs, in Hawaiian, like other Austronesian personal pronouns, declension is found in the differentiation between a- and o-class genitive case personal pronouns in order to indicate inalienable possession in a binary possessive class system. Also like many Austronesian languages, Hawaiian pronouns employ separate words for inclusive and exclusive we (clusivity), and distinguish singular, dual, and plural. The grammatical function of verbs is marked by adjacent particles (short words) and by their relative positions, that indicate tense–aspect–mood.
Some examples of verb phrase patterns:[68]
ua VERB – perfective
– perfective e VERB ana – imperfective
– imperfective ke VERB nei – present progressive
– present progressive e VERB – imperative
– imperative mai VERB – negative imperative
– negative imperative i VERB – purposive
– purposive ke VERB – infinitive
Nouns can be marked with articles:
ka honu (the turtle)
(the turtle) nā honu (the turtles)
(the turtles) ka hale (the house)
(the house) ke kanaka (the person)
ka and ke are singular definite articles. ke is used before words beginning with a-, e-, o- and k-, and with some words beginning ʻ- and p-. ka is used in all other cases. nā is the plural definite article.
To show part of a group, the word kekahi is used. To show a bigger part, mau is inserted to pluralize the subject.
Examples:
kekahi pipi (one of the cows)
(one of the cows) kekahi mau pipi (some of the cows)
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ] |
For political leaders and strategists in both parties, the start of voting holds unusual fascination this winter because several political patterns and customs are on the line. Some Democrats say the 2016 campaign could mark the “death of inevitability” if Mrs. Clinton loses the first two nominating contests, in Iowa and New Hampshire, despite beginning the race with a deep bench of donors, high approval ratings among Democrats and establishment support. She is still ahead in national polls. But Mr. Sanders is seen as empowering regular voters against the will of party apparatchiks.
“In the Democratic race and also the Republican one, what was once marginal — a far-left Sanders candidacy, a celebrity Trump candidacy — has now become mainstream,” said former Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a Democrat who ran for president in 2008. “We have to take better care of our progressive wing, particularly our younger voters, or we will become a minority party. I’m not saying move left on everything, but the big issues should be wages and economic growth.”
Voters will also determine if new political movements can still rise to power in America. The two-party system has usually produced traditional nominees in recent decades; the counterculture movement of the 1960s, the post-Watergate era in the 1970s, the Gingrich revolution in the 1990s and the Tea Party movement of recent years did not crown truly groundbreaking standard-bearers in either party. This year could be different, given that so many assumptions about the campaign have proved wrong so far.
“Universal dismissal of Trump and Sanders. Consensus that a Bush-Clinton face-off was pretty much inevitable. Underestimation of Cruz,” Robert Shrum, a veteran Democratic strategist, said, naming a few. “Clinton remains the clear favorite, but there is a liberal impulse in the party that has made her path clearly more complicated.”
Doris Kearns Goodwin, a presidential historian, said the coming caucuses and primaries would show whether Mr. Trump’s fame and style of campaigning — through Twitter and television appearances, large rallies, and provocative and at times offensive language — was enough to prevail against Republican “super PACs” and candidates with strong donor bases. |
Ohio State hockey is back in the Frozen Four for the first time in 20 years.
The Buckeyes last reached the national semifinals of college hockey in 1998. They’re going back this year, thanks to a 5-1 win over Denver on Sunday.
The final ? has been claimed! (1) Ohio State eliminates (2) Denver, 5-1, to advance to the #FrozenFour for the first time in 20 years. pic.twitter.com/B4GbsWblfG — NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) March 26, 2018
The Buckeyes will now take on Minnesota-Duluth in the semifinals of the Frozen Four. That game will be played on April 5.
If OSU wins, they could face Michigan in the national title game. The Wolverines will play Notre Dame in the other semifinal.
The national championship game is set for April 7.
Since Notre Dame is in the Big Ten for hockey, that means three of the four teams in the Frozen Four are from the Big Ten. Not too shabby.
The game time for Ohio State’s Frozen Four contest should be out shortly. |
They had one thing in common: They themselves were exposed to Agent Orange and are now suffering debilitating, if not deadly diseases, or they are the widows of men who died as a result of exposure. Others have children or grandchildren who even today bear the deadly impact of exposure to the herbicide.
On Saturday evening close to 150 Vietnam-era veterans and their wives, as well as widows of men who served and have died, came together for a town hall meeting designed to educate veterans and their families of the medical and financial resources available to anyone who was exposed to the herbicide or was born with health complications as a result of their father's exposure.
The Agent Orange/Dioxin Town Hall Meeting was sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans of America, Associates of Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 542 in Harrisburg, and was facilitated by a panel of experts including representatives from the national Vietnam Veterans of America as well as the Associates of Vietnam Veterans of America.
"A lot of veterans that were in Vietnam were sprayed or came into contact and found out years later that illness cropped up," said Cathy Keister, whose husband, Brett Keister, was exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam and died of cancer in 2005. "The Vietnam Veterans of America fought for many years for the VA and the U.S. government to recognize these diseases in our veterans. There is medical and financial assistance available, but a lot of our veterans don't know it."
RELATED: The Fall of Saigon: PennLive's coverage of the 40th anniversary
Organizers said veterans of all wars going back to World War II and Korea down to present-day conflicts were subjected to lethal toxins. Most were not aware of what was being used or what effects their service would have on their health and the health of the offsprings and grandchildren.
"There's a lot of misinformation about Agent Orange and a lot of information out there that a lot of people don't understand and a lot of veterans still suffering from it who don't even realize it," said Mike Groff, who served in Vietnam in 1968 and was exposed to the toxic agent. Groff does not suffer any health maladies as a result.
From 1962 to 1971, the U.S. military sprayed approximately 20 million gallons of herbicides in Vietnam, a tactical operation known as "Operation Ranch Hand." More than half of it was Agent Orange, named after the color of the band around the 55-gallon drum used to transport the herbicide. It was used to destroy the enemy's food base and shelter.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classified the active ingredients in Agent Orange as a human carcinogen, and is considered teratogenic, meaning it causes deformities in fetuses.
Congress in 1991 approved the Agent Orange Act, establishing for Vietnam veterans a presumption of a service connection for diseases associated with exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides. Veterans were no longer required to provide proof of exposure.
Compensation and benefits also were extended to surviving spouses and children of Agent Orange veterans; as well as veterans who served in the Korean demilitarized zone between 1968 and 1969.
Broad compensation was also extended to "Brown Water Veterans," or those who served on coastal and inland waterways of Vietnam. "Blue Water Veterans" who served aboard ships that came ashore or who they themselves went ashore, were also extended benefits. Scores of "Blue Water Veterans," however, continue to battle the VA for compensation in dealing with conditions and diseases linked to Agent Orange.
Dr. Tom Berger, a panelist and veteran advocate, urged members of the audience to contact their lawmakers in Congress and urge them to pass pending legislation in both chambers that would fund research for children's diseases associated with Agent Orange.
"We need your help," Berger said. "We are begging for your help. Talk to your legislators."
PENNLIVE REPORT:The 40-Year War: Agent Orange Casualties Keep Mounting
He said Washington is in the preliminary stages of looking into the possibility of a morbidity study that will analyze the mental and physical health of Vietnam veterans and their morbidity rates.
About a dozen veterans - and some widows - stepped up to the microphone during the public comment section of the forum and shared compelling stories about their struggles with presumptive diseases or that of loved ones.
Joe Novak, who served in Vietnam, said he spent 15 years battling the VA for compensation. Five years after returning from Vietnam, Novak said he began to exhibit health complications.
"We used to think they were spraying for mosquitoes and here they were spraying Orange," he said.
He urged fellow veterans still struggling with the VA to not give up.
"It can be done," Novak said. "I was rewarded 100 percent. You just have to get with these people and shake them up a bit."Larry Carter, who served in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970, recalled what he knew about Agent Orange at the time.
"When they started using it, it killed teakwood, which is a really hard wood," he said. "But they told us it wouldn't hurt humans. How can it kill the jungles but not humans. They refused to say anything."
Larry Carter receives 100 percent compensation for Agent Orange presumptive diseases. A self-described patriotic American from Boston, Carter said he is not angry at the government.
"What I found difficult was coming home," he said. "You came home and people hated you. The war affects you - it could be the Revolutionary War. But we came home and our country hated us."
Among the displays was the chapter's Agent Orange quilt, one of 26 quilts in the country crafted to commemorate service personnel who were exposed to Agent Orange or have died as a result of exposure.
The quilt, which is still a work in progress, bears 18 names.
A large portion of the forum was dedicated to discussing the health complications inherited by children and grandchildren of Vietnam veterans.
"This can go on. It can skip a generation," said Herb Worthington, a panelist and member of the national Vietnam Veterans Association.
"This affects not only us as veterans but it affects the kids."
Worthington's daughter was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis on her 21st birthday.
He said there are hundreds of disabilities associated with exposure to Agent Orange.
"We were sprayed like they were sprayed," he said of the citizens of Vietnam at the time. "We weren't told any more about it than the Vietnamese were. We were told it was a bug spray..everything but what it was." |
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Khan Younis and Beit Lahia, Gaza—Hussein Shinbari is the only member of his family that survived the attack on a United Nations school in Beit Hanoun on Thursday. He is covered in blood. His undershirt, his pants and his hands are all stained a deep red. Ad Policy
After Israel launched its ground invasion into Gaza last week, the Shinbari family left their home in the northeastern town close to the Israeli border and sought shelter at the nearby school. “They told us it was safe,” Hussein says, sitting on the ground by the morgue of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia.
More than 1,500 displaced Palestinians were staying at the school. The conflict has caused unprecedented massive displacement in Gaza, forcing over 140,000 people to seek shelter in more than eighty UN shelters.
On Thursday afternoon, the people in the Beit Hanoun school were told they were being transferred to another area, away from the shelling and clashes on the streets outside. According to multiple survivors, they were instructed to gather their scant belongings and assemble in the schoolyard to await buses that would take them to another shelter.
At around 2:30 pm a barrage of artillery shells crashed into the school, according to witnesses. At least sixteen people were killed and more than 200 wounded, many of them women and children. Hussein lost his mother; his stepmother; his 16-year-old brother, Abel Rabo; his 12-year-old sister, Maria; and his 9-year-old brother, Ali.
“I was the only one who walked out,” Hussein says. He helped carry his dying family members to the ambulances that eventually arrived. “I’m not asking Hamas or Fatah for anything,” he says. “I only have God left.”
The Israeli military says Hamas was firing rockets from Beit Hanoun and that it had told the Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, and the Red Cross to evacuate the school. Yet UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness says the UN had asked the Israeli military for a lull in the fighting to allow for an evacuation but did not hear back. Gunness says precise coordinates of the shelter had been formally given to the Israeli army. The attack marked the fourth time a UN facility has been hit by Israel since the conflict began on July 8.
“These people had no place to go. They are very poor, so they sought the protection of the United Nations,” says Dr. Bassam al-Masry, the head of the orthopedic department at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, whose house is adjacent to the school in Beit Hanoun. “Today they were shelled. Why?”
The hospital is filled with heart-wrenching scenes. Men and women being carried in on stretchers. People rushing through the halls with wounded children in their arms. It is unbearably hot and humid. In one corner, six women gather in a knot of grief, sobbing and holding each other. One of them collapses in shock.
Inside the morgue a baby is brought onto the wooden examination table. She is about 1 year old. She looks unharmed, except when her head is turned to reveal that a small chunk of her neck is missing. The other bodies lie in the refrigerated morgue drawers cocooned in bloodied white shrouds. Only their faces are uncovered.
“We thought the school was safer than our house,” says 32-year-old Monther Hamdan. He is lying on a cot with a wounded leg and grasps his father’s hand as he speaks. All thirteen members of his family were injured in the attack. They arrived at the school three days ago. “The tank shells fell like rain.”
The attack on the UN school came on one of the bloodiest days of the conflict. Approximately 120 Palestinians were killed yesterday, bringing the death toll in Gaza to nearly 800, the vast majority of them civilians, including at least 190 children, according to the Health Ministry. Over a two-day period, a child was killed every hour in Gaza. More than 5,100 have been wounded.
The level of violence has escalated significantly since Israel’s ground invasion last week. Calls for a cease-fire seem to have had the opposite effect. A three-kilometer buffer zone has been declared by Israeli military, equivalent to 44 percent of the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces have pushed in from the border backed by tanks and a continued assault from the air. Thirty-two Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed.
In southern Gaza, the Israeli military dropped leaflets warning residents to evacuate areas east of Khan Younis. “The Israeli Defense Forces are not targeting any of you,” it says. “If you follow directions, the IDF will not hurt any of you, the civilian population.”
Testimonies by the residents of the town of Khuzaa, one of the Palestinian residential areas closest to Israel, belie that claim. They describe a nightmarish ordeal trying to escape the Israeli invasion. Multiple witnesses say they were prevented from getting out by Israeli tanks and troops, that Israeli forces fired on ambulances and that the dead and wounded were left behind in the streets.
“There was no mercy,” says Wael Abu Irgala, a 24-year-old resident of Khuzaa. “We saw things you couldn’t imagine.”
Wael says the Israeli military began indiscriminately shelling Khuzaa on Tuesday at around sunset. By 1 am, Israeli troops began knocking on doors and shouting out taunts to the residents inside, calling for the men of the houses to come and face them, says Wael’s aunt Asmaa. The next morning Wael and Asmaa and hundreds of the town’s residents tried to evacuate, but it would be another twenty-four hellish hours before they made it out.
Town residents gathered on Wednesday morning and held up white flags as they walked. Two handicapped girls were being pushed in wheelchairs. Without warning, an Israeli tank stationed on the main road opened fire, shooting bullets into the crowd. The residents fled in panic. The man pushing one of the wheelchairs was shot, leaving the handicapped girl alone on the street.
“There were wounded on the ground and we couldn’t save them,” Wael says. “They would shoot anything that moved.”
Many people were injured in the attack and a number sought refuge at the house of a local doctor, Kamal Gedeih. He tended to the injured with very basic first aid supplies, including Wael’s other aunt, who was shot in the stomach.
Multiple calls were made to local hospitals, human rights organizations and the Red Cross, pleading for help in escaping the conflict, but no one came.
In the afternoon, an airstrike hit the yard of Gedieh’s house where the doctor’s brother was filling up water bottles for the people inside. It took him ten minutes to die. Another fifteen minutes later, a shell smashed into the side of the building. Gedieh himself was injured along with several others.
Wael and Asmaa decided to leave the doctor’s house and took their wounded relative, who was shot in the stomach, and other family members with them. They ended up finding a basement where dozens of other residents were seeking shelter. They spent the night there. There was no water, food or electricity. Several people collapsed from exhaustion.
The shelling and bombardment continued throughout the night. On Thursday morning, they decided to try and make their way out again. They walked in a group with their hands in the air. Some carried white flags.
“We didn’t expect to get out alive,” says Asmaa. “We walked for five kilometers waiting for death.” She says Israeli troops on tanks and deployed in the streets were blocking all the main roads. They gestured which direction for them to go. The relative with the stomach wound had to be half-carried the entire way.
In the assault, the town had been demolished. “We found a burning land, we didn’t know the streets or the houses of our own neighborhood,” Asmaa says. “It looked like a different world, empty of people.”
They finally made it out to Nasser hospital in Khan Younis late Thursday morning.
The scene at the hospital is one of chaos and overcrowding. People fill the corridors. The wounded are ferried back and forth. One man follows two corpses being carried into the morgue. He is holding a bright blue plastic bag. In it is all that remains of one of his relatives.
“This was the worst night in this hospital,” says Dr. Jamal al-Hams, the director general of the hospital. He says at least twenty-one people are dead and 150 injured. “The fridges are full and there’s nowhere to put the bodies.”
Multiple medical workers and witnesses say the Israeli military did not allow ambulances to enter Khuzaa during the brutal assault.
“There are many wounded still inside. They are calling us and we can’t get to them,” says Dr. Wissam Nabhan at the European Hospital in eastern Khan Younis. Nabhan says he took four ambulance trips on Thursday morning to try to evacuate people, and every time he came under fire from the Israeli military.
“This was a massacre of the people of Khuzaa.” |
ECONOMÍA
16 de Febrero de 2016
Miguel Bein: "la oferta a los buitres me parece bien"
Plan M. También se mostró conforme con la quita de subsidios y la baja de retenciones
Crédito:
El ex asesor económico de Daniel Scioli aseguró en Plan M que le parecía correcta la oferta del gobierno de Mauricio Macri a los fondos buitres.
En diálogo con Maximiliano Montenegro por Canal 26 Bein dijo que “Está bien la propuesta a los fondos buitres, la propuesta que yo había dado en agosto del año pasado era muy parecida. Me costó que un ministro de Cristina, al que lo vi inaugurando trenes hace dos días, me atacara fuertemente y dijera que Bein le quiere pagar a los fondos buitres”.
Para el economista "la quita es razonable, es la quita posible para llegar un acuerdo. Sí vos no llegas a un acuerdo seguís en default selectivo y no podés ir a buscar créditos a 10 años para el país".
Sobre el resto de las medidas económicas del gobierno de Mauricio Maxi el ex asesor de Daniel Scioli dijo que “algunas se caían de maduras” como la quita de los subsidios o la baja de las retenciones.
A su vez Bein opinó que el ajuste no iba a ser tan fuerte "si algo ayuda a que el ajuste no vaya a ser tan fuerte es que el gobierno anterior pago 40.000 millones de dólares de vencimiento de capital de la deuda". |
In a luxury residential neighborhood in northeastern Beijing, a 52-year-old man named Wang Xiuqing has been living in the underground pipelines (link in Chinese) of the city’s heating system for 10 years.
On Dec. 6, after seeing news reports (Chinese) of Wang and others’ underground abodes, officials removed the residents and sealed off the manholes leading to their makeshift homes with concrete. As a result, Wang and a few others have quickly become the focus of an outpouring of sympathy and anger on Chinese social media (registration required) over the treatment of the city’s many migrant workers.
Reuters Law enforcement covering up the tunnels on Dec. 6
Because of Beijing’s sky-high apartment rental costs, as many as two million people—about a tenth of the city’s population—are said to be living below street level in underground storage basements and air-raid shelters partitioned into cramped, windowless rooms. Many of those who have to crowd into these homes are migrant workers like Wang, from the nearby province of Hebei. Because of a household registration system that connects them with their hometowns, they’re often barred from using public services like education and healthcare.
Sina Weibo Photos of Wang have been circulating on Chinese social media since his eviction from his underground home.
Reuters Quan Youzhi, 66, was living in one of the underground homes before officials sealed them off.
On Sina Weibo, the country’s largest microblogging site, photos of Wang’s filthy bedroom and details of his story circulated under the hashtag “well-dwelling snail house,” using a common phrase to describe humble, tiny homes. Wang earned his keep by washing taxis and collecting plastic bottles for recycling, and used the pipes in his underground tunnel to keep warm. By Dec. 9, the hashtag had over 45,000 comments.
Sina Weibo The middle photo shows Wang’s deposit book. Most recently he had 311.82 yuan (about $51).
The comments ranged from offers to help the residents find jobs, to criticism of officials for sealing off their homes. “Is this how they provide assistance to homeless people?” one user said. Others criticized the pace of the country’s problems with income inequality. “This problem roots deeply in the yawning wealth gap rather than illegally residing in the well. The government’s solution is crude and brutal,” another said.
The attention may be helping. According to Xinhua, Wang has been offered a job at a college in Beijing that should pay between 3,000 and 4,000 yuan (link in Chinese), between $490 and $650 a month —about a 1,000 to 2,000 yuan more than what he was previously earning. The debate could also further motivate Beijing city officials who have said that providing more affordable housing in the city is a top priority. Authorities say they will supply 20,000 cheaper homes (paywall) for “self use”—for residents to live in, not hold for investment, which drives up prices. |
CAIRO — Egypt's parliament is considering a proposal that could see the nation's already-beleaguered journalists jailed for using informal Arabic in their published work.
The proposal, introduced in October by the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo, is designed to preserve the language. It would require formal Arabic to be used in virtually all aspects of Egyptian life, including but certainly not limited to the media; all correspondence and documents of federal and local governments and all official ministries; civil service organizations and private clubs; trademarks, commodity labels and commercial data; street signs; artistic installations; all educational institutions; and discussions and presentations at symposiums, conferences, workshops and other meetings.
The academy was founded in the 1930s specifically to develop and regulate the Arabic language. It is required by law to monitor and preserve the "integrity" of traditional Arabic and to publish an annual report on the state of the language and any "violations." In 2008, parliament gave the academy the power to impose sanctions on violators. In 2014, the academy noted what it said was a new tendency by the news media to use slang and foreign words, but stated at that time that it didn't want to "launch the sword of law in the face of this recklessness in classical Arabic."
That attitude has apparently changed. The academy's proposal has sparked concern among journalists, who fear it might actually come to fruition because it reflects the Egyptian state’s inclinations to control the media. The plan would require each media outlet to hire a state-approved language editor, ban publications in vernacular Arabic and punish violators with fines and prison sentences. Analysts and journalists consider the proposal a breach of the Egyptian Constitution, which protects the freedom of journalists.
The Ministry of Justice called a meeting Oct. 8 to discuss the proposal with the Journalists Syndicate, the National Media Council and a delegation from the academy, Al-Monitor learned from Abdul Hamid Madkour, secretary-general of the academy. The proposal currently is under review by the State Council. Journalists hope the council will amend it before referring it back to parliament.
Madkour said, “The academy prepared the draft law ... in response to pressing cultural, linguistic, educational and social needs. Some legislation to preserve the Arabic language had been issued under scattered laws, rather than one law.”
Kamal Mougheeth, an education expert at Egypt's National Center for Educational Research, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Education, told Al-Monitor the Arabic language is “in bad shape.” During the British occupation, intellectuals and novelists like Taha Hussein, Mohamed Hassanein Heikal and Abbas al-Akkad protected the formal, archaic version with their literary works. Today, most readers and authors alike tend to use a colloquial version rather than standard Arabic.
Mougheeth noted that while some legal protections could do some good, the real solution lies in institutions working together to promote awareness of the state of formal Arabic and in having teachers use it in the classroom. He believes that the use of colloquial Egyptian Arabic in newspapers and articles doesn't harm standard Arabic and that criminalizing the act is unreasonable.
Analysts criticized the draft's Article 12, which specifically addresses the media, calling the section a violation of the Egyptian Constitution. The article calls for prison sentences and fines for writing in colloquial Arabic. The academy's Madkour, however, said he sees no problem with the proposal. To him, Article 12 merely reminds newspapers of what he asserts is their job: to ensure "linguistically flawless" content.
But Al-Wafd member of parliament Mohamed Fouad called Article 12 the work of the “thought police.” He told Al-Monitor, “Priorities must be set to protect the Arabic language, mainly by teaching and talking to students in correct Arabic.” Sanctions, he said, are not the solution.
Mahmoud Kamel, a member of the Journalists Syndicate board and rapporteur for the board’s cultural and technical committee, described the draft law as “catastrophic” and called on the board to examine it.
Kamel told Al-Monitor by phone that Arabic is a rich language that has changed with time. He noted that news writing has changed over 100 years and use of local vernaculars in journalism is nothing new. Such usage is correct, and if the draft law had been enforced in the days of poets Abdul Rahman el-Abnudi and Salah Jahin, Kamel said, they would have been jailed and the world wouldn’t have been introduced to their work.
Journalist Mohamed Shoair believes no language is sacred. Rather, he said, language is like a living thing that evolves. The language of Jahiliyyah poet Imru al-Qais is not the same as that of Egyptian poet Salah Abdel Sabour, just as Al-Mutanabbi and Amal Dunqul’s writings differ. Even the language of Naguib Mahfouz’s first writings differs from that of his last ones. Languages flourish as they evolve, not when they are consecrated by law, he noted Oct. 18 on Facebook.
The entire exercise might well be much ado about nothing. Shoair thinks some supposed proponents aren't truly concerned, but the proposal is drawing attention to traditional writing and giving it a boost in the public eye.
“It’s strange that the Islamic jurists and sheikhs who always said the spread of the vernacular [wouldn't threaten] formal Arabic, since the latter is the language of the Quran … are now the ones afraid that [formal] Arabic will disappear. This draft law is a joke," he added. |
Welcome, Cedric.
It's been a while. We expected the delay. But we're glad you're ready now.
Bengals offensive tackle, and Cincinnati's 2015 first-round pick, Cedric Ogbuehi was cleared to practice on Tuesday.
The reviews were positive from Bengals offensive line coach Paul Alexander, writes Jay Morrison with the Dayton Daily News:
"He certainly showed lots of ability," Alexander said. "He had some ‘wow' moments." Asked for an example of a wow moment, Alexander offered this analogy: "When people go to the horse races and all of a sudden they see one horse pull away and they go ‘wow,' I think that's what football coaches mean when they say wow," he said. "They see an acceleration which is different than the rest. The guy's loaded with football talent," Alexander added. "Not just athletic ability, but football talent, which is athletic ability and football skill. He's loaded with that."
However, because we're the most selfless squad during Earth's history of internet websites, here's a cliff notes version of Ogbuehi's story (aka, Hurley explaining four seasons of Lost over the span of 88 seconds).
During Ogbuehi's time on Texas A&M's football team he suffered an ACL tear during the Liberty Bowl on Dec. 29, 2014. Head coach Marvin Lewis and (not really a GM but he mostly does GM stuff) Duke Tobin failed to weather Paul Alexander's obsession for Ogbuehi and selected him in the first round of the 2015 NFL draft, despite awareness regarding Ogbuehi's rehabilitation timeframe. When training camp started, Ogbuehi, placed on the team's Non-Football Injury list (it's like PUP but since the injury occurred before he joined the Bengals, it's defined as NFI for potential monetary reasons) worked tirelessly with Director of Rehabilitation (trainer) Nick Cosgray on the side field. On Tuesday, he was officially cleared for practice.
Ogbuehi remains on the team's NFI list, as the team has 21 days from his initial practice to make a decision -- activate him to the 53-man roster, keep him on NFI (there's actually no reason to make a roster move placing him on IR at this point) or release him (which won't happen). |
CHESTER, Pa. – Throughout the second half of the 2014 MLS season, Rais Mbolhi shuttled back and forth between the United States and Africa to play for the Algerian national team.
It appears the Philadelphia Union goalkeeper is trying to scale that back a bit in 2015.
According to head coach Jim Curtin, Mbolhi turned down a callup from the Algerian national team for tomorrow’s friendly vs. Qatar – the country’s first match since their run in the Africa Cup of Nations ended on Feb. 1.
“He wants to be here,” Curtin said during his weekly press conference Wednesday. “He’s a guy that’s fully committed and really wants to have this be his home full-time and not have to do all the travel for friendlies. If it’s an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier, then, yes, those are different discussions. But for friendlies that are going on, he’s going to be here full time, which is a huge commitment on his end.”
Because of last year’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, Mbolhi started only four games after the Union signed him in July following his starring role for Algeria at the 2014 World Cup.
In his final appearance of the season, he made what was perhaps the team’s biggest blunder of the year when his shanked clearance in stoppage time led to the Chicago Fire stealing a draw in what was a must-win game for Philly.
Almost exactly six months to the day, Mbolhi will get another crack at Chicago when the Union face the Fire in a nationally televised game Sunday at Toyota Park (5 pm ET; ESPN2, ESPN Deportes).
“We were both of the same mindset that with the coming and the going, it wasn’t the best environment for him, for the team, for anybody,” Curtin said of Mbolhi’s first four games in MLS last year. “It’s a situation that he and I agree that maybe we rushed things along and threw him into situations too quickly.”
The latest Union headlines from PhiladelphiaUnion.com
Curtin saw an improvement in Mbolhi’s mindset during this year’s preseason, saying that he took on more of a leadership role while making some big plays to lead the club to the IMG Suncoast Pro Classic championship.
Through the first three regular-season games – two draws and a loss – Mbolhi has yet to make any huge saves but Curtin said the goals the team has given up haven’t necessarily been the Algerian goalkeeper’s fault.
Mbolhi declined comment for this story, and has told team officials he prefers not to speak with the media at all this season.
Curtin hopes he’ll do his talking on the field.
“I’m fine with how Rais has been,” the Union coach said. “And I know he’s going to come up big for us and win us some games for us as we get going here.”
Dave Zeitlin covers the Union for MLSsoccer.com. Email him at djzeitlin@gmail.com. |
One of the country’s most prominent DREAMers believes that President Barack Obama needs to enact another round of executive amnesty even after she revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said her illegal immigrant mother would be allowed to stay in the country.
Appearing on MSNBC with José Diaz Balart, Erika Andiola, who has confronted Republicans like Rep. Steve King (R-IA) about immigration, said her mother faces possible deportation but, “I was told by ICE she was going to be able to stay.”
Obama has recently emphasized that though his executive amnesty only covers about five million illegal immigrants, most of the seven million illegal immigrants not formally covered and who have not committed violent crimes will not face deportation.
Andiola was hopeful that since Obama had said “over and over again” that he could not unilaterally change the country’s immigration laws before enacting his executive amnesty, he could in the future enact another executive amnesty even though Obama said he did as much as White House lawyers told him he could do under law. Andiola said that Obama needed “better attorneys,” because “tons of attorneys” have told her that Obama could enact more executive actions to formally provide temporary amnesty to millions of more illegal immigrants. |
Should people be allowed to comment anonymously online? That question is currently making its way through the U.S. legal system. A New York couple has issued dragnet subpoenas to Google and Yahoo demanding the identities of users behind 10 email accounts, 30 blog operators, website administrators, and the identities of anyone who had ever commented on those sites. That's hundreds of people! Riding to the rescue of our privacy and freedom are our heroes — the EFF.
Miriam and Michael Hersh allege a "sweeping conspiracy led by family members and their acquaintances to accuse the Plaintiffs of mistreating their children and to cause a public controversy." This couple who, among other complaints, allege "intentional infliction of emotional distress" are the parents who made headlines in 2008 when news reports were published saying they had their then 16-year-old son, Isaac, taken to a privately owned correctional institution in Jamaica.
But my concern is not with the reason people were writing the anonymous comments. I’m alarmed over the possible consequences to privacy because of these wide-sweeping "dragnet" subpoenas. So is the EEF.
"The First Amendment protects individuals' right to speak anonymously and forces litigants to justify any attempts to unmask anonymous critics," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "Litigants cannot forcibly identify entire communities of online speakers -- which include many speakers who no one would claim did anything wrong -- simply because the litigants are curious."
The EFF urges the court to protect privacy and anonymity. The EFF's motion to quash states, "Under the broad protections of the First Amendment, speakers have not only a right to publicly express criticism but also the right to do so anonymously. Accordingly, the First Amendment requires that those who seek to unmask online speakers (critics or otherwise) demonstrate a compelling need for such identity-related information before obtaining such discovery. No such need is implicated in this case.”
If anonymity is allowed to be pierced in this case, it could change our lives. Who would be targeted next? Trolls? Flamers? People who disagree? If this is allowed to go forward, users on Digg, Reddit, Stumble Upon, Twitter, Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, political commenters — users anywhere could be targeted next.
"Overbroad subpoenas targeting anonymous speakers without cause naturally creates a chilling effect that may discourage others from exercising their constitutional rights to participate in conversations that take place online," said Zimmerman. "We are asking the court to enforce these reasonable safeguards so that the rights of innocent speakers do not become collateral damage in a dispute between others."
Apart from identity-related information, the Plaintiffs seek the content of stored communications with an ISP or electronic communications facility. From Google, the Plaintiff wants all documents relating or referring to a list of sites, blogs, pages and/or groups. From Yahoo, the Plaintiffs wants all documents relating or referring to http://geocities.com/saveisaac. Furthermore, the Plaintiffs request all documents relating to and referring to, meaning email communications as well.
The EFF's motion to quash concludes with: “By targeting entire forums in which a wide range of topics are discussed, Plaintiffs attempt to take a shortcut through the legal rights of the forum hosts and their participants. Fortunately, state and federal law bars such attempts.”
We will be watching as this case could change history. If comments are not libel or death threats, need the commenter worry about their life being probed and their identity revealed? |
by Lee Hurley
Nacho Monreal looks set to pen a new deal with the Gunners ending speculation over a return to Spain according to reports in his homeland.
The left-back enjoyed a fantastic season last year and has continued to be courted by Athletic Bilbao on account of his heritage and their strict policy regarding only signing players who hail from the Basque region.
The report first appeared in Mundo Deportivo claiming that Nacho had verbally agreed a new contract that would see him earn £75k per week.
Speaking in pre-season, Monreal said “I’m very happy at Arsenal.
“Of course I enjoyed playing in a lot of the games last season and that is the target again – that is all I can say right now.
“When you play for Arsenal, you know they are one of the biggest clubs in England but, here in Singapore, you see they are also one of the biggest clubs in the world.
“The reception we get from the fans everywhere we go is amazing to see for the players and we are very happy to be here with them.”
Ousting Kieran Gibbs from the first-choice slot, Monreal looks set to keep his place in the side ahead of the Englishman.
Monreal has 16 caps for Spain after receiving his first call-up in 2009 when he was 23. |
The broader significance of the move is that dozens of House Republicans dared to try it at all. The little-known lending agency has long supported U.S. jobs by helping companies find markets overseas, but conservatives have turned its demise into a rallying cry against corporate welfare, arguing that it gives taxpayer dollars to giants like Boeing and G.E. that don’t need government subsidies. Outside groups succeeded in pressuring two of the three top House Republicans to oppose it. While House Speaker John Boehner has supported the Export-Import Bank, he has lacked the political capital to go around the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, Jeb Hensarling, who has made it a personal mission to kill the bank. Even after Boehner announced his resignation, it was unclear whether he would bring up the legislation on his own.
“We were just hitting a brick wall,” Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said by phone on Friday. Members of both parties have been under intense pressure from business groups complaining that the expiration of the bank’s charter has resulted in job losses for companies big and small. Still, Republicans were reluctant to take what Kinzinger called the “extraordinary step” of joining with Democrats to force a vote. Democrats have tried to lure Republicans into signing discharge petitions before, most recently in 2014 when GOP leaders blocked a vote on a bipartisan immigration overhaul passed by the Senate. Many of the same Republicans demurred then, wary of confronting the leadership and the conservative base on such a far-reaching bill.
Yet the frustration mounted, and the decision by rank-and-file Republicans to move on Ex-Im coincides with the broader party chasm that has broken open in the last month. Lawmakers like Kinzinger and Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania have called on more moderate, or at least mainstream, Republicans to counter members of the House Freedom Caucus who forced Boehner to resign and Kevin McCarthy to abandon his bid to succeed him. The Ex-Im push is part of that effort, although it has been led in part by Representative Stephen Fincher of Tennessee, who is more conservative on many other issues. “This is somewhat the result of frustration about that, so this could portend opportunities to work together in the future,” Kinzinger said.
Hensarling reacted angrily. “Signing a discharge petition puts the minority in charge and effectively makes Nancy Pelosi the speaker of the House,” he said in a statement. “At a time when our Republican conference is divided, this will divide it even further.” Democrats were jubilant, viewing the success of the petition as a breakthrough which, in the words of Representative Gwen Moore, demonstrated that “democracy does work every once in a while.”
The success of the discharge petition is certainly a victory for supporters of the Export-Import Bank, but whether it herald a new order in the House remains to be seen. Will the same coalition collaborate to raise the debt ceiling or fund the government if hard-line Republicans grab power in the coming weeks? Kinzinger was cautious, but Hensarling seemed worried. The maneuver, he warned, “sets a very serious, very dangerous precedent for our Republican majority that goes far beyond Ex-Im.”
It might be dangerous for staunch conservatives, but it’s a much more hopeful sign for Republicans and Democrats who feel they’ve gone too far.
* This article originally stated that Denny Heck is from Nevada. We regret the error.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com. |
There are good reasons to be afraid of the dark, but Thanatos, The Dark Avenger, isn’t one of them. Still, make no mistake—he will not go gently into that good night. Rather, he regularly plunges headlong into a pitched battle he characterizes as “a war for good against evil,” in the whirling vortex that is Vancouver, B.C.’s notorious intersection of Hastings and Main streets.
There are no tourists or sightseers there, no casual passersby. No, this is where the city has rounded up and corralled the disenfranchised, the disillusioned, the despairing men and women for whom life holds little hope beyond the next fix. And there, in that devastating mix of the half-waking, half-dead, Thanatos makes his rounds. Delivering his “bundles” of plastic sheets to protect against the cold and rain, dry socks, jars of peanut butter and jam, perhaps a can of meat that can be opened by hand—the most basic of basic human necessities.
“I’ve always been a person who steps in and does something when it needs to be done,” he says, “I saw that these people had nothing better to live for, something needed to happen, something had to change.”
In return, his “Friends,” the addicts and dealers, prostitutes and pimps, runaways and the homeless he meets, talk to him candidly about their lives. He asks them about their circumstances, their needs, and they answer him back. “They’re not stupid,” he says, “they have well-thought out solutions for the problems of people on the street. I don’t judge, I just try to help.”
The name Thanatos comes from ancient Greek mythology, the personification of Death itself, a rather dark choice for someone who leaves such light in his wake. “I have taken on the persona of death,” Thanatos explains, “because I was told by a police officer that all the people living on the street had nothing better to look forward to than death. So if that’s the case, maybe death ought to start taking care of these people—and it might send a message. They’re getting it, they’re getting the message.” And through it all, an unusual metamorphosis has taken place, leading to the blurring of the line between the man he was born, and the Real Life Superhero he’s become. In his words, “I find that the ‘me’ is starting to become more of a mask I wear, and Thanatos is more and more of what I truly am.”
And as he remains locked in war—a war against apathy, against drug abuse, against chronic homelessness—he recognizes that he alone cannot win the war, just the battles. And he doesn’t expect to remain in this fight all by himself. “If one person can do this, we can get ten more, then we get ten more, and so forth. We can make a real and lasting difference in a bad part of town. I do what I can, and hope it inspires other people to say ‘I can do something, too.’”
Thanatos is an advocate for Easter Seals Vancouver. Learn more by visiting:
www.easterseals.ca/english/
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CIA Director John Brennan has joined an exclusive list of CIA directors and deputy directors who have lied to the U.S. Congress and the American people. Unlike Richard Helms, William Casey, Robert Gates, and George Tenet, however, Brennan has gotten protection from the White House and apparently will get away with his perfidy.
Earlier this year, Brennan told the chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and the American people, that it was “beyond the scope of reason” to charge that the CIA was trying to block the committee’s investigation of CIA torture and abuse and had even hacked into the computers of the committee and several staff members. Now, we have learned that Brennan not only knew about the obstruction of the congressional investigation, a violation of the separation of powers, but had ordered one of the CIA lawyers to conduct the search.
Even worse, Brennan established an accountability board to investigate the matter, consisting of three Agency officers and two outsiders, which will recommend no punishment for the five CIA officials involved in the matter. According to the New York Times, the CIA’s Inspector General determined that the CIA improperly monitored the intelligence committee’s activities and sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice based on false information. Nevertheless, President Barack Obama continues to refer to Brennan as a “patriot.”
Sadly, there is a long history of CIA deceit and dissembling to the congressional intelligence committees. In 1973, CIA director Helms deceived the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, refusing to acknowledge the CIA’s role in overthrowing the elected government of Chile. A grand jury recommended that Helms be indicted for perjury, but the Department of Justice brought a lesser charge against Helms, who pleased nolo contendere; Helms was fined $2,000 and given a suspended two-year prison sentence.
In the 1980s, CIA director Casey and his deputy, Bob Gates, consistently lied to the congressional oversight committees about their knowledge of Iran-Contra. The late senator Daniel P. Moynihan (D-NY) believed that Casey and Gates were running a
disinformation campaign against the Senate intelligence committee. Gates’ lies on Iran-Contra led to the committee’s unwillingness to vote on his confirmation as CIA director in 1987. Gates was nominated again in 1991, and this time he was confirmed, but not before I provided the committee with rhyme and verse on Gates’ tailoring of intelligence to fit the biases of Bill Casey.
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Aldrich Ames performed as the most destructive traitor in the history of the CIA, but a brace of CIA directors–Gates, William Webster, and Jim Woolsey–failed to inform the congressional intelligence committees of the serious counter-intelligence problems that had been created. In the late 1980s, Judge Webster concealed from the Congress the information that Saddam Hussein was diverting U.S. farm credits through an Atlanta bank to pay for nuclear technology and sophisticated weaponry.
The greatest CIA disinformation campaign in the Congress took place in 2002-2003, when CIA director Tenet and his deputy John McLaughlin consistently lied about Iraqi training for al Qaeda members on chemical and biological weapons as well as the existence of mobile labs to manufacture such weapons. McLaughlin played a major role in providing a spurious briefing on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to President George W. Bush in January 2003 and to Secretary of State Colin Powell in February for Powell’s presentation to the United Nations in March.
Several years ago, Representative Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), then ranking minority member of the House intelligence committee, documented the CIA’s dissembling to cover-up the Agency’s involvement in a drug interdiction program in Peru that led to the loss of innocent lives. Hoekstra accused CIA director Tenet with misleading the Congress. It is noteworthy that Brennan, protege of Tenet, was a staff assistant to the director at that time.
Former CIA director Leon Panetta publicly stated on many occasions that “it was not CIA policy or practice to mislead Congress. That is against our laws and our values.” Well, we have certainly learned a great deal about CIA values in the past several weeks. The fact that there will be accountability for the lies of Brennan and various CIA lawyers to the Congress and even the White House doesn’t augur well for ever repairing the CIA’s moral compass.
Brennan once remarked that “If I did something wrong, I will go to the President and explain to him exactly what I did.” Well, we now know that he has a long list of improprieties, but there is no record of his report to the President. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.
Melvin A. Goodman is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University. A former CIA analyst, Goodman is the author of “Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA,” “National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism,” and the forthcoming “The Path to Dissent: A Whistleblower at CIA” (City Lights Publishers, 2015). Goodman is the national security columnist for counterpunch.org. |
The Effects of Eating Fast - Research
Two factors were identified as strong predictors of weight gain in a study (1). The first was expected - how much people ate. But the second was more of a surprise - how fast they ate. Fast eaters who guzzled until they felt full were three times more likely to be overweight than those who ate at a leisurely pace
An association between eating speed and obesity was confirmed in a 2018 study. Fast eaters are more likely to be obese, with raised BMI and waist circumference. (2)
All the research in Grow Youthful confirms that over-eating is the one thing that you can do to age your body fast. Fast eaters consistently consume more calories
It takes at least 20 minutes for the hormones that tell your brain that you are full to kick in. If you are a fast eater, you are going to over-consume before you even feel full. It gets worse. The food that you bolt down will not be properly digested. Some of the nutrients in the food will be lost, passing straight through you. Being nutrient-deficient, you will feel inappropriately hungry. Welcome to the over-eating cycle
Here are some tips on how to slow down and improve your digestion:
Twenty minutes before the meal, start with an appetizer to get your digestion going
Chew each mouthful thoroughly. This is one of the most important things you can do. Digestion starts in your mouth. Your saliva must mix with the food whilst still in your mouth, particularly with carbohydrates. If you swallow (carbohydrate) food before it is properly chewed and mixed with saliva, it is more likely to create gas and indigestion, and feed candida
NEVER overeat. The feeling of being stuffed is so harmful. Leave the table with a little space in your tummy to spare
Serve small portions on your plate. If you are still hungry later, you can come back for more. Stay away from buffets, which make it easy to over-eat
Take time out to focus on your food when you are eating. Be aware of what you are eating, tune into each bite
Drink before you eat. You may be thirsty rather than hungry
References
1. The joint impact on being overweight of self reported behaviours of eating quickly and eating until full: cross sectional survey. Maruyama, K. et al., BMJ 2008 Oct 21;337:a2002.
2. Yumi Hurst, Haruhisa Fukuda. Effects of changes in eating speed on obesity in patients with diabetes: a secondary analysis of longitudinal health check-up data. BMJ Open 2018;8:e019589. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019589. Published online 12 February 2018. |
Santa Paws, you have seriously spoiled my furbabies! You went all out and you didn't have to at all. Your love and generosity know no bounds! It's been a really rough week for me and sharing these gifts with my family has made it so much better.
A list of the fantastic gifts from our Santa Paws:
KONG Cozie Marvin the Moose Dog Toy KONG DoDo Birds Squeaky Dog Toy Milk-Bone MaroSnacks 40-OZ Activitoys The Wave Bird Toy Polly's Cuttlebone Bird Perch (Banana and Orange flavor calcium) Hanging Snuggle Cave Hut Kaytee Chin Chilla Granite Cooling Stone KONG Kickeroo (Tiger) Catnip Toy KONG Kickeroo Stix Giraffe Toy SmartyKat Scrunchy Bunch Cat Toys
Our kitties wanted their catnip toy so badly that they managed to break into the closet where we hid them until such time as I could get a picture of everything together :)
Effie, our 'keet, is already playing up a storm with her Wave toy and Fluttershy our chinnybutt is trying out her hanging cuddle hammock (which she will probably then chew to death by morning.) The puppies adore the Milk-Bones, which the video shows, and also won't go anywhere without the DoDo KONG squeaky toy.
We're so happy :D THANK YOU THANK YOU! |
PETERSBURG, KY (SatireWire.com) – Creationists using a deep-faith telescope said today they have discovered a galaxy formed at the very beginning of time, nearly 6,000 years ago.
The galaxy, which they named “Michael” after one of the earliest angels, is about 6,000 light years from Earth, but not more, “because light did not exist before that time,” researchers explained.
The team’s discovery was immediately condemned by the American Astronomical Society, which said “Michael” is actually the Andromeda galaxy, which formed 9 billion years ago. In response, Bertram Hill, lead theophysicist at the subbasement Creation Science Observatory in Kentucky, said, “No it isn’t” and called the debate a tie.
Hill and his colleagues made their observations using a specially designed Deep Faith Creationist Telescope, which is a standard wide-field, Ritchey–Chrétien hyperbolic telescope, but with the lens cap on. From there, calculating the age of Michael, and the Universe itself, was simple, Hill said.
“We know this galaxy is about 6,000 years old because we know the Universe is 6,000 years old, and we know that because, contrary to what non-believers say, we’ve done the math,” said Hill. “Specifically, we’ve taken the ‘supposed’ age of the Universe – 13 billion years – and multiplied it by .000046, which gives us, as we suspected, the true age of 6,000.”
But why multiply the age of the Universe by .000046?
“Because that gives us 6,000,” said Hill.
Using this same multiplier, Hill said creationists plan to further shake up the scientific community by announcing that dinosaurs died out 3,000 years ago, Jesus was born last month, and Pittsburgh was founded on Tuesday.
© 2014 SatireWire.com |
A robot cannon began wildly and autonomously firing its huge gun in South Africa last Friday, killing 9 soldiers and wounding 14. The Oerlikon GDF-005 antiaircraft gun suddenly began uncontrollably shooting as it swung back and forth, spraying hundreds of high-explosive 35mm cannon shells all over the place. The crazed robot's handlers are still trying to figure out what sort of software bug would cause such mayhem. The video you see above is not the actual incident, but is a similar occurrence from a few years ago when an XM-151 remote weapons station filled the air with lead, and then spun around toward the reviewing stand in search of even more targets. Hey, good thing it had run out of those .50 caliber bullets, or else it would have laid waste to some pretty important suits. These robots, they're going to take over the world, I tell ya. [Danger Room]
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The extraordinary tale of a News Limited writer who sued the ABC over a silly joke – and how the case raises serious questions about free speech in Australia
The ABC has capitulated to Chris Kenny. Apologies have been offered and cash will be paid to the News Limited journalist. The Chaser boys are forbidden to mock the ABC’s grovelling. News Limited and the national broadcaster’s many enemies in government ranks are enjoying a sweet victory.
A brief scene in an almost empty courtroom in Sydney on Friday was the last episode in this nine-month brawl over a lame joke. The ABC’s lawyers expressed sorrow at the distress the Chaser skit caused Kenny and his family, a skit that was “triggered by criticism of the ABC” that “falls short of the quality demanded by the ABC’s audiences”.
Kenny also spoke through his lawyers. He assured the court that protecting his reputation was only one reason he sued the ABC. “The second – counter-intuitively to some people perhaps – was in defence of free speech.”
As an associate editor of the Australian with a perch on Sky Television, Kenny has a loud voice to reply to the Chaser’s taunts. Instead he sued. Late on Friday, he told Guardian Australia: “To the extent that I am remembered for this, I’ll be remembered as the journalist called a dog fucker who stood up for his rights.”
What a jury would have made of the Kenny skit we will never know. The last big name to take a joke to a jury was Harry Seidler 30 years ago. At stake was a brilliant, abusive cartoon by Patrick Cook. The architect lost and made a fool of himself. But Seidler didn’t have what Kenny has: the brass band backing of News Limited and the endorsement of a prime minister.
The Hamster Decides Episode 5, broadcast a few days after Abbott’s election victory, was all mockery. The Chaser team mocked the new prime minister, the defeated Kevin Rudd, Cory Bernardi, Kerry O’Brien, Peter Hartcher of the Fairfax press, the ABC, Nine and Seven. Craig Emerson “sang”. Hapless candidate Jaymes Diaz mocked himself. Phillip Adams and I starred in a grainy black and white newsreel of chardonnay socialists fleeing Abbott’s Australia.
Ten minutes into that melee Chas Licciardello gave the “boring pundit” Chris Kenny a serve: “I enjoyed the way he took almost an hour after Tony Abbott’s victory speech before he started demanding cuts to the ABC.” And there was Kenny on the screen with urgent advice for the new government: “They need to actually start to question the $1.1 billion they throw to the ABC for instance…”
Andrew Hansen agreed: “They’ve just got to cut ABC funding. This is a network that broadcasts images of Chris Kenny strangling a dog while having sex with it.” There were better jokes and better laughs that night but the studio audience let out a happy roar when Kenny’s head appeared crudely pasted on a man with his pants down mounting a Labradoodle. A sign said: “Chris ‘Dog Fucker’ Kenny”.
“Disgusting,” said Licciardello. “Very childish,” added Hansen. “I mean they have got to be cut, they’ve got to be cut.”
The Chaser saw it as a joke against the ABC as much as Kenny, a self-defeating joke about an outfit so wasteful and silly it would lash out like this against one of its most relentless critics. Licciardello explained to Guardian Australia: “It was meant to be about poking the bear in the most over-the-top, ill-advised way.”
The ABC lawyers had cleared the skit. The show was watched by 1,323,000 people. The ABC received only one complaint. It wasn’t from Kenny. Licciardello had assured the team there would be no trouble from him. He knew Kenny as a thick-skinned pro with a robust sense of humour.
The dog joke has form. After an Indonesian paper depicted Howard and the foreign minister Alexander Downer in 2006 as humping dingoes – their crime was to give 42 West Papuan independence campaigners temporary protection visas – the Australian retaliated with a cartoon of President Yudhoyono as a dog having sex with an unhappy Papuan.
John Howard was unfazed by the Indonesian effort: “I've been in this game a long time. If I got offended by cartoons – golly heavens above, give us a break.” President Yudhoyono shrugged off Bill Leak’s reply. “It's in poor taste,” said his spokesman. “Sometimes the media . . . both in Indonesia and other countries, resort to poor taste, which actually demonstrates the level of their quality.”
Guardian Australia asked the Australian’s editor-in-chief, Chris Mitchell, if he ever apologised for the Leak and what he saw as the difference between that cartoon and the image of Kenny and the dog. He replied: “Bill’s cartoon was in response to one published about Alex Downer on page one of the tabloids in Indonesia.”
The furore over those 2006 cartoons quickly faded. But they featured the prime minister of Australia and the president of Indonesia. The Chaser had mocked Chris Kenny.
For a few days Licciardello’s assessment of Kenny seemed justified. He responded the morning after the broadcast as a hardboiled journalist might after being roughed up by a bunch of comedians: he joked back. “Betrayed by @ChasLicc,” he tweeted. “Heartbroken. Chas, I’ve left your dog suit on the porch.”
On Sky next night, Kenny was hurt but still managed to laugh: “They have had their fun with me,” he said. “I take their point: I will never criticise the ABC again. They have now silenced me. I am only joking of course. I’ll keep criticising the ABC and it will be fun to see what they do next. What can they do next? They have defamed me. They have shown me up a dog. What will they do next, next time I criticise the ABC? We’ll see. Keep watching.”
His son Liam swiftly contradicted his claim that the Kenny children would be hurt to find the skit on the net. “Kenny is a staunchly neo-conservative, anti-progress, anti-worker defender of the status quo,” the son wrote on the Junkee website. “He is an unrelenting apologist for the Liberal party. He was one of Alexander Downer's senior advisers at the time of the Iraq War … and it's a jokey picture of a bestial embrace that I should be afraid of discovering online?”
Kenny senior tweeted: “I am proud of my children, love them deeply, and encourage them to think for themselves.”
But the News Limited journalist’s mood darkened. He wanted someone from the ABC to ring. “I was astonished that there was no response from the ABC to reach out and say they had gone too far,” he told Guardian Australia. He had watched the show with his young, pregnant wife. “It’s not just about you but whoever you’re sharing your bed with. I saw it as a horrible slur on her as well as me.”
Kenny had allies. The shock jocks were marshalling behind him. Complaints began arriving at the ABC in bulk: 188 in all. Andrew Bolt wrote a column not intended to be funny that began: “I am nervous. I saw what the ABC did last week to a friend who called for balance…”
Though Bolt has campaigned hard for his right to offend, insult, humiliate and intimidate light-skinned Aboriginal people, he now weighed in on Kenny’s behalf: “Yes, the graphic was clearly fake. But the issue is that it was obscene, humiliating and viciously abusive…”
When Media Watch condemned the skit, the Chaser Team offered a picture of Paul Barry mounting a pig. Same legs and backyard. Different animal. “Of course I am not going to sue,” said the Media Watch host as he put the picture to air. “But what would happen if Chris Kenny decided to do so?”
The lawyers’ letter came three days later. Whatever has since been said about Kenny wanting no more than an apology, let this be clear: he was asking for money on day one – for an apology, removal of the picture from the ABC website and payment of “an amount in compensation for the damage caused”. The figure he would put on his hurt and pain was $95,000.
News Limited was hammering Mark Scott and the ABC. The themes were familiar: an organisation out of control, politically biased and wasteful. Scott’s critics were provoked rather than mollified by his admission that he personally found the Chaser skit tasteless and undergraduate. But Scott continued to defend its broadcast. “It was over the top,” he told the Age. “However, our editorial policy is to give very broad licence around comedy and satire, and properly so.”
A few weeks after the broadcast, the ABC’s audience and consumer affairs division dismissed the complaints against the show. Though “likely to offend” the skit was deemed legitimate satire with “a clear editorial purpose and was ultimately considered to be justified in the context”. That decision was then appealed to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, ACMA.
By this time, three teams of lawyers were investigating the old intractable question: how do jokes work? Why we laugh is a mystery that’s never likely to be solved. But why jokes offend is much easier to decide: in life and at law jokes most often come unstuck when they can be taken literally.
From start to finish, Kenny’s solicitor, the leading Sydney defamation specialist Patrick George, claimed the Chaser boys were suggesting Kenny actually had sex with animals and was the sort of lowlife who engaged in bestiality of a most perverted kind.
The ABC’s lawyers were absolutely confident no jury would believe that. The image was obviously fake, a clumsy digital mock-up that could not to be taken literally, especially in the context of a satirical show. They saw the skit being, at worst, on the margins of defamation. Though they believed a judge would let it through to a jury, they saw a number of strong defences available to the ABC: comment, contextual truth and qualified privilege.
When the broadcaster refused to retract, apologise or pay, Kenny decided, “Bugger them, I am going to fight this.” He does not deny he had News Limited’s financial backing to take the ABC to court. “I don’t want to go into that,” he said. “I could not have asked my employers – both at News and Sky – to be more supportive of me.”
Journalists can sue for defamation. There is no rule of the trade that says they can’t defend their reputations in court. Though rare, it happens. When it does, journalists tend to look for some big reason to overcome their commitment to the freest possible speech. Kenny claimed – not as a joke any longer – that the ABC was out to silence its critics.
Not that he let up. Since the Chaser skit went to air Kenny has continued to attack the ABC with all his familiar energy. On his list have been salaries paid to ABC executives and presenters; Barrie Cassidy’s appointment as (unpaid) chair of the Old Parliament House museum; and the deplorable collaboration with Guardian Australia to report the Yudhoyono phone taps which, he said, showed none of the maturity required by “an organisation with the charter obligations and public funding of the ABC”.
Kenny has continued to belittle the ABC’s coverage of climate change, accuse the national broadcaster of being out of touch with the taxpayers and lately claimed the ABC is dividing the nation by promoting “a progressive or green left world view that sets it against mainstream Australia”.
So they haven’t silenced him? “No. But this sort of extreme ridicule can only have a chilling effect. We should be able to have full and robust debate without retaliation of this kind.” You would say the same about critics of News Limited? “Of course.”
A few days before Christmas, ACMA gave the ABC the thumbs down. The broadcasting regulator had come to a preliminary finding that “the high level of offence” given by the skit “was disproportionate to the satirical purposed advanced … and therefore its inclusion was not editorially justified.”
The ABC insisted, in reply, on its right to make shows for particular audiences: “We know from the feedback we receive from our audience that viewers falling outside the target audience can find programs like The Hamster Wheel, Ja’mie Private Schoolgirl or The Elegant Gentleman’s Guide to Knife Fighting baffling, shocking and deeply offensive. But the response from target audiences is strikingly different…”
The regulator was still reconsidering its verdict when Kenny v the ABC reached the NSW Supreme Court in March this year. The opening round of a defamation case sees a judge sitting alone deciding what claims can later be put to a jury. Justice Robert Beech-Jones clearly loathed the skit, which he condemned as “a massive exercise in ridicule”.
But he dealt Kenny’s case a perhaps fatal blow. The picture of the reporter and the Labradoodle could not, he decided, be taken literally. “The reasonable viewer, in my view, could not possibly have considered that such a lightweight show as this would be the forum for exposing actual instances of bestiality.”
That left Kenny only able to claim the Chaser boys had shown him to be, in the words of the judge, “a contemptible person”. The right jury and a powerful barrister could bring that home for Kenny. But the verdict would depend largely on how he withstood a wide-ranging – and inevitably hostile – cross-examination about the ins and outs of his long career.
Kenny appealed. His lawyers clearly regarded it as vital that he be able to stand before a jury and say: The Hamster Decides showed him literally having sex with – and strangling – dogs. Both sides appeared to understand that without that Kenny’s chances of success were slim.
But politics were coming to matter far more than the law. Kenny and News Limited had a remarkable ally. In the aftermath of Beech-Jones’s decision, Tony Abbott had intervened, giving his view of a yet-to-be-decided court case and, at the same time, delivering an unveiled threat to Mark Scott and the ABC.
“Government money should be spent sensibly,” the prime minister told Ben Fordham of Sydney radio station 2GB. “And defending the indefensible is not a very good way to spend government money. And next time the ABC comes to the government looking for more money, this is the kind of thing that we would want to ask them questions about.”
Abbott’s threats worked. Left to choose between defending satire or the budget of the ABC, Scott went with the budget. A few days after the prime minister’s comments, Kenny had a call from Scott, who gave the journalist a long and expansive apology that was followed up in writing and published widely by News Limited papers and elsewhere.
The case had travelled into uncharted territory. Scott’s apology was delivered without any quid pro quo. Normally apologies are not made until a settlement is thrashed out between the parties. That hadn’t happened. The ABC had lost no legal advantage by making the apology, but it was now politically impossible to fight Kenny in court.
The Chaser team marked the apology by posting a fresh buggery joke online: this time Scott was shown mounting an enormous hamster. He didn’t threaten to sue. “He did exactly the right thing,” remarked the Chaser’s Julian Morrow. “He showed he was above it. Perhaps we should have used a hamster all along.”
News Limited celebrated with editorials and triumphant commentary. This was a big victory in their long campaign against the ABC and its managing director. An editorial in the Australian deplored how long it had taken to get to this point. “But ABC managing director Mark Scott’s apology to The Australian’s Chris Kenny is welcome. Mr Scott finally bowed to public pressure and decency.”
Miranda Devine pulled out all stops in the Telegraph: “This wasn’t mere satire, this was demanding silence with obscene menaces. This was Scott giving the green light to vicious Chaser executive producer Julian Morrow, 39, and anyone else at the ABC to defame and vilify critics of the taxpayer-funded media outfit. This was a terminally weak leader outsourcing defence of his organisation to bovver boys, like Putin is outsourcing his Ukraine invasion to bikers and military ‘tourists’.”
The fight had now come down to money. With the apology made, the ABC proposed the case be dropped with each side paying its own costs. Kenny wouldn’t have it. “They dug in and spat in my face,” he told Guardian Australia. “They are so belligerent I’m disappointed it didn’t end up in court.”
But it didn’t. Two months of negotiations led to another version of Scott’s apology being broadcast on ABC 1 before the latest episode of Jonah from Tonga, a couple of dismissive tweets from the Chasers – attacked in a fresh editorial in the Australian – and then Friday’s little ceremony in the NSW Supreme Court.
We asked the Australian’s editor-in-chief, Chris Mitchell: “How does your support for Kenny square with your call for overhauling the Racial Discrimination Act? Why do light skinned Aborigines have to suck it up in the name of free speech when they are offended, insulted, humiliated etc, but when Kenny is offended etc he has a right to an apology and damages?”
Mitchell replied: “Silly question. Our point on 18C is precisely that other remedies – the defamation law for instance – exist.”
Kenny is happy enough with the outcome. He says he doesn’t regret suing even though “the last thing you want to do is appear wounded and show they’ve hit the mark”. From sources, Guardian Australia understands a cheque for $35,000 is on the way. “I’ll take my wife to dinner,” said Kenny.
ACMA will report in the next week or so. It is expected to condemn the ABC.
The Chaser team cannot speak freely about the outcome. They are not parties to the settlement but have promised not to “detract” from the ABC’s apology. They have not had to apologise themselves, but they have given up any dream of fighting on. As far as they are concerned it’s over.
Asked what the lesson of the case is, Morrow paused for a moment and ventured: “That the culture war hasn’t got beyond a joke.” |
Private cast iron bathtubs with porcelain interiors on "claw foot" pedestals rose to popularity in the 19th century
A bathtub, bath, or tub (informal) is a large or small container for holding water in which a person or animal may bathe. Most modern bathtubs are made of thermoformed acrylic, porcelain enameled steel, fiberglass-reinforced polyester, or porcelain enameled cast iron. A bathtub is usually placed in a bathroom either as a stand-alone fixture or in conjunction with a shower.
Modern bathtubs have overflow and waste drains and may have taps mounted on them. They are usually built-in, but may be free-standing or sometimes sunken. Until recently, most bathtubs were roughly rectangular in shape, but with the advent of acrylic thermoformed baths, more shapes are becoming available. Bathtubs are commonly white in colour, although many other colours can be found. The process for enamelling cast iron bathtubs was invented by the Scottish-born American David Dunbar Buick.
Two main styles of bathtub are common:
Western style bathtubs in which the bather lies down. These baths are typically shallow and long.
Eastern style bathtubs in which the bather sits up. These are known as furo in Japan and are typically short and deep.
History of bathtubs and bathing [ edit ]
Traditional bathtub (19th century) from Italy
Documented early plumbing systems for bathing go back as far as around 3300 BC with the discovery of copper water pipes beneath a palace in the Indus Valley Civilization of ancient India; see sanitation of the Indus Valley Civilization.[citation needed] Evidence of the earliest surviving personal sized bath tub was found on the Isle of Crete where a 1.5-metre (5 ft) long pedestal tub was found built from hardened pottery.[1]
The clawfoot tub, which reached the apex of its popularity in the late 19th century; had its origins in the mid 18th century, where the ball and claw design originated in Holland, possibly artistically inspired by the Chinese motif of a dragon holding a precious stone. The design spread to England where it found much popularity among the aristocracy, just as bathing was becoming increasingly fashionable. Early bathtubs in England tended to be made of cast iron, or even tin and copper with a face of paint applied that tended to peel with time.
The Scottish-born inventor David Buick invented a process for bonding porcelain enamel to cast iron in the 1880s while working for the Alexander Manufacturing Company in Detroit. The company, as well as others including Kohler Company and J. L. Mott Iron Works, began successfully marketing porcelain enameled cast-iron bathtubs, a process that remains broadly the same to this day. Far from the ornate feet and luxury most associated with clawfoot tubs, an early Kohler example was advertised as a "horse trough/hog scalder, when furnished with four legs will serve as a bathtub." The item's use as hog scalder was considered a more important marketing point than its ability to function as a bathtub.
In the latter half of the 20th century, the once popular clawfoot tub morphed into a built-in tub with a small apron front. This enclosed style afforded easier maintenance and, with the emergence of colored sanitary ware, more design options for the homeowner. The Crane Company introduced colored bathroom fixtures to the US market in 1928, and slowly this influx of design options and easier cleaning and care led to the near demise of clawfoot-style tubs.
Types [ edit ]
Slipper tub
The clawfoot tub or claw-foot tub was considered a luxury item in the late 19th century, originally made from cast iron and lined with porcelain. Modern technology has contributed to a drop in the price of clawfoot tubs, which may now be made of fiberglass, acrylic or other modern materials. Clawfoot tubs usually require more water than a standard bathtub, because generally they are larger. While true antique clawfoot tubs are still considered collectible items, new reproduction clawfoot tubs are chosen by remodellers and new home builders and much like the Western-style bathtubs, clawfoot tubs can also include a variety of shower head options.
Clawfoot tubs come in 4 major styles:
Wooden bathtubs for children and infants in Haikou , Hainan, China
Classic roll rim tubs , also called roll top tubs or flat rim tubs as seen in the picture at the top of this page.
, also called or as seen in the picture at the top of this page. Slipper tubs – where one end is raised and sloped creating a more comfortable lounging position.
– where one end is raised and sloped creating a more comfortable lounging position. Double slipper tubs – where both ends are raised and sloped.
– where both ends are raised and sloped. Double ended tubs – where both ends of the tub are rounded, as opposed to the classic roll tim tub, which has one rounded end and one fairly flat end.
Pedestal tubs [ edit ]
Pedestal tubs rests on a pedestal in what most would term an art deco style. Evidence of pedestal tubs dates back to the Isle of Crete in 1000 BC.
Baby bathtub [ edit ]
A baby bathtub is one used for bathing infants, especially those not yet old enough to sit up on their own. These can be either a small, stand-alone bath that is filled with water from another source, or a device for supporting the baby that is placed in a standard bathtub. Many are designed to allow the baby to recline while keeping its head out of the water.
Hot tubs [ edit ]
Hot tubs are common heated pools used for relaxation and sometimes for therapy. The "hippie" era (1967–1980) popularized them in America in songs and movies.[2]
Whirlpool tubs [ edit ]
Whirlpool tubs first became popular in America during the 1960s and 70s. A spa or hot tub is also called a "jacuzzi" since the word became a generic after plumbing component manufacturer Jacuzzi introduced the "Spa Whirlpool" in 1968. Air bubbles may be introduced into the nozzles via an air-bleed venturi pump.
Freestand Bathtubs [ edit ]
Freestanding tubs have become popular in recent years as a result of larger bathrooms being constructed. Freestanding bathtubs are made from a variety of [3] materials including stone resin, cast stone, acrylic, cast iron, fiberglass, and porcelain.
Soft Bathtubs [ edit ]
Soft tubs are made from soft plastic or foam with a protective non-slip coating.[4] While soft tubs have been available since the 1970s,[5] by the 1990s they were being sold by major manufacturers.[4] The tubs are typically marketed to children and the elderly to prevent injury from falls.[6]
See also [ edit ] |
First lady Obama unveils proposed updates to nutrition facts labels during remarks in the East Room of the White House in Washington back in 2014. Thomson Reuters
The Trump administration has delayed a major upgrade to the labels on our food.
In 2016, the Obama administration and Food and Drug Administration released a revamp of the standard nutrition label. The changes were designed to emphasize serving sizes, added sugars, and calories, ideally to help Americans make smarter food choices.
Those changes were supposed to happen by July 26, 2018. But in June, the FDA said it would give companies more time to make the shift. In September, the FDA said that it would give large manufacturers until January 1, 2020 to make the changes instead. Smaller companies that make less than $10 million in food sales will have until January 1, 2021.
Nutrition labels have been a constant fixture on packaged food and drinks since 1990, but they've remained pretty much the same since then. Former First Lady Michelle Obama had been pushing for them to be changed since 2014.
Here's how the now-delayed labels will differ from the ones you currently see:
An example of the new label. FDA |
(John Jay Cabuay for The Washington Post)
Daniel Miller s a lawyer and the founder of the Psychedelic Society of Brooklyn.
In 1970, Congress dropped psychedelics into the war on drugs. After a decade of Timothy Leary, “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” and news reports of gruesome murders, the federal government declared that the drugs had no medical use — and high potential for abuse. The chairman of New Jersey’s Narcotic Drug Study Commission called LSD “the greatest threat facing the country today . . . more dangerous than the Vietnam War.”
But over the past decade, some scientists have begun to challenge that conclusion. Far from being harmful, they found, hallucinogens can help sick people: They helped alcoholics drink less; terminal patients eased more gently into death. And it’s not just the infirm who are helped by the drugs. Psychedelics can make the healthy healthier, too.
On this subject, only a handful of peer-reviewed studies have been conducted; sample sizes are tiny. There’s still a great deal researchers don’t know. But early results suggest that, when used by people without a family history or risk of psychological problems, psychedelics can make us kinder, calmer and better at our jobs. They can help us solve problems more creatively and make us more open-minded and generous. Some experiments even suggest that a single dose can change our personalities forever.
Is it possible that a drug labeled as one of the most destructive and dangerous could make everyone’s lives better?
* * *
Americans have had a complicated history with psychedelics like LSD, magic mushrooms and peyote. In the 1950s, researchers began to investigate whether psychedelics could treat mental-health disorders and addiction. Between 1953 and 1973, the federal government funded 116 studies on the subject, affecting thousands of people.
At the same time, large numbers of Americans started using these drugs recreationally. As many as 2 million had dropped acid by 1970. Stories about “bad trips” and psychotic breaks emerged in the press. In one widely publicized incident, a 5-year-old accidentally took her uncle’s drug; people got scared. Meanwhile, soldiers were returning from Vietnam addicted to heroin; the country felt like it was locked in battle with illegal drug use. By 1968, President Richard Nixon had declared drugs “public enemy number one.” Congress banned all psychedelic use in 1970, which made research nearly impossible.
Then, in the early 2000s, a handful of scientists began looking into psychedelics as a way to relieve anxiety and addiction. (They were drawn to the drugs after reviewing the work of researchers from the 1950s and ’60s.) These experiments were successful. In one study, cancer patients were given psilocybin, a component of psychedelic mushrooms. Each patient was given one dose and then allowed to trip in a hospital room designed to look like a living room. Two medical professionals stayed close by.
[Indiana’s new abortion law won’t save babies. It will only make my patients suffer.]
Afterward, almost all of the participants experienced a significant reduction in anxiety and depression. Scientists checked in with the patients six months later; all reported that they still felt calmer and happier. Volunteer Gail Thomas told me that the treatment helped her overcome a deep sense of loneliness. “The main message from the trip was that we’re all connected,” she said. “We’re not alone.”
“The fact that a drug given once can have such an effect for so long is an unprecedented finding,” NYU psychiatrist Stephen Ross told the New Yorker. “We have never had anything like it in the psychiatric field.”
Other researchers have tested the drug as a treatment for depression, addiction and other mental problems such as obsessive-compulsive disorder. Remarkably, in each small trial, scientists saw incredible results.
In a 2014 smoking-cessation study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, 15 participants were given three doses of psilocybin under careful supervision by doctors. The participants were all heavy nicotine users, consuming about a pack a day for an average of 31 years. Six months later, 80 percent were cigarette-free — most smoking-cessation efforts are about 35 percent effective. In a 2015 alcoholism study, also peer-reviewed and published in Psychopharmacology, many of the 10 participants saw a significant decrease in drinking for at least nine months after one or two psilocybin experiences. In both studies, the psilocybin doses were coupled with therapy.
Here’s why scientists think it works: When someone takes a psychedelic, there is a decrease in blood flow and electrical activity in the brain’s “default mode network,” a group of brain structures found in the frontal and pre-frontal cortex. The default mode network is primarily responsible for our ego or sense of self; it “lights up” when we daydream or self-reflect.
When we trip, our default mode network slows down. With the ego out of commission, the boundaries between self and world, subject and object dissolve. These processes may be related to something called the “primary mystical experience,” a phenomena highly correlated with therapeutic outcomes. As Matthew Johnson, a principal investigator in Johns Hopkins’s psilocybin studies, explains, these experiences include a “transcendence of time and space,” a sense of unity and sacredness and a deeply felt positive mood.
[Do you own a gun? Why your kid’s doctor needs to know.]
Robin Carhart-Harris, a neuroscientist with Imperial College London, notes that the default mode network is responsible for a lot of our rigid, habitual thinking and obsessions. Psychedelics help relax the part of the brain that leads us to obsess, which makes us calmer. And they can help “loosen if not break” the entrenched physical circuits responsible for addictive behavior.
There’s also an increase in activity between different parts of the brain that don’t normally communicate — what scientists call “cross-talk.” That may be why we hallucinate while on psychedelics; the brain’s visual-processing centers are interacting in strange ways with the parts of the brain that control our beliefs and emotions.
* * *
Of course, it’s not just the mentally ill who need to feel less isolated and obsessive, more fulfilled and creative. Research has shown that healthy people also benefit from the brain shift that psychedelics provide. Taking the drug even one time can fundamentally reshape our lives, making us happier and kinder, more productive at work and more open-minded. These findings are one of the reasons I became a psychedelics advocate.
In one study (admittedly, one that didn’t follow today’s rigorous research parameters) conducted at Harvard in 1962, 10 divinity school students were given psilocybin just before a Good Friday service. Eight reported a mystical experience. In the late 1980s, researcher and psychedelics advocate Rick Doblin interviewed seven of the students who’d taken the drug. All said that experience had shaped their lives and work in profound ways. But Doblin also found that several subjects experienced acute anxiety during their experiences. One participant had to be dosed with a powerful antipsychotic after he became convinced that he’d been chosen to announce the arrival of the Messiah and ran from the chapel.
In 2006, Johns Hopkins researchers tested whether psychedelics induce a mystical experience in healthy people. Thirty-six volunteers were given either a hallucinogen or a placebo at one session. In the second session, the pills were reversed. Six months later, the study participants said they were “more sensitive, compassionate, tolerant, to have increased positive relationships, an increased need to serve others,” according to a lead researcher. The doctors interviewed participants’ family members, friends and colleagues as well; they all confirmed that the study participants had become nicer and more pleasant.
[The rage of Trump fans isn’t new. I’ve dealt with it for years.]
The positive changes seen in this study persisted for at least 14 months. A third of the participants in the Hopkins study rated their psilocybin session as the most spiritually significant experience of their lives, even more important than the birth of a child or the death of a parent.
The 2006 study was published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. In that issue, several prominent drug researchers were invited to comment; all praised the finding and called for additional research. Columbia University professor Herbert Kleber wrote that he saw “major therapeutic possibilities.”
In a 2011 study, 18 healthy volunteers were given four doses of psilocybin. The vast majority of participants reported prolonged positive changes in attitude and mood, feelings that lasted for at least 14 months. In follow-up research, scientists determined that many of the volunteers from both studies had undergone a change in personality, something that is supposed to remain relatively fixed after 30. Participants had become more open-minded, tolerant and interested in fantasy and imagination.
“People have certain fears and rigid perspectives and ways of seeing the world that often limit what they can do,” said Katherine MacLean, who led the personality research at Johns Hopkins. “A lot of people I saw go through the study as healthy people wanted to make certain changes in their life. And psilocybin helped them make these changes.”
A recently published Imperial College London study seems to reinforce the Hopkins findings, although on a much more limited time scale. Twenty healthy volunteers were administered a relatively low dose of LSD. Two weeks later, they were asked to fill out personality assessments. The participants said they felt more optimistic, open-minded and intellectually curious.
Beyond the studies, there is a small community of people who are using LSD to self-medicate through micro-dosing, or consuming tiny portions of the drug. There’s no scientific rigor to their work. But in articles and on Internet message boards, these users claim to have experienced some success in using LSD to improve focus, concentration, memory and creativity. In James Fadiman’s “The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide,” regular acid users said small doses helped them work harder and smarter. Some Silicon Valley workers are taking the drug to increase their productivity.
Even famous Americans have linked their use of psychedelics to major creative breakthroughs. Steve Jobs famously said that taking LSD “was one of the most important things in my life.” The entrepreneur Tim Ferriss said that “the billionaires I know, almost without exception, use hallucinogens on a regular basis.” And the beloved and recently departed neuroscientist Oliver Sacks related LSD use to his ability to better empathize with his patients.
* * *
So far, about 500 people have participated in formal psilocybin experiments, and researchers have reported no serious side effects. But of course, these volunteers are self-selected, carefully screened and guided by therapists who are well-trained to manage episodes of fear and anxiety that can occur during a trip.
When psychedelics are used outside these tightly controlled settings, major problems can occur. These can come in the form of bad trips, which make users feel extremely anxious and depressed. Sometimes, people do dangerous things while under the influence. And hallucinogens can surface latent psychological problems, such as schizophrenia. Recreational use can occasionally result in terrifying flashbacks. (Though researchers have found that psychedelics like LSD and magic mushrooms are not addictive and far less dangerous than many legal drugs, including alcohol.)
That reality makes it hard for many scientists to imagine a future when psychedelics are used widely. They worry that it will be hard to control the drugs’ use. As Nora Volkow of the National Institute on Drug Abuse told the New Yorker, “The main concern we have . . . is that the public will walk away with the message that psilocybin is a safe drug.”
[The Chinese want to buy more American companies — and we should let them]
There are legal considerations, too. Researchers are in the process of asking the FDA to consider rescheduling the drug as a treatment for end-of-life anxiety, a long and complex process. Approval for broader use will likely take decades.
What, then, is the way forward?
Perhaps the studies that have been have done offer a path. Patients could be recommended for treatment by their doctors, screened for serious mental illness and certain heart conditions, prepped about what to expect and monitored by a medical professional (with whom they built a trusting relationship) over six to eight hours in case of anxiety and fear. The psychedelic experience should also be integrated into the participant’s life through some form of follow-up therapy. Mark Kleiman, a drug policy expert and NYU professor, emphasizes the importance of containing the experience, both during the trip, for the purposes of safety, and afterward, “so it’s not merely a one-off mystical experience, but actually something you could build a life around.”
These drugs would have to be tightly regulated. They’re simply too powerful to be left to the free market. But that’s no reason for inaction. In the right setting, psychedelics can provide a lifetime of perspective in an afternoon. As writer and psychedelics advocate Aldous Huxley said: “The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend.” |
size is large or unlimited.
The data read is buffered in memory, so do not use this method if the data
+ cleanup properly a well-behaved application should kill the child process and
+ The child process is not killed if the timeout expires, so in order to
+ retrying communication will not lose any output.
+ :exc:`TimeoutExpired` exception will be raised. Catching this exception and
+ If the process does not terminate after *timeout* seconds, a
``None`` in the result tuple, you need to give ``stdout=PIPE`` and/or
@@ -407,11 +442,29 @@ Instances of the :class:`Popen` class ha
``None``, if no data should be sent to the child.
*input* argument should be a byte string to be sent to the child process, or
+ until end-of-file is reached. Wait for process to terminate. The optional
- until end-of-file is reached. Wait for process to terminate. The optional
Interact with process: Send data to stdin. Read data from stdout and stderr,
accept more data. Use :meth:`communicate` to avoid that.
a pipe such that it blocks waiting for the OS pipe buffer to
@@ -392,11 +424,14 @@ Instances of the :class:`Popen` class ha
This will deadlock when using ``stdout=PIPE`` and/or
+ :exc:`TimeoutExpired` exception. It is safe to catch this exception and
+ If the process does not terminate after *timeout* seconds, raise a
Wait for child process to terminate. Set and return :attr:`returncode`
@@ -380,11 +408,15 @@ Instances of the :class:`Popen` class ha
+the timeout expires before the process exits.
+:func:`call` and :meth:`Popen.communicate` will raise :exc:`TimeoutExpired` if
+All of the functions and methods that accept a *timeout* parameter, such as
check_call() will raise :exc:`CalledProcessError`, if the called process returns
+ the child process so far will be in the :attr:`output` attribute of the
+ will be re-raised after the child process has terminated. The output from
+ will be killed and the wait retried. The :exc:`TimeoutExpired` exception
+ As in the :func:`call` function, if the timeout expires, the child process
b'ls: non_existent_file: No such file or directory
'
@@ -305,8 +320,17 @@ This module also defines four shortcut f
+ The arguments are the same as for the :func:`call` function. Example::
- The arguments are the same as for the :class:`Popen` constructor. Example::
+ :attr:`returncode` attribute and output in the :attr:`output` attribute.
- attribute and output in the :attr:`output` attribute.
:exc:`CalledProcessError` object will have the return code in the
If the exit code was non-zero it raises a :exc:`CalledProcessError`. The
Run command with arguments and return its output as a byte string.
See the warning for :func:`call`.
+ will be re-raised after the child process has terminated.
+ will be killed and the wait retried. The :exc:`TimeoutExpired` exception
+ As in the :func:`call` function, if the timeout expires, the child process
+ The arguments are the same as for the :func:`call` function. Example::
- The arguments are the same as for the :class:`Popen` constructor. Example::
:exc:`CalledProcessError` object will have the return code in the
zero then return, otherwise raise :exc:`CalledProcessError`. The
Run command with arguments. Wait for command to complete. If the exit code was
for the OS pipe buffer to accept more data.
generates enough output to a pipe such that it blocks waiting
@@ -265,34 +271,43 @@ This module also defines four shortcut f
Like :meth:`Popen.wait`, this will deadlock when using
+ again. The :exc:`TimeoutExpired` exception will be re-raised after the child
+ If the timeout expires, the child process will be killed and then waited for
+ exception of the *timeout* argument, which is given to :meth:`Popen.wait`.
+ The arguments are the same as for the :class:`Popen` constructor, with the
- The arguments are the same as for the :class:`Popen` constructor. Example::
Run command with arguments. Wait for command to complete, then return the
This module also defines four shortcut functions: |
NRA Gun Club (Gun Club in Italy) is described as a nonviolent first-person target shooting game by Crave Entertainment in North America and 505 Games only in Italy (Although a German release was planned, but cancelled for unknown reasons).[1] The game allows gamers to enter the shooting range and shoot at paper targets, watermelons and sporting clays. The game contains over 100 licensed and recreated firearms.
The game generally has very poor ratings and reviews. It was rated by GameSpot 1.6 out of 10 (abysmal) as one of the worst games ever made for the PlayStation 2. Another gaming site, IGN, gave the game a 1.5 out of 10 ("abysmal") and called the game, "a bold move in exploring new depths of sheer worthlessness."[1] The game was rated E10+ (for everyone 10 years of age or older) for mild violence by the Entertainment Software Rating Board.[2]
References [ edit ] |
Real Madrid's 6-1 Copa del Rey win over Cultural Leonesa at the Bernabeu on Wednesday extended the club's unbeaten run to 32 games in all competitions -- passing a mark set by Zinedine Zidane's former mentor Carlo Ancelotti.
Mariano Diaz scored a hat trick -- the first coming after just 23 seconds, the fastest goal of Zidane's reign. James Rodriguez put the home side two up then Mariano struck again before half-time. Zidane's son, Enzo, scored the fourth before Mariano completed his treble and Cesar Morgado put through his own net.
Madrid's last defeat was 2-0 at Wolfsburg in the Champions League on April 6 last season and since then they have recorded 24 victories and eight draws in all competitions, while scoring 92 goals and conceding just 29.
Zinedine Zidane watches on during the win over Cultural Leonesa.
Under Ancelotti with Zidane as his assistant, Madrid put together 26 wins and five draws during the 2013-14 campaign, with the team scoring 87 goals and conceding 20, with the run bookended by defeats in Clasicos to Madrid's rivals Barcelona.
Madrid next head to Barca's Camp Nou on Saturday as they look to close in on the club record of unbeaten games at 34, set during the 1988-89 season when Dutchman Leo Beenhakker was coach. Zidane's side then have Borussia Dortmund at home in the Champions League, before Deportivo La Coruna go to the Bernabeu in La Liga which could see the record broken.
The Primera Division record for matches unbeaten is held by Barcelona (39 games), set during the reign of current Blaugrana boss Luis Enrique during the 2015-16 campaign.
Juventus hold the European record for their unbeaten run of 43 matches when current Chelsea manager Antonio Conte was in charge back in 2011-12.
Dermot Corrigan is a Madrid-based football writer who covers La Liga and the Spain national team for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @dermotmcorrigan |
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Police say a Pennsylvania man repeatedly called 911 while intoxicated because he was seeking conversation.
Pennsylvania State Police say 51-year-old Larry Keiser first called around 10:30 p.m. Friday because he wanted to speak with a police officer. He said there was no emergency.
Keiser called five more times, leading police to show up at his home in North Whitehall Township after midnight.
The man told officers he drank several beers because he was upset about a family situation. Troopers told Keiser not to call 911 again unless there was an emergency, and he said he wouldn’t call again.
Troopers say he called 911 the minute after officers left.
Keiser has been arrested and is facing charges that include intentionally calling 911 for other than emergency purposes. |
Update: The 300 level will signal if this market is going to resume bullish momentum, or not. The market determines where it is going to go and if it decides to present a bullish breakout, then it will be just a matter of time for a long setup that offers better reward/risk.The retest of the 300 level is very interesting because on the bigger picture, this structure can be one giant double top . In my opinion this is a very high risk level for any new long swing trades. I have been writing about the lack of attractive reward/risk at these levels even though there have been signs of strength.As I have written about before, if this market is going to demonstrate consistent strength, then not only will it have to PROOVE itself by breaking 300, but it will have to push to a significant new high (301 or 302 does not count) and when it pulls back, the retrace should be somewhere above the 280s (the resistance zone should act as a new support). In that particular scenario, I would be interested in a long if the reversal formations confirmed the entry. The main part of that scenario is that a new high is established, NOT BEFORE.If this market fails and one confirmation of that would be a break of the 280 support (.382 of current bullish swing), then I will stay flat until price can make its way back to the 269 to 262 support (.618 of recent bullish swing), the 250 support area , or the 237 to 219 support that I have been writing about in previous reports.Just as a refresher, when I evaluate these markets, I am just defining scenarios based on the current price structure so that I can prepare myself for whichever way the MARKET chooses to go. In this case, if it breaks out above 300, I know for sure I am staying out. I don't care how high it goes. the risk is outside the parameters of my trading plan. If it fails, then I have projected support levels that I will be waiting for to see 1. If price can reach any of them, and 2. The kind of price action we get at those levels (like the double bottom that occurred at 250).So for those who are expecting the answer to the question: Which way is it going? It appears to be going higher at the moment, but higher in what context is what people do not realize is more important. Higher in the context of facing a double top resistance, which means the chance of a fake out is high. At the same timeis right in the middle of a resistance zone as well, and needs to follow through with a push above 4000 in order to keep this market going.In summary. since the extreme low that occurred in the coin markets recently, they have been following theprice action as it works its way back up in an attempt to break above 4000 again. The 300 level for this market is one that will either make or break the potential for higher prices. A breakout above will need to be followed up with supportive price structures (that is a much better time to buy in terms of reward/risk based on my plan), while a failed breakout will establish a broad double top which can lead prices back to the 260s, or even lower. Either way, I have my plan, and I am just waiting for the market to choose.Comments and questions welcome. |
The largest European hacker club, "Chaos Computer Club" (CCC), has reverse engineered and analyzed a "lawful interception" malware program used by German police forces. It has been found in the wild and submitted to the CCC anonymously. The malware can not only siphon away intimate data but also offers a remote control or backdoor functionality for uploading and executing arbitrary other programs. Significant design and implementation flaws make all of the functionality available to anyone on the internet.
Even before the German constitutional court ("Bundesverfassungsgericht") on February 27 2008 forbade the use of malware to manipulate German citizen's PCs, the German government introduced a less conspicuous newspeak variant of the term spy software: "Quellen-TKÜ" (the term means "source wiretapping" or lawful interception at the source). This Quellen-TKÜ can by definition only be used for wiretapping internet telephony. The court also said that this has to be enforced through technical and legal means.
The CCC now published the extracted binary files [0] of the government malware that was used for "Quellen-TKÜ", together with a report about the functionality found and our conclusions about these findings [1]. During this analysis, the CCC wrote its own remote control software for the trojan.
The CCC analysis reveals functionality in the "Bundestrojaner light" (Bundestrojaner meaning "federal trojan" and is the colloquial German term for the original government malware concept) concealed as "Quellen-TKÜ" that go much further than to just observe and intercept internet based telecommunication, and thus violates the terms set by the constitutional court. The trojan can, for example, receive uploads of arbitrary programs from the Internet and execute them remotely. This means, an "upgrade path" from Quellen-TKÜ to the full Bundestrojaner's functionality is built-in right from the start. Activation of the computer's hardware like microphone or camera can be used for room surveillance.
The analysis concludes, that the trojan's developers never even tried to put in technical safeguards to make sure the malware can exclusively be used for wiretapping internet telephony, as set forth by the constitution court. On the contrary, the design included functionality to clandestinely add more components over the network right from the start, making it a bridge-head to further infiltrate the computer.
"This refutes the claim that an effective separation of just wiretapping internet telephony and a full-blown trojan is possible in practice – or even desired," commented a CCC speaker. "Our analysis revealed once again that law enforcement agencies will overstep their authority if not watched carefully. In this case functions clearly intended for breaking the law were implemented in this malware: they were meant for uploading and executing arbitrary code on the targeted system."
The government malware can, unchecked by a judge, load extensions by remote control, to use the trojan for other functions, including but not limited to eavesdropping. This complete control over the infected PC – owing to the poor craftsmanship that went into this trojan – is open not just to the agency that put it there, but to everyone. It could even be used to upload falsified "evidence" against the PC's owner, or to delete files, which puts the whole rationale for this method of investigation into question.
But the trojan's built-in functions are scary enough, even without extending it by new moduls. For the analysis, the CCC wrote its own control terminal software, that can be used to remotely control infected PCs over the internet. With its help it is possible to watch screenshots of the web browser on the infected PC – including private notices, emails or texts in web based cloud services.
The official claim of a strict separation of lawful interception of internet telephony and the digital sphere of privacy has no basis in reality. [NB: The German constitutional court ruled that there is a sphere of privacy that is afforded total protection and can never be breached, no matter for what reason, for example keeping a diary or husband and wife talking in the bedroom. Government officials in Germany argued that it is possible to avoid listening in on this part but still eavesdrop electronically. The constitutional court has created the concept of "Kernbereich privater Lebensgestaltung", core area of private life. The CCC is basically arguing that nowadays a person's laptop is intrinsically part of this core area because people put private notes there and keep a diary on it] The fact that a judge has to sign the warrant does not protect the privacy, because the data are being taken directly from the core area of private life.
The legislator should put an end to the ever growing expansion of computer spying that has been getting out of hand in recent years, and finally come up with an unambiguous definition for the digital privacy sphere and with a way to protect it effectively. Unfortunately, for too long the legislator has been guided by demands for technical surveillance, not by values like freedom or the question of how to protect our values in a digital world. It is now obvious that he is no longer able to oversee the technology, let alone control it.
The analysis also revealed serious security holes that the trojan is tearing into infected systems. The screenshots and audio files it sends out are encrypted in an incompetent way, the commands from the control software to the trojan are even completely unencrypted. Neither the commands to the trojan nor its replies are authenticated or have their integrity protected. Not only can unauthorized third parties assume control of the infected system, but even attackers of mediocre skill level can connect to the authorities, claim to be a specific instance of the trojan, and upload fake data. It is even conceivable that the law enforcement agencies' IT infrastructure could be attacked through this channel. The CCC has not yet performed a penetration test on the server side of the trojan infrastructure.
"We were surprised and shocked by the lack of even elementary security in the code. Any attacker could assume control of a computer infiltrated by the German law enforcement authorities", commented a speaker of the CCC. "The security level this trojan leaves the infected systems in is comparable to it setting all passwords to '1234'".
To avoid revealing the location of the command and control server, all data is redirected through a rented dedicated server in a data center in the USA. The control of this malware is only partially within the borders of its jurisdiction. The instrument could therefore violate the fundamental principle of national sovereignty. Considering the incompetent encryption and the missing digital signatures on the command channel, this poses an unacceptable and incalculable risk. It also poses the question how a citizen is supposed to get their right of legal redress in the case the wiretapping data get lost outside Germany, or the command channel is misused.
According to our hacker ethics and to avoid tipping off criminals who are being investigated, the CCC has informed the German ministry of the interior. They have had enough time to activate the existing self destruct function of the trojan.
When arguing about the government authorized infiltration of computers and secretly scanning suspects' hard drives, the former minister of the interior Wolfgang Schäuble and Jörg Ziercke, BKA's president (BKA, German federal policy agency), have always claimed that the population should not worry because there would only be "a handful" of cases where the trojan would be used at all. Either almost the complete set of government malware has found their way in brown envelopes to the CCC's mailbox, or the truth has been leapfrogged once again by the reality of eavesdropping and "lawful interception".
The other promises made by the officials also are not basis in reality. In 2008 the CCC was told that all versions of the "Quellen-TKÜ" software would manually be hand-crafted for the specifics of each case. The CCC now has access to several software versions of the trojan, and they all use the same hard-coded cryptographic key and do not look hand-crafted at all. Another promise has been that the trojan would be subject to exceptionally strict quality control to make sure the rules set forth by the constitutional court would not be violated. In reality this exceptionally strict quality control has neither found that the key is hard coded, nor that the "encryption" is uni-directional only, nor that there is a back door for uploading and executing further malware. The CCC expressed hope that this farce is not representative for exceptionally strict quality control in federal agencies.
The CCC demands: The clandestine infiltration of IT systems by government agencies must stop. At the same time we would like to call on all hackers and people interested in technology to further analyze the malware, so that at least some benefit can be reaped from this embarrassing eavesdropping attempt. Also, we will gladly continue to receive copies of other versions of government malware off your hands. [4]
Links:
[0] Binaries
[1] Analysis of the government malware (German)
[4] BigBrotherAwards 2009, Category Business: companies selling internet and phone surveillance technology
[5] 0zapftis (at) ccc.de use the PGP key below:
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NEW DELHI: Going by a number of decisions taken since February this year, it appears the Cabinet has been preparing for a cashless India from long before November 8.Of course, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the formal leap and scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in one fell swoop on the night of November 8.Still, a slew of moves, including a reduction in transaction fees, installing electronic payment modes and encouraging e-transactions on cheaper feature phones, had already paved the way for citizens to adopt and adapt to a cashless economy, once November 8 rolled round.To encourage digital/cashless payments government departments took the decision to absorb any transaction fees on payments made for state-provided services, including by Central Public Sector Enterprises.Digital purchases from these services were also incentivised.Salary distribution in central government departments began to be done through the Public Finance Management System By installing electronic modes of payment at 70 central government departments they saw digital transactions soar to 1.4 crore and worth Rs 3,250 crore. The Centre also persuaded electricity distribution companies and state governments to install such payment modes.A non-tax receipt portal, bharakosh.gov.in, was developed to enable users to make non-tax nine payments for as many as 237 categories of payments including for spectrum charges, RTI applications and the like.To encourage small merchants to accept digital payments without passing on associated charges to customers, the merchant discount rate on debit cards was waived until December 31 this year.Not everyone can afford smartphone and most mobile phone users in India use feature phones. To enable mobile banking on these simpler phones, USSD charges were reduced to Rs 0.50 per SMS from Rs.1.50 per SMS to Rs.0.50. An application for mobile phone payments in four languages was also developed.As for mobile banking on smartphones, the National Payments Corporation of India developed a Unified Payment Interface (UPI) application which 27 banks have already adopted.To slowly eliminate having to go to a physical bank for everything, mobile Banking through interoperable ATMs was launched. As many as 81,000 ATMs of 12 Banks are already live and another 15,000 machines are expected to go live shortly. |
by BRIAN NADIG
Some Gladstone Park merchants could experience a reduction of on-street parking in front of their stores and lose one of the driveways to their parking lot as part of a plan to relocate bus stops to the far side the intersection in an effort to improve traffic flow.
PACE suburban bus service is looking to relocate several bus stops to accommodate the planned arterial rapid transit bus line, called "Pulse," which will operate on Milwaukee Avenue between the Jefferson Park CTA Terminal and the Golf Mill shopping center in Niles. Some of the most significant changes are planned for the Milwaukee-Central intersection.
PACE officials gave a project update at the May 1 meeting of the Gladstone Park Chamber of Commerce. Traffic signal improvements along the planned Pulse route already have been made to accommodate the project.
The express bus line, which is scheduled to start in 2017, will make stops about every half-mile, compared to every couple of blocks by the current PACE Route 270, which serves the same stretch of Milwaukee and will continue to operate after the start of the Pulse service.
Pulse buses, which will offer WiFi and charging outlets for electronic devices, will use existing traffic lines and provide shorten travel times for commuters, said project manager Charlotte O’Donnell.
The location of the new Pulse bus stops will be finalized by the end of the summer, and project consultants will be considering feedback from the property owners at the affected locations, O’Donnell said.
The Pulse stops will measure up to 60 feet in length and include landscaping, a heated shelter, a 15-foot-tall identifier sign with an electronic message board and a raised curb to help facilitate the boarding of buses. The stops will be located on sidewalks and parkways.
O’Donnell said that having the Pulse stops on the far side of intersections will allow more vehicles, including the buses, to clear intersections before a traffic signal turns red. She said that all too often motorists miss a green light because they are stuck behind a bus which is blocking a lane of traffic while passengers are boarding.
In addition, the Pulses buses will possess a "transit signal priority" system that will send a request for a longer green light on Milwaukee to a traffic signal control center on those occasions when a bus is running late The request will only be granted when it would not interfere with cross traffic, and in other areas this priority system has shorten travel times by up to 20 percent, O’Donnell said.
While new bus stop locations will result in the loss of a couple of parking at those sites, new parking could be implemented at those bus stops which are being closed, said project consultant Sara Hage of HNTB Corporation.The net loss could be close to zero parking spaces, and the Pulse line will not affect on-street parking in Niles because there is no parking on Milwaukee there, she said.
Depending on the success of the Pulse line, some of the Route 270 stops could eventually be eliminated, creating more opportunities for parking, according to project officials. In most instances a Pulse stop will be a five to 10 minute walk from other PACE bus stops on Milwaukee, where the CTA currently does not operate any routes north of Central Avenue.
The Pulse line could lead to several bus stop changes at the Milwaukee-Central intersection.
Currently PACE has a shared bus stop with the CTA in the right-turn lane on Milwaukee at the southeast corner of the intersection, from which CTA buses head north on Central.
Preliminary plans call for that bus stop to be relocated to the northeast corner of the intersection in front of a parking lot for Foremost Liquors and Paterno Liquors, 5303 N. Milwaukee Ave., and one of the two curb cuts on Milwaukee for the parking lot would be eliminated to accommodate the new Pulse bus stop. The triangular-shaped parking lot also has a driveway on Central, and project officials are looking at creating a second driveway on Central, but concern was raised at the chamber meeting that traffic backups on southbound Central would regularly block the driveway.
In addition, a new CTA bus stop would be installed on the northbound side of the 5200 block of Central, where several storefronts and on-street parking spaces are located. An existing bus stop is located about a half-block to the north.
Project officials said that alternate sites for the bus stops will be considered but that one of the goals is to have the bus stops as close as possible to the Milwaukee-Central intersection to accommodate commuters transferring between CTA and PACE routes.
Also under consideration is the elimination of a driveway for Wintrust Bank, 6336 N. Milwaukee Ave., to accommodate the relocation of a bus stop. Currently the bank has two driveways on Milwaukee and one on Nagle Avenue.
The eight Pulse stops between the Jefferson Park CTA Terminal and Golf Mill are planned for Central, AustinAvenue/Ardmore Avenue, Haft Street/Highland Avenue, Touhy Avenue, Harlem Avenue/Howard Street, Oakton Street/Oak Mill Mall, Main Street and Dempster Street.
Of all PACE Route 270 boardings between Gold Mill and Jefferson park, 90 percent occur within 1/4 mile of a proposed Pulse stop, and 82 percent occur with 1/8 miler of a Pulse stop, according to PACE.
The Pulse line is designed in part to encourage more commuters to use public transportation by providing more efficient service and enhanced amenities, O’Donnell said. PACE held a public workshop on the project in April and plans to hold a second one in August, she said. |
JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan will consider a United Nations plan to send in troops and stop the country’s episode of violence, President Salva Kiir said on Monday, confirming a softer stance toward a U.N. vote to send in extra troops.
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir addresses delegates during the swearing-in ceremony of First Vice President Taban Deng Gai at the Presidential Palace in the capital of Juba, South Sudan, July 26, 2016. REUTERS/Jok Solomun
The U.N. Security Council authorized an extra 4,000 troops on Friday, something Kiir’s spokesman immediately said the government would oppose. On Sunday, however, the information minister said the proposal would be considered.
“There are people who are accusing the transitional government of refusing and fighting the U.N. ... this is not accurate,” Kiir said at a ceremony to reopen parliament.
“The transitional government has not met to declare its final position. Deliberations will come later on a final position,” he said, without saying when the government might make a decision.
The U.N. decision was a reaction to days of fierce fighting in Juba, the country’s capital last month. The violence raised fears of a slide back into civil war in the world’s youngest nation, which gained independence in 2011.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it had uncovered evidence of cold-blooded execution of civilians, including a journalist, by security forces during last month’s fighting. The group also found evidence of civilians being raped by soldiers in the chaos of the fighting, it said on Monday.
The U.N. made similar accusations against the military earlier this month.
HRW criticized the U.N. for failing to impose a “long overdue arms embargo”, calling for asset freezes and travel bans on those who carried out abuses. “The continued supply of arms only helps fuel the abuses on a larger scale,” said Daniel Bekele, the group’s Africa director.
Ateny Wek Ateny, the president’s spokesman, said he could not comment since he was still going through the report.
Earlier, Kiir had said in his speech to parliament they were investigating reports of sexual assaults, calling them unacceptable.
At least two civilians and a soldier were killed in fighting southwest of the capital on Saturday between Kiir’s forces and troops loyal to his former deputy, Riek Machar. Each side blamed the other for starting the violence.
The extra U.N. troops, described as a protection force that has the backing of African nations, will fall under the command of UNMISS, the existing 12,000-strong U.N. mission.
The U.N. resolution threatens South Sudan with an arms embargo if it does not cooperate.
Kiir said the government had serious concerns about the U.N. decision but was willing to discuss them to find the best way of “achieving our mutual interests”.
Political differences between Kiir and Machar first erupted into conflict in late 2013. A peace deal ended the civil war in August 2015, but sporadic fighting continued.
Machar withdrew with his forces from Juba after violence flared in July, setting up a potential armed standoff. |
I was so excited to see my Santa was from Austin, Texas. I visited there a couple of years ago and loved the place. So even before I opened it I knew I was going to love it.
My Santa was so generous, I was actually a little horrified to see the cost of postage, ouch! A few of the sweets we do already have in the UK (what can I say, we're a little Americanified) but I was made up to get the girl scout cookies in particular. I've already tried a few things, including the bacon jerky and honey pecans which I loved. Thanks so much to my Santa and I expect I'll be a couple of pounds heavier by the time I get through all these treats. |
The pressure on gold prices is hard to ignore. But some aggressive investors see this as an opportunity, and are talking about catching a falling knife in gold amid the negativity.
That’s a surefire way to lose some fingers (or maybe a whole arm) if this keeps up. And gold miners are particularly toxic because even if gold does firm up, these companies could be cooked for quite some time.
The bull case is easy to understand, of course: with ultra-low valuations and ugly declines as of late, the negativity is priced in and this is your shot to buy. You know, blood in the streets and all that.
Also, some industry insiders think gold production is break-even right now — that is, market value of the metal at under $1,300 per ounce is on par with the cost it takes to extract gold from the ground at many mines. That’s a pretty compelling case for a floor in gold since companies won’t keep mining just to bleed cash, and supply may adjust to demand as a result.
But don’t fall for the glitter of gold and gold miners. Here’s what’s working against those investments right now:
Fund flight
Say what you want about “paper gold” — the securitization of the precious metal allows many more investors to sell and move their money, and that has resulted in rapid declines that don’t look like they will abate anytime soon. About $55 billion has been erased from exchange traded gold products like the SPDR Gold Trust GLD, +0.17% since January — and just like a squeezed trader on a margin call, gold fund managers have to sell into downward momentum to pay for redemptions. That leads to further decline, cascading redemptions and a lot more pain to come for gold prices in 2013.
No safe haven
Gold has been a safe haven in the minds of many, but the more than 25% decline from last September has shaken this idea to the core. Also, Treasurys are in favor again as rates tick up to 2.6% — more than 100 basis points higher than 12 months ago and significantly higher than the S&P’s dividend yield of roughly 2.0% right now. If you’re looking for safety, anything relating to gold ain’t it.
Writedowns
Newcrest Mining NCMGY, -1.32% wrote down the value of its mining reserves by $5.5 billion. This is not unheard of to mark down mine values, but the sheer size of this transaction — the biggest one-time charge in history for the gold mining industry — is noteworthy. Bloomberg data show about $17 billion in writedowns for miners across the last year and a half, according to BusinessWeek, and there are fears major players like Barrick Gold Corp. US:ABX and Newmont Mining Corp. NEM, -3.19% may write off mine values next and push that figure even higher. It’s hard to say a stock is undervalued when the value keeps moving down.
Bad buyouts
Cumbersome and inefficient operations have resulted from a race to acquisitions in the last few years. In 2011, Chinese corporation Shandong Gold 600547, -2.29% purchased a Brazilian miner for $1 billion, and then state-owned China National Gold Corp. bought a major stake in African Barrick Gold for $3.9 billion in 2012. Billionaire Carlos Slim and his Minera Frisco MSNFY, +0.00% operation bought out a competing Mexico miner in for $750 million last year. Kinross Gold KGC, -1.98% bid $7.1 billion for the rest of Red Back Mining in 2010. The list goes on — and all those ill-timed acquisitions meant to tap into new reserves have simply resulted in more costly operations and thinner margins for many miners.
Even if gold comes back, miners may not
Here’s the dirty little secret about miners even if you think all these previous points don’t matter — that the idea of gold miners as amped up gold plays has been pretty much debunked. Consider that while gold has underperformed, it is still up handily since January 2009 when it was trading around $500 — and that the bullion-backed GLD ETF is up 40% since then. Not bad. Meanwhile the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF GDX, -0.18% has crashed over 25% since 2009. Even more damning is that since late 2011 when gold was trading around $1,900 an ounce, bullion is down roughly 30% — but the GDX miners fund is down double that with 60% losses in the same period. What makes you think, given this track record, miners are a good buy even if gold moves higher?
I am bearish on the precious metal, and think it will drift sideways at best. On May 22 I warned that gold prices would not make a comeback and gold has given up more than $120 since then.
But even if I’m wrong and gold ticks higher, gold mining stocks could continue to cave in. Avoid this sector at all costs.
Jeff Reeves is the editor of InvestorPlace.com. Follow him on Twitter@JeffReevesIP. As of this writing, he did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
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BTS are one of the few idol groups that give just as much love to male fans as they do to female fans.
Sometimes being a male K-Pop fan can be tough, especially when you’re a fan of a male group in a sea of fangirls. It can be harder to get noticed by idols, and it’s always nerve-wracking trying to interact with them because you never know how a male idol will react to seeing a male fan.
However, popular idol group BTS has shown love for male fans on multiple occasions. And while obviously not all male group fanboys are homosexual, group leader Rap Monster has said before that he supports the gay community. He tweeted saying he really liked the song “Same Love” after finding out the lyrics were talking about homophobia within the hip-hop community.
“…A song about homosexuality. I heard this song before, but I didn’t know the lyrics, now I know them, and I like the song twice as much. I recommend Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – “Same Love.” — Rap Monster (BTS)
V
V has been known to interact often with fanboys. At a fansign event, he clearly looks excited when a fanboy approaches him in line.
“Waah, it’s a guy! Waah…dude, hello!” – V (BTS)
V also responded positively online to a fanboy who posted saying he wanted to date him.
Fanboy: “Once I get into college, I really want to date you.” V: “Yes. Let’s really do it~.” Fanboy: “I love Bangtan!!!!!!!!!!!” V: “I love you too~”
Jungkook
Jungkook has also responded nicely to a fanboy who sent him a message, saying he loved Jungkook very much and asked if he wanted to go out even though he was a guy.
Fanboy: “Although I’m a boy, I really love Jungkook very very much, so do you want to try going out with me. ㅋㅋㅋ” Jungkook: “Courage…ㅋㅋ Alright!”
BTS clearly love all of their fans, no matter their gender or sexual orientation, and are very accepting of everyone. |
Tom was a wanderer. When his wife, Elsie, came to visit him at a care unit for patients with dementia, he would give her a perfunctory kiss, then wander off through the rooms and stare out the window. Elsie tried to walk with him and hold hands, but he would shake her off, leaving her heartsick.
A music therapist at the facility, Alicia Clair, was searching for ways to help couples like Elsie and Tom connect. Ms. Clair asked Elsie if she’d like to try dancing with Tom, then put on some music from the ’40s — Frank Sinatra singing “Time after Time.” Ms. Clair said recently, “I knew Tom was a World War II vet, and vets did a lot of ballroom dancing.”
As Sinatra began singing, Elsie opened her arms, beckoning. Tom stared a moment, then walked over and began leading her in the foxtrot. “They danced for thirty minutes!” Ms. Clair said. When they were finished, Elsie broke down and sobbed. “I haven’t been held by my husband in three years,” she told Ms. Clair. “Thank you for bringing him back.”
Ms. Clair, a professor of music therapy at the University of Kansas, tells this story to show how music can reach people with Alzheimer’s disease. Music has the power to bypass the mind and wash through us, triggering strong feelings and cueing the body to synchronize with its rhythm.
Researchers and clinicians are finding that when all other means of communication have shut down, people remember and respond to music. Familiar songs can help people with dementia relate to others, move more easily and experience joy. Tom had forgotten his name and couldn’t utter one word, but hearing Sinatra prompted him to dance.
Music memory is preserved better than verbal memory, according to Ms. Clair, because music, unlike language, is not seated in a specific area of the brain but processed across many parts. “You can’t rub out music unless the brain is completely gone.”
Ms. Clair noted, too, that Alzheimer’s is retrograde: “Things fall off in the opposite order from the way they were acquired.” So if someone sang to you as a baby, before you even knew words, you’ll respond to music after words are gone.
The discipline of music therapy (MT) was established in 1950, and last year close to a million people received MT services in hospitals, care facilities, hospices and schools. MT is not merely playing music for people, although that’s beneficial. Practitioners are skilled musicians who play instruments and sing, then are trained and certified to use music for therapeutic purposes.
Patients with a wide range of ailments — from children with disabilities to burn victims to people with Parkinson’s disease and stroke — have experienced the ability of MT to speed healing, improve mood and increase mobility. In a study published by the American Society of Neurorehabilitation, music therapy and conventional physical therapy were given to two groups of stroke victims who could barely walk. The group who received music therapy showed greater improvement in walking in a shorter period of time than those getting physical therapy.
My daughter, Rachel Strauss, who’s studying for a master’s degree in MT, said, “It works faster to relax people than any drug. It’s cost effective and has no side effects.”
There’s been a burst of interest in MT for people with Alzheimer’s. Kate Gfeller, who directs the graduate MT program at the University of Iowa, published a study in the Journal of Music Therapy finding that activities like moving to music, playing rhythm instruments and singing led to more group involvement and less wandering and disruptive behavior among 51 patients with dementia in five nursing facilities.
Other studies demonstrate that MT can slow the progress of Alzheimer’s, relieve pain and create emotional intimacy. The goal, Ms. Gfeller said, is to keep people functioning at their present level as long as possible: “We can’t reverse the disease, but we can make the quality of each day as good as it can be.”
Not just any music will do, though. The trick is finding out what music was popular when the patient was a teen and young adult. Ms. Gfeller said those years are such a powerful time in developing autonomy — a time of first love, learning to drive, getting the first home of one’s own — that people will play the music they heard during those years all their lives, and recall it the longest.
I remember visiting my grandfather, Louie Wass, when he was hospitalized with dementia, lying in bed, unable to talk. I started singing a Hungarian song he’d learned as a youth and later taught to me, “Territch-ka.” I sang the verse and when I stopped, he opened his mouth and sang the chorus: “Yoy, Territch-ka!” Right on key.
My daughter has asked me to send her books of music from the ’60s because, she said, “Boomers will be the next generation in the nursing facilities.” That was cheering. With the generation currently in these facilities, she uses songs like “A Bicycle Built for Two.” She likes those songs but said, “Your generation will be awesome — we’ll get to play the Beatles.”
Sara Davidson can be reached at saradavidson.com. |
This dark gravitas elevated ZD30 above other Oscar competitors too, from the way less hokey than it could have been but still kinda hokey Lincoln to the cute but ultimately rather small and slight Silver Linings Playbook. Zero Dark's lead actress Jessica Chastain seemed destined for Oscar glory herself, winning more awards than her main competitor, Silver Linings' Jennifer Lawrence, and generally being viewed as the deserving heir apparent to an older generation of stately talent — your Streeps, your Langes, your Benings. Just a few weeks ago, Zero Dark Thirty had all that going for it! But then, Argo won a Golden Globe and the SAG (and the Producers Guild award), and, adding insult to injury, Lawrence snatched the prize from Chastain at the SAGs. What's going on? Well, the truth is, it has probably been over for Zero Dark for a while now.
It turns out, the film was just too controversial. With pundits and bloggers debating Zero Dark's stance on torture — does it make a correlation between "enhanced interrogation" and the discovery of bin Laden, or is it simply realistically depicting something that did happen somewhere, at some point? — the praise for the film's artistic merits began to get lost. People either forgot that they liked the movie on technical grounds or simply were afraid to say it, at risk of wading into the heated political debate and being excoriated for liking a problematic movie. It became significantly less trendy to like Zero Dark Thirty in the weeks leading up to the Golden Globes, and the film has suffered because of it. No one is turning tail and saying that it's a bad film, it's just become something vaguely taboo. You can like it, but not too much.
MSNBC's pillorying or not, the reality is that the "difficult" nature of Zero Dark Thirty was always going to be a problem come Oscar time. Unlike various critics groups, the Academy is often not a fan of ambiguity or ambivalence. Instead, voters tend to opt for movies like The King's Speech over moodier, murkier fare like Black Swan or The Social Network. Sure they gave the Best Picture award to Bigelow's last picture, The Hurt Locker, back in 2009, but that was a win for technically expert filmmaking. Though it doesn't, in our opinion, make any distinct political declarations, Zero Dark is a much more thematically urgent, button-pushing film than Hurt Locker. Argo, with vaguely similar themes and motifs, is a lot more easily digested, and is thus likely to better satisfy the Academy. Plus, when Argo isn't skulking around Iran, it's in sunny Hollywood, offering a gentle parody of the industry before ultimately celebrating its valor. That's something that the Academy, especially the older members, will find hard to resist. Last year they gave the top prize to the showbiz love letter The Artist. This year it seems they're going to give it to the movie that shows the industry doing noble work for a greater good. Everyone will feel good about what they do for a living, and some town favorites like George Clooney and Ben Affleck and Alan Arkin will get recognized in the process. It's a good win. |
Modern URI
This is a modern library for working with URIs in Haskell as per RFC 3986:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986
Features
The modern-uri package features:
Correct by construction URI data type. Correctness is ensured by guaranteeing that every sub-component of the URI record is by itself cannot be invalid. This boils down to careful use of types and a set of smart constructors for things like scheme, host, etc.
data type. Correctness is ensured by guaranteeing that every sub-component of the record is by itself cannot be invalid. This boils down to careful use of types and a set of smart constructors for things like scheme, host, etc. Textual components in the URI data type represented as Text rather than ByteString , because they are percent-decoded and so they can contain characters outside of ASCII range (i.e. Unicode). This allows for easier manipulation of URI s, while encoding and decoding headaches are handled by the parsers and renders for you.
data type represented as rather than , because they are percent-decoded and so they can contain characters outside of ASCII range (i.e. Unicode). This allows for easier manipulation of s, while encoding and decoding headaches are handled by the parsers and renders for you. Absolute and relative URIs differ only by the scheme component: if it's Nothing , then URI is relative, otherwise it's absolute.
, then URI is relative, otherwise it's absolute. Megaparsec parser that can be used as a standalone smart constructor for the URI data type (see mkURI ) as well as be seamlessly integrated into a bigger Megaparsec parser that consumes strict Text (see parser ) or strict ByteString (see parserBs ).
data type (see ) as well as be seamlessly integrated into a bigger Megaparsec parser that consumes strict (see ) or strict (see ). The parser performs some normalization, for example it collapses consecutive slashes. Some smart constructors such as mkScheme and mkHost also perform normalization. So in a sense URIs are also “normalized by construction” to some extent.
and also perform normalization. So in a sense URIs are also “normalized by construction” to some extent. Fast rendering to strict Text and ByteString as well as to their respective Builder types and to String / ShowS .
and as well as to their respective types and to / . Extensive set of lensy helpers for easier manipulation of the nested data types (see Text.URI.Lens ).
). Quasi-quoters for compile-time construction of the URI data type and refined text types (see Text.URI.QQ ).
Quick start
The modern-uri package serves three main purposes:
Construction of the URI data type.
data type. Inspection and manipulation of the URI data type (in the sense of changing its parts).
data type (in the sense of changing its parts). Rendering of URI s.
Let's walk through every operation quickly.
Construction of URI s
There are four ways to create a URI value. First off, one could assemble it manually like so:
λ> :set -XOverloadedStrings λ> import qualified Text.URI as URI λ> scheme <- URI.mkScheme "https" λ> scheme "https" λ> host <- URI.mkHost "markkarpov.com" λ> host "markkarpov.com" λ> let uri = URI.URI (Just scheme) (Right (URI.Authority Nothing host Nothing)) Nothing [] Nothing λ> uri URI { uriScheme = Just "https" , uriAuthority = Right (Authority { authUserInfo = Nothing , authHost = "markkarpov.com" , authPort = Nothing }) , uriPath = Nothing , uriQuery = [] , uriFragment = Nothing }
In this library we use quite a few refined text values. They only can be constructed by using smart constructors like mkScheme :: MonadThrow m => Text -> m (RText 'Scheme) . For example, if argument to mkScheme is not a valid scheme, an exception will be thrown. Actually this is not necessarily so because there are pure monads that are instances of the MonadThrow type class, and so the smart constructors may be used in e.g. the Maybe monad as well.
There is a smart constructor that can make an entire URI too, it's called (unsurprisingly) mkURI :
λ> uri <- URI.mkURI "https://markkarpov.com" λ> uri URI { uriScheme = Just "https" , uriAuthority = Right (Authority { authUserInfo = Nothing , authHost = "markkarpov.com" , authPort = Nothing }) , uriPath = Nothing , uriQuery = [] , uriFragment = Nothing }
If argument of mkURI is not a valid URI, then an exception will be thrown. The exception will contain full context and the actual parse error.
If some refined text value or URI is known statically at compile time, we can use Template Haskell, namely the “quasi quotes” feature. To do so import the Text.URI.QQ module and enable the QuasiQuotes language extension, like so:
λ> :set -XQuasiQuotes λ> import qualified Text.URI.QQ as QQ λ> let uri = [QQ.uri|https://markkarpov.com|] λ> uri URI { uriScheme = Just "https" , uriAuthority = Right (Authority { authUserInfo = Nothing , authHost = "markkarpov.com" , authPort = Nothing }) , uriPath = Nothing , uriQuery = [] , uriFragment = Nothing }
Note how the value returned by the url quasi quote is pure, its construction cannot fail because when there is an invalid URI inside the quote it's a compilation error.
The Text.URI.QQ module has quasi quoters for scheme, host, and other things, check it out.
Finally the package provides two Megaparsec parsers: parser and parserBs . The first works on strict Text , while other one works on strict ByteString s. You can use the parsers in a bigger Megaparsec parser to parse URI s. To get started with Megaparsec, see its Hackage page.
Inspection and manipulation
Although one could use record syntax directly, possibly with language extensions like RecordWildcards , the best way to inspect and edit parts of URI is with lenses. The lenses can be found in the Text.URI.Lens module. If you have never used the lens library, you could probably start by reading/watching materials suggested in the library description on Hackage.
Here are some examples, just to show off what you can do:
λ> import Text.URI.Lens λ> uri <- URI.mkURI "https://example.com/some/path?foo=bar&baz=quux&foo=foo" λ> uri ^. uriScheme Just "https" λ> uri ^? uriAuthority . _Right . authHost Just "example.com" λ> uri ^. isPathAbsolute True λ> uri ^. uriPath ["some","path"] λ> k <- URI.mkQueryKey "foo" λ> uri ^.. uriQuery . queryParam k ["bar","foo"] -- etc.
Rendering
Rendering turns a URI into a sequence of bytes or characters. Currently the following options are available:
render for rendering to strict Text .
for rendering to strict . render' for rendering to text Builder . It's possible to turn that into lazy Text by using the toLazyText function from Data.Text.Lazy.Builder .
for rendering to text . It's possible to turn that into lazy by using the function from . renderBs for rendering to strict ByteString .
for rendering to strict . renderBs' for rendering to byte string Builder . Similarly it's possible to get a lazy ByteString from that by using the toLazyByteString function from Data.ByteString.Builder .
for rendering to byte string . Similarly it's possible to get a lazy from that by using the function from . renderStr can be used to render to String . Sometimes it's handy. The render uses difference lists internally so it's not that slow, but in general I'd advise avoiding String s.
can be used to render to . Sometimes it's handy. The render uses difference lists internally so it's not that slow, but in general I'd advise avoiding s. renderStr' returns ShowS , which is just a synonym for String -> String —a function that prepends the result of rendering to a given String . This is useful when the URI you want to render is a part of a bigger output, just like with the builders mentioned above.
Examples:
λ> uri <- mkURI "https://markkarpov.com/posts.html" λ> render uri "https://markkarpov.com/posts.html" λ> renderBs uri "https://markkarpov.com/posts.html" λ> renderStr uri "https://markkarpov.com/posts.html" -- etc.
Contribution
Issues, bugs, and questions may be reported in the GitHub issue tracker for this project.
Pull requests are also welcome and will be reviewed quickly.
License
Copyright © 2017–2018 Mark Karpov
Distributed under BSD 3 clause license. |
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Back in August, developer Enhance Games announced that Rez Infinite (2016) would launch on Google Daydream “later this year.” With little forewarning, the futuristic action-shooter is now available on Google Play for Daydream-compatible smartphones.
Update (11/22/17): Rez Infinite just dropped on the Play Store. Check it out here. While you can download a trial version of the game for free, you’ll have to pay to unlock the full game. Daydream Ready Headset & Controller is required to play.
Original article (08/11/17): Enhance Games had a surprise launch of Rez Infinite on PC this week, bringing the remake of the famed 2001 Rez to the platform following the game’s initial 2016 launch on PS4. The PC version of the game is claimed by the developers to be the “best version yet,” thanks to enhanced graphics and VR support for the high-end Rift and Vive headsets.
But maybe you don’t happen to own a high-end gaming PC and VR headset, but still want to get your Rez on. Well, if have your hands on Google’s Daydream headset, you’re in luck, as Rez Infinite is due to launch for the platform later this year. For the uninitiated, the developers describe the game as such:
Experience 360 degrees of mind-blowing synesthesia as you blast your way through waves of enemies and massive transforming bosses, with your every move triggering colors and sounds that sync and blend to the beat of the legendary techno soundtrack of Rez. […] Rez Infinite must be seen—and heard—to be believed.
You can watch the PC launch trailer here to get a sense of the gameplay.
Details on the game’s Daydream release are extremely limited at this time; yet to be announced is the price, specific release date, and exact control scheme (whether it is head-aimed or possibly makes use of the Daydream controller for motion input).
Our expectation is that it will be the full game—including the new ‘Area X’ which was added for the remake—with visuals optimized for mobile performance. We’d also expect the mobile version to be priced lower than the $25 PC pricetag.
We’ll relay more as further details are released. |
Buy Photo Kirk Handren walks his Monty along Agnes, a main draw in West Village, on Tuesday. (Photo: Photos by Robin Buckson / The Detroit News)Buy Photo
Detroit — City planning officials are on the hunt for designs to revive Detroit’s neighborhood main streets while hoping to ease bureaucratic hurdles that often stand in the way.
Detroit this week is putting out a call to urban planners, architects, preservationists and designers for “Pink Zoning Detroit,” an initiative that sets out to transform the city’s complex land use rules and speed new development in its commercial corridors by reducing red tape.
The project, funded by a $75,000 grant through the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, will have three multidisciplinary teams put together visions for walkable, mixed-use activity in three commercial sites in Detroit. Later, the concepts will be tested against the city’s zoning ordinance and building code to identify roadblocks and work with city departments and others to identify strategies for reforms.
It’s hoped the process will ultimately spur regulatory change to make revitalization of the city’s neighborhood main streets easier, said Maurice Cox, director of the city’s Planning and Development Department.
“For us, it’s just kind of crazy that the urban life that we want is actually inhibited or stymied by the very rules that are supposed to enable them to happen,” Cox said. “We turn this upside down and say: ‘Let’s visualize the reality of this urban life that we want. Let’s look at where our current regulations don’t allow it and let’s just change the rules.’ This process will get us that.”
Team qualifications are being accepted through Sept. 16 and winners will be notified on Sept. 30. The groups will then embark on six months of research, design and analysis. Recommendations are expected next spring.
Pilot “pink zones” could be identified as early as next summer and allow the city to test relaxed rules within certain boundaries, Cox said.
The project is expected to serve as a model for other cities in the nation hoping to boost small development. It also earned Detroit a nod in the Wall Street Journal this spring as one of five cities “leading the way in urban innovation.”
“This really helps Detroit leapfrog over many cities that haven’t taken the time to rethink their strategies for revitalization,” Cox said. “In a way, it’s putting the vision we want first and then rewriting the rules after that will enable it.”
Many corridors that could benefit include east and west Warren, East Jefferson, Vernor, Dexter and Livernois and McNichols, Cox said.
The Duggan administration has been focused on “20-minute neighborhoods” that allow residents to walk or bike to get everyday necessities.
Cox held up the city’s West Village as a model for reinvention. In recent years, Agnes Street has become the main draw. The street is lined with trees, bicycle racks and several restaurants and shops.
Stephanie Blair, who grew up on the city’s west side, relocated to the walkable West Village district after living in Midtown.
“This is a different world over here,” said Blair, 27. “I bring neighbors from my old neighborhood over here and they don’t believe what they see.”
James Macmillen, a doctoral candidate and fellow in the planning department who is leading the project, said teams selected for the project will focus on three “test sites” not presently considered for rezoning, including a two-block stretch of West Warren Avenue, a vacant lot where Gratiot intersects with the Dequindre Cut; and a two-block stretch of East Warren at East Outer Drive.
Post-bankruptcy, Macmillen said, there’s an opportunity to reform Detroit’s zoning and building codes. Part of that is recognizing the frustrations that smaller start-ups face.
“It’s currently a hard ask for small business owners to go back and forth to city departments,” he said. “To that person, we would say: ‘We want to make your life easier,’” he said.
Buy Photo Julia Callis waits on Stephanie Blair at The Red Hook, a coffee shop on Agnes in West Village, an area where officials hope to spur new development. (Photo: Robin Buckson / The Detroit News)
Sandi Heaselgrave, owner of the Red Hook, a coffee and pastry spot in West Village, said she spent a year obtaining permits and approvals and sunk thousands into the build out of her 1,200-square-foot rental space on Agnes before it opened in 2014.
She credits commercial loans and a second location in Ferndale for getting her through the process.
“I feel like the hold up could really make or break somebody,” Heaselgrave said.
Zoning and building code changes to lessen the burden will be critical for attracting and retaining small business, she said.
“It’s a necessary solution,” she said. “I’ll be really happy if it turns into something that makes other neighborhoods more vibrant.”
Those interested in applying can go to pinkzoningdetroit.org.
cferretti@detroitnews.com
Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/2b1GlL0 |
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Greek newspaper photographer Stephanos Kouratzis describes the impact of the blast
A massive blast at a munitions dump in southern Cyprus has killed 12 people, including the commander of the country's navy, officials say.
A fire reportedly ignited about 100 containers holding confiscated Iranian explosives at the naval base at Zygi.
The fire spread to the island's largest power station. It has been knocked out, resulting in widespread power cuts.
Defence Minister Costas Papacostas and National Guard Chief Petros Tsalikides resigned over the accident.
President Dimitris Christopfias, who went to the area, described the explosion as "a catastrophe of biblical proportions".
He added: "We were devastated by this event, not so much by the material damage, but by the loss of human lives and the injury of many of our compatriots."
The dead also include the commander of the Evangelos Florakis naval base, police said. About 60 people were wounded in the blast.
Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said sabotage had been ruled out.
Power cuts
Officials say all 98 containers of explosive stored in the munitions dump at the base had exploded.
They had been seized from a Cypriot-flagged ship, the Monchegorsk, which was intercepted travelling from Iran in January 2009.
Cyprus said the shipment violated UN sanctions against Iran.
The fire spread to the nearby Vassilikou power station - which provides 50% of the country's electricity - knocking out the electricity supply to many homes and businesses.
The fire has also had a knock-on effect on the BBC's broadcasts to the eastern Mediterranean.
Six of the eight transmitters in the BBC's relay station at Zygi are without power, interrupting direct English-language broadcasts to the Middle East.
State radio said the dead included two sailors from the Cyprus navy, two soldiers and five firefighters.
'Total mess'
The blast, which occurred at 0600 (0300 GMT), was "rather like a sonic boom", eyewitness Hermes Solomon told the BBC.
He was staying in a caravan on a campsite not far from the base.
"The doors crashed together, the glass blew in - windows, door frames, things left their shelves. It was a total mess inside, as though a bomb had hit the place."
State television said the blasts caused extensive damage to property in the area and sparked wildfires in nearby scrubland in the tinder-dry summer conditions.
"It was huge. I fell out of bed and ran to check on the kids," nearby resident Eleni Toubi told Reuters.
Alexandra Dimitriou, who was at nearby Governor's Beach at the time of the explosion, said all the hotels in the area had their glass blown out.
"After the blast we walked up across the beach to make sure there were no casualties," she told the BBC. "There was a lot of panic there. Older folk thought the Turks were invading.
"There was shattered glass everywhere. We got in the car and left to avoid getting stuck there and on our way back to Limassol we saw road signs which had been ripped off by the force of the explosion." |
A NEWPORT club and bar owner could lose licences for his four city nightspots after police raised concerns about anti-social behaviour and public safety.
The city council will review the premises licences of Kama Lounge, Warehouse 54, Delilah’s and Meze Lounge, all run by lftekhar Haris, on the request of Chief Constable Carmel Napier.
In reports to Newport’s licensing sub committee, PC Rachael Honey-Morris said that Mr Haris has a number of premises which are “problematic” and undermine the key licensing objectives in relation to crime and disorder.
The force’s application came after Mr Haris applied to transfer the licence of Kama Lounge, on Cambrian Road, into his own name.
Gwent Police objected on a number of grounds, including that Mr Haris is currently on bail for an alleged offence of violence said to have happened outside the club. He denies the offence and is due to stand trial at Abergavenny Magistrates’ Court on April 5.
The report also says that Mr Haris could not adequately supervise these premises as well as his other three busy city centre venues.
The force then decided to look at all his premises and found they were regularly called to Warehouse 54, also on Cambrian Road, because of incidents both inside and outside. While the number of incidents decreased when an action plan was put in place, it rose again after it finished.
Police said Meze Lounge in Market Street was responsible for the second highest number of calls to the road, while Delilah’s, on High Street, was in an area considered to be Wales’ worst street in terms of the number of violent incidents.
The report said Delilah’s was well-known for holding under-age parties, which saw an increase in disorder, with many youths trying to buy alcohol in nearby pubs and off-licenses. When the parties stopped, the number of incidents fell and last year the opening hours of the premises were reduced in a bid to tackle problems.
Officers also criticised a cocktail menu displayed within the club, which used words they deemed to be obscene and an offence under the Public Order Act 1986.
A meeting with police was held and the menu was later changed.
Several businesses and club-goers have written to the council in support of Mr Haris and his “iconic” venues.
The premises licence for all venues will be reviewed by the council’s licensing sub committee next Tuesday and Wednesday.
There are several options available to the committee, including refusing the review application, changing the licence conditions, removing Mr Haris as the designated premises supervisor, and suspending or revoking the licence.
‘I have battled to keep nightspots open in city’
MR HARIS said he was “totally baffled” by the reasons for the review.
He disputes police figures on the number of incidents recorded and said they were misleading because they did not state what type of incident they were.
He said he and his staff have co-operated with officers on issues previously raised, but said a bigger police presence was needed in Newport to deter crime and disorder. Mr Haris said his businesses were already struggling to survive and said there would be little nightlife left in Newport if he were to lose his licences. He said: “I am an independent who has battled to keep these places open.
“If I were to close, what would be left? There are venues shutting every where, I have had to keep things going in order to keep the city going.” |
The 26-year-old writer was recently a “Global Shaper” at Davos
Inspired by real-life stories, her next big project is a Chinese heist movie
Unfazed by censorship, optimistic about improving quality of films
Joan Xu, a Chinese-American who studied government at Harvard and cultural anthropology at the University of Chicago, was recently at Davos, invited there by a professor as part of the “Global Shapers” program at the World Economic Forum. In conversation at Davos, Xu focused not so much on the power of money in the movies, but rather on impact of the stories—i.e. the soft power—that get her generation excited in China, where she now lives. Barely old enough to rent a car freely in the U.S., Xu has written plenty for the largest television audience on the planet, including a show—The Circle—described as Entourage meets Mean Girls. At a time when China’s biggest Internet companies are disrupting the film industry, with some saying that the screenwriting process can and should be crowd-sourced, Xu discussed with CFI editor Jonathan Landreth why it still takes an individual to develop an story from idea to screen.
How do you describe what it is you’re trying to do these days?
In a nutshell, I’m a screenwriter in the Chinese film industry. But what I aim to do is twofold: one, to write really good modern Chinese content, and by modern I mean Hollywood-style, structured and written in a way that is more familiar to Hollywood and younger audiences, but still telling local stories within that newer structure. The second element of what I’m trying to do is write Chinese content that might be able to appeal to international audiences. For a variety of reasons, that might take a while before that actually happens.
What were you doing before you found yourself doing what you’re doing now?
I am 26 years old. I’ve spent my life pretty evenly divided between the West and China. I was born in the U.S. while my parents were grad students, stayed there through their early years of professorship and then moved to Hong Kong when I was 10. I went to an international school there, and then moved to Beijing when I was 14, and then spent all four years of high school in a local Beijing high school, so mine was a fairly fusion childhood.
How do you pick which local story to tackle and apply a Western structure to?
Usually my inspirations come from real-life stories. From news articles, like when something really crazy happens and you see how it would fit into a full story. Or, you know, you hear something about an entrepreneur who does something that really encapsulates what young people like, or what they are thinking in this moment in time. It strikes some kind of chord.
How does life in China feel different from life at Harvard or Chicago?
For one thing, there is a lot more action oriented-ness in China. So many young people are starting businesses, becoming entrepreneurs, or even diving into creative industries. They are just going for it because there is still general optimism in the China market. Maybe not in finance, but in pretty much all the other industries. Like, for example, food and beverage, lifestyle, and the creative industries: a lot of what young people like to start. There is still a lot of optimism, so people are diving into it and doing it instead of trying to think about a career in a really structured way, or moving to only one place, like San Fransisco or New York, to do these kind of things.
Why were you at the World Economic Forum?
Professor Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, has this big vision for a platform where the major stakeholders of the world can get together and work on global governance, and he realized at some point that they needed the voice of the youth to join in. People were talking about millennials in these sessions and there wasn’t actually a millennial in the room. So, each year he brings 50 “Global Shapers” to Davos—people under the age of 30 doing cool kinds of globe-shaping things—to represent the youth and also kind of talk about the projects they themselves are doing. I got picked this year, and there were three Chinese delegates. The other two Chinese delegates were, one, building a huge platform for Chinese philanthropy, and, two, building a healthcare tech startup with 500 employees. It was very cool because usually the Chinese delegates at Davos tend to have language barriers, and the older delegates don’t know how to socialize in the more Western setting, so the three of us got a lot of face time with some cool people, simply because we were from China and willing to talk to everybody.
Who were those cool people and what did you talk to them about?
Justin Trudeau, the new hot prime minister of Canada.
Hot? What do you mean by that?
Oh, I mean incredibly good looking, but also hot with an incredibly, surprisingly awesome political message. It’s hard to list because Davos is chock-full of ministers and CEOs. Personally, the big highlight was getting to talk to John Green, The Fault in Our Stars author. He was there too and it was very, very cool to be able to talk about story ideas with him. It was kind of a dream come true.
Did he ask you questions about China, and stories and movies there?
Yeah, I think in general people are just curious about China and there isn’t much information in the mainstream out there about what Chinese movies, stories, and tastes are like.
The Fault in our Stars didn’t play in China did it?
I don’t think it came out in theaters in China, but Chinese audiences have seen it.
How do you know that?
Because when I posted a photo with John Green on my Chinese social media, people were very excited.
Switching gears, one thing I always get asked about China is the pollution. Is there any mainstream media that has addressed the issue with any sense of humor?
In the mainstream media I’m not sure, because when I think about the discussion about pollution, I think it’s so heavily influenced by social media in China. I heard someone at Davos call China nowadays a “social media democracy,” which is not influenced by votes, but where the government pays a lot of attention to what happens on social media, and that’s where people go to voice their concerns and ideas. Pollution is a widely discussed topic on social media, and there is a lot of humor, and interesting gifs and jokes in that realm.
You shared a treatment for a heist film centered on the repatriation of a bunch of antiquities from the U.K. to China. Are you trying to tap a sense of national pride?
China is a fairly nationalistic society, so when the pride is in things like art and culture I feel no qualms about playing to that. It’s not exactly a movie playing to violent nationalism, so I’m okay with that.
How is the heist film going along?
It’s going well, we are adding in details and adding in layers, but so far everyone we’ve talked to has been very receptive of it. We don’t think that we’ll run into problems with censorship and it’s also really, really fun. It’s based off something I read in The New York Times about real Chinese people lifting art from European museums. It’s really fun to work on, because not only is the heist genre really fun to begin with, but it’s one of those instances when Chinese people have watched movies like Ocean’s Eleven, they know what a heist movie is. There’s never really been a heist movie in China but there’s been robber stories and thief movies, so you can kind of reference all of those at once in a big mush that doesn’t necessarily conform either to a Hollywood movie or a traditional Chinese movie.
You draft full scripts, not treatments. Is that because you were told, “You’re too young for this, you need to have a full draft,” or is that instinct on your part?
First, as a relative newcomer, most producers and directors want to see your writing style and what your dialogue looks like before they will invest in you or want to work with you. In a sense, a script is a bit of a writing sample. Second, actually just writing out the script gives me some measure of control over the story, so that’s my personal preference.
How do you make a living?
For one thing, as long as I sell a project, or work on a project, I’m actually okay, which is not too difficult in the China market if you’re a bilingual screenwriter. On the side, you can also do freelance projects, editing of treatments, and helping with bilingual synopses.
Is the freelance work coming from Chinese studios looking for foreign investors needing bilingual content, or from co-producers trying to bring projects into China hoping to attract Chinese investors?
It can be both. I also dabble in things like translating for movie stars when they come to China. It’s possible to find very interesting freelance work with great exposure if you’re bilingual, know the general co-pro community, and have the stomach for handling talent.
There’s lots of rom-com and action in China but fewer message films, dramas with a social conscience. Am I wrong, or do you feel like there’s room for growth?
There is room for that to grow, if you look at the Chinese film industry in the very little amount of time that it’s been alive. It is very much still in a land-grab, gold rush stage, so when there’s so much low-hanging fruit, in terms of movies that can make money, the producers and studios have not had a lot of incentive to invest in a lot of more deep, meaningful content, and frequently are just slapping together a couple of stars and getting a director to make you a ton of money, but I think it’s moving in that direction.
There’s great pressure to cover the cost of all the theaters being built in China, a need met primarily by big budget films. But there’s also talk of a need for broader subject matter and a wider variety of genres. Can you imagine indie film houses popping up in China?
There is enough optimism in the market that people will take more risks, and they’ll still have the commercial films that are put out there to make a lot of money, but there is also surplus money to put into passion projects. There already have been several Chinese movies in the domestic market in the past year that I’ve felt are quite nuanced and had more meaning that other movies. Obviously, Mr. Six, for example.
Sure the box office is booming, but few Chinese films ever travel overseas. Tell me more about the source of your optimism.
I’m optimistic about content getting better in China because there’s an increase in talent in the industry. This film industry came out of the state-owned system when the screenwriters were trained very differently and selected very differently than in a competitive, commercial, entertainment marketplace. Nowadays, there are more and more young people looking at the entertainment industry in a totally different way, and being trained abroad, and even the education system is changing at home, so there is going to be more and more talent that can create good content.
Give us an example of somebody who really blew your mind in terms of their arrival on the scene.
Because all the people I’m talking about are all kind of young and my age, they’ve not necessarily produced yet, but they’re now in Beijing and I’ve talked to them, so I guess I’m hopeful for them, that there is a lot of networking and work to be done before you’ll see them.
What about reading the tea leaves with the censors? What’s that like these days?
I’ve never personally interacted with the [State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio Film and Television (SAPPRFT)], but the reason I’m confident is that I’ve sought the advice of older, more experienced China screenwriters who have worked with the process a lot. I think the most key thing for understanding censorship is just reading a lot of kind of official Chinese government statements, or getting into that mentality of what they like, and the kinds of processes that are familiar to them.
Does Xi Jinping’s speech on art and culture trickle down to the level of you writers who are conceiving the next great stories?
Because I’m not attached to a company and especially not attached to a state-owned company, those kinds of announcements don’t really affect me at all. In general, yes, there are certain restrictions [as] to what can be written, but I guess I don’t really feel it. I work in genres that are not that sensitive: romantic comedies or action-adventures, and it’s still very easy to have a good story come out that is not really politically sensitive that has a positive message, that’s not really something that [SAPPRFT] would disapprove of. So I haven’t felt too restricted by it yet. I imagine if I really wanted to write some kind of drama someday that was critical, then I think it would become relevant.
What pays better in China for somebody your age, film or television?
TV pays better because there are a lot more opportunities—there are a lot more TV shows being produced than films, and Chinese TV shows tend to be long, so anything from 40, 50, 70, 100 episodes are common and you’re paid by the episode, so it tends to rack up to be a lot more than for doing one or two feature films.
What was your favorite piece of Chinese filmed entertainment in the last year, whether it was TV or a feature film, and why?
The massive popularity of Mr. Six and the waves it made in social media proved that even when the movie itself is not perfectly executed, Chinese audiences are hungry for that type of content, a debate about whether the movie was promoting an old way over a new way. The character [played by] Feng Xiaogang is both considered a kind of a rogue—not exactly a morally upright character in society—but he is made into a sort of sympathetic, honorable character in his old age. There was a lot of debate about this movie’s message. |
Throw those batteries away and switch to water powered devices! The this DIY flashlight never runs out of batteries, water is all around us and will never run out. One of today’s causes of pollution is the improper disposal of batteries containing heavy metals such as lead and mercury, the answer, using water as electrolyte!
Imagine wall clocks operating & lasting 6-12 months with water, you’ll never need to leave your house just to buy batteries and there’s no need to recharge them with wall-chargers. What could be more convenient than replenishing your batteries with water from the faucet?
The flashlight runs 30mins continuously with tap water and 2 hours with saltwater. Not bad for a single celled prototype This thing also works well with calculators, clocks & radios Remember, adding a second cell triples the glow and lighting time!
How Does It Work?
This is a type of battery called the “Galvanic Cell“, having 2 different types of metals and is connected by a salt bridge. It works like your typical battery but uses water as its electrolyte. If you want to read more about how batteries work “click here” The output voltage is pretty faint and isn’t enough to run a single LED. By the help our trusty “Joule Thief Circuit“, the LEDs would glow even at low voltages.
Is It Really Powered By Water?
Well not really, the water serves as an electrolyte, a replacement for toxic chemicals used in regular batteries, which usually ends up in dumpsites. So why call it water powered? If course no one would be interested in the title “Galvanic Flashlight” plus that’s what easily pops up in people’s minds.
Practical Uses:
1st.) If you got lost and stranded out in the woods, you can’t rely on batteries, eventually they run out. A mini version would save stranded people in the woods, just go to the nearest river and follow the river’s trail (the river leads people) you’l have a 24/7 supply of light!
2nd.) School science experiment
3rd.) For Fun!
Step 1: Gathering Tools & Materials
Parts & Materials:
– PVC Pipe 4″ Long (3/4″Ø) [Local Hardware]
– PVC Coupling 3/4″ to 1″ [Local Hardware]
– Recycled 3xLED Torch [Inventory = Free]
– Toroidal Core/ Bead [Recycled From CFL Bulb]
– 2N3904 Gen. Purpose NPN Transistor [Radioshack]
– 1K Ohm Resistor (1/4w) [Radioshack]
– Cooper & Zinc Strip [Local Hobby Shop]
– Magnet Wire/ Copper Wire [Inventory/ Local Hardware]
– 4 Sheets Of Tissue Paper [Toilet/ Bathroom]
– 2×2″ Sheet of Acetate [Bookstore/ Office Supplies]
Tools & Equipment:
– Leatherman MultiTool
– Soldering Iron
– Hot GlueGun
– Teflon Tape
– Super Glue
Step 2: Preparing The Power Cells
The power cell is your flashlight’s main source of energy. Basically there are two strips of metal, one for the anode and one for the cathode. The “Copper Strip” will provide the positive energy while the “Zinc Strip” for the negative.
Procedures: Assembling The Power Cell:
1st.) Roll tissue paper around your “Copper Strip” until you reach the 3rd sheet.
2nd.) After reaching the third sheet, roll the “Zinc Strip” until you reach your final sheet, which is the 5th sheet.
3rd.) Now tie some copper wire around the PowerCell, this prevents your tissue from tearing once it gets wet.
4th.) I recycled a pulley since it fits snugly on the PVC Coupling, puncture 2 slits for the metal strips to fit in.
5th.) Insert both metal strips through the pully’s hole and seal/ waterproof it using epoxy/ superglue/ hot glue.
Step 3: Assembling The Joule Thief
What’s A Joule Thief?
A “joule thief” is a circuit that helps drive an LED light even though your power supply is running low. What can we do with it? We can use it to squeeze the life out of our drained batteries. Bottom-line, this circuit makes LEDs glow even at low voltages.
Step 4: Combining The PowerCell Joule Thief
You probably came to a realization that the flashlight, uses to two separate projects the: PowerCell Joule Thief, in order to work.
For this step, solder the wires on your “PowerCell” going to the “Joule Thief” then apply superglue around the coupling. Finally jam the LED’s reflector to your coupling and wait for 5 mins for the glue to dry.
Step 5: Preparing The Water Storage Cylinder
Get a 4″ long PVC pipe, but wait! Make sure there’s a thread on the other side. I’l give you two choices, you can stuff in a cork on the non-threaded side and use a syringe to fill her up with water, or glue a small piece of acetate and use it as a water level indicator.
Step 6: Fill IT Up!
Just fill tap water in, and you are ready to go! Attention! Tap water won’t last for more than 30 mins due to lack of electrolytes. Saltwater will give a boost to the flashlight’s glowing time but still it would only last for 2 hours. Vinegar & Gatorade works best, since both of them contains a lot of electrolytes, glowing time would last for 5-10 hours!
Adding a second cell triples the glow and lighting time!
Tested Liquids As Fuel:
– Tap Water = 0.5v – 0.9v (@400 mAh)
– Saltwater = 0.7v – 1v (@600 mAh)
– Vinegar = 0.9v – 1.2v (@850 mAh)
– Gatorade = 0.9v – 1.3v (@700 mAh)
Step 7: You’re Done!
Let’s light up the world, with free energy! Also, don’t be shy to share your own Water Powered Battery below the comments.
by ASCAS |
Youth hit hard by lack of jobs, school grants UNEMPLOYMENT
Vincent Chew, 20 years old, sleeps on the couch of a friend, Monday June 6, 2009, in Novato, Calif. Vincent Chew, 20 years old, sleeps on the couch of a friend, Monday June 6, 2009, in Novato, Calif. Photo: Lacy Atkins, The Chronicle Photo: Lacy Atkins, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Youth hit hard by lack of jobs, school grants 1 / 9 Back to Gallery
Jordan Atkinson had all the trappings of a typical Marin County childhood. He lived in a big house in Novato, played Pop Warner football, spent weekends with friends listening to hip-hop.
Now, three years out of San Marin High School, Atkinson is homeless, a casualty of the recession.
"I was spoiled. I had a lot of things easy," Atkinson said recently while drinking a smoothie at a Novato cafe, taking a break from job applications and college forms. "Now, unless someone physically attacks me, it doesn't feel like things could get much worse."
Young people like Atkinson are among the hardest hit by the state's soaring unemployment rate. More than 18 percent of workers 16 to 24 are unemployed, a 70 percent jump from a year ago and the highest of any other group, according to the state employment office.
"What happens is, these kids can't find jobs, so they can't afford to go to school, and a lot of them end up homeless, staying with relatives or couch-surfing," said Racy Ming, manager of the Marin Employment Connection, a county employment office. "With Cal Grants drying up, what are these kids supposed to do? It's shocking."
In Marin County, which has the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 7.5 percent, the number of young people seeking employment services has jumped nearly 80 percent from last year, Ming said.
In Marin and elsewhere, young people are suffering the brunt of the recession because of the hordes of well-educated, experienced adults taking jobs traditionally held by youth, such as retail and food service positions.
"We're seeing people with master's degrees working as Starbucks baristas," Ming said. "There are a few jobs out there, but turnover is slow and employers often don't even post the openings because they're so overwhelmed with applications. It's pretty grim."
Stimulus jobs
In Marin and other counties throughout the state, young people got a small boost from youth employment funding in the stimulus package. In California, 47,000 workers age 14 to 24 have summer jobs thanks to the federal program.
Partly as a result of the job shortage, young people represent the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population nationwide, according to Zara Babitzke, director of Ambassadors of Hope and Opportunity, a Marin nonprofit that helps young people.
Youth aren't just slammed by the scarcity of jobs, however. They're also struggling because of the relatively high cost of living, especially in the Bay Area, and because many of their parents are also out of work and unable, or unwilling, to help, she said.
"These kids have been severely let down by the Baby Boomer generation," Babitzke said. "It's a crime, as far as I'm concerned."
Nationwide, the number of homeless people ages 16 to 25 has more than doubled since 2000, from 1.8 million to about 4 million, she said.
In Atkinson's case, the downward spiral started a few months ago when his weekly hours at Best Buy in San Rafael were cut from 40 to four. At the time, he was attending College of Marin and living in an apartment in Petaluma with friends.
"I thought I'd find a new job within a few days," he said. "But there's nothing out there. I apply for jobs and don't even get a reply."
He lost his apartment two months ago and has been sleeping on friends' couches. He would stay with his father, but his father lost the family house in 2006 when his building-maintenance business collapsed. Now Atkinson's father lives in Pacifica and sends money when he can.
Atkinson continues to look for work and plans to return to College of Marin in the fall. Meanwhile, he tries to stay upbeat and focus on the future.
"I do worry sometimes. It's tough when you don't know where you're going to sleep at night," he said. "But I know I'll be OK. The economy's hit rock bottom, not me."
Vincent Chew, 20, is also a couch surfer. A 2007 graduate of Novato High, Chew now attends College of Marin and works nearly full time as a youth adviser at local nonprofits. He also sits on the board of the Marin chapter of the ACLU.
The problem is that he earns only $500 to $600 a month, enough to pay for food but not enough for rent.
Hard without money
"I am struggling with everything," Chew said. "They call Marin 'Money County,' but it can be hard here if you don't have money."
Chew grew up in New York but, after a brush with the law, moved in with an uncle in Novato three years ago for a fresh start.
He plans to transfer to UC Irvine and study law and public policy, eventually becoming an attorney.
Meanwhile, he hopes he can make it through College of Marin.
"There's a high standard of living here," he said. "But I stay because there's so much here, so many resources. There's 2,000 nonprofits here to help." |
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton spoke out against legalizing marijuana in a paid speech, hacked emails from her campaign show.
During an on-stage Q & A session with Xerox’s chairman and CEO in March 2014, Clinton used Wall Street terminology to express her opposition to ending cannabis prohibition “in all senses of the word”:
URSULA BURNS: So long means thumbs up, short means thumbs down; or long means I support, short means I don’t. I’m going to start with — I’m going to give you about ten long-shorts. SECRETARY CLINTON: Even if you could make money on a short, you can’t answer short. URSULA BURNS: You can answer short, but you got to be careful about letting anybody else know that. They will bet against you. So legalization of pot? SECRETARY CLINTON: Short in all senses of the word.
The excerpt comes from an internal Clinton campaign memo highlighting potentially problematic passages from her paid speeches to Goldman Sachs, General Electric, Deutsche Bank and other major corporations.
Other excerpts from the 80-page document, published by Wikileaks after a hack on Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s email account, show the former U.S. secretary of state admitting she is “far removed” from the struggles of the middle class, arguing that politicians need to have separate positions on issues in public and in private and supporting “open trade and open borders.”
Over the course of the past year, the Clinton campaign forcefully refused calls to release the speech transcripts from her Democratic primary opponent, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who supports legalization and has introduced legislation to end federal marijuana prohibition.
That the campaign flagged the candidate’s opposition to legalization as a potential problem demonstrates a growing understanding by political operatives that marijuana law reform is now a mainstream issue, one which is supported by a majority of Americans and a supermajority of Democratic primary voters.
While Clinton has made no secret in public appearances that she isn’t ready to endorse full legalization, she has usually framed her position as taking a wait-and-see approach, wanting to give laws like those in Colorado and other states a chance to work before she makes up her mind about ending prohibition.
The leaked Xerox excerpt, in contrast, positions her as strongly opposed to legalization.
But the remarks were made two-and-a-half years ago, just two months after legal marijuana sales began in Colorado, so it is possible that Clinton’s personal view of legalization has legitimately softened in the interim.
During the course of her presidential campaign, Clinton has highlighted support for letting states set their own cannabis policies without federal interference and has pledged to reschedule marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act if elected.
But advocates have pushed the candidate to go even further by offering a personal endorsement for the policy of legalization, arguing that doing so could help Clinton win back support from wayward millennial voters who are supporting Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson or Jill Stein of the Green Party, both of whom have made support for ending cannabis prohibition centerpieces of their campaigns.
The newly-leaked documents showing Clinton’s strong opposition to legalization in a private appearance, combined with comments from the candidate’s daughter Chelsea last month implying that marijuana use can lead to death, could present an added sense of urgency for Clinton to evolve on the question of ending prohibition prior to Election Day.
To see what else Hillary Clinton has said about cannabis law reform, check out Marijuana.com’s comprehensive guide to the candidates.
Photo Courtesy of Allie Beckett. |
Hello everyone!
This past fall we rolled out a long-awaited update to Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta & Minecraft: Pocket Edition – basic redstone components. Today we’re excited to let you know that we’ll be adding even more of the gameplay elements you’ve been eagerly awaiting to both of these editions with the Overworld Update coming by the end of this month. Yay!
Here’s what we’re adding in the Overworld Update:
Finally make more advanced mechanical contraptions for your world with additional redstone components. Comparators, repeaters, dispensers, droppers, hoppers, trapped chests and various additional Minecart types will all be available. Invent all the things!
Tangle with spooky witches and their huts during your adventures. Witch huts found while exploring swamps also now contain an exciting new feature – their cauldrons will be filled with a randomly generated potion that you can snag for your own if you’re feeling sticky-fingered.
Speaking of cauldrons, they can now be used to dye your armor an array of beautiful colors.
Display your coolest loot in your home with Item Frames – or mount your maps on the wall to plan your adventures with a world overview.
Other gameplay elements new to Pocket Edition and Windows 10 Beta are slime blocks, wearable pumpkins, red sandstone as well as improved chicken jockey mobs.
Even beyond gameplay elements, we’re also now introducing the ability to import and export maps into the Windows 10 Edition Beta, making it easier for you to share your favorite worlds with friends.
And for those of you who love racking up Gamerscore, there are eight new achievements on the Windows 10 Edition Beta totaling 170 additional Xbox Gamerscore that you can get:
Camouflage – Kill a mob while wearing the same type of mob head.
Dispense With This – Construct a dispenser.
Tie Dye Outfit – Dye all 4 unique pieces of leather armor.
Map Room – Place 9 fully explored, adjacent maps into 9 item frames in a 3 by 3 square.
Trampoline Bounce – 30 blocks upward off of a slime block.
Freight Station – Use a Hopper to move an item from a Chest Minecart to a Chest.
Smelt Everything! – Connect 3 Chests to a single Furnace using 3 Hoppers.
Taste of Your Own Medicine – Poison a witch with a splash potion.
Last year we brought you dozens of new features to Pocket Edition and the Windows 10 Edition Beta, and we’re excited to continue bringing you awesome new content right through 2016 as well!
And, if you’d like to get started playing on these Minecraft editions in the meantime, you can check out the Windows 10 Edition Beta over at the Windows Store, and the Pocket Edition on the iOS App Store, Google Play, Amazon and the Windows Store.
Happy mining, kind crafters! |
645X363 - No Companion - Full Sharing - Additional videos are suggested - Policy/Regulation/Blogs
Democrats in Washington are taking a risky bet by quadrupling their investment in Alison Lundergan Grimes, a young and largely unproven challenger, who is running against Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellHouse to push back at Trump on border Democrats block abortion bill in Senate Overnight Energy: Climate protesters storm McConnell’s office | Center-right group says Green New Deal could cost trillion | Dire warnings from new climate studies MORE (Ky.).
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Spending a fresh $1.4 million on a statewide TV ad bashing McConnell is a gamble for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), which has six vulnerable incumbents and a long-held Democratic seat in Iowa to defend.
In Kentucky, Democrats are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
Recent polls show that Grimes is trailing McConnell by an average of 5 points. Massively boosting party spending on her campaign when independent handicappers view her as a long shot could attract criticism — especially from sitting senators worried about their own races. Yet, a decision not to go after McConnell in October would be seen as ceding the race to the minority leader.
Some operatives say the key to Democrats retaining the Senate is to play effective defense. Republicans have to net six seats to claim control of the upper chamber.
But many Democratic donors would love to take down the Senate GOP leader, whom they view as the Senate’s obstructionist in chief. And they like playing offense.
“We’re constantly hearing … how the Republican conference is targeting Democrats so, quite frankly, it’s refreshing to see the game played the other way,” said Alan Kessler, a major Democratic donor.
“I wouldn’t sell Alison Grimes short. I’ve met her; I’ve talked to her. She is a real go-getter,” he said.
“When he said his No. 1 objective was getting rid of Barack Obama, what kind of message is that for the American people?” Kessler added.
McConnell said in the fall of 2010 that his top political priority was to limit Obama to one term in the Oval Office.
Some political experts expressed surprise that the Senate Democratic campaign committee thinks Grimes can win, given the direction of recent polls.
“When I saw them start up, I thought, ‘Well, maybe they made a commitment long ago that they would be there in October.’ My guess is, they reserve the right to not be there in late October because they’re in too much of a bind to spend money in a race where they don’t think there’s any chance,” said Al Cross, a longtime political commentator and professor at the University of Kentucky.
Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor for The Cook Political Report, said the conventional wisdom is that Grimes has an uphill path to victory.
“She’s been behind in every poll but one for months,” she said. “The one poll she was ahead by a point was her own. I just think there’s been a conventional wisdom developing that she’s in trouble.”
An internal Grimes poll from mid-September conducted by The Mellman Group showed her leading McConnell 43 percent to 42 percent.
Duffy said the DSCC is “trying to pump some life” into her campaign.
Robert Zimmerman, another major Democratic donor, applauded what he called a “bold” strategy to financially back Grimes despite the skepticism of Beltway pundits.
“The decision by the DSCC is absolutely a bold and smart decision, and that’s what it takes to keep the Democratic majority. The conventional wisdom in Washington, D.C., never has any correlation to political reality. I’m not worried about that,” he said.
Before the week, the committee had invested $500,000 in the Grimes campaign. The DSCC’s independent expenditure arm made the decision to launch the new ad.
Justin Barasky, a spokesman for the DSCC, argued that pundits predicted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would lose his 2010 reelection race, and he instead won it comfortably.
“Reporters who doubt Democratic pollsters in general and especially [Mellman] have regularly been proven wrong,” he said.
“This is still very much a margin-of-error race,” he added.
The DSCC’s ad criticizes McConnell, labeling him an insider who has attended “thousands of fundraisers,” “protecting his special perks” and “voting himself six pay raises” during his three-decade career in the Senate.
“The longer he’s there, the more Washington’s changed him,” a narrator intones. “After 30 years, it’s just inevitable.”
A spokeswoman for McConnell’s campaign jabbed at Grimes for relying on the support of a Democratic Party committee funded by liberal donors.
“Alison Grimes is now relying on a group funded almost exclusively by Obama enthusiasts who support an agenda that could not be more hostile to our way of life in Kentucky,” said Allison Moore.
The new infusion of cash narrows the spending disparity between Grimes and McConnell.
The McConnell-Grimes race has shattered fundraising records in Kentucky.
A Democratic source who tracks media buys said McConnell’s campaign and allied outside groups have spent $23 million, while Grimes’s campaign and allied liberal groups have spent $11.2 million. Of the outside groups, the Senate Majority PAC has spent the most to help Grimes, a total of $4.5 million, according to the Democratic source.
A Republican source who tracks media buys said the Democratic estimate undercounted how much two outside groups, Kentuckians for Strong Leadership and the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition have spent to help McConnell.
The GOP source said those two groups have spent a total of about $20 million on ads promoting McConnell or criticizing various issues affiliated with Grimes.
Kentuckians for Strong Leadership is a super-PAC, and the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition is a social welfare organization classified under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code. |
If greenhouse gas emissions remain at current levels, global sea-level rise will by 70 to 120 centimeters by 2100, according to the results of a new survey of 90 of the world’s most active ocean and climate scientists.
The survey was conducted by researchers from the United States and Germany, and published in the recent Quaternary Science Reviews. It is the largest survey of scientists on sea-level rise ever, with over 90 scientists from 18 countries participating.
The survey focused on two scenarios: one, in which current greenhouse gas emissions remain at current levels. This scenario, according to Stefan Rahmstorf from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, “would threaten the survival of some coastal cities and low-lying islands.” The other scenario in the survey studied significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions; in this scenario, sea-level rise would be slightly lower, at 40–60 centimeters by 2100.
The report acknowledged the uncertainties in predicting sea-level rise due to the diverse and complex influences which affect the rise. The authors acknowledge that most high-profile, recent predictions of sea-level rise have turned up too conservative. Observed sea-level rise as measured by satellites over the past two decades, say the authors, has exceeded earlier expectations. Similarly, current predictions of sea-rise by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have now been revised upwards by about 60% from predictions that were published as recent as 2007. The pattern is clear: actual sea-level rise has been more severe than many scientists have predicted.
Aware both of governmental largesse in greenhouse gas mitigation efforts (manifested by the anemic results of the Warsaw climate conference this week) and the fossil-fuel industry’s insatiable hunger for digging up ever-increasing sources of fossil fuels sources — despite the clear warnings about continued emissions (manifested by Shell’s new plan for Arctic drilling) — the scientists involved in this survey indeed predict the higher-end scenario for greenhouse gas emissions, and resulting catastrophic sea-level rise. |
Radiation measuring equipment is being installed at the 1,400 nurseries, primary and junior high schools in the prefecture, according to the local government, in an attempt to allay parents' fears.
Japanese Officials have repeated that there is no threat to human health for anyone outside the 18-mile exclusion imposed around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which was seriously damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Parents who have expressed concern over the radiation that continues to leak from the plant will not have been reassured, however, by the admission on Tuesday by Tokyo Electric Power Co. that levels of radioactive iodine-131 in seawater off the plant's damaged No. 2 reactor are 7.5 million times higher than normal.
Tepco has been unable to stem leaks of highly radioactive water from the facility. Efforts to date have included pouring concrete into a cracked maintenance pit before turning to a polymer used in nappies mixed with sawdust and shredded newspaper.
Neither method has proved effective and Tepco engineers are still trying to identify the exact source of the leak.
The company continued to pump water with low levels of radiation out of the basements of the reactor buildings and subterranean trenches on Tuesday. The decision to dump the water into the Pacific has increased concern among local fishermen and neighbouring countries.
Banri Kaieda, the industry minister, apologised on Tuesday for being forced to pump the water into the ocean but maintained that the radiation will be quickly dispersed by the currents and poses no risk to human health.
Earlier in the day, the fisheries minister announced that the government would make inspections of marine produce more stringent and more frequent in waters off the eastern coast of Japan. The government also imposed a legal limit for radioactive iodine in fish.
Tepco officials announced on Tuesday that it will start drawing up estimates for compensation for people who lived or had farms or businesses close to the plant. More than 80,000 people have been forced to leave their homes and the government has admitted that it may be many years before they can return.
Tepco will reimburse them for any medical expenses, lost income and will cover their living costs, with the first payments of Y20 million (£146,200) to be distributed among the residents of nine villages nearest to the plant.
The latest casualty figures from the March 11 disasters show that 12,321 people were killed while a further 15,347 remain missing. |
WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan24) – Not only the government but also the people of the Kurdistan Region are the allies of the US, former Trump adviser said on Thursday.
In an exclusive interview with Kurdistan24, Walid Phares, the campaign adviser of the US President Donald Trump said that the battle against the Islamic State (IS) will be serious and very fast.
“There would be no abandoning of our friends, allies, and partners,” Phares stated.
He mentioned that the US allies would be part of the military operation in eradicating the extremist group.
“It is also going to be making sure that the people with whom we worked, including Kurds, Arabs, and other countries will be part of the process,” he continued. “So it is not just the fight against terrorism, but also a fight to rebuild the lives of these societies that have been destroyed by terrorism.”
The Adviser explained that the US would not allow the emergence of other extremist groups following the collapse of the so-called IS as the people who liberated their areas will protect their towns.
“When we remove ISIS, we are not going to have policies that would bring other jihadists or having other parties in the region such as Iran or other forces replace. We want the people who liberate their lands from ISIS to be in charge of their future,” Phares added.
He highlighted that President Trump is aware of the role of the Kurds in defeating the IS.
“President Trump during the campaign--if we go back to that because we have only two weeks of the administration-- has cited and mentioned the Kurds in every single foreign policy speech.”
According to Phares, Trump views the Kurds as one of the natural allies of the US.
“He realizes that the Kurds in general and those in northern Iraq, the KRG, and the population are our natural allies. They are natural allies not because of the government but as the civil society, and this is something that our next policy of Trump's policy is going to be taken into consideration.”
He pointed out that the Kurds have been fighting the extremist group on their own.
“There is no doubt also that we're going to increase the support to the Kurds of the KRG area, but then after that, we will stand by them as far as the future,” Phares concluded.
In a previous interview with Kurdistan24 during the Presidential race, he also emphasized that Mr. Trump will support Kurds. |
Pirelli motorsport boss Paul Hembery is set to present F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone with a radical new plan to prevent the sport from collapsing, reports The Guardian.
Hembery’s rationale is that current F1 schedules are based too much around European times, which leaves huge markets fairly untapped. Therefore, the Pirelli chief intends to put forward a new calendar comprising three main legs – Europe, the Americas, and Australasia – interspersed with a couple of long breaks.
Hembery’s far-reaching solution also has each stretch of the season crowning its own champion, with an overall victor decided at the end of the season.
“I will be talking to Bernie shortly about this,” he told the UK publication. “I haven’t worked out the logistical problems. It’s up to the teams to do that. But this is all about getting more interest in Formula One, and particularly in the Americas.
“The market people all say the same thing, which is that the biggest problem in F1 is with the timings. They are all for Europe, which means in America they have to get up ridiculously early to watch the racing.”
Under the impulse of Ecclestone, F1 has repeatedly strived to establish itself in the US market, so far with mixed results. The latest attempt in Austin was initially hailed as a great success but attendance has been dwindling since the inaugural 2012 race.
This year’s washout combined to the return of the neighbouring Mexican Grand Prix resulted in a “financially devastating” weekend for Circuit of the Americas. What more, cuts in funding contributions from the State of Texas have cast further doubt on the event, which remains marked as subject to confirmation on the 2016 calendar.
“To lose Austin so soon after getting there – and it’s a good circuit and a well organised show which the fans enjoy – would be phenomenally negative for the sport,” commented Hembery.
“I also think it’s important to have a race in California. With this regional idea we could create a concentrated interest in the sport and help build a real fanbase. If we carry on making Formula One for European television we will end up with a Europe-only audience.”
Exclusive Nico Hulkenberg Q&A
Exclusive pictures of the Mercedes power unit |
Last February, before I graduated from high school, my dad brought me along on a trip to Japan. Instead of going to Nagoya — my dad’s hometown where he typically goes back to — we were going to visit Tokyo for my cousin’s wedding.
The rest of my dad’s family still lives in Japan — he was the only one to ever leave. When I was younger, our family didn’t keep in contact much with my Japanese family. It’s not that we were estranged; it was more that we were the American family — complete with kids that couldn’t speak Japanese. The most I ever spoke to my grandparents were some haphazard Japanese phrases that my dad fed to me as I mumbled over the phone.
Every time I introduce myself, I hand over this thick Japanese last name, but I can’t help but feel like it’s a misnomer for my actual racial background.
In the days leading up to the wedding, me and my dad took the trains all around Tokyo to go sight-seeing. A few months before the trip, I saw that our stay overlapped just slightly with an exhibit in Tokyo for the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. I was elated when my dad said we could spend a night at the exhibit. Coining the term “super-flat” as a way of describing Japanese art, Murakami is one of the most prolific modern artists to come from Japan. He’s most well known in the United States for the smiling rainbow flower that pops up all over Hello Kitty, but he’s also collaborated with Complex, Louis Vuitton and other big American brands.
When we went to his exhibit in Tokyo, we were greeted with a statue of Murakami — cut open to reveal a further series of Murakami’s, like a Russian doll. The statue was complete with cascading rainbow robes and animated eyes that would roll back into wire frame glasses. At the center of the show was a massive four-part piece called the “500 Arhats.” I think my dad and I walked through the it at least four times before we could bear to leave it behind.
Right before we were about to depart from the show, an announcement came on in Japanese over the loudspeaker. I had just assumed that it was some usher telling us we had to leave the venue, but when the announcement ended, excited murmuring began to fill the exhibit space. The artist was about to make a surprise appearance on the closing night.
My heart raced as we were ushered into a room that was playing a Murakami documentary on repeat. In the room at a pedestal was a stout Japanese man in a plain black suit. He spoke very hushed Japanese. My dad was so captivated that he couldn’t really translate for me until Murakami had finished.
He had said that Murakami was shocked and grateful for how well the show had been received in Tokyo. He had another show a few months earlier, in a more rural part of Japan, and it made barely enough money to stay open. Because of how divisive his art was, while also pulling on Japanese influences, there was a huge Japanese audience that found his art to be heinous and borderline offensive.
I listened intently to my dad — dressed in western clothes speaking fluent English, but with a face that blended in with the rest of the crowd — explain this all to me in English as we descended the escalator away from the now closed exhibit.
As I weaved through the fluorescent lit alleys of Tokyo with my dad, he talked to me about how lucky I was to grow up in the United States. This was a sentiment he had rang off to me repeatedly when I was younger, but I didn’t really understand or appreciate it until now.
I look to both of these men — Murakami and my dad — to help me identify the parts of myself that are Japanese, but when placed against the Tokyo cityscape, they are both indistinguishable from the tourist. They are so distinctly Japanese to me, but to everyone else they are outsiders. And now, when people ask me what my heritage is, I almost feel like I’m cheating when I say I’m Japanese, because there is so much distance between me and that little island in the Pacific.
But I think instead of trying to identify with Japanese culture, I have to find myself in something in between. It’s this strange middle ground of being mixed and not really belonging to one side entirely, but finding an identity in this limbo. I am Annalise: a hapa — half Japanese, half caucasian. I am also an American. I eat sushi on Christmas, and I indulge in divisive Japanese modern art. And although this isn’t the Japanese identity I can find when I’m navigating the Japanese subway system, it’s one that’s mine, and it’s one I’m proud to call my own.
Annalise Kamegawa writes the Thursday arts & entertainment column on a life of shifting artistic identities. Contact her at [email protected]. |
"The Dale" redirects here. For other uses, see Dale (disambiguation)
Rochdale Association Football Club is a professional football club based in the town of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. The club currently competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed "the Dale", the club was founded in 1907, moved to its current stadium, Spotland Stadium, in 1920 and was accepted into the Football League in 1921. Since then, the club has remained in the third and fourth tiers of English football.
Rochdale has only achieved promotion three times – in 1969, 2010 and 2014. The club attracts a small but loyal fanbase, with a hardcore following of around 2,000 home fans on average per match.
History [ edit ]
Rochdale played 36 consecutive seasons in the Football League's bottom division from 1974 to 2010, the longest time any team has been in the bottom division of the League, with some even derisively calling it "the Rochdale Division".[2] The club has the lowest average position of all the clubs which have existed continuously in the Football League since its expansion to four divisions in 1921–22 (76th) and since its expansion to 92 clubs in 1950–51 (79th). Additionally, the club holds the distinction of having played the most seasons in the English Football League without either reaching the top two tiers (91 seasons as of 2018-19) or being relegated to the National League.
The club reached the League Cup Final in 1962. This was the first time a club from the bottom league division had reached the final of a major competition – where they lost to Norwich City.
During its history, the club has had three promotions and three relegations, with promotion coming in 1969 and 2010 and 2014 and relegation in 1959, 1974 and 2012. The 1959 relegation followed the 1958 restructuring which saw the combination of the two Third Division sections into the Third Division and Fourth Division. In the restructuring, Rochdale managed to secure a spot in the Third Division, but was relegated at the end of the season to the now lowest Fourth Division.
Rochdale A.F.C. was formed in 1907.[3] After World War I the Football League was expanded and the club unsuccessfully applied to join. In 1921 Rochdale was recommended to be included in the new Third Division North, and played their first League game at home against Accrington Stanley on 27 August 1921, winning 6–3. However, this first season ended with the club at the bottom of the League, having to reapply for membership.
The club's first promotion came in 1969, earned by a team largely assembled by manager Bob Stokoe, though it was Stokoe's assistant, Len Richley who steered Rochdale to promotion after Stokoe moved to Carlisle United. In the early stages of the 1969–70 season, Rochdale topped the Third Division table, sparking hopes of a second successive promotion. The team's form significantly declined around Christmas 1969, however, and a failure to halt the team's decline led to the dismissal of Richley. He was succeeded by Dick Conner, who stabilised the club's form and steered them to a 9th-place finish. The following three seasons saw the club finish in the lower reaches of the Third Division table, narrowly avoiding relegation each time. The board viewed merely surviving in the Third Division as unacceptable and replaced Conner with Walter Joyce for the 1973–74 season. This move failed to pay off, and Rochdale was relegated after a campaign in which they won only 2 of 46 league games.
The club finished bottom of the league in 1977–78, but was successful in their bid for re-election. Southport, which had finished one place above Rochdale, was demoted instead and replaced by Wigan Athletic. Rochdale finished bottom for a second time in 1979–80, but was again re-elected – by one vote over Altrincham. In 1989–90 the club reached the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time, but lost 1–0 to Crystal Palace.
Steve Parkin was appointed as manager in 1998, a period in which the success of the club improved significantly with the emergence of talented players such as Gary Jones, Clive Platt, Grant Holt and Kevin Townson.
Parkin left to take over at Barnsley in November 2001 with Rochdale second in the Third Division.[4] This gained him little popularity with the fans, especially when he took Gary Jones with him. John Hollins was appointed as his successor and the club finished the season in 5th place, entering the promotion play-offs where they lost to Rushden & Diamonds in the semi-final.
The club reached the fifth round of the FA Cup again the following season, but lost 3–1 at Wolves. Hollins was replaced by Paul Simpson in 2002, and Alan Buckley, appointed and sacked as manager in 2003. Parkin then returned to the club as manager, until being sacked in December 2006.
Parkin's replacement, Keith Hill, who was initially appointed as caretaker manager, became arguably the club's most successful manager to date. Hill and his assistant manager David Flitcroft led Rochdale to a 5th-place finish in 2007–08, securing a play-off place. After beating Darlington 5–4 on penalties in the semi-final, Rochdale reached Wembley for the first time in their history. Despite taking the lead in the match, they lost the final 3–2 to Stockport County.
In the 2008–09 season, Rochdale reached the League Two play-offs for the second consecutive season, finishing 6th in the table on 70 points. Season 2009–10 ended a 41-year wait for promotion with a win over Northampton Town as Rochdale secured the third automatic promotion spot. Rochdale continued their progression under Keith Hill, now with the club for 3 years, with a secured spot in League One in 2010–11. In 2010–11 Rochdale finished 9th in league one with 68 points, equalling their highest league finish since 1969–70.
On 1 June 2011 manager Keith Hill joined Championship club Barnsley. Former Manchester City apprentice and youth coach Steve Eyre was confirmed as Hill's replacement on 12 June 2011. Eyre's spell at Spotland did not last long, as he was sacked after 27 competitive games in charge, the team having recorded just 4 league wins in this time. Eyre's last game was a 0–0 draw against Yeovil, in which Yeovil's keeper Rene Gilmartin played the second half with a dislocated finger. Director of youth Chris Beech was then appointed as caretaker manager. Under Beech's first game in charge, the team drew 1–1 with Preston North End with an equaliser from Daniel Bogdanović who scored on his debut. Beech's 5 games in charge ended with a 5–1 defeat by Stevenage and a 3–0 defeat to bottom of league Wycombe Wanderers.
On 24 January 2012, Accrington Stanley's John Coleman was confirmed manager as the successor to Steve Eyre and left his club where he had been for more than a decade. John Coleman's first match in charge was a 3–0 win at home over Bury in the local derby. However, on 21 April, Rochdale lost 2–1 to Chesterfield resulting in relegation from League One after two years in the league. John Coleman's and Jimmy Bell's contracts were terminated by Rochdale on 21 January 2013 following a poor run in form.[5] In January 2013, Keith Hill, previously in charge of Rochdale from 2007 to 2011, was appointed as the new manager.[6]
Rochdale were promoted to League One on 26 April 2014, after beating Cheltenham Town 2–0.[7] Playing at the club's highest level the 2014–15 season was the club's most successful yet. Apart from a couple of games, they remained in the top half of the league all season, eventually finishing in 8th place, their highest league placing. Notable results were a 2–1 win away to Bradford City and home wins against Preston North End and Chesterfield. The club reached the fourth round of the FA Cup, and despite being eliminated by Premier League opposition, remained in contention for promotion to the Championship.
Rochdale has participated in the Football League play-offs on three occasions. In 2002, they lost 4–3 on aggregate to Rushden & Diamonds. In 2008, they went through to Wembley Stadium, defeating Darlington in the semi-final 5–4 on penalties after a 3–3 draw after extra time over two legs. Ben Muirhead scored the crucial penalty for Rochdale. However, despite scoring the first goal at the Wembley final, Rochdale suffered a 3–2 loss to Stockport County. In 2009, Rochdale lost 2–1 on aggregate to Gillingham in the playoff semi-finals.[8]
Club badge and colours [ edit ]
Rochdale home colours, used until the 2006–07 season
The club crest used by Rochdale focuses on a variant of the arms of the former County Borough of Rochdale. The coat of arms, based on those of the local and reputed Rochdale family with certain additions, was granted to the Borough by Herald's College in 1857. At its centre, a shield shows a sack of wool and a cotton plant, representing the local wool and cotton industries. Around the edge of the shield sit eight martlets (birds). These are taken from the Rochdale family coat of arms (mentioned above) and are widely used on heraldic devices. Above the shield and helm (in the position technically known as the "crest" in heraldry) more local industry representations are made by the inclusion of a fleece of wool (suspended by a band) and the iron centre of an old mill-stone (known as a mill-rind).
A motto below the shield reads "Crede Signo". Roughly translated, this means "Believe in the sign". The blazon (official heraldic description) for the arms reads as follows: "Argent a woolpack encircled by two branches of the cotton tree flowered and conjoint proper; a bordure sable charged with eight martlets of the field; and for a crest on a wreath of the colours a mill-rind sable and above a fleece argent banded or."
When Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council was formed in 1974 (taking over from Rochdale County Borough Council and five other borough/urban district councils), a new coat of arms was created and awarded for council use. Rochdale A.F.C., however, continued (and continues today) to adopt the old Rochdale County Borough arms.
Rochdale's current home colours are black and blue shirts, white shorts and blue and black hooped socks. Previously, Rochdale's usual colours were blue and white, introduced in 1949. Prior to this, Rochdale wore black and white stripes, which was influenced by the strong Newcastle United side of 1907 (the year Rochdale was formed), the stripe which they adopted for their centenary season in 2007.
Rochdale's centenary kit, used in the 2007–08 season.
This black and white kit was re-introduced in the 2007–08 season as the one-off centenary kit; the new Internazionale-influenced design which succeeded it was an amalgamation of the striped kit and the blue kit to herald the second century of Rochdale's existence. Between 2010 and 2012 Rochdale's shirts were predominantly blue with black pinstripes on the body and black sleeves.
Rochdale's away kit comprises white shirts with a purple stripe, purple shorts and purple and white hooped socks. Other historical away kits have included yellow, teal, green and red. Other kits have included white shirts with black shorts, white shirts with blue shorts and a blue shirt with white sleeves.
Rochdale has had sponsored shirts since 1983. Former sponsors include Carcraft, MMC Estates, All-in-One Garden Centre, Smith Metals, Keytech, Freebets.co.uk, Cabrini and the Co-operative. On 28 May 2013, Crown Oil Ltd was unveiled as the club's new principal sponsor.
It was announced in June 2009 that the kit supplier for the next three seasons would be Carbrini.
From 2012–2015 Rochdale's kit was supplied by Fila.
On 25 April 2015, Rochdale revealed Erreà as their new supplier.[9]
Stadium [ edit ]
Rochdale plays their home matches at Spotland Stadium (known locally as just Spotland and currently known as the Crown Oil Arena for sponsorship reasons), which has a capacity of 10,249. The stadium was officially opened in 1920, and for the first 68 years of its existence it was used exclusively by Rochdale. In 1988 – 2016 the ground was jointly owned by the football club, Rochdale Council and Rochdale Hornets the rugby football league association. In 2016 Rochdale A.F.C. bought the stadium shares they did not hold to own 100% of Spotland Stadium. At the same time the stadium received its new sponsored name The Crown Oil Arena as a result of a sponsorship agreement between Rochdale AFC and its first stadium sponsor.
The ground has four stands: the Co-Operative Stand (or Main Stand), the Thwaites Beer Stand (the Sandy Lane End), the T.D.S Stand (Pearl Street end) and the Westrose Leisure Stand (the Willbutts Lane Stand). All are fully seated, apart from the Sandy Lane End, which is a small terrace behind one of the goals.
Apart from local football and rugby league, Spotland has in the past been used to host minor nations' rugby league matches, such as British Amateur Rugby League Association (British Amateur Rugby League Association) matches, and also the National League Cup finals of 2003 and 2004.
Spotland Stadium was selected as a venue for the 2013 Rugby League World Cup, hosting a match between Fiji and Ireland. This was the first time that Rochdale had staged an event in a World Cup in any sport. The event was almost sold out with almost 9,000 people[10] attending, setting what was incorrectly claimed to be a new stadium record. Rochdale had 24,231 for an FA Cup tie vs Notts County in December 1949 and three higher crowds for FA Cup and play-off games between 1990 and 2008 against Northampton Town, Coventry City and Darlington.
In August 2016, Rochdale A.F.C. renamed Spotland Stadium the Crown Oil Arena as part of a sponsorship deal by the Bury-based fuel company Crown Oil.[11]
Rivalries [ edit ]
Rochdale have a number of rivalries with local and non-local clubs. The club's main rivals are Bury and Oldham Athletic. Bury, after Oldham, are the closest Football League club to Rochdale, and the fixture is also known as the M66 Derby. Although a more recently revived rivalry after a number of years in different divisions, games with Oldham Athletic are arguably every bit as intense as those with Bury.
Rochdale's other significant rivalries have been with Halifax Town, Burnley, Stockport County, Wigan Athletic and Accrington Stanley.
Players [ edit ]
First-team squad [ edit ]
As of 6 February 2019[12]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
No. Position Player No. Position Player
Out on loan [ edit ]
As of 14 February 2019
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
No. Position Player
Former players [ edit ]
Club officials [ edit ]
Board of directors
Position Name President Andrew Kilpatrick Chairman Chris Dunphy Director Jim Marsh Director Andrew Kelly Director Paul Hazlehurst Director Graham Rawlinson Director David Bottomley Director Bill Goodwin Non-Executive Director John Smallwood
Corporate management
Position Name Chief Executive Officer Russ Green Club Secretary Gina Buckley Office Manager Jan Marsh Sales & Marketing Manager Frances Fielding Finance Manager Jeannette Bond Retail Manager David Smith Markl Lotteries Manager Pete Woodhouse
Team management
Managerial history [ edit ]
Honours [ edit ]
Domestic [ edit ]
League [ edit ]
Cups [ edit ]
Club records [ edit ]
See also [ edit ] |
Polish police have received a complaint that Robert Lewandowski broke the law when he took a celebratory swig of champagne following his team’s win against Ireland.
The police are therefore forced to investigate the matter.
Striker Robert Lewandowski was celebrating Poland’s 2:1 win against Ireland on 11 October.
He drank from a Jeroboam bottle of G.H. Mumm while frolicking following the game.
The win saw Poland advance to the Euro 2016 games in France.
It is illegal to drink alcohol in public spaces in Poland.
“We have started investigations designed to clarify the circumstances of this incident and the possible classification of the act as an offence. Then [we will] take further steps in questioning witnesses,” said Joanna Węgrzyniak, Press Officer of the Police District Commander in Warsaw. (rg/rk)
Source: TVN24 |
It was by no means a vintage Bolton Wanderers performance, but once again, there are a lot of positives to take from yesterday's win over Sheffield Wednesday. One of those was the myriad good individual performances, which makes the job of choosing man of the match a lot more difficult, but also a lot less boring. There are good cases to be made for Chris Eagles, he put in another huge performance providing creativity and got another assist; Mark Davies scored the winning goal, which was the cherry on top of a vastly improved game from him. However, in the end, I think our MOTM has to go to Jay Spearing.
Yesterday Jay Spearing provided Bolton's midfield with the sort of grit it hasn't seen in a long time. While overall, the team was a pretty good mess last season, many of the issues could be traced to the lack of tenacity in midfield, causing sloppy turnovers, poor defensive marking, and little positive offensive movement. However, if you fix one broken piece, the rest of the machine will start running again, and Spearing is on his way to doing that.
The Liverpool loan boy was an essential cog in that Bolton team, he showed competence and confidence when shutting down the opposition, providing some much needed assistance to the beleaguered back four. He also provided a number of good through balls, starting attacks, and giving Chris Eagles the base he needs to work off to really shine. For us, he really was indispensable yesterday. But who was your MOTM? Vote in the poll and tell us why in the comments! |
The balance of creating a collaborative environment without constantly interrupting each other is not an easy one. Whether you are working with a distributed team or are in the same environment, context-switching is a major productivity hog. Here are a few ideas for how to take the friction out of that process.
Shared discussions to create an institutional memory
Whether you see a new interaction, upcoming conference or just want to share the latest resource you've come across with the rest of your team, here are some fantastic options to get you going.
Slack
Transparency and promoting a unified culture
Creates a shared forum to communicate with teams, instead of relying on email, IM or Skype that are 1:1 mediums
Organize communication channels to stay on topic
Search conversations and add files to reference later on
Integrates with existing tools like Google Apps and Dropbox so you can create a shared repository across other services
iOS/Android apps to optimize the experience across the devices
Basecamp
Think outside the project management box
Formerly 37signals, their flagship product Basecamp is one of the most versatile project management tools there is. One thing to keep in mind is that it's not just collaboration between teams and clients, you can use it internally to communicate as well. Since it allows you to create discussions, post files and organize to-dos, it can be used beyond its original intention of project management and instead, utilized to share and comment on whatever problems you want to tackle as a team.
Saving and sharing information
Pocket/IFTTT
What channels do you use to find and save articles to read later? This IFTTT recipe is one of the most helpful integrations on the site. If you're constantly browsing Twitter, you can make sure that you have takeaways from your daily binge sessions. Every time you favorite a tweet, the link in that tweet can be saved to Pocket to read later. Rather than painstakingly clicking through and saving and organizing all of that information, let another service take care of that for you.
Tlk.io
Create a simple web chat to share thoughts or use as a virtual water cooler
Integrate logins with Twitter
Saves history to scroll up and look back on to clarify thoughts
Link: Tlk.io
Illustrate interactions with CSS (instead of pencil and paper)
Here's a lightweight alternative to test and share simple or complex interactions with a design team:
Codepen (collab mode)
Codepen.io has a collab mode option in their pro version. This is basically real-time pair programming so you can simultaneously sync up your work with others to flesh out ideas faster. It also has a comment/chat feature so you can seamlessly work in the editor and bounce interactions off of each other.
Use what you know
Wordpress works remotely and utilizes Skype chats, IRC chatrooms, and most notably discussions on their Wordpress P2 blogs. Teams at Automattic are using their own software to communicate and this a) allows them to use what they know and gain a better understanding of it from the user-side and b) creates ongoing public discussions that anyone in the company can read and chime in on. This allows for feedback without being disruptive and forces a shared dialogue rather than only getting one or two perspectives before making decisions on something like how to prioritize a product feature.
It also creates a challenge, because even though all of this information is available for the team, there's not a concrete way to make sure that everyone involved is keeping up to date on the decision-making. A lack of feedback could mean disagreement, apathy or it could just mean that others aren't reading and responding. The fact that all of these discussions happen in the open really allow everyone on the team to get involved in high level discussions, as long as they are taking advantage of it.
Team Meetings
via Try this: Design Beachball on Medium
The key to success here is to create an open and comfortable environment for people to fearlessly share their opinions. If done right, the format should level the playing field and give everybody an opportunity to speak freely. It also, in turn, challenges your team to explore ideas analytically, turn loose thoughts into well-articulated statements, and get better acquainted with each other’s unique perspectives. Fundamentally, this makes better designers out of everyone on the team, and makes your team that much stronger as a unit. — Verne Ho
Meetings as a team outside of individual projects is one of the most underestimated practices. Not only does it allow for a continued model of sharing but it provides a spark and outlet to talk about design practices as a whole, rather than just in the context of an assignment. Team meetings are a place to test out ideas, improve process, identify pain points and share what you know with like-minded people.
Embrace the unknown and capitalize on skillsets
The need for this ongoing sharing and collaboration is immense. Never once have I been able to follow a checklist and mark off boxes when tasks are complete and felt "done" at the end of that kind of exercise. I have a feeling that that is a common sentiment among design teams, Trent Walton sums-up: |
China’s Foreign Ministry did not comment after being sent a faxed request for information on Mr. Ling’s case. Press officers for the White House, State Department and Department of Homeland Security declined to comment.
Three telephone numbers that people in California used to contact Mr. Ling all had Dallas area codes. Mr. Ling, whose English is said to be poor, did not respond to text messages in Chinese requesting an interview. Two of the three numbers are no longer in service, and no one answered the third number.
Christopher K. Johnson, a former C.I.A. analyst focusing on China, said the Chinese leadership might want Mr. Ling’s assistance in prosecuting his older brother. And, Mr. Johnson said, it would want to prevent the “treasure trove” of knowledge he has about Chinese politics from passing to United States officials.
“The leadership would want this guy badly,” Mr. Johnson, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in a telephone interview. “There’s no question that he would have access to a lot of interesting things.”
While it is unclear how much Ling Wancheng knows, the Communist Party itself has revealed some tantalizing clues about his brother Ling Jihua’s behavior, claiming that his corruption was a family affair. Last month, the party announced that Ling Jihua — a loyalist to the previous president, Hu Jintao — had been expelled from the party and would be tried, saying that he had “accepted huge bribes personally and through his family.”
Ling Jihua, 58, rose through the Communist Party’s Youth League under Mr. Hu in the 1980s and eventually served as either deputy or chief of the Central Committee’s General Office from 1999 to 2012. He was Mr. Hu’s personal secretary and closest protégé, and his position came with great powers: the ability to control the guards who protected the senior leadership, a significant voice in top personnel appointments and a central role in carrying out policy.
“It’s really the nerve center for the entire system,” Joseph Fewsmith, a professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University who focuses on Chinese politics, said of Ling Jihua’s former position. “This is the essence of power politics.” |
Note: this new system is for reproducible bug reports. It is not a support forum for general issues/complaints. If you spam the bug report platform, we won't be able to response as quickly. So, please only submit a bug report if you have an actual bug to report. Thanks!
Hey everyone,As you probably know, we have a pretty robust beta program that allows you to follow our software updates and provide feedback, every step of the way. We also have a comprehensive internal testing process for both hardware and software. This means that every OnePlus product goes through extensive testing before ever being distributed. Today, we hope to make that process even better.Starting today, you can submit official bug reports for OnePlus devices and OxygenOS (open beta builds and official releases). Go check it out here:Why are we doing this? First of all, there's that whole community thing, and we want to make it easier for you to let us know if something is broken. It's also about improving our hardware and software as efficiently as possible, and we've made this new Bug Report platform particularly powerful in a few important ways:Before, it wasn't super easy for us to find and verify bugs. People would submit bugs informally on the forums, on our social media, or through our customer service channels. We'd then have to reach out and gather information manually, which was a slow and imperfect process. With this new system, we'll have logs, reproduction steps, images, and more right from the beginning. This means that we can reproduce and squash bugs much faster.You can go see the bugs that everyone else has submitted, and whether or not they have been addressed. This is a risky thing for a company to do, but we're doing it. This is our way of showing how serious we are about addressing your concerns and making our products even better.Not only are bug reports publicly visible, but you can also see whether or not each bug has been reproduced, and how close we are to fixing it. Every bug report will be followed up on by a OnePlus product and/or customer service representative.When you submit a bug report, other users can "watch" the bug to let us know how many users are experiencing the same issue. This way, we'll immediately know if an issue is affecting a lot of people, so we can quickly find real bugs and fix them as quickly as possible.It's about streamlining our processes. It's about making our hardware and software even better. Most importantly, It's about giving you an even bigger voice. Go ahead and check it out now.Never Settle. |
Muse lights up Houston as band opens U.S. tour (Review)
Fans of Muse at the band's Toyota Center concert on Dec. 1. Fans of Muse at the band's Toyota Center concert on Dec. 1. Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 43 Caption Close Muse lights up Houston as band opens U.S. tour (Review) 1 / 43 Back to Gallery
British rock trio Muse opened the U.S. leg of its current world tour on Tuesday night at Toyota Center.
Muse's militarized-U2 sound has proven to be extremely popular since the band's breakthrough album, "Black Holes & Revelations," which was released in 2006.
They've surely learned something from touring with Bono and that crew of Irishmen years back and it's all on the stage.
The band, now two decades old, came to the Bayou City armed with a heavy artillery light show, lasers, and material from seven studio albums of radio hits and fan favorites.
Muse is touring behind "Drones," the album it released over the summer. The album has managed to make it onto a handful of 2015 "best-of" lists already in a year that's seen hits from Adele and Drake.
Drones figured heavy into the band''s stage show, with spherical drones descending from the top of the stage rigging to spotlight fans. One of those "drones" somehow made it into the general admission crowd on the floor and had to be ushered off backstage.
The band's stage was plotted on the floor of Toyota Center, taking up the middle of the floor, cutting the venue in half. Great for the people on the east and west sides of the venue, but the north and south end was somewhat detached until a band member got closer.
It wasn't rare to see bassist Chris Wolstenholme and lead singer and guitarist Matt Bellamy playing nearly 100 yards apart from each other. Drummer Dominic Howard and jack-of-all-trades instrumentalist Morgan Nicholls were nestled in the middle.
Paranoia is in full bloom visually and lyrically at Muse shows, with the band raging against the machine nightly but making it look really beautiful. Think of them as a band for the Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks era. A clip of John F. Kennedy railing against the military industrial complex even made an appearance right before “Revolt” from this year’s “Drones” release to drive all previous points home.
Rock music directed by Stanley Kubrick from a script by Philip K. Dick, although Dick would not have even been able to imagine the band’s industrial lights and digital magic.
The band’s older singles like “Bliss” from 2001’s “Origin of Symmetry” got new life among the band’s newer metallic, arena-ready hysterics. Muse was always destined for arenas, even when they were opening for emo bands in the early ‘00s here in the U.S.
Lead singer Bellamy is able to reach the astonishing vocal heights of Freddie Mercury, but Queen was never this dour or troubled. Muse makes revolt against government intrusion catchy and something you can gently headbang to.
A highlight from the past year, “Reapers,” comes with Eddie Van Halen ripping solo intro. Jock jam “Uprising” – you’ve surely heard during Sunday afternoon football – was delayed by bass troubles. Once it got going, it soared. For the first show of a major U.S. tour there were few of the usual hiccups.
The show closed with the hyper-sweet “Mercy” and the galloping ride of “Knights of Cydonia,” complete with a recorded Ennio Morricone harmonica outro.
Surely some eyes were still burning on Wednesday morning from the visual workout. So married to technological wonder, we wouldn't be surprised if they become the first living band to tour as holograms.
Muse Set List:
Psycho
Reapers
Dead Inside
Bliss
The 2nd Law: Isolated System
The Handler
Interlude
Hysteria
Supermassive Black Hole
Prelude
Starlight
United States of Eurasia
Munich Jam
Madness
Undisclosed Desires
[JFK]
Revolt
Time Is Running Out
Uprising
The Globalist
Drones (Reprise)
Encore:
Mercy
Knights of Cydonia (Ennio Morricone's 'Man With a Harmonica' Intro) |
So, the Edmonton Oilers don’t have the number one overall pick in this year’s draft (hooray for slight improvement!), but not to worry Oil Country, this year’s draft is pretty deep and the Oilers need some help. The defensive unit in Edmonton was downright dreadful at times allowing opponents to shoot the puck 40+ times a game on a regular basis. Defenseman should be the position they draft for at number seven overall and good thing for the Oilers because this year’s draft is full of talented defensemen.
Unless something dramatic happens, Seth Jones isn’t coming to Edmonton, sorry guys, but there are some nice consolation prizes, for one Nikita Zadorov. Zadorov is a monster sized defenseman standing in at 6’5″, 230 lbs. and a very physical defenseman that isn’t afraid to get himself dirty, such as getting into a fight in his first OHL game.
http://youtu.be/EZQkUqzMVhs
Zadorov is best known for his defensive skills and, for an Oiler squad that struggled mightily at times, that presence would be much appreciated. Zadorov uses his size and strength to deliver big hits and if you keep your head down when he’s around, you better believe you’ll end up on the ice. However, Zadorov has a tendency to commit too much on the hit and as a result, gets out of position on the ice. Given his physical style of play, Zadorov is a pretty disciplined player with only 45 penalty minutes this season in the OHL.
Zadorov’s nimbleness and skating ability is something to marvel at given his size. Zadorov is a great backwards skater and is very hard to beat in one-on-one situations. Central Scouting’s Chris Edwards said of Zadorov’s skating,
“Nikita is a big man who skates very well. He has very good mobility and his backwards skating is about the best in this year’s draft. He will take the body and battles hard along the boards. He uses his long reach well and is an effective pokechecker.”
As a member of the OHL’s London Knights, Zadorov is a huge part of why the Knights had the best record in the OHL this season. His offensive numbers aren’t too impressive with three goals and 18 points total in 51 games, but his plus/minus rating is seventh in the OHL and first among first year players.
His offensive play leaves a lot to be desired, but has improved very much throughout this OHL season with the London Knights. Throughout the season, Zadorov progressively used his mobility and skating skills to his advantage. Zadorov’s slap shot is incredibly hard and heavy, but his wrist shot is so-so and could use some work. With some work, Zadorov could greatly improve his offensive ability, much like he did this season in London. Right now he’s not the greatest offensive defenseman and maybe that’s what the Oilers need right now, someone who is defensively gifted rather than another offensive threat.
The London Knights have had many players go on to having great NHL careers with players like Patrick Kane, John Tavares, Corey Perry, and Rick Nash to name a few. Team owner Mark Hunter expects Nikita Zadorov to join that growing list of London Knights alumni.
Hunter has also said that Zadorov’s style of play reminds him of former Montreal Canadien and Hall of fame defenseman Larry Robinson, saying,
“He used to drop his shoulder when he’d get going up the ice and drive the net. … [Zadorov] showed me a couple times he’s done that, where he’s drove wide and put his shoulder down and drove to the net. He can do that which Larry … I played four years with him and I saw him do that numerous times.”
Although he was cut from the Russian World Juniors team and didn’t play in the World Juniors, Zadorov played for Team Russia in both the U-17 and the U-18 and should be on the next Russian World Juniors team next season in Sweden, presuming he’s not with an NHL team by then.
Hopefully he is with an NHL team and let’s hope he’s wearing the copper and blue of the Oilers. |
By Rob Morse
Louisiana- (Ammoland.com) Honest citizens defend themselves with a firearm every day. I’m sure you’re shocked at that news since democrat politicians and news media tell us that armed self-defense never happens. Here are examples from the last few weeks. These ordinary citizens were thrown into extraordinary situations.
These armed defenders were both surprised… and prepared. They saved their life and protected those they love.
-A 65-year-old Manchester, New Hampshire woman stopped to buy gasoline after leaving work late at night. She noticed a dark colored sedan following her as she drove home to her apartment. She was concerned so she parked as close to her building as possible. She has her concealed carry permit and the training that comes with it. She moved her firearm from her purse to her pocket in case she needed it. She hurried to her apartment stairway but the mugger ran in front of her. He blocked her path and grabbed her shoulder. The elderly grandmother then drew her pistol and shot the mugger in the chest. He ran. The old woman took shelter in her building and called police. The mugger and his accomplice were picked up by police at a nearby hospital.
Anti-gun activists said this old lady would be safer if she was disarmed. What do you think?
-Two cars stopped in front of a home in Houston, Texas. Six to eight men piled out of the cars and quickly forced their way into a nearby home. A neighbor who was walking down the sidewalk witnessed the home invasion. One of the thugs pointed a gun at him. The neighbor was carrying a concealed weapon and shot and killed the robber in self-defense. This caused the other men to flee leaving and leave their stolen car behind. The armed pedestrian and the one person inside the home were not injured.
Anti-gun activists say we would be safer if law-abiding citizens were limited on how many bullets we can have in our guns. These eight thieves won’t follow that law.
What would have happened if this neighbor had only a few bullets in his gun?
-Two men knocked at the front door of a Memphis home at about 6 PM. A woman opened the door and one man forced his way inside. The intruder put a gun against the woman’s neck. The male homeowner heard the woman scream. Fortunately, he was armed and stepped toward the front door. The homeowner shot the armed intruder several times. The dead assailant had a long criminal record including arrests for aggravated burglary and aggravated assault.
Anti-rights activists say we would be safer if our guns were disassembled and locked in a gun safe. Did this man have time to open a safe?
-A North St Louis county homeowner heard two men loudly bang on his front door. The homeowner had recently moved into the home. He didn’t recognize the men and wasn’t expecting visitors at 10:30 in the morning. Fortunately, the homeowner was armed when the two thieves smashed through the back door of his home. The armed burglars shot at the homeowner. The homeowner shot back and killed one of the thieves. The second thief ran and was arrested by police a few days later. He was wanted for several recent robberies.
Drug gangs shoot ten thousand people each year, yet anti-rights activists say we would be safer if honest citizens were disarmed. Does that make sense to you?
-Three masked men entered a Family Dollar store late at night. One of the thieves pointed a gun at the store clerk and demanded the money in the cash register. Fortunately, one of the customers standing in line was armed with a gun of his own. He pointed his gun at the robbers, but the three thieves turned and ran before the armed customer could fire. Police in Newport News, Virginia said these three thieves were wanted for a string of similar robberies.
The armed customer saved lives without firing a shot. Would we really be safer if honest citizens were disarmed?
I report on citizen self-defense every week. My next article about ordinary citizens stopping mass murder will be out in a few weeks.
~_~_
Rob Morse: Rob writes about gun rights at Ammoland, at Clash Daily and on his SlowFacts blog. He co-hosts the Polite Society Podcast. He is an NRA pistol instructor and combat handgun competitor. |
While certain American politicians complain about a million bucks being included in the country's energy plan to promote bikes, in the UK they are investing £140 million (about US$ 280 million) to create dedicated bike lanes, provide bike parking, safety training, on-street bike rental networks and a campaign to promote bicycling in 12 Cycling Demonstration Towns.
The Transport Minister, Ruth Kelly says "A quarter of journeys made every day by car are less than two miles, Cycling is an alternative that could bring real health benefits to millions of adults and children, as well as helping them save money and beat congestion."
Cycling in London, 1896
"The first step in persuading people to leave their cars at home is to offer them a real choice," said the minister. "Providing a step change in cycling facilities, dedicated cycle lanes, more training and information will have a big impact on how people choose to travel." ::Celsias
TreeHugger readers may remember that her American Equivalent, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, believes that "bikes are not transportation." Sigh.
More TreeHugger on Bikes as Transportation Policy
US Secretary of Transportation says Bikes "are not transportation"
Young Environmentalists Protest Anti-Bicycle Policy At Their High ...
Green Transport Specialist Bans Employees from Bikes
Bicycles In The Spotlight
More Bike Parking: Always a Good Decision |
European scientists reporting in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences have identified how unique neural pathways in the brain allows humans to learn new words.
It has long been believed that language learning depends on the integration of hearing and repeating words but the neural mechanisms behind learning new words remained unclear. Previous studies have shown that this may be related to a pathway in the brain only found in humans and that humans can learn only words that they can articulate.
In the new study, the team has mapped the neural pathways involved in word learning among humans. The scientists found that the arcuate fasciculus, a collection of nerve fibres connecting auditory regions at the temporal lobe with the motor area located at the frontal lobe in the left hemisphere of the brain, allows the ‘sound’ of a word to be connected to the regions responsible for its articulation. Differences in the development of these auditory-motor connections may explain differences in people’s ability to learn words.
The researchers involved 27 participants. They used diffusion tensor imaging to image the structure of the brain before a word learning task and functional MRI, to detect the regions in the brain that were most active during the task.
They found a strong relationship between the ability to remember words and the structure of arcuate fasciculus, which connects two brain areas: Wernicke’s area, related to auditory language decoding, and Broca’s area, which coordinates the movements associated with speech and the language processing.
In participants able to learn words more successfully their arcuate fasciculus was more myelinated i.e. the nervous tissue facilitated faster conduction of the electrical signal. In addition the activity between the two regions was more coordinated in these participants.
“Now we understand that this is how we learn new words, our concern is that children will have less vocabulary as much of their interaction is via screen, text and email rather than using their external prosthetic memory,” said study co-author Dr Marco Catani of King’s College London Institute of Psychiatry.
“This research reinforces the need for us to maintain the oral tradition of talking to our children.”
______
Bibliographic information: Lopez-Barroso et al. 2013. Word learning is mediated by the left arcuate fasciculus. PNAS, published online before print; doi: 10.1073/pnas.1301696110 |
MINNEAPOLIS- Chaos erupted outside of the Minneapolis Federal Courthouse before testimony was set to resume in the terrorism trial of three men accused of plotting to join ISIL.
The sister of Abdirizak Warsame, who is currently on the stand testifying about how he and his friends planned to join ISIL, got into an altercation. It’s unclear exactly what led to the incident. She was seen shouting at FBI agents. She was quickly brought to the ground, handcuffed and escorted away.
Judge Michael Davis also called Burhan Mohumed, a friend of the defendants, to the front of court. Davis asked Mohumed if he was a part of the altercation. Mohumed told him he was trying to stop it. Judge Davis ordered that Mohumed be photographed and fingerprinted, then banned him from the courthouse for the duration of the trial.
The incident delayed court by an hour.
Once testimony got underway Warsame told jurors that he and his friends believed if they went to Syria and joined ISiL they would be among the higher ranks of fighters. He also admitted after watching graphic ISIL videos that it was clear "if we were to go there, if we were ordered to kill them (hostages) we'd have to."
Under cross-examination, Warsame described watching an ISIL video where a hostage pilot was set ablaze. "To watch that video and see that pilot burn made me rethink a lot of things."
Testimony is set to resume Wednesday afternoon. |
The Phoenix Suns have signed forward Josh Jackson, the team’s selection with the fourth overall pick in the first round of the 2017 NBA Draft.
Jackson, an intense competitor and athletic two-way player, was a 2017 Wooden All-America selection and the Big 12 Freshman of the Year in his lone season at Kansas. At 6-8 and 207 pounds, the 20-year-old utilized his all-around game to help the Jayhawks win a Big 12 title, averaging 16.3 points on 51.3 percent shooting, 7.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.1 blocks over 35 contests. With the versatility to play multiple positions, Jackson can create for himself and his teammates on the offensive end while possessing the ability to be elite on the defensive end.
During his one season in Lawrence, Jackson broke or tied four Kansas freshman records with 13 double-doubles, 220 field goals made, 429 field goals attempted and 258 rebounds (tying former Suns forward Danny Manning’s mark set in 1984-85). Over the past 25 years, he became just the fourth freshman in Division I to average at least 15 points, five rebounds and three assists while shooting over 48 percent from the field, joining Ben Simmons in 2015-16, James Harden in 2007-08 and Dwyane Wade in 2001-02.
Jackson will make his professional debut as a member of the Suns’ team at NBA Summer League 2017 in Las Vegas. |
Natural history program “Blue Planet II” has delivered epic numbers for the BBC, becoming the most-watched show of the year in Britain.
The opening installment of the show, which explores the world’s oceans, drew 14.1 million viewers. The Oct. 29 linear broadcast attracted a peak audience of 10.3 million, a 41.4% share, with the rest watching via catch-up.
Those numbers make “Blue Planet II” the U.K.’s most-watched natural history show in 15 years, and the third-most-watched show of any kind in the last five years, trailing only the 2014 World Cup Final and the “Great British Bake Off.”
The series is narrated by venerable presenter David Attenborough and is broadcast in the family-friendly 8 p.m. Sunday slot on flagship channel BBC One.
The second episode of the seven-part series this past Sunday performed even more strongly than the first, garnering a peak audience of 11 million and an average of 10.7 million, a 44.7% share. The BBC said that 2.3 million of the linear viewers were in the crucial 16-to-34-year-old demographic.
“Blue Planet II” is produced by the natural history department of the British pubcaster’s production arm, BBC Studios, in association with BBC America, WDR, and France Televisions. The series is distributed by BBC Worldwide, which also handled sales for the recent “Planet Earth 2.”
Radiohead and Hans Zimmer recorded a new version of the band’s “Bloom” for the series. |
Symantec
The newly-discovered Hammertoss malware strain uses network traffic noise from sources including Twitter and GitHub to spy upon corporate victim machines for longer.
Hardly a week goes by when malware, zero-day vulnerabilities and data breaches are not mentioned in the media. High-profile attacks are on the rise against the enterprise, forcing industry players to acknowledge the risk of digital attacks against their networks.
As the cybersecurity landscape evolves, investment increases -- albeit probably not at a rapid enough rate -- and security solutions flood the market, forcing threat actors to resort to complex ways to circumvent detection.
For one hacking group, network traffic provides the perfect conduit for victim machine infection.
FireEye has released a detailed report concerning a malware backdoor, dubbed Hammertoss, which is able to hide in multiple network traffic streams. This is no easy task to perform, and so the cybersecurity forensics firm believes a sophisticated Russian group specializing in advanced persistent threat (APT) campaigns is behind the malware's development.
The group, known as APT29, has developed Hammertoss to make detection and eradication that much harder. The group uses online services including Twitter, GitHub and platforms leveraging the cloud for additional concealment layers, attempting to blend into the normal, albeit chaotic activity you find on such networks.
With heavy rates of legitimate traffic often flowing to and from these sources, Hammertoss attempts to disguise itself and its "infrequent" malicious communications by joining the stream.
Hammertoss was first detected earlier this year. APT29 used two backdoors to infiltrate a victim's network and Hammertoss is thought to have acted as a backup to keep the door open and commands executed -- however, its use has now evolved beyond this purpose.
According to FireEye, Hammertoss uses Twitter, GitHub, and cloud storage services to "relay commands and extract data from compromised networks."
APT29 also leverages a number of common malware tactics to disguise the malicious code's activity, including the retrieval of legitimate commands from social media networks, the use of compromised web servers for command and control (C&C) purposes, automatically visiting different Twitter handles daily on an automatic basis and communicating on schedule -- such as only in a victim's work week schedule or on specific dates.
In addition, Hammertoss can receive orders through images placed online which contain hidden, encrypted data waiting to be unpacked and executed.
Once infection has taken place and these elements are executed to spread the malware, but stay undetected for as long as possible, stolen victim files are uploaded to cloud storage service accounts in service to APT29.
Hammertoss makes life difficult for network defenders to identify malicious code, and if one element is barred on a corporate network -- such as access to GitHub -- the malware is able to still receive instructions from other sources including social networks or C&C servers.
In addition, even if security staff has a Hammertoss algorithm sample to hand which creates malicious Twitter accounts online, FireEye says monitoring malicious tweets from these accounts is "difficult" as each sample is capable of generating "hundreds" of Twitter accounts -- whereas APT29 may only need a handful to execute its campaign.
The APT29 group, in operation since late 2014 at least, is believed to be Russian due to their targets and working hours, which match the Moscow time zone and the Russian holiday schedule.
"While other APT groups try cover their tracks, very few groups show the same discipline to thwart investigators and the ability to adapt to network defenders' countermeasures," FireEye says.
"For example, APT29 solely uses compromised servers for CnC, counters remediation attempts, and maintains a rapid development cycle for its malware by quickly modifying tools to undermine detection. These aspects make APT29 one of the most capable APT groups that we track."
In June, Visa and FireEye announced plans to join forces through sharing threat data. The Visa and FireEye Community Threat Intelligence (CTI) platform will be sold through Visa as part of its fraud risk management service.
Read on: Top picks |
A report by the National Safety Council revealed that a record number of Americans are dying as the result of accidents. The study showed that accidental deaths increased by 4.2 percent from the year in 2014, with accidental poisoning overtaking automotive accidents as the number one cause of death in the country. Photo by TFoxFoto/Shutterstock
WASHINGTON, June 11 (UPI) -- The United States has seen a record rate of accidental deaths in the last two years, primarily caused by drug overdoses and falls.
A report from the National Safety Council revealed that more than 136,000 people died accidentally in 2014, representing a 4.2 percent increase from the previous year and a 15.5 percent rise within a decade.
Overdose and accidental poisoning overtook vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death, killing 42,000 people in 2014.
Increased vehicle safety has been seen as a reason for the decrease in automotive deaths, as well as changes in drivers license requirements for teens.
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"Far fewer teenagers and young adults are dying on the roads than they were in 1981," National Safety Council director Ken Kolosh said.
The use of opioids contributed to the increase in deaths by overdoses with the highly addictive painkiller killing 13,486 people in 2014.
The number of people killed in accidental falls also increased drastically, rising from fewer than 10,00 deaths in 1992 to nearly 32,000 in 2014.
Kolosh said that the primary reason for the dramatic increase in falling death was the result of an aging society.
"We have more older adults who are at much greater risk for falls," he said.
The study states that an American dies of accidental injury every four minutes, with the rate increasing to two minutes if those who required medical help but did not die are included.
Kolosh said that the statistics do not necessarily show that Americans are accident-prone, but rather that individuals and society can do more to avoid accidents.
"Every individual has the opportunity to make choices to keep themselves safe," he said. "It's all preventable. Every accident is preventable, but it's not necessarily the [fault] of the victim." |
So you want to learn how to improvise jazz and that’s great, but where on Earth do you start jazz improvisation?!?! There’s so much information out there that figuring out where to begin playing jazz is a complete nightmare. But I’ll tell you this right now…If I could start jazz improvisation again today, I’d do my absolute BEST to learn jazz the same way that the greats of this music learned it…
The great jazz musicians didn’t have books filled with transcribed solos of their favorite players or The Real Book packed with sheet music to any jazz standard they wanted to learn. And they certainly didn’t have play along recordings or any sort of backing tracks that they could just pop in and jam with.
Sound crazy??
These resources like the Real Book and jazz play along sets are the primary practice tools people use to learn how to play jazz today…so if the masters of this music like Charlie Parker or John Coltrane didn’t use these, what did they use?
They learned to play jazz from listening to their heroes and building upon their findings with their own musical ideas.
They thought to themselves, “That’s interesting how Lester Young does that over the dominant 7th chord on the bridge off Rhythm Changes. Now, what can I do that’s interesting?”.
Then, they furthered their jazz improvisation knowledge by practicing, playing, and performing with others.
In other words, the people you love listening to, musicians like Trane, or Bird, Oscar Peterson, or bill Evans, learned how to play jazz by studying what came before them, figuring it out for themselves, and building upon it in their own unique way.
It’s really that simple when you boil it down.
Of course the convenience of playing with a play along recording can be fun, and learning jazz standards from a fake book is much easier than trying to figure out the chords from the recording yourself, but in the long run, materials like the Real Book and play along sets will actually distract you from the pathway that will get you to where you want to go.
And that may sound a bit daunting or counterintuitive to you, but the truth is that if you get started on the right track learning jazz improvisation, you’ll make gains way faster and skip YEARS of frustration that ensue from taking the shortcuts that most jazz education materials offer today.
Now that doesn’t mean you have to avoid all jazz education resources, but be careful about depending upon them as your main go-to knowledge for learning how to improvise. Most importantly, don’t interpret anything you learn from them as a rule or a cold-hard-fact.
There are always exceptions in music and different ways of looking at the same information. There is no one correct way, just one perspective among many.
The true answers to all of your jazz improvisation questions are on the recordings of the great masters, so even if you’re just starting to learn how to improvise, make sure that your focus remains on discovering knowledge by immersing yourself in the legendary jazz recordings and remember that the answers are right there in front of you every time you’re listening to this beautiful music…
15 Steps to Practicing Jazz Improvisation: A life-long Journey of Improvement
Learning how to improvise is not an overnight process. It’s a lifetime of practice, but that doesn’t mean you can’t rapidly improve and have a ton of fun in the process!
There is a TON of information here about learning how to improvise, so take your time and don’t feel overwhelmed. Yes there are many sides to learning this music, but that’s the fun of it. The journey of learning how to improvise never ends! There’s always something new to learn or something you’ll want to learn better.
The 15 steps laid out in this lesson will guide you through the necessary parts of the life-long journey of learning how to improvise better and better, giving you an overview of how to excel quickly and consistently at jazz improvisation.
But before we dive into the details of how to practice jazz and learn how to improvise jazz like a pro, let’s back up here for a second. After all, you’re drawn to this music for a reason: the way it SOUNDS…
Step 1: Start Listening to jazz like it’s your job
Load your phone with jazz and listen while you commute
Throw on some jazz in the background while you work
Dedicate focused time every day to checking out jazz musicians and jazz standards you haven’t heard before
The number one thing you can do to get started right now to learn how to improvise and constantly improve at jazz is to up your listening game. Sounds simple right?
But how much have you REALLY listened?
Now that we have phones that literally carry gigabytes of music, there’s no excuse not to be listening all the time. Invest in a high-quality set of ear-buds and listen to jazz whenever you possibly can. Subscribe to Apple Music or Spotify and have all the music you can imagine at your fingertips.
Fill your head with the stuff you like the most. When you wake up in the morning, on your way to work, while you work out, when you’re cooking dinner, when you’re cleaning up your house or doing laundry.
Listen, listen, listen, and then listen some more!!!
Start deepening your listening skills with these Jazz Advice lessons:
Active Listening: Learn how to do it and use it – Do you ever set aside dedicated time to just listen? How much are you connecting with the music? Does it really affect you, or have you been listening to jazz passively all this time? Use the jazz advice in this lesson to learn how to listen to music actively and become aware of what’s going on. Active listening is an extremely important step in improving your musicianship.
Active Listening: Learn how to do it and use it – Do you ever set aside dedicated time to just listen? How much are you connecting with the music? Does it really affect you, or have you been listening to jazz passively all this time? Use the jazz advice in this lesson to learn how to listen to music actively and become aware of what’s going on. Active listening is an extremely important step in improving your musicianship. Listening advice you need to hear – Much of the time we listen to jazz just because we think we should listen to it and we kind of lump every recording of any jazz legend into the same bucket. But, like anything, there are great recordings and sub-par recordings. This article will talk about how to make sure you’re listening to the best of the best.
Listening advice you need to hear – Much of the time we listen to jazz just because we think we should listen to it and we kind of lump every recording of any jazz legend into the same bucket. But, like anything, there are great recordings and sub-par recordings. This article will talk about how to make sure you’re listening to the best of the best. Why listening is crucial to learning jazz standards and improvising – Practicing jazz can seem pretty complex and often when we get to the practice room, we’re overwhelmed by even where to start. Here are 3 tricks that you can put into practice before you even enter the practice room and the first one is probably the most important. It’s all about listening.
Step 2: Understand the culture of jazz
Learn the history of jazz and where it comes from
Read about the lives of jazz musicians to understand what life was like and how they expressed it in their music
Get the feeling and vibe of jazz so you don’t fall into the common trap of thinking of jazz as an intellectual art form
As you probably know, playing jazz requires quite a bit of knowledge. Everything from deep music theory to highly trained ears, but with all the incredible mental, visual, and aural skill needed, we often forget how DEEP this music really is.
A great way to connect with the lives of past jazz musicians and understand what life was like is to read the autobiographies or biographies of the jazz legends.
Pick one and read it to absorb the culture that these people lived in. Believe me, you’ll enjoy it. Reading about jazz musicians is always fun and entertaining, in fact, it can be down right haunting! Reading Art Pepper’s biography will give you chills…
Another great style of book to read is the making of historical albums. When you’re reading these kind of books, it’s as if you were in the recording studio watching as they put a legendary album together. There’s nothing quite like being a fly on the wall during the making of Kind of Blue.
And one final thing you’ll want to do is watch jazz interviews. Listening to how the greats thought about music, life, and practice will give you a deeper level of appreciation for jazz and get you excited and motivated to learn more.
Top Jazz Books and Lessons to learn jazz history and understand the deep jazz culture:
Step 3: Understand what jazz improvisation actually is
Bust the myth that jazz improvisation is 100% made-up on the spot
Understand the crucial role of preparation in learning how to improvise
Learn the difference between practicing jazz and performing jazz
Do jazz improvisers create everything they’re playing on the spot. I mean, isn’t it completely 100% made up in the moment – that’s why it’s called improvisation, right?
Not exactly.
It is true that as an improviser you’re creating in the moment and , “seeing where things go,” but that doesn’t mean that it’s all made up on the spot…
The countless hours of preparation in the practice room give the improvisor musical tools that they can use in real-time. When they combine these tools, interact with the musicians around them, and let go, something new is born in that exact moment.
Learning how to improvise requires a balance between discovering, learning, and applying new concepts & jazz improvisation techniques, with the ability to relax and freely combine all the knowledge you have so you can “sing” new melodies through your instrument in real-time when you perform a jazz standard.
If that sounds a bit strange, that’s ok. It’s not exactly the easiest thing to understand in the process of learning to improvise. As a beginner, the best thing to do is to trust the process and have a crystal clear idea of what jazz improvisation actually is.
Top Jazz Advice Lessons to understand what jazz improvisation actually is:
Is Jazz improvising really improvising? – When you’re first learning how to improvise jazz, it seems completely magical, as if everything is made up right on the spot, in the moment. But behind these seemingly spontaneous moment lie a ridiculous amount of preparation…
Is Jazz improvising really improvising? – When you’re first learning how to improvise jazz, it seems completely magical, as if everything is made up right on the spot, in the moment. But behind these seemingly spontaneous moment lie a ridiculous amount of preparation… The Top 5 myths about playing jazz – It’s time to bust the top myths about jazz improvisation. Stop believing the hype and start realizing what’s fact and what’s fiction.
The Top 5 myths about playing jazz – It’s time to bust the top myths about jazz improvisation. Stop believing the hype and start realizing what’s fact and what’s fiction. 4 More myths about jazz improvisation – When it comes to jazz improvisation, there are plenty of myths. Check out this lesson to bust even more.
4 More myths about jazz improvisation – When it comes to jazz improvisation, there are plenty of myths. Check out this lesson to bust even more. How thinking like a composer is essential to practicing jazz improvisation – The composer’s mindset it crucial to understanding the difference between what you think jazz improvisation is and what it actually is. When you realize that there’s more composition in improvisation, and more improvisation in composition, you’re on the right track.
Step 4: Understand how to practice jazz improvisation and how the pieces of the puzzle fit together
Learn what the various elements of practicing jazz are
Get an idea of how everything fits together
Realize that learning how to play jazz is a process, one that takes a long time, but is a constantly rewarding journey
Why is practicing jazz improvisation so difficult?
One aspect of learning how to improvise that makes it so difficult is that it’s not linear. You might learn how to play over a minor 7 chord one day and then realize months later, you’ve encountered minor chords that don’t quite fit the model you have, or maybe you just get sick of how you play over minor chords and need a new approach, or perhaps you’re having trouble with certain keys of minor chords.
In learning how to improvise, there’s this constant flow of learning new material, learning old material better or completely reworking it, discovering new ways of combining ideas, or realizing there are huge gaps in your knowledge that need to be filled.
You’re always jumping around, pushing ahead to the new yet hopping backward to update, fix, and better understand the old.
Learning jazz is not linear, but the primary topics you need to tackle can fit into only a few categories. Having a conceptual idea of how all these practice categories fit together will help you understand how to practice jazz effectively and make rapid gains.
Top Jazz Advice Lessons to understand how to practice jazz and how the pieces of practicing jazz improvisation fit together:
What to practice for jazz improvisation: A Free presentation on the elements of playing jazz – Learning what to practice when you want to play jazz can be difficult. Use this free jazz presentation to understand exactly what to practice to get better at playing jazz and how the fundamental pieces of practicing jazz improvisation fit together.
What to practice for jazz improvisation: A Free presentation on the elements of playing jazz – Learning what to practice when you want to play jazz can be difficult. Use this free jazz presentation to understand exactly what to practice to get better at playing jazz and how the fundamental pieces of practicing jazz improvisation fit together. A Diagram on what to practice to play jazz – Having trouble getting specific in the practice room and spending your time the right way? Hang this free jazz practice diagram up in your practice room so you know what to practice and how to stay focused on what matters.
A Diagram on what to practice to play jazz – Having trouble getting specific in the practice room and spending your time the right way? Hang this free jazz practice diagram up in your practice room so you know what to practice and how to stay focused on what matters. The Practice plan for getting good fast – The jazz advice in this lesson will show you how to learn jazz fast. Stick to this plan if you’re serious about learning how to improvise quickly.
Step 5: Start learning jazz theory but be careful!!!
Learn the 4 essential jazz chords, how they’re built, and how they function within a chord progression
Learn the essential jazz scales and how they relate to chords
Understand the dangers of theory, how it can cause years of frustration and derail your musical progress if used in the wrong way
When you open most guides to learning how to improvise, jazz scales and music theory almost always lead the way…
But this is a huge mistake!
Is jazz theory important? Of course! But it’s just ONE tool of many.
Definitely get started learning the basics of jazz theory, but know that the theory you learn is only one perspective on how to think about music. Despite what any book tells you, there’s no single RIGHT way to analyze or think about music. In fact, much of the creative music that you love is born from violating theoretical rules.
It’s called theory for a reason! Because theory is supposed to follow practice…
Use theory to support what you hear. If something is theoretically correct but doesn’t sound right, then it’s not. Keep working at it until it sounds good to you.
Jazz improvisation is NOT music theory and rules!
To begin playing jazz, there’s not that much music theory you need to understand. One of the primary things to focus on is learning and becoming comfortable with the 4 basic chord types:
Major 7 Chords – They seem easy, but playing something meaningful over them can actually be quite challenging
Minor 7 Chords – They can be approached differently depending upon the way they function within the key center
Dominant 7 Chords – These are tricky for people because they have so much variation depending on which notes are altered within the chord voicing
Half Diminished Chords (also known as minor 7 b5 chords) – They seem to present difficulty for nearly everyone because of there slightly foreign construction
Once you have a solid grasp on the 4 chord types, start to understand how the Chord Scale System relates scales to each chord and how you can use scales to understand how chords function within a key, how to approach a chord in a linear fashion instead of a vertical fashion, and how to easily access the upper structures of a chord, the 9th, 11th, 13th, but be careful thinking that scales are the secret to playing jazz.
Scales and theory can help a ton to conceptualize information in jazz, but remember, scales are just ONE tool in your toolbox.
Without the important tools that we’re about to cover – visualization, ear training, and jazz language – scales and theory will cause you years of frustration and you’ll constantly wonder why things still don’t sound the way you want them to.
A good rule of thumb: for any music theory study you do, make sure to spend an equal amount of time or more with famous jazz recordings transcribing, learning jazz language and chord changes. This guideline will ensure that your mental approach to music is balanced out with the actual sounds of jazz that you want to familiarize yourself with.
Top Jazz Advice Lessons to learn the basics of jazz theory and what to watch out for:
Why scales are NOT the secret shortcut to learn how to play jazz – Scales are touted as the be-all-end-all in jazz education today. While they play an essential role in learning how to improvise, jazz scales are only one piece of the puzzle. They are not the secret shortcut that will make you a better improviser. Learn why now and save yourself from falling for this trap.
Why scales are NOT the secret shortcut to learn how to play jazz – Scales are touted as the be-all-end-all in jazz education today. While they play an essential role in learning how to improvise, jazz scales are only one piece of the puzzle. They are not the secret shortcut that will make you a better improviser. Learn why now and save yourself from falling for this trap. Get to know the Chord-Scale System: Benefits & Limitations – Expanding upon the limitations of thinking strictly in terms of scales, this lesson will help you understand how to get the most out the Chord Scale System without letting it put you into a musical straight jacket. Learn to get the benefits of this system without being held back by its limitations.
Get to know the Chord-Scale System: Benefits & Limitations – Expanding upon the limitations of thinking strictly in terms of scales, this lesson will help you understand how to get the most out the Chord Scale System without letting it put you into a musical straight jacket. Learn to get the benefits of this system without being held back by its limitations. Understand the 3 different minor chords in a major key – Minor chords are actually more difficult for people than they even know because of the way they can function within a chord progression. Use this lesson to finally clear up the confusion behind how a minor 7 chord functions and how to simplify how you conceptualize these chords.
Understand the 3 different minor chords in a major key – Minor chords are actually more difficult for people than they even know because of the way they can function within a chord progression. Use this lesson to finally clear up the confusion behind how a minor 7 chord functions and how to simplify how you conceptualize these chords. How to turn music theory into real music – Music theory is not music. But it does give you tools and guidelines for how to think about and classify elements of music. Given the right perspective you can learn to harness the power of music theory and transform it into real music.
How to turn music theory into real music – Music theory is not music. But it does give you tools and guidelines for how to think about and classify elements of music. Given the right perspective you can learn to harness the power of music theory and transform it into real music. Learn the subtleties of dominant 7 chord alterations – Altered dominant chords present quite the challenge to the beginning and intermediate improviser because they lack an understanding of the relationships within the structure of these chords. Use these visual references on alterations to dominant seventh chords to solidify how you think about these colorful chord tensions.
Step 6: Use Visualization to Get a practical and usable knowledge of music theory, jazz chords and jazz scales
Learn why visualization is the KEY to mastering music theory
Learn the basics of how to visualize any jazz chord, scale, or progression to any jazz standard
Understand the fundamental difference between knowing something intellectually VERSUS possessing a real-time practical and usable knowledge of it
After reading through the last step on theory and scales, you might realize why music theory can actually be a trap…
You see, it can allow you to understand what’s going on intellectually within a jazz standard or a chord progression without being able to access any of the information in a usable way.
In other words, you might be able to understand conceptually what’s going on and explain it, but not be able to use the knowledge in real-time, the one essential thing you have to be able to do to actually use it when you improvise.
For example, you want to be able to quickly, immediately, and intuitively know what any chord tone of any chord is with ZERO thought or effort. What’s the third of an Ab major chord? The #9 of Eb7? Or how about the #5 of Gb7?
If you have to think about these questions even for a split-second, then the theory is useless. And this is only one small example of how you need to transform your understanding of theory into a usable workable REAL-TIME knowledge.
The key to start ingraining the structures of chords, chord progressions, chord tones and jazz scales into your mind in a useable way that you can access instantaneously is through the process of visualization.
Your goal is to get beyond music theory and develop a relationship with each chord and all its parts and contexts – A Mental, physical, and aural relationship.
Visualization gives you the mental aspect and greatly enhances the physical aspect of playing your instrument. The aural aspect we will get to later with jazz ear training, but before you get there it’s time to get your mental connections flowing by starting to visualize jazz theory…
You can start doing all these jazz visualization exercises right now even without your instrument and transform your theoretical knowledge into something you can actually use while you improvise…
Top Jazz Advice Lessons on visualizing jazz and music theory:
Basic visualization techniques for music – Learn the basics of visualizing music with one of our first free jazz lessons ever. This powerful technique is a must for learning music fast.
Basic visualization techniques for music – Learn the basics of visualizing music with one of our first free jazz lessons ever. This powerful technique is a must for learning music fast. How to put chord tones at your fingertips – Chord tones are a large part of the musicians toolbox and they need to be accessible with zero effort. This ease of access comes through focused visualization. Learn the step-by-step process to put chord tones at your fingertips.
How to put chord tones at your fingertips – Chord tones are a large part of the musicians toolbox and they need to be accessible with zero effort. This ease of access comes through focused visualization. Learn the step-by-step process to put chord tones at your fingertips. 5 Ways to practice anywhere – Practicing jazz is not limited to the practice room. Imagine commuting on the subway, or flying in a plane while you’re improving your musicianship. This is possible with these 5 techniques.
5 Ways to practice anywhere – Practicing jazz is not limited to the practice room. Imagine commuting on the subway, or flying in a plane while you’re improving your musicianship. This is possible with these 5 techniques. The Jazz Visualization Course – After years of developing visualization tactics, techniques, and exercises for music, we created this step-by-step course to master the fundamentals of jazz visualization. This best-selling course includes visualization techniques for jazz chord symbols, chord tones, scales, chord progressions, language, jazz standards, and more! With 179 pages and 98 audio exercises, this course is your pathway to mastering this essential skill which will allow you to learn ANYTHING in music 10X faster!
Step 7: Learn basic Jazz Piano. It’s easier than you think
Learn basic piano skills
Learn essential easy jazz chord piano voicings
Learn how to apply this chord and voicing knowledge to a jazz standard
For all the non-pianists out there, learning how to play basic jazz piano is like having an unfair advantage…
Suddenly chords, chord progressions, scales and jazz theory make a whole lot more sense because you can see all the relationships in front of you. And what’s even more important, you can HEAR them!
If you haven’t already, invest in a midi keyboard. Even a little guy like the Akai LPK25 works great for your purposes. You’re not trying to be the next Bach! All you want is to be able to play basic chord voicings, root movements, and use the keyboard to help confirm and figure out what you’re hearing on recordings.
I take the Akai LPK25 everywhere. Pair it with a good set of headphones and the knowledge in the lessons below, and you’re well on your way to gaining the unfair advantages that piano players take for granted…
Top Jazz Advice Lessons to learn jazz piano:
Basic jazz piano skills for the non-pianist – Have you ever wished that you could play basic jazz piano? The only problem is that you’re not a pianist…well, that’s not an excuse anymore. In this lesson you’ll quickly learn how to voice chords and play ii Vs, the essentials you need to start playing jazz piano today.
Basic jazz piano skills for the non-pianist – Have you ever wished that you could play basic jazz piano? The only problem is that you’re not a pianist…well, that’s not an excuse anymore. In this lesson you’ll quickly learn how to voice chords and play ii Vs, the essentials you need to start playing jazz piano today. How to learn jazz standards at the piano – With your new found piano skills, put them to use and start to learn jazz standards at the piano. Discovering the chord changes for yourself and playing the chords will give you a much deeper understanding of any jazz standard than you’ve ever had before.
How to learn jazz standards at the piano – With your new found piano skills, put them to use and start to learn jazz standards at the piano. Discovering the chord changes for yourself and playing the chords will give you a much deeper understanding of any jazz standard than you’ve ever had before. The Jazz Piano Book – Want to take you jazz piano skills to the next level? This book by pianist Mark Levine will hold your hand through the fundamentals.
Step 8: Get started with jazz Ear Training
Learn to hear intervals, triads, and seventh chords
Understand how to translate your ear training skills into your jazz practice
Learn how to connect your ears to your instrument
Getting started with jazz ear training is really easy, especially if you took the advice in the last step and started learning basic jazz piano and grabbed a midi keyboard to practice with. I carry this little keyboard LINK everywhere I go which is great for ear training, composition, and more!
To begin training your ear like a jazz musician, you need to understand that simple recall doesn’t cut it for us. We need ears that can operate in real-time and pick out melody, harmony, and rhythm on-the-fly.
To achieve this takes time and practice, but with a consistent effort, you can get the ears you want. It all starts with the basics…
For the most part, everything you need to hear in any music is built upon simple structures. Ingrain these simple structures and you’ll be ready when it’s time to kick things up a notch to hear more complex sounds like intricate chord voicings or alterations on dominant 7 chords.
Jazz ear training is something you can practice away from your instrument throughout your day on-the-go as long as you have the right tools…which is why we built The Ear Training Method, an ear training course that you can take with you anywhere.
Imagine training your ear as you commute to work, or go to the gym. All of this is possible and more with this fundamental course.
Don’t make the common mistake of neglecting jazz ear training. Without it, you’ll always feel like you’re in the dark. Get started today with the lessons below…
Top Jazz Advice Lessons to learn jazz ear training:
Fundamental jazz ear training exercises – New to jazz ear training? Use the ear training exercises provided in this lesson to start your journey down this necessary road.
Fundamental jazz ear training exercises – New to jazz ear training? Use the ear training exercises provided in this lesson to start your journey down this necessary road. Jazz ear training: How to hear triads – Think you know your four triads? Can you hear them in all contexts without any effort? It’s actually not as easy as you might think.
Jazz ear training: How to hear triads – Think you know your four triads? Can you hear them in all contexts without any effort? It’s actually not as easy as you might think. Ear training: How to hear jazz seventh chords – After building strong foundations on triads, move on to getting your head around seventh chords.
Ear training: How to hear jazz seventh chords – After building strong foundations on triads, move on to getting your head around seventh chords. How to hear chord tone colors – The ability to hear how each chord tone sounds against any given chord is a crucial skill for the jazz improviser. It’s as if you’re learning to hear the subtle colors of chord tones.
How to hear chord tone colors – The ability to hear how each chord tone sounds against any given chord is a crucial skill for the jazz improviser. It’s as if you’re learning to hear the subtle colors of chord tones. The Ear Training Method: A course to get the ears you’ve always imagined – While all these free jazz lessons on ear training will get you started on your jazz ear training journey, this premium course is an in-dpeth resource that musicians can take on-the-go to train their ears any time, any where. What started out as our personal ear training system grew into a comprehensive program on building your ear from the ground up. It starts out by strengthening your fundamentals, relearning intervals and basic chord structures, and gradually progresses all the way to chord-tone colors and chord voicings. If you’re serious about training your ear, you owe it to yourself to start putting get time in with this method.
Step 9: Master Two Five Ones and other common chord progressions
Discover the most common chord progressions that make up over 80% of every progression in jazz standards
Learn practice exercises that you can use to master common jazz chord progressions
Understand how to learn tunes faster than ever before by utilizing this information about common jazz chords progressions
The more you learn about how to improvise jazz, the more you’ll encounter the same chord progressions over and over again…
And when you realize that the ii V I chord progression makes up over 80% of chord changes within jazz standards, you better believe it’s worth spending some time becoming a master of these common chords.
But ii V I chord progressions are just one of several chord progressions that come up all the time in jazz standards. Knowing what all these common chord progressions are and having tactics for approaching them will give you the improvisational tools to learn jazz standards faster, retain them more easily, and solo more creatively.
Top Jazz Advice Lessons to learn jazz chord progressions:
How to visualize jazz chord progression – When you combine jazz visualization with the most common chord progressions in jazz, you get a some powerful mental jazz exercises. Take these ideas anywhere you go to start implanting the common jazz chord progressions into your mind, body, and soul.
How to visualize jazz chord progression – When you combine jazz visualization with the most common chord progressions in jazz, you get a some powerful mental jazz exercises. Take these ideas anywhere you go to start implanting the common jazz chord progressions into your mind, body, and soul. Two Five One Progressions made easy – ii V I progressions are at the heart of learning how to play jazz. With the right approach, two fives are actually pretty easy.
Two Five One Progressions made easy – ii V I progressions are at the heart of learning how to play jazz. With the right approach, two fives are actually pretty easy. Minor Two Five One Progressions made easy – A jazz chord progression that’s always given people a tough time is the minor ii V. The notorious cousin of the major ii V, the minor ii V poses a few extra challenges. In this free jazz lesson, techniques from Bill Evans illustrate how you can easily navigate this tricky jazz chord progression.
Minor Two Five One Progressions made easy – A jazz chord progression that’s always given people a tough time is the minor ii V. The notorious cousin of the major ii V, the minor ii V poses a few extra challenges. In this free jazz lesson, techniques from Bill Evans illustrate how you can easily navigate this tricky jazz chord progression. Understanding turnaround chord progressions in jazz (Premium) – This premium jazz lesson goes into detail about the many kinds of jazz turnaround progressions. For premium subscribers, you’ll get a look into the inner workings of tritone substitution, Lady Bird Turnarounds, how Kenny Dorham and Joe Henderson approach turnarounds and more!
Step 10: Get started with the Blues and I Got Rhythm Changes
Learn why The Blues is so fundamental to playing jazz
Learn why the chord changes to Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm play a major role in learning how to improvise
Learn to practice methods to approach Blues and Rhythm Changes
You probably hear it all the time..Learn The Blues and Rhythm Changes.
But why is this advice so common? Are these jazz chord progressions really that essential? What makes them so special?
The Blues form along with Rhythm Changes contain pretty much all the common chords you encounter in jazz:
Major 7 chords
Dominant 7 chords
Minor 7 chords
Half Diminished chords (AKA minor 7 b5 chords)
Diminished 7 chords
And they contain the most common jazz chord progressions:
Short one measure ii V progressions
Longer two measure ii V chord progression
Strings of iii Vi ii V chord progressions
Dominant 7 chords progressing in Cycle Movement
And really, that’s just scratching the surface! The way you think about these jazz chord progressions is virtually limitless and the skills you develop when practicing them translate to every jazz standard you will ever learn.
Do yourself a favor and continue to work on both The Blues and Rhythm Changes as you continue to grow as a jazz improviser. Each time you revisit them is a chance to expand your knowledge and improvisational concept.
Top Jazz Advice Lessons to learn how to play the Blues chord changes and I Got Rhythm Changes:
Step 11: Learn your first jazz standard
Understand why learning jazz standards from The Real Book can ultimately cause huge gaps in your learning
Acquire the process to learn jazz standards from recordings
Start building your jazz standard repertoire
Learning jazz standards is what jazz improvisation is all about, after all, when you perform for an audience you’re not going to play a dominant chord or a ii V, you’re going to perform an actual song!
Every single song that you love that’s part of the jazz standard repertoire is yet another vehicle for you to practice all your
In all your listening that you’re now doing, you’re bound to come across a jazz standard that resonates with you on a deep level. To learn your first jazz standard, find a recording that you love preferably where the melody is played by your instrument.
Here are some great jazz standards to start out with:
Autumn Leaves
On Green Dolphin Street
Blue Bossa
Four
Your goal is to learn the melody and the chord changes directly from the recording. And at first, this is quite a challenge!
Of course it’s tempting to just open The Real Book and learn a tune from sheet music, but know that every time you do this, you’re learning a tune in a way that will have difficulty sticking with you. You see, when you struggle and spend time with the recording of a tune, you are using your ears, mind, and instrument to discover the melody and chord changes.
This process creates a vivid memory, allowing you to retain the tune with minimal effort.
In contrast, learning from sheet music does not engage your ear, and instead uses your eyes. This process, especially when you’re first starting out, creates a weak memory of the tune, forcing you to review and essentially re-learn the tune at a later time.
It is challenging, but if you put in the effort now, it will pay huge dividends later…
A tool that we use every single day to make this process of learning jazz standards easier and more beneficial is called “Transcribe“. With it, you can navigate any track much easier, sloop sections you want to work on, and slow down anything that you’re having trouble hearing. It’s essential to getting the absolute most from your practice.
The sooner you get into learning melodies, harmonies, and rhythms straight from the recording, the faster you’ll get to playing how you want to, and while everybody else you know is stumbling over the chord changes and confused over what scale choice to make, you’ll actually be hearing and playing the language of jazz.
Use the lessons below to get this process going and to start learning jazz standards straight from recordings…
Top Jazz Advice Lessons to learn Jazz Standards:
Step 12: Start transcribing and thinking about jazz language, the secret to jazz improvisation
Learn why transcribing is essential and what it actually is
Understand the process of transcribing jazz solos and language
Understand what jazz language is and why it’s so important
I remember years ago when I first heard some of my favorite players talk about jazz as a language. It made no sense to me…
How could jazz be a language?
If jazz is a language, does it have a dictionary? Does it have grammar? Does it have punctuation?
The answer to this question is not exactly straightforward…
The idea that jazz is a language is an analogy. Of course it’s not 100% like a language in the sense that English is a language, but there is tremendous overlap. So much so that it not only makes sense to think of jazz as a language, but it helps you learn faster as well.
When you study how to play jazz, picking apart pieces of jazz language from your favorite players help you understand how they construct such beautiful melodic phrases and how you can too.
Learning jazz language is largely the key to improvising because it connects harmony, melody, rhythm, sound, articulation, and more, within the context of jazz standard. You couldn’t ask for a better learning tool or model of how to improvise over any chord progression.
But before you start acquiring jazz language for all the jazz chords and chord progressions, simply start to think of jazz as a language and how extracting pieces of language from your favorite jazz musicians gives you solutions to all your musical problems.
Top Jazz Advice Lessons to start thinking about jazz language and why it’s so important to playing jazz:
Step 13: Start acquiring jazz language & melodic techniques and applying them to the tunes you’re working on
Start learning jazz language for the fundamental jazz chord
Understand how to use the underlying concepts from jazz language while you solo
Learn the process of integrating jazz language into your playing
So where do you want to start learning jazz language? Should you transcribe a whole solo? One single line? Who should I transcribe? What instrument should I start with? What tune?
All of these are good questions and when you’re first starting to learn jazz language and expand your jazz vocabulary, it can be very difficult to know where to begin.
The best place to begin getting jazz language is from a recording you love – something you listen to every single day. Something that you really connect with. And it’s easiest at first to learn language from solos of your instrument. This doesn’t mean you can’t study solos that aren’t you’re instrument, but to to begin with, make it easy on yourself, and focus on solos of your instrument.
Once you find a recording that you love, go even deeper. Find a solo you love over a progression that you’re familiar with. And then, go one step beyond – fins a specific melodic line that the soloist plays that makes your jaw drop!
That specific line that sounds so incredible to you is your starting point to learn jazz language.
Learning the line note-for-note, writing nothing down as you go will be super challenging and probably pretty frustrating at first, but if you stick with it, you’ll get it.
Imitate the music as closely as you possibly can. Absorb every little detail you hear, get beyond the notes.
The idea is to get into the musician’s head as much as possible. Emulate them as if you were them. Only then will you truly discover where the magic of the line lies.
Once you get your first glimpse into how powerful learning jazz language can be, you’ll be hooked, but before you go crazy learning jazz language, use the following lessons to systematize how you go about it, making sure you’re learning language for all the common chord progressions and various soloing situations you’ll encounter in jazz and even other musical styles.
Top Jazz Advice Lessons to acquire jazz language and use it in your solos:
How to integrate jazz language into your solos – Learning jazz language is only half the battle. The other half is getting the material you practice to actually come out when you take a solo. The jazz exercises explained in this lesson will teach you how to get the stuff to actual rise to the surface when you improvise.
How to integrate jazz language into your solos – Learning jazz language is only half the battle. The other half is getting the material you practice to actually come out when you take a solo. The jazz exercises explained in this lesson will teach you how to get the stuff to actual rise to the surface when you improvise. How to steal jazz language like a pro – Professional jazz musicians have a lot of tricks up their leave when it comes to stealing jazz language, licks, and lines from their heroes. Read about these tricks and start using them when you transcribe.
How to steal jazz language like a pro – Professional jazz musicians have a lot of tricks up their leave when it comes to stealing jazz language, licks, and lines from their heroes. Read about these tricks and start using them when you transcribe. How to get jazz language for the common jazz chords – Building an arsenal of jazz language for the common jazz chords will help every aspect of your musicianship.
How to get jazz language for the common jazz chords – Building an arsenal of jazz language for the common jazz chords will help every aspect of your musicianship. A Step-by-Step Guide to mastering the jazz language (Premium) – There’s a lot to think about when acquiring jazz language. For premium members, use this guide to master the jazz language step-by-step.
A Step-by-Step Guide to mastering the jazz language (Premium) – There’s a lot to think about when acquiring jazz language. For premium members, use this guide to master the jazz language step-by-step. Melodic Power: The Course to get melodic techniques fast – When you’re learning how to improvise, it’s difficult to go from playing scales and transcribing to actually playing in a melodic way. You know when you hear your heroes and they’re playing as if they’re singing through their instrument? That lyrical quality is attainable through a systematic approach to improvising. In Melodic Power, we detail dozens of powerful jazz techniques in 42 PACKED lessons, with a 207 page eBook, tons of transcribed lines by the jazz legends, and over 5 hours of video demos!
Step 14: Develop solid life-long practice habits to learn how to improvise jazz like a pro
Create a practice routine for yourself that is both beneficial and realistic
Understand how to manage your time and to not feel overwhelmed or in a hurry
Learn to be your own teacher, transforming yourself into the musician you wish to become
As you start to learn jazz improvisation, you should have a clear vision of what your goals are. It may not sound glamorous but your goals as you start out (assuming you want become proficient) should be to develop solid fundamentals through building the right practice habits.
These practice habits are:
Listen to jazz every day. Enjoying it and feeling a true passion for the music.
Learn and study tunes straight recordings rather than reading them from sheet music.
Transcribe and learn language from recordings
Understand how chords are built and why each chord “exists” in a tune, and how and why each chord progresses to to the next in a progression. Make sure to use your ear and learn to hear and recognize these chords aurally.
long term goal – transcribe your first solo, with the aim of emulating language and concepts from the soloist and integrating them into your own playing
Top Jazz Advice Lessons to develop strong practice habits for learning how to improvise:
3 Steps to the perfect practice plan for playing jazz – How you practice jazz is everything. The daily habits you form accumulate to the musician you become. Learn the 3 steps to the perfect jazz practice plan.
3 Steps to the perfect practice plan for playing jazz – How you practice jazz is everything. The daily habits you form accumulate to the musician you become. Learn the 3 steps to the perfect jazz practice plan. How to approach things one step at a time – There is a lot to practice as a jazz musician. Developing the mindset to tackle one thing at a time will help you get the most out of what you’re practicing, when you’re practicing it.
How to approach things one step at a time – There is a lot to practice as a jazz musician. Developing the mindset to tackle one thing at a time will help you get the most out of what you’re practicing, when you’re practicing it. How to never be overwhelmed again – Feeling overwhelmed is a real problem when practicing jazz. Use the tactics explained in this article to never feel overwhelmed when you practice jazz again.
How to never be overwhelmed again – Feeling overwhelmed is a real problem when practicing jazz. Use the tactics explained in this article to never feel overwhelmed when you practice jazz again. Learn Clark Terry’s 3 Steps to jazz improvisation – Trumpeter Clark Terry had a unique way of looking at how to play jazz. His 3 steps will help you conceptualize you’re learning process.
Learn Clark Terry’s 3 Steps to jazz improvisation – Trumpeter Clark Terry had a unique way of looking at how to play jazz. His 3 steps will help you conceptualize you’re learning process. Learn to be your own teacher – As you progress and become more advanced at playing jazz, you have to learn to become your own teacher. No longer can you depend on everyone else to spoon-feed you the information you need. You have to know what it is you need to work on and how to decipher the information out there for yourself.
Step 15: Stay motivated and constantly inspired
Know what to do when you encounter inevitable frustration
Learn tactics to connect with music on a deeper level
Get excited, inspired, and motivated to improve
It may sound like a lot of work to start out this way, but I promise you, not only will you excel at lightning speed if you begin this way, but you’ll build the strong practice habits that will keep you improving and having fun playing your entire life.
Use this free jazz guide as a jumping off point to get started…of course not everything possible is covered here, but don’t let that be your excuse. Search for answers on Jazzadvice, ask your teachers, chat with your music friends, and most importantly, spend a massive amount of time listening to and studying recordings of your favorite jazz musicians.
You have the knowledge to get started in jazz improvisation. Skip the shortcuts and go straight to the source. Approach it like the masters did and you’ll learn how to improvise jazz like a pro.
Top Jazz Advice Lessons to stay motivated and inspired on your journey to play jazz:
How to turn frustration into progress when practicing jazz music – When working on becoming a better musician, it’s inevitable that you’ll be frustrated. It’s just the nature of the game. As a musician, learning to deal with this frustration in a positive way will give you a huge advantage.
How to turn frustration into progress when practicing jazz music – When working on becoming a better musician, it’s inevitable that you’ll be frustrated. It’s just the nature of the game. As a musician, learning to deal with this frustration in a positive way will give you a huge advantage. Why focusing on non-musical elements will help you – Besides the actual act of practicing your instrument, there are some key things that will make you a better musician including your mindset dan how you focus. Working on these aspects of being a musician will greatly help your playing.
Why focusing on non-musical elements will help you – Besides the actual act of practicing your instrument, there are some key things that will make you a better musician including your mindset dan how you focus. Working on these aspects of being a musician will greatly help your playing. Words of wisdom from Harold Mabern, Jazz pianist legend – One of great teachers, jazz legend Harold Mabern, always has words of wisdom that will help any jazz musician up their game.
Words of wisdom from Harold Mabern, Jazz pianist legend – One of great teachers, jazz legend Harold Mabern, always has words of wisdom that will help any jazz musician up their game. Overcoming mental limitations in music – We’re limited by the limitations we set on ourselves. Becoming aware of these unconscious limitations will help you break free from them and excel to become the musician you desire.
Overcoming mental limitations in music – We’re limited by the limitations we set on ourselves. Becoming aware of these unconscious limitations will help you break free from them and excel to become the musician you desire. The Ultimate guide to overcome frustration in jazz improvisation – No matter who you are, everyone gets down about their own playing and their ability. Use this guide to overcome these unproductive mentalities.
The Ultimate guide to overcome frustration in jazz improvisation – No matter who you are, everyone gets down about their own playing and their ability. Use this guide to overcome these unproductive mentalities. Reprogram your mind for optimal practice and performance – Playing and performing can be pretty frustrating. And even with the lessons we’ve shared on how to overcome your frustration, It can get really bad. Maybe you’ve just lost your spark for the music, or perhaps you feel like giving up or quitting music all together. The thing is: playing music should be fun. That’s why we put together a Jazzadvice Course that specifically addresses the negative issues common to all musicians. Things like competition, lack of confidence, stage fright, lack of motivation or focus in the practice room…And in 30 days, this powerful meditative audio course reprograms your mind and body so you can get back to doing what you want to do – create awesome music and have fun doing it.
Your ultimate guide for learning how to improvise jazz
In this ultimate jazz guide on learning how to improvise, we’ve covered a lot of material. Everything from the basics of jazz theory and scales and ear training, to the importance of learning jazz piano, transcribing, language and more!
Remember, learning how to play jazz and solo how you want to is a lifetime of work. When you see or hear a musician that is extraordinary, you may think to yourself, “How did they get so lucky?!?! How are they so good?!?!?”
But the reality is, when we someone like this, we’re often seeing the end result of years of hard work. And we see none of that. All we see is the beautiful playing that results from all that effort. They were a beginner at one point and they struggled too!
Stay positive and get excited about jazz and music, and how you’ll always have this incredible art form to keep you company, offering up yet another musical challenge to you each and every day.
Before we close, let’s do a quick recap of what we went over today:
Listen to jazz like it’s your job – Every single day you should be surrounding yourself with the sounds of your favorite players and learning about musicians you were unaware of. Understand the culture of jazz – When you’re not listening to jazz, read about it! Immerse yourself in anything jazz. Go to shows any chance you get. Watch interviews. Surround yourself with jazz. Get obsessed!!! Understand what jazz actually is – There is a lot of misinformation when it comes to jazz. Make sure you dispel any myths that you might still believe in. Understand how to practice jazz– Knowing how to practice jazz is a big part of learning how to play jazz better. Learn what the pieces are, how they fit together, and put in the work. Learn jazz theory, but watch out! – Jazz theory can open a world to you but it can also hurt your musicianship if approached in the wrong way. Make sure you understand the pros and cons of music theory and how to use it to benefit your musicianship. Utilize the power of jazz visualization – Learning to visualize all the elements of music will speed up your learning by 10X. The mind can teach the body much more effectively than the body teaching the mind. Learn basic jazz piano – Very little skill is actually needed to learn the basic of jazz chord voicings and how to play jazz standards at the piano for non-pianists.. Get this fundamental skill and start having the advantage that so many people lack. Start jazz ear training – Training your ear is so much simpler than people think. Intervals, triads, seventh chords, chord tones, and progressions can be learned quickly with a little daily practice. Master common chord progressions – Two fives and other common jazz chord progressions are so frequent that learning how to approach them will take your playing over jazz standards to the next level. Get started with Blues & Rhythm Changes – These two jazz chord progressions are essential to the genre. If you learn them inside and out, you’ll be able to tackle most standards much more easily. Learn your first jazz standard – Building up a repertoire of jazz standards that you can confidently solo on is the whole point. You don’t need to know every tune. Instead choose a few, fall in love with them, and learn to solo with ease over them. Start transcribing and thinking about jazz language – Transcribing jazz solos and jazz language is a huge part of learning to improvise because it gives you a model for how to think and play. Start this process early in your development and reap the benefits. Acquire jazz language for common chords – Having jazz language for the common chords that you encounter over and over will help you never run out of things to play. Forming this fundamental layer of langue is crucial to understanding chords on a deeper level. Develop life long music practice habits – Learning how to improvise is a lifetime of work. If you develop solid practice habits from the get-go, you’ll set yourself up for success as a jazz musician. Stay motivated to become a better jazz musician – Harold Mabern always told us, “I can inspire you, but you gotta motivate yourself!” Use the many Jazz Advice lessons to inspire you, get motivated and become the musician you’;ve always dreamed of becoming!
Well there you have it! Your ultimate guide for learning how to improvise and excel at jazz improvisation for many many years. Remember, every single day is an opportunity to get a little bit better at playing jazz.
What you do daily adds up. Make every single day count!
And most importantly, have fun! Music is one of the most wonderful things we have in life, and we are lucky to be on the path of pursuing jazz improvisation. Enjoy yourself and continue to make progress.
Happy practicing!!!:) |
Nike
It was a breakthrough season for Alex Iwobi last term as the 20-year-old attacking midfielder used his vision, skill and technique to force his way into Arsene Wenger's Arsenal side.
After a short summer break, the Nigeria international is now focused on making sure he remains part of the plans in north London, and he spoke exclusively to Bleacher Report about how he can maintain the hype:
Bleacher Report: What have you been up to this summer?
Alex Iwobi: "I went on holiday to Marbella with some friends just to take time to clear my mind because it was a hectic season—but I have been training as well to keep moving forward.
"I went on some runs with my friends on holiday, and we also have a schedule to follow from the club, so I try to stick to that and also do a few bits that I think will help me."
BR: How has pre-season been since you joined up with the club?
AI: "It's been hard. In the morning, we tend to do a lot of circuit training and some running with and without the ball.
"We also do possession drills which can be hard work—and then we will go into the gym to work on upper- or lower-body strength. Later on we might get the ball out for another session."
BR: That sounds tiring.
AI: "It is. There is one exercise that we have been doing that is so hard. They call them star runs.
"The cones are laid out in the shape of a star, and then you have to run against the clock. The coaches make the star bigger so that it becomes more difficult. It's hard."
BR: It must mean you need extra fuel to keep you going?
AI: "It definitely does. I have been taking on board so many carbs. So much rice and pasta. Yesterday I ate three plates of rice.
"It is hard, and I have noticed I have been going to bed much earlier. Sleep is very important, you need rest when you train hard."
BR: Tell us about the traits in your game.
AI: "I just aim to get forward as much as I can and create chances. Arsene Wenger has given me confidence to keep playing the way I want to and to push forward. If I was to choose one thing to improve, it would be my decision-making, but I'm young so there is time for that."
BR: What did you make of the Euros?
AI: "Well, I was a bit disappointed with England, but Wales really opened my eyes with their performances and how far they managed to go. It was a great example of what can happen when you play as a team. They actually reminded me a lot of Leicester."
BR: Was there anyone you particularly liked to watch?
AI: "Yeah, I would say Paul Pogba was my favourite player to watch. I know he didn't play too well in the final, but there is so much to his game. It's actually his work off the ball that impresses me the most. It was definitely something I noticed and was impressed by. I like watching players that I can learn from.
"Gylfi Sigurdsson also caught my eye. I already knew he was good, but he was even better than I thought."
BR: Do you watch a lot of football?
AI: "I prefer playing it—but when I do watch, it is to try to learn things that I can take into my game. So during the Euros, I also kept my eye on Antoine Griezmann. It was so interesting to try to work out how he found himself in so many good positions. He works hard and also gets lots of goals."
BR: Nigeria seem to have some good young talent coming through, and Ahmed Musa has just signed for Leicester City.
AI: "Yeah, he is a good player. I have played with him and one thing I can tell you for sure is that this guy is fast. I think he can do well in England because he is exactly what you want in a winger, he will go past people and can cross the ball well."
BR: What will you do from here as you head into the new season?
AI: "We are going on a pre-season tour, and I just hope to continue to show what I am capable of and continue to get games. I don't like to get ahead of myself or listen to rumours, so I just aim to work hard to get into the team.
"The manager has shown he is willing to give young players a chance, and he does give me confidence. So I am hopeful it will be a good year."
Alex Iwobi trains fast in Nike Football Training apparel, built for speed with revolutionary AeroSwift technology. Visit Nike.com to explore the collection |
Zooming in On History
Mark Ajita Ph.D. Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 12, 2016
From the Big Bang to last month. Across 12 Orders of Magnitude
History should do more than just describe people, places, and things from the past.
History at its most ambitious should seek the truest answer to the question: “How did we get here? But how far back should such a history go for its answers?
You can’t get any earlier than the so-called “Big Bang.” It seems to have occurred around 13.7 billion years ago. 1.37 times 10 the 10th power
That’s farther away than most scholars of human history would want to look. But recent attempts at “Big History” have attempted to lay out a historical timeline that extends all the way to the “Big Bang” the earliest event in the story that science tells us about the universe.
Of course, no one can be an expert at every one of these levels. But we have to recognize that history operates at different scales. How about we look at 12? What are the 12 biggest events at 12 orders of magnitude from the present?
(Icons for 12 biggest events at 12 orders of magnitude arranged on a clock…)
David Christian’s TED talk on Big History spends most of its 17 minutes describing the first few billion years in the “early history” of the universe. His graphics can give you the important sense that you cannot understand the timeline of Big History simply by tracking year by year along a timeline marking events at evenly spaced intervals.
In fact, Big Historians have developed a tool to produce complex timelines for displaying just these kind of temporal relationships across different scales.
{Read more about why someone like me is publishing these long pieces on a format like medium.}
“Logarithmic Timeline” is the fancy word for this special kind of timeline. A logarithm is just another word for an exponent. So, logarithmic timelines work differently than linear timelines because on a logarithmic timeline, every unit of length does not represent a set length of time. Instead, every unit of length represents a change in the exponent of a base. Each move along the line takes us exponentially closer or farther away. For instance, on a base 10 timeline, every unit moved takes us 10 times farther away (or 10 times closer).
Such Logarithmic timelines of history can definitely cram a lot of events into a small space. However, logarithmic timelines are messy at best. Look at wikipedia’s detailed logarithmic timeline of history, for instance. Or look at the “Logarithmic History” project by anthropologist Doug Jones. An out and out attempt to logarithmically represent, for instance, every geologic age may be too much.
We need anchor points. We need a framework.
To delve into the most essential transformations and crises of 14 billion years of history we need to pare things down.
We need a greatest hits of Logarithmic History.
Start at 10 to the 10th years from the present and then examine each decreasing order of magnitude. We’ll move by factors of 10. And that will take us from the Big Bang through 12 events. Finally, we’ll reach a scale on the order of months from the present (10 to the -1 power).
Across every power of ten in years from the present, what was the biggest crisis that brought our world closer to being what it is today?
Understanding history really means cultivating the ability to “Zoom” in and out from the present moment. To tell history from the Big Bang to the present, we have to shift our perspective by orders of magnitude. This ability to operate a Zoom lens on history is pretty much what “Big History” means.
And yet, no “Big Historian” seems to have yet done for time what an animation like Cary and Michael Huang’s The Scale of the Universe does for space. The Scale of the Universe allows the user to experience the almost incomprehensible shifts required to zoom in from the scale of a human down to the smallest measures of subatomic spacee. Then one can zoom back out all the way up to the scale of the observable universe. It’s very much worth checking out.
The way a lens zooming in and out makes intuitive sense when it comes to space. However, time is a little bit trickier. Thinking about history in terms of a Zoom factor requires a more unconventional outlook. The very idea of “seeing an amount of time” is an abstraction. Naturally, we move through time passively. It cannot be manipulated and measured like material objects in space. In order to zoom in and out on history what is required is to move through time at an exponential rate.
We have to speed up as we move backwards from the present.
Or, we have to move very fast back at the time of the Big Bang and slow down as we approach the present. We can’t think in a linear way. We have to think in an exponential way.
Let’s get a grip on Big History by throwing down a beacon at every power of ten of years from the present.
What transformation really stands out at each of these twelve orders of magnitude? What are the 12 greatest transformative crises that have set the stage and shaped our present into what it is today?
The rest of this post is going to attempt to move you through time by orders of magnitude, to travel through the story of time by powers of 10.
(10¹⁰) — The Big Bang
(The next event we’ll zoom to is the formation of life on the planet Earth. Note the difference in scale)
13,700,000,000 years ago
For the purposes of the greatest hits of Logarithmic History, the Big Bang etc is just the long beginning of the universe as we know it. This was the material universe’s grand transition from some tiny compressed nothing to that massive something which is our everything (as far as we can understand it).
Then, energy and particles quickly began assembling into stars and planets.
The laws of physics as we know them, begin to take hold. Physicists go into great and fascinating depth into all of this stuff. David Christian’s TED talk and other Big Historians who specialize in cosmological physics have more to say about it than I. Their explanations of how they analyze light from different parts of the universe to determine the relative speed of gigantic objects and thereby to date the beginnings of motion and energy in the cosmos is fascinating. In fact, it was a cosmologist who won the recent Tate Medal in Physics. Cosmology is fascinating stuff but it is time to zoom in by a factor of 10.
(10⁹) — The Living Earth
(…Then at 10⁸, we’ll see the advent of multi-cellular organization. Makes sense, right?)
4,600,000,000 — 3,000,000,000 Years Ago
At around ⅓ from the temporal distance from present to the Big Bang, the water and space dust that makes up the Earth coalesced into our planet’s orbit around the sun. That was just around 4.6 billion years ago. The earth remained barren of life for just a relatively short time because the planet was set in a stable orbit at just the right distance from the sun so that surface temperature range would keep water at a liquid state for long periods of time. Within another two billion years, photosynthetic cells, respiration, RNA, and replicating DNA were all set in place. The processes that would become the building blocks of a web of life were active. And the evolutionary processes that would bring life to what we are today were underway.
What are the odds? Might the same developments have happened anywhere else? It is interesting to puzzle over. Of course, what matters most to us is the very fact that it did happen here… and that when we zoom in by a factor of 10, we evolution of multi-cellular life has begun.
(10⁸) — Multi-cellular Organization
At next power of ten after this comes the emergence of Mammals and Grasslands.
700,000,000 Years Ago (Approximately)
Zoom in by an order of magnitude once more. Up until about 700 million years ago (2.3 Billion years after the Earth came to life) the Living Earth seems to have been populated mainly by single celled algae. Multi-cellular plants and animals would diverge some time after 700 million years ago. This was a big change and it would be still longer before the Earth would see fish come to dominate the sea. Even longer for reptiles roam the land.
Not every detail is known. But it all began with the emergence and evolutionary stabilization of multi-cellular life with organisms that had cells differentiated into systems of specialized organs across hundreds of millions of years at the order of 10 to the 8th. Dinosaurs came along late in this order of magnitude, some time before 200 million years ago. They had a good run of it, but they failed to thrive very far into the next order of magnitude.
(10⁷) — The Rise of Mammals and Grasses
65,000,000 Years Ago
Zoom in again by a factor of 10 and mammals finally show up on the scene. Vascular plants had been around for 300 million years and dinosaurs had been around for 150 million years before mammals and grasses gained a serious foothold in the earth’s ecosystem. The rise and proliferation of both mammals and grasses probably had something to do with the mass extinction about 65 million years ago which eliminated most land-dwelling reptiles.
That great extinction event which was a tragedy for the dinosaurs and such a boon for mammals is usually thought to be the collision of a meteor with the Earth. And in fact, there seem to be no fossils of mammals or grasses that date prior to this extinction event. It is the analysis of fossil genomes which tell scientists that animals with mammary glands gave birth to live young as early as 100 million years ago. Nonetheless, all of today’s mammals and grasses probably evolved from just a few common ancestor species who managed to survive the event that ended the final “Cretaceous” epoch of the dinosaurs at around 65 million years ago. Several tiny ratlike insect eaters managed to survive the meteor. And all surviving mammals today owe our existence today to them — most importantly hominids.
(10⁶) — Hominid Toolmakers
(That big smooth egg-shaped thing is bi-face flint tool, often called a handaxe. It’s the most prevalent tool in the history of toolmaking. Google it.)
4,000,000 — 1,700,000 Years Ago
Zoom in again by another factor of 10. Some time around 4 million years ago, close relatives of our hominid ancestors in Africa picked up some revolutionary behaviors. First, they start to use fire to burn forests and even to cook food. A million and a half years later, there is evidence of the production and use of simple stone tools — basically sharpened pebbles.
Then by 1.7 million years ago, humans are flaking stone to make the kind of egg-shaped biface handaxes that some forest-dwelling tribes still use today to work wood and fiber and to process game.
Hypothetically, these hominids — among them our ancestors — would have been using materials less durable than stone by around this time as well. After all, one can only do so much fire management with one’s hands. Sticks would probably have come in handy. So many of the details are simply not preserved. However, the initial developments of longstanding patterns of toolmaking — the so-called “Paleolithic Era” — date to this order of magnitude.
Fire and tools represented a massive step in what would make humans who we are. These cultural abilities biologically reshaped the species that would humanity. Most immediately, stone tools and fire changed the way we accessed and processed food. And scientists speculate that they unleashed new capacities to harness nutrition. This new ability to obtain nutrition led to a rapid increase in brain size.. Fire and tools represented a massive step in what would make humans who we are. Scientists speculate that the new capacities to harness nutrition entailed by heating food and processing food with stone tools (especially bone marrow) led to a rapid increase in brain size.
(10⁵) — Language
200,000 years ago (Approximately)
It is hard to tell at what point our hominid ancestors really begin to use speech. However, when scientists look at fossil specimens, and try to figure out if an individual specimen had speech or not, of course they don’t have access to the soft tissue which could demonstrate definitively that an earlier hominid could make the articulate sounds required for language.
Lips, tongues, larynx, and lungs are not part of the fossil record. However, one feature that paleontologists are able to look at in fossils is the shape of hominid breathing cavities.
Around two hundred years ago, hominid fossil specimens show developments in the shape that would have permitted the necessary fine control of the breath that is allows a spearker to quickly delimit one word from another. In other words, around 200,000 years ago or so, some species of hominids were becoming able to use their voice to do very speech-like stuff. Included among them must have been the ancestor species of modern humans.
And it is probably not a coincidence that around this time, there is an explosion of lasting innovations in tools. Soil strata dating to the last 100,000 years or so reveal much more intricate technical shaping of stone into arrows and other mounted projectiles, no longer just eggshaped handaxes and haphazard flaked “bladelets” of the preceding two million years. Language facilitated the development and spread of technology.
(10⁴) — Agriculturalization
20,000–7,000 Years Ago
If language transformed humans into an unprecedentedly social mammal, agriculture was the step whereby the social impulse became totally dominate in the human lifeway.
By 20,000 years ago, humans were the last remaining species of the speaking toolmaking hominid on earth. It is hard to say for sure. We may have been alone among the advanced hominids for almost a hundred thousand years. But at 20,000 years ago, the first stable sedentary settlements appear in the middle east. And it is at around 12,000 years ago that humans take the fundamental step towards civilization and become the species that we know today. They start farming.
Thanks to the productive capacities of agriculture, by 7,000 years ago, these settlements had grown from the earlier maximum of 2 or 3 hundred individuals to city-states with populations in the hundreds of thousands.
What was this turn to agriculture all about?
{Read more about The ancient origins of modern economic though here.}
Beginning in the Fertile Crescent, at 12,000 years ago, humans started domesticating and selectively breeding the seeds of cereal grasses. These cereals would eventually become modern day wheat, barley, rye, kamut, and emmer. In China and India, they start breeding rice and millet a few thousand years later. In Sub-Saharan Africa, it was mainly millet. Somewhat later in the New World, corn and quinoa would be the major staples. Vegetables and domesticated animals would be willfully engineered into the efficient dependent breeds we know today.
In a sense, the way that early agriculturalists aggressively siezed control of the beneficial relationships we have with other species and massively reconstructing local ecosystems is on a continuum with things that earlier hominids had been doing for some time. Using fire to open forest territory, hunting and managing wild herds, forging a cooperative symbiosis with canine scavengers, and perhaps even selective seed spreading. Earlier humans had advanced in all these respects, at least. But it was at this point, about a dozen millennia or so ago, that intensive cultivation of highly improved crops — crops that were increasingly dependent on human protection and irrigation — started to make the rise of large civilizations possible. Before this time, hominid communities had probably never grown larger than a few hundred. Afterwards, cities of hundreds of thousands and even millions began to increase exponentially.
With this “Neolithic” turn, humans were no longer merely social toolmakers, they became agriculturalized. That is to say, they were dependent upon long-standing class-based social organization and upon labor-intensive and highly intrusive forms of ecological management. In short, agriculture civilized us. And it set in motion a transformation that would drastically alter every ecosystem on earth. For some time, this process of civilization’s expansion grew without restraint. But people began to question the acquisitive social hierarchies upon which agricultural civilization was based.
(10³) — The Great Rebellion
The Great Rebellion is my term. Most historians call it the “Axial Shift.”
4,000 — 1.3 Years Ago
Most people don’t think of religion as being rebellious. And yet, at their points of origin somewhere between 4 and 1.3 millennia ago, the major religions know on earth today all emerged out of a rebellion against the social hierarchies that were born with agriculturalization. The term “Axial Religion” is sort of a specialist term for the most powerful religions of the last few millennia. It is not even used by all scholars of religion. But as a general rule if you or anyone alive today is practicing it, it is an Axial Religion. Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism, Confucianism, Hinduism, and Islam all date their official formation to right around the final millenium BCE. All of the great movements in the ancient worlds gave rise to these religions in the context of theocratic agricultural societies in their region falling into crisis or collapse.
Not much of the old religions of the city states that preceded these Axial Age religions survived — at least not explicitly. Hinduism — in terms of its explicit endorsement of caste structure and polytheism — might be considered the one remaining holdout in so far as it explicitly endorses the structures of a theocracy ruled by the Brahmin caste. In the meantime, much of the radicalism of these great rebellions became institutionalized, administered, and for the most part deradicalized into religious worship.We are still living out the consequences of these great social rebellions today but we do not really see the legacy of the historical events from 1500 BCE to the 7th century CE carried through by religious institutions. Conversely, we usually fail to see how many of our most serious political, economic, and social debates actually date to these great ancient moments of philosophical rebellion.
(10²) — Global Industrialization
Beginning 500 Years Ago(1492)
The great transition at this order of magnitude spans from Columbus’s arrival in America through European colonization of the New World, Africa and much of Asia.Then it continues through what is often called the industrial revolution up through the first automobile factories.
I think the end point is somewhat more arbitrary than the beginning, but the proposition entailed in thinking about the great event at the scale of 102 years ago in this way is that you cannot break apart globalization and industrialization.
You cannot separate the economic exploitation of resource flows on a global scale from the development of massive new machine apparatuses powered primarily by hydroacarbons (aka fossil fuels).
By the end of the 19th century, a global market for resources and labor extended to the ends of the earth. Furthermore, hydrocarbons (fossil fuels) were used to manufacture and transport even those machines and industries which still made use of human, animal, and water power. And by the end of the 19th century cities around the world were being wired for electric power and for telephonic communications allowing humans to maximize the expanse and efficiency of energy harnessed from hydrocarbons.
{Read my piece on On why schools should be teacher-owned here.}
(10¹) — Ubiquitous Screen Media
The last 120 years
So electricity supplied by hydrocarbon powered generators is really what makes possible the rise of media. Now note that the first cinema cameras and projectors were cranked by hand. The first moving images were created by machines firmly within the old world of cranks and levers and the chemical alchemy of photography. The first cameras were patented in 1892.
Within a half century, the cathode ray came along and changed all that. Across the second half of the twentieth century, television, computer imaging, and magnetic tape storage would give way to the HD video and silicon graphics processors of today. With the best displays available today, the color scheme of the pixel has now been tailored to an exact fit with the biology of the human eye.
This is to say that in just a century — with the most relevant technological developments occurring since World War II — images have come a long way from the flickering shadows of the first “photoplays.” Along the way, moreover, moving image machines subsumed the calculator, the printing press, the telephone, and telegraph, and hooked up with just about every other electrical machine. And in this way, the Mobile Social Computing Regime we know today was formed. In 2007, the arrival of the iPhone marked the apotheosis of the transition to a world of ubiquitous screens.
Over the course of the last 100 years, screen media have become ubiquitous, integrated and at one with the rest of our mechanical and social architectures. Arguably, screens and data constitute a greater part of the individual’s world now than does direct contact with material objects.
(10⁰) — Crisis of Economic Data Management
2008-Present
The consequences within our economic systems of ubiquitous display and transmission of information have led to our current crisis of human economic organization. Can the value of a stock even have a concrete meaning anymore in this environment of near-instant communication?
Can prices have any connection to supply and demand — to real human needs — when the most powerful factor in the success of a trade is being the fastest to perceive and manipulate its effects?
It is worth pointing out that really every single major transition pointed out at the orders of magnitude above have been a crisis. It merely appears to us that the changes they entailed are permanent. We are still living through the crisis that forced to unicellular life forms to aggregate into multi-cellular organisms, the crisis which ended the Cretaceous and empowered mammallian organisms and grassland biomes, and the crisis that drove the evolution of language and that tied us to social interaction with other humans — perhaps like no other species has been tied together before.
None of these crises above have been resolved yet. We live within them. Even the universe created by the Big Bang will, it is thought, either collapse in on itself or disperse at some point tens of billions of years in the future. The physical world is going through an unfolding transformative crisis that begins with the Big Bang.
By contrast, though, the crisis of economic data management that we are living through right now — the remnants of the 2008 financial crisis — is a crisis at the scale of a human lifetime. Is it over? Hard to say.
The capability of powerful people to use technology to manipulate monetary systems and governents to their advantage seems on the verge of becoming unlimited. We have to understand, however, that with Ubiquitous Screen Media, the rapid envelopment of the human animal within dynamic text and artificial images had catastrophic effects upon the material organization of society. The depth of information technology’s power to distract from and to hide relevant information within a flood of data has thrown a wrench into debates about how to think about economic order. Granted, technology’s impact on economics did not hit first in 2008, but that was the moment of global awakening that everthing was liable to change. How the crisis of Economic Data will play out depends on what is going on right now.
(10-¹) — The Triangle of Privacy Crisis
Note the three circles: State, Community, Self. All permeating each other in a state of crisis.
Since December 2015
What is the most significant and transformative crisis that we are within right now? What is the biggest crisis within the last year?
I think the most immediate transformative crisis that we are passing through is a crisis of privacy that we are undergoing at the level of both self and community. Sure, privacy in technology has been the center of a big debate since the Patriot Act up through the Snowden-Wikileaks affair. Then there has constantly been the issue of corporate surveillance for marketing purposes. But my point is that it is only in recent months that the triangle of forces between individuals, corporations, and the force of the state has really crystallized.
The signal event in the formation of the Great Privacy Triangle was the FBI court order to Apple Computers to break the encryption on the phone of the San Bernardino mass shooter, S.R. Farook. In all this, a fundamental issue in the very relation of self to community, a foundational and yet deeply complicated facet of the human organism’s organization into societies is at stake. A community’s secrets — what they keep secrets from other communities — is what makes them a community. And a community’s privacy from other communities is in many ways what allows them to have privates and even secrets from one another. This was easy enough when the human body, perhaps architecture or written media formed the main spaces and avenues where arrangements of privacy had to be negotiated. But the major transformations that have occurred over the last two or three powers of ten have drastically changed the “Terms and Conditions” of what it means to be private. The issue of how far a government can extend its sovereignty into an individual’s data held by a corporation took a public form. This is different from the collusion between corporations and governments that had gone on using the Patriot Act legislation.
It is true that there has been talk of privacy issues for some time with regard to new technologies, this case is different. The confrontation between Apple and the FBI was just the first confrontation of many to come that will bring into relation problems not merely between an inividual and a company, or between a state and an individual, nor just between a state and a company. Instead, these three levels of interaction which characterize this crisis of privacy are now interacting to determine their place in the fundamental structure of society: Individuals, Private Entities, and States.
Who is going to own what data? Who is liable for security breaches? Does the state have any eminent domain, so to speak, over data?
Such questions involve the individual and multiple tiers of community organization. We are being forced to reevaluate what institutions of privacy are even capable of creating and maintaining a link between individual and communitiy forms of privacy that had perhaps been the determining factor of human civilizations up to this point.
What does it all add up to?
If you are interested in thinking more about this:
Check out my follow up posts: “Future Iterations of Logarithmic History?” and “Implications of the 12 Powers of Ten.”
Or please, go and check out my other posts.
On the ancient origins of modern economic thought.
On a new way of explaining the Gender Wage Gap.
On why schools should be teacher-owned but are not.
Reflections on what schools are and what they are supposed to be.
On the failures of new media to inform like old newspapers used to do.
Or, on the problem of why someone like me is publishing these long pieces on a format like medium. |
Want to improve your motorcycle riding skills? Time to hit the gym.
Check out the photo gallery for more exercises and tips on each exercise.
Most riders think that to ride faster they need to focus on body position, braking points, throttle control and other riding techniques. However, talk with anyone who's truly pro-level fast and the first thing you'll learn is the importance of fitness. No one is a better example of how fitness affects your riding than yours truly.
Jorge Lorenzo on the cover of Men's Health in Spain. Until recently, I'd been pretty seriously involved in modeling as it was an easy way to supplement the meager wages I was earning in my previous life as a middle school teacher. My training and gym routines were focused on building "glamour muscles" in the gym that would look good in photos and help me get bigger and better jobs. As it turns out, “looking fit” for the camera doesn’t necessarily translate into “being fit” when it comes to athletic activities. I learned this the hard way as I began to really get into sport and dirt riding.
I noticed I was getting fatigued fairly early on ride days and that I needed several days to recuperate afterwards. I'd feel stiff after lunch and my pace would quickly slow as I got too tired and lazy to really move on the bike when sport riding, or would need frequent breaks when riding dual-sports out in the desert, which confused me since I was the "in shape" guy.
Marc Marquez posted this in a tweet, showing just how flexible these guys really are.
Eventually, it hit me: I had built all the wrong muscles and I wasn't going to get any better until my endurance and strength in some specific areas improved.
The right exercises and weight training improve your performance, help prevent injuries and let you heal more quickly if you do get injured. To figure out just which exercises were best, I enlisted the help of Crossfit Tustin owner Joel Thompson, as well as the team over at Athletic Recon. Joel is about to spend 14 days riding his dual-sport through Bolivia and the guys at Athletic Recon work with some of the fittest athletes in the world, while spending their weekends charting new off-road routes between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Together, we came up with some of the most important exercises to work into your weekly routine.
There are three main areas you need to address to improve your riding: strength, mobility, and endurance.
Strength
For high-performance riding, on road or off, you'll need strong legs, core, back, and shoulders.
And people say I skip leg day... Photo by Chris Sorenson.
You rely on your legs to change your body position and help control the bike, so strength training increases both stability and endurance. There is literally nothing worse than coming up to whoops in the desert and not having the strength or energy to brace your body as you hit them.
You hear phrases like "be loose," "be light on the bars," or So Cal Supermoto's Brian Murray's favorite, "hold the bars like you're holding baby birds." Strengthening your core and lower back so they can support your body leaves your arms free to steer the bike and operate the controls. Sportbike riders who complain of aching wrists are using their handlebars, instead of their core muscles, to support their weight. It's incredible how easy it becomes to flick a bike through corners when your upper body is free to move around easily and you're using your hands to operate the controls, not lean on them.
Rows: Keep your back straight with your chest pushed forward. Photo by Chris Sorenson.
Your upper back and shoulders need to be strong to help you control the bars. Hustling a 350-pound bike through a race track or 250-pound dirtbike through single-track trails or an MX track takes a lot of strength and you'll burn your arms out far too fast if you aren't getting your whole upper body involved.
Recommended exercises:
Legs: squats ┃ lunges ┃ leg extensions ┃ leg press ┃ calf extensions ┃ back bridge
Core: hanging leg raise ┃ Russian twist ┃ cable crunches ┃ exercise ball sit-ups ┃ plank
Back: pull-ups ┃ rows ┃ Supermans
Mobility
I sort of always knew in the back of my head that I would need to start incorporating more leg exercises into my gym routine, but I never really considered how important flexibility would become. Not only do you need some flexibility just to contort your body to fit on most sportbikes, but you also need to be able to open your hips as you hang off the bike or rotate your shoulders to operate the controls while tucked into various and odd riding positions. I was struggling to get my knee out from the bike to get a knee down, and cramped often if I didn't properly warm up.
The Russian twist: Don't use too much weight or you can injure your shoulders. This one is about balance. Photo by Chris Sorenson.
Focusing both on proper stretching before my rides, and improving my flexibility in the gym has been probably one of the most noticeable improvements because I had such a hard time and felt so awkward moving around on the bike and I was constantly getting cramps in my hips. Not only is my range of motion better, but my muscle stability has improved a ton and I'm able to apply that strength in far more ways. There's a reason why the top guys take yoga and Pilates, and it isn't just the babes in yoga pants.
Recommended exercises:
Foam rolling ┃ founder stretch ┃ pigeon stretch ┃ hip and groin stretches
Endurance
Ben Spies has a max heart rate of 195 beats per minute, and says that his heart rate hovered right around 185 for a typical MotoGP race, which lasts about 45 minutes. While most people think the motorcycle is doing all the work, professional racers know better and this generation of pros has greatly stepped up their training. Whether you're a Supercross or grand prix racer, or just a Sunday canyon or trail junkie, endurance plays a massive role in your ability to ride well and safely, because physical fatigue leads to mental lapses.
Toes to bars: A few sets of 10 reps should make getting out of bed the next day hurt a little. Photo by Chris Sorenson.
I grew up snowboarding and we always had a rule: "no last runs." Basically, the "last run" was when people pushed themselves past their ability and stamina to leave the day on a high note and was always when people got hurt. It's a rule I've carried over into motorcycling. While we don't have runs, it's important to know your limits and know when you're done pushing it for the day. To know when your stamina, strength, or reflexes are zapped and to take it easy. Before working on my stamina, that point came after an hour or so. Today, I make it more like five or six.
The founder stretch: This surfing stretch is a pre-ride favorite. Photo by Chris Sorenson.
Bicycling, whether road cycling or mountain biking, comes up in almost every article about any racer's training. Honda motocrosser Cole Seely told me, when I interviewed earlier him this year, that he'd fallen in love with mountain biking as a way to build leg strength and improve stamina. Likewise, Spies said he and most of the GP guys had turned to cycling for their training because it allowed them to keep their heartrate up while not wearing on their bodies too hard. Some of them are nearly professional-level bicycle racers.
Huge thanks to the guys at Crossfit Tustin for letting us take over their gym for a few hours. Photo by Chris Sorenson.
Recommended exercises:
Cycling ┃ dirtbiking (for you track dudes) ┃ climbing stairs (less impact to the knees and ankles than running... we get enough of that).
Know an exercise or stretch that I missed? Share it or a link to a YouTube clip of how to do it in the comments. |
CHICAGO – Jason Botterill’s first draft week as a general manager has included plenty of discussions. He’s waiting to find out where they lead.
“It’s a situation where there’s always discussions going on, but to say that we’re close on anything right now, no,” the Sabres’ GM told The Buffalo News on Thursday night. “There’s longer discussions. You’re always looking to try to improve the team, but just like it’s so competitive on the ice, it’s competitive off the ice. You’re working with one team on trying to fix something, but they’re also working on something all the time.
“For it to all come together, sometimes it takes quite a few discussions. It’s not always easy to predict.”
Botterill is open to adding a piece anywhere.
“You’re still looking all over the place,” he said after the league’s GMs met. “It’s not always going to be the big splash on July 1, but it’s a scenario of trying to find value, trying to continue to build depth in different areas.
“Obviously, we want to develop some of our young players to have more expanded roles, but if you can pick up a player to add more depth in certain situations, we’re looking at both forward and defensemen from that standpoint.”
The Sabres hold the No. 8 draft pick in Friday’s first round, and the GM has had discussions of moving up and down.
“You have to be prepared for any scenario,” Botterill said. “From my own personal experience, I look back at the 2012 draft. Pittsburgh trades Jordan Staal a couple hours before the draft, and the next thing you know we had the eighth overall pick. Things certainly change.
“What I like what the staff has done, part of the discussions in both May and this week is, ‘OK, these are sort of the top eight guys that we’re focusing on, but what happens if we move back? What happens if we move up in the first round?’ I like the fact that they’re going through all those different scenarios and are prepared for anything.”
Though the GM meeting was Botterill’s first, he was no stranger to many. He worked with Pittsburgh’s Jim Rutherford, New Jersey’s Ray Shero and Minnesota’s Chuck Fletcher, plus he dealt with others as the GM for the Penguins’ American Hockey League team.
“It was certainly exciting and a learning experience,” Botterill said. “Just everyone from Day One has certainly been respectful. Between the combine and now this, I’m starting to build relationships.” |
I am prone to annoying, goopy minor eye infections. This is entirely my own fault. I wear contacts lenses which I am totally lazy about cleaning and I use them longer than the recommended time frame. I also sometimes wear mascara which I use until it is all gone, rather than tossing it and using a new tube after the recommended interval. (I know! These are bad practices. I know it’s all my fault.)
I’m also a mother of two and we went through our share of pink eye and common cold or viral infections that included discharges from the eye. As practicing herbalist who treats a lot of acute, family illnesses, I also treat these conditions or recommend treatments to my little clients. The net result is that I’ve become pretty good at treating “goopy eye” topically with common herbs.
My Favorite Herbs for the Eyes
Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) Fennel has long been used for eye troubles. Fennel is mentioned in the 17th century herbal by Culpeper where he suggests it for mattering in the eye and contemporary herbs users still find it equally useful for eye inflammation and infection. Fennel is rich in volatile oils. Volatile oils have a reputation for being anti-microbial, which may account for some of the usefulness of Fennel in treating goopy or inflammed eyes caused by an infection.
Chamomile– (multiple genera and species in use)The humble Chamomile species ends up being so useful for many bothersome health issues, including eye issues. Chamomile is soothing and anti-inflammatory. Plant constituent, azulene, reduces redness and like Fennel, Chamomile has anti-microbial volatile oils. Chamomile is cheap, easy to find, even at every open 24 hours, mainstream grocery store in America. Chamomile works well as a dried herb.
Chickweed (Stellaria spp.) Ooooh! This is one of my favorites. Chickweed is so soothing and cooling, a great anti-inflammatory. It’s also gentle, abundant, easy to identify. Chickweed, however, does not dry very well, so I only use it when it’s available fresh. If you have a chem-free lawn, you probably have some chickweed, especially if you have a moist shady spot. You can pick it before, during or after flowering, as long as the plant looks good and not ratty and dried out.
Plantain (Plantago majus) Plantain is also soothing and anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial. Plantain is one of the most common and easily identified plants and can be found in every chemical free lawn. Plantain can be used fresh or dried. Plantain is a little bit astringent and an eyewash with Plantain alone can make your eyes feel a little bit puckery, so to speak. It’s good for drying up the goop but I find I like it best in combination with something a little more mucilaginous.
What about eyebright?
Eyebright is the famous herb for the eyes. Common names often reflect the way that people have used them. I don’t use eyebright. I favor local herbs and eyebright does not grow in my locale. It does grow in the arrowhead region of Minnesota and also in parts of Wisconsin, Michigan and other northeastern states. There is no reason not to use it. It’s just habit and personal preference that inform my practice.
Eye Wash Technique
Make a tea with your chosen herbs. Choose as many herbs as you like. There are no rules here. Choose your herbs based on what you have around you or what’s easy for you to acquire. It doesn’t have to be an extra strong tea. If you use fennel, crush the seeds lightly with a mortar and pestle so it can more easily give up it’s virtues to the water. (That’s what the old time writers would say, that an herb gives up it’s virtues to a particular menstruum.)
Let the tea cool. Room temperature eye wash is the most comfortable.
Strain the tea as you would normally strain it, but then strain it again this time through a regular paper coffee filter. Nothing catches particulate matter like a coffee filter. The use of chamomile and fennel in particular tend to result in a tea with bits of particulate matter. You don’t have to be obsessive about plant matter in your tea but it stands to reason that it’s better to put less little bits onto your delicate eyes.
Use a tincture dropper and simply squirt it into the eye. I use a dropper that fits a dram bottle and I usually drop a few drops at a time, pause for a moment and then drop in a few more. While it feels weird to intentionally squirt something in your eye, it shouldn’t hurt or sting. It will probably feel very good in the ensuing minutes.
Two or three times a day is sufficient in my experience. I think it’s possible to overdo it resulting in eyes that feel a little bit dried out.
Refrigerate the leftover tea to use tomorrow. You goopy eye should be doing a lot better within the first twenty-four hours after begining to eyewash. Continue treatment for another day or two if needed.
It’s Not Working! Goldenseal to the Rescue
Once in awhile a simple eyewash is not enough. Maybe a day or two of eyewash has not resulted in consistent improvement. Perhaps lots of green nasty stuff is coming out of your eyes, your eyes are inflamed, ache or itch and you feel like your vision is a little filmy. You could go into the clinic and see your medical practitioner. In fact, with children that is what I recommend. However, if you are treating yourself, another adult or a pre-teen or teen, you may decide you are willing to try one more thing before you head into the clinic. Let me be clear, I don’t think there is anything wrong the medical treatments for eye infections, but sometimes the busyness of life or the expense or a doctor’s visit may make it feel worthwhile to try one more home remedy. This is where Goldenseal comes into the picture. I do not use Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis)much but there are sometimes when nothing else works, not just for eye infections but also for thrushy, yeasty diaper rashes, bacterial vaginosis and other types of infections. It’s just that powerful of an anti-microbial.
To use Goldenseal on your goopy you need the powder. If you can’t find bulk powder, buy a container or capsules. Open a capsule and dump out the contents. Take a clean cotton swab, dip it in the Goldenseal powder and apply to the inner surface of your bottom eyelid. Use your other hand to expose the inner surface of your eyelid. Don’t double dip. Use the other end of cotton swab, dip again and apply in another spot along this inner surface. I find it sufficient to treat just the bottom eyelid. The liquids on your eye and blinking will distribute the Goldenseal goodness.
I am not going to lie to you. The first time I did this I found myself hopping up and down, waving my hands, saying to myself, “this was a bad idea,” “this was a bad idea.” It feels bad for about 45 seconds. Not excruciating, just weird and bad. After the first 45 seconds, it’s all good. And your eyes will begin to feel better shortly thereafter. Goldenseal will often clear up the most recalcitrant of eye inflammations or infections. The discomfort associated with the direct application of Goldenseal to the inner eyelid is why I don’t recommend this treatment for little children.
Is it Safe?
Do you or your children swim in swimming pools, or lakes, rivers or ponds? Do you bathe or shower? Animal or human waste, chlorine, pollution, microbes, algae, sunscreen, soap, body care products, medications…There’s lots of stuff in the water. An eye wash with herbs is at least as safe as swimming or bathing anywhere in my opinion.
You can minimize any potential adverse effects by choosing fresh herbs that are clean of dirt and debris and not at all moldy or using well-dried herbs. You can and should use organic herbs or herbs wildcrafted from a clean area. Choose herbs (like the ones described above) that are generally considered safe and gentle. Minimize particulate matter by straining through the coffee filter as described above. Do not put essential oils or tinctures in your eyes; only use water based preparations.
I recommend Chamomile eyewash for conjunctivitis and I often suggest Chamomile tea or tincture to my clients who have seasonal allergies resulting in red, achy or irritable eyes. It’s a great anti-histamine. However, there are a handful of confirmed cases of individuals experiencing irritation, inflammation from German Chamomile in cosmetics used near, under or above the eye or as an eyewash. Chamomile is one of the most used herbs in the world. Hundreds of millions of doses are consumed every year. It an overwhelming safe herb. With that said, it is possible to be allergic to just about anything. Use your common sense! If you experience increased irritation from an eyewash, stop using it. If you know you are allergic to something, don’t use it. If you or your child has ever had a severe allergic reaction to a food or plant, in general you should be more conservative and cautious, lest you have a severe allergic reaction to something else or something similar. |
The Bills got some help in the wild-card race Sunday, but still need more help to end their postseason drought.
The Bills took care of business on their end, beating the Dolphins to improve to 8-6. The Ravens followed suit, beating the Browns to stay level with the Bills in the wild-card race, but the Titans lost to the 49ers on a last-second field goal to drop to 8-6, creating a three-way tie for both wild-card positions.
The Bills could still win out and not make the playoffs, but that only happens in one scenario. That would involve the Titans and Ravens winning out with the Jaguars losing out, which would propel the Titans to the AFC South title and give the Jags and Ravens the wild-card spots. If the Bills, Titans and Ravens all win out and the Jaguars still win the division, the Titans miss out.
In most other scenarios, the Bills have a decent chance of making the playoffs. Here's a look at what the Bills would need to qualify if they lost to the Patriots in Week 16 but beat the Dolphins in the finale to finish 9-7:
Sifted through and explained every #Bills playoff scenario. If they beat the #Dolphins ... there's a decent chance The Drought ends. (Yes, really.) https://t.co/L5bUpFO6O4 pic.twitter.com/uvsRftJCtV — Nick Veronica (@NickVeronica) December 18, 2017
(Note: The current standings are based on incomplete tiebreakers, so don't pay too much attention to where the Bills fall currently. The Titans finish with the Rams and Jaguars (both 10-4) and the Ravens close against the Colts (3-11) and Bengals (5-9).)
Bills tie with Ravens
If the Titans win out and the Bills and Ravens tie for the final playoff spot at 9-7 ... the Bills almost certainly get in as long as they beat the Dolphins. The Bills and Ravens would be tied on conference record and tied on common opponents. The next tiebreaker is strength of victory, which is the combined win-loss record of the teams you've beaten, and the Bills have a sizable lead on this stat. However, if the Bills beat the Patriots but lose to the Dolphins, the Ravens would have the edge in common games.
What the Bills need most: A Ravens loss. The Bills win a two-team tiebreaker with the Ravens at 9-7.
Bills tie with Titans
If the Ravens win out to finish fifth and the Bills and Titans split their final two games to finish 9-7 and tie for the final wild-card spot ... the Bills getting in would depend on which game the Titans lose. The Titans are currently ahead on conference record, 7-4 to 6-4, so the Bills would need them to lose their one remaining AFC game, against the Jaguars in Week 17. If the Bills and Titans tie in that scenario, the Bills would have the edge on record against common opponents (as long as they beat the Dolphins). But if the Titans lose to the Rams and beat the Jaguars, the Titans have the edge based on conference record.
What the Bills need most: A Titans loss to the Jaguars in Week 17. The Bills lose a two-way tie to the Titans if the Titans beat the Jags.
Bills tie with Chargers
This scenario is unlikely, but if either the Ravens or Titans win out and the other loses out, the Bills split and the Chargers win out without passing the Chiefs for the division lead ... the Bills and Chargers would be tied for the final wild-card spot at 9-7, and the Chargers would have the edge based on their head-t0-head win. This assumes the Chiefs don't lose out, because if that happened in this scenario, the Chargers would win the AFC West and the Chiefs would miss at 8-8. The Chiefs win a tie with the Chargers at 9-7.
The Chargers close with the Jets (5-9) and Raiders (6-8), so they could get to 9-7, but a two-way tie is the only way the Chargers could pass the Bills in the wild card. The Chargers would be the first team eliminated in any multi-team tiebreaker due to their conference record.
What the Bills need most: A Chargers loss, or everything else not falling into place. The Bills lose a two-way tie with the Chargers.
Three-team tie with Ravens and Titans
Three-way scenarios are more complicated but may come into play. Teams can be separated from three-way ties one at a time, and if two teams remain, the tiebreaker reverts back to the start of the two-team tiebreakers instead of continuing down the three-team tiebreakers.
If all three teams tie for both wild-card spots at 9-7 ... playoff order would depend on which game the Titans lose, but the Bills would advance from this scenario. These teams haven't all played each other so the first tiebreaker is conference record. The Bills and Ravens would be tied on that but the Titans could have an edge if they beat the Jaguars. Then the Bills would likely beat the Ravens, as long as they beat the Dolphins in Week 17.
If all three teams tie on conference record, the next tiebreaker would be record in common games. All three teams will have five games against the Raiders, Dolphins, Colts and Bengals. The Bills and Ravens will be 4-1 and the Titans will be 3-2, so the Bills are Ravens would go back to the two-team tiebreaker for the fifth playoff spot and the Bills would likely win. Then the Ravens and Titans would compete for the sixth spot, and Titans would get in based on their head-to-head win.
What the Bills need most: A loss from the Ravens and Titans. The Bills advance from a three-way tie with this group at 9-7.
Three- or four-team tie that includes the Chargers
Again, the Chargers would likely be the first team eliminated in any multi-team tie due to their conference record. The remaining teams in this tied group would be sorted using the scenarios above.
The Jaguars or Chiefs being passed for the division lead
If the Jaguars or Chiefs win again, they'll clinch their respective division. The only way they could be passed is if they lose out. In the Chiefs' case, that would mean they'd finish 8-8 and would be behind the Bills at 9-7. If the Jaguars lose out and the Titans win out, the Titans win the division and the Jaguars would get the first wild-card spot at 10-6. Then the Bills would be competing with the Ravens and/or Chargers.
So there are only three ways the Bills can beat the Dolphins and miss the playoffs: |
The David Horowitz Freedom Center today announced a new campaign targeting so-called “sanctuary campuses” which violate federal immigration law and endanger American citizens. The campaign will kick-off with a speech by Breitbart.com editor and conservative activist Milo Yiannopoulos at UC-Berkeley on February 1st. The Center is calling on President Trump to withdraw federal grants from so-called Sanctuary schools and on the Department of Justice to prosecute university officials, beginning with former Department of Homeland Security head and UC President Janet Napolitano.
Since the U.S. presidential election in November, nearly 30 campuses have declared their defiance of federal immigration law as “sanctuary campuses.” More schools now are considering adopting this status as a result of an “escalation campaign” by student groups opposing the presidency of Donald Trump, and in particular his efforts to secure America’s borders and deport criminals who have entered the country illegally.
The Freedom Center’s campaign featuring Milo Yiannopoulos will bring public attention and pressure to bear on university administrators who have shown disloyalty and contempt for both federal immigration law and the rule of law itself in appeasing radical immigration activists’ demands for sanctuary campuses. The campaign will be launched at UC Berkeley on February 1, with a call to prosecute UC president Janet Napolitano and Berkeley chancellor Nicholas Dirks.
“The so-called ‘sanctuary movement’ is a concerted effort by left-wing administrations in major cities to thwart the purposes of the Patriot Act, undermine federal immigration law, and cripple the efforts of the Department of Homeland security to protect American citizens from terrorist threats,” said David Horowitz, founder and CEO of the Freedom Center. “Thanks to the efforts of leftwing activists and administrators, this seditious movement has now spread to our colleges and universities.”
Among the campuses which have declared themselves “sanctuaries” for illegal immigrants is Columbia University whose provost John Coatsworth recently stated, “The University will neither allow immigration officials on our campus without a warrant nor share information on the immigration status of students…” and the University of California system whose president Janet Napolitano has prohibited campus police from cooperating with federal immigration officials and has awarded $5 million to enhance access to funding and other aid for the hundreds of illegal immigrants now attending UC schools.
The Freedom Center will call for a withdrawal of federal grants from universities that embrace this seditious principle. It will also call for the prosecution of those administrators, like UC president Napolitano, who have put in place measures that prohibit campus authorities from cooperating with federal immigration officials and enforcing existing federal laws, and will press the case to legislators in the states where sanctuary campuses are located and particularly to those sitting on Higher Education committees.
This campaign will make its case through campus speeches and events, articles and pamphlets, and ads in campus papers arguing the case that “sanctuary campuses” are seditious and a threat to the security of Americans.
The Freedom Center’s strike against sanctuary campuses will also include a guerilla postering campaign during which activists will hang posters on targeted campuses featuring the names and likenesses of university administrators and identifying them as supporting sedition.
“This is a situation that cannot be allowed to stand,” declares Horowitz. “If the illegal immigrant’s first act on American soil is to break U.S. law, these university administrators are extending that lawlessness into society’s most important intellectual institutions. Our campaign will galvanize trustees, alumni and attorneys general to take action against these administrations which are thwarting American law and will also make this case to the American public whose taxes underwrite most of these institutions.”
The David Horowitz Freedom Center, founded in 1989, is a not-for-profit organization located in Sherman Oaks, California. The Center’s mission is to defend free societies like America and Israel, who are under attack by totalitarian forces both religious and secular, both domestic and foreign. More information on the Stop Sanctuary Campuses campaign may be found at www.nosanctuarycampus.org.
Contact: Elizabeth Ruiz
818-849-3470, ext. 202
[email protected] |
Paljas Profile Joined October 2011 Germany 6662 Posts #2 Great guide.
One question: do you stay on roach, hydra, viper, infestor
no matter how long the game goes, or would you recommend
a ultra transition?
FlakRenew Profile Joined August 2012 Germany 4 Posts #3 Nice Guide!
I think this will help many people.
Thx
iSHOKZ Profile Joined July 2011 Germany 136 Posts #4 On April 12 2013 19:51 Paljas wrote:
Great guide.
One question: do you stay on roach, hydra, viper, infestor
no matter how long the game goes, or would you recommend
a ultra transition?
Hi,
this really depends on the progress of the game. On some maps you can go up to 7 bases, for example on newkirk. Than its no big deal to get your meele upgrades and you can do some really heavy techswitches.
If your not thin on gas you can also add banelings with speed into the blindingcloud + fungal combination.
But if you did not bank up any gas, an ultralisk transition is just to expensive. Hi,this really depends on the progress of the game. On some maps you can go up to 7 bases, for example on newkirk. Than its no big deal to get your meele upgrades and you can do some really heavy techswitches.If your not thin on gas you can also add banelings with speed into the blindingcloud + fungal combination.But if you did not bank up any gas, an ultralisk transition is just to expensive.
Paljas Profile Joined October 2011 Germany 6662 Posts #5 thanks for the answer. this guide needs more love.
Henk Profile Joined March 2012 Netherlands 578 Posts #6 Reading through this, just stating first thing that comes to mind; roach/hydra isn't bad vs mech. Hydras actually die to the same amount of tank shots as roaches do, so that point is completely invalid. Add in some hydras and you'll faceroll his army. Even better, include swarmhosts and you've got yourself a great composition. In the late game, replace roaches with ultras, so you'll end up with SH/hydra/ultra/viper.
HeyJude Profile Joined July 2010 United States 157 Posts #7 as a high diamond random player roach/hydra is my usual build, but I really think upgrades are key to this. I think roach/hydra is much easier to play than ling/bling/muta, but you also have to be more careful with your engagements since you don't have the same mobility.
Krayze Profile Joined May 2009 United States 213 Posts #8 I have actually seen Stephano using Roach/Hydra(/viper/infestor) vs Terran in HotS and it works well. The thing I love about roach/hydra is how much easier it is than ling/bling/muta. Thank you for this writeup, I will be taking this advice and trying it out for myself!
smN Profile Joined June 2011 22 Posts #9 thanks for the guide, very nice work One mind, one heartbeat.
EsportsJohn Profile Blog Joined June 2012 United States 4442 Posts #10
I've been playing around with this style too, and it's definitely one of my favourites. I generally go for the 4-queen expand into about 4-5 roaches to deflect hellions, then just get 3 bases saturated as fast as possible and max out on roach/hydra. Sadly, terrans have generally stopped going hellion/banshee, which this build absolutely facerolls. Overall, roach/hydra is fun and feels like a new way to play zerg entirely. Also, great guide; short, to the point, and informative. On April 13 2013 06:46 Henk wrote:
Reading through this, just stating first thing that comes to mind; roach/hydra isn't bad vs mech. Hydras actually die to the same amount of tank shots as roaches do, so that point is completely invalid. Add in some hydras and you'll faceroll his army. Even better, include swarmhosts and you've got yourself a great composition. In the late game, replace roaches with ultras, so you'll end up with SH/hydra/ultra/viper.
Against mech, I just substitute swarm hosts for roaches (since they have about the same "relative cost" (same mineral/gas/supply ratio)). At 16+ swarm hosts and good burrow/unburrow micro, you can wear down a mech army before it gets across the map. If you identify mech early enough, you can easily skip roaches altogether and just go straight into swarm host production. I also like to add in queens as the game goes on for a hydra/queen/SH/viper army.
Biggest issue I have with roach/hydra is dealing with reaper harass followed by hellion harass followed by a really early bio-mine push at around 10:00 with stim. At that point, I feel like I don't have enough economy to produce enough roach/hydra (in equal numbers, roach/hydra seems to trade about evenly with bio). Against mech, I just substitute swarm hosts for roaches (since they have about the same "relative cost" (same mineral/gas/supply ratio)). At 16+ swarm hosts and good burrow/unburrow micro, you can wear down a mech army before it gets across the map. If you identify mech early enough, you can easily skip roaches altogether and just go straight into swarm host production. I also like to add in queens as the game goes on for a hydra/queen/SH/viper army.Biggest issue I have with roach/hydra is dealing with reaper harass followed by hellion harass followed by a really early bio-mine push at around 10:00 with stim. At that point, I feel like I don't have enough economy to produce enough roach/hydra (in equal numbers, roach/hydra seems to trade about evenly with bio). Strategy
snexwang Profile Joined April 2011 Australia 224 Posts #11 I really like roach/hydra in ZvT but I feel like the terrans I've been facing don't exploit the shit out of it enough with medivacs forever. Thus, I really haven't had the opportunity to gauge just how much static defense I would actually need in a "lol imma gunna drop for like 30mins glhf" situation.
At least now I can use your guide and your replays as a helpful basis. Cheers!
iSHOKZ Profile Joined July 2011 Germany 136 Posts #12 On April 15 2013 00:56 SC2John wrote:
...
Biggest issue I have with roach/hydra is dealing with reaper harass followed by hellion harass followed by a really early bio-mine push at around 10:00 with stim. At that point, I feel like I don't have enough economy to produce enough roach/hydra (in equal numbers, roach/hydra seems to trade about evenly with bio).
Hi SC2John,
i had the same problem with the "economic" build, whereas the saver one has no problem with the early aggression.
The only strong stim timings are those where the terran is on 2 base, without a 3rd oc backing it up. If you identify that, you can cancel the hydra upgrades, the overlord-speed and just get as many units as you can. You should be able to overwhelm the push then, get the upgrades behind it and also drone afterwards. Since terran was only on 2CC you can play on a lower economy in that scenario.
Also to the counter of mech:
Yes, swarmhosts are even better than roaches, thats true ! Hi SC2John,i had the same problem with the "economic" build, whereas the saver one has no problem with the early aggression.The only strong stim timings are those where the terran is on 2 base, without a 3rd oc backing it up. If you identify that, you can cancel the hydra upgrades, the overlord-speed and just get as many units as you can. You should be able to overwhelm the push then, get the upgrades behind it and also drone afterwards. Since terran was only on 2CC you can play on a lower economy in that scenario.Also to the counter of mech:Yes, swarmhosts are even better than roaches, thats true !
smN Profile Joined June 2011 22 Posts Last Edited: 2013-04-17 13:22:32 #13 I don't always play zerg. But when I do, I own hard with roach-hydra iSHOKZ-style. One mind, one heartbeat.
EsportsJohn Profile Blog Joined June 2012 United States 4442 Posts #14 On April 16 2013 02:43 iSHOKZ wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 15 2013 00:56 SC2John wrote:
...
Biggest issue I have with roach/hydra is dealing with reaper harass followed by hellion harass followed by a really early bio-mine push at around 10:00 with stim. At that point, I feel like I don't have enough economy to produce enough roach/hydra (in equal numbers, roach/hydra seems to trade about evenly with bio).
Hi SC2John,
i had the same problem with the "economic" build, whereas the saver one has no problem with the early aggression.
The only strong stim timings are those where the terran is on 2 base, without a 3rd oc backing it up. If you identify that, you can cancel the hydra upgrades, the overlord-speed and just get as many units as you can. You should be able to overwhelm the push then, get the upgrades behind it and also drone afterwards. Since terran was only on 2CC you can play on a lower economy in that scenario.
Also to the counter of mech:
Yes, swarmhosts are even better than roaches, thats true ! Hi SC2John,i had the same problem with the "economic" build, whereas the saver one has no problem with the early aggression.The only strong stim timings are those where the terran is on 2 base, without a 3rd oc backing it up. If you identify that, you can cancel the hydra upgrades, the overlord-speed and just get as many units as you can. You should be able to overwhelm the push then, get the upgrades behind it and also drone afterwards. Since terran was only on 2CC you can play on a lower economy in that scenario.Also to the counter of mech:Yes, swarmhosts are even better than roaches, thats true !
Thanks for the advice!
Just as a sidenote playing with this build some: when playing the economic style, I've had a lot of success going up to 4-6 queens for defense. Having that many high energy queens can help kill off an early stim push with only few roaches realtively easily. It also helps you prepare for the later parts of the game if you go into swarm hosts/ultras/blords. It also helps me continually spread creep and keep terran fairly pinned back.
Question: I have a bit of a problem getting the exact hydra/roach ratio correct. What kind of ratio do you normally get? In a maxed army situation, I feel like there's not much of a need to get above 16-20 hydras (even with swarm hosts). Any more than that feels like overkill. Thanks for the advice!Just as a sidenote playing with this build some: when playing the economic style, I've had a lot of success going up to 4-6 queens for defense. Having that many high energy queens can help kill off an early stim push with only few roaches realtively easily. It also helps you prepare for the later parts of the game if you go into swarm hosts/ultras/blords. It also helps me continually spread creep and keep terran fairly pinned back.Question: I have a bit of a problem getting the exact hydra/roach ratio correct. What kind of ratio do you normally get? In a maxed army situation, I feel like there's not much of a need to get above 16-20 hydras (even with swarm hosts). Any more than that feels like overkill. Strategy
ArhK Profile Joined July 2007 France 284 Posts #15 Thanks for the guide !
You don't seem to use Swarm Host at all (I didn't see the replays yet, just based on my reading of your guide), is there any reason for that ?
I am only a low master player, but I feel that when I face turtly terrans, it helps à lot to siege them on their third, and try to do some runbyes on their main (via simply runnning in with a couple of roaches, to getting drop and harassing them mid-late game.
DnameIN Profile Joined July 2010 Poland 146 Posts Last Edited: 2013-04-17 17:16:33 #16 Hey,
I am going to try this build today. I am just wondering, how do you respond to 1-2 vikings that can easily shut down your overlord vision for scouting incoming drops. In that case, I don't see how zerg can push forward with slow rouch/hydra without overcompensating with static defense of leaving some units "just for safety" and making push a lot weaker. Or is it just me and terrans will not do that for some reason? (because I am tempted to think that they don't do this only because they are suprised that there is no muta on the field)
abefroman Profile Joined December 2010 70 Posts #17 As far as hydra roach ratio....start at 50/50. If they go marauder heavy, sub out some roaches for more hydras and use any spare mins on some lings. Lings will be un upgraded, but still seem to help vs very marauder heavy armies.
iSHOKZ Profile Joined July 2011 Germany 136 Posts #18 On April 18 2013 00:21 ArhK wrote:
Thanks for the guide !
You don't seem to use Swarm Host at all (I didn't see the replays yet, just based on my reading of your guide), is there any reason for that ?
I am only a low master player, but I feel that when I face turtly terrans, it helps à lot to siege them on their third, and try to do some runbyes on their main (via simply runnning in with a couple of roaches, to getting drop and harassing them mid-late game.
Hi,
i only recommend using swarm hosts vs. mech. But while writing the guide i was not very familiar with the use of swarmhosts, so I even went for roaches as a mech counter, which can work if the terran does not play at the highest level. But to be honest swarmhosts are way better vs. mech now that I have more experience.
Vs. just a "turtle terran" with biomine or biotank, you can go for the normal roach hydra composition with faster teching. Swarmhost play will just slow your techpath down. Roach Hydra Infestor Viper is basically unbeatable. There is no reason to delay that transition.
Hi,i only recommend using swarm hosts vs. mech. But while writing the guide i was not very familiar with the use of swarmhosts, so I even went for roaches as a mech counter, which can work if the terran does not play at the highest level. But to be honest swarmhosts are way better vs. mech now that I have more experience.Vs. just a "turtle terran" with biomine or biotank, you can go for the normal roach hydra composition with faster teching. Swarmhost play will just slow your techpath down. Roach Hydra Infestor Viper is basically unbeatable. There is no reason to delay that transition. On April 18 2013 02:13 DnameIN wrote:
Hey,
I am going to try this build today. I am just wondering, how do you respond to 1-2 vikings that can easily shut down your overlord vision for scouting incoming drops. In that case, I don't see how zerg can push forward with slow rouch/hydra without overcompensating with static defense of leaving some units "just for safety" and making push a lot weaker. Or is it just me and terrans will not do that for some reason? (because I am tempted to think that they don't do this only because they are suprised that there is no muta on the field)
I would not even call it bad for you, if the terran attempts to do a bigger drop than 2 medivacs. In that case you should normally be able to just run him over because your army is so much stronger than his when he has 2 full medivacs dropping. Otherwise its the same thing as in WoL with ling infestor, you just have to accept that he did shut down your overlords and maybe wait till he wastes them.
On April 17 2013 23:30 SC2John wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 16 2013 02:43 iSHOKZ wrote:
On April 15 2013 00:56 SC2John wrote:
...
Biggest issue I have with roach/hydra is dealing with reaper harass followed by hellion harass followed by a really early bio-mine push at around 10:00 with stim. At that point, I feel like I don't have enough economy to produce enough roach/hydra (in equal numbers, roach/hydra seems to trade about evenly with bio).
Hi SC2John,
i had the same problem with the "economic" build, whereas the saver one has no problem with the early aggression.
The only strong stim timings are those where the terran is on 2 base, without a 3rd oc backing it up. If you identify that, you can cancel the hydra upgrades, the overlord-speed and just get as many units as you can. You should be able to overwhelm the push then, get the upgrades behind it and also drone afterwards. Since terran was only on 2CC you can play on a lower economy in that scenario.
Also to the counter of mech:
Yes, swarmhosts are even better than roaches, thats true ! Hi SC2John,i had the same problem with the "economic" build, whereas the saver one has no problem with the early aggression.The only strong stim timings are those where the terran is on 2 base, without a 3rd oc backing it up. If you identify that, you can cancel the hydra upgrades, the overlord-speed and just get as many units as you can. You should be able to overwhelm the push then, get the upgrades behind it and also drone afterwards. Since terran was only on 2CC you can play on a lower economy in that scenario.Also to the counter of mech:Yes, swarmhosts are even better than roaches, thats true !
...
Question: I have a bit of a problem getting the exact hydra/roach ratio correct. What kind of ratio do you normally get? In a maxed army situation, I feel like there's not much of a need to get above 16-20 hydras (even with swarm hosts). Any more than that feels like overkill. ...Question: I have a bit of a problem getting the exact hydra/roach ratio correct. What kind of ratio do you normally get? In a maxed army situation, I feel like there's not much of a need to get above 16-20 hydras (even with swarm hosts). Any more than that feels like overkill.
If you have the ultimate infestor viper composition, pure hydra is even better then roach hydra.
Otherwise there is no real ratio you need to have, it depends to much on your position and on the opponents composition, so that a 50/50 ratio should be the best one. I would not even call it bad for you, if the terran attempts to do a bigger drop than 2 medivacs. In that case you should normally be able to just run him over because your army is so much stronger than his when he has 2 full medivacs dropping. Otherwise its the same thing as in WoL with ling infestor, you just have to accept that he did shut down your overlords and maybe wait till he wastes them.If you have the ultimate infestor viper composition, pure hydra is even better then roach hydra.Otherwise there is no real ratio you need to have, it depends to much on your position and on the opponents composition, so that a 50/50 ratio should be the best one.
DaemonX Profile Joined September 2010 545 Posts #19 Hi iShockz. I have an issue with this style, in that terrans go reactor hellion before CC, they can have 4 hellions in my base before 6:30, before my roaches are out. 4 hellions can get a crazy number of drone kills without any speedlings or spines to shut them down...I lost 2 games to that today and am wondering what the answer is.
Terran isn't terribly behind as the factor-first doesn't seem to delay him too much since his gas doesn't have to be super early (13 after rax is fine).
EsportsJohn Profile Blog Joined June 2012 United States 4442 Posts #20 On April 21 2013 01:23 DaemonX wrote:
Hi iShockz. I have an issue with this style, in that terrans go reactor hellion before CC, they can have 4 hellions in my base before 6:30, before my roaches are out. 4 hellions can get a crazy number of drone kills without any speedlings or spines to shut them down...I lost 2 games to that today and am wondering what the answer is.
Terran isn't terribly behind as the factor-first doesn't seem to delay him too much since his gas doesn't have to be super early (13 after rax is fine).
This is really an old problem come back in a new way. Back in the day when all terrans were opening reactor hellion before expanding, zergs would just get either 1) fast zergling speed with a flood of lings at 6:30 to get a surround and shut down the hellion harass or 2) 4-6 queens and a spine crawler with a partial or complete walloff at the natural.
You should know something is up if your opponent's natural isn't down by 6:00. This can generally mean a few things: 1) fast hellions, late expand, 2) some kind of widow mine shenanigans, 3) some kind of all-in. Having extra queens will help in all of these cases and 2 spore crawlers will save you from any kind of widow mine drop.
Probably the best response is to go up to 6 queens before taking a 3rd if you haven't scouted your opponent's natural expansion by 6:00. In addition, you need to scout whether or not widow mines are incoming; one of the ways to do this is to just have lings spotting the front of his base for hellions. No hellions, no expansion by 6:00, spore up. If it's some kind of all-in, you can generally stall with your queens and spine crawlers until you can afford roaches.
Hope this helps some! This is really an old problem come back in a new way. Back in the day when all terrans were opening reactor hellion before expanding, zergs would just get either 1) fast zergling speed with a flood of lings at 6:30 to get a surround and shut down the hellion harass or 2) 4-6 queens and a spine crawler with a partial or complete walloff at the natural.You should know something is up if your opponent's natural isn't down by 6:00. This can generally mean a few things: 1) fast hellions, late expand, 2) some kind of widow mine shenanigans, 3) some kind of all-in. Having extra queens will help in all of these cases and 2 spore crawlers will save you from any kind of widow mine drop.Probably the best response is to go up to 6 queens before taking a 3rd if you haven't scouted your opponent's natural expansion by 6:00. In addition, you need to scout whether or not widow mines are incoming; one of the ways to do this is to just have lings spotting the front of his base for hellions. No hellions, no expansion by 6:00, spore up. If it's some kind of all-in, you can generally stall with your queens and spine crawlers until you can afford roaches.Hope this helps some! Strategy
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The RCMP in New Brunswick's Major Crime Unit continues to follow up on tips and information regarding the disappearance of Jami Springer of Moncton who has been missing since August 31.
"Investigators have spoken to numerous people and followed up on information from the public," says S/Sgt. Maurice Comeau with Codiac Regional RCMP. "We believe there is someone out there who has information about Jami but has not yet spoken to police because it is very unusual for a person to go missing without someone having knowledge about it."
Jami Springer's disappearance is considered to be suspicious as it is unusual for her to be out of contact with her family for such an extended period of time without any reason. Her family is concerned for her well-being, as are our police.
She was last confirmed to have been seen in the late afternoon of August 31, 2016, on McLaughlin Drive in Moncton.
The RCMP are releasing photos supplied by the family that show some of Jami's tattoos in hopes that it will help generate additional information. The tattoos include a flower on her upper back, butterfly on her lower back that extends around her waist, a multi-coloured tattoo of a birthday cake, along with other various tattoos on the upper part of her right arm and a red, white and blue popsicle on the inner part of her upper right arm. Jami Springer also has a large tattoo of the Lord's Prayer that goes the entire length of her thigh on the left leg.
Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Jami Springer, or who may have seen her or spoken to her on August 31 or any time since, is asked to contact the Codiac Regional RCMP at 506-857-2400. Information can also be provided anonymously through Crime Stoppers by calling 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), texting TIP212 + your message to 'CRIMES' (274637), or by Secure Web Tips at www.crimenb.ca. |
TORONTO – Long after his teammates have finished answering trade-related questions and cleared the dressing room, Jared Cowen finally returns from an extended morning skate at Air Canada Centre.
Flying beneath the speculation, basically excluded from the wider conversation around the Toronto Maple Leafs entirely, the 25-year-old defenceman is facing just as much uncertainty as those being mentioned more prominently in the rumour mill.
Cowen could be dealt before Monday’s trade deadline because of an unusual quirk that would give any team that bought him out this summer a salary cap credit of $650,000 for next season.
Or, perhaps all of the rehab work he’s currently putting in on a four-year-old hip injury will be for an eventual audition on the Leafs’ blue-line.
It’s not yet clear what exactly Toronto has planned for Cowen – not even to Cowen himself – but he made it clear Thursday that he hopes it doesn’t include a trade out of town before he’s even played his first game for the team.
“If they are (looking for a trade), they haven’t told me or they haven’t led me to believe that,” Cowen told Sportsnet. “I have a feeling that they want me here and I want to be here.
“So I haven’t thought about it once.”
Since he’s now part of a Leafs organization combing the collective bargaining agreement in search of every advantage possible, a trade can’t be ruled out entirely. Especially with the unique circumstances surrounding Cowen’s contract.
He is due to earn $4.5 million in salary in the final year of his back-loaded deal next season, and that presents an interesting opportunity for a buyout. Since the cost to do so is only one-third of the remaining value – because Cowen is under age 26 – a team would get a rare $650,000 cap credit in 2016-17 and assume a hit of $750,000 the year after.
The potential to create extra space would have value to any of the cap-strapped teams, especially one like Chicago that is likely to carry a significant overage because rookie Artemi Panarin is in position to reach both his Schedule “A” and “B” bonuses this season.
In other words, Cowen’s unique contract situation represents an asset for the Leafs. What remains unknown is whether the organization views the player himself as being worth even more than the potential return he could garner in a trade.
It’s been a difficult few years for the former ninth overall pick, who underwent surgery for a torn labrum in his left hip in 2012 while with Ottawa Senators, and hasn’t been quite the same since.
“The next year was the tough year because I wasn’t feeling as good, the season kind of wore on me because it’s so long, so I felt worse and worse,” said Cowen. “I kind of just got used to how bad I was feeling so it didn’t even seem that bad anymore. It was the new normal.
“Then after that year, I kind of had a hernia and I played the whole next year with that hernia without knowing. It hurt a lot. I couldn’t skate well, so I just had surgery last summer.
“I’m just trying to get rid of all those symptoms I’m having but they just keep building up.”
Cowen has played only five games since Jan. 1 – he claims the Senators were reluctant to use him after he requested a trade – and doesn’t have a timetable for his debut with the Leafs.
When he arrived in Toronto as part of the Dion Phaneuf trade on Feb. 9, he was told to take some time to get healthy. That’s where things stand now.
There is the potential for reclamation here, with the Leafs in the middle of a patient teardown and Cowen having some ties with Mike Babcock through their affiliation with the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs. Babcock certainly isn’t talking in a manner that suggests Cowen’s stay is going to be short-term.
“His hip is very tight,” he said. “So we’re doing everything we can – he’s been skating and working and stretching, but an injury that happened in 2012 just doesn’t loosen up over night. So his power in his hip, it’s affected his skating obviously for a long time.
“What we’re trying to do is catch him doing it right – and by doing that we’ve got to get him to be at a level so that he play and be confident in his ability to skate and turn.”
In the meantime, Cowen is slowly adjusting to life in the big city and hoping he gets a chance to get his career back on track soon.
There will be a degree of uncertainty to his situation even if he isn’t dealt at the deadline because Toronto could still move him in June before the buyout window closes.
However, all Cowen is focused on now is getting stronger and healthier.
“Since I’ve got here I feel a lot better,” he said. “The medical team here is really good, they’ve done a lot of work. I’ve been going on a little bit of my own schedule here, which kind of sucks because I’m not with the guys all the time, but it’s been good for me to focus on trying to get rid of all the things I’ve built up over the years from having those surgeries.” |
Suicide Squad explodes to $65 million on Friday
Suicide Squad brought in an estimated $65 million at the domestic box office on Friday, with an average of $15,306 per theater. That number includes the $20.5 million in Thursday previews. The Warner Bros. release received a B+ CinemaScore from audiences, ahead of Batman v Superman‘s B score.
The film also continues to dominate the international marketplace, opening in 17 additional territories yesterday with an estimated $33 million from 17,900 screens in 57 markets, bringing its international total to $64.6 million. Specific opening numbers from international territories include:
UK – $6.2 million
Mexico – $3.9 million
Spain – $1.4 million
Russia – $2.6 million
Brazil – $2 million
Australia – $2.3 million
Korea – $1.8 million
France – $1.2m
The comic book adaptation stars Will Smith (Ali, The Pursuit of Happyness), Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street, Focus), Joel Kinnaman (Netflix’s “House of Cards”), Viola Davis (The Help, Doubt), Jai Courtney (Insurgent), Jay Hernandez (Takers), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Thor: The Dark World), Ike Barinholtz (Neighbors), Scott Eastwood (Fury), Cara Delevingne (Paper Towns), Adam Beach (Cowboys & Aliens), and Karen Fukuhara in her feature film debut.
You can read our two Suicide Squad reviews by clicking here and here.
It feels good to be bad… Assemble a team of the world’s most dangerous, incarcerated Super Villains, provide them with the most powerful arsenal at the government’s disposal, and send them off on a mission to defeat an enigmatic, insuperable entity. U.S. intelligence officer Amanda Waller has determined only a secretly convened group of disparate, despicable individuals with next to nothing to lose will do. However, once they realize they weren’t picked to succeed but chosen for their patent culpability when they inevitably fail, will the Suicide Squad resolve to die trying, or decide it’s every man for himself?
Written and directed by David Ayer and based on the characters from DC Comics, the film was produced by Charles Roven and Richard Suckle, with Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder, Colin Wilson and Geoff Johns serving as executive producers.
[Gallery not found] |
Mr Hoon's Derbyshire home Gordon Brown says he has more important issues than MPs' expenses to deal with as fresh controversy grew about bills submitted by his transport secretary. Geoff Hoon insists he broke no rules in claiming second home allowances while living in a taxpayer-funded apartment. The Prime Minister said his focus was on the economy and fighting terrorism. Meanwhile, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is contesting newspaper claims she billed taxpayers £40 for a barbecue in her second home, the BBC has learned. The minister says she is "just about 100% sure" she did not claim for it, sources have revealed. 'Barmy' The Sunday Express reported she claimed a total of £304 for a barbecue, garden patio set and heater at her family home in Redditch, Worcestershire, which Ms Smith calls her second home. But Ms Smith said "not all of the expenses" outlined in the newspaper were correct, sources told the BBC. Meanwhile the prime minister appeared to distance himself from the growing controversy about MPs' expenses, which featured in several other Sunday newspapers. Questioned at a summit he is attending with other EU leaders Mr Brown said: "I think over the last few days the world has made sufficient advances in how we can deal with the economy, how we can deal with terrorism, how we can deal with security and these are the issues I am concentrating on. "All these other issues are being dealt with by the Committee on Standards in Public Life". Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Mr Hoon said he had done nothing wrong by claiming second home allowances for his home in Breaston, Derbyshire while living in a taxpayer-funded apartment in Whitehall. He lived in the flat in Admiralty House while he was defence secretary and also rented out his own London home while there. 'Rogues' He told the Mail on Sunday: "I was told unless I went into secure premises I would have to have round-the-clock police protection at my home in London and that that would cost the taxpayer a great deal more." He reportedly said he did "not accept" that he was profiting from the situation. Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards confirmed he is investigating another Labour MP over an allowance claimed for second home in the capital. The commissioner, John Lyon, has begun an inquiry into Leyton and Wanstead MP Harry Cohen who claims costs for his east London home because he lists a house 70 miles away in Colchester, Essex as his main residence. The growing row has led to fresh calls for MP expenses rules to be tightened, with Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg describing it as "barmy" that ministers could have two homes paid for by taxpayers.. Mr Hoon was defence secretary when the claims were made Tory frontbencher Ken Clarke said he was "shocked" by recent expenses revelations which made people think MPs were "rogues". The shadow business secretary implied that as many as a third of MPs could have made questionable expenses claims. He told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show that "at least two thirds of MPs I hope" were doing nothing wrong on expenses and they were suffering from "an exaggerated public view that they're all thieves, they're all rogues, they're all lining their own pockets". Chancellor Alistair Darling told the same programme that the recent spate of revelations were "damaging". He said: "I think we do need to get an outside examination of this and so there are recommendations coming from people who've got no axe to grind. I think that's what the public want, and they want it quickly." Writing in the Mail on Sunday Conservative leader David Cameron said the problems in the expenses system were shared by all parties. "We are all implicated and we must all find a solution," he said. MPs needed expenses but there had to be more transparency, he added. Gordon Brown has suggested scrapping the controversial second home payment for all MPs, in a shake-up of allowances. The Committee on Standards in Public Life is bringing forward a wider inquiry into MPs' expenses, with a report due towards the end of the year.
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OnLive's Potential
During 2009 after a game developers conference in San Francisco, OnLive was announced. OnLive is a service that allows users to stream games remotely. The games are installed and run on powerful remote servers, and then a compressed video stream would be sent back to the user's PC or Mac. It boasted the ability to play high end games like Crysis on any device with a good internet connection that is capable of streaming video.
OnLive boasted about how it could cut costs for publishers by offering game titles completely online, eliminating the need for retailers, allowing the savings to be passed onto consumers. OnLive also brought a way to eliminate piracy, since the games were being streamed remotely. OnLive also offers a service that allows players to easily watch other players.
"More people searched for 'OnLive' during the Game Developers Conference than for the phrase 'video games," bragged Tiffany Spencer, an employee of OnLive who handled PR. More than 100,000 people signed up for OnLive's beta. During 2010, an expert evaluated OnLive and determined that it was worth 1.1 billion dollars. OnLive also became compatible with smart phones in 2011. Allowing you to play games like Batman: Arkham City, and LA: Noire right from your phone. OnLive bragged about having more than a 2.5 million users, and 1.5 million active users. OnLive also offered games with 60 FPS.
Bankruptcy and lack of customers
Then, in 2012, a little over two years after launching, OnLive filed for bankruptcy, fired about half of their staff, and was sold to an investor named Gary Lauder only 4.8 million dollars. Which in retrospect makes the evaluation of OnLive's value at over a billion dollars look ridiculous. While OnLive's competitor Gaikai was sold to Sony for $380 million dollars in 2012. Where did OnLive go wrong? How did an idea that seemed so promising fail?
What OnLive didn't mention is that those 2.5 million users included every person who ever signed up for an account, including beta and free accounts. Active users include ever user who tried the service in the past year. A big appeal to OnLive was their demo service. Many of the people being counted in OnLive's official user figure never paid anything.
During a meeting, OnLive founder and former CEO Steve Perlman explained that there were approximately 1,600 users online with OnLive at any given time, while OnLive had more than 8,000 servers available. Each user required a physical machine, and OnLive overestimated the amount of customers it would have. The majority of servers remained sitting there unused. Due to the lack of paying subscribers, OnLive was losing approximately 5 million dollars every month.
When you consider that games like Call of Duty frequently have hundreds of thousands of people online at any given time, and Team Fortress 2 frequently has tens of thousands of users online, that 1,600 figure seems incredibly low.
CEO's Mistakes
According to theverge, the first problems can be traced back to the launch. Activision, and EA were not in OnLive's launch. EA and Ubisoft were originally on board and both parties planned to work together. Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age were modified for OnLive and ready to launch. However, on June 17th, right before Onlive launched, Gaikai, OnLive's competitor announced a deal with EA, and later announced a deal with Ubisoft. OnLive CEO Steve Perlman "went ballistic". According to an unnamed witness, "We had to slam the conference room shut and crank up the music so people wouldn't hear him". Even though Gaikai only offered demos, not full games, Steve Perlman demanded EA remove the titles from Gaikai. When EA refused, Perlman instructed his staff to remove EA's games from the lineup. Mike McGarvey, who was Chief Operating Officer at the time highly advised against the decision, but Perlman wouldn't hear it. McGarvey was fired shortly afterwards.
Afterwards, Perlman rejected any game that also appeared on Gaikai, including games that they'd already invested money to test and develop on their system. Such as the Witcher 2, and Bulletstorm. Perlman also threatened to stop doing business with Ubisoft when they had their demos up on Gaikai. Steve Perlman also supposedly scared off Valve by giving them an "all or nothing" deal, when Valve merely wanted to try a few games out. As the majority shareholder, Perlman didn't have to answer to anyone, and outvoted the board of directors on multiple occasions.
Over promised, Under delivered
One of the problems with cloud gaming is that it demands at least a decent internet connection, especially if you intend to play the games on a high quality setting. OnLive claimed it would be able to play PC games on the highest setting on any device with a decent internet connection, yet the reality fell short of that. OnLive's quality was frequently outmatched by their competitor, Gaikai. Though both services typically fell short of max settings on either a PC or a console. On slow connections, something as simple as another family member streaming a YouTube video could cause your game to lag.
Real Cost of the "PlayPass"
Another issue that worried gamers is OnLive's statement that gamer's might lose access to their games within 3 years of purchasing them. In essence, rather than buying the game, they were just getting a temporary license to rent them. With OnLive's uncertain future, some gamers worried that they might lose their games even sooner if the company goes out of business.
Another problem is the cost of the games. Even though OnLive didn't charge the subscription fee like they originally planned to, it still costs around full price, generally around $40-$50 to "purchase" a game from OnLive, or get what they call a "PlayPass". While services like Steam are offering the sames games for a fraction, sometimes less than a tenth of the cost.
Lack of exclusives
Perhaps the most damaging aspect of OnLive was not the chance to lose your game after 3 years, the cost, or the CEO, or even chance of getting lag or reduced quality, but the actual content.
One problem is that every single game that is available on OnLive is also available on PC. No publisher wanted to take the risk of making a game exclusively for OnLive due to the limited userbase. Most of the big games available on OnLive were also available on consoles as well.
Conclusion:
With their "hardcore" games, and full prices, the service does not appeal to casual gamers. Yet at the same time, due to the reduced graphics, lag, lack of exclusive content, and potential to lose your game after 3 years, it didn't appeal to hardcore gamers either. With constantly improving connection speeds, and constantly decreasing hardware costs, it could be argued that OnLive was a service ahead of its time. One can't help but be curious if OnLive will head in a new direction after being sold, but at the moment, the future for OnLive is looking grim.
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Everyone is talking about Bernie Sanders’s comments on identity politics. On Sunday night in Boston, the Vermont Senator and progressive hero gave a speech, first fully reported by Boston Magazine, where he said that identity politics was going to be the big struggle inside the Democratic Party. Because the party was not connected to the working class, and that’s why Donald Trump won.
At minute 39, the moderator passed along the first question, from an audience member named Rebecca who described Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Sanders as her heroes and said, “I want to be the second Latina senator in history. Any tips?”
Sanders:
Let me respond in a way that the questioner may not be happy with. It goes without saying that as we fight to end all forms of discrimination, as we fight to bring more and more women into the political process, Latinos, African Americans, Native Americans– all of that is enormously important.
And count me in as somebody who wants to see that happen. But it is not good enough for somebody to say, Hey I’m a Latina vote for me. That is not good enough. I have to know if that Latina is going to stand up with the working class of this country and take on big money interests.
Now one of the problems, one of the struggles we’re going to have, right now– let me lay it on the table in the Democratic Party– is that it is not good enough for me, to say well we got We have x number of African Americans, we got y number of Latinos, we have z number of women. We are a diverse party, a diverse nation. Not good enough.
We need that diversity, that goes without saying. That is accepted. Right now we have made some progress in getting women into politics. I think we got 20 women in the senate now. We need 50 women in the Senate, we need more African Americans.
But here is my point, and this is where there is going to be a division within the Democratic Party. It is not good enough for somebody to say, I’m a woman, vote for me! No that’s not good enough. What we need is a woman who has the guts to stand up to Wall Street, to the insurance companies, to the drug companies, to the fossil fuel industry.
In other words, one of the struggles that you’re going to be seeing in the Democratic Party is whether we go beyond identity politics. You know, I think it’s a step forward in America if you have an African American CEO of some major corporation. But you know what, if that guy is going to be shipping jobs out of this country and exploiting his workers, it doesn’t mean a whole hell of a lot whether he’s black or white or Latino.
Alright, I know some people may not agree with me. But that is the fight that we’re going to have right now within the Democratic Party. The working class of this country is being decimated. That’s why Donald Trump won. And what we need now are candidates who stand with those working people, who understand that real median family income has gone down. That young people in many parts of this country have a very limited future. That life expectancy for many workers is going down. People can’t afford health care, can’t afford their medicine, can’t afford to send their kids to college.
We need candidates, black and white and Latino and gay and male, we need all of that. But we need all of those candidates and public officials to have the guts to stand up to the oligarchy. That is the fight of today.
So I say to … Rebecca, I would be delighted to support her. But it is not good enough that you’re a woman, not good enough that you’re a Latina. You’re going to have to tell me how you stand on the major issues facing this country and whether you have the guts to take on big money. |
A man in a white coat, smiles, offers an injection to an infant who is alone. “Innoculation is the perfect Medication” he tells the child after dancing and singing with a syringe. The nurse tells the children elsewhere that if they are vaccinated with the MMR they won’t get the Measles, Mumps and Rubella. Will it hurt asks the boy, well it might says DR Ranj, but you can cry if you want to. Without waiting for an OK, the doc injects the boy who says “I am not ready for my ‘jection”, but the doc marvels“I have already done it”. (sic)
Even if you didn’t see the TV show described above – and I didn’t – you probably sense the writer of that description didn’t approve of it and you probably won’t be surprised that the doctor and infant in question looked something like this:
In case you missed it, only one of the characters in the above pic is real and he is a real-life medical doctor, Dr Ranj. The CBeebies Get Well Soon series is aimed at pre-school children. According to comments from parents about the series on the Dr Ranj fb page, toddlers love the show, which is intended to “help children understand their bodies and to see the medical world as an environment in which they feel safe”. (Source)
The series has covered a range of uncontroversial conditions like verruccae, constipation and conjunctivitis. I was unaware of it until I got wind of some 60 or so complaints to the BBC about the content of an episode called, Inject to Project. Cue much bristling and hissing from those who say,
“Vaccination is the longest running hoax perpetrated by Allopathy, the most pernicious, and the most dangerous thing that your children will ever face.”
That quote appears on many websites, including the one called ‘Arnica UK Parents Support Network’, which is run by Anna Watson, who authored the above passage and who is apparently spearheading the campaign to complain about the show.
Anna challenges whether it is legal “to promote medicines to children suggesting that they are 100% safe” and whether it is ethical “to promote medicines to children suggesting that they are 100% effective”.
This presumably refers to the bit where the show’s ‘Nurse Morag’ is telling a group of infants that the MMR jabs will stop them getting the measles, mumps and rubella, not the bit where the pharmaceutical sales rep goes to a nursery school and gives a presentation to the children about the benefits of second generation anti-depressants because, as far as I know, that bit didn’t happen.
Sorry to state the obvious but young children don’t choose whether to be vaccinated or not. Even if Nurse Morag made vaccines sound so enticing that three-year-olds en masse had started demanding them from Santa, the decision is not theirs to make – it’s for their parents. And every parent who makes this choice tells their child that getting a jab will stop them getting a nasty disease, just as Nurse Morag did. The complainants seem to think that an age-appropriate explanation of why a child should have a jab is the same as ‘promoting medicines to children suggesting they are 100% effective’. I wonder if those responsible at the BBC have stopped laughing yet?
The other main plank to Anna’s complaint seems to be that (1) while with the doctor, the puppet-child is unaccompanied by a puppet-parent and (2) that the puppet-child says he’s not ready for the injection but is given it anyway.
In a fuller version of the article, which appears, for some unfathomable reason, on a website called The Economic Voice, Anna writes:
Will Dr Ranj, who is a paediatrician from Kent, be struck off?
Yes, she really did ask that! What wouldn’t I give to attend the GMC hearing that considers the case of Dr Ranj and his alleged unsolicited assault on a TV puppet?
Anna continues:
A medical intervention, a vaccine in this case, was administered in a non life threatening situation without consent at all. The minor does not give informed consent and neither do his guardians or parents as they are not there. No risks or contra indications were discussed or considered…(snip)…How many children saw this show alone and will have been left with the idea that medicines and syringes are totally safe and work without fail? How will the BBC find these hundreds of thousands of children and their families and apologise for promoting the dangerous image that it is OK for a single male to coerce a lone child into an injection that carries a potential risk?
I have to wonder what nightmare scenario does Anna envisage might result from the show? Perhaps that a toddler might find his way to a GP’s surgery, demand the MMR jab to the delight of the doctor who does a song and dance but gives no explanation of “risks or contra indications” and doesn’t wait until the kid’s ready before sticking in the needle? Worse, that a child will happen on a discarded syringe and, having been convinced by a puppet show that syringes are totally safe and effective at something or other, will promptly plunge the syringe into herself? Bonkers. But I love the bit asking how the BBC will find all those families and apologise, as if she expects the BBC to commit to doing so.
I’ll let Dr Ranj answer the criticisms. From his response to a critic making a similar noise on the fb page.
1) The programme is make-believe and involves puppets, not real patients, in fictional situations used to illustrate real life – therefore please take it in that context. 2) In the episode, Deep came in for a pre-booked vaccination appointment – the aim of the episode was to explain to him why he was having it and to allay his fears not to ‘persuade’ him to have it. 3) In any case a child would not be able to give informed consent – hence the decision was already made. 4) Yes, I am a real doctor and I deal with children and with issues around such treatments everyday – each episode was checked, considered and discussed at many levels and is consistent with current NHS practice and recommendations. 5) The majority of people who watch the show appreciate its intentions and have found it valuable, informative and entertaining. So let’s just leave it at that.
Of course, they won’t leave it at that. Anna is urging everyone who has complained already to complain again. In an email to supporters she writes,
OFCOM are unsure if they are going to investigate and the BBC may investigate if we take our complaints to Stage 2. If you complained please write again to the BBC’s Editorial Complaints Unit, if you are not happy with their (lame in my opinion) reply. Please do this within 20 working days of your complaint, and they will carry out an independent investigation.
We are not told the contents of the BBC’s ‘lame’ reply, apart from the first line. Here we go:
The reply was returned as quick as you could say “No conflicts of Interests” with the opening line “Firstly, we’d like to reassure everyone that no programme on CBeebies receives commercial sponsorship of any kind.” Obvious what other types of complaints they had received that morning, but nothing in response to my concerns.
That might be because her concerns are risible.
In fairness, I owe a debt of gratitude to Anna Watson. Having seen my two strong, healthy and fully vaccinated kids grow into adolescence, I confess that when the MMR controversy started by the disgraced Andrew Wakefield erupted in the late 1990s, I didn’t take much interest, until Anna and a couple of other anti-vaxers joined in a discussion at the Think Humanism forum, some years ago.
Their arguments and the refs they provided in support were very persuasive, in that I was persuaded to take a far stronger pro-vaccine position than I held already. I was also persuaded to read up on Andrew Wakefield and that was one of the things that inspired me to start this blog.
So, thanks, Anna and friends. Speaking as one who has benefitted from your activity, I’ll leave you with some advice on how to continue your campaigning work and ensure further publicity from the likes of me.
1. DO suggest or imply that anyone who promotes vaccines only does so for financial gain because this is the equivalent of saying, “Hello, I’m a conspiracy theorist and incapable of understanding any argument except my own.” The key point here is that it is an ad hominem. Whatever is said about vaccines stands or falls according to the available evidence and not according to who says it and why they are saying it. More importantly, there is an ethical reason for promoting vaccines and that why it is WHO and Dept of Health policy to do so; you may not agree with that reason but insulting people who do agree with it by implying some vested interest, is unlikely to make them well-disposed towards you or to take you seriously, so please carry on doing it at every opportunity!
2. DO downplay the risks of infectious diseases. I’m sure we all appreciate such crystal-clear reasoning as this:
If you are frightened of the disease called Measles have the vaccine of course, as it seems that you are less likely to contract it, but if you are not frightened of the disease then is fear of death from measles really an option? (sic)
The year I got measles – together with every other child in my class and some 763,500 other people in England and Wales, there were 152 measles related-deaths. I remember the boy who sat next me at school had to wear a hearing aid forever afterwards. The American CDC states that about 30% of measles cases develop one or more complications. In the past few years we’ve seen reports of measles-related deaths in the UK and in other developed countries. Claiming that mortality from certain diseases stands at zero and complications are small isn’t going to endear you to the thousands of people who know different but I won’t suggest you should find them all and apologise. Au contraire! Just keep up the good work!
3. DO continue to promote homeopathy and other quackery on your website, as this should ensure that you will be perceived as a grolie and not worth giving the time of day to.
4. DO go that extra mile to make yourself sound as daft as possible when complaining. Asking whether a doctor who perforated a puppet on a TV show will be struck off the medical register and calling an explanation to young children about why they are getting vaccines the same as ‘promoting all medicines as 100% safe’, are excellent examples, as is calling your article,‘BBC misses another child protection issue’, as if it’s comparable to the Jimmy Savile scandal. Keep them coming!
By the way, you might like this graphic, courtesy of the Skeptical Libertarian.
For those to whom correlation equals causation, it’s worth noting that since the Arnica Network started in 2007, there has been an increased uptake of the MMR vaccine and it’s now the highest it’s been since Wakefield published his crappy paper. This, as Dr Ranj declares, is great news for everyone.
Onwards and upwards.
Update 31.12.12 I’m amazed to see this article has had nearly 5,000 visitors in 24 hours and that Dr Ranj has been inundated with tweets from outraged supporters. He’s responded with the suggestion that all those who wish to show their support for the Get Well Soon series to please message CBeebies on their facebook page.
Update 09.04.13 The clip of Dr Ranj singing and dancing about the benefits of the vaccine is now on on youtube. Enjoy! |
With his team ahead by two goals early in Saturday’s match, Minnesota United FC coach Manny Lagos expected more sterling soccer to follow.
Instead, United stumbled against Indy Eleven, suffering an own goal and missing a golden scoring chance. Lagos found reason to smile, however, when captain Aaron Pitchkolan restored a two-goal lead just before halftime.
The goal was the match-winner as United defeated Indy Eleven 3-2 and remained alone atop the North American Soccer League spring season standings with a 4-0 record.
“It was my favorite moment in the match,” Lagos said. “We could have put our heads down, but we really responded.”
Like his coach, Pitchkolan took mixed feelings from Saturday’s match, played before an announced crowd of 4,913 at the National Sports Center in Blaine.
United FC's Simone Bracalello and Indy Eleven's Fijero Okiomah fought for possession of the ball in the first half Saturday at the National Sports Center in Blaine.
“It’s great to be on top of the table, but I think our best soccer is ahead of us,” Pitchkolan said. “We’re hoping to put a full game together and dominate from start to finish.”
New faces in the starting lineup helped Minnesota control the first 25 minutes en route to a 3-1 halftime lead.
Simone Bracalello and Daniel Mendes, both making their first starts this season, played prominent roles in the first two goals.
A cross from Bracalello looked to create a goal from Mendes in the 23rd minute. But “before I shot the ball it jumped,” Mendes said. The ball trickled toward Christian Ramirez, who buried his team-leading third goal this season.
Two minutes later, Bracalello raced from the pack and sent the ball toward Mendes once again. This time he shot and scored for a 2-0 United lead.
Indy Eleven threatened to cut the lead on a free kick in the 28th minute. But United goalkeeper Matt VanOekel dived left to stop the ball as it screamed past a wall of bodies.
The visitors got a gift from Bracalello, whose clearing attempt went directly into the United goal in the 42nd minute and cut his team’s lead to 2-1.
The goal was the first allowed by Minnesota in the first half this season.
“We’ll give him a hard time later about it,” Pitchkolan said.
Pitchkolan gave his team a lift after the own goal and a near-miss from Ramirez.
Miguel Ibarra passed to Pitchkolan, who settled the ball, then fired from 20 yards out for a 3-1 advantage. His goal came during stoppage time in the first half.
Indy Eleven (0-1-3) got within one goal on a penalty kick goal from Jose Kleberson Pereira in second half stoppage time. |
Go See The Old Guys
Enlarge this image toggle caption Amy Harris/Corbis Amy Harris/Corbis
Neil Young made me write this. Before last Thursday, when ol' Shakey and his golden garage band Crazy Horse stomped through my local amphitheater, the last thing I'd thought I'd be excited about was a bunch of guys hovering around 70, playing loud rock and roll into the night. I knew I'd love the Crazy Horse set — it was getting great reviews, the new album Psychedelic Pill is cool, and Young's the tinkering type who never stops challenging himself. But later, I found myself thinking about how Young's impressive vigor doesn't separate him from his peers — it's actually characteristic of the very acts that walked like giants in the 1960s, and whom you'd expect to be delivering little but nostalgia now.
We all know classic rock acts make bank on the touring circuit. Roger Waters had the top-grossing tour of the first half of 2012 in his live staging of the Pink Floyd classic, The Wall. Bruce Springsteen, a few years younger, is the year's most talked about road dog. Elton John and Paul McCartney are also near the top of those lists. The Rolling Stones are about to embark on a very fancy 50th anniversary run; Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are touring Quadrophenia, and then there's Young, earning raves all over the place.
Taylor Swift and Rihanna may dominate mainstream pop now, but their cranky uncles from the Stratocaster side of the family aren't about to pull out their tinnitus retraining therapy aids and take a nap. Whether we're marveling at the vigor of the superfit Springsteen and Mick Jagger, or feeling the pathos of determined but more battle-scarred vets like Townshend and Young, those of us who still go see the old guys are witness to a whole new set of revelations about what remains compelling after living fast fails to lead to dying young.
In the abstract, this bugs me. I was born the month The Beatles came to America, on the cusp of generations boom and X, and have always felt burdened by my immediate elders' assumption that their intrusive guitar noise was better, bigger, and more historically important than any other music. Counterculture-era male rockers perfected all the clichés that punk taught me and my friends to sneer at; they marginalized women and alternately stole from and fetishized the African-Americans who were their mentors and peers; and they invented the mullet. I say this while admitting that I love a lot of classic rock — Jimi Hendrix is my homeboy, and I listen to Led Zeppelin at least once a week. But too much focus on one style and one bunch of guys who played it has obscured a lot of great music from other times, places and people. I'd love to see some diehard fans not spend their yearly concertgoing allotment on those same guys, and check out someone new (or seasoned but equally great) instead.
I can't deny it, though. The geezers of rock are really bringing it lately. In the past few years, I've seen most of the artists I named above, and not a one phoned in his performance. I caught Waters' spectacle at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2008, and was taken aback by its spectacle, which was not just grandiose but genuinely grand. At the opposite end of the spectrum, I was lucky enough to see McCartney perform on the tiny Amoeba Records stage in Los Angeles in 2007, beginning his late-career comeback with a gesture of plain, heartfelt joy.
Money is an undeniable factor motivating many seasoned rockers, and plenty of older stars are focusing on the marketplace and not making work anybody would call fresh. (Hey there, Rod Stewart.) But art, and an interesting mix of retrospection and restless rejiggering, often soon take over in their shows. Consider Leonard Cohen, the folk poet who hit the road again at age 74 after being bankrupted by a swindling manager. At his 2008 Los Angeles show, he played for three and a half hours, dropping to his knees on nearly every song, frankly astounding the audience. That tour's set list wove together old favorites and plenty of obscurities, exemplifying how a veteran artist can use the concert setting to retell the story of a complicated career.
Young, conversely, almost perversely refuses to dwell too much in days gone by. Pulling out cut after cut from Psychedelic Pill, keeping the few hits — a five-minute "Cinnamon Girl," a pretty perfunctory "Needle and the Damage Done" — to a minimum, he could be accused of trying to alienate listeners looking to relive the their own youthful high times. (Bob Dylan, another titan of the senior circuit, has been doing the same thing for decades; I remember a San Francisco show circa 1990 where some Ralph Lauren-outfitted VIP's seated near me got very frustrated when they couldn't recognize the revamped melody to "Like a Rolling Stone.")
Yet as Crazy Horse leaned in close and pushed forward, resonances from every previous Neil Young era floated through the music's distortion. I laughed when Young theatrically donned a flannel shirt before initiating "F*!#in' Up," an album track from his twentieth studio release — but I also thought, it's true, this dude did invent the 1990s (rockwise at least). Not only his pals Pearl Jam but Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth and Nirvana wouldn't have done what they did without his example. By focusing on new material and then juxtaposing the few old faves included with less familiar songs that share their main qualities, Young's current set lists make such insights more accessible.
Beyond the chance to perform chiropractic adjustments on amazing bodies of work, however, something else happens on many of these tours. Partly, it happens because of less than perfect real bodies. The gods of rock have been through a lot by now — they've suffered serious health setbacks, negotiated scandal, had first and second and third wives and watch their kids have kids (and grankids and sometimes flourishing musical careers). They're facing death, not in the recklessly dramatic ways they did as not really immortal youth, but through the irritating daily struggles of bodies breaking down. "Sixty-four is old, you know what happens next," sings Loudon Wainwright III on this latest album Older Than My Old Man Now, which reflects hard on very reality. Pete Townshend echoed this sentiment in an interview about the Quadrophenia tour, saying that he and Daltrey have been "anxious to work together again before we drop dead." That drop, or one less catastrophic but still significant, could happen any day. Posturing just doesn't seem that appealing when one false move could herniate a disc.
Culture's inevitable shifts also play a role in humbling once-mighty heroes. Young's released two albums with Crazy Horse this year, but neither is likely to make Billboard's year-end list of top sellers. Because youth dominates the music-buying public, and because Top 40 radio doesn't play new material by most anyone over 40 — hell, it barely plays rock — rock eminences don't have hits. Their widely acknowledged influence doesn't usually flow from recent creative efforts.
Beyond their own catalogs, baby boomer rock icons can't help but see the rest of the world changing around them, too. Students in my husband's undergraduate seminar on American popular music have often not heard Nevermind all the way through, much less Exile on Main Street. (The eternal exception: they all know The Beatles.) It's possible, I'd say wise, to trace the slow marginalization of rock from the dawn of the 1970s, when disco began reinventing dance music, through the rise of hip hop in the 1980s and 1990s and the fierce return of teen pop in the 2000s. The powerful connections that once tied rock to a whole lifestyle, and to meaningful political and social change in particular, now run through channels ancillary to other, more popular musical forms.
So why not mess around on stage, pull out something unexpected, and put pleasure and immediate connection first? This is what I often see happening now when I watch stars I once marveled at from the cheap seats. Don't get me wrong: they still do things that make me wonder about them as people. Ron Wood just announced he's about to marry a woman he's known for six months, who was born the year the last really important Stones album came out. I wish them well, but I don't need to meet any of these guys in person. Help me out with one of those ridiculously priced tickets, though, and I'll be there, ready for some magic from artists who've learned that beyond caring, they still care. |
Maybe some of you remember previous Afro-House and Afro-Tech episodes which were both a good opportunity to explore the African side of electronic music. We stay in the same vein today with a mood which can be classified as something like… Afro Deep House. Percussions, dubby effects and atmospheric ranges are the main elements which will transport you to faraway places where spirits will try to get in touch with you. And you’d better revise your ancestral African language as spirits don’t speak English…
Playlist
Hello Skinny – Revolutions (Part 1)
Mr Raoul K – le Cercle Peul (Club Mix)
Dj Mbuso – Funk’s Revenge
Esnard Boisdur vs Frankie Francis & Simbad – Soufwans (Dub Mix)
Dj Steaw – Kolakola (Dub Mix)
At One – African Healing Dance (feat. Wyoma) |
For mainstream America, the FBI is the Robert Muellers and Jim Comeys—a clear and present danger that is now coming to take down America’s duly elected president
America: They’re Coming To Take Down Your President
America: They’re coming to take down your president. They’re calling it the noble mission of an impeccably honest and above-board ‘special’ investigation, mounted by the Robert Mueller ‘Dream Team’, without anyone saying that the fix was in long before the Big Hunt got underway. It’s an initiative whose narrative is being written by the full-of-hate Democrats in defeat, disseminated, world-wide by the mainstream media. Find your situational awareness and be prepared to take cover because Mueller’s handpicked Dream Team is the nightmare from which it will be impossible to shake yourself awake.
The mainstream media—out to get Donald Trump since the 2016 election campaign—is cavalierly passing Mueller’s assignment off as a perfumed package, completely missing the stench of the bungled anthrax letters case under his watch as FBI director. It defies belief that the “special counsel” leading the Dream Team is the same man who let Islamists rewrite FBI training manuals during his tenure as FBI chief. (AIM, June 17, 2017) Nary a word from any of the cool dudes and dudettes on the Dream Team when their boss, former President Barack Obama disallowed the term “Islamist terrorism” from public use. How much worse does it get? Incredibly, Mueller’s Dream Team is setting off as a legalized lynch mob and bounty hunter with a whopping 61 percent of public support. “According to a new poll from the Associated Press and the University of Chicago’s NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 61 percent of Americans surveyed believe Trump has tried to impede or obstruct the FBI’s investigation into his campaign, while just 37 percent said they believe Trump hasn’t tried to impede or obstruct the investigation. (The Blaze, June 17, 2017) “The poll also found there is a growing concern over the possibility that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russian operatives during last year’s election. When asked, 48 percent said they are extremely or very concerned about the possibility, up from 44 percent in March, while just 30 percent said they aren’t very concerned or not concerned at all, down from 36 percent in March. “An overwhelming majority, 52 percent, also said they disapproved of Trump’s decision to fire Comey, while 22 percent said they approved of the decision and 24 percent said they were indifferent.”
Mercifully, the poll found that not many Americans believe special prosecutor Robert Mueller will carry out a fair and impartial investigation—and at the bottom of the report on the poll—only 26 percent believe in his ‘special counsel’. ‘Dream Team’ is a term dreamed up by the always highly imaginative MSM back in the days of the riveting O.J. Simpson trial, a misnomer that went on to prove that anything the media manufactures, like Google, gets to live forever. The still rational among us can take it to the bank that the tooth fairy is more real than Mueller’s, or anyone else’s, so-called ‘Dream Team’. When special counsel Mueller comes back with evidence that President Donald Trump was the agent provocateur in the Russian election collusion story, or is ready to impeach due to his “obstruction of Justice” for having fired FBI Director James Comey —and Mueller will claim his mission unearthed irrefutable proof of Trump impeachable guilt—a tsunami of MSM stories will attest to Mueller’s breath-taking integrity and credibility. That will be their story and they will stick to it. This is a Dream Team that will come back with evidence of Trump campaign collusion with Russia, obstruction of justice—and will have the audacity to feign surprise when they do. The Dream Team will bring in just what leaders of the Obama-led Resistance want—President Donald Trump’s head, not in a comedian’s performance art, but on the proverbial platter.
It’s a process, once started, that just cannot be denied, a win-win situation for Mueller and Company because if Trump fires Mueller as he did James Comey, he’ll automatically be found guilty of “obstructing justice”. Former FBI Director James Comey kicked off the process when he leaked information to the New York Times all to have his close friend Robert Mueller named as “special counsel” to find evidence of a story, the Trump/Russia collusion story, already proven untrue. Who can the heavily propagandized and constantly lied to American citizenry trust? Not Comey. That’s for sure. He was the leaker hunting down other leakers and the man who bought into and considered paying for the filth produced by ex MI6 agent Christopher Steele who passed on a dirty dossier including the ‘Golden Shower’ mother of monstrous lies. Few believed that Trump hired prostitutes to urinate on a bed the sacrosanct Obamas slept on at a Moscow Ritz-Carlton. But the FBI must have as they planned to pay Steele to do further research for the bureau. It defies belief that Mueller’s Dream Team is going out gung-ho on a predetermined mission, in which they can rest assured that their former boss Barack Obama, his failed protégé Hillary Clinton and the entire Democrat team wait with bated breath for their return.
The masses who buy into the bunk that the real life FBI are like the ones they see ion popular television shows will be easy to fool when they come back to announce to the world that Hillary Clinton was right all along, the tag team of Donald and Vladimir stole the election from her. The FBI has never corroborated or verified any of the outrageous allegations in Steele’s dirty dossier. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein gave the special counsel job to Mueller on May 17. Lawyers with loyalties to the Democrat Party have been jumping aboard the Dream Team ever since. “Mueller has his pick of some of the top lawyers in the country. “If you’re a prosecutor, this is what you dream of—getting on a case like this,” says Peter Zeidenberg, who prosecuted I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff. (Bloomberg, June 14, 2017) “Among the most notable of Mueller’s early hires is Michael Dreeben, who’s argued more than 100 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and is considered an expert on whether the president can legally keep his staff communications secret. “Another is Andrew Weissmann, former head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s fraud unit. Aaron Zebley has spent years in proximity to Mueller, most recently at WilmerHale and before that as his chief of staff at the FBI. Zebley worked as a national security prosecutor in Virginia, where at least one of the Russia-related cases was based. He was also the lead FBI agent in the case against a key Sept. 11 conspirator. “This is an incredibly intelligent, tenacious, and thorough team,” says Tom Hanusik, a former prosecutor on the Enron Task Force. “Regardless of your political persuasion, if you’re interested in having this resolved, you should be heartened by this kind of team.” “Trump allies have already questioned the independence of some of Mueller’s investigators over their political donations to Democrats. “Trump’s personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, is having trouble persuading people to join his defense team, according to two people familiar with his efforts. Instead, Kasowitz is leaning on his longtime partner, Michael Bowe, a prominent litigator. He also signed up Jay Sekulow, chief counsel to the conservative American Center for Law and Justice, who was dispatched to cable news shows to attack Comey’s credibility.”
It shouldn’t be Trump’s past that should be coming back to bite him. Trump arrived at the White House as an outsider and a successful businessman—and had no say in what the FBI did or didn’t do before his highly unexpected arrival. “Robert Mueller took office as FBI director in 2001 expecting to dig into drug cases, white-collar misdeeds and violent crime. A week later was Sept. 11. (Chicago Tribune, May 18, 2017) “Overnight, his mission changed and Mueller spent the next 12 years wrestling the agency into a battle-hardened terrorism-fighting force. “Now, Mueller once again finds himself catapulted into the midst of historic events: The Justice Department has named him special counsel to investigate potential coordination between Russia and the Trump team during the 2016 presidential election and related matters.
Republicans and Democrats alike praised Mueller, 72, as someone widely respected for his integrity and independence. “As FBI chief, Mueller stood alongside James Comey, then deputy attorney general, during a dramatic 2004 hospital standoff over federal wiretapping rules. The two men planted themselves at the bedside of the ailing Attorney General John Ashcroft to block Bush administration officials from making an end run to get Ashcroft’s permission to reauthorize a secret no-warrant wiretapping program.
“Republican Rep Jason Chaffetz of Utah, chairman of the House oversight committee, tweeted that Mueller was “a great selection. Impeccable credentials.” “Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Mueller’s appointment gave him “significantly greater confidence that the investigation will follow the facts wherever they lead.” That’s akin to saying that the mainstream media of the day follow the facts wherever they lead in this era of Fake News, Mr. Schumer. Where is the proof that Mueller transformed the FBI into a “battle-hardened terrorism-fighting force”? Where is the evidence that Mueller delivered on his promise to delve into “drug cases, white-collar misdeeds and violent crime?” With violent crime multiplying every weekend in the streets of Chicago, the evidence must be in the whitewash. The media has been cutting Mueller a break from the get-go: “Mueller’s effort to shift the FBI’s top priority from solving domestic crimes to preventing terrorism was a daunting challenge: Even preventing 99 out of 100 terrorist plots wasn’t good enough for a traumatized nation. (CBS News, May 17, 2017) “In response, the FBI shifted 2,000 of the 5,000 agents in its criminal programs into national security. “Two terrorist incidents occurred toward the end of Mueller’s watch — the Boston Marathon bombing and the Fort Hood shootings. Both weighed heavily on him, he acknowledged in an interview two weeks before his departure in 2013. “You sit down with victims’ families, you see the pain they go through and you always wonder whether there isn’t something more” that could have been done, he said.” Did the victims’ families know that Mueller let Islamists rewrite FBI training manuals? There was no FBI tip-off when James Hodgkinson cut loose at the Alexandria baseball practice Wednesday injuring five, including House Majority Whip, Steve Scalise. Police often stand-down at public events where Trump supporters are assaulted. In short, the Donald Trump administration can look to little support from the FBI in an era where violence seems to be the norm. There may be good agents in the FBI but somehow they never get to the top. The FBI of the present day is nothing like the ‘good guys’ viewed on television drama. For mainstream America, the FBI is the Robert Muellers and Jim Comeys—a clear and present danger that is now coming to take down America’s duly elected president.
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Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years’ experience in the print media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared on Rush Limbaugh, Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com.
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Jonathan Demme, the Oscar-winning director of dozens of films including Stop Making Sense, The Silence Of The Lambs, Philadelphia, and Rachel Getting Married, has died. The cause of death, as reported in Indiewire, was esophageal cancer and complications from heart disease; Demme had been treated for the latter off and on since 2010, but his condition reportedly worsened in recent weeks, and he died in New York City earlier this morning. He was 73.
Demme was born in Long Island, New York in February of 1944, growing up in the Americana-infused Eisenhower era that would profoundly influence his directorial obsessions later in life. He initially wanted to be a veterinarian, but a lack of scientific aptitude led him to writing film reviews, then to a job as a press agent at now long-shuttered studio AVCO Embassy, then to legendary exploitation producer Roger Corman, who Demme would come to consider a mentor. Corman served as an uncredited producer on Demme’s directorial debut, the women-in-prison flick Caged Heat (1975), which also marked Demme’s first collaboration with his frequent collaborator, cinematographer Tak Fujimoto. Although inarguably part of the Corman B-movie machine, the film shows flashes of the eccentric genius Demme would become.
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Corman also produced Demme’s next two projects, the kitschy road movie Crazy Mama (1975) with Cloris Leachman and the Peter Fonda-starring revenge thriller/capitalist critique Fighting Mad (1976). After the failure of his next movie, Citizen’s Band, a.k.a. Handle With Care (1977), which Senses Of Cinema refers to as Demme’s “first masterpiece” in its overview of the director, Demme was hired by actor Peter Falk to direct a Colombo TV movie in 1978. A string of smaller works—including Melvin And Howard (1980) and Swing Shift (1984), which was extensively, disastrously re-worked before its release—followed, until Demme broke through with his first music documentary, the 1984 classic Stop Making Sense. The playful spirit of the Talking Heads carried through to Demme’s next two films, the charming, romantic Something Wild (1986) and stylized Married To The Mob (1988); Demme also directed a number of music videos and Saturday Night Live sketches during this creatively fruitful decade, along with the film version of Spalding Gray’s one-man show Swimming To Cambodia (1987).
The work that would win Demme his first and only Academy Award for Best Director was also something of a departure for the director. Silence Of The Lambs (1991) is a crime thriller dark enough to be frequently cited as the only horror movie to have ever won the Oscar for Best Picture. Still, in its invocations of Tom Petty and The Fall, the film retains Demme’s signature rock ’n’ roll spirit. Silence Of The Lambs was criticized by LGBTQ groups for its portrayal of serial killer Buffalo Bill, leading Demme to take a different, arguably more respectful approach for his next film, Philadelphia (1993), starring Tom Hanks in an Oscar-Winning turn as Andrew Beckett, a gay lawyer dying of AIDS who sues his former law firm for wrongful dismissal.
Demme went heavy again for a film adaptation of Toni Morrison’s magical-realist classic Beloved (1998), followed by remakes of the Audrey Hepburn/Cary Grant film Charade (re-titled The Truth About Charlie) in 2002 and John Frankenheimer’s The Manchurian Candidate in 2004. And although he would go on to direct a few more fictional features—including 2008’s Altman-esque Rachel Getting Married, which netted Anne Hathaway her first Oscar nomination—Demme committed himself anew to his talent for documentary, and particularly music documentary, in the last decade of his life, directing documentaries on Neil Young, Jimmy Carter, and Justin Timberlake, among others. Like many prominent directors, he also began directing television in the 2010s, helming episodes of The Killing and two extraordinary episodes of HBO’s Enlightened.
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Demme’s last fictional feature film was 2015’s Diablo Cody-penned, Meryl Streep-starring aging-rocker dramedy Ricki And The Flash, and his last documentary feature was Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids, which came out last year. However, his last televised work, an episode of Shots Fired, airs tonight on Fox. The famously private Demme leaves behind three children and legions of friends and admirers, many of whom have already paid their respects on social media. |
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