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What's scarier than a teenage girl sniffing bath salts to get high? A teenage girl holding hands with another girl. But only if she actually "likes" that girl. You know, "like" likes her. Sound like a high school argument? Then it should be no surprise this was the decision made at a high school in the Midwest that forbade lesbian teens Desiree Shelton and Sarah Lindstrom from walking into a pep rally together to represent their classmates on the royal court. Unfortunately, it was the school administrators acting like the kids in this situation. After years of allowing male-female pairs to march as the royal court of the Snow Days pep fest, Champlin Park High School officials freaked when Sheldon and Lindstrom said, "We're here, we're queer, can we hold hands?" They suddenly told the girls there would be no teen pairs this year -- just single royal court members or kids with an adult "important" to them. The girls fought in the form of a lawsuit, which was dropped in exchange for them being allowed to act like normal teens and walk in together. But the question the district should be asking themselves today is why was this such a big deal? Yes, they're gay, we get it. But if you've ever attended a high school graduation or similar event where kids are paired up for a processional, do some counting. You'll notice there is rarely a class where the numbers of kids from each gender match exactly. I graduated with 34 other kids (yes, go ahead, laugh). Based purely on an odd number, there were same gender pairs and mixed gender pairs and even some three-bies who stepped in time with "Pomp and Circumstance" into our high school auditorium. For the most part, we all liked each other. That's what happens when you see the same people day in and day out in such cramped quarters for so many years. We were pretty affectionate. And -- surprise, surprise -- no one bled from the eyes. No one screamed in horror. In fact, I recall walking hand in hand with some of my female friends in the mall just because we were goofing around. Rather than true love, it was usually a means to drag one friend down the hall to check out the newest goods at the Gap when she wanted to stay and browse the CD racks (remember them?). Still, no innocent children's psyches were harmed as we wandered on by their family shopping trip. So what's the difference? Oh right, Sheldon and Lindstrom are lesbians. Which means they'll automatically start making out and grinding pelvises right in front of the whole school in the middle of a pep fest. The same way all those horny male/female teen couples drop down in the middle of the gym and start going at it every year. Oh ... wait, that didn't happen, did it? It turns out, teenage lesbians are equally adept at controlling their hormones in social settings as the rest of their peers. So tell me, the next time you go to the mall and see two teen girls holding hands: can you even tell if they "like" like each other? I doubt it. So what's so scary? Image via Made Underground/Flickr
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the best films ever made. Almost 50 years after its release, it remains a topic of heated discussion and great reverence. It’s one of those films you could only dream to own a part of. But now you can. The San Francisco Art Exchange is selling a collection of work called The 2001 File, an archive of over 1,500 sketches, designs, paintings, and more that production designer and art director Harry Lange created for Kubrick’s film. Advertisement This is truly historical, jaw-dropping stuff. It’s work Lange did specifically at Kubrick’s request, much of which made it into the movie almost exactly. Here’s just a teeny, tiny taste of what’s available. Advertisement Advertisement As you can see, almost every one of those pieces is instantly recognizable as being a part of 2001. These are the original drawings used to spark those designs and sets in the final film. Advertisement “Lange’s illustrations are stunning to look at, and as you take them in you realize that they represent a kind of guided dreaming,” Theron Kabrich, co-founder and co-director of the SFAE, said in a press release. “2001 came at a very important period of time. America was working on going to the moon, and the film made space exploration seem imminent. Kubrick, [Arthur C. Clarke], and Lange didn’t put it so far out into the future that we couldn’t feel it. It’s pretty remarkable to look at Lange’s work from 50 years ago and see that so much of what he predicted is now part of our everyday life.” So this stuff is awesome, right? Well, here’s the bad news. First, it’s not on public display. Second, it’s all for sale but it ain’t gonna be cheap. The SFAE has estimated the collection is worth $8.75 million so, yeah. These are for serious collectors only. But if you are one of those, or if you have questions, you can contact San Francisco Art Exchange at sales@sfae.com, or call 415-441-8840.
For other uses, see Oxo OXO or Noughts and Crosses is a video game developed by A S Douglas in 1952 which simulates a game of noughts and crosses. It was one of the first games developed in the early history of video games. Douglas programmed the game as part of a thesis on human-computer interaction at the University of Cambridge. It was written on the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC). EDSAC was one of the first stored-program computers, with memory that could be read from or written to, and had three small cathode ray tube screens to display the state of the memory; Douglas re-purposed one screen to demonstrate portraying other information to the user, such as the state of a noughts and crosses game. After the game served its purpose, it was discarded on the original hardware but later successfully reconstructed. OXO, along with a draughts game by Christopher Strachey completed around the same time, is one of the earliest known games to display visuals on an electronic screen. Under some definitions, it thus may qualify as the first video game, though other definitions exclude it due to its lack of moving or real-time updating graphics. History [ edit ] The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) mainframe computer was built in the University of Cambridge's Mathematical Laboratory between 1946 and 6 May 1949, when it ran its first program,[1][2] and remained in use until 11 July 1958.[3] The EDSAC was one of the first stored-program computers, with memory that could be read from or written to, and filled an entire room; it included three 35×16 dot matrix cathode ray tubes (CRTs) to graphically display the state of the computer's memory.[4][5] As a part of a thesis on human-computer interaction, Sandy Douglas, a doctoral candidate in mathematics at the university, used one of these screens to portray other information to the user; he chose to do so via displaying the current state of a game.[6][7] Douglas used the EDSAC to simulate a game of noughts and crosses, and display the state of the game on the screen. Like other early video games, after serving Douglas's purpose, the game was discarded.[4] Douglas did not give the game a name beyond "noughts and crosses"; the name OXO first appeared as the name of the simulation file created by computer historian Martin Campbell-Kelly while creating a simulation of the EDSAC several decades later.[8] Around the same time that OXO was completed, Christopher Strachey expanded a draughts program he had originally written in 1951 and ported it to the Ferranti Mark 1, which showed the state of the game on a CRT display.[9][10] OXO and Strachey's draughts program are the earliest known games to display visuals on an electronic screen, though it is unclear which of the two games was displayed first.[7] As it ran on a computing device and used a graphical display, OXO is considered under some definitions to be a contender for the first video game,[11] though under others it does not due to its lack of moving graphics or graphics which update continuously.[12] Interaction [ edit ] Each game was played by one user against an artificially intelligent opponent, which could play a "perfect" game. The player entered their input using a rotary telephone controller, selecting which of the nine squares on the board they wished to move next. Their move would appear on the screen, and then the computer's move would follow; the game display only updated when the game state changed.[8] OXO was not available to the general public and could only be played in the University of Cambridge's Mathematical Laboratory by special permission, as the EDSAC could not be moved, and both the computer and the game were only intended for academic research purposes.[13]
Pin Reddit Share +1 2K Shares So you want to learn the art of picking locks? Well, look no further than our quick and dirty infographical guides to lock picking! The goal behind these visual guides was to extract only the fundamental and necessary components involved in successfully picking a lock, no more — no less. If you are looking for more comprehensive guides that cover the entirety of lock picking, be sure to check out the Academy and our Complete Beginner’s Guide to Lock Picking. Single Pin Picking The first of our techniques in this series of graphical guides is Single Pin Picking. Every technique of lock picking uses two tools — a tension wrench and a lock pick. The tension wrench is used to place rotational tension on the plug of the lock, much like a key does. This aids us in both setting pins and turning the plug when the pins are all set. Single pin picking uses a hook style pick. This pick is specially designed to push and manipulate each pin individually — hence the name “single pin picking.” Raking The next technique in this series is Raking — also known as Scrubbing. Raking is the art of using both luck and skill to open a lock. To rake a lock we need the use of both a tension wrench and a rake type lock pick. These rakes style picks come in a variety of shapes, but all accomplish the same goal — to manipulate multiple pins at once. Rake picks have several peaks and are used by inserting the pick into the lock and scrubbing the pins back and forth — much like brushing your teeth, except much more fun. In theory, the more peaks a rake has, the more pins it can manipulate and the better chance you have of bumping each pin to the shear line. Let’s take a look! Improvised Lock Picking Infographics Utilizing the proper lock picking tools will not only aid in your success but also in the development of your skills. However, we don’t always have these little tools on hand and thus we must improvise. Lock picking can be accomplished with anything that is both small enough to fit into the keyway and malleable enough to form into the proper tools. Bobby Pin Lock Picking Bobby pins have always had this strange subtle link to lock picking. This is likely because they work fantastic on lower level locks and their availability surpasses any other item like them — being found in just about any purse. To pick a lock with a bobby pin, we must first forge our tools. Like any variation of lock picking, we will need both a tension wrench and a pick — hence we need two bobby pins. To make our wrench we need only to bend our first bobby pin into the shape of an “L.” Simple enough! Our pick requires a few extra steps. First strip off the rubber cap on the straight end of the bobby pin. This can be done easily by using fingernails, pliers, or even your teeth. Once the rubber end is removed we can begin making our bends. Start by pulling the bobby pin apart and straightening it. Next, stick the straight end of the bobby pin about 1/3 of an inch into the keyhole of your lock and apply enough pressure to bend the end of the pin into a hook. Other Lock Picking Infographics The art of lock picking, like every craft and skill, involves much more than originally meets the eye. So many questions and concerns arise when venturing into a new craft. To conclude this infographical series, we will touch on the subjects unrelated to the actual techniques of lock picking, starting with applicable laws. Us Lock Picking Laws Before you consider buying a set of lock picks, it is always preferred that you check your state or country laws regarding the legality of owning locksmithing tools. In the United States, there are only five states that do not allow possession of lock picking tools. These states are Mississippi, Nevada, Ohio, Virginia, and Tennessee. Any other state is free game! For more information on the legality in your state or country check out LockWiki. Taking Your Lock Picking Skills Further! [quads id=”2″] While this simple guide is enough to get anyone’s feet wet, the craft of lock picking doesn’t stop here. Not by a long shot! These were but simple steps for anyone to mimic. By learning the basic theory and techniques behind lock picking, your success at picking locks will skyrocket. And the best part is, it’s not a terribly difficult skill to acquire. Within hours you could be picking locks with a seemingly innate knowledge of not only how locks work, but what exactly you are manipulating within them. If you wish to develop your lock picking skills beyond mere mediocrity, take a look at our comprehensive beginner’s guide to lock picking! Beginner Lock Picking Sets Owning and using the correct tools is vital to any lock picking venture. They not only aid in your success, but they help you develop the “feel” and consistency required to become proficient at the craft. A quality set of lock picks is a relatively low-cost investment and will always be there in your time of need. Be sure to take a look at our most demanded lock pick set below or visit our store for more lock picking sets! As always, Happy Picking! 5/5 (1 Review)
Croatia has received six bids in an international tender for oil and gas exploration areas in the Adriatic, and will choose the best ones by the end of the year, Economy Minister Ivan Vrdoljak said yesterday (3 November). “We are satisfied, we’ve received bids from big, serious companies,” Vrdoljak told reporters. The government sees oil exploration as a key project for the newest EU member, whose economy has been stuck in recession since 2008. Croatia says it expects investment worth some €2 billion over the next five years in exploration activities. Local media have earlier reported oil majors like Exxon , Shell, Chevron and Total as being interested but Vrdoljak declined to name any of the bidders. The tender, which closed on Monday after running for seven months, comprised 29 block areas for exploration and future exploitation, eight in the north and 21 in central and southern Adriatic. The size of one block ranges from 1,000 to 1,600 square kilometres. View from a cruise ship. Croatian coastline, 2012. [Robert Pittman/Flickr] View from a cruise ship. Croatian coastline, 2012. [Robert Pittman/Flickr] Each bidder was allowed to compete for an unlimited number of blocks. The six submitted bids were for 15 blocks altogether, Vrdoljak said. The government plans to sign concession agreements by the spring 2015. The exploration concession will be awarded for five years with a possibility to extend it for another year, while exploitation concessions are planned for 25 years. According to the preliminary data, gas reserves are more likely to be found in the north while crude deposits are expected in the southern part of Croatia’s Adriatic, where the seabed is deeper. Local environment groups say oil drilling could destroy the Adriatic and hurt Croatia’s lucrative tourism industry. The government said the concessionaires would be required to respect the highest international environmental protection standards. Croatia currently covers about 65% of its annual gas consumption of 3 billion cubic metres from its own fields offshore. It hopes to be able to meet the entire local demand from the domestic wells following the new exploration efforts. Croatia is currently also running an international tender for onshore oil and gas exploration which expires in February.
"He has said the case against him was retaliation for his political activism, including his memorializing the thousands of children who died in schools that collapsed during a 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province. "He said on Wednesday that the authorities had given him no indication of why he had received his passport now. 'I only can say why not? They have promised for the past four years to give it back. Now finally they gave it to me,' he said in a telephone interview. 'They always say it's in the process but I just need to be patient.' "The confiscation of his passport meant that Mr. Ai was forced to organize his overseas exhibitions remotely, including shows at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and at Alcatraz, the former prison in San Francisco Bay."
The actual number of jobs outsourced offshore will continue to creep up, but especially in the United States, the new wave of outsourcing and relocating jobs is happening at home. Leading the reverse trend are the kinds of jobs that are considered core to the business, requiring higher skills and training than what is typically available offshore. Some high-level jobs that were originally sent offshore brought poor results—those jobs are coming back first. A decade ago, when consultants such as Boston Consulting Group insisted that not outsourcing offshore was tantamount to missing out on a major strategic benefit, many kinds of jobs were moved offshore. As the American economy tightened, offshoring became a rush, to generate what was thought to be immediate cost-benefits. But now, many companies are reversing earlier offshore outsourcing decisions, for skilled jobs as well as regular manufacturing work. U.S. businesses are recognizing that cheap, exploited foreign labor is only a short-term expedient. The recent lead-based paints and tainted-milk scares in China, and similar problems in other countries, brought this recognition: If other countries had to comply with the same environmental laws and safety regulations, the costs would substantially increase. Meantime, Chinese labor costs are rising about 15 percent to 20 percent a year. That makes producing goods in China not nearly as cheap as it used to be. For many manufacturers, that narrowing is enough to tip the balance back to U.S. plants. This led them to question whether some work could be outsourced closer to home where inflation is low and the economic climate is more predictable. There are domestic outsourcing alternatives that are both financially sound and good for American workers. And BCG too is reversing earlier advice: When currency fluctuations and rising wages in emerging markets are factored in, the United States is becoming a lot more attractive. Beyond just high-tech jobs, many American businesses are bringing jobs home again. Here are some examples: 1. NCR has hired about 500 workers to build ATM machines and self-service checkout systems at a Columbus, GA. plant, and it plans to add another 370 jobs by 2014, building products that were formerly produced at plants in China, Hungary and Brazil. 2. Greater quality was the major factor cited by Carbonite for moving back jobs to the United States. Its call center in India was having turnover of 100 percent or more each year, compared with just single-digits in the Boston call-center. The U.S. base provides much better service and customer satisfaction. 3. GE has reopened a Louisville plant that had been closed for decades, based on the fact that it’s no longer as expensive to hire U.S. workers. The industrial automation business has examples of the reverse trend—offshore companies with local offices and skilled staff offering services to American customers. India-based control systems integrators are offering software development, systems integration and local service support at hourly-rates that most U.S.-based SIs cannot compete with. Some successful systems integrators and service companies that have plenty of work in the hopper are considering outsourcing to these “local” services to reduce costs, supplement their own staff and improve competitiveness. As this trend develops, the emergence of some multi-national hybrid businesses is inevitable. As the cost gaps narrow in the coming years, this “re-shoring” trend is likely to grow. In American job markets where hiring has been stalled, offshoring repatriation is an encouraging sign. Jim Pinto is an industry analyst and commentator, writer, technology futurist and angel investor. You can e-mail him at: jim@jimpinto.com. Or review his prognostications and predictions on his Web site: www.JimPinto.com.
Moviemaker David Lynch has unearthed lost outtakes featuring the late Dennis Hopper for the upcoming Blu Ray release of cult film Blue Velvet. The Twin Peaks director felt sure the footage of Hopper and Kyle MACLachlan had been destroyed, and was thrilled to find it during a clear-out. Lynch tells Los Angeles radio station KCRW, "I find out that Dino (De Laurentiis), the producer, doesn't know where they are. They're gone. His company went bankrupt, it was taken over by another company, and then it was sold to other companies. No one knew where they were, they were gone. So depressing. "Lately, those have been found. Somewhere up in Seattle. It's incredible. I'm seeing stuff I thought was gone forever. And hopefully some of those scenes... will end up on the new Blu Ray."
Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Saturday she will remain neutral in the presidential race despite Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders Bernard (Bernie) SandersPush to end U.S. support for Saudi war hits Senate setback Sanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' MORE’s endorsement of her primary opponent. ADVERTISEMENT “Even though Senator Sanders has endorsed my opponent I remain, as I have been from the beginning, neutral in the Presidential Democratic primary,” Schultz said in a statement. “I look forward to working together with him for Democratic victories in the fall.” Sanders, in a CNN interview to air Sunday, said he favors Wasserman Schultz’s primary opponent, Tim Canova. Canova and Wasserman Schultz will face each other in Florida's congressional primary Aug. 30. “Well, clearly, I favor her opponent,” Sanders told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “His views are much closer to mine than as to Wasserman Schultz." Sanders's comments come as tensions between him and party leaders escalate. Last weekend saw a chaotic state convention in Nevada in which Sanders supporters angrily opposed rules they thought unfairly benefited Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Disney’s Muppets Most Wanted sees the entire Muppets gang on a global tour, selling out grand theatres in some of Europe’s most exciting destinations: Berlin, Madrid, Dublin and London. But mayhem follows the Muppets overseas, as they find themselves unwittingly entangled in an international crime caper headed by Constantine—the World’s Number One Criminal and a dead ringer for Kermit the Frog—and his dastardly sidekick Dominic, aka Number Two, played by Ricky Gervais. Advertisement But if you were to join the Muppets on tour, who would you be? Are you a diva like Miss Piggy? A comedian like Fozzie or are you meant to be green like ol’Kermit? There’s only one way to find out… Advertisement Disney’s Muppets Most Wanted is available on Blu-ray Combo Pack, Digital HD, DVD, Disney Movies Anywhere, and On-Demand 11 August 2014
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Emergency services try to reach the site of the crash Thirteen people are presumed dead after a helicopter crashed west of the Norwegian city of Bergen, rescuers say. Eleven of those on board were Norwegian, one was British and one Italian. No survivors have been found. A major rescue operation was launched but ended within hours of the crash. Meanwhile, Norway's civil aviation authority has imposed a flight ban on the type of helicopter that crashed - the Eurocopter (EC) 225L Super Puma. Reports say it was "totally destroyed". Its officials told VG newspaper (in Norwegian) that servicing for the helicopter which crashed had been delayed twice in 2015, for a total of 200 flying hours. Later, local media quoted a civil aviation authority spokeswoman as saying the helicopter's two black boxes had been recovered. The British Civilian Aviation Authority later said it was suspending commercial use of the Super Puma, so it would be unable to carry oil and gas workers but could still fly for other purposes. The aircraft was flying from the Gullfaks oil field to Bergen, a centre for the North Sea oil and gas industry. Eleven bodies have been found, and two other people are still missing. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said news of the crash was "horrible". King Harald and Queen Sonja cancelled a trip to Sweden, Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported. 'Peculiar engine sound' Oil company Statoil said all the passengers were on assignment for the company, but worked for different organisations. Statoil has suspended oil production at the Gullfaks B platform "so that we can take care of the staff in the best way possible", company vice-president Arne Sigve Nylund told journalists. The helicopter came down near the small island of Turoey, just west of the village of Solsvik. Image copyright EVN grab Image caption Smoke was visible at the scene of the crash Image copyright EPA Image caption Firefighters were among those involved in the big rescue operation Image copyright Reuters Image caption The rotor blade became detached from the helicopter before it crashed Eyewitnesses reported seeing the helicopter's rotor blade come loose and shear off. "There was an explosion and a very peculiar engine sound, so I looked out the window. I saw the helicopter falling quickly into the sea. Then I saw a big explosion," a resident told local newspaper Bergensavisen. Photos from the scene showed thick smoke coming from an area of rocky islets. Local media said the helicopter dropped 640m (2,200ft) in the last 10 seconds before it crashed. Some wreckage was found on the rocks, and parts of the fuselage are in the sea. The tail of the aircraft was raised in a salvage operation, local media said, and preparations are being made to recover the fuselage. Image copyright Mihai Crisan Image caption The actual helicopter which crashed Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma Widely used in offshore oil and gas industry around the world More than 220 in service Can also be used in search and rescue and fire-fighting roles Carries 19 passengers plus two crew and can fly for up to five-and-a-half hours Safety features include self-deployable emergency flotation device, and traffic collision and avoidance system Source: Airbus Helicopters The UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch is sending a team to Norway because it has investigated a number of crashes involving helicopters operating to and from offshore oil and gas fields in recent years. In 2012, EC225 Super Puma helicopters crashed in two incidents in Scotland, one off Aberdeen and another off Shetland. Both crashes were blamed on gearbox problems. In both cases, all passengers and crew were rescued, though in 2013 a Eurocopter AS332 also crashed in Shetland with the loss of four lives. EC225s in the UK were grounded following the crashes but given the go-ahead to resume flying in 2013. Helicopter International magazine editor Elfan ap Rees said major modifications seemed to have dealt with the gearbox problem, and it was difficult to know what could have gone wrong in the Norwegian crash. "Overall, the Super Pumas have a good safety record and they have been constantly improved and upgraded," he told the BBC. "They have had quite a lot of use in the offshore industry."
The Obama administration’s Department of Justice reportedly failed to interview an undercover FBI informant in a Russian nuclear bribery case before filing criminal charges against a top Russian official — the latest government failure connected to the Uranium One scandal. The Hill reports that under the guidance of Maryland’s then-chief federal prosecutor Rod Rosenstein — now the deputy attorney general at the DOJ — prosecutors handed up an indictment of Russian energy exec Vadim Mikerin by portraying William Campbell as the main victim of Russian bribery and deceit, just as the Russians tried to involve themselves in the American uranium industry. This would backfire when prosecutors did eventually interview Campbell in 2015 and learned about the broader extent of his undercover activities with the FBI, undermining their claim that he was, in fact, a victim and causing them to recast the case. Mikerin was a top executive of the Russian energy giant Rosatom and the man who was sent to the U.S. to coordinate Russia’s plans to grow uranium sales in the U.S. The Hill’s reporting comes as DOJ officials are answering questions from Congress in relation to growing scrutiny about the Obama administration’s approval of the 2010 sale of Canadian firm Uranium One — particularly how much government heads making the decision knew about Russian bribery when the decision was made and the role played by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Government Accountability Institute (GAI) President and Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large Peter Schweizer broke the Uranium One scandal in his 2015 book Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich. In the book, he reported that nine foreign investors in the deal gave $145 million to Hillary and Bill Clinton’s personal charity, the Clinton Foundation. The New York Times confirmed Schweizer’s Uranium One revelations in a 4,000-word front-page story. The scandal hurt Clinton throughout her doomed presidential campaign and hit the headlines this year again in October, when The Hill reported that ahead of the deal, the FBI had uncovered “substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering” to expand Russia’s nuclear footprint in the U.S. as early as 2009. According to The Hill, the agency also found that Russian nuclear officials had routed “millions of dollars” to the U.S. to benefit the Clinton Foundation, once again raising the specter of “pay-to-play.” According to the Hill’s latest report, DOJ officials proved that the Russian energy giant Rosatom was engaged in criminal activity through its top American executive as early as 2009, before the administration ok’d the Uranium One sale to Rosatom. But when they filed the first complaint against Mikerin in 2014, they had not yet interviewed Rosenstein. Campbell was debriefed after the charges were filed, but not brought before the grand jury that would indict Mikerin. When they interviewed him again, they realized his work for the FBI was more extensive and changed their goals. “Based on what was learned, we decided to change the theory of the case. … A plea deal became our goal so we wouldn’t have to litigate or make an issue of some of the stuff he had done for [counterintelligence] purposes,” a source directly familiar with the case told the outlet. Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY.
Twenty years after the Olympics took place in Atlanta, a U.S. national team will be training in the city thanks to the threat of the Zika virus. In a letter issued by USA's Swimming National Team Director Frank Busch, pre-Olympic training will move from Puerto Rico to the Georgia Tech Campus Recreation Center, formerly known as the Georgia Tech Aquactic Center, due to the possibility of exposure to the athletes. As part of our preparations for the Olympic Games this summer, we have been closely monitoring the current situation with the Zika virus. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and other health experts in the field of science and medicine, our athletes would be highly exposed to the Zika virus in Puerto Rico. USA Swimming’s most important priority is the health and safety of our Olympic Team. With this information, the National Team Division has decided to relocate the second camp to Atlanta, GA. Many variables were considered in selecting this location: flight time to Rio, time zone, facility and hotel availability, and training camp atmosphere. The team’s first camp will remain in San Antonio, TX. Sign up for the daily Speed Feed Newsletter Thank You Something went wrong. This email will be delivered to your inbox once a day in the morning. Thank You for signing up for the Speed Feed Please try again later. Submit We will also educate Olympic Team members about Zika and provide them with multiple tools to reduce the risk of being bitten by mosquitos while in Rio. Our partners at Marriott helped us greatly in this transition process and we know the new location will meet our needs. Team culture is one of the things that sets Team USA apart. We want to make sure our camp creates that unity as we head into the Olympic Games. The team is scheduled to hold its first training camp in San Antonio, from July 11 through July 21, before heading to Georgia Tech's campus. During the 1996 games, the center featured competitions in swimming, synchronized swimming, diving and water polo. The pool itself is made up of 10, 50 meter by 25 meter lanes and holds 1.08 million gallons of water. Since then, the center has been turned into a recreational facility for Georgia Tech students and facility. The Olympics are set to kick off in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, August 6. PHOTOS \| The fight against Zika
It is the world's most isolated country, a place where the weekly television highlight is It's So Funny, a long-running comedy show in which two uniformed soldiers perform slapstick sketches in between lectures about the greatness of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. Now, however, hope – or at least variety – is at hand for the people of North Korea. After months of negotiations with the British government, the totalitarian dictatorship has finally selected three BBC programmes that the state is willing to consider showing its people: Dr Who, Top Gear and Teletubbies. "Extensive enquiries have been made about what these three shows involve and if they would be suitable for the [North] Korean people," a Pyongyang insider explained. "Anything too political was not suitable but these are entertainment shows, and one of them is for young children." Join Independent Minds For exclusive articles, events and an advertising-free read for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent With an Independent Minds subscription for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent Without the ads – for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month The decision follows a BBC initiative last year, supported by the Foreign Office, to draw up a list of programmes that the North Koreans might consider obtaining. At the time, the Foreign Secretary William Hague hailed it as "a good way to improve understanding about the outside world within such a closed society". Negotiations with the closely controlled state proved tortuous, however. A delegation from the North Korean embassy in London visited the Foreign Office to discuss the proposal, but months were then spent selecting the three shows as worthy of consideration. A report has been written on each of them to be sent to Pyongyang. No timescale has been given for when an answer is expected, although the British embassy in the North Korean capital is helping to facilitate contact between the BBC's commercial wing, BBC Worldwide, and local broadcasting authorities. The BBC would not comment on what shows were chosen or why "until or unless an agreement is concluded". But the Doctor Who Appreciation Society had no doubt the timelord's adventures would prove a hit. "If there are children and young adults in North Korea who like the excitement of science fiction and the ability to tell a different story every week," said leading Whovian Antony Wainer, "they'll like Doctor Who." The country's state broadcaster, Korean Central Television, is only on air for six and a half hours every night. A third of the output is spent praising the government, while another third extols workers to toil harder for the affection of the Dear Leader. Any UK programmes would likely be edited to ensure the removal of ideologically improper elements. It was reported last month that male university students are being instructed to get the same haircut as Kim Jong-un, though the claim has no reliable source. But the appearance of those on screen is closely regulated, with television news readers required to have specific haircuts and wear certain colours. The watching of non-sanctioned programmes is harshly punished. Eighty people were reportedly shot recently for crimes that included being caught with pirated copies of South Korean programmes. Such penalties have failed to dampen demand, however, perhaps explaining the regime's willingness to consider foreign exports and so make its own channels more popular. Many North Koreans store foreign programmes on USB sticks, which can be pulled out and hidden from police if required.
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has said that one should not think of making a fortune while serving poorest of the poor. Reuters Asking micro-lenders to look at only a “reasonable profit” to sustain their business while serving borrowers at the bottom of pyramid, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has said that one should not think of making a fortune while serving poorest of the poor. Advertising The comments come in sharp contrast to management guru late CK Prahalad’s views in his book ‘The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid’. The concept of the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid originally appeared in an article by Prahalad and Stuart L Hart in business journal ‘Strategy+Business’ in 2004. That was followed by a book with the same title that discussed new business models targeted at providing goods and services to the poorest. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, a philanthropist who has seen so far spent millions annually to help the poor, has described the book as something that offers an intriguing blueprint for how to fight poverty with profitability. Advertising Rajan, himself is a renowned economist, said during a recent micro finance event, “I think Prahalad did a disservice by saying that there is a fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. “My sense is that you cannot, in good conscience, make a fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. Make reasonable profits, but if you start making a fortune, it does start raising societal anxiety about how the fortune is being made”. Following the advice of Prahalad, many companies across the world and especially consumer goods, auto and telecom marketers in the country, have begun to tap the underserved markets and made a big market out of them, Rajan said. He added however that reasonable profit must be there at the bottom of the pyramid as the business has to be self-sustaining. “If business is not self-sustaining, then entities Will make a pretence of doing the business, but they are not really going to get engaged until there are profits,” Rajan noted. The poor who want to borrow often face local monopolies, which in the long-run can be taken care of by market competition, but in short-run borrowers have to deal with it, Rajan said. “When they face local monopolies, then essentially we don’t have the presence of a competition commission right at the grassroots. And therefore, sometimes laws like you cannot charge more than a certain amount may be necessary to protect the poor,” he said. Rajan said an interest rate cap on loans given by MFIs may force some people to go to money lenders who are outside the formal system and can charge an arm and a leg, but at the same time it ensures protection of consumers. He said: “So, we should have a reasonable ceiling…not too low but not so high that it is irrelevant. When we have more competition we can remove this ceiling. “For now, despite the MFIs saying that the ceiling is harmful, and I admit it does harm certain individuals who are forced into the hands of the money lender, it is something that we should continuously re-examine but we probably have to live with it at this point.” The Reserve Bank had in April 2012 capped the interest rate on MFI loans at 26 per cent following the Malegam committee report. RBI set up the Malegam committee after the October 2010 MFI crisis in Andhra, when the state banned MFIs from coercively collecting instalments after some borrowers allegedly committed suicides fearing recovery agents. Advertising This led to a massive default by borrowers in the undivided state from which the then largest MFI market is yet to recover.
This is the first in a series of posts summarizing the Open Philanthropy review of the evidence on the impacts of incarceration on crime. The full report is available in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats. About when Chloe Cockburn joined Open Philanthropy to spearhead our grantmaking for criminal justice reform, I was tasked with reviewing the research on whether reducing the number of people in American jails and prisons might actually increase crime. In effect, we at Open Philanthropy asked ourselves: what if we’re wrong? What if our grantees win reforms that cut the number of people behind bars, and that pushes the crime rate up? How likely is that? And how likely is it that any increase would be large enough to overshadow the benefits of decarceration, which include taxpayer savings and expanded human freedom? It may seem strange to launch a grantmaking program even as we question its empirical basis. But Open Philanthropy had already invested significant time in studying criminal justice reform as a cause. And practical decisions must always be made in the face of incomplete information, forcing people and organizations to exercise what Herbert Simon called “bounded rationality.” It can be boundedly rational to act on the information gathered so far, even as we gather more. The final report reaches two major conclusions: I estimate, that at typical policy margins in the United States today, decarceration has zero net impact on crime outside of prison. That estimate is uncertain, but at least as much evidence suggests that decarceration reduces crime as increases it. The crux of the matter is that tougher sentences hardly deter crime, and that while imprisoning people temporarily stops them from committing crime outside prison walls, it also tends to increase their criminality after release. As a result, “tough-on-crime” initiatives can reduce crime in the short run but cause offsetting harm in the long run. Empirical social science research—or at least non-experimental social science research—should not be taken at face value. Among three dozen studies I reviewed, I obtained or reconstructed the data and code for eight. Replication and reanalysis revealed significant methodological concerns in seven and led to major reinterpretations of four. These studies endured much tougher scrutiny from me than they did from peer reviewers in order to make it into academic journals. Yet given the stakes in lives and dollars, the added scrutiny was worth it. So from the point of view of decision makers who rely on academic research, today’s peer review processes fall well short of the optimal. The rest of this post elaborates on those conclusions. The scale of incarceration in the U.S. Long ago when the world was young, I followed my girlfriend to Philadelphia. Biking to work, I sometimes noticed, embedded in the drab urban fabric of asphalt and rowhouses, a massive, crenelated, slit-windowed, medieval fortress. Not till 2015, when I returned with my family, did I learn that it was the former Eastern State Penitentiary, an old prison built on the theories of a criminal justice reform movement of 200 years ago. It is a fantastic museum now: you must go. When we visited, we finished our self-guided audio tours in an interior courtyard, where inmates were once permitted to exercise. Now installed there is the Big Graph, a sculpture that puts America’s incarceration rate in historical and global perspective. This photograph of the Big Graph shows prisoners per 100,000 Americans by decade for 1900–2010: In 1970, 196,000 people resided in American prisons, and another 161,000 in jails, which worked out to 174 inmates per 100,000 people. In 2015, 1.53 million people lived in U.S. prisons and 728,000 in jails, or 673 per 100,000. The next photo captures the side of that tall red bar, which depicts prisoners per 100,000 residents by country in 2010: In fact, the U.S. may be #2 behind North Korea, but that country is presumably left off the Big Graph for lack of reliable data. Experts disagree about what caused the incarcerated population to mushroom. John Pfaff of the Fordham School of Law sees a change in prosecutor behavior as key: prosecutors file more charges per arrest than they did in the 1970s. Alfred Blumstein and Allen Beck, on the other hand, assign roughly equal responsibility to increased commitments per arrests, which prosecutors would have contributed to, and lengthened prison stays. Regardless, I think there is little doubt that a “tough on crime” movement, including the “war on drugs” initiated by Richard Nixon, caused much of the expansion. Laws were passed to toughen sentences. More was spent on arresting people and keeping them in prison. For whatever reasons of principle and politics, prosecutors became more aggressive. And there was a racial dimension: the newly imprisoned were disproportionately black. The more practical question for Open Philanthropy is not about the causes of the rise, but the consequences of a fall. Putting fewer people behind bars should expand liberty and save government money. But might it also increase crime? Or might it reduce crime, if the prison experience is itself a source of criminality? I focus on how incarceration affects crime outside prison, and thus neglect that putting more people in prison almost certainly raises incidence of crime in. I do this for several reasons. I found no rigorous studies of how much crime the marginal prisoner (the sort of person most likely to go free if decarceration initiatives prevail) commits while in prison. Also, neglecting the potential benefit of lower in-prison crime biases my conclusion in the conservative direction: against the operating beliefs of Open Philanthropy. Finally, I think some people view crime in prison as less morally important than crime outside, part of deserved punishment. (No one said prison would be fun.) Though I disagree, to the extent that I conclude that decarceration does net good even under their moral calculus, my conclusion should be more persuasive to larger group; and progress on criminal justice reform today is possible precisely because of pragmatic coalition-building among people of diverse world views. A good way to organize our inquiry is to start with a simple observation. Incarceration can be thought of as affecting crime before, during, and after: before, in that stiffer sentences may deter crime before it would happen; during, in that people inside prison cannot physically commit crime outside; and after, in that having been incarcerated may shift one’s chance of reoffending. The first is called “deterrence,” the second “incapacitation.” The third I call simply “aftereffects.” Conceptually, the aftereffects channel is most diverse. Prisons may rehabilitate inmates, by “scaring them straight,” or teaching them job skills, or treating their addictions. Or doing time may be criminogenic. Having been imprisoned may make it harder for people to find legal employment, may psychologically alienate them from mainstream society, and may strengthen their social bonds with criminals, all of which could raise recidivism. (Aftereffects are conventionally termed “specific deterrence,” on the idea that having been in prison strengthens deterrence: once bitten twice shy. But I think it’s better to approach the evidence with theory-neutral terminology.) In reviewing studies that study one or more of these channels from incarceration to crime, I restricted myself to potentially high-credibility studies: ones that exploit randomized experiments, or else “quasi-experiments” that arise incidentally from the machinations of the criminal justice system. And I put special weight on the eight studies whose data and computer code I could touch with my own hands, as it were. As I mentioned, my replication and reanalysis of these studies led me to revise my readings of some. (Section 3.3 of the full report describes my search for data and code.) On the basis of the evidence, gathered, checked, and distilled, here is my reasoning that decarceration in the United States today is unlikely to increase crime: In short, it seems, incarceration’s “before” effect is mild or zero while the “after” typically cancels out the “during.” Since my conclusion is uncertain and may be biased—or may at least look that way—I also develop a devil’s-advocate position. From the evidence gathered here, how could one most persuasively contend that decarceration would endanger the public? I think the strongest argument would discard as biased my critical reanalysis of the two studies finding mild deterrence (item 1). It would then invoke the minority of aftereffects studies that contradict item 3 above, notably the Ilyana Kuziemko and Peter Ganong papers finding harmful aftereffects in Georgia (setting aside my critical reanalyses of those as well). Then, incarceration would be seen as reducing crime before, during, and after. This table summarizes the two views on the marginal impact of decarceration on crime outside prison in the U.S. today: My best synthesis of the evidence Devil’s-advocate view Deterrence 0 + (mild) Incapacitation + + Aftereffects – + Total 0 + Note: “mild” = elasticity of –0.1. If the devil’s advocate is right that putting fewer people in prison causes more crime outside of prison, the increase might still be small enough that most people would view the tradeoff as worthwhile. After all, decarceration saves taxpayers money, increases the liberty of and economic productivity of erstwhile prisoners, and reduces disruption of their families and communities. To explore this possible trade-off, the report closes with a cost-benefit analysis. Overall, I estimate the societal benefit of decarceration at $92,000 per person-year of averted confinement. That figure is dominated by taxpayer savings and the money value of gained liberty. The crime increase perceived by the devil’s advocate translates into $22,000–$92,000, depending on the method used to express crime’s harm in dollars. I argue that the methodology behind the high end of that range is less reliable. It works from surveys that asked people how much they would pay for a 10% crime cut, even though most Americans do not know how much crime occurs near them, thus what it would mean to cut it 10%. But if we accept the high figure, then in the worst-case valuation of the worst-case scenario plausibly rooted in the evidence, decarceration is about break-even. Given the great uncertainties in that calculation—about the crime impact of decarceration, the money value of crime victimization, the value of liberty—the precision in the worst-case assessment ($92,000 in costs, $92,000 in benefits) is an illusion. The worst case should be viewed as roughly break-even. This spreadsheet contains a big table that lists all studies I reviewed, what the studies find, and what I take away from them. A separate tab holds the cost-benefit analysis, which you can modify. In the next three posts, I’ll go into more depth on the research on deterrence, incapacitation, and aftereffects. Code and data for all replications are here (800 MB). The cost-benefit spreadsheet is here. Note [1] Among the five studies—Green and Winik (2010), Loeffler (2013), Nagin and Snodgrass (2013), Mueller-Smith (2015), and Roach and Schanzenbach (2015)—only the last dissents. It is also the one where the quality of the quasi-experiment is least certain.
Anyone who dares criticize Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians knows what to expect: accusations of being “anti-Israel” or “anti-Semitic.” In mainstream political and academic circles, the topic can be especially toxic as “pro-Israel” zealots go to great lengths to block even a debate, writes Lawrence Davidson. By Lawrence Davidson Here is the situation: the threat of aggressive public protests against those assembling to critically discuss the behavior of Israel has become an excuse to shut down such gatherings. The latest example of this tactic , which is really a form of blackmail to impose censorship, took place earlier this month at the University of Southampton in the UK. An international conference entitled “International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism” was scheduled for April 17-19, 2015, at the University of Southampton. It was to bring together lawyers and scholars to examine the legal basis for the establishment of the State of Israel and the rationales (or lack thereof) for its historical treatment of the Palestinian people. The standard by which these issues were to be judged was international law. The conference would also have examined the issue of exceptionalism when it came to the inadequate legal and diplomatic response to Israeli policies and behavior. Conference participants were to include both those critical of Israel and those who would present a defense of Israeli practices. This conference had been planned for over a year, yet days before its opening Southampton University announced that it would not allow the gathering to go ahead on its campus because there were “risks to safety and public order.” This was due to expected protests against the conference. Where did these risks come from? They originated with Zionists and their allies. Specifically, the Sussex Friends of Israel were ready to bring out as many as 300 peaceful protesters. In addition, there was likely to be a very small number of English Defense League members, who are anti-Muslim, pro-Israel, and potentially violent. Certainly the Zionist rhetoric was aggressive and emotionally charged. The conference was described as a gathering of “Israel-haters,” “a rally of bigots,” a gathering of “toxic speakers,” and an “anti-Israel carnival.” It made no difference to these ideologically driven zealots that what was really planned was a sober investigation of historical patterns of behavior against the backdrop of internationally recognized legal norms. Though the negative emotional energy ran high, the actual danger from the planned protests was probably quite minimal, and the local police declared themselves capable and ready to handle the situation. Nonetheless, instead of acting resolutely against those who would threaten free speech, the university simply gave in. It essentially ran scared not only from exaggerated threats of violence but, as seems always to be the case, from the wrath of a small number of financial donors who threatened to stop supporting the institution if it provided a forum for open discussion of issues that cast Israel in a poor light. Essentially, Southampton University allowed itself to be blackmailed by Zionist censors. One can speculate on what would have been the case if the situation were reversed. That is, if pro-Palestinian demonstrators had implied a “risk to safety and public order” at a Zionist conference upholding Israeli practices. The army would have been called out before such a conference was canceled. An Ongoing Tactic This is not the first time this sort of scenario has played out. Back in 2001 the president of the University of South Florida, Judy Genshaft, forced Dr. Sami Al-Arian , then a member of the faculty, to stay away from the campus because of negative and slanderous media publicity and Zionist threats against him. This all stemmed from his vocal support of Palestinian rights. Here too a university administration allowed itself to be blackmailed by ideologically driven zealots. In the process it abandoned the principle of free speech and allowed censorship to prevail through threats of disruption. There are other suspicious occurrences that may have been brought about by quieter forms of the same censoring pressures. For instance, in March, this writer was invited to address the prestigious Oxford Union in London on a topic that would, in part, cover U.S. foreign policy in support of Israel. Within five days the invitation was withdrawn. The quick turnaround called into doubt the Oxford Union’s claim that the cause of the withdrawal was scheduling problems. While it is not possible to say for sure that the reversal was due to Zionist pressure, the present atmosphere of aggressive Zionist efforts to stymie all criticism of Israel and its supporters, makes this sort of occurrence appear suspicious. What is going on here is not only the censoring of those critical of Israel, but the undermining of the rule of law, particularly international law. The irony is that much of this body of law was promulgated because of the savage persecution experienced by Europe’s Jews and others during the World War II. However, the Zionist element among Jewry (not all Jews) decided that their future lay not in the support of law, but in the creation of a state through a process of imperial invasion and colonial settlement. They pursued this objective just at the time when both classical imperialism and colonialism were going out of style and the European empires were falling apart. Thus, even at the moment it succeeded in establishing the State of Israel, Zionism was already an anachronism – an ideology that could only prevail through aggression and racist policies in a world that was trying to outlaw both types of behavior. That Zionism has, to date, gained its goal is largely due to its having achieved for Israel an “exceptional” status in the West that has allowed it to escape the rule of law. In other words, Israel has evolved into a “rogue” state that is being protected by Western powers, particularly the United States. Israel has achieved this “exceptional” status by two means: first, the Zionist corruption of Western governments through a lobby process involving the bribing of politicians, and second, through the exploitation of the Western fear of the Arab and Islamic world. The Zionists always complain that Israel is being singled out. For instance, one of the gambits used to attack the Southampton conference was as follows : “no academic conference on Pakistan, for instance, founded just a year before Israel, would consist solely of discussion on whether it should have been created and how to end it.” Putting aside the fact that this is an overly simplistic, and thus distorted, description of the Southampton conference, the comparison with Pakistan is off base. Pakistan was created as part of a process of decolonization. Israel was created in defiance of that same process. Zionist ideology, like any form of dogmatic thinking, ends up skewing history to its own needs. Actually, as long as Israel insists on being “a Jewish state” instead of a democratic state of all its citizens, it must walk the path of apartheid. And, it can only get away with that through successfully maintaining an exceptional status – a status that puts it above international law. The Southampton conference would have exposed this situation in a factual and sober way – in a way that would be hard for any fair-minded person to doubt. That is why the Zionists went to such lengths to shut it down.
A few years ago I made a pact with my motorcycle-riding friend that within three years we would go on a motorcycle camping trip. Since I had just gotten my Motorcycle endorsement through the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, this meant I would need to find a bike and hone my skills enough to navigate through some rural terrain with camping gear, and make it back alive. My friend had been lucky enough to have been riding since childhood, starting out on dirt bikes on country roads. As a kid I begged my mom to let me ride dirt bikes with my best friend, but was never allowed and wasn’t quite yet witty or sneaky enough to go ahead and do it anyway. (Yes, my wheel is turned a precarious direction. It’s that sweet, humbling learning curve. My companion was so kind as to take a majority of our gear on the F800GS, as I was unsure about my own balance with the added weight and how it might affect me as a new rider on my first big trip. Well, that was a nice first free pass. I’m on my own now!) I had just gotten my motorcycle endorsement at the time of the pact, but didn’t yet have the funds to buy a bike, gear, and insurance. I worried the career track I was on (fresh out of college and still waiting tables and working seasonal retail jobs) wouldn’t allow me to get the money within the time frame, but decided I could, and would, find a way to save up and make this happen. Two years later, it did. Will, way, you know the deal. Plan for it, people. Make it a priority, even if it means cutting back on nights out with friends, or more beans and rice. Opportunity arose when a buddy was selling his problem-child ’84 CB700SC Nighthawk S for a steal, and I jumped. I had admired the vintage style of this particular bike, and was developing quite the crush on the CB series. And she (my baby, er, bike. Fuck it–baby) was so good to me from the get go. Of course all new riders need to meet their mandatory quota of new-rider humiliation, so first I needed to drop her in the DMV parking lot right after registering the bike and making our relationship official. And then I had to crash into some bushes in an attempted U-turn. You know, for learning’s sake, we all need those not-so-gentle reminders that just because we ride a motorcycle doesn’t mean we’re cool. It will happen to you. Feel the feels, and then move on. Wear it like a badge of honor and share your stories with new riders to ease their pain. After riding my new-to-me motorcycle with glee any chance I got, including commuting to work, and reading up on sport riding technique, I was on my way to booking a camp site and fulfilling my promise. I will never forget the feeling after leaning through the exit ramp off of a crowded six-lane stretch of Interstate 5 on fourth of July weekend and rolling onto that two-lane country scenic route, past farms of alpacas, Christmas trees, and orchards, looking at the meadows of rolling hills on either side of me, and feeling the temperature rise and fall as we rode over the hills, smelling and feeling the mountain run-off rivers before seeing them, and watching a Swallowtail butterfly float across the road before zipping past it. My eyes welled up a little, being immersed in so much natural beauty, and in the middle of this dream-turned-reality. 350 miles of back roads took us through Mt. Hood National Forest, the Willamette National forest, and the Deschutes Nation Forest past the Three Sisters, Mt Washington, and the Three Fingered Jack. Micro-climates changed from the temperate valley to alpine to high desert. We wound through roads edged by cliff drop offs on one side and the threat of falling rocks on the other, through sharp blind curves, and around boulders. I can still hear and feel the sound and scrape of my first ever foot peg against asphalt on a cliff side twisty. It sent my stomach downward somewhere near my nether regions like a lead ball. Yet in this adrenaline filled “I WANT TO LIVE!” moment, I managed to look where I wanted to go and accelerate out of that curve with a newfound alertness and awareness that I could low side right off a cliff if I wasn’t careful. But this didn’t make me want to quit. It made me respect the machine I ride, take responsibility for my actions and accept that this is a sport I will need to keep learning for the rest of my life. And I realized that the payoff, of being totally alive in this moment, immersed in the world, and present, all senses attuned to the world around me, was worth the risk of death. Growing up in South Chicagoland, everything was and is very developed, so I am still amazed by how much untouched beauty and “rugged” land remains in the United States. I don’t just mean state and national parks, either, but the number of cliff side mountain roads without so much as a guardrail still amazes me, and it’s a great wake up call to enjoy the view, but stay awake. We rode along rocky snow melt rivers, and in the 100 plus degree heat and relentless sun, it was a welcome relief to soak our bandanas and t-shirts, letting each fiber absorb the icy relief before changing back into them. Beneath our baked black leather jackets, we enjoyed a moment of this DIY air conditioning before drying out and heating back up in minutes on the afternoon pavement atop metal machines being propelled by a series of gasoline explosions. (Water! River! Shade! Yusssssssss!) I received my first mid-ride bee sting up the sleeve of my jacket and into the soft underside of my upper arm. It took me by surprise, the quick surge of stinging pain, and it had been decades since I’d been stung at all. I pulled over to find out for sure what happened, and to gauge my reaction, honking and waving to my riding companion that I needed to pull over (In retrospect, we should have worked out some better hand signals ahead of time.) I opened my jacket to find the stinger dangling from the puffy red ink blot on my arm, and pulled it out, taking a minute to make sure I wasn’t allergic. Luckily, it’s hard to be mad on a summer day on your first motorcycle headed to a beautiful lake to camp and follow up on a big life goal you set three years ago. It becomes a little funny when you get stung again, a hundred miles later, inches apart from the first sting. Rolling up to the campgrounds, the Honda CB700SC took well to the gravel roads around Suttle Lake, albeit while abiding to the 10mph speed limit. I was a little nervous having wiped out from hitting patch of gravel on a little 50cc Kawasaki over a country creek bridge a couple years earlier, which ended with me landing in a ditch, but I remembered to ease off the death grip on the handles, and ride out the grooves and squiggles attentively, obeying the speed limit so as to take a precaution for all the pedestrians, children, and potentially imbibed adults buzzing from every pocket of the campground on a busy Fourth of July weekend. We had been looking forward to peace and quiet in a rural setting, and were a bit taken aback at the size and sound of the crowds. We knew the campground was full, and had wound up with a corner site by cancellation luck, and were delighted to find a private spot totally not visible from any other camping spots (could even do a nudie dance back there without worrying about someone sneaking up from the thicket… if you wanted to.) Plus there was about a quarter acre of spacious woods surrounding three sides of our site. A view of the lake was accessible a few steps down the hill, and sitting propped up against a large Ponderosa pine would be the site for meditating, drinking, writing, reading, sunset viewing and relaxing in the days to come. We were thrilled to have this little private patch on the beautiful Suttle lake. Waking up to the sound of jet skis in the morning, and the sound of jet skis in the afternoon was jarring at first, having expected a rural retreat, but ultimately we were just a little jealous we couldn’t give them a test ride. Plus, we ought to know about expectations by now. Fuck ’em, toss ’em in the wind! Day one was spent walking around the Lake, viewing Mt Adams, and heading to Sisters for goods to make bratwurst over the campfire and grab some cold beer. The town was small, quaint, a bit touristy, but was warm and friendly all the same. It definitely had an old-west feel, which I learned later is part of the homeowners association guidelines and regulations. A few charm points lost in that, but a lovely town and experience all around. Day two was spent hiking around the lake again, and taking our inflatable inner-tubes—no sorry, River Rats, purchased from the town grocery store, and floating the length of the lake, and letting the wind lead the way. It was incredibly relaxing to watch the water glisten, and float almost the entire length of Suttle Lake (sometimes at a good pace with the wind kicking in) and feeling the rays of sun offer their sweet kisses to our skin before the burn that would keep us warm that night. It was also great to rinse off after sweating on bike the day before, collecting all that high desert dust. We swam to shore before hitting the creek running from the Lake and through the grounds at the Lodge (which is beautiful, traditional, and has very kind staff that recommended a local biker bar in town and let us borrow some wifi. There are even little individual cabins you can rent on the property, with varying degrees of luxury and many with views of the lake.) We walked back, the river rats subjected to the dense shrubs and wild roses lining the narrow path back to the campgrounds, and up the big hill to our site. Somewhere in the water I lost my sarong, but my friend found a Deschutes Brewing hat, so the universe felt balanced. The ride home was quieter, with less traffic, and another bee sting nearly an inch away from the first. (I have since been stung twice again, once more on the same arm—and one on the other arm. I’m more amused than irritated at this point.) Bee stings aside, I returned home in a dream state of true vacation. Getting to your destination by motorcycle makes for an instant adventure. You are so immersed in the spirit of the land you ride through, and it helps launch you in that state of presence and recharge mode that tends to dwell with you after the fact, like an after glow. If there’s anything this trip taught me, it’s the benefit and growth that comes from doing what scares you, and from following through on your dreams. The reward is worth the pain of the learning curve (like dropping your new-to-you bike in the parking lot of the DMV right after getting it registered, or learning to not bruise your shins on the foot pegs.) This trip showed me that motorcycling is one of the best ways to see nature, and to make the journey of getting there as good as the destination itself, if not better. It instilled in me a desire to travel the world atop a motorcycle. Maybe most importantly, though, this trip taught me that goals which seem insurmountable are really just a series of little steps you take with a little help from your friends. Advertisements
Our grass-roots agitation and protest movement to get the government to stop vacillating and put more resources into the economy is reaching its final phase. Turning health, security, transport, education, fun and farming into professionally-directed profit-motivated industries has been a start, but there are a few activities which are still under erratic individual control. We’ve outlined the following demands in order to ensure progress, efficiency and growth reach their peaks: Sex All sexual intercourse must take place in licensed and approved clinics under the supervision of properly qualified experts. No longer will sex, a primary force for social change, be left to untutored novices. For a fee partners will be guided through the necessary steps for productive intercourse, trained in proper posturing and then, upon certification, allowed to operate their procreative machinery in a safe and responsible fashion. Conversation This unproductive, unprofitable behaviour should come under official auspices as soon as possible. Regulated ‘conversation shops’ should be allowed to operate in high streets, or, if necessary, in mobile units, in which participants can choose topics to debate and facts to exchange under supervision and guidance. Topics of conversation will be divided into various levels of sophistication, access to which will be through certification. In the event that consumers require home conversations, internet-providers and ‘take-out’ delivery services will meet demand. Child-Rearing Dating has already entered the free-market, pornography has been a commodity since time began, and we envisage further growth in managed romantic encounters. Actual sex, as we have seen, should be integrated into the economy in a short time and professionally supervised birth has long been an economically viable activity. It only remains for the few years between parturition and responsible schooling to be regulated and opened up to market forces. The ideal means in which this will be eventuated is through the internet; successful and approved dating will lead to contributions of sperm and egg to child-rearing clinics, where rational skill-acquisition and socialisation can take place in a properly controlled environment. Parents will be able to enjoy the process on youtube. Relationships Social life is, of course, well on its way to becoming a profitable market-concern, but we believe it hasn’t gone nearly far enough. For one, have you noticed how hard it is to find ratings on all your friends and lovers? How on earth do you know how well someone is going to perform in bed, or how trustworthy they are as a companion unless you can dial up their stats on an app? Everyone must be rated, for everything, all the time—not only to enable high ratings to be available to rent or buy, but to make sure the world behaves. Bodily Functions The liver, heart, lungs, kidneys, bladder, bowels and glands have been interfering with productivity for too long. Their disruption of human functioning in a rational wealth-maximising society will come to an end when they are replaced with cheap, serviceable, manufactured parts. This will aid both production — as users will be able to turn off digestion, excretion and inappropriate hormonal urges during working hours; and consumption — as services such as blood processing, blood circulation, air-filtering and enzyme production will incur a fee. Consumers will either pay for each secreted hormone, synthesised protein, urination and heartbeat on a pay-as-you go basis, via installed meters, or will be sent a monthly bill for the use of their body parts. So come demonstrate with us at the next G20 meeting, when we’ll take to the streets, and agitate for MORE ECONOMIC GROWTH! Let’s turn our DREAMS into things we can rate, copy, print and save-for-later. Let’s convert the QUIVERINGS OF THE INNERMOST into parcelled up things. Let’s make the whole UNIVERSE into something we can package up, possess and SELL! See Belly Up! for more information on how YOU can make a difference.
What if the battery is not calibrated to begin with? You can delete batterystats.bin while its charging. Batterystats will get recreated if you were to unplug it. Otherwise, it get recreated at the boot logo before the animation. So you can delete it while it's charging, let it charge it up to 4200mV + 15 minutes or so. Leave it plugged in. Shut down, take out the battery, start it up and you get a battery screen with the ? and then pop the battery back in and it will show 60% at first and if it's fully charged, it will show 100% soon enough. Not sure if it works on other phones, but on droids and milestones you can boot the phone up without the battery. This way to calibrate is pretty cool. After deleting and charging, reboot phone normally but take the battery out before the logo and the phone keeps on booting. Then you pop the battery back in at the lock screen and you can monitor everything with battery monitor widget. Anyway, full guide in in my signature.
A Somerville man was arrested for trespassing Monday night after becoming trapped within the walls of the Ted Williams Tunnel, according to Massachusetts State Police. Daniel J. Kelly, 27, was rescued after he called 911 saying he couldn’t find his way out of an underground storm drain. According to a state police statement, Kelly apparently had no idea where in the Boston tunnel system he was and could not find an exit. Around 9:20 p.m., State Troopers slowly meandered underground ramps with cruiser sirens blaring until Kelly told a dispatcher he could hear them. After 20 minutes of searching and taking turns sounding sirens to determine Kelly’s exact location, police say they found him inside a wall of the Ted Williams Tunnel’s D ramp, which connects the Massachusetts Turnpike to I-93. The D ramp was shut down while troopers searched vents, doors, and ceiling openings within the tunnel network. Kelly was found sitting atop a pipe 15 feet off the ground of a vent shaft after waving his hand out of the vent’s opening. Advertisement Kelly was immediately arrested for trespassing and brought to the Massachusetts State Police Tunnel Barracks. He was arraigned on Tuesday and, according to Fox 25 News, said in court that he would represent himself after a judge denied his request to dismiss the charges. Fox 25 also reported that Kelly said he thinks his drink was “spiked’’ at a bar before the incident, and that he has no recollection of how he ended up in the tunnel. Kelly is due back in court on June 10.
Forget paid apps; there were some countries in which Android users couldn’t get any apps from the Android Market because it wasn’t yet available to them. There are now several countries – almost twice as many – that are able to go through the Android Market and find the best apps. Google recently expanded Market support to a total of 46 countries, up from the 25 nations previously supported. Among the new countries are Brazil, Israel, and Thailand, countries that have had Android phones for some time without the primary source of getting apps. Users in these nations no longer have to rely on alternative markets to get apps. In recent weeks, Google expanded paid apps support to Canadian users, and Australian carrier Optus finally opened up its market to paid apps. Surprisingly, Google still hasn’t expanded the list of countries permitted to sell apps (9) to match the number of countries able to purchase them (13). Here’s the complete list of countries that should be able to access the Android Market. Argentina Australia Austria Belgium Brazil Bulgaria Canada Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hong Kong Ireland Israel Italy Japan Kazakhstan Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Philippines Poland Portugal Romania Russia Serbia Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand United Kingdom United States [Distimo]
Even as the Extension School Cultural Studies Club dropped its sponsorship of the event, members of the Satanic Temple held what appeared to be a black mass ceremony at the Hong Kong restaurant and lounge Monday night. UPDATED: May 14, 2014, at 2:37 a.m. Although the Harvard Extension School Cultural Studies Club dropped its sponsorship of a reenactment of a satanic “black mass” ritual earlier in the night, members of the New York-based Satanic Temple gathered for what appeared to be a black mass on the second floor of the Hong Kong restaurant and lounge shortly after 10 p.m. Monday. About 50 people, mostly dressed in black and some wearing face makeup, were present for the ceremony. A consecrated host, believed by Catholics to be the body of Christ, was not used in the ritual. Four individuals in hoods and one man in a white suit, a cape, and a horned mask were active in the proceedings, as well as a woman revealed to be wearing only lingerie. The ceremony began with a narration on the history underlying Satanism and the black mass ritual. Advertisement The restaurant’s owner, Paul Lee, said in a phone interview around 11 p.m. that he was unaware of the incident. The Hong Kong is located on Massachusetts Avenue, directly across the street from Harvard Yard. The ritual came after the cancellation of a black mass reenactment organized by the Harvard Extension School Cultural Studies Club, which had the event scheduled for Monday evening in Cambridge Queen’s Head Pub in Memorial Hall. Shortly before the planned starting time, the club said that it was moving to an off-campus site, citing in an email that “misinterpretations about the nature of the event were harming perceptions about Harvard and adversely impacting the student community.” The club wrote in its email around 5 p.m. that they planned for the event to be held at The Middle East nightclub in Central Square at 9 p.m. But Clay S. Fernald, the general manager of The Middle East, said Monday evening that the nightclub would not host the event, and that negotiations with the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club had fallen through. Fernald declined to comment on why negotiations had ended. Around 7 p.m., the Cultural Studies Club sent an email saying that they had been unable to find another location and would no longer sponsor the black mass, and individuals who intended to attend decided to migrate to the Hong Kong, at which the ceremony was revived. Satanic Temple spokesperson Lucien Greaves said in an interview with The Crimson earlier in the afternoon that although the Cultural Studies Club cancelled the event, he still hoped to host a black mass in the future. After learning of the event that occurred at Hong Kong, Terrence Donilon, secretary of communications for the Archdiocese of Boston, said in an interview around 11:00 p.m. that the Diocese's position is the same. He said the event is disgraceful and despicable. The Archdiocese followed through with its plans to host a Eucharistic procession to St. Paul Church, where a “holy hour” will be conducted. Donilon said that he was grateful for the community presence at the event and the presence of University President Drew G. Faust. CONTROVERSY AT HARVARD The club emphasized in the 5 p.m. email that Harvard had not asked them to move the event from its previous location, the Cambridge Queen’s Head Pub in the basement of Memorial Hall, and commended the University for affirming its members’ rights to free speech and assembly.
FITNESS fanatics and nature lovers rejoice – the long-awaited Green Arrow walking track in Whitfield is finally open. Today, Cairns Regional Council will officially open the path, created from a former network of “goat tracks” on previously privately owned land. It will connect with the existing Blue Arrow, and traverse Mt Whitfield ridge to join with Whitfield’s Bel-air and East Parkridge drives. media_camera Cairns councillor Linda Cooper has been instrumental in the creation of the Green Arrow walking track, due to open today. PICTURE: SUPPLIED Some sections of the track reportedly offer walkers 360-degree views. Touted as a way for locals and visitors to experience the tranquillity of the rainforest without leaving Cairns City, the 3.5km track has been more than four years in the making. The total cost to the council, which also includes the upgrade of the existing Red and Blue Arrow walking tracks, is about $267,000. Division 6 Councillor Linda Cooper, who was instrumental in the Green Arrow’s creation, said the bushland surrounding the path was very nearly sold for housing development. “That piece of land ... up to four years ago was privately owned and I was made aware the owners had a development application with the council to build residences,” she said. “The property came up for sale and ... myself and the CEO went through a process of acquisition and it became council land, rezoned from residential to open space. “The scenic rim of our city is really important to protect those environmental values and to protect that green space.” Bickering among State Government politicians over funding for the track after the last election marred the project slightly. media_camera The view over Whitfield and Edge hill to Cairns CBD and Trinity Inlet from the Green Arrow track. PICTURE: STEWART McLEAN The previous LNP Government had promised a “fully funded and costed allocation of $500,000” to create the path, but only if it was re-elected. The new Labor Government, meanwhile, has said the funding was never there, and was dependent on the LNP raising revenue through selling state assets. Cr Cooper said in July the council had progressed with work because the state funding was based on an election promise, rather than any contractual arrangement with the previous or current government. She said the track would give locals and visitors another way to experience the “great outdoors”. “It’s there to make the most of what’s already a commonly used exercise circuit,” she said. “When tourists ask ‘where can I walk near the city?’, I know of a lot of hotels that point them to that area. “A lot of airline staff also use that as their exercise route when they come to town.” “It’s part of the ongoing preservation of that open- space area that the community can enjoy without impeding on private property.”
The Hollywood star of Republican Party frontrunner Donald Trump has been vandalised and defecated on by both humans and their pets. The US presidential hopeful has had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame since 2007 following the success of reality television show The Apprentice. However the gold and brass star has recently been subjected to vandalism, including a spray-painted swastika and pet poo, as many Americans take issue with the real estate mogul's rhetoric and policy plans, The Los Angeles Times reported. However, officials of the Walk of Fame told The Times they have no plans to remove the star. "The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a registered historic landmark," president of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which operates the Walk of Fame," said Leron Gubler. "Once a star has been added to the walk, it is considered a part of the historic fabric of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Canada’s federal government has unveiled a federal tax plan that would impose an excise tax of $1 for every gram of cannabis or 10% of the purchase price, whichever of the two is higher. This proposed excise tax plan comes as Canada prepares for the legalization of recreational cannabis by July 2018. The plan has earned the ire of patient advocate groups and medical marijuana proponents, as well as of licensed cannabis producers in the country. This is mainly because the proposed excise tax will apply to both recreational and medical cannabis and it will be applied on top of the sales tax that is already currently imposed on medical cannabis. The government announced the federal tax proposal to the public last week, giving just enough time for public consultations before the provincial, federal, and territorial finance ministers discuss it on December 10 and 11. These public consultations will end on December 7. Estimated tax revenues Liberal MP Bill Blair, parliamentary secretary to the minister of justice, said that the government is committed to keeping a functional medical cannabis system, but it also does not want taxation levels to become an incentive for people to inappropriately use this system. This is why the government is proposing that the taxation levels for medical and non-medical cannabis be aligned. He further contended that the level of taxation determined as appropriate in this particular instance will keep the price of cannabis sufficiently low so as to stay competitive with any illicit market, yet at the same time, does not create an incentive for users to purchase medical cannabis for recreational purposes. Tax revenues are going to be split 50-50 between the federal government and the provinces. According to Blair, a rough estimate of the total tax revenues governments stand to raise from this plan is $1 billion a year. He clarified, however, that this amount is at the high end of the scale and it still depends on how many people are going to buy cannabis when it becomes legal. He noted that the current cannabis market is still an almost entirely illicit market and those who control it do not share data on their market’s size. This, he explained, is the reason why the government is operating on mere estimates right now. Furthermore, these estimates are under the assumption that every province approves the federal cannabis framework. Those who live in the provinces that do not sign this framework can still buy legal marijuana with a federal excise tax of 50 cents per gram or 5% of the final retail price and GST (Goods and Services Tax), plus whatever amount of tax their provincial government decides to impose or nothing if it decides on not adding excise tax. Pro-cannabis groups are fuming In a joint statement, the Arthritis Society and the Canadians for Fair Access to Medical Marijuana said that medical cannabis should be treated just as any other prescription medication and accordingly exempt it from taxation. Applying excise tax to medical cannabis, they said, unfairly disadvantages patients. Jonathan Zaid, executive director of CFAMM, said that patients today make treatment choices based on their finances, including having to switch to less effective medications that carry severe side effects. The proposed excise tax to medical marijuana, he said, is going to further compound these issues, as well as impose barriers for patient access. Professional cannabis producers also voiced out their concerns and think that patients do not need the added cost burden. Some politicians are not eager about the proposal, too Many politicians are not convinced that the plan is the right way to go for the provinces. For one, Charles Sousa, Ontario Minister for Finance, said that the revenue-sharing plan is not sufficient nor reasonable because it is the provinces that shoulder most of the costs – not Ottawa – that are associated with legalizing cannabis, including justice, enforcement, public education, and road safety. According to Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, he is not against the 10% tax, but he does not agree with the proposed 50/50 split. According to him, 100% of the tax revenues, or at least close to that percentage, should be given to the provinces because they are the ones who will do the dirty job and the heavy lifting when recreational marijuana is legalized.
Archives reveal "comfort women" official actions of Japan Forcing women into sex slavery and setting up "comfort stations" were official actions of the invading Japanese army during World War Two in Asian countries, newly publicized wartime archives reveal. A total of 89 wartime documents were made public on Friday as a response to Japan's right-wing politicians' denial of its wartime crimes in China. Twenty-five files relate to "comfort women". The use of "comfort women" was the state action of Japan during the war, said Su Zhiliang, a professor on the history of "comfort women" at Shanghai Normal University. The actions harmed China, the Republic of Korea and Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The archives showed that the first "comfort station" was in the Southeast Asian country of Indonesia on Java Island. The invading Japanese army in northeast China, documented what happened during the war, revealing their criminality. The files are from archives of the military police corps of Japan's Kwantung Army and the national bank of the puppet Manchurian regime, which are stored in Jilin Provincial Archives in northeast China. The 25 files on "comfort women" include two investigation reports, two telephone records and 21 documents on troops forcing women to have sex and enslaving them. They revealed conditions at "comfort stations", including ratios between Japanese soldiers and "comfort women" and details of gruesome rapes. The invading Japanese army allocated women proportionally. In Feb. 1 to 10 in 1938, there were six "comfort women" for 1,200 soldiers, a ratio of 1:200, in Xiaguan district of east China's Nanjing. After Feb. 20, there were eleven more "comfort women", representing a ratio of 1:71. In five months since November 1944, the invading Japanese army paid 532,000 Japanese yen on setting up "comfort stations". The expenditure was approved by the Kwantung Army, said a telephone record of the national bank of the puppet Manchurian regime. The invading Japanese army had abducted and forced women from occupied Korea to some "comfort stations" in Chinese regions, such as Heihe in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and Wuhu in eastern China's Anhui Province, according to the files. Invading Japanese troops set up "comfort stations" everywhere they reached. The stations appeared in at least twenty to thirty counties in northeast China, said Su Zhiliang. "The archives showed that the 'comfort station' in Java in Indonesia, strongly demonstrated the 'comfort women' system had reached the southeast Asian country," he said. One soldier of the police corps was reported and received a verbal criticism after he went to a "comfort station" on March 5, 1944, recorded on a monthly report of the invading Japanese troops in Java. Several letters Japanese soldiers wrote but seized by army officers expose the invaders' rapes of local women. "Japanese armies raped tens of thousands of women in Nanjing, including a 12-year-old girl, and many were even killed thereafter. The crimes were appalling," said one letter. The documents represent only a small portion of the nearly 100,000 wartime Japanese files in 1931-1945 period retrieved underground during construction work in 1953, said Yin Huai, president of the Jilin Provincial Archives in Changchun, capital of Jilin Province. Ninety percent of the files are in Japanese. "The files recorded by the invading Japanese troops themselves are the real documents about their invasion history in China. They are of significant value," said Yin. The invading troops buried some of their archives when fleeing Changchun, the then "capital" of the puppet Manchu State, in wake of a war with the Soviet Union, as they had no time to burn the documents. The Jilin Provincial Archives started in 2013 to translate and study the archives. Further work is under way. Newspaper headline: Archives reveal 'comfort women' official actions of Japan
Germany’s economy will probably be in a recession by elections scheduled for the end of September because monetary policy officials in the euro area aren’t providing the necessary stimulus, said billionaire investor George Soros. “Germany itself remains relatively unaffected by the deepening depression that is enveloping the eurozone,” Soros said in a speech at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt. “I expect, however, that by the time of the elections, Germany will also be in recession.” European leaders are seeking to exit their debt crisis by cutting spending while the European Central Bank has stopped short of outright bond-buying programs like those in the U.K. and U.S. Germany’s exports will probably suffer from lower demand in Europe and a weaker yen as the Bank of Japan joins peers in engaging in so-called quantitative easing, Soros said. Editor's Note: Billionaires Dump Stocks. Prepare for the Unthinkable. “The monetary policy pursued by the eurozone is out of sync with the other major currencies,” Soros said. “The others are engaged in quantitative easing. The Bank of Japan was the last holdout, but it changed sides recently.” The BOJ said last week it will double the monetary base by the end of 2014 through purchases of government bonds, in Japan’s biggest-ever round of asset buying. In July, ECB President Mario Draghi declared that central bank was prepared to buy unlimited quantities of government bonds if that meant saving the euro. At the same time, his pledge is tied to conditions so stringent that no country has yet asked him to print money on its behalf and the euro region’s economy is still mired in recession. Soros also reiterated a call for Germany to back the issuance of joint debt by European countries to lower their borrowing costs or leave the euro area. Germany “went too far” on pushing Cyprus to impose losses on depositors as part of a rescue for the country as European banks rely on savings as a source of funding and that could undermine the banking industry, he said. Editor's Note: Billionaires Dump Stocks. Prepare for the Unthinkable.
There’s no denying that we live in a golden age of personal vaporizers and mechanical mods. The market is full of devices of every kind of size, shape and function. We’ve come a long way from the simple e-cigarette just a few short years ago. In no small part, we can thank the incredibly creative small businesses and individuals who have raised the bar with innovative designs. However, the massive availability and affordable prices can be traced to overseas manufacturers shamelessly copying these devices and selling them at a fraction of the price of the genuine article. Along with this choice on the market comes one of the great schisms in the vaping community. There seems to be camps who believe that the so-called clones are harming the innovators in the industry. The other camp tends to believe that makers of the high-end devices charge too much for their products. The most commonly duplicated devices are mechanical mods. All mechanical mods essentially are a method to connect a battery as directly to an RBA as possible. So why should a dead simple device cost so much? To be perfectly honest, I can see both sides of the argument. I also think many people on one side of the fence or the other tend to over simplify the situation. There’s a lot of moving parts there that are often overlooked in some of the heated arguments. Obviously, I have, in the past reviewed clone devices. Many of which are flat-out copies of originals all the way down to logos and certificates of authenticity. I’m personally bugged by versions that ape the logo and include a fake serial number. That’s quite honestly uncalled for. I do, however, think that there is a place in the community for a discussion, and I don’t believe simply refusing to review them would solve anything. It’s a personal choice. I get why some folks choose to not give press to these devices. I’ve honestly struggled with the question personally myself. Some folks have even gone so far to tell me that they would stop paying visits to this site if I continued to cover these devices. I completely respect that. I’ve made my choices, they’ve made theirs. I of course regret I couldn’t do something that would make everyone happy, but you rarely can. I don’t think any less of anyone who makes a stand for his or her beliefs. [Tweet “There’s a lot of moving parts there that are often overlooked in some of the heated arguments.”] I’ve stated my views on the clones several times in some of the reviews I’ve done previously, so I don’t intend to make this post a rehash of such things. No, what I’m interested in hearing is what you think about this whole topic. Specifically, you as readers of this site. I’ve seen all the arguments and fights in the forums, so I’m not interested in starting any of those. I want to know what you as readers think on the topic. The comment system below is awaiting your response. Pick your favorite platform and let your feelings be known!
The planning of orthopedic surgeries is a difficult process. In a lot of ways, it's like working while wearing a blindfold; a surgeon can't see the bone that needs to be worked on until during the actual surgery, when time is most critical. Even with X-rays and CT scans, the raw data can be difficult to interpret correctly. Fortunately, open source software can (and does!) help reduce the guesswork. At the 2015 Blender Conference, Vasily Shishkin gave a very interesting talk on his research project and use of Blender and 3D printing in the planning and guiding of orthopedic surgery. (Fair warning: There are some graphic images of actual surgeries in his presentation, so please don't watch it if that kind of thing makes you uncomfortable. See the video at the end of the article.) You may find yourself thinking, "Wait a minute. Blender? The same Blender that's used for making pretty images and animations? That Blender?" Yes. That Blender. Despite the fantastically cool use case, the process Vasily uses is pretty straightforward. They take CT scans of the bones that they're doing surgery upon, as well as the corresponding healthy bones on the opposite side of the body. Those CT scans are converted into 3D mesh data and loaded into Blender. From within Blender, the mesh of the healthy bones are mirrored and serves as a template for showing the corrective action that needs to be performed on the bones that require surgery. The mesh can even be used to build precise 3D models of guides for aiding the surgical process. Those models get 3D printed and used during the actual surgery. Of course, this raises even more questions, so I managed to catch up with Vasily after the conference and sling a few of them at him. I found it interesting that you specifically chose Blender because it isn't a CAD package with a bunch of precision tools. However, you're also using 3D printing, which sometimes needs precision and accuracy. Has the lack of those tools or precision caused any problems for you? I use Blender because it's not overloaded with special engineering measurement tools for specific purposes such as determining wall thickness of an object or measuring the tension or torsion of materials that differ in density. We don't need that in clinical medicine. The human body has great adaptation mechanisms. The acceptable overall shortening of the extremities can be up to 4 cm. The body will adapt itself to changes in anatomy if they occur. But when they are severe and cause pain and discomfort to the patient, that's when surgeons come into play. If you miss a couple of millimeters during surgery on a large segment—a femur, for example—that's not a big deal. Smaller localizations obviously require more accuracy. What we need from Blender is 3D visualization to receive information about the deformity and to find a solution for correcting it. As for 3D printing, it works pretty well. We had no problems using it during our interventions. The accuracy depends mainly on the resolution of the CT data. We use the basic toolset—things like distance and angle measurement. The rest of the calculation is made according to the relative bone alignment of the healthy side. How complex are the 3D models that you're getting from the CT scans? How does Blender perform with that dense geometry? The models that we get in Blender can be really big—up to several millions of vertices—and it can be a problem. The less detailed the mesh, the less information we can get from it. Going lo-poly is not possible, as it diminishes details. So, we have to use decimation and re-meshing tools quite accurately in order to keep models informative. Overall Blender does well if you keep the vertices up to a reasonable amount of about 60,000 per model. Are there any changes that you've made to Blender or changes that you'd like to make in order to make it better suited to how you use it? I am currently working on an add-on that will allow new Blender users to work with the software straightaway. It's just a number of standard tools implemented in a panel, but I believe it could help people get acquainted with the system quite fast. How often do you use Blender to plan surgeries? In our clinic, every complex clinical case gets treated with the use of this system. It depends on many factors, but there is a problematic patient every now and then. At the moment we have such a case once a week for sure. At the moment, the total number of patients treated is more than 80. You mentioned in your conference talk that you'd like to have a custom script or tool written to better facilitate automatically aligning 3D models. Was there anyone at the conference who was able to help you with that? For the people who didn't attend the talk, could you explain why it would be so useful to you? The main advantage of this planning approach is that we use the patient's anatomy, relying on 3D CT scan data from the opposite limb as a reference or template for reconstruction. This gives a clear understanding about the amount of correction needed. We superimpose meshes of healthy and deformed bones and align the matching parts so the deviation becomes visible. This is done manually at the moment and takes time. Besides, bone anatomy can be quite complex to understand even for a doctor. Automating the alignment procedure of two similar meshes could help solve this problem. I've had some people approach me at the conference and had some emails afterwards. The proposals differ: some people are just interested while the others offer their programming skills. So if there is anyone out there who can help or give an advice on how to make automation possible that would be really great. What do other doctors think of this kind of technology? When I'm talking about this technique at medical meetings, reactions vary. Some surgeons are fascinated, while the others try to prove me that this thing is useless and there is nothing left to invent in surgery. Physicians are quite conservative, and it's hard to convince them to try something new and think outside the box. But I believe that in the future computer-assisted surgery will be a standard, just as computer-assisted design is in engineering today. After all, people will only benefit from receiving top-notch healthcare. Blender is a free and open source 3D creation suite. The Blender Conference is an annual event held in Amsterdam for developers, designers, and enthusiasts to learn more about Blender techniques, features, and tools.
[np_storybar title=”Why the Foxconn riot comes at the worst possible time” link=”https://business.financialpost.com/2012/09/24/why-the-foxconn-riot-comes-at-the-worst-possible-time/”%5D At a time when profits are collapsing for big Chinese corporations, manufacturing shutdowns and worker unrest adds to an already tenuous environment. Read more [/np_storybar] TAIYUAN, China/TAIPEI — About 2,000 Chinese employees of an iPhone assembly company fought a pitched battle into the early hours of Monday, forcing the huge electronics plant where they work to be shut down. Authorities in the northern city of Taiyuan sent 5,000 police to restore order after what the plant’s Taiwanese owners Foxconn Technology Group said was a personal dispute in a dormitory that erupted into a mass brawl. However, some employees and people posting messages online accused factory guards of provoking the trouble by beating up workers at the factory, which employs about 79,000 people and is owned by the world’s largest contract maker of electronic goods. “The plant is closed today for investigation,” Foxconn spokesman Louis Woo told Reuters. It was not clear how long the plant would be shut while police and company officials investigate the violence, but an employee contacted by telephone said the closure could last two or three days. Watch this video posted on Youku (the Chinese version of Youtube) of the scene at Foxconn’s factory in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, as the riot broke out: Foxconn cited police as saying that 40 people were taken to hospital and a number were arrested, while the state-run Xinhua news agency reported three people were in serious condition. The unrest is the latest in a string of incidents at plants run by Foxconn, the trading name of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co whose shares fell 1% on Monday in a broader market that rose 0.2%. [np-related] On Monday evening, paramilitary police with riot shields, helmets and batons guarded one entrance of the massive factory complex, while an announcement over loudspeakers said there had been a criminal incident the night before and urged people to respect the law. The windows of at least three gates’ guard posts had been smashed, piles of glass littering the ground around them, and the railings of some gates lie flat on the ground, having been bent over. Foxconn, which assembles Apple’s iPhones as well as making components for other global electronics firms, h as faced accusations of poor conditions and mistreatment of workers at its operations in China, where it employs about 1 million people. The company says it has been spending heavily in recent months to improve working conditions and to raise wages. Foxconn said in a statement the incident escalated from what it called a personal dispute between several employees at around 11 p.m. on Sunday in the privately-managed dormitory, and was brought under control by police at around 3 a.m. The cause of this dispute is under investigation by local authorities . . . but it appears not to have been work-related “The cause of this dispute is under investigation by local authorities and we are working closely with them in this process, but it appears not to have been work-related,” Foxconn said. Hon Hai said about 2,000 workers were involved. Comments posted online, however, suggested security guards may have been to blame. In a posting on the Chinese Twitter-like microblog site Sina Weibo, user “Jo-Liang” said that four or five security guards beat a worker almost to death. “FRUSTRATION” Another user, “Fan de Sa Hai”, quoted a friend from Taiyuan as saying guards beat up two workers from Henan province and in response, other workers set bed quilts on fire and tossed them out of dormitory windows. Xinhua quoted a senior official with the Taiyuan city government as saying investigators initially determined the fight broke out as workers from Shandong Province clashed with workers from Henan. The agency earlier quoted Taiyuan City’s public security bureau as saying about 5,000 police had tackled the violence. Calls to the Taiyuan police were not immediately answered, while an official at the plant declined to comment when reached by telephone. Clearly there is deep-seated frustration and anger among the employees and no outlet, apart from violence, for that frustration to be released “Clearly there is deep-seated frustration and anger among the employees and no outlet, apart from violence, for that frustration to be released,” Geoff Crothall, communication director at China Labour Bulletin, a labour rights group in Hong Kong, said in a statement. “There is no dialogue and no means of resolving disputes, no matter how minor. So it is not surprising when such disputes escalate into violence.” Foxconn does not confirm which of its plants supply Apple, but an employee told Reuters that the Taiyuan plant is among those that assemble and make parts for Apple’s iPhone 5. In June, about 100 workers went on a rampage at a Foxconn plant in Chengdu, in southwestern China. Find the Financial Post on Facebook © Thomson Reuters 2012
Windows 10: Free Upgrades, Spartan Browser & Holographics Microsoft said its developers consulted 1.7 million Windows Insiders, who delivered 800,000 pieces of feedback on more than 200 topics regarding the new OS. Windows 10: 7 Predictions Of What's Next (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) Microsoft executives discussed how a slew of new Windows 10 features will operate across PCs, tablets, laptops and smartphones … and casually announced its foray into holographic technology -- during an event at the company's Redmond, Wash., headquarters on Jan. 21. It's clear that Microsoft understands its Windows 8 OS was not well received, and it's working to bring a more seamless, personalized computing experience to enterprises and homes. To do this, developers consulted 1.7 million Windows Insiders, who delivered 800,000 pieces of feedback on more than 200 topics regarding the new OS, according to the company. Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Microsoft's operating systems group, kicked off the day's presentations with the news of free upgrades. For the first year that Windows 10 is available, Microsoft will provide a free upgrade to the OS for all devices running Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1, said Myerson. Windows 10 will be available as a service, and Microsoft will keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device it's running on. Windows 10 offers Windows 7 fans a more familiar experience than Windows 8 did. In addition to a new notifications bar, users will be happy to see the return of the Start menu, which is available in the traditionally small view, or in full-screen view. [10 Real Reasons Microsoft Skipped Windows 9] The new Continuum interface will provide a single platform across all devices and is designed to allow users to seamlessly transition from tablet to PC mode by attaching the keyboard and mouse. Additionally, Windows 10 PCs will live-sync with Windows 10 mobile devices. The universal app platform offers the "mobility of experience" for users; all apps will perform similarly no matter which Windows device is being used. Cortana played a major role at the Jan. 21 event. Microsoft's spoken-voice competitor to Apple's Siri will join the Windows 10 desktop with new features that enhance PC functionality. Cortana can search within a device's hard drive for specific documents, send emails, play or pause music automatically, and display notifications or photos. The mobile version of Windows 10 features customized background images, grouped app lists, and additional features to the Action Center. Users can sync notifications for desktops and PCs, adjust the keyboard size to type with one hand, or speak to type. As predicted, the Windows 10 mobile OS will feature mobile-enhanced versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook. The universal touch-first apps will also be available across devices. Microsoft also confirmed the development of a new browser, code-named Project Spartan, which will be available for PCs and mobile devices. Features include an enhanced note-taking mode in which users can write on webpages then save and share them, a reading list that becomes part of the core browsing experience on all devices, and Cortana. Gamers will be happy to know that Microsoft is also taking steps to make games more personal and social. The new Xbox app for Windows 10 will let gamers stream and play games on PCs, as well as save and share video clips from game-play. Microsoft saved two big surprises for the end of its event. The first, Microsoft Surface Hub, is an 84-inch display that lends itself to meetings and brainstorming sessions. The multi-functional touch screen is designed to allow users to connect with remote team members, move and mark screen content, and share meeting notes with participants. [Office 365 is getting an upgrade: Microsoft Buys Equivio] The second, and arguably most exciting of the day's announcements, is "Windows Holographic," a project intended to deliver holographic computing through Windows 10. Using the see-through high-definition Microsoft HoloLens headgear, users can interact with holograms surrounding them. The gear contains advanced sensors to capture environmental details, high-end CPU and GPU, and HPU (holographic processing unit). The holographic chip understands the wearer's movements and voice, and displays holograms in midair or on physical objects. "We invented the most advanced holographic computer the world has ever seen," said Alex Kipman, technical fellow in Microsoft's operating systems group and head of Windows Holographic. Users can interact with the Windows 10 HoloStudio app to create 3D objects by means of voice and motion. Attend Interop Las Vegas, the leading independent technology conference and expo series designed to inspire, inform, and connect the world's IT community. In 2015, look for all new programs, networking opportunities, and classes that will help you set your organization’s IT action plan. It happens April 27 to May 1. Register with Discount Code MPOIWK for $200 off Total Access & Conference Passes. Kelly Sheridan is the Staff Editor at Dark Reading, where she focuses on cybersecurity news and analysis. She is a business technology journalist who previously reported for InformationWeek, where she covered Microsoft, and Insurance & Technology, where she covered financial ... View Full Bio We welcome your comments on this topic on our social media channels, or [contact us directly] with questions about the site.
65daysofstatic have mostly been playing in cinemas recently, namely to the tune of their fine Silent Running soundtrack album. Once the movie tour was complete though they headed into the wilds of the Kent countryside, and dropped in at our Coach Road Studios to play a few songs with us. Cramming the studio with more gear than ever before, we spent an afternoon recording the songs ‘Dance Dance Dance, Piano Fights and Debutante’ from their long player ‘We Were Exploding Anyway’ (Monotreme Records). Finishing up with the epic ‘Burial Scene’ from that movie soundtrack our afternoon was complete… The band are venturing out in March to play a few dates around Europe so check out their website for details on this and to how get hold of the Silent Running soundtrack. In related news 65DOS band member Paul Wolinski has also just released his single AWaltzOfLight under the guise of ‘Polinski’, with all proceeds going to Oxfam. This is an alternate version to the one on his debut album ‘Labyrinths’ which is out now on Monotreme Records. Find out more about that here. Enjoy XO
Guided By Voices have famously made a career of achieving classic-rock glory on a beer-guzzling, home-recording Midwestern indie band’s budget. Their drummer, Kevin Fennell, must be hoping for a diehard GBV fan out there with a somewhat fatter wallet. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Fennell has put up his drum kit on eBay. Starting bid: $55,000. The drums have some priceless history associated with them, as they appeared on such landmark GBV albums as Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes, as well as more recent LPs English Little League, The Bears for Lunch, and the Essential Let’s Go Eat the Factory. The set of two toms, a bass drum, multiple cymbals, and a foot pedal also served on three U.S. and three European tours, plus gigs at Central Park SummerStage and The Daily Show. Fenning will deliver the kit himself anywhere in the continental United States. The listing adds, “And if you’re nice he might just jam with you.” There are no bids yet at the time of this post, but it could be everyone is waiting to rush in their bids right before the offer closes on October 24. Calling all lo-fi high rollers….
We are now living in an era where expenses are continuously on the rise. The latest downturn did not help either. The recession caused lots of people to loose their careers while living expenses were always on the rise. This meant that individuals had no work however needed to spend their. We are now living in an era in which being in debt has turned into a part of the manner in which we are. Many Americans today have a little debt or the other person. This’s since they don’t have the habit to save or maybe budget the expenses of theirs. Individuals who didn’t budget the expenses of theirs or didn’t concentrate on saving their cash would be the one’s who experienced probably the most during the recession. On this page I’m going to provide you with plenty of info on home budget program, best budget software, and personal budget software. Individuals have to recognize the advantages of these budgeting software’s. You are able to find lots of reliable and efficient products online. They’re offered at very inexpensive rates. You can actually plan the monthly budget of yours by utilizing these house budget software’s for just five minutes one day. If you live by yourself you could choose personal budget software to help you monitor the expenses of yours. These products are going to make your month budgeting a reliable and quick process. You won’t have to waste extra time on creating the own spread sheets of yours. It is generally a great start to prepare a house budget by yourself however these software’s help streamline the procedure when you are in debt and looking for solutions. By budgeting you’re not just benefiting the family of yours but society on the entire. Here are a few advantages with regards to budgeting software’s. Continue reading “The Benefits Of Home Budgeting Software” →
The Panama Canal has connected the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean via one of history's most incredible examples of large-scale engineering. People come from all over the world to witness the canal for themselves. Because Panama is a major hub for those traveling to South America, it's easy to make the most of your layover by booking a one-day tour to the Panama Canal. Before you go, try and get familiar with some of the facts surrounding this incredible place. The Panama Canal Changed the World Construction of the canal was begun by the French in 1880. Unfortunately many French and Panamanian people working on the canal's construction died from diseases such as yellow fever and malaria. This caused significant delays in construction and in 1904, the project was purchased taken over by the United States. The canal was completed in 1914. 14,000 vessels now pass through the Panama Canal each year, saving their crews the 7,900 mile trip they'd otherwise have to take around South America's southern tip. The Three Places to View the Panama Canal If you want to visit the Panama Canal, there are three main areas you can start from: Panama City, Gamboa and Colón. If you visit the canal from Panama City, where the country's international airport is, head to the Miraflores Visitor Center. To get there, take a bus from Albrook Bus Terminal to the Miraflores sign. From the sign, it's about a 15-minute walk to the visitor's center, and once you're there, you can head to the viewing platforms to admire the vessels passing through the canal or learn about the canal's history at the on-site museum. Gamboa, a rainforest preserve just 20 minutes from the canal, was built to house the employees of the canal and their dependents. Gamboa lies on the Chagres River and is home to all kinds of tropical wildlife. You can see the canal from Gamboa, but if you take a tour from here, you will be taken to Miraflores as well. Lastly, you can head up Colón on the Atlantic Coast, and board the Panama Canal Railway which partially rides along the water. It Takes 10 Hours to Pass Through the Canal Ships need to be slowly and carefully navigated through the canal through a series of locks, a process which takes about ten hours. Some ships must also wait up to 25 hours for permission to begin their journey through the locks. The canal is used by vessels from all of the world, with a majority of trips being made by ships traveling between the east coast of the US and East Asia. The Tolls are Expensive Ships are charged a toll to pass through the canal based on their weight. On average this toll is about $150,000, though the largest sum ever paid to pass was $450,000, while the smallest amount was 36 cents, paid by a man named Richard Halliburton in 1928 who wanted to swim across. Luckily, if you want to enter the Miraflores Visitor Center to experience the canal, you'll only need to pay $15. Take a Cruise on the Canal Though some people may be fine with observing the canal from Miraflores or from another point, you can also have the unique experience of crossing through the canal yourself. There are many tour companies that run tour boats offering this service, providing tourists with an experience like no other. If you're interested in sailing the canal, then take a look at Panama Canal Tours, where you can choose a cruise or another type of tour. About the Author Hana LaRock is a freelance content writer from New York, currently living in Mexico. She has spent the last five years traveling the world and living abroad and has lived in South Korea and Israel. Hana has been writing about her travel experiences for several years and has been published in print magazines like Travel Ideas and Ensemble Vacations, as well as websites such as Tour Amigo, The Culture Trip, REI, and Orbitz. Hana has been to nearly 30 countries and counting. Through her experiences, she has learned to navigate the challenges that can come with visiting other countries and cultures. To learn more, visit her website at www.hanalarockwriting.com.
Video Version with Commentary is here I can't remember the last time the collective energy felt so heavy. An analogy came through a week or so ago that we were being 'squeezified' in order to become 'juicified', and the suggestion was to focus on the juice when you're feeling emotionally and energetically squeezed. (that post is here) Well that suggestion applies a hundred fold today!! You may feel like the walls are closing in on you - and on the world. Some may even feel like the 'darkness' is winning or that all your healing work has been for nothing. Yet really it is just that the 'darkness' is becoming more obvious, both within us and outside us - 'darkness' in this context is that which we have been unaware of. More of us are becoming aware of the multiple ways in which we have been restricted as a humanity, and the ways in which we have been restricting ourselves personally. It feels like *@!# because life is not supposed to be restrictive. We are here to remember our truth, our power and what we are capable of creating. We are here to embody who we really are so that we can live free of beliefs, influences and systems that have kept us disempowered. Today is a good day to remind yourself of how far you have come, of who you have become compared to years ago. It is a good day to remind yourself of how far the world has come, and how many people are truly awakening. It is easy to throw our hands up and say I give up, what's the point? But then where will we be? All this new awareness can ironically trigger a lot of depression, because we feel at a loss as to what we can do to truly help so many situations. So when you do become aware of something, ask to be put on the 'solution' train track. Later that day you may find yourself doing something as simple and unrelated as watching a hilarious video clip - but that is enough to get you out of your slump and re-connect you to your flow, and suddenly you feel better about the problem you had that morning, or you feel more motivated or clear about how to tackle a greater, even global, issue. It is a good day to watch, read or do something fun, positive, empowering or invigorating that connects you with the 'juice'. How are you all feeling?
Are you curious about the natural life cycle of the cannabis plant? Do you want to try your hand at producing your own marijuana harvest, but are unsure about how, exactly, to go about it? Well have we got a treat for you! In this article, the experts at Honest Marijuana will examine the seven key stages of the marijuana plant life cycle. Along the way, we’ll discuss: The importance of labeling the sex of your seeds How to encourage germination How to recognize embryonic leaves on a marijuana plant seedling The importance of light during the vegetative stage The difference between the male and female plants Why you need to isolate the female plants if you want to produce the most bud The best ways to harvest and preserve your marijuana plant Planning for the next growing season After that, we’ll guide you through the entire growth process of the marijuana plant—from germination to seedling; through vegetation, pre-flowering, and flowering; to harvesting and the next seed life-cycle stages of your pot plant. So strap yourself in for a wild ride through the basic biology of your favorite weed. It’s sure to be an enjoyable trip. We’ll start our journey where all good journeys begin: at the origin, the source, the seed. Stage #1: The Marijuana Plant Seed Source: Pinterest.com Pick up any seed and examine it closely. Turn it over and around. Feel the weight. Notice the shape and the color. Now tell me if that seed is going to produce a male marijuana plant or a female marijuana plant. Can’t do it, can you? Don’t feel bad. No one can. But that introduces a major problem into the world of do-it-yourself ganja growing: how can you be sure the seeds you plant will produce the marijuana you want? This is an important question because only the female plant produces the trichome-rich cola buds that you can harvest to smoke, vape, dab and ingest. The male plant produces none of that. In fact, the male marijuana plant can actually be a detriment to your cannabis harvest if grown together with female plants. This is because the male plant’s sole purpose is to pollinate the female plants. And while that doesn’t sound like a bad thing, it actually is. When female marijuana plants are pollinated, they start using their energy to produce seeds and stop using their energy to feed the buds that we all know and love. Allowing a male plant to grow alongside a female plant is a recipe for reduced bud harvest and can ruin the euphoric properties of the female cannabis plant’s high-inducing “fruit.” Be sure you separate all male and female plants right away. So as you can see, it’s good to know if your ganja seeds will produce female plants or male plants before you begin growing them. But that brings us back to the earlier question: how can you be sure the seeds you plant will produce the marijuana you want? Many marijuana seeds can look alike so, really, the only way to know for sure if the seed you’re holding is male or female is to label it immediately after removing it from the plant. Now, obviously, you can’t label the seed itself, but you can put the seeds in a container with other seeds of the same sex. In the example photo below, you can see the tiny seed in what looks to be a shot glass or small candleholder. The paper label on the front shows the strain (Skunk Special) and the sex (F for female) of this particular seed. Source: Weedsthatplease.com And just to be clear for those of you who are already high as a kite, you don’t need to store each individual seed in its own container. You can fill the container with seeds as long as they are all the same strain and all the same sex. Just thought we should state that outright before you blow all your hard-earned funds on a gazillion small containers. For those of you on a budget, the simplest container is a paper bag or envelope, but other types will work as well. Just make sure that you don’t store your seeds in a plastic bag or some other airtight container. The moisture that gets trapped inside will cause the seed to mold and become useless. Whatever container you choose, be sure to mark it with the strain name and the sex of the plant so you can keep your strains separated. When you’re finished sorting your seeds, it’s time to move on to the next stage in the marijuana plant life cycle. Stage #2: Germination Germination is the development of a plant from a seed or spore after a period of dormancy. Once you remove the seed from the marijuana plant, it will go dormant until it’s exposed to moisture. That means that if you keep the seeds dry, you can store them for up to a year without affecting viability. But should you germinate both the male and female seeds in order to produce quality buds for recreational or medicinal use? We’ll answer that question in the next two sections. Source: 420magazine.com Separate The Males At this point, you should have a pile of male seeds on your left and a pile of female seeds on your right. The side each sex is on doesn’t really matter as long as they’re separated. If you want male seeds on the right and female seeds on the left, more power to ya. Now gather up the male seeds and store them in a dark, dry closet or cupboard. In fact, take a moment and put them in an entirely different room just to be safe. You’re not going to need them, and you don’t want to take any chance that they’ll somehow affect your female plants. Gotcha! There really is no risk of cross-contamination unless you plant the male seeds and allow them to grow and mature. We were just waxing hyperbolic in the previous paragraph to underscore just how unimportant the male seeds are. Germinate The Females Now take the female seeds and soak them in a cup of water or fold them up in a damp paper towel. Chances are, you’ve either done the damp paper towel experiment in science class or you know someone who did. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that you can start the growing process with nothing more than a bit of moisture. If you choose the cup of water option, you may notice that some seeds will float at first. Don’t worry. They will eventually sink to the bottom as they absorb water, become saturated, and sprout. Keep in mind that a single marijuana plant can grow to five feet tall with a wingspan (distance left to right) of two to three feet. That can fill up a room rather quickly. The key point when planning your grow is to give each plant plenty of space. Don’t germinate 20 seeds unless you’ve got the square footage to accommodate that much biological matter. Leave the wet seed covered in a warm dark place for 24 hours until the seed sprouts its taproot. When the taproot emerges, remove the seed from the cup of water or the damp paper towel and plant it in some good, healthy dirt. Source: Autoflowering-cannabis.com The taproot will then attach itself to the soil and start soaking up the nutrients it needs to continue in the growth cycle. Eventually, the seed will push a new stem up past the surface of the soil. Thus begins the seedling stage of the marijuana plant life cycle. Stage #3: Seedling During the seedling stage, two embryonic leaves will open outward from the stem to receive the sunlight that the baby plant needs to break out of its underground seed casing. The embryonic leaves will look nothing like the marijuana leaves that you’re used to. The next pair of leaves to grow from the baby plant will be the first to have the classic rounded points that make the marijuana leaf stand out from all the rest. The marijuana leaf is so recognizable that many people in the cannabis community use it as a symbol to represent their lifestyle. The image below shows the contrast between the two sets of leaves. Source:Growyourownstone.com The pair at the top and bottom of the image (top left and bottom right to be more specific) are the embryonic leaves. See how they’re smooth and fairly indistinct? The pair at the left and right of the image are the marijuana leaves that you’ve come to know so well and love so much. See the serrations along the edges? These are a classic feature of the marijuana leaf. All in all, the seedling will grow between four and eight leaves during this stage of its development. The seedling phase can last anywhere from one to three weeks depending on: Soil type Strain of marijuana grown Amount of water the seed receives Airflow Humidity Duration of light Quality of light If this is your first or second grow (or even your third, fourth, or fiftieth), you should focus on growing a healthy plant rather than the exact amount of time it takes to get through each stage. We just supply these general numbers to give you an idea of what to watch for as your plant grows. So don’t freak out if the seedling phase is a day or two shy of a week or stretches slightly more than three weeks. It’s just a plant, man. Yes, the end result is your very own homegrown ganja, but it’s not worth getting worked up about. You can always go buy a baggie of your favorite strain from your local dispensary. That brings us to the next step in the life of the marijuana plant: the vegetative (or vegetation) phase. Stage #4: Vegetative Source: Growweedeasy.com During the vegetation phase, the stem will grow thicker and taller and will begin to develop new nodes. These nodes will produce yet more leaves and even new branches. Because it’s growing and producing leaves and branches, your plant will need plenty of fresh warm water along with: Flowing, dry air Lots of nitrogen-rich organic nutrients (e.g., liquid fish or seaweed) As much soil space as possible All of this together allows your marijuana plant to grow from an eight-inch baby plant into a two- to three-foot tall tree within the span of three to six weeks. The plant’s growth largely depends on the rate at which its leaves can gather sunlight and transform it into chemical energy (photosynthesis). This fact explains why the vegetative plant will need long hours of summer sunlight (12 to 15 or more in the wild) or 18 hours of fluorescent light per day. Source: Howtogrowmarijuana.com The THC tree will halt its upward growth once it starts receiving less natural outdoor daylight or when the indoor grower reduces the plant from 18 to 12 hours of fluorescent light per day. It’s at this point that the plant enters the pre-flowering phase. Stage #5: Pre-Flowering It can take anywhere from one to five months for the growing marijuana plant to enter the pre-flowering stage. When it finally does, you’ll be able to verify that you did indeed plant all females. Source: Cannabisgrowersworldwide.blogspot.com If the plant is a male, you’ll see little green banana-like sack structures on the node regions of the plant where the leaves meet the main stem. These sack structures hold pollen and will only appear on male plants. You can see the difference between the male and the female plant in the picture above. Male plants must be separated from female plants before the little green sacs burst open and release their pollen. If you don’t find the male plants in time, and the sacs do burst, the pollen can fertilize the cola of the nearby female plants. This pollination ruins the psychoactive potential of the trichomes the female plant may grow. Source: Growweedeasy.com When you keep your female marijuana plant from being pollinated by a male plant, you produce what is called a sinsemilla. Sinsemilla (Spanish for ‘without seed’) refers to a female marijuana plant that does not have any seeds because it has not been fertilized by pollen. Sinsemilla plants produce large amounts of resin as well as fake seedpods, both of which contain high percentages of THC. And really, that’s the goal of every grower, isn’t it? You can identify sinsemilla plants by the white hairs that emerge from the pear-shaped bracts at their plant nodes. Keep in mind that sometimes, a plant can be hermaphroditic. This means that it has both sets of reproductive organs (glands and leaves). Source: 420magazine.com Hermaphroditic cannabis plants can actually pollinate themselves and ruin your THC or CBD harvest. For this reason, it’s important to remain vigilant and to separate and destroy any hermaphroditic plants with female glands and male leaves that carry the potential to pollinate and ruin your psychoactive sinsemilla. Once the light duration begins to decrease (whether naturally or artificially), the cannabis plant moves into the flowering stage. That’s where we’ll go next. Stage #6: Flowering Source: Growweedeasy.com Your plant will continue to grow into sticks and leaves without producing any of the flower’s medicinal qualities unless its light exposure is gradually reduced. This may mean less time spent in the daylight or by artificially decreasing indoor fluorescent light time from 18 to 12 hours. During the flowering stage, your pot plant will also require potassium and phosphorus-based nutrients, such as bat guano, in order to set flowers properly. When it does, though, you’ll begin to see and smell dank trichome-saturated cola buds growing from your plant. These buds will also produce long, thin, milky-white hairs, or pistils, that will begin to emerge over the next eight to 10 weeks. All of this flowering activity is triggered by a simple reduction in light. Amazing! Source: Bigbudsmag.com Stage #7: Harvesting Source: Pinterest.com You’ll know your cannabis plant is ripe for harvest when the hues of the pistils on the cola buds transform from milky white to reddish orange. You’ll also want to use a microscope to check the color of the heads of the trichomes oozing out from the ripe cola buds. You’ll know that your buds are ready for harvest when the trichome heads turn from clear to milky and opaque to amber. The presence of more amber trichome heads will likely indicate a higher CBD to THC cannabinoid profile ratio in its trichome resin. Source: Buymarijuanaseeds.com If you want to harvest your marijuana plant for its full THC or CBD effects, you DON’T want the trichomes to fall off. If that happens, that means that you let the plant grow too long. The majority of the cannabinoids are now gone, you won’t enjoy the psychoactive or medicinal effects, and you’ll have to start growing a new batch of marijuana. Instead, many growers suggest harvesting the crop when half the trichomes on the plant are opaque. In theory, this produces the highest level of THC with the lowest level of CBD (which counteracts the euphoric effects of the former). The little hairs that grow from inside the calyxes or the pistils are another clue that helps you determine when to harvest your cannabis for the specific kind of chemical properties you want it to contain. The color of the pistils changes from bright white to rusty orange or brown at the end of the plant’s flowering phase. On one end of the spectrum, if you notice a higher ratio of white to red pistols, that means your pot will produce more of a euphoric THC high. On the other end of the spectrum, if you notice a higher ratio of red to white pistols, that means your pot will produce more of a sober, calm CBD stoned feeling. Squarely in between those two extremes, cannabis crops harvested in the middle of the flowering cycle, when roughly half the trichome heads are opaque and the pistils aren’t yet brown, should produce a more balanced THC-to-CBD blend of cannabinoids. When you’ve determined that it is indeed time to harvest your bud, you’ll need a good pair of scissors or a sharp pruning tool to cut the trunk from the roots so it can be dried. Source: a1b2c3.com Make the cut as close to the base of the plant as possible. Then proceed to cut the tree into smaller branches. Doing so will make it easier to dry the plant. Source: Thcfinder.com Once you’ve cut your plant into small sections, string up the pieces and hang them upside down from lines of twine in a dark, cool room with a humidity level of 40 to 50 percent. The plant matter should remain hanging in this way and in these conditions for four to six days. While you’re cutting your pot plant into sections for drying, trim the leaves and stems and set them aside. This material can be trimmed away, saved, and eventually processed to make cannabutter and cannabis concentrate after your buds have dried. Source: Growweedeasy.com Once your buds are done drying, place them in a wide-mouthed glass mason jar with a screw-top lid. Fill the jars to just below the top but don’t pack the buds in. Doing so will decrease airflow and cause problems later on. Store the mason jars in a closet or cabinet where the temperature stays between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Your jars should remain here for one to three weeks in order to cure the buds and finish the harvesting process. That said, once a day you need to crack open the jars. This allows fresh air to get in and any gases produced by the curing process to get out. Breeding And Cloning To Continue The Cannabis Life-Cycle Source: 420magazine.com As we touched on above, new, viable pot seeds (able to be planted and produce a new plant) will grow in the colas of the female plants in the two to 16 weeks after they have been pollinated from by a nearby male plant. The pistils on the seedpods may change colors before the pods burst and the new seeds are scattered to the soil below. But this isn’t the only way to get ahold of pot seeds in order to continue the strain. You can avoid having to germinate new unidentified male seeds and continue the cannabis life cycle of your most successful plants through a process known as sensimilla cloning. You can grow new, genetically identical versions of your favorite strains year after year by cutting a branch of four or more inches from your best plant and planting it in rooting solution. Source: 420magazine.com Summing Up The Lifecycle Of The Cannabis Plant Soak your pot seeds in water or a paper towel to sprout the taproot that will fasten into your soil and germinate into seedlings. Keep checking the plant’s nodes during the vegetative phase to ensure that you don’t have any unwanted male plants among your crop. If you do find male plants, be sure to separate them from the female plants. The cannabis plant will continue to vegetate until it begins to receive less light from natural or artificial sources. This will trigger its flowering phase. Pay attention to the colors of the thin hairs or pistols and the color of the heads of the trichomes in order to determine the right moment to cut and harvest your plant. Hang the wet weed buds up in a cool, dark, dry space with low humidity for approximately a week. Before you can enjoy your glorious new buds, you’ll need to cure them in glass mason jars for 1 to 3 weeks while ensuring to open them once per day. If you’re interested in growing a future set of buds, you can continue the marijuana growth cycle by allowing a male plant to pollinate a female into growing seeds with which you can experiment with, or you can cut a branch from your favorite plant and place it in rooting solution to clone it season after season! That’s Biology. What About Technology? In this article, we’ve focused on the biology of the growing marijuana plant from seed to harvest. But there’s more involved in producing your own cannabis crop than just knowing how to identify the various stages of plant growth. A successful grow also requires a bit of technology…even if you’re growing your weed outside. To get the inside scoop on that side of the undertaking, check out How To Grow Weed: The Organic Way. Then get started growing! And for more information on all things cannabis and to check out our 100-percent all-natural marijuana products, visit HonestMarijuana.com today.
MY MENTAL DEPARTURE FROM WATCHTOWER My name is Cliff (‘Fifth’), 29, I am a 2nd generation Jehovah’s Witness from California, USA. In this article, I share my experience within the Watchtower organization. I was officially disfellowshipped this year, April 2016. During that time, I began doing independent research about the organization. By June 2016 I was fully awake to the truth about ‘The Truth.’ In the following video I highlight a bit of my background as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the numerous ‘privileges’ that I had within the organization, and the events that led to my eventual departure, both physically and mentally. My aim in making this video is to share my personal story in the hopes of helping others who may find themselves in a similar situation, to help them realize that they are not alone in this conflict. It is my sincere hope that this video is useful to somebody.
The $200 trade-in brings the monthly cost of a Sprint Lease on Galaxy S7 (32GB) down to less than $18 per month for well-qualified customers ($17.66 for 24 months). That is just about 58 cents per day. (32GB) down to less than $18 per month for well-qualified customers ($17.66 for 24 months). That is just about 58 cents per day. The $200 trade-in brings the monthly cost of a Sprint Lease on Galaxy S7 edge (32GB) to less than $23 per month for well-qualified customers ($22.17 for 24 months). (32GB) to less than $23 per month for well-qualified customers ($22.17 for 24 months). The $200 trade-in brings the monthly cost of a Sprint Lease on Galaxy Note5 (32GB) to less than $17 per month for well-qualified customers ($16.67 for 24 months.) # # # 1Trade in value must be $35 or greater and cannot be leased from competitive carrier. 2Valid for a limited time. If a new customer or an existing customer adds a line of service (phone, tablet or MBB) and deactivates within 30 days, Sprint will credit all device charges (Installment Billing, Lease, or Early Termination Fee, when device is returned) and reimburse the customer for the device purchase, price or down payment, activation fee, MRC, and all associated taxes and fees. The following charges will not reimbursed: Premium content, third party billing, any international charges not included in your plan (e.g. international voice roaming) and any associated taxes and Sprint surcharges. As an example, overage, per minute international services with a cost outside of plan MRC are considered nonstandard usage. 3Claim based on Sprint’s analysis of average LTE download speeds using Nielsen NMP data (December 2015 through February 2016). Actual download speeds may vary by location and device capability. 4Discount applies to base monthly service plan and access charges only. Discount does not apply to certain charges such as taxes, surcharges, roaming, premium content, add-ons, and apps. New plan features may not be an exact match. Discount offer excludes competitor promos/sales and is limited to consumer plans as of April 8, 2016 for: Verizon’s shared data rate plans for 1GB, 3GB, 6GB, 12GB, 18GB, 20GB, 25GB, 30GB, 40GB and 50GB; T-Mobile’s Simple Choice rate plan prices for 2GB, 6GB and 10GB; and AT&T’s advertised shared data rate plans for 300MB, 2GB, 5GB, 15GB, 20GB, 25GB, 30GB, 40GB and 50GB. Plans exclude unlimited music and video streaming, data carryover and cloud options that other carrier plans may offer. Offer/coverage not available everywhere or for discounted phones. Subject to new-line, $30 activation fee, credit, valid port-in. Customer must choose from same porting carrier rate card. Savings through March 31, 2018. 5Requires valid port-in, current phone trade-in, submission of previous bill, and online registration. Via an American Express® Reward Card (less guaranteed trade-in value provided) after online registration and new phone activation. Are you ready for the latest and greatest smartphone from Samsung but your wallet maybe isn’t? For a limited time, Sprint is offering new or current customers a $200 savings on a new Samsung Galaxy S7, Samsung Galaxy S7 edge or Samsung Galaxy Note5 when they trade in an eligiblesmartphone:This great offer will be available in all Sprint retail stores for a limited time only. Customers shopping through Sprint.com and 1-800-Sprint1 will receive a $200 service credit within three invoices of their device being received. This is a great deal for anyone looking to get the hottest Galaxy phones but also go easy on their wallet.Now is the perfect time to try Sprint and its 30-Day Satisfaction Guarantee,which invites consumers to experience America’s fastest LTE Network. The Sprint LTE Network delivers the fastest download speeds andis more reliable with better coverage than ever! If you’re not completely satisfied, Sprint will refund your money. No gimmicks, it’s that simple. Best of all, new customers continue to have the opportunity to save 50 percent off most AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon standard rate plans when they switch to Sprint.In addition, Sprint will cover switching fees up to $650 per line.
You've probably seen them - you know, the people who walk or run around either completely barefoot or wearing specifically designed footwear (like the Vibram Five Fingers). It's hard not to stare at these individuals. They're doing something pretty crazy. But is it really that crazy or have we just gotten so far away from our roots (literally) that we can't recognize a great thing when we see it? Barefoot running is a "new" craze (it's actually quite an old thing...probably the most ancient thing there is in fitness) and it stirs up a lot of questions among runners and non-runners alike. Is it safe to trapse around without protection? Is the adjustment period painful? Will it really keep injuries at bay? My answers: Yes. Yes. And yes. I've been doing my own research with barefoot running and other than the strange looks I receive in my Vibram Five Fingers I'm happy to report that it truly is more of a friend than a foe, in my opinion; my experiences with barefoot running also align with others. The sport becomes safer as one adjusts to the new demands placed on the body. Although the adjustment period can stir up discomfort in the lower extremities, the usual pains (especially blisters) pass and one is left with - dare I say it - an injury-free body. In his book "Born to Run", Chris MacDougall proposes that barefoot running is the key to keeping injuries at bay--it is wearing heavily padded shoes that are the cause of so many running injuries and nagging aches and pains. I enjoy the feel of the ground I have when jogging the streets in my Vibram Five Fingers. My toes actually need to grip the ground to improve stability which which seems to have improved my foot and lower leg strength. I'm still in the experimental phase (and not completely sold on the idea that I don't need to wear sneakers anymore) but the idea of running pain and injury-free sounds pretty fantastic, don't you think? If you've experimented with barefoot running or haven't but would like to try and have some questions of your own, please feel free to comment below!
He also points out that the areas with greater deaths of women and girls appear to correlate to where there have been more media reports of paramilitary, or shabiha, activity. In Homs, Syria Tracker has found, the percentage of women and girls reportedly killed since the start of the war is at nearly 40 percent, compared to the 9 percent average across the country. A woman, in their estimation, is 10 times more likely to die a violent death in Homs than in Damascus. This violence against women in Homs corresponds to the data we have gathered at the project I direct at the Women's Media Center's Women Under Siege, which is mapping how sexualized violence is being utilized in Syria. Our data show higher levels of sexual assaults in Homs than any other city in Syria, with 35 percent of our total reports taking place there. Also, 70 percent of Syria Tracker's recorded female deaths by beatings and stabbings happened in Homs, the majority in May 2012. Around 60 percent of Syria Tracker's thousands of reports have at least one video or picture. Over 85 percent have a name of a victim. All have a location of the attack, down to the neighborhood or county. All have an exact date and are corroborated by at least one other source. Over 80 percent of the reports have context about what happened, describing whether an individual death was part of a massacre or something else. Which is to say that this documentation could help toward the assemblage of evidence for potential prosecutions. Dr. Sandro Galea, chair of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health's department of epidemiology, said he considers crowdsourcing like Syria Tracker's an "innovative approach that can be used for surveillance during wars or in unstable situations." Regardless, this kind of human rights data gathering has amassed its share of criticism, the gist of it being that there is no way to know what portion of the overall violence you're collecting. "Those reports are important and useful as case studies, but any analysis of that observed data must also take into account what has not been reported -- when and where might violence be happening that is not witnessed by anyone or is witnessed by individuals who do not feel comfortable reporting the violence?" says Megan Price, a statistician with the human rights program at Benetech, a Palo Alto, California-based nonprofit technology organization that has done humanitarian data gathering from Guatemala to East Timor. The data, she says, are more supportive of qualitative conclusions and specific contextual details rather than aggregate conclusions about patterns. The head of Syria Tracker agrees. "Imagine if after every single massacre you could interview every single person -- that would be great," he says. "But you can't do that." There's bias in the data collection in a statistical sense, he freely admits. Who can get on the Internet? Who then knows about Syria Tracker and feels comfortable using it? But trying to gather reports of killings in a hot war is not about looking for the needle in the haystack. Rather, he says, it is about modeling the haystack. What does the warzone look like? In this case, what does life -- and death -- look like for civilians stuck inside Syria?
Nineteenth-century vegetarians were often considered too radical, too naïve, or, simply speaking, wacko. They were called “half-crazed,” “sour-visaged,” “infidels,” and “food cranks.” And, admittedly, some of them had pretty unusual ideas. Over one hundred years before the first hippie communes, Amos Bronson Alcott (the father of Little Women’s Louisa May) started a vegan community in New England, which he named Fruitlands. Alcott actually believed that he was planting the seeds for a Garden of Eden version 2.0 and that Harvard, Massachusetts, was the promised land. Everyone in Fruitlands wore specially designed tunics and lived on plants grown in the commune’s soil—which, by the way, remained unfertilized, because Alcott claimed manure was too filthy. That proved costly, particularly combined with the inhabitants’ lack of agricultural skills. Once the first winter arrived, Fruitlands went bankrupt: the crops had failed, and there was nothing to eat. But at least Fruitlands did exist for a couple of months. A vegetarian metropolis in Kansas called Octagon City never really took off. The plans were grand: the city was to be sixteen square miles, with an agricultural college and scientific institute, and to support itself by exporting fruits, graham flour, and graham crackers. Yet before Octagon City managed to start exporting anything, the first settlers were chased away by snakes, outlaws, hostile Indians, and . . . mosquitoes. Such failing, far-out ideas as Fruitlands and Octagon City would have been reason enough to keep the masses from joining the vegetarian movement. But fate handed the critics of vegetarianism an easy weapon: the premature deaths of several of the movement’s leaders. Even though these deaths had little to do with the absence of dietary meat and were the results of tuberculosis, preexisting medical conditions, or poisoning with industrial fumes, the word spread. People started to wonder: maybe vegetarian living wasn’t so healthy after all. And then came the wars. Despite the nineteenth-century vegetarian movement suffering from some bad press, it was still relatively strong. After all, it did manage to convince many Americans and Britons to remove bacon and sausage from their breakfasts. But the two world wars pushed Western diets firmly back toward meat. To begin with, it’s hard to care for animals when you see so much human suffering around. As one novelist wrote: “These days nobody wept for horses.” Nobody wept for chickens and pigs, either. Besides, if you were an American or a British soldier, you could hardly be a vegetarian. Army rations were heavy on meat, so if you wanted your stomach full, you had little choice but to eat everything up, which most did with pleasure, of course. For the many poor who swelled the military ranks, the newfound abundance of animal protein was a dream come true. They could finally, often for the first time in their lives, eat as much meat as they wanted, meat that for so long had symbolized unreachable power and luxury and that was loaded with umami, fat, and the flavors of the Maillard reaction. Meanwhile, for American and European civilians, meat was such a rare treat during the wars that it became even more of a status symbol than before. Social psychologists would tell you this was an example of the scarcity principle at work: the less available something is, the more we value it. When a 1940 survey was conducted to find out what Americans craved to eat the most, first place was taken by ham and eggs, followed by prime ribs, chicken, lobster, and baked Virginia ham. No vegetarian dishes made the list. History Newsletter Stay on top of the history behind today’s news. View Sample Sign Up Now At the same time, something strange was happening in UK: the numbers of vegetarians-by-choice actually went up during World War II. Did the hardships of war make the British link animal suffering with the human one and inspire them to stop eating meat? Not exactly. What really happened was far more prosaic. In Britain, if you registered as a vegetarian, you were allotted a bigger ration of cheese, much more attractive than the tiny and unreliable meat ration. If you wanted to feed your family, the choice seemed obvious. Yet as soon as pork and beef became available again after the war, all these “vegetarians” were more than happy to sink their knives and forks into meat—probably even more so than before, since the new postwar abundance of meat became a symbol of peace and prosperity. War scarcity, human suffering that left no place for caring about animals, meat-loaded army rations—that would have been enough to stamp out the vegetarian movement. But it also didn’t help the movement’s PR that Hitler was a vegetarian. Several of the dictator’s biographers wrote about his commitment to a plant-based diet. He was quite a hypochondriac: he mistook stomach cramps for cancer and worried about his muscles trembling. A vegetarian diet was supposed to help preserve his precious health. At the same time, in a move that seems bizarre to many, Hitler outlawed vegetarian societies in the Reich. It wasn’t bizarre at all, though. Not only did the Führer want to set himself apart from the plant-munching weirdos, he also didn’t like the radical, counterculture currents that were part of the vegetarian movement. As years passed and war scarcities became a distant memory, as new, more scientifically sound studies started showing the benefits of meatless diets, the numbers of vegetarians in the West inched up. Still, just like the Grahamites in the nineteenth century or the Pythagoreans in fifth century BCE, these modern plant eaters were considered outsiders who dared to reject societal norms. As Rags magazine reported in 1971: “To many Americans, vegetarianism represents another weirdo protest of the head generation against mom-and-apple-pie-ism.” But something was different in the ’60s and ’70s: being a weirdo wasn’t so bad anymore. In the era of entertainment media and television, granola-loving hippies were news. They grabbed attention and became a group celebrity. But when the ’70s waned into the ’80s, and consumers tuned their TVs to shows such as Dallas and Dynasty, depicting upscale lifestyles, hippie values lost out to materialism. Whatever symbolized power and strength was good and desirable, whether it was steaks or Patek Philippe watches. So far Western vegetarians hadn’t managed to unhook humanity from meat. Basic Books Excerpted from Meathooked: The History and Science of Our 2.5-Million-Year Obsession with Meat by Marta Zaraska. Available from Basic Books, a member of The Perseus Books Group. Copyright © 2016. Contact us at editors@time.com.
Kill The Messenger By Sibel Edmonds - Video Documentary: Most Americans have never heard of Sibel Edmonds, and if the U.S. government has its way, they never will. The former FBI translator turned whistleblower tells a chilling story of corruption at Washington’s highest levels—sale of nuclear secrets, shielding of terrorist suspects, illegal arms transfers, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, espionage…. Posted 23, 2009 Found in Translation FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds spills her secrets. B y Philip Giraldi - American Conservative Magazine Most Americans have never heard of Sibel Edmonds, and if the U.S. government has its way, they never will. The former FBI translator turned whistleblower tells a chilling story of corruption at Washington’s highest levels—sale of nuclear secrets, shielding of terrorist suspects, illegal arms transfers, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, espionage. She may be a first-rate fabulist, but Edmonds’s account is full of dates, places, and names. And if she is to be believed, a treasonous plot to embed moles in American military and nuclear installations and pass sensitive intelligence to Israeli, Pakistani, and Turkish sources was facilitated by figures in the upper echelons of the State and Defense Departments. Her charges could be easily confirmed or dismissed if classified government documents were made available to investigators. But Congress has refused to act, and the Justice Department has shrouded Edmonds’s case in the state-secrets privilege, a rarely used measure so sweeping that it precludes even a closed hearing attended only by officials with top-secret security clearances. According to the Department of Justice, such an investigation “could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to the foreign policy and national security of the United States.” After five years of thwarted legal challenges and fruitless attempts to launch a congressional investigation, Sibel Edmonds is telling her story, though her defiance could land her in jail. After reading its November piece about Louai al-Sakka, an al-Qaeda terrorist who trained 9/11 hijackers in Turkey, Edmonds approached the Sunday Times of London. On Jan. 6, the Times, a Murdoch-owned paper that does not normally encourage exposés damaging to the Bush administration, featured a long article. The news quickly spread around the world, with follow-ups appearing in Israel, Europe, India, Pakistan, Turkey, and Japan—but not in the United States. Edmonds is an ethnic Azerbaijani, born in Iran. She lived there and in Turkey until 1988, when she emigrated to the United States, where she received degrees in criminal justice and psychology from George Washington University. Nine days after 9/11, Edmonds took a job at the FBI as a Turkish and Farsi translator. She worked in the 400-person translations section of the Washington office, reviewing a backlog of material dating back to 1997 and participating in operations directed against several Turkish front groups, most notably the American Turkish Council. The ATC, founded in 1994 and modeled on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, was intended to promote Turkish interests in Congress and in other public forums. Edmonds refers to ATC and AIPAC as “sister organizations.” The group’s founders include a number of prominent Americans involved in the Israel-Turkey relationship, notably Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and former congressman Stephen Solarz. Perle and Feith had earlier been registered lobbyists for Turkey through Feith’s company, International Advisors Inc. The FBI was interested in ATC because it suspected that the group derived at least some of its income from drug trafficking, Turkey being the source of 90 percent of the heroin that reaches Europe, and because of reports that it had given congressmen illegal contributions or bribes. Moreover, as Edmonds told the Times, the Turks have “often acted as a conduit for the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s spy agency, because they were less likely to attract attention.” Over nearly six months, Edmonds listened with increasing unease to hundreds of intercepted phone calls between Turkish, Pakistani, Israeli, and American officials. When she voiced concerns about the processing of this intelligence—among other irregularities, one of the other translators maintained a friendship with one of the FBI’s “high value” targets—she was threatened. After exhausting all appeals through her own chain of command, Edmonds approached the two Department of Justice agencies with oversight of the FBI and sent faxes to Sens. Chuck Grassley and Patrick Leahy on the Judiciary Committee. The next day, she was called in for a polygraph. According to a DOJ inspector general’s report, the test found that “she was not deceptive in her answers.” But two weeks later, Edmonds was fired; her home computer was seized; her family in Turkey was visited by police and threatened with arrest if they did not submit to questioning about an unspecified “intelligence matter.” When Edmonds’s attorney filed suit to obtain the documents related to her firing, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft imposed the state-secrets gag order. Since then, she has been subjected to another federal order, which not only silenced her, but retroactively classified the statements she eventually made before the Senate Judiciary Committee and the 9/11 Commission. Charismatic and articulate, the 37-year-old Edmonds has deftly worked the system to get as much of her story out as possible, on one occasion turning to French television to produce a documentary entitled “Kill the Messenger.” Passionate in her convictions, she has sometimes alienated her own supporters and ridden roughshod over critics who questioned her assumptions. But despite her shortcomings in making her case and the legitimate criticism that she may be overreaching in some of her conclusions, Edmonds comes across as credible. Her claims are specific, fact-based, and can be documented in detail. There is presumably an existing FBI file that could demonstrate the accuracy of many of her charges. Her allegations are not insignificant. Edmonds claims that Marc Grossman—ambassador to Turkey from 1994-97 and undersecretary of state for political affairs from 2001-05—was a person of interest to the FBI and had his phone tapped by the Bureau in 2001 and 2002. In the third-highest position at State, Grossman wielded considerable power personally and within the Washington bureaucracy. He had access to classified information of the highest sensitivity from the CIA, NSA, and Pentagon, in addition to his own State Department. On one occasion, Grossman was reportedly recorded making arrangements to pick up a cash bribe of $15,000 from an ATC contact. The FBI also intercepted related phone conversations between the Turkish Embassy and the Pakistani Embassy that revealed sensitive U.S. government information was being sold to the highest bidder. Grossman, who emphatically denies Edmonds’s charges, is currently vice chairman of the Cohen Group, founded by Clinton defense secretary William Cohen, where he reportedly earns a seven-figure salary, much of it coming from representing Turkey. After 9/11, Grossman reportedly intervened with the FBI to halt the interrogation of four Turkish and Pakistani operatives. According to Edmonds, Grossman was called by a Turkish contact who told him that the men had to be released before they told what they knew. Grossman said that he would take care of it and, per Edmonds, the men were released and allowed to leave the country. Edmonds states that FBI phone taps from late 2001 reveal that Grossman tipped off his Turkish contact regarding the CIA weapons proliferation cover unit Brewster Jennings, which was being used by Valerie Plame, and that the Turk then informed the Pakistani intelligence service representative in Washington. It is to be assumed that the information was then passed on to the A.Q. Khan nuclear proliferation network. Edmonds also claims that Grossman was instrumental in seeding Turkish and Israeli Ph.D. students into major American research labs by godfathering visas and enabling security clearances. She says that she reviewed transcripts in which the moles in the U.S. military and academic community involved in nuclear technology reportedly carried out several “transactions” involving the sale of nuclear material or information relating to nuclear programs every month, with Pakistan being a primary buyer. In the summer of 2000, the FBI recorded a meeting between a Turkish official and two Saudi businessmen in Detroit in which nuclear information stolen from an Air Force base in Alabama was offered: “We have a package and we’re going to sell it for $250,000,” the wiretap allegedly recorded. “The network appeared to be obtaining information from every nuclear agency in the United States,” Edmonds told the Times. She further reports that beginning in 1999, the FBI was investigating senior Pentagon officials who were assisting agents of foreign governments, including Turkey and Israel. Edmonds has not publicly named names at the Pentagon, but a website linked to her appears to be a non-incriminating instrument for identifying suspects without doing so directly. Its “rogues gallery” includes photos of Richard Perle and Douglas Feith. Perle was chief of the Pentagon’s prestigious Defense Policy Board when Edmonds was working at the FBI, and Feith was undersecretary of defense for policy. If either were being investigated, it would be a matter of record, as would any reasons for dropping the investigation. “If you made public all the information that the FBI have on this case, you will see very high-level people going through criminal trials,” Edmonds told the Times. She claims to have also learned that corrupt officials in the Turkish and Israeli Ministries of Defense falsified end-user certificates on weapons purchased in the United States to enable sales to third countries not allowed access to the technology. Principal recipients include the five “Stans” in central Asia—Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. Furthermore, Edmonds says that former House speaker Dennis Hastert and at least two other congressmen were investigated as suspected recipients of illegal political contributions or even bribes from Turkish sources. Her website gallery includes photos of Congressmen Roy Blount, Dan Burton, and Tom Lantos, though she has not otherwise implicated any of the three directly. A low-level contractor might seem poorly positioned to expose major breaches of national security, but the FBI translators’ pool, riddled with corruption and nepotism, was key to keeping these secrets from surfacing. Edmonds’s claims that the section was infiltrated by translators who should never have received security clearances and who were deliberately failing to translate incriminating material are supported by the Justice Department inspector general investigation and by an FBI internal investigation, which concluded that she had been fired after making “valid complaints.” One translator, Melek Can Dickerson, who had worked for three Turkish front organizations under investigation—she failed to reveal this when applying for employment—allegedly stamped many documents of interest “not pertinent,” removed classified documents from FBI premises, and forged signatures on classified documents relating to 9/11 detainees. An Urdu translator was the daughter of a Pakistani Embassy employee who worked for Gen. Mahmoud Ahmad, the head of the Pakistani intelligence service who is accused of authorizing a $100,000 wire transfer to Mohammed Atta’s Dubai bank account immediately before 9/11. The Justice Department IG report confirmed Edmonds’s charge that translators’ section managers issued a go-slow order shortly after the terrorist attacks to create an artificial backlog that would justify an increase in budget and manpower. Those managers are reportedly still in place. Some have been promoted. Edmonds’s revelations have attracted corroboration in the form of anonymous letters apparently written by FBI employees. There have been frequent reports of FBI field agents being frustrated by the premature closure of cases dealing with foreign spying, particularly when those cases involve Israel, and the State Department has frequently intervened to shut down investigations based on “sensitive foreign diplomatic relations.” One such anonymous letter, the veracity of which cannot be determined, cites transcripts of wiretaps involving Marc Grossman and a Turkish Embassy official between August and December 2001, described above, in which Grossman warned the Turk that Brewster Jennings was a CIA cover company. If the allegation can be documented from FBI files, the exposure of the Agency cover mechanism took place long before journalist Robert Novak outed the company in his column on Valerie Plame in 2003. The anonymous informant conveniently provides the FBI file number containing the transcripts of the recorded conversations: FBI Washington Field Office, Counterintelligence Division, Turkish Unit File 203A-WF-210023. According to the source, the FBI also recorded a subsequent conversation in which a Turkish official contacted the Pakistani Embassy to inform an ISI officer of Grossman’s warning. The FBI also reportedly informed the CIA of the Grossman conversations to determine if there was any “conflict of interest,” presumably to determine if the CIA was running its own operation that might be compromised as a result of the phone tap. Curiously, the states-secrets gag order binding Edmonds, while put in place by DOJ in 2002, was not requested by the FBI but by the State Department and Pentagon—which employed individuals she identified as being involved in criminal activities. If her allegations are frivolous, that order would scarcely seem necessary. It would have been much simpler for the government to marginalize her by demonstrating that she was poorly informed or speculating about matters outside her competency. Under the Bush administration, the security gag order has been invoked to cover up incompetence or illegality, not to protect national security. It has recently been used to conceal the illegal wiretaps of the warrantless surveillance program, the allegations of torture and the CIA’s rendition program, and to shield the telecom industry for its collaboration in illegal eavesdropping. Both Senators Grassley and Leahy, a Republican and a Democrat, who interviewed her at length in 2002, attest to Edmonds’s believability. The Department of Justice inspector general investigation into her claims about the translations unit and an internal FBI review confirmed most of her allegations. Former FBI senior counterintelligence officer John Cole has independently confirmed her report of the presence of Pakistani intelligence service penetrations within the FBI translators’ pool. Edmonds wasn’t angling to become a media darling. She would have preferred to testify under oath before a congressional committee that could offer legal protection and subpoena documents and witnesses to support her case. She claims that a number of FBI agents would be willing to testify, though she has not named them. Prior to 2006, Congressman Henry Waxman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee promised Edmonds that if the Democrats gained control of Congress, he would order hearings into her charges. But following the Democratic sweep, he has been less forthcoming, failing to schedule hearings, refusing to take Edmonds’s calls, and recently stonewalling all inquiries into the matter. It is generally believed that Waxman, a strong supporter of Israel, is nervous about exposing an Israeli lobby role in the corruption that Edmonds describes. It is also suspected that Waxman fears that the revelations might open a Pandora’s box, damaging Republicans and Democrats alike. Edmonds’s critics maintain that she saw only a small part of the picture in a highly compartmentalized working environment, that she was privy to only a fragment of a large operation to penetrate and disrupt the groups that have been stealing U.S. weapons technology. She could not have known operational details of what the FBI was doing and why. That criticism is serious and must be addressed. If Edmonds was indeed seeing only part of a counterintelligence sting operation to entrap a nuclear network like that of A.Q. Khan, the government could now reveal as much in general terms, since any operation that might have been running in 2002 has long since wound down. Regarding her access to operational information, Edmonds’s critics clearly do not understand the intimate relationship that develops between FBI and CIA officers and their translators. Operations run against a foreign target in languages other than English require an intensive collaboration between field officers and translators. The translators are invariably brought into the loop because it is up to them to guide the officers seeking to understand what the target, who frequently is double talking or attempting to conceal his meaning, is actually saying. That said, it should be conceded that Edmonds might sometimes have seen only a piece of the story, and those claims based on her own interpretation should be regarded with caution. Another objection is that Edmonds would only have seen “raw intelligence” that does not provide nuance and does not really indicate whether someone is guilty. That argument has merit, and it is undeniable that many intercepted communications lack context. But it ignores the fact that someone recorded in the act of taking a bribe or interceding to have a suspect in a criminal investigation released is behaving with a certain transparency. One either takes money or does not. There is very little interpretation that can change that reality. Sibel Edmonds makes a number of accusations about specific criminal behavior that appear to be extraordinary but are credible enough to warrant official investigation. Her allegations are documentable: an existing FBI file should determine whether they are accurate. It’s true that she probably knows only part of the story, but if that part is correct, Congress and the Justice Department should have no higher priority. Nothing deserves more attention than the possibility of ongoing national-security failures and the proliferation of nuclear weapons with the connivance of corrupt senior government officials. Philip Giraldi, a former CIA Officer, is a partner in Cannistraro Associates, an international security consultancy.
“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.” -Socrates In that one little line, Socrates summed up one of the major problems with our modern society, and offered a simple solution. Pretty brilliant, I’d say. In fact, he negated the need for me to write more, but stubborn as I am, I will proceed. I’d like to talk about this capacity to enjoy less. Is it difficult to enjoy less? No, not really, but it takes a change in mindset, which as with many such changes takes time and adaptation. If you enjoy chocolate ice cream, as I do, when confronted with a tub of it would you also enjoy eating as much of the tub as possible? I know that’s what many of us do when faced with delicious food. But what if you learned to enjoy just a few bites of the ice cream? And with each bite, savor the flavor, the coldness, the creaminess, the chocolatiness. (Yes, that’s a word, spell-checker – I made it up.) If you love clothes, instead of buying more and more each weekend, can you learn to cull your wardrobe into a few quality, beautiful pieces that you can wear often, and enjoy more? The same applies with anything we love … including online reading and communicating (email, Twitter, Facebook, forums). We often seem obsessed with more of it. But instead, consider reading just the quality stuff, and if a blog or Twitter feed doesn’t deliver quality consistently, consider dropping it. Learn to love less television, movies, chatter, spending, shopping, eating out, junk food, technology, consumption, productivity. You get the idea. When you focus on enjoying less, you focus on full enjoyment. You learn to be content with little, and when you do that, a life of happiness is at your disposal. The only limit to your happiness, then, is how much you can learn to enjoy less.
Last year, I secured employment in Manila, and was to be away from Singapore for two years. As I am an operationally ready national serviceman, I followed the standard protocol of applying for NS duty deferment. Unfortunately, despite repeated attempts, my deferment has been unsuccessful. I have been advised to apply for an exit permit, which would allow me to be exempted from reservist duties until 2019. However, the system will not process exit permit applications while I am liable for reservist duties. Related Story Past history of NSman taken into consideration in deferment requests As a result, I have been unable to leave Singapore to take up my new job. My employment offer and contract have since been retracted. This red tape has cost me a valuable opportunity in today's challenging economy. The system must be redesigned to minimise or eliminate the chance of such situations happening in future. Mervyn Chan Ping
San Salvador, Oct 29 (Prensa Latina) Death squads have reappeared in Honduras since the June 28, 2009 military coup, and they are targeting teachers, human rights activist Berta Oliva charged in El Salvador. Paramilitary groups like CAM (Comando Álvarez Martínez) are behind the selective murders of Honduran opposition activists, and teachers are their main victims, Oliva said, quoted by Co Latino newspaper. Human rights violations, persecution and selective assassinations are everyday occurrences, showing that the military coup “continues,” she said. Ten teachers have been murdered this year for their clear opposition to the current government, a continuation of the coup regime, said Oliva, general coordinator of the Committee of Relatives of Missing Detainees in Honduras. Oliva made her comments at the 7th Herbert Anaya Sanabria International Human Rights Congress in the Salvadoran capital. Fifty-six human rights activisits have been threatened by different armed groups, she said, urging the Organization of American States to urge the United States not to support the Honduran military while human rights violations continue. Honduran rural leaders who attended the human rights congress, said a campaign of persecution was being carried out against them to deprive them of their rights to the land. Matías Valle Cárdenas, vice presidnet of the United Campesino Movement of Aguán, in the department of Colon, said 16 of his comrades had been murdered in the last 6 months. Source
I’ve been fielding a lot of questions lately about the desynthesis skill, such as: What is it? How do I get it? and, Should I even bother? This page should help answer all those questions, and more, about this crafting subskill which is a rather tedious pain to acquire, but can grant significant benefit to the player who perseveres. For myself, it took me three tries to actually get my desynthesis skills leveled, as it was such a dull and frustrating chore that I abandoned it twice before I finally reached the point where it started to be worthwhile. Having gotten there, I’m glad I did it, and I have some tips for folks getting started that might make the grinding the skill to relevancy more tolerable. A little bit, anyway. [Edit note: After I posted this on Reddit it was pointed out that there are a few small errors and omissions in this guide. I’ve added notes on these in the appropriate spots. Thanks Reddit!] So what is Desynthesis? Desynthesis is a subskill of crafting. It allows you to take many (but not all) items from the game and “break them down.” If successful, you are given back some of the crafting materials that went into making the item, plus, with luck, one or more special items called “Demimateria” that are only available through this method. If you are unsuccessful, the item is lost and you get nothing. While you can sometimes get some nice rare crafting materials through desynthesis, the demimateria are usually the main prizes here. While not all demimateria are valuable, most are, and they can be sold as-is on the market board or used to fashion many in-demand glamour items, such as the crafted primal weapons. They can also be exchanged for Crystal Sands to improve your Anima Relic. (230 -> 240 step). Here’s a list of the kinds of demimateria you can get from desynthesis. Clear demimateria are a consolation prize. They are not actually used to craft anything, but can be vendored for a decent amount of gil. (The level IIIs vendor for 5000 gil each, for example.) Battlecraft demimateria are used to fashion weapons and battle gear, and are often used in batches of anywhere from three to ten per piece. Fieldcraft demimateria are used for making crafting and gathering gear, furniture, and many in-demand glamour items. Primal demimateria are used to make the primal weapons. Mastercraft demimateria are hard to come by and are used for making certain very high-end crafting and gathering items. Okay, I’m convinced! How do I acquire this amazing skill? Now we get to the annoying part. The basics of desynthesis aren’t hard. You can acquire desynthesis for any craft you have leveled to 30 by looking up the NPC named Syntgoht on the Steps of Thal in Ul’dah (14,10) and completing the quest “Gone to Pieces.” (You need to have completed the quest “Life, Materia and Everything” first.) [Added note: a Redditor clarified that while you only need to do this quest once to open up the Desynthesis ability, you cannot use it for any craft class if your level is below 30. After opening the skill, any craft class that reaches 30 will automatically gain the desynthesis option.] You will want to pick three, possibly four, crafts to open for desynthesis, as trying to level desynthesis for all crafting classes will lead you to disaster. Here’s why. Desynthesis skill doesn’t progress the way that regular class skills do in FFXIV. Instead of allowing you to max out all classes with sufficient time and effort, desynthesis forces you to choose. You start out with a “pool” of available points to spend on desynthesis. This pool goes up in size every other patch or so, and as of patch 3.3, it’s 680 points total. In order to max out the desynthesis level for one craft, you must spend 220 of these points (again, as of patch 3.3). That gives you enough points to cap out three desynthesis skills and a very tiny little bit of a fourth one. “But what if I want to spread my 680 points over all eight crafter skills?” I hear someone in the back asking. Well, you could do that, but then you’d have a desynthesis skill level of 85 in eight crafts — and while that’s not completely useless, it will keep you from desynthesizing the latest and greatest items, which will drastically limit your ability to profit from desynthesis. So don’t do it. As a general rule, your desynthesis skill level tells you what item level of item you have a decent chance of successfully breaking down. If your Leatherworker desynthesis level is 50, you will have a 50% chance to successfully desynth leather items that are item level 50 (assuming you don’t use items to temporarily boost your skill — see the notes further down.) This is why you want to max out desynthesis: since the current max desynth skill is 220 points, it gives you a chance to desynth items of around that item level. And generally the best loot for the current game is obtained from breaking down the highest item level items currently out there, with a few exceptions. Once you’ve opened desynthesis for a craft, your desynthesis skill level appears as a thin bar underneath the main experience bar for the craft. Here you can see that I have GSM, LTW, and WVR desynthesis leveled. By hovering my pointer over the leatherworker skill bar, I can see that my current desynthesis level for this skill is 213.52 (out of the current max of 220). I have a decent shot at desynthing level 220 items, and a not-so-good shot at desynthing items leveled 230 or 240, should I happen to have some of those lying around that I’m not using (not likely at the moment!) Okay, got it. Only three desynthesis skills. How do I actually level them? You get your hands on some items and you try breaking them down, of course! If you succeed at a desynth attempt, you have a chance to improve your current skill level. But there’s a devilish little twist: there’s an inverse relationship between your chance to successfully desynth something and the skill increase you get from doing so. What this means is, if you desynth items that are easy for you, your skill level will inch up verrrrry slowly, but you won’t fail as much. On the other hand, if you desynth items that are tough for you, you’re going to destroy a lot of items — but any that you succeed on will give you a decent boost to your skill. Desynthing items at a 100% chance of success will never give you any skill boost, so if you want to improve, you have to take a certain amount of risk. Exactly how much risk is the question you’ll have to answer for yourself! [Edit: It turns out that on rare occasions you actually can get a tiny skill boost from desynthesizing things that are 100% chance for you. We’re talking no more than 0.03 of a point, however.] To get started, select the item you want to try breaking down and choose “desynthesis” from the menu. The desynthesis screen will appear. Hit desynthesis, the item will be destroyed, and the game will tell you what, if anything, you got instead! A level IV materia and a couple of ice clusters. Meh. Oh well, them’s the breaks. Here’s another example: This is tougher. It’s an item level 195 item. My 207.87 skill gives me a 73% chance to desynth this. It worked! I got a hardsilver ingot and some clusters. I also got this skill increase: That may seem like a small increase, but it’s actually pretty good. Desynthesis usually increases just a fraction of a point at a time, so you’ll have to get used to it! Here’s another item I could desynth if I wanted to: These are item level 215. Since my leatherworking desynthesis is only at 213.52, I have a less than 50% chance to successfully break this down. So I’m not going to do it right now. I can try again when my skill has increased. If you should happen to get careless and use up all your point pool, and then try another desynthesis, something obnoxious will happen: if you succeed and get a skill increase, one of your other desynthesis skills will be randomly chosen to decrease by the same amount to keep you from going over the skill point maximum. This is yet another great reason to specialize your desynthesis into three skills max! If you decide to change your chosen desynthesis skill after you’ve leveled it, you can reset it to zero with the appropriate one of these items: So what crafting skill should I pick to do desynthesis with? At several points in your quest to level your desynthesis skill, you are going to have to collect dungeon drops to break down, as no crafted gear will be of an appropriate level to advance your skill. This means that the best crafting skills for desynthesis are the ones you can expect to find pretty often in dungeons, which usually means Weaver, Leatherworker, and Goldsmith. Armorer is also not a terrible choice though tank gear falls less often than leather and cloth gear. Blacksmith, Carpentry, and Alchemy are rather poor choices, as the only drops you can desynth with those are a few weapons here and there, so your opportunities to improve your skill and acquire mats and demimateria will be few and far between. “But if I break down all my dungeon drops, what will I turn in for Grand Company seals?” Thanks for asking, Austin. You turn in anything you get that you can’t break down, of course — items from the craft skills you haven’t leveled. Or anything that you’re already 100% chance at and don’t want the mats from. What about Culinarian? Culinarian is a special case. You cannot get demimateria from doing Culinarian desynthesis! (NOTE: This statement is not quite right. See below!) But you can get some rare glamour items like this: Since almost no one does Culinarian desynthesis, the market for items like this — only available from this source! — is almost always nicely profitable. And Culinarian items are cheap to stock up on to level your skill, since there’s an ocean of trash fish out there you can break down. There is a rare minion available from Culinarian desynthesis as well. If you’re after crafting mats and demimateria, this is a bad choice, but if you want to stand out from the crowd and do something different, you could consider this! It’s not without its rewards. (Note: Turns out there are a few meals you can get demimateria from, but never from desynthesizing fish. Fieldcraft demimateria can be gotten by desynthesizing Better Crowned Pie, Tailor-Made Eel Pie, and Rich Tomato Relish.) I HATE HATE HATE it when my items blow up! Are there any ways to improve my chances of successfully desynthing stuff? Yes, there are! Three of them in fact. First, there is a food you can eat to improve your desynthesis odds for 30 minutes. Second, there is a potion you can take that stacks with the bacon broth and gives you a boost to your skill for ten minutes. The HQ versions of these items do improve the bonus you get, so try to use HQ bacon broth and Tinker’s Calm whenever possible. Third, any item that has materia melded it to receives a bonus chance for desynthesis. The level and type of the materia does not matter, only the number of them melded to the item. If you have items that can accept melds, every materia you meld to it increases your desynthesis chance by 5%, so you can stock up on trash materia (such as level 1 elementals) and meld them to things you want to desynth for a quick boost. (NQ versus HQ makes no difference to your chance of desynthing an item, nor does it affect your odds of getting rare materials from a successful desynthesis.) So here’s Auric’s patented (TM) method for leveling desynthesis: Gather up items of an appropriate level until you have a good-sized stack. Meld a bunch of trash materia to the items. Drink the bacon broth. Quaff the Tinker’s Calm. Desynthesize as much as you can during the ten minutes the potion buff lasts! A few final important notes Important Note One: You can’t control what mats you get back when you desynth. The way this material drops work is this: you can get multiple types of shards/crystals/clusters from a desynth, but only one material, which will come from the list of materials used the craft the item. Non-craftable items that you can desynth also have a hidden recipe list, which you can’t access directly but can infer by paying attention to the drops you get when you desynth that item. You have about a 20% chance of getting an HQ version of the material, if an HQ version exists; otherwise, you’ll get NQ. You may get multiples of a material if multiples of that mat were used to craft the item (that is, if three electrum ingots were used to make a bracelet, you might get anywhere from zero to three ingots back from desynthesizing it.) Important Note Two: The list of items that can be desynthesized changes! Typically, some high end dropped items will be kept off the desynthesis list for a patch or two to discourage people from rolling on those items for desynthesis fodder when there are players trying to use it to gear up secondary classes. So just because something can’t be desynthesized this month doesn’t mean it will always be that way. Read the patch notes to find out when new items have been added to the desynthesis list. Important Note Three: While the item level of gear is a good guide to what level of desynthesis you will need to break it down successfully, it’s not perfect! The thing that actually determines how hard it will be to desynth an item is a hidden value called the “r level.” While this is often the same as the item level, sometimes it isn’t. The only way to discover these exceptions is to try desynthesizing them, or to find out about it from someone else who did. Also, the arrival of Heavensward messed up the nice even synchronization of item levels with desynthesis drop quality, so now you can get Grade III Demimateria from level 100- 140 drop items obtained from the endgame ARR dungeons, but items from the Heavensward expansion revert to dropping the less valuable Grade II Demimateria until you reach the Heavensward endgame, despite their equal or higher item level. Here are a few examples of some items where the “r level” and the item level aren’t synchronized at all. This is Rianne, who runs the shop across the way (more or less) from the Immortal Flames HQ in Ul’dah. She sells wedding clothes, among other things. Check out these Bridesmaid’s Sandals: They’re item level one, but if you try to desynthesize them, you’ll find out you need a significantly higher level of leatherworking desynth skill to successfully break them down, because they are “r level” 70! On the other hand, if you do break them down, you can get materials like Spruce Lumber, as well as these: That’s a Fieldcraft III demimateria, which can be hard to come by from other sources. These often sell for substantially more than the 6,000 gil it takes to buy the sandals from Rianne, so if RNGesus isn’t out to get you, you can make a quick profit by buying sandals in bulk and breaking them down for the demimateria. There’s also this guy over at the Silver Bazaar: If you select one of those “Aged” items, you’ll see they have no item level: But they do have an “r level”, and it’s 55. As for why you would want to desynthesize these things — at the moment you probably don’t, but once upon a patch, desynthesis of these Aged items was the key to upgrading the Nexus version of the level 50 Relic Weapon (115) to the Zodiac Braves version (125). As you can probably imagine, there was a fortune in gil to be made for anyone who had desynthesis leveled up and ready to go when this patch was released. The development team has a habit of hiding rare materials inside odd items, and the desynthesis master who’s ready to jump on those items on Patch Day can do very, very, very well for herself out of it! And that’s the end of this introductory guide to desynthesis. If you want even more in-depth information on this skill, along with some extremely handy lists of suggested items to desynth as you work to improve your skill, visit Nyalia’s Desynthesis Endgame Guide on the official forums. It’s an invaluable resource. Advertisements
Cute: Pig the dog resembles several other animals…just not a pig (Picture: Pig the Unusual Dog/Facebook) A dog that has no neck and a short spine has become an internet sensation after her owners created a Facebook page. Pig, a female mixed-breed dog from Alabama, has short spine syndrome, an illness that means her limbs are normal-sized, but she she appears as though she has been chopped in half. And although Pig walks like a gorilla, jumps like a frog, looks left and right like an owl, and even topples over like a toddler – she bears little resemblance to her namesake. Pig was abandoned as a puppy (Picture: Pig the Unusual Dog/Facebook) Her Facebook page, entitled Pig the Unusual Dog, has more than 29,000 fans and chronicles her adventures with pictures and videos. Pig’s owner Kim Dillenbeck said she found the eight-month-old as a puppy, abandoned in a forest. Advertisement Advertisement ‘She’s missing probably seven inches of spine, her hips and her joints are way up high at the base of her spine, and none of them are in the right position,’ she told Sky News. Local vet Dr Rachael Hudson-Breland says the unusual mutt is popular with everyone in the area. ‘The whole clinic loves her,’ she said. ‘She comes in and she’s a rock star here.’ Rock star: Pig has 29,000 fans on Facebook (Picture: Pig the Unusual Dog/Facebook)
The unexpectedly tight contest for control of Maryland's westernmost House district was decided Friday — more than two days after polls closed — when the Republican challenger conceded the race to Democratic incumbent Rep. John Delaney. Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who built a national conservative following during the campaign for the 6th Congressional District, announced the concession in a statement after an initial round of absentee ballot counts resulted in a consistent lead for Delaney. "After a hard-fought race, it is now time to move on and allow the citizens of Maryland to be heard," Bongino said. "Although there are still some outstanding votes, it is clear that Congressman Delaney will emerge the victor." The race, which few predicted would be competitive, wound up as one of a handful in the country not decided on Election Day. The win means Maryland's congressional Democrats all secured another term in a midterm election year that heavily favored the GOP. Delaney was ahead by just under 2,000 votes on Friday evening. Election officials planned to count an unknown number of provisional and absentee ballots next week. Though the campaign became more negative in its final days — with both candidates airing attack ads on television — Delaney and Bongino praised each other in statements Friday. Bongino noted Delaney had written him a note during the campaign to ask about his wife, Paula, who became ill. "It reminded me that although our wonderful country is currently marked by passionate political differences, these differences should never become personal," Bongino wrote. "The artificial divisions in our country created by those interested in stirring emotions today, rather than fixing tomorrow, are the only enemy that stands a chance at dismantling what we have created here." Delaney issued a statement applauding Bongino's campaign. "He has dedicated much of his life to serving his country and in our many times running into one another on the campaign trail, he was always a complete gentleman ready with a warm handshake," Delaney said. "We don't agree on how to get there, but Mr. Bongino and I want many of the same things for our country." Delaney had declared victory Wednesday after an Election Day in which slow returns from heavily Democratic Montgomery County gave Bongino a lead for much of the evening. Independent analysts had predicted Delaney would win re-election — and few saw the contest as particularly competitive. But there were late signs that the race was tightening. Delaney, a former banker from Potomac, wrote himself an $800,000 check in the final days of the race and was airing a television ad that portrayed Bongino as too conservative for the district. Bongino, a Severna Park resident, developed a national following with appearances on conservative media. He raised $1.2 million in campaign cash and aired television ads criticizing Delaney as unfriendly to business. Delaney unseated 20-year incumbent Republican Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett in 2012. The 20-point victory in that race came after Democrats in Annapolis redrew the district to favor their party. The 6th District includes Western Maryland and parts of Frederick and Montgomery counties. Eight House incumbents — seven Democrats and one Republican — were up for re-election in Maryland. In the Baltimore region, Democratic Reps. Elijah E. Cummings, John Sarbanes and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, and Republican Rep. Andy Harris all easily won re-election. john.fritze@baltsun.com twitter.com/jfritze
Can you imagine using a computer without a monitor? How would you know where to click, where to type or what images your screen should be showing? These challenges are very real for people who are blind and visually impaired. Most of us have never considered how we would use a computer, let alone the internet without sight. Though the visually impaired are cut off from much of what we think of as the internet, they can, and do, use it in as many ways as everyone else. Computers can be challenging without sight, but the solutions that have emerged are ingenious, and constantly evolving. Some recent advancements in tech, such as smartphones, wearables and connected products, may even come to benefit visually impaired people more than the sighted. But without help from the sighted, many of the functions we enjoy online will remain inaccessible to the visually impaired. The first step to change that is understanding the challenges. Here's a tour of a side of the web that sighted people can't see, guided by those who know it best.
Three people were injured when gunfire erupted early Sunday on Birmingham's busy Third Avenue West. The victims included a 9-year-old girl, but police said none of the victims' injuries appear to be life-threatening. The shootings happened shortly before 1 a.m. in the 700 block of Third Avenue, where crowds traditionally gather during the Magic City Classic weekend. A male was shot in the leg and taken by private vehicle to UAB Hospital. Multiple police cruisers were parked outside the hospital around that vehicle, including an evidence technician's van. A female was also shot, but details of her injury weren't immediately available The 9-year-old girl was shot in the neck but police said it was a "through-and-through" wound, and she is expected to be OK. She was driven to Children's of Alabama by her mother. Her mother said she had just gotten off of work and picked her daughter up from the babysitter and was driving through the area when the shooting happened. Birmingham police Sgt. Bryan Shelton later Sunday said the shooting happened when a man became enraged while he was trying to get out of a parking lot and exited his vehicle. At some point, he began to fire his weapon into a crowd. Another man returned fire. At least one vehicle, police said, had more than a dozen bullet holes in it. Shelton said officers in and around the area were able to capture one suspect. The investigation is ongoing. 20-year-old killed in hail of gunfire on Birmingham's 3rd Avenue West DeMarcus Dewon Bennett was 20. Two women were also wounded, but survived. Last year three people were shot - one of them fatally - in the same area on the Saturday night during the festivities following the football game. Demarcus Dewon Bennett, 20, was killed and two women were injured - one in the arm and one in the leg. Birmingham police beefed up security for this year's festivities and multiple police officers said Saturday's game and the concert that followed concluded with no major incidents. "What we typically see is that the Classic isn't the issue,'' Birmingham police spokesman Sgt. Bryan Shelton said in the day's leading up to the weekend. "What you have is a lot of spinoff events that people put on to attract the patrons, and these spinoff crowds have sometimes caused problems." "Third Avenue was a cause for concern this year, so we've added extra officers to patrol that entire area and corridor beginning on Wednesday all the way through Sunday,'' he said. There was a strong police presence along Third Avenue Saturday night and while traffic was heavy in spots, police appeared to have parts of the roadway blocked off to vehicle traffic.
Asian Development Bank Lends $500 Million For India’s Rooftop Solar Projects October 21st, 2016 by Saurabh The Asian Development Bank recently announced the details of a major funding package to boost India’s rooftop solar power program. The multilateral bank will provide $500 million in debt funding for rooftop solar power projects in India. According to a press release, $330 million will be provided by the bank itself, while the balance of $170 million will be provided by the Clean Technology Fund. The funding will help offset 11 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over a period of 25 years. The ADB has signed an agreement with a public sector bank — Punjab National Bank — for the final disbursal of loans. The $500 million funding will be complemented by $300 million equity investment and $200 million of additional debt funding from commercial banks; thus taking the total investment for this particular program to $1 billion. Earlier this year, the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy announced that the government managed to secure funding pledges from various multilateral and national development banks for its ambitious rooftop solar power program. The World Bank has committed $620 million, while the Asian Development Bank and BRICS New Development Bank have pledged to provide $500 million and $250 million, respectively. The German development bank KfW has provided $100 million, and negotiations for $1.14 billion worth of funding are underway, the ministry reported. India has set a target to have 100 GW of solar capacity operational by April 2022, including a target of 40 GW for rooftop solar power systems. The government has taken initiatives to boost the development of the sector. The Cabinet of Ministers approved a proposal that will increase the subsidy for rooftop solar power systems to $770 million by 2022, which is expected to be in addition to the debt funds raised from international development banks.
By Amy Chen A North Vancouver developer is advertising in China a scheme to circumvent Lower Mainland’s 15% foreign buyer tax on real estate through a rent-to-own arrangement. “Did you know you can buy a house in North Vancouver one of the most desirable cities in the world with only 5% down and if you’re a foreign buyer you can avoid paying the 15% foreign buyers tax?” a video on the advertisement’s landing page asks. “Vancouver rent-to-own is a solid solution brought to you by Apex Western homes an established North Shore builder of 20 years and an accredited Better Business Bureau member why rent own one.” Apex Western Homes CEO Raymond Vesely, Remax realtor Jim Jorgenson, and Apex Project Manager Daniel Schnick are calling themselves the architects of the scheme . The listings page shows two active listing and three sold listings, with “rental” running around $10,000 per month . “A Rent to Own transaction starts with the contract. The potential buyer pays the seller a one-time 5% non-refundable lease option,” the website explains. “This is a payment that gives the buyer the right or option to buy the home at some point in the future.” “The buyer and seller set a purchase price for the home in their contract. At some point between 1 and 5 years, the buyer can purchase the home for that price – regardless of what the home is worth,” the website adds. “And in the Lower Mainland, the equity usually goes up over time and the buyer gets to keep the market gains.” The wording of the Property Transfer Tax Act makes any tax avoidance an offence punishable by a maximum fine of $200,000 and two years in prison. 2.04 (3) If a transaction is an avoidance transaction, the administrator may determine the tax consequences to a transferee in a manner that is reasonable in the circumstances in order to deny a tax benefit that, but for this section, would result, directly or indirectly, from that transaction or from a series of transactions that includes that transaction. We have reached out to Housing Minister Selina Robinson and Attorney General David Eby to get the government’s position on the legality of this scheme. We have also contacted Apex Western Homes CEO Raymond Vesely for comment, but we have yet to hear back from him.
2 of 32 Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images Odds: None Listed The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have the dubious distinction of being the only team besides the Jaguars to receive no Super Bowl odds. Once again, the boys in Vegas are right on in their assessment, as there's a better chance of Toronto mayor Rob Ford being reelected than Bucs coach Greg Schiano raising the Lombardi Trophy. Tampa Bay actually acquitted itself extremely well against the Seattle Seahawks, opening up a 21-0 first-half lead. Alas, the upset wasn't meant to be, as the team eventually lost 27-24 in overtime. It's worth noting that the team played extremely hard for Schiano. It would have been an easy spot for the team to lay down, but it instead showed grit and determination. Rookie quarterback Mike Glennon has actually been pretty solid, despite losing all five of his starts. He's thrown eight touchdown passes against only three interceptions and seems due for his first victory, which could very well come this Monday night, when the Bucs host the only franchise in more turmoil than they are: the Dolphins. Despite the team playing hard and Glennon's improvement, though, the bottom line is that the Bucs are 0-8. With all the talent strewn throughout their 53-man roster, that's totally unacceptable. Don't expect Schiano and his staff to be back in 2014. Next Game: vs. Miami (Monday Night Football)
Gothic Architecture spans multiple game systems. From Vampire Castles to Medieval Cathedrals and the Interstellar Empires of the far future. Rampage Gothic is a 28mm Scenery Building System, designed for Wargames and Role Playing Games. Each pledge is delivered as an STL file pack to print on your home 3D printer. Rampage Gothic uses OpenLOCK to lock the pieces in place and top locking pins so building levels can stack. Rampage Gothic is fully backwards compatible with all Rampage Dungeons and Rampage Castles. Rampage Gothic comes in two main pledges; Gothic Cathedral and Gothic Industrial. Each pledge gets you a set of 3D printable models and the stretch goals related to that pledge. If you pledge the All-In pledge or the All-In Early Bird pledge, you will also get the bonus items for free. See each pledge for details. PLEDGE US48 The Gothic Cathedral contains all the elements you need to build and create your Gothic Cathedral or Gothic Castle. This includes a full set of OpenLOCK compatible walls and floors Includes the stretch goals in the left column Delivered November 2017 Interior with Medieval floors Cathedral shown with flying buttress from the second Cathedral stretch goal PLEDGE US48 The Gothic Industrial is a set of Sci-Fi OpenLOCK Walkways and Modular Plasma Stacks. You can use them as 'stand-alone' or to create multiple complex structures. You can also combine them with the Gothic Cathedral. Includes the stretch goals in the right column Delivered November 2017 The image below shows how the stretch goals (Archways and Walls) connect into the walkways Below you can see the Blast Walls (Part of the 1st Sci-Fi Stretch goal) and how they connect to the F and E Tiles. 4" & 2" high walkways with connecting ladders 31 Free Stretch goals already unlocked!!!! The free stretch goals are a big part of our Kickstarters. The more stretch goals we hit, the more models you will get. The bonus items are free with the All-In pledge, and we will be adding more of these as the campaign progresses. So let us know what you are looking for, and we will start making bonus items. The Dwarven Floors bonus item is a complete set of Dwarven style floor tiles The walking hut bases will accommodate any square building as they can be scaled before printing. NOTE: The hut shown above is not included in the free bonus Items The necromancer Pulpit Printable window inserts To claim an add, you need to add the total amount to the pledge. When the campaign closes, you will be sent a pledge manager to select the add-ons. Old Stone House The Dice tower is based on our Winterdale War Tower Add-Ons from previous campaigns All Rampage tiles will have the latest OpenLOCK TRP Upgrade Rampage Complete Dungeons - add NZ$120 (US$88) view files Rampage Complete Dungeons Rampage Complete Castle add NZ$95NZ (US$69) view files Rampage Castle Add-On Rampage Mashups are add-ons. We have made the Mashups from existing Rampage tiles. They have been combined in the 3d Application so that they will print as solid levels. You can construct these from previous collections. There are 7 Mashups. To get all the Mashups add $104 NZ (US 80) At Printable Scenery we are perfectionists. Our models have been recognised as the best on the market, and we have won international awards for The Rampage OpenLOCK System. We focus on organic details, and we make sure the models look good on the table Rampage Gothic uses OpenLOCK the most widely used Open Source scenery building system in the world. OpenLOCK is the only modular system that allows you to connect walls to floors and it's always backwards compatible. So now your Dungeon Tiles, Fortresses, Spaceships and Castles will connect to Cathedrals and Sci-Fi walkways To be sure of compatibility look for the OpenLOCK logo Rampage uses OpenLOCK So support us now so we can keep on producing the best 3D printable scenery on all the worlds TERMS AND CONDITIONS. When you contribute to This campaign, you will receive STL files for the models as per your selected pledge. The pledge files will be delivered November 2017, with successful stretch goals arriving later. You can print these files for your personal use, but you may not sell the printed items or distribute the digital 3D models. We are happy for you to print and sell the models to your friends and club members, but you can't go into business selling the models for profit or publicly advertise that you print and sell the models. Please read our terms and conditions on the Printable Scenery website.
Contrary to popular belief, not every piece of correspondence received by writers at The Root begins with “You’re the racist” or “Not all white people ... ” For every piece of hate mail received by black writers who discuss race and racism in America, there are as many from white people who contact us with good intentions. One of the more frequent questions posed by Caucasians is, how can a white person genuinely interested in racial equality help fight white supremacy? 1. Come get ya boy. Black people cannot cure racism. It is a contagion carried and spread by white people among white people. While it may be impossible to drive bigotry out of the hearts and minds of racists, there is a way to make it uncool. The most productive way to stamp out the scourge of white supremacy is to isolate the practitioners of prejudice by speaking out against it ... Every. Single. Time. After your uncle has had a few glasses of Wild Turkey at Thanksgiving, or your homeboy has had a few too many shots of ... ummm ... Wild Turkey, and says something that sounds like an excerpt from an “alt-right” speech, you should say something. (I must admit, in my own prejudiced mind, Wild Turkey is the default drink of semiracist white people. I only believe that because every time I have to buy a Secret Santa Christmas gift for a Caucasian co-worker, they seem elated when they open the bottle of Wild Turkey I gifted them. I apologize for the stereotype. In my defense, I don’t drink Hennessy, but when a person of no color assumes I do and buys it for me, I happily drink my free cognac.) Advertisement This subtle tactic might be uncomfortable, but the more you do it, the more reluctant they become to do or say something that might be perceived as racist. If more white people did this, it might not make wypipo less racist, but it would make them consider their words and actions before saying or doing something that offends nonwhites. If you aren’t comfortable with white-shaming, you can at least ask the universally accepted question dedicated to habitual Caucasian line steppers: “Whose (white) mans is this?” 2. Start seeing color. In America, whiteness has traversed the threshold of a racial category and has become the default designation. “Black” is a group of people who are the descendants of slaves, different from “Africans,” “Jamaicans,” et al. “Mexican” is a nationality. But “white” has no such connotation.” “White” means “American.” White means “everything but ... ” Advertisement Although racial colorblindness is a fictional hypothesis that resides only in white brains, when people say “I don’t see color,” they aren’t necessarily lying. What they mean is that they have made a conscious attempt to see and treat everyone the same by pretending that everyone is the same. But in America, the concept of equality has never been extended to anyone but white people. Not seeing color is a tacit admission that we live in a society that treats people of color differently, and their solution to overcoming prejudice is closing their eyes and feigning blindness. It has never worked. But what if white people did the opposite? What if—in their quest for equality—white people made a conscious effort to see color and still treat people with dignity and respect? What if they understood that African Americans, Mexicans, Muslims and others deserve freedom and equality without having their heritage and culture separated from their humanity? Advertisement It is possible to simultaneously celebrate the unique collections of colors and cultures and still believe that all men (and women) are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. I made up the last part of that sentence all by myself ... ... because someone needed to say it. 3. Don’t be a white ally. The designation of “ally” implies that the person is aligning him- or herself with a cause out of some sense of charitable benevolence. Instead of declaring allyship, there is a higher cause to which one can dedicate oneself: Humanity. I am not poor. I am not underprivileged. I am not a woman. I am not homosexual. I am not transsexual. I do not consider myself an ally or an “activist” to or for anyone because I know that there is no line of demarcation between them and me. I am a human. Advertisement There is no need for safety pins or self-congratulatory pats on the back if you are truly “about that life,” because the truth is, there is not a “that life.” It is just a life. Your life. Our lives. Be human. 4. Do not believe that children are the future. It is remarkable to witness how children don’t care about race, color, religion or nationality when they are young. But at some point, it seeps into their souls and they inherit the generational curse of racism. It is not always because we taught them to be that way. Advertisement It is because we are that way. Children are not the future. They are the sum total of their past influences. They learn everything by observing and absorbing the world around them. Every single prejudice and fear we have was acquired from someone else. I cannot recall my mother sitting me down to explain that I could be anything I wanted to be. But because she sequestered me from the fear of failure, I still live with the foolish belief that I can accomplish any goal, and that the only person stopping me is me. Advertisement Racism is like that. It may not be possible to inoculate children from a racist society, but you can quarantine them from catching the disease of racism. You can teach kids to separate themselves from intolerance as if bigots were pedophiles or pussy grabbers. You can show them that racists are dangerous sociopaths, like the cretins who eat candy corn or the bastards who put sugar in their grits. Those motherfuckers can’t be trusted. 5. Acknowledge your own racism. I often tell the story of consulting for a boat company that started a program in the 1960s to teach students at an all-white high school how to manufacture boats. The students who finished the program had a direct line to working at the factory. When the town’s schools integrated, the training initiative remained exclusive to the majority-white school. Advertisement When the company’s CEO asked me why his company was perceived as racist, I explained to him that—regardless of intent—the fact that black students in the area had much less of an opportunity to work for his company was the definition of racism. He might not be a white supremacist, but his company perpetuated white supremacy. Before he alarmed us about the condition of Annie after she was attacked by a smooth criminal, the poet, philosopher and greatest wearer of penny loafers in history, Michael Jackson, pointed out that the most important way to fight racism and any societal scourge is to look at “the man in the mirror” and ask him to make a change. While it is uncomfortable to recognize and admit your own blemishes, it is important to know that you can eliminate every bit of hate in your heart and still be guilty of racism. Racism has nothing to do with hate or what’s inside you. It is about actions—intentional or otherwise. It is possible to be aware of every incident of white supremacy around you and never acknowledge how your own actions may contribute to white supremacy. Advertisement Do not reflexively become defensive when someone points out your own privilege. Refrain from pointing out the black girl you dated in college or how one of your best friends is black when you are accused of prejudice. It is entirely possible that you did something racist, even if you are not “a racist.” Stop subconsciously adding “all” when you read the phrase “white people.” We know that “not all white people” are racists. But white people ... Oh, by the way: I talked to Annie, and she told me she is OK.
Up to 1,700 jobs at 27 facilities at risk from 30 June, with $150m in vital funding tied to the Coalition’s higher-education changes More than two dozen research facilities are preparing to shut down as administrators warn Australian science is suffering “immense” damage as a result of the federal government’s refusal to guarantee critical infrastructure funding. About $150m in funding for 27 research infrastructure facilities promised in last year’s federal budget has been tied to the Abbott government’s higher-education changes, which have stalled in the Senate. The facilities have no guaranteed funding past 30 June and up to 1,700 jobs are at risk if they are forced to shut down. Among the sites funded by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Scheme (NCRIS) is the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility, where scientists invented the Nanopatch, a needle-free vaccine delivery patch that could dramatically slow the spread of viruses during a pandemic. Another NCRIS-funded site, the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF), is developing a system to mass produce the revolutionary patch, but will have to shut its doors if funding isn’t renewed. “We will close on the 30th June. There’s no magic bullet, there’s nothing up our sleeves,” ANFF chief executive, Rosie Hicks, said. “We are now entering the phase where we have to make wind-down plans.” Even if the education minister, Christopher Pyne, relents and passes a bill funding NCRIS, the damage will already have been done, Hicks said. “Obviously we’re losing people. I’m being asked for references.” Some of the facility’s 94 staff – all but three of them researchers or technicians – will take jobs overseas, and one has already left for Canada, she added. The uncertainty also means the facility has not entered into any commercial contracts past the end of June, meaning revenue will likely fall even if the government money comes through. Senate estimates heard last week the number of jobs funded in whole or part by NCRIS has grown to 1,700. Around 35,000 researchers use NCRIS facilities and services each year. Fifteen heads of university and research institutions issued an open letter to Pyne on Thursday warning of the “immense” damage the closure of NCRIS facilities would do to Australian research, which they said would be “set back by several years”. “[The] exodus of highly specialised skills has begun and will only accelerate as the end of the year draws closer,” the letter said. “Furthermore, many of the facilities cannot be viably maintained if taken offline for significant periods. “This means that if operational funding for 2015-16 is not confirmed in the next two months, the government will be effectively decommissioning high-cost public infrastructure that in many cases has years if not decades of productive working life remaining.” About $40m worth of data-gathering instruments could also be stranded in Australia’s oceans if the June deadline passes without renewal, Tim Moltmann, the director of the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS), said. The agency, which deploys equipment to take scientific measurements in the ocean, has budgeted to run its instruments until June, “but no provision has been made for decommissioning”, Moltmann said. He said its 80 employees were anxious about the June deadline. “Staff are nervous and some of our operators have already lost staff who didn’t necessarily want to leave but who have had to go and find more secure employment,” he said. IMOS staff mostly worked regional hubs such Hobart and Townsville. “A majority of those positions are at risk without further funding,” he said. An independent review of NCRIS due in May has reportedly found the program operates effectively and efficiently. Hicks said the program was “world-leading” but that both major parties had only ever granted it short-term funding. “We’ve been in a pretty difficult situation for a number of years with the funding being for quite short periods,” she said of her facility. “But we’ve never been three months from shutdown.” Astronomer and Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt said the cuts would be a “hit to research like I have never seen in the 20 years I have been in Australia”. “It really is the foundations of the research we do across the country, across all disciplines so it will have an enormous effect and it is something we cannot let happen,” he told ABC radio. He said successive governments had invested more than $2b in the program over the past decade. “To suddenly put at risk the bridge between the past and the future such that all of that investment, $2bn over the last decade is suddenly put at risk, seems to be unconscionable,” he said. “Ultimately, this is not the way a grown up country behaves. It’s very childish and it’s having a profound impact on something that is going to increase the productivity of the nation.” Pyne said on Thursday it was Labor who set the funding deadline of 30 June, and that the government wanted to keep the program going. “That requires the [higher education] reform to pass to provide the savings,” he said in a statement. “The funds for NCRIS only exist because of savings elsewhere in the higher education package. “The way for Labor to support NCRIS, which they themselves defunded, is to support the higher education reforms. “Labor needs to stop playing politics and enter negotiations with the government because it will be on the heads of Labor, the Greens and the crossbenchers if it closes,” he said. Labor’s research and innovation spokesman, Kim Carr, said the government was holding the program “hostage” and could fund NCRIS at any time through an appropriations bill. “The reality is that the government is playing chicken with the country’s future,” he said. The Greens science spokesman Adam Bandt said Pyne was “blackmailing the parliament, saying that unless the parliament passes his plan to increase university fees, he’ll take the axe to science and research facilities”.
The Motley Fool Canada » Bank Stocks » Shorting Canada’s Banks: A Widow-Maker Trade Almost Guaranteed to Lose One trade that has gained considerable attention in recent months is shorting Canada’s banks. It is being led by U.S. hedge funds that believe they have found the next big short since the 2007 U.S. housing market implosion. The trade is being driven by concerns of an overheated housing market, near-record household debt, weak economic growth, and the banks’ over exposure to mortgage lending. Recent data from the TSX shows that the most shorted Canadian stock is Toronto-Dominion Bank (TSX:TD)(NYSE:TD). Then there’s Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX:BNS)(NYSE:BNS) at fourth place, and Royal Bank of Canada (TSX:RY)(NYSE:RY) at eighth. Nonetheless, there… I consent to receiving information from The Motley Fool via email, direct mail, and occasional special offer phone calls. I understand I can unsubscribe from these updates at any time. Please read the Privacy Statement and Terms of Service for more information. Register by giving us your email below to continue reading all of the content on the site. Also receive a free Email Newsletter from the Motley Fool. (You may unsubscribe any time.) One trade that has gained considerable attention in recent months is shorting Canada’s banks. It is being led by U.S. hedge funds that believe they have found the next big short since the 2007 U.S. housing market implosion. The trade is being driven by concerns of an overheated housing market, near-record household debt, weak economic growth, and the banks’ over exposure to mortgage lending. Recent data from the TSX shows that the most shorted Canadian stock is Toronto-Dominion Bank (TSX:TD)(NYSE:TD). Then there’s Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX:BNS)(NYSE:BNS) at fourth place, and Royal Bank of Canada (TSX:RY)(NYSE:RY) at eighth. Nonetheless, there are signs that despite the growing popularity of this trade, it is fast becoming what is known as a widow-maker trade. Now what? In the world of hedge funds, a widow-maker trade is a short-sell trade of an overvalued asset that makes sense fundamentally and intellectually, yet the asset continues to rise in value, exposing the short-seller to the potential of ever-larger losses. A classic, well-known widow-maker trade has been shorting Japanese government debt, which has seen hedge funds betting on higher interest rates and falling government bond prices. Canadian banks are now fast shaping up as the next widow-maker trade. Short trades on Canada’s banks have been estimated to be worth in excess of US$13 billion. The bet is predicated on the belief that Canada’s housing market is in a bubble, and when it bursts the banks will tumble. While there are signs that some regional housing markets are hot, the overall view is that the market has cooled. Between January 2016 and January 2017, the national average house price only gained 0.2% with a number of regional markets only modestly gaining in value. Ottawa saw a 6% gain, whereas Montreal posted a 3% gain. Meanwhile, Vancouver’s one-time turbocharged average housing price plunged by almost 19% over that period. The only market that remains in a frenzy is Toronto, where the average price spiked by 22%. If this is not enough to allay concerns, it is also worth considering that there are significant differences between Canada’s housing market and that which existed in the U.S. in the run-up to the 2007 housing bust. Key among these is the lack of subprime mortgages and non-recourse loans. It was the combination of these two-factors that sparked the alarming cascade of low housing prices as more and more properties were repossessed by financial institutions and put on the market at fire-sale prices. Combined with the considerable exposure of a range of financial institutions to toxic debt instruments, which were predominantly subprime mortgages, this triggered a major financial crisis and the near collapse of many major U.S. banks. While subprime mortgages exist in Canada, it is estimated that they only make up somewhere between 2.5% and 5% of all mortgages underwritten. This is compared to 25% in the U.S. in the lead-up to the 2007 housing meltdown. More importantly, the volume being underwritten is falling because of tighter lending regulations instituted by the regulator. Even if there is a housing crash, which appears less and less likely, the impact on the banks would be minimal. This is because a large portion of mortgages are insured, and the mortgage portfolios of Canada’s banks have relatively low loan-to-valuation ratios (LTVs). Toronto-Dominion has 48% of its mortgages insured with a portfolio-wide average LTV of 51%. For Royal Bank, those figures come to 46% and 51%, respectively, and in the case of Bank of Nova Scotia, they are 56% and 51%, respectively. This gives Canada’s banks considerable wiggle room should housing prices collapse by removing the need to quickly sell foreclosed properties, thereby preventing the market from becoming rapidly depressed. So what? The distinct differences between Canada’s housing market and that which existed in the U.S. in the lead-up to the 2007 housing bust are striking. For these reasons, a housing bust is unlikely. When coupled with prudent risk management, shorting Canada’s banks appears to be a bad bet and a losing proposition.
This video is apparently sweeping the interwebs at the moment. From a number of captions so far, we see this labeled as an “FBI Alaska SWAT team” and attributing this to the FBI Alaska field office. The only thing that I am sure of, is that this is a law enforcement branch of some entity, within the United States. Whether or not this is an FBI operation or a a local SWAT operation, I can’t tell at the present time. When more information comes out I’m sure we’ll have a better picture of who and where these guys are. Anyways, kick back, and watch how not to go about making entry, or endangering the lives of your teammates. Okay. Now, my background is from that of the Infantry, and not LE in any sense. I realize although there is some overlap, but the two actually don’t have a ton in common when it comes to specifics such as small arms, tactics, legalities, etc… However, the little that they do is directly evident in this video. So lets go through this step by step. First, the team is stacked up on this house, preparing to make entry, captions to these videos report that the guy inside is a criminal and armed. Okay, great. Explain why their Humvee is literally parked directly in front of the door? Well, there goes your element of surprise. In addition, with the zoom out at the start of the video, I only see this Humvee in addition to maybe two suburban SUVs that it looks like they drove in. Where is the security cordon? Inner and outer? Then, as the team begins to make entry, one of their AR carbines is left, LEANING against the garage door. Along with a smoke or flashbang grenade I might add. Now comes our first mistake, breacher slips and is thrown completely out of the way, almost knocking himself unconscious against the Humvee right behind him. At this point in the game this four man team could have already been down one casualty, before even making a successful entry into the house. Now, the breaching method/tool has completely failed the initial thrusts, and the two man comes up to assist the one man. Who’s got security on the doorway/fatal front? Especially one with a glass window where a shooter could easily see on the other side and shoot out of. I will give the one man credit for trying a different breaching location at the bottom of the door after realizing breaking the lock wasn’t enough. Notice, the rifle is still leaning against the garage door… Now the door has been breached, but the team is completely disorganized. One of the guys is walking back to get the grenade he left behind along with the rifle, the one and two men have lost any depth of view on the door, while the assistant driver is actually the only guy looking into a house with smoke billowing out of it, and it looks like he doesn’t have a weapon drawn. So essentially, there isn’t a single weapon trained on the one avenue of approach that the entire team announced their presence at. So finally the team has regained composure, and has stacked up near the garage. I think the AR rifle is still leaning against the door by the way. Whatever depth of view they had previously, down that alley, into the door, above them, is now completely gone. In addition to any sort of rear security as well, which was actually never there to begin with. This is where the video ends, having been made by a neighbor about a block away from the scene of the action. Thankfully, and hopefully, there were no deaths or injuries from either the LE side or the criminal side of the operation. It appears that the criminal was arrested without conflict, as I’m sure there would have been a video of a gunfight if it had broken out.
Alif Laam Meem, also known as Alpha Lambda Mu or simply ALM, is proud to be America's first Muslim fraternity. When the group was founded in February of 2013, they sparked a national conversation about what it means to be an American Muslim college student, garnering news coverage from outlets like The New York Times and The Huffington Post. Now a new documentary about them will "explore the Muslim American identity, as well as the challenges of living by faith in a secular society," according to their successful Kickstarter page. Dylan Hollingsworth and Wheeler Sparks, the forces behind the film, told The Huffington Post via email that they intend for the documentary to be a "beautiful and accurate portrait of Islam in America, that counters a lot of the negative stereotypes that are passed around."
Hanan al-Hroub, a Palestinian teacher scheduled to speak at a Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting dinner event on 20 September 2016, drew criticism from Republicans because her husband, Omar al-Hroub, is a Palestinian official who served 10 years in an Israeli prison for supplying chemicals used in a deadly bombing attack in Hebron that killed six Israelis in 1980 — especially given the close proximity (in both time and distance) of the speaking engagement to recent bomb attacks in New York and New Jersey. For example, Raj Shah, deputy communications director of the Republican National Committee, stated that: In the wake of this weekend’s attacks, granting a platform to the spouse of a terrorist bomb-maker just miles away from where explosives were detonated days ago is an insult to the victims and makes a mockery of the Clinton Foundation. Donald Trump’s campaign similarly issued a press release titled “Statement on Clinton Foundation Honoring Wife of Palestinian Terrorist,” objecting to al-Hroub’s appearance at the Clinton Global Initiative dinner: Today’s report that the Clinton Foundation is feting the wife of a Palestinian man convicted of helping bomb innocent Israeli citizens is deeply disturbing, especially in the wake of this weekend’s attacks. The decision to honor the wife of a terrorist by Hillary Clinton’s foundation shows a complete lack of judgment and a callousness that should disqualify her from holding the presidency. Mrs. al-Hroub has become famous in her own right, independently of her husband, as described in a March 2016 Guardian profile of her achievements that delved into her experiences and her path to worldwide recognition: Hroub only began working as a teacher in 2007. After leaving school, she was forced to abandon her plans for further education when Palestinian universities closed during the first intifada, or uprising, between 1987 and 1993. Instead she got married and had five children. In 2000, when her youngest was established at school, Hroub resumed her education part-time at Al-Quds University. Within months, her husband, Omar, and two of her daughters were shot at by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint near Bethlehem. Omar was injured in the shoulder and the girls were traumatised. “This incident changed my life. We were in shock. My children were suffering, and the teachers were not trained to deal with trauma. At that point I decided to commit my life to teaching.” She vehemently rejects Israeli claims that Palestinian schools incite children against Israel. “My message to those who say that is that all children should be protected from violence. I had a very hard childhood, and I don’t want these children to experience the same. Once a cycle of violence is created, it’s very hard to break.” Prior to the Clinton Foundation-related controversy, the Associated Press reported on a similar issue surrounding Mrs. al-Hroub’s March 2016 receipt of a global award for excellence in education: The U.K.-based foundation that awarded a Palestinian schoolteacher a $1 million prize for preaching nonviolence is sticking by its choice following revelations that the woman’s husband participated in an attack that killed at least six Israelis three decades ago. The Varkey Foundation awarded Hanan al-Hroub its Global Teacher Prize. In its selection, it cited her slogan “No to Violence” and her efforts in protecting Palestinian schoolchildren from the effects of living in a conflict zone. She had developed a book called “We Play and Learn” focusing on the importance of playing, trust, respect, honesty and literacy. However, her husband, Omar, served time in Israeli prison, convicted as an accomplice in a bombing attack that killed six Israelis as they were walking home from sabbath prayers in the West Bank city of Hebron in 1980. According to an Associated Press account at the time, Omar al-Hroub was a chemist who provided chemicals needed for making the bombs … In a statement, the Varkey Foundation said it does not look into the conduct of candidates’ relatives and that the teacher was committed to nonviolence. “As a point of principle, we only look at the qualities, achievements and conduct of the candidates themselves … As Hanan al-Hroub has said herself, she has spent her whole life dealing with the effects of violence on children at close hand and every day she works toward a world where children, wherever they come from, can grow up peacefully,” it added. “She has spent her entire career teaching the principle of nonviolence. She believes in nonviolence in all its forms and in all circumstances.” Qadura Faris, the director of the Palestinian prisoners’ association, said that after serving a 10-year sentence, Omar al-Hroub accepted the 1993 Oslo interim peace accord with Israel, served as a deputy Cabinet minister in the Palestinian Authority and supports a two-state solution with Israel. He said al-Hroub remains a senior Palestinian official who is close to President Mahmoud Abbas and “believes in his peaceful approach.” Al-Hroub’s biography, as presented among those of the speakers at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)’s Annual Meeting from 19 to 21 September 2016, reads: Winner of the 2016 Global Teacher Prize, an initiative of the Varkey Foundation, Hanan Al Hroub grew up in the Palestinian refugee camp, Bethlehem, where she was regularly exposed to acts of violence. She went into primary education after her children were left deeply traumatized by a shooting incident they witnessed on their way home from school. Her experiences in meetings and consultations to discuss her children’s behavior, development and academic performance in the years that followed led Al Hroub to try to help others who, having grown up in similar circumstances, require special handling at school. With so many troubled children in the region, Palestinian classrooms can be tense environments. Al Hroub embraces the slogan “No to Violence” and uses a specialized teaching approach she developed herself. Al Hroub has shared her perspective at conferences, meetings and teacher training seminars. Hanan al-Hroub was one of several dozen people invited to speak during the Clinton Global Initiative’s Annual Meeting; she was not singled out to be “honored” or “feted” by that event.
PARIS — Mobile satellite services provider Iridium Communications on July 30 said the Russian launch of its first two Iridium Next second-generation satellites would be delayed by two months, to December, because of a recent problem with hardware assuring the satellites’ Ka-band feeder links. McLean, Virginia-based Iridium said that despite the delay, it still expects commercial launch provider SpaceX to conduct the seven following Iridium Next launches, each carrying 10 satellites, by the end of 2017. Insurance officials in the past have said they want to see the first two Iridium Next satellites operational for around four months before underwriting coverage for the follow-on launches, to be sure there are no systemic issues on the satellites. That would put the first SpaceX Falcon 9 launch in April 2016 at the earliest even if Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX keeps to its original Iridium Next schedule despite its heavily booked manifest and delays related to its June 28 failure. In a July 30 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Iridium said it was having trouble assembling the insurance package that its creditors require as a condition of their loan. One of the requirements is that Iridium complete the full eight-launch, 72-satellite insurance package three months before the first launch, scheduled aboard a Russian-Ukrainian Dnepr rocket. In its SEC filing, Iridium said it has begun negotiations with its creditors on a covenant waiver allowing them to proceed with the first launch even as the company seeks to complete the coverage for the full constellation. Iridium said it has already raised more than 60 percent of the required coverage. The insurance Iridium is seeking is in three parts and starts with a standard policy covering the Dnepr launch and the two satellites’ first year in orbit. The second policy covers the SpaceX Falcon 9 launches. Iridium needs less insurance than it normally would because it has purchased a relaunch option to be exercised if one of the Falcon 9 rockets fails, Iridium spokeswoman Diane Hockenberry said. The relaunch would not require additional insurance, she said. Iridium would use the relaunch option and load a new Falcon 9 with the nine spare satellites it has ordered as part of its 81-satellite contract with Iridium Next prime contractor Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy. Insurance proceeds then would cover the purchase of a 10th satellite — whose costs likely would be negligible given that the contractor will have amortized its nonrecurring engineering charges over the 81 spacecraft — and the new Falcon 9 launch. Iridium will need insurance coverage for the six remaining Falcon 9 launches. The policy it has secured from those insurers that have signed on up to now provides for full coverage with a deductible of two satellites per batch of 10 launched on each rocket. Iridium would need to lose three satellites from a given launch to make a claim but in that case it could claim for all three losses, plus a pro rata share of the launch cost. The third policy is what Iridium calls its Constellation Aggregate Insurance, which kicks in for losses that are not covered by the other two policies – but with a five-satellite deductible. Iridium would need to lose six satellites not covered by the previous policies to make a claim under this third policy. The policy then would reset at zero, meaning the loss of another six satellites would result in another insurance claim. After the 12th loss, each subsequent satellite failure would be covered. The coverage level is somewhat less if Iridium still has ground spares available that have not been committed by a failure under the first two policies. There is another element that has added to the total cost of the insurance Iridium wants and may help explain why the company has opened negotiations with its creditors on a covenant waiver. The credit facility Iridium is using to finance Iridium Next – most of it guaranteed by the French export-credit agency, Coface – requires Iridium to insure any relaunches it may need following launch failures. It further requires Iridium to insure the premium it must pay for these policies. “As a result of changing conditions in the space insurance market, we do not believe we will be able to complete the full placement of insurance prior to the first launch, and we may not be able to place the supplemental insurance for launch premiums on relaunches at all,” Iridium said in its SEC filing. Satellite and launch insurance rates have been at historically low levels for several years now despite failures of the Russian Proton rocket, the most recent of which – in May – was insured for $390 million. The June failure of the SpaceX Falcon 9 carried no insurance – not for SpaceX, and not for NASA or the other customers whose hardware was lost, according to insurers. As a result, insurance premiums are not expected to rise much beyond where they are now unless there are more insured losses. But Iridium Next is a special program and its insurance requirement is turning out to be unusual as well.
Queensland police have been warned that members of the latest outlaw motorcycle gang to move onto the Gold Coast say they would rather kill police than be arrested and face the government's new laws. An internal notice sent to Queensland police officers warns the Mongols are stockpiling automatic weapons including M16 and AK47 guns. ''A member of the Black Uhlans CMG [criminal motorcycle gang] was previously confirmed to have sought to obtain automatic firearms (M16 and AK47) on behalf of the Mongols and Finks CMG,'' the ''Officer Safety Bolo'' [Be on the Lookout] alert reads. It went on to say that the escalating violence was said to be a result of legislation which meant automatic custodial sentences of up to 15 years. ''The Mongols are said to believe killing a police officer to evade arrest is worth the risk to escape the lengthy custodial sentence,'' the alert said.
In recent memory, from a baseball perspective, there have been a few landmark years in the constant battle for the hearts and minds of New York — those times when the attention pivoted from the Bronx to Queens and back again. If we start with 1986, then go to ’96, we can follow the Mets’ slipping grasp on the city to the point when the Yankees firmly planted their pinstriped flag. On four occasions during the dynastic run, capped by the 2000 Subway Series victory, and again in 2009. But on the eve of this 2017 spring training, we keep thinking of 2006 and the October window that was left wide open for the Mets to alter the course of a baseball city’s fanaticism. That autumn, the Yankees were in disarray, bounced from the playoffs in the first round as Shea prepped for the NLCS. New York was there for the taking. And the Mets couldn’t do it. Despite a lineup stacked with stars — bought and homegrown — Willie Randolph’s crew failed to swipe the city from his former pals. Another ring would have finished the job that season, and who knows how the future might have unfolded from there. As for 2015, that was a different vibe, with the Mets maybe ahead of schedule in losing the World Series and the Yankees, though teetering, not quite finished yet. The divide between the two teams was not as evident in February 2015. But right now, as the players start arriving in Port St. Lucie and Tampa, with pitchers and catchers reporting this week, there is a new feel to this Subway rivalry, with a shift in focus. Subscribe to Sports Now newsletter By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy. For the Mets, the motivation is about settling unfinished business. The goal is a World Series ring. There is a legitimate belief they can do it. Across the state, however, the Yankees have shelved their usual championship mantra for a more pragmatic approach, a process that began in earnest at last year’s trade deadline. Hal Steinbrenner’s youth movement is in full bloom, and here in the midst of the transition, it seems unrealistic to think of 2017 as anything more than another step forward rather than a title march. The expectations for the Yankees haven’t been this low in decades. Not when they haven’t reached the Division Series since 2012. “That’s going to happen when you’re not there,” Steinbrenner said earlier this month. “I understand that. Absolutely. The Red Sox are going to have a great team. So we’ll just have to see. I think it’s hard to predict with us because we’ve got so many young players and you’ve got guys like [/DROPCAP][Starlin] Castro who could have an even better year. He hasn’t realized his potential yet and the same with Didi [Gregorius]. It’s going to be exciting, but when you’re not there, I can’t fault anybody for that.” To hear Steinbrenner single out Castro and Gregorius on the Yankees’ roster says plenty about where the rest of this group is at. It’s still a $195-million team, but with an owner who is counting the days until the last costly pieces of the 2009 championship core — CC Sabathia ($25 million) and Alex Rodriguez ($21M) — are off the books at the end of this season. Of course, A-Rod currently is the highest-paid camp instructor in the history of the game, but the Yankees could use getting a back page or two out of him. Otherwise, the next six weeks could be unusually quiet at Steinbrenner Field. Even celebrated kids such as Gleyber Torres and Clint Frazier can only do so much on the practice fields. Gary Sanchez’s home runs don’t count until April. Over at Tradition Field, however, the chance to claim the spotlight early comes with its own challenges. There is David Wright’s daily struggle to return to his All-Star form, at age 34, after last year’s serious back surgery. And what to think of Matt Harvey, whose Dark Knight persona must be restored coming off a second major repair — this time for thoracic outlet syndrome — in only three years? Throw in the overcrowded outfield, and a bullpen that likely will be without Jeurys Familia for the first month of the regular season, and these are all questions in need of answers by Opening Day if the Mets hope to truly throw some shade on their crosstown rivals in the next nine months or so. Maybe it’s an exaggeration to suggest that the Yankees are stepping aside and conceding the stage to Flushing for a while as they continue to rebuild. But their future is what’s been getting most of the attention lately, and Steinbrenner sounds on board with that. The Mets were in a similar place a while back, and it was the rapid maturation of their young pitchers that led to this rebirth. If youth also winds up being served in the Bronx, the Mets won’t hold the edge in this city power struggle for very long. What we see from both clubs in spring training might even affect how we view the current dynamic, and that would make for an intriguing story line in itself.
The New England Patriots parted ways with Michael Lombardi this offseason and the former front office star and Bill Belichick confidant has found his way to Fox Sports where he will be a guest analyst. Lombardi has started his rounds and joined Colin Cowherd to discuss Jimmy Garoppolo and how the Patriots scouted the quarterback and how they currently perceive him. I’ve transcribed the conversation below: "We felt like he was the kind of guy that could fit the program." Michael Lombardi on Pats drafting Jimmy G in '14. pic.twitter.com/Yzp49kWh8c — Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) September 13, 2016 “We spent a lot of time on quarterbacks [with Cleveland], a lot of time,” Lombardi said in reference to his time as the Browns general manager. “The Derek Carrs of that draft. You’ve got Teddy Bridgewater, Johnny Manziel.” “So you and Cleveland saw this kid [Garoppolo],” Colin Cowherd interjected. “We spent a lot of time on Jimmy Garoppolo and really felt like he was the kind of guy that could come in and fit the program,” Lombardi continued. “It takes a unique person to come in and be around Tom Brady-” “Why?” Cowherd asked. “Because Tom Brady is huge and you’ve got to be somebody who is going to not be intimated by it, but also follow his work ethic,” Lombardi responded. “And understand that you can learn from Tom, but you can’t back down to Tom. And Jimmy over three years has found a way to fit in perfectly. He sits and has lunch with all the players. They respect his toughness. “The first year, he looked at Tom ‘oh my’, second year, ‘hey, I’m getting better’, the third year, he was ready to come in and say, ‘hey, I’d throw this, I would do this, I wouldn’t do that,’ and I think he’s grown. It takes a unique guy; Jimmy has those unique qualities. “Jimmy is a tough kid and I think what he brought to the table was a great release, he had an offensive system that really didn’t run New England’s, but when he came in that day and spent time around the Patriots coaches, Josh McDaniels, Bill Belichick, you kind of came away thinking ‘wow, this guy is something special.’” Garoppolo has three more weeks to audition for a starting job with another franchise since it’s unlikely that he’ll start so long as Tom Brady is eligible to wear shoulder pads. There probably won’t be a shortage of suitors for his services. Garoppolo put together a great performance against the Cardinals and he’ll try to impress again in week 2 against the Dolphins. (h/t Temujln)
House Rules Committee Basically Rejects Any CISPA Amendments That Would Protect Privacy from the because,-privacy,-pshah,-who-needs-it? dept There were a number of different amendments put forth for CISPA today -- including many that sought to protect people's privacy and to make sure that the NSA didn't get first dibs on any information. The House Rules Committee met for about three hours today to hear about the various amendments and then basically rejected all of the privacy amendments. Rep. Justin Amash seemed reasonably confused as to why the Rules Committee would reject his amendment, which (as summarized) would "permit an entity to provide through enforceable contract that it will not share personally identifiable information with the federal government." Other rejected amendments included the amendment from Rep. Schiff that would require companies sharing data with the government under CISPA to make "reasonable efforts" to remove personally identifiable info of people who were unrelated to the "cyberthreat" in question. Another rejected amendment, put forth by Rep. Schakowsky would have required that the first point of info sharing be a civilian agency (DHS) instead of military (NSA/DOD).All of these seemed like reasonable responses to the privacy concerns raised by the White House and others. And they were all. Yes, this wasn't about them being voted down by the whole House. Rather, the Rules Committee voted not to even let them be voted on by the House. Why? As far as I could tell from the hearing, the answer was "because [reasons]." Also some garbage about how no one intended the law to be misused. Um. If that's the case, why not put itto block it from being abused?There is one amendment, from Rep. Jackson Lee, contains a few nods towards privacy, and does make clear that service providers are not required to provide info. It would also seek to protect a very specific class of private data (that stored by a company that also provides info services to the government), but that's got little to do with the key privacy protections proposed elsewhere. There is also an amendment from Rep. Barton that stops companies from using any info they getfor marketing purposes, but that's really not a huge issue with the CISPA related data. Neither of these are serious privacy protections, and neither are definitely going to get adopted either.So, now the CISPA fight will go to the floor of the House without any serious meaningful amendments concerning privacy, and (as is typical) the House is likely to pass it. The next fight will be in the Senate to see what sort of awful proposal comes out of there as well, and whether or not it matches up with CISPA. Filed Under: amendments, cispa, privacy, rejected
Holder Is Right: Daily Caller Is "Behind" GOP Calls For His Resignation November 29, 2011 5:07 PM EST ››› Blog ›››››› MATT GERTZ The Daily Caller's attempt to pass out pitchforks to GOP members of Congress and send them after Attorney General Eric Holder has now been called out by the target himself. TPM's Ryan J. Reilly reports: Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday told a reporter with the conservative news website The Daily Caller that the news organization was ginning up calls for him to resign over ATF's botched Operation Fast and Furious. The reporter approached Holder after an event at the White House on the federal government's efforts to combat counterfeit goods. "You guys need to... you guys need to stop this," TPM heard Holder tell the reporter. "There's not an organic* thing happening, you guys are behind this." Holder was referencing Daily Caller reporter Matthew Boyle's month-long quest to find relatively low-ranking Republican members of Congress interested in taking a free shot at the Obama administration by calling for Holder's resignation. The putative rationale for these calls is the ATF's failed Operation Fast and Furious; new evidence has been revealed indicating that Holder know about the controversial tactics used in that operation. You may remember Boyle from his public humiliation over a ludicrously false September report that the Environmental Protection Agency wants to hire "230,000 new bureaucrats -- at a cost of $21 billion -- to attempt to implement" new climate change regulations." Boyle's colleagues were reportedly embarrassed by the decision by DC executive editor David Martosko -- who has a long record in conservative political advocacy but none in journalism -- to stand behind Boyle's reporting. At most publications, a misstep of this magnitude would have consequences. But at the Caller, it's more of a feature than a bug. And so Boyle has apparently spent much of the last month calling around to Republican politicians and asking them whether they think Holder should resign. That's creating a story, not reporting one. And of course, since Boyle is a hack, the tone of these stories indicates a steady drumbeat of doom. One of his first stories in the series, in which he found four spokespeople for GOP members willing to commit their bosses to Boyle's cause, declared that this indicated that Holder's "tenure in the Obama administration may be coming to an end" as "resignation calls double overnight." Since that October 28 piece, Boyle has written no fewer than 23 articles which reference calls for Holder's resignation in the headline. He has found newsworthy comments from a single obscure member of Congress, from Republican presidential candidates, from Sarah Palin, from a "possible" Republican Senate primary challenger, and from the president of the NRA, among others. The stories feature even-handed headlines such as: And Boyle isn't taking "no comment" for an answer. Here's his take on the GOP presidential candidates: Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have each made somewhat veiled calls for Holder's resignation. Businessman Herman Cain said he backs the members of Congress pushing for Holder to step down. [NOTE: all of these statements came in response to questioning from Daily Caller reporters] Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich have not responded to requests from TheDC regarding where they stand on the issue. Romney's campaign has refused to answer whether he thinks Holder should resign immediately. Santorum's campaign hasn't answered follow-up questions. Either Boyle himself has been covering an awful lot of ground on this story, or his fellow Caller reporters have joined in on the fun and he's just been writing up the stories. Either way, Holder is right: This isn't a grassroots movement of conservatives calling for Holder to step down, it's a concerted effort by a supposed media organization to push him out. UPDATE: The lede of Boyle and colleague Neil Munro's take on Holder's comments, under the headline, "Holder lashed out at The Daily Caller while refusing to address growing calls for his resignation": Embattled Attorney General Eric Holder today demanded The Daily Caller stop publishing articles about the growing calls in Congress for his resignation because of the failed Operation Fast and Furious gun-walking program. They are definitely serious journalists, not hacks. *Quote changed after TPM updated its piece correcting Holder's quote.
BUFFALO, New York — For the second straight season, the Winnipeg Jets have two picks in the first round of the NHL Draft, making for a busy week in Buffalo for General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff and his staff. Before the week at the 2016 NHL Combine is over, Cheveldayoff and the Jets will interview 86 of the 114 prospects attending the event. “We’ve got 70 in the books and 16 left to go for the next day,” Cheveldayoff said Thursday at the conclusion of the day’s interviews. “It’s been a good week. There’s been some great interviews, there’s been some interesting interviews. There’s always some time for some laughs in some of the questions and answers. You try to make the players feel at ease so you get to know them a little bit.” The 20-minute interviews can reveal a lot about a player, according to Cheveldayoff. The answers they receive can fill in the blanks when it comes to point production or injuries. “It’s amazing how many times you find out something. Whether it’s ‘why did you go through a slump in November?’ or just different things like that, it might be a sick parent or an illness that they had that you just don’t know,” he said. “You don’t get to ask the questions, you don’t find out.” The second overall pick will be the highest selection the Jets have had since relocating to Winnipeg since 2011. Cheveldayoff says having that pick, thanks to April’s NHL Draft Lottery, has helped the team focus on a smaller group of players that they want to know a lot about. But he doesn’t feel that’s the only spot where this year’s Draft will be interesting. He points to the team’s 22nd overall selection as one that brings a number of prospects into play. “There’s a real wide opinion of players at that realm. There could be players that some teams may have at ten, and some teams are going to have at 26,” said Cheveldayoff. Adding to the intrigue is the fact the Jets own an early pick in the second round as well: number 36. “Generally speaking what happens on day two is everybody goes back to their suites at their hotels, goes back to the meeting, and says ‘I can’t believe this guy is still on the table,’” said Cheveldayoff. “There’s lots of work to be done on the due diligence side, but it’s an important and exciting time.” Including those picks, the Jets currently have seven selections to make come the Draft, which will be held at First Niagara Center in Buffalo, NY June 24 and 25. COMING FULL CIRCLE This year’s NHL Draft is one of change for the Winnipeg Jets. Since 2011, Marcel Comeau has served as the Director of Amateur Scouting for the team, but after taking a step back to spend more time with family, Comeau’s spot has been filled by Mark Hillier. Hillier has worked as Winnipeg’s head scout for the last five years, and is no stranger to the title of Director of Amateur Scouting. He held that position with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1999-2002. “It makes me feel old,” Hiller laughed. “I think I was the youngest in the league in 1999. I think I was 29 years old at the time. Everything has come full circle.” Hillier said when he started scouting with the Maple Leafs in 1995, cell phones were just starting to come available. “I had just got my first cell phone and we were just starting to put reports into the computer. Everything before that was hand written scouting reports that scouts would mail in from the road,” he said. “People had calling cards. You’d call home once a week with the calling card.” The St. John’s, NL native said back then there was no event like the NHL Combine. Now, it’s a valuable week for teams to learn more about prospects that could play a big role in the future of their franchises. “I think 95 percent is what we see on the ice on a player,” said Hillier. “There’s lots of components: how the player skates, his skill, his hockey sense, his size. (When we’re) meeting the kids (and) seeing their personality, we try to see if the personality off the ice meets the personality on the ice.” After the interviews comes the fitness testing. Besides Friday’s VO2 Max bike test, all fitness events will be held Saturday at the HarborCenter, beginning at 7:30 am. “If the kid doesn’t test well, that doesn’t mean we take him off the list. If a kid blows the testing out of the water, it doesn’t mean we move him up the list. It’s just kind of a gauge of where he’s at,” Hillier said. “It tells us what that particular kid needs to work on in the summer, and what he needs to work on going forward to be a pro.” — Mitchell Clinton, WinnipegJets.com
Responding to tweets from first daughter Ivanka Trump about “working alongside” newly sworn-in Chief of Staff John Kelly, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) said he doesn’t think Ivanka Trump should have to work through Kelly to access her father. Looking forward to serving alongside John Kelly as we work for the American people. General Kelly is a true American hero. pic.twitter.com/XQLuFaS3ce — Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) July 31, 2017 “If anyone who is working in the White House, other than the President of the United States, ideally would be reporting to the chief of staff,” Zeldin said, appearing on MSNBC Tuesday. “The chief of staff would be reporting to the President of the United States. I would imagine there are a few different people, obviously Ivanka included, who are going to continue to have conversations and access to the President. That can still work. It’s just really important to have good communication with the chief of staff, because you don’t want things going in two different directions.” He went on to praise Ivanka Trump, saying he is “super impressed” with her “intellect and class” and the work she’s done to try to get paid family leave included in budget discussions in Congress. He said he likes having the first daughter and her husband Jared Kushner in the White House, despite the turmoil Kushner has caused by failing to disclose meetings he’s held with foreign officials. Kushner attended a June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr., then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a Kremlin-linked lawyer amid promises of damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to aid the Trump campaign. Zeldin said he thinks Ivanka Trump could “in her own right” be a “great United States senator if she wanted to be.” When pressed about what qualifies her for elected office, he said she is “super smart and highly capable” and cited her experience in business and “ability to understand our tax code” as rationale. When asked about the fact that none of Ivanka Trump’s products are made in the U.S., he said she’s also a “great mom” and “a great wife.” “She has great education. She has great ideas on important issues that help families, but I would say for anyone who is running for office, the President proved this, there is no one size fits all cookie-cutter way to become President of the United States.”
Hello there! Today, I’m going to show you how to build a Bitcoin full node on the Raspberry Pi. This is a great project for anyone who wants to support the Bitcoin network while validating their own transactions. As the Bitcoin network grows, it’s important that people maintain their full nodes. We need to constantly bring new nodes onto the network to keep it decentralized and healthy. Glossary: 1. Setup the Rasfpberry Pi 3 2. Install the External Hard Drive 3. Increase the Swap File 4. Install the Bitcoin Core Dependencies 5. Install Bitcoin Core 6. Starting the Bitcoin Core Client 7. Download the Blockchain on another Machine (Optional) What is a Bitcoin Full Node? A Bitcoin full node is much simpler than it sounds. A full node is simply a computer that is running the Bitcoin Core Wallet. The Bitcoin Core Wallet, by default, downloads a full copy of the Blockchain. Why do you need a full copy of the Blockchain? Similar to BitTorrent and other peer to peer networks, you have to download the Blockchain from other people. If you’ve ever downloaded a torrent, you’ll notice that some of them have seeders while other don’t. These “seeders” are people who have already downloaded the file, and have opted to let you download part of the file from them. Without seeders, the BitTorrent network wouldn’t exist. The Bitcoin network operates the same way. When people try to access their Bitcoin, they are using a wallet that has access to at least part of the network. If people didn’t have full nodes, we wouldn’t be able to verify transactions or see transactions from the past. You wouldn’t be able to access your Bitcoin because ultimately, without nodes, your Bitcoin wouldn’t exist. How do you Build a Bitcoin Full Node? We are going to use a Raspberry Pi 3. The Raspberry Pi is a small, inexpensive computer, that has just enough specifications to allow us to operate a full node. We are going to download the Blockchain on an external hard drive on a separate machine using the Bitcoin Core Wallet. After we have downloaded a full copy of the blockchain, we are going to connect the external hard drive to the Raspberry Pi so that it can continue to build it. It is possible to directly download the blockchain onto the Raspberry Pi, but it will take a lot of time. Things we are going to Need: Raspberry Pi 3 The Raspberry Pi is a phenemonal computer. What makes it so great is that it’s about the size of a credit card and it costs less than $40. The Raspberry Pi can run both Linux and Windows. For our Bitcoin full node, we are going to use Linux. This is due to the fact that Linux is more lightweight and we are going to need all of the resources that the Raspberry Pi can offer. Usually Raspberry Pi’s will come barebones. The kit that we purchased comes the Touchscreen, Case, SD Card (which will hold the operating system), and Heatsinks. LCD Touchscreen The LCD Touchscreen is an optional component for this project. The Raspberry Pi has a HDMI port built in which can be used to project on any monitor/tv that is HDMI capable. For my full node, I wanted to have a touch screen that displays the current price of Bitcoin. Plus I plan on sending and receiving Bitcoin directly from my node, and having a designated screen would make this process much easier. Plus it looks cool. Our kit will use a LCD Touchscreen that is compatible with the Raspberry Pi. It also fits perfectly in the case. Raspberry Pi Case The Raspberry Pi case once again is optional. I wanted something that would contain both my Raspberry Pi and LCD Touchscreen. The kit that I purchased provided one that was simple and lightweight. This is perfect since I want my Raspberry Pi to be simple yet stylish. Raspberry Pi Wireless Keyboard This little device is optional, but it makes operating the Raspberry Pi way easier. Without it, you will have to plug in a desktop USB and Mouse or SSH into the Pi. I definitely recommend picking it up since its only $20 and it will make your life a lot easier. 1 TB Hard Drive The 1TB Hard Drive is necessary for storing the Blockchain. At the time of writing this (08/13/17) the Bitcoin blockchain is approximately 130GB. You can check the current size by clicking on this link. Currently, the blockchain is growing at about 50GB a year. As Bitcoin gains popularity in the coming years, it is destined to grow at a much faster rate. For the sake of longevity, I strongly recommend that you purchase a hard drive that will last for years to come. If a 1TB Hard Drive is too far out of your price range, you can always start smaller and upgrade once you outgrow it. How to Build a Bitcoin Full Node on a Raspberry Pi 1. Setting up the Raspberry Pi Setting up the Raspberry Pi is simple. If you purchased a Raspberry Pi kit that already has Raspbian installed, you simply need to put in the SD card and plug it in. For those of you that need to install linux on a blank SD card, you can follow this guide on the RaspberryPi.org website. Update the the Raspbian Software sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade 2. Install the External Hard Drive Now that we have Raspbian up and running, we are going to partition the hard and mount it. First, let’s connect the external hard drive to the usb port on the Raspberry Pi. After we have connected the external hard drive to the Raspberry Pi we are going to run a command to see if it was identified. sudo fdisk -l As you can see, the hard drive is showing up at the bottom, and it’s labeled “/dev/sda”. We are now going to access the drive, format it, and partition it. Just as a warning, anything on the drive is going to be erased after this process. If you have anything important on it, I advise you to transfer off that information before doing this. Type in the following command. sudo fdisk /dev/sda Now that we are in the drive, you should see this screen. Enter “d” so that we can delete the partitions that are currently on the hard drive. Keep entering “d” until you receive a message telling you that there are no more partitions on the hard drive. d Now, it’s time to create our new partition. To do this, type in “n”. n You will be given the options to create a primary partition or an extended partition. Type in “p” to choose primary partition. p You will now be prompted to number the partition. Choose “1” so that your drive will be named “/dev/sda1”. /dev/sda1 For the next two questions about the first and last sector, simply hit enter for both of them so that it chooses the default. Now that you have created your new partition, it’s time to exit out of “fdisk” Type in “w” to exit fdisk. w Now it’s time tor format your new partition. We are going to partition it as “Fat 32”. By partitioning the system as Fat32, we ensure that the hard drive will be compatible with both Windows and Mac. This will come in handy if you decide to download the blockchain using one of those two operating systems. sudo mkdosfs -F 32 -I /dev/sda1 After the command has finished, you will have a newly partitioned hard drive! Now it’s time to set the drive to automatically mount. Before we edit the configuration file, let’s create the Bitcoin data directory. mkdir .blockchain Now it’s time to make modifications to the configuration file. Use the command below to access the configuration file. sudo nano /etc/fstab Once we are in this configuration file, we will add this line so that the hard drive is automatically mounted to our “.blockchain” folder. Remember to replace “pi” with whatever your Raspberry Pi’s username is. /dev/sda1 /home/pi/.blockchain vfat umask=0002,gid=users 0 0 Hit Ctrl-x and then hit Y so that we can save the file. Now, restart the Raspberry Pi so that we can confirm that the Raspberry Pi is automatically mounting the external hard drive. Run the command below so that we can see if the drive has be mounted under our folder “.blockchain”. df -h If you see your drive “/dev/sda1” mounted on “/home/pi/.blockchain” then you are ready to proceed! 3. Increase the Swap File A swap file allows the Micro Sd Card in the Raspberry Pi to be used as ram. This step is important if you are going to download the whole blockchain using the Raspberry Pi. If you plan on downloading it on a separate device, this step isn’t necessary. Let’s start by editing the file “/etc/dphys-swapfile”. sudo nano /etc/dphys-swapfile We are going to change the default size of the swap file from 100 to 1000. Find the line: CONF_SWAPSIZE=100 To: CONF_SWAPSIZE=1000 Hit CTRL-X and then Y to save the file. Run the commands below to initiate this new swap file. sudo dphys-swapfile setup sudo dphys-swapfile swapon 4. Install the Bitcoin Core Dependencies Before we install the actual Bitcoin Core software, we need to download certain dependencies that the software relies on. sudo apt-get install protobuf-compiler libminiupnpc-dev libevent-dev libtool libssl-dev libboost-all-dev qt4-dev-tools libprotobuf-dev libqrencode-dev autoconf After those dependencies are installed, we are going to need to install git. Git is going to be used to access download the Bitcoin Core source code from the GitHub repository. In case you don’t know what that is, it’s a commonly accepted platform that distributes source code for all types of applications. sudo apt-get install git -y Bitcoin Core uses Berkeley Database for their wallet system. It specifically relies on version 4.8. Berkeley is created by Oracle, which is the same company that creates Java. We are going to make a directory that we can download and install the database into. mkdir ~/bin cd ~/bin Now that we are in the new directory that we have created, let’s download the tar for the Berkeley Database. wget http://download.oracle.com/berkeley-db/db-4.8.30.NC.tar.gz Now that you’ve downloaded the Berkeley database, you’ll use the following command to extract it. tar -xzvf db-4.8.30.NC.tar.gz Now that we have extracted the Berkeley Database, let’s go into the directory prepare the source code for installation. This process can take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. cd db-4.8.30.NC/build_unix/ ../dist/configure --enable-cxx make Once the command has finished, it’s time to install the Berkeley Database. sudo make install Excellent! Now that the Berkeley Database is installed, we are now ready to install the Bitcoin Core Client! 5. Insall the Bitcoin Software The first thing we are going to do is go back into the bin directory. Once we are in the bin directory, we are going to down the Bitcoin Core source code into it. The “git” command is going to pull the source code from the GitHub repository. Use “-b” to specify to the version/branch of the source code that you want to download. You can visit: https://bitcoincore.org to find out which version of Bitcoin Core is most recent. Note: This command will download the latest version of Bitcoin Core V.14. You will want to replace the 0.14 with the latest version that is currently out. cd ~/bin git clone -b 0.14 https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.git cd bitcoin/ Now that we have download the Bitcoin Core source code, it’s time to prepare it for installation. After you run the “make” command, be prepared to wait a few hours before you are ready to complete the installation. ./autogen.sh ./configure CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/BerkeleyDB.4.8/include -O2" LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/BerkeleyDB.4.8/lib" --enable-upnp-default --with-gui make Bitcoin Core is now ready to be installed. Run the code below to finish the install. sudo make install Congratulations! Your Bitcoin Core client is now installed! 6. Starting the Bitcoin Core Client Before you start your Bitcoin client, you have to open port 8333 on your router and point it to your Raspberry Pi. This is required so that your new full node can allow incoming connections. To Start the Bitcoin Core Client, simply type in the command below. This will start the Bitcoin core client using our mounted hard drive “.blockchain”. If you followed the section that explained how to mount your external hard drive then it should start downloading directly onto your hard drive. This process can take a long time since the Raspberry Pi’s resources aren’t that of a full blown desktop. If you want to speed up this process, go to step 7 and download the Blockchain on another computer. bitcoin-qt -datadir=/home/pi/.blockchain After you have completely synced your Bitcoin Core Client with the Blockchain, hover your mouse over the little icons at the bottom right of the client. A little display will pop up showing how many connections your client has. If you are showing more connections than 8, you have successfully configured your full node! 7. Download the Blockchain on a separate Computer (Optional) To speed of the download of the blockchain, I recommend downloading it on your main machine. You can download Bitcoin Core on Windows, Mac, and Linux. After you download Bitcoin Core, start it up and let the blockchain sync. This can take several days to complete, so make sure that whichever computer you use can withstand being run non-stop during that time. Downloading the Blockchain on Ubuntu It is just as simple to download the blockchain on Ubuntu as it is on the Raspbian OS. Once you have downloaded and installed Ubuntu on your main computer, open terminal. Installing Bitcoin Core on Ubuntu This first command will tell Linux where to download the Bitcoin Software. The second will update Linux’s information on which packages are available. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bitcoin/bitcoin sudo apt update This command will install both the Bitcoin Core command line and the Bitcoin Core GUI interface. sudo apt install bitcoind bitcoin-qt This command will update your Linux Distribution. sudo apt upgrade Mounting the External Hard Drive to your Ubuntu System Create a new .blockchain directory sudo mkdir ~/.blockchain Find out the name of the external hard drive’s partition sudo fdisk -l Below you can spot out your hard drive usually in this area. Mount the external hard drive sudo mount /dev/sda1 ~/.blockchain These two commands will give your user the permissions to access the external hard drive. This is necessary for the Bitcoin Core software to access the drive. sudo chown pinode /home/ubuntu/.blockchain sudo chgrp pinode /home/ubuntu/.blockchain Now that we have installed Bitcoin Core and mounted the hard drive, it is time to start the Bitcoin Core Client! bitcoin-qt -datadir=/home/pi/.blockchain The GUI for Bitcoin Core should open following this command. It will show you a screen that has details regarding how many more blocks need to be downloaded, how long it will take, what time period of the blockchain you are downloading (This part is cool, it’s kind of like going back in time). After the blockchain has completely downloaded, let’s unmount it and then mount it on the Raspberry Pi. sudo umount /dev/sda1 Unplug the external hard drive from your main machine and then plug it into the Raspberry Pi. Restart or turn on your Raspberry Pi, and run the Bitcoin Core Client. After the Bitcoin Core Client starts up, check if the blockchain is fully downloaded by hovering your cursor over the checkmark at the bottom right of the client. In Conclusion Building a Bitcoin full node on a Raspberry Pi is much simpler than it seems. After you purchase all of the parts, it’s simply a matter of running the necessary commands and opening the port 8333 on your router. A full node isn’t necessary to send and receive Bitcoin, but it’s necessary to keep the network healthy. By allowing incoming transactions to your node you are verifying transactions and allowing the blockchain to be downloaded. What makes Bitcoin so special is it’s ability to be maintained by the people who use it. Let’s continue to keep Bitcoin alive and well by doing all that we can to let out voice be heard throughout the Bitcoin network. If you have any questions or contributions to this guide, I’d love for you to either comment below or email me at Nick@BuildaMiningRig.com!
A couple of years back, I was having a conversation with a client who said to me, "This feels like the first time in ages that the global privacy debate hasn't been dominated by what's happening in Europe." At that time, there was a lot of excitement about privacy developments in Australia, Canada, Mexico and Singapore. Europe was – by its standards – relatively calm; certain issues were simmering, but had not yet reached boiling point. My, how things changed. Within a few months of that conversation, along came the CJEU's Right to be Forgotten (May 2014) and Weltimmo judgments; then Safe Harbor's collapse, the adoption of the GDPR, and launch of the EU-US Privacy Shield. The needle of the global privacy barometer once again swung firmly back towards the EU. While each of these developments had a significant impact on organisational risk and compliance, none have attracted quite as much attention as the GDPR. In large part, this can be attributed to the breath-taking scope and liabilities it introduces. It has worldwide effect. It applies to processors, as well as controllers. And nothing excites executive imagination quite like a concern that the business could be fined up to four per cent of global turnover if found in breach. It is therefore no surprise that many businesses are now rushing to ensure they are GDPR-ready before the new law comes into effect in May 2018. Many of these readiness activities take place behind-the-scenes, as organisations conduct data maps, implement new policies, create new compliance processes and appoint DPOs. However, some are more outward-facing, like updating privacy notices, and yet others require cooperation from third parties – cooperation that may not always be willingly given: specifically, when it comes to updating data processing contracts with third party service providers. Data processing contracts under the GDPR The GDPR sets out an ambitious and prescriptive list of requirements that must be included in data processing contracts. The list is significantly longer than that required by the current Directive, which requires only that a processor acts on its controller's instructions and maintains "appropriate" security for the data it processes. Under the GDPR, there is a much longer list, all set out in Article 28. In addition to acting on instructions and maintaining appropriate security, processors must not subcontract without consent; they must ensure the persons they authorise to process data are under a contractual or statutory duty of confidence; they must flow down their own data protection commitments to any subprocessors they appoint; they must support the exercise of data subjects' rights; they must notify data breaches to their controller, and support the controller in conducting data protection impact assessments and consulting with DPAs (where necessary); they must commit to deleting or returning personal data upon completion of their services; and they must agree to submit to audits by their controller. Maybe updating contractual templates to incorporate these requirements does not seem like that big of a deal – but what about when faced with the hard reality of contractual negotiations? How many service providers will agree to audits by their customers? How many will accept restrictions on their ability to appoint subprocessors? And what will service providers agree on liability caps? Customers will likely want unlimited liability (they'll have those 4% fines at the forefront of their minds) while their service providers will want to protect the business and limit their liability as best they can – perhaps by reference to amounts based on the pricing of their service or the extent of their insurance coverage. How the global data processing market will adapt Whichever way you look at it, data protection contracting is set to become significantly more complicated under the GDPR. It would be a mistake, though, to think that these effects will be felt in the EU alone. The reality is that the global data processing market as a whole will need to adapt. Large global customers will favour those service providers that offer them data protection terms that stand shoulder-to-shoulder with GDPR's requirements, regardless of whether the data processed originates from the EU or not. Why? Because, these days, organisations process vast amounts of data, from all over the world – from data subjects inside and outside of the EU. In processing this data, they know that there is a high likelihood – in fact, virtual certainty – that they will be subject to the GDPR, given its expansive scope. With this knowledge, they will worry about the consequences of any non-compliance and the risk they might be exposed to the GDPR's enormous fines. In consequence of this, when passing data to service providers, they will look for service providers who make compliance easy for them – by offering a high standard of protections uniformly across all data, without divvying up protection for EU data one way and non-EU data another way. That would just make life too hard. In response to this, service providers that want to attract business from the largest customers will compete to offer the "most" compliant service – and the GDPR, providing as it does, the single-most comprehensive piece of privacy legislation in the world, will become the benchmark for this compliance. And, as leading service providers start to apply GDPR standards across all data they process, so too will their competitors who benchmark their own compliance against that of their peers. Slowly but inevitably, the GDPR will become the standard for data protection contracts worldwide. At least, that's my view. As I see things right now, service providers have a choice: they can start readiness activities now and offer GDPR-compliant data processing terms to their customers as soon as possible, increasing the likelihood of winning major, global customer accounts; or they can wait, putting some customer accounts at risk in the short term, until market forces push them into offering GDPR terms anyway. Faced with a choice like that, why wait?
Microsoft bought Sunrise, the best calendar app. This is a photo of a real sunrise, not the app. Flickr/Calvin YC A week ago, the apps on my home screen were dominated by just about every major tech company except Microsoft. I had Google for search and email. Yahoo for sports and weather. Facebook for social networking, photo sharing (Instagram), and messaging. But last week Microsoft relaunched Outlook on iPhone and Android. The app was based on Acompli, an excellent email app Microsoft bought in December 2014 for a reported $200 million. It was a home run. After five minutes with the app, I knew Outlook was so good that I could delete Gmail. I'm still in love with it. On Wednesday, TechCrunch reported that Microsoft was closing a deal to buy the calendar app Sunrise for about $100 million. It's not official yet, but expect an announcement soon. Sunrise happens to be the best calendar app for iPhone, Android, and the desktop. It syncs with all the major services like Google and Exchange, and is much easier to use than the crappy calendar app that comes with your phone. The Sunrise and Acompli acquisitions are just the latest signs that Microsoft is turning into a very different company after just a year under CEO Satya Nadella. The Sunrise app for iPhone. iTunes It's making software for all platforms and acquiring popular apps that do stuff like email better than its own apps. It finally brought Office to the iPad, iPhone, and Android. It's rebooting the disaster that's Windows 8 into Windows 10, which is already very promising. And so much more. If you had told me a year ago that Microsoft was on its way to being one the best mobile app developers, I wouldn't have believed you. It really feels like a new Microsoft.
Tracy and Doug Hurst of Metropolitan Brewing are preparing to expand operations. View Full Caption Metropolitan Brewing RAVENSWOOD — Metropolitan Brewing has outgrown its Ravenswood Avenue facility and is in the market for a new home, co-owner Tracy Hurst confirmed. The brewery tipped its hand Wednesday, posting to Twitter: "Oh, just spent time today scouting locations for our new brewery. You know, nbd." Metropolitan, founded by Tracy and Doug Hurst in 2008, currently produces 200 barrels of beer a month, including the Krankshaft, Flywheel and Generator brews. Plans are to triple, and eventually quadruple that output, she said. "Our end goal is to be a regional Midwest craft brewery," said Hurst, defining regional as within a day's drive. As of now, Metropolitan is only available in Cook and eight surrounding counties. Growth was always part of Metropolitan's strategy and the space at 5121 N. Ravenswood Ave. was never meant to be a permanent home. "This is a lease," Hurst said. "That's because we knew this would be a step for us." But there is a limit to how big the Hursts want to get. "We believe in serving your local market," she said. Once Metropolitan reaches that 800-barrel capacity, any additional growth will be limited to the number of brands the brewery offers. "We didn't get into this to be wealthy people with villas in Switzerland," said Hurst. "We're not looking to conquer the world." Though tight-lipped about where Metropolitan might eventually land, she did promise the brewery would remain true to its Chicago roots. "Our packaging reads Chicago," said Hurst. "It's definitely our mission, our vision to be a Chicago brewery."
From David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, as of May 8, 2013: "Dear Partner: The Greenlight Capital funds (the “Partnerships”) returned 5.8%1, net of fees and expenses, in the first quarter of 2013. It was a quarter of reversal: Marvell Technology Group (NASDAQ:MRVL), our biggest loser in 2012, was our biggest winner this quarter. Yen puts, our biggest losing position in both 2010 and 2011, were our next biggest winner. On the other hand, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), a top three winner in 2011 and 2012, was our biggest loser. Overall, it was a decent start to the year with a good risk-adjusted return. It’s unlikely for us to keep up with the sort of one-way market that we saw in the first quarter, where the S&P 500 never suffered more than a trivial weekly decline. Our long portfolio roughly matched the S&P 500, we had a modest loss in our short portfolio, and macro was positive. We are four years into an economic recovery. Corporate earnings, which grew steadily during the initial stages of the recovery, are now growing anemically. The market advance can be better explained by investors convincing themselves that extraordinarily accommodative monetary policy is bullish for stocks. Unconventional monetary policy is now a global phenomenon. The Japanese government replaced its conservative central banker with a more aggressive one. This regime change has led Japan into the global battle to see who can debase their currency the fastest and this drove our gains in Yen puts, as the Yen weakened from ¥86.74 to ¥94.19 against the dollar. Now every major central bank is fully engaged in aggressive, unconventional policy. It seems that as each bank implements a new experiment without immediate consequence, the new policy is deemed safe, if not effective. Other central bankers notice and, acting in the philosophy of ‘Anything you can do, I can do better,’ take turns in one-upmanship. This serially correlated behavior smacks of bubble mentality. But investors are currently complacent about the unintended consequences of central bank money printing, and like most investment cycles and fads, this will persist until it doesn’t. Under the circumstances, it is curious that gold isn’t doing better. AAPL shares fell from $532 to $443 during the quarter. The biggest problems with our AAPL investment are disappointing earnings and a diminished forecast. When AAPL announced its year-end result, it made clear that it would earn less in the March quarter than it did a year ago. Forward estimates have been falling for a while. Last July, consensus estimates for fiscal 2014 were $64 per share; estimates now stand at $44. When we thought the company would earn $64 per share, the shares seemed cheap even as they reached $700 in September. Of course, that required AAPL to meet that forecast. Our thesis is that AAPL has a terrific operating platform, engendering a loyal, sticky and growing customer base that will make repeated purchases of an expanding AAPL product offering. Unfortunately, there have been a series of disappointments including slower sales growth, lower margins, and increased competition. There have also been delays in new carrier wins, next generation product introductions, and new product category launches. While all of these have had an understandably negative impact on AAPL’s share price, we take a longer view and believe our thesis is intact. As shareholders, we watched AAPL accumulate a cash stockpile greater than the market capitalization of all but 17 companies in the S&P 500, and recognized that its high cost of capital and shareholder-unfriendly capital allocation were depressing the stock price. AAPL’s management and Board, either unconcerned or unaware of the detrimental effects of AAPL’s all common equity capital structure, seemed uninterested in finding a solution. As shareholders who believe in AAPL’s core business, we wanted to help AAPL resolve its cash problem in a way that satisfied AAPL, the market, and its shareholders. Based on years of observation and many discussions, we believed that AAPL would not issue debt under any circumstances, and especially not to return cash to shareholders. With this in mind, coupled with our awareness that AAPL was loath to repatriate (and thereby pay taxes on) its overseas cash, last year we suggested iPrefs to Peter Oppenheimer, AAPL's CFO. We had no better luck than any of the many other investors and analysts who for years have pressed Apple to return excess capital to shareholders. Our concerns fell on deaf ears. In February, CalPERS came out in loud support of a proposal aimed at improving AAPL’s corporate governance that inexplicably bundled several measures into a single voting measure. The proposal, which included an unwarranted provision prohibiting AAPL from issuing preferred stock, was in direct violation of SEC rules, and we filed a lawsuit insisting that AAPL allow the shareholders to vote on each measure separately. We believed this would generate a public dialogue around AAPL’s capital allocation strategy. When Tim Cook later called the lawsuit a sideshow, it was understandable. Whereas we chose to focus on the very real issue of Apple’s capital structure, others seemed more intent on turning things into a circus. A lawyer known mostly for preserving the autonomy of Boards to act in any manner they wish wrote a piece titled Bite the Apple; Poison the Apple; Paralyze the Company; Wreck the Economy. Given the hysteria implied in the title, one would think we had suggested that AAPL hire Steve Ballmer to run new product development. A retired Fortune 500 CEO said, “I’d give Einhorn the back of my hand,” prompting us to wonder why he wouldn’t give us the front of his hand. Perhaps most startling was the reaction from CalPERS, who vigorously defended the proposal. The essence of corporate governance is form over substance. The belief is that properly-made decisions will lead to better decisions, so it was odd to watch self-identified corporate governance advocates support a proxy proposal that violated SEC rules. Incongruously, CalPERS believes good corporate governance is unnecessary when approving policies that purport to improve corporate governance. Others ignored the circus and focused on the balance sheet. We received feedback from many AAPL shareholders, including some of AAPL’s largest institutional investors, thanking us for initiating the public discussion. Even some who disagreed with our idea helped further the public debate. Respected NYU finance professor Aswath Damodaran wrote a critical piece that pushed us to refine our presentation of the iPrefs idea. These thoughtful responses reinforce the value of speaking publicly, despite the more obvious drawbacks. In the end, the judge sided with us, and AAPL withdrew the proposal from consideration. Once the shareholder meeting passed, there was nothing left for a court to do, so the case became moot and was dropped. Not long after, we met with AAPL management and its investment bankers to further discuss AAPL’s options. We believe that our thoughts were given a fair hearing. Ultimately, the Board and AAPL decided to abandon their “no debt” philosophy and gave birth to iBonds. As rejections go, AAPL’s bond issuance ($17 billion in bonds were issued at about a 2% average interest cost) was as good as anything shareholders could have hoped for and the market seems to agree. AAPL announced that it will return $100 billion to shareholders by the end of 2015 and will evaluate returning additional capital annually. This vastly more shareholder-friendly capital allocation policy is a dramatic shift from where AAPL stood just a few months ago. We have added to our AAPL position. We now await the release of Apple’s next blockbuster product. The other significant loser in the quarter was Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (NASDAQ:GMCR). We would love to be the “Credentialed Bear” that gets invited to ask tough questions at its annual shareholder meeting, but we aren’t waiting by our iPhones. Shares of GMCR increased from $41.34 to $56.76 in the quarter. In addition to MRVL and the Yen, Vodafone (UK: VOD) was another material winner during the quarter. It is now clear that Verizon does in fact want to buy VOD’s 45% interest in Verizon Wireless. We can hear them now. We believe that a premium sale followed by a successful return and/or redeployment of the proceeds could unlock substantial value latent in VOD stock. VOD without Verizon Wireless might also become a good acquisition target for AT&T. During the quarter VOD shares advanced from £1.54 to £1.87. MRVL reversed its 2012 decline as investors began to pay attention to MRVL’s prospects for share gains in controllers for hard disk drives and flash memory drives, as well as its new processor for cell phones and tablets. The company should see significant fixed operating leverage in 2013, as it has been carrying the cost of the investments in these products without any corresponding revenue until now. The company has also continued to buy back stock aggressively, adding to the potential earnings leverage. We initiated a long position in Evonik (Germany: EVK), a global chemical business, through a private placement at an effective price of €29.13 per share, ahead of a public listing in April. EVK has a high quality portfolio of chemical assets in the U.S., Europe and Asia, including market leadership in methionine, a high margin, high structural growth business that tracks the demand for animal feed. EVK’s business is less cyclical than that of its European peers as demonstrated by its positive EBITDA growth each year even during the recession. EVK is currently in the middle of a capital investment cycle that we believe will enable it to grow its earnings power from €2.50 in 2012 to €4.00 per share in 2015/2016. We think that its combination of secular growth, superior asset quality, and low cyclicality makes EVK the premier European chemical company, which deserves a re-rating to a premium multiple. We initiated a long position in Oil States International (NYSE:OIS), a solutions provider for the oil and gas industry, at an average price of $77.16 per share. OIS has four business segments: Well Site Services, Tubular Services, Offshore Products, and Accommodations. We believe that the company trades at a significant discount to the sum of its parts. Though the shares trade at slightly less than 7x 2013 EBITDA (a multiple typically associated with its lower multiple businesses), the majority of its profits come from Accommodations, which is a high-growth, high return-on-capital segment that deserves a much higher valuation. At 8.6x 2013 EBITDA, an appropriate multiple given a sum of the parts analysis of OIS’s business mix and where comparable companies trade, OIS would be worth close to $120 per share. We believe that OIS could unlock significant shareholder value by converting the Accommodations unit into a REIT and separating it from the rest of the company; if completed, it would suggest a valuation of $155 per share. We closed several positions during the quarter including longs in Ensco (NYSE:ESV) and Xerox (NYSE:XRX), and shorts in Avalon Bay (NYSE:AVB) and MBIA (NYSE:MBI). We bought ESV, an offshore contract oil driller, after the Macondo oil spill. At the time, we believed that the shares were depressed over fears of curtailed offshore drilling. Subsequently, the fears were resolved and the drilling business recovered. We earned a 34% compounded return over our 4+ year holding period. The return was helped by favorable trading around the position. We sold in order to redeploy the capital into OIS. XRX did not perform as well as we had hoped. We bought the shares based on expectations that synergies from its acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services would lead to revenue growth and margin improvement. Unfortunately, the company did not deliver. Despite this, we sold the shares for a modest gain. We finally gave up on our short of AVB. Our initial short in early 2007 worked nicely during the credit crisis, but we overstayed our welcome. It is a mediocre business with cyclical risk and an extreme valuation due to its REIT nature. Nonetheless, the company recently acquired Archstone properties and issued a lot of stock. The shares declined from their recent highs and we took the opportunity to admit defeat and exit with a loss. During the quarter, we finally declared victory on our MBI short, which we have held in some capacity since 2002. It was rough sledding for the first five years until the stock collapsed from $76 to $2 between 2007 and 2009. This was another case of a misunderstood business and a management team engaged in assorted accounting and business chicanery. While it is possible that sleepy regulators will ultimately put this company and its management out of their misery, the opposite seems equally possible. We’ve decided to enjoy the healthy profit we made and step aside for the time being. Cumulatively, this was the third most profitable short position in our history." About the author:
Seven mayors from France called on President Emmanuel Macron to step in and help them deal with the flow of (illegal) immigrants from Africa and the Middle East. French daily Le Monde published a letter written by the mayors of Strasbourg, Grenoble, Rennes, Nantes, Toulouse, Lille, and Bordeaux. In the letter, the mayors say that they are forced to take in "several thousand" refugees every month. This tsunami is creating massive social problems, they go on to explain. They feel that they're "backed up against a wall" and "completely saturated." The mayors want Macron to establish a "solidarity network" between the cities of France "dedicated to addressing the flow of migrants," as well as an "enlarged meeting with the state at the highest level," which the mayors say must act quickly by assuming its sovereign powers to "finance these developed actions and propose a clarified framework of work with the communities for a real plan of reception of the migrants."
The Expo Line extension to Santa Monica opens tomorrow (!!!), and, in anticipation, the city of Santa Monica has launched a full-on push to let people know about all the great non-car options available to them, and how to use those options to explore the areas around the three new Expo Line stations coming to Santa Monica. (The Expo will have seven new stations in all between Culver City and SaMo.) As part of the new campaign, GoSaMo, the city's set up a website with tons of resources to help riders take full advantage of the bounty of transport at their disposal, including three maps each showcasing over a dozen things to eat, see, and do within a five-minute walk, bike ride, or bus trip of Santa Monica's new Expo stations. With the Breeze Bike Share up and running in the city, train passengers won't even have to worry about bringing their own.
The Elections Department will continue to count and verify signatures, since CBA turned in more than 18,000, so the final valid number could be more than 10,000. But the good news is that there will be an election in AZ-18. The Secretary of State now has five days to approve the count, then Governor Jan Brewer has 15 days to call the special election. That's not to say the district will flip to the D column. In fact, there are several moderate Republicans who have hinted that they will challenge Pearce, and since the Mesa district is very conservative, it's likely to remain under Republican control, even if Pearce loses. The bottom line, though, is that there may be enough people in District 18 who want to give the bigot the boot -- which would benefit the entire state, not just District 18. I don't have time to write a long dairy about the reasons Pearce should be sent packing, but here's a quick "Best Of" list: 1. Wife beater (she later dropped the charges, but the affidavit, saying how he punched, shoved, and grabbed her by the throat, exists). 2. Fired as director of Motor Vehicles for forging documents. His son was also arrested in the FBI sting, while another son currently sits in jail for domestic abuse -- nice family. 3. Associate of Arizona's National Socialist Party. You may remember how he forwarded lots of Nazi emails. 4. Author of SB 1070 and tons of even more radical, racist, and homophobic legislation. (I'm sure I've written 20 diaries on this one item.) 5. Fiesta Bowl ticket scandal. 6. Follower of Mormon wackjob and Bircher Cleon Skousen, who believed only white Mormon men can save democracy (there's the justification for SB 1070). 7. Tried to gin up anti-Mexican hatred by introducing a substitute teacher's letter into a Senate debate -- a letter that falsely accused Mexican students of hating whites and wanting to "take back" Arizona. 8. Declared himself King Russell when he became Senate President: created a "blacklist" to keep protestors out of the Capitol; barred the public from press conferences; declared it okay for legislators to pack heat. 9. On top of all the bigotry and bullying, while he's been presiding over the Senate ("the most powerful official in Arizona" the media say), the state has plummeted into an economic death spiral -- education has been gutted, healthcare is on the ropes, the state's reputation isn't worth a plug nickel, and unemployment is going through the roof. To top it off, this week Pearce and his hateful disciples refused to extend jobless benefits, even though doing so cost Arizona nothing, and would help thousands of families keep a roof over their head and bread on the table. I've just scratched the surface (here's an earlier diary with the Top 20 Reasons to Recall). Pearce has been an embarrassing catastrophe in so many ways, and there's no doubt the state would be in a much better place, economically and socially, without this one peckerhead. I could write a lot more about the mean-spirited SOB, but I'll let one 5th-generation Mormon, a lawyer from Pearce's district, speak for everyone. This is from his letter to Governor Brewer: I believe my letter represents the views of the majority of right thinking Mormons in Arizona. We clearly still have some knuckle dragging closet racists in the Church. We pray that they will recognize the evil in their ways. While you're at it, pray that soon Pearce won't be in office. And vote too. Arpaio next.
RX100 Summary Sony's Cyber-shot RX100 takes the cake as the most premium of pocket cameras, with a much larger sensor, a very bright lens (at wide angle), excellent image quality, great performance, and enough modes and special features to keep a tinkerer busy for a good long time. Pros Excellent high-ISO performance for such a compact model; Smart controls; Small body; Bright lens; 10fps full-res burst mode; Very fast shutter response; Excellent LCD. Cons Lens flare at night; Poor rendering of yellows; Slow flash recycling; Soft corners wide open; Continuous AF mode slow to lock. Price and availability Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 started shipping in the US market from July 2012. Pricing is set at around US$650 for the camera with battery, AC adapter, USB cable, hand strap, and neck strap adapters. Imaging Resource rating 5.0 out of 5.0 Sony RX100 Review by Shawn Barnett, Mike Tomkins, Zig Weidelich, and Dave Etchells Review Posted: 06/06/2012 Sony finally did what so many of us have wanted: They've built a pocketable camera with a large sensor and a bright lens. It's the Sony Cyber-shot RX100, and it'll send other camera makers back to their drawing boards for next season. The Sony RX100 sets a 20.2-megapixel, 1-inch sensor behind a bright 3.6x, f/1.8 lens, and wraps it in a small body not much bigger than a Canon S100. Indeed, the special magic of the Sony RX100 is how closely they stuck to the stronger points of the S100, one of Canon's more successful premium pocket cameras. For many of us who own a camera in this particular pocket category, the Sony RX100 embodies what we wanted when we laid down our cash for the S100, LX5, or XZ-1: a larger sensor, a bright lens, and a small body. Many will rightly note how slavishly Sony copied the S90, S95, and S100 digital cameras, much as Nikon heavily imitated the Canon G11 with the Nikon P7000. As a Canon S95 owner, I found it easy to compare the two designs by reaching into my bag. Let's have a quick look. (I wouldn't normally lead with this comparison, and I'm not being cheeky by doing so, it's just such a striking similarity I can't go on talking about the Sony RX100's design without either getting this out of the way, or repeating ad nauseam how similar each element is to the S95.) As you can see, because the sensor is so much larger, the lens has to be larger too, and sticks out further when powered on as a result. Sony did an impressive job of keeping the RX100 thin when switched off, though, as you can see in the shot below. On the front, the position of the AF-assist lamp and the inclusion of the multi-purpose ring are only the first similarities on the pleasingly simple designs. Flash really can't go anywhere else, so not much to say there, but the recessed Power button, Shutter button, and Zoom toggles seem to be designed to make the Canon S-shooter feel right at home. The Mode dial is also in just the right place, recessed well for rear thumb access, yet reduced likelihood of accidental activation in a pocket. Finally, the back has a similar four-way navigator with an integrated scroll disk and set button in the middle, flanked by four other buttons. It's a common arrangement, however, so this is less noteworthy overall. But the dual control offered by the front ring and rear dial arrangement was unique to the Canon S-series until now. I don't present the Sony RX100's close resemblance to the Canon S-series as a scandalous development any more than making an SLR with a grip and a hump on top is a scandal. Seems more like good business to me, making a camera that is built the way people seem to want, but with better imaging capability inside. According to what we've seen so far, Sony's done just that. Since we're making comparisons to other cameras, it's important to note that the sensor in the Sony RX100, a 1-inch design, is essentially the same size as that in the Nikon 1 series compact system cameras. As Sony puts it, that makes the sensor about four times larger than the average 1/2.3-inch sensor. Many were upset that Nikon's compact system camera had a smaller sensor than its CSC competition, but I think the compactness of the Sony RX100 more than makes up for any concern about sensor size: The Sony RX100 is where use of the 1-inch sensor can be hailed as an engineering milestone. From the front, the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 speaks to its seriousness. The band offsetting the top third of the camera subtly evokes the Leica rangefinder ethos without going overboard. Note the Carl Zeiss badge and name on the lens. The front lens element is concave rather than convex. The ring surrounding the lens turns freely--without click-stops, unlike the S-series. But when the Sony RX100 is powered on, the speaker emits a clicking sound. As shown in the tech info section, the flash pops up on a hinged mechanical support like we've seen on several Micro Four Thirds cameras, as well as the Sony NEX-F3. It's a tiny flash that's pretty effective at wide angle, but anemic at full telephoto, according to our tests (see the results in our Flash section). Two microphone holes tell of the RX100's stereo recording. An amber LED lights in the center of the Power button to indicate charging. The Sony RX100 comes with no battery charger, just a small USB power supply with flip prongs. An included standard micro USB cable serves to charge the camera and transfer images. That's convenient for travel, but a little painful to keep two batteries maintained, as we've had to do while reviewing the RX100. The USB port is hidden behind a door to the right of the Movie button in the rear image below. The 3-inch LCD is pretty nice, a 1,229K-dot design they call Xtra Fine LCD. Sony says they added a new feature they call WhiteMagic, which uses additional white pixels to boost brightness and show more detail on the screen. The screen is so very fine, it's hard to see anything like white pixels, even looking very closely. A decent rubber thumbpad rises to subtly shield the Movie record button. These buttons are very small, but most are raised sufficiently to actuate easily; the Playback button is flush, as it turns on the camera in Playback mode without extending the lens. The rear dial also functions as a four-way navigator. The ? button brings up a pretty extensive tip menu with contextual help and suggestions for different types of photographic situations. This doesn't seem like it would be useful for the intended target market, but it can't hurt. Overall, the Sony RX100's form factor is excellent, with a tight build, aluminum body, and high-quality, responsive buttons and dials. And as a regular S95 user, I indeed feel right at home. Note: We've completed our analysis of Optics, Exposure, and Performance, and posted our suite of Test Images and Gallery shots. Click the links here or use the tabs above to see what we think of the Sony RX100! Sony RX100 Field Test A new class of compact camera is born Nothing's more fun for a reviewer than looking at a camera we would buy for ourselves. Sony has finally refocused on the enthusiast user--something they haven't done with much traction since the unique F828--and the results are quite good. Form. Sony nailed it in the physical simplicity department, largely by conforming to an already popular, well-thought-out design. Though there's no grip on the front, the Sony RX100 is thick enough to hold easily. The larger lens ring leaves a little less room for your fingers, so I recommend using the wrist strap and both hands whenever possible. At $650, you don't want to drop this little beauty. Sony also included strap lugs for both sides of the RX100, so a solitary neck strap is also likely to be available. The shirt-pocketable design is a little thick, so it's not going to disappear into a pocket like a Sony T-series camera, but it'll fit in a pinch, and rides well in the looser pockets of slacks or handbags. Read our Sony RX100 Field Test Sony RX100 Technical Info Let's have a look under the hood One of the defining features of the Sony RX100 is its new 1.0"-type Exmor CMOS image sensor, with a resolution of 20.2 megapixels. Sony's first sensor in this format, it's the same size as those used by Nikon's 1-series (CX-mount) compact system cameras. Note that it's not a backside-illuminated design; according to Sony, it's large enough that a standard sensor structure suffices. Sensitivity ranges from ISO 125 to 6,400 equivalents, with the ability to extend to ISO 80 or 100. The Multi-Frame NR function can raise the upper limit to ISO 25,600. The new sensor has double the area of the 2/3"-type sensor used by the Fuji X10, and nearly triple the area of 1/1.7"-type sensors used in most premium compacts. Click to read Sony RX100 tech info! Sony RX100 Image Quality Comparison See how the Sony RX100's IQ compares to other cameras The crops below compare the Sony RX100 to the Canon S100, Canon G1 X, Nikon J1, Samsung NX200 and Sony NEX-5N. Though we normally start with ISO 1,600 here, we thought we'd start with base ISO to show the best that each camera can do. Note that these images are best quality JPEGs straight out of the camera, at default settings including noise reduction. Each camera was shot with the sharpest lens on hand, though the "point and shoot" cameras we've included here obviously used their fixed lenses. Though the Canon S100 does an admirable job for its sensor size, the Sony RX100 clearly has more resolution and better detail, quite noticeable in the mosaic detail. The RX100 even finds threads in the pink swatch below the red leaf swatch. See our Image Quality Comparison! Sony RX100 Print Quality Find out just how big you can print! Print quality and image quality are similar but not identical, because what you see on a print isn't always the same as what you see on the screen. Our print quality analysis answers the important question: "Just how big can I print my photos at higher ISOs?" Overall, the Sony RX100 stands out as a pocket camera that can produce good quality 24 x 36 inch prints from ISO 80 to 200, and even its highest ISO of 6,400 outputs a good quality 5 x 7. Impressive! Read about the Sony RX100's Print Quality Sony RX100 Conclusion Sony RX100 takes the premium pocket camera crown! Shaking up the premium pocket camera market, the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 made quite an impact here at Imaging-Resource.com. Not only did it make a lot of big claims, the Sony RX100 actually lived up to most of them, packing an astonishing amount of imaging power into a small package. It couldn't possibly escape us that they were aiming squarely at Canon's successful S-series of pocket cameras in their design, but it also seemed like a wise move. Since what we all want from a pocket camera is better image quality, Sony took the right tack by picking a sensor that's large enough to make a difference in image quality, yet small enough to still fit into a pocketable body. Adding a lens that's brighter than all but two cameras in the category also hits a good note. We found a little bit of lens flare, but overall the optic looks quite nice thanks to a little extra processing from the Bionz processor. Corner softening is present, as expected, but considering the very high resolution, it's not as big a factor as it looks at 100 percent onscreen. At wide-angle, we suspect some of the softening is due to the geometric distortion correction (See the Optics page for more). Read our Sony RX100 Conclusion In the Box Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 camera NP-BX1 battery AC-UD10/11 AC adaptor Micro USB cable Wrist strap Shoulder strap adaptor Instruction manual Software CDROM Recommended Accessories
About 200 Canadian permanent residents who had their Nexus cards revoked because of the Trump immigration ban have had their trusted-traveller passes reinstated. In a statement Wednesday, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the reinstatements were confirmed by U.S. officials, who have been in regular contact with their Canadian counterparts. "Some 200 Canadian permanent residents had their Nexus cards revoked a few days ago because the recent presidential executive order rendered them ineligible. But now that the order stands suspended, those 200 Nexus cards have been reinstated, pending further court decisions yet to come," Mr. Goodale said. Story continues below advertisement "The government of Canada continues to work to ensure all Canadians are treated in a fair and expeditious manner." U.S. President Donald Trump recently ordered a 90-day ban on the entry of people from seven Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. Shortly after, some Nexus card holders in Canada reported their cards being revoked. Mr. Goodale noted that the situation is "complex" because of a recent judicial suspension of the executive order and the appeal of that suspension. He said Nexus card holders who feel they have been treated unfairly by the eligibility decisions taken by the U.S. government can seek recourse by calling (202) 325-8000. Nexus cards give "low-risk, preapproved travellers" preclearance at designated ports of entry when travelling between Canada and the United States, allowing them to avoid long lineups and waiting times. In order to become a Nexus member, applicants must go through a rigorous screening process, including an application form, where they provide information about their work, travel and residence history, and an in-person interview with a Canada Border Services Agency or U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer. Applicants pay a $50 processing fee for a five-year membership; for children under the age of 18, it's free. As of December, 2016, there were 1.49 million members in the Nexus program – the majority of whom are Canadians, according to the CBSA. Toronto lawyer Cyndee Todgham Cherniak said she has heard from several Canadians and some permanent residents in Canada who have had their Nexus cards revoked since the Trump directive was signed. She said some of the individuals have dual citizenship with one of the seven countries named in Mr. Trump's immigration ban while others only have Canadian citizenship, with no ties to any of the affected countries. As of Wednesday, she said none of her clients had told her that their Nexus cards had been reinstated. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement Last week, Ms. Todgham Cherniak said each of the individuals received a letter from U.S. Customs and Border Protection telling them they were no longer eligible for Nexus membership, with no further details provided. Because none of them have broken customs or immigration laws, provided false information or been convicted of any crimes, she said she can only assume that they have been deemed by the United States to be not of "good character," a determination that can be made by U.S. officials to strip an individual's Nexus membership. "The U.S. must be taking the position that if you come from one of these seven countries, then you're no longer a good character," Ms. Todgham Cherniak said. "It's nothing that they've done, an action that they've taken – it's based on where they were born." Mr. Goodale said last week that there is an appeal process in place for people who feel they have been treated unfairly in having their Nexus cards revoked. However, Ms. Todgham Cherniak said that process is not simple for Canadians, as it often takes months for the U.S. ombudsman to respond to complaints and little transparency is provided. She called on Mr. Goodale to intervene directly. "What would be preferable would be to have Minister Goodale work with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to have a fair, transparent [appeal] process." Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen has said the government received assurances from the United States that Canadian dual citizens and permanent residents in Canada who are citizens of one of the seven countries named in the ban will still be allowed to cross the border. However, a State Department official added last week that permanent residents of Canada who hold passports of a restricted country must obtain a visa to enter the U.S. and can only do so through a Canadian land border or port of entry with preclearance services.
New Purdue coach Jeff Brohm addresses the media for the first time, sharing his goals and expectations for the Boilermakers' football program. (1:03) After leading Western Kentucky to back-to-back wins in the Conference USA championship game, coach Jeff Brohm is moving on to Purdue. Brohm received a six-year, $20 million deal, a source told ESPN's Brett McMurphy. The school said that the deal will be announced after it is approved by the board of trustees. Brohm has been head coach at Western Kentucky since 2014, going 30-10 and 2-0 in bowl games. He replaced Bobby Petrino when he took the Louisville job. Brohm was also an assistant during Petrino's first stint at Louisville. Brohm is a disciple of Petrino's offense, and his first game as Purdue head coach will be against Petrino and the Cardinals in Indianapolis on Sept. 2, 2017. Jeff Brohm is moving to the Big Ten as coach of Purdue. Joshua Lindsey/USA TODAY Sports The 45-year-old has coached in the Big Ten before, serving as quarterbacks coach at Illinois from 2010-11. "We were fortunate to meet with many talented coaches from around the country during our search, and Jeff's name was one that rose to the top early in the process," Purdue athletics director Mike Bobinski said in a statement. "He is a coach who already has achieved tremendous success and, at the same time, has incredible upside. His reputation and record of accomplishment as an innovative offensive coach and developer of quarterbacks is second to none." Defensive coordinator Nick Holt has been named interim coach at Western Kentucky, which faces Memphis in the Boca Raton Bowl Dec. 20. Brohm interviewed for Baylor's coaching vacancy and would have been the top target for Cincinnati, sources said. A source added that Purdue made a strong financial commitment following Western Kentucky's victory over Louisiana Tech. Yahoo! Sports was first to report Brohm's hiring. Purdue fired Darrell Hazell Oct. 16 after he compiled a 9-33 record in three-plus seasons. Wide receivers coach Gerad Parker served as Purdue's interim coach for the remainder of the season. The Boilermakers finished 3-9 and last in the Big Ten West. Brohm was a standout high school quarterback in Kentucky and then played for Louisville and in the NFL for the Chargers, Redskins, 49ers, Buccaneers, Broncos and Browns. He appeared in eight NFL games. He also played minor league baseball. Candidates for Western Kentucky's vacancy include Troy coach Neal Brown, Idaho coach Paul Petrino and Western Kentucky co-offensive coordinator Tony Levine, the former head coach at Houston. Information from ESPN's Brian Bennett was used in this report.
Wildlife A stunning photo is making the rounds on the web of a snowy owl nest wreathed by 70+ lemmings. The picture tells the story of rich times for one snowy owl; it had so much prey at its disposal that it couldn’t stop itself killing more rodents than it could eat. This picture presents a hypothesis for this winter’s snowy owl invasion. Here’s the idea: a superabundance of lemmings occurring in summer 2013 during the owls’ nesting season resulted in high nesting success. No baby owls went hungry and a superabundance of owls fledged. Seeking to space themselves out, many of these young, well-fed owls are now invading unusually southern latitudes throughout North America. At this point, we can’t be sure what has brought all of these owls south, but we do know that lemmings play a critical role in influencing snowy owl breeding distribution and nesting success. Beyond their role in the lives of owls, lemmings influence almost all aspects of arctic ecosystems. Over decades of study, scientists have settled on two things about lemmings: (1) they are foundational prey species of arctic ecosystems; and (2) their populations are cyclical. Scientists keep coming back to study these rodents because the causes of lemming population cycles are still not entirely understood. There are two competing hypotheses. The first is that predators drive lemming cycles. Fox, skua, and snowy owl populations increase as lemming prey increases. At some point in time, the lemmings get overrun by predators and the lemming population crashes. Shortly thereafter, populations of empty-bellied predators crash due to the dearth of lemmings. The second hypothesis is that the lemmings cause their own misfortune. When populations of lemmings increase to high levels, they deplete their own food resources. They overgraze the moss and grasses that form their main diet, which then leads to a population crash. Beyond their role in the lives of owls, lemmings influence almost all aspects of arctic ecosystems. Joe Smith Tweet this quote Scientists can’t agree on which of these hypotheses is correct – or for that matter, whether both factors may play a role. Although the ultimate explanation for lemming cycles is elusive, their impact on arctic wildlife is profound. Lemming cycles influence species that aren’t even lemming predators. For example, it’s been well established that shorebirds suffer higher rates of egg predation and nest failure in low lemming years as foxes and other predators shift from lemming hunting to nest finding.[1] Geese respond to low lemming conditions by moving their nests adjacent to snowy owl nests. Talon-brandishing owls keep the area clear of nest-robbing foxes. The geese benefit from the snowy owl’s defense of its own nest.[2] Just as these fascinating ecological relationships are being revealed, climate change appears to be influencing population cycles of arctic wildlife. In Norway, lemming population cycles have flattened out since the mid-1990s. The corresponding cycles of bird reproductive success have also flattened out. And populations of arctic foxes and snowy owls in Norway have declined dramatically. Predator declines are likely due to the lack of dramatic peaks of lemming abundance.[3] There’s strong evidence that the condition of snow cover is causing the flattening of lemming cycles in Norway. Lemmings conduct a lot of business under the snow – from feeding on mosses to reproducing. Warmer and more humid weather has created wetter, less crusty under-snow habitat conditions for lemmings that prevent them from flourishing. On the other hand in the Canadian high Arctic, the domain of our North American snowy owls, lemming cycles remain intact and robust. Researchers predict a trend of increasing snow depth in this region as a result of climate change that will benefit lemming populations.[4] Time will tell if climate change is playing a role in the recent snowy owl boom in North America. The Arctic is a big place, and it is clear that conditions for lemmings in some parts of the Arctic remain prime or are getting better, making good times for snowy owls and bird watchers alike.
LONDON (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers including teachers, council workers and firefighters staged a 24-hour pay strike on Thursday in a stoppage that has prompted Prime Minister David Cameron to pledge a crackdown on union powers. Protesters marched through the streets of many of Britain’s main cities in one of the biggest co-ordinated labor stoppages for three years. Denouncing what they called “poverty pay,” they demanded an end to restrictions on wage rises that have been imposed by the government over the past four years in an effort to help reduce Britain’s huge budget deficit. In London, demonstrators marched towards Trafalgar Square at midday, chanting “Low pay, no way, no slave labor” to the beat of a drum. A giant pair of inflatable scissors, carried by members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), read “Education cuts never heal.” Firefighter Simon Amos, 47, marched wearing his uniform behind a flashing fire engine parading members of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). “The government are making us pay more for our pension for it to be worth the same, and making us work longer,” he said. The biggest public sector union involved, Unison, said early reports showed the strike had lead to 3,225 school closures with more than 1,000 others partially closed. Refuse collectors, school support staff, cleaners, street sweepers, care workers, nursery assistants and social workers were joining the strike, it added. Hot spots, it said, included the North East, Wales and East Midlands where most council offices had closed, while more than 60 picket lines have closed most services in Newcastle. Striking public sector workers protest in Trafalgar Square in central London July 10, 2014. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth “It is a massive decision by local government and school support workers to sacrifice a day’s pay by going on strike, but today they are saying enough is enough,” said Unison General Secretary, Dave Prentis in a statement. HARD TIMES Britain’s coalition government has enforced a policy of pay restraint for public sector workers since coming to power in 2010, imposing a pay freeze until 2012 and then a one percent pay rise cap, resulting in a fall in income in real terms. The Cabinet Office played down the impact of the strike, saying that most schools in England and Wales were open and that fire services were operating throughout the country. On Wednesday, Cameron told parliament he planned to limit unions’ powers to call strikes. “How can it possibly be right for our children’s education to be disrupted by trade unions acting in this way” he said. Tough new laws would be proposed in the Conservative manifesto for next year’s general election, he added. These would include the introduction of a minimum threshold in the number of union members who need to take part in a strike ballot for it to be legal. Slideshow (3 Images) The manifesto could also back the introduction of a time limit on how long a vote in favor of industrial action would remain valid. The NUT mandate for Thursday’s strike, for example, came from a 2012 strike ballot based on a turnout of just 27 percent, Cameron said. The issue of minimum voting thresholds last arose three months ago when a strike by London Underground train drivers caused huge disruption in the capital, prompting Mayor Boris Johnson to demand that at least half of a union’s members should vote in favour for a strike to go ahead.
Researchers recently surveyed 18,000 voters in 15 European countries to find out "How Economic, Humanitarian and Religious Concerns Shape European Attitudes Toward Asylum-Seekers." Those interviewed for the study, set for publication Friday in "Science" magazine, evaluated the profiles of 180,000 applicants for asylum, clearly preferring refugees who offered economic benefit to the potential host countries. Stanford University researcher Jens Hainmueller talked to DW about the study's findings - including a heavy bias against Muslim applicants for asylum: Christians were preferred by a margin of 11 percentage points. DW: What did you set out to find when you undertook the study? What surprised you most about the results? Jens Hainmueller: How willing are voters to welcome asylum-seekers into their countries? The degree of backlash against governments that are providing protection to the hundreds of thousands of destitute asylum-seekers may obscure variation in attitudes across Western publics. In this light, our study is the first that examines in a systematic manner whether attitudes towards applicants are undifferentiated or dependent on specific characteristics of the applicants. If the latter, the study could help European policy makers to highlight characteristics that their voters embrace in order better to fulfill their obligations in international law and EU regulations. This is important not only for humanitarian reasons, but the continental unity of Europe is also at stake. Our results from surveying over 18,000 citizens in 15 European countries reveal that public preferences over asylum-seekers are shaped by three main considerations: sociotropic evaluations of their potential economic contributions, humanitarian concerns about the deservingness of their claims and anti-Muslim bias. One surprise was the relative strength of humanitarian considerations in structuring attitudes toward asylum-seekers. Previous research revealed how economic factors are important in guiding voters' preferences on immigrants in general, and so we expected these factors could have similar influence in the asylum context. Refugees and asylum-seekers in the 'Jungle' migrant camp in the French port city of Calais aim to reach Britain Of course, we also expected our respondents would recognize that asylum-seekers are a special type of migrant facing unique struggles, and hence would also take humanitarian concerns into consideration. We did not realize, however, how central this humanitarian impulse would be, with our results showing a level of importance placed on humanitarian concerns that was comparable with that given to economic factors. So when it comes to asylum-seekers, the findings suggest that the European public has at least partially internalized the central pillars of international refugee law: Many citizens agree that asylum-seekers who face persecution, have consistent asylum testimonies and have special vulnerabilities deserve protection. These preferences are widely shared across countries and apply across all types of asylum-seekers, regardless of their religion and employability. How did the results vary by nation? Were there countries that were particularly hostile to the idea of refugees? Countries where the division was particularly strong on religious grounds? Asylum preferences followed a similar pattern across the 15 surveyed countries, despite the fact that these countries exhibit major differences with regard to several potentially relevant factors for shaping asylum preferences, such as the number of asylum applications per capita, the existence of an EU external border or their economic strength. Similarly, attitudes toward asylum-seekers are fairly similar across respondents of different age, education, income and political ideology. There were two partial exceptions to this European consensus. First, the magnitude of the anti-Muslim bias varies somewhat. Anti-Muslim bias is much stronger among those who place themselves on the right of the left-right political spectrum. Second, the penalty against asylum-seekers who migrate for economic reasons is somewhat smaller in poorer countries (e.g. ,Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland) compared to richer countries (e.g., Austria, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland). What political and social challenges does the study suggest for policy makers? More importantly, what might it mean for refugees? This public consensus on what types of asylum-seekers to accept has important implications for policy. The results illuminate both challenges and opportunities for policymakers who are struggling to meet their legal responsibilities to protect refugees while simultaneously respecting the public will on this salient and divisive issue. While the results suggest that the principles enshrined in international refugee law play an important role in structuring asylum attitudes, we do not find public opinion to be in absolute lock step with international legal norms. Watch video 05:14 Share Stranded at the Hungarian border Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/1JpA9 Hungary: Stranded at the Border The fact that our respondents exhibited anti-Muslim bias and a preference for higher employability - even when evaluating legally legitimate asylum-seekers who face persecution - is at odds with the legal requirements that asylum not be given on the basis of religion or professional skills. Of course, we cannot expect that public opinion, as complex and multifaceted as it is, would perfectly mirror international legal ideals, but the public's strong anti-Muslim bias and preference for highly skilled asylum-seekers who can speak the language of the host country points to a mounting challenge for solving the current crisis and successfully integrating asylum-seekers, given that most asylum-seekers currently originate from Muslim-majority countries and may lack the desired professional and language skills. Yet at the same time, the fact that the European public shares common humanitarian and sociotropic concerns suggests a clear narrative to increase support for accepting refugees. If the goal is to alleviate the social tensions of the current refugee crisis and generate more public acceptance of asylum-seekers, European policy makers have an opportunity to highlight refugees' deservingness and vulnerability as well as their economic contributions to their host societies. You have previously done research on borders and border issues. What personal interest did you have in this study? What sort of political impact would you like for it to have? Immigration produces some of the most urgent and fundamental challenges of our time, but often policy makers and advocacy groups get so focused on ideological debates that they seemingly forget to evaluate which polices and programs are actually effective. Our interdisciplinary research team at the Immigration Policy Lab is committed to careful evaluation that should inform public debate. The Lab - partnering with community-based organizations, local, state and federal governments - supervises numerous studies to quantify the societal and economic impacts of various immigration and integration policies in Europe and North America. The important and largely unanswered research question that our lab examines is this: What can governments and communities actually do to effectively facilitate the integration of immigrants and unlock the many benefits that immigration can bring to host countries? You have previously worked in Germany. Are there aspects of the study that are especially applicable here? How do the results compare with your experiences here? Our study suggests that public attitudes towards asylum-seekers in Germany are not too different from public attitudes towards asylum-seekers in many other European countries, even though Germany has obviously taken on a much larger responsibility in the current crisis while other countries have closed their borders. Taking in many refugees provides tremendous challenges, but also tremendous opportunities for the country. Some asylum-seekers have to wait days to admitted at Berlin's registration office Policy makers face an urgent challenge to promote the integration of refugees into the German economy and society through better policies. The German economy is strong, and refugees can help make it even stronger: They bring new ideas, skills, perseverance - and they take risks. But German authorities, especially at the local but also at the federal level, need policies informed by careful research to unlock the economic potential of refugees, and realizing these gains will not happen overnight. Last year my parents decided to come back from retirement to work as teachers for a class of refugees who have arrived in Freiburg. They work tirelessly with the refugees to help them learn the language, find jobs and navigate the bureaucracy. Efforts like these are sorely needed and can make a big difference to enable refugees to make a contribution to Germany. Jens Hainmueller is a professor at Stanford and the faculty co-director of the university's Immigration Policy Lab.
BOSTON -- Boston's top cop, seated at a table strewn with imitation guns, urged Beacon Hill lawmakers Thursday to keep citizens and police officers safe by requiring replica firearms be made more clearly discernible from the real thing. The push comes a bit more than a year after the high-profile 2014 fatal officer-involved shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland. A police officer responding to a report that a man was pointing a gun at people at a local park shot and killed Rice, who was holding a replica gun. "Given the authentic look of all these guns, police officers have a real difficult time to distinguish what is real and what's not and our worst case scenario is what happened in Cleveland happening here in Boston," Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said. "We come upon too many incidents too many times where people have these type of guns, and fortunately my officers have used a tremendous amount of restraint and not used deadly force when it was clearly within their right." Boston police took 174 replica guns off the streets in 2015, Evans said, and 179 in 2014. The replica guns are commonly used in commercial robberies, street robberies and other crimes, he said. Evans testified before the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security in support of a bill filed by Rep. Daniel Cullinane, who represents parts of Boston and Milton. "No consumer of these products -- imitation, fake, toy, replica, whatever you want to call them -- should ever be put in a situation in which their imitation firearm could be mistaken for a real gun," Cullinane said. Advertisement "And no law enforcement officer should ever be put in the high-pressure situation where he or she is forced to make the split second decision to guess whether or not a firearm is real." Cullinane said 28 people in 2015 were killed by police while holding a replica, BB or pellet gun. The bill would require replica gun manufacturers to include a non-removable one-inch orange stripe to run along the barrel, handle and front of the gun so it "can be seen from every angle of this imitation weapon," Cullinane said. "The law does not say that you cannot have an imitation firearm, it does not say that you cannot have one of these replicas," he said. "If a manufacturer wants to make or a retailer wants to sell a replica firearm in the commonwealth, that product should have markings on it to differentiate it from a real gun." Cullinane's bill includes exemptions for replica guns used in movie and theater performances, and replica guns manufactured in Massachusetts but destined for export, he said. Attorney General Maura Healey, Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry of Boston, the New England Police Benevolent Association and Mothers for Justice and Equality all offered either written or verbal testimony in support of the bill Thursday. Boston Mayor Martin Walsh and the City Council late last year imposed a ban on replica guns in public spaces and gave police the authority to confiscate the items and bring them to the station for retrieval by an adult. "In the atmosphere that we're experiencing now in communities of color in cities across the United States and across this great commonwealth between police and the community and the tensions that we have, this is not an atmosphere by which we would like to see young people carry replica guns and play with them at any place within the city," Rev. Jeffrey Brown of the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury told the committee. Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners' Action League of Massachusetts, said he hopes the bill does not pass, but said if it does it should include an educational component to teach children that even toy guns need to be treated with respect and should not be portrayed as real. "One thing that we grow very weary of is it's always the thing's fault. If the thing was different this wouldn't have happened," he said. "They'll wring their hands and do something about the item but they won't address the core issue. Toy guns and BB guns have been around for a hundred years and there hasn't been a problem until now, and why is that happening?" Though no one testified in opposition to the bill at the hearing, committee co-chair Rep. Harold Naughton asked the supporters to respond to a comment Wallace made in a Boston Globe article suggesting the legislation would be ineffective because criminals could add markings to a real gun to make it appear to be a fake. Cullinane rejected that line of thinking as "designed to say, 'someone might do something so we should do nothing.'" He also noted that a criminal could, regardless of the legislation, try to make a real gun look like an imitation. "I know they dismissed it, but if any law enforcement officer is going to tell me that in a dangerous situation he or she is going to relax their guard or hesitate because they saw an orange piece, I'm not buying it," Wallace told the News Service after the hearing. Evans told the committee of a recent visit he and Walsh paid to the mother of a young man killed by a gun on Annunciation Road in Roxbury around the holidays. Visiting with the people who are directly affected by gun violence in the city, he said, helps put the gun control debate into perspective. "If more people had to do that dirty job that we do, they would realize where we're coming from," Evans said. "As much of a toy people think it is, it's used very much like a real gun on the streets."
J.D. Power today released its report on wireless purchase experience satisfaction, and while T-Mobile didn’t win, it did do fairly well. This report on wireless purchase experience satisfaction evaluates the customer experience of making a sales transaction with their carrier. J.D. Power’s study measures six factors, which are (in order of importance): store sales representative; website; offerings and promotions; phone sales representative; store facility; and cost of service. In J.D. Power’s report, AT&T won with a total of 845 points out of 1,000. AT&T also won the first wireless experience purchase report of 2016. T-Mobile once again came in second place with 839 out of 1,000 points, beating the average of 834. Verizon came in third with 824 points, while Sprint finished fourth with 804 points. J.D. Power says that AT&T excelled in the store representative and offers and promotions factors. On the prepaid side, MetroPCS finished with 806 points out of 1,000. That makes it tied for third with Boost Mobile out of eight no-contract carriers. Consumer Cellular won out in this category with 899 points, while Cricket came in second with 819. Rounding out the no-contract group is Virgin Mobile with 803 points, Net10 with 794, TracFone with 791, and Straight Talk with 782 points. T-Mobile has done well in recent J.D. Power reports relating to wireless customer care, including a recent ranking on total ownership experience, and it also came in first in a recent Nielsen study on overall wireless customer satisfaction. T-Mo hasn’t quite been able to take J.D. Power’s award for wireless purchase experience, but it is coming in a close second place, which is still a good performance for Magenta. You can read J.D. Power’s full report at the link below. Source: J.D. Power
Dark.Revenant Posts: 2457 AdmiralPosts: 2457 [0.8a] Starsector+ 3.7.0 « on: January 26, 2014, 12:08:21 AM » BIG ANNOUNCEMENT SS+ will no longer be updated going forward. The number of worthwhile features within it has dwindled, which can just be included in other mods. Crew salaries and probably vengeance fleets will be gone altogether. Nexerelin will likely take the officer death and battle map enhancements. Dynasector will improve the named bounty system. SWP will have the few remaining vanilla balance changes. Download Starsector+ 3.7.0 Download Mirror (Requires (Updated)) (Requires (Updated)) Git Repository Edit SSP_OPTIONS.ini to enable or disable Starsector+ features! (Requires LazyLib 2.2 (Requires GraphicsLib 1.1.0 We also recommend Having problems ? Visit the If you want to convert a save (from vanilla or an old version), use Save Transfer to keep your progress.We also recommend Version Checker to notify you when an update is ready.Having? Visit the Mod Troubleshooting Guide Main Features - Balance changes - Overhauled bounty system - Vengeance fleets - Campaign improvements - Not compatible with total conversions Other Features Your officers can die in battle Crew requires salary payments Fixes to some vanilla bugs Change Log Version 3.7.0 (May 6, 2017) Updated to support Starsector 0.8a Removed skills changes Removed soft fleet size limit Removed extra skill point scaling Removed extra crew bonus Reverted numerous weapon balance changes Reverted ship changes Further nerfed Hurricane MIRV cooldown from 10 to 15 seconds (vanilla is 5) Decreased amount of money gained by turning in AI cores to Tri-Tachyon, Independents, and Sindrian Diktat (2-3x base to 1.25-1.5x base) Increased rep reward for turning in AI cores to Tri-Tachyon (0.5x base to 0.75x base) Nerfed Damper Field to be 60/55/50/45% damage reduction, depending on ship size Version 3.6.2 (April 11, 2017) Outer Rim Alliance support Version 3.6.1 (February 6, 2017) Additional trade fleets Improved vengeance fleet behavior Fixed various minor bugs All factions with bounties can issue named bounties, not just DynaSector-supported factions Version 3.6.0 Removed vent speed experiment Removed target leading pip (bugfix) Reverted market procurement mission "improvements" Version 3.5.2 Fixed level scaling Version 3.5.1 General compatibility update Version 3.5.0 startOptions.json now called SSP_OPTIONS.ini Numerous features split to GraphicsLib, Ship/Weapon Pack, Underworld, DynaSector, and Audio Plus Increased commission bounty payment to 500 credits Improved Market Procurement mission Improved Vengeance fleet pacing Made procurement missions and hireable officers scale to the number of markets in the sector Buffed Repair Gantry Bug fixes galore (Older versions included in internal change log) Credits Dark.Revenant for general development Tartiflette for in-battle jump point artwork, and some misc. icons/splashes SS+ will no longer be updated going forward. The number of worthwhile features within it has dwindled, which can just be included in other mods. Crew salaries and probably vengeance fleets will be gone altogether. Nexerelin will likely take the officer death and battle map enhancements. Dynasector will improve the named bounty system. SWP will have the few remaining vanilla balance changes.(May 6, 2017)(April 11, 2017)(February 6, 2017) « Last Edit: May 10, 2017, 07:26:03 PM by Dark.Revenant » Logged HELMUT Posts: 1322 AdmiralPosts: 1322 Re: [0.6.2a] Starsector+ Vanilla Enhancement Mod 0.2 « Reply #7 on: February 07, 2014, 09:21:26 AM » Haven't really tried the Revenant, however the Achilles seems very powerful, especially the long range variant. You can lob a massive amount of lrms across the map on a target, even a lone Achilles can take down without a scratch big meanies like the Dominator. It remind me a bit of Kadur's ships, low tech missiles boats that can swarm the screen with lrms. It's pretty much unstoppable unless you are largely outnumbered. I have yet to try a missile based fleet with those in the campaign but i'm pretty sure it will be very powerful. That's going to be fun. Logged Dark.Revenant Posts: 2457 AdmiralPosts: 2457 Re: [0.6.2a] Starsector+ Vanilla Enhancement Mod 0.2 « Reply #8 on: February 07, 2014, 04:11:12 PM » It's a hard counter to the Dominator, but ships like the Aurora are pretty much immune to LRM spam. If you have proper shielding and/or point defense systems, dealing with a fire-support Achilles is not a problem. I had to do several takes with the Achilles to get it to succeed against that frigate fleet, by the way. It's really easy to mess up and get creamed since it has terrible armor coverage. Logged Dark.Revenant Posts: 2457 AdmiralPosts: 2457 Re: [0.6.2a] Starsector+ Vanilla Enhancement Mod 0.3 « Reply #12 on: February 16, 2014, 06:29:48 AM » Integrated and updated arcibalde's Vanilla Addon mod (over 400 new variants!) NPC fleets now have randomized skills, aptitudes, crew veterancy, and a flagship Added Small Unit Tactics, Wing Command, and Logistical Oversight skills to the Leadership skill tree Added Engine Power Limiter, Expanded Flight Decks, Cargo Expansion, Extended Fuel Tanks, Additional Crew Quarters, Minimized Logistics, and Maximized Ordinance hull mods Revamped character creation difficulty settings; start in a shuttle, a frigate, a destroyer, or a cruiser + small fleet Balance changes! After much toil and trouble, I have finished the next update. No new ships or weapons, but there is a lot of content nonetheless. Logged
Shelby didn't bite her tongue in the Big Brother: Over the Top house, and she definitely didn't hold back while discussing her nemesis Jason with us. "I don't want anything to do with Jason," she tells TVGuide.com. "If he wins, I hope he spends his money on therapy — lots and lots of therapy — and maybe some cigarettes, and hopefully he never tries to get in contact with me because I don't have time for him." But why did Jason hate her so much? The law graduate, who learned from Julie Chen Wednesday that she passed her bar exam while in the house, isn't exactly sure herself. Check out our full interview with Shelby below to get her thoughts on Jason, if she had the worst luck with America's votes, and that face she made after she found out that Donald Trump will be our next president. Big Brother: Over the Top exclusive: Relive that exhausting final HOH if you dare You were my favorite this season. Your DRs were hilarious. Shelby: Yay! Thanks for saying that. I have to go back and watch [my DRs] when I'm emotionally ready to. Do you think you got screwed the most with the twists? Jason became your co-HOH so you couldn't get him out and because of Justin's care package, you were the only alternative nominee and you left. Shelby: [Laughs] I don't want to sound bitter, but I definitely had America messing with me a lot, not just those things you mentioned, but every time I was HOH, it was my best friend who was America's nominee. Yeah, America definitely threw a wrench into my game this season. Do you think America had too much influence? Shelby: I think America did have too much influence and it would've been actually interesting if there wasn't somebody in this season who already had 60,000 Big Brother follows. If we had just been 13 normal people without a following already built in, it actually would've been interesting to see how America's involvement would've played in. Yeah, and without Jason's presence, the house wouldn't have split into two sides, although that made for more drama. Shelby: Yeah, I don't know about the house division. That was based more on personality differences than America's involvement because whether or not Jason or there, I still wouldn't have wanted to be with the other side of the house. How would you describe your relationship with Jason? I think he respects you as a game player, but he's made a lot of disparaging remarks about you. Shelby: Everyone seems to want us to be friends after this, but he's talked about forcing his d--- into my mouth. He's talked about burning down my family's house, harassing my mom so bad that she'll need a restraining order. That just goes way beyond the game. So my relationship with him is hopefully over. I really want nothing to do with Jason. ... I don't want anything to do with Jason. If he wins, I hope he spends his money on therapy — lots and lots of therapy — and maybe some cigarettes, and hopefully he never tries to get in contact with me because I don't have time for him. What do you think it was about you that provoked him? It started from the beginning. Shelby: Yeah, I wasn't even aware of it at the beginning. I don't really know. I've never really had someone that obsessed with me before that wasn't trying to sleep with me. [Laughs] So I don't know what his deal was. But he did talk about forcing his d--- into my mouth, so maybe he is in love with me a little bit! Did you really believe him when he came to you guys with that final five deal a couple weeks ago? Shelby: I definitely thought it was too good to be true. But logically it did make sense why he would want to work with us. That just kind of shows what kind of person he is, that he would want to make a deal just to torment us. You obviously knew you were going home, but did you consider at all if it was worth trying to get them to flip on Kryssie? Shelby: Absolutely not. I've only seen a few seasons of Big Brother, but that probably would've been the dumbest move in Big Brother history to vote out Kryssie instead of me. They were best friends with her. She's in the finale now. We knew she was going to get the 10K. She is not a threat to win. I haven't really been paying attention to polls or anything, but it would've been so dumb. I probably would've been the only person that would've posed a threat to Jason, so it would've been dumb of him to vote our Kryssie instead of me. Shelby and Kryssie, Big Brother: Over the Top Photo: Lisette M. Azar, CBS Do you think Kryssie could split enough votes with Jason that Morgan could win? Shelby: I really doubt that Kryssie is going to cause a huge split in the votes, but I hope people watching the game sees how much Morgan deserves it. She was always overlooked and no one thought she was playing the game when she was. She won comps that weren't crapshoots at all. They were combinations of mental and physical. After the double eviction, we were so outnumbered and she made it to the finale. So if anyone deserves to win this thing, it's her. I felt bad for her when she was telling you she let you down after the Veto. Shelby: Yeah, well, I did too! [Laughs] That wasn't a good moment for or her! ... I don't know what happened [in the Veto]. I'm not good at crawling around on the ground, I guess. Give me a puzzle or something like that and I can kill it, but not crawling on the ground. How much do you think people underestimated you because you told them you were a waitress? Shelby: I didn't tell them I was a waitress so they'd think I was dumb; I told them that because I had been a waitress before, so I wanted them to hear my stories and believe it. But yeah, it sounds like everybody thought I was stupid for a while, but then I started winning the mental comps and there was no point in pretending anymore. Your DR got leaked with you mentioning the LSATs. Are you surprised no one picked up on that? Shelby: Kryssie claims she picked up on it because Kryssie knows everything. But I was definitely really mad about the leak. I don't know if that's ever happened on Big Brother — for them to play somebody's secret over the loudspeaker to the whole house. I really have no idea what was going on there. I was not happy about it. But if they've never heard of the LSAT before, I'm sad for them. I was shocked no one approached you about it. Shelby: Yeah, and production told me they would only do something about it if I was confronted. So I was definitely walking around the house trying to get confronted because I thought it was really unfair for them to play my secret to the house. But no one ever said anything. They were just making fun of my voice. One of my favorite moments of yours was the face you made after Julie told you guys that Trump won. It was amazing. What was going through your mind? Shelby: [Laughs] Basically, that was just... no. That was not a good moment. I'm still really, really upset about the outcome of the election. I thought they were just messing with us and I was going to come out of the house and find out that my girl Hillary was president. My mind - I still can't even put words to it. I was just really disappointed and shocked. Like how?! Who voted for him?! Who voted for him?! If it makes you feel any better, she's leading by like 2.4 million in the popular vote. It's the system. Shelby: Yeah, well, maybe we should make an exception to the system just this once. But I know that's not going to happen. Like why?! Why Trump?! I don't get it! Are you like, "Let me stay in the Big Brother house for the next four years"? Shelby: [Laughs] Except for no. I'd rather go back into a Trump America than stay in the house for another four years. I saw the rap you did for Morgan. Whose idea was that? Shelby: Alex asked me to do one and I was styling my hair and came up with it while I was styling my hair. It's not like it was good. [Laughs] I just came up with that really quickly. Do you think Morgan can pull it out? Shelby: Oh, God, I hope so. I think she deserves it. She better win. She was playing the game this season and wasn't pulling pranks knowing that she had a fan base already supporting her. A lot of fans are hoping you'll be cast on regular Big Brother, like for an all-stars season. Would you be up for that or do you want to focus on law first? Shelby: [Sighs] It kind of depends on if I have a job or not. I definitely need some time to recover after this. It was really, really stressful in there. It was maybe even more stressful than studying for the bar exam. I definitely would need some time off before I would even consider it. [I want] no one from my season except for the Ball Smashers and not Whitney. [Laughs] Big Brother: Over the Top is currently streaming on CBS All Access. The finale airs Thursday at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. (Full disclosure: TVGuide.com is owned by CBS.)
Melbourne's City of Darebin council decides to dump Australia Day ceremonies Updated Another Melbourne council has dumped its Australia Day celebrations after an emotional town hall meeting. The City of Darebin council, which covers northern suburbs including Northcote, Preston and Reservoir, voted 6-2 for a series of controversial changes. The council's Australia Day citizenship ceremony will be scrapped, and its Australia Day awards will be renamed the "Darebin Community Awards" and will not be presented on January 26. The council also voted to acknowledge that January 26 marked the beginning of "British invasion" and was an inappropriate date for celebrations. It will stop referring to "Australia Day" in all communications, and instead use the term "January 26". Darebin's nine councillors include four Greens, three independents and two backed by Labor. Last Friday, the council decided to bring forward the vote saying it was "in response to an emerging public debate regarding Australia Day and the #changethedate campaign which Darebin councillors have been actively engaged in". It followed neighbouring Yarra council's decision to no longer refer to January 26 as Australia Day and hold an Indigenous-themed event instead of an annual citizenship ceremony on the day. The contentious move resulted in the Federal Government stripping Yarra council of its powers to hold citizenship ceremonies and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull describing the council's decision as an "attack on Australia Day" and a repudiation of Australian values. Several Darebin residents have criticised what they described as a lack of community consultation. David Schulz said it was not the council's business to be changing Australia Day celebrations. "Australia Day is January 26 and it should remain that day. They're doing it without proper consultation and they're just making decisions for us," he said. "I'm definitely worried about a domino effect. Once two councils do it, others will just follow their lead." Preston resident Sue Chan praised the "progressive changes". "We need greater information and education and there are a whole bunch of people who feel really threatened and I don't know why," she said. "This is not debatable, this all happened. It's a fact. This is a really simple thing and it's about us coming together because the 26th of January is a bad day. "Let's not have a party on it." Change needed 'to respect our Indigenous people' Councillor Trent McCarthy said the changes were necessary and rejected the charge that there had not been enough consultation. "This has been discussed in the community for a long time," he said. "[The] Australian people need to come to terms with the truths of this country to understand. "We are at risk of losing our citizenship ceremonies but we need to make this change to respect our Indigenous people." It is believed several other councils are now considering similar moves, including Hepburn Shire Council, which covers Daylesford, about 100 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, and Moreland council in the city's north. According to the council, Darebin has the second-largest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population in metropolitan Melbourne. What Darebin voted to do: 1. Acknowledge that January 26 marks the beginning of the British invasion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lands and oppression of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and is therefore not an appropriate date for an inclusive national celebration . Acknowledge that January 26 marks the beginning of the British invasion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lands and oppression of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and is therefore . 2. Acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people never ceded sovereignty of their land and have continuously cared for their country for over 60,000 years as the world's oldest living culture. Acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and have continuously cared for their country for over 60,000 years as the world's oldest living culture. 3. Acknowledge the first Day of Mourning was held on January 26, 1938 , being the 150th anniversary of the British invasion. The day was attended by Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous supporters in protest of the national holiday and the "callous treatment" of Aboriginal people and continues to be held annually. , being the 150th anniversary of the British invasion. The day was attended by Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous supporters in protest of the national holiday and the "callous treatment" of Aboriginal people and continues to be held annually. 4. From 2018 onwards, host an inclusive and culturally-appropriate event on an agreed date in partnership with the Darebin Aboriginal Advisory Committee that recognises and celebrates the world's oldest living culture . From 2018 onwards, in partnership with the Darebin Aboriginal Advisory Committee . 5. Support the #changethedate campaign and initiate an ongoing conversation, in partnership with the Darebin Aboriginal Advisory Committee, to build better understanding with the broader Darebin community of Australia's history and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community's pain in relation to the significance and history of January 26. This includes referring to January 26 merely as January 26 in all communications . and initiate an ongoing conversation, in partnership with the Darebin Aboriginal Advisory Committee, to build better understanding with the broader Darebin community of Australia's history and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community's pain in relation to the significance and history of January 26. This includes . 6. Commit to engaging with Darebin's diverse community, including established and newly arrived communities, to raise community awareness and understanding. Commit to engaging with Darebin's diverse community, including established and newly arrived communities, to and understanding. 7. Advocate to the Federal Government to change the date in line with the resolution passed by the National General Assembly of Local Government in June 2017. with the resolution passed by the National General Assembly of Local Government in June 2017. 8. Seek opportunities to collaborate and partner with Yarra council and other relevant stakeholders to support each other's events, advocacy and education initiatives. Seek opportunities to collaborate and and other relevant stakeholders to support each other's events, advocacy and education initiatives. 9. Continue to recognise excellence and service in Darebin, renewed as the Darebin Community Awards, and to be awarded on a day other than January 26 . Continue to recognise excellence and service in Darebin, . 10. In collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, introduce new categories within the awards that recognise and celebrate the achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who live, work or study in Darebin. In collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, that recognise and celebrate the achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who live, work or study in Darebin. 11. Reaffirm a commitment to holding citizenship ceremonies in a positive and timely way on dates as required that will not include January 26. Topics: local-government, government-and-politics, community-and-multicultural-festivals, community-and-society, states-and-territories, federal---state-issues, northcote-3070, preston-3072, melbourne-3000, reservoir-3073 First posted
Students in the Los Angeles Unified School District are planning to walk out of classes on Monday in protest against the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States. The LAUSD includes a civics curriculum, in which students learn about voting and elections. Still, the students — or whoever is organizing their activities across several schools, which takes significant coordination — are determined to reject the results of a democratic election, because they do not like the winner. In a statement, reported by the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Police Department has warned students that they may be subject to arrest for their behavior: The Los Angeles Police Department issued a special advisory Sunday and urged parents to tell their children to abide by the law. “It is very difficult to ensure the safety of children when they leave the safe confines of their school campuses,” the statement said. The LAPD asked parents to encourage their children to voice their opinions “in a lawful, safe and peaceful manner.” Police said demonstrators could face arrest for obstructing the movement of vehicles and people, refusing to obey lawful orders by a law enforcement officer, vandalism and refusal to disperse after unlawful assembly is declared. Those under the age of 18 could also face arrest for curfew violations. Students in the San Francisco Bay area already staged demonstrations against Trump last week. Both Los Angeles and San Francisco have seen continuous protests. On Sunday, a march shut down traffic along San Francisco’s Market Street on Sunday, and protesters gathered at Oakland’s Lake Merritt to join hands and sing John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
By Luke Furman There have been rumors for weeks, now the fight appears to be coming together. WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (27-1, 22 KOs) will likely defend his title in a rematch with Andrzej Fonfara (28-3, 16 KOs), according to information provided by Stevenson's promoter Yvon Michel to TVA Sports. The fight could take place on a date in May in Montreal or June in Toronto. They first met in 2014, with Fonfara getting hurt early in the fight and going down twice. But he shook off the cobwebs and came back in the second half to hurt and drop Stevenson. Since their first meeting, Stevenson retained his title three times. He knocked out Dmitry Sukhotsky in five rounds, won a twelve round unanimous decision over Sakio Bika and knocked out Tommy Karpency in three rounds. For his part, Fonfara found a lot of success with three big wins of his own. He won a ten round decision over Doudou Ngumbu, knocked out the 'Son of a Legend' Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in nine rounds last April, and then came back in October to win a twelve round decision over former WBO champion Nathan Cleverly in a 'Fight of The Year' candidate. Both Stevenson and Fonfara are advised by Al Haymon. The winner would have to make a mandatory defense against undefeated Eleider Alvarez, who is also advised by Haymon and promoter by Michel's company GYM. Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.
Florida treasure hunters hit the sunken treasure jackpot. Brent Brisben -- a co-founder of 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels LLC, which has the rights to dive at the wreckage site where the gold was ultimately discovered -- told ABC News that the 60 gold artifacts on the bottom of the ocean floor are valued at over $1 million. The artifacts include 51 gold coins and 40 feet of gold chains with hand-crafted links, he said. Sunken Treasure from Spanish Galleon to be Auctioned Off in New York on August 5 Family Strikes Gold on Sunken Treasure Hunt -- Again $3B Sunken Treasure? Questions Over Whether Hunt For WWII Bullion Is Fishy or Legit The centerpiece of the discovery is a single coin, given the nickname the "Tricentennial Royal," which was destined to be delivered straight to Spanish King Phillip V, Brisben said. This coin constitutes about half of the discovery’s expected value, with a price tag of more than $500,000, Brisben said. The valuable find comes right before the 300-year anniversary of the 11-ship fleet sinking during a hurricane on July 31, 1715, off the Florida coast. The fleet had left from Havana, Cuba, on July 24, 1715. Brisben said the discovery was made about a month ago, but he wanted to keep everything under wraps until the anniversary got closer. "The work that goes on out there is not typical of what you see here today. I don't want to call it an abrogation, but it's what the dreams of every one of the people doing this are made of," Brisben said at a news conference today. The treasure discovery -- caught on video -- was found by one of the company’s sub-contractors, the Schmitt family, in 15-foot deep water off the coast of Ft. Pierce, Florida, according to Brisben. "We're very respectful of the people who lost their lives in these shipwrecks. Unfortunately, they didn't make it," Eric Schmitt said at the news conference. "We're able to continue their story on by continuing to bring these artifacts up." Over the past two summers, the Schmitts have made national news thanks to their discoveries from the fleet of Spanish ships, The Orlando Sentinel reported. In 2013, the family found several pieces of a solid gold chain -- more than 60 feet in all -- and last year Schmitt found the back portion of a handcrafted gold-filigree pyx, a vessel used to hold the Eucharist during the Christian observance of Holy Communion. Brisben said up to 20 percent of the find goes to Florida and the remainder of the treasure will be divided between the company and the Schmitts.
Toronto FC vs. New York Red Bulls 2017 MLS Match Preview BMO Field – Toronto Saturday, September 30 – 7 p.m. ET WATCH : MLS LIVE A rested – and possibly restored – Toronto FC return to BMO Field after a week of surprising defeats, first to rival Montreal and then out-of-contention New England. Looking to put those in the rearview, and actively claim the club's first Supporters' Shield trophy, they'll take on the New York Red Bulls, a side seeking a (moral) victory of their own, considering they're now winless since August 12. While Toronto might well see Jozy Altidore, if not Sebastian Giovinco return to action after minor knocks, the Red Bulls have had their pieces slot back into place (notably Daniel Royer) with a new 3-4-3 formation creating solid chances they've been unable to consistently finish. Keep an eye on Gonzalo Veron, who's managed to find a niche as a sparkplug off the bench – and penalty-maker extraordinaire. Toronto FC Suspended : None : None Suspended after next caution: None None Int’l Duty : None : None Injury Report: OUT: M - Benoit Cheyrou (calf tear); D - Nick Hagglund (left MCL sprain); QUESTIONABLE: F - Jozy Altidore (lower body tightness), F - Sebastian Giovinco (lower body tightness) Projected Starting XI (3-6-1; right-to-left) GK: Alex Bono – Eriq Zavaleta, Drew Moor, Chris Mavinga – Steven Beitashour, Marky Delgado, Michael Bradley, Victor Vazquez, Armando, Cooper, Justin Morrow – Tosaint Ricketts Notes: Toronto’s 5-3 loss to Montreal last weekend snapped a 15-match home unbeaten streak in league play. They have not lost back-to-back home games in regular-season play since Aug. 30-Sept. 6, 2014. New York Red Bulls Suspended : None : None Suspended after next caution: D Sal Zizzo, D Kemar Lawrence, F Bradley Wright-Phillips, M Sacha Kljestan D Sal Zizzo, D Kemar Lawrence, F Bradley Wright-Phillips, M Sacha Kljestan Int’l Duty : None : None Injury Report: OUT: D Gideon Baah (broken leg), M Mike Grella (knee surgery), D Aurelien Collin (plantar fasciitis) Projected Starting XI (3-4-3; left-to-right) GK: Luis Robles — Fidel Escobar, Aaron Long, Michael Murillo — Tyler Adams, Felipe, Sean Davis, Kemar Lawrence — Sacha Kljestan, Bradley Wright-Phillips, Alex Muyl Notes: Tyler Adams scored the first two goals of his MLS career on Wednesday night. This year, the Red Bulls average 1.6 goals per 90 minutes played with Adams on the field, and 1.1 goals without him on the field (1,814 minutes with vs. 1,082 minutes without). All-Time Series Overall: The Red Bulls lead, 13-7-7, with a 52-29 (+23) goal differential. The Red Bulls lead, 13-7-7, with a 52-29 (+23) goal differential. At TOR: TFC hold a 5-3-5 advantage, with a 19-17 scoring advantage. Referees Referee: Allen Chapman Assistant Referees: Jeremy Hanson, Gianni Facchini Fourth Official: Geoff Gamble Video Assistant Referee: Yusri Rudolf
CHICAGO – Chicago Teenager arrested of killing his own brother after his brother achieved a higher score on popular game ‘Flappy Bird’. Reports say the teen was jealous of his brother and couldn’t take the anger. Gary Wright, 16 years old, was playing ‘Flappy Bird’ with his Brother, Jabari Wright, 17 years old, when Jabari reached a score of 17 in the game. Things quickly got out of hand when Jabari kept teasing Gary about his high score, which was 6. Gary allegedly stabbed Jabari with a knife 17 times in the chest, referencing his high score of 17. Gary himself called the police after he killed his brother and turned himself in. The Brothers’ parents have refused to speak to reporters. Flappy Bird is a mobile game released in 2013 where the player has to constantly tap the screen to keep the bird airborne and make it past as many obstacles as possible without touching pipes. Although released in 2013, the game has became extremely popular in the past few weeks. The game is known for being incredibly addicting and difficult and even said by some players to be on a “Satan difficulty level”. Police officer Marco Grant told Huzlers, “It’s a tragedy, he murdered his own brother because of a stupid game, I mean, Iv’e played the game before, and it’s hard as sht, fck that game! I couldn’t even pass 5, Why the fck are you a bird if you can’t fcking fly straight, fake as Super Mario piece of sht!”. The officer then threw a fit as he remembered how frustrating the game was and had to be taken away by other officers. Gary is being charged with first-degree murder and is currently in the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center as he awaits trial. Gary also reportedly told investigators “Anyone who has played that game would know why I did it.” Experts are saying that Flappy Bird Visit Huzlers.com regularly for more. HUZLERS.COM
Tomorrow (Wednesday) some in the House of Representatives in the US will be voting on a bill called SOPA, short for Stop Online Piracy Act. If you don't know about it, you need to, whether you live in the US or not. I wrote a long addendum to go with today's STW comic. If you need more information about SOPA, please read it and then educate yourself some more. And then everyone should contact their representative today - and if you don't live in the US, contact your friends in the US to contact their representatives. SOPA is not the answer for any creator working with the internet who is concerned about work being shared with no connection to the original source. And it really needs to be stopped before it becomes law. -Dante Shepherd My friend, and fellow chart-enthusiast, Dante Shepherd sent me this chart today. I have to be honest, I am discouraged. I think SOPA is a horrific piece of legislation and I don't think anything can be done. Ignoring the voice of the people has become a policy point of pride. Big "entertainment" business is behind the bill and their dollars hold more weight than our phone calls. This will pass, NDAA will pass, blah blah, stereotypical-Young-Voter-hyperbole-overly-idealistic-not-pragmatic-no-perspective sentiment. However you, dear reader, may wish to marginalize it, I am willing to fulfill the obligations of my age and political inclinations. I am worried, exhausted and angry. I feel unrepresented and without recourse. When I get bogged down like this, I often turn to David Foster Wallace's article for Rolling Stone, "Up Simba!" about the McCain 2000 presidential campaign, if only to be reminded that none of this is new, the players just change. One can easily insert Obama 2008 in the role of McCain 2000. Young Voters were always always thus. Power is a deceptively simple motivator. Unfortunately, while much is repetitive, the severity of the situation has changed from when this article was written. The examples DFW uses to voice concern over McCain's policies are Martin Luther King's birthday, gun control and logging. These are a far cry from corporate censorship of the Internet, assault on nonviolent student protestors and indefinite detention of American citizens. Well at least corporate influence in politics is an issue both then and now, so I guess that's...consistent. I find that much of life is a fight against cynicism, despair and ultimately apathy. However, that sentence can be read in two ways. That struggle is either the unfortunate burden of life or its fundamental nature, which removed would also remove the incentive to live. I'm not at all sure which read is more optimistic or which is more bleak. Anyway, here is DFW: ...we’ve been lied to and lied to, and it hurts to be lied to. It’s ultimately just about that complicated: it hurts. We learn this at like age four—it’s grownups’ first explanation to us of why it’s bad to lie ('How would you like it if . . . ?'). And we keep learning for years, from hard experience, that getting lied to sucks: it diminishes you, denies you respect for yourself, for the liar, for the world. Especially if the lies are chronic, systemic, if experience seems to teach that everything you’re supposed to believe in’s really just a game based on lies. Young Voters have been taught well and thoroughly. You may not personally remember Vietnam or Watergate, but it’s a good bet you remember 'No new taxes' and 'Out of the loop' and 'No direct knowledge of any impropriety at this time' and 'Did not inhale' and 'Did not have sex with that Ms. Lewinsky' and etc. etc. It’s painful to have to believe that the would-be 'public servants' you’re forced to choose between are all phonies whose only real concern is their own care and feeding and who will lie so outrageously and with such a straight face that you know they have to believe you’re an idiot. So who wouldn’t yawn and turn away, trade apathy and cynicism for the hurt of getting treated with contempt? And who wouldn’t fall all over themselves for a top politician who actually seemed to talk to you like you were a person, an intelligent adult worthy of respect? A politician who all of a sudden out of nowhere comes on TV as this total longshot candidate and says that Washington is paralyzed, that everybody there’s been bought off, and that the only way to really 'return government to the people' the way all the other candidates claim they want to do is to outlaw huge, unreported political contributions from corporations and lobbies and PACs . . . all of which are obvious truths that everybody knows but no recent politician anywhere’s had the stones to say. Who wouldn’t cheer, hearing stuff like this [...] who among us is so cynical that he doesn’t have some good old corny American hope way down deep in his heart, lying dormant like a spinster’s ardor, not dead but just waiting for the Right Guy to give it to? And again: ...even though our elected representatives are always wringing their hands and making concerned sounds about low voter-turnouts, nothing substantive ever gets done to make politics less ugly or depressing or to actually induce more people to vote: our elected representatives are incumbents, and low turnouts favor incumbents for the same reason soft money does. [...] If you are demographically a Young Voter, it is again worth a moment of your valuable time to consider the implications of the techs’ last couple points. If you are bored and disgusted by politics and don’t bother to vote, you are in effect voting for the entrenched Establishments of the two major parties, who rest assured are not dumb and are keenly aware that it is in their interests to keep you disgusted and bored and cynical and to give you every possible psychological reason to stay at home doing one-hitters and watching MTV Spring Break on Primary Day. By all means stay home if you want, but don’t bullshit yourself that you’re not voting. In reality, there is no such thing as not voting : you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard’s vote. The lesson, of course, is keep up the good fight. And look out for the spirits of others. So, can anybody cheer me up? I fear I'm all tapped out.
For all its existential trappings, Mad Men is ultimately a workplace drama about mid-level ad agency. And that's the one thing that Don Draper and Friends are good at: creating compelling spots. To see how this year’s ads, and adaptations of vintage ads, would hold up under real ad agency scrutiny, we enlisted Steve Hayden, former Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. Hayden created the legendary Apple Super Bowl spot, 1984, considered by many to be the greatest ad ever. We asked him to discuss the Accutron ad that opened the first episode of Mad Men’s last season, and we got a fascinating analysis of the product, the ad, of watches as a status symbol, and an explanation of the rampant double-dipping by Madison Avenue's top creative talent. What’s your take on this ad? It’s actually a pretty subtle spot. Accuracy was the Accutron’s key benefit. It kept better-than-Chronometer quality time because the timing mechanism was a humming pitchfork instead of a balance wheel. Every other watch was Inaccurate by comparison. But this spot focuses more on lifestyle -- cool guy with something different on his wrist. Of course, today you can get an even more accurate quartz watch for $20, and Masters of the Universe are willing to pay $30,000 for a mechanical watch, but I digress. If this was a launch spot, I'd ding it for missing that key point that this is the most accurate watch in the world. That's differentiating, and there are certain anal characters for whom it's a very appealing message. But the Accutron has been around for a while? The Accutron was introduced in the mid 1960s. Around the time that Mad Men started. This episode takes place in 1969. So maybe by then it was time to move on to a lifestyle campaign. This spot tells a pretty compelling story It’s a business guy but a very hip business guy. When he walks into the room everyone looks at him. He’s Jon Hamm. He’s what Jon Hamm—or Don Draper—used to be when the Accutron was a new watch and Mad Men was a new series. Exactly. It’s a guy who’s got a modern haircut, a beard (too cool for school), and a suit, but probably not the grey flannel suit that Don’s wearing. A guy who's 30, not 40. He’s a man on the make wearing a watch that tells the world who he is. What does Peggy mean when she says it’s an “End run?” Up to that point the Accutron ads were about the accuracy, the hum versus the tick. I remember headlines spoofing Goldwater's campaign slogan: "In your heart, you know it's right." Another series hinted coyly that your watch was being unfaithful to you. "Do you have an unfaithful watch?" God, am I old. Anyway, Freddy's spot puts all this in a different context. It's a conversation starter, or conversation piece, to quote the copy. Therefore, the lifestyle elements make perfect sense. That’s why it’s an end run. Is it a home run? Well, it's a vastly better tag line and idea than, Lou, Peggy's creative director buys in the end. Actually, it might be well ahead of its time -- a 1980's spot that magically turned up in 1969. That's when lifestyle ruled, and Mr. 80's Guy was out buying the world's thinnest dress watch or the world's most complicated gold chronograph for vast wodges of ill-gotten cash. What Lou picks, “Accutron, it’s accurate,” is dull as dishwater. It’s pretty clear that Peggy is fighting the forces of mediocrity What do you think about the reveal that it’s Don’s work? It just didn't make sense that poor old Freddy would show up with work that impressive, although I have to admit, I didn't guess Don was behind it until the reveal. Of course, it makes sense -- even though he's still getting his paycheck, he's bored and unhappy and wants to prove that he's still got it. Why he picks Freddy as his guy, I don't know, but the irony is kind of sweet. And what about that little throw away that Freddy is also selling Don’s work to J. Walter Thompson? Wouldn’t that violate the non-compete clauses he’d have in his contract as a partner? Well, of course, Don is violating his non-compete right, left and center. But once he has a puppet in Freddy, he doesn't care. Who's going to track him down? (Although I wouldn't be surprised if that becomes a plot line down the road.) I remember back in the 60's and 70's, star creatives would often let their wives or boyfriends run their books around town so they could generate two big salaries for one household. The actual talent would try to get his or her day job done from 9 to 5, then come home and pick up the next assignments their McGuffins brought home from another agency. Many a house in Southhampton was paid for that way. But this isn't about money for Don. It's about staying in the game. He's desperate to feel that sense of confidence and mastery a creative guy gets from knocking one out of the park. What did you think of that Accutron spot? Where do you see Don and Freddy's caper going from here? Share your thoughts in the comments below. For the best-curated television news about Mad Men and other great shows, follow me on Twitter (@allenstjohn). Allen St. John is the author of Newton's Football: The Science Behind America's Game, published by Ballantine Books
Charli XCX has announced the launch of her own label, Vroom Vroom Recordings. Its first release will be the Vroom Vroom EP, out March 25 and streaming from Friday, which she's been working on with SOPHIE. (The title track previously aired during her Beats 1 broadcast.) Below, check out the EP art and listen to a sampler from the label, including "Vroom Vroom" and tracks by label signees RIVRS and CuckooLander, who'll both release singles on Friday. Update 12:30 p.m.: Listen to new track "Trophy" above. Friday will also see the first installment of an ongoing Charli XCX radio show on Beats 1. Update (2/23, 12:57 p.m. EST:) The show has been named "The Candy Shop," according to the Beats 1 Twitter. Two more of the Vroom Vroom EP's four tracks, including one with Hannah Diamond, will premiere ahead of the its release. She's also confirmed two shows at SXSW. Describing the label's conception in a press release, Charli said: Vroom Vroom Recordings is my new, experimental pop label and it will combine my love for bubblegum pop with mystery and darkness. The artists coming up through it will be sharp, potent, deadly, and ultimately, will leave their mark on pop music. RIVRS and CuckooLander are two artists who have so much intelligence, pop sensibility and potential - they know what they want and both have great vision. That inspires me and it's why I want to work with them. I've always been fascinated by shy and introverted people—something that I am mostly not—and I feel both acts are in different ways. It captivates me and sucks me in, and I think their music will do the same for others. I've worked with SOPHIE on the new EP and what we create together speaks for itself. Sometimes we get aggressive, sometimes we get beautiful; he pushes me and I push him. I'm making beautiful party songs right now and this is just the start. The album goes to other places and I can't wait for people to hear it. I feel the most creative I have in a long time and I couldn't be more excited for the next chapter. Vroom Vroom: 01 Vroom Vroom 02 Paradise [ft. Hannah Diamond] 03 Trophy 04 Secret (Shh) Read our interview with Charli XCX here. Revisit our Rising feature with Sophie. Watch Charli XCX on Pitchfork.tv:
Alaskans voted in 1998 to define marriage in the state constitution as only between a man and a woman. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has invalidated that definition, Alaska and the entire country has marriage equality. To some it may seem like things are changing fast, but Alaska’s fight for gay rights began half a lifetime ago. Download Audio In the course of Alaska’s legislative history, there have been six bills to outlaw sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. In Anchorage, there have been at least three ordinances. They’ve all failed. The fight may have begun in 1975, when the Alaska State Human Rights Commission took a formal stance that sexual preference should be included in the state’s non-discrimination policy. House Bill 125 was introduced in 1987, during the AIDS epidemic. The commission director, the attorney general and the governor all supported the bill. “[It was] just something that seemed to me, it was time to make some noise about it,” says former Democratic Gov. Steve Cowper. He introduced the bill less than two months after taking office. He had served in the Vietnam War and made a friend who was gay. “They served just as well or better than other people,” Cowper said. Cowper can’t remember why exactly he introduced the bill, but cites that personal experience as a possible reason. Old files also suggest commission Director Janet Bradley asked for his support. “But as a general principle, people shouldn’t be discriminated against any more than you should be able to discriminate for racial reasons,” Cowper said. Cowper’s friend died from AIDS years later. HB 125 never made it out of committee. Janet Bradley left the Human Rights Commission in 1988. During the last decade of her career, she had taken an aggressive approach to more inclusive legislation. After she left, Paula Haley became the commission’s director. She’s still the director now and she hasn’t touched the issue. In 1989 through an LGBT advocacy group, researchers Melissa Green and Jay Brause published a statewide survey documenting the experiences of Alaska’s lesbian and gay community, including issues of discrimination and health. Janet Bradley ended the report’s forward with a call to action: “This report then becomes our challenge; for if we believe that our vision of Alaska is marred when discrimination exists, we must commit ourselves to eliminating sexual orientation discrimination.” In 2012, Green published her final report on a survey on LGBT discrimination in Anchorage through Identity, Inc. It was a few weeks before Anchorage voted on Proposition 5, a sexual identity anti-discrimination measure that failed. She says the report received a lot of criticism. “It has important things to say. I hope that people might still read it, but I’m done. I’m done. I’m off on my own life,” Green said. She’s burnt out and says she’s kind of bitter. “It ate up a lot of my life and a lot of my time, and it had, I wouldn’t say exactly zero impact, but pretty close to that,” Green said. “Nobody really cared— outside of the [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] community, nobody really cared.” In 1986, the Anchorage Daily News interviewed a gay man working at Identity, Inc., an advocacy organization. He was collecting violent and homophobic voice mail the office received for a research report on gay and lesbian discrimination. That man’s name was Jay Brause. “Through the AIDS crisis we started finding out how important our relationships were,” Brause said. “We started finding out we had no rights. We were denied in so many ways.” Brause said. He said he knew of couples who’d been together for decades and if one of them would become ill or die, often their relationship meant nothing when it came to hospital visitation, burials, military honors and home ownership. “How do you explain that to people? It’s a potent, virulent form of discrimination,” Brause said. During the same year the ADN published the story, he interned with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in D.C. Brause and his now-husband Gene Dugan applied for their marriage license in 1994. The controversial act eventually led to the 1998 constitutional amendment defining marriage. He paid for being a prominent gay figure in the 80s and 90s in more ways. “I felt the prejudice and the discrimination very personally and directly. In a way, you don’t know if you’re hiding or you haven’t disclosed (your sexuality),” Brause said. Like his friend Melissa Green, he’s disillusioned about his fight and American liberties. His reaction when Alaska got marriage equality? “I did not have the person-in-the-street’s reaction. No, not even a smile,” Brause said. In 2006, he and his husband moved to England, where he has dual-citizenship. In September, he’ll travel back to Anchorage to clean up to the last few bits of his life in America before leaving for good. “Thank you to every single one of us who took on that work as activists, who took chances to make a difference, and believe me, there’s more to be done.” State Legislative Reference Librarian Jennifer Fletcher researched legislative files. This article could not be produced without her assistance.
On July 7, 2017, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee declared the Old City of Hebron a Palestinian World Heritage Site, a controversial one-sided move which comes on the heels of UNESCO’s divisively anti-Israel history in the sphere of Israeli-Palestinian relations. This includes numerous condemnations against Israel on any given year, such as UNESCO’s outrageous resolution on Jerusalem of October 2016, omitting any Jewish connection to the city. And now Hebron – the cradle of Jewish history, home to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the final resting place of the Jewish forefathers. The “crown jewel” of this anti-Israel slant was UNESCO’s decision to admit “Palestine” as a Member State to the organization in 2011. This, in spite of the fact that it is not, as of yet, a State under any definition of accepted international law. This move defied U.S. policy and mandated the cutoff of U.S. funding to the organization under federal legislation. Israel was, understandably, appalled by this display of complete and utter disregard to its heritage on the world stage. Israeli officials, from Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government to members of the opposition, were unanimous in condemning UNESCO’s resolutions in the harshest of terms, as meant to undermine the core notion of Israel as a Jewish State, hence taking aim at places like Jerusalem – Israel’s capital and the beating heart of the Jewish people – and now, Hebron, with its rich, thousands of years old Jewish history. All of this, of course, feeding into the false narrative of Israel as a “colonial occupier” of the land. UNESCO’s resolutions will have no real immediate impact on the ground, whether in Jerusalem or in Hebron. However, this severe state of affairs at UNESCO poses a double peril: one to the prospects of an Israeli-Palestinian peace, and another – even greater danger - to the international community as a whole and its ability to “deliver” for humanity. First, in the Israeli-Palestinian realm. It is no secret that the Israeli public has grown wary of the international community: Israelis have been disappointed time and time again to witness their gestures of good will dissipate into thin air, while condemnations continue unabated. Whether it was Hezbollah’s unprovoked attacks against Israel in 2006, resulting in the Second Lebanon War (after a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000) or Hamas’ persistent missile attacks from Gaza (after Israel fully withdrew from Gaza and parts of the West Bank in 2005), the world seemed to utterly ignore Israelis’ profound desires for peace and their need to defend themselves, hammering at Israel incessantly. No wonder UNESCO’s move came as no surprise – as a disappointment, yes – but no surprise to many Israelis, who have sadly grown accustomed to this kind of beating. UNESCO’s resolutions only serve to further Israeli suspicion of the international community, feed into the narrative of “the entire world is against us” and foster the deep lack of trust Israel has of global institutions. On the ground in Hebron, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, Israelis and Palestinians will wake up to the same reality, only with another dose of suspicion and alienation, the exact opposite of what the region and its people need. But it does not end here. UNESCO’s behavior is an ominous sign for the international community as a whole, shining a dark light at its lack of ability to treat global crises in a serious manner. This sad state of affairs raises a profound question, which goes far beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. UNESCO - the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - is a specialized agency of the United Nations, based in Paris, whose mission statement is, among other things, “to coordinate international cooperation,” “strengthens the ties between nations and societies” and “to build peace in the minds of men and women.” What happens when an international agency, funded by member states’ dues (taxpayer funds) not only strays away from its original vocation, but violates it altogether? What happens when it betrays its mission? There is no doubt that what happened at UNESCO does not “strengthen ties” between Israelis and Palestinians, they actually undermine them. What consequences should there be if public funds are abused for the purpose of political shenanigans, at a time when the world direly needs strong and vibrant international organs, active where they need to be? If international institutions are doomed for futility, if they lose their very raison d'etre, then what’s the point of having them? ISIS is destroying world heritage en masse, targeting various places of worship in areas under its control, including ancient historical artifacts from Iraq to Libya. Many remember the destruction at the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra as one of the most famous examples of these barbaric acts. And while all of this is happening, UNESCO, whose vocation is preserving “World Heritage,” is busy with the smoke-screen of Israel’s Jewish identity, abused by the Palestinians and their accomplices, while taking away attention from where it is highly needed. This is a most significant question the international community will need to address sooner or later, as the challenges of wealth distribution are increasing and people’s global needs on the rise. We simply cannot – and should not – afford this. There is no doubt that hopes for peace between Israel and the Palestinians have garnered one more defeat, and the peace process dealt another blow. Once the dust of cheering and accolades in the halls of UNESCO settles, one reality remains: Israel and the Palestinians grow farther apart, and international institutions lose their relevance by the day. UNESCO is more than just Israel’s problem. It’s the world’s.
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