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It's a good thing for Elena Kagan that there's no non-GMO litmus test for Supreme Court nominees. She'd flunk.
As solicitor general, Kagan is supposed to represent the interests of the American people in matters that come before the Supreme Court. Instead, she has gone to bat for Monsanto. In a case that the court is currently considering, Monsanto is trying to overturn a 2007 California decision that imposed a nationwide injunction on planting the company's genetically modified alfalfa. In March, Kagan's office interceded on Monsanto's behalf (click here for a PDF of its brief) even though the government was not a defendant in the appeal. The original suit was brought by Geertson Seed Farms and a collection of environmental groups, who claimed that pollen from Monsanto's Roundup Ready alfalfa could contaminate neighboring plots of conventional alfalfa, causing irreparable harm to Geertson's non-GMO business.
The decision that Kagan and Monsanto object to was issued by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who ruled that during the Bush administration, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) should not have given its blessing to GM alfalfa without considering possible environmental, financial, and health consequences (a requirement under the law). Erring on the side of caution, Breyer said that until the USDA conducted the proper environmental assessment, no GM alfalfa could be grown. |
Image copyright Facebook
An elderly Canadian couple who have been married for 62 years have been forced to live in separate care homes.
A photo of Wolfram Gottschalk, 83, and his wife, Anita, 81, went viral after their granddaughter shared their story.
Ashley Baryik, 29 said her grandparents have been separated because there is no room for both of them at the same home in Surrey, British Columbia.
Mr Gottschalk, who has been diagnosed with lymphoma, is on a waiting list to move into the same home as his wife.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Ms Baryik posted a touching image of her "Omi and Opi" wiping away tears as they held hands, adding that it was "the saddest photo I have ever taken."
The image has been shared more than 6,000 times online.
Image copyright Facebook Image caption Wolfram (L) and Anita Gottschalk (R) with their granddaughter, Ashley Kaila Baryik
Ms Baryik explained that her grandparents were separated in January when Mr Gottschalk went to hospital for congestive heart failure.
While waiting to be placed in nursing home, his wife, Anita, also applied for senior assisted living with the aim of joining her husband.
Mrs Gottschalk was placed in a home first while her husband was moved to a transitional facility, where he continues to wait for an open bed at his wife's home.
"It's heartbreaking for my grandmother, she wants to bring her husband home every night," Ms Baryik told the BBC.
The couple, who have lived apart for eight months, cry every time they are able to see each other, she added.
"It's been emotionally draining for both of them."
Ms Baryik said she appealed for help on Facebook after Mr Gottschalk was diagnosed with lymphoma earlier this week, bringing a new sense of urgency to reunite the couple.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Wolfram (L) and Anita Gottschalk (R) have been married for 62 years
The family blamed the couple's separation on "backlogs and delays by our health care system".
Ms Baryik said the family's pleas to Fraser Health had not been answered over the last eight months, but a spokeswoman contacted them on Thursday to say that finding her grandfather a bed was their number one priority.
The outpouring of support, Ms Baryik said, has been overwhelming, but the family refuses to take donations in order to keep the focus on Canada's senior care system.
"Taking money defeats the purpose for fighting for families who can't afford privatised beds," she said.
"We want everyone's focus to be on fixing the system rather than raising money and putting a band-aid on the issue." |
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Tuesday that it was “unseemly” to move quickly forward with the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, given that President Donald Trump’s campaign is under investigation for its potential ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign.
“I’d like to point out that it is the height of irony that Republicans held this Supreme Court seat open for nearly a calendar year while President Obama was in office, but are now rushing to fill the seat for a President whose campaign is under investigation by the F.B.I.” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
“Even Rep. Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the investigation, confirmed yesterday by F.B.I. Director Comey, puts a ‘big gray cloud’ over this administration,” he continued. “You can bet if the shoe were on the other foot and a Democratic president was under investigation by the F.B.I., the Republicans would be howling at the moon about filling a Supreme Court seat in such circumstances.”
In fact, FBI Director James Comey confirmed that the bureau was investigating “the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election,” including “the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.”
Comey refused to say whether Trump himself, or any individual affiliated with the campaign, was under investigation.
“It is unseemly to be moving forward so fast on confirming a Supreme Court justice with a lifetime appointment while this big gray, gray cloud of an F.B.I. investigation hangs over the presidency,” Schumer said. |
After the sudden and very public failure of the Republican healthcare bill, more and more ideas are emerging about how to make coverage more accessible and affordable for Americans. One idea in particular is getting a lot of attention for being one of the most feasible options, and it’s making a lot of people wonder: Is chasing a thieving monkey down an alley and falling through a rusty grate into a lost trove of ancient potions the future of healthcare?
With divisions on Capitol Hill preventing any progress toward better coverage for the foreseeable future, a growing number of experts are warming up to the notion that the most practical healthcare option for most Americans in coming years will likely involve having your pockets picked by a sneaky monkey and pursuing that monkey through a crowded street market until you eventually plunge through a rickety platform into a dusty, cobweb-strewn stone vault full of ancient wonders and mythical healing elixirs.
Now here’s why you just might see this system sooner rather than later: Unlike existing healthcare plans, which are plagued by exorbitant costs and are powerless to the whims of drug companies, a healthcare system based on falling into centuries-old treasure lairs after an impish monkey nabs the timepiece your grandfather gave you would ensure free coverage to anyone willing to plummet onto a pile of vapor-producing spirits stored in human-skull chalices, and it would be beholden to no outside interests except for the dormant gods whose spirits are entombed among the loot.
“By cutting insurance companies out of the equation, this approach would give the average American access to treatment options not covered by most current plans, whether that’s a bubbling Olmec tincture that gives you the virility of a sacred toad, a vial of king’s blood that makes you impervious to enemy spears, or a goblet of golden wine that imbues you with the ghost of an unbaptized child but also treats Type 2 diabetes,” said healthcare policy expert Jeffrey A. Sachs, adding that such a plan could work for virtually any American, provided their hearts are free of avarice when they drink from cursed teapots. “This is something that both Democrats and Republicans can get behind, as progressives will appreciate how coverage is guaranteed to anybody who kisses the opal ring of the ageless crone guarding the holy gems, and conservatives will like how the increased availability of immortality tonics lessens the burden on Medicaid.”
Yet while healthcare rooted in the consumption of storied potions in subterranean ruins found only when a hooting marmoset grabs your daughter’s beret and you chase after it, yelling curses that echo off the sandstone walls of an alley not on any map, certainly has many upsides, it’s by no means a perfect solution. Not only would Americans no longer be able to choose their primary care provider, but should they tumble into a vault that harbors a jealous idol, they might be subjected to vexed potions that could render their tongues incapable of speaking truths or turn their firstborns to ash. Further, any time you fall into an ancient treasure crypt, you assume a myriad of risks such as aging rapidly from swallowing unblessed sheep’s bile, being raped by Byzantine marauders, accidentally breaking seals that unleash new ages of pestilence, and unwittingly drinking from skulls with venomous cobras curled up in them.
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While it may not be perfect, running after a rapacious howler monkey that swooped down and took your passport, causing you to fall through an old grate onto a cache of ancient potions, is getting a lot of attention as the healthcare of tomorrow. Unless U.S. politicians find some better coverage solutions soon, Americans could very well start trading in their PPOs for sacred-vault potions within the next five to 10 years. |
Larry Duncan
One man is dead and two others wounded following a shootout Sunday morning at an intersection in the city's popular Lakeview District.
Birmingham police on Sunday afternoon identified the fatality victim as Larry Duncan. He was 42.
Police said two on-duty city workers got into a dispute, and then a shootout, with another man, who was later determined to be an off-duty city worker. Duncan was with the off-duty city worker, but was not involved in the shootout.
Sgt. Bryan Shelton provided this account of what happened:
At about 4:02 a.m. Sunday, South Precinct officers responded to the 2800 block of Seventh Avenue South after police working off-duty in the area heard shots fired and called for assistance.
When they arrived, they found the victim - later identified as Duncan - lying in the roadway suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to UAB Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
'He was a peacemaker': Husband, father killed in Birmingham's Lakeview District shooting Larry Duncan, 42, was shot to death when he tried to break up an argument between his cousin, an off-duty city worker, and another city worker who was on duty. "He always tried to diffuse things, make things better,'' said his grieving wife Brandy Duncan.
A second man was located in the same area suffering from a gunshot wound to his right leg. That man - an off-duty Birmingham City worker - was taken to Grandview Medical Center by Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service, where he was treated and released. After treatment, he was taken to Birmingham Police Headquarters for questioning.
A third man - an on-duty city sanitation worker - was also shot multiple times and was taken to UAB Hospital in a Birmingham City sanitation work truck. His condition has not been released.
The preliminary investigation showed a verbal altercation took place between a citizen and two City of Birmingham Street and Sanitation Department workers who were in the area collecting trash. During that altercation, one of the on-duty city workers exchanged gunfire with the citizen, who was later discovered to be an off-duty city employee. Both city employees and the deceased victim - Duncan - were struck by gunfire.
Police said Duncan was with the off-duty city employee, but said Duncan did not fire an shots. The off-duty employee has been placed on a hold pending any formal charges.
Shelton said police are only releasing Duncan's name at this time.
The shooting happened in the middle of the street near Babalu, and continued down the street,police said. At least 15 shots were fired.
There were multiple bar patrons, food vendors and others in the area when the gunfire erupted. One of those vendors was just feet from the gunfire, and was being taken to police headquarters for questioning. He was visibly shaken, and said he couldn't talk about what he saw.
Several other witnesses were also taken in for questioning to help police piece together what happened. Dozens of people were still at nearby Nana Funks when the shooting happened, and said they saw rescue workers doing chest compressions on one of the victims.
Several cars were also hit by bullets. Police were collecting evidence, which included multiple shell casings, and hoped surveillance video from businesses and an ATM could provide more clues.
Duncan is the city's 51st homicide victim of 2017. Of those, five have been ruled justifiable and therefore aren't deemed criminal. |
Description
This is a simple observation tower that gives you nice views of your world. Different levels you can view out of including a deck on top. floors in the outer ring areas are glass so you can look straight down on top of things. Did not do a lot of decorating or furnishing, so you will have to do that if you wish.
Schematic will paste at the level you are standing on the ground. You will be in the center of the base area between the staircases. Approximately 96 wide, 96 long and 100 high.
If leaving a low rating, which I understand if you don't like it, have the guts to leave a comment to explain why so I can improve the quality of my schematics. |
High Tech Meets the Old Auto Industry
You may not know it yet, but the automotive market is about to be transformed right before your eyes in a very similar manner to the way the iPhone transformed the mobile industry. One might argue that cars today are better than they were 5-10 years ago, but does that mean they are really innovative or competitive? The engine in an old Ford Model T from the early 1900s is incredibly similar to the engine in a 2011 Ford Fusion, since car engines today use the same basic technology of combustion of air and fuel. Yet, I doubt Alexander Graham Bell would know what to do with any smartphone.
The reason cars haven’t really changed much is because high technology is just meeting the car industry today with Tesla’s innovative electric car run by a powerful and ingenious car battery. In fact, its car is more like a software (yes, a software with a metal wrap) that people take with them for a long period of their lives and can easily upgrade to newer models, but don’t have to switch vendors or start from scratch to get the latest features, fixes, and safety measures installed.
The mobile revolution has been so life altering, so age-defining and innovation driven, that where we were less than a decade ago when Nokia was the best phone you could get is incomparable to where we are today--a mobile world that looks, thinks and acts completely different. Well, get ready because Tesla is about to put you in a time machine and completely transform the way you interact with the world around you once again.
Apple Killing Nokia Foreshadows the Future of Cars
That Tesla cars don’t require gas, are environmentally friendly, and can be purchased directly from the provider to avoid sketchy car dealerships and save money on a middleman are just some of its obvious benefits. There is another reason that Tesla cars will take over the car industry and it’s strikingly similar to the reason the iPhone took over the mobile industry: customer emotional loyalty.
Though Nokia held the ball of the mobile industry for nearly 15 years as a mobile giant with a high of $30 billion annual revenue and a massive market share (47%), it all unraveled in just six short years after Apple’s innovative phone hit the market in 2007 and made its way into the hearts of the people. At the time, with Apple’s weaker battery, Nokia refused to react to innovation and instead, like the car industry is doing to Tesla cars today, scoffed at Apple’s attempts to be so futuristic and tried weather the storm. We all know the end to that story--the blue, colorless Nokia phone is used today in pop culture as an anachronism.
When Nokia Became an Anachronism
Apple stocks surges as Nokia slows dies when the iPhone was born in 2007. Here’s a look at how the stocks behaved during that time.
Tesla As the iPhone of the Car Industry
How did Apple win the masses with an imperfect but innovative new phone? Apple understood that creating a solid product wasn’t the only thing people were looking for in the age of the Internet that encouraged globalization as well as an open market competition that made many technologies a commodity. So, Apple made the customer experience an integral aspect of their brand. The iPhone is a product designed to make customers feel like part of a distinctive, exceptional club with beautiful stores, top-notch customer service, sleek designs, and additional gadgets supporting any Apple product.
In the same way, Tesla cars have incorporated personalization and customer experience into the very fabric of the company. Tesla cars are the most highly customizable automobiles on the market with a different profile setting for each driver that adjusts the music, seat, mirrors, temperature and more. Here’s the reaction of seasoned automotive techie Tim Stevens from CNET:
Settings and options are, for the most part, logically scattered throughout multiple pages of toggles with a -- dare we say it -- iOS-like look and feel. You're rarely more than two taps away from tweaking anything.” (Engadget 2013 Model-S Review)
Also, the customer service Tesla offers is unbeatable: free upgrades to all new features and free charging at all Tesla Supercharger stations (close to 100 stations in just USA)—which can provide half a full charge in just 20 minutes. Tesla makes it clear that their cars are designed for individual people, and not the mass market. Whether or not Tesla will be able to maintain their cachet if their cars are embraced by the mass market will be a challenge, but Apple handled the same demand both gracefully and successfully.
A look how Tesla started differentiating from the car industry with a market cap very close to Fiat:
Changing the Rules to an Outdated Game
Tesla single-handedly forces the automotive industry to enter the high-tech world—a place where the rules are different: the focus is on innovation, R&D, and the customer. Combine that with open market competition means high-tech companies have to keep earning their customers’ business by improving their product and providing superb customer service. Tech companies like Tesla have been doing so by focusing on the customer experience and retaining the smartest techies as employees who have a fire in their bellies to keep ambition, innovation and user experience at an all-time high.
The entrepreneurship that Tesla brings to the game is perfectly summarized by GM’s former Vice Chairman Robert Lutz reaction to the Tesla’s technology:
All the geniuses here at General Motors kept saying lithium-ion technology is 10 years away, and Toyota agreed with us — and boom, along comes Tesla. So I said, ‘How come some tiny little California startup, run by guys who know nothing about the car business, can do this, and we can’t?”
5 Ways Tesla Is Disrupting the Market
To answer Lutz’s question, it’s because for Tesla, it’s not about a tweaked combustion engine and it’s certainly not about finding a place in the monopolies created by the car dealership system. It’s about high technology, thinking outside the box, and disrupting the outdated rules that alienate the consumer. Here are four fundamental ways Tesla is disrupting the automotive industry:
B2C - Tesla allows customer to buy a car over the web CAAS model, and save time and money by skipping the middleman. Simple application updates - Customers can treat a Tesla car as an App that can be upgraded on the fly when bug or better algorithms are found. Personalization - Customized experience for different drivers with car seat, climate control, and other features etc.
Quality QA and R&D – As a high-tech company, Tesla is always working to create better cars. If an error is found, Tesla will pick up the customer’s car and return it the next day with the error fixed, even if it requires them to lose some money, as they did with Tesla's lightweight solution that prevents fires in the Model S. Tesla outfitted the cars with increased underbody protection an expensive titanium underbody shield and aluminum deflector plates. Open Source Technology - Very much like Google open sourced its core technologies to get more users, Tesla is doing the same to the car industry by allowing everybody to use their patents in hopes to universally raise the bar for auto technology.
Why I Love Disruptive Technology
I believe in Tesla because I believe in disruption. I say this from first-hand experience as one of the founders at SiSense, a business intelligence software company who is making waves in the big data analytics industry with disruptive technology that empowers non-technical users to analyze big data . I have always felt disruption is the only way to take big strides into the future. At SiSense we thought, well what if the typical business user with no programming skills could crunch terabytes of data on inexpensive software? And from there, we worked towards making that a reality and have revolutionized the way businesses gather and analyze information.
It may take some time for the public to relinquish preconceived limitations in order to digest what a new technology can actually do, but once there’s enough people who can wrap their brain around new and great technology, and as R&D works to perfect the technology, it’s a domino effect from there. This is similar to what we are experiencing here at SiSense as our sales are expected to tripled in 2014 as more and more users recognize how our technology is transforming the way they do business intelligence. It reminds me of this impassioned account from a first-time Tesla driver:
My mind wandered away to consider what it would have been like to test drive the Ford Model T in 1908. It would have felt like driving the future, which is exactly what driving a Tesla feels like... I admit it, I have drunk the Kool Aid” - Jamie Merrill, The Independent
The Real Cost of Driving a Gasoline Car
Cost often comes up as a major issue against Tesla cars that, at first glance, can be pricey for the average middle class buyer. By zooming out and looking at the total cost of ownership, Tesla becomes disruptive to the industry once again. Though the Tesla Model S cost $70K, which is expensive compared to the $35K car that the average American buys, taking into account money saved on gas puts drivers at a much more reasonable price point. [See interactive graph: The Real Cost of Driving a Gasoline Car]
Compare driving a diesel car and Tesla for one full year where the average American drives 15K miles per year at around $3.50 for gallon of gas: the total cost is around $4,000/year for the most popular diesel car in the U.S, a Ford F-Series 700K car. Even putting aside the fact that Tesla recently introduced free charging for life, the car electricity price will in contrast be only $375/year--saving Tesla drivers more than $3,500 a year just on gas.
With tax rebates and low maintenance cost, a Tesla driver can easily save around $20,000 every three years--which is a bit longer than the average time an American keeps one car. So how does $50K for a better product and experience sound? After all, there are millions of people who buy iPhones at a higher price just because they love the Apple experience. Projecting a bit into the future, with the latest news from Musk kitchen that Tesla is building a new battery factory, we can even expect price reduction in a few years to $35K point which would make Tesla an all-around less expensive car to buy and maintain.
Making the Monopolies Sweat
There are many people trying to keep the automotive technological revolution at bay, but I have no doubt that if government regulations don’t tamper too much with the free market, Tesla can and will break through the glass ceiling automotive dealerships have created for them.
The car industry as we know it today is not driven by innovation, environmental values, or the competition to keep the cost affordable for customers. Quite the opposite, it is much more profitable for dealerships to continue providing diesel cars with many parts that can break, need constant maintenance, and can only be purchased from a dealership--not directly from the manufacturer. Tesla’s direct-to-consumer sales model, which appeals to this generation’s preference for research online, threatens the powerful auto dealership lobby by cutting out the monopolies created by the dealership system that are built to profit a middleman.
Tesla’s electric cars have therefore faced opposition simply because car dealerships are making money the way things are right now, and they desperately want the pieces to be kept in place--even if that means embracing technological stagnation, with their internal combustion engine from the turn of the 18th century.
Can Tesla Win?
As high tech takes on the old automotive industry, innovation and competition for creating the best technology for today’s lifestyle is slowly seeping into the automotive market. Since the car industry has no better way to outsmart high tech, they are fighting it the only way they know how: state regulations. And that, in my opinion, is a cowardly way to avoid stepping up to the plate by trying to compete in a free and open market.
Never underestimate the power of the people who today universally hold a deep love, respect and value for technology in their lives. Which is why I bet on Tesla to win the war and shake up the automotive industry as we know it in the upcoming years. With the Internet, open markets, globalization and high technology, we’ve all taken a bite out of the apple of knowledge, and that’s why we won’t let any body dictate the limitations of technology in our lives. |
Vestal Virgins (Latin: Vestales) were the priestesses of the Roman goddess of the hearth, Vesta, in the state religion of ancient Rome. At varying times there were four to six priestesses employed. They were the only full-time clergy (collegia) of a Roman deity which attests to the high regard in which the goddess was held. They tended the sacred fire in the shrine of Vesta in the Roman Forum and performed other rites associated with the goddess such as caring for the sacred objects in the shrine and inner sanctuary, preparing ritual food and officiating at public events during the yearly Vestalia, Vesta’s feast days (June 7-15). They also ritually prepared the herbs sprinkled on sacrifices and made the bread (pane) which was offered on feast days such as March 1st, which was the Roman New Year.
The Roman writer Plutarch (45-120 CE) notes, "Some are of the opinion that these vestals had no other business than the preservation of [the sacred] fire; but others conceive that they were keepers of other divine secrets, concealed from all but themselves." Their duties required them to remain chaste and male clergy were not allowed to participate in the rites concerning Vesta and the Vestales. The Collegia of the Vestales, according to ancient writers such as Livy, was instituted during the reign of the second (possibly mythical) Roman king Numa Pompilius (717-673 BCE) and remained a sigificant part of Roman life until 394 CE when the Christian emperor Theodosius I decreed against pagan rituals, had the sacred fire put out, and dissolved the Vestales.
The virgins were chosen between the ages of six and ten years old by the chief priest and had to serve for 30 years.
The virgins were chosen between the ages of six and ten years old by the chief priest and had to serve for 30 years (during which time they, of course, had to remain chaste). Once their 30 years of service was completed, they were free to marry, but very few did as it was considered unlucky since they had, essentially, been the brides of Vesta for most of their lives and were consecrated to the goddess. Plutarch writes,
The whole [of their] term being completed, it was lawful for them to marry, and leaving the sacred order, to choose any conditions of life that pleased them; but of this permission few, as they say, made use; and in cases where they did so, it was observed that their change was not a happy one, but accompanied ever after with regret and melancholy; so that the greater number, from religious fears and scruples, forebore, and continued to old age and death in the strict observance of a single life.
If a Vestal Virgin failed in her duties, she was severely beaten and the punishment for loss of virginity was being buried alive, though other, worse, punishments were sometimes given such as having molten lead poured down one's throat. Even so, the Vestal Virgins were honored by the community, had most of their needs provided for by temple tithes, and were free of many of the restrictions Roman women had to endure. It was, in fact, because they were so highly regarded that the punishment of breaking their vows was so severe. Plutarch writes, "If these vestals commit any minor fault, they are punishable by the high-priest only, who scourges the offender, sometimes with her clothes off, in a dark place, with a curtain drawn between; but she that has broken her vow is buried alive near the gate called Collina, where a little mound of earth stands." Most of the virgins on record kept their vows, however, and continued through time to honor their goddess Vesta, and the city and people of Rome, until the coming of Christianity.
The fall of the Roman Empire, it was argued, was caused by the acceptance of Christianity and the neglect of the old gods who had kept the city safe and prosperous for so long. Both St. Augustine and Orosius wrote in defense of this very accusation. The desecration of the temple of Vesta, and the disbanding of the Vestal Virgins, was seen by pagans as the height of ingratitude for the service the goddess had given the city over the centuries. A woman named Serena, the Christian niece of Theodosius I, is said to have desecrated Vesta's temple by taking the necklace from her statue and claiming it for her own. For this act she was cursed by one of the last remaining Vestal Virgins and was tormented by nightmares about her impending death. Whether she died young is not known, nor is the truth of the account verified, but the fact that it survives attests to the importance the Vestales played in the life of ancient Rome and what their loss meant to those of the city who did not place their faith in the new god of the Christians. |
Natural causes claims oldest man on death row
Posted
The oldest inmate on death row in the United States has died of natural causes.
Viva Leroy Nash, 94, was sentenced to death by an Arizona court in 1983 for escaping from jail and murdering a salesman.
His lawyer, Thomas Phalen, explains how Nash was able to avoid the gas chamber and then lethal injection.
"He had had several major heart attacks and his dementia got so acute that even the Department of Corrections personnel removed him from death row towards the end and put him in a medical facility at the prison," Mr Phalen said.
"It's a celebratory time because the man is dead, everyone can be at peace and we didn't have to go through the horror of an execution."
- BBC
Topics: prisons-and-punishment, united-states |
SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Thousands of Bosnian protesters called for the resignation of their regional government on Monday, ratcheting up demands on the sixth straight day of demonstrations over unemployment, corruption and political paralysis.
Anti-government protesters rally in front of a government building in Sarajevo February 10, 2014. Angered at widespread unemployment, and alleged corruption in the government, protesters demanded resignations from members of government of Bosnia's autonomous Muslim-Croat Federation. REUTERS/Antonio Bronic
The protests were peaceful, following last week’s violent unrest, the worst since Bosnia’s 1992-95 war.
The turbulence has plunged the Balkan country into crisis, exposing deep social discontent over the dire state of the economy and the shortcomings of an unwieldy system of ethnic power-sharing that has kept the peace since 1995.
In the capital, Sarajevo, and other towns, protesters called for the resignation of the government in Bosnia’s Federation, one of two autonomous republics and comprising mainly Croats and Muslim Bosniaks.
Anger is high over the perceived corruption and aloofness of elected leaders in the country of 3.8 million people.
Demonstrators also repeated earlier demands for governments in several of the Federation’s 10 cantons to step down. Four canton heads have already quit.
In Sarajevo, several hundred protesters carried banners that read, “You have been stealing from us for 20 years and now it is over”, and “The courts and police are protecting the authorities”. Several thousand more turned out in other towns.
“If we need to have a war, let it be,” said Fehim Lovic, 58, a disabled war veteran who said he supports his three children on a monthly welfare payment of 50 Bosnian marka (25 euros).
“I’m ready to clean the streets without a single penny for two years if this is the price I have to pay for a new and better state,” he said.
Last week rioters set fire to government buildings in Bosnia’s four biggest cities - Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zenica and Mostar - after protests over factory closures in the former industrial hub of Tuzla exploded in violence.
Bosnia’s economic woes have been compounded by a highly-decentralised system of power-sharing that has scared away foreign investors and frequently paralyses government. Around 27 percent of the workforce is jobless, though the figure reaches 45 percent if those working in the informal economy are counted.
The turmoil saw Bosnia barge its way onto the agenda of talks between the EU’s 28 foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday. It has provoked renewed calls for reform of the power-sharing system set up under the 1995 Dayton peace accord.
“What happened in Bosnia is a wake-up call,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters.
“We need to focus more efforts on helping Bosnia towards the EU, towards NATO membership, so that the stagnation in Bosnian politics and government can come to an end, and I think it’s probably going to become a more important issue over the coming months.”
The protesters say they want non-partisan technocrat governments, reflecting the loss of trust in a political elite that for years has played up ethnic divisions and protected vast networks of political patronage.
The Federation government on Monday called for an early election, but Serb and Croat leaders were unlikely to agree. Presidential and parliamentary elections at the state level are due in October. |
It’s been more than 300 years ago since demonic possession figured as heavily in a criminal probe as it has in the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombing.
Not since the Salem Witch Trials has the search for accomplices to a major crime centered so heavily on finding a suspect who believed he could talk to demons.
"He took (and ate?) his brains"
Since the remaining of the two brothers accused of planting the bombs was found cowering under a tarpaulin in a boat in a backyard in Watertown Massachusetts two weeks ago, coverage of the bombing by the most respected organs of the American mainstream media has been full of breathless updates—delivered with a straight face—about the progress of an FBI manhunt for a red-haired Muslim who talked to demons, dabbled in exorcism, and walked around carrying other people’s brains.
The drumbeat was started by Ruslan Tsarni, who became famous as “Uncle Ruslan” for his forthright condemnation of the attack in a now-famous news conference on his front lawn just four days after the Boston Marathon Bombing.
“There is someone who brainwashed him, some new convert to Islam,’’ Tsarni said. I would like to stress (the acquaintance was) of Armenian descent.’’
Since then he has been using the media to press investigators to find Misha, a man who appeared to combine the worst features of villains from two different horror movies.
“The Exorcist” meets “The Walking Dead.”
"This person just took his brain. He just brainwashed him completely," Tsarnaev's uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, told CNN from his home in Maryland, describing the friend as an Armenian convert to Islam.
“The bombers' uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, depicts Misha as a Rasputin-like figure who "took [Tamerlan’s] brain" and said that his presence soon became a source of tension within the family,” reported USA Today.
Also citing the boys' uncle, London’s Daily Mail reported that “Misha used to give one-on-one sermons to Tamerlan over the kitchen table, during which he claimed he could talk to demons.”
Tsarni, Tsarnaev's uncle, told CNN he was so concerned about someone brainwashing his nephew that he called a family friend in the Cambridge area to investigate.
"I said, 'Listen, do you know what is going on with that family? With my brother's family?' Then he says … there is a person, some new convert into Islam of Armenian descent," Tsarni told CNN's Shannon Travis.
Tsarni said, "Armenians, I have no intention to say anything about Armenians.”
Then he proceeded to do just that. “It's a neighboring region with North Caucasus," the same area where the Tsarnaev family also hails from.”
A red-haried Armenian exorcist…with a big mouth…in Cambridge
Tsarni described Misha as being "chubby, a big guy, big mouth presenting himself with some kind of abilities as exorcist . . . having some part-time job in one of the stores, not married. All of the qualifications of a loser, just another big mouth.”
According to Uncle Ruslan, Misha, over a considerable period of time, had radicalized Tamerlan.
“But there are signs that Tamerlan had become radicalized — apparently from a friend in the United States named “Mischa” — described as a Russian of Armenian descent who was a relatively recent convert to Islam and who lived in Cambridge, according by Tsarnaev’s uncle, Ruslan Tsarni,” NBC reported.
Tsarni told NBC News that Mischa presented himself as an “exorcist” who specialized in “removing demons from people’s bodies.”
Not a day went by without references in the press to the search for Misha. There were literally hundred of news reports about him. Very soon, it began to appear there was nothing new to be said.
But that didn’t stop anyone. Reported New York magazine:
“According to reports, family members point the finger at a man identified only as Misha, a friend whom Tamerlan knew through a local mosque. Misha is described as a bald, red-bearded, 30-year-old Armenian convert to Islam who "claimed to be an exorcist who is fighting with demons."
OMG…you mean he's even scarier than…Alex Jones?
There was also a half-hearted attempt to draw Alex Jones into the controversy. Reported the Atlantic Magazine online:
“The major development in the sleuthing of the Tsarnaev brothers, specifically sinister Tamerlan, involves a red-bearded exorcist named Misha.”
“Tamerlan listened to Alex Jones's popular and usually looney radio show Infowars. BuzzFeed's Rosie Grey reached out to Jones to see how he felt about having a suspected terrorist as a listener.”
It’s hard to imagine anyone asking Alex Jones, “How does that make you feel.” But the effort to smear him was no doubt duly noted. But the problem with doing any serious damage to Alex Jones was simple: When you’re lookng for an Armenian exorcist who talks with demons, slandering a poor radio host in the bargain loses its lustre.
The fever over finding Misha finally broke when somebodsy actually found him. Christian Caryl of the New York Times Review of Books scored the first media interview with Misha. In her interview with the alleged Boston Bomber’s ‘Svengali,’ he told her he hadn’t seen or spoken to anyone in the Tsarnaev family for more than three years.
Ooops! Uncle Ruslan’s response spoke volumes about him. Was he abashed? Far from it. He changed his story without batting an eye, and turned his attention to a secondary target, a woman who, if you're trying to create a distraction, is right out of Central Casting.
“Check out Bomb Mom”
Ruslan dismissed Zubeidat, who was arrested last year for stealing $1,600 of lingerie from a department store, as a ‘bad character’.
“Ruslan Tsarni, told the AP from his home in Maryland that he believed his former sister-in-law had a "big-time influence" on her older son's growing embrace of his Muslim faith and decision to quit boxing and school.”
“ Ruslan Tsarni claimed that Zubeidat allowed a firebrand cleric into their house to give one-on-one sermons to Tamerlan over the kitchen table during which he claimed he could talk to demons and perform exorcisms.”
He told London Daily MailOnline : ‘The change of the older boy, one of the biggest causes is her. ‘First she started playing into this religious crap, they say is a devotion to Islam.”
"I work. Why do you want to know?"
Tsarni was cagey with reporters about what he did for a living.
“Tsarni was careful not to give out too much information, reported the Washington Post. “When asked about his profession, he responded, “I work, I work.’”
And with good reason, because for the past twenty years he has almost certainly been a CIA asset operating in a number of former Soviet Republics.
Tsarni’s bio, in an official SEC filing, stated he worked for the US Agency for International Development, USAID, during the early 1990’s. Bloomberg Business Review revealed last week that since 2008, he’s again been working for USAID.
Famously, USAID workers build schools, as well as provide cover for CIA assets overseas. Recently they were thrown out of Russia. Just last week, they were asked to leave Bolivia.
In between his stints with the obviously-conflicted US Agency, Ruslan Tsarni worked for several Halliburton-controlled oil companies, as well as a Kazakh man charged with a major banking scandal in Kazakhstan whose repercussions earlier this year stretched all the way to London.
Maybe Ruslan Tsarni’s commute car doesn't bear a “smoking gun” parking sticker from CIA headquarters in Langley. But neither his bio nor his demeanor since the bombings qualify him for a “Humanitarian of the Year” award, either.
Of demons, exorcists, and shoddy shoddy journalism
The search for foreign involvement in the Boston Marathon Bombings has been a sad joke.
The fact that no one has stood up and called "shenanigans" on the mainstream purveyors of what is supposed to be responsible journalism in this country is a national disgrace.
When you look at how this happened, its hard not to suspect that a “higher power” than the FBI was steering the investigation.
This raises the strong possibility that the FBI’s investigation into the bombing has been manipulated, or steered, by the CIA.
In the post-mortems to come on the Boston Marathon bombing investigation, the crucial question will be: Who was behind this effort, and why?
A big question is what Uncle Ruslan stood to gain by making accusations about Misha.
If you’re on a CIA’s crisis management team, and your job is to play for time and try to run the clock out on the American people’s attention span, the result might look something very much like the last two weeks in America.
And if your goal was to forestall pointed questions about Ruslan Tsarni and top CIA official Graham Fuller’s roles in the Tsarnaevs family’s frequent trips to Dagestan, you couldn’t have played it better. |
I stumbled across the website for a new product recently, and I would like to declare that Bacon Salt appears to simultaneously be both the greatest, and the worst, condiment idea in the history of mankind.
First, let’s meet the founders, “Justin and Dave” (note:I have no evidence those are their real names). As you can see by the totally natural poses they are striking in the picture below, Bacon Salt is hip, fun and in-your-face!!! Yeaaaaaah!
Now here is where the marketing pitch starts to go wrong. I don’t know about you, but when I think “Bacon Expert” I usually don’t picture a skinny, balding guy in a sweater vest.
However, this is the point where I should note that “Justin and Dave” are totally hip to the series-of-tubes we call the internets, and thus are bloggers themselves. The name of their blog is, shocker! The Bacon Salt Blog. Here they blog about the many uses for, you guessed it…Bacon Salt!
Now I know what you’re thinking: “Jon, I love the taste of bacon as much as the next guy. However, before I make a purchase like this, I’m going to need to read some generic-sounding testimonial quotes that also include the person’s last initial, just so I can be sure the quotes are real.”
Fortunately for you, “Justin and Dave” (if those are their real names) have complied. Their homepage flashes a series of quotes touting why Bacon Salt is the world’s greatest product. Some of these quotes provide near irrefutable evidence of Bacon Salt’s greatness, such as this quote from “Chuck H.” (which we know is definitely NOT fake, because Chuck provided his last initial):
Touche, Chuck H. Touche.
Why WOULD you have regular fries if you could have bacon fries? Bacon fries? That sounds f-ing delicious. I would like to pre-emptively declare that this thought process should be applied to all fast food. Why would you have a vanilla shake when you can have a bacon-vanilla shake? Bacon Salt makes everything better!
So “Justin and Dave”, now that I’ve said my peace, let me confess: I’m jealous. You guys are living the American dream. Assuming, of course, that the American dream involves convicing people that no matter what food they are eating, it would taste better if it tasted like bacon.
So Good would like to extend an official congratulations to the creators of Bacon Salt. You’ve come up with an idea for a new condiment that is so, so, soooooooooo good. |
House Speaker Pelosi just weighed in against US military action against Iran, but the PR push for a US attack on that country continues to gather steam...
If I had bothered to label Freedom's Watch an "extremist political group" that would have raised all sorts of problems, because that term might apply to an entire menagerie of organizations working to build up a PR climate conducive to a US military attack on Iran :
"Christians United Israel", AIPAC, Focus On The Family, The Institute On Religion and Democracy, The Trinity Broadcasting Network, The DayStar Broadcasting Network, The Family Research Council...
If I thought about it a bit, I'm sure I could generate a list of dozens or more nationally known entities promoting the idea that the survival of both the United States and Israel depends on US military action against Iran.
But $200 million dollars [note: that figure from NYT front page story on Freedom's Watch referenced by Bill Berkowitz], the fund raising target of Freedom's Watch, is nothing to sneeze at given the fact that that pot of money will be dedicated to promoting one goal:
A US attack on Iran or, to put it blackly, more - and better ( or worse, depending on one's perspective ) - war in the Middle East.
Guess who is running the operation ?
Ari Fleischer, the man who helped sell the US invasion of Iraq.
***
Bill Berkowitz, one of my favorite journalists covering the religious-right, covers the genesis of Freedom's Watch for Media Transparency, in a piece entitled Freedom's Watch targeting Iran.
Here is Berkowitz's lead in (sans links):
If the U.S. undertakes military action against Iran, you can credit such longtime neoconservatives as Norman Podhoretz, William Kristol, Michael Ledeen and the swarm of ideologues buzzing about Washington's right wing think tanks. You can also credit Pastor John Hagee and his Christians United for Israel, a Christian Zionist outfit with unbending support for Israel. And credit also the billionaire and multimillionaire founders of Freedom's Watch for helping smooth the way.... Later this month, Freedom's Watch will sponsor a forum of some 20 experts on "radical Islam" that, according to a front page story in the New York Times, "is expected to make the case that Iran poses a direct threat to the security of the United States." The forum is being "organized with the American Enterprise Institute" [note: link to new dKos post on AEI paper by Michael Ledeen claiming Iran was responsible for 9-11]
Berkowitz quotes PR Watch's John Stauber on the new group's top shelf PR managerial talent:
"It should be remembered that Freedom's Watch is run by a White House PR flack [Ari Fleischer] who was key to selling that last war. It is the same script, same images, same messages, and same players. And it is likely to provoke the same response from the mainstream media."
Freedom's Watch is no paper tiger. The group already has run a $15 million dollar ad campaign to rally American public support for the Bush Administration's (now failed) "Surge" in Iraq, and those ads features the same sort of shamelessly deceptive propagandistic TV ads that make a strong case for new legislation that would prevent nonprofit groups ( Freedom's Watch is a 501c(4) from promoting blatant lies ) ;
Freedom's Watch's "pro-surge" TV ad showed a wounded American soldier who, commenting on a picture of one of the hijacked planes ready to strike on of the World Trade Center towers, states "They attacked us, and they will again. They won't stop in Iraq."
Berkowitz's article also notes that Freedom's Watch's President, has likened Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to Hitler.
First Came CUFI....
We have previously seen, in the last year and a half, the advent of Pastor John Hagee's "Christians United For Israel", a 501c(3) "non-lobbying" nonprofit that teaches its members to lobby their political representatives to support "pro-Israel" policies and also buses thousands of them each year, during the summer, to Washington DC for a conference, lobbying junket, and high profile "Night To Honor Israel" event. CUFI has extensive high-level Washington connections (see 1, 2, 3.
Pastor John Hagee blames the holocaust on Jews and CUFI board members have stated their expectation that another, perhaps even worse, immanent Holocaust will decimate the nation of Israel but John Hagee has built his career on noisy proclamations of love for Jews, and CUFI represents a strategic alliance between the Israeli and American Jewish hard right (the sort who have founded Freedom's Watch) and American evangelicals who want to "force God's hand" and provoke apocalyptic war in order to force the "Rapture" and Jesus' Second Coming.
In theory, CUFI can politically mobilize tens of millions of American evangelical Christian zionists to lobby for war on Iran and, generally, policies to provoke expanded conflict in the Middle East (one could also reasonably term CUFI a "Pro-Holocaust" lobby though the lobby would say the point is actually the "Rapture").
Now, hot on the heels of CUFI, probably the first dedicated pro-war Christian political lobby in history, comes Freedom Watch, a propaganda powerhouse to whip up the proper magic pro-war support percentage among the American public (40%, or whatever the Bush Administration deems to be the magic number) that will allow American bombs and missiles to bring the miracle of American-style democracy to Tehran.
Senator John McCain, who could be found last April singing "Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran" at a VFW hall appearance, stated about one year earlier, on "Meet The Press", that a US attack on Iran could set off Armageddon. This is one sad case study in the political and lobbying power of the Christian right and the apocalypse lobby - that a man such as John McCain who, in 2000 Presidential election GOP primary race, decried leaders of the Christian right as "agents of intolerance", now openly associates with a group whose leaders have fantasized, in public, about the destruction of the Dome of Omar, 3rd holiest site in Islam. We'll never know what went through John McCain's head as he went in roughly 6 years from slamming to embracing the Christian right, but it would be fair to say he thought his shift to be expedient
That's a quick case study in the political heft of the Christian right, and now - augmenting the equation, we have a dedicated pro-war advertising (propagandizing actually) powerhouse that can dump money - quite a lot of it - into upcoming political races to unseat insufficiently pro-war politicians. What CUFI seeks to do that via direct lobbying by its membership, Freedom's Watch will seek to do with absurdly dishonest TV ads.
Given the group's shameless disregard for facts, let's hope history sees "Freedom Watch" flushed down the same hole as "Freedom Fries".
As a postscript ;
Sometimes it can be quite hard to separate the apocalyptic Christian zionists associated with CUFI from the 'secular' NeoConservative crowd. Take Michael Ledeen, now with the American Enterprise Institute, who just published a paper alleging that Iran was responsible for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks (linked previously in this post).
"One can only hope that we turn the region [the Middle East] into a cauldron [of war], and faster, please. If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today."
--Michael Ledeen
"God willing, Judgment Day is coming to the Middle East."
--Michael Ledeen |
“Stereotypes” have a bad name, and everybody hates stereotypes. But what exactly is a ?
What people call “stereotypes” are what scientists call “empirical generalizations,” and they are the foundation of scientific theory. That’s what scientists do; they make generalizations. Many stereotypes are empirical generalizations with a statistical basis and thus on average tend to be true. If they are not true, they wouldn’t be stereotypes. The only problem with stereotypes and empirical generalizations is that they are not always true for all individual cases. They are generalizations, not invariant laws. There are always individual exceptions to stereotypes and empirical generalizations. The danger lies in applying the empirical generalizations to individual cases, which may or may not be exceptions. But these individual exceptions do not invalidate the generalizations.
An observation, if true, becomes an empirical generalization until someone objects to it, and then it becomes a stereotype. For example, the statement “Men are taller than women” is an empirical generalization. It is in general true, but there are individual exceptions. There are many men who are shorter than the average woman, and there are many women who are taller than the average man, but these exceptions do not make the generalization untrue. Men on average are taller than women in every human society (and, by the way, there are evolutionary psychological explanations for this phenomenon, known as the sexual dimorphism in size, but that’s perhaps for a future post). Everybody knows this, but nobody calls it a stereotype because it is not unkind to anybody. Men in general like being taller than women, and women in general like being shorter than men.
However, as soon as one turns this around and makes a slightly different, yet equally true, observation that “Women are fatter than men,” it becomes a stereotype because nobody, least of all women, wants to be considered fat. But it is true nonetheless; women have a higher percentage of body fat than men throughout the life course (and there are evolutionary reasons for this as well). Once again, there are numerous individual exceptions, but the generalization still holds true at the population level.
Stereotypes and empirical generalizations are neither good nor bad, desirable nor undesirable, nor immoral. They just are. Stereotypes do not tell us how to behave or treat other people (or groups of people). Stereotypes are observations about the empirical world, not behavioral prescriptions. One may not infer how to treat people from empirical observations about them. Stereotypes tell us what groups of people tend to be or do in general; they do not tell us how we ought to treat them. Once again, there is no place for “ought” in science.
As empirical generalizations borne of the observations and experiences of millions of individuals, most stereotypes are on the whole true. If they are not true, they cannot survive long as stereotypes. Nonetheless, theory and research in have overturned a few stereotypes and shown them to be false. For some reason that I cannot quite fathom, all the stereotypes that have been shown to be false so far have to do with people’s physical appearances. In the next few posts, I will discuss each of these stereotypes which evolutionary psychological theory and research have shown to be false. |
Image copyright Thinkstock
The good news is that the UK economy performed a bit better than we thought.
The bad news is that the UK performed better than we thought in recent years.
Because of that, Brussels thinks we owe it 2.1bn euros (£1.7bn) - having calculated that our EU budget contributions have been based on an understatement of the size of our economy.
How is it that our EU subs are supposedly in arrears?
Well you may recall that the Office for National Statistics recently recalculated the size of our national income to take account of unreported or under-reported parts of the economy, such as research and development, illicit drugs and prostitution.
So thanks in part to the inclusion in the official economy of our productive sex workers, our EU membership fee has been augmented.
Now to be absolutely clear, none of this is a surprise to the Treasury or chancellor. British officials have known for some time that the inflammatory demand from Brussels was coming.
What did catch them by surprise was what it sees as a deliberate leak by EU officials of the news last night - which they see as an attempt to embarrass David Cameron, as he meets other EU leaders to discuss, among other things, his controversial hopes of being able to restrict migration of EU nationals to Britain.
The hope of Cameron and George Osborne is they can build an alliance of other penalised countries to somehow stymie the formula-based demand for budgetary top-ups.
Potential allies include the Netherlands, which had been asked for 643m euros (£508m) and - perhaps hilariously - Greece, which is said by Brussels to owe 89.4m euros (£71m).
The idea that Greece is in better shape than we thought is slightly counter-intuitive (ahem).
At least Brussels cannot be accused of attempting to bribe Greek voters to become better disposed towards the EU, ahead of elections in which anti-eurozone parties are expected to perform well.
By the way, some will also detect a eurocrat sense of humour in the calculation that the EU's most fearsome economy Germany deserves a rebate of 779m euros (£615m), but that stagnating Italy - desperately struggling to meet EU fiscal or domestic budgetary targets - owes 340m euros (£268m).
Of course in the overall scale of domestic public spending, these sums are tiny.
But as a contributor to the popular view of whether Brussels is fair and competent, they are massive. |
Josh here – I’ve known Brendan Ahearn for almost five years now and when he joined the ETF firm Kraneshares, last year I was really excited to hear about their plans.
The general idea behind Kraneshares was to launch innovative and exciting products related to the massive investment opportunities of China. While the majority of US investors had been getting their exposure to China through traditional indexes, they were missing a lot of what made the trade so alluring. The typical mutual fund or ETF weighting to the Chinese market involves either Hong Kong-traded equities or shares in the gigantic state-owned enterprises that aren’t very representative of the opportunity at all. Brendan and his partners at Kraneshares have been rolling out ETFs with a variety of different China index exposures that they believe to offer a superior vehicle for playing the theme.
This winter, Kraneshares launched a first-of-its-kind fund that seeks to emulate the Chinese money market funds that have been so popular with investors in-country. Unlike here in the US (and around most developed countries), Chinese investors actually get a return on their money market funds. As a possible solution for the near zero-yield returns that US investors are seeing on their cash, Kraneshares launched the first-ever commercial paper ETF under the ticker symbol KCNY on the NYSE. It’s a highly unique product that requires some due diligence to understand, of course, and it may not be for everyone. Because I find this stuff fascinating and I’m always writing about new trends within asset management, I’ve given Brendan and his partner Aaron Dillon some room below to introduce the fund. Please bear in mind that this post is for informational purposes and in no way does it constitute an advertisement or solicitation for readers to buy or sell any securities.
Here’s the firm on why they’ve launched the KraneShares E Fund China Commercial Paper ETF :
***
You’re only making 0.01% a year on your brokerage account’s cash…Chinese investors are getting 4.90%+.
All major brokerage and custodian firms sweep uninvested cash into a bank deposit program or money market fund on a nightly basis. These cash sweep options are intended to “put your cash to work” and generate incremental yield for your account on cash that would otherwise earn 0%. Unfortunately, in today’s low interest rate environment bank deposit programs and money market funds generate annual yields closer to 0.01%.
Below is a chart highlighting the annual percentage yield for bank deposit programs at several major brokerage firms. KraneShares estimates that there is over $1.0 trillion invested into these firm’s bank deposit programs.
Bank deposit program annual percentage yield for a $50,000 cash allocation
Firm Annual % Yield Fidelity 0.07% Schwab Not disclosed TD Ameritrade 0.01% Pershing 0.01% Morgan Stanley 0.01% Merrill Lynch 0.01% Wells Fargo 0.01% UBS 0.01%
* Source: brokerage firm websites
All investors have some amount of cash in their portfolios. A very low return on cash sweep options is a problem for all investors regardless of risk appetite.
Chinese investors don’t have this same issue. China’s money market funds have delivered 4.90%+ total returns over the past year. [Notable…TianHong is partially owned by Alibaba and is the money fund behind their Yu’E Bao program.]
Top 5 China money market funds by AUM with 1 year total return as of Nov 2014
AUM Rank Fund Name 1yr Total Return 1 TianHong Income Box Money Market Fund 4.96% 2 ChinaAMC Cash Income Money Fd A/E 5.01% 3 ICBC Credit Suisse Money Market Fd 4.98% 4 China Southern Cash Income Fund B 5.36% 5 ChinaAMC Fortune Money Market Fd 5.79%
* Source: Morningstar Direct
China’s high money market fund returns are driven from the country’s high risk free rate. China’s yield curve is also very flat and delivers attractive yields relative to US treasuries. A 3mo China government bond delivers 3.39% vs a 3mo US government bond at 0.01%…that’s a 3.38% spread.
One way to capture the yields coming out of China is to invest into China commercial paper. Last week the first China commercial paper ETF was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The KraneShares E Fund China Commercial Paper ETF (NYSE:KCNY) invests 100% of its assets into investment grade China commercial paper. KCNY attempts to replicate a China money market fund.
KCNY is a solution to the low yield cash sweep options currently available in the market today. KraneShares believes that investors should diversify their cash outside of the US to generate superior yields and similar stability versus a pure money market fund or bank deposit program cash allocation.
ETF.com’s Denise Hudachek called the fund “groundbreaking”. “There is currently no other ETF focused exclusively on commercial paper,” said Hudachek. Hudachek highlighted that KCNY is not only the first China commercial paper ETF but also the first U.S.-listed commercial paper ETF.
Five minute webinar introducing KCNY
KraneShares proposes that investors should allocate 25% of their brokerage account’s cash allocation to KCNY. Over the past 12 months, a 25% KCNY / 75% money market fund portfolio would have returned 1.49% vs money market only at 0.04%.
***
Thanks guys. Once again, I would urge anyone who would like to learn about Kraneshares and its products to visit the firm’s site and read up on both the possible opportunities and the potential risks. Visit Kranshares.com for more. |
About
The problem with every solar charger before is that like any other charger, you pull it out when your battery is running low. But because the sun works on it's own schedule, by the time that happens in the evening, the best light of the day is gone. We solve the problem by incorporating the solar panels into a phone case, so that your phone charges throughout the day any time your phone is out of your pocket, letting you start off the evening with as fresh a charge as you began with.
Two high-power and high strength solar panels give you the most electricity of any solar case. (5.1 volts, 1 amp)
Heavy duty leather to add even more durability.
A beefy the wallet that you can pack full of your cards, cash, and what ever else you decide.
How Does it Work?
High-power solar panels convert sunlight directly into electricity. Our panels produce exactly enough power to quickly charge your device. We don't force you to carry a separate heavy system around all day.
Most portable solar panels are combined with a heavy battery to make up for inefficient solar panels. But, your phone already has a battery, plus they can contribute to nearly half the weight on any device, who wants that!? We sure don't.
When we designed Gidgi, we had a product in mind that would revolutionize the way people charged their cell phones. The question that we sought out to answer was, “How can we remove the hassle of charging by an outlet, while giving you enough electricity for a quick charge?”
Solar phone chargers have been around for a few years, but why don’t you own one?
Three main reasons we found were:
Slow charge
Cheap materials/bulky
Straight up ugly
These were the issues we directly addressed.
Early on, we knew that we wanted to use high quality materials and make something with modern style. An unintended result of this became apparent when we saw how strong our prototypes were. Since Gidgi was built to outlive your phone, we didn't want you to throw it away each time you upgraded phones. Even after 2 years, Gidgi will still be nearly as strong and powerful as the day you purchased it. We spent months trying to solve this problem to allow you to use Gidgi for your future phones and finally found the solution.
Most phones have roughly the same length to width ratio. By evenly spacing multiple straps on the back, Gidgi could hold every phone we tested firmly in place.
HTC One M8
HTC Rezound
iPhone 5s
iPhone 4s
Now you can use Gidgi for you current and future phones!
We also included a USB Port to charge any small device that can be plugged into a computer.
What Can it Do for You?
Meet the Co-founders
James Deringer received his bachelor’s degree in construction management from the University of Minnesota. He loves to make products that tap into the energy from the giant fusion generator in the sky called the sun. He deals with the business side of Surge Solar, LLC.
John Bisgaard received his bachelor's degree in Physics and Mathematics from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. His research interests include cellular automata, wearable computing and energy harvesting. He is the brains behind the electronics in Gidgi.
Rewards
Short History of Surge Solar
John and I met at Tesla Works, a student group of inventors at the University of Minnesota. We quickly realized we were a good fit. I run the business side of the start-up, making sure deadlines are met and am in charge of office morale, while John has amazing technical knowledge and is able to build nearly anything.
In the early months, we held meetings a few times a week to discuss how to build a portable solar charger. We started large with a tablet charger. It worked great, but we realized not everyone owns a tablet. We decided to scale down, and created a product that everyone can use. We pitched our idea to a few local investors. They loved it, but didn't fund us because we had yet to make significant sales. After hearing everyone’s input, we decided to form a company and move forward. Over the next few months, we ended up putting thousands of our own money into Gidgi, designing and prototyping different ideas until we had the perfect product. Finally, we are proud to release something that is unique in terms of design, style, and power output.
We Need You!
Right now we have full working prototypes with real production parts. Our next step is to get Gidgi to you. This is where you come in! We need your support to overcome the initial costs of materials and tooling. To show how much we appreciate our customers, every backer over $79 gets their name posted on the cover photo on our Facebook page. Back one of the great rewards and you can be one of the first to own this one of a kind charger!
FREE BONUS!
If you back the early bird and kickstarter special, you get your Gidgi personalized with your name engraved on the front for no additional charge.
There are limited number of cases, there's no time to wait! |
The reliably cynical Fox News network has been broadcasting an interview with Nolan Peterson (photo at right), a supposed security expert and confirmed bozo who has declared Paris to be dotted with “No-Go Zones” where “in just a ten-minute cab ride from the Eiffel Tower, you can be walking through streets that feel just like Baghdad.”
Baghdad, eh? How wonderful for Baghdad if their streets are also filled, as these districts are, with modern bistros, craft breweries, natural wine haunts, vegan cafés, and spots for Philly cheesesteak. Not to mention a place that ranks among the World’s 50 Best Restaurants and a bakery that won the Best Baguette in Paris competition.
Inspired by a rebuttal by Sened Dhab, we decided to plot all of the wonderful restaurants, bars and shops that fall within these unterrorized borders. They are some of the most vibrant quarters in Paris and you shouldn’t hesitate for a single moment to visit.
Our Guide to Eating & Drinking in the “No-Go Zones”
No-Go District #1: Canal St-Martin to Faubourg St. Denis
Porte 12 (modern French)
52 Rue du Faubourg St. Denis (modern French)
Bistro Bellet (modernFrench)
Vivant Cave (small plates) & Vivant Table (modern French)
Le Richer (modern French)
Albion (modern French)
Pan (Italian)
Au Comptoir de Brice (modern French)
Ratapoil du Faubourg (modern French)
Holybelly (breakfast & lunch)
Le Verre Volé (wine bar)
I Cugini (pizza)
Piccoli Cugini (pizza)
Floyd’s Bar & Grill (American)
Bob’s Juice Bar (café)
Big Fernand (burgers)
Nanashi (Japanese)
Urfa Dürüm (Kurdish sandwiches)
Sol Semilla (vegetarian health food)
The Sunken Chip (fish & chips)
La Taverne de Zhao (Chinese)
Julhès (wine shop, épicerie)
Pâtisserie Tholoniat (pastry shop)
Liberté par Benoît Castel (pastry shop)
Du Pain et des Idées (bakery)
Le Coq (cocktails)
Nearby but not technically under Sharia law:
The Beast (BBQ)
Office (modern French)
No-Go District #2: Ménilmontant
Le Chateaubriand (modern French)
Le Dauphin (wine bar)
La Fine Mousse (craft beer)
Le Perchoir (restaurant & bar)
Freddie’s Deli (sandwiches)
6036 (Japanese)
Thank You, My Deer (gluten-free)
Paris Terroirs (wine shop)
Au Nouveau Nez (wine bar)
Nearby but not technically under Sharia law:
Chatomat (modern French)
Le Baratin (classic French)
No-Go District #3: La Goutte d’Or
Brasserie de la Goutte d’Or (brewery)
Café Lomi (café)
Nearby but not technically under Sharia law:
Bob’s Bake Shop (café, hand-rolled bagels)
No-Go District #4: La Chapelle
Au Duc de la Chapelle (bakery) where Anis Bouabsa placed first and won the Best Baguette in Paris competition in 2008 |
Nintendo of Europe will be reducing the European trade price of the Nintendo 3DS to retailers by around a third from August 12, 2011, as part of a global trade price reduction initiative.
"The ultimate price to consumers is, of course, determined by retailers, however we look forward to consumers benefiting from much lower retail prices very soon," reads a statement from Nintendo.
The 3DS currently retails for around £219, so a price reduction of around a 33 per cent would put the hardware in the £150 price bracket. Of course, retailers have already been offering the 3DS for well below the £219 mark so we could see stores cutting under £150 once the price reduction is made.
Nintendo of Europe also announced plans to offer an exclusive Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Programme to consumers who have purchased the Nintendo 3DS at the original launch price. The programme will enable these Nintendo 3DS owners to download 10 NES games and 10 Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games for free.
To register for the Ambassador Programme, early Nintendo 3DS adopters simply need to connect to the Nintendo eShop before August 12. The free software will then be made available at a later stage. More details on the programme will be announced on the Nintendo of Europe website shortly. |
The Initiative John Payne September 22, 2011 | John Payne
On July 6th, 2011, Show-Me Cannabis Regulation filed two petitions with the Secretary of State’s office in Jefferson City, MO. The two initiatives are nearly identical – one would go create an amendment to the Missouri Constitution while the other would only suggest a change of statutes.
In about a month, the Secretary of State’s office will notify Show-Me Cannabis Regulation of formal approval or formal rejection of the suggested language. If it is approved, then we can begin collecting signatures to place the measure on the November 2012 ballot.
We have posted our petitions online for you to view, but ask that you please not attempt to gather any signatures for this effort. If you are interested in helping us to collect signatures for this effort, please sign up on our volunteer page and we will let you know how you can be a part of the team! |
When you shop at Amazon, please use the link below and pick Westie Rescue and Placement of Northern California as your charity.
Kiki Before
Kiki Now!
A little about Kiki.
I was a stray who was rescued from a shelter. It was so nice to get out of jail!
They are pretty sure I was a breeder doggie and I had a hard life. In spite of it all, I'm very friendly, playful and loving, and my foster Mom and Dad and their other Westies enjoy having me around.
I've had two surgeries to remove some mammary tumors and a carcinoma on my side. They tell me that I'm cancer free now. Whoopee! Now, we're still working on getting my fur to grow back, but I've made really good progress, as you can see from my photos. Aren't I beautiful?
The surgery was really expensive so if anyone would like to donate you can do so in one of two ways. You can go on PayPal and send the money to: Susan.acevedo@westierescuenorcal.org
Or donate using the button at the top of this page.
Please make sure to send it friends and family so that we don’t get charged a fee.
If you’d rather, you can send a check to Susan Acevedo 32 Oak Knoll Court, Walnut Creek, CA 94596. Any donation is appreciated. All donations are tax deductible. |
A federal judge in Arizona ruled Tuesday that the state’s controversial ban on ethnic studies was motivated by racial discrimination.
The decision from Judge A. Wallace Tashima, a federal appeals court judge sitting in the district court in Arizona, came in a lawsuit brought by students against the state's top education official. It is a major blow to a state law that resulted in the closure of a Mexican American studies program in Tucson.
Proponents of the program have argued that the 2010 law, which in part banned courses designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group, was effectively racist and targeted Mexican Americans and other minority groups.
Tucson dropped its Mexican American studies program in 2012 under threat of losing state funding.
“Both enactment and enforcement were motivated by racial animus,” Tashima wrote in his decision Tuesday. He said that the law violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution by discriminating against Latinos. He also said the law violated students’ 1st Amendment “right to receive information and ideas.”
Arizona’s law in general banned classes promoting “resentment toward a race or class of people.”
It was all the more controversial because it was passed the same year the state passed the widely protested SB 1070 law, which required police to determine the immigration status of someone arrested or detained when there was “reasonable suspicion” they were not in the U.S. legally.
In his decision, Tashima railed against former Arizona state superintendents of public instruction who pushed to pass the ban, John Huppenthal and Tom Horne.
“Defendants were pursuing these discriminatory ends in order to make political gains. Horne and Huppenthal repeatedly pointed to their efforts against the [Mexican American studies] program in their respective 2011 political campaigns, including in speeches and radio advertisements. The issue was a political boon to the candidates,” the judge wrote.
“Both individuals conveyed an unfounded, yet uniform, distrust of … teachers’ and students’ accounts of what was taking place in [Mexican American studies] classrooms,” he wrote.
A former teacher in the Tucson program, Curtis Acosta, reacted to the ruling on Twitter.
“I just received word from our attorney, Richard Martinez, that we won our case against the state of Arizona. ¡Justicia!” he tweeted.
In an interview, Martinez said he was confident that the ruling meant the law would be dismantled. Martinez said the judge would hold a hearing in the next three weeks to determine how the ruling should be enforced.
Anita Fernandez, director of the Xicanx Institute for Teaching and Organizing in Tucson, said Tuesday that she was celebrating the decision.
“We’re very excited by the ruling, specifically that the court was convinced by testimony and evidence [that it] was racial discrimination,” Fernandez said. “Now it is up to the school district to decide what they are going to do.”
Jaweed Kaleem is The Times' national race and justice correspondent. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
ALSO |
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the Russian diplomatic service are the latest recruits to a burgeoning right-wing conspiracy theory about the death of a young staffer at the Democratic National Committee last summer.
Newt Gingrich, speaking Sunday on Fox News, pushed the idea that DNC staffer Seth Rich, who was shot and killed last summer in Washington, D.C., was murdered as part of a WikiLeaks-related conspiracy.
“We have this very strange story now of this young man who worked for the Democratic National Committee,” said Gingrich, the former presidential candidate and Trump backer whose wife has been nominated as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, “who apparently was assassinated at 4 in the morning, having given WikiLeaks something like 53,000 emails and 17,000 attachments.”
“Nobody’s investigating that, and what does that tell you about what’s going on?” added Gingrich. “Because it turns out, it wasn’t the Russians. It was this young guy who, I suspect, was disgusted by the corruption of the Democratic National Committee. He’s been killed, and apparently nothing serious has been done to investigative his murder. So I’d like to see how [special counsel Robert] Mueller is going to define what his assignment is.”
Gingrich was echoing charges that began ricocheting around right-wing media last week, crowding out coverage of the burgeoning Trump-Russia scandals. And like the commentators on Breitbart, Fox and other channels, he was both demanding an investigation and presuming its conclusions, based on evidence that is either unsupported or already debunked.
The District of Columbia police say Rich, who was shot in the back at 4 a.m. near his home in northwest Washington, was the victim of a botched robbery. This was about two weeks before Wikileaks began publishing thousands of emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee, some of which proved embarrassing to the Clinton campaign. American intelligence agencies say they are certain the hack was perpetrated by Russia cyberwar agents.
But in August, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, in an interview with Dutch television, alluded to Rich’s death to illustrate the dangers his sources face — suggesting, without quite saying outright, that the young staffer might have been involved in the leak.
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich speaks on “The Principles of Trumpism” at the Heritage Foundation in Washington on December 13, 2016. (Photo: Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) More
The story reemerged last week following an interview aired on a Fox News affiliate in Washington with a private investigator hired by the Rich family (and paid for by a third party, Ed Butowsky, a Dallas financier and Fox News guest). The investigator, Rod Wheeler, said a law enforcement agency, believed to be the FBI, had found evidence on Rich’s laptop that he had been in contact with WikiLeaks before his death.
But Wheeler quickly walked back the claims, saying in an interview with CNN that he had only heard that information from a reporter at Fox News. According to NBC News, multiple sources confirmed that the laptop never contained any emails related to WikiLeaks and that it was never in the FBI’s possession. Rich’s parents asked him to stop spreading these accounts via a cease-and-desist letter.
“It’s sad but unsurprising that a group of media outlets who have repeatedly lied to the American people would try and manipulate the legacy of a murder victim in order to forward their own political agenda,” family representative Brad Bauman told Business Insider. “I think there is a special place in hell for people like that.”
Sunday night Fox News host Sean Hannity urged that Congress open an investigation into Rich’s murder, continuing his coverage of the story. Hannity and other right-wing outlets are raising the possibility that Rich was the victim of a plot related to the emails. That, in turn, would cast doubt on the intelligence findings blaming Moscow for the hacking, thereby tending to clear the Trump campaign of collusion with Russia.
Continue reading |
There have been a lot of amazing but wrong Wheel of Fortune guesses, and now there's a guess that can go down in the record books with them, except this time, it's not a fail.
Matt Desanto appeared on Friday's Wheel of Fortune, and with just one vowel, he managed to guess this puzzle. It even made host Pat Sajak joke, "I don't want to cause trouble at home, but I think there's still a connection between you and Vanna."
Maybe "The Lone Ranger" was just a lucky guess, but he was on a roll for the entire show. He won every puzzle in the game and won $91,000 before the bonus round began.
NEWS: Pat Sajak Walks Off Set After This Guess
His $91,000 win set a new record for Wheel of Fortune as it's the most that anyone has ever won during the main portion of the show.
Congrats to Matt on being a WOF record holder!
Check out the video below to see which 6 celebs appeared on game shows before they were famous.
Follow Rosalyn on Twitter: @RosalynOsh |
EXCLUSIVE: We Sat Down with Will and Eleven from Stranger Things and Got the Scoop on Season 2
Is it October 27th yet? Because it feels like it has been an eternity since Stranger Things season one had ended, and a lifetime until season two starts! We left off Netflix’s hit series with Will Byers being rescued from the Upside Down, and the citizens of Hawkins, Indiana recuperating from the Demogorgon ripping through the town and wreaking havoc.
Not only did the 1980’s period horror series make me feel nostalgic for my childhood and all that went with it — from the Ghost Busters, to ET and The Goonies — but it had me anxiously awaiting for season two’s premiere. The new season promises to be creepier and bigger than ever, with our favorite characters finding themselves confronted with dark forces, and new cast members that will have everyone on the edge of their seat.
After flying out to London, as the only entity from the Middle East, to sit down with two of the main characters, Millie Bobbie Brown who plays Eleven, and Noah Schnapp who plays Will Byers — my main concern was how these young actors, who were born in the early 2000’s, are capable of seamlessly getting into character during an era they never experienced.
Considering how young you guys are and seeing how you are from another generation, where are you pulling your inspiration from?
Noah: We watched a bunch of ’80s movies like The Goonies, ET, Jaws, and the Poltergeist to help us grasp the era, and understand why there’s such a cult following for it.
Millie: Each character had a reference to get inspired by from big ’80s movies. Mine was ET, which was definitely interesting — trying to learn from an alien and grow from its relationship with humans. But I guess, Eleven can relate to being alien. The creators of the show, the Duffer Brothers, are sort of like kids and this show gives them a reason to be children again — they get to reference their childhood for the rest of the world to see.
Let’s get into the juicy details, what can we expect from season two?
Millie: It’s a lot darker, more intense, much more emotional for each character. Each character has an arc this season, something they all are climaxing to. I know you want more info, but you’ll just have to wait and see!
Do Eleven and Will have more scenes together?
Noah: Both characters are very powerful, they may not know it yet, but it’ll be interesting to see the dynamic between the two. They are both sort of like each others doppelgangers.
So, are you guys hinting that both Will and Eleven are going to be evil?
Millie: That’s for us to know and you to find out!
Ross Duffer told the press that Will will be more sinful this season. Can we say the same about Eleven? Since there is a popular theory going around saying that Eleven is, indeed, the monster!
Millie: So, there is this thing called October 27th and you should totally wait till that date, it’s going to be good!
Which character will surprise us the most this season?
Millie : Not to be, like, really selfish, but I feel like Eleven, or Dustin. Wait everybody!
Noah: I feel like all the characters, everyone goes through huge changes this season.
You guys are in a scary show, are you guys scared of scary movies?
Millie and Noah: No! We used to be super scared, but we no longer are. We kind of laugh now and know what to expect when something scary is about to happen.
How does it feel to actually grow up on Stranger Things, will that change your character on the series?
Noah: My character kind of finds his courage this season, and grows up. But physically I’m still the shortest!
Millie: We’ve all changed — especially us kids, with puberty hitting us all. The producers are worried someone is going to come back with a mustache or their voices are going to change. Each character is going through their teenage years like anyone our age would. So as our characters grow up, we ourselves are growing up as well.
WE SAID THIS: As Halloween dawns upon us, I’m literally itching to get my hands on this upcoming season! We can’t wait to see what the Upside Down has waiting for us this season on Netflix! |
Retired educator Don Tassie, 81, turned up at the Jackson City Council meeting in Michigan on Tuesday with a prepared speech on a proposed non-discrimination ordinance that would give protections to the LGBTQ community.
He sat listening to those speaking for and against, many mirroring comments he intended to make himself, and decided to take a more novel approach to voicing his support for equal rights.
Tassie approached the podium, wearing a bright yellow sweater reading, “Be more kind,” and launched into a rap he wrote several years ago as part of a campaign to spread kindness throughout the community.
He rapped:
My friends, they call me Mr. T Well I’m here in a place that I love to be Morning, noontime, night or day I hear all kinds of folks who say, Amen! Inside out, just what are you talking about? I say, listen up, friends, I’ll tell it like it is No funk, no jive, just straight square biz To be more kind is what I’m here to say To be more kind is what I’m here to say To you, to me, most every day Kindness, caring, compassion too Is what we all need to do So don’t be afraid, don’t be shy Come on now, let’s give it a try Whoever you are, wherever you’ve been It’s time for us to all be friends Let’s do the right thing, let’s pass this NDO Let’s be more kind!
The ordinance did in fact pass, with a 5-2 vote, after a meeting that lasted nearly six hours.
“I thought it would be closer than that,” Tassie told Michigan Live. “We got people’s human rights protected. This is not a religion thing.”
He said he became involved with the LGBTQ community after a lesbian couple helped him through his mourning when his wife, Tuey, died in 2001.
“They are my dearest best friends after that,” Tassie said. “How could I deny them, my friends, the same rights that I have?”
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I have a love/hate relationship with muscle ups, I love to hate them. I’ve done them, and I’ll go through spells where I can walk into the gym and crank out 2 or 3, then I’ll go through my proverbial dry spell where I can’t do a single one. I know I’m not the only one this affects, so I’ve gathered 10 different muscle up tips & techniques that will help you with your muscle ups. There are muscle up tips below for everyone, those who are trying to get their first, to those who have them and are trying to do them more efficiently.
“Efficiency Tips: Muscle-ups” with Chris Spealler
Let’s start off with CrossFit icon Chris Spealler taking you through not necessarily how to do a muscle up, but more about how to do a muscle up more efficiently. But there are good tips in here for those trying to fine tune the mechanics of a muscle up. Worth 5 minutes of your time.
How to Get a Muscle Up
Jason Stein of CrossFit Portland talks about how to go about getting your first muscle up. Has a great write up of supplemental exercises to help you develop the push & pulling strength that you need.
Read Full Article: How to Get A Muscle Up
Banded Muscle Ups with Carl Paoli
Gymnastics and mobility guru Carl Paoli shows you how to do banded muscle-ups. I actually worked with these prior to getting my first muscle up. They really help you feel/learn to control what your body is doing on the transition from pull to dip. Highly recommend these.
Watch Video: Banded Muscle Ups – Carl Paoli
CrossFit Journal – How to Get a Muscle Up
Straight from the source. The CrossFit Journal provides a (free) article on how to get a muscle up. This gives a very good break down and photos of each of the key steps. Also at the bottom is shows a harness that you can use to help you scale them. I’ve never seen one of these in person, but it looks really cool.
Read PDF: How to Get a Muscle Up
Muscle Up Tutorial
Crossfit 915 from El Paso Texas has a good right up on three key skills you need BEFORE you even attempt a muscle up. He shows you a few moves you can use to develop the pull/push strength that you’ll need to perform a muscle up.
Read Full Article: The Muscle Up Tutorial
Conclusion
Ready to try these out? Yea you are. Go hit the gym or your garage and work it out. Need some rings for your garage? You know I love Rogue Fitness’s gear, and yes they have gymnastic rings for sale.
What muscle up tips and tricks have worked for you in getting muscle ups down and done? Let’s talk about it in the comments. |
Meditation involves silencing our mind. It is not an intellectual activity, but an attempt to expand our consciousness and be aware of our ‘real sense of being.’ Meditation can be a practical tool for relaxation, concentration and better health; it can also be an invaluable tool to self discovery. Through meditation we develop the capacity to be content with ourselves as we are. It is a happiness not dependent on external wealth and success. If practiced correctly, meditation can be a powerful antidote to depressive thoughts.
How To Meditate
It is hard to pick up meditation from just reading an article, but I would like to share a few basic pointers about what meditation involves. No matter what form of meditation you follow, the basic shared principle is to quieten your thoughts and mind. We can sit in a chair for many hours, but, if thoughts continually pass through our mind then our meditation will be ineffective. Ultimately the aim is to have a mind free of thoughts. It is in this inner silence that we can experience a consciousness of real peace.
At first glance, people may find the concept of stopping thoughts very difficult. If you try sitting silent for a while, you will probably be inundated with thoughts. When giving meditation classes, the difficulty of controlling the thoughts is a common experience. However, if you sincerely try, you can learn to reduce the power of thoughts over yourself.
These are some tips I suggest for controlling your thoughts:
You control your thoughts not the other way around. Always remember it is you who can decide which thoughts to pursue and which to reject. Never feel a slave to your own thoughts, even if at times they seem powerful.
Patience. Don’t expect a silent mind after the first few attempts. We have been thinking all our life; to change a habit of a lifetime requires persistence and perseverance. Meditation, like any worthwhile activities requires dedicated and focused intensity.
Detachment. If you keep rejecting thoughts, what happens is that you may be aware of thoughts, but, they have much less intensity. A thought bubbles up, but, it becomes easier to detach from it. You start to see thoughts as independent and outside of yourself. This is a good sign, it shows you are developing the capacity to separate the sense of self from your mental thoughts. From this point it becomes easier to stop your thoughts completely.
Concentrate on something. It is hard to control our thoughts through the power of the mind. To achieve inner silence it is advisable to choose something to focus our attention on. This may be the use of a simple mantra; it may be concentrating on a candle or flower. Personally, I concentrate on the ‘heart center’. Try listening to your heart beat and feel your awareness leaving the mind and entering the heart. If you can consciously leave the mind, it becomes much easier to reduce the power of thoughts.
Intensity. If we are satisfied with outer life, we will feel no aspiration to meditate. Effective meditation requires an aspiration to discover inner peace and inner happiness. Meditation is not something to be done mechanically; it should be done with intensity and focus. Meditate with the feeling that this is our last day on earth.
Meditation and Depression
When we are depressed, we will notice a powerful stream of negative thoughts. Often when we become depressed, we don’t feel like meditating, everything seems lacking in hope. However, if we can meditate effectively; if we can go beyond these negative thoughts and quieten the mind, we really can have a dramatic change in our frame of mind. This ability to silence the mind is invaluable as an aid to overcome unhappiness.
However, I would caution one thing. We have to be careful, if we feel miserable or angry, we need to be even more careful that we meditate properly. If you sit down to meditate but can’t stop the thoughts endlessly going round, it is better to give up and try something else like going for a walk. The reason is that when we meditate there is tremendous intensity. If we just ‘concentrate’ on our negative thoughts we make them more powerful. Therefore, when meditating to overcome depression, it is even more important to detach from these negative thoughts. It is the ability to silence the mind and thoughts which will help the depression to clear.
I became interested in meditation when studying in my final year at University. I had enjoyed the usual student life, but, there I had an increasing sense that something was missing; nothing could really give the sense of satisfaction I was searching for. I read a few spiritual books and wanted to try meditation. I went to some meditation classes organized by the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Oxford and have been meditating as a student of Sri Chinmoy for the past 9 years. |
A Formal Complaint From the Roller Skating Gang Member in Michael Jackson’s “Bad” Video
A dedicated employee looks to shake up the institution.
Chris Rosenthall Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 29, 2013
Dear Sir:
First and foremost, allow me to once again thank you for allowing me to join your gang, in which serving has been both an honor and a pleasure. These past two years have been an absolute joy, and I consider my personal growth a testament to you and your fine organization. That having been said, I was wondering if I could make the change from roller skating everywhere we go to simply walking, like everyone else.
I assume you think I’m only making this request because the other gang members keep laughing at me and calling me “Tootie.” While there is some truth to this, let’s not risk oversimplifying the issue, as childish taunts are merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg. My main concern lies in the fact that while roller skating has quite an upside (I conduct my errands more quickly, it’s been great for my calves, etc.), it actually presents a series of detriments that I fear I may have initially overlooked. Climbing fences, jumping turnstiles and traversing subway grates are all far more difficult than need be. Furthermore, being the only roller skating gang member attracts a great deal of attention and makes me very easy to remember, two traits that are far from desirable when one participates in illicit gang activities. When a victim describes their mugger as “a grown man on roller skates,” the local authorities seem to know exactly where to begin their search. When they arrive on the scene and begin rounding up suspects, I’m either a) the only person on roller skates or b) if I’ve gotten enough of a head start, the only one wearing socks and no shoes. Either way, it’s fairly incriminating.
I understand that, if this change occurs, my nickname “Wheelz” will be rendered moot. Frankly, I’m fine with that. With all due respect, I’m not a GI Joe, and therefore have no need for a nickname that corresponds to my mode of transportation. In fact, I worry that in the near future I will be called Wheelz not because of my roller skates, but because of the wheelchair in which I’m confined as the remarkably unsurprising result of roller skating in a subway.
If required to retain my nickname (I admit my knowledge of the bylaws is a bit hazy), however, perhaps we can reach some sort of compromise by way of alternate transportation: a razor scooter, for example, or those shoes with wheels built into the heel, provided they make them in adult sizes.
In conclusion, my skates have become a part of my identity, and I will look back upon this part of my life with great fondness and appreciation. However, in a world such as ours, a world governed by constant evolution, I find my talents to be nothing more than relics of an era that never quite dawned. After much deliberation, I’ve slowly come to realize that, simply put, there’s just no room in our society for a roller skating gang member.
With kindest regards,
Wheelz
P.S. Incidentally, there’s one last thing I’ve been meaning to bring to your attention: there are rumblings throughout the community that, when it comes to settling turf wars, some of the local gangs are planning to abandon elaborate choreography in favor of firearms. Far be it for me to ever tell you how to do your job, but I can’t help but feel this is a trend we may want to jump on sooner rather than later. |
His poetry was heavily influenced by the funeral dirges of his native Ewe people, one of Ghana’s smaller ethnic minorities; his grandmother was an Ewe dirge singer, according to the Poetry Foundation. The early poetry that gained him his reputation in the 1960s in Ghana “reflected the challenges that Ghana and Africa were going through during the postcolonial period,” Mr. Aidoo said. “He was constantly emphasizing the pain, the pain and suffering of our people.”
“Songs of Sorrow,” perhaps his best-known poem, is an extended lament for a world of African difficulty and hardship, replete with foreboding of latent chronic violence of the sort that erupted on Saturday in Nairobi. A pan-Africanist and admirer of Kwame Nkrumah, the president who led Ghana to independence and was overthrown in a coup, Mr. Awoonor was pained by the continent’s early travails.
“Funeral dirges — he used that form to lament the state of Africa, the oppression,” said Esi Sutherland-Addy, an associate professor at the University of Ghana. “It was a convenient form to talk about oppression.” |
Microsoft is pulling out all the stops to convince you to upgrade to Windows 10, and its newest announcement is the triumphant return of the classic card game Solitaire.
Solitaire, which has been included in every version of Windows since Windows 3.0 in 1990, was removed from Windows 8 to the dismay of many. And while you could still download a modern version of the game from the Windows Store in Windows 8, Microsoft has decided to include it as a default game in Windows 10.
The return of Solitaire was first noticed by a developer on Twitter, who discovered the card game was included in the Windows 10 technical preview build.
Microsoft is also bringing back the Start Menu to Windows 10, so that means you'll be able to boot up a game of Solitaire by navigating to Start > Programs > Accessories > Games, just like old times.
Windows 10 is currently only available as a preview build at the moment, though Microsoft has confirmed it will release the official build of Windows 10 to consumers this summer. Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users, and will be available in 190 countries and 111 languages.
NOW WATCH: Apple sneaked in an annoying new feature in its latest iPhone iOS update — but there's also an upside
More From Business Insider |
EAST HADDAM, CT – On the heels of an emotional election outcome that has affected many across the state, a sign's vandalism may be the tipping point in East Haddam.
After learning of the results, a local woman felt compelled to make a sign expressing her care toward a number of groups in the country who may feel oppressed by the election of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.
The sign read, "Dear Muslims, Immigrants Women, Disabled, LGBTQ folks & All People of Color, WE LOVE YOU; boldly & proudly, we will endure."
The sign, however, was apparently vandalized within a day. Overnight, an unidentified person wrote "Trump 2016" over her message in black spray paint.
The sign in its original state was created by resident Theresa Govert and put up at Wilmer F Palmer Road and Route 149, according to NBC Connecticut. She is undeterred, however, and plans to paint another sign with the same message and post it again.
"Some beautiful woman in my town made this heartfelt, wonderful sign after yesterday's results; this morning we wake up to this," said resident Sarah Walls. "I vote the lovely person who did this fess up [and] act like an adult and proud supporter so we can know who the ugly soul is, but that weak ugly person will hide."
Walls also added that she was "so disgusted" over the whole situation. Police could not be reached for comment on the situation.
Images via Sarah Walls |
We’re rapidly drawing in on the release of the next feature from Walt Disney Animation, a return to the sweet and charming world of AA Milne‘s Winnie the Pooh. It’s a rare hand drawn picture, beautifully crafted by some of the best of this era’s best animation artists.
One of the key players is Burny Mattinson, a veteran of the 1960’s Pooh pictures. He served as the supervising story artist on this film, and over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be running my interview with the man, an easy going but rigorous discussion about the hows and whys and wotsits of this new Pooh’s journey to the screen.
In the meantime, a tease. A little tidbit from what Mattinson and I were talking about, a hook to hopefully keep you online for the coverage still to come.
Now. During our interview, I did take a second to enquire about what Mattinson will be working on next. And while it’s early days for his new project, it does sound like the perfect follow-up to Pooh.
He said:
I am working on just an idea of my own which is basically a Mickey, Donald, Goofy feature film idea. We have to present it first to the bosses to get the green light.
Just about time that Mickey got his own feature, wouldn’t you say? And I’d be over the moon for more Donald and Goofy any way I can get them.
There’s a slightly different “green light” system in place at animation studios than with live action filmmaking. Films are first worked up into preliminary pitches, complete with artwork, before they are presented to the studio for approval. Then, if the studio give the nod, the film goes into a period of “active development”, months filled with intense storyboarding, reworking and design. Then, a second green light is needed before actual production begins.
I’m sure Mattinson is a great man for this particular job. A Mickey feature would likely skew much closer to the low-key misadventure of Winnie the Pooh than a high-stakes, high-concept, high-budget picture in the vein of The Princess and the Frog or Tangled. It just seems more true to the character, I think, and Disney really do take the integrity of their characters very seriously.
Come back tomorrow for the first of my full Winnie the Pooh reports, bringing word from the film’s directors, Stephen J. Anderson and Don Hall. Then, over the coming weeks stay tuned for interviews with the animators; with a Disney licensing and merchandising power player; and a full interview with Burny Mattinson.
Winnie the Pooh reaches UK cinemas on April 15, then opens in the US this July. Here’s the trailer.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stFkFzPROKU[/youtube]
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Refactoring helps to move towards cleaner code that is easier to understand and maintain. It takes practice and experience to recognise code smells: symptoms of bad design which indicate deeper problems in the code. Tools can be helpful to refactor in small steps and prevent breaking the code.
Halima Koundi, apprentice at Codurance, spoke about refactoring and code smells at SwanseaCon 2016. InfoQ is covering the conference with Q&As, summaries, and articles.
Koundi quoted Martin Fowler’s definition of code smells:
A code smell is a surface indication that usually corresponds to a deeper problem in the system.
The quality of code can go down if not enough attention is given to properly maintain or improve it. In her talk Koundi summarized different kinds of code smells and explained how to recognize them. One category of code smells she mentioned is "object orientation abusers"; these smells have to do with incomplete or wrong implementation of object oriented design. Recognizing object orientation abuser code smells helps you to find code that is possibly violating object orientation principles which can lead to wrong behaviour of the object.
Another category of code smells that Koundi mentioned is "change preventers", where one chance in the code (for instance to implement a new feature or adapting an existing feature) impacts many classes and requires extensive changes throughout the code. Examples are code smells like "parallel inheritance hierarchies" or "divergent change".
Koundi gave a demo using ReSharper from Jetbrains on how to safely refactor code. In the demo she showed how you can adapt code when a new payment method has to be added. She explained how you can refactor the code in small steps and what you can do to make sure that changes made won’t break the code.
InfoQ interviewed Koundi after her talk about different kinds of code smells that exist, how developers can recognise code smells, principles for dealing with code smells, practices for refactoring code, what developers can do to assure that they are not breaking the code, when should you refactor and when not, and the benefits that refactoring can bring.
InfoQ: What are the different kinds of code smells?
Halima Koundi: There are several categories of code smells. Some of the code smells emerge over time because they result from lack of care and abstractions in the codebase; these include long methods, long list of parameters etc. Others are due to half baked or badly implemented object oriented principles, for example Refused Bequest is one where we have introduced a wrong abstraction. Code that adds noise to the system is another category. For example you should reduce, if not remove, comments from your code and make your method names more meaningful. Code that is not used should be removed–even if you think that it may be needed later.
InfoQ: How can developers recognize code smells?
Koundi: Code smells can be recognised by their visible, physical and metaphysical signatures. Visible signatures include: long method or function bodies, long parameter lists, groups of variable that appear multiple times in similar patterns–these are symptoms of mixed responsibilities and missing abstractions. An example of physical signature is where change involves navigating-through and modifying many files. Metaphysical signature is when you are asking questions like, "why am I inheriting from this parent class when I do not share the same behaviour". It takes practice and experience to recognise code smells. There are many exercises and katas to help you practice. Code smells are a symptom; they generally reveal that you are breaking some design principles. Knowing these principles helps understand what is wrong with your code base.
InfoQ: Which are the general principles for dealing with code smells?
Koundi: Refactoring means improving the design of the code without changing the behaviour, and it is platform independent. Code smells are symptoms of bad design. My advice is to read Martin Fowler’s book, Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code. It is important to note that refactoring to abstractions is not always the right course of action because it could cause more complexity in the system and may become a code smell in itself. The code may not be complicated enough to benefit from certain abstractions.
InfoQ: You talked about practices for refactoring code and gave a demo. Can you give some examples how code can be refactored?
Koundi: Refactorings that I find very powerful yet quite simple to apply are: Extract Method: Let’s say you have some function that is doing too many things and want to make the code easier to read. Break the algorithm by the steps it is doing and extract them in their own methods and name them according to their behaviour Rename method: unexpressive code is hard to work with, for example, when you find yourself looking at a method and taking more than 10 minutes to understand what it is doing. If you do find a better way to explain what it is doing then you should rename that method, providing that the method in question is not exposed as a public API. As I showed in the demo, the tool is as important as the knowledge of the refactorings themselves. Knowing your development environment makes the exercise of refactoring a lot easier, faster and safer. There are great resources out there to help you learn how to refactor. Matthew Butt is putting together a series of refactoring screencasts where he shows how to refactor code in simple steps.
InfoQ: What are the things developers can do to assure that they are not breaking the code?
Koundi: Before you engage yourself in refactoring, make sure: You can check that the rest of the system is not impacted by your refactoring. This is done through tests.
There a clear documentation of how to use this section of the code. That documentation is provided by tests.
The part of the system you’re refactoring will not suffer regression. This is the job of, guess who? Tests! Always make sure you have tests before you refactor the code.
InfoQ: When should you refactor? When not?
Koundi: Refactoring, just like writing tests, should be part of the same activity of implementing a feature. It is not a standalone activity. You refactor when you want to prepare your code for change, where it was not ready for it yet. Refactoring is a major step during test driven development (TDD). Code reviews are also good candidates for a refactoring exercise. On the other hand, doing a lot of low-value refactoring across the whole codebase in an attempt to achieve "perfect code" is called gold plating. It is harmful to clean code, as it dilutes the genuine need of refactoring with the zealous blindness of refactoring for the sake of refactoring. If the code works and does not need to change, don’t touch it.
InfoQ: What are the benefits that refactoring can bring? |
*UPDATE* Another release has now been issued to address the BlackBerry ID issue. If you were experiencing that, go ahead and grab the newer download.
Just in time for the holiday gift-giving season, that new and improved BlackBerry App World experience we've all been waiting for is finally here... well, in the Beta Zone at least. This week, App World Version 3.1.0.38 hit the BlackBerry Beta Zone and is ready for you to try your hand at gifting and begging for apps.
What's New in 3.1
Gifting/Begging - allows you to request that a friend or family member pay for any application within App World.
Content Rating - allows content providers to rate the maturity level of their content and for you to filter content based on their desired level
WiFi Only Support - will allow App World to still operate when a you only have a WiFi connection
New Language Support - Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Dutch
Check out more in the BlackBerry Beta Zone |
As a bonus, here's an action shot. Look at him go! Be sure to check out all the other Man Nails below.
*self purchased
OPI
#TheLacquerRing is back today with possibly my new favorite prompt ever. The prompt was Man Nails, which came with the instructions "done by or inspired by." I had to sweet talk him, but the hubs agreed to play the game and do my nails. I will give him mad props. He picked out the design all himself, dug through my drawers for colors, had a clear vision, and even a name for the look. It's just that the execution is hilariously bad. I wanted to film the happening, but he wouldn't let me. Which is probably good, because my hysterical giggling would have ruined it. I did not touch this manicure in any way. This was all him. Are you ready?I present to you, "The French Manicure." As he put it, we're being topical and showing our support. They say laughter is the best medicine. Colors used wereandWhen I asked if he wanted to do any clean up he said "No, the middle finger looks great." LOL!Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee |
FOX
The New England Patriots stretched their impressive winning streak to seven games Sunday by defeating the Detroit Lions 34-9.
In the waning moments of the contest, the Lions made the executive decision to take a knee, leave Gillette Stadium and prepare for their Thanksgiving showdown with the Chicago Bears.
Taking a closer look at that final play, something suspicious jumps off the screen. Zach Heilprin of ESPN Wisconsin provided a Vine video detailing the incident.
Keep your eyes focused on Lions center Dominic Raiola.
Clearly, he purposely goes low on Patriots defensive lineman Zach Moore.
Update: Monday, November 24
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk claims a source said the NFL will "review the play" before opining, "Whether any action is taken in response to it is anyone’s guess. But the rule book provides the league office with ammunition to take action against Raiola."
---End of update---
Talking to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Raiola explained why (h/t Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald):
"I cut him," Raiola told Birkett and Jeff Seidel, also of the Detroit Free Press. The Lions center would go on to explain his thought process in greater detail:
We took a knee, so I cut the nose (tackle). They went for six (a touchdown). They went for a touchdown at 2 minutes. They could have took three knees and the game could have been over. It's football. He wants to keep playing football, let's play football. Not a big deal. It's football.
Patriots nose tackle Vince Wilfork said he only heard what happened but thought it was "stupid," per ESPN.com's Michael Rothstein:
I didn't see it, but from what I heard ... you're taking a knee. They'd get mad if we were just to blow up one of their players, so I mean, it's just uncalled for. But at the same time, you always have to protect yourself, so you always have to play with your neck on a swivel and being alert for 60 minutes and it came down to it today on a boneheaded play like that. Luckily no one got hurt and we can move on.
The only question that's left to answer is a simple one: Should Raiola be fined and suspended?
After watching the clip above, what do you think? Was it a non-issue, or should the league take action?
Unless noted otherwise, all game scores and information come courtesy of ESPN.com. |
Big XII mascots and cheerleaders pose for a group photo during the Big 12 Conference Football Media Days at the Omni Dallas Hotel, July 19, 2016. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)
And so it's on. The Big 12 is ready to -- once again -- become a 12-team league. Or perhaps even a 14-team league.
It took years and countless meetings and lots of expensive research for conference leaders to reach the conclusion that it was time to add teams this week. But really what it took was news of an ACC network, leaving the Big 12 as the only "power five" conference without its own network thanks mostly to the presence of the Longhorn Network.
That can be resolved down the road, I believe, simply by overpaying Texas for the first few years of a new network deal to make up for lost revenue. Regardless, the important matter is that the call to Commissioner Bob Bowlsby has been issued.
Find us the best possible candidates. Sooner rather than later.
The important thing is that the new schools bring the most powerful brands with strong fan bases. But Bowlsby also said he's looking for schools that "will grow as we grow."
And that leads me back to Central Florida as a prime candidate. Not nearly as sexy or as accomplished as some of the other candidates, it's an enormous school that would get the Big 12 into Florida, which can't be bad, either from a recruiting standpoint or in attracting viewers.
The school has an enrollment upward of 60,000, and the Knights can play a little football, as Baylor found out in the Fiesta Bowl after the 2013 season.
I had mentioned previously bringing South Florida along with UCF as sort of a travel partner. I'm not against that, but it may not be feasible or really in the best interest of spreading the Big 12 brand. |
There was one obvious omission in our latest laptop and netbook batch – only one had a matte screen. The rest were glossy. Why is it so difficult to avoid glossy screens and why can’t matte monitors return?
In our latest batch of reviewed laptops, just one had a matte, diffuse, anti-glare (or whatever you want to call it) display.
That was out of 15 pieces of computing kit. And worse, the lone anti-glare device wasn’t even a laptop – it was an expensive, high-end business netbook. The Samsung N350 is hardly going to suit your everyday consumer.
Mourning the death of matte
So the problem continues – where have all the matte screens gone? I know there’s a demand for them – you’ve told me so on Which? Convo when I moaned about shiny gadgets (complete with expletives). Kris commented:
‘My Toshiba laptop has a shiny screen and it’s terrible, particularly if I sit in the wrong place I just can’t see the screen with the sun hitting it.’
I’m with you there Kris, my Sony Vaio laptop threatens me with my own reflection morning and night. Francisson joined the chorus:
‘Personally I hate these glossy, glassy, glittering reflective surfaces, but I’m putting up with one because when I bought a new laptop not long ago I found no choice, though I tried hard enough!’
And that’s the rub – people are willing to go out of their way to track down a matte screen laptop and would probably pay a little more for it. Commenter Timothy Ryan certainly would, ‘if a company made a point of advertising the matte screen of their device I would most definitely consider it above one that didn’t’.
Why not make matte screens?
You’d think computer manufactures would want to make a quick buck – so why aren’t they investing in matte screens?
There are a number of theories. People, like monkeys and magpies, are attracted to shiny and reflective objects, meaning they’re more likely to buy a glossy laptop in a store. Matte screens are said to be more fragile and may even cost more to make. Plus, some commenters on Reddit say they use glossy screens as a mirror:
‘I like to check to make sure my toupee is on right, the shiny screen helps…’ commented ObamaisYoGabbaGabba.
Those poor (and sarcy) reasons aside, I’m not buying it.
Bring back matte iMacs
Loyal Apple customers aren’t buying it either. A petition calling for matte iMacs to return has had over 1,500 responses – they’re not a happy bunch, refusing to buy another iMac until there’s an anti-glare option.
Professional graphic designers seem to be the angriest – they’ve been using iMacs for years and find glossy screens a distraction that often give them headaches. These are existing Apple customers who are desperate to upgrade their hardware, but Apple apparently isn’t listening, despite the company’s promise to take note of customer feedback.
So, we really want to know – do you miss matte screens on laptops and computers? If there’s a big enough call for their return then we’ll use our clout to take this straight to the manufacturers (just like with our viewfinder campaign). Let us know in the comments and vote in our reopened poll – I certainly know which result I’ll be rooting for.
What type of screen do you prefer? Matte (89%, 1,491 Votes) Glossy (11%, 178 Votes) Total Voters: 1,667 |
Tcl (Tool Command Language) is a very powerful but easy to learn dynamic programming language, suitable for a very wide range of uses, including web and desktop applications, networking, administration, testing and many more. Open source and business-friendly, Tcl is a mature yet evolving language that is truly cross platform, easily deployed and highly extensible.
Tk is a graphical user interface toolkit that takes developing desktop applications to a higher level than conventional approaches. Tk is the standard GUI not only for Tcl, but for many other dynamic languages, and can produce rich, native applications that run unchanged across Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and more.
AndroWish allows to run desktop Tcl and Tk programs almost unaltered on the Android Platform while it opens the door to script a rich feature set of a mobile platform. Its sibling undroidwish uses the same code base and offers a similar feature set on various desktop and embedded platforms. |
Nick Schmaltz is not expected to be back in the Chicago Blackhawks lineup Thursday against the Minnesota Wild after already missing the last two games with an upper-body injury, coach Joel Quenneville told WGN Radio this morning.
Quenneville added that the team is “hopeful” he can play Saturday night against the Nashville Predators.
The 21-year-old Schmaltz missed the last 12 minutes of the Hawks’ season opener, the last 58 minutes of the second game and did not travel for Chicago’s road trip earlier this week to Toronto and Montreal. He has played a mere 16:10 this season.
When healthy, Schmaltz has centered the second line with Ryan Hartman and Patrick Kane as his wingers. The trio have combined for five goals and nine assists this season, with Schmaltz accounting for two goals and one assist. He also has a 33 percent success rate on faceoffs. |
Two new key visuals for Fujino Omori’s Danmachi has been revealed in the June issue of Megami and NyanType. The first visual is from June’s Megami issue and features Hestia leaning over a bar while drinking a glass of red wine. While the second visual from June’s NyanType issue displays her getting undressed.
Anime visual:
Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru no Darou ka?, also known as DanMachi for short, is a Japanese light novel series, written by Fujino Omori and illustrated by Suzuhito Yasuda. SB Creative has published six volumes since January 2013 under their GA Bunko imprint. It has received a spin-off light novel series and three manga adaptations. An anime television series adaptation by J.C.Staff is scheduled to air from April 2015.
Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru no Darou ka? synopsis from Haruhichan:
Commonly known as the “Dungeon,” the city of Orario possesses a huge labyrinth in the underground. Its strange name attracts excitement, illusions of honor, and hopes of romance with a pretty girl. In this city of dreams and desires, new adventurer Bell Cranel has his fateful encounter with the tiny Goddess Hestia. Thus begins the story of a boy striving to become the best adventurer and a lonely goddess searching for followers both hoping to reach their goals and perhaps have some romance in the side.
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#VaginaPolitics: Singing Prostitute @Madonna Will Vote Naked For Political Prostitute @HillaryClinton
America’s most famous slut will be voting (in the nude) for America’s most famous political slut. How incredibly shocking, provocative, edgy, and creative. I’m being sarcastic of course.
NOTE: The nude photo of the singing prostitute AKA Madonna has mysteriously disappeared from Twitter. BUT Breitbart has a screen grab of the naked old lady voicing her support for the other old lady.
via Breitbart:
Pop icon Madonna joined her colleague Katy Perry in getting naked to encourage Americans to head to the polls on Election Day.
I remember watching an interview with Madonna years ago, and the aging singing prostitute had the audacity to say she thought Amy Winehouse was a bad influence for her daughter. This coming from the woman who has made millions of dollars by forcing her nude body down the throat of America for a quarter century.
Remember Madonna’s “Sex Book“? No? Let me remind you. In the singing prostitutes Sex Book Madonna posed for pictures: simulating a rape fantasy (her words, not mine), engaging in lesbian sexual encounters with Isabella Rossellini, engaging in simulated cunnilingus with a masked leather man, squatting nude over a mirror while fondling her pulana, urinating in a bowl with no underwear on (of course), lying in a leather sling topless with her legs spread eagle, along with many other lewd acts of degradation and perversion.
So when I heard Madonna say that singer Amy Winehouse was a bad influence on her daughter I almost spit out my green tea!
Amy Winehouse responded to the aging singing prostitute Madonna:
“Now, she’s an old lady. She can’t shock people any more, I think she should get a nice band, just stand in front of them and f***ing sing.”
Sadly Amy Winehouse is no longer alive, but something tells me the late singer would have similar words for the old lady Hillary Clinton’s entitled demands on the White House. Amy was a troubled girl, but she had her moments of profound clarity.
It seems to me that when your campaign needs to get nude celebrities involved to prop you up something is wrong. You’ve lost the argument. |
Producer Mark Burnett accepts the award for Outstanding Reality - Competition Program for "The Voice" at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles September 22, 2013. REUTERS/Mike Blake
HOUSTON (Reuters) - After a decade of casting around for a space-themed show, reality TV producer Mark Burnett has finally found a way to launch his dream.
On Thursday, Burnett, creator of “Survivor” and “The Voice” unveiled a partnership with Virgin Galactic, a U.S. offshoot of Richard Branson’s London-based Virgin Group, for a TV series that will send someone to space.
“For the past 10 years I have relentlessly pursued my dream of using a TV show to give an everyday person the chance to experience the black sky of space and look down upon mother Earth,” Burnett said in a statement.
Virgin Galactic intends to begin commercial spaceflight services aboard the suborbital SpaceShipTwo next year.
The six-passenger, two-pilot ship, which is undergoing testing in Mojave, California, is designed to fly about 63 miles above Earth and return, giving passengers a few minutes of weightlessness and a view of the planet set against the blackness of space.
About 630 people have put down deposits or purchased tickets for the ride, which now costs $250,000 a person.
The series, called “Space Race,” will feature contenders in an unscripted elimination competition. The winner will get a ticket to ride on SpaceShipTwo. Details of the show’s format, or when it will air, have not been released.
As part of the deal, Virgin Galactic will give the production team “unprecedented access” to SpaceShipTwo’s base at Spaceport American in New Mexico, series backer NBC said in a news release. |
Devin Hester will not make another late-season appearance.
The NFL's all-time leader in punt-return touchdowns announced he's hanging up his cleats.
CURTAINS â�� Appreciate all of the love for all these years!!! Yâall made the ride incredible!!! pic.twitter.com/jkcVrRLcNI â Devin Hester (@D_Hest23) December 12, 2017
Hester joined the Seattle Seahawks for the playoffs last year and said after the loss to the Atlanta Falcons that it was likely his last NFL game. The 35-year-old waited almost 11 months to make it official.
The dynamic return man played 11 seasons in the NFL. The bulk of his career he spent unnerving opposing special team coaches for the Chicago Bears (2006-20013). He then bounced to Atlanta for two years. Hester spent 2016 with the Baltimore Ravens and Seahawks.
During his dynamic career, Hester was the most dangerous return man in the NFL. He earned an NFL record 20 career return scores, including playoffs (14 punt return TDs). Among the most memorable, Hester took the opening kickoff of Super Bowl XLI to the house to give the Bears a 7-0 lead against the Indianapolis Colts.
Hester's case for the Hall of Fame will be hotly debated in the years to come. As primarily a returner, he participated in a fraction of the snap most players amass over a career. Yet he also influenced opponent's game-management decisions like no other returner of his era and owns NFL records none are close to matching. |
To many in the Czech Republic, she is celebrated as a local girl who went on to achieve global celebrity. Now Ivana Trump, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s first wife, says she wants to become ambassador to the Czech Republic, leading some in her homeland to hope that she can inject some glamour into the central European country and burnish its global image.
Speculation about whether Ms. Trump, 67, could become America’s top diplomat in Prague has been swirling in the Czech Republic since she told The New York Post that she would be well-suited for the job.
“I will suggest that I be ambassador for the Czech Republic,” Ms. Trump told the Post in an interview published over the weekend, noting that she was fluent in Czech and had a high profile in the country of her birth. “I’m known by the name Ivana. I really did not need the name Trump.”
If she were to become ambassador, Ms. Trump would not be the first celebrity to hold the post. Shirley Temple Black, the child star turned diplomat, was appointed ambassador to Czechoslovakia in 1989 by President George Bush. Her championing of the country before and after the fall of communism won her ardent admiration. |
Santa Claus is real. I don't care what your parents told you.
How do I know?
Because I heard him on the roof, dropping gifts down your orange-and-blue chimney.
The first gift? A ten-game winning streak.
The second? A quarterback more accurate than Santa's naughty/nice list.
The third?
Well, that came from Santa's little helpers, the Minnesota Vikings. Because of their win, the Broncos just might get the #1 seed.
The Positives
1. When the Broncos came out with quads to the right on their first drive and Demaryius Thomas wide to the left, the only thing I was thinking was, Cleveland, you are screwed without safety help. A few seconds later, DT had a touchdown. Another drive later, if you needed proof of Thomas's improvement in route running, you got it. Thomas came back to a ball on the sideline that could only have been caught by a receiver who's been working the route tree like Jerry Rice.
2. Von Miller is now the owner of the the Broncos' single-season sack record. There's really nothing bad I can say about the guy other than he probably returns texts he gets from Tebow. But we'll chalk that up to being nice. It's almost Christmas, after all.
3. As proof that Knowshon Moreno ran downhill, I offer up the sound of pads popping on virtually all of his first-quarter runs. Of course, there are the numbers, too--127 yards on 27 touches--his fourth time in five games with at least 111 yards from scrimmage.
4. On the trap play, Joel Dreessen makes one hell of a pulling guard if you ask me; but it's his fingertip catches that will make him a threat in next year's Madden video game.
5. Please forgive me, Orlando Franklin. I was wrong about you. I didn't think you had the quickness to keep pass rushers off the edge. At this point, it's not about Peyton Manning's quick release (okay, maybe a little), it's about you, boss. And, like clockwork, as I wrote this, Franklin gets called for a penalty.
6. I never give Zane Beadles enough credit. It's hard to judge the offensive line without rewatching the game and specifically looking at the blocking schemes (unless it's Manny Ramirez), but I made a point of watching Beadles today during several series. Zane got to the second level (meaning linebackers) on several occasions, and Beadles versus any linebacker favors the Broncos any day of the week. Of course, as I wrote this, Beadles was called for a penalty and almost gave up a sack. Oh well, I'm keeping him here because I've ignored him so many times earlier in the year. And he did do a good job in the running game.
7. Part of the reason the offensive line is more effective, aside from Manning's quick release, is the constant 113 personnel package. It simplifies the defensive looks because the defense is only going to have so many looks against one specific personnel package. As Beadles said earlier in the week, simple is effective because it makes adjustments easier.
8. How scary is this? Peyton Manning is absolutely adament that he's not completely rehabbed. Before the game, he told KOA's Dave Logan that it would be a lie if he said he was even close to 100%. Said Manning (and I'm probably paraphrasing): "As soon as I'm 100%, I promise you, I'll let everyone know. But I would be lying to everyone if I told you that I was."
9. Why aren't Eric Decker and Demaryius Thomas mentioned in the same breath with Julio Jones and Roddy White? Who knows. I suppose because Decker is white, he gets labeled as a possession receiver as a result. Just when you think Decker is about to go mental (dropped pass, lining up off the line of scrimmage), he goes and makes a tough catch for a touchdown.
10. Rahim Moore gets an "A" for making an incomplete pass look like an interception, but he gets an "A+" for the return.
11. Ronnie Hillman continues to improve. He can grow on you--especially if he adds another ten pounds. Remember, Trent Richardson is 5-9 and 230 lbs. Hillman is 5-10 and 190 lbs. In other words, there's room to grow. Can he be an every-down back? I'm beginning to warm to the idea.
12. The Browns struggled to account for the Denver tight ends during the game on crossing routes. Something tells me that's a feature of the Broncos offense we'll be seeing again.
13. Peyton Manning has eight games of three touchowns or more this season. He's also tied with Jay Cutler among Broncos QBs for most games of 300 yards or more in a season, with eight. How many more games is that than Tim Tebow? I'll let you figure it out, after you claim I'm being mean. By the way, I find it sort of cool that Peyton Manning is pissed off when the Broncos settle for a field goal up by three scores.
14. Jack Del Rio is an amazing defensive coordinator, obviously, but one of the things that makes him so good is that he trusts his players. As Eddie McCaffrey noted during the game, Del Rio allows his players to choose which gap they are going to blitz in certain looks, effectively allowing the Broncos to adjust on the fly. That takes veterans, and it takes smart players. The Broncos defense is just scary on third downs, on which the Browns were just 3 for 12.
The Negatives
1. Cleveland rookie right tackle Mitchell Schwartz has had a decent first season. He certainly held his own against Von Miller and Elvis Dumervil today. The only three times I saw him beaten in any significant way were by Derek Wolfe, who knocked him on his ass, Miller, who gave him a taste of velocity in the third quarter, and Dumervil, who got past him during garbage time.
2. We'll blame the wind for Matt Prater's first kickoff. We don't think he actually intended to let Josh Cribbs catch the ball in the field of play.
3. The Browns' first drive, for what it's worth, was very effective, with a combination of powerful runs between the tackles and some misdirection which caught Von Miller by surprise. Luckily, like bad teams always do, the Browns settled for a field goal while the Broncos got seven.
4. How confident were the Broncos they were going to win today? Confident enough they activated Tracy Porter over Tony Carter. According to Jeff Legwold speaking before the game, the Broncos wanted to see what they have with Porter going into the playoffs. Porter promptly got concussed on the first drive of the game and never returned. That's some seriously bad luck. So the Broncos went into the game looking to find out about Porter--instead they got more tape on Omar Bolden, who played decent from the few series in which I watched him playing man coverage.
5. Dan Fouts and Ian Eagle--you know it's Cleveland coming to town when they send in the junior varsity. Forgive Fouts's bias (as a former Chargers quarterback) when he tried to say that Brandon Stokley took a shot at the defender on the pick call. From the replay it was clear Stokley was actually shoved. After this, I turned down the volume and listened to the radio. I was told Fouts stood up for Champ Bailey on the phantom personal-foul call, but it was already too late for me.
6. If you didn't know, the Broncos actually take Trindon Holliday out of the game in order to make sure the ball gets handled correctly inside the ten-yard line. So much for that. In Jim Leonhard's defense, though, it did appear quite windy out on the field.
7. Manny Ramirez, if you're gonna combo block, make sure you execute the first part of the combo before you try for the second.
8. We've got no rationale why the Broncos took a delay-of-game call near the end of the half. If that's on Manning, we'd be shocked. One thing's for sure, though. Knowshon Moreno was supposed to run an out on Manning's subsequent interception.
9. Trent Richardson packs a load, as we mentioned. He also ran through numerous arm tackles from the Broncos front seven. It's one of the reasons Chris Harris led the team in tackles. Odd fact: Richardson also leads the Browns in receptions.
10. Jeff Legwold expressed serious concern about Chris Kuper's injury--particularly the scar tissue that seems to be a lingering problem which won't get resolved until the offseason. "They're not resting him for the playoffs," said Legwold. "If they were, he'd at least be practicing a little."
11. When Josh Cribbs touches the ball, I still hold my breath. When Tridon Holliday touches it, I--sometimes--lose my lunch. Holliday has fumbled the ball now six times and has only lost the ball once. Randomness has smiled upon the Broncos during their ten-game streak. Of course, as I wrote this, Josh Cribbs fumbled, and I grabbed another sandwich. It was a great job, by the way, by Omar Bolden to hold Cribbs back so Lance Ball would have a chance to get the ball.
12. I reserve--as they say--the right to contradict myself. Last week, I criticized the Broncos for not going for the throat. This week, I would have liked to have seen Brock Osweiler earlier. That's right, I'm never happy.
13. Lost in the big win? The Broncos took way too many penalties (11).
The Who The Heck Knows
1. Was it just me, or did the pocket resemble a shark tank when Colt McCoy entered the game?
2. Brandon Weeden would probably have been the Broncos' starting quarterback had Peyton Manning not chosen the Broncos. Now that's some Christmas fruitcake, y'all. I'd almost rather have Tebow--no, not really. Weeden's arm, as you saw today, is a serious rocket. If he is allowed to sit in the pocket, he delivers a payload.
3. Congrats to Elway's real QB target last year, Andrew Luck, for breaking the rookie passing record today. Had the Ultimate Teammate™ not given Elway facial constipation last year and not willed the Broncos to a six-game-winning streak, you can bet the Broncos would have been in the running for Luck.
4. Christian Ponder looked like a professional quarterback today and did the Broncos a solid by beating the Houston Texans. What surprised me most, however, was how much more physical the Vikings were on defense than the Texans were on offense. Chris Myers, who called the game for FOX, obviously needed some sleep--either that or he'd been in too many production meetings throughout the week. During the broadcast, he called Adrian Peterson "Andre." I can't confirm whether on the next series, he called Andre Johnson "Adrian."
5. You're wrong, Jason Whitlock. You think that its only black barbershops that get sprung at the sight of Josina Anderson on ESPN? At my barbershop salon, I may pay $200 for a haircut, but if Josina walked in, I'd pay double just to let her wash my hair.
6. Merry Xmas, Tebow Zombies. Shahid (Chaka) Khan believes in The Ultimate Teammate™--at least from a marketing perspective. Remember, though, Khan is Muslim. It will come in handy for you when you're looking for someone to blame this time next year and Jacksonville still can't sell out.
7. Speaking of Tebow Zombies, I watched Miracle on 34th Street the other night and heard this line: "Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to. Don't you see? It's not just Kris that's on trial, it's everything he stands for. It's kindness and joy and love and all the other intangibles." Personally, I don't need faith. The perfectly-formed breasts of cheerleaders are proof enough of God's existence for me. I like teleological arguments that involve not watches, but pom-poms.
8. I've been asked privately by many readers why I ever liked Tebow in the first place. Let me just say that's how much respect I have for our own Ted Bartlett. I put aside everything I read, heard, and saw--at least long enough to enjoy the ride. I don't blame Ted too much, though. He thought--and I still believe--Tebow could win a few games out of the spread option. But who's got the guts to come to the NFL and run that as their system with a guy who the Jets just said isn't athletic? Of course, this is after the Jets forced Tebow to gain more pounds than Kirstie Alley so he could pretect punts for a living.
9. Random amusing thought: Bill Williamson picked Andy Reid as his preseason Coach of the Year.
10. The Cleveland Browns were 3-0 against the AFC West before the game. That fact wasn't particularly useful--about as useful as the Oakland Raiders Remedial Reading Program.
11. I just realized I forgot to praise Justin Bannan and Mitch Unrein--both guys were great against the screen.
12. What sort of team can beat the Broncos at this point? I still think a team with multiple tight ends who can threaten the Broncos over the middle of the field can give the Broncos real trouble. Of course, the Broncos can threaten any team with their own tight ends now, so bring it on. |
You guys are in for a treat over the next week! I am taking a much needed vacation and – learning from my past mistakes – I’m even taking a break from the blog during this trip. I’ll be spending some quality time on the slopes in Utah, trying to remember how to snowboard between eating lots of good food and sipping on wine and beer. Sounds good, right?! Our dogs will be spending some quality time at home with their favorite pet/house sitter – well, at least Zurie’s favorite. Abbott is not always as nice to her as he should be.
While I’m gone, I have lined up 5 AWESOME blog friends to entertain you!! I’m not going to tell you just who yet, but trust me that you’ll want to stop by all week and find out. =)
I’m kicking off this vacation a little early with the first guest post today – from what of my favorite vegan bloggers – JL! If you don’t already read her blog, JL Goes Vegan, head over there (after reading this post, of course) and check out her site.
Without further ado, let’s dive into her post about Pressure Cookers – which I’m hoping will help convince my hubby that we need one of these for our kitchen.
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Early on in my vegan days I read many blogs with recipes that required a pressure cooker. I passed over those recipes because I associated pressure cooking with canning and I’m not that kind of cook. Eventually I began to see that these bloggers used the pressure cooker to make beans, grains, vegetables, and soup. I was intrigued – but terrified! Growing up my mother would bring out the pressure cooker in the summer to can tomatoes. It was the old school type.
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She was always nervous and would shoo us out of the house. Canning days were nerve-wracking!
Finally, after reading Operation Pressure Cooker on Choosing Raw, I leaped out of my comfort zone – pushing aside childhood fears – and bought a pressure cooker, which is decidedly more modern.
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I fell in love. Hard. A true game-changer, the pressure cooker as forever altered the way I prepare and food. Here are the Top 3 reasons I love my pressure cooker. 1. Eat beans and grains in minutes! I’m a beans, greens and grains vegan. And I’m a lazy vegan. That combination could lead to a lot of canned beans and minute-rice but the pressure cooker has saved me from that fate. This is just a sampling of recipes that I have cooked up fast:
How fast?
Quinoa: 1 minute
Bulgar: 5 minutes
Pearled Barley: 18 minutes
Brown Lentils: 8 minutes
Black-Eyed Peas: 10 minutes
Adzuki Beans: 14 – 20 minutes
Navy Beans: 16 – 20 minutes
Red Kidney Beans: 20 minutes
2. Save money!
A 15 oz can of Eden Organic Black Beans = 1.5 cups of cooked beans. The cost of 1.5 cups cooked beans (canned) is approximately $2.06 USD. A 16 oz box of dry Eden Organic Black Beans = 2.25 cups of dry beans. 2.25 cups of dry beans will make 7.5 cups cooked beans. The cost of 1.5 cups cooked beans (dry) is approximately 64¢ USD. YOU SAVE $1.42 USD !
USD. A 16 oz box of dry Eden Organic Black Beans = 2.25 cups of dry beans. 2.25 cups of dry beans will make 7.5 cups cooked beans. The cost of 1.5 cups cooked beans (dry) is approximately USD. ! A 32 oz. carton of Pacific Organic Vegetable Broth = 4 cups. The cost is approximately $4.29 USD. I make homemade vegetable broth, cooked up in 10 minutes in the pressure cooker, with vegetable that would have been tossed into the trash. The cost is minimal, pennies for whatever spices or seasoning I choose to use, so let’s call it FREE .
‘Nuff said.
3. Better nutrition!
Actually, I don’t know if that’s true. But here are some thoughts on the topic:
The pressure cooker can be an incredibly nutritious method of cooking. Because of its tight-sealing lid, nutrients are trapped inside the cooker within the liquid. This makes the liquid a source of nutrition that may have otherwise been lost with other cooking methods. Also, unlike other high-heat, quick-cooking techniques such as grilling, pressure cooking does not produce carcinogenic compounds. – Food & Nutrition Magazine
In the case of grains and legumes, although the vitamins and heat-sensitive vitamins and phytonutrients are vulnerable to deterioration, the net result of pressure-cooking is a positive nutritional gain—from the increased digestibility of the macronutrients (protein, fiber and starch) and the increased bioavailability of the essential minerals.- Eating Well Magazine
According to the Nestle professional newsletter, pressure cooking conserves 90-95% of nutrients versus steaming (75-90%) and boiling (40-65%) – Laura, HipPressureCooking.com
This is what I know: If I didn’t have a pressure cooker I would not be consuming such a wide variety of nutrients found in beans, legumes, and grains. Interested in learning more?
My thanks to Heather for humoring me and letting me go on and on about my love affair with the pressure cooker!
JL Fields blogs about her transition to a vegan diet and lifestyle at JL goes Vegan: Food & Fitness with a Side of Kale. Her original recipes have been featured on Foodbuzz, BlogHer and Meatless Monday. She is the editor of the community blog Stop Chasing Skinny: Find Happiness Beyond the Scale. |
TORONTO — They talked about it before the game. The Toronto Blue Jays were going to have a quick toast to their season following the final out, with speeches from John Gibbons, Alex Anthopoulos and a few team leaders. They’d only made the playoffs—it wasn’t time to go nuts just yet.
Let’s just say that things escalated rather quickly.
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“It was short, man,” said Dioner Navarro of the post-game toast. “Gibby wanted to congratulate us all and let us know what kind of year we had—and that it’s the beginning of a lot of good things. Short and quick. Then lots of champagne.”
Most of the Blue Jays point to first baseman Edwin Encarnacion as the trigger for the celebration. He walked around the room smoking a cigar, double fisting bottles of Veuve Clicquot. The Blue Jays clubhouse staff kept the cheap stuff in another room and brought out the fine French bubbly, which retails for around $70 in Ontario, because they’d been told this would just be a quick toast. They’d been told things weren’t going to get crazy.
“This feels great, man. A long time waiting for this. I’m trying to enjoy this as much as I can because it’s going to be my first post-season. I’m really going to enjoy it,” Encarnacion said. “This game is not easy, man. It’s a very hard game and that’s why we’re enjoying this as much as we can. To be here, with 30 teams in the big leagues, to get into the post-season is hard. I’ve been waiting for 10 years and I never made it before, now I made it.”
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David Price settled into the familiar spot in the centre of the clubhouse where every game’s starting pitcher delivers their post-game interview. He only got about three minutes into it before a pack of Blue Jays—Marcus Stroman, Chris Collabelo, Aaron Sanchez and Marco Estrada among them—started creeping behind him, armed with cans of Bud Light. When the signal was given, they jumped up on the tables on either side of Price and unleashed a torrent of suds on the Blue Jays ace.
“I gave up a four-spot in the third and I gave up another run in the fourth. I think my nickname in the clubhouse is ‘bringer of runs.’ I’ll take it,” Price said. “Anytime you put yourself in the post-season like these guys have you’ve got to celebrate it, so that’s what we did.”
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Munenori Kawasaki bounced around the clubhouse, talking about staying up all night for a “bush party,” whatever that is. Stroman and Aaron Sanchez danced to Fetty Wap and Drake, demanding the music be turned up louder and louder every few minutes. And no one enjoyed themselves quite like Mark Lowe, who wore Elvis sunglasses and ambushed his teammates with “beer facials,” which are exactly what they sound like.
“Now that we’re in position to accomplish something, not only for the city but for the whole country, it’s a great, great feeling,” said Navarro. “It’s important to celebrate, you never know what can happen. You’ve got to enjoy the moment and then after that whatever happens, happens.”
In one corner Kevin Pillar and Ryan Goins hugged, pouring beer over each other’s heads. In another LaTroy Hawkins and Roberto Osuna shared a champagne cheers at their lockers, the oldest and youngest players in the major leagues both celebrating the post-season.
“Everything happened so fast, it’s unbelievable,” Osuna said. “I’m 20-years-old. I think we have a great team and I think we’re going to make history.”
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During the ninth inning, Alex Anthopoulos, Tony LaCava, Andrew Tinnish, and other members of the Blue Jays baseball operations staff made their way down to the clubhouse for the toast. They didn’t know they’d have to wait as long as they did for the players, as the Blue Jays surrendered three runs in the ninth and made the game interesting.
“I kept asking how many outs there are. They were telling me it was 10-8 all of a sudden,” Anthopoulos said. “I was like, geez, I hope we don’t’ go extra innings and we’re here for another two hours.”
Anthopoulos remembers sitting in a box at Camden Yards in Baltimore with Tinnish and LaCava last season, watching the Orioles celebrate the AL East championship. As the Orioles regaled beneath them, the trio talked about the changes they were hoping to make to their roster, and the type of players they wanted to bring in.
“I think the closeness in this group is amazing and it’s real. I think Gibby allows that environment to be in place,” Anthopoulos said. “It’s great, it’s great seeing these guys celebrate. I love these guys as human beings, these guys are awesome. To see them come together, to me it’s the epitome of a team. I don’t know what that means in terms of wins and losses, or where we’re headed, but this group is an epitome of a team as far as I’m concerned.
“I know everyone was trying to ask what are they going to do, how are they going to celebrate,” Anthopoulos continued. “I don’t think there should be a script. There’s not a manual for how you celebrate. You just let these guys do what they want to do. They deserve to be themselves. They earned it. They put in the time. Whatever they want to do we’re going to follow their lead because they drive the bus on this thing.”
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R.A. Dickey tried to stick to the sidelines, as he does. But even he was dragged into the champagne-soaked fray at one point, giving hearty hugs to Pillar, Goins and others.
“It’s super special. A lot of us came in year one and we were stinky, then we got a little bit better and now we made it. The three-year plan has worked. It’s fun, it’s really fun,” Dickey said. “This is the before party — imagine what the after-party will be.”
Meanwhile, Josh Thole sat at his locker with his kids, who had the widest eyes on their faces you’ve ever seen. Josh Donaldson tried giving an interview before he was showered with champagne by a jumping-up-and-down Ben Revere, who was shouting “MVP dog! MVP dog!” Navarro circulated the room, handing out cigars, which were carefully lit by Hawkins.
“I think you have to recognize that it’s been so long and it’s been a battle all year. We were just hovering around that .500 mark around the trade deadline, made some great acquisitions, and we just took off and have been playing great ball ever since. You tip your hat to those guys,” Gibbons said. “They all want to enjoy it. They won’t get carried away. We can hopefully save that one for a later day or the near future… Is that a Yogiism?”
—
For many Blue Jays it was their first chance to celebrate a postseason berth. But there were others, like Mark Buehrle and Josh Donaldson, who had seen it all before.
“This is a little overboard if you ask me,” Buehrle said. “We talked about it, I was asked if we were going to celebrate, and I said we can do a little bit, but I think we need to wait for once we try to clinch the AL East. But at the same time some of these guys haven’t clinched, this organization hasn’t been there in so long, so I guess take advantage of it and have fun with it.”
Josh Donaldson found a good bridge between celebrating the moment and keeping his eyes on the prize.
“It’s good for the city, it’s good for all the guys on this team. I’m happy to be a part of it,” Donalson said. “But we’re not finished yet. We still have other goals that we’re trying to meet. It’s nice to know that we’re for sure in the playoffs. But we still want to win the division as well.”
Donaldson, like everyone else was expecting a quick post-game toast. But then Encarnacion took over.
“Yeah, Eddy got a little excited. It’s good for guys like him and Bautista that they’re going to get a chance to experience the post-season. I shared a few moments with them. For us and this team, we’ve put a lot of work into where we’re at right now,” Donaldson said.
—
It was Encarnacion and Bautista who likely enjoyed the celebration the most, as the two of them have logged a cumulative 15 seasons with the Blue Jays trying to reach this moment.
“We had a little talk before the game that we weren’t going to do this,” Bautista said, before he was promptly doused from behind by a gaggle of teammates armed with beer and champagne.
Bautista has 12 major-league seasons; Encarnacion 11. They’ve both been all-stars; both put up gaudy power numbers and taken turns carrying the Blue Jays on their backs.
“The emotion, the excitement, everything took over. And we just started celebrating,” Bautista said. “I don’t know where they were hiding the champagne. Someone went and got it. And it got a little crazy. We expect to have another one of these when we win the division. That’s our goal and we’re going to get it done.”
At that moment, Encarnacion interrupted his good friend and countryman, wrapping his arm around Bautista’s shoulders and raising a bottle of champagne.
“Excuse me, guys, we’ve got to enjoy it,” Encarnacion said. “It’s been years and years waiting for this.” |
The Likud party's website (likud.org.il) was hacked on Wednesday by a hacker known as Cold Zero, who is a part of a group of hackers known as Team Hell. The group is known to be as a collection of Muslim hackers, believed to comprise of mostly Palestinian hackers.
The site's main page was replaced with a message, written in Hebrew, with both grammatical and spelling errors, saying "you kill Palestine children in Gaza; we will hack into your websites". Another message on the site said, 'You think Gilad Shalit will be returned? As soon as he is returned, we will kidnap four more like him". They were referring to the Israeli soldier who was kidnapped by Hamas in 2006.
Poetic Hacker Bank of Israel’s website cracked by Muslim hacker Niv Lillian Muslim hacker quotes Malcolm X on bank's English-language site, leaves messages against Israeli ‘occupation’, US Iraqi invasion Bank of Israel’s website cracked by Muslim hacker
Despite the media attention given to these hacks, in most cases the damage done is only superficial. The hackers would usually plant their own pages or in some cases change the main page of the site, a practice that is known as defacement.
A spokesperson for the Likud party has said that the problem has been dealt with and that people are welcomed to enter the site again. |
My Santa has been an absolute star- Erica from Orlando- I can't thank you enough!
My box arrived on Christmas Eve and I couldn't wait to open it. The first thing I opened I started squealing as soon as I saw the box - my boyfriend came running though as I was shouting "she got me NARS omg she got me NARS!!!" I pretty much just post on r/makeupaddiction so some Holy Grail Orgasm blusher was just the perfect thing. There is no Nars in my country and I've always wanted up try it. It's just the best colour I've ever tried.
I also got some amazing Beauty Blenders which I've only ever heard about as again,I don't think we get them in Scotland. I tried one out with my new blusher too and honestly my skin looks awesome. Haha :)
Appealing to my nerdy side was a super cute khaleesi figure and some adorable cat socks- I'm always needing socks and they are perfect for the cold winter
Thank you very much Santa, I really appreciate the time and effort that you spent to get me some really fantastic gifts. I'm very touched and so grateful for your generosity. I hope you had a wonderful christmas and all the best wishes for 2014
Ps you have lovely handwriting :) |
Share. Featuring Raiden and Cassie Cage. Featuring Raiden and Cassie Cage.
The Mortal Kombat X digital-first comic is in full swing, and we've got your exclusive first-look at the upcoming Chapter 4. Plus, we talked to series writer Shawn Kittelsen to learn more about what fans can expect.
Here's your first peek inside:
Mortal Kombat X Chapter 4 Comic Preview 5 IMAGES Fullscreen Image Artboard 3 Copy Artboard 3 ESC 01 OF 05 01 OF 05 Mortal Kombat X Chapter 4 Comic Preview Download Image Captions ESC
And here's the synopsis:
As the daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, Cassie Cage thinks she’s seen it all. But when she finds herself in an illegal MMA deathmatch, Cassie must decide if she’s ready for her first taste of Mortal Kombat!
The chapter will be available for download on Sunday via the DC Comics App, Readdcentertainment.com, comiXology.com, Google Play, Kindle Store, Nook Store, iBooks, and iVerse ComicsPLUS.
Kittelsen on the (Rather Crazy) Story So Far
"So far readers have met Takeda, the son of Kenshi, and learned how he came to be the apprentice of Hanzo Hasashi aka Scorpion, who is the Grandmaster of a new Shirai Ryu clan. Of course, *spoiler alert* one of Raiden's cursed daggers just killed the whole clan except Scorpion and Takeda, so we've set those two characters on an epic quest for answers: Can Hanzo seek justice for his clan without losing his humanity? Who's this demon hunting Earth's champions? Why is Raiden giving cursed daggers to people in the first place?"
What to Expect in Chapter 4
"Chapter 4 brings several new characters into the fold, with a spotlight on Cassie Cage, the daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade. Cassie represents so much of what MKX is about: She's a next generation fighter, influenced by fighters who came before her, but determined to forge her own path. Of course, being an inexperienced teenager when our story takes place, that determination is liable to get her in deep trouble.
"Readers also get to meet Kotal Kahn, who's like Khal Drogo by way of the Maya. We'll find out what's been happening in Outworld and start to figure out what makes the new Emperor tick. He looks like a mindless barbarian, and he can be, but he's nobody's fool. Unlike say, Shao Kahn, Kotal is more interested in being a leader than a conqueror."
A Hint for What's to Come
"These seemingly disparate mysteries that we're setting up are interconnected. Eventually you'll know why those Kamidogu daggers are so important, you'll find out who's instigating all this, and you'll see how that plot connects to a Civil War in Outworld. And as we move on, those threads will continue to coalesce, until we find ourselves in the most epic MK rumble you've ever seen outside of the games."
Are you enjoying the Mortal Kombat X comic? Are you reading it digitally or in print? Let us know in the comments.
Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Game of Thrones, Spider-Man, or Super Smash Bros. are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter and IGN. |
Bad Donkey Social - the story of an unlikely team motivated by the vision of navigating new social frontiers; an intrepid startup of pioneer thinkers guided by professional wisdom and driven by millennial smarts. It is a story being written, with a beginning that rests within a cold March evening.
A retired ad-exec attends a lecture on the future of social media held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Driving home, though stuck at a red light, a cognitive green light flares; the “aha!” moment arrives: “What if, instead of text, we could communicate with symbols, icons, art and even brand logos…like cavemen…not on cave walls, but on social walls; not with stone-carved etchings, but with digitally generated images? What would it mean to go back to the future?”
What would it mean to bring the evolution of human textual communication full cycle: from cave paintings on stone walls, to written text, to the printing press, to the digital age, to interactive content on social walls? Could we pick up where the cavemen left off, pulling a thin thread through 30,000 years of communication, changing the way we communicate? In other words, what would it mean to inaugurate a potent new cyber language? We’ve been considering these questions; the answers are close on the horizon, the tech ship speeding us there is ETC® aka Enriched Text Content®.
ETC Technology infuses custom interactive content inline with words. An innovative keyboard function makes value-added communication exchanges easy to create and share. The ramifications of this technology are vast in scope. For example, think about a digital conversation––one that, instead of just text, can be easily infused with interactive images, symbols, art, brand logos and more. What kind of creativity might this inspire, giving users unlimited freedom of expression, turning everyday interactions into fresh, fun, and enriching conversation? How could users warp language with digital memes, making each exchange an opportunity to be fun, creative, or represent oneself with a particular image, or even brand logo?
This brings us to another avenue for discussion: native brand evangelism––in other words, bottom-up advertising. What would the effects be of straying away from the traditional top-down approach? ETC expands viral sharing of personal market beliefs on the native level, increasing both brand reach and relevance. When a brand logo can be inserted into a conversation, it is no longer just a representation of that brand, but becomes a representation of the user as well. It decentralizes advertising, allowing users themselves to participate in the marketing process. ETC breaks down the walls of centralized advertising; can it also break down the walls of centralized communication?
What would it mean to inaugurate a new cyber language, one that has the ability to transcend linguistic and cultural barriers, effectively making valuable communication exchanges possible across international boundaries? Beyond words, ETC affords the ability to interact on a multi-dimensional basis––can it afford, perhaps, a universal language?
These are the questions that sparked a journey back to the future, and what continue to inspire the journey of a retired ad-exec and his millennial team. The journey is an exciting one, driven by a vision on a cold Wisconsin night. Now, that vision is becoming clear. Bad Donkey anticipates a change in the way we communicate: we anticipate a time when the art of language evolves back into language as art.
Learn more at baddonkeysocial.com |
Watch thousands of live sporting events that air on NBC, NBCSN and Golf Channel LIVE for FREE with NBC Sports Live Extra. Download now on your Windows Phone 8 device, and stream NHL Regular-Season and Stanley Cup Playoff games, PGA TOUR, U.S. Open (golf), Notre Dame Football, French Open (tennis), Premier League (soccer), Major League Soccer, Formula One, IndyCar and Triple Crown horse racing. The vast majority of live streaming content on NBC Sports Live Extra will only be available to authenticated cable, satellite and telco customers via TV Everywhere. Further instructions are provided in the app settings section. NBC Sports video is only accessible in the U.S. and certain U.S. territories. The application requires a 3G, 4G or WiFi data connection. Watching video over a 3G or 4G connection may affect your wireless data plan. The video quality will adapt based on your data connection. |
intergalactic corruption - or congress ... take your pick Twilight Imperium is a game that precipitates galactic politics, trade, and warfare in one epic board game. In Twilight Imperium, you are an acclaimed civilization, vying for galactic supremacy through any means necessary. Each civilization provides an entirely different experience with their own individual abilities and play styles. Will you play as the Emirates of Hacaan and preside over every trade agreement made in the galaxy, or will you be the Federation of Sol and rapidly take over worlds with hopes of dominating the galaxy? Whether it's clever trading, wise politics, or a swift backhand to your enemy, in Twilight Imperium, many roads lead to Rome (or Mecatol Rex), but no road is paved without its bumps. As the prominent leader of your civilization, you must make enemies and allies with the other respected leaders that sit around you. Alliances can be made and broken in an instant. War can be waged, and then rescinded in a matter of minutes. The galaxy isn't stable, so how will you be the beacon to guide your people through? Turn after turn, you must decide what is in your people's best interest. Choosing to go the Politics route may allow you to use your votes which you've accumulated in passing a bill on Mecatol Rex. But what will you do next turn when your defenses are broken and your homeworld is invaded? Or, will you stage an all-out fleet assault on a bordering colony? These are all just examples of the tough decisions you'll have to make in Twilight Imperium. But one thing is for sure, the race for control of Mecatol Rex has begun. There will only be one champion of the galaxy. The rest will lie in repose with the stardust. We will be using the Shattered Empire expansion strategy cards. Planets Tiles, and technology from all expansions. The following Optional rules will be in play:
· Game Ends at 9 VP
· Leaders
· Sabatoge Runs
· Homeworlds
· Artifacts (Pre-Deployed)
· Shock Troops
· Space Mines
· Wormhole Nexus
· Facilities
· Tactical Retreats
· Custodians of Mecatol Rex
· Pre-set Maps
· Racial Technologies
· Flag Ships
· Mechanized Units
· All edits to the rules found in Latest FAQ 4-player games will be considered optimal but the number used will vary between 3 and 8 depending on availability of games and players, and the desire to conclude the event in two rounds. |
by
An article by James McEnteer in CounterPunch depicts Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa as a “ranting, bullying, hectoring politician“ who “commandeered radio, television and print media to propagate his unfiltered views. Every Saturday he spoke on current events for hours, in a populist, shoot-from-the-hip style, from different locations around the country, often berating critics by name, labeling them ‘terrorists’ or ‘rock throwers’ and causing some to fear for their safely”.
McEnteer lives in Ecuador so must know that the way to avoid Correa’s show is simply to change the channel to any of the private networks that host critics who call Correa a “dictator” (as opposition presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso has done) and who mock Correa’s supporters as “sheep”.
This is should be an obvious point but isn’t because of the way the international media has demonized left-wing governments in the region. Some people outside Ecuador will readily believe – and try to get others to believe – that all you can watch on Ecuadorian TV for hours every Saturday is Correa’s show. Sad to see an outlet like Counterpunch get in on the act.
What about the charge of “rock thrower” that bothers McEnteer who also complained (vaguely) that ““Students who attended a protest rally were expelled from their highly-regarded public high school.”?
Could McEnteer have meant the protest captured in the video embedded in this article? At about the 32 second mark watch how a female police officer gets struck in the head with a large rock. She was seriously injured despite wearing a helmet. Without the helmet she’d have been dead. “Rock thrower” is perfectly appropriate term for the perpetrator. Harsh language is also appropriate for the people who overlook opposition violence like that.
McEnteer wrote that Correa “sued several newspapers for libel, earning rebukes from the Inter American Press Association and the Committee to Protect Journalists.”
Those libel suits stemmed from a coup attempt in 2010 in which Correa was a briefly held hostage by rebellious police and nearly killed. McEnteer’s article didn’t say a word about the coup attempt but labelled Correa “paranoid”. What an appalling lie of omission. A newspaper pundit accused Correa of perpetrating crimes against humanity during the coup attempt – an outlandish (and yes, libelous claim) that illustrates how insufferably arrogant, dishonest and unethical the private media have long been in Ecuador.
There are, as anywhere, reasonable criticisms to be made of media policy and regulations, but the position of NGOs like the Committee to Protect Journalists and has been to protect the illegitimate power wielded by press barons, not freedom of speech. Under Correa, unaccountable, unelected press barons haven’t been able to dominate. Groups like the CPJ, and the international media, find that unacceptable.
Correa’s relationship with indigenous groups is way more mixed than McEnteer describes. I’ve written about that in a piece entitled “Don’t be fooled by “leftists” who mimic the Right in Ecuador”
As for McEnteer’s expressed concern for “indigenous lands”, Lasso, if he wins, will certainly find ways, if he can, to sell out the indigenous villagers who have been battling Chevron for decades. It is no coincidence the villagers biggest victories came under Correa’s reformed judiciary. Lasso was part of the government that, in 1998, signed off on Chevron’s destruction of the Amazon. That particular threat to “indigenous lands” seems to get ignored by people who want to make a “progressive” “pro indigenous” sounding attack on Correa’s government.
Joe Emersberger is a Canadian with Ecuadorian roots who writes for Telesur English. |
Steven Universe, a cartoon on Cartoon Network, has been making a huge stir in the animation world. From the beautiful artwork, to the creative storytelling, it's no surprise why so many people love this show. But Steven Universe is also a part of a feminist revolution in terms of television, and here's why:
*Warning: Possible spoilers for all 3 seasons of Steven Universe*
The show fights gender stereotypes
One of the most subtle but important parts of Steven Universe as a show is that it's characters don't follow standard gender roles. Steven himself is a prime example of this. He's not afraid to cry, is definitely not the strongest, and is seen above performing in a dress.
The show is LGBT* Positive
One of the biggest moments of the season 1 finale is finding out that Garnet, one of the main characters, is a fusion of two smaller gems, Ruby and Sapphire(seen above). It's clear to see that they are madly in love with each other, and also identify as female. It's amazing to see one of the main characters in a popular cartoon be the embodiment of a healthy lesbian relationship.
The show highlights non-nuclear families
Steven's mother is not alive, because she gave up her physical form and gem to create Steven. This means that his father, Greg, and the other Crystal Gems raised Steven. This breaks the standard nuclear family idea of a mom and a dad, and show's a healthy family dynamic outside of that idea.
The show discusses healthy and unhealthy relationships
Fusion is a big part of Steven Universe. Basically, a gem can fuse with another gem to become a bigger and stronger gem. However, in order to fuse, the two gems need to be in sync with one another, or else things could go very badly. Garnet, a fusion of Ruby and Saphire, shows a very healthy and stable fusion. Malechite, which is a fusion of the two gems Jasper and Lapis Lazuli(shown above) is a very unhealthy and stable fusion, which is a big part of the second season.
The show is body positive
Rose Quartz, Steven's mother, is a super tall and plus size. Pearl, is a tall and lanky. Amethyst and Steven are short and stout. Garnet is tall and muscular. And that's just the main characters! So many unique body types are highlighted in this show, and it's easy to find one who looks like you do, which is rare in modern TV.
"Steven Universe" is important for so many reasons; by highlighting these feminist issues, among many others, viewers will gain a new and unique perspective on different people. It's great to see that television is making strides towards becoming more diverse! |
So there’s a fun new fatwa being covered in the international news, and it goes like this: Mars Is Haram.
I know what you’re thinking- come on, it’s just another one of those made-up fatwas, like last year’s Great Syrian Sex Jihad and the Erotic Fruit and Vegetable Fatwa of 2011. Those were great fun for the media, and in all their journalistic glee, they forgot to check their stories. There is something to be said for journalistic integrity, unless there’s a funny fatwa story. Then it’s a free for-all.
Of course, this isn’t the first time the media’s lost sight of due diligence when it comes to stories about Muslims. Remember the man who was too handsome for Saudi? Or the Egyptian Necrophilia Fatwa– where unnamed and unsourced clerics said it was okay for a grieving husband to have “Farewell Intercourse” with his spouse’s corpse for up six hours after the time of death. Grieving wives had conjugal rights to dead husbands as well, because Muslims do believe in equality of the sexes, see?
Remember the fatwa where if your spouse saw you naked, your marriage became invalid? Or how breastfeeding your male colleagues could make them your mahram? Those were fake too.
Muslims generally hear these stories, heave a long-suffering sigh, and go back to worrying about real news- like other Muslims being ethnically cleansed, burned alive, and frozen to death across the world.
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We tend to take these stories in stride with the rest of the c@#$ that mainstream media dumps on us already. Yes, yes, we heard already- we are the stupid, violent, intolerant, controlling men who obsess about sex, gender relations, and suspiciously shaped produce – and the women who love them.
The men I mean. Not the fruit. Because there’s a fatwa about that.
So what is a fatwa?
Let’s say I have a dry cough. I read the directions on the cough syrup, and confirm it was for dry cough. But then I read the fine print, where taking the syrup can be risky in conjunction with other medications. Now, I do happen to take some of those medications, but not often. I am looking for some clarity, so I call my doctor and he gives me his medical opinion– not an order- about my specific case. He tells me what he thinks I should do, and why he thinks so. Whether I think he’s right, or whether I want to go looking for a second opinion is up to me. He hasn’t given me an order, he has given me a fatwa.
A fatwa is a non-binding Islamic legal opinion, issued by a legal scholar or institution. What that means is:
Fatawa are legal opinions, not laws
The purpose of fatawa is to seek clarity. This usually happens in cases dealing with new, specific, or unclear issues.
The doctor told me what he was thinking based on his knowledge, training, and personal experience. He told me why he was thinking it, and I am free to follow it or not. That is a fatwa. Given the number of bad doctors in the world, it seems more understandable then, why there can be confusing Islamic fatawa. Muslims are humans, humans make mistakes, and humans can be expected to have differing opinions, medical or otherwise.
For every two sensible doctors out there is at least one nut-job who tells us to put herbs in our socks or wear a magnetized bracelet to cure the chronic bronchitis I am actually incubating. So yes, it is possible to get a strange non-legally binding opinion- or fatwa- from a real Muslim, the same way I can get an unhealthy recommendation from a real doctor.
What happened to Mars?
It all started with a Dutch Company called Mars One, whose mission is to “establish a permanent human settlement on Mars.” The company plans to start sending people up to the red planet by 2024, and they’ll be sending them one-way.
According to the original story in the Khaleej Times, the General Islamic of Islamic Affairs and Endowment of the UAE – locally known as the Awqaaf, takes issue with this type of mission.
“Such a one-way journey poses a real risk to life, and that can never be justified in Islam,” the committee said. “There is a possibility that an individual who travels to planet Mars may not be able to remain alive there, and is more vulnerable to death.”
Whoever opts for this “hazardous trip”, the committee said, is likely to perish for no “righteous reason”, and thus will be liable to a “punishment similar to that of suicide in the Hereafter”.
The committee, presided by Professor Dr Farooq Hamada, said: “Protecting life against all possible dangers and keeping it safe is an issue agreed upon by all religions and is clearly stipulated in verse [4:29] of the Holy Quran: Do not kill yourselves or one another. Indeed, Allah is to you ever Merciful.”
Professor Dr. Who?
Dr. Farouk Al Hamada is real person. In fact, he’s even really in the UAE. He is a published author, and according to his personal website, he is currently “an adviser at the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi, Emirates.” His website was last updated on Jan 8, 2012.
He is not, however, the Grand Mufti of the UAE, let alone all of Saudi Arabia as some of the headlines claim. A quick Google search shows that there doesn’t seem to be a Grand Mufti of the UAE, but there is a Grand Mufti of Dubai. His name is Dr. Ahmad Al Haddad; in July of 2013, he made the news with some very sage advice, “Be careful about fatwas on twitter.”
What Dr Farooq Hamada said was:
Taking an unnecessary risk with your life is not allowed in Islam
A one-way ticket to Mars means you’ll probably die
If you do go and die, you may be held accountable for killing yourself for no good reason
What Dr. Farooq Hamada didn’t say was:
Travel to Mars (versus Jupiter) is not allowed
Flying to Mars (versus walking) is not forbidden
Colonizing Mars (versus visiting) is not allowed
Housing on Mars (versus education?) is haram
Living on Mars is sinful
Even wanting to live on Mars is sinful
Muslims traveling to Mars will suffer punishment
There are other opinions about this issue- and they will most likely hinge on whether travel to Mars is a righteous reason or reasonably safe. They have nothing to do with flying, colonizing, the high rate of Martian housing, or nurturing secret dreams of space travel. At this point in time, a one-way trip to Mars is a bit like jumping into an alligator pit. If I’m doing it to save a kid who fell in, I can risk my life because that’s a righteous reason. But if I’m doing it to take a selfie, that’s suicide. And I’m an idiot.
A third alligator option exists, where I’m going in to take a selfie, but the alligator is either tame, toothless, or safely restrained. In that case, I don’t need to have a righteous reason, because I’m not risking my life. That would be like going to Mars if/when traveling by space is like taking a cruise, but one where we’d drink recycled urine.
Is that allowed? Can we get a fatwa on that?
The bottom line is that life is precious, so if I’m deliberately putting mine at risk, I’d better have a good reason for it. If not, my death may be judged as suicide versus sacrifice. If there is more to this fatwa, it’s not in the original story, and the Martian fatwa in question does not appear in the archives of General Islamic of Islamic Affairs and Endowment of the UAE.
Last year alone, the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments issued over 337,000 fatawa, and you’d be hard-pressed to find another one in the international news. They are maintained in a searchable archive here, and contain such sensational questions as:
Is it halal (permissable) to hunt pigeons within city limits? (Hunting in cities or sanctuaries is not allowed without authorization from the competent authorities out of respect of public order.)
Are the zakat values of stocks based on their original purchase price, or the current market value, and how much is a Nisab? (Commercial shares and stocks are determined according to their current market value. The Nisab is 85 grams of gold. And Allah knows best.)
Why does this keep happening?
Journalists: they dig deep to find buried stories, uncover injustice, and show the world what’s really happening so we can all get up and do something about it. And in their spare time, they play the telephone game.
Without fact-checking information beforehand, major media outlets share stories that humorously “confirm” what they think they know about Muslims, but if a news story features something positive about a Muslim, it is ignored.
This is called information bias- and it happens when people choose to promote or recognize what supports their existing point of view. That’s why a story with a Saudi cleric, two goats, and not a leg of truth between them can make international news, but the same story- without any Muslim affiliations, would be an insult to journalism.
This isn’t limited to news, there are the books too. But the stories aren’t necessarily fake- sometimes they are poignant- or not so poignant– coming of age stories where people wake up, open their eyes, and stop being Muslim long enough to secure a lucrative book deal. This model has been so successful that even non-Muslims try to get in on the act, and some famous frauds- recently Ergun Caner, Walid Shoebat, and Kamal Saleem– gave it a good run before finally being exposed. In doing so, they did their part in lending legitimacy (however phony) to the stereotypes. Because, Islam is so bad even Muslims are leaving it, see?
The Bigger Picture
Fake Ex-Muslims, Former Muslim Tell-Alls, and Freaky Fatwa news all fit into a bigger picture-they are all sneaky manifestations of the straw man argument.
The Straw Man, or Aunt Sally as she’s know in the UK, is a logical fallacy in which someone defeats an argument– not by defeating the argument itself–but by knocking over a dummy argument in its place. Imagine that anti-Muslim bigots are set to box with Mike Tyson, and when the bell chimes, they come out swinging at a mannequin that sort of looks like him. The mannequin goes down, the crowd cheers, and Islamophobia is crowned the heavyweight champion of the Internet.
Fake Ex-Muslims face off against a dummy version of Islam, using their “real life” experiences to prove that Muslims really are terrorists- and then knock that dummy over using a new-found love of Christ and hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds.
Former Muslims prop up a paper-back version of Islam as a harbinger of chaos, cultural darkness, and burkas- and use the feather of their touching nostalgia to blow it gently over. Through the rose-tinted lenses of their simplistic narrative, there appears to have been nothing wrong with their country/family/life when it was secular, and there was nothing right when it was “Islamic.”
Freaky Fatwa news is part of the same game. Bigoted–or just irresponsible–media props up dummy versions of Islam- incorrect, backwards, over-the-top, and sexually immature stories of what Muslims do and believe, and with every like, share, and eye-roll, we readers do our part to knock them over.
Now what?
The success of the straw man argument rests entirely on the crowd’s inability to tell the difference between a mannequin and Mike Tyson, so the more people understand real Islam, the less likely they are to swing at the straw men propped up in Islam’s place.
If you’re a Muslim and you find fake information about Islam getting shared in your social media circles, speak up. Be brave. Be funny. Stand up in the crowd and politely point out that the guy in the blue corner is actually a scarecrow and the real champion is the Qur’an and Sunnah.
Advice for Journalists
If you’re a journalist, and you’re not sure whether a funny story you read about a Muslim is news-worthy, copy the text of the story and remove all references to Islam, Muslims, and Saudi Arabia- and then read it again. Now, ask yourself a few questions:
Can the story be verified? Is the content genuinely interesting, significant, or relevant to your readership? Was a real person willing to put their name on this? Is there an original, reliable source or byline? Could the text of this email be mistaken for a chain letter? If you published this religion-free version, would your editor call you an idiot with no news sense?
If you are looking at a verified news story that is genuinely significant or relevant to your readers, written by someone who wasn’t embarrassed to put their name to it, you’re off to a good start.
If, however the content you’re looking at could pass as a chain letter, or suddenly isn’t funny if Muslims aren’t involved, then please delete it and do something better with your life.
Thank you. |
The University of South Alabama is reminding staff to respect First Amendment rights after a student was threatened with disciplinary action for refusing to remove a Trump sign from his dorm window.
According to an email exchange obtained by Campus Reform, Community Director Dylan Lloyd had requested that student William David Meredith remove a Trump sign from his dorm-room window, stating that it “is against university policy for political signs to be posted in windows, including residence halls.”
“No reasonable person would...presume that the university is endorsing that message.”
[RELATED: Student told to remove American flag from dorm window]
“I am asking that you remove the sign within 24 hours. I have included your RA, Tiffany, on this email so that she can check to ensure it is gone within 24 hours,” Lloyd continued, to which Meredith replied by simply stating: “1st Amendment.”
Although Lloyd acknowledged that Meredith does “have the 1st Amendment right,” he also argued that Meredith lives “in a federal building that cannot support political candidates,” and “therefore the sign must be removed.”
Meredith responded by inquiring as to whether “the name of the president and vice president cannot be posted on federal buildings,” and refused to remove the sign from his window.
“The sign in your window is a political sign that shows support for a political candidate,” Lloyd rebutted, threatening that “if it is not removed within 24 hours then this will turn into a judicial case and [Meredith] will have to meet with [him] to discuss breaking policy.”
[RELATED: Former college admin caught stealing Trump yard signs]
Meredith again refused to remove the sign, countering Lloyd’s reference to the school’s 501(c)(3) status by noting that he is “not endorsing a political candidate,” but rather the President of the United States.
“The policy you’ve quoted pertains to political candidates, which President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are not,” Meredith argued. “Nothing on it says anything about campaigning and his campaign is over, which makes it memorabilia not campaign material.”
At one point during the exchange, Lloyd even conceded that Meredith was not actively endorsing a candidate, but went on to argue that “that is how it can be perceived because the sign is in the window of a university owned building.”
[RELATED: YAL group’s signs disappear before Clinton speech]
“While I understand that, it still shows that the university supports a particular candidate,” Lloyd remarked in response to Meredith’s observation that the campaign season is over. “While we are not actively in campaign season, Trump will run for reelection in four years. The sign makes it look like the university supports Trump as a candidate.”
Meredith yet again refused, and was consequently summoned to attend a “Housing Judicial Conference” with the school’s Assistant Director of Housing Amanda Freyaldenhoven set for April 12.
[RELATED: KU students demand intervention against ‘disturbing’ pro-Trump chalkings]
“If you are found responsible for violating policies, administrative sanctions will most likely be determined at the conclusion of the hearing, even if you do not attend,” Freyaldenhoven’s email stated, asserting that Meredith “will be required to comply with all sanctions administrated [sic] as a result of the findings.”
Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Travis Barham told Campus Reform that the “University of South Alabama’s position has several flaws,” pointing out that courts have consistently rejected the notion that a public university has an obligation to censor materials such as Meredith’s Trump sign.
“The Supreme Court has long recognized that a university does not endorse everything on campus that it fails to censor,” he explained, noting that “in 1990, the Supreme Court ruled that even elementary school students could understand this, saying ‘[t]he proposition that schools do not endorse everything they fail to censor is not complicated’ [Bd. of Educ. of Westside Cmty. Sch. v. Mergens, 496 U.S. 226, 250 (1990)].”
Barham went on to state that the Supreme Court later “ruled that student can still understand this concept ‘by the time they get to law school [Rumsfeld v. Forum for Acad. & Inst. Rights, Inc., 547 U.S. 47, 65 (2006)],” concluding, “No reasonable person would see a sign in a dorm room window and presume that the university is endorsing that message.”
[RELATED: UNH profs call for expulsion of Trump supporters]
Campus Reform reached out to Lloyd for comment on the matter, but was told that he is “not allowed to speak on this subject as [he is] not a representative of the university.”
The school’s Executive Director of Marketing and Communications Michael Haskins informed Campus Reform that he “followed up on this issue” and was “told that there was a misunderstanding on the part of a student member of the housing staff regarding their interpretation of the university campaign signage policy.”
Haskins confirmed that Meredith will be allowed to keep the sign in place, saying, “The staff have been instructed as to the proper interpretation and application of university policy, and the student who communicated with you has been informed of the misunderstanding and that the sign is permissible.”
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @AGockowski |
I work from home, and with 4 young kids, that is both a blessing and a curse (mostly blessing).
The hard part of having meetings at home, as well as recording music, videos, voice overs, is that there is a steady stream of interruptions and lots of noise from the other rooms of the house (even though I’m in a reasonably separate part of the house).
For quite a while, I’ve been wanting an “On Air” light, and now that I’ve built a vacuum former, I decided to go for it.
I wanted it to be cheap, and remote controlled so that I could manage it at my desk, work bench or while recording an instrument.
Here’s the how-to video for the build, I’d love to hear feedback and ideas for improvement in the comments below! |
The presence of this review is not to be construed as an endorsement of recent comments attributed to Eugene Peterson regarding matters related to gender and sexuality. I profoundly disagree with those views as reported in the press.
A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society
Eugene Peterson
Intervarsity Press; 20th Anniversary edition (Sept. 20 2006)
ISBN-10: 0830822577
ISBN-13: 978-0830822577
Now retired, Eugene Peterson is probably best known for his award-winning paraphrase of the Bible, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, published in segments from 1993-2002 (NavPress). He was the founding pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church (Bel Air, Maryland) where he served 29 years, followed by an extended tenure as James M. Houston Professor of Spiritual Theology at Regent College (Vancouver, BC, Canada). Peterson is a prolific author and poet, having written over thirty books on pastoral ministry and Christian living.
I was first introduced to Peterson’s work through his book Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity (Eerdmans, 1989). Twenty years later, it still ranks as one of my favorites on pastoral ministry.
Shortly after reading, Working the Angles, I picked up Peterson’s, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society – a series of meditations on the Songs of Ascent – Psalms 120-134. First published in 1980, and revised and expanded in a 20th anniversary edition (IVP Books, 2000), has sold more than 200,000 copies. (I still have my original 1980 edition – well-read and marked.)
At its heart, pastoral work involves making disciples – leading individuals to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, equipping them to live obedient, God-honoring lives. As the title implies – A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society – discipleship is a challenging lifelong project for the one doing the discipling and the one being discipled.
Discipleship, in Peterson’s view, is a major challenge because our culture assumes:
… anything worthwhile can be acquired at once. We assume that if something can be done at all, it can be done quickly and efficiently. Our attention spans have been conditioned by thirty-second commercials. Our sense of reality has been flattened by thirty-page abridgments. It is not difficult in such a world to get a person interested in the message of the gospel; it is terrifically difficult to sustain the interest. Millions of people in our culture make decisions for Christ, but there is a dreadful attrition rate. Many claim to have been born again, but the evidence for mature Christian discipleship is slim. In our kind of culture anything, even news about God, can be sold if it is packaged freshly; but when it loses its novelty, it goes on the garbage heap. There is a great market for religious experience in our world. In the pastoral work of training people in discipleship and accompanying them in pilgrimage, I have found, tucked away in the Hebrew Psalter, an old dog-eared songbook. I have used it to provide continuity in guiding others in the Christian way, and directing people of faith in the conscious and continuous effort which develops into maturity in Christ. The old songbook is called … the Songs of Ascent … the psalms numbered 120 through 134 in the book of Psalms.
While there are several views as to why these psalms are named Songs of Ascent, Peterson embraces one of the more widely held views – these 15 psalms were sung by Hebrew pilgrims as they made their way up to Jerusalem for the festivals that reminded Israel of God’s intervention in their lives – freeing them from slavery in Egypt and forming them into a nation.
This is not an expositional commentary on psalms 120-134, but rather a reflective reading of each psalm, teasing out major themes related to living as faithful disciples – “worship, service, joy, work, happiness, humility, community and blessing” (publisher’s blurb). I found the book both encouraging and challenging – so much so that I have preached a series of Sunday sermons on these psalms in two of the congregations I have served as pastor. Some of these messages can be accessed at the website of Fellowship Baptist Church in Cobourg, Ontario where I currently serve as Interim Lead Pastor.
If you want to grasp the long-term nature of discipleship, Peterson’s book is a good choice. Don’t look for quick prescriptions or tidy formulas for Christian living, that’s not Peterson’s style. He offers thought-provoking challenges to persevere as a disciple of Christ as a pilgrim in an alien culture. He encourages a long obedience in the same direction. |
As expected (and as tipped here on Thursday immediately after news broke that an IMF study conducted prior to the imposition of capital controls in Greece suggests debt relief for Athens is necessary if anyone hopes to create some semblance of sustainability), Greek PM Alexis Tsipras is now leaning hard on voters to carefully consider the fact that one-third of the troika has effectively validated the Greek government’s position on creditor writedowns.
“This position was never proposed to the Greek government over the five months of negotiations, wasn’t included in final offer tabled by creditor institutions, on which people are going to vote on July 5,” Tsipras said in a televised address, making it clear to Greeks that the proposals they are voting on effectively do not reflect the views of the institution that is perhaps the country’s most influential creditor.
“This IMF report justifies our choice not to accept an agreement which ignores the fundamental issue of debt,” he added, driving the point home.
Clearly, this puts Europe, and especially Germany, in a rather unpalatable position. Many EU officials have for months insisted that IMF participation is critical if the Greeks hope to secure a third bailout. The IMF meanwhile, has stuck to a position first adopted years ago (something we’ve noted in these pages multiple times of late); namely that official sector writedowns will ultimately be necessary if Brussels hopes to finally put the Greek tragicomedy to bed. This means Brussels (and Berlin) will now be forced to choose between IMF involvement (which the EU says is a precondition for a deal) and haircuts (which the EU says aren’t possible).
Here’s Barclays - a major investment bank - with its own confirmation that the IMF may have assured a No vote over the weekend.
The document basically argues that OSI is a necessary condition in order to secure sovereign solvency with a high probability. This means that before the IMF re-engages in any lending activities with Greece, OSI will be required in the form of NPV debt relief. The timing of the publication of this report it is very important. Debt relief is something that the Greek authorities have repeatedly demanded; therefore, in a way this report can be interpreted as the IMF backing the Greek government's demands. By extension, it could also be interpreted as supportive of a 'No' vote, which is what the Greek government is campaigning for. We agree broadly with the analytical content of the report and the need for further OSI. This is in fact hardly new news. Europe has recognized since November 2012 that Greece needs further OSI to make debt dynamics sustainable with high probability. The IMF advice of an NPV haircut via a debt maturity extension (to 40 years) is in line with expectations. However, the critical point is that the IMF now requires debt-relief before it engages in a new programme, which confronts Europeans with a tough political decision. Many in Europe, including Germany, considered OSI as a future carrot in exchange for reforms today following good programme execution. Debt relief was conceived as a part of a third programme to be negotiated possibly with a new Greek government. At the same time, Germany has been adamant about the importance of IMF involvement in any financial support programme for Greece. Thus, Germany will now be confronted with a tough choice: to deliver on the IMF's demand, ie to engage in OSI negotiations in the form of NPV debt relief, or give up on IMF involvement. We believe that there is mounting support across other member states for the OSI discussion, therefore, we believe that Germany may not be able to resist such discussions any longer.
"I am guessing that this is a negotiating tactic ahead of the negotiations for a new programme for Greece. The IMF very well knows that a debt write-off is out of the question," one unnamed EU official told MNI.
“The numbers are quite high, not in line with our assessment and our baseline scenario. We are examining different scenarios for the day after the referendum and provided the vote is Yes, we are ready to come up with solutions. But it is not going to be easy to agree. Certainly this report does not make it any easier," another source said.
It's easy to see why Europe is reluctant to accept the IMF's assessment. As discussed at length on Thursday, were Europe to go down the OMI road, Brussels would be opening Pandora's Box. Here's why:
By now it should be clear to all that the only reason why Germany has been so steadfast in its negotiating stance with Greece is because it knows very well that if it concedes to a public debt reduction (as opposed to haircut on debt held mostly by private entities such as hedge funds which already happened in 2012), then the rest of the PIIGS will come pouring in: first Italy, then Spain, then Portugal, then Ireland. The problem is that while it took Europe some 5 years to transfer a little over €200 billion in Greek private debt exposure to the public balance sheet (by way of the ECB, EFSF, ESM and countless other ad hoc acronyms) at a cost of countless summits and endless negotiations, which may or may not result with the first casualty of the common currency which may prove to be reversible as soon as next week, nobody in Europe harbors any doubt that the same exercise can be repeated with Italy, or Spain, or even Portugal. They are just too big (and their nonperforming loans are in the hundreds of billions).
As for the IMF's position, Barclays notes that a permanent default by Greece would not be a trivial event, thus providing further incentive for the Fund to push for EU writedowns:
With the IMF’s total resources being roughly USD760bn – USD420bn of which are considered the ‘forward commitment capacity’ – the IMF has the firepower to ‘survive’ a permanent default of Greece while maintaining sufficient resources to be able to lend out fresh credit for countries in need. However, it would make a significant dent in the ongoing IMF finances – eg, the interest paid on IMF loans is used to cover IMF’s operational cost – and would very likely create intense debate about Europe’s relationship with the IMF and the balance of power between DM and EM members. One question could also be whether or not the euro area IMF members should not in some way be liable for the outstanding Greek debts. In turn, this would also intensify a debate about the sharing of liabilities/solidarity within the euro area and the EU.
So, thanks to a well-timed IMF report, Tsipras can now frame Sunday's plebiscite as a simple Yes/No vote on Greece's debt pile, which makes it far easier to vote "no."
"Do you think Europe should forgive your debt, check box 'Yes' or 'No'."
That should be an easy choice, although it depends upon the Greek public understanding the significance of the IMF's position which, as indicated above, Tsipras is doing his very best to facilitate. The bottom line: Sunday's vote is about whether Greece will agree to remain a debt colony of Germany, pardon Europe, even as the IMF (and, paradoxically, Germany) agrees with Athens that the country's debt is unsustainable.
"No" means a lot of pain now and recovery later.
"Yes" means less pain now but no hope of recovery ever.
* * *
Choose wisely... |
Andy Grove. Anne Knudsen/Getty Images Andy Grove, Intel's former CEO, died on Monday at the age of 79. The exact cause of his death was not disclosed, but he's been battling Parkinson's disease for years.
Intel announced his death in a statement.
Grove was Intel's first hire in 1968 and played an instrumental role in taking the company from a scrappy startup to the most powerful chipmaker in the world.
His leadership at Intel spans nearly 40 years, being named the company's president in 1979 and CEO in 1987. He remained as the company's chairman until 2004.
It was under Grove's watch that Intel formed the famous "Wintel" duopoly with Microsoft that dominated the PC market. Intel increased annual revenues from $1.9 billion to more than $26 billion under Grove's management.
But it's Grove's relentless work ethic and bruising management style that have earned the respect of many followers. Steve Jobs used to call Grove his mentor, while Marc Andreessen often says that Grove's the man who built Silicon Valley.
His book, "Only the Paranoid Survive," is still considered a must-read management book by many business leaders.
"We are deeply saddened by the passing of former Intel Chairman and CEO Andy Grove. Andy made the impossible happen, time and again, and inspired generations of technologists, entrepreneurs, and business leaders," Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said in a statement.
Here's what people are saying about Grove's death: |
Dale Bolinger, 57, arranged to meet 14-year-old he groomed online and planned to murder her with an axe, court hears
A nurse with a cannibalism fetish bought an axe he planned to use on a girl he believed to be 14 years old before eating her, a court has heard.
Dale Bolinger, 57, used the Dark Fetish Network (DFN) to discuss beheading and eating women and girls for sexual gratification, a trial at Canterbury crown court was told.
On 17 September 2012, the day before he was due to meet his alleged victim, Bolinger bought an axe from Broadstairs, Kent, and told the girl that all she needed to do was get on a train, the court heard.
The chats were discovered by the New York field office of the FBI, which was investigating internet chats about the rape, killing and cannibalism of women, prosecutor Martin Yale told the jury. They discovered the email address meatmarketman@rocketmail.com was being accessed from a computer in Kent and the information was passed to local police.
The account was traced to Bolinger, who is charged with one count of attempting to meet a child under the age of 16 following sexual grooming, and he was arrested, the court heard.
Yale told the jury that Bolinger, formerly from Canterbury, Kent, had thought he was chatting to a 14-year-old Mexican girl called Eva, who was living in Germany. During their chats he proposed to meet her at Ashford International station and discussed the sexual acts he would perform before and after her death, he said. Yale continued: "He said he would murder her with an axe or a cleaver and then he would eat her."
The court was told that Bolinger also claimed to have eaten a 39-year-old woman and a five-year-old child during chats with other users. The prosecutor said mobile phone records showed that Bolinger was in the Ashford area between 11.56am and 12.08pm on September 18 2012, the day he had arranged to meet Eva. But Eva, whose identity has never been established, did not arrive and Bolinger returned home.
Yale said: "It's clear from the chat logs that Mr Bolinger believed he was speaking to, and he was going to meet, a 14-year-old girl."
He told the court that chat logs obtained by Kent police contained conversations making graphic references to sexual abuse, murder and cannibalism of women and children of a wide range of ages, including babies. He told the jury that the defendant had pleaded guilty in February to administering poison or a noxious substance to a woman after he put a cloth soaked in dry cleaning fluid over a female friend's mouth in July 2010.
Yale added that Bolinger had also sent pictures he had taken of himself with the axe to another user called "Hannah Hotwife" and told her he was going to behead someone, it is alleged.
Police seized Bolinger's phones and searched his home. They found computer discs containing indecent images of children. Bolinger made several statements to the police admitting that the images were his but said that he had only gone to Ashford station because he feared for the girl's personal safety following the conversations they had, the court heard. He claimed that if she had arrived he would have gone straight to the police.
The trial continues. |
Logically, given the rapid deterioration in the law and order situation in Kashmir Valley, where it is the armed forces that are now on the backfoot, the Centre should be pulling the plug on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) coalition with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). A spell of Governor’s rule is vital to restore a degree of normality. This will enable the state and the men in uniform to act decisively to put down the militancy and restore confidence in the police forces. Without this, there is little chance that the Centre can resume a dialogue with political forces that everyone and his aunt is talking about.
The question is what is holding the Centre back?
One could be a loss of face for the BJP. Having entered into government in Jammu & Kashmir for the first time since Independence, the BJP may be reluctant to admit that the coalition with PDP has failed. But surely the national interest has to come before that of the BJP’s political interests.
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The second reason for ambivalence may be the possibility that even the PDP may now turn overtly pro-separatist. There is some validity to this fear. The PDP has, in the past, been more pro-separatist than the National Conference, and by binding it to the coalition, the BJP has defanged it at least in terms of political rhetoric. Abandoning the government means the PDP will start using separatist language again.
But again, this fear can be surmounted. The point is the PDP has been unable to restore law and order despite its electoral mandate in 2014 in the Valley. So it can hardly claim to represent anyone beyond its party cadres. And right now, it is unable to get the separatists and stone-pelters to back off and allow law and order to be restored. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has often enough talked about involving Pakistan for a permanent solution, but this is nonsense, for Pakistan wants no solution apart from prising Kashmir from India in the name of Islamism. Mufti’s currency is limited, since she has nothing to offer the BJP or the nation in terms of a solution.
The third fear that is preventing the BJP from imposing Governor’s rule may be the possibility of opposition from the national parties, which will be quick to blame the BJP for making a bad situation worse. This is quite likely, since they will obviously make hay from the BJP’s discomfiture. But Farooq Abdullah has, after winning from Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency on a thin vote, called for the imposition of Governor’s rule. So the national parties don’t necessarily have the ability to spike the Centre’s guns.
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Under article 92 of the Jammu & Kashmir Constitution of 1957, which deals with the breakdown of the constitutional machinery in the state (which is now clear to everyone), the legislative assembly can be set aside (or suspended) “if, at any time, the Governor is satisfied that a situation has arisen in which the government of the state cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution, the Governor may by proclamation (a) assume to himself all or any of the functions of the government of the state and all or any of the powers vested in or exercisable by anybody or authority in the state; (b) make such incidental and consequential provisions as appear to the Governor to be necessary or desirable for giving effect to the objects of the proclamation, including provisions for suspending in whole or in part the operation of any provision of this Constitution relating to anybody or authority in the state…”.
It is time to invoke Article 92 to restore constitutional authority since it is obvious that there is a danger of Article 3 of the Constitution going for a toss. Article 3 of the J&K Constitution emphasises that “the state of Jammu & Kashmir is and shall be an integral part of India.” But it is precisely this article that the separatists are trying to junk, and escalating the violence to achieve this objective.
Moreover, in the Directive Principles of State Policy, item 25 specifies that it is the “duty of the state to foster equality and secularism; (and) the state shall combat ignorance, superstition, fanaticism, communalism, racialism, cultural backwardness and shall seek to foster brotherhood and equality among all communities under the aegis of a Secular State.” (emphasis mine)
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Now, is it anybody’s case that the state is anywhere close to being secular?
The case for Governor’s rule has never been stronger. Prime Minister Narendra Modi should bite the bullet and suspend the state assembly and let the Governor run it till the situation improves. |
The tradition of singing raucous lyrics in pubs has a long history. There are a few drinking songs from the Middle Ages, including those found in the Carmina Burana, a collections of poems and texts created in Germany during the first half of the thirteenth-century.
The Carmina Burana includes songs dating back to the 11th century, and were collected from various parts of Europe. Many were created by university students, and includes works of mockery, love songs and at least forty songs about gambling and drinking. As one scholar points out this “collection is full of that excitement, that daring, that laughing-at-convention which characterizes independently minded youth.”
Here is one of the medieval drinking songs:
In the boozer
you’re a loser
if the dice you’re shaking.
You’ll get hurt
and lose your shirt,
sit there cold and quaking.
Lady Luck, your gifts are bad,
you trick us, then you make us mad,
make us gamble, make us fight,
and sit out in the cold all night.
‘Brrr!’ The naked loser moans,
when he’s cold and left alone,
shakes and shivers as he groans:
‘I wish I could be
asleep under a tree
With a hot sunshine warming my bones.’
But now let’s roll the dice again
and win some drinking money!
Who thinks about November’s rain
while it’s still warm and sunny?
You can learn more about medieval drinking songs from this article by Judith Kellogg:
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Monadic Generators in OCaml¶
Generators are one of those features that have been heavily popularized by today’s fashionable languages such as Python and ES6. So it’s not the first time I’ve encountered programmers who are curious about OCaml bring up with questions along the lines of:
Why doesn’t OCaml support generators?
Are there alternatives to generators in OCaml?
How can I emulate generators in OCaml?
In this post, I’d like to briefly address these questions.
Where are the Generators?¶ I can only speculate but it seems self evident, OCaml doesn’t have native support for generators because it doesn’t really need it. There’s quite a few satisfactory ways of emulating them to the point where the strong justification for adding a feature to the language just isn’t there. With that being said, it’s well known that people are working on algebraic effects for OCaml and it’s my understanding that it will be possible to implement generators in direct style which would be indistinguishable from direct support in the compiler. So this feature is effectively a strict superset of generators and should settle this issue once and for all.
Alternatives to Generators¶ Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I find myself rarely needing generators. I usually find the bog standard lazy lists to be more convenient to work with. Where my implementation of choice the one is the one that comes with containers. Here’s a simple lazy list of primes: (* save to file.ml and run as $ utop file.ml *) # require "containers.iter" ;; module Llist = CCLazy_list let primes = let open Llist in let rec next_prime n = try for i = 2 to int_of_float ( sqrt ( float_of_int n )) do if n mod i = 0 then raise_notrace Exit done ; Cons ( n , lazy ( next_prime ( n + 1 ))) with Exit -> next_prime ( n + 1 ) in Lazy . from_val @@ Cons ( 2 , lazy ( next_prime 3 )) let () = let n = 100_000 in let primes = Llist . length ( Llist . take n primes ) in Printf . printf "Found: %d primes
" primes OK, maybe this isn’t the prettiest code, but I’ve picked a bad example. Lazy lists usually work much better. Promise. The other candidate I usually reach for is the gen type: type ' a gen = unit -> ' a option Which comes with its own useful gen library. The main advantage of this type is that it’s structural. We can consume and produce gens without ever depending on a library. ocaml-re uses this to great effect here for example. The disadvantage of this type is that implementing generators usually involves ugly mutable code. Oh well, if I had a problem with this kind of mutation, I’d be using Haskell. let primes () = let prime = ref 1 in let rec loop () = incr prime ; try for i = 2 to int_of_float ( sqrt ( float_of_int ! prime )) do if ! prime mod i = 0 then raise_notrace Exit done ; Some ! prime with Exit -> loop () in loop let () = let prime_gen = primes () in for _ = 0 to 100_00 do assert ( prime_gen () != None ); done ; print_endline "There's more than 100_000 primes" Note the type of this function: val primes : unit -> ( unit -> int option ) We must not forget to create a new generator whenever we want to iterate over our generator from scratch.
Really Faking Generators¶ While the approaches above were similar, they’re still not capturing the essence of generators - the ability to yield control back to the caller along with a value anywhere inside a computation. How do we approach this problem? Like every good functional programmer: with Monads! Here’s the signature we’re aiming to implement: module type Gen_intf = sig type ( ' result , ' yield ) t val return : ' a -> ( ' a , _) t val yield : ' s -> ( unit , ' s ) t val (>>=) : ( ' a , ' s ) t -> ( ' a -> ( ' b , ' s ) t ) -> ( ' b , ' s ) t val iter : ( ' result , ' a ) t -> f :( ' a -> unit ) -> ' result end With this signature, we’re modeling generators as computations that can produce a final 'result` value and possibly many intermediate 'yield' values along the way. These computations can of course be sequenced (the essence of monads), and finally executed to produce the final a result along with running a callback for every yielded value. Representing this behavior with a type we arrive at a generator: type ( ' result , ' yield ) t = | Done of ' result | Yield of ( unit -> ' yield * ( ' result , ' yield ) t ) A constructor for terminating the generator and continuing it along with a yielded value. Note that we need to guard every yield behind a thunk. Otherwise we will find it quite hard to pause our generator mid way. Since this a monad instance, let return a = Done a let rec (>>=) x f = match x with | Done r -> f r | Yield t -> Yield ( fun () -> let ( y , next ) = t () in ( y , next >>= f ) ) where return trivial and (>>=) is simply sequencing a generator along with a computation that produces a generator from the result. If you really want to get the hang of it, try implementing join from scratch: val join : (( ' a , ' s ) t , ' s ) -> ( ' a , ' s ) t Now, finally we need yield to generate values: let yield r = Yield ( fun () -> ( r , return () )) Let’s briefly contrast this to our return above. While return created a generator that yielded no values and produced some result, yield creates a generator that yields a single value and produces a trivial result. With this kit, we can construct generators: (* assuming that all these functions are in Gen*) let primes : ( unit , int ) Gen . t = let open Gen in let rec loop n = try for i = 2 to int_of_float ( sqrt ( float_of_int n )) do if n mod i = 0 then raise_notrace Exit done ; yield n >>= fun () -> loop ( n + 1 ) with Exit -> loop ( n + 1 ) in loop 2 We’re almost done here, all that remains is a way to run a generator: let rec iter x ~ f = match x with | Done s -> s | Yield t -> let ( y , x ) = t () in f y ; iter x ~ f While this is a useful function in general, it doesn’t quite work in our case since our generator doesn’t terminate. No matter, we can have a variant that will only consume up to a constant number of yields: let take : type a b . ( a , b ) t -> int -> b list = fun t n -> let rec loop acc t n = match t , n with | Done _, _ | _, 0 -> List . rev acc | Yield t , n -> let ( a , next ) = t () in loop ( a :: acc ) next ( n - 1 ) in loop [] t n As an exercise, one can also implement a generator-returning version of this: val take : ( ' a , ' b ) t -> int -> ( unit , ' b ) t And finally: ignore ( Gen . take primes 100_000 ) |
ally Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that the GOP presidential nominee has been "self-destructive" and needs to "grow into the size of the job."
"I think some of what Trump has done is very self-destructive," Gingrich added.
Trump on Tuesday snubbed Ryan and McCain, who have both stood by their endorsements of him while criticizing his feuding with the parents of a slain American Muslim soldier.
Trump saying he wasn't ready to endorse Ryan and criticizing McCain's work on behalf of veterans cast doubt on GOP unity amid already swirling criticism over Trump's feuding with the soldier's family.
Gingrich likened Trump's candidacy to being on "The Apprentice," but said in this situation, "He doesn't get to say, 'You're fired.' The American people get to say you're fired."
"I think he has the potential to win the election, I think he has to potential to be a historic president, but to do that he's got to grow into the size of the job," Gingrich said. |
Japan nuclear plant in crisis as cooling fails
Updated
A Japanese nuclear power plant remains in crisis following Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami, with an explosion at a second reactor and cooling functions failing at a third.
The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), says the cooling system at the No. 2 reactor at its Fukushima plant has now failed, Jiji Press reported.
The No. 1 and No. 3 reactors experienced the same problem when their cooling systems were knocked out by the 8.9-magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami which struck a large swathe of the country's coast north of Tokyo.
The failures were followed by explosions in the buildings surrounding those reactors.
Today's hydrogen explosion in the No. 3 reactor complex sent a plume of smoke billowing into the sky.
The UN atomic watchdog has released a statement saying the No. 3 reactor container was not breached during the latest explosion and there was no major rise in radiation.
"Radiation dose rate measurements observed at four locations around the plant's perimeter over a 16-hour period on 13 March were all normal," the IAEA said.
"The reactor building exploded but the primary containment vessel was not damaged. The control room of [No. 3] remains operational."
TEPCO says nine people were injured in the latest explosion.
"I was having lunch at a restaurant when I saw the news of the explosion at unit 3," said Mikiko Amano, 55, who was at her home a few kilometres from the plant.
"It only raised my distrust in TEPCO. The company has been saying such a thing would not happen."
Chief government spokesman Yukio Edano says 500 people still within 20 kilometres of the plant have since been evacuated, following the 210,000 people who had already been moved from the area.
He says the blast was caused by a build-up of hydrogen in the building around the reactor.
Operators had earlier halted injection of sea water into the reactor, resulting in a rise in radiation levels and pressure.
Mr Edano says it is likely a partial meltdown has occurred at the No. 1 reactor, which experienced an explosion on Saturday.
A meltdown occurs when a reactor core overheats and causes damage to the facility, potentially unleashing radiation into the environment.
Prime minister Naoto Kan described the situation at the stricken nuclear plant as "alarming" earlier today.
A Japanese official said before today's blast that 22 people had been confirmed to have suffered radiation contamination and up to 190 may have been exposed.
Workers in protective clothing used hand-held scanners to check people arriving at evacuation centres.
Meanwhile, authorities announced they have safely cooled down two nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daini complex, near the Fukushima Daiichi plant where the three problematic reactors are situated.
US warships and planes helping with relief efforts moved away from the coast temporarily because of low-level radiation. The US Seventh Fleet described the move as a precautionary measure.
Japan relies on nuclear energy for about a third of its power needs.
- AFP/Reuters
Topics: tidal-wave, disasters-and-accidents, earthquake, nuclear-accident, japan
First posted |
If you are an MMORPG fan like I am, it is easy to become a little depressed, thanks to the seemingly endless discussions over the “death” of MMOs and studio closures or while reading the comments section. (Note to self: stop it.) Even with my Jedi-level “game journalist” training (I put that on all of my business cards) I still find myself occasionally feeling down. Blue. Sad. Wondering about the future of “real” MMO gaming.
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No, seriously. I wonder if client-based, massive open worlds will survive. Logic tells me yes, but then I get a hold of my tablet and take part in the wonderfully seamless interaction that only a mobile game can offer and I think “Hmm, this IS much better than downloading and patching a game for a day!”
But then I get an offer to take a virtual tour through a game. In this case, TERA. In the case of this tour, I would be looking at the new content that is to be offered in the Fate of Arun expansion patch.
Well, lo and behold, the tour gave me that sense of wonderment and awe that serves as the fuel for my mania; I found myself smiling at the screen, wondering how in the hell I would be able to get through all of the levels of TERA just to take part in the incredible high-level stuff I was seeing on my screen?
I’m getting ahead of myself, sorry.
I was invited to check out a new dungeon called Sky Cruiser Endeavor. I was also going to be checking out the amazing Sky Castles, which are floating, well, castles in the freakin’ sky that guilds can earn by kicking tons of tail in dungeons like the one I was about to power through. (We really didn’t fight much, thanks to time constraints, but we did get a great tour and feel for the power of the B.A.M.s* inside.)
First, the dungeon.
Actually, it’s called the Sky Cruiser Endeavor instance, a dungeon set on a massive (as in TERA massive) airship. Players will fight their way along the corridors and open decks of the airship… if they pick their jaws off of the ground long enough to survive. Even the spot where the transportation NPC (who sends you to the instance) hangs out is amazing-looking. Some sort of beautiful volcano spews magic into a split, blue-gray sky nearby. You talk to the NPC and he sends you to your doom. Easy-peasy, right?
One of the key designs in this dungeon is that the boss mobs are waiting for you almost as soon as you enter. One in particular, the hideous one-armed (well, two-armed, technically, until he pulls one arm off to use as a baseball bat) monster sends waves and waves and waves of mobs at you and your party. We were told that many of the fights could easily take a half an hour. Even with our boosted party and GM hosts I died several times. Sure, I was controlling my character for only an hour beforehand, but it was obvious that it would take a very skilled party to shut this place down.
Eventually we made our way into the engine room, a truly ginormous place with another boss mob inside. After defeating him using a combination of awesome skill and GM cheats, we moved on the final mob, an innocent-enough looking mob called Darkan, the servant for the evil god Larkan who causes pretty much 98.6% of the mayhem in TERA.
We were warned that the mob would eventually show his real power once we knocked him down a few pegs. He sprouted massive wings, a flamey exterior and then committed himself to killing us all. Needless to say, we were whooped good. TERA is a hardcore game. Wimps like myself need not apply unless they also bring a GM. Guilds will be paid back for their efforts with rare crafting materials, Discovery and Generation gear, and other “surprises.”
Next we went to check on the Skycastles. These floating buildings are just what they sound like; massive, floating castles that hover outside of major cities around the world. The ones we visited floated above the PvP capital, and they served to show just how wonderful TERA can still look, even though the game is somewhat aging.
Players literally take flying Pegasus mounts on a scripted trip to the castles. Once there, they can hang out, plan guild activities or even use many different NPCs that are bought with points that are gained through member numbers and accumulated over time. |
Just because millennials grew up with technology doesn’t mean they’re actually smarter about how they use it. If anything, they appear to be more careless when it comes to online security.
That’s according to a report released May 24 by Gigya, which has an API that businesses can use to let their customers log into websites using their social media accounts. Surveying 4,000 adults in the US and UK, Gigya found that 18- to 34-year-olds are more likely to use bad passwords and report their online accounts being compromised.
The elderly are often characterized as having trouble using technology, but they appear to be the savviest when it comes to protecting their accounts online. The majority of respondents ages 51 to 69 say they completely steer away from easily cracked passwords like “password,” “1234,” or birthdays, while two-thirds of those in the 18-to-34 age bracket copped to using those kinds of terms.
The diligence of the older group could help explain why 82% of respondents in this age range did not report having had any of their online accounts compromised in the past year. In contrast, 35% of respondents between 18 and 34 said at least one of their accounts was hacked within the last 12 months, twice the rate of those aged 51 to 69.
Apparently, even when it comes to technology, young people have a thing or two to learn from their elders. |
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Y’know… I like Line 6. I like them a lot, actually. Be all end all? Not quite. Good bang for buck? Definitely. However I can’t help but wonder where they will draw the line with their whole modeling angle. Here we have the Line 6 Variax modeling guitar. A guitar built to model not just other guitars, but other tunings.
I shall refrain from holding my tongue and express that from a guitar with this kind of capability I would like to have seen the list of models include a better ratio of different guitars, rather than having such a heavy selection of Gibsons, and of all the tunings available most are X-step down tunings. However in its defense having the ability to model a sitar as well as a banjo is awesome in my book and the tuning knob could be used as a reverse capo. The ability to change tunings so quickly could lend itself to some creative song writing in the right hands.
Though this is a very young concept and I am very interested in seeing what they do with it in the future. In its current state, alongside the JTV59 and 69 models all three share the same guitar models, but are built for different feels. The 89 is built for shredding as Line 6 has made every attempt to abolish the secrecy around that. I like the idea that in the future they would do things to separate the three to model guitars more common to the angle they’re approaching. In the meantime you can custom make your own models on your computer and load them onto your guitar via USB port. Clever bastards.
The guitar is built of mahogany with a bolt-on maple neck and a rosewood fretboard. It houses two PAF-style alnico humbuckers, a dual-core processor all powered by a lithium-ion battery that can supply about twelve hours of playing in one sitting and if you’re forgetful like me (who has his pedals sitting still plugged in and on from several hours ago) you need not worry for the battery automatically goes into hibernation whether the cable’s plugged in or not.
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"Now I don't believe in some foreign 'ism,' but I believe deeply in American idealism," Bernie Sanders told a crowd gathered for his much anticipated speech, defending and explaining his often misunderstood political ideology at Georgetown on Thursday.
The self described democratic socialist explained just what exactly that moniker means and outlined America's deep history with democratic socialism, calling for a return to FDR-level public works programs and public investment:
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Roosevelt implemented a series of programs that put millions of people back to work, took them out of poverty and restored their faith in government. He redefined the relationship of the federal government to the people of our country. He combatted cynicism, fear and despair. He reinvigorated democracy. He transformed the country. And that is what we have to do today. [...] Democratic socialism means that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy. Democratic socialism means that we must reform a political system in America today which is not only grossly unfair but, in many respects, corrupt.
Sanders explained how his current platform, including his support for policies like the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act, is rooted in the same derided "socialism" that brought on popular progressive principles like the 40-hour work week, collective bargaining, and anti-child labor laws.
Sanders' essential argument is that democratic socialism is hardly new and hardly radical. Here are just a few more examples that help to illustrate the point:
Medicare and Medicaid
"In the 1960s," Sanders explained, "President Johnson passed Medicare and Medicaid to provide health care to millions of senior citizens and families with children, persons with disabilities and some of the most vulnerable people in this county. Once again these vitally important programs were derided by the right wing as socialist programs that were a threat to our American way of life."
Marking the 50th anniversary of the historic health insurance programs this year, 73 percent of Americans now describe Medicare as a "very important government program," while 63 percent say the same about Medicaid.
Social Security
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"Social Security, which transformed life for the elderly in this country was socialist," Sanders reminded the audience.
Gallup polling has consistently found that Americans would rather raise taxes than curb benefits to save social security by significant margins. In fact, 67 percent of Americans want to lift the income cap on Social Security to require higher-income workers to pay Social Security taxes on all of their wages.
Fight for $15
"The concept of the 'minimum wage' was seen as a radical intrusion into the marketplace and was described as 'socialist,'" Sanders told the crowd.
Now, the fight over the minimum wage isn't as binary as simply raising it or not. The two Democratic candidates differ in how much to raise the federal minimum wage, although both support an increase, in stark contrast with nearly every Republican candidate. In July, Sanders introduced a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. His Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has said she would only raise the federal minimum wage to $12, but says she supports state and local fights for $15 in places "that can go higher."
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A January poll found that 63 percent of Americans support raising the federal minimum wage to $15.
"Democratic socialism means that if someone works forty hours a week, that person should not be living in poverty: that we must raise the minimum wage to a living wage – $15 an hour over the next few years," Sanders said on Thursday.
Wall Street oversight
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In a new Rolling Stone interview out this week, Sanders vowed to immediately hold bad actors on Wall Street accountable. "On day one, I am appointing a special committee to investigate the crimes on Wall Street,” the populist promised.
A 2013 poll found that regulating financial services and products was seen as either "important" or "very important" to more than 90 percent of American voters. Not one Wall Street executive has ever been held criminally liable for the 2008 global financial collapse.
Here are just a few more "radical" ideas from Sanders that enjoy majority support with the American people.
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Watch Sanders' full "democratic socialism" speech below: |
The moral argument for God is very convincing to Internet apologists because they believe in something called transcendent morality. It comes up by many names including objective morality, absolute morality--and as I prefer, cosmic morality and magical morality. Regardless of the name, it is seen as a moral standard that exists somewhere independent of the minds of mere mortals and supersedes alternative judgements.That’s the claim. Is there proof? No. Is there evidence? No. The defense for the claim is essentially finding a moral value agreed upon between the apologist and the non-apologist, such as “murder is wrong,” and using that shared common ground to say all other assessments aren’t just wrong from their perspective, but wrong independent of perspective.What do you think, is murder wrong independent of perspective? In my experience, “wrong” means different things to different people. It is like saying not murdering is better than murdering. “Better,” like “wrong” in this case, is imprecise language that the apologist can leverage during these exchanges. Analogy time. What if I said lemons are an objectively better fruit than blueberries? This seems laughable because we understand taste preferences are opinions. However, we can say something is objectively true here if only I use a clear metric. I value sour flavor. Lemons are objectively more sour than blueberries. This isn’t a matter of taste, we can actually compare pH levels and know for a fact that lemons are more sour and are therefore objectively more appealing to one who values sour flavor.Apply this to morality. Instead of saying something imprecise like not murdering is better than murdering, which could be subjective or objective depending on the metric used to judge something as “better,” let’s say not murdering allows for a safer world than murdering. This specification allows us to say not murdering is better for those who value safety. That is an objective fact and an instance of an objective moral.I cannot say anything about one’s morality without saying something about one’s values. Because the majority of us value human life, safety, and equality (at least to some degree) the discouragement of murder is near universal...but transcendent? No, that is neither justified nor demonstrable. |
Klansmen participated in cross and swastika burnings last year after a "white pride" rally in rural Georgia. Six Klan organizations from around the country announced a consolidation last month.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — White extremists, almost by nature, are seldom good at working together.
Creating consensus among white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux, and the like has always been difficult, with wide disagreements on policies and a heavy turnover of leaders and followers.
But the Nationalist Front, an alliance of white-power groups that was born in a KKK bar in Georgia, marked its first anniversary April 22.
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Separately, six Klan organizations from around the country announced a consolidation last month.
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On Saturday, members of several white-supremacist groups filled Main Street in Pikeville, Ky., for a march and rally. The event was organized by the Nationalist Front, along with the Traditional Workers Party, and other pro-white supremacy groups.
Dozens of police in riot gear were deployed to keep peace at the event, as several dozen people massed for a counterdemonstration organized by the left-wing group Anti-Fascist Action. Some downtown businesses and the county courthouse closed Saturday.
The white-power groups say their common goal is protecting the white race at a time when the Census Bureau projects whites will be a minority within three decades.
Watchdog groups that track hate organizations doubt whether the National Front can build on its united movement. They say the alliance now lists 11 member groups, about half the number it had when it was formed.
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“These things never last,” said Heidi Beirich, director of the hate-monitoring Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Beirich said that while white supremacists have been emboldened by President Trump’s election, such groups have been trying on and off for decades to merge, generally to appear larger than they really are.
But leaders say there’s a difference this time: Matthew Heimbach, a spokesman for the Nationalist Front, said US white nationalists are trying to follow the example of far-right European groups that have learned to work together rather than bicker over ideology, theology, and organizational structure.
US nationalist groups have cooperated on projects such as video presentations and propaganda strategies over the last year, Heimbach said, and they worked together to support white nationalist Richard Spencer when he spoke at Auburn University earlier this month.
Originally called the Aryan National Alliance, the Nationalist Front renamed itself and dropped its use of the swastika in an attempt to broaden its appeal.
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Some robe-wearing KKK members who were initially part of the Nationalist Front dropped out, and some Klan groups are now consolidating to build membership and power.
The American Alliance of Klans formed during a meeting in rural Florida in March. More Klan groups have joined since, leaders say.
Tom Larson of Delaware, imperial wizard of the East Coast Knights of the KKK, a part of the new alliance, said: “We want to see people stand up and make this country great again, like Trump is saying. We’re tired of seeing white people lose everything.”
None of these groups will provide membership numbers, but it’s safe to say none is huge. About 100 people have registered to attend a Nationalist Front gathering this weekend in Pikeville, Heimbach said.
Photos from the meeting where the Klan alliance was formed showed about two dozen people in KKK robes and black uniforms giving the Nazi salute, but organizers said that was only leaders and does not represent total membership.
Both the Nationalist Front and the Alliance of Klans are but a shadow of the United Klans of America, an Alabama-based group that claimed membership in the thousands in the 1960s and was blamed for the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four black girls.
It was disbanded in 1987 after the Klan murder of a black man resulted in criminal convictions and a lawsuit that bankrupted the group.
The SPLC’s Beirich said she is less worried about new supremacist alliances than free-standing extremist entities like The Daily Stormer, which she describes as an anti-Semitic, misogynistic, racist website that entered the real world last year by forming “book clubs” that hold local meetings.
Beirich said a single hate-based website can reach millions. |
C'mon seriously? That was not a shot - only you guys would think that. I was in a meeting on my phone, shot out a quick tweet. Srsly.Sony haven't announced the CPU speed, as people have noted. Plus - when I take a pot-shot at the competition I'm gonna be way more obvious than that. I'm not a fan of the passive-aggressive.As I'm sure you've figured out - you don't announce something like this at the same time you're working on it. Obviously this has been in the works, but now that we're in full production we felt OK about announcing it.Devs should start seeing this soon - so any performance gains were happening on the 1.6 boxes. (everything at PAX was on the 1.6). This is a boost to developers on top of the optimizations going on.Lastly - can I PLEASE finally get you over this "we're having production issues" thing that's going around? We increased the GPU 6%. We increased the CPU almost 10%. We have been showing retail boxes. We are now in full production.If at this point these facts don't outweigh random rumors... |
Coming Soon
Giri / Haji
Helped by a young Japanese-British hustler, a Tokyo sleuth searches London for his brother, who's involved with the Yakuza and wanted for murder.
The Panama Papers
The true story of two journalists whose work set off an international firestorm by revealing how easily the wealthy hid billions of dollars offshore.
Followers
After an aspiring actress hits it big thanks to a candid Instagram, her life intersects with many other Tokyo women as they follow their dreams.
Love Alarm
A software developer creates an app that alerts users if anyone nearby harbors romantic feelings for them. Adapted from the popular web cartoon.
The Stand Off
In 1969, L.A.'s newly formed SWAT team attempts to raid the Black Panther Party headquarters, resulting in an intense face-off that lasts for hours.
Wonderland
Just out of prison and investigating a twisted murder, Spenser is sucked back into Boston’s underbelly. Based on the popular books; Mark Wahlberg stars.
The Eddy (Working Title)
A jazz club in the heart of multicultural Paris faces danger in this musical drama series from "La La Land" director Damien Chazelle.
Shadow
Haunted by a tragic loss, an ex-cop with a rare inability to feel pain strikes out on his own to catch offenders who've eluded Johannesburg police. |
It’s hard to say what’s worse: the outrageousness of the Southern Poverty Law Center in pinning the label “white nationalist” and “extremist” on anyone who bucks the prevailing politically correct narrative, or the credulity of the mainstream media in treating the SPLC as a neutral source.
As you probably know by now, Bell Curve author and American Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray, invited as a guest speaker to discuss his latest book about class divisions, Coming Apart, on March 2 at Middlebury College in Vermont, was blocked from speaking by a horde of militant student protesters, who also assaulted and sent to the emergency room a female Middlebury professor who had live-streamed an interview with Murray (a fall-back plan from the scheduled lecture). Well! Here is the March 4 report from the Associated Press:
A libertarian author who has been called a white nationalist said college students who protested his guest lecture this week were “scary.” Middlebury College said a professor was injured by a protester following a demonstration against guest speaker Charles Murray on Thursday. The Southern Poverty Law Center considers Murray a white nationalist who uses “racist pseudoscience and misleading statistics to argue that social inequality is caused by the genetic inferiority of the black and Latino communities, women and the poor.”
{snip}
A story posted the same day by Washington Post reporter Peter Holley stated, “The Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled Murray a white supremacist and a eugenicist.”
The Post, at least, gave Murray a chance to respond. Murray, who has a doctorate in political science from MIT and who co-authored The Bell Curve (1994) with the now-deceased Harvard professor Richard Herrnstein, pointed out that he had been married for 13 years to an Asian woman and has two Asian children.
{snip}
The AP and the Washington Post are not the only media to take whatever the SPLC says as gospel truth. Right after the November 8 election the New York Times announced its launching of a new column it titles “This Week in Hate,” chronicling a supposed jump in “hate crimes”—nearly always, by the way, featuring alleged white perpetrators and minority victims, almost never vice versa—after the election of President Trump. Guess what outfit appears to be the Times‘s chief source? Why, the SPLC, of course!
{snip}
The SPLC is quite upfront about its lack of interest in the hate activities of, for example, the militant “anti-fascists” who trashed the University of California-Berkeley campus in February in order to prevent Milo Yiannopolous from speaking there. The SPLC “monitors and exposes the activities of the American radical right,” its web page says.
{snip}
The idea that the SPLC offers neutral expertise on extremism is laughable. It has been a fund-raising Colossus for decades (see, “King of Fearmongers,” April 15, 2013) thanks to its genius at apocalyptic direct-mail, in which the Klan and other “hate groups” are always one donation away from taking over the country. Reporters should be ashamed of treating it as an arbiter of respectability.
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U.S. “Military Aid” to Al Qaeda, ISIS-Daesh: Pentagon Uses Illicit Arms Trafficking to Channel Enormous Shipments of Light Weapons into Syria
According to Jane’s Defence Weekly, quoting documents released by the U.S. Government’s Federal Business Opportunities (FBO), the US –as part of its “counterterrorism campaign”– has provided Syrian rebels [aka moderate Al Qaeda] with large amounts of weapons and ammunition.
The US and its allies (including Turkey and Saudi Arabia) have relied on the illicit trade in light weaponry produced in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, China, etc. for delivery to rebel groups inside Syria, including ISIS-Daesh and Al Nusra. In turn, operating out of the occupied Golan Heights, Israel’s IDF has provided weapons, ammunition, logistical support to Al Qaeda rebels operating in Southern Syria.
While Washington’s Middle East allies undertake shady transactions in a buoyant market for light weapons, a significant part of these illicit weapons shipments is nonetheless directly commissioned by the US government.
These shipments of weapons are not conducted through internationally approved weapons transfers. While they are the result of a Pentagon (or US government) procurement, they are not recorded as “official” military aid. They use private traders and shipping companies within the realm of a thriving illicit trade in light weapons.
Based on the examination of a single December 2015 Pentagon sponsored shipment of more than 990 tons, one can reasonably conclude that the amounts of light weapons in the hands of ”opposition” rebels inside Syria is substantial and exceedingly large.
Background: U.S. Weapons Supply Routes “Via Third Countries”
Although the bulk of the weapons and ammunition supplied to the Syrian rebels (including the FSA, Al Qaeda affiliated entities and ISIS-Daesh) are channelled by Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the US is also involved in the routine delivery (originating from third countries) of light weapons to the rebels including anti-tank and rocket launchers.
America’s weapons shipments to Syria’s rebels are commissioned by the Pentagon (and/or a US government agency) through several intermediaries via private weapons trading and shipping companies from the Black Sea port city of Constanta. None of these weapons under this de facto (unofficial) “US military aid” program are “Made in the USA”. These light weapons purchased in Eastern Europe and the Balkans in the illicit market are relatively inexpensive.
Moreover, Washington’s decision not to send US made weaponry to the rebels is meant to uphold the camouflage. No doubt, what Washington wants is to ensure that US and/or Western made weapons are not found in the hands of terrorists. As we recall, the White House narrative at the outset of the war in 2011 was: “humanitarian aid” to the rebels, coupled with “some military gear….[but no weapons]” (BBC, October 10, 2015)
US military aid to the rebels channeled (unofficially) through the illicit market, is routine and ongoing. In December 2015, a major US sponsored shipment of a staggering 995 tons of weapons was conducted in blatant violation of the ceasefire. According to Jane’s Defence Weekly, the U.S. “is providing [the weapons] to Syrian rebel groups as part of a programme that continues despite the widely respected ceasefire in that country [in December 2015].”
According to Jane, the shipments of weapons on behalf of the US are entrusted to private weapons traders and shipping companies:
“The FBO has released two solicitations in recent months [early 2015] looking for shipping companies to transport explosive material from Eastern Europe to the Jordanian port of Aqaba on behalf of the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command.” (Jane.com April 2016)
The shipments of weapons purchased and funded by the US are carefully coordinated, with deliveries to rebels in the North and South of Syria respectively. The weapons are shipped out of the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta (December 2015):
1) First, to the Turkish Eastern Mediterranean facility of Agalar-Limani near Tasucu in support of rebels in Northern Syria, to be smuggled into Syria with the support of the Turkish authorities. (half the shipment unloaded)
2) The remainder of the shipment to the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba (for rebels in Southern Syria) via the Suez canal. From Aqaba, the weapons would be smuggled into Syria through the Southern Syria-Jordanian border.
According to Jane, the cargo of light weaponry included AK-47 rifles, PKM general-purpose machine guns, DShK heavy machine guns, RPG-7 rocket launchers, and 9K111M Faktoria anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) systems. It is worth noting that a large share of the RPG rocket launchers were slated for delivery to Northern Syria (see table below).
Also of significance, the Black Sea route to Syria has also been used to ship Ukrainian weapons to Al Qaeda and ISIS Daesh.
Sputnik, June 5, 2016
994 Tons of Weapons in a Single shipment, Courtesy of Uncle Sam
The following table provides information on the breakdown of the weapons shipment for December 2015 documented by Jane Defense Weekly.
Bear in mind the numbers pertain to a single shipment in December 2015, expressed in kilos (kg).
The amounts are substantial:
The 7.62 x 39 mm refers to ammunition for an AK47. Namely the shipment of 134 tons of ammunition.
The PG 7 VM (2 kg) and PV7 VT (3.3 kg) are anti-tank grenades (which suggests that more than 25,000 PG 7VM units were included in the shipment, and more than 60,000 PG 7VT.)
The total shipment to Aqaba and Agalar is of the order of 994 tons of “humanitarian” R2P light weapons for the “Moderates” in Syria. (in a single shipment out of Romania) among numerous comparable shipments by sea as well as by air.
PG 7VM Anti-tank
This trade in light weapons is transacted through private companies on contract to the US government’s Federal Business Opportunities (FBO), a commercial trading entity acting on behalf of the US Navy MSC:
Stages 1,2 and 3:
1) The Pentagon (or the relevant government agency) instructs the US Navy MSC with details and specifications of the light weapons to be purchased and shipped to Syria’s “freedom fighters” via Turkey and Jordan. The ports of delivery are specified. The final destination of the weapons is not mentioned.
2) The Navy’s MSC places the order with the FBO.
3) The FBO in turn transacts with private companies for the procurement and shipping of the weapons and “explosive materials” out of Constanta, Romania.
PENTAGON —- US NAVY MSC —- FEDERAL BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES (FBO) —- (ILLICIT) PRIVATE TRADERS IN LIGHT WEAPONS, SHIPPING COMPANIES —- SMUGGLED INTO SYRIA THROUGH TURKEY AND JORDAN —- DELIVERED TO ISIS-DAESH, AL QAEDA, AL NUSRA, “MODERATE REBELS”, FREE SYRIAN ARMY (FSA), ET AL.
According to Jane’s report:”The FBO has released two solicitations in recent months looking for shipping companies to transport explosive material from Eastern Europe to the Jordanian port of Aqaba on behalf of the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command.” (emphasis added)
Released on 3 November 2015, the first solicitation sought a contractor to ship 81 containers of cargo that included explosive material from Constanta in Romania to Aqaba.
The solicitation was subsequently updated with a detailed packing list that showed the cargo had a total weight of 994 tonnes, a little under half of which was to be unloaded at Agalar, a military pier near the Turkish town of Tasucu, the other half at Aqaba. (Jane’s op cit)
The US Navy’s Military Sealift Command’s (MSC) mission is to “Operate the ships which sustain our warfighting forces and deliver specialized maritime services in support of national security objectives in peace and war.” (MSC mission)
Weapons Shipments by America’s Allies in the Middle East
The Jane Defence Weekly report pertains to shipments initiated by the Pentagon through a third country. It does not address the broader and much larger flow of military equipment and weaponry to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, commissioned by America’s allies in the Middle East (e.g Turkey, Saudi Arabia). These light weapons are also purchased from third countries ( i.e. Eastern Europe, Balkans) through private traders:
[In 2012] representatives of the Free Syrian Army made contact with weapons dealers in Eastern Europe and the Black Sea region, hoping to procure weapons that would then be smuggled across the Turkish-Syrian border. The Syrian rebels also reached out to [al Qaeda] militia groups in Libya for assistance. The Libyan groups have proven to be a particularly important source of weapons for the Syrian insurgents. …
Efforts by Libyan brokers to supply the rebels have coincided with, and perhaps been tied to, efforts by Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan to arm the rebels. … Global initiative against Transnational Crimes (2013 Study)
According to Deutsche Welle, exports of weapons from third countries (eg. Romania) to Syria are also dispatched by air via Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and the UAE: ”…the munitions, including Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles, machine guns, grenades as well as anti-tank guns, are initially off-loaded in Saudi airbases and ports before smugglers dispatch them to Syrian militants.”(quoted by Press TV, August 8, 2016, emphasis added)
“International norms governing the control of exports of military technology and equipment are brazenly flouted, the report said, and a considerable amount of munitions exported from Bulgaria to the aforementioned countries only bear the sign “unknown consignment.”
Such weapons have previously ended up in the hands of such terrorist groups as Daesh, which Saudi Arabia is widely believed to be supporting.
Earlier reports had already exposed that arms were purportedly being trucked into Syria under Turkish military escort, and transferred to militant leaders at prearranged rendezvous.” (Press TV, August 8, 2016)
Concluding Remarks
The United States and its allies use arms trafficking –i.e. the unregulated illicit trade in light weapons through private traders including organized crime–, to channel large amounts of weapons and ammunition to the terrorists inside Syria. These shady transactions initiated in Washington are in derogation of international law and the treaties under UN auspices pertaining to the trade in small and light weaponry.
Pentagon procurement is directed –through various intermediaries– towards the illicit purchase of light weapons: In all probability, the budgets allocated by the Pentagon to financing these purchases of weapons channeled towards Syria are not accounted for and/or categorized by the US Department of Defense as bona fide “US military aid”. Meanwhile the UN has remained mum on the State sponsorship of the illegal purchase and smuggling of weapons into Syria.
The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Prof Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 2016 |
20th Century Fox/Reuters
In the 1991 thriller “Point Break,” a squad of surfers-cum-bank robbers commit their crimes while wearing masks of Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, so we’ll assume that in a newly announced remake of this film, they’ll disguise themselves as Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Hu Jintao of China. That’s just a guess, but we can tell you for certain that the original “Point Break” was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, the future Academy Award-winning director of “The Hurt Locker,” and starred Keanu Reeves as a young F.B.I. agent on the trail of the “Ex-Presidents” gang, whose philosophical leader is played by Patrick Swayze. The new version was announced late Monday by Alcon Entertainment, a production and finance company based at Warner Brothers, which has been on a rebooting binge; last month the company announced that it was producing a new “Blade Runner” film that could serve as a sequel or prequel to Ridley Scott’s original movie.
Alcon said in a news release that “Point Break” 2.0 “is set in the world of international extreme sports, and like the original involves an undercover F.B.I. agent infiltrating a criminal ring, but plot points beyond that have not been revealed by the filmmakers.” The screenplay will be by Kurt Wimmer, whose credits include a coming remake of the science-fiction action movie “Total Recall” that stars Colin Farrell. No director has been chose and no laconic, muscle-bound young star has been announced to play the lead, but we’ll surmise that Taylor Lautner’s phone is ringing off the hook. |
Ottawa – Canada’s organic market is growing strong, says a new report.
The Canada Organic Trade Association released its second market analysis called The Canadian Organic Market: Trends and Opportunities 2017.
In a statement the association says it found that the total organic market in Canada, which includes food and non-food items, is now at $5.4 billion – up from $3.5 billion in 2012.
The association says the report includes an “up-to-date overview of the Canadian organic market, combining consumer research with sales and trade data.” It also looks at growth trends and consumer perceptions.
Other key findings, as noted in the statement, include:
The organic food and beverage market is estimated at $4.4 billion, up from $2.8 billion in 2012.
The compound annual growth rate of the total organic market is estimated at 8.7% between 2012 and 2017. Over the same time period, the growth rate for the organic food and beverage market is at an estimated 8.4%.
As the market has matured, growth rates have slowed but organics continues to capture a greater market share. Between 2012 and 2017, the market share of organic food and beverages sold through mainstream retailers has grown from 1.7% to 2.6%.
Ontario has the largest organic market, yet British Columbia continues to have higher organic sales per capita.
Two-thirds of Canadian grocery shoppers are purchasing organics weekly. Albertan’s are most likely to be organic purchasers – 74% are buying organics weekly.
Currently Canada tracks 65 organic imports and 17 organic exports – a subset of total organic trade. Tracked Canadian organic imports were valued at $637 million in 2016. Tracked exports are expected to reach $607 million by the end of 2017.
The association says the report uses sales data from the Nielsen Company, consumer data from Ipsos polls, and organic trade data from Statistics Canada.
The report also includes secondary research and analysis from the Canada Organic Trade Association, with additional insight and analysis from organic experts.
To purchase a copy, contact: Jill Guerra ([email protected]). |
They say the sign of a good compromise is when all sides come away feeling equally dissatisfied. By that logic, this week's agreement between fabric, the Metropolitan police and Islington council is a pretty great deal.The reopening of fabric is undoubtedly a good thing. But the strict conditions it must follow to stay open mean the iconic venue, and London's entire club scene, are far from being in the clear.Let's not lose sight of the victories here: fabric is no longer a club we'll talk about in the past tense. The campaign to save it galvanized London's club scene. More than 160,000 people signed the petition, and more than 7,000 people donated money from their own pockets—£328,509 in total. (The club says leftover cash will go towards "worthy causes" relevant to the industry.) The goodwill spread far beyond London—donations poured in from all over the world, with #saveourculture fundraising parties happening in places like Oslo, Manchester, Glasgow, Brighton, Liverpool and Leeds.The importance of this groundswell of support should not be underestimated. Were it not for the huge public response, it's doubtful that fabric would be reopening. The money raised, and the column inches devoted to the club, helped fabric and dance music in general earn a seat at the table with the House Of Lords select committee assigned to review the Licensing Act 2003. With fabric submitting 12 recommended changes to the act, there's a real chance of legislative reform that, according to fabric, will mean that in future closing a venue becomes a "last resort" for authorities. Gaining influence at parliamentary level is no small achievement, and, again, this wouldn't have happened without the huge public backing fabric received."This kind of activity is what campaign groups and charities build up to for years," says Kelly Scott, head of political services at the public relations firm Vuelio. It's worth acknowledgingthe support for fabric was so widespread. Over 17 years the club has championed emerging UK genres and welcomed the cream of the international DJ circuit, building a legacy and reputation that is nearly unrivalled. Its cultural contribution to London is enormous.The agreement is also great news for the club's 250 employees, many of whom will now keep their jobs. (A number of fabric staffers have spent recent months volunteering their time and energy in the club's battle to reopen.) It should also be welcomed by the wider London club scene. Since fabric closed, I've had several conversations with people who work at venues across the city, and the response has always been the same: their club is better off with fabric open. A typical comment: "fabric was one of the few clubs here that actually attracted people from outside the UK. Those people might go to fabric on a Friday then come to our club on the Saturday."Panning out further, what has happened here—a nightclub losing its license, closing, and then getting that license back—is a first in London nightlife. This deal was of course struck by lawyers behind closed doors, and settled before the appeal proceedings officially began. There's a general feeling of grubbiness to out-of-court settlements, and the need to sign documents that essentially leaves all parties with their hands tied. (The joint statement from fabric and Islington council concludes by saying neither side would comment further.)Many of us had images of a resounding, precedent-setting court victory for fabric. But the stakes were high. fabric has its staff to worry about and a multi-million-pound business to protect. Taking a matter to court would have placed the club's future in the hands of a judge. Different judges have different sympathies, and fabric could have faced someone who took a dim view on the club and its operating procedures. The club was never simply going to be able to reopen and operate in the same way it did before the closure, and going to court could have resulted in a worse outcome.When fabric reopens, it will need to abide by a raft of new licensing conditions, agreed upon by the club, the council and police. These conditions will be implemented alongside a 155-page handbook that will see it achieve a "gold standard" of operations. The new conditions include a batch of infringements that fall somewhere between disheartening and dystopian—ID scans on entry, increased CCTV, tougher searches on entry, covert surveillance inside the club, physical changes including the grim-sounding provision of "improved lighting"—in addition to punitive measures like lifetime bans for anyone found in possession of drugs or attempting to buy drugs in the club. The minimum age for entry on club nights has risen to 18 from 19. It's not hard to see why the authorities came to raise the age of entry. The two young men who died of overdoses at the club were both aged 18. But the logic is flawed. Surely 18-year-olds would be safer inside fabric, which is being held to the highest possible standards, than in a less regulated pub or club with an 18-and-over license?Fiona Measham, founder of drugs charity The Loop, is critical of the zero-tolerance thread that runs through most of these new licensing conditions. She worked with fabric during negotiations to reopen, and she says the Metropolitan police and Islington council "just weren't in the right place" to adopt progressive drug policies aimed at harm prevention. Measham describes the new licensing conditions as an "inevitable compromise" that "don't come as a surprise," but says fabric has had it tough. "I have been doing research in clubs for 25 years and I can't think of a club I've been to that's so well run," she says. "The whole thing really shouldn't have gone this far.""The focus is all about trying to stop people getting into a club with drugs," Measham adds. "But we know people can get into clubs with drugs, because you can't do intimate body searches. If people really want to smuggle things in, they will. And the real danger is for younger, less experienced users, who maybe don't want to risk trying to get past security and then decide to take their drugs before they get into the club. Seasoned clubbers are less likely to panic and more likely to know their limits. So it's the most vulnerable people who are affected."Although the new conditions are strict, Measham points out they "could have been stricter." There are no sniffer dogs, which "do more harm than good." Measham was an expert witness testifying against the use of sniffer dogs when fabric went to court in 2015, a time when police were pushing hard for this to happen. As for ID scans, well—"it's the way of the world now," Measham says. "They're increasingly common in clubs." There's also a silver lining to be found in the fact that fabric has kept its late operating license. There's no 4 AM or even 6 AM curfew—the kind of thing that really can make a nightclub unworkable (see Dance Tunnel, and, arguably, Plastic People).Some progressive and sensible measures have been implemented, too. Under the agreement for fabric's reopening, The Loop will provide fabric staff with training that will ultimately lead to the club having its own in-house welfare team. This team will mean a buffer zone of sorts between paramedics and security. It's a start, but it could have been better. During negotiations with Islington council, Measham lobbied for drug testing facilities onsite or near to fabric, similar to the successful initiative at The Warehouse Project in Manchester. "It wasn't on the table for long, unfortunately," she says.She points out there are now many successful examples of police working with nightclubs or festivals in conjunction with The Loop for harm prevention. But these examples are almost all outside of London. "I have conversations with police all over the country that are supportive," she says, pointing out two festivals—Secret Garden Party (which falls in the Cambridgeshire constabulary) and Kendal Calling (Cumbria)—where local police were receptive to the onsite testing introduced by The Loop. Measham also points out the result of a recent survey taken from police officers working at music festivals who attended the Operation Gothic conference in Ipswich this month. The poll asked more than 100 police if they supported The Loop's drug-testing initiatives. 80% said yes. "There's a lot of support from police, but it's mostly regional," she says. "The further away they are from London, the more supportive they are."It's difficult to predict what fabric will feel like when it reopens. People go to clubs to escape the outside world, to have fun and to dance. Things like ID checks, "improved" lighting and tough entry searches sound reasonable for an airport—but a nightclub?Any nightclub in London, especially in Zones 1 and 2, will have a lot of licensing hoops to jump through. The city's 32 council areas have different views about the benefits and drawbacks of nightlife, and inner-city boroughs are struggling to balance issues of gentrification and development. (It would take a brave soul to try to open a nightclub in Hackney right now, for example.)So fabric will reopen, but many challenges remain. Will the police take the first opportunity to pounce on any failure, perceived or real, by fabric to follow its licensing conditions? Time will tell. I've heard several people, including the London mayor Sadiq Khan, refer to fabric as a "case study," something everyone will learn from in the future. There's truth in that. The club's willingness to dig in its heels has helped buck what felt like an inexorable trend of club closures in London and across the UK. And that will go a long way towards shifting attitudes—in Islington and elsewhere—about the importance of clubs to London's cultural landscape.It seems likely the pot of fundraising money will (in part) go towards pushing for changes to the Licensing Act. Should these changes come to fruition and have the desired impact, every venue in the UK will have fabric and its supporters to thank for making life a bit easier. Progress has already been made: we now have the Night Time Industries Association, as well as London's new Night Czar, Amy Lamé , on hand to fight for nighttime culture in the political arena.There's also the battle to reshape society's attitude towards drugs and club culture, one that's focused on harm prevention. At this stage, the idea of a London licensing and policing climate with a progressive attitude towards drugs remains frustratingly farfetched. Everyone who signed the petition or donated money were not just fighting for fabric—they were fighting for club culture. That fight is far from over. |
Graduate students are willing to strike if the administration continues to block their efforts to unionize and fight for higher pay, they said.
In late December, representatives from the SENS-UAW told President David Van Zandt that if he doesn’t recognize the union, they would start preparing for a strike authorization vote this semester.
Administrators have said they were waiting for the National Labor Relations Board to weigh in on the issue. The federal agency is set to issue their opinion on March 9.
The protest was held all day Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and was in response to a legal statement the administration issued on Feb. 21 that further impedes a union vote from being held this semester, according to the graduate student workers.
What you need to know:
Students founded the Student Employees at the New School in 2014, to begin unionizing. In collaboration with the United Automobile Workers, New School graduate students circulated a union card drive, which allows a group to have a vote to form a union, to see if a majority wanted to unionize.
Despite having majority support amongst graduate students, the school refused to recognize the vote.
SENS-UAW registered a petition to the National Labor Relations Board to declare that the union card drive was valid and that student workers had the right to unionize.
The school’s administration hired Clifton Budd & DeMaria, LLP to stall student employees from holding an election, student organizers said. In response, SENS-UAW have held petition drives against the administration for a little more than 2 years.
On Aug. 23, the NLRB ruled that students who work as teaching and research assistants at private universities have a federally backed right to unionize in a case involving Columbia University student workers. And on Dec. 9, graduate students at Columbia University voted to unionize.
SENS members are frustrated over the administration’s handling of the case and its refusal to recognize student workers as legitimate employees, they said.
“All workers should have the right to collective bargain,” said David Maddy, a masters student and research assistant in the Economics Department. “We don’t get paid very much money, and we are essential to the functioning of the university. And we think that that’s not right, especially in one of the most expensive cities in the world.”
“It’s a very sad position to be in, where an administration of a school that has historically fought for social justice is actually trying to prevent social justice from being at work — and actively so,” Maddy said, taking a break from his work on the University Center steps. “We think it’s wrong, and so we wanted to come back out and display that we have a lot of work to do, and all of this work is actually being paid for at under-market value by the university.”
Graduate workers at New York University and Columbia have already voted to form a union. And in the case of NYU, their administration was in a legal battle with the graduate union, but it dropped the legal fight in order to recognize the union, an example The New School could follow, according to Ibrahim Shikaki.
“[The administration] can voluntarily accept,” said Shikaki, a teacher’s assistant and a Ph.D student in Economics. “We don’t have to go through the courts. We don’t have to go through NLRB. They can voluntarily consent and say, ‘You do have the right to form a union for student workers, and let’s let you and all the graduate workers have an election, and then graduate workers can decide if they do want or don’t want a union.’”
“It’s not that we’re saying yes so that we immediately have a union, we’re just saying we want an election so graduate students can say they want or don’t want one. The first option is for them, as NYU did, to voluntarily accept a union that recognized student workers,” Shikaki said.
The New School administration still has not recognized its student workers’ right to hold a union vote despite the NLRB ruling in accordance to the Columbia case. According to the statement the administration released in February, the Columbia decision was not applicable to it’s own student body, because TNS students are considered to be “casual” workers. It stated that:
“As a preliminary matter, TNS maintains that the Columbia University decision is not dispositive of the situation at The New School, particularly with respect to whether any putative graduate assistant ‘employees’ are ‘temporary or ‘casual.’”
The argument is the Columbia University primarily funds its graduate assistants with longer term commitments than the The New School, which can only partially fund a certain amount of graduate assistants without a recurring promise of future financial aid.
TNS administration responded to the protest by saying that they were waiting on NLRB guidance on important legal issues, “such as scopes and size of the unit, and who would be eligible to vote in the event on an election for a collective barganining agent.”
“We hope to have these issues clarified and resolved,” they added.
The protest on Thursday was just another message to the administration by the SENS-UAW to show that this is a serious issue, and that they are willing to take further action before the NLRB delivers its own ruling on the case.
“It’s also important to emphasize that we’re not doing this for fun. Nobody wants to go on strike,” said Mark Rafferty, am Economics MA student and volunteer organizer, who delivered the warning to strike to President Van Zandt. “It will be a massive hardship for students, but we understand that it’s for the greater good. We have to do this in order to get our rights for later on.”
“We’re not really hoping there’s going to be a strike, but we have to show the administration that we are serious, and if we have to, we will,” Rafferty said.
Photos by Don Eim. |
His themes have also been sounded by the comedian Bill Cosby , who has stirred debate among black Americans by bluntly speaking about an epidemic of fatherlessness in African-American families while suggesting that some blacks use racism as a crutch to explain the lack of economic progress.
Mr. Obama did not take his Father’s Day message to Trinity United Church of Christ, where he resigned as a member in May after a series of disputes over controversial remarks by the church’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Instead, he chose the 20,000-member Apostolic Church of God, a vast brick structure on the South Side near Lake Michigan. The church’s pastor, Byron Brazier, is an Obama supporter.
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The address was not Mr. Obama’s first foray into the issue. On the campaign trail, Mr. Obama has frequently returned to the topic of parenting and personal responsibility, particularly for low-income black families. Speaking in Texas in February, Mr. Obama told the mostly black audience to take responsibility for the education and nutrition of their children, and lectured them for feeding their children “cold Popeyes” for breakfast.
“I know how hard it is to get kids to eat properly,” Mr. Obama said at the time.
The remarks Sunday were Mr. Obama’s first since he claimed the nomination that have addressed the problems confronting blacks in a comprehensive and straightforward way. While Mr. Obama’s remarks were directed at a black, churchgoing audience, his campaign hopes they resonate among white social conservatives in a race where these voters may be up for grabs.
On Friday, Mr. Obama said he would co-sponsor a bill, with Senator Evan Bayh , Democrat of Indiana , that his campaign said would address the “national epidemic of absentee fathers.” If passed, the legislation would increase enforcement of child support payments and strengthen services for domestic violence prevention.
“We need families to raise our children,” he said at the service on Sunday. “We need fathers to recognize that responsibility doesn’t just end at conception. That doesn’t just make you a father. What makes you a man is not the ability to have a child. Any fool can have a child. That doesn’t make you a father. It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.”
Mr. Obama spoke of the burden that single parenthood placed on his mother, who raised him with the help of his maternal grandparents.
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“I know the toll it took on me, not having a father in the house,” he continued. “The hole in your heart when you don’t have a male figure in the home who can guide you and lead you. So I resolved many years ago that it was my obligation to break the cycle — that if I could be anything in life, I would be a good father to my children.”
But Mr. Obama also acknowledged his own flaws as a father, citing the breakneck schedule of the campaign and the rare days he spends with his children.
“I say this knowing that I have been an imperfect father,” he said, “knowing that I have made mistakes and I’ll continue to make more, wishing that I could be home for my girls and my wife more than I am right now.”
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Representative James E. Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina and an Obama supporter, said he welcomed not only the message the speech sent to black Americans, but also how it laid bare Mr. Obama’s own struggles growing up and, now, as the father of two children.
“I have been saying for some time now that he needs to talk more about his life experiences and what it means to be raised by a single mother,” Mr. Clyburn said. “He opened up.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton called the remarks on absent black fathers “courageous and important,” but cautioned that Mr. Obama’s words would not be embraced by all segments of the black community.
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“There are a lot of those who will say that he should not be airing dirty laundry, those that will say he’s beating up on the victims,” Mr. Sharpton said in a telephone interview. “This will not be something that will be unanimously applauded, but I think that not discussing it is not going to make it go away.”
The Obama campaign added the speech to Mr. Obama’s schedule on Saturday, when he returned to Chicago after a campaign swing through Pennsylvania and Ohio . Senator John McCain , the presumptive Republican nominee, took the day off from campaigning, but met privately in Washington with Hoshyar Zebari , the Iraqi foreign minister.
The church did not publicize Mr. Obama’s visit in advance, and carried no mention of it on the its Web site.
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But word had clearly gotten out, and by 11 a.m., as a musician warmed up on the timpani, thousands of people had filed through metal detectors at the church entrance and filled the pews, saving seats for latecomers with pocketbooks and hymnals. Even those who arrived an hour before the service milled around the church searching for empty seats.
Mr. Obama sprinkled his roughly 30-minute address with moments of levity. He said that when he asked his wife why Mother’s Day produced so much more “hoopla” than Father’s Day, she reminded him of his special status.
“She said, ‘Let me tell you, every day is Father’s Day,’ ” he said. “ ‘Every day you’re getting away with something. You’re running for president.’ ” |
About 2 days ago, an anonymous tipster emailed TNW, Android Police, and probably a few other sites with screenshots of an alleged Gmail redesign that would automatically categorize your emails into separate inboxes. We didn't run the pictures because they seemed pretty sloppy, and often didn't conform to the way Gmail works. Now though, now we're seeing confirmation from ryan_socio, who has been a pretty solid source in the past, so they've officially graduated to post-worthy. Here they are:
Top Left: Android | Top Right: iOS | Bottom: Desktop Web
The initial batch of these images that went out had horribly distorted colors, which really didn't help their credibility. We brought that up with the tipster and he came up with the higher-quality versions you see above.
We've got the whole trifecta of Android, iOS and desktop images for this new inbox feature, so it looks like you'll be able to use this everywhere. The Android version is sporting the slide-out navigation drawer and a top-only action bar, just like what we saw at Google I/O. Gmail now sticks profile pictures in front of every email, and multiple labels are actually readable.
This automatic email categorization feature sounds like they are graduating the "SmartLabels" Labs feature that is currently in Gmail. SmartLabels automatically tag incoming email with "Forums," "Notifications," "Promotions," and "Social Updates" labels; this leak uses similar categories: "Primary," "Social," "Promotions," "Updates," and "Forums," and seems to turn them into some kind of "super label." These special labels seem to have different presentations on each platform: The desktop uses tabs, Android puts them in containers inside of your inbox, and iOS has them all listed in the sidebar.
The tipster claims these two images are from a draft of an official Gmail Blog post, which will be published this Wednesday, at 4 PM GMT. So it's only a few days until we find out if these are really legit.
Can I just say though, I hate these images. The status bar clock is an absolute joke of a Photoshop job, and the network icons are just flat-out wrong. There are formatting inconsistencies, incorrectly sorted emails, and uncharacteristically poor English in the messages. If these really are the promotional images Google is going with, they are the sloppiest things they have ever produced.
I guess we'll see in a few short days. Come Wednesday, we'll be mashing our F5 buttons on the Gmail blog just in case. |
Despite accepting a job at a club torn apart by internal strife, Alan Mathews insists his return to management will be a relatively peaceful affair, after he was named Bray Wanderers' new boss at the weekend.
Despite accepting a job at a club torn apart by internal strife, Alan Mathews insists his return to management will be a relatively peaceful affair, after he was named Bray Wanderers' new boss at the weekend.
His arrival effectively spells the end of Pat Devlin's love affair with a club he has managed -- on and off -- since 1986. Hurt and angered by his treatment, Devlin is likely to make a public statement this week to outline his take on the events which led to his and Bray's divorce.
Out of loyalty, his back-room staff have also left, including U-19 coaches Jody Lynch and Stephen Fox, who resigned after their match on Saturday. "It has been nasty at times and there is a lot of bad feeling," said a source involved in the split. "A lot of players may leave too."
All of which does not concern Mathews.
IMPACT
"It has no impact on me," said the former Longford Town, Cork City, Drogheda United and Shelbourne manager. "I have a lot of time for Pat but whatever happened here pre-dates my time. If guys want to stay then fine, I will work with them. But if they don't, then I get fresh bodies in.
"I have two players on the books and have already spoken to several more about joining. The budget will be tight, and I need to get a squad in place and a shape put on the side very, very quickly.
"It's a fresh opportunity for me. When I left Shelbourne, I swore that I hadn't left football. I didn't want to leave the game on a sour note. This chance has come out of the blue and I will have a go at it."
Should he be given a free run at the job then there is no reason why he shouldn't be a success, which he was in his previous positions, most notably at Longford, who he helped win three trophies. Yet he arrives into a club with two distinct camps -- those pro-Devlin and those left behind.
"I can't get distracted by things I can't control," said Mathews, who saw midfielder Kevin O'Connor join Longford Town last weekend.
On a wider scale, Devlin's departure -- and Martin Russell's ongoing dispute with UCD -- effectively means that when the new League of Ireland Premier Division season kicks off, none of the 12 clubs will have a manager in place who has been at a club for longer than two seasons. Only five of the dozen managers have lasted a season in their current position.
"That's the culture of football," said Mathews. "It is the same in the English Premier League. Yet you have to think that some managers -- Liam Buckley and Stephen Kenny to think of two off the top of my head -- are in the early days of what will be a very long reign."
Short-term Fixes
The tenure of the League of Ireland's 12 Premier Division managers -- seven of whom have yet to complete a season in their positions.
Manager Appointed Club
Liam Buckley St Pat's Dec 2011
Ian Baraclough Sligo Rvs Feb 2012
Trevor Croly Shamrock R Nov 2012
Stephen Kenny Dundalk Nov 2012
Stuart Taylor Limerick Jan 2013
Owen Heary Bohemians Nov 2013*
John Caulfield Cork City Nov 2013
Roddy Collins Derry City Nov 2013
Robbie Horgan Drogheda U Nov 2013
Mick Cooke Athlone T Nov 2013
Alan Mathews Bray Jan 2014
Martin Russell has taken legal proceedings against UCD and has been tipped to be replaced by Aaron Callaghan.
* caretaker manager from July 2013
Irish Independent |
13.2 Tobacco taxes in Australia
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Last updated: November 2018 Suggested citation: Scollo, M, Bayly, M. 13.2 Tobacco taxes in Australia. In Scollo, MM and Winstanley, MH [editors]. Tobacco in Australia: Facts and issues. Melbourne: Cancer Council Victoria; 2018. Available from http://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-13-taxation/13-2-tobacco-taxes-in-australia
Tobacco taxes are favoured by governments because of their relatively low level of unpopularity with voters (see Section 13.12) and because of their low administrative costs relative to the income they generate.1,2
A variety of taxes are applied to cigarettes and other tobacco products internationally. Virtually all countries apply excise duty specified as an amount payable per x number of cigarette sticks. A small number of countries charge excise payable per x grams of tobacco weight. Many countries also apply one or more forms of ad valorem taxes, that is, taxes based on the monetary value of products. These include taxes added to the wholesale value of product sold and sales tax or goods and service tax applied as a percentage to the (pre-GST) retail price.3,4
13.2.1 Federal excise and customs duty
The federal government has imposed excise duty on Australian-made and customs duty on imported tobacco products since the passage in 1901 of the Excise Act5 and the Customs Act.6 Prior to federation, the colonies imposed their own tariffs. 7-9
Until 1999, federal excise and customs duty was calculated on the basis of the weight of tobacco products. The Excise Regulations, 1925,10 specified precisely how manufacturers needed to label, calculate and declare excise duty. These also specified how the weight of tobacco products (and the volume of alcohol and petroleum products) was to be calculated. For cigarettes, this included the weight of filter and paper, but not the weight of the packaging.
In the early years of last century, manufactured tobacco was charged at a rate of one shilling per pound (of product weight) and cigars were taxed at one shilling and sixpence per pound. Since 1920, the rate of the duty has been set out in (frequently amended) schedules to the Excise Tariff Act passed in 1921.11 Historically, duty on tobacco in cigarettes was levied at a higher rate than duty on non-cigarette tobacco (Table 13.2.1). In November 1983, the then federal treasurer, the Hon. Paul Keating, changed customs and excise policy in several ways. First, the rate of federal excise and customs duty was linked with the Australian Consumer Price Index (CPI),12 meaning that since that time, excise and customs duty have automatically increased twice each year. Between February 1984 and August 2013 these increases have been in line with changes in the CPI for the six months to the previous December and June. Since March 2014 increases have been in line with changes each six months between February and November in Average Weekly Earnings. Second, the rate of duty for cigars was immediately made equal to that of cigarettes. Third, the rate for non-cigarette tobacco was increased by $5 a kilo. In subsequent budgets the rate for smoking tobacco was increased further (by another $5 a kilo in the 1984 and 1985 budgets, and then by $1.90 in the 1986 budget).
Table 13.2.1 compares the excise duty on cigarettes with that on cigars and smoking tobacco in selected years since 1965. As can be seen in Table 13.2.1, rates for smoking tobacco became equal to that for cigarettes in 1986.
Table 13.2.1
Rates of federal excise duty, August, selected years 1965–87: cigarettes, cigars and tobacco, Australia
Historically, tobacco products produced in Australia were subject to a lower rate of duty than that applicable to imported tobacco products. Customs duty was brought into line with excise duty following the publication in June 1994 of a report of an inquiry by the Industry Commission into tobacco growing and manufacturing industries in Australia.14 Coinciding with the end of the Tobacco Stabilisation Plan (see Chapter 10, Section 10.8.2), the harmonisation of customs and excise duty was in line with government policy to reduce a range of direct and indirect subsidies in an attempt to improve international competitiveness of Australian exports. Table 13.2.2 compares rates of excise and customs duty (per kilo of tobacco weight) from 1987 to 1999.
As can be seen in Table 13.2.2, excise duty became equal to customs duty in 1995.
Table 13.2.2
Rates of federal duty* per kilo of weight, all tobacco products, as at June 1987 to 1999–excise and customs, Australia
Throughout the 1990s, health groups lobbied for increases in federal excise duty.17,18 In addition to the six-monthly CPI increases, the government increased the rate of federal excise applicable to cigarettes and other tobacco products on several occasions. These included a $5 per kilo increase in 199219 and increases announced in the 1993 budget20 of 3% in August 1993 and 5% in February and August 1994 and February 1995.21 The final increment rise of 5% planned for August 1995 was brought forward and increased to an immediate 10% rise in the Federal Budget handed down on 10 May 1995.22
Figure 13.2.1 shows the rate of the federal excise duty on cigarettes over the period since 1958. The figure is expressed in constant 1989–90 dollars to take into account rising prices over that time.
Figure 13.2.1
Excise duty rate per kilo of tobacco, Australia 1958 to 1999
It is evident from Figure 13.2.1 that, once its value was restored by the increase and introduction of indexation in the 1983 budget, federal duty on cigarettes remained fairly steady in real terms over the late 1980s and early 1990s, increasing significantly only in the late 1990s. The level of federal duty on cigarettes in 1998 was about 50% higher in real terms than it was at its lowest point in the early 1960s.
In 1999, after extensive lobbying by health groups,17 the government moved from levying excise and customs duty on cigarettes on the basis of weight to a system based on the number of cigarettes (see Section 13.3.1.2 for full details). Excise and customs rates on cigarettes and other tobacco products applicable since 1999 are set out in Table 13.2.3.
Table 13.2.3
Excise and customs duty applicable to cigarettes and other tobacco products since November 1999, Australia
Between 1999 and 2010 there were no increases in tobacco excise and customs duty on tobacco products apart from adjustments for CPI. Excise and customs duty was increased by 25% on 30 April 2010, and 12.5% annually from 2013 to 2017 (Figure 13.2.2).
Figure 13.2.2
Value of excise and customs duty on tobacco (per cigarette stick weighing less than 0.8 grams): 2000 to 2018, Australia
Excise and customs duty for smoking tobacco (and cigars and cigarettes weighing greater than 0.8 grams of tobacco per stick) is set at a per kilogram rate that is equivalent to factory-made cigarette sticks assuming 0.8 grams of tobacco is used per cigarette. However, smokers generally use less tobacco per cigarette than this, so that in practical terms RYO tobacco attracts less tax per stick than FM cigarettes. In 2017, the Australian Government determined that the customs duty and excise on RYO tobacco (and cigars and cigarettes weighing greater than 0.8 grams of tobacco per stick) would be harmonised with FM cigarettes over a period of four years beginning September 2017. The changes were announced in the May 2017 Federal Budget.40 The customs duty and excise rate of smoking tobacco would be increased so that it assumes that 0.775 grams is used in each stick in 2017, reducing to 0.75 grams in 2018, then 0.725 grams in 2019, and reaching 0.7 grams in 2020.41,42 By reducing the quantity of smoking tobacco assumed per cigarette, this measure is expected to increase the duty on and consequently the price of roll-your-own tobacco relative to factory-made cigarettes,43,44 curbing the growing disparity in prices of these types tobacco products—see also Section 13.3.1.2.
Figure 13.2.3 shows the rate of customs and excise duty on tobacco products from 2007 in current dollars. Rolling tobacco rates are expressed per 0.7 grams (as will be the case from 2020), compared to the rate for standard factory-made cigarettes. It can be seen that the differential between factory-made cigarettes and RYO cigarettes at 0.7 grams shrank in 2017, bringing the duty on cigarettes typically made from RYO tobacco closer to the duty on standard factory-made cigarettes. This differential will shrink further over the next three years.
Figure 13.2.3
Value of excise and customs duty on factory-made cigarettes and rolling tobacco at 0.7 grams per cigarette
Sources: As for Figure 13.3.2
Note: Rate expressed in current dollars, i.e. the dollar value applicable in each year. Rates at August of each year to 2013, then rates at September for 2014 onwards.
13.2.2 State tobacco licence fees
In November 1974 Victoria became the first Australian jurisdiction to introduce a licence fee (known as a business franchise fee) on the sale of tobacco products.45 The business franchise fee on tobacco had two components. The first was a set amount charged each year. The second was an amount based on the value of tobacco sold in the immediately preceding month. The monthly (variable) rate was set at 2.5% in 1974 increasing to 10% in 1975. Between 1975 and 1989, all state and territory governments introduced similar fees.46-52
The fixed licence fee and the percentage levy varied from state to state. Generally the fees were forwarded to state or territory government revenue collection offices by tobacco wholesalers; however, if retailers purchased stock from suppliers other than licensed wholesalers, they also were required to pay both the set and the variable licence fees. The percentage component was by far the more lucrative for governments, and the rate of the levy was frequently increased in all jurisdictions, sometimes more than once within the same budget period.
Table 13.2.4 shows the rates applicable in each year in each state and territory.
Table 13.2.4
Rates* for business franchise fees on tobacco 1974–97 in each Australian state and territory
To cover the cost of these fees, wholesalers built in a component to the wholesale prices that charged retailers for products.
The dollar value of the state fee component on a typical packet of cigarettes was quite small in early years–just a few cents in 1974. However, as the rate increased, so did the dollar value of the fee. Figure 13.2.4 shows the dollar value (in constant $-1989–90) of the fee applicable on a typical packet of cigarettes, Winfield 25s, in New South Wales between 1975 and 1999.
Figure 13.2.4
Dollar value of the tobacco business franchise fee applicable on a typical packet of Winfield 25s in New South Wales between 1976 and 1998
In New South Wales, the dollar value of the fee doubled in real terms between 1976 and 1986. Between 1986 and 1996, it increased by a further 400% in real terms. Similar increases occurred in the other states and territories.
Since they were first introduced, the state business franchise fees were somewhat controversial and several legal challenges were mounted asserting that the schemes were in breach of s. 90 of the Australian Constitution, which prohibits Australian states and territories from raising revenue from the sale of products. The wording of the various pieces of state business franchise legislation attempted to ensure that the fees were not regarded as excises, based as they were on the value of sales in a previous period rather than on the quantity or volume of products currently being transacted. When the state business franchise fees were first introduced, the fees were quite low, arguably providing revenue sufficient merely to cover administration costs. By 1996 however, fees in New South Wales and other Australian states had become so high that they were clearly an important source of government revenue, and not merely a levy to cover the cost of regulation.
When the Ngo Ngo Ha & Anor v. State of New South Wales & Ors case was lodged in the High Court in 1996, many lawyers and government officials correctly predicted that the Court would find the fees to be unconstitutional (memorandum from Francey N, Wentworth Chambers Sydney, 8 July 1997 to Michelle Scollo, Director Victorian Smoking and Health Program). The High Court ruling on 5 August 199758 effectively invalidated not just business franchise fees based on sales of tobacco in New South Wales, but also business franchise fees based on sales of tobacco, alcohol and petroleum in all states and territories.
Several state Treasury officials, aware of the possibility of the Ngo Ngo Ha v. NSW case succeeding, had commenced negotiations with their federal counterparts late in 1996 and had extracted an undertaking that the federal government would increase federal excise duties on tobacco, alcohol and petroleum, and would pass back a share of the increased revenue to the states should the case succeed. After the High Court handed down its decision, arrangements with the states and territories to honour that commitment were rapidly set in motion–see Technical Appendix 13.2.1 for further details.
The Commonwealth agreed to collect a surcharge on each of the three products, and then to pass on the revenue to the states and territories.
In 1997 the federal (Coalition) government announced a comprehensive review of the tax system. It called for a major overhaul of federal and state taxes, the abolition of state business franchise replacement fees and a raft of state sales taxes and the introduction of a goods and services tax. It was agreed that the revenue from the new goods and services tax (GST) would go to the states and territories to compensate for the revenue no longer to be received from state sales taxes and business franchise fees.
On 13 August 1998, two weeks prior to calling an election, the government released its long awaited tax reform package, titled Tax Reform: Not a New Tax; a New Tax System.59 The proposal included plans to abolish tobacco replacement payments and to introduce a per stick system of raising customs and excise duty, with the level of the duty to be set so that the excise payable on any brand of cigarettes would be no lower than the existing level of duty. The fee payable on large packets of cigarettes would increase substantially, making them much closer in price (per stick) to cigarettes sold in smaller pack sizes.
After the government was re-elected, following a short delay reforms were implemented in November 1999.60
13.2.3 Goods and Services Tax
Unlike in many other countries which introduced goods and services taxes, in Australia (as requested by health groups) the excise duty on tobacco was not adjusted downward when the 10% goods and services tax (GST) was introduced.59 The GST came into force in Australia on tobacco and all other retail services and products excluding grocery items on 1 July 2000.61 - 63
As with all other taxable products and services in Australia, the GST is calculated by adding 10% to the pre-GST price. In this way, the GST makes up one-eleventh or 9.1% of the final price of each packet of cigarettes, cigars or smoking tobacco.64
13.2.4 Excise levels in Australia compared with overseas
As indicated in Figure 13.0.1, excise duties in Australia made up almost half of the final price of the leading packet of cigarettes in 2014.
Figure 13.2.5 shows tax levels in Australia compared with other countries for the year 2016. It should be noted that excise/customs duty makes up a higher proportion of the final prices of many low-cost brands of Australian cigarettes that are cheaper than the leading brand.
Figure 13.2.5
Excise tax as a proportion cigarette prices in Australia and comparable English-speaking and European countries, 2016
References
Technical appendix 13.2.1 Abolition of state franchise fees on tobacco
Each state and territory had, over the years, developed different methods of collecting licence fees, with different levels of fees, different due dates and a variety of other arrangements to suit local needs and politics.
The Commonwealth was anxious to honour its commitment to the States to make up the revenue lost from the abolition of state franchise fees after the High Court ruled in August 1997 that these fees were unconstitutional. However, one of the key platforms of the (opposition Coalition) government in power prior to the previous election had been a promise not to increase taxes. A key political objective of the federal and some of the state governments was thus to protect consumers from possible price rises in tobacco, alcohol and particularly petroleum products.
Frantic negotiations ensued between state and federal representatives in the wake of the 1997 High Court decision. The first 'deal' that emerged involved the Commonwealth collecting revenue set to equal the highest rates applicable to each product in any jurisdiction. This meant that the Commonwealth would collect and distribute $6.5 billion rather than the $5 billion formerly collected by the states and territories. The states and territories, in turn, would provide rebates to manufacturers/wholesalers in lower taxing states, to ensure that no state received windfall revenue and no consumers faced huge price hikes. Refer to the States Grants (General Purposes) Amendment Act No. 1, 131 of 1997.
Within days, however, complications emerged in respect of tobacco. While Treasury officials had anticipated the High Court ruling and had prepared to compensate the States in broad terms, it seems that no-one had carefully enough thought through the precise details of exactly how revenue would be raised by the Commonwealth and exactly how it would be collected. Treasury officials and (relatively new) government advisers involved in negotiations with the States may not have had a very firm understanding of the price structure of cigarettes or the intricacies of collection.
Following the ruling, the Commonwealth announced that the federal excise duty on tobacco would be increased by $167 per kilogram (from $84.27 per kilogram). As had been predicted in the cigarette taxes and prices model developed by the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria, this led to an immediate price rise in budget cigarettes, in particular in the Wills Horizon brand–heavier than its competitors Holiday (Rothmans) and Longbeach (Philip Morris). As a consequence, WD and HO Wills lodged the strongest possible protest with the Treasurer's office, suspended sales and requested that its shares be suspended on the Australian Stock Exchange (Adams, 1997). Wills Chairman, former NSW premier Nick Greiner, appealed to the Treasurer for the increased excise to be replaced by an ad valorem tax. Rothmans and Philip Morris were also unhappy about the increased excise duty, which would have increased prices by as much as $1.75 per packet, and raised an additional $500 million in revenue. They objected, however, to the Wills proposal, which would have been much more advantageous for the Wills brands.
By the end of the week, confusion reigned and further desperate rounds of negotiations were taking place between federal Treasury officials, officials in state governments and wholesalers and retailer associations for alcohol, tobacco and petroleum products throughout the country.
Confronted by pressure from alcohol wholesalers and retailers, the Victorian, Queensland and Australian Capital Territory governments agreed to fund the prepaid alcohol fees, thereby protecting consumers from a large increase in low alcohol beer and wine prices (Pinkney 1997). South Australia and New South Wales initially resisted pressure to provide such refunds, (correctly as it turns out) asserting that they would miss out on revenue once the Commonwealth took over responsibility for revenue collection, and collections were made on a cash rather than an accrual basis. The Western Australian government was then very concerned about the impact on its total revenue: it had been counting on the over-payments from alcohol and tobacco to subsidise low alcohol beer, cellar door wine sales and petrol prices for off-road users, previously exempted from the state's fuel levy. Western Australia, supported by South Australia and Tasmania, boycotted talks on 25 August with tobacco companies initiated by the Commonwealth (Washington 1997).
By the beginning of September, confusion had degenerated into chaos, and the federal Treasurer had little choice but to threaten withdrawal of the safety net unless the states agreed to his plan. The deal that emerged was a series of trade-offs between all the parties concerned, with the federal government more or less achieving its aims of: maintaining total revenue for the states, even if revenue from individual products might be reduced; minimising price rises particularly of low alcohol products and petrol; and in the case of tobacco, treating each of the three manufacturers in an equitable manner.
In the end, the legislation instituted to cover the new arrangements essentially replicated (exclusively at the federal level rather than at federal and state level) the tax and price structure in place on cigarettes prior to the High Court ruling.
Two pieces of legislation were passed to put these cumbersome arrangements into law.
First was the States Grants (General Purposes) Amendment Act (No. 2) 1997, which amended the States Grants (General Purposes) Act 1994. This determined a revised share of revenue to go to each state, roughly in line with previous expected revenue, but taking into account concerns raised by a number of the smaller states.
The second piece of legislation related to the manner in which the surcharge on tobacco was to be raised. On 17 September 1997, the government gazetted a new regime for the taxing of cigarettes, later to be instituted in the Excise Tariff Amendment Act (No. 5) 1997.61 After lobbying by manufacturers concerned about the differential effect of the proposed new arrangements on each company's products, the legislation in the end was formulated in a way that replicated the tax structure that was in place prior to the High Court decision. That is, part of the formula for determining excise (and customs) duty was based on weight, and part on the wholesale value of the product sold. The weight-based excise on tobacco increased from $84.27 to $86.92 per kilogram. The value-based component increased from 100% of the wholesale value of tobacco products to about 101.3%. The new schedule stated that the state surcharge would be based on 50.32% of the listed wholesale price, which is mathematically equivalent to 101.3% of the pre-wholesale price, just 1.3% higher than the level that had been applicable under the states' business franchise legislation. |
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Samsung's S8 smartphone was meant to have Bixby from day one - but the assistant was delayed
If you have a Samsung phone, you most likely have Google Android. And if you have Google Android, you have the Google Assistant.
That, first and foremost, is Samsung’s problem. No matter how good its assistant - Bixby - may be one day, it’ll still be up against Google’s work, which has superior access to data.
Poor Bixby’s lived a short and troubled life so far. It had been lined up to be a big new feature on the Galaxy S8, which went on sale earlier this year. But as the device shipped, Bixby wasn’t yet ready for the English-speaking world, and was disabled. It left the flagship S8 with a physical button that essentially did nothing at all, a constant reminder of an area where Samsung has fallen short.
At Samsung’s Developers’ Conference, held this week in San Francisco, developers were told to welcome in Bixby 2.0, and put the shortcomings of Bixby 1.0 behind them. Like the bridge sharing its name, Bixby has been rebuilt. The lessons have been learned and from here on “you’ll be making money”.
That was a promise to developers from Dag Kittlaus, a vice-president at Samsung Mobile. He created the Viv assistant, which was acquired by Samsung last year. Before that, he co-founded the team behind Siri, later bought by Apple.
In a crowded market of personal assistants, Samsung is doing what it can to play to its strengths. First, it dominates the smartphone market - 23% of smartphones out there are from Samsung (Apple has 12%, according to Gartner).
Second, it makes fridges, and other unsexy home appliances that might genuinely benefit from voice-based controls because, as we all know, there is nothing in this world more confusing than the user interface on a washing machine.
So, Bixby will be coming to Samsung's fridges. And then perhaps, a lot of other things - the company announced it would be opening up Bixby for third-party developers.
Image caption "You'll be making money" promised the Bixby team
"Developers will be first-class citizens, everything we can build with Bixby, you can too," Mr Kittlaus said.
"Whatever it is, you’ll have the freedom to develop and build with no limitations."
Despite the positivity, Bixby is fighting to catch up in a race it has surely missed.
In a Q&A session at the conference, I asked Brad Park, who looks after “service intelligence” at Samsung, whether Bixby faces a level playing field when coming up against Google’s Assistant within Android. He said he believed consumers would find space for two assistants on the same device. That seems very unlikely to me.
Brian Blau, a Gartner analyst, held a similar view.
“What Samsung has said is 'kinda forget about Bixby 1.0’, they had to make a clean break,” he said.
"It’s going to be very, very difficult for Samsung to meet the level of sophistication that we think is going to come with Google.
"There’s few companies that have insight like that, but Samsung does not have the data about what people are doing like Google does.
"You tend to think that the Google system is going to be the smartest one over time.”
_____
Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC
You can reach Dave securely through encrypted messaging app Signal on: +1 (628) 400-7370 |
A gun battle on the streets of Oakland left eight people wounded. The shooting happened just after midnight on 14th Street near Broadway.All of the shooting victims will survive. Some are still in the hospital. Two men were arrested for the crim. Witnesses say they ran for their lives.Angela Galbraith was inside a bar and heard the gunshots coming from the street, she ran for cover."I just sitting down, we were just was listening to music and it was bullets everywhere," Galbraith said. "People that were downstairs ran upstairs, which scared everyone and then everyone started running. I ran and hid in the ladies room until the shooting stopped."The gunfire was coming from 14th Street. Police say two men exchanged gunfire, wounding six people caught in the crossfire."By the time I came outside there was blood everywhere," Galbraith said.Victims from 17- to 28-years-old were rushed to the hospital. Two men in their 20s, also wounded, were arrested.Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf reacted to the crime and she says police are working to reduce gun violence."Incidents like this are heartbreaking," said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. "We are putting so much energy into reducing violence in every neighborhood in this city. We do not play favorites with neighborhoods. This is about human life."Last year, musician Emiliano Nevarez was killed by a stray bullet when he left the Golden Bull Bar, also on 14th Sreet in Downtown Oakland.Owners of nearby Vinyl night club say there's no way the two suspects were inside their establishment Friday night because metal detectors for patrons were in use. |
State of the Empire :: Episode 25 :: The Rogue One Trailer is Unleashed
Posted by NerdyShow on August 14, 2016
State of the Empire is Nerdy Show’s Star Wars speculation podcast where we “look for news in Alderaan places”.
The time has come: the Rogue One trailer is finally here! Not a teaser, not a sizzle reel, not a behind-the-scenes promo – and honest-to-God, fully-loaded trailer, Sith Lord and all. There’s a lot to take in, so let the crew of State of the Empire navigate you through the proverbial asteroid belt of what’s going on and what nuances we can glean from this sexy and revealing advertisement.
Cynics, don’t fret; Cap, Doug, and Matt aren’t all rose colored lenses over this well-dressed Star Wars trailer. We’ve still got our heads level and our minds open. Not only do we talk Rogue One, but we also chew over the latest rumors surrounding Lord and Miller’s young Han Solo film (trilogy?) and we report our findings on Episode IX director Colin Tervorrow. With only the dubious Jurassic World and indie darling Safety Not Guaranteed under his belt, does he have the chops to put a bow on the new trilogy? New tales from Willow, new editions of The Force Awakens, and more await!
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Riot Fest revealed its impressive 2016 Chicago lineup last week, a bill which included the likes of Morrissey, Ween, Social Distortion, Death Cab For Cutie, Brand New, NAS, Deftones, and Death Grips. Today, however, it appears one of the festival’s biggest gets might not actually be confirmed to play after all.
Despite his recent hangouts with punks Rancid and H20, Morrissey says he won’t be heading to the Windy City this summer. “As of this date (May 23), Morrissey is not a part of this year’s Chicago Riot Fest,” reads a new posting on the unofficial official Morrissey website True To You.
The Smiths frontman has been known to cancel concerts and tours, sure, but it seems much too early to be backing out of a commitment. Perhaps there was a miscommunication between the artist and the festival? We’ve reached out to Riot Fest for comment, but have yet to hear back.
Riot Fest Chicago, whether Morrissey’s on board or not, goes down September 16th – 18th at Douglas Park. |
About
Our vision
Wars and Battles is a project with a huge ambition: to reconcile the sophistication of traditional wargames with the ease of use of new devices such as smartphones and tablets. This game is not only made for wargamers, but for all the gamers that love strategy but are annoyed both by tablet/smartphone strategy games limitations and by PC wargames complexity. We hope that with your support Wars and Battles will not be just another video game, but a meeting point for gamers fond of strategy games, history and battles. Our dream is to build a solid community around our passion. Realism for everyone Wars and Battles is an immersive turn based strategy game that manages more than 20 types of terrain, up to 400 ground units, 50 air units and 15 different scenarios. The game also manages anti-tank and anti-air weapons, weather, ambushes, paratroopers, reinforcements, supply, replenishments, fortification, unit rotation and most of the sophisticated rules that you can find in any tabletop wargame. The difference with Wars and Battles is that our game has been designed both by tabletop wargame designers and veteran video game designers who have paid particular attention to the simplicity required by casual gamers, making rules instinctive. Normandy 1944 - Desert Rats attacking the Panzer Lehr A portal to history Wars and Battles is not only a game, it is a portal: Wars and Battles will be launched in December 2013 with two battles (Gettysburg 1863 and Normandy 1944). Then we plan to launch one battle every two months and we have already 5 additional battles in the pipeline (Austerlitz 1805, Kharkov 1943, Market Garden 1944, The Korean War 1950-51 and October War 1973) that will all be launched in the first half of 2014. A tribute to Gettysburg’s 150th anniversary 150 years ago, more than 165,000 soldiers met on the battlefield at Gettysburg. During three days – July 1, 2 and 3, 1863 – the battle raged through the town and surrounding counties. Union and Confederate troops fought the largest battle in North America with 51,000 men dead, wounded or missing.
This epic battle will be the first published under Wars and Battles, together with Normandy 1944. Primary goal: $50,000 A better and more complete “Wars and Battles”
Launch of our 8th battle that will be chosen by all the backers!
Launch of our 9th and 10th battles should they be chosen by the backers that opt for the $10,000 pledge
Release in Russian. Stretch goal #1: Release of the First Battle of the Marne (1914) as a tribute to the 100th anniversary of the 1st World War
Release on new platforms (depending on your comments)
New language: German. Stretch goal #2 Release of a middle-age battle
Enriched in-game encyclopedia (‘Battlepedia’)
New languages: Italian, Portugese and Spanish. Stretch goal #3: Release of a Roman battle
Advanced rules for existing battles (more precise supply, combat and movement rules)
New language: Chinese, Japanese, Korean. Stretch goal #4: Release of an heroic-fantasy battle
Improved Artificial Intelligence that will revive historical tactics and strategy. An immersive gameplay The masterpiece of Wars and Battles is our exclusive rules system. It gives Wars and Battles the opportunity to benefit from rules adapted to many historical contexts: you will use jets and anti-air missiles when playing October War (1973), while for Gettysburg (1863) or Austerlitz (1805) specific rules will oblige you to orient certain units before fights. For Market Garden (1944) you will have to choose your drop zones and manage air supply to take and hold the bridges. To make these battles as realistic as possible, every unit (and we have hundreds in every battle) is characterized by more than 130 characteristics such as its life points, quality, movements, attack points, movement capacity per terrain, command bonus, replenishment capacity, supply consumption, anti-tank and anti-air characteristics, capacity to perform strategic movements and engage in pursuits, etc.): most of the rules of traditional tabletop wargames are embedded within Wars and Battles. In order to accelerate the play flow, each turn is divided into sub-steps called impulses where a player will be able to activate a limited number of units to move and/or to launch attacks. This system increases the back and forth between players and makes the game more intense. Maps The size of the maps has been determined to offer an in-depth gameplay, but also to give gamers the opportunity to see the battlefield at a glance. Our maps are divided into hexes. For instance, the Gettysburg map is made of more than 800 hexes (20x42): you will have many ways to reach the little round top!
As for any other aspects of our game, we have paid a particular attention to the details: the frame of our maps will be different if you play the Union or Confederate sides or the Allied or Axis sides in Normandy. And as you have probably noticed in the Gettysburg video above, our maps are in 3D! Normandy map designed for Wars and Battles 3D and 2D views
Wars and Battles will propose 3D and 2D views, both views being complementary. The 3D view is very appealing and will provide the player with the key info (attack points for attackers and defense points of the defenders) but this view will also be particularly helpful to experienced wargamers to understand the landform of Gettysburg 1863 and the mountain roads of the Korean peninsula (Korean War 1950-51). German defensive position on the Odon River - Normandy 1944 The 2D view will provide the player with more details on the units and allow him to embrace most of the map at a glance. 2D HUD - Movements available for the M10 Wolverines of the "Combat Command B1" (2nd US armored division) Exciting achievements
You will start Wars and Battles as a soldier and, with time, experience and victories you may eventually be promoted to General or even to Commander in Chief. This will not be an easy path as to succeed you will have to play and win many scenarios and battles through tactical, operational or strategic victories.
During your play, you will also gain achievements and some of them will award you a medal. With skills, time, and luck, you may be able to pin dozens of medals to your chest…and your first medal could be the Kickstarter Backer Bronze, Silver or Gold medal proposed in some of the pledges! "Battlepedia"
We have created for Wars and Battles an in-game encyclopedia focused on factual information regarding equipment and historical context. With this "Battlepedia", which will include many illustrations, Wars and Battles will be a reference for gamers fond of history.
M10 Wolverine specifications - Wars and Battles Battlepedia
Solo game
You will be able to play Wars and Battles solo thanks to the Artificial Intelligence we are currently designing. This will give you the capability to play when you are disconnected from the network or just when you want to relax alone without the stress of playing against other gamers.
If the stretch goals are met, we will be able to dramatically improve this Artificial Intelligence by respecting the tactical and strategic schemes of every army and commander, as well as their evolution over time. Unique multiplayer experience Wars and Battles will include an asynchronous mode, which is traditional in turn-based strategy games. But with Wars and Battles, you will not only be able to play against your friends, or any opponents in the world, you will also be able to play with them.
For example, when playing Normandy 1944, you will lead the American army while one of your friends will play the British, against 1 or 2 opponents that will play the Germans. You will realize how fighting together is a tough experience requiring coordination and skill. Wars and Battles will also provide you with a unique feature: the "Blitz" mode to play in real time against an opponent. In "Blitz" mode, you will have a limited amount of time to determine the move and combat of your units and will have to make the right decisions quickly, like a general in his headquarters. Cross platform game
Wars and Battles will be released on the most popular platforms: PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android tablets and smartphones. More than that, your battles will be saved in the Cloud so you will be able to start a game on your PC and continue it on your sofa with your tablet or away from home with your smartphone.
Social networks
With Wars and Battles, you will also share your battles and achievements with your friends through the game, Facebook or Twitter.
Facebook/WarsandBattles
@warsandbattles
Beyond History…
We pay great attention to historical details; our first team member was a historian. But our game is not only a tribute to history…
On our team, we also love SCI-FI and heroic fantasy and we expect that with the success of Wars and Battles we will be able to offer you other environments and other worlds. The Wars and Battles team is made up of both video game specialists and wargames veterans. Our project leaders, game designer, lead programmer and lead artist have all worked for major studios such as Electronic Arts, Activision and Ubi Soft. The opportunity to work on a new project where we are finally able to create OUR game is a fantastic motivation for the team. All together, our team has accumulated more than 50 years of experience in video games and 100 years in wargames. Our team! Wargame designers The specific nature of Wars and Battles is the importance given to historians and wargame designers. Some of the best French wargame specialists are supporting our project, such as Nicolas Stratigos, editor in chief of the famous wargame magazine "Vae Victis", and Frederic Bey, an expert of the Napoleonic battles and author of the "Jours de Gloire" series. Many of our wargame designers are also engaged in the French army and have brought their experience of combat to the wargame design.
Development team
Our development team is made up of experienced game designers, artists and programmers, led by Pascal, Adrien and Gilles:
Pascal, the Game Designer of Wars and Battles, has worked for major studios and publishers since 1995 including Activision, SCEE, Ubisoft and DICE. In particular, he was Lead Level Designer on the world acclaimed multiplayer versions of Splinter Cell, Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory. He was also Creative Director on Wanted, Weapons of Fate, and designer of CTF-Tornado.
Adrien is our Lead Artist. He has worked for Ubisoft and been involved on Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 1 and 2, Splinter Cell Double Agent, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, Raving Rabbids TV Party, Alexander (Ubisoft / GSC Gameworld) …
Gilles is our Lead Programmer. He has worked on projects for Ubisoft, Cyanide, GameLift and Dancing Dots. Historians Committed to respecting historical reality, our team has a historical department tasked with verifying the accuracy of the information in the game and providing documentation to the other team members. The department is headed by Hadrien, our Chief Historian Officer, assisted by Edouard and Paul. |
CAMPAIGNERS against Scottish independence must give people a “positive” reason for staying within the UK, Alistair Darling has said, ahead of a major speech this week on the case for Scotland’s place within the Union.
In an interview with Scotland on Sunday, the leader of the Better Together campaign says he aims to make the “head and heart” case on the continuation of the 30-year-old Union, pointing to the economic and social benefits of the single UK state.
It comes after a week in which the pro-UK campaign has been accused by opponents of “scaremongering” its way to winning next year’s referendum, by exaggerating the downsides of independence and failing to offer a convincing case for the UK.
Darling says today that as well as raising questions about independence, the No campaign must give people a “good reason to come out and vote” in favour of the UK over the next year if it is to win convincingly.
His speech at Glasgow University will list factors including the European single market, UK-wide freedom of movement and the contribution Scotland has made to aid and international affairs as part of the UK.
However, the Yes Scotland campaign last night hit back, saying an attempt by the pro-UK side to set out a positive case would, if true, be the “biggest U-turn in recent political history”.
In the interview, Darling said he believed there would be a convincing win for the pro-UK side, but only if it focussed on the “positive” case.
The history of the Union had shown how Scots could prosper, he said: “There are still incredible opportunities here. Why would you construct barriers to that now, where there are none at present?
“Nobody is going to put me off from asking the difficult questions and we have done that over Europe and over the currency. What I want to do this week is to make the case for the UK.”
He said: “A great number of people are proud to be Scottish and proud to be British and they want to know why they have to choose between them. They don’t want to choose between them. The emotional case is just as strong as it is for somebody who holds a different view.”
He added: “If you weren’t in the UK, is there a case for joining it? Yes, emphatically there is. There are extremely powerful economic reasons.”
Darling also said it was likely that the case would include a set of proposals from the three pro-UK parties on devolution after a “no” vote.
He said: “Even the Tories are now saying there has to be some sort of change. This is not a static thing. The three parties would first have to develop their own offers.”
Given the length of the campaign, however, both sides would “struggle” to hold the interest of the public, he said. He added: “I hope that whatever the result next year this puts the matter to bed for a generation.”
Responding, a spokesman for Yes Scotland said: “The No Campaign going into positive mode would be the biggest U-turn in recent political history. But we won’t be holding our breath on that one. We will always make the positive case for an independent Scotland.”
Read more on Scottish independence here |
Wayne Riggs(left) jousts Phillip Leitch(right)(photo by Lisa Leitch) Wayne Riggs(left) jousts Phillip Leitch(right)(photo by Lisa Leitch)
Phillip Leitch on his Friesian Stallion Valiant greets the public (photo by Lisa Leitch) Phillip Leitch on his Friesian Stallion Valiant greets the public (photo by Lisa Leitch)
Justin Holland on Bounty(left) jousts Phillip Leitch on Valiant(right)
(photo by Lisa Leitch) Justin Holland on Bounty(left) jousts Phillip Leitch on Valiant(right)(photo by Lisa Leitch)
Wayne Riggs on his horse Hood does MSA(photo by Lisa Leitch) Wayne Riggs on his horse Hood does MSA(photo by Lisa Leitch)
"Squire Sam" is chased by the evil "Sir Riggsy" (photo by Lisa Leitch) "Squire Sam" is chased by the evil "Sir Riggsy" (photo by Lisa Leitch)
Justin Holland(left) jousts Phillip Leitch(right)(photo by Lisa Leitch) Justin Holland(left) jousts Phillip Leitch(right)(photo by Lisa Leitch)
Phillip Leitch, Justin Holland and Wayne Riggs(photo by Lisa Leitch) Phillip Leitch, Justin Holland and Wayne Riggs(photo by Lisa Leitch)
Written by Phillip Leitch with pictures by Lisa Leitch:The first ever Burnie-Wynyard Medieval Festival, was held the weekend of the 15th and 16th of September. It included a mounted skill at arms(MSA) display, a melee and a joust by Australian jousters, Justin Holland, Wayne Riggs and Phillip Leitch.This was the first joust to be held in Phillip's home state of Tasmania, and it was very well received by the locals.Two of the horses used in the event had never jousted in a public display before and stepped up to the task, as if they were seasoned veterans. Phillip's Friesian Stallion 'Valiant' stole the show with his impressive physique and presence. Phillip's wife Lisa was kind enough to lend the jousters her Australian Stock Horse 'Bounty', who had done the least joust training of the three, but he was ridden well by seasoned jouster Justin Holland, and performed brilliantly throughout the weekend.The third horse 'Hood', owned by Wayne Riggs was shipped over by ferry especially for the tournament and put on a great display of speed and skill, truly a credit to his owner and rider. Wayne, when asked about his horse's breeding will tell you he is a "Mongrel", but whatever his breed, he was definitely worth the effort and expense to bring into the state.The joust was broken up with pieces of improvised theatrics where the evil "Sir Riggsy" would, chastise, beat and boss "Sir Phillip's" squire "Sam" around, and chase him down the lyst. Occasionally "Sir Phillip" would intervene, pursuing the evil knight or challenging him to further joust passes. The comedic performance of "Squire Sam" is something that the audience will surely remember for a long time.Over the weekend three joust displays were run and judged separately. Amazingly, each of the jousters won one of the displays! A very close competition indeed.It is hoped that the weekend will turn into an annual event, growing in size and involving more jousters in the future. Even so, for a small place like Tasmania, it was a great event that the organizers should be very proud of.Many thanks to Phillip Leitch and Lisa Leitch for providing the text and pictures for this article. |
March 14, 2014 / Brooklyn news Bruce Pandolfini offers roving workshops to Brooklyn kids through Chess NYC Check great! Chess whiz offers kids master’s courses The Brooklyn Paper
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Brooklyn chess whizzes and novices are about to get some lessons in strategy from one of the world’s most well-known players.
Bruce Pandolfini, a United States Chess Federation national master and a contemporary of Bobby Fischer, began coaching in the borough this week. He is not doing it for the money or the glory, he said.
“I do it because I love it,” said Pandolfini, who grew up in Bensonhurst and Flatbush and now lives in Manhattan. “Once you show a kid that she or he can do well at something like this, they can use it as a springboard to be good at other things.”
Pandolfini first got bitten by the chess bug when she was a kid.
“I was walking through the Brooklyn Public Library when I was 13 and I came across the chess section. I became obsessed with the figures and names,” he said. “I took out all 32 books by going back six times that day and didn’t go to school for a month.”
He began teaching in 1972, which is the same year that he officiated at the World Chess Championship match between Fischer and Russian defending champion Boris Spassky.
Pandolfini was portrayed by Ben Kingsley — yes, the guy who played Gandhi — in the 1993 movie “Searching for Bobby Fischer.”
The master’s Brooklyn tour is being organized by the group Chess NYC, which for years only operated in Williamsburg’s IS 318, the middle school whose award-winning chess club was the subject of a documentary called “The Brooklyn Castle.” The group has now expanded to two elementary schools — one in Greenpoint and one in Prospect Heights — and the Ella McQueen juvenile detention center in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Chess NYC offers early-bird, lunch, and after-school programs, as well as chess camps on every day that school is not in session, with the goal of making the game less elitist.
“When I was a kid, it was four quarters or nine innings or I was not interested,” said Michael Propper, who runs Chess NYC. “We are working on making chess more mainstream so that it is in the kids’ consciousness.”
Reach reporter Danielle Furfaro at dfurfaro@c nglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2511. Follow her at twitter.co m/Danielle Furfaro .
Updated 10:17 pm, July 9, 2018
©2014 |
In the past few months, scanning the new arrivals at my local library, I have picked up the same paperback novella several times. Drawn to its one-word title and desaturated blue and off-white spine, I never remember why I decided against it on previous occasions. Then I see the descriptive copy on the back cover, which begins with something like “Written in one long incantatory paragraph…” At this point I put it back on the shelf. I have no desire to read a book without paragraph breaks. The lack of white space on the page can make me feel a little panicky, like being on a train in an underground tunnel – what’s my exit strategy? Reading a book, I always glance ahead to see where the section or chapter ends, so I know when I can stop reading if I want or need to. Stopping mid-paragraph is deeply unsatisfying – no sense of closure, no easy way to remember where I left off when I next pick it up.
Claustrophobic tendencies aside, of late I am actively interested in paragraphs, their formal possibilities. Sentences are taken to be the basic unit of prose, and we use them metonymically – we say “She writes wonderful sentences” when we mean to praise the author’s prose. James Salter is so well-known for his sentences that it rises to the level (or sinks, I suppose) of critical cliché. In a 2013 profile in the New Yorker, Salter is quoted, in a letter to a friend: “I wanted to get past the great-writer-of-sentences thing. I don’t care about that, at this stage.” But why is it, I wonder, we rarely talk about a writer’s way with paragraphs?
It may be because there is a lot more you can do with a sentence to vary it; syntax and diction, all those micro-choices that add up to the macro-style of (say) a novel, happen at the level of the sentence. There are pretty much only two ways to vary your paragraphs. The first is length. Some writers work in short paragraphs, some in fluctuating lengths, others in long, multi-page-spanning paragraphs, like our incantatory friend above. Some writers work at both ends, depending on the book – compare As I Lay Dying to Absalom, Absalom! It’s no coincidence that the former, with its many breaks, is easier to read; it could almost pass for YA. Bestsellers keep paragraphs and chapters short as a tactic – they make for more addictive, snack-like reading, so the reader repeatedly thinks I’ll just read one more.
The second – and in my view the far more interesting lever – is to change the way you build sentences into paragraphs, and the way you move from paragraph to paragraph. How many sentences are there per paragraph, and what links the sentences? What style is achieved in the blank space, the synapse, between end punctuation and initial letter? What governs the move to start a new paragraph? What happens in the pause after the hard return?
Single-sentence paragraphs, when not used for dialogue, are often used for humor. See the first three paragraphs of David Foster Wallace’s essay on cruise ships, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again”:
The comic-timing pauses around the Conga Line sentence remind me of the way the Bobby character in Richard Attenborough’s film version of A Chorus Line delivers his monologue about growing up in Buffalo – strolling stage left, pausing to face the director before delivering the laugh lines, then strolling back stage right. So you get the set-up mid-stroll (“I couldn’t catch a ball if it had Elmer’s Glue on it. And wouldn’t my father have to be this big ex-football hero. Well, he was so humiliated, he didn’t know what to tell his friends, so he told them all I had polio”); then the pause, the quarter-turn, and in a tone somewhere between smirking and deadpan: “On Father’s Day I used to limp for him.” Wallace uses this tempo for jokes throughout his essay; on the next page, the one-line paragraphs are “(Actually it was more like I shot at skeet at sea)” and “I now understand the term ‘Duty Free.’”
What most people follow is a variation of the rule established for “five-paragraph essays” in grade school, where each paragraph is built around a “topic sentence.” As such, if the essay is an argument, each paragraph represents a subargument, with the first and last paragraphs reserved for introductory and closing remarks. (This seems like a big waste of two-fifths of the allotted paragraphs; in school I learned to save one of my best points for the end, to avoid having to rephrase my intro all over again.) In fiction, especially long fiction, the job of the paragraph is somewhat more subtle, but as a unit it endeavors to move the story forward in its tiny way; it’s a rotation of the wheels.
In nonfiction, I’m obsessed with what I’ve come to think of as the invisible transition, where there is no clear, necessary connection between two paragraphs, and yet – something happens. The juxtaposition isn’t as jarring as a non sequitur, but it could have been otherwise. In fact I’d argue that what’s mostly “lyric” about a so-called lyric essay are these transitions, these leaps, more so than some inherently “poetic” quality of the language. Invisible transitions make a text feel more open, and inside these openings, essays gesture toward poetry. (Gertrude Stein said “Sentences are not emotional but paragraphs are,” though who knows if she meant it.)
Some writers are in the habit of overwriting their invisible transitions with visible markers, be it numbers that transform the paragraphs into an ordered list (as in Bluets by Maggie Nelson), or those little typographical ornaments used to mark section breaks, the glyphs sometimes known as flourishes or fleurons or dingbats or asterisms, depending on their design. In My 1980s & Other Essays, Wayne Koestenbaum tries both approaches, though sometimes the numbered sections include multiple paragraphs. This tactic is almost a denial of conscious involvement in the ordering of paragraphs, bringing the essay closer to a notebook of pensées (or maybe a blog post); it gives the appearance of “effortlessness.”
Accordingly it’s in the essays that don’t use section signs that I appreciate the transitions most. Take, for example, the first two paragraphs of Koestenbaum’s “John Ashbery’s Lazy Susan”:
A John Ashbery poem behaves like a lazy Susan. Spin it and get whatever condiment you want, without having to say “pardon my reach.” His poems offer a model of writing-against-fatigue, a method of incorporating lethargy in the compositional act: “I’m too tired to write” and “I want to write” can coexist, sing together, in utterances equally industrious and dithering. How hard does an Ashbery poem work? Very hard. Not hard. Call it the Lazy Susan Sublime.
Because two paragraphs are not enough to see these transitions as a pattern versus an isolated instance, let’s look at the fourth and fifth paragraphs too:
Consider each Ashbery poem an instruction manual on how to spend time fruitfully by wasting it, by growing distracted, blurry, foggy, garrulous, horny, contrapuntal. Reading Ashbery, we enter a fugue state; polysemy (Polly Seamy) overtakes us. After Ashbery, it’s impossible to use an idiom seriously. He corrupts our sincerity function, perverts it, encourages us never to mean what we say. It’s banal to be transparent.
Each paragraph is almost self-contained, a mini-essay inside the essay – not fractal, but molecular. (To put more water in the pool, you don’t have to consider arrangement; just add molecules.) There is no “secondly,” no “furthermore.” When this is carried out for the length of an essay, there’s a sense of orchestrated contingency. Each sentence is perfected, but the whole could have easily included more paragraphs, or less. It had no inevitable direction. (Note how Koestenbaum seems to spring off into new paragraphs based on whim, a sonic association, a preoccupation with a single word, a desire to go back and expand. Prose is fecund this way; it can grow from the inside, not just the end, and paragraphs are opportunities for fruitful digression.) I love the way inter-paragraph gaps fight against the idea of essay as argument, and make it an act of discovery. Or rather a document of discovery, like an explorer’s journal, written in pencil and gone back through – to add color more than accuracy; even at the expense of accuracy. The essay needn’t be faithful to the path of the thinking, but the form can reveal how thinking happens, like when a song gets stuck in your head and only later do you realize why you thought of it, that you had read or heard a word from the third verse. There’s magic there – the mind doesn’t always show its work. Why should prose? |
Story highlights Fifty-two percent of Americans say things are going well in the nation
One-third of Americans say the economy is improving, an 8-point increase from last year
The mood of the nation breaks down on geographic and gender lines
For the first time since 2007, a majority of Americans think things are going well in the nation, a new CNN/ORC International poll found.
It's a slim majority — just 52 percent of Americans said things are going well, while 48 percent said things are going badly — but it's the most positive appraisal of the state of the nation that the poll has found since January of 2007.
And it marks consistent improvement in the mood of the nation over the past few months, despite a series of national security crises and continued gridlock in Washington. In September, 50 percent of respondents said things were going well.
Economic sentiments have improved over the past year as well. Though just one-third of Americans believe the nation's economy is starting to recover, that marks an 8-point increase from a year ago, when 24 percent said the same.
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A plurality, 41 percent, say the economy has stabilized, a 5-point improvement from November of 2013.
And just 26 percent of Americans say the country's economic conditions are getting worse, a decline from the 39 percent who said so in 2013.
But the mood of the nation isn't consistently positive in the new CNN/ORC poll — it suggests both a gender and geographic divide.
Men are both more positive about the state of the nation and the economy than women, the poll shows. Fifty-five percent of men say things are going well in America, compared to 48 percent of women who say the same; 36 percent of men believe the economy is recovering, while only 28 percent of women say the same.
And economic conditions appear to be better in the Northeast and Midwest than they are in the southern and western parts of the nation, as respondents are more likely in those regions to say the economy is improving. They're also more likely to say that things are going well than their counterparts in the South and West.
The CNN/ORC poll was conducted among 1,045 adults via telephone from Nov. 21-23, and has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3 points. |
The Gujarat government on Saturday decided to withdraw 74 criminal cases filed against 382 Patidars involved in the quota stir, and termed it as a move to maintain “peace and harmony” in the state. Without naming Hardik Patel, leader of the agitation, it even said serious cases against the Patidars would be “reviewed”.
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The state government also allowed members of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) to hold a four-day dharna in Surat to press for the release of its convener Hardik from jail, following which five members of the outfit ended their indefinite fast.
Nitin Patel, Health Minister and also government spokesperson, said Chief Minister Anandiben Patel took into consideration the pleas of senior leaders of the Patidar community and made a decision “within 24 hours” for peace and harmony in the state. “The Home Department has been directed to implement the decision accordingly,” the minister said.
Overall, 457 cases have been registered against 1,750 people in 18 districts, the minister stated in an official release. Of these 1,736 have been released on bail, leaving only 14, facing serious charges, in prison, the minister said, without naming Hardik or other key leaders of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), who are currently in jail for sedition.
The government spokesperson said the government would take decision in a phased manner in other police cases. According to him, less serious cases would be withdrawn first, while the others would be reviewed on a “case-to-case” basis.
He also alleged that Opposition Congress was spreading misinformation saying hundreds of Patidars are still in state prisons. “The Opposition is trying the mislead people to take advantage of the situation, which must be stopped in its tracks,” the minister said.
Meanwhile, Congress offered a guarded welcome to the decision. The party’s national spokesman Shaktisinh Gohil said, “The government now has realised that it has filed false cases against PAAS workers, and therefore, it has to withdraw those cases… I welcome the good sense prevailing over the government, but it could be another lollypop if things stop here.”
In Surat, the state government allowed PAAS members to hold a four-day mega “dharna” in Sarthana area of Surat from Sunday. After persmission for the sit-in from the government, five members of the Samiti ended their indefinite hunger strike in presence of Surat mayor Ashmita Shiroya in the evening.
Talking to The Sunday Express, one of the agitating PAAS leaders Nikhil Sawani said, “We are happy that government had listened to our demands and gave us permission to carry out dharna programmes. We will sit on dharna and demand the government to release Hardik and other Patidar youths who are in jail.”
Meanwhile, in Vadodara, PAAS activists have been preparing their strategy for the second phase of the quota stir, which would likely include a relay fast beginning January 19.
As part of their ongoing protest against the BJP-led state government, youth leaders of the PAAS would also organise a blood donation camp in Padra in Vadodara on Sunday to pay tribute to Mayur Patel, who died on December 27 four months after he was hit by a bullet during the quota violence in August. The blood donation event would be orgnised at Muval in Padra taluka of Vadodara.
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Vadodara PAAS convenor Paresh Patel said around 500 members of the community would be at the event. “We are having a meeting on January 10 in Godhra where the leaders will meet to decide the statewide strategy for the agitation,” he said. |
Homeland Insecurity: The FBI's arrest of a group of New Jersey and New York Muslims trying to organize a "small army" for the Islamic State leaves little doubt we are facing a full-blown Islamic insurgency inside our borders.
According to a just-released federal criminal complaint, five young Muslim men tied to IS were busted conspiring to recruit a small army for the terror group in New Jersey and New York.
The busts bring to 70 the number of IS-inspired terrorists arrested in this country in homeland plots.
Meantime, the FBI reports that all 56 of its field offices have active investigations against other IS suspects.
It's now clear we're besieged by a Fifth Column. Yet the White House fatuously insists these are unrelated, unconnected, isolated, one-off "lone wolf" incidents.
Federal agents don't see it that way. They see all these "lone wolves" running in the same religious pack.
On Monday, agents charged Nader Saadeh, a 20-year-old Jordanian immigrant from Rutherford, N.J., with providing material support to IS. Saadeh's 23-year-old brother, Alaa, along with at least three other Muslims were also arrested in connection with the IS cell.
The complaint says the devout Muslims "discussed building a small army" to attack non-Muslims. In a recorded conversation, one suspect fretted about NSA surveillance and suggested they leave America, to which another suspect stated: "Why? We already infiltrated."
"Saadeh sent electronic messages expressing his hatred for the United States and desire to form a small army that would include their friends," the Justice Department said in a statement. "Saadeh posted on his Facebook page images of ISIL's flag and the flag of the Islamic caliphate."
The FBI added Saadeh posted anti-American messages online and repeatedly downloaded IS videos and praised the terror group's atrocities, including beheadings, burnings and the murder of French cartoonists.
He agreed offending the Muslim prophet Muhammad is "reason to encourage Muslims to kill whoever does that." Some of the IS suspects arrested earlier allegedly were scouting New York landmarks as possible terror targets, including the George Washington Bridge.
Perhaps most chilling, the radicalization of the Saadeh boys appears to have had the blessing of their Jordanian father, who had been deported from the U.S. along with Saadeh's mother after "sustaining criminal convictions." The FBI says the father advised one of his sons to "delete everything off his phone" to avoid federal authorities detecting their plans.
The 16-page complaint notes that agents and informants observed "changes in Saadeh's appearance and behavior" that coincided with his pledging allegiance to the Islamic State. From late 2014 through April of this year, it says he:
"Frequently researched Islamic writings and often studied the Quran."
"Grew out his beard and dyed it red," mimicking Muhammad.
"Began to fast, and stopped drinking, smoking and eating foods that were not permissible under Islamic law."
"Began praying five times a day."
"Wore traditional Muslim attire in place of the Western clothing he had previously worn."
Became "offended and agitated by any conversation or mention of any religion other than Islam."
"Converted (others) to Islam."
These details provide valuable investigative clues for local authorities trying to ferret out other radicalized jihadists in the Muslim community.
Saadeh's increased piety fits a pattern among IS and other terrorist recruits. The Boston marathon bombers and the Chattanooga shooter underwent the same transformation. The more religious indoctrination they absorbed, the more radical they became.
The FBI complaint contradicts White House claims the terrorists aren't motivated by religion.
It also suggests that rooting out this problem will require putting more mosques under surveillance. |
SAN FRANCISCO -- From the swirling winds off the bay that can play fits with the football to the 1989 earthquake that rocked the World Series, Candlestick Park has long been an unpredictable venue known for its challenges.
Monday Night Football nearly became a Monday Night Fiasco when everything went dark -- twice.
San Francisco's lights-out return to prime time in a 20-3 victory over the Steelers helped salvage what could have been an embarrassing evening for everyone involved on the NFL's biggest stage after a pair of power outages delayed the game for close to 35 minutes in all.
"I just feel like San Francisco took a big step to show the NFL and to show the state of California that they need a new stadium," Steelers safety Ryan Clark said. "I think it was a very strategic move, and Candlestick may be no more."
Good thing there's a state-of-the-art $1 billion stadium in the works.
The 49ers rode their top-ranked run defense once again to keep ailing Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger off balance and maintain a hold on the NFC's No. 2 playoff seed and a first-round bye.
"Electric atmosphere tonight," tweeted team president Jed York -- unclear if his pun was intended.
Vernon Davis caught a 1-yard touchdown pass for the 49ers (11-3) one play after setting himself up with a 21-yard reception from Alex Smith, Frank Gore ran for a 5-yard score and David Akers kicked field goals of 22 and 38 yards to overtake Hall of Famer Jerry Rice for San Francisco's single-season scoring record. |
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