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NBC’s Chiller could be the next horror channel to end up six feet under.
Cox announced that it will be dropping the horror channel on November 8, 2017.
The Cox decision means that Chiller has lost access to more than 40 million homes in less than eight months, explains TV Answer Man. (Cox has roughly 4 million video subs; Dish has slightly less than 14 million; Charter has slightly less than 17 million; and Verizon has slightly less than 5 million.)
Verizon quietly dropped Chiller from all systems on October 1, while Charter and Dish removed it in February and April of this year respectively.
Here’s the irony: Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, still does not carry Chiller, although it owns the channel via NBC. (DIRECTV and U-verse are Chiller’s two biggest carriers.)
While Bloody Disgusting received no response to inquiries, an NBC spokesperson issued this statement to the aforementioned site: “NBCUniversal values Chiller as the leading cable net dedicated to the horror genre.”
It’s worth noting that the second season of Chiller’s original series, “Slasher”, is heading directly to Netflix tomorrow. The show’s publicist also didn’t return my emails.
We’ll keep you posted on further updates but it’s looking as if Chiller is going to need a burial plot next to Fearnet. |
TOKYO (AP) — Yahoo Japan said Wednesday it is strengthening policing of illegal ivory on its online commerce site as criticism grows it is supporting a trade that fuels the slaughter of wild elephants.
A spokeswoman for the company said it prohibits sales of raw ivory and ivory products that breach a 1989 treaty largely banning the trade. Enforcement a challenge since Japan allows the sale of old ivory such as ornaments that were produced before the treaty came into effect.
"Since there is a chance some sales may be illegal we are strengthening our policies. If we find a sale was illegal we cancel it straight away," Takako Kaminaga of Yahoo Japan's public relations office said. "We 'patrol' 24 hours a day."
She said Yahoo Japan, which is part owned by Yahoo Inc. and Softbank Corp., does not restrict sales of ivory that do not violate the law.
Nearly 1.1 million people have endorsed an online petition by environmental groups aimed at pushing Yahoo Japan to stop its sales of ivory products.
Various other online commerce sites, such as Amazon, say they have already stopped such sales or advertising.
Raw ivory is sought after for making ornate traditional seals and other decorative items. Poachers kill tens of thousands of elephants a year to meet demand for the material, despite the trade ban, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and other groups.
A Washington, D.C.-based conservation group, Environmental Investigation Agency, said late last year that it had found loopholes and weaknesses in Japan's ivory controls.
The group also said that the Yahoo Japan Auctions site sold more than 12 tons of ivory products, including whole elephant tusks, in 2012-2014. That site and others feature thousands of ads for ivory and ivory products.
The international environmental campaign group Avaaz addressed its petition to Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and Manabu Miyasaka, CEO of Yahoo Japan, and "all other companies allowing ivory sales online."
"As global citizens, we are appalled that you allow ivory to be sold on your site/platform, fuelling elephant extinction," it says.
"We call on you to urgently stop all ivory sales from sites/platforms in Japan and all other markets."
Softbank said in a statement that it had no comment on the issue.
Kaminaga, of Yahoo Japan, said the company was in touch with the Environment Ministry and other agencies on the issue and with Yahoo and other shareholders.
"You can't say there's absolutely no intention to change," she said when asked if Yahoo Japan might alter its stance on the issue.
In September, the United States and China agreed to work toward nearly complete bans on the ivory trade, and Japan is increasingly isolated in its stance favoring continued sales.
EIA, the conservation group, contends that widespread use of fake documents has enabled traders to "legalize" more than 1,000 tusks a year since 2011.
Individually owned tusks face no registration requirement in Japan, and the tusks are not marked in any way to ensure that the documents are valid for the items being registered. |
Gravity Falls is the best thing on TV at the moment.
I don't care how old you are, if you're not watching Gravity Falls you're missing out on some of the cleverest, most enjoyable television you can find.
Disney has been on a roll on the big-screen, both with its animated blockbusters like Frozen and its Marvel properties (not to mention the upcoming Star Wars films) but its TV series are also surpassing expectations. That includes shows like the very good Star Wars Rebels.
Much to my chagrin, I didn't start watching Gravity Falls until the second season had already begun.
Then again, it didn't take very long to burn through season one and the first half of season two. By the time I'd caught up completely, the show was on its midseason break---and one of the most painful cliffhangers I can recall watching a cartoon. We've watched many episodes more than once, and every single one, from the gnome-infested pilot to this past Monday's "The Stanchurian Candidate" has been delightful.
Let me stress that word: Delightful.
It's not often that I can say this about a TV show. I really enjoy Game of Thrones but it's hardly "delightful." The Americans is smart political drama, but delightful it isn't. Even some of my favorite comedies, like Parks and Recreation, while delightful at times, are often a bit...awkward.
But Gravity Falls is a joy to watch every week or, well, every week that it comes out. Which isn't every week. I'm still not entirely sure how the release schedule works, but when a new episode is on the horizon, our entire family waits with anticipation.
Gravity Falls is the brainchild of Alex Hirsch, who came up with the idea for the series in an 11-minute student short which he pitched to Disney. Lucky us, Disney bought the show and Hirsch came along with it, doing voices for a number of the characters including lovable curmudgeon Grunkle Stan and the dim but equally lovable Soos.
It's the story of two twins, Dipper (Jason Ritter) and Mabel Pines (Kristen Schaal) who go to live with Grunkle Stan in his Mystery Shack in the small town of Gravity Falls. Dipper finds a strange journal filled with entries on all the town's strange mysteries, and thus their adventure begins. Gravity Falls is a town brimming with magic, monsters, and little golf-ball people who live inside the mini golf course called Lilliputtians (as in "putting" meets Jonathan Swift.)
It's all very clever, with stories ranging from a vengeful wax museum to a board game all about statistics called Dungeons, Dungeons & Dungeons.
Gravity Falls has some of the best characters on TV.
Dipper is the adventurous nerd, out to find the truth contained in his journal. Mabel doesn't really care about that: She just wants to wear amazing sweaters, drool over boys, and play with her pet pig. Both Pines twins are fantastic characters. I don't think I've ever been so excited about sweaters before, but Mabel's sweaters are in a league of their own. And Dipper is someone whose curiosity and enthusiasm for adventure and magic remind me of myself a bit at a younger age. It's infectious.
The rest of the cast is equally, er, delightful.
Grunkle Stan is a con artist and a grumpy old man, but he's got a soft side and is brave enough to ride on the back of a pterodactyl in order to help his loved ones. He also says things like "From heck's cold heart I stab at thee!" while punching said pterodactyl in the face. I swoon with admiration.
Soos is as dumb as he is round, but he's also hilarious and adorable. And I still get his little rap song stuck in my head on a regular basis.
There are no "normal" folk in Gravity Falls. Old Man McGucket may seem like some crazy old coot, but he's got a much more intriguing past. And the villains---like Lil Gideon who made his return this past Monday---are all just as great as their hero counterparts.
(We like the show so much, I drew these characters and the kids colored them in. I can't remember the last time I felt inspired to draw characters from a TV show.)
A bevy of guest actors have already lent their voices to the show. Nick Offerman (better known as Ron Swanson,) Coolio, Nathan Fillion, and Larry King have all made small appearances. John Oliver, Patton Oswalt, Weird Al Yankovic---the list goes on and on.
Gravity Falls tells a great story with consistently excellent writing.
But what really makes the show so great is its consistently excellent writing. I haven't watched a single episode and felt letdown by its story, dialogue, or character choices. The show is at once perfectly confident in its characters and choices, and fiercely self-aware, tossing in plenty of little references to its fans expectations. This has become even more true in the second half of season two, in which at least one very big mystery was resolved.
There are few shows that manage to do what Gravity Falls does with its story.
The show is consistently, laugh-out-loud funny every week, with a new adventure or conflict ready for our heroes to overcome. But the show never loses sight of the long-game: The big overarching story of mystery and dark magic that lurks just beneath the surface.
I think of the X-Files because the shows are quite similar---one a comedy and one a drama, but still two shows about investigating the unknown and uncanny. The X-Files also had its big, overarching plot---though, sadly, it fell apart in just about every conceivable way. So far, at least, Gravity Falls seems to be doing what X-Files could not: Maintain that difficult balance between long-term plotting and weekly, serialized adventures. Dipper is Fox Mulder for a new generation.
Dipper is Fox Mulder for a new generation.
And the community surrounding the show is similar to the one that grew up around the X-Files. Fan theories ran rampant throughout the second season, and still do. It's kind of amazing for what is, ostensibly at least, a cartoon for kids.
Gravity Falls is a show for everybody.
Whether that will last remains to be seen, but right now Gravity Falls is the one show I can honestly recommend for everybody. Grown-ups, watch it with your kids. Kids, watch it with your parents.
It's neither vulgar nor stupid, and while it's a show about weird things happening in a very strange little town, it's not the sort of super bizarre adult comedy we often get with cartoons directed at adults. There's nothing polarizing or negative, and yet the show's writers never play it safe, either.
For me at least, Gravity Falls is a reminder that you don't need to be cool or edgy or gross or controversial to be funny, smart, and fun.
It's the perfect TV show. Stop reading and go watch it. |
0 of 25
When 2013's college football season comes to a close, the BCS era will have spanned 16 seasons of the sport. Power ranking the 25 most successful programs of the era so far was a daunting task, but it was more than worth the effort.
Here are the criteria that were used, and then we'll go over how each section was scored:
1. National championships and appearances in national championship games
2. BCS bowl wins and appearances
3. Conference titles, outright or shared
4. Overall win/loss record from 1998-2012
5. Overall margin of victory from 1998-2012
Now that the system is laid out a little, here is the detailed explanation of how the 47 teams who appeared in at least one BCS bowl were narrowed down to 25 and ranked.
National Championships and BCS Bowls (Sections 1 and 2)
Each of the 47 teams was given a score based on how well it did throughout the era. Points were awarded for BCS appearances in the form of the four BCS bowls and BCS title games. (During the period when the BCS games rotated the hosting of the title game, title points were awarded for that game.)
Title game win: 10 points
BCS bowl win: 7.5 points
Title game loss: 5 points
BCS game loss: 2.5 points
After this round, the 19 lowest-scoring teams were dropped from consideration. Every one of them scored five or fewer points during round one.
Conference Titles (Section 3)
Each team was recognized for winning an outright (five points) or shared (2.5 points) conference title, regardless of conference. The reason no conferences were favored in this area is that the weaker conferences may be "easier" to win, but they are harder to sell to recruits as well.
Plus, some weaker conference champions are overlooked by the BCS precisely because of the schedule strength, or lack thereof. This is where they get their recognition.
Win/Loss Record (Section 4)
The overall win/loss record was easily sorted out. From 1998-2012, each team's record was accumulated. The overall winning percentage was divided by 10 to give a reasonable point value to everyone. (A 75-percent win ratio would equal 7.5 points.)
Also, 2.5 points were awarded for each undefeated season that a team achieved. The lone exception was Ohio State's 2012 season. Since the Buckeyes were sanctioned out of the postseason, they missed out on what would have been the most difficult game of the season.
As such, the Buckeyes were awarded 1.25 points for that perfect regular-season run. (Although, it turned out not to make a difference in their ranking, even if they were given the full 2.5.)
Margin of Victory (Section 5)
Margin of victory was even simpler to score than the win/loss records. Quite simply, the points scored and points allowed by each and every team from 1998-2012 were added up. The total points allowed were subtracted from the total points scored, and the result was divided by 100.
This means that if a team scored 6,000 points and allowed 3,500 over the past 15 years, the resulting score would have been: (6,000-3,500)/100 = 25. Granted, the math almost never turned out quite that pretty, but it works.
Two more teams were dropped from consideration at this point. Both The Kansas Jayhawks and Washington Huskies had negative margins of "victory" over the past 15 years. That is not successful at all.
Sanctions
All sanctions were ignored for the making of this list. Results on the field trumped everything. While it would make sense to recognize USC's vacated national championship, that would require that we also ignore all of Penn State's wins from 1998-2011.
That's just ridiculous.
Final Score
The final score was as intuitive as it seems. Each section was given a point value (BCS bowls and national championships were rolled into one section), and they were added up. The highest-scoring team was first, and the 25th-highest was 25th.
No ties had to be broken for this piece, and the scores are much closer than one might think.
*All information was gathered from TotalFootballStats.com. Where total points scored per season were not available, each individual game's score from 1998-2012 was added together to form the "margin of victory" total. |
: What have you been told about the fire and what do you think happened?: Well, the investigators say that it was arson, in spite of the local police saying that it was a brush fire. People don't set brush fires in high winds, so this was the last of the properties. The government took everything away from me. I mean they've got so blatant that at the very end they were coming in, in broad daylight and carrying off, you know, millions of dollars worth of electronic gear and camera gear. And one time they took 300 stun guns that I was going to give to the police department, in broad daylight. But one property was not in my name, and that was the one at the river. And so, finally in one last desperate attempt to get at me, they just set fire to my two major buildings. It was at least a half a million dollars worth of buildings plus art work and invaluable items on the inside that all went up in smoke. But there it is.: Was anyone living there?: Just a caretaker.: And he's okay?: The caretaker was not there at the time.: This was your last property in Belize?: That was my last property in Belize, went up in smoke. It's a very freeing sensation to have no burdensome taxes to pay or wages for upkeep and electricity and what have you. So they did me a favor.: Did anyone see anything suspicious or anyone hanging around?: The police have actually arrested a couple of people. But if they're the ones who started the fire, they have nothing to do with it really. Just someone, you know, paid them $25 to "go and set that house on fire." The people responsible, I know who they are, and they're the same ones who've been responsible for taking all of my stuff since I was in Belize. And now there's nothing left for them to take. They must be pretty pissed off.: They haven't said anything to you directly or anything of course?: No, of course not. And once I left the country, all attempts to do any formal charges simply disappeared because there was no way that they could do any formal charges. They had no evidence. They had nothing on me other than I refused to give a $2 million donation back in 2012 . You know, so all they can do now is cause me a little bit of chaos and inconvenience, which I think they can cause me no more now. |
Football season may be over, but not for one Mississauga football fan.
Just in time for Christmas, Kelly Hardy has made a detailed gingerbread replica of Ottawa Redblacks’ TD Place Stadium to show her love for Canadian football.
Every part of the creation is edible, except for the picture of Redblacks receiver Greg Ellingson, which towers above the green, sugar-coated field on a gingerbread scoreboard.
The goalposts are made of Popeye candy sticks. Red and black M&Ms scatter the gingerbread stands to serve as seats. TD Place’s distinctive wooden veil is replicated with pretzel sticks that wrap around one of the stands. A football – a peanut M&M decorated in icing – sits at the side of the field.
The stadium took about 20 hours to make.
Hardy said this is actually the seventh stadium she’s built. The idea first came about 10 years ago.
“I was watching a gingerbread competition on TV and thought, ‘Oh, I should build something,’ and I thought houses were a little cliché,” Hardy said.
So she decided to build a football stadium.
She began with Mosaic Stadium, home of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and made her way through most of the teams until deciding on Ottawa this year.
TD Place is one of the few stadiums in the country she’s actually visited, and with the Redblacks’ recent Grey Cup victory, she said the choice for the gingerbread stadium was obvious.
“Everybody’s always delighted by (the tasty sculptures),” said Hardy of her gingerbread creations. “I think it’s fun to see your stadium rendered in gingerbread.”
Hardy said she plans on making stadiums for all the CFL teams. She only has two left: the BC Lions and the Toronto Argonauts.
“We might see what kind of season each team has, and if one of them wins the Grey Cup, then that might be the deciding factor.” |
AFL games will be played on free-to-air television from this weekend.
New Zealanders will be able to watch the live AFL games for free beginning this weekend on TVNZ's Freeview pop-up channel.
TVNZ's director of content Jeff Latch says TVNZ is excited to be partnering with the AFL and bringing such an iconic Australian sport to Kiwi lounges in a free-to-air capacity after signing a multi-year deal.
"We're not sure if it will fuel a complete change from NZ's rugby psyche just yet but we know Kiwis will appreciate the skill and pace of the game," he said in a statement today.
TVNZ will also air the AFL's Weekly Highlights Program and has the rights to air key AFL events including the Season Launch, Australian Football Hall of Fame, Rising Star, All Australian, Grand Final Parade, Brownlow Medal and the AFL Draft.
AFL general manager – game development, Simon Lethlean, said TVNZ's expanded AFL coverage was a great result for fans of the game.
"As AFL club, KiwiKick and AFL9's participation continues to grow in New Zealand so does the interest in watching AFL matches," he said.
Last month TVNZ secured free-to-air live coverage of PGA, LPGA and European Tour Golf tournaments to air on the Freeview pop-up channel platform through to the end of October.
AFL coverage will kick-off this weekend on Freeview channel 13 with a replay of West Coast vs Hawthorn at 2.30pm on Saturday and then live coverage of Fremantle against the Swans at 5pm and the Bulldogs taking on the Crows at 9pm. |
There are more than 500,000 pending immigration court cases for illegal aliens which will decide whether or not they are eligible to remain in the U.S., according to new data released.
In data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, released by Fox News, a tally of pending immigration cases show that there are approximately 542,411 that have yet to be decided by an immigration judge.
That number means American taxpayers pay for illegal aliens to sometimes be held in detention centers for 673 days before their case even hits an immigration judge’s courtroom.
In states with much larger migrant populations–like Texas and California–the wait period is even longer, running roughly three years. In sanctuary San Francisco, there are 38,428 pending cases.
U.S. Immigration Judge Dana Leigh Marks told Fox News that the massive backlog in immigration courts has been made worse, as administration after administration has done hardly nothing to remedy the problem.
“We have been a neglected part of the immigration enforcement world for so long,” Marks said in the interview. “There are legitimate concerns about how long cases pend in the immigration court.”
The neglect could soon change with President Donald Trump’s administration, which is committing new plans and procedures to handle the immigration court backlog.
In a letter from the Department of Justice (DOJ), the administration is expected to move 50 immigration judges to detention facilities in areas like Adelanto and San Diego, California, as well as Chicago, Illinois, as Breitbart Texas reported.
Judges will hear cases from 6am to 6pm with two rotating shifts.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whose task it is to help remedy the problem, has long been a critic of the nation’s immigration system, arguing that lack of border security, a slow court process and influxes in low-skilled workers all put strain on social safety nets and American taxpayers.
John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. |
PLEASE NOTE: The results of this study are known to be wrong due to a bug in the computer program used. A new study that uses several different computer programs shows an 88% overall similarity.
I have written about the similarity between human and chimpanzee DNA three times before (here, here, and here). It’s an important question for creationists, intelligent design advocates, and evolutionists alike, since the chimpanzee is supposed to be the closest living relative to human beings. As a result, a comparison of chimp DNA to human DNA gives us some idea of what the process of evolution would have to accomplish to turn a single apelike ancestor into two remarkably different species like chimpanzees and people.
Early on, it was widely thought that human DNA and chimp DNA were 99% similar. As I discussed in my first post on this subject, that was based on a very limited analysis of only a minute fraction of human and chimp DNA. Now that the entire set of nuclear DNA (collectively called the “genome”) of both humans and chimpanzees have been sequenced, we now know that the 99% number is just plain wrong. Interestingly enough, however, even though both genomes have been fully sequenced with a reasonable amount of accuracy, no one can agree on exactly how similar the two genomes are.
Why is that? Because comparing genomes is a lot harder than you might think. While we know the sequence of the chimp and human genomes really well, we don’t understand the DNA itself. Indeed, there are large sections of DNA that seem to be functional, but we simply have no idea what they do. As a result, comparing the genomes of two different species can be very, very tricky.
Probably one of the best explanations of just how tricky DNA comparison is comes from Dr. Richard Buggs, a geneticist at Queen Mary, University of London. Back in 2008, he wrote about the steps he would take to compare the human and chimp genomes, and if you read his explanation, you will get an idea of how difficult such a comparison is. His conclusion was:
Therefore the total similarity of the genomes could be below 70%.
Since that time, the chimpanzee genome has been sequenced to an even better degree, and other methods have been used in an attempt to determine the similarity between the chimpanzee and human genomes. One of the more popular methods is based on an algorithm called BLAST, which chops up DNA (or proteins) into small segments and then tries to compare them to the segments on a different set of DNA (or proteins). This seems like the most “generous” way to compare two genomes, because it doesn’t require one genome to be structured similarly to the other. The only thing that matters is whether a bit of information in one genome can be found anywhere in the other genome.
Using this method to determine the similarity between the human and chimp genome, researchers have come up with different answers. Dr. Todd Wood, an expert in genome comparison and former Director of Bioinformatics at the Clemson University Genomics Institute, did a BLAST analysis that indicated human and chimp DNA are roughly 95% similar. However, Dr. Jeffrey P. Tomkins, former director of the Clemson University Genomics Institute, did a different BLAST analysis and concluded that the similarity was 86-89%.
Well, Dr. Tomkins just published a new study, and as far as I can tell, it makes the most sense of any BLAST analysis done so far. In this study, he chopped up the chimpanzee genome into “slices” that were as small as 100 base pairs long or as large as 650 base pairs long. The chimpanzee genome is 2.9-3.3 billion base pairs long, so obviously these slices are incredibly small compared to the entire genome. He then looked for each “slice” on the human chromosome that is supposed to correspond to the chimp chromosome where the slice was found. The two slices didn’t have to match exactly; they just had to be similar enough to think that they could be related to each other.
The graph at the top of this post shows his results. Notice that the similarity hovers around 70% for all chromosomes except the Y chromosome. The size of the “slice” affects the result a bit, but really not much. In the end, this leads Dr. Tomkins to conclude:
Genome-wide, only 70% of the chimpanzee DNA was similar to human under the most optimal sequence-slice conditions. While chimpanzees and humans share many localized protein-coding regions of high similarity, the overall extreme discontinuity between the two genomes defies evolutionary timescales and dogmatic presuppositions about a common ancestor.
Is this the last word on the subject? Most certainly not. I think it is probably the best comparison attempt made so far. Also, the fact that the Y chromosome has a remarkably low level of similarity compared to the other chromosomes is consistent with another study. In addition, the results essentially agree with Dr. Buggs’s analysis, which was based on a completely different strategy. At the same time, however, there is a huge discrepancy between this analysis and Dr. Wood’s analysis. In addition, as we learn more about genomes and how they work, we will probably find better ways to compare the genomes of different organisms.
For right now, however, it seems clear that humans and chimpanzees are not nearly as genetically similar as most evolutionists would have us believe.
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For me it has never been a question of whether or not Artturi Lehkonen could earn a spot on the Montreal Canadiens. For me the question was whether or not he could earn a spot where he could make an impact. As Jack Han explained in a recent article, the main issue for me was whether management would put him in a spot to utilize his strengths rather than having to work his way up the lines in order to have a chance to make a difference.
Looking back over the last few seasons of Lehkonen’s development with TPS and KalPa in Finland’s professional league, Liiga, and with Frölunda in the SHL, his development has been trending upwards even after making the jump to a better team or league. So why wouldn’t "the competitor" (as Frölunda’s assistant coach Pär Johansson called him) make it in NHL?
Following his performance in last season’s SHL playoffs, where he broke Frölunda’s playoff record set by none other than Daniel Alfredsson in 2005, it was clear that Lehkonen was ready for the big step across the Atlantic. Spending a full summer in Sweden preparing and building up for the camp did him nothing but good even if he did confess that he didn’t “know how [former teammate Mattias] Janmark did it last year" on the PuckDrop podcast.
Plenty of people surrounding Lehkonen have offered up their thoughts about his readiness for NHL. After being eliminated from the playoffs by Frölunda, fellow Montreal prospect Lukas Vejdemo said: “He flew around the ice all throughout the quarter-finals, and in my honest opinion he was the best player on Frölunda’s roster. He is smart, sly like a fox, always in position, and he is an insanely good finisher.”
Lehkonen’s teammates followed suit. “I think he is an amazing hockey player, and I have the feeling that he has every chance possible to make the team in Montreal,” said Detroit Red Wings prospect Christoffer Ehn. “You can see it in him, and with the playoffs he had. It doesn’t matter to Artturi what day it is, he comes to the rink every day to get better. It is my belief that it will go well for him. You hope on a personal level that we get to keep him [in Frölunda], but for him I hope he makes it big.”
One of the more outspoken players in Frölunda, former linemate Robin Figren didn’t hold back either. "Without knowing Montreal's roster from top to bottom, I can’t say he should make the team, but I think the stats speak for themselves after last season.”
There were words of praise from his coaches as well. When I spoke to Roger Rönnberg, Frölunda’s head coach, he was honest and compared Lehkonen to a former player. "I can compare him with Janmark, who made the team out of camp for the Dallas Stars last season. I see that Artturi is starting to have that strength to win the battles on the ice to make it in the NHL. He is approaching the NHL with great strides."
Robert Ohlsson, former assistant coach of Frölunda and now coach of Djurgården, spoke to EOTP about Lehkonen after this weekend’s game in Gothenburg, "Lehkonen is a fantastic player, he is a competitor, he battles hard. His hockey sense is great; it's top notch. The only small thing that he might lack to be a top-line NHL player is his top speed, but he has worked on that, too."
But the highest praise came from forever Montrealer and former Captain, Saku Koivu, when he was a guest at PuckDrop Europe: "I am very confident that Artturi Lehkonen will take a spot in Montreal's lineup."
As you can see, it all boiled down to whether or not Lehkonen would get the chance to make an impact. Michel Therrien’s first comments about his lines at the golf tournament seemed to indicate that he wouldn’t. The first two lines were set, and Shaw was supposed to be on the second line with Tomas Plekanec and Alexander Radulov. But in the last couple of pre-season games, Lehkonen took over that second-line role, partly thanks to Shaw’s suspension, and that gave him the opportunity to prove himself. And he did.
If Lehkonen gets to keep the position, there is no doubt that he will make a huge impact on Montreal’s season. If he returns to a third-line position with David Desharnais, he will get to take a more defensive role and, while he will probably still make an impact, it won’t be as visible to the naked eye. If this happens, it might require him to adopt to a role similar to that of his first season with Frölunda where he took the defensive responsibilities on a line with Janmark and Figren. While Lehkonen is good in that role, it isn’t where his qualities shine.
If you want to make sure a player gets to make an impact, you play him where he gets the best chance to succeed, that place is with Plekanec and Radulov. It was Radulov that Lehkonen watched in his national men’s team debut with the Leijonat in the Channel One Cup. When I pointed out that I thought he would play together with the big Russian in Montreal, L’Arttiste replied with his trademark laugh.
"That’s insane!"
It doesn’t look insane anymore. |
On Thursday at the strike of 10 a.m. ET, FXX will drop an absurdly daunting challenge into the laps of channel surfers by airing all 552 episodes of The Simpsons in a row. (In case you’re wondering, two people once made it 86 hours and 37 minutes through a Simpsons marathon before Fox ended the contest in a record-breaking tie.)
How can you binge 25 seasons of the animated comedy just 12 days, bearing witness to every Homer “Woo hoo!”, Barney belch, and grisly Scratchy disemboweling? Hydration, meal breaks, micro-naps, and multiple empty DVRs will help, for starters. But you also might want to check out these 15 survival tips, given to EW by the writers of The Simpsons.
15. After every episode, make sure to thank Jebus.
14. Eat some donuts, smoke some Tomacco, and drink a flaming Moe.
13. Practice saying “this is when the show started going downhill,” starting midway through the first episode.
12. DRINKING GAME: Drink a beer every time Homer drinks a beer.
11. Stretch for at least 20 minutes before doing the Bartman.
10. Every time Homer and Marge “snuggle,” think how nice it would be if you had any kind of human relationship.
9. Every time Homer and Marge fight, be thankful you don’t have any kind of human relationship.
8. WASHINGTON AND COLORADO RESIDENTS ONLY: During Episode 420, you know what to do.
7. Take a quick break during “Deep Space Homer” to welcome our new insect overlords.
6. Remember: you can sing along to the Stonecutters song, but you’ll never understand why Steve Guttenberg was a star
5. Every time Maggie does something cute, think about how you could be spending time with your own children instead of watching the Simpsons marathon.
4. When Marge takes on something—whether it’s the monorail or cartoon violence—don’t side against her. You’ll be sorry.
3. If you get depressed midway through the marathon, remember: “You are Lisa Simpson.” (Lisa Simpson only.)
2. Keep your TV room stocked with alcohol, the cause of (and solution to) all of life’s problems.
1. Follow Homer’s lead and steal cable—you’ll get the whole marathon for free! |
20/20
'Midnight Request Line' – Skream Released as a 12" single in 2005, this is the track that broke the mould and transformed dubstep into an internationally recognised sound. ‘Midnight Request Line’ is just one part of the dubstep legacy and this track builds on earlier releases by Horsepower Productions, Darqwan and El-B to name but a few. Skream (aka Oliver Jones) started producing at the tender age of 15 as a part of Big Apple Records in south London borough Croydon. Although he put his stamp on tracks before, ‘Midnight Request Line’ was the tune that became an international dubstep anthem, and a firm favourite for grime MCs Dizzee Rascal, Skepta and Jammer. The mechanics of the track feature ghostly grime-tinged chords that creep in enigmatically over the first eight bars. The sheer power of the skeleton-shattering sub bass and gunshots were enough to impact the scene and influence a generation of bedroom producers, established beat-makers and, eventually, popular music. |
The world of speculative fiction publishing is plagued by “structural, institutional, personal, universal” racism, according to a new report that found less than 2% of more than 2,000 SF stories published last year were by black writers.
The report, published by the magazine Fireside Fiction, states that just 38 of the 2,039 stories published in 63 magazines in 2015 were by black writers. With the bulk of the industry based in the US, more than half of all speculative fiction publications the report considered did not publish a single original story by a black author. “The probability that it is random chance that only 1.96% of published writers are black in a country where 13.2% of the population is black is 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000321%,” says the report.
It’s a popular fallacy that if a single black person succeeds then we’ve obviously moved past institutionalised racism Justina Ireland, author
“Fiction, we have a problem,” writes Fireside Fiction editor Brian White in the report. “We all know this. We do. We don’t need numbers to see that, like everywhere in our society, marginalisation of black people is still a huge problem in publishing … The entire system is built to benefit whiteness – and to ignore that is to bury your head in the flaming garbage heap of history.”
White told the Guardian that the numbers were “terrible”, but that “I can’t say they surprise me … I think that anyone who is paying attention to the demographics of speculative fiction publishing in general, and short fiction in particular, knows that there is a problem with underrepresentation of people of colour, and that it is even worse for black writers,” he said. “It seems like … even when progress is being made with people of colour, black people are being left out. But that progress itself helps hide that problem, because publishers can point to and feel good about ‘look at all the people of colour we have featured’ without examining it more closely to see who is still excluded.”
The Nigerian-American author Nnedi Okorafor, winner of the World Fantasy award, told the Guardian that she didn’t “need a report to tell me what I already know. Hell, this is a large part of why I started writing … because as a reader I wasn’t seeing the stories I wanted to read, the characters I wanted to read, the dearth of diversity,” she said. “I don’t spend time despairing over what’s been there for centuries. I keep it moving, regardless.”
The report, #BlackSpecFic, was written by Cecily Kane, with data gathered by Ethan Robinson. It focused on black authors specifically, rather than authors of colour more generally, said Kane, because “while all are important, we noticed several patterns – not limited to the short fiction field – in which ‘diversity’ initiatives excluded black people and hid anti-blackness”.
Kane called the numbers very damning. “Speculative short fiction publishing is rife with anti-blackness, and white speculative fiction writers and publishers need to stop pretending otherwise,” she wrote.
I have a better chance of being wrongfully convicted of a crime than I do of selling a piece to a SF magazine Troy L Wiggins, author
The author Justina Ireland, in an essay accompanying the report, was equally scathing in her assessment. “The science fiction and fantasy community has a problem with race. More specifically, SFF publishing as a whole is and continues to be anti-black,” she wrote. “Folks in SFF like to point to successful black authors as though they prove we’ve somehow evolved beyond the shadow of #Racefail, because it’s a popular fallacy that if a single black person can succeed then we’ve obviously moved past institutionalised racism. But an analysis of 2015’s short fiction gives the lie to that truth.”
Author Troy L Wiggins wrote in another accompanying essay that: “The truth is that I have a better chance of being wrongfully convicted of a crime than I do of selling a piece of short fiction to a major speculative fiction magazine.”
Black science fiction and fantasy authors, Ireland said, were choosing to self-publish rather than face the hostility of the current establishment. In an interview, NK Jemisin agreed that “black writers have their own market. They’ve got their own place to go … The absence of black writers within sort of traditional publication markets is not necessarily indicative of the number of black writers who are out there.”
Brian White turned a critical eye on his own magazine, which had published three stories by black writers in 2015, out of 32. “That’s 9.4%! Near the top of the entire list of 63 magazines!” he wrote in an editorial. “Guess what? In 2016, Fireside hasn’t published a single black writer. We have one or two in the pipeline for later in the year, but we’ve failed. We’re all failing.”
White told the Guardian that in the future, he would “make a more conscious effort to directly solicit stories from black writers”.
“This is something I have done in the past, but I want to be more mindful of it,” he said. “For our open submissions periods, we are going to add a form to allow writers to anonymously and voluntarily include demographic information. The biggest piece of data we don’t have is how many black writers are submitting stories to our magazine. In talking to black writers, both for our companion essays and in general, a hugely important thing is having a diversity statement as part of your submission guidelines, which we already do. But even more important is evidence that you actually are putting that into action. If you say that diversity is important to you, and then a writer of colour looks at your magazine and sees you are mostly publishing white men writing stories about white men doing white-men things, they are probably not going to submit.”
Daniel José Older creates female black heroes to make fantasy more real Read more
Okorafor said the solution was for “a diversity of people to just keep writing, producing, facilitating, consuming, enjoying and participating in all aspects of publishing, whatever your talent or skill set”.
“Why is anyone surprised about that report? We all know the problem, can we focus on the solution?” she said. “My time and energy are better spent creating.” |
WASHINGTON -- A man comes out of a church after a fire-and-brimstone sermon on the Ten Commandments, pauses a moment, and then tells his wife, "At least I haven't made any graven images!"
This is the type of praise Republicans could muster for Donald Trump's second debate performance. He did not have a mental breakdown on stage or try to kiss anyone against their will -- some of the lowest bars ever set in the presidential debate expectations game.
What Trump actually did was ensure that hard-core conservatives stay with him until the end of his political journey, when Republicans begin the search for survivors and examine the charred black box. Trump's performance was perfectly tuned to make a loyal Rush Limbaugh listener burst out in "Hell, yeah!" Put Juanita Broaddrick in the audience? Threaten to jail your opponent? Throw WikiLeaks in her face? Blame her for the death of Capt. Khan in Iraq? Dismiss all the fuss about sexual predation as locker-room talk? Hell, yeah!
This kind of thing has been normalized in far-right discourse for decades. To the most partisan and polarized portion of the right, these excuses and accusations were familiar and appropriate.
To many people outside the talk radio hothouse, I can attest, Trump's debate performance was appalling, contemptible, shameful, squalid, vile. Do we really want a president who views the rule of law as a means to imprison his opposition? A president who dismisses talk of sexual assault on the theory that boys will be boys? A president who urges a foreign power to hack his opponent, then excuses that power when it is caught? A president who accuses his opponent of killing American soldiers based on a position he actually took himself?
Trump and his advisers must know that the conservative talk radio audience, and the Republican primary electorate, is different from a national electorate, which actually includes minorities, young people and women who don't like disgusting boors. Perhaps Trump's strategy was a recognition that even his strongest supporters were on the verge of bolting and needed to be appeased. Perhaps Trump's knowledge of policy is so thin that it fills three or four minutes of a 90-minute debate, and all he has left is trash-talk. Or perhaps he is captive to his impulses, incapable of shame and nasty to the core.
Whatever the explanation, Trump achieved the worst possible outcome for the GOP. He was good enough with his base to avoid a generalized revolt; and bad enough with the rest of the country to continue his slide toward major defeat.
This sad Republican fate is deserved. It is the culmination, the fruition, of an absurdly simplistic anti-establishment attitude. The Trump campaign is what happens when you choose a presidential candidate without the taint of electoral experience -- and all the past vetting that comes with it. It is what happens when you pick a candidate who has not engaged in serious public argument over a period in which his or her views and consistency can be tested. It is what happens when you embrace a candidate only on the basis of an outsider persona, who lacks actual political skills -- like making a policy argument, empathizing with a voter or avoiding a constant stream of distracting gaffes.
This is what Republicans get for devaluing the calling of public service. When you have contempt for politics, you often get a politics worthy of contempt.
The Trump evangelicals deserve a special shout-out in all this. By accepting, or even excusing, Trump's talk of sexual predation, they are demonstrating a political polarization that runs so deep that even common decency no longer matters. This is what many Democrats already showed in the 1990s by minimizing or excusing a presidential abuse of power for sexual purposes that seems even more odious at two decades removed. Now some evangelicals are making a similar case -- downplaying the importance of integrity, morality and character in leadership.
Until recently, it was presumed, by both critics and supporters, that the GOP was the party of traditional moral order. Under Trump, it seems much more like British conservatism at its worst -- hate and mock the liberals, fear the outsiders, and put a topless woman on page 3. The deep partisanship of Trump evangelicals -- fighting for a team rather than standing for principles -- is actually aiding the secularization of American politics.
And so, it turns out, some are making a graven image -- of a figure who deserves contempt.
(c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group |
By contrast, 25 world records were set in the swimming competition in Beijing — out of just 34 events. The longest-standing world record in any swimming discipline is barely more than 10 years old. It was set by Grant Hackett in the 1,500-meter freestyle short course at the Australian Championships in 2001.
In fact, the progress in swimming has followed a predictable and almost eerie regularity, with the winning times in most events improving at virtually every Summer Games.
I have developed a statistical method to measure the amount of improvement in medal-winning times in Olympic competition between the 1968 games in Mexico City and the 2008 games in Beijing. The method looks at the overall trend-line in each discipline — not just the record-setting performances, which could conceivably be outliers.
In all 28 swimming events that have been contested continuously since 1968, the rate of progress has been almost exactly the same. In each discipline, times have fallen by somewhere between 8.2 percent (in the women’s 200-meter freestyle) and 12.5 percent (the women’s 200-meter breaststroke) over the 40-year period.
Track and field athletes have made nowhere near such consistent progress — with the exception of a few relatively obscure events like racewalking. In short-distance running events, for instance, medal-winning times have fallen by only about 2 percent over the 40-year period. Long-distance runners have made slightly more progress — about a 6 percent improvement since 1968 — but still much less than the swimmers.
The field events that make up the other half of the athletics completion have been a mixed bag. Although there has been a lot of progress in the high jump and the pole vault, the trend has actually been negative in some other competitions. The woman who won the shot-put competition in Beijing, Valerie Vili of New Zealand, would not, with her tosses, have won even a bronze medal at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.
What accounts for those differences?
Part of the answer is simply that swimmers have benefited more from technology, in the form of everything from sleeker, computer-designed Speedos to deeper (and, for the swimmer, less turbulent) pools. But there is little a short-distance runner can wear to help improve her performance much, although the Nike and Reebok commercials might suggest otherwise.
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Another factor: an athlete with the perfect swimmer’s build and a world-class work ethic would still stand little chance of competing in this year’s games if he happened to be born in a poor nation like Cameroon or Panama — he might never have gotten into a pool, let alone an Olympic-size one. But running, especially over short distances, can be practiced virtually anywhere and anytime.
Which leads to this: As Stephen Jay Gould noted, the more open to competition a sport is, the harder it may be to break records or to post extraordinary statistics. The .400 hitter disappeared in baseball once the color barrier was broken, and black Americans and players from Latin America were allowed to compete in the major leagues. This raised the average level of performance — but also made it harder for any one athlete to stand out quite as much relative to his peers.
In the track and field events, it is more likely that an athlete has already come close to what Gould called the “right wall” of human performance, simply because the human being who possessed the ideal build and work ethic is more likely actually to have competed in the Olympic Games.
This is not to diminish the accomplishments of Phelps or Lochte — and I’ll be rooting for them. But whatever records they set may well be broken in Rio in 2016, if not sooner. I wouldn’t put money on anyone out-jumping Beamon or outrunning Griffith-Joyner any time soon, however. |
European Space Agency
Doomsday isn't far from many people's imaginations, whether it's the end of the Mayan calendar, the rapture, or a massive asteroid smashing into the Earth. Now, one of these far-flung scenarios may become even less likely.
The European Space Agency announced this week that it's in the beginning phases of an "Asteroid Impact and Deflection Mission" with its U.S. partner Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. The eventual goal of the mission is to verify whether scientists can collide with an asteroid that's hurtling through space -- so as to avoid any possible impact with Earth.
"Concepts are being sought for both ground- and space-based investigations, seeking improved understanding of the physics of very high-speed collisions involving both man-made and natural objects in space," the ESA wrote in a statement.
The eventual plan is for scientists to shuttle off two small spacecraft in 2020 in pursuit of a 2,625-foot binary asteroid named 65803 Didymos, according to The Verge. Didymos is reportedly traveling side-by-side with a smaller 500-foot twin asteroid.
Using the smaller asteroid as target practice, scientists will point one of the spacecraft at the flying rock and collide with it. The other spacecraft will be in charge of surveying the damage and seeing if the impact changed the course of the twin asteroids.
"Both missions become better when put together -- getting much more out of the overall investment," the ESA's Asteroid Impact and Deflection Mission study manager said in a statement about the benefits of using two spacecraft. "And the vast amounts of data coming from the joint mission should help to validate various theories, such as our impact modelling."
The possibility of an asteroid crashing into Earth isn't actually that far-out of an idea. In 2004, NASA scientists discovered a massive 22 million ton asteroid that was well on course to hit the planet in 2029. However, after copious research, scientists concluded Earth was safe from an impact scenario. NASA also recently ruled out another possible 2036 asteroid collision with Earth. |
Wests Tigers are pleased to announce the re-signing of young forward Josh Aloiai on a one-year deal.
The 20-year-old made his NRL debut in the Club’s Round 1 win over New Zealand at Campbelltown Sports Stadium and has been part of the first-grade side in every game this year.
Aloiai joined Wests Tigers last November after securing a release from the Parramatta Eels and has impressed during in his eight NRL appearances in 2016.
The Glenora Bears junior has the ability to slot in anywhere in the forward pack and has been named on the interchange bench for tomorrow’s game against South Sydney at ANZ Stadium.
Aloiai expressed his excitement to have secured his future at the Club beyond this season.
“I’m really thankful and privileged for the opportunity to re-sign with Wests Tigers,” Aloiai said. “I have rekindled my love for rugby league (since joining Wests Tigers) and I’m really enjoying my footy again.
“It has been a big transition (playing in the NRL) but I’m definitely adapting to it and I’m trying to build my game each week to become a better player.
“Right across the board from the coaching staff to the players, we have a great bunch of people at the Club and I’m really happy to be here.
“I think the main goal for me this year is helping our team get some wins on the board and to gain momentum, while also developing further as a player.”
Wests Tigers Head Coach Jason Taylor said Aloiai has been a great addition to the playing roster this year.
“Josh’s attitude and commitment to training and also to the Club is outstanding,” Taylor said. “The best sign for the Club moving forward is how passionate he is about playing for Wests Tigers and how much he is enjoying his time here.
“He suffered a really bad hip injury at Parramatta and it’s a sign of the player he is and how hard he is prepared to work the way in which he has come back from that.
“Josh is a great person and great role model, even at such a young age, so we are really pleased to be able to extend his contract with Wests Tigers.”
In 2014 while playing with Parramatta’s Holden Cup side, Aloiai represented the Junior Kiwis alongside current Wests Tigers squad members Manaia Cherrington, Chance Peni and Watson Heleta.
The new deal secure Aloiai at Wests Tigers through until the end of the 2017 season.
PLAYER PROFILE — JOSH ALOIAI
Date of Birth: 11th November, 1995
Height: 185cm
Weight: 110kg
Position: Prop, Second Row
Rep. Honours: Junior Kiwis (2014)
Junior Clubs: Glenora Bears
First-Grade and Club Debut: Wests Tigers vs. New Zealand Warriors, Campbelltown Sports Stadium, 5/3/2016 (Round 1) |
Posting a picture of one’s completed ballot on social media sites such as Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook has become a popular activity on Election Day in recent years. However, many voters who have pondered doing so have been warned away by claims that taking a photograph of a ballot and posting that picture online is illegal and/or will potentially invalidate the poster’s vote, which has prompted a number of inquiries from our readers about whether this is so.
The answers to questions about whether it is illegal to photograph a ballot and post the results on the Internet, and what the penalties are for doing so, are “It depends.” Regulations regarding voting procedure in the U.S. are set at a state level (or lower), so laws in this area vary quite a bit from place to place. In most states, however, it is the case that voters who upload photographs of their ballots to the Internet could indeed be risking criminal penalties:
“It’s a very unusual case,” says Jeffrey Hermes, the deputy director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York. “Usually banning political speech would be a violation of the First Amendment. But with photography at polling places, there’s an intersection of two fundamental aspects of democracy: freedom of speech and the integrity of the voting process.” Hermes breaks it down this way: Suppose you were a nefarious character who wanted to skew the voting process in some way. You could buy votes, but you’d want proof that people actually voted like you told them to. You could mislead people who don’t understand the voting process or don’t speak English well. You could intimidate other voters into voting like you do. In these cases, photos from inside the voting booth would really help you, the nefarious character, perpetrate election fraud. And so, many states have just banned those photos categorically. In this narrow circumstance, they’ve indicated, there’s something more essential to democracy than free speech.
Rather than taking the chance that you live in a state where there are no penalties for posting ballot selfies, you might want to err on the side of caution and just not do it. Voters concerned about running afoul of laws regarding photography and videography in and around polling place on Election Day can look here or here for lists detailing the laws regarding ballot selfies in each state. |
July 15, 2016
New Yorkers walking through the trendy SoHo district starting July 19 will catch a glimpse of perhaps the most unique retail store in the audio market.
Sonos is opening its first retail store on 101 Greene Street, nicknamed 101G, with the goal of giving users and prospective customers an audio listening experience that they just can't get anywhere else.
While it's certainly possibly to hear a Sonos speaker in a store like Best Buy or Target, the experience will never be the same once the speaker is hooked up at home. Why? Because consumers don't live in spaces that resemble big box, warehouse or department stores. The acoustics, shape and size of the space are all different, so the sound will be different too.
Sonos built the store from the ground up to mimic the experience of listening to music in the home. When visitors enter the store, instead of seeing a bunch of Sonos speakers on shelves as they might expect, they'll see a row of seven listening rooms, which actually look a bit like mini houses.
"It's a very unusual experience," says Dmitri Siegel, vice president of global brand and executive creative director for Sonos. "We've devoted almost all of the floor plan to these listening rooms. You'll be able to go in there with whoever you come in with, and we're going to leave you alone and let you listen to music."
Each room is different than the next. The rooms range from staged kitchens and living rooms to bedrooms and studies, each are individually designed for aesthetics and acoustics and every one gives customers a different "feel" of being at home jamming out to some tunes.
Sonos worked with interior designers to capture the styles and periods from the past century, including custom furniture, visual art and lighting design. Sonos' sound experience leader, Giles Martin, personally tuned every room for maximum quality sound. The listening rooms are covered in thousands of pounds of sheetrock and custom-beveled glass to make them soundproof and acoustically perfect. But the furniture and details in the space work to reflect exactly how music would sound at home, using bookshelves, woven rugs and other pieces that improve acoustics in any room.
Visitors are encouraged to play around with the Sonos software and queue up the music they love, alternating between different combinations of speakers and sound systems. The different "personalities" of each room allow visitors to hear Sonos sound on everything from home theater systems to turntables in the proper context.
The entire store is designed to reflect the rich musical history of its hometown. New York City was the birthplace of so many new sounds, from hip-hop to punk rock to disco. Legendary illustrators and painters like Mark Stamaty, Thibaud Herem, and Mark Chamberlain designed and hand-painted the wallpaper. Thurston Moore lent the store cassette tapes from the golden age of NYC cassette trading. Archivist Arthur Fournier put up rare selections from his classic zine collection. And right in the front of the store, an 8-foot portrait of Rick Rubin, famed record producer and Sonos board member, greets visitors coming in the entrance.
What Do Integrators Think?
How integrators might be affected by the opening of the Sonos store is still up in the air. Some will argue that integrators are at a disadvantage because customers can buy the speakers directly from the store. But Sonos says the objective of the store actually isn't immediate sales.
"We know it can be a long buying decision-making process," says Siegel. "It's not generally a spontaneous purchase."
The goal of the listening rooms is to allow customers to experience the speakers in the perfect environment, and then do more research at home and consider the speakers for their next audio purchase or home install. They could, at that point, talk to a dealer and say, "I listened to these speakers in the Sonos store and I love them. Can we include them in this project?"
Dealers could even suggest that their New York customers make a stop at the Sonos store to try the speakers out for themselves, the way that many firms use Lutron and Crestron experience centers to sell home automation and lighting control systems.
Hear more about the Sonos retail store from CE Pro editors in the video below. |
Copyright by WNCN - All rights reserved
CLAYTON, N.C. (WNCN) - Several authorities responded to a call of a pedestrian struck at a birthday party Saturday evening.
The incident happened on Old U.S. Highway 70, near the American Legion building, just before 11:30 p.m., according to Clayton Police Department.
Authorities who spoke with CBS North Carolina say the female victim, in her late 20s, was transported to WakeMed Hospital with a broken leg.
The driver, Jose Colon, 39, was also transported to the local hospital.
Officials say Colon struck the woman while trying to get away from a previous confrontation with a larger group, which included the victim.
As he took off, he hit her with his vehicle, police say.
According to witnesses, Carlos was assaulted following incident by attendees at the birthday party and is now in the hospital at WakeMed hospital. His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
Authorities are investigating the accident and have taken the car involved in the crash as evidence.
Carlos has been charged with Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) and Carless & Reckless Driving. |
Abstract Decompression sickness (DCS), which is caused by inert gas bubbles in tissues, is an injury of concern for scuba divers, compressed air workers, astronauts, and aviators. Case reports for 3322 air and N 2 -O 2 dives, resulting in 190 DCS events, were retrospectively analyzed and the outcomes were scored as (1) serious neurological, (2) cardiopulmonary, (3) mild neurological, (4) pain, (5) lymphatic or skin, and (6) constitutional or nonspecific manifestations. Following standard U.S. Navy medical definitions, the data were grouped into mild—Type I (manifestations 4–6)–and serious–Type II (manifestations 1–3). Additionally, we considered an alternative grouping of mild–Type A (manifestations 3–6)–and serious–Type B (manifestations 1 and 2). The current U.S. Navy guidance allows for a 2% probability of mild DCS and a 0.1% probability of serious DCS. We developed a hierarchical trinomial (3-state) probabilistic DCS model that simultaneously predicts the probability of mild and serious DCS given a dive exposure. Both the Type I/II and Type A/B discriminations of mild and serious DCS resulted in a highly significant (p << 0.01) improvement in trinomial model fit over the binomial (2-state) model. With the Type I/II definition, we found that the predicted probability of ‘mild’ DCS resulted in a longer allowable bottom time for the same 2% limit. However, for the 0.1% serious DCS limit, we found a vastly decreased allowable bottom dive time for all dive depths. If the Type A/B scoring was assigned to outcome severity, the no decompression limits (NDL) for air dives were still controlled by the acceptable serious DCS risk limit rather than the acceptable mild DCS risk limit. However, in this case, longer NDL limits were allowed than with the Type I/II scoring. The trinomial model mild and serious probabilities agree reasonably well with the current air NDL only with the Type A/B scoring and when 0.2% risk of serious DCS is allowed.
Citation: Howle LE, Weber PW, Hada EA, Vann RD, Denoble PJ (2017) The probability and severity of decompression sickness. PLoS ONE 12(3): e0172665. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172665 Editor: James West, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, UNITED STATES Received: April 5, 2016; Accepted: February 8, 2017; Published: March 15, 2017 Copyright: © 2017 Howle et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability: The data available to the public and are published in two references: (1) Temple DJ, Ball R, Weathersby PK, Parker EC, Survanshi SS. The dive profiles and manifestations of decompression sickness cases after air and nitrogen-oxygen dives. Volume I: Data set summaries, manifestation descriptions, and key files. Bethesda, MD: Department of the Navy, 1999 NMRC 99-02(Vol.I); and (2) Temple DJ, Ball R, Weathersby PK, Parker EC, Survanshi SS. The dive profiles and manifestations of decompression sickness cases after air and nitrogen-oxygen dives. Volume II: Complete profiles and graphic representations for DCS events. Bethesda, MD: Department of the Navy, 1999 NMRC 99-02(Vol. II). Funding: This work was supported by Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA-00C - http://www.navsea.navy.mil/) under contracts #N61331-06-C-0014 and #N00024-13-C-4104. BelleQuant Engineering, PLLC provided computational resources. Neither the funding agency nor the commercial entity played any role in designing this study, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, interpreting the results, or writing the manuscript. BelleQuant Engineering, PLLC did not provide salary support to any author. The funding agency provided salary support to LH and RV. PW received salary support for a National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship. The specific roles of the authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. Competing interests: Laurens E. Howle is owner of BelleQuant Engineering PLLC, who provided computational resources. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter our adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.
Introduction Decompression sickness (DCS) is an injury that is a concern for scuba divers, compressed air workers, astronauts, aviators and other personnel exposed to hyperbaric and/or hypobaric environments. Although DCS can result from both hyper- and hypobaric exposures, we focus only on hyperbaric exposures for the present work. The principal cause of DCS is supersaturation of inert gas in the bloodstream and tissues leading to the formation of gas bubbles [1]. Symptoms of DCS can range from relatively harmless manifestations such as slight pains in the joints to devastating symptoms such as paralysis and death. The evolution (especially as it relates to hyper/hypobaric exposure) and treatment of DCS are still active areas of research. Models which attempt to mitigate the occurrence of DCS have been in use for over a century. The first known model to prescribe decompression schedules following hyperbaric exposures was the Haldane decompression algorithm, which was introduced to the diving practice at the beginning of the 20th Century [2]. Haldane’s decompression algorithm drastically reduced the prevalence and severity of DCS by dictating the schedule by which a diver could safely return to the surface after a given hyperbaric exposure. Although the Haldane model reduced the instances of DCS in the field, it was not perfect, as some divers that followed “safe” recompression schedules still experienced DCS. DCS model improvement continued throughout the 20th Century and still continues today. DCS models may be broken into two main categories, deterministic and probabilistic. Deterministic models (such as the Haldane model) are binary in outcome and predict whether or not a diver will experience DCS after a given dive profile. Deterministic models leave no middle ground when it comes to predicting DCS; the model prediction is that the diver will or will not experience DCS. This is a problem because empirical data has shown that DCS may occur for only a small percentage of many divers that all execute the exact same dive. Additionally, the symptoms for the divers that experience DCS after executing the exact same dive may vary; drastically in some cases [3–6]. Probabilistic DCS modeling, first introduced into the field by Weathersby et al. [4], assumes a non-zero probability of experiencing DCS for a given dive. Probabilistic modeling is advantageous because the parameters of the model may be calibrated from empirical data, and different models may be compared (formally or informally) based on statistical tests. Decompression models have evolved to the point that differences between decompression algorithms can no longer be distinguished by casual observation. Differences can be distinguished, however, by DCS probability estimation if adequate dive data are available [4]. DCS models in use today have the drawback that although they predict the occurrence and/or probability of DCS, they do not predict the severity of the DCS manifestations. Predicting the severity of DCS for a given dive would be advantageous because it would allow for safety analysis to be conducted. Safety is defined as freedom from the risk of injury [7, 8]. However, complete safety cannot always be guaranteed because risk is characteristic of many human activities (including decompression), and many activities such as military diving must accept some risk. Both the probability and severity of injury are used to determine risk, and risk increases as either the probability or severity rises [9]. A high-risk activity could have a low probability of serious injury or a high probability of mild injury. Typically, a risk assessment matrix is used in which the estimated probability appears vertically and the severity horizontally [10]. Each matrix cell combines information about probability and severity and is assigned a risk assessment code ranging from negligible to catastrophic. The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, for example, use a risk assessment matrix for managing operational risks [11]. Assigning risk assessment codes and judging what constitutes acceptable risk are personal decisions for an individual and social or political decisions for an organization. Inherent in the definition of safety is that if the severity of injury is not known to a high level of confidence, then conservative estimates of the severity of injury must be made, such as assuming all DCS events have a high probability of serious injury, which may unnecessarily limit the level of activity. Although no DCS models in use today predict the severity of DCS, the importance of categorizing the risk and severity of DCS and realizing its operational consequences has been previously considered in the diving community. The U.S. Navy adopted the approach that: “The tolerable risk for a given dive is a matter of policy and may vary with the circumstances. Discussions at the Naval Sea Systems Command brought consensus that more than two cases of Type I (pain-only) or minor Type II (neurological or cardiopulmonary) DCS per 100 dives in routine U.S. Navy diving would hurt diver morale and would slow operational tempo; for serious neurological or cardiopulmonary DCS, the maximum acceptable incidence is one case per 1,000 dives (personal communication, Murray CA; 2000)” [12]. This statement makes two very important points. The first is that DCS should be categorized by severity as opposed to a simple binary (yes/no) occurrence. Type I DCS, also known as ‘mild’ DCS, was defined as pain-only symptoms, whereas Type II DCS, also known as ‘serious’ DCS, was defined as neurological or cardiopulmonary symptoms. The second point is that the U.S. Navy was willing to accept a higher probability for ‘mild’ DCS (2%) than for ‘serious’ DCS (0.1%). Later in this paper, we will examine the consequences of this 20:1 ratio with regards to the USN 2008 air no decompression limit (NDL) tables. Shields and Lee [13] also described the importance of distinguishing by severity when determining decompression safety: “In considering ‘acceptability,’ one must take into account not only the overall incidence of DCS, but also its manifestations. Pain-only limb bends, although not desirable, might be acceptable as an occupational hazard of diving; neurological DCS with the possibility of cumulative and perhaps permanent damage, is not.” An overall DCS incidence of less than 0.5% was acceptable for Shields and Lee while “the only acceptable incidence for Type II DCS in an occupational situation…is zero.” Corresponding opinions by U.S. commercial diving operators indicated that 0.02–0.1% was acceptable for Type I DCS while 0–0.025% was acceptable for Type II DCS [14]. The acceptable percentages of mild and serious DCS described by the U.S. Navy and others may apply to either the actual incidences of mild and serious DCS during unrestricted diving operations or to the maximum probabilities of mild and serious DCS predicted by a decompression model for a specific dive profile. In either case, exceeding the acceptable incidences or probabilities would be undesirable. If separate acceptable risks are to pertain to mild and serious DCS, probabilistic decompression models must be calibrated accordingly and appropriate diving procedures selected. This can be accomplished by applying multinomial probability models to empirical calibration data as opposed to the binomial probability models in use today. “Multinomial” means that more than one probability is predicted simultaneously; for example, a trinomial model may simultaneously predict the probabilities of mild DCS, serious DCS and no DCS. Deciding what constitutes mild and serious DCS and how they are to be measured are greater challenges. When a diving physician assigns a diagnosis of DCS to a diver, serious manifestations (usually designated as "Type II”) take precedence over mild manifestations (usually designated as “Type I”). If an individual should have both Type I and II manifestations, the case is reported as Type II. We refer to this as a “hierarchical” classification. To determine if Type I manifestations were also present, it is necessary to consult the clinical case descriptions that list all manifestations found during clinical examination. With this information, the probabilities of mild (P m ) and serious (P s ) DCS can be estimated. We refer to P m and P s as “competitive” rather than as hierarchical probabilities. In the present work, we explore two definitions of mild and serious DCS that were based upon clinical judgment. We have also previously investigated a method for discriminating between definitions of DCS severity based on survival analysis [15]. Ultimately, these are judgments that must be made by the developers and users of the decompression procedures, as each organization will define different levels of acceptable risk according to their operational requirements. One approach in developing a DCS modeling system that predicts the probability of DCS occurrence for events with differing severity would be to separately fit models to the different DCS types present in the calibration data. The attraction of this approach is that different physiological models could be used for different severity types. A drawback of this approach is that event types with sparse representation in the calibration data set (for example, cardiopulmonary manifestations) might not possess a sufficient number of events to justify the number of free parameters in the model, resulting in over-fitting. In addition, this approach does not allow for the interplay between the probabilities (i.e., competitive vs. hierarchical) of different DCS types which results from measurement bias. For the present work, we take a simpler approach to the problem of modeling DCS severity by developing a framework that can be applied to many DCS models already in existence. This will allow for the model to be fit to DCS events of differing severity simultaneously. The attraction of this approach is that only a single additional free parameter is needed for each additional type of DCS severity. In constructing this framework, it is necessary to develop the connection between the model’s competing (predicted) and hierarchical (observed) probabilities. While this approach does not, in the present work, allow for the model dynamics to vary between the events of different severity, it does allow for the fitting to rare DCS events and allows for a rigorous study of fit improvement with the added parameters.
Methods In the Methods subsections to follow, we discuss the data set used for model calibration, present our rationale for discriminating the event severity, briefly discuss the DCS model used for this work, and develop our trinomial (3-state) model. This is followed by a derivation of the link between the model competing and hierarchical probabilities, presentation of the multinomial likelihood function used to fit the probabilistic DCS model to the empirical dive data, and a derivation of equivalent likelihoods. For optimizing the DCS model, we derive exact expressions for model gain and scaling parameters so that these parameters are removed from the optimization space. Our final two Methods subsections discuss the model optimization system and the statistical methods used for this work. Calibration data set For all of the model fitting in this work, we used the BIG292 standard DCS data set available in two NMRI reports [5, 6]. This data set contains the dive profiles and diver outcome information (i.e., whether or not DCS occurred) for 3322 Air and N 2 -O 2 exposures that cover depths ranging from 20 to 602.4 feet of seawater (fsw) and durations ranging from 0.64 to 12,960 min (including surface intervals for repetitive dives). The dive trials included in this data set were conducted by the U.S., U.K., and Canadian militaries between 1944 and 1997. The data set contains 190 cases of decompression sickness, and 110 cases of marginal decompression sickness. Outcomes were considered marginal (or “niggles”) when symptoms were mild, short duration (<60 min for 1 joint, <30 min for multiple joints) aches, pains, or fatigue that spontaneously resolved without recompression treatment [5, 6]. The use of marginal DCS events in the fitting of probabilistic DCS models is discussed in detail elsewhere [16]. Symptom case histories for the full and marginal DCS cases are presented in the reports along with symptom onset times for all of the DCS cases and for 68/110 of the marginal DCS cases. The symptom onset times are given as T 1 , the last time the diver was known to definitely be asymptomatic, and T 2 , the first time the diver was definitely known to be symptomatic. For all of the models in this paper, we used the symptom onset times when calculating the probabilities of suffering DCS as detailed elsewhere [17]. As uncertainty could be associated with the determination of T 1 and T 2 , rules were established so they could be assigned consistently [18], but assigned onset times might be minutes to hours different from the actual onset time. Because all of the data used in this study are anonymized and de-identified and are available to the public without restriction in two official Government reports, no IRB approval was required for the present work. Discrimination by DCS event severity Descriptions of the DCS cases and marginal events were published in the NMRI reports so investigators could make independent judgments of diagnoses [5, 6]. We transformed the symptom descriptions into a numerical value using the empirical six category scale shown in Table 1. We refer to this scale as the “Perceived Severity Index” (PSI) as the categories are in the order of what is generally perceived to be of decreasing severity [19, 20]. Marginal incidents (niggles) were not assigned a PSI. The PSI indices have the following definitions: Serious Neurological : dysfunction involving bladder, bowel, gait, or coordination (ataxia), reflexes, mental status (dysphasia, mood, memory, orientation, personality), vision, hearing (tinnitus), consciousness, strength, vertigo. Cardiopulmonary : cough, hemoptysis, dyspnea, voice change. Mild Neurological : paresthesia, numbness, tingling, altered sensation. Pain : ache, cramps, discomfort, joint pain, pressure, spasm, stiffness. Lymphatic or Skin : edema, itching, rash, burning sensation, marbling. Constitutional or Nonspecific : dizziness, fatigue, headache, nausea, vomiting, chills, diaphoresis, malaise, restlessness. PPT PowerPoint slide
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larger image TIFF original image Download: Table 1. Distribution of Perceived Severity Index (PSI) in the BIG292 data set with corresponding Type I/II and Type A/B classifications [ Distribution of Perceived Severity Index (PSI) in the BIG292 data set with corresponding Type I/II and Type A/B classifications [ 19 20 ]. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172665.t001 Several PSI categories could be assigned to a given DCS case, but as the categories were hierarchical, cases could also be described by the category of greatest severity. Thus, a case with serious neurological manifestations (PSI = 1) could also have pain (PSI = 4) but would be assigned a hierarchical category of PSI = 1. Conversely, a case categorized as PSI = 4 due to pain could not have serious neurological manifestations. The PSI system collapses into the traditional DCS severity categories of Type I (PSI = 4–6) for ‘mild’ and Type II (PSI = 1–3) for ‘serious’ as indicated in Table 1. When applied to the 190 DCS cases in BIG292, 152 were of Type I and 38 were of Type II. The Type I & II classification of DCS severity is not the only classification system currently in use. In the workshop Describing Decompression Illness, Francis and Smith reported that, “It was agreed that patients who had only sensory changes had sustained a less severe injury than those in which there is also motor involvement” [21]. Similarly, the workshop on the Management of Mild or Marginal Decompression Illness in Remote Locations offered the following definition of “mild” symptoms and signs [22]: Limb pain where: (a) the severity of pain has little prognostic significance, but may influence management decisions independent of the classification of pain as a “mild” symptom; and (b) classical girdle pain syndromes are suggestive of spinal involvement and do not fall under the classification of “limb pain.”
Some cutaneous sensory changes that include subjective cutaneous sensory phenomena such as paraesthesiae that are present in patchy or non-dermatomal distributions suggestive of non-spinal, non-specific, and benign processes. Subjective sensory changes in clear dermatomal distributions or in certain characteristic patterns such as in both feet, may predict evolution of spinal symptoms and should not be considered “mild.”
Constitutional symptoms or rash
Objective neurological dysfunction must be excluded by medical examination. The proclamation of “mild” cannot be made where symptoms are progressive. The “mild” designation must be repeatedly reviewed over at least 24 hours following diving or the most recent recompression if there was ascent to altitude. These workshops suggest an alternative approach to DCS severity in which mild neurological symptoms (PSI = 3) would be classified as Type I rather than Type II DCS. For clarity, we refer to this classification scheme as Type A & B rather than Type I & II. BIG292 contains 170 Type A and 20 Type B DCS cases (Table 1). In the discussion below, we treat DCS severity as ‘Mild’ or ‘Serious’ where these are defined as in Table 1 by Type I or Type II and by Type A or Type B. To develop our concepts and procedures, most of our work defined ‘mild’ as Type A DCS and ‘serious’ as Type B DCS. However, because Type I & II definitions are in common use, we also explored the consequences of defining Type I as mild and Type II as serious. As we will demonstrate in the results section, the classification of severity by Types I/II or Types A/B has important implications for operational diving exposure limits. DCS model Although the methodology we present for constructing hierarchical probabilities is general and can be applied to many existing probabilistic decompression models, we chose the LE1nt model for this work [23, 24]. This model employs three parallel, perfusion-limited compartments, each with a unique half-time, and allows for a switch between exponential and linear gas kinetics in the intermediate compartment. The “nt” designation indicates that this particular model does not use a threshold term in the slow compartment as do some variants of this model class. A detailed derivation of this model and the exact solution for the exponential-to-linear gas kinetics cross-over conditions is available in our previous work [25]. In addition to our having experience with this model, it serves as the basis for several other DCS models, such as the NMRI98 model [26]. The particular variant of LE1nt that we use for this work has three parallel, well-perfused tissue compartments, does not use pressure thresholds in the definition of the risk function and only uses an exponential to linear cross-over pressure in the intermediate tissue compartment. Additionally, this variant of the LE1nt model contains 7 adjustable parameters (3 gains, 3 tissue time-constants, 1 cross-over pressure). The exact gains can be found implicitly and eliminated from the optimization so that only 4 adjustable parameters remain for the binomial (2-state) model [27]. The trinomial (3-state) model adds one additional adjustable parameter to the binomial model. Trinomial model Weathersby et al. [4], Thalmann et al. [23], and others treated DCS as a binomial process (no DCS, DCS) with the probability of developing DCS defined as (1) with the probability of not developing DCS defined as (2) In Eqs (1) and (2), is a vector of gain parameters and is a hazard vector containing the compartmental risk information. Our trinomial model definition scales the probability of serious DCS from that of mild DCS using a scale factor, a, so that (3) In Eq (3), the subscript indicates the mild or serious state and the superscript indicates that these expressions are competitive probabilities. The choice of which event is scaled by the additional parameter, a, is arbitrary. However, we expect that the convergence of the model parameters will be improved if we do not add the additional parameter to the most frequently occurring event. Therefore, we elected to add the additional parameter to the less frequently occurring serious DCS event. Note that other definitions for the competitive probabilities are possible. The definitions we use offer the advantage that one additional parameter allows the same DCS model to distinguish between mild and serious DCS. Note that this formulation does not allow for the time of symptom onset to vary between the different events, although we expect that this method could be extended to allow different dynamics for different event severities. Competitive and hierarchical probabilities The DCS outcomes are graded with priority given to the most serious DCS manifestations. This reporting of a single outcome from a multinomial process removes the joint probability that a diver experiences multiple symptoms from the observations, creating a hierarchical system. For example, serious DCS takes precedence over mild DCS which takes precedence over marginal DCS. As a result, the hierarchical probability of mild DCS must be multiplied by the probability of the diver not experiencing serious DCS and so on. In order to write the hierarchical probabilities compactly, we will use the notation (4) so that (5) and the mathematics of exponents and logarithms apply as usual. The hierarchical probabilities, in terms of the competitive probabilities, are then (6) The probability of the non-event state for the trinomial models is (7) For both the binomial and trinomial models, the sum of the probabilities of the events and the non-events equals 1, as is required by the law of total probability. The distinction between the competitive and hierarchical probabilities is subtle but important. The hierarchical probabilities are reported (observed) and the competitive probabilities are computed by Eq (3). A plot of the hierarchical probabilities as a function of the hazard function for a single tissue is shown in Fig 1 for a = 0.25. This value of scale parameter is reasonably realistic for the Type I/II splitting of mild and serious events. As the figure indicates, all event probabilities first increase. Then, the hierarchical probability of mild DCS diminishes as the probability of serious DCS increases making it less likely for a diver to suffer mild DCS only. PPT PowerPoint slide
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larger image TIFF original image Download: Fig 1. Probabilities of DCS events of differing severity with increasing value of the hazard function in the hierarchical model. Because serious DCS masks mild DCS, as the probability of serious DCS increases, the probability of observing mild DCS decreases. A scale factor of a = 0.25 was used to generate these results. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172665.g001 Multinomial likelihood functions The adjustable parameters for the binomial and trinomial models are optimized through the method of log likelihood maximization [4], although the statements of log likelihood are different for the different models. For the binomial problem, the log likelihood is (8) where P D,i is the probability of DCS on dive profile i of the data set and δ = 1 if the dive resulted in DCS and δ = 0 otherwise. We do not consider fractional weighting of marginal DCS events for either the binomial or trinomial models. This function has been examined in detail in the context of probabilistic modeling of DCS elsewhere [15]. For the trinomial model, the appropriate log likelihood expression is (9) where μ = σ = 0 for no DCS, μ = 1, σ = 0 for mild DCS and μ = 0, σ = 1 for serious DCS. As a result of our previous study on the use of marginal events in fitting DCS models [16], we group the marginal DCS profiles with the non-event profiles. We will return to these expressions during our derivation of optimal gain and scaling parameters. Equivalent log likelihoods In order to compare the relative performance of nested models, the log likelihood difference test is useful [28]. We would like to design a test to see whether adding an additional adjustable parameter to step from the binomial to the trinomial model is justified by an appropriate change in log likelihood. A direct comparison between LL 2 and LL 3 is meaningless because the data are graded differently. However, we can deflate LL 3 to generate the equivalent LL 2 via: (10) In this last expression, the subscripts LL xy denote the x state model deflated to the y state problem and the bit-field rules of Eq (9) still apply. Now, Eq (10) can be directly compared to Eq (8) for log likelihood difference hypotheses testing. We will now construct a simple example that illustrates the role of competitive probabilities, hierarchical probabilities, and deflated (equivalent) log likelihoods. Consider a simple process that selects a pair of independent random numbers, each with uniform probability, on a unit interval. If the first random number is less than 0.2, event A occurs and if the second random number is less than 0.2, event B occurs. However, the first number is observed before the second, and if the first is found to be less than 0.2, event A is recorded and that trial halts. This adds a bias into the observation by masking the joint probability of events A and B (P A P B ) from being recorded. The conditional probabilities of events A and B are . The hierarchical (biased, recorded) probabilities of events A and B are (11) The hierarchical probabilities of events A and B are shown in Fig 2 as the shaded regions. Note from the figure that event A masks the joint probability of events A and B. The probability of neither events A nor B occurring for the hierarchical system is (12) which corresponds to the unshaded region in Fig 2. PPT PowerPoint slide
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larger image TIFF original image Download: Fig 2. Example random process in which a pair of independent uniform numbers trigger event A if R A < 0.2 and event B if R B < 0.2. If R A is observed before R B and event A masks event B, then the hierarchical probability of observing event A is Ph(A) = 0.2 and the hierarchical probability of observing event B is Ph(B) = 0.16. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172665.g002 Now, consider a naive model that simply returns the empirical, hierarchical probabilities of the non-events and the total events (binomial version) which may be broken down by A, B events (trinomial version). The same model will be applied in the binomial and trinomial versions to a test of 100 trials that also returns the expected results. That is, the test returns 64 non-events and 36 total events containing 20 A events and 16 B events. The LL 2 for the binomial version of the model is (13) The trinomial log likelihood is (14) whereas the deflated version of the trinomial log likelihood is (15) We see that the deflated trinomial log likelihood is equivalent to the binomial log likelihood. This is as anticipated, since the same model was applied in binomial and trinomial versions to the same data set, so we would not expect one version of the model to be better than the other. In the results section below, we will use the deflated log likelihood in a standard χ2 test (see Eq (20)) to investigate whether adding the additional parameters to our trinomial DCS model (Eq (3)) improves the overall model fit when compared to the binomial model. Exact model gain and scaling parameters In fitting probabilistic DCS models to empirical dive data, optimizing the adjustable parameters to maximize the log likelihood can be a compute-intensive and time-consuming task. Often, many initial parameter sets must be used in multiple optimizations to have some degree of confidence that the best values of the parameters are found. One of the difficulties that can arise in optimizing a model is that nearly-collinear parameters make the Hessian matrix ill-conditioned, resulting in slow convergence, poor accuracy, and creating other numerical problems [16, 25]. This is especially true of the model gain vector, , which has near collinearity with the tissue time parameters. This is also true of the near collinearity between the trinomal scale parameter, a, the gain vector, and the tissue time constants. In our previous work, we were able to find exact, although nonlinear and implicit, solutions for the optimal gain values for a simpler binomial problem [27]. The resulting exact solution gives the scientist the capability to remove the gain parameters from the optimization parameter space, which greatly improves the speed of optimization and the solution quality. This method for finding the exact gains can also be applied to the trinomial problem. In writing the exact gain and scale parameter equations, we will extend the shorthand notation of Eqs (4) and (5) and include time-of-symptom onset [17] in the formulation of exact gains. An overscript notation will now be used to show the integration interval for the hazard function as (16) where the scale parameter of Eq (5) still applies and the integration limits T 1 and T 2 were previously discussed. Now, let a dive data set contain Z zero (non) events, D cases of DCS (binary model), M cases of mild DCS (trinomial model), and S cases of serious DCS (trinomial model) counted by the respective indices z,d,m, and s. Also, let a DCS model consist of C parallel tissue compartments. For the binary problem, the cth optimal component, g c , of the gain vector is given by the simultaneous solution of the C equations (17) where R cp denotes the integrated hazard function for the cth tissue compartment on the pth dive profile of the data subset (D or Z). The optimal cth compartmental gain, g c , for the trinomial DCS model is given by the simultaneous solution of the C equations (18) together with the solution of the equation for the optimal scale parameter, a (19) In finding the optimal gain components for the binary problem (solutions of Eq (17)) or the optimal gain components and scale parameter for the trinomial problem (solutions of Eqs (18) and (19)), the integrated hazard functions, R, are constant and need only be evaluated once for each optimal gain set. A proof of gain vector optimality for the binomial model may be found in our previous work [27] while a similar proof for the trinomial model is presented in the Appendix. DCS model optimization system and statistical methods Our previously-developed probabilistic DCS optimization and modeling system [25] was used to generate the results for this work. We extended the previous capabilities of this system by adding the trinomial model and by adding the exact gain and scale parameter solutions. For calculation of 95% confidence limits on model parameters, we used our software and standard calculation methods [28]. To assign 95% confidence limits and 95% prediction limits on model fits to the data, we used SigmaPlot v11 [29]. For a test of model improvement, we used the log likelihood difference test [28]. A value of p < 0.05 was considered significant and a value of p < 0.01 was considered highly significant.
Discussion From the log likelihood comparisons between the binomial and trinomial models, we can conclude that there is a highly significant improvement in the fit made by the simple hierarchical scaling we develop in this paper. We will now return to an observation made earlier in this paper that the current U.S. Navy guidance for acceptable risk of DCS occurrence for any given dive is 2% for ‘mild’ DCS and 0.1% for ‘serious’ DCS, a 20:1 ratio. This contrasts with the prevalence of ‘mild’ and ‘serious’ DCS events in the BIG292 dataset as summarized in Table 1. To elaborate, the Type I/II definition of severity gives 152 ‘mild’ DCS events and 38 ‘serious’ DCS events for a 4:1 ratio while the Type A/B definition of severity gives 170 ‘mild’ events and 20 ‘serious’ DCS events for an 8.5:1 ratio. The disparity between the 20:1 ratio stated in U.S. Navy guidance and the 4:1 or 8.5:1 ratios in the dive data has implications for establishing dive procedures according to ‘mild’ and ‘serious’ DCS. We can demonstrate these implications by considering the air no-decompression limits (NDL) in the USN 2008 Dive Manual [30]. In Fig 6, we show the published U.S. Navy air no-decompression limits as a function of depth using filled hexagons. For comparison, we also show the French Navy NM90 table air no-decompression limit using unfilled triangles. Also shown on this plot, by the solid black line, is the 2% DCS probability line for the binomial model as predicted by the LE1nt model using the optimized parameters listed in Table 2. Note that the 2% binomial limit over-predicts the available bottom time for the deeper dives and under-predicts the available bottom time for the shallower dives when compared to the NDL. If we plot the output from the trinomial model for the Type I/II definition of DCS severity, we find that the reduced probability of predicted ‘mild’ DCS results in a longer allowable bottom time for the same 2% probability limit. This is indicated by the black curve in Fig 6. However, when we plot the 0.1% limit for ‘serious’ DCS, we find a vastly decreased allowable bottom time for all depths. Interestingly, the French NM90 air no-decompression times correspond well with the 0.1% serious DCS limit in the range 80–120 fsw and result in a relatively low incidence of serious DCS [31]. The take-home message is that if a given dive must be within acceptable risk limits for both ‘mild’ (2%) and ‘serious’ (0.1%) DCS in accordance with the previous analysis, the NDL exposures will be restricted to the limits for ‘serious’ DCS.The previous analysis identified Type II DCS as ‘serious’ and Type I DCS as ‘mild’ with a 4:1 ratio of Type I to Type II cases. Since some Type II cases only have subjective manifestations (Table 1), however, defining Type II as ‘serious’ does not appear to meet the U.S. Navy definition of acceptable ‘serious’ DCS as discussed in the Introduction. Type B DCS, which does not include subjective manifestations, may be a more reasonable definition of ‘serious’ DCS (Table 1) with a ratio of Type A to Type B cases of 8.5:1 rather than 4:1 as for Type I and II. One must be certain that ‘serious’ DCS cases in the calibration data are truly ‘serious’ to avoid overly restrictive diving limits as in Fig 6. While Type B DCS meets this requirement better than Type II DCS, the case descriptions provided by Temple [5, 6], from which Table 1 was derived, do not provide sufficient information about therapy that might reject some of the 20 Type B cases as ‘mild’ rather than ‘serious.’ Differentiation of ‘mild’ from ‘serious’ DCS is a challenge that we discuss elsewhere [15]. Only when the A/B severity scoring is used and the acceptable limit of serous DCS is increased from 0.1% to 0.2% is the trinomial model operationally consistent with the air NDLs. This is shown in Fig 6 by the near correspondence of the 2.0% mild DCS limiting curve (black dashed line) and the 0.2% serious limiting curve (gray short dashed curve) and the reasonable agreement of these curves with the U.S. Navy no decompression limits.The practical importance of inaccurate identification of ‘serious’ cases can be illustrated by comparing the 60 fsw NDL bottom times for ‘mild’ and ‘serious’ DCS based on Type I/II (Fig 6) as opposed to Type A/B cases. For Type I/II, the dive times are 61 min for the 2% ‘mild’ limit and 14 min for the 0.1% ‘serious’ limit. In contrast, Type A/B requires dive times of 56 min for the 2% limit and 30 min for the 0.1% limit. Knowledge of the true ratio of ‘mild’ to ‘serious’ cases is essential for application of different acceptable DCS limits according to severity. This will require a larger dataset than BIG292 that we used here and more complete DCS case descriptions to facilitate accurate selection of ‘serious’ cases. PPT PowerPoint slide
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larger image TIFF original image Download: Fig 6. Air no-decompression limit and model predictions. The filled hexagonal symbols indicate the bottom depth in feet of seawater (fws) versus the air no-decompression limit in minutes according to the 2008 US Navy Diving Manual (rev 6). The unfilled triangles indicate the air no-decompression limits according to the French Navy NM90 tables. The solid black curve shows the 2% limit as predicted by the binomial LE1nt model. The black dashed curve is the corresponding 2% limit for mild DCS as predicted by the trinomial model. The medium dashed grey curve shows the 0.1% limit for serious DCS as predicted by the trinomial LE1nt model, while the short dashed grey curve shows the operationally consistent 0.2% limit for serious DCS as predicted by the trinomial LE1nt model. The grey dotted curve shows the 0.1% serious limit as predicted by using the Type I/II definition. Note that the predicted 0.1% serious DCS limit is well below the established U.S. Navy air no-decompression limit but corresponds well with the French NM90 limit in the range of 80–120 fsw. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172665.g006 It is worthwhile pointing out the possibility that the “PFO effect” might lead to an increased risk of serious DCS. While U.S. Navy divers are not screened for a patent foramen ovale (right-to-left shunt), one case control study found and increased presence of PFOs in civilian divers treated for DCS [32]. The study, which screened 101 divers treated for DCS and had a control group of 101 healthy divers, found that the prevalence of PFO in the group undergoing treatment was 58.4% while the prevalence was 24.8% in the control group (odds ratio, 4.3; p = 0.09). The investigators concluded that an increased incidence of cerebral and cochleovestibular manifestations were associated with major right-to-left shunting. Another avenue for further research relates to the different T 1 and T 2 times that were observed for ‘mild’ and ‘serious’ DCS (Fig 5). In developing our hierarchical DCS models we added a simple scale parameter to distinguish between events of differing severity and, in this work, did not add any adjustable parameters that would allow the dynamics of the various event types to change. This last point is made clear by examining the occurrence density functions (ODF) for the trinomial model. The ODF curves for this model show that the predicted event onset occurring at the same time regardless of the event severity. We expect that adding one or more free parameters that could be adjusted during the fitting process would result in better predictive capability of the DCS models. Even when this is accomplished, we will not be able to escape the underlying empirical probabilities of mild and serious DCS which give us a 4:1 ratio of the event types—at least for the BIG292 dataset.
Conclusion In this work, we have presented a rigorous approach for simultaneously predicting multinomial outcomes from a single probabilistic DCS model. In developing the trinomial (3 state–no DCS, mild DCS, serious DCS) model, we demonstrated the connection between hierarchical (observed) and competitive (predicted) probabilities. Using these hierarchical and competitive probabilities, we developed the binomial and trinomial log likelihood functions. Further, we were able to derive a deflated likelihood that collapses the trinomial log likelihood onto a 2-state equivalent which allowed for a direct log likelihood comparison between the binomial and trinomial models. The retrospectively-categorized data used for model calibration and analysis contained 3322 air and N 2 -O 2 dives covering depth ranges of 20 to 602.4 feet of seawater and durations of 0.4 to 12,960 minutes resulting in 190 cases of DCS and 110 marginal DCS cases. Following our previous work, we scored the marginal DCS cases as non-events. For the trinomial model, we considered two different scorings of mild and serious DCS. The first of these two scorings, Type I/II, considered mild DCS (type I) as composed of pain, lymphatic or skin, and constitutional or nonspecific manifestations while serious DCS (type II) as composed of serious neurological, cardiopulmonary, and mild neurological manifestations. This Type I/II scoring was consistent with current U.S. Navy definitions of mild and serious DCS. The second type of severity scoring, Type A/B, considered mild DCS (type A) as composed of mild neurological, pain, lymphatic or skin, and constitutional or nonspecific manifestations while serious DCS (type B) as composed of serious neurological, and cardiopulmonary manifestations. Using a previously-developed and validated DCS model, the LE1nt model, we optimized the model parameters for the 2-state binomial and 3-state trinomial models using both the Type I/II and A/B data scoring. We used the deflated log likelihood to demonstrate that the trinomial model offers a highly significant improvement in model fit to the data when compared to the binomial model. The hierarchical framework we developed in this paper is not specific to the particular DCS model we used for this work but is general and may be used with any of the current U.S. Navy operational and experimental DCS models as well as many of the recently-published probabilistic models from the scientific and medical literature. Using U.S. Navy guidance of a 2.0% acceptable risk of mild DCS and a 0.1% acceptable risk of serious DCS, we explored the binomial and trinomial model predictions for the current U.S. Navy air no-decompression limits. For the binomial model, the air NDLs are inside the 2.0% DCS limit (incidence only) for depths greater than approximately 80 fsw and slightly outside of this limit for shallower depths. For the trinomial model with the I/II scoring of DCS severity, the 0.1% serious limit controls the allowable bottom time and would severely restrict current NDLs. With the A/B scoring of DCS severity, the 0.1% serious limit still set the allowable bottom time but did not limit the bottom time as severely as did the I/II scoring. The trinomial model only agreed with the U.S. Navy air no decompression limits when the A/B severity scoring was used and the acceptable risk of serious DCS was increased to 0.2%. We conclude by strongly cautioning that the results presented in this paper should not be used for dive planning until this work has been rigorously validated by human dive trials.
Appendix Claim: The optimal tissue compartment gains, g c , and scale parameter, a, for the trinomial model using DCS symptom onset times are given by the simultaneous solution of the equations (25) and (26) Proof: Let a trinomial decompression model be described by the hierarchical probability functions listed in Eq (6). Let the trinomial log likelihood be given as Eq (9). Further, let the time of onset be described by the risk function integrals as specified in Eq (16). Additionally, let a dive data set consist of the respective Z profiles that did not result in DCS, M profiles that resulted in mild DCS, and S profiles that resulted in serious DCS. Let these dive profiles be counted by the respective indices z, m, and s. Begin by substituting the definitions for mild, serious, and no DCS for the hierarchical trinomial probabilities into the trinomial log likelihood function. This results in the equation (27) To find the optimal gain, we take the derivative of LL 3 with respect to (w.r.t.) g c to write the equation (28) Similarly, the optimal scale parameter, a, may be found by taking the derivative of LL 3 w.r.t parameter a; resulting in (29) Next, eliminate from the first term and the product from the second term of the right-hand-sides of Eqs (28) and (29) to produce (30) and (31) Finally, we use the relationship to rewrite Eqs (30) and (31) as (32) and (33) We find the stationary gains and scale factor by equating Eqs (32) and (33) to zero to give Eqs (25) and (26) and solving these simultaneous equations. The next step in the proof of optimality is to show that the second derivatives of LL 3 w.r.t. g c and a are negative so that we know the stationary point given by the simultaneous solutions of the C Eq (32) together with the solution of Eq (33) corresponds to a maximum. These second derivatives are (34) and (35) Since the quantities a, R, and ξ are nonnegative, inspection of Eqs (34) and (35) reveals that the second derivatives are negative and the stationary point given by the simultaneous solution of Eqs (32) and (33) is a maximum. QED.
Acknowledgments This work was supported by Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA-00C - http://www.navsea.navy.mil/) under contracts #N61331-06-C-0014 and #N00024-13-C-4104. BelleQuant Engineering, PLLC provided computational resources. Neither the funding agency nor the commercial entity played any role in designing this study, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, interpreting the results, or writing the manuscript. The specific roles of the authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. BelleQuant Engineering, PLLC did not provide salary support to any author. The funding agency provided salary support to LH and RV. PW received salary support for a National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship. The specific roles of the authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.
Author Contributions Conceptualization: RV LH. Data curation: PW PD RV LH EH. Formal analysis: LH PW. Funding acquisition: LH RV. Investigation: LH RV. Methodology: LH. Project administration: LH. Resources: LH. Software: LH. Supervision: LH RV. Validation: LH PW. Visualization: LH. Writing – original draft: LH. Writing – review & editing: LH PW PD EH RV. |
Strolling side-by-side, U.S. President Barack Obama and one of his fiercest Republican foes, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, toured destruction zones in the storm-ravaged state, pledging that no victims of Sandy would be overlooked.
"We don't leave anybody behind," the president told a New Jersey crowd Wednesday, during a stop in one of four U.S. East Coast states that bore the brunt of post-tropical storm Sandy.
Other states the president noted as in dire need of assistance after the superstorm, which killed dozens, included New York, Connecticut and West Virginia, where heavy snow from a Sandy-related blizzard buried roads and was blamed for at least five deaths.
The president said the focus of relief efforts would be on those four regions for the time being, and added that he did not want Americans to become disillusioned because the mess will not be cleaned up overnight.
"We will not forget. We will follow up to make sure that you get all the help that you need until you rebuild," he said, adding "we will not quit until this is done."
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Obama also said he has instituted a 15-minute rule for his team. Staff must return all phone calls within 15 minutes to ensure rescue efforts are efficient.
"We are not going to tolerate red tape," Obama said. "We are not going to tolerate bureaucracy."
Earlier in the day, the president and Christie spoke with locals in the worst-affected areas in the state.
The New Jersey governor said Wednesday that Halloween would be postponed for five days in order to direct all available resources toward disaster recovery. He signed an executive order rescheduling celebrations for Monday.
Christie also gave the president rare praise, saying he was pleased with Obama's response to the disaster. He said he mentioned some resources needed and Obama "sprung into action immediately to help get us those things while we were in the car riding together."
New York Stock Exchange reopened
Millions of people in the northeastern U.S. corridor pummelled by Sandy are continuing to work towards regaining some normalcy as airports reopen, vehicles return to the streets and stock exchanges resume trade following a two-day closure.
A man carries his wife through the floodwaters to a National Guard truck in Hoboken, N.J. (Gary Hershorn/Reuters)
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg stood on the storied trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday morning and rang the opening bell — a symbolic gesture as the region struggles to recover after the lashing winds and storm surge killed as many as 72 people. The stock exchange was to run on generator power, though some 650,000 in the city were still in the dark.
New York's three major airports were expected to be open Thursday morning with limited flights. Limited service on the subway, which suffered the worst damage in its 108-year history, would resume Thursday.
The massive storm system destroyed homes and businesses, causing billions of dollars worth of damage, and left millions without power, before moving across Pennsylvania on a predicted path toward upstate New York and Canada.
Rescuers in several states combed through neighbourhoods gutted by flooding, strewn with debris and devastated by fire.
In New York, 500 patients were evacuated from Bellevue hospital, CBC's Melissa Kent reported from Manhattan. The hospital was running on backup generators, she said, but it was unclear if they failed and forced the evacuation.
City schools and parks remained closed, and rescuers continued to search devastated neighbourhoods.
However, rush-hour traffic in New York City began to thicken again as people started returning to work. New York City buses were also back on city streets with partial service, but at no cost to board.
At the stock exchange, running on generator power, Bloomberg gave a thumbs-up and rang the opening bell to whoops from traders on the floor.
"It's good for the city, good for the country, it's good for everyone to get back to work," the mayor told CNBC moments later while leaving the exchange building on Wall Street.
Subways remained closed, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo said partial service would resume on Thursday when 14 of the 23 lines may be operational. Inspectors will run tests overnight, he said.
"[Subways are] really the lifeline of the city, 8.5 million people use the transit system every day in New York," Kent reported.
"It's the largest in North America. But several of the tunnels were flooded during the storm … it might even be a week before the entire subway is back up and running."
Much of the initial recovery efforts focused on New York City, the region's economic heart. Bloomberg said it could take four or five days before the subway, which suffered the worst damage in its 108-year history, is running at full speed again.
Superstorm Sandy in the U.S. by the numbers Maximum size of storm: 1,609 kilometres across. Highest storm surge: 4.23 metres, at New York. Number of states seeing intense effects of the storm: At least 17. Deaths: At least 62. Damage: Estimated property losses at $20 billion, ranking the storm among the most expensive U.S. disasters. Top wind gust on land in the U.S.: 225 km/h, at Mount Washington, N.H. Power outages at peak: 8.5 million. Cancelled airline flights: More than 18,100. Most rainfall: 31.9 cm , at Easton, Md. Most snow: 74 cm, at Redhouse, Md. Sources: National Weather Service, FlightAware, Associated Press
Kennedy and Newark Liberty airports have reopened with limited service. LaGuardia Airport, which suffered far worse damage and where water covered parts of runways, remained closed.
At the height of the disaster, 8.5 million households lost electricity — some as far away as Michigan. Nearly a quarter of those without power were in New York, where Lower Manhattan's usually bright lights remained dark for a second night.
On Wednesday, more than six million homes and businesses were still without power, including four million in New York and New Jersey. Electricity was out as far west as Wisconsin and as far south as the Carolinas.
New Jersey postpones Halloween
The scale of the recovery challenge was clear across the Hudson River in New Jersey, where National Guard troops arrived in the heavily flooded city of Hoboken to help evacuate about 20,000 people still stuck in their homes and deliver ready-to-eat meals. Live wires dangled in floodwaters that Mayor Dawn Zimmer said were rapidly mixing with sewage.
The city appealed for additional aid, including boats and generators. Zimmer asked local businesses to get water and non-perishable goods to city hall.
Traders and staff report to work at the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Mayor Michael Bloomberg rang the opening bell at the storied trading floor on Wednesday after it was closed for two days because of superstorm Sandy. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)
"We are doing what we can but we really need more help," said her spokesman, Juan Melli.
And new problems arose when firefighters were unable to reach blazes rekindled by natural gas leaks in the heavily hit shore town of Mantoloking.
"I’ve taken this action to minimize additional risks to lives and the public safety as we begin the process of rebuilding and recovering from Hurricane Sandy," said Christie in a statement.
"In too many communities in our state, the damage and losses from this storm are still being sorted out, and dangerous conditions abound even as our emergency management and response officials continue their work."
Transit damage worst in 108 years
All 10 of the subway tunnels that carry commuters under the East River were flooded. But high water prevented inspectors from immediately assessing damage to key equipment, raising the possibility that the nation's largest city could endure an extended shutdown of the transit system.
The chairman of the state agency that runs the subway, Joseph Lhota, said service might have to resume piecemeal, and experts said the cost of the repairs could be staggering.
Power company Consolidated Edison said it would be four days before the last of the 337,000 customers in Manhattan and Brooklyn who lost power have electricity again, and it could take a week to restore outages in the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island and Westchester County. Floodwater led to explosions that disabled a power substation Monday night, contributing to the outages. |
Dave Jones (not his real name) appears calm and accomplished. A Wyoming native who grew up loving the ranch life, he now owns his own business in South Salt Lake, teaching workplace safety to those who work in dangerous professions. But his ready sense of humor and the fact that he has a close extended family and many friends belies his hidden turmoil. Away from work, his recent years have been filled with stress and strife. More than anything, Jones wants to be a father to his children and feels devastated that he hasn’t seen them in almost two years.
Flying home on a red-eye June 18, 2011, Jones anticipated a Father’s Day lunch with his children the next day. But there was no answer when he called his ex-wife’s home Sunday morning. She eventually dropped the children off for a visit that lasted just two hours before she picked them up again.
That Father’s Day lunch in 2011 was the last time he saw his daughter. A four-hour counselor-facilitated visit is the only time he’s seen his son since.
Jones believes his kids are experiencing parental alienation, which occurs when one parent tries to turn a child against the other parent through bad-mouthing, casting him or her in a negative light and making the child feel guilty for wanting to spend time with—or even loving—that parent. Jones says his ex-wife, Sharon, has turned his kids—Jeremy, 14, and Melissa, 16—against him to the point where they now want nothing to do with him.
[Editor’s note: In consideration of the children’s privacy, the real names of Dave Jones, his wife and his two children have not been used.]
A month after the abbreviated Father’s Day visit, Jones went to Sharon’s house to pick up the kids. She met him in the driveway and said she was not going to let the kids go with him. He said she then demanded to know who he went to Hawaii with. (Jones says he went to Hawaii on business the month before.) She then said the kids didn’t want to go with him because they were afraid of him. Exasperated, he asked what she thought he should do with the situation. She replied, “It really sucks to be you right now.”
Although Jones’ 2010 divorce decree specifies his visitation as every Tuesday night and every other weekend and holiday, he says that’s never happened.
“I am heartbroken that they are growing up, and I am not a part of their lives,” Jones says. “My son caught his first fish with someone else.”
Jones says he understands his kids’ divided loyalty. “I know how manipulative this lady can be. If I was in [my kids’] shoes, I don’t think I would do anything different,” he says. He believes his kids are thinking, “I can either stay with my mother and do whatever she says, or go with my dad and get my mother’s wrath when I get back.”
The 57-year-old local businessman says he pays 76 percent of his children’s support, 50 percent of their medical expenses and his son’s entire private-school tuition. He also says he’s spent more than $10,000 trying to see his kids. He’s hired attorneys, counselors and a “special master”—a court-designated professional who acts to assist divorced families in conflict. He’s been told he can enlist the help of police to enforce visitation, but feels that would make the situation worse.
Jones says that Utah’s treatment of divorced fathers and mothers is highly unequal. “If I didn’t pay my child support, they would take my driver’s license, garnish my wages and maybe throw me in jail,” he says. But there has been no penalty for his wife continuing to keep the kids away from him.
Chris Wharton, a Salt Lake City attorney whose practice focuses on family law and criminal defense, says that the conflict is not so much an issue of mother versus father, but an issue of custodial versus noncustodial parent. “The custodial parent has the advantage,” he says.
Wharton has two cases pending in litigation where alienation is taking place. He says that alienation is not uncommon in cases of high-conflict divorce or separation, especially when children are in their preteens or teens. At that point, he says, it’s easy for the alienating parent to tell the other parent that their child doesn’t want to see him or her.
Typically, Wharton says, the noncustodial parent doesn’t force the issue “because he is concerned that if he continues to push the order in court, it is going to drive the children away even further. The more that he defers, the more time goes by since the children have seen him, and the more difficult it is to resume a more normal, meaningful parent-time visitation schedule.”
Jones worries that his ex-wife is planning to drag out the custody conflict without him having a chance to see the children until they turn 18—at which point they may have become too estranged from him to want him in their lives at all.
Your Father Doesn’t Love You
Ned Holstein is the founder and chairman of the board for the National Parents Organization, a group that has helped pass bills in many states to encourage equitable treatment for fathers and mothers in parenting disputes.
Alienation is very common, Holstein says. The majority of divorces involve some degree of alienation, where one of the parents makes an effort to cast the other in a bad light. “In most cases, it is mild or intermittent when, in their anger or frustration, they let something slip that they may later regret,” he says.
In more serious alienation cases, behaviors cause a child to be mentally manipulated or bullied into believing a loving parent is the cause of all their problems and/or the enemy. The noncustodial parent is then to be feared, hated, disrespected and avoided.
The standard every-other-weekend visitation schedule is the perfect setup for alienating a child, Holstein says. A mother can say, “Your father doesn’t love you. That’s why you’re not seeing him this week.”
When he filed for divorce in 2010, Jones presumed he would have regular visits with his kids. But as soon as he moved out, it became difficult to see them. He often received a text message on Tuesday mornings saying they were busy that night. The times they could visit grew shorter. “They never offered makeup time,” he says. “They never said, ‘I can’t come over on Tuesday, but I could visit Wednesday.’”
Wharton says that under state code, both parents are supposed to work together to try to schedule makeup time at the soonest possible date. But as time passes and alienation continues, pressure builds on both the kids and parents, and the parent who is doing the alienating often becomes more extreme in his or her excuses for why the kids can’t visit.
Differing opinions about the LDS Church helped fuel the Jones’ conflict. He’d joined the church at his wife’s invitation during their marriage, but later decided it wasn’t for him. Early on, when his daughter did visit him, she said that rather than staying over on a Saturday night, according to the visitation terms, she needed to go back home to get ready for church the next day.
In May 2011, when Jeremy visited without his sister, he decided he wanted to stay the entire weekend. Jones called his ex-wife and told her Jeremy didn’t want to go to church the next day and that he was keeping him, per the visitation order. Jones says his ex-wife “went into a tizzy,” and he received an e-mail from her that said his children would be going to church no matter what the holiday or who had visitation.
Wharton has seen other parents disagree over church attendance. He recommends that if one parent is using church attendance as an excuse for alienation, “the other parent can offer to have [the kids] ready for church. The other parent can pick them up and have them back to the other parent within an hour of church ending. Or the parent who is being alienated can take the children to church and sit through it, even though he may not enjoy it.”
LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter says, “We hope that parents will do all they can to maintain a sense of harmony as they keep the interests of their children at the forefront.”
A few weeks after the abbreviated 2011 Father’s Day visitation that was supposed to last until 7 p.m., Jones says, “Jeremy didn’t want to talk or visit me anymore, for no apparent reason.” Jones says that Aug. 16, 2011, during a rare phone call with his children, Jeremy told Jones that he and Melissa did not want to come to Jones’ home anymore because of what Jones believes. Jones says he asked, “What do I believe?” and Jeremy replied that he did not feel comfortable discussing that with his father and hung up.
Jones believes that was in reference to Sharon “telling the kids that since I left the LDS Church, their beliefs must be different from mine,” he says. “I have never discussed my religious or spiritual beliefs with either Jeremy or Melissa, nor did we ever discuss why I left the LDS Church.” |
Conservatives love this three-step plan for fixing poverty. If only it worked better.
Photo by Raywoo/Shutterstock
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how some conservatives have become very fond of an idea known as the “success sequence.” This is the observation that Americans who graduate high school, find full-time work, and wait to have children until they are at least 21 years old and married very rarely end up poor. When they popularized this notion years ago, Brookings researchers Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill reported that only 2 percent of adults who followed all three of these “norms,” as they called them, lived in poverty. Nearly three-quarters of those who hit all three marks made it to the middle class, which they defined as earning more than 300 percent of the poverty line.
There is a lot to dislike about this meme. First, although Sawhill (who’s basically a moderate) and Haskins have tried to build a fairly involved policy platform around their concept, right-wing thinkers like the National Review’s Rich Lowry seem to take it as an excuse to simply demand more personal responsibility from struggling families. More fundamentally, the success sequence just isn’t that strong of an insight. Graduating from high school is good for one’s career prospects, you say? I’m shocked. Now let’s go back to the raging argument about how to improve American education. A full-time job will keep you out of poverty? Well I’ll be damned. Now how do we push the economy back to full employment again? Getting hitched before having kids is generally a smart move? Even if you agree (and some on the left are more skeptical than I am about how much this issue actually matters), we don’t really know how to promote marriage and live in a country where, laughably, providing women with affordable contraception is considered controversial.1
Beyond all this, there’s another reason to doubt the mystical powers of the success sequence: It seems to work a whole lot better for whites than it does for blacks.
That point is summed up in the chart below, which comes from Brookings researchers Richard Reeves, Edward Rodrigue, and Alex Gold. Of white people who followed all three norms2 in 2013, 73 percent qualified as middle class, compared with just 59 percent of blacks.
The economy also seems to be a lot more forgiving to whites when they miss one step in the sequence. For instance, 34 percent of white people manage to earn higher than 300 percent of the poverty line despite having a child while young or out of wedlock, compared with 23 percent of black people.
It’s important to recognize the fact that black families often end up stuck with a low income even when they do all the things conservatives would like, because it helps undercut the widespread delusion that, despite decades of entrenched institutional racism in this country, the only thing the black community lacks for is effort. It should also make writers like Lowry a bit more hesitant to bring up the success sequence as the key to all of black America’s woes. Because, in the end, it doesn’t really guarantee success.
1When it comes to avoiding poverty, finding full-time work really is most of the ballgame. Matt Bruenig has some of the math at Demos. But here’s a simple way to think about it. The poverty threshold for a family of three is $20,090 this year. That’s roughly the equivalent of working 40 hours per week for $10 per hour (the census measures poverty based on pretax income, as do some federal programs), slightly less than the average wage for a 17- to 20-year-old high-school grad. Of course, you can argue that being a single parent makes it harder to work full-time. But then that’s something we could address lots of ways, for instance by making child care more accessible.
2The phrase “norms” is kind of strange here. Keeping your pants on in public is a “norm,” in that it’s a social expectation easily achieved through basic force of will. Graduating high school or finding a full-time job is an accomplishment that can be deeply challenging to achieve if you grow up poor. |
[This post has been cross posted from Joseph Smith’s Polygamy.]
On October 22, 2014, LDS.ORG posted three essays dealing with the practice of plural marriage by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between the 1830s and 1904. Perhaps the most controversial essay is the one dealing with the earliest period, which discusses Joseph Smith’s practices and teachings as he introduced plurality to fellow Church members.
It appears that some readers’ expectations were not met by this essay. It is true readers did not receive:
A theological examination of plural marriage
An apology for polygamy.
An explanation for why polygamy was not discussed openly in the past.
A defense of polygamy.
A 1500-page or 350-page or 20-page treatise on plural marriage.
A declaration labelling plural marriage as adultery.
A portrayal of Joseph Smith as a hypocrite or libertine.
A statement that D&C 132 was not a true revelation.
A declaration that polygamy was an historical mistake.
A lengthy discussion of Emma’s trials because of the practice.
A list of injustices suffered by Joseph’s plural wives and an exhaustive detailing of their pain and suffering.
What did readers receive?
A concise and accurate history (according to available documents) of the introduction of plural marriage by Joseph Smith.
A brief discussion of all major controversies dealing with this subject.
Permission to discuss these topics in Church meetings without being viewed as an intellectual or apostate.
Another evidence of the transparency the Church is striving to achieve regarding its history.
The omissions in the essay have elicited scathing criticism. However, as authors who have researched this topic exhaustively, we might offer a few observations of our own for those who criticize:
(1) Many critics seemed to have little grasp of the historical record of the period. Therefore, it is not uncommon or surprising that glaring historical errors are promoted in their assessments. To some degree, this undermines the usefulness of the discussions.
(2) Many criticisms seem more focused upon the practice of polygamy than upon the essay itself. It might be said the essay has opened the pressure-release valve for venting about the practice.
(3) Observers who are complimentary to the essay are often labelled as “apologists,” perhaps implying their assessments could not be accurate. This argumentum ad hominem is one of the most overused logical fallacies and undermines the ability to carry on reasonable, articulate discussions.
(4) Joseph Smith’s theological teachings regarding plural marriage are universally ignored.
Several major controversies have been generated in conjunction with the introduction of plural marriage in Nauvoo in the early 1840s. All of these are briefly discussed in the introductory essay, which contains 35 paragraphs and 55 endnotes:
Polyandry (paragraphs 20–23, endnotes 29–30). The essay acknowledges that “Joseph Smith was sealed to a number of women who were already married,” estimating the number of these sealings at 12–14 (endnote 29). Several possible explanations for this curious practice are provided including that the sealings were “for eternity alone” or that the “sealings may have provided a way to create an eternal bond or link between Joseph’s family and other families within the Church.” Another option was that the “women may have believed a sealing to Joseph Smith would give them blessings they might not otherwise receive in the next life.” For those troubled about the possibility that Joseph practiced polyandry, it provides a plausible line of reasoning that he did not. The essay states, “Polyandry, the marriage of one woman to more than one man, typically involves shared financial, residential, and sexual resources, and children are often raised communally. There is no evidence that Joseph Smith’s sealings functioned in this way, and much evidence works against that view” (endnote 30).
Fanny Alger (paragraph 9). The discussion of Fanny Alger is limited to one paragraph, reflecting the thin historical record regarding the union. “Fragmentary evidence suggests that Joseph Smith acted on the angel’s first command by marrying a plural wife, Fanny Alger, in Kirtland, Ohio, in the mid-1830s. Several Latter-day Saints who had lived in Kirtland reported decades later that Joseph Smith had married Alger, who lived and worked in the Smith household, after he had obtained her consent and that of her parents.10 Little is known about this marriage, and nothing is known about the conversations between Joseph and Emma regarding Alger. After the marriage with Alger ended in separation, Joseph seems to have set the subject of plural marriage aside until after the Church moved to Nauvoo, Illinois.”
Sexuality (paragraphs 12, 17–18). Despite controversy surrounding religious discussions of sexuality, the essay recognizes: “Sealings for time and eternity included commitments and relationships during this life, generally including the possibility of sexual relations. Eternity-only sealings indicated relationships in the next life alone. Evidence indicates that Joseph Smith participated in both types of sealings.” “The procreation of children and perpetuation of families,” the essay explains, “would continue into the eternities.”
Children with plural wives (endnote 25). Acknowledging the possibility of children, the essay states: “Despite claims that Joseph Smith fathered children within plural marriage, genetic testing has so far been negative, though it is possible he fathered two or three children with plural wives.” Those not satisfied with phrase “possibility of sexual relations” in the discussion of sexuality in time-and-eternity sealings can be placated by the admission of the possibility of children, which would require sexual relations.
Number of plural wives (paragraph 18, endnote 24). The number of women possibly sealed to Joseph is briefly mentioned: “The exact number of women to whom he was sealed in his lifetime is unknown because the evidence is fragmentary.” However, the estimate of the number of wives was relegated to an endnote: “Careful estimates put the number between 30 and 40.”
Emma Smith’s involvement (paragraphs 25–28). The essay explains that plural marriage was “an excruciating ordeal” for Emma. It also taught: “Joseph and Emma loved and respected each other deeply … Emma approved, at least for a time, of four of Joseph Smith’s plural marriages in Nauvoo. … In the summer of 1843, Joseph Smith dictated the revelation on marriage, a lengthy and complex text containing both glorious promises and stern warnings, some directed at Emma.”
Young wives (paragraph 19). Exposing itself to criticism, the essay euphemistically refers to Helen Mar Kimball’s sealing as occurring “several months before her 15th birthday” rather than at age 14. But it frankly acknowledges: “Marriage at such an age, inappropriate by today’s standards, was legal in that era, and some women married in their mid-teens.”
Denials (paragraph 16, endnote 23). Public denials, reflecting special verbal gymnastics, is conceded: “The rumors [of seductions] prompted members and leaders to issue carefully worded denials that denounced spiritual wifery and polygamy but were silent about what Joseph Smith and others saw as divinely mandated “celestial” plural marriage.22 The statements emphasized that the Church practiced no marital law other than monogamy while implicitly leaving open the possibility that individuals, under direction of God’s living prophet, might do so.” George A. Smith is also quoted: “Any one who will read carefully the denials, as they are termed, of plurality of wives in connection with the circumstances will see clearly that they denounce adultery, fornication, brutal lust and the teaching of plurality of wives by those who were not commanded to do so.”
In lauding the Church’s effort to explain this difficult topic, some may assume that in defending the essay we are in fact defending polygamy. We are not. On earth, polygamy expands a man’s sexual and emotional opportunities as a husband as it simultaneously fragments a woman’s sexual and emotional opportunities as a wife. The practice is difficult to defend as anything but unfair and at times emotionally cruel.
However, within the context of Joseph Smith’s teachings, a few eternal polygamists are needed. This reality is routinely ignored by almost all critics who often declare or imply that libido drove the process. That is, they allege the implementation of plural marriage occurred because Joseph wanted to expand his sexual opportunities. Those authors seem confident that any of the Prophet’s associated teachings were simply a cover up, so there was no need to take them seriously and it seems none of the critics of the essay do either.
Yet, this may be the greatest weakness of most of the critics’ arguments—they are simply incomplete. Joseph Smith taught that couples who are sealed in eternal marriage, not plural marriage, “shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths … and they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever. Then shall they be gods” (D&C 132:19–20). A plurality of wives allows all worthy women to be sealed to a husband on earth and become eligible for these blessings in heaven. Any woman who is not sealed will: “remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in their saved condition, to all eternity; and from henceforth are not gods, but are angels of God forever and ever” (v. 17).
It is easy to denounce polygamy on earth, but for believers, the discussions should also include the importance of plurality in eternity. As described in section 132, it allows all of God’s children to receive His promised blessings by making eternal marriage available to everyone who seeks it. As the essay explains: “Joseph Smith’s revelation on marriage declared the “continuation of the seeds forever and ever” helped to fulfill God’s purposes for His children. This promise was given to all couples who were married by priesthood authority and were faithful to their covenants” (paragraph 12).
It appears that readers of the essay may only be able to appreciate its value if they are able to appreciate Joseph Smith’s teachings about eternal marriage. Without that understanding, they will see only an unjust earthly practice that is easily condemned. The fact that the eternal contributions of plurality have not been addressed by virtually any critic suggests that additional study on the topic might result in different critiques of this watershed essay.
One of Joseph’s plural wives, Helen Mar Kimball, remembered: “The Prophet said that the practice of this principle would be the hardest trial the Saints would ever have to test their faith.” Ironically, simply trusting that God commanded them to do so in the past is a test of faith for some Saints today. |
Onslow County Sheriff Hans Miller said the son of Steven Sanchez was in a private vehicle in the parking lot of the fire station when he found his dad's gun and discharged it. Neither the child nor anyone else was injured, and no charges were filed.
The fire chief of the Piney Green Volunteer Fire Department has resigned following a recent incident during which his young child got hold of a gun and fired it while in the parking lot of the station.
Onslow County Sheriff Hans Miller said the son of Steven Sanchez was in a private vehicle in the parking lot of the fire station when he found his dad’s gun and discharged it. Neither the child nor anyone else was injured.
The incident occurred on the evening of July 3 and was reported on July 4, Miller said.
Miller said they checked the gun and it was not stolen and is legally owned.
He said no adults witnessed what happened, and after discussing the incident with the magistrate, no charges were filed.
However, Miller stressed the importance for firearm safety.
“I support lawful gun ownership but it’s paramount that we safeguard children from unsupervised access to firearms,” Miller said.
Officials with the Piney Green Volunteer Fire Department confirmed there was an incident but gave few details.
“We can confirm that there was a negligent discharge of a weapon that involved a minor. The minor was not left without adult supervision. No one was injured in the incident and the incident was reported to the proper authorities. Mr. Sanchez voluntarily resigned as chief and there is an interim chief in place. Immediate corrective actions were taken by the Board of Directors to ensure that an incident like this does not occur again in the future,” Piney Green VFD President Tim VanPelt said in a statement in response to questions from The Daily News.
He said Brandy Bruns is serving as intern chief.
He called the incident an internal matter and said that to protect the parties involved he could not comment further. |
Three major U.S. cities on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Defense Department for allegedly failing to report criminal convictions of people in the military to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its national gun background check database.
The lawsuit – filed by officials in New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco – seeks a court order to force the Pentagon to submit to federal court monitoring of its reporting requirements.
The Pentagon recently acknowledged it has failed to comply with requirements dating back to the 1990s.
“This failure on behalf of the Department of Defense has led to the loss of innocent lives by putting guns in the hands of criminals and those who wish to cause immeasurable harm,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
The suit argues that having a federal court oversee compliance would reduce the chance of a mass shooting like the recent tragedy in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
In that incident, former airman Devin Kelley shot 26 people to death in a Texas church. Kelley had been convicted in a military court of domestic violence but his case wasn’t reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which ideally would have prevented him from buying a gun, the complaint claims.
“We cannot accept the level of gun violence in our country as ‘just the way it is’,” San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in a statement. “Twenty-six people being murdered at church can never be normal.”
The Pentagon had no comment on the lawsuit though its acting inspector general testified at a Senate committee earlier this month that there was “no excuse” for the military’s repeated failure to comply with reporting rules.
Most recently, military investigators found that nearly one in three court-martialed convictions that should have prevented defendants from purchasing guns had gone unreported.
NICS reporting is required for all federal agencies, including the military, and include regular mandatory compliance reports. The federal law was strengthened following the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech.
The case is City of New York v. U.S. Department of Defense. |
Having been approached by National Geographic Channel's 'Car SOS', we were given the task of restoring two cars as part of the third series of the popular television show.
The second car in which we helped to restore was this, a 1963 Alfa Romeo Giulia Spider.
On the face of it, the car didn't look like it was in too bad of condition but once we started to take a closer look we were concerned at the amount of underseal and filler that appeared to be under the car. Taking no risk, we stripped the shell and agreed for the car to be sent away to be chemically dipped.
Once we got the shell back it was apparent that this car had had a lot of repair work over its time on the road. Multiple patches had been bogusly welded all over and the holes that were missed were simply filled. Having the car in bare metal meant we could crack on with the fabrication work as we lost precious repair time whilst the car was having its acid bath. The body was welded solid along with a new front panel being fitted.
Then came the prep work to make sure all the panels were nice and smooth before the Bianco Pininfarina paint was applied.
The suspension was rebuilt and painted by us whereas the engine was sent away to an Alfa specialist.
Trim was done by Aldridge in Walsall. |
This is our first recipe in our new house. We have been moving/driving for the past week so we finally got a chance to make something yummy on our new stove. Well, new to us anyway. I honestly never thought to cook oatmeal in coconut milk until I saw it on a menu at a restaurant in town. They sell it for $7.50 and I thought, oh my god, I could do that myself for way less money. I had a can of coconut milk in my pantry and a big bag of oats so I put it all together with some other things I had on hand, and it ended up being amazing. I will be using coconut milk in my oatmeal from now on because it’s so creamy and delicious – way better than other milks!
Print Creamy Vanilla Coconut Milk Oats Topped with Fresh Fruit Prep Time: 1 minute Cook/Cool Time: 7 minutes My Latest Videos Total Time: 8 minutes Yield: 2 servings Old-fashioned oatmeal cooked in creamy coconut milk topped with fresh raspberries and pomegranate, sweetened with pure maple syrup. Ingredients 1 can coconut milk, shaken
1/2 cup oats
1/2 tsp vanilla
Maple syrup
Fresh fruit of your choice Instructions Add coconut milk, oats and vanilla to a medium saucepan and stir to combine. Cook over medium heat until it begins to lightly boil. Cover and reduce heat to low and cook for about 5-7 minutes (stirring occasionally). Remove from heat and cool for 2 minutes. Serve into bowls and top with a drizzle of maple syrup and fruit (we used raspberries and pomegranate). 3.1 https://veganfoodlover.com/creamy-vanilla-coconut-milk-oats-topped-with-fresh-fruit/ © VeganFoodLover.com |
My teammates say we shouldn’t care what the audience thinks, because we’re just there to have fun & summon the dead with our pals. Are they right?
No, not at all! Perform the Rite of Unbinding (see “Lesser Rites & Rituals”), sacrifice the smallest among them to your patron or patroness, and find a new coven.
n.b.: Kidding! Don’t actually sacrifice anyone until you try and sway them to a better way of thinking.
This philosophy is, at its core, infantile. It seems to be resurgent, lately, and I feel almost as if I’m under a geas to stamp it out. Some who subscribe to this view even deign to unironically call improv “make-’em-ups,” as if to minimize the craft and, thus, minimize the emotional & mental risks they feel they are taking. As with many bad improv habits or thoughts, it ultimately stems from Fear. How can you fail, if you’re just “goofin’ around with your buddies?” Who cares what some “schlubs in the cheap seats” think if you only summon a handmaiden of Death and not Death herself? Ridiculous. Childish! If you just “wanna have a good time with mah frandz,” you can do it in a living room, or a properly-wattled cave. Or a jam.
If you perform for an audience, you are making art for consumption, whether you like it or not. That’s the simple fact of what is happening. You are on a stage — or an ornate, sanctified dais — generating art. And the people & spirits in the audience are there, consuming it. And you can have a bad show. You can trap the wrong demon, or turn stone to water instead of ice. It happens to the best of us! But, it’s art, and thus it’s a risk. An improvisator ought not pretend otherwise.
Is a starling an acceptable substitute for a robin redbreast, or a thrush?
Only in cases where you do not need the beaks or bones — so, NEVER.
Should I dress a certain way when performing?
Yes, of course.
For short form, any base material will do, so long as it is unblended. That is, it ought be pure wool, or pure polyester, etc. Mixing materials will result in poor conduction of your energies, slowing you down during speed rounds and fogging your mind during guessing games.
For long form, only natural materials will suffice. As it is a more complex working, the life-echoes present in natural fibers are crucial to cohesion & success. As well, your long form robes ought to be unadorned, so that any number of mental images may be projected onto you in the course of the improvisation. For short form, it may serve you to sew in the seal or sigil of your coven; this can enhance your team’s soulbond, and delight the simpler minds in the crowd.
In all cases, bring extra boots; for, after about fifteen minutes, they will be soaked through with blood, ichor, and/or kerosene. And, be sure to always bring zero pairs of sandals.
What makes an improvisator “Advanced?”
There are many symbols some carry in order to seem advanced; certain trinkets, trophies, or talismans. For example, some carry medallions with lists of their now-dead Harold covens. Some whisper old spells, passed on by Del Close himself, as if they were there at their crafting. And, occasionally, one finds those who whittle notches in their staffs, litanies of stagetime. But all these are empty glamour, if they haven’t blood & spirit to accompany them. Anyone may accrue stagetime, or parrot Close’s cantrips. The passage of time is common to all mortal beings of this plane, and does not an advanced improvisator make.
No, as with all things, it is much more nuanced and complex. Beginners are easy to spot, of course. They take delight in a simple rhyming hex, or find themselves surprised by the very notion of rune-reading. Novices in any field are clear enough. But how does one advance? What does that entail?
Part of it is, yes, the passage of time. One cannot advance without it. But true growth is only spurred by reflection and learning. Legends of improvmoots you’ve attended, tales of late-night workings in front of three laymen, memories of mentors long since vanished into the astral plane…these mean nothing if they are not attached to some kind of lesson in the mind of the one who tells them. An improvisator advances as he looks back on his past mistakes and chuckles, wondering how he could be so naive. An improvisator advances as her knowledge of the craft deepens, as she goes beyond rules & recipes to craft her own. An improvisator advances as it advances the art, forging new ideas from the old, finding new demigods to bargain with.
So no, not every old improvisator is a wise one, or an advanced one. True, one cannot get there without floating along the river of time. But if you simply nap in your boat, all you’ll do is pass it all by. Awake. Reflecting. Creating. This is the path to advancement. |
Editor explains why he thinks GOP is 'blackmailing Obama' David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster
Published: Tuesday April 7, 2009
Print This Email This According to Scott Horton at the Daily Beast, Republicans are trying to blackmail President Obama over his predecessor's 'darkest secrets.' By vowing to filibuster Obama's nominees if the torture memos are released, they pose "a serious threat to Obamas transparency," he wrote.
Monday night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow spoke with Chris Hayes, Washington, D.C. editor for The Nation, about the Republican strategy.
"A reliable Justice Department source advises me that Senate Republicans are planning to 'go nuclear' over the nominations of Dawn Johnsen as chief of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice and Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh as State Department legal counsel if the torture documents are made public," wrote Horton. "The source says these threats are the principal reason for the Obama administration's abrupt pullback last week from a commitment to release some of the documents. A Republican Senate source confirms the strategy. It now appears that Republicans are seeking an Obama commitment to safeguard the Bush administration's darkest secrets in exchange for letting these nominations go forward."
After rolling through a laundry list of Obama nominees who are in limbo, Maddow asked Hayes, "Is this a lot of high profile nominees being held up at once? It seems like a lot to me."
"You know, it's difficult to make these apples to apples comparisons because the political context changed so much from 1992 to say, 2000," Hayes replied. "But I think it's safe to say that very early in a president's term, particularly if it's a very popular president, there's a tremendous amount of resistance."
In 2000, he said, many progressive activists were upset with Democrats for allowing many Republican nominees.
"John Ashcroft is the one that comes to mind," he said. "I think we've seen an evolution in that process, such that we're seeing far more obstructionism now from the GOP."
This video is from MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast Apr. 6, 2009.
Download video via RawReplay.com
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The suspension disparity is magnified in some "hot spot" cities.
Students at a Seattle high school walk through the halls between classes. (Photo11: AP file photo) Story Highlights The average American secondary student has an 11% chance of being suspended in a single school year
Previous studies have shown that even a single suspension can double the odds of that student dropping out
The UCLA study compares this new data with a similar study of more than 2,800 districts from the early 1970s
Black students are suspended more than three times as often as their white classmates, twice as often as their Latino classmates and more than 10 times as often as their Asian classmates in middle and high schools nationwide, a new study shows.
The average American secondary student has an 11% chance of being suspended in a single school year, according to the study from the University of California-Los Angeles Civil Rights project. However, if that student is black, the odds of suspension jump to 24%.
Previous studies have shown that even a single suspension can double a student's odds of dropping out, said Daniel Losen, a former Boston-area teacher and one of the authors of "Out of School & Off Track: The Overuse of Suspensions in American Middle and High Schools," released in April. The study used U.S. Department of Education data collected during the 2009-2010 school year, the latest available.
"Pointing fingers and using the 'racism' word isn't going to get us where we need to go," said Losen, who is white. "But I think we need to acknowledge that there may be general bias against black students."
The UCLA study compares this new data with a similar study of more than 2,800 districts from the early 1970s. Back then a study by the Children's Defense Fund showed that black students were suspended more frequently than their peers, but not at such a disproportionate rate.
Today, the suspension disparity is magnified in some "hot spot" cities – such as Chicago, Dallas, Memphis and St. Louis, Losen said. In these city school districts, at least 40% of all black students were suspended at least once during that school year, according to the UCLA study. And yet, some schools in those same cities barely suspended students at all, Losen said.
"A lot of the time the public has a sense that we have to suspend these 'bad' kids – what else are we going to do?" Losen said. "But this study shows that within the same district, within the same demographics, there are schools that are doing things very differently."
The suspension disparity has recently come to a head in Florida, where the NAACP has filed a complaint against public schools in Brevard County, which suspends its black students about two-and-a-half times as often as its white students. The U.S. Department of Education has agreed to look into the complaint.
Lynne Bleier, a retired assistant principal and dean who worked at two Bevard County high schools, said suspension decisions are based purely on the behavior of each student.
"Believe me, there is plenty of misbehavior," Bleier said. "No assistant principal has to seek misbehavior where it does not exist."
SUSPENSIONS: THEN AND NOW Black students are suspended from public secondary schools more frequently than their white, Latino or Asian peers according to new data from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights and a study from the University of California-Los Angeles. A similar study was conducted in the early 70s. 1972-73
2009-10 Percentage
While the federal government collects suspension statistics, it doesn't record suspension causes, and discipline codes vary widely between each state, district and even some schools.
According to an analysis, also by Losen, on the Southern Poverty Law Center website, "fights or physical aggression among students are consistently found to be among the most common reasons for suspension." After fighting, the most common offenses appear to be abusive language and attendance issues such as cutting class, tardiness and truancy, the analysis added.
Chicago public schools have recently reshaped their discipline strategy to keep students in the classroom, said Jen Loudon,director of youth development and positive behavior support. Suspensions dropped by 21% in the first year after the district abandoned a mandatory suspension policy.
Regardless of the progress in some districts, the nationwide statistics are still "appalling," said Gloria Sweet-Love, who served on a Tennessee school board for two decades, and now is the state's leader for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Sweet-Love believes that white teachers are more likely to deem a black student "threatening" instead of simply disobedient, and therefore more likely to "make an example" by suspending a black students.
The same pattern persists in Palm Springs Unified, a medium-size school district in a largely progressive area of California. Although black students only amount to 6% of the student body in Palm Springs secondary schools, they account for more than 11% of the total suspensions. This pattern has held up for at least a decade, according to a review of U.S. DOE data.
Kelman also reports for The (Palm Springs, Calif.) Desert Sun. Florida Today reporter Mackenzie Ryan contributed to this report.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/11sQZUd |
Hoboken, N.J. City Councilman Ravi Bhalla won the city's mayoral race on Tuesday, making him the first Sikh mayor in the state's history, The Jersey Journal reported.
Bhalla faced a crowded field of challengers in the race. But he had received the endorsement of outgoing Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who is stepping down after serving two terms.
"Thank you for having faith in me, for having faith in our community, faith in our state, and faith in our country; this is what America is all about," he told supporters in his victory speech, according to the Journal.
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"We've been through a bruising campaign ... but now is the time we come together and see who we can work with to bring this city forward."
Controversy erupted this week after doctored campaign fliers surfaced, bearing a picture of Bhalla and reading "Don't let TERRORISM take over our town!"
According to The Jersey Journal, those fliers appeared to be altered versions of a mailer from the campaign of Michael DeFusco, a city councilman running against Bhalla in the mayoral race. He has insisted that he had nothing to do with the handouts. |
"Paradise by the Dashboard Light" is a song written by Jim Steinman. It was first released in 1977 on the album Bat Out of Hell, with vocals by the American musician Meat Loaf alongside Ellen Foley. The song is most notable for its unique structure and length, and has become a staple of classic rock radio.[1][2] Brotherhood of Man also recorded the song under the title "Let Me Sleep on It".[3]
Background and recording [ edit ]
"Paradise by the Dashboard Light" is one of the longest songs to be released uncut on one side of a 45 RPM record. The only difference between the single (45 RPM) and album versions is that the single version fades out almost immediately after the final line is sung. In some countries, a shorter 5:32 edit was released. The largest change is the complete removal of the "baseball play-by-play" section. Jim Steinman had stated that he wanted to write "the ultimate car/sex song in which everything goes horribly wrong in the end." [4]
According to Meat Loaf on VH1 Storytellers, the original length of the track was to be 27 minutes.[citation needed]
Composition [ edit ]
The song is divided into three parts:
Part I. Paradise
The song opens with the characters reminiscing about days as a young high school couple on a date. They are parking by a lake and having fun, experiencing "paradise by the dashboard light", until the male character insists they're "gonna go all the way tonight" (the audio track suddenly cuts out, quickly pans through the left and right channels once before slowly returning to both channels).
Baseball broadcast
His pushing the matter is mirrored by New York Yankees announcer Phil Rizzuto broadcasting a portion of a baseball game that serves as a metaphor for his attempts to achieve his goal, accompanied by funk instrumentation and the two characters talking in the two individual left and right channels.
Rizzuto's baseball play-by-play call was recorded in 1976 at The Hit Factory in New York City by producer Todd Rundgren, Meat Loaf and Steinman. Rizzuto publicly maintained he was unaware that his contribution would be equated with sex in the finished song, but Meat Loaf asserts that Rizzuto only feigned ignorance to stifle some criticism from a priest and was fully aware of the context of what he was recording.[5]
Part II. Let Me Sleep on It
Just as the boy is about to score (via the suicide squeeze), the girl bursts out telling him to "Stop right there!" She refuses to go any further unless the boy first promises to love her forever and marry her. Reluctant to make such a long-term commitment, the boy repeatedly asks her to continue on for the time being and promises to give his answer in the morning. However, she is not giving in that easily, so he finally cracks and gives his promise: "I started swearing to my God and on my mother's grave/That I would love you to the end of time".
Part III. Praying for the End of Time
Back in the present, the male character can no longer stand the woman's presence. As the man cannot break his vow, he is now "praying for the end of time" to relieve him from his obligation. The song fades out on the situation, juxtaposing his gloomy "it was long ago, it was far away, it was so much better than it is today!" in the left channel with her nostalgic "it never felt so good, it never felt so right, we were glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife" in the right channel.
In early live performances of the song, this part (and thus the conclusion of the song itself) was followed by a spoken-word epilogue by Meat Loaf and Karla DeVito, where they, still in character as the two protagonists, argued about what to keep after the couple's divorce (having been presumably married for a number of years). The argument was cut short by DeVito shouting "...And I'll keep the baby!", which left Meat Loaf's character speechless as he apparently ignored the existence of a baby; immediately after, he ended the argument by screaming incoherently at her.[6] The exchange was repeated with different female vocalists, in different versions and with different endings, in most of Meat Loaf's subsequent live tours and remains in the set to the present day, when it is still occasionally performed by Meat Loaf and his current featured vocalist Patti Russo.
Music video [ edit ]
35mm prints of a live-on-soundstage performance of "Paradise" were struck and initially sent to many theaters holding midnight screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, as a short subject to play before the feature. Very few of these prints are still extant and/or in playable condition. The video also received healthy airplay in the first years of MTV, despite its relative age to the new artists the channel was showcasing.
Although Ellen Foley is recorded on the album, another singer, Karla DeVito, was used for the music video and for live performances.[7] This would also happen for Meat Loaf's 1993 hit "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)", where Dana Patrick mimed to Lorraine Crosby's vocals.[8]
In the original video as released to television and in 35mm prints, the male/female "Hot Summer Night" prologue from "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth" was spoken live by Jim Steinman and Karla DeVito before the song performance. On the Hits Out of Hell music video compilation, the prologue was removed and spliced in front of the video for "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth", ostensibly to properly replicate the album Bat Out of Hell, and the video for "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" goes right into the performance.
Reception [ edit ]
The single had modest success in the United States, peaking at number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, the song is very well known and is a classic rock staple. In the United Kingdom, it did not chart at all. However, in the Netherlands, the single became Meat Loaf's biggest all-time hit, reaching number one at the end of 1978. "Paradise" became a hit there again in 1988. In various all time charts, such as the Radio 2 Top 2000 or Radio Veronica's All Time Top 1000, it consistently charts inside the top 30. In Belgium, the single stalled at number 2 where it stayed for 5 weeks [9], the whole time being held back from the Number 1 by Y.M.C.A. by the Village People.
Personnel [ edit ]
Chart performance [ edit ]
Certifications [ edit ]
Region Certification Certified units/Sales United Kingdom (BPI)[10] Silver 250,000 sales+streaming figures based on certification alone
Cover versions [ edit ]
The Glee club 'New Directions' covered the song for the third season episode called "Nationals". They closed their set for the national show choir competition with the song.
Jyll Saskin of MTV called it a "quirky yet catchy song choice" that "was the episode's standout."[11] Michael Slezak of TVLine gave it an "A" grade and said it was the "real group number" of the three and added, "The vocals, choreography and energy were all top-notch."[11][12] It charted on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 and debuted at number ninety-four.[13]
The song was covered in 2000 by Frisian pop band De Kast with guest female vocalist Maaike Schuurmans.[14]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ] |
More than two-thirds of all homicides in the U.S. are gun-related. Of the 16,121 homicides reported in 2013, 11,208 were caused by gun violence. Including suicides, nearly 34,000 people died in gun-related incidents in 2013, up 13.8% from 10 years earlier. While federal gun laws are uniform across the country, state regulations vary, offering more lax or more strict approaches to firearm use. Seven of the 10 states with the most firearm deaths in 2013 have enacted stand your ground laws. In fact, none of the states with the most gun violence require permits to purchase rifles, shotguns, or handguns. Gun owners are also not required to register their weapons in any of these states. Meanwhile, many of the states with the least gun violence require a permit or other form of identification to buy a gun. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) keeps track of the number of gun-related deaths in each state. Fatalities include homicides, suicides, and accidents. The frequency of firearm-related deaths varies considerably across the country. In Hawaii, the state with the fewest gun-related fatalities, there were just 2.6 firearm-associated deaths per 100,000 people. In Alaska, on the other hand, there were nearly 20 gun-related deaths per 100,000 residents, the most of any state. Above, Alana Simmons leaves a message on a board set up in front of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church after a mass shooting at the church killed nine people in June in Charleston, S.C.
From 24/7 Wall St., these are the 10 states with the highest gun-related deaths. |
Game of Thrones “The Door”: The Five Best Things in This Week’s Episode
Aiden O'Brien Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 26, 2016
This season of Game of Thrones has finally moved to a new gear. In what will be an episode considered to be one of the best of this season, if not the entire show’s history, certain characters stood out above the rest.
Here are the five best things in this week’s episode:
SANSA
Sansa has always been one of my least favourite characters on the show but despite my lack of excitement for her character or her arc, one thing has always been true about her: she is one of the strongest characters on this show. This has never been more true than in this week’s episode where we see her not only remark about her horrific treatment at the hands of Ramsay but use it as a weapon to wield against Littlefinger. What happened to Sansa was one of the truly horrific moments in Game of Thrones’ history and it was starting to feel like it was going to swept under the rug and rarely spoken of. There is a lot of strength in what Sansa did in this week’s episode. She brings the traumatic event up to the forefront, baring it for all the world to see, proving it hasn’t broken her. It has shaped her into a stronger character, one who now not only realises how harsh the world is, but how one needs to act in order to survive in it. The most interesting part of Sansa’s character development is how closely it mirrors Cersei. Cersei is known for taking the hardest, worst things that have happened to her and turning them into character-defining aspects of her personality. It taught her how to fight tooth and nail to get power and to keep it. Sansa was made privy to these ideals in season two through her interactions with Cersei. We might finally see Sansa coming full circle and becoming the harsh, stern female leader that Winterfell, and possibly all of Westeros needs. One that noticeably is starting to look and sound like the powerful female that was her mother, Catelyn.
JORAH
It was a surprising turn for Jorah this week because it was the first time in a long time his story took an interesting turn away from the predictable. While before he has been motivated entirely by his love for Daenerys, fighting for her corner, then fighting his way back to her corner, then fighting his way to get her out of her new corner, he now has a story that is and of his own. Sure he is doing it because of her orders but the simple shift in his dynamic makes him a true wild card on the show now. While before it seemed he would return to Daenerys side and fight until the bitter end, he has now moved away in search of his cure for greyscale. Where his journey takes him might never be a major plot line but it is enough for it to be relevant to the show and to Daenerys moving forward. While before this week all Jorah seemed to be was a love-sick puppy, he now has an influence again. Where he goes now is no longer irrelevant. He could shape major decisions to come, or he could wither and die alone in the desert, but sure that kind of unpredictability are what wild cards are made for aren’t they?
ARYA
Arya had another strong episode as we are finally starting to see her story arc pick up pace. She has now been entrusted with her first murder, but that is not what makes this episode so interesting. She is scouting her latest prey while listening to an account of the fall of the Starks in Kings Landing. On the surface this looks like Arya being overwhelmed by people laughing at the demise of her father but there is also something important happening here, especially if she delves further into the plot in next week’s episode. Arya doesn’t know much about what happened in Westeros after she left Kings Landing. For the most part she spent her time on the run, keeping her head down and generally just trying to stay alive. She has no idea what happened to her family while she was on the run. By being exposed to this play she may be able to catch up on the goings-on in Westeros while she was away. It may not seem like much but to the Faceless Men information can be as powerful as any weapon. A better informed Arya is a dangerous Arya.
EURON
Euron Greyjoy is an incredibly interesting character in the books and he is building to be one of the stand outs of season six. With his arrival, the Iron Islands have not only shot to relevancy but they may be seeing their presence felt in more than one story arc. With the Kingsmoot now decided, Euron rules the Iron Islands, something that Yara didn’t agree with. Now the Iron Islands have seen their loyalties split. Euron is planning to sail to Meereen and make Daenerys an offer she can’t refuse, while Yara and Theon are setting sail for parts unknown, and wherever unknown ends up being you can be guaranteed they will be very relevant when they get there. Could a reunion with Sansa and Jon’s army be on the cards? As for Euron, he has shaken up season six in a big way. Pretty soon he will have the one thing Daenerys needs more than all else: ships. If he manages to make it to Meereen and convince Daenerys to agree to a treaty with him, that agreement will instantly make the Greyjoys the favourites to rule the North. It has always been felt that once Daenerys reaches Westeros it would be a good thing for the Starks but should Jon take the North before Daenerys arrives we might be facing one of the most conflicting battles in Game of Thrones’ history: one that sees Jon go face to face with Daenerys for rule in the North. Though the White Walkers might run intereference on that one. One thing is for sure though: Euron has thrown as spanner in the Westeros works and one that will send the Iron Born outward to influence the rest of the land. Their influence could very well be felt from here on until the very end of the show.
HODOR
There really couldn’t be anyone else in this spot could there?
Many characters have come and gone in Game of Thrones, some with truly horrific deaths and some with passings so unexpected that it blew the internet in half. Hodor’s sacrifice in this week’s episode may have trumped them all in the simplest of ways. The saddest fact about this death is that it’s not even devisive. The internet has been well and truly united in the wake of Hodor’s heroic sacrifice. This could be for many reasons. One that stands out the most is the fact that his entire existence got revealed to be a tragedy. A lot of theories revolved around the idea that Hodor would be revealed to be a warg who had lost his mind due to his own greed, something that would have been infinitely less tragic. Some thought he would eventually end up being the conduit for Bran’s warg abilities, turning him into an unstoppable, fighting juggernaut. This would have made any reason for his affliction acceptable because his ultimate existence would have been glorious. In the end the true tragedy is that not only was Hodor’s affliction not his own fault or a way for him to ultimately be the hero, but instead he was simply a victim of Bran’s inability to control his own powers. In the end Hodor died, and lived, simply to serve Bran on whatever quest he is on. There will be no bright light at the end of the tunnel for Hodor. All that was end of that tunnel for him was a door. A giant door that he needed to hold to save the life of a boy who cost him the quality of his own. He may never have been the most important character on the show but he certainly felt that way this week, and many weeks to come, as Hodor may have just provided us with the greatest moment this season will see.
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If you like my review of this week’s Game of Thrones, why not check out my opinion of the Five Best Things in Last Week’s Episode “Book of the Stranger” or follow me on twitter. Thanks. |
At least six senior Trump administration figures are reported to have used private email accounts for official White House business, prompting Hillary Clinton to describe criticism of her own private server use as “the height of hypocrisy”.
Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, admitted through his lawyer on Sunday that he had used private emails in the administration’s early days.
According to a New York Times report on Monday Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, aides Gary Cohn and Stephen Miller, and former staff members Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus also used private accounts for official business.
None of those named are believed to have broken the law, which allows public officials to use private addresses where official emails are forwarded to government accounts to be archived for reasons of transparency.
However, the reports have the potential to cause serious embarrassment to Donald Trump, whose election campaign was built in part on regular and heavy criticism of Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of state.
Clinton was the subject of regular chants of “lock her up” at Trump rallies and beyond during the campaign. In her recently published book, What Happened, the former first lady and senator identified the investigation into her emails and former FBI director James Comey’s handling of it as a major reason for her defeat.
Speaking to Sirius XM radio on Monday, Clinton hit out at “the hypocrisy of this administration, who knew there was no real scandal, who knew that there was no basis for all their hyperventilating.
“We’re finding with the latest revelations – they didn’t mean any of it. It’s just the height of hypocrisy.
“It is something that if they were sincere about I think you’d have Republican members of Congress calling for an investigation. I haven’t heard that yet.”
Comey first cleared Clinton of wrongdoing, though he criticised her conduct at a press conference in July 2016. He then announced 11 days before the election that new emails had been discovered on a laptop owned by Anthony Weiner, the disgraced estranged husband of Huma Abedin, a key Clinton aide. Two days before the election, Comey cleared Clinton again.
Speaking to NBC this month, Clinton said she “would’ve won” if Comey had not intervened. “It stopped my momentum. It drove voters from me,” she said. “And so that, in terms of my personal defeat, was the most important factor.”
Hillary Clinton speaks to Sirius XM radio.
House oversight committee chair Trey Gowdy and ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings wrote to the White House general counsel and the state department on Monday requesting details of all use of private email by government employees, the Associated Press reported.
A report concerning Kushner first emerged in Politico on Sunday. Soon after, Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, acknowledged that his client either received or responded to dozens of emails involving White House business using the personal account between January and August.
On Monday, Newsweek reported that Ivanka Trump had also used a personal account while she was acting as an unpaid adviser to her father.
The same day, the New York Times cited administration officials who said Ivanka Trump had also done so after formalising her White House role. The same paper named the other four advisers, citing leaks from current and former government officials.
Writing to the White House and the state department, the AP said, Gowdy and Cummings cited the Politico report and “numerous public revelations of senior executive branch employees deliberately trying to circumvent … laws by using personal, private, or alias email addresses to conduct official government business”. The committee wanted, they said, “to prevent and deter misuse of private forms of written communication”.
Clinton set up a personal server for all her electronic correspondence, handling tens of thousands of emails and storing some classified information. The traffic relating to the Trump administration was reportedly much less significant, described by officials as sporadic. It was, however, said to have included correspondence with reporters.
In Kushner’s case, his lawyer said, the emails usually involved “forwarded news articles or political commentary and most often occurred when someone initiated the exchange by sending an email to his personal, rather than his White House, address”.
Given Trump’s stance on the issue and the sensibilities of his core supporters, the wisdom of any use of a private address by an official in the administration can be called into question.
On Monday, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, characterised the use of private email accounts within the Trump administration as “very limited”.
“White House counsel has instructed all White House staff to use their government email for official business, and only use that email,” she said. |
MUSIC historians have warned that conditions in the UK are ripe for the rise of a new Oasis.
A failing economy, political confusion, youth employment and rising nationalism mean that millions could fall under the sway of an anthemic guitar band promising a return to traditional melodic values.
NME writer Tom Booker said: “All the elements are in place. Low wages, feelings of hopelessness, anonymous dance-pop dominating the charts.
“Within 18 months a bunch of mouthy delinquents, armed with nothing but three chords and two Beatles best-ofs, could be in total command of British culture.
“Unless we act now to provide kids with samplers and educate them about Krautrock and reggaeton at grass roots level, we risk history repeating itself.
He added: “Please. You weren’t there. You don’t know what watching back-to-back gigs at Knebworth was like.
“As a nation, we’ve only just recovered from the terrible self-inflicted wound of Be Here Now. Another one could finish us altogether.” |
Super Junior’s SMTOWN LIVE performance on July 8 was an emotional moment for everyone as the members who attended the concert opened up about what’s been going on with the group lately.
Only four members were present as Kangin has been inactive since his DUI case in 2016, and Sungmin had to pull out due to the recent fan boycotts. Donghae, Choi Siwon, Eunhyuk, Ryeowook, and Kyuhyun are currently fulfilling their military service duties, meaning that only Leeteuk, Yesung, Shindong, and Kim Heechul were able to attend this year’s event.
The atmosphere was somber as Shindong opened up with, “Though we feel like our strength has been sapped out of us, seeing our fans gives us a lot of energy. We’re so grateful. I can’t really put into words how I’m feeling right now.”
Leeteuk added on by saying, “We debuted as the idol group with the most members in K-pop, but today, we’re standing on stage with the smallest number of members ever for a dance group in SM.” He also confessed, “My mind is as tangled and stifling as the weather today.”
Kim Heechul said, “To be honest, we thought a lot about whether we should even stand on stage today with just four of us. We believe that all our members should be with us.” Yesung also stated, “This feels different,” before shedding tears of gratitude for the fans who were there to support Super Junior.
As the leader of the group, Leeteuk tried to reassure fans and his fellow members by saying, “I’ve spent 18 years in SM. Super Junior is my life. There are no exits for me.”
The members also thanked Kyuhyun and Donghae, who attended the concert while on leave to show their support for their fellow Super Junior members.
Super Junior is set to make a comeback in October after Donghae, Choi Siwon, and Eunhyuk are discharged from the military this summer. The group was recently swept up in controversy following a fan boycott of member Sungmin, which resulted in the singer releasing an official apology and announcing that he will be withdrawing from Super Junior’s upcoming album.
Source (1) (2) (3) |
By virtue of its very definition, marriage can only be between a man and a woman, Pope Francis has said in a new book-length interview.
“We cannot change it. This is the nature of things,” not just in the Church, but in human history, he said in a series of interviews with Dominique Wolton, a 70-year-old French sociologist and expert in media and political communication.
Published in French, the 417-page book, Politique et Société (“Politics and Society”) will be released on September 6. Catholic News Service obtained an advance copy, and excerpts appeared online.
When it comes to the true nature of marriage as well as gender, there is “critical confusion at the moment”, the Pope said.
When asked about marriage for same-sex couples, the Pope said, “Let’s call this ‘civil unions.’ We do not joke around with truth.”
Teaching children that they can choose their gender, he said, also plays a part in fostering such mistakes about the truth or facts of nature.
The Pope said he wondered whether these new ideas about gender and marriage were somehow based on a fear of differences, and he encouraged researchers to study the subject.
Pope Francis also said his decision to give all priests permanent permission to grant absolution to those who confess to having procured an abortion was not meant to trivialise this serious and grave sin.
Abortion continues to be “murder of an innocent person. But if there is sin, forgiveness must be facilitated,” he said. So often a woman who never forgets her aborted child “cries for years without having the courage to go see a priest”.
“Do you have any idea the number of people who can finally breathe?” he asked, adding how important it was these women can find the Lord’s forgiveness and never commit this sin again.
Pope Francis said the biggest threat in the world is money. In St Matthew’s Gospel, when Jesus talked about people’s love and loyalty being torn between two things, he didn’t say it was between “your wife or God”, it was choosing between God or money.
“It’s clear. They are two things opposed to each other,” he said.
When asked why people do not listen to this message even though it has been clearly condemned by the Church since the time of the Gospels, the Pope said it is because some people prefer to speak only about sexual morality.
“There is a great danger for preachers, lecturers, to fall into mediocrity,” which is condemning only those forms of immorality that fall “below the belt”, he said.
“But the other sins that are the most serious: hatred, envy, pride, vanity, killing another, taking away a life … these are really not talked about that much,” he said.
“The most minor sins are the sins of the flesh,” he said, because the flesh is weak. “The most dangerous sins are those of the mind”, and confessors should spend more time asking if a person prays, reads the Gospel and seeks the Lord.
One temptation the Church has always been vulnerable to, the Pope said, is being defensive because it is scared.
“Where in the Gospels does the Lord say that we need to seek security? Instead he said, ‘Risk, go ahead, forgive and evangelise.'”
Another temptation, he said, is to seek uniformity with rules, for example, in the debate concerning his apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia.
“When I talk about families in difficulty, I say, ‘Welcome, accompany, discern, integrate …’ and then everyone will see the doors open. In reality, what happens is you hear people say, ‘They cannot receive Communion.’ ‘They cannot do this and that.'”
That temptation of the Church to emphasise “no, no and no” and what is prohibited is the same “drama Jesus [experienced] with the Pharisees.”
This closed, fundamentalist mindset like Jesus faced is “the battle I lead today with the exhortation”.
Jesus followed “another logic” that went beyond prohibitions as he did not adhere to customs – like not touching lepers and stoning adulterers – that had become like commandments, he said.
Church leaders are used to “frozen norms” and “fixed standards”, but when they ask, “‘Can we give Communion to divorcees?’ I reply, ‘Speak with the divorced man and woman, welcome, accompany, integrate and discern”, which opens a path and a way of communication to lead people to Christ.
Encountering Christ is what leads people onto a path of living a moral life, he said.
When asked about the Church’s “just war” theory, the Pope said the issue should be looked into because “no war is just. The only just thing is peace.”
Concerning the persecution of Christians, particularly in the East, and the question of why God would allow such tragedy, the pope said, “I do not know where God is, but I know where man is in this situation. Men make weapons and sell them.”
It is easy for people to question God, he said, but “it is we who commit all this” and allow it to happen; “our humanity is corrupted”.
Speaking about women, the Pope said they have an important role in society because they help unify and reconcile people.
Some people mistake women’s demands to be represented and heard in the world with a kind of “machismo in a skirt”, but machismo is a form of “brutality” and does not represent what women should be.
He said with the reform of the Roman Curia, “there will be many women who will have decision-making power”, not just roles as advisers.
While he said he believes he will succeed in opening up more positions to women in the curia, it will be difficult and there will be problems – not because of misogyny, but because of “the problem of power”.
When Pope Francis and the French interviewer talked about differences between the Argentines and the French, the Pope said, “Argentines are quite fond of psychoanalysis.”
The Pope praised those psychoanalysts who are able to be “open to humanism and to dialogue with other sciences”, particularly medicine and homeopathy.
“Those whom I have known have helped me a lot at one point in my life when I needed consultation,” he said, describing how met with a Jewish psychoanalyst once a week for six months when he was 42 “to clear up certain things”.
“She was very good. Very professional as a doctor and psychoanalyst” and “she helped me so much.” |
Charlyne Amanda Yi (born January 4, 1986) is an American actress, comedian, musician and writer. Her performances include music, magic, games, and often audience participation.[2][3][4][5][6]
Her screenwriting debut, the feature film Paper Heart, won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. She is also known for her role as Dr. Chi Park on the Fox medical drama House, the voice of every Ruby on the Cartoon Network animated series Steven Universe, the voice of Chloe Park on We Bare Bears and the voice of Alice on Summer Camp Island.
Early life [ edit ]
Charlyne Yi was born in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, a native of the Philippines, is of Filipino and Spanish descent[citation needed], and her father is of Chinese Mexican, Native-Mexican, Korean, Irish, German, French, and Native American ancestry.[4][7][8] She attended the University of California, Riverside before leaving to pursue a full-time career in comedy. She had an early interest in performing when she attended Bloomington High School and was involved in theatre.
Career [ edit ]
Yi began by performing in Bloomington, California.[4] After high school, she has performed shows in Los Angeles at The Steve Allen Theater, and The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. In 2005 and 2006, she performed in the New York Comedy Festival,[9] and in 2007 HBO's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado.[4] Yi's film debut was in Judd Apatow's 2007 film, Knocked Up. In 2008, Yi performed as part of the Apatow for Destruction Live comedy show at Montreal's Just For Laughs Festival.[10]
In the 2009 film Paper Heart, a "hybrid documentary"[11] which Yi executive produced in addition to co-writing, she starred as a fictional version of herself, along with Michael Cera.
Yi was chosen as one of Venus Zine's "25 under 25" women for 2009.[12]
She has also appeared alongside Saturday Night Live cast member Fred Armisen in the music video for the song "Rabbit Habits" by Philadelphia experimental band Man Man.
Yi and Paul Rust formed the band The Glass Beef. The duo share one electric guitar and both sing lead vocals. In 2006, they released their debut album, The Farewell Album, produced by John Spiker, bassist of Tenacious D.
Yi was featured in the video "Song Away" by Hockey.[13] She is currently in the band Sacred Destinies.
In January 2010, Yi performed a duet about break-up lines (the opposite of pick-up lines) with Demetri Martin on the episode "2" for the Comedy Central sketch series Important Things with Demetri Martin. However, the duet was cut from the final edit of the episode.[citation needed] . She also appeared in Lucifer season 3 episode 25 as the angel of death.
From October 2011 to May 2012, Yi starred in Fox's series House as Dr. Chi Park, a young doctor with anger-management issues.[14][15]
Non-profit work [ edit ]
Yi has been involved with Oxfam America since 2010, working to raise awareness about poverty and hunger around the world.[16] Yi started the non-profit Caring is Cool in 2011, and hosted a benefit show to raise money for the organization.[17]
Filmography [ edit ]
Film [ edit ]
Television [ edit ]
Books [ edit ]
Year Title Type 2015 Oh The Moon text/image hybrid |
40 percent of the steel created so far was manufactured in Canada by a subsidiary of Evraz, a company 31-percent owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who is a close ally of Putin and a Trump family friend. Evraz has also actively lobbied against provisions which would mandate that Keystone XL’s steel be made in the U.S.
Abramovich is described in the 2004 book Abramovich: The Billionaire from Nowhere by British journalists Dominic Midgley and Chris Hutchins as ‘one of the prime movers behind the establishment of the only political party that was prepared to offer its undiluted support to Putin when he fought his first presidential election in late 1999. When Putin needed a shadowy force to act against his enemies behind the scenes, it was Abramovich whom he could rely on to prove a willing co-conspirator.’
Evraz describes itself as ‘among the top steel producers in the world based on crude steel production of 14.3 million tonnes in 2015.’ |
The t-shirt exchange is weird for me. When left to my own devices I buy the same type of shirts over and over. Black, grey and navy fill my shirt drawer, and usually from an event or a freebie. I have no discernable style. I asked my Santa to take the reigns so I'd end up with something different and provided so little guidance that I'm sure it was frustrating.
Sure enough, my Santa reached out and asked nicely for just a little more help. I'm a lurker, so there isn't much post history to help. I provided some further details and some guidelines of what I was trying to avoid. Santa then took a shot and did a fantastic job.
First I received a set of crochet hooks. These range from tiny little hooks for threadwork through medium sized hooks used for most easily bought yarns. I didn't have a full set of tiny hooks and had been buying the missing ones as needed. No more of that noise, because now I'm all set! That is awesome because nothing derails a project faster than missing a needed hook size. As for the larger hooks, I looooove having duplicates. I always have a few projects going at once. I try to keep the hook with the project so I can just grab and go. I've run short on a few sizes, so this puts me in better shape to do that again. It is like Santa understood my pain and fixed it all.
However, this is a t-shirt exchange. The note with the hooks said it would go well with the shirt. No shirt in the package, no reference to a shirt on the packing slip. Ahhh, Amazon at its finest, splitting up orders in nonsensical ways. Two days later, a beautiful olive green shirt with a heartbeat line including a ball of yarn and a heart shows up. It is PERFECT. Yarn allows me to create. Creating things is life. I love it. I have looked at shirts like this many times and always held off on buying. No good reason why not, just didn't. I'm happy somebody else did it for me, because I love having it.
Santa, great job! I love it. The whole experience was fabulous. |
In contrast, the highest paid actor in a scripted drama is Mark Harmon of CBS's "NCIS," at $500,000 an episode or $11 million for a full season.
Mariska Hargitay of NBC's Law & Order: SVU" is second with $385,000 an episode, following by three "Grey's Anatomy" stars on ABC, Sandra Oh, Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey, at $350,000 an episode each.
The top two sitcom earners, by a wide margin, are on the same CBS show, "Two and a Half Men."
Ashton Kutcher rings in at $700,000 an episode and Jon Cryer gets $600,000.
Their closest competitor is Tina Fey of NBC's "30 Rock," at $350,000.
Actors in scripted shows, TV Guide says, earn less than they did a few years ago - partly because of the influx of actors from the movies, which have cut back on character dramas, and from theater.
So while Jon Hamm of AMC's "Mad Men" earns $250,000 an episode, Lea Michele of the high-buzz "Glee" on Fox earns a relatively modest $75,000 and Zooey Deschanel of "New Girl," also on Fox, $95,000.
Neil Patrick Harris earns $210,000 an episode for CBS's "How I Met Your Mother," while Michael C. Hall earns $295,000 for Showtime's "Dexter," and Claire Danes earns $110,000 for Showtime's "Homeland."
Lucy Liu will earn $125,000 for CBS's "Elementary" this fall, while Kaley Cuoco and Jim Parsons will each earn $300,000 an episode for CBS's "The Big Bang Theory."
That's the same pay Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner get for lending just their voices to Fox's long-running animated hit, "The Simpsons."
The bigger bucks these days, says TV Guide, are going to reality and personality shows.
Mariah Carey just signed for $17 million as a judge on Fox's "American Idol," vaulting her past the $15 million Howard Stern gets for judging NBC's "American's Got Talent" and the $10 million Britney Spears will be paid to judge "X Factor" this year.
They're all well ahead of the judges on NBC's "The Voice," where Christina Aguilera gets $225,000 an episode and her three cohorts, Blake Shelton, Adam Levine and Cee Lo Green make $100,000.
Ryan Seacrest makes $15 million a year for hosting "Idol," and the old reliable Kardashian family clocks in at $10 million.
Conversely, the Landry Family of "Swamp People" on History get just $25,000 an episode.
In the news game, Bill O'Reilly of Fox News is second to Lauer in this survey, earning $15 million a year.
Brian Williams of NBC tops the broadcast network nightly news anchors at $13 million, followed by Diane Sawyer of ABC at $12 million and Scott Pelley of CBS down at $4 million.
Anderson Cooper of CNN earns a reported $11 million, while other morning show personalities include Robin Roberts of ABC at $6 million and Lara Spencer of ABC at $1.5 million.
Other late-night hosts include Jon Stewart of Comedy Central at $16 million, Jimmy Kimmel of ABC at $8 million, Jimmy Fallon of NBC at $5 million and Conan O'Brien of TBS at $12 million. |
Game of Thrones, known to Chinese audiences as 权力的游戏 (Quánlì de yóuxì, literally the Game of Power) was first aired in China by CCTV in 2012. Despite the fact that all scenes with violence and nudity were edited to meet censorship requirements, the fantasy drama has quickly – partly thanks to pirated copies – gained lots of devoted fans.
Although it is very hard to measure the scale of GoT’s popularity in China, one cannot underestimate the significance of the fact that the Chinese video-game developer Yoozoo and the game division of Time Warner, Inc. (which is currently the third largest entertainment company in terms of revenue in the world) are working on a mobile-game version of the HBO production. After all, the Chinese games market is the world’s biggest – in 2016 it was valued at over 25 billion dollars and it represented a quarter of the global market. In other words, Chinese players are potentially a very good target, especially if they already dream about being Robb Stark or Jaime Lannister and conquering Westeros – at least virtually.
Another project aimed at attracting Chinese GoT fans was the special exhibition in some high-end shopping centers in Beijing and Shanghai held in summer this year. Game of Thrones fans could see some models and memorabilia from the film set, as well take a photo on the Iron Throne replica for 99 yuan. Despite the fact that many GoT fans seemed a little bit disappointed with its size, the exhibition worked well both ways – it simultaneously attracted GoT fans to shopping malls and promoted the show among those who hadn’t necessarily known about it.
Nevertheless, what seems most intriguing in China’s response to GoT is how Chinese fans blended some of HBO production’s elements with their own culture. A collection of photoshopped pictures with the GoT actors portrayed – in a very convincing way – as Chinese vendors proved to be a real Internet hit. For example, one picture depicts Queen Cersei, sitting on a roadside and selling parsnips, with her typical half-calm, half-pained expression, as if she was contemplating the doom of the Lannister House. There is Arya Stark too – this time she cooks instead of selling oysters, making a very deceiving impression of an innocent girl with her sweet plaits and gentle smile. One can also spot Littlefinger, who, as it has been commented, “looks like he’s still up to no good” even in the Photoshopped reimage. And there’s Night King selling popsicles – he doesn’t seem pleased, but what else could the White Walkers’ leader do if not selling ice cream?
Another interesting Photoshop experiment shows which Chinese actors would fit in the Chinese version of the GoT. In one of the fans’ proposals Jon Snow could be played by Taiwanese-Canadian actor and model Peng Yu-yen (known also as Eddie Peng, whom Western viewers could see in a role of Commander Wu in the Chinese-Hollywood super production The Great Wall). Another idea would be to hire Zhao Liying, currently one of the best paid Chinese TV actresses, for the role of Sansa, and Xu Qing (known also as Summer Qing, who appeared in Bruce Willis’s Looper) for the role of charismatic yet terrifying Melisandre, whose photoshopped picture depicts her a moment before putting a fire to a stake with poor princess Shireen.
An equally interesting cultural adjustment of GoT is a graphic representation of the Houses in the form of…. Pokémon. Although Pokémon were created in Japan, this time it is the Chinese fans of GoT who pictured the whole collection of, among others, Targaryen’s three-headed dragon, Baratheon’s stags with golden antlers, and the Night’s Watch’s ravens – all of them presented in their evolution chains, from hatchlings and puppies to fully developed adult versions.
Finally, it is intriguing to observe that the popularity of GoT has actually influenced Chinese tourism. China’s leading online travel agency called Ctrip claims that thanks to GoT the number of bookings to Croatia (where the scenes in King’s Landing were shot) rose 300 percent. A similar rise can be observed in cases of other GoT shooting locations, such as Ireland (148 percent) and Spain (77 percent). Although it is very difficult – if not impossible – to measure the extent to which these destinations owe their recent success to GoT, such claims seem justified if one considers the fact that a similar popularity increase was experienced by New Zealand after the release of The Lord of the Rings films.
GoT terminology has reached far beyond fans’ forums, and into media discourse more broadly. Many journalists and commentators (especially from Western countries) have made eye-catching comparisons between GoT and Chinese politics – a good example might be Sophia Yan’s China’s elite have begun their game of thrones — here are some of the potential winners published on CNBC website, and Helen Raleigh’s While Nobody’s Looking, China And India Are Carrying Out A Real-Life ‘Game Of Thrones’ written for The Federalist. Such references to GoT appear usually in titles only, quite clearly aiming at attracting more readers. An intriguing exception, however, is a presentation entitled Who Will Win China’s Game of Thrones?, uploaded by China Uncensored on YouTube.
In this comedy news show comparisons between Chinese politicians and GoT Houses are made (“A Qishannister always pays his debts,” states the commentator, talking about Wang Qishan, one of the most influential figures in Chinese politics, who has been “as loyal to Xi [Jinping] as a Hand of the King”). However, one has to be careful with using the phrase “Chinese Game of Thrones,” because in China it has completely different associations than in Western media. “Chinese Game of Thrones” is how Chinese fans nicknamed a very popular series, 琅琊榜 (Lángyá bǎng, known as Nirvana in Fire in English), a 54-episodes-long story about a power struggle somewhere in early medieval China.
In India, as in China, the show’s popularity can be measured by the level of pirating and leaks it has faced. Moreover, just like in China, government’s censorship influenced a lot of scenes and dialogues. Yet, the editing of scenes is a requirement faced by cable TV and not VOD, and thus Star TV, an Indian private television, was recently able to avoid censorship by offering the show on its VOD platform, Hotstar.
There are few interesting links between the immensely popular HBO show and India, though it is doubtful these connections played any meaningful role in advertising the series in the country. Indira Varma, the British actress that appears on the screen as the unfortunate Ellaria Sand, is of partially Indian origin. The Indian audience, however, is possibly much more familiar with Mark ‘Conan’ Stevens, the actor who portrayed Gregor Clegane, the cruel knight turned nightmare monster in Game of Thrones. Stevens previously appeared in a few Bollywood movies, such as Drona and Chandni Chowk to China. Moreover, some of the accessories used in the show, such as swords and armors, are actually produced in India – but that is a story for another time.
It can be added here in passing that when Neil Nitin Mukesh, a young Bollywood actor, was rumored to have a role in the show, the news created waves in India. The rumor proved to be false but it serves as one measures of the series’ popularity. Another star, the original and talented Nawazuddin Siddiqui, delivered one more piece of proof of GoT’s popularity — and of his sense of self-irony — when he uploaded a video of his mock audition for the show, pretending that he is not able to pronounce the quotations from the series correctly.
As in China, Game of Thrones vocabulary has become part of popular discourse of Indian politics, albeit as stylistic ornaments only. State-level politics in the states of Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have been compared in the Indian media to the “game of thrones” but the comparison usually does not go beyond using the phrase. In Uttar Pradesh, one of the leading parties is the Samajwadi Party, which is mainly led by one family, the Yadavs. When a struggle for power emerged within that party and within the family, it was dubbed by some in India as the “Game of Yadavs” and an appropriately doctored picture circulated on the Internet with the faces of the Samajwadi Party leaders pasted onto a Game of Thrones series poster. A modest conclusion based on Chinese and Indian examples is that the phrase “game of thrones” has become a synonym of a ruthless political struggle.
Apart from the media narrative on politics, a slight trace of Game of Thrones inspirations is visible in Indian fashion and art. A Game of Thrones-themed wedding was reported in India, as in other parts of the world. An Indian artist, Parth Kothekar, recently made headlines with his paper-cut figures depicting the heroes of the show in traditional Indian attire. One can also spot Game of Thrones-related memes on the Indian Internet, some deliberately mixing themes and quotes from the show and from Bollywood movies, or relating the series to Indian social reality.
The most hilarious, however, is a series of mock advertisements prepared by a group of Indian comedians, All India Bakchod. One of them, claiming to promote a textile company, presents members of the Stark family in warm clothes, with the phrase “Winter is coming.” Another mock advertisement takes aim at racial stereotypes and prejudices associated with skin tone: The Night King’s pale face appears in an advert for skin whitening cream with the phrase, “Instant fairness. Be a real white walker.” And there is Sansa Stark advertising a matrimonial website (“Stuck with the wrong guy? […] We Match Better”), Joffrey Baratheon advertising condoms (“Prevent Natural Disasters”), and Jon Snow promoting coaching classes (“Jon Snow knows nothing, but your child can”).
It would be an overstatement to claim that Game of Thrones has influenced Indian tastes or left a substantial imprint on Indian art. Indian movies or shows haven’t so far revealed such influence (an upcoming series called “Rani Mahal” – “The Queen’s Palace” – was rumored to be based on GoT, but that may be another false assumption). Nor is the Indian video games market big enough to be tapped into using references to GoT. For Indian moviemakers, both G.R.R. Martin’s book series and the HBO show may be inspirational in terms of the plot, but with the current level of Indian censorship the style of the show, with its brutality and obscenity, cannot be followed. It is safe to conclude, however, that Game of Thrones is yet another example of how a part of the Indian middle class – just like the Chinese one – is keen to follow Western trends.
Antonina Luszczykiewicz is a Ph.D. student in the field of Cultural Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Her research interests focus on the history of Chinese-Indian relations, as well as colonial and postcolonial stereotypes and prejudices in the Asian context. |
KIEV (Reuters) - Tensions flared on Thursday on Kiev’s Independence Square, the scene of street protests that toppled a Moscow-backed president in February, when protesters still camped there clashed with city workers who tried to clear away their tents.
The protesters set fire to heaps of tyres, sending clouds of black smoke billowing across the city center square, known as the Maidan, recalling the demonstrations earlier this year which chased Viktor Yanukovich from power.
Armed riot police moved onto the square as protesters - some of them in combat fatigues and masks and waving clubs - threw bottles and paving bricks at municipal workers who had been dispatched to dismantle the tents and barricades.
The police and workers eventually withdrew, leaving the situation unresolved.
Many protesters, including self-defense militias, have taken down their tents and returned to their homes since the election of Petro Poroshenko as president at the end of May.
But many barricades have remained in place, along with makeshift shrines to the 100 or so protesters killed by police sniper fire, and a few hundred people are still camped out on the Maidan.
“It’s the right thing to do (take down the tents). I was here from the start of the Maidan and I believe it’s right now to take down what there is here. There are practically no normal people left here,” said Yury Kovalchuk, a 43-year-old businessman.
Ukraine’s uprising began last November when Yanukovich walked away from a political and trade deal with the European Union and sought to swing policy back towards Russia. At its height, thousands of people from across Ukraine were camped out on the square and on an adjoining thoroughfare.
Kiev’s new authorities have made clear they would like the capital city back to normal, with traffic moving freely, ahead of an expected parliamentary election at the end of October.
“It’s like seeing everything that went on in winter coming back: tyres are burning, the police are here and so are people with clubs,” said Vitaly Lyakh, a 37-year-old Kiev resident.
“It’s not right - especially since the most decent people have gone off to fight in the war (against separatists in the east). Civilized countries don’t behave like this,” he said.
One protester wearing a Ukrainian cossack uniform, Mykola Bondar, declared his resistance to attempts to take down the encampment. A group of young masked protesters stood nearby atop a truck, banging on the roof of the vehicle with clubs.
“They tried to kill us today. They set fire to us,” he said. |
There is no safe way to directly attack someone who has settled into a guard. No matter what line you choose, there is a simple and effective counter available. So you need to wait for your opponent to adjust feet, move his sword into another guard, take a step, prepare for a cut, basically anything that distracts his attention from the trap he has laid. This moment of distraction is called a “tempo”.
If your opponent won’t give you a tempo then you can create one using a provocation. The first provocation dall’Agocchie offers is a beat. With both fencers starting in Code Lunga Stretta, strike your opponent’s sword from your right using the false edge. Do this with a gathering step that pulls your left foot forward to meet the right.
The direction your opponent’s point goes seems to decide the next step. If the point goes to your left then,
turning your body well behind your right side, and turn a dritto tramazzone to his head in that tempo;
If your opponent perceives the beat and disengages under it, with or without the blades touching, then his point will be more to the right. In that case the second option seems to work better,
you can turn a riverso ridoppio to his right arm, followed by an imbroccata, and with it you’ll place yourself in porta di ferro.
Counters
Though they are harder to defend against than simple attacks, no provocation is without a counter. For both of these, a thrust to the face seems to be quite effective. Sink down into a lunge when you do this, stepping forward or back as the measure dictates.
A solid thrust will simultaneously catch the incoming cut on your strong or hilt. If you try to parry without the thrust your hilt will be too close to your body. This weakens the arm and necessitates an unusually wide parry, leaving you open to further complications.
If your point went to your left (the provoker’s right) then you also have the option to parry with a cut.
draw your right foot back a pace together with a riverso sgualimbro, with which you’ll go into coda lunga alta
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It is unclear whether any Democrats will sign onto the Succeed Act, or whether common ground can be reached between the Republican bill and the Dream Act, which has languished in Congress since 2001. To be eligible for protection under the Succeed Act, immigrants must have arrived before the age of 16 and been in the United States since June 15, 2012.
The Succeed Act also makes immigrants apply for conditional status for the first 10 years, similar to the work permits offered under DACA, after which they are allowed access to a green card. However, unlike other green card holders, those eligible under the Succeed Act would not be allowed to use their green cards to help other family members become legal residents. After five years as a green card holder, a person would be able to apply to become an American citizen.
The Dream Act is considerably more lenient.
“I appreciate that my colleagues recognize the need to pass legislation giving a path to citizenship to Dreamers, young immigrants who were brought here as children and grew up in this country — so do 75 percent of the American people,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois who authored the Dream Act with Mr. Hatch. “Unfortunately,” he said, the Republican bill “falls short.”
Mr. Lankford said he had talked to Mr. Trump about the bill and that the president indicated he would support it. Mr. Lankford also pushed back on conservatives who argue that legalizing so-called Dreamers would take jobs from other Americans.
“It actually hurts us to pull those individuals out of the economy,” Mr. Lankford said of the young working immigrants. “This is not an amnesty bill where we take those individuals and say, ‘We are going to give you a quick route to citizenship,’ and just ignore the realities of what happened coming in.” |
Tucker Carlson of Fox News recently had Bill Nye on as a guest to discuss climate change. The entire interview is worth a listen because it nicely illustrates the strategies employed by denialists.
Here are some highlights:
Carlson pushes what is a very common denialist narrative, that they are skeptics who are just asking honest questions. Meanwhile the proponents of global warming are trying to shout them down, call them names, and are doing a disservice to science by trying to shut down debate.
The problem with this narrative (other than not being true) is that you can apply it to any position that denies established science. Flat-Earthers are just skeptics, stop shouting them down. Answer their honest questions.
The devil, of course, is in the details. Are climate change denier just asking honest questions? Ironically, Carlson himself demonstrates in the interview that he isn’t. He is playing rhetorical games to cast doubt on climate science.
First Carlson plays the silly hand that the “climate is always changing.” Of course it is. Saying this as if it counters the claims of anthropogenic global warming is so profoundly intellectually dishonest that Carlson has already abandoned any scientific high ground and proven Nye’s point before he even makes it.
Nye tries to explain that while the climate is always changing, it is the rate of change that is extraordinary. While this is correct, Nye did not really have the time to explain what he meant sufficiently to address Carlson’s persistent attempts to distort the scientific position.
The climate changes in various cycles. There are short term trends, which cause the meandering of average temperatures from year to year oscillating around the average over decades. There are also medium-term trends, with increases and decreases in the average over hundreds or thousands of years. There are also long term trends, with changes happening over millions of years.
Nye was essentially saying that we are currently seeing changes in climate over decades that normally take tens of thousands or millions of years to occur. It could also have added that the meandering background trend has been forced in the last 50 years or so in a relentlessly upward trend. Climate scientists call this, in fact, “forcing.” They have looked for all possible causes of this climate forcing in the warming direction and the only explanation they can find is human-caused release of greenhouse gases.
Nye never had the chance to give even this minimalist explanation, because Carlson kept interrupting him with nonsensical questions.
First, Carlson misinterpreted Nye’s point about the rate of change. He interpreted it to mean that the same directional forcing would be occurring naturally, just over a longer period of time. I don’t believe for a second that Carlson actually believes this is the scientific position, he was just trying to use every trick he could to trip up Nye.
Carlson therefore asked Nye, what would the rate of change be without human activity? That’s a silly question, again misinterpreting the scientific position. Not only would the rate of change be slower but the direction of change would not be persistently in the warming direction, absent human forcing.
Carlson got into a game with Nye where he was asking him what percentage of the change in climate is due to human activity. Is it 70% or 80%? He actually said, that if the science is settled, than you should be able to answer this simple honest question.
Again, the question is neither simple nor honest. It misunderstands that actual scientific position. Further, Carlson knows that scientists cannot give precise answers to the behavior of a chaotic system like climate. He even admits this is “unknowable.”
What Carlson is doing is also a classic denialist strategy – confuse uncertainty over the details with uncertainty over the more basic concept. Scientists don’t know exactly what species evolved into which other species and exactly when and where? Well, how do they know evolution happened at all?
This is not valid scientific reasoning. We can be certain (as much as science can be certain about anything) the DNA is the molecule of inheritance without fleshing out all of the mechanisms by which DNA works and is regulated. We can be conclude beyond reasonable scientific doubt (i.e., settled science) that plate tectonics is real, before we can measure the precise rate at which the continents are shifting.
Carlson’s example is even worse, because you cannot predict what the precise behavior of a complex system would have been without this one factor, you cannot conclude what effect that one factor is having. That is an absurd position – it is not just asking honest questions like a good skeptic.
Nye countered that the climate would look like it did in 1750, which is a reasonable assumption. In general terms, without the industrial revolution, the climate would most likely look similar to what it did before the industrial revolution started pouring CO2 into the atmosphere. We can’t say exactly what it would have looked like, but we can estimate by subtracting human forcing from what did happen.
Carlson simultaneously attacks Nye for criticizing climate deniers, trying to make it seem like Nye is the one who is being unreasonable, while he is nicely demonstrating the exact behavior of deniers that Nye and others criticize. |
The Seattle Police Department’s foray into Nextdoor is a product of its broader attempt to reconnect with the community it serves after being placed under a Justice Department consent decree in 2012. A federal investigation the year before had uncovered a pattern of excessive violence among officers, and the resulting report expressed “serious concerns about biased policing.”
To be more transparent, the department took to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr to push out information about crimes, events, and the agency itself. Twitter is the department’s primary communication tool, Whitcomb says—and indeed, its account has a disproportionate number of followers for Seattle’s relatively small population, trailing only Boston’s and New York City’s much bigger police departments.
But Nextdoor is more private and decentralized than Facebook or Twitter, and so when Nextdoor approached Seattle Police in 2014, the department saw an opportunity to engage with Seattleites in a different way. The department waited until there was a critical mass of Seattle residents on the platform—about 20,000—before diving in. “It’s not our place to promote platforms,” Whitcomb says. “It’s our place to go where people are having conversations.”
Public-agency accounts like the Seattle Police Department’s work a little differently than individual Nextdoor user accounts: Public employees can post to community pages, see replies to their posts, and message privately with individuals—but they can’t see the rest of the chatter on a community page, or read private messages that users have sent to one another. Seattle Police is one of the larger of the 1,400 public agencies—mostly police departments—on Nextdoor.
Seattle’s department encourages precinct officers to maintain a presence on the community pages for the neighborhoods they serve. The initiative is an example of what the department calls “micro-community policing”: an attempt to use hyper-local data to customize its approach to law enforcement. Officers can alert residents to crime trends, ask for feedback on policing initiatives, or simply introduce themselves and encourage neighbors to say hi to patrolling officers.
After a honeymoon period, however, Seattle’s relationship with Nextdoor hit a few bumps in the road.
This February, Nextdoor hosted Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole for the first-ever online “town hall” on the platform: Residents asked the police chief questions and had a chance to hear directly from her. But when local journalist Erica Barnett reported on the event, Nextdoor booted her from the site for violating its terms of service for publicly posting users’ questions. It wasn’t until after she wrote about the incident on her website that her account was reinstated.
Barnett’s reporting was fiercely critical of the echo-chamber effect of the local, private community pages, many of which have hyperactive “crime and safety” sections. Indeed, in a recent interview with Barnett, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray derided an atmosphere of “paranoid hysteria” he’d witnessed on the message boards of some of Seattle’s more upscale neighborhoods. |
Bruck used that to test dolphins' memories. He studied dolphins from six breeding facilities that rotate the animals among themselves -- and, in the process, keep detailed records of which dolphins shared tanks, and when. There were more than 50 animals in all. Bruck first recorded each dolphin's unique whistle. And then he played it back to the dolphins' former tankmates using underwater speakers. (As controls, Bruck both habituated the dolphins to unfamiliar whistles -- thus eliminating the possibility that the animals were simply responding to the novelty of speaker-based sound signatures -- and alternated those whistles with the calls of unfamiliar dolphins.) The point? To test whether the dolphins would recognize each others' whistles, even after years-long stretches of separation.
The findings? The dolphins did, indeed, seem to remember each other. The whistles of the dolphins' former tankmates resulted in the dolphins doing things like purposely bumping into a speaker, or (even more sadly) whistling at it -- "trying," Nature notes, "to make it whistle back."
And that recognition behavior held, even more interestingly, no matter how long a pair had been separated. A dolphin named Bailey had been living apart from a former tankmate, Allie, for more than 20 years. Yet Bailey, in Bruck's experiment, seemed to recognize Allie's "name" -- her signature whistle -- despite the temporal distance. Bailey's recognition of Allie, Nature puts it, represents "the most durable social memory ever recorded for a non-human."
Bruck just published the results of his research in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. And while it's unclear what his findings might mean about dolphins' memories overall -- he was testing name recognition, not circumstantial or emotional memories -- there's some reason to think that dolphins' memories stretch beyond rote recognition itself. In tests that broadcast the signature whistles of "extremely dominant males," for example, Bruck found that females responded with "exceptional interest." "There was also a lot of posturing from the males," Bruck noted. And "some young ones would just go ballistic."
In other words, dolphins may well have the capacity for relatively complex memories -- memories that associate individuals with actions. Memories that can last for decades. So, should you find yourself doing dealings with a dolphin, try your best to stay on its good side. Twenty years is a long time.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com. |
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The Sherrod defamation suit against Breitbart et al continues. A federal appeals court upheld a federal district court’s rejection of a Breitbart colleague’s request to dismiss Shirley Sherrod’s defamation case against conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, his aide Larry O’Connor and an unnamed defendant.
Breitbart died in February of 2012, at the age of 43, but the suit continued. O’Connor requested that the case be dismissed on the grounds that it violated his freedom of speech rights.
Sherrod was asked to resign from her job as the former Georgia State Director of Rural Development for the Department of Agriculture after Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com posted a deceptively edited video of the African American Sherrod speaking to an NAACP group, which made her sound like she was “racist” against white people. (Note: While conservatives like to make this claim, a function of racism is using race to keep a minority in the status quo, therefore, while white conservatives rage about “reverse racism”, it is not actually equivalent to the systemic, cultural and economic impact of racism on minorities).
The “conclusion” that Sherrod was a racist was in fact the opposite of the point she was making in her speech. This became clear later, when the full speech was released to the public, and Sherrod received belated apologies from the administration.
O’Connor and Breitbart claimed the Sherrod post was “opinion” and stood by it. The AP pointed out that the case is one of the first high-profile cases to test bloggers’ freedom of speech rights, with large news organizations filing friend of the court briefs in the lawsuit.
While it’s concerning to see a possible silencing of bloggers/press via a defamation suit, the issue may not be as simple as it first appears. There is an onus upon a “blogger” who wishes to maintain some level of credibility to verify the information. As an example, let’s look at David Corn’s release of the damaging Mitt Romney “47%” video. Corn did due diligence before releasing the tape. And again, when Corn released the Mitch McConnell secret tape, he took pains to authenticate it. The journalist told The Huffington Post that he “was able to verify the tape was authentic.” In addition, Corn said that Mother Jones “vetted the use of the tape for the story with our lawyers, as we always do in these situations.”
Sure, he could have still been taken – it’s possible, but there should be a reasonable expectation that information is vetted as much as possible, while balancing that need with the public’s right to know.
There’s also a lot of space between running a falsely edited video, perhaps unknowingly, and refusing to correct inaccurate “opinion” and accusations. Breitbart et al had the chance to update their posts with the accurate information, and they did eventually post the full 40-minute video of the speech, but somehow conservatives still believe that Sherrod is a “race-baiting Marxist”. This is probably because Breitbart claimed rather disingenuously that the point was never to target Sherrod, but rather to prove that the NAACP audience were racists, so as to mitigate the charges of racism being levied at the Tea Party during this time period.
The conservative Gateway Pundit is offended by the NAACP and “race baiting Marxist” like Sherrod and still thinks Sherrod should apologize, writing on May 31 of 2013, “then another step on the road to recovery from the Progressive race-card-game addiction, would be an apology from Shirley Sherrod and the NAACP.”
While it’s true that corrections rarely get the press the original story does, telling a lie and never properly correcting it is a heightened problem within the epistemic closure of conservative media, where outside reality is refused breathing space. For example, Right-wing bloggers falsely claimed that Joe Biden was “lying” about having played football at the University of Delaware, according to Media Matters, even though more than 20 years of actual reporting debunked this claim. “Gateway Pundit, National Review Online, and the Daily Caller picked up a post from Breitbart and claimed that it was evidence that Biden didn’t play football at Delaware and is “lying” about it.”
The result is that defamation is allowed to continue unabated, and with often drastic and supremely unfair (and sometimes dangerous) results. Yes, bloggers have important freedom of speech rights, but as with any rights, they also have responsibilities. It’s not clear that Breitbart et al have taken those responsibilities to heart, especially given the fact that they continue their jihad against political opponents unabated and unfettered by concerns of accuracy.
In a normal world, the readers (aka, the market) would reject a source that repeatedly misled them — but this is a market that seeks out sources that will mislead them in order to have their beliefs confirmed, and their prejudices reinforced.
So the question is not should Breitbart et al have run the original, deceptively edited video, presuming they did so unknowingly (and this has not been established). The questions are: A) What kind of diligence did they pursue to verify that they had the entire video, that it wasn’t edited so as to mislead the viewer, and that the clip they had was a reasonably accurate representation of the context and B) Once an important correction is established, how did the outlet handle this responsibility.
There’s an important difference between activism and journalism/news reporting/opinion pieces, if Breitbart et al are extending freedom of speech to freedom of the press rights (the right to speak and be heard). If you have an agenda that so blinds you to any sense of responsibility to your audience, it may be challenging to claim that your right to misinform the public so as to garner support for your cause should be protected under the law the same way a journalist’s like David Corn’s should be. If you are claiming freedom of speech, you are free from governmental restraint, but not necessarily the civil consequences of possible defamation charges or the marketplace reaction (see Paula Deen).
For example, journalists and bloggers with ethics don’t meet with candidates in off the record meetings to determine how to get the candidate’s message across better, but that’s what many conservative bloggers did with the Romney campaign. “The basic message I got is the primary’s over and we want you on our side and working with the campaign,” one attendee told the Huffington Post. That’s called propaganda, not news, and it certainly isn’t a function of an effort to inform the public.
Having an ideological bent is not the same thing as being willing to lie and mislead your audience, or deceptively present the other side so as to damage them as a defense of your “side”, which is exactly what Breitbart admitted to using the deceptive Sherrod video for in his email to TPM in July of 2010. It’s completely absurd that the mainstream media circled the wagons around Breitbart’s empire, once again falling for the ruse that caused them to defend Fox News from the Obama White House’s accusation that they are not a news organization.
If conservative bloggers like Breitbart continue to follow Fox News down the defamation path in service of their propaganda agenda, the very least the mainstream media can do is refuse to continue pretending these outlets are legitimate news or journalism.
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Our neighbors to the north and south see the war on drugs as a failure and legal cannabis as an opportunity.
June 27, 2017 4 min read
Opinions expressed by Green Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Just like that, Mexico joined Canada this month in making medical marijuana legal nationwide. And the Canadian Parliament is considering making adult-use marijuana legal across the nation by mid-2018.
All of this could potentially put legal marijuana businesses in the United States far behind their neighbors to the north and south.
Marijuana remains an illegal drug at the federal level in the United States, although 29 states and the District of Columbia have made medical marijuana legal. Another eight states, as well as the district, have made adult-use marijuana legal.
The Trump Administration shows no signs of changing the federal law anytime soon. If anything, it's just the opposite. Members of the administration have been so vocally antagonistic to legalized marijuana that a bi-partisan group of senators have submitted a bill protecting state medical marijuana laws from federal interference.
What's this mean for marijuana entrepreneurs in the U.S.? Potentially some very stiff competition, according to former Mexico President Vincente Fox.
Related: Senators Press Legislation to End DEA 'Meddling' In States That Legalize Medical Marijuana
Exporting marijuana.
Both Canada and Mexico will take the lead in producing medical marijuana for use in the U.S., Fox told those gathered at this month's National Cannabis Industry Association convention in Oakland, Calif.
Both Canada and Mexico intend to export medical marijuana to the U.S., a legal practice under international law.
Fox said he eventually expects Mexico to produce and export as much as 60 percent of the marijuana used by those in the U.S. Fox said cannabis "has to be integrated into NAFTA," allowing it to be traded across the border "without barrier, without taxes and limits, only complying with the law."
Change of heart.
Current Mexican President Enrique Pena Nietro had opposed legalizing medical marijuana nationwide as little as a year ago, but began to change his mind after a national debate on the issue in 2016.
He has in recent months called for countries around the world to rethink their approach to illegal drugs, treating it more as a public health issue.
Related: McDonald's Billboard Cracks a Good Pot Joke
The decree issued by Pena Nietro gives the country's Health Secretary 180 days to "harmonize regulations" on medical marijuana, as well as the creation of regulations to govern production, sale and use of medical marijuana.
The decree also calls for research into all the potential health benefits of marijuana, as well as programs that prevent children and adolescents from having access to marijuana and programs for those who develop addictions. The measure passed Mexico's Lower House of Congress by a vote of 371-19, according to the Independent. It had earlier passed the Senate by a vote of 98-7.
Ravaged by drug wars.
Mexican leaders took the action on medical marijuana - and Pena Nietro has taken a new stance on illegal drugs as a whole - as the country faces a continued escalation in the drug wars that have ravaged Mexico for years.
After a downturn in violence in the early years after the turn of the century, deaths related to Mexican drug wars totaled 121,669 between 2006 and 2012, according to a recent report from the Justice in Mexico project at the University of California- San Diego's Department of Politic Science and International Relations.
Related: Do Something That's Never Been Done Before, According to This Marijuana Tech CEO
That translates into more than 20,000 homicides every year, about 55 every day and just over two per hour, according to the report.
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Matt Sperling: We’re all kind of sick of this issue and are hoping not to relive it for every PT, but it does seem like each batch of invites presents its own facts for us to overanalyze.
This time around, Max Brown finished the PTQ season with five Top 8s including a finals loss, and multiple losses in the Top 4. That wasn’t deemed good enough, and he didn’t receive an invite to PT Dragon’s Maze. Meanwhile, a European player who made five Top 8s, without a finals loss, got an invite. Helene noted on Twitter that he Top 8’d PTQs in five different countries, and that played a role in his selection. To me, that seems to me totally an artifact of the circumstances of Magic in Europe, not an independently impressive or noteworthy achievement.
The details are interesting and I’d love to hear your take on whether geography matters, but I think the even bigger take-away is that you can move around the, “just barely missed,” heartbreak, but you can’t eliminate it. I’m in favor of eliminating these invites because as bad as losing in the finals feels (I lost in the finals before I ever won a PTQ, and it hurt), it hurts worse when some committee behind closed doors DECIDES you lost in the finals. And that’s essentially what’s happening—there are a few extra “PTQs” here with their own “finals,” but instead of playing it out you just have to hope they pick you as the winner, otherwise here comes that heartbreak of barely missing.
Roberto Gonzales: While I totally understand where you are coming from, I can’t disagree more. Businesses need to 100% be able to do what they feel is best for the bottom line. Sports leagues like the NFL, NHL, NBA, etc. all rely on two things: talent and storyline. These two branches excite fans into watching, which in turn gets said fans to spend more money. More money means bigger profits and bigger profits mean the people in charge get bonuses and/or keep their jobs.
I want to use the example of an attorney who takes on a pro bono case. Let’s say this attorney is very busy and can only take five cases like this every year. As you and I both know, there are tons of people out there who could use this particular lawyer’s skills, but in the end he has to evaluate all of the available cases and select the five per year that he will take. Every story is worthy in its own right but since he only chooses five, do all the others stories become intrinsically less worthy? Absolutely not. Someone had to be chosen. That everyone couldn’t be chosen doesn’t mean no one should be chosen. I can’t get behind making everyone suffer because we only can choose a few.
You are also arguing that Max Brown’s five Top 8s were higher quality than Chris Passow’s, because he has a finals loss and multiple Top 4s. If we’re talking about a Sponsor’s Exemption, there would be no argument since Sponsor’s Exemptions are, “awarded to players who showed excellence in play during the qualifying season but did not earn an invitation through other means.” But Passow received a special invite like I did, because WOTC loved his story.
Five Top 8s in five countries just sounds interesting, and I’m sure it will energize Europeans in the area as well as those who travel far and wide for PTQs. That being said, I believe his invite does have to do with him being European and Max being American. They won’t say it, but there has to be some Euro-favoring here, which Wizards is perfectly entitled to.
So here’s the real question: Do you feel that only people who WIN a big tournament are deserving of a spot?
Matt: Well, I don’t know that “deserve” is the right word. I think a bright-line rule about who qualifies is so useful precisely because it eliminates the need for us or anyone else to discuss or decide who deserves to be qualified. You know why we never discuss who “deserves to be Platinum?” Because the threshold is clear—you get a certain number of Pro Points, you’re Platinum. Fall short and you don’t. It’s important that the people who fall short don’t feel as cheated by the system as they feel slightly disappointed in themselves.
You make a great point regarding the Special/Sponsor’s distinction and the European-road-warrior, Passow, getting the former, not the latter. Still, this player is being invited for those achievements and Americans like Max and people in countries like Mexico or Argentina who just don’t have many PTQs to attend are left comparing themselves to Passow and wondering what else they could have done. There’s no easy fix to the opportunity disparity based on geography, but these cumulative awards are salt right in the wound.
Your Pro Bono analogy is pretty solid. People who take this mindset, “there are only so many favors to go around,” will help themselves out if they feel they were “robbed,” and that change of language is a key shift from feeling entitled to just being disappointed. As someone who did legal services clinic intake during law school, and had to turn people away, I’d rather avoid the way that makes people feel. No one is explicitly judged less worthy, but unfortunately they are implicitly deemed less worthy of the services, and they certainly pick up on and internalize that judgment.
The PT only has so many slots. The number of slots isn’t truly fixed in any immutable sense, but WotC keeps a close eye on the size of the tournament and has deliberately made them smaller over the last year. The four slots that went to Sponsor’s Exemption invites are four fewer PTQs to run—I really think that’s how you have to look at it. The total pie isn’t changing, we’re just discussing the method for selecting 4 or 8 pieces of that pie.
Finally, I’ll address the “Magic is a business” concern. Let’s first get out the way the fact that Wizards can do whatever they want with the PT (well, perhaps not whatever they want, but pretty darned close if my law of private associations memory serves).
Everything I’m writing on this topic is about the should, not the can. Should Wizards invite these PTQ grinders? I think the Special Invites to players with broad non-Magic followings make sense. Full disclosure, I’m really good friends with one of the recipients, but hey, I said do away with the Sponsor’s Exemptions last season when another good friend, Eric Froehlich, got one. The Sponsor’s Invites and Passow’s quasi-Sponsor’s-Invite don’t serve that same business and publicity function. The people taking note are people who play a ton of PTQs and want those slots themselves. “Do what’s best for the bottom line,” is not an axiom I disagree with. My point is that clear rules and consequently >4 players satisfied with the fairness of the process are valid business and bottom line concerns not being served by the current system.
Roberto: I understand that you want to have a bright-line rule like the Pro Point levels for Gold and Platinum. I hear all the time on various social networking sites that you either make it or you don’t. This line of thinking just isn’t consistent with reality. The best example of a special invite I can think of is when golfer Ryo Ishikawa got three special invites to the Masters in 2009, 2012, and this year. Even golf pro Greg Norman received a special invite to the Masters in 2002. Bill Payne, the Augusta National chairman, said the invites were to further the name recognition of the event overseas. Granted Ishikawa didn’t make the cut in 2009 or 2012, but the point is that the organizers thought it was important to give these special invites out.
In Magic, the special invites and Sponsor’s Exemptions aren’t limited to overseas players but the rationale is the same—further the name recognition of the game. You’re saying, “how does giving special invitations further the name recognition of the game?” We have to go back to telling a good story. All of the special invites have some great story or some celebrity to them outside of Magic. Stories get eyeballs on the tournament and eyeballs lead to profits.
As for invitees taking away PTQs, that’s just not true. Helene has said multiple times that the number of PTQs is not affected by special invites. It is not a zero-sum game. The invitees are truly extra slots for that reason. All in all, I can’t help but believe that the positive added by having special invites is much greater than the negative from the people who just miss—such as with pro bono work.
That’s what we’ll call them for now on! Pro bono invites.
Matt: The PT is at a certain size to accomplish a certain goal, and those X slots are handed out. If it were a matter of finding all the deserving players and inviting them, you wouldn’t know how many PTQs and GPs to run. Desired size has to be driving PTQ numbers, so there IS a desired “sum.” If your desired sum can stretch to accommodate the Sponsor’s Exemptions and have a field that accomplishes your sizing goals, you could have accommodated 4 more PTQs instead, plain and simple. It’s like the people who go on a diet and plan out their meals but don’t plan or incorporate the snacks. You can call the planned meals your “diet” but your real diet is everything you decide to eat. Their desired PT size is similarly the total invites doled out, don’t be fooled.
I don’t really understand the, “this is a great narrative,” at all regarding someone who made two PTQ finals. It isn’t even a storyline aside from, “this person received a Sponsor’s Exemption, now look at them!” which plays as much as an insult as it does a compliment. Unless you’re Rich Hagon or one of his dozen readers, there isn’t anything exciting about being a “grinder.” This actually came up at the recent Magic Online Championships streamed on the web. Several players were referred to as “grinders” which left a weird impression with me. It doesn’t inform me about the player—it doesn’t impress or inspire me.
I think perhaps you’re discussing the Special Invites and not the Sponsor’s Exemptions, but then the conclusion you draw is being applied to both. So I’ll just pose it directly: Regarding the 4 Sponsor’s Invites, why should anyone care whether these players are invited besides the players themselves?
Roberto: I feel like many people, including yourself, have an ingrained distrust for those running things at WotC. It’s like you can’t possibly believe that what they are saying is true, and it’s your job to cut through the veil of lies to find the real motives. I just don’t agree. I believe that the people up top are telling us the honest truth and that their motives are good and sound.
You didn’t address my golf example on special invites, but ultimately the idea that a few special people should receive invitations just makes sense to me. Having the dream go down the drain because you get unlucky in multiple PTQ finals doesn’t seem fair. I know we can’t invite all the deserving people but that doesn’t make the system broken.
It’s a work in progress. They’re doing their best. That’s all we can ask of any system.
Matt: Is this a system or a 4-year old? But seriously, yes, it’s a work in progress—my feedback is intended to improve it. We can definitely ask for works in progress to improve, I’m not calling for any emergency changes here.
I am not a conspiracy theorist, but there is often a significant divide between the messaging and what’s really going on. That’s true of any closed-door decision making process and subsequent release of information through a spokesperson.
Here, Helene is defining “capacity” (i.e. the number of players we want at the PT) as (Total Invitees – Special/Sponsor’s Invitees), but that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.
Here’s the proof: If the planners of the Pro Tour believe they can only support 300 players and stay within their goals, and they also want to give out between 4 and 10 Special/Sponsor’s invites, they can just invite 290 players and retain the full flexibility over the remaining 10 slots. They can then have their PR person say, “these extra invites are just that, extra, and they don’t take away any PTQ slots.”
But just saying it won’t make it true; if they didn’t have to give these invites out, they could support inviting 300 players and stay on track for their strategic and budgetary goals. So it isn’t really a non-zero-sum addition. What if they invited 300 players and are now inviting 8 more, you ask? Well, then they were mistaken when they said they could only support 300 and stay within their goals.
You can fuzz the numbers to add “uncertainty” about goals and how many players those goals support, but you cannot create a non-zero-sum situation out of uncertainty whereby (Capacity + Additional Invitees <= Capacity). These Special/Sponsor's invites take away slots from other people. If I have an ingrained distrust for Wizards' spokespeople, it's only because Wizards isn't great at PR as an organization, so I've learned to be skeptical. I believe these things regarding Sponsor's Exemptions: Its heart is in the right place, and it's trying to reward deserving players. Those two facts don't change the impact of the system: it increases, not decreases, the "feel bad" of not quite making the PT, on balance, since many more people feel passed over than receive the invite, and it allows fewer people to play their way in. |
Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch held her own against former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) Monday night, avoiding any major stumbles as she sought to prove herself an acceptable alternative to voters in the House campaign's only debate.
The businesswoman wasn't anywhere near as smooth as the seasoned politician, stuttering at times and showing some nerves at the start. But while Sanford got in some shots at her Democratic and labor supporters, he failed to land a knockout blow — and she got in some blows of her own, tweaking him for the 2009 extramarital affair that derailed his political career.
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The two are locked in a tight race to fill Sen. Tim Scott Timothy (Tim) Eugene ScottSenate reignites blue slip war over Trump court picks Senate approves border bill that prevents shutdown Senate passes bill to make lynching a federal crime MORE's (R-S.C.) old House seat, and while the district is solidly Republican, Sanford's personal baggage has hurt his campaign.
Sanford kept his focus on fiscal issues, though he did argue that his political fall had given him a "greater level of humility." Colbert Busch largely avoided the topic as well — but she did accuse him of using state funds to fly to Argentina to see his mistress, an allegation Sanford has disputed in the past.
Fiscal conservatism "doesn't mean you take the money we saved and leave the country for a personal purpose," she said to strong cheers from her supporters and boos from his.
"She went there, Gov. Sanford," a moderator said.
"I couldn't hear what she said," he responded with a smile before asking her to repeat herself.
She didn't, but later Sanford compared himself to former President Clinton when asked whether he regretted voting to impeach the 42nd commander in chief in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky affair: "Do you think that President Clinton should be condemned for the rest of his life based on a mistake he made in his life?"
Colbert Busch has clearly had the momentum in recent weeks following new allegations from Sanford's ex-wife that he'd trespassed at her home. The big question of the night was whether he could cause her to stumble and he could regain some momentum. She stayed steady, and the trajectory of the race likely did as well.
Sanford went hard after Colbert Busch for the large sums Democratic outside groups have spent on her behalf, arguing she would be beholden to their interests if elected to Congress.
"Nancy Pelosi is running hundreds of thousands of dollars in ads," he said to groans and boos from the Colbert Busch supporters in the audience.
"It's not believable to me that someone gives you a million dollars and not expect something in return," he later repeated.
She fired back.
"I want to be very clear, Mark. Nobody tells me what to do," she said. "I am a fiscally conservative independent tough businesswoman."
She echoed that theme repeatedly throughout the debate, hewing to her centrist image by promising in her closing statement to take a 10 percent congressional cut, calling parts of ObamaCare "extremely problematic," and advocating for cuts to government spending.
Sanford pointed out that as head of government affairs for a local group, she'd donated to his campaign. She responded by saying he'd promised to support the Port of Charleston, a major local job creator.
"You didn't tell the truth, you turned around and did the opposite," she said.
Sanford argued that he'd supported the project but opposed the way it was funded.
"I was against earmarks before being against earmarks was cool," he said, echoing his repeated focus on fiscal conservatism.
The special election is on May 7, slightly more than a week away.
This post was updated at 9:35 p.m. |
Brown Announces $1.75 Million for Stark Area Regional Transit Authority to Expand Its Zero-Emission Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus Fleet SARTA Building the Third Largest Fuel Cell Fleet in U.S. - As Lead Democrat on Senate Banking Committee, Brown Has Championed Federal Investment in Zero-Emission Buses
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has awarded the Stark Area Regional Transit Authority (SARTA) $1,750,000 to purchase two additional zero-emission fuel cell buses. This purchase will build on SARTA’s fleet, which third largest fuel cell fleet in the country.
“Stark County is a national leader in innovative transportation solutions that get Ohioans to work or school, while reducing pollution,” said Brown. “It’s good news that SARTA’s rapidly growing zero-emission bus program will add to its fleet and help reduce emissions in public transportation.”
“This grant will allow us SARTA to increase our total fuel cell fleet to 13 making Canton, Ohio one of the largest fuel cell fleets in the world,” said Kirt Conrad, SARTA CEO. “I want to thank FTA and Senator Brown for helping us become a leader in zero emissions vehicles.”
This investment builds on the more than $4 million SARTA received in April 2016 to add three buses, and the more than $8.8 million awarded to SARTA in February 2015 to purchase five buses through the Low or No Emission Deployment Program and earlier federal funding for the initial two vehicles. Using hydrogen fuel cell buses as their power source, rather than diesel, makes these buses more energy efficient, reducing dependency on foreign oil, and cutting down on emissions. In March 2014, Brown wrote a letter to then FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff, urging him to give SARTA’s proposal full and fair consideration. Brown toured the facility this spring and provided support to the other two grants.
Brown – who serves as the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, which oversees the Federal Transit Administration – has championed federal investment in zero-emission buses. During Senate consideration of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act last year, Brown worked to double federal investment in zero-emission projects in public transit. He was also instrumental in obtaining a Zero Emissions Testing grant for The Ohio State University.
In 2009, Brown helped secure $1 million for Stark State College to upgrade the clean room at the school’s Fuel Cell Prototyping Center. That project brought critical fuel cell technology innovation to Ohio, providing students with first-hand training opportunities to advance and commercialize a one-megawatt, solid-oxide fuel cell. In Oct. 2012, Brown wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary urging DOE’s continuation of the Solid Oxide Fuel Cell program.
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US Senator John McCain has publicly attacked his party’s leader, siding with the liberal media against President Donald Trump. NBC reports:
“Republican Sen. John McCain took a veiled swipe at President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media, cautioning that suppressing the press “is how dictators get started.”
The senator went on to talk about preserving “democracy as we know it” by maintaining an “adversarial press.” In contrast, Trump has repeatedly attacked the press for its Leftist bias and called it an “enemy of the American people.”
McCain is fresh back from a trip to Europe where he insulted the Trump adminstration, portraying it as dishonest, and promoted open borders and bringing in vast numbers of more migrants. As a US senator McCain has long advocated flooding the United States with Third World immigrants, driving down wages for native workers and displacing his party’s White conservative base. He also recently opposed Trump’s travel ban on immigrants from several Islamic countries. Additionally, “Democracy as we know it” has been an opportunity for McCain to endlessly advocate war around the world with his BFF Senator Lindsay Graham. The two routinely stand together to advocate war abroad and open borders at home – policies President Trump campaigned strongly against and has opposed during his first month in office.
Note: McCain’s son, who married a mulatto woman, was in the media last year for attacking Alt-Right trolls who objected to Old Navy’s use of interracial couples in its advertising. |
The Ashes: Australia dismantles England on day five in Adelaide to complete 120-run win
Updated
Australia has completed a 120-run victory over England in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide on a day five that failed to live up to its monumental promise.
The threat of an historic England win had evaporated within the first 15 minutes of the final day's play, when both Chris Woakes and England's great hope Joe Root had been dismissed by Josh Hazlewood.
From there, England's resistance was merely token with Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon running through the remainder of the tourists' line up to bowl them out for 233 and secure a 2-0 series lead.
Having fought bravely to reach 4-176 at stumps on day four, England must have despaired to see the Woakes-Root partnership break after only two balls on the final day.
Geoff Lemon's analysis
What a difference a good fast bowler makes. Josh Hazlewood is definitely the least fashionable of Australia's pace trio, falling behind in the showman stakes to Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc. But he's also the most reliable, and in the Adelaide Test he showed his true quality.
At times Hazlewood was the fastest of the three bowlers. Repeatedly he bowled the most threatening bouncers, given the accuracy and his ability to follow the batsman. But most important of all was his accuracy outside off stump.
When the day started, Steve Smith first threw the ball to Hazlewood. Perhaps it was just a matter of which end Starc preferred, but perhaps it was a master stroke. Whichever the case, Hazlewood delivered. Perfect line, perfect length, and a hint of movement.
All of England's hoped relied on taking the overnight partnership on through an hour or so of the first session, to chip away at the deficit and help build some sense of confidence. Instead, the nightwatchman was nicked off second ball of the day, then the far bigger wicket of the captain followed from Hazlewood's next over.
Wickets when they matter. That's all a captain can ask. Hazlewood didn't end up with the flashiest figures, but his two wickets may well have mattered more than Starc's five.
The edge Hazlewood found was so slight a bemused Woakes sent the decision to the DRS, and though Hot Spot showed no mark, Snicko was unequivocal and the nightwatchman was removed.
If England still retained any hope at that point, it had all but disappeared when Root followed suit and sent a feather from Hazlewood through to Paine.
"We came to the ground today expecting to be right in the game. Unfortunately losing the two early wickets really hampered our chances," Root said.
The feeling before play was the captain's fate would determine England's, and Hazlewood's celebration suggested the Aussies agreed.
"You sort of wait for these sort of moments in games. You want to stamp your authority on the game and to get the early wickets was good, particularly the captain Joe Root," Hazlewood told Grandstand after play.
Moeen Ali and Jonny Bairstow had the potential to be a thorn in Australia's side, but such is Lyon's dominance over his rival spinner, it took only a few overs of probing off-breaks before Ali played an erroneous sweep and was trapped LBW.
Starc needed only one delivery with the second new ball to dismiss the stubborn Craig Overton, also LBW and this time knowing no review was required.
Stuart Broad looked all at sea for 12 balls before Starc found his outside edge, before the victory was completed when Jonny Bairstow chopped on. Starc's trademark wiping of the tail saw him finish with figures of 5-88.
The fifth day was ended within a session, and Australia had won a match that had threatened to swing away from it on the fourth evening.
Steve Smith will no doubt still face questions over his decision not to enforce the follow on two days ago, but for all but the most stubborn doubters, this victory ought to have vindicated the Aussie captain.
"We won the Test," Smith correctly rebutted.
Topics: ashes, cricket, sport, adelaide-5000, sa, australia
First posted |
Film exploring the ways in which people survive at extreme altitudes where nature becomes utterly unforgiving, from lush cloud forests to bare summits.
From lush cloud forests to bare summits that take your breath away, the higher you climb the tougher life gets on a mountain. Human Planet explores the extraordinary ways in which people survive at extreme altitudes where nature becomes utterly unforgiving.
In the Altai Mountains in western Mongolia, the vast open spaces make hunting for animals almost impossible, so the locals have forged an astonishing partnership with golden eagles which can do the hunting for them.
On the precipitous cliffs of the Simien Mountains of Ethiopia we join a young boy locked in a dramatic battle with fearsome gelada monkeys which are hellbent on raiding his family's meagre grain harvest.
In the Himalayan state of Nepal we witness a rarely seen ceremony - a sky burial. In a land where there is little wood to burn for cremation and where burying the dead is virtually impossible, the dead are fed to vultures in the ultimate reverence of nature. |
"You don't want to editorialize," the comedian explained. "The problem is this: The closer you get to distasteful or what a person would consider below the belt, the funnier you are."
It takes a great deal of time to nail an impression of Donald Trump.
In fact, the Saturday Night Live comedian who perhaps best satirizes the billionaire businessman says he still has work to do.
"It is not all the way finished," Darrell Hammond tells The Hollywood Reporter of his Trump impression. "I watched it the other day, and I winced at it. It's not as good as I want it to be."
No matter how over-the-top an impression may seem to the audience, there is a fine line the SNL cast walks every week during a politically charged presidential election season.
"You don't want to editorialize," he says. "The problem is this: The closer you get to distasteful or what a person would consider below the belt, the funnier you are. But you really want to try and not step over that line if you can. I mean, they are presidential candidates for God's sake. You want to lend them that respect. [Their statements have] to be on TV or in the newspaper or online. They have to do it."
That notion is exactly why Hammond didn't think twice about his Trump commenting on the size of his penis in a recent sketch — the actual Trump did the same thing during the last GOP debate.
"I think of it like a locker room towel snap," Hammond says of the impressions being in good fun.
The comedian revealed that the key to unlocking the best impression is to study a person's idiosyncrasies but also be fair in the final presentation. He visits comedy clubs during the week to refine his version of Trump because, he says, he feels it is lacking.
"It's like a cinder pops out of the fire and hits your clothes, and you just brush it off." That is the first image that comes to Hammond's mind when he talks about finding his inner-Trump.
That idea, he says, is both literal and figurative.
"It's almost like the negative thoughts — [Trump] just brushes them off, and that is why we first started doing these hands. I would touch my chest and flip the hands out, sort of flipping away anything that is negative or disagreeable," Hammond says.
Once a full-time castmember and now the show's announcer after the 2014 passing of Don Pardo, Hammond has been crafting his impression of The Donald for more than a decade (he first trotted it out around the premiere of The Apprentice).
The comedian has countless spot-on impressions in his comedy bag, including fan favorites Bill Clinton, Al Gore and, of course, the dastardly Sean Connery. But Trump is different, he contends. There are tiny details that make the man that need to be in place in order to do the impression.
"When he does that thing with his mouth, that oval thing with his mouth, it's actually on certain vowels. It's almost like a watch repair, it is so minute," Hammond says of one of the most important facets of a good Trump. "And then you see what we call home base. Home base is the head titled back, the lips closed, then eyes closed or narrow, looking around like, 'This is awesome. Things are great. I am great. I can do this.'"
Hammond does caricatures, not portraits, when on stage, he says. That distinction is important.
"It's easier to be funny when it's a caricature," he explains. "When it's accurate, in my experience, it hasn't been as funny for me."
Like a football player, Hammond says he studies video of both the people he impersonates and of his impressions in order to achieve accuracy. However, he says it is actually Trump who was most like a pro athlete when he hosted SNL last November.
"A lot of people say he is cocky or full of himself. Maybe he is, but he is also the most positive person I have ever seen except the athletes that have come on the show," Hammond notes. "You know, he did not believe himself to be an actor. He is not somebody from our world, so he is somebody who came earlier and stayed later. And I thought it was interesting because the athletes do the same thing because they know this is not their world, but something inside them tells them, 'I'll figure a way to do this somehow.'"
Hammond got back into the Trump saddle ("by personal request") the week the business mogul hosted the show. Before that, castmember Taran Killam had portrayed Trump. Both Hammond and Killam appeared as Trump during the GOP candidate's monologue, and Hammond has been playing him ever since. Killam now portrays Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
When asked to grade his Trump impression, Hammond gives it "three stars." He gives his Clinton impression four stars, but notes that it also took years to prefect. Trump will get there, he insists.
Now that the billionaire businessman is on his way to becoming the GOP nominee for the 2016 election, Hammond says he has his work cut out for him. But it's all worth it.
"Who wouldn't want to be playing Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live?" he asks with a chuckle. "There's no other experience like it." |
After ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded Italy's credit rating a notch on Monday night, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immediately went on the offensive. The appraisal of the country's economic state seemed to be "dictated more by media reports than reality," he said. The Italian government is already balancing the budget, he added.
In reality Berlusconi has only just begun working on savings measures -- a reaction to massive pressure and repeated market fluctuations. His behavior demonstrates the leader's intention to cling to the populist style of governing until the bitter end. But the powerful media mogul's stance also betrays the limits of European Union influence on its indebted member states -- at least those that haven't yet been forced to accept a bailout.
That Italy might ultimately need financial support, to be sure, can't be ruled out. Certainly, in contrast to Greece and Portugal, the country has a powerful economy and still counts among the world's biggest industrial nations. But Italy's national debt, some 120 percent of its yearly economic output, is surpassed only by Greece within the EU.
Moreover, the Italian economy has grown only weakly in recent years, meaning that there is too little tax revenue to reduce its debt. And financing that debt has become more expensive as interest rates rise. In August 2010, interest rates on Italian government bonds were 3.8 percent. One year later, that number had jumped to 5.3 percent.
'International Laughingstock'
Large debts, weak growth and rising interest rates: These are the same symptoms exhibited by the three euro-zone countries that have already required financial assistance from their currency union partners. Saving Italy, however, would be vastly more difficult. Its debt is simply too great.
The danger has long been recognized in Europe. But as long as Italy has not drawn on financial assistance, EU influence remains restricted. Even after S&P's credit downgrade and Berlusconi's aggressive reaction, European leaders can only make appeals. A spokesperson for European Economic Commissioner Olli Rehn urged Italy to immediately enact its savings resolutions. Gerda Hasselfeldt, head of the state parliamentary group for Bavaria's conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), called the downgrade a "good and necessary incentive." Peter Altmaier, a leading member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, said: "The case of Italy shows that we're not just talking about Greece."
As slightly less diplomatic analysis came from the president of Confindustria, an organization representing Italian manufacturing and service companies. "We are sick and tired of being the international laughingstock," Emma Marcegaglia said. The government must either "enact quick, serious and also unpopular reforms" or "pack their bags," she said.
Her harsh statement shows the pent up frustration over Berlusconi's crisis management. For a long time the prime minister saw no reason to act at all. When the government passed austerity measures worth some 47 billion in July, Berlusconi boasted about how harmless it was. "We have avoided every drastic measure taken by other European countries," he said. "The Italians should build us a monument."
Wavering by Berlusconi
Such statements were not exactly designed to win back the faith of investors. If anything, market pressure only increased, forcing Rome to put together a second package of belt-tightening measures worth 45 billion. But even that proved hardly reassuring after Berlusconi sought to water-down the package. He attempted to remove a wealth tax from the package only to backtrack just days later.
Such wavering by Berlusconi can hardly be influenced from abroad. Imposing serious savings measures on Rome would only become possible should Italy be forced to apply for financial assistance.
Without a formal means to apply pressure on Italy -- such as might be provided by a European economic government, for example -- the EU can only apply backroom pressure. This is the route the European Central Bank (ECB) reportedly took by sending a confidential letter to Berlusconi with a list of demands for concrete reforms.
Fulfilment of those demands could be seen as a kind of reciprocity. The ECB has long been buying significant quantities of Italian sovereign bonds in order to keep Rome's borrowing costs as low as possible. Such purchases are controversial within the ECB, with both former German central bank head Axel Weber and chief ECB economist Jürgen Stark having resigned recently, allegedly in protest at the practice. The new Bundesbank head, Jens Weidmann, recently criticized the purchases in an interview with SPIEGEL.
Ongoing Bond Purchases
But the ECB appeal apparently was not enough to convince Berlusconi of the precariousness of the situation. "Unfortunately, it takes much too long for governments to recognize the seriousness of the situation and to take appropriate action," Ulrich Kater, chief economist at Dekabank, told the business daily Handelsblatt on Tuesday.
Indeed, it would appear that concern about Italy's current debt situation is such that the ECB can no longer tamp it down with bond purchases. Jörg Krämer, chief economist of Commerzbank, pointed out to the paper that the risk premium on Italian bonds is continuing to climb even though the ECB "is aggressively buying state bonds and thus effectively financing state expenditures with the printing press."
Europe's central bankers, it would seem, do not see an alternative to the strategy. On Tuesday, traders say, the ECB once again stepped in to buy significant quantities of Italian state bonds. |
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The point of Carnival—beyond getting drunk, getting it on, and letting yourself go one last time before Lent ushers in a season of repentance—is to bring everyone together. Sure, some of that coming together involves krewes throwing favors to the begging throngs, like the holdover from feudal times and earlier that Carnival is. But Carnival is primarily a community celebration and a moment when the usual barriers dividing people who ordinarily have nothing to do with one another break down, if only for a little while. Inhibitions and reservations get lowered, with masks and costumes finishing the job alcohol begins. While getting extra points for the difficulty of shooting at least some scenes in the midst of Mardi Gras—I’m just assuming some of those location moments couldn’t be faked—“Carnival Time” captures that spirit beautifully and lets the spirit carry over to the episode itself. “Carnival Time” is one of the best episodes the series has produced, in part because it feels so cohesive and so poignant in the way it lets its characters storylines rhyme against one another, mixing giddy moments with heartbreak and making it all feel like part of the same world, and part of a world bigger than the show itself.
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Last week, we left Terry walking with the Pigeon Town Steppers, but this week, he’s all business, and business means making sure Mardi Gras proceeds safely and in an orderly fashion. Protecting and serving is, of course, what police are always supposed to do, but Mardi Gras, and particularly a Mardi Gras after the violence New Orleans experienced leading up to the celebrations in 2007, gives his job an extra layer of responsibility. Whether it goes well or not doubles as a referendum on the health of the city. It’s all about keeping the excesses contained. Terry’s polite when he stops the woman who doesn’t know the ins and outs of where one can flash the crowd without causing any problems and angry when he busts the kid who brings a gun to the Krewe Of Muses parade. But both responses stem from the same impulse if keeping Mardi Gras on track and trouble-free. Nobody carries more weight this episode than Terry, and nobody feels as relieved as he when it’s over. (Not that there was much doubt, but David Morse has proven to be a great addition this season.)
Antoine doesn’t get the Mardi Gras he wants, but he may get the Mardi Gras he needs. Forces have conspired all season to bring him reluctantly, and belatedly, into the world of adulthood and responsibility and they continue their job this week. Without losing his gruff skepticism about the enterprise, he’s clearly become taken with teaching, at least in the moments when he spots the sort of talent that can keep the city’s music alive. He doesn’t get the day of hook-ups he so carefully set up, but he does get a day being a father to his kids. We last see him asleep on the couch as a digital clock announces midnight and the beginning of Lent, and the shot feels significant.
Davis, on the other hand, gets exactly the Mardi Gras he wants, even though it means disappointing Annie. It’s a day of drunkenness and mischief and one in which he doesn’t even worry about his new musical enterprise so much. It works out for him, and it’s fortunate for Sofia that he sticks around (more on that in a bit), but all the scenes of Annie attending Cajun Mardi Gras make it seem like he missed something by not leaving the city for the day. Fascinating stuff, right? I’m not sure what Harley and Annie’s excursion means to her musical education, but just on an anthropological level, I appreciated all the space “Carnival Time” gave to Cajun ritual, from the costumes to the music to the chicken chasing.
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Nelson, meanwhile, gets immersed in a ritual a little closer to his new home, joining the Zulu Social Aid And Pleasure Club, donning the blackface favored by the largest mostly African American krewe in town, participating in the parade, and going home with the prettiest parade-watcher he passes. It’s a good day for Nelson and one that brings him ever more tightly into the social network that runs New Orleans, even if he seems to forget any personal motives for the moment. So let’s pause to ask a question Nelson doesn’t seem to be asking: Where is this going? Are Oliver Thomas and others seducing him into going native for the good of the city? Are they making a proper New Orleanian out of a would-be carpetbagger? And if so, will it take? Nelson delights in the city and the pleasure it has to offer, but he still doesn’t seem invested in its well being beyond his own benefit. That tension can’t last, even if he’s yet to realize that. But waiting for him to see it has started to turn his story into one of the season’s most interesting.
Albert’s story has taken a less dramatic turn, but that doesn’t make it any less satisfying to see him returning to New Orleans to lead his tribe, proudly sporting the beadwork Del crafted for him. I’ve loved all the time Treme has spent with that subculture, with its own unique rituals and music, this season and last, and the Mardi Gras scenes don’t disappoint, letting us see Indian celebration in all its splendor. The parade also gives Del the breakthrough he’s been struggling for all season when he hears Indian beats contrasting against jazz licks. It’s not the episode’s subtlest moment, but it is the revelation his plot has been building toward all year. And, besides, I’d listen to an album like that. Assuming, that is, that Del’s not too distracted by his father’s active sex life to finish it. Any theories on Albert’s new friend? Maybe the documentarian?
Another parent and child pair, Toni and Sofia, have a more complicated day. Toni tries to celebrate Mardi Gras just like the family did before Creighton’s suicide, but the harder she pushes, the more Sofia realizes how much has changed, and the harder it gets for her to control her resentment that Toni kept the nature of her father’s death from her. They can leave the stereo playing Professor Longhair like they used to, but it just won’t be the same. Before the day is over, Sofia’s run away, taken advantage of her fake ID, and almost gotten herself into trouble. She saved by Davis, an unlikely white knight in no position to give her a lecture on drinking even if he wanted to but one who won’t stand by and watch others take advantage of her. She’s resisted her mother’s pushing, and in resisting it left her alone to lay some of Creighton’s ashes to rest in the river (in an extremely moving scene). Neither of them can talk about what’s driving them apart, and the longer they wait, the further apart they drift.
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Then there’s the temporarily absent: LaDonna shows no signs of getting better or inclination to come home, taking up a drunken, semi-permanent residence in the Baton Rouge house she so long resisted. Janette tries to scrape together a proper Mardi Gras day in New York and at least gets to enjoy some king cake and a meal that renews her appreciation for fine cuisine. And Sonny gets spirited away to do some hard work away from the celebration and its temptations. And, you know what? I think even the Sonny plot worked this week. For the first time I found myself caring whether or not that character got his shit together.
And if that’s not the sign of a superior Treme episode, I don’t know what that is. Well that and an exciting bunch of music sequences, including appearance from Al “Carnival Time” Johnson, whose biggest hit gives the episode its name. Series creators David Simon and Eric Overmeyer penned, and the direction comes from feature vet Brad Anderson. Hats off to all involved. This was an episode that effortlessly brought together the series’ sprawling cast of characters and made their individual stories feel like one big story. The show usually gets that right, but some weeks, it gets it righter than others. I’m more eager than ever to see where the season and the series go from here.
Stray observation
Just this: |
Islands close to a coast can provide significant protection from waves. For that reason, coastal communities often thrive in areas that are protected by nearby islands.
But what happens in the event of a tsunami? There is a long-standing belief that tsunamis are most destructive when they hit long, straight coastal stretches. So it’s natural to assume that nearby islands may offer significant protection by acting as natural barriers.
But there is some anecdotal evidence that, far from protecting coastal areas, islands may actually amplify the devastating effect of a tsunami. And oceanologists have long known that tsunamis behave very differently from wind-generated waves. Nevertheless, convincing scientific evidence about the way tsunamis interact with islands is thin on the ground.
Today that changes thanks to the work of Themistoklis Stefanakis at University College Dublin and friends at the Ecole Normale Superieure Cachan in France, who have simulated the effect that islands have on tsunamis and how this changes the impact of the tsunami on a straight beach behind.
This kind of computer simulation is by no means simple. Stefanakis and co simplified the problem by considering the presence of a small conical island some hundred metres high in front of a straight stretch of beach several kilometres behind it.
One of the big challenges for computer scientists doing this kind of work is to perform the simulation accurately but with minimal computational cost.
One problem is that the cost of a simulation increases dramatically with the complexity of the model. Stefanakis and co cope with this by taking data from a specially selected set of points in the model rather than from all over it.
What’s more, they use a learning algorithm to examine the experimental results from one simulation and then use this to fine tune the selection of data points in the next simulation, an approach known as “active experimental design”.
Another challenge is knowing when to finish a simulation. Without a so-called stopping criterion, the computer simulation just keeps on going and this inevitably increases the computational cost. So Stefanakis and co have paid special attention to developing useful stopping criteria that halt the simulation when its gaols have been achieved.
The team’s results will serve as a powerful warning to many coastal communities. “After running 200 simulations, we have found that in none of the situations considered did the island offer protection to the coastal area behind it,” they say.
On the contrary. In many situations, small islands dramatically amplified the effect of a tsunami for the beach behind. “The maximum amplification achieved was 70 per cent more than were the island absent,” say Stefanakis and co.
So coastal communities that are protected from wave-generated winds by nearby islands are at serious risk from tsunamis.
This kind of work should allow early warning systems to be put in place in these areas and for local communities to be educated about the extra risks that they face. And recent experience of tsunamis in Indonesia and Japan show that you can never be too prepared for such a disaster.
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1305.7385 : Can Small Islands Protect Nearby Coasts From Tsunamis? An Active Experimental Design Approach |
The Army is looking to spend as much as $100 million to expand its Special Operations headquarters in northern Afghanistan.
All around Afghanistan, from Kandahar Airfield to the Bagram jail, the U.S. military is on a building spree, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on wartime encampments. By one count, America and its allies now have 700 bases in Afghanistan. But most of the construction – and most of the extra troops "surging" into the country – are going to the violent south and the dangerous east.
Until recently, northern Afghanistan was considered quiet. Regional hub Mazar-e-Sharif was the first major city in Afghanistan to be taken from the Taliban. But, especially in nearby Kunduz province, violence is bubbling up once again.
The Army expects its expanded Special Operations HQ in Mazar-e-Sharif to occupy 70,000 square meters. It'll include a "communications building, Tactical Operations Center, training facility, medical aid station, Vehicle Maintenance Facility... dining facility, laundry facility, and a kennel to support working dogs," according to a request for proposals. "Supporting facilities include roads, power production system and electrical distribution, water well, non-potable water production, water storage, water distribution, sanitary sewer collection system, communication manhole/duct system, curbs, walkways, drainage and parking. Additionally, the project will include site preparation and compound security measures to include guard towers."
Construction is supposed to take a year. At which point, the U.S. is allegedly supposed to begin drawing down its forces in Afghanistan. Allegedly.
[Photo: DoD]
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) is trying to convince the Census Bureau to add a question about citizenship status to 2020 census forms, according to a DOJ letter released Friday.
The December 12 letter from DOJ lawyer Arthur Gary to Census Bureau official Dr. Ron Jarmin said the bureau should include the citizenship question as a way to enforce the Voting Rights Act.
“To fully enforce those requirements, the Department needs a reliable calculation of the citizen voting-age population in localities where voting rights violations are alleged or suspected,” the letter said.
The Census Bureau acknowledged the letter’s existence, telling ProPublica that the letter’s “request will go through the well-established process that any potential question would go through.”
The letter comes as several reports during the past few months have hinted that the Trump administration would include an immigration status question in the 2020 census.
Critics say that including an immigration-related question could cause a “chilling effect” on the Census response rate, while supporters say it would help ensure the integrity of future elections. |
Even when President Obama is on vacation in Martha's Vineyard, he still has to attend to the duties of the Oval Office. Lawrence Knutson, author of "Away from the White House: Presidential Escapes, Retreats, and Vacations," gives a look back at the origin of presidential vacations and the criticism that accompanies them. (Jayne W. Orenstein/The Washington Post)
Even when President Obama is on vacation in Martha's Vineyard, he still has to attend to the duties of the Oval Office. Lawrence Knutson, author of "Away from the White House: Presidential Escapes, Retreats, and Vacations," gives a look back at the origin of presidential vacations and the criticism that accompanies them. (Jayne W. Orenstein/The Washington Post)
Scott Farris is the author of “Kennedy & Reagan: Why Their Legacies Endure.”
You would think that one thing Americans could agree on is that the leader of the free world could occasionally use a day off. But even presidents’ vacations can be controversial, as partisans argue over whether the time away is detrimental to the nation. With President Obama and his family enjoying their annual summer trek to Martha’s Vineyard, let’s examine five myths about presidential vacations.
1. Presidents get vacations.
“Presidents don’t get vacations — they just get a change of scenery,” Nancy Reagan once said in defense of her husband’s frequent trips to his ranch in Santa Barbara, Calif.
In the nuclear age, presidents may have only minutes to make a decision that could affect the entire world. They don’t so much leave the White House as they take a miniature version of it with them wherever they go. Some 200 people accompany a president on vacation — including White House aides, Secret Service agents, military advisers, and experts in communications and transportation — to ensure that, while on vacation, the president can do nearly everything he could accomplish in Washington.
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He continues to receive daily intelligence and national security briefings while on vacation. Presidents also continue to tape weekly radio broadcasts, hold news conferences, attend political fundraisers and occasionally, as Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan did, entertain British royalty.
Vacations don’t stop presidents from making major decisions. For example, Reagan was enjoying a quiet weekend at Camp David when he decided to fire striking air-traffic controllers in 1981.
2. Presidential vacations harm the national agenda.
This past week, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank accused Obama of “tone deafness” for going forward with his vacation while the world was in crisis. But when is the world not in crisis?
A vacation can provide a president with that most precious and rare of commodities in the Oval Office: time to relax and think — including time to think about how to deal with a crisis.
Shortly after his reelection to a third term in 1940, Roosevelt was criticized for taking a 10-day fishing trip in the Caribbean while Britain was under assault by Nazi Germany. But FDR used that rare opportunity for reflection to devise his ingenious Lend-Lease program, which would provide vital aid to Britain to stave off the Nazi attack.
Presidents often feel the need to assure Americans that they’re using their vacations productively. Karl Rove, adviser to President George W. Bush, always alerted the media to the scholarly books the president intended to read while on vacation.
It is also unlikely that Obama would have held a news conference on Iraq this past week had he remained in Washington, but he did so while at Martha’s Vineyard to refute claims that he was seemingly “detached as the world burns.”
3. George W. Bush took more vacation days than any other president.
During his eight-year presidency, Bush did take 879 days of vacation, including 77 trips to his Texas ranch. So far, Obama has taken about 150 days off. But our founders were away even more.
During his first two years in office, President John Adams was criticized for making two lengthy trips to his home in Quincy, Mass., taking him away from the capital, which was then Philadelphia, for a total of eight months. Adams left Philadelphia to avoid a yellow-fever outbreak and then to care for his ill wife, Abigail. And his absence came at a time when the United States nearly went to war with France.
Even during the Civil War, historian Matthew Pinsker points out, President Abraham Lincoln spent 25 percent of his time, including fully half of 1862, at the Soldiers’ Home near Washington’s Petworth and Park View neighborhoods. Pinsker says Lincoln especially enjoyed going there on hot days because the cottage where he stayed was shaded and the slightly higher elevation picked up cool breezes absent from the White House.
There seems to be no correlation between vacation days and a president’s legacy. No modern president took less vacation than Jimmy Carter (79 days), while Ronald Reagan spent 335 days at his beloved California ranch. President John F. Kennedy spent nearly every weekend of his shortened presidency at one of his family’s several properties. FDR made 134 trips to Hyde Park and spent an additional six months of his presidency in Warm Springs, Ga., where he treated symptoms of his polio. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage while vacationing at Warm Springs on April 12, 1945.
4. Taxpayers foot the bill for presidential vacations.
Presidents pay for their own and their families’ lodging, food and incidentals while on vacation, which may be why they generally prefer to stay at properties they own, as guests of wealthy friends or at the official presidential retreat at Camp David.
But since presidential vacations are always working vacations, taxpayers cover what it takes to keep the commander in chief working. Lodging and meals are an extra cost, but taxpayers pay the salaries of White House staffers and Secret Service agents whether the president stays in Washington or not, so a presidential vacation does not significantly increase personnel costs.
The biggest additional expense is the use of Air Force One and the support aircraft needed to haul all the equipment and ground transportation the president needs. The Congressional Research Service estimated that the cost of operating Air Force One is nearly $180,000 per hour. Ultimately, a presidential vacation can cost taxpayers an additional $1 million or considerably more than if the president had just stayed put in the White House. How significant this is within a $3.5 trillion federal budget is something voters can decide for themselves.
5. Presidents can vacation anywhere.
The controversy over vacations allegedly began with President Gerald R. Ford, who was criticized for vacationing at the upscale Vail Ski Resort in Colorado, while the nation was in a recession.
But exclusive, high-end resorts suit the Secret Service’s needs. The agents like that Martha’s Vineyard is an island, where everyone entering and leaving can be easily tracked. The Secret Service is aware of the most tragic presidential vacation, when James Garfield was preparing to board a train for his first vacation as president in 1881 and was shot by an assassin.
In addition to the security, exclusive resorts are also generally out of reach for average Americans, which means that vacationing presidents aren’t inconveniencing average Americans with their entourages. Worried that relaxing on Martha’s Vineyard made him appear out of touch, Bill Clinton vacationed outside Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming in 1995 and 1996. But locals complained that he was disrupting the tourist season; and Clinton, according to his then-pollster Dick Morris, allegedly “hated” hiking, fishing and camping even if it did help his poll numbers.
When it comes to getting away from it all, presidents can’t get a break, no matter where they go.
outlook@washpost.com
Five myths is a weekly feature challenging everything you think you know. You can check out previous myths, read more from Outlook or follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter. |
Shoreline damage due to ice and frost heaves is extensive on Brainerd area lakes this year, toppling walls and trees and forcing up ridges as high as 10 feet in some places.
Similar damage also has been reported in Otter Tail County farther to the west. Not only is it affecting shorelines, but also possibly some homes as the ground moves.
The ground can also be disturbed by frost heaves. As frost descends deeper into the ground, the water below freezes and expands, causing disturbances in pavement and building foundations, according to officials.
The lack of snow and dramatic swings in temperature this winter created the perfect conditions to encourage lake ice movement, said Chris Pence, Crow Wing County land services supervisor. As ice thaws and rapidly refreezes, stress fractures develop, and ridges form when ice sheets collide. The ice applies pressure to the shoreline, causing it to buckle and heave. Without snow to insulate the ice, these effects are amplified, Pence said.
“Every lake has it,” Pence said. “I don’t think there’s a lake that’s going to get away with not having it.”
He said he’s received reports of damage all over Crow Wing County. Boathouses on Pelican Lake in Breezy Point and Crow Wing Lake in Fort Ripley have been damaged or tipped over. On White Sand Lake in Baxter, shoreline damage is evident in cracked and falling beach walls and heaves in people’s yards.
Dan Neff, a resident on White Sand Lake for more than 40 years, said he’s never seen damage so dramatic.
“Our yard is about four feet high close to the lake,” Neff said. “It’s weird. … Everybody’s got a mess.”
Neff said the public access on White Sand is damaged and the ramps are shoved up into the air.
“I don’t know how guys got their fish houses off the lake,” he said.
As for ground frost heaves, earlier this winter, the Schwen family on Gull Lake experienced extensive sidewalk damage after what they described as a boom that shook their homes, likely caused by sudden ice sheet movement.
James Swanstrom of Merrifield said on the same night the Schwens heard the loud boom on Gull Lake, he also heard one — 15 miles away.
There was a crack running north/south, and it crossed my entire driveway,” Swanstrom wrote in an email. “I am positive it also affected the foundation of my house.”
Pence said dealing with shoreline disturbances are a normal part of lake living, although it’s usually not as widespread. He said some people believe it’s due to high water levels, but he does not think this plays much of a role. It often appears to come out of nowhere with little visual evidence of what created the ridges.
“You go out there and you expect to see this huge chunk of ice just pushing on this, but you don’t,” Pence said. “You see the dirt pushed up and you don’t see any ice that pushed it. You don’t get to see the smoking gun, per se.”
This is one of the reasons the county has setback requirements, he said, because buildings too close to the shoreline are more likely to be damaged. The county does not require residents to obtain permits to level off their property, as long as the damage occurred within the same year. Historic ridges, formed in previous years, that have since developed vegetation or trees are not included in this exception. Shoreland alteration permits are required to make changes to these.
“Additionally, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may need to be consulted if restoration work extends below the ordinary high-water level of the lake,” a news release states.
He encouraged residents to contact county land services to ensure they are following ordinance and he also said they should begin making phone calls now to line up shoreline repair.
“We have a lot of shoreline and we have a limited number of contractors to do that work,” Pence said.
Pence said preventing the damage is not always possible, but there are ways to mitigate it. He suggested planting buffers of native vegetation along the water’s edge to strengthen it against ice pressure. These buffers also help with erosion from waves once the ice has thawed.
“Ice, it’s pretty tough and it’s going to move what it wants,” Pence said. “But you’re going to have a better chance the more vegetated your shoreline is.”
Riprap, or a buffer made from rocks, is another option, he said. Although generally the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the county suggest vegetation as the preferred buffer alternative, if used appropriately, riprap can prevent some damage.
“Riprap will allow the ice to come up on top and it will curl and fall back on itself,” Pence said. “I wouldn’t say that riprap is good in every situation, but there are some situations in which riprap can be helpful.”
Neff said he had a riprap buffer on his shoreline, but he will have to do some work to get it back to its original location.
“The rocks have all been shoved toward the yard,” Neff said. “It’s going to take quite a process to get it taken care of.”
Pence said one ice heave on the shores of Lake Edward in Merrifield was between eight and 10 feet high. He observed the shoreline there was mowed to the water’s edge with no buffers, so it’s possible Neff’s damage could have been more severe had he not placed riprap. |
Nothing to see here – report
Thursday, 31st Oct 2013 17:26 by Clive Whittingham
QPR and Wigan fought out the most turgid of 0-0 bore draws at a rain lashed DW Stadium on Wednesday night, leaving Rangers three points behind league leaders Burnley.
There is a scene at the beginning of lamentably lowbrow 2000 teen flick Road Trip where Amy Smart, so desperate is she to sleep with Breckin Meyer, stands before him at the end of the bed and slowly peels away a flimsy t-shirt to reveal the naked breasts beneath.
I throw this in here mainly for something stimulating to talk about - because there was literally nothing of any note to come crawling out of 90 dire minutes of lethargic rubbish at the DW Stadium on Wednesday night and we’ve got to talk about something – but also because there is another sub-plot to Road Trip which feels strangely appropriate.
While the video tape – kids always video tape these things – of Smart and Meyer subsequently going at it is accidently posted to his girlfriend on the other side of the country, necessitating the stealing of a car and a school bus and a mentally disabled lad losing his virginity to an enormous gospel singer, one of the road tripper’s pet snake Mitch is left at home with Tom Green whose sole role in this depressingly dreadful movie is to feed it a live mouse at some point during the week.
Green, narrating the story, is captivated with his task and places the mouse in the tank immediately. For the next hour and a half we return to him intermittently to find him staring at the snake which steadfastly shows no interest in killing its prey to Green’s increasing, audible chagrin. “Unleash the fury Mitch” he yells. “Unleash the fury Mitch” over and over and over again.
With three minutes to go at Wigan on Wednesday Queens Park Rangers were awarded a free kick in a reasonably promising position some 40 yards from the home goal wide on the left. It was an opportunity for them to deliver a ball into a penalty box which they could happily have populated with Charlie Austin, Clint Hill and Richard Dunne – all fearsome aerial opponents – and hunt for a late winner. What they did instead, in fact what they did with all their free kicks at Wigan on Wednesday, was to quickly take it short and resume the aimless passing to nothing that suffocated the entire match.
It’s like QPR can, or could, but don’t want to. For a Championship team they have some outstanding creative talent at their disposal and an attacking trio of Niko Kranjcar, Charlie Austin and Junior Hoilett should have been more than enough to pose problems to a limited Wigan side. But somewhere along the line they’ve become lost in some football hipster ideal that a completed pass is almost as good as a goal; like 100 of them would count half on the scoreboard. Surely to goodness even Brendan Rodgers would concede that there’s no shame in delivering a last minute free kick to the heart of the penalty box? We’re not exactly suckling at the teat of Tony Pulis by doing that are we? God this was frustrating stuff.
QPR boss Harry Redknapp would tell you, and in fact did tell you afterwards, that this was a good result – and he’s not wrong. Wigan's position in the bottom half of the league owes more to the excessive workload heaped upon them by a Europa League campaign than the quality of their squad and the come with all the same parachute payment advantages that QPR enjoy. No visiting team has won at the DW Stadium this season in eight games spread across twocompetitions.
It could have been even better had referee Michael Naylor not inexplicably turned a blind eye to Wigan’s rookie goalkeeper Lee Nicholls shoving substitute striker Andy Johnson to the ground as he waltzed around him in ten minutes from time, and it could have been worse had Chris McCann’s header hit the back of Robert Green’s net in the fifty second minute rather than the outside of his post during a period of sustained Wigan pressure – Callum McManaman should have done more than hammer the rebound over the bar as well.
But in truth this wasn’t a game that deserved a goal, and it limped hopelessly into a rain soaked stalemate.
Redknapp would also point to injury problems in his midfield – Little Tom Carroll isn’t allowed up late enough to accommodate a midweek game at Wigan and Kranjcar limped out of the first half injured. Joey Barton was suspended which meant a recall for Ale Faurlin, who thankfully played better than he has done for some time, and Karl Henry was dropped in favour of Jermaine Jenas.
Despite that upheaval there was some reasonably decent stuff from the Londoners early in the game. Kranjcar shot over in the third minute and the move of the match at the midway point of the half worked Benoit Assou-Ekotto in on the overlap for a cut back cross that Gary O’Neil struck towards goal but, farcically, right at his own man Austin who was flagged offside as a result.
O’Neil later had a proper shot saved by young Phillips, impressive in difficult conditions on a full home league debut, and Austin side footed wide after a long period of pressure seven minutes before half time. Clint Hill headed a corner off target in the first half and Richard Dunne did likewise in the second when on both occasions the QPR man looked favourite to score. So it wasn’t like QPR were dreadful, in fact they were much the better of the two teams, they just seem so anaemic and limp at times. No thrust and urgency. No tempo to the play.
Wigan - who made three changes before the game with Ryan Shotton, Callum McManaman and Jordi Gomez coming in for Thomas Rogne, James McClean and Ben Watson after a 0-0 draw at Charlton on Saturday - were even worse. Shining light Nick Powell cut into the area in their first attack of the game and executed a clever step over that fooled the otherwise excellent Danny Simpson but he could only fire into the side netting. But mostly the Latics were restricted to long range shots and set pieces in the first half – Jordi Gomez whipped a free kick over the bar after Faurlin had been penalised for a foul on the edge of the area, Green looked nervous punching away a Powell delivery from wide but got the job done well enough.
McManaman and Gomez both had shots wide in open play before the break, both coming after QPR had been caught fannying around with the ball deep in their own half – it’s hard to deny that the R’s are becoming reasonably easy to play against, with pressure high up the field enough to induce panic and chances.
Manager Owen Coyle removed lumbering oaf Grant Holt at half time and tried a different adding a bit more pace to his attack with former West Brom striker Marc-Antoine Fortune and that seemed to have an effect for a while with a succession of early corners culminating in the McCann header and McManaman miss. But they soon reverted to type as the game slumped back into the slow, meandering pattern of the first period.
The Latics secured a loan deal for Aston Villa’s Marc Albrighton right on the cusp of the deadline and he was slung on for the final quarter of an hour alongside Brain of Britain James McClean with McManaman and Gomez making way – but QPR’s defence stood firm and Wigan lacked sufficient imagination to break through.
A free kick for the home side deep into the second half of the game bobbled around the QPR penalty box after first Assou-Ekotto and then Gary O’Neil failed with attempts at headed clearances but, again, the chance of a serious shot on goal went begging. Robert Green didn’t have a taxing save to make all evening.
Neither, really, did Nicholls although his handling and penalty box command was exemplary for one so inexperienced playing in awkward weather. Hoilett hammered a cross shot through the goal mouth agonisingly out of Jenas’ reach and Matt Phillips, who is still to find any kind of fitness and form since a summer move to W12 from Blackpool, found substitute Johnson at the back post but he could only toe the ball wide.
Rangers did look slightly more threatening once Johnson was on – much needed support for the previously isolated Charlie Austin – but it was only relative to what had gone before and Wigan were hardly quaking in their boots. The Nicholls foul on Johnson apart they didn’t look overly threatened by the London side at any point and to be fair to referee Naylor he seemed as bored as the rest of us in the last ten minutes of the game and made some peculiar decisions – Phillips aggrieved that a goal kick was awarded when his late strike deflected over, Owen Coyle onto the pitch at the end to remonstrate with the officials over two robust late challenges from Hill on Fortune and Dunne on Powell that were for some reason given as QPR free kicks.
The possession stats for this one are heavily weighted 63-37 in QPR’s favour. I’d estimate that 98% of that ball retention went absolutely nowhere.
Unleash the fury QPR. Unleash the fury.
Links >>> Photo Gallery >>> Interactive Player Ratings >>> Have Your Say >>> Message Board Match Thread
Wigan: Nicholls 7, Boyce 6, Barnett 6, Perch 6 Shotton 6, McManaman 7 (McClean 74, 6), McCann 6, Gomez 6 (Albrighton 74, 6), Powell 7, Holt 5 (Fortune 45, 6)
Subs not used: Watson, Pollitt, Espinoza, Beausejour
QPR: Green 6, Simpson 7, Hill 7, Dunne 7, Assou-Ekotto 6, Faurlin 7, Jenas 6, O’Neil 6, Kranjcar 6 (Phillips 44, 6), Hoilett 5 (Johnson 75, 6), Austin 5
Subs not used: Henry, Murphy, Chevanton, Onyewu, Traore
QPR Star Man – Danny Simpson 7 Since signing for QPR in the summer Simpson has quietly gone about settling straight into the team and playing consistently well – he looks like he’s played for QPR all his life and is an unfussy, reliable right back. On Wednesday he hardly put a foot wrong either with or without the ball – although it says something for the match that I thought the top player in it was one of the right backs.
Referee – Michael Naylor (South Yorkshire) 5 Not a lot to referee for 75 minutes or so but, perhaps through boredom, he turned the last quarter of an hour into a bit of a farce, inexplicably failing to award a foul and card for the Nicholls attack on Johnson and then seemingly trying to even that decision up with several very harsh calls against the home side that had Owen Coyle on the pitch at the end of the game having a strop. To be fair, at least it livened things up a bit.
Attendance – 13,143 (600 QPR approx) A very creditable size of following from QPR for such a long trip on a Wednesday night. Not much atmosphere around the DW but to be fair to everybody who was there on a filthy night there wasn’t a great deal to get excited about.
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Pictures – Action Images
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BrixtonR added 19:29 - Oct 31
Even more creditable we had 737 there ! Well done to those that went 4 days after the Burnley trip. 0
tsbains64 added 19:35 - Oct 31
well done to the R fans that made the trip. Pretty good point me thinks-Wigan look pretty good. Great report Clive-just need to turn the conrer and get back into winning ways 0
probbo added 19:39 - Oct 31
Thanks Clive and credit to all those R's fans for making the journey north. Its unfortunate Wigan's Europa league exploits required a rescheduling but surely a Sunday afternoon would have been better?
I tell you, this inability to create chances and score goals is going to cost us dearly. Most of those teams chasing promotion don't seem to be anywhere near as goal shy as we are. I think we've got the players to do the job (a bevvy of midfielders) but i'm still not sure Redknapp knows his 'best' team. All that said, we are third, well in the mix and a couple of home wins will hopefully build some much needed momentum. You R'ssss. 0
komradkirk added 20:09 - Oct 31
agree with all of that.
loads of possession and the more composed side for long periods but lack of cutting edge has cost us a top two spot.
thought wigan were as cynical and anti football as they were lost season.
you better hope that rat mcclean doesn't see the word Britain in the same sentence as his name. -1
Myke added 20:12 - Oct 31
Thanks Clive and may I add my admiration to all who traveled so far so soon after Burnley match, especially as another blog I follow couldn't muster a single representative to report on the game. I thought after scoring 2 goals in 3 successive games that we were over that particular hump but it seems not. As others have said its something we need to address , at least it was nice to get back to clean sheets again. The fixture list has been a bit bizarre throwing up a succession of home and then away games, hopefully it will settle down now, We knew the latter half of October was going to be tough and so it proved so it will be interesting to see if we kick on from here or end up spending the remainder of the season on the periphery.
With regard to the constant passing of the ball Clive, I know you are not a fan. You didn't like Brendan Rodgers style at Swansea and I know you would advocate somewhere between him and Pulis. Personally I'm a big fan of ball retention - if you have the ball the other team can't hurt you - and always advocate that the teams I coach should pass sideways or backwards if forward is not an option. Obviously, this takes time to perfect, especially as on these Islands ( Republic and Britain) we don't have many players who are technically comfortable on the ball. The problem is compounded if these players are older (like Henry) and are being asked to play in a way they are not familiar with. If teams are going to press us high up the pitch, then there are obvious risks to this strategy, as perfectly illustrated for Burnley's first goal on Saturday. However, equally, this should create gaps further up the opposition's end (either between their mid-field and defence or behind their defence, depending on how high they are pressing) which can be exploited when we become more adept and incisive with our passing. I guess this is a long winded way of saying keep faith with the passing until they become incisive - Harry's teams have always been good passers but not 'tippy tappy' for the sake of it and I believe we will get better as the season progresses 1
Myke added 20:29 - Oct 31
Oh and on the subject of McLean is it not far better to state ones convictions than to follow the crowd sheep-like? To me the whole poppy situation is getting slightly ridiculous. It use to be 'poppy day' to commemorate the war heroes, but now it's what? Poppy Week? Poppy Month? I think this a classic case of more is less and the over use of a symbol actually devalues its original honorable intention. I wonder how many of our so-called 'celebrities' who sport an over-sized poppy for days (weeks) on end, actually truly understand its original symbol, or merely regard it as another 'must have' fashion accessory, another piece of bling to show off. 2
BushRangerW12 added 20:32 - Oct 31
It was a pleasant surprise to see so many R's at Wigan after 2 away games prior to another 200mile plus trip for most R's. I have to say how alarmed I am with how poor Hoilett is. Its just not working for him at QPR. Literally every time he had the ball last night he lost it or it went nowhere. Have a look at my latest QPR blog at http://beataboutthebushranger.blogspot.co.uk/ 0
TacticalR added 20:38 - Oct 31
This really doesn't sound good (and it didn't sound good on the BBC commentary either). I can't help suspecting that because of all our late wins earlier in the season there is a conviction that a goal will turn up from somewhere, and that's beginning to look like a false belief. 0
extratimeR added 21:33 - Oct 31
Thanks Clive
Yes, it sounded grim on the radio as well, more game time for Faurlin can only help.
0
smegma added 21:54 - Oct 31
Very good of the highways agency to part close the dual carriageway back to the M6 with only 1 lane in use AFTER THE GAME. Couldnt they have waited until the crowds had cleared ??? Even if the contractors were called 'URS' they were causing more congestion !! 0
Kaos_Agent added 02:10 - Nov 1
Thanks Clive. You rated Jenas 6 and he was not referred to as a friendly ghost (appropriate as it's Halloween tonight over here), so that must be a high point for him. Good to see AJ back with no apparent issues. Opinion on Junior seems to be well split - if he could stay healthy, avoid impersonating SWP re being dispossessed, pass it a bit more on the attack, and show his proven shooting prowess now and again, he might even be a worthy successor to Townsend. Lots on that to-do list. 0
isawqpratwcity added 02:47 - Nov 1
Thanks for the report, Clive.
I struggle to see how we are going to improve. After Burnley I reckoned start AJ and Austin together, but that will only diminish a mid-field that already suffers from a disconnect with our attack.
How is it we manage to turn decent signings into shadows of their former selves? Is it Harry's set-up, or do we need a decent coach? 0
DesertBoot added 09:09 - Nov 1
Two points from three away games. Early days but can we say we really gave it our best shot? I'd say no. 0
AshteadR added 14:18 - Nov 1
Thanks Clive, it was a truly awful game.
I was fortunate / unfortunate (depending on your point of view) to be able to coincide a work trip to the north. Hoillett and Phillips didn't offer any real threat and I lost count of the times they gave the ball away.
We've flattered to deceive so far this season and need to be a bit more adventurous with the ball rather than passing sideways and backwards the majority of the time.
Still, if we can win our home games and not lose away, we'll be well up there. And it's still a lot better than last year - some good honest performances (if not spectacular)! 0
Antti_Heinola added 16:46 - Nov 1
Thanks for the review clive and well done for making the long trek along with the rest of the faithful. What a dreary game that sounds like. There's no earthly reason why we need to be so timid. Let's hope we pick it up tomorrow.
Glad Faurlin did well. A few more games and maybe his confidence will really start to come back. Could be a sort of Aaron Ramsey situation with him. 0 |
Image by Kitron Neuschatz
This article originally appeared on VICE US
Before he had a baby and settled down in 2014, "Ketamine Kev," as he was known to his friends in London, spent many of his work lunch breaks in a K-hole. Kevin would snort a fat line at 1 PM, and by the time he got back to his desk at a digital marketing agency, he'd spent the last hour "floating weightless atop an undulating green sea" at the park down the road. Kev and his girlfriend would often invite their friends for dinner to indulge in a few grams of K and a spot of Xbox.
That sort of lifestyle would be incredibly rare in America, where ketamine remains an unpopular underground drug, but in Britain the dissociative is consumed casually. You'll see it at post-club chill out parties, music festivals, and universities; it's also been name-dropped by mainstream bands such as Chemical Brothers, Blur and Placebo. Last year, DJ Scuba told his Twitter followers he would give them a bump of the drug if they voted for him in a competition. Special K is associated with British dubstep, deep house, and other music scenes—so much so that some devotees have campaigned against ketamine—but the drug is seemingly beloved by all classes. In October, cops caught a friend of Kate Middleton's family driving with "regretamine" all over his face.
The UK's love of K has not made it across the Atlantic—at least not yet. The Global Drug Survey 2015, an online survey of 100,000 drug users around the world, found that a quarter of British respondents said they had used ketamine over the last year, compared to 5 percent of American drug users. The Monitoring the Future survey of US students found in 2011 that less than 2 percent of high school seniors had used ketamine in the past year; after that the drug was dropped from the survey.
So why do Brits like ket so much?
Ketamine was first synthesized in America in 1962 by scientists seeking a new anesthetic to replace PCP. Today it's used across the world in pediatric, emergency, and veterinary surgery—hence the "horse tranquilizer" tag—and it's shown promise as a method to treat depression.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, ketamine became popular in the illegal party and squatting scenes taking place in the south west of England. At the same time, it was also gaining traction amid the gay clubbing scene in London, where CK1, a term for consuming a mix of both ketamine and cocaine, was being used alongside GHB and ecstasy. Back then, Britain's rave culture—inspired by the MDMA-enhanced house and garage scenes in 1980s Chicago and New York—was growing exponentially, and illegal outdoor parties were giving way to huge corporate superclubs.
As MDMA went from being a subcultural phenomenon to a key player in the mainstream, ketamine piggy-backed on that drug's rise. Clubbers would snort it to ease ecstasy comedowns at a growing number of after-parties and chill-out events dominated by music genres like IDM, dubstep, and psytrance. It wasn't made illegal by the British government until 2006, but even after that, its popularity continued to grow.
A 2008 study of the drug in the UK by researchers at Lancaster University found that people took it because it was a seen as a sort of LSD-lite. One interviewee named Chaz told the researchers: "It's a laugh, a funny experience, a strange experience. What I like about it is that it doesn't last very long. I liked taking acid but it always went on for too long." It was also cheap (until recently, it could be bought for as little as $20 a gram), and the supply—thanks largely to people importing it in bulk in liquid form from Indian pharmacies—was plentiful.
The drug comes with a number of nasty side effects, however, including bad hallucinations (the notorious "K-hole"), severe kidney damage, and addiction. In recent years, a number of high-profile overdoses drew national headlines in the UK, such as Nancy Lee, who had regularly used ketamine from age 16 to her death at 23. One consultant neurologist I spoke to in 2014 told me he had 40 young ketamine-damaged patients on his books. Over the previous two years he had carried out five bladder removals and one kidney transplant due to the drug.
For more on drugs watch our doc on how to sell 'em:
Americans are no strangers to using harmful recreational substances, but according to Adam Auctor, who runs the Bunk Police, a drug testing organization that attends EDM events and music festivals in the US, ketamine has an image problem even among drug users.
"The majority of Americans who participate in substance culture view ketamine use negatively. It's seen as an antisocial substance due to its sedative properties at higher doses," Auctor told VICE. "Many also perceive ketamine use as too extreme. 'Why would you take a horse tranquilizer?' is a common sentiment. Many people see it as no different than something like heroin or oxycodone: escapist, trashy, and too extreme for most people who use MDMA." That opinon was echoed by ketamine experts VICE spoke to in the UK and by respondents on one of Reddit's drug forums.
Because ketamine never had the breakthrough moment in the US it had in the UK, it never got to the point where it become a cultural touchstone, and never got a boost in popularity from, say, a rapper's shoutout. "Ketamine is just not something that's mentioned at all in music, mainstream or otherwise," Auctor said. "It's also not something that many people consume in public."
Americans perhaps have less need for ketamine than drug users in the UK. When it comes to comedown panaceas, Americans have better access to high-grade marijuana. Plus, unlike the British, they can far more easily obtain the dissociative drug PCP (a cousin of ketamine), which is easier to manufacture. This doesn't mean Americans are necessarily choosing PCP, a.k.a. "angel dust," over ket, but, according to the National Forensic Laboratory Information System, there were 5,000 PCP seizures made by US authorities in 2014, compared to just 1,138 for ketamine.
In 2014, I spoke to Marcel Ketman, at the time one of the world's largest suppliers of ketamine on the dark web. "I sell a lot to the US, but this doesn't mean the drug is particularly popular there," he told me. "The US is tech-savvy and has a massive population. But in terms of sales, per capita the UK far outstrips the US."
The UK government increased penalties for ketamine possession in 2014, but there's obviously still a great deal of demand. This January, a series of raids on eight factories in India uncovered 1,200 kilograms of ketamine that India's Central Board of Excise and Customs believed was being produced for foreign markets such as the UK.
Some people believe that Americans will follow their British cousins down a K-hole. Auctor says that judging from analysis his team have carried out online, Triad groups in New York City may have become involved in selling the drug, imported into the US from Hong Kong.
A retired online drug seller also thinks ketamine could be the next big thing stateside, especially with the genre Yanks call EDM growing in popularity. "K has actually taken off quite a bit in America, it's just not reported much," he told VICE. "It's mainly trendy clubbers using it as a cool drug, having bumps here and there. It seems America is way behind the UK dance music-wise—they're at raves with dummies and whistles for fuck's sake—and the drugs always follow. So K will follow. Give it ten years and they'll all be wobbling around in warehouses with techno blasting till 8 AM on a Tuesday morning."
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I think the talk could be a bit cleaner.
Ivan used word “schedule” in few places to talk about about very different things.
For example, the schedule at the bottom of slides 16 to 21, in “scheduling pass”. It is not a schedule, nor a scheduling pass. I would call it “prioritization pass”, and result a “operation priority list”. This is an input to a next pass, creation of a tablau, that is actually a scheduling pass and the result is a schedule (aka the list of instructions and ops in their intended order). The intent of the prioritization pass, is to schedule ops within highest length chain first, so they are going to use FUs preferentially. This works, because the other ops, that are not in the highest length chain, can be moved around (scheduled later, in the sense of being considered later during scheduling pass, they can be schedule later or sooner in the actual tablau), without changing the total execution time, otherwise they would be in the longest chain by definition.
As for the number of in-flight loads, Ivan kind of answered it, but not extremely clean. The number of retire stations can be smaller or bigger than maxLatency or the size of the belt. I.e. you can have 2 load units, 32 belt positions, maxLatency 32, and yet have 10 retire station, or 2, or 50, or 64. Having less than 1 per load unit would be extremely stupid, and probably actually hard to implement, so 2 would be minimal. As for the maximum, in theory it can be even higher than 64 (2*32), in the range of 80-100, but it would be hard to actually use due to the way the delays are expressed. (From my benchmarks and tests on some Intel hardware Sandy Bridge era core has ability to do about 70 loads in-flight, even issued by a single core, but some of load queues are shared by all cores, in the uncore and memory controllers, so there are limits, and you can’t do more loads in parallel just by using more cores. also there are limits in how many loads requests you can actually send to DRAM/DDR chips, but it helps with accessing caches).
Scratchpad. The “static” part of the size of the scratchpad, is that each function (frame) is analyzed by compiler, and on the entry to the function, the known constant value (for this function) is supplied to the CPU core. That is on the entry to the function foo, CPU is informed that foot needs a scratchpad of size 17 bytes, that is it wants to be able to use up to 17 bytes of memory for its spill and fill operations (many functions will use 0 bytes of scratchpad). The byte-addressable part means, that “spill b1, 3”, for example will put value from b1 (which can be more than one byte) into address 3 of this function scratchpad. The actual position IN the scratchpad hardware buffer, will depend on the context, and the offset 3. I.e. it can be 170 (determined on the entry to the function by the hardware), and upper bound of 187 (170 + 17), and offset 3 will put data in 173 in SRAM. This obviously ignores the fact that there are other facilities in the Mill, to also spill to DRAM, and to make OS do store and restore of scratchpad for context switching. The main idea for the static size, (like 17 here, that will be determined by compiler, and made as small as possible), is that it allows for cheap execution of function calls and interrupts from within another functions, i.e. nested call of a new function, will get a new scratchpad starting at position 187. If we do deeply recursive call, we might end up going into the end of the SRAM buffer, (lets say 8kB), and what will happen it will be acted like a circular buffer, the values from the start of the circular buffer, will be asynchronously be copied to DRAM by separate piece of hardware (even before we actually reach end of the buffer), and scratchpad addresses will wrap around SRAM addresses, and core will start using the start of this SRAM as a new scratchpads. On returns back from functions, the opposite will be happening, and hardware will be loading back data asynchronously as we moved toward the beginning of the SRAM. One can think of it as a two level circular buffer, with in and out queues, and some logic to make this operations basically have zero impact on latency of spill and fill.
For the question “are there optimizations on tablau done by specializer?”. Well, no, and there is no need for that. The specializer and the scheduling to a target machine, produces nearly optimal code, and optimal schedule in a lot of cases. So by construction the tablau is already optimized. As for the other optimizations, there is no need to do them. Specializers job is not to optimize the code (that is a job of the compiler and middle end), but to generate the code for specific operations. I.e. if middle end creates some redundant operations, or operations that are ultimately ignored and not used by anything, specializer is not going to care, and will still schedule it with all operations in the end code still present. And this is fine too, because this makes specializer faster, and whatever is feed into specializer will be produced by compiler that already get rid of such stuff in practice.
As for the other questions and answers, it is obvious for Ivan, because he sits in this every day, so sometimes it might be hard for him to know that other people have problems with terminology or even most obvious answers. Usually giving more context, is the best options, not just simply giving yes/no answer. |
Youtube After Stephen Ridley graduated from one of the best universities in Britain, he joined an investment banking division that was a top revenue generator at a large European bank. Sixteen months later, he quit.
He took to the popular Wall Street Oasis Forum yesterday to write about his experience in bank and why he ultimately quit his job. The result was a brutally honest, self-reflective and rather philosophical essay on life and happiness.
Ridley described his life in banking as an endless string of:
"... emails, excel, PowerPoint, meetings, endless drafts and markups about shit I couldn't give less of a fuck about, edits, drafts, edits, drafts, edits, send to printers, pick up, courier, meetings, more work, multitasking, boredom, boredom, tired, boredom, avoiding the staffer on a Friday, more work, depression, tired, tired, tired, fucking miserable."
Like many others in the industry, Ridley initially believed that the positives of working in investment banking—mainly, the extra money he would earn—could outweigh the negatives. But that wasn't the case as he worked longer and longer hours and the job became more exhausting than ever. His most epic paragraph is perhaps this assessment of his co-workers and bosses:
Even though I got paid well, I wasn't going out buying a different coloured helicopters every weekend, rolling in designer threads, splashing £30k on a night out and holidaying every other week in some exotic location whenever you can be bothered to charter your private jet. You'll be above average, but still pretty average. Sure, you can buy an MacBook air without really thinking about it, and you can take taxis instead of the bus. But that's it. I was amazed how modestly people lived in banking given all the hype that surrounds it. They were just sad middle class bland people, with unexciting lives, and unexciting prospects. A bunch of nerds who got caught up in a cage made of money and dreams and greed, and never got out. There had to be more to life than this.
Ultimately, Ridley quit his job on the spot before he could secure another full-time gig. Now—6 months later—he plays piano on the streets of London and has just recorded his first album.
Read the entire essay by Ridley here > |
James Damore. BI It is an understatement to say that fired Google staffer James Damore's 10-page "manifesto" on diversity has been controversial. Conservatives are enraged that he was sacked merely for stating his opinions. Liberals are enraged because he argued that, somehow, women have biological differences that may on average make them less suited to careers in tech.
Damore himself told Bloomberg that management at Google "just punished me and shamed me for doing it."
There is something uniquely infuriating about the document, and the reaction to it, that has come up time and again among the dozens of readers who have reached out to me via email or on Twitter.
A huge part of that fury stems from the way that Damore treats "science."
In the manifesto, Damore refers to "science" repeatedly: "Be open about the science of human nature," he implores. "The Left tends to deny science concerning biological differences between people (e.g., IQ8 and sex differences)," and "the overwhelming majority of the social sciences, media, and Google lean left."
The document, "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber," is also filled with links to the "science" that he cites. You can read a copy with all the charts, footnotes and citations here.
Conservatives — or at least all the many conservatives who have contacted me — are enraged that he was fired simply for explaining the accepted science behind his argument. In his recent TV interview with Bloomberg Damore doubled down, saying his document was based on "the scientific consensus for a lot of these issues."
That's a problem.
Rosie the Riveter. J. Howard Miller Because even if you accept that all the science that Damore cites is accurate— and some of his citations lead to Wikipedia, or studies that are very old — there is a logical fallacy at the heart of his argument. The fallacy looks like this:
A) There are biological differences between men and women, as science has shown.
B) Men and women, on average, do different things in the workplace, as statistics show.
C) Therefore, A causes B.
D) We are trying too hard to change this because A causes B.
Of course, correlation is not the same as causation. This is the biggest flaw in Damore's argument. Damore doesn't address that — he just takes it as an obvious truism: Men and women are different, and this leads "to the lower number of women in high stress jobs," as his manifesto says.
The beginning of Damore's manifesto leans heavily on this fallacy. It says:
"On average, men and women biologically differ in many ways. These differences aren't just socially constructed because:● "They're universal across human cultures● "They often have clear biological causes and links to prenatal testosterone"
He concludes, "I'm simply stating that the distribution of preferences and abilities of men and women differ in part due to biological causes and that these differences may explain why we don't see equal representation of women in tech and leadership":
James Damore / BI
On Bloomberg, Damore added, "among psychologists there's a consensus that prenatal testosterone does affect a lot of personality traits, in particular one's interest in people vs. things ... that distribution differs between men and women." And this is why there is unequal representation of the genders in tech, he says.
The idea that your exposure to hormones as an embryo will somehow skew your entire career just isn't true. If our pre-natal hormones controlled our job prospects then women's work would not have changed much over time. In fact, it has changed dramatically.
In 1900, only 6% of American women had jobs. By 1990, according to US Census data, 60% of married white women worked:
Library of Economics & Liberty
In-utero testosterone exposure stayed roughly the same over that period.
One of the greatest experiments with women's careers was done during World War 2, when men went off to fight and women were drafted into domestic manufacturing. With millions of men absent, women literally did men's work.
A majority of British women worked in the war effort. This UK government poster showed 7 million British women working in industry during the war:
Trade Union Collections, London Metropolitan University
Using Damore's logic, if a "scientist" had taken measurements in the UK between 1939 and 1945, he may have concluded that women's exposure to prenatal testosterone made them predisposed, on average, to munitions manufacturing.
Clearly, that's not how jobs happen.
The work we do — and who gets to do it — changes over time. Our work is a product of the world we live in today, not what happened to us in the womb. It's interesting that 69% of Google employees are male. But that doesn't make their presence in the company the result of "science." |
The Department of Justice has sued to stop AT&T's (T) proposed $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner (TWX), saying the merger would harm competition, lessen innovation and result in higher costs for consumers. According to the complaint, which was filed in district court Monday, the combined company would "harm consumers by substantially lessening competition among traditional video distributors and slowing emerging online competition."
With Time Warner, AT&T "would have the power to make its video distributor rivals less competitive by raising their costs, resulting in even higher monthly bills for American families," according to the complaint. "The merger also would enable the merged firm to hinder the growth of online distributors that it views as a threat to the traditional pay-TV model."
As a condition for approving the merger, the Justice Department has been pressing the telecommunications and media giants to sell Turner Broadcasting, the Time Warner unit that includes CNN. Randall Stephenson, AT&T's CEO, said in a press conference that he didn't know if the suit was about CNN, but said he was confident it would fail.
He said there was very little legal precedent to support the government's assertion.
Stephenson said earlier this month the company does not plan to divest CNN as part of any antitrust settlement. He didn't rule out selling other Turner Broadcasting brands, like TBS or TNT.
The combination of AT&T/DirecTV's vast video distribution infrastructure and Time Warner's popular television programming would be one of the largest mergers in American history. In addition to CNN, Time Warner's brands include TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, HBO and Cinemax, and its programming includes "Game of Thrones," NCAA's March Madness, and substantial numbers of MLB and NBA regular season and playoff games.
Before last week, AT&T had said in regulatory filings that it expected to finalize its acquisition of Time Warner by the end of the year. The deal was announced in October 2016.
Are consumers the losers in the AT&T - Time Warner merger?
"The issue isn't so much that these two compete right now," a Justice official said, but the "potential actions they could take."
David McAtee II, senior vice president at AT&T, disputed the DOJ's assertion that the merger would eliminate competitors and raise costs for consumers, calling the suggestion "pure fiction."
Beyond the deal's size, it has drawn attention because of President Donald Trump's outspoken criticism of CNN. On the campaign trail last year, he had vowed to stop the deal if he were elected president.
Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway recently told CBS News the White House isn't involved in the Justice Department's antitrust review of the merger. An official in the agency's antitrust division also said the White House has not directed it on how to proceed on the transaction.
Yet in a move that could fuel speculation about the Trump administration's possible involvement, Attorney General Jeff Sessions invoked executive privilege when asked about possible White House interference in the deal in an unrelated congressional hearing on Thursday.
Competitors and consumer groups have raised questions about the deal, arguing that it would give the wireless carrier too much control over the content carried on its network.
Because the two are not direct competitors, however, some antitrust experts thought the Justice Department was unlikely to block the deal.
CBS News' Paula Reid contributed reporting. |
The Dutch legend on why football is like chess, exchanging tips with Magnus Carlsen and Ruud Gullit v Dennis Bergkamp
Good afternoon Edgar, could you spare a few moments? For you Small Talk, always.
We didn't expect to see you here at the London Chess Classic but we hear that you're quite a strong player … Absolutely not [chuckles]. I'm not even an average player but I really love the game. I started playing when I was a kid but if you want to get good you have to study hard – and I was doing other things.
Speaking of which, did you ever whip out a chessboard and play your team-mates? All the time! I could beat most of them but Zvonimir Boban was something else. He was by far the best. A demon. I could never beat him. But I've improved a lot since then …
As a footballer you were known as the Pitbull. But what kind of chesspl … [interjecting] Aggressive! I always start with 1.e4 and I like winning every game!
But are you a good loser? [Poker face] Absolutely.
Do you have a favourite chess player? I like Judit Polgar and Magnus [Carlsen]. I even went to visit him when he played Wijk aan Zee.
Really? Carlsen likes playing football, doesn't he? He's OK. I didn't need to give him many tips. Actually, we spent most of our time talking about the similarities between football and chess.
So the cliche about a football game being like a chess match isn't a lazy myth? Oh no: there are so many similarities, especially when it comes to speed chess. In both games you have to think fast. In chess you tend to know all the patterns already, just like in football …
Interesting, now … [enthusiastically] Both involve thinking but they are also intuitive; because you train so much your unconscious mind can take over. And in both games if you make one mistake it can be all over.
Time is short Edgar so a few quick fire questions. Ruud Gullit or Dennis Bergkamp? Gullit [a puzzled expression comes over his face] Er, is that with chess?
Just football Edgar. Definitely Gullit. Don't get me wrong, Dennis was, without a doubt very important for Dutch football. But Gullit was a dominator. And you only ever get a couple of dominators in world football at any one time. When Gullit played well, his whole team played well – whether it was at Milan or Sampdoria or the national side. He could carry a whole team on his back and make them win. He was on another level.
What about the last film you watched? Er, I think it was Wolf, a Dutch movie …
Is that a horror flick Edgar? No. It's a drama from a family from Morocco that lives in Amsterdam. It's very good, really.
And your favourite CD? I love music but there are so many! Maybe Bob Marley.
What's your pre-match meal? Pasta.
Simple tomato sauce or creamy carbonara? I've always had whatever I was given.
Good man. Do any of the Barnet players play chess? Well, I've actually put a chessboard and pieces at the club …
Really? Have any of your players dared to take you on yet? No, but some of them can play. In fact I play with our assistant coach.
So who wins? Well, he thought he was the best and claimed he had never lost … [Pinteresque pause].
And then he met you? I didn't want to say, Small Talk [chuckles].
Cheers Edgar … Cheers Small Talk.
Edgar Davids was speaking at the London Chess Classic, Britain's premier chess event hosted by charity Chess in Schools and Communities. For more information visit www.londonchessclassic.com |
To Muslims, Muhammed is the most important person who ever lived. He is the Seal or the last of all the prophets, the one chosen by God to receive his final revelation. To insult the memory of the Prophet is a blasphemy and a body blow to the Muslim believer. It can carry terrible consequences as the staff of Charlie Hebdo discovered when they published cartoons which were thought by Muslims to be demeaning their Prophet. The Qur'an tells us very little about Muhammed. What we do know comes from the stories and traditions about the Prophet, known as the Hadiths, which were compiled after his death. Those stories provide moral examples of how to behave; but they also impact all of Islamic history.
Ernie Rea is joined by Jonathan Brown, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilisation at Georgetown University; Sahib Bleher, Imam and author on the Qur'an; and Tom Holland, a Classicist and author of several best selling books including In The Shadow of the Sword, on the origins of Islam.
Produced by Nija Dalal-Small. |
Not to be confused with Spatial visualization ability
Visual thinking, also called visual/spatial learning or picture thinking is the phenomenon of thinking through visual processing.
Visual thinking has been described as seeing words as a series of pictures.[citation needed] It is common in approximately 60–65% of the general population.
"Real picture thinkers", those who use visual thinking almost to the exclusion of other kinds of thinking, make up a smaller percentage of the population. Research by child development theorist Linda Kreger Silverman suggests that less than 30% of the population strongly uses visual/spatial thinking, another 45% uses both visual/spatial thinking and thinking in the form of words, and 25% thinks exclusively in words. According to Kreger Silverman, of the 30% of the general population who use visual/spatial thinking, only a small percentage would use this style over and above all other forms of thinking, and can be said to be true "picture thinkers".
Research and theoretical background [ edit ]
The Dutch nonprofit organization the "Maria J. Krabbe Stichting Beelddenken" conducts research on "beelddenken". The "Maria J. Krabbe Stichting" has developed a test, named the "Ojemann wereldspel", to identify children who rely primarily on visual-spatial thinking. In this test, children are asked to build a village with toy houses and then replicate it a few days later. [3]
In the Netherlands, there is a strong and growing interest in the phenomenon of 'true' "picture thinking", or "beelddenken".[citation needed] As a result of increased media coverage during the last few years, there is an acceptance of its existence by the general public,[citation needed] despite criticism from Dutch psychologists and development theorists, principally N. van Woerden and R. Wiers.[citation needed] Several websites and foundations are dedicated to "beelddenken".[4][5]
Non-verbal thought [ edit ]
Thinking in mental images is one of a number of other recognized forms of non-verbal thought, such as kinesthetic, musical and mathematical thinking.
Linguistics [ edit ]
A common assumption is that people think in language, and that language and thought influence each other.[citation needed] Linguistics studies how language is used and acquired.
The strong version of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis in linguistics states that language determines thought, and that linguistic categories alone limit and determine cognitive categories. Although Whorf himself framed linguistic relativity in terms of "habits of mind" rather than determinism, the revolutionary nature of his hypothesis was met with much misinterpretation and criticism. In 1969, Brent Berlin and Paul Kay rejected the strong hypothesis using a color terminology study.
Steven Pinker notes that we are not born with language, so that it is not likely that we are engineered to think in words alone.[7]
Multiple intelligences [ edit ]
Gardner's multiple intelligences theory recognises various forms of intelligence, namely spatial, linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic.[8] Gardner's theory is discussed and cited in many of David A Sousa's 'How the Brain learns' series of books, including 'How the Gifted Brain learns' and 'How the Special Needs Brain Learns'. Areas of competence may be reinforcing, but also mutually exclusive. In today's society the link between IQ and education has weakened, but the idea of educated and intelligent has become synonymous, interchangeable; reinforced by verbalizers being better able to internalize information, advocate systems and design jobs that monetarily reward strengths, a cycle that is self-perpetuating.[citation needed]
Split-brain research [ edit ]
According to Roger Sperry the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere perform different tasks. The left and right hemisphere may be simultaneously conscious in different, even mutually conflicting, mental experiences that run in parallel. The right [non-verbal] hemisphere perceives, thinks, remembers, reasons, wills and emotes, all at a characteristically human level.[citation needed]
Research which builds on Sperry's split brain research is reinforced by anecdotal evidence, which supports the premise that different architectures lend themselves to one of the channels, at the expense of the others.[citation needed]
Spatial-temporal reasoning and spatial visualization ability [ edit ]
Spatial-temporal reasoning is the ability to visualize special patterns and mentally manipulate them over a time-ordered sequence of spatial transformations. Spatial visualization ability is the ability to manipulate mentally two- and three-dimensional figures.
Spatial-temporal reasoning is prominent among visual thinkers as well as among kinesthetic learners (those who learn through movement, physical patterning and doing) and logical thinkers (mathematical thinkers who think in patterns and systems) who may not be strong visual thinkers at all.
Photographic memory [ edit ]
Eidetic memory (photographic memory) may co-occur in visual thinkers as much as in any type of thinking style as it is a memory function associated with having vision rather than a thinking style.[citation needed] Eidetic memory can still occur in those with visual agnosia, who, unlike visual thinkers, may be limited in the use of visualization skills for mental reasoning.[citation needed]
Psychologist E.R Jaensch states that eidetic memory apart of visual thinking has to do with eidetic images fading between the line of the after image and the memory image.[citation needed] A fine relationship may exist between the after image and the memory image, which causes visual thinkers from not seeing the eidetic image but rather drawing upon perception and useful information.[citation needed] Individuals diagnosed with agnosia, may not be able to perform mental reasoning.[citation needed]
Learning styles [ edit ]
The acknowledgement and application of different cognitive and learning styles, including visual, kinesthetic, musical, mathematical and verbal thinking styles, are a common part of many current teacher training courses.[citation needed] Those who think in pictures have generally claimed to be best at visual learning.[citation needed]
Empirical research shows that there is no evidence that identifying a student's "learning style" produces better outcomes. There is significant evidence that the widespread "meshing hypothesis", the assumption that a student will learn best if taught in a method deemed appropriate for the student's learning style, is invalid. Well-designed studies "flatly contradict the popular meshing hypothesis".[disputed – discuss]
Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) in teaching [ edit ]
VTS allows teachers to teach reading with the use of complex visuals, rather than the print and individual text forms used in the past.[11]
Concurrency with dyslexia and autism [ edit ]
Dyslexia [ edit ]
Research suggests that dyslexia is a symptom of a predominant visual/spatial learning.[12] Morgan used the term 'word blindness,' in 1896. Hinselwood expanded on 'word blindness' to describe the reversing of letters and similar phenomena in the 1900s.[citation needed] Orton suggested that individuals have difficulty associating the visual with the verbal form of words, in 1925.[citation needed] Further studies, using technologies (PET and MRI), and wider and varied user groups in various languages, support the earlier findings.[citation needed] Visual-spatial symptoms (dyslexia, developmental coordination disorder, auditory processing disorder (APD) and the like) arise in non-visual and non-spatial environments and situations; hence, visual/spatial learning is aggravated by an education system based upon information presented in written text instead of presented via multimedia and hands-on experience.
Autism [ edit ]
Visual thinking has been argued by Temple Grandin to be an origin for delayed speech in people with autism.[13] It has been suggested that visual thinking has some necessary connection with autism.[citation needed] Functional imaging studies on people with autism have supported the hypothesis that they have a cognitive style that favors the use of visuospatial coding strategies.[14]
Art and design education [ edit ]
Concepts related to visual thinking have played an important role in art and design education over the past several decades, but this has not always been the case.[15] In Ancient Greece, Plato tended to place an emphasis on music to aid cognition in the education of heroes because of its mathematical tendencies and "harmonies of the cosmos". On the other hand, visual images, paintings in particular, caused the reliances on "illusionary images"[16] However, in the Western world, children begin primary school with abstract thought and shapes, but as we grow older, according to Rudolf Arnheim, "arts are reduced to a desirable supplement"[16] The general world trend in the late twentieth century caused an emphases towards scientific, mathematical, and quantitative approach to education, and art education is often refuted because it is based on perception. It is qualitative and subjective which makes it difficult to measure and evaluate.
However, fundamentals in visual thinking lay the ground work for many design disciplines such as art and architecture. Two of the most influential aspects of visual composition in these disciplines are patterns and color. Patterns are not only prevalent in many different aspects of everyday life, but it is also telling about our interpretation of the world. In addition, there are now studied approaches to how color should be used in design where "the functional aesthetics of colour can be reduced to a small number of guidelines and lists the main properties needed to make design decisions leading to visual clarity".[17]
At the same time, techniques in art and design can open up pathways to stimulate the thought process and problem solving. Sketches offer an unrestrained way to get thoughts down on paper through the "abstract representations of ideas and idea structures".[17] In this way, sketching not only helps to generate ideas, but also to reflect and edit them as well.[18] It is also an effective means of communication, especially for architects and engineers, for translating ideas from designer to client. Despite all the advantages of integrating art and visuals into education, it is a difficult skill to master. Those who can are well versed in visual analysis. It takes a lot of practice to have sketches evolve from "meaningless scribbles" to a complex "thinking tool".[17]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Sources [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]
Rudolf Arnheim (1969), Visual Thinking
Robert McKim (1971), Experiences in Visual Thinking
Betty Edwards (1979), Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
Thomas G. West (1997), The Minds Eye
Linda Silverman (2002), Upside Down Brilliance
Win Wenger (2004), The Einstein Factor
Netherlands |
22nd March 2013
A step closer to affordable water desalination
The defence contractor, Lockheed Martin, has reported a new method for desalination that is vastly cheaper and more efficient, using nanotechnology.
Lockheed Martin has been awarded a patent for "Perforene" – a new molecular filtration system that is designed to meet the growing global demand for potable water. This material works by removing sodium, chlorine and other ions from seawater and other sources.
Dr. Ray Johnson, senior vice president and chief technology officer: "Access to clean drinking water is going to become more critical as the global population continues to grow, and we believe that this simple and affordable solution will be a game-changer for the industry. Perforene ... is just one example of Lockheed Martin's efforts to apply some of the advanced materials that we have developed for our core markets, including aircraft and spacecraft, to global environmental and economic challenges."
According to a UN report last year, over 780 million people around the world do not have access to clean drinking water. Tom Notaro, Lockheed business manager for advanced materials: "One of the areas that we're very concerned about in terms of global security is the access to clean and affordable drinking water. As more and more countries become more developed ... access to that water for their daily lives is becoming more and more critical."
Perforene was developed by placing holes that are one nanometre or less in a membrane of graphene. These are small enough to trap ions while dramatically improving the flow-through of water molecules, reducing clogging and pressure. Being just one atom thick, graphene is both strong and durable, making it far more effective at sea water desalination at a fraction of the cost of traditional reverse osmosis systems.
John Stetson, senior engineer: "It's 500 times thinner than the best filter on the market today and 1,000 times stronger. The energy that's required and the pressure that's required to filter salt is approximately 100 times less."
In addition to desalination, the Perforene membrane can be tailored to other applications – including capturing minerals, through the selection of the size of hole placed in the material to filter or capture a specific size particle of interest. Lockheed Martin has also been developing processes that will allow the material to be produced at scale. The company is now seeking commercialisation partners.
A desalination plant in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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Comparing costs of tour bus companies can be overwhelming if you’re not familiar with how they’re priced. Once your band is ready for an upgrade, do a little homework upfront to know if you’re getting a good deal.
Exact rates vary by city, but you can expect to pay between $1,900 and $2,500 per day for an entertainer coach. If the company charges per mile, you’ll likely pay somewhere between $7.00 and $8.50 per mile.
The 4 Biggest Factors That Influence the Cost
Breaking the price down gives you a better estimate of how much to budget for trip. Factors that will affect your cost include:
1. How much fuel will your tour bus use?
Gas is an obvious expense for any road trip. Since you’ll be touring in a large motor coach over a significant distance, the cost of gas is going to be a major part of your transportation budget. You can calculate your estimated fuel cost using this formula:
Most charter bus companies will include fuel cost in the price, but it’s helpful to calculate this cost ahead of time to give you an idea of what to expect. To complete this formula, use Google Maps to tally the total mileage, ask the company to provide you with their entertainer buses’ average MPG, and use the current national average for gas prices per gallon.
“One of the best pieces of advice I can give someone looking to rent a tour bus is to make sure they’re renting from a company in the location they’re starting from,” says Mike Hines, band leader and guitarist for Corey Smith. He says fuel and mileage expenses can be greater if you don’t rent from a company in your hometown.
2. How much will it cost for the tour bus driver’s labor, hotels, and gratuity?
Since you’re going to essentially live in an enormous motor coach during your tour, a professional driver is vital to your band members’ safety.
“An experienced, dependable and safer driver is going to cost more than maybe somebody who isn’t as experienced,” says singer and song-writer Rudy Vaughn, winner of Hark Rock’s 2009 Ambassadors of Rock. “I would rather have the safe driver!”
“Professional drivers will have limitations to the amount of miles or hours they are able to drive at a time without needing to be paid overtime,” Vaughn explains. “This is called overdrive, and can start anywhere from 450 miles to 650 miles. The amount varies among bus companies, but the cost can add up quickly for longer tours.”
Legally, charter bus drivers can only drive ten consecutive hours before they are required to take an eight-hour break, according to the American Bus Association. If your destination will take longer than a 10-hour drive, you’ll need to divide your trip into multiple days. This can increase total costs if your bus company charges by the day.
“Along with the cost of your driver, you’ll pay for his or her hotel rooms,” says Kevin Spencer, guitarist and lead singer of Electric Avenue. “Remember to get them at least a 3-star hotel room. Saving $40 on a hotel room isn’t something you would appreciate your clients doing to you. Treat the driver as a family member, he’s there to keep you safe.”
Your driver is one of your biggest allies during the tour. Budget for a hotel that will make him or her feel at ease, not the cheapest motel you can find.
While it’s generally not required, gratuity is always appreciated and is a great way to thank a bus driver. Consider a 5-10% tip for a job well done.
3. Will you need a trailer for extra storage?
How do you know if you’ll have enough room to store your equipment on the tour bus? Most modern buses have a hollow bay underneath that spans the width of the bus to store items.
Spencer says his band can fit a full drum kit, a small bass amp, two combo amps, a small keyboard rig and stand, guitars, bass, keyboard, and a box of merchandise under the bus. They haul everything else in a trailer attached to the bus.
If you think you’ll need extra space, you can rent a trailer to haul on the back of the bus. These can be rented for an additional $50-100 per day, on average.
“Don’t forget about your merchandise when estimating how much storage room you’ll need,” Mike Hines advises. “You may need to bring weeks worth of merchandise on the road with you, and that can take up a significant amount of space.”
4. How much will it cost to park the tour bus?
One of the most overlooked aspects of renting a tour bus is parking logistics. The last thing you want to worry about when on a tight schedule is, “Where in the world are we going to park this thing?!” Determine if there will be parking fees before you begin your trip.
Some venues have designated bus parking on the premises while others in more populated areas require an off-site parking fee. In New York City, for example, bus parking rates are $20/hour while rates in Baltimore are $25 for 12 hours. Call venues ahead of time to see if they have designated parking spaces for your bus and if any additional charges will apply.
Necessity or Nice-to-Have?
Before you and your bandmates cash in on a real tour bus experience, balance your checkbook and take a hard look at your finances. With all of the other costs of touring, does chartering a bus make sense for your band?
“Buses can cost thousands of dollars per day, and that’s just one more bill you have to pay,” Hines says. “The luxury of the bus might sound attractive, but ask yourself if you’re truly ready.”
It’s best for musicians to budget for a tour bus when they are agreeing on the price of the gig, Rudy Vaughn says. Since transportation is such a massive part of the touring budget, sometimes half of the gross income of the show, it’s imperative to know those costs before agreeing upon a price.
“One of the biggest reasons why we book tour buses is because of our production gear,” Vaughn continues. “We have discovered that doing our own production has added benefits, so we have a trailer that is full of stuff. Musicians should always weigh out all of the factors. Is it better to fly to a location and rent production and vehicles to get around? The amount of people will vastly change these types of factors…and it will be something to work out case by case.”
Weighing the Cost of a Tour Bus Rental
When you charter a tour bus for your band, you’re not just paying for transportation.
“It’s easy to under-appreciate the amount of work it takes to keep a 50-foot “building on wheels” driving down the highway without problems,” Vaughn says. “The cost of even one repair, or even a single tire replacement can be in the thousands of dollars. So the price of renting a tour bus needs to be high enough for the owner to be able to absorb the rigors of such a vehicle.”
“You’re hiring someone to manage your safety,” Kevin Spencer says. “Paying a higher price for the right company is worth it because they are ultimately responsible for getting you to and from shows safely and efficiently. The bus is your home while you’re on the road, so it’s important to build a solid relationship with your bus rental company for peace of mind.”
A higher price point doesn’t necessarily result in a better tour bus, but companies with an excellent reputation may charge more to ensure a high standard of service. Ask around, read reviews thoroughly, and ask a lot of questions before choosing a bus company to keep your tour running smoothly. |
The doctor examining the dog said he was out of danger and suffered a fracture of right femur.(Photo: ANI/Twitter)
Chennai: Gautam Sudarshan, a medical student who threw a dog off the rooftop of a building, and his companion Ashish Pal, have been suspended by the medical college they attend.
According to a report, an inquiry will be conducted by the college into the incident. Earlier, the two were granted bail by a local court. The men were charged with offences punishable with fines of Rs 10 and Rs 50 instead of jail time.
This has dismayed animal rights activists, who have decided to appeal the verdict. "The Prevention of Cruelty Act is pretty outdated, it is a 1960 law and we want a change in that because they can just get away with a fine of Rs.50," said animal rights activist Shravan Krishnan.
The Chennai police on Wednesday arrested the man who has was caught on camera throwing a dog from a terrace, sparking massive outrage on social media. The cops also apprehended the man who had shot the shocking video and the two culprits will be produced in court.
The main culprit was identified as one Gautam Sudarshan, a medical student at Kundrathur in Kancheepuram district. The video of him throwing a dog from the terrace of a residential complex had gone viral on Facebook and a city dweller had lodged a complaint with the city police to trace the culprit, on Monday evening. The video was shot by his friend Ashish Pal.
Chennai: Veterinary doctor conducts medical check-up on the dog that was thrown off a terrace, says it is in shock.https://t.co/e72dqCrbDr — ANI (@ANI_news) July 6, 2016
To the relief of animal activists, the dog was found alive and she is currently receiving medical attention at a hospital as she was unable to walk properly.
Veterinary doctors said the dog is out of danger and suffered two fractures. One on her hind leg and the other on her spine. Activists who rescued the dog have named her 'Bhadra'.
The video is believed to have originated from the message sharing platform, WhatsApp and was eventually uploaded on Facebook by animal activists. The video, which runs in slow motion, features the holding a dog by its neck and back on the parapet wall of his terrace.
After sporting a smile into the camera, the man drops the dog down and the camera follows the dog, which falls down crying out in pain and the video ends with the dog lying still on the ground.
Sally Kannan, Outreach Consultant at Humane Society International had posted the video, offering a reward of 100,000 Rs to anyone who could nab the culprit. |
NEW DELHI: Congress on Thursday came out strongly against senior leader Janardan Dwivedi for his pro-Modi remarks and hinted that action will be taken against him."Narendra Modi can never be a symbol of Indian-ness," Congress leader Ajay Maken said referring to Janardan Dwivedi's reported praise on Modi.He cited the various controversies surrounding Modi including the Gujarat riots, to buttress his point."We cannot allow any individual to change the ideological stand of Congress party," Maken said.Hinting at party action against the senior leader, Maken said, " a decision on disciplinary action against Janardan Dwivedi will be taken by Congress high command."Soon after Maken's press conference, Janardan Dwivedi came out for another clarification on his reported statement.Dwivedi insisted that he did not praise Narendra Modi and had made a statement analyzing the election results."I have never said that Modi is a representative of Indian-ness," Dwivedi said adding, "I could have never have said that."He alleged that the comments were attributed to him.Senior Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi had on Wednesday stirred a controversy by appearing to be gushing in his praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an interview which he later claimed quoted him out of context.Dwivedi, Congress general secretary, was quoted by a web portal as saying that Modi has started a "new era.""Modi has been successful in convincing people that from a social point of view, he is closest to Indian citizens. His is a victory of Indianness", Dwivedi was quoted in the interview as saying. |
The son of an Oklahoma homeowner shot and killed three intruders March 27. Law enforcement officers described the shootings as an act of self-defense. (FOX 23)
Gunfire rang out Monday afternoon in a home in Broken Arrow, an Oklahoma city 15 miles southeast of Tulsa. Three intruders were killed after the son of the homeowner fired a semiautomatic rifle in what local law enforcement officers later described as an act of self-defense, though their investigation remains open.
The intruders — a 16-year-old, a 17-year-old and a man thought to be 18 or 19 — had smashed open the back door of the house, the Wagoner County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement posted to Facebook. Their plan was burglary, authorities said.
They wore gloves, masks and all-black clothes, Wagoner County Deputy Nick Mahoney told Tulsa World. Two of the teenagers were armed, one with a knife and the other with brass knuckles.
The trio reportedly exchanged words with the 23-year-old son of the homeowner, whose name has also not been released. He fired on them with an AR-15, a popular semiautomatic rifle, officials told Fox 23.
The shots seemed to shatter the day like a thunderstorm, one neighbor told CBS affiliate KOTV-TV.
“Upon making entry to the home one of the residents fired a rifle striking all three of the suspects,” the sheriff’s office statement said.
Two of the intruders died inside the kitchen. The other “was able to run to the driveway before succumbing to his injuries,” the statement said.
The homeowner and his son gave formal statements at the sheriff’s office.
Authorities later said the suspected getaway driver, Elizabeth Rodriguez, turned herself in at the Broken Arrow Police Department, the Tulsa World reported. The 21-year-old was arrested on complaints of first degree murder, three counts, as well as three counts of burglary. “A person who is committing a felony when a death occurs can be charged with felony murder,” Tulsa World explained.
Several nearby homes had been burglarized in recent weeks, neighbor Leon Simmons told KOTV-TV. Authorities said they could not speculate as to whether this incident was related to the others.
The sheriff’s deputy described the shooting as an abnormal occurrence in the typically quiet Wagoner County. “This is very, very unusual for us. It’s not something we’re used to,” he told Tulsa World. “It’s not something we normally have.”
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the 21-year-old had been charged with three counts of murder and burglary. She was arrested on complaints of those counts but has not yet been charged.
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In building drones that kill people, the U.S. has a couple-decade head start on China. But when it comes to domestic uses, U.S. businesses are hamstrung because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) isn't required to issue commercial drone rules until 2015. In the meantime, one of China's biggest delivery companies is tinkering with using drones--with Chinese government permission.
SF Express is testing a drone it has built for delivering packages to remote areas, according to Chinese media reports. The drone can hit an maximum altitude of 328 feet and deliver parcels within two meters of its target. It's not clear what sort of weight these puppies can handle, but Beijing journalists calculated that it probably can't carry more than 6.6 pounds.
The news broke yesterday morning, after a Sina Weibo user noticed what looked like a UFO hovering above a street in Dongguang, in southern China, and after noticing a SF Express logo, posted images online.
In July, a Shanghai bakery launched aerial cake delivery--or "pie in the sky," as the Telegraph put it (video below). However, as an anonymous government official told the Shanghai Daily at the time, businesses that want to use drones must be granted approval from the local civil aviation authorities first. The bakers forgot to do that, apparently.
However, the Dongguan police said that, except during certain sensitive times, commercial operators who receive permission from the civil aviation regulator and air traffic control are allowed to fly drones. SF Express says it's strictly complying with the policies. |
CLOSE John Kerry has said nuclear negotiations in Vienna would continue past a congressional deadline on Thursday night, insisting that they could not be rushed. The US secretary of state was speaking a few hours before a deadline set by the US Congress. USA TODAY
Secretary of State John Kerry talks to reporters outside the Palais Coburg Hotel where the Iran nuclear talks meetings are being held in Vienna, Austria on July 9, 2015. (Photo: JOE KLAMAR, AFP/Getty Images)
Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday "tough issues remain unresolved" in talks to curb Iran's nuclear program, and the United States is prepared to walk away if they're not settled.
"We believe we are making real progress toward a comprehensive deal," Kerry told reporters in Vienna, where the talks are taking place. "But... we are not going to sit at the negotiating table forever."
World powers – the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany – have been seeking an agreement by Friday to limit Iran's nuclear program in return for lifting U.S. and international sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy. The U.S. goal in the talks is to prevent Iran from producing a nuclear weapon, which Iran says it does not seek.
"If, in the end, we are to reach a deal, it has to be one that stands the test of time … a test for decades," Kerry said, adding he would not be rushed to reach a deal.
Many members of Congress skeptical of making a deal with Iran have urged the Obama administration not to be bound by deadlines and to focus on getting a good agreement.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the effort will last as long there is progress.
If "there does not seem to be a constructive engagement on the part of the Iranians to resolving the remaining sticking points in the negotiations, then the president won't hesitate to bring his team home," Earnest said.
The deadline for the current round of talks was extended from June 30 to Tuesday and then to Friday. Many differences were resolved, but the talks snagged on two sensitive issues. The first is the sequence of lifting sanctions and whether they could be easily restored if Iran doesn't comply with its obligations. The second is whether sanctions relief would include international arms embargoes on Iran.
Each deadline extension also continued the conditions agreed to in November 2013 that required Iran to limit its nuclear activities while talks are ongoing.
In April, the sides announced a general framework for a final deal that would require what President Obama said would be unprecedented scrutiny of Iran's nuclear program. It also called for restrictions for 10 to 15 years on how much nuclear fuel Iran could produce.
Iran, which would commit to keep its program peaceful, says it needs a very large nuclear fuel enrichment capability to supply current and future nuclear power plants. Many members of Congress and Israel worry that could provide Iran the means to supply a secret nuclear weapon.
Secretary of State John Kerry talks to reporters at the Palais Coburg where talks between world powers and Iran continue in Vienna, Austria, 09 July 2015. (Photo: HERBERT NEUBAUER, EPA)
On Sunday, Kerry said the sides had agreed on much, but that remaining differences were so important they could nix the deal. "If there's absolute intransigence, if there's an unwillingness to move on the things that are important, President Obama has always said we'll be prepared to walk away," Kerry said. "It's not what anybody wants. We want to get an agreement."
Contributing: David Jackson
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"Panamericana" redirects here. For the film, see Panamericana (film)
Not to be confused with CANAMEX Corridor
The Pan-American Highway from Prudhoe Bay , U.S.A. to Quellón , Chile and Ushuaia , Argentina, with official and unofficial routes shown in Mexico and Central and South America. A few selected unofficial routes shown through the United States and Canada as they existed in the early 1960s. In 1966 the new U.S. Interstate highway system brought official status to most previously unofficial routes in the lower 48 states.
The Pan-American Highway[1] is a network of roads stretching across the American continents and measuring about 30,000 kilometres (19,000 mi)[2] in total length. Except for a rainforest break of approximately 160 km (100 mi), called the Darién Gap, the roads link almost all of the Pacific coastal countries of the Americas in a connected highway system. According to Guinness World Records, the Pan-American Highway is the world's longest "motorable road". However, because of the Darién Gap, it is not possible to cross between South America and Central America with conventional highway vehicles. Without an all-terrain vehicle, it is necessary to circumnavigate this terrestrial stretch by sea.
The Pan-American Highway passes through many diverse climates and ecological types, from dense jungles, to arid deserts, to barren tundra, some of which are passable only during the dry season, and in many regions driving is occasionally hazardous. The Pan-American Highway system is physically mostly complete and extends in de facto terms from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in North America to the lower reaches of South America. Several southern highway termini are claimed to exist, including the cities of Puerto Montt and Quellón in Chile and Ushuaia in Argentina. West and north of the Darién Gap, it is also known as the Inter-American Highway through Central America and Mexico where it splits into several spurs leading to the Mexico–US border.
Development and construction [ edit ]
The concept of an overland route from one tip of the Americas to the other was originally proposed at the First Pan-American Conference in 1889 as a railroad; however, this proposal was never realized. The idea of building a highway emerged at the Fifth International Conference of American States in 1923. The first conference regarding construction of the highway occurred on October 5, 1925. Finally, on July 29, 1937, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Canada, and the United States signed the Convention on the Pan-American Highway, whereby they agreed to speedy construction, by all adequate means.[3] In 1950, Mexico became the first Latin American country to complete its portion of the highway.[4]
In practice the concept of the Pan-American Highway is more publicly embraced in Latin American countries than in North America. Much of the road system in Latin America is explicitly marked as Pan-American (commonly Vía Panam).
Countries served [ edit ]
Alaska Highway portion (in red) of the Pan-American Highway system. Map of theportion (in red) of the Pan-American Highway system.
The Northern Pan-American Highway travels through 9 countries:
The Southern Pan-American Highway travels through 8 countries:
Important spurs also lead into 4 countries:
Northern section [ edit ]
Interstate 35 in the U.S. state of Iowa. I-35 is a de facto branch of the Pan-American Highway
Alaska and Canada [ edit ]
The Alaska Highway through Alaska, Yukon and British Columbia is commonly considered a de facto northerly extension of the Pan-American Highway, as well as the Dalton Highway in Alaska. In Canada, no particular road has been officially designated as the Pan-American Highway. The National Highway System, which includes but is not limited to the Trans-Canada Highway, is the country's only official interprovincial highway system. However, there are several Canadian routes that are a natural extension of several key American highways that reach the Canada–US border. British Columbia Highway 97 and Highway 2 to Alberta both pick up where the southern end of the Alaska highway leaves off. Highway 97 becomes U.S. Route 97 at the Canada–US border. British Columbia Highway 99 provides an alternate route from Highway 97 just north of Cache Creek that runs through Whistler and Vancouver before ending at the Canada–US border at the north end of Interstate 5 in Washington State, the beginning of the official Pan-American route south of British Columbia. Meanwhile, Alberta Highway 2 runs south and east to Alberta Highway 3 leading into Lethbridge, then south on Alberta Highway 4 to the Canada–US border where it becomes Interstate 15 in Montana, the first official stretch of the Pan-American Highway south of the Alberta route.
Contiguous 48 states of the United States [ edit ]
In 1966, the Federal Highway Administration designated the entire Interstate Highway System part of the Pan-American Highway System,[5][6] although this has never been reflected in any of the official interstate signage. Of the many freeways that make up this very comprehensive system, there are several that stand out because of their mainly north-south orientation and their links to the main Mexican route and its spurs as well as to key routes in Canada that link to the Alaska Highway. These include the following:
Related North American Highways [ edit ]
Several North American routes have names that make no direct reference to the Pan-American Highway, in part because some sections follow highways that are not up to full freeway standard
Mexico [ edit ]
1933 map of the Inter-American Highway portion of the Pan-American Highway.
The official route of the Pan-American Highway through Mexico (where it is known as the Inter-American Highway) starts at Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas (opposite Laredo, Texas) and goes south to Mexico City along Mexican Federal Highway 85.[citation needed] Later branches were built to the border as follows:
From Mexico City to the border with Guatemala, the highway follows Mexican Federal Highway 190.[11][12][13]
Central America [ edit ]
The Pan-American (or Inter-American) highway passes through the Central American countries with the highway designation of CA-1 (Central American Highway 1). In Guatemala, it passes through 10 departments, including The Department Of Guatemala, where it passes through Guatemala City. In El Salvador, it passes through the cities of Santa Ana, Santa Tecla, Antiguo Cuscatlán, San Salvador, San Martín, San Miguel, and crosses the border into Honduras at Amatillo. From Honduras, it passes into Nicaragua, passing through the Nicaraguan cities of Somoto, Estelí, Sebaco, Managua, Jinotepe, and Rivas before entering Costa Rica at Peñas Blancas. In Costa Rica, it passes through Liberia, San José, Cartago, Pérez Zeledón, Palmares, Neily, before crossing into Panama at Paso Canoas. In Panama, it crosses the Panama Canal via the Centennial Bridge, and ends at Yaviza, at the edge of the Darién Gap. The road had formerly ended at Cañita, Panama, 180 km (110 mi) north of its current end. United States government funding was particularly significant to complete the high-level Bridge of the Americas over the Panama Canal, during the years when the canal was administered by the United States.
Belize was supposedly included in the route at one time, after it switched to driving on the right. Prior to independence, as British Honduras, it was the only Central American country to drive on the left side of the road.
Darién Gap [ edit ]
Map of the Darién Gap and the break in the Pan-American Highway between Yaviza, Panama and Turbo, Colombia
The Pan-American Highway is interrupted between Panama and Colombia by a 100 km (60 mi) stretch of marshland known as the Darién Gap. The highway terminates at Turbo, Colombia and Yaviza, Panama. Because of swamps, marshes, and rivers, construction would be very expensive.
Efforts have been made for decades to eliminate the gap in the Pan-American highway, but have been controversial. Planning began in 1971 with the help of United States funding, but this was halted in 1974 after concerns raised by environmentalists. Another effort to build the road began in 1992, but by 1994 a United Nations agency reported that the road, and the subsequent development, would cause extensive environmental damage. There is evidence that the Darién Gap has prevented the spread of diseased cattle into Central and Northern America, which have not seen foot-and-mouth disease since 1954, and since at least the 1970s this has been a substantial factor in preventing a road link through the Darién Gap. The Embera-Wounaan and Kuna have also expressed concern that the road could bring about the potential erosion of their cultures.
The Darién Gap has challenged adventurers for many years. A 1962 expedition with Chevrolet Corvair rear-engine cars failed.[14] A 1971-72 British expedition from Alaska to Argentina attempted to transit the Gap with two standard production Range Rovers, supported by a team of Land Rovers. They barely succeeded in thrashing a passage through the extreme terrain.[15] In 1979 a team led by Mark Smith drove standard production CJ7-model Jeeps from South to North, traversing the Gap - with difficulty.[16] In June 1984, Loren and Patty Upton took 741 days slogging, winching, chopping and digging their way through the inhospitable jungles of the Darién Gap.
One proposed option to bridge the gap is a short ferry link from Colombia to a new ferry port in Panama,[17] with an extension of the existing Panama highway that would complete the highway without violating these environmental concerns.
Southern section [ edit ]
Vía PanAm shield sign is sometimes found on routes in South American countries (such as Chile) associated with the Pan-American Highway. shield sign is sometimes found on routes in South American countries (such as Chile) associated with the Pan-American Highway.
Sculpture of a native man standing at the entrance of Fusagasugá Colombia , over the Highway 40.
Colombia and Venezuela [ edit ]
The southern part of the highway begins in northwestern Colombia, from where it follows Colombia Highway 62 to Medellín. At Medellín, Colombia Highway 56 leads to Bogotá, but Colombia Highway 25 turns south for a more direct route. Colombia Highway 72 is routed southwest from Bogotá to join Highway 25 at Murillo. Highway 25 continues all the way to the border with Ecuador.
Another route, known as the Simón Bolívar Highway, runs from Bogotá (Colombia) to Guiria (Venezuela). It begins by using Colombia Highway 71 all the way to the border with Venezuela. From there it uses Venezuela Highway 1 to Caracas and Venezuela Highway 9 to its end at Guiria.
Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Paraguay [ edit ]
Ecuador Highway 35 runs the whole length of that country. Peru Highway 1 carries the Pan-American Highway all the way through Peru to the border with Chile.
In Chile, the highway follows Chile Route 5 south to a point north of Santiago (Llaillay), where the highway splits into two parts, one of which goes through Chilean territory to Puerto Montt, where it splits again, to Quellón on Chiloé Island, and to its continuation as the Carretera Austral. The other part goes east along Chile Route 60, which becomes Argentina National Route 7 at the Argentinian border and continues to Buenos Aires, the end of the main highway.[18] The highway network also continues south of Buenos Aires along Argentina National Route 3 towards the city of Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego. Another branch, from Buenos Aires to Asunción in Paraguay, heads out of Buenos Aires on Argentina National Route 9. It switches to Argentina National Route 11 at Rosario, which crosses the border with Paraguay right at Asunción. Other branches probably exist across the center of South America.
Almost all Pan-American sections in Gran Buenos Aires are modern and fast main highways
Brazil and Uruguay [ edit ]
A continuation of the Pan-American Highway to the Brazilian cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro uses a ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia in Uruguay and Uruguay Highway 1 to Montevideo. Uruguay Highway 9 and Brazil Highway 471 route to near Pelotas, from where Brazil Highway 116 leads to Brazilian main cities.
Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana [ edit ]
The highway does not have official segments to Belize, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, nor to any of the island nations in the Americas. However, highways from Venezuela link to Brazilian Trans-Amazonian highway that provides a southwest entrance to Guyana, route to the coast, and follow a coastal route through Suriname to French Guiana.
West Indies section [ edit ]
Plans have been discussed for including the West Indies in the Pan American Highway system. According to these, a system of ferries would be established to connect terminal points of the highway. Travelers would then be able to ferry from Key West to Havana, drive to the eastern tip of Cuba, ferry to Haiti, drive through Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and ferry again to Puerto Rico. Included in this system would also be a ferry from the western tip of Cuba to the Yucatán Peninsula. Mexico has already surveyed a route which will run across the Yucatán, Campeche, and Chiapas to San Cristobal de Las Casas, on the Pan American Highway. ("The Pan American Highway System" by Travel Division Pan American Union, Washington D.C. October 1947)
Art and culture [ edit ]
Travel writer Tim Cahill wrote a book, Road Fever, about his record-setting 24-day drive from Ushuaia in the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego to Prudhoe Bay in the U.S. state of Alaska with professional long-distance driver Garry Sowerby, much of their route following the Pan-American Highway.[19]
In the British motoring show Top Gear, the presenters drove on a section of the road in their off-road vehicles in the Bolivian Special.
In 2003, Kevin Sanders, a long-distance rider, broke the Guinness World Record for the fastest traversal of the highway by motorcycle in 34 days.[20]
In 2018, a British cyclist named Dean Stott who had planned on riding the length of the Americas in 110 days to set a new Guinness World Record ended up completing the 14,000-mile journey in just under 100 days after learning that he and his wife had been invited to the royal wedding, revealing that he would have missed the event had he stuck to his original schedule.[21]
YouTuber Ben Jamin (and later with his girlfriend Leah Airey) documented their five year journey (2011-2016) while traveling from Chile to Alaska on their YouTube channel Kombi Life. Born and raised in the British Isle of Jersey, Jamin bought and converted a 1992 Volkswagen Kombi in Southern Chile for the trip. Series highlights include mechanical issues, their dog named Alaska, relationships with fellow travelers, and travel vlogs of the various countries.[22] Jamin made international news when he was denied a visa to reenter Alaska to finish their multi-year journey. He was eventually allowed back into the United States on a B visa, and the couple finished their trip.[23]
Photo gallery [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Sources [ edit ] |
To be fair, there are probably a good number of reasons for a footballer to want to play for Sevilla.
There's playing for a historic old club, for one. Living in a beautiful medieval city is another, as is the almost guaranteed success in the Europa League if the club's recent record is anything to go by.
But these apparently didn't even register for Samir Nasri, who opened up on life at the club this week, explaining that he had two very different, yet very distinct, reasons for wanting to head to the south of Spain.
Having seen Pep Guardiola arrive at Manchester City over the summer, the 29-year-old decided to head out on loan in order to get more regular playing time.
And having spoke to a number of City's Spanish contingent about the club, he realised that living in Sevilla would have more benefits than just simply racking up minutes on the pitch.
Article continues below
"Guardiola wanted me to stay, but when your head needs a change, after five years in Manchester - where I had lots of injuries last season - I wanted to start something new and fresh," he told Spanish football journalist Rubén Uría.
"When I spoke to Monchi and Rami, it seemed it was ideal. I also asked Jesus Navas, David Silva and Nolito how the club and the city was.
"Everything was good! It has great food and beautiful girls."
Nasri has been in superb form since arriving over the summer, scoring three goals and chalking up one assist in the process.
This has helped him go a long way to re-establishing himself as one of the game's major talents, even if he isn't getting any younger.
And he has credited this return to form with working with Sampaoli and his assistant, Juanma Lillo, before going on to reveal that Lillo even came with a glowing recommendation from Guardiola.
"The coach [Sampaoli] came with a great challenge, like what he achieved at the Copa America [in 2015] with Chile," he added.
"I spoke with Guardiola and he told me what a great trainer Juanma Lillo was. This was all I needed to know. It was perfect for me." |
My fingers hover over the keyboard, spread as if they are spiders who are confused on how to make a web.
I'm resting at the forefront of my dating regime, at a desk in my apartment trying to think of something about me that the members of this gay dating site need to know. Ironically, this part of the initiation is the hardest.
The sign-up was easy for my adaptive computer technology that robotically tells me everyone's messages, height, and weight as I use the keyboard to navigate. Uploading a picture is a kind of fun few will experience as a visually impaired individual, and browsing men who are looking for men proves to be an adventure.
Many profiles dictate little about themselves which leaves me guessing. Others are so detailed I can get a good picture of them, but I haven't filled out the "about me" section, until today. What should I say?
There weren't any words In images I had to type to verify my identity, there weren't any advertisements sprinkled into a profile detailing a guy who likes to pretend to fly with toy airplanes. Everything is smooth like melted butter until this part in the acquaintance, the about me.
My thought process seems to have a planned detour; as if my brain schemed how it was going to depart at the exact moment I need it to work its magic. First, dictation, then there's deliberation, then debating, then dumbstruck diatribe. My fingers don't move but deductions springs into my mind like a sweptback gymnast.
People will marvel at my eloquence for words upon first glance so this will whisk me up to an 80% on the attraction slider. When they talk with me verbally however, I'm sure the stammer will jab me down to 45%.
When people read that I have a white cane my dating chances will shoot down to 30%. I know this figure based on experience. To boost my score perhaps I should entice them first with facts about my journalism work where I detail LGBT news and issues, and couple that with my obsessive love for mint chocolate chip ice cream and pony rides. If I do that my percentage will shoot up to 45% because everybody loves chocolate ice cream way before mint.
If I say I passionately read books I believe that will drop my percentage to 40% because that's a boring passion and I will be metaphorically studying every thought and action people have so I think I will leave that out.
If I say that I enjoy long walks on the beach I'll have scored a whammy without even needing to mention that I can't walk that far before my muscles complain because they have exercised past their patience level, gauging the percentage between 75% and 65%. no one wants to carry a blind wordsmith through the sand but it would definitely make a nice Christmas card.
My hobbies will definitely bring my dating percentage up but transportation will nudge it back down again like tight jeans. Scheduling rides 24 hours in advance to everything from plays, to restaurants, to sports games, to theme parks, and movies makes the percentage quiver at 85%.
Surely the understanding that I sustain my own life and apartment would pivot me above 90%. It'd lift me up to 98% because men like other men who have it together but the supportive living label will make me drop again. People always get skittish when they hear that the clothes I bought with money I've earned from work are washed by a certified nurse's assistant in an apartment complex that houses 87 blind adults. This scares them a lot so I'm dropped to 90%. |
Donald Trump still won't acknowledge President Barack Obama was born in the U.S. and insinuated on Sunday that the country has already had its first Muslim president.
The real estate mogul called in to "Meet The Press" Sunday morning to address the ongoing controversy that followed his lack of response after a supporter asked Trump how he would address "a problem in this country ... called Muslims." Host Chuck Todd used the line of question to turn to another tea party stumping point: that the president isn't a U.S. citizen.
Trump refused to share his current views on the factually inaccurate sentiment, instead telling Todd he just doesn't like talking about it and "won't talk about it."
"I just don't discuss it," the candidate said. "Really, it hasn't been brought up in a long time."
Trump is actually one of the forefathers of the Obama birther conspiracy. He made headlines in 2011 after persistently demanding to see the president's birth certificate while raising doubts over Obama's birthplace in Hawaii. Even after the White House released an official copy of the document, Trump questioned its authenticity.
Sunday's exchange comes just days after Trump ignited controversy by nodding along at a campaign event while a supporter linked the notion that the president was Muslim with his belief that all Muslims "have training camps growing where they want to kill us."
Todd also asked Trump how he'd feel should a Muslim president actually be elected down the road -- not a far-fetched idea, as the population of Muslim Americans is expected to surpass 6.2 million by 2030. Trump's response wasn't terribly shocking.
"Would I be comfortable? I don’t know if we have to address it right now," he said. "But I think it is certainly something that could happen."
Todd reiterated his question before Trump interrupted:
"I mean, some people have said it already happened, frankly," Trump said, presumably referring to Obama. "But of course you wouldn’t agree with that."
Todd continued to press Trump on whether he believed Obama was Christian but the candidate said he didn't "talk about people's faith" and added that he was "willing to take [the president] at his word."
Despite his reluctance to address an individual's faith, the candidate made a point to note that he "love[s] the Muslims" and thinks "they're great people" during a stop at a high school homecoming Saturday night. He gave Todd a similar one-liner before reversing himself to say he believes there is, in fact, a problem there.
"I feel strongly that Muslims are excellent. I know so many Muslims that are such fabulous people," he told Todd. "But there is a problem. I mean, there's no question about it. And we can be politically correct and we can say there is no problem whatsoever. But the fact is there is a problem with some. And it's a very severe problem."
Also on HuffPost: |
(CNN) -- Prominent liberal groups and gay rights proponents criticized President-elect Barack Obama Wednesday for choosing evangelical pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the presidential inauguration next month.
President-elect Barack Obama has chosen pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration.
Warren, one of the most influential religious leaders in the nation, has championed issues such as a reduction of global poverty, human rights abuses and the AIDS epidemic.
But the founder of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, has also adhered to socially conservative stances -- including his opposition to gay marriage and abortion rights that puts him at odds with many in the Democratic Party, especially the party's most liberal wing.
"[It's] shrewd politics, but if anyone is under any illusion that Obama is interested in advancing gay equality, they should probably sober up now," Andrew Sullivan wrote on the Atlantic Web site Wednesday.
People for the American Way President Kathryn Kolbert told CNN she is "deeply disappointed" with the choice of Warren and said the powerful platform at the inauguration should instead have been given to someone who has "consistent mainstream American values." iReport.com: What do you think of the pick?
"There is no substantive difference between Rick Warren and James Dobson," Kolbert said. "The only difference is tone. His tone is moderate, but his ideas are radical."
Dobson, a social conservative leader, is founder and chairman of Focus on the Family.
Linda Douglass, a spokeswoman for Obama, defended the choice of Warren, saying, "This is going to be the most inclusive, open, accessible inauguration in American history."
"The president-elect certainly disagrees with him on [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] issues," Douglass said. "But it has always been his goal to find common ground with people with whom you may disagree on some issues."
Douglass also noted that Obama and Warren agree on several issues, including advocating on behalf of the poor, the disadvantaged and people who suffer from HIV/AIDS. Watch CNN's Anderson Cooper and his panel discuss the selection »
Warren's support of California's Proposition 8, a measure that outlaws same-sex marriage in the state, sparked the ire of many gay rights proponents earlier this fall.
Warren, who has made it a practice not to endorse candidates or political parties, wrote in October that the issue of gay marriage is not a political issue, but instead "a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about."
"For 5,000 years, every culture and every religion -- not just Christianity -- has defined marriage as a contract between men and women," Warren wrote in a newsletter to his congregation. "There is no reason to change the universal, historical definition of marriage to appease 2 percent of our population."
Warren also stirred controversy earlier this week when he told Beliefnet.com his grounds for opposing same-sex marriage lay primarily on his right of free speech.
"There were all kinds of threats that if [Proposition 8] did not pass, then any pastor could be considered doing hate speech if he shared his views that he didn't think homosexuality was the most natural way for relationships, and that would be hate speech."
Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights campaign, said Wednesday he feels a "deep level of disrespect" over the choice of Warren and is calling on Obama to reconsider the move.
"By inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table," Solmonese said in an open letter to Obama that was released by his organization.
In his recent interview with Beliefnet, Warren also sparked outrage among supporters of abortion rights for criticizing those who have said abortion would be "safe and rare."
"Don't tell me it should be rare," he said in the interview. "That's like saying on the Holocaust, 'Well, maybe we could save 20 percent of the Jewish people in Poland and Germany and get them out and we should be satisfied with that -- I'm not satisfied with that. I want the Holocaust ended."
But Warren, whose church attracts more than 20,000 people a week, has widely been recognized for his attempts to expand the evangelical movement beyond socially conservative issues.
In the 2008 election, Warren hosted Obama and Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, at a candidate forum held in his church.
His book "The Purpose Driven Life" has sold more than 20 million copies since it was first published five years ago, and Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in 2005.
"Many believe that Warren ... is the successor to the [Rev. Billy Graham] for the role of America's minister," Time wrote in 2005.
CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand contributed to this report
All About Barack Obama • Rick Warren • U.S. Presidential Inauguration • Same-Sex Marriage |
A 'plasma afterburner' just 30 centimetres long accelerates electrons hundreds of times faster than giant conventional accelerators. The result may ultimately open up a low-cost technology for particle colliders. See Letter p.92
In November 2012, Guinness World Records reported that 120 surfers in Australia rode the same wave simultaneously for more than 5 seconds1. “The trick was to get them all to do the same thing at the same time,” said group leader Wes Smith. “It was an operation of military-like precision and we finally got there.” Now Litos and colleagues, in work at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California, reported on page 92 of this issue2, have 'got there', too, by surfing half a billion 20-billion-electronvolt electrons on a steep charge-density wave about the size of a marine phytoplankton, travelling through ionized gas (plasma). The wave was driven by a companion electron bunch as it raced at nearly the speed of light through a 30-centimetre-long chamber filled with plasma (Fig. 1).
Figure 1: Ramping up the energy. SLAC's main accelerator, shown in aerial view, accelerates electron bunches from 0 to 20 GeV energy over 2 km, which amounts to adding 0.01 GeV to each electron every metre. The new Facility for Accelerator Science and Experimental Tests (FACET) used by Litos et al.2 then splits each 20-GeV bunch into two independently controlled tandem bunches. The leading bunch creates a new micro-accelerator inside a 30-cm chamber (top), in which it drives a charge-density wave in ionized gas, much as a boat drives a wake in water. The trailing bunch rides the lead bunch's wake and, when optimally positioned, extracts up to 30% of its energy, boosting each electron's energy by 1.6 GeV in only 30 cm. Image: SLAC Natl Accelerator Lab Full size image
Although this inaugural experiment lost about 90% of its 'surfers' along the way, the surviving electrons gained 1.6 billion electronvolts, or 1.6 gigaelectonvolts (GeV), in energy with unparalleled uniformity, maintaining roughly 1% energy spread throughout their wild ride, while sucking away an unprecedented fraction (up to 30%) of the wave's energy. Such uniform, efficient acceleration required the researchers to inject the surfing electron bunch into the wave, and to adjust the bunch's charge and shape, with a military-like precision made possible by SLAC's recently commissioned US$15-million Facility for Accelerator Science and Experimental Tests (FACET)3. Because the plasma wave accelerated electrons 500 times faster than SLAC's main particle accelerator, the result might herald a new generation of compact 'plasma afterburners' that could boost the energy of conventional particle accelerators and potentially reduce the skyrocketing cost of high-energy physics machinery4.
Seven years ago, before FACET was even proposed, the same team had used single bunches of about 10 billion 42-GeV electrons and accelerated them over the full 3.2-kilometre length of SLAC's main machine to drive a similar plasma wave5. A handful of electrons from the tail of the drive bunch were caught in the drive bunch's wake and were accelerated up to 84 GeV, twice the energy of the electrons in the original drive bunch, within a metre-long plasma chamber. However, the electrons emerging from this first-generation plasma afterburner ranged in energy from less than about 35 GeV to 84 GeV, more electrons were decelerated than accelerated, and most of the energy of the plasma wave was left untapped. FACET — which now shares SLAC with the Linac Coherent Light Source, and thus starts with 20-GeV electrons accelerated over part of SLAC's length — was designed to correct these shortcomings. The facility exploits new particle-beam technology to split the SLAC bunches into two tandem bunches whose time separation, charge and shape are, with some limits, independently controllable.
In the new experiments, the researchers used a little over half of the 20-GeV SLAC bunch to drive a plasma wave, and then timed its nearly equally charged twin to surf just a hair's breadth behind, where its core rode the enormous electrostatic field of the drive bunch's wake. Without the trailing surfing bunch, this field would be far from uniform, varying from 3 billion to 10 billion volts per metre (fields stronger than ordinary, non-plasma matter can withstand) just over the tiny region in which the surfing bunch was so painstakingly positioned.
Had the researchers injected a lower-charged surfing bunch, it would have suffered the same fate as in the earlier experiment by broadening in energy. This would render it useless for high-energy physics applications, which require particle energy to be tuned precisely to create and identify new particles, such as the Higgs boson. However, Litos et al. took advantage of physics learned from computer simulations6 showing that a high-charge surfing bunch could 'load' the plasma wake, flattening its electrostatic fields locally. It is as if the 120 Australian surfers had sufficient collective weight to flatten the curved ocean wave into an inclined plane so that they could all accelerate at the same rate. This trick solved two problems simultaneously: it enabled a high-charge bunch to accelerate nearly monoenergetically while maximizing energy extraction from the plasma wake.
Can plasma surfing meet future needs of high-energy physics research, which include electron bunches with sufficiently high energy, charge, repetition rate and focusability that they can create detectable amounts of new particles that may be lurking in the cosmic underworld? The jury is still out. The present 1.6-GeV energy gain (starting from 20 GeV) is no greater than that achieved by plasma accelerators driven by light pulses from lasers (starting from zero)7, which are much smaller and less-expensive instruments than SLAC. Nevertheless, electron-driven plasma accelerators scale more readily to gains of tens of gigaelectronvolts than do their laser-driven counterparts, as demonstrated in previous work5.
Improved bunch-shaping technology will better match surfing bunch to plasma wave, increasing electron-survival rate and thus the number of accelerated electrons. Yet the Higgs boson has a mass equivalent to 126 GeV, and physical theories such as supersymmetry predict additional particles that have even greater mass than the Higgs and may be the source of the elusive 'dark matter' that seems to comprise about 25% of the Universe. Creating and identifying these new denizens of the Universe could set the next energy frontier at many thousands of gigaelectronvolts. Reaching these energies will probably require synchronized, multi-staged plasma accelerators — a daunting, and largely unexplored, technical challenge in view of the micrometre dimensions of plasma waves.
An interesting alternative proposal is to drive plasma waves with very energetic proton bunches, which because of their greater mass can push plasma waves for hundreds of metres, potentially accelerating electrons to the energy frontier in a single stage8. In either case, plasma acceleration of positrons (antielectrons) lags far behind electron acceleration because plasma waves shaped like those in the current experiment defocus surfing positron bunches, degrading their usefulness. Positron acceleration is important because high-energy collisions of electrons and positrons, a natural matter–antimatter pair, create a richer collection of products with higher efficiency than, say, electron–electron collisions, and thus offer one of the most promising routes to particle discovery. FACET, with access to SLAC's companion positron beam, is uniquely positioned to explore new ways to shape plasma waves in order to advance plasma-based positron acceleration.
Finally, even if the energies and charges required for an electron–positron collider are achieved, debate rages over whether focused, plasma-surfed particle beams can yield particle-discovery events at rates competitive with those achieved with conventional accelerator technology9,10,11, which underlies proposed tens-of-kilometres-long machines such as the International Linear Collider and the Compact Linear Collider. These uncertainties notwithstanding, Litos et al. have overcome one of the most difficult challenges so far in the long quest for small, affordable accelerators, and have given the plasma-surfing community every reason to surge ahead.
References 1. www.worldrecordacademy.com/sports/most_surfers_riding_the_same_wave_120_surfers_set_world_record_113137.html 2. Litos, M. et al. Nature 515, 92–95 (2014). 3. Hogan, M. J. et al. New J. Phys. 12, 055030 (2010). 4. Lee, S. et al. Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 5, 011001 (2002). 5. Blumenfeld, I. et al. Nature 445, 741–744 (2007). 6. Tzoufras, M. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 145002 (2008). 7. Wang, X. et al. Nature Commun. 4, 1988; http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2988 (2013). 8. Caldwell, A., Lotov, K., Pukhov, A. & Simon, F. Nature Phys. 5, 363–367 (2009). 9. Schroeder, C. B., Esarey, E. & Leemans, W. P. Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 15, 051301 (2012). 10. Lebedev, V. & Nagaitsev, S. Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 16, 108001 (2013). 11. Schroeder, C. B., Esarey, E. & Leemans, W. P. Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 16, 108002 (2013). Download references
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Here’s a disturbing update from the Oregon militant standoff. Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, one of the most colorful militants, says that Arizona child protective services has removed four foster children, apparently all boys, from his care because of his involvement in the standoff.
There’s no direct evidence offered to show that the removals are tied to the standoff, though the timing – all coinciding with the standoff – makes it a reasonable surmise. And there’s zero evidence to back up Finicum’s claim that the federal government pressured state authorities to remove the children. Indeed, he doesn’t claim to have any evidence, just his suspicion, which for him seems to equal evidence.
Two points got my attention about this story.
First, having one parent away from the home for a significant period of time committing a number of high profile federal crimes would seem like at least a plausible reason to remove the children. This doesn’t seem to occur to Finicum.
The second point comes further down in the article. From a mix of tabulations by Oregon Public Broadcasting and Finicum’s own account, Finicum and his wife apparently get almost all or all of their income from being foster parents. His ranch in Chino Valley, Arizona is break even at best and appears to generate no income.
Now, foster parents, especially those who care for troubled children, are truly doing God’s work. And they are entitled to compensation, both for the work involved in being a parent and for the substantial out of pocket expenses involved in raising children. But it seems at least ironic and perhaps more than ironic that this paragon of getting the government off our backs and radical, near-absolute individualism supports himself and his wife off state subsidies. I’ve also always thought that there are at least possible adverse incentives created when foster parents get all their income from being foster parents. (That said, placing foster children is, I know, incredibly challenging work. And not knowing enough about the practice, I certainly don’t begrudge state authorities placing children with parents who seem, after careful scrutiny, able to provide a caring home environment – even if it’s their sole or near sole source of income.)
It’s certainly possible that Finicum and his wife provide a great experience and place of emotional support for these boys. That’s what he says and maybe he’s right. But participation in anti-government extremist activity and various federal crimes seems to merit at least a close look at whether this is a healthy environment for these children, especially if they are taking in as many as 8 or 10 at a time and it’s their only source of income.
Regardless, Finicum’s claim that this is another example of the government persecution of him – removing foster children, who come with state subsidies which are his only source of income, because he has abandoned them to go commit crimes against the federal government in another state – just illustrates painfully and comically what a nonsense bubble these jokers live in. |
Barcelona defender Gerard Pique said that is his team don't go on to win the Champions League, the comeback against PSG "would remain as something with little sense."
"Now the important thing is to win it, because if not, the comeback would still be in the history books as one of the greatest feats of all time, but a little bit without sense if we don't end up winning [the Champions League]," Pique said after taking part in a masterclass on nutrition in sport.
Pique didn't want to enter into controversy on the interpretation of the refereeing from some sectors: "It doesn't annoy me what Ramos said. He was right, it was something historical. It was the cover of the biggest newspapers in all of Europe.
"I enjoyed it like a kid, it was a great night, a dream, the sensation was as if we'd won the Champions League, maybe more.
"The image that marked me the most and stayed with me was Sergi Roberto's goal, the hugs with people you don't know, people crying...
"It was something historic, something that will be passed from parents to their kids and that's why we're here." |
If you remember the classic Zelda titles then you must have known about Majora’s Mask. This was my personal favorite on the N64 even though gameplay was pretty strange. Link can use masks to transform and utilize unique strengths, but you also have to reset the clock every few days.
Weird stuff, yet very fun. Check out these crazy illustrations devoted to characters & locations found in Majora’s Mask.
Chasing Masks
Rebirth
Romani Ranch as Harvest Moon
Kafei & Tingle
Destroyer Moon
Fierce Deity’s Mask
Cremia and Romani
Raindrops, Puddles, and Scrubs
Sharp the Elder
Mirrored Tears
The Milk Bar
Termina Field (Sea)
Deku Flower Petals
Skull Kid Race
LoZ Halloween 2012
Zora Hangout
Skull Kid’s Ocarina
Happy Mask Salesman
Song of Time
Private Concert
Rest in the Night
Anju and Kafei Reunited
Clock Town Center
Talking in the Forest
A Rainy Day
The Legend of Zelda
Peaceful Clock Town
Constellations
Starting Over
featured image source |
A TEENAGER who shouted “Tiocfaidh ár lá” as he was arrested for disorderly behaviour admitted to an Omagh court on Tuesday that he could not spell the Gaeilge slogan.
Tyrone Kelly (19), with an address on Loughshore Road, Belleek, was taken into custody in the Gortin Road area of Omagh shortly after 9.30pm on August 3 last year after sticking two middle fingers up at a police car as he crossed the road.
The police report recounted that the teenager was shouting at the car, but the officers could not hear what he said.
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As the car stopped, Kelly ran towards Omagh town centre and was later spotted at the Grange Park. The court heard that the 19-year-old took off his jacket and threw it at an officer, stating he had no respect for police.
Arrested, Kelly shouted “Tiocfaidh ár lá” and became aggressive.
Hearing the account, District Judge Bernie Kelly directly addressed the teenager at the back of the courtroom asking, “I wonder if he would like to spell Tiocfaidh ár lá?”
Replying that he could not, the Judge asked, “Can you conjugate the verb?”
Stating he could not, the judge ordered him to sit down.
Defence solicitor Conor Sally said his client had been intoxicated at the time of the incident and claimed only for the gesture, Kelly would not have come to the attention of police.
He recounted difficulties with the legal high substance ‘Magic Dragon’ and revealed his client was still subject to a suspended sentence imposed after the August 3 incident.
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Judge Kelly warned the teenager, “No ifs or buts, you will be going to prison if this continues.”
She imposed fines totalling £315. |
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson — one of the most powerful individuals in the wireless industry and the boss of AT&T Mobility's Ralph de la Vega — spoke for over an hour this week and took questions as part of the Milken Institute's Global Conference 2012. Many of Stephenson's comments were rehashes of AT&T's usual talking points on the so-called spectrum crunch and the need for industry consolidation (along the lines of last year's failed T-Mobile acquisition), but a number of interesting quotes came out along the way.
Regarding the effect of the iPhone on AT&T's data network and the move from unlimited data to the tiered pricing that AT&T offers on its smartphones today, Stephenson said that he didn't regret offering the iPhone (and why would he?) but that he wishes that he had killed off the $30 all-you-can-eat plan earlier than he had:
You ask, do you ever look back and ask, do we wish we hadn't [launched the iPhone]? No. No, I never reflect on that. Should we have changed the pricing model sooner? Yes. I wish we had moved quicker to change the pricing model to make sure that people that were consuming the bandwidth were paying for the bandwidth. And so we had a model where the high-end users were being subsidized by the low-end users. We got that model straight — took a while to get that straight. But no, it has revolutionized our industry, and I don't regret it at all.
He goes on to say that in the absence of T-Mobile-style consolidation, there will be "nothing but upward pricing pressure" in the industry:
Make no mistake about it, if you don't find solutions like [acquiring T-Mobile USA], there is nothing but upward pricing pressure in this marketplace. And you're experiencing it and you're living through it today. Since the beginning of the year when that deal got killed, our data prices have gone up 30 percent. You want to upgrade to a smartphone? Every carrier in the industry now has put in place an upgrade fee to try to slow this down. Virtually every carrier is now throttling, meaning when you hit a certain threshold of usage in a given month, your speeds get scaled back to try to reduce the utilization of these networks.
And yet he's quick to note that despite the apparent spectrum crunch, he's managed to increase the company's profit margins throughout the entire smartphone revolution:
2006, before all this began, we were basically a zero data revenue company running at about 30, 32 percent margins. Today, we're a 20 billion dollar data revenue company and we're operating at 41, 42 percent margins. So, I mean, people ask me, do you worry about how much value Apple is extracting out of the equation or the handset makers, I say, no, as long as we're extracting value too. Would I like to have more of the value? Of course! Right? But it's been good for our industry.
Though the T-Mobile deal is most certainly dead, Stephenson is convinced that consolidation in the US wireless industry is inevitable — regardless of whether AT&T is involved or not — claiming that an increase in competition makes spectrum utilization less efficient: "Obviously, the more competitors you have, the less efficient the allocation of spectrum will be. It's just... that's mathematical," he noted. He also claimed that "there are much fewer numbers of competitors" in markets like South Korea, Europe, and Japan which led to a "more rational allocation of spectrum," but it's unclear where Stephenson got his information — the UK, for instance, has four major players while Japan and South Korea both have three, hardly "much fewer" than the four nationals in the US today.
The entire conversation — embedded below — is a fascinating listen for anyone interested in the future of wireless competition. |
Walter Keane—supposed painter of “Big Eyed Children” and subject of a recent Tim Burton film—made a killing, attaining almost Thomas Kinkade-like status in the middlebrow art market of the 1950s and 60s. As it turns out, his wife, Margaret was in fact the artist, “painting 16 hours a day,” according to a Guardian profile. In some part, the story may illustrate how easy it was for a man like Walter to get millions of people to see what they wanted to see in the picture of success—a charismatic, talented man in front, his quiet, dutiful wife behind. Burton may not have taken too much license with the commonplace attitudes of the day when he has Christoph Waltz’s Walter Keane tell Margaret, “Sadly, people don’t buy lady art.”
And yet, far from the Keane’s San Francisco, and perhaps as far as a person can get from Margaret’s frustrated acquiescence, we have Frida Kahlo creating a body of work that would eventually overshadow her husband’s, muralist Diego Rivera. Unlike Walter Keane, Rivera was a very good painter who did not attempt to overshadow his wife. Instead of professional jealousy, he had plenty of the personal variety. Even so, Rivera encouraged Kahlo's career and recognized her formidable talent, and she, in turn, supported him. In 1933, when Florence Davies---whom Kahlo biographer Gerry Souter describes as “a local news hen”---caught up with her in Detroit, Kahlo “played the cheeky, but adoring wife” of Diego while he labored to finish his famous Detroit mural project.
That may be so, but she did not do so at her own expense. Quite the contrary. Asked if Diego taught her to paint, she replies, “’No, I didn’t study with Diego. I didn’t study with anyone. I just started to paint.’” At which point, writes Davies, “her eyes begin to twinkle” as she goes on to say, “’Of course, he does pretty well for a little boy, but it is I who am the big artist.’” Davies praises Kahlo’s style as “skillful and beautiful” and the artist herself as “a miniature-like little person with her long black braids wound demurely about her head and a foolish little ruffled apron over her black silk dress.” And yet, despite Kahlo’s confidence and serious intent, represented by a prominent photo of her at serious work, Davies—or more likely her editor—decided to title the article, “Wife of the Master Mural Painter Gleefully Dabbles in Works of Art,” a move that reminds me of Walter Keane's patronizing attitude.
The belittling headline is quaint and disheartening, speaking to us, like the unearthed 1938 letter from Disney to an aspiring female animator, of the cruelty of casual sexism. Davies apparently filed another article on Rivera the year prior. This time the headline doesn’t mention Frida, though her fierce unflinching gaze, not Rivera’s wrestler’s mug, again adorns the spread. One sentence in the article says it all: “Freda [sic], it must be understood, is Senora Rivera, who came very near to stealing the show.” Davies then goes on to again describe Kahlo’s appearance, noting of her work only that “she does paint with great charm.” Six years later, Kahlo would indeed steal the show at her first and only solo show in the United States, then again in Paris, where surrealist maestro Andre Breton championed her work and the Louvre bought a painting, its first by a twentieth-century Mexican artist.
And Margaret Keane? She eventually sued Walter and now reaps her own rewards. You can buy one of her paintings here.
via @rabihalameddine
Related Content:
Frida Kahlo Writes a Personal Letter to Georgia O’Keeffe After O’Keeffe’s Nervous Breakdown (1933)
Photos of a Very Young Frida Kahlo, Taken by Her Dad
A Quick Animation of Frida Kahlo’s Famous Self Portrait
Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness |
December 27, 2009 marks the one-year anniversary of the beginning of “Operation Cast Lead,” Israel’s 22-day assault on the captive population of Gaza, which killed 1400 people, one third of them children, and injured more than 5300. During this war on an impoverished, mostly refugee population, Israel targeted civilians, using internationally-proscribed white phosphorous bombs, deprived them of power, water and other essentials, and sought to destroy the infrastructure of Palestinian civil society, including hospitals, administrative buildings and UN facilities. It targeted with peculiar consistency educational institutions of all kinds: the Islamic University of Gaza, the Ministry of Education, the American International School, at least ten UNRWA schools, one of which was sheltering internally displaced Palestinian civilians with nowhere to flee, and tens of other schools and educational facilities.
While world leaders have tragically failed to come to Gaza’s help, civilians everywhere are rallying to show their solidarity with the Palestinian people, with anniversary vigils taking place this week in New York, Washington DC, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, and many more cities and towns in the US and world-wide.
The United States Campaign for an Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel was formed in the immediate aftermath of Operation Cast Lead, bringing together educators of conscience who were unable to stand by and watch in silence Israel’s indiscriminate assault on the Gaza Strip and its educational institutions. Today, over 500 US-based academics, authors, artists, musicians, poets, and other arts professionals have endorsed our call. Our academic endorsers include post-colonial critics and transnational feminists Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Indigenous scholars J. Kēhaulani Kauanui and Andrea Smith, philosopher Judith Butler, Black studies scholars Cedric Robinson, Fred Moten, evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers, and intellectual historian Joseph Massad.
“Cultural workers” who have endorsed our call include well known author Barbara Ehrenreich, Electronic Intifada founder Ali Abunimah, poets Adrienne Rich and Lisa Suhair Majjaj, ISM co-founder and documentary film-maker Adam Shapiro, Jordan Flaherty of Left Turn Magazine, and Adrienne Maree Brown, of the Ruckus Society.
Among the 34 organizations supporting our mission are and the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, the Green Party, Code Pink, INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, .Artists Against Apartheid, and Teachers Against the Occupation.
The Advisory Board of the United States Campaign for an Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) has grown to include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Hamid Dabashi, Lawrence Davidson, Bill Fletcher Jr., Glen Ford, Mark Gonzales, Marilyn Hacker, Edward Herman, Annemarie Jacir, J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Robin Kelley, Ilan Pappe, James Petras, Vijay Prashad, Andrenne Rich, Michel Shehadeh, and Lisa Taraki.
Israeli academics, listed among the organization’s International Endorsers, have also joined us, including Emmanuel Farjoun, Hebrew University; Rachel Giora, Tel Aviv University; Anat Matar, Tel Aviv University; Kobi Snitz, Technion; and Ilan Pappe now at Exeter.
The USACBI Mission Statement calls for a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions in support of an appeal by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Individual Israelis are not targeted by the boycott.
Specifically, supporters are asked to:
(1) Refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions that do not vocally oppose Israeli state policies against Palestine;
(2) Advocate a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions;
(3) Promote divestment and disinvestment from Israel by international academic institutions;
(4) Work toward the condemnation of Israeli policies by pressing for resolutions to be adopted by academic, professional and cultural associations and organizations;
(5) Support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.
This boycott, modeled upon the global BDS movement that put an end to South African apartheid, is to continue until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194. |
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Russia raised the stakes in the crisis in Crimea tonight by preparing for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin defied calls not to intervene as the Russian parliament approved his request to deploy troops.
David Cameron tonight warned the Kremlin: “The world is watching.
“Britain views the developments with growing concern.
"There can be no excuse for outside military intervention in Ukraine – a point I made to President Putin when we spoke yesterday.”
US President Barack Obama said Russia had flouted international law by sending troops to Ukraine.
In a 90-minute telephone conversation, Mr Obama urged Putin to pull forces back to bases in Crimea.
Putin said the use of force was needed to protect the majority ethnic Russian population and his Black Sea Fleet, which is still based on foreign soil in Sevastopol.
A new pro-Russian prime minister, Sergei Aksyonov, has been installed in the autonomous region.
But Ukraine’s acting President Oleksander Turchynov signed a decree declaring the appointment illegal.
Mr Aksyonov claimed control of local forces as he asked Putin for assistance in keeping peace. He also confirmed Black Sea Fleet personnel were guarding key buildings.
Gunmen described as Russian troops now control airports and a communications centre. Russia is now estimated to have 15,000 soldiers deployed in Crimea.
Putin’s move came as dozens were hurt in demonstrations in the Russian-speaking east. Protesters raised Russian flags and beat up supporters of the new government.
(Image: Reuters)
Vitali Klitschko, the former boxing champ and likely presidential candidate, tonight called for a “general mobilisation” following the Russian parliament’s decision.
Pro-Russia activists yesterday tried to seize the regional governor’s headquarters in the eastern city of Kharkiv while Ukraine’s border guard service said 300 armed men tried to take its HQ in Sevastopol.
But there were counter claims by Russia that gunmen from Kiev had been sent to seize Crimea’s interior ministry offices.
A planned May referendum on whether Crimea should seek greater independence has been brought forward to March 30.
Ukraine’s president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted last week by a movement focused on greater integration with Europe.
EU foreign ministers will meet in Brussels on Monday to discuss the developments.
(Image: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Crisis could affect UK gas supply and push up prices
Gas bills could soar because of the crisis in Ukraine, experts fear.
Around 12% of our gas comes from Russia via Ukraine – leaving Britain exposed to price volatility.
Russia expert Prof Peter Rutland said gas prices would suffer “whether there ends up being war or not”.
He said Russia could also cause trouble by calling in its neighbour’s $1.5billion debt.
Prof Rutland said: “Russia cut off supplies to Ukraine in 2006 and 2009. Other customers have to get their supply elsewhere: that affects the market and pushes up the price for the UK.”
And earlier this week Andrew Wilson, of the European Council of Foreign Relations, said: “Ukraine is broke and Russia can hit it hard.”
What will happen next?
by Prof Peter Rutland, expert and author on Russia
Crimea was part of Russia until 1954 and 60 per cent of its population are ethnic Russians.
They have a referendum coming up in a few weeks and they may choose to become part of Russia again.
The region is the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. In 2010 Moscow renewed a treaty with Ukraine to remain there for 25 years.
By showing his military might, Putin is sending a signal to the West that if it comes to war, he will win.
Nato is not going to go to war with a nuclear power as mighty as Russia.
What happens next, though, all hangs on Putin and whether he really wants a confrontation. |
As expected, Mayor Daley and Chicago's City Council are circling the wagons to defend against an unfavorable decision by the Supreme Court concerning the city's gun ban.
Daley said the city would have in place a new ordinance aimed at making it difficult to purchase and own a gun in Chicago.
"We'll publicly propose a new ordinance very soon," Daley said at an afternoon press conference concerning the gun ban.
"As a city we must continue to stand up ..and fight for a ban on assault weapons .. as well as a crackdown on gun shops," Daley said. "We are a country of laws not a nation of guns."
Famous Tough Guys: "The Expendables" Edition
The Supreme Court did not overturn Chicago's gun ban outright, but sent the case challenging it, McDonald vs. the City of Chicago, back to the lower courts for a final decision.
Once that comes, the city should have new ordinances in place to limit gun ownership.
After SCOTUS eliminated the D.C. ban, the city put in place dozens of regulations surrounding handgun ownership. Prospective gun owners in D.C. now are required to take training courses that include spending one hour on a firing range and several hours in a classroom learning about gun safety. They also must pass a 20-question test based on D.C.'s firearm laws.
Since the ban was lifted in D.C., just over 800 guns have been registered in city. The relatively low total comes as the district passed the slew of new requirements that also include being fingerprinted and taking ballistic tests, which could help police track bullets back to specific guns if needed.
"We are digesting the 200 pages and will have something tomorrow to stand up to the court's ruling," says Ald. Anthony Beale, chairman of Police and Fire Co. Committee on Chicago's City Council.
City officials warned against a run on guns.
"I would urge anyone buying a gun at this time to wait," said Chicago Attorney Mara Georges.
The city is expected to take steps similar to what D.C. enacted after its gun ban was shot down. |
"Cixi" redirects here. For the city, see Cixi, Zhejiang
Chinese empress
Empress Dowager Cixi (Chinese: 慈禧太后; pinyin: Cíxǐ Tàihòu; [tsʰɨ̌.ɕì tʰâi.xôu]; Manchu: Tsysi taiheo; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), of the Manchu Yehe Nara clan, was a Chinese empress dowager and regent who effectively controlled the Chinese government in the late Qing dynasty for 47 years from 1861 until her death in 1908.
Selected as a concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor in her adolescence, she gave birth to a son, Zaichun, in 1856. After the Xianfeng Emperor's death in 1861, the young boy became the Tongzhi Emperor, and she became the Empress Dowager. Cixi ousted a group of regents appointed by the late emperor and assumed regency, which she shared with Empress Dowager Ci'an. Cixi then consolidated control over the dynasty when she installed her nephew as the Guangxu Emperor at the death of the Tongzhi Emperor in 1875, contrary to the traditional rules of succession of the Qing dynasty that had ruled China since 1644.
Although Cixi refused to adopt Western models of government, she supported technological and military reforms and the Self-Strengthening Movement. She agreed with the principles of the Hundred Days' Reforms of 1898, but feared that sudden implementation, without bureaucratic support, would be disruptive and that the Japanese and other foreign powers would take advantage of any weakness. She placed the Guangxu Emperor, who she thought had tried to assassinate her, under virtual house arrest for supporting radical reformers. After the Boxer Uprising led to invasion by Allied armies, Cixi initially backed the Boxer groups as defenders of the dynasty and declared war on all the invaders. The ensuing defeat was a stunning humiliation. When Cixi returned to Beijing from Xi'an, where she had taken the emperor, she became friendly to foreigners in the capital and began to implement fiscal and institutional reforms that began to turn China into a constitutional monarchy. The death of both Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908 left the court in the hands of Manchu conservatives, a child, Puyi, on the throne, and a restless, rebellious public.
Historians both in China and abroad have debated her reputation. The long time view portrayed her as a ruthless despot whose reactionary policies led to the fall of the Qing dynasty. Revisionists suggested that reformers and revolutionaries succeeded in blaming her for long term problems beyond her control and that she prevented political disorder, was no more ruthless than other rulers of her time, and that she was an effective reformer in the last years of her life.
Life [ edit ]
Family background [ edit ]
Father: Huizheng ( 惠徵 ; 1805–1853), held the title of a third class duke ( 三等公 ) Paternal grandfather: Jingrui ( 景瑞 ) Paternal grandmother: Lady Gūwalgiya
; 1805–1853), held the title of a third class duke ( ) Mother: Lady Fuca Maternal grandfather: Huixian ( 惠顯 )
Three younger brothers Second younger brother: Guixiang ( 桂祥 ; 1849–1913), served as first rank military official ( 都統 ), and held the title of a third class duke ( 三等公 ), the father of Empress Xiaodingjing (1868–1913)
One younger sister Second younger sister: Wanzhen (1841–1896), the mother of the Guangxu Emperor (1871–1908)
Daoguang era [ edit ]
The future Empress Xiaoqinxian was born on the tenth day of the tenth lunar month in the 15th year of the reign of the Daoguang Emperor, which translates to 29 November 1835 in the Gregorian calendar.
Palace archives also show that Huizheng was working in Beijing during the year of Lady Yehe Nara's birth, an indication that she was born in Beijing. The file records the location of her childhood home: Firewood Alley of West Sipailou, Beijing (西四牌樓劈柴胡同).[2]
Xianfeng era [ edit ]
An early portrait of the Consort Dowager Kangci , foster mother of the Xianfeng Emperor. She hosted the selection of the Xianfeng Emperor's consorts in 1851, in which Cixi participated as a potential candidate.
In 1851, Cixi participated in the selection for consorts to the Xianfeng Emperor alongside 60 other candidates. Cixi was one of the few candidates chosen to stay. Among the other chosen candidates were Noble Lady Li of the Tatara clan (later Consort Li) and Concubine Zhen of the Niohuru clan (later the Xianfeng Emperor's empress consort). On 26 June 1852, she entered the Forbidden City and was placed in the sixth rank of consorts, styled "Noble Lady Lan".
The Pavilion of Beautiful Scenery, where Cixi gave birth to the Tongzhi Emperor
On 28 February 1854, Cixi was elevated to the fifth rank of consorts and granted the title "Concubine Yi". In 1855, Cixi became pregnant, and on 27 April 1856, she gave birth to Zaichun, the Xianfeng Emperor's first and only surviving son. On the same day, she was elevated to the fourth rank of consorts as "Consort Yi".[3] In 1857, when her son reached his first birthday, Cixi was elevated to the third rank of consorts as "Noble Consort Yi". This rank placed her second only to the Empress Niohuru among the women within the Xianfeng Emperor's harem.
Unlike many of the other Manchu women in the imperial household, Cixi was known for her ability to read and write Chinese. This skill granted her numerous opportunities to help the ailing emperor in the governing of the Chinese state on a daily basis. On various occasions, the Xianfeng Emperor had Cixi read palace memorials for him and leave instructions on the memorials according to his will. As a result, Cixi became well-informed about state affairs and the art of governing from the ailing emperor.[4]
Tongzhi era [ edit ]
In September 1860, during the closing stages of the Second Opium War, the British diplomatic envoy Harry Parkes was arrested along with other hostages, who were tortured and executed. In retaliation, British and French troops under the command of Lord Elgin attacked Beijing, and by the following month they had burned the Old Summer Palace to the ground. The Xianfeng Emperor and his entourage, including Cixi, fled Beijing to Rehe Province (around present-day Chengde, Hebei).[5] On hearing the news of the destruction of the Old Summer Palace, the Xianfeng Emperor, who was already showing signs of dementia, fell into a depression. He turned heavily to alcohol and drugs and became seriously ill.[6] He summoned eight of his most prestigious ministers, headed by Sushun, Zaiyuan and Duanhua, and named them the "Eight Regent Ministers" to direct and support the future emperor. The Xianfeng Emperor died on 22 August 1861 at the Chengde Mountain Resort in Rehe Province.
The Xianfeng Emperor's heir, the son of Noble Consort Yi (Empress Dowager Cixi), was only five years old. It is commonly assumed that on his deathbed, the Xianfeng Emperor summoned his Empress and Noble Consort Yi and gave each of them a stamp. He hoped that when his son ascended the throne, the Empress and Noble Consort Yi would cooperate in harmony and help the young emperor to grow and mature together. This may also have been done as a check on the power of the eight regents. There is no evidence for this incident, however, and it is unlikely that the emperor ever would have intended Noble Consort Yi to wield political power. It is possible that the seal, allegedly given as a symbol for the child, was really just a present for Noble Consort Yi herself. Informal seals numbered in the thousands and were not considered political accouterments, rather objects of art commissioned for pleasure by emperors to stamp on items such as paintings, or given as presents to the concubines.[7] Upon the death of the Xianfeng Emperor, his Empress was elevated to the status of empress dowager. Although her official title was "Empress Dowager Ci'an", she was popularly known as the "East Empress Dowager" because she lived in the eastern Zhongcui Palace. Noble Consort Yi was also elevated to "Empress Dowager Cixi". She was popularly known as the "West Empress Dowager" (西太后) because she lived inside the western Chuxiu Palace.
Xinyou Coup: Ousting Sushun [ edit ]
By the time of the death of the Xianfeng Emperor, Empress Dowager Cixi had become a shrewd political strategist. In Rehe Province, while waiting for an astrologically favourable time to transport the emperor's coffin back to Beijing, Cixi conspired with court officials and imperial relatives to seize power. Cixi's position as the lower-ranked empress dowager had no intrinsic political power attached to it. In addition, her son, the young emperor, was not a political force himself. As a result, it became necessary for her to ally herself with other powerful figures, including the late emperor's principal wife, Empress Dowager Ci'an. Cixi suggested that they become co-reigning empress dowagers, with powers exceeding the eight regents; the two had long been close friends since Cixi first came to the imperial household.[8]
Tensions grew between the two Empresses Dowager and the eight regents, who were led by Sushun. The regents did not appreciate Cixi's interference in political affairs, and their frequent confrontations with the Empresses Dowager left Empress Dowager Ci'an frustrated. Ci'an often refused to come to court audiences, leaving Cixi to deal with the ministers alone. Secretly, Cixi had begun gathering the support of talented ministers, soldiers, and others who were ostracized by the eight regents for personal or political reasons. Among them was Prince Gong, who had been excluded from power, yet harboured great ambitions, and Prince Chun, the sixth and seventh brothers of the Xianfeng Emperor, respectively. While Cixi aligned herself with the two princes, a memorial came from Shandong asking for her to "listen to politics behind the curtains," i.e., to assume power as de facto ruler. The same memorial also asked Prince Gong to enter the political arena as a principal "aide to the Emperor".
When the Xianfeng Emperor's funeral procession left for Beijing, Cixi took advantage of her alliances with Princes Gong and Chun. She and the boy emperor returned to the capital before the rest of the party, along with Zaiyuan and Duanhua, two of the eight regents, while Sushun was left to accompany the deceased emperor's procession. Cixi's early return to Beijing meant that she had more time to plan with Prince Gong and ensure that the power base of the eight regents was divided between Sushun and his allies, Zaiyuan and Duanhua. In order to remove them from power, history was rewritten: the regents were dismissed for having carried out incompetent negotiations with the "barbarians" that had caused the Xianfeng Emperor to flee to Rehe Province "greatly against his will", among other charges.[8]
To display her high moral standards, Cixi executed only three of the eight regents. Prince Gong had suggested that Sushun and others be executed by the most painful method, known as slow slicing ("death by a thousand cuts"), but Cixi declined the suggestion and ordered that Sushun be beheaded, while the other two also marked for execution, Zaiyuan and Duanhua, were given pieces of white silk for them to hang themselves with. In addition, Cixi refused outright the idea of executing the family members of the regents, as would be done in accordance with imperial tradition of an alleged usurper. Ironically, Qing imperial tradition also dictated that women and princes were never to engage in politics. In breaking with tradition, Cixi became the only empress dowager in the Qing dynasty to rule from "behind the curtains", a practice known as chuí lián tīng zhèng (垂簾聽政) in Chinese.
This coup is historically known as the Xinyou Coup (辛酉政變) because it took place in the xinyou year, the name of the year 1861 in the Chinese sexagenary cycle.
Ruling behind the curtain [ edit ]
New era [ edit ]
In November 1861, a few days following the Xinyou Coup, Cixi was quick to reward Prince Gong for his help. He was appointed Prince-Regent and his eldest daughter was made a first rank princess, a title usually bestowed only on the Empress's first-born daughter. However, Cixi avoided giving Prince Gong the absolute political power that princes such as Dorgon exercised during the Shunzhi Emperor's reign. As one of the first acts of "ruling behind the curtain", Cixi, nominally along with Ci'an, issued two imperial edicts on behalf of the boy emperor. The first stated that the two Empresses Dowager were to be the sole decision-makers "without interference," and the second changed the emperor's regnal title from Qixiang (祺祥; "auspicious") to Tongzhi (同治; "collective stability").
Despite being the sole decision-makers, both Ci'an and Cixi were forced to rely on the Grand Council and a complex series of procedures in order to deal with affairs of state. When state documents came in, they were to be first forwarded to the Empresses Dowager, then referred back to Prince Gong and the Grand Council. Having discussed the matters, Prince Gong and his colleagues would seek the instruction of the Empresses Dowager at audiences and imperial orders would be drawn up accordingly, with drafts having to be approved by the Empresses Dowager before edicts were issued. The most important role of the Empresses Dowager during the regency was to apply their seals to edicts, a merely mechanical role in a complex bureaucracy.
Cleaning up the bureaucracy [ edit ]
Cixi's ascendancy came at a time of internal chaos and foreign challenges. The effects of the Second Opium War were still hovering over the country, and the Taiping Rebellion continued its seemingly unstoppable advance through China's south, eating up the Qing Empire bit by bit. Internally, both the national bureaucracy and regional authorities were infested with corruption. 1861 happened to be the year of official examinations, whereby officials of all levels presented their political reports from the previous three years. Cixi decided that the time was ripe for a bureaucratic overhaul, and she personally sought audience with all officials above the level of provincial governor, who had to report to her personally. Cixi thus took on part of the role usually given to the Bureaucratic Affairs Department (吏部). Cixi had two prominent officials executed to serve as examples for others: Qingying, a military shilang who had tried to bribe his way out of demotion, and He Guiqing, then Viceroy of Liangjiang, who fled Changzhou in the wake of an incoming Taiping army instead of trying to defend the city.
Another significant challenge Cixi faced was the increasingly decrepit state of the Manchu elites. Since the beginning of Qing rule over China in 1644, most major positions at court had been held by Manchus. Cixi, again in a reversal of imperial tradition, entrusted the country's most powerful military unit against the Taiping rebels into the hands of a Han Chinese, Zeng Guofan. Additionally, in the next three years, Cixi appointed Han Chinese officials as governors in all southern Chinese provinces, raising alarm bells in the court, traditionally protective of Manchu dominance.
Taiping victory and Prince Gong [ edit ]
Photograph of Prince Gong, Cixi's crucial ally during the Xinyou Coup. He was rewarded by Cixi for his help during her most difficult times, but was eventually eliminated from office by Cixi for his ambition.
Under the command of Zeng Guofan, the victorious Xiang Army defeated the Taiping rebel army in a hard-fought battle at Tianjing (present-day Nanjing) in July 1864. Zeng was rewarded with the title of "Marquess Yiyong, First Class", while his brother Zeng Guoquan, along with Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang and other Han Chinese officers who fought against the Taiping rebels, were rewarded with auspicious decorations and titles. With the Taiping rebel threat receding, Cixi focused her attention on new internal threats to her power. Of special concern was the position of Prince Gong, who was Prince-Regent in the imperial court. Prince Gong gathered under his command the support of all outstanding Han Chinese armies. In addition, Prince Gong controlled daily court affairs as the head of the Grand Council and the Zongli Yamen (the de facto foreign affairs ministry). With his increasing stature, Prince Gong was considered a threat to Cixi and her power.
Although Prince Gong was rewarded for his conduct and recommendation of Zeng Guofan before the Taiping rebels' defeat, Cixi was quick to move after Cai Shouqi, a minor scribe-official, filed a memorial accusing Prince Gong of corruption and showing disrespect to the emperor. Having built up a powerful base and a network of allies at court, Prince Gong considered the accusations insignificant. Cixi, however, took the memorial as a stepping stone to Prince Gong's removal. In April 1865, under the pretext that Prince Gong had "improper court conduct before the two empresses," among a series of other charges, the prince was dismissed from all his offices and appointments, but was allowed to retain his status as a noble.[10] The dismissal surprised the nobility and court officials and brought about numerous petitions for his return. Prince Gong's brothers, Prince Dun and Prince Chun, both sought their brother's reinstatement. Prince Gong himself, in an audience with the two empresses, burst into tears.[11] Bowing to popular pressure, Cixi allowed Prince Gong to return to his position as the head of the Zongli Yamen, but rid him of his title of Prince-Regent. Prince Gong would never return to political prominence again, and neither would the liberal and pro-reform policies of his time. Prince Gong's demotion revealed Cixi's iron grip on politics, and her lack of willingness to give up absolute power to anyone – not even Prince Gong, her most important ally in the Xinyou Coup.
Foreign influence [ edit ]
Photograph of Princess Rongshou (center seated), Prince Gong's daughter. As a way to show gratitude to the prince, Cixi adopted his daughter and elevated her to a first rank princess (the highest rank for imperial princesses).
China's defeat in the Second Opium War of 1856–60 was a wake-up call. Military strategies were outdated, both on land and sea and in terms of weaponry. Sensing an immediate threat from foreigners and realising that China's agricultural-based economy could not hope to compete with the industrial prowess of the West, Cixi decided that for the first time in Chinese history, China would learn from the Western powers and import their knowledge and technology. At the time, three prominent Han Chinese officials, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang, had all begun industrial programs in the country's southern regions. In supporting these programmes, Cixi also decreed the opening of the Tongwen Guan in 1862, a school for foreign languages in Beijing. The Tongwen Guan specialised in new-age topics such as astronomy and mathematics, as well as the English, French and Russian languages. Groups of young boys were also sent abroad to the United States for studies.
China's "learn from foreigners" programme quickly met with impediments. The Chinese military institutions were in desperate need of reform. Cixi's solution, under the advice of officials at court, was to purchase seven British warships. When the warships arrived in China, however, they were staffed with British sailors, all under British command. The Chinese were enraged at this "international joke", negotiations broke down between the two parties, and China returned the warships to Britain, where they were to be auctioned off. Scholars sometimes attribute the failure of China's foreign programmes to Cixi's conservative attitude and old methods of thinking, and contend that Cixi would learn only so much from the foreigners, provided it did not infringe upon her own power. Under the pretext that a railway was too loud and would "disturb the emperors' tombs", Cixi forbade its construction. When construction went ahead anyway in 1877 on Li Hongzhang's recommendation, Cixi asked that they be pulled by horse-drawn carts.[12] Cixi was especially alarmed at the liberal thinking of people who had studied abroad, and saw that it posed a new threat to her power. In 1881, Cixi put a halt to the policy of sending children abroad to study and withdrew her formerly open attitude towards foreigners.
The Tongzhi Emperor's marriage [ edit ]
[13] The Walters Art Museum Ceremonial headdress likely worn by Cixi. The small phoenixes emerging from the surface represent the empress.The Walters Art Museum
In 1872, the Tongzhi Emperor turned 17. Under the guidance of the Empress Dowager Ci'an, he was married to the Jiashun Empress. The empress's grandfather, Prince Zheng, was one of the eight regents ousted from power in the Xinyou Coup of 1861. He had been Cixi's rival during the coup and was ordered to commit suicide after Cixi's victory. As a consequence, there were tensions between Cixi and the empress, and this was often a source of irritation for Cixi. Moreover, the empress's zodiac symbol of tiger was perceived as life-threatening by the superstitious Cixi, whose own zodiac symbol was a goat. According to Cixi's belief, it was a warning from the gods that she would eventually fall prey to the empress.
Portrait of Empress Xiaozheyi, also known as the Jiashun Empress and "Lady Arute", who had the approval of Empress Dowager Ci'an but never Cixi's. It is widely speculated that the Empress was pregnant with the Tongzhi Emperor's child and that Cixi orchestrated the empress's demise.
As the principal consort of the Tongzhi Emperor, the Jiashun Empress was well received by both the emperor and Empress Dowager Ci'an. Her personal consultants once warned her to be more agreeable and docile to Cixi, as Cixi was truly the one in power. The empress replied, "I am a principal consort, having been carried through the front gate with pomp and circumstance, as mandated by our ancestors. Empress Dowager Cixi was a concubine, and entered our household through a side gate."
Since the very beginning of his marriage, the Tongzhi Emperor proceeded to spend most of his time with his empress at the expense of his four concubines, including the Imperial Noble Consort Shushen, who was Cixi's preferred candidate for the Tongzhi Emperor's empress consort. As hostility grew between Cixi and the Jiashun Empress, Cixi suggested the couple spend more time on studies and spied on the Tongzhi Emperor using palace eunuchs. After her warning was ignored, Cixi ordered the couple to separate, and the Tongzhi Emperor purportedly spent several months following Cixi's order in isolation at Qianqing Palace.
The young emperor, who could no longer cope with his grief and loneliness, grew more and more ill-tempered. He began to treat his servants with cruelty and punished them physically for minor offences. Under the joined influence of court eunuchs and Zaicheng, Prince Gong's eldest son and the Tongzhi Emperor's best friend, the emperor managed to escape the palace in search of pleasure in the unrestricted parts of Beijing. For several evenings the emperor disguised himself as a commoner and secretly spent the nights in the brothels of Beijing. The emperor's sexual habits became common talk among court officials and commoners, and there are many records of the emperor's escapades.[citation needed]
The Tongzhi Emperor's deficiencies in ruling [ edit ]
The Tongzhi Emperor received a rigorous education from four famous teachers of Cixi's own choosing: Li Hongzao, Qi Junzao, Weng Xincun, and Woren. This group was later joined by Weng Xincun's son, Weng Tonghe; the emperor's governor, also selected by Cixi, was Mianyu. The imperial teachers instructed the emperor in the classics and various old texts for which the emperor displayed little or no interest.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the pressure and stress put upon the young emperor, he despised learning for the majority of his life. According to Weng Tonghe's diary, the emperor could not read a memorandum in full sentences by the age of 16. Worried about her son's inability to learn, Cixi only pressured him more. When he was given personal rule at the age of 18, in November 1873 (four years behind the usual custom), the Tongzhi Emperor proved to be an incompetent ruler.
Portrait of the Tongzhi Emperor doing his coursework. Cixi's high expectations of him may have contributed to his strong distaste for learning.
The Tongzhi Emperor made two important policy decisions during his short stint of rule, which lasted from 1873 to 1875. First, he decreed that the Summer Palace, destroyed by the English and French in the Second Opium War, would be completely rebuilt under the pretext that it was a gift to Cixi and Ci'an. Historians also suggest that it was an attempt to drive Cixi from the Forbidden City so that he could rule without interference in policy or his private affairs.
The imperial treasury was almost depleted at the time from internal strife and foreign wars, and as a result, the Tongzhi Emperor asked the Board of Finance to forage for the necessary funds. In addition, he encouraged members of the nobility and high officials to donate funds from their personal resources. Once construction began, the emperor checked its progress on a monthly basis, and would often spend days away from court, indulging himself in pleasures outside of the Forbidden City.
Uneasy about the Tongzhi Emperor's neglect of national affairs, the emperor's uncles Prince Gong and Prince Chun, along with other senior court officials, submitted a joint memorandum asking the emperor to cease the construction of the Summer Palace, among other recommendations. The Tongzhi Emperor, unwilling to submit to criticism, issued an imperial edict in August 1874 to strip Prince Gong of his princely title and demote him to the status of a commoner. Two days later, Prince Dun, Prince Chun, Prince Fu, Jingshou, Prince Qing, Wenxiang, Baojun, and Grand Councillors Shen Guifen and Li Hongzao were all to be stripped of their respective titles and jobs.
Seeing the mayhem unfold from behind the scenes, Cixi and Ci'an made an unprecedented appearance at court directly criticising the emperor for his wrongful actions and asked him to withdraw the edict; Cixi said that "without Prince Gong, the situation today would not exist for you and me."[14]
Feeling a grand sense of loss at court and unable to assert his authority, the Tongzhi Emperor returned to his former habits. It was rumoured that he caught syphilis and became visibly ill. The physicians spread a rumour that the emperor had smallpox, and proceeded to give medical treatment accordingly. Within a few weeks, on 13 January 1875, the emperor died. The Jiashun Empress followed suit in March. Judging from a modern medical perspective, the onset of syphilis comes in stages, thus the emperor's quick death does not seem to reflect its symptoms. Therefore, most historians maintain that the Tongzhi Emperor did, in fact, die from smallpox. Regardless, by 1875, Cixi was back onto the helm of imperial power.
Guangxu era [ edit ]
New challenges and illness [ edit ]
Empress Dowager Cixi (front middle) poses with her court attendants and the Guangxu Emperor's empress (second from left), who was also her niece
The Tongzhi Emperor died without a male heir, a circumstance that created an unprecedented succession crisis in the dynastic line. Members of the generation above were considered unfit, as they could not, by definition, be the successor of their nephew. Therefore, the new emperor had to be from a generation below or the same generation as the Tongzhi Emperor. After considerable disagreement between the two Empresses Dowager, Zaitian, the four-year-old firstborn son of Prince Chun and Cixi's sister, was to become the new emperor. 1875 was declared the first year of the Guangxu era; Guangxu was the new emperor's regnal name and it means "glorious succession". Zaitian was taken from home and for the remainder of his life would be cut completely off from his family. While addressing Ci'an conventionally as huang e'niang ("Empress Mother"), Zaitian was forced to address Cixi as qin baba ("Dear Father"), in order to enforce an image that she was the fatherly figure in the household.[15] The Guangxu Emperor began his education when he was aged five, taught by the imperial tutor Weng Tonghe, with whom he would develop a lasting bond.
Shortly after the accession of the Guangxu Emperor, Cixi fell severely ill.[16] This rendered her largely inaccessible to her young nephew and had the result of leaving Ci'an to attend to most of the affairs of state.
The sudden death of Ci'an in April 1881 brought Cixi a new challenge. Ci'an had taken little interest in running state affairs, but was the decision-maker in most family affairs. As the consort of the Xianfeng Emperor, she took seniority over Cixi, despite being two years her junior. Some believe that rumours began circulating at court to the effect that Cixi had poisoned Ci'an, perhaps as a result of a possible conflict between Cixi and Ci'an over the execution of the eunuch An Dehai in 1869 or a possible will from the late Xianfeng Emperor that was issued exclusively to Ci'an.[18] Because of a lack of evidence, however, historians are reluctant to believe that Ci'an was poisoned by Cixi, but instead choose to believe that the cause of death was a sudden stroke, as validated by traditional Chinese medicine.[citation needed]
In the years between 1881 and 1883, Cixi resorted to written communication only with her ministers.[19] The young Guangxu Emperor reportedly was forced to conduct some audiences alone, without Cixi to assist him.[20]
The once fierce and determined Prince Gong, frustrated by Cixi's iron grip on power, did little to question Cixi on state affairs, and supported Manchu involvement in the Sino-French War of 1884-1885. Cixi used China's loss in the war as a pretext for getting rid of Prince Gong and other important decision-makers in the Grand Council in 1885. She downgraded Prince Gong to "advisor" and elevated the more easily influenced Prince Chun. After being appointed President of the Navy, Prince Chun, in a sign of unswerving loyalty to Cixi, but in reality a move to protect his son, the new emperor, moved funds from the military to reconstruct the Summer Palace for Cixi's retirement. Prince Chun did not want Cixi to interfere with the Guangxu Emperor's affairs once he came of age. Cixi showed no opposition to the construction of the Summer Palace.
The Guangxu Emperor's accession [ edit ]
Consort Zhen, the Guangxu Emperor's most beloved consort, was initially liked, but eventually hated by Cixi.
The Guangxu Emperor technically gained the right to rule at the age of 16 in 1887 after Cixi issued an edict to arrange a ceremony to mark his accession. Because of her prestige and power, however, court officials voiced their opposition to the Guangxu Emperor's personal rule, citing the emperor's youth as the main reason. Prince Chun and Weng Tonghe, each with a different motive, requested that the Guangxu Emperor's accession be postponed until a later date. Cixi, with her reputed reluctance, accepted the "advice" and legitimised her continued rule through a new legal document that allowed her to "aid" the Guangxu Emperor in his rule indefinitely.
The Guangxu Emperor slowly began to take on more responsibilities in spite of Cixi's prolonged regency. In 1886, he attended his first field plowing ceremony and began commenting on imperial state documents. By 1887, he began to rule under Cixi's supervision.[20]
The Guangxu Emperor married and took up the reins of power in 1889. By that year, the emperor was already 18, older than the conventional marriage age for emperors. Prior to his wedding, a large fire engulfed the Gate of Supreme Harmony at the Forbidden City. This event followed a trend of recent natural disasters that were considered alarming by many observers. According to traditional Chinese political theory, such incidents were taken as a warning of the imminent loss of the "Mandate of Heaven" by current rulers.
For his empress, Empress Dowager Cixi chose the Guangxu Emperor's cousin Jingfen, who would become Empress Longyu. Besides her close relation to the emperor himself, she was also Cixi's niece. Cixi in addition selected two concubines for the Guangxu Emperor who were sisters, Consorts Jin and Zhen. The Guangxu Emperor eventually would prefer to spend more time with Consort Zhen, neglecting his Empress, much to Cixi's dismay. In 1894, Cixi degraded Consort Zhen, citing intervention in political affairs as the main reason. According to some reports, she even had her flogged.[21] Consort Jin had also been implicated in Consort Zhen's reported influence peddling and also apparently suffered a similar punishment.[21] A cousin of theirs, Zhirui, was banished from the capital to a military outpost.[22]
On March 5, 1889, Cixi retired from her second regency, but nonetheless served as the effective head of the imperial family.[23] Many officials felt and showed more loyalty to the empress dowager than they did to the emperor,[24] owing in part to her seniority and in part to her personalised approach to cultivating court favourites, many of whom would be given gifts of her artwork and invitations to join her at the theater for opera and acrobatics.[25]
In spite of her residence for a period of time at the Summer Palace, which had been constructed with the official intention of providing her a suitable place to live after retiring from political affairs, Cixi continued to influence the decisions and actions of the Guangxu Emperor even after he began his formal rule at age 19. Along with an entourage of court officials, the Guangxu Emperor would pay visits to her every second or third day at which major political decisions would be made. Weng Tonghe observed that while the emperor dealt with day-to-day administration, the Grand Councillors gave their advice in more complex cases, and in the most complex cases of all, the advice of Cixi was sought.[26]
In 1894, the First Sino-Japanese War broke out at the instigation of Japan which used the war as a pretext to annex Taiwan from Qing China. Of note, the Japanese annexation of Taiwan followed Japanese annexation of the RyuKyu island Kingdom in 1874 and was followed by Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910. During this period, Cixi was continuously called upon to arbitrate policy-making, and the emperor was sometimes even bypassed in decision-making processes.[27] Cixi eventually was given copies of the secret palace memorials as well, a practice that was carried on until 1898, when it became unnecessary.[28]
In November 1894, Cixi celebrated her 60th birthday. Borrowing from the plans used for the celebrations of the 70th and 80th birthdays of Empress Xiaoshengxian (the Qianlong Emperor's mother), plans included a triumphal progress along the decorated road between the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace, decorations for the Beijing city gates and monumental archways, free theatrical performances, remission of punishments and the restoration of degraded officials.[29] However, the war between China and Japan forced the empress dowager to cancel the lavish celebrations she had planned and settle for a much smaller commemoration that was held in the Forbidden City.
Hundred Days' Reform [ edit ]
Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor holding court, drawing by Katharine Carl
After coming to the throne, the Guangxu Emperor became more reform-minded. After a humiliating defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894, during which the Chinese Beiyang Fleet was virtually destroyed by the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Qing government faced unprecedented challenges internally and abroad, with its very existence at stake. Under the influence of reformist-officials Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, the Guangxu Emperor believed that by learning from constitutional monarchies such as Japan and Germany, China would become politically and economically powerful. In June 1898, the Guangxu Emperor launched the Hundred Days' Reform aimed at sweeping political, legal and social changes and issued edicts for far-reaching modernising reforms.
These abrupt reforms, however, came without building support either at court or in the bureaucracy. Cixi, whether concerned that they would check her power or fearful that they would lead to disorder, stepped in to prevent them going further. Some government and military officials warned Cixi that the ming-shi (reformation bureau) had been geared toward conspiracy. Allegations of treason against the emperor, as well as suspected Japanese influence within the reform movement, led Cixi to resume the role of regent and resume control at the court. The Manchu general Ronglu on 21 September 1898, took the Emperor to Ocean Terrace, a small palace on an island in the middle of Zhongnanhai linked to the rest of the Forbidden City only by a controlled causeway. Cixi followed this action with an edict that proclaimed the Guangxu Emperor's total disgrace and unfitness to be emperor. The Guangxu Emperor's reign effectively came to an end.
According to research by Professor Lei Chia-sheng (雷家聖),[30] during the Hundred Days' Reform, former Japanese Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi arrived in China on 11 September 1898. Almost at the same time, British missionary Timothy Richard was invited to Beijing by the reformist Kang Youwei. Richard suggested that China should hand over some political power to Itō in order to help push the reforms further.[31] On 18 September, Richard convinced Kang to adopt a plan by which China would join a federation composed of China, Japan, the United States, and England. This suggestion did not reflect the policies of the countries concerned. It was Richard's (and perhaps Itō's) trick to convince China to hand over national rights. Kang nonetheless asked fellow reformers Yang Shenxiu (楊深秀) and Song Bolu (宋伯魯) to report this plan to the Guangxu Emperor.[32] On 20 September, Yang sent a memorial to this effect to the emperor.[33] In another memorial written the next day, Song Bolu also advocated the formation of a federation and the sharing of the diplomatic, fiscal, and military powers of the four countries under a hundred-man committee.[34]
Still according to Lei's findings, on 13 October, British ambassador Claude MacDonald reported to his government about the Chinese situation, saying that Chinese reforms had been damaged by Kang Youwei and his friends' actions.[35] British diplomat Frederick Bourne claimed in his own report that Kang was a dreamer who had been seduced by Timothy Richard's sweet words. Bourne thought Richard was a plotter.[36] The British and U.S. governments were unaware of the "federation" plot, which seems to have been Richard's personal idea. Because Richard's partner Itō Hirobumi had been Prime Minister of Japan, the Japanese government might have known about Richard's plan, but there is no evidence to this effect.
A crisis over the issue of abdication emerged. Bowing to increasing pressure from the West and general civil discontent, Cixi did not forcibly remove the Guangxu Emperor from the throne, although she attempted to have Pujun, a boy of 14 who was from a close branch of the imperial family, installed as crown prince. The Guangxu era nominally continued until his death in 1908, but the emperor lost all respect, power, and privileges, including his freedom of movement. Most of his supporters, including his political mentor Kang Youwei, fled into exile, and the six prominent reformers including Tan Sitong and Kang's younger brother, were publicly beheaded. Kang continued to work for a constitutional monarchy while in exile, remaining loyal to the Guangxu Emperor and hoping eventually to restore him to power. His efforts would prove to be in vain.
Boxer Rebellion [ edit ]
Empress Dowager Cixi and women of the American legation. Holding her hand is Sarah Conger, the wife of U.S. Ambassador Edwin H. Conger
In 1900, the Boxer Rebellion broke out in northern China. Perhaps fearing further foreign intervention, Cixi threw her support to these anti-foreign bands by making an official announcement of her support for the movement and a formal declaration of war on the Western powers. The general Ronglu deliberately sabotaged the performance of the imperial army during the rebellion. Dong Fuxiang's Muslim troops (the "Kansu Braves") were able and eager to destroy the foreign military forces in the legations, but Ronglu stopped them from doing so.[37] The Manchu prince Zaiyi was xenophobic and friendly with Dong Fuxiang. Zaiyi wanted artillery for Dong's troops to destroy the legations. Ronglu blocked the transfer of artillery to Zaiyi and Dong, preventing them from destroying the legations.[38] When artillery was finally supplied to the imperial army and Boxers, it was only done so in limited amounts; Ronglu deliberately held back the rest of them.[39] The Chinese forces defeated the small 2,000 person Western relief force at the Battle of Langfang, but lost several decisive battles, including the Battle of Beicang, and the entire imperial court was forced to retreat as the forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing. Due to the fact that moderates at the Qing imperial court tried to appease the foreigners by moving the Muslim Kansu Braves out of their way, the allied army was able to march into Beijing and seize the capital.
During the war, Cixi displayed concern about China's situation and foreign aggression, saying, "Perhaps their magic is not to be relied upon; but can we not rely on the hearts and minds of the people? Today China is extremely weak. We have only the people's hearts and minds to depend upon. If we cast them aside and lose the people's hearts, what can we use to sustain the country?" The Chinese people were almost unanimous in their support for the Boxers due to the Western Allied invasion.[41][42]
When Cixi received an ultimatum demanding that China surrender total control over all its military and financial affairs to foreigners,[43] she defiantly stated before the Grand Council, "Now they [the Powers] have started the aggression, and the extinction of our nation is imminent. If we just fold our arms and yield to them, I would have no face to see our ancestors after death. If we must perish, why not fight to the death?"[44][45] It was at this point that Cixi began to blockade the legations with the armies of the Beijing Field Force, which began the siege.[46]
Cixi stated that "I have always been of the opinion, that the allied armies had been permitted to escape too easily in 1860. Only a united effort was then necessary to have given China the victory. Today, at last, the opportunity for revenge has come", and said that millions of Chinese would join the cause of fighting the foreigners since the Manchus had provided "great benefits" to China.[47]
During the Battle of Beijing, the entire imperial court, including Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor, fled Beijing and evacuated to Xi'an as the allied forces invaded the city. After the fall of Beijing, the Eight-Nation Alliance negotiated a treaty with the Qing government, sending messengers to the empress dowager in Xi'an. Included in the terms of the agreement was a guarantee that China would not have to give up any further territories to foreign powers. Many of Cixi's advisers in the imperial court insisted that the war against the foreigners be continued. They recommended that Dong Fuxiang be given responsibility to continue the war effort. Cixi was practical, however, and decided that the terms were generous enough for her to acquiesce and stop the war, at least after she was assured of her continued reign when the war was concluded.[48] The Western powers needed a government strong enough to suppress further anti-foreign movements, but too weak to act on its own; they supported the continuation of the Qing dynasty, rather than allowing it to be overthrown. Cixi turned once more to Li Hongzhang to negotiate. Li agreed to sign the Boxer Protocol, which stipulated the presence of an international military force in Beijing and the payment of £67 million (almost $333 million) in war reparations. The United States used its share of the war indemnity to fund the creation of China's prestigious Tsinghua University. The Guangxu Emperor and Cixi did not return to Beijing from Xi'an until roughly 18 months after their flight.[49]
Return to Beijing and reforms [ edit ]
In January 1902, Cixi, the Guangxu Emperor, the empress and the rest of the court made a ceremonious return to Beijing. At the railhead at Chengtingfu, Cixi and the court boarded a 21-car train to convey them the rest of the way to the capital. In Beijing, many of the legation women turned out to watch the procession from the Beijing Railway Station to the Forbidden City, and for the first time, commoners were permitted to watch as well.
Once back in the palace, Cixi implemented sweeping political reforms. High officials were dispatched to Japan and Europe to gather facts and draw up plans for sweeping administrative reforms in law, education, government structure, and social policy, many of which were modeled on the reforms of the Meiji Restoration. The abolition of the examination system in 1905 was only the most visible of these sweeping reforms. Ironically, Cixi sponsored the implementation of the New Policies, a reform program more radical than the one proposed by the reformers she had beheaded in 1898.[52]
In an attempt to woo foreigners, Cixi also invited the wives of the diplomatic corps to a tea in the Forbidden City soon after her return, and in time, would hold summer garden parties for the foreign community at the Summer Palace. In 1903, she acquiesced to the request of Sarah Conger, wife of Edwin H. Conger, the U.S. Ambassador to China, to have her portrait painted by American artist Katharine Carl for the St. Louis World's Fair. Between 1903 and 1905, Cixi had a Western-educated lady-in-waiting by the name of Yu Deling, along with her sister and mother, serve at her court. Yu Deling, fluent in English and French, as well as Chinese, often served as translator at meetings with the wives of the diplomatic corps.
In 1903, Cixi allowed a young aristocratic photographer named Xunling, a brother of Yu Deling, to take elaborately staged shots of her and her court. They were designed to convey imperial authority, aesthetic refinement, and religious piety. As the only photographic series taken of Cixi – the supreme leader of China for more than 45 years – it represents a unique convergence of Qing court pictorial traditions, modern photographic techniques, and Western standards of artistic portraiture. The rare glass plates have been blown up into full-size images, included in the exhibition "The Empress Dowager" at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.[53]
Xuantong era [ edit ]
Entrance to the burial chamber in Cixi's tomb
Empress Dowager Cixi died in the Hall of Graceful Bird at the Middle Sea (中海儀鸞殿) of Zhongnanhai, Beijing, on 15 November 1908, after having installed Puyi as the new emperor on 14 November. Her death came only a day after the death of the Guangxu Emperor. Radicals greeted the news with scorn. The anarchist Wu Zhihui, who had leveled some of the most vitriol at Cixi in life, wrote from exile in Paris of the "vixen empress and vermin emperor" that "their lingering stench makes me vomit."[54]
On 4 November 2008, forensic tests concluded that the Guangxu Emperor died from acute arsenic poisoning. China Daily quoted an historian, Dai Yi, who speculated that Cixi may have known of her imminent death and may have worried that the Guangxu Emperor would continue his reforms after her death. CNN reported in November 2008 that the level of arsenic in his remains was 2,000 times higher than that of ordinary people.[55]
Memorial tower of the tomb of Empress Dowager Cixi
Empress Dowager Cixi was interred amidst the Eastern Qing tombs, 125 km (78 mi) east of Beijing, in the Eastern Ding Mausoleum (東定陵), along with Empress Dowager Ci'an. Empress Dowager Ci'an lies in the Puxiangyu Eastern Ding Mausoleum (普祥峪定東陵; lit. "Tomb East of the Ding Mausoleum in the Broad Valley of Good Omen"), while Empress Dowager Cixi built herself the much larger Putuoyu Eastern Ding Mausoleum (菩陀峪定東陵; lit. "Tomb East of the Ding Mausoleum in the Putuo Valley"). The Ding Mausoleum (lit. "Tomb of Quietude"), where the Xianfeng Emperor is buried, is located west of the Dingdongling. The Putuo Valley owes its name to Mount Putuo, one of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China.
Empress Dowager Cixi, unsatisfied with her tomb, ordered its destruction and reconstruction in 1895. The new tomb was a complex of temples, gates, and pavilions, covered with gold leaf, and with gold and gilded-bronze ornaments hanging from the beams and the eaves. In July 1928, Cixi's tomb was plundered by the warlord Sun Dianying and his army as part of the looting of the Eastern Mausoleum. They methodically stripped the complex of its precious ornaments, then dynamited the entrance to the burial chamber, opened Cixi's coffin, threw her corpse (said to have been found intact) on the ground, and stole the jewels contained in the coffin. They also took the massive pearl that had been placed in the empress dowager's mouth to protect her corpse from decomposing (in accordance with Chinese tradition). There is an unconfirmed legend that Sun Dianying offered the large pearl from Cixi's crown to Chiang Kai-shek and that it ended up as an ornament on the gala shoes of Chiang's wife, Soong Mei-ling.[citation needed]
After 1949, the complex of Empress Dowager Cixi's tomb was restored by the Chinese government.
Appraisal [ edit ]
For many years, the mainstream view of Empress Dowager Cixi was that she was a devious despot who contributed in no small part to China's slide into corruption, anarchy, and revolution. Cixi used her power to accumulate vast quantities of money, bullion, antiques and jewelry, using the revenues of the state as her own.[57] The long-time China journalist Jasper Becker recalled that "every visitor to the Summer Palace is shown the beautiful lakeside pavilion in the shape of an elegant marble pleasure boat and told how Cixi spent funds destined for the imperial navy on such extravagant fripperies—which ultimately led to Japan's victory over China in 1895 and the loss of Taiwan".[58]
Yet even after the violent anti-foreign Boxer movement and equally violent foreign reprisal, the initial foreign accounts of Cixi emphasized her warmth and friendliness.
This was perhaps because Cixi took the initiative and invited several women to spend time with her in the Forbidden City. Katharine Carl, an American painter, was called to China in 1903 to paint Cixi's portrait for the St. Louis Exposition. In her With the Empress Dowager. Carl portrays Cixi as a kind and considerate woman for her station. Cixi, though shrewd, had great presence, charm, and graceful movements resulting in "an unusually attractive personality". Carl wrote of the empress dowager's love of dogs and of flowers, as well as boating, Chinese opera and her Chinese water pipes and European cigarettes. Cixi also commissioned the well-known portraitist, Hubert Vos to produce a series of oil portraits.
The publication of China Under The Empress Dowager (1910) by J. O. P. Bland and Edmund Backhouse did much to spoil Cixi's reputation with its back-door gossip, much of which came from palace eunuchs. Their portrait included contradictory elements, writes one recent study, "on the one hand... imperious, manipulative, and lascivious" and on the other "ingenuous, politically shrewd, and conscientious..." Backhouse and Bland told their readers that "to summarize her essence simply, she a woman and an Oriental". Backhouse was later found to have forged some of the source materials used in this work.[64] The vivid writing and lascivious details of their account provided material for many of the books over the following decades, including Chinese fiction and histories that drew on a 1914 translation.
In the People's Republic after 1949, the image of the Manchu Empress was debated and changed several times. She was sometimes praised for her anti-imperialist role in the Boxer Uprising and sometimes she was reviled as a member of the "feudalist regime". When Mao Zedong's wife, Jiang Qing was arrested in 1976 for abuse of power, an exhibit at the Palace Museum put Cixi's luxurious goods on display to show that a female ruler weakened the nation.
By the mid-1970s, views among scholars began to change. Sue Fawn Chung's doctoral dissertation at University of California, Berkeley was the first study in English to use court documents rather than popular histories and hearsay. Her influential 1979 article titled "The Much Maligned Empress Dowager" opened with the sentence "Clio, the Muse of History, has not been kind" to Cixi. Traditional historians in China, Chung continued, "always have been prejudiced against feminine influence in court", and historians have long taken the word of Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and other Chinese, who opposed the Empress Dowager. Luke Kwong, in his analysis of the Hundred Days' Reform, argued that many of the allegations of Empress Dowager Cixi being power-hungry and immoral could not be verified.[23] He portrays her as a relatively insecure woman, concerned about her legitimacy and haunted by her relatively humble origins in the palace.[68]
In recent decades, says Pamela Kyle Crossley, a historian of the dynasty, historians in the West developed what had become "truisms" in the representation of Cixi: "that she has been obscured by misogyny and orientalist stereotyping, as well as the anti-Manchu sentiment running through Chinese nationalist narratives". Crossley felt that Cixi appealed to feminists as a powerful leader and to Chinese patriots as a defender of China. In the 1960s and 1970s, Cixi was one of "a small collection of 'powerful' women newly discovered" and now "she appears in the vanguard of stubborn Chinese opposition to foreign arrogance and encroachment".
Several widely read popular biographies appeared. Sterling Seagrave's Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China portrays Cixi as a woman stuck between the xenophobic faction of Manchu nobility and more moderate influences. The empress dowager, Seagrave argues, did not crave power but simply acted to balance these influences and protect the Qing dynasty as best she could.
In 2013, Jung Chang's biography, Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China, portrays Cixi as the most capable ruler and administrator that China could have had at the time. Pamela Kyle Crossley said in the London Review of Books that Chang's claims "seem to be minted from her own musings, and have little to do with what we know was actually going in China". Although Crossley was sympathetic to restoring women's place in Chinese history, she found "rewriting Cixi as Catherine the Great or Margaret Thatcher is a poor bargain: the gain of an illusory icon at the expense of historical sense".
Titles and honours [ edit ]
The plaque hanging above Cixi is inscribed with her title in full
Universal Benevolence). The Empress Dowager was a devoted Buddhist and seized every opportunity to dress up as Avalokiteśvara ( Guanyin ), the goddess of mercy. This photograph shows her sitting on a barge on Zhonghai. The white smoke forms the character for longevity, and on top of the smoke was her Buddhist name "Guangrenzi" (literally).
Titles [ edit ]
During the reign of the Daoguang Emperor (r. 1820–1850): Lady Yehe Nara (from 29 November 1835)
During the reign of the Xianfeng Emperor (r. 1850–1861): Noble Lady Lan ( 蘭貴人 ; from 26 June 1852 [71] ), sixth rank consort Concubine Yi ( 懿嬪 ; from 28 February 1854 [72] ), fifth rank consort Consort Yi ( 懿妃 ; from 27 April 1856 [73] ), fourth rank consort Noble Consort Yi ( 懿貴妃 ; from January/February 1857 [74] ), third rank consort
During the reign of the Tongzhi Emperor (r. 1861–1875): Empress Dowager Cixi ( 慈禧皇太后 ; from 22 August 1861 [75] )
During the reign of the Xuantong Emperor (r. 1908–1912): Grand Empress Dowager Cixi ( 慈禧太皇太后 ; from 14 November 1908 [76] ) Empress Xiaoqinxian ( 孝欽顯皇后 ; from 16 November 1909 [77] )
Honours [ edit ]
Dame Grand Cordon of the Order of the Precious Crown (Empire of Japan).[78]
Issue [ edit ]
As Concubine Yi: Zaichun ( 載淳 ; 27 April 1856 – 12 January 1875), the Xianfeng Emperor's first son, enthroned on 11 November 1861 as the Tongzhi Emperor
In fiction and popular culture [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ] |
Popular WWE tag-team The Usos issued a statement today confirming widespread rumors that they are actually just former WWE superstar Umaga split in half vertically.
“Jimmy and I apologize for any confusion regarding our true identity,” wrote Jey Uso in the statement published on the official World Wrestling Entertainment website.
More from Kayfabe News
Details are unclear about how, exactly, Umaga became split in half, especially since the so-called Samoan Bulldozer passed away in 2009.
In retrospect, however, many wrestling pundits admit that it makes perfect sense, given that the Usos began making waves in the wrestling industry very shortly after Umaga disappeared from the spotlight.
“The resemblance is uncanny,” wrote wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer. “I mean, it should be medically impossible, but there’s no denying the evidence that Umaga was actually two Usos glued together.”
The Usos said they will adjust their trademark call-and-response routine to reflect their true identity: “When we say Uma, y’all say Gaaaa!”
Only one person in WWE claims to have known the Usos’ true identity all along: “I always knew they were Youmanga,” said William Regal. |
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