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Some elements of the situation in Sudan are alarmingly like the way things were in Syria before the revolt there got started. Renewed protests against president Omar Al Bashir in Sudan have led to speculation about whether the Arab Spring has belatedly reached the country’s borders. Last year, however, similar demonstrations disappeared soon after they began and it is highly likely that matters will turn out the same this time around. There are direct parallels with Syria, however, where the regime has confounded expectations by clinging to power against an uprising that is in its third year. The morbid lesson that Bashar Al Assad has taught other Arab dictators is that if they are stubborn and brutal enough, their people and the international community will lose the stomach to risk facing the tragic repercussions that Syrians are experiencing. Separately, Sudanese opposition figures have expressed fears about a revolution in their country potentially resembling that in Syria. Mr Bashir, like his counterpart in Damascus, has carefully cultivated the loyalty of the military and filled its top ranks with his supporters, mindful that Sudan’s popular revolutions in 1964 and 1985 succeeded because they had the army’s backing. As such, both presidents have been able to use the military against civilians. According to Amnesty International, the latest protests in Sudan have so far resulted in the killing of more than 200 demonstrators – many shot in the head and chest – and the arrest of hundreds more. As well as being heavy-handed, Mr Bashir’s response has been dismissive, describing protesters as “traitors, bandits, and troublemakers” supported by “hostile media” and foreign conspirators. Both have also clamped down on internet access and media coverage. As with Mr Al Assad, Mr Bashir is greatly helped by the fact that his opponents are divided and disorganised, and lack sufficient public trust and confidence. The traditional opposition political parties in Sudan are accused of being too close to the establishment, and of not pushing hard enough for genuine change. This is no accident. Both leaders have deftly created, manipulated and exacerbated divisions within their diverse populations to turn people against each other rather than their autocratic hold on power. Both have also clamped down on parties and movements that would pose any real challenge. The legitimate fear, as in Syria, is that the situation will be no better, and may even worsen, after the regime is toppled. The Sudanese people are naturally keen to avoid such a scenario, as there is currently no obvious party or figure that most of them could rally round to replace Mr Bashir. Even if there were, Mr Bashir could rely on the support of Russia and particularly China, whose economic ties with Khartoum are rapidly developing as part of Beijing’s pan-African strategy to secure vital resources for its fast-growing and increasingly prosperous population. Both Russia and China have the power of veto in the UN Security Council. They have used it to shield Mr Al Assad from international criticism and punitive measures, and would do the same for Mr Bashir. Sanctions by individual countries would likely be ineffective. Sudan, like Syria, has long been accustomed to operating under sanctions, and the only ones that would really hurt would have to come from the very countries that would be least likely to use them. Besides, as with Iraq and Iran, sanctions could well hurt the Sudanese people more than the government. However, time is not on Mr Bashir’s side. The protests this year and last were sparked by economic issues. These include the rising price of basic goods, an unemployment rate that reportedly exceeds 30 per cent, foreign debt estimated at more than $40 billion, a currency that is losing its value, disproportionately high defence spending, and the loss of up to 75 per cent of oil revenues due to the secession of South Sudan in 2011. Economic deterioration is likely to continue, ensuring the growth of the protest movement against Mr Bashir. Khartoum has been unable to plug the huge revenue hole left by South Sudanese independence, and to diversify the economy away from the oil on which it was so dependent. Juba currently has to export its oil via a pipeline through Sudan, for which it pays a fee. However, continuous bickering over how much should be paid has led to prolonged periods of non-production (and hence non-payment), and to South Sudan looking to build a pipeline that bypasses its northern neighbour. Once construction is complete, Mr Bashir will lose his biggest leverage over South Sudan. That in turn may diminish China’s strategic focus on Khartoum in favour of Juba, as oil lies at the centre of Beijing’s relationship with both, and its priority is sufficient, stable supply. And so, Mr Bashir may not be able to always count on the staunch support of his most important ally. Furthermore, the army is being spread thin by worsening conflicts in the western region of Darfur, and the southern states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, amid a rebel alliance formed to topple the government. In addition, 31 prominent members of Mr Bashir’s own National Congress Party made public a letter they wrote to him criticising the latest deadly crackdown on protests. The government derided last year’s demonstrations as the impossible act of “elbow-licking”. However, history has shown that the Sudanese people are willing and able to challenge and overthrow oppressive regimes. Mr Bashir, who has been in power since 1989, would be wrong to assume that he is somehow immune to this, and that Sudanese elbows will remain dry indefinitely. Sharif Nashashibi is a journalist and analyst on Arab affairs
Star vs the Forces of Halloween Summary: When Star inadvertently turns the Diaz home into a haunted-house themed deathtrap on Halloween night (and his parents into real-life monsters), it's up to the pair to turn everything back to normal. One-shot. Written like an episode (either 11-minute or 20, I'm not sure how long it would take), to take place sometime in the latter half of season 1 and also written to keep me occupied while Every. Single. Show. I. Watch. Takes a hiatus. Let me know if you like it! P.S. I know Halloween doesn't fall on a school day. Shush. "Last stop! EVERYONE OFF!" The bus driver shouted as he punched the brake on the street corner nearest the Diaz home. The bus had been painted pumpkin orange, with a jack-o-lantern face on the side. The driver himself was dressed as mr. T, complete with fake gold jewelery adorned by oversized letters. The bus's last few disgruntled teens disembarked, most in costume, all muttering to themselves and leaving behind trails of candy wrappers and costume ornaments. Last off the bus was Marco, in his usual clothes, and Star bouncing along behind him. Every other step, she was altering her outfit to some new Halloween style – a pirate outfit complete with eyepatch, the tattered clothes and green skin of a zombie, the cape and fangs of a vampire. "Oh come on, Marco!" She whined, tapping her wand to her head and reappearing in a red riding hood outfit. "Just let me do it!" "I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times Star, no more magic near my body!" Marco said, obviously annoyed. He swatted the wand away as it slowly made it's way towards his scalp. "Remember what happened the last time?" Star flashed back to earlier in the week, when Marco had been standing up to the local bully, Lars, in a school hallway. Lars had been halfway through the process of stuffing an unfortunate student into one of the school's lockers when Marco had called him out. "Lars! Put him down!" Sparing a glance, the bully looked over at his would-be opponent – a scraggly hundred pound latino in a red hoodie. He vaguely remembered getting beat up by someone similar with a tentacle arm a few weeks ago – but, thankfully, this kid seemed to be short that particular appendage. "Hah!" He chortled. "Are you gonna make me?" Marco smiled. "Gladly." He looked to Star, who took her cue. "Limbus gigantigus!" A puff of pink fog, and Marco was revealed to have the arms and legs of an Austrian actor/bodybuilder. Unfortunately, the rest of his body had not been transformed to accommodate. Falling backwards under this new, extreme weight, he felt his normal-sized shoulders and chest straining to move his arms, and could hear the halls ringing with laughter as Star scrambled to undo the spell. "Aww, are you ever going to let me live that down?" Star pouted at him. "Nope." Marco responded as they turned onto the Diaz front lawn. His house's front porch had been transformed by big, fake webs and plastic spiders, with the odd jack-o-lantern scattered about. The door burst open as the approached, Marco's parents appearing in the entryway. "Happy Halloween!" They shouted enthusiastically. Mrs. Diaz was dressed in a black and white skeleton costume. Mr. Diaz, as a werewolf, with a full-body costume covered in fake fur. Star let out a squeal when she saw their outfits. "Marco, even your parents are in on it! Come oon, you've gotta have a costume!" "I told you Star, I don't. Do. Halloween." Marco said grumpily, pushing past his parents. "I'll be in my room. Studying." Star watched him go, unimpressed by his attitude. She blew a stray hair from in front of her face before looking at his parents. "He's been like that all day. Why does Marco hate Halloween so much! You get to dress up, and there's all this free candy!" At this she grabbed a handful from the bowl by the door and tossed it into the air, strewing it everywhere. There was a pause as the three bent to pick up the sweets. "Well, Star, he was very young..." Mrs. Diaz began. The parents remembered fondly as they walked a smaller, younger Marco around the neighborhood for candy collection. He was dressed in a miniature sombrero, skull mask and glitzy jacket, like he was a member of a mariachi band. He approached a porch, flickering pumpkins and a creaking sign with "BEWARE!" scratched into it spinning slowly near the door. He reached up and gave a knock. "Trick or treat!" He held out his bag. The door slid open, the bowl of candy sitting on a table in the center of black backdrops. A small note read "take as much as you dare..." Young-Marco reached his hand into the bowl, ready to scoop as much as he could carry into his pillowcase, when a hand shot out from the curtains and grabbed his wrist. "Aaagh!" He shrieked, jerking his hand away from the bowl. Candy went flying and he turned around, ready to bolt, only to come face to face with the grim reaper. "Hey! You gonna pick that -" Young-Marco caught one glimpse of his mask and screamed for his life before running down the driveway towards his parents. "Marco! They're just costumes!" His parents shouted as he sprinted at them and buried himself in their arms. Behind them on the sidewalk, a gaggle of kids passed by, including none other than a younger version of Marco's lifetime crush, Jackie Lynn Thomas. "Marco's scared of Halloween!" Someone in the mob yelled, and the entire group shrieked with laughter. Marco pushed himself away from his parents hurriedly, his eyes tear-stained and cheeks bright red at being embarrassed in front of his crush. "Let's just go home..." he muttered. His parents frowned. "...and Marco's never celebrated Halloween since." Mr. Diaz finished mournfully. The trio was sitting on the couch now, sipping out of mugs as the sky slowly darkened through the windows. "Ooooh..." Star said. "So Marco had a bad experience, and now he's scared of Halloween." She bounced up. "I know just what to do! Thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Diaz!" She headed towards the stairs. "Star, wait!" Mrs. Diaz called. Before they could correct the princess on her mistake, Marco slouched downstairs, a gym bag over his shoulder. "I'm going to the dojo." He announced. "OK bye have fun!" Mr. Diaz called as Marco slammed the door behind him. "I know just what to do..." Star muttered, chewing on her wand and looking mischievously towards the door. "Stupid dojo, being closed on stupid Halloween..." Marco muttered to himself as he walked back down the street towards his home. The sun had set, the jack-o-lanterns were lit, and kids in costumes were bounding from house to house. "Stupid costumes, stupid day, I just wanna go home and - whaaaaa..." he trailed off, mouth agape as he stared at what had formerly been the Diaz residence. The house had been transformed into an old gothic castle, complete with gargoyles and towers topping the roof. Spiderwebs (some with spiders the size of Marco's hands) adorned the many windows. The front lawn had been turned into a graveyard, faded tombstones and a twisted tree providing ample objects for real, live (well, dead) zombies to trip over as they lumbered around. An arrow pointed to the front door, which was open to a shroud of inky blackness. Painted in red ink on the sign were the words, "enter if you dare..." "Grrr..." Marco growled, his eyes staring at the spot that his room would've been as he dropped the gym bag onto the sidewalk. "STAR!" He shouted. In front of the garage door, next to a sign reading exit, Star was giving handfuls of sweets to traumatized, pale-faced children as they exited the building. "Happy Halloween!" She shouted. "Hope you had fun!" "Star!" Marco snapped, grabbing her arm. She'd gone with a black and white striped dress, with an orange headband and spiderweb stockings in place of her normal outfit, presumably in honor of the occasion. "Oh heeey Marco!" Star said innocently, dropping some more candy into another emotionally scarred child's bucket. Her smile was wide and just a little deranged. "What have you done to our house?" Marco asked patiently. "Oh that?" Star asked. "Well, I heard about how you're scared of Halloween, so I turned it into a haunted mansion!" Marco stomped his foot. "Okay, two points. First! I am NOT scared of Halloween. Second, we have to LIVE HERE!" He frowned, annoyed at the Mewni princess. Star stuck her tongue out at him. "Oh lighten up, scaredy cat, I can change it back, we just have to make sure everyone's outside first." "Fine." Marco said grumpily. "Then we close it and wait for everyone to leave." As if on cue, from behind him, "woah." Marco turned and froze, seeing none other than Jackie Lynn Thomas and her best friend Janna standing on the driveway behind him. Jackie was in a long robe like the grim reaper's, with dark makeup covering her face, and Janna was dressed up in a witch-themed skirt, shirt and pointy hat. "This is sick!" Janna said. "Sweet haunted house, Marco," Jackie complimented the boy. A small whimper could be heard from the back of his throat. "What was that about it being closed?" Marco snapped out of his daze, his annoyance at no longer having a bedroom overcoming his overpowering fear of embarassment. "Yes, sorry ladies, but -" "It's totally still open!" Star interjected. "Go right on in guys, see you when you come out the other end! IF YOU SURVIVE." Her face changed from a charming grin to an intimidating snarl. Jackie and Janna blinked, seemingly unphased by this behavior. "Sweet! C'mon Jackie!" Janna took the other girl's wrist and they disappeared into the front door as zombies reached for them over the fence. "Have fun!" Star shouted at their backs as they disappeared inside. "Star, why'd you do that?" Marco confronted her as soon as the pair was out of sight. "Oh come on, Marco." Star said, exasperated. "We're gonna have to find your parents before we can change the house back anyway. May as well let them see it before you make me poof it." Marco sighed. "Fine." He said. Grabbing his friend's hand, he pulled her towards the front door. "Let's go." They approached the front door and Marco whacked away a zombie hand that had reached too far over the fence. As the two approached the door, it seemed like a curtain of darkness was covering the entryway. "Y'know Star, I gotta say, you actually did do a pretty good job on the décor." Marco told her, impressed despite himself. "Oh-h, you haven't seen anything yet." Star smiled evilly. "Come on!" She pulled her friend through the shroud and into a blackness so intense Marco felt like it was pressing in on his eyes. If he'd been scared of the dark, he was sure he would've been terrified by the experience. Luckily, he wasn't, so it didn't do much for him. As suddenly as it started, the darkness released them into the grand entryway. And grand was the correct word. A checkered floor extended for yards before turning into a pair of grand staircases that pushed up to the second floor. Between the two staircases was another inky-black doorway. Torches flickered along the walls with pumpkins in the corners. A grand chandelier fitted with waxy, melting candles hung from the roof. The walls were adorned with paintings of skeletons and Frankenstein monsters, and all of their eyes watched the pair when they moved. "Woah." Marco said, awestruck. "Pretty cool, right?" Star responded, taking a glance around to admire her handiwork. "Now let's see... Marco, your mom is downstairs in the dungeon, cause she's a skeleton." she pointed to an iron-bolted door on the left. "Your dad is upstairs in the study, probably. We'll either need to get to the backyard or to the garage to get out." Marco nodded. "Oh, and I turned your parents into real monsters for the event." Star added. Marco nodded again before he realized what he'd just heard. "What WHAT?!" He exclaimed. "Relaax!" Star said, twirling her wand. "They were totally okay with it. Said they wanted to help you get over your Halloween fear and stuff." Marco's eye twitched. "Star, how could you turn my parents into real monsters! Also, I'm NOT scared of Halloween!" Star looked at him, offended. "I asked them first! And I think I did a pretty good job! Can you at least wait to see them before you start getting mad?" "Fine..." Marco said, resigned to his fate. "Let's just get this over with..." Taking the princess's hand, he pushed open the door to the house's brand new dungeon and stepped downstairs. The dungeon was dark and filled with dangerous instruments. Stretching racks, shackles on the walls, even one of those weird, spike-lined coffins was placed against a wall. Behind iron cell bars were old skeletons, and on rotting wooden desks were jars with pickled eyeballs and brains and ears floating in them. Marco sighed as the two walked, and kicked aside a discarded bone. "Look, sorry I'm so negative about all this Star, I just... really don't like Halloween." Star looked back at him. "Your parents told me why. But that's why I made this place, so you'll never be scared of it again!" Marco stopped. "Wait, my parents told you the story? Then why -" A shriek echoed from the far end of the dungeon, interrupting him. "Help!" Someone screamed. "Oh, no." Marco strained his eyes to try and see ahead. "Come on, we have to help them!" The two ran forward, the dungeon getting progressively darker until Star was forced to use her wand for a flashlight. There was another scream, much closer this time, which was abruptly cut off. Trick or treat... a dry voice whispered, and there was a clattering all around them. "...mom?" Marco managed, before he turned his head. A skeletal monster had assembled itself behind him. He had been expecting his mother as some sort of set of dry bones – a spooky human skeleton with some cobwebs in her ribcage, maybe – but this was something that not even Ludo's minions could compete with. A giant skeletal monstrosity, at least 10 feet tall, that looked like an enormous crayfish standing up on it's tail. "Aaagh!" Marco staggered back as the monster lunged at him. It's bony claws and face (not a skull, but some sort of ornate structure composed of other, smaller bones) impacted the floor where he'd been standing and scattered away into the corners of the dungeon, reassembling themselves a moment later as the monster stood back up. "TRICK OR TREAT!" The same voice shouted, and Marco and Star screamed as they split into two directions. "STAR!" Marco shouted, dodging a claw and shattering it with a karate chop. "How do we beat it!" The hand reassembled and came at him again. "I don't know!" She screamed back, jumping over the monster's tail from the opposite side of the room. "I didn't make this! It must've been your mom's idea!" Marco was about to aim another kick towards the monster's giant ribcage, when he stopped himself. His mom! Some part of this skeleton was his mom's bones! He didn't want to hurt her!" He staggered back. "Star, don't hurt it! My mom's in there, somewhere!" Star aimed her wand, then dropped it to her sides. "Well if we can't shatter it, how the heck are we supposed to stop it?!" "YOU CAN'T STOP IT, IT'S GOING TO STOP YOU!" The voice shouted from the cell directly behind Marco, and he jumped nearly a foot in the air in surprise, the monster swiping at the air where his feet had been. He glanced into the cell and saw a human skull in the corner, it's jaw clicking as it cackled an insane laugh. The laugh was decidedly not his mom's. But he knew the puffy hair that was still on it's head... "Star, my mom's head is in here!" Marco said. "Force the monster into the cage, and you can turn her back to normal!" Star did just that. As Marco opened the door, she fired off a spell from her wand ("mega rainbow punch cannon!") and in a flash of light, the monster staggered back, crashing against the cell doors. Marco finished the job, running up and putting a well placed kick into it's ribcage to send it plowing through the iron door and into the back of the cell. The skull, for it's part, went flying into the pile of reassembling bone. "WAAAAH!" "Now, Star!" Marco said, throwing himself to the side. "Humanus returnius normalus!" Star cried, firing her wand directly into the monster's center mass, just as it was beginning to stand. "NOOOoooo!" The skull roared as the bones shranked and realigned. Marco watched in fascinated horror as a human skeleton formed out of the pile, clothes and flesh reappearing over the white bone, until finally, his mother stood before him, back to normal in a black and white skeleton costume. "Kids!" She cried, smiling. She ran to Marco, who was still stunned from what he'd just seen. "Did I make a good monster?" The trio exited the dungeon, slamming the metal door behind them, to find the entryway had remained unchanged. There was no sign of Jackie or Janna, but it looked as though other kids had stopped coming through. The teens had just finished filling in Mrs. Diaz on what they were doing. "So, Marco, where is your father?" She asked, smiling. Up above, dust fell from the ceiling as a heavy body pounded across the roof. They heard a faint howl from a creature that sounded not quite like a wolf, but not quite human, either. "On the roof." Marco said. The upstairs landing had been turned into a large and beautiful study – or it would've been beautiful, with pelts on the floors and animal heads on the walls, had everything not been bleeding something that looked suspiciously like strawberry jelly. A balcony overlooking the back of the house (which, from the looks of things, had been turned into a larger version of the zombified front yard) stood proudly behind a set of full-wall windows, doused in the white light of the full moon. A hallway to the side led off to what looked suspiciously like an asylum. "Oh my, this is lovely!" Mrs. Diaz said as they walked through the doors. "Star, dear, you must change the rooms of our house more often!" "Yeeah." Marco responded unenthusiastically as he reached for one of the wall's "stuffed" monster heads, only to have the two-headed bear snap at his hand and growl at him. "Let's just find dad." The roof over their heads pounded into a fast beat as Marco's Were-dad scrambled over the roof, still howling. "Mom, you stay here." Marco said, as he and Star stepped onto the balcony. "We'll come get you once we've turned dad back to normal." "Okay! Be careful!" His mom called back, just as they snapped the door shut behind him. The full moon took up the sky above them, shining down on everything, and the pair shared a moment of peaceful silence. There were no sounds of traffic, and they could faintly see the bobbing flashlights of the night's last trick-or-treaters on the next street over. Below them, even the zombie-filled backyard looked beautiful. Marco spared a glance at Star, who had also taken a moment to admire the view. The silvery light reflected off her hair, giving it an otherworldy sheen. "Ready to go?" He asked. She looked at him and nodded. Above them, the Were-Diaz howled again. Moment over. Star boosted Marco up onto the roof from the balcony, and he offered her a hand in-turn. They heard a clattering behind them, and Marco bent over just in time to dodge the giant dog-creature that was his dad as it lunged over his head. "Mr. Diaz!" Star called calmly, standing back up. "It's time to come down now!" The werewolf howled again, and this time, at the edge of hearing, a chorus of howls returned his own. "Mr. Diaz!" Star said again, louder, and more clearly enunciating her words. "It's time to come down now!" The werewolf snapped back down from them and growled. Marco could see each of it's teeth glinting in the moonlight – sharp, pointed, and definitely not human. "Uh, Star... I don't think that's WORKIING!" Marco shouted, and the two dove to the sides as the monster took another pass at them. "That's the code-phrase!" Star cried. "You can't turn werewolves back to normal with magic, everyone knows that! But you can make a code phrase that the human half recognizes! He should be normal now! He's being influenced by your Earth-moon!" "Great." Marco said. "So now I get to fight my dad." The werewolf lunged at him again, and Marco fell to his back, using his feet to push up on it's chest as it flew over him, vaulting it to the other side of the roof. "How do we turn him back, then?!" Marco asked the princess. "Um, um, um..." Star bit her wand and flinched as the werewolf once again sprang at Marco, relentless, and this time swiped him backwards with his paw. "Silver!" She finally cried. "You can kill a werewolf with silver!" "I don't want to kill him!" Marco screamed back at her, now fending off a relentless flurry of paw-swipes as his dad cornered him against the edge of the roof. "A silver mirror will fix him!" Star shouted, relieved that she'd finally remembered how this all worked. "If we make him look at his reflection in a silver mirror, he'll turn back to normal! The one in my room will work!" She pointed to the top of the castle's tower, on the other side of the roof. "Great!" Marco said, landing a palm-strike onto the monster's shoulder and sending his dad sliding down the side of the roof. "Let's go!" The two slipped and slid across the roof, the monster hot on their heels. "Star!" Marco said as they approached the wall. "How are we gonna -" "SUPER UNICORN WALL EXPLODE!" Star shouted, and with a blast from her wand, the brick wall of her tower was blasted inwards. The two piled into the room and the werewolf blasted after them, barreling into the tower and crashing into Star's bed on the far side, emerging with a shredded pillow caught in it's claws. "Mirror!" Star cried, and the two ran to open it's concealing curtains. The wolf lunged after them just as they forced the curtains open, and it only took a moment for it to see, wide eyed, it's own reflection - In a flash, Marco's dad was sitting on the floor, rubbing his forehead, back in his cheesy werewolf costume. He'd just flown into Star's mirror at top-speed. "My son!" He cried, throwing his arms around Marco. "Star!" He exclaimed, once that was done with. "How... did I do?" The houses on the Diaz's street were dark and lifeless when the family finally emerged from the front door. The trick-or-treaters had all gone home, it seemed, and the moon was the only illumination on the quiet street. "All right, Star." Marco smiled at her, tired, but still somehow happy with the evening's events. It had certainly been an interesting Halloween. "You can turn the house back to normal now." Star nodded, and they all stepped back to the sidewalk as she aimed her wand at the castle. Marco's parents gave the two magic-experts some space. "Stru-ct" she yawned. "Structurius returnus normalus." Nothing happened. Star frowned. "Structurius returnus normalus." She said again. "Come on, work!" She knocked her wand with her knuckles. Janna and Jackie Lynn Thomas emerged from the garage, both of them laughing their heads off. "Hey, Marco!" Jackie waved as they walked over. "That was seriously the coolest haunted house ever." Janna said. Star beamed at her. "Yeah, it was pretty sweet." Jackie agreed, grinning back at Star. She looked at Marco. "Hey, me and Janna are gonna hang out and go hit up stores for discount Halloween candy tomorrow. You guys wanna come?" Marco's mouth was open slightly, and he seemed incapable of forming a coherent response. "I'd love to!" Star chirped, quickly breaking the awkward silence. "Oh, and Marco would also love to." She said, poking him in the side of his face. "He's just... like this, sometimes." The two other girls shrugged. "Cool." Jackie said, seemingly indifferent. "We'll meet you here tomorrow morning and walk downtown together. Later!" The pair walked off, and Marco finally managed to close his mouth. He looked at Star, unable to come up with a proper way to thank her for the help. "Don't mention it." She smirked. "Hope you're not going to be like that all day tomorrow." So did Marco. "Structurius returnus normalus!" She did a brief spin and pointed the wand towards the house. In a big puff of smoke, it was back to normal, lights glowing warmly though the windows and the front yard completely zombie-free. The two stepped inside, and the parents said their good nights as they retreated to their rooms, presumably exhausted from being monsters most of the night. Star and Marco returned to their rooms as well. "Hey, Marco." Star said, as the two opened their doors. "Happy Halloween." "Happy Halloween, Star." AN: And that's it! I hope you liked it. There was more I wanted to do – I kinda wanted to explore the backyard, make the kitchen a human slaughterhouse, make the garage a SAW-esque set of puzzles, but I wanted to stick to the show's theme more. None of that stuff is very PG. Was also going to include a side-plot of Ludo and his monsters cutting into the haunted house and being scared by the attractions, but decided to go without that, too. Just... meh, y'know? Didn't feel like writing a character I don't particularly enjoy by himself. If I wanted, I could be persuaded to write a second chapter with these elements – Jackie and Janna exploring the first floor of the house and bumping into Ludo's monsters. But I don't know if I will. Is that something you'd like to read? Let me know. Not sure when (or if) I'll write something like this again, but follow me if you enjoyed it! I always try to stick to the flavor and theme of what series I'm writing for, and might continue this, or do another franchise you enjoy, the next time I decide to write. Until next time!
“You know, it’s funny,” I remarked to my friend Leonardo. “I’ve met people from all over the rest of South America, but I’ve never met anyone from Guyana, Suriname or French Guiana. “Maybe they don’t travel outside their countries.” Leonardo looked at me and smiled. “That’s because those countries are not in South America,” he replied confidently. There was a short pause. “I’m sorry?” I ventured. “It’s because they’re not in South America. Those countries are islands,” my friend continued. Now, this is a smart guy with a very good job, so I thought I would have a little fun. I asked him to draw a map of South America. He complied – guessing something was amiss – and, sure enough, the Guyanas appeared as three little islands off the coast. I drew my own map. (I’ll admit, I had the advantage. I’m a South America geek, always studying the map to plan my next trip. But still, I wasn’t born and raised here.) We compared sketches and laughed. He had drawn Bolivia above Peru, complete with a coast (if only). Uruguay was in the wrong place and was suddenly as big as Argentina. Peru, by contrast, was tiny. These are easy mistakes to make (Personally, I sometimes forget the location of Germany) but I started to become worried when Leonardo refused to believe the Guyanas were part of the mainland. He eventually had to pull out his touch-screen BlackBerry and check an online atlas. The following day I asked seven more friends – all smart, professional people – to draw me their own maps. “I’ve forgotten the name of those three little countries. I think one of them is called Suriname,” my friend Anita groaned. She wasn’t the only one with that problem. Two of the maps missed all three countries completely – stretching the nation of Venezuela until it reached all the way to the east coast. (Other amusing mistakes included forgetting the existence of Ecuador and/or Bolivia completely, Argentina suddenly becoming smaller than both Paraguay and Uruguay and Chile moving to the wrong side of the continent. But hey, like I said, the location of Germany frequently befuddles me) Still, again, one friend tried to tell me my three little countries were “not part of the continent”. Another insisted: “You know Vicki, they’re not actually real countries”. Well, my friends, I would like to welcome you to the first (and probably only) post from my new campaign: French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana ARE South American. It will be called FGSGASA for short. (Yes, I am aware that could also stand for For God’s Sake Get A Sodding Atlas) I would like to say this: 1) Guyana is definitely a real country. It’s a republic and, okay, so culturally it might belong more to the Caribbean than the rest of mainland South America – but the fact is, it’s here, it’s bigger than Uruguay and it deserves its place on any map we draw. Interesting fact: Guyana won independence from the United Kingdom in 1966 – the first (and only) year that England’s footballers managed to win the World Cup. 2) Suriname is definitely a real country – even though it’s the smallest one in South America. It has its own airline and its very own UNESCO World Heritage Site in the form of its central nature reserve. Interesting fact: The people of Suriname are brilliant at languages, so much so they frequently can’t decide on their national language and even considered choosing English or Spanish for trade reasons. You’ll find Dutch, a creole language called Sranan and even Hindi… with a smattering of Javanese and Portuguese thrown in. 3) French Guiana is, okay, an outpost of France. BUT although it uses the Euro and is part of the EU… blah, blah… it does have its own flag… and, yes, you know what I’m going to say… it is actually here so, yes, it definitely does deserve its place on any map we draw. Interesting fact: Even though only about 250,000 people live in French Guiana, the place has its own space station which has launched several rockets into the outer reaches. So there you go. Forget them at your peril. * * Banana Skin Flip Flops is now available on Kindle. Click here. Advertisements
I'm on the brink of declaring a new entry for Ebert's Little Movie Glossary: No comedy not titled "Caddyshack" has ever created a funny joke involving a golf cart. The only thing preventing me is that I can't remember if "Caddyshack" had golf cart jokes. In any event, if there is a golf cart, it will sooner or later drive into a water hazard. The funny angle here is that the filmmakers went to all that trouble because they trusted the audience to laugh. I stared with glazed eyes at "The Bounty Hunter." Here is a film with no need to exist. Among its sins is the misuse of Jennifer Aniston, who can be and has been very funny, but not in dreck like this. Lacking any degree of character development, it handcuffs her to a plot of exhausted action comedy cliches -- and also to a car door and a bed. Advertisement The handcuffer is her former husband Milo (Gerard Butler), a former cop who is now a bounty hunter and draws the assignment of tracking down his ex-wife, who has skipped bail. Have I lost touch, or are bounty hunters routinely deployed to track down criminals accused of no more than a non-fatal traffic violation? Never mind. Let's do a little mental exercise here, the same sort that the screenplay writer, Sarah Thorp, must have done. Remember the ground rules: The movie must contain only cliches. I used to test this exercise on my film class. I'd give them the genre, and begin sentences ending with an ellipsis. They'd compete to be first to shout out the answer. 1. The story involves a formerly married couple. He is a bounty hunter tracking her down for ... 2. They dislike each other. So by the end of the movie ... 3. He drives a ... 4. Because ... 5. And his beloved ... 6. He loves to gamble. Their road trip takes them to ... 7. Where he ... 8. And gets into trouble with ... 9. Inspiring ... 10. In a golf cart, they ... 11. During the movie, he gets kicked ... 12. She wears clothes so we can ... Well, I already gave you No. 10. To the others, clever students would answer: (1) A non-serious crime, since this is a comedy; (2) will fall back in love; (3) vintage convertible; (4) movies like them, because older cars look like real cars, and with a convertible you can more easily light the characters and show the landscape at the same time; (5) gets damaged; (6) you can be excused for guessing Las Vegas, but it's Atlantic City; (7) Wins big or loses big, but either way…; (8) gangsters; (9) chase scenes, GCI sequences, impossible action and lots of shots of her running in high heels; (10) you know; (11) the crotch; (12) peek down her neckline. Why, oh, why, was this movie necessary? Could it have been redeemed by witty dialogue? Perhaps, but neither is allowed to speak more than efficient sentences serving to further the plot. Hollywood movies started to simplify the dialogue when half the gross started to roll in from overseas. Has anyone noticed the great majority of nations dub foreign-made movies, so that subtitles aren't a problem? Butler is a hunk who can also act; he's currently starring in Ralph Fiennes' "Coriolanus." Aniston is a gifted comedienne. If you could pay their salaries, wouldn't you try to put them in a better movie? I saw the poster and had a sinking feeling the title gave away the whole story.
CLOSE Protesters in kayaks and canoes demanded action on climate change near two oil refineries in Washington state. Several dozen demonstrators have been arrested. USA TODAY Eric Ross speaks to "kayaktivists" with the Tesoro and Shell refineries behind them in Anacortes, Wash., May 13, 2016. (Photo: Grant Hindsley, AP) Authorities in northwest Washington state arrested more than 50 climate activists Sunday morning after the group shut down railroad tracks near two oil refineries north of Seattle. About 150 people had spent the night in tents and sleeping bags on tracks leading to the refineries near Anacortes, Wash., said BNSF Railway spokesman Gus Melonas. When asked to leave around 5 a.m. PT, most gathered their belongings and left, he said. But others — 52 in all — were arrested for trespassing, the Skagit County Department of Emergency Management said. One protester was also cited for resisting arrest, the Associated Press reported. Emily Johnston, a spokeswoman for the protesters, said she expected that the protesters would be released Sunday and that protests would continue, but she didn’t expect people to return to the railroad tracks. The rail line had been closed since Friday, with rail traffic rerouted to avoid the area. The railroad spur provides rail transportation for the nearby Shell and Tesoro oil refineries, as well as animal feed and other products. Officials with Shell and Tesoro earlier said that they respect the right of people to demonstrate peacefully, and that safety is their highest priority. Melonas said trains would begin running again Sunday afternoon. Hundreds of protesters in kayaks, canoes, on bikes and on foot converged on the area, around 70 miles north of Seattle, to demand action on climate and an equitable transition away from fossil fuels such as oil and coal. A smaller group blocked the railroad tracks, AP reported. The protests are part of a series of global actions calling on people to “break free” from dependence on fossil fuels. Similar demonstrations were held nationwide over the weekend. In upstate New York, climate activists gathered Saturday at a crude-oil shipment hub on the Hudson River in an action targeting crude-by-rail trains and oil barges at the Port of Albany. A group of activists sat on tracks used by crude oil trains headed to the port. Anti-oil protestors walk past the Tesoro refinery rail yard in Anacortes, Wash., on Saturday, May 14, 2016. The protests are part of a series of global actions calling on people to "break free" from dependence on fossil fuels. (Scott Terrell/Skagit Valley Herald via AP) (Photo: Scott Terrell, AP) Albany is a key hub for crude-by-rail shipments from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale region. In Washington state, organizers targeted two refineries that are among the top sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the state. Tesoro has started shipping Bakken crude oil to its refinery, and Shell is proposing an expansion project that would similarly bring in Bakken crude oil by train. Many of the nearly 40 groups involved in organizing the event also participated in large on-water kayak protests against Shell’s Arctic oil drilling rig when it parked last year at a Seattle port. Bud Ullman, 67, who lives on nearby Guemes Island, participated in the protest, which he described as good-spirited, peaceful. “The scientists are right. We have to get away from our dependence on fossil fuels, and it has to be done in a way that takes into serious consideration the impact on workers, families and communities,” he said. Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1TisqAs
A North West-based textiles company is investing £5.8m to bring cotton spinning back to its spiritual home in Greater Manchester. More than 100 new jobs will be created by the project, which will regenerate a former Victorian cotton mill and use cutting-edge technology to produce luxury yarn for domestic and global markets. English Fine Cottons is investing £4.8m of its own money in the project, £2m of which is a loan from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) through its investment fund. A further £1m has been awarded as a grant by the N Brown RGF6 Textile Growth Programme (TGP). The TGP grant announced today, 02 December 2015, is the largest ever single award from the programme. It means the new venture’s launch and growth plan for the next three years are fully funded. The company has already placed orders for key equipment and begun recruiting staff with a view to re-starting cotton spinning in the UK mid-2016. English Fine Cottons will base its new production facility in the refurbished Tower Mill in Dukinfield. The facility will be the UK’s only cotton-spinning company – reviving this iconic trade more than 30 years after the last cotton mills closed in the 1980s. The new mill will spin some of the most luxurious yarn in the world, using the finest raw materials from Barbados, India, the USA and Egypt. The yarn will be used in collections for the high-end fashion market. Andy Ogden, general manager of English Fine Cotton’s parent company Culimeta-Saveguard Ltd, said: “We are extremely proud to have won this major government grant today to help us make real our dream of bringing cotton spinning back to where it belongs – the North West of England. “There is a strong demand across the world for luxury goods with the ‘Made in Britain’ stamp, and English Fine Cottons has the pedigree for the job. Our roots are in technical textile manufacturing and we are in the perfect location – able to draw on a local workforce with the necessary skills and expertise.” Cllr Kieran Quinn is executive leader of Tameside Council and responsible for investment strategy and finance within the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA). He said: “The return of cotton spinning to Tameside is a matter of huge historical significance. “For more than 100 years cotton was the key industry in the various towns making up the borough and indeed the North West of England. The Park Road area of Dukinfield, where Tower Mill is situated, is a corridor of former cotton mills and testament to the hold spinning once had on the region. “While I applaud the work done at national and regional level to bring English Fine Cottons to Tameside, I would also like to praise the efforts of Tameside Council and Culimeta-Saveguard, both of which have invested a vast amount of time and resources. “I believe this project shows how enterprising the people of Tameside are, and how effective a little northern grit and common sense can be in achieving successful solutions.” The return of cotton spinning to Britain is part of a wider re-shoring trend in textile manufacturing, driven by a booming UK fashion industry. The TGP, which provides funding to textile manufacturing companies across England (excluding London), was set up to help UK companies take advantage of this opportunity. Business Minister Anna Soubry said: “Greater Manchester has a long tradition of cotton spinning so I’m delighted that this project, backed by government money, is using cutting-edge technology to bring the textile industry into the 21st century and creating jobs. There is a global demand for premium fashion made in the UK and this new mill is all part of a textile revival boosting our manufacturing capabilities.” The investment is the realisation of the opportunities highlighted by the Alliance Report, which earlier this year predicted the creation of up to 20,000 jobs by the UK textile sector by 2020 – worth £9bn to the UK economy.
Decolonial Aesthesis: From Singapore, to Cambridge, to Duke University I always ask my students, grad and undergraduate, for the mid-term “exam”, to write a letter to whomever they wish. It should be an educated person who is a little bit familiar with the topic, or not necessarily. The question is to explain “in your own words” (and not to hide behind textual commentaries or statistics), your understanding of the concepts and issues discussed in the first part of the seminar. This Spring, I taught a seminar on Decolonial Aesthetics. Or better yet, decolonial aesthesis. Aesthesis is a Greek word, as we know, it refers to senses, sensibility. There is a common sensibility among many people around the globe. The sensibility that comes from the experience of coloniality, that is, of being considered less or deficient human beings. Who consider them/as such? The One who control discourse and has the authority to define the human. Western aesthetics contributed to that. If you do not believe, read Immanuel Kant´s Observations on the Beautiful and the Sublime. From the colonial wound inflicted by Western aesthetics (because of course aesthetics is not a universal entity or way of being and sensing) comes decolonial aesthesis. The intellectual force and creativity today is coming from that sensibility, decolonial aesthesis, not only in ¨art¨ but in all spheres of life. By mid-term, students had to explain their understanding of “coloniality and decoloniality,” how colonial/imperial aesthetic works, what a decolonial understanding would be in the formation of decolonial subjectivities–that is, of decolonial aesthesis. Michelle K., from Singapore, wrote a letter to herself when she departed from Singapore to go to Cambridge. Now she, when writing this letter, she was a Duke University, North Carolina, US. The letter was already published in the catalog of Be.Bop 2013 http://decolonizingthecoldwar.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/bebop-2013-catalogue-online.pdf It was also recently printed in a special issue of Decolonial AestheSis. Colonial Wounds/Decolonial Healings, published by Social Text/Periscope, Summer 2013. Go to the end, the letter closes the volume. I provide you here with the typescript version To my eighteen-year-old self, on your departure for Cambridge September 21st, 2003 In three days, you will encounter a fish knife for the very first time. You will not know what it is, but everyone else will. You will watch, and imitate. You will not know how to eat – how to cut cheese, hold a wineglass, to dissect pheasant. You will not know how to dress, in the mandatory bulky black robes, or how to put your hair up as the other girls do. You will not know how to walk, high heels unsteady on ancient cobblestones. You will not know how to talk, of their celebrities, their politics, their favorite operas, their units of measurement, their terms of endearment. In class, in Front Court just off the famous Wren Chapel, you will learn that you do not know Latin. Claudia, from Poland, knows Latin. She also knows Polish, but hates speaking it with the young Polish woman who cleans her rooms. We’re in England now, she says. Julie, from Ireland, speaks with a perfect Standard English accent. So do Jonah from Manchester and Dr Davis, from Wales. So do Emma, from Oslo; and Adrian, from Belgrade; and Patrick, from Berlin. So do you. Joshua, also from Singapore, speaks with a thick Singaporean accent. Nobody speaks to him, because nobody understands him, except you. You never learn Latin, but you learn to fake it well enough to give the prayer before the Fellows in the dining hall. It’s an honor, you’re told. You shape the vowels carefully with your tongue: Oculi omnium in te sperant. The eyes of all look upon thee. You study versification. Versification is the study of form in poetry. You learn that we all speak in iambs, like the Greeks. You write poetry, and learn the proper names for what you do: this is enjambement, this is anaphora, that is isocolon. You learn to paint with the textures that make up Britain: limestone, pipesmoke, lambswool, tweed; reckon, rubbish, brilliant, dodgy, quid. At the International Students Gathering you will be told that you are interesting. You are foreign, you are a learning experience for others, you are exotic. People will ask where you come from. Singapore. Oh! they say – chewing gum is illegal there, isn’t it, and they cane people for vandalism. Don’t they also cut off the hands of thieves? No, you say. Oh, they say. Are you certain? Every day you will walk by King’s Chapel and every day be astounded by the sublime. There is something sacred, it seems, in the smooth stone and stained glass, in the altitudinous arches against the northern sky. Even the sky looks different here – a truer sky blue. The plants are a different green, milder than the ferns of the humid tropics, and more elegant. The trees are deciduous, quadrilingual. In the chapel you will hear Allegri’s Miserere and in the sharp highs and tumbling-bell cascades of gowned choir-boys come to know a different God than the one you met with guitar music in your old Sunday School. You will read Milton, and see His beauty. You will read Eliot, and see His wisdom. You will travel. You go to Athens, and you go to Rome. You go to Paris, London, Vienna, old cities rich with marble and history. You see the rock where St Paul preached, the hall where Mozart played, the house Jane Austen lived in. You see the beds of heroes, the halls of two hundred kings and queens. You see places that matter. Nothing in your country is more than two hundred years old. Your Marxist friend is repulsed by the splendor of Vatican City. You somewhat agree, but still you buy an overpriced rosary from the Vatican gift shop. Your people don’t pray with rosaries, so you don’t know what to do with it. Still, it is a valuable thing – made of plastic, to be sure, but stamped with the official insignia. The keys to the kingdom. You go to the opera. You go to museums. You learn the names of the masters, you learn their styles – the long slim forms of Botticelli, the bright grace of Raphael, the abs on the Michelangelo, the curves on the Titians – pink cheeks and white faces. You see hall upon hall of kouroi, men in the proportions of gods, with smooth blank eyes. You see beauty in the rich thickness of oil paints, in the huge splendid canvases, the gold frames, the high ceilings. You are happy and gratified and impressed. No one from your country ever made such things. You do not think to ask why. Your friends ask you about visiting Singapore. What’s there to see there? they ask. We don’t have much culture, you say. You direct a play. You would have liked to act instead, but there are no Chinese women in Chekhov’s Russia. There are no Chinese in Ibsen’s Norway. There are no Chinese in the Germany of Carl Jung or in Chicago in the 1950s. There are no Brits either, but that doesn’t seem to matter. In three years of theatre you will see two black faces on stage. One is Othello. The other is a maid. You see The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan. We are gentlemen of Japan… / On many a screen and fan We figure in lively paint / Our attitude’s queer and quaint / You’re wrong if you think it ain’t! The emperor likes decapitation. The heroine’s name is Yum-Yum. It is a comedy. You laugh. You study Shakespeare. You study tragedy. Ancient tragedy is the fall of a great man due to an unfortunate fault. Modern tragedy is the confrontation of a brave man with his own existential terror. Other things are tragic, but you don’t hear too much about them. You meet Willy Loman, Primo Levi, Nora Helmer, but it’s hard to pay attention. Sophocles speaks too loudly. Oedipus is king. You study moral philosophy: Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, and Kant. You learn to read them with blinkers on, mining them for the things that matter. You learn to write the way they do – assertive, arrogant, to-the-point. Men do better in exams, you are told, because they write this way. You must be confident. You must write like a man. You study the Romantics. You learn what nature looks like: white cliffs, high moors, rolling hills, spring air, green meadows; here and there a Roman ruin, here and there a shepherdess. What’s there to see in Singapore? your friends ask. We don’t have much nature, you say. You go bird-watching. There are several thousand bird species in the UK alone – robins, garnets, ravens, terns. You learn the names of trees and flowers – lilacs, magnolia, primrose, rosemary for remembrance, hyacinth for constancy, poppies, which mark the War Dead.It seems these flowers have a history that your flowers don’t. Poets write about them; they have meanings in books, and value in the flower shops. No one writes about the ixoras that grew in your old neighborhood – dense stubby shrubs with blooms no bigger than a wink, but beloved for the single drop of nectar you could suck from the stems. Or about the hibiscuses, brilliant and brash with their long dangling stamens; or the bouganvilla, common, roadside-dusty, with their paper-thin petals. Or angsanas, with their space-ship seeds. Rain trees like vine-strewn umbrellas. Franjipanis. Pong-pongs. Three short years later you will stand in a queue; neat rows of black robes and mostly white faces. When your turn comes you will kneel at the feet of an old man in a five-hundred-year-old chair. He says something in Latin you won’t care what it means. He gives you a scroll. You smile. You graduate. * All this is not a warning or a complaint about how unfair life will be for you. After all, you will not be unhappy; or if you are, you will not really notice. No one will be cruel to you, no one will be unfriendly, and you will learn many things. You will enjoy yourself, more or less; and you will make friends, acquire ‘social polish’, a confidence in speaking, the tools to make yourself heard. These are all good things. They are the things that you went to Britain to acquire. But I am writing to you to make you see what you will be at pains not to see: that as you acquire them, there will also be parts of you that are lost. And I am writing to tell you that your gains are not innocent – that they come with the baggage of coloniality. You will deny this at first, because you and your country are modern and free, and you will see your choice of university as precisely the expression of that freedom and ability. To think otherwise will seem almost absurd: you are at Cambridge; how could you possibly be oppressed? But coloniality didn’t end in 1963, when the British let your country go. It is not just the business of unfortunate Third Worlders in distant lands, still floudering in corruption and poverty because they lacked the vision and the statecraft of a Lee Kuan Yew. Coloniality continues, in fact, whenever bright young men and women from all over the world decide to cap off their educations by going on pilgrimage to pinnacles of Western civilization; when they dedicate themselves to the Western canon and walk in the shadows of gothic cathedrals and imperial facades, and learn that this is the good life. It continues whenever anyone anywhere in the world walks down a street and sees a billboard on the modern cathedral that is a shopping mall, and sees in that conjunction of power, wealth, and beauty an image of desire. In other words, it happens these days not by the strength of arms or the power of states, but by the captivation of the eyes, the training of the taste, by unwritten rules of thumb – that we all learn everywhere, without even knowing it. Coloniality is far from over: it is all over. It is perhaps the most powerful set of forces in the modern world. That may sound strange to you, because the power of Cambridge – of Europe itself – seems today to lie in the richness of its history. But to be truly modern is precisely to have a rich and legitimate history that one can master, draw from, and transcend. It is to have a history that is valuable in the present, transactable as social capital in an economy of competitive relations; in clear contrast to other, ‘anthropological’ histories – ‘African’, ‘Oriental’ – that are outdated, unusable, primitive. Besides, modernity comes in many guises: in skyscrapers and banks, to be sure, but also in fish knives, in cathedrals, in the knowledge of opera, in savoir faire. But modernity is not truly in the skyscraper or the bank or even the savoir faire. It is in the movement of a dangerous gift, transmitted from the West to the rest. Modernity says: we have the good, and we will give – or teach, or sell – it to you. Modernity is salvation through this gift from your prior self. It is Sir Stamford Raffles of the East India Company turning Temasek, the fishing village, into Singapore, the trade hub and aspiring metropolis. It is the magnificent edifice of Cambridge University turning Melissa, the girl who wore cheap pajamas sewn by her grandma to bed, into Melissa, the cosmopolitan, who graduated in a Hepburn dress and a fur hood. Modernity is someone saying to you: look, we have made you better. And you believing it. But why do you believe it? Why will your ignorance of the fish knife cut so deep? Why will your love of opera and your love of ixora be respectively crucial and inconsequential for your sense of sophistication and self-worth? It makes little logical sense, but coloniality doesn’t work that way.As you will learn, it works by the smallest and the largest things: from chit-chat to cathedrals. Another way of putting this is that the West has colonized not only knowledge, but aesthesis – every kind of sensing, believing, feeling. What can you do, then? Coloniality cannot be un-done, any more than you can un-read Chaucer or un-see Caravaggio, and it is undeniable that these things have broadened your mind. But the question is not how to retreat or how to prune yourself back to some pristine, native state. In fact, it is the opposite: how to recognize the narrowness of this so-called broadened mind – to realize that Europe is not the universe – and to take your sensing and knowing beyond those dominant ideas of the true, the good, and the beautiful. To move towards a pluri-verse that gives dignity to both the girl in the pajamas and the one in the little black dress – and yet to do so in a way that, unlike Western liberalism, is not naïve about either the ‘equality’ of the two, or about how we got from the one to the other. This means that it is not enough to simply read Confucious alongside Aristotle, or to turn from Uffizi to the Asian Civilizations Museum. That is part of it, certainly, but it doesn’t go far enough. In fact, merely claiming that ‘our’ art or philosophy is as beautiful or good as their Western counterparts only disguises the problem: it hides the issue of why we are in the position of having to make that claim in the first place (the question of coloniality), and it begs the question of what we mean by ‘good’, or ‘beautiful’, or even by ‘art’ or ‘philosophy’ (the question of imperial aesthetics). The movement known as ‘decolonial aesthetics’ is aimed at asking exactly those two questions. It is the study of how Western aesthetic categories like ‘beauty’ or ‘representation’ came to dominate all discussion of art and its value, and of how exactly those categories were are used – in everyone from Kant to Conrad – to organise and control the way we think of ourselves and others: as white or black, high or low, rich or poor, strong or weak, good or evil. And decolonial art (or literature, architecture, and so on) is art that enacts these critiques by exposing coloniality and its injustices and contradictions, often using juxtaposition, parody, irony, or simple disobedience towards the rules of art and polite society, so that the viewer or participant is not swept up in the sublimity or beauty that is the Western ideal, but in feelings of sadness, indignation, repentance, hope, and the determination to change things in the future. You may not see much decolonial art at Cambridge, but, just as the colonial aesthetic works on us in myriad and subtle ways, so can performances of decoloniality, if we learn how to see them. So as you walk through the grand college gates, look out for the homeless man, who refuses to move from his corner no matter what important procession passes by. Look out for the posters put up by the residents of Mill Road, in their campaign against the large-chain supermarket that would put the small Indian and Korean grocery stores there out of business. Think about the British Indian girl who wears a sari to class every day. And listen again to Joshua’s accent, and hear in it not failure to communicate, but a casual, everyday protest – a way of saying, I don’t have to sound like you to be worthy of being heard. These things may be hard to spot amidst the distractions of tall spires and lofty aspirations, but they are there
Have you ever been at a party with a guy who runs into somebody he knows and starts yammering away while you stand there awkwardly, holding your drink? Man, I hate when that happens. You’re left in social limbo. I usually have to just take things into my own hands and introduce myself, which is fine, but the exchange would have been much smoother had my friend introduced me to his buddies. Being introduced invites you into the conversation and makes you feel like part of the group, which is why making an introduction shows your respect for your guest. Neglecting to make an introduction leaves a person feeling ignored and, well, awkward. Making introductions is particularly important in business settings as they establish a rapport of respect, get relationships off on the right foot, and give you an aura of being confident, prepared, and in control. With our more casual culture, the art of the gentlemanly introduction has disappeared, but we’re here to help bring it back. Making introductions used to be a much more formal affair, with bowing, scraping, and a lot of rules, but nowadays just remembering to make them sets you apart from the cads out there. So there’s no need to adhere to ironclad laws or be all flowery about it. Keeping it simple and respectful goes a long way, and doing so requires following just one basic guideline: The Big Rule The overarching principle when making introductions is deference and respect. You show chivalrous deference to women by introducing the man to the woman. You show respect for your elders by introducing the younger to the older. And in a business setting, you show respect to higher-ups by introducing the person of lower rank to the person of higher position. Below we break down this rule into a few easy to understand examples so you can see how this works. Business Introductions Situation: Introducing business associates of different ranks How to do it: Introduce the person of lower rank to the person of higher rank, regardless of age or gender. Introduce the person of lower rank to the person of higher rank, regardless of age or gender. Example: “Mr. CEO, I would like to introduce Mr. Frank Underling from accounting.” Situation: Introducing a business associate of any rank and a client How to do it: Introduce the business associate to the client, regardless of rank, age, or gender. Introduce the business associate to the client, regardless of rank, age, or gender. Example: “Mr. Client, please meet our Vice President of Marketing, Andrew Smith.” Situation: Introducing two business associates of equal rank How to do it: Introduce the person that you don’t know as well to the person you know better. Introduce the person that you don’t know as well to the person you know better. Example: Let’s say your manager, Foster Knight is meeting the manager of the Detroit office, Cynthia Brown. “Foster, I’d like you to meet the manager of the Detroit Office, Cynthia Brown.” Social Introductions Situation: Introducing a man and a woman How to do it: Introduce the man to the woman Introduce the man to the woman Example: “Amanda, this is Jake Nelson who has been helping me study for the bar.” (Note: In social settings, a man is always introduced to a woman, regardless of the individuals’ ages.) Situation: Introducing a younger person and an older person (of the same sex) How to do it: Introduce the younger person to the older person. Introduce the younger person to the older person. Example: “Mr. Mothballs, I’d like you to meet my friend Roy. He’s my roommate in college.” Situation: Introducing a person and a relative How to do it: Introduce the person to the relative. Introduce the person to the relative. Example: “Dad, I would like to introduce my girlfriend Carly.” Situation: Introducing one or more persons and a group of people How to do it: Introduce the group to the individual(s). Introduce the group to the individual(s). Example: “Sarah and Andy, I would like you to meet Mike, Bruce, Jim, and Harvey.” Notes on group introductions: Say the names of everyone in the group slowly so that your guest will have a greater chance of remembering them. If your bring your guest to a small gathering, you may introduce him or her to everyone there. If you bring your guest to a large party, just introduce them to whom they’re sitting by or those people who enter into a conversation with the two of you. Don’t bring them around the room and introduce them to every single person there. What to Do When Being Introduced Remember that first impressions are always the time to shine, so when being introduced to someone, look them in the eye, offer a good handshake (when meeting a woman, wait to see if she extends her hand first), and say something like: “I’ve really been looking forward to meeting you.” “I’ve heard such great things about you.” “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” “It’s great to finally meet you.” Then, immediately follow-up with a conversation starter. “Rodger told me you’ve been training for a marathon next week. How’s that going?” Other Tips Rely on common sense when choosing whether or not to use a person’s title when making an introduction. In formal situations and when the person has not given you permission to use their first name, use titles like Mr., Mrs., Dr., etc. A good rule is simply to refer to the person as you normally refer to them. If you’re introducing your boss and you call your boss “Mr. Cooper” at the office, don’t suddenly call him Bob. Always stand up for introductions. Make sure you know how to pronounce people’s names correctly when making introductions. Say something interesting about the person you’re introducing so that the person he or she is being introduced to will have an easier time remembering their name and transitioning into conversation. Like so: Sam: “James, I’d like to introduce you to my friend Eddie Hill. Eddie caught a 20 lb bass last week. James: That’s incredible! Where were you fishing, Eddie? Boom-instant rapport.
Concert photography isn't easy. While portrait and landscape photographers have the luxury of time and stable conditions, concert photographers must do their work in three-song segments, boxing out other photographers and reacting to unpredictable movements of the musicians on stage while adjusting settings on the fly to accommodate lighting changes that happen between drum kicks. It requires a tremendous combination of technical knowledge, artistic eye, and musical sense. The novelist Mark Z. Danielewski, in his masterpiece House of Leaves, put it best when describing the task presented to photojournalists: "A photojournalist is very much like an athlete. Similar to hockey players or bodyboarders, they have learned and practiced over and over again very specific movements. But great photographers must not only commit to reflex those physical demands crucial to handling a camera, they must also refine and internalize aesthetic sensibilities. There is no time to think through what is valuable to a frame and what is not. Their actions must be entirely instinctual, immediate, and the result of years and years of study, hard work and of course, talent." We'd like to find the best photographer Phoenix has to offer and give them their due recognition. Therefore, we are now accepting nominations for the the award of Best Concert Photographer in Phoenix. Here's how the process will work. For the initial round, photographers must nominate themselves and send us five to 10 samples of their work. Then, a panel of experts (who have yet to be finalized) will whittle the nominations down to anywhere between five and 10 finalists. We will then make a series of blog posts featuring each photographer, and then we will have a poll. Readers will get the final say as to who gets the title.
Donald Trump told a nationally syndicated radio host that he has met with Vladimir Putin and “got along with him great, by the way.” President-elect Trump’s stunning admission happened on October 6th, 2015 on the nationally syndicated Savage Nation radio program during the Republican primary campaign. Savage: “Have you met Vladimir Putin?” Trump: “Yes, one time, yes a long time ago. Got along with him great, by the way.” You can listen to the podcast below, which is published on YouTube by the widely followed account SavageNationLiberty. Michael Savage is a nationally syndicated, right-wing radio broadcaster and author, who has interviewed Donald Trump numerous times over the years and during the campaign. The Democratic Coalition recently unearthed the audio file with a 12 minute segment, in middle of which (at the 5:27 mark) Donald Trump admits to having met with the Russian President. “Over the entire course of his campaign, and even in the days since his election, President-elect Trump has denied that he has had any relationship with Vladimir Putin,” said Scott Dworkin, Senior Advisor to the Democratic Coalition. “We now have Trump himself recorded twice admitting to knowing Putin. We deserve to know the truth about the person who will be inaugurated as our President on Friday.” Throughout the campaign and after the election, Trump has denied all connections to Russia.
A portion of a DualShockers interview with producer Kenichiro Takaki... DS: Since we’re talking about the latest consoles, are you interested in working on Nintendo NX? KT: I’m very interested in the NX too, and I’d like to eventually work on the console. DS: You worked with Nintendo before. Your games seem the kind of titles that Nintendo would feel awkward about. After all, they even censor their own games. Did they ever give you problems about the content of Senran Kagura? KT: There weren’t actual restrictions, or anything that they actually told me not to do, but I did feel the pressure from Nintendo. But, you know, after we discussed so many times, we managed to make it happen. With the first game there was a lot of confusion on Nintendo’s part, because they didn’t really know the gameplay, and they only saw the sexy side. Yet, after they saw what the actual gameplay was like, they didn’t have any problem because they knew what the game was all about. For Senran Kagura 2 it wasn’t that hard.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — It’s hard to completely trust any government that reserves the right to assassinate me (or you) with a robot airplane. So it’s no wonder that many people are skeptical about the government’s economic data. There’s a lot of money riding on the accuracy and credibility of U.S. economic data. A lot of that faith is misplaced, but it’s not because the government is actively fudging the numbers or lying to us. Unlike a lot of people in Washington, the statisticians who crunch the numbers are a professional bunch who want to get things right. MarketWatch The two alternative measures of unemployment have risen and fallen in tandem. We know that because we can verify much of what they produce from other independent sources. By and large, the government data are consistent with numbers produced by the private sector. Of course statistics, by their very nature, can never be perfect or pure, no matter how well-meaning their creators. Frequently we make it even tougher on ourselves by misinterpreting what the data could tell us with a bit of certainty. Too often we pay attention to the wrong numbers and ignore a more useful alternative. Those problems in understanding the data are compounded when we try to use them to make political points. In recent years, the unemployment rate has become one of the most politicized economic numbers. Which means it’s also become one of the most misunderstood numbers. I have a partial solution for that, as you’ll see. In theory, the jobless rate should be noncontroversial. It’s simply the percentage of people who want a job who can’t find one. However, it’s more complicated in practice. What does it mean to look for work? How hard do you have to try? How often do you have to try? What does it mean to have a job? Does it have to be a full-time job to count? What if it’s irregular work? Back in the 1940s, the government defined those terms: Any paid work in the past week counts as a job. And to be counted as officially unemployed, a person must have actively looked for work some time in the past month. With a few exceptions, those are still the definitions used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Political opponents of Barack Obama (and of George W. Bush before him) are wrong to suggest that the current administration has moved the goal posts on unemployment. (Optional Bob Woodward joke here.) Under those definitions, the official unemployment rate (known as the U-3 rate) was 7.7% in February; there were 12 million people who said they had looked for a job without success, compared with 155.5 million in the labor force. Read U.S. economy adds 236,000 jobs in February. But there were also 6.8 million people who said they wanted a job but weren’t even looking, perhaps because they were discouraged. Or maybe other hurdles, such as transportation problems or child-care duties, stood in their way. See the data on the BLS website. In addition, 8 million people said bad economic and business conditions limited them to part-time hours even though they preferred to work full-time. If you count those discouraged workers and involuntary part-timers as unemployed, the unemployment rate jumps to 14.3%. The government reports this number as the U-6 rate. See the alternative measures of unemployment on the BLS website. Some people call the U-6 rate the “real” unemployment rate, but that doesn’t make sense: It includes millions of people who do have a job, even if it’s not the one they want. What’s the ‘real’ unemployment rate? Some analysts have begun paying attention to a different measure of labor-market slack: the labor participation rate. This is simply the percentage of adults, age 16 and up, who are in the labor force (either working or actively looking), excluding those in institutions such as the military, prisons or hospitals. MarketWatch The participation rate for working-age adults shows that millions of people have given up looking for work since the recession began. The idea for using the participation rate is that so many discouraged workers have stopped looking for a job that the official U-3 unemployment rate has become irrelevant. For instance, the U-3 rate fell to 7.7% in February, in part because the labor force shrank by 130,000. The drop in the unemployment rate to a four-year low wasn’t necessarily great news. About 40% of unemployed people have been out of work longer than six months, far more than at any time since the Great Depression. It stands to reason that many people who’ve been unemployed that long without finding a new job would simply give up, drop out of the labor force and no longer be counted as officially unemployed. But we can’t pretend they don’t exist. The participation rate is currently 63.5%, down from 66.2% at the beginning of the recession, matching a 31-year low. If the participation rate were still at 66.2%, the unemployment rate would be 12.1%. So is that the “real” unemployment rate? Not really. There’s no reason to think that a 66.2% participation rate is the correct level. More than 3 million people turn 65 each year. The number of retired people is soaring. Yet these people are still counted as part of the adult population. Because the population is aging, the participation rate is falling rapidly. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that it will fall to 63% by 2021, even with the economy at full employment. These people haven’t dropped out of the labor force; they’ve retired. If we really want to understand the health of the labor market, it’d be best to focus on employment and unemployment of the working-age population, 25 to 65, and leave millions of teenagers and octogenarians out of the equation. Unfortunately, this data isn’t published by the government in the monthly employment report, and it isn’t seasonally adjusted, so it’s harder to analyze. But it is available on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website. In 2012, the participation rate for the working-age population was 77.5%, down about three percentage points from the peak of 80.2% in 1997. Find the data yourself. It means that the vast majority of working-age adults, men and women, are working or looking for work. But it also means that many millions have given up hope of finding a job. Some of them will never work again. If the participation rate were where it was in 2007, about 3 million more working-age adults would be in the labor force, and the unemployment rate for that group would be about 9%, instead of 6.8%. That means that the “real” unemployment rate is about two percentage points higher than the official rate. If we understood that, we might be trying to do more to create jobs. Long-term unemployment is our country’s biggest problem, and if we don’t do something quick, it’ll cause permanent damage to our economy, and ruin the lives of millions of people.
Wales are edging towards qualification for Euro 2016, which would be their first major tournament since 1958 Wales are one place behind Brazil after reaching an all-time high of eighth in the Fifa world football rankings. They stay above England, who remain at 10th; while Northern Ireland move up six places to 35th. It is a six-year high for the Northern Irish, while Scotland are down nine to 40th and the Republic of Ireland slip three places to 54th, World Cup winners Germany have moved back into second place in the rankings behind Argentina. The new list takes into account the Euro 2016 qualifiers in September. Wales won in Cyprus before a home draw with Israel brought them closer to qualification for their first major tournament since 1958. Austria are celebrating their highest-ever placing at 11 after sealing a place at Euro 2016, while the biggest mover is Liberia, rising 65 places to 95. Fifa rankings top 10 1 Argentina, 2 Germany, 3 Belgium, 4 Portugal, 5 Columbia, 6 Spain, 7 Brazil, 8 Wales, 9 Chile, 10 England Selected others 17 Italy, 22 France, 35 Northern Ireland, 40 Scotland, 54 Republic of Ireland
Four LSU football players, including linebacker Tahj Jones, have been declared academically ineligible for the 2012 football season, a source close to the program said Tuesday. Also out for the season are senior tight end , sophomore linebacker and sophomore offensive lineman . Jones was the only player of the four who was a starter. He has been replaced in the lineup by junior Luke Muncie for the Tigers first two games. Jones and Edwards were not listed on LSU's gameday roster Saturday, but Welter and Washington were. The loss of the four is a hit to the Tigers' roster depth. The Tigers have lost Tyrann Mathieu to dismissal, while junior offensive tackle Chris Faulk and freshman wide receiver Travin Dural are out for the season with injuries. Incoming freshman recruits Avery Johnson and Jeremy Liggins, and junior college transfer Fehoko Fanaika did not qualify and were unable to enroll for the fall semester. Jones, 6-feet-2, 205-pounder from Sulphur, saw significant playing time last season as a reserve with one start and registered 27 tackles. Edwards, a 6-4, 235-pounder from Monroe, played in 39 games in three years with one start and one pass reception for 10 yards. He was mainly used as a blocker in multiple tight end sets. Welter is a 6-0, 226-pound reserve who played in seven games last season and had five tackles. Washington, 6-5 and 326 pounds, is from DeSoto, Texas. He redshirted in 2010 and did not play last season with because of an injury,
The whole Confederate flag thing isn’t solely a Southern trouble. Here in Washington state we have our very own Confederate park — run by a group that still believes, 150 years on, that the South was in the right. Now that South Carolina may stop flying its Confederate flag, and Mississippi could remove the charged symbol and even Amazon has stopped selling it, about the only place left to see the emblem of Southern resistance still proudly flapping in the wind is: here. Yes, oddly, here in Washington state. As northern as we are, for eight years now we have had our own Confederate flag park, next to the southbound Interstate 5 lanes in Ridgefield, about five miles north of Vancouver in Clark County. It’s called Jefferson Davis Park. It’s there to honor the only president of the Confederacy (though he never traveled here). I visited the privately owned park a few years back. I was in Vancouver to cover a town-hall meeting and heard that a new monument to the Confederacy had opened. Here? Now? Why in the world? I’ve long been drawn to roadside curiosities, so I pulled off the freeway to check it out. There’s not much there — no historical information to speak of, just some stone markers to Davis that had once been along Highway 99 but were removed after an outcry 15 years ago. The stated reason for this park is to honor Davis’ “role in forming a system of protective coastal forts in the Pacific Northwest.” What stands out, though, is that whoever runs the park flies two flags. There’s a Confederate flag on one pole, and the old Betsy Ross Union flag, the one with 13 stars, on another. It’s as if the war is still on, at least in somebody’s mind. I stayed maybe two minutes. The park struck me as historically lacking, with almost no context about why it was there, and otherwise just strange. But here’s what the president of the Clark County NAACP, Marva Edwards, on Monday told The Columbian newspaper about what flashes into her mind when she drives by the park. “We see that flag and we have to wonder, is it going to be the noose next?” She elaborated: “It sends a message of the old days. It is a reflection of bigotry, divisiveness and hatred. It does not symbolize what America stands for.” This park is on private land, so they can fly whatever they want on it. But it turns out what’s truly bizarre is that the group that runs the park, the Sons of Confederate Veterans Pacific Northwest Division, isn’t just honoring the war dead or keeping Civil War history alive. This group actively pushes that the South’s side in the 150-year-old conflict was the right side — still. “The South was right to secede and it wasn’t until Lincoln sent 70,000 soldiers to wage war on Americans, that the people finally saw that their only chance to stay free would be to leave,” the group wrote in a statement Sunday entitled “Our Park Is Under Media Attack.” “We will never give up on defending our heritage and the truth,” the statement continued. The group’s motto is: “Honoring and defending the Confederate soldier and the cause for which he fought” — the second part there sounding like a nod to white supremacy. The group insists its flying of the flag is not racist and that it’s been dragged wrongly into this debate by the shootings in Charleston. “The war was not fought over Slavery, which has been proven to be true over and over again,” the statement reads. “It was all related to the tariff and State vs National power. The South simply wanted to be left alone, but the United States wouldn’t allow it to be free.” Still, why here, in the Pacific Northwest? “The Pacific NW has little connection to the War for Southern Independence,” wrote the group’s commander, Erik Ernst. “But it has not been shielded from the onslaught of Yankee lies and propaganda, which has and still is, trying to destroy our Cause …” I called Mr. Ernst to tell him the war was over but he didn’t get back to me. Seriously, isn’t it revealing that we’re still debating this now? It’s progress, I guess, that places like South Carolina finally are grappling with the message of subjugation that the old flag sends to African Americans. But something’s seriously wrong with us that it took 150 years to get that. I don’t think the flag should be banned. Amazon announced it would no longer sell them, though that seemed like public-relations spin because, clicking around Tuesday, it was easy to find Nazi gear on the site. You can’t sanitize history. But society can work to put it in some public and historical context. It’s tempting to think of these old wounds as just a Southern problem. But you can drive down I-5 and see for yourself that it isn’t.
Scientists have unravelled the mystery behind a site which was thought to be a wartime myth. Researchers have discovered a secret Nazi base code-named 'Treasure Hunter' on Alexandra Land in the Arctic Circle. It was built on direct orders from German dictator Adolf Hitler and is located 1,000 kilometres from the North Pole. Also Read: Hitler was a crystal meth addict, reveals dossier The island is now a part of the Russian territory and was supposedly constructed in 1942, a year after Hitler invaded Russia. However, it was abandoned in July 1944 because the crew were poisoned after being forced to eat raw polar bear meat. They were running low on supplies and the meat was infected with roundworms but after consumption, the crew became seriously ill and had to be rescued by a German U-boat. After 72 years, researchers have come across over 500 relics, including the ruins of bunkers, discarded petrol canisters and even paper documents. Thanks to the island's freezing climate everything was preserved. They even found bullets, scraps of tents and personal items such as shoes. Some of the items apparently were dated and were marked with the swastika. Also Read: Hitler was alive and in Brazil till age 96, says new book "Before it was only known from written sources, but now we also have real proof," said Evgeny Ermolov, a senior researcher at the Russian Arctic National Park as reported by PTI. Nearly 500 items of historical value have been collected from the secret military base which was in operation from September 1943 until July 1944.
Two white Texas girls have been in hot water since a recording of their racist improvised rap song started circulating on social media, and they have since released a letter of apology in which they blame society for their actions. The recording, which was made in June 2013, begins with one girl rapping, “N*as nas n**as they always look at me, I want to kill them now, I want to hang them from a tree,” and continues to make reference to killing black boys as well as derogatory references to Latino and Asian-Americans. However, the girls insisted that they did not understand what they were doing. “At this time in our lives, racism was not the talk of the country nor had we ever witnessed the true power of social media, twitter was still fresh and we had never heard of anyone getting in trouble for posting anything on social media, it was the beginning of this social era,” said one of the girls in a letter written to classmates and teachers. “The song does not portray in any way how I actually feel about people,” one girl insisted. “I am a very open-minded person and I enjoy being part of a diverse family and diverse community. I am being raised to be respectful of all people, cultures and differences.” The girls wanted to be clear that it was society that had given them these ideas, insisting that they did not pick up racism at home but in the world, where they heard racist jokes “all times of the day.” “In my own home, my entire life I have never heard a foul or judgmental (sic) word for another race ever leave my parents’ mouths,” a girl claimed. “I myself have witnessed others spit racial slurs or comments and have been completely dumbfounded to the point of tears.” Casting herself as the victim, she went on to say, “The person I am, the person I will now be remembered as, the person who would do anything to take back the words that have hurt and offended so many has accepted the fact that when people are hurt, they want someone to be held responsible. They need someone punished.” Both girls expressed their deepest apologies and asked forgiveness from classmates and school employees. Listen to the rap below and judge for yourself.
287 121 Essex St New York , NY 10002 (212) 477-2998 The Whiskey Ward's one of my favorite bars in the world. It doesn't have the broadest selection of whiskies (that'd be Jack Rose in DC, or even Copper & Oak a few blocks away). It doesn't have the best prices (that'd be Avenue Pub in New Orleans). It isn't the prettiest, by a long shot (sorry, guys!). But it's the bar to which I return time and time again, and pretty much every time I have the pleasure of finding myself in New York. The Whiskey Ward's a place where I've enjoyed sampling many a dram with old friends. This is a classic, no-frills, quasi-dive bar that happens to have a hell of a whiskey collection. Wood paneling in abundance? Check. Chalkboards with the day's specials and the current bottles? Check. Barrels that double as tables? Double-check. One thing I appreciate about The Whiskey Ward, and wish more bars would do, is keep an up-to-date stock list on their website. Admittedly, it'd a lot of effort, and bottles will come in and out of rotation as they are finished. But as a true scotch fan, I enjoy poring over a menu and deciding what I want to try in advance -- or, for that matter, deciding whether a bar is even worth visiting. These guys have a healthy collection of rare and expensive bottles, although I think that they shine in the mid- to high-range, where they price their pours much more affordably than other New York establishments. I didn't splurge on my last trip there, but a 17-year old Signatory Cask Strength Laphroaig was mighty tempting. Whiskey Ward also features bottles from upstart American independent bottler Single Cask Nation and a lot of coveted bottles of American bourbon or rye, such as Kentucky Owl, Parker's Heritage, and Whistlepig Boss Hog Black Prince. One important note: The Whiskey Ward serves its whiskies with true 2-ounce pours, which is a rarity. In comparison, most of its competitors serve 1.5-ounce pours, and their price per pour is higher than this place. I'm not really sure how they do it, but I'm not going to complain about the wide range of high-end scotches that they offer at under $20. Even better, if you want to try more, you can ask for a 1-ounce pour for half the price. Really nice low key bar with some of THE BEST liquor selection you can ask for. Great atmosphere and service to match. If you are into Bourbon and you're in the area you will be in heaven. Great whiskey bar with LOTS of options! Came here twice, once when it was SUPER crowded on a weekend night and another time when it just opened for the night. Felt very different both times. When it's crowded, you can barely move around and you don't feel like you want to "enjoy" a drink of whiskey, but rather a drink to drink. However, when the place is quieter without much people, very cozy place to enjoy whiskey. Like I said, lots of options with prices ranging about $10-20 per pour. I recommend doing the flight, which is 3 1 oz pours (costing half of the listed price of whatever whiskey you order) if you want to try the whiskey. The bartenders are very helpful and give very good suggestions. They also have a pool table, which is a good thing to do on the side. Overall, I'm a fan of this place! Cool "shabby chic" watering hole with a serious whiskey selection and people who seem to take their drinking seriously... Definitely a place where one can "chill out" and get quietly absorbed in consuming a wide range of top-shelf or obscure whiskeys (and other spirits). Beer tap selection is limited, but very good (both Guinness and Speckled Hen on tap). If you're looking for food -- fuggetaboutit! (there are peanuts on the bar and a good taco joint next door). I strongly recommend this place, although I was there on a quiet night and read that it could really fill up, which IMO would seriously change the vibe from good to something else... came here because i had some down time. a pretty chill bar with a crazy selection of whiskeys. Not yet a whiskey kind of guy though. they have some decent specials like $4 pbr all night and $4 beers until 8PM. they have a pool table and a flatscreen which is a plus in my book. this bar falls into the category of no frills in that they don't serve any food and is good solely for hanging out and drinking. they were blasting some killers songs, and seems like a nice place to hangout if you don't want a place that is too loud. so I think this might be my new fav no frills place. sorry magician. I love whiskey, I love throwing peanut shells on the floor and I love Whiskey Ward. This is a do not miss for any whiskey lover. They have endless options and the bartenders are friendly & incredibly knowledgeable about them all. Very helpful with choosing if you are overwhelmed. Not only are the drink options great, the vibe is great. The crowd here is always really chill with many locals. There are plenty of cozy seating areas and pool in the back. Oh, and free peanuts. Prices are very reasonable as well. It's hard not to love this place! This place is legit!!! Friendly staff, friendly customers, and a selection of spirits that exceeded my expectations. Mel was my bartender and she was the heat! She took awesome care of me and genuinely pressed me to visit again. Laid back atmosphere and not crazy loud or packed with hipster douchebags. A great place to meet people and drink some top shelf spirits. Love the place!!! 4.4/5.0 would recommend to a knowledgeable whiskey person, if you are wanting to learn about the subject than I would recommend going in early before the bartenders get to wasted to cohesively string together a sentence. Over all great experience. THE SPOT to go too! Such good drinks! Made it in time for Happy Hour, $5 Margs do the trick! Great bartenders and very spacious bar! Now this is my kinda bar. I mean-- not completely. I'm not inclined to the whole dive bar appeal but I'm a bit of a whiskey fiend and this place has more bottles of whiskey than most bars have of bottles in general. The board in the back can get confusing because of the vast selection but they have a handy dandy whiskey bible to peruse. I was looking for an educational experience and letting the bartender know this, she was excited to oblige. Bourbons, American/Canadian ryes, peak/funk (what she calls it), there's so much to grasp and because of their flight system, it was a fun learning experience. I got to try all these rare drinks in one sitting. A flight of 3 rounds out to $20 or so. The lady I came with ordered the Sweet Tea. Definitely sweet and definitely strong... not so much tea-y. There's pool and darts in the back. Again, not my thing but I think I can come around to the idea of sipping and shooting. This place sucks! The owner just kicked us out for a spilled drink. It was an accident and when we tried to explain he called security and had us removed. Don't go here. The whiskey/whisky list is among the best in the city and fairly priced (for the city). Nice, helpful bartenders who will suggest cleansing your palate between drams. There are also offer flights and different sized pours. Not much in the way of good beer and the place does get packed with Bud Lite or Jack and Coke people so come at an off hour if you want to do the whiskey snob thing in a peaceful environment like me. Or come at peak hours and have fun in a chaotic environment, also like me, sometimes. They have free shelled peanuts to keep your fingers nimble. Honestly nothing special about this place. They have a pool table for $2. It seems more like a dive bar than a whiskey hub. Came on a Wednesday night with some friends. Place was empty as hell. Maybe it's different on the weekend, I doubt it, it doesn't offer much. My favorite place to hang on a Sunday night. While on the weekends it's super packed, Sunday has a chill vibe and the bartender, Jen, is the absolutely best (plus she plays great music). They have a great pool table and a happy hour on Sunday which is cool. Go if you want to try an expensive and hard to find whisky. My best friend and I stopped in and had the Nikka Miyagikyo single malt which was fantastic! The crowd on a friday night was mostly professional types drinking over priced cocktails and beers - but to each their own. The whisky list is a small book so you can definitely nerd out and try something new. Would definitely go back. Whiskey Ward is a great alternative to go to on the Lower East side when you are kind of sick of the same usual dive spots. Or I was at least sick of the same usual spots. It was my first time there but I walked by a sign with marked down beers and wells for $4 until 8pm. My friend and I had already been drinking next door at Boss Tweeds and went for a nitecap after I tried to no avail to get my sister to join us. She was residing in a hotel three blocks away eating bbq with her husband. Still not over it. Things to take note: Pool table in the back. Awesome creepy looking paintings of Victorian Vampires. Free peanuts are placed in bowls on the tables. Being in that neither of us had eaten dinner and I probably hadn't eaten that day, we went to town on the nuts. Their whiskey selection is much better than their beer selection. Also, this is the spot if you want some more expensive and exotic whiskeys poured for you on the cheap. Been here a couple times and it's always a good time...the bartenders are cool..happy hour prices are always on point the drinks are good..I will always come here ! Dave is the man! The flights were great and I could drink lemon fizz for the rest of my life. You are missing out if you don't come here!! Check it out, highly recommended! We had a great experience. The bartenders were amazing. Both of them really knew their stuff and generous with their time to answer questions. The variety available was beyond belief. We will definitely stop in again the next time we are in the city.
This is the final part of our series. To read entries 30-21, click here. To read entries 20-11, click here. 10. Wolves, 1937/38 Following a meeting with chemist Menzies Sharp, Buckley allowed his players to undergo a four-month course of 12 injections taken from monkey glands “If you didn’t like his style you’d very soon be on your bicycle to another club,” future Wolves manager Stan Cullis later said of Molineux supremo Major Frank Buckley. The Somme veteran, who didn’t suffer fools gladly, ensured that Wolves adopted a far more direct and aggressive approach to games - so much so that they were banned from a 1937 pre-season tour due to their ‘over-vigorous’ play the previous season. Buckley also enjoyed garnering attention in the press and, following a meeting with chemist Menzies Sharp, allowed his players to undergo a four-month course of 12 injections taken from monkey glands. Despite rumours persisting that it was simply a placebo, Wolves emerged as a rising force in the game during the late 1930s, by fair means or foul. We can only assume that Major Frank Buckley wouldn't have been a fan of dressing-room selfies Chief villain: Buckley offered his crestfallen players a stinging rebuke after they narrowly missed out on the title in 1938. “The Major told us only conscientious objectors and men of poor character cried,” striker Dicky Dorsett later said. “He told us to sit in silence for a while and pull ourselves together.” 9. Stoke 2009/10 Delap’s throws should have been a one-season novelty in the Premier League, but no-one could figure out how to stop them This was Stoke’s second season in the Premier League, and probably marked peak Pulis – before he got delusions of grandeur and started mixing football in with the Potters’ unadulterated violence. Their most potent weapon was Rory Delap’s long throw, hated not only because the goals it created were so ugly they’re worth a specialty Twitter account, but also because of the rigmarole before each one. Thinking about the elaborate ball towelling process still makes us shudder. Delap’s throws should have been a one-season novelty in the Premier League, but nobody could figure out how to stop them. Stoke finished 11th that year, and the effectiveness of their rugged approach won them few admirers – especially after Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey had his leg broken in three places by a robust tackle from Ryan Shawcross who is, of course, not that kind of player. At Stoke, they were all that kind of player, which was kind of the point. Embedded video for Ranked! The 30 most hated ever teams in British football: 10-1 Chief villain: Rory Delap, for basically breaking football with a bit of upper-body strength and a small hand towel. 8. Preston 1888/89 In 1894, Sudell was jailed after embezzling £5,325 (over half a million quid in today’s money) to give to players The Lilywhites were a great team – they won the league in 1888/89 undefeated – but their greatness was tarnished by corruption. Ten of that side were Scots, lured south by promises of money – and jobs at a cotton mill managed by Preston’s secretary/manager William Sudell. Four years earlier, when football was still officially an amateur game, the FA had kicked Preston out of the FA Cup for paying players. When they, Aston Villa and Sunderland threatened a breakaway league over the issue, a compromise was struck, allowing clubs to employ professional footballers who were born – or lived – locally. Despite this partial victory, bad old habits died hard: in 1894, Sudell was jailed after embezzling £5,325 (over half a million quid in today’s money) to give to players. Preston North End: the original Invincibles Chief villain: William Sudell. A pioneer of commercialism in football – he once suggested that clubs should not share gate receipts equally – Sudell used his wealth to make Preston invincible (for one season). 10-8 • 7-5 • 4-2 • 1 More in this list: 30-21 • 20-11
The prior offseason could have been referred to as the offseason of the pitcher. First, before the sting of their 2012 ALCS sweep at the hands of Detroit had even worn off, the Yankees and C.C. Sabathia came to terms with a new 5-year extension worth $122 million, as Sabathia wisely chose to opt out of his contract. Then Zack Greinke came to terms with the Dodgers (to no one’s surprise) to the tune of 6 years and $147 million. Shortly before the season started Felix Hernandez temporarily set the record for the greatest total value in a contract for a pitcher at $175 million over 7 years. Finally, just a couple of days before Opening Day Justin Verlander signed a 7-year extension worth $180 million. These are the most significant examples of teams putting more financial faith in pitchers over the past few years, though they are not the only ones. According to the USA Today salary database, both 2012 and 2013 saw a record number of pitchers among the highest 25 salaries in all of baseball (at least going back to 2002). In each of the last two years there were 11 pitchers among the top 25 salaries, compared to an average of less than 8 in the previous ten seasons: Year Batters Pitchers 2002 18 7 2003 18 7 2004 18 7 2005 17 8 2006 17 8 2007 20 5 2008 17 8 2009 16 9 2010 16 9 2011 15 10 2012 14 11 2013 14 11 Similarly, in recent years baseball teams are committing a greater share of their total resources to pitchers when it comes to salaries of elite players. As can be seen in the tables below, as recently as 2007, of the total amount of salary given to players in the Top 25, 80% went to 20 different batters. But in 2013, only 55% of Top 25 player salary went to batters. Batters Total Salary % of Top 25 Average 2002 $ 239,771,994 73% $ 13,320,666 2003 $ 271,228,573 73% $ 15,068,254 2004 $ 287,633,334 73% $ 15,979,630 2005 $ 272,695,136 68% $ 16,040,890 2006 $ 275,827,120 69% $ 16,225,125 2007 $ 314,583,820 80% $ 15,729,191 2008 $ 300,759,901 71% $ 17,691,759 2009 $ 301,856,186 67% $ 18,866,012 2010 $ 312,193,378 66% $ 19,512,086 2011 $ 309,030,684 63% $ 20,602,046 2012 $ 299,151,784 58% $ 21,367,985 2013 $ 291,504,365 55% $ 20,821,740 Total $ 3,476,236,275 67% $ 17,381,181 Pitchers Total Salary % of Top 25 Average 2002 $ 87,464,286 27% $ 12,494,898 2003 $ 99,989,286 27% $ 14,284,184 2004 $ 106,339,286 27% $ 15,191,327 2005 $ 126,739,286 32% $ 15,842,411 2006 $ 122,973,528 31% $ 15,371,691 2007 $ 76,206,180 20% $ 15,241,236 2008 $ 125,777,347 29% $ 15,722,168 2009 $ 148,629,254 33% $ 16,514,362 2010 $ 164,029,725 34% $ 18,225,525 2011 $ 184,755,421 37% $ 18,475,542 2012 $ 217,695,011 42% $ 19,790,456 2013 $ 237,185,184 45% $ 21,562,289 Total $ 1,697,783,794 33% $ 16,977,838 2013 marked the first time in the past 12 years in which the average salary of Top 25 salaried players was higher for pitchers (over $21.5 million) than it was for batters (over $20.8 million). In each of the past twelve years, batters both outnumbered pitchers on the Top 25 list and also made more than them. Now the trend is to pay elite pitchers even more than elite hitters. Furthermore, a quick glance at the Top 25 list shows more potential “dead weight” in the salaries of position players than in pitchers. After identifying the players who expect to miss a significant portion of the season or who are not expected to or have not yet produced (all highlighted below), six of the eight are position players. While this is something of an arbitrary exercise it still proves the point that the years of teams being hesitant to commit big-time money to position players and not pitchers appears to be coming to an end. Do you think these pitchers are worth these huge contracts? Let us know in the comments!
On Tuesday, I filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to uphold President Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily pausing the entry of foreign nationals from six terror-prone counties. Supreme Court review is needed because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit recently ruled against the valid executive order. I am leading a multistate coalition asking the Supreme Court to permit the president to exercise his lawful authority to protect the homeland. What the 4th Circuit completely missed is that the executive order is a tailored response to a very real threat to our national security. A pause on entry from countries with heightened security concerns—such as Libya, where authorities arrested suspects linked to the horrific attack in Manchester—is justified to ensure that new arrivals are thoroughly vetted. Liberal activists are upset that Trump is keeping his promise to secure our border, protect our country, and keep Americans safe from acts of terror. Unfortunately, it seems that some federal judges, like the majority of the court that opined against the president’s executive order, are now substituting their “politically desired outcome” for the law, to quote dissenting Judge Paul Niemeyer. The multistate brief that I filed shows courts have long recognized that the federal government has the power to exclude aliens. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly described the ability to refuse the admission of aliens into our country as a core federal prerogative, which is “inherent in sovereignty” and necessary “for defending the country against foreign encroachments and dangers.” Moreover, Congress clearly vests the executive branch with the statutory authority to exclude aliens. 8 U.S.C. § 1182 authorizes the president to “suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions which he may deem to be appropriate.” There are many prior incidents of administrations barring entry of aliens based on their nationality. Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama used the exact same statutory authority claimed by Trump to refuse admission to aliens from Sudan, Sierra Leone, Venezuela, and Libya. Federal law makes it plain that the power to exclude is subject only to the president’s finding “that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.” That requirement is easily met here. Indeed, the Obama administration previously identified the six countries covered by the Trump executive order as national security concerns. It is equally clear under Supreme Court precedent that courts have no business overriding the president’s use of full federal authority to deny classes of nonresident aliens into the United States. Simply put, nonresident aliens who have never set foot on American soil do not possess rights under the United States Constitution regarding entry into this country. The president’s predecessor had years to strengthen the vetting process. He failed to do so and therefore opened the United States to the types of attacks executed in Germany, France, Belgium, and England. Had Obama taken the threat seriously, the temporary pause in entry called for in the executive order may not have been necessary. For years, Texas has been concerned about refugees and immigrants coming into the state from countries whose governments are official sponsors of terrorism. We asked our federal government for information so that Texans were not left in the dark about the individuals placed in our neighborhoods. But our pleas to the Obama administration to ensure proper vetting fell on deaf ears. We finally have a president who is serious about securing our borders and keeping Americans safe. It is widely accepted that terrorist attacks are the product of networks that stretch across borders. Trump’s executive order on foreign entry will allow the time necessary to shore up our nation’s screening procedures and help prevent bloodthirsty extremists, like those who aided and abetted the attacks in Manchester, from infiltrating our homeland. Trump promised in his oath of office to protect our democracy. His travel ban delivers on that promise. As attorney general of Texas, I fully support his administration’s commitment to defend this action all the way to the Supreme Court.
Last Friday a left-wing nutjob Bernie Bro stabbed two people to death on a Portland, OR train. The left naturally doesn’t want to take ownership of this maniac so they are blaming what he did on President Trump and the right. Portland’s mayor, citing the double-murder, is trying to shut down a right-wing rally in the city planned for next month. Like all liberals, the mayor insists that he is the expert on what speech is protected and what speech should be suppressed. KATU reports that the Trump Free Speech Rally Portland is scheduled for June 2 in the city. Unfortunately for the liberal-controlled city, this rally is taking place in a plaza run by the federal government so the lefties can’t just pull the permit. Mayor Ted Wheeler actually held a press conference to demand that the federal government pull the permit for the rally. First he said that Portland would never issue a permit to an “alt-right” group and then he told the feds to follow his example of intolerance. “I’m calling on the federal government to immediately revoke any permit or permits they’ve issued for the June 4th event,” said Wheeler. Forgetting that Portland has been the scene of massive leftist violence and destruction since Donald Trump’s election, Wheeler said he worries more about what the right is up to. “My concern is they’re coming here to peddle a message of hatred and bigotry,” Wheeler said. Well, so what? They have a Constitutional right to assemble and speak their minds, right? Not according to Portland’s mayor: “They have a First Amendment right to speak, but hate speech is not protected,” Wheeler claimed. Hate speech is most certainly protected speech. Just because a liberal doesn’t like what somebody has to say doesn’t mean it is not protected by the 1st Amendment. The whole point of the free speech is to protect even the most unpopular speech. Portland is trying to be like all of the liberal universities across the country that regularly shut down right-wing and conservative points of view they disagree with. The liberal fascism is spreading off of the campuses and into the governments controlled by radical liberal kooks. Wheeler concluded his demand that the feds pull the permits by using the Portland train stabbing committed by a crazy Bernie Sanders supporter as the reason why right-wing groups have no right to assemble in the city. “Our city is in mourning, our community’s anger is real, and the timing and subject of these events can only exacerbate an already difficult situation,” said Wheeler. Would it shock you to find out that Ted Wheeler is a democrat? I didn’t think so. Back in February, Wheeler held a press conference to say how much worse it is when police shoot a black man than a white man, so he definitely has that guilty white liberal thing down. In trying to silence a group he disagrees with he also has the liberal fascist asshole thing going. Follow Brian Anderson on Twitter
Exactly 14 days after Linux version 2.6.37 was released, Linus Torvalds has published the first beta version of kernel 2.6.38, which is expected to be completed at the end of March or beginning of April. With this release, the merge window for the development cycle has come to an end and Torvalds has now integrated most of the changes for this version into the main development branch's source code management system. As usual, the nearly 7,600 commits include a number of changes which even users who do not generally deal with the kernel in their Linux distribution will eventually notice and benefit from. One such change is the so called "wonder patch", which in certain situations can redistribute processor load in order to visibly speed up the reaction time of desktop applications. Torvalds explicitly mentions the SCHED_AUTOGROUP feature in his email on the release along with the patches to improve the scalability of the VFS (Virtual File System); these have been under development for some time now and have finally been added to 2.6.38 after it was left out of 2.6.36 and 2.6.37. Patches to support AMD's Bobcat processors are included, and the DRM Radeon drivers now also handle some of the graphics chips' 2D and 3D acceleration functions on the Radeon HD 62xx to 68xx models. The Nouveau DRM driver offers experimental, rudimentary 3D support for the Fermi chips in a number of current 400 series GeForce graphics cards, although the driver still relies on proprietary firmware. The driver for Intel graphics chips now has better support for the power saving functions in Core-i processors. The live media for distributions will probably soon include a few more programs, because SquashFS (as of version 2.6.38), which many of them use, supports the XZ format derived from LZMA and is known for its great compression density. The new Transparent Huge Pages, which were already used in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6, are intended to speed up workloads that benefit from the use of such huge pages – one example being virtualisation. In contrast, the back ends for Xen's Dom0 mode are not included, which means that we will probably have to wait for kernel 2.6.39 to be able to work as a Xen host. As always, a large number of drivers were added or revised; for example, the rtl8192ce driver for Realtek's WLAN chips has been added for the first time. During the next few weeks, the kernel log on The H will provide more details about these and other changes. (crve)
Story highlights Bruce Barcott looks at differences in marijuana laws in Colorado and Louisiana In Louisiana, a second marijuana possession offense could get you 5-10 years in prison In Colorado, you can buy two grams for $34 and change, and never go to jail April 20 is seen as a day of celebration for pot smokers Through a bit of calendrical coincidence, Easter Sunday this year falls on April 20. That's unfortunate because April 20 has become, through no fault of its own, the highest and holiest day of the pot smoker's year. From its origins as the meeting time (4:20 p.m.) of some Bay Area joint-passers in the early 70s, the 4/20 movement has evolved into an annual occasion for mass smoke-outs in leaf-friendly cities like Denver, San Francisco and my hometown of Seattle. So Sunday should be replete with news coverage of sunrise services, Pope Francis on the balcony and twentysomething bros sucking on burrito-size doobies. I expect to see at least one weedhead in bunny ears on the top-o-the-hour news: "Meanwhile, in Colorado..." America, I am here to tell you: Don't take the extreme to represent the mainstream. What you see on Sunday may be rude, crude and obnoxious. But it bears as much relevance to marijuana reform as New York's raucous St. Patrick's Day parade does to the history of the Irish people. Bruce Barcott I say this as a middle-aged pot agnostic who's living with the reality of legalized marijuana. Eighteen months ago I became something of a canary in the cannabis coal mine. My home state of Washington voted to legalize marijuana. I was a father of two kids about to enter their teens. I hadn't touched pot since college. Initially against legalization, I switched my vote at the last minute. Since then I've been digging into the reasons behind that last-minute change of heart -- and, by extension, into the reasons so many Americans have recently changed their minds about marijuana. Believe me, we didn't do it in order to party down with Dreadhead Jones. We did it because our marijuana laws no longer made any sense. JUST WATCHED Want pot? Head to the vending machine Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Want pot? Head to the vending machine 02:20 JUST WATCHED Colorado marijuana sales? Not that high Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Colorado marijuana sales? Not that high 01:34 JUST WATCHED This is your body on weed Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH This is your body on weed 01:39 As I write this, I'm flying from New Orleans to Denver. In doing so I'm exiting the state with the nation's most Kafkaesque marijuana laws and entering the state with the most regulated legal pot system in the world. Do you know the main difference between the two? It's the number of people in prison for pot. In Louisiana, it's not uncommon to serve five to ten years in prison for minor marijuana possession. Five to ten. That's more than some rape, robbery, or aggravated manslaughter convictions. And it's the main reason Louisiana has the highest per-capita prison population in the world. Last week I spoke with a man who was caught with 2.8 grams of marijuana in his pocket during a classic stop-and-frisk. (Do I need to tell you he's black?) He's the same age as me. He had a wife, a kid, a job. Now he's serving 13 years. "I don't understand it," he told me. "There are guys in my cell here for violent crimes, awful things, and they're doing less time than me. If I think about it too much it drives me crazy." I felt like I was talking with a modern-day Jean Valjean. When I land in Denver, I'll stop by the Medicine Man shop over on Nome Street and buy two grams for $34 and change. No one will be harmed in the process. I'll take the bud and a bottle of wine to dinner at a friend's house. He'll probably take a couple puffs on the pot; I'll take one myself, but probably concentrate on the Merlot. Legal or not, weed's not really my thing. How's it working out for Denver? Since the city's retail pot stores opened on January 1, violent crime is down. Property crimes are down. Cops used to arrest about 10,000 people every year for marijuana possession in Colorado. Now they don't. Legal weed hasn't inspired an army of hooligans to tear up the state. It's just kept 10,000 people with a little bud in their pockets from being branded as criminals. Instead of losing their jobs, they keep them. Instead of draining tax dollars as prisoners, they contribute tax dollars as workers and consumers. There is hope for those in Louisiana. An odd-bedfellows coalition of social justice campaigners and fiscal responsibility advocates have joined together to push for sentencing reform. That's a long way from legalization, but it may bring some common sense to an area that's suffered from a dearth of it over the past couple of decades. Kevin Kane, president of the conservative Pelican Institute for Public Policy, is no pot legalizer. He simply believes the sentence should fit the crime. Ten years for a gram of marijuana? "It offends many people's sense of justice, including mine," he told me. By the time I left New Orleans, it looked like reform might have a chance. The Times-Picayune editorial board declared that "Pot possession penalties are too high," and called for saner penalties -- a $100 fine and up to six months in jail. There was talk of considering more drug court deferrals and fewer Les Miserables sentences. This is the day-to-day substance of marijuana reform in America. Some states are moving slowly toward legalization. Others, like Louisiana, aren't down with that, but they are ready to reel in the worst excesses of the drug war. That's something to keep in mind when the most outlandish pot smokers splash across your screens on Sunday. The 4/20 shenanigans are an outlier. Most beer drinkers don't imbibe like Germans at Octoberfest or spring breakers in Florida. And I'm finding it's the same way with pot. The 4/20 exuberants are one-day extremists. The reality of legal pot is something more akin to my dinner in Denver: Quiet, normal, and yes, almost boring.
0:36 Intro. [Recording date: November 18, 2010.] Biography of Adam Smith is a big challenge. Intellectual contributions and status, but also because we do and do not know about Smith's life. Talk about the process of writing this book. Challenge. At a technical level, not altogether usual when dealing with 18th century thinkers. Smith, not documented in conventional ways. We don't have much in correspondence. What correspondence we have comes from a very late period of his life. One of the reasons for this is Smith kept to himself, and towards the end of his life had a great bonfire of his papers. Nearly everything he had was destroyed. That means you have to have to bring Smith to life and try to make sense of what he wrote without being able to draw on conventional biographical sources. So, what I decided to do when I started was to try and say the only way of bringing Smith to life is via his text. What I've got to do is bring his text to life in a historical way. And what bringing him to life in a historical way means is in fact putting him in a local, historical context. Because, Smith wasn't speaking to eternity. He wasn't speaking to our generation. He was speaking to his own generation. And he was doing that in a way you will understand very well--he spent much of the creative part of his life as a university professor, and he is addressing an audience of educated, intelligent students, and beyond that an educated intelligent public who led their own occupations, their own intellectual backgrounds, and their own intellectual experience. I think one of the fascinating things about reading Smith is to read him in that particular context, as someone who is addressing people who lived in the world in which he belonged, and not addressing us, two centuries later. Challenge. What came over to me in doing this, and particularly in working through student notes of his lectures in Glasgow, was what an enormously authoritative lecturer Smith was. Smith comes over as a great revisionist. He's a great one for standing up in front of the class and saying: Mostly the stuff you read on this subject is wrong. Mostly some of it is ridiculous. He really is an iconoclast. And I tell you what interested me about that: Smith is a deeply shy, retiring man, in inordinate private life. One of the themes running through his life as an historical figure, in a particular time, living in a particular place, was this mixture of personal shyness and awesome awkwardness, but enormous authoritativeness and daring intellectually, the moment he got up on his hind legs and started talking to his students or started writing to his audiences. Almost becomes a different sort of man. I found that very intriguing. 4:27 The Theory of Moral Sentiments does not appear to be written by a shy man. It's an aggressively, as you say, authoritative, set of fascinating observations about all kinds of people. Certainly people that Smith knew. But, you'd think he'd know them pretty well, and for a shy person, it's a little bit shocking. It is. He goes far more deeply into the process of how the human personality is made, how we acquire a sense of identity, than virtually anyone else, apart from Jean-Jacques Rousseau, with whom he had lot of awkward relationship--a literal relationship--that is to say, throughout his life. He is a very, very revealing person. For a shy person, that's intriguing. One of the things that's fascinating about the Theory of Moral Sentiments in that context is to look at the examples he gives of how he responds to different sorts of social pressures, social circumstances. The examples very often seem rather dated to us. The thing I found interesting was just how much he was drawing on what, in contemporary terms, were conventional examples. In literature, in 18th century moral journalism, and so forth, examples his contemporaries and students would have recognized the moment they heard them. He takes these familiar examples that by and large people know about and then presses them harder. It's the way in which this intelligence takes ordinary experience, in the ordinary world in which we live and presses these examples further and invites us to think more and rather more clearly about the implications. To us, some of the examples are a bit obscure; some of the philosophy that a person today is not as familiar with. On the other hand, there are many examples in the book of social phenomena that are timeless. Guilt, shame, pride, the pursuit of money, dignity, integrity--these are the themes that run through the Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS) that are timeless. Even while the examples may be a little dated--tweezer case--that hasn't changed; the gadgets have changed but obsessions are unchanged. The situations repeat. My favorite: disgusting obsequiousness in the presence of the rich. We feel that in the United Kingdom, living in a monarchy as we do. Leap across the centuries--just how much the language of deference is essential to social order. One of his most graphic examples of how the invisible hand does its magic. We tend to assume that the invisible hand only works in the market, in a situation in which we pursue our own interests without realizing that the invisible hand will in fact aggregate those individual efforts and work for a common good. Trick of Smith, calling up of the invisible hand works everywhere, and nowhere more influentially than explaining the patterns of social deference. Having read TMS very late in life--it reads through that text in a bunch of places without using the language, and he invokes often the Creator as the underlying source of this unseen order. He doesn't talk about the unseen order literally, doesn't use the "invisible hand" in TMS, but he invokes it--don't know if it's in earlier or later editions; he wrote that book first but revised it late; but it has that metaphor in it. He uses it in the early editions. The device is central to his theorizing at every conceivable level. You can trace it in his early lectures on rhetoric and on jurisprudence. Fundamental to his frame of mind. 10:39 Let's talk about the little we do know. Talk about what we know about Smith, about where he lived, what his personal life, handful of works we have of his. He belongs in social and political terms to a mainstream of Scottish society. If ever there was a person who came from a particular section of society, it was Adam Smith. His family, friends belonged to what in the 18th century were called the middling ranks, which is not just the middle classes--it's a merchant and professional class to which are added lesser landholders. The Scottish word for that is "lairds"; the English word would be gentry. He comes from that section of society. Family that had done well out of the glorious Revolution of 1688, done well out of the wars with France. Evidence of contractors making money. Family that had invested its money, north of Edinburgh, where he was brought up. Family and friends were incoming landlords. Interested in modernizing estates. People who are going to do things. Smith was born into that world as a rather sickly child; wasn't expected to live. Only son of his mother; his father had died before he was born. In this offbeat part of Scotland, improvement-orientated if you think in 18th century terms, he lived almost exclusively in the company of his mother, a formidable woman. There is a portrait of her which is worth consulting; that was a lady you did not mess with. Very close, clever bond. In addition to his authoritative manner, diffidence, is that absolutely everyone likes him. Difficult to find any backbiting words in Scotland or elsewhere. He actually goes to the local school in Kirkcaldy; just been taken over, probably with the influence of one of these incoming families, by a very avant-garde schoolmaster. Smith got rather surprisingly a good and not conventional education, strongly based on the classics; introduces him to classic philosophy and also to some inkling of contemporary British philosophy. He then goes at the age of 12 to Glasgow University. Very lucky; goes in 1736, and Glasgow University had just been put through a major refit by the people who run it, headed by the Duke of Argyle, who at that stage was called something else. The university, which had been a hotbed of radical Presbyterian thought for quite some time is cleaned out and turned into a moderate Presbyterian university. Resulted in the development of departments which were to be of huge importance to Smith, so much so that he got a first rate introduction to natural philosophy, Newtonian science; more important, taught by one of the greatest mathematicians in Europe, Robert Simson, to who I believe he owed more than historians have allowed. And I believe the icing on this very rich intellectual cake was that his arrival in Glasgow coincided with the arrival of Francis Hutcheson from Dublin, who is made Professor of Moral Philosophy and gives Smith a superb introduction to the state of moral philosophy in ancient and modern world. Smith calls him the never-to-be-forgotten Francis Hutcheson. Nice guy, great teacher, much beloved, and a formidable moral philosopher. He is also a very devout moderate Christian, and this will matter in Smith's life. Smith finishes at Glasgow; leaves for a special scholarship at Oxford University, Balliol College, in 1740. Goes to somewhere he hates. If you want to see how much he hated it, look up in Book V of The Wealth of Nations where Smith discusses the role of universities in the modern state and lets his hair down about the state of teaching in Oxford. He's not a fan. If Smith hated anything or anyone, I think it was Oxford University. Interesting period of his life, 6 years, nice scholarship to have, basically he was left to himself. Very clever boy who has been given a carefully structured education, sophisticated education at Glasgow; needed time just to breathe. He reads copiously. He's a polymath. He saturated himself with the history of philosophy, the history of jurisprudence, history of rhetoric in particular. 19:22 Smith found himself not being properly supervised by college tutors who didn't have much to do with him. Comes into contact with the writings of the infidel David Hume. Pivotal moment in Smith's intellectual development. Must have been at the end or middle to the end of his stay in Oxford. I argue in my book that this is a transformational experience. First, gives Smith an approach to the study of moral philosophy and therefore the study of human society--gives him an approach which rejects any religious premise as a legitimate premise on which to base your reasoning about the principles of human nature. Provides an alternative and an experimental method which can be used if you cannot make these assumptions. Brings to an end the first part of Smith's education, about the age of 22. Meeting Hume would come later. Smith, ambitious, prepared to take on the world of modern philosophy and raring to go at the age of 23. From about that age, when he returns to Scotland, in search of a career, is when his career as a philosopher begins to show, become recognizable. Extraordinary part of the story: he's going to give some lectures, he's going to be successful as a professor, people are going to like him, he writes a book that is well received, TMS; book a bit strange in style; book is a success. Is there any point before 1776 where you would say: This man has in him not just a successful career as a professor, not just a thoughtful book on moral philosophy, but the book that is essentially going to launch the field of economics into its modern era? Not just a clever book, but a massive book of tremendous ambition, diverse insights into behavior, activities all around the world? Who would have thunk it? Highly ambitious; at 23, he has the nerve to write this tome; this rocket that takes off. One of the great historic questions. Smith, from the very first time that he starts to appear as a public philosopher in Scotland, from 1746 or probably 1748 or 1749, when he starts to deliver as a public lecturer. He is working at that time on an enormously wide scale. He is lecturing on rhetoric and particularly on the theory of language, more extraordinary than given credit for. He is lecturing on jurisprudence, fashionable subject in Edinburgh, city where people are seriously interested in legal education. He is constructing something that David Hume called a science of man, study of the principles of human nature as they are formed in us all by living in civil society. Living in civil society, learning to cooperate, exchange, communicate using the powers of language--study of the individual personality. Study of how that happens in different types of civilization. Needs to see his interest in political economy taking shape. We know exactly when and how it started. It did so in the process of lecturing on jurisprudence and in the study of how it is that human beings in ordinary living, in particular societies and civilizations, begin the acquire a sense of justice. One of Smith's major propositions is we can't function in civil society unless there is an idea of justice and that we have feelings about justice. When people are wronged or treated unfairly, that those who have done it need to be punished. A sentiment of justice and injustice is essential to our ability to survive in any society known to history. Where do we get this from? Profoundly influenced by the state of distribution of property, whether we own or don't own property; but also going to be influenced by the way the laws of justice are administered by any form of government. If we feel that government has fallen into the hands of tyrants or incompetents, we are likely to feel that our own interests are being hampered; that we are being treated unfairly; our sense of justice is going to be offended. This is the more immediate territory in which Smith starts to ask essentially economic questions. The way he asks them interesting: What are the important functions of government that have to be administered fairly if we are going to find they are ruling over a stable, relatively contented form of society? One of them is going to be about the price of commodities. This is the point at which he starts to ask questions about how are we to talk about the fair price of commodities, the fairness of administering commodities. This is where Smith comes through with his first insights into the fact that within an economically functioning polity with government, laws to administer, we are going to be more content if we are given more ability to look after our own interests, unencumbered by artificial rules, regulations, and so forth. The notion of a market and the regulation of a market is at the forefront of his thinking about how we should start to address the problems of an economy. Comes into this discussion of government, justice, fairness and all of that leads to much wider project: how we become the people we are and the societies we live in. That's the point of entry. We can be sure that Smith was thinking in these terms when he was in his late 20s in Edinburgh. What he will do after 1752, when he becomes Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow, is he will start working on that problem alongside considering the problems of socialization, which he develops in TMS. Smith's reasoning that forms the backbone of his two great published books takes place simultaneously, although he chooses for reasons best known to himself to complete the work on TMS and the theory of socialization and the ethical implications of that before sitting down and really opening up the questions of trying to understand the dynamics of the trading process. 30:46 What you are really saying is there is a certain synergy that runs through both great works. There is this great issue--Smith has been caricatured terribly, tragically--along the lines of: he wrote one book about how you should be a nice person, TMS, and then he wrote this other book about how it's okay to be not nice. You can be selfish or self-interested. That's the Wealth of Nations (WN). That's clearly not correct; not his science of man, really isn't a schizophrenic aspect to this. There's a unity, a wholeness to it. The wholeness--he didn't use the word so much, but competition runs through all of his work, not in the way we use it as a modern but in the sense of: We're all interacting with each other aware of the fact that there are others out there that offer us both alternatives and judgment and assessment and friendship and profit and bargains, etc. He obviously was very concerned about government's role in creating or inhibiting competition. Very aware of the role self-interested merchants would play in creating artificial impediments to competition; he wanted those to be taken away, I think partly because he saw that in the interpersonal sphere, which is the world of TMS, that the fact that I had to interact with others in a marketplace of morality would create good things, and therefore when I interacted in a marketplace of commerce, those same forces would encourage me to do things that would end up serving my fellow human beings. That's the orderliness that he sees, and the way I see it: he sees it driven by competition, not the way a modern would talk about it, but the way he talked about: you have alternatives, you are searching, looking for a bargain, looking for friendship, respect, esteem of your friends; similarly you are doing the same thing in the commercial world, and it's all working together. What do you think? That's absolutely right. Would just modify it slightly. The slightly dodgy word is the word "competition," if you see it from Smith's point of view. The crucial notion is exchange; he says somewhere that we spend our lives in exchanging things. That's a better word. A key word, concept, for entire understanding of the human condition, it is that we are constantly engaged in a process of exchange. We exchange goods, we exchange our services, we exchange sentiments, and we do it from the moment of our birth to the moment of our death. Well worth turning to the recovered text of his Lectures on Jurisprudence to see how Smith prefaces his discussion of political economy. What he does is spend the first ten pages or so talking about the human condition: why are we different from the animals, most indigent of species; so in order to survive we've had to cooperate; in order to cooperate we've had to invent language. And what does cooperation with the use of language mean? It's about exchange. Exchange when it's discussed in TMS is about trading--we trade sentiments with each other, looking for a sort of psychological deal; it's nice to have a discussion with people and to feel that what we are saying is regarded with sympathy. We relish the process of trading our ideas. It's what happens in any tutorial at any university, any conversation in a park. The process he's describing in TMS and that regulates our social lives is exactly the same process which he is discussing when we trade our goods and services. He says: We spend all our lives trying to persuade people. That's why rhetoric matters. What are we doing when we are trading? We are using our persuasive arts. That notion of exchange is the most useful way of putting it. To talk about competition is much more iffy and more dangerous because it implies a much more native, self-interested impulse in us than I think Smith thought we had. 37:00 Let me correct that and say it in a better way. I don't mean "competitive," though I think he was certainly aware of people's desire to climb the ladders of status. I meant it in the sense of the term the way it's used in economics. It's a term that gets abused a lot. So, let me try to say it in a more simple way. I think Smith was focused on a very simple aspect of competition, which is: More is better. That is, if you have more choices, if you have more people to trade with, you are going to prosper in ways that you won't if you only have a few people to trade with. So, at one extreme, you have a small village where there is only one supplier of something you desperately want; and at the other extreme you have a world where you have lots of suppliers to choose from. Smith to me--his greatest economic insight, which has taken me decades to fully appreciate, that's not obvious--everybody will tell you that the invisible hand is a great contribution; his contributions against mercantilism are incredibly important; but neglected by modern economists until very recently: his insight that the division of labor is limited by the extent of the market. The idea that the more people you have to trade with, not only will they have to treat you better, which is the modern sense in which competition matters; not only will they not have a monopoly over you or exploit you; but the deeper insight of Smith--and we've done a couple of podcasts on this--the idea that as you expand the breadth of who you trade with, the tools and the way you create is going to be different. And you are going to get the potential for wealth, the potential to avoid subsistence, misery. It's hard to do that in a small world with only a few traders and a few suppliers. It's possible to do that, you can create wealth, when you have a little bit of modernity, a little bit of the expansive opportunities to trade. When I invoked "competition" earlier, that's what I meant. And that aspect of exchange--the wideness of exchange--it doesn't quite work in the moral philosophy, moral sentiment world because we don't interact morally with thousands. We interact morally with our sphere of neighbors and family--he talks about that incessantly: the people we touch with our words, our eyes, our hands, shake hands with, hug--that's a small circle. But he saw in the WN that there's this large circle we can interact with commercially. Saw that it allowed some things that weren't obvious. What do you think of that? I think what you are doing is pushing the discussion of the WN beyond--legitimately I may say--beyond where Smith leaves it on the text. I think your contrast with the situation that obtains in TMS where our social world is confined to relatively few people is entirely right. The thought I would give you is I think the notion of the market in the WN is much less finely tuned than we tend to think. Totally agree. The people he's talking about, whose economic behavior really interests him, are people, largely agricultural people, who are locked in to the economy of a world that is just emerging from the sort of closed economy that is represented by late feudalism. These are the people whose ambitions are being stirred in Smith's discussion, who simply want a bit of security, which will give them freedom to improve their own lot, make their own lot convenient--that's the word he uses. Very modest levels of motivations he's talking about. He comes back to this situation again and again and again. He invokes the logic, part of the magic of the WN, of a colossal market--in his discussion of the development of national economies, he never really moves much beyond the operation of the market in particular regions--and I'm thinking of the regions of Britain. The notion of those regions becoming an international market between different sectors--he is surprisingly reluctant to do that. I think the reasons may well be political. Smith is very anxious in the WN not to be a utopian, not to try and envisage how the market will develop beyond our own historical reach, beyond the reach of the present generation of our [?], who are the people who are the ultimate targets, I think, for this book. Although I think you are right about the general tendencies of where competition and markets goes, I think it is interesting as an historian he chooses, I think deliberately, to lay back in understanding what the market is in favor of just trying to focus on things that will change people's patterns of exchanging goods and services in particular regional contexts. May occur to you that this is an historian being excessively cautious. Great point. The sort of behavior he's discussing in TMS, which basically does not stretch much beyond the region of our own family and friends, really is extended in the actual text of the WN, though I do agree that the WN stretches far beyond the reach of that text. I think he leaves it to others to make that stretch. 45:07 Just as in TMS he is dealing with a small circle of intimates who influence our behavior, those insights are applicable today because of a world of the web and television and print--our reputations go way beyond a small circle. Similarly, in the WN, he made narrower assessments then. The wisdom of Smith is that we can make a more general application. Stylistic question that fascinates me: One of the things I enjoyed about your book were some of the quotes from Smith's predecessors, and teachers, people like Hume, Hutcheson in particular, and some of his contemporaries. One of the things that struck me about those is that Smith is a much more accessible and entertaining writer. When I picked up TMS, my colleague, Dan Klein, here at George Mason University, approached me and suggested we do a podcast on this. Picked it up again, thought it would be fun; after about three pages thought I'm not sure I'm going to be able to pull this off. I can't read it. I'm not enjoying it. It sort of starts in the middle. Bizarrely structured book. I thought: Well, I'm already committed to this; I'll push on. Very shortly after that, there were many rewards from reading it in the original. But, reading Hutcheson, I suspect for a modern is quite difficult. Similarly, the WN, much of it, not all of it, is delightful to read. His prose is clear to a modern. He writes longer sentences than a modern would normally write. We think of Smith the way some people think of John Maynard Keynes: Before Keynes there was no economics about macro. This isn't true. There were all kinds of books on it. He eclipsed them. And similarly Smith eclipsed the thinkers of his day. Obviously he was a wise and talented man. But style plays some role in that. I think style hampers a little bit TMS. Style is one of the great successes of the WN. What role did style play in those books having the impact that they did and the fact that we don't read Hutcheson anymore? Last point first: absolutely agree with you that it's a different world when you move from Hutcheson to Smith. Something has happened to moral philosophy, to the whole approach of how you study human behavior. Comes through in style. In general terms about Smith's style, one should say: Smith wrote extremely slowly. Constantly writing, rewriting, doing, and undoing his prose. Never satisfied with it. Seems to have started off composing by dictating. We don't know how exactly he composed, but at an early stage, he seems to have relied on a clark to listen to dictation, put it into text, worked and re-worked on it. So, what you are getting in Smith is very manufactured prose. You said a "clark," right? In America we would call it a "clerk." So, he hired someone to take notes for him? To take dictation. Probably it was the first draft and then he worked it over. If you compare that with the start of David Hume, particularly when Hume is writing about economics, Hume writes very fast. I think that's a lot of the charm of Hume's economic writing. He uses an essay format, which is a pretty concentrated format and does not allow for much exposition. The contrast in Smith's writing habits make it clear he was [?] as a stylist. I don't quite agree with you in finding TMS hard going. Once one starts to add in, the thing comes to life if you realize TMS is designed to answer Jean-Jacques Rousseau's pessimistic views about the civilizing process--a civilizing process which destroys the human personality, by its very nature turns people who are unrecognizable even to ourselves. Smith wants to play with that, to say that in a sort of way it's right to take that line: commercial activity in social life, economic life, does change our personalities. But the question of whether it corrupts us, makes us unfit to reason or live a decent ethical life, Smith thinks we face that well. You get a story coming out of TMS once you think that that strategy. Organizational strategy he uses to discuss the civilizing process. I do think those two books taken by themselves are one-offs. Smith is Smith as a stylist. There isn't anyone else like him. It's something that contemporaries periodically commented on. He was known to be a good writer? He was thought to be an extremely verbose writer. Not in the sense of using words unnecessarily, but people liked much more pithy reasoning about essentially philosophical principles. He throws in a lot of metaphor and examples, which is part of the reason he's got the accessibility; sometimes the examples for a modern are a little bit obscure because they were written for his day; but most of the time we do understand that. He doesn't see that as degrading to come down off the mountain to illustrate his points. I think what you are saying is absolutely right. His examples were often commented on. Over-many examples, but Smith was often admired for the precision with which his examples were given. My explanation of that is that his method of reasoning required him to put an enormous amount of stress on examples. Because actually, the method he uses, which is essentially a mathematical method, is to advance a general proposition which will appeal to anyone of common sense, but then in fact, to increase its truth value, to illustrate it. Illustrations are not the same as evidence, in terms of thinking as someone applying the scientific method. He is not producing his examples and then developing a hypothesis about how it works--division of labor. He takes a general proposition about some aspect of human behavior, and he then says: All I can do, I can suggest you think about this, this proposition is one we all have had in the back of our minds for some time, suggest we think about it; and in order to increase its plausibility, I'm going to illustrate this up to the hilt, examples taken from contemporary life, taken from history. 55:30 These examples are crucial; add truth value to propositions which are merely suggestions. So, maybe the analogy--you mentioned the influence of Simson on him, his math teacher--the mathematical equivalent would be something like: there are an infinite number of prime numbers; can you prove it? Well, I can't prove it but here's a really big one, because you probably thought after 100 or 200 or 300 they'd run out because these numbers are so big that they must have things that go into them other than the number 1. So, if I can keep giving you more and more of these big numbers that are prime, maybe you'll start to agree. And certainly in the area of human behavior, where we are not really amenable to equations, it's not a bad approach. Think it's a very good approach. An approach people remember when thinking about Smith because it does put pay to the notion that economics is never going to be an exact science, or indeed that any of the human sciences are going to be exact sciences. In the last resort all we can do is offer general propositions which are drawn from the experience of everyday life which we wish to develop, and the only way we can increase their truth value is by illustrating them in a convincing manner. And then offering this as something that in Smith's case, our governors should think about. Not offering them as scientific propositions. Plausible hypotheses which he's saying a wise legislator ought to think about when he is doing his basic business of importing rules of justice.
Follow our FREE updates on Twitter and / or Friend us at Facebook * If you haven't already done so, be sure to sign up for our FREE Report & FREE Updates List at bottom of page. . WHO IS SUMNER REDSTONE? By Mike King . "All The News That Sulzberger's Propaganda Rag Saw Fit To Distort" A Daily Web Page Summary of the Dirty Lies, Glaring Omissions, Half Truths & Globalist Bias of The NY Times Front Page Headlines ___________________________________________________________________ FREE SAMPLE 1 FED RESERVE NOTE ___________________________________________________________________ "We read and rebut their vile crap so you won't have to!" ***************************************** FREE SAMPLE DAY Subscribe to the Anti-New York Times and stay on top of world events. Sumner Redstone’s long-estranged, recently reconciled daughter, Shari Redstone. NY Times: Fight for Viacom Is Said to End With the Redstones in Control By EMILY STEEL A truce has been reached in the vicious corporate battle that pitted the 93-year-old mogul and his daughter against his longtime confidants and directors at Viacom. REBUTTAL BY To paraphrase The Great One (that's Hitler for you newbies & normies), when we "put the probing knife to the abscess" of the rotting corpse that is western civilization, we are sure to behold a bunch of bloated Marxist maggots from a certain "religious" tradition (cough cough) feasting away. The list of "usual suspects" is a long one, with some of the crime bosses being bigger and deadlier than others. Sumner Redstone (born Murray Rothstein) has sat near the very pinnacle of the putrid power pantheon of the New World Order -- just a small notch below the likes of a Soros (cough cough), Sulzberger (cough cough) or even Rothschild (cough cough). Indeed, without the power and protective cover of his culture-wrecking news and entertainment media, the geo-political and finance arms of the Kosher Nostra could not conduct their dirty business. In the vast scheme of global power, Redstone (Image 1) ranks right up there with Soros (2) and Sulzberger (3). This article tells of the fierce Jew-on-Jew battle to control Sumner M. Redstone’s $40 Billion media empire. The corporate legal battle is over now; and the mentally declining 93-year-old mogul and his "recently reconciled" daughter, Shari Redstone (said to now be manipulating her formerly estranged father) have prevailed over longtime confidants and directors at Viacom. Redstone & Redstone will retain control of powerhouse Viacom, which owns CBS, MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, BET, a bunch of cable television networks and the Paramount Pictures film and television studio. Now that's some serious power! Scum like Soros and Rothschild can wreck economies and political structures. Whereas the victims can still rebuild and recover from that sort of destruction, the damage that Redstone inflicts on hearts, minds and souls can be irreparable. The lies, omissions and brainwashing of CBS News and 60 Minutes -- that's Redstone. The depraved filth and degeneracy of MTV -- that's Redstone. The subtle Marxist propaganda aimed at the impressionable little children whose careless parents allow them to watch Nickelodeon -- that's Redstone. The stupid, yet influential libtard jokes of Comedy Central -- that's Redstone. The anti-White hate propaganda of BET (Black Entertainment Televison) -- that's Redstone. 1- More than any other media source in the world, Redstone's formerly clean MTV (bought by Viacom) has morally corrupted the American and European generation known as "millennials." 2- Now grown up, millions of millennial morons get their political commentary from Redstone's Comedy Central -- where John Stewart (birth name Liebowitz-- cough cough) and his successor seldom, if ever, make fun of Democrats. 3- CBS News shows under Redstone remain as dishonest as they ever were under founder and 50-year boss William Paley (birth name Paloff, cough cough) Closing on a comedic note, it is amusing to watch when barracudas turn on each other. In addition to the convenient "reconciliation" between Shari Redstone and her zombied-out old man, and the bitter legal fight between the Redstones and the Tribesmen of the Board, we learn that Keryn Redstone, a 34-year-old granddaughter, just filed court documents in Massachusetts this month. She claims she was wrongly disinherited of as much as $1 billion. The beneficiaries of the Redstone's National Amusements trust include Keryn and four other grandchildren. Keryn Redstone also insists that she would not settle without the inclusion of a deal for Manuela Herzer, a former sugar-baby of Redstone. Last year, Redslime, probably under the control of his of-so-loving "recently reconciled" daughter Shari, suddenly revoked plans to leave sugar-baby Herzer $50 million plus his $20 million mansion in Los Angeles. Another sugar baby named Sydney Holland also has a lawsuit pending and has threatened to release dirty photos of the perverted old man. What a spectacle. Everybody money-grubbing yenta and sex skank connected to the old man wants a piece of his soon-to-be-deceased carcass! Low-life sex-obsessed trash with lots of money -- and the power to mold entire populations in their image. May God save us from these invisible monsters. 1- The "loving" daughter waited until daddy lost his mind to "reconcile". 2- The "loving" grand daughter Keryn (yikes!) is suing for a piece of the action. 3- The "loving" sugar baby Manuela (blonde hair, black dress), now cut out of the loop, demands $50 million and a mansion. Sydney Holland (blue dress) is also sniffing for money. * Herzer alleges that the old zombie was still demanding sex from her and his other sugar baby, Sydney Holland. "Herzer's suit -- filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court -- also described Redstone as "vacant, expressionless and out of touch," basically unable to talk, "cannot walk or stand by himself," and yet "fixated on having sex on a daily basis." ( here ) * Boobus Americanus 1: I read in the New York Times today that Sumner Redstone and his daughter will be holding onto Viacom. Boobus Americanus 2: Anglo-Saxons like him still wield too much power in America. Sugar : "Ssumner Redsstone my asss! Hiss real name is Murray Rothsstein! " Editor: Yep. He's about as 'Anglo-Saxon' as Bibi Satanyahu! * COMMENTS / FEEDBACK / INSULTS / KUDOS greattomatobubble2@gmail.com WHO IS BEHIND THE NEW WORLD ORDER AND WHY? Read ' Planet Rothschild ' and know the truth. MIKE KING'S ' MAGNUS OPUS' 2 VOLUMES / 600 TOTAL PAGES / 1400 + IMAGES / FOOTNOTES & BIBLIOGRAPHY Follow our FREE updates on Twitter and/or Friend us at Facebook * If you haven't already done so, be sure to sign up for our FREE Report & FREE Updates List at bottom of page. 'I don't believe in conspiracy theories! Go away!" FREE REPORT & FREE UPDATES! 'How To Respond To An Anti Conspiracy Theorist' . 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Even before an expected 50 world leaders arrived in Paris this week, French President Emmanuel Macron's hastily arranged One Planet Summit appeared to be making quite a splash. In fact, the anniversary of finalization of the Paris Agreement looked set to create even waves bigger than those from last month's fortnight-long U.N. climate change conference across the border in Bonn. For if COP23 in Germany aimed to assess how the world would keep the Paris Agreement on track after this year's Trump-sized distraction, this week's summit — according to its host at least — is about reigniting the global drive for governments and businesses to accelerate the decarbonization of the global economy. And fresh from 54 high profile companies' calling on world leaders to boost ambition on climate policy, another "unprecedented, huge and global" initiative launched Tuesday to coincide with the opening of the summit could end up playing a key role in pushing some of the world's biggest emitters towards more sustainable business models. Today, as many as 225 influential global investors with more than $26.3 trillion in assets under management pledged to engage with 100 corporates estimated to be responsible for around 85 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions, so as to step up their ambition on climate action. Dubbed Climate Action 100+, the new initiative is being coordinated by five partners: Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC); Ceres; Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC); Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC); and Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). The hope is the coordinated effort to engage with many of the world's most carbon-intensive firms could have "considerable ripple effects," according to Anne Simpson, investment director of sustainability at CalPERS, one of those investors backing the push for major companies to align their business plans with the goals of the Paris Agreement. With trillions of dollars' worth of influence behind it, the five-year initiative will make it even harder for any major listed firm to ignore or downplay the climate-related risks they face. "Our collaborative engagements with the largest emitters will spur actions across all sectors as companies work to avoid being vulnerable to climate risk and left behind," Simpson said. "Money talks, and if we can deploy capital behind and the power of the financial markets behind the Paris agenda, we can really ensure that companies begin to make the transition that's necessary to keep global warming to a safe degree." The collaborative initiative — which boasts a raft of high-profile investors such as Allianz, AXA, BNP Paribas, Church Commissioners for England, Deutsche Asset Management and Hermes as members — developed the 100-strong target list using CDP data on companies' direct and indirect emissions associated with the use of their products. Unsurprisingly, the list is littered with huge companies in the oil and gas market such as ExxonMobil, BP and Shell; aerospace giants including Airbus and Boeing; energy majors E.ON, Centrica, and General Electric; automotive giants such as Volkswagen, Ford and Volvo; and consumer goods players, including Proctor & Gamble, PepsiCo, Nestle and Panasonic. With trillions of dollars' worth of influence behind it, the five-year initiative will make it even harder for any major listed firm to ignore or downplay the climate-related risks they face. It looks as if pressure on international climate change laggards is about to crank up several more notches two years to the day after nations signed up to the historic Paris Agreement and its goal of building a net zero emission economy this century — an ambition that has forced more investors to realize that carbon-intensive assets now face a significant risk of being stranded by the drive to decarbonize the global economy. Each of the 225 investors signed up so far to the new initiative have agreed to initially engage directly with at least one company on the 100-strong list. "Engagement," they say, largely means dialogue in and around company boardrooms, including investors potentially lodging proposals at board meetings aimed at improving governance, disclosure and action on climate change. Specifically, investors engaging with these 100 corporates will apply boardroom pressure towards delivering three overarching goals: Implement a strong governance framework, which clearly articulates the board's accountability and oversight of climate change risk. Take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across their value chain, consistent with the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global average temperature increase to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Provide enhanced corporate disclosure in line with the final recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and sector-specific GIC Investor Expectations on Climate Change, when applicable, to enable investors to assess the robustness of companies' business plans against a range of climate scenarios, including "well below" 2C and improve investment decision-making. The call to action may fall short of the more combative approach favored by some divestment campaigners. But it will make it increasingly difficult for listed firms to simply dismiss calls for them to develop a business plan that is compatible with deep decarbonization or ignore the new guidelines on climate risk disclosure. The launch of the group also follows increasing moves at boardroom level on addressing environmental risk over the past year, with perhaps the most high profile success being the vote on ExxonMobil board earlier in the summer, which mandates the oil giant to produce annual climate risk assessments, contrary to the wishes of its management. There's nowhere to hide from climate risk — we need to address this. We have the tools to help these companies drive this forwards. Nevertheless, significant resistance pervades at boardroom level, according to a report last week by NGO Preventable Surprises, which suggests major investors — including names such as BlackRock, Vanguard, InvestCo and BNY Mellon, none of which have yet signed up to today's initiative — on occasions still voted against greater climate disclosure in 2016. Moreover, a separate report by ShareAction (PDF) suggests that despite some green leaders in the shape of BNP Paribas, UBS and HSBC Holdings, few European banks have yet put in place a coherent action plan to manage complex climate risks. Clearly, there is still much work to do to change attitudes at boardroom level. But speaking during a briefing on the Climate Action 100+ initiative last week, CalPERS' Simpson said dialogue remained the most effective means of pushing for change at corporates, arguing divestment effectively "lets companies off the hook." "Engagement is not a soft option, but if we don't make sure that these companies make the transformation to a low carbon economy, we are exposed to the risk of their emissions, not just directly through the investments that we've got in those companies, but also through the indirect impact on all the other assets in our portfolio," she said. "So there's nowhere to hide from climate risk — we need to address this. We have the tools to help these companies drive this forwards." Indeed, hiding from climate risk is becoming harder. After a year that is likely to be the most expensive on record from an extreme weather disaster point of view, analysis released this week (PDF) by think tank ECIU suggests scientific studies are increasingly attributing extreme weather events to climate change. Since the conclusion of the COP21 summit in Paris on Dec. 12, 2015, scientists have published at least 59 research papers on the attribution of specific weather events to climate change, according to ECIU. And, of these, 41 conclude that climate change indeed has increased the risks of a given type of extreme weather event, such as storms, drought, flooding and wildfire outbreaks. Commenting on the study, Friederike Otto, deputy director of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, said vast strides in attribution science in recent years was greatly improving knowledge of climate risk to help inform policymaking. "We're now finding that for many kinds of extreme weather event, especially heatwaves and extreme rainfall, we can be quite confident about the effect of climate change," she said. "Whether policymakers are looking at local issues such as flood protection or involved in the global climate change negotiations, the more information they have about climate change impacts now and in the future, the better decisions they're able to make. This ECIU report shows just how quickly knowledge is accumulating, and I think it's only going to accelerate." Clearly, the scale of climate-related risk facing the 100 biggest emitting global companies never has been clearer, nor has the urgency for action to be taken. The signal today from more than $26 trillion-worth of investors through the new Climate Action 100+ is therefore hugely important, and makes it even harder for climate laggards to continue turning a blind eye to what Bank of England Governor Mark Carney once described as the "tragedy on the horizon." In that sense, Macron's One Planet Summit — convened to mark two years' since the historic COP21 conference — could yet again crown Paris as the global capital for climate action.
Each antibody binds only one specific antigen. Monoclonal antibody therapy is a form of immunotherapy that uses monoclonal antibodies (mAb) to bind monospecifically to certain cells or proteins. The objective is that this treatment will stimulate the patient's immune system to attack those cells. Alternatively, in radioimmunotherapy a radioactive dose localizes a target cell line, delivering lethal chemical doses.[1] More recently antibodies have been used to bind to molecules involved in T-cell regulation to remove inhibitory pathways that block T-cell responses. This is known as immune checkpoint therapy.[2] It is possible to create a mAb that is specific to almost any extracellular/cell surface target. Research and development is underway to create antibodies for diseases (such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, Ebola[3] and different types of cancers). Antibody structure and function [ edit ] Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies are large heterodimeric molecules, approximately 150 kDa and are composed of two kinds of polypeptide chain, called the heavy (~50kDa) and the light chain (~25kDa). The two types of light chains are kappa (κ) and lambda (λ). By cleavage with enzyme papain, the Fab (fragment-antigen binding) part can be separated from the Fc (fragment constant) part of the molecule. The Fab fragments contain the variable domains, which consist of three antibody hypervariable amino acid domains responsible for the antibody specificity embedded into constant regions. The four known IgG subclasses are involved in antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity.[4] Antibodies are a key component of the adaptive immune response, playing a central role in both in the recognition of foreign antigens and the stimulation of an immune response to them. The advent of monoclonal antibody technology has made it possible to raise antibodies against specific antigens presented on the surfaces of tumors.[5] Monoclonal antibodies can be acquired in the immune system via passive immunity or active immunity.The advantage of active monoclonal antibody therapy is the fact that the immune system will produce antibodies long-term, with only a short-term drug administration to induce this response. However, the immune response to certain antigens may be inadequate, especially in the elderly. Additionally, adverse reactions from these antibodies may occur because of long-lasting response to antigens.[6] Passive monoclonal antibody therapy can ensure consistent antibody concentration, and can control for adverse reactions by stopping administration. However, the repeated administration and consequent higher cost for this therapy are major disadvantages.[6] Monoclonal antibody therapy may prove to be beneficial for cancer, autoimmune diseases, and neurological disorders that result in the degeneration of body cells, such as Alzheimer's Disease. Monoclonal antibody therapy can aid the immune system because the innate immune system responds to the environmental factors it encounters by discriminating against foreign cells from cells of the body. Therefore, tumor cells that are proliferating at high rates, or body cells that are dying which subsequently cause physiological problems are generally not specifically targeted by the immune system, since tumor cells are the patient's own cells. Tumor cells, however are highly abnormal, and many display unusual antigens. Some such tumor antigens are inappropriate for the cell type or its environment. Monoclonal antibodies can target tumor cells or abnormal cells in the body that are recognized as body cells, but are debilitating to one's health. History [ edit ] Immunotherapy developed in the 1970s following the discovery of the structure of antibodies and the development of hybridoma technology, which provided the first reliable source of monoclonal antibodies.[8][9] These advances allowed for the specific targeting of tumors both in vitro and in vivo. Initial research on malignant neoplasms found mAb therapy of limited and generally short-lived success with blood malignancies.[10][11] Treatment also had to be tailored to each individual patient, which was impracticable in routine clinical settings. Four major antibody types that have been developed are murine, chimeric, humanised and human. Antibodies of each type are distinguished by suffixes on their name. Murine [ edit ] Initial therapeutic antibodies were murine analogues (suffix -omab). These antibodies have: a short half-life in vivo (due to immune complex formation), limited penetration into tumour sites and inadequately recruit host effector functions.[12] Chimeric and humanized antibodies have generally replaced them in therapeutic antibody applications.[13] Understanding of proteomics has proven essential in identifying novel tumour targets. Initially, murine antibodies were obtained by hybridoma technology, for which Jerne, Köhler and Milstein received a Nobel prize. However the dissimilarity between murine and human immune systems led to the clinical failure of these antibodies, except in some specific circumstances. Major problems associated with murine antibodies included reduced stimulation of cytotoxicity and the formation complexes after repeated administration, which resulted in mild allergic reactions and sometimes anaphylactic shock.[12] Hybridoma technology has been replaced by recombinant DNA technology, transgenic mice and phage display.[13] Chimeric and humanized [ edit ] To reduce murine antibody immunogenicity (attacks by the immune system against the antibody), murine molecules were engineered to remove immunogenic content and to increase immunologic efficiency.[12] This was initially achieved by the production of chimeric (suffix -ximab) and humanized antibodies (suffix -zumab). Chimeric antibodies are composed of murine variable regions fused onto human constant regions. Taking human gene sequences from the kappa light chain and the IgG1 heavy chain results in antibodies that are approximately 65% human. This reduces immunogenicity, and thus increases serum half-life. Humanised antibodies are produced by grafting murine hypervariable regions on amino acid domains into human antibodies. This results in a molecule of approximately 95% human origin. Humanised antibodies bind antigen much more weakly than the parent murine monoclonal antibody, with reported decreases in affinity of up to several hundredfold.[14][15] Increases in antibody-antigen binding strength have been achieved by introducing mutations into the complementarity determining regions (CDR),[16] using techniques such as chain-shuffling, randomization of complementarity-determining regions and antibodies with mutations within the variable regions induced by error-prone PCR, E. coli mutator strains and site-specific mutagenesis.[1] Human monoclonal antibodies [ edit ] Human monoclonal antibodies (suffix -umab) are produced using transgenic mice or phage display libraries by transferring human immunoglobulin genes into the murine genome and vaccinating the transgenic mouse against the desired antigen, leading to the production of appropriate monoclonal antibodies.[13] Murine antibodies in vitro are thereby transformed into fully human antibodies.[5] The heavy and light chains of human IgG proteins are expressed in structural polymorphic (allotypic) forms. Human IgG allotype is one of the many factors that can contribute to immunogenicity.[17][18] Targeted conditions [ edit ] Cancer [ edit ] Anti-cancer monoclonal antibodies can be targeted against malignant cells by several mechanisms. Ramucirumab is a recombinant human monoclonal antibody and is used in the treatment of advanced malignancies.[19] Autoimmune diseases [ edit ] Monoclonal antibodies used for autoimmune diseases include infliximab and adalimumab, which are effective in rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis by their ability to bind to and inhibit TNF-α.[20] Basiliximab and daclizumab inhibit IL-2 on activated T cells and thereby help preventing acute rejection of kidney transplants.[20] Omalizumab inhibits human immunoglobulin E (IgE) and is useful in moderate-to-severe allergic asthma. Alzheimer's disease [ edit ] Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a multi-faceted, age-dependent, progressive neurodegenerative disorder, and is a major cause of dementia.[21] According to the Amyloid hypothesis, the accumulation of extracellular amyloid betapeptides (Aβ) into plaques via oligomerization leads to hallmark symptomatic conditions of AD through synaptic dysfunction and neurodegeneration.[22] Immunotherapy via exogenous monoclonal antibody (MAB) administration has been known to treat various central nervous disorders, such as AD, by inhibiting Aβ-oligomerization thereby preventing neurotoxicity. However, MABs are large for passive protein channels and are therefore inefficient due to the blood-brain barrier preventing MAB passage into the brain. However, the Peripheral Sink hypothesis proposes a mechanism where MABs may not need to cross the blood-brain barrier.[23] Therefore, many research studies are being conducted from failed attempts to treat AD in the past.[22] However, anti-Aβ vaccines can promote antibody-mediated clearance of Aβ plaques in transgenic mice models with amyloid precursor proteins (APP), and can reduce cognitive impairments.[21] Vaccines can stimulate the immune system to produce its own antibodies,[24] in this case by introducing Aβ into transgenic animal models, known as active immunization. They can also introduce antibodies into animal models, known as passive immunization. In mice expressing APP, both active and passive immunization of anti-Aβ antibodies has been shown to be effective in clearing plaques, and can improve cognitive function.[22]. Therefore, several clinical trials using passive and active immunization approaches by development of certain drugs approved by the FDA are currently underway, and are expected to yield results in a couple of years.[22] The implementation of these drugs is during the onset of AD. Other research and drug development for early intervention and AD prevention is ongoing. Various drugs that are under research to treat AD include Bapineuzumab, Solanezumab, and Gautenerumab. Bapineuzumab [ edit ] Bapineuzumab, a humanized anti-aβ MAB, is directed against the N-terminus of Aβ. Phase II clinical trials of Bapineuzumab in mild to moderate AD patients resulted in reduced Aβ concentration in the brain. However, in patients with increased apolipoprotein (APOE) e4 carriers, Bapineuzumab treatment is also accompanied by vasogenic edema,[25] a cytotoxic condition where the blood brain barrier has been disrupted thereby affecting white matter from excess accumulation of fluid from capillaries in intracellular and extracellular spaces of the brain.[26] In Phase III clinical trials, Bapineuzumab treatment is associated with reduced rate of accumulation of Aβ in the brain in APOE e4 patients, and no significant reduction of Aβ concentration in APOE e4 patients and non-APOE e4 patients. Therefore, Aβ plaque concentration were not reduced, and there is no significant clinical benefits in cognitive functioning. Bapineuzumab was discontinued after failing in Phase III clinical trial[26] Solanezumab [ edit ] Solanezumab, an anti-aβ MAB, targets the N-terminus of Aβ. In Phase I and Phase II of clinical trials, Solanezumab treatment resulted in cerebrospinal fluid elevation of Aβ, thereby showing a reduced concentration of Aβ plaques. Additionally, there are no associated adverse side effects. Phase III clinical trials of Solanezumab brought about significant reduction in cognitive impairment in patients with mild AD, but not in patients with severe AD. However, Aβ concentration did not significantly change, along with other AD biomarkers, including phospho-tau expression, and hippocampal volume. Phase III clinical trials are currently ongoing.[23] Preventative trials [ edit ] Failure of several drugs in Phase III clinical trials has led to AD prevention and early intervention for onset AD treatment endeavours. Passive anti-Aβ MAB treatment can be used for preventative attempts to modify AD progression before it causes extensive brain damage and symptoms. Trials using MAB treatment for patients positive for genetic risk factors, and elderly patients positive for indicators of AD are underway. This includes anti-AB treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer's Disease (A4), the Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative (API), and DIAN-TU.[23] The A4 study on older individuals who are positive for indicators of AD but are negative for genetic risk factors will test Solanezumab in Phase III Clinical Trials, as a follow up of previous Solanezumab studies.[23] DIAN-TU, launched in December 2012, focuses on young patients positive for genetic mutations that are risks for AD. This study uses Solanezumab and Gautenerumab. Gautenerumab, the first fully human MAB that preferentially interacts with oligomerized Aβ plaques in the brain, caused significant reduction in Aβ concentration in Phase I clinical trials. Therefore, this preventing plaque formation and concentration without altering plasma concentration of the brain. Phase II and III clinical trials are currently being conducted.[23] Therapy types [ edit ] Radioimmunotherapy [ edit ] Radioimmunotherapy (RIT) involves the use of radioactively-conjugated murine antibodies against cellular antigens. Most research involves their application to lymphomas, as these are highly radio-sensitive malignancies. To limit radiation exposure, murine antibodies were chosen, as their high immunogenicity promotes rapid tumor clearance. Tositumomab is an example used for non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Antibody-directed enzyme prodrug therapy [ edit ] Antibody-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (ADEPT) involves the application of cancer-associated monoclonal antibodies that are linked to a drug-activating enzyme. Systemic administration of a non-toxic agent results in the antibody's conversion to a toxic drug, resulting in a cytotoxic effect that can be targeted at malignant cells. The clinical success of ADEPT treatments is limited.[27] Antibody-drug conjugates [ edit ] Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are antibodies linked to one or more drug molecules. Typically when the ADC meets the target cell (e.g. a cancerous cell) the drug is released to kill it. Many ADCs are in clinical development. As of 2016 a few have been approved. Immunoliposome therapy [ edit ] Immunoliposomes are antibody-conjugated liposomes. Liposomes can carry drugs or therapeutic nucleotides and when conjugated with monoclonal antibodies, may be directed against malignant cells. Immunoliposomes have been successfully used in vivo to convey tumour-suppressing genes into tumours, using an antibody fragment against the human transferrin receptor. Tissue-specific gene delivery using immunoliposomes has been achieved in brain and breast cancer tissue.[28] Checkpoint therapy [ edit ] Checkpoint therapy uses antibodies and other techniques to circumvent the defenses that tumors use to suppress the immune system. Each defense is known as a checkpoint. Compound therapies combine antibodies to suppress multiple defensive layers. Known checkpoints include CTLA-4 targeted by ipilimumab, PD-1 targeted by nivolumab and pembrolizumab and the tumor microenvironment.[2] The tumor microenvironment (TME) features prevents the recruitment of T cells to the tumor. Ways include chemokine CCL2 nitration, which traps T cells in the stroma. Tumor vasculature helps tumors preferentially recruit other immune cells over T cells, in part through endothelial cell (EC)–specific expression of FasL, ET B R, and B7H3. Myelomonocytic and tumor cells can up-regulate expression of PD-L1, partly driven by hypoxic conditions and cytokine production, such as IFNβ. Aberrant metabolite production in the TME, such as the pathway regulation by IDO, can affect T cell functions directly and indirectly via cells such as T reg cells. CD8 cells can be suppressed by B cells regulation of TAM phenotypes. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) have multiple TME functions, in part through extracellular matrix (ECM)–mediated T cell trapping and CXCL12-regulated T cell exclusion.[29] FDA-approved therapeutic antibodies [ edit ] For a more comprehensive list, see List of monoclonal antibodies The first FDA-approved therapeutic monoclonal antibody was a murine IgG2a CD3 specific transplant rejection drug, OKT3 (also called muromonab), in 1986. This drug found use in solid organ transplant recipients who became steroid resistant.[30] Hundreds of therapies are undergoing clinical trials. Most are concerned with immunological and oncological targets. Recently, the bispecific antibodies, a novel class of therapeutic antibodies, have yielded promising results in clinical trials. In April 2009, the bispecific antibody catumaxomab was approved in the European Union.[31][32] Economics [ edit ] Since 2000, the therapeutic market for monoclonal antibodies has grown exponentially. In 2006, the “big 5” therapeutic antibodies on the market were bevacizumab, trastuzumab (both oncology), adalimumab, infliximab (both autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, ‘AIID’) and rituximab (oncology and AIID) accounted for 80% of revenues in 2006. In 2007, eight of the 20 best-selling biotechnology drugs in the U.S. are therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.[33] This rapid growth in demand for monoclonal antibody production has been well accommodated by the industrialization of mAb manufacturing.[34] See also [ edit ]
President-elect Donald Trump has perfected the art of political misdirection. Under fire for delaying an announcement of how he'd handle his business affairs while in the White House and facing questions about his ties to Russia, Trump took a meeting Tuesday morning with rapper Kanye West, which swiftly buried the other coverage. Trump has done this before, by talking up flag burning or the price of a new Air Force One, and it reveals how his skills as a showman help him avoid scrutiny from the press and the public. The president-elect is set to meet with a host of top Silicon Valley executives Wednesday, including Apple's Tim Cook, Tesla's Elon Musk, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, and more. The meeting comes as the tech community, which overwhelmingly backed Hillary Clinton, looks to ingratiate itself with the new administration. Trump will now oversee policies that impact their businesses, from net neutrality to offshore tax profits. Inside the Russian hack of the Democratic National Committee. How Trump's Secretary of State pick sets up a proxy fight in the Senate over Russia. And scientists prepare for the age of Trump. Here are your must reads: Must Reads Here’s The Evidence Russia Hacked The Democratic National Committee Such as it is. A declassified review comes next month. [TIME] Donald Trump’s Big Senate Confirmation Test Will Focus on Russia Slim Senate margins put Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson nomination at risk [TIME] Donald Trump Gets the First Test of His Stance Toward Russia With Aleppo’s Fall Both Democratic and GOP critics say his view of the war and Russia's role is far rosier than reality [Associated Press] Detroit Voting Machine Failures Were Widespread on Election Day The votes could not be recounted under state law [TIME] The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S. Inside the DNC hack [New York Times] Donald Trump, Technology Executives to Talk Jobs, Regulations Prominent Silicon Valley executives will meet Wednesday with president-elect in a high-profile summit [Wall Street Journal] Politics Newsletter Sign up to receive the day’s top political stories. View Sample SIGN UP NOW Sound Off "It’s going to be a busy year starting with the first nine months being very much consumed through Obamacare and tax reform"—incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on the priorities for 2017. "You know, Rex is friendly with many of the leaders in the world that we don’t get along with...That's why I'm doing the deal with Rex" —Donald Trump in Wisconsin Tuesday night on his intended nominee for Secretary of State. Bits and Bites Scientists are frantically copying U.S. climate data, fearing it might vanish under Trump [Washington Post] Donald Trump Selects Rick Perry as Energy Secretary [Associated Press] Kanye West Explains Why He Met With Donald Trump [TIME] White House Touts ‘Momentum’ in Fight Against ISIS: ‘We Are Killing Their Leaders’ [TIME] Donald Trump Picks Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke as Interior Secretary [Wall Street Journal]
THE Orange Order has begun the mobilisation of its members across Scotland as part of its campaign against independence. It has applied to join community councils and is involved in a series of roadshows across greater Glasgow, where it plans to lobby councillors on how it can get involved in the No bid. Similar events have been taking place in other areas, and senior Orange figures plan to visit every one of its Scottish lodges before next year's Glasgow Games to ensure its membership turns out on September 18, the day of the referendum. It has produced leaflets for all members on how it perceives independence will impact upon them. The Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland has also set up a strategy group. Members of the Order have even discussed the prospect of forming a new party post-independence and believe securing seats in Ayrshire, Glasgow and Lanarkshire could see it hold the balance of power. It has tried to join the Townhead and Ladywell Community Council in Glasgow and although it has been told it cannot as a religious group it is still attempting to secure a role. It is understood it would be the first community council where the Orange order as an organisation and not individual members would be involved. A source at the organisation said: "The Orange Order is gearing up to get involved. However, members have to realise this isn't Northern Ireland and we don't have the same clout in the Scottish context." A spokesman said: "The Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland is continuing to internally discuss its strategy for the independence referendum and will make this public in due course."
The Target Blu-ray Exclusive of Ender’s Game This includes a Blu-ray disc, DVD and digital copy. The digital copy can be redeemed with iTunes or UltraViolet. The Blu-ray disc has the movie in 1080p video with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. The price of of this movie is $19.99 from Amazon.com. The link to the left is for the regular Blu-ray disc set of Ender’s Game. Target currently does not have the Steelbook available on their website. Once you are done watching the unboxing check out our Ender’s Game Buyer’s Guide. Ender’s Game Blu-ray Special Features Audio Commentary with Director Gavin Hood Audio Commentary with Producers Gigi Pritzker and Roberto Orci Ender’s Game: The Making of Ender’s Game Deleted/Extended Scenes Inside the Mind Games Theatrical Trailers Other articles on WaysToWatch.com
Image: Google There doesn't seem to be any way around Apple's addition of an ad blocker in iOS 9 aside from compromising, dealing with it, or pleading for Apple to remove it. As such it's become the issue du jour for publishers far and wide, big and small, who rely on ad views to keep the lights on. But here's a radical idea: instead of blocking ads wholesale, why not get readers to support sites through micropayments? That's what Google Contributor lets you do. What it does is spread your contribution ($2, $5, or $10 a month) across the sites as you want to support. It'll also remove a portion of ads on websites. The more you contribute, the less ads there will be, with $10 a month blocking 25-50 percent of ads on sites that run ads through Google (hint: chances are it's most of them). The service has a similar philosophy to Flattr, a "social microdonation" platform that allows for people to give spare change to things they like on media platforms, but it also has the flexibility of Humble Bundle, where you can fine tune the amount of money you want to donate across different causes. While you, the reader, may have different notions about how much your experience must be hobbled by ads, the sad reality is that there is no free lunch; paywalls, login screens and so on were constructed to remind you of this fact. And as contentious an addition as native ad blocking has become, it's been a long time coming: ad tech has long hobbled usability among many sites. You can see the awfulness in full force in AdBlock Plus' test loading several websites using iPhone's Safari sans content blocking versus AdBlock's iOS browser. But the thought of a reader actually being an actively supportive patron as opposed to the passive ad-viewing audience it used to be seems to be a radical notion—after all, the banner-ad strewn internet's been alive for 20 years. But wait, doesn't this situation sound even a little familiar?
Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely love being an Architect. I’ve been an Architect almost as long as I haven’t been an Architect (don’t try to do the math, please) and at this point I really can’t imagine doing anything else. Actually, I can’t imagine “being” anything else. It’s become more than a profession. It’s become part of the definition of who I am. But, no one really told me it would change every aspect of my perception of the world. No one told me it was going to get under my skin. No one ever told me, that when you’re an Architect: You won’t be able to afford your own taste You’ll notice everything that is even slightly out of alignment You’ll never look at a building without “reading” the architecture. You’ll only analyze a space, you won’t just experience it. You’ll be a bystander… You’ll be endlessly fascinated with natural light and shadows You won’t be able to let anything go, your brain will spin, you won’t sleep You won’t be able to talk to anyone about what you do. No one will know what an Architect does You’ll be weary and content at the same time Your back will hurt You’ll be less respected than you thought Your shyness will be interpreted as arrogance You’ll be working on your craft for years, you’ll never feel like you’ve mastered it, but you’ll keep at it, everyday, again, again You’ll remember every single thing you did wrong on a project, and that will keep you from seeing everything you did right You’ll want to put everything in order, always… But, you may choose not to do that When you’re young, your heros will be irrelevant. You’ll figure that out when you get older You’ll know a lot less about construction than you thought you would You’ll mark the milestones in your life by the projects you were working on at the time You’ll come to know a little about everything, you’ll know a lot about just a few things You’ll begin to see the built environment as a continuously evolving form, built piece by piece by generations of individual efforts. – You’ll begin to see balance between individuality and community You’ll often have an opportunity to be the center of attention, but, you won’t know how to take advantage of that You will be interesting…. eventually Cheers { Coffee with an Architect } Original article: When You’re an Architect
The Attorney General said the domestic terrorist has tried to establish contact with like-minded individuals. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB Scanpix The Office of the Attorney General (Regjeringsadvokaten) on Wednesday defended the prison conditions of domestic terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, saying that strict controls on the mass murderer were necessary to prevent him from establishing a far-right terror network. Officials said that Breivik on numerous occasions has attempted to establish contact with right-wing extremists and has sent letters to people who have expressed support for his actions on July 22, 2011, when he killed 77 innocent people. Prosecutors revealed Breivik’s attempts to get in touch with like-minded people in their closing statements to the Oslo District Court on Wednesday. During the proceedings, the court also sided with prosecutors’ request to hold Breivik’s upcoming civil suit against the state behind closed doors. Breivik is suing the state for “inhumane” treatment, having complained about the use of handcuffs and limitations on his correspondence, among other things, and says that holding him in isolation and limiting his communication constitute human rights violations. Attorney Marius Emberland on Wednesday categorically rejected those claims and said that Breivik’s correspondence with the outside world “must be seen in light of his political extremism and his desire to establish cells that may contribute to the development of extremist networks.” Emberland admitted that the controls on Breivik, including the review of all his incoming and outgoing letters, is indeed an infringement on his privacy but still well within human rights because Breivik’s attempts to establish terror networks “harm the vital interests of society”. Emberland also vigorously defended Breivik’s prison conditions, which he said were “well within” what is allowed by the European Human Rights Court. “He has three separate rooms at his disposal - his living quarters, a study cell and an exercise cell and he can freely move between them,” Emberland wrote to the court. Emberland also laid out the other conditions Breivik has in Skien prison: - The convicted killer is given the daily opportunity to get fresh air in an outdoor yard, as well as in an “air space” that is larger than what the prison normally makes available. - Breivik can cook his own food and wash his own clothes. - He receives personal visits and has extensive correspondence and telephone contact. - He has access to a computer, as well as a TV and PlayStation in his room. Breivik complained in a 2014 letter that his PlayStation 2 was outdated and should be replaced by a PS3 and said the games he can play aren’t good enough. "Other inmates have access to adult games while I only have the right to play less interesting kids games. One example is ‘Rayman Revolution’, a game aimed at three year olds," he wrote. Breivik is serving a 21-year-sentence, with a minimum term of ten years, for the bombing of Oslo’s Regjeringskvartalet (the Government quarter) and the mass killing on the island of Utøya on July 22, 2011. A total of 77 people were killed in the attacks. His civil suit will take place between March 15-18 in a makeshift courtroom in the prison’s gymnasium A support group for those affected by Breivik’s attacks have encouraged victims’ families to stay away from the “absurd” trial A total of eight witnesses will be called in the case and Breivik himself has been given 3.5 hours to explain his “inhumane” treatment.
Steve Howe has issued a statement on the Nexus album he recorded with his late son Virgil. The 41-year-old died unexpectedly in September, resulting in the cancellation of the remaining dates on Yes’ North American tour. The duo had completed work on the instrumental album – and Howe reports that he hopes the record will be a “fitting tribute” to his son’s life and legacy when it launches next month. Howe says: “Virgil and I had only recently completed recording Nexus, which contains 11 of his tunes to which I added a guitar to suit each one. We delivered it to InsideOut Music in August for release on November 17. “We started to work together in 2016 by selecting about nine tunes from his stockpile of piano based music that he’d periodically sent Jan and I each time he’d written and recorded a new idea. “I began adding guitars to them, then I’d play them to Virgil. He’d then surprise me by bringing up other channels of instrumentation which I’d never heard. “The tunes went from straightforward duets to something bigger and better, more of a complete picture than a mere shape. Free Fall and Nick’s Star were added from earlier sessions, the latter being his tribute to the passing of his best friend Nick Hirsch.” Howe says that Nexus explores a different side of Virgil’s ability as a writer and keyboard player and adds: “His talents were multi-diverse, so sitting at a keyboard and computer or in the middle of his drum kit, at all his regular DJ-ing gigs or on the radio, he always gave his best. “We hope that the music just completed will stand as a fitting tribute to his life and legacy.” Label manager Thomas Waber and product manager Stefan Franke say: “The sudden passing of Virgil Howe deeply shocked the entire InsideOutMusic team as it happened just a few hours after he had approved the first press release about Nexus. “It was supposed to be a new beginning for an exciting musical collaboration, but now it has become one of the saddest albums we have ever worked on. “We left the decision over the release of Nexus up to Steve and respect his wish to continue as originally discussed.” They add: “Being fathers, too, we can only guess how hard it must be to deal with such a loss and we sincerely hope you will all enjoy Nexus despite the circumstances under which it is coming out.” Find the Nexus cover art and tracklist below. Virgil And Steve Howe Nexus tracklist Nexus Hidden Planet Leaving Aurura Nick’s Star Night Hawk Moon Rising Passing Titan Dawn Mission Astral Plane Infinite Space Freefall Steve Howe: The 10 Records That Changed My Life
As the alternate uniform craze has swept through college football, some programs with “traditional” uniforms such as Notre Dame, Ohio State and Nebraska have embraced the trend, either tweaking their standard game jerseys or experimenting with alternative looks. Don’t expect Texas to join them under head coach Charlie Strong. Charlie Strong laughed about idea of Texas ever having alternate uniforms while he’s head coach. As he put it… — Max Olson (@max_olson) July 21, 2015 Strong: “The way this place is, if I walk out there with a black uniform, it’s ‘what is he doing?!’ Way too dangerous” — Max Olson (@max_olson) July 21, 2015 Strong has a point. Texas’ metallic helmet decals against Oklahoma State last season drew the ire of some fans. Better to leave that burnt orange and white alone.
Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF It was nice to see the untold past of Ahsoka Tano, or the return of Thrawn to Star Wars canon at Celebration Europe this past weekend, but one new hero in particular stole the show for many: the funky looking ‘Space Monkey’ in the Rogue One sizzle reel. Well, in the true Star Wars tradition, we now know everything there is to know about him. Advertisement Thanks to the fine folks over at the Star Wars Show—or more specifically Lucasfilm story group executive Pablo Hidalgo, appearing on this week’s episode—we already know enough about Space Monkey to a) learn that he’s not called ‘Space Monkey’ and b) Probably give him a decent Wookieepedia page already (spoilers, he already has one). Yes, as Pablo mentions in the video above, Space Monkey is actually named Bistan, and is a member of a species called the Iakaru. He’s a member of the Rebel Alliance too, and is actually a door gunner aboard a U-Wing—a new ship in the Rebel Fleet that we first got official glimpses of at Celebration Europe’s publishing panel, which gave us a look at the cover of a book called “Make Your Own U-Wing.” Advertisement It doesn’t look large enough to demand it’s own side-door gunners, but it apparently is! And Bistan is presumably one of many. Look forward to him probably getting at least three different action figures before Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theaters in December.
When Omar Fonseca got the call that Airbnb wanted to meet with him in Havana this winter, he could hardly believe it. “Are you sure? Airbnb?” he excitedly asked the client who had called to tell him the news. Omar Fonseca’s travel agency in Cuba coordinates online listings on behalf of homes that rent rooms. Now he posts them on Airbnb, too. For the past five years, Fonseca had been building a business in Cuba that was not unlike Airbnb. In a country where most residents are not allowed to have private Internet access, his company connects casas particulares, the name for houses that rent rooms to travelers, with the Internet. He posts the homes on websites, communicates with foreign travelers via email, and then communicates their reservation requests to house owners by telephone. “I try to study the market all the time,” he says. “I try to read all the time. So I knew Airbnb.” Airbnb’s team had just learned about Fonseca, and they were at least as excited to meet him as he was to meet them. At the time, they were working out how an Internet company that facilitated credit card transactions could launch in a country where most people don’t have Internet access and do business entirely in cash–a task they initially thought might require phone support to relay bookings or some type of SMS-based app. Existing travel agencies like Fonseca’s changed the calculus entirely. Cuba, unlike most places where Airbnb operates, already has a licensed industry that revolves around private homes renting out rooms to travelers. Most of these houses find clients by word of mouth, and referral fees are so common that there’s a business license for people who do nothing but refer tourists to casas particulares. Fonseca charged those same referral fees, but he found his tourist clients online and through relationships with foreign travel agencies instead of on the street. He had started by booking reservations for 10 houses owned by friends, using an Internet connection available to him through his work as a human resources professional. But by literally going door to door as he visits new areas in Cuba, he has built a portfolio of more than 900 houses, each of which pays him a fee if he finds them people who book reservations. “For us, it’s very important that our owners know our team personally,” Fonseca says. “We see that it generates a real trust relationship.” Instead of building this trust firsthand, Airbnb could find people like Fonseca; they were already helping casas particulares communicate online with potential clients. By launch, Airbnb had found eight of them. “It wasn’t about doing something new,” says Jordi Torres Mallol, Airbnb’s general manager for Latin America. “It was about plugging into something existing.” Casa particular owner and Airbnb host Armando Unsain flips through a book he uses to make referrals to other houses that rent rooms. Once paired up with Airbnb, Fonseca gathered his two partners and five employees in a private house in Trinidad, and they started making calls. Casas particulares are accustomed to being paid on the spot in cash, and some were suspicious of a system that required them to wait. But Fonseca had worked with many of these houses for years. They trusted him. “I’d call and say that the most important travel agency in the world is coming to Cuba,” he says.
Socceroo keeper Mitch Langerak says he's proud of Borussia Dortmund's creative approach to the transfer market and believes they can still compete with Bayern Munich on the field despite being outmuscled financially. Australian goalkeeper Langerak, discovered at Hyundai A-League club Melbourne Victory and brought to the Westfalenstadion at a bargain price in 2010, is emblematic of Dortmund's resourcefulness when it comes to putting together a winning team on a budget. The BVB faithful have had to get used to seeing their prized assets succumb to the riches on offer at Bayern Munich in recent seasons, with first Mario Gotze and then Robert Lewandowski defecting to the reigning champions. "Obviously Bayern, they always buy the top players and they can always bring in the best players. That's their way of doing things. Our club's a little bit different," Langerak told Goal Australia. "Of course Bayern, traditionally, they've always been so strong and they've always got one, two, three world-class players. At the moment their whole squad is world class. "It's something they've got to their advantage. But in saying that, in one-off games when we play against them, it's always 50-50 and we always have a very good chance." While Klopp is able to pay significant sums for players on occasion, expect plenty more hidden gems and promising youngsters to be unearthed in the years to come, while 'FC Hollywood' continue to splash the cash at the Allianz Arena. "For me personally, to be a part of it and to know I came from Australia and went to Dortmund ... players like Shinji Kagawa came from the second league in Japan to Dortmund and killed it," Langerak said. "There are other stories of other players. Henrikh Mkhitaryan, he's come from Shakhtar Donetsk, not exactly unknown, he was playing Champions League. However, not exactly a world class name at that point. "So yeah, it is a source of pride to be involved in that." Dortmund and Bayern meet in the German Super Cup next week, which will afford supporters a glimpse of what to expect from the next instalment in what has become a fascinating rivalry between the two super powers in the last four years. "I think it'll be an interesting season," Langerak said. "In the last Bundesliga game we beat Bayern 3-0 in Munich. In the Pokal (final) ... it was 0-0 and then they beat us 2-0 in extra-time. It was obviously very tight, on a knife-edge most of the time. "I think if we play the way we can ... by no means was the season for us a failure. It's just that Bayern were another gear, another level above. I wouldn't say we'll go out and win the Bundesliga but I definitely think we'll give it a good shake."
World Syria: Three Large Regions in Eastern Damascus Decide to Join National Reconciliation Plan TEHRAN (FNA)- Damascus Governor General announced on Sunday that negotiations are underway between the government officials and representatives of the militants in the regions of Douma, Harasta and Wadi Bardi to join peace talks with the Syrian government. The Arabic language al-Nashrah quoted Ala'a Monir Ibrahim as saying that peace talks between government and militants' representatives in Douma, Harasta and Wadi Bardi are seriously pursued. He further added that 80 percent of Damascus province has been covered by the peace agreement and more talks are underway to bring the remaining 20 percent to the peace negotiations. Ibrahim said that the entire regions in the province will join the national reconciliation plan in a short period of time. Full success in the implementation of the national reconciliation plan in two towns of Bebila and Yalda will be announced soon, he added. A source in Syria's reconciliation committee declared on Saturday that all the militants, who had joined a ceasefire agreement with Syrian government and applied for evacuation, left the town of al-Tal in Northern Damascus for Idlib. "In line with the trend of peace in Damascus province, nearly 1,800 militants were evacuated from al-Tal on 46 buses on Friday afternoon," the source said, and reiterated, "The town is now completely empty of the militants who had applied for evacuation." The source further added that the cases of those militants who intended to remain in al-Tal is under study, promising that they would soon receive amnesty based on the presidential decree.
... All that and so much more! Remember kids, if listening to The Mike & Billy Show doesn't feel right your first time doing it, don't worry... it gets better the more times you try! Tell your friends. ENJOY! Don't forget to follow, like, comment, post, re-tweet, share... DO IT! http://www.facebook.com/mikeandbillyshow Mike - Billy - The Show - (Recorded: Thurs. July 11, 2013) ring.All that and so much more!Remember kids, if listening to The Mike & Billy Show doesn't feel right your first time doing it, don't worry... it gets better the more times you try! Tell your friends.ENJOY!Don't forget to follow, like, comment, post, re-tweet, share... DO IT!Mike - http://www.twitter.com/mikewendt Billy - http://www.twitter.com/waxmustachic The Show - http://www.twitter.com/mikeandbilly (Recorded: Thurs. July 11, 2013) On this episode of The Mike & Billy Show we are very excited to welcome WWE Superstar, The World's Strongest Man - Mark Henry on the show!Mark tells us why his match this Sunday at the Money In The Bank PPV, against John Cena for the WWE Championship, is so important to him on a personal level.We discuss how he broke into the business, and what it was like to train in the infamous Hart Family Dungeon.We also find out what Mark's goals are for the future, outside of the
Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning the Daytona 500 is considered a good thing for NASCAR. Its most popular driver the last 11 years winning its most prestigious event certainly should generate interest in the sport. But NASCAR Chairman Brian France says it’s not just the Earnhardt win that could help the sport. MORE: Earnhardt having fun again \| Can Earnhardt win championship? \| Daytona Winners & Losers “The really great thing is how authentic he’s been throughout the week here as he’s doing (the media tour),” France said in a phone interview Wednesday. “That’s great. We’ll have to see (on the impact).” Earnhardt won the Daytona 500 for the second time, with the first coming in 2004 before the world of Twitter and in the infancy of social media. Now, Earnhardt is tweeting photos during his winner's media tour and that has gotten an already enthusiastic Junior Nation looking forward to the rest of the season even more. The victory also all but guarantees him a spot in the Chase. “Anytime his fanbase gets revved up, that’s a good thing,” France said. “That’s good for him, and that’s good for us.” PHOTOS: Earnhardt celebration \| Daytona 500 gallery The victory nearly didn’t happen Sunday as the race was threatened by a seven-hour rain delay. NASCAR’s new track drying system was able to get the track ready in 90 minutes in what likely would have been at least a 150-minute process in past years. The race went green around 8:30 p.m. and ended at about 11:25 p.m., and it's debatable whether NASCAR and Fox would have agreed to restart the race much later than 9. “I don’t know if we would have even been running on Monday with the weather the way it was,” France said. “It allowed us to get the race in and that’s a big deal for us. It worked out great.” With rain pushing the Daytona 500 to night for the second time in the last three years, it brings up the question of whether NASCAR would consider a move to night for that race. France says the sanctioning body already has considered it but Fox and the racetrack would also want to move it for it to happen. “We have considered it and for lots of reasons have not done that,” France said. “But it’s always a consideration. Of course, it’s not just our decision. Fox has to believe that’s the right time and all the rest.”
Smash Bros roster may have 'reached the limit of what's feasible' Given sequels are supposed to be bigger and more badass than their predecessors, logic suggests that the next Smash Bros game for Wii U and 3DS should have even more characters, right? It's odd to remember that the original Super Smash Bros on Nintendo 64 debuted with only 12 playable characters. Since then, the franchise has expanded quite a bit, from 25 on Gamecube to 36 on Wii. Given sequels are supposed to be bigger and more badass than their predecessors, logic suggests that the next Smash Bros game for Wii U and 3DS should have even more characters, right? Unfortunately, game director Masahiro Sakurai may have dashed hopes for a Smash Bros game with a giant roster. "In terms of quantity, we've probably already reached the limit of what's feasible," he said. "I think a change of direction may be what's needed." "It isn't a matter of 'if the next game has 50 characters, that'll be enough,'" he told Nintendo Power (via Nintendo Everything). "There is a certain charm to games that have huge casts of playable characters, but they tend to have issues with game balance and it becomes very difficult to fine-tune each character and have them all feel distinctive." Certainly, having characters feel "distinctive" is a challenge for Nintendo's fighting franchise. For example, Brawl featured numerous characters from the Star Fox universe: Fox, Falco, and Wolf. While they did play slightly differently from each other, the differences were quite minimal. Still, Smash Bros games offer Nintendo a unique opportunity to revive some of its oldest franchises. For example, Brawl reintroduced Kid Icarus' Pit to gamers--years before the character had a new standalone game, Kid Icarus: Uprising. Here's hoping to some surprises in the next game. Image from @Sora_Sakurai.
Since the launch of Battlefield 4, our players have been pivotal in giving us valuable feedback. Today we’re launching the Community Test Environment in our continuous efforts to make the game even more enjoyable and engage with our fans in new ways. Improve Battlefield 4 with Us The Community Test Environment (CTE) will provide passionate fans the chance to evolve Battlefield 4 with us and become a part of the development process. We’ll be able to test new ideas and solutions to current issues before we roll them out to all Battlefield players. Among the first things we will work on is the “Netcode,” which is what the player experiences with the game world including player-to-player interactions like damage registration. This involves tweaking to the “tickrate” servers and networking in general. By launching this new program, not only will we be able to address player feedback at an early stage, but also increase the overall quality of the game. We are excited to explore the possibilities together with you. How to Access the CTE This community program will be available on PC only. However, the goal is for our learnings to benefit all platforms when possible. To access the CTE, you will need to be a Battlefield 4 Premium member. Players will have to download a separate game client, then connect to an infrastructure and Battlelog version solely set up for testing purposes. Visit http://cte.battlelog.com/bf4/communitytest/ Read and accept the Terms of Service and Agreement Log into Origin with your existing account username and password (your account must have Premium activated in order to proceed) Start Origin and download the new Battlefield 4 CTE game client that now should be visible Install the Battlelog browser plugin Get familiar with the guidelines by visiting the Forums on http://cte.battlelog.com/bf4/forum/ Initially, only Battlefield 4 Premium members will be able to opt-in, and there will be a limit to how many can join. We do have plans to expand to a larger player base in the future after we test this new program. If you feel that you want to provide constructive feedback to make Battlefield 4 an even better game – then you’re more than welcome to apply to the CTE.
It may not be surprising, but it is still notable in its starkness — over 80 percent of Donald Trump's followers on Twitter are male, while women made up 86 percent of those leading the anti-Trump charge on calls to Congress. That Donald Trump’s fanbase remains mostly male is likely the least surprising thing about this administration. But it is still eye-opening to put the numbers side by side. According to a report by Polly Mosendz for Bloomberg Businessweek, information from content-analysis software shows that nearly 80 percent of Trump’s 27+ million Twitter followers are men, and many of the seemingly active followers are programmed bots: Trump’s 10 most-engaged Twitter followers over the past 30 days include five confirmed robots and three accounts that appear to be bots, according to audience data collected by Social Rank. Trump’s most prolific respondent, @Trump2016_Fan, has posted more than 18,000 times in the past year, mostly all-caps messages of support for the 45th president. The account appears to be automated and did not respond to a request for an interview. […] According to beta content-analysis software used by Social Rank, 19 percent of Trump’s followers are women. Among Trump’s 20 most-engaged followers, only two had traditionally female names—and both of those accounts appear to be automated. Contrary to the insistence by one of the few women on Trump’s payroll that we should all want a boss just like him, the vast majority of women in the country and on the internet do not even wish to share virtual space with him on Twitter. And it is those women who are leading the anti-Trump charge in the resistance, especially in the crucial area of calls to members of Congress. As Laura Moser, the founder of a civic action text-message system called Daily Action, told Huffington Post, “I think there was something really catalyzing about this election, for women in particular.” And the data support her statement: A survey of the group showed that of the “more than 28,000 of the group’s members who responded to a poll sent out by text message, 86 percent were women and more than 60 percent were 46 or older.” The comparison between Trump’s fanbase on Twitter and the voices on those congressional phone lines and voicemail boxes is stark, and will surely only continue to widen as the administration persists with its anti-woman agenda. And women will continue to resist him, in whatever ways they can.
After getting a taste of the Pixar life as Johnny ‘The Jaw’ Worthington in Monsters University, pop culture king Nathan Fillion wanted more. “I’m a fan of animation and I’ve been a fan of Pixar from the beginning,” he says inside a downtown Toronto hotel room. “I’ve seen the Pixar documentary six times, I’ve seen every Pixar movie and I’ve been to their facility twice… I’m a fan” So when Fillion got a chance to continue the love affair with an appearance in Pixar’s Cars 3, he jumped at the chance. The Edmonton native, who has appeared on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Joss Whedon’s short-lived Firefly and ABC’s Castle, plays the “businesscar” Sterling in the threequel. “The fella that designed Sterling was an actual automotive designer – the Audi TT was one of his. It is a work of art. There are cars out there that are works of art. In the case of Sterling, his look says, ‘Nice, crisp suit.’ He’s handsome and he’s on point.” Following the film’s world premiere, Fillion sat down with the Sun to gush about Pixar, talk about his hometown Oilers and tell us what it would take for a Firefly reboot. What interested you in joining the Cars franchise? I’m going to be incredibly honest with you. What drew me in was the fact that it’s Pixar. It’s not just pen on paper; it’s the future, it’s technology… And they do good, good stories and I just love that. Cars is over a decade old, what’s the appeal of this franchise? There’s something incredibly timeless about an automobile. There’s something amazing and romantic about a car and the things a car can do. Kids and cars are like kids and dinosaurs. Cars 3 deals with an aging athlete chasing the glory days and learning when the time is right to pass the baton, but it also has a message for young girls, which is: Don’t be afraid to try something new. What connected with you most about the story? Certainly there’s a theme of losing your place in the world. That does resonate with older audiences, it certainly did with me. But I think the one I love the most is the Cruz Ramirez (voiced by Cristela Alonzo) story – don’t let other people tell you what you can and can’t do. She was suffering from a lot of self-doubt and lack of confidence and the entire time, she just needed to believe in herself and that’s something I think kids can really take away. Can we talk hockey for a moment? Edmonton was a very exciting place to be this season. I really enjoy seeing the people I love, the city I’m from, in my homeland, so incredibly excited. I love the pride that we have in our hockey team. I love that stuff. It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to hold our heads high like that and I think next year’s going to be an exciting year. So which Canadian team will be the next to win a Stanley Cup? The Oilers of course. You’re shooting Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events in Vancouver. What’s your favourite thing about being back in Canada? I like to be outside. It’s different in this country. It just seems greener; there’s more space. People might hear that and laugh, but if you go to New York City, you don’t get landscape there. You get skyscrapers and walls of concrete and glass and that can be claustrophobic. But when I come to Canada, I get outside and walk around and I recharge my Canadian batteries. How often do you get asked about a Firefly reboot? Constantly – which I love. I will never shake a stick at that. I think about William Shatner sometimes and I think about people saying to him, ‘Beam me up Scottie,’ or something and I wonder if I will ever tire of it. I don’t think I will. I think I will be sad when people stop asking about it. So is there a chance it could come back? You’re asking an actor about the chances of something being produced. That’s like asking someone who makes apple pies about apple orchards. It’s not my area, but here’s what I’ve learned. I never thought Firefly would be cancelled, obviously I was wrong. I never thought Firefly would ever see the light of day again, obviously I was wrong again. I never thought there would be a movie, I was wrong. I never thought it would last 15 years, so I am the last guy to ask because I’m so wrong about this stuff. Firefly was cancelled after 11 episodes 15 years ago and yet it’s still popular. Why has it endured? The same reason Pixar does so well. [Series creator] Joss Whedon cares the most about people, characters, stories and relationships. Yes, it’s a space-western, but people watched because it’s a group that didn’t really belong together who fight for each other and fight to stay together. It’s a sense of belonging people really like and a sense of safety that people really like. Those are the themes that really resonate. Twitter: @markhdaniell MDaniell@postmedia.com
Submitted by Danielle DiMartino Booth, “Government is a just execution of the laws, which were instituted by the people for their people’s preservation: but if the people’s implements, to whom they have trusted the execution of those laws, or any power for their preservation, should convert such execution to their destruction, have they not the right to resume the power they once delegated, and to punish their servants who have abused it?” —John Wilkes, The North Briton, October 19, 1762 No truer words have ever been penned to the betterment of a people struggling to break free of tyranny. Indeed, John Wilkes is considered by some historians to be the primary source of inspiration for revolutionary colonial Americans given his staunch defense of religious liberty, prisoners’ rights and freedom of the press, rights we hold dear to this day. So idolized was Wilkes, our forefathers named countless towns and babies in his name, quite the honor all things considered. You see, Wilkes was also an infamous pornographer and relished his notoriety, raising self-promotion to an art form. Even Benjamin Franklin was disturbed by the raunchy rake, which is saying something considering Franklin’s own proclivity for dalliances. But what if the colonials, the “We the People” to be, assigned added value to Wilkes’ brand of self-cultivated ill-repute? What if he rose to such fascinating infamy precisely because he launched vicious attacks on the privileged? What better way to become a champion of the powerless? Ring any bells? On November 8, 2016, a stunned TV audience bore witness to Wilkes’ legacy playing out across this great land. Millions of voters joined forces to punish their elected servants who had so egregiously abused their power. The establishment was disenfranchised overnight. Since the election, a not entirely unexpected pivot has taken place. President-elect Donald J. Trump is sure to have recruited cabinet members whose rich resumes no doubt raise the hair on the backs of some of his most radical supporters. We can only hope the promised, the demanded, reforms are not sacrificed on the altar of deal-making. It will come as no surprise to regulars of these missives what the deepest betrayal would be for yours truly. Trump must hold firm on his commitment to return the Federal Reserve to its right place as an apolitical institution. The very future of the American dream depends upon our new president being true to his word. Reams upon reams have been written on the downfall of the American Dream. Social mobility stunted. Generations of stagnant incomes. The decline in new business formation. Income inequality the likes of which hasn’t persisted since the days preceding the Great Depression. Money in the bank is a theory for most Americans, even those fast approaching retirement. If you do have savings, by the way, you are punished with insulting levels of interest rates. And just so we’re clear here and inside the trust tree, let’s be honest and acknowledge how and especially where the anger this trap incites will manifest itself — that is, shout-out-loud, hostile and open conflict and on our streets. An exaggeration? If only that were the case. Two weeks ago, Real Vision aired an interview conducted with me right after the elections were held. Many subjects were covered over the hour. But the one that struck the loudest chord with viewers was the issue of underfunded public pensions, which stands to reason given the headlines of late. But the reaction from viewers was anything but expected. The bile, the contempt, the malicious back and forth in the comments between public and private sector workers stunned me speechless. It was the teachers, firefighters and policemen vs. you name the line of work among those in the private sector. No side won in the event you’re holding your breath. And both made great points. Promises made should not be broken. Teaching our children, protecting our citizens from harm – noble, often thankless professions without question. By the same token, why should someone who has worked their entire life swallow a spike in their property taxes to foot the bill? It’s not as if the investments in their 401ks are not on the same vulnerable footing as those in pensions. The outrage prompted a private conversation with a great friend who also happens to be the most insightful municipal bond strategist out there (a subtle way to say the following comments must remain anonymous). The first order of business was a correction to my concern that Uncle Sam would be forced to bail out weak pensions in the end: “The federal government is most definitely NOT going to write checks to state and local government! If anything, the current lineup on the Hill wants to move more responsibility to the states (and they have no money anyhow).” There’s no arguing with the no money part. But indulge the rest of the conversation as here’s where we get down to causality, to culpability. “I would lay more blame on your friend, the Fed. Remember that public pensions were funded in 2000 and prior to that, earning a seven-to-eight percent return on assets was no sweat.?For the last 15 years though, we’ve had nothing but volatility and low interest on fixed income, the place where conservative investors are supposed to go to deal with retirement investment.?This has clobbered long-term investors of all shapes and the feedback to the economy is not fully being taken into account (in my opinion).? If you are approaching retirement (read: baby boomers) and know you don’t have enough money in your 401k, you are not likely to run out and buy stuff.” Few would dispute that Keynes’ Paradox of Thrift is alive and well. The ravages of the Fed’s low interest rate policy have forced an increasing number of Americans to save more to offset what they are not earning on their savings. The resulting decline in aggregate demand goes a long way to explaining the current economic recovery’s refusal to accelerate – even factoring in the third quarter’s 3.2-percent pace, current forecasts calling for 2.3-percent growth in the fourth quarter leave 2016 full year growth just shy of the two-percent mark. But that’s the point of the Paradox. The millions of baby boomers retiring are going to cash, as they should to provide for this little thing called security. Still, the forced frugality sets an anything but virtuous cycle in motion, glaringly reflected in the economic health of the generations behind the boomers, an alarming number of whom still live with their parents. Bunking up remains altogether too common, which of course reflects mobility, or better said, the lack thereof. The tie that binds the generations comes down to one word: debt. That’s where the Federal Reserve has inflicted the greatest damage. Set aside for a minute U.S. sovereign and corporate debt. While they’re mammoth challenges for tomorrow’s policymakers, it is household debt that has torn at the fabric of our culture and fueled the fury. The latest figures from NerdWallet, produced by aggregating Fed and Census Bureau data reveal that the average household carries $132,529 in debt, including mortgages. That’s up from $88,063 in 2002. The cost of living, which the Fed lectures us is running too cold, has risen by 30 percent over the past 13 years, surpassing income growth of 28 percent over the same period. What makes up the deficit? We read nonstop about student loans helping to bridge the gap. But it’s credit cards that have taken up the slack of late. The average indebted household is sitting on $16,061 in credit card debt, a hair shy of 2008’s high. As for those low interest rates, the average credit-card interest rate is 18.76 percent which translates into $1,292 in annual interest payments. Add it all up and total household debt is $12.35 trillion. Estimates call for the prior housing boom peak to be surpassed by the end of this year. Putting a face on these nameless numbers, these ‘indebted households,’ provides much-needed perspective. Imagine you’ve grinded out a living as a building engineer in Western Pennsylvania for over 35 years. Your pension was long ago converted into a fee-laden 401k that’s taken plenty of hits over the years. Meanwhile, the guy who works on the top floor of your building makes multiples of your income, a reality you don’t even resent. Your pride runs too deep to throw a pity party. But that’s not to say you don’t have your limits. How exactly do you take the latest headlines in the Post-Gazette that at over $60 billion, the shortfall in Pennsylvania’s pension fund makes it the ninth-worst in the country? That state Democrats are battling to raise your already high taxes to cover the funding gap? Do you fall in line with the lemmings, taking your lumps? Do you apply for yet another credit card to cover your own newfound budgetary shortfall? Do you slip further behind, accepting your station and the demise of the American Dream? Or do you switch sides and vote for the party that’s vowed to tackle pension reform come hell or high water? The outcome of Pennsylvania’s state legislative elections speaks for itself. Democrats lost seats in Harrisburg, Johnston and Erie. Outside Pittsburgh, there are no Democrats west of the Susquehanna leaving Republicans with a 34-16 majority, enough to override the governor’s veto. An override in the House is not in the cards — Republicans hold only 122 of the 203 seats. Still, it’s the largest GOP majority since the 1950s. Now, back out to the rest of the country. Take a moment to study “The Two Maps of America.” A gracious reader suspecting I might miss the dueling visual wonders was kind enough to forward me the article published in the New York Times on November 16th, days after the election. In the spirit of paying forward good deeds at this time of giving, a link to the article can be found below. What do these maps convey? Rather than a geographically divided nation, the first map reveals Donald Trump won most of the land mass. A stunning 80 percent of the counties voted Republican, many in traditionally blue states like Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, and yes, Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, so illustrative is the NYT’s Tim Wallace’s description of the second map, it would be criminal to paraphrase: “Hillary Clinton overwhelmingly won the cities, like Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City, but Mr. Trump won many of the suburbs, isolating the cities in a sea of Republican voters. Mrs. Clinton’s island nation has large atolls and small island chains with liberal cores, like college towns, Native American reservations and areas with black and Hispanic majorities.” A separate publication recently highlighted the irony of Clinton’s staunch support in the ‘liberal core college towns.” According to the Economist, a college education in America equates to more in lifetime earnings than is the case in every other developed country save Ireland. As for the why: “the use of maths in the workplace is 10 percent greater than the OECD average. The supply is limited, since Americans are not particularly numerate.” In the event you bristled at the pretense, at the elitist tone, you’re not alone. Our being “innumerate” means we’re incapable of conceptualizing and working with numbers. It means we don’t educate our children, that we’ve given up on the American Dream as evidenced by our de facto indentured servitude. To think, some still wonder how the media and the establishment drove our electorate to revolt. President-elect Trump, consider this to be an open letter.
Well over $10,000 has been raised to benefit a new Calgary family torn apart by tragedy. Chantele and Brennan Martens entered Foothills Hospital last June full of hope and happiness at the impending birth of their first child. Their happiness quickly turned to sorrow when, during an emergency ceasarean section, doctors discovered the new mother was suffering from advanced-stage cancer. Staying strong through her 10-month struggle, Chantele died last week at the age of 33 — leaving behind Brennan and their young son, Isaiah. Horrified at the thought of Brennan dealing with the costs of the funeral and caring for his young son, longtime friend Nadia Bull has organized a crowdfunding campaign to help offset his costs. “They’d just married in the hospital, a couple of days before she passed,” she said. “The funeral cost a lot of money — it was a really big service — and they also have a little boy, so I thought it would be nice for him to regain some, if not all, of the cost of the funeral.” Immediately after the birth of her son, Chantele was whisked off for debilitating cancer treatments that prevented her from caring for and bonding with her baby. Kept in the hospital for weeks after her son was discharged, she gained much of her strength from Brennan, who stayed by her side throughout the ordeal. “He’s seriously a hero,” Bull said. “He was always by her side and helped her do everything — I was surprised at how amazing and strong he was throughout the whole 10 months.” Even when Chantele was sent home, the reality of her condition and ongoing chemotherapy treatments robbed her of much of the joys many new mothers experience. “She never complained, she went to every treatment and weekly appointments, it got to be quite painful,” Bull said. “She never complained, she always tried to fight.” Despite her strength, her condition worsened and last week she was readmitted to hospital. By Thursday, sepsis had set in and doctors confirmed the cancer had spread to her lungs. They delivered the heartbreaking news that Chantele’s time was quickly running out, and there was little they could do. Calling family to her bedside, the couple were baptized and married shortly before Chantele’s final battle ended. As of Saturday, Bull’s GoFundMe page had passed the halfway mark to its $20,000 goal after only three days — a testament, Bull says, to how many lives Chantele touched in her life. “Chantele was really generous,” she said. “She had a generous nature on her own — she was always trying to help someone, whether it was friends or family, or a stranger or stray animal. There’d been more than one occasion where she’d call me in tears over a complete stranger’s GoFundMe page that she’d felt compelled to donate to.” Any money left over will go into an educational fund for Isaiah, Bull said. Aside from the money raised so far, Bull was shocked to see her campaign had been shared on social media well over a thousand times. “I was surprised by that, that it had travelled so quickly,” she said. “Isaiah’s so young, and she didn’t get to see him have his first birthday — I think that speaks to a lot of people.” To donate to the fund, visit https://www.gofundme.com/chantele-martens-memorial.
Paroled prisoners in Illinois may find themselves back in court and on the hook for thousands of dollars, as the state has a growing habit of suing former inmates for the cost of their incarceration. But not every released prisoner is equally at risk: Illinois often targets those who have recently come into a little money — through an insurance settlement or an inheritance, for instance — and thus in theory have the ability to pay up. In one story cited by the Chicago Tribune, an inmate received a $50,000 settlement from the Department of Corrections because his cancer was not properly treated in prison, only to have the department sue him for $175,000 for the cost of his care. In another, the department successfully extracted almost $20,000 from a man released after serving 15 months for a low-level drug offense; after paying, he had to live out of a homeless shelter and died penniless. Critics suggest that the lawsuits make released inmates more likely to return to a life of crime. "If you don't have a way to support yourself, you go to the underground economy," said Alan Mills of the Uptown People's Law Center. "That's criminal, and you go back to prison. That's horrible public policy." Bonnie Kristian
Media playback is not supported on this device TT racer Ian Hutchinson has his leg reconstructed at a Cambridge hospital Multiple TT winner Ian Hutchinson is taking his recovery day-by-day after suffering major injuries during last month's Senior TT race. The 16-time TT winner came off his Tyco BMW at the 27th milestone, having won the Superbike and Superstock races. The 37-year-old had to have his ankle removed following the accident, and also broke his femur. Hutchinson is now having his leg reconstructed by a surgeon in Cambridge who has treated him before. He must lengthen his lower leg by 40mm to compensate for having his ankle removed, and has achieved 5mm so far. Hutchinson, from Bingley, is the third most successful rider in the history of the TT. He had to endure more than 30 operations on his left leg after an accident in 2010 and after a five-year absence returned to win eight TT races in the last three years. Hutchinson is the only man to win five TT events in one week, a feat he achieved seven years ago, and followed that up with trebles at the 2015 and 2016 meetings. The Bingley rider is the third most successful rider in the history of the event.
Hey guys, after reading the mage update announcement and the Cassiopea thread, I just wanted to make another good discussion but this time on {{champion:143}} ! Disclaimer: This thread isn't about ranting/complaining/or white knighting the champion but provide an objective and healthy discussion around it and its current state. I may be wrong and as such would gladly receive good criticism about it. I'm not forcing anyone to follow me or my opinion on this champion, I'm just providing feedback due to my personal experience as a Zyra main for multiple years / seasons. I'm only a Plat Zyra main playing since S3 (and maining her since then) in both support and mid so I may not have the best hindsight on her but I judge myself having enough experience with her to speak. Let me begin by saying this, knowing a lot of people are rejecting the idea of an update because the WR of a champion is "balanced" : Yes she can be really strong if you play her well enough( she's regularly around ~50% WR), I'm personally between 58% to 66% WR every season with her so far, but this update is not about making her stronger but making her kit better. Her kit is imo extremely frustrating to play with and against, feels really outdated ( I will explain myself later ) and not really fitting her theme ( will explain later), and as such I really think a Zyra update / rework is necessary. _>1. What aspect is most core or sacred to Zyra's identity?_ Now, here is what I think is the most important about Zyra and should be kept through this update: 1.Plants and nature interactions. It should be the core of her theme/kit, because it feels underwhelming atm ( will explain later ) 2.Huge teamfighting / AOE ability. 3.Weak when not playing around her strenght (plants) . 4.Mage but with a kit oriented towards utility and control (traps if we follow the lore). Zyra shouldn't be designed for support but for midlane, a lot of midlaners can find their way in the botlane, Zyra as an utility mage should easily find her place here ( or even in jungle), but it doesn't mean that we have to design her solely for the botlane. She's a midlane mage first and foremost. _>2. What issue bothers you the most when playing Zyra?_ To be honest, a lot of things. Obviously everyone has a different opinion on this matter, I will try to explain my thinking: As a whole : Zyra seems to be in a really bad spot, I'm not talking about win rate or raw power, but about enjoyable gameplay and counter play. She's the slowest character in the game, it's been 2 seasons since we began to focus deeply on speed and fast paced games with a lot of new characters with dashes, with tanky stats, speed buffs on items, speed buff on dragon, and _Zyra is the one benefiting the least of these things_ due to her movespeed and survivability. _Every spell of her has a specific amount of time ( delay )_ requiring her to stand still, she has the worst ( or nearly the worst ) resistances in the game, her design isn't good due to her having to burst enemies or die because she has to be closer in order to use her abilities ( especially since the range nerfs ) and plants correctly. And her gameplay easily appears as slow and predictible. Now, let's face it, _Zyra is a burst oriented mage_ ( canon glass mage), no matter how you want to present it, most games come down to either bursting their carries to death (even as a support ) or you dying in an instant, most people will say "But she's balanced ! You die or they die !" because of her obvious lack of mobility and survivability, if the only "counterplay" she has is "destroy her in an instant because she's weak af" well that's honestly a poor definition of counterplay here, just showing it's a poor design. It also brings a lot of problems, because if you're falling behind, well, you won't be able to do much given your own survivability, but if you're ahead, well, you can insta 3 or more enemies at once due to her massive AOE spells. Remember now what Riot began and did with other Burst oriented mages and Assassins, they're generally totally useless ( hi Akali ), or totally OP, or turned into easier to balance Mages ( Hi Ahri ). If we follow this trend, Zyra should get the same treatment and get revisited as a more balanced mage, because atm her kit is really outdated and a pain to balance, especially when most of these champions do possess some kind of skill-based gameplay, Zyra isn't really like that, she's more like "FIIIIIREEEEEEE ALL AT ONCE" and see how it goes afterwards. Sure she can be played differently with a Landry / Rylai / FQC combo, but it comes down to being dependant on items too much instead of the champions' strenghts, furthermore the most effective way is just to be a secondary AP carry for your team and bursting carries down. I get it that her lore displays her as a _fragile individual_, and that her amazing teamfighting ability are supposed to explain her really underwhelming fragile state, but it doesn't make sense anymore with all these changes appearing every season pushing her even more into oblivion and the comparison with other champions ( orianna ) showing that they don't really have to bear a weakness like that, and _her lore should really be considered for an update_ because atm it doesn't translate well into her gameplay. Win rate isn't everything, she's also one of the least picked champions, so mostly mains are playing her and newcomers or players are often surprised by her burst, but that's all. Why ? Because she's _frustrating to play as AND against_, AND _there's almost ALWAYS a better and more enjoyable option_ in every field Zyra covers. Now let's tackle point by point Zyra's abilities and design. * Passive: The most obvious flaw in her design. An ability that has to be used when dead ( thus useless when you do not die ) and that takes a while to throw due to a long delay(2sec) before being fully transformed into a plant and ready to fire. Anyway, this passive is the sole example of why Zyra is considered as frustrating, she's the slowest and squishiest character of the game, and as such will die a lot without being able to do anything, Riot knowing that they gave her an obvious passive to use after death in case her burst didn't go off fast enough in the hope of you trading kills at least. You're doomed to die from the start. This design of "burst of die" _shouldn't exist to begin with_, look at all the most common burst mages and assassins ( Zed, Leblanc, Fizz, Lux, Viktor, Brand, Anivia etc... ) they all have ways to protect themselves with mobility, high resistances, cc, no delays on spells, passives etc... or play around their spells in order to lure the enemy, Zyra doesn't have that. That's literally "fire everything brainlessly and hope that you kill, oh and take that passive for extra chances".[ And it has sometimes a bug firing the missile on its own depending on your last skills combo ] * Q: Generic AOE mana-hungry spell main source of damage with a plant skin on it, I don't really see how you can explain it otherwise. See Brand's W ? Add less range, less damages, more mana-costs, oh, but with a 1 second less CD. That's basically that. I fail to see how that's really distinctive of any plant-related theme to be honest. * W: Another arguable spell. Allowing you to place seeds on the map for a limited period of time, showing you a bit of vision in the fow. Triggered by Q or E, seeds transform into different plants, thorn spitter (damage + high range) or vine lasher (30% slow + low range). The thing is that on paper it seems good so far, however this concept is severely hindered by several things : 1- _Still a wonky AI_, despite the fix attempts ( that also turned out to be a sligh nerf), that sometimes will make your plants not attack for 1 or 2 seconds, or messing with the priority, thus making your vine lasher totally useless ( hence making a TS + rylai the better choice). 2- _The low resistances these plants get_. Atm these plants are good to use in laning and early teamfights because everyone is lacking items / damages / protection, however your plants don't scale that much with you and will as such begin to be irrelevant in late teamfights, easily killable in an aoe teamfight ( auras like sunfire etc.. ) they don't even last more 0.5 sec, by minute 30 usually the only utility they have is to proc Rylai / Liandry (Relying on items). 3- They also require you, the slowest and squishiest mage of the game to go into close range in order to manipulate them correctly because you need to "mark" your enemy by auto-attacking him. As such they will rarely be used effectively in lategame teamfights. Too much cons for few pros. 4- It also takes one spell spot for just a seed that you will have to trigger with another spell. That and the fact that E is almost always better to save due to Zyra's poor survivability or engage potential, you're mostly juggling with one spell all game, it can't be more predictible. * E: The spell that is the most iconic of Zyra's kit but also the weirdest ever. You have a snare going in line lasting 0.75 seconds to 1.75 seconds, not that bad, but not that good either. HOWEVER _you have a 0.5 sec DELAY ( cast time)_ on it forcing you to stand still, thus completely hindering 30 to 70% of your snare depending on the levels and the distance between you and the opponent, that's also the reason why this spell isn't good as a defensive one and is mostly used as an offensive one in order to catch targets for your teammates or your 0.2+ sec burst, because you will never be able to escape anything due to you having to stop for almost your entire snare duration in early levels while being the slowest character in the game. Furthermore, again, for several seasons the overall speed of champions and the games have been raised, however the E projectile hasn't, and is atm one of the slowest projectiles in the game ( more than half the speed of most cc spells like Syndra's E, Xerath's E etc..), and as such is one of the easiest to dodge, hence why this spell is mostly used to catch enemies offguard or to aim at carries not paying attention to their placement in teamfights. * R: Another one of her spells that you can't really rely on. Plants-interaction wise, it's poor, only buffing their attack speed and their size, thus they're going off as fast as ever, hence this utility is mostly useful in laning and early fights. Spell-wise, that's basically a huge short range AOE burst damage and will be used as such most of the times ( E[W]Q[W]R is usually the way to go ), however, because of that, when you're behind, this spell will almost become useless because the only other effect it has is a 1sec bump after a 2 seconds delay. Again, this delay is huge, especially when we consider again all the mobility boosts, that you have to commit in order to use it etc... Even a teamfight can be decided before 2 seconds if one of the members gets taken down. Anyway that's a spell that is mostly used as a burst oriented spell on carries ( otherwise they will most likely dodge the damages knowing it takes a while to expand ) or a utility oriented spell when you caught the enemies / are ahead / used FQC/Rylai ( again, relying on items ), otherwise, it's pretty weak and difficult to rely on. TL;DR of the faults in her design : * She's never the "first choice" because she has too much cons for few pros. * Her playstyle is frustrating, "burst or die", most effective way at least. * Gameplay not really focused on plants and nature like it should be. She's more like a "normal mage but with a plants based skin" at the moment. * Plants AI is still wonky despite the fix attempts and plants are too easily destroyed in teamfights. Plants are mostly about early agression in lane but fall off in late really fast. * Plants variety. The melee plant (E) is rarely used because of its limitations, it's nearly always better to use the Q plants because of damages / range + a rylai proc. * She's too squishy despite being the slowest character in the game, hence every season she falls even more behind with all the mobility buffs, tanky champions or champions with dashes, and you can never get out of a situation if the opponents do not misplay. * Delay on every single one of her spells where she's forced to stand still ( especially E knowing it pretty much nullifies 0.5 sec of the root ) * Passive needs to go. Forcing you to die or useless if you don't die, and it's not like you can capitalize a lot on your death due to its limitations in comparison to Karthus or even Kog Maw. * Rely heavily on items to be effective. Nerf, remove or tweak these items and she will fall harder into oblivion than ever, proof that her kit needs to be updated. Here is a question that I'm adding : _3. Ideas on how should she be changed ?_ * Give her a new passive, one where she eventually can gather/grow plants in the forest or bushes, or even increase her limits for example. And where she could maybe use "photosyntesis" by absorbing one of her plants in order to counter her mana/sustain issues. * Give her a more "strategic" playstyle centered around her plants, where she should cover a specific area and place them with care in order make use of them. * Additional work on plants AI and variety, 3 types with different strenghts would be great. * Some spells should be reworked ( Q / R ) * Allow her to cast some spells while moving ( especially E ) or Allow her to be faster than my grandma. * Tweak resistances in order to fit the change of playstyle, maybe make her adapted for longer fights with plants sustain etc.. * Allow the seed placements to maybe interact with her spells ? Allowing her to extend the R area for example etc.. * Take some of her burst and place it into her plants in order to turn her into a more reliable source of damages, tweak the ratios. The way I see it : We don't really have a "zoning/strategic" mage atm, but if we follow Zyra's lore, she's most likely the one deserving this title, with all the plants, thorns, traps she should be able to set up as a "predator". She should be rewarded for placing plants correctly and making use of them to engage / counter engage etc.. She could also benefit from fighting in the forest more than any other champion due to her nature as a plant-related champion ( it could also make her jungle role easier and ultimately introduce a real carry mage into the jungle ). To conclude, TL;DR: Zyra is atm by essence a pure burst oriented mage, focused around her spells but with sidekicks known as seeds and plants which is honestly degrading when we consider the possibilities of the champion. She's the result of an old way to design champions and because of that is one of the most "left behind" mages with every new patch etc... She's not that bad ATM because of 2 things : good synergy with some items ( rylai / liandry ) and bursting carries, but other than that, she doesn't have anything going for her and is the one who's being left behind with every meta change. Here are my thoughts about her, I know that it's solely my opinion and lots of you won't agree with me, but I think that's a good base to start a discussion and eventually discuss with/help the team to update her. Thanks for reading up until now for those who survived :p PS: Sorry about my poor english skills, not a native english speaker PS2: Still waiting for a crystal/snow/Sakura based Zyra skin RIOT _EDIT: Seeing how many misinterpreted my opinion R I will try to clarify my thoughts. I DO NOT WISH FOR IT TO GET REMOVED nor reworked in a big way. The thing is that I find her ult atm unreliable mostly because of the meta changes these past few years increasing the global speed of the game, 2 seconds is extremely long and you can't just assume perfectly everybody's position 2 seconds later, thus at this point it's more of a gamble relying on your teammates and enemies than your own skill. _ _Look at similar AOE ults, Amumu ? Instant. Janna ? Instant. Viktor ? Instant. Orianna ? Instant. Galio ? Instant. Nunu ? You're the one controlling when to stop etc... Zyra is the only one having a huge barrier on her ult like a several seconds gap to expand her damages and before finishing on an utility oriented touch. _ _I wouldn't like to lose it, but I would honestly like it if it became more reliable and dependant of your own skill rather than completely unknown factors, for example choosing when to "close the trap" etc.. It would make it a more reliable threat rather than a predictable spell._ Title Body Cancel Save
About the Product Here at last, the background and practical application of the unique and powerful Japanese charting techniques–known as candlestick charts–are fully explained for the first time. These colorful and exciting techniques are hot on the lips of leading analysts and traders worldwide. The overwhelming response to the author’s first Japanese candlestick article in Futures magazine, interviews of him by the Wall Street Journal and the L.A. Times, and numerous television appearances, in addition to the many charting services now offering candlestick programs to their clients, have all made it apparent that a comprehensive explanation of candlestick charts is sorely needed. Here it is–an inside look at the technical tools refined by over 100 years of use in Japan. Candlestick charts are older than bar charts, older than point-and-figure charts, and yet, they are virtually unknown in the West–until now. Completely informative and global in its outlook, Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques provides the first -in-depth explanation of candlestick plotting and analysis in English. This exciting book exposes the reader to the author’s years of study, research, and practical experience in this increasingly popular and dynamic area. Hundreds of examples that span the futures, fixed-income, equity, and foreign exchange markets show how candlestick techniques can be used in all of today’s markets. Through such patterns as the “dark cloud cover” and “hanging-man lines” the reader will discover how candlestick techniques provide unique market insights that are unavailable anywhere else.
On the right track: DfT appoints two women to directors general job share for Rail Group. Credit: Lynne Cameron/PA The Department for Transport has appointed two women to the civil service's first ever job share at director general level as successors to the DfT's newly appointed permanent secretary. Polly Payne and Ruth Hannant will join the DfT as directors general for the department's Rail Group on 11 December from the Department for Education, filling the position left vacant when Bernadette Kelly was promoted to perm sec in April. Kelly said the pair would be role models not only for the civil service but also for the rail sector, where women make up just 11% of the workforce and senior leaders are "overwhelmingly male". RELATED CONTENT She told Civil Service World: “I’m proud that the Department for Transport is leading the way with the first job share partnership at this level in government. And I’m especially pleased that we have Polly and Ruth joining us to lead our work on rail. "We are investing in the biggest rail modernisation for over a century, so there’s a huge amount to do." Kelly was DG for Rail Group from September 2015 to April 2017, when Nick Joyce took the post in an "acting" capacity. Rail Group is responsible for developing strategy and policy for the rail sector, managing expenditure on rail services and infrastructure, and oversees the delivery of rail franchises and major projects – including Crossrail and Thameslink. It sponsors British Transport Police, Network Rail, the Office of Rail and Road, the Rail Accidents Investigation Branch and Transport Focus. Payne and Hannant were already in a job-share partnership with each other working on higher education reform in DfE, and have both previously worked for the former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and theTreasury. Former BIS permanent secretary Martin Donnelly described the pair as an "outstandingly effective job share", during an interview with Civil Service World earlier this year. DfT said the appointment demonstrated the government's commitment to increasing the number of women working in the rail sector. The Transport Infrastructure Skills Strategy, published in 2015, included an aim for women to make up 20% of DfT's science and technical apprenticeships by 2020, and 50% by 2030. Kelly added: “Within the DfT we are making progress in encouraging diversity at every level, and earlier this year the department was recognised for our leadership on workplace gender equality by being included in The Times Top 50 employers for Women 2017. “But I do see the department as having an important role in challenging the transport industry more widely to do better on diversity." She said DfT would support a cross-government campaign being launched in January to tackle to engineering skills gap, which will focus on encouraging more women and people from black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds to consider a career in engineering.
An ancient lake whose shores vacillated between lush forests and dry savannahs shows how the changing climate may have shaped humanity's dawn in eastern Africa, according to new research. Scientists studying organic remains dating back 2 million years in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania tracked how plant life adapted to the regional climate as it shifted from regular monsoons to scorching dry spells. The researchers published their findings last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The gorge was home to some of humanity's earliest hominid ancestors, and the surrounding landscape provides some of the best glimpses of the conditions they lived in from fossil remains, tools, artifacts and plant residues. "It's an unusual and almost extreme situation," said Gail Ashley a co-author and a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Rutgers University. "[The Olduvai Gorge is] like a perfect environment because it was a closed basin and it filled up with sediment, and those sediments recorded everything around it, just like a book." It was in these sediments that Ashley and her collaborators found waxes from prehistoric plants and algae, collected in samples over a decade from Olduvai. The team examined residues from 2 million years ago spanning a 200,000-year time frame, around the dawn of Homo erectus. Clayton Magill, a geochemistry graduate student at Penn State University and a co-author, explained that by measuring isotopes in these waxes, the team painted a picture of what kinds of plants grew in the gorge and what environments they lived in. "With carbon, we can delineate between grasses and trees," Magill said, noting that different plants have different carbon signatures. Hydrogen isotopes, on the other hand, measure aridity. "Heavier [hydrogen] isotopes are associated with drier conditions," he said. Water with lighter hydrogen isotopes tends to evaporate faster, so plants end up accumulating heavier hydrogen when the ground dries up. How brain development connects with climate From these measurements, the researchers traced what kinds of plants grew in the gorge over time and compared them with how the climate changed, constructing a continuous record of plant and water fluctuations. "What we find is that the period between 2 million and 1.8 million years ago is associated with extreme environmental variability," Magill said. Grasslands gave way to woody forests and back again while water levels in the gorge rose and fell, often very quickly by geological time scales. "There was evidence that there was contraction and expansion over time," said Katherine Freeman, a co-author and a geosciences professor at Penn State. "What we show is a repeated transition from the driest to the wettest on the scale of a few thousand years." Though not as dramatic as a towering black monolith, these changes may have spurred human evolution by forcing early hominids to adapt to a rapidly changing climate, driving them to develop new strategies to hunt, gather and survive with changes in food and fresh water. "That's where the connection has been; the development of the brain, food gathering, might have been triggered by the continually changing climate," Ashley said. These changes also created selection pressures in other species like birds and reptiles. "Our findings are consistent with variability as a driver of human evolution," Freeman said. "Rather than a slow and steady change, what we see is a pretty intense variability." This challenges views that hold that a slowly drying continent forced early hominids to evolve and disperse. Does this have any implications for modern climate changes? It may to an extent. "The speed at which modern climate is changing is fairly unique," Magill said. "We're not really quite sure what's going to happen." However, some scientists are already seeing population, behavioral and physical changes in various species due to a shifting climate (ClimateWire, Dec. 20, 2012). Though modern humans can find ways to adapt to the new normal, researchers are uncertain about how human biology will change over the long term. For the Olduvai team, the next step is to conduct its analysis with an eye for changes with respect to geography instead of time. This way, it can track how life on different terrains responded to similar climate conditions. Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives classifies the SKS rifle that some sources believe Micah Johnson used to kill five Dallas police officers on July 7 a "Curio or Relic." Due to this status, which the SKS shares with many other models of Berettas, Colts, Remingtons, Rugers and other firearms that are at least 50 years old, gun dealers said that in some states and jurisdictions the Soviet-era rifle can be purchased online and delivered to your door without securing a permit. In the hands of Johnson, a trained shooter and army reservist who had private firearms training and even kept a combat manual on how to "shoot and scoot," the semi-automatic SKS that the FBI initially said he used proved as deadly and accurate that night as it had in Vietnam, when it killed hundreds of U.S. soldiers. (Update: There are conflicting reports about about what kind of rifle Johnson used in the shooting. Citing an unnamed law enforcement official, The Wall Street Journal said Monday that he used a different weapon, an Izhmash-Saiga model, which is based on the AK-74 military rifle.) The SKS or "self-loading carbine Simonov," named for its Russian inventor, Sergei Simonov, was invented near the end of World War II when the Soviet army needed a gun to match the German army's Sturmgewehr, which had wreaked havoc on Allied forces by combining the rapid fire of a submachine gun with the power of a rifle. Police use of lethal robots sparks crime-fighting debate These armies recognized the necessity for a gun that could shoot multiple times without using a bolt to reload each time, yet not require a cartridge so powerful that the recoil would knock the shooter's aim off when a number of shots were fired in a row. The shortened 7.62 by 39 millimeter cartridge (about .30 caliber U.S.) fit the bill. Millions of these SKS rifles were produced for Eastern bloc armies, including Albania, Rumania, Russia, Yugoslavia and, later, China. But the SKS became obsolete when its better-known cousin, the AK-47 or "Kalashnikov," named after its inventor, Mikhail Kalashnikov, came into being in 1947. The Kalashnikov fired the same cartridge but had several advantages. It was easier and cheaper to make, virtually indestructible, and fired from a 30-round removable magazine, as opposed to the SKS with its fixed 10-round magazine, making it faster to reload. Most important, it had selective fire, meaning it could fire single shots or be fully automatic. In other words, it could spray 30 rounds in a few seconds and do it over and over. But the SKS still had its fans. It was and is a sturdy and accurate gun. Both of these guns have iron sights, but the SKS is usually considered the more accurate. "At 100 yards, holding the sight on the bottom of a military target, I can hit the black with every round," said a Bordentown, New Jersey gun dealer. In contrast, the AK-47 has loose-fitting parts and is often described as "tinny." The SKS can also be retrofitted with aftermarket parts easily found on the Internet that allow it to fire 30 or more rounds. Buyers can also buy a 75-round magazine, although this modification is illegal in some states. Scopes are available, but normally attach to the side rather than the top of the rifle due to the way rounds are ejected, which may make the gun less accurate. Other accessories, such as railings and flashlights, aren't easy to install but the SKS can easily be modernized with plastic parts and a pistol grip. While the U.S. military rifle, the M-16, and its civilian counterpart, the AR-15, have won wide acceptance, they fire a .223 caliber round that's only a little bigger -- but a lot more powerful -- than a .22 found in many American homes. The heavier .30 caliber slug fired by the SKS will chew through a normal ballistic vest designed to stop pistol rounds and do far more damage than a .223, said some gun experts. Although still being produced, the AK-47 gave way to the smaller caliber AK-74, a gun brandished by Osama Bin Laden in some photos of the organizer of the September 11 attacks. Both weapons are known as the "grim reaper" because of their death toll in revolutions and guerrilla wars around the world. When the SKS was replaced, many of the rifles were put into boxes packed with grease to keep them lubricated and rust-free, and only used in Cold War parades, where its wood fixtures and long bayonets made it a favorite ornament for marching troops. But in the 1990s Americans rediscovered the SKS as a sporting rifle and for target shooting. Despite resistance from the U.S. State Department, SKS models from many different countries were imported and are now available for purchase on websites with prices ranging from $200 to $800 for a new or barely used model. It has not yet been revealed how Johnson obtained the reported SKS or any other weapon he could have used in the attack. Federal officials said he had been stockpiling weapons and explosives for at least two years. By gun standards, the SKS is relatively cheap. You can even buy a box of 10 with cleaning kits for about $4,000. And used or yard-sale models are even cheaper. According to gun dealers, the best of the bunch come from from Eastern Europe. Dallas gunman wrote on wall in blood, police chief says Because of their technically obsolete status, you can purchase an SKS if you have a $30, three-year Curio and Relic (C&R) license from the ATF. And it's only one of many "curios" available, including such classics as the 9-millimeter Browning High Power, Lugers and some Colt .45s. One gun dealer said a client had a Thompson submachine gun delivered, the gun made famous by the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The gun was modified to fire only semi-automatic, meaning one shot is fired with each squeeze of the trigger, so as not to violate federal law. The big advantage of a C&R -- these aging guns are legal for interstate transport and sale. Buyers are deemed by the ATF to be a "collector." Some states place additional restrictions on those applying for a C&R license. For example, Illinois requires applicants to have a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card, which entails a background check, no felony convictions and no mental illness. But for the average applicant it takes only 15 minutes to apply for the license, according to one website in the state. Obtaining a C&R license in other states can be trickier. Firearms advocates consider New Jersey "gun unfriendly," for example, so an application for a C&R is referred to the state police, who then pass it along to the municipality. Local officials may reject it or treat it as a traditional Federal Firearms License, which requires multiple approvals and permitting. In contrast, neighboring Pennsylvania is considered an easy state to get a C&R. Residents can get an SKS or other weapon delivered to their home, gun dealers said. Other "right to carry" states are equally liberal. I was at a gun range once when I heard and saw an SKS fired -- accurately -- at 100 yards. An older man in a neighboring booth came over and said he always jumped when he heard the sound of the 7.62x39 round go off. He had been in Vietnam.
Early-childhood education programs that start at birth and care for children until age 5 have a greater economic benefit to society than preschool programs that start later, according to a new study. (iStock ) Nobel Prize winner James Heckman’s research has played an important role in establishing that high-quality public preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds can more than pay for itself over the long term, as low-income children who attend are more likely to live productive lives. It’s an economic argument that has persuaded lawmakers from both parties to support early education initiatives. Now Heckman has released new research showing that the return on investment is even higher for high-quality programs that care for low-income children from infancy to age 5. Children in such zero-to-five programs are more likely to graduate from high school, less likely to be incarcerated than their counterparts who stayed home or enrolled in low-quality programs, had higher IQs and were healthier during the course of their lives, according to the study released Monday. All of that taken together leads to a significant savings to society, the study found. The rate of return on the public investment in zero-to-five programs is 13 percent per year, Heckman and his colleagues estimate, up from an estimate of 7 percent to 10 percent per year for preschool programs that start at age 3. The more comprehensive zero-to-five programs cost about $18,500 per year for each child enrolled — more than the average public school district spends per pupil in grades K through 12. But for every dollar invested, the program generated a societal benefit of $6.30, according to Heckman. [James Heckman: In early-childhood education, quality really matters] He said the findings suggest that policymakers could make a bigger difference in the lives of poor children with early-childhood education programs that begin far earlier in their lives, when children are just eight weeks old. “As an economist, I always find it very odd that people only focus on the costs of a program rather than the benefits,” Heckman said. “This is very strong evidence for supporting this kind of program going forward.” Some analysts have challenged the notion that modern public policy should be built around studies of the effects of small, costly programs that cared for children four decades ago, pointing to studies of Head Start and other early education initiatives that have found no lasting impact. And not everyone is on board with extending taxpayer-provided education to children younger than kindergarten. Speaking earlier this month in the District, Bill Bennett, former U.S. education secretary under Ronald Reagan, said he’s inclined to focus on fixing K-12 education first. President-elect Donald Trump has proposed tax credits to help working parents pay for day care, but his program is focused on easing families’ financial burden rather than on providing high-quality education for babies and toddlers. He has said little about early childhood initiatives, other than to express skepticism about the cost to taxpayers of the universal preschool programs his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton favored. [We have no idea if universal preschool actually helps kids] Heckman’s new research is based on results from two North Carolina programs that began in the 1970s and then tracked their graduates’ lives through age 35. The two programs — the Carolina Abecedarian Project and the Carolina Approach to Responsive Education — were very similar, enrolling low-income African American infants when they were eight weeks old and caring for them five days a week, 50 weeks a year, until age 5. Children enrolled in the programs got regular medical checkups, giving their families a better chance of addressing problems early. And because the children were cared for full-time, their mothers — most of whom were single parents — were more likely to get further education and advance at work, boosting their income. “It has two generations’ impact,” Heckman said. Graduates of the zero-to-five programs also had higher IQs than their counterparts who did not enroll, Heckman said. Preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds have not been shown to have any such effect on IQ. The two programs initially enrolled about 200 children, a number that diminished as some moved or dropped out for other reasons. Their lives and outcomes were compared to the lives and outcomes of a control group of children, including some who stayed home with their mothers and others who attended low-quality day care. [How education children early and well creates a ripple effect for us all] How to define and measure “quality” has been a matter of debate among early childhood educators. Heckman said the defining characteristic of a high-quality program, more than a certain staffing ratio or training regimen, is empathetic adults who engage meaningfully with their young charges, giving them personalized attention as they grow and develop. Boys who received low-quality care had significantly worse life outcomes, including in health, than boys who stayed home with their mothers, according to the study. Girls did not suffer in the same way from spending time in low-quality arrangements. Heckman said that might be due to the fact that young boys are, in general, slower than girls to develop skills such as self-control, making them more vulnerable to chaotic environments. “Quality is probably more of an issue for boys than for girls,” Heckman said. “There’s no question about it that certain kinds of warehouse activity for children — not locking them up in a closet or putting them into Romanian orphanages, but putting them into large groups of children, not even interacting — can lead to harmful consequences,” he said. He said that boys and girls could benefit from early-childhood policies tailored to their differences, but acknowledged that might be a hard sell: “People don’t want to talk about these gender differences,” he said. The new research has not yet been submitted to a journal for peer review. It received funding from the Buffett Early Childhood Fund; the Pritzker Children’s Initiative; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics; the National Institutes of Health; the Hymen Milgrom Supporting Organization; the Institute for New Economic Thinking; and the American Bar Foundation.
Eurostat, the European statistics agency, raised its estimate of the country’s budget deficit for last year to 13.6 percent of gross domestic product, above the Greek government’s recent estimate of 12.9 percent. The ratio of debt to G.D.P. stood at 115.1 percent, compared with the government’s estimate of 113.4 percent. Eurostat also expressed “a reservation on the quality of the data reported by Greece” because of “uncertainties on the surplus of social security funds for 2009, on the classification of some public entities and on the recording of off-market swaps.” That suggested that the agency could increase its estimates even higher — by 0.3 to 0.5 percentage point for the deficit, and by five to seven percentage points for debt-to-G.D.P. measure. Separately, Moody’s cut its rating for Greece to A3 from A2 and placed the country on review for further downgrades in view of the “significant risk that debt may only stabilize at a higher and more costly level than previously estimated.” The lower rating still remains an investment grade. In a statement, Sarah Carlson, Moody’s lead analyst for Greece, said it was “unlikely that the rating will remain at A3, unless the government’s actions can restore confidence in the markets and counteract the prevailing headwinds of high interest rates and low growth.” The stream of news pushed the yields on Greek bonds up to new highs — to 8.835 percent, above the 8.529 percent return that investors currently demand for similar debt from South Africa. Photo The euro slid in early Asian trading on Friday to $1.3201 against the dollar, the lowest level in a year. On Thursday in Europe, it dropped to $1.3316, down from $1.3401 on Wednesday. Shares in Athens also tumbled again on Thursday, with the benchmark index closing almost 4 percent lower, taking its losses for the year so far to more than 15 percent. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Officials in Athens and Brussels sought to limit the damage. The Greek Finance Ministry said in a statement that the announcement by Eurostat did not alter its goal of reducing the deficit by at least four percentage points of G.D.P. in 2010, as laid down in the Greek stability and growth program, which it forwarded to the European Commission for scrutiny. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. “The government has already adopted all the necessary measures — in excess of 6 percent of G.D.P. — to ensure the achievement of this objective and is rapidly progressing on the implementation of all policy and structural changes,” it said. Analysts expressed concern that the increased debt and deficit forecasts could spread the economic pain further into the future. Greece’s planned fiscal consolidation over the coming two years would already be an unprecedented adjustment over such a short period, said Mr. Kounis, at Fortis. He added that “it would not end there.” Greece will now need to tighten more to get its debt down, as planned, to 60 percent of G.D.P. by 2020. “Not only do additional loans look necessary next year but longer-term loans may eventually need to be made available on more generous terms,” he said. The difficulties in getting an international aid package worth an estimated 45 billion euros ($60 billion); the unpopularity of the bailout in many countries; and a potential challenge to the package in Germany’s constitutional court suggest that the provision of additional help will not be straightforward. The strike Thursday in Athens disrupted public services, shutting down schools and leaving state hospitals working with emergency staff, The Associated Press reported. Demonstrators from a trade union continued to blockade Piraeus, the main port serving Athens, disrupting ferry services. But airports remained open, The A.P. reported. Unions fear deeper cuts after the Socialist government began talks this week with the I.M.F., the European Central Bank and the European Commission for the three-year rescue package. As those talks continue in Athens, Greek officials have been quoted in recent days as suggesting that the government may seek to tap funds, if possible, even before the discussion are completed, within two weeks or so. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The Eurostat figures also highlighted the troubled state of government finances across the European Union. The agency raised its estimate of the 2009 deficit for Ireland, to 14.3 percent, compared with the 11.7 percent figure submitted by Dublin in December. The Spanish deficit for 2009 was projected to be in line with estimates earlier this year, at 11.2 percent of G.D.P., while the forecast for Portugal’s deficit was 9.4 percent.
In a Sunday interview with a website called Shark-Tank, GOP contender Sen. Ted Cruz that he believes President Obama’s unlawful executive amnesty shielding millions of illegal aliens from deportation would “change who we are as a country,” and said that legal immigration is “good,” stressing his support for the rule of law. “I actually think the amnesty issue is broader than just another policy issue on which people can disagree,” Cruz said. “President Obama famously said his goal was to fundamentally transform the United States of America. And one of the critical tools he is using to try to do that is to allow millions of people to come here illegally.” “There’s seven billion people on the face of the planet, and an awful lot of them would like to come here. Now if they want to come here legally and follow the law, great,” he added. “You and I both come from immigrant families who followed the law.” Cruz’s father, Rafael Bienvenido Cruz, came to America after initially fighting for Fidel Castro — then becoming disgusted with the Communist leader’s seizure of private property and brutal suppression of any dissent. He fled to America in 1957, going on to earn a mathematics degree, become a naturalized citizen in 2005, and work as a born-again Christian minister in Texas. Throughout his presidential campaign, Cruz has repeatedly stressed he opposes Obama’s executive amnesty in an effort to distance himself from the rest of the GOP primary pack. In other ways, Cruz agrees with party leaders when it comes to increasing immigration: In 2013, he proposed an amendment to the comprehenisve immigration reform bill proposed by the “Gang of Eight,” expanding a skilled-labor visa called the H-1B by 500 percent, pushing the cap from 65,000 to 325,000, while increasing the fees placed on some employers from $1,500 to $2,500 for each foreigner hired. The bill died in Congress before it could reach Obama’s desk. Cruz’s complete remarks are as follows: There should be no pathway to citizenship for those who are here illegally. I don’t support amnesty. And I find it really striking at the Cleveland debate, that divide was evident for all to see. Let me step back for a second. Let me talk about the amnesty issue. Because I actually think the amnesty issue is broader than just another policy issue on which people can disagree. President Obama famously said his goal was to fundamentally transform the United States of America. And one of the critical tools he is using to try to do that is to allow millions of people to come here illegally. There’s seven billion people on the face of the planet, and an awful lot of them would like to come here. Now if they want to come here legally and follow the law, great. You and I both come from immigrant families who followed the law. But the Obama plan is to allow millions to come in illegally and try to grant them amnesty, grant them a pathway to citizenship, and they believe they’ll vote Democrat in perpetuity to keep the big-government Democrats in power. It is a transformational policy, if amnesty goes through. It changes who we are as a country, if Obama and the Democrats succeed in this. And what’s striking in Cleveland, is a majority of the candidates on that stage have advocated amnesty, and not just advocated amnesty, but advocated it for years. Many of them vocally, vigorously, publicly. As you mentioned, you heard my friend Marco Rubio join Chuck Schumer in authoring the Chuck Schumer amnesty plan. In doing so, he was enthusiastically supported by Jeb Bush. In doing so, he was enthusiastically supported by Scott Walker. And President Obama. Both CNN and Politifact did fact-checks of my statement that a majority of candidates on that stage have supported amnesty, and both of them concluded, yep, it’s true. They went through the records of one after the other after the other. And let me tell you why that matters so much. We remember back in 2012, where we nominated a candidate, Mitt Romney, a good man. But someone who had proposed Romneycare. And the problem was, when it came to the general election, when you have a candidate who’s been an advocate for health insurance plan almost exactly like Obamacare, our nominee wasn’t able to make the election about Obamacare. He wasn’t able to challenge Barack Obama effectively on Obamacare, because he had written a proposal just like it. The same thing is true in this instance. If we nominate a candidate who’s been a vigorous, vocal, and aggressive advocate of amnesty, then the Republican candidate won’t stand up and challenge Hillary Clinton on amnesty, and certainly won’t do so effectively. Because anyone who tries to do so, the response will be: Gosh, just a couple of years ago, before you were running for president, you agreed with me [that] we should grant amnesty. I have never supported amnesty and never will support amnesty. I believe in the rule of law. You know, at the end of the day, these principles aren’t complicated. When it comes to immigration: Legal, good; illegal, bad. According to an exclusive analysis provided to Breitbart News by the Senate’s Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, chaired by Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, the U.S. will issue more green cards for immigrants — over ten million in the next decade — than the populations of primary states Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina combined, unless Congress passes a law cutting the number of visas issued. WATCH CRUZ’S INTERVIEW: Email Katie at kmchugh@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter: @k_mcq.
Since entering the political spotlight, Greg Gianforte has avoided questions about social issues. But he has personally lobbied against an LGBT rights bill, and tax documents show his foundation has given more than $1.1 million to leading organizations that oppose LGBT rights. Bloomberg / Getty Images / David Paul Morris Last September, one month after filing preliminary paperwork to run for governor, Greg Gianforte moderated a panel at the Montana High Tech Jobs Summit. A man in the audience had a question: Would passing a religious freedom law like the one in Indiana, which critics said would permit LGBT discrimination, affect Montana businesses? Gianforte turned to the panelists, and after the president of one local business said the issue was "not on our radar," Gianforte shut down the subject. "Thank you," he said abruptly. "Next question." It was a surprising silence from Gianforte, given his history of advocacy on this very issue. The entrepreneur became wealthy by growing his company, RightNow Technologies, in the city of Bozeman and selling it to Oracle for $1.5 billion. For years, he was quietly one of the state's leading financiers of organizations that advocate for religious freedom laws and oppose LGBT nondiscrimination policies. Public records obtained by BuzzFeed News also show Gianforte lobbied city officials in Bozeman to block an LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance, arguing that a ban on discrimination could drive away business. “I think he politically flew under the radar.” But since he stepped into the political spotlight, the 54-year-old Christian has positioned himself as a strictly economic-oriented candidate who will create jobs, and has ducked questions about his positions on LGBT rights and how his religious beliefs would affect his policies as governor. His campaign has raised more than $300,000 since filing an exploratory committee in August. And when he formally announces his candidacy, which he is expected to do Wednesday, he will cement his status as the state's Republican frontrunner. But records show a man who has a long history of using religious arguments to push an extreme social agenda. A BuzzFeed News examination of tax returns shows his foundation, the Gianforte Family Charitable Trust, donated more than $1.1 million over a period of six years to some of the political groups leading the charge against LGBT rights in the United States. Tax records list the trustees as Gianforte; his wife, Susan; and son Richard. On balance, he has given far more money to Christian missionaries and faith-based schools than to advocacy groups. But when the donations were political in nature, they were overwhelmingly to organizations that focus on opposing women's reproductive rights and blocking LGBT equality. The spokesperson for one recipient, the Family Research Council, on MSNBC in 2010 said that homosexual behavior should be punished by criminal sanctions. Another group, Focus on the Family, still advocates a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex couples from marrying. And an organization in his home state, the Montana Family Foundation, received more than half a million dollars from Gianforte between 2008 and 2012, when the group functioned as the state's primary advocate against LGBT policies. "This wasn’t just a passing issue," Kim Abbot, co-director of the Montana Human Rights Network, told BuzzFeed News. "He’s an activist. He’s been putting money into these issues for years.” "I think gay people in Montana have to assume that if Gianforte were elected governor, there would be a rollback of protections under his authority," she added. But until recently, she said, “I think he politically flew under the radar.” Gianforte did not respond to requests to comment for this article on his donations to anti-LGBT groups, what he would do if elected, or his own direct activism. “What happens when the law is in conflict with his own personal beliefs? He hasn’t addressed much of that." In his personal capacity, Gianforte was on the front line pushing against an LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance in his hometown of Bozeman. Public records and interviews conducted by BuzzFeed News show he met commissioners one-on-one, and, when an ordinance appeared likely to pass anyway, he submitted drafts of new versions of the bill. He successfully pressed to weaken the measure so that certain religious employers may be able raise a defense if they turn away LGBT employees or job applicants. Political watchers in Montana believe this history could play a key factor in the election — if it becomes a central issue, which Gianforte is apparently trying to avoid. "Gianforte is presenting himself as an economic conservative; he is talking about jobs," Robert Saldin, a political science professor at the University of Montana, told BuzzFeed News. "And that message is very much in line which what has been successful for Montana Republicans.” “I think he is little bit of an unknown quantity in political circles,” Saldin added. “Selling his company to Oracle has made him incredibly wealthy — that’s what people know — and his donations are really interesting. It’s quite admirable how much money he has given away.” But, he pointed out, “People are out to take him down as an out-of-touch evangelical guy who is going to take away your rights, and if that message sticks, that’s a real problem for him, because people are into their rights out here.” The mountainous state is reliably conservative, but less divided on social issues than much of the South and Midwest, Saldin said. The Democratic incumbent, Steve Bullock, won in 2012 as an anti-tax moderate, a natural fit for an electorate that tends to prefer frugally minded candidates over social demagogues from either party. Some of Gianforte’s other religious beliefs have also raised questions. Among his philanthropy, Gianforte gave the the Foundation Advancing Creation Truth a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton for its Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum. The museum claims the Earth was created by God "in six natural days,” asks if humans walked with dinosaurs, and professes that God ordained marriage between only man and woman. MT needs more thriving businesses like Woods Power-Grip in Laurel. #MTpol #MTgov In a December Politico interview, Gianforte was asked why "Democrats seem to be eager to paint you as religious kook" and whether he was interested in "rolling back gay marriage." "I'm very clear," he responded. "I'm a Christian. My faith in God is very important to me. I'm running because we're 49th in the county in wages, and we're going to focus on the economy." He added, "We're going to create better opportunities for people." He ducked again in December when the Associated Press asked him about how religion would influence his politics. “The focus is on jobs,” he said, “that's what people want to talk about." But if Gianforte is establishing a firewall between his faith and economic politics if elected governor, that's a departure from his positioning in the past — that opposing LGBT rights law was good for business. “It’s an issue he is not comfortable talking about, but we are very comfortable talking about it,” Jason Pitt, a spokesperson for the Montana Democratic Party, told BuzzFeed News. He said Democrats are trying to frame the race around Gianforte's history on social views — in part because it will turn off voters and also because they believe Gianforte has tried to dodge the issue. "Gianforte is one of the most anti-LGBT candidates that Montana has ever seen," Pitt said. “We think it is important for Montana voters to know his background." Pitt also contends that Gianforte's views on LGBT laws and talk about jobs are inherently linked. “I don’t think there is a way you can separate them,” Pitt argued. “You can't say you are a job creator and then support job-killing discrimination laws.” “Homosexual advocates try to argue that businesses are leery of locating in towns that aren’t friendly to homosexuals. I believe the opposite is truer." In January 2014, Gianforte sent a volley of emails to Bozeman city commissioners and the mayor about his "concern" over legislation to ban LGBT discrimination in housing, jobs, and employment. He requested meetings over coffee with them individually, starting a months-long lobbying effort. The exchanges were obtained through a records request by a local activist and provided to BuzzFeed News. "He’s a very nice guy, easy to talk to," Carson Taylor, the current Bozeman mayor who was then a commissioner, told BuzzFeed News in an interview. The two met at the Leaf and Bean on Main Street. "He wanted to work with us to get what he wanted, instead of outright opposition to it." Gianforte pressed the commission to abstain from the ordinance that would allow LGBT people legal recourse if they were discriminated against, according to emails to city lawmakers. Gianforte argued that the city should entertain a nonbinding resolution, because passing a binding ordinance would discourage Christian-owned businesses from moving to Bozeman. “Homosexual advocates try to argue that businesses are leery of locating in towns that aren’t friendly to homosexuals. I believe the opposite is truer," he wrote in a Jan. 23 email to the commissioners and mayor. Gianforte continued: "I would argue that Christian businesses will carefully evaluate where they would be subject to an ordinance like this before locating. To include even locating just outside city limits to avoid having to compromise their religious beliefs.” He warned of other consequences, too, saying that banning transgender discrimination would let men to sexually prey on girls in bathrooms — a common argument from anti-LGBT activists. As the bill proceeded through the commission, Gianforte's language and tactics grew stronger. He worked with lawyers at the Alliance Defending Freedom, a group his foundation gave $58,500 to, in order to propose language that would give religious businesses or organizations a defense if they discriminated in employment and public accommodations due to their faith. Mayor Taylor said that Gianforte was the only activist to provide unsolicited legislation and amendments on the nondiscrimination ordinance. Gianforte's emails also show him saying he opposes discrimination, in general, and that he was simply seeking to balance rights of LGBT people and religious people. Taylor told BuzzFeed News that Gianforte hires employees with a different faith and background of his own. But Taylor also noted that Gianforte also lobbied for a religious freedom ordinance that would, for example, allow a baker to refuse a same-sex couple ordering a wedding cake. In the end, Taylor said the commission included some religious exemptions to the law, more narrow than anything Gianforte requested. On the issue of the economic impact, however, Taylor rejects Gianforte’s argument that the ordinance — passing in spring 2014 — would be bad for business. "I would say the city is booming right now," the mayor said. "If anything, the nondiscrimination ordinance encouraged people to want to move here and work here." The Gianforte family foundation’s annual tax forms — some posted online and others provided to BuzzFeed News by a source — show the largest recipients from 2008 to 2013 are Christian schools. Among the recipients with a clear political agenda, the groups range from radical to relatively mainstream. Probably the best known national organization, Focus on the Family, says marriage between a man and woman is a top priority, has long opposed nondiscrimination ordinances, and argues that businesses open to the public should be allowed to turn away LGBT people for religious reasons. Another recipient is the Alliance Defending Freedom, one of the country's leading legal organizations that litigates cases to allow religiously based refusals of service and supports religious freedom legislation. The furthest to the right, the Family Research Council, has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. Mayor Taylor said that Gianforte was the only activist to provide unsolicited legislation and amendments on the nondiscrimination ordinance.
By Steve Wohlberg “I’m the world’s most dangerous predator. Everything about me invites you in. My voice, my face, even my smell… I’m designed to kill… I wanted to kill you. I’ve never wanted a human’s blood so much in my life… Your scent, it’s like a drug to me. You’re like my own personal brand of heroin.” So says the handsome vampire, Edward Cullen, to his star-struck 17-year-old lover, Bella Swan, in the hit movie Twilight, now the rage of teenagers the world over. What is Twilight about anyway? Is it simply harmless entertainment, or does something sinister lurk behind the scenes waiting to bite you? You’re about to find out. It all started one dark night – June 1, 2003 to be exact – when a virtually unknown Arizona stay-at-home mom named Stephenie Meyer had a strange dream. On her own official website, Meyer testifies, I woke up (on that June 2nd) from a very vivid dream. In my dream, two people were having an intense conversation in a meadow in the woods. One of these people was just your average girl. The other person was fantastically beautiful, sparkly, and a vampire. They were discussing the difficulties inherent in the facts that A) they were falling in love with each other while B) the vampire was particularly attracted to the scent of her blood, and was having a difficult time restraining himself from killing her immediately (1). This unusual dream was so compelling that when Meyer awoke “she wrote like a woman struck by lightning” (2). Perching herself before her computer, she feverishly typed out what she had just “seen” in her dream. Based on Meyer’s own report, the entire experience seemed to have a mysterious, almost supernatural quality to it. After being obsessively driven to type page after page, she later reflected: All this time, Bella and Edward were, quite literally, voices in my head. They simply wouldn’t shut up. I’d stay up as late as I could stand trying to get all the stuff in my mind typed out, and then crawl, exhausted, into bed… only to have another conversation start in my head. I hated to lose anything by forgetting, so I’d get up and head back down to the computer (3). Meyer admits that at this point in her life she was a novice writer with no experience in getting a book published. When the essential story, based on her dream, was mostly completed, she did a Google search to learn what to do next. Eventually, she sent 15 copies of her manuscript to potential interests and, to her utter amazement, quickly landed a huge deal with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, one of the biggest young adult publishers in America. With increased motivation, she kept typing, typing, and typing until a tantalizing 4-part sequence of fictitious vampire romances was completed. The entire series is called The Twilight Saga, and at this moment, it’s bigger than Harry Potter. The titles of all four books are: Twilight (Book One) New Moon (Book Two) Eclipse (Book Three) Breaking Dawn (Book Four) Because each novel shot off the press as an immediate bestseller (the first three sat Number 1 on the New York Times bestseller list for 137 weeks), Summit Entertainment took a chance and made Book One into a movie, to test the waters. They didn’t have long to wait. During its opening weekend of November 21-23, 2008, Twilight grossed nearly 70 million dollars. By April of 2009, it had netted nearly $380 million worldwide and over $127M in DVD sales. Yet Twilight fever had just begun. By the time you read this, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn may have already hit theatres worldwide. The dollars keep rolling in. Needless to say, Stephenie Meyer (an observant Mormon, married, with three sons) is no longer your typical Arizona housewife. Catapulted to global stardom, she’s been dubbed “the new queen of fantasy” (5) whose vampire-romances have become the juggernaut of this generation. The Twilight Saga Storyline Twilight launches with the budding romance between Bella Swan (a normal human) and Edward Cullen, her 108-year-old vampire lover. The setting is rural Forks, Washington (a real town), in the western part of the state. When Bella first spied Edward sitting at a table inside the cafeteria of Forks High School (a real school), she was irresistibly drawn to him. As their relationship develops Bella discovers that her unusual new boyfriend belongs to a chic vampire family whose members live, not in coffins, or in a creepy shack surrounded by bats and a moat, but in a splendidly built, vaulted ceiling, contemporary home. Yes, the Cullen’s are all vampires, but good ones. They’re vegetarians too, that is, they’ve renounced human blood (although they are still tempted by its sight and scent) and subsist only on the blood of animals. Vastly different from Bella Lugosi’s stereotypical creatures of the night, the Cullens walk around like normal folks during daylight hours, drive cars (Edward drives a silver Volvo S60R), hold jobs, and can handle some sunlight. They’re expert baseball players, too. Fiercely loyal to their clan (or coven), they often act unselfishly, and above all, are tantalizingly supernatural. Edward reads minds, climbs trees faster than Spiderman, and exhibits superhuman strength that he often uses to protect Bella. As the plot thickens, evil characters emerge. There are not only good vampires, but nasty ones too, who hunt for human blood, including Bella’s. Jacob Black, one of Bella’s friends, is a member of the Quileute Indian tribe (a real western Washington tribe whose legends Meyer researched and makes use of) and turns out to be a werewolf. As thrills build, blood flows. A coven of evil vampires murder humans, vampires battle vampires, werewolves kill vampires, werewolves fight werewolves, and so forth, all in the context of a Romeo-and-Juliet type of love affair between a mortal teenager and her immortal Prince Charming with sharp teeth. In Breaking Dawn (Book Four), Bella finally marries Edward, and they have a daughter named Reneseme; but because giving birth to a half-vampire half-human baby is so traumatic, Bella almost dies. To save her from death, Edward finally sinks his teeth into her (for the first time) and turns her into a vampire to give her an immortal existence, which is what Bella always wanted him to do anyway. As the saga nears completion, Reneseme is targeted, hunted and nearly executed by the mysterious Volturi (a secret vampire police force dedicated to hiding the existence of vampires from humans) because they see her as a threat. After being convinced that she really isn’t, the Volturi leave her alone, and the family finally settles down in the quiet town of Forks, Washington, to live “happily ever after,” literally. As vampires, they never die. That’s Twilight in a nutshell. It’s a story of love, lust, vampires, werewolves, good, evil, mortality, immortality, and blood; yes definitely, blood, and the craving for it as the sweetest drink of all. If you’re a Twilighter, hopefully you are thinking at this point, Fair enough…so what’s the problem? Its just fiction! There’s more to this subject than meets bloodshot eyes. Fiction Fuels Reality First of all, most fiction is not just fiction, and this is certainly true of Twilight. Fantasy aside, fiction still communicates ideas, values, and messages, and these in turn, affect the day-to-day activities of readers and movie watchers. Throughout The Twilight Saga, both Edward and his family, and some werewolves too, are depicted as living absolutely awesome, exciting lives. The “coolest” thing is that they all have specials powers beyond average mortals. It is this lure of power, and the promise of it, that tempts real teenagers and adults today to explore the mysterious world of occultism. They’re doing it now, in record numbers. TV series and Hollywood movies like Bewitched, Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Craft, Practical Magic, and of course, Harry Potter, have fueled interest in Wicca, magick, spells, and covens. In the same way, talking-to-the-dead productions like Medium, Ghost Whisperer, White Noise, and The Sixth Sense have not only generated hot interest in dialogue with the deceased, but professional mediums like John Edward, James Van Praagh, Sylvia Browne, and Allison Dubois (all New York Times bestselling authors) claim real abilities to help their clients do it. How about vampirism and drinking blood? Believe it or not, just as sorcery shows have fueled interest in Wicca, potions, and covens, and just like ghostly movies are motivating millions to seek interaction with deceased relatives, even so is The Twilight Saga sparking interest in real vampirism. That’s right, real vampirism. And Twilight isn’t the only one. Shows like True Blood are doing it too – big time. True Blood is a wildly popular HBO TV series swirling around a passionate relationship between an attractive blond barmaid with telepathic powers (Sookie Stackhouse) and Vampire Bill who – Edward Cullen style – has reformed his diet to synthetic blood. Then there’s The CW Television Network’s The Vampire Diaries with its love affair between Elena, a gorgeous brunette, and the tall, dark, handsome Stefan – another vampire. In both True Blood and The Vampire Diaries, once again, the traditional stereotype of creepy, menacing bloodsuckers is given a facelift. The new vamps – Edward, Bill, and Stefan – aren’t bad guys at all. Instead, they’re thoughtful and conscientious. What’s more, they all have thrilling love affairs with beautiful women totally enamored by their manly features and mysterious personalities. Thus Hollywood’s latest breed of guys with fangs have become tantalizingly attractive to real women who would love to sink their teeth into such a date. How awesome to have a vampire boyfriend! many young ladies fantasize. Guys are dreaming too, I’d love to be a vampire myself! You should be able to guess the next step. Interest in real vampirism is exploding. Vampirism on the Rise On December 7, 2008 – in the immediate wake of the theatrical success of the first Twilight film – Fox News Channel featured a special report on Hannity’s America entitled, Night Neighbors: Members Of America’s Vampire Subculture Could Be Living Right Under Your Nose. After a brief history lesson about Dracula and garlic, Sean Hannity surprisingly declared: Now in this day and age it seems impossible that anyone can believe in this nonsense [real vampirism], but in pop culture vampires are making a comeback in a big way. The blockbuster movie, Twilight is setting box office records on the big screen, while HBO’s True Blood is heating up the small screen. Now get this. Without skipping a beat, Hannity continued, But vampires aren’t just tinsel town moneymakers, there’s actually a vampire subculture that exists in the United States right now and spreads into almost every community in this country (6). Did you catch that? Sean Hannity reported that a real “vampire subculture” exists in America at this very moment “in almost every community in this country.” Surprisingly, he has his facts straight. His report also included an interview with Michelle Belanger, author of Vampires in their Own Words: An Anthology of Vampire Voices, whom he identified as “an expert in the vampire community.” “Needless to say,” Sean continued, “she considers herself a vampire.” Again, this report came out two weeks after Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight film hit the big screen. Other mainstream media issued corresponding reports as well, such as The Washington Post in a November 24, 2008 piece entitled, A Vampire’s Life: It’s Really Draining (7). ABC News followed suit in an October 31 article provocatively called, Real Life Vampires: Who Are They? (8) All of these news reports were designed to inform a largely ignorant public about a very real “vampire community” now fully functioning in both the U.S. and around the world. Do you believe me now? Real vampirism has sprung out of the coffin. Much of the information behind these media reports was provided by the newly formed (2005) Atlanta Vampire Alliance (A.V.A. for short), of which Michelle Belanger is an active member. Make no mistake about it. The A.V.A. is a real organization led by real people who consider themselves real vampires. The “Mission and FAQ” section of the A.V.A. website states, We have clearly defined goals, projects, and activities that we both strive for and follow to completion. In addition to working with an assortment of members from our own community, we also consult with members of the media, law enforcement, clergy, and academia along with paranormalists, metaphysists, and those in related fields of interest to clarify the beliefs and viewpoints held by the majority of those who identify themselves as “real vampires”. (9) Contemporary Vampire Beliefs and Practices One of the most knowledgeable independent scholars of the current vampire craze is Joseph Laycock, author of Vampires Today: The Truth about Modern Vampires (May 2009). In an attempt to make a complex subject simple, here are some basic facts that Laycock reveals. Real vampires (he says): · Are very diverse in their beliefs and practices · Come from all walks of life (nurses, doctors, lawyers, psychologists, entertainers, etc.) · Identify themselves with many religions (there are “Christian vampires,” “Jewish vampires,” “Muslim vampires,” “Wiccan vampires,” “Gothic vampires,” “atheist vampires,” etc.) · Believe they have an “energy deficit” and “need to feed on blood or energy to maintain their wellbeing” · Fall into three general categories: 1) “sanguine vampires” who experience a “blood hunger” and actually drink real blood, 2) “psychic vampires” who feed only on “energy” they somehow mysteriously draw from other humans, 3) “hybrids” who are a bit of both · Are further divided into two additional groups: 1) Those who seek to “supplement their diet” in “ethical” ways,” 2) Dangerous predators Many vampire organizations, orders, covens, and houses are adamant that sanguine vampires should follow “safe feeding methods.” According to their public statements, such vampires should find willing “donors” who freely consent to supply their blood. It is also recommended that vampire and donor enter a verbal or written contract. For health reasons, the “donor” should take blood tests to make sure he or she is disease free. Sterilized instruments alone should be used. Sometimes only an ounce of blood per week is required to “meet the need.” To all outward appearances, your hospital nurse may be the last one you might expect to do such things. Yet, unknown to the physicians and medical staff, she might be a real vampire who secretly drinks small amounts of blood when no one is looking. Now you know about “ethical vampirism.” Yet a darker side exists. Within the vampire subculture, many slip into practices I don’t wish to write about, or even think about (see Ephesians 5:12). Sometimes an insatiable desire for human blood becomes uncontrollable. All to often morality vanishes, lust dominates, and perversity prevails. In extreme cases, unspeakable crimes are even committed too grotesque to be featured in theaters, or on most TV networks. Yet they have happened. They are happening now. The Dark Side In the annals of human history there are many recorded cases where those driven by “blood lust” have committed horrific murders. Infamous names include Fritz Haarmaan, Tracy Wigginton, and teen vampire-cult leader Rod Ferrell. Their stories are too morbid to tell. Whole communities have been shocked by their deeds, newspapers have featured gruesome stories, and books have been written outlining ghastly details. In some cases – as in the case of Ferrell – criminal vampires have been executed. Yet unlike modern romanticized Hollywood movies and TV series, that 17-year-old killer didn’t rise again as one of the supernaturally fit, Immortal Undead, to develop exciting love affairs with beautiful women. Instead, his corpse now rots beneath the earth in a cemetery. He won’t pop out of his coffin when the moon is full. What the Bible Says about Ingesting Blood It may surprise you, but nearly three millennia before Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries captured the imagination of millions, the Holy Bible warned humanity about drinking blood. The first reference appears immediately after a catastrophic flood washed human wickedness from planet Earth (read Genesis 6-8). Shortly after Noah and his family exited the ark, the Creator of all life informed them: Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you… But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood (Genesis 9:3,4, emphasis added) In other words, if meat was to be eaten by Noah and his family after the flood, or by their descendants, the blood must first be drained out of the carcasses of dead animals. God repeated this counsel numerous times through Moses. Notice carefully: “And whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, who eats any blood, I will set My face against that person who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people” (Leviticus 17:10, emphasis added). These verses are clear. If meat was to be eaten in Old Testament times, the blood must be drained out first. The leaders of the early Christian Church in Jerusalem affirmed the same teaching when they informed Gentile converts to “abstain ?from things polluted by idols, ?from ?sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood” (Acts 15:20, emphasis added). Thus the command, “No Blood!” applies to all ages. Drinking Blood, Occultism, and Self-Mutilation Significantly, the Bible also connects the practice of ingesting blood with the mystical world of occultism. Take a look. Moses told the Israelites: You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor shall you practice divination or soothsaying (Leviticus 19:26, emphasis added) The Hebrew word for “divination” is “nachash,” which The New Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew and Greek Words defines as “[to] whisper a (magic) spell” (10). The root word for “soothsaying” is “anan,” which The Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon says means to practice “magic or augury or witchcraft” (11). Thus ingesting blood and occult magic are linked together, and for good reason. In Bible days, blood drinkers often practiced sorcery. Such blood-magic camaraderie has continued throughout history, and exists today. It has also been picked up by Hollywood. In Twilight, Edward Cullen not only possesses supernatural strength because he is a vampire, but he has tremendous psychic abilities. He reads minds, and is a member of the “Olympic Coven.” “Lycanthropy,” or “shape sifting,” is featured too. Men turn into werewolves, and switch back again. These are all occult activities. Indeed, occultism permeates countless theaters, TV screens, and DVDs, from Harry Potter to Medium to Twilight. Today, sorcery sells, making big bucks for novelists, scriptwriters, filmmakers, and TV networks. Make no mistake about it: vampirism and occultism usually go hand in hand. In an unusual twist, Leviticus 19:26 (quoted above) is almost immediately followed by a warning against self-mutilation. After warning about blood and magic, God told the Israelites: “You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh … I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:28). Sanguine (blood drinking) vampires, whether “ethical” or not, do exactly that. They pierce human flesh for the purpose of drawing, and ingesting, blood. Frighteningly, a similar act called “cutting” is now increasingly practiced among teenagers. Reported in the news, this practice is now causing deep concern among educators, health professionals, and parents. Why are kids cutting themselves these days? “It helps them cope with inner pain,” say the experts. One thing’s for sure. Cutting can become addicting. Washington School Incident The voice on the telephone was urgent. “Please come and speak to our students and parents!” urged the school board chairman of a small Christian school in Washington State, the same state where much of Twilight was filmed. This man contacted me because he knew of my research into Harry Potter and occultism, and they thought I could help. Without going into too many details, a 14-year-old girl had unexpectedly fallen to the floor exhibiting clear signs of “demonic possession” – right in the classroom. As you can imagine, those who witnessed this fearful incident were rather “freaked out.” After a two-hour struggle during which the teacher and students prayed for the girl, her face finally relaxed and, just like in Bible days, “the evil spirit departed” (1 Samuel 16:23). Her sanity returned. In talking to persons at the school, I discovered that many of the students were reading Twilight. They knew about “cutting” too. Not only that, but at least one was dabbling in occultism. Yet the “demonic possession” event wasn’t a Hollywood movie. It was real. “Okay, I’ll come,” I told the school board chairman, and a few days later, I arrived on campus. After meeting with the students, the principal, and some of the parents, I led out in a Bible study of one major passage in the New Testament. As a group, this is what we read: (5:1) Then they [Jesus and His disciples] came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes. (5:2) And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, (5:3) who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, (5:4) because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. (5:5) And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones. (5:6) When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. (5:7). And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.” (5:8) For He said to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!” (5:9) Then He asked him, “What is your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” (5:10) Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country. (5:11) Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains. (5:12) So all the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us to the swine, that we may enter them.” (5:13) And at once Jesus gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea. (5:14) So those who fed the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that had happened. (5:15) Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. (5:16) And those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed, and about the swine. (5:17) Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region. (5:18) And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. (5:19) However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” (5:20) And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled (Mark 5:1-20). This stirring account describes a lunatic possessed with “an unclean spirit” (verse 2). Significantly, he dwelt in a cemetery, suffered horrific emotional pain, and continued compulsively “cutting himself with stones” (verse 5). Then he met Jesus Christ. Sensing hope for the first time in years, the crazy man cast himself at Jesus’ feet. But when he tried to speak, another voice snarled through his contorted lips. “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” uttered an eerie intelligence. “What is your name?” replied the Savior, without a trace of fear. “My name is Legion,” shot back the reply, “for we are many” (verse 9). In the days when Roman Caesars ruled the world, a “legion” consisted of between 3,000 and 5,000 soldiers in a Roman army. Now think about it: if a numerical “legion” of invisible entities really entered this wretched man’s body, this means that literally thousands of “unclean spirits” had taken up residence within him. Some imagine that the man’s troubles were merely psychological. “He wasn’t possessed with real devils,” skeptics sometimes retort; but their reasoning is false. Real demons were there. How do we know? Because when Jesus Christ drove them out they invaded nearly two thousand pigs grazing nearby, and then “the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea” (verse 13). That’s how we know. Only real demons can propel two thousand pigs off a cliff. Why did Jesus inquire, “What is your name?” Didn’t He know the answer already? Of course He did. He didn’t ask this question to satisfy His own curiosity, but for our benefit. He sought to lift the veil and to enlighten us about the true nature of the malicious forces we are dealing with. What forces? Jesus Himself revealed the answer when He later predicted that someday “the devil and his angels” would be hurled into “everlasting fire” (Matthew 25:41). Those forces. “The devil” refers to “Satan,” a fallen angel who first rebelled against God (see Rev. 12:7), and “his angels” are those who joined him in his fearful endeavor. As of this moment, their full punishment is still future. Until then, these turbulent “legions” remain highly capable of seducing, inhabiting, and utterly ruining human beings, just as the Bible reveals. When they invade a victim, they often lead him or her to dwell on death (the possessed man lived in a cemetery), perform unusual feats of strength (he broke his chains), suffer extreme emotional agony (he ran screaming night and day), and cut their bodies. That’s right. Satan’s legions influence people to slice their own skin and draw blood. It’s happening right now in our day. The Blood Battle Hollywood isn’t alone in its focus on blood. Neither is real vampirism. As we’ve already seen, the Bible also says a lot about blood, and surprisingly, it’s not all negative. While the Good Book plainly warns about ingesting literal blood, it also urges us to trust in the shed blood of one unique Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, ever since Adam and Eve first listened to the snickering of the snake in the Garden of Eden (see Genesis 3:1-6), blood has been at the heart of the Great War between the Creator and Lucifer over the salvation of our souls. It all started with the time of the first sin (see Genesis 3:1-5). Shortly after Adam and Eve rebelled against God’s command not to eat the forbidden fruit, they stood naked and trembling, hiding as guilty sinners among the trees of the garden. Yet all was not lost. Their Creator loved them still. In a marvelous act expressing infinite mercy, “the Lord God made coats of skin, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). Those garments came from sacrificed animals whose blood was shed. Why such a sacrifice? Adam must have wondered. Why the blood? pondered Eve. At that early date, the full answer remained hidden in their Creator’s heart. Years later another scene occurred. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. A cruel Pharaoh ruled. After nine plagues devastated his land, Moses instructed the Israelites to slay innocent lambs and to soak their doorposts with crimson stains. Deliverance would arrive when the 10th plague struck at midnight. “And when I see the blood,” God informed His people, “I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy? you, when I strike the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:14, emphasis added). The blood was a sign of protection, and deliverance. This sacred, unfolding revelation intensified when the Holy One instructed His priests to enter the Most Holy Place of His Temple on the Day of Atonement and to sprinkle warm blood on a golden lid on top of a golden box containing the Ten Commandments (see Leviticus 16:14). Here blood above the Ten Commandments foreshadowed cleansing from sin. After more decades, centuries, and even millennia, Heaven’s prophetic clock struck twelve, and a Boy was born in Bethlehem. The Pure One grew up in Nazareth, was baptized in the Jordan River, preached in Galilee, healed the sick throughout Judea, and finally, on a fateful Thursday night inside Jerusalem beneath a full Passover moon, He distributed the juice of crushed grapes to His disciples. He alone understood the full meaning of the sweet elixir. “For this is my blood of the new covenant,” Israel’s true Messiah declared, “which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28, emphasis added). The next day the Promised One hung crucified between two thieves on a hill called Calvary. Drop by drop, stain by stain, His own blood soaked the wood of a tree supporting His beaten body. What does it all mean? Why were animals sacrificed in Eden? Why the blood of lambs on Egyptian doors? Why were crimson drops sprinkled by Jewish High Priests in the Most Holy Place? The Bible alone can explain its own mystery. In the New Testament, Paul explained, “…we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Ephesians 1:7, emphasis added). The book of Revelation identifies those who beat the devil. Don’t miss it: And they [God’s people] overcame him [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death (Revelation 12:11, emphasis added) When you put all of these verses together, it becomes clear that salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ is Heaven’s battle cry in the Great War. No doubt, Satan hates the blood of Christ. He knows that no matter how guilty we stand in the sight of a Holy God, we can still find hope, healing, and full salvation through that royal, crimson substance. If we repent of our sins and have “faith in His blood” (Romans 3:25), we can be forgiven, washed, purified, and redeemed. We can’t fully understand it, for it’s an eternal mystery; yet it’s true. Don’t ever forget it! The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7) “Aghh! How can we stop lost sinners from discovering the power of that blood?” legions of demons ask their master in secret council meetings. “Through diversions,” the Prince of Darkness whispers slyly. “Through magick, witchcraft, occultism, vampirism, and whatever else we can think of to divert minds from that hated blood!” Spooky Parallels As stated earlier, the Twilight saga received its initial spark when Stephenie Meyer had an unusual dream on June 1, 2003. Eerily, the Harry Potter phenomenon began with a similar ‘revelation’ given to Joanne Rowling in 1990 while she was traveling by train outside of London. “The character of Harry Potter just popped into my head, fully formed,” Rowling reflected in 2001. “Looking back, it was all quite spooky!” She also stated to inquiring media that the Potter books “almost wrote themselves.” “My best ideas often come at midnight,” Rowling declared. As with Rowling, so with Meyers. When those mesmerizing tales first burst into the brains of these two women, neither was an established writer. Both were novices. They weren’t rich either. Now they are millionaires many times over. Their experiences are similar, with common threads. Both of their novels are permeated with occultism. Based on this, it’s appropriate to wonder, is there a supernatural source behind these revelations? If so, what is it? Stephenie Meyer herself provides an amazing clue to the answer. After her unexpected rise to stardom, she later confessed, I actually did have a dream after Twilight was finished of Edward coming to visit me – only I had gotten it wrong and he did drink blood like every other vampire and you couldn’t live on animals the way I’d written it. We had this conversation and he was terrifying. (12) I’m convinced that the “Edward” who appeared to Stephenie Meyer in her two dreams was a demon with a secret, diabolical agenda. What agenda? Based on what God’s Book says in Revelation 12:11, it was to keep sinful mortals focused on the wrong blood. Judging by the public’s response to the Twilight novels and movies, his hellish plot has been successful. No Greater Love Twilight’s appeal is twofold. First, it’s a captivating tale of vampires and werewolves; and second, it’s a heart-stirring love story about Edward and Bella. “You may be fictional,” wrote one Edward Cullen fan, “but you’ve already stolen so many girls hearts – including mine!” Personally, two others have stolen mine. One is my lovely wife Kristin, and the other…Ah, His love surpasses that of any mortal. He’s far older than 108. In fact, He has no beginning (see Micah 5:2); no end (see 1 John 1:1-3); He reads minds too (see Luke 6:8); has infinite power (see Matthew 28:18), and He’s real. He doesn’t suck blood either, whether human or animal. Instead, He willingly shed His blood to save us from sin, “the lake of fire,” and “the second death” (see Revelation 20:14,15). And what motivated Him was not mere Hollywood romance, but the purest form of love found anywhere in the universe. In Robert Coleman’s book, Written in Blood, the story is told of a young boy named Johnny who conquered a deadly disease. Unfortunately, his little sister Mary caught it, and was nearing death. “She needs a blood transfusion or she’ll die,” the family doctor told the parents, “and Johnny’s blood is perfect because he has already overcome the disease.” All eyes then turned to the lad. “Will you give your blood?” his parents asked tearfully. Johnny hesitated. His lower lip trembled. “Sure,” he finally whispered, “She’s my sister.” Then they all rushed to the hospital. In the operating room, Johnny and Mary lay next to each other on separate beds. Johnny’s body was healthy, while Mary lay pale and faint. Neither spoke. When their eyes met, the boy grinned. Tubes were connected, a needle was inserted into Johnny’s arm, and the red liquid began to flow. When the transfusion was nearly over, Johnny broke the silence, and with a shaky voice asked the doctor, “When do I die?” Only then did the doctor realize why the child’s lower lip trembled when he agreed to the donation. He thought he was offering his life for his sister. Yet he was willing to do it because he loved her, and the giving of his own blood was the ultimate proof of it. Dear reader, in a much deeper sense, that’s what Jesus Christ did for you on that cruel cross. He absorbed your sins into His heart, sacrificed His life, and shed His blood. Then on the third day, He rose from the dead (see Matthew 28:1-8). Believe me, His love is better than that of vampires, including Edward’s. His blood alone can save our souls. In these last days before our Savior returns, don’t let Lucifer’s legions mesmerize your mind with the wrong blood. 1. See http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilight.html 2. Time.com, “Stephenie Meyer: A New J.K. Rowling?” By Lev Grossman. April 24, 2008. 3. See Meyer’s website referenced above. 4. Ibid. 5. Time.com article referenced above. 6. See http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=3277499&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/hannitysamerica/ 7. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/11/14/ST2008111401409.html 8. See http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=6154446&page= 9. See http://www.atlantavampirealliance.com/missionfaq.html 10. Strong, J. (1997, c1996). The new Strong’s dictionary of Hebrew and Greek words (H5172). Nashville: Thomas Nelson. 11. Strong, J. (1996). The exhaustive concordance of the Bible : Showing every word of the test of the common English version of the canonical books, and every occurence of each word in regular order. (electronic ed.) (H6049). Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship. 12. See http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/11/06/iron-man-my-chemical-romance-x-men-cartoons-among-twilight-author-stephenie-meyers-inspirations [Note: This article is now available in book form. See www.avoidtwilight.com]
And in California, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a resolution Friday calling for an investigation into whether President Trump should be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield authored the resolution, saying Trump appears to have violated the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, which prohibits those holding federal office from accepting payments from foreign governments. Councilmember Bob Blumenfield: “Constitutional scholars are raising the issue that if a foreign official or embassy hosts an event or stays at a hotel where the president’s name is branded from the top of the building to the chocolate on the pillows, it may violate this clause of the Constitution. The Trump Organization currently has business ventures in nations around the world, including Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, India, Argentina and Turkey. And because of his refusal to unveil his tax returns, or really any documents that explain with whom and where he does business, there are many dealings that we may never know about.” Los Angeles joins three other California cities, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Charlotte, Vermont, in calling for Trump’s possible impeachment.
CHESTER, Pa. – The Philadelphia Union are ready to close the book on March. And never, ever think about it again. Between a rash of injuries, silly red cards, unfortunate calls, poor finishing and untimely mistakes, the Union finished the first month of the season with zero wins, putting a whole lot of extra pressure on them to turn things around in April. “We’re not pleased with where we’re at,” winger Andrew Wenger told MLSsoccer.com following Wednesday’s training session. “You can probably look at it and say we’ve had a month of weird things happen that it normally might take a full season to see, but we’ve also had some poor performances. And that’s the thing that we can control.” The Union fell into last place in the Eastern Conference following Sunday’s 1-0 loss to the previous pointless Chicago Fire. In that game, Fred was issued the team’s second red card in two games, meaning the Brazilian will join fellow attacking midfielders Zach Pfeffer (suspension) and Cristian Maidana (MCL sprain) as TV viewers for Philly’s nationally televised game at Sporting Kansas City on Sunday (7 pm ET, Fox Sports 1). Between other injuries to Sheanon Williams, Conor Casey and C.J. Sapong – as well as the absences of a few other players in training, including center back Steven Vitoria, whose wife is expecting their second child any day – Jim Curtin was working with a small and frustrated group Wednesday. But the Union coach thinks they seemed determined, too. “The group is still positive,” Curtin said during his weekly press conference Wednesday. “We only had 13 guys that trained today but, at the same time, they got after it the right way. The mentality’s still good in the group.” When asked if any players have stepped up to take charge and try to lead the team out of the current mess they’re in, Wenger, not surprisingly, pointed to central midfielder Maurice Edu. “Mo’s the captain, and he’s trying to bring us together and keep the mood light at times but also demanding more, which is what we need at this point,” Wenger said. “We haven’t been good enough, and we need to be better. It’s a poor month. And now we’re in April, and we’re onto something new and better.” Get more Union news at PhiladelphiaUnion.com Wenger’s fellow winger, Sebastien Le Toux, agreed that one bad month doesn’t necessarily make a bad season. But the longtime Union player knows that everyone needs to improve – “myself included” – for Philly to overcome their 0-2-2 start and climb up the table. “We’re disappointed about March, for sure,” Le Toux said. “We’d like to start April in a new way. It’s a new month, so we can kind of wash out what happened and start fresh, starting this week in Kansas City.” Dave Zeitlin covers the Union for MLSsoccer.com. Email him at djzeitlin@gmail.com.
Keratoacanthoma arising in nevus comedonicus Sara Zarkik MD, Jamila Bouhllab MD, Aicha Methqal MD, Yassir Afifi PhD, Karima Senouci PhD, Badreddine Hassam PhD Dermatology Online Journal 18 (7): 4 Department of Dermatology, Avicenne University Hospital, Rabat, Morrocco Abstract Nevus comedonicus is a benign hamartoma of the pilosebaceous unit and is considered as a rare subtype of epidermal nevus. It was first described in 1895. It manifests as a group of closely dilated follicular openings with dark keratin plugs resembling comedones. Malignant degeneration of a nevus comedonicus is exceptional; we report a case of keratoacanthoma arising in extensive nevus comedonicus. Introduction Nevus comedonicus is a benign hamartoma of the pilosebaceous unit and is considered a rare subtype of epidermal nevus. It was first described in 1895 by Kofmann [1]. It manifests as a group of closely dilated follicular openings with dark keratin plugs resembling comedones. We report the first case of keratoacanthoma arising in extensive nevus comedonicus. Case report A 20-year-old man presented with asymptomatic grouped comedo-like keratin filled pits on the right lower limb since his birth. The lesions grew with the patient's growth, but faster during puberty. There was no history of a similar case in the family. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 1. Linear disposition of nevus comedonicus Figure 2. Keratoacanthoma arising in nevus comedonicus Figure 3 Figure 3. Groups of comedo-like keratin filled pits Examination revealed multiple groups of dilated pilosebaceous orifices filled with black keratin plugs arranged linearly along the posterior side of the right lower leg. Some cutaneous lesions in the middle of the hamartoma began burgeoning when he was 18 years old. Lesions were asymptomatic, unilateral, and irregularly scattered throughout the skin. The soles, palms, and mucosa were spared and regional lymph nodes were not palpable. The skin biopsy of the budding area revealed a keratoacanthoma. Figure 4 Figure 5 Figures 4 and 5. H&E-stained sections, magnification shows a crater lesion with lateral spur and depression filled with keratin. Pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia is seen and in the surrounding dermis a moderate mononuclear cell infiltrate is present. Because of the size and location of the lesion surgery was not advised for this patient. Therefore, we opted for methotrexate (25 mg intramuscular weekly). Regression of the lesion was observed over two months of treatment. Discussion Nevus comedonicus usually arises before the age of 10; it is present at birth in almost half of the cases. The majority of cases are solitary. However, this hamartoma may be part of nevus comedonicus syndrome in association with skeletal anomalies (scoliosis, fused vertebrae, spinabifida occulta, absent fifth finger) or central nervous pathologies (seizures, changes noted on EEG, transverse myelitis), ocular alterations (cataracts) [2], and cutaneous defects (multiple basal cell carcinoma) [3]. Our patient did not have any systemic findings. Nevus comedonicus is evident clinically as confluent clusters of dilated follicular orifices plugged with keratin, giving the appearance of aggregated open comedones. These clusters are often arranged in a linear or zosteriform pattern, occasionally in parallel with the lines of Blaschko. Although usually unilateral, bilateral occurrences have been noted. As with other epidermal nevi, the most common sites are the face, trunk, and proximal extremities. The pathogenesis of NC remains obscure. Immunohistochemical studies show that filaggrin is involved in the formation of closed comedones and may be involved in the pathogenesis of abnormal keratinization in nevus comedonicus [4]. Comedo nevus is a benign lesion and does not need treatment unless the patient requires it for aesthetic reasons or has a complication. Treatment options for nevus comedonicus include antibiotics for inflamed or infected lesions, topical keratolytics, topical retinoic acid (0.025% - 0.1%), 12 percent ammonium lactate lotion, calcipotriene, oral retinoids, dermabrasion, superficial shaving, or surgical excision [5, 6]. Also, the use of erbium: YAG [7] and CO 2 laser has been reported [8]. Our patient was treated in his childhood by topical retinoids, but without any remarkable improvement. Epidermal nevus has been associated with benign and malignant neoplasms [9, 10], but malignant degeneration of nevus comedonicus is exceptional. Literature reports only one case of squamous cell carcinoma on a facial nevus comedonicus [11]. The present case is characterized by the appearance of keratoacanthoma in a very extensive nevus comedonicus. Keratoacanthoma is a fairly common neoplasm among light-skinned people. It was once considered a pseudomalignancy that resembled squamous cell carcinoma. It is now considered to be a squamous cell carcinoma that resembles a pseudo-benign tumor [12]. Our patient responded well to methotrexate. Conclusion From this paper and based on this case we recommend a close surveillance of this kind of hamartoma in order to detect malignant degeneration. References 2 1. Kofmann et al., a case of rare localization and spreading of comedones.1895. 2. El Ghelbazouri N, Ismaili N, Ahrich N, Benarafa A, Senouci K, Mansouri F, Hassam B.Nevus comedonicus syndrome.. 2007 Aug-Sep;134(8-9):663-6. [ PubMed 3. Erkan et al., Nevus comedonicus syndrome: a case associated with multiple basal cell carcinomas and a rudimentary toe.2005. [ PubMed 4. Kurokawa I, Nakai Y, Nishimura K, Hakamada A, Isoda K, Yamanaka K, Mizutani H, Tsubura A. Cytokeratin and filagrinn expression in nevus comedonicus.. 2007; 34: 338-41. [ PubMed 5. Lefkowitz A, Schwartz RA, Lambert WC. Nevus comedonicus.. 1999;199:204-7. [ PubMed 6. Deliduka SB, Kwong PC. Treatment of nevus comedonicus with topical tazarotene and calcipotriene.2004;3:674-6. [ PubMed 7. Caers SJ, Van der Geer S, Beverdam EG, Krekels GA, Ostertag JU. Successful treatment of nevus comedonicus with the use of the Erbium Yag laser.. 2008; 22: 375-7. [ PubMed 8. Sardana K, Garg VK. Successful treatment of nevus comedonicus with ultrapulse COlaser.. 2009;75:534-5. [ PubMed 9. Vidaurri-de la Cruz H, Tamayo Sanchez L, Duran-McKinester C, Orozco-Covarrubias M, Ruiz-Maldonado R. Epidermal Nevus Syndromes:Clinical Findings in 35 patients.2004; 21: 432-9. [ PubMed 10. Vujevich J, Mancini A. The epidermal nevus syndromes: Multisystem Disorders.2004; 50: 957-61. [ PubMed 11. Hobar et al., Squamous Cell Carcinoma Arising in Nevus Comedonicus.2009. [ PubMed 12. Schwartz RA. Keratoacanthoma: A clinico-pathologic enigma.. 2004;30:2, Part 2, 326-333. [ PubMed © 2012 Dermatology Online Journal
June 28 (Bloomberg) — It would look awfully strange if the U.S. government wound up targeting only foreign banks as part of its investigation into the manipulation of the London InterBank Offered Rate. It’s too soon to say if that will be the end result. But time is marching quickly. A year ago this week, London-based Barclays Plc cut a $160 million nonprosecution agreement with the U.S. Justice Department and became the first bank to admit to falsifying its LIBOR submissions. Two other European banks — Zurich-based UBS AG and Edinburgh-based Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc — have reached LIBOR-related settlements with U.S. prosecutors since then, each with much harsher penalties than Barclays got. LIBOR is the interest-rate benchmark used in hundreds of trillions of dollars’ worth of financial contracts, from derivatives to mortgage loans. It is based on daily surveys of large banks about their borrowing costs. That it was rigged for years by large banks is well established. Still unclear is which other lenders will be held accountable, or when. Will the feds go after any U.S. banks? Last week’s criminal charges in the UK against Tom Hayes, a former derivatives trader at UBS and Citigroup Inc., only add to the curiosity. They came six months after U.S. prosecutors filed their own criminal complaint against Hayes and another former UBS trader. A comparison of the allegations in the two cases yields some noteworthy differences. The eight criminal counts filed by UK prosecutors include the period of time that Hayes worked for Citigroup in late 2009 and into 2010, as well as the three years he worked at UBS before then. UK officials said he conspired with employees of at least five other banks and three interdealer brokers to manipulate yen LIBOR rates. The UK court documents identified all the companies allegedly involved, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (Hayes, 33, appeared in a London court last week and hasn’t indicated how he will plead.) In the U.S., by comparison, the complaint against Hayes listed three criminal counts, the timeline for which ended in September 2009, when Hayes left UBS. The complaint cited UBS by name but not Citigroup or other companies. Put another way, the criminal counts against Hayes in the UK include conduct while he worked at both UBS and Citigroup. The three counts against him in the U.S. refer to the time he worked at UBS but not at Citigroup. A separate section in the U.S. complaint does cite illegal acts that Hayes allegedly committed in 2010, when he was a Citigroup employee. However, those weren’t referred to in the fraud, conspiracy and antitrust counts that Hayes was specifically charged with. The Justice Department’s Dec. 19 news release about the charges against Hayes didn’t mention Citigroup, either. 108 0 0 0 7 115
Michael Allan Jacobs tried to pin the shooting of Tamworth police officer David Rixon on drug dealer and convicted killer Terry Price for good reason. "He nominated that person because he was a likely candidate to give credence to the story," Crown prosecutor Pat Barrett said. "He wasn't to know that Terry Price was at home in bed with his girlfriend at the time." A jury didn't buy Jacobs' defence that Mr Price was the man who pulled the trigger on that grey morning on March 2, 2012, taking less than an hour on Monday to find him guilty of murdering the 40-year-old highway patrol officer and father of six. Jacobs, who kept the calm and straight-faced demeanour he had shown throughout the trial as the verdict was read out, now faces life in jail for the murder of an on-duty police officer.
Meet Tim Draper, one of our earliest investors Nucleus Vision Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 5, 2017 We recently published an article that gave you a glimpse into our early-backers, institutional investors and advisory board members Among all our investors & advisors, there is one who deserves a special vote of thanks: our very first backer, the legendary venture capital veteran Tim Draper. When it comes to venture capital, Tim Draper needs no introduction. His successful investments in Skype, Hotmail and, most famously, 2014’s USD $19 million investment in Bitcoin make him a household name. In 1985, Tim founded the firm that would become Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ); he is also the founder of Draper Associates and Draper University. Tim was the very first investor to back our vision, propelling us on our journey to bring NUCLEUS technology to life. Venture capitalists in Silicon Valley are known for taking extremely calculated risks on opportunities that can result in potentially outsized returns, and when you look at Tim Draper’s portfolio, you will see exactly what we’re talking about. Hotmail and Skype were two of the first communication applications built for the internet. While the rest of the world had no indication that these would be good investments at the time, Tim Draper could clearly foresee how these services would grow dramatically in the future, and chose to back them. The rest as they say, is history. Think about Tesla — a company that challenged the status quo of the entire oil & gas and automobile industries. In hindsight, most people would consider Tesla as one of the greatest investments of all time, but back in its formative days, the entire industry was unsure of this now revolutionary company. It was Tim Draper who saw into the future and chose to take the unlikely bet, giving Tesla the much needed financial support. Baidu, Twitter, Box, Coinbase, Solar City, Angel List, Twilio — the list of Tim’s investments is endless. Our grand vision at NUCLEUS VISION is equally disruptive we are proud to join a family of household names, names everyone might consider smart bets today. We, at NUCLEUS are challenging the status quo of several industries, and it is with the backing and belief of an investor such as Tim who gave us the confidence in our mission and vision that we are where we find ourselves today. Apart from his stellar successes in various ventures, Tim Draper’s work with blockchain and cryptocurrencies has been equally extraordinary. Tim often says that the businesses that most interest him are the ones that solve problems where existing solutions currently charge customers a lot, while delivering very low value. NUCLEUS provides tremendous value to every player involved in the platform at the fraction of the cost of existing solutions, which was one of our key selling points to Tim. Capital to Change the World Raising capital is of course the most obvious benefit to finding new investors, but one far more exciting aspect has been to find investors who are just as interested in changing the status quo as we are. In Tim Draper, we found a collaborator and mentor, someone who is passionate about disruption and wants to help us change the world. In the upcoming token sale, we hope to find others like us who are interested in the disruptive, revolutionary potential of NUCLEUS VISION. Join us in our efforts to radically change industries with innovative IoT technology with real-world impact. Stay Tuned for more updates from NUCLEUS Sign up for our Token-Sale at NUCLEUS VISION. Disclaimer: This is not an investment advice. Please do your own research before investing in any avenue. The information contained in this post is for informational purposes only. You should take independent advice from a professional or independently research and verify, any information that you find in this post and wish to rely on, for the purpose of making any decision. Through this post you may be able to link to other websites which are not under the control of Nucleus Vision. We have no control on the nature, content and activity on those sites. The inclusion of any links does not imply a recommendation or endorsement of the other website, its products or views. To stay updated on our company updates and announcements, follow us on: Twitter \|Telegram \| Medium \|Linkedin \|Facebook \|
As most of America workers are reeling in the face of an awful economy with high unemployment, Big Corp is making the biggest profits of all time. NY Times The nation’s workers may be struggling, but American companies just had their best quarter ever. American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago, at least in nominal or noninflation-adjusted terms. The government does not adjust the numbers for inflation, in part because these corporate profits can be affected by pricing changes from all over the world. The next-highest annual corporate profits level on record was in the third quarter of 2006, when they were $1.655 trillion. Corporate profits have been doing extremely well for a while. Since their cyclical low in the fourth quarter of 2008, profits have grown for seven consecutive quarters, at some of the fastest rates in history.This breakneck pace can be partly attributed to strong productivity growth — which means companies have been able to make more with less — as well as the fact that some of the profits of American companies come from abroad. Economic conditions in the United States may still be sluggish, but many emerging markets like India and China are expanding rapidly. Tuesday’s Commerce Department report also showed that the nation’s output grew at a slightly faster pace than originally estimated last quarter. Its growth rate, of 2.5 percent a year in inflation-adjusted terms, is higher than the initial estimate of 2 percent. The economy grew at 1.7 percent annual rate in the second quarter. Still, most economists say the current growth rate is far too slow to recover the considerable ground lost during the recession . Isn't it great to be rich? And the Politico carries water for those poor and misunderstood CEO's who are so terribly upset at President Obama because he was mean to them. Digby writes in "Devil's Grand bargain": Meanwhile, back in the Village: The White House’s relationship with the corporate world has always had a sort of Mars-Venus quality to it. Business leaders say Obama simply doesn’t get them and has no one in the White House with corporate experience or who is steeped in the daily challenges of operating in a global economy. It didn’t help when Obama lashed out at “fat cat bankers” on Wall Street at the height of the regulatory reform effort or attacked BP, a onetime White House ally on energy reform, in the midst of the Louisiana oil spill. The message to other sectors: "You could be next," said one corporate lobbyist. Some White House officials, in turn, privately express frustration that the business world seems to give Obama no credit for supporting bailouts of Wall Street and the auto industry as well as an economic stimulus bill that likely spared the country a deeper recession. Many CEOs now are enjoying hefty corporate profits and a Dow at healthy levels in part because of Obama’s efforts in steering the economy through the global meltdown, administration officials contend. Sure, they may be making record profits and cleaning up like a bunch of rapacious vultures while the rest of the country spirals into economic despair, but Obama said something mean about them! They're scared! They're uncertain! Yes, that may be so silly as to merit derisive belly laughs from any sentient being, but we are talking about the Politico here: But the stakes for Obama couldn’t be higher, economically or politically, in rebuilding relations. Cooperation with the business community is vital for job growth and economic recovery. Expanding trade and cutting the deficit, two other Obama priorities, will require Republican votes — which the business community could deliver. Yeah, business is going to deliver Republican votes for Obama on trade deals and the deficit. I have serious doubts that Republicans will need to be "delivered" on some job destroying trade deals or tax cuts and those are going to be the only deals that might come to the table. (And I don't know if anyone can deliver a free trade deal right now.)But business doesn't deliver Republicans. It is Republicans. They are not "honest brokers" or mediators. That's just laughable. It's so frustrating reading these stories and watching most of America suffer while the fat cat billionaires whine and whine and whine. Republicans will never recognize a Democratic administration as morally acceptable to them even if they reap huge profits and clean up past Republican messes. It boils down to ideology and to hear Villagers on TV and in print proclaim that progressives aren't serious because we believe progressive ideas are better for the nation just illustrates how broken our country is. The media elites are busy debating whether middle class workers should lose social security benefits while CEO's are laughing all the way to the bank. The White House should stop trying to find common ground and move in a direction that will help the American people because they will never get credit either way. Digby wraps up with this: The fact is that these businessmen believe they should be worshiped like Gods and they get very cranky when they are treated like ordinary mortals and subjected to the same scrutiny and criticism to which other elites are subjected. They are America's big winners and it's simply not acceptable that they be held accountable for ... well, anything. More importantly, they rightly understand that if they can take advantage of this situation and punish the Democrats for their mild criticism, they can guarantee that that CEOs and Master of the Universe will never personally be held responsible for anything they do going forward and will be guaranteed the right to gobble as much profit as they can and give back as little as humanly possible. Is this a great country (for rich people) or what? No matter what happens in America, it's never the fault of the Republicans and if they happen to get caught being the culprits then they go on and say that they've changed over night and the media just plays along. The economic downturn has weakened the strength of an independent press which also makes CEO's smile from ear to ear.
Hey Everyone! Sorry for not posting anything for so long! After some adventurous dead end side projects, the next GemCraft has been in development for a while now, but I wanted to wait to have a screenshot to show. And so now here is the first shot made as a winter holiday greeting card. The next GC will have fullHD 1920×1080 resolution, all new content, many game rules changed (the screenshot hints: new buildable types, redesigned gem types, new strike spells, larger battlefields, tweaked speed buttons, one click gem creation with separate grade adjustment, changed battle interface layout). As of the current optimistic plans, the game might be released next year. I plan to write and share more info once per month as we get closer to release and game details get refined (everything is subject to change for now of course). The game will be a Windows desktop title, primarily to be released on Steam. It’s so awesome to see that many of you are still taking Chasing Shadows for a ride every now and then, I hope the next one will bring you countless hours of fun as well! Main game design goals are to give both casual players (who just want to play around or get to the final field and win) and hardcore players (who aim to get to such a high wizard level that they could zap waves of monsters by looking at them) a great bunch of things to explore and experiment with, and hopefully much less lag, especially when things go hardcore. As with all the GC chapters, this one will be an experiment with a new mix of game rules, so things might get out of control (bugs, exploits), but we’ll be on the watch. What I can promise is that the game will have a flat price to get all the content, there won’t be paid loot boxes or other pay-to-win (or pay-to-enjoy) schemes. So, next post by the end of January, Everyone have a great holiday season!
The King of Wakanda is coming to All-New, All-Different Marvel. As Marvel Comics revealed today, a new Black Panther series will hit comic shelves when the company launches its latest publishing initiative this fall. Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso broke the news during an interview with Mass Appeal, while also confirming that more unannounced All-New, All-Different Marvel titles are on the horizon. "All-New Marvel Now! is a campaign where there are new #1s across the board – from Spider-Man to Squirrel Girl to stuff we haven’t announced yet, like Black Panther," Alonso told Mass Appeal. When asked for verification, Marvel confirmed with ComicBook.com that a new Black Panther series is indeed in the works. While a creative team and release date are still under wraps, it’s likely that Marvel will formally announce the title closer to the November 2015 comics solicitation deadline. Earlier today, Marvel exclusively revealed more information on their latest All-New, All-Different title, “Spidey,” with ComicBook.com
The American Physical Society is holding its annual April Meeting at the moment in Baltimore, Maryland, and one of the highlights, research-wise, comes to us courtesy of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) collaboration. This afternoon, the researchers released the first in a series of maps of the dark matter that makes up some 23% of all the "stuff" (matter and energy) in our universe. The map was constructed based on data collected by the Dark Energy Camera, the primary instrument of the DES. The camera is perched high on a mountaintop, mounted on a telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, the better to get high-resolution images with minimal interference. Now in its second year, the DES began taking data on August 31, 2013, with an eye toward better understanding dark matter's role in the formation of galaxies. The resulting map unveiled today is, as one might expect, spectacular -- the first to trace in fine detail how dark matter is distributed across a huge swathe of sky, although it's a mere 3% of the area the DES will cover by the time it finishes its five-year scheduled run. It's not the first dark matter map ever, but it's the largest and highest resolution so far. Check it out: The analysis -- carried out by a team led by Argonne National Laboratory's Vinu Vikram and Chihway Change of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich -- looked at very subtle distortions in the shapes of two million galaxies to construct the map, thanks to a technique called gravitational lensing, whereby the invisible gravitational effects of the dark matter bend light around said galaxies in predictable ways. And so far, the researchers have found that the distribution of dark matter is pretty well in line with current theories -- namely, that because there is significantly more dark matter than visible matter (a mere 4%) in the cosmos, galaxies were formed in those places where there are large concentrations of dark matter, and thus stronger gravity. Think of it as a delicate interplay between mass and light. You can see that clustering in the color-coded image above, where the blue areas are where the density is about average, and the red and yellow areas depict regions of far greater density -- places where there is more dark matter. The circles represent galaxies and galaxy clusters, which do indeed show up more in the higher-density areas. "Zooming into the maps, we have measured how dark matter envelops galaxies of different types and how together they evolve over cosmic time," Chang said in an official press release. "We are eager to use the new data coming in to make much stricter tests of theoretical models." As more data becomes available over the next few years, the DES will further improve the scope and resolution of its dark matter maps. But the ultimate goal is to find out more about the accelerating universe, and more specifically, to suss out the nature of the mysterious dark energy that physicists believe is driving that acceleration. Dark energy accounts for a whopping 73% of the "stuff" in the universe, so, yanno, it's pretty important. Like, Nobel Prize worthy important. In fact, it's among the top research questions in 21st century physics. The tools and techniques the survey will use to do so aren't limited to gravitational lensing. DES researchers will also study data from certain kinds of supernovae -- the most common "standard candles" used to estimate cosmological distances. (Side note: a new paper in the Astrophysical Journal questions whether those standard candle Type 1a supernovae are as uniform as astronomers have assumed, which means the universe might be expanding at a slower rate than previously inferred.) They will also keep track of how many galaxy clusters are detectable by the Dark Energy Camera. Monitoring how that changes over time should shed more light on the ongoing tug-of-war between gravity and dark energy (essentially an anti-gravity). Finally, the collaboration will study sound waves (a.k.a. baryonic oscillations) to map how the universe is expanding. Sound waves were created hundreds of thousands of years after the big bang that left an imprint in that galaxy distribution. Measure the positions of some 300 million galaxies, and physicists should be able to detect the pattern of that imprint, and use it to make inferences about the history of how the universe has been expanding. As it happens, the Dark Energy Camera just won Symmetry's Physics Madness contest for favorite big physics machine, beating out the heavily favored Large Hadron Collider. Serendipity! Given this lovely new map, and the promise of even better ones to come, I'd say it's an honor well deserved.
Miami Central running back Dalvin Cook was presented Saturday with the South Florida player of the year award from the Warren Henry Auto Group and Tournament of Champions, Inc. Afterward, he discussed his recruitment with two local media outlets. In an interview with Josh Darrow of South Florida High School Sports, Cook was asked if reports that he met with Florida and Florida State on the last day of the contact period (Dec. 15) were true. “No,” he replied. “I had shut my recruitment down, and I just let everyone know that I thank them for recruiting me. But nobody came by.” Cook then made several comments that seemed positive in regards to UF. When asked why Gator fans should believe he’s still coming, Cook had this to say. “Everybody thinks I might not be going to Florida because they had a down year. But I watch college football a whole lot. I watched Auburn last year, and they were 3-9. Everybody has their down year. That’s why people probably think I won’t go there, but there’s always a chance. I’m still committed to Florida.” Darrow told Cook people don’t believe that, to which he responded, “I know, but you still gotta look. I’m a commit, and that’s all you can say until I flip. That’s it.” Cook said the school he decided on the week leading up to the state championship is still his choice, which he plans to reveal at halftime of the Under Armour All-America Game on Jan. 2. Cook said the coaches that were the least intrusive during the contact period won him over. “You’re going to always know when someone is loyal to you,” he said. “When I was around that group of coaches, I just felt it. Those guys, they kept it real with me, and I just felt like that was the place for me. “I knew I was comfortable (with them) when the recruiting process really got heated up, and those coaches really just laid back and let the whole thing go by. They didn’t really bug me that much … and I just figured out those were the right coaches for me.” If those comments are how Cook actually feels, that should all but eliminate Miami. Following the state title game, he said the Hurricanes came by his house and/or school every day once he signed a financial aid agreement with them. Cook also told Darrow his senior season was probably the last time he’ll play with teammate and UM commit Joseph Yearby. That would mean it’s a battle between the Gators and ’Noles, which has been the general consensus for the past week or so. Florida State visited Cook on the first day of the contact period and saw him much more than Florida during those two weeks. The UF coaches appear to be the ones that didn’t “bug” him. With FSU getting ready to play for the national championship and UF coming off a 4-8 season, perhaps this comment from Saturday in the Miami Herald’s story on Cook is another indication of where he may be heading. “I feel great about all the schools in Florida right now,” Cook said when discussing his decision. “At any time a program can go down and a program can go up. “I just feel like if you’re a great player, a team is always missing that one guy that can take them to the next level. And if you trust in yourself and you go do it and you put your mind to it, you can change the team.”
Pew: Obama has big lead; Romney favorability drops (Updated) New polling data out from Pew Research Center finds President Obama with a double-digit lead over Mitt Romney nationally: Currently, 51% say they support Obama or lean toward him, while 41% support or lean toward Romney. This is largely unchanged from earlier in July and consistent with polling over the course of this year. Across eight Pew Research Center surveys since January, Obama has led Romney by between four and 12 percentage points. Obama holds only a four-point edge (48% to 44%) across 12 of this year’s key battleground states. While the data does not allow a state-by-state analysis, the overall balance of support in these closely contested states has remained level in recent months, with Obama slightly ahead, but neither candidate holding a significant advantage. The poll also finds that Romney's favorability has taken a hit this summer: By a 52% to 37% margin, more voters say they have an unfavorable than favorable view of Mitt Romney. The poll, conducted prior to Romney’s recent overseas trip, represents the sixth consecutive survey over the past nine months in which his image has been in negative territory. While Romney’s personal favorability improved substantially between March and June – as Republican voters rallied behind him after the primary season ended– his image has again slipped over the past month. Barack Obama’s image remains, by comparison, more positive – 50% offer a favorable assessment of the president, 45% an unfavorable one. Even so, Obama’s personal ratings are lower than most presidential candidates in recent elections. The 10-point lead for Obama here is bigger than any of the other recent polling we've seen, which have tended to show a fairly static race. (Also on POLITICO: Democratic voter enthusiasm is down) UPDATE: We've been getting emails from readers pointing out that the sample of the poll is skewed toward Democrats. This is a fair point: the poll does sample significantly more Democrats than Republicans. As I noted above, these results are different than the mostly static numbers we've seen so far -- the sampling numbers explain why.
The head of Russian-controlled government in the Crimea doubled his 2015 gains last year Thursday, May 11, 2017 2:02:00 PM Incomes in 2016 belonging to the head of the Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov nearly doubled his 2015 gains, amounting to 2.63 million rubles. This is evidenced by his income declaration, published on the portal of the Crimean government. Last year, Aksyonov’s declared annual income was 2,632,380.36 rubles or $39,178 going by the 2016 average annual exchange rate. In 2015, he only earned 1.4 million rubles or $22,842 rated at the 2015 average, and in 2014 he earned 1.6 million rubles or $41,591 at the 2014 average annual exchange rate. The income declaration also reveals that the head of the Crimea possessed a house with 577 square meters of floor area on a plot of land 607 square meters in size, which he jointly owned with his wife. Aksyonov’s wife, Elena owns three apartments with areas of 81.9, 66.3 and 30.6 square meters, and six nonresidential premises, the largest of which is 129.8 square meters while the smallest is 36.3 square meters. She also owns a BMW 750 LI XDRIVE luxury automobile. She also had a land plot of 961 square meters and a house of 577.5 square meters in her use in 2016. The annual income of the Crimean head’s spouse was 32.8 million rubles or $488,168. Among the Crimea’s vice-premiers, the largest income in 2016 was earned by Boris Zimin, who took up this post in February 2017. He had declared earnings of 14.4 million rubles or $214,318. He also owns 120 plots of land, including shared ownership, two Toyota cars, two apartments and a garage. Sergey Aksyonov became the leader of the Crimea on October 9, 2014. Before that, since 2010, he had been a deputy of the Supreme Council of the Republic. From 2008 to 2014, he headed the Russian Unity All-Ukrainian party. Prior to his political career, he was engaged in private business in the food industry. Share Comments Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
A large part of this movie was filmed just down the road from where I lived, at Warner Brother’s Movie World at the Gold Coast, Australia. This was a huge deal back then! We used to drive down there and try to sneak in but NOPE I guess security was a thing back then. Bah. It’s no secret that Street Fighter 2 was a big deal to me. The animated movie was pretty cool and all but man, a live action movie? That was just a crazy concept, it was like the world was saying that video games were legitimate or something! My brother and I had set characters we would always play as. I would be Ryu and he was always Vega and we would fight each other as them all day every day. And maaaaaan at the end of the movie where Ryu BEATS Vega that was just absolutely fantastic and worth the ticket price because that was now CANON and my brother could just suck it. Also – the game was pretty God damn terrible, and it baffled my brain why they didn’t just re-release Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo with new graphics?
In San Francisco, the fight over new development isn't over even when it's over. On the same day that opponents of the new Warriors' arena announced a new lawsuit over the development, activists in SoMa and the Tenderloin sued San Francisco over the major 5M project that was approved in November. The lawsuit claims that 5M's Environmental Impact Report failed to reveal the severity of the project's impacts and didn't consider alternatives that would mitigate traffic, shade on city parks, or provide for open space. The groups behind the lawsuit are South of Market Community Action Network (SMAC), Save Our SoMa, and Friends of Boeddeker Park. Throughout the building's approval process, SMAC's rallying cry was "Don't supersize SoMa." They claimed that 5M would gentrify the neighborhood, cause evictions, push out the Filipino population, and lead to further changes in zoning around the city. If the project moves forward, it will include an office complex, a foot-unit condominium tower, and a 288-unit rental building, with a total of 40 percent below-market-rate housing. However, the groups claim that the 40 percent figure isn't accurate because of the income levels targeted by the affordable housing. · SoMa, Tenderloin Activists Suing San Francisco Over 5M Project Approvals [Hoodline] · SoMa's 5M Gains Final Board of Supervisors' Approvals [Curbed SF]
My new training partner #BackPack is going everywhere with me!!! Check out #TheMorningWoodShow to hear what I think about @demianmaia #MatchUp and #ufc211 recap LINK IN BIO @DinThomas Produced by: @tjdesantis A post shared by Tyron Woodley (@twooodley) on May 16, 2017 at 8:23pm PDT Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight contender Demian Maia once pulled a Tyron Woodley. Now, he’s (finally) going to fight Tyron Woodley after promotion president Dana White awarded the Brazilian the next crack at the 170-pound. Maia earned his chance to pull the sword from the proverbial stone by outlasting Jorge Masvidal at the UFC 211: “Miocic vs. Dos Santos 2” pay-per-view (PPV) event last Saturday night (May 17, 2017) inside American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas (watch it). The champ doesn’t sound too worried. “I have the highest takedown defense in the entire welterweight division (and) second overall in the UFC,” Woodley told viewers during the UFC 211 post-fight show (via MMA Junkie). “Maia will have to pack a lunch if he thinks he’s going to jump on my back like that and take me down like he did Jorge Masvidal and Carlos Condit.” When and where they collide has yet to be determined, so the aforementioned backpack may be in for a long and strenuous fight camp. Stay tuned.
Terry Rossio, best known for co-writing the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movies, led a writers room earlier in the spring. Adam Wingard, who made a name for himself with low-budget horror thrillers such as You’re Next and The Guest, is going big for his next movie. Monstrously big. The director has closed a deal to helm Godzilla vs. Kong, Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros.’ teaming of two of the big screen’s most popular movie monsters. Legendary, with Warners, is in the middle of building their monster universe centered on classic silver screen creatures Godzilla and King Kong. Godzilla, released in 2014, was the first entry, and Kong: Skull Island, proved to be a giant hit earlier this year when it was released March 10 and grossed over $565 million worldwide. A sequel to Godzilla, titled Godzilla: King of the Monsters, with Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga and Millie Bobby Brown, is now in production. In March, Legendary set a writers room to work on the script for Godzilla vs. Kong, with Terry Rossio, the veteran scribe best known for co-writing the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, as its head. Other writers scribbling included the team of Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne (Star Trek Beyond), Lindsey Beer, Cat Vasko, Maze Runner movies writer T.S. Nowlin, Jack Paglen (Transcendence) and Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski. Plot details are being kept hidden on a South Pacific atoll. The movie is scheduled to be released May 22, 2020. Wingard has strong horror roots with movies such as A Horrible Way to Die and entries in anthologies V/H/S and The ABCs of Death. And he developed cult followings and strong notices for Guest, which starred Dan Stevens, while also upping his budgets. He last directed a reboot of Blair Witch and recently wrapped Death Note, Netflix’s adaptation of the horror manga and his biggest production to date. Wingard’s stock has been rising among the studio set, and he has been in the mix of some high-profile directing gigs, Sony's Venom among them, as execs and producers have become eager to work with him. Wingard is said to be a massive creature-feature fan of both Godzilla and Kong movies and nabbing the project, one of the larger-budgeted franchises out there, should be a dream come true. Wingard is repped by CAA, manager Jeremy Platt of Plattform and attorney Todd Rubenstein at Morris Yorn.
With the decision by the Supreme Court to legalize gay across the United States, decided to enable users to show support for this decision by making their profile picture rainbow colored. Surely, showing support for individuals who are LGBT has the potential to make people in this community feel appreciated, loved, and accepted. And after entire lives spent feeling marginalized and minimalized, this is an amazing thing. On that alone, (and worries about Facebook using this filter to collect personal data aside), I find the negativity towards people who use this filter a bit puzzling when it comes from people who support LGBT causes. Now, I get that posting an image isn't a monumental feat that deserves a massive amount of praise. And I get that a few people might use this filter at the expense of more intensive and continued activism. But, I can't help but think that some people are negative about this filter because they do not think it actually accomplishes anything (or just so they can feel a bit more sophisticated than the people who use the filter). For reasons already mentioned, I think this is a bit misguided. Humans are highly social beings, and we need support, especially when it comes to having our and values accepted by others. But it also is misguided for another reason, namely, that all this posting can probably enact actual social change in the views of people outside the LGBT community. Nearly a century of research in social psychology makes this quite clear; people are influenced by social norms, and in particular, social norms that are salient/visible. The "false consensus effect" is people's tendency (though this does not always occur - hence why it is a tendency) to overestimate the amount of people who share their views. An example might be someone who loves peach ice cream. They will tend to overestimate how many people also peach ice cream. Hence, if a person who opposes (or is fairly neutral towards) LGBT causes is on Facebook, they might just get a more accurate view of how many people support LGBT causes if they see Facebook littered with rainbow-colored pictures (or as one meme puts it, "a skittles looking explosion"). Indeed, research on the impact of social norms on behavior clearly shows that people will adjust their behavior in accordance with social norms. In some of the earliest examples of this, people were far more likely to litter when they were in a messy environment (like a littered car park) than when was cleaned, and this was especially true when they saw people littering. In other research, psychologists altered how much people were lead to believe that others hold specific beliefs about race in America. In one study, in the condition in which people were lead to believe many other people held stereotypes of Black people, participants indicated more stereotypical views of Black people than when told few people hold these beliefs. As this study was completely anonymous, confidential and private (done alone), this makes it fairly unlikely that participants simply felt a pressure to not express these beliefs. Actual changes in attitudes had occured. There are many, many more lines of research I could use to support the position that even simple things like rainbow coloring your Facebook page could make a difference (here for instance). But I will end with one more. There is a lot of research (and here) showing that people tend to think they are less influenced by external sources (e.g., , other people, Facebook pictures) than they actually are. So when we think to ourselves "would I be influenced by this picture?" we probably conclude that we would not, and then extrapolate that to other people not being influenced. But, we really are poor judges of this, and indeed, research shows that a lot of us probably would be. Rainbow colored Facebook images could help in some way to alter views towards . And, even if not, at the very least, it shows support for a group of individuals who have been marginalized and made to feel less than for far too long. And I can imagine that that - even in such a small gesture as a colored profile pic- feels incredible.
Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, dismissed the criticism, saying that Mr. Kerry was delving into a subject that he had said he would not touch. Mr. Schmidt said that Mr. Kerry was trying to divert attention from what the spokesman said was Mr. Kerry's reversals on other topics. While Mr. Cheney's deferment history was briefly an issue when George W. Bush picked him as his running mate in 2000, the Democrats did not focus on it after Al Gore, the Democratic presidential nominee, who had served in Vietnam, picked as his running mate Senator Joseph Lieberman, who also had not served. The issue also received little attention during Mr. Cheney's Senate confirmation hearings as defense secretary in 1989 under the first President Bush, largely because the Armed Services Committee had just completed a bitter and protracted battle over the president's original choice, John G. Tower. Mr. Tower had faced questions about philandering, drinking and conflicts over defense contracts before he was rejected. Senators of both parties were so eager to confirm Mr. Cheney quickly that they were relatively undemanding, not pressing him on the draft but merely asking him if he had anything to say about it. He said he ''never served'' because of deferments to finish a college career that lasted six years rather than four, which he attributed to subpar academic performance and the fact that he had to work to pay for his education. He added that he ''would have obviously been happy to serve had I been called.'' Away from the hearing room, he told the Washington Post that he had sought his deferments because ''I had other priorities in the 60's than military service.'' ''I don't regret the decisions I made,'' he added. ''I complied fully with all the requirements of the statutes, registered with the draft when I turned 18. Had I been drafted, I would have been happy to serve.'' Advertisement Continue reading the main story But others contend that Mr. Cheney appeared to go to some length to avoid the draft. ''Five deferments seems incredible to me,'' said David Curry, a professor at the University of Missouri in St. Louis who has written extensively about the draft, including a 1985 book, ''Sunshine Patriots: Punishment and the Vietnam Offender.'' ''That's a lot of times for the draft board to say O.K.,'' Mr. Curry said. In February 1962, when Mr. Cheney was classified as 1-A -- available for service -- he was doing poorly at Yale. But the military was taking only older men at that point, and like others who were in college at the time, Mr. Cheney seemed to have little concern about being drafted. In June, he left Yale. After returning home to Casper, a small city in east-central Wyoming, he worked as a lineman for a power company. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. At that point, the Vietnam War was still just a glimmer on the horizon. In 1962, only 82,060 men were inducted into the service, the fewest since 1949. Mr. Cheney was eligible for the draft but, as he said during his confirmation hearings in 1989, he was not called up because the Selective Service System was taking only older men. But by 1963, ferment in Vietnam was rising. Mr. Cheney enrolled in Casper Community College in January 1963 -- he turned 22 that month -- and sought his first student deferment on March 20, according to records from the Selective Service System. After transferring to the University of Wyoming at Laramie, he sought his second student deferment on July 23, 1963. On Aug. 7, 1964, Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which allowed President Lyndon B. Johnson to use unlimited military force in Vietnam. The war escalated rapidly from there. Just 22 days later, Mr. Cheney married his high school sweetheart, Lynne. He sought his third student deferment on Oct. 14, 1964. In May 1965, Mr. Cheney graduated from college and his draft status changed to 1-A. But he was married, which offered him some protection. In July, President Johnson announced that he was doubling the number of men drafted. The number of inductions soared, to 382,010 in 1966 from 230,991 in 1965 and 112,386 in 1964. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Cheney obtained his fourth deferment when he started graduate school at the University of Wyoming on Nov. 1, 1965. On Oct. 6, 1965, the Selective Service lifted its ban against drafting married men who had no children. Nine months and two days later, Mr. Cheney's first daughter, Elizabeth, was born. On Jan. 19, 1966, when his wife was about 10 weeks pregnant, Mr. Cheney applied for 3-A status, the ''hardship'' exemption, which excluded men with children or dependent parents. It was granted. In January 1967, Mr. Cheney turned 26 and was no longer eligible for the draft. Of the 26.8 million men who were eligible for the draft between 1964 and 1973, only 2.2 million were drafted while 8.7 million joined voluntarily, according to ''Chance and Circumstance: the Draft, the War, and the Vietnam Generation,'' a 1978 book by Lawrence M. Baskir and William A. Strauss. Mr. Cheney was among the vast majority of 16 million men -- about 60 percent of those eligible -- who avoided the draft by legal means. The deferment process proved controversial, discriminating against men who were black or poor, and a lottery was introduced in 1969. President Nixon did away with student deferments in 1971 and the draft ended in 1973. But the deferments left such a bitter after-effect that the Selective Service says on its Web site (www.sss.gov) that if a draft were reinstituted, it would be conducted much differently and there would be fewer excuses for people to get out of it. At the time of his confirmation hearings as defense secretary, Mr. Cheney said that he had not taken any action either for or against the military during the Vietnam War. But, he told an interviewer at the time, ''I think those who did in fact serve deserve to be honored for their service.'' Of American involvement in Vietnam, he said: ''Was it a noble cause? Yes, indeed, I think it was.''
Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump holds a plane-side rally in a hanger at Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna, Ohio, Monday, March 14, 2016. \| AP Photo Trump: Senate should block Obama's Supreme Court nominee President Barack Obama plans to announce his Supreme Court nominee on Wednesday, but Donald Trump thinks the Senate shouldn’t give the pick a hearing. “I don’t think so, no I think they should do what they’re doing,” the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination said on “Good Morning America” Wednesday. “I think they should wait until the next president and let the next president pick.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have vowed not to give Obama's choice a hearing, let alone an up-or-down vote. Democrats and Republicans are gearing up instead for an intense political battle aimed at motivating their respective bases, with an eye toward key Senate races that could swing the balance of the upper chamber in the fall. Trump repeated his position later on CNN’s “New Day,” saying that he wasn’t “in favor of going forward.” Host Chris Cuomo then asked: What if Obama picked your sister? “Then I would say the same thing,” said Trump, whose sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit who was nominated by President Bill Clinton. In matters of the court as in all else, Trump's likely nomination has divided Republicans — many of whom fear a political wipeout in November if he is indeed their party's standard-bearer. Some conservatives argue that a President Trump could not be trusted with such a sensitive life-time appointment, while others counter that his choice would be better anyone Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is likely to name. As for Trump, he has promised to choose a conservative along the lines of the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Someone like Scalia "would be my ideal," Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt recently, noting that he had mentioned two names — Bill Pryor, who currently serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and Diane Sykes, a judge on the Seventh Circuit — as possible replacements. But, he said, "the ideal would be Scalia reincarnated."
Beyoncé has been labeled "insensitive" by some current and former NASA astronauts and their families for sampling audio from the space shuttle Challenger disaster for a love song off her newly released album. Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center Jan. 28, 1986. All seven crewmembers aboard were killed. "Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction," now-retired NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt said as the nation watched wreckage fall toward the ocean on live television. Twenty-seven years later, Nesbitt's voice is heard at the beginning of the video for Beyoncé's new song "XO," about a troubled relationship. The singer has said that "XO" was written and produced by Ryan Tedder and Terius Nash, who goes by the stage name The Dream. The audio clip is short, lasting six seconds. Beyonce, in an exclusive statement to ABC News this morning, said, "My heart goes out to the families of those lost in the Challenger disaster. The song 'XO' was recorded with the sincerest intention to help heal those who have lost loved ones and to remind us that unexpected things happen, so love and appreciate every minute that you have with those who mean the most to you. "The songwriters included the audio in tribute to the unselfish work of the Challenger crew with hope that they will never be forgotten." But former and current NASA astronauts, employees and Challenger family members argue that using it in a pop song mocks the crew's sacrifice and opens fresh wounds. June Scobee Rodgers, the widow of Challenger Space Shuttle Commander Dick Scobee and a founder of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, told ABC News she is "disappointed" in the singer's decision to include the clip. "We were disappointed to learn that an audio clip from the day we lost our heroic Challenger crew was used in the song 'XO,'" she said. "The moment included in this song is an emotionally difficult one for the Challenger families, colleagues and friends. We have always chosen to focus not on how our loved ones were lost, but rather on how they lived and how their legacy lives on today." Keith Cowing, a former NASA employee who now runs the NASAWatch.com website, said, "This choice of historic and solemn audio is inappropriate in the extreme. The choice is little different than taking Walter Cronkite's words to viewers announcing the death of President Kennedy or 911 calls from the World Trade Center attack and using them for shock value in a pop tune." Cowing wants Beyoncé to remove the clip and apologize to families of the Challenger crew. Several current NASA astronauts, who are not authorized to speak publicly, privately expressed similar dismay at what they say is Beyoncé's use of a tragedy to sell a pop song. Retired NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson told ABC News, "For the words to be used in the video is simply insensitive, at the very least." Anderson knows NASA tragedy firsthand. In 2003, he was assisting shuttle Columbia family members the moment news came that all seven had died when the craft disintegrated re-entering Earth's atmosphere. But Anderson, who flew twice on the space shuttle and lived on the International Space Station for five months, seemed to give Beyoncé and her team the benefit of the doubt. "What we do in space just isn't as important to young people today," Anderson said. Beyoncé was born in Houston, the same home as NASA's astronaut training campus, the Johnson Space Center. She has worked with the space agency in the past, once recording a wake-up greeting for the orbiting crew of STS-135, the final space shuttle flight. "You inspire all of us to dare to live our dreams, to know that we're smart enough and strong enough to achieve them," she told the Atlantis crew back in 2011.
Reserve Bank of India regulations on Bitcoin in India Laws about Bitcoin are in a gray area today across the world. I studied documents from the Reserve Bank of India’s public repository surrounding Virtual currencies and prepaid solutions. I happened to study two documents about Prepaid Payment and Foreign Exchange Management Rules, 2000. Why research Prepaid Payment rules? A person may come across the need to purchase them through Fiat Currencies (INR, USD, GBP, etc). Purchasing any e-currency and loading to an eWallet is regulated by the RBI. Although Bitcoin is in no way related to this, I wanted to see how close I could get to any laws that could present a roadblock. Is Bitcoin Regulated in India? The RBI regulation on Prepaid Payment Instruments in India defines a lot of areas. After understanding the documents of RBI’s guidelines and Rules, this is where I could find the only roadblock based on regulation. “3. Eligibility 3.2 Only banks which have been permitted to provide Mobile Banking Transactions by the Reserve Bank of India shall be permitted to launch mobile based prepaid payment instruments (mobile wallets & mobile accounts).” In order to enter into the market; fiat is needed to purchase Bitcoin. Fiat will fade away as more people adopt Bitcoin. Until that frictionless free flow between consumers and merchants is made possible, this is a problem area for Bitcoins entry into India. It can be overcome through: Donations and sponsorships. There are enough Smartphones to cause this market to explode in any sponsor’s favor. Sell Services and goods for Bitcoin. Programming Skills, etc. Mining is too expensive at this stage, unless you have the latest and best equipment. Electricity is not expensive in India. If we keep fiat out of the system, then Bitcoin is unregulated in India. I spent some time on the Foreign Exchange Management Act, but it is entirely out of the scope of Bitcoin. As it is a decentralized currency, it can be considered to be a domestic currency since it is being mined in India. This leaves it out of the scope of Foreign Exchange. Even if, IP’s can be tracked when Bitcoin is used for Foreign Exchange, they can be easily anonymized through the Tor Wallet. Since it is a true P2P (Peer to Peer/ Person to Person) currency, it is impossible to regulate in a population using Bitcoin as a token of value to trade. The logistics to monitor a mass population is not feasable. Please do read the Draft Guidelines for issuance and operation of Prepaid Payment Instruments in India and Foreign Exchange Management (Current Account Transactions) Rules, 2000. They will help to understand more about the Banking Regulations in India and help solve some problems. India’s closed currency banking system is rival to none. The banks have maintained a lot of public faith in urban areas and have reached a lot of people in this 1.5B population landscape. India has an unbanked population of 41% according to RBI statistics (Source: URL Below). I would like to reach out to the world of regulators and lawmakers to release a statement on Bitcoin. Can the Reserve Bank of India issue a statement on Bitcoin? Please forward this till someone takes notice and moves Bitcoin along in a positive path. Sources: Draft Guidelines for issuance and operation of Prepaid Payment Instruments in India Foreign Exchange Management (Current Account Transactions) Rules, 2000. Tor Wallet Ignoring the Unbanked: Reserve Bank of India’s Mobile Payments Guidelines – A study by Radix Consultancy Advertisements
At the center of innovation NGA on the ‘prairie’ NGA Blocked Unblock Follow Following Feb 15, 2017 By David Geiger, Ctr., Xperience Communications, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency During the GEOINT Symposium last year, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Robert Cardillo highlighted that “…we must reject outdated ideas about the value of open-source data. We must embrace the imperative to release appropriate information on our unclassified network. We must do all of this — and we must do it smartly. We’ll go wherever necessary to create the service the world demands and our customers deserve.” Supporting this challenge, NGA has been actively investing operations and manpower within what the IT industry has dubbed the Silicon Prairie. Much like our operations in Silicon Valley, the Silicon Prairie describes innovation occurring in cities such as St. Louis, Dallas, Denver, Sioux City and Chicago. St. Louis in particular, is quickly becoming a mini Palo Alto, where once-abandoned buildings near Washington University are now home to the most advanced coworking spaces. Photo by NGA Office of Corporate Communications One such building is the Cortex, home to the Innovation Center, or the CiC, a vibrant 200-acre innovation hub and technology district integrated into St. Louis’ historic Central West End and Forest Park Southeast residential neighborhoods. Founded in 2002, Cortex is the Midwest’s premier innovation hub of bioscience and technology research, development and commercialization, serving as the anchor of St. Louis’ growing ecosystem for innovative startup programs and established companies such as DuPont, Boeing Ventures, Centene, Express-Scripts, Nestle-Purina and MasterCard. Across the Midwest — even during winter months — the new cash crop is high tech, and NGA’s presence in St. Louis has never been more important than it is now. As can be expected, larger, more established development firms are taking notice. Some of the city’s notable startups, such as Lockerdome, a social network, and Hatchbuck, a sales and marketing software as a service (SaaS) platform, also participate at the CiC. More recently, San Francisco-based mobile payments company Square said it will hire 200 people at its new office in the Cortex innovation district in the Central West End. Creating new business models But NGA isn’t a venture capitalist with the ability to immediately invest millions of dollars like they do on an episode of TV’s “Shark Tank.” Instead, NGA leaders had to navigate developmental roadblocks, policies and security concerns in an effort to make Director Cardillo’s request a reality, “… we need to bring ideas to optimize our contract and acquisition processes.” Despite the obstacles NGA wanted to strike while the iron was hot. St. Louis has seen growth in its tech start-up scene and has the venture capital dollars to prove it. The city was the fastest growing area for total funding for tech start-ups in 2014, according to CB Insights. From November 2013 through October 2014, funding in St. Louis-based tech start-ups increased 1,221 percent year over year. In 2014 venture capitalists invested about $71.3 million in 21 deals, according to data from Pitchbook, a firm that tracks private equity and venture capital investments. “We are thrilled to see the innovation agenda defined by our founding partners continue to thrive and flourish,” said Dennis Lower, president and CEO of Cortex. “C2N, Orion, aisle411, Uber, OG Systems, CIC, Quiet Signal, Capital Innovators, iSelect, the Women’s Bakery, Sprouthood and many others — an entrepreneurial renaissance is happening in St. Louis, and Cortex is at ground zero.” As a result, NGA has created solutions that are quite unusual when compared with our typical business model. NGA created a program called The Innovative GEOINT Application Provider Program, or IGAPP, a revolutionary business model providing an open-source environment for the government to engage directly with startups, academia and midsized software firms. By simplifying the federal government acquisition requirements, IGAPP removes the barriers that have historically stymied most private-sector firms or businesses. Through vendor opportunity packages, IGAPP delivers the needs of the intelligence and defense communities directly to the developers, and removes the guesswork — ensuring developers are creating meaningful apps. Since the launch of IGAPP more than two years ago, NGA has coordinated with more than 40 IGAPP-approved vendors that distributed more than 50 GEOINT-tailored products in the GEOINT AppStore. This revolutionary program not only provided applications NGA’s partners and customers actually need, but reduced the acquisition time from 18 months to less than four weeks. Extending the realm of the possible NGA isn’t alone in this endeavor; Arch Grants, a nonprofit organization, accelerates economic development by providing $50,000 equity-free grants and pro bono support services to entrepreneurs who locate their businesses in St. Louis. Through its competitive Global Startup Competition, Arch Grants retains and attracts the most innovative entrepreneurs to the St. Louis region. These programs, and the continued efforts of NGA, are an aggressive effort to inspire the next generation of employers, civic leaders and philanthropists for St. Louis. As the agency continues to create the infrastructure that supports its development in the open environment, it will be exciting to see what new and unusual developments these new-found relationships with the private sector will deliver to users in the IC, NSG and ASG – and forever change our perspective regarding the realm of the possible.
A group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students at Louisiana Tech University are protesting an award given to a "Duck Dynasty" star, Campus Reform reported. Members of Prism, an LGBT student group, launched a social media protest of reality star Phil Robertson late last week after they learned he was to be honored by the school's alumni association during Saturday's commencement. The "Duck Dynasty" star, who has made headlines last year over anti-gay remarks, was honored with the Tower Medallion, an award given by the university's alumni association to "recognize those exceptional individuals who have brought honor not only to themselves but to the University as well." A spokeswoman for the Louisiana Tech University Alumni Center told Campus Reform that the decision to honor Robertson was made "months ago" and that the reality start "had achieved a top level distinction in his field. And this is what the award is for, purely and simply." Upon learning of his honor, Prism started a social media campaign, #NoHonorInBigotry, in response. The group of students objected not only to Robertson's selection for the award, but the fact that it was announced to students just one day before commencement. "We wanted to make a statement displaying our disapproval of the honoring, and for several reasons, including the minimal time we were given to react, a social media campaign was the best way to do this. Faculty, staff, and students didn't have any time to give input since no one new until the day before," Hannah Ellsworth, the President of Prism, told KNOE News. People across the state posted Facebook statuses and tweeted at Louisiana Tech using the hashtag #NoHonorInBigotry to send a message to the university. The social media campaign was accompanied by a walk-out by several faculty members during the graduation ceremony. Robertson did not attend commencement, his wife and son accepted the award on his behalf.
The NJIT community was taken by surprise after a video published last week by The New York Times pushed Dr. Jason Jorjani’s involvement with the Alt-Right into the spotlight. The video was part of an undercover report produced by Patrik Hermansson, a Swedish graduate student working for the British advocacy organization, Hope Not Hate, and was embedded alongside an Op-Ed piece published in to The New York Times on Tuesday, September 19. Dr. Jorjani and Hermansson met in a New York pub where the conversation took place. While having this conversation, Hermansson wore a wire and hidden camera for recording purposes. In the video, Dr. Jorjani spoken of “a Europe, in 2050, where the bank notes have Adolf Hitler, Napoleon Bonaparte, Alexander the Great. And Hitler will be seen like that: like Napoleon, like Alexander, not like some weird monster who is unique in his own category — no, he is just going to be seen as a great European leader.” The video has caused a stir on campus, because many interpreted his quote to mean he endorsed Hitler. Late Wednesday afternoon, September 20, after word had gone out about Dr. Jorjani’s statements, NJIT President, Joel Bloom sent an email to faculty and staff – but not students – stating Dr. Jorjani’s statements were “repugnant and antithetical to our institution’s core values.” A day after the video was published, Dr. Jorjani made a blog post titled, “Why I Left the Alt-Right”. There, he recollects that the conversation with Hermansson took place over two hours instead of the five minutes shown in the video clip. “My nightmarish prediction of a future that would follow from Western policymakers’ failure to address the Muslim migrant crisis in the present has been taken out of context.” The Hope Not Hate organization defines the “Alternative Right” movement as an “international set of groups and individuals, operating primarily online… whose core belief is that “white identity” is under attack from pro-multicultural and liberal elites and so-called “social justice warriors” (SJW).” Richard Spencer, a leader in the movement, has also described the movement as “identity politics for white people.” What do students think? In an interview with The Vector, Dr. Kevin Belfield, the Dean of the College of Science and Liberal Arts, echoed Bloom’s statement. When asked about his thoughts on the matter of Dr. Jorjani staying on as a lecturer, Belfield refrained from answering stating, “I’d rather not comment on that.” He said NJIT has launched a review into the situation and that he was not involved in the process. “The review is being handled by the top level,” he said. NJIT has begun conducting a review on the matter and will release an official statement when ready. During this time, NJIT students have been sharing the news all over social outlets such as Facebook and the school’s unofficial blog on Reddit. “I was pretty shocked because he never expressed his views while he was teaching… I was surprised this was the same guy,” said Donnell Recuerdo, a senior civil engineering major and a student of Dr. Jorjani’s in Science, Technology & Society 405 course last Spring. Jason Jorjani was officially brought on as a staff member for the 2016 Fall semester and currently instructs students taking Science, Technology, and Society (STS) courses as a university lecturer within the College of Science and Liberal Arts. According to the NJIT course schedule, Dr. Jorjani is instructing two introductory STS lecture courses alongside one senior seminar in Humanities and Social Sciences called The History of Ideas, totaling approximately 125 students. Like all university lecturers, Dr. Jorjani has a one-year contract that is renewed every spring at the discretion of the university. He is also does not have a tenure-track position. According to Dean Belfield, Dr. Jorjani’s year-end evaluation scores – submitted by students – are generally positive and that there have not been any reports stating that he uses the classroom setting as a platform to share his political ideology. When speaking to students who have taken class with Dr. Jorjani, several NJIT students said they had positive experiences in his class. “I had good healthy debates with him,” said Aneesh Muthiyan, a senior majoring in Information Technology. Muthiyan said Dr. Jorjani’s knowledge of various religions was impressive, stating that he [Jorjani] knew about as much about Hinduism as himself after a long-winded discussion with him after class. Muthiyan added that, “Whenever the topic of politics or anything controversial was brought up, he made it a point of not discussing it in class.” Who is Jason Reza Jorjani? Dr. Jorjani’s rise in prominence within the Alt-Right movement took place after members of the Alt-Right gathered at the National Policy Institute conference in Washington D.C. on November 19, 2016, to revel in the victory of Donald Trump during after last year’s election. By then, he was also the editor-in-chief of a far-right book publishing company, Artkos Media. After the keynote address, provided by AltRight corporation founder, Richard Spencer, followed by Nazi style salutes chanting “Hail Trump”, Dr. Jorjani was invited to the podium and described himself as a “long-time student of the glorious history of the Aryan nation of Iran.’’ He then went on to claim, “…nearly everything allegedly ‘glorious’ about Islam was parasitically appropriated by Arabs and Turks from the Caucasian civilization of Greater Iran. Moreover, this parasitic appropriation of a mutilated Iranian civilization took place in the wake of a murderous campaign of conquest, rape, plunder, and destruction that can only be described as history’s first and greatest white genocide.” What were his connections with the “Alt-Right”? Dr, Jorjani and Spencer had frequently spent time together as both are founders of the Alt-Right corporation, which they formed January 2017. As detailed in Dr. Jorjani’s most recent blog post, he recalls a time where both he and Spencer shared an apartment together in New York for a few days. Richard Spencer is the face of the Alt-Right and was one of the organizers in the Charlottesville rally. Spencer first coined the term “alternative-right” in 2008. After his success in 2010 as the executive editor of Taki Magazine, Spencer was offered the lead position at the National Policy Institute (NPI) and Washington Summit Publishers. This new platform played a key role in the rise of the Alt-Right movement expanding even beyond U.S. borders, as seen with European New Right supporters taking an interest in the Alt-Right in America. Up until the events that transpired in Charlottesville, the Alt-Right had been mentioned numerously by media outlets. The movement began to capture the public’s attention during the 2016 election when Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, lambasted the Alt-Right movement during the presidential debates. The movement gained more notoriety in late January when the leader of the movement, Spencer, was punched on live television. Afterwards, video clips of the strike were spread across the internet. Why did he resign from his position? Although the video published by The Times casts Dr. Jorjani as the “architect of the Alt-Right Corporation” – a title that would agree with – he and Spencer have since had a falling out following the events after the Charlottesville rally. In the Sept. 20 blog post, Dr. Jorjani said he resigned from AltRight Corp. and Artkos Media because Spencer did not carry through on his promises to bring investors to their organization. In addition, he was upset at seeing “the corporation that was my brainchild turn into a magnet for white trash.’’ He also felt frozen out of the decision-making process following a dip in his percentage of shares over time. “I was supposed to be the conduit for a major investment during the formative phase of the Alt-Right Corporation, and thereby assume its leadership – at least as far as fundamental questions of ideology were concerned,” he wrote. In an earlier blog post, published August 15, Dr. Jorjani wrote that he resigned to begin a new venture in the form of the Iranian United Front – formed approximately around the time of the Charlottesville rally. The organization is dedicated to creating a new world state that would be based on Indo-European values of the Persian empire.
The Department of Homeland Security is terminating immigration benefits for approximately 59,000 Haitians who were allowed to work in the U.S. under a provisional residency known as "Temporary Protected Status." Those from Haiti protected by the program from deportation must leave the country within 18 months. Many of those who will be impacted by the order live in Florida and New York City. Earlier this month, DHS announced Nicaraguan TPS beneficiaries have 14 months to leave the U.S. or qualify to remain in the U.S. legally through a different visa category. Congress created TPS in 1990 to prevent deporting foreign nationals to insecure and dangerous countries as a result of natural disaster, armed conflict, or health epidemics. Haiti’s temporary status was established in 2010 following a powerful earthquake. The Trump administration is pushing back on the original purpose of the program and claim it was not intended to allow immigrants to stay in the U.S. long-term.
Meek Mill is focused. A five-month stint in prison delayed his second studio album, Dreams Worth More Than Money, but the Maybach Music Group rapper has a new outlook on life, and claims to be hungrier than ever. This month, Meek landed on the cover of XXL’s spring 2015 issue alongside Rick Ross. XXL’s Editor-in-Chief, Vanessa Satten, penned the cover story, in which Meek details his experience at Philadelphia’s Hoffman Hall, his “different” sound, and wanting to get money like Jay Z and Puff Daddy. “Being that I went to jail and came back, I went through a whole new experience in life,” Meek explains. “I went from being at the top to back down at the bottom again. In jail, you get stripped of your freedom and everything, so I experienced different things, learned more. It basically brought most of my hunger back, because I was living the life, having fun all day every day. I really didn’t know what it was like to be hungry no more. I still had it, but not where jail put me at. And before I went to jail, I was being a little wild. So you know, it slowed me down, gave me enough time to think.” While in prison, Meek says he was isolated from the general population for part of his bid. For about a month and a half, Meek recalls being by himself for 23 hours a day, at times. “They had me set up like a celebrity,” he says. “[Nobody] could come around me for like a month and a half. Nobody could talk to me. That damaged me kind’ve, a little bit. When I came home I wasn’t like really, all the way together ’cause not being around people that long, in a room by yourself.” Several of his peers, such as Baby, Jeezy, Rick Ross, and Nicki Minaj would call Meek “once in a while” to give him a report of what was going on in Hip Hop. “I probably wrote like one rap,” he says. “I was stressed out… I ain’t drop an album since I was 25. I rap way better. I’ve experienced way more. I just came from jail. I made sure I read a whole lot, smartened up and learned more. “I’m just next level Meek Mill.” “Next level Meek Mill” doesn’t sound like anyone else. The Philly-native emphasized to the Hip Hop publication that he’s straying away from the sound his peers have carved out for themselves. “I sound like me, but just on another level,” Meek responds to a question regarding his feelings towards his second album. “I ain’t come in trying to do the Drake melody or the Kendrick [Lamar] lyrics or J. Cole… Nah, I sound like Meek Mill. That energy of Meek Mill, just on another level. I’ve been in it for four years, came out in 2012. I was 24, maybe going on 25. It’s different now, everything’s different about me.” For more Meek Mill coverage, watch the following DX Daily: Please enable Javascript to watch this video
SINGAPORE - The police have arrested 36 people for an unlawful attempt to enter Singapore by sea. A boat used for smuggling the 33 men and three women - aged between 22 and 56 - was also seized, the Police Coast Guard (PCG) said in a statement on Tuesday (July 21). The unlit craft had been spotted moving south of reclaimed land off Tuas last Saturday (July 18) at 8.16pm. PCG officers subsequently intercepted it. Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police and PCG commander Hsu Sin Yun said: "The successful detection and arrest of the 36 subjects is testament to PCG's resolve to safeguard our territorial waters, despite the challenging nature of our operating terrain." Related Story Faster boats for Police Coast Guard The PCG launched two new vessels, a patrol interdiction boat (PIB) and a second generation PK class high speed interceptor, on Tuesday. Eleven PIBs and six second generation PK class boats are due to be added to the PCG fleet by next February. Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, who was at the launch, said more than 7,000 suspicious vessels were stopped from entering Singapore's waters in 2014. A total of 46 illegal immigrants were also apprehended.
Atheists, agnostics, and other religious non-affiliates are a dying breed in Asia. According to a Pew Research Center study released last week, Asia’s shrinking pool of men and women who don’t identify with any religion are driving a drop in the proportion of “religious nones” in the world. The percentage of the unaffiliated in Asia Pacific—home to about 76% of the world’s unaffiliated—will fall to 17% in 2050 from 21%, Pew estimates. Even though the percentage of non-religious is growing in North America and Europe, this drop in Asia and the growth of religious communities elsewhere will mean the unaffiliated will make up only 13% of the world’s population in 2050, down from 16% in 2010. Researchers attribute the drop to the fact that non-religious types in Asia are typically older, have less children, and “switch” or convert to a religion less often. The median age of a woman in Asia who doesn’t identify with a religion was 35, compared to 28 for the religiously affiliated, the report noted. In China, where over half of the world’s religiously unaffiliated live, the non-religious as a percentage of the Chinese population is expected to fall to 50% in 2050 from 52% in 2010 as fertility rates stay low and the working age population shrinks. Social theorists once believed that as a country develops, its people grow less religious. That may not be happening in China or elsewhere in Asia. Data on religious habits in China are hard to come by, but Fenggang Yang, a sociologist at Purdue University, estimates that China’s population of Christians may have grown an average of 7% a year between 1950 and 2010, and could account for as much as 67% of the population by 2050, compared to 5% now. In Singapore, the number of Muslims and Hindus as a proportion of the population is also expected to rise.
Love this album. Normally, lyrics are something I start to listen to after several listens to an album, if a) they don't bother me immediately and make me stop listening, or b) the music (chords, melodies, timing, arrangement, etc.) is good enough to bring me back for repeated listening's. This album is very unusual for me in that the music registered as good immediately (typical good mwY instrumentation and song structure), but the lyrics starting blowing me away on my very first listen. I don't recall this ever really happening for me. On my third listen, in my car, I had to keep stopping the play so I could 'digest' what I just heard, conceptually. I do like good lyrics, but I usually don't notice just how 'clever' they are until I've heard them a few times. In this case, there are so many lines that are PACKED with so much information that they just explode in my mind. So I had to start pausing and getting my stuff together before venturing into the next intense onslaught. Musically, this album is made of that good, solid fabric that all myY albums are made of - they always sound fresh and not over-rehearsed-to-sterility, but tight. They always sound like they have lots of good music in abundant supply, like they could cut a hundred records today if you just let the tape keep rolling. This is probably an illusion of their style, but its a darn effective illusion. Instrumentally these guys sound like the ultimate garage band. Lyrically, this album almost reminds me of something David Eugene Edwards (16 Horsepower, Wovenhand) might produce - but not in a derivative sense. Lyrically, this is a refinement to the already brilliant catalogue of mwY, but somehow with even more apocalyptic intensity! Wow. So... I'm kinda blown away from by this album. The part that has rocked me the most: "In a dream last night I was somewhere near Virginia, rebuking Satan with ironic faithfulness. Satan turned to me and said, "Eloi Eloi, have you thought much about that cry? Have you thought much about that cry? Eloi Eloi Have you thought much about that line lama sabachthani" I had to pause my iPod and DEAL with that. Get it. Enjoy it.
Martin Lehmann says that between Afghanistan’s war and Thailand’s tsunami, he has photographed “so many dead people you wouldn’t believe it.” Yet nothing has affected him more than Rose, a little girl with “half a heart” who lived in Copenhagen, his hometown. Seven years ago, he got a call from his family’s babysitter, Birgitte, saying she was too upset to come to work. At 21 weeks pregnant, she had just learned her baby would be born with a defect that would disrupt the infant’s blood flow. Birgitte grappled with decisions, from having an abortion to allowing surgery after birth. She returned to work a few days later, and she suggested that Mr. Lehmann photograph her baby right after birth. “Every family has a picture of their child on the wall,” she told him. “And we wanted one good picture of the baby.” He agreed, intrigued by the idea of ordinary people facing major medical decisions. But he also knew his own emotional limitations. He was already working on a book about a drug addict, which was taking a toll. And there was no question that Rose’s story was going to end badly. “Death was a part of this from the beginning,” he said. Photo He listened as Birgitte explained her dilemma. There was a choice she and her husband had to make and they could not agree. Children with this condition must have the first of three surgeries shortly after birth. The procedures must hew to a particular order, usually before the age of 3. None cures the problem. In the case of Birgitte’s baby, palliative care was offered as the alternative to surgery. The couple chose surgery. Baby Rose was born on Aug. 22, 2008, and Mr. Lehmann was there with his camera. He fell in love with Rose immediately. “At that time, there was no return,” he said. One week later, Rose’s first operation was successful, except for a breathing complication, which just meant that the second operation would be done sooner. The baby left the hospital in December. As Mr. Lehmann grew closer to the family, Rose’s illness was not his sole focus. Instead, he captured everyday family life, like Rose playing with her sister or the family gathering in a common room. “I was much more the person Martin than I was a photographer with a lot of big cameras jumping around on the table trying to find a good angle,” he said. No one was worried when it came time for Rose’s third surgery in June 2011, especially as the first two had gone so well. But there was a complication. After surgery, Rose’s heart developed a problem with a valve. Surgeons needed to operate. Right before the procedure, Birgitte heard an anesthesiologist shout, “The child must be ventilated now!” Soon after, Rose entered into surgery, which went well. Or so Birgitte thought. But later, a scan revealed damage to parts of Rose’s brain, which Birgitte believes came from those 30 minutes without oxygen right before the surgery. Her speech was nearly gone, her vision affected, and she could not eat on her own. Mr. Lehmann admitted that “there were many tough moments,” and they were, at times, beyond his camera. He spent night after night on the phone with Birgitte, listening to her talk about Rose. He found it interesting that unlike the typical dynamic between subject and photographer, Birgitte was reaching out to him. “What should you say to a person like that?” he said. “Should I say to her, ‘Excuse me, I’m just a photographer, you can call a therapist’? Of course I talked with her.” Over the next few years, the family adjusted as best they could. They changed apartments and put Rose in a school for children with special needs. Mr. Lehmann continued to shoot at his daily newspaper, visiting the family on and off. Then, in the spring of 2014, there was another blow. Photo On Friday, April 18, Rose was admitted to the hospital for low oxygen. By Monday morning, a doctor said Rose needed to go into the intensive care unit. “In that moment I said, no,” Birgitte recalled. “No way. She’s not going to intensive care unit. We did that three years ago.” Birgitte asked how long Rose had to live. The doctor said it could be hours, days or weeks. But the nurses told her she would probably die that afternoon. Birgitte called the family to the hospital. While they were on their way, Birgitte sat by Rose, who started to say something. It was Adda. Adda. Adda. She said it six times, until Lara, her sister, whom she was calling, arrived. Rose breathed deeply twice, then stretched out. Then, she was gone. Birgitte called Mr. Lehmann immediately. “You are a friend,” she told him. “You have been here from the beginning and now it is ending. Please come.” She wanted him to come to the apartment where she was going to take Rose’s body. He admits he was at first a little sickened. “I was thinking you know, oh, she is laying in there, just 5 years old and she looks like my own daughter, I didn’t like the feeling,” he said. But when he saw Rose in her crib surrounded by her toys and loved ones, he teared up and thought, “I really understand.” “Nobody promised that you can have a good life, that you should have perfect kids,” he said. “Nobody promised you that everything would be O.K. Pain is a part of life. And death is a part of life. It is the most clear part of life. I think a little more about that now.” Photo Follow @Rena_Silverman, @nytimesphoto on Twitter. Lens is also on Facebook.
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday morning agreed to hear a case over whether corporations can be sued in federal courts for human rights violations occurring overseas. The case, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, arises out of a suit by a dozen Nigerian plaintiffs claiming that Royal Dutch and two of its Shell Oil subsidiaries worked with the Nigerian government to torture and extrajudicially execute individuals protesting against the companies' oil exploration. The plaintiffs filed suit in United States district court under the Alien Tort Statute, which empowers the federal courts to hear cases by "an alien" bringing a civil suit for wrongs committed "in violation of the law of nations." The first Congress passed the ATS into law in 1789. While the ATS indicates who can sue, it does not say who or what can be sued. In Kiobel, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals held, by a 2-1 vote, that only natural persons, and not corporations, may be held liable under the ATS. "Corporate liability is not discernible" under the ATS, wrote the majority, because "no corporation has ever been subject to any form of liability (whether civil or criminal) under the customary international law of human rights." The D.C. Circuit and 7th Circuit split with the 2nd Circuit shortly after its Kiobel decision. Judge Richard Posner of the 7th Circuit, in his opinion for a unanimous panel, found the "factual premise of the majority opinion in the Kiobel case incorrect," citing the allied powers' dissolution of German corporations that had aided the Nazi government in violation of customary international law. Even so, Posner continued, that fact "has nothing to do with the issue of corporate liability." Rather, as the D.C. Circuit put it, courts should look to whether the cause of action -- in Kiobel, a claim such as torture -- is "clearly established in the law of nations," and then ask whether corporations are generally held liable in domestic lawsuits. The Supreme Court will now step in to resolve the circuit split, but Kiobel's outlier status does not signal an easy reversal. The D.C. Circuit's dissenter, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, agreed with the 2nd Circuit's approach in Kiobel and found that "customary international law does not recognize corporate liability." Kavanaugh's dissents in the past have served as clarion calls for the Court's conservatives, so what he believes may be a good indicator for how the justices may come out. And Kavanaugh, a former clerk for Justice Anthony Kennedy, believed that "it would be quite odd for a U.S. court to allow a customary international law-based ATS claim against a corporation when no international tribunal has allowed a customary international law claim against a corporation." Yet for many, it would also be quite odd for the Court, which found in Citizens United that the Framers intended the First Amendment to apply to corporate persons, to reject the concept when it comes to corporate liability for crimes against humanity under a Founding-era statute.
After a long multi-year investigation, Sactown Royalty has learned that Washington Wizards center Marcin Gortat is primed to join the Sacramento Kings this summer. Gortat is in the last year of a five year, $34 million deal, and will probably command a decent salary considering his defensive acumen and the fact that he has helped Washington to their first playoff berth in years after being traded from the Phoenix Suns prior to this season. While there are likely to be several suitors for Gortat this summer, Sactown Royalty has learned that Gortat is actually a huge fan of the Sacramento Kings and has been for some time. In fact, he's one of our own. * My investigation began back in 2011 during the first Here We Stay movement. Blake Ellington and I founded Here We Stay to help unite Kings fans in the fight to keep the team in Sacramento and to get a new arena in Sacramento. So I was extremely shocked to see Marcin Gortat come to one of our first meetings. Of course, as he was playing for the Suns at the time, he decided to go under the alias of "Kevin Fippin". Not wanting to offend him or scare him away from the movement (having a professional player involved was a big deal), I kept his secret. After the meeting, I pulled Blake aside. "Dude, how did you get Marcin Gortat involved in Here We Stay?!?" "What are you talking about? You mean Kevin? Ha, I guess he does kinda look like Gortat." "Well of course he does. He's Marcin freaking Gortat." "Ha, alright man", he said as he walked out the door. Blake was unconvinced, but then again, the room was dimly lit and Blake wasn't wearing his glasses. For a while, I let it go, not questioning anything. Gortat and I became friends even, as we helped organize rallies and events for Here We Stay as we fought relocation attempts, although I often joked with him about his true identity, to which he would almost always give an exasperated sigh. I was amazed at how much effort he was able to put in while also playing a full season of basketball. Some nights, he'd have a game on the East Coast and then appear at a Kings game an hour or so later. I asked him how he did it once and he (jokingly of course) responded "Man, you got to come up with a different joke". One thing I learned is that like Daniel Day-Lewis, Marcin is always in character. One time, I thought I'd trip him up by speaking some of his native Polish to him. "Hey Kevin, jak się masz?" "Bless you" Damn, he's good. There were still signs of his true self however. For example, there was one time when I spied Gortat in a Costco in line to buy a hot dog. A Polish hot dog. I knew I was still on the right track. * It was not long after that Tom Ziller brought on Gortat as Sactown Royalty's social media editor under his alias. You may know him as kfipp. I contacted Tom to let him know that this probably wasn't a great idea, since as a professional basketball player, Gortat probably wouldn't be able to dedicate the necessary amount of time required for the job. Tom simply replied "lol". Fortunately, Gortat managed to balance his duties with the NBA and Sactown Royalty better than I could ever have expected. His work ethic is nothing but extraordinary, which is probably what makes him such an effective basketball player. Just like how he has helped the Wizards reach new heights this season, Sactown Royalty's Twitter Followers and Facebook likes have skyrocketed since he came on board. His dedication is such that sometimes he'd even tweet Kings game updates while in the middle of another game that he'd be playing in. *** With Gortat entering the last year of his contract, I grew eager to see if Gortat would be willing to sign with the Kings. After all, the Kings are in need of a defensive big. Sources had indicated to me that Gortat had bought season tickets for the Kings this season under his Kevin Fippin alias, and that he was even seen wearing a Kings jersey at a game, to which he posted to his alias' twitter account (Gortat has kept two twitter accounts, one being @kfippin and the other being @MGortat, in order to keep his cover). Gortat in a Kings jersey with a sock puppet At this point, it became clear that Gortat was paving the way for a future as a Sacramento King. I couldn't hold his secret any longer, so I decided to confront him about it and try to get him on the record. To do so, I went to his house, one that he already owned and lived in Sacramento (more proof as if any was needed). I knocked on the door and Gortat answered. "Hey Akis, what's up" "It's time Marcin. The world needs to know the truth, and I need to tell them. You're going to be on the Sacramento Kings next year right?" At this point Gortat became confrontational. "Goddammit Akis. For the last time I'm not Marcin Gortat. Literally the only thing Gortat and I have in common is that we're bald and have kinda similar facial hair. THE GUY IS FREAKING 7 FEET TALL. DO I LOOK 7 FEET TALL!??!?!?!?" "Maybe you wear lifts." "Man, you need some serious help." "You don't deny it then?" At this point Gortat, obviously infuriated that I would betray his trust and reveal his true identity, gave me a disgusted look before slamming the door in my face. But the truth is out there now. Marcin Gortat is Kevin Fippin. Kevin Fippin is Marcin Gortat. (Happy April Fools Day everyone!)
Jeffrey Williams is pictured in this undated booking photo provided by the St. Louis County Police Department. He added that Williams, who is being held at a local jail on a bond of $300,000, used a 40mm handgun, matching shell casings at the scene. Williams, a north St. Louis County resident, was on probation in St. Louis County for receiving stolen property at the time of Thursday's incident, McCulloch said. The suspect reportedly told police that he had been shooting at someone else at the time of the incident and only accidentally struck the police. McCulloch added that authorities have yet to determine whether Williams was in fact aiming at someone other than the police. "We're not completely sure we buy that part," he said. Part of the investigation will involve determining whether other people should also be criminally charged, though McCulloch said "it appears there is only one person firing shots." McCulloch said the investigation was aided in part by community members who stepped forward and provided information to the police. "What got the police to this point is information that was provided to them by members of the community," he said. The officers were shot early Thursday as a crowd began to break up after a late-night demonstration. That protest unfolded after Ferguson police chief Tom Jackson resigned in the wake of the scathing federal Justice Department report, which found widespread racial bias in the city's policing and in a municipal court system driven by profit extracted from mostly black and low-income residents. A 41-year-old St. Louis County officer was shot in the right shoulder, the bullet exiting through his back. A 32-year-old officer from Webster Groves was wearing a riot helmet with the face shield up. He was shot in the right cheek, just below the eye, and the bullet lodged behind his ear. The officers were released from the hospital Thursday. But St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said Thursday they could have easily been killed and called the attack "an ambush." Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement Sunday that the arrest "sends a clear message that acts of violence against our law enforcement personnel will never be tolerated" and praised "significant cooperation between federal authorities and the St. Louis County Police Department." The shots were believed to come from a handgun across the street from the police department, which has been a national focal point since the fatal Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown, who was black and unarmed, by now-former police officer Darren Wilson. Wilson was cleared by the Justice Department's report and by a county grand jury led by McCulloch. The federal report found widespread racial bias in the city's policing and in a municipal court system driven by profit extracted from mostly black and low-income residents. Al Jazeera and The Associated Press
BAGHDAD - Iraqi government air strikes against jihadists, some with the use of barrel bombs, have killed at least 75 civilians since the start of June, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday. The New York-based rights group said hundreds of civilians had also been wounded in such strikes since June 6. "The government's air strikes are wreaking an awful toll on ordinary residents," HRW's deputy Middle East director Joe Stork said in a statement. The watchdog documented 75 civilian deaths in four cities since last month's launch of a sweeping military offensive by the jihadist Islamic State (IS) and allied Sunni armed groups. At least 17 of the deaths had resulted from the use of barrel bombs. The crude devices, which the Syrian regime has also used against rebels over the past two years, are barrels stuffed with fertiliser, shrapnel or any improvised explosive mix. They are much cheaper than conventional weapons but less accurate. "Despite repeated government denials, government forces have resumed the use of the deadly barrel bombs in populated areas of Fallujah," HRW said. "Governments that are helping Iraq in its military campaign should pull back their aid until Iraqi forces and any other groups supporting them end their indiscriminate attacks on civilians," Stork said. Iraq has received military assistance in various forms from the United States and Iran in its battle against IS advances north of the capital that at one point looked like threatening Baghdad. The HRW report also said that hospitals in the cities of rebel-held Fallujah and Baiji had repeatedly come under attack by Iraq's air force.
Barron, Anne (2012) Kant, copyright and communicative freedom. Law and Philosophy, 31 (1). pp. 1-48. ISSN 0167-5249 Abstract The rapid recent expansion of copyright law worldwide has sparked efforts to defend the ‘public domain’ of non-propertized information, often on the ground that an expansive public domain is a condition of a ‘free culture’. Yet questions remain about why the public domain is worth defending, what exactly a free culture is, and what role (if any) authors’ rights might play in relation to it. From the standard liberal perspective shared by many critics of copyright expansionism, the protection of individual expression by means of marketable property rights in authors’ works serves as an engine of progress towards a fully competitive ‘marketplace of ideas’ – though only if balanced by an extensive public domain from which users may draw in the exercise of their own expressivity. This article shows that a significantly different, and arguably richer, conception of what a free culture is and how authors’ rights underpin it emerges from a direct engagement with the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. For Kant, progress towards a fully emancipated (i.e. a ‘mature’ or ‘enlightened’) culture can only be achieved through the critical intellectual activity that public communication demands: individual expressive freedom is only a condition, not constitutive, of this ‘freedom to make public use of one’s reason in all matters’. The main thesis defended in this article is that when Kant’s writings on publicity (critical public debate) are read in relation to his writings on the legal organization of publishing, a necessary connection emerges between authors’ rights – as distinct from copyrights – and what Jürgen Habermas and others have named the public sphere. I conclude that it is the public sphere, and not the public domain as such, that should serve as the key reference point in any evaluation of copyright law’s role in relation to the possibility of a free culture. Actions (login required)
A South Carolina man has confessed to four murders after a missing woman was found chained in a shipping container on his rural property. The woman’s boyfriend was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds nearby. Police arrested Todd Kohlhepp on Thursday in the missing-persons case of Kala Brown, 30, and Charlie Carver, 32, who disappeared from their Anderson, South Carolina, apartment in August. On Thursday, investigators found Brown restrained in a metal container in Spartanburg, South Carolina, approximately an hour from her home. She told police she witnessed Kohlhepp shoot and kill Carver, and that up to four bodies might have been buried on the overgrown 100-acre lot. But Kohlhepp could be linked to as many as seven killings, authorities say. Kohlhepp, 45, confessed to slaying seven people, including four in a 13-year-old South Carolina cold case, police said Saturday. The Superbike Killings, as the cold case became known, claimed the lives of four employees in a Spartanburg motorcycle shop. Two were shot and killed in broad daylight outside the shop. Another was shot in the back while apparently servicing a motorcycle, and a third appeared to have been ambushed as she left a bathroom. The whole incident took seven minutes or less, said a friend of the victims who discovered their bodies shortly after speaking on the phone with one of them. The slayings appeared to lack both suspect and motive. A briefcase with money and a signed deposit slip were left untouched. Until this weekend’s discovery on Kohlhepp’s property, the shooting was “the most gruesome scene Spartanburg authorities have ever experienced,” a February 2016 cold-case report recalled. Kohlhepp was never reported as being eyed in the killing. But he had a violent record, and was a registered sex offender, records show. He served 15 years in jail on kidnapping charges, after pleading guilty to the brutal rape of a 14-year-old neighbor when he was 15. Threatening her with his father’s gun, Kohlhepp ordered the girl into his house, where he tied her up and raped her, court records obtained by the GreenvilleOnline show. Testimony from this 1986 case painted the adolescent Kohlhepp as a repeat offender with a lust for violence. He promised to murder his mother in order to move in with his divorced father, prosecutors testified in the 1986 case. Upset that he received a goldfish instead of a gerbil, the young Kohlhepp allegedly poured bleach into his goldfish’s bowl; he shot a dog with a BB gun; he smashed a newly remodeled bedroom with a hammer, and destroyed other people’s belongings on a regular basis. He allegedly locked a young boy in a dog crate, rolling the cage over and over until the child was crying and the young Kohlhepp was laughing. He was kicked out of Boy Scouts for behavioral issues and struggled in school, eventually attending a mental-health clinic in 1980 at the age of 9 or 10. Progress reports from the clinic described Kohlhepp as antisocial, self-centered, and obsessed with sex, prosecutors testified. Anger was the only emotion Kohlhepp was capable of showing, his father told a probation officer. Authorities feared Kohlhepp’s behavior would only worsen after he completed 15 years in jail, a reduced sentence reached as a result of his plea bargain. “It would appear that his behavior has been progressively worsening and now, it has escalated to the point where he has sexually assaulted an innocent child,” probation officer Kim Otto testified in a pre-sentencing report. “One can only speculate as to where the defendant’s behavior will lead. It is this writer’s opinion that it is this type of individual, one with little or no conscience, who presents the greatest risk to the community.” The report was darkly prescient. Like Kohlhepp’s childhood victim, Kala Brown and Charlie Carver might also have been kidnapped at gunpoint. Brown sometimes worked cleaning properties for Kohlhepp, who ran a real-estate business. When Brown and Carver disappeared Aug. 31, they had driven to a rural lot Kohlhepp owned, under the assumption that they would help clean the property, one of Brown’s friends reported. “They were going to do some work, help cleaning up the property. And he pulled out a gun and took them hostage,” Brown’s friend Daniel Herren told the Associated Press. Herren said Kohlhepp fed Brown once a day, likely fast food. A vast stockpile of guns and ammunition were found on Kohlhepp’s property. “It’s unbelievable how much he had,” prosecutor Barry Barnette testified Friday. The investigation into Brown and Carver’s disappearance spanned multiple jurisdictions, but did not appear to focus on Kohlhepp until recently. Anderson Police Chief Jim Stewart, whose jurisdiction launched the investigation, told the Associated Press that authorities searched the rural property, because it was the last place a cellphone related to their search had pinged. The whereabouts of the couple’s cellphones, particularly Carver’s, have been central to the missing person’s case. After the pair disappeared, Carver’s Facebook account continued to post chilling updates, claiming he and Brown were married and expecting a baby, to the distress of friends and family who suspected an impostor. “Im just missing to everyone else,” Carver’s account told a friend in a series of September messages shared with The Daily Beast. “We [are] both ok. there is only one person that knows where we are … the person that means the most to me and kala she know where we are and we are coming that way for ever.” The person declined the friend’s pleas to video chat. Facebook can track a user’s location, provided they have their location settings turned on. If served with a subpoena or a search warrant, Facebook will share this information with law enforcement. But as of Oct. 12, over a month after the couple’s disappearance, Anderson police had not served Facebook with a warrant, a spokesperson told The Daily Beast in October. “To do anything like that, we’d have to issue a search warrant to Facebook,” Lt. David Creamer of the Anderson Police Department said. “I don’t know if we’ve done that but I’m pretty sure we have not done that… You’d have to serve [Facebook] with a search warrant to search their records for an IP.” Information on the investigation that led to Brown’s discovery on Kohlhepp’s property is still emerging. “Basically through our investigation, he became a person of interest,” an Anderson Police spokesperson told The Daily Beast on Friday. “They did research and found that he was a registered sex offender.” Kohlhepp was charged with kidnapping on Friday, and with four counts of murder on Sunday. He has not yet been charged with Carver’s murder. The two other people he allegedly confessed to killing remain unnamed.
In Doctrine and Covenants section 124:125, it says “I give unto you my servant Joseph to be a presiding elder over all my church, to be a translator, a revelator, a seer, and prophet.” We know what most of those things are, but what exactly does it mean to be a “seer”? A 2015 Ensign article explains the following about seers: “'Seeing’ and ‘seers’ were part of the American and family culture in which Joseph Smith grew up. Steeped in the language of the Bible and a mixture of Anglo-European cultures brought over by immigrants to North America, some people in the early 19th century believed it was possible for gifted individuals to ‘see,’ or receive spiritual manifestations, through material objects such as seer stones.” In the Guide to the Scriptures, it also states that “In the Book of Mormon, Ammon taught that only a seer could use special interpreters, or a Urim and Thummim.” When the Joseph Smith papers released a picture of a brown seer stone owned by Joseph Smith in connection with a printing of an original Book of Mormon manuscript, many questions were asked about seer stones—from where they came from to how they are used. We know from the Joseph Smith Papers that Joseph’s original brown seer stone made its way, through the years, to seven different people before it was donated to the Church. We also know he had a second seer stone. ► You'll also like: Joseph Smith Had a Second Seer Stone. Here’s What We Know About It But how long did Joseph Smith use these stones? In Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones, the authors explain. “Some Mormon historians have argued that Joseph Smith used his seer stones as a crutch before he was able to receive revelation directly from God by inspiration without a device to help him. By implication, even though God apparently sanctioned seer stones, they were described as cultural tools, essentially prophetic ‘training wheels.’ This didactic model addresses Joseph Smith's money-digging experiences by admitting that he used seer stones in a cultural way to find buried treasure, then used the same cultural process to learn how to receive revelation from God.” However, the authors explain, even though he decreased his use of them, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that he valued and used them throughout his life. “In addition to translating at least a portion of every scriptural text of the Restoration with a seer stone, it is significant that at least some of Joseph’s contemporaries believed that revelation through a seer stone was the surest way of receiving revelation from God. As early as 1830 and 1831, members of the Church tried to separate Joseph Smith’s prophetic voice from his own personal voice, especially when challenging new revelations or commandments.” They go on to say that “Joseph Smith embraced the idea of seer stones within his prophetic calling, eventually infusing them with deeper religious meaning that affected Mormon theology more broadly. Even if not every prophet or member would use a seer stone on earth, everyone in the celestial kingdom would. Joseph Smith’s seer stone theology implicitly rejects any scenario that makes Joseph Smith’s seer stones mundane objects, especially considering the prophetic provenance and prophecies of his seer stones. Though some historians point toward folk religion and magic cultures to understand them and others see the seer stones as cultural artifacts that God used to His advantage, Joseph Smith and his Restoration scripture provided an ancient provenance to the seer stones with major theological implications about how we understand the nature of God and how sacred scripture is delivered to prophets.” The use of seer stones or “seeing” devices dates back to scriptural times, such as with the Urim and Thummim. One theory even suggests that the Liahona was a type of seer stone: “The Liahona had two spindles, one that would point toward food in the desert and another that would point toward the way out of the wilderness. Additionally, like the Nephite interpreters, the Liahona provided the prophet with revelation from the Lord through words that would appear and disappear upon the device . . . . Similarly to the Liahona, Joseph Knight and David Whitmer claimed that words would appear on Joseph’s seer stone and then disappear after he had dictated the words to a scribe. Furthermore, just as the Liahona functioned by faith and righteousness, so did the seer stones Joseph used to translate the Book of Mormon.” When we view the stones Joseph used as a part of the revelation process that has been used since Book of Mormon and Bible times, rather than as a stepping stone towards the real revelation process, the authors explain, we start to understand that “the stones not only represented authority and prophetic seership, they also provided a completely new epistemology [or theory of knowledge] that guided Joseph’s prophetic duties. This path would lead to a point in Joseph’s thought where seer stones were not simply a tool to receive the word of God but they also represented an element of knowing all things, which defined the nature of God. The seer stones themselves took on divine cosmological meaning as the epistemology of the Gods in the next life.” Lead image from Joseph Smith's Seer Stones, by Anthony Sweat. When the Church released photos of the brown seer stone that was owned and used by Joseph Smith, the news ignited a firestorm of curiosity and controversy. People wanted more information and wondered why they hadn't been aware of the stone's existence. This book discusses the origins of Joseph Smith's seer stones and explores how Joseph used them throughout his life in a way that goes beyond translating the Book of Mormon. It also traces the provenance of his stones once they left his possession. The authors examine how the Book of Mormon itself provides a storyline about the history of seer stones and how this helped Joseph Smith learn about his own prophetic gifts.
On an icy cold but sunlit Saturday morning in Apeldoorn, an hour's drive from Amsterdam, Victoria Pendleton looks pale and concentrated. A black beanie covers her head and, wearing glasses and carrying a backpack, she walks alone towards yet another curved velodrome where all her dreams and doubts will be laid bare again. Early on the second day of the European championships, a week ago today, the greatest women's sprint cyclist of all time is a dozen metres behind her male counterparts in the British team. Sir Chris Hoy, leading the sprinters, is suffering from flu but he shows little of Pendleton's fragility. It is hard to know whether the 31-year-old Olympic and multiple world champion feels haunted or focused as she drifts past a camera crew. For once she does not stop to say hello or to reflect candidly on her mood. Pendleton's gaze is fixed instead on the corridor that leads like a dingy artery into the heart of the velodrome. There, encircled by the wooden track, Pendleton soon takes to the rollers. Slowly, she pumps her legs in the old warm-up routine that has eaten up so many hours of her life. Twelve hours before, glowing from her impressive victory in the final of the team sprint with Jess Varnish, Pendleton had seemed different on these same rollers. Resting her hands on her hips as she warmed down, Pendleton smiled, opened her big eyes wide and told me how much she loved riding with Varnish. I laughed with her when she suggested that, in celebration of their European championship win, she and Varnish would indulge themselves by watching another episode of Downton Abbey back in their hotel room. It would be one way to switch off before the trials of Saturday and the individual sprint – which had once been Pendleton's domain but now presents her greatest psychological test. The individual sprint is a brutal examination of will, self-belief and often domineering tactics designed to expose the weaker rider in a one-on-one battle. In contrast, the team sprint is a straightforward time trial. After years of uncertainty over who might partner her at next year's Olympics, Pendleton is thrilled to have settled on Varnish. Describing her own performance as "all right", Pendleton preferred to underline the 20-year-old Varnish's contribution. "Jess has progressed massively. She's very mature and she astounds me every day I work with her. When I was her age I was a mess. But Jess has committed herself 100% to this role – which is to be the lead-out rider in our team. When someone is that focused and driven they're going to be a force to be reckoned with. I think the time we rode tonight would've made us world champions." Pendleton has often seemed an isolated figure in the British team – which has traditionally been filled with men. And in the way that she has refused to abandon her self-confessed "girly" identity, with her love of sparkly shoes and glamorous clothes, Pendleton has been tough enough to stand apart. Over the past three years, often to the chagrin of her coaches, she has insisted on planning her own training programmes. Her image as a defiant but emotional maverick in an otherwise well-drilled British team has opened her up to criticism. The week before we went to Holland, when I visited her at home in Wilmslow, Pendleton spoke about her own uncertainties and her more assertive critics. "Before younger girls like Jess arrived," Pendleton admitted, "I used to feel very lonely on the team. The boys would all pair up. That would leave me feeling unsure what time I was meant to meet them for breakfast. I'd be fretting – thinking: 'Did they say 7:30 or 8:30?' I'd come down at 7:35 and nobody was there so that meant it must be 8:30. I know I was being ridiculous because they would've banged on my door if I hadn't shown up. But it wasn't easy. "The men couldn't understand how I could be so successful and so insecure at the same time – because it doesn't really exist in the same way in the male psyche. They were like: 'Just get on with it, Vic, what's all the faffing about? You've proved you can do it. What's the problem?' It was difficult for them to fathom how desperately upset I get when I fail and how negative I am about my performances." Pendleton paused on that rainy night in Wilmslow. She thought hard and then, leaning forward on her sofa, said: "Maybe this is a better way to put it: I don't think they understand how I can be so open and vulnerable – and that I feel fine about exposing myself. Maybe guys also have insecurities but in a sporting arena they keep it to themselves. I can't do that. My vulnerability isn't always hidden on the inside. I don't think they admire it. I think they see it as weakness. In sport, so often, it's a weakness." Does she still mind what people say about her? Pendleton looked briefly wounded, and then she nodded emphatically. "I really care what people think of me. Me feeling I have let people down is my biggest battle in life. I hate the idea of letting people down – and when I do I feel such a failure." I have interviewed enough swaggering sporting personalities to linger over the difference in Pendleton. Doubt, like a drug, courses through her. It makes her more interesting and yet more troubled than any other gold-pursuing Olympian. Pendleton's stress, moreover, now comes in triplicate. Unlike Hoy, who won three golds at the 2008 Olympics, women could only race in the individual sprint in Beijing. Pendleton was at her crushing best, but her numbness in the immediate aftermath was intensified by her disappointment that she had not been able to race more at the Olympics. She became a campaigning voice behind the International Olympic Committee's subsequent decision to introduce parity and allow women to compete in their own team sprint and keirin events. Pendleton now has three chances to win gold at London 2012. On her down days, she smiles ruefully, that means three possibilities of failure. More bluntly, as someone suggested in Apeldoorn: "Vic has to be careful of what she wished for. Three events could be too much for her …" "I've always been quite sensitive," she said, before laughing at herself. "But it really matters that the people I love and respect don't feel disappointed by me. Satisfied is fine, disappointment is terrible." Pendleton had been satisfied – the equivalent of elation in less complicated people – when she and Varnish won the team sprint. In the final they swept past Ukraine's Olena Tsos and Lyubov Shulika. But now, on a raw Saturday morning, the threat of "terrible disappointment" stalks Pendleton. She gives me a little wave in the velodrome. Her face, drawn and tense, tells a darker story. The individual sprint begins with a time-trial that determines the seedings for the knockout rounds. Pendleton finishes fourth quickest and sails into the last 32 – where she easily beats Gabriele Jankute from Lithuania. But a superior Lithuanian rider, the redoubtable Simona Krupeckaite, looms next. Krupeckaite was good enough to become keirin world champion last year ahead of Pendleton. Despite rising out of her saddle in an attempt to find more power, Pendleton cannot hold off Krupeckaite. She looks shattered – even though she could still remain in the competition if she wins one of two separate repechages for losing riders. Defeat in the individual sprint provides a brutal spectacle. Apart from the nerve-shredding and over-the-shoulder-watching tactics between two riders trying to outwit or bully each other into submission, the losing cyclist warms down in the middle of the arena. And there is an almost unbearable poignancy in watching Pendleton warm down after her loss. Round and round she rides, her pain magnified by the fact that her circling takes her right past the press tables and some of her most stringent critics. Pendleton's latest defeat follows two losses earlier this year to her real rival – the Australian Anna Meares, whom she trounced in the 2008 Olympic final. The fact that she has sacrificed competitive racing in 2011 for the sake of training designed to increase her power is no consolation. Pendleton is devastated. Dave Brailsford and Shane Sutton, British cycling's chief coaches, watch closely when Pendleton and Varnish prepare to race each other, and the German Miriam Welte, in the first repechage. They occupy opposite ends of this golden era for British cycling – with Pendleton representative of the ground-breaking past and Varnish, alongside other young riders such as Laura Trott and Becky James, symbolising the future. The champion is still too strong. She beats Varnish and Welte to reach the last eight through the back door. More trouble lurks in the squat shape of Shulika, the mullet-haired Ukrainian. Pendleton defeated Shulika in the team sprint final but this seems different. Shulika's legs and rear ripple with power while Pendleton's physique is slender and graceful. Pendleton's menacing black visor comes down but her mouth, visible beneath the gleaming helmet, is much more feminine than Shulika's grimace. Slowly, the tension ratcheting up with every lap of their cat-and-mouse prelude, Pendleton increases the pace of her ride. And then, half a lap before the final bell, the Olympic champion begins to race. Flying down the back straight, it seems as if Pendleton has a clear advantage but then, almost inexorably, the Ukrainian closes the gap. As they hurtle towards the finish line, Shulika edges past Pendleton to win by centimetres. Pendleton slides off her bike and, knowing that she needs to win the next two races against Shulika, takes to the rollers. Looking like a trapped hamster on a wheel, she pedals and pedals and tries to convince herself that she can come back. Her tactical coach, Jan van Eijden, cajoles and urges Pendleton not to allow Shulika a second chance. The British rider listens mutely, lost in her own world. In the end, none of Van Eijeden's barked commands matter. Pendleton loses a decisive second race to Shulika. Apeldoorn is a track that has caused her much grief this year for it was here, in March, that Pendleton lost her world championship to Meares. It is also a track that exerts a tortuous grip on her. Cycling here makes her feel as if she's sticking needles into her eye-sockets. Van Eijden, Sutton, Brailsford and, most crucially, Steve Peters, British cycling's team psychiatrist, all take turns to try to comfort the disconsolate Pendleton. Three hours later, having briefly escaped to the hotel, she is back again at the velodrome and made to endure the indignity of a race to decide fifth to eighth places in the individual sprint. For the Olympic champion, who has won eight world titles, it feels humiliating. More seriously, even her qualification for the individual sprint at London 2012 remains unconfirmed. Early next year, Pendleton needs to find her best form in a World Cup event at the new London velodrome and then at the world championships in Melbourne to seal her right to defend her Olympic title. And so, in Apeldoorn, it seems inevitable that she finishes last in the losers's race. Her official place in these European championships is eighth. She may be vulnerable but Pendleton is also intensely proud. On the frame of her bike, the words Queen Vic have been stencilled in as a wry reminder of her enduring prowess and regal reputation. It will take great courage for Pendleton to ride again in the keirin on the last day in Apeldoorn. Victory in the most unpredictable of all sprint races would transform her mood and allow her to leave the Netherlands clutching two golds won against all the odds and the disadvantages of her current training programme which is geared to her peaking perfectly, one last time, at London 2012. Yet, as she zips up her top and hides her head in a hood, Queen Vic does not look as if she has glorious redemption in mind. Instead, her eyes glazed with tears, she leaves the arena on her own, silent and vanquished, looking like a great champion fighter, or even a monarch, stripped of her title. Pendleton has shown me before that, on the inside of her wrist, the opening line to a Smashing Pumpkins song has been tattooed into her pale flesh: "Today is the greatest day I've ever known." She gave herself the tattoo, preceded by a girly facial, on the day she turned 30, in September 2010. Pendleton often jokes that, because she is tormented by her past and fearful of the future, she tries to live in the now. She knows that, in this same Smashing Pumpkins song, a different set of words run: "Can't live for tomorrow/Tomorrow's much too long/I'll burn my eyes out/I'll tear my heart out …" But now, disappearing into the cold and black night, tomorrow is all she can cling to in this moment of distress. Tomorrow may be different. Tomorrow, perhaps, Queen Vic will rise again. Read part two of Donald McRae's special report with Victoria Pendleton
Since then, Mr. Putin has relied on Ilyin’s authority at every turning point in Russian politics — from his return to power in 2012 to the decision to intervene in Ukraine in 2013 and the annexation of Ukrainian territory in 2014. Last spring, he claimed that the American intelligence services would intervene in the Russian parliamentary elections held this past weekend and in the Russian presidential elections of 2018. The question of whether anyone in the Kremlin actually believes this is beside the point. These claims of constant American interference are intended to show that the democratic process is nothing more than a geopolitical game. While Russian leaders consciously work to hollow out the idea of democracy in their own country, they also seek to discredit democracy abroad — including, this year, in the United States. Russia’s interventions in our presidential elections are not only the opportunistic support of a preferred candidate, Donald J. Trump, who backs Russian foreign policy. They are also the logical projection of the new ideology: Democracy is not a means of changing leadership at home, but a means of weakening enemies abroad. If we see politics as Ilyin did, Russia’s ritualization of elections becomes a virtue rather than a vice. Degrading democracy around the world would be a service to mankind. If democracy is merely an invitation to foreign influence, then hacking a foreign political party’s email is the most natural thing in the world. If civil society is nothing but the decadent opening of a rotting society to foreign influence, then constant trolling of media is obviously appropriate. If, as Ilyin wrote, the “arithmetical understanding of politics” is harmful, then digital meddling in foreign elections would be just the thing. For a decade, Russia has been sponsoring right-wing extremists as “election observers” — most recently, in the farcical referendums in the Crimea and in the Donbas region of Ukraine — in order to discredit both elections and their observation. Since democracy is a sham, as Ilyin believed, then it is right and good to imitate its language and procedures in order to discredit it. It is noteworthy that the Trump campaign has now imitated this very practice, supplying both its own private “observers” and the advance conclusion about the fraud they will find. The technique of undermining democracy abroad is to generate doubt where there had been certainty. If democratic procedures start to seem shambolic, then democratic ideas will seem questionable as well. And so America would become more like Russia, which is the general idea. If Mr. Trump wins, Russia wins. But if Mr. Trump loses and people doubt the outcome, Russia also wins. From Moscow’s point of view, it is easier to bring down democracy everywhere than it is to hold free, fair elections at home. Russia will seem stronger if other states follow its course of development toward a cynicism about democracy that allows authoritarianism to thrive. So we might as well get used to the interference, and take sensible precautions. It no longer makes sense to carry out elections and regulate campaign finance as if such matters were of no interest to hostile foreign powers. Americans have plenty of other reasons to reform the democratic process, but protecting their integrity should take priority. Paper ballots for every voter and public financing of campaigns, to give two examples, would make sense both for citizens and for the electoral system. A simpler democracy would be a more secure one — and a more exemplary one.

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