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Download thought_reading_capacity.doc Download thought_reading_capacity.txt Thought Reading Capacity John J. McMurtrey, M. S., Copyright 2004,[a] 12 Sept. 05 Co-authorship is negotiable towards professional publication in an NLM indexed journal, Email- Johnmcmurt@aol.com Donations toward future research are gratefully appreciated at http://www.slavery.org.uk/FutureResearch.htm ABSTRACT Reports of specific concept recognition in humans by technical means on hearing words, viewing images or words, and prior to vocalization are examined. These reports are consistent with an extensive literature on word category differentiation by electrophysiology and blood flow, which is reviewed. EEG discrimination literature of emotional states, and deception is surveyed along with non-invasive brain computer interface reports. Non-contact and remote methods of brain wave assessment are also considered. The literature treated lends some substantiation to press accounts indicating thought reading is possible, and has had covert development. INTRODUCTION The Bible attributes to God the capacity to know the thoughts of men. [1] Most scientists are unaware that thought reading by electroencephalogram (EEG) was reported as feasible in work begun over 30 years ago, [2] which more recently a number of groups confirm by EEG, Magnetoencephalograpy (MEG), and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) technologies. This review focuses on literature relating to technologic thought reading, though also treated are the discrimination of more general cognitive states, brainwave capture methods, and reports of thought reading development apparently covert to open literature. METHODS OF SPECIFIC CONCEPT RECOGNITION The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 1972 contracted Pinneo & Hall for work that a 1975 US technical report entitled “Feasibility Study For Design of a Biocybernetic Communication System.” The study concludes “that it is feasible to use the human EEG coincident with overt and covert speech as inputs to a computer for such communication” (covert speech is defined as verbal thinking). 2 The 149 page report [b] states: “enough information has been obtained . . . to specify the optimum parameters to use for an EEG operating system, and to suggest future research towards that end.” Pinneo & Hall utilized templates for EEG word recognition constructed by averaging EEG patterns evoked by 9 words in each subject for visually presented words, and primarily utilized 4 electrodes over brain language areas for prediction. People with high hemispheric lateralization had EEG patterns for some words that frequently classified 100% correctly, regardless of the number of repetitions with stablity over time. Over all words, however, classification accuracy for these people was 85% for overtly, and 72% for words repeated to oneself, but solely by mental means without vocalization. Across all subjects specific word EEG patterns were classified 35% correctly for overtly, and 27% correctly for covertly spoken words, but more people were in the 70-100% classification range than in the 10-15% range. [c] Subjects with low hemispheric laterality, particularly stutterers had near chance EEG classification. EEG concept recognition was actually 10-15% higher for pictures rather than words. Phrases containing similarly articulated words or homonyms were better recognized than these words alone without context. Suppes et. al. have the most extensive recent publications supporting and reporting specific EEG thought recognition. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] This work largely compares recognition improvement methods with some emphasis on a relative invariance of EEG concept representations across individuals. The procedures generally utilized Fourrier transforms of both templates for recognizing words, and test samples with an optimal EEG frequency window, or filter selected for each subject. EEG word templates constructed by averaging each subject’s responses (50 trials) at single electrodes resulted in less EEG word recognition, 3 than recognition templates averaged across all subjects (700 trials) [d] for bipolar electrode difference. The latter technique produced recognition rates over seven words of 100% for visual images and auditory words. 5 [e] However, for visually presented words, recognition templates generated by excluding from the average the subject tested was better--75% than averaging within subject or over all subjects. The waveforms for each presentation modality were very similar, and when recognition templates averaged across subjects in the modalities of visual images or words were utilized for recognizing other modalities (visual images or words & auditory), recognition still was generally 60-75%. Such results were despite inclusion of three subjects with English as a second language, and obvious hemispheric laterality confounds important to Pinneo & Hall, [f] such as one left handed and another ambidexterous subject. These results indicate a relative invariance of EEG representations for different concepts between subjects and perception modality, when averaging out and filtering noise. Matching templates to words is derived by amplitude difference between template and test word waveforms, when sampled at 814 difference points as squared and summed (Pinneo & Hall had 255 samples per word). Also examined are brain wave patterns for sentences. Recognizing the first sentence word by the same words individually presented, and the same words in sentences when cut and pasted was successful at a 50% recognition rate (with 8.3% as chance). 4 Even when excluding a subject from the averaged template, over 90% recognition was obtained for 48 sentences, as visually presented one word at a time. 6 Averaged unfiltered auditory responses are classified 100% correctly by the superposition of 3 sine waves chosen from the frequency domain maxima for each word.7 The same procedure when averaged across subjects and presentation modalities (visual images, visual and auditory words) classifies 100% of the words by 5 frequencies per word, while data fit decreased only 6% compared to the filtered templates. Syllable classification is less successful, with six correct classifications out of eight examples from superposition of nine frequencies. A Korean group reports yes/no decision discrimination of 86% by spatio-temporal cross correlation. [8] This was achieved from 4 electrodes over bilateral frontal and occipital sites. Differential equation measures of synchronization rate and average polarity also had high recognition rates of 78% and 81% respectively. Other investigators publish magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recognition of viewed words above chance significantly by 27% for recognition and 44% for accuracy. [9] Although these results were only somewhat above chance, MEG also was less successful for Suppes et al., 3 4 and a speech recognition optimized artificial intelligence system was utilized without filters or recognition templates. The authors expressed surprise that any recognition was possible, considering that input utilized only a simple technique; root mean squares of foci. There is apparently a Russian report of specific EEG word recognition before 1981. [10] The work is only known from a science reporter, and specifically unavailable, but is mentioned to aid this report’s discovery, and because of the claim that specific words contain category information, which is of possible significance for word category differentiation studies. Patents for EEG thought recognition exist. Electroencephalographic (EEG) instant detection by syllables of “a content of category which the testee wishes to speak” quotes Kiyuna et. al. Patent # 5785653 “System and method for predicting internal condition of live body.” [11] A stated use: “the present invention may be use (sic) to detect the internal condition of surveillance in criminal investigation” by EEG. NEC Corporation licensed this patent. Mardirossian Patent # 6011991 “Communication system and method including brain wave analysis and/or use of brain activity” includes remote EEG communication with armed forces or clandestine applications. [12] This patent proposes transmitter capable skin implants, utilizes artificial intelligence, and is licensed by Technology Patents, LLC. Studies of brain blood flow changes detected by functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), confirms that viewing pictures of objects activates specifically identifiable brain patterns. Comparing the distributed brain activity observed by fMRI for viewing faces, houses, cats, chairs, bottles, shoes, and scissors were 90-100% correct in all two category comparisons (with 50% as chance). [13] A different group replicates the results of this report. [14] Even though all these objects are described as categories because different exemplars and views were presented, discrimination of these objects generally requires an adjective, so that the distinctions qualify as specific concepts. A further report examined just 20 seconds of fMRI data rather than one half of an fMRI session in the previous studies, and utilized different exemplars of an object category for training classifiers from those utilized during classification. A support vector classifier provided the best results with 59-97% accuracy among ‘categories’ of baskets, birds, butterflies, chairs, teapots, cows, horses, tropical fish, garden gnomes, and African masks (with 10% as chance). [15] “Brain reading” are descriptive terms titling the report. Numerous fMRI studies show similarly activated brain regions for viewing images or words, and hearing words. Viewing pictures of objects or the word naming them activates similar distributed brain systems for storing semantic knowledge, [16] [17] [18] and auditory presentation also shares the same [19] or a similar [20] system with that of viewing these words. These studies give anatomical basis for the high cross modality recognition rates of concepts observed by Suppes et al. 5 7 PHYSIOLOGIC DISCRIMINATION OF WORD CATEGORIES Broca and Wernicke originally defined anatomy pertinent to aphasia resulting from brain injury. [21] More recently described are brain lesion patients who have very selective agnosias, which is an inability to name or recognize specific object classes. [22] [23] [24] Many word category differentiation reports reviewed below were initiated to explain and substantiate such deficits. This literature is consistent with specific word recognition, because word responses are averaged by category, and distinguished with only statistical inspection without template generation or specific comparison thereto as is required for thought recognition. Brain cell assembly activation provides a theoretical framework for both specific concept recognition, and word category discrimination. [25] Electroencephalogram and Magnetoencephalogram Word Category Discrimination Evoked EEG responses discriminate nouns and verbs. Nouns elicit more theta power than verbs, but verbs have greater theta coherence decrease, particularly in frontal versus posterior sites. [26] Noun waveforms generally are more negative than verb responses at post-stimulus intervals of both 200-350 and 350-450 milliseconds (msec.) [27] [28] [29] [30] Ambiguous noun/verbs are more negative than unambiguous nouns or verbs in the early latency interval, and when context indicates noun meaning versus verb use, are more negative over both these latency windows. 30 Anterior-posterior electrode activity also differs for ambiguous versus unambiguous nouns and verbs. 30 [31] Action verb waveforms differ in amplitude, 28 and central versus posterior distribution compared to visual nouns, [32] with particular 30 Hz increase over the motor cortex for action verbs, and over the visual cortex for visual nouns. [33] [34] Face, arm, or leg action verbs differ in amplitude by time interval, and activity increases over the specific corresponding motor strip locus as well as by frontal electrode. [35] [36] Low resolution electromagnetic tomography finds irregular verb activity more in the left superior and middle temporal gyri, while regular verbs are more active in the right medial frontal gyrus at 288-321 msec. [37] Irregular verbs respond more in the left ventral occipito-temporal cortex than regular verbs at ~340 msec. by MEG, which localizes perpendicular sources undetectable by EEG. [38] Regular verb activity modulates more the left inferior prefrontal region including Broca’s area at ~470 msec with MEG, but irregular verbs have more right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity at ~570 msec. Priming evoked patterns occur for regular but not irregular verbs, [39] [40] while incorrect irregular noun plural [41] and verb participle [42] [43] waveforms differ from that of incorrect regular forms. Abstract word waveforms onset more positively about 300 msec., persist longer at lateral frontal sites, and distribute more to both hemispheres compared to concrete words.28 [44] [45] β-1 frequency coherence during memorization of concrete nouns indicates left hemisphere electrode T5 as the main brain processing node. [46] Left hemisphere electrode T3 is similarly important for abstract nouns, which have more frontal area contribution, and massive right posterior hemisphere coupling. Abstract versus concrete memorization distinctly changes other frequency bands, [47] [48] and theta synchronization predicts efficient encoding. [49] Content words yield a more negative peak at 350-400 msec. than functional grammar words, with a subsequent occipital positivity that function words lack, and more electrode and hemisphere differences from 400- 700 msec. [50] [51] In sentences, the late component of function words resembles preparatory slow waves that apparently subserve their introductory and conjunctive grammatical function. [52] Other studies show content versus function word differences at additional intervals and more bi-hemispheric effects,[53] with right visual field advantage for function words. [54] MEG distinguishes functional grammar words, or content words such as multimodal nouns, visual nouns, or action verbs, each by response strength and laterality at intervals of both ~100 and greater than 150 msec. [55] Proper name amplitudes peak more just after 100 msec. negatively, and just after 200 msec. positively than common nouns, while one’s own name accentuates these peaks relative to other proper names with further positive and negative components. [56] Proper names, animals, verbs, and numerals show electrode site differences: proper name temporal negativity extends to inferior electrodes bilaterally; verbs and animal names are less negative and similar, but verbs have left frontal inferior positivity; while numerals have less waveform negativity, and bilateral parietal positivity. [57] Non-animal objects are more negative in both the 150-250 and 350-500 msec. intervals than animals, while animals are more positive in the 250-350 msec. interval. [58] [59] Animals are more positive in approximately the same latter interval than vegetables/fruits, while vegetables/fruits are more negative in about the earlier interval (150-250 msec.), and have stronger frontal region current sources than animals. [60] Animals in natural scenes evoke different waveforms than just natural scene or building pictures. [61] Responses to words for living things are less negative over the right occipital-temporal region than artifactual objects, while pictorial presentations of the same items further differ and have hemisphere effects noted as unreported. [62] EEG waveforms for specific meanings could be as discretely categorized as indicated by the reported but unspecified Russian work, which claims that “the waves for such concepts as “chair”, “desk”, and “table” are all overlapped by another wave that corresponds” to the concept of furniture. 10 Affective word meanings such as good-bad, strong-weak, or active-passive are discriminated [63] by both category and meaning polarity according to response latency, amplitude, and scalp distribution at intervals of 80-265 and 565-975 msec. [64] Positive words have amplitude increases peaking at 230 msec. compared to negative words, and relative to neutral words increase a subsequent peak amplitude as well as a slow wave component. [65] Emotional words also show less amplitude decrease on repetition than neutral words. [66] Some of these word category differentiation reports are consistent with both the specific recognition reports, and/or the discrimination of non-verbal cognition. Based on EEG/MEG responses, words are readily distinguished from non-words, [67] [68] [69] pictures, [70] and as to length. [71] Even commas have a characteristic waveform similar to the speech phrase closure evoked pattern called closure positive shift. [72] Color selection modulates the EEG. [73] EEG discriminates the judgement of gender for both faces and hands. [74] Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Word Category Discrimination Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) localize brain blood flow, with ability to distinguish perceptual categories. Some studies locate recognition of places [75] [76] and faces [77] within certain brain areas, however, expertise can recruit the face recognition area, [78] and other studies show these areas only responding maximally for specific stimuli. [79] Word category activity is both distributed and overlapping 79 [80] in a somewhat lumpy manner. [81] Though regions of word category difference are indicated below, brain comprehension is not solely dependent on these areas. Discrete category responsive emergence may have some resemblance to category segregation in the feature processing of artificial neural networks that self organize without programming. [82] Meta-analysis of 14 studies locating activity for face, natural, and manufactured object recognition shows ventral temporal cortex difference. Face recognition activates more inferior ventral temporal portions including the fusiform gyrus of which manufactured objects activate more medial aspects than face or natural objects, yet natural objects distribute more widely in this region. [83] Eighty eight percent of face studies converged for mid fusiform gyrus activity, while natural and manufactured objects converged no more than 50% for any discrete area. Manufactured object activity locates to the middle temporal cortex from natural objects, which locate more in the superior temporal cortex. Face and natural object activity is more bilateral, and in the left inferior frontal cortex, while particularly tools activate the premotor area. These studies also feature activity in the inferior occipital/posterior fusiform and the medial occipital structures of lingual gyrus, calcarine sulcus, and cuneus. There is some agreement that verbs have greater activity in temporal, parietal, and premotor/prefrontal regions than nouns, while nouns have little [84] or no [85] greater activated areas than verbs, yet no noun/verb difference is also reported. [86] German regular noun and verb fMRI responses compared to irregular words differ significantly in the right precentral gyrus, the left prefrontal cortex, bilateral posterior temporal lobes, and bilateral complexes including superior parietal lobules, supramarginal gyri, and angular gyri. [87] Regular words are left hemisphere lateralized, while irregular words have somewhat greater distribution to the right hemisphere, and a greater activation over all cortical areas. Irregular verbs activate more total cortex than regular verbs, but lack motor strip, insular, and most occipital cortex activity present for regular verbs. [88] Though both forms activate the inferior parietal lobule, irregular verbs activate more posterior and superior portions than regular verbs Depending on control task correction, naming actions activates the left inferior parietal lobule, which is lacking for locative prepositions, which activate the left supramarginal gyrus selectively from actions. [89] Furthermore, naming abstract shape location compared to locating concrete items increases right supramarginal gyrus activity,89 which specifically also activates on long-term memory for spatial relations [90] and in American sign language prepositions. [91] The supramarginal gyrus is encompassed by the temporal-parietal-occipital junction active for location judgments, and is separate from temporal activity for judging color. [92] Action word generation activity is just anterior to the motion perception area, while color word generation activity is just anterior to the color perception area. [93] Naming object color activates distinct brain regions from naming the object, with color knowledge retrieval activity being slightly removed from that of naming colors. [94] Irrespective of language and visual or auditory modality, the naming of body parts activates the left intraparietal sulcus, precentral sulcus, and medial frontal gyrus, while naming numbers activates the right post central sulcus as joined to the intraparietal sulcus. 19 Concrete words are discriminated from abstract words in both noun or verb forms,85 with more right hemisphere activity for abstract words than concrete words. [95] [96] [97] Abstract/concrete contrasts feature both right or left temporal areas, while the reverse concrete/abstract comparison features frontal activity. [98] [99] [100] [101] [102] Besides distinction from abstract nouns, the concrete categories of animals contrasted to implements respond selectively in the posterior-lateral temporal, and frontal cortex areas across studies. 95 100 Limbic activity, particularly the cingulate, distinguishes emotional words from both abstract and concrete words. 96 Naming pictures of animals, tools, and famous people are discriminated [103] by increased regional blood flow in the left inferior frontal gyrus for animals, premotor area for tools and left middle frontal gyrus for people. [104] Faces activate the right lingual and bilateral fusiform gyri, while the left lateral anterior middle temporal gyrus response differs to famous faces, famous proper names, and common names. [105] Particularly the left anterior temporal cortex responds to names, faces, and buildings when famous relative to non-famous stimuli. 105 [106] Viewing photographs of faces, buildings, and chairs evokes activity distributed across several cortical areas, which are each locally different in both the visual ventral temporal 79 and occipital cortices. [107] Photograph perception of these same categories has more hemispheric lateralization and activation than non-perceptual imagery, [108] while short term memory face imagery activity is stronger than that of long term memory. [109] More advanced fMRI techniques discriminate further word or object classes. In a high resolution fMRI limited brain cross section study, the activity differs for animals, furniture, fruit, or tools in discrete sites of the left lateral frontal and 3 separate medial temporal cortex loci respectively. [110] The application of artificial intelligence to fMRI pattern distinguishes between 12 noun categories (fish, four legged animals, trees, flowers, fruits, vegetables, family members, occupations, tools, kitchen items, dwellings, and building parts). [111] Finally are the reports of discriminating the viewing of 7 13 14 and 10 15 different ‘categories’ so discrete as to require an adjective for distinction as previously discussed. Some cognitive functions are related to or partly dependent on language. Letters activate the left insula more than objects and exclusively activate the left inferior parietal cortex. [112] Letters also activate an area in the left ventral visual cortex more than digits in most subjects. [113] [114] Brain activations of mathematical thinking are partly dependent on language. [115] Subtraction activates bilaterally the anterior intraparietal sulcus and a phoneme area in the intraparietal sulcus mesial to the angular gyrus, selectively from simple motor tasks. [116] Number comparison activates right hemisphere intraparietal and prefrontal areas, while multiplication localizes more to the left hemisphere. [117] ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAM DISCRIMINATION OF OTHER COGNITIVE STATES Other literature indicates EEG differentiation of completely non-verbal cognition. Greater left prefrontal activity predicts positive affect, while greater right prefrontal activity predicts negative disposition in psychological testing. [118] However, the stability of hemispheric activation is important for such a trait characteristic, [119] and more transient mood states have exactly the opposite arousal symmetry. [120] Decreased left prefrontal activity is also found in depression, [121] [122] and the anxiety situations of social phobics. [123] Patented is more specific attitude, mood, and emotion differentiation, by plotting at least two and as many as five EEG frequencies, with reference to Air Force research. [124] EEG patterns discriminate relative misanthropy and philanthropy in facial preferences, and favorable or negative responses to faces, [125] while waveform topography identifies sad face perception. [126] Another EEG emotion indicator is the stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN). Although slight SPNs can precede instruction cues, this wave is most pronounced while awaiting performance assessment and reward or aversive feedback. [127] [128] [129] [130] A number of groups have developed procedures to detect deception based on the P300 (positive @ 300 millisec) event related potential (ERP) from EEG. [131] [132] [133] [134] [135] [136] A commercial system, Brain Fingerprinting, [137] which includes additional frequency analysis, particularly a late negative ERP potential, cites 100% accuracy over five separate studies. [138] [139] [140] [141] [142] Though most EEG deception detection concerns situation specific knowledge, a late positive potential approximate to the P300, is reported to vary as a function of real attitude rather than attitude report. [143] BRAIN COMPUTER INTERFACES EEG cortical potentials are detected for both actual movement, [144] and movement readiness potentials (bereitschaftspotential). [145] [146] EEG sufficiently differentiates just the imagination of movement to operate switches, [147] move a cursor in one [148] or two dimensions, [149] control prosthesis grasp, [150] and guide wheel chairs left or right [151] in a prompted manner. EEG detects such potentials to play Pac Man, [152] and imagining the spinning of cubes, or arm raising in appropriate direction guides robots through simulated rooms, [153] [154] [155] both achieved without response prompting. Unprompted slow cortical potentials also can turn on computer programs. [156] Signals from implanted brain electrodes in monkeys achieve even more complex grasping and reaching robot arm control without body arm movement. [157] Some ability to recognize evoked responses to numbers [158] and tones [159] in real time by a commercial system called BrainScope has limited report. REMOTE AND PROXIMATE BRAIN WAVE CAPTURE METHODS EEG is typically recorded with contact electrodes with conductive paste, while MEG detectors are in an array slightly removed from the head. Remote detection of brain rhythms by electrical impedance sensors is described. [160] Though non-contact is the only remote descriptor for EEG, this same detector design is applied to monitoring electrocardiogram with wrist sensor location. [161] Passive brain wave fields extend as far as 12 feet from man as detected by a cryogenic antenna. [162] This device is entirely adaptable to clandestine applications, and pointed comments are made on the disappearance of physiological remote sensing literature since the 1970’s for animals and humans, while all other categories of remote sensing research greatly expanded. [163] In 1976, the Malech Patent # 3951134 “Apparatus and method for remotely monitoring and altering brain waves” was granted. [164] Example of operation is at 100 and 210 MHz, which are frequencies penetrating obstruction. [165] “The individual components of the system for monitoring and controlling brain wave activity may be of conventional type commonly employed in radar”; and “The system permits medical diagnosis of patients, inaccessible to physicians, from remote stations” are quotes indicating remote capacity. License is to Dorne & Margolin Inc., but now protection is expired with public domain. The Malech patent utilizes interference of 210 and 100 MHz frequencies resulting in a 110 MHz return signal, which is demodulated to give EEG waveform. The capability of remote EEG is predicted by electromagnetic scattering theory using ultrashort pulses, [166] which is different from the unpulsed Malech patent. Ultrashort pulses are currently defined in the range of 10-12 to 10-15 second. Considering that EEG word elicited potentials are comparatively long (hundreds of milliseconds), indicates that remote radar brain wave capture is adequate to word recognition, with ultrashort pulses allowing some 109 or more radar reflections in a millisecond (10-3 sec.) THOUGHT READING COVERT DEVELOPMENT EVIDENCE The research arm of agencies with missions to covertly acquire information would certainly develop to operational capability any thought reading potential, which was reported feasible 30 years ago to the Department of Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Reports that such development has progressed are multiple, and two are confirmed by details of the 1975 DARPA EEG specific word recognition report, which itself is evidence of development covert to open databases. 2 An International Committee of the Red Cross Symposium synopsis states EEG computer mind reading development by Lawrence Pinneo in 1974 at Stanford. [167] A letter by the Department of Defense Assistant General Counsel for Manpower, Health, and Public Affairs, Robert L. Gilliat affirmed brain wave reading by the Advanced Research Projects Agency in 1976, [168] the same year as Malech remote EEG patent grant. Such a capacity would be unlikely to neglected by DARPA in the 22 years between the current confirmations and the Pinneo report. In fact news reports assert such development. Articles quote Dr. John Norseen of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics that thought reading is possible and has had development.[169] [170] He predicted by 2005 the deployment of thought reading detectors for profiling terrorists at airports. 170 A further acknowledgement of developing a device to read terrorists’ minds at airports was made in a NASA presentation to Northwest Airlines security specialists. [171] Statements in all articles indicate remoteness of brain wave detection, though somewhat proximate. “Thought reading or synthetic telepathy” communications technology procurement is considered in a 1993 Jane’s [g] Special Operations Forces (SOF) article: “One day, SOF commandos may be capable of communicating through thought processes.” [172] Descriptive terms are “mental weaponry and psychic warfare” Although contemplated in future context, implied is availability of a technology with limited mobility, since troop deployment anticipation must assume prior development. Victim complaints that mind reading is part of an assault upon them are very similar to such a capacity. Other complaints by these victims, such as technologic internal voice assault are upheld by considerable documentation that internal voice transmission is feasible, even at a distance and within structures, 165 and a presumptive diagnosis of such complaints is largely consistent with microwave exposure [173]--a basis for both internal voice and EEG capture technologies. DISCUSSION There is considerable confirmation of an ability to recognize specific concepts by brain activity across subjects. Identifying visual images viewed by a subject solely by measures of mental activity is replicated across five groups by two methods, with best recognition rates of 100%. Three groups report success in visually viewed word identification by brain waves in two methods with best recognition rates of 75%. Isolated groups report EEG word recognition by auditory perception and prior to vocalization, with best results of 100% for auditory perception and 35% for vocalization. Although single reports examine lesser vocabularies, over all open studies of thought recognition, some 80 words have been examined. In all, seven groups have reported some level of specific concept recognition by EEG, MEG, or fMRI. Word category distinctions would be expected from such individual differences. EEG, MEG, PET, or fMRI techniques discriminate some 42 word class or dimension distinctions, many of which would survive separate direct comparison just by reported results. The finding that words can be classified by superposition of sine waves suggests an obvious interpretation, when considering word category blood flow activations of cell assemblies. 7 The frequencies resulting from neuron firing rates in the distributed, yet somewhat discrete regions, when interference phase summed and subtracted by arrival from different locations results in word representation in the brain’s language. Considerable capacity to specifically detect and differentiate mental states is evident from literature reports by EEG. The fact that EEG signals are detected on a voluntary unprompted basis for turning on computer programs, 156 playing Pac Man, 152 and robot guidance 153 154 155 suggests the feasibility of a similar capacity for specific EEG concept recognition. Although most concept recognition work is related to stimulus prompted responses, unprompted detection of numbers apparently as a class, has limited report. 158 The references to remote EEG provide plausibly exploitable mechanisms, for which covert development has some indication. Making those more proximate electromagnetic detectors (MEG, cryogenic antenna, or electrical impedance sensor) the focus of a parabolic antenna, would be obvious to remote brain wave detection engineers to extend the range and provide directionality, and is a simple, common design innovation. The plausibility of thought reading has not completely escaped scientific attention, as a French government panel expresses concern about the potential for thought reading and such a remote capacity. [174] Complete rejection of reports of a remote mind reading capability is just as presumptuous, in the face of complaints, as has been the dismissal of internal voice capacity. 165 News reports of covert thought reading development have confirmation in the Pinneo study, and independent assertions of more proximate thought reading development “against terrorists” affirm each other. Special operations officials consider procurement of a similar remote capacity to that of which many victims complain. Though victims will regard their experience to affirm such a thought reading capability, professional prejudice regards such complaints as defining psychiatric condition. The certain fact is that these claims have had no adequate investigation, and the available evidence questions the routinely egregious denial of civil rights to such individuals. Mind reading development must at least be considered as plausible, even regarding very remote methods. It is known that government elements have done work in thought reading development. The logic that in the 30 years since the Pinneo work started, this capacity is operationally applied is too sound to dismiss victim corroboration and other evidence, without appropriate investigation. It would have to be admitted that funding for projects by the defense and security agencies is considerably greater than for open science, and that thought reading would be a priority area. Particularly disturbing is the existence of a remote EEG method in the public domain. Educated democracies should not be complacent at any prospect of mind reading, given the potential for privacy loss, civil rights violation, and political control. Acknowledgements: Thanks are given to God for inspiration and guidance as well as Mr. John Allman, Secretary of Christians Against Mental Slavery for invaluable materials and support (website http://www.slavery.org.uk/ ). EEG concept recognition articles are printable thru Pubmed as designated. All patents are printable from the U. S. Patent Office website. Each is free REFERENCES [a] This article has been partly supported by substantial financial contributions from Christians Against Mental Slavery http://www.slavery.org.uk [b] Pinneo’s report does not include all experiments reported to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in the six annual reports over the 3 year contract. [c] Over the experiments presented by the report, chance would be from 6.5 to 14% depending on the size of tested vocabulary. [d] Suppes points out that this may have been due to increased averaging per se. [e] Though apparently only single electrodes or pairs were utilized for prediction, the best recognition rates were not always from the same electrode of pair. [f] Almost half of the Pinneo report is devoted to resolving such confounds. [g] Jane’s is the most respected and authoritative of defense reporting services. [1] The Bible Job 42: 2, Psalms 139: 2, 94: 11, I Chronicles 28: 9, Isaiah 66: 18. [2] Pinneo LR and Hall DJ. “Feasibility Study for Design of a Biocybernetic Communication System” Report #ADA017405 National Technical Information Service (NTIS), 1975. Prepared for the Advanced Research Projects Agency Order #2034, Program Code #2D20, Contractor: Stanford Research Institute Contract dates: 2/9/72-8/31/76, SRI Project LSU-1936. (US cost ~$50.) 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Printable free online thru PubMed or at http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/96/22/12953 [7] Suppes P and Han B. “Brain-wave representation of words by superposition of a few sine waves” Proc Natl Acad Sci 97: 8738-43, 2000. Printable free online thru Pubmed or at http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/97/15/8738 [8] Kim M-J, Shin S-C, Song Y, and Ryu CS. “Yes/No Discrimination With Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of EEG” 23rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Oct 25-28, Istanbul Turkey. Obtained from the Storming Media Pentagon collection of technical papers at a cost of ~$10. Abstract at http://www.stormingmedia.us/30/3012/A301214.html?searchTerms=~Kim~Shin~Song~Ryu The paper was apparently collected from the conference with the Koreans not under Pentagon contract. Entire conference is #ADM001351 on cd-rom. 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Whether you’ve gotten a gift you really don’t like or you’re just prone to losing receipts, returning items without a receipt can sometimes be a minefield. Here are some tips and techniques to make sure you get your money back. This post was originally published on October 26, 2011. Sadly, there’s no one method for getting your money back every time—your experience is going to vary from store to store, and even from customer service rep to customer service rep. The best thing you can do is prepare yourself before you go, and build up a good case if they ask you for a receipt. Here’s what you’ll want to consider ahead of time. Advertisement Check That Store’s Policy Before doing anything else, check up on that store’s return policy, so you know what you’re going to face. Many stores don’t actually care about having a receipt—Wal-Mart, for example, will let you get cash back for anything under $25, and store credit for anything above that—no receipt necessary. Target, on the other hand, can look up any purchase using your credit card or gift card. If you shop at stores like Costco, that require a membership, they can easily track your account’s purchases. Amazon even has a policy for gift returns, which is great when you don’t have the receipt yourself. Basically, don’t waste time building up a case if you don’t need it—check your store’s policy, see if you can wrangle up whatever you need to get your money back, and head on in. Return It As Soon As Possible With a few exceptions, you’re going to get the best results the sooner to the purchase date you try and return the item. This is especially important if the store has a policy about returning items within 90 days, or some other specified period of time. If you’re after this date, however, you can try returning it without a receipt and say it was a gift—if they can’t track the purchase date, then there’s no way for them to know how quickly it was returned. Having it in the original packaging helps as well. Advertisement Be Nice and Stay Calm This is super important. No matter how frustrated you are with the company, it’s rarely the customer service rep’s fault that you had to wait in line, or that your product was defective, or that you don’t have a receipt. In most cases, they want to be there as little as you do, and you’re going to make them want to help you a lot less if you’re rude—and since, in many cases, you’re the one trying to go against store policy, you want them to be on your side as much as possible. Being honest is also great, but be careful it doesn’t hurt your chances of returning the item—if you knew the item was non-refundable and say so, you’re probably going to have a harder time convincing them. But letting them know you lost the receipt can be okay, if you back it up with other evidence (see below). Bring In Other Evidence Advertisement The old “it was a gift” line only works so often. You can try it, but if it doesn’t work, try again with some other evidence of your purchase (at another store or with a different representative). That means at the very least bring the credit card you used to purchase the item, or (even better) a bank statement that shows the purchase on a specific date. It won’t always work, but it’s good to come into the store as prepared as possible (and this method obviously doesn’t work with something that actually was a gift). The more information you can give them that might help them look up the purchase in their records, the better. Photo by Dave Dugdale. Show That You’re a Regular, Loyal Customer If it’s a smaller store that you shop regularly, you have a much better chance of returning the item. Build a relationship with the people that work there. If that’s not an option, you can always provide evidence of your loyalty. Weblog Bukisa provides a great example: Be charming, but authoritative (You must know what your are talking about). Real Life Example: “Good afternoon, I’d like to interest you in my problem. My wife and I received these Tiffany candlesticks on our 5th anniversary. As I was lighting them yesterday evening for our 7th anniversary dinner, the top of the crystal stick cracked clear of the base on one of them. Obviously there was a weak point in the crystal. My wife is quite heartbroken. She loved these so much that every time there is a wedding in the family she presents the couple with the same candlesticks—why, I’m sure Tiffany has a record of such things and can see how many candlesticks and other items we have purchased over the years. In fact. all out baby gifts are from Tiffany as well. Can you possibly replace it? I am sure the factory will want to examine this one.” Advertisement The other thing you can really do to help here is exchange it for something at the same store, or at least be buying something else while you’re returning that item. Even if they’re completely unrelated—say, you’re returning a computer keyboard but buying a few DVDs—it’ll show that you’re a regular customer at the store and you’re not trying to pull a fast one. Don’t Take No for an Answer—Especially If It’s Defective Advertisement All this assumes you’re just returning an item because you don’t want it anymore. If the item is defective, there are actually laws in place to protect you from faulty goods. These laws vary from state to state and country to country, so you’ll have to look up the laws for your specific area. Consumer web site Which runs down some of the caveats to these laws in the UK: If you buy a product that turns out to be faulty, you can choose to ‘reject’ it: give it back and get your money back. However, the law gives you only a ‘reasonable’ time to do this—what is reasonable depends on the product and how obvious the fault is. However, even with something like a car, you usually have no more than three to four weeks from when you receive it to reject it. Most states in the US should follow very similar laws, but it differs from place to place. The bottom line is that if an item is defective, you have a much better chance of getting a refund, so be very firm when returning a defective item—even if it’s been awhile. While the official grace period may be short, you can often persuade some people to honor much longer agreements. Bukisa gives another great example: Most stores will simply return the faulty product back to the manufacturer. If it is the store’s own brand, liken the product to a superior brand, but show dismay that the quality is not the same. “I absolutely love these pillow cases, the cotton is almost as soft as that of my (other similar manufacturer), but I am extremely dismayed that the cotton, while soft, is of such poor quality that the cloth has started to shred, and even develop holes after washing. These are only 2 years old! I’ve had (other manufacturer’s) bed linens for over 10 years. and I would expect (Name of Manufacturer) to be of the same quality and standard. Surely (the manufacturer) will want these back in order to solve the problem.” Advertisement The longer you wait, the more of a long shot it is, but you have nothing to lose if the item becomes defective after a year or two and it’s something that’s supposed to last you a long time. Photo by Paul Hussey. Realize That Store Credit Is Often As Good As It Gets Advertisement Pick your battles. If you can get the store to offer you store credit, you’ve probably won that battle. You won’t be able to make every store give you cash back, or refund your credit card, but a willingness to compromise can get you pretty far. Whether it’s store credit, exchanging the item right then and there, or (if it’s defective) getting a repair or replacement, you’ll be getting more of your money’s worth with a compromise than you would just keeping the unwanted item. Photo by Diaper. Last-Ditch Effort: Wait Until the Holidays I stress this at the end because, in general, you want to try returning an item as soon as possible for the best result (especially if it’s defective). However, if you don’t have any luck, see if you can wait until after a holiday season. If it’s a more timeless item (that is, something that was not obviously sold earlier in the year), the end of December is a great time to return items, even if they weren’t Christmas gifts. You may have to stand in line a bit longer, but since so many people are returning gifts at that time, stores tend to be a lot more lenient with their return policies. Only use this as a last-ditch effort, though; you’ll want to at least try the above tricks as soon as possible before you wait 6 months for the holidays to roll around. Advertisement Of course, your mileage may vary with all of these tips—every store’s policy is different, and you could even get different results depending on the customer service rep you speak to. In the end, the best thing you can do is save your receipts for things when you buy them, at least until you know they work the way you want them to. When it comes to gifts, life’s a bit harder, but rarely will you have to suffer through keeping the item—especially once the holidays roll around. Got your own tips for returning items without a receipt! Please share them with us in the comments! Advertisement Photo remixed from an original by Ben_onthemove.
After trying to explain why we homeschool to a number of people, including family, you come up with a sort-of standard answer because some will get it and some won’t. I’ve said before that homeschooling is a choice and not for everyone but can I let you in on a little secret? I’m over the moon that it’s growing rapidly and slowly starting to become more normalized. I think that all children can benefit from getting out of the classroom and having more life experiences to learn from. Here is an image I came across on Pinterest that I thought was neat. A visual history lesson of homeschooling. Source: TopMastersInEducation.com When I came across this TED Talk I knew I had to share it! Really, blast it everywhere. Share it with anyone and everyone. It’s amazing! I was almost brought to tears the first time I watched it. Thinking “Wow, the parents must be incredibly proud of this young man”. His words, so real and authentic, I couldn’t have said it better myself. This is exactly what I hope for our children. Children who grow up and want to “hack life”. I hope they become creative innovators who change the world and most importantly ARE HAPPY! Click any and all share buttons at the bottom of this post. 🙂 Send this kid some love!
The ruling was one of the rare cases where an individual owner or director of a company was successfully prosecuted for breaching heritage law, and could set a precedent for other Sydney councils fighting to save heritage buildings. "What often happens is that developers hide behind their company, but in this case the council directly pursued the owner of the company," said Leichhardt mayor Rochelle Porteous. Cr Porteous said the landmark decision sent a strong message to developers who attempted to flout heritage laws. "We wanted to send a message that heritage matters. The demolition and removal of buildings and other structures must be done within council's planning controls," she said. Cr Porteous said a number of other Sydney councils had called Leichhardt's legal team to congratulate them on the win and ask how they pulled it off.
The Sun reports that the Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans actor only eats meat from animals that mate in a 'dignified' way Nicolas Cage has reportedly revealed that he will eat only animals who mate in a dignified fashion, a dietary preference which apparently rules out pork. According to the Sun, the Oscar-winning actor is happy to eat fish or poultry because their love lives are more decorous. "I have a fascination with fish, birds, whales – sentient life – insects, reptiles," says Cage, who is currently getting great reviews for his performance as a drug-addled detective in Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans, a quasi-remake of Abel Ferrara's 1992 tale of a destructive cop. He continues: "I actually choose the way I eat according to the way animals have sex. I think fish are very dignified with sex. So are birds. "But pigs, not so much. So I don't eat pig meat or things like that. I eat fish and fowl." Cage, whose glowing Bad Lieutenant notices follow praise for his role in Kick-Ass, is known for having an eccentric fascination with animals. He has a tattoo of a lizard wearing a top hat, has owned a pet octopus and once ate a cockroach for a movie role. For Bad Lieutenant, which is out in the UK on Friday, he bought a snake with two heads to protect him during filming in New Orleans. The creature was later donated to a zoo.
More than £621,000 in parliamentary expenses was claimed by peers who never spoke in debates during the 2014-15 parliamentary session, it has emerged. A group of 34 peers meanwhile claimed a total of £130,000 despite never voting, and eight claimed £29,000 but neither spoke or voted. The figures are revealed in Parliament Ltd, a book by journalist Martin Williams published last week. Members of the House of Lords take no salary but can claim £300 a day for turning up, plus some travel costs. The highest amount for a peer who never spoke was Lord Taylor of Blackburn, who claimed £43,110 in 2014-15. Among those who never voted was crossbencher the Earl of Stair, who the book says “turned up for just 17 days of the year but claimed almost £14,000 on expenses, including more than £6,000 on air travel”. Of those who neither spoke of voted, the highest claimant was Lord Steyn, a former law lord, at £11,250. The peer, who has not spoken in a debate since 2009, attended parliament for his £300 allowance 86 times in 2014-15 and lives 15 minutes away from Westminster. Meanwhile the book reveals Liberal Democrat peer Lord Paddick cost the taxpayer £8,897.84 to fly to Britain and back from a holiday in New York so he could speak in the 2014 debate about military action against Islamic State. The peer spoke for four minutes before making the business class trip back to JFK airport on a flatbed seat that same night. Sir Alistair Graham, the former chairman of the committee on standards in public life, told the Sunday Times: “The Lords is full of people who are unable to make a real contribution to running the country. “We need to ensure the second chamber is part of a fully effective democratic system rather than a vehicle to keep elderly politicians happy.”
I run South Bay Film Society and sell over 1,000 tickets per month to film events. I have used Yapsody for selling tickets to my film events for over a year now, after switching from a couple other ticketing platforms. I have found Yapsody to be excellent in all respects. The Yapsody platform makes it easy for me to set up my ticket sales for each event and is easy for my customers to navigate. The fee charged by Yapsody is lower than for most other services. The thing that is particularly impressive with Yapsody is their customer service support. Any time I have had an issue come up, they have responded very quickly and resolved the problem very quickly. I highly recommend Yapsody as the best ticketing service I have found in my 6 years of business. Randy Berler, Founder of South Bay Film Society
Ring is one of the most ancient jewelry and one of the way to express yourself. This collection consists of 30+ unusual and stylish rings. You’ll be suprised by imagination of theirs creators. This golden ring has a diamond. But only the owner would know about it. This ring can be used like small glass. This one will be usefull for those who have a bad memory. It fixates the date you need to remember. Danish artist Alidra Alic represents you unusual flower rings. The tulip ring is made out of silver and plastic. The hyacinth ring is made out of silver, plastic and strawberry quartz. French design extraordinaire Philippe Tournaire’s stunning new Dream House collection features a series of miniature buildings, including famous sights like the Vizcaya Hotel in Florida and the New York skyline. Rings look like car wheels. Ring with a concrete inside. These rings could be used like wedding rings for the couple of musicians. This one was created specifically for programmers The strange and unusual world of steam punk. These London Particulars vintage rings are from the private collection of Professor Aubrey Thistlequick…
BY DANIEL GAITAN \| daniel@lifemattersmedia.org The former owner of Passages Hospice and its director of nursing pled guilty to fraud charges on Friday in Illinois federal court. Seth Gillman, 47, an attorney and founder of now-shuttered Passages, pled guilty to one count of health care fraud as part of a multi-year scam. The for-profit hospice company is accused of over-billing the government for general inpatient care for patients who did not need it. Gillman was indicted in May 2014 along with three other Passages employees, including former nursing director Carmen Velez, who also pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, according to legal news service Law360. Velez, 39, admitted to altering patient records to reflect a need for general inpatient care before the records were handed over to an auditor working on behalf of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Gillman faces up to 10 years in prison and millions of dollars in fines and restitution. Further Reading: Exclusive: Passages Hospice Was ‘Corrupt To The Top,’ Says Former Employee Passages Hospice Trial Date Set: Victim Shares Story
The first integrated residential community dedicated to autism is set to open its doors in the country by early 2018. A Special Place—modeled after several residential communities in the United States—was originally conceived as a residential haven for autism community living. It will also accommodate persons of special needs other than autism, and other family members who wish to reside within the community. ADVERTISEMENT A Special Place is the keystone project of the Association for Adults with Autism Philippines (AAAP), which seeks to advance the welfare of adults with autism—a much ignored segment of the autism population. Set to rise in a 9,000-sqm lot in Alfonso, Cavite, A Special Place will offer a safe, nurturing, and sustainable community where adult children can thrive, maximize their abilities, enjoy an appropriate level of independence, and receive health, educational, vocational, and wellness services. The said project is expected to have a total of six homes, each of which will be supported round-the-clock by professionally trained staff and supervised by a resident house-parent. The project is also expected to provide facilities for work, educational, vocational, and recreational activities, as well as opportunities for undertaking collaborative work with local and international scientists dedicated to autism and special needs research. Phase 1 of the project will see the construction of the first residential home and a second building for administrative, therapeutic, and research-oriented activities. Phase 2 will roll out the building of five additional homes and, as needed, senior care residential facilities for parents of autistic and special needs adult children. The operation of A Special Place will be supervised by the board of trustees of AAAP, which is composed of parents of persons with autism. A Special Place is now accepting e-mail applications for adults, 18 to 50 years old, diagnosed with autism and special needs. For more information about A Special Place, please email aspecialplace.alfonso@gmail.com or call Christine Siruelo at 09178812836. ADVERTISEMENT Read Next LATEST STORIES MOST READ
An Australian barbecue event has caused a fiery spat between Singapore locals and the ruling party's grassroots supporter base. Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong were photographed flipping steaks at one of the '50 BBQs' hosted by Singapore's Australian High Commission to celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations between Singapore and Australia on Sunday. But just hours before the first steak was set to sizzle, locals were outraged to learn that attendance would be restricted by a ticketing system controlled by the People's Association, the grassroots supporters of the ruling People's Action Party. '50 BBQs' was billed as an open, public event where Singaporeans would be treated to an Aussie-style BBQ where 10,000 beef and lamb steaks would be served at 23 sites across the island.
I can't make any sense of the government's attitude to financial risk. When big companies or rich individuals are willing to take it, the official view is that they must be rewarded for having the courage to gamble. That's why PFI schemes are potentially so profitable for the private sector, why bankers still get bonuses, and why profits on share dealings are taxed at less than income. Yet when it comes to the poorest people, the policy now is to push them into taking tremendous risks, with a high probability of loss, and no corresponding hope of tremendous gains. The welfare-to-work reforms are intended to discourage everyone but the very ill or disabled from leading a life on benefits. Fine, except for two problems. The first one we all know about: as last week's figures made plain, the jobs aren't there. The second problem is just as serious. Jobs aren't what they were. The government and the welfare system tend to talk and act as if finding work is the end of the problem, and as if happy jobseekers will have nothing left to think about except the gold watch they'll receive when they retire. But many jobs on offer, particularly those advertised in jobcentres, are precarious, temporary or part-time, or have uncertain hours. Leaving the security of benefits for jobs like these is like stepping out on to cracking ice. And our antiquated welfare system hasn't worked out where the life rafts and lifebelts ought to be. Maeve McGoldrick, of the charity Community Links, which works with unemployed people in east London, says the benefits system simply can't cope with modern working life. It is designed for predictability, and that is just what has become so elusive, particularly at the bottom of the market. If a single mother, say, is offered a steady minimum-wage job for 24 hours a week, the system can deal very effectively with that. It can calculate the tax credits and the housing benefit subsidy that will make work pay. It falls apart, though, when it has to respond to fluctuating incomes or rapid changes in people's circumstances. McGoldrick says the majority of benefit claimants are now going into unstable jobs. They may be commission-based, or agency work, or zero-hours contracts. That means the income and hours worked can vary wildly from week to week. Someone on zero hours, perhaps with a shop or a cleaning firm, may have to be available for work at any time over a 40-hour working week. But there's no corresponding requirement on the employer actually to give them anything to do. So a worker may do a three-hour stint one week, 17 hours the next, 32 in the third week, and four hours at the end of the month. Trying to deal with that sends benefit offices into meltdown. People earning a low wage can still be entitled to all kinds of financial help. But if their incomes fluctuate from week to week, so will their entitlement, and the system can't keep up. Weekly changes must be reported, and it can take weeks for each claim to be processed. Meanwhile, panicking claimants may find that their housing benefit has been cut or suspended, or their jobseeker's allowance withdrawn, on the assumption that what they earned three weeks ago is what they're earning now. The system is just as bad at responding to people who leave benefit for what turns out to be a short-term job. Housing benefit is supposed to run on for the first month in work, while people wait to be paid, but half of all claimants don't get it because that's not generally known. The Department for Work and Pensions claims to have a rapid return scheme to make it easier for long-term claimants who are laid off to get their allowances back. In this age, you might expect that an official could just push a button for payments to restart. Not at all. Claimants must queue, phone offices and wait – frequently for weeks. Delays like these mean nothing to people who have savings and equity and jobs. They are savage, searing experiences to those who live as close to the edge as long-term claimants inevitably do. These people have no resources. A month or more without income can be just what it takes to pitch people into the arms of loan sharks, or find themselves in terrifying rent arrears. Kate Wareing at Oxfam says that housing benefit is so badly run that it often takes six weeks to be reinstated. That causes immense stress. People sometimes lose their homes in that time. The news that jobs of some kinds can't be trusted, and that the system won't protect you if you take them, runs like bush fire through New Deal courses. It makes people scared to leave what they know. That's rational. They may not have much but, if they stay put, at least they can be sure that their homes and essential bills will be paid for. As the TUC's report on vulnerable employment said last year, for this group "security of income has to be a priority. The risks of a catastrophic fall in income when they change benefit status are too great." The significance of this widespread fear and insecurity is hopelessly underplayed. The government thinks, for instance, that its tax credit scheme to support people in work is the answer. Yet that too can make life worse for those who earn erratically, or switch between jobs and the dole. At the end of the year, poor families can be asked to repay thousands of pounds – a shock they cannot absorb. Instead, they may decide not to risk official work at all. The government sticks to its mantra that work will always pay. It preaches the virtues of entering the workplace, in any form, on the assumption that low-paid jobs are just a starting point, and that people can work their way up. Its extra financial help to single mothers working under the New Deal runs out after a year, presumably because it thinks the mothers will be on higher pay by then. That's unlikely. A Treasury analysis in 1999 warned that low-paid jobs were rarely a ladder to high-paid ones. The days of moving from being a teaboy to MD have long gone, partly because the teaboy will now work, often precariously, for a contract catering company, and the MD won't ever know his name. We have to deal with this new reality. Otherwise it will make sense for people to cling to benefits, some constructing their own safety nets by working on the side. The TUC and several of the poverty action groups think that nothing less than a rethinking of the welfare system for the 21st century will do. Our government is responsible because it embraced the culture of flexible workforces and contracting out. Companies have cut their risk by transferring it to the lowest possible level – the low-skilled worker. These people are taking the full force of the economic storm, and yet they are the least able to bear it, either financially or psychologically. There is now a whole stratum of individuals who are likely to spend their lives spinning between low pay and no pay. The only way to make that tough existence even tolerable is to make the bridges and financial supports between the two much stronger than they are now.
President Trump signed an executive order Saturday afternoon to institute a five-year ban on lobbying for former administration officials. "So this is a five year lobbying ban, and this is all of the people — most of the people standing behind me will not be able to go to work," Trump said as he signed the order in the Oval Office. "It's a two year ban now and it's got full of loopholes and this is a five year ban. So you have one last chance to get out. Good, I had a feeling you were going to say that." Trump, surrounded by press and administration officials, also signed two presidential memorandums to restructure the National Security Council and Homeland Security Council, and create a plan to defeat the Islamic State. "We're going to be very successful," Trump said of the ISIS plan. The text of the ISIS memorandum says that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will submit a preliminary report to the president within 30 days. The other memorandum declared that the director of national intelligence and chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff will no longer be automatic members of the Principal Committee, and will only attend PC meetings when their expertise is needed. The PC does include the chief strategist to the president, which in this case is Steve Bannon. The lobbying ban and NSC/HSC restructure order are two pieces of a five-part ethics reform plan that Trump unveiled during the campaign. "Not only will we end our government corruption, but we will end the economic stagnation," he said in October. His plan calls for "expand[ing] the definition of lobbyist so we close all the loopholes that former government officials use by labeling themselves consultants and advisors when we all know they are lobbyists," according to his website. The plan also calls for Congress to impose a five-year ban on lobbying by former staffers and to ban fundraising by registered foreign lobbyists. Trump can't order that unilaterally. "I can tell your viewers that the president-elect is determined to move ethics reform in the next year in the Congress," Vice President Pence said after the election.
Apple, Grapefruit, Pomegranate Salad This bright, colorful salad does not need any added dressing or seasoning. You can substitute oranges for the grapefruit, if you like. Get the recipe. Mixed Beans and Root Vegetable Stew Hearty and satisfying, this is almost a chili—except that there are more root vegetables than beans. Get the recipe. Roasted Stuffed Winter Squash Preparing squash this way—stuffed with a savory filling and roasted—puts that sturdy shell to good use. The flavorful rice provides good contrast to the squash and helps the stuffing mixture stay together without becoming chewy or dry during baking. Get the recipe. Herbed Fingerling Potatoes This recipe uses a lot of fresh herbs, but you can make it with dried herbs instead. Use only half the quantity for dried herbs as indicated for the fresh herbs. Get the recipe. Pumpkin Cranberry Cookies These cookies are fragrant with the flavors of fall, and are a great ending to a Thanksgiving meal. Get the recipe. For more Thanksgiving menus, click here or here or here.
TBogg is Tom Boggioni, a writer based in San Diego, Ca. More specifically in Pacific Beach. Okay, in Crown Point, if you must know. Happy now? He was once known as a "somewhat popular blogger" back when blogs were a 'thing'. He is writing the Great American Novel, minus the 'great' part. A Mav and his gun - Shutterstock As part of its never-ending quest to make sure that handguns are cheap, plentiful, and easy for anyone to acquire and keep, the NRA inserted itself into the writing of a Louisiana bill that would have expanded protections for victims of domestic violence. Putting bullets before people, the NRA saw to it that people in Louisiana with a history of violence — to say nothing of a conviction for stalking — can hang onto their guns just in case they are needed to prevent government tyranny or, should the need arise, to water the Tree of Liberty with the blood of women who are tired of being beaten. Louisiana’s HB 488, which would have provided additional protective measures for victims of domestic abuse, was gutted because the NRA thought it went too far when it included “dating partners” along with “household members.” According to a member of the state domestic violence prevention commission, the NRA “didn’t want to increase the pool of people who will dispossessed of their firearms.” So what got yanked out of the bill so it could pass through committee? Well, they removed “dating partner” from the list of victims of domestic abuse and battery, which means domestic violence victims who don’t live with their abusive partner don’t receive the same protections. This is in a state where 50 percent of domestic violence victims qualify as “dating partners” who live apart from their abuser. More importantly, a provision was removed that would have prohibited a person convicted of stalking from possessing a firearm. According to the Center for American Progress, from 2001 through 2010 Louisiana had more deaths per capita from guns than any other state. Additionally, Louisiana has “the fourth-highest rate of women being killed by men, two-thirds of which occurred with a firearm.” Louisiana is both gun-nut heaven and, unsurprisingly, has a gun-murder rate two-and-a-half times higher than the U.S. average. According to a spokesperson for the NRA, instead of taking guns away from hotheads and convicted creeps, Louisiana lawmakers should toughen enforcement of restraining orders. Feel better now, ladies? The fact of the matter is that the NRA — which is essentially the non-profit marketing and lobbying arm of the gun industry — will never support any law which will take one penny out of the pocket of gunmakers –even if it would save the life of one woman. It’s guns before gals, making every Louisiana woman a target and, potentially, just another police blotter statistic to eventually be ignored.
There's gold in that there dump. Or at least there's a genuine moon rock, now estimated to be worth about $5 million dollars. How it got there, into a city dump on the north side of Dublin, is a long story but with the nation facing an unprecedented recession interest in finding it again has exploded. The story begins in 1972, towards the end of the Apollo 17 mission with Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, the last two men to set foot on the Moon since the early 1970's. Picking up a moon rock about the size of a brick Schmitt said: 'We'd like to share a piece of this rock with so many of the countries throughout the world.' So Schmitt brought it home to earth. Shortly after the then President Richard Nixon ordered the rock be broken up and that fragments be sent to 135 foreign heads of state. Ireland was one of the beneficiaries. Each moon rock was mounted on a wooden plaque with the recipient nations' flag attached. Ireland's little bit o' the moon made its way to Dunsink Observatory in Dublin. Sadly, after interesting in the Apollo program waned the rock languid in a rarely visited setting. Then fate took a cruel turn, the Observatory burned to the ground in 1977. __________ Read More: __________ In a BBC report Doctor Ian Elliot, who worked there at the time, said: 'I heard about the fire on the morning news. I can tell you, that was a bit of a shock. My main concern was with the disruption to the work of the observatory. It was only afterwards that we realized that the bit of Apollo 11 moon rock could not be found. It was gathered up with all of the other debris and dumped in the municipal dump which was conveniently just across the road.' Now that Ireland's facing an unprecedented banking crisis, interest in finding the rock again has spiked. Doctor Elliot agreed they would have done things differently if they had known its value: 'If we'd had any perception of the rock's value, perhaps all of the debris would have been sifted by archaeologists and it might have been found.' Now that word of the valuable hidden treasure has spread locals are anticipating an army of metal detector wielding visitors will soon take over the Finglas dump. News of the reinvigorated search has delighted Joseph Gutheinz Jr, a Texas lawyer and former Nasa agent who is now known as the 'moon rock hunter.' He told Joe.ie: 'I love the story about the Ireland moon rock - that pot of gold under a dump.'
Swift 3 brings with it many improvements to GCD (Grand Central Dispatch) syntax and usage.Let’s see what’s new things. dispatch_async GCD patterns is to perform work on a global background queue and update the UI on the main queue as soon as the work is done. Previously, we have to choose dispatch method (sync vs async) and then the queue we wanted to dispatch our task to. Now GCD reverses this order – select the queue and then apply a dispatch method. dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0)) { () -> Void in // Background thread dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue()) { () -> Void in // UI Updates } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 dispatch_async ( dispatch_get_global_queue ( DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT , 0 ) ) { ( ) -> Void in // Background thread dispatch_async ( dispatch_get_main_queue ( ) ) { ( ) -> Void in // UI Updates } } Now, new syntax like below:
Helen Smith has lived on Gower Street for 46 years. Credit:Tony Moore With a slope of 31 per cent at an angle of 17.4 degrees, Gower Street residents have a sense of pride about their place in Brisbane's record books. Helen Smith has lived on the road for 46 years and she's proud to live on Brisbane's steepest street. Back then, there wasn't even bitumen on all the street. "That made it tough," she said. Ms Smith must love hills. She lived on Mt Tamborine before shifting to hilly Toowong. ------------------- LIST: The top 20 steepest streets ------------------- "We left Mt Tamborine for the kids to go to high school because there wasn't one up there then," she said. There's been a few accidents on Gower Street, but not as many as some might would expect. We've had people losing their furniture and timber and all that stuff from the back of trucks. "We've had cars turning - well that was before the bitumen - and we've had people losing their furniture and timber and all that stuff from the back of trucks," Ms Smith said. Next door at number 97 is Judy Graham. She and her family have lived there for 16 years. The worst part for her family is that living on such a steep hill adds to their construction costs. Like most residents, the Grahams are used to the steep incline, but newcomers get nervous. "People who aren't used to it don't like it because they lose sight of the ground as it slopes away," Ms Graham said. And then there was the accident about 10 years ago when a truck rolled downhill and destroyed two sets of fences. At Number 96, Andrew Whittaker is welcoming a new baby and marking six months in his new house. He had heard whispers that Gower Street was Brisbane's steepest street, but had no confirmation until yesterday. "The worst thing is that the bus stop is at the top of the hill," he said. And his favourite story about Gower Street, involves a midwife, a Mini Minor, a driving test and brake problems. "She had to drive this Mini Minor up the hill and it just couldn't make it up to the top and it just came back down and wiped out a few of the fences," he said. Caitlin Jackson lives just around the corner and has to walk up Gower Street each day to catch the bus to university, where she is studying journalism. "The worst thing is that the bus stop is right at the top of the hill," she said. Ms Jackson said she had suspected either Gower or Nott Street was Brisbane's steepest. "Oh yes. My boyfriend tried to come down on a skateboard," Ms Jackson said. "He got stitches." The top five steepest streets in Brisbane are: Gower Street, Toowong: 1 in 3.2 incline; 17.4 degree angle; 31 per cent slope. Stoneleigh Street, Red Hill: 1 in 3.4 incline; 16.4 degree angle; 29 per cent slope. Reading Street, Paddington: 1 in 3.5 incline; 15.9 degree angle; 29 per cent slope. Nott Street, Red Hill: 1 in 3.7 incline; 15.1 degree angle; 27 per cent slope. Glamorgan Street, Paddington: 1 in 3.8 incline; 14.7 degree angle; 26 per cent slope. Click here for the full list of the top 20. Loading Follow Brisbane Times on Twitter: @brisbanetimes Be our fan on Facebook: /brisbanetimes
These ghosts do not need to rattle chains and howl; they may not necessarily scare, but they manage to haunt, long after the pages have been turned “GHOST STORY”. When Barry Hannah, the late novelist of the American south, taught fiction workshops, he would begin by writing those two words on the blackboard. All stories, he’d say, are ghost stories. Something haunts the work and the reader turns the pages to find out what it is. As a student of Hannah’s back in the day, I took these words to heart. Literary ghosts didn’t have to scare; what they had to do was haunt. A ghost in literature could be the kind we meet in Hamlet, in other words, a spooky dead king seeking vengeance, but it also could be something subtler, something real, such as the absent mothers who emotionally haunt so many of Alice Munro’s protagonists. “In literature,” says the writer Tabitha King, “the ghost is almost always a metaphor for the past.” This is true for literal ghosts who manifest in graveyards, and it’s true for figurative ghosts who are no more substantive than insistent memory. The ghosts I list here may not be what we usually think of when we hear the word “ghosts”. But these are the phantoms that kept me turning pages, the ones I never forgot when I finished the book. That means they are haunting me still, and really – what more can one ask of a ghost? Facebook Twitter Pinterest James Joyce, c1918. Photograph: Archive Photos/Getty Images Michael Furey in James Joyce’s “The Dead” It took me multiple readings to appreciate “The Dead”, and I’m still not sure readers without a profound and perhaps personal understanding of Irish history and Dublin can fully grasp the concerns of its many characters. But the famous epiphany at the novella’s end, when Gabriel Conroy realises his wife is haunted by her memory of Michael Furey, a boy who loved her, transcends cultural specificities and stays with anyone who has ever lost a love or taken a love for granted. The highboy in Alison Lurie’s “The Highboy” In 1994, Lurie published a collection of short stories aptly called Women and Ghosts. My favourite describes the response of an antique highboy on learning its owner is donating it to a museum. The moral of the story? Don’t make your possessed possessions angry. Holiday in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones Facebook Twitter Pinterest Saoirse Ronan plays murdered school girl Susie Salmon in The Lovely Bones. Photograph: Linda Brownlee When murder victim Susie Salmon, played by Saoirse Ronan in Peter Jackson’s film version, ascends to heaven, she spies a distant entity galloping towards her. The figure turns out to be Holiday, her long-deceased dog, joyfully greeting his newly deceased owner. Did I bawl like a baby on reading about this particular reunion of ghosts? You bet I did. A missing child in Kevin Brockmeier’s The Truth About Celia Celia, the young daughter of sci-fi writer Christopher Brooks, disappears one day without a trace. To cope with his grief, Christopher writes a series of stories, each one speculating about Celia’s fate. These stories range from realism to fabulism, but each is really about life forever haunted after losing a child. Rebecca in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca If, after I die, I feel the need to haunt some hapless living soul, I want to do it Rebecca-style. As anyone who has read this popular-novel-turned-popular-Hitchcock-movie knows, Rebecca has no need to drag chains and howl. She doesn’t even have to return to this earthly realm to scare the daylights out of someone. It is the force of who she was in life – and the insinuations of her evil minion, Mrs Danvers – that gets the job done. Rebecca is the lazy-girl’s ghost. Sign me up. The parrot in Robert Olen Butler’s Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot Why read a story when its title (a headline from an actual supermarket tabloid) reveals the plot? Because in Butler’s hands, that husband, trapped in the body of his wife’s pet parrot and forced to watch her happily continue life without him, is hysterically funny and achingly poignant. If Rebecca tops the list of ghosts I’d most want to be, this pitiful bird is at the bottom. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Maxine Hong Kingston in 2001. Photograph: Eric Risberg/AP Americans like me in Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior Here is how Kingston, channelling her child-immigrant self, saw the citizenry of her new country: “Taxi Ghosts, Bus Ghosts, Police Ghosts, Fire Ghosts ... Once upon a time the world was so thick with ghosts, I could hardly breathe; I could hardly walk, limping my way around the White Ghosts and their cars.” This frightened child’s experience of being a stranger in a strange land not only touched me, but also triggered memories of moments in my privileged life when I failed to be generous in thought or deed to others. Double ghosts haunting me here, then: Kingston’s ghosts and my own. The Misfit in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” From the moment an unpleasant grandmother and her obnoxious family drive off on vacation, we know they’re going to run into the Misfit, a killer on the loose. Getting to the point in the story where their paths cross is half the fun. The other half is watching the Misfit and the grandmother interact as she tries to save her life and he manages to save her soul. The Misfit is a living man – we think – but he haunts this story from start to finish as effectively as any visitor from the grave. Beloved in Toni Morrison’s Beloved The ghost in Beloved is the most conventional ghost I’ve listed, and yet Morrison writes in a manner that makes us see ghosts and a familiar world of unfathomable suffering as if we’ve never seen them before. A fictional horror story based on a historical horror story (a desperate act of matricide caused by the more horrific institution of American slavery), the book also illustrates King’s point: Morrison’s ghosts are manifestations of her character’s past choices. Any of the demons in Lynda Barry’s One Hundred Demons In this collection of literary comic strips, Barry summons the ghosts of childhood. We meet stuffed toys, once precious, later discarded. We meet the best friend we outgrew when we turned 13. (“We were ghosts to each other,” Barry writes of her friendship). At the book’s end, Barry urges us to conjure up our own ghosts and demons and honour our own haunted and haunting pasts. In other words, she exhorts us all to write our stories. • Judith Claire Mitchell’s A Reunion of Ghosts is published by 4th Estate.
After he robbed her at gunpoint, Larissa’s attacker texted her to say that no one would care about what happened to a black transgender woman in Alabama. “Yea yea they ain’t gone come for a tranny,” the man texted her, according to messages shown to The Daily Beast. “U a back page prostitute who really gone give AF.” Larissa had invited the man, who she identified to The Daily Beast as Denzell Thomas, into Room 230 at America’s Best Inn in Homewood, Alabama, on Sept. 20. He had answered her ad on Backpage.com for sex. Usually, she makes clients pay up front and pats them down for protection, Larissa said, but this was their fourth time together so she let her guard down. He’d seemed nice, Larissa said, “like he was just getting off work.” After they were done together, he went to the bathroom to clean up and she asked him to pay. “Once he came out, it seemed like he was about to pull the money out of his pocket, but what he pulled out was a gun,” Larissa said. “He pointed at me and said, ‘Bitch, shut up, where is the money?’" Larissa told him she had no money and tried to think of a way to signal her friend Jessica Mays in the room next door, but Thomas already ordered her to the floor. She considered trying to use her legs to kick the gun from his hands, but decided the risk was too great. “You say anything before I’m out of this door, I’m pulling the trigger,” Larissa quoted him as saying before he ran off with her purse that contained $20, her gun, identification, and a bracelet her grandmother gave her before she died. He fled and she followed, naked. When Larissa got downstairs, she saw him pulling away in a car with another person. Larissa didn’t skip a beat. She said she called the police in Homewood, near Birmingham, to report her gun stolen. And Larissa said she gave officers the number she was texting, so they could try to identify the man. But she pursued her own leads. “Bitch the police already got yo tag hoe,” she texted the man after their encounter, according to text transcripts Larissa provided to The Daily Beast. “You [think] you can’t be touched but I’ma show you.” Larissa now saved him as “Robber Bottom” in her phone—for his preferred position and what he did to her, she said. She told Robber Bottom, falsely, that she had his face on camera in an attempt to make him return her property, Larissa said. Robber Bottom texted Larissa that he had her address and license plates, and that he would send someone to rob her if she showed up on Backpage again. And she told him she had his name. “Lol yea yes what my name is then,” he texted. “Man I ain’t got to tell you shit,” she said. “The police do this for a living.” At 11:24 p.m. on Sept. 20, according to the timestamps on the texts provided by Larissa, she dropped his name on the man she’d called Robber Bottom: “Thomas Denzell.” He replied 20 minutes later. “Lol not me. Good try tho.” * Three days later, Jazz Alford was at King’s Inn motel, an eight-minute drive from where Larissa worked. Alford, also a transgender woman, was passing through town from North Carolina en route to Atlanta and had posted an ad on Backpage earlier that day. “Just a quick video to let you know that this is my last night here,” she said in a video posted to the site. “So come check me out before I leave.” She blew a kiss at the camera before signing off. Jazz couldn’t have predicted the irony of that meaning. A motel maid found her body later that day, according to her family. She had been shot to death. “She was loving and giving, and she would give you whatever she had if you needed it,” Deedee Vaughn, a friend from North Carolina, told The Daily Beast. Vaughn said that Alford was ambitious and friendly, but also introverted. “She liked church a lot,” Vaughn added. “We would be going out to like nightclubs, and she would come pick us up and be playing gospel music and stuff.” Toya Milan, a close friend, told AL.com that Jazz was a college graduate who worked as a call-center representative for an airline company and also advertised for sex. Jazz lived in North Carolina, but friends say she was passing through Alabama on her way to visit Milan in Atlanta when her car broke down. She placed an ad on Backpage.com while stranded in Birmingham. (Milan and Mary Alford, Jazz’s mom, told The Daily Beast they weren’t up to talking.) Police and news reports initially referred to Alford by the name she was given at birth, a practice transgender advocates term “dead-naming.” Trans women told The Daily Beast that because Jazz wasn’t from the area and was initially identified by that name, it took them several days to realize one of their sisters had been killed. She was buried in North Carolina on Oct. 1, Milan told AL.com. * Jessica, who’d been in the room next door when Larissa was attacked, was shot two days after the funeral. “I can’t talk,” she told The Daily Beast via Facebook Messenger. “My mouth is wired shut.” A 9 mm bullet shattered her jawbone and pierced her throat. Darius Foster, her boyfriend, told AL.com he found Jessica in her home on Oct. 3. Local news media reported the attack as a home invasion and said Foster arrived shortly after the attack and tried to chase down the suspect’s white van. “She came out on the porch screaming ‘Help me,’” Foster told AL.com “It was bad. There was nothing pretty about it. They'd known each other and, after he left, “[Thomas] called and told her that he’d forgotten something,” Larissa said Jessica texted her in the days after the attack. “She said he came in, he hit her with the gun, and he shot her in the neck. Then he waved bye-bye.” Sinseriti Banks, who calls herself Jessica’s “trans mother,” told The Daily Beast that Jessica had just moved into her new house—the one she was attacked in—the week before. Jessica was set to start a new job the day after the attack, Banks said. “She was just about to get her name legally changed,” she added. “And now all this stuff has occurred, and now it’s put her at a really bad standstill.” Now Jessica has a feeding tube in her stomach, Banks told The Daily Beast, adding that she only communicates through writing. “She’s lucky to be alive,” Banks said. “They’re not sure if her esophagus is damaged. They’re not sure if she’s going to be able to talk.” “It hurts a person to know that he wasn’t there at that moment, to protect her,” she said of Foster. Jessica’s injuries are so severe that Banks said she will require reconstructive surgery, but her family is by her side. “They just want answers, and they want justice,” Banks said. She set up a GoFundMe to help with Jessica’s expenses. Jessica’s mother, Delvina, told The Daily Beast that there are still surgeries ahead, in particular to fix her jawbone. “It’s just horrible how people try to take other people’s life,” she said. “It baffles me.” *** Larissa said she was called into talk to Birmingham police after Jessica’s boyfriend gave them her call history. When police showed Larissa one number from the phone, she instantly recognized it as Thomas, a.k.a. Robber Bottom, and identified him to police. Thomas was arrested and charged him with attempted murder and robbery for his attack on Jessica on Oct. 5. A judge set his bond at $200,000, and AL.com reported that he was awaiting trial on unrelated weapons and drug charges from the summer. (Sean Edwards, the Birmingham police spokesperson, told The Daily Beast that the department does not release prior criminal histories and would not comment on how Thomas was identified.) Birmingham police say they also connected him to Jazz’s murder. He was charged with it two days later, and this time, a judge issued a no-bond order in the case. “I’m still mourning of course, but I am so filled with joy right now because this monster is off of the streets and he can’t harm anybody else,” Milan, Jazz’s friend, told AL.com. The Daily Beast reached out to an attorney the court said was assigned to Thomas, but he said he was unaware of the assignment. Larissa’s attacker told her that no one would care that someone robbed transgender sex workers of color. Unfortunately, too often, he would have been right. Jazz was, by one count, the 22nd transgender person murdered in 2016. Many of those murders remain unsolved. The count makes 2016 a deadlier year for transgender people than 2015, but it’s not clear whether that is because of an uptick in violence, or the result of more victims being accurately reported as transgender. The majority of them are women of color. Likewise, sex workers have historically been easy prey for serial attackers. The murders of eight sex workers from a poor area in Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana, between 2005 and 2009 remain unsolved, as do the murders of more than a dozen women on Long Island’s Gilgo Beach over the last 20 years. But in Birmingham, Larissa might have made all the difference. She lived to ring the alarm bells, and was unafraid. “My mom always told me that even if someone comes at you like that, they always target the ones who are very afraid,” she said. “When they come in, [most men are] more afraid of us. They think we’re the police.” Larissa had alerted her sisters about the robbery after the attack and even posted the number on Facebook, hoping that awareness would mean they wouldn’t be caught in the same situation. Jazz, however, had no way of knowing. She wasn’t from the area. She was from North Carolina, just passing through. When she was killed, police identified her as a man. Larissa and her sisters had no way of linking the attacks, just three days apart. The police in Homewood still haven’t charged Thomas with Larissa’s robbery. Multiple messages to their spokesman, Sgt. Doug Finch, went unanswered. With the murder and attempted-murder charges, this count probably won’t make a difference with his sentence if he is found guilty, but it would acknowledge the harm done to her. “They told me that they couldn’t because at the time they didn’t have really any proof,” she texted this reporter after our interview. “I think it’s mostly because they probably knew we were on backpage.” Larissa stopped posting on Backpage after the incident. She didn’t do it often, anyway, and wants to focus on her dream of being a surgical technician. She recently graduated from a college program that prepared her for that path. “The girls who took the certification with me, I was the only one who passed,” she told The Daily Beast. “I’m really excited because it’s really breaking the mold of trans people as sex workers and sex objects,” she added. “I’m not going to say I never did it in the past, but that’s just the reality.” Larissa said she and her boyfriend of four years talk about having kids all the time and plan to adopt. And she wants to use her voice to make movies, like a documentary about transgender women in Birmingham. (She’s looking for partners who can help make that dream happen.) When this reporter told Larissa that her actions to help arrest the suspect in these crimes were heroic, she shrugged. “Anything for my sister and for girls like me,” she texted.
Columbus Crew SC today announced that it has signed two players ahead of the 2016 Major League Soccer regular season: midfielder Marshall Hollingsworth and goalkeeper Matt Pacifici (pronounced: puh-CHIFF-uh-chee). Hollingsworth (41st overall) was a 2016 MLS SuperDraft selection by the Black & Gold; both players participated in the duration of preseason training camp with Crew SC. Further terms of the transactions were not disclosed. During the Desert Diamond Cup in Tucson, Arizona, Pacifici held Real Salt Lake scoreless over 28 minutes on February 24, while Hollingsworth made two separate appearances for Crew SC throughout the tournament. “We are pleased to be able to offer contracts to both Marshall and Matt,” said Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter. “Both of them showed their potential throughout our preseason this year. We look forward to working with them, monitoring their development and helping them grow as professionals during their rookie seasons.” Hollingsworth participated in Crew SC's College Combine at MAPFRE Stadium ahead of his selection by the Black & Gold in the Second Round (41st overall). He made 92 appearances for Wheaton over his four seasons with the Thunder, making 85 starts. He scored 45 goals and added 21 assists for his collegiate career, including a 22-goal season in 2015, which ranked seventh in program history for single-season tallies. WATCH: Hollingsworth on signing with Crew SC - http://bit.ly/HollingsworthCrewSC Pacifici played 70 games over his college career with Davidson, notching a 1.45 goals-against average with a 28-31-10 record and 11 clean sheets. He recorded a shutout in his first-ever collegiate start, on August 27, 2012 against Clemson. During his junior season in 2014, he notched a career-best 0.65 goals-against average with seven shutouts en route to being named Second Team All-Conference. A two-year captain, he earned Davidson's Charlie Slagle Coach's Award in 2015 as well as Atlantic 10 All-Academic and Senior CLASS Award First Team honors. WATCH: Pacifici on signing with Crew SC - http://bit.ly/PacificiCrewSC Crew SC opens the 2016 campaign on the road in a nationally televised clash on ESPN this Sunday, March 6 at 4:30 p.m. ET, with the first regional broadcast of the season coming on Saturday, March 12. Crew SC Matchday – the special pre-match show – begins exclusively on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel at 7:00 p.m. ET on March 12, with the match airing at 7:30 p.m. ET, simulcast on The CW Columbus WWHO-TV and Time Warner Cable SportsChannel. Post-match coverage of the MAPFRE Stadium Opening Match is set to follow exclusively on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel. Single-match tickets for available sections at all Black & Gold regular-season home matches in 2016 are now on sale to the general public. Tickets are available through ColumbusCrewSC.com, by calling a Crew SC ticket representative at 614-447-2739 or by visiting Ticketmaster.com. TRANSACTIONS: Crew SC signs midfielder Marshall Hollingsworth and goalkeeper Matt Pacifici on March 4, 2016. Name: Marshall Hollingsworth Position: Midfielder Height: 5'8" Weight: 160 Born: August 6, 1993 in Libertyville, Illinois Hometown: Libertyville, Illinois Citizenship: United States Acquired: Selected in the Second Round (41st overall) by Columbus Crew SC in the 2016 MLS SuperDraft on January 14, 2016; signed on March 4, 2016 Previous Experience: Wheaton College (2012-2015) Name: Matt Pacifici (pronounced: puh-CHIFF-uh-chee) Position: Goalkeeper Height: 6'2" Weight: 180 Born: August 31, 1993 in Charlotte, North Carolina Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina Citizenship: United States Acquired: Signed by Columbus Crew SC on March 4, 2016 Previous Experience: Davidson College (2012-2015)
When “The Case of the Black Macaque” scooped media headlines this summer, copyright was suddenly big news. Here was photographer David Slater fighting Wikipedia over the right to disseminate online a portrait photo of a monkey which had, contrary to all expectations and the law of averages, managed within just a few jabs of a curious finger, to take a plausible, indeed publishable “selfie”. Did Slater have the right to control the image since it was his camera on which it was recorded, or was it free for the world to use on the basis that he was not its author, the true creator being the crested black macaque who, for all her charm and dexterity, was neither a real nor legal person and therefore disentitled to any legal rights? Disputes like this make great headlines, but cause even greater headaches for the intellectual property (“IP”) community. Most have little legal substance to them and are interesting only because of their facts, but that’s what drives journalists’ involvement and readers’ interest, making it easier for the media to attract paying advertisers. By the time they pass through the media machine these tales are frequently mangled to the point at which IP lawyers can scarcely recognise them. In one recent case involving a well-known chocolate brand, a company was said to have patented its copyright in England in order to sue a business in Switzerland for trade mark infringement. To the layman this may sound fine, but it’s about as sensible to the expert as telling the doctor that you’ve got a tummy ache in your little finger because your cat ate the goldfish last night. We IP-ers try to explain the real story, but monkeys and selfies are far more fun than the intricacies of copyright law and, by the time we’ve tried to put the record straight, the next exciting story has already broken. “By the time they pass through the media machine, these tales are frequently mangled to the point at which IP lawyers can scarcely recognise them” The next selfie episode to hit the headlines, far from featuring a portrait, was quite the opposite end of the anatomical spectrum. Model Kim Kardashian objected that Jen Selter’s selfies constituted copyright infringements of photos which had been taken of Kim Kardashian’s bottom (occasionally colloquially described as her “trademark” bottom, but not yet registered in conventional legal fashion). Here the only questions IP lawyers address are (i) are the pictures of Kim Kardashian’s backside copyright-protected works and (ii) does the taking by Jen Selter of selfies of her own posterior constitute an infringement? For press and public, however, the issue morphs into the much more entertaining, if legally irrelevant, one of whether a person has copyright in their own bottom. There are many IP rights apart from copyright and they all have their macaque moments. Trade mark law is full of episodes of evil corporations stealing words from the English language and stopping anyone else using them. Patent law (in which the legal protection of body parts very much smaller than bottoms, such as sequences of DNA, does have some relevance) is garnished with tales of greed and intrigue as people seek to steal one another’s ideas and avariciously monopolise them. Confidentiality and the right to publicity have their own rip-roaring encounters in court as amorous footballers who are “playing away” seek to hush up their extramarital (that’s one word, not two) exploits. Meanwhile, the women with whom they shared moments of illicit intimacy seek to cash in on their news value by selling them to the highest bidder. For IP lawyers the legal issues are serious and, when cases come to court, they achieve precedential status that governs how future episodes of the same nature might be handled. For press and public, the issues are different: who is the footballer, who is the woman — and are there any pictures (ideally selfies)? Seriously, the rate at which not just eye-catching tales like those related above but also far less glamorous tales result in litigation, or even legislation, makes it hard-to-impossible for practitioners, academics, administrators and businessmen to keep abreast of the law, let alone understand its deeper significance for those affected by it: businesses, governments, consumers, indeed everyone. Publishers like OUP are increasingly raising the tempo of their own responses to the IP information challenge, utilising both formal and informal media, in print and online. Since legal publishing is largely reactive, we can narrow the gap between the time an exciting new event or legal decision hits the popular media and the point at which we can strip it down to its bare legal essentials. But it will take more than a little monkeying around before we can close that gap completely. Featured image credit: Camera selfie, by Paul Rysz. CC-BY-2.0 via Flickr.
In 2012, Kansas governor Sam Brownback signed a massive tax cut into law, arguing that it would boost the state's economy. Eventually, he hoped to eliminate individual income taxes entirely. "Our place, Kansas, will show the path, the difficult path, for America to go in these troubled times," he said. "we've got red ink until the cows come home" National conservative activists raved. Patrick Gleason of Americans for Tax Reform said Kansas was "the story of the next decade." The Cato Institute praised Brownback's "impressive" tax cuts and gave him an "A" on fiscal policy. And the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol said that, if reelected, Brownback would be "a formidable presidential possibility." Yet though Brownback is running for reelection this fall in a deep red state, he's trailed his Democratic challenger in 3 of the 4 most recent polls — and his marquee tax cut appears to be the main reason. Kansas is now hundreds of millions of dollars short in revenue collection, its job growth has lagged the rest of the nation, and Moody's has cut the state's bond rating. "Governor Brownback came in here with an agenda to reduce the size of government, reduce taxes, and create a great economic boom," says University of Kansas professor Burdett Loomis. "Now there's been a dramatic decline in revenues, no great increase in economic activity, and we've got red ink until the cows come home." Brownback's big tax cut In his Senate career and his 2008 presidential run, Brownback was best known for his social conservatism. "Not limited government, but compassionate government is Brownback's chief preoccupation," the Weekly Standard wrote in 2006. But by the time Brownback was sworn in as governor in early 2011, the national GOP was preoccupied with tax and fiscal issues. And in January 2012, Brownback announced that a major tax cut would be the centerpiece of his agenda. "It bankrupts the state within two years" Brownback's tax cut proposal came as Kansas's revenues were on an upswing. Spending cuts and a one-cent sales tax passed by Brownback's Democratic predecessor had combined with economic growth to give Kansas a surplus. Now, Brownback argued, his tax cuts would lead to even more success. "I firmly believe these reforms will set the stage for strong economic growth in Kansas," he said. The governor proposed to cut income taxes on the state's highest earners from 6.45 percent to 4.9 percent, to simplify tax brackets, and to eliminate state income taxes on most small business income entirely. In a nod to fiscal responsibility, though, he proposed to end several tax deductions and exemptions, including the well-liked home mortgage interest deduction. This would help pay for the cuts. "I'm gonna sign this bill... and I'm very thankful for how God has blessed our state" Yet as the bill went through the state Senate, these deductions proved too popular, and legislators voted to keep them all. The bill's estimated price tag rose from about $105 million to $800 million, but Brownback kept supporting it anyway. "I'm gonna sign this bill, I'm excited about the prospects for it, and I'm very thankful for how God has blessed our state," he said. Democrats, and some Republicans, weren't buying it. "It bankrupts the state within two years," said Rochelle Chronister, a former state GOP chair who helped organize moderate Republicans against Brownback's agenda. And the House Democratic leader, Paul Davis, laid down a marker. "There is no feasible way that private-sector growth can accommodate the price tag of this tax cut," he said. "Our $600 million surplus will become a $2.5 billion deficit within just five years." In return, Brownback's administration claimed the bill would create 23,000 jobs by 2020, and would lead 35,000 more people to move to Kansas. The tax cut's consequences After the cuts became law, it was undisputed that Kansas's revenue collections would fall. But some supply-side analysts, like economist Arthur Laffer, argued that increased economic growth would deliver more revenue that would help cushion this impact. Yet it's now clear that the revenue shortfalls are much worse than expected. "State general fund revenue is down over $700 million from last year," Duane Goossen, a former state budget director, told me. "That's a bigger drop than the state had in the whole three years of the recession," he said — and it's a huge chunk of the state's $6 billion budget. Goossen added that the Kansas's surplus, which had been replenished since the recession, "is now being spent at an alarming, amazing rate." You can see that in this chart (the surplus is cumulative, not yearly): brownback blamed president obama for the shortfall Kansas has to balance its budget every year, so when that surplus runs out, further spending cuts will be necessary. The declining revenues have necessitated extensive cuts in state education funding, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Moody's cut of the state's bond rating this May was another embarrassment. And the economic benefits Brownback promised haven't materialized either. Chris Ingraham wrote at Wonkblog that Kansas's job growth has lagged behind the rest of the country, "especially in the years following the first round of Brownback tax cuts." Brownback, like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, has blamed President Obama for his state's growing red ink. "This is an undeniable result of President Obama's failed economic policies of increasing taxes and overregulation," Brownback's revenue secretary Nick Jordan said. Brownback's administration argues that because of uncertainty over the "fiscal cliff" in late 2012, some earners paid capital gains tax early, which depleted 2013 receipts. These numbers don't add up. The fiscal cliff was a national event, but revenues fell far more in Kansas than in other states, according to a study by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. Furthermore, Goossen says, "Capital gains are not that big a piece of Kansas income. They don't even come close to explaining a $700 million income tax collection drop between fiscal year 2013 and fiscal year 2014." Trailing in the polls Brownback's approval rating has plummeted — in a recent poll by PPP, his 33 percent was actually lower than Barack Obama's 34 percent approval. This is good news for state House Democratic leader Paul Davis, who announced his run for governor last September. "I'm profoundly troubled by the direction our state has been heading over the past three years," he said in his first campaign email. "The wealthiest and well connected have gotten all the breaks, and the Kansas economy feels broken." In the most recent poll of the race, Davis leads Brownback by 6 points. Though no fundraising numbers for 2014 have yet been disclosed, the 41-year old Davis amassed about $1 million in just a few months last year, nearly matching the governor's total. (On December 31, Brownback had only raised $1.1 million — but then his running mate dropped in a $500,000 personal loan to avoid embarrassment.) "Brownback has never been a great fundraiser," said Loomis. "I think he's counting on Koch money, Americans for Prosperity money, to come in — and it will come in." Labor and liberal outside groups are expected to spend for Davis as well. Yet while Davis opposed Brownback's tax cuts, and has been harshly critical of their effects, he hasn't called for them to be repealed. Instead, he's said that a new round of cuts should be postponed — and called for a commission to explore reducing local property taxes. So it seems that, regardless of who wins this fall, Kansas will be experiencing the effects of Brownback's experiment for quite some time.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption CCTV footage captures the moment the car is rammed and the attack CCTV footage has emerged of three men being set upon by a group in an east London street after their car is rammed from behind. The men were attacked while sitting in a parked Renault Megane at 19:30 BST on Sunday. Officers found the car driver with stab wounds after reports of a disturbance in Braintree Road, Dagenham. The man, who has not yet been formally identified, was treated by paramedics but died at the scene. The CCTV footage shows the first vehicle smashing into the back of the car before a second vehicle pulls up alongside to block any possible escape. The attackers can be seen wielding what look like baseball bats. A Met spokesperson said no arrests had been made and officers were in the process of informing the next of kin. One resident told BBC London he heard a commotion and saw a group of five people running off in the opposite direction from the scene of the attack.
Peter Wilson only recently discovered he's a scofflaw. He leads a quiet life. He doesn't rob or cheat or steal. His crime? Parking his yellow Ford Ranger pickup truck on the street in front of his Bucktown home. Wilson said he parked the pickup on Leavitt Street every night for more than a year without incident. Then, on Nov. 29, he got a ticket for violating city code 09-64-170(a). In the comments section of the ticket, it simply said "truck, residential." Convinced there had been a mistake, Wilson appealed the $25 ticket. And lost. Confused, he wrote What's Your Problem? "I do the right thing every year and pay for a city sticker," Wilson wrote. "I pay all the extras to do the right thing and have my auto legitimately attached to my Bucktown home." Well, almost. Before the Problem Solver could make a call on Wilson's behalf, he got a second ticket. Turns out, in Chicago, you can park a Hummer, a Lincoln Navigator or a Cadillac Escalade on residential streets. But it's illegal to park a pickup truck. That may come as a surprise to many owners of the 53,036 pickup trucks, as registered by the secretary of state, within Chicago. After all, according to the city, only 717 trucks have been granted the residential parking permits needed to comply with the ordinance. The ordinance, passed by the City Council in 1990, gives wards the option of allowing pickups to park on their streets. In fact, Wilson's ward, the 32nd, is among those that have been granted an exemption. But even in the wards that allow pickup parking, the truck owners must get a special $30 parking permit from the city each year. And it isn't easy. Gregg Cunningham, spokesman for the city clerk's office, said that to get a pickup-truck parking permit, the truck owner's alderman must get a City Council order allowing that specific truck to park on residential streets. The truck owner must also fill out an application that will be signed by the alderman, photograph the front and side of the pickup, and make a copy of the truck's registration card and city vehicle sticker receipt. All of this must then be submitted to the city clerk--along with the $30. Once a permit is issued, it is not automatically renewed, meaning the owner must go through the process every year, Cunningham said. Sound cumbersome? "I think it's just absurd," Wilson said His truck, bumper to bumper, measures about 200 inches, roughly 20 inches shorter than an Escalade ESV or a Ford Excursion. "The streets ... are packed with larger trucks, SUVs and larger passenger cars that are huge in comparison to my truck and take up a far larger space in length," he said. Wilson said that because he has a pickup, he was charged more for his annual city sticker than most car owners--$150. He figured this was all he needed to park near his house. No one told him, and it's difficult to find on the city's Web site, that a $30 permit was required too. Other pickup owners apparently are similarly confused. Last year, the city issued 33,907 tickets for violating code 09-64-170(a), which not only covers the illegal parking of pickups, but also includes buses, recreational vehicles more than 22 feet long and taxis. On Tuesday, Wilson started the process to get the city's 718th pickup-truck permit. There is some good news. Because the $30 permit fee is pro-rated, and because the permit is initially issued every June, Wilson will have to pay only $6.25 for a current permit, which will expire this summer. He'll have to start the entire process over again in a couple of months. As for the two tickets he received, James Reilly, director of the city's Department of Administrative Hearings, said ignorance of the law is not a defense. So Wilson will pay. In fact, he is required to do so before the pickup-truck parking permit is issued. "What really mystifies me more than anything--in the denial of my appeal, they didn't say, `We deny your appeal, but here's what you have to do to make it right,'" Wilson said. That, he said, would have prevented him from getting the second ticket: "I think they have an obligation to notify people in my situation." - - - THE PROBLEM Peter Wilson got two $25 tickets for parking his Ford Ranger pickup truck in front of his Bucktown house. THE SOLUTION He can't get out of the tickets--but with a lot of effort, he can avoid them in the future. ---------- HAVE A PROBLEM? E-mail us your story, providing as many details as possible, to yourproblem@tribune.com or write to What's Your Problem, Newsroom, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. Please include your name and a way to contact you. We cannot respond to everyone, but we'll get to as many as we can, and publish the results on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Get the biggest daily news stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email ISIS is planning to provoke a final battle with the West by killing thousands of people in a new atrocity. The terror group claims have to hundreds of militants in countries in Europe and the US ready to take action on its command. The warning, made by a respected analyst, comes amid heightened security across Europe amid fears of a New Year's Eve terror attack. This year has seen several horrifying terror attacks of varying scales across the West and the rest of the globe, including two atrocities in Paris. Analyst Dr Theodore Karasik, told the Express: "ISIS’s media operation is taunting its enemy to come to fight their Final Battle. "But first, it wants to show its global reach with zeal...from cells, to lone wolves, to bedroom jihadists – to target landmarks and crowds in dozens of countries across the world." Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now "There are close to 40 ISIS affiliates globally with millions of adherents and believers around the world. The New Year may ring in with disturbing terror attacks. Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called on all Muslims to rise up and overthrow Israel and the West. However, the terrorist leader may find himself a little disappointed with how his call to arms has worked out. In a rare message, issued by ISIS chiefs, he said Muslims should "urgently" join the terror organisation. He added: "Rise up against the apostate tyrants, and avenge your people in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen." But Muslims on social media were quick to laugh off the message after portions of the message were tweeted out by pro-democracy activist Iyad El Baghdadi, meaning much of the abuse was directed at the similarly named Arab campaigner. Meanwhile, ISIS militants are said to be selling women off at £15,000 each, and children at £10,000. The slaves are sold after being stolen from families across Syria and Iraq, where ISIS holds significant territory. It is believed that 7,000 women and children were taken recently from Sinjar in northern Iraq by fighters following an attack earlier this year. Pictures are taken by the ISIS monsters of the newly-captured slaves, which are then circulated on messaging applications such as What's App.
This week in the war, Operation Barbarossa continued its spectacular success. In the north, German forces spread out into Latvia and Lithuania. In the centre, a pincer movement cuts off huge numbers of Russian troops in the vicinity of Minsk. Only in the southern sector are the Russians strong enough to slow the advancing Germans. The Romanians were part of Operation Barbarossa from the outset. So were the Finns, who had memories of the Soviet-Finnish war fresh in their minds. Others rushed to join the cause. Slovakia declared war on the USSR on 24 June. Finland (belatedly) on 26 June—the same day that Mussolini sent the Torino division on its way to the Eastern Front. Hungary declared war on 27 June. Albania followed suit the following day. Within four years, each one of these countries would sue for peace, anxious to abandon Hitler and Germany to their fate. As for France: Vichy broke off diplomatic relations with the USSR on 30 June. But in the Far East, and in spite of von Ribbentrop’s urging, the Japanese firmly refused to enter the fight. The time was not yet ripe. Share this: Facebook Email Twitter
A new report presented to Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber yesterday outlines and prioritizes 16 new “non-roadway” transportation funding mechanisms. Among the ideas selected as a priority for “additional consideration for further implementation” and possible legislative action, is a “User fee for bikes.” The 93 page report, Oregon Non-Roadway Transportation Funding Options: Report to the Governor, (PDF) is the result of a 64-person “Non-Roadway Working Group” that was convened by Kitzhaber back in November. The group included a large list of transportation stakeholders (including Bicycle Transportation Alliance Advocacy Director Gerik Kransky), many members of the Oregon legislature, and State staffers (see full list below). The purpose of this project (which has been on the to-do list for the state since 2008) was to, “develop recommendations for sustainable funding of non-roadway transportation, including rail, marine, aviation, transit, and on and off-road bicycle and pedestrian paths.” “We think it’s ridiculous for the state to consider putting a barrier between people and their bikes. We’re really upset. We argued strongly against it… It doesn’t belong on there. It doesn’t make sense.” Gerik Kranksy, Bicycle Transportation Alliance Advocacy Director In Oregon, there is an extreme lack of funding available for anything other than traditional, auto-centric highway and bridge projects. There are several reasons for this problem, with the largest being that our state constitution mandates that gas tax can only be used for projects within the highway right-of-way. Oregon also lacks a sales tax. Throw in a recession and better gas mileage in cars and you see how the money is scarce. To help fill this funding gap — which they’ve pegged at about $550 million annually (or about 1/3 of the total annual gap) — the working group brainstormed 60 revenue-generating ideas. They then whittled that list down to just 16. Along with a the “user fee for bikes”, some of the other funding ideas they’ve chosen to prioritize include: expanded Lottery revenue, an expanded cigarette tax, expanded or new utility franchise fees, a new hotel/motel tax, use of the State Infrastructure Bank, and so on. What didn’t make the prioritized list? A modification or expansion of the state gas tax, a congestion charge, weight mile fees, a VMT tax, and so on. (Keep in mind, this exercise only considered funding mechanisms to be used for “non-roadway” transportation modes.) Just to be clear, here’s the expanded definition of “user fee for bikes” from the report: Tax on bicycle operation or purchase dedicated to non-roadway transportation (e.g. bicycle license tax). Potentially voluntary with membership advantages While finding new revenue streams to fund transportation in Oregon is crucial, this report raises a lot of questions. Who was on the Working Group? Why are “on-road bicycle facilities” (and not just dedicated “bicycle paths”) included in a discussion about “non-roadway” transportation modes? Why — despite its implementation challenges, failures in the past, and relatively low yield potential — is a fee on bikes and/or the people who ride them, still being seriously considered by Oregon leaders? The make-up of the stakeholder group included only one representative to speak up for bicycle transportation. The BTA’s Gerik Kransky attended all the meetings. He said on the day the priority list was voted on, he “argued vociferously against” a bike users fee, but that in the end, he was simply outvoted. “There were a lot of rail, port, freight, and marine advocates around the table… Then there was one bike advocate. There was no walking advocate. We were one vote out of 60.” Kransky does not mince words in expressing his disappointment about this: “We [the BTA] think it’s ridiculous for the state to consider putting a barrier between people and their bikes. The inclusion of a bike user fee on this list, flies in the face of the knowledge that we know bicycling provides benefits to our communities. We’re really upset. We argued strongly against it… It doesn’t belong on there. It doesn’t make sense.” Kransky also correctly points out that various bicycle licensing and taxing schemes have never penciled out financially, once administrative costs are taken into account. The working group seemed to understand a bike user fee wouldn’t return much in the way of funds. The report itself states, “previous efforts have not even covered program administrative costs.” The report also noted the potential difficulty of enforcing a bike fee. The few comments from working group members about a bike user fee that are shared in the report are also revealing: Costs to run would be more than income generated. Has been shown to not pay for itself. How about sales tax on bicycle equipment. Oregon Legislative Fiscal Office analyzed this issue in the 2007 Legislature in HB 3008 and determined it would cost more to administer than it would return in revenue. There is very little money here, we would require a great deal more information to move forward with this as a legitimate finance option. Should do all we can to encourage carbon free transport options. Tax on purchase is fine, on use is insignificant. The costs to administer such a fee would outweigh the revenues. This is long over due. There is also concern that the annual funding gap for “Bicycle/Pedestrian Programs” has been significantly under-estimated. The report lists the total, statewide annual funding gap for bicycle and pedestrian investments as being a paltry $7.8 million. Expert sources I’ve heard from point out that this is a very misleading number. In the Portland region alone, one expert told me the annual bicycle and pedestrian project funding gap is $30 million per year. Then there’s the “non-roadway” issue. I first heard this new term being used by ODOT Director Matt Garrett during our interview back in April. ODOT is using this term as a label for modes that do not rely on the public right-of-way — a.k.a. our roads and highways. “Bicycle facilities” can and should be built on public roads and ODOT should be very careful about attaching the term “non-roadway” to “bicycle facilities”. In a state where bicycles are considered vehicles with the full legal right to be on all public roads (minus most a few urban interstates), I feel this new term is a slippery slope to disrespect for a legitimate travel mode. In the end, it’s clear that the idea of generating state revenue from the use or purchase of bicycles remains a potent one among Oregon politicians and policymakers. Kransky says the BTA will watch the upcoming legislative session closely to make sure any bike user fee bill does not move forward. Even so, my gut tells me we haven’t heard the last of it. Stay tuned for more reporting on these topics. — Download the full report here. UPDATE: I just spoke with Governor Kitzhaber’s transportation policy advisor (and former Chair of Clackamas County) Lynn Peterson. Peterson said that the user fee for bikes, as prioritized in this report, is merely “a placeholder to acknowledge that we need to find a way to pay for bicycle infrastructure.” “It was duly noted in the committee that this wasn’t the best way to fund bike infrastructure, but there really wasn’t anything else on the table… It’s just the beginning of the discussion,” she said. Here is the full list of Working Group members and project planning staff (note: Kransky is not on the list, but I have confirmed that he, not Rob Sadowsky, was present and active in the process): Front Page, News funding
A major Ontario election platform announcement from the Progressive Conservatives nearly went off the rails Sunday as transit officers put the brakes on a subway photo-op by leader Tim Hudak. Hudak and a throng of media were in the process of boarding a Toronto subway train around noon Sunday when city transit police appeared and started asking about video camera lights and shooting permits. The Tory leader was to ride the train with the pack of journalists up to mid-town Toronto and unveil his party's transportation platform by a subway yard. But after hopping on the northbound subway the trip was brought to a standstill by Toronto Transit Commission officers, who showed up on the platform and took umbrage with the light on a CBC camera. They summoned the camera operator off the car and questioned other TV journalists on whether they had permission to film on transit property. "In order to film on the TTC you need to have authorization. We're trying to see if you guys have that authorization," one officer said. Meanwhile, Tory staffers tried to cool things down in an attempt to keep the media stunt on course, reassuring the subway cops that no recording would take place. TTC rules state that those looking to take video on the city transit system for commercial purposes must get an OK in advance, while political canvassing is off limits. Grumpy subway riders As the situation went on, agitation among riders making Mother's Day trips started to rise, with the hold-up dragging on for about 10 minutes. One bellowed "come on" at the whole ordeal. Despite passengers getting grumpy and some tense moments with transit police, Hudak kept his composure, at times flashing a smile fit for a campaign sign as he watched things play out. With no immediate end to the impasse in sight, Hudak then hopped off the car — taking the media in tow — and left the station. Hudak hopped in a vehicle to get to his platform unveiling, while Tory staffers corralled the media bus to whisk journalists to the slightly delayed announcement. There, Hudak revealed that if elected his Tories would have the province take control of Toronto subways, among other promises aimed at relieving gridlock. Speaking about the incident, Hudak said he felt "terrible" about it and hoped the delay didn't disrupt any Mother's Day celebrations. A party spokesman apologized, saying they didn't think of getting clearance in advance. The official Progressive Conservative Twitter account quickly made political hay of the incident, charging that Premier Kathleen Wynne had been allowed a photo-op on TTC turf. But a Wynne spokeswoman shot down that suggestion, saying the premier's office "followed all of their rules" for a media-tailored subway ride last month, before the election call.
Forget the gleaming Olympic Stadium, the aerodynamic velodrome and the Orbit observation deck that looks like a deconstructed Eiffel Tower. Of all the new buildings going up in this city’s downtrodden district of Stratford ahead of the 2012 Summer Games, the one the locals can’t stop talking about is the mall. Perhaps that’s no surprise when the mall in question is the largest urban shopping center in Europe, luring 10,000 jobs and the likes of Prada and Hugo Boss to a quarter of East London better known for tough housing projects and Britain’s highest unemployment rate. Located right across from the new Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the mall is underscoring Britain’s push to use the Games to transform a hardscrabble swath of London nearly one-third the size of Manhattan. For the Beijing Games four years ago, China rolled out an astounding $40 billion citywide upgrade that saw the rise of architectural glories even as whole neighborhoods were displaced. In contrast, observers say, London’s $15 billion effort is shaping up as the most targeted attempt in a generation to improve life in a poor area of a host city. The London Games, commencing in July, will also showcase sites far more familiar to a global audience — think tennis at Wimbledon, triathlon at Hyde Park and beach volleyball a spike away from No. 10 Downing Street. But leading experts say the move to concentrate new Olympics-related construction and its longer-term benefits in historically poor neighborhoods will amount to a test case of just how much the Olympics can be leveraged to effect social change. “The UK is doing several things different from past host cities,” said Joe Montgomery, Europe chief executive of the Urban Land Institute, a nonprofit foundation of developers, architects and urban planners. “They’ve made these Games relatively compact, focusing on one area in clear need of urban regeneration. But they’ve also started planning for the legacy of the Games years earlier than other host cities. This is novel, and London’s approach could emerge as a model for future host cities.” A map locating the Stratford neighborhood in London, England. (By Laris Karklis/The Washington Post/The Washington Post) Shaping a legacy Still, Olympic legacies — or the marks left on cities after the Games — are notoriously hard to predict, with examples ranging from Barcelona’s remarkable rebirth of a derelict waterfront in 1992 to the piles of debt and abandoned stadiums left after the 2004 Games in Athens. And there are substantial challenges to the push for long-term change in East London. Just a 25-minute ride on the London Underground from Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, Stratford still feels a world away. A densely packed neighborhood of immigrants, the elderly and the British underclasses, it experienced only drops of the rapid gentrification that swept over London in recent years as the city became the preferred playground of Saudi sheiks, American bankers and Russian oligarchs. By relying partly on collapsible stadiums to be removed after the closing ceremonies, London is moving to avoid the damaging white elephants left after the Games in Athens and even Beijing. But there may be at least one: Stratford’s spanking-new international rail terminal, where planners once envisioned direct links to Paris on the Eurostar bullet train. Although the terminal enjoys a new eight-minute direct service to the major London rail hub at St. Pancras — where high-speed trains to Europe now depart — no company has yet pledged to link Stratford directly to continental Europe and, thus, open a sought-after engine of growth. Nevertheless, the clutter of cranes on the Stratford skyline suggests the speed and scope of the redevelopment effort. Here in Stratford, an ugly lattice of toxic canals, dilapidated warehouses and piled-up scrap heaps has been replaced with the Olympic Park — London’s largest new green space since the 1700s. A major British university is negotiating to open a new campus near the park, which will also house one of London’s most advanced new schools for 1,800 children ages 3 to 18. South of the Olympic Park, German giant Siemens has unveiled plans to build an eco-museum to display sustainable technologies to schoolchildren and tourists. Swedish retailer Ikea is putting up a 26-acre environmentally sensitive “model village” with 1,200 homes, office space and a 350-room hotel. Internet upgrades for the Games, meanwhile, will give a neighborhood once known as “Stinky Stratford” — for its flows of waste and pollution — the more pleasing distinction of overtaking Daegu, South Korea, to claim the fastest broadband on Earth. Planning ahead After the Games, temporary stadiums will be replaced with landscaping and new structures, among them roughly 15,000 family-size apartments. The Olympic Village will be remodeled and sold off as condos by a Qatari investment fund, with one-third reserved for low-income residents. More than 2 million square feet of commercial space could anchor further job growth. “Since the Brits don’t do basketball, why keep the basketball stadium?” said Rickey Burdett, professor of urban studies at the London School of Economics. “After the Games, it would have ended up like the taekwondo stadium in Athens, surrounded by chain-link fences and roaming wild dogs.” Grand plans to transform depressed parts of East London predate the city’s Olympic bid. But by planning for post-Games uses years earlier than some previous host cities, observers say, London has managed to speed up regeneration in Stratford by at least a decade. The massive new mall, for instance, opted to start construction six years earlier than initially planned to tap into Olympic fever. Still, experts caution it is too early to judge London’s success. To its credit, the city — which won the Games in 2005 — is the first host to have a long-term plan for every new permanent venue built before the events even begin. Of those eight venues, six have contracts for new owners after the Games end. But a few key deals must still be worked out, including who will take over the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium. And even if London’s urban regeneration effort goes as planned, its success may be hard to replicate. Though Stratford, Hackney and other East London neighborhoods are indeed home to some of Britain’s worst pockets of urban poverty, they are also blessed with pre-existing pluses that future Olympic host cities might not enjoy — including 11 convenient rail and subway lines. That and their proximity to the bankers’ paradise at Canary Wharf make them prime candidates for regeneration. Yet in a global capital where the average center city rent tops $6,000 a month, gentrification can be a terrifying thing for the poor. Though only 430 residents were relocated to make room for the new Olympic Park — compared with tens of thousands or more in Beijing — some Stratford residents fear they may be pushed out later. To capture benefits for locals, Olympic organizers and city officials moved early to secure dedicated pools of jobs and new housing. At least 2,500 positions at the new Westfield mall — which has a 96 percent occupancy rate and is drawing about 800,000 visitors a week since its September opening — were set aside for locals, many of whom attended a newly established retail academy set up to retrain unemployed residents. In addition, in a community with a 10-year waiting list for public housing, roughly 35 percent of new units going up inside the Olympic Park will be earmarked for low-income residents. But given the Conservative-led British government’s recent welfare reforms, most of the new units will be offered on less generous terms than existing public housing. Community activists have cautiously welcomed the Games. But for some poor residents in Stratford, fears of being pushed out are an already materializing reality. From his living room window, Osita Madu, a 38-year-old unemployed Nigerian immigrant, can see the beautiful new Olympic Stadium. But perhaps not for long. The Stratford public housing complex that he and dozens of other poor residents call home — and where some have lived for decades — appears set to be demolished to make room for a new university campus. “They’re going to drive people like us out,” Madu said. “Even if we find somewhere else to live nearby, rents will go higher, and then what? We move again. They’re improving the neighborhood, but a lot of us might not be around to see it.” Special correspondent Karla Adam contributed to this report.
Introduction As the Medicare Advantage industry scrambles to stave off proposed government funding cuts, federal prosecutors in Florida are pursuing an unusual criminal fraud case that’s likely to raise new concerns that some of the health plans for seniors may be overcharging for their services. The criminal case, believed to be among the first to take aim at Medicare Advantage billing tactics, centers on a South Florida doctor affiliated with Humana Inc., one of the biggest players offering the privately run Medicare Advantage plans. A federal grand jury in West Palm Beach, Fl. indicted the doctor, Isaac Kojo Anakwah Thompson, on eight counts of health care fraud last week. He’s accused of cheating Medicare out of about $2.1 million by claiming his Humana-enrolled patients were sicker than they actually were. Thompson, 55, was arrested Feb. 4 and is free on a $1 million bond. Through his lawyer, he declined comment. The indictment does not accuse Humana of wrongdoing. Company spokesman Tom Noland said in an email that the Louisville, Kentucky-based insurer is “cooperating fully with the authorities.” He said Thompson was never employed by the company and is “no longer a participating physician with Humana.” Noland said Humana has repaid the government, but declined to say how much. Still, the case is likely to draw heightened scrutiny to potential billing fraud and abuse in Medicare Advantage as well as questions about the effectiveness of government oversight of the fast-growing industry, which costs taxpayers more than $150 billion a year. “Every criminal indictment raises the stakes on Medicare Advantage fraud,” said Patrick Burns, co-director of Taxpayers Against Fraud in Washington. “It’s clear that the noose is tightening, and the risk equation is shifting.” Whistleblowers have filed a half-dozen other federal court cases alleging systematic over-billing by Medicare Advantage plans. Medicare Advantage plans offer seniors an alternative to standard Medicare, which pays doctors for each service they render. By contrast, the health plans are paid a set fee monthly for each patient based on a complex formula known as a risk score. Essentially, the government pays higher rates for sicker patients and less for those in good health. But overcharges, intentional or not, have cost taxpayers billions of dollars in recent years, as the Center for Public Integrity reported in a series published last year. The Florida indictment comes as the Medicare Advantage industry mounts a major advocacy and public relations offensive in Washington to stave off proposed budget cuts. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, is set to propose rates that the health plans will be paid for next year on Feb. 20. The Obama administration’s 2016 budget seeks to cut some $36 billion from Medicare Advantage plans over the next decade related to oversized risk scores. Two advocacy groups are leading the charge to nullify the proposed cuts, including the Better Medicare Alliance,which calls itself “the leading advocacy organization” for Medicare Advantage. Its sponsors include Humana and UnitedHealth Group, which together cover about 40 per cent of the 16 million people on Medicare Advantage. Interim executive director Krista Drobac said the alliance “was launched to focus on the value proposition of Medicare Advantage and to build support for protecting and strengthening the program. With 16 million seniors (one third of Medicare beneficiaries) now in Medicare Advantage, we think this effort is timely and needed,” she wrote in an email. Drobac added that the group “focuses on research, communications, social media, alliance building and grassroots. We have no plans to lobby,” she said. A second group called the Coalition for Medicare Choices, which was set up by the insurance industry trade association America’s Health Insurance Plans and boasts 1.8 million members, also is “mobilizing” to pressure Congress and the White House to back off. It pleads its case in a video ad. The insurance industry trade group also has held briefings on Capitol Hill designed to tout the benefits of Medicare Advantage and solidify support in Congress. In the past, the group has persuaded many lawmakers to call for a roll back of funding cuts mandated by the Affordable Care Act. While the industry fights to preserve its funding, there’s growing concern over risk score abuse and resulting overpayments. CMS officials concede that billions of tax dollars are misspent every year when Medicare Advantage plans exaggerate how sick their patients are, a practice known as “upcoding.” The Government Accountability Office, the watchdog arm of Congress, also is auditing Medicare Advantage billing practices. Results are due later this year. And some members of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission or MedPac, which advises Congress on eldercare issues, have suggested the Medicare Advantage risk scoring system triggers overcharges the federal treasury can ill afford. At a December 2014 meeting MedPac chairman Glenn M. Hackbarth said the group had seen “empircal evidence” of upcoding by some Medicare Advantage plans. The Center for Public Integrity has previously reported on several of the whistleblower lawsuits, including one filed by a Miami doctor against Humana, that allege upcoding. In that case, Olivia Graves alleges that a Humana medical center had diagnosed abnormally high numbers of patients with diseases such as diabetes with complications that boosted Medicare payments — diagnoses that “were not supported by medical records.” Graves alleges that Humana knew about the overcharges but took no action to stop them. Humana has denied the allegations in the civil suit. In a second case, a former manager at a California firm that does medical home visits alleges that the process was abused to inflate risk scores. A third case brought by a former Bush administration health official accuses a Medicare health plan in Puerto Rico of cheating Medicare out of hundreds of millions of dollars through diagnoses that were not backed up by medical records. All of the companies have denied the allegations. These civil cases, even if they result in large judgments, may have minimal impact. Bringing criminal charges, as prosecutors in Miami have done for the first time, raises the stakes dramatically because convictions could bring maximum prison terms of up to ten years. Though South Florida has long been a hotbed of health care fraud, officials said the Thompson case is their first criminal action related to Medicare Advantage billing. “We believe it is the first case of its kind to be prosecuted in the Southern District of Florida,” Marlene A. Fernandez-Karavetsos, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami, wrote in an email. According to the grand jury, Humana paid Thompson, who ran medical centers in Delray Beach and Boynton Beach, about 80 percent of the money it received from CMS for treating patients. In exchange, the medical center was responsible for paying for all of the members’ medical care. Many Medicare Advantage plans sign similar contracts with community physicians who treat their patients. Humana used records coded by its doctors to justify each patient’s risk score. Certain medical conditions deemed expensive to treat raise the score and thus the government payment for that patient. How accurate those scores were is at the heart of the case against Thompson. Thompson allegedly reported “false and fraudulent” diagnoses to Humana, which then passed them on to Medicare for payment. The indictment cites eight patients with three medical conditions, including four people said to have “ankylosing spondylitis,” a disease of the spine that can cause abnormal bone growth. The indictment states that from January 2006 through February of 2010 Thompson submitted to Humana “false and fraudulent diagnoses of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Humana Medicare Advantage plans, when in truth and fact the beneficiaries did not suffer from the diagnosed conditions.” According to the grand jury, other phony diagnoses included “inflammatory polyarthropathy,” in which five or more joints in the body are inflamed or swollen, and “major depressive affective disorder.” That’s a severe form of depression that involves a “loss of contact with reality,” according to the indictment. The indictment states that as a result of the inflated risk scores Medicare made “excessive payments” of at least $2,114,332.33. Humana passed about 80 percent of that amount to Thompson’s medical center. The grand jury did not say what happened to the remaining money. But Humana spokesman Noland wrote in an email: “Humana has reimbursed the government to ensure that both the 20 percent and the 80 percent were paid back in full, thus making the government whole.” Congress created Medicare Advantage in 2003 to encourage private insurance companies to jump into the senior care market without hesitation. Since then, the program has proven popular with seniors because it can cost them less out of pocket than original Medicare. Patients generally have no way of finding out what their risk scores are because neither health plans nor the government tells them. The Center for Public Integrity has sued CMS under the Freedom of Information Act to make public a wide range of agency records on risk scores. CMS expects to propose 2016 payment rates on Feb. 20 and then give the industry 45 days to make its case to roll back any cuts. Drobac said that’s a goal of the Better Medicare Alliance: “We will be working in support of stable funding for MA (Medicare Advantage) because we believe more cuts will harm beneficiaries,” she said.
Until the release of Black Flag, Assassin’s Creed 1 was my favourite of the series. But even Black Flag doesn’t have what made the first game truly special. Neither did II, Brotherhood, Revelations, III, Unity, Rogue or Syndicate. One can say, ‘Sure Stas, the first Assassin’s Creed has interesting ideas, great atmosphere, story, and provided a base for the franchise, but it got repetitive and boring, surely the rest of the series is a big improvement over it?’ Well… in a way yes. But in a way no. After all, ‘Nothing is true, everything is permitted.’ There is one amazing thing in the first Assassin’s Creed that elevates the experience to a different level of immersion and none of its sequels has it. I’m talking about HUD-less design. The first Assassin’s Creed (at least the console version, I’ll talk about some missions introduced in the PC version later) was designed to be playable fully without any HUD elements. I’m talking no map, markers, icons, controls. The addition of HUD in the game was clearly a late one, possibly based on some playtests, and while I can see why it makes sense to have a HUD, it also undermines the experience the game tried to build. To start illustrating my point, allow me to show a segment from the game, our first target in Acre (and second target in the game), and how we’d complete it without any HUD elements or map. So we start in Masyaf, which is the first settlement we get to explore, and the village is pretty easy to navigate around in. When you enter, you see the Assassin fortress in the distance as the main landmark, which is where Al Mualim will give you the targets’ names. And from the top of Masyaf you can see the exit. So, we got our target, it’s Garnier de Naplouse in Acre. First, of course, we leave Masyaf, take a horse, and ride on the only pathway available until we reach the next zone, the Kingdom, which is a hub between all cities. Don’t open the map, or GPS, how do we get to Acre? Well, it’s quite simple actually. There’s signs on intersections that show you where to go. Just like, you know, there’d be in real life. There’s not really much to do in the Kingdom other than travel around and look at the view (or collect flags and kill Templars if you’re into this sort of thing), and the act of traveling is much more enjoyable when you actually pay attention to what’s on your path. Eventually you’ll see some stone arches, which are elements that show the exit from the area you’re in. In this case – from Kingdom to Acre. So we’ve reached Acre. Our goal is to get to the Assassin Bureau to learn more information about our target. First, of course, we need to get through the guarded gates of the city. As we approach, we hear cries for help. Audio design is an important part of the experience, later I’ll show one of the biggest reasons why. Right now, however, there’s a monk in trouble, and if we save him, we can get past the gates undetected while blending in a group of his brothers. We can also find an alternate way through via parkour. Regardless, we get into the city. Now, while our first main goal is to find the Assassin Bureau, as without being there we can’t commence the assassination even if we learn everything about our targets, I would like to note that not far from the gates we see two guards talking. Now, characters talking in the middle of a street, or plaza, is actually not something you really see in Assassin’s Creed on a regular basis. People gather near market stalls, heralds, just walk around, sometimes you can see a pair talking on the sidewalks and away from the path of others, but when it’s happening in the middle, or in some particular building, means those people have information useful for the mission. Now, this is an important part of HUD-less design – to recognize visual patterns. You don’t have mission icons, but you do have a view of the area, so you must notice things that feel off, outside of the pattern, not right, and this is one of the tools the developers use to do so. Those two soldiers in particular, they talk about a lowly guarded route inside the fortress where Garnier is located. Anyway, with that information learned, we still need to find the Bureau. The city is pretty big, and even though, as it’s our first time here, only one district is available for exploration, there’s still a lot of area to just blindly stumble around in. Well, this is one of the reasons we have viewpoints. We can recognize them by two factors – a) they’re, well, tall, and b) they have eagles flying above them. We climb one viewpoint, get a lay of the land. We see the other viewpoints and points of interest, and what we’re looking for is a roof that has an Assassin insignia on it (it’s something that we learn in Damascus where the Assassins’ Bureau is easier to find). There’s not one nearby. Let’s go to another viewpoint not far. Hm, nothing here as well. There’s a fairly distinct broken tower in the distance, perhaps that’s the next place where I should go. Now, what happens as a side effect of this searching, is that you get to subconsciously recognize and memorize noticeable places, landmarks. On the way to that tower I notice a church, I run past a souk (pretty much most of which have similar looking roofs in the game), I see that not far from city gates I’ve passed there’s a fortress, as well as locations that are blocked for me for the moment like the huge Cathedral. You don’t just walk around the city, run around rooftops. You memorize it, maybe not in great detail. but enough. I got to the top of that broken tower, and from there I see it. The Assassin insignia on a building with a roof entrance (not sure how noticeable it is on the screenshot). That’s where I need to go. I also, of course, have in my memory now that the Assassin’s Bureau is near that broken tower. Inside, the Rafiq tells me where I can find more information about the target. He mentions public gardens to the north, the church to the west which I have already seen, and the souk to the northwest which I have already passed by. Conversations with Rafiqs tend to be on a longer side due to them telling some of the locations where you can find information, but when you don’t have icons to show you where to go, they’re important. That said, you don’t really NEED rafiqs, as if you go to places that look landmarky enough chances are you’re going to find something, still it’s useful and helpful information, especially when you just start to getting your way around the city. Since the church is to the west, I know where west and north are (I guess you could also use the sun as your indicator, but I personally suck at getting around based on the sun, I’m more of a landmark kind of person). So I decided to go check out north first, the public gardens. But I want to make a special note of heralds, one of which I’ve passed on the way. There’s lots of them, and you hear them from quite some distance, and they talk about pretty much the same thing concerning the war effort and the Crusades. Now, this ‘same thing over and over again’ may seem uninspired, but it’s actually fairly important. I’ll get to in a bit why. I found my way to what looks like the public gardens. How do I find information, though? Well, that’s where your Eagle Vision kicks in, which shows you enemies, targets, allies, and whoever has information regarding your main target. That white glowing blob in the distance? (the glow might not be really noticeable in static screenshot, but it’s there). That’s our informant. Ironically enough, the quest the informant gives is actually to collect flags in a certain time limit, which is possibly the worst of the original console game side missions. It’s completable HUD-less, of course, as all flags are in a certain path that starts near the informant, but it’s tricky and easy to miss something. Not the best example for the purposes of my story, but it’s how I’ve completed this sequence the last time I replayed it and, well, I didn’t say that everything was perfect. The informant says where the Hospitaller fortress is located and that Garnier is there. I think now it’s time to visit the abandoned market, which I already know where is located based on my improving knowledge of the city. I find a way in through the roof. In the market, I find see two people talking right in the middle of it. Visual patterns, remember. They must know something. And as it turns out, they do. One of them has a letter that I steal, it connects several of our targets together. Not really important for assassination of Garnier itself, but it’s part of the unraveling story. Now it’s time to go the church and see what we can find there. Here’s where the knowledge about auditive patterns get in. As I approach, I hear not only somebody talking about the Crusades, but there’s also a voice speaking in favour of Garnier specifically, our target. So, theoretically, you can just walk around the city and hear somebody speak about your target and that’s it, you know you need to go there. We can interrogate this person to learn more about an opportune moment to strike Garnier. Now, there are still investigation missions left, but this is enough for Rafiq to give us a green light on the assassination mission. There’s one more original mission type not mentioned here, that being stealth assassinating somebody for informants to give information. Targets are always in the locations that are near the informants, and you can use Eagle Vision to differentiate them. Anyway, we now know well our way to the Bureau, so it doesn’t take much trouble to get to it. In the conversation with the Rafiq, Altair recaps all the necessary information, like that the Hospitaller fortress is to the far north for example, in case we as a player forgot something. We go north until we see a building with a Hospitaller insignia on it. So we know that this is the place. During investigations, we also get things like letters and maps with guard locations, and they are useful even without HUD. Because even if we don’t look at the main city map, we still can get a feel of the building’s shape and structure to know where we need to go to find a way in. When we get inside the fortress, we witness Garnier order to break legs of an asylum inmate who tried to escape. After that scene, we can commence our assassination. We find Garnier inside the hospital, overlooking the patients, and kill him. In his dying confession, Garnier, like all other targets in the game, tells his side of the story making Altair question if he really is an evil person. Now that the target is dead, guards start chasing us. We quickly search for a way out, find a ladder up to some scaffoldings and from there jumping over chandeliers parkour our way to a broken window that leads us out of the building. Okay, there’s a bunch of people chasing us, aaaaah, where are we, where do we need to go? Oh, right! Broken tower’s right there! Landmark! Onwards! We need to break the line of sight and find a hiding spot on the way, though. One other thing that happens in HUD-less mode is that since there’s no social status indicator, you can’t use it to know if you’re being seen or not in a chase (and you can use hide spots only if you are not being seen). Well, the game uses 2 things: the first one is an Animus glitch effect when states switch between being in sight during a chase, and being out of sight. The second one is the music – it changes depending on the state. Also, since you don’t have any blue markers showing any hiding spots, you must be much more mindful of your surroundings when running. Chases in Assassin’s Creed 1 don’t end until you hide, or are very far away from the enemies. After we escaped the guards, we get back to the Bureau and show Rafiq proof that the deed is done. Garnier’s dead, and we need to return to Al Mualim in Masyaf. The reason why I’ve told all this in such a detailed manner is so that everyone would get the feel of going through this game with absolutely no HUD. You get to learn the city, where everything’s located. You get to listen, to look, to find discrepancies in patterns. You search, investigate, notice details. There’s a market near the entrance to the Jewish quarter in the southern part of the city where you need to find information. Where’s the Jewish quarter? You look around and see a synagogue in the distance with Star of David on it, so you go in that direction and then see a gateway – so that’s the entrance to the district. The market should be nearby. This is why Assassin’s Creed 1 is built in a very clear cyclic manner, so you could get to learn and notice patterns and use them to your advantage. You’re an assassin. You listen. You watch. You use your intuition. Introduce even just a mini-map with icons, and all of that is gone. The cyclic pattern loses all its veils, which is why people get to consider the game boring after a while, they instantly know the destination of the journey but don’t go through all the process of finding it, which is what makes Assassin’s Creed 1 so interesting. Is it perfect? No, there are many ways it could be improved. Sometimes people name locations as if you know what they must look like (the game doesn’t have encyclopedia unlike its successors), sometimes missions are placed very weirdly near landmarks which makes it tricky to find them. The most important flaw, though, is that it’s not inclusive. If you have problems with spacial recognition, navigation in urban environments, hearing even (Assassin’s Creed 1 in particular doesn’t have subtitles), then you can’t really play the game. Not to mention that surely there would be people who seek a more casual assassin simulator. All these things can be fixed with a HUD-less approach, but it would require a lot of new systems and assets, so it’s understandable why a HUD was brought in. That said, the design is really influenced in a different way when you know there’s going to be a HUD. PC port of the game has several additional mission types. A couple of them work well without HUD: Archer Assassinations (go to rooftop, use Eagle Vision and you know where your targets are) and Escort Missions (you follow the person you need to escort). But another couple clearly don’t take into account that HUD might be off: Market Stall Destructions (they’re near the mission start but it’s very hard to define which need to be destroyed), and Rooftop Races where you need to go from one informant to another before time runs out. That second one is absolutely impossible without regularly looking at the city map with markers, because the target informant is located in an arbitrary spot in a different part of the city and you have no idea which one. And it’s incredibly evident in Assassin’s Creed II, where as soon as you go on your own and don’t follow your brother, you have no idea where to go without HUD or map. You need to go to Cristina? Great, uhm… where is she? You need to go home! Uhm… yeah, where’s that? A certain level of immersion is gone. That said, Assassin’s Creed II and further titles did bring variety in what and how we do in the gameplay itself. I still miss the ability to comfortably play fully without the HUD. I mean, even little things like amount of throwing knives – they were displayed on Altair himself, but in later games you can’t look at the character and know how many throwing knives you’ve got. The perfect solution for me would be fusion between styles of the first game, and later games. The first game focused too much on designing a game in a way that you don’t need to open any auxiliary instruments at all, which gets broken when you introduce those auxiliary instruments. The other games don’t take into account that auxiliary instruments can be turned off, so you can’t really have a full game experience without them. A mix, however, would be good. Let’s say for a quick example we see the location where we need to go in Eagle Vision when we’re on rooftops. Done. I go into Eagle Vision, look where Cristina’s house is, and go there. But then I’d actually want to keep Eagle Vision like it’s in Assassin’s Creed 1 (active only when standing still) and not like it became in II where it was persisting while moving. Because these things, thinking about HUD-less gameplay, they influence numerous design decisions in mechanics, world, missions, story and writing even. But I think the result, in the end, would be something much more immersive. If you’ve played Assassin’s Creed 1 before but with HUD, I suggest you to try and doing so with the HUD off. It’s a totally different experience and I think it’s very interesting. Thank you all for reading. Feel free to leave any comments below. If you’d like to keep an eye on my future blog posts, feel free to follow me on Twitter @farlander1991 🙂 And if you’d like, consider supporting my work on Patreon! Thank you very much! Advertisements
Qualcomm SafeSwitch offers a hardware-based kill switch Depending on your market outlook, Qualcomm could be seen as the top chip mobile chip maker, at least when it comes to smartphones and tablets. Soon, however, it’s lead on its competitors might widen even further if it manages to convince device manufacturers and carriers to utilize its own “kill switch” implementation, which, unsurprisingly, revolves around its processor. This security focus comes on the heels of the State of California signing its “kill switch” into law, requiring anyone selling a smartphone in that jurisdiction to provide a way for users, or authorities, to remotely wipe smartphones to serve as a deterrent to theft. While few now contest such a security measure, even the CTIA has announced a similar but voluntary commitment, Qualcomm is saying that it can do a bit better. Generally speaking, these kill switch solutions are mostly software-based. While some implementations could render a smartphone totally useless (a.k.a. “bricked”), there might be instances where reflashing the device, tantamount to reformating a computer and reinstalling an operating system, could make the smartphone available again. There is also an off-beat chance that more arduous hackers can even recover data erased from flash memory. Qualcomm’s SafeSwitch utilizes its hardware architecture to add another layer of security, one that it claims cannot be bypassed by software, hacks, or exploits. In particular, such security processes are said to be verified by hardware instead of a software implementation. This becomes quite useful when it comes to actually restoring the device to a usable state if the smartphone has been returned to the proper owner. SafeSwitch is also just one part of Qualcomm’s overall security strategy, which includes BYOD solutions that make deleted/wiped data really unrecoverable as well as biometrics-based identification. These are indeed nice things to have but, unlike software-based kill switches, it might be something that isn’t available today and on recent devices. Qualcomm isn’t sharing a lot just yet, like which of its chips, if any, already have these features built-in. It will also require the cooperation of at least phone makers who will need to put these chips inside their devices. Given Qualcomm’s ubiquity, that might not be an issue, but not everyone runs on a Snapdragon and will not be able to enjoy such security, which might be Qualcomm’s strategy after all. SOURCE: Qualcomm VIA: Re/code
It’s extra baggage that needs to be offloaded by Ammar Shahbazi Nostalgia can be addictive. And when it comes to a past that was glittered with red-letter days, emotions run high when there is talk of sending home some great people to fly with. This is exactly what’s happening in Pakistan International Airline (PIA) — the once stellar national carrier, now living off dole from the public exchequer. The government’s proposal to off-load 26 per cent share in PIA and enter into a “strategic partnership” with a competent private stakeholder has predictably been received with enormous hue and cry. This was expected from the clumsy juggernaut that PIA has become over the years. Workers union came out charging and mainstream opposition parties too jumped into the fray. But the numbers don’t lie: as things stand today, PIA has an accumulated debt of Rs300 billion and incurs yearly losses of Rs20 to Rs30 billion, which the government has to pay to keep it alive. The PML-N government is fed up of nursing the problem child and is all set to handover it to able hands. One of the main persons tasked with the job is Mohammad Zubair, a minister of state and chairman of the Privatization Commission. “I don’t understand why this process is being termed privatization, we are not selling off PIA,” insists Zubair. “We are just offloading some shares and that’s a standard practice world over. We are trying to save the national carrier.” Zubair sounds frustrated with the way the whole PIA issue is being raised in the public discourse. “Honestly, the government does not think it is worth feeding a giant organisation with billions of rupees that, we know for certain, cannot be revived on such monthly survival doses. PIA needs radical changes.” The government plans to invite private firms with two basic qualifications: world class management experience and deep pockets to inject money in the airline for a complete overhaul and make it competitive. Zubair argues that politicians often speak about merit, but when it comes to the merit of PIA’s workforce that is sustaining on dole, the issue becomes political. “In the last two-and-a-half years, we tried to fix the situation,” he says, “But PIA needs massive investment and we barely manage to pay for its losses.” Quoting a renowned auditor, who has been watching PIA’s books for years, Zubair said that since the 1980s, the PIA is not making any profits. “It’s not something recent. The organisation was dying a slow death, over decades. A good year followed by bad.” “In the last two-and-a-half years, we tried to fix the situation. But PIA needs massive investment and we barely manage to pay for its losses. The losses became more prominent after Pakistan opened its skies to foreign airlines, especially from the Gulf region to do business in the country. Airlines such as Emirates and Gulf Air gobbled up PIA’s market share and its revenues began to fall. In other words, Pakistan’s national carrier, despite boundless opportunities and empty playing field until the early 2000s, was not efficiently being managed. When faced with competition, it began to crumble. “You cannot call yourself a huge multinational corporation with operations in several countries, if you cannot compete at that level,” says Zubair. To explain the magnitude of PIA’s mess he gives an example. The PIA management had called off its flights to Amsterdam. A station manager didn’t like the idea. He went to court and got a stay. Now the chairman or the managing director cannot do anything. The matter is with the courts. “In any efficient organisation , the human resource is the most important asset, that’s what we read in schools,” he says, “But they have to be the best. You do regular appraisals and promote or fire people. This is how organisations work world over.” PIA has one of the highest employee per plane ratio, which stands at above 700 employees per aircraft, while Emirates has around 220. The reason behind the massive difference is the range of services the national carrier keeps under its belt. From engineering services to ground handling to cargo management and maintenance to name a few, PIA, unlike other successful international airlines, single-handedly runs its own show. But globally, the non-core segments of airlines business are usually outsourced to make the management leaner thus efficient. For instance, Dnata, one of the leading an airport service providers, offers ground handling services to Emirates in its home base. But PIA is top heavy with departments and runs like any bureaucratic government office. If PIA has been on and off the reds for decades, one of the reasons was the way the organisation was handled by successive governments. “The decisions made about PIA were never meant to serve the organisation,” says Irshad Ghani, CEO Aviation Business Consultants, a consultancy firm that advises firms and companies on Pakistan’s aviation sector. “The decisions were almost always beyond PIA, made behind closed doors.” Ghani, who worked in PIA for over 35 years in various capacities, argues that political meddling in the organisation is so rife that the “real employees” never really got a chance to perform. However, he is against the ‘sell off.’ Aware of the many excesses of the union, Ghani says that the unions were always patronized by political parties, who infused the culture of inefficiency in the organisation. But they can be handled if managed properly. “The political appointments and the culture of unaccountability bottom up can be implemented if the government appoints a foreign chairman with vast experience from abroad and allow him/her to run the airline.” “This has happened with Malaysian Airline. They hired a German guy and entrusted him with all the power. And he made it work. You don’t have to sell it.” Ghani accepts that in order to make PIA competitive, some radical decisions have to be taken, including shredding people hired on political basis and bringing efficient workers at the forefront. But the government seems to have tried all the tricks in the cards. As Zubair points out that the power to change the organisation is too shattered. PIA needs a stakeholder who has money to put in and manage it like one’s own. But what if things continue as usual? Giant public enterprises that begin milking money on humanitarian grounds usually end up becoming piggy banks in the hands of politicians and top management, while the lower rank employees sustain on salaries which also dries up over a period, resulting in closure, says Owais Legari, former IT minister who oversaw the privatization of Pakistan Telecommunications Corporation Limited (PTCL). “Things would begin to crumble if hard decisions are not taken at this point,” he says, “See what happened with Pakistan Steel Mills. The government kept paying billions every month yet the employees were not getting paid.” “When an organisation knows it has the government to fall back on, it is dangerous. The government should immediately speak to the workers and reasonably compensate them. And stop it from further bleeding. That, I think, is the way forward for PIA.” The writer is a freelance journalist based in Karachi. He tweets @AmmarShahbazi It’s a (mis)management problem by Ahmed Yusuf These winters have been historic: for the first time ever, Skardu Airport was accessible on all days and there were no shutdowns. Some flights were delayed due to inclement weather but not because the airport was not operational. “We flew private airlines till Lahore, drove on the Motorway till Islamabad, and then flew PIA from Islamabad to Skardu. We didn’t think the first part of our journey would be problematic, we were expecting more problems from Islamabad. But it was actually the other way around,” says Maham Kausar, a 36-year-old doctor based in Karachi. The flight out of Karachi was delayed while there was fog on the Motorway the night Kausar’s family had planned to drive to Islamabad. Already on a tight schedule, the family had to reschedule their flight to Skardu, which cost them a few days. All things considered, her experience improved once they boarded the PIA flight to Skardu. “We have three children, two of them under five, and travelling with them is often a struggle. We were expecting that travelling a smaller aircraft might be problematic for them, but the journey was rather smooth as was the landing,” she says. “Maybe it is because Skardu Airport is a smallish airport but the staff was rather courteous and helped us a decent motel for lodging.” Indeed, domestic tourists trickled into Gilgit-Baltistan this season, over 600,000 of them, and aviation officials are confident that the number will rise substantially in the coming years. As airlines and aviation officials argue, crucial to the revival of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is creating a niche for itself that cannot be impeded upon by any other operator. In PIA’s case, argue aviation and airlines officials, this niche exists in tourism to Pakistan and within Pakistan. Put another way, PIA’s revival is connected with resuscitating the tourism industry, which is beginning to pick up once again. PIA retains a monopoly over domestic tourism routes, with no other operator flying to Skardu or Gilgit from Islamabad. In practice, this translates into harnessing a number of profit-spinning opportunities such as the air transportation of fruit and dry fruit produce from Gilgit-Baltistan. “On average, a goods transport truck charges Rs150,000 for the journey between Islamabad and Skardu,” explains one aviation official, on the condition of anonymity. “Air freight charges cost a fraction of that, but we are restricted by the aircraft that ply the Islamabad-Skardu route and the frequency of flights,” he says. “On average, a goods transport truck charges Rs150,000 for the journey between Islamabad and Skardu,” explains one aviation official, on the condition of anonymity. “Air freight charges cost a fraction of that, but we are restricted by the aircraft that ply the Islamabad-Skardu route and the frequency of flights.” As a result, most produce never makes it out of Gilgit-Baltistan since the costs involved become prohibitive, thereby compromising great revenue opportunities for local farmers in Skardu and other areas. Meanwhile, PIA’s monopoly over the route is left unexploited. Away from Gilgit-Baltistan, there is also pilgrimage potential to Pakistan, as Hindu and Sikh pilgrims make their way to Chakwal and Nankana Sahib, from India as well as other international locations. The airline also holds great sway in pilgrimage tourism to Saudi Arabia, although pilgrimage tourism to Iraq and Iran has yet to be leveraged. Such measures require the aviation division and tourism ministry to work in tandem, with the specific goal of presenting Pakistan as a tourist-friendly destination. In obtaining control of the airlines from the defence ministry and in enforcing the presidential order to convert PIA into a public limited company, the government has allowed itself the space to do so, but there is a distinct lack of will to tackle the crisis PIA finds itself in. If balancing the books is a primary concern for the organisation, then it becomes a management issue. It is important to recall that PIA incurred substantial debt when it last offered a golden handshake to its employees as a cost-cutting exercise. This very fact resonates heavily with middle and lower-tier staff of the PIA in Karachi, many of whom resent the privatisation process largely due to the uncertainty it leaves them hanging in. “These debts were accrued by during the golden handshake scheme, they don’t have much to do with us,” claims Muneer Salim,* a veteran cargo handler at the Hajj Terminal. “They doled out money in millions and now they expect us to pay for it. Do they take us for fools?” Salim has a family of seven dependant on him, while his eldest son only recently completed graduation and is now plying a rickshaw on Karachi’s streets. According to the cargo handler, this wouldn’t have been possible without his job. “When I first got a job at the airport, it was because of the son quota system. My father was employed here and I could get in easier, but its not the same anymore. Unless you are connected with the right unions and the right office-bearers, your son won’t be able to bag a job. There are thousands like me finding the right connections,” sighs Salim. The PIA privatisation debate in the public sphere assumes the absolute incompetence of labour employed by the organisation, but as Salim points out, after the last golden handshake scheme, many of PIA’s most talented found lucrative jobs elsewhere in the aviation sector. Clearly, labour isn’t the problem, but its utilisation (or lack of) is an issue. “To assume that the labour unions represent everyone is a little unfair; they don’t. But the irony of the situation is that those who’ll be able to keep their jobs will be from unions since no management wants to ruffle their feathers,” chimes in Waqar Hussain,* who serves as ground staff at the Karachi airport. Both men agree that calculating staff that are not needed or are deemed surplus is a management issue, rather than one that requires the entire corporation to be privatised. “If say 5,000 people are not working for you, does that mean you’d shut the entire organisation down? No, you’ll figure out how best to make them work for you or why they haven’t been working,” argues Hussain. “If the unions are encouraging a culture of slacking, disband them by all means. But in privatising the administration and bypassing the voice of labour, the government has only shown that it doesn’t have the will to make things work. The writer tweets @ASYusuf Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, January 24th, 2016
Sol 1822: Onward and upward! Written by Lauren Edgar on Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Raw Image by Front Hazcam This image was taken by Front Hazcam: Right B (FHAZ_RIGHT_B) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 1821 (2017-09-20 08:11:08 UTC). On Sol 1821, Curiosity successfully completed contact science activities at "Pennessewassee" and "Passadumkeag". Perhaps in an effort to get to more easily pronounceable rock targets, today's tactical team planned a nice long drive towards our next waypoint on Vera Rubin Ridge.The Sol 1822 plan begins with a Navcam movie to look for clouds above the northern rim of the crater. Then Curiosity will turn her attention towards the bedrock targets in front of her, using both Mastcam and ChemCam to assess the spectral character of yesterday's DRT target "Passadumkeag" and to assess the composition and sedimentary structures exposed at "Hypocrites Ledge." We'll also use Mastcam to monitor the movement of fines on the rover deck. Then Curiosity will gear up for a drive of ~40 m, as we work our way towards the next waypoint (located in the top center of the Mastcam image shown above). Downlink data volume was a challenge today, so the team had to think carefully about the priorities of post-drive imaging to prepare for possible touch-and-go contact science and other remote sensing in tomorrow's plan. The afternoon post-drive imaging block also contains some extended Navcam coverage for additional geologic context and targeting, as well as two Navcam observations to search for clouds and monitor the wind direction near the zenith. With drives like these, we're really reminded that we have a mountain-climbing robot on Mars!
In this blog post I think I will talk to you a bit about what you can do to create a new mind set that will rule your everyday life and create in side of you a shining light that can transcend to those around you. Many times when I was growing up I used to read a lot of books about science fiction stuff. In those books were many great inventions that gave man better powers of awareness. One such power was (ESP) extra sensory perception. The power to know things people were thinking or what was coming in the future. I used to sit and dream as to how cool it would be to have such a power. Later on in life I was to find that those skills truly did exist in real people beyond the page of fantasy. I was amazed and thought how did these amazing people ever achieve such powers. Had they fallen into some vat of toxic waste or done some experiment that altered their minds perception. The answer was none of these things the extra ordinary truth behind these people’s skills was to come to me like a bullet. The truth that we, (you and I) the entire human race are not only capable of these skills of the mind but that we or most people in the human race never use them. We never seek to attain enlightenment as to what the positive mind truly can create. We let that skill along with many others the extraordinary mind has to offer fade away. The fact is that if a skill is not used it does not disappear however it becomes week and lazy. The mind puts it away making room for the skills that seem more dominant as to use everyday. So many of us go around never realizing how truly amazing we are and the power in ourselves that lie dormant waiting to be sparked into life. It was said the more you seek and use a skill or power of the mind the stronger the skill comes to be and can be a dominating skill. So if we as thinking men and women can truly believe this by seeing that education broadens the mind and makes us think and do things better as to the knowledge of forming great thoughts and projecting great ideas out ward then we can truly understand that the skill of being able to project are will and wants lie deep with in us and in awakening them we can draw to our selves information from those around us well projecting out ward our desires that can produce wealth and success. It goes the same with love and spirituality we have these factors waiting to be used and released in side to bring to us anything we want. Napoleon Hill stated if the mind can perceive it than it can be gained in the physical and the metaphysical. So it was in that faith I have looked at the ways those amazing people have honed there extra sensory perception to help them become successful in all they do. The first thing is they have cleared all negatives from their minds and have created an immovable vision in their minds as to what they want out of life. Then they have built a impenetrable force field of will as to stopping anyone who would seek to destroy their goals and dreams. Simply put they do not allow any thoughts that do not project positives out in to the world in to their frame of thinking. This skill is very much attainable. However it takes work to achieve and it takes time to get it right like any muscle that has not been used for a while it needs to be worked and reworked till it grows strong. Remember your mind is the biggest muscle your body has and it needs to be worked and worked again by gaining knowledge and concepts of a positive nature every single day. The whole idea of understanding people and life is ingrained in us we can feel the air yet we do not see it how ever it fills are lungs and blows the trees so we know it exists. The power of thinking ourselves in to a better life also is there. In order to reawaken this power we must reawaken our desires to attain a positive mind and then work on that. If this takes place then we you and I can achieve great things with but a thought and are wills can and will be reality and create success. Please check out our links to the right. Mark & Tammy Cowell Advertisements
" Bigger " is a song by Canadian recording artist Justin Bieber , included as a track on his debut release, My World , released on November 17, 2009. It was written by Bieber, Frank Ocean , Dapo Torimiro , Kevin Risto and Waynne Nugent of Midi Mafia , with the latter duo and Dapo producing the song. Musically, the song is a R&B number which infuses elements of teen pop and dance-pop , while including influences of new jack swing . The song's lyrics refer to one maturing in a relationship and working to reach goals. The song received generally positive reception from critics who reviewed the album, with a Billboard reviewer commenting that Bieber had "genuine swagger" on the song. Some reviews however questioned the lyrical content. After the release of My World , due to digital sales, the song charted in the lower regions of charts in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan. "Bigger" was co-written by Bieber, Frank Ocean , Dapo Torimiro, Kevin Risto and Waynne Nugent of Midi Mafia . (Midi Mafia also worked with Bieber on the ballad "Down To Earth" [1] ) Midi Mafia and Dapo have production credits. [1] It was recorded at Icon Studios in Atlanta, Georgia , and it was mixed at Larrabee Studios in North Hollywood, California . [1] The track was one of three songs on the standard edition of the album that Bieber co-wrote. [1] Billboard said that Bieber (pictured) had "genuine swagger" on "Bigger" Monica Herrerra ofsaid that Bieberhad "genuine swagger" on "Bigger" Critical reception Edit In calling Bieber's vocals "boyish as they are disarmingly mature", Monica Herrerra of Billboard reviewed the song positively, commenting," that Bieber has "genuine swagger on the nimble R&B track."[2] Jon Caramanica complimented the song as one of the carefree tracks on the album, as he was skeptical of the lyrical content in "First Dance" but on "Bigger", the writer said, "earplugs back in, young ladies."[4] Although Ashante Infantry of Toronto Star said a turn-off of the song was the "Mafia" tag by the production team, Midi Mafia, at the beginning of the song, she called "Bigger" one of the best tracks on the album.[8] In a review of My Worlds Mike Diver of BBC Music Blog said that the phrase "I was a player when I was little," was one of the several "awkward lyrical moments" on the album and said that it left "one to hope he's talking about Little League rather than chasing skirt."[7] Chart performance Edit On the week ending December 5, 2009, due to digital sales after the release of My World, "Bigger" debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the Canadian Hot 100. The song debuted at number forty-nine on the Hot Digital Songs chart in the US, and therefore consecutively appeared at number ninety-four on the Hot 100.[9] In Canada, it debuted at number seventy-eight.[9] It dropped off both charts the following week.[9] "Bigger" also appeared at number ninety-six on the Japan Hot 100.[9] In both territories it was also the second highest non-previously released song from My World to appear on the charts.[9] In the United Kingdom, after the release of My World, "Bigger" appeared at number 162.[10]
The Atlanta Falcons wrapped up in the NFC South title and their first playoff berth since 2012 after beating the Carolina Panthers over the weekend (33-16), then watching New Orleans take out Tampa Bay (31-24). With the first-place finish, the 10-5 Falcons now know they'll face the first-place teams in both the NFC East and NFC West -- Dallas and Seattle -- next season. Here are the home and road opponents for 2017. The dates of each game will be determined in the spring when the full regular-season schedule is released. Home opponents: Carolina Panthers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New Orleans Saints, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, Dallas Cowboys. Road opponents: Carolina Panthers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New Orleans Saints, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, New England Patriots, New York Jets, Seattle Seahawks. My take: The Falcons won't nearly have as much traveling to do next season with the game at Seattle the only extended trip after visits to Seattle, Denver, Los Angeles, and Oakland this season. The trip to New England should be fun with Matt Ryan and Tom Brady a couple of the front-runners for this year's MVP honor. The game against the Jets also should be interesting because Todd Bowles really wanted the Falcons job, and some thought Dan Quinn initially was headed to the Jets. The Falcons will see a healthier Vikings team with (potentially) Adrian Peterson and Teddy Bridgewater coming off injuries. The Cowboys, Patriots, Seahawks, and Dolphins are among the playoff teams on the '17 slate, with the Packers and Lions still in the mix.
A little girl made a big splash in the New York art world this week. Four year-old Aelita Andre, of Australia, opened her first solo exhibition at the Agora gallery in Chelsea, but she's already sold some of her paintings for more than $30,000 on the side, according to NBC News. "I saw great colors, great movement, great composition and very playful, and I thought, 'This is fantastic,'" Agora gallery director Anglea Di Bello told NBC. "Who is this person? Only to find out, she's a child." Di Bello even goes as far to tell The Telegraph that tiny Aelita's work is "abstract expressionism" and also "surrealist". Aelita started painting before she was two years old. Michael Andre, the girl's father, said that at as early as nine-months, Aelita would crawl onto her parents' canvasses (both are artists) and begin to paint. Aelita "often incorporates bark, twigs, children’s toys, bird feathers, and other found objects into her paintings, lending depth and texture to the overall effect. " according to The Agora Gallery's website. (see photos of the paintings here). Three paintings have already been sold for $27,000. The precocious painter seems to relish the spotlight and on a recent trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with her family, amid works by Picasso and Monet, asked her parents "Where are my paintings?', according to NBC. "The Prodigy of Color" will show at the Agora Gallery until the end of June. View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.
USPA Acts to Ensure Proper Tandem Instructor Certification A recent fatal tandem accident and subsequent information have led USPA to conclude that a number of candidates who attended tandem instructor rating courses at The Parachute Center in Lodi, California, and other locations conducted by either Rob Pooley, #155136, or Yuri Garmashov, #163264, were not properly taught and/or were not properly certified. Some courses may have been abbreviated or incomplete, or candidates may not have met initial qualifications. Post-course rating applications may have been submitted under false pretenses or with forged signatures since, in some cases, the course examiner had been suspended and was not authorized to conduct courses. In the interest of public safety, USPA is taking steps to ensure that all of approximately 140 tandem instructors and candidates affected can demonstrate proper emergency procedures, have completed the knowledge tests from USPA and tandem manufacturer United Parachute Technologies and have submitted proper rating applications to both UPT and USPA. About 120 must undergo a new USPA-developed refresher course (some immediately and most by September 30), while some 12 others have had their ratings suspended and must undergo a full and complete tandem instructor rating course conducted by a current USPA Tandem Examiner. Here is USPA’s announcement explaining which requirements apply to which tandem instructors and candidates. Here is information USPA is providing to current tandem examiners, with details about the new refresher course. After September 30, any affected tandem candidate or instructor who has not completed the appropriate process will be suspended (or continue to be suspended) from conducting tandem jumps.
LOS ANGELES -- Warehouse workers in Southern California have filed a petition in court to name Walmart as a defendant in a federal wage-theft lawsuit, marking a significant turn in low-wage supply chain workers' fight with the world's largest retailer. Although workers in Walmart's contracted warehouses in California and Illinois have alleged labor violations in the past, the filing on Friday is the first time Walmart itself has been directly implicated in the claims of abuse. Until now, only the retailer's subcontractors have been accused in court of shorting workers on pay and forcing them to work in substandard conditions. "Walmart's name does not appear on any of these workers paychecks, and the Walmart logo does not appear on the t-shirts they're required to wear," Michael Rubin, the workers' lawyer, said on Friday. "But it has become increasingly clear that the ultimate liability for these workplace violations rests squarely on the shoulders of Walmart." While Walmart directly manages much of its distribution network, the company outsources the operation of some of its largest warehouses to third-party logistics firms, which in turn hire low-paid temporary workers to perform the heavy lifting. These warehouses have become the target of a union-backed organizing effort through the groups Warehouse Workers United and Warehouse Workers for Justice, and several of them have been hit with employee lawsuits and labor-law violations. In the case amended Friday, six workers at a Walmart-contracted warehouse in Riverside, Calif., sued a series of subcontractors last year, claiming they were paid less than the minimum wage, required to work in excessively hot conditions and retaliated against by superiors as they loaded and unloaded trucks and containers. Although the workers said the products they handled were destined for Walmart stores, the mega-retailer was not originally named in the suit. Worker advocates have argued all along that Walmart, as the top company in the contract chain, is morally responsible for the working conditions at the warehouses its goods pass through. By trying to bring Walmart into the lawsuit now, they hope to prove that the company is legally and financially responsible as well, arguing that Walmart controls the operation and serves as the ultimate beneficiary of the work. "I know that Walmart is responsible for all of this, even though they say they have nothing to do with us," said one of the plaintiffs, David Acosta, speaking in Spanish on a call with reporters Friday. "The boxes say Walmart, the containers say Walmart -- everything belongs to Walmart." Walmart spokesman Dave Tovar has said the company has made a "business decision" to no longer comment for Huffington Post stories, "due to the one-sided reporting and unfair and unbalanced editorial decisions." Acosta said he and his colleagues, many of them Latino immigrants, worked 12 to 16-hour days, earning roughly the minimum wage without overtime pay. He said they received a lunch each day but no other breaks. "Our dignity was thrown to the floor," he added. The success or failure of the suit could have broader implications for workers who try to sue subcontractors. As HuffPost reported last year, much of the retail sector's supply chain is now predicated on a system of outsourcing, where larger, brand-name players subcontract the work to smaller, little-seen players, who ultimately hold the legal liability for workers' well-being. A similar arrangement now persists in many food-processing and manufacturing operations as well. According to Rubin, the workers are seeking class-action status for their lawsuit, which could involve up to 1,800 affected workers. Rubin argued Friday that the workers are on sound legal footing in suing Walmart, even though the company does not directly employ workers at the facilities. “Walmart controls the warehouses and everything that happens inside of them," Rubin said. The retailer, he said, pays "extraordinary attention to details" in the warehouses, including tracking where every truck and container is and what every worker is doing and how much time it takes them to do it. "[Walmart] owns or leases each of the warehouses at issue in this litigation. It owns all of the equipment and supplies used in those warehouses, from the forklift to the shrink wrap," he continued. "We allege Walmart has turned a blind eye to systemic violations of worker rights." Walmart has said repeatedly in the past that the warehouses involved in the suit are operated by other parties and that the company takes the allegations seriously even if it isn't responsible for them. Several workers at the warehouses in California went on strike ahead of the high-profile walkouts and protests at Walmart stores on Black Friday. The suit filed in California last year included among its defendants the Walmart contractor Schneider Logistics, which has been named in similar suits filed by workers in Illinois. Many of the employees were employed by a firm contracted by Schneider, working for "piece rate" -- being paid according to how many containers they loaded or unloaded. The lawsuit alleged rampant abuse, claiming warehouse employees "spend their workdays performing strenuous, unskilled physical labor in an environment where the temperature often exceeds 90 degrees," where management "routinely responded with threats of retaliation and actual retaliation, including by sending the inquiring workers home without pay, refusing to give them work the next day ... and imposing other forms of discipline on them." Schneider has denied the allegations in the suit. Prior to the lawsuit, the California labor commissioner filed a number of labor-law citations against temp companies operating within the warehouse, saying many workers weren't given complete paystubs for their work. The commissioner, Julie A. Su, told The Huffington Post at the time that the alleged violations epitomized broader problems with subcontracting in the low-wage economy.
Pets are making pledge phones ring at several public radio stations. While some pubcasters offer special premiums and pet memberships for dogs, cats and birds, others use funny pet stories as a tactic for livening up midweek pledge days. KBUT in Crested Butte, Colo., keeps records of owners who purchased special dog-tag premiums and helps owners track down stray pets. “It’s amazing to me as a development director who is used to thinking rationally and systematically,” said Mary Waldo of KUAR in Little Rock, Ark., “but when you mention on the air making a donation in honor of a pet, the phones ring.” And public radio listeners aren’t just pledging in the names of dogs and cats. How about a sloth, rabbit or horse? Or “all the trout in Wyoming”? At Wyoming Public Media, the fundraising team devotes “Pet Wednesday” of each pledge drive to themed appeals, and the pitches have consistently outperformed pledge breaks aired during the previous day’s Morning Edition, according to Erin O’Doherty, membership director. In planning each Pet Wednesday, she doubles the number of volunteers brought in to handle calls. During the spring drive at Texas Public Radio in San Antonio, pet pledges accounted for some 20 percent of all new memberships, according to Janet Grojean, director of corporate relations. Every animal whose owner pledged in his or her name received a membership card, she said. “Everybody laughs when a dog gets mail.” But at least one professional fundraiser cautions against local pledge drives totally going to the dogs. “The more talk about pets, the less time there is for talk about why public broadcasting is important,” said Becky Chinn, partner and creative director at Lewis Kennedy Associates in Portland, Ore. Although it’s fun to riff on the air about pets, she said, “it’s very easy to go overboard with it.” Lost pups and DJs Animal lovers are increasingly spending more money on their pets. According to the American Pet Products Association, American households spent $55.4 million on vet care, food, vitamins, treats, toys, boarding and grooming in 2013. That’s up from $34.4 million in 2004 and $17 million in 1994. The association estimates that the population of pets includes 95 million cats and 83 million dogs in homes nationwide. According to its 2013-14 annual survey, 68 percent of households own a pet, up from 56 percent in 1988, the year of its first survey. KBUT began offering pet memberships about 15 years ago, according to Eileen Hughes, g.m. “People are so fond of their pets,” she said. The $25 memberships now function as a community service for dog owners, especially for those owners who can’t keep Fido on a leash. Each KBUT pet receives a blue bone-shaped dog tag engraved with the station call letters, a unique ID number and the phone number to KBUT’s studio, said Grant McFarren, who handles membership, directs music content and manages KBUT’s website. KBUT disc jockeys routinely receive calls from listeners who find stray dogs with KBUT tags, McFarren said, and the station has a system for reuniting the pets with their owners. Deejays refer to a spreadsheet that lists phone numbers that correspond to each pet ID number. They call the owners, often saving them from being fined by the local marshal, he said. Chinn approves of KBUT’s approach. “What I love about this is, they have actually turned the pet membership into being about the radio station: the pets are wearing a brand for the station,” she said. And the station serves the community by helping lost pets, she noted. Pet memberships at KBUT never come up for renewal — they last a lifetime — and the station has 200 animal names in its database, according to Hughes. Human members, who do have to re-up, total 752. Texas Public Radio also offers branded membership premiums for canines and felines, each priced at $60. Colorful bandannas, pitched as “TPArf Scarfs,” are popular with pups, says Grojean, but “cats don’t like them.” Cat lovers can choose little water dishes with the station logo. And dogs who don’t do neckwear may prefer the branded flying-disc toy. And for social animals, TPR sponsors quarterly TPR Dog Park Days — meet and greets for listeners and their pets. In August, a “Petstravaganza” drew about 150 participants for a costume contest and talent show. At TPR, as with the other stations, “this has become very much an additional gift campaign by another name,” Grojean said. Many of the pledges come from current members; the average is about $60. ‘A real shot in the arm’ At Wyoming Public Media in Laramie, Pet Wednesday recurs during the second week of each twice-yearly drive. Announcers read pet names on-air and talk up thank-you gifts such as “I [heart] NPR” leashes and NPR Driveway Moments CD compilations Cat Tales and Dog Tales. “It’s a big hit,” O’Doherty said. The pledge event has consistently bolstered listener responses to WPM’s midweek fundraising appeals during the past three October drives, according to O’Doherty. She compared the total number of pledges and dollars raised during Pet Wednesdays to the previous day’s traditional appeals during Morning Edition and found double-digit increases in both for all three drives. Pet Wednesday in October 2011 was a high point: dollars raised climbed 40 percent, and the total number of pledges grew by 48.3 percent. For WPM’s most recent drive, concluded in October, the number of Pet Wednesday pledges increased 44 percent and raised $7,750, a 20 percent increase over the previous day’s tally. The fall drive set a new record for the Wyoming network, raising $340,000. “It’s a real shot in the arm midweek, when it typically drags,” O’Doherty said. “And we get so many fun stories.” Several members who had already pledged called back to make additional donations, including one listener who honored the badger living in his backyard, O’Doherty said. Another caller contributed “on behalf of the antelope that grazes behind the veterinary lab where she works. One guy visiting from out of state called to donate on behalf of all the trout in Wyoming.” Volunteers perk up, too KUAR’s Waldo had previously worked pets into her fundraising drives, but this February she worked with Karen Tricot Steward, content development director, to craft special pet pitches for Saturday fundraising. “It was kind of a slow time,” Waldo said. “We thought it would perk things up.” The station aired a This American Life segment in which host Ira Glass talks about his high-maintenance pit bull. Then Waldo read a short, sentimental poem from Bark magazine. “I was prepared to read dog-bone recipes, but that wasn’t even necessary,” she said. “The phone began to ring immediately.” Waldo recalls an immediate response: “The phone calls did increase, absolutely.” This created an unexpected complication for those on the phone bank. “Everybody calling in wanted to share their dog story, and volunteers have pets too, so they were having these nice, long conversations,” she said. “We finally had to say, ‘We need to hurry this along.’” This is a trap to avoid, especially for talent who are pitching on-air, Chinn said. “When when we look at our drives, particularly radio, a lot of people aren’t fundraisers,” she noted. “We have hosts, board members, volunteers, staffers. Not everyone is comfortable as a professional fundraiser. It may be easier for them to talk about pets” instead of more serious, mission-oriented requests for support. And not all pet-centric pledge events are immediately successful. Concord-based New Hampshire Public Radio tried its first pet challenge this fall and fell short of its challenge goal, said Beth Szelog, on-air fundraising and membership services manager. NHPR worked with Lupine Pet, a collar manufacturer in nearby Conway. “Their collars are really well-known, especially in this area,” Szelog said. “They’re very tough, and the design is nice. They’re guaranteed for life.” Lupine offered to donate $1,000 if the station received 75 calls between 8 and 10 a.m. Oct. 21 during Morning Edition. To spur donations, NHPR offered a special premium for callers who signed on as sustaining members, offering a voucher for a $15 discount on Lupine products. “We heard from 29 people and raised $2,500,” Szelog said. “Only one person took the certificate.” Fortunately, NHPR went on to hit its overall drive goal with $355,000. Szelog remains puzzled by listeners’ disappointing response to the challenge, but she speculates it could have had something to do baseball. On Oct. 19, the night before the Lupine challenge, the Boston Red Sox clinched the American League title. “People may have been celebrating all weekend.” And she’s not giving up on pet pitching. “I told Lupine Pet that I would contact them in the future to see if they would be interested in offering the challenge again,” she said. “Probably during our next big fund drive in the spring.” Questions, comments, tips? seftond@current.org
Tyson's new show premieres Monday at 11. (Scott Gries/National Geographic) There is no doubt that astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is a superstar. But the premise of his latest TV show is impressive, even given his wide-reaching fame: On April 20, he's bringing his popular radio show and podcast "StarTalk" to late-night television, giving the country its first-ever talk show devoted to science. Every week, he'll bring in stars instead of star-scholars, using their expertise in various realms of pop culture to give viewers an easy entryway into the love of science. Here's a clip from episode one: Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses the finer points of the warp drive from "Star Trek" with astrophysicist Charles Liu and comedian Leighann Lord. (NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL) Unlike most science-based programming, the viewers won't be presented with an expert who tells them what's what. They'll see a beloved actor (the first episode features George Takei of Star Trek fame) or musicians talking about what aspects of science are important in their lives. In Tyson's reboot of "Cosmos," a show originally helmed by the late, great astrophysicist Carl Sagan, the host presents scientific fact as inherently interesting. In "StarTalk," he sneaks them in by getting popular figures to geek out with him. Neil deGrasse Tyson interviews actor George Takei on what it was like to play Mr. Sulu on "Star Trek." (NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL) It's a well-designed scheme for tricking the public into getting interested in science, and it's worked wonders on the radio show. In March, "StarTalk" was the most downloaded podcast of any genre. The episode responsible featured Elon Musk, head of SpaceX and Tesla, expressing his half-hearted fear that artificial intelligence would come back to bite us. A futuristic technologist admitting that super-intelligent robots might be a bad idea? The Internet went crazy. [Star talker: Neil deGrasse Tyson on fame, education and tweets] But Tyson, who started "StarTalk" with a grant from the National Science Foundation, didn't know that his show would eventually jump species. To hear Tyson describe it, he never wanted to be on TV in the first place, and certainly wasn't looking to add a second show to his schedule. "I have a day job," Tyson told The Post. These days, one would have to be forgiven for forgetting that fact: Tyson is director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City, but to the untrained eye he looks more like a professional Twitter personality. His friend and colleague Bill Nye (The Science Guy) describes him as a "tweeting maniac." Not that that's a bad thing. "I never had TV ambitions, really, despite what it may have looked like," he said. "The radio show was different, I could do that in my pajamas. As an academic, this grooming thing. ... I'm not really about that." [Neil deGrasse Tyson to receive the National Academy of Sciences’ most prestigious honor] But "Cosmos," which was produced by Fox and then distributed worldwide by National Geographic, was so successful that Nat Geo came back looking for more. So why not just film his radio show, Tyson asked? It works for Howard Stern. But the channel wanted something with a little more glitz, and Tyson made his final pitch: Film it as a talk show with a live audience in the beautiful Rose Center. Neil deGrasse Tyson and Eugene Mirman, center left, Alondra Nelson and Clive Thompson on the set of "StarTalk," premiering in April on National Geographic Channel. (Scott Gries/National Geographic Channels) "There's no monologue and no band," he said. "But it's a talk show on at 11 p.m. — the heart of the evening talk show universe — and as far as we've been able to research, it's the first talk show focused on science." In episode one, George Takei — known for playing Sulu on the original "Star Trek" and much beloved by the Internet for his passionate activism and sense of humor — discusses the show's bright vision for the future with Tyson. It's not quite like anything else on television: It maintains the intimate feel of the original radio show, and it really does feel like you're just watching a fun, casual conversation about science. Future guests include former president Jimmy Carter, who will discuss how his background as an engineer informed policy decisions, and director Christopher Nolan, who'll talk about the science of his films. It's a great hour of TV, and frequently funny (Tyson always features a comedian as his co-host to lighten up the mood), but can a casual science chat really attract late-night viewers in this post-cable world? After all, science TV for adults was basically nonexistent between Carl Sagan's original "Cosmos" and Tyson's reboot. And "Cosmos" was a different proposition: It's a show for the whole family, and it airs on Sunday evenings when people are bound to be home and channel surfing. The new show is generally safe for younger audiences, but it goes straight for grown-up tastes — and is a bit later than standard channel surfing hours. People will have to seek it out. If National Geographic is concerned about that, the network isn't showing it. They've already ordered a second season of 10 episodes, and representatives from the network expressed hope that Tyson's massive fan base will flock to the program. Tyson seems confident that they will. Neil deGrasse Tyson in his office at the Hayden Planetarium in New York on Feb. 4. (Jesse Dittmar for The Washington Post) "We had a fascinating phoner with Nat Geo staff where we described things we’ve done over the years," Tyson said. "So one of these points came up, and Nat Geo said, oh, that wouldn't work for our viewing demographic. I said, excuse me, excuse me, we are bringing our demographic to you! That shut them up on the spot." The show will serve people who already love National Geographic programming for sure, Tyson said, but the interwoven tapestry of science, humor, and pop culture icons will bring in new viewers, too. "If you tune into National Geographic you like learning, and you're there because it’s a fun place to learn," Tyson said. "But suppose you don’t know you like learning, or think you hate it. 'StarTalk' serves you in a big way." And the hunger for science programming never went away, Tyson exists. Only the programming disappeared. Bill Nye, Tyson's close friend and a fellow regular on the show whose pre-recorded comedic bits may just prove to be the highlight of the series, agrees. Bill Nye presents a humorous monologue on the "optimistic" future envisioned on "Star Trek." (NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL) "It’s the same hunger that was extant when Sagan did the original 'Cosmos,' " Nye said. "People are interested in our place in space." Nye also admitted (after a gentle prodding) that his own show — which catered to children from 1993 to 1998 — may be bearing fruit in the form of science-hungry adults, opening the door for new shows. "Sure, sure, it's all me," he joked. "But it's true that 'The Science Guy' is still huge — bigger than ever, I guess — because these millennials are all grown up, and we have a whole new generation of kids watching the show in school. This of course was my goal, to change the world and so on, but to see it actually happen is a bit spooky," he said. Nye and Tyson may share a throne as the reigning kings of popular science, but this is where they differ: Nye makes no secret of his mission to use science literacy to change the status quo, and he envisions a world where Americans can band together over issues like climate change the way they once banded together for war efforts. Tyson doesn't feel like he's on a mission. He's just giving people what they want before they know they want it. "My Twitter stream is rising past 3.5 million followers," Tyson said. "That number has to be bigger than the total number of pure geeks out there. It's attracting people with an inner, unmanifested kind of geekiness." Once these people have access to science they can appreciate, he thinks good things will follow. "People have always had an appetite for science," he said. "But the way it's been taught — where facts are poured into students heads and it's called science — where's the joy of discovery there? The science has been eviscerated of the curiosity, the stimulation of your curiosity that we take for granted as children." "A scientist is someone who simply never grew up," Tyson said. "They've maintained their childlike wonder of the unknown. And we all have that within us." "StarTalk" premiers April 20 on National Geographic at 11 p.m. Eastern. More Reading: Bill Nye and The Planetary Society to launch a satellite that will ‘sail on sunbeams’ Star talker: Neil deGrasse Tyson on fame, education and tweets Elon Musk, Neil deGrasse Tyson laugh about artificial intelligence turning the human race into its pet labrador Force-feeding a human to a snake is not science (and is also super dumb)
Ever been curious about C++ and graphics programming, but not sure where to start? Maybe you are an artist who'd like to build your own tools. Maybe you're a game developer wishing your games would run faster, or have even better graphics effects. Regardless, knowledge of the way graphics work at a low level is an empowering skill. We'll be covering real-time graphics with C++/OpenGL as well as raytracing. It'll be aimed at beginners, but everyone is welcome. This'll be an intimate workshop, meant for around 20 people. We'll give a talk and then walk you through some hands-on examples. Be sure to bring a laptop if you can! Location: Startup Hall, 1100 NE Campus Pkwy #200, Seattle, WA 98105 Come up to the second floor-- follow the signs that say "Startup Hall" to find it. We'll be easy to spot-- in the big conference room right by the lobby. Mentors: Nathan: Nathan is a graphics programmer, previously making graphics drivers at NVIDIA and cutting-edge graphics engine technology at Sucker Punch. He's currently running a company in Seattle focused around graphics/C++ consulting. http://www.reedbeta.com/blog/ Stephanie: Stephanie is also a graphics programmer, previously making graphics engine technology at Oculus and Unity. She's currently running a company in Seattle focused on graphics/VR/C++/compression, and building a compression product. http://www.binomial.info Sophia: Sophia is an artist and a low-level graphics programmer. Her background's mostly in art and design, and now she uses her love of C++ and graphics programming to build tools for artists so they can better express their creativity. http://sophia-baldonado.tumblr.com/ Jorge: Jorge is an accomplished game developer and engine programmer. He has a background in game design, mathematics, graphics, engines, and even programming language design! http://www.vinoisnotouzo.com/ Jacob: Jacob's a game developer and graphics programmer. He's the cofounder of Seattle-based game studio System Era, previously worked on graphics technology on the Halo games. His graphics specialty is in raytracing. http://systemera.net/ Cody: Cody is a 3D artist and low level graphics and operating system programmer. He's previously contributed to several art tools including Blender3D, and is passionate about using low-level coding knowledge to make great tools for artists. https://twitter.com/codybrr (image from http://www.ivanpoupyrev.com/projects/bi/hi-res/BI-siggraph-3.jpg )
Ford Transits have been built, used and generally abused in the UK since 1965. So it might seem a bit odd to think of it being driven in any other country. But the truth is that, thanks to the One Ford mission, it’s now on sale on six continents and in 118 countries. The latest of those is the US, where it is replacing the trusty but ancient E Series van for the 2015 model year. To celebrate this fact, Ford handed over one of it’s max-cube, high-roof versions of the new Transit to Galpin Auto Sports – the tuning division of Galpin Motors in Los Angeles, the biggest Ford dealership…in the world. Galpin and GAS, which rose to fame as the Pimp My Ride garage, have a bit of history customizing vans. In the ‘60s and ‘70s the dealership was well known for its van conversions – think A Team and Scooby Doo era vans – so it was only natural to let them have the first go at the new Transit. The result of which is the Transit Skyliner you see here. If you were expecting a van with just a shagadelic interior and blacked out windows, think again. The Skyliner is what every luxury limo wants to be when it grows up. The Star Wars style interior features a hardwood floor, full bar, four reclining and swiveling seats, a 52-inch drop down movie screen, LED mood lighting, Crestron remote control of everything and a sound system that is quite possibly the loudest thing on earth. It’s powered by the standard 3.5-litre V6 EcoBoost, which is going to have it’s work cut out hauling all that lot as well as passengers. But who cares how fast it goes? When you’re sitting this comfortably, you actually want to take a little longer to get wherever you are going. Ford isn’t saying how much the Skyliner would cost to put in your oversized garage. But there is a ready market for custom vans costing anywhere from $500k to a cool million dollars. So it doesn’t just look like a private plane – it could cost about the same, too.
Collective worship has its history in a murky compromise between politicians and the church dating back to the Second World War – and it is long since time the arcane requirement was removed, writes Ed Moore. There is a growing consensus among educators, parents and academics that Collective Worship in schools should be abolished. The debate was opened up again recently with the Wolf Institute's "Report of the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life" which clearly came out against, calling for the legal requirement for schools to hold acts of collective worship to be repealed. But how many people know why we ever came to have this law in the first place? The first law introducing mandatory collective worship was the famous 1944 Education Act, introduced by President of the Board of Education Rab Butler and receiving Royal Assent on 3 August 1944. This Act, passed while the Second World War was still being fought, was the largest piece of 'home' legislation brought forward by the Coalition Government. The Act specifies that "the school day in every county school and in every voluntary school shall begin with collective worship on the part of all pupils in attendance at the school". "The arrangements made therefor shall provide for a single act of worship attended by all such pupils," it adds. School Worship was now mandatory, but this provision wasn't the most important part of the Act. Religious Education covered only 6 of the 120 clauses; the rest contained the real meat, a complete overhaul of the education system. Among the radical measures introduced were free education for all, an increase in the school leaving age to fifteen (and later sixteen), the tripartite system of grammar, secondary modern and technical schools, and the 11-plus exam which directed children from primary to secondary education. As David Bell, the Chief Inspector of schools said in 2004, "As history has since shown, the act profoundly influenced the education system for decades to come." While it could be considered strange that such a landmark piece of legislation should appear in wartime in fact it may be the case that it could only have appeared in such circumstances. The wartime Coalition Government meant party politics had been put aside. The mixing of the classes had broken down the rigid social order and mass evacuations of children to the countryside had revealed the shocking deprivation in the cities. These circumstances did not produce only the desire to change education, they produced the resolve to overcome the entrenched interests holding back progress; the churches. No bill is ever brought to parliament without years of preparation and the 1944 Education Act was no exception. The work started in November 1940 in Bournemouth to where the civil servants of the Board of Education had been evacuated. Pressure had been growing to resolve the problems of education in the country and this was an opportunity to work through the issues away from the pressures of London. In their deliberations the pattern of future secondary education was quickly established – raising of the leaving age to 16, free schooling, moving to secondary education at 11 but an intractable problem to overcome remained: How to deal with the church schools? At the outbreak of war the school system was made up of 10,363 council schools with 3,151,000 pupils and 10,533 'voluntary' church schools educating 1,374,000 pupils. This Dual System of schooling gave rise to endless complications in administration that had to be managed within the broad scheme of reform. Local Education Authorities had to pay for the 'fair wear and tear' of voluntary schools yet the managers of these schools had to pay for alterations and improvements which they were frequently unable to afford. Most voluntary schools were in old buildings, few had adequate support from church collections and even fewer could afford modern standards of ventilation and hygiene. An earlier education review had required children of eleven and over to be in dedicated Senior Schools or departments yet while 62% of Council School pupils had been reorganised only 16% had in voluntary schools. What was to be done to enable reconstruction? Perhaps the churches themselves had constructive suggestions? On the 12 February 1941 a statement on improving education did indeed come, jointly, from the Archbishops of Canterbury, York and Wales. The 'Five Points' letter to The Times recommended … more religion. "There is an ever-deepening conviction that in this present struggle we are fighting to preserve those elements in human civilization and in our own national tradition which owe their origin to Christian faith. Yet we find on every side profound ignorance of the Christian faith itself," the Archbishops argued at the time. "We urge that in all schools the timetable should be so arranged as to provide for an act of worship on the part of the whole school at the beginning of the school day". No mention was made of the difficulties in paying for school improvements, or how to reorganise the dual system. What did the committee of the Board of Education make of this? When their recommendations, in "Education After the War", were finally published on 13 May 1941, in what became known as the Green Book, it said among the 141 clauses: "At the present time in provided schools, while it is the almost universal practice to have undenominational religious observance and instruction, such instruction is required neither by statute nor by regulation." The Green Book argued that, "There is a growing volume of opinion that the time has come when the place of religion as an essential element in education should be specifically recognised. It is accordingly suggested that there should be religious observance and instruction enjoined by statute in all provided Primary and Secondary Schools." This document thus became the first official government record proposing legislation on collective worship in schools. Why was it there? For the answer we go back to file ED 138/22 in the National Archives. The file contains several papers explaining how the Green Book was decided on and in the paper "The Green Book and the Problem of the Dual System and Religious Instruction in Schools" we find: "Thus, the Green Book proposed to meet as far as possible, the extended claim of the Churches in the matter of religious instruction in schools as expressed in the Archbishop's letter of February 12, 1941, and in return for this and extended financial assistance to non-provided schools to secure extended public control over non-provided schools." Collective Worship would become a legal requirement in all supported schools. In exchange the Government would gain the control needed over church schools to carry out the desperately needed reforms. Was this the final settlement? Of course not. The appointment of Rab Butler as the President of the Board of Education on 29 July 1941 started the process of negotiation and it continued through the White Paper "Educational Reconstruction" published on 16 July 1943 right up until the law was passed. Against the Government were the Church of England, the Nonconformists and the Roman Catholics, sometimes combined and sometimes fighting their own corners. Yet in the end a compromise was reached and the law passed. How did the politicians behind the bill view the church leaders during this process? The last word goes to Winston Churchill, as recorded by James Chuter Ede, the Board of Education Parliamentary Secretary, in his diary on Tuesday 13 July 1943: "The P.M. said that if there was trouble over the religious settlement he would be in favour of telling the House exactly what the malcontents were getting out of the scheme, and then leave the decision to the free vote of the House on the understanding that if the scheme were defeated this, the most generous example of religious toleration in the history of the world, would be destroyed & the great measure of educational advance with it!" So should we call Collective Worship a bribe? We have a legal requirement today only because the churches exchanged total control over education in their own schools for more religious influence in all schools. Time for it to go.
Presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders struck a chord with the crowd at the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines in Waukee on Sunday.Watch videoTo a packed auditorium Sanders addressed issues like the economy, income and wealth inequality, climate change and what he called Republican values.“Their family values mean that women in America should not have the right to control their bodies. I strongly disagree with that. Their views on family values our gay brothers and sisters should not have the right to get married. I strongly disagree with that,” he said.Moderator and KCCI political analyst Denis Goldford said Sanders did well Sunday.“Whatever his fortunes might be in Iowa, I think he's got a good reason to feel pretty good after this event,” Goldford said.Audience members who spoke with KCCI said that while they believe in Sander’s agenda, they worry about how realistic his ideas are.“I think he's a man of integrity, I think he believes what he is saying. I realistically don't know what he wants to do is doable,” said Wendi Harris.“I am impressed by his energy and his dedication to working for low-income people, the working class. I wish there was a way he could implement his ideas,” said Ron Jackson.Sanders also made campaign stops at the Des Moines Youth Summit at Creative Visions in Des Moines and the Webster County Democratic pork chop dinner in Fort Dodge. Presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders struck a chord with the crowd at the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines in Waukee on Sunday. Watch video Advertisement To a packed auditorium Sanders addressed issues like the economy, income and wealth inequality, climate change and what he called Republican values. “Their family values mean that women in America should not have the right to control their bodies. I strongly disagree with that. Their views on family values our gay brothers and sisters should not have the right to get married. I strongly disagree with that,” he said. Moderator and KCCI political analyst Denis Goldford said Sanders did well Sunday. “Whatever his fortunes might be in Iowa, I think he's got a good reason to feel pretty good after this event,” Goldford said. Audience members who spoke with KCCI said that while they believe in Sander’s agenda, they worry about how realistic his ideas are. “I think he's a man of integrity, I think he believes what he is saying. I realistically don't know what he wants to do is doable,” said Wendi Harris. “I am impressed by his energy and his dedication to working for low-income people, the working class. I wish there was a way he could implement his ideas,” said Ron Jackson. Sanders also made campaign stops at the Des Moines Youth Summit at Creative Visions in Des Moines and the Webster County Democratic pork chop dinner in Fort Dodge. AlertMe
Get the biggest Newcastle United FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Georginio Wijnaldum admits he wants to play “with a beautiful club” in the Premier League but insists he has not “thought” about whether he will leave Newcastle United yet. The Dutchman is attracting interest from a host of top flight suitors - Everton, Southampton and West Ham United have all been touted as potential destinations - following the Magpies’ relegation. United boss Rafa Benitez is determined to keep hold of as many of his internationals as possible, but Wijnaldum has so far failed to commit his future to Newcastle. Capped 29 times by the Netherlands, the attacking-midfielder may fear his place in Danny Blind’s international squad will come under threat if he plays in the Championship - though he has been included in the latest Dutch squad, and scored against Poland earlier this week. Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now Speaking to Dutch publication De Telegraaf, Wijnaldum said of his future: “The coach decides whether he takes me also to Oranje if I play a league lower - but to be honest, I haven’t thought about it. “Of course I want to play at as high level as possible, in the Premier League, with a beautiful club – but not everything always goes the way you want. “I will see what happens.” The 25-year-old was Newcastle’s top scorer last season with 11 goals - all of which came at St James’ Park. However, Wijnaldum suffered a 16-game barren spell without a goal between January and May. Despite that, he still believes he was “one of the best midfielders in the Premier League” in 2015-16. “The strange thing is that I have very nice statistics for a midfielder despite the relegation,” Wijnaldum added. “I was one of the best midfielders in the Premier League – only the numbers were worthless. “That is a shame.”
1.1.1.7 The Apollo 11 Apollo 11 Flight Summary July 16-24, 1969 Spacecraft: Saturn V (AS-506, SM-107, CM-107, LM-5) Command Module: CM-107, callsign Columbia, mass 30,320 kg Service Module: SM-107 Lunar Module: LM-5, callsign Eagle, mass 16,448 kg Booster: Saturn V SA-506 Launch pad: LC 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA Launch date: July 16, 1969 (1969-07-16), 13:32:00 UTC Lunar landing: July 20, 1969 20:17:40 UTC Sea of Tranquility 0°40′26.69″N 23°28′22.69″E / 0.6740806°N 23.4729694°E / 0.6740806; 23.4729694 (based on the IAU Mean Earth Polar Axis coordinate system) Lunar EVA duration: 2 h 36 m 40 s Lunar surface time: 21 h 31 m 20 s Lunar sample mass: 21.55 kg (47.5 lb) Number of lunar orbits: 30 Total CSM time in lunar orbit: 59 h 30 m 25.79 s Landing: July 24, 1969, 16:50:35 UTC 13°19′N 169°9′W / 13.317°N 169.15°W / 13.317; -169.15 (Apollo 11 splashdown) Mission duration: 8d 03h 18m 35s Crew: Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. MISSION The purpose of the Apollo 11 mission was to land men on the lunar surface and to return them safely to Earth. The crew was Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, Command Module pilot; and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., Lunar Module pilot. After launch, the spacecraft was inserted into lunar orbit about 76 hours into the mission. After a rest period, Armstrong and Aldrin entered the Lunar Module preparing for descent to the lunar surface. The two spacecraft were undocked at about 100 hours, when the Command and Service Modules separated from the Lunar Module. The spacecraft landed in the Sea of Tranquillity at 4:18 p.m. EDT. Afterwards, they ate their first meal on the Moon and decided to begin the surface operations earlier than planned. A Lunar Module camera provided live television coverage of Armstrong setting foot on the lunar surface at 10:56 p.m. EDT. Just as he stepped off the Lunar Module Neil Armstrong proclaimed, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Aldrin emerged soon after, setting foot on the lunar surface at 11:16 p.m. EDT. Aldrin evaluated his ability to operate and move about and was able to move about rapidly and with confidence. Forty-seven pounds of lunar surface material were collected to be returned for analysis. The surface exploration was concluded in 2½ hours, when the crew re-entered the lunar module. After lunar ascent, the Lunar Module docked with the Command and Service Modules at 128 hours. The crew transferred into the Command and Service Modules, the ascent stage was jettisoned and they prepared for trans-Earth injection. Only one midcourse correction was required, and passive thermal control was used for most of trans-Earth coast. Bad weather made it necessary to move the splashdown point 346 kilometers (215 miles) downrange. Atmospheric entry phase was normal, and the command module landed in the Pacific Ocean at 195¼ hours. The landing coordinates, as determined from the onboard computer, were 13 degrees 30 minutes north latitude and -169 degrees 15 minutes east longitude. With the success of Apollo 11, the national objective to land men on the Moon and return them safely to Earth had been accomplished. Source: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo11/index.ht... Briefing Half of Apollo’s primary goal—a safe return—was achieved at 4:17 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on July 20, when Armstrong piloted "Eagle" to a touchdown on the Moon, with less than 30 seconds worth of fuel left in the Lunar Module. Six hours later, Armstrong took his famous "one giant leap for mankind." Aldrin joined him, and the two spent two-and-a-half hours drilling core samples, photographing what they saw, and collecting rocks. After more than 21 hours on the lunar surface, they returned to Collins on board "Columbia," bringing 20.87 kilograms of lunar samples with them. The two Moon-walkers had left behind scientific instruments, an American flag, and other mementos, including a plaque bearing the inscription: "Here Men From Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon The Moon. July 1969 A.D. We Came In Peace For All Mankind."
Swedish Bakery in Andersonville will close at the end of February after 88 years in business, according to Dennis Stanton, operations officer, whose parents bought the store in 1979. Why the closure? “A multitude of reasons,” said Stanton. “We’re all getting older here.” “My mother, who’s still involved, is 86,” he added. “It’s increasingly more difficult to compete and our current customer base dying off. “Plus it’s hard to attract millennials who are looking for a food experience. We’re pretty humdrum. We’re just a bakery.” The most popular items now are the classic green marzipan princess torte, chocolate ganache cake and whipped cream cake with fruit, said Stanton, who added cakes make up 50 percent of the bakery's sales. But when the bakery first opened in 1929, it was probably sweet rolls and bread, he said, specifically the Swedish rye known as limpa, which it still bakes. The last day, Tuesday, Feb. 28, will be Mardi Gras, aka Paczki Day. Stanton said the bakery's most popular paczki flavor is custard-filled, with chocolate fudge on top. But customers have been calling to stock up on the house special Andersonville coffeecake made from cardamom dough, with almond and cinnamon sugar filling, plus chopped almonds and crystal sugar on top. Stanton said the bakery will consider selling its recipes. “But the food scene in Chicago is competitive,” he added, “People are not interested in history. They’re interested in making their own history, and that’s understandable.” Swedish Bakery, 5348 N. Clark St., 773-561-8919, www.swedishbakery.com lchu@chicagotribune.com Twitter @louisachu
In India, labour is cheap. A middle-class family like mine can afford domestic workers. Laxmi (name changed) has been coming home for over three years now, every day. She scrubs the floor, does the dishes and the laundry. She sometimes cleans the bathrooms, and tends the plants. Laxmi is old and poor. She sits on the floor with some porridge my mother prepares for her every day, and tells her in broken Tamil, stories of how her drunk husband abuses her – the details of said abuse hidden in her descriptions but not in her scars. Of how her son is a “leech” and never contributes toward the family income or chores. Of how distraught she is because her oldest daughter married for love. What’s scary is that we’ve had domestic workers before and Laxmi’s story is frighteningly similar to theirs. If they wrote books about their lives, the imagery would superimpose so well that you couldn’t tell them apart. And there are millions of such stories. In India, the disparity between the rich and the poor is so horribly wide, the hopes of reconciliation are narrowing down rapidly. It is reasonably easy to talk to an urban woman about the merits of marrying for love. You can expect her to understand and at least eventually let her daughter back into her life. You can reassure her that she wouldn’t be a bad person if she divorced her abusive husband, and if by any stroke of luck she would agree to do so, you could extend all the help that you were capable of giving. Sadly, it isn’t easy even for women in metropolitan cities like Bombay (now Mumbai) to break free. Societies where on the surface, women seem to enjoy many privileges that were historically denied to them, are still entrenched in deeply misogynistic beliefs. One only needs to scratch the surface to see this. Needless to say, societies and communities where blatant patriarchy is present are all the more problematic. Laxmi and others like her belong to these communities. Where beating your wife is not a big deal. Where marrying for love can altogether erase your chances of being accepted by your own family, let alone your neighbours. And if you marry outside your caste, you can be killed and dumped near a railway track, like a discarded wrapper thrown out of a moving train. Throughout India, organizations like Love Commandos and Gulabi Gang have been setup to help combat prejudices and secure help for victims of spousal abuse and communal violence. However, even the combined reach of these activists is not enough to remedy our problems. As an English-speaking, educated woman with two degrees and a life free of hassles such as these, I can never understand what it feels like to be in Laxmi’s shoes. She’s a frail old woman raised on harmful beliefs exemplified as noble traits. I have a cousin who has had a much better life, and earns enough to support herself. You would never guess that she is a silent victim of spousal abuse. And she can’t leave because of the roles society expects her to perform. I’ll leave it to your imagination to wonder how difficult it must then be, for Laxmi to walk out of anything. Education may help resolve certain issues but it isn’t enough. Most people would agree that domestic violence is abhorrent. The chilling realization that accompanies this fact is that even those who vocally oppose such violence may be victims and sometimes even the perpetrators themselves. There’s a tacit rule within the society that it’s all well and good to condemn harmful practices but the decision of actually walking out on your husband, abuse or not, will be met with a cold indifference. I will concede that this is an observation not supported by hard evidence. There is not enough research on horrific crimes such as marital rape which is not even recognized by the law, so implicit prejudices are a long way away from assessment and study. However, even a cursory look at this census which reveals that prosperity and literacy don’t do much towards maintaining healthy child sex ratios is enough to cause bewilderment. Why these effects are being observed is still a matter of speculations such as one I’ve made here. My privilege comes with helplessness because of this very reason. Overly broad categories of widely accepted “solutions” such as “education” apparently don’t help as much as we hope they can. Grassroots methods such as awareness camps and activities are not always feasible and can’t reach many thousands, despite the collective efforts of several good people – which leads us to the matter of choice. The choice of passive cynicism over active interest and sensitivity. Should I try and “educate” Laxmi? Will it even work? Can I wipe out 50 years of social conditioning by bandying feminist principles with a woman I can’t even communicate with properly? I should tell you about Swamy (name changed). He’s a driver and he helps run errands around the house. He has had a similar upbringing as that of Laxmi’s but he’s more of a feminist than most people I know. He wasn’t always that way, though. After talking with my brother and me with the eager intentions of learning English among other things, Swamy began to see that women were being treated unfairly in his neighbourhood. He married a distant cousin after she pleaded him to, by facing the risk of being attacked by her family because he couldn’t stand to see her sexually harassed at the hands of her sister’s husband. Swamy once stopped the car while he was driving me back home from work to “rescue” a young couple being tormented by a policeman, because they were out drinking together in the night. So, despite the unrelenting nature of some people, there are others who are not opposed to change. It is important for Indian Feminism to acknowledge the enormity of this change, even when it happens to one individual. Swamy is one man who effectively changed the society by painfully extricating himself his former systems of belief that were rooted in misogyny. For someone to be cognizant of the fact that a vast spread of their fundamental principles is unhealthy can be quite agonising. I still remember Swamy repeating “What have I been doing, ma’am?” in pure angst. The shock of being aware of how you have been upholding harmful traditions is indeed hard-hitting. But change he did. It was a metamorphosis he never thought he’d undergo. Yet, Swamy now fights against the system whenever he can. That alone is worth the effort. That’s what makes my choice clear as day. Active interest will not change everything overnight, but passive cynicism will never change anything. And so I kept talking to Laxmi – as did my mother – and she met her oldest daughter’s son last week. When she came to work the next day, she carefully pulled out some pictures from her cloth bag that showed her grandson smiling at her toothlessly, and her smiling back. It took three years for Laxmi to perform the admirable task of acting against her socially conditioned bias, but reason prevailed.
A Texas district judge was arrested and charged with family violence assault overnight Friday, NBC 5 has learned. In a statement, his attorney said the allegations made by the victim are false. (Published Saturday, Dec. 28, 2013) A Texas district judge was arrested and charged with family violence assault overnight Friday, NBC 5 has learned. In a statement, his attorney said the allegations made by the victim are false. Early Saturday morning NBC 5 received the mugshot for Judge Carlos Cortez, who was booked into a Dallas jail at about 4:30 a.m. According to a Dallas police report, Cortez and his girlfriend of 13 months got into an argument over the location of a child's medication while at an apartment on McKinney Avenue. While talking with police, the woman told officers that they had been drinking alcohol for several hours. The woman then told police that Cortez grabbed her by her throat several times, dragged her by her hair to a balcony and leaned her over the edge while verbally threatening to kill her. State Judge Charged With Family Violence Assault in Dallas A Texas district judge was arrested and charged with family violence assault overnight Friday, NBC 5 has learned. Early Saturday morning NBC 5 received the mugshot for Judge Carlos Cortez, who was booked into a Dallas jail at about 4:30 a.m. (Published Saturday, Dec. 28, 2013) The woman, identified in the report, displayed several marks on her neck to officers before being examined and treated. According to the report, a juvenile witnessed the entire incident. Earlier this month, a DallasNews.com report said Cortez has spent more than three years and $135,000 in legal fees fighting to keep certain aspects of his private life from the public. Cortez, who was arrested and charged in the family violence case, bonded out shortly before 9:00 a.m. Saturday. On Saturday evening, Andy "Gator" Korn, the attorney for Judge Cortez issued this statement: Judge Cortez has not been indicted or charged with any offense. Judge Cortez will speak specifically to the arrest in any official proceeding that may result. The allegations made by the complainant are false. If necessary, it will be shown in the proper forum that Judge Cortez actually saved her life. Judge Cortez will continue to serve the State of Texas and Dallas County like he has for the last seven years - as an award winning jurist who handles his court with courtesy and dignity to all who seek Justice. NBC 5's Eric King and Ray Villeda contributed to this report. An initial version of this story reported that Cortez had been in elected office since 1996 instead of 2006, we regret the error.
IN SPACE - MAY 8: This NASA photo released May 8, 2003 was made from 250 separate exposures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope from Dec. 2, 2002 to Jan. 11, 2003 and shows the nearest neighboring spiral galaxy, Andromeda. According to NASA, this is the deepest visible-light image ever taken of the sky and shows approximately 300,000 stars in the halo of the Andromeda galaxy. (Photo Credit: NASA/Getty Images) PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — His dream has always been to visit space, and that dream is closer than he might think. Jeremy Gowins, 25, is one of 20 finalists in the Seattle Space Needle’s Space Race. A total of 50,000 people entered, and Gowins said 1,000 entrants were randomly selected. That’s where his luck kicked in. “One of my friends told me that the Seattle Space Needle was holding a contest for their 50th anniversary to send one lucky person into space. So, I filled out the entry form and hoped for the best,” said Gowins. Out of the 1,000 selected, Gowins’ entrance video was chosen by judges in the final 20. The top prize is a suborbital space flight, provided by Space Adventures, that would launch Gowins (if he wins) 62 miles above earth. “I’ll definitely be able to see the atmospheric haze and I’ll be able to see the blackness of space and I’ll be able to see the planet,” Gowins said when KDKA’s Heather Abraham interviewed him at the Carnegie Science Center. Exactly how does he win? Well first, he needs to get enough votes to get him in the Top 5. People can vote once a day, every day until March 18. Visit his entrance video and vote at this link! Once Gowins makes top five, he says he’ll be flown out to Seattle to battle it out for the space flight. He’s not quite sure what the challenge will be, but says he’s prepared for anything. He also plans to bring something special if he wins. “If I do win, I thought it would be cool to take a Terrible Towel up into space,” said Gowins. RELATED LINKS: More Featured Stories More Stories by Heather Abraham
Disclaimer: I clearly mark which sections contain spoilers but, just for peace of mind, Chapter 3 contains massive spoilers for season 1 of House of Cards. Chapter 4 includes some vague character spoilers but nothing too severe. The rest is spoiler-free. Enjoy. Introduction It seems like every other piece I write for this blog includes something about the plunge Netflix has taken into original programming. It’s something that really fascinates me. I believe we are standing at the precipice of a revolution in the television industry and Netflix is preparing to give us a much needed nudge. The reason I started this blog was to voice my excitement for Netflix as an original content provider. I made bold statements that were fueled by an intense interest and high hopes. But I had no idea if Netflix’s content was going to be up to snuff. I had my ideas but, ultimately, they were worthless without premium content deserving of my $7.99 every month. I finally burned through Netflix’s highly acclaimed and extremely hyped flagship series House of Cards over the course of a handful of days. This happened a couple weeks ago. Now that I’ve finally found the time to stop obsessing over what I watched, I can share it with you. Chapter 1 – Fincher and the Freedom of Netflix House of Cards is about Congressman Francis Underwood. He’s the House Majority Whip and, after being passed up for the position of Secretary of State by the new President he helped get elected, he embarks on a personal vendetta, using power and influence to get what he feels he deserves. On the surface, this is a very interesting premise. But as you dig deeper into the web of deceit at the hands of Frank, you realize what the show is truly about. It’s an amoral antihero character study filled to the brim with enough political intrigue and shady dealings to leave you clamoring for more. David Fincher directed the first two episodes of the series and is also an executive producer. If you’re a fan of his movies, you know his distinct style. That style is in full force in House of Cards. The directors of the remaining episodes follow his lead and the end result is a filmic style that is truly a perfect match for the pristine writing. The production style of the show is fascinating in and of itself. Fincher took five directors, gave them two episodes each and twenty days to shoot them in. From there, the directors had nearly total control of their work. The director of an episode even had control of casting for any characters that make a first appearance in their episode. This groundbreaking form of collaboration has never been seen before in television and is simply impossible in many cases. If you want to read a more in depth analysis of the show’s filmmaking style, I highly recommend this article on the DGA website. It’s eye-opening and includes this fantastic quote: “The world of 7:30 on Tuesday nights, that’s dead. A stake has been driven through its heart, its head has been cut off, and its mouth has been stuffed with garlic. The captive audience is gone. If you give people this opportunity to mainline all in one day, there’s reason to believe they will do it.” – David Fincher Netflix famously released the entire first season on February 1st. It broke the viewers free of the cage of scheduled programming and, I must say, I love it. The How I Met Your Mother Facebook disaster earlier this week is a good indicator that the days of being shackled by scheduled programming are dead. And Netflix is piling the last bits of dirt on the grave. I’ve talked about this before but, as a brief review, Nielsen is the bane of the television fan’s existence. If you love a show and want it to survive but you and your friends don’t have a Nielsen box, you don’t matter. Luckily, Netflix doesn’t operate with Nielsen ratings. They utilize viewing data to analyze precisely what is keeping the viewers streaming and what’s stopping them in their tracks. With this, Netflix could completely rebrand network notes as a thing of actual value as opposed to one jackass opinion. Television is rapidly becoming a relative term. I watched three of the thirteen episodes of House of Cards on my phone while I was on the treadmill at the gym. The fact that those viewings helped contribute to the longevity of the series simply blows my mind. Chapter 2 – Ferris Bueller goes to Congress I was really hesitant about one thing going into the series. Kevin Spacey breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience directly throughout the show. I knew going in that it would be an uphill battle getting me on board with this particular narrative style. I was under the impression that it would be gimmicky and detract from the overall drama of the series. My worst case scenario involved it being a dressed up narration that the writers would use as a crutch to tell the audience how the main character feels. (I’m looking at you, Dexter.) I was wrong on all counts! Frank breaking the fourth wall completely enhances the experience. It’s not a crutch by any means. In fact, these short soliloquies match the dark tone of the plot perfectly and give the show an almost Shakespearean feel. The audience isn’t being told what Frank’s schemes are; we’re watching him revel in his role as puppet master. One of the things that really piqued my interest in House of Cards was the freedom that a lack of scheduling afforded the production. Since Netflix has the keys to the shackles of television’s oppressive scheduling blocks, the power to decide how you consume their content falls on your shoulders. The writing in the show reflects that freedom. According to one of show runner Beau Willimon‘s weekly Twitter Q&A’s, every episode of the show has to be at most an hour long for the sake of international broadcasts. Aside from that, the writers can write the show without worrying too much about time constraints. Each episode ranges in runtime from 46 minutes to 53 minutes. The varying runtime directly reflects the fluidity of the writing. Thanks to the Netflix Model, House of Cards is completely free of superfluous plots, filler episodes or half-baked storylines. As a result, this is one of the most impressive first seasons of a series I’ve ever seen. With Breaking Bad coming to an end in the fall, House of Cards stands a shockingly good chance of stealing the title of “best show on television” away from Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones. My one issue with the show, however, is the product placement. There are a few scenes where Frank is unwinding by playing video games. He’s playing on a Playstation 3, specifically. These scenes didn’t bother me. Kevin Spacey blindly button mashing was a small annoyance but overall it’s a funny thing to see a Congressman play video games. However, there was one scene where the product placement manifested itself into the script and that’s where my one complaint with the show comes in. There’s a scene where Frank visits a fellow Congressman, sees a PS Vita and comments on it by name. He remarks that he’s been thinking about getting a Vita for the car. It’s a nearly cringe inducing shame considering it’s the only real blemish in 13 incredibly polished scripts. Chapter 3 – Not an Archetypical Antihero (SPOILERS AHEAD)… * – In this section I talk about the specific content of the show! Do not read this section if you haven’t watched House of Cards yet. Please return after you have watched it, though… * Francis Underwood, Vic Mackey, Walter White and Nucky Thompson walk into a bar…okay, so I don’t have a punchline for that joke. It’s only because I’m too distracted salivating at the thought of how these characters would interact with each other. The pilot episode of House of Cards begins by disobeying a basic rule of screenwriting. “Save the cat” is a rule coined by the late Blake Snyder. It says that when the audience meets the hero, he should do something heroic (like saving a cat). It’s so the audience has a reason to root for him. In the first scene of House of Cards, Francis Underwood kills a dog. The dog belongs to a neighbor and had just been the victim of a hit and run. Frank explains to us that sometimes it’s left to him to do the dirty work as he suffocates the injured animal. It’s a fascinating character introduction that speaks volumes about what you’re about to see. There’s a bitter coldness in the way Frank speaks. He describes killing the dog as if it were a chore. It sets us up with the fact that Frank is an amoral man with a twisted sense of duty that’s guided by his desire for power. Killing the dog hurls us into the gray world of House of Cards’ political intrigue and deception. At the start of the season, Frank is denied a position as the President-elect’s Secretary of State despite getting him elected. Frank plays along but hatches a plan to undermine those who’ve wronged him. What I love about this is that, even though Spacey talks to us throughout the series, it isn’t clear what Frank’s endgame is until late in the season. Even then, his scheme is spelled out by a pawn in his game so you can’t really trust that that’s his ultimate play. What amazes me about this show is that its main character is so delightfully diabolical that he just caused me to refer to the President’s chief of staff as a pawn without a second thought. As the season progresses, however, we see that Frank isn’t the perfect mastermind that he appears to be. One of my favorite moments of the season was a scene in “Chapter 6” that featured Frank fumbling a televised debate. In the episode, Frank underestimates his opponent, a union rep responsible for a teacher’s strike, and gets his ass handed to him. It showed a needed flaw in Frank’s nature. He’s too confident. Then there’s later in the season, when Frank’s plan to steal the Vice Presidency is in full swing. The President sends him to vet a potential candidate, billionaire Raymond Tusk (Gerald McRaney). What Frank doesn’t know is that Tusk is a confidant of the President and was the reason Frank was passed up for the position of Secretary of State. Tusk gives Frank an ultimatum. The Vice Presidency in exchange for a blank check. You can see the wheels turning as Frank works to figure out how he can use Tusk to his advantage. It’s fascinating to watch. What I loved most about it was that Tusk is out of Frank’s control. As much as I enjoy watching Spacey the puppet master, I love seeing the imperfect and improvising Frank more. With House of Cards, we are treated to a new and clever antihero on par with the best. There’s a huge moment in Chapter 10 that shows us what Frank is truly capable of. He kills Congressman Peter Russo in a car and makes it look like a suicide. Russo was a fantastically tragic character. His arc was some of the best and most compelling television I’ve seen in recent memory. At the start he’s a mess of a man. After Frank makes a potential career-ending police matter go away for Russo, the troubled congressman finds himself indebted to Underwood. After Frank convinces Peter to get clean and run for governor of Pennsylvania, he orchestrates a relapse that tarnishes the candidate’s reputation and ends his campaign. It’s a play that’s cruel, ruthless and genius. Frank kills him to tie up loose ends and, I believe, simply because the situation presented itself. This action raises some interesting questions about the nature of the antihero and what it would take to turn the audience against a protagonist. Peter Russo was an interesting and highly sympathetic character. The murder alone wouldn’t carry quite as much thematic weight with it, though. The really disturbing thing about it was that Frank, though maybe not planning murder from the start, orchestrated things that took this character from a low point, built him up and then knocked him down solely for political gain before ruthlessly killing him. It paints Frank in a fascinatingly sociopathic light. Chapter 4 – The King’s Pawns (VAGUE CHARACTER SPOILERS AHEAD…) * – In this section I talk about some character arcs of the season! It’s nothing too severe, but if you want to be in the dark until you watch it, skip this section. Come back after you watch the show, though…* Of course, a television series can’t achieve greatness on the back of only one character. (Again, I’m looking at you, Dexter.) So let’s take a look at the series’ supporting characters. Robin Wright as Claire Underwood Claire Underwood is Frank’s loving wife and confidant in all things devious. The pair operates without secrets. They are uniform in their power plays, though Frank is the one in control. This causes some friction in the first season, but it doesn’t bound into melodrama at all. The intricacies of their relationship are tangled in a web of common goals and loose morals. It makes for a complex dynamic with two highly talented actors. Robin Wright is phenomenal. Her performance is reminiscent of Glenn Close’s more dramatic television turns. It doesn’t come across as a rip off or even as an homage, either. It appears strictly as a source of inspiration that transforms Wright’s performance into something all its own. Kate Mara as Zoe Barnes Zoe Barnes is a young, up and coming journalist who strikes a deal with Frank to feed stories that influence his big picture scheme. I’ve been a Kate Mara fan for years. Admittedly, this fandom has been strictly on the level of a movie star crush. I’m ashamed to admit I had no idea she was hiding the acting chops for such a meaty role. Mara plays the part of Zoe as a young journalist eager to cut her teeth. There are times where she plays it with a slight naiveté, but it’s subdued and serves to show her learning the ropes of her job as opposed to making blunders. Her arc is one of valuable learning experiences but the character is strong and adaptable. Kevin Spacey is the yardstick by which everyone else’s acting is judged and Kate Mara shines when they share the screen. Their relationship is complex and oftentimes twisted. A lesser actress in the role would have jeopardized the entire series. Corey Stoll as Peter Russo I touched briefly on the character of Peter Russo in the previous section, so I’ll save it here. Suffice it to say, Congressman Russo is a fascinating and tragic character that functions as a true pawn with Frank’s heel pressed firmly against his throat. Corey Stoll gives a very strong performance. As the season progresses, the character experiences the most dramatic changes. Stoll embraces the material and gives zero indication that he is overwhelmed or out of his element. His performance is one of nuance and precision. It’s also a reflection of the writing that the most sympathetic character of the show is a deeply troubled and unpredictable man. Michael Kelly as Doug Stamper Doug Stamper is Frank’s right hand man. He does the heavy lifting and is probably the one true ally Frank has. The two have a rapport that gives weight to Frank’s various power plays. He’s just as diabolical as the congressman, but he’s a different side of the coin. I was floored when I found out Michael Kelly was in this show. He pops up in many things I love. Most notably, his one-episode stint on The Shield in which he plays a serial killer contributed to one of the most psychologically brutal interrogation sequences in a 7-season series rife with diverse interrogations. Here, Michael Kelly gets to stretch his legs. Whether he’s putting pressure on a person to get results or orchestrating a bigger, subtler play, Kelly tackles the role with a perfect mix of danger and a calm demeanor. Kristen Connolly as Christina Gallagher Christina Gallagher is Peter Russo’s girlfriend and assistant. She gives the erratic and tragic character of Russo a strong anchor and is integral to his sympathetic nature. It isn’t until later in the season that she becomes more of her own character. The season ends for Christina with the hope of more independent development in season 2. Kristen Connolly does such an impressive job with the character, that I’m very hopeful for more Christina. Chapter 5 – Season 2 and the Future of Netflix When I say Netflix has the potential to change the television industry, I’m not being hyperbolic. They’ve set a new standard with House of Cards. Not just in terms of content, but in terms of delivery. It’s something that HBO, Showtime and Starz should be taking very seriously. If the premium networks aren’t careful, there’s a small chance they could end up like Blockbuster. And I don’t want to see that happen. I love Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones too much. Netflix showed an unprecedented amount of faith in Beau Willimon and David Fincher when they gave them $100 million for 2 seasons. As of now, Netflix has made that money back in subscription fees. I don’t know if this will become standard practice for the company or if it was simply a gamble to get the ball rolling. In any case, it paid off substantially. The show has generated some Emmy buzz and rightfully so. I think it will be remarkable and very well earned for Kevin Spacey to at least get the best actor nomination. Thanks to a 2008 rule change, House of Cards is eligible for Emmy consideration. I won’t pretend that Spacey has a shot against Bryan Cranston, however. But the show has plenty of supporting actors worthy of consideration. It’s also insanely well-directed and impeccably well-written. All of the separate pieces of this vast puzzle create a truly compelling premium grade political thriller. House of Cards is currently shooting its second season. They haven’t announced it but I imagine the season will premiere in the first quarter of 2014. I haven’t watched Hemlock Grove yet, and the new season of Arrested Development is still a week away. But if Netflix can repeat half the quality of House of Cards, they’re going to be a force to be reckoned with. You can pre-order the first season of House of Cards on DVD and Blu-Ray right now. They will be released on June 11th. For good measure, here are links to the first seasons of Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones. And finally, as always, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and like the blog on Facebook.
Hyperloop One, a Los Angeles-based startup working on making Elon Musk’s crazy-fast vacuum tube transportation blueprint a reality, has agreed to partner with the Summa Group and the Russian Government to build a Hyperloop in Moscow. The Summa Group is a Russsian investment group with a large stake in infrastructure investments in the country including port logistics, engineering, construction, telecommunications and the oil and gas sectors. Both the Russian government and the investment group see Hyperloop One as a crucial partner in exploring ways to connect Moscow’s roughly 16 million citizens to new forms of transportation. The Hyperloop promises to be able to shoot people from San Francisco to L.A. in less than 35 minutes and the startup would like to bring that same technology to Muscovites. Russia’s transportation system is one of the world’s most extensive at 4,800 miles (7,700 km). And, while Moscow already has a comparatively large metro system, with 200 stations stretching across about 207 miles, according to Wikipedia, the Hyperloop could significantly increase the speed at which citizens shoot from point A to B within the city and across the vast country. But the development will also help push the country toward “an economically attractive alternative to the existing global logistics flows,” Summa Group founder Ziyavudin Magomedov said. In other words, Russia is an important partner for Hyperloop One’s future shipping hopes. The startup will need Russia’s help to set in motion an initiative to deliver products at lightning speed across the Eurasian Economic Union and help catalyze China’s plan to create a “One Road” product delivery mechanism throughout the region and across the globe. “Our longer term vision is to work with Russia to implement a transformative new Silk Road: a cargo Hyperloop that whisks freight containers from China to Europe in a day,” Hyperloop One co-founder Shervin Pishevar said. The startup has told me in past interviews it is working on a similar plan for transporting products arriving at the port of Los Angeles to the middle of the U.S. within hours. It also has feasibility studies underway to do the same in Finland, Sweden, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Dubai, and the United Kingdom. The partnership with Russia is just one more point of connection, but a big one with a giant, formidable country, in a plan to increase the rate at which consumers could one day buy something from halfway around the world and get it before the sun goes down.
Let's face it: Sex can be kinda gross. With all those body odors and fluids being traded back and forth, it's no small miracle that humans voluntarily choose to copulate at all. But as scientists from the Netherlands have recently pointed out, our willingness to engage in sexual acts despite the yuck factor may be on account of a built-in psychological mechanism that temporarily reduces our feelings of disgust during sex — at least in women. The study, which was conducted by Charmaine Borg and Peter de Jong, involved, among other things, 90 women, soft porn, vibrators, lubricants, voodoo dolls, and a glass of juice with an insect in it. Now, while this might sound like a typical Saturday night for most io9 readers, this was serious, scientific stuff. Disgust is an evolved defense mechanism that compels people to avoid things like contamination; why people don't mind exchanging saliva, sweat, semen, and body odor, therefore, is a question that has baffled psychologists. To figure out what's going on, the researchers divided the women up into three groups: those who would be sexually aroused (by the "female friendly erotica"), those who were not sexually aroused, and the third being a control group. Once primed (or not), the women were given a series of behavioral tasks, like wiping their hands with a used tissue (which the participants didn't know was fake), lubricating a vibrator, touching used condoms (faked), and taking a sip of juice with a large (also fake) insect in it. The women were also given a set of moral tasks, like stabbing a voodoo doll representing a person they hated, or hugging a shirt belonging to a known pedophile (faked). The intention was to create a series of situations in which the researchers could measure the impact of sexual arousal on feelings of disgust and whether or not certain behaviors would be avoided altogether. What Borg and de Jong discovered was that sexually aroused women rated the sex related tasks as being less disgusting compared to how the other women felt. And interestingly, they also exhibited a diminished disgust response to the non-sex related tasks and stimuli. In addition, the aroused group was less inclined to avoid certain behaviors outright; they successfully completed the highest percentage of tasks compared to the other groups. Advertisement The findings clearly show that there may in fact be a connection between sexual arousal and a diminished disgust response in women. It's not clear from the study, however, if men are subject to the same effect. In addition, the study hold implications for treating sexual dysfunction in women. It's quite possible that women who find sex unpleasurable or gross may either not be sufficiently sexually aroused, or that their induced disgust reduction response is somehow impaired. The study can be read in its entirety at PLOS. Image via Shutterstock/mast3r.
Remember when Paul Ryan first introduced his plan to end Medicare and screw most of America, and even Newt Gingrich—Newt Gingrich, ladies and gentlemen—called it "right-wing social engineering"? The Republican Party didn't take too kindly to that. First, he was forced to apologize to Paul Ryan. But that wasn't enough: Then he said that quoting his words is a "falsehood." Then he said he wasn't even talking about Ryan's plan—just, you know, taking a strong stand against the principle of right-wing social engineering generally. Then he started soliciting money from his supporters (yeah, all both of 'em) to promote Ryan's right-wing social engineering: "The only way our country can win the future is by engaging our fellow citizens in serious discussions about major reform--not by avoiding hard choices," the e-mail reads. "Congressman Ryan has made a key contribution to entitlement reform, courageously starting the conversation about how to save and improve Medicare. And that's exactly the kind of national conversation I want our campaign to be about!" Yesterday, on Face the Nation, Newt Gingrich once again bent over backward to pretend he didn't hate Paul Ryan's plan to end Medicare: The one thing I objected to back in May of 2011 was that he eliminated Medicare for everybody. He came back with Ron Wyden—he listened, and one of the things I give Paul Ryan a lot of credit for is he really listens. And he came back with an improved Medicare plan [...] He met my only objection. I'll just bet Paul Ryan really listened to what Newt had to say—especially when Newt had to go on his apology tour to pretend he never said what he said, and golly, he sure is sorry for having said that thing he never said. But now, Newt thinks Paul Ryan's plan is the best plan evah! I think the basic thrust of the plan, which is very parallel to what Romney's proposed, is the right direction. [...] Somebody has to have the guts to stand up and offer a roadmap, if you will, and I think that the effort that Ryan has put in makes him, in my mind, makes him an extraordinarily exciting choice because you now have a national leader who is capable of talking in detail with the American people about some very complicated topics, and that's a very unusual moment in history. That's right. The Paul Ryan plan for American is the Romney plan for America. The only difference is that up until now, despite Romney being the nominee, there was no "national leader capable" of talking about it. Which is not a very nice thing to say about Mitt Romney, is it? Hmmm. Maybe Newt's going to need to go on another apology tour.
The Hunt for the Death Valley Germans This is the tale of what for me was a rather remarkable adventure. It was assembled on the basis of my personal recollection and experience, emails, GPS logs and some official documents. It represents solely the perspective and opinions of myself, in my more lucid moments. It is in no way intended to represent the position of the Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit, nor any other agency mentioned. Further, my usual writing style tends to be somewhat lighthearted and flippant, which would be somewhat at odds with the serious and tragic nature of the incident being reported. I have attempted to remain sensitive to the underlying events, yet retain a certain level of casual narrative that some might find entertaining. And if not entertaining, then at least informative. As part of due diligence I need to add an important note. In the past I’ve kept certain locations regarding this incident fairly well cloaked for a variety of reasons, explained as part of the narrative. Mainly, it’s a very difficult, even dangerous, area to get into, and there are a lot of armchair desert adventurers possibly tempted to try it. However in the interest of completeness I’ve decided to include images showing the GPS tracks of the various search efforts. I’ve also refrained from my favorite trick of photo-reversing images of the site. What you see it what it was. At this point, there is nothing left at the site for souvenir hunters, so I see no need for maintaining its secrecy. Anyone reading of the difficulties encountered in this search should consider any visitation very carefully. As a point of reference, if you’re not physically capable of doing a day hike to the top of Mount Whitney and back, and aren’t a skilled, off-trail hiker, you should stay out of this area. My opinion, anyway. That’s a measure of how hard it is to get into the area on foot (and out, safely!). At this point I know the location and surroundings probably better than anyone, and I’m not going back. The area scares me just a bit.
This is a work of reported fiction. From the Author: As many readers noticed yesterday, the profile of Chris Randle, the chef of Manna restaurant in Nye County, Nevada, is of a person who does not exist. He is fiction of that strange variety known as the April Fool's. Fortunately, the chefs quoted in the article are very real indeed. Our thanks go out to Linton Hopkins, Sean Brock and Charlie Palmer for playing along. They are all real as are as almost every dish mentioned in the piece: There is a Corsican dish of boar fetus. There is a restaurant that serves food made out of dirt. And there are restaurants that have served things made out of breast milk. In China. Also, Daniel Angerer once served cheese made out of his wife's breast milk to the customers at Klee Brasserie. Nobody yet has served human flesh, to our knowledge, in a restaurant. It's probably a matter of time. -- Stephen Marche, April 2, 2013 The police arrived just in time for cocktails. The parking lot of Manna was full. A Ferrari Enzo and a Lotus Exige nestled among the field of dark town cars, and four helicopters had taken up all the available room in the overflow lot. Nye County sheriff Jack Muskat and his three deputies had to pull right up to the front of Manna's outdoor lounge, where the evening's guests were sipping cocktails on driftwood furniture before heading inside for their meal. Nobody was particularly bothered by the arrival of the police. The truth is that when you travel three hours by helicopter to a restaurant where you are spending $5,000 on a single meal, you expect some drama. And M, as its regular members call it, is famous within its tight circle of devotees for the theatricality of its dishes and presentation, as well as the originality of its ingredients. Debate rumbled among the tables about whether the police were real or performers, like the time a few months back when a bison had been walked in through the front doors by a model wearing only boots and a cowboy hat as a prelude to the one being roasted out back on a spit. The June night air, thick with the scent of rabbit brush and wild primroses, was so lovely that nothing seemed serious enough to warrant actual worry. The unperturbed servers brought out the cocktail Manna was offering that evening, a variation on the Pimm's Cup served at the Napoleon House in New Orleans, with miniature frozen Meyer lemons bobbing at the surface, and everybody drank and chatted. Ten minutes later, Chris Randle, the mercurial chef of M was led out in handcuffs in his whites. Randle, whose muscular, energetic frame and bald head are defined by round glasses that give him something of the air of an overage graduate student, smiled and nodded as he stooped to enter the car. The diners stood up and applauded, though they weren't entirely sure why. Sheriff Muskat shushed the diners with a raised hand and shouted, mystifyingly, "You can clap all you want, but you are what you eat" before driving away. Customers are not typically pleased to see chefs led out of their restaurant for unspecified violations in the middle of a meal. But then Chris Randle is not a typical chef, nor is Manna a typical restaurant. Technically speaking, it's not a restaurant at all. It's a private members club with a restaurant attached, which means that it accepts reservations only from people who pay the $15,000 initiation fee (members are rumored to include Ron Howard, Samuel L. Jackson, Larry Page, J.K. Rowling, and Kathryn Bigelow). Only a member can bring guests, and the members sign an agreement stating that they won't bring restaurant critics. Photographing the food is also explicitly forbidden. I first heard about Chris Randle from Linton Hopkins, the chef of Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta, whom I had met years ago during a brief stint at Emory. We stayed in touch over the years, meeting over ridiculous meals in whatever cities our paths crossed. Last summer, I was back in Atlanta reporting when, over chunks of foie gras smeared on pumpkin bread, Hopkins began ranting about sausages. He was very close, he felt, to developing the perfect boar sausage, but he didn't know how to serve it. He wondered aloud why nobody could just serve a bowl of sausages in a restaurant, why they always had to be sided and dressed when the whole point of a sausage was that it had all the flavor it needed inside it. "Nobody could get away with that except Chris Randle," he said. I had never heard of Randle. Hopkins looked at me with half pity and half amusement. "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, since you'll never be able to taste it." Then he laughed and killed the rest of the bottle of blaufränkisch. Manna is the kind of restaurant you mainly hear about after it's closed, he told me—not only could you not finagle a reservation, you also couldn't figure out the number to call to try; a pop-up available only to the most in the know. Its location adds to its mystique. Manna is at the end of a desolate stretch of road in Nye County, Nevada, with Round Mountain just visible in the distance. The closest city is Las Vegas, sixty-five miles to the south, but most of the members come from Los Angeles, where Randle was born and where he founded his original catering business, the Emperor's Conger, after stints at Ferran Adrià's El Bulli, Doraichi in Tokyo, and Cochon in New Orleans, as well as a formative year spent foraging in Papua New Guinea. He also worked at a soup kitchen while in New Orleans, to learn what foods are most satisfying to hungry people. Manna has no Website, no Facebook presence, no digital presence at all. Randle doesn't use e-mail. Instead, he has a single phoneline, which he doesn't pick up. If you want him, you leave a message. If he wants, he'll call you back (but only between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. PST, the single half hour per day he uses the phone). Another bottle of wine later, Hopkins still wouldn't give me the number. But he did offer to leave Randle a message on my behalf. If I heard from him, great. If not, tough. He had tried, and when I begged he tried again, but I heard nothing. By Thanksgiving, I'd given up. Then two weeks later, I had just returned from dropping my son off at daycare when I saw a missed call and listened to the message: "Manna here. The time for service has come." Sheriff Jack Muskat may have done what no restaurant reporter in the world could—expose the secretive world of Randle's cooking to the broader American public. Randle has found himself with $200,000 worth of legal bills and no means to pay them. Despite the fantastic prices of the food at Manna, the cost of the ingredients has always kept profits low. Now he has no choice but to cash in, and he is going about it with the quiet, indomitable fury he once devoted to maintaining his privacy. He has plans to open branches of Manna on Staten Island, and in Dubai and Sydney. He is currently working on a memoir. Kathryn Bigelow has already purchased the film rights. Randle is also in talks, still preliminary, for two Food Network shows, one about the world's desserts and the other about exotic ingredients. America's chefs have lined up behind him, offering financial assistance with his mounting legal bills. Sean Brock, who once joined a nocturnal scavenging trip that Randle led in the Blue Ridge Mountains, donated $5,000 to his legal fund. "As far as I'm concerned, he's a genius," Brock says. "Sure, he's a badass chef, but we've had about our fill of badass chefs, haven't we? The thing about Chris is that he's the most precise badass you'll meet. His rebellion is so exact. He goes right to the upsetting place, the dangerous place, right there." Charlie Palmer tried to get Randle to work for him after eating at Manna three years ago. "I've cooked with a lot of chefs and I've never seen anyone anywhere, who has more respect for an ingredient while taking it to such weird places," Palmer offered in an e-mail. "He's like an illusionist." Palmer introduced Randle to a book publisher, to whom Randle pitched a book about cooking things in sand, but only if the publisher would agree that the book would have no title. The laws around food have always been obstacles for Chris Randle to overcome. The first time he was arrested on a food-related violation was in 2009, for taking sequoia bark from Kings Canyon National Park. He was using the material to plate diced raw elk heart crumbled with the shavings from their velvet. The police let him off with a warning. They had no idea how he could be using bark and moss to make money. Manna's practice does not typically involve breaking the law. At the private party after the launch of the iPhone 3, Randle roasted a dozen oysters stuffed into a trout stuffed into a goat for Steve Jobs and the inner circle of Apple. He makes a meal entirely from bones—savory blancmange, then marrow foam, and then whole larks, eaten with the bones, all finished with a bourbon shot drained through the hollowness of an ox neck's spine. He titles his meals. A dinner of a whole spit-roasted bison is called "The Western Meal" and the bone dinner "The End Result." Manna prepares a traditional Corsican dish, a boar fetus cooked in its mother, which Randle calls "The Criminal Meal." In what he calls "The Quiet Hours," each course is accompanied by headphones playing sounds of the sea, or rustling grass, or a waterfall, or a busy restaurant, or a factory floor, the intent being to match the dishes: scallops, salad, burned red pepper soup, shaved pork, macerated calf's liver. The final course, the custard, is eaten in complete silence. He's also experimented with dirt as food. He uses mud from fifty different states in fifty different dishes and calls the creation "The American Meal." The custard is the constant. Every meal at Manna ends with the custard. When Randle first served it, at a party for Joan Baez in Malibu, he found his backers for the restaurant that night. "It's the end of all trends," says Hopkins, whose grown so close to Randall that he asked him to be the godfather to his son Linton, Jr. "Chris could just make that dish and serve it in Times Square and the line-up would never end. But the ingredient's too hard to find. That custard is what we're all out here looking for. Extreme refinement in pursuit of childhood pleasure." If the custard is the reason Manna exists, the source of its immense appeal, it's also the reason for Randle's arrest by the Nye County Sherriff's Office. Chris Randle's lawyer, Ellen Guanacaste, runs the truck stop on Route 6 in addition to providing legal services. A short, powerful woman with stringy arms and a no-nonsense stare, she had been planning her Delaware wedding to Lucy Garcia-Richards, her partner of twelve years, before Randle's arrest. Her feelings about the arrest of Chris Randle ring with Tea Party—level outrage. "In Nevada, being a private club means you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want. You can screw what you like. You can smoke what you like. And sure as hell, you can eat what you like." Nye County is one of eleven Nevada counties with legal brothels. Guanacaste blames "government interference" and "reckless intrusion" for her client's arrest. "A private member's club, in Nevada, means private, and it means it belongs to the members. I mean there's no health code in there. You don't have to give any reason for anything. Muskat's just a busybody." The sheriff's office, finding not one single health violation on the premises and being unclear about which laws his ingredients were violating, eventually charged Randle with possession of contraband. Randle had bought six boxes of Bolivar cigars in Los Angeles, which he was planning to use for a meal called "Elian Gonzalez, We Miss You." He was indicted under the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, which could result in a fine of up to a million dollars as well as a jail sentence of ten years. Even Sheriff Muskat, an old-school Nevada sheriff of the string-bean variety who sits in the sheriff office's mobile home, just a few miles from Guanacaste's truck stop, doesn't think either will happen. "Capone," he told me, poking the table. "It doesn't matter what you nail them for." What was the real problem then? Why did he feel the need to arrest Randle in his restaurant during the cocktail hour? He answers my question with a question. "Do I look like the kind of man who likes to meddle in other people's affairs? There's an old joke about sheriffs in this county. You know how you get elected in Nye? Do as much nothing as possible. And I've always believed that." I bring up the argument of Randle's lawyer—government intrusion. "That's Ellen, ain't it?" He smiles wryly. "Well, I can't disagree with her. And I think for anything else in the world, it would likely hold true, especially when someone is running a private business on his own property. I mean, that should just tell you how extreme this act was. And I don't care how tasty his cooking is." The sheriff's face suddenly brightens. "He sure can cook, though, can't he? While he was in here, we let him cook the chili one night. Best bowl of red I ever had in my life." His eyes momentarily reach for the ceiling as he sucks his ragged moustache, and then turns back remembering where he is. "And that's my point. It's nothing personal, you understand. He doesn't need these terrible ingredients. He can cook up a feast with just beans." Tell me off the record, I say. Were there health-code violations? Was that it? The sheriff starts to squirm. "You know, there just has to be a limit to what this country can withstand. I'm talking about threats from within. I'm talking about the fabric of this nation." In the sheriff's eyes, I could see a glint of suppressed confusion. Muskat didn't seem to know himself why he had arrested Chris Randle. When you arrive at Manna before the guests, the place looks more like a summer camp than a restaurant. The sheer number of people is dazzling. Manna employs 3.2 chefs per customer on any given night, slightly higher than El Bulli's ratio was, and it serves nowhere near the same number of dishes. (A typical tasting menu can sometimes involve as few as seven plates.) The wait staff—mostly comprised of young families—is a small army devoted to pleasure. Manna is the only restaurant in the world, to my knowledge, with a nursery attached. Paloma Heinz, who has worked at the restaurant since 2010, raising her daughter, Tosca, believes that the restaurant is one of the most progressive institutions in the industry. "I think that's what the cops were upset about, if you want to know the truth," she says. "We're just a little too much like hippies." There is something of the commune or the kibbutz about Manna, with its series of cheap but decent prefab buildings sprawling behind the restaurant."It's a lifestyle," Heinz tells me. "For a server, it's a very comfortable lifestyle. For a server with a young baby, it's practically the best possible lifestyle imaginable, I would say." The daycare begins after lunch, so the restaurant's workers, who won't see their kids at night, spend time with them during the morning. Heinz mentions that all the daycare workers have early-childhood-education degrees. "It's the love out here that goes into the food. And it is political." The lunch for servers is the day's first big event, an easygoing counterpoint to the intense and ferocious high art of the evening meal. The chicken broth with noodles is made from scratch. A plate of raw baby spinach receives the lightest sprinkle of oil and then a hundred tosses, each sharp gesture of the tongs counted off like a summer-camp game by the happy diners. Small bowls of hazelnuts glazed with cane sugar fill the table and the women snack on them constantly. Two pregnant waitresses are served separate meals, poached perch and a dish of a lima bean casserole. The waitresses and waiters are joined by their happy babies under the arbor. The whole scene is a model of health and strength, a single long table of content families under a vine-shaded trellis. "Everything is perfectly humane," Heinz says. "None of the ingredients here are had by force. There is far less exploitation here than in a typical New York kitchen." I say there must be almost no turnover. She smiles. "Not quite. Nobody stays here longer than thirty months. The isolation can take its toll. The sheriff implies that we're some kind of cult. I don't know how many cults force their members to leave after two and-a-half years. But you're right that many servers would stay forever if they could." There are exceptions, Heinz says, people who can't find a job right a way, and women who get pregnant while on staff. "There's even the special dish for the pregnant staff," she mentions, bringing me over to the two full-bellied servers. "It's a casserole of lima beans in mustard and mayonnaise, with baked gingersnaps on top of it." Heinz hands me a spoonful. The flat flavor on my tongue is earthy and grotesque, like sweet mud, absolutely disgusting. I have to spit it into my hand. The two women cannot seem to wolf it down fast enough. "Every dish has its time and place," Heinz says, laughing at my disgust. "Except the custard," she says. "Everybody loves the custard." Chris Randle was released on bail the night of his arrest. Ellen Guanacaste had to postpone her wedding trip to Delaware to post bail, but Randle managed to return to the restaurant in time for dessert. He hasn't stopped working since. Whenever I try to talk to him, he is always elsewhere. Three meetings have had to be canceled. "He's just always on the edge of what's possible," Heinz tells me. "It's not great for scheduling." That's the only explanation I ever received. He surprises me in the arbor after the family meal. Even as he approaches, his directness and sincerity—his irrepressible candor—are apparent. Behind the architect's glasses and the pressed, clean whites, covered by a Chicago Blackhawks Stan Mikita jersey, he moves with the confident sense of an artist who is cheerfully getting away with things. He looks joyfully exhausted as he sits down, like a new parent. He's brought cocktails for us, though he never takes so much as a sip of his own. "These are Napoleon's, you know," he admits. "We ripped them off. We were doing intriguing stuff for a while. We have one where you take three sips of brandy, then smell a vanilla bean, and then take a bite from a tomatillo. It was great. But none of it was as good as I remembered the cocktail at Napoleon." He shrugs. "I'm really grateful you're talking to me," I say. "I'm going to have to tell everybody anyway because of this court case," he says as a look of pain cloaked in jokiness crosses his face. He claps his hands, bored with small talk. "I'd rather be cooking. Let's get on with it." Breast milk. Breast milk is the secret to Manna's best dishes. Randle sketches out the process for me. All of the servers produce milk for Manna. It is a condition of working there. Heinz is the restaurant's lactation consultant, running the hospital-grade pumps in the milking room off the kitchen and screening the women for health issues and drug use. "We use breast milk in everything. You know the story about Alice Waters? When she first met the French cooks, she was making these unbelievably delicious salads at Chez Panisse. And they said to her, 'That's not cooking, it's shopping.' I think what I've done is the ultimate act of shopping," Randle says. "I've found the ultimate ingredient. Alain Ducasse says cooking is 85 percent ingredients. I've just had to go shopping for what nobody can buy." The waitresses who provide the milk do an extra pump a day beyond what their infants need—an average of five ounces a day, sometimes more with mothers who have older children. The idea for breast milk came to him when a Starbucks moved in beside his father's diner and he started researching how it had become so successful. "At Starbucks, you know, they had labs trying to figure out how to mimic breast milk in the lattes. The Starbucks latte is the most successful replication of breast milk on the planet, and the taste of their lattes is why Starbucks is Starbucks. I just thought, Why not go to the source?" Then in 2003, he heard about a Chinese restaurant in Hunan Province that served perch and abalone in breast milk. He experimented with milk purchased online until he finally discovered the custard, which preserves the essence of the flavor in the simplest way. None of the milk is wasted. The daily batches are kept in vats to separate, untouched, over the course of two days. The water is used in soups and in preparing vegetables. The cream is the basis of the custard and is also churned into butter. For a while, Randle experimented with flavors, with having the women eat curries or garlic or sugar and citrus fruits. Randle tells me that breast milk takes on the flavor of the mother's diet within a week, but the flavor derived from a basic meal—broths, hazelnuts, and greens—gives the cleanest breast milk. "I didn't want to fool around too much. The milk is the fundamental ingredient," he tells me. "The job of a cook is to reveal the ingredient. Breast milk takes no revealing. I put it in everything. It makes beurre monté look like a garnish of parsley." He pushes over the second cocktail. He brought both for me, I realize. The Pimm's Cup is fittingly refreshing as dessert. Randle smiles as I sip, evidently pleased at my pleasure. "I mean, what are we all looking for in all these restaurants? With all this money? Why do you think David Chang has Tastee Freez for dessert? Why do you think half the avant-garde chefs have milk and cookies for a grand finale? I just found a way to get directly what everyone else was looking for indirectly." What follows breast milk? I wonder. Since he's new to the chef-marketing game and about to become famous as the ultimate purveyor of the new thing, how will he stay fresh? He pauses warily but cannot quite suppress a burning excitement in his voice. "There is one food that is eaten all over the world, and has been eaten from the very beginning of the species, that is totally taboo," he says. "I'm interested in that." He won't tell me the name of the food. Instead he offers a kind of riddle. "You know about the Emperor Heliogabalus, the great dining emperor? He was a cool guy. He had fish carried in pots from the sea to his table. He entered Rome in a chariot pulled by naked women. He ate conger eels fattened on the corpses of dead slaves." That sounds like cannibalism, I say. He shrugs. "The Mohawks, you know, they ate the thumbs of their enemies, and they considered it the ultimate sign of respect." Has he ever served human flesh? "No," he says definitively, sudden fear in his eyes. "I will deny that." Something unspoken is quivering on his tongue. "Who would do that?" he says. "If there's such a thing as too much, then that's too much." We are interrupted by the rising chop of helicopter blades coming over the desert. I can't tell where the sound is coming from, but Randle knows, out of familiarity, and looks over his shoulder as the massive machine pulls over Round Mountain, his next task arriving. He points up and says something that I can't quite hear. Then he shouts "the money" loud enough that I can hear and strides toward the helipad. The dust kicks up ferociously, swallowing him, and then a few moments later he emerges from the storm with a man who looks a lot like Elon Musk. I am still sitting in the bower, taking notes, when Heinz returns. "A gift from the chef," she says. It's a clay bowl about the size of a large handful containing a yellow substance. Heinz hands me a small bone spoon and leaves me to the gift. The smell is vague and delicate, like warm vanilla. The first taste on the tongue tip is a soft sweetness, then a deep relaxation, an entire body massage in a bite, as if soft and sweet and cream were all the same. The end of the flavor rounds on my tongue—the quintessence of satisfaction. I lick the bowl clean, without embarrassment. I'm utterly full of it.
Kansas University’s DeBruce Center is now truly complete: James Naismith’s original rules of “Basket Ball” — the high-profile acquisition for which the building was constructed — are installed and on display. The building opened to the public a few weeks ago and the rules were put in place Friday morning, in a flurry of activity that involved removing and reinstalling a wall panel, security system verification and humidity and temperature checks in the display case, said Curtis Marsh, director of the DeBruce Center. Photo Gallery The DeBruce Center at KU The DeBruce Center at Kansas University opened April 25, 2016, and James Naismith's original rules of "Basket Ball" — the historic document the building was constructed to house — were installed May 13. The building also features a cafeteria, dining area and gift shop. “We had a pretty intense morning,” he said. Most of the modern, open-concept, glass-walled DeBruce Center is flooded with natural light. But the Rules Gallery — the passageway between the DeBruce Center’s atrium and Allen Fieldhouse where the rules are installed — is darkened by design to protect the historic document. The two-page, handwritten rules of “Basket Ball” are displayed in a glass wall case along with a small portrait of Naismith. At the press of a button next to the case, the light inside comes up slightly and the voice of Naismith himself begins to play. It’s the only known audio recording of Naismith, a 1939 radio interview that was recently discovered by a KU professor. In addition to the tiny-by-comparison rules, the gallery features oversize wall displays about Naismith — the inventor of basketball, one of KU’s early basketball coaches and the university’s first athletics director — and legendary KU basketball coach Forrest “Phog” Allen, a contemporary of Naismith’s. There’s also backlit quotes, laser-cut into the steel walls, by other former KU basketball coaches and players. James Naismith's original rules of "Basket Ball" are displayed inside Kansas University's DeBruce Center. The display also features a 1939 radio interview of Naismith himself describing how he invented the game, the only known audio recording of Naismith's voice. Quotes from former KU basketball players and coaches, displayed on the opposing wall, are reflected in the glass covering the rules. by Sara Shepherd Visitors look at James Naismith's newly installed original rules of "Basket Ball" on display at Kansas University's DeBruce Center on Friday, May 13, 2016. The low-lit Rules Gallery displays also include quotes from former KU basketball players and coaches. by Sara Shepherd Current KU basketball coach Bill Self walked up to get his first glimpse of the newly installed rules while I was there Friday morning. Self said he’d seen the Mona Lisa, a tiny painting that’s one of the world’s most famous, and said the rules display reminded him of that. “What makes it so cool is how simplistic it is,” Self said. “For those two pieces of paper to have such an impact in our sport is what makes it so special.” Kansas University men's basketball coach Bill Self gets his first glimpse of the newly installed rules of "Basket Ball" at the DeBruce Center on Friday, May 13, 2016. The historic document, handwritten by James Naismith, was put into place a few hours earlier. by Sara Shepherd KU alumnus David Booth and Suzanne Booth purchased the rules at auction in 2010 for $4.3 million, a sports memorabilia record according to Sotheby’s in New York City. The $21.7 million donor-funded DeBruce Center opened to the public April 25 and also features a cafeteria, gift shop and lounge space. The DeBruce Center, 1647 Naismith Drive, has extended hours for commencement weekend. The building will be open until 9 p.m. Friday, from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
There has been a lot of talk about unconditional cash transfers (UCTs) lately. An awful lot in the wake of the release of Haushofer and Shapiro’s findings on GiveDirectly in a policy brief (pdf) earlier this month. In short, Haushofer and Shapiro find that GiveDirectly’s cash transfers (i) allow poor households to build assets, (ii) increase consumption, (iii) reduce hunger, (iv) do not increase spending on alcohol and tobacco, (v) increase investment in and revenue from livestock and small businesses, and (vi) increase the psychological well-being of recipients and their families. These are all good things, and I look forward to the replication studies that will tell us when and under what conditions UCTs work. (Matt Collin has a very nice post on UCTs here, in which he adds the caveat that just giving cash will not solve the coordination failures leading to the underprovision of public goods in many developing countries. Likewise, David McKenzie goes into detail about the strengths and weaknesses of Haushofer and Shapiro’s study in a post on the World Bank’s Development Impact blog.) Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud Is there a flip side to the success of and subsequent media frenzy surrounding UCTs? Funny you should ask. Last Sunday, a former student posted the following on Facebook: “we are tired of donation with conditionalities” … an African friend of mine expressing frustration with me, after I questioned the use of US taxpayer dollars to finance her NGO’s weekend retreat to a $500+/night luxury resort… So there you have it: The Haushofer and Shapiro findings might have just enabled a Rage-Against-the-Machine culture among aid money recipients. What am I talking about? If you’ve never listened to the (not safe for work!) lyrics of the song in this video: I invite you to do so now. The song’s claim to fame — what made it a paean to rebellion and teenage angst — is the fact that singer Zack de la Rocha repeatedly screams “F**k you I won’t do what you tell me!” after the guitar solo ends. So without replication studies to tell us when and under what conditions unconditional cash transfers actually work, we might just have created a magic card that allows every aid recipient to tell donors “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” And without such studies, UCTs run the risk of being to the 2010s what microfinance was to the 2000s–an expensive (and not always effective) fad. No related content found.
Football’s autumn crisis club, Northampton Town, take their unpaid players on Saturday to play their former tenant, Coventry City, in an FA Cup first-round tie at which buckets will be rattled and a familiar cry heard: Save the Cobblers. Northampton face a winding-up petition from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs for a reported £160,000 unpaid tax and the club’s hardworking staff have not been paid their October wages – the Professional Footballers’ Association is stepping in to pay its own members. That cash-flow squeeze, however, which is expected to be salvaged by Kelvin Thomas, the former Oxford United chairman taking over the club next week from David Cardoza, is the least of the scandal which has enveloped the club. Put bluntly, there is a huge, grim question over where £10.25m has gone, which was lent to the club by Northampton borough council between September 2013 and August 2014, specifically to pay for improvements to its Sixfields stadium, including a new East Stand. All that exists in return for so much money are minor works on the west stand, floodlights understood to have cost a little over £100,000, and a shell of a new East Stand for which the developer, Buckingham Group, says it was paid only £442,000, before it downed tools. The developer, whose previous projects include Brighton & Hove Albion’s high quality Amex Stadium, was also commissioned to build a new stand at Northampton Saints rugby club, again with a loan from the council; that stand is complete and opening on Saturday. The council leader, Mary Markham, told the Guardian: “We do not know where the money is, and this is not acceptable. We ourselves have asked David Cardoza where the money has gone, and in legal letters, but answers have not been forthcoming.” Markham said the council was passing all its information to Northamptonshire police, which said it has officers looking into it, but has not formally launched an investigation. David Cardoza and Howard Grossman, a north London property developer whose company, 1st Land Ltd, was contracted to manage the East Stand development, told the Guardian they could not comment or answer a series of questions because of confidentiality they have agreed in a legal settlement, apparently after litigation between themselves. The Guardian has seen two invoices from an architect, Stuart Loxton, to 1st Land Ltd, for £18,500 in total, headed “Northampton Town Football Club: Design concept plans”, which Loxton says were in fact drawings for the design of David Cardoza’s new family home in Church Brampton, a village near Northampton. Loxton told the Guardian he was also having dealings with Grossman at the time, and was asked by another director of a Grossman company to put Northampton Town as the heading on those invoices for Cardoza’s house. David Cardoza is understood to deny any knowledge of the invoices. Grossman, citing the confidentiality agreement, declined to respond to any questions, including about Loxton’s invoices. This scandal has baffled and distressed Cobblers supporters, because David Cardoza has been generally respected since he rescued the club from a previous financial crisis in 2003, and has sustained the club with £5.2m in loans during the 12 years since. Yet now one of his companies has gone bust, the land behind the East Stand he and his father, Tony, owned has effectively been repossessed by the council, the club has run out of money and he is expected to hand it over to Thomas for £1. Northampton Town issued with winding-up petition by taxman and must pay back £10.25m loan Read more David Cardoza contracted the East Stand project to Grossman, whose entry at Companies House shows he is a director of six companies and was a director of 24 which are now dissolved. A large proportion of the £10.25m loaned by the council was apparently paid by the club to 1st Land Ltd, a company of which Grossman was the sole director and shareholder, to enable the works to be done. In forthright statements Buckingham made to the Northampton Town Supporters Trust and on its own website, the developer said the club scaled down the original £8m specifications for a quality new East Stand to “a bog standard” structure which would have cost only £4m. Despite that, Buckingham says it was paid only £442,000, and had to pursue Grossman for £1.9m then owing. When this was not forthcoming, Buckingham put 1st Land into administration. The administrator, Mazars of Birmingham, found no cash in 1st Land’s bank account. Grossman himself said of 1st Land’s affairs in February that he had been in a dispute with David and Tony Cardoza, and that 1st Land had actually paid £2.2m back to the football club. Grossman stated that a further £2.65m of 1st Land money was paid to the Cardozas personally, who, he said, argued it was not a loan to them but a “joint venture fee”. A further £1.5m was paid out of 1st Land to another of Grossman’s companies, County Homes (Herts) Limited, registered like all his companies at 156-158 Bushey High Street. Grossman stated this was for 1st Land using “premises and infrastructure” provided by this other company. More than £233,000 was paid to another company: County Cemetery Services, which never traded but was intending to erect “memorial walls”. It was registered at the same Bushey address, and two other directors in Grossman’s County group of companies, his son Marcus and Simon Patnick, were directors. David Cardoza was himself a director until August 2014, when his dispute with Grossman is understood to have started, and Cardoza’s wife, Christina, was a shareholder. County Cemetery Services has also now been put into administration, with only £5,000 in the bank, its only assets some contracts, designs, a patent application and a Mercedes. The administrator, Begbies Traynor, noted £260,000 owing to 1st Land Ltd, and £22,500 to County Homes (Herts) Ltd. With the unfinished work glowering at worried Cobblers fans this year, David and Tony Cardoza promised to get Buckingham paid and continue the works, via their company, County Developments (Northampton) Ltd. Buckingham said David Cardoza made “repeated assurances” that there was adequate money from the council loans to complete the stand; but stopped work after a month having, they stated, “not been paid a penny”. Buckingham has now put that Cardoza company into liquidation. In its own statement two weeks ago, Buckingham said: “This regrettable situation has arisen through what we can only conclude is the gross mismanagement and/or the misappropriation of a very significant public loan by those in receipt of that loan.” Both David Cardoza and Grossman said they do have full explanations for the conduct of the stadium project but are unable to give them at the moment because of confidentiality agreed in their legal settlement. The Cardozas and Grossman are all understood to deny any wrongdoing. This crisis has deeper significance because the Northampton Town supporters’ trust, formed during a previous crisis in 1992, was the blueprint for the national movement to form mutual trusts, and its founder, Brian Lomax, died this week. The trust maintained an elected director on the board for more than 20 years until two months ago when the latest director, Andy Clarke, resigned over the current debacle. The trust hopes it can revive its partnership with Thomas if he does take over. In a statement, the trust said there was a “drastic need” for David Cardoza and Grossman to answer questions about the £10.25m. Describing Lomax as “our dear friend, who spearheaded the supporters’ movement”, the trust stated: “We know that Brian would be very proud to see Cobblers fans unite to try and rescue their club once again.” And with that, they take their buckets to the Ricoh Arena. Meanwhile, Northampton borough council continues to seek answers about what happened to £10.25m of public money intended to improve a football ground.
In other words, Mr. Markowitz said: “You can’t say ‘if you don’t use your police officers to go after unauthorized immigrants, you don’t get any money for your hospitals.’ They can’t impose conditions that are totally unrelated.” According to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, a national group, at least 39 cities and 364 counties nationwide count themselves as sanctuary jurisdictions, but they vary in how limited they are in restricting cooperation with immigration enforcement. California has been one of the leaders in offering sanctuary, and reaction there was strong. An hour after the president signed the order, a group of California state senators said they planned to fight it in court, with help from Eric H. Holder Jr., former attorney general, whom the Legislature has retained to take on what the senators said they expected would be continued fights with the Trump administration. They said Mr. Trump’s order violated the 10th Amendment by forcing local governments to enforce federal statutes. Mayor Sam Liccardo of San Jose, who counts his city among the ranks of sanctuaries without using the term, said that, on matters of public safety, ”our police chief is the best person to decide how to use the scarce resources we have.” “It’s not simply an ideological decision,” he said. “Our Police Department, like most, doesn’t engage in federal tax laws, federal environmental laws or federal immigration laws.” San Francisco featured prominently in the debate over sanctuary city policies after the killing of Kathryn Steinle, a resident of the city, in July 2015.
There were a number of exciting things happening at ICML this past week, which took place in Lille, France. Deep learning remains the primary interest among a lot of research and excitement at ICML, where questions related to them would percolate even to the Bayesian nonparametrics and approximate inference sessions. It looks like a lot of the community has been paying more attention to introducing uncertainty in neural networks. (Deep) generative models are starting to get more headway now that approximate Bayesian inference algorithms—variational inference especially—are more tractable. Buzzwords now concentrate on variational autoencoders, probabilistic backpropagation, and deep latent variable models. On strictly the probabilistic side, there continues to be more work on increasing computational gains with subsampling, distributed implementations, and sparse GPs. There’s been a lot of interesting work on trying to merge various approximate inference algorithms in order to obtain a more unifying framework. ICML had this running theme on generalizability since Leon Bottou’s keynote talk, discussing the limitations of machine learning and the general inability for current algorithms to easily infer from small data sets as humans do. Transfer learning, zero-shot learning, and comments on approaches from cognitive science received more exposure. There was another theme on context and learning actual concepts: why should a picture of a car on a road have a higher probability of being classified as a car than a picture of a car in a swimming pool? It seems no matter how powerful our computer vision algorithms get, they still do not grok what a car is. The statistical answer is that it’s nigh impossible to learn a true “test” distribution that is not the same distribution as that generated for the training data; cars in swimming pools are simply something our algorithms haven’t seen much of, and we should be able to somehow weight the learning more on the tail of the distribution. Favorite papers
De Blasio opposes Airbnb, Quinn tries to 'thread the needle' for them One other takeaway from the mayoral forum on technology this afternoon: two of the leading Democratic candidates defended current New York laws prohibiting short-term housing rentals, such as the ones listed on Airbnb.com. The popular travel arrangement site operates globally, but it has faced resistance in New York from lawmakers and hotel unions, who view the site as unwanted competition for the local hotel industry. The company has said it would like to change the local laws to include their services. Story Continued Below At today's panel, Buzzfeed editor Ben Smith, who moderated the discussion, asked if the government should "be putting up barriers" to sites like Airbnb? Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who is relying heavily on labor to boost his chances in the primary, said the city has strong laws guaranteeing the quality of residential and hotel dwellings. "The problem with mixing the two on the open market is your are exposing folks in a [residential] building [to] folks who are not part of that system," he said. He went on to say people living in those co-ops, condos or apartments "did not sign up for" having hotel-like transients as their neighbors. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn agreed, but said she'd like to find a compromise to help the company operate in New York. Instead of pitting housing and labor against startup companies like Airbnb, Quinn, a former housing advocate, said the lesson from this fight is "we need to add tech entrepreneurs more into the conversation about government. Because, had AirBnB entered into the conversation earlier, there might have been different relief that could be offered to them in Albany. And in fact my office is in conversation with them now to see if there is some way to thread the needle differently for them." Adolfo Carrion Jr., the former White House Urban Policy director, who also worked at the Housing and Urban Development agency, said, "I'm not entirely convinced it is a gigantic issue; it is an important issue though." Carrion, who said he used a similar site when visiting his daughter while she is studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain, also said the city needs to make sure that much-needed affordable housing units aren't taken out of the market and unfairly used by people as hotel rooms. City Comptroller John Liu seemed unfamiliar with the company when he was asked about it. The two other Democratic candidates on the panel, former comptroller Bill Thompson and former councilman Sal Albanese, were not asked about the issue.
Firstly, according to World Bank Group report, Singapore is the easiest country for starting and doing business. The second is New Zealand and third is Hong Kong. At Part 1, I will investigate the business conditions in Singapore and Hong Kong. Nowadays, a lot of firms and entrepreneurs from Europe and USA move to the Asia. According to Telegraph UK's news about start-ups record number of British entrepreneurs moved to the Hong Kong to start or continue their firm. In this article, I'm going to give the reasons about `Why Western Companies are moving to the East?`Firstly, according to World Bank Group report, Singapore is the easiest country for starting and doing business. The second is New Zealand and third is Hong Kong. At Part 1, I will investigate the business conditions in Singapore and Hong Kong. According to data, in Hong Kong and Singapore, entrepreneurs can establish their firm in just 1 day with small amount of money. ($300 in Singapore) Basically, you don't have to fight against bureaucracy like Europe. It is simple and easy. Let's see in more detail. Hong Kong Hong Kong is now in the world news because of the protests yet Hong Kong's economical view is `Small Government, Big Market` which indicates free trade and individual rights. Mostly entrepreneurs think that Hong Kong's government is the same as China which is not true. What is more, Hong Kong basically holds %20 of China's trade which is huge. Why Doing Business in Hong Kong? Hong Kong is the backyard of China. Usually, firms who want to enter the enormous Asian market, start their business in Hong Kong. Why? Simply,because Hong Kong is very near to mainland China which is the second biggest market in the world. Moreover, population's wealth is growing rapidly which increase the purchasing power at the same time. The best but not the least is minimum tax. There are no capital gain tax and %16,5 profit tax. (%21 in UK, %33 in France) Singapore According to IMF's GDP Per Capita ranking, Singapore has the third biggest GDP per capita in the world. Singapore known as `East meet with West in Business` because Eastern society's Western Business style. Having the best infrastructure, education and health-care system in the region is another positive side of Singapore. Why Doing Business in Singapore? Location is the first advantage to make Business in Singapore. Singapore is in the middle of the Asia which is very big plus for transportation and trade. Singapore is very unique country in the Asia Region where economical and political stability combined. Growing economy (in 3 years GDP per Capita growth more than %20) is also another catalyst for new start-ups. Moreover, country's No Tariff Policy gives big advantage for companies. (Foreign, Local doesn't matter) Like Hong Kong, Singapore has minimum tax rates which help companies to grow up rapidly. Capital gains are not taxable and corporation tax is for new established companies 0% and for others it is just 17%. Income tax is based on what you earn and maximum %20 if you earn more than $200.000 per year.(whereas maximum tax in UK %40 and in France %70)
This first Full Moon of 2017 has the Moon positioned between the twin fixed stars Castor and Pollux at 22 Cancer with squares from the luminaries to Jupiter and Uranus. This forms a grand cross pattern that highlights the opposition between Jupiter and Uranus- an aspect that first went exact in December 2016 and will perfect another two times, with the final pass in September 2017. While the opposition is an aspect that produces tensions and sudden events, this one has often been viewed as a kind of pressure valve which allows release from repressions and restrictions in one’s circumstances. As such it can produce change that is upsetting to the degree that one has allowed things to stagnate, and one’s general flexibility. Jupiter opposition Uranus can show a range of surprizes in the form of people, events, or even sporadic gambles and risks taken to juggle the status quo. These can range from a lucky break to an unanticipated and unwelcome disruption. Notwithstanding the way it effects you at the time, once absorbed the shock can lead to greater freedom in some way, shape or form. A Full Moon is a time of culmination, representing a harvest of efforts begun at the New Moon, both the one two weeks prior as well as a broader arc of the New Moon in the same sign 6 months prior. In the sign of Cancer, the efforts bearing fruit right now are likely to be around home and family matters, areas where you have made significant investments both financially and emotionally. The Full Moon in Cancer is highly dignified, emphasising the nurturing, intuitive, and family/home orientation of the Moon and is underscored by the squares between the luminaries and Jupiter. This Moon is strongly feeling based and whatever you’re feeling and feelings you’re going through are bound to be amplified! Strongly sentimental, romantic and family orientated this could see a drive to greater security, rootedness and connection. A natural and benefic expression could take the form of entertainment (throwing or going to a party),or even a speculative investment around property, the home or family. With Uranus square to the luminaries surprize events or gambles could effect these areas of your life. Cancer is a sign that favours stability, is strongly protective and often one to hold a grudge! If tension has been building up around an area of personal vendetta this could be the time when these erupt and boil over. Moodiness and surges of emotions can be anticipated if areas of security and stability are rocked by chance events and actions. Moon/Sun square Jupiter The squares from the luminaries to Jupiter are generally considered favourable, that is to say these are not difficult squares and can produce gains, luck, abundance and good times. The caveat with Jupiter is usually a question of self restraint. With the Moon in Cancer this hinges on the emotions and one’s mastery in this regard. Jupiter and the luminaries in square can show too much of a good thing- an extravagance of feeling or spending. The balance lies in reining in the surplus and not going overboard. Moon square Jupiter This aspect can show gains both materially and emotionally in the sense of feelings of generosity suited to entertaining and displays that find favour with others. Jupiter and the Moon are able to generate popularity and engender the support of the masses- with the square this could be good or bad publicity. Emotions can be extravagant ranging from the sentimental and empathetic to possessive and vindictive. In terms of outlay of resources this could be a financial gamble or investment. This is well suited to entertaining on a large scale, engendering the good will of friends and family. The success of either venture is down to one’s ability to navigate extremes of feeling with concomitant good judgement. Sun square Jupiter Actions and gestures can be flamboyant and over the top with confidence and spirits at a premium. Opportunities can present for honour and success though these can be challenged too. Flamboyance and generosity couples with good will. With the Moon in Cancer the sign of home, tribe, family and Jupiter in the mix, its a good time to entertain, as humour and abundance are a great way to channel any excess in a productive and satisfying manner. Moon/Sun square Uranus This Full Moon is positioned between the fixed stars Castor and Pollux, the twin stars of Gemini with the Moon moving to conjunct Pollux. The character of the twins grants mental versatility, quickness, and duality. The effects of this can show contrary impulses, a divided nature and a tendency to whimsicality. Pollux, the more pronounced in the Full Moon array, was considered by Ptolomy to have the nature of Mars and without constructive channelling of energy could show impulsive action, rashness, and defective sight. The influence of the twins at this Full Moon underscores the separating squares from the luminaries and Uranus- with chance events and encounters provoking ill considered actions. Moon square Uranus The influence of Uranus can produce some volatile erratic emotions and the sort of events and people that can precipitate such reactions. This influence can show a hankering for distraction, novelty, and adventure of a fleeting variety. As such one can behave out of character or in a way that jettisons duties and responsibilities. With the influence of the fixed star Pollux this underlines the need to consider actions, behavior, and the appropriateness of emotional responses. Reactions are bound to be provoked by sudden events or others behaving inappropriately. Sun square Uranus This aspect can show disruptions to routine that can range from impulsive actions, to quarrels, breakdown of cars or computers- generally unanticipated setbacks. Energetically there can be agitation and impatience. With both Sun and Moon square expect chance events to rock the boat emotionally. Uranus always presents us with the unexpected. Depending on the nature of the surprize and our own flexibility in navigating changes of circumstance this bolt from above can be welcome or inconvenient and upsetting. Summary The character of this Full Moon is quite contrary and slanted to emotional excess around threats or disruptions around home and family affairs. This could go either way. We could entertain on a lavish scale with a show of generosity and hospitality. This first option shows ‘controlled excess’ of a variety that garners the good will, humour, and abundance- thus maxing out on the squares to Jupiter and the high essential dignity of the Moon in Cancer. The other option has us provoked into ill considered expression of volatile emotions and faced with the damaging consequences thereof. The greater benefic (Jupiter) encourages growth and excess, and with the emotional emphasis of Cancer, the challenge is to channel excess feeling in a way that is not damaging to your person or affairs. The separating squares from Uranus and the luminaries indicates random chance and unexpected events or people provoke emotional reactions and behaviour. The influence of the twins, Pollux underscores challenges from cross purposes and difficulty in discernment with regards to actions and words. So the advice is to go overboard in a manner in that garners the good will of others and allow extravagant emotions to simmer down. “First think, then act, lest foolish be thy deed!”
Since January 2010, spending by outside organizations to influence congressional elections totals some $57 million--up more than $20 million from a comparable time period in 2006, the most recent non-presidential election cycle--according to reports collected by the Federal Election Commission. Though the rising independent expenditures--money spent by outside groups on anything from phone banks and mailing lists to negative political ads to influence a federal election--come after the Supreme Court decisions that weakened campaign finance laws, it's unclear whether those rulings are fueling the boom. While some labor unions have taken advantage of the rulings to directly make independent expenditures, corporations have yet to. And some of the biggest spenders are Republican and Democratic party committees not affected by the court decisions. But there are more than thirty political organizations that have filed documents with the FEC declaring their intention to receive unlimited contributions from any source to influence the 2010 mid-term elections. To track all these independent expenditures, and the groups that make them, in real time the Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group is releasing a new tool to Follow the Unlimited Money, available on our home page now. The tool allows users to search independent expenditure filings by organization, candidate and race. Although so far there is no indication that money from corporations is flowing to influence an election in FEC reports, there is a spike in spending by labor unions. Overall, among the top four organizations making independent expenditures are two labor unions, the Service Employees International Union ($7.2 million) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees ($5.8 million). In 2006 these two labor unions spent only $303,000 and $4.5 million respectively, though they did contribute millions more to other political organizations that focused on federal candidates. A pair of party committees--the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee--round out the top four. During the same nine-month period from January to September in 2006, the last mid-term election, outside groups spent $35.3 million, according to an official with the FEC--far less than the $57 million in 2010. And with more than five weeks to go before the mid-term elections, independent expenditures will likely run that total much higher. So far, leadership PACs and official party committees like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee have been among the top spenders in some races around the country--the sources and amounts of the contributions these organizations can take are limited by federal election law. Outside groups have focused their spending on close races. For instance, the Arkansas Senate race involving incumbent Blanche Lincoln and challenger Bill Halter in the primary and Republican nominee John Boozman, has seen the greatest amount of independent money spent so far at just under $8 million. Halter, the state’s Lieutenant Governor, forced Lincoln into a runoff when neither candidate won 50 percent of the vote in the primary. Outside groups, including SEIU and Working America, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, spent more than $4 million spent to support Halter. Labor unions also spent $2.3 million on ads opposing Lincoln. Despite the substantial amount spent in his favor, Lincoln defeated Halter. The Colorado Senate race pitting Democratic incumbent Michael Bennet against the tea party-supported Republican nominee, Ken Buck, has also drawn substantial attention, ranking fourth among elections with the most outside spending. Outside groups have spent $3.4 million to influence that election. The Senate Conservatives Fund, a leadership PAC set up by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has spent $140,000 supporting Buck, while the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the official party committee of Senate Democrats, devoted $1.67 million to defeating him. The League of Conservation Voters Fund, SEIU and Working America are supporting Bennet, while Amerian Crossroads--Karl Rove's highly publicized group--and the Club for Growth have opposed him. Overall, outside groups have doled out $311,000 to reelect Bennet and $1.3 million to retire him. In the Missouri Senate race, American Crossroads is spending $340,000 to oppose Democrat Robin Carnahan, currently Secretary of State--more than ten percent of the $3.2 million in independent expenditures spent on the race. Roy Blunt soaks up a great deal of that money with over $2.5 million spent against him by several groups including League of Conservation Voters and Women Vote!; Blunt has drawn only $21,000 from groups to support him. The defeated Democratic incumbent from Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter, only had a total of $55,000 in independent money spent in support and opposition of him, while the overall total in that Senate race is $3.1 million. Pat Toomey, the Republican nominee absorbs the bulk of this spending with $2.5 million spent in opposition of him and just $53,000 spent to support him. Joseph Sestak, Jr., the Democratic nominee, has had $469,000 spent against him and $62,000 spent to support him. The special election that put republican Scott Brown in office in Massachusetts had the seventh greatest amount of money spent at $3 million. Martha Coakley’s failed attempt for Senate seat was aided by $1.5 million spent to support her, while Brown’s successful attempt was helped by $1.3 million. The Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group conducted this analysis using records released by the FEC. To see our comprehensive database containing all independent expenditure money, click here. Aaron Bycoffe contributed to this report.
Brutal drug cartel beheadings continue throughout parts of southern Mexico as rival criminal organizations fight over lucrative territories, spreading terror and bloodshed. The escalation of violent acts such as forced videotaped confessions of captured rivals with subsequent beheading and other mutilations is comparable to the terror tactics used by ISIS propaganda. Most cartel confessions and beheadings follow a similar script where the captured victim is placed in front of a camera with several rival cartel members dressed in military gear with their faces covered, standing guard. There is usually one interrogator who forcefully asks basic questions such as, “how long have you been working,” and for whom. They are also asked for names of bosses and if they are colluding with police, military, or other officials. The victims in many of these forced videotaped confessions show signs of having been beaten or tortured and at the end of the video, they are either shot or brutally decapitated or dismembered with various types of knives. Usually at the end of the videos, one of the gunmen will deliver a warning to rivals or those who support them that they face the same treatment for their involvement with a rival cartel. To the public, cartels like to portray themselves as a protector of the community and that they only murder those involved in criminal activities. In one of the most recent videos from the Mexican state of Michoacan, a young man from the town of Apatzingan is beheaded after he is forced to confess to murdering a rival; as well as how a Mexican Army sergeant and others are allegedly operating with one of the cartels. The teen claims to be the brother of Juan Carlos “El Duende” Marquez Perez a member of Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) who was arrested in 2015. The teen is then beheaded by individuals believed to be from the Los Viagras, allies of La Nueva Familia Michoacana and rivals of CJNG. Breitbart Texas has confirmed that the young man’s remains were wrapped in trash bags and then dumped in the streets of Apatzingan. The ongoing violence comes at a time when Mexico is attempting to curtail a record-breaking number of murders and violence that has spread to many parts of the country. The government continues to shift around military assets from hotspot to hotspot, taking security control from municipal and state police forces who have either been overwhelmed by cartels or are complicit in criminal activities. Robert Arce is a retired Phoenix Police detective with extensive experience working Mexican organized crime and street gangs. Arce has worked in the Balkans, Iraq, Haiti, and recently completed a three-year assignment in Monterrey, Mexico, working out of the Consulate for the United States Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program, where he was the Regional Program Manager for Northeast Mexico (Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas.) Jose Luis Lara, a former leading member who helped start the Self-Defense Movement in Michoacán and is a writer for the Cartel Chronicles Project contributed to this report.
Congress strongholds Rabareli and Amethi will now have power cuts like other districts of UP but 'VIP' tag on home turfs of SP biggies Mulayam and Azam Khan stays. Sonia Gandhi (Left) and Rahul Gandhi. Raebareli and Amethi- the parliamentary constituencies of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Uttar Pradesh- will no more have 24x7 power supply. The Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) late Thursday withdrew the 'VIP' status given to the two districts in the state - a sign of the growing differences between Samajwadi Party (SP), the ruling party in UP, and the Congress at the centre. The decision to provide round-the-clock electricity to the two Congress strongholds was taken nine months ago. But soon after the privilege was taken away, power went off in the two districts for more than four hours, officials said. Uninterrupted power supply, however, continues to other VIP zones such as Mainpuri (SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's parliamentary constituency), Kannauj (Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple's parliamentary constituency), Etawah (home district of the Yadav family), Sambhal (constituency of Mulayam's nephew Dharmendra Singh Yadav) and Rampur (home turf of UP cabinet minister Mohammad Azam Khan). The UP government, led by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, had run into rough weather when power regulatory authority sought a reply from it on the logic behind 24x7 power supply to nine districts, including Raebareli and Amethi, when other parts of the state was reeling under power crisis. While officials preferred to keep mum on the matter, owing to its "sensitivities and political overtones", officials privy to the decision said from now on, power supply to these districts would be "normal" -- at par with others. UPPCL officials justified the move, saying there was growing demand for power and stagnant supply. "With the onset of summer, power demand is at its peak. We have to devise ways to accommodate every district," an official said. But Congress spokesman Amarnath Agarwal said the move smacked of politics. He sought to know why some districts continued to get uninterrupted power supply, if power shortage was really the reason behind the move.
0 With Captain America: Civil War opening in theaters this weekend, I spoke today with British composer Henry Jackman about the cool score he created for Marvel’s highly anticipated third film in the franchise directed by Anthony & Joe Russo and starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey, Jr. and Scarlett Johansson. Jackman previously composed the thrilling score for the studio’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In this latest installment of the comic book adaptation, saving the world becomes even more dangerous when the Avengers fracture and fight among themselves after the government accuses the superheroes of vigilantism and political pressure mounts to oversee their activities. In an exclusive interview with Collider, Jackman talked about his latest collaboration with the Russo Brothers, his creative process, why Civil War is tonally so different from The Winter Soldier, the distinct music he crafted to capture the film’s major themes and its newest characters: Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and Zemo (Daniel Brühl), how he used more symphonic and orchestral music and less electronic this time around, what it was like recording at London’s AIR Studio, his most memorable moments working on the film, his upcoming movies Birth of a Nation and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, and the best advice he ever got from Hans Zimmer about being a film composer. Check it all out in the interview below. Be aware there may be a few spoilers: This is your second collaboration with the Russo Brothers. How was the creative process this time around in terms of crafting the sound and helping them realize their vision? HENRY JACKMAN: That’s a really good question. It’s something a bit like fitting into clothes you already know. If you’ve worked with people before, you have that great benefit of joining in a team that’s already been a bit on a mission and hopefully succeeded. So, that part of it is a known quantity, and you’re not feeling each other out for the first time as it were. But, funnily enough, this movie tonally was so different to the second one, especially what I did with the music. It’s a lot more symphonic and orchestral. In a way, even though you’re joining the same people, you’re going on a completely different trip. It’s sort of a combination of the known and the unknown. The unknown was it took a little while to find the tone for this movie, which I was very happy about, because it’s really different. The movie has so many characters in it. It’s sort of half Captain America, half an Avengers film in a way, and the tone of it is different. By the time you get to the fight at the airport, with superhero versus superhero, it’s just a slightly different approach than in the second Cap film. It meant that I got to use more symphonic and orchestral music and less electronic than the second one. So, it’s a bit of both. You may be joining the same team and you all know each other, but you’re still marching out into the unknown to find what the right thing is for the next film. Did you have initial discussions and then you worked in a solitary manner or did you collaborate closely with them throughout? JACKMAN: It’s sort of the first. What happens, especially once you have a working relationship and people trust you, yeah, you have discussions. You watch the movie. I’ll pitch them some ideas. Then what happens is I say, “Let me just go away and start writing.” There’s only so much you can talk about it. Then, I’ll go and start writing. I’ll write some themes. I’ll write a Spider-Man theme and a Captain America theme for this particular movie. Let me just get going and then meet up again and collaborate and show what I’ve written and what’s working and what isn’t working. It’s a mixture of both. What would tend to happen is I would write non-stop for a week, and then every week we’d meet up and play through the music. The great thing about the Russo Brothers is they have just the right balance of not being so interfering that it’s micromanagement, but giving just the right guidance and filmmaking pointers for various scenes and various pieces without every going, “Oh, this is what the viola should be doing,” or “Why don’t you use these notes?,” or anything like that, which is great. It’s the perfect combination of just enough involvement but not in a musical micro-managerial veto. How long did you work on the score? Did you have months to work on this or was it a fairly short schedule? JACKMAN: No, it was months. If you added it up, it might have been four or five months, I think. Something like that. I’d read the script ages before because that existed. Then, I saw the movie maybe five or six months before the movie came out. Especially with a big film like that, it’s about 115 minutes of score, and there’s a lot of characters and a lot of musical challenges to figure out. So, you need about that much. This is Marvel’s third film in the franchise. Did Marvel give notes or make any suggestions in terms of the music? JACKMAN: Not really. No. Kevin Feige has a really good judgment for picking people he wants to do the job and do it the way he wants it done. And then, the fact that he picked Joe and Anthony Russo, when he first selected them to do Captain America 2, I thought was quite a bold move. It’s not like they’d done millions of films. Once he’s confident that they really are on top of what’s supposed to be happening, which they absolutely were, he really trusts them. The whole process of getting the score done is not just Kevin. Kevin, the head of the studio, would listen to stuff, but as long as he’s not hearing anything that he doesn’t think is right, he’s very happy to let his directors execute the vision. There wasn’t too much. That’s not to say if things were going horribly wrong, I’m sure he’d have something to say, but he’s got the wisdom to know if things are working, let it progress. If things aren’t working, step in and do something about it. How did you go about creating distinct music that captures the film’s major themes but is also unique to the characters and reveals their depth and complexity? JACKMAN: I have no idea. (Laughs) Basically, the first stage is when you read the script. I find scripts very helpful. You think it’s a bit counterintuitive, because until you’re really seeing something brought to life, how would you get inspired? But actually, when you read a script, and if it’s a good one, you’re beginning to get the secret structural information on what’s important and what themes are important. It’s a 200-page long thing and it has all these details, but as you read it, you’re starting to go, “Okay, fine.” There are all these different things, but what’s the most important thing? Obviously, Captain America, then the Civil War. What are the themes that are important? Okay, Spider-Man is showing up. Black Panther is showing up. You start to get these sort of structural indicators of what’s going to be important in the music. Now that doesn’t equate yet to having written music, but you’re starting to figure out why you’re writing this and what it’s for. I don’t even know quite how it works really. I just start watching it, and I start writing and try and find something that both thematically and tonally suits that character or that idea. What instruments did you use in your score and how did the choice of instruments vary depending on the themes and the context of a scene? JACKMAN: Sometimes you’ll make a very self-conscious choice, and like I said, this movie was more orchestral. Basically, coming out the gates, it’s the symphonic Western orchestra as we understand it – an enormous great string section, triple woodwinds, full brass section. I actually used a bit of choir. So, that’s the full symphony orchestra at your disposal as a composer. Obviously, in heroic writing, brass is going to take a real front seat in that. Then, you get into the extra colors that you can think about that could potentially help characterization. With Zemo, for instance, I used a lot of these rather unusual tuned bells. We filled the whole of our studios one day with every known manufacturer of obscure tuned percussion and also a cimbalom, because I wanted a slightly otherly sound, and also the cimbalom with roots a little bit in a feeling of East Europe. Some of the names of these bells that we had I’d never even heard of. I sent the musician some of the files because immediately I was writing, and I said to him, “Do me a favor. Just so we get inspired, bring every conceivable type of tuned bell you’ve ever heard of. He took this quite literally, because when we got there, it was an entire room, like a sort of laboratory, with instruments I’d never seen nor heard of, and they were fascinating. We used those for Zemo along with the cimbalom. For Black Panther, to get a slightly extra color, I actually used a combination funnily enough of these African woodwinds for when he’s talking about his ancestors. Also, muted orchestral trombones were very useful for Black Panther because it brought his character into the grandeur of the symphony orchestra, but there’s a slightly vengeful, serrated sound to muted trombones if you pick the right kind of mood. That was very handy. So yeah, you can tinker. If you use certain colors outside of the Western symphony orchestra, it can be very handy. There are a few electronic textures, not too many, but there are just a few subtle electronic textures around the place to help out. How do you balance creating music for the large action sequences in this film with the more intimate moments between the characters? JACKMAN: Oh it’s great. I don’t think it’s really that challenging, because if you had to spend four months writing 115 minutes of intimate music, you’d be chomping at the bit to do something on a grand scale and with more kineticism to it. Conversely, if you had to write 115 minutes of non-stop kinetic thematic action music, you’d be praying for a bit of space so that you could write something else. So, it sort of balances itself out. It’s like anything else in life really. If you’ve got 115 minutes of music, it’s only natural that there should be quite a wide variation, especially in a movie like this where there are many different things going on. Not only are there many different characters, but you’ve sort of got a thriller beat to the film. You’ve got the Zemo character. You’ve got the overall concept of the Civil War. You’ve got comedy. There’s so much going on that it only makes sense that there are many types of musical psychology within the score. What was it like recording the score at London’s AIR Lyndhurst Studio? JACKMAN: It was great. I actually love that room. The main room at AIR has been around I don’t know how long to say. Someone would have to look it up, but it has a certain historical grandeur to it just being there, and the players are absolutely fantastic. I think we were there for six days, and I was driving them crazy just constantly pushing for an ever better performance. By any standards, they had already played it absolutely amazingly and I’d just be going, “Just let’s try one more for this one little reason.” You’d raise their salary, but you’d already paid them amazingly less. They really didn’t mind. They just kept at it. If they heard me say that, they’d probably hate me. (Laughs) It’s a combination of being brilliant musicians, but also they were enormously committed to the project. And the combination of the two things, you get incredible results. Is there a day or two you’ll always remember from working on Captain America: Civil War? JACKMAN: I think two things really stick out. One is the first evening we were doing this tuned percussion for the Zemo character. I’d popped out for dinner and arrived at the studio where formerly the symphony orchestra had been sitting there to be confronted by an entire army of all sorts of exotic instruments that looked like a Dr. Seuss or a Terry Gilliam film with all these bizarre, weird instruments I’d never seen in my life. It was amazing and very educational. The other thing I’ll probably remember that stands out is right towards the end of the film. In the final battle between Captain America, Winter Soldier and Iron Man, the tone changes and becomes somewhat operatic and it’s almost classical in its style. I knew I sort of wanted to do that with the score, but I was a little nervous as to whether it was a good idea, because some of the harmony and the orchestration really does get quite classical. Just before writing it, I was ringing the picture editor to say, “Wow, I got this idea and I don’t know if I should go for it.” I was procrastinating on writing that last sequence because it was like stepping into the water on a cold day. Then, as soon as I put my foot in and started writing it, I just launched in and I was very happy with that last battle at the end and the music. That Act 3 of the movie I was very, very happy with, but I was chewing my fingernails before writing it because I wasn’t quite sure whether I’d be allowed to go for it. Can you talk about your upcoming projects: Birth of a Nation which premiered at Sundance earlier this year and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back which is in post? Have you seen the finished films and what are your thoughts? JACKMAN: Yes, they’re both great films and hugely different. Birth of a Nation we already know there’s a huge amount of excitement and interest in it. Nate Parker wrote, starred and directed it, which can potentially sound like one of those awful vanity projects. But, I can’t think of anyone who’s done such an incredible job at making a beautiful and an important film, and in an understated way, and against the odds, and with a subject matter that’s controversial and thought provoking. He’s an incredibly inspiring personality who singlehandedly took a project that many people didn’t believe could get financed or could get released. He certainly didn’t have any of the usual resources that people could expect to have in making a movie that ended up as good as his. He overcame every single obstacle, and I was just very proud to be able to be part of that process. When we started, we kind of looked at each other and said, “Well, let’s not worry about budget right now, because at the moment we have nothing. So, we’ll worry about it later and we’ll make something happen.” And somehow it did happen. We ended up with a score with gospel choir, solo cello, children’s choir, two solo singers, a symphony orchestra. It’s one of the scores I’m most proud of. And the Jack Reacher film that I’m just involved in now is a very interesting one. It’s amazing to work on a movie with Tom Cruise. I mean, we all know what he’s capable of doing. What’s interesting about this film is we all know that he’s been a superstar in so many successful action films. It’s got all of that in the Jack Reacher film, but it’s also got a really strong dramatic and emotional performance. Because he’s been so successful with action films, some people might have forgotten the Tom Cruise of Jerry Maguire and Magnolia. He’s actually a dramatic actor of a serious nature and there’s that actually in the film as well. So, it’s a really interesting combination of the sort of things you’d expect in an espionage-type thriller and an action-based film, but it also has this really strong dramatic performance which I personally think makes it way deeper and a much more enjoyable experience. What’s the best advice you ever got about being a composer? JACKMAN: Being a film composer, the best advice I ever got was probably from Hans Zimmer who said, “It’s all very well writing music, and it’s all very well being good at writing music, but the real secret is you’ve got to know why you’re writing it and what it’s for.” Captain America: Civil War is in theaters now.
The monster in question, of course, is one Donald J. Trump. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images) THE MORNING PLUM: With the Republican Party cracking up over whether to continue to support Donald Trump’s imploding presidential campaign, the Post reports this morning that Democrats are beginning to think they have a genuine chance at recapturing the House of Representatives. Most of the evidence suggests that this remains a real long shot. But some new internal polling by Democrats hints at a dynamic that appears to be taking shape and is interesting in its own right: It may be too late for Republicans to gain much from distancing themselves from Trump. The Post report notes that new polling conducted for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has found that tying the generic House Republican candidate to Trump hurts him or her, but crucially, the generic House GOP candidate is also hurt if respondents are told that he or she has recently withdrawn support for Trump: [The cowardly GOP has engineered its own suicide] While a generic ballot tests shows a Democrat up by 7 points over any Republican lawmaker, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s poll — conducted nationwide by the Global Strategy Group — shows the Democratic candidate has a 12-point edge if the Republican recently withdrew their support from Trump. If a Republican lawmaker continues to support Trump, the private polling shows they are at a similar 12-point deficit…. The survey showed than 61 percent of voters said Republicans who decided to withdraw support for Trump over the past few days “lack character and integrity” compared to 39 percent who said those Republicans “are showing character and integrity for standing up to Donald Trump.” Dem operatives have concluded that Republicans are now stuck in the impossible position of either embracing their party’s presidential nominee and alienating swing voters critical to maintaining their hold on Congress or rejecting him and angering their base. As you can see, the polling also suggests cutting Trump loose, in addition to angering the base, may not earn a GOP lawmaker much credit from swing voters. Now, you should always treat internal polls with suspicion. But it’s worth noting that Global Strategy Group is a highly rated pollster, and also that yesterday’s NBC/WSJ poll found a similar seven point advantage for Democrats in the generic ballot match-up. At a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Oct. 10, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said he might make six campaign stops a day during the week leading up to Election Day. (The Washington Post) If this assessment is right, please remember: This was eminently predictable. Indeed, some people actually predicted it. As GOP strategist and former Jeb Bush adviser Tim Miller pointed out in early August, when Trump was embroiled in a huge public fight with the Khan family, that was the time for GOP lawmakers and officials to cut Trump loose, because all indications were that he would only get worse over time. If they didn’t, Miller noted, they ran a serious risk: “If Republicans are going to have to disavow Trump eventually because of how bad his behavior has gotten, it is incumbent on them to get the political benefit of doing it when it’s a principled stand, rather than waiting until they are backed into a corner and there’s no other choice.” [Donald Trump is the GOP’s chemotherapy] Of course, now Republicans are backed into a corner, by the sex tape revelations. And, having stood by him despite months of his racism, hate speech, and pathological abusiveness, it’s possible they may not get much benefit from severing themselves from him at the last minute. Now, even if this is correct, there is still no telling how it will impact the outcome of the battle for the House. As the Post story notes, Democrats are now ratcheting up their ads tying House GOP incumbents to Trump, and they are targeting some 49 GOP-held seats in districts that Barack Obama won in 2012 or came close to winning. But Democrats have to capture a forbidding 30 seats, and as of today, the Cook Political Report still rates only 26 GOP-held seats as either Toss-ups or Leaning Democratic. But still, it does appear that many GOP lawmakers in swing districts might be ensnared in something of a Trump Trap. This was neatly illustrated by this Trump tweet today about Paul Ryan, in response to Ryan’s announcement that he will no longer be campaigning for Trump and will devote himself solely to protecting his House majority: Despite winning the second debate in a landslide (every poll), it is hard to do well when Paul Ryan and others give zero support! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2016 Trump is already blaming Ryan for his own tanking poll numbers. And he has already signaled that other GOP lawmakers who are insufficiently loyal to him will also be in his cross-hairs. And so, this Trump Trap was created in part by GOP lawmakers’ willingness to stick by him even as he sank deeper into madness and depravity. The swing voters in these relatively-Obama-friendly districts may now see Trump as being more toxic than ever, perhaps rendering Dem efforts to tie them to him more potent. Meanwhile, the very fact that they stuck by him for so long could make it harder for them to evade such attacks. [Conway loses her integrity and eviscerates the GOP’s appeal to women] But at the same time, the Trump voters these lawmakers also need are perhaps growing angrier as the clock ticks down and victory seems to be slipping away. They may not look kindly on GOP lawmakers who are perceived to be deserting him and in so doing making a Trump loss more likely. And Trump is going to do all he can to feed that rage on his way down. ***************************************************************************** * REPUBLICANS BRACE FOR MORE TRUMP SLIME: The New York Times reports that House Republicans expect more stuff that is just as bad as the sex tape to come out about Trump in coming days. Here’s Rep. Scott Rigell, a Virginia moderate: “There’s a consensus, even among supporters, that the likelihood of something else breaking in a very embarrassing and negative fashion is certainly better than 50-50. The conference, members, et cetera, are bracing themselves for another salvo of this.” But as the Times notes, Trump says that if more revelations come, he’ll respond by cranking up the attacks on Bill Clinton’s affairs, so it should all be fine. * GUESS WHO’S BEHIND TRUMP’S BILL CLINTON STRATEGY? The Post ferrets it out: Trump’s blistering method is being orchestrated by Stephen K. Bannon, the campaign’s chief executive and former head of the acerbic conservative website Breitbart, who has become a near-omnipresent counselor at Trump’s side. He has urged Trump not to worry about any cleavage in party ranks and instead to target Clinton. No one could have predicted that turning the Trump campaign into a Breitbart subsidiary could have produced such a divisive outcome. * CLINTON URGES VOTERS TO REJECT TRUMPISM: On the campaign trail, Clinton is now making the case that the ugliness of the debate is a reason to get out and vote: “That’s what the other side wants you to feel, that ‘I’m not going to vote because it’s so nasty.’ That’s the main reason to vote, to make it clear that we’re not going to put up with that kind of attitude.” As I’ve suggested, Trump’s best hope was to try to pull Clinton down into the pig slop with him. But this may backfire, making core Dem groups more eager to vote. * DEMS EXPAND EFFORT TO TAKE BACK SENATE: CNN reports that the main pro-Clinton Super PAC is now mulling getting involved in the Senate races: According to a source familiar with the plans, Priorities USA is currently producing television ads to potentially air in Senate contests in North Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania — all competitive races that are also battleground states for the presidential race….Although plans are still being finalized, the push would likely start next week, and last three weeks until Election Day. One thing to watch: if Clinton’s lead continues to expand, pressure will mount on her to do more for Dem efforts to take back the Senate and even the House. * EARLY VOTING COULD BOOST CLINTON: Jeremy Peters reports that preliminary data shows that Clinton is building an early lead in the early vote. Two states to watch: Democrats are requesting more absentee ballots in Florida than they were at this point in 2012, with increases of 50 percent in the heavily Hispanic areas around Miami and Orlando. In North Carolina, where Mitt Romney built enough of a lead in early voting four years ago to edge out a victory over President Obama, Democrats are requesting mail-in ballots in larger numbers than in 2012, while Republicans’ participation is declining. And if Trump loses either of those, he probably has no path. Meanwhile, you’re probably shocked that Hispanics are clamoring to vote early this year. What could possibly be the reason for that? * DOZENS OF GOP LAWMAKERS HAVE CUT OFF TRUMP: Here’s the Associated Press’s count: Forty Republican senators and congressmen have revoked their support for the Republican presidential nominee — with nearly 30 of them calling on him to quit the race altogether in recent days. Few were passionate Trump supporters to begin with, the last straw being a video released late last week revealing the former reality television star using predatory language regarding women a decade earlier. Still, it looks like the debate may have stopped the exodus, at least for the time being. * SIGHTING: CLIMATE CHANGE ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL!!! Al Gore campaigns with Clinton today in Florida, and Annie Karni notes his presence is meant to remind young voters that voting third party can have consequences. (Remember Gore, Ralph Nader, and Florida?) Also: Gore will also be making the case about climate change, an issue that motivates millennial voters, especially in Florida, the state with the most property and the biggest population currently at risk from rising sea levels. Good to see someone is talking about it! * QUOTE OF THE DAY, CLOSED CONSERVATIVE FEEDBACK LOOP EDITION: Newt Gingrich is certain, absolutely certain, that Trump won the last debate: “They’ve really raised the ante on Republicans who want to cut and run. How can you have watched that debate without knowing he won?” Conservative voters feel Trump won, which means GOP lawmakers will now have a tougher time cutting him loose. Never mind whether Trump won in the minds of other voters.
NEW DELHI: Check the man's marital status before going in for a live-in partnership was the loud signal from the Supreme Court which ruled that Domestic Violence Act could not be invoked by a woman in a live-in relationship with a married man, especially if she knew his marital status.A relationship between a woman and a married man could not be termed a ‘relationship in the nature of marriage', the basic requirement for an aggrieved woman in a live-in relationship to take recourse to DV Act for action against her ‘erring' partner, the court said.After giving this interpretation to live-in relationship between a married man and an unmarried woman, a bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Pinaki Chandra Ghose said if the married man walked out of such a relationship, the woman was not entitled to seek maintenance under DV Act from him.On the contrary, it warned, the deserted woman ran a risk of being sued for damages by the man's wife and children for alienating them from the love and care of their husband/father.But the bench was aware of the social reality of married men walking out of live-in relationships. Finding that in such situations, poor and illiterate women suffered the most, the apex court appealed to Parliament to take remedial measures through appropriate legislation.One Indra Sarma had a live-in relationship with V K V Sarma, already married with two children. The man moved in with her, started a business enterprise with her and after several years, went back to his family.After the live-in relationship ended, Indra moved a Bangalore court demanding from him a house, a monthly maintenance of Rs 25,000, reimbursement of her medical bills and Rs 3.50 lakh in damages.The trial court found that the two lived together for 18 years. Finding the woman aggrieved, the magistrate directed the man to pay Rs 18,000 per month towards her maintenance under DV Act. The sessions court upheld the trial court decision.But the Karnataka High Court set aside the trial court order saying the live-in relationship did not fall within the ambit of "relationship in the nature of marriage", a cardinal principle for one to invoke DV Act.Upholding the HC order, Justices Radhakrishnan and Ghose said, "We are of the view that the appellant (Indra Sarma) having been fully aware of the fact that respondent (V K V Sarma) was a married person, could not have entered into a live-in relationship in the nature of marriage."Appellant's and respondent's relationship is, therefore, not a ‘relationship in the nature of marriage' because it has no inherent or essential characteristic of a marriage, but a relationship other than ‘in the nature of marriage' and the appellant's status is lower than the status of a wife and that relationship would not fall within the definition of ‘domestic relationship' under Section 2(f) of the DV Act. Consequently, any act, omission or commission or conduct of the respondent in connection with that type of relationship, would not amount to ‘domestic violence' under Section 3 of the DV Act."But the bench noticed the deficiency in law to address such relationships in which women, especially poor and illiterate, suffer the most when their partners –already married men – just walk out. The court said it was for Parliament to take remedial legislative steps to plug this loophole in law.The bench said, "We have, on facts, found that the appellant's status was that of a mistress , who is in distress, a survivor of a live-in relationship which is of serious concern, especially when such persons are poor and illiterate, in the event of which vulnerability is more pronounced, which is a social reality. Children born out of such relationship also suffer most which calls for bringing in remedial measures by Parliament through proper legislation."Despite the concern, the bench decided to go by the law and said, "If any direction is given to the respondent to pay maintenance or monetary consideration to the appellant, that would be at the cost of the legally wedded wife and children of the respondent, especially when they had opposed that relationship and have a cause of action against the appellant (the woman) for alienating the companionship and affection of the husband/parent which an intentional tort."
10/1/2011 Update: This Datsun has been sold. Stay tuned for more BaT Exclusives! From 9/23/2011: This 1974 Datsun SSS-E Bluebird is a Japanese market model that was imported to the USA in 2007. It has 43k original kilometers according to the seller, so under 27k original miles. The car is all stock apart from fresh coil-overs professionally installed by Classic Datsun in Vista, Ca, and 15″ staggered Riverside wheels to match. All original parts are also included, so it could be returned to a stocker if desired. Just last week the car won the “Best 70’s Nissan” award at the recent Japanese Classic Car Show in Long Beach. It is available in San Marcos, California for $15k. The car needs paint to be flawless, but looks very clean as-is. Brand new Kics wheel spacers are included if the buyer wants to fine-tune the wheel spacing. The wheels were restored and straightened, polished with new stainless steel hardware and fitted with brand new Hankook Ventus tires. Troy Ermish supplied the rear coil-overs and Design Products the front coil-overs on modified 280zx struts with Techno Toy camber plates. The interior is a time capsule according to the seller, as good as the day it came off the factory floor. The car features factory air conditioning, a real rarity for Datsuns of this era. It also has a factory AM/FM radio and a wild, separate flat tape-deck. The engine compartment is in very clean shape, and looks all factory apart from the new red-top Optima and the adjustable camber plates. The big air filter housing is spotless and feeds the L16’s factory Bosch fuel injection system. New fuel lines, front brake pads and an oil change were all recently done. The 5-speed transmission shifts nicely and the seller says that the car runs perfectly. The impossible to find front grille chrome trim is also included and the seller says that it is part of a collection that does not get used enough. Check out the additional photos of the car in the Flickr album and slide-show below.
“The Muppets are coming back to TV!” It was the message shouted from the rooftops, reposted all across the internet, hyped over hill and plain, across the vast expanse of the Universe, building to a maddening fury that erupted in a greater magnitude of force than chickens flying over penguins exploding into monsters eating chickens. The Muppets are coming back to TV! Summer 2015 was a glorious time to be a Muppet fan. After the initial announcement of a new TV show was made, both characters and performers dazzled crowds at Comic Con, Disney’s D23 Expo, and Dragon Con. The Muppets were everywhere, promoting what was to be. Fans loved every minute of it. Finally, we said, what we’d been waiting for was happening. We would all see it once again. The Muppets would be right where they belonged, giving the world what it so dearly needed: the world’s third greatest gift (laughter). September 22, 2015 was the air date of The Muppets, Season 1 Episode 1: “Pig Girls Don’t Cry.” It aired on ABC at 8pm Eastern, and the entirety of Muppet fandom eagerly drank in every second, hoping to quench a thirst that had stretched over decades. Did the rich and famous Kermit the Frog and Company deliver? Let’s take a look. Caution: This article contains numerous spoilers. You’ve been warned! Cold Opening. Kermit is the first face we see, and he picks up right where we are in Muppet history, newly-separated from Miss Piggy. We know all about what’s going on, because we’ve been hearing it in the media for months: Kermit is the Executive Producer of the new show Up Late with Miss Piggy. Nothing needs to be explained, which shows how perfectly-tuned the publicity machine has been all summer. It’s all been building up to this moment. Guys, we’re here! On the studio lot with Kermit! His first words to us: “There are a lot of challenges being the Executive Producer on a show starring your ex.” Pan up to the huge sign depicting the Up Late logo. Short, sweet, and funny. Pitch-perfect, because it immediately sets Kermit in his traditional role: the shoulder-er of greater burdens, in a hilarious way. Cue the music! Title Sequence. We continue to see Kermit as the hapless center in this storm of crazies, and that’s as it should be. There are numerous comparisons to The Muppet Show throughout, and while this show is refreshingly new in many ways, there are many hidden and not-so-hidden nods to legacy. For instance, the title sequence crams as many Muppet characters onscreen as it can, just like the opening of the Muppet Show. It begins with Kermit attempting to get his morning coffee in the breakroom. Enter Fozzie, and as the Muppets fly in and out out of a super-speed torrent of characters, Miss Piggy is the last to leave, taking the coffee she naturally assumed Kermit was getting for her. Kermit is left not quite speechless, uttering the classic “Time to get things started,” followed by the familiar musical motive from the Muppet Show theme. Good use of the line, and of the music. Other thoughts: I’m not sure why the typewriter font was chosen for The Muppets logo. As we go through this episode, there is only one scene that concerns the show’s writers, and that’s the profession I think of when I see that font. Maybe it will make more sense in the future? Production Meeting. And we’re off! No red curtain, no “Hi-ho everyone.” We find ourselves immediately in the thick of things, in the 9am production meeting. The Muppets (minus Miss Piggy) are gathered around the table to go over the plan for the day’s show taping. The first joke of the episode (not counting the cold opening) is made by Scooter and Pepe, about a family wedding Pepe recently attended. It’s not a bad joke, but for Pepe it fell a little flat (however I will say it was better the second time I watched it). Everyone is talking as Kermit characteristically tries to quiet the group with no success. Bunsen offers to help by tazing Beaker, whose “Meeeeeeeeep!” and flickering flesh gets the group’s attention. In my mind, for some reason I expected Rizzo to rush up and scream “QUIET!” No such luck here. I wanted Bunsen & Beaker to be bigger here. The Muppets are supposed to explode, a lot, right? This effect, and the joke, felt small. It was funny, but it could have been better. Kermit calls the meeting to order, which paves the comedy road for Zoot to wake up and introduce himself, and add that he is a…at which point Floyd shushes him, saying this isn’t that kind meeting. Zoot! Ladies and gentlemen, ZOOT!! Way to own the first scene of the first episode of the show, buddy! Nice hat, too. Gonzo rounds out the scene with banter that most of us saw in the Summer’s sizzle reel, lamenting the fact that the show will be shot in the cut-away interview style. Unfortunate that this moment needs repeated, since we’ve seen it in numerous advertisements already, however it is needed footage. It’s a good joke and it works, it’s just annoying that we had to watch it again. Other thoughts: It’s always strange for me to watch the Muppets on TV without a laugh track. Not that I need to be told when to giggle, but it helps create a certain world, an environment where Muppet humor lives. I understand that we’re not in that world anymore…but I miss it. This episode didn’t feel like a “first” episode, and I liked that. This wasn’t the beginning, this was another day in the life of the Muppets. No screaming “Hey, we’re back!” (We’ve done that enough over the summer.) That’s also good for syndication, down the road. One final thought in this segment: Is there a danger that this style of show will make the Muppets seem too “normal?” Personally I can see both sides of the argument. Seeing their “private” lives pulls back an awful lot of the curtain, exposing the audience to more facets of these characters than we’re used to. Fozzie is funny because of specific character traits and flaws. Seeing too much of him in-depth threatens to pull us away from those “Fozz-ic” elements. On the other hand, hearing Zoot think he’s at an AA meeting was hilarious. And Pepe makes jokes about his extended family all the time (see: Uncle Minolo). Show Taping. Fozzie is warming up the studio audience for the show’s taping. This looks a lot like the scene from the El Sleezo Cafe, in The Muppet Movie. He even does the “Wocka-Wocka” hula dance, and it’s perfect. Statler and Waldorf make their first appearance as front-row audience members, and it’s a wonderful way to get them into the show, heckling the bear like they always should be. Piggy is finishing makeup and making her way to the set, with snappy dialog between Pig and Frog. This is the first time we see her, as she chews out the makeup artist (“I look like a half-naked Hawaiian dug me up!”). She’s temperamental and testy, but funny. Kermit sees her approaching and advises nearby Scooter “It’s to late for me, save yourself,” as the he scampers away. The whole scene illustrates a pig whose ego runs rampant over everything and everyone. It’s more of the same all-attitude, not-much-else Piggy we’ve seen recently. Next comes some of the technical innovation Steve Whitmire alluded to in talks over the Summer. Miss Piggy leads Kermit in a walk-and-talk around the twists and turns of the production office floor. This is a lot of ground for puppets to cover, and a surprisingly long (and impressive) shot. Kermit takes various notes from Piggy, including: he should lay “generic trash” on top of Piggy’s personal trash in her dressing room, so no one thinks to go through it; he should speak to God about the unpleasing smell of lilacs (He does have a connection there, right? Can’t he call Danny L?); and oh yes, remove Elizabeth Banks from the next day’s show’s guest list. Piggy hates her, and we don’t get to know why. From her reasoning, she’s just being temperamental and unreasonable (Uncle Deadly sidles up with a lint roller during this spat, which is strangely hilarious). Piggy refuses to budge, slamming the door on Kermit. In swoops Bobo the Bear, with a reassuring “So how’d that go for ya, okay then?” This line is a callback to Muppets From Space, a movie largely panned and, in my opinion, unfairly. And even if you didn’t like the movie, how much can you really do with Bobo? Cut to a Kermit talking head saying that, when they were dating, Piggy’s erratic behavior was “kind of sexy,” but when you take dating out of the equation…”she’s just a lunatic.” Wrapping up his audience warmup, Fozzie mentions Bobo as the stage manager, giving him the signal to wrap it up. I like how they’re subtly establishing everybody’s role on the show. “Either that,” Fozzie quips, “or I’m about to be blown away by a tornado!” Is it me, or is that a particularly weak Fozzie joke? Do I expect too much from “bad” jokes? There’s a difference between “good” bad jokes, and truly bad ones. This has been a topic of discussion on the podcast too: I often feel like Fozzie isn’t “here” anymore. It’s very hard to nail a character like Fozzie, as I believe Frank Oz has said numerous times. Maybe having a girlfriend is messing with Fozzie’s self-confidence. Meaning, it’s giving him some. His warm-up routine over, it’s time for the audience – both onscreen and we viewers at home – to see Up Late with Miss Piggy! This is the show-within-a-show that The Muppets revolves around. Both the comedic mockumentary and the late-night show formats are widely recognized in modern television, and it’s exactly where the Muppet characters need to be. They can play in the movies, but their true home, thanks to Jim Henson, will always be television. Fozzie is the Show Announcer, and Sweetums is the cue card holder. Fozzie does a fantastic job here, as does Sweetums (he aptly messes up the cue card sequence, forcing Fozzie to mis-read his lines). The Electric Mayhem is the house band, naturally. As the band plays, Piggy waits behind the curtain for her introduction, continuing to bicker with Kermit. He insists that Piggy better have a good explanation for dropping a guest star one day before taping, to which Piggy response “I do have a good reason: I hate her stupid face!” THAT was funny! I don’t mind Piggy being mean if she’s still being funny. Miss Piggy is announced, as she strides through the curtain to her adoring audience. “I love me just as much as you do!” she jokes. This, ladies and gentlemen, is Miss Piggy. The diva, the star, the swine. She’s wanted to be a superstar her whole life, and now she has her own late-night captive audience. Everything about Up Late just fits. The sets, the costumes, the characters, the audience (live or laugh track, it doesn’t matter). It’s all…well, it’s The Muppets! Backstage, Kermit looks on in disgust. “My life is a bacon-wrapped Hell on Earth,” he grumbles. I am SO glad we got this line out of the way, and I never have to hear it again. It was funny the first time I heard it, but this is the line ABC drove into the ground all Summer, in nearly every advertisement for the show. And now it’s out, and we can all breathe easier. The saving grace of this moment had to be Sam Eagle’s immediate and automatic “Can’t say Hell.” Thank you, Standards & Practices. Other thoughts: Isn’t it weird how Muppet animals can joke about being eaten by humans that they try to entertain? I also hope they find something incredibly fun to do with Bobo. It would be just wonderful if he got some breakout moments during the course of the show. Managing Expectations. We next find ourselves in Kermit’s office, with Scooter and actor Tom Bergeron. It’s nice to see him in the pilot, he’s a longtime friend of the Muppets. Storywise, he’s in Kermit’s office to backfill the open guest spot vacated by Elizabeth Banks. He was nearby, after all, since he’s the host of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars. So it’s cool. Kermit thanks him and Tom leaves the office, after which Kermit chews out Scooter for picking, out of all the “Stars” on that show, Tom Bergeron! Bergeron hears the squabble and says through the window “I’m not on the elevator yet!” Here we see some of Steve Whitmire’s beautiful puppetry: Kermit’s face goes from shock to smarmy smile instantaneously (remember, it’s just a hand inside that head!). Tom B reassures Kermit happily that, despite the indignity, he’ll still happily do the show! Such is the showbiz life. Oh, Tom Bergeron. Next we find Fozzie driving to his girlfriend Becky’s parents’ home, to meet them for the first time over dinner. He’s worried about making a good impression. THIS is good Fozzie. “When your online dating profile says ‘Passionate Bear Looking for Love’, you get a lot of wrong responses. Well, not wrong, er…just, wrong for me.” BAM! Best joke in the whole show, in my opinion! With a huge belly laugh, I remember why I love Fozzie so much. I expect a lot out of him, and I know I’m hard on him. But when he delivers, that bear delivers! Dinner at Becky’s parents’ house goes about how you’d expect, mostly because we’ve seen it before. Not quite shot-for-shot, but close. And once again, the footage is needed for the episode, but the entire sequence feels repetitive to those who watched it earlier in the Summer sizzle reel (which, according to YouTube, is a lot of us). Two differences stand out, though. Becky has been recast from a brunette to a blond, and her father Carl (who, along with her mother, are played by the same actors from the sizzle reel) now sports a comedically ridiculous mustache. Nice caterpillar, Carl. They are the stereotypical sitcom Mom & Dad types: stodgy Dad, syrupy sweet Mom. The living room set is equally generic, which leaves lots of room for Becky and Fozzie’s relationship to stand out as the one thing in their lives that doesn’t “fit.” They’re having salmon for dinner. Really? Cue another bear joke…ugh, we get it, he’s a bear. Mom, helpfully: “They do catch [salmon] in rivers!” Fozzie: “Actually, I get mine at Costco.” Okay, that was a pretty good joke. Nice job again, Foz. The scene progresses, with the jokes lifted almost verbatim from the sizzle reel. It felt strange, watching this entire scene play out again, only from slightly different angles this time. It was also a little boring for that reason. At the studio, Kermit is in the writers’ room, with show writers Gonzo, Rizzo, and Pepe. And an extra-y looking extra, whose name is…Kim? Maybe? George? We’re led not to care. The writers are pitching their a skit they wrote for Tom Bergeron to play-host on Up Late, called “Dancing With the Czars,” featuring Rizzo and Pepe dressed up as ancient Russian nobility. I’s kind of funny. Well, not that funny. They dance the fox trot, jumping up and down and cavorting to some hokey music. It was silly and dumb, but kids might like it. Maybe if it was dancing cheese instead…oh well. It felt like a stab at Muppet Show-type backstage antics, and an admirable one, but it felt forced and didn’t quite hit the mark. Again here, the sets were fantastic. The puppetry was excellently staged and performed, including minute details like Kermit’s hand resting on the back of a chair. These small touches add realism, and make the characters true to us. Kermit’s assessment of Gonzo’s work is harsher than mine: “I hate everything about it!” Gonzo, ever the optimist, replies, “Hey, only one note!” which redeemed the bit. And then…BOOM! It’s Denise, folks! Say hello to Kermit’s little lillypad love-dumplin’. In her grand entrance to the show, she pops in to tell Kermit she brought him a little Italian. “His name’s Guissepe. Ba dum, cha!” There’s been so much said in fan circles about this new character, and we’ve only just now heard her voice. And it’s a good voice! It’s a pig with a Southern accent, and her voice sounds more “real” than a character-type voice like Piggy’s. She is not entirely dislikable, in fact she seems on the surface to be quite pleasant! Sadly, many fans predict she won’t last, and they may be right. She’s very “normal,” which isn’t a good sign if you’re a Muppet. We cut to another Kermit talking head segment, explaining how the two of them met. They were at a cross-promotional synergy meeting and before long, they…um, cross-promoted. Eww! What does that mean? A Muppet sex joke? Wait, was he still with Piggy when this happened? So many questions! Dinner is done at Becky’s parents’ house, and all four are seated in the living room. Becky is cute. Fozzie is enormous. I get that he’s not supposed to be slender, being a bear, but he looks like a deflated life raft here. Becky is smitten with Fozzie, and I keep asking myself why. Does Fozzie turn into an irresistible lover somehow? Is Becky deranged? Either way, Becky brings up the fact that Fozzie works with Miss Piggy on Up Late. Becky’s mom gushes over the pig, saying she absolutely adores her. Can I please ask…WHY?? Is it her humanitarianism? So Piggy is essentially Oprah, in the context of The Muppets. As Pepe would say, “h’okay.” Wait, could we possibly get the real Oprah on this show? That would be amazing! Fozzie offers to take the family to the next taping of the show, and calls Piggy to clear it. The Pig is mid-workout, and Tracy Anderson is her trainer. We know that, because Miss Piggy calls her by her first and last name (which is fortunate, because I would have had no idea who she was otherwise). Unsure who she’s talking to, she asks “Is this the guy in the hat?” Okay, at least we got out of the “I’m gonna say ‘Gary'” joke. I’ll give them that. Piggy agrees, they can come to the set, “But not touching, and no eye contact,”…meaning, Fozzie, she clarifies. Back in Kermit’s office, we get an interesting revelation: Kermit is a stress eater! This will set up something else later, but wow, Kermit overeats! Maybe this explains his attraction to pigs? Anyway, it’s a little amphibian character development. As Kermit espouses his frustration with Piggy’s aversion to Elizabeth Banks, Denise sheds some light on things by showing him a video of Piggy and Banks, together at an audition for the Hunger Games movie. In it, Banks is a natural and Miss Piggy is awful. She causally boasts that she hasn’t read the script, she thinks she can waltz through it…wait, isn’t Piggy in show biz? Shouldn’t she should know how auditions work? At any rate, Banks walks out on the audition, her role already secure, and Kermit is led to conclude that this, obviously, is why Piggy dislikes Banks; she beat her out for a major movie role. Kermit decides that that’s a juvenile reason for kicking her off the show, and declares Banks to be back on-schedule for the taping. “I run this show,” he announces, “I make the decision.” Denise snuggles up to Kermit and says she likes this side of him, and to tell her “what you want.” Kermit embarrassingly admits he wants a chocolate brownie sundae. Kermit is calorie-loading! This is indeed a weird but interesting new angle. Other thoughts: How does Miss Piggy suddenly forget everyone and everything she’s ever done? That’s funny for now, but can only be funny for so long, I think. It just doesn’t make sense. Piggy and Banks. Production meeting time again! Kermit goes over the upcoming show’s outline, and mentions that Elizabeth Banks is, in fact, going to be on the show. The Muppet cast gasp in unison and terror! They all seem scared out of their wits over how Piggy will react. Think this might be a commentary of some late-night hosts’ staff? Interesting how Kermit was in charge of The Muppet Show, and now Piggy is in charge of Up Late…okay, Kermit was never really in charge of The Muppet Show. Rizzo makes a joke, good to see him making a splash in this show! Pepe warns Kermit not to take Piggy’s wrath lightly: “I once saw her lift up a piano to get to a half-eaten moon pie.” Meh…I like Pepe’s dirty jokes more. He can do better! Kermit reassures the cast that Piggy won’t know Banks is on the show until she walks through the curtain onstage. Cue Elizabeth Banks to walk into the studio now, hours early and in plenty of time for Piggy to see her and erupt! Kermit immediately sluffs her off on Scooter ever the faithful sidekick (and now the “Talent Coordinator”), for an hours-long tour of the studio, far from the potential gaze of the pig. Today’s slightly more grown-up Scooter, it turns out, can be a bit snarky when snapped at! His banter with Banks is pithy, and kind of out-of-character for him. He says things that Richard Hunt would most definitely say, but Scooter himself might restrain himself. Banks tires of his little game of distraction, and as they argue she throws him off the moving golf cart he was driving, only to have Scooter rush back onto the cart and attempt to wrestle control back from her. This scene is among the most marvelous pieces of puppetry on the show! Scooter was a believable puppet character, and we only saw the back (or side) of his head for most of the scene. Scooter is back, baby! Speaking of studio tours, Fozzie attempts to lead Becky and her parents through the backstage of the Up Late set, but strains to come up with anything interesting to say. He stands behind his announcer podium and invites Becky’s dad to come see what it’s like, until he notices Rizzo on a hot rat date by his furry feet, and anxiously rushes them onward instead. Miss Piggy encounters Banks backstage, and flies into a rage. As Fozzie feebly attempts to introduce Becky’s mom to Miss Piggy, the porcine diva insults him and storms off. Fozzie attempts to smooth it over to no avail, and gets himself knocked across the room by, ladies and gentlemen, Big Mean Carl! Another fan favorite, great to see him. Fozzie has completely failed to impress Becky’s parents, although she still loves him, and tells him so. Fozzie makes a joke, saying “Yeah, that’s not enough,” and chases after Carl (the small human one, not the big mean one) with a Up Late coffee mug. On-camera with a music joke, who should it be but the Electric Mayhem! Janis remarks how the show’s musical guests’ original band name was Imagine Dragons. After bassist Floyd Pepper points out that, that is in fact their name, Janis replies “I know…they kept it.” Baaahahaha! Classic Janis. That moment felt very Muppet Show-esque. Kemit tries to reason with Piggy, during another walk down the hallway (although not as long of a walk this time). He tells her he knows she’s angry with Banks because of the Hunger Games audition tape, but Piggy reminds him of the real reason she can’t stand Banks: They went to see her movie Pitch Perfect 2 the night they broke up. And then…ready for this? It’s the breakup scene! We get to watch the very moment we’ve talked so much about all summer! It was all brilliantly woven together, this new show and pop culture reality! What an amazing world we live in! Sorry, sorry, I know this is sad and all, it’s just…squee! In this flashback to paparazzi footage, we find Kermit and Piggy on a street corner, after leaving the movie theater. Kermit is visibly annoyed that Piggy won’t stop posing and taking selfies, and generally being “out there” while they’re together for a private evening. Piggy can’t understand what Kermit is talking about. Kermit wants a deeper connection, that doesn’t always involve an adoring public at every turn. She sees that as completely unreasonable. So, Kermit says it’s over. He doesn’t shout it, he doesn’t blow up. He simply, sadly, says it’s over. It’s actually a very emotional moment. Kermit begins to walk away, and Piggy crumbles in disbelief. This, strangely enough, is huge emotion for Piggy. Bigger-than-life, gregarious, over-acting Piggy is almost natural for her, but to feel actual deep, tangible emotion like this…you can see the pain. This is the inner core of the Pig. We see her “human” side. THIS is the “pain Piggy” that Frank Oz first created on The Muppet Show. THIS is the true heart and soul, and actually what enables Piggy to behave outwardly as she typically does. It’s as good as anything Frank Oz could have done. Bravo, Mr. Jacobson, you nailed it. This is the nugget from which everything else that is Miss Piggy is built. Perfectly, perfectly done. Coming back to current-day, we see Kermit and Piggy in her dressing room, talking calmly like adults. He apologizes to her, and they agree that they can work together. Piggy remarks how their tumultuous relationship has never affected her personally. She still can’t help herself, I guess. She continues to insist that that movie was enough to justify holding a grudge on the actress herself, and Kermit, indulging an injured lady, agrees with her reasoning. The pig and frog agree to work together and be honest with each other. And as such, Piggy blurts out: “I don’t know what you see in your girlfriend, and you’re getting a little tummy,” as she skips away. Shocked, Kermit looks in the mirror. “It goes away if I stand up straight!” he offers. “Oh no,” he realizes, “it doesn’t!” I can’t say it enough, I SO hope Kermit having a weight problem becomes an ongoing plot point. He’s always been a little round, but the thought of him getting even rounder would be truly funny! Show Time. We find Elizabeth Banks comfortably seated on the set of Up Late with Miss Piggy laughing and joking with the host in front of a live studio audience. “We’re back with a very fit, and almost too beautiful Elizabeth Banks!” announces Miss Piggy. As they talk, Banks remarks that, to keep in shape, she hikes a lot. Piggy retorts that she hikes a lot, too. “I had this hiked [she indicates her chin], I had these hiked [she indicates…well, those], and I’m gettin’ this thing hiked on my hiatus! [indicating her backside]” “You must have a long hiatus!” quips Banks, to the audience’s delight. What a great Piggy joke, I loved it! There was a very “modern Muppet” feel to the whole scene, and Muppets talking with celebs equals gold, every time. It was evocative of the Muppet Show moments with Kermit sitting on the wall and casually chatting with guest stars. Speaking of Kermit, we find him watching offstage with Scooter. He asks Scooter if Tom Bergeron was told he was bumped from the show. Just then, who should appear behind them but…wait for it…Tom Bergeron! Tom comedically mopes offscreen. Scooter assures Kermit he’ll send him a gift basket to make him feel better, with the really fancy salami. Kermit considers it, then advises Scooter to send the “regular” salami instead. Poor Tom Bergeron. To end the show, we go to the Electric Mayhem, playing along behind Imagine Dragons, the show’s musical act. This part of the show was not done well. The Dragons mimed only a snipped of their song, and it looked and felt very “thrown in at the last minute.” Almost an afterthought. Miss Piggy didn’t introduce them (yes, she mentioned them by name earlier in the show, but if the illusion here is that this is a “real” late night show, then let’s go through all the paces). They didn’t even perform a whole song. On top of that, the Muppets were thrown in the background, not featured as performers at all. The Muppets are known for musical numbers on TV, and this show had none of that. It made the ending feel weak. Disappointing. Animal is the only one made a part of this performance, banging a gigantic bass drum characteristic of much of the Dragons’ music. As he pummels the drum head, it eventually bursts open, and Animal falls inside. Sweetums and Bobo inspect the drum as the music continues, and Sweetums gasps “He’s gone!” To which Bobo replies “Oh well.” Seems like an underwhelming reaction to me, but Oh Well. Statler and Waldorf, keen on finding an exit, realize they could rush to follow Animal’s escape route via the drum, “Let’s get outta here!” Very appropriate, great last moment, and if the two of them get the last word in every episode, I’ll smile every time. There’s a lot to love here, honoring both the old and the new. The Muppets are more than the puppets themselves, they’re the performers, the writers, directors, producers, and an entire team of people putting on a show for the Muppet fans. We saw technical achievements and beautiful displays of puppetry in this episode, and if it’s any indication of what we’ll see in the future, I can’t wait. Way to honor the old, bring in the new, and to know your audience. Welcome back to prime-time TV, Muppets. We’ve missed you. The very last thing we hear in this episode is a Dragons lyric: “I’m goin’ back to my roots.” How wonderfully appropriate.
Cultural criticism is taboo. In polite company, all cultures are created equally. None is better or worse than any other; they’re just different. We aren’t responsible for the culture we were born into, so there’s no objective basis for criticism or judgement. In progressive ideology, this idea goes a step further. Not only must we respect all cultural differences, we mustn’t stray outside the norms of the culture we were born into. A white woman with dreadlocks, for example, should respect black culture and shave her hair off, rather than “steal” a hairstyle from a different culture. They even have a special word for this grievance: cultural appropriation. I think cultural appropriation is a load of baloney, based on the most persistent errors in political/social thought: abstraction errors – misunderstanding the relationship between people and labels, between aggregates and concretes. These errors are not only imprecise, but they are counter-productive, divisive, and downright dangerous. Equal Equivocation The first abstraction error goes like this, “All differences between people are benign differences. Some people are born with light hair; others with dark hair. Neither is superior to the other. In the same way, all cultural differences are benign. Some cultures value monogamy; others are more sexually liberal. Neither is superior to the other.” This concept is applied across the board. Some cultures are more religious; some value education more highly; some are more hierarchical, etc. These differences should not be judged, any more than we should judge somebody for their height or the amount of freckles on their face. Then, the story goes, because all cultures are essentially equal, any differences in the socio-economic status of ethnic groups must be a function of discrimination. Without racism or discrimination, all cultures would be equally represented across the socio-economic spectrum. In reality, we’ve no reason to believe this is true. Nowhere in the world – nowhere in history – are all cultures represented equally across the socio-economic spectrum. The idea is an appealing, aesthetic one, no doubt, but it’s not grounded in the real world. Different cultures value different things; some skills are valued more highly than others; throughout the world, Chinese immigrants tend to have the highest average income of any demographic. Why is this? It’s not because they are genetically superior; it’s not because of pro-Chinese discrimination (in fact, it’s largely despite negative discrimination); it’s because Chinese culture heavily emphasizes academic performance in the hard sciences, and the hard sciences tend to pay more than other fields. But the purpose of this article isn’t to explain the relationship between culture and economic status. I’ll leave that to the fantastic work of Thomas Sowell. My point is to illustrate the concrete fact that some cultures are superior to others in specific ways. Heritage Schmeritage The second abstraction error goes like this: cultural heritage is intrinsically valuable. Preserving ethnic culture is an end by itself, regardless of the specifics. Progressives are especially fond of “indigenous cultures”, that are assumed “pure” because they haven’t been polluted by Western society. Whenever a new tribe of indigenous people is discovered, for example, progressives are adamant that we shouldn’t disturb or influence their way of life – they want the complete preservation of cultures, the positive and the negative. I have a radically different view. Cultures are not intrinsically valuable, nor should they be preserved by virtue of their uniqueness. Cultures emerge from different groups of people trying to best navigate the world. Sometimes, they do a good job. Other times, they do a bad job. If a bad cultural trait emerges, it should be destroyed and replaced – no different than bad theories about physics or mathematics. In my mind, cultural “pride” is absurd. You are not responsible for the culture you’re born into. There’s nothing to be proud of. By happenstance of birth, you happen to have an ethnicity. It isn’t superior or inferior to any other. You have nothing to defend or preserve. If you’re fortunate, you’ll be born into a positive culture. If you’re unlucky, you’ll be born into a toxic one. For the sake of human progress, we should try to eliminate negative cultural values and promote positive ones. Saudi Arabian culture promotes beheadings for breaking the law – even for minor offenses. This is backwards, unnecessary, and a toxic cultural phenomenon. It shouldn’t be preserved; it should be eliminated. Group Identity There’s a fundamental abstraction error underlying all of this: group identity is inescapable. Individuals, in the progressive worldview, are seen as essentially tied to their ethnicity/socio-economic status. They are white men. Black women. Upper-class kids. They aren’t “individuals with black skin” or “individuals with Scottish parents”. The group identity is foundational; the individual is intrinsically a product of his environment and larger society. You also see this phenomenon with progressives and their obsession with sexual orientation/gender labels. They self-identify first with their labels. They are fundamentally “lesbian”, “trans-gender”, or “cis-gender”. All experiences are first filtered through the lenses they identify with – as if there’s an entire category difference between humans with different sexual orientations. I think this gets it backwards. Group identity is a label; it’s a conceptual tool to more easily categorize people. It isn’t foundational. The individual is the base-unit in society, and any labels we attach to them are secondary. Practically speaking, the stronger people self-identify with labels, the more division it creates in society. “Class struggle” is a powerful idea, and it’s entirely a function of group-identity. When you view people as individuals first, the differences between us seem minor and petty. I view my black neighbors as fundamentally peers. Not as aliens I can never relate to. They have a different daily experience than I do – as a function of their skin color – it’s true. But it’s not an essential difference, and it’s absurd to obsess over it. We have far more in common than different. Appropriate Appropriation Put all the abstraction errors together, and you get the ultimate heresy: cultural appropriation – adopting some element from a culture outside your own. White people having “black hairstyles”. Caucasians wearing Native American garb. Upper-class kids using inner-city slang. Supposedly, cultural appropriation is insensitive. It trivializes the struggles and history of the culture being appropriated. Some people have even said, “Blues and rock’n’roll is ‘black music’. If white people ‘steal’ it and make money, that’s unfair!” Ultimately, they are saying, “You are only allowed to behave in accordance with the culture into which you were born.” Again, it’s abstractions first, individuals second. I find this idea preposterous and counter-productive. It’s a tyranny of labels. Based on the happenstance of your birth, progressives will assign you a list of approved behavior based on the genetics of your parents and grandparents. It’s involuntary group membership with specific behavioral regulations. And to what end? To preserve the divisions between people? To preserve different cultures for aesthetics’ sake? It seems much more “progressive” to treat cultures like we do any other set of beliefs – we don’t insist that “Islamic scientists refrain from doing American science” or “White philosophers only theorize about white philosophy.” I didn’t choose my culture at birth, and I’ll be damned if some progressive with a penchant for labels insists I must act in accordance with his list of “white, middle-class behavior”. A few years ago, I moved to Atlanta, and there’s always hip-hop and reggae music on the radio. I love it. I blast it when driving down the road. I also think afros look fantastic. If I had the hair for it, I would wear one myself. I also love soul food. The black culture in Atlanta has perfected fried chicken and collard greens (In fact, I ate some for lunch today). Here’s a healthy response to my love for blues music, soul food, and afros: it’s wonderful. It helps bridge the gap between white and black people. Every individual is not only a consumer of culture, but a creator of culture. I want my behavior to incorporate the best of black culture, and hopefully the same is true in reverse. It’s an exciting idea: if you see everybody as individuals, then you’ll see we’re all trying to do the same thing in life. Different groups of people have discovered different truths, and why in the world wouldn’t we want to share this knowledge with each other? We can, quite literally, take the best of all cultures and create something new and better. How many black people discovered the game of golf through Tiger Woods? How many lives and careers have changed for the better because of it? It’s a wonderful thing. How many white people have discovered rap through Eminem? I did, and it’s a wonderful thing. We should celebrate cross-cultural exchanges of information, not lament them because the ambassador has an unapproved skin color. The Flip Side Of course, the same is true about the negative aspects of cultures. It’s naïve to overlook cultural shortcomings because you don’t want to offend people. From my experiences, I want to emulate parts of Chinese culture in terms of academic excellence. I don’t want to emulate their emphasis on hierarchy. In my evaluation, Chinese parents can be too strict on their kids and are too focused on “family honor”. So, I want to find a middle ground. Does that make me some anti-Chinese racist, because I recognize tendencies in that culture? Of course not. I respect Chinese individuals enough to see positives and negatives in their culture, and I want the same treatment in return. The same is true for black culture, Hispanic culture, and every other group on the planet. There’s absolutely no reason to take cultural norms as all-or-nothing. There’s nothing to preserve for preservations’ sake; let the positive live and the negative die. For almost twenty years, I lived in an economically-depressed part of upstate New York. The culture was largely toxic and anti-intellectual. In terms of sorting the good from the bad, I’d say I’m leaving most of it behind. My father was raised by a racist. My mother helped him see through the errors of racist ideas, and he raised all of his kids without an ounce of racist bias. That Southern racist culture died in my family, thanks to my parents, and I certainly will not resurrect it for my kids. This is progress and should be celebrated. Imitation, Regulation, and Sex Before the fairly recent invention of intellectual property, artists took imitation and copying as a compliment. The myriad of “Variations on a Theme from Paganini” are all compliments to the wonderful work of the violinist Paganini. The same should apply to cultural phenomena. Copying is only a compliment. It’s an acknowledgment from one human to another that, “Hey, this is awesome. You’re doing something right.” Versus, “Hey, you weren’t born with the right ethnic membership to behave in this way. Stick to the white/black ways of doing things.” Instead, I think we should support cultures having sex with each other. Mix the genetics together, if you will, and see what offspring we can produce. If you like another culture’s music, imitate it. If you like their fashion, wear it. The language, speak it. If you like how they raise their kids, then do the same. We’ll all be better off. Cultures are not delicate flowers that must be preserved until the end of time. They emerge from groups of people attempting to best navigate life. Some elements are good; others are bad. It’s about time we grow up and recognize this. A lot of good will come from it.
In the middle of 17th Century, in a village near the Kaluga Governorate on the feast day of Theophany, a pious peasant by the name of Thoedot Obukhov was caught in a blizzard while traveling. The horses lost all their strength and stopped near a deep ravine. Obukhov began to lose hope and decided to lie down waiting for the end to come. However, during what he thought were his last moments, he began to pray to the Mother of God for help and promised to make an icon “The Seeker of the Lost” for his parish. His prayer was answered. A men in a nearby village heard a voice saying “Take Him” and walked outside to find the freezing peasant. After Obukhov, recovered, he proceeded to keep his promise and since then the icon he made for the church has granted many healings and miracles.
Portland Commissioner Chloe Eudaly has taken to her personal Facebook page to vent about and promote much of her work as Portland's newest commissioner. The posts have caused a public records dilemma that's drawn the attention of the city attorney's office, Portland's human resources director and Oregon state archivist Mary Beth Herkert. Eudaly's posts have condemned protesters at City Council meetings, dismissed some of the public testimony to the council, disputed the findings in news stories critical of her bureaus and discussed lobbying the Oregon State Legislature to lift the state's ban on rent control. Only people she has approved can view her private posting. Yet many of her posts have drawn upwards of 100 reactions and more than 100 comments. Others she has taken down after they drew criticism or she changed her mind. Eudaly has written multiple times on her personal Facebook page that the page is not for official city business and that anyone wishing to discuss city business should contact her office. Nevertheless, Herkert says, private Facebook posts in which Eudaly makes or receives comment on city matters are public records that the public is likely entitled to see. All should be preserved for the retention period laid out in Oregon's public records laws, she said. "It is a public record," Herkert said. "She is a commissioner and she's giving her opinion on what she felt went on in the meeting, and that's part of her official business. Once she crosses that line on giving her opinion on stuff, that's part of the public persona." Eudaly's chief of staff, Marshall Runkel, said the commissioner's office does not retain copies of her posts on her personal Facebook page because they "don't believe them to be part of the public record." "It's worth digging in and knowing where exactly the rules are, and that's what we're doing," Runkel said. "There's obviously no impropriety," he added. Runkel said City Attorney Tracy Reeve notified him last week that her office was looking into a complaint sent to Portland's ombudsman alleging Eudaly violated the city's social media and public records policies. Reeve told Runkel that she would look into Eudaly's social media usage and into public records laws in order to help the commissioner comply with any rules, he said. "If the city attorney says, 'you need to change your practices,' we'll comply with the advice of the city attorney," Runkel said. Several people have complained about Eudaly's social media to the ombudsman's office, records obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive through a public records request show. The ombudsman's office redacted the name of the people who complained. One complaint alleged that Eudaly ran "afoul of city social media policies and public record law" by discussing city business, communicating with constituents and having "unreported contact with registered city lobbyists." "I would like to see what Commissioner Eudaly is saying about the public's business and it's disturbing to me that she's making these important statements privately to supporters and other insiders," another complaint said. "If these statements are being seen by other officials, it also occurs to me that she may be violating public records and meeting laws." Another complained about the commissioner blocking people from her Facebook page, considering that she had discussed city business on it. At least six people told The Oregonian/OregonLive that Eudaly blocked them from viewing her personal page, and city records confirm one of those accounts. She also blocked that person from her public page, records show. Reeve told The Oregonian/OregonLive in an email Monday: "It is of course the case that the Oregon Public Records Law provides 'every person' with the right to inspect nonexempt public records. ... This is true regardless of where the record is stored." She suggested, however, that this was not necessarily the case for Eudaly before declining to discuss Eudaly's usage, citing attorney-client privilege. "The mere fact that a public employee posts information on a private social media page which refers to the public body does not transform that private social media page into a public record," Reeve wrote. According to the Oregon Secretary of State's official guidance for social media use as it pertains to public records law: "If a private account is used to conduct government business then it becomes public and is subject to the Oregon Public Records Law." Herkert, the state archivist, acknowledged there is a "grey area" when it comes to public figures discussing their work on their personal Facebook pages and that elected officials have the hardest time separating public verses private material. But she said that any posts or opinions on city council meetings, public testimony or citizen input or other matters related to her day job that aren't duplicated through another official record such as a press release are public records. "Don't mix personal and work," Herkert said. "As an elected public official, you have a responsibility. If you're going to give out your analysis, do it in an official press release. Don't do it on your private social media account." This is not the first time that the city attorney scrutinized Eudaly's activity on social media. In May, a constituent, Nishant Bhajaria, complained to city human resources director Anna Kanwit that Eudaly had blocked him from her public Facebook page. Kanwit informed Bhajaria on May 9 that Eudaly had violated the city's social media policy, according to emails obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive. "Based on the city's social media policy and the Facebook terms of use, in your case the posts that were reviewed by a city attorney determined they did not appear to justify blocking you," Kanwit wrote to Bhajaria. "The commissioner's office has been advised to unblock you from her public Facebook page until and unless you violate the terms of use for Facebook or the City's Social Media Policy." She also wrote that Eudaly may have deleted public records without retaining them. The city attorney could not find Bhajaria's comments on Eudaly's public page, Kanwit wrote, and "therefore believes they were deleted." "That is allowable; however a copy of the post should have been retained prior to removal," Kanwit wrote. "This is a new office and there are many rules and policies that every office must become familiar with. Commissioner Eudaly's office now understands the parameters around hiding versus blocking and the need to retain posts on the city commissioner's page, just as they retain other public records." Runkel said Tuesday that Eudaly's office has not retained any of her Facebook posts, including deleted ones. --Jessica Floum 503-221-8306
A man accused of robbing two men as they ate at a Logan Circle pizza shop has pleaded guilty and now faces up to 30 years in prison. WASHINGTON – A man accused of robbing two men as they ate at a D.C. pizza shop has pleaded guilty. The U.S. Attorney’s office says James E. Wade, 30 of D.C., pleaded guilty to an armed robbery charge in court Friday. A sentencing hearing is set for Nov. 7. He faces up to 30 years in prison. Surveillance cameras at Pizzoli’s Pizzeria on 12th Street in Logan Circle captured the armed robbery. Police released the video and received numerous calls identifying the robber as Wade, the attorney’s office says. Two men were eating on the outdoor patio in front of the restaurant when a man approached them about 9:20 p.m. on May 17. He demanded money from the men at gunpoint and they turned over their cash, wallets and cellphones. Wade took the money and property and left, according to the attorney’s office and police reports. D.C. police arrested Wade for the robbery in June, several days after the surveillance video was publicly released. Related Stories: Follow @WTOP on Twitter.
Update March 2017 Our Analyzer software for OpenSSL application audit is now available, get in touch to try it. Original post: Cryptosense software is designed to give our users visibility on the crypto their applications are using. We have tracing tools for PKCS#11 and Java, and recently we’ve been working on one for the OpenSSL crypto library (libssl and libcrypto). We’d like to share a couple of early results. The idea of the tool is that it inserts a shim between an application that (dynamically) links to openSSL and the libraries themselves, and writes out an abstract logical trace of the operations. We can send this trace to our Analyzer where it will be checked for simple crypto issues like weak algorithms and short keys, as well as more complicated bugs like key-management issues, insecure interactions between crypto operations, bad nonce or randomness management etc. We needed some real applications that use OpenSSL to try it out, and it seemed logical to start with OpenSSL’s own command-line tools that carry out simple operations using the library. Password-based key derivation in OpenSSL Commands The OpenSSL command line tools give access to a lot of functionality. For our first tests, we concentrated on commands that derive an encryption key from a password. This was because the documentation isn’t too clear about how exactly this will be done, so it seemed an area where our tool could shed some light. The principles of password-based key derivation are similar to that of hashing passwords for secure storage. The idea is to derive the key in such a way that it’s difficult for an attacker to guess the key starting from a dictionary of possible passwords. The same techniques apply, such as salting the hash with a unique (public) value for each key that’s derived, so that an attacker cannot test guesses against many keys at once, and using many iterations of a hash function to calculate the key from the password, so that the attacker has to do a lot of computational work to turn each password from the dictionary into a guess at the key. These days we often also want to choose the hash function so that it requires a lot of memory and is hard to parallelize, to resist against attacks using dedicated hardware. So how do the OpenSSL commands stand up? Well not too well, at least not in version 1.0.1k that we tested (the current version in popular Linux distributions), though it looks like there will be some improvements in version 1.1 (currently in beta). Let’s look at a couple of results in detail. Encrypting files The enc command allows you to encrypt a file using one of the symmetric-key ciphers included in OpenSSL under a key derived from a password. We ran openssl enc -v -aes-256-cbc -salt -in file.txt -out file.enc -pass pass:mySillyPassword We ran the analyzer over the resulting trace and obtained this: So OpenSSL is using one iteration of salted MD5 to derive the key (if there were no salt or a zero string, the Analyzer would have raised another warning). This is not good, and you may want to reconsider your password policy if you use this command for anything serious. It doesn’t look like things will improve much in OpenSSL 1.1.0 – the manpage suggests that SHA-256 will replace MD5 but no iteration parameter will be added. Encrypting Private Keys The pkcs8 command allows you to store a private key in an encrypted container. If you call it using the first example in the manpage: openssl pkcs8 -in key.pem -topk8 -v2 des3 -out enckey.pem Our tracer reveals that the key derivation uses PBKDF2 and 2048 iterations of HMAC-SHA-1. There is no command line option to change iterations (except to remove them). Using 2048 is not too bad, but it’s not considered best practice (see our article on PBKDF2 parameter choice). OpenSSL v1.1 adds an iteration parameter to allow this to be increased further. You can also beef up the hash function used inside PBKDF2 using a switch like -v2prf hmacWithSHA512 There are also host of other, weaker, password-based encryption methods available, but you would have to deliberately choose them with command line switches like -v1 PBE-SHA1-3DES Conclusions Password-based key derivation in OpenSSL command-line functions could do with some modernization. Meantime, if you have an application that calls the OpenSSL libraries and you’d like to try it out with our tracer tool, we’d be very interested to hear about it.
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Robert H. Scales, a retired Army major general, is a former commandant of the Army War College. I remember it like it was yesterday. The year was 1954. I was a fourth-grader at Barden Elementary School at Fort Belvoir, and for the first time in my short life I went into the classroom and there were black kids there. One photo in our family album shows Miss Palbicki’s class; 10 of the 25 children in the picture are African American. I remember telling my mom that day. I thought she, a wonderfully Southern, aristocratic white woman named Clyde, would have a heart attack. My dad intervened and, for the first time in my memory, shouted at Mom. “So what, Clyde, it’s right that black kids were in Bobby’s class,” he exclaimed. “Their dads had paid for the right for their children to go to school with my son. They shed their blood in Korea. Their kids can go to Barden.” This wasn’t about the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education or President Harry Truman’s signed order to integrate the services. My dad had served in the Second Infantry Division’s Second Engineer Battalion in Korea. By the time he arrived in theater, thousands of white soldiers in the division had been killed, wounded or captured. To fill foxholes and hold the line, the Army sent soldiers from all-black units to fight and die alongside units that had been all-white. Years later, when I commanded a battery in Vietnam, there was no question that black soldiers had the right to serve. Fast-forward to 2011: It had to be the most significant non-event in recent history when openly gay troops were accepted into the military’s ranks with very little institutional resistance. Why did the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy disappear with hardly a whimper? Because most in the professional officer corps recognized that we have served with homosexual soldiers for all of our careers. Until he died in 1997, my dad talked about gay noncommissioned officers who held his unit together during the dark days in Korea. During my 35 years of Army service, I worked for gay generals and commanded gay officers, enlisted men and women. It was no big deal. Many of us were glad the charade was over. But then came the news a few days ago that the officer in charge of preventing sexual harassment in the Air Force was charged with sexual battery. How, I wondered, can a culture that has been instrumental in advancing social change be so regressive when it comes to gender equality? Women accounted for about 2 percent of the military in 1972. Nearly 40 years later, it seems as if we are going backward. I asked my two daughters, who are Army veterans, what they thought. Their answers were sobering. As with the military’s acceptance of African Americans and gay soldiers, the issue does not lie with observing regulations or executive orders. This is about culture. The rank and file have yet to accept women into their community. Women have fought and died in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are no longer excluded from combat zones. But the military has yet to fully accept women or their contributions. To be sure, part of this is about sex. The chest-bumping manly culture rejects the presence of women in the ranks. Sadly, many soldiers still view their domain as a male preserve. Just before I retired and before my daughters left the service, I asked them what they worried about most during their commands. More than anything, they feared falling out of a run. When men fell out, they said, it was due to a hard night of carousing. When women fell out, it was seen as due to their physical shortcomings. During their years of service, both of my daughters shrugged off occasional unwanted advances. They laughed about boorish colleagues who, fueled by alcohol, made fools of themselves in the presence of female officers. They recall commanders who neglected to include them in golf outings or nights at the bar. They always sought to be more pure than Caesar’s wife in the hopes that their professionalism would overcome the innate prejudice of their peers. After serving four years, both gave up and resigned their commissions. Protestations and outrage such as that voiced by the president and the defense secretary this week can do only so much. To be sure, there are administrative and judicial actions that can increase punishments for male soldiers who act badly. But so long as the culture of the rank and file rejects the presence of women as their professional partners, nothing will change. The presence of African American soldiers is now unquestioned. Gay men and women have been part of the military culture as far back as I can remember. Women are different. It breaks my heart that this is so.
Tue, Dec 8th 2015, 16:30:11 In J-Subculture we are huge fans of fountain pens, they are classic, timeless and elegant way of writing, the indisputable kings of the stationery goods. Although we don't think about fountain pens like a fancy way of writing, and even though there are super expensive ones, in J-Subculture we have a wide variety in all price rages. Despite the tittle, today's article is not about the price. Today's article is about our constant effort to bring to our customers what they really need, today's article is about our funny and colorful fountain pens for kids! We love fountain pens and we know the importance of kids to fall in love with hand writing in a world full of keyboards and touch screens. Cursive writing can help kids building on their fine motor skills, and fountain pens can be part of the fun, but you'll need a proper tool for it, something as fun as attractive that motivates and catch the attention of kids. We have a wide range of this "ready for kids" fountain pens that will make the wonders of those potential new little writers and artists without making a hole in their parents wallet. In J-Subculture we have a weakness for quality, and Pilot's products have demonstrated it over the years. For Japanese companies like Pilot their customers are the reference and in their "Kakuno" Fountain Pen line, kids are the reference. The "Kakuno" fountain pens features a standard Pilot quality nib with a smiley face on it, and a plastic hexagonal shape barrel and cap. Simple but funny and colorful design who keeps an excellent performance, perfect for kids! Lamy ABC is Lami's response for those kids ready to take writing seriously. With some shape to help ensure proper grip and an A nib, the Lamy ABC's design is available in red and blue color. This special fountain pen uses quite large Lamy cartridges so you don't have to worry about running out of ink so often, in addition you'll be able to get a converter and teach your kid how to fill it with bottled ink, making the Lamy ABC the perfect tool to grow into.
The robust public option is eight votes short of the 218 it needs to pass the House, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) tells HuffPost. Grijalva, as co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has been counting support for a public option tied to Medicare rates -- the so-called Medicare plus five -- over the last few weeks. "We anticipate that we're at 210," he said. "We feel that the momentum is all on the robust Medicare plus five public option." Grijalva said that "25-plus" Democrats have said they will vote no. "Some of those no's are no regardless. It has nothing to do with the public option," he said, putting the number of those firm no-votes at 18 or 19. There are 256 Democrats in the House. With 25 or 30 no votes, that leaves only about 15 to 20 members still to decide. Progressives need roughly half of them. He says that backers of the public option are focusing on those persuadable Democrats rather than negotiating with members who will vote no. "Why are we spending valuable time compromising on an issue when, at the end of the day, they're going to vote no?" he said. On Tuesday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told the caucus she was forging ahead with the robust public option, but needed to be sure there were 218 votes. Democrats plan to huddle again on Wednesday evening. UPDATE: Howard Dean has been running a parallel whip operation. See where your representative stands by Dean's count here. UPDATE II: Blue Dog Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) supports a public option with negotiated rates, which the progressive caucus opposes. He was asked by HuffPost if he would oppose the bill it had a stronger public option. "As the president said this weekend, he'd like to see a public option but he's not insisting on it," he said. "This is not, you know, a dominant issue." Rep. David Wu (D-Oregon), another public option skeptic, said the Speaker has proposed a compromise that he is looking at warmly, which focuses on states that have low Medicare reimbursement rates. The Institute of Medicine would be tasked with finding a solution to the reimbursement disparity and their recommendation would become law unless both chambers of Congress passed a resolution of disapproval. "I can live with this," he said, but then clarified that he was still only supporting the more conservative public option. What if the Speaker pushed the option tied to Medicare rates? "We'd have to talk," he said. UPDATE III: Wu spokesperson Julia Krahe takes issue with the characterization of Wu as a public-option skeptic, and says that he fully supports a public option but is concerned that tying it to Medicare rates will shortchange doctors in certain states. "He's talking with members to see what can be done to make sure the public option that's in the final bill has fair reimbursement rates for doctors who operate in low-cost/high-quality states," she said. Ryan Grim is the author of This Is Your Country On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America
Mayor John Tory’s maiden budget released at city hall Tuesday easily could have been authored by David Miller. Or Olivia Chow. That’s great news if you are one of the “progressive” citizens who decry the anti-tax rhetoric that has dominated city politics for the last four years, putting the clamp on municipal services. Toronto Mayor John Tory, left, and City Manager Joe Pennachetti talk to the media about the city's budget at city hall on January 20, 2015. ( BERNARD WEIL / TORONTO STAR ) And it is far from a disaster for fiscal conservatives. For one, it would be a stretch to call the near-$10-billion document a tax-and-spend budget. The 2.25 per cent hike on the Toronto average house is less than the Toronto rate of inflation, as Tory promised. More importantly, the tax hike has lots of goodies for many of the city constituents — transit riders, recreationists, paramedics, the homeless, (insert service here). For a change, the narrative is, city hall is spending a little more to give taxpayers a little better service. Article Continued Below The surprise in a budget that increases overall spending by $258 million is that such a plan presents as reasonable and sustainable. For all his bluster, Rob Ford the anti-tax crusader hit property taxpayers with 2.71 per cent hike last year, and 2.5 per cent increases in 2013 and 2012. He froze taxes in 2011 — but only after using the massive surplus of $367 million that Miller left him. In addition, Ford saddled everyone with a half per cent hike for the Scarborough subway, an additional increase that will remain on your bill for decades. If Tory campaigned as a tax-averse ideologue, as some have criticized, he is governing according to perceived needs on the street. This budget signals that he is not afraid to spend to improve service, even at the risk of offending his base conservative support. There is a political price to pay for breaking his promise not to raise transit fares. And hard-core conservatives will be irate over the extra tax subsidy shoveled at the transit system. That dynamic will play out over four years. But, today, looking at the huge boost to transit that flows from the fare hike and the increased tax subsidy, Tory can be applauded for taking the risk. Further budget evidence that Tory’s heart beats closer to that of a progressive than a conservative: “New investments” total $170 million, with $75 million coming from the property tax base. Article Continued Below The city will hire 1,084 new staff — 802 of them to the TTC. The controversial land transfer tax, targeted by some for extinction, is further entrenched in the city’s budget. Last year, land transfer revenues amounted to $75 million more than the budgeted $350 million. So, this year staff budgeted $425 million. There’s almost $15 million for “poverty reduction,” including student nutrition programs. The concerns about John Tory went something like this: He’s a conservative at heart. He was born into privilege. He’s Rob Ford, scrubbed clean. When push comes to shove he’ll cut spending, forget the poor, slash budgets and devastate the city. But those who have seen him in the early days as he’s gone about turning over rocks and seeing how the city actually functions say social equity drives him. The transit file is a good example. Tory arrived at TTC headquarters expecting to freeze fares. They suggested a 5-cent fare hike. He stuck with zero. Then he saw the extent of the cuts to transit since 2011, and who felt the brunt of the cutbacks — the people in the suburbs depending on buses to get around. And he went from zero past the 5 cents the TTC wanted and landed at a 10-cent hike. But the key shoe was still to drop. Tory didn’t just raise fares. He increased the tax subsidy by $38 million. The cost of the improvements is to be borne by all of us. Sounds like something a New Democrat might do. And that explains why the budget will win easy approval at city council in March — despite a mixed bag of concerns from those who want more and those who want less. Council will have much to chew on. Consider: For the third straight year the city’s budget is balanced without using surplus from prior years. Toronto’s debt continues to rise (so does the construction backlog). New spending will add $3.6 billion over 10 years. The big bump in 2015 comes from $1.6 billion in borrowing for the Scarborough subway. Rob Ford identified $57 million in budget savings in year one. Tory? Nearly doubled at $108. Over four years, Ford’s savings totaled $761 million (he famously claimed more than $1 billion). Tory will have to average $184 million a year from 2016-2018 to match his predecessor. Every time someone complains about city spending, remind them that with this budget, Toronto is still the lowest taxed city in the region — by tax rate and average amount of taxes for the average home. Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca Read more about:
The thing about change is, it's not linear. And it doesn't happen in every place at the same speed. For the longest time, we've been writing stories when one University system orders 20 electric buses, or when one city commits to a major electric car fleet. Yet the idea that all buses might soon be electric seemed like a hard-to-fathom and far off dream. Yet last week, Cleantechnica reported on a story that 115,700 electric buses were sold in China in 2016. This figure apparently represents a 20% market share of all new electric buses! Compare that to the 1,672 electric buses that were sold in 2013, just three years earlier, and you start to understand how rapidly the landscape is changing. Apparently, the city of Shenzhen is planning foran all electric fleet of 15,000 buses by the end of 2017! Now, the flip side of this encouraging story is that the rest of the world has a long way to go before it can catch up. In fact according to EV Sales Blog (the original source for Cleantechnica's story), at the end of 2015 a full 98% of all the electric buses in the entire world were to be found in China. Still, given the fact that China is rapidly becoming a world leader in clean tech industries, that it is flexing its muscle in terms of international climate leadership, and that other cities around the world suffer from the same types of diesel-driven air quality problems that China has become known for, I think we can expect China's success story to translate into rapid adoption elsewhere. And when that adoption happens, I believe we'll be seeing the beginnings of the kind of disruptive demand destruction that could leave Big Oil in very serious trouble indeed.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has left no stone unturned in expressing their discontent against the government over the soaring prices of onions in the capital, as it organised for the second time a unique protest by gifting onions to women who tie Rakhi to the Delhi BJP leader Sunil Yadav on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. The BJP leaders decided to give away two kilogram of onions to women in the JJ camps located near the official residences of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi. According to reports, Delhi BJP leader Sunil Yadav said on Tuesday that he would distribute two kilogram onions each to the women who tie the Rakhi on his wrist and added that he would be visiting the JJ camp on Tughlak Lane, located behind the official residence of Rahul Gandhi and Race Course Road jhuggi camp near the PM residence at 11 am. Earlier, the BJP on August 13 protested against the onion price hike by depositing onions and tomatoes in a bank, in an attempt to send out a strong message to the UPA Government on its apparent nonchalant attitude towards the plight of the people, especially the poor. A BJP MLA from Kanpur Satish Mahana on Tuesday, deposited onions and tomatoes in the Allahabad Bank along with his party colleagues and said the government would have to take the blame if people start stealing onions and tomatoes instead of motorcycles and cars. Onions have been touching an unbelievable retail rate of Rs.80 per kilogram in some parts of Delhi and in other parts of India, as most of the crop has been destroyed by the heavy monsoon showers. According to television channel reports and other media reports, the price of onions has risen by over thirty two percent in the week gone by. The average wholesale price of onions has more than doubled since the beginning of this month. Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Tariq Anwar said: "This is an issue of concern. It won't be wrong to say that middlemen are taking advantage of this. He also said that he did not foresee a shortage of onions, as it is being imported from many states like Rajasthan. Experts say the trend is unlikely to reverse any time soon and the earliest respite can be expected around the end of September.
Be Smart and Mirror What Works If you know a specific music release (or event) has a similar sound and vibe to yours, it makes sense to contact the publications who successfully covered that release to increase the chances of your own release being covered. Up until now, this information has been very difficult to come by in list form. Get Started in Less than a Minute We’re now offering a service which reveals this information (and more). All you have to do is tell us the name of the music release or event you’d like us to explore, and within 24 hours, we’ll send you a link to a password protected page that gives you the option to view and download your press list as an Excel or PDF file.
Photos, Video==>Bomb Rocks Cairo, Italian Gov’t Building Destroyed A strong bomb woke up Cairo around 6:20 a.m. local time Saturday. The bomb was strong enough to be felt and heard across the city. I have just woke up on the sound of a huge explosion in Cairo !!! — Zeinobia (@Zeinobia) July 11, 2015 Photos taken after the explosion show the main target was an Italian government building. It is being variously described as a consulate or center. A photo of the Italian government’s Da Vinci International School matches photos of the blown up building seen in photos taken Saturday morning. Photo-journalist David Degner posted several photos from the scene to Twitter: Photos from explosion at the Italian center. pic.twitter.com/ZNSfiMMwZd — David Degner (@degner) July 11, 2015 Italian embassy explosion. Talk of one dead. Blood on the ground. #egypt pic.twitter.com/7rwn2IRkX0 — David Degner (@degner) July 11, 2015 A couple more photos from the Italian Consolate as the police hold me. 4 journalist held now. pic.twitter.com/J9RFBao6Xp — David Degner (@degner) July 11, 2015 Pieces of car are scattered around the bomb site. An hour later they have cordoned it off. — David Degner (@degner) July 11, 2015 A video posted to YouTube shows drivers on a bridge driving their vehicles through the debris field and dust from the bombing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC6IN3c4f2E AFP initially reported five people were wounded in the attack. “Medics at the site of the blast told AFP that it wounded two policemen stationed outside the consulate and three passers-by.”
Leo Major I know that technically we have to be enemies for the time being (at least until the final horn sounds on the third period of the Olympic Hockey tournament and we've finally decided who gets US-Canada bragging rights for the next four years), but all this talk about Canada and the Winter Games and all that crap has got me thinking about one thing – dead Nazis, and lots of 'em. In a large way this weird subliminal association between Canadians and machine gunned SS soldiers has to do with the actions of one man – a lowly Private in the Canadian military who went out and did some of the most insane shit you'll ever read about. During his adventures ripping the hedgerows of Normandy into sawdust, Leo Majors became not just the only Canuck to receive the Distinguished Conduct Medal (the second-highest award for bravery offered by the Royal government) twice, but the only person from any Commonwealth country to win it for actions in two separate wars. Of course, being a total head-smashing badass isn't just about kicking in teeth, confiscating enemy ballsacks, and then standing there while some high-ranking self-important douchebag pins a small chunk of tin on your chest. Much like many of the bizarre contests that we are watching on television during this Olympic cylce with equal parts respect and WTF confusion, there are style points involved, and holy shitballs did Private Leo Major of the Chaudiere Regiment of the Canadian Army bring his A-game to Europe back when Hitler needed a good bit of iron-fisted cock-punching justice. Major kicked things off by landing on Normandy along with the rest of the Canadian military, and I'd wager that anybody who's ever played any of the ten billion World War II-themed video games on the market today can tell you that running across a beach while Nazis shoot machine guns at your face is no picnic. Well not only did Majors miraculously manage to somehow not die nose-down in the surf, but on his first day in the lovely French countryside he went out and single-handedly captured one of these bad boys: I don't need to say that he captured a real one, and not a plastic model, right? Leo Major, a scout and sniper by trade, charged out in broad daylight, popped an entire squad of Nazis, stole their ride, and then impressed all his superiors when they discovered that the jacked truck was loaded up with communications gear that would prove invaluable in terms of intercepting and deciphering German messages during the Normandy Campaign. For those of you out there who aren't experts in military tactics and strategy, being able to know what your enemy is going to do before he does it is kind of a good thing if you enjoy not losing wars, and that's a benefit that the Allies had in no small part to Leo Major's raging iron ballsack. Helping out the intel cause one bullet at a time was great and all, so about a week later Major went out and pissed off a squad of battle-hardened badass SS soldiers. Sure, the SS were the most elite force the Nazis could field, but Major still smoked all eight of them. Unfortunately right as the last guy was getting ready to eat it he chucked a phosphorous grenade that blew up in Leo's face, covering him with a very unpleasant coating of burning-hot liquid. Major lost all vision in his right eye, but when the Allied docs told him to pack up and head home, this German-smiting asskicker demanded to stay on the front. He argued, in true badass fashion, that as long as he had one eye to look into the scope of his rifle he was still capable of serving his country. From that point on, Leo Major went into battle with an eyepatch on his right eye, which is a detail that is so awesome I think I may have just crapped. Oh, and just in case Nazi-killing pirate snipers still aren't tough enough for you somehow, Major also refused evacuation a few years later when his APC drove over a landmine and he broke his back in a couple places. Even something as ridiculous as a fractured spine didn't stop this maniac from finishing out the war, going out to fight in another one, and winning bravery medals in both. Artist's interpretation Major's first larger-than-life action came during the Battle of the Scheldt in the Netherlands in late 1944. Major and his best friend (a lumberjack named Willy, because when you're a hardcore Canadian you're more or less obligated to be best friends with a lumberjack commando) went out to scout a town and figure out what the hell happened to a company of Canadian infantry that had failed to return from a reconnaissance mission. Major went into the town, discovered that the company had been captured, and then single-handedly captured the entire enemy garrison by running up and down guard posts jamming his rifle in peoples' faces and screaming at them. He returned to the Allied camp with 93 German prisoners in tow. Because this was so insane, the British high command offered him a Distinguished Conduct Medal, but Leo told them to get bent and shove the medal up their asses. In Major's opinion, Allied High Command General Bernard Montgomery was such an incompetent dickbrain that he wasn't qualified to be giving medals out to anyone, and any award issued by him was about as worthless as he was. Try to keep in mind, now, that this is a Private talking about the most senior officer in his army. Say what you'd like about maintaining respect for the chain of command, but this takes some giant balls. Luckily for Democracy, the Canadian high command didn't see fit to reprimand this guy for his not so subtle diss of Monty, and their decision ended up paying off in one of the most balls-out one-man battles ever fought – the single-handed capture of the Dutch town of Zwolle by Private Leo Major and his implacable rage. One quiet night in 1945 Major and his buddy were sent out to do some recon in the Nazi-occupied town of Zwolle, report back on enemy numbers, and maybe establish contact with the Dutch resistance. Sadly, not long into the mission, Willy the Lumberjack was cheap-shotted and killed by a German machine gun. This set off one of the most epic blood rages ever recorded. Leo Major completely flipped his shit, strapped three machine guns onto his back, grabbed a huge sack of hand grenades, and charged into the quiet town with his guns and weapons blazing. Leo ran around like a berserker madman, creating such a clusterfuck of explosions, fires, and dead bodies that the German garrison was convinced that they were fighting a vastly superior force. During his mad rampage of Nazi destruction, this one-eyed juggernaut kicked in the door of an SS officer's club, kiled four high-ranking enemy commanders in a firefight, and then went and ran out and burned down the local headquarters of the Gestapo. By the time the sun rose on Zwolle the next morning, the entire German garrison had evacuated and the town was returned to Dutch control. To this day Leo Major is still remembered as the sole savior of Zwolle, an honor that kind of blows my mind a little. Major would deservedly receive his first DCM for the insanity at Zwolle, but the second one would come a decade later and halfway around the world, during the fighting in the Korean conflict. Major, who by this time had graciously been promoted to Corporal, was sent to infiltrate a key hill that had just been captured from the Americans by a huge force of nearly forty thousand Chinese soldiers. Major snuck in with 19 other French Canadian hardasses, set up fortifications, and – for whatever reason – decided to open fire on the Chinese. In a massive battle that lasted for three days and nights, Leo Major and his 20-man platoon somehow captured the hill and held off desperate counterattacks by two full divisions of the Chinese army. Major was right in the middle of the whole thing, pumping up his men and calling mortar fire down mere feet from his position to ensure maximum detonation of his enemies. That's some stone-cold shit right there, but at this point we know it to be par for the course for this guy. Leo Major died in 2008, but nowadays he is fondly remembered as a hero to Canadians, Dutch, and pretty much anybody who's a fan of guys in eyepatches that kick their enemies in the groin as hard as possible whenever the opportunity presents itself. His old unit now offers a yearly award in his name to the toughest company in the regiment, and the people of Zwolle continue to teach him in their public school curriculum. There's also a constellation named after him, but there's a slight chance that may have been around first. "I fought the war with only one eye, and I did pretty good." Links: An Article Written by His Son Hero Construction Company Leo Major, DCM and BAR Ottowa Citizen Article Wikipedia Main The Complete List About the Author Miscellaneous Articles RSS
Fabio Borini: Three goals in 38 appearances for Liverpool Bologna are interested in signing Liverpool forward Fabio Borini, according to Sky Italia. The Serie A club have not yet made an official bid for the 24-year-old, but are believed to be working on an offer. Borini has struggled to make an impact at Anfield since arriving in 2012, and he could now be on his way back to the club at which he began his youth career. After joining Chelsea’s youth system from the Bologna academy in 2007, the Bentivoglio-born forward had successful loan spells at Swansea and Roma, but he has scored just three goals in 38 appearances for Liverpool since becoming Brendan Rodgers’ first signing at the club. Bologna, bought by New York lawyer Joe Tacopina and Montreal Impact President Joey Saputo in October, finished fourth in last season’s Serie B before securing promotion back to the top flight through the play-offs. Bologna celebrate after securing promotion back to Serie A in the play-offs Borini enjoyed a successful season-long loan at Sunderland in 2013/14, scoring 10 goals, including the opener in their Capital One Cup Final defeat to Man City. This led to a proposed permanent move to the Stadium of Light, but Borini later opted to stay at Liverpool. The one-cap Italy international went on to make just 12 Premier League appearances last season.
The Original Six era of the National Hockey League (NHL) began in 1942 with the demise of the Brooklyn Americans, reducing the league to six teams: Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs. This structure remained stable for a quarter century; the era ended in 1967 when the NHL doubled in size adding six expansion teams. The Stanley Cup, was the de facto championship since 1926, becoming the de jure championship in 1947, when the NHL completed a deal with the Stanley Cup trustees to gain control of the Cup. Toronto and Montreal evidenced dynasties, as the Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup nine times from 1942 onwards, while the Canadiens won ten times, including five consecutive titles between 1956 and 1960. The 1967 championship is the last Maple Leafs title to date. Remarkably, Maurice Richard became the first player to score 50 goals in a season in 1944–45. In 1955, Richard was suspended for assaulting a linesman, leading to the Richard Riot. Gordie Howe made his debut in 1946, retiring 32 years later as the NHL's all-time leader in both goals and points. Willie O'Ree broke the NHL's colour barrier when he dressed for the Bruins in 1958. The NHL continued to develop throughout the era. In 1943, in an attempt to 'open up' the game, the league introduced the centre-ice red line allowing players for the first time to pass out of their defensive zone. In 1959, Jacques Plante became the first goaltender to regularly wear a face mask for protection. Off the ice, the business of hockey was changing as well. The first amateur draft was held in 1963 as part of efforts to balance talent distribution within the league. The National Hockey League Players Association was formed in 1967, ten years after Ted Lindsay's attempts at unionization failed. Background [ edit ] Clarence Campbell served as the NHL's third President from 1946 until his retirement in 1977. In the 1930s and early 1940s, both the Great Depression and World War II were detrimental to the NHL. Although the league peaked at ten teams between 1926 and 1931, financial pressures led to the demise of several of these. In 1930, the Pittsburgh Pirates relocated to become the Philadelphia Quakers before folding in 1931.[1] In 1934, the Ottawa Senators became the St. Louis Eagles, and likewise ceased operations after one year in their new market.[2] The Montreal Maroons suspended operations in 1937 as the Montreal market was unable to support two teams.[3] The New York Americans, renamed the Brooklyn Americans, suspended operations in 1942, citing financial difficulty, and a lack of players due to the war.[4] By the 1942–43 season, the league was reduced to six teams. Those six teams are now known, somewhat misleadingly, as the "Original Six." There was no more expansion or contraction until 1967. There was also change at the top; in February 1943, league President Frank Calder collapsed during a meeting, dying shortly after.[5] After receiving assurances from the league the Brooklyn franchise he operated would resume play after the war, Red Dutton agreed to take over as president. When the other team owners reneged on this promise in 1946, Dutton resigned as league president.[6] In 1946, with Dutton's recommendation, Clarence Campbell was named president of the NHL. Campbell remained until retirement in 1977. Campbell's tenure matched the league's stability. For the first 21 years of his presidency, the same six teams competed for the Stanley Cup; that period has been called the "golden age of hockey".[7] The NHL featured increasingly intense rivalries coupled with rule innovations that opened up the game.[8] Post-war period [ edit ] Syl Apps , with the Cup before it was redesigned, in the 1940s World War II extensively ravaged the rosters of many teams; by the 1943–44 season teams battled each other for players. In need of a goaltender, the Bruins won a fight with the Canadiens over the services of Bert Gardiner. Meanwhile, the Rangers were forced to lend forward Phil Watson to the Canadiens in exchange for two players, as Watson was required in Montreal for a war job, and refused permission to play in New York.[9] With only five returning players from the previous season, Rangers general manager Lester Patrick suggested suspension of his team's play for the duration of the war. Patrick was otherwise persuaded; however, the Rangers managed only six wins in a 50-game schedule, giving up 310 goals that year. The Rangers were so desperate for players that 42-year-old coach Frank Boucher made a brief comeback, recording four goals and ten assists in 15 games.[9] That year the Canadiens dominated the league, finishing with a 38–5–7 record. Five losses remains a league record for the fewest in one season; the Canadiens did not lose a game on home ice.[10] Their 1944 Stanley Cup victory was the team's first in 14 seasons.[11] The Canadiens again dominated the 1944–45, finishing with a 38–8–4 record. They were defeated in the playoffs by the underdog Maple Leafs, who eventually won the Cup.[12] NHL teams exclusively competed for the Stanley Cup following the 1926 demise of the Western Hockey League. Though rejected by Cup trustees for various reasons, in the intervening years other teams, and leagues, attempted to challenge for the Cup.[13] In 1947, the NHL reached an agreement with trustees P. D. Ross and Cooper Smeaton to grant Cup control to the NHL, thereby allowing the league to reject challenges from other leagues.[14] The last such challenge came in 1953, from the Cleveland Barons of the American Hockey League; it was rejected, as the AHL was not considered of equivalent calibre to the NHL, which was a condition of the NHL's 'deal' with trustees.[15] The Hockey Hall of Fame was established in 1943 under the leadership of James T. Sutherland, a former President of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA). The Hall of Fame was established as a joint venture between the NHL and the CAHA, in Kingston, Ontario, considered by Sutherland the birthplace of hockey. Originally called the "International Hockey Hall of Fame", its mandate was to honor great hockey players and to raise funds for a permanent location. The first eleven honored members were inducted on April 30, 1945.[16] Not until 1961 did the Hockey Hall of Fame establish a permanent home at Exhibition Place in Toronto.[17] On October 13, 1947, to raise money for the newly created NHL Pension Society, the first official All-Star Game took place at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens. The NHL All-Stars defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4–3 and raised C$25,000 for the pension fund. The All-Star Game remains an annual tradition.[18] "Rocket" Richard [ edit ] The 1940s Canadiens were led by the "Punch line" of Elmer Lach, Toe Blake and Maurice "Rocket" Richard. In 1944–45, Lach, Richard and Blake finished first, second and third in the NHL's scoring race with 80, 73 and 67 points, respectively.[19] Richard became a media and fan focus with attempts to score 50 goals in a 50-game season, a feat no other player had accomplished in league history. During that season, in a 9–1 victory over Detroit on December 28, 1944, Richard set a single-game scoring record, scoring five goals and three assists.[12] Later scoring his 45th goal in his 42nd game, he broke Joe Malone's goal scoring record. Opposing teams did all they could to prevent him from reaching the 50-goal mark: he was slashed, elbowed and held, as no team wanted to be known for giving up the 50th goal.[11] Despite the opposition's efforts, in Boston at 17:45 of the third period of Montreal's final game of the season, Richard scored his 50th goal.[19] Until Mike Bossy in 1980–81, no other player scored 50 goals in 50 games.[20] Maurice "Rocket" Richard, the first player to score 50 goals in 50 games, retired as the NHL's all-time scoring leader. In March 1955, Richard was suspended for the remainder of the season, including the playoffs, after receiving a match penalty for slashing Boston's Hal Laycoe then punching a linesman who attempted to intervene.[20] The suspension created a wave of anger towards Campbell, who was warned not to attend a scheduled game in Montreal after receiving numerous death threats, mainly from French-Canadians accusing him of anti-French bias.[21] Dismissing the warnings, Campbell attended the March 17 game, as planned. His presence was interpreted by many fans as provocation; he was booed, and pelted with eggs and fruit;[22] an hour into the game, a fan lobbed a tear-gas bomb in Campbell's direction; firefighters decided to clear the building.[21] A riot ensued outside the Forum as disenchanted fans leaving the Forum were met by a growing mob of angry demonstrators; the hostile crowd overwhelmed 250 police officers on the scene. Seventy people were arrested, another 37 people were injured; fifty stores were looted, and $100,000 in property damage was reported, in what became known as l'affaire Richard, or the Richard Riot.[22] The following day, Richard went on Montreal radio to ask fans to cease rioting, and instead support the Canadiens in the playoffs; he offered to take his punishment then come back the following year to win the Cup.[23] While the Canadiens were eliminated in the 1955 Stanley Cup Finals, Richard led Montreal to the 1956 Stanley Cup.[22] The incident highlighted the growing cultural gap between French Quebec and English Canada; the riot is often characterized as an early manifestation of Quebec's Quiet Revolution.[22][24] Campbell's decision to suspend Richard was widely supported by fans outside of Quebec. Some, including Detroit's Ted Lindsay, said the suspension did not go far enough and argued Richard, a man who had paid more fines than any other player in league history, should have been banned for life.[21] On October 19, 1957, Richard became the first player to score 500 career goals. He retired in 1960, as an eight-time Stanley Cup champion, as well as the NHL's all-time leading scorer, with 544 goals. In 1961, the league waived the customary three-year waiting period; Richard was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.[20] Hockey Night in Canada [ edit ] In the fall of 1951, in an attempt to determine whether it was a suitable medium for broadcasting hockey games, Conn Smythe watched special television feeds of Maple Leaf games. Television already had detractors within the NHL, especially Campbell who declared it "the greatest menace of the entertainment world".[25] In 1952, even though only 10% of Canadians owned a television set, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) began televising games.[26] On November 1, 1952, Hockey Night in Canada was first broadcast on television, with Foster Hewitt calling the action between the Leafs and Bruins at Maple Leaf Gardens. The broadcasts quickly became the highest-rated show on Canadian television.[25] The broadcast came three weeks after Montreal radio host René Lecavalier presented a French-language telecast of the Montreal Canadiens' opener against Chicago, marking the beginning of La Soirée du hockey, which Radio-Canada, the French arm of the CBC, broadcast until 2004. On that same night, Danny Gallivan made his debut as the English language play-by-play announcer for the Canadiens.[25] While Campbell feared televised hockey would cause people to stop attending games in person, Smythe felt the opposite. "There'll be thousands of people seeing hockey as played by the pros for the first time. They'll be sold on it because it's a great game, and they won't be satisfied to stay [at home] but will turn out to the rinks."[26] As an experiment in the 1956–57 season, CBS first broadcast hockey games in the United States. Amazed with the initial popularity of the broadcasts, it inaugurated a 21-game package of games the following year.[25] The NHL itself adapted to become viewer-friendly. In 1949, to make the puck easier to see, the league mandated the ice surface painted white. In 1951, so each team was distinguishable on black and white television, the League required home teams wear colored jerseys, and the road teams wear white. For the same reason, teams painted the centre red line in a checkered pattern to set it apart from the solid blue lines.[25] Dynasties [ edit ] Toronto Maple Leafs [ edit ] Bobby Baun scored the overtime winning goal in game six of the 1964 Finals despite breaking his ankle in the third period. In the 1951 Stanley Cup Finals, in the only final in NHL history when all games were decided in overtime, the Maple Leafs defeated the Canadiens four games to one.[27] After dashing from his defensive position, despite an earlier warning from Smythe not to take unnecessary chances, Leafs' defenceman Bill Barilko hammered the Cup-winning goal past Montreal goaltender Gerry McNeil. The goal completed Toronto's fourth Stanley Cup championship in five seasons, making Barilko a national hero.[28] Four months later, Barilko and a friend disappeared in Northern Ontario, where they had flown on a fishing trip. Barilko's disappearance became front page news across Canada; a massive search failed to locate the missing plane.[29] Barilko's remains were not found until 1962, the first year the Maple Leafs won the Cup since Barilko's overtime winner eleven years previous.[30] Barilko's disappearance was immortalized 40 years later by Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip in their 1992 song "Fifty Mission Cap".[31] By 1962, the disappearance of Bill Barilko and the Maple Leafs' subsequent failure to win the Stanley Cup led Toronto fans to believe a curse was upon the team.[29] The Leafs won the 1962 championship shortly before Barilko's remains were discovered. In 1963, they repeated as champions.[32] In 1964, the Leafs again played for the Stanley Cup against the Red Wings. In the third period of game six, trailing the series 3–2, Maple Leafs' defenceman Bobby Baun suffered a broken ankle from a Gordie Howe slap shot. Despite the injury, Baun returned with his ankle taped up to score the winning goal in overtime.[33] Baun also played the seventh game as the Maple Leafs defeated the Red Wings to win their third consecutive title.[34] Detroit Red Wings [ edit ] Gordie Howe, pictured circa 1966, helped the Red Wings to four Stanley Cup titles in the early 1950s. Beginning in 1948–49, the Red Wings went on to win seven consecutive regular season titles - a feat no other team has accomplished. During that time, the Wings won four Stanley Cups.[35] During the 1952 Stanley Cup Finals the Legend of the Octopus was created. For the fourth game of the finals, brothers Pete and Jerry Cusimano brought a dead octopus to the Detroit Olympia. At the time, they reasoned the eight tentacles of an octopus represented the eight wins required to win the Stanley Cup. The Wings had won seven consecutive playoff games, and the brothers hoped the octopus would inspire Detroit to an eighth victory. The tradition was born, as Detroit handily defeated Montreal 3–0.[36] During this time, the Wings were led by Gordie Howe. In 1943, at the age of 15, Howe was invited to the Rangers player camp in Winnipeg; but quickly became homesick and failed to favorably impress the Rangers coaches.[37] The next season the Red Wings invited him to their camp, where coach Jack Adams called him "the best prospect I've seen in 20 years."[38] Two years later, at the age of 18, Howe debuted in the NHL for Detroit. On March 28, 1950, during a playoff game against the Leafs, Howe was nearly killed as he mistimed an attempted check on Toronto's Ted Kennedy, causing him to slam head first into the boards. Rushed to hospital, doctors drilled a hole into Howe's skull to relieve pressure on his brain.[39] Despite fears he would never play again, "Mr. Hockey" recovered to start the following season, then won his first of four consecutive scoring titles in 1950–51. Howe was 52 years old when he retired from professional hockey.[38] Montreal Canadiens [ edit ] The 1942–43 Montreal Canadiens In three consecutive seasons between 1954 and 1956, the Red Wings faced the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Finals.[40] Detroit won the first two match-ups, however, Montreal captured the 1956 Stanley Cup, ending one dynasty and starting another.[35] Subsequently, the Canadiens won five consecutive championships between 1956 and 1960, a feat no other team has duplicated.[41] In 1953, the Canadiens signed Jean Beliveau; a well-anticipated prospect in the NHL for years. Because his Quebec Senior Hockey League team, the Quebec Aces, matched any contract offer the Canadiens made, Beliveau repeatedly refused to turn professional with Montreal. Ultimately, Montreal bought the entire league outright, along with the rights to all players, and turned it professional. Beliveau finally signed with Montreal for $105,000 over five years and a $20,000 bonus, an unprecedented contract for a rookie. Playing for Montreal, Beliveau went on to win ten Stanley Cups.[42] Led by Richard and Beliveau, the 1950s Canadiens had overwhelming offensive ability; to slow their offence the NHL amended its rules. To illustrate, the 1955–56 Canadiens frequently scored multiple goals during the same two-minute powerplay. In one game against Boston, during a penalty, Beliveau scored three goals in 44 seconds. For the following season, the league instituted a rule permitting a player serving a minor penalty to return to the ice when a goal was scored against his team.[43] Breaking the colour barrier [ edit ] On January 18, 1958, by joining the Bruins as an 'injury call-up' for a game in Montreal, Willie O'Ree became the first black player in the NHL.[44] Playing only two games with the Bruins in the 1957–58 season, O'Ree returned in 1960–61, playing another 43 games with Boston.[45] Although he only played 45 NHL games, scoring four goals, he earned the label the "Jackie Robinson of hockey".[46] Throughout the season, O'Ree faced blatant racism from opponents, remarking "people just wanted a piece of me, maybe because they thought I was different, so I had to defend myself. I wasn't going to be run out of any rink."[45] He endured racial slurs from fans in each of Chicago, Detroit and New York,[46] though the taunts were largely absent in Montreal and Toronto.[45] O'Ree was supported by his teammates and Boston fans. He stated "they were mean to me in places like Detroit and New York, too. But never in Boston. I'll never forget how my teammates there took care of me — men like Johnny Bucyk, Doug Mohns, Charlie Burns and Don McKenney. They accepted me totally. All of them had class."[47] In 1961, O'Ree was traded to Montreal but was unable to crack the Canadiens' line-up. Playing over 20 minor league seasons, O'Ree twice won the Western Hockey League's scoring title: in 1964, with the Los Angeles Blades, and in 1969, with the San Diego Gulls.[47] O'Ree's breakthrough came several years after another black player, Herb Carnegie was denied the same opportunity. In 1938–39, playing junior hockey with the Ontario Hockey Association's Toronto Rangers, during a practice Carnegie was pulled aside by his coach and told "See that man sitting in the blues? That's Conn Smythe, owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He says he'd take you tomorrow if he could turn you white." Stung by the comments, Carnegie resolved to excel at the game. He was offered a tryout with the Rangers in 1950, then a spot on their lowest minor league team. "They told me that if I signed with the Rangers and went to New Haven, I would make international headlines. I told them my family couldn't eat headlines. That was probably when the Rangers decided to forget about me."[48] "Norris House League" [ edit ] During the 1960s, it was often joked "NHL" stood for "Norris House League" because the Norris family held interests in several league teams. James D. Norris was co-owner of the Black Hawks along with Arthur Wirtz; his brother Bruce inherited ownership of the Red Wings. James D. Norris was also the largest shareholder in Madison Square Garden, giving him control over the Rangers.[49] The Black Hawks qualified for the playoffs only once between 1949 and 1957.[50] The team's fortunes turned in 1958–59, following the acquisition of Ted Lindsay and Glenn Hall from Detroit.[49] Making the playoffs, the Black Hawks lost to Montreal in the semi-finals in 1959 and 1960, before capturing their first championship in 23 years, in the 1961 Stanley Cup Finals.[51] Chicago next won the Cup 49 years later in the 2009-10 season. The Hawks' resurgence in the 1960s led Norris and Wirtz to take advantage of their customers. Dubbed the "Chicken Wings" by fans, the Hawks were famous for fleecing fans. Ticket sellers were arrested for scalping; the team charged $9 for playoff tickets in 1965, $3 more than Detroit, Toronto or Montreal. The Hawks also refused to broadcast road playoff games in Chicago, preferring to charge fans to watch the games via closed-circuit television at Chicago Stadium. Fans responded by littering the ice and passing out leaflets urging a boycott of the team during Chicago's last regular season game in 1964–65.[52] Expansion [ edit ] In 1963, Rangers governor William Jennings introduced to his peers the idea of expanding the league to the American West Coast by adding two new teams for the 1964–65 season. His argument was based around concerns the Western Hockey League intended to operate in the near future as a major league. Jennings also hoped inclusion of teams on the west coast would make the league truly national, and thereby, improve the chances of returning to television in the United States as the NHL had lost its deal with CBS. While the governors did not agree to the proposal, the topic of expansion surfaced every time the owners met subsequently.[53] In 1965, there was agreement to expand by six teams, doubling the size of the NHL. San Francisco–Oakland and Vancouver were declared "acceptable cities" with Los Angeles and St. Louis as potential sites.[54] Fourteen applications were received from across Canada and the United States, including four from Los Angeles.[55] In February 1966, the governors met and awarded franchises to Los Angeles, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and St. Louis. The league rejected bids from Baltimore, Buffalo and Vancouver.[55] The six winning bids each paid $2 million for their franchises.[53] St. Louis was awarded a franchise with no bid received. The league's decision to grant a franchise was contingent on a potential owner stepping forward - a decision influenced by the Norris and Wirtz families, who owned the St. Louis Arena.[55] Canadians were outraged no expansion teams were awarded to Canada. Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson stated: "the NHL decision to expand only in the U.S. impinges on the sacred principles of all Canadians." Maple Leafs coach Punch Imlach stated Vancouver was "sold out" and Toronto and Montreal did not want to share television revenue with another Canadian team.[56] Leafs co-owner Stafford Smythe rejected accusations that he opposed expansion to Vancouver, pointing out that he had offered to build and operate an $8 million facility in the city's downtown area, a proposal that he contended made little sense unless Vancouver had an NHL team. However, Smythe's proposal was contingent on him acquiring the parcel of land required from the city, then valued at $2.5 million, for $1. The proposed transaction was defeated in a municipal referendum. Smythe therefore placed the blame for Vancouver's failed bid on the city: "Vancouver lost its chance the day it turned down the referendum on our arena proposal", Smythe said. "That proved to me that the people out there aren't interested in going major league."[56] The Original Six era ended with the 1967 Stanley Cup Finals between the two-time defending champion Canadiens, and the Maple Leafs.[57] The oldest team in the league, the third place Leafs were led in goal by 37-year-old Terry Sawchuk and 42-year-old Johnny Bower.[58] Known as the "over the hill gang", in six games, Toronto became the oldest team to win the Cup, defeating the favored Canadiens. The Maple Leafs have not appeared in the Stanley Cup finals since.[57] Rules and innovations [ edit ] In 1942, due to World War II related travel restrictions, league president Frank Calder abolished the 10-minute overtime for regular season games so teams could catch their trains without delay.[4] With the war's conclusion, regular season overtime did not return, although playoff games continued until a winner was decided. Overtime was re-introduced in the regular 1983–84 season.[59] In 1943, to make it more entertaining, the rules committee looked to increase the game's speed. Rangers coach Frank Boucher proposed the neutral zone divided by a centre red line, so teams could pass the puck out of the defensive zone into their half of the neutral zone.[60] Previously, the league required defensive players carry the puck from the defensive zone, not permitting a pass across the blue line.[61] Introduced in 1943–44, the new rule changed the game. Formerly, strong fore-checking pinned opponents in their own zone for minutes at a time; subsequently, teams rushed up the ice with defencemen passing to forwards beyond the blue line.[60] Scoring increased 10% league-wide; four of six teams topped 200 goals, the first time teams did so.[61] In the early 1960s, Stan Mikita inadvertently introduced the curved blade to a hockey stick. Cracking his blade during a practice and not wanting to retrieve another, Mikita shot the puck in anger. He noticed the curve in the cracked blade caused the puck to behave differently. Both Mikita and Bobby Hull experimented with heating and bending their stick blade to create different curves.[62] Using a curved blade, Mikita went on to win four Art Ross Trophies as the NHL's leading scorer. He later said he regretted the idea: "It's one of the worst inventions in hockey, because it eliminated the use of the backhand."[63] The NHL Amateur Draft was first held on June 5, 1963 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec. Created by Campbell, it was meant to more evenly distribute talent. To that point, teams directly sponsored junior clubs, buying a player's rights. A 16-year-old with the St. Michaels Juveniles, Garry Monahan, was the first player selected in the 1963 draft. Monahan remains the youngest player ever selected in an NHL draft. The Entry Draft system did not fully replace the sponsorship system until 1969.[64] Goaltending [ edit ] Jacques Plante's original fibreglass mask Goaltender Clint Benedict was the first to wear facial protection, donning it in 1930 to protect a broken nose. Because its design interfered with his vision, Benedict quickly abandoned the mask.[65] Twenty-nine years later, Jacques Plante made the goalie mask a permanent fixture in hockey. In 1956, Plante began wearing a mask in practice after shots from teammates twice broke cheekbones.[66] Montreal coach Toe Blake refused to allow Plante to wear his mask in games.[67] On November 1, 1959, in a game at Madison Square Garden, that changed, when Plante was struck in the face. Teams did not dress backup goaltenders; the game was delayed 20 minutes, while doctors frantically stitched up Plante. When Blake asked Plante if he was 'ready to return', Plante refused unless allowed to wear his mask.[68] Livid, Blake agreed only if Plante removed the mask when his face was healed. Wearing the mask, Plante led the Canadiens on an 18-game unbeaten streak,[67] to finally remove the mask at Blake's urging; promptly the team lost their first game. Defeated, Blake relented. Plante's mask became a permanent fixture as he led the Canadiens to their fifth consecutive Stanley Cup. Soon after, other goalies followed Plante's lead.[66] Remarkably, Terry Sawchuk played goal for most of his career not wearing a mask; he crouched very low such that his shoulders nearly touched his knees. This stance became known as the "gorilla crouch". During his career, Sawchuk relied on his ability to see the puck under the players' bodies, his outstanding mobility, and reflexes, to win four Vezina Trophies.[69] By 1955, he was regarded as the greatest goaltender to ever play the game.[70] Sawchuk's career was cut short when he died in 1970 from injuries suffered in a drunken incident with teammate Ron Stewart. The Hall of Fame waived its waiting period, immediately inducting Sawchuk as the NHL's all-time record holder in wins (447) and shutouts (103).[71] Sawchuk's style of play was a precursor to the modern goaltending butterfly style.[69] The butterfly style - used by most all modern goaltenders - was invented by Glenn Hall. Considered both unique and foolish, Hall's style of dropping to his knees and kicking his pads out in a V formation forced shooters to aim for the top half of the net. Hall adopted the technique as a youth when he lacked the arm strength to stop shots with his stick.[72] An eight-time All-Star, Hall became an NHL regular at the start of the 1955–1956 season to begin a sequence of 502 consecutive games as goaltender for Detroit and Chicago.[73] This record is hailed as one of the NHL's most unbreakable.[72] Unionization [ edit ] The first players' union was formed February 12, 1957 by Red Wings player Ted Lindsay, who had sat on the board of the NHL's Pension Society since 1952.[74] Lindsay and his fellow players were upset by the league's refusal to let them view the books related to the pension fund. The league claimed that it was barely breaking even financially, and so could not contribute more than it did. Players on the Pension Committee suspected otherwise, leading Lindsay and Doug Harvey of the Canadiens to discussions on forming a union in 1956.[75] The idea quickly gained popularity and when the union's founding was announced publicly, every NHL player had signed up with the exception of Ted Kennedy, who was retiring.[76] The owners immediately worked to crush the union. Toronto owner Conn Smythe compared the players association to communism: "I feel that anything spawned in secrecy as this association was certainly has to have some odour to it."[76] Red Wings president Bruce Norris responded by trading Lindsay to his brother's team, the Black Hawks. The move was widely seen as punitive, as the Hawks had finished last in the NHL every season, save one, from 1949 until 1957.[50] Lindsay was not the only player sent to Chicago as punishment; Glenn Hall was included as he refused to distance himself from Lindsay. In Toronto, Smythe repeatedly benched Jim Thomson, who was the union's secretary, before also dealing him to the Black Hawks.[74] The Players' Association responded by filing a $3 million antitrust lawsuit against the NHL.[77] Persuaded by teammates Gordie Howe and Red Kelly, the Red Wings players voted to withdraw from the association in November 1957.[50] Other teams quickly followed, and the union capitulated. Union leadership ultimately agreed to drop the lawsuit in exchange for small concessions, which included a minimum annual salary of $7,000, increases to the pension contributions and moving expenses for traded players.[74] Led by Alan Eagleson, the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) was formed in 1967.[78] Eagleson became the sport's first player agent in 1966 when he negotiated a deal on behalf of Bobby Orr with the Bruins that saw the 18-year-old rookie become the highest paid player in the NHL. At its peak, Eagleson's practice represented 150 professional athletes.[79] Eagleson had also helped settle an American Hockey League players strike sparked by mistreatment of players.[78] In June 1967, the NHLPA was announced, and quickly received acceptance from the owners.[80] Timeline [ edit ] Notes "SC" denotes won Stanley Cup See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] Further reading [ edit ]
Nostalgia is a feeling I try to avoid. Even so, I couldn't help a pang while re-acquainting myself with Straight to Hell – director Alex Cox's berserk homage to Sergio Leone made back in distant 1987, a tribute to the spaghetti western so grubby it had blood and pasta sauce down its shirt, which is now the recipient of a polished-up DVD reissue complete with once-deleted scenes restored. It's no one's idea of a lost masterpiece; it's far from its creator's best work; and yet it's still in some small, strange way a landmark. That said, I think we can be confident there will have been little thought while the film was being made that it would be the subject of critical pondering 23 years later. While occasionally hugely enjoyable, the whole thing is the definition of throwaway, and the plot's portrait of a trio of bank robbers taking refuge in a dusty ghost town is the flimsiest of pretexts for a series of deadpan riffs on guns, caffeine and sexual jealousy. But plot was never the selling point here – that was the then all-conquering Cox, and the cast he assembled in Leone's old Spanish stomping ground of Almería. From his deathless debut Repo Man came the jittery Dick Rude and laconic Sy Richardson, joined by the comebacking Dennis Hopper, a young Courtney Love, and a ragbag of rock stars including Elvis Costello, Shane MacGowan and, in the lead, Joe Strummer. Written in three days, shot in three weeks and widely loathed on release, the film now reveals what might best be described as a wilful sloppiness. But it's hard not to be charmed by the freewheeling energy and genuine oddball sensibility (for all the bloodshed, the closest thing to foul language is an invitation to "go boil yer 'ead"), while Strummer in particular is unexpectedly great. The result is, if nothing else, an interesting halfway house between the sardonic glee of Repo Man and the Central American odysseys of Walker and Highway Patrolman, three films that provide the bulk of their director's finest moments. Yet the really striking thing about re-encountering this parched romp in the bitter final weeks of 2010 is the gulf between today and the era from which it sprang – watching it now, it feels as distant as a silent movie. Part of that is probably down to the period being the all-but-forgotten high watermark of Cox's career, his success with 1986's Sid and Nancy meaning he could casually wave away job offers from Hollywood – this time missing the chance to direct Steve Martin in Three Amigos, disappear into the desert to piss about with his friends and have the results released into cinemas worldwide. But still more anachronistic might be the film's sense of being part of what was, however quaint it sounds, a true counterculture, influenced by and bound up with punk rock. It was a mood expressed in, for instance, the edgiest stretch of Martin Scorsese's career (notably The King of Comedy with its cameo for Strummer and the rest of The Clash and After Hours with its Bad Brains interlude), and the green shoots of an independent-minded new school that included Cox alongside the likes of Jim Jarmusch, Spike Lee and the Coen brothers, still then spiky weirdos rather than literary adapters and remakers for hire. And if the circumstances of the film being made owed much to such a quintessentially 80s cause as declaring solidarity with the Sandinistas, then it also came out of Cox embracing the role of film-maker as someone who simply hustles up a tiny budget, packs his camera and heads off into the unknown. I know that his funding occasionally came from Universal Studios – but I still can't think of many directors who more deserved the title of guerrilla film-maker, making only the movies he wanted to make on only the terms he felt comfortable with. Whereas now, in some quarters, that phrase has simply come to mean making hugely commercial projects on the cheap – not so terrible an ambition, but not quite the same thing in polarised times like these, when the prime minister's chipper brief for British directors is to help promote UK tourism. Like I say, it's not good to give in to nostalgia. Sometimes, though, it's unavoidable ...
If the Texas Longhorns need to attempt a field goal against the Oklahoma Sooners in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday, senior Nick Rose may not be the player who takes the field in that role. Head coach Charlie Strong said Monday that the kicking competition is once again open for Texas after he held a meeting with Rose and expressed his displeasure about the on-field results this season. And it's not hard to see why Strong is upset -- Rose missed the game-tying extra point against California that would have sent the game into overtime and then missed two more field goals against TCU last weekend after he seemingly recovered enough to make both of his attempts against Oklahoma State. The starting place kicker since Anthony Fera departed following the 2013 season, Rose has had issues with his consistency, missing two extra points in 2014 and hitting on only 66.7 of his attempts last season, including a blocked attempt against Baylor that was returned for a touchdown. The Highland Park product also failed to connect from 53 yards against Notre Dame in addition to his other, well-documented struggles. Unfortunately, it's questionable whether there are any better options on campus. Here's what we know about the three other contenders, one of whom is on scholarship: Junior Nick Jordan -- The other scholarship kicker on campus was a US Army All-American coming out of high school and even replaced Fera in 2012 when the Penn State transfer was attempting to come back from an injury he suffered before joining the Longhorns. However, Jordan struggled himself, connecting on only 9-of-15 attempts. He hasn't seen game action since then. Freshman Jon Coppens -- The Nolan Catholic product was a consensus two-star prospect ranked as the No. 16 kicker nationally, Coppens originally planned to walk on at Wyoming, committing to the Cowboys last December. In January he decommitted from Wyoming and committed to Incarnate Word on the same day. Then he had another change of plans, pledging to Rice just before National Signing Day. However, he never signed his National Letter of Intent with the Owls and remained on the market in doing so. Based on his offer list, academics were likely a priority for the 6'1, 195-pounder, as his 247Sports profile reports offers from Cornell, Dartmouth, and Yale, among others. He connected on 8-of-10 field-goal attempts, with a long of 45 yards, and converted all 25 extra point tries in his senior season, while also having some experience as a punter. Redshirt freshman Evan Moore -- Out of Aubrey, Moore joined the team during the spring after spending three years as the starting punter and place kicker. As a senior, he hit 7-of-8 attempts, including a 53-yarder. He also participated in the Kohl's kicking camps during his prep years and there is video of his work here.
"He says he loves Mexico and he says he's going to get all of the Mexican votes, so God Bless him. But it is an issue and we thought we would have a Donald Trump piñata contest," says Rico Neller. He is the co-chairman of the annual Latino Fest in downtown Toledo. Presidential candidate and entrepreneur, Donald Trump is used to taking blows in the press and in business. And now he will be taking blows from some in the Toledo area Latino community this Labor Day Weekend. Because of his recent comments about immigration, Latino leaders in the Glass City had four piñatas specially made for the festival. Neller continues, "These are people too. People crossing the border to avoid conflict and if you are talking about a wall on Mexico, which I think is absurd, why are you leaving out Canada. That’s a border too, in fact it is twice as long. It sounds racist. Hopefully, he's not. Give him the benefit of the doubt." Latino leaders here say there are over 35,000 Latinos living in the greater Toledo area, and less than five percent of those are what they call "undocumented". They also say this Donald Trump piñata is their lighthearted way of literally poking fun at not such a lighthearted issue. "Most Hispanics, not just Mexicans, they're upset," says Neller. "This was more tongue and cheek, though. Try to be as optimistic as we can." He continues, "I think people are very pro immigrant. They understand the US was built on immigration and the people have a lot of positive contributions. And I think Donald Trump even realizes it, but he is using some of these statements that at times are contradictory, to rustle up some support." Local republicans agree. We reached out to the Trump Campaign and haven't received a comment yet. We were able to contact Jon Stainbrook, Chair of the Lucas County Republican Party by phone. "Donald Trump, by hitting a lot of these hot button issues, and talking about them, is stirring the pot and bringing a lot of attention to the presidential election," says Stainbrook. "He's upset some people and he's made other people very happy. To me, this is another freedom of speech issue and they are fine to do it and it is their right."
This is the mail archive of the gcc@gcc.gnu.org mailing list for the GCC project. April/May 2016 GNU Toolchain Update From: Nick Clifton <nickc at redhat dot com> To: gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2016 17:44:12 +0100 Subject: April/May 2016 GNU Toolchain Update Authentication-results: sourceware.org; auth=none Hi Guys, Well now that GCC 6 is out lets see what new features have started to appear in the toolchain: Several new warning options have been added to GCC: * The option -Wno-duplicate-decl-specifier has been added to generate warnings whenever a declaration contains duplicate const, volatile, restrict or _Atomic specifiers. This warning is enabled by -Wall. * The option -Wignored-attributes warns when an attribute is correctly assigned, but the compiler decided to ignore it anyway. This is different from the -Wattributes which warns when an attribute is either unknown or used in the wrong place. * The option -Wswitch-unreachable warns whenever a switch statement contains statements between the controlling expression and the first case label, which will never be executed. For example: switch (cond) { i = 15; case 5: <code> The option does not warn if the statement(s) between the controlling expression and the first case label are just variable declarations: switch (cond) { int i; case 5: <code> * The option -Wdangling-else warns about constructions where there may be confusion to which if statement an else branch belongs. For example: if (a) if (b) foo (); else bar (); * The option -Wmemset-elt-size warns about suspicious calls to the memset function, if the first argument references an array, and the third argument is a number equal to the number of elements, but not equal to the size of the array in memory. For example: int array[10]; memset (array, 0, 10); // Should be: memset (array, 0, 10 * sizeof (int)); A new point release of GDB is out: 7.11.1. This is a bugfix release addressing these issues: * PR remote/19863 (7.10 regression: gdb remote.c due to "setfs" with gdbserver < 7.7) * PR gdb/19829 (gdb crashes with PT and reverse next) * PR gdb/19676 (gdb fails with assert error if /proc is not mounted) * PR gdb/19828 (7.11 regression: non-stop gdb -p <process from a container>: internal error) * PR remote/19840 (gdb crashes on reverse-stepi) * PR gdb/19858 (GDB doesn't register the JIT libraries on attach) * PR gdb/19958 (Breakpoints/watchpoints broken on MIPS Linux <= 4.5) * PR build/20029 (symfile.c ambiguous else warning) * PR python/20037 (GDB use-after-free error) * PR gdb/20039 (Using MI/all-stop, can't interrupt multi-threaded program after continue)a In the development GDB sources a couple of new features have been added: * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and arrays of dynamic types. * Rust language support. GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming language. Development in the binutils has mostly concentrated on bugfixing, but there have been a few new features added: * The ARM port of GAS now has support for the ARMv8-M architecture, including the security and DSP extensions. * The ARC port of GAS now accepts .extInstruction, .extCondCode, .extAuxRegister, and .extCoreRegister pseudo-ops that allow an user to define custom instructions, conditional codes, auxiliary and core registers. * The MIPS port of GAS can now generate code for the DSP Release 3 Application Specific Extension. * Linker scripts can now use a NOCROSSREFSTO directive. This is like the NOCROSSREFS directive which ensures that two or more output sections are entirely independent from each other, except that it does allow one way referencing. The NOCROSSREFS_TO directive takes a list of output section names and complains if the first section is referenced from any of the other sections. Cheers Nick
Hillary Clinton (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) In a brand new Washington Post-ABC News national poll, just 37 percent of people believe Hillary Clinton is honest and trustworthy while 57 percent say they don't think she is. That should be terrible news for Clinton, who still finds herself enmeshed in a primary fight against Bernie Sanders, and for Democrats more broadly who long ago put all their eggs in the Clinton basket. And, it might be in the long run. But, as of today, Clinton's desultory scores on being honest and trustworthy don't seem to be impacting her broader appeal to the electorate in any meaningful way. Clinton has seized the high ground in her presidential primary fight against Sanders and, given the calendar going forward, seems likely to cruise to a relatively pedestrian victory — particularly after all the sturm und drang following her 22-point shellacking in the New Hampshire primary last month. The answer to why Clinton's honesty problems might not be hurting her nearly as much as some people — this guy most definitely included — thought they might lies deeper in the Post-ABC poll. Two in three adults say that Clinton "has the right experience to be president." That includes a stunning — at least to me — 40 percent of Republicans as well as 90 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of independents. Compare Clinton's 66 percent on the question to 26 percent of respondents who say Trump has the right experience, 35 percent who say the same of Marco Rubio and the 43 percent who say Ted Cruz has the right experience. Pretty striking difference, right? Now consider that 62 percent of people in the WaPo-ABC poll say they would prefer "someone who has experience in how the political system works" while just 34 percent say they prefer someone from "outside the existing political establishment." What you have then is an electorate — a general electorate no less — that (a) prizes political experience over outsider credentials and (b) sees Clinton as far and away the candidate in either party with the right experience to be president. That's a very good electorate if you are Clinton. It remains to be seen whether, under sustained attack by Republicans over her private email server, her experience will continue to trump concerns about her honesty and trustworthiness in the eyes of voters. It's possible — and this is the argument made by the Clinton team — that much of her negatives are already baked in to voters' decisions about her. As in, sure they may have doubts about trusting Clinton, but they've already factored that into their decision and decided that her experience matters more to them. That's certainly true today. If it's true on Nov. 8, Clinton will likely be elected as the nation's 45th president.
The race to succeed Barbara Boxer, a California icon and a liberal lion in the U.S. Senate, has an astounding over 30 candidates running for the seat. Of those, there are only a select few candidates who are actually competitive and with any meaningful resources. The two who really stand out, however, are Democrats Attorney General Kamala Harris and U.S. Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez. The duo have raked-in the most financial resources and amassed the biggest war chests. In poll after poll the two candidates have also shown to posses the greatest name identification above all other challengers. Additionally, the pair have scooped up the most impactful and influential endorsements to date. Harris has lined up high-profile endorsements from California's Governor Jerry Brown and the California Democratic Party. Sanchez has rallied support from the majority of California's Democratic House delegation. What makes this contest even more interesting, is that in California, races from U.S. Senate all the way down to local office are now open primaries -- meaning candidates of all political parties appear on the same ballot -- and the top two vote getters, regardless of party, proceed to the run-off general election. That means that in theory, Democrats Harris and Sanchez, could end up battling it out all the way until November. Besides money, polling and backers, in a minority dominated state like California, Harris and Sanchez each have a natural and sizable base vote that's comprised of key demographics: Harris, with African American voters, and Sanchez, with Latino voters. With the clock ticking ever closer to election day, the dueling campaigns have been fiercely engaged in a last minute get out the vote blitz. They're crisscrossing the state, working hard to shore up their base vote, and also expanding it to reach other slices of the electorate. Coincidentally, Harris and Sanchez's base consolidation efforts, along with their money poured into air campaigns on television, online and in mailboxes, plus field operations of door knocking and phone banking, and more, are all providing a crucial game-time assist to one of the contestants at the top of the ticket for President. That candidate is former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Here's why: Indisputably, with every single contest to date in the Democratic primary, Clinton has overwhelmingly won with African American and Latino voters. They, along with women, other minority voters, and older Democratic Party loyalists, have encompassed the bulk of her winning coalition throughout this nomination contest. Even without a contested U.S. Senate primary brawl, it's clear that Clinton would be the prohibitive favorite and likely politically bulldoze her competitor, Senator Bernie Sanders, with California's all-important minority vote. But, with such an historic opportunity to elect the first woman of African American and Indian American descent or the first Latina to such a high office as California's next U.S. Senator, the simple fact of having Harris and Sanchez in such formidable positions on the ballot will surely bode well for Clinton. That said, with every day that passes, the race is tightening. The freshest evidence of this is represented in latest poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC). It had Clinton at 46% of the vote. Her chief rival, Senator Sanders, was at 44%. This makes the contest a dead heat.
Boxes of Dengvaxia stored at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City. ABS-CBN News file photo MANILA - "Bad science" is the root of the problem regarding the dengue vaccine causing a health scare in the country, a specialist who was among the first to raise red flags about it, said Thursday. Dr. Antonio Dans, a scientist at the National Academy of Science and Technology, said there had been "strong signals" of harm in patients who had not contracted the dengue infection many years ago, but "it was ignored initially and it led to a delayed recognition of that harm, and the end result is that we have patients who were uninformed." He said there had been debates among scientists whether the efficacy of the Dengvaxia vaccine, which was used by the Department of Health in its immunization program in 2016, was an age-issue or a sero-status issue. Watch more in iWant or TFC.tv "It’s an issue of whether patients had previous dengue infection or not. That signal was ignored, and in our opinion, we are all victims of that bad science," Dans told lawmakers. "The main issue that led to the whole problem is the bad science and the bad science, we think, that whatever legislation that comes from here should address how the science was assessed, and there should be a separation between people assessing the science and people rendering policy," he said. Dans thus proposed to make the Food and Drug Authority independent from the Department of Health. He said scientists at the Formulary Executive Council (FEC), which recommends medicines procured by the government and implemented in its health programs, knew of this and pointed out the problems. Like the FEC, the Food and Drug Administration, which approves medicine and food sold to the public, is also an attached agency of the DOH. "Because there was no adequate separation between policy and science, the Food and Drug Administration is under the Department of Health, then we lose that check and balance," he said. "I feel that assessment of the science should be separate from policy; the FDA should not be under the Department of Health and should be a separate institution, independent from DOH," he added. The Senate is investigating the purchase of P3.5-billion worth of the Dengvaxia vaccine after manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur admitted it may cause severe cases of dengue if given to those who have not had the mosquito-borne disease.
If you would like to see more articles like this please support our coverage of the space program by becoming a Spaceflight Now Member . If everyone who enjoys our website helps fund it, we can expand and improve our coverage further. The U.S. Air Force announced Tuesday that SpaceX is now eligible to compete for launches of U.S. national security satellites, closing a tumultuous chapter in the U.S. rocket industry and ending the Pentagon’s sole reliance on United Launch Alliance to haul military payloads into orbit. The Air Force’s certification of the Falcon 9 rocket gives SpaceX access to approximately one-third of the U.S. national security launch market forecast to be worth $70 billion through 2030, according to an estimate by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The Falcon 9 can lift the Air Force’s GPS navigation satellites, missile warning platforms, weather satellites, and some of the National Reconnaissance Office’s orbiting spy payloads. SpaceX’s more powerful Falcon Heavy rocket, which is set to fly its first test mission as soon as this year, is required to send up the military’s heavier satellites. The Falcon Heavy will be subjected to its own certification reviews after achieving three successful flights. “This is a very important milestone for the Air Force and the Department of Defense,” said Deborah James, secretary of the Air Force. “SpaceX’s emergence as a viable commercial launch provider provides the opportunity to compete launch services for the first time in almost a decade. Ultimately, leveraging of the commercial space market drives down cost to the American taxpayer and improves our military’s resiliency.” Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles, approved the certification of the Falcon 9 rocket, according to an Air Force press release. ULA’s Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets have shared responsibility for launching the most critical U.S. military and intelligence spacecraft for a decade, since the retirement of Lockheed Martin’s Titan 4 rocket. Lockheed Martin and Boeing developed the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 boosters in the late 1990s and early 2000s under the Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. Lockheed Martin and Boeing merged their rocket divisions to form ULA in 2006. The Pentagon endorsed the merger, saying it was required to ensure the survival of two launch vehicles capable of launching Defense Department payloads after the U.S. share of the global commercial launch market withered. The military is required by law to maintain two rockets to send up satellites in case one launcher is grounded due to a failure or another serious problem. “The SpaceX and SMC teams have worked hard to achieve certification,” Greaves in a statement. “And we’re also maintaining our spaceflight worthiness process supporting the National Security Space missions. Our intent is to promote the viability of multiple EELV-class launch providers as soon as feasible.” SpaceX and the Air Force started the certification process in June 2013. Air Force officials reviewed data from successful launches of the Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket, an upgraded version of SpaceX’s workhorse launcher introduced in 2013, and audited SpaceX’s engineering, management and financial procedures. SpaceX filed a lawsuit against the Air Force in April 2014 after the Pentagon awarded a sole-source $11 billion contract to ULA for 36 Atlas and Delta rocket cores. The hardware will cover 28 launches. The Air Force claimed the bulk purchase of launches from ULA saved the service more than $4 billion compared to cost projections from 2012. SpaceX says it can save the Air Force even more money by launching its satellites at less cost than ULA. SpaceX and the Air Force settled the lawsuit in January, keeping the ULA block buy intact as the military targeted completion of the certification process by June. The Air Force modified its certification framework with SpaceX in April to permit the Falcon 9 rocket to compete for military launches without completing all the milestones outlined in the 2013 agreement. The military said SpaceX would pass the certification review based on the company’s proven flight history, which includes 13 consecutive successful launches of the Falcon 9 v1.1 booster. The first satellite up for competition between ULA and SpaceX is a next-generation GPS 3 navigation spacecraft. The Air Force plans to release a request for proposals for the launch in June, according to a press release issued Tuesday. “This is an important step toward bringing competition to national security space launch,” said Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO. “We thank the Air Force for its confidence in us and look forward to serving it well.” Email the author. Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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