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Heya, friends!
I'm Michael Maurino, I go by the name IronStylus, I'm a Senior Concept Artist at Riot. I currently work as a 2D artist on the Relaunch team. Here's what we've been working on!
http://oce.leagueoflegends.com/en/page/lab-report-reinventing-revered-inventor
A little about me..
I create concept art which is used to inspire new character and create images for 3D artists to make models from. I've worked on the Champion team on Leona, Skarner, Talon, Xerath, Graves, Diana, Quinn and a bunch more. I've also had some tenure on the Skins team, working on a few skins, most recently Sunbathing Leona and Lunar Revel Diana.
On Relaunch, I've been working with the team since Annie and have been the concept artist on such Relaunch champions as Trundle, Sejuani, Master Yi and more.
I visited PAX Australia last year and had an AMAZING time meeting you guys. It was a real life-changing experience and I was blown away at how fantastic our OCE players are! I really want to thank you for that!
So with all that said, let me know if you have any questions! |
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has defied pressure from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to embrace controversial gas exploration, saying her state is "not budging" on the politically charged issue.
Speaking after a Council of Australian Government meeting in Canberra on Thursday, the Prime Minister stepped up pressure on his Coalition counterpart to approve the much-disputed $3.6 billion Narrabri Gas Project project by energy giant Santos, saying it would go a long way to helping meet a predicted east coast gas shortfall.
"[The project] is currently going through the planning process. What we would look forward to is that planning process being completed," Mr Turnbull said.
"The extra ... 58 petajoules [of gas produced per year] would make a very significant difference in supply and ... price is a function of supply and demand." |
A former employee at Tesla’s Fremont factory filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the electric carmaker, alleging he was fired in retaliation after seeking protection from anti-gay harassment, The Guardian reported today.
The defendant, an assembly line worker named Jorge Ferro, claims he was taunted for being gay and threatened with violence. “Watch your back,” one supervisor told him after mocking his “gay tight” clothing, the paper said. After complaining to an HR representative, Ferro was repeatedly moved to different assembly lines, but the harassment didn’t stop.
“Watch your back.”
Ultimately, HR told him there was “no place for handicapped people at Tesla” after noticing an old scar on his wrist, according to The Guardian. He was sent home, and eventually terminated.
In a strongly worded statement to the paper, Tesla denied the allegations and defended itself against the charges. “There is no company on earth with a better track record than Tesla,” a spokesperson said.
The lawsuit is the latest to paint an unflattering picture of life at the popular carmaker. Earlier this week, three former African-American employees sued Tesla, claiming they’d suffered constant, often daily racial discrimination and harassment, and that the company did little to nothing to stop the behavior.
In both cases, Tesla argued the defendants were actually employed by third-party contractors. To be sure, Tesla’s full-time employees have to sign arbitration agreements that force them to settle harassment claims privately. Even so, the company says it attempted to separate Ferro from his alleged harasser. Ferro’s lawyer told The Guardian Tesla erred by moving the defendant after he complained. “It’s perceived by many to be retaliatory,” said Chris Dolan, Ferro’s attorney. “It sends a message to other employees that if you complain, you’re the one who’s going to have your job changed. In essence, you’re penalizing the party who’s making the complaint.”
“It’s perceived by many to be retaliatory.”
In a statement, Tesla’s spokesperson also attacked the media for reporting on lawsuits against the company, as well as the lawyers for filing the complaints:
“Media reporting on claims of discrimination at Tesla should bear a few things in mind: First, as one of the most highly reported-on companies in the world, anyone who brings claims against Tesla is all but assured that they will garner significant media coverage. Second, in the history of Tesla, there has never been a single proven case of discrimination against the company. Not one. This fact is conveniently never mentioned in any reporting. Third, as we have said repeatedly, even though we are a company of 33,000 employees, including more than 10,000 in the Fremont factory alone, and it is not humanly possible to stop all bad conduct, we care deeply about these issues and take them extremely seriously. If there is ever a case where Tesla is at fault, we will take responsibility. On the other hand, Tesla will always fight back against unmeritorious claims. In this case, neither of the two people at the center of the claim, Mr. Ferro and the person who he alleges to have mistreated him, actually worked for Tesla. Both worked for a third-party. Nevertheless, Tesla still stepped in to try to keep these individuals apart from one another and to ensure a good working environment. Regardless of these facts, every lawyer knows that if they name Tesla as a defendant in their lawsuit, it maximizes the chances of generating publicity for their case. They abuse our name, because they know it is catnip for journalists. Tesla takes any and every form of discrimination or harassment extremely seriously. There is no company on Earth with a better track record than Tesla, as they would have to have fewer than zero cases where an independent judge or jury has found a genuine case of discrimination. This is physically impossible.”
Tesla is still in the middle of lawsuit from a former employee who alleged that women experienced “unwanted and pervasive harassment.” And just last week, the company fired hundreds of workers during a time CEO Elon Musk has described as “production hell” as it attempts to ramp up production of the Model 3. |
A continuation of thoughts from World War III: A status update (2014), World War III: A picture (2012), and A Stateless War (2010)
Another revolution of the same wheel
The word crisis is derived from a word meaning ‘turning point’. For all the crises we think the world has been through, there is very rarely a turn. Indeed, history can appear more like an inexorably straight path with predictable periodic bumps. The tools to effect a real change are available now, but real change would require a real direction and goals. Without these, this revolution will end as all the others eventually have, with new tyrants. – Me, World War III: A picture, 2012
It hasn’t been comparatively long since World War III: A status update, but we are already in need of another update. Not only is it now irrefutably clear that what has been billed for the last few years as a new multi-polar empire will be unabashedly a Chinese feudal empire instead, it looks almost as though it is a fait accompli and the death throes of the US empire-that-never-was may be far less than I anticipated.
China’s new puppet states suddenly include not just NAM and BRICS members but also any US allies that may have been expected to oppose their expansion, including all members of the five eyes themselves. Shell and BP trade LNG to China in exchange for nuclear plants where the UK takes the risk and China receives the energy and rail lines where safety is left to the extremely unsafe Chinese firms. China’s President demands an audience with the UK queen and she is brought forth like an aged Cleopatra, her unwillingness a trophy for the ability of the new empire to bend the old to its will. Even the US, which currently stands alone in denying the new order, has signed away far more sovereignty over their resources than most of their media will admit and their heavily IP dependent economy is very vulnerable to any changes China should choose to make to IP laws and trade agreements. The US military has changed its tone from aggression to a wish for joint exercises, a tolerance of China’s spy ships and a ‘review’ of their defence agreement with Japan.
When corporations rule the world there is no need for invasions, conquest is a simple matter of mergers, acquisitions and trade agreements. There is also no need for resistance as those who own the corporations benefit either way and will sign the deal most attractive to themselves. Those world leaders supposedly in conflict are always open to negotiate and change allegiances with each other and use their media tools to redirect the people’s hatred and fear. They meet and shake hands with each other while they are too afraid to meet or shake the hands of those we call ‘their people’.
The collapse of the former global resource mafia cartel has led to the global resource mafia gang war I outlined in 2012 and it does involve the entire world as predicted. The collapse of the former power and wealth ponzi schemes in some states have led to a decentralized governance by trade mafia which looks exactly like horizontal, egalitarian, libertarian / p2p trade economy is designed to look: survival of the strongest, most tyrannical and most violent, subjection of all who build society and care for the weak. The violence, destruction and senselessness of this gang war will ensure that what will now become a global feudal structure is welcomed as a respite. It will take little reminding of the horrors of the Islamic State, Boko Haram and all the other militias to convince people for a long time into the future that self-governance is impossible.
As the revolution(s) which brought us to a global resource cartel resulted in a far more insidious, all powerful and far reaching tyranny than the military empires it replaced, this latest revolution will convert us into a state of cattle-like product with far less free will than even the current power structure. Trade rivalries are giving way to a crushing global feudal structure which controls all resources with no rivals and tolerates no dissent.
A Dutchman, an American and an Englishman met in a castle
In 1928, the founders of Royal Dutch Shell, Standard Oil (now Exxon) and the future British Petroleum met and formed a secret oil cartel. By the end of the 1960s, they had been joined by four other US based companies and were known as the Seven Sisters. This powerful cartel not only controlled 85 percent of the world’s oil reserves but they dictated governance, controlled the economy and destroyed the economic and environmental life of much of the world. Along with the international banking cartel and other resource corporations they perpetuated the old trade empire and economic slavery of most of the world.
After various mergers, the old seven sisters are now British Petroleum, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell and today they control just 10 percent. According to the Financial Times, the new Seven Sisters are Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Aramco, Russia’s Gazprom, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the National Iranian Oil Company, Venezuela’s PDVSA, Brazil’s Petrobras, and Malaysia’s Petronas. The move by many oil-producing states to nationalization of resources was an attempt to combat the pillage by imperial multinationals. Unfortunately, the trade economy was left intact and decentralized resource mafia remained mafia.
Those states attempting nationalization were embargoed like Iran, corrupted like Nigeria and forced to create polar security states opposing the force of the multi-nationals. The residents of these states were left with the choice of living with corruption, militarization and bad governance within their own government or protesting their governance and leaving themselves open to occupation by the multinationals. A state under siege can justify and be allowed far greater atrocities than would ever be tolerated in a free state. If the people refused either dictatorship, they found themselves in a civil war like Sudan or with the militia and human rights horrors found in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern provinces, under de facto rule by drugged boys with guns feeding off forced labour of children. The more localized the control over resources, the less expertise is available and hand dug mines in Burkina Faso and Indonesia collapse on children working with no protection or medical or environmental expertise.
The price of security is enslavement. Resources are stolen in the name of free trade, ideas are locked in imperial vaults and ‘theft’ from your own commons is criminalized. Nigeria and Brazil swap food self sufficiency for oil and biofuel money, Paraguay and Mali sell their water to corporations from states with more than plenty, Niger poisons its land to power France, and pollution, climate change, drugs and guns devastate entire populations. The multinationals run a protection racket which, when removed, leaves the people open to a shadow trade economy mafia supplied and fed by the global governments. International laws and trade agreements are used to assert legal power over people who never consented to the laws or treaties, and representative governance is used to pretend the consent of the governing is the same as the consent of the governed. Peace in a trade economy is a crushing mafia cartel.
The resource war currently raging all over the world will only get worse as the populations of Africa and India continue to soar and the already huge populations of China and India attain middle class and demand more water, meat, fuel and other luxuries. Global water use has quadrupled in the last century and seven countries, the United States, United Arab Emirates, India, United Kingdom, Egypt, China and Israel, own 60 percent of the water acquired by corporations globally. What is far worse is the precious water resources that exist, from the Guarani aquifer in South America to the Great Lakes of North America, from the Lake Chad Basin in Africa to the Aral Sea region in Central Asia, are being pillaged and polluted by corporations of other industries such as fracking, agriculture and manufacturing. Agriculture accounts for 70% of total water usage world-wide and food production is also being moved to countries which can be locked out when a water shortage appears. The borders which prevent migration by those who need food and water do not prevent pollution and resource theft by the borderless multinationals.
Water and the environment are multi-state shared resources being destroyed by a coercive structure that does not recognize commons property and uses fixed borders to lock out the repercussions of fluid pollution and pillage. The pressure caused by this destruction will and is becoming too great for those physical borders and military violence to contain. Instead of collaborating on solutions to all of the quite solvable crisis before us, the mafia in power have made the decision to let millions, if not billions, die and have invested in military and border security instead.
A current study on population growth projections finds an 80% probability that world population, now 7.2 billion, will increase to between 9.6 and 12.3 billion by 2100. Growth will occur primarily from nations which have suffered from trade pillaging, including aboriginal populations in the Americas. In the wealthy states, as well as the rapidly growing economies such as China, Brazil and India, an ‘epidemic of aging’ is projected instead.
The biggest industries of the shadow trade mafia are all genocidal. The weapons for populations to destroy each other with greater ease and the drugs to increase the violence and incapacitate effective resistance have been supplemented with the rapid growth of the human trafficking industry. People are bought and sold as products for militias, prostitution, marriage, slavery, organ trafficking and even ritual killings. People are tortured for ransom and charged for their passage as refugees. The shadow human trafficking industry is now vying with the arms industry as the top criminal industry in the world, and with the Australian government’s recent sale of refugees to Cambodia it has become openly a government activity as it always has been secretly.
There is also a global gender imbalance which has been caused by the femicidal actions of populations in China and India, the current and projected largest populations in the world, as well as other places. Since China and India are also two of the wealthiest economies, they can afford to spread their severe imbalance to other nations. More than ever in history, women are a global commodity.
The injustice and desperation experienced by those watching their families die, their homes destroyed and their resources stolen result in a natural resistance which is harnessed by rival gangs in the resource war. Any rebel movement of any skill begins to spread influence not by threats with guns but by hoarding and distribution of essential resources, creating need by hoarding then building loyalty and dependence with distribution. As long as there is a trade economy there will be rule by mafia, whether the mafia is local, national or global. There are alternatives to the trade economy and more could be developed if anyone were inclined to do so.
United States: The empire that never really was
As the world knows, the United States was once part of the British empire. As control of trade and currency replaced and supplemented military occupation, the five eyes and their associates continued to act as one, sharing policy and goals. While the United States acted as the imperial military, Canada quietly acted as the imperial resource corporation and the UK and others helped continue one cohesive empire with the illusion of sovereign national states. The transfer of the seat of control from the UK to the US made no real difference to the co-operative alliances.
The primary result of transferring control of empire from the UK to the US was it enabled a very different method of empirical control. The US constitution promoted what was billed as an extreme lack of governance in the name of ‘freedom’. This was not a real lack of governance as both the institutionalized violence and the new ownership laws enabled the mafia to take control and crush all who would build or maintain the previously existing societies. Freedom and legal protection for all who were strong enough to steal from the commons and the insistence that all were equally able to care for themselves very predictably resulted in governance by mafia. Privatization of state functions extended even to intelligence and military and soon formalized into a corporate structure free to do exactly as they wished worldwide as a free roaming mafia with no effective state ties. As Blackwater founder and current mercenary to Chinese corporations Erik Prince points out, the US was founded by militias.
Canada was formerly a resource corporation known as the Hudson’s Bay Company. There is very little difference between that former corporation and a state in which every Prime Minister for many decades was financially dependent on or actually related to the principals of Power Corporation. Canada’s laws have aided the more than 75% of the world’s resource corporations registered there to avoid legal responsibility for their human rights and environmental disasters worldwide. The governments of the five eyes have never had any claim to being nations despite their violent national rhetoric. All were set up as a resource mafia cartel to control the rival gangs.
The corporate freedoms which stripped society, governance and the commons from the people and dissociated people from their interdependent nations have also neatly packaged all control of these regions into saleable entities. These countries now have very little legal recourse against their corporate free agents being collected tidily in China’s basket, and their legal protection is less every day.
The so-called US empire may historically be seen as part of the collapse of the British empire or the transition between the British and Chinese empires, between a militarized trade empire and a global corporate feudal empire.
It is hard to imagine anything worse than the US empire with its mass assassinations by robot and cultural decay, but a worse alternative would probably include mass citizen trials and thousands of pigs floating in the drinking water. Unlike the US, China does not pretend to value individual rights or freedom above the state and is open about methods of thought reform. Neither does the Chinese ruling party dissemble about their status as the new empire or their lack of admiration for the intelligence and competence of other nations. Unlike the US, China has concentrated on building infrastructure globally instead of military bases, but the quality of that infrastructure has too often shown corruption and a lack of concern for human life.
The binary thinking and Good Guys vs Bad Guys narrative that has been the defining theme of corporate propaganda has many thinking that any state opposing the US empire must be a saviour. China does not oppose the US. The light rivalries between the governments of the world never put them on opposite sides. The enemy of your enemy is very much the same as them and they are both working against you. The new feudal structure also has many continuing the fantasy of a multi-polar empire, but a glance at trade agreements and foreign investment is enough to show clearly that the multi-polar feudal lords have all pledged allegiance to China. It does not matter at all where the headquarters of the empire is in any case, those holding power are all allies and none of them are going to save their natural enemies, all of those below them.
The trade economy ponzi scheme has reached its natural conclusion in the new global empire. The people most likely to overthrow Chinese or global corporate rule are not the US military or any other rival state, but the Chinese people and the people of the world. In order for this to occur, the people of the world would have to accept that no messiah will save them and see the root principles of the ponzi schemes of power and wealth that enabled the empire. Most of all, for any revolution to result in actual change, there must be a new path built with new principles.
To be continued ….
Related:
Binding Chaos
Autonomy, Diversity, Society
Releasing Chaos |
A 90-year-old veteran in Dundas goes by a curious nickname: The Brick Bomber.
The nickname's origins go back to one particular day in 1944 in the skies over Burma.
Born in Hamilton in 1923, Art Adams wanted to become a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force, but his eyesight was poor. Instead, he joined up and served as a kicker, the evocatively named precursor to what today's force calls a leading aircraftman.
Planes would fly supplies to where the British and Allied forces were, trying to stop the advance of the Japanese through Burma to India. Once they found the British, Adams and his fellow ground crewmen would kick or push the supplies out of the plane to deliver them via parachute.
They'd open the doors of the DC-3 plane, and out would fall food, munitions, medical supplies — even donkeys ("liquored up" before the drop to keep them calm).
"They had no way of transporting stuff in the jungle, except for the donkeys," Adams said.
'We'll get rid of some bricks'
In 1944, several hundred Allied troops had set up a camp on Ramree Island where there was no cooking facility. Adams went with the 436 Squadron leader to an abandoned airfield on Akyab Island to pick up some bricks to bring back to build ovens with.
As the plane made its way back, Adams spotted a downed Japanese plane on the beach.
"Art ran up to the pilot and said, 'Go round a couple of times, and we'll get rid of some bricks,'" said Sonja Cuming Adams, Art's wife.
The plane was too heavy with bricks, anyway —it had struggled to take off. Adams's plan would lighten the plane's load. And it would make sure that the Japanese plane couldn't fly again.
Just in case the story seems hard to believe, Adams offers up some corroboration: There's a picture of that plane on that island, authenticated by a Japanese publication 12 years ago, he said.
"The wings and tail are all riddled, and there's bricks on the ground," said Sonja Adams. "So it never flew again. So that's why they call him the one and only Brick Bomber."
Now, decades after the war, Adams still goes into work as often as he can at the Credit Bureau of Hamilton. He and Sonja married four years ago, and they go for near-daily walks by nearby Webster's Falls.
And every year he presents an award for current Air Force members. He took a regulation boot and bronzed it, a commemorative award to honour the best loadmaster each year in Squadron 436.
"They vie for that," Sonja Adams said. |
While Israel’s far-right government is angrily condemning the P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran, Israel’s military intelligence corps is offering its own assessment, viewing the deal as largely positive, saying the only real “risk” is that it will make Iran a legitimate country.
That would make Israel’s constant threats to attack them, a cornerstone of their foreign policy for decades, tougher to sell. By contrast, the corps sees the deal as not only preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear arms, but likely to restrain Iran’s support for overt terrorist attacks.
This is the exact opposite of the assessment by the government itself, which is that the deal will mean Iran getting more aggressive in supporting regional terror groups by virtue of them having more money. Most of that money, however, is likely to go toward modernizing their economy after decades of embargoes.
To the extent that Iran picks up their foreign aid at all, it’s likely to be anti-ISIS centric, as they clearly view ISIS as a more serious near-term threat than Israel, doubly so since the P5+1 deal would make an Israeli attack ridiculously harmful for them diplomatically.
Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz |
Microsoft announced a big refresh to its Skype for iPhone app earlier this week, and it’s now starting to roll out to handsets. While there’s a new focus on group chats within the app, the most notable changes are visible as soon as you start using Skype 5.0 as it all looks a lot like Windows Phone. Previous versions of Skype for iPhone have kept largely inline with the look and feel of iOS apps, but Skype 5.0 is identical to its Windows Phone equivalent. There’s panning to reach people, recent, and favorites sections, and the chat and phone icons replace the old section buttons at the bottom of the app.
The most surprising addition is the use of the three dots menu that Microsoft includes in its Metro-style applications to note there are extra options. With all these new user interface changes in place, Microsoft’s Skype iOS app appears to have leapfrogged the Windows Phone version. Subtle animations, smooth scrolling, and a parallax effect all add up to an iPhone Skype experience that feels superior to its Windows Phone equivalent, despite looking identical. Windows Phone users have persistently requested a better Skype experience for a platform Microsoft calls its own, and these latest changes might provide hope for an improved Windows Phone app that’s features and design are aligned with iOS.
Spot the difference.
Alongside the design changes, Microsoft is tweaking its messaging and group chat options. Picture messaging was always hidden away in a confusing drop down option, but it’s now front-and-center thanks to a new attachment icon in the message input area. You can add photos or video messages, and both are displayed inline within a chat thread. Overall Skype still feels like an app that’s primary function is video and voice calling, but it’s clear Microsoft is trying to strike a balance to pick up on the popularity of apps like Snapchat or WhatsApp. The changes aren’t drastic enough yet, but right now it’s subtle changes to keep the app familiar for its millions of users.
Skype 5.0 for iPhone should be rolling out over the coming days to handsets, but if you’re not seeing the update yet there’s a trick to get it a little earlier. Simply delete the existing app and then open the App Store and navigate to the purchased section of updates. If you pull down and search for Skype then you should see the new 5.0 version. |
[bitcoin-dev] Let's deploy BIP65 CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY!
> > Field experience shows it successfully delivers new features to end users > without a global software upgrade. > The global upgrade is required for all full nodes in both types. If a full node doesn't upgrade then it no longer does what it was designed to do; if the user is OK with that, they should just run an SPV wallet or use blockchain.info or some other mechanism that consumes way fewer resources. But if you want the software you installed to achieve its stated goal, you *must* upgrade. There is no way around that. Jorge has said soft forks always lead to network convergence. No, they don't. You get constant mini divergences until everyone has upgraded, as opposed to a single divergence with a hard fork (until everyone has upgraded). The quantity of invalid blocks mined, on the other hand, is identical in both types. Adam has said "there is actually consensus", although I just said there isn't. Feel free to say what you really mean here Adam - there's consensus if you ignore people who don't agree, i.e. the concept of "developer consensus" doesn't actually mean anything. This would contradict your prior statements about how Bitcoin Core makes decisions, but alright .... Finally John, I fully agree with what you wrote. Debates that never end are bad news all round. Bitcoin Core has told the world it uses "developer consensus" to make decisions. I don't agree that's a good way to do things, but if Core wants to stick with it then there is no choice - as I am a developer, and I do not agree with the change, there is no consensus and the debate is over. Hey, I have an idea. Maybe we should organise a conference about soft vs hard forks. Let's have it down the road from where I live, a couple of weeks from now. Please submit your talk titles to me so I can vet them to ensure nobody does an offtopic talk ;) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/attachments/20150930/5e0bab14/attachment.html> |
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Hillary Clinton got unusually frustrated last night as she condemned a protester shouting “Bill Clinton is a rapist” during her rally in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Clinton’s events have been interrupted by pro-Donald Trump hecklers in the past, though her usual style consists of ignoring them and continuing with her speech. Tuesday’s event saw a bit of a departure from that norm, when Clinton broke away from her stump speech to address a man who was shouting and carrying a sign about her husband’s alleged sexual transgressions.
“I am sick and tired of the negative, dark, divisive, dangerous vision and the anger of people who support Donald Trump,” Clinton responded. “It is time for us to say no, we are not going backwards, we’re going forward into a brighter future,”
The protester was quickly drowned out by chants of “Hillary, Hillary!” and he was led away after his sign was torn apart by the crowd.
Over the past several weeks, Trump supporters have worked to get on TV and infiltrate pro-Clinton events to shout about the former president’s actions. These actions seem to have been prompted by Alex Jones, the InfoWars conspiracy theorist, who has instructed his audience to perform the stunt for a cash prize.
Trump has made a point of talking about Clinton’s husband throughout the election, and he was recently seen smiling when an audience member offered the “Bill Clinton is a rapist” line during his rally.
Watch above, via NBC.
[Image via screengrab]
— —
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California’s Pacific Coast Highway. Virginia’s Skyline Drive. Montana’s Going-to-the-Sun Road. All iconic American road trips that any driver worth his salt has daydreamed about since boyhood. Colorado’s Million Dollar Highway is on par with all of these, and — if you’re not a native of the state — we bet you’ve never heard of it.
The so-called Million Dollar Highway is actually a small, 12-mile stretch of US 550 (a road worthy of many road trips in its own right). On any standard map, the drive appears to be little more than a thoroughfare connecting the two tiny towns of Ouray and Silverton, Colorado. Save for a few hairpin turns, it’s deceptively straight and straightforward. In reality, it’s among the most radical paved roads in the United States.
The origins of the road are clouded in a combination of mystery and revisionist history. The general path was first cut by Otto Mears — a Russian immigrant and U.S. mail carrier who frequently traveled the San Juan Mountains. He quickly found the path to be quite necessary for others seeking passage across Colorado’s most wild and rugged mountain range. By 1882, he’d consequently opened the path as a rather lucrative toll road.
When the road was first paved in the 1930s, it was purely out of function and necessity. Few folks were interested in driving it for fun, leading many to believe the origin of the road’s name stems from one traveler noting, “I wouldn’t go that way if you paid me a million dollars.” Considering the lack of “amenities” like seatbelts in some early 20th century vehicles, it’s hard to blame him. Beginning south from Ouray (with the sheer gorge to the right), the road passes through Uncompahgre Gorge before climbing to the summit of Red Mountain Pass. It’s a harrowing and downright dangerous drive marked with narrow lanes (often shared by RVs), steep cliffs, sheer dropoffs, hairpin turns, and zero guardrails.
It’s also one of the most beautiful in the country. Every bend reveals yet another panoramic view of some of the most idyllic mountain scenery in the state with names like Electra Lake, Twilight Peak, and Lookout Point. Towering rock walls, rolling fields of evergreen, beautiful alpine lakes, abandoned gold and silver mines, and the ruins of settlements once full of wide-eyed miners who arrived in the valley to strike it rich nearly 100 years ago. Thankfully, there are viewpoints along the way although drivers are often forced to park with a little too much ass in the road.
Surprisingly — or not, because, hey this is Colorado — the Million Dollar Highway is open year-round. While it does close in snow, more often than not, the local government encourages drivers to just throw on some chains and be on their way. |
Image caption Humans are spiritual entities, says the Archbishop of York
Spiritual health must be a feature of the NHS bill for England, the Archbishop of York has insisted during debate in the House of Lords.
Dr John Sentamu told peers: "I am one of those who believe that human beings are psychosomatic spiritual entities."
The archbishop then told how he freed the spirit of a young girl, left petrified by seeing a goat sacrificed.
During a debate on an amendment he said: "Illness can be physical or mental but it can also be spiritual."
The amendment, tabled by psychiatrist and crossbench peer Baroness Hollins, called for the words to be inserted into a clause about the duty of the secretary of state, the NHS Commissioning Board and clinical commissioning groups to improve the quality of services.
Making his case, the Anglican archbishop argued that schools now emphasised students' spiritual dimensions, and said hospital chaplains' work addressed spiritual issues, as well as the physical and mental.
Witches' coven
He also told how when he first became a vicar in south London, he was invited to a home where there was "a presence", a phrase he said he did not understand at the time.
At the home, he said, he found a young girl who had been unable to move for nearly three weeks and would shout out in the middle of the night.
He was told the family had been to a witches' coven where a goat had been sacrificed. The young girl was petrified she would be next.
Visits from a GP, psychiatrist and psychologist did little to help, he said, but then he said a prayer, anointed the girl and lit a candle on his visit.
Shortly after, he received a phone call saying the girl was no longer terrified and was talking again.
"That was not mental or physical illness; there was something in her spirit that needed to be set free," he told his peers.
Dr Sentamu, 62, acknowledged the importance of highlighting mental and physical illnesses, but asked whether they needed to be spoken of "in almost separate categories" in the bill.
"I do not want to divide up a human person. Therefore, I believe that the bill covers people's needs without inserting the words 'physical and mental'.
He said he was "content" that the bill, as it stood, covered all aspects of the human person simply by using the word "illness" .
"The element of the spiritual well-being of people is not on the face of the bill but I am absolutely convinced that, as it stands, my needs would be taken care of because it talks about 'the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of illness'."
The Health and Social Care Bill, if passed, would see GPs and other clinicians given much more responsibility for spending the budget in England, while greater competition with the private sector would be encouraged. |
BEIJING (Reuters) - The number of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) in China has risen nearly 9 times since a decade ago, a private survey released on Tuesday showed, as strong growth in the world’s second-largest economy has spurred wealth creation.
Chinese with at least 10 million yuan ($1.47 million) of investable assets hit 1.6 million in 2016, up from 180,000 in 2006, according to the 2017 China Private Wealth Report by Bain Consulting and China Merchants Bank. The overall value of the private wealth market increased to 165 trillion yuan in 2016, growing at 21 percent annually in 2014-2016.
But the growth rate of China’s private wealth market is expected to decline to 14 percent in 2017 to a total size of 188 trillion yuan.
Around 120,000 HNWIs had at least 100 million yuan worth of investable assets, up from less than 10,000 people in 2006.
The percentage of HNWIs with overseas investment increased to 56 percent in 2017, up from 19 percent in 2011, but the overall percentage of assets invested overseas has stabilized since 2013.
The top five destinations for overseas investment were Hong Kong, the United States, Australia and Canada although Hong Kong’s popularity fell 18 percent and the United States dropped 3 percent from 2015 to 2017.
Respondents said their top three reasons for investing overseas were to diversify investment risks, to capture market opportunities of overseas investments and to migrate.
Sixty-three percent of rich Chinese rely on financial service providers to manage their domestic financial assets and among them, around half use private banking services provided by commercial banks.
China’s wealthy are concentrated in major cities and coastal areas, the survey found, but now 22 Chinese provinces have at least 20,000 HNWIs. Most respondents said their top priorities. were “wealth preservation” and “wealth inheritance”, in contrast to 2009 when nearly half of HNWIs surveyed said “wealth creation” or “quality of life” were their main goals.
($1 = 6.8166 Chinese yuan) |
"Even under the most optimistic projections of global emissions reductions, Boston faces serious risk from climate change and must adapt."
So states a massive new report from the city, one which details the challenges officials expect to face in the future, and which seeks to provide a framework for how Boston should best adapt.
"The challenge of climate change is here, in Boston, now," Mayor Marty Walsh writes to open the final report of his Climate Ready Boston initiative. "As the century progresses, the effects of climate change will grow."
The report's climate projection consensus forecasts a further increase in extreme temperatures and precipitation, and more regular flooding and damaging storms as sea levels continue to rise.
For instance:
"Compared to the period from 1971 to 2000, when an average of 11 days per year were over 90 degrees, there may be as many as 40 days over 90 degrees by 2030 and 90 days by 2070—nearly the entire summer." "As sea levels continue to rise, severely damaging floods will [by the late century] shift from a rare occurrence to a monthly reality."
The report — stretching 400 pages, and involving dozens of stakeholders — details how climate change could affect individual city neighborhoods, and includes figures on potentially vulnerable populations, buildings and transportation.
"That's the grim part," Austin Blackmon, the city's chief of environment, energy and open space, said a news conference Thursday. "But the good news is we know there are policies in place, we know there are policies we can enact to make sure Boston continues to thrive over the timeframe of this report."
The report offers 11 strategies city officials see to reducing Boston's "vulnerability now and over the next few decades," including retrofitting existing buildings, updating zoning and building regulations to support climate readiness, and creating a coastal protection system to address flood risk.
The coastal protection system is the most far-reaching idea — a system of seawalls and gates in and around Boston Harbor that could temporarily close during storms and sea surges.
"This is a big question, about whether something out there is feasible," said Bud Ris, a senior adviser to the Barr Foundation, which funded the report. "And a project like that is probably going to take 30 or 40 years."
A study to analyze the need and feasibility alone could cost $3 million; building a system of seawalls and harbor gates -- billions of dollars more.
The report comes at an uncertain time for climate advocates, given the incoming Trump administration.
The president-elect's pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, announced just Wednesday, has been battling President Obama's climate change initiatives in court and has said the debate over global warming "is far from settled," despite the overwhelming scientific consensus.
With reporting by WBUR's Bruce Gellerman |
“He was horrible, he had no teeth, his face disfigured by scars”. This is how one of the latest victims of rape in Milan, a businesswoman of 42, described her attacker, Mohamed K., 32, an Iraqi illegal immigrant already convicted for theft, assault and wounding. Last week, when she was going out to see a friend so they could prepare for Christmas, Mohamed K. followed her, caught her in a public garden where she had tried to hide, threw her to the ground, beat her and raped her on the spot while shouting “Filthy Italian bitch”, before fleeing and stealing her purse.
Immigrants account for only 6 percent of Italians, but for an impressive 40 percent of Italy’s rapes.
{snip}
In Rome, immigrants are responsible for 52 percent of rapes. In Milan the number goes up to 59 percent.
{snip}
In Bologna, 53 percent of the rapists were immigrants, of whom 11 percent were Moroccans.
Romanian immigrants still top rape statistics due to the huge number of Romanians who moved to Italy and make up nearly a fifth of its immigrants. But the Romanians do not make up more than a fifth of rape statistics in any city, meaning that despite the seemingly high numbers, Romanians are actually proportionally underrepresented in Italy’s rape statistics.
While there are nearly a million Romanians in Italy, there are only half as many Moroccans, but when it comes to rape statistics, Moroccans are only a few points behind Romanians.
Nationwide, 7.8 percent of rapists are Romanians and 6.3 percent are Moroccans, meaning that even though there are only half as many Moroccans as Romanians, they manage to account for only 1.5 percent fewer rapes.
Bologna has 6,200 Romanians and 3,400 Moroccans and Moroccans are responsible for 11 percent of the rapes and Romanians are responsible for 10 percent.
With statistics like these, it would appear that Italy doesn’t have a problem with sexual violence, it has a problem with Muslim immigration.
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art by Sw1tchbl4de
I had another blog planned for tonight, but that can wait until next week, because this weekend marks an event that has a profound significance to the Fallout: Equestria fan community, and deserves special recognition.
Somber's magnum opus, the epic Project Horizons, has reached its long-anticipated completion.
This really does feel like the end of an era. Even though I only read a small portion of it, I feel a sense of melancholy at its completion. I can only imagine what the story's core fanbase -- or Somber -- must be feeling right now.
Congratulations, Somber!
art by Vector-Brony
Project Horizons was a massive undertaking. Writing this story, and seeing it through to completion, required an amount of love, work and dedication beyond the scope that most of us can imagine. Somber has my deepest respect and admiration. And I want to thank Somber sincerely for the amazing gift that has been given to all of us... even knowing that no amount of thanks we can give truly matches the effort that went into it. On a personal level, Somber has given me and my story an honor that leaves me speechless.
In the past, one of the questions that I most frequently received was "What do you think of Project Horizons?" My response was generally some variation of this:
In general, I am always honored when someone is inspired by Fallout: Equestria and creates work based on it. Project Horizons is no exception to that rule, and the sheer scale of the work leaves me in awe. As for the work itself, I have only read the first sixteen chapters of Project Horizons. Therefore, I really cannot review the story or spell to its merits or flaws beyond those sixteen chapters (which, for a story with Project Horizon's size and scale, is very little of it indeed). However, what I have read was extremely well-written, with great characterization and marvelous world-building. There were many times that Somber's attention to detail left me in awe and slightly jealous. Every chapter had something that blew me away and made me want to come back for more. However, were several elements of the story that just were not my cup of tea. Inevitably, I found the story too depressing to continue reading even with all the points worthy of praise. Chapter sixteen created a suitable finish to the tale, and I was happy to treat it as an ending. Still, I can only imagine how much better and deeper the story gets. I can clearly see why it has the fan-base and acclaim it does, and that it is more than worthy of it.
I know that the story is highly controversial in the fandom, but this blog post is not a place to argue over the story. Rather let us raise a glass and toast Somber. Let us give due thanks for all the long, hard work the Somber put into crafting such a massive, epic story that gave so much to so many. A story that has played such a major role in the Fallout: Equestria fandom.
Even as we say goodbye to Blackjack and all of her friends, we know that they will have a place with us forever.
We love you, Somber. Thank you. |
The Syrian army has announced the start of a new large-scale military operation in Aleppo aimed at flushing foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants from the eastern flanks of the strategic northwestern city.
The Syrian Command of Military Operations in Aleppo announced on Thursday that the offensive has been mounted, urging civilians to avoid areas where militants are congregated, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported.
It added that government forces had already prepared corridors for those willing to leave eastern Aleppo, and necessary facilities to receive and accommodate civilians had been prepared.
Syria talks
Meanwhile, a high-level international meeting on the Syrian crisis broke up in New York on Thursday after parties could not reach an agreement to resuscitate a collapsed ceasefire in Syria.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov had opposed requests to ground Russian and Syrian fighter jets and stop the bombardment of terrorist positions.
“The question now is whether there remains any real chance of moving forward, because it is clear that we cannot continue on the same path any longer,” Kerry said.
“The first thing that we have to do is to find a way to restore credibility to the process. The only way to achieve that is if the ones that have the air power in that part of the conflict simply stop using it,” the top US diplomat commented.
Kerry said he would meet Lavrov again on Friday, though confidence-building measures seemed beyond reach at this point.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (Center, L) US Secretary of State John Kerry (C) and United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan Mistura (Center, R) attend the International Syria Support Group meeting in New York, the United States, on September 22, 2016.
Lavrov told Russian media that the consultations would continue to "guarantee" the ceasefire.
There are “attempts on the part of some of our partners to make it so that only unilateral steps are taken by the Syrian government,” the Russian foreign minister said.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was also quoted as saying that Kerry’s “plan won’t work.”
On September 9, Russia and the United States agreed on a milestone deal on the Syrian crisis after some 13 hours of marathon talks in the Swiss city of Geneva.
The deal, which began on September 12 and was initially agreed to last seven days, called for increased humanitarian aid for those trapped inside Aleppo.
The Syrian army announced an end to the week-long ceasefire on Monday, blaming militants for its failure. It said militant groups "did not commit to a single element" of the truce.
Russia later criticized the United States for not doing enough to rein in militants in Syria to protect the truce deal, saying continued violations of the ceasefire by militants made it “senseless” for Damascus to stick to the agreement.
“Syrian servicemen and peaceful citizens are still dying. The cause of this is the fact the United States has no effective leverage to influence Syria's opposition and is unaware of the real situation on the ground,” Lieutenant-General Sergei Rudskoi, a senior Russian Defense Ministry official, told reporters earlier this week.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. Over the past few months, the Takfiri militants active in the Arab country have suffered major setbacks as the Syrian army has managed to liberate several areas.
According to UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, more than 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Syria. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources. |
At Google’s ‘Solve for X’ conference, Utah startup Chamtech introduced a spray-on antenna that could be an interesting development in improving cellphone reception.
The signal booster in a can apparently covers a surface in nanocapacitors that align themselves to create a sort of wireless antenna. The company claims the product would work on a number of surfaces including walls, trees, clothing, even underwater.
Physorg reports that the company has conducted a number of tests, including one where they were able to send a VHF signal up to 14 miles away using only a tree that had been sprayed. The spray-on antenna could reportedly make cellphones work with 10% better efficiency. A “Spray On Antenna Kit” is available from the company’s website and anyone interested can call for pricing information. Chamtech hopes its product could be used by mobile phone and medical device manufacturers, as well as the government. The company’s CEO, Anthony Sutera, gives a more detailed explanation of the spray-on antenna in the video below:
This article originally published at PSFK here |
Chinatown got in on an action-packed weekend of street festivals in Winnipeg.
In addition to ManyFest and the Sherbrook Street Festival, the Chinatown Street Festival drew large crowds on Saturday.
Traditional food and modern dance forms from across cultures were on display on the first day of the ninth annual event.
"We like to show off the Chinese culture," said Tina Chen, chair of the board for Chinatown Street Festival.
Crowds take in a fire dance performance in Winnipeg's Chinatown district Saturday. (Daniel Igne-Jajalla/CBC)
Streets were closed downtown Saturday as performers danced and put on free shows for the public in the city's historic district. Entertainment included Ukrainian, Chinese and Brazilian performances.
Winnipeg's Chinese community has grown from a modest 200 people in the early 1900s to 20,000 residents currently.
"Part of it is that Chinatown is a really interesting space historically and for its new developments, and we want to welcome people down here," Chen said.
Tina Chen is the chair of the board for the Chinatown Street Festival. (Daniel Igne-Jajalla)
"We also want to show people kind of traditional Chinese arts, what the Chinese youth are doing these days and we want everyone to have an experience that's free and family friendly."
The final day of festival fun runs from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Activities will take place on King Street between James and Alexander avenues, as well as on Rupert Avenue.
"I expect tomorrow a lot of people will come down for dim sum and hopefully stay for the street festival," Chen said. |
China is negotiating a military base in a strategic port of Djibouti, the president said, according to the AFP news agency.
The move raises the prospect of US and Chinese bases side-by-side in the tiny Horn of Africa nation.
"Discussions are ongoing," President Ismail Omar Guelleh said in an interview in Djibouti, saying Beijing's presence would be "welcome".
The AFP did not say when the interview was conducted.
Djibouti is already home to Camp Lemonnier, the US military headquarters on the continent, used for covert, anti-terror and other operations in Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere across Africa.
France and Japan also have bases in the port, a former French colony that guards the entrance to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, and which has been used by European and other international navies as a base in the fight against piracy from neighbouring Somalia.
China is already financing several major infrastructure projects estimated to total more than $9bn, including improved ports, airports and railway lines to landlocked Ethiopia, for which Djibouti is a lifeline port.
"France's presence is old, and the Americans found that the position of Djibouti could help in the fight against terrorism in the region," Guelleh said.
"The Japanese want to protect themselves from piracy - and now the Chinese also want to protect their interests, and they are welcome," he said.
Djibouti oversees the narrow Bab al-Mandeb straits, the channel separating Africa from Arabia and one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, leading into the Red Sea and northwards to the Mediterranean.
Djibouti and Beijing signed a military agreement allowing the Chinese navy to use Djibouti port in February 2014, a move that angered Washington.
China aims to install a permanent military base in Obock, Djibouti's northern port city.
In recent years, Guelleh has increasingly turned to China as a key economic partner. Last year he switched the port operating contract to a Chinese company, after the previous Dubai-based operator was accused of corruption. |
Marilisa Harvey (Photo: CCSO)
A Naples woman arrested Sunday night on suspicion of driving under the influence left a foul-smelling surprise in the back of a deputy's patrol car while on their way to the jail, authorities say.
Collier County Sheriff's deputies pulled over Marilisa Harvey, 57, of Naples, near Airport-Pulling Road and Domestic Avenue for driving without the proper lighting equipment on her license plate, according to an arrest report.
A deputy smelled alcohol on Harvey's breath and asked her to submit to field sobriety and breathalyzer tests, which she refused, the report states.
Harvey was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and refusing to submit to a DUI test. The arrest report states this is the fourth time Harvey has been arrested on suspicion of DUI, which elevates the charge to a felony.
Harvey defecated in the back of the deputy's patrol car while she was being driven to the jail, the report states.
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Today may mark the official kick-off of "big fall games that aren't Destiny" season, with the release of Warner Bros.' Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor.
The game has already surprised many critics, and in turn, surprised many fans who found the reviews that went up after a very early pre-launch embargo to be largely full of praise for the Lord of the Rings game. Mordor is currently basking in a very respectable 85 on Metacritic, only a point shy of the 3DS Super Smash Bros. release.
There seems to be an interesting divide forming between games that premiere with little to no fanfare, and those that are heralded as something approaching the Second Coming. I'd now group Mordor in with Wolfenstein: The New Order as a pair of 2014 games that ended up exceeding most people's expectations, as opposed to the year's trio of big-name releases to date, Titanfall, Watch Dogs and Destiny.
Like Wolfenstein before it, I've seen precious little marketing for Mordor, and I remember a time when the game was largely being dismissed as an Assassin's Creed clone simply adopting Lord of the Rings mythology to sell product. Now, it seems it actually does a few innovative things, and is being heralded as feeling very "next-gen" in concept (if not visuals) because of ideas like its Nemesis system.
But all three of the big new IPs this year suffered largely because of an expectations game.
Titanfall was sold as a title to shake up the competitive multiplayer shooter scene, and its beta promised a much different gameplay experience than other titles in the genre. And while it may have delivered on that promise, players were amazed to find just how sparse the game was in terms of content. Now, Titanfall finds many of its ideas adopted by Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, which makes the original game look even more paltry by comparison. It's lead to a situation where in terms of Twitch viewership (a new era interest metric) there are currently 19 people total watching Titanfall streams, while at least a dozen other shooters (including the ancient Halo 3 and Modern Warfare 3) have dramatically more viewers.
Then there's Watch Dogs, meant to reinvent the sandbox genre, but Ubisoft couldn't make the final game live up to their slickly-edited movie trailer vision of the game, and a lackluster story wasn't any more engaging than anything else in the "steal cars and shoot things" genre. Despite a few innovative concepts, the game was once again oversold.
Destiny has been all anyone can talk about for the past month, and most of the disconnect between the game and those who bought it stems from the fact that fans just don't feel like they're getting what they were promised. They pictured something larger in scope, a universe richer with lore, combat that was more diverse, characters whose names you can remember, etc.
Perhaps most of all Destiny, demonstrates the expectations problem. The game is absolutely massive when compared to many others, and yet the marketing and pre-hype from the developers seemed to promise something even larger and deeper. It's a strange phenomenon to have a game that players are easily sinking a hundred hours into, and still have them say they're disappointed.
But with Mordor? No one was promising the moon. The bar is set so low for licensed games, that the fact that Mordor was in fact a high quality title was enough of a surprise. And yet, what haven't you heard in the run-up to the game? Months and months of hype about how Shadow of Mordor would "reinvent" the stealth/assassinating/brawling genre, or be the best next-gen console experience to date. Rather, the subtlety of their marketing can really be summed up by the recent embargo. In the reviews scene, if you know you've made a bad game, you might not send out review copies at all. If you're unsure, you might not let reviews go live until the launch date. But by letting the review floodgates open a full weekend and a half before release, Mordor was simply saying "our game is good, but don't take our word for it, listen to these critics" (hold your GamerGate jokes).
Perhaps a lot of this is a budget issue. It's clear that Mordor and Wolfenstein don't have the marketing heft of a Destiny or Watch Dogs, but it's also apparent that neither likely cost as much to make either. Sometimes you get a game caught in the middle like the Tomb Raider reboot which was one of those not very hyped surprises, but by spending loads on marketing, even millions in sales still didn't allow it to be considered a success.
I think expectations play into people's appreciation of a game more than most realize. Played in a vacuum, Titanfall, Watch Dogs and Destiny could be considered very good games. But the fact that they were bounced around this echo chamber for years and years ahead of launch meant by the time they were released, they had pre-made fanbases who were destined to be disappointed with some aspect of the final product.
Follow me on Twitter, like my page on Facebook, and pick up a copy of my sci-fi novel, The Last Exodus, and its sequel, The Exiled Earthborn, along with my new Forbes book, Fanboy Wars.
How should Destiny spend its $500M budget? I explain below: |
The Oculus Rift's official consumer release is still months away, but that hasn't stopped developers from getting excited about the virtual reality headset and forging deeply innovative software that takes full advantage of VR's breathtaking potential.
And it's not just gaming developers whipping up mind-blowing projects, either.
Although it was originally created for games, the Rift headset is already promising to transform more practical fields like tourism, filmmaking, medicine, architecture, space exploration, and the battlefield. Even the basic way we perceive ourselves is up for grabs when the lines between physical and virtual begin to blur.
Here are ten of the coolest Oculus Rift experiments that have nothing whatsoever to do with gaming... and everything to do with changing the world we live in.
Driving a tank
The Norwegian Army is experimenting with using the Oculus Rift to drive tanks, as reported by Teknisk Ukeblad, a Norwegian engineering journal. That country's army took four cameras with spherical lenses and placed them strategically on the outside of a tank. Then the driver sat inside wearing the Oculus Rift headset. Special software would convert the spherical images from the camera back to a normal view.
In the video above, the setup gave the driver a 185-degree overview of each side of the vehicle and allowed her to change views just by turning her head. It also has other advantages, such as a heads-up display showing vehicle tilt, speed, and orientation. And if the tank had to close all its hatches the Rift would still make it possible to see outside the vehicle from inside the fully armored enclosure.
The Norwegian Army, obviously, envisions using a system like this in battle conditions where it's not possible for the driver to have their head outside of the hatch.
Rift on a wire
One of the more fascinating aspects of virtual reality is just how easily the mind can be fooled by your senses. London-based production company Inition displayed that to great effect with a VR balance beam experiment at the 2013 Digital Shoreditch Festival.
Many participants were unable to overcome a sense of vertigo as they tried to walk across a beam hanging between two buildings—even though people knew they were in a room with a proper floor and not actually on a beam many feet up in the air. A fan blowing wind in their face didn't help.
Virtual Cape
Hoping to encourage visitors to South Africa, the country's tourism agency worked with virtual reality specialists Visualise to create a virtual tour of the country. The program allows people to experience highlights of a trip to South Africa, such as visits to markets and bars, shark diving, kitesurfing, and paragliding.
Oculus Rift as a promotional tool could go well beyond allowing people to see how cool a specific destination is, as the site Future Travel Experience recently spelled out. Imagine, for example, using a Rift onboard an airplane flying towards your destination. Instead of watching a movie, you pass a few hours on the flight deciding which attractions you want to see by experiencing them before you get there.
Rift med
The Moveo Foundation, an organization dedicated to advancing technology for orthopedic surgery, created a training project that lets medical students get a first-person view of an actual surgery.
In June, the group used a dual camera system attached to a doctor's head at the European Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris to capture a hip surgery as it happened.
Then the recording was optimized for the Rift, allowing students to look around the operating room. Students can view the surgery through the VR headset, or turn their head to see what the nurses are doing.
Moveo hopes the experiment can train future surgeons and also help experienced doctors learn new techniques by stepping into the virtual shoes of another surgeon.
Rifts in space
NASA has a few interesting ideas about how the Rift could be used by astronauts. The space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) last December released a video showing how it was using a Kinect 2 paired with an Oculus Rift to create a system for maneuvering robots in space. The Kinect was used for body tracking, and the Rift would give the astronaut a first-person view of the robot's environment.
The second concept is to use the Rift as a therapeutic tool for astronauts on long-haul flights to destinations such as Mars. Astronauts on a mission to the red planet would have to endure traveling with others in a small, cramped space.
The Rift would reduce the stress of that environment with a makeshift "holodeck" that would allow astronauts to relax. Imagine, for example, astronauts strapping on a Rift headset, getting up on a treadmill and going for an early morning run in Seattle's Discovery Park, all from a room inside a space shuttle hurtling through space.
PTSD Treatment
The Rift may one day put gamers right in the middle of action games like Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty, but it can also return real-life war veterans to the battlefield. Believe it or not, that's a good thing.
Albert "Skip" Rizzo—a psychologist and director for medical virtual reality at the University of Souther California's Institute for Creative Technologies—is using the Oculus Rift to help treat vets with post-traumatic stress disorder. The idea is to immerse veterans in stressful situations similar to what they experienced to help them confront traumatic memories.
"I have no question that Oculus will revolutionize virtual reality for clinical purposes," Rizzo told The Verge in 2013.
Boy-girl
Warning: the video above contains nudity.
Ever wondered what it would be like to experience life as a member of the opposite sex? An interdisciplinary group at the University of Pompeu in Barcelona tried to do just that.
The research project called The Machine To Be Another used a set-up where a man and a woman each wear an Oculus Rift headset as well as a camera strategically placed to capture a first-person view.
Each first-person view would go to the opposite person's Rift headset. So the man looks down and sees the woman's body and vice versa. The two users synchronize their actions so that it feels like they're actually living in the other person's body.
“Deep inside you know it’s not your body, but you feel like it is," Philippe Bertrand, a Digital Arts student and co-founder of the group told Wired in February.
Rift Architecture
Architects may soon be using the Rift as a kind of sanity check on their designs. McBride Design teamed up with IrisVR to create a platform called Rift Architecture, according to Architizer.com. The idea is to let architects create their building plans, upload them into the Oculus Rift-based platform and then walk through the building or landscape and experience their designs before pouring a single slab of concrete.
Third-person IRL
A team from mepi.pl, a Polish language technology educational site, recently took a popular concept from video games and applied it to real life with the Third-Person Perspective Augmented Experience.
First, you slap on a backpack containing a PC, an Arduino board, and a set of cameras suspended on a pole that reaches several feet above you. Then, wearing the Rift headset, you just walk around. Instead of seeing what's in front of you, you're fed images from the cameras, giving a bird's eye view of your surroundings similar to the third-person view used in video games like Tomb Raider or World of Warcraft.
The experimental project was put together in only a few days and the software couldn't automatically move the third-person cameras based on head movements. Instead, the group used a small hand-held controller to look in different directions.
The project was an entry in Intel's recent Make It Wearable Challenge. The project, while interesting, was not a finalist.
VR cinema
Since the Oculus Rift was originally conceived of as an entertainment device, the headset is right at home with movies and films. There are several Rift apps that let you watch a movie as if you're actually sitting in a movie theater. Netflix engineers have played with the Rift, and the VR headset was also used as a promotional tool for the new movie Interstellar.
Others such as production company Condition One are trying to create an entirely new kind of first-person film experience. The company's first effort for the Rift, Zero Point, was released in late October. The 15-minute film transports you to different settings that is more technology demonstration than first-person narrative, according to reviews.
Another studio, Janwix, just relelased a feature-length 3D horror film for the Rift called Banshee Chapter: Oculus Rift Edition.
Rift owners can download Zero Point for $15 on Steam for Windows. A free demo is also available. Banshee Chapter is available for free on Oculus VR's site for Mac only. |
The Northern Ireland Secretary has said investigations into killings during the Troubles are “disproportionately” focusing on members of the police and Army.
James Brokenshire said inquiries were “not working” and backed the “vast majority” of soldiers and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) as having served with “distinction”.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland’s Legacy Investigation Branch is investigating more than 3,200 killings in the province between 1969 and 2004.
Numerous former soldiers are facing prosecution for killings, including Dennis Hutchings (75) from Cornwall, who has been charged with the attempted murder of a man with learning difficulties in 1974.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Brokenshire said: “I am clear the current system is not working and we are in danger of seeing the past rewritten.
“It is also clear the current focus is disproportionately on those who worked for the state - former members of the Armed Forces and the RUC, the vast majority of whom served in Northern Ireland with great courage, professionalism and distinction.
“I believe that with political will an agreement is within reach to deal with this important and sensitive issue.”
PA |
If you need proof that the evangelical agenda is to impose theocracy on the United States, listen to what their standard-bearer, Rev. Mike Huckabee said yesterday:
“I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that’s what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards.”
–Huckabee
“[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that’s what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards,” Huckabee said, referring to the need for a constitutional human life amendment and an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Huckabee often refers to the need to amend the Constitution on these grounds, but he has never so specifically called for the Constitution to be brought within “God’s standards,” which are themselves debated amongst religious scholars.
If we’re going to start basing our civil laws on biblical edicts — the way they do in, say, Moslem countries — then we need to do it across the board. Let’s take adultery, for example. Unlike the biblical prohibitions against gay sex, which are buried in lists of abominations in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the warning against adultery is in the Ten Commandments, right up there with murder and lying.
In fact, while being gay is an abomination-class sin — along with eating shellfish, leftovers and snakes, reading a horoscope, burning incense, women wearing pants, arrogance, improperly covering your poop in the desert, to name a few — there are only Ten Commandments, and if you believe any of it, you have believe that being an adulterer is as immoral, and thus should be as illegal, as being gay, if not moreso.
Under Huckabee’s plan, all the abominations would have to be outlawed because, according to Revelation 21:27, “Anyone who practices abomination will not enter Heaven.” As we know from reading news from Saudi Arabia and Iran, a theocratic state would prohibit its citizens from committing acts like eating snake meat, burning incense, improper poop coverage and the rest that would send them to hell.
When all these sins become crimes, will the punishment be based on the Bible too? That’s bad news for gay people like me because the biblical penalty for gay sex is quite dire. According to Leviticus 20:13, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them.”
But wait a minute all you adulterers — including especially Huckabee advisers Tim Hutchinson and Dick Morris — don’t look so smug. Read a few lines down the page in Leviticus (20:10) and learn your fate: “And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” (Here’s a comfort, though. Unlike homos, your corpse won’t be drenched in your own blood.)
And by the way, if you work on Sunday, you’re in deep shit too. Exodus 35:2: “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.”
Premarital sex, women who lose their virginity before marriage and saying “God damn” are all sins that are also punishable by death.
And watch out, teenagers. The penalty for dissing your ‘rents (Deuteronomy 21:18-21) is getting stoned out of your mind — but not in a good way.
All kidding aside, Huckabee’s assertion yesterday that the Constitution should be rewritten to reflect biblical law should disqualify him from the presidency. Whether he and his Christo-fascist fellow travelers like it or not, keeping the church separated from the state is fundamental to American law. The more we blur that line, the farther we move the United States away from the republic the Founders intended it to be. |
Before we get to the most powerful power rankings in college basketball, here’s something to think about: Herb Sendek, Tim Floyd, Al Skinner, Reggie Theus, Mike Dunleavy Sr., Vin Baker, Mark Price, Terry Porter, Dan Majerle, Damon Stoudamire, Theo Ratliff, Donyell Marshall, Chris Mullin, Avery Johnson, and Ron Mercer are all currently head coaches of Division I basketball teams. And I only lied about three of the names on that list! Good luck figuring out which three!
12. Purdue (8–2)
11. Creighton (10–0)
10. Louisville (9–1)
9. Gonzaga (10–0)
8. North Carolina (10–1)
7. Indiana (8–1)
Let’s not sugarcoat it: Nothing about this season, or any season, will matter to Indiana fans if the Hoosiers can’t make a deep NCAA tournament run. Few need to be reminded about the program’s heyday under Bob Knight in the 1970s and ’80s, and fewer still need a rundown of how it hasn’t been the same since he was fired in 2000. Starting in 2001, Hoosiers fans have had to endure a stretch that includes Mike Davis being Mike Davis, the Bracey Wright era, Kelvin Sampson shitting on Knight’s “we do things the right way” mantra, Devan Dumes emerging as the team’s best player, and Tom Crean doing countless things to garner ridicule from fans around the country. So when Crean led Indiana to its first outright Big Ten title in 20 years in 2012–13, it was understandably a big deal. Maybe it was a little premature and/or insulting to what Knight accomplished to declare that the program was back, but you couldn’t fault people for getting excited.
Since then, the Hoosiers have won another outright Big Ten title (2015–16), produced three top-10 NBA draft picks (Victor Oladipo, Cody Zeller, and Noah Vonleh), done well on the recruiting trail, and racked up more top-10 wins than most IU fans probably remember. As easy as it is to pick on Crean, it must be noted that Indiana basketball is currently in the midst of its best run in a quarter-century. But for all the success that’s returned to Bloomington, fans old enough to remember the Knight era can’t help but notice the obvious: The Hoosiers can’t get it done in March. For a program that values NCAA titles so much that the five banners hanging in Assembly Hall have become as iconic as the building itself, that’s a problem.
Trigger warning for Hoosiers fans: This is the part of the column where I list depressing Indiana postseason facts. Since IU last made an Elite Eight in 2002, Butler and Notre Dame — two programs that were afterthoughts in the state of Indiana’s basketball landscape for years — have each made multiple Elite Eights. Baylor, Oregon, West Virginia, Marquette, Michigan, Ohio State, Memphis, and Xavier have all made multiple Elite Eights, too. Indiana is one of four programs with multiple NCAA championships to have not made an Elite Eight since 2003 (Cincinnati, NC State, and San Francisco are the others), and Crean is 1–4 at the school against teams seeded no. 1 through no. 8 in the NCAA tournament, with his losses coming by an average of 10.8 points. Also, while it’s not as big a deal as IU’s NCAA tourney failings, the team has regularly flopped in the conference tournament. The Hoosiers are tied with Purdue for the most Big Ten regular-season titles of all time, yet Indiana has never won a Big Ten tournament and made the championship game only once, a 2001 loss to Iowa that was sealed when IU transfer and Indiana native son Luke Recker hit the game-winning buzzer-beater.
Related The Crossroads of Hoosier Hysteria
So that’s where we stand. Indiana is back, to a certain degree. The recruits are back, the massive regular-season wins are back, the All-Americans are back, the Big Ten titles are back, and the general buzz around the program is back. With James Blackmon Jr., Thomas Bryant, Robert Johnson, and OG Anunoby leading the way, this season’s Hoosiers already have two top-five wins and are heavy favorites to win yet another Big Ten title. But now that those hurdles have been cleared, Hoosiers fans are desperate to take the next step. That’s why Saturday’s game against Butler is such a big one. The Bulldogs are exactly the kind of team that could give the Hoosiers problems come March and make an otherwise great season irrelevant to a fan base starved for postseason success.
The NCAA tournament is nothing if not a demonstration of the importance of contingency plans, and Indiana’s backup plans under Crean haven’t exactly been great. Butler, meanwhile, has earned a reputation as the king of forcing opponents to adjust, and that will almost certainly be the case on Saturday. The Bulldogs will do everything they can to slow the game down and make the Hoosiers’ superior athletes stop to think. And because Butler plays solid team defense and is every bit the 3-point shooting team that Indiana is, the Hoosiers will likely have to find a way to win that doesn’t involve their usual fast-tempo barrage of dunks and long-range bombs.
Keep an eye on how this game is played. If Indiana wins, don’t just fall into the trap of fawning over another Hoosiers’ victory against a ranked foe; if Indiana loses, resist the urge to sum things up by firing off a string of “LOL Tom Crean” tweets. (Yeah, I know — that’s unbelievably rich coming from me.) The final score isn’t nearly as important as whether IU looks comfortable when forced to play a different brand of basketball. If the Hoosiers run Butler out of the gym, that’s obviously great … in the short term. I’d much prefer to see them struggle early, go cold from the 3-point line, and still find a way to come out on top. Because if they’re going to make their first Final Four run in 15 years — which is all that ultimately matters — they’re going to have to be able to win in all sorts of ways.
Whatever the case, I’m sure Indiana will be fine. Butler is a tiny in-state school set to play in its home city against an Indiana team that will have the majority of the arena’s fan support and will be dealing with health concerns surrounding Anunoby. What could possibly go wrong?
Halftime
It’s halftime, which can mean only one thing: It’s time for Dick’s Degrees of Separation, the most mildly amusing internet game involving college basketball! You know the drill: I give you the endpoint of a Dick Vitale tangent and you pick the path he took to get there. Let’s get to it.
During Saturday’s Duke-UNLV game in Las Vegas, how does Dick Vitale end up talking about Lady Gaga?
A. UNLV’s Uche Ofoegbu scores on a layup, prompting Vitale to say, “San Francisco, I left my heart” for what seems to be no discernable reason. However, Dickie V. quickly clarifies he said that because Ofoegbu is a transfer from the University of San Francisco. After a beat, Vitale mentions that Tony Bennett, who released “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” in 1962, is his idol since Bennett is 90 years old and still regularly performing. Vitale then drives his point home by mentioning that Bennett isn’t just performing — he’s performing with Lady Gaga.
B. ESPN’s cameras show Bryce Harper, a Las Vegas native, in the stands. Vitale mentions that he’s a huge baseball fan and that he loves the Tampa Bay Rays, his hometown team. He says he heard that the Washington Nationals are willing to let Harper go when his contract runs out after the 2018 season and that he thinks the Rays should go after Harper. Dickie V. admits the Yankees likely have the inside track on landing Harper, but he also makes clear that Tampa is a wonderful place to live. As proof, Vitale lists things he enjoys doing in Tampa, prompting him to mention that he once saw Lady Gaga in concert.
C. As Duke blows the game wide open in the second half and cruises to a 94–45 win, Vitale takes an opportunity to praise Mike Krzyzewski, who Dickie V. says operates on a completely different level than every other coach in the country. Coach K’s ability to always have his players ready, despite the target on their backs, reminds Vitale of Bill Belichick, who he believes will coach the Patriots to yet another Super Bowl win this season. Vitale then explains how he’s rooting for a Cowboys-Patriots Super Bowl, although he confesses he’ll be fine with any matchup because he thinks the real star of the Super Bowl will be Lady Gaga, who’s performing at halftime.
6. Kentucky (9–1)
5. Duke (10–1)
4. Kansas (9–1)
3. UCLA (11–0)
2. Villanova (11–0)
1. Baylor (9–0)
The defending national champs are 11–0, ranked no. 1 in the AP poll, and led by national player of the year favorite Josh Hart. They’ve won their last 17 games dating back to last season, haven’t lost by double digits in almost a calendar year, and haven’t lost a Big 5 game since … I want to say 1998? They’ve been so good that everyone’s favorite college basketball robot, Jon Rothstein, has started beating a Villanova catchphrase into the ground.
So why does it feel like the Wildcats are flying under the radar? Why does it feel like everyone is talking about teams like Duke, Kentucky, and UCLA instead of the top-ranked defending champs led by the best player in the country? I mean, the most powerful power rankings in college basketball have Villanova power ranked behind f’ing Baylor? Are you shitting me?
Let’s start with the obvious: Big East bias is real. That’s not to say that the college basketball media gets together every year and conspires to avoid talking about Big East teams. (Or maybe they do and I’m just never invited, which actually seems plausible.) It’s just the unfortunate and inevitable byproduct of a conference full of private, mostly small and Catholic schools without FBS football teams signing a TV deal with a network that isn’t on the forefront of college basketball fans’ minds. ESPN has been synonymous with college basketball over the last 30-plus years (starting, ironically, with the rise of the Big East in the 1980s), with CBS’s high-profile weekend games trailing close behind. Thus, the Big East on Fox is like Notre Dame football on NBC: If you’re reeeeeallllly into it, you’ll seek it out and love it just the same as if it were on Oprah’s network; if you’re not, you’ll keep flipping through your familiar cycle of channels and almost forget it exists. So, no, Big East bias isn’t necessarily intentional. But it’s definitely real.
That said, there are legitimate concerns about Villanova that fall outside of the talking about how good the Wildcats are would require me to put more effort into my job, so I’d rather just try to ignore them all season umbrella. As great as Hart has been — and he’s been otherworldly thus far — Villanova can’t just rely on him to morph into a superhero every time it plays in a tight game. Maybe I’m just overreacting to the Wildcats’ 74–66 win over Notre Dame last Saturday, when Nova trailed by nine with 13 minutes remaining before Hart put on his cape and finished with half of his team’s 74 points, a third of Villanova’s 33 rebounds, and 40 percent of the team’s steals and assists. But even the Temple game on Tuesday, a 78–57 victory that was never in doubt, had a similar feel, with Hart carrying an absurd amount of the load. (He finished with 26 points on 19 shots and put the game away by scoring 11 straight Nova points early in the second half.)
There are two ways of looking at this. The first is the optimistic point of view, which says Villanova fans should thank their lucky stars they have someone as special as Hart leading their team. Who cares if he has to do everything? In any walk of life, having the guy who is better than everyone else on your side is ALWAYS a good thing. The concern, though, is that one-man teams not named UConn don’t have a recent history of success in the NCAA tournament. Buddy Hield is the only national player of the year in the one-and-done era who could be described as a “one-man show” who made the Final Four, and his team got historically destroyed once it got there. (All-time one-man shows since 1985 who made the Final Four in the same year they won POY: Hield in 2016, Texas’s T.J. Ford in 2003, UMass’s Marcus Camby in 1996, Duke’s Danny Ferry in 1989, and Kansas’s Danny Manning in 1988. Only Manning won it all.) Putting all of your eggs in one basket is rarely sound, no matter how talented that basket may be.
But that’s the thing about Villanova: Unlike most of those examples where star players had to single-handedly carry their teams, Hart’s supporting cast is pretty good. Kris Jenkins, the hero from the 2016 national title game, is capable of dropping 30 on any given night (even if he has become a little too one-dimensional as a 3-point shooter and his shot selection has been awful). Jalen Brunson is as solid of a sophomore point guard as there is in the country. Mikal Bridges is a lockdown defender who’s shooting 62 percent from the field. And for a team sorely lacking size after freshman big man Omari Spellman was declared academically ineligible in September, Eric Paschall and Darryl Reynolds have filled their roles admirably. (And we haven’t even mentioned Phil Booth, who scored a team-high 20 points in last season’s national championship game and has missed the last eight games with a knee injury.)
The big question, then, is whether Villanova relying so heavily on Hart is a temporary case of feeding the hot hand or a sign of the Wildcats’ 2016–17 identity. The former makes sense. Hart has been playing out of his mind and should have the green light to do whatever he wants at this point. Asking him to stop trying to have such a big influence on games would be asinine. But if the latter is accurate, and if Nova is falling into the trap in which talented guys are content to only scratch the surface of their potential because they don’t want to interfere with Hart’s heroics, a disappointing end to the season seems inevitable.
The End-Game Sequence of the Week
Please make sure your seat belt is securely fastened, because what you’re about to see is absolutely bonkers. Last Friday, Nebraska’s Blair High School and Waverly High School were tied at 50 in a game with less than five seconds to play. Then this happened.
If you’re as confused as I was, here’s the rundown: Waverly had a foul to give and used it just before Blair made that almost full-court heave. Then Waverly stole the ensuing inbound pass, and its coach called timeout just before a player hit half-courter. And then Waverly ultimately banked in a 3 to win, the student section spilled onto the floor, and the curmudgeonly sportswriters who cover Nebraska high school basketball presumably wrote impassioned columns about how dangerous court-storming is and how Waverly’s fans should “act like they’ve been there before.”
The Dick’s Degrees of Separation answer is A. See you next week. |
April 15 is the third anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings, and the area is getting ready for this year’s run, which takes place on Monday (Patriots’ Day, the third Monday in April). Given the terrible attacks of 2013, anti-jihad precautions are now a big part of the world’s oldest annual marathon
One of the effects of unwise immigration (particularly admitting millions of historic enemies) is Security Strangled Sports on the occasion of major events like big-city marathons and the Super Bowl. The price tag for extra protection has exploded; for example San Francisco’s police overtime for this year’s Super Bowl was $3 million, and that’s just one item in a long list of more than 20 local, state and federal agencies taking part in security efforts.
The 2012 London Olympics cost $2 billion for security, and safety measures included surface-to-air rocket batteries installed on the roofs of nearby apartment buildings.
Diversity doesn’t come cheap, especially with open borders and Islam immigration.
One precaution being taken for this year’s Boston race has been low-flying helicopter sweeps to detect any unusual levels of radiation which could indicate a dirty bomb. Interestingly, the same sort of chopper checks were flown for the Super Bowl last winter also. |
I don’t remember much about being seven years old, but I’ll never forget Thanksgiving Day, 1990, at my Uncle John’s house on Staten Island. While the adults were in the dining room drinking and laughing, I was glued to the television, watching my heroes Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, and the Legion of Doom. It was WWF’s Survivor Series pay-per-view, and it was basically the coolest thing I’d ever seen.
But that night was memorable for another reason: It was the debut of one of the most celebrated wrestlers in history, a man who’d go on to win seven WWF (now WWE) Heavyweight Championships, as well as an unprecedented and inimitable 21 straight Wrestlemania matches. This man was not a man at all, but an undead monster. A “Phenom,” as WWE announcers would go on to call him.
On that day, the world got its first glimpse of the Undertaker.
This is not his story.
No, this story is about another debut from that night. One that was so perplexing that, more than a quarter-century later, fans are still scratching their heads.
I am talking about what is considered one of wrestling’s worst gimmicks: the Gobbledy Gooker.
WHAT'S IN THE EGG?
The Gobbledy Gooker was actually the most anticipated part of that evening, which only adds to the mystery of how this happened. For the unfamiliar, the Gobbledy Gooker started its life as an egg, hyped heavily on televised WWF broadcasts in the weeks leading up to Survivor Series. The world would find out what's in the egg, it was promised, during the big pay-per-view event on Thanksgiving.
When Survivor Series finally aired, all was revealed. “Mean” Gene Okerlund, the voice of the WWF in the 1980s and early 1990s, enhanced the drama. “Is it the playmate of the month?” Gene asked, to the cheers of men across the arena. “The way it sounds to me right now, the speculating is all over!” I couldn’t handle it anymore. Break open, already, dammit. Break!
When the egg finally did break open, few in the crowd at Connecticut's Hartford Civic Center could believe what was inside: a man in a giant, cartoonish turkey costume.
To say fans were unhappy is an understatement. Watching the video now, you can immediately hear the boos. As the turkey climbs off its platform, “Mean” Gene tries to sell it to the fans. “Take a look at it ladies and gentlemen!” Okerlund exclaims. “Feathers, a beak, a little rooster tail on top. You’ve got a pair of legs like my mother-in-law, pal.”
The Gooker leans in and gobbles into Okerlund's microphone.
"What is with the gobbledy?" Okerlund asks. "Don't tell me you're the Gobbledy Gooker?"
The Gooker grabs Gene, and the two walk to the ring, run the ropes, and dance the show off the air to a cheesy version of “Turkey in the Straw.”
At the time, I was confused, though not as angry as most of the fans in attendance. Looking back, I still don’t see what kind of sense it was supposed to make. After about a month or so, the Gooker was all but gone, little more than a bizarre, tryptophan-aided memory.
If he was supposed to wrestle, the entire costume seemed unreasonable. If he was meant as a mascot, who was he representing? And why did Vince McMahon, who had just hours earlier introduced the great Undertaker, follow it up with this?
I had to know.
So I asked.
THE MAN BEHIND THE BEAK
The Gobbledy Gooker, it turns out, was a wrestler named Héctor Guerrero, a member of the famous Guerrero wrestling family; son of the great Gory Guerrero, brother of Chavo, Mando, and Eddie Guerrero. While not the surefire hall-of-famer Eddie was, Hector’s career was nothing to sneeze at. He won more than two dozen titles across the country, including multiple tag titles, an NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship with Crockett Promotions, and an NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship. In 2007, he moved into the broadcast booth, joining the Spanish commentary team for the Total Nonstop Action promotion, where he remained until 2015.
Most wrestlers have had a gimmick that doesn’t work, or one that they’re embarrassed by. For example, hard-nosed British technical wrestler William Regal was once known as “The Real Man’s Man,” a guy who chopped wood and wore a hard hat. The Undertaker’s in-character brother, a demon from hell named Kane, was previously a wrestling dentist. It’s all part of the business.
But over the phone from his Florida home, Hector doesn’t sound embarrassed. To him, the entire Gobbledy Gooker thing was a missed business opportunity, one he says could have worked if it was given the right venue. He’s vehement that, in front of the right crowd, it would have been recognized for exactly what it was: Something fun to entertain the kids. “It was always for the children,” Hector told Mental Floss. He says he was not ready for the rowdy northeastern crowd he faced that night in Hartford, and thought that a more kid-friendly audience would have been more appropriate.
“It was not a kid crowd,” he laughs.
GOOKER'S ORDERS FROM THE TOP
Hector started receiving calls from the WWE in early 1990, months before Survivor Series. He was not immediately responsive. Years prior, he says, he had a brief but antagonistic encounter with one of the company’s agents, so he didn’t pay the calls much attention. He eventually relented, however, and soon he was speaking directly to the man in charge himself, current WWE CEO Vince McMahon. The two had a cordial conversation—McMahon was reaching out because wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes had vouched for Hector.
The idea, as Hector remembers, was a fun mascot for kids who would eventually start actually wrestling. Months after getting the call from Vince, Hector tried out for Gooker in person.
There was some initial hesitation about Hector's body type. The WWE was fresh off a 1980s era that prized the godlike physiques of wrestlers like Hulk Hogan. Hector, who had just gone on two tours with the Ted Turner-owned World Championship Wrestling, was smaller than most of the roster.
The Guerrero family, from Mexico City, was known for melding the exciting, Mexican lucha libre-style of wrestling—athletic, fast-paced, freeform, and acrobatic—with a traditional American style inspired by old school wrestlers like Dory Funk Sr. Years later, when Hector’s brother Eddie and other lucha-style wrestlers became stars with the WCW, they were exclusively part of the company’s cruiserweight division—wrestling that often demanded a smaller physique.
“They had expected to see me bigger, but at this time, when this all happened, I was on a very strict diet,” Hector says. “They didn’t realize that us light guys could do things that could maybe draw money.”
Nonetheless, Hector credits his small, athletic build and quick skill set as the impetus for WWF’s call. The work he did with WCW as “High Flying” Hector Guerrero was innovative to American audiences, and despite his smaller-than-average size, Hector impressed during his WWE Survivor Series tryout—all while performing in full turkey getup.
He was asked to put on the costume and show what he could do in the ring, and he bounced from rope to rope, doing flips and cartwheels. To see, Hector had to look through two holes drilled into the giant turkey mask's bulging plastic eyeballs, which was extremely difficult. To look left or right, he had to rotate his entire head. Still, he nailed the audition and landed the gig.
Hector started to receive a stipend and began working as part of the company. When wrestler Tito Santana was to debut a new character, El Matador, WWE wanted native Spanish-speaker Hector in Mexico to help film vignettes. And having been in the business since he was a teenager, the 36-year-old Hector also knew a few friendly faces in the company. His traveling companion, Terry Szopinski—better known to wrestling fans as the Warlord—helped him bulk up on the road. Even he and the Undertaker, who would later debut on that same Thanksgiving night, shared a brief history in WCW, where Hector was impressed with the agile big man’s work.
GOBBLEDY GOOKER'S BIG NIGHT
On Thanksgiving 1990, Hector huddled in a box underneath the giant egg for four hours—enough time so that no one entering the Hartford Civic Center could see him before the show. He was given a TV monitor, a light, and some drinks and snacks. The crew pranked him by pasting pornographic photos inside the box. (Hector, who says he was by then a devout Christian, was not amused.)
The night went on, and Hector waited patiently for his moment. Suddenly, Gene Okerlund began to talk about the egg, and Gobbledy Gooker knew it was time to hatch.
Sadly, it did not go well.
“As I stepped down to talk to Gene, the more boos I hear,” he says. “You know, I can’t hear the kids screaming that they like it, but I can hear the people, because there’s more adults. And they’re booing the heck out of it.”
Okerlund put the microphone down, and said to Hector, “We’re going to put it over,” meaning they were going to try to make it work. They marched to the ring and Okerlund, to his credit, did his best Charlie Chaplin routine, stumbling, tripping, and falling. Someone later told Hector that Okerlund woke up the next day with bruises all over his body from trying so hard to sell the routine.
As the Gobbledy Gooker made his way backstage after his performance, Hector felt the stares and immediately felt like a pariah. “I worked pretty hard,” he says. “I put my 110, 115 percent, like all my matches. I put all of my ability into it.”
“It was an egg,” he adds, exasperated. “What’s going to hatch out of an egg?”
THE GOBBLEDY GOOKER'S END
Hector continued touring with WWF for a month without incident, save for one. Hector was again asked to do his Gobbledy Gooke routine, this time at Madison Square Garden. The crew told him they would shine a spotlight as he approached the ring. He agreed.
When announcer Howard Finkel called out the Gooker’s name, the familiar “Turkey in the Straw” beat dropped. Hector was ushered through the curtain by stage hands. That’s when he says he knew he was in for some trouble.
Hector walked through the curtain into pitch darkness. Suddenly, he was hit with a spotlight. It shined through the large white eyeballs of the costume's mask, and he couldn’t see a thing.
In his telling, he says he was hurried down the aisle by crew members, feeling his way as he went. He eventually got to the ring, busted his knee on the steel steps, climbed to the apron, and, unable to see what he was doing, flipped over the top rope and came crashing down to the mat with a thud.
“All I can see is white,” he recalls. “I can’t see where the ground is. I can’t land on the ground, because I see white. So I landed on my butt. “
WWE
The main lights were eventually turned on, and a frazzled Hector finished up his routine. Backstage, he was greeted by an upset Vince McMahon, who simply walked away from him. He was later approached by the legendary announcer “Gorilla” Monsoon.
“You couldn’t see, right?” Gorilla asked.
“Yeah,” Hector responded.
“We figured that out,” Gorilla deadpanned.
It was an impossible situation, according to Hector. About a month after his debut at Survivor Series, he was out of a job. He said there was no formal conversation. The company just stopped booking and paying him.
Looking back on the incident decades later, Hector isn’t bitter. This was not always the case. Losing the WWF opportunity was tough on him and his family, and he went to work as a gymnastics coach before wrestling again for other, smaller companies. Around Survivor Series 1991, he says he was again offered the Gobbledy Gooker gig. He did not accept.
As time went on, Hector’s outlook changed. He now considers any alleged slight as “water under the bridge.” His younger brother, the late Eddie Guerrero, and his nephew, Chavo Guerrero Jr., both went on to become WWF stars. He’s happy with the way his family was later treated by the company, has no ill will, and characterizes most of his experiences working with McMahon and others as very professional. After ending his tenure with Total Nonstop Action in early 2015, Hector started a wrestler consulting business and hopes to use the skills he learned under his father and through his more than 30 years in the business to help other wrestlers succeed.
In 2001, Hector even agreed to don the Gobbledy Gooker suit in Houston for Wrestlemania X-Seven, in a “gimmick battle royal” with 18 other gimmicky wrestlers from WWE’s past. It was an over-the-top-rope elimination match, and he was eliminated by Tugboat, a heavyset wrestler known in the 1980s for dressing like a sailor.
At the 2006 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, Hector Guerrero sat in the crowd to watch the induction of his late brother Eddie.
That same night saw the induction of “Mean” Gene Okerlund, who recounted that infamous experience he and the Gooker shared 27 years ago.
“Hector, we had a lot of fun,” Okerlund said. “But all is forgotten.”
Sorry Gene, but the Gooker lives on. And Hector wouldn’t have it any other way.
This article originally ran in 2015. |
AT&T is investing $100 million into the redevelopment of a four-block area in downtown Dallas that will include restaurants, retail, outdoor event space, and free public Wi-Fi.
The company dubbed the area the AT&T Discovery District, which aims to serve as a destination spot that will attract top talent to AT&T and serve the downtown community. The decision to make such a large investment assumes the city will approve proposed street changes to make the area more walkable and allow the company to build more green space. It will include wider, lit sidewalks, fountains, and landscaping. The company will present its plan to the City Planning Commission’s transportation subcommittee at 9 a.m. Thursday at Dallas City Hall. It requested final approval from the city by the end of February.
“Last year, AT&T looked at several locations inside and outside [of Dallas],” Mike Peterson, regional vice president of AT&T Texas External Affairs, said about the possible relocation. “We decided if we could work out a place with the city of Dallas, we would prefer to remain at our present location.”
Since then, the company has been working with Dallas Area Rapid Transit, the city, and Downtown Dallas Inc. to create a redevelopment plan to improve the area surrounding its headquarters at 208 S. Akard St. The plan, if approved by the city, is expected to begin construction by the end of the year and be completed by late 2019.
AT&T doesn’t foresee any pushback from the city. After all, it has been a major contributor to the community since relocating in 2008, doubling its workforce to include 5,800 employees and spending $5 billion a year on Dallas-based vendors. But it’s commitment won’t stop there, Peterson said. AT&T plans to hire 500 more people over the next couple of years.
“We know it’s a competitive environment to attract tech talent,” he said. “So we’re committed to what we’ve laid out.”
While most of the company’s $100 million investment will fund the exterior changes, a portion of the monies will also help the company continue the redevelopment of the interior of its offices. As part of the plan, the company has already opened a Starbucks on the ground floor of its headquarters, on the corner of Browder and Commerce streets, and is currently constructing a door to the street.
Downtown Dallas Inc. commissioned a traffic study that supports AT&T proposed street changes. The company listed the following four changes in a released statement on Wednesday: |
This week, Indivisible groups across North Carolina are calling for Republicans in Congress to thoroughly and completely investigate Russian ties to the Republican administration.
The situation is escalating as members of Congress – including North Carolina’s own Senator Burr – are being asked to downplay the Russian connection with the media. This presents a huge conflict of interest given the fact that Burr is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, one of the organizations investigating Russian ties and involvement in the US election.
Burr’s admission is alarming. He has disqualified himself as a fair and trustworthy investigator into the matter of the Trump campaign’s possible coordination with the Russian government.” Ned Barnett, The News and Observer
Bipartisan calls for a special prosecutor are growing as well. Rep Darrell Issa (R, CA), one of the most conservative and outspoken voices in the House, confirmed to Bill Maher he believes the situation requires a special prosecutor, and Attorney General Sessions must recuse himself from being involved. |
When my husband and I were first married his family had a lot of get togethers. He was the youngest of five children, and everyone was starting to have kids, so it was always somebody’s birthday. His mom’s coconut cream pie was requested quite often.
It was piled high with the luscious cream filling and meringue on top. The pie is one of my husband’s favorites. His mom has since passed away, but before she did, I managed to get her recipe.
It took me a couple of tries but now it is pretty darn close to hers.
A few weeks ago it was our 30th anniversary. It was cold and snowy so instead of going out I cooked dinner and I made the coconut cream pie for our dessert. It takes everything not to eat more than one piece at your meal.
If you like coconut, it is in the filling and on top of the meringue. And if you like more coconut…well, put in as much as you like.
Yum, Yum, Yum!!!!!
Check out some of our other pie recipes like Chocolate Coffee Pie, Light Peach Pie, or Chocolate Buttermilk Pie. |
Comcast will offer lightning-fast Internet connections to more than 1.5 million metro Atlanta homes starting next month, promising speeds twice what rivals Google and AT&T have said they will offer locally.
Installations could be done in a matter of weeks, say officials for Comcast, who plan to announce the plan today.
The proposed 2 gigabit-per-second service would be 200 times faster than the average for U.S. homes. It would allow customers to download an HD movie in about 12 seconds and families to simultaneously use lots of online connections for work and play with little delay.
The price? Not yet set, the company said.
Comcast, both the nation’s and metro Atlanta’s largest cable TV provider, would shoot past the service that Google and AT&T have said they will sell within certain metro Atlanta cities and will or already do offer in several other cities elsewhere.
It kicks off Comcast’s national roll out of the 2-gig residential service this year in its markets, becoming the biggest U.S. bet yet on home gigabit and faster speeds.
The biggest factor in Comcast’s move is whether it will offer the service at a price that is affordable for many of its customers.
Read more of the story at myAJC.com and in the Thursday print edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. |
Cast your mind back to 2012, to the sweltering heat of the Olympic summer. If you didn’t spend the warmer months glued to televised athletics, there’s a good chance that you caught The Hollow Crown, part of the BBC’s so-called Cultural Olympiad. A skilful adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henriad, with a cast list that reads like a who’s who of British acting talent ( Tom Hiddleston Jeremy Irons and Ben Whishaw in the lead roles), we were hooked.This spring, to coincide with Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary, The Hollow Crown returns to our screens. This time around, writer Ben Power and director Dominic Cook take on the bard’s first history tetralogy, a series dealing with the devastation that the War of the Roses wrought on court and country. It ends with one of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays but begins with one of his most maligned. To reach the heights of Richard III, first you must traverse the lowlands of Henry VI, Part I, or so the story goes.But in Power’s capable hands, Henry VI, Part I, is pared down; its looser material hewed off, and its essential drama brought to the fore. Henry is a character unable to bend action to his will. At home, he is set upon by conspiring lords; by the insurrectionary Richard on one side, and by the underhand Somerset on the other. Meanwhile, abroad, the French are mounting a campaign to reclaim their conquered homeland.If it’s not carefully managed, the whole play can feel like a confused mesh of intrigue and treachery, with an insipid king at its heart. Not so here. Tom Sturridge is near-perfect in the title role. His Henry is a man too sensitive to be a monarch, but charismatic enough to prove a compelling lead. The king never descends into uncomplicated cowardice; instead, he is a peace-lover, a compromiser, a man woefully out of step with the spirit of his age.Credit, though, goes to the entire cast, and particularly to Sophie Okonedo and Ben Miles as Queen Margaret and Somerset, the adulterous duo whose designs on the throne pose constant threat to Henry’s kingship. Scheming megalomania is order of the day here, and the pair pull it off with great aplomb.The Hollow Crown dispenses with made-to-order sets in favour of historic locations like Alnwick Castle. It’s a choice which pays dividends. In a post-Romeo + Juliet world, there’s little doubt that Shakespeare can work just as well on screen as it can on stage. Here, the freedom to move beyond the confines of a theatre brings authenticity and grandeur to proceedings. The period locations, their vaunted halls and wood-panelled antechambers, are the perfect setting for the bloodthirsty poeticism of Shakespeare’s early plays.Episode two of The Hollow Crown: War of the Roses condenses Henry VI, Parts 2 & 3 into one feature, setting Henry’s fall alongside the rise of York, ushering in one of Shakespeare’s most iconic characters. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Richard III and, without giving too much away or straying too far into overstatement, it’s one of the best performances we’ve seen him deliver.So, after the runaway success of The Night Manager , The Hollow Crown is set to become our new televisual obsession. The exact release date is yet to be confirmed, but we can say that it’s due to arrive this spring. |
We heard yesterday that the Reds could look to trade second baseman Brandon Phillips this offseason. And it sounds like we can count the Braves among the teams who could be in the mix to acquire him, though there is a catch involved.
Hearing #Braves would have interest in #Reds 2B Phillips if Cincy takes Uggla in deal. ATL probably have to include a top prospect. — David O'Brien (@DOBrienAJC) October 19, 2013
We’re talking about a hypothetical scenario here, so there’s nothing to suggest that the Reds would be interested in such a deal. Still, it’s interesting to think about.
Uggla batted just .179 with 22 homers and a .671 OPS in 136 games this season and is owed $13 million in each of the next two seasons. Meanwhile, Phillips still has four years and $50 million left on his deal.
Follow @djshort |
A German court has ruled against a decision by the country's foreign intelligence service, the BND, to keep classified thousands of files on Adolf Eichmann, one of the main organizers of the Holocaust.
A German freelance journalist based in Argentina, Gabriele Weber, has been seeking access to the BND's 3,400 documents on Eichmann, who escaped to Argentina after the war, was abducted by Israeli agents in 1960, put on trial in Israel and hanged. She took legal action after the BND refused to open the Eichmann files on the grounds that disclosure would damage Germany's national interests.
The BND's refusal to open the files, which date back to the 1950s and 1960s, has triggered speculation that they contain embarrassing information about possible collusion between West German authorities and former Nazis in the 1950s and 1960s.
The Federal Administrative Court in the city of Leipzig ruled on Friday that the refusal to declassify the files was unlawful. "The reasons given for keeping them classified were only partly justified by the contents of the files and did not permit withholding them completely," the court said in a statement issued on Friday.
Files Could Show How Nazis Escaped
Historians say the files could show whether West German authorities knew about Eichmann's whereabouts long before his capture, or even helped him. German law enforcement and intelligence agencies had many former Nazis, including SS and Gestapo officers, working in senior positions after the war.
"I am very curious to know what information was meant to be kept from the public," Gabriele Weber said in a statement. "There have long been indications that not only the German government, but large German firms as well, had contacts in Argentina with Nazis and war criminals."
However, it remains unclear when, whether and what proportion of the BND files will be disclosed.
A spokesman for the court said that despite the ruling, the files will remain closed until the BND and its government masters decide how to proceed. The agency has the option to impose a new disclosure ban but it would have to give new reasons for doing so, which would then have to be reviewed again by the court. Or it may decide to disclose part of the files.
The BND could not immediately be reached for comment. [On Tuesday, a BND spokesman told SPIEGEL ONLINE that no decision had been taken on how to respond to the court decision. "We are checking the ruling by the Federal Administrative Court. The court acknowledged some reasons given for the need to protect personal data on informants, and opened up the possibility of issuing a modified ban on opening the files," the spokesman said. "But it hasn't yet been decided what concrete action will be taken." The spokesman said he did not know how long it would take to reach a decision. "The files are not yet declassified," he said]
Pressure on the agency to release its old files on Nazi fugitives has increased since the CIA declassified many documents relating to Nazi war crimes in 2005 and 2006.
Lawyer Confident of Disclosure
Remo Klinger, a lawyer represting Gabriele Weber in the case, said he had little doubt the BND would declassify the files with various names blacked out, a standard practice in the release of intelligence documents.
"We think the case has shown that one can no longer assume that everything is a state secret just because it has been declared a state secret," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "It sets a legal precedent. There has never been a ruling in which the BND was ordered to disclose documents."
Uki Goni, an Argentine journalist who has researched the Nazi community in Argentina after the war, said the refusal to release the files so far was embarrassing to Germany.
"The whole episode is disgraceful and a deep stain on current-day Germany," Goni told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "It is absolutely shocking that the German government continues to hide this information today. The German government should make not only the BND's Eichmann file public, but all its secret documents related to fugitive Nazis."
"The real reason the German govenment is withholding the Eichmann file is because it is afraid that if it gives in on Eichmann, then the floodgates will be opened and it will face a deluge of requests for all its secret post-war Nazi-related records, with potentially very embarassing consequences."
Germany's files on Eichmann and other Nazi fugitives could shed light on how thousands of committed Nazis and former members of Hitler's SS, including more than 200 indicted war criminals, lived comfortably in exile in Argentina and other South American countries in the 1950s and 1960s, after escaping there with the help of former comrades, Swiss officials, the Catholic church and the Argentine government, said Goni.
BND Argued Disclosure Would Hurt German Foreign Policy
The BND had argued that the files contained information supplied by a foreign secret service which had not agreed to their disclosure, and that keeping the files closed was necessary for the sake of Germany's foreign policy, especially in the Middle East.
The agency also said that the files contain private information about people still alive and was therefore subject to German privacy protection laws. Opening the files would entail unwarranted administrative costs because all that personal data would have to be blacked out, the BND argued.
But the court, which reviewed the top secret files in non-public sessions by a panel of judges, said the documents did not contain much information that was hitherto unknown. It said they referred to events so long ago that they were merely of historical interest.
"The files largely deal with the National Socialist tyranny, the persecution and systematic murder of Europe's Jews, the role of various members of the Nazi regime, namely Adolf Eichmann, as well as events relating to that person in the post-war period," the court said.
"Disclosing the files in question would only add facets to events already known," it added. "Against this background, general references to foreign policy implications and Middle East policy do not suffice as reasons to argue that publication would harm the national interest. The same applies to the argument that continued cooperation with foreign intelligence services would be endangered."
Eichmann, the most notorious of the senior Nazis still at large after World War II, coordinated the deportation of Jews from Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe to the concentration camps. He escaped from an Allied internment camp after the war and lived undercover in Germany until his escape to Argentina in 1950.
"The court even says there is nothing new in the file," said Goni. "If this is so, Germany will have lots of explaining to do. Why did it kept it hidden for so long if there was nothing there? It would only increase the already prevalent suspicion that the file was cleansed before it was given to the court to review." |
Hey all,
Now that I'm back with the live team, I can give some update previews again! This week, we're going to try to get some Annie updates out. As always, this is subject to change or not go this patch if testing determines high risk or bugs.
Disintegrate Ability power ratio increased to .7 from .6 Damage reduced to 80/125/170/215/260 from 90/130/170/215/260
Incinerate Ability power ratio increased to .8 from .6 Damage reduced to 85/135/185/235/285 from 85/145/205/265/325 Mana cost reduced to 80/95/110/125/140 from 80/100/120/140/160
Summon: Tibbers No longer gives experience on death gold bounty increased to 50 from 15 Now gains health per rank: 1200/1600/2000 Now gains armor per rank: 30/50/70 Now gains magic resist per rank: 25/45/65 Lowered the duration to 45 seconds from 60 seconds Area-of-effect burn damage is now 35 at all ranks from 40/60/80, but now has a 0.2 ability power ratio
The goal of this is to get Annie to basically have meaningful damage late game. Her design is really outdated in terms of base/AP ratios (.6 on a nuker is SO 2010!), along with making Tibbers more awesome. This does come at some cost of level 6 burst, but our goal is to make her still able to 1-2-3 squishy characters without AP early (the level 6-9 range). If this isn't the case, we'll increase the bases a little.This one's close to my heart, as Annie is probably my most played character. |
Smurfette as she appears in the comic books, in her stereotypical pose of femurs rotated internally in the hip socket to bring the knees together.
Smurfette as she appears in the cartoon show.
Smurfette as she appears in the 2011 movie.
Smurfette in the 2017 movie Smurfs: The Lost Village Smurfette Gender Female Race Smurf Occupation Beautician, Nurturer Alignment Formerly evil, later good Voice Actor Lucille Bliss (cartoon)
Katy Perry (The Smurfs, The Smurfs 2)
Melissa Sturm (The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol and The Smurfs: The Legend Of Smurfy Hollow)
Demi Lovato (Smurfs: The Lost Village) First Appearance The Smurfette (comic book)
Season 1, "The Astro Smurf" (Television Episode) Universe Comic Books
Cartoon Show
Live-Action Movie Series
Smurf Games
Smurfs: The Lost Village Gallery
Name Translation of Smurfette French Schtroumpfette Spanish Pitufina German Schlumpfine Italian Puffetta Dutch Smurfin Greek Στρουμφίτα Russian Смурфетта Czech Šmoulinka Swedish Smurfan Norwegian Smurfine Finnish Smurffiina Turkish Şirine Polish Smerfetka Hungarian Törpilla Putonghua 蓝妹妹 Cantonese 美芝
For other uses, see Smurfette (disambiguation)
Smurfette (original French name Schtroumpfette) is one of the main characters of the Smurfs comic book series and cartoon show.
Contents show]
Character
She was the only female Smurf who appeared on the show until Season 5, when she was joined by a young female Smurfling named Sassette, and then later in Season 8 when she was joined by an elderly female Smurf named Nanny. She's basically everyone's favorite Smurf in the village.
Role in the Village
Smurfette's role in the village is that of any other smurf; chores, and helping out where she can, but for her specifically, she is often seen to be very active in organizing events and other spectacles (such as organizing and planning Laconia's entire wedding) and is usually one of the first to volunteer to take on risky, adventureous tasks/expeditions. Though Grouchy Smurf or Papa Smurf are seen doing this most, she will also occasionally look after Baby Smurf.
Origin
Smurfette was created by Gargamel, which explains her original position as the only female Smurf in the village.
Gargamel created her to infiltrate the Smurf Village and create discourse amongst the other smurfs so they would destroy themselves. He released Smurfette into the forest, where she was found by Hefty Smurf and taken to the village.
Becoming a Real Smurf
On order from Gargamel, Smurfette began as a troublemaker the moment she arrived, provoking and/or causing many problems within the village. Most of these events were orchestrated, as she used a makeup compact kit that was in actuality a transponder. Smurfette used the makeup mirror to call Gargamel from inside her mushroom house, and he would instruct what kind of problem to cause in Smurf Village.
It wasn't until she nearly flooded the village that she was put on trial for her misdeeds. At this point the pressure and guilt got to her and she began to have second thoughts. She admitted to have been working for Gargamel, but repented and pleaded that she didnt want to be evil, so Papa Smurf agreed to transform her into a real smurf with a spell from one of his spellbooks.
When she returned, she was introduced as the Smurfette everyone knows; sporting blonde hair, heels, and a frilly dress. Though she wants to be a good person and fit in with the rest of the people in Smurf Village, she doesnt quite know how to adjust and be seen as normal; this is made worse when she recieves a final call from gargamel on her compact, who uses the fact that she was ( at this point in time, literally) 'born yesterday' to set up a trap for the smurfs. Telling her he wants to give a gift to the smurfs (knowing she clearly wants to be accepted by the others) he instructs Smurfette to tell all of the smurfs she has a surpise for them by the great oak, and traps all of the smurfs in a wooden box just before Smurfette arrives. When she does, she immediatly realizes the mistake shes made, and promptly dons a disguise after some thought; claiming she is 'the lone smurf', she runs Gargamel amock until defeating him. She then releases all of the captured smurfs, and is proclaimed a hero, forever earning her place in the village.
Personality
Smurfette is deeply caring, emotional, and resourceful. She loves herself and (most) everyone around her, leading her to be involved in almost everything that goes on. As observed on numerous occasions, Smurfette is clearly intelligent, cautious, and often will be the voice of reason in most situations; due to this, when put into a postion of leadership, she thrives. She is driven by the passion she has for her interests, the love she has for those around her, and her unwillingness to fail in general, constantly feeling the need to prove herself to those around her. However, despite these things she is also very susceptible to depression and the feeling of isolation. She hates when people try to step in or act over-protective when she's trying to defend herself, as she's a very independent person with strong opinions she enjoys expressing.
Smurfette loves her friends, animals, and nature; she could tell you the name of every flower in the forest and several facts about each one. She passionately enjoys fashion and beauty (something she often discusses with Vanity Smurf , whom can be surely considered her best friend) and tending to her thriving flower garden. She hates messes and functions best in neat, well-kept environments (such as her own house) and has a low, low tolerance for cruelty; she sticks up for the underdog at all times, and doesnt have time for people who put other people down.
Allegations of sexism
There have been many complaints over Smurfette's character. These complaints are mainly related to the fact that she was at one time the only female character in the series. Detractors of the character also state that she portrays women in a demeaning way.
The chapter/episode where she was introduced depicts Smurfette as not being a Smurf until Papa Smurf turns her into one. She is therefore treated very differently in the village until her change.
Another example of Smurfettes receiving different treatment than 'normal Smurfs' occurred when Nanny invited all the Smurfs to a picnic, but they claimed they were "too busy" to go, despite Papa Smurf having previously mentioned that Smurfs do everything for each other. This shows that the Smurfs had not accepted the Smurfettes as full Smurfs.
Before Papa Smurf changed Smurfette to a real Smurf, she had a very bad attitude, and was ignored by many of the Smurfs. After her transformation, she is seen as much nicer and more accepted. This may imply that beautiful, blonde women are nicer people and more likely to be accepted as full members of society.
A new comic book, released in French on April 2, 2010, La Grande Schtroumpfette (translated as The Great Smurfette, Grand Schtroumpf being Papa Smurf's French name), however, depict her as tired of all the sexism she suffers of. To help her be respected among Smurfs, Papa Smurf leaves the village for a trip and gives Smurfette his authority in the meantime.
Definite article
There have been several instances where Smurfette has been referred to as "the Smurfette", more so in earlier episodes closer to her appearance. This could be interpreted as an instance of objectification of women, though it may simply refer to Smurfette being her classification (meaning 'female Smurf') as well as her name.
While this is a mere assumption on some parts, people have now referred to a situation where there is only one main female in a whole cast (or species) of males as "the Smurfette Principle".
Relationships
Smurfette has at various points been the main love interest for many of the Smurfs, excluding the Smurflings, Grandpa and Nanny.
She is closest to Papa , who she greatly admires and assists whenever she can, and Vanity who is her best friend and, occasionally, a friendly rival.
It can be assumed that she is good friends with Laconia; though Laconia did not have much screentime, she entrusted the planning and details of her entire wedding to Smurfette, and the two otherwise seem to have a very close relationship.
At times it was tough for her to live in an all-male village, but it became easier when Sassette came (they formed a sisterly relationship), and more so when they were joined by Nanny, who took on a motherly/grandmotherly role.
Smurfette has also been seen to get along with female human characters, like Andria, Brenda and Princess Savina among others.
Smurfette is also friends with Blue Eyes, a small golden flying horse who lives beyond the clouds.
Uh oh! Very Smurfy Non-canon warning: This article or section contains non-canonical information that is not considered to be an official part of either the Smurfs Franco-Belgian comic book series or the Smurfs cartoon show series and should not be considered part of the overall storyline of either.
In the live-action movie series
The Smurfs
In the 2011 Smurfs movie, Smurfette is one of the few Smurfs that travel through time to modern-day New York City through the portal that opened during the blue moon in the Smurf forest. Her origin in the movie is based on the cartoon show version of "The Smurfette" in her explanation to Grace Winslow. The movie makes a notable change in Smurfette's personality in that she seems to be able to defend herself, being a skilled Hand-to-Hand combatant, and even actively confronts Azrael by herself in order to rescue Papa Smurf, whereas the cartoon show normally depicts her as a damsel in distress who needs constant rescuing by her fellow Smurfs. During her stay in the modern-day world, she befriends Patrick Winslow's wife Grace, and finds herself enamored by the various types of doll-sized dresses she could wear when she helps the other Smurfs find a "stargazer" in the FAO Schwarz toy store.
In promotional shots where Smurfette is seen from behind, she noticeably doesn't have a tail appear from outside her dress, which seems to be emphasizing her origin as a Smurf created by Gargamel, though it could be that she is showing a ladylike aversion to having a tail appear outside of her clothing. On the other hand, it could simply be an error on the part of the character model developers, as Smurfette in most of her cartoon appearances has her tail hidden behind her long blond hair. (For those arguing over whether Smurfette has a tail or not, the cartoon show episode "The Purple Smurfs" has Smurfette also turned into a Purple Smurf through the same mode of transmission as any other Smurf. For the most part of the franchise, Smurfette's tail is shapely covered by her undergarments as a viewer can watch for a very brief moment in the opening titles of the cartoon series.)
The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol
In the animated feature The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol, Smurfette appears as the Smurf of Christmas Past, who shows Grouchy Smurf how happy he used to be when it came to Christmas, in the hopes that he would be able to regain the Christmas part he had lost when his hopes of getting a hang glider for Christmas were dashed by the fact that the only present he ever got every year was a Smurf hat.
The Smurfs 2
In The Smurfs 2, it is revealed that Smurfette was originally grey with black hair before she was changed into a Smurf. During the events of the movie, Smurfette was encouraged by her captors, the Naughties, to give their master the secret formula that would turn Naughties into Smurfs, though she ultimately was forced to do so when Gargamel refused to feed them with Smurf essence. Also in the movie, Smurfette's hair became shorter because Gargamel cut off the bottom parts of it to make Smurf essence to use for his magic show.
The Smurfs: The Legend Of Smurfy Hollow
In the animated feature The Smurfs: The Legend Of Smurfy Hollow, Smurfette appears to help Gutsy rescue Brainy from a trap set up by Gargamel in Smurfy Hollow before dark, which is when the legends say the Headless Horseman comes to chase after those who are still in the hollow.
Smurfs: The Lost Village
Smurfette is a lead character in Smurfs: The Lost Village, which recounts her origin as a creation of Gargamel's but introduces the conflict that-unlike her neighbors in Smurf Village-she doesn't know what her unique trait is. After a series of failed attempts to find it by working with the other Smurfs, she visits Brainy just as he is testing his new Smurfy Thing Finder on Hefty. She then asks him to try it on her, only for it to be burnt out by inexplicable energy; Brainy quickly attributes this to Smurfette not being "a real Smurf." To cheer her up, Hefty-who has an obvious crush on her throughout the film-suggests that they go Smurfboarding, during which Smurfette comes face to face with a mysterious masked figure that she determines is an unknown Smurf. Unfortunately, she is then captured by Monty, Gargamel's pet vulture, and taken back to his lair, where he manages to obtain from her a hat dropped by the mystery Smurf.
Fortunately Brainy, Hefty, and Clumsy manage to free Smurfette, and learn-as does Gargamel-that a second Smurf village is located somewhere in the Forbidden Forest. However, Papa Smurf refuses to consider letting them travel to it and grounds them all, something that Smurfette agrees with to the surprise of Papa and her friends. In reality, she uses the opportunity to sneak out of Smurf Village to head toward the Forbidden Forest on her own, only to find out that her three friends have followed her. Together they make their way over the dividing wall and encounter a number of strange flowers as well as a colony of Dragonflies, only to be intercepted by Gargamel and his pets. They are then forced to flee from the Dragonflies after Gargamel takes one of their eggs and throws it to Clumsy, and manage to take shelter in a network of underground tunnels.
After making their way out of the tunnels with help from some rabbits-including one whom Smurfette dubs Bucky-the quartet come to a river and make a raft, only to once again run into Gargamel. After a confrontation that leaves him, Azrael, and Monty sinking, Smurfette and Hefty insist on helping them despite Brainy's protests. Unfortunately, Gargamel repays their kindness by sweeping them off into the river, which Brainy angrily accosts Smurfette and Hefty for upon their coming to shore. However, the mystery Smurf from before and a group of it's fellows trap the group, and then reveal themselves to be Smurfettes-female Smurfs not created by Gargamel. The quartet are soon brought to the village of Smurfy Grove under the watchful eyes of Smurfstorm, Smurflily, and others, and are then introduced to the village matriarch Smurfwillow, who informs them that there are no male Smurfs in this village.
Thinking the village safe from Gargamel after learning that an image depicted by his magic was of three waterfalls rather than three trees as he believed, Smurfette and her friends-minus Clumsy, who is taken away by Smurfstorm to insure that Gargamel is truly no longer a threat-are welcomed into the village. Smurfette quickly grows to like it and being able to spend time with other female Smurfs for a change, so much so that she is reluctant to leave. However, Smurfstorm confronts her upon her return, having learned of her origins from Clumsy; the Smurfettes then capture Papa Smurf when he arrives in search of Smurfette and her friends. Gargamel then arrives and uses his Freeze Balls to capture all of the Smurfs except Smurfette, mockingly proclaiming that she has served her purpose before departing to drain her friends of their magic. A despondent Smurfette is left with no idea of what to do, until Snappy helps her see how she can stop Gargamel.
Traveling to Gargamel's castle, Smurfette claims that she wishes to become evil again and offers to tell Gargamel where he can find Smurf Village, thus doubling his newly acquired magical power, in exchange for being returned to her evil original form. Gargamel agrees, but as with the Smurfy Thing Finder Smurfette absorbs the magical energy, and with help from Hefty and Brainy is able to defeat Gargamel and return the magic to her friends. However, the process causes her to return to her original form as a lump of clay, with no apparent means to restoring her to life; she is then carried back to Smurf Village by Hefty where both the Smurfs and Smurfettes gather to mourn her. However, their inherent magic comes together to revive her, and she is happily greeted by Clumsy and Hefty before the rest of the Smurfs realize her return. The now united populations of Smurfs then celebrate with a massive dance party.
Smurf Videogames
In the game, she is one of the Smurfs that the player can choose to control. (The other one is a male Smurf.) There are no difference between them as far as skills go.
She is one of the Smurfs that can be unlocked in the beginning of the game which the player can unlock her in level 2. She has a flower shop for the player to craft items.
In the Smurfs' Village game, she has owned a house which costs 30 smurfberries in the mainland. Once the players bought it, she would appear and gives XP to players. Her hut is available in mountain, Planet Swoof, the island region with 35, 30 and 30 smurfberries respectively. Her outfit can also be changed into prehistoric style and Egyptian style in island and Planet Swoof respectively by purchasing additional items.
She appears in the the game as to help the player to grow flowers which is a material to make potion.
She is the main character in the game as the player has to help her complete the levels and save the Smurfs. Also players can dress her with different clothes purchased.
She appears in the game as an unlockable character in step 59. It costs 90,000 coins she has the ability to glide.
There is also Princess Smurfette, which is unlocked with real money, who has the ability to stomp and rainbow permanently also available.
Uh oh! Very Smurfy Non-canon warning: Non-canonical information ends here.
Trivia |
Photo: Courtesy of Janine Cole
One Saturday morning last fall, my marriage ended before I even had a chance to finish my coffee. Our three kids were clearing the table—an onslaught of nine-year-olds were arriving any minute for my daughter’s book club. As our kids stacked breakfast dishes in the kitchen, my husband, Mike, looked up from across the table and said, “I’m gay.”
I wish I could tell you what I said in response, but I can’t. I can vividly recall the defeat in Mike’s face and how he could barely look me in the eye. But as to what I said? It’s a complete blank. I went on autopilot and focused on the imminent gathering of 10 kids that we were taking on a field trip to the Children’s Book Bank for the next few hours. “Did you brush your teeth?” I asked them. “The kids will be here soon!”
I’d feared this day would come. Deep down, some part of me knew it would. We had spent the past two years on an emotional roller coaster, discussing (oh, so much discussing) his burgeoning attraction to men, trying to incorporate it into our marriage. After all we’d been through, to accept that this was the end of our marriage and almost 21 years together left me heartbroken and numb.
We’d known each other since junior high school and started dating in the first year of university. Together, we had navigated so many life changes: a year in Japan, multiple careers, infertility, a near-death experience and three kids. He was my Thursday-night Yahtzee opponent, my social wingman (as he was usually the life of the party), my best friend.
Elvira Kurt: “We ended our relationship, but we didn’t end our family” Now, we had a new challenge: We had to find a way to forge new lives apart with the same love and respect that we’d shown each other for decades. I did my best to focus on what we had and reminded myself that we were separating because of love—not for lack of it.
But that didn’t make it any easier.
***
I didn’t even know what a “mixed-orientation marriage” was until I discovered I was already in one. Two years earlier, while our two youngest kids were napping, Mike told me on our back porch that he had recently discovered that he was also attracted to men. He was adamant that he didn’t want to lose me—he wanted to make our marriage work and make those other feelings go away. But they were there, and they were getting stronger. I cried so loudly that our eldest child opened the door to ask what was wrong.
I was already exhausted from trying to keep our kids (then 7, 3 and 1) alive, not to mention fed and clothed. Now, I was completely underwater, trying to help my husband figure out his sexuality. We talked about it all the time: after the kids went to bed, when we got to work and on the streetcar on our way out to meet friends. We decided that we’d keep this to ourselves—it was something we needed to figure out without the judgment of others. I felt unsure about our future and often shut out of what was really going on in his mind, but we told no one.
After months of discussion, he disclosed that he thought he might be bisexual. It was then that we realized we needed professional support. We found an awesome psychotherapist who asked tough questions. Within 20 minutes, she accomplished more than we had in weeks of talking. She concluded that my ideal was to remain monogamous—something my husband could not do. It felt like an ultimatum: I could either accompany him on this journey or split. Both options were terrifying.
We both knew how much we had to lose: our family, our home, each other. I didn’t doubt that he loved me and wanted to stay married. As scary and heartbreaking as it was, I couldn’t walk away—he needed me, and I needed to know where this would take us.
After spending several months in weekly counselling sessions and most of our waking moments (when we weren’t dealing with the kids) dissecting every part of our relationship and his sexuality, I came to accept what he needed and what he was asking of me. I could let him explore. I had nothing to lose by trying, so I agreed to an open marriage—well, a one-sided one anyway. With all that was going on and three young kids, finding someone else to have sex with just wasn’t something I was remotely interested in. I had everything I needed with Mike, but he needed this to help him figure things out.
That’s when I realized just how stretchy love can be.
***
Online research suggests that you should have an agreement before you enter into an open relationship so that each partner knows the boundaries. We drafted an agreement and negotiated the details: Mike could go out every other Wednesday evening. He needed to be safe. He could communicate with his potential friend during the week but not at home—not during family time.
He already had a person in mind that he wanted to explore with—a man he’d met in an online forum for men who were trying to make their mixed-orientation marriages work. Their lives were eerily parallel: They were bisexual and married to heterosexual women, had kids and wanted to remain married but be able to explore their sexuality.
It was all planned, but now it was going to happen. Intellectually, I had wrapped my head around it, but my heart was still lagging behind. Those first few times he met his friend, I had what I can only describe as out-of-body experiences.
Women in online support groups (Making Mixed-Orientiation Marriages Work, Alternate Path, New Normal Facebook—I joined them all) suggested that I do something for myself on those nights, such as meet up with friends or book a massage, but I just couldn’t do it. I found that I needed to maintain as much normalcy as I could, which meant staying home with our three kids, going through familiar motions.
There were definitely moments when it felt imbalanced. There was the time when I was picking up the kids from daycare from two different locations in a snowstorm on my bike (because he drove to visit his friend). Or when the kids were exceptionally challenging at bedtime and there were three loads of laundry to fold. But being with the kids and doing routine things kept me focused on why I was doing this.
On the Wednesdays when Mike would see his friend, I’d try to ignore him getting ready in the morning. It was sometimes painful to watch him put in a little more effort than he normally would. I found it easier not to have any contact with him on those days until I received a text around 9:30 p.m. saying “I’m on my way home.” Those words were the reason I was able to do this for him—it meant that their evening was over. He was coming home. I had made it through.
After a few months of Wednesdays, Mike’s friend came to realize that he was gay, not bisexual. He and his wife decided to end their marriage. I held my breath as I asked my husband if this changed things for them, for him or for us. This had been my fear from the beginning. He said it didn’t—he was confident in his bisexuality and assured me that he wasn’t gay. I was the love of his life and he was still very much attracted to me—as surprising as it may sound, we were still sexually active, even more so during this time. The level of openness and transparency this required actually brought us closer.
But the roller coaster ride just kept on going. Shortly after his friend and his wife split, Mike came home in tears. Mike’s friend had broken things off with him because he’d fallen in love with him. Yet another first, and yet another challenge to navigate. If it was just a physical release for my husband, why was he so emotional? Did the fact that he was so visibly distraught mean that he was in love, too? I did what I thought was best and suggested that we find him a new “friend.”
Another thing I never thought I’d do with my husband? Help him write an ad for a new same-sex partner. We worked on it together over a glass of wine on our front porch, smiling and waving at unknowing neighbours as they walked by. We laughed and said this wasn’t something we ever thought we’d be doing when we said our vows.
Humour was key as we tried to move forward and enjoy the rest of the summer as a family. We had a few more cottage weekends and seemed to be having fun. We visited his parents near Collingwood, ferried over to Toronto Island (one of our favourite things to do) and spent the final weekend of summer at a friend’s cottage. But things felt different, and I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach. I feared that the shift I had worried about from the beginning was happening. For the first time, I felt like I wasn’t enough.
That first week of school, I was scrolling through pictures on my phone when I came across one that made my heart sink. The kids were gathered around the fire, eating s’mores, but something in the background came into focus for me: the look on my husband’s face as he sat in a chair with all of the chaos going on around him. Pain. Fear. Unhappiness. Just a few days later came his final disclosure at the breakfast table.
I sent him that picture and said, “If you ever doubted telling me and knowing what you had to do, look at this picture.” I’m sure his decision to fully come out to me was the hardest one that he has ever had to make, but it was the right one. There just were no more options for us as a couple.
***
Immediately, the business of carefully dismantling our marriage began. Everything that had felt so natural for the past 21 years suddenly felt taboo—I had to stop myself from reaching for his hand or his mouth to kiss.
My sadness and anger had no target—our situation was blameless. There wasn’t anything I could have done differently, and I couldn’t expect him to be anyone other than himself. So I made another vow to myself: This wasn’t going to destroy me or our family.
A week later, we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. We lit some candles on the front porch, opened a bottle of champagne and toasted to new beginnings. It was scary, and it was sad. But we’ve made it so far with love and respect; our separation could be handled the same way.
Subscribe to our daily newsletter! It was no surprise, but painful nonetheless, when he told me that he had developed feelings for his Wednesday-night friend and that they were going to pursue a relationship. This was the hardest part for me. Their relationship represented everything I overcame in the past two years out of love for him. It was hard enough that our marriage was ending, but to know that he was in love with the man I had worked really, really hard to accept as his physical partner felt like my heart had been ripped out and stomped on.
I know it wasn’t intentional. And with my heart further behind in the acceptance process, I did what I knew had to be done: I stepped aside and let him go.
When it was time to start spreading the news, we decided to tell close friends and family first. Not surprisingly, everyone was sad but supportive.
Telling the kids was harder—there never is a perfect time. We told the younger two first and kept it really simple for them. We said, “You know how Mommy and Daddy always say you love who you love, no matter who they are?” They kind of nodded. “Well, Daddy has discovered that he likes boys and Mommy is OK with that.” And then we told them that he’d be getting his own place but that we’d always be a family. You could tell that they didn’t quite get what it meant, but we felt slightly relieved that it had gone as well as expected.
When we told our older daughter, she looked thoughtful and didn’t say much. She knew what it meant but admitted that she was confused. I mean, after all, we were happy and rarely fought. It wasn’t until he moved out that it really hit her. At bedtime one night, soon after Mike moved out, she asked, “How long will Daddy love you like a wife?” This was her way of conveying what she knew needed to be done.
We needed to fall out of love, and she was worried about that for all of us.
I grieved hard for the end of our marriage. My pain wasn’t our pain anymore; it was all mine. I don’t doubt for a second that it was difficult for him, but he had someone waiting for him, a new apartment and a new way forward. It was hard to watch him start his new life while I surveyed the damage in mine.
I allowed myself a short time to grieve. The two years we spent working it out helped me let go faster (my heart did finally catch up!). Life needed to go on, and I had three kids who needed me. I let my children see a window into my sadness but was also able to show them my strength and excitement around rebuilding me.
His discovery freed us—I see that now. Neither one of us could have continued on the path we were on, no matter how much love there was between us. The mental acrobatics of balancing, incorporating and supporting his relationship with his friend meant that I didn’t have much energy to take care of myself.
When 2016 came to an end, I was ready to focus on me—2017 was going to be my year. I saw an opportunity for my own fresh start, and it was empowering to start thinking about things that would make me happy. I signed up for sailing classes and filled my social calendar with amazing people, often coming home from those evenings feeling energized and full.
I feel grateful for the 21 years that Mike and I had together but especially those last two years. As challenging as that time was, we grew as individuals and as a family. I thought of the lessons we were able to pass on to our kids: We showed them that love sometimes means letting go when it’s the right thing to do, that being who you are is always best, and that family doesn’t fit one mould. We also showed them that separating doesn’t mean less love or more anger; it means different love and new ideas about what a family can be.
We’ve all come a long way in a year. In fact, it blows my mind. Tomorrow will be our middle child’s sixth birthday, and we’re all coming together to celebrate at the house. When I say we, I mean everyone—our family circle has grown. Mike’s parents, my parents, his partner and mine, my sister and brother-in-law and our three wonderful kids will all be there. Mike and I found a way to redefine our family and make room for new members. It was anything but easy, but we learned an important lesson: When love is your foundation, anything is possible.
Read more:
When mom becomes dad: Life as a transgender parent
Parenting post-divorce can actually be kind of awesome |
WYES Beer Tasting
The WYES beer tastings raise money each year for the local public television station. (Courtesy of WYES)
(WYES)
Raising money for nonprofit organizations in Louisiana got a little easier thanks to House Bill 1036, which allows manufacturers and distributors to donate wine and liquor. Gov. Bobby Jindal signed the law Monday (June 23). It went into effect immediately.
The bill also clarifies the regulation of events where home-brewed beer is served.
In recent years, the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control, or ATC, ruled that the long-standing practice of nonprofits receiving liquor donations violated state laws. The organizations typically used the donations for fundraising events.
Until HB 1036 was approved, nonprofit organizations had to purchase liquor and wine at the standard wholesale price prior to an event. The manufacturers or distributors could then make a donation to the nonprofit organization to cover that cost.
That makeshift solution pleased no one. Nonprofit organizations had to front the cost of the alcohol with no guarantee that a donation would be received to cover the expense. Manufacturers and distributors had to provide a donation that covered both their cost and the wholesale markup.
Rep. Jeff Arnold, D-Algiers, worked with state alcohol commissioner Troy Hebert to draft HB 1036.
***
Got a tip? Know some restaurant news? Email Todd A. Price at TPrice@NOLA.com or call 504.826.3445. Follow him on Twitter (@TPrice504) or Facebook (ToddAPriceEatsDrinks).
(PDF) |
When she was embedded with Iraqi soldiers in Mosul last fall, researcher Vera Mironova says the Islamic State regularly buzzed her unit with camera-equipped drones to record information on troop movements.
In one instance, two drones hovered above the patrol, causing nearly 100 soldiers to open fire, says Ms. Mironova. Only one of the drones fell to the ground in the barrage.
“There is no other way to take them down,” says Mironova, an international security fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center who traveled to Mosul to conduct field research.
Over the past 90 days, US officials say they have spotted 92 enemy drones, most of which are off-the-shelf models outfitted with cameras or explosives. Drones have killed and injured local and western forces, though it's unclear how many. In October, drones killed two Kurdish fighters and injured two French commandos.
The arrival of consumer-grade drones on the Iraqi battlefield makes the fight against the Islamic State the first major conflict in which all sides rely on unmanned aircraft. Going forward, the US military may never face another military adversary without its own fleet of drones and autonomous weapons.
Now, American and local forces are scrambling to come up with new ways of fighting back against drones, testing weapons and technologies on the battlefield to thwart the growing aerial menace.
“This commercial, off-the-shelf drone capability that they have is much less damaging, much less effective [than other ISIS tactics like car bombs] but it is also something that’s more difficult to do something about,” says US Air Force Col. John Dorrian, spokesman for the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq.
Though a handful of defense companies are developing antidrone weapons, none of their innovations have seen widespread adoption. Most operate as jammers, disrupting the signal between the drone and its operator. One of these drone guns, the DroneDefender appeared in a photo that was reportedly taken on a US base in Iraq. Neither the military nor the manufacturer, Battelle, can comment on the specific types of drone countermeasures currently used in Iraq.
Designed to look and feel like a rifle, the DroneDefender fires an electronic signal that can force a drone to return to its owner, hover in place or land. In a little more than a year, Battelle has sold more than 100 of the devices to the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and a foreign military organization.
“These are kind of early days and we’re seeing what drones can do and how they’ll be used,” says Katy Delaney, a spokesperson for Battelle. The Ohio-based company does not disclose the cost of the DroneDefender due to business sensitivity issues but says it is considered "affordable" in the "competitive landscape."
Although products like the DroneDefender may be new to the market, nonstate actors have been using unmanned aircraft for more than a decade. As early as 2004, Hezbollah sent an Iranian-made unmanned aircraft into Israeli airspace. During the 2006 Lebanon War, the militant group flew a drone rigged with explosives into an Israeli warship.
Since then, low-cost consumer drones have become nearly ubiquitous. In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration had registered more than 325,000 drones compared to 320,000 piloted aircraft by early last year. Now there are more than 670,000 registered drones and the FAA estimates that there could be as many as 7 million by 2020.
“The threat that runs through all of this is lower barriers to entry,” says Peter Singer, a senior fellow and strategist at New America, a Washington-based think tank, and author of "Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century."
“We can reasonably project ten years out that robotic systems are going to be even more widely available but also simpler, easier to use and more autonomous," he says.
On the home front, these drones may prove just as much a threat as they do on the battlefield, delivering drugs and contraband to inmates. In one such instance in London, a quadcopter brought a sack of drugs and cellphones directly to the window of a prison cell.
A team of Canadian and Israeli researchers published a paper this fall about how they used a drone to remotely hack and control smart light bulbs, demonstrating how unmanned aerial vehicles could wreak havoc on the internet-connected electronics. And almost two years ago, a Connecticut teenager built a quadcopter capable of firing a mounted handgun.
“Three years ago you had to convince [perspective clients] that it was going to be a threat. It was more theoretical,” says Josh Desmond, vice president of business development at DroneShield. His company makes unmanned aircraft detectors and an antidrone gun.
“Now it’s more that people want to talk to us. There’s no convincing them that it’s going to be a threat. It already is,” he says.
Detectors are legal in the US but makers of antidrone weapons are prohibited from selling their equipment to anyone other than the federal government. That's because the jammers may also block telephones and radios, a violation of Federal Communications Commission regulations.
Some laws affecting drone countermeasures date back almost a century, says Jonathan Rupprecht, an attorney focused on drone law. He says the Federal Communications Act of 1934 prohibits anyone from manufacturing or even marketing an unlicensed jammer in the US.
“We may need to start adapting quickly and maybe have some specific provisions … that say you can operate said drone countermeasure,” he says.
For those worried that America now faces a new threat, security analysts say that automated technologies are most likely concerning because they’re new.
“New technologies come along and they give new options to terrorists and criminals,” New America's Mr. Singer says. “For a regular American, if you’re worried about someone shooting up your kid’s school, unfortunately we don’t have to wait for a world of robots to know that’s a real danger.” |
Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
One week is a lifetime in politics. Six weeks is practically an eternity. Many, many things have changed since May 4, the day the GOP primary season effectively ended. Donald Trump is not one of those things.
"Today, Trump is no closer to uniting the Republican Party or pivoting to the general election than he was six weeks ago," says Chris Cillizza. "And that is, at a minimum, a massive waste of a critical time period and, at worst, a mistake that could severely jeopardize his chances of winning the White House in November."
Candidates sometimes fall victim to the news cycle — events beyond their control that hijack their message and force them off-course. Donald Trump has mostly fallen victim to Donald Trump.
"Trump's time as the near-certain Republican nominee have been dominated by self-inflicted wounds — the most gaping of which is his suggestion that a federal judge overseeing a case involving Trump University was biased and should recuse himself because he is of Mexican heritage. Trump doubled down on that comment, then tripled down on it..."
To paraphrase the old song, if it were just Curiel, it would have been enough. But there's been more. So very much more. Trump has attacked prominent Republican officials (including New Mexico's Republican governor, Susana Martinez); repeatedly referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as "Pocahontas"; added The Washington Post to the list of news outlets barred from his press pool; and, in the wake of the Orlando attack, said that President Obama "continues to prioritize our enemy" over Americans.
"Know what else happened in the last six weeks? The State Department's inspector general released a report sharply critical of Hillary Clinton's decision to exclusively rely on a private email server for her electronic communication while serving as secretary of state. That is a terrible story for Clinton — and one that is a gift to Republicans working to portray her as an untrustworthy and unreliable person to lead the country.
"The IG report came out on May 25. Two days later, Trump went on a 11-minute rant about Curiel to a crowd in San Diego. Suddenly, the IG report was out of the news, replaced by questions about whether or not Trump was a racist....time and again, Trump has stolen the spotlight — and not in a good way — rather than turning it on Clinton. Rather than talk about her email problems, her inability to close out the challenge from Bernie Sanders, the misgiving some within her party have about nominating her or almost any other Clinton-focused headline, Trump has instead talked incessantly about himself."
You can see the impact in the new Washington Post/ABC poll out today — in a bitterly divided nation, one candidate seems to be uniting voters across multiple demographic lines...in their shared dislike of his campaign: according to the survey, 7 in 10 Americans polled now have a negative view of Donald Trump. The number that may keep the Trump team up at night: the mogul is currently under water — meaning, higher disapproval than approval numbers — among white working class voters. If he does not find a way to reverse this trend line, by Election Day his core base might be down to paid staff and members of his immediate family.
"Trump was handed a unique opportunity over these last six weeks. Clinton was still mired in a primary fight with Sanders. Trump was totally free of any intraparty challengers. He had six weeks in which his opponent was decidedly distracted. He won't get that chance again. The Democratic primary season ended Tuesday night. President Obama and Vice President Biden have endorsed Clinton. Sanders seems to be moving to do the same.
"Yes, modern campaigns last forever. But, they are almost always defined by a small group of critical moments that change the trajectory of races. The last six weeks was a major moment. Trump wasted it."
(Holly Bailey/Yahoo News, via Instagram)
But, you may ask, what about Orlando? During the primary season, Donald Trump saw his poll numbers rise after terror attacks. Trump himself often points to that primary performance: How he polled. Who he beat. How he ran his campaign. His approach has a solid track record, he argues. Why mess with it?
The answer to both questions is something every reporter should probably tattoo somewhere on their person and refer to frequently, just as a point of reference: Past performance is no indicator of future results. And, as Chris has pointed out (many times), the difference between winning the nomination and winning a fall contest is like the difference between the NCAA and the NBA. Skill sets don't necessarily transfer; it's a very, very different game.
Which brings us back to Orlando. "Two surveys released in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Orlando suggest that Donald Trump's response and proposal for preventing such incidents in the future are not ones with which Americans agree," reports Philip Bump. CBS News and Bloomberg asked voters about the idea of a Muslim immigration ban; about their thoughts on gun control; and about Trump's comments about President Obama's response to terrorism. In each instance, the majority didn't agree with Trump's positions.
In other words: despite that poll Tuesday that suggested "that Americans trusted Trump and Clinton to handle attacks like Orlando about evenly in the future, a more detailed look at the numbers suggests that his response after this attack may not help his position much at all."
(Some Republicans are criticizing Trump's Orlando response.)
Given those numbers, it's no surprise some leading Republicans aren't all that happy with Trump. Apparently he isn't too thrilled with them, either.
"Donald Trump said Wednesday that top Republicans need to toughen up and that he may have to lead the GOP 'alone,' heightening tensions with his party’s leaders at a time when they have stepped up their criticism of his controversial statements," reported Sean Sullivan, Jose DelReal and Abby Phillip. At an afternoon rally in Atlanta, he "let loose a scathing attack of his fellow Republicans. He did not name anyone in particular.
"'You know the Republicans, honestly folks, our leaders, our leaders have to get tougher,' he said. 'This is too tough to do it alone, but you know what? I think I’m going to be forced to. I think I’m going to be forced to. Our leaders have to get a lot tougher. ...And be quiet. Just please be quiet. Don’t talk. Please be quiet. Just be quiet to the leaders because they have to get tougher, they have to get sharper, they have to get smarter.'
"The remarks came a day after many congressional Republicans, including House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, denounced his response to the deadly mass shooting in Orlando. Ryan took issue with Trump’s proposed Muslim ban. And many shook their heads at his suggestion that President Obama may be sympathetic to terrorists.
"...Trump suggested more than once Wednesday that he might be on his own — a posture that threatens to further erode his fragile relationship with the Republican establishment. 'We have to have our Republicans either stick together or let me just do it by myself,' he said. 'I’ll do very well. I’m going to do very well. OK? I’m going to do very well. A lot of people thought I should do that anyway, but I’ll just do it very nicely by myself.'" Some Republicans may be tempted to let him try.
HERE COMES THE GENERAL: 1:20 p.m. ET: Fox, CNN and MSNBC are carrying Donald Trump's Atlanta rally live.
1:30 p.m. ET (as Trump continues speaking): Something...different.
TRAIL MIX:
Spotted in Atlanta. (Brant Sanderlin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
—Today, Donald Trump said Hillary Clinton wasn't tough enough on countries that discriminate against women and gay people.
"Ask yourself, who is really the friend of women and the LGBT community. Donald Trump with his actions, or Hillary Clinton with her words?" he said in Atlanta. "Ask the gays, 'Who’s your friend?'"
Trump on Saudi Arabia, the Clintons, women and "the gays" https://t.co/8OzX9IJbNg — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) June 15, 2016
That was the line that launched a thousand gifs. Like this one:
And this one:
and (#WayBack Wednesday alert!): this.
(You get the picture)
—Also meme-ing today: the Trumpish Pokemon debate. (We have no opinion on this. But many people on the Internet seem to.)
Someone in Twitch chat said Yungoos looks like Donald Trump but he LITERALLY DOES. pic.twitter.com/dPuStqv8Yz — IWT | Shanikkyu (@shannondorf_) June 14, 2016
—Speaking of #WayBackWednesday! Herman Cain's back (this time, ahead of Trump's Atlanta rally): "This sounds like a shucky-ducky kind of crowd on a shucky-ducky kind of day, here to support an awww-shucky ducky kind of candidate." (On a related note, today Trump called the Russian nuclear arsenal "tippy-top." We have not yet encountered a "neato burrito" on the trail, but the day's not over yet, so: stay tuned.)
Someone who doesn't think Trump is all that shucky-ducky: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who made it official today — he's not backing his party's presumptive nominee. We won't be able to say for sure what Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn thinks from this point on, since he told Politico he would no longer talk about Trump until after Election Day.
—Former Scott Walker campaign manager and Trump political director Rick Wiley, dismissed from the Trump campaign last month, will now help run the RNC's field program. Here's one stat to illustrate the challenge that team faces: Democrats reportedly have more people on the ground in the state of Ohio alone than Trump has in the entire country.
—The Clinton team is flooding the airwaves too, with an initial general election buy targeting swing states: "Clinton has purchased advertising time on television stations in Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Iowa, New Hampshire, Ohio, Colorado and Nevada, according to a Democrat tracking ad buys and public records in several of those states." No word yet on when, or if, Trump will be able to respond in kind.
—This might or might not be the DNC's (dated/pre-Iowa) Trump oppo file, which we learned this week had been accessed by Russian hackers. We would just observe that it is definitely material that, were it chopped up into dozens of press releases and web videos as per usual, people might not view in full unless they were people whose paycheck depended on the viewing of such material, such as campaign reporters and political operatives. But with a sexy Gawker link, it managed to pull in more than 150,000 views and rising within the first three hours this afternoon.
Trump says DNC hack is a false flag pic.twitter.com/Zv1uz77dbO — Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) June 15, 2016
—Trump could find himself in line with public opinion on one post-Orlando issue (more details to come...)
I will be meeting with the NRA, who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2016
—Marco Rubio has told reporters "10,000 times" (his count) that he planned to be a private citizen next year, not run for re-election. Apparently we needed to ask 10,001 times: he said today he's reconsidering a 2016 Senate bid. Ted Cruz is looking to the future too.
—The Sanders revolution got its first post-presidential campaign test in Nevada voting yesterday. Short version: The Berniecrats went bust.
YOUR DAILY TRAIL PIT STOP: Back inside the Beltway tonight, Congress and the media battled it out. (On the diamond.) A bipartisan team of congressional women took on the press corps' Bad News Babes to benefit breast cancer awareness efforts. Here's more on the annual showdown, and the cause it benefits.
Paul Ryan in the Bad News Babes dugout, urging us to throw the game. "I need a morale boost." #CWSG pic.twitter.com/MPvsNrDhFZ — Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) June 15, 2016
(We probably don't have th say this, but: The media won this one, because Paul Ryan's just having that sort of spring.) |
Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen a handful of reports suggesting that Google is on the verge of releasing a unified chat service called “Babble.” This new service was rumored to have merged services like Voice, Talk, and Google+ Messenger into a cross-platform chat solution, hopefully ending the siloed and independent chat experiences that we all currently experience. While most of those reports were on the right track, we believe that the actual name of the new Google messenger service is called “Babel” rather than “Babble,” at least internally.
According to sources of ours, with Babel, you’ll get a seamless messenger experience across Android, iOS, Chrome, Google+ and Gmail. From what we have seen, there is no mention of Google Voice or other services outside of the five we just mentioned, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t be there at some point. As of now, this is being tested internally as a cross-platform service through those five platforms (Android, iOS, Chrome, Google+ and Gmail).
Google is selling the service as having these features:
Access the same conversation list from anywhere
A new, conversation-based UI
Advanced group conversations
Ability to send pictures
Improved notifications across devices
So what does “Babel” mean? It has a variety of meanings, that all make sense in some round-about way. The semi-hilarious thing about the name, is the fact that the definition of the word by itself has to do with a confused mixture of sounds, voices, or languages. But if you think about the movie Babel, with Brad Pitt, the name tends to make more sense. The movie itself focuses on four interrelated situations and conversations that all eventually come together in the end through a single phone call that is played from two different perspectives from the beginning and then the final scene. When you think of a unified messenger client, this idea of merging conversations from different perspectives or places seems to make a lot of sense. Then of course, there is the biblical meaning.
Another interesting item of note – there is already a chat service on Android called Babel (Play link), however, it appears to have a small international user base.
Would Google really name a service after a Brad Pitt movie? Have they gone biblical? Babel could be an internal codename for all we know. Obviously, we’ll keep this as a rumor until further details surface. |
In 2017, it can sometimes seem like power grids are practically crawling with digital intruders. Over just the past four months, news has emerged that Russian hackers penetrated a nuclear power plant, that the same group may have had hands-on access to an American energy utility's control systems, that another group of Kremlin hackers used a new form of automated malware to induce a power outage in Ukraine—and now, this week, that North Korean hackers breached an American energy utility. Reading those headlines, you'd be forgiven for thinking that hacker-induced blackouts were a near-weekly occurrence, not a twice-ever-in-history event.
But as real as the threat of power-utility hacking may be, not every grid penetration calls for Defcon 1. Responding to them all with an equal sense of alarm is like conflating a street mugging with an intercontinental ballistic missile attack. What's publicly referred to as a "breach" of an energy utility could range from something barely more sophisticated than a typical malware infection to a nation-state-funded moonshot months or years in the making. Those incidents could also have vastly different consequences, from mere data theft to a potentially catastrophic infrastructure failure.
It's true that the last several years have seen a "stark spike" in hacking attempts on industrial control systems like power utilities, water, and manufacturing, says Rob Lee, a former NSA analyst who now runs the critical-infrastructure-focused security firm Dragos, Inc. But Lee says it's crucial to keep a sense of proportion: Of the hundreds of well-funded hacker groups that Dragos tracks globally, Lee says that roughly 50 have targeted companies with industrial control systems. Of those, Dragos has found only six or seven groups that have reached into companies' so-called "operations" network—the actual controls of physical infrastructure. And even among those cases, Lee says, only two such groups have been known to actually trigger real physical disruption: The Equation Group, believed to be the NSA team that used the Stuxnet malware to destroy Iranian nuclear enrichment centrifuges, and the Sandworm team behind the blackouts in Ukraine.
So when news arises that hackers have merely "penetrated" an energy utility—as North Korean hackers recently did—receive it with those numbers in mind, and not with the assumption that the next Stuxnet or Sandworm has dropped. "This is a world where people can die," Lee says. "If we come out and say it’s a big deal, it should be a big deal."
To that end, here's WIRED's guide to the different gradations of grid hacking, to help you dial in your panic to the appropriate level for the power-grid penetrations to come. And there will be more.
Step One: Network Breach
When government agencies or the press warn that hackers have compromised a power utility, in the vast majority of cases those intruders haven't penetrated the systems that control the flow of actual power, like circuit breakers, generators, and transformers. They're instead hacking into far more prosaic targets: corporate email accounts, browsers, and web servers.
Those penetrations, which typically start with spearphishing emails, or "watering hole" attacks that infect target users by hijacking a website they commonly visit, don't necessarily differ from traditional criminal or espionage-focused hacking. Most importantly, they don't generate the means of causing any physical damage or disruption. In some cases, the hackers may be performing reconnaissance for future attacks, but nonetheless don't get anywhere near the actual control systems that can tamper with electricity generation or transmission.
'This is a world where people can die. If we come out and say it’s a big deal, it should be a big deal." Rob Lee, Dragos Inc
Earlier this week, for instance, a leaked report from security firm FireEye raised alarms when it revealed that North Korean hackers had targeted US energy facilities. A followup report from security news site Cyberscoop asserted that at least one of those attempts successfully penetrated a US utility. But a subsequent FireEye blog post indicated that its analysts had only found evidence that the hackers had sent a series of spearphishing emails to its intended victims—a fairly routine hacking operation that doesn't appear to have come close to any sensitive control systems.
"We have not observed suspected North Korean actors using any tool or method specifically designed to compromise or manipulate the industrial control systems (ICS) networks that regulate the supply of power," FireEye's statement reads. "Furthermore, we have not uncovered evidence that North Korean-linked actors have access to any such capability at this time."
North Korea no doubt has ambitions to wield power over US grid systems, and the fact that they've taken the first step is significant. But for now those attacks—and any others that stop at the level of IT compromise—should be seen at worst as foreboding, rather than an imminent threat of hacker blackouts.
Step Two: Operational Access
Hackers poking around an energy firm's IT system should cause some concern. Hackers poking at operational technology systems, or what some security experts call OT, is a far more serious situation. When hackers penetrate OT, or gain so-called operational access, they've moved from the computer systems that exist in practically every modern corporation to the far more specialized and customized control systems for power equipment, a major step towards manipulating physical infrastructure.
In one recent hacking campaign, for instance, Symantec revealed that a group of hackers it named DragonFly 2.0—possibly the same Russian group reported earlier in the summer to have broken into a US nuclear facility—had gained operational access to a "handful" of US energy firms. The intruders had gone so far as to screenshot the so-called human-machine interfaces for power systems, likely so that they could study them, and prepare to start flipping actual switches to launch a full-on grid attack.
"Evidence of a phish attempt and probably infection is one step in a ladder," says Mike Assante, a power-grid security expert and instructor at the SANS Institute, asecurity-focused training organization. "Scrapes from an HMI is a few rungs up the access scale," Assante says, contrasting the recent North Korean phishing with the Dragonfly 2.0 attack.
In theory, OT systems are "air-gapped" from IT systems, with no network connections between the two. But with the exception of nuclear power plants, which strictly regulate their operational systems' disconnection from outside networks, that air-gap is often more permeable than it ought to be, says Galina Antova, a co-founder of the industrial control system security firm Claroty. She says that Claroty has never analyzed an industrial control facility's setup and not found a "trivial" way in to its OT systems. "Just by mapping the network, we can see the pathway from IT to OT," she says. "There are ways of getting in."
But Dragos' Lee counters that given the small proportion of hackers that actually do manage to cross that gap, it's hardly a trivial distinction. That's in part because while IT systems are somewhat standardized, OT systems are more customized and esoteric, making them far less familiar. "They can basically practice and train so that they can completely compromise IT networks," Lee says. "If they want to get to operations networks, it's going to be weird equipment and weird setups, and they're going to have to learn that."
Step Three: Coordinated Attack
Even when intruders have "hands-on-the-switches" access to grid control systems, Lee says, using that access effectively is far harder than it might seem. In fact, he argues that all actions ahead of flipping that switch are just a preparatory stage that represents only about 20 percent of the hackers' work.
Beyond the obscurity of whatever equipment setup a utility may have, Lee points out that its physical processes can require real expertise to manipulate, as well as months more effort and resources—not just opening a few circuit breakers to cause a blackout. Even after hackers gain access to those controls, "I can confidently say they’re still not at a stage to turn off the power," Lee says. "They could turn off some [circuit] breakers, but they’d have no understanding of the effect. They might be stopped by a safety system. They don’t know."
In the Ukrainian blackout of late 2015, the first-ever confirmed case of hackers causing a power outage, for instance, the intruders manually opened dozens of circuit breakers at three different facilities across the country, using remote access to electric distribution stations' control systems—in many cases by literally hijacking the mouse controls of the stations' operators. Analysts who responded to the attack believe it likely required months of planning and a team of dozens working in coordination. Even so, the blackout it caused lasted just six hours, for roughly a quarter-million Ukrainians.
Hackers essentially have to chose between the scope and duration of a blackout, Lee says. "If they wanted to do the full Eastern Interconnect, that’s exponentially more resources," he says, referring to the grid that covers nearly the full eastern half of the US. "And if they want to take it down for a full week, that’s an exponential of an exponential."
Some grid hackers do appear to be putting in the work to plan a wider, more disruptive operation. The second Ukrainian blackout attack used a piece of malware known as Crash Override, or Industroyer, capable of automating the process of sending sabotage commands to grid equipment, and built to be adapted to different countries' setups so that it could be deployed broadly across multiple targets.
That specimen of ultra-advanced grid hacking malware is troubling. But it's also extraordinarily rare. And there's a significant gap between a piece of Black Swan malware and the dozens number of grid-penetration incidents that often amount to little more than spearphishing. No power grid breach is a good thing. But better to recognize the difference between a dress rehearsal and the main event—especially when there are more of those events on the horizon. |
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We exist in a time when we have to live with the fact that our e-mails, tweets and status updates are probably being looked at by big faceless entities and people who they're not meant for, simply as a matter of course. That sucks. In this game, you're the one doing the snooping. It still sucks.
TouchTone is a deliberately political video game, out for iOS now. It takes aim at the creeping invasion of privacy—escalating ever since the World Trade Center bombing fourteen years ago—that's metastasized into the present surveillance state. It's also a fiendishly designed set of puzzles, one where players embody the role of a new National Security Agency trainee, learning the ins-and-outs of intercepting and decrypting private communications.
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Now We Decide If Privacy Will Continue to Exist Ever since 9/11, the American government has been busily constructing the most comprehensive… Read more Read
Warning: Spoilers below for the first few levels of TouchTone.
I can't stop playing TouchTone, despite the fact that it makes me feel genuinely queasy. Part of it comes from the game's ingenious puzzle design, which I'll get into in a little bit. But the main draw of Mike Boxleitner and Greg Wohlwend's game is its seductive yet questionably justified transgressiveness. You know you're not supposed to be doing this. If you're like me, you hate the idea that someone might be peeking into your online communications. But the fiction of being able to eavesdrop on other people's secret conversations is a juicy construct that's tough to pull away from. Plus, you're keeping America safe, right? Right?
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As a nameless new hire, you really doesn't have any agency in TouchTone. You're silent, forced to go along with the prejudices and skewed priorities. "Freedom is not free and the price is one some not all are willing to pay. We must erase our own doubt for the good of all." That's the kind of messaging that shows up in TouchTone's introductory levels.
The gameplay consists of moving special tiles that redirect streams of data along a grid until you connect all of the signals on a level to their matching nodes. Some of these tiles will redirect a signal, split it or change its color. The challenge lies in routing everything around each other in a specific order and the difficulty in doing so ramps up significantly as you go along.
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The best thing about TouchTone is how it keeps you guessing about what's in the national interest. A pair of dudes e-mailing back and forth about where to score some weed? Harmless, right? Nope. They could be up to no good. Report that shit. But when you try to flag an another chain—seemingly about book releases—that contains a reference to blast radius, you're told that nothing untoward lurks within.
You don't get penalized for being incorrect. No, the penalty for failure isn't a ding on your in-game score or anything like that. It's the queasy feeling that you don't really know what you're doing, that your bad call might let something bad happen. And as a result, you'll feel the need to report everything as suspicious. In fact, you get told to do so. It's a clever way of making the everyday unease that comes with living in the age of the surveillance state palpable. The agenda's already been been set; you just need to play your role inside of it. TouchTone's creators—who previously made the lighthearted Gasketball—are reflecting on real-world practices that funnel information into the hands of decision-makers who claim to have the nation's best interests at heart. Somewhere, out in the world, this isn't a game. And it's not fun at all.
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All photos by Marie Sjøvold
In a duffel coat and woolly hat, Marie Sjøvold seems right at home in Kristiansund, a remote, strange and beautiful place on the northwestern coast of Norway. She's here, at the Nordic Light International Festival of Photography, to exhibit Midnight Milk, a photography series that traces the "ambivalence and inner conflict of becoming a mother for the first time."
For the natives in this part of the world, Kristiansund is described as a metropolis. Yet it's a city of about 24,000 people, sharing their lives in pastel-coloured homes encircled by fjords and fir forests and the ice-capped mountains of the Trollheimen range. It's a vision of Scandinavian family life, at once utopic and totally trapping.
Read More: When Being a New Mom Means 30 Days of Staying Home Without a Shower
Trace your finger on a map, and Kristiansund is in line with Iceland, across the North Atlantic. Flying in, our plane was tossed around by a thunderstorm which, the pilot informed us, had appeared suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere. On our first morning, it snowed as the sun shone. In the hotel lobby, a government official watches over the barmen, making sure our half-liters of lager aren't topped up.
Sjøvold, 33, now lives in the outer-reaches of Oslo, yet grew up in a place not far from or dissimilar to this. At the age of 23, she left Norway for Berlin, quickly establishing herself in the photographic community of the city and travelling the world as a photojournalist on assignment for German magazines and broadsheets.
In 2008, as she neared the end of her twenties, Sjøvold's grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. She returned home, leaving the high life in Berlin to care for her family in the quiet, remote familiarity of where she grew up. As she witnessed the slow death of her grandmother, she realized she was pregnant.
The photography she created on her return to Norway, entitled Dust Catches Light, was she says, "a story about my pregnancy and my grandmother's simultaneous drift into dementia."
Dust Catches Light was mostly self-portraits, Marie photographing her body's dramatic changes in the context of her grandparents' recently-vacated house and in Sjøvold's new house in the forested outskirts of Oslo—the one that would soon become her family's home.
"I wanted to capture a time of waiting," she says. "The physical and mental changes of that time. As I felt a baby girl kicking in my belly, I felt this new era was soon to come. It felt like time was standing still, and the house became a symbol of the meeting between the past and the present, and what was yet to come."
If time stood still then, it suddenly moved very quickly for Marie. Out of Dust Catches Light came Midnight Milk, an expressionistic, almost surrealist exploration of her new life, in the months after she gave birth to her daughter. Using her own body as subject, Midnight Milk explores how the sudden presence of a baby changed the contours of her life; her biology, her mentality, her entire identity.
"Having a child is a very invasive, intensely physical process," Sjøvold says. "But I didn't see this around me. I was tired of all the happy stories about what a perfect thing motherhood is. I wanted to show the physical transformation and the inner ambivalence women feel as they try to find their own way of being a 'good' mother."
It's beautiful, brooding photography, love-filled and joyous for the moment, yet dark and pensive, as if part of Sjøvold was in mourning for something too. From her daughter tracing the veins of her swollen breasts, to the pair of them sleeping like reflections in a mirror, to their limbs entwined as they wash together, to a path through the misty, sodden forests that surround their home—the sun shining on the horizon—to a dark, covered figure carrying Sjøvold down a pathway, maybe away from her home.
"The stage for motherhood is set long before a child is born," says Sjøvold. "The identity of European women is in a state of constant flux. But I don't see, in the conversations we have about womanhood, a recognition of how the role of being a mother has changed. We haven't acknowledged this with the same speed or in the same direction as womanhood."
There is an "ambivalence, an inner-conflict" that goes with being a mother for the first time, Sjøvold says. "I wanted to explore this new responsibility, this new state of mind," she says.
Of her child, she says, "I gained the opportunity to be as close to another human as you can get. A person that wants all the love and care it can get. Everyday I see my own reactions and emotions mirrored to the extreme when my child is trying to understand the world. I realised this was so much more important than my own life."
But Marie lost parts of her life too. "You go from being an individual to being part of a family," she says. "I lost a lot of self-involvement, because I had to suddenly put someone else's needs before myself, all the time. Compared to the life I had, I lost my mobility and impulsiveness. I now calculate risk very differently. It took me time to accept this, to find a way to balance this with my work and my family."
Read More: Photos of Honeymoon Horrors in a Pennsylvania Love Hotel
Yet the conflict she seeks to show is not just personal. It stands as an address to her own family, to the people of Kristiansund, of Norway, and to men and women as a whole. "This conflict of motherhood comes from your past, your own childhood, your family, from society, from what people expect from themselves," she says.
What would she say to the Marie that did not yet know she was pregnant, I ask. "If I could go back and give Marie some advice, I don´t think she would be ready to receive it," she says. "I would tell her to make something constructive out of whatever she experiences, good or bad. For herself and for the children. She would understand that." |
The cuts are in response to reports that leaders had seven-figure paydays last year. | AP, Reuters Fannie, Freddie execs to get pay cut
Executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are about to get a massive pay cut.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, overseer of the troubled, government-backed mortgage giants announced Friday a new pay program that slashes CEO pay at Fannie and Freddie by nearly 75 percent, wipes out annual bonuses, and sets a target pay range for their chief executives at $500,000.
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FHFA acting director Edward DeMarco calling the changes a product of “rethinking what it means to be the CEO of a company that has been in conservatorship for so long and has a long and uncertain path in front of it,” adding that the new pay is well below what a top executive could earn in the private sector.
DeMarco emphasized that the changes, which also include deferred salary based on a new series of performance goals, were months in the making and tied to new performance goals he’s set for the mortgage companies. But he also acknowledged the pay cuts are in response to Congressional complaints that outgoing Fannie and Freddie executives last year took home seven-figure salaries — plus bonuses — even though both agencies needed more than $100 billion from taxpayers to stay afloat after the housing market collapsed, and are still in conservatorship.
The issue has been a headache for DeMarco since reports last fall that Fannie and Freddie’s top managers were still paid at Wall Street levels despite pledges by FHFA, the office tasked with keeping them solvent, that it would adjust them after news that former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines and others received millions of dollars in pay and bonuses. Corporate records show the FHFA approved a total of $12.79 million in bonus pay for 10 executives who met a list of relatively modest performance targets linked to modifying mortgages in jeopardy of foreclosure.
Meanwhile, most housing analysts say Fannie and Freddie have helped only a portion of the estimated 7 million homeowners at risk of foreclosure.
At a hearing, Republican and Democratic blasted DeMarco for both the bonuses and performance lag. DeMarco’s argument — that private-sector pay would attract badly-needed, top-tier talent — largely fell on deaf ears, and the House Financial Services Committee moved a bill that would put Fannie and Freddie employees on par with other government pay rates.
CORRECTION: Corrected by: Zack Hale @ 03/09/2012 04:07 PM CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and misstated its conservatorship status. |
The Jobbiks are small but significant political party in Hungary, holding 43 of the 368 seats in the country’s parliament, called (in English) the National Assembly. The Jobbiks describe themselves as a “radically patriotic Christian party” which aims to protect “Hungarian values and interests.” Critics often call it racist, fascist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic. And in 2007, a young anti-Semite by the name of Csanad Szegedi (above) began his ascent in the party.
Fate hastened his descent.
Szegedi began his political career in 2003 at the age of 21. The Jobbik party formed that year and Szegedi signed up early on. In 2007, he showed himself to be even more radical than the nationalist party he subscribed to, founding a paramilitary organization called the Hungarian Guard. The Guard adopted the insignia and colors of a pro-Nazi Hungarian party from World War II known as the Arrow Cross, which itself killed thousands of Jews during the war. Szegedi, when elected to the European Parliament in 2009, took office wearing the uniform of the now-banned paramilitary unit.
Anti-Semitism invaded Szegedi’s words as well as his dress and associations. According to the Associated Press, the politician blamed Jewish artists for desecrating Hungarian symbols; stated that Jews were buying up land in Hungary in “massive” amounts in order to facilitate emigration from Israel to Hungary; and asserted that post-communism privatization efforts were driven by “people in the Hungarian political elite who shielded themselves in their Jewishness,” whatever that means.
In June of 2012, Szegedi — not even 30 years old — resigned from the Hungarian parliament and the Jobbik party. A rumor that began in 2010 had crescendoed and instead of ignoring it, Szegedi admitted its truth.
He was Jewish.
A technicality, sure — but it was enough for Szegedi to attempt to bribe the person who made this discovery. Per Jewish law, if your mother is Jewish, so are you. And if your mother’s mother was Jewish, therefore, you are too. And in 2010, someone (a “convicted felon” per most news reports) confronted Szegedi with documents demonstrating that not only were his maternal grandparents Jewish, but they were both Holocaust survivors. His grandfather had been assigned to a work camp while his grandmother had survived through the horrors at Auschwitz.
Someone recorded the conversation between the felon and Szegedi who, in the recording, seemed honestly surprised by the findings. This makes some sense, as Szegedi’s grandparents apparently hid their religion from their children. Nevertheless, the Jobbik aspirant believed this newfound truth to be detrimental to his career, and offered to pay off the felon to prevent him from going public with the information. The news leaked out regardless and Szegedi, on the urging of Jobbik leadership, resigned afterward. The Jobbik party’s official stance is that Szegedi was asked to resign due to the bribery, and not due to his bloodlines.
Bonus fact : Hungarian children born in the early 1980s — like Szegedi, for example (1982) — are referred to locally as the “DuckTales Generation,” a reference to the cartoon about uber-tycoon Scrooge McDuck and his three grandnephews. On December 12, 1993, a news broadcast interrupted an episode of DuckTales to announce the death of Jozsef Antall, the country’s first democratically-elected leader after the fall of communism. For most Hungarian children of that age group, this was their first cultural touchstone when it came to politics, hence the “DuckTales Generation” label. Antall died of cancer just two and a half years into his four-year term.
From the Archives: The Last Jew in Afghanistan: Really.
Related: DuckTales Season 1. Pre-Gizmoduck, if memory serves. |
Author Nnedi Okorafor is having a moment right now. In addition to working on a live-action adaptation of her novel Who Fears Death for HBO, contributing to Marvel’s ongoing Venomverse event, and publishing her twelfth book, Okorafor is also penning a new, series set in Wakanda, Black Panther: Long Live The King.
Beginning in December, digital issues of Black Panther: Long Live The King will be available for purchase on comiXology and also included in all subscriptions to comiXology Unlimited. Speaking to Nerdist, comiXology’s senior director of communications would only say that Okorafor’s new series would continue building out the expansive Wakandan setting that other creators like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay have helped shape in their recent Black Panther projects.
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Scant as the details on Long Live The King may be, Okorafor’s “Blessing In Disguise,” a one-shot comic about an alternate universe Nigerian girl who bonds with a Venom symbiote and becomes her dimension’s Black Panther was an imaginative riff on Panther-centric stories we’ve seen in the past. We’ll get a chance to see how Okorafor handles the Wakandan king when Black Panther: Long Live The King is available December 13.
[Nerdist] |
Within the cornucopia of Obamacare failures lies an absolutely disastrous provision that few Americans even know exists: risk corridors. This provision, meant to generate support from a skeptical insurance industry during the law’s negotiations, would provide taxpayer money to companies who lost profits due to Obamacare.
Here’s how the Wall Street Journal explained the program in January 2014:
The idea of risk corridors is to compensate insurance companies that end up with bigger costs than they expected. Under the law, they must sell policies equally to everyone, regardless of their medical history, so it’s possible some insurers could end up with an especially unhealthy pool of customers.
If an insurer’s actual claims in 2014 are at least 3% greater than the claims projected when the insurer set 2014 rates, the government must reimburse the insurer for half of the excess. If actual claims jump 8% beyond projected claims, the government covers 80% of the excess.
Risk corridors were created as a safety net in the event of the worst-case scenario – that the number of sick people enrolling in new policies far outweighed the number of healthy people now with insurance. As economists predicted, the worst-case scenario did, indeed, occur, generating a spectacular loss of profits for insurance providers.
Insurance companies, lured by the individual mandate’s tempting promise of a slew of new customers, should have known better. Of course, sick people who never had insurance before would take advantage of guaranteed issue policies, and healthier people would choose a federal fine over paying for the skyrocketing cost of private insurance.
It is also a good idea to save some money for medical emergencies, in case a new insurance policy does not help you. Trading online using the latest technological marvels of trading you can save some money and enjoy your life without much stress. Crypto VIP Club is one such system, that has helped many people do the same and is very reliable. Read more by following this link, https://cybermentors.org.uk/andrew-king-crypto-vip-club-review-scam/.
Coming back to the article on medical insurance,
As economists predicted, the worst-case scenario did occur, generating a spectacular loss of profits for insurance providers
Now, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services have acknowledged that it will only be able to afford to pay insurance companies $362 million of the $2.87 billion – or just 12.6 percent – owed to them in the risk corridor program, complaining that budget constraints failed to provide them with the necessary funds.
After Obamacare’s implementation in 2013, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) introduced a bill that would prevent taxpayer money from being directed to these corporations. Ed Morrissey of Hot Air suggests that Rubio’s foresight might have dealt a “mortal blow” to Obamacare:
Two years ago, Marco Rubio won a fight during the budget battles to include a requirement for HHS to maintain budget neutrality in its risk-corridor programs. Rubio had pushed back against this program for months, claiming — as it happens, accurately — that it was a back-door bailout of the insurance companies that had cooperated in the effort to pass ObamaCare. Instead of allowing HHS to dip into general funds for risk-corridor payments, Rubio’s rider restricted those payouts to funds collected from taxes on insurers.
The move forced HHS to cut expected risk corridor payments to pennies on the dollar, and prompted the closure of more than half of the co-ops launched by HHS to provide supposedly low-cost coverage. Now that United Healthcare has signaled that it may cut its losses and get out of the ObamaCare market, The Hill credits Rubio with starting the death spiral many predicted when Democrats first passed ObamaCare in March 2010.
Democratic lawmakers surely understand that the insurance companies will not go quietly. They believe they are owed billions for participating (and actively backing) a program that spurred real profit loss and destroyed their bottom line. Many companies have already gone out of business. It would be surprising if they weren’t preparing to sue the federal government for its refusal to meet its obligations in the risk corridor program.
In order to mitigate the damage done, there will be Democrats who will concoct a further bailout of the insurance industry to guarantee their continued participation in and advocacy for Obamacare. They know that without buy-in from insurance companies – or worse: active, well-funded opposition to the law – President Obama’s signature legislation will crumble, and only Democrats would be to blame.
Stephen Hemsley, president and CEO of Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group, announces 75 jobs are being created within the companys subsidiary, Optum, which works in health care services and technology support, in Southfield, Mich., Tuesday, April 29, 2014. (AP Photo)Stephen Hemsley, president and CEO of UnitedHealth Group, has said his company will no longer participate in the Obamacare marketplace as it is no longer financially sustainable. | Photo: AP
It’s already happening. United Healthcare, the largest insurance company in the U.S., announced that it would reconsider its participation in Obamacare exchanges. In a statement from CEO Stephen Hemsley, United cited higher risks and lowered growth expectations as cause for a likely retreat from the health law’s exchange system:
“In recent weeks, growth expectations for individual exchange participation have tempered industrywide, co-operatives have failed, and market data has signaled higher risks and more difficulties while our own claims experience has deteriorated, so we are taking this proactive step,” said Hemsley.
The Democrats’ imminent efforts to bail out the insurance companies mean they will be forced to tell the American people that they’d like to take more of their hard-earned money to give a giant check to the same corporations they’ve bashed for years. It is a totally untenable, unworkable position politically, and it exposes the fragile coalition they cobbled together to pass the bill in the first place.
After disappointing defeats in the courts, as well as a failure to achieve full repeal legislatively, perhaps conservatives should have maintained more confidence in what they knew all along: this disastrous bill was totally infeasible in practice. Maybe it was always destined to collapse under its own weight, anyway.
Thanks, in part, to the creative efforts of Republicans like Rubio, it might happen sooner than even we had hoped. |
The Conservative government says it won't take "marching orders from union bosses" as it defends controversial legislation that gives cabinet new powers over spending at independent Crown corporations.
Opposition parties are voicing strong opposition to measures in the latest budget implementation bill after Treasury Board President Tony Clement said they would be used to "key in on" some Crown corporations more than others. He specifically listed Canada Post, the CBC and Via Rail.
On Wednesday morning following a Conservative caucus meeting, both Mr. Clement and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty declined to answer questions from reporters. Instead the government position was expressed by Parliamentary Secretary Pierre Poilievre, an MP Prime Minister Stephen Harper often relies on to stir controversy and speak for the government on hot files.
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"I am not here to take marching orders from union bosses," said Mr. Poilievre. "I represent taxpayers and frankly taxpayers expect us to keep costs under control so that we can keep taxes down. It is for those taxpayers that we work. Not union bosses."
Mr. Poilievre specifically defended the budget bill measures, which would give cabinet the power to issue orders to Crown corporations that lay out the terms for pay, benefits and other labour relations issues with both unionized and non-unionized staff. The bill would also create a new rule that would allow a government official from Treasury Board to sit in on collective bargaining negotiations at Crown corporations.
The government said in the 2013 budget that it wants Crown corporations to move to a 50/50 cost sharing arrangement between employees and employers for pensions. It also wants retirement ages at Crown corporations to be aligned with recent changes in the core public service.
"Any liabilities from a Crown corporation are passed on to taxpayers. We are the representatives of Canada's taxpayers and we have a responsibility to ensure that those Crown corporations live within their means and that the costs are kept affordable to Canadian taxpayers," he said. "Our focus is on low tax, low-spending government that eliminates the deficit on time and on schedule and this is part of the package to make that happen."
Both NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau spoke out against the proposed new powers, arguing they go against the basic principle of Crown corporations in that they are supposed to be independent of the government of the day.
"Today's International Workers Day. This is the gift from the Conservative government. Another example of downward pressure on working conditions and salaries," said Mr. Mulcair.
"They can't have it both ways," he said. "Either they're Crown corporations and they're autonomous and they're allowed to negotiate and set things on their own, or they're not... This is public money. We've decided that an arm's length situation is the best. Every time you ask them about a Crown corporation they say it's arm's length. We have nothing to do with that. But now they're proving just the opposite."
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Mr. Trudeau described the changes as "very troubling" and expressed concern about what the new powers might mean for cultural and scientific organizations.
"The fact that this government is so heavy-handed in its approach to unions, to collective bargaining means that I think this is a recipe for political interference in what should be arm's length agencies and it is a concern to me," he said.
The national actors union ACTRA released a strongly worded statement Wednesday condemning what it described as the "Conservative government's assault on CBC's collective bargaining and journalistic independence."
The union represents 22,000 professional performers and negotiates on their behalf with the CBC.
"We have a 70-year history of collective bargaining with the CBC," said ACTRA National Executive Director Stephen Waddell in a statement. "These are never easy negotiations for either side, but we find agreement and address the needs of both sides. There is no good reason and no place for this kind of intrusion into our collective bargaining. Furthermore, the intervention of government into the decision-making of the public broadcaster threatens journalistic independence and could affect content decisions at the CBC." |
Seattle Earthquake Shakes Puget Sound
A 4.5 magnitude earthquake shook the Puget Sound area of Washington state early Friday morning, January 30, 2009 according to the USGS. The good news is that surrounding infrastructure seems to have weathered the seismic event without damage.
The quake, at a depth of 36 miles, occurred at 5:25 a.m. and was centered 14 miles northwest of Seattle near Kingston in Kitsap County.
According to DOT spokeswoman Kristy Van Ness, crews remain in the field doing follow-up checks of bridges and other support structures. Initial examinations were made with flashlights in the dark, with no reports of damage.
The University of Washington is reporting it as a 4.5 quake on the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. It was felt throughout the Puget Sound area in Western Washington. There were reports that the quake was felt in Victoria, British Columbia, 71 miles to the north.
Seismic Network director John Vidale said the quake was from the same general source as the 6.8 magnitude Nisqually earthquake of Feb. 28, 2001. That quake disrupted operations at SeaTac International Airport, and damaged the Capitol building in Olympia as well as the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle.
Small quakes are common in the Pacific Northwest. This morning's quake was the largest in Washington since October 2006.
More photos below, including an aerial shot. |
BLM activists upset that massacre removed media attention from Mizzou protests
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
November 16, 2015
After the hashtag #FuckParis was tweeted by numerous ‘Black Lives Matter’ supporters in the aftermath of Friday’s massacre, a rapper has released a song by the same name to draw attention to France’s involvement in the slave trade more than 100 years ago.
The hip-hop artist, who goes by the name ‘Na-Ledge’, released the track on YouTube yesterday, in which he raps, “The way I’m feeling right now, I feel like fuck Paris.”
The rapper explained the reasoning behind the song, commenting, “I say this Because of the MAJOR participation of the SLAVE TRADE FRANCE was involved in. Hate to see the lose of life, yet my ANCESTORS souls are still crying over there PAIN.. And I am to.. France turned 4 times as many slaves as the Americas and used further brutality if that is even fathomable.”
Quite how young Parisian concert goers and people having a drink with their friends in a bar are responsible for France’s foreign policy and involvement in the slave trade over 100 years ago wasn’t made clear. It’s also worth noting that slavery within Africa has existed for centuries and continues to this day.
The #FuckParis hashtag began to pick up steam yesterday when it was tweeted by a number of #BlackLivesMatter supporters who were upset that the Paris massacre had taken media attention away from protests at the University of Missouri.
Deray McKesseon, the de facto leader of ‘Black Lives Matter’, also stoked a huge backlash when he equated alleged racist incidents at Mizzou – which included someone drawing a poop swastika on the wall of a bathroom – with the brutal slaughter of over 130 people.
The day the leader of #BlackLivesMatter equated a ‘poop swastika’ with the massacre of 130+ innocent people. pic.twitter.com/g26GwscNdQ — Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) November 16, 2015
The ‘Fuck Paris’ song illustrates how seriously unhinged some supporters of ‘Black Lives Matter’ really are, as well as debunking claims that the #FuckParis hashtag was driven only by irate anti-BLM tweeters who were making a big deal out of nothing.
Given the fact that the ideological inspiration behind ‘Black Lives Matter’ is a convicted cop killer who is on the FBI’s ‘Most Wanted Domestic Terrorists’ list, some may find it unsurprising that elements of the activist group have little sympathy for the victims of Friday’s massacre.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.
This article was posted: Monday, November 16, 2015 at 11:35 am
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There are moments in John Williams' seven scores for Star Wars films that are so iconic even people who haven't seen the movies can recognize them. When the opening fanfare of the main title theme plays, people take notice. Fans will also recognize Leia's theme, and Binary Sunset, and the Force theme and many other themes and motifs from throughout Star Wars history. But perhaps none is more recognizable and more instantly linked to a particular character than the Imperial March, which appropriately made its debut in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back. From the moment it first blared over movie theater speakers, the Imperial March became inextricably linked to Darth Vader (many probably know it simply as his theme song).
When Michael Giacchino took on the task of being the first person not named John Williams composing a score for a Star Wars movie, he wanted to make it his own, but also pay honor to the living legend. There are some subtle and not so subtle hints throughout the movie. When the main title plays, for example, there's a rousing major fifth in the music, hinting at the beginning of "Main Title." Then there are the less subtle, like when Krennic goes to speak to Darth Vader, when we hear bits of the low theme used for Sith Lords throughout the franchise, and a slow, soft version of the Imperial March with the melody given only by horns. And 56 seconds into the track "Hope," which plays over the final scene of the movie, you hear the Imperial March in full force and full tempo.
But that's not the first time the theme can be heard in that song. Leading up to that blaring moment, Giacchino actually hid the theme at the very beginning of "Hope," as well. It's a mixture of the voices and the low strings, with the horns backing up the vocals. When Reddit (It's credited to a Brian N. Le without direct link in the embedded tweet below from Bobby Roberts) spotted it, they doubled the speed and found out just how well it matches the original theme.
Synchs up quite nicely indeed. These sorts of musical nuances show a deep caring put into the project by Giacchino, and should make fans - who already responded well to the score - even happier to listen to it over and over until the next film (with score by Williams) hits theaters in December.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is in theaters now. Directed by Gareth Edwards, it's the first of the new standalone features from Lucasfilm and Disney, which take place outside the core "Skywalker Saga" of films noted by an Episode number. Rogue One tells the story of the small band of rebels that were tasked with stealing the plans to the first Death Star. The story spins directly off the opening crawl from the original Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. In that crawl, it read: "Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet."
MORE STAR WARS NEWS: Rogue One Vocal Cameos Revealed | 5 New Star Wars: Episode VIII Teases From Director Rian Johnson | Star Wars: Ahsoka Tano Actress Ashley Eckstein Teases a Future for the Character | Donald Glover Was Shocked to Be Cast in Han Solo Movie | Star Wars: Rumored Han Solo Standalone Filming Locations Revealed | Star Wars: Adam Driver Reminisces About His Time Spent With Carrie Fisher | Star Wars: History of Darth Maul vs Obi-Wan Kenobi | Rogue One: A Star Wars Story EP Comments on Ethics of Digital Resurrections of Tarkin and Leia |
Li "Vasilii" Weijun announced via Weibo that he has transferred to LSPL team IN Gaming.
Vasilii gained acclaim in North America when LMQ came to the region from China and qualified for the NA LCS. They placed first in the regular season and finished third in 2014 NA LCS Summer and went on to represent the region at the World Championship.
Vasilii made the decision to transfer to Vici Gaming at the end of 2014, in the hopes of playing with Cho "Mata" Sehyeong and Choi "DanDy" Inkyu on a team that would qualify for the 2015 World Championship. Vasilii was benched after the 2015 LPL Spring Season and has frequently expressed his unhappiness on stream.
Rather than play for Vici Gaming's LSPL team, Unlimited Potential, in 2015, Vasilii chose to remain with Vici on the off chance that he would be able to play in the LPL. Vasilii streamed frequently and had one violent outburst where he destroyed some of the team's computer hardware and equipment.
Today, Vasilii published an update on his weibo that explained his recent behavior and revealed he would transfer to LSPL team, IN Gaming. In his statement, Vasilii said it was very difficult for him to accept his reality, and he became very angry and started to despair. He says that this state continued until he began to ask himself why this might be the case and resolved to try to reach for his dream once again.
Vasilii also thanked Vici Gaming for the opportunity to play for them and told fans that he is playing for an LSPL team because, at the moment, he feels his skills are not good enough for the LPL. His goal is to find stability and improve, step-by-step, until he can play in the LPL again.
IN Gaming placed tenth out of 16 teams in the 2016 LSPL Spring split after qualifying from the 2015 Tencent Games Arena Winter tournament. Vasilii will play for IN Gaming on the starting lineup in the 2016 LSPL Summer split.
Kelsey Moser is a staff writer for theScore esports. You can follow her on Twitter. |
Prince is a man cloaked in mystery. Actually, he's a lot like Batman—showing up when you need him the most. So far this year, he's randomly appeared at the Golden Globes (to Allison Janney's shock), given Beck a controversial Grammy award, and just a week ago, he announced a U.S. tour called Hit N Run Tour. He'll announce shows in a city a few days in advance and then those tickets will go on sale the week of the show. (He successfully used this model last year in Europe.) Of all the cities he could've chosen to kick off this tour, he picked Louisville, Kentucky, the hometown of his drummer, Hannah Welton, of his three-female backing band 3RDEYEGIRL. Tickets went on sale last Monday and sold out in minutes; to meet demands, a total of four shows were created. Prince isn't playing stadiums, either. The venues are also a mystery until the tickets go on sale, and Prince picked the Louisville Palace, which seats only 2,611 (Maroon 5 had already booked the much larger KFC Yum! Center). Where will Prince go next? What will he play next? No one knows, and that's the magnetism of Prince in 2015—he keeps it unpredictable. He keeps it real. We got a chance to see Prince's concert in Louisville. Here's what it's like to see Prince at an impromptu, intimate show.
1. It's stressful waiting to get inside.
The Louisville Palace only holds 2,000 people, yet it seemed like there were thousands more fans waiting in line, and the lines (plural) got only longer. Doors opened at 7 p.m., but by 8:10, when the Purple One took the stage, many fans—dressed in their purple best—were still waiting. And waiting. The holdup could be attributed to credit card entry, unknowledgeable staff members, and the mania a Prince show attracts. Two lines a mile long from both directions wrapped around blocks. You must have endurance, but thankfully 4th Street in Louisville is one of those entertainment districts that allows open containers. Just as he works for his fans, Prince makes them work for him, too. Wait hours to get in? No problem. Get wasted while waiting in line.
2. At 56, Prince can dance better than you ever will, so why even try.
The afro'd Prince didn't breakdance or do anything too crazy (don't want to break a hip), but he shuffled onstage, touched himself in a suggestive manner, and reminded us about Michael Jackson's dance legacy. The predominantly white crowd ate it up and tried to emulate the singer's moves, grooving along. During "Kiss," he repeatedly jutted his posterior toward the crowd. Was he saying, "Kiss my ass"? For God's sake, Prince even perspires sexily.
3. He gave the audience over nine hits in a row.
"Have you ever heard nine hits in a row?" he asked the wild-eyed audience at the start of his first show. Naturally bathed in purple light, he started off with "Let's Go Crazy," then did "U Got the Look," newish one "FunknRoll" from last year's Art Official Age, a subdued slow-jam version of "Little Red Corvette," and "1999," during which he did a call-and-response with the crowd. "Some people said I was born in the '80s, how about you?" he asked the crowd before performing the funked-out "Controversy." Even though he released two albums last year—including PLECTRUMELECTRUM with 3RDEYEGIRL— he mainly stuck to his Top 40 hits. He played everything from funk to gospel, and ended with the classic, almost 31-year-old "Purple Rain," which sounded more soulful than ever.
4. He's a very expressive performer.
While playing his guitar and bass, Prince contorted his face and closed his hazel eyes to deeply feel the rhythm. It made one realize what he must look like when he orgasms; then again, Prince is probably into tantric sex and never orgasms. He constantly teased the audience with wanton looks (not too dissimilar from the Grammys appearance), fluttering eyelashes, and sideways come-hither glances. He wore sunglasses at the beginning, then coyly threw them on the ground. Yes, Prince, we will do your bidding.
5. The 8 p.m. show was tamer than the 11 p.m. show.
Prince must be one of those performers who saves most of his energy for the late-night crowd. His 90-minute 8 p.m. show was highly energetic, but at his 11 p.m. show, he played for over two hours and brought 30 people onstage for a dance party. By the time the show ended, it was almost time for breakfast, and as we know, Prince loves pancakes.
6. He likes to cover his own songs.
Technically he wrote "Nothing Compares 2 U" for his side project the Family, but Sinead O'Connor swiped it and made a worldwide hit out of it. Prince eventually recorded his own version, which he performed to the audience's delight. Chills, people. Chills.
7. He's not as phone-phobic as we thought.
Prince is a private dude: If bootlegged versions of his songs and videos appear online, they magically disappear. The audience was told prior to entry not to use their phones, but of course no one listened and snapped photos during the first song. He's been known to kick out people because of their phone abuse. Near the end of the set, though, Prince had the lights turned off and implored the crowd to light up the darkness with their phones. How many people snuck in a photo there, eh?
8. He'll drop a brand new song in there.
Near the end of his first show, Prince and band debuted new song "The X's Face." This comes in the wake of his releasing the Christian song "What If" a couple of days ago. Will there be more new music performed and released on the tour? Probably.
9. Prince and his ladies know how to shred.
We don't always think of the Purple One as a rock star, but at times he's redolent of Jimi Hendrix in his uncanny ability to play the fuck out of his instruments (and look sexy doing it). At the end of his set, Prince turned the focus to Welton, New Power Generation bassist Ida Kristine Nielsen, and guitarist Donna Grantis on "Pretzelbodylogic." While Prince hung out in the wings, he gave Welton a drum solo. She beat those skins like she was defeating a Walking Dead zombie, gleefully smiling. Earlier, he stood at his mic and casually perused the April issue of Drum! magazine featuring Welton on the cover. "She says I'm funny," he told the crowd.
10. Prince and his band love the bling and the Love Symbol.
Prince's signature unpronounceable Love Symbol was emblazoned on the tambourine, a large replica on his mic stand, and even on his guitar picks. Prince wore long gold necklaces around his neck, gold lamé designs on the sleeves of his black shirt, and his shoes—which looked comfy with heel supports and blinked red lights when he walked—had gold specks all over them. His ladies chose silver: shiny boots, strips of silver on their pants, and silver medallions around their necks.
11. Prince does not seem to play "Batdance" live.
How amazing would it be if Prince would restage his "Batdance" video, with full-blown cowls and Vicki Vale impersonators? Prince is more low-key and low-production these days, but anything can and will happen on this tour. (Somewhere like Albuquerque will probably get "Batdance.") |
Peyton Manning has left more tongues wagging than your typical Kate Upton cover photo, as many teams were forced to evaluate their own quarterback position against the possibility of bringing in one of the best quarterbacks of his era.
Now some teams, probably in their heart of hearts (weâre talking about you, Cowboys), must have at least had a thought about No. 18 making his return for their squad. But four teams turned on the charm and flaunted their courtship -â often to the detriment of their relationship with their current quarterbacks.
But don't worry, we have your best interests at heart. We've enlisted the advice of Dr. Phil to help mend those broken hearts and hurt feelings.
Arizona Cardinals
It was only a year ago the love affair between coach Ken Whisenhunt and Kevin Kolb was as red hot as the Arizona sun in September. But have things cooled to the point where the coach and the quarterback can't make it work? Dr. Phil has the advice. (And coach, you should probably learn from your mistakes from the whole Matt Leinart deal.)
Miami Dolphins
How bleak are things in Miami? JaMarcus Russell won't even take the Dolphins' calls. Well, he probably would, but we're just exaggerating to make a point because things have become so bad in Miami, even Dr. Phil himself has to call in some reinforcements.
San Francisco 49ers
Coach Jim Harbaugh inspired the 49ers as he asked them, "Who has it better than us?" Turns out he was talking to everybody except Alex Smith. But now the coach and the quarterback are back together again after a brief flirtation with Manning.
Tennessee Titans
The Titans had a big enough headache while trying to juggle between their two current quarterbacks -- Matt Hasselbeck and Jake Locker. So coach Mike Munchak has not one spurned quarterback to attend to, he has two. How does he handle it? |
A Manhattan lawmaker is claiming that a pair of swastikas carved in his Greenwich Village apartment building is linked to Donald Trump’s controversial choice of chief strategist.
Democratic state Sen. Brad Hoylman’s learned Tuesday night about the disturbing find, and chalked it up to the president-elect choosing Stephen Bannon, the alt-right media executive, as his top advisor.
“This comes three days after swastikas were drawn on the doors of nearby students at The New School,” openly gay lawmaker, who intends to convert to Judaism, wrote on Facebook.
“Meanwhile, Stephen Bannon, an anti-Semitic, white nationalist has been named as the senior strategist to President-elect Donald J. Trump.”
He added: “Connect the dots.”
A 70-year-old woman living in the Fifth Avenue building near Washington Square Park discovered the Nazi symbols – measuring 3 inches and 2 inches long – etched into a second-floor elevator door and reported them to police, cops said.
Hoylman said he didn’t think he was personally targeted in the vile incident, which he laid at the feet of the incoming administration.
“When a major presidential candidate openly courts racist elements in our society during an election … and then after he won he appoints a well-known white nationalist, anti-Semite, bigoted, homophobic misogynist to a top White House post, I think it gives the worst elements of our society license to undertake hate speech,” he told The Post.
“President-elect Trump, if he wants to unite this country, must disavow Stephen Bannon and the alt-right movement and rescind his appointment immediately. The message he is sending while ensconced in Trump Tower among his gold-plated lifestyle is that he can act without regard to events that are taking place across this country that threaten women, people of color, LGBT folks, immigrants and religious minorities,” he added, noting that hate crimes have spiked across the US.
The Southern Poverty Law Center cited 437 reports of hateful intimidation and harassment between Nov. 9, the day after the election, and Monday morning.
Mayor de Blasio responded to the anti-Semitic etchings in a tweet: “Millions of New Yorkers stand with you tonight against anti-Semitism. Hate has no place in NYC. #NotInOurCity.”
Hoylman responded: “Thank you Mr Mayor. @NYPD6Pct & hate Crimes unit were swiftly on the scene to investigate.”
Resident Jean Tsai called the incident “appalling.”
“I can’t say if it’s someone who lives or works here. We have limited access to the service elevator. They are manned by the employees,” Tsai, who owns a popcorn company called Pop Karma, told The Post.
“It’s extremely shocking and upsetting, especially since a lot of our staff are immigrants,” she said. “I think that the climate in general makes people think they can speak out if they have racist views. I think people are emboldened after the Trump win.”
Additional reporting by Amanda Woods |
Brandon Joel Tyler (born April 30, 1971) is an American former professional basketball player.
Tyler, a 6' 1" (185 cm) point guard, attended DePaul University for his freshman year and the University of Texas at Austin for his final three college years before being taken twentieth overall in the 1994 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. He played 55 games for them in 1994-95, averaging 3.5 points and 3.2 assists per game.
Prior to the 1995-96 NBA season, Tyler was selected by the Toronto Raptors in the 1995 expansion draft. According to journalist Chris Young's book Drive, Tyler accidentally fell asleep with a pack of ice on his ankle, causing severe nerve damage. Robbed of the speed that his game was based on, he was subsequently forced to retire.[1]
Notes [ edit ] |
Spring is right around the corner. And you know what that means… Sneezing, runny noses, watery eyes, and itching.
Allergy medications can be costly. Not to mention ineffective and dangerous…as usual. But if you are one of the 60 million Americans who suffer from allergies, you’ll want to pay close attention.1
Researchers in Japan treated rats with a natural compound for three weeks.2 Then they introduced them to specific allergens. But this compound inhibited the release of histamine. That’s the chemical that triggers tissue inflammation.
If you stop the release of histamine you prevent inflammation. And no inflammation means no allergy symptoms.
So what is this natural antihistamine?
Quercetin.
Another study out of Brazil confirms that this antioxidant can be a powerful ally for anyone with allergies.3 This time researchers injected mice with various compounds, including quercetin. The mice that received the natural compound had a lower count of the white blood cells that cause inflammation. Once again, control inflammation, control allergies.
In a report by Alternative Medicine Review researchers compared multiple studies on the compound.4 Their conclusion? Quercetin slows down the release of histamine, making it a natural treatment for allergies.
Of course allergies don’t always start and end with the season. Some people suffer year round. Dust mites, molds, and animal dander can cause reactions. And not all people suffer the same. Some are more fortunate and only have mild symptoms. Others experience severe reactions which can include hives and swelling of the throat.
Adding fruits and vegetables with quercetin to your diet may help. You can find it in onions, apples, citrus fruits and tea. But to ward off allergies you are better off going with a supplement. Quercetin is easy to find. Check out your local health food store or online. The recommended dosage is 300 mg three times a day.
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References:
1 http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/story/health/story/2011/03/Seasonal-allergies-emerging/45457020/1
2 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23333628
3 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18026696
4 http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11056414 |
Source: U.S. Couldn’t Nail Down Chemical Weapons Chain of Custody
When the White House first publicly announced in late April its belief that the Assad regime in Syria had used chemical weapons on its own people, it stressed that this was only a strong suspicion — not a certainty. Yes, they had blood samples that indicated exposure to deadly sarin gas. But they couldn’t say for sure who handled those samples in the two weeks it took to get the blood into Western hands. "The physiological examples are compelling but without being able to determine the chain of custody, that’s the key to confirming the use," one unnamed U.S. official told the New York Times earlier this week.
That chain of custody still hasn’t been nailed down, an American intelligence source tells The Cable. But U.S. spy agencies nonetheless now feel confident that chemical weapons were used in Syria. And that, in turn, prompted the White House to make its more sure-footed announcement Thursday that Assad had, conclusively, gassed his opponents in Syria’s civil war.
After an alleged chemical attack on the city of Aleppo in March, the U.S. and United States came into possession of at least three physiological samples that tested positive for indicators of sarin gas. Now, Western intelligence services have at least twice that number of blood, urine, and hair samples coming from a variety of battle zones around the country.
"The big thing that changed is an increase in the number of incidents," the source says. "It’s impossible that the opposition is faking the stuff in so many instances in so many locations."
When the samples were combined with information from signals intercepts, overhead surveillance, and human tipsters, the intelligence community felt it had a powerful case. And once the intelligence community made its conclusion, the White House was, in a way, compelled to act.
It wasn’t just that President Obama had declared the use of chemical weapons to be a "red line" (although, of course, that was vitally important for all sorts of geopolitical and strategic reasons). An obscure 1991 law, 22 USC 5604, states that the president shall notify Congress within 60 days if the executive branch determines that a foreign government "has used lethal chemical or biological weapons against its own nationals."
Yet the White House’s decision to announce the chemical weapons findings — and the decision to provide "direct military support" to the rebels — came rather quickly. "We had less than a week to prepare," the source says. "Nothing indicated a decision before this week."
And that quick move to announce may partially explain why the Obama administration’s proclamation was so oddly short on specifics. There was that declaration of direct military support. But what shape that support would take, the administration wouldn’t say, at least not on the record.
"Can’t you even say small arms, RPGs, heavier weapons?" a reporter asked Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes, during Friday’s press briefing.
He answered: "We’re just not going to be able to get into that level of detail about the type of assistance that we provide publicly here."
A State Department briefing with spokeswoman Jen Psaki added little clarity.
"So the United States has agreed to increase its support and aid to Syria, including direct military assistance," said a reporter. "Are you able to help us in any way explain exactly what is meant by that?"
"I cannot," Psaki said.
The CIA, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Pentagon directed all questions to the White House. ("Please feel free to report the CIA declined comment," one spokesman emailed.) The White House, in turn, refused to verify any order for small arms, ammunition, or any other kind of military support for the Syrian opposition.
One reason for the secrecy could be that the shipment of arms to rebels would fall under the CIA’s classified purview. (Providing arms to rebel groups within another nation’s sovereign borders presents legal issues in the absence of a United Nations Security Council resolution.) But another reason for the veiled statements and the lack of interagency coordination could be that the rollout of the chemical weapons announcement was done in haste.
Regardless, the U.S game plan in Syria has yet to be explained in full by U.S. officials on record. That reveals a conundrum of American security policy in 2013. Our wars are technically fought in secret. Yet they’re announced to the world. |
Thanks to Germany's Computer Spiele Museum a rare piece of history is now available online: a 1973 demonstration by Ralph Baer, the inventor of home video games, about the potential of a multimedia set-top box.If you'd simply like to see the only existing footage of Ralph Baer and collaborator Bill Harrison playing with the "Brown Box" video game unit they designed together, that starts at around 6:48, and is a delight in itself ("Well, here we are, playing ping pong when we ought to be working."). But the rest of the video shows just how ahead of their time Baer and his team were.Using technology available at the time ("We've tried to cut out the blue sky dreaming, what we'll show you today are concepts and hardware that are practical right now.") Baer demonstrates a concept for something akin to an all-in-one multimedia box that plays games, lets users shop by mail-order, has educational components, and even pay-for-TV applications.Without the use of microprocessors, these applications were extremely simple by today's technology, and required broadcasters to dedicate air time to specialized programming, but what Baer was able to squeeze out of such limited technology is astounding.At one point, Baer even suggests that the games themselves could be provided by advertisers, making this video perhaps the first documented suggestion we have of ad-supported video games, barely a year after the original Magnavox Odyssey (the first video game console, which used technology licensed from Baer's patents) was released. It would appear that ad-supported games were around, at least conceptually, from the very beginning.Apparently the demonstration didn't inspire any partners for the "All Purpose Box" ( Baer's book doesn't even make mention of it), but as a piece of history, this video is priceless. |
After months of anticipation, Grand Rapids-based brewery Founders Brewing Company will open its Detroit taproom on Monday, Dec. 4.
Located on Charlotte St. just a couple of blocks away from Little Caesars Arena, the original announcement came in April.
Doors will open at 3 p.m. with what they say will be "plenty of food, beer and good times."
The taproom is 14,000 square feet and since they're opening in December, Founders will also hold a special bottle release of Canadian Breakfast Stout (CBS). At 11.7 percent ABV, CBS is an imperial stout brewed with chocolate and coffee, aged in maple syrup bourbon barrels.
A select number of CBS tickets will be available online by clicking here at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 2. They are $50 for two bottles, and are name and date specific, which means you have to bring your ID and pick up your bottles on the specific date.
Those dates will be from 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. on Friday Dec. 15 - Sunday, Dec. 17. Anyone with questions can email detroitticketing@foundersbrewing.com .
Founders is also offering membership to its mug club for 2018. Membership cost $60 and you can sign up at this link . Membership includes: Your very own mug with choice of text or image, $1 off draft beers all day every day, $2 off draft beers on Thursday, $2 off growler fills, discounted entry oto events in Detroit and Grand Rapids and occasional access to limited pre-release tickets for beer and events.
For more information, click here. |
Pens Versus Pencils: Which One is Better for Writing Workshop?
by
In my line of work as a staff developer, I often get the question, “Which do you think is better? Pens or pencils?”
I have to start by saying that I don’t think that pens versus pencils is a make-it-or-break-it issue. If you feel strongly one way or the other—go for it. It’s probably not the pen or the pencil that will turn this year’s group of students into lovers of writing, creators of poems, stories, reviews, essays, and information books. Rather, it’s you, their teacher who makes the difference!
But, choosing your tools for writing wisely is indeed helpful. Imagine a world where kids do not spend their time erasing, but instead simply draw a line through it and just keep going. Imagine never having to sharpen pencils. Imagine your kids writing twice as much as usual—simply because they have a new pen to write with.
Here are a few issues to consider.
Erasing
During writing workshop, do you really want kids to be erasing much? Or even at all? How will you assess all of the work your students have done if they erase half of it? How much time are they spending erasing? In general, the less experienced the writer, the longer it takes them to erase, even something small. Not only that, but once those letters and words are erased, you’ll never know what changes the child made. You’ll also never know if she was spending all her time writing and then erasing the same words over and over. We’ve all encountered kids who will draw and then erase, and then re-draw the same little stick man over and over again for the entire writing workshop. It’s disheartening to think how much more writing, how much more practice these writers would get if they weren’t spending all their time erasing. With a pen, erasing is not an option. While some kids will balk at first, demanding they get their pencil and eraser back, after a few days, the pen becomes the new normal, and erasing during writing workshop is a thing of the past.
Sharpening
Let’s face it. Keeping pencils sharp is darn near impossible. Yes, there are systems that, in theory, could work. For example, many teachers tell me they keep a can of sharpened pencils at the writing center (or sometimes at each table) so that kids will never be without a sharpened pencil. However, in over a decade of visiting schools all around the country I have met only one teacher who can successfully keep the can of sharpened pencils sharpened, all day, every day (and she is super-human). For the rest of us, halfway through the day there is a shortage of sharp pencils and kids are back to sharpening during work time. And if you are one of those super-human teachers who keeps the pencil can full, well, just imagine all the other things that could be done with the time spent keeping the pencil can sharpened. Sharpening, as we all know, takes time and it’s noisy. Trust me, once you’ve lived in a sharpener-free classroom, you’ll never want to go back!
Engagement
Kids love pens. I’ve seen the volume of writing in classrooms double or even triple simply by switching from pencils to pens. And then I’ve seen a bump in the volume again mid-year just by switching the color of the pens. New writing tools are interesting and engaging to kids. Who doesn’t love a new notebook, fresh paper, or a new pen? Some teachers even do a little “graduation” from pencils to pens. They have kids sit in a circle, holding their old beat up pencils, and then one by one the teacher goes around the circle, humming “Pomp and Circumstance” as kids plunk their junky old pencils in a can in exchange for a nice new ball point or flair pen.
To summarize:
Pens Pencils Never have to be sharpened. Have to be sharpened all the time. Last a long time. Get used up after a few weeks at most. Are always the same length, size, and color. Consistent and reliable. Get shorter and shorter with use. Can be broken easily. Unreliable. Cannot be erased, allowing you to see all the work a student did that day. Have the potential to allow kids to spend too much time erasing. Make a nice, dark, easy to read mark on the page. Can be difficult to read—too light, and often smudgy. Easy to photocopy. Impossible to photocopy easily. Fun and engaging for kids. Feels “grown up.” Could be fun and engaging, too, I guess. (Yes, that is sarcasm you detect. However some kids really do prefer a pencil.)
Choosing a Pen
So, what kind of pens work best? Any kind, really. Simple blue or black ball-point pens can be found in office supply and school supply catalogs—they’re cheap and if you buy a case of them they last all year. Try out a few samples before you order in bulk, though. Certain companies, which will remain nameless, are somewhat notorious for pens that fall apart easily—you don’t want those. If you have a bigger budget, you might consider flair pens instead of ball-point. These are my favorites because they leave a nice, beautiful dark mark on the page. They are like a felt tip marker, but with a harder point so little hands can press hard or hold lightly and still make a nice easy-to-read mark.
Management
You probably do not want to choose pens that click (for the obvious reasons—the sound is so annoying!), and you probably do not want to choose a color that is difficult to read, like pink or orange. You may want to choose something that is the same for the whole class, so that your kids won’t be tempted to squabble over who gets which color. Divide up the pens in cups for each table of kids to share, and you’re ready to go. I prefer having a group of kids share a supply of pens, rather than each individual student having his or her own. This way all I have to do is keep 5-6 cups of pens replenished, rather than attempting to have my 20-something (or sometimes 30-something) students keep track of their individual pens.
Last But Not Least
It’s worth mentioning that very young writers might benefit from using color when they draw. Thin colored markers allow them to draw with detail, while thicker markers or crayons provide other advantages. If you teach emergent writers (who mostly draw during writing workshop) then you might want to stick with something in color while they are in the scribbling stage, until they can draw representationally. Sometimes the only thing that helps kids remember what they drew is the color (as in, the blue reminds them that it was a story about swimming in the water, the red reminds them of the pool toy they were playing with). However, once children are drawing representationally and no longer rely on the color to decipher the meaning of their pictures, you will probably find that they produce much more writing when they are not coloring everything in anymore. Many teachers put away the colored markers and crayons once kids are drawing representationally, and save the color for publishing at the end of a unit of study.
Another thing to consider is that older, more experienced writers are likely to be more fluent writers in general, and may not have any problems with erasing a quick letter or word here and there. If kids are using pencils, you might simply teach them not to spend too much time erasing—just draw a line through it if it’s more than a word or two. If erasing is an issue, some teachers snip the erasers off and provide separate erasers at the times of the day when kids might need them (math, for example). Some teachers use pens during writing workshop, but pencils at other parts of the day.
Ultimately, the decision is yours. To wrap things up, for fun, I hope you’ll participate in this quick little poll! |
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At a time when some are criticizing ESPN for being too political (though that’s largely just a euphemism for letting non-white people and women talk), they’re bring back a guy whose political commentary cost him a gig in the first place.
According to Cindy Watts of USA Today, the network is bringing former country star Hank Williams Jr. back to their Monday Night Football broadcast.
It’s been six years since they parted ways with him, after Williams called then-Republican House Speaker John Boehner playing golf with then-President Barack Obama “one of the biggest political mistakes ever.”
“It would be like Hitler playing golf with [Israeli leader] Benjamin Netanyahu,” he then explained on Fox News’ Fox & Friends. He also referred to Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden as “the enemy.”
(Note to aspiring writers, artists and public speakers: If you’re ever thinking about making the Hitler reference, don’t. No, really. Just don’t. Ever. No, seriously. It never works out for you. Never. You’re welcome.)
But ESPN figures enough time has passed (and the political climate has changed) such that Williams and his rowdy friends should be more welcome now.
“I’m sure there’ll be some [backlash], but I’m not concerned,”said Stephanie Druley, ESPN’s senior vice president of events and studio production. “It was the right time. We discussed it internally and it was just the right time to bring him back.”
Of course, it comes at a time when the network is laying off long-time NFL talent, losing reporters such as John Clayton and Ed Werder (among many others), which may make some wonder if they’re ready for some football or not. |
The Israel defence forces’ land command and the nation’s defence ministry are developing an unmanned quadcopter to support ground units.
Currently being defined by the land command’s technical branch, the basic design is the result of recent combat experience by ground units, which are currently equipped with Elbit Systems’ Skylark unmanned air vehicle. The system is mainly deployed by artillery units and special forces personnel.
Speaking on 12 September, Israeli sources said that once the basic design requirements had been completed, a tender would be issued for the quadcopter’s production.
Sources suggest that the new system will have a maximum take-off weight of 10-15kg (22-33lb), with a rotor diameter of 1m (3.3ft). Its operational endurance is expected to be 30min while carrying a 3-4kg payload and up to 1h with a sensor fit totalling 400g. |
US President George W. Bush speaks to US troops at the Baghdad International Airport on Thursday, November 27, 2003, in Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
The following is an excerpt from Charles Lewis’s book, 935 Lies. Lewis joins Bill this week to talk about why facts, logic and reason are often missing in the rush to war.
At the end of 2004, a series of public opinion polls offered disturbing news. More than half of all Americans, we learned, believed that there had been weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq — the principal raison d’être for George W. Bush’s war of choice there — despite the fact that numerous widely publicized bipartisan and international reports had definitively shown that no such weapons existed. This stubborn refusal to face the facts about Iraq continues today for millions of Americans. [1]
Facts are and must be the coin of the realm in a democracy, for government “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” in Abraham Lincoln’s words, requires an informed citizenry. [2] But in regard to the Iraq War, it seems, facts are now irrelevant or at least debatable, a mere matter of opinion, for a majority of Americans. And if facts no longer matter to millions of our fellow citizens, then what becomes of the traditional role of the journalist as the independent watchdog digging through obfuscation, secrecy and deception by the powerful in search of what Carl Bernstein once called “the best obtainable version of the truth”?
This is a question that touches me personally — not just as a concerned citizen, but as someone who has dedicated his life and work to the pursuit of truth. In more than three decades as an investigative reporter in Washington, DC, my approach toward those in power, regardless of party or ideology, has followed the principle “Watch what they do, not what they say.”
Politicians, captains of industry, and their zealous aides too often resemble circus barkers, shilling for attention and advantage, with little regard for accuracy or veracity, using the press and the news media not to enlighten but to bamboozle the public in pursuit of votes, profits and power. When necessary, they even employ the wiles of deception to conceal, disguise, or justify unseemly and sometimes outright criminal behavior. As George Orwell wrote, in words that still ring true more than half a century after they were written, “Political speech and writing are largely the defence [sic] of the indefensible . . . Political language . . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”[3]
Precisely what had US government officials said to cause most Americans and their elected representatives to completely ignore facts, logic and reason in the rush to war? Exactly who was involved and to what extent?
So as a professional truth-seeker, I have always been skeptical of statements by those in power, preferring to ignore the official versions of events in my quest for the (sometimes ugly) underlying realities. That quest continues. But when I learned the extent to which the public had swallowed and accepted the official lies about WMDs in Iraq, I realized that I actually could no longer ignore what those in power had said. Their shameless manipulations and mis-representations, I now saw, were a crucial element in the tragedy of that dubious war of choice, and therefore deserving of investigation and analysis in their own right. Precisely what had US government officials said to cause most Americans and their elected representatives to completely ignore facts, logic, and reason in the rush to war? Exactly who was involved and to what extent?
I began systematically to investigate the answers to those and other related questions, enlisting the help of a team of reporters, researchers and other contributors that ultimately included 25 people. Nearly three years later, the Center for Public Integrity published Iraq: The War Card, a 380,000-word report with an online searchable database. [4] It was released on the eve of the five-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and was covered extensively by the national and international news media.
Our report found that in the two years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush and seven of his administration’s top officials made at least 935 false statements about the national security threat posed by Iraq. The carefully orchestrated campaign of untruths about Iraq’s alleged threat to US national security from its WMDs or links to al Qaeda (also specious) galvanized public opinion and led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses. Perhaps most revealing: the number of false statements made by top Bush administration officials dramatically increased from August 2002 to the time of the critical October 2002 congressional approval of the war resolution and spiked even higher between January and March 2003, between Secretary of State Colin Powell’s address before the United Nations General Assembly and the fateful March 19, 2003, invasion. [5]
Within hours of the release of our report, White House press secretary Dana Perino responded with scorn: “I hardly think that the study is worth spending any time on. It is so flawed in terms of taking anything into context or including — they only looked at members of the administration rather than looking at members of Congress or people around the world. Because as you’ll remember, we were part of a broad coalition of countries that deposed a dictator based on a collective understanding of the intelligence.” [6] This sophistry was at least consistent with the administration’s track record of distorting reality. In fact, neither Congress nor America’s international allies was demanding an invasion of Iraq before the administration started beating the war drums.
Our report found that in the two years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush and seven of his administration’s top officials made at least 935 false statements about the national security threat posed by Iraq.
The so-called Coalition of the Willing was a face-saving artifice cobbled together after the UN Security Council failed to approve the US-instigated invasion, rendering it a violation of the UN Charter and thus “illegal.” Furthermore, “the intelligence” referred to by Perino proved to be anything but intelligent; indeed, it had been mostly manufactured by the administration in accordance with its political agenda. [7]
Three months after the Center for Public Integrity Iraq report, David Barstow of The New York Times reported more details about how the Iraq deception had been orchestrated. Barstow revealed that the Pentagon had quietly recruited and coached 75 retired military officers to be “independent” paid consultants and radio and television analysts whose true role was to make the case for war in Iraq. Many had significant, undisclosed financial ties to defense companies and were thus benefiting hugely from the very policies they were “analyzing.” [8]
Earlier, Barstow had reported (with colleague Robin Stein) that “at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments between 2001 and 2005 . . . Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government’s role in their production.” David Walker, the then comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office, who happened to be a Republican, declared that such taxpayer-paid propaganda by the government is unethical and violates federal law. However, the Bush administration publicly disagreed, and Congress meekly declined to pursue the matter any further. [9]
The broadcast and cable news media, which had overwhelmingly failed to investigate or challenge the administration’s flawed case for war, shamelessly ignored Barstow’s revelations, neither reporting on their own dubious use of such compromised news sources nor apologizing to the public for the resulting gross misrepresentations of fact.
The full extent of deference to power and self-censorship by our obsequious major news media during the run-up to war is still not fully known; it will gradually seep out — or not — over the coming years.
And a month after the stunning Times stories, one of the White House officials who had actually made several false statements in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion, former press secretary Scott McClellan, wrote a “surprisingly scathing” memoir admitting that his own public comments at White House briefings about Iraq had been “badly misguided,” that President Bush had not been “open and forthright on Iraq,” and that instead he had relied on “propaganda.” [10]
There were a few honorable exceptions in Washington to the general failure of the news media to challenge the pro-war deceptions. They included the fine independent coverage by then Knight Ridder (now McClatchy) Washington bureau reporters Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay; the prescient articles by Walter Pincus, buried in the back pages by his nervous Washington Post editors; and, in early 2004, the Abu Ghraib prison-abuse scandal stories by CBS News 60 Minutes II and Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker. Later, in 2005, beyond the Iraq deceptions, there were Dana Priest’s exposés in The Washington Post about the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret “black site” prisons and James Risen and Eric Lichtblau’s stories in The New York Times revealing how the Bush administration had quietly authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to secretly eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States, without warrants usually required for domestic surveillance. [11]
Buying the War: How Big Media Failed Us
But in the context of the overall performance of the media, these valiant efforts to get beyond the official version to uncover the truth about our involvement in Iraq were too little, too late. The full extent of deference to power and self-censorship by our obsequious major news media during the run-up to war is still not fully known; it will gradually seep out — or not — over the coming years. Some major news organizations later grudgingly acknowledged that their coverage was insufficiently critical of government pronouncements. But that did nothing to ameliorate the tragic consequences of an unnecessary war, including a financial toll of more than $2 trillion, a sum that is likely to increase substantially with benefits to war veterans over time and other expenses, as well as — far more important — the deaths of thousands upon thousands of soldiers and innocent civilians, including women and children. [ 12
Could the Iraq War have been prevented if the public had been better informed before the invasion about the specious official statements, faulty logic, and breathtaking manipulations of public opinion and governmental decision-making processes? I believe the answer to that grim question is very possibly yes, and it will haunt me and others in my profession for years to come. [13]
Congressional oversight focused almost entirely on the quality of the US government’s pre-war intelligence — not the veracity of the highest-ranking US officials’ public statements or the objectivity and logic of their decision making in instigating the war.
Did President Bush and other officials from his administration lie about Iraq intentionally and deliberately? It’s hard to tell without unfettered access to the principals and their internal communications. Certainly, we should never underestimate the human capacity for self-delusion — too often, we find it easy to believe what we want to believe. But the fact is that they have avoided the glare of formal scrutiny about their personal responsibility for the litany of repeated, false statements in the run-up to war. Under the Republicans in 2005 and 2006, and the Democrats in 2007 and 2008, there was no congressional investigation into this specific question. Congressional oversight focused almost entirely on the quality of the US government’s pre-war intelligence — not the veracity of the highest-ranking US officials’ public statements or the objectivity and logic of their decision making in instigating the war. Nor in 2009 did the new Democratic president Barack Obama, his administration, or the Democratic Congress evince any interest in investigating this politically sensitive subject. There may be no more telling example of what has happened to congressional oversight in Washington in recent decades.
Investigating this tale of dishonesty by those in power and acquiescence on the part of those charged with reporting the truth has been a disheartening experience for me. Even more sobering, however, is the fact that the Iraq War deception, with its 935 public, shameless lies, is simply the latest and most egregious story of truth betrayed that I’ve witnessed or reported on over the past five decades. My career in journalism has coincided with a tragic period in American history — one in which falsehood has increasingly come to dominate our public discourse, and in which the bedrock values of honesty, transparency, accountability and integrity we once took for granted have been steadily eroded.
Excerpted from 935 Lies by Charles Lewis. Copyright © 2014 by Charles Lewis. Excerpted by permission of PublicAffairs, an imprint of the Perseus Books Group. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. |
How does a business go from an idea in your head to a functioning venture that runs smoothly and turns a profit? It helps to get your ideas on paper, and this is where a business plan comes in. A business plan is essential for materializing your business and getting on the road to success.
I’ll admit, I’m a bit intimidated by the thought of sitting down to write a 10-page document about my business dreams. Don’t even get me started on the thought of crunching numbers and making projections about profitability. For most right-brained creative types, the thought of writing a business plan, complete with all that financial analysis, is daunting. But it doesn’t have to be.
Depending on your business needs, you can make your business plan as formal or informal as you want. If you are applying for loans or looking for investors, you’ll want to spend a little more time fleshing out your plan and follow more formal guidelines. Thankfully, most design businesses are fairly inexpensive and easy to start. So more than likely, your business plan will be an internal planning document that no one sees but you. You don’t want to spend so much time on your planning that it takes away from actually doing, so don’t sweat writing your plan. Just do it, a little bit at a time if that helps. Now, if only I could listen to my own advice!
One of the first things you can do to start the process is become familiar with what a business plan looks like. Ask colleagues if they’d be willing to share their plans with you (minus the financial details if they want). Or, you can find many sample business plans online at places like the Center for Business Planning and the SBA’s Business Planning Section. I’ve found it pretty difficult to find sample business plans for green businesses, much less green graphic design businesses, so just look for something as similar as possible and read through a few plans to get an idea of how they are structured.
Think of your business plan as a living document, one that you can refer back to frequently to gauge your success and make decisions. Reviewing it quarterly and revising it annually should be scheduled business activities. Seeing a business plan as a work in progress and something useful for your business makes it a lot less intimidating to write.
So, what should your business plan include? It depends on what you’re using it for, but most business plans include a summary of the business and a mission statement, information on how the business is structured, a description of the market niche — this is a good place to discuss being a green business — and competition, a marketing plan, and a financial plan. The entire plan will need to incorporate specific, measurable goals for various aspects of the business. That way when you review it, you can assess whether or not you are meeting those goals.
I started the process of planning a business by buying a business notebook. It is divided into sections so I can keep my thoughts organized: one for general brainstorming (like thinking of a business name and mission statement), one for financial details, one for research notes, one for marketing ideas, and one for drafts of my business plan. Having one place to collect your research, notes, and plans helps to get everything organized so it functions as a guide for writing the business plan.
As I prepare to write my plan, I have come across several great resources specific to the creative field. AIGA’s Design and Resources section has numerous articles on running a design firm, including this very useful Creative Business article on business planning. The Zen of Business Plans is another great article on the topic. How you write your plan has a lot to do with its purpose and the reasons behind writing it, so the first step is to figure out why you’re writing one. If you’re like me, it may help to think of writing your business plan as another design project, so that you look forward to working on it. Of course, you will want to use your design skills when organizing your plan, just don’t go overboard with the visuals while neglecting the content.
Make sure that as you plan your business, you consider sustainability at every step of the way. Green business is a growing market niche, and being green will help you stand out from competitors in your industry, so be sure to emphasize this in your plan. How will you assess your environmental impact and determine if you’re as sustainable as possible? In what ways can you measure success not just for your business, but for the planet? How will being green affect your accounting, your profit margin, and your marketing? These are all things for the ecopreneur to consider when putting together a business plan.
A lot of freelancers or sole proprietors in the creative field that I’ve talked to don’t even have a business plan. But even if you’re already operating, a business plan is a good idea. You’ll have more information on your finances and operations available than a brand-new business would, so plans for existing businesses differ from those of new start-ups. For a new venture, your plan will involve more guesswork and goal-setting than hard facts and numbers. And that’s fine. Cater your plan to whatever stage of your business you are in. It is ultimately a tool for you anyway, so it can take whatever form you need it to take. The important thing is that you have one, because that cliche, “the business that fails to plan, plans to fail,” tends to be true. Writing a business plan is a great exercise in organizing your thoughts, cementing your goals, and giving you a reference point to assess your business success.
Now, it’s probably time I started writing my business plan instead of writing this article. Please feel free to comment and share your business plan tips, ideas, and even frustrations. I’ll need all the motivation I can get to get this thing on paper!
Resources and links from this article:
Business Planning: The Exasperating Made Simple from Creative Business/AIGA (PDF).
Center for Business Planning
Small Business Administration’s Small Business Planner
Honing Your Business Plan on CreativePublic.com
A Business Plan: Doing it for the Right Reasons on Two Bit Operation
The Zen of Business Plans on How to Change the World
AIGA Design and Business
This is the fourth article in my “Green Dreams” series on starting a green graphic design business. Read the first, second, and third posts in this series for more information or to follow my sustainable start-up journey. |
City in Massachusetts, United States
Emily Lavan, Heartbreak Hill, 2005 Boston Marathon
Newton is a suburban city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately 7 miles (11 km) west of downtown Boston and is bordered by Boston's Brighton and West Roxbury neighborhoods to the east and south, respectively, and by the suburb of Brookline to the east, the suburbs of Watertown and Waltham to the north, and Weston, Wellesley and Needham to the west. Rather than having a single city center, Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.
History [ edit ]
Newton was settled in 1630 as part of "the newe towne", which was renamed Cambridge in 1638. Roxbury minister John Eliot convinced the Native American people of Nonantum, a sub-tribe of the Massachusett led by a sachem named Waban, to relocate to Natick in 1651, fearing that they would be exploited by colonists.[3] Newton was incorporated as a separate town, known as Cambridge Village, on December 15 1681, then renamed Newtown in 1691, and finally Newton in 1766.[4] It became a city on January 5, 1874. Newton is known as The Garden City.
In Reflections in Bullough's Pond, Newton historian Diana Muir describes the early industries that developed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in a series of mills built to take advantage of the water power available at Newton Upper Falls and Newton Lower Falls. Snuff, chocolate, glue, paper and other products were produced in these small mills but, according to Muir, the water power available in Newton was not sufficient to turn Newton into a manufacturing city, although it was, beginning in 1902, the home of the Stanley Motor Carriage Company, the maker of the Stanley Steamer.
Newton, according to Muir, became one of America's earliest commuter suburbs. The Boston and Worcester, one of America's earliest railroads, reached West Newton in 1834. Wealthy Bostonian businessmen took advantage of the new commuting opportunity offered by the railroad, building gracious homes on erstwhile farmland of West Newton hill and on Commonwealth street. Muir points out that these early commuters needed sufficient wealth to employ a groom and keep horses, to drive them from their hilltop homes to the station.
Further suburbanization came in waves. One wave began with the streetcar lines that made many parts of Newton accessible for commuters in the late nineteenth century. The next wave came in the 1920s when automobiles became affordable to a growing upper middle class. Even then, however, Oak Hill continued to be farmed, mostly market gardening, until the prosperity of the 1950s made all of Newton more densely settled.
The city has two symphony orchestras, the New Philharmonia Orchestra of Massachusetts and the Newton Symphony Orchestra.
Each April on Patriots Day, the Boston Marathon is run through the city, entering from Wellesley on Route 16 (Washington Street) where runners encounter the first of the four infamous Newton Hills. It then turns right onto Route 30 (Commonwealth Avenue) for the long haul into Boston. There are two more hills before reaching Centre Street, and then the fourth and most infamous of all, Heartbreak Hill, rises shortly after Centre Street. Residents and visitors line the race route along Washington Street and Commonwealth Avenue to cheer the runners.
Geography [ edit ]
Union Street, Newton Centre
Newton is a suburban city approximately seven miles from downtown Boston, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, at (42.337713, −71.209936).[5] The city is bordered by Waltham and Watertown on the north, Needham and the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston on the south, Wellesley and Weston on the west, and Brookline and the Brighton neighborhood of Boston on the east.
From Watertown to Waltham to Needham and Dedham, Newton is bounded by the Charles River. The Yankee Division Highway, designated Interstate 95 but known to the locals as Route 128, follows the Charles from Waltham to Dedham, creating a de facto land barrier. The portion of Needham which lies east of 128 and west of the Charles, known as the Needham Industrial Park has become part of a Newton commercial zone and contributes to its heavy traffic, though the tax revenue goes to Needham.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 18.2 square miles (47.1 km2), of which 18.0 square miles (46.6 km2) is land and 0.2 square miles (0.5 km2) (0.82%) is water.
Topology [ edit ]
Newton has grown around a formation of seven hills. "The general features of Newton are not without interest. Seven principal elevations mark its siu-face, like the seven hills of ancient Rome, with the difference that the seven hills of Newton are much more distinct than the seven hills of Rome: Nonantum Hill, Waban Hill, Chestnut Hill, Bald Pate, Oak Hill, Institution Hill and Mount Ida."[6]
Villages [ edit ]
Rather than having a single city center, Newton is a patchwork of thirteen villages, many boasting small downtown areas of their own. The 13 villages are: Auburndale, Chestnut Hill, Newton Centre, Newton Corner, Newton Highlands, Newton Lower Falls, Newton Upper Falls (both on the Charles River, and both former small industrial sites), Newtonville, Nonantum (also called "The Lake"), Oak Hill, Thompsonville, Waban and West Newton. Oak Hill Park is a place within the village of Oak Hill that itself is shown as a separate and distinct village on some city maps (including a map dated 2010 on the official City of Newton website),[7] and Four Corners is also shown as a village on some city maps. Although most of the villages have a post office, they have no legal definition and no firmly defined borders. This village-based system often causes some confusion with addresses and for first time visitors.[8]
Climate [ edit ]
The record low temperature was −21 °F (−29 °C) in February 1934; the record high temperature was 101 °F (38 °C) in August 1975.[9]
Climate data for Newton, Massachusetts Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °F (°C) 68
(20) 68
(20) 89
(32) 94
(34) 93
(34) 99
(37) 100
(38) 101
(38) 99
(37) 88
(31) 81
(27) 74
(23) 101
(38) Average high °F (°C) 34
(1) 37
(3) 44
(7) 56
(13) 66
(19) 76
(24) 82
(28) 79
(26) 72
(22) 60
(16) 50
(10) 39
(4) 58
(14) Average low °F (°C) 17
(−8) 19
(−7) 27
(−3) 38
(3) 48
(9) 57
(14) 63
(17) 62
(17) 55
(13) 43
(6) 34
(1) 24
(−4) 41
(5) Record low °F (°C) −14
(−26) −21
(−29) −5
(−21) 6
(−14) 27
(−3) 36
(2) 44
(7) 39
(4) 28
(−2) 20
(−7) 5
(−15) −19
(−28) −21
(−29) Average precipitation inches (mm) 4.35
(110) 4.24
(108) 5.58
(142) 4.55
(116) 4.11
(104) 4.31
(109) 4.02
(102) 4.03
(102) 4.06
(103) 4.69
(119) 4.76
(121) 4.89
(124) 53.59
(1,360) Source: [9]
Demographics [ edit ]
As of the census[22] of 2010, there were 85,146 people, 32,648 households, and 20,499 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,643.6 people per square mile (1,793.2/km²). There were 32,112 housing units at an average density of 1,778.8 per square mile (686.9/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 79.6% White, 11.5% Asian, 2.5% African American, 0.07% Native American, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.71% from other races, and 1.46% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.1% of the population (0.7% Puerto Rican, 0.6% Mexican, 0.4% Colombian, 0.3% Guatemalan, 0.3% Argentine). (2010 Census Report: Census report Quickfacts.com)
Newton, along with neighboring Brookline, is known for its considerable Jewish and Asian populations. The Jewish population as of 2002 was estimated as roughly 28,002.[23]
There were 31,201 households out of which 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.2% were married couples living together, 8.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.3% were non-families. 25.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. As of the 2008 US Census, the average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.11. In the city, the population was spread out with 21.2% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 28.2% from 25 to 44, 25.2% from 45 to 64, and 15.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 86.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $107,696, and the median income for a family was $136,843. Males had a median income of $95,387 versus $60,520 for females. The per capita income for the city was $56,163. About 3.6% of families and 5.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.2% of those under age 18 and 9.4% of those age 65 or over.[24]
As of 2015, 21.9% of the residents of Newton were born outside of the United States.[25]
Government [ edit ]
Newton Public Library
City [ edit ]
Newton has an elected strong mayor-council form of government. The council is called the City Council. The mayor is Ruthanne Fuller. Fuller is the first female to be elected Mayor of Newton.
The elected officials are:
Mayor: Ruthanne Fuller, the city's chief executive officer and appoints the Chief Administrative Officer.
The City Council, Newton's legislative branch of municipal government, is made up of 24 members – sixteen Councilors-at-large and eight Ward Councilors. Councilors are elected every two years.
Note: Councilors for 2018 and 2019 are listed below. The first listed person in each ward is the Ward Councilor, while the other two are elected at large.
Ward One: Maria Scibelli Greenberg, Alison Leary and Allan Ciccone Jr.; Ward Two: Emily Norton, Jake Auchincloss and Susan Albright; Ward Three: Barbara Brousal-Glaser, Andrea Kelley and James Cote; Ward Four: Chris Markiewicz, Leonard J. Gentile and Joshua Krintzman; Ward Five: John Rice, Deborah Crossley and Andreae Downs; Ward Six: Brenda Noel, Greg Schwartz and Victoria L. Danberg; Ward Seven: R. Lisle Baker, Rebecca Walker-Grossman and Marc Laredo; and Ward Eight: Cheryl Lappin, Richard A. Lipof and David Kalis.
Newton also has a school committee which decides on the policies and budget for Newton Public Schools. It has nine voting members, consisting of the Mayor of Newton and eight at-large Ward representatives, who are elected by citizens.[26] In addition to these voting members, there are two non-voting student representatives; one from each high school.
School Committee members for 2018 and 2019 are listed below.
Ward One: Bridget Ray-Canada; Ward Two: Margaret Albright; Ward Three: Anping Shen; Ward Four: Diana Fisher-Gomberg; Ward Five: Steve Siegel; Ward Six: Ruth Goldman; Ward Seven: Kathleen Burdette-Shields; Ward Eight: Matthew Miller.
The City of Newton Police Department is one of the most progressive departments in the state and has 139 sworn officers. The Newton Fire Department is fully paid and operates three ladder companies and six engine companies from six stations.
County [ edit ]
Mismanagement of Middlesex County's public hospital in the mid-1990s left the county on the brink of insolvency, and in 1997 the Massachusetts legislature stepped in by assuming all assets and obligations of the county. The government of Middlesex County was officially abolished on July 11, 1997. The sheriff and some other regional officials with specific duties are still elected locally to perform duties within the county region, but there is no county council or commission. However, communities are now granted the right to form their own regional compacts for sharing services.
These are the remaining elected officers for Middlesex County:
State [ edit ]
House of Representatives:
John J. Lawn, Democrat of Watertown: Tenth Middlesex District, includes Precincts 1 and 4 of Ward 1, Newton. [32]
Kay S. Khan, Democrat of Newton: Eleventh Middlesex District, includes precincts 2 and 3 of Ward 1, All precincts in Wards 2, 3 and 4 and precinct 2 of Ward 7, Newton. [33]
Ruth B. Balser, Democrat of Newton: Twelfth Middlesex District, includes all precincts in Wards 5 and 6, precincts 1, 3 and 4 of Ward 7; and all precincts in Ward 8, Newton.[34]
Senate:
Cynthia Stone Creem, Democrat of Newton: 1st Middlesex District and Norfolk, since 1998.[35]
National [ edit ]
Congress
Voter Registration and Party Enrollment as of October 15, 2008[36] Party Number of Voters Percentage Democratic 25,873 46.74% Republican 4,642 8.39% Unaffiliated 24,574 44.40% Minor Parties 264 0.48% Total 55,353 100%
Education [ edit ]
Public schools [ edit ]
Public education is provided by Newton Public Schools.
Elementary [ edit ]
Angier Elementary School
Bowen Elementary School
Burr Elementary School
Cabot Elementary School
Countryside Elementary School
Franklin Elementary School
Horace Mann Elementary School
Lincoln Eliot Elementary School
Mason Rice Elementary School
Memorial Spaulding Elementary School
Peirce Elementary School
Underwood Elementary School
Ward Elementary School
Williams Elementary School
Zervas Elementary School
Middle schools [ edit ]
Bigelow Middle School
Brown Middle School
Oak Hill Middle School
F.A. Day Middle School
High schools [ edit ]
Private schools [ edit ]
Higher education [ edit ]
Colleges and universities located in Newton include:
Former colleges [ edit ]
Newton Junior College [ edit ]
Newton Junior College, operated by the Newton Public Schools, opened in 1946 to serve the needs of returning veterans who otherwise would not have been able to continue their education due to the overcrowding of colleges and universities at that time. It used the facilities of Newton High School (now Newton North High School) until its own adjacent campus was built. It closed in 1976 due to declining enrollment and increased costs.[44] The availability of such places as UMass Boston contributed to its demise. According to the city, its former campus is now "Claflin Park," a 25-unit multi-family development.
Others [ edit ]
Other former colleges include Aquinas College (1961–1999), Mount Alvernia College (1959–1973), Mount Ida College (1899–2018), and Newton College of the Sacred Heart (1946–1975). Andover Newton Theological School relocated to New Haven, CT( -2017) [44]
Hospitals [ edit ]
Newton-Wellesley Hospital is located at 2014 Washington Street in Newton. U.S. News & World Report ranks the hospital 13th best in the Boston metro area.
Houses of worship [ edit ]
Media [ edit ]
Newspapers [ edit ]
The city's community newspapers are The Newton Tab, now published by the Community Newspaper Company, and The Newton Voice. The Newton community is also served by its high school publications, including Newton North High School's Newtonite and Newton South High School's Lion's Roar and Denebola.
Television [ edit ]
Residents of Newton have access to a state-of-the-art television studio and community media center, NewTV, located at 23 Needham Street in Newton Highlands. Newton is also home to NECN, a regional news network owned by NBC.
Radio [ edit ]
From 1968 to 2017, the studios and transmitter of WNTN AM-1550 were on Rumford Avenue in Auburndale.
Economy [ edit ]
Newton's largest employers include Boston College and Newton-Wellesley Hospital. Companies based in Newton include TechTarget and Upromise. Until July 2015, Newton was also home to the global headquarters of TripAdvisor, the world's largest travel site, reaching nearly 280 million unique monthly visitors.[57] TripAdvisor moved into a newly built headquarters in neighboring Needham.[58]
Income [ edit ]
Data is from the 2009–2013 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates.[59][60][61]
Rank ZIP code (ZCTA) Per capita
income Median
household
income Median
family
income Population Number of
households 1 02468 $86,528 $201,731 $213,958 5,267 1,868 2 02465 $75,857 $139,763 $163,898 11,673 4,251 3 02462 $74,279 $83,438 $211,779 1,412 682 4 02459 $71,128 $133,801 $173,613 18,339 6,694 Newton $63,872 $119,148 $154,787 86,241 31,295 5 02460 $61,686 $102,276 $139,917 9,046 3,625 6 02461 $61,088 $122,283 $146,343 6,808 2,526 7 02458 $59,071 $95,216 $132,207 11,602 4,791 8 02467 $55,288 $115,493 $151,495 23,092 6,575 9 02464 $51,744 $81,771 $83,816 2,947 1,337 10 02466 $47,551 $105,893 $131,705 9,105 3,098 Middlesex County $42,861 $82,090 $104,032 1,522,533 581,120 Massachusetts $35,763 $66,866 $84,900 6,605,058 2,530,147 United States $28,155 $53,046 $64,719 311,536,594 115,610,216
Transportation [ edit ]
Newton's proximity to Boston, along with its good public schools and safe and quiet neighborhoods, make it a very desirable community for those who commute to Boston or work in Newton's businesses and industries.
Newton is well-served by three modes of mass transit run by the MBTA: light rail, commuter rail, and bus service. The Green Line "D" Branch, (also known as the Riverside branch) is a light rail line running through the center of the city that makes very frequent trips to downtown Boston, ranging from 10 to 30 minutes away. The Green Line "B" Branch ends across from Boston College on Commonwealth Avenue, virtually at the border of Boston's Brighton neighborhood and the City of Newton (an area which encompasses an unincorporated suburban village referred to as Chestnut Hill). The MBTA Worcester commuter rail, serving the northern villages of Newton that are proximate to Waltham, offers less frequent service to Boston. It runs from every half-an-hour during peak times to every couple of hours otherwise. The northern villages are also served by frequent express buses that go to downtown Boston via the Massachusetts Turnpike as well as Waltham.
Newton Centre, which is centered around the Newton Centre MBTA station, has been lauded as an example of transit-oriented development.[62]
The Massachusetts Turnpike (Interstate 90), which basically follows the old Boston and Albany Railroad main line right-of-way, runs east and west through Newton, while Route 128 (Interstate 95) slices through the extreme western part of the city in the Lower Falls area. Route 30 (Commonwealth Avenue), Route 16 (Watertown Street west to West Newton, where it follows Washington Street west) and route 9 (Worcester Turnpike or Boylston Street) also run east and west through the city. Another major Boston (and Brookline) street, Beacon Street, runs west from the Boston city line to Washington Street west of the hospital, where it terminates at Washington Street.
There are no major north-south roads through Newton: every north-south street in Newton terminates within Newton at one end or the other. The only possible exception is Needham Street, which is north-south at the border between Newton and Needham, but it turns east and becomes Dedham Street, and when it reaches the Boston border, it goes south-east.
There are some north-south streets that are important to intra-Newton traveling. Centre Street runs south from the Watertown town line to Newton Highlands, where it becomes Winchester Street and terminates at Nahanton Street. Walnut Street runs south from Newtonville, where it starts at Crafts Street, down to Newton Highlands, where it ends at Dedham Street.[63]
Points of interest [ edit ]
The Jackson Homestead
Chestnut Hill Reservoir
Auburndale Cove is a multipurpose picnic and recreational area on the Charles River just down the walking path from Norumbega Park. [64] [65]
Chestnut Hill Reservoir is a very popular park with residents of Newton, Brookline, and the Brighton section of Boston. Although completely within the Boston city limits, it is directly contiguous to the Newton city limits. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Central Park in New York City and the Emerald Necklace in Boston, the park offers beautiful views of the Boston skyline, and is framed by stately homes and the campus of Boston College. Although not generally used to supply water to Boston, the reservoir was temporarily brought back online on May 1, 2010, during a failure of a connecting pipe at the end of the MetroWest Water Supply Tunnel.
Bullough's Pond is an old mill pond transformed into a landscape feature when Newton became a suburban community in the late nineteenth century. It has been the subject of two books, Reflections in Bullough's Pond: Economy and Ecosystem in New England, by Diana Muir, and Once Around Bullough's Pond: A Native American Epic, by Douglas Worth. It was long maintained by the city as an ice skating venue, but skating is no longer allowed. A scene from the 2008 remake of The Women was filmed there.
by Diana Muir, and by Douglas Worth. It was long maintained by the city as an ice skating venue, but skating is no longer allowed. A scene from the 2008 remake of was filmed there. The city of Newton has designated several roads in the city as "scenic". Along with this designation come regulations aimed at curbing tree removal and trimming along the roads, as well as stemming the removal of historic stone walls. [66] The city designated the following as scenic roads: Hobart Rd., Waban Ave., Sumner St., Chestnut St., Concord St., Dudley Rd., Fuller St., Hammond St., Valentine St., Lake Ave., Highland St., and Brookside Ave. [67]
The city designated the following as scenic roads: Hobart Rd., Waban Ave., Sumner St., Chestnut St., Concord St., Dudley Rd., Fuller St., Hammond St., Valentine St., Lake Ave., Highland St., and Brookside Ave. The First Baptist Church in Newton Centre, built in 1888, was designed by John Lyman Faxon in the Richardsonian Romanesque style pioneered by architect Henry Hobson Richardson. [68]
The WHDH-TV tower is one of the tallest free-standing lattice towers in USA.[ citation needed ]
Cemeteries [ edit ]
There are several cemeteries in Newton, three of which are owned by the City of Newton, while the rest are privately owned,[69] as follows:
Notable grave sites [ edit ]
Notable people [ edit ]
In popular culture [ edit ]
The Fig Newton cookie is named after the city. In 1991, Newton and Nabisco hosted a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Fig Newton. A 100-inch (250 cm) Fig Newton was served, and singer and guitarist Juice Newton performed.[73]
Sister cities [ edit ]
Newton is currently twinned with:
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ] |
They work in an underground economy, receiving no wages in return for their skills and labour.
They often feel compelled to take on these unpaid internships — daily work for months long terms — in the hopes of acquiring on the job experience that employers expect when they hire new recruits for paid positions.
But these workers are not students who receive academic credit for their labours. They are unpaid interns who simply work for free, something that is illegal in most provinces.
But in Alberta, observers say murky language in the law offers employers wiggle room to hire interns without compensating them with pay or academic credit.
The former Progressive Conservative government had promised last year to clarify the rules in a revamped employment standards code. But the changes never made it through the legislature in a year of political upheaval, with three premiers and two Jobs ministers serving in 2014.
Danielle Gryckiewicz worked for free in a Calgary social media company last summer and worries more young workers will feel compelled to become “free labour.”
Gryckiewicz didn’t fetch coffee or make photocopies for paid staff during her more than three-month, unpaid stint. She managed social media accounts for the company’s clients. Only a small share of the firm’s 11 employees were full-timers, she said, with most working for free.
“I knew I needed the experience with jobs today that are asking for three to five years of experience,” said Gryckiewicz, a marketing and communications student who landed a paid internship this summer. “And that was the only way to get my foot in the door.”
Labour lawyer Andrew Langille, who studied illegal internships in Alberta last year for a submission he made to the provincial government, estimated there are upwards of 5,000 unpaid internship positions offered in Calgary every year.
Langille, general counsel for the Canadian Intern Association, said the province must clarify that these positions are illegal while enforcing the rules by inspecting companies that hire interns.
Shortly before Lori Sigurdson was sworn in as Alberta’s latest Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour minister on Sunday, Langille said he expects the NDP government will be more sympathetic to his calls than previous PC administrations, given its concern for low-wage workers.
Alberta’s employment standards demand that employers pay their workers minimum wage, with exemptions for salespeople, real estate brokers, and students on educational internships.
William Armstrong, a Calgary labour lawyer, has argued employers could skirt the rules because of a grey area in legislative language. He says unpaid interns are not necessarily entitled to wages and benefits because they don’t fit the legal definition of an employee — someone who is paid for work.
While confusing, this interpretation of the rules has created some uncertainty about whether it’s legal to employ interns without compensating them.
Langille, however, said his reading of the province’s employment standards suggest that unpaid internships can legally be considered wage theft, though he said there is a need for clarity.
Earlier this year, the federal government said it would clarify the circumstances under which unpaid internships may be offered in federally regulated industries, such as telecommunications and air travel.
But the changes, which include provisions that state unpaid work terms must primarily benefit interns rather than employers, have been criticized for being too vague. Langille said large companies capable of paying workers a minimum wage, such as airlines and financial industries, appear to face few restrictions when hiring unpaid labour.
Thomas Lukaszuk, who served as Alberta’s Jobs minister under former premier Alison Redford, had championed proposed changes to the province’s labour rules. He said his reforms would have compelled all employers to pay their workers minimum wage, with few exceptions — such as educational practicums — which offer hands-on training for academic credit.
Lukaszuk had promised last spring the changes would be presented to the legislature in the following fall session. By then, however, he had been shuffled out of the Jobs portfolio by then-premier Jim Prentice, and the employment standards code was bumped out of the legislative agenda.
Despite the setback, Lukaszuk said much of the legwork has already been done, and that the incoming New Democrats can easily step in to finish the job, something he said is necessary, in the interest of many young workers.
“There are companies that have these interns working even overtime hours, and they are performing valuable work that otherwise would have to be done by another paid employee,” Lukaszuk said. “It is simply unconscionable for them not to be remunerated for that work and have all the benefits applied to it. It’s simply free labour.”
rsouthwick@calgaryherald.com
Twitter.com/reidsouthwick |
The Spring Classics present a challenge for the mechanics of the WorldTour teams and the select few Pro Continental teams that get to ride these illustrious races. All the races put on by organiser Flanders Classics — from Omloop Het Nieuwsblad through to Scheldeprijs — and ASO’s Paris-Roubaix incorporate the famed cobbles of northern Europe; old broken roads which, for generations, have either made or broken riders. These races demand a lot, not just of the riders but also the equipment they use.
We took a tour of the pits at the Tour of Flanders to find out what kit was being used to tame the bergs and cobbles of De Ronde.
Three special bikes for Boonen
In his last Classics campaign, Belgian superstar Tom Boonen (QuickStep Floors) had not one, not two, but three custom bikes prepared for him by Specialized, his team sponsor. Sat atop the team car, in prime position above the passenger’s door (where the mechanic sits), was a glossy white and gold Tarmac, decked out with matching gold Roval CLX50 wheels. To tip it overboard, Boonen had pristine white, very-pro-looking bar tape with Supacaz bar end plugs.
He started the race on Specialized’s latest incarnation of the Roubaix, a bike with an in-built suspension cartridge dubbed Future Shock. Unlike the disc brake models available to the public, Boonen’s was a conventional rim-brake setup. In line with UCI rules, Specialized will have to make sure this build is also available to the average Joe at some point.
Partway through the race, Boonen switched to his first spare bike, the Tarmac, then later returned to using the Roubaix. His third bike — the second Tarmac — didn’t see any action, and the Shimano Dura-Ace R9100 components with which it was built finished the race as clean as it started.
A few team buses over, team title sponsor and bike sponsor Wilier Triestina supplied team leader Filippo Pozzato with a very “bling” Cento10 Air, whose chrome blue colourway stood out from the rest of the team’s standard red and yellow livery. Italian manufacturer Ursus supplied the 24mm-deep carbon wheels, and in a not-very-Italian manner, the bike was kitted out with a Shimano Dura-Ace groupset.
Not as harsh as Roubaix
At Paris-Roubaix, we tend to see teams on a variety of machines designed to endure the cobbles. At Flanders, where the cobbles aren’t as harsh, the riders tend to stick with pretty standard setups. Most will run normal tubulars in widths of anything from 25 to 28mm. Tyre pressures will be lower at some teams than others. It seems that the bigger the rider, or the more classic in thinking, the higher pressure that they will run. We saw pressures ranging from 4.4 bar (64psi) through to 7.9 bar (115psi) — a huge variation.
Keeping it smooth
Beyond tyre choice, there’s still a few extra adjustments that riders and mechanics can make to soften the roads. This might include an extra wrap of bar tape, but it was amazing to see the number who were running very thin tape this year — much of it in the same style as Lizard Skins with a rubberised surface for extra grip. Many riders apparently like to feel the road instead of being isolated from it.
Saddles are something else that tend to be chosen with caution — it’s not uncommon to see old, worn saddles atop fancy bikes.
Greg Van Avermaet’s BMC Teammachine SLR01
Though it’s been spotted before, Greg Van Avermaet’s BMC Team Machine SLR01 is well worth an inclusion in this piece. The Olympic champion rode his liquid silver and gold bike to second place. Who knows what would have happened if it hadn’t been for his unfortunate crash late in the race.
When it comes to keeping the legs ticking over up the bergs of Flanders, any little aide will help. For Van Avermaet, this came in the form of a 30-tooth sprocket on the rear. The 11-30T cassette was matched with standard 39/53T chainrings.
The rest of the bits
Fighting the crowds on race day to get a glimpse of what items the riders will be using isn’t always that easy, so we were fortunate to be able to get a good look at the Colnago C60s being used by UAE Team Emirates the day before the big race.
The team uses a full Campagnolo Super Record EPS groupset with the only variation being the German-made Power2Max power meter. Keeping the Italian theme, bars and stem are supplied by Deda while the seatpost is Colnago’s own. Wheels are Campagnolo Bora Ultra 35s.
There was practically no change from their normal race setup for Flanders, apart from the addition of 28mm-wide Vittoria Corsa tubulars and the Elite Ciussi cage that’s a favourite for keeping a firm grip on bottles when you hit the cobbles.
Sometimes teams — usually the smaller Pro Continental setups — will use older equipment over these tough cobbled races. The conditions take their toll on running parts, and keeping costs down by using last year’s race kit is at times an option. This year we didn’t need to look any further than Cofidis to see this in action.
Odds and ends
Away from the race, and in the build-up to the big day, we managed to get a sneak peek at two items that you’re sure to see more of soon.
Usually, deals on equipment are done later in the year for the following season, but we bumped into the guys from US-based roof rack manufacturer Seasucker who were chatting to several teams and the UCI about their new nine-bike roof rack.
The rack has vacuum cups — not just suction cups — that hold the rack in place, but also allow it to be removed and packed up small for easy transport. Currently, most racks on team cars come from only a handful of manufacturers who have monopolised the business for years.
SRM were also showing off their latest chainset, a 640g modular design they’ve built in partnership with Look of France. There will be two available — a sealed unit and a USB-rechargeable version. The sealed unit has a claimed battery life of a staggering 1,400 hours. The modular system allows for it to be changed between different bottom bracket designs. It is already available to the public for €2,200 (AU$3,080 or an extra €150/AU$210 for the USB model). |
Earlier this month, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) vetoed a bill that would curb the ability of asbestos-exposure victims to recover losses from some of the companies that are legally responsible for their suffering. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) approved a similar bill last week, joining Arizona, Idaho, and Utah, which all passed laws limiting corporate liability for asbestos-related claims in March. In recent years, these kinds of laws have passed in fifteen other states as well.
The rash of eerily similar bills appearing everywhere at once is not a coincidence. The legislation is a product of teamwork between the now-infamous American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Crown Holdings, Inc., a Fortune 500 company that has spent the better part of the last decade trying to legislate its way out of compensating cancer and mesothelioma victims who were exposed to asbestos by a company they purchased in 1963.
Despite this remarkably successful multi-state campaign to absolve a single corporation of liability to the detriment of thousands of suffering Americans, the ALEC/Crown crusade has been a quiet one, thanks to state media institutions that have failed to provide meaningful coverage of the issue (or, occasionally, failed to cover it entirely). As a result, important laws that profoundly affect the lives of many voters are being approved without serious public consideration.
ALEC Meets Crown Holdings
Philadelphia-based Crown Holdings began its campaign to eliminate its asbestos liabilities through legislative action as early as 2001, when it spent $100,000 to influence legislators in its home state of Pennsylvania. Despite originally failing early in the year, the asbestos measure was resurrected successfully in late 2001 as an amendment to another bill. The move was led by State House Republican leader Rep. John Perzel, who has subsequently received tens of thousands of dollars from Crown Holdings over the past decade.
Perzel was awarded "State Legislator of the Year" from ALEC at the end of 2001. ALEC's executive director hailed Perzel as "a leader who truly personifies the Jeffersonian principles of liberty, limited government, and free-markets." But Perzel is now in state prison, after being convicted this year of helping to divert $10 million in public funds toward Republican campaigns for re-election. |
With Geoffrey Batt
The ongoing troubles at the GSEs are no secret: it is public knowledge that Fannie had a 5.38% delinquency rate at December, while Freddie just passed the 4% threshold in January; both continue to rise rapidly each month. The fact that the mortgage-bond spread has just hit a record tight is merely an ongoing artifact of the Fed's endless meddling in the mortgage market, with the sole purpose of keeping rates artificially low, and preventing banks from being forced to take massive writedowns on their entire loan book. This is all well known. What, however, seems to have escaped public attention is what the impact of these delinquencies is on the one largest holder of Mortgage Backed Securities, the Federal Reserve. What also seems to have escaped the public is that the Fed is now the world's largest bank, with total assets near $2.3 trillion. We provide a weekly update of the Fed's balance sheet and while we briefly note the liability side, our, and everyone else's, attention, is traditionally focused on the asset side. Yet a more detailed look at the liability side reveals something very troubling, specifically that the Fed's capital, i.e. equity buffer, which as of most recently was $53.3 billion (a comparable metric for plain vanilla banks is their equity buffer, or Tier 1 Capital, or however the FASB wants to define it on any given day when it is covering up massive capital shortfalls) is in fact negligible and could well be substantially negative, if the Fed were to account for the rapidly rising level of delinquencies in its one largest asset holdings: the $1.027 trillion in settled MBS. And while there is no possibility of a run on the Fed, the reality is that the Fed now likely runs with a negative real capital balance, meaning that the US Federal Reserve is now essentially insolvent.
First, we present the Fed's assets broken down by key segments. The chart below shows the most recently disclosed asset holdings as per the H.4.1 statement. Of the $2.3 trillion in assets, the vast majority, or $1 trillion is held in MBS. As pointed out previously, this is only the settled amount - in reality the Fed has already purchased $1.22 trillion in MBS, which will settle over time. In practice, this merely means that the potential for asset impairment at the Fed is even greater by about 20%.The chart also shows what happens to MBS holdings if haircuts of 5%, 10% and 15% are applied.
Like any balance sheet, where there are assets, there are liabilities, and some version of capital/equity. The Fed's liabilities are two principal components: currency in circulation, which has been at about $900 billion for an extended period of time, and the much more relevant recently line item called "Bank Deposits", which has been popularized as Reserves with Federal Reserve Banks (or excess reserves). The Reserve line has increased from essentially nothing to nearly $1.3 trillion in the span of a few months. Furthermore, as more and more MBS purchased are settled, the excess reserve line will soon reach at least $1.6 trillion, if not more, if indeed Q.E. 2 is launched at some point in the future. The persistent discussions of potential inflation center precisely on the interplay between the green and blue blocks in the chart below: as long as the Currency in Circulation is flat, and Bank Deposits keep rising, the probability of inflation is slim to none. In essence, excess reserves exist only due to the Taylor rule implied negative Fed Funds rate. Should there be a material shift from green to blue, or from excess reserves to currency in circulation, that is when the hyperinflationary threat becomes all too real, as suddenly far too much money will chase a fixed amount of assets. This is also where the discussion about all the various mechanisms that the Fed has at its disposal to moderate tightening comes into play, whether it involves selling of assets, increase of the rate on reserves, or some combination inbetween (we point readers to yesterday's paper from the Minneapolis Fed which discusses these options, and the caveats associated with each). While the asset reallocation debate is very interesting, it is not the topic of this discussion.
The one item on the balance sheet that is often ignored, is the Fed's "Equity", or as it is defined, "Capital." As previously pointed out, this line item is currently $53.3 billion. It is shown graphically in the leftmost column of the chart below, which depicts actual Fed liabilities. Where the interesting part comes in, is when one analyzes what happens to the Fed's capital when the abovementioned MBS haircuts are applied.
A 5% realized haircut on MBS alone would result in a complete elimination of the Fed's capital balance. Applying a 10% or even 15% haircut, results in a capital deficiency of $50 billion and $100 billion respectively. This deficiency will grow as more and more MBS are settled, and as the serious delinquency rate on MBS keeps increasing (no danger in this moderating any time soon).
Now in an environment, such as the one we live in today, when mark-to-myth is the new normal, and when banks are encouraged to come up with creative ways to indicate that their Residential and Commercial Loan portfolios are worth par (despite recent disclosures by the FDIC), to assume that the Fed would do something that lowly depositor banks are told not to do, would be folly. Yet, for those who prefer to live away from Never Never land, and brave this thing called reality, just what will happen if and when the Fed finally does disclose that it is, for all intents and purposes, insolvent?
The pragmatics among you will say: this is irrelevant, the Fed can just print more money and fill in any capital hole. Well, yes and no. As an increase in cash would have to be offset by a comparable increase in some asset, it is not that simple. For a refined analysis of what would happen in that moment of clarity when the world realizes the world's biggest bank is broke, we turn to a presentation by Chris Sims, given before Princeton University, titled "Fiscal/Monetary Coordination When The Anchor Cable Has Snapped." We encourage all readers to read this powerpoint cover to cover, as it discusses precisely the issues were are faced with today: namely a monetary policy that has run amok, seignorage, exploding excess reserves, the impact of these on "power money", and, in general, a Fed balance sheet that is increasingly reminiscent of a drunk, rapid and schizophrenic bull in a China store.
Among other relevant things we note that as the author points-out that "Interest bearing deposits at the Fed do not (yet) count against the Federal debt ceiling" and "if substantial interest is paid on reserves, they could constitute a major leak in the US system for legislative control of debt creation or they are not backed by the full faith and credit of the US government, which has implications for inflation control" - the consequences here are material - with a $1 trillion plus in vacuum interest-collecting paper which in all other world would be counted toward the debt ceiling, the US debt subject to limit would increase from the $12.5 trillion currently to about $13.7 trillion. Add in $6 trillion from the GSEs and America is already at the dreaded $20 trillion threshold. And furthermore, what happens to the interest payments by the Fed should rates go up to 100 bps, 200 bps? On $1.6 trillion in excess reserves this is a material amount that would reinforce inflation in a circular loop, further justifying why the Fed is mortally worried about a rise in rates.
As for the topic at hand, we turn to pp 23-24 of the presentation:
Central bank operations generate fluctuating levels of net earnings (seigniorage), most of which are turned over to the Treasury as revenue
Central bank balance sheets sometimes go into the red. The Treasury may then recapitalize it by creating, and giving to the central bank, new government debt
[The Fed's] Independence meant that the legislature and the Treasury did not complain [much] about seignorage fluctuations or about the effect of interest rate changes on the Treasury's interest expense
Fed can always "print money" to pay its bills.
There is no possibility of a run on the Fed, since its liabilities make no conversion promise.
A commitment to a path for inflation or the price level makes the balance sheet matter.
Without Treasury backing, the Fed must rely on seigniorage to raise revenues, and that can conflict with inflation-control goals.
So here is the crux of the issue: the only way to deal with a mark-to-market of the Fed currently is to embrace monetization. It is no longer a question of semantics, of who promised what: it is the only mechanical way by which the Fed can dig itself out of a capital deficiency. With GSE delinquencies exploding, and with the Fed (and Congress) singlehandedly facilitating imprudent lender policy by allowing ever more borrowers to become deliquent without consequences, the MBS delinquency rate will likely hit 10% over the next 6-12 months. At that moment, someone will ask the Fed: "what is the true basis of your capital account?" And when the Fed is forced to justify a valid response, is when monetizaton will begin.
Since the market deals in expectation absolutes, all it would take for rates to breach the inflection point black swan and commence going up, is the mere possibility of open monetization.
What we hope to show with this exercise is that no course of action, even the one currently employed by the Fed, can continue in perpetuity: you can't have infinitely low housing rates in an environment of exploding delinquencies, as even more MBS are onboarded on the taxpayer's balance sheet. The reality is that inflationary conerns will come to a fore, and have a material impact on rates, the second all these speculations are voiced in a more reputable arena. At that point the game will be up; the Fed's attempt to continue the status quo will be over, and the relentless rise up in rates will begin, culminating with the long-awaited Minsky moment.
As for the timing of this development? We will join the Bob Janjuah camp on this one. While few have the guts to take the money printer head on, doing so early is certainly suicidal. Yet with each passing day, all those who are fully aware that the Fed's course is one of self-destruction, grow bolder, until finally one day a new class of investors - the Fed vigilantes will emerge, looking for cheap opportunities to make a killing (think ABX) on the other side of the "Fed trade", which ultimately will lead to a systemic catharsis of unprecedented proportions.
At that point neither gold, nor lead will be in any way useful. Beta and gamma radiation will make sure of that. |
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., is an interesting figure in that conservatives see her as a radical and liberals are increasingly questioning whether her progressive bonafides are even legitimate.
That intraparty debate, which surfaced this week after a Mic article highlighted Harris' so-called "Bernieland problem," was inevitable. Back on July 21, I predicted the freshman senator's upcoming trip to schmooze with corporate titans in the Hamptons was an early sign she's more Hillary than Bernie, making Harris also more likely to exacerbate the party's divisions than heal them.
That's already playing out. Progressive movement leader and staunch Bernie Sanders backer Nomiki Konst responded to Mic's questions about Harris by saying, "The Democrats will not win until they address income inequality, no matter how they dress up their next candidate … If that candidate is in bed with Wall Street, you may as well lay a tombstone out for the Democratic Party now. Voters are smart; they can follow the money."
People for Bernie co-founder Winnie Wong went further, contending, "She is the preferred candidate of extremely wealthy and out-of-touch Democratic party donors…Her recent anointing is extremely telling. These donors will line her coffers ahead of 2020 and she will have the next two years to craft a message of broad appeal to a rapidly changing electorate."
MSNBC host Joy Reid sparked further conflict after tweeting the Mic piece with the caption, "This piece would have been more convincing had it quoted Millennial voters, rather than 3 alt left activists." Actress Susan Sarandon joined in on the criticism of Reid's remark, chastising her for downplaying the "important points" activists made in the article.
Case in point.
Though the media has high hopes for her political future, Harris' corporate and establishment ties make her a lightning rod for the progressive ire that's driving the already-problematic intraparty divisions. Further elevating her risks exacerbating those conflicts.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner. |
A 22-year-old Swiss woman reported missing last month has been found in the custody of Ranong police.
Nora Janisch Tscherina last made contact with her family on Dec 22. She arrived in Thailand on Dec 8.
Worrying about her safety, Ms Tscherina's mother posted information about her daughter on websites and social media, which prompted the Tourist Police Division to search for the 22-year-old.
Pol Lt Col Pattaya Klum-aim, an inspector of Ranong tourist police, said Tuesday Ms Tscherina had been found in Ranong Provincial Prison.
She had been arrested by immigration officers in Ranong on Dec 25 after allegedly stealing a camera from an officer.
Ms Tscherina had also overstayed her tourist visa, which had expired on Dec 22.
Her family and officials from the Swiss embassy on Tuesday visited her at the prison and submitted a bail request with a 130,000-baht bond. |
The UESPWiki – Your source for The Elder Scrolls since 1995
The Mythic Dawn is a cult that worships Mehrunes Dagon, the daedric prince of destruction. They are responsible for the assassination of Uriel Septim VII. Their main objective is to allow Daedra to invade Tamriel by opening Oblivion Gates in order to take control of the continent.
Joining the Faction [ edit ]
It is possible to join this faction during the quest Dagon Shrine for either a short period of time or permanently (although the latter stops you from completing the main quest). The only real implications of joining the faction are that your character may gain four faction-specific combat lines (see Notes) and you will suffer a large disposition drop with all members of the Blades. Although Baurus (if you kept him alive in the past quest) will give you skill increases, his disposition will be drastically diminished. You will also gain a large disposition boost with all members of the Mythic Dawn faction, who may welcome you with the line 'Greet the new day, Brother/Sister' when approached. To join the Mythic Dawn permanently, leave Lake Arrius Caverns immediately after talking to the door guard (before talking to Harrow) during Dagon Shrine.
Faction Ranks [ edit ]
The Mythic Dawn has only two ranks that appear in your journal: "Initiate" when you come to the Dagon Shrine; and "Acolyte" if you decide to kill the Argonian sacrifice Jeelius.
Beliefs and Practices [ edit ]
The Mythic Dawn believe Mankar Camoran to be a prophet of the end times; they follow the teachings of his Commentaries on the Mysterium Xarxes. Camoran is known as the "Master" by members of the cult and was supposedly given the Mysterium Xarxes by Mehrunes Dagon himself. Camoran's son, Raven Camoran, is responsible for potential members, while his daughter Ruma is in charge of initiation.
In order to allow the Daedra to enter the mortal realm for extended periods of time, the magical barriers that protect Mundus from Oblivion must be destroyed. Somehow, the Mythic Dawn learned that the Dragonfires in the Temple of the One, lit by every new emperor during his coronation ceremony, were fundamentally linked to the preservation of these barriers. In assassinating Uriel Septim VII and all of his known heirs, the Mythic Dawn succeeded in extinguishing the Dragonfires, thereby allowing the Daedra under the command of Mehrunes Dagon to enter Tamriel through Oblivion Gates.
When a member of the Mythic Dawn dies in the service of Lord Dagon, they are reborn as an "Ascended Immortal" in Camoran's Paradise. There they await the day that Lord Dagon takes Tamriel as his own and gives them each a share of his kingdom. In actuality, many find Camoran's Paradise to be a place of misery and torture.
Members [ edit ]
While many of the Mythic Dawn members stay at the secret shrine in the Lake Arrius Caverns, some are posing as regular townsfolk. This is not an issue until your identity is revealed to the Mythic Dawn after your theft of the Mysterium Xarxes during the Dagon Shrine quest. After this, Mythic Dawn agents will attack on sight until the Light the Dragonfires quest is finished. For information about members of the Mythic Dawn, see Mythic Dawn Agents.
Notes [ edit ] |
This article is over 2 years old
Shadow chancellor says Labour leadership ‘won’t interfere in local democracy’ if Benn faces deselection battle in Leeds Central
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has refused to intervene to ensure Hilary Benn remains a Labour MP amid reports that he is facing a possible deselection battle with activists in his local party.
Some of Jeremy Corbyn’s close allies remain angry with the former shadow foreign secretary since he argued against the Labour leader and in favour of airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria from the opposition frontbench.
Benn was then sacked from his role as shadow foreign secretary amid claims that he was encouraging colleagues to resign as part of an attempt to replace Corbyn as leader.
The Sunday Times claims that Corbyn supporters have taken over positions in Benn’s Leeds Central constituency party and he is facing the threat of deselection in the seat.
Asked whether he would discourage a challenge against Benn, McDonnell said the leadership would not interfere in local party affairs.
“Labour leadership doesn’t involve itself in local selections to the local party. That’s democracy,” the shadow chancellor told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics.
Patrick Hall, a vice-chair of the consituency party in Leeds Central who has voiced his opposition to Benn, is a national executive member of the Labour Representation Committee – a radical grouping chaired by McDonnell.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest John McDonnell and Hilary Benn together at an event supporting the remain campaign in June. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters
In the interview, McDonnell pointedly said he hoped Benn would continue to to play a role in the party “at whatever level”.
“I think Hilary Benn’s got a fantastic role to play. He’s a friend of mine and I hope he continues to play a role in our party at whatever level. But we can’t interfere in local democracy in our party. We’re a democratic party,” he said.
Benn is now the chair of the new Brexit select committee in parliament, a high-profile role as Britain moves towards leaving the EU.
A source close to Benn said: “Hillary is incredibly polite and a positive person and has welcomed the new [Leeds Central] officers.
“The excitement in the media [over deselection] has been slightly distracting, but he is clear his number one job is to hold the government to account on Brexit. For many who want a good relationship with our Europe partners in the future, he is our last hope.” |
A University of Canterbury student club has offended "everyone possible" with cars and costumes poking fun at women, Islam, Malaysia Airlines and the deadly ebola crisis.
The RoUndie 500, organised by the Engineering Society (Ensoc), has caused a stir with newly-formed feminist club FemSoc after its members saw a car showing images of about 30 women ranked by supposed desirability.
It was then discovered the club was encouraging participants to choose themes "the more inappropriate the better" on its Facebook page ahead of last weekend's event.
One of FemSoc's 400 members, Annamarie Moot, 20, said the event "ticked off every bad thing in the book".
There were also teams using themes around ebola, Malaysia Airlines and Islam.
"They're just offending everyone possible," Moot said.
She had heard some girls pictured on the car were friends of the team and would have known about it "but it's still very degrading".
The engineering society - the largest elective club on campus - had a list of previous offensive behaviours and "everyone [at FemSoc] is pretty offended" again, she said.
The feminist group would be taking their complaint to the students' association and university management.
The RoUndie 500 event is advertised on the Ensoc website as being "the successor of the UNDIE 500, which was once ranked in FHM's top 100 adventures of the world".
Students form carpools, dress in a theme and pub crawl around Canterbury in registered cars with sober drivers.
Ensoc president Guy Wilson referred The Press to the University of Canterbury Students' Association. UCSA president Sarah Platt said no official complaint had been made yet but would be taken seriously if one was.
What she had heard of the car themes "doesn't sound particularly tasteful".
The event organisers had to make the event safe and fun.
The Undie 500 had traditionally been run between Christchurch and Dunedin until regular troubles escalated in 2009, resulting in 69 arrests. |
Anselm Joseph McLaurin (March 26, 1848 – December 22, 1909) was the 34th Governor of Mississippi, serving from 1896 to 1900.
Life and career [ edit ]
McLaurin was born on March 26, 1848 in Brandon, Mississippi, the son of Ellen Caroline (Tullus) and Lauchlin McLaurin III. He married Laura Elvira Rauch and had a daughter, Stella May McLaurin.
He became district attorney at age 21 and was described as "one of the foremost lawyers in the State". He participated in the convention for the writing of the Mississippi Constitution in 1890 and was described as a free-coinage man.[3] A Democrat, as were most white conservatives in the South through the mid-twentieth century, McLaurin was elected by the state legislature to the U.S. Senate, serving from 1894 to 1895.
He was the first Governor of Mississippi to be elected under the Mississippi Constitution of 1890, which disenfranchised most blacks by raising barriers to voter registration. These changes essentially ended the competitiveness of the Republican Party in the state, as well as severely weakening the Populist Party. The last Confederate veteran elected as governor, McLaurin won the 1895 election, defeating Populist Frank Burkitt. He served from 1896 to 1900.
At Hazlehurst in 1898 the Governor explained in a speech that one of the causes of the depleted state treasury was inadequate taxation of the railroad corporations.[4]
In October 1898 McLaurin traveled by train to Forest, Mississippi after white rioting in nearby Harperville.[5] Blacks had resisted the arrest of one of their community, killing one white man. A mob of whites quickly gathered, killing nine blacks by the next day. The county sheriff and a posse arrested some blacks, while the white mob continued to kill blacks on sight. The New Orleans Picayune said that 11 black men were killed and one white.[6] The sheriff took several black men under armed guard to Meridian, Mississippi to protect them from the white mobs in Forest.[6]
McLaurin returned to the US Senate in 1901 after being elected by the state legislature to that seat in 1900; he was re-elected January 19, 1904.[7]
He died of heart disease at age 61 on December 22, 1909 at his home in Brandon, Mississippi. He was sitting in a rocking chair in front of his fireplace.[8]
Legacy [ edit ]
A great-great-grandson of McLaurin was actor and comedian Robin Williams, who was given McLaurin as his middle name.[9]
See also [ edit ] |
BEIJING/GENEVA (Reuters) - China’s President Xi Jinping will promote “inclusive globalization” at this month’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos and will warn that populist approaches can lead to “war and poverty”, Chinese officials said on Wednesday.
China's President Xi Jinping looks on before meeting with former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (not pictured) at the Great Halll of the People in Beijing, China December 2, 2016. REUTERS/Nicolas Asouri
This year’s forum, from Jan. 17-20, is expected to be dominated by discussion of a surge in public hostility toward globalization and the rise of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, whose tough talk on trade, including promises of tariffs against China and Mexico, helped win him the White House. Trump will be sworn in on Jan. 20.
Xi is the first Chinese president to ever attend the WEF’s annual forum in Davos, which brings together top-level political and business leaders.
Jiang Jianguo, head of the State Council Information Office, told a symposium hosted by the World Trade Organization in Geneva that President Xi would go to Davos to push for development, cooperation and economic globalization in order to build “a human community with shared destiny.”
“With the rise of populism, protectionism, and nativism, the world has come to a historic crossroad where one road leads to war, poverty, confrontation and domination while the other road leads to peace, development, cooperation and win-win solutions,” Jiang said.
At a briefing in Beijing on the Davos visit, Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong said China would respond to the international community’s concern over globalization by putting forward Beijing’s opinions on how to “steer economic globalization toward greater inclusiveness.”.
Li said criticism of trade protectionism leveled at China, by Trump and others, was unjust. “Trade protectionism will lead to isolation and is in the interest of no one,” he said.
“Channels of communication are open” between China and Trump’s transition team at the forum, Li said, but warned that scheduling a meeting might be difficult.
Days after Trump’s victory, Xi vowed to fight protectionism and to push forward with multilateral trade deals. Foreign businesses in China have long complained about a lack of market access and protectionist Chinese policies.
Xi will attend the Davos forum on Jan. 17, part of a three-day state visit to Switzerland from Jan. 15 to 18.
The United States will be represented at Davos by Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry, days before they leave office, as well as someone from the Trump transition team, the WEF said on Tuesday. |
The United States tells Russia that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must step down to allow a political settlement, as Moscow continues to support Damascus.
Ahlul Bayt News Agency - The United States tells Russia that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must step down to allow a political settlement, as Moscow continues to support Damascus.
US Secretary of State John Kerry made the demand during a phone call to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday, the US State Department said in a statement.
"Secretary Kerry made clear that Russia's continued support for President Assad risks exacerbating and extending the conflict, and undermining our shared goal of fighting extremism," the State Department stated.
Kerry "reaffirmed the US commitment to fight ISIL with a coalition of more than 60 countries, of which Assad could never be a credible member, and emphasized the US would welcome a constructive Russian role in counter-ISIL efforts," it added, using an acronym by which the Daesh Takfiri group is known.
In his phone call, Kerry acknowledged that there is no military solution to the years-long Syrian crisis and called for a political solution to establish peace in the Arab country.
"The secretary stressed that there is no military solution to the overall conflict in Syria, which can only be resolved by a political transition away from Assad," the State Department said.
Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since March 2011. More than 230,000 people have reportedly been killed and millions displaced due to the violence mainly fueled by the foreign-sponsored militants.
The United States and its regional allies -- especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey -- have been supporting the militants operating inside Syria since the beginning of the crisis.
The Obama administration has already outlined a $500 million program to train and arm 5,000 “moderate” militants in Syria to fight against ISIL and the Assad government, but according to the Pentagon, the number would be something between 12,000 and 15,000.
According to a report published by the New York Times on Monday, Russia is using the airspace over Iran and Iraq to fly military equipment and personnel to a new air field in Syria.
At least seven giant Russian Antonov An-124 military transport aircrafts have taken off from a base in Russia during the past week to transport equipment to Syria, using Iranian and Iraqi air corridors, the Times reported, citing US officials.
American officials told the newspaper on Sunday that the destination of the Russian aircraft was an airfield in Syria’s western province of Latakia.
About 200 Russian marines and six Russian howitzers now guard the air base in Latakia, according to American intelligence.
On Saturday, Kerry called Lavrov and warned that Washington is deeply concerned of reports of "an imminent enhanced Russian military buildup."
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And Emma Watson sings in this Beauty And The Beast clip
Click here to see full size. Image provided by the good folks at IMP Awards.
It’s surprised us a little that Beauty And The Beast has decided to show all of the furniture in their human forms this early. We presumed they were all being saved for a big reveal at the end for the film just for the lols. But it makes sense to showcase your human cast when you’ve got a human cast this good.
There’s also this lil video featuring Emma Watson singing a couple of bars from the ‘Belle’ reprise. Check it out:
On March 17, experience an adventure in the great wide somewhere. #BeOurGuest pic.twitter.com/NUAUtpMfsH — Beauty and the Beast (@beourguest) January 9, 2017
Beauty And The Beast stars Emma Watson as Belle, Dan Stevens as the Beast, Luke Evans as Gaston, Ewan McGregor as Lumiere, Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, Emma Thompson as Mrs Potts, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Plumette, Josh Gad as Le Fou, Audra McDonald as Garderobe, Kevin Kline as Maurice and Stanley Tucci as Cadenza.
Cadenza didn’t appear in Disney’s original animated Beauty And The Beast (he’s a new character) but he reminds us a lot of this evil organ, Maestro Fort, from the 1997 straight-to-video sequel, Beauty And The Beast: The Enchanted Christmas:
Right? Anyone? Don’t call yourself a true Tim Curry fan if you haven’t seen Beauty And The Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.
Beauty And The Beast is directed by Bill Condon, with a screenplay by Condon, Evan Spiliotopoulos and Stephen Chbosky. David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman are acting as producers, with Don Hahn, Thomas Schumacher and Jeffery Silver serving as executive producers. Alan Menken, who wrote the songs for the original Beauty And The Beast alongside the late Howard Ashman, is providing the score.
Beauty And The Beast is in cinemas from 17 March. Get all the latest fantasy news with every issue of SciFiNow. |
Robin Tomlin’s heartrending story about a slur in his school yearbook that haunted him for more than 40 years should be required reading for everyone involved in the production of these annuals. While it’s highly unlikely his horrible experience would be repeated today, yearbooks aren’t entirely free of mean words.
Tomlin, now retired and ailing, finally got an apology Monday for the publication in 1970 of the Argyle secondary school yearbook which included the word “fag” printed beside Tomlin’s photo instead of the small write-up he had prepared about his future.
The apology was delivered by school superintendent John Lewis, who had initially refused Tomlin’s request. In fact, Tomlin had been in discussions with the district for four years. (Read the first story about this by James Weldon of the North Shore News.) The yearbook was also changed so that his entry is now the one he wrote 42 years ago as he prepared for graduation: “Want to meet as many people from all over the world as I can and I wanna be a cowboy.”
Here is the apology from Lewis:
This morning, I had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Robin Tomlin. I was pleased to be able to provide a sincere and heartfelt apology on behalf of the entire North Vancouver School District for the cruel and offensive entry next to Robin Tomlin’s name in the Argyle yearbook of 1970.
As an organization we can acknowledge, apologize for, and regret, that the actions of a few individuals caused such prolonged grief to Mr. Tomlin and to his family. I must also be very clear; this was the terrible action of an individual, or perhaps a small group, who have harmed not only Mr. Tomlin, but also the outstanding reputation of Argyle Secondary School.
Our society relies upon individuals taking personal responsibility for their actions. Where harm has been done, any organization may sincerely apologize, as we have done, but it does not absolve individuals from their personal responsibility.
This incident should not reflect badly upon the entire student body, the school and its community. Not the community of 1970, nor today’s. Our staff and students – both past and present deserve to be extremely proud of many qualities of their school and its history.
Every year, the overwhelming majority of students direct their energies towards positive achievements in academics, sports, service, citizenship, and social and global responsibility.
In 1970, schools placed a primary focus on what was to be taught and what was to be learned – a focus on content. Today, our schools place increased emphasis on the social and emotional factors that will significantly influence learning during a student’s entire school experience.
Learning flourishes in a safe, respectful and caring environment and we strive to achieve such an environment in each and every one of our schools.
As educators, we can provide guidance and leadership where it is most needed. Perhaps more importantly, we can also acknowledge and encourage the many acts of kindness, caring and generosity that we see in our students each and every day.
Unfortunately, the tremendous efforts of our educators and schools alone do not always succeed, just as the efforts of parents and family alone, do not always succeed. The challenges and solutions we face today are not limited to our schools, to our families, or to our communities, but are societal. Bullying is a societal problem.
Schools, families, and communities cannot solve it on their own, everyone has a role to play and we must direct our energies towards working together to achieve solutions.
In light of a surge of concern around the issues of the connection between teen suicide and cyber bullying, schools, educators and counsellors are often criticized for not doing enough.
Some of the most caring, skilled and dedicated individuals in the teaching profession have devoted their lives and careers to supporting struggling students towards a brighter future. Their work will always be conducted with a paramount concern for the dignity and privacy of these students and their families. For this reason, it is work that often goes unrecognized and largely unappreciated by the general public.
Through education, social and emotional supports and alternate pathways to graduation, positive opportunities can emerge for every student, every young person in our care.
I hope that the School District’s apology will bring some peace and long overdue closure for Mr. Tomlin and his family. We share a common and continued concern for the youth of today and an interest in creating a more positive environment for the future.
Thank you for listening.
This story makes me think of Azmi Jubran, another young man who suffered intolerable bullying at a North Vancouver school in the 1990s and eventually won a lawsuit against the school board in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. He got a $4,000 settlement but no public apology. |
Image caption Authorities say the laptops are a "mine of information"
Experts in Colombia are trying to crack the codes to 15 computers and almost 100 memory sticks belonging to Colombia's largest rebel group.
They were seized on Thursday after a massive raid on a Farc jungle camp.
One of the laptops is believed to have belonged to its military leader, Mono Jojoy, who was killed in the attack.
Police are hoping to find information which could reveal the whereabouts of 20 members of the security forces held captive by the Farc.
The computers are being examined by 40 experts from the police criminal investigation unit in the capital, Bogota.
Police officials said the 15 laptops, 94 memory sticks and 14 hard discs contained 11 times more information than that seized from Raul Reyes, a senior Farc leader killed in a raid in 2008.
They believe one of the 15 laptops seized was Mono Jojoy's personal computer. Its screen was reportedly shattered by bullets, but its hard disc was still intact.
They also said the large number of memory sticks seized at the jungle camp and the fact that not a single two-way radio or mobile phone was found suggests the rebels relay information through couriers rather than risk having their electronic communication tapped or traced.
The investigators said they hoped to retrieve clues to the location of Farc camps which would help them mount future attacks and allow them to free the group's remaining hostages, which official numbers put at 79.
But the head of the Colombian police, General Oscar Naranjo, warned it could take months to retrieve all the information from the computers.
Fighting continues
Military officials also revealed more information about the operation in which the Farc's number two, Mono Jojoy, was killed.
They said Operation Sodom, as it has been dubbed, started on Tuesday 21 September, when the heads of all three branches of the Colombian military, the police and the Ministry of Defence met in Bogota to finalise details of the attack.
In the early hours of Wednesday 22 September, 78 aircraft headed for the area known as La Escalera in the Macarena mountain range in Meta province.
They dropped dozens of bombs on Mono Jojoy's camp, which Defence Minister Rodrigo Rivera has described as "the mother of all lairs" for its size and the number of hidden tunnels it had.
About 400 members of the Colombian special forces then abseiled from helicopters and surrounded the camp.
After hours of fighting, another 400 soldiers and police moved in on the camp, taking it in the early hours of Thursday morning.
General Javier Florez, the commander of the joint task force leading the attack, said his men were able to identify Mono Jojoy by his scars, eye colour and the fact he carried insulin for his diabetes. His identity was verified by experts on Friday.
Police sources told the BBC they suspected a number of other senior Farc leaders were killed alongside Mono Jojoy, including the men known as Mad Ivan, Mauricio the Medic and Romana, although their bodies have not yet been identified.
The Colombian military said a total of between 20 and 30 guerrillas died in the initial attack. Thirteen members of the security forces were injured, most of them when they abseiled into the jungle.
Fighting continues in the area around Mono Jojoy's camp, which commanding officer Gen Miguel Perez described as "a rugged area of very difficult access".
About 10,000 extra police officers have been deployed to Colombia's main cities to prevent retaliatory attacks by the Farc. |
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This is the mesmerizing moment a 21ft-wide, 800,000lb tunneling machine broke through into what will become one of Seattle's newest subway stations when it is completed in 2021.
The machine, named Brenda, has spent the last 16 months excavating 200,000 tons of soil from underneath The Emerald City as it bores a four-mile-long tunnel as part of a $2billion construction project.
Brenda will now spend the next six weeks undergoing maintenance and repairs at the station, where there is access to the surface, before carrying on drilling to the Husky Stadium, another couple of miles to the south.
Brenda is different from, and much smaller than, Bertha - the world's largest boring machine - which is supposed to be excavating a two-story highway along Seattle's waterfront, but has been stuck for two years.
This is the moment a 21ft-wide, 800,000lb drilling machine named Brenda punched through the wall of a new subway station underneath the streets of Seattle
Once it reaches the Husky Stadium, due to take place early next year, its huge drill-face will be removed along with its delicate interior, while the outer shell will be built into the wall of the tunnel.
While Brenda, named after the project manager's wife, is digging the southbound tunnel, her sister machine, Pamela, is drilling the northbound tunnel, having started four months behind.
BRENDA BY NUMBERS Crew: 10 Width: 21ft Length: 300ft Weight: 800,000lbs Top speed: 40ft per day Operating depth: Between 15ft and 130ft
Pamela is due to finish cutting the second tunnel later next year, before a extensive series of safety tests need to be carried out and track laid, with the new subway tunnels due to open in 2021.
Brenda and Pamela are both constructed like giant mechanical worms, with a huge flat drill face at the front, and a long cylindrical body trailing out behind them.
The drill-face is covered with cutting teeth which are designed around the type of soil to be cut through, and filled with holes which allows the soil they cut away to fall through and into a chamber behind the main face.
There are also pipes fitted to the main face which spray a foam substance which helps to cool the working parts of the machine, reduces dust, and reduces friction between the drill-face and the surrounding earth.
Once there it is mixed with other substances to turn it into a paste, and a long corkscrew moves it under pressure towards the back of the machine where it is dumped on to a conveyor belt and moved out of the tunnel.
As the machine inches forward, usually by only a few feet per day, a mechanical arm picks up stacks of concrete slabs, and lays them around the sides of the tunnel walls, stopping it from collapsing.
Brenda has spent the last 16 months drilling more than three miles underneath Seattle at a top speed of 40ft per day, shifting 200,000 tons of earth in order to create a new subway tunnel
Brenda operates like a giant mechanical worm, crushing through soil with its drill-face which is filled with holes, allowing the dirt to fall through where it is turned into a paste, then carried away on a conveyor belt
The concrete slabs are brought in on the same conveyor belt used to move the soil away, and contain special seals which also make the tunnel watertight.
While Brenda and Pamela are both impressive pieces of kit, they are nothing compared to Bertha, the world's largest tunneling machine, which is seven times their size overall, and has a drill face almost double the diameter.
Bertha is supposed to be digging a two-story highway tunnel along Seattle's waterfront, but overheated in December 2013 after digging just 1,000ft of the proposed route, and is still stuck there.
The huge machine broke down after overheating when several protective seals failed, allowing grit and rocks to get inside, damaging key components.
Workers removed the drill-face, which is five stories tall and weighs 2,000 tons, earlier this year, and have since been working to test and replaced damaged components inside. Bertha is not expected to start drilling again until December this year. |
Ottawa Public Health says it will send letters to nearly 7,000 people who had procedures at a local medical facility to warn them they may have been exposed to Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV.
Dr. Isra Levy says Ottawa Public Health has been investigating an unnamed non-hospital facility for the past several months because of 'lapses in infection control.' (CBC) ((CBC)) Stressing that he is not aware of any people who have become ill, Ottawa's medical officer of health Isra Levy said the letters are being sent so people can be made aware of the risk.
"Even though the risk of infection to those who had the procedures related to this issue is very low, I wanted to ensure that affected patients are made aware of the situation, so they can consider being tested for these infections," said Levy, at a hastily called news conference on Saturday afternoon.
Ottawa Public Health said it has been investigating an unnamed non-hospital facility for the past several months because of "lapses in infection control."
Because OPH doesn't know exactly when the lapse started, the 6,800 patients who will be contacted by registered letter next week cover a 10-year period.
"We don't know how long the problem has been going on for. We were notified at public health earlier in the summer," Levy said.
Levy wouldn't say exactly what the "lapse" was, but did say there are a number of reasons why problems arise including the improper cleaning of equipment and inadequate sterilization.
He stressed that the risk to patients is very low and that "at this time we are not aware of any person, any individual, who has become ill related to this lapse."
Levy said OPH will provide more information on the situation next week. |
After a bye week, perfect for the many injured Eagles to heal up, Philadelphia faces the surging Arizona Cardinals on Sunday in a battle between two of the four remaining one-loss teams. This game may well decide who gets a bye during the wild card round of playoffs.
Every Eagle practiced this week except WR 4/special teamer Brad Smith, though OG Evan Mathis isn’t eligible to play until week 10, and Jason Kelce is almost certainly going to miss this one too. The players on the bubble are crucial: inside linebacker Mychal Kendricks (calf injury) and running back/returner Darren Sproles, who suffered an MCL sprain in week 6. Chris Polk looks very likely to play despite a new hamstring injury that is much less serious than the one that kept him out of the first two games and much of the preseason. If Sproles is out, they will definitely need him.
The return of rookie WR Josh Huff and second year offensive tackle Lane Johnson has been a big boost for the Eagles, contributing a large part to their 27-0 demolition of the previously hot New York Giants. The improvement in the offensive line was obvious, as LeSean McCoy shrugged off a slow start to this season by rushing for 149 yards and vaulting to fourth in the NFL (from 15th) in a single game.
Huff’s contribution was less clear, because it came mostly in the form of superb blocking for Shady and for other receivers, but he expressed it quite succinctly: “If you line up across from me, I’m gonna kick your ass.” Check out this GIF by slap_bet on the /r/Eagles subreddit (Huff is #11 in the upper right corner, and backup center #63 David Molk is pretty mobile too):
This game is also a battle between the two hottest new coaches of the last two years, Bruce Arians and Chip Kelly. Both are 15-7 since the beginning of 2013, and their teams are currently tied for the NFL’s best record. They are a perfect contrast too, iconic symbols of opposite approaches. Arians worked his way up the NFL chain of command as an assistant coach for 20 years, and Kelly did the same in the innovative world of college football.
Not surprisingly then, Arians is an old school, conservative, punt on 4th and 1 at midfield kind of guy. Kelly is the new-fangled deception-based spread coach (though he remains fundamentally sound with a run-first, take what they give you philosophy).
There’s bad blood between them too. Last year, Arians mocked Kelly’s approach with thinly veiled threats of injury.
Jeffrey Beall (Wikimedia Commons)
“It’s a great college offense when you put a great athlete back there. But when you’re facing great athletes, with the speed that’s in the NFL who are chasing these guys, unless you’re superhuman, you’re going to get hurt sooner or later — not hurt, but beat up and bruised up.”
Kelly’s response was blunt. First, he corrected Arians’ terminology by noting that the “read-option” Arians talked about is a play, not an offense. (Thus, he subtly implied that Arians didn’t understand what he was talking about.) Then he added:
“I don’t care what other people think. It doesn’t bother me. To spend time to think about what someone else thinks is counter to everything I’ve ever believed in my life. If I believe what other people think, that means I value their opinion more than I value my own. That’s not the case.”
As it turned out, the “gimmicky” college offense dropped 24 points on the Cardinals before they scored a second time, and Philadelphia hung on for a tense 24-21 win that left Arians sputtering and bitching about the referees. It’s safe to say both want this victory for personal as well as professional reasons.
I’ll be in Arizona, covering the game from the press box. This is probably the best game in the NFL this weekend. Don’t miss it.
Featured photo: Birds Fighting by anonymous, courtesy of Nederlands Rijkmuseum via Wikimedia Commons.) |
Mrs Schmitz asked radio station KSTZ to grant 'three wishes' treating the family and the doctors who took care of her
New couple said they were 'touched' by public reaction to the letter
David Schmitz's new fiancee Jayne Abraham said the letter dispelled 'any doubt I might have had'
Before her death, she wrote letters to be sent to a local radio station when her husband fell in love again
The fiancee of a man whose first wife died of ovarian cancer has spoken of how a letter the dying woman left her 'touched her heart in so many ways'.
Mother-of-four Brenda Schmitz had written two letters one month before she died in August 2011 - one to her husband David Schmitz and the other to whoever his new partner would be - and asked a friend to send it to KSTZ radio station in Des Moines, Iowa, when her husband found someone new.
Jayne Abraham, herself a mother-of-two, said the letter had given her strength against 'any doubt I might have had' about her new relationship.
Scroll down for video
Beyond the grave: Brenda Schmitz, who wrote a letter to be read out on KSTZ radio
Tearful: David Schmitz and Jayne Abraham described how much the letters meant to them
New beginnings: David Schmitz and his new fiancee Jayne Abraham, who both received beyond-the-grave letters from Mr Schmitz's former wife Brenda
She said: 'There were times when maybe it was questionable and I struggled personally a little bit because I wasn't sure that it was really the right time.
'David always assured me, "I'm ready for this". He told me that she had left a letter for me also and at that point I was all tears.
'He said, well, you can read it when we get home tonight. I read the letter and it touched my heart in so many different ways.It filled the package for me with any doubt that I might have had.'
Ms Abraham said the letter had been lighthearted and that Mrs Schmitz had made jokes in it, ending with 'how much she loves us through my letter and she loves me... [and saying] you need to give them all the love that all children need'.
For more than 20 years, KSTZ radio station in Des Moines has been granting Christmas wishes for listeners - including Mrs Schmitz's request.
Right time: Brenda Schmitz, centre, wanted to give her blessings to her husband's future fiancee
In the letter, Brenda asks the station to fulfill her last wish to do something for the new woman in her husband's life, for her family and for the doctors and nurses who helped ease her pain.
It has become an online hit - something that Ms Abraham described as 'extremely amazing and untouchable'. She said: 'We didn't expect the publicity, we didn't expect it to go where it has gone, and I think we're both extremely touched by the love and the support and the comments and the prayers and everything that everyone has sent forth to us. 'Our hearts are just throbbing and so filled right now.' Mr Schmitz proposed to Ms Abraham in the summer. She said: 'When I first met David, I knew he said he had a little guy, Max, and he was two when we met, and he had older boys.
'At first I really didn't think anything of it. I have two children of my own and I love kids.
'Every day we've gotten stronger and we've developed a stronger bond and relationship.'
Mr Schmitz said he first heard the letter when the station read it to him the day before it went out on air at 7.10am on Friday, read by the programme host Colleen Kelly.
He said: 'They said they had received a letter that someone wanted to grant me a wish. I asked who is it from and they said it's so personal that we can't tell you over the phone. You need to come in here.
'They started by saying it was dated August 3 2011. They said you recently lost your wife Brenda to ovarian cancer. They read it and I was in shock - it was unfathomable.
'The whole process of what I heard, the wishes - it was very tough. My mind was going every which way and couldn't' fathom that the letter exists and the letter that she wrote to Jane also. It was quite incredible.'
Pampering: Brenda's first wish was that Jayne (right) be treated to a spa day, saying she deserves it with taking on the responsibility of all Brenda's sons - including youngest Max (left) Christmas wish: Brenda's second wish was that her family get a vacation where they can make memories to last a lifetime. She also asked that the nurses and doctors who treated her get a dinner for helping her through her pain
Mrs Schmitz had written: 'When you are in receipt of this letter, I will have already lost my battle to ovarian cancer.
'I told [my friend] once my loving husband David had moved on in his life and had met someone to share his life with again, to mail this letter to all of you at the station.
Her first wish was directed at her husband's fiance, asking that she be treated to a spa day.
'She deserves it,' Mrs Schmitz wrote. 'Being a step-mother to all those boys, and especially giving little Max a mother's love that only she can give. Make her smile and know her efforts are truly appreciated from me.'
'Thank you. I love you, whoever you are,' she added.
The second wish was that her family be taken on a magical trip, somewhere they could all enjoy and make memories to last a lifetime.
Her final wish was for the nurses and doctors who took care of her in the cancer unit at Mercy Medical Center.
'A night out full of drinks, food and fun for all they do every day for the cancer patients they encounter,' she wrote.
Her husband fought back tears while listening to the letter, and said he wasn't surprised that his wife would have organised such an elaborate gift.
'It's not surprising, because the last year and a half she's shown so many signs that she's there,' he said, adding that he saw a double rainbow the morning after she died and that 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' was her favourite song.
Touched: Mr Schmitz fought back tears during the radio segment, saying he wasn't suprised his wife had organised something like this
'There was no question that we were going to do something for this wish,' station manager Scott Allen told the Des Moines Register. 'It was what could we do that would be deserving of Brenda's name and memory.'
With the help of sponsors, the station was able to grant all three of Mrs Schmitz's wishes.
The family of eight will be treated to a vacation at Walt Disney World in Florida where Ms Abraham will relax with a spa day.
As for the nurses and doctors at Mercy Medical Center, they'll get get three coordinated food drops provided by a local catering company. |
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Liverpool are facing a growing injury crisis after Gini Wijnaldum was ruled out of Saturday's trip to West Ham.
The Dutch midfielder sustained an ankle injury early in the first half of the 3-0 win over Maribor following a tussle with Marwan Kabha - and despite his efforts to play on, hobbled off after 17 minutes.
Jurgen Klopp is already without Sadio Mane and Adam Lallana for the trip to the London Stadium, with the prognosis not positive on Philippe Coutinho either, who has now missed the Reds' past two games.
The German coach now faces the prospect of another of his attacking stars on the sideline, with Wijnaldum set for a scan on the ankle tomorrow.
“No one spoke to me so far, at half time the ankle was already swollen,” Klopp said. “It is probably not a good sign.
“We saw a kick in the game, we didn't think it was too serious, we were not sure if it was swollen or if he twisted it.
“For sure we have to make a scan.”
On Coutinho, who last featured in Liverpool's 4-1 defeat at Tottenham 10 days ago, Klopp added: “I don't think Phil will be able to play, with Dejan (Lovren) it's different, it's not the same problem as Phil had.
“Gini is out, maybe there will be some wonder with Phil, but I don't think at the moment that he can play.”
Wijnaldum's absence could allow Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to make his first Premier League start for the club since his £35million summer move.
The former Arsenal man enjoyed his first 90 minutes at Anfield against Maribor and was one of the better performers, with Klopp impressed with his evening's work.
(Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)
“If he starts a Champions League game, he is not far from starting a Premier League game, no?” Klopp said.
“He was good, he offered a lot, I loved his counter pressing situations. I'm not sure he did this a lot of times in his life already so it was really nice to see.
“Four players with speed is not too easy in a game like this (with little space). I saw a lot of good things, I was fine with the performance.” |
A hacking group called d33ds broke into the online shop of a rival hacker who sells unauthorized access to high-profile websites and data.
This illegal marketplace has been used in the past to advertise information stolen from websites belonging to the U.S. Army, the U.S. Department of Defense, the South Carolina National Guard and other institutions. Its owner, a hacker calling himself Srblche, also offered services that included compromising the particular servers his customers wanted.
According to Rob Rachwald, director of security strategy at security firm Imperva, Srblche is believed to be Kuwaiti. "We tracked his Facebook profile," Rachwald said Thursday.
Members of the hacking community accused Srblche in the past of stealing other people's tools from underground forums and trying to profit from them, which might explain why d33ds targeted him.
"Anyone willing to pay for this service must be as stupid as he is," d33ds wrote in its announcement of Srblche's online catalogue being hacked. The group published information about the server, the password hashes of his customers and even the hacker's administrative access code in plain text.
It's not sure how the compromise occurred, but Imperva's researchers believe that the group might have broken in through some other application hosted on the same server.
"D33ds is the same group that hacked RankMyHack.com. [...] This is how Rankmyhack was breached," they said in a blog post. RankMyHack is a website that awards points for Web compromises depending on how big or important the target was. Hackers compete for a higher position on the leaderboard.
Imperva is not aware of any case where stolen information sold by Srblche was actually used in an attack against an organization. However, it would be hard to determine if this happened because attackers don't publicly boast about it, said Rachwald.
When a hacker gets hacked, there is a high chance of sensitive data stolen from companies being made public.
To avoid putting themselves in such a situation, organizations should take several precautions. They should regularly use Google to search for hints of vulnerabilities on their websites because this is a common practice used by hackers. They should also test their websites with a vulnerability scanner and install a web application firewall, Rachwald said. |
BONDAGE by Eric Allen Bell (2006 SXSW) from Eric Allen Bell on Vimeo.
BONDAGE – a film by Eric Allen Bell – South By South West 2006
SYNOPSIS: “An O.C. youth escapes an abusive home only to find himself entangled in the California Juvenile Justice system and a psychiatric ward. The movie ends with a powerful sucker punch, into the gut of the audience. Not a typical way of telling a story, but this is a story that must be told. And Bell tells the story with power, force and conviction”. RM
DIRECTOR’S CUT: Selected out of thousands of films to be one of a dozen in competition at the South By South West Film Festival in 2006. This is the original Director’s Cut, before the executives chopped it up, amputated it and sucked the life out of it. The film received 4 offers for theatrical distribution (to be shown in theaters) but the financiers decided instead to shelf the film – and enjoy the tax benefit of showing a loss. After 11 years on the shelf, here at last is the original Director’s Cut, the one that premiered at SXSW in 2006, written and directed by Eric Allen Bell. Starring Michael Angarano, Illeana Douglas, Griffin Dunne, Andy Dick and Mae Whitman.
Indy film – first time director – low budget |
Story highlights Federal agents raid the office of a Florida doctor who has given to Democratic causes
A past recipient is Sen. Menendez, who flew on the doctor's plane to the Caribbean
Dr. Salomon Melgen has a stake in a port security company involved in work in the Dominican Republic
Menendez has touted better port security in Dominican Republic, but didn't mention that firm
Controversy continues to swirl around New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez -- including his relationship with a generous Democratic donor whose plane he took to the Dominican Republic and who has business ties in that Caribbean nation.
Menendez first came under scrutiny shortly before Election Day last fall, when a conservative online publication cited three unidentified sources who claimed the senator had flown on private planes to the Caribbean and during the trip had sex parties with prostitutes
Questions revolve around his relationship with Salomon Melgen, the Florida man who owned a plane Menendez admits having flown three times -- once on official Senate business, and twice for personal reasons -- to the Dominican Republic in 2010.
Melgen, his wife, Flor, and his daughter, Melissa, have been generous donors to Menendez, his fellow Democrats and related causes in recent years.
JUST WATCHED Menendez pays back $58K for trips Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Menendez pays back $58K for trips 02:36
JUST WATCHED Senator fights scandal allegations Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Senator fights scandal allegations 03:55
Since 1998, the three South Florida residents have given at least $360,000 to candidates and groups such as the Democratic National Committee and the New Jersey Democratic State Committee, according to data on the Federal Election Commission's website
This does not include the $600,000 that Melgen's then company, Vitreo Retinal Consultants, donated to the left-leaning Majority PAC last election cycle, reports the OpenSecrets.org website run by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Now, Melgen himself is feeling the heat.
Already hit by the Internal Revenue Service in 2011 with an $11 million tax lien, FBI agents arrived at the Melgen Retina Eye Center in West Palm Beach -- formerly called the Vitreo Retinal Consultants Eye Center -- after dark Tuesday to execute a search warrant.
The search, which lasted well into Wednesday, was sparked in part by the appearance of a shredding truck on the property, said a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation. Agents from the FBI and U.S. Health and Human Services Department left the offices carrying box after box of material.
An FBI spokesman in Florida has confirmed there was "law enforcement activity" at the location, but did not elaborate or mention any person specifically.
Melgen's lawyer denies wrongdoing by his client.
"The government has not informed Dr. Melgen what concerns it may have," Dean L. Willbur Jr. told CNN on Thursday, adding that the doctor's issues with the IRS "have been fully resolved."
"We are confident that Dr. Melgen has acted appropriately at all times," said Willbur.
Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican and member of his chamber's ethics committee, acknowledged Friday that his office is "aware of the news reports regarding the FBI raid on Dr. Melgen's office."
Menendez's spokeswoman, Patricia Enright, has said the New Jersey senator assumes the committee is reviewing the entire matter, but he has not been contacted.
"The Ethics Committee will follow its established procedures on this matter," Isakson said.
Menendez calls Melgen, who according to his official biography graduated from the Dominican Republic's National University and has been honored by its government, a friend and political supporter. Melgen and his family have frequently contributed to the New Jersey senator's causes -- contributing thousands to his campaigns, not to mention the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee he led from 2009 to 2011.
Menendez, set to become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is already facing questions over his travel on Melgen's plane.
He has said the 2010 Caribbean trips, which took place in 2010, were "paid for and reported appropriately," though his spokeswoman Enright admits it was an "oversight" for Menendez to take until January 4 of this year to pay $58,500 from his personal funds for two of the flights.
Another issue has to do with whether Menendez advocated on behalf of ICSSI -- a port security company that Melgen has a stake in -- on Capitol Hill.
During a Senate subcommittee hearing last July, Menendez didn't mention ICSSI by name, but he did press Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Rooney about an unnamed company who had a contract to X-ray cargo that went through all Dominican ports -- a contract that, he said, Dominican authorities "don't want to live by."
"If those countries can get away with that, they will," the senator said. "And that puts American companies at a tremendous disadvantage."
Reached Friday, Menendez's chief of staff Dan O'Brien -- while not mentioning any company specifically -- proudly noted his boss's advocacy "for more attention to the spread of narco-trafficking throughout Central America and the Caribbean."
"Stemming the growth of narco-trafficking is a key challenge in the region, and it is a fight from which Sen. Menendez will never back down," O'Brien said.
Not everyone supports ICSSI's contract in the Caribbean nation, as constituted. Foes include the American Chamber of Commerce of the Dominican Republic , a trade organization representing about 2,500 American and Dominican companies.
The group said that while it doesn't oppose "increased security measures ... we oppose the contract as conceived" -- claiming it gives ICSSI a "monopoly (in) violation of the Dominican constitution."
"They are not what we believe they should be, and they violate all sorts of international treaties," said the chamber, which further claims ICSSI's rates are exorbitant. "The ICSSI contract undermines national competitiveness, and there is no added value to it." |
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures rose more than 5% Monday to end above $900 an ounce for the first time in seven weeks, as a massive government plan to rescue the financial sector pressured the U.S. dollar, increasing the metal's appeal as an alternative investment.
Gold for December delivery rose $44.30, or 5.1%, to close at $909 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, ending above $900 for the fist time since Aug. 4. Other precious metals also moved higher.
"The rally was sparked by a proposal that the government would create a massive reserve fund designed to soak up to $700 billion of mortgage instruments," said Edward Meir, a commodities analyst at futures brokerage MF Global.
The Bush administration proposed a plan over the weekend that would allow the government to buy the bad debt of U.S. financial institutions for the next two years. It gives the Treasury secretary authority to buy $700 billion in mortgage-related assets, and would raise the statutory limit on the national debt from $10.6 trillion to $11.3 trillion. See full story.
The plan "has been largely dollar negative," said James Hughes, analyst at CMC Markets, as a higher debt will endanger the dollar's global position as a dominant currency.
The dollar was trading lower against the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen. The dollar index DXY, -0.38% a measure of the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of currencies, dropped 1.9%. A weakening greenback tends to push up dollar-denominated gold prices. See Currencies.
"Commodity prices have risen quite sharply as the dollar has weakened, and we do not think that is a one-day rebound," said Dennis Gartman, author of commodities newsletter the Gartman Letter.
The government's plan is "inordinately inflationary and are highly supportive of commodity prices," he added.
More government debt will also likely weigh on the price of government bonds. Treasury prices fell by the most in two decades on Friday, as investors sold in anticipation of new supply coming on the market.
International investors may respond to the prospect of holding U.S.-denominated paper in the face of expanding supply by turning to assets such as gold and other commodities, analysts at Bank of New York Mellon said.
Indeed, most commodities moved higher Monday, with the benchmark crude-oil contract rallying more than $16 to close at $120.92 a barrel. See Futures Movers. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index CRB, -0.19% a benchmark gauging the prices of major commodities, rose 3.9%.
Gold had seen dramatic changes in prices last week. The December contract surged $70 on Wednesday, the biggest daily gain in dollar terms. But it slumped as much as 7.6% on Friday, the biggest percentage loss in 25 years.
Gold ended the week up 13%, the biggest weekly gain in nine years. Some analysts said gold could rise further as its appeal as an investment safe haven will strengthen.
In other metals, December silver surged 7.8% to $13.45 an ounce, October platinum rallied 7.5% to $1,235.80 and December palladium surged 7.9% to $255.75 an ounce. Copper for December delivery added 2.6% to $3.26 a pound.
In spot trading, the London gold fixing price 38099902 used as a benchmark for gold for immediate delivery, stood at $889 an ounce Monday afternoon, up $20 from Friday afternoon.
On the equities side, the Amex Gold Bugs Index HUI, -0.36% jumped 9.4% to 354.13 points.
The SPDR Gold Trust GLD, +0.17% gained 3.7% to close at $89.18, the iShares Gold Trust IAU, +0.08% rose 3.3% to end at $89.12, the iShares Silver Trust ETF SLV, +0.27% added 7.1% to close at $13.35 and the Market Vectors-Gold Miners ETF GDX, -0.18% leaped 8.2% to finish at $38.09. |
Image copyright AllSport/Getty Images Image caption The match was allowed to continue despite the crush
At least two people have been killed and 17 injured in a crush at South Africa's biggest stadium, football officials say.
It took place during the Soweto derby between football clubs Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates in Johannesburg.
Orlando Pirates said the crush happened when people attempted to push their way through the gates into the 87,000-capacity FNB stadium.
Authorities allowed the pre-season cup game to continue.
Public safety official Michael Sun said on Twitter that all gates at the stadium had been opened to ensure crowd control and that the situation was later brought under control.
Of the 17 injured, one is in a critical condition, the stadium managers said.
Reuters said live television coverage of the match, which Kaizer Chiefs won 1-0, showed no obvious disturbance.
The stadium served as the venue for Nelson Mandela's first speech after his release from prison in 1990, and is where the memorial for Mr Mandela was held in 2013.
It was rebuilt for the 2010 football World Cup, where it was known as Soccer City and hosted the final between Spain and the Netherlands.
In April 2001, 43 supporters died in a crush during another match between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates at the Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg.
And 10 years before that, 42 people died in a crush between the same two teams at the Oppenheimer Stadium in the city of Orkney. |
The NBA handed out its regular-season awards on Monday during the League’s inaugural NBA Awards Show.
Afterward, Kevin Durant sent out his congratulations to the winners, including the 2016-17 Most Improved Player, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Durant said “it’s guaranteed” that Giannis will win MVP in the future. Via Durant’s YouTube:
“Congrats on MIP, this dude is a specimen that we’ve never seen before and it’s guaranteed that he will be an MVP one day! In fact, I called out this years MVP years ago so you gotta respect my knowledge for the game lol. “Huge congrats to Russell Westbrook on MVP, that boy went out there and was a created player on 2k all year, Fuckin balled out. Gotta respect it!” […] “Shoutout my boy James Harden. For 5 years now he’s taken his game to the next level, he will be an MVP one day, he’s an MVP now, he’s made so many people proud. I know this first hand, recognize what he has done for the game!”
RELATED:
Giannis Antetokounmpo: ‘I Want to Be the Best Ever’ |
Most fights that deteriorate into vicious jousting matches are marked by the trading of Accusatory Statements. Each participant behaves as if it’s an indisputable fact that the other person either did something evil or is evil in some undeniable way.
So let’s re-examine “You are so inconsiderate!” as an example of an Accusatory Statement.
Although she states this “fact” as if it were completely true, what she’s really saying to you is that, “I feel unhappy about _____” (insert whatever it was that prompted her unhappy comment in the first place).
However, if she phrased it that way (i.e. honestly), that would raise the possibility that she might be overly sensitive or just mistaken. For her, that’s a less comforting conclusion than you being the bad guy with her being the innocent victim.
It’s grossly unfair of her to attack you that way, of course. But women do this often.
Here’s another point: not only is she being unfair, but also she’s being unrealistic when she starts attacking you for making her life so difficult.
Contrary to her claims, your behavior (a stimulus) did not cause her feelings to erupt quite the way they did (a response). Life’s not that simple.
In reality, we don’t live in a “stimulus-response” world despite what many people think. In any given situation, different people react in different ways. That means there must be a third ingredient to the “stimulus-response” pairing, and there is:
How each person interprets a given situation makes a huge difference.
The actual sequence works like this:
Stimulus
Interpretation
Response
And not like this:
Stimulus
Response
The reason many people gravitate toward the latter sequence is largely because it excuses them from taking responsibility for the problem about which they’re fighting.
So let’s put the Stimulus-Interpretation-Response model into the context of interacting with the woman in your life:
You do something (the stimulus).
She first interprets it as somehow threatening her own interests, and
She then reacts harshly to her own interpretation. Another person might have interpreted your behavior quite differently and therefore also reacted quite differently.
Have you ever said something as a joke to a group of people and found that some of them thought it was funny while others took it as some sort of personal affront?
Same stimulus, different interpretation, different reaction. It happens all the time when people interact.
Applying Interpretations To Your Advantage
Besides understanding how the Stimulus-Interpretation-Response sequence works, there’s another preliminary concept you need to know for defusing tense relationship situations.
What we feel in any situation is the result of how we’ve personally interpreted that situation. Therefore, we’re responsible for our own feelings, not the feelings of others. Put another way, we “own” our feelings. So whoever has the feeling, has the problem.
If you’re feeling miserable about something, that’s your problem, regardless of what you’re feeling miserable about. It’s up to you to resolve that problem, otherwise you’ll continue to feel miserable.
The same holds for everyone else.
There’s a way to minimize the collateral damage. Here’s how:
As she’s ranting and raving about your many faults, keep in mind that she’s talking about herself. She’s feeling miserable about something, and you just happened to be the nearest lightning rod.
She’s trying to make you responsible for her feelings. But don’t take the bait … everyone’s responsible for their own emotions.
So don’t commit the same error and let her drag you into her emotional mess! Her interpretations are her own, and your interpretations are your own.
Because she’s actually talking about herself, there’s no need for you to take her statements personally.
Rather than getting hot under the collar, a much better strategy is to read between the lines and decide what her real problem might be.
If she says, “You’re a worthless piece of crap!” that’s her way of saying, “I’m unhappy with some aspects of our relationship!”
Is that latter statement worth getting angry about? We didn’t think so. And so there’s no need to trade insults. Because you now understand that she’s only talking about herself, you’ll be able to stay cool despite pretty much any verbal provocation from her.
How To Win Firefights With a Bucket Of Water
At this point you might think that we’re suggesting you just back down and accept whatever she says to you.
That’s not what we’re saying. Instead, now you understand where her underlying feelings are coming from.
“Understand” is not the same as “agree.”
So because you understand her feelings does not mean that you have to agree with her interpretations (and therefore to also feel the same way yourself).
It’s enough that you try to see it through her eyes. Even if you don’t agree with her, at least you can imagine how she might feel that way (even if you don’t feel that way).
For example, perhaps she feels that you’re ignoring her or that you’ve treated her badly in some way. If you don’t agree with that, fine.
Now here’s the “magic phrase” for such times:
“I’m sorry you feel that way.”
As before, say this with an empathetic expression and thoughtful tone. If you need to expand on that thought, you can add phrases like:
“That was not my intent” or
“I see it differently”
Say everything in a caring manner, even if you have to use every iota of skill you’ve acquired from those acting classes.
These statements avoid the resentment that comes with having been forced to apologize. You’re not apologizing to her for your own behavior. You’re merely expressing regret that she feels badly.
And that’s an honest sentiment … you do regret it that she feels badly (even if only because it might increase the amount of time you have to wait for your next horizontal mambo with her).
You’re not being forced to grovel (and resenting it). You’re providing empathy, just like the fine human being that you are.
That’s the best way we’ve found to defuse fights. When she figures out that you aren’t going to take the bait and get nasty too, she’ll change her tack and talk about what’s bothering her (rather than What’s Wrong With You).
Take our word for it: That’s a much more pleasant alternative.
Rather than fighting fire with fire and ending up with ashes (as the old proverb goes) you’ll be able to quench her fire and wind up with a snuggly bed partner instead.
Now that’s a trade we’d make any day. |
I asked a group of busy psychology experts to share their best tip for being productive and beating . Here's what they said.
Take breaks from your desk to stimulate your . "Walk Away: Without realizing it, I spent years trying to be productive in the most unproductive way--sitting at a desk for hours. Now I 'walk away' from my office after a few hours (or less). Moving, if only to get a cup of coffee, water a plant, or walk outside for five minutes, made me sharper and more focused. With short breaks, improvement in and productivity soars. Try it." - Susan Newman, Ph.D.
Don't be afraid to close your door. "There are a couple, seemingly simple things that I do to ensure that I am productive. The first is simply closing my door at the office! Although I am extremely welcoming, I am often approached by colleagues, peers, and students about various topics ranging from to clinical considerations. Closing my door ensures that I remain productive. Second, I schedule "avoided" tasks; when I block out time (and get reminded on ALL of my Apple devices), this ensures that I engage in productive action. Action precedes ; these small steps facilitate more action and lead to me feeling accomplished." - L. Kevin Chapman, Ph.D.
"I use the 'George Washington Method', which I learned from one of my literature professors in college. Washington, a farmer, always carried a portable sundial with him. His method entails picking an arbitrary point deemed 'Noon' and moving forward in segments from there, keeping your focus only in the 'hour' in which you are working. The White House cleaning staff still use this method today." - Michael J. Formica, MS, MA, EdM.
relief helps reduce distractibility. "Plan exercise breaks: stress leads to binary (either/or) thinking, distractability, and procrastination. Taking time to reduce stress enhances productivity by keeping you sharp and boosting your capacity for creative problem-solving." - Craig Malkin, Ph.D.
Buck conventional if something else works better for you. "I think you really have to know yourself. For example, conventional wisdom says to do your most important task first; however, I find that if I start with a few easy tasks, I feel better and get on a roll because I get something checked off my list right away. Then, I'm motivated to tackle the harder things." - Barbara Markway, Ph.D.
The Pomodoro Technique. "When I don't want to do something, or my is low, I use a productivity technique called The Pomodoro Technique. You set a timer for 25 minutes of work, then take a five minute break, then set the timer again. I know I can do anything for 25 minutes (and starting is the hardest part) so it works great for me. For more information: PomodoroTechnique" - Heidi Reeder, Ph.D.
"I'm most productive if think in terms of getting a task done as opposed to spending a set amount of time on it. Most people allocate a certain amount of time to a task; I do the opposite. I break the task down into doable chunks and then work until that chunk is done. So, if I'm working on an article for Psychology Today, instead of saying, "I'm going to work for an hour on it," I say, "I'm going to work until I have a first draft done." If that draft is done in 15 minutes, that's when I stop working; if it's done in an hour, that's when I stop working. I take the same approach to gardening and other household tasks." - Toni Bernhard, J.D.
Make a plan to deal with unresolved issues to free up your resources. Outstanding minor complaints (e.g., having to call a customer service hotline to dispute a charge) often nag at us for days when they remain unresolved, and interfere with our ability to be productive in the moment. Making a plan to address the issue (e.g., deciding on a specific time to make the call later) will quiet the nagging, free up our intellectual and emotional resources, and maximize our productivity in the moment. - Guy Winch Ph.D.
"My top productivity tip for blogging, and for all writing challenges, is: Write a shitty first draft. This advice comes from Anne Lamott's book on writing, Bird by Bird, and I bring it to mind every time I write the first draft of a blog. It's so freeing and motivating to tell myself, "Just write a shitty first draft now and make it great later!" - Meg Selig, Ph.D.
Use conditioning techniques. "Work in a place that you associate with work, such as an office building or library. Don't try to work on something that requires sustained attention in the place where you play and relax, such as your bedroom or family room. Your surroundings set the stage for your focus--if they are associated with work, you will focus on work." - Amy Przeworski, Ph.D.
Use an app to cut yourself off from the internet. "If you’re like me, you dip in and out of social and e-mail all day while doing bigger tasks. There’s a fabulous Firefox plug-in called Freedom that prevents your computer from connecting to the internet for a programmed period of time, thereby removing temptation and allowing you to focus. If completely going off the grid is too limiting (or too scary!), LeechBlock is another handy tool that allows you to block specific sites at certain times." - Beth Buelow, ACC, CPC
"My biggest challenge is finding blocks of time to do tasks that are labor intensive. Now I break things up into segments. I start with half the time I need; an hour becomes 30 mins, 15 mins becomes 7. Anything to begin! This makes hard tasks more digestible, and less likely for me to procrastinate on. Once something is started, I have more motivation to finish it." - Geralyn Datz, PhD.
Passion. "You may not always be able to choose the projects on which you work, yet when you do have a (e.g., of college major, range of assignments our boss needs helps with, committee memberships), go with that which you are most interested. Being passionate about what I do means that juggling the demands of teaching, writing, mentoring students, conducting research, and serving on committees is not necessarily always effortless, but certainly gratifying." - Kristine Anthis, Ph.D.
Put your phone away when you really need to get something done. "I’m most productive when I eliminate as many distractions as possible and focus on one time-limited project. When I really need to get something done, I close my web browser and my email program, put my smartphone in my purse and give all my attention to the task at hand: the less multitasking, the better." - Gloria M. Miele, Ph.D.
Don't overestimate how much you can get done in your available time. If you plan to do an unrealistic number of tasks, you'll end up dreading the day ahead. Before I get out of bed, I mentally identify one important task that I will judge the day's success by. I prioritize this task and any small but critical time sensitive tasks. - Alice Boyes, Ph.D.
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photo credits: Clouds, Brighton, Pink Sherbet Photography, Ajith (അജിത്ത്) via photopin cc |
North Carolina has been steadily making a name for itself in the Hip Hop scene. It is hard to put a definition on the sound of the Tarheel state, but upcoming emcee King Mez is seeking to make his mark with his honest lyrics and gritty voice. He proudly reps Raleigh and is influenced by New York greats Nas and Notorious B.I.G. The rise of North Carolina Hip Hop signals something deeper, showing that Hip Hop is growing into its full potential to reach the world.
“I don’t think there’s a central hub for Hip Hop anymore,” King Mez says. “It’s evolved into what it was always supposed to be, which is something that’s great that transcends people and countries and nationalism. It’s something that brings a lot of people together.”
He released Long Live the King in April and is happy with its success so far. A recent trip to Los Angeles allowed King Mez to build new connections. The 24-year old, born Morris Ricks, is continuing to work with different producers while growing as a producer himself. But to him, success goes beyond making beats and rhymes. He is looking forward to solidifying himself as a musician, but doesn’t want that to define him.
A month before anyone had heard of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the emcee was walking the streets of his hometown in memorial of Tahje Mials, another teenager who lost his life to senseless violence.
Morris stopped by HipHopDX’s offices to talk his newest album, his friendship with J. Cole and making a difference in the world through music or otherwise.
King Mez Charts His Growth On “Long Live The King”
HipHopDX: What has the response to Long Live the King been?
King Mez: It’s been good, man. I’m really excited about venturing into a new sound and seeing the people continue to be with me as I grow sonically and lyrically and try to be everything I want to be. I never want to be restricted by sound or anything in particular. I’m real happy about the way people perceive it, and they enjoy the music. And I’m producing most of it this time around. It wasn’t like that before. I made maybe like 60 to 70% of the beats.
DX: Is there a reason for you deciding to produce more?
King Mez: It’s crazy, because it’s something I used to dabble in, but I think it’s more so the fact that I have a lot more control over exactly what I want to hear rather than trying to describe it to someone. Audio is a hard thing to try to describe to somebody. Saying, “I want this emotion” or rather, trying to convey an emotion verbally is a hard thing to do. So me making it myself, I know exactly how I’m feeling and exactly what I want to say. I think that makes a difference.
DX: I noticed a sample of “What You Won’t Do For Love” on “Can’t Let Go.” Did you produce that song yourself?
King Mez: I co-produced it with a guy named Rich Muzik from Connecticut. He actually brought the sample through, and it’s a cover of that song. I can’t remember who did the cover, but it’s a British singer. We ended up sampling her, and then that’s how the beat got made.
DX: I noticed on Twitter, you were excited people from Seattle were buying hard copies of Long Live the King. What does that mean to see the nation enjoying your music?
King Mez: That’s powerful. I’m from Raleigh. I’m from the East Coast and it’s the South, so to see people on the complete opposite side enjoying my music, I’m definitely thankful. I mean, people from other countries are reaching out—Paris and South Africa—so I’m thankful. It’s a good look.
DX: I read the recent article on you in IndyWeek.com. Is there any pressure to create a single?
King Mez: It’s funny, man. People say that a lot, but I’m really just enjoying myself and just making the music I love. Like I went back to previously, I’m organically venturing into new sounds because I just honestly want to. I like making different kinds of music and stepping out of a box. If it comes, it’ll come naturally. It’s not gonna come because I wanted it to be a single or I meant for it to be a single. I think those are always the best ones where you’re just expressing yourself.
Why King Mez Says He’s Definitely Not A Conscious Rapper
DX: Is that the Basquiat crown on the cover of Long Live the King?
King Mez: No that’s not the Basquiat crown, but it’s definitely of the realm…the same kind of typeface I guess you could say. That’s actually a light painting. It’s crazy because, there’s actually another person in that photo behind me. He drew it like light painting or whatever, but I guess because of like leaving the exposure open on the camera while he did it, it was too dark to capture him behind me, so you only get the light. A lot of people don’t know that about the cover, so I’m glad you asked. Shout out to Saul Flores, Ruben Rodriguez and my man Jason Clary. A lot of people put in work on that.
DX: In general, how does art inspire you?
King Mez: I love art in all its mediums. All different kinds of art influence me all the time. I’m a huge fan of Japanese manga. I like Japanese culture in general. I’m a big fan of Metal Gear Solid, and I think Hideo Kojima is a genius. He’s the person who made the game. I just feel like all of that is art. I’m influenced by everything, every little bit of it. I try my best to not be confined to just music being inspired, of course not even Hip Hop music. I love all kinds of music. I grew up listening to like Biggie and Nas, but as I got older I ventured off into like Alan Parsons Project and Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” Of course that’s the cliché joint, but that’s one of my favorite songs. I really love a lot of different kinds of things, all different kinds of art.
DX: I read that New York Times article by MK Asante. What did it mean to you?
King Mez: It meant a lot, to be in the New York Times. That was the same day the project came out. It really meant a lot. MK [Asante] really thinks a lot of me. He’s like a big brother to me, so big shouts to him. It’s crazy, me and him are like a duo. We hustle so I don’t get to see him, but when I see him, it’s like we never like missed a step. So that article really meant a lot to me, because it was coming from him, and it meant a lot to me for it to be passed through the New York Times. It was great. It was even cooler, because it wasn’t a Hip Hop article. It was for Rock and Roll, so to be a part of that was big. I liked that.
DX: What does it mean for you to be part of that?
King Mez: It’s just paying it forward to the culture. I’m just thankful to be a part of something so big that inspires so many people, so many different things. I really remove myself from that and just think about, “Man I’m just happy to be a part of it.” I may be influential, and I’m sure I will be in time, but it’s just, thinking about Hip Hop as a whole and how much it means to the world. That means so much to me. It’s a revolutionary thing. It’s something that’s always gonna be changing people, changing things, and society, so I love it.
DX: On My Everlasting Zeal, I really like the song “The Queen.” I’ve always wondered, does the girl commit suicide at the end?
King Mez: Yeah.
DX: That song is just so sad, but so powerful. What was your inspiration for that? What did you wanna say through that?
King Mez: I’m always trying my best in my music to make a difference in a way where it’s eye opening. I’m not big into like shock value or anything like that, but that’s real. That’s something that actually happens all the time, so it was super important to me to get that point across. I’m always doing that over and over again in my music. So it’s fun to make it. It’s gonna be fun to be super successful, but it’s nothing in the world like changing a person or giving them something to listen to that’s gonna get them through their day. When I see those tweets and emails, that’s the stuff that means the most to me. That’s really why I made it.
DX: Obviously, you’re very honest and feature storytelling in your music. And then you have other songs that are kinda just fun. How do you balance that and still find your identity as a rapper?
King Mez: It’s just the simple fact that I’m doing my best to be truthful. I feel like most of the time if you’re a “conscious rapper,” which I’m definitely not, when you just have a sense of the things that are going on, and you speak your mind and heart and voice your opinion. People often expect you to just be in that box. But that’s not even who you are completely. People are a broad spectrum of things. It’s important to me to convey that broad spectrum consistently. All I give you is who I am. But the whole thing, though, rather than just like a portion. I feel like My Everlasting Zeal, I love that project. I think it’s good, but that was really me speaking from the perspective of what I want to be for everyone else. I feel like Long Live the King was so much iller, because it was like the broad spectrum of myself—the whole thing. It’s not contradictory, though. You can still see who I am and it makes sense. Of course I like to have fun. I just turned 24. You gotta show everybody everything. I think that’s important to be honest.
King Mez Revisits Meeting Lecrae & Discusses Being A Christian
DX: I actually found out about you from Lecrae’s Church Clothes 2. What was it like working with him and that song, what did it do for you?
King Mez: It meant a lot to me. I’m a Christian myself. I think he heard me on satellite radio. I don’t know if it was Sway, but it really meant a lot for him to reach out, ‘cause I know I’m not perfect. He was like, “Man, I heard the music that you were making,” it really meant a lot to me. I really like him as a person. When he reached out, before I met him [in person] of course, I think it was via text first. We linked up on Twitter via text. I met him on a tour bus in Durham since he had a show, and that’s when I really got to know him. Ever since then, it’s been super cool. He’s a good guy. It meant a lot to me to be on the song, though because like I said, that’s where my heart is, in changing people. That’s the first and foremost. I love making music, but I love changing people and helping in any way I can. And rather than changing them, I say that a lot, just giving them something that they feel and something that they understand. A lot of times that’s the problem with Rap, it’s like a façade. It’s like the reason why people go out of their means to do things is because people act like they have things that are out of their means in Rap to begin with. You can be honest. That’s why kids run around robbing the store now. Be honest. Say, “Man, my advance wasn’t that crazy. I’m still living at so-and-so’s crib.” If you was real about that, they might feel okay about doing that too. So that’s really my whole thing, being honest.
DX: How do you incorporate your faith into your music?
King Mez: Like I said, just being truthful. There’s no point in fabricating anything. A lot of people are just afraid of who they are nine times out of 10. That’s just not who I am. I guess the way that I do it is just the things that I learn, and the things I go through. I feel like it’s nothing like just being you. Being yourself is the most important thing. I feel like me being spiritual is me being myself through my music. I would never lie to you. I’m not gonna fabricate. That you asked me that question, for me to say “no” would be crazy. Not because I’m in denial, but because it’s like all these other people who might’ve related, who might’ve said, “Man, that would be really cool if he was honest about that. I know he’s not. I know he’s a Christian. He’s lying.” Whatever the case might be. I’m not gonna do that. I’m gonna be real about who I am. I’m proud to be a Christian. I’m proud to be who I am. Maybe I’m not the best one, but I try. I’m definitely proud to be me.
DX: Yeah, even that line on “Morris” that’s like, “God’s been doing surgery on me…”
King Mez: “No anesthesia though / Feeling every little thing / Pain is what we need to grow.” That’s really the whole point. I feel like a lot of times you go through things in life. I’ve been through a lot in my young 24 years. I’ve seen a lot. Maybe a lot more than the average person, but I know for a fact there are people that go through way worse than what I’ve been through. So I’m still thankful and blessed. I just mean it from the perspective of people often worry and fret at the sad things and tragedies. And you don’t realize that has a lot to do with who God is shaping you to be. Who you’re gonna become has a lot to do with the things you go through, and you gotta focus or fold. You can become that person, or you can regress and go backwards and become somebody that you were never supposed to be. That line meant a lot to me. It resonated with a lot of people too.
DX: I know you are close with your brother. What is that relationship like and what does he mean to you?
King Mez: That’s my man, yo. Our mom passed in 2010, and I dropped out of college to work with him as he graduated high school. We’ve been through so much even before that. We went through a lot in the house with our dad and our mom, and there’s a lot of things that happened. I see the world in him. He’s just such a talented, intelligent individual. I think he’s gonna be great…probably better than me. He’s a producer as well, and lot of people don’t know that. Our relationship is amazing because we stay close through anything no matter what. I don’t get to talk to him some days or whatever, but it don’t really matter because with me and him, it’ll never change. It’s crazy to me to see siblings like lose touch, be mad at each other and not talk to each other. I thank God my mom raised us like that. That’s my man.
Why King Mez Says North Carolina Has Something Special
DX: North Carolina in general has a lot of upcoming artists, Cole, Rapsody, and you. What is special about the North Carolina Hip Hop scene right now?
King Mez: It’s kinda spread out. Different people have their cliques. Everybody’s kinda bunched together, but I think it’s love all around. I think North Carolina’s very different because it is Southern, but it’s East Coast. I think it’s starting to come out in the music. It’s starting to be like a trend, when you hear it in the artists like, “Wow.” It’s Southern, but they sound a little different than everybody else. We have artists that do have a more Southern vibe to them. I know Deniro Farrar’s from Charlotte. I really don’t even know what to compare him to, but I really like his style. It’s different. There’s a lot of different kinds of sounds in North Carolina.
Of course, you know Jamla and 9th Wonder. It’s always love with them. I really appreciate them. I worked with them a lot when I was coming up early on. Everything is synonymous in particular ways, but I really think North Carolina has a lot of different variety of sounds and whatever. I feel like what makes us stand out, though is our perspective on things. It’s like a rapper with Southern hospitality. It makes no sense, and it’s so different. But it also has an East Coast flow—this, that and the third. Phonte is one of the legends for that. Big Pooh, Little Brother is a classic, 9th Wonder. North Carolina is different, but I think we have something special.
DX: What influence does 9 Wonder and Jamla and Little Brother have on Hip Hop in general?
King Mez: Little Brother really made a big difference. Phonte is like Drake’s favorite rapper. I feel like they are one of the quiet pioneers of a lot of stuff…a lot of stuff people don’t even really realize. I think Little Brother had a big impact on Hip Hop and North Carolina music in general. And Jamla is an upcoming label that’s doing an amazing job at being independent and staying tight-knit. I’m a fan of a lot of work over there, so love to everybody over there as always. I’m sure I’ll probably end up working with somebody soon over there.
DX: I know you kinda already talked about New York and North Carolina already, but Cole has a line that says, “I’ve got New York people singing ‘Ville songs.” Do you still think New York is the center of Hip Hop or how is Hip Hop’s regionalism evolving?
King Mez: I mean it’s funny because I don’t think there’s like one specific spot anymore. Chicago has like a wave of music. I feel like A&Rs probably just should be out there in Chicago lurking now and creeping the streets because it’s such a wave. Then you have Atlanta that’s always been popping. L.A. has always had some kind of scene. So I don’t think it’s a central hub anymore, especially with the Internet. You’ve got people coming from overseas like a Tinie Tempah. It’s evolved into what it was always supposed to be, which is something that’s great that transcends people and countries and nationalism. It’s something that brings a lot of people together. I think it’s everywhere.
DX: You’ve worked with J. Cole, Omen and some of the Dreamville camp, and then you went on the Dollar And A Dream Tour. What’s your relationship like with Dreamville and Cole?
King Mez: Family, man. Super, super good people. He reached out in 2012, and we’ve been cool ever since. I could text him right now, and he’s a quick response, like, “Yo, what’s happenin’? Everything good? You straight?” I remember when I first met him. He brought me back to New York, and I was in the studio with him while he was recording Born Sinner. I remember they had a lot of posters and just little things they were writing and drawing when Born Sinner was in its early stages. They were creating things for the cover or whatever the case might be. I remember being around for that, and it meant so much to me. He was one of my favorite new rappers before he hit me up. It’s crazy. A lot of people don’t know I met him on Myspace when I was like 17. He was Therapist Music, and I was in high school. I hit him, and he had a song called “School Daze” from The Come Up, the first joint. I told him, “Yo, “School Daze” is crazy.” He hit me back saying, “Aw, thanks, man, I really appreciate it.” It’s always been love. It’s always been love. I really appreciate him and the whole camp. Everybody’s super cool. One time he let me drive his Range from a Wiz concert. That was probably one of the best moments of my life. I thought that was so crazy. Yeah, he’s a super, super good guy.
DX: Is it true your name is an acronym inspired by Transformers?
King Mez: Transformers, like King Mezatron, that’s what I say sometimes. I don’t know what the phrase for that is, when you have like a nickname, like a short nickname or a longer nickname for your name. Whatever the case might be. I’m a huge fan of Transformers, by the way. Love Transformers. Megatron’s name definitely influenced King Mezatron. My name, King Mez, is definitely an acronym. Knowledge Is Now God and My Everlasting Zeal. And My Everlasting Zeal is where the album name came from.
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Developer Slant Six Games has laid off an unspecified portion of its workforce today as the independent studio works to "negotiate new business," according to a statement send to Polygon. The developer of multiple SOCOM games and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City says it intends to rehire those affected.
A spokesperson for the Vancouver, B.C.-based studio confirmed the layoffs, calling them a temporary measure.
"This necessary measure has been taken to reduce the size of our team and to decrease interim operating costs while we continue to negotiate new business," the statement reads. "Temporary layoffs provide us with a time period to keep everyone's employment position open with full benefits. The intention is to reinstate all of the people affected when new projects or funding has been secured.
"As an independent studio, we are a tight group and this is a difficult time for everyone. We are very proud of the incredibly talented team we have at Slant Six Games."
Slant Six added mobile game development to its slate over the past year, releasing free-to-play game The Bowling Dead for iOS through Activision in November. In March, the studio released Galactic Reign for Windows 8 devices in conjunction with Microsoft Game Studios.
The studio will self-publish its first title, Max's Pirate Planet - A Board Game Adventure, on April 23 for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire.
"Additionally, Slant Six Games currently has multiple titles in development," a spokesperson said, "and we look forward to the completion of these titles once publishing or funding partnerships can be secured."
Earlier this year, Slant Six and other Vancouver-based studios lamented the loss of investment (and talent) as video game industry jobs and projects moved eastward in Canada in response to more lucrative tax breaks. |
(Updates death toll)
* Frustration grows as Nepalis wait for help
* Officials concede mistakes made in early stages of rescue
* Tensions between stranded Nepalis and foreigners
* Death toll passes 5,200, more than 10,300 injured
By Gopal Sharma and Ross Adkin
KATHMANDU/SINDHUPALCHOWK, Nepal April 29 (Reuters) - Nepali villagers blocked trucks carrying supplies for earthquake victims on Wednesday, demanding the government do more to help after last week's disaster left more than 5,200 people dead and tens of thousands homeless and short of food and water.
In the capital Kathmandu, about 200 people protested outside parliament, asking for more buses to go to their homes in remote parts of the Himalayan nation and to hasten the distribution of aid that has flooded into the country but been slow to reach those in need.
In Sangachowk village in one of the worst-hit districts, about three hours by road from the capital, scores of angry villagers blocked the road with tires.
They stopped two trucks headed for the district capital with rice, noodles and biscuits. Later they blocked a convoy of three army trucks with relief supplies, leading to a tense standoff with armed soldiers.
"We have been given no food by the government," said Udhav Giri, 34. "Trucks carrying rice go past and don't stop. The district headquarters is getting all the food."
The government was struggling to fully assess the devastation wrought by Saturday's 7.8 magnitude quake.
"This is a disaster on an unprecedented scale. There have been some weaknesses in managing the relief operation," Nepal's Communication Minister Minendra Rijal said late on Tuesday.
An official from Nepal's home ministry said the number of confirmed deaths had risen to 5,238 by Wednesday night. Almost 10,350 were injured in Nepal, and more than 80 were also killed in India and Tibet.
Prime Minister Sushil Koirala has told Reuters the death toll could reach 10,000, with information on casualties and damage from far-flung villages and towns yet to come in.
That would surpass the 8,500 who died in a 1934 earthquake, the last disaster on this scale to hit the Himalayan nation of 28 million people located between India and China.
However, there were signs on Wednesday that Kathmandu was slowly returning to normal. Some people prepared to head home to sleep after spending the last four nights in the open out of fear their damaged homes may not be able to withstand aftershocks.
Some street vendors started selling fruit in the city, but others said they were too scared to open shops because buildings had been so badly damaged.
"I want to start selling, I have children at home, but how can I open a shop where it is risky for me to sit inside?" said Arjun Rai, a 54-year-old who runs a general store.
In some mountainous areas, the government has struggled to deliver aid. Rescue helicopters have had problems landing at some sites.
Shambhu Khatri, a technician on board one of the helicopters, said entire hillsides had collapsed in parts of the Gorkha district, burying settlements, and access was almost impossible.
FEAR OF DISEASE
In Kathmandu and other cities, hospitals quickly overflowed with injured soon after the quake, with many being treated out in the open or not at all.
Guna Raj, who works for a Kathmandu-based NGO specialising in providing sanitation, said there have been outbreaks of diarrhoea in relief camps because of a shortage of toilets and clean water.
"In the next few days or weeks I am sure there will be an outbreak of epidemics," said Raj, who is involved in the relief effort.
Foreign Secretary Shanker Das Bairagi appealed for specialist doctors from overseas, as well as for search-and-rescue teams despite earlier suggestions from officials that Nepal did not need more such assistance.
"Our top priority is for relief and rescue teams. We need neurologists, orthopaedic surgeons and trauma surgeons," Bairagi said.
Experts from a Polish NGO that has an 87-strong team in Nepal have said the chances of finding people alive in the ruins five days after the quake were "next to zero".
Nevertheless, a Nepali-French rescue team pulled a 28-year-old man, Rishi Khanal, from a collapsed apartment block in Kathmandu on Tuesday after he had spent around 80 hours trapped in a room with three dead bodies.
Doctors amputated one of his legs on Wednesday because of damage from prolonged internal bleeding.
Tensions between foreigners and Nepalis desperate for relief surfaced, rescuers said, as fresh avalanches were reported in several areas.
Members of Israeli search-and-rescue group Magnus said hundreds of tourists, including about 100 Israelis, were being airlifted out of Langtang in Rasuwa district, a popular trekking area north of Kathmandu hit by a fresh avalanche on Tuesday.
Fights had broken out there because of food shortages, Magnus team member Amit Rubin said. One of the trekkers said there had also been scuffles over places on the rescue helicopters.
The quake also triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest that killed at least 18 climbers and guides, including four foreigners, the worst disaster on the world's highest peak.
(Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani, Rupam Nair, Frank Jack Daniel, Andrew Marshall and Christophe Van Der Perre in Kathmandu, Aman Shah and Clara Ferreira-Marques in Mumbai, Aditya Kalra, Douglas Busvine and Aditi Shah in New Delhi; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. |
So you want to make a game, and you think the Frogatto engine might be for you? This is the first in hopefully a series of posts which document just how to do that. These posts are targeted at people with some technical knowledge — who know how to run Frogatto from the command line and pass command line arguments to it, know how to edit text files, and have some coding knowledge or who are eager to learn. I will also assume that you have some level of familiarity with the Frogatto Editor (accessible by pressing ctrl+e while in a game of Frogatto).
I’m going to develop a simple platform game, featuring a sword-wielding heroine, Elisa, which I’m calling Elisa’s Quest.
To begin with, Frogatto features a module system. You can put your game in its own module, and then when you run Frogatto, you can specify which module you want to use. This allows you to develop your own game without interfering with the core Frogatto game.
To create a module for Elisa’s Quest, we make a new directory under the Frogatto install, in modules/elisa. Then we create a basic configuration file for our module, in modules/elisa/module.cfg using our favorite text editor. We enter this into the file:
{
id: "elisa"
}
This file is the main module configuration file. For now the only setting is to specify the ID of the module, but we are likely to add more settings here later.
Game Objects
In our game, we will want our sword-wielding heroine to jump from platform to platform, battling vampire bats, collecting coins, and avoiding traps of spikes. Each of these things — the heroine herself, platforms, bats, coins, and spikes, are examples of game objects (often just called ‘objects’) that we must define to the game engine.
An object’s appearance and behavior is specified in a single .cfg file that will be placed under modules/elisa/data/objects. It can be placed directly in this directory or in any sub-directory, so if you’re making a substantial game, it’s a good idea to categorize the different objects into different directories.
An object needs a sprite sheet, a png file which contains its art. Multiple objects can share a single sprite sheet, or one complex object might have its images split across multiple sprite sheets. All images will go under modules/elisa/images — which is the directory Frogatto searches for images in.
We’re going to start by defining our heroine, Elisa. Here is the sprite sheet for her, which I will put in modules/elisa/images/characters/elisa-spritesheet1.png :
Note that both the background color and the color of the red rectangles around the sprites are special colors (#6f6d51 and #f9303d) which the engine treats as fully transparent. This allows you to organize your sprite sheets, and indicate frame boundaries, though isn’t strictly necessary. The Frogatto engine also fully supports alpha channels, which you can alternatively use for transparency.
Note also the size of the image. All that extra space around it isn’t just arbitrary. Widths and heights of images provided to the Frogatto engine should be powers-of-2 (i.e. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, or 1024). Here, we’ve padded the image out to make it a 512×512 image. If Elisa was a little shorter, we could have made it a 512×256 image.
Now it’s time to start defining Elisa’s behavior. We create a file in modules/elisa/data/objects/characters/elisa.cfg:
{
id: "elisa",
is_human: true,
editor_info: { category: "elisa" },
animation: [
{
id: "stand",
image: "characters/elisa-spritesheet1.png",
rect: [4,4,57,57]
}
]
}
This is a fairly bare-bones definition of an object. Let’s see what it tells us:
The object’s ID is elisa. This must correspond to the filename (elisa.cfg)
elisa is ‘human’. That is, she is controlled by the player. In a single player game, there may only be one object in existence at a time that has this flag. Many games will only have one object that has is_human: true.
elisa goes into an editor category called ‘elisa’. This means when you want to add an elisa object to a level in the Frogatto editor, you will find her under a category called elisa.
All objects must have a list of one or more animations. An animation consists of one or more frames. Right now we just have a single frame animation for elisa. Note that the rect: [4,4,57,57] specifies the top-left most sprite in her sprite-sheet.
This definition of Elisa is written in Frogatto’s Object Notation (FSON) — basically JSON with a few additional features. FSON is used extensively throughout Frogatto as a data language to define the properties of objects.
Adding Elisa Using the Editor
Now we can try out the Elisa object in-game. One of the nice things about Frogatto’s module system is when you run a module you still have access to Frogatto core game data, when you’re first testing your game you can do so, mixing it with Frogatto’s assets, before all yours are fully developed.
We invoke the game with the --module command line argument: frogatto --module=elisa . This runs the game, loading our module. We press ctrl+e to open the editor, and then we can easily find and add the elisa object to a game of Frogatto:
Now, at the moment, all the elisa object does is stand there, frozen still. We haven’t given her any other behavior yet. If we look at the Elisa spritesheet, we notice that the top three images are all part of a standing animation, meant to make Elisa move a little, even when standing.
Note how the frames are of uniform size and spacing. This is how the engine expects frames of the same animation to be laid out. An animation definition may contain a specification of how many frames there are in the animation, along with the duration, in game cycles, of each frame. A padding may be specified to show how many empty pixels there are between the frames on the sprite sheet. In this case we have three pixels between frames.
This animation also isn’t meant to be played to the end, and then started over. Instead, it’s meant to be played forward (Elisa inhaling) then played in reverse (Elisa exhaling). Some animations are designed to be played forwards and then backwards, and the engine provides a special reverse property to allow for that.
A little note at this point: we can continue to edit Elisa’s code using our text editor of choice. We can also use Frogatto’s built-in editor by pressing the “Code” button in the editor. If we use the in-game code editor, we will see Elisa update instantly as we make changes to the code. Even if we use an external editor, the game engine will update the changes we make without us having to exit and restart Frogatto! This feature is enabled as long as we are in the Frogatto editor.
Here is the code to turn the still standing frame into a proper animation:
{
id: "elisa",
is_human: true,
editor_info: { category: "elisa" },
animation: [
{
id: "stand",
image: "characters/elisa-spritesheet1.png",
rect: [4,4,57,57],
pad: 3,
duration: 5,
frames: 3,
reverse: true
}
]
}
After making this change, when we play the game, Elisa will play through her animation, but only once. Then she will freeze again, staying in the last frame of her animation. The game engine doesn’t know what to do with her next without some instruction. It might seem obvious: “she should start the animation over again!” — but it’s not so obvious. When elisa finishes an animation involving swinging a sword, we wouldn’t want her to just play that animation over again. Instead, we must provide instruction on what to do, and we provide that instruction through events.
Events
When we think about the behavior we want to specify for an object, much of it revolves around us wanting to specify how the object behaves when something happens. What should the object do when it lands on the ground? When it collides with a bat? When the player presses a button? When an amount of time elapses? When the level starts? These are all events. In this case, we are interested in what elisa should do when her ‘stand’ animation finishes.
We specify what should happen when an event occurs in an event handler. An event handler is a property in FSON which contains a formula that is evaluated when the event occurs. The formula is written in Frogatto Formula Language (FFL). This formula is able to query the current state of the game, and then return some commands. These commands that the formula returns will be executed by the game engine.
In this case, all we want to do is specify that when the animation finishes, it should be played over from the start. That, is quite simple:
{
id: "elisa",
is_human: true,
editor_info: { category: "elisa" },
on_end_stand_anim: "set(animation, 'stand')",
animation: [
{
id: "stand",
image: "characters/elisa-spritesheet1.png",
rect: [4,4,57,57],
pad: 3,
duration: 5,
frames: 3,
reverse: true
}
]
}
Whenever the ‘end_stand_anim’ event occurs on this object, the event handler is invoked, and it returns a command to set the object’s animation to ‘stand’ — which will start the stand animation over from scratch.
Now, let’s make it so Elisa can swing her sword. To do this, we’ll need to define her sword swing animation. We’ll also need to have an event to make her enter the animation. A ‘ctrl_tongue’ event will be sent when the ‘s’ button is pressed (due to this normally being the button which activates Frogatto’s tongue in Frogatto). We will use is to make Elisa swing her sword. However, Elisa can’t swing her sword any time. For instance, if she’s already swinging her sword, another press of ‘s’ should be ignored, so we’ll add some logic to make it so she can only swing her sword if she’s currently in her ‘stand’ animation:
{
id: "elisa",
is_human: true,
editor_info: { category: "elisa" },
on_end_stand_anim: "set(animation, 'stand')",
on_end_attack_anim: "set(animation, 'stand')",
on_ctrl_tongue: "if(animation = 'stand', set(animation, 'attack'))",
animation: [
{
id: "stand",
image: "characters/elisa-spritesheet1.png",
rect: [4,4,57,57],
pad: 3,
duration: 5,
frames: 3,
reverse: true
},
{
id: "attack",
image: "characters/elisa-spritesheet1.png",
rect: [5,180,93,240],
pad: 3,
duration: 5,
frames: 6,
frames_per_row: 3
}
]
}
Note how ctrl_tongue has its code enclosed in an if statement, so the event handler will only cause anything to happen if Elisa is in her stand animation. If she’s already in her attack animation, the event won’t do anything. This is a simple example of the logic capabilities of FFL. Next time I want to explore FFL in much more detail.
I think this is enough for our first lesson — we’ve added an object, and made her perform a few basic actions. We are a little lacking in documentation on the Frogatto engine right now, and I’m hoping this series can improve it, so please feel free to reply with any questins or comments!
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