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21 year-old Jane Park is suing the lottery, because she claims winning it ruined her life. Four years ago, when she was 17, Park won roughly 1.4 million dollars.
“It’s scary how different my life is from my friends’. When they say they’re stressed about the money they mean their wages are s---,” she said. “There’s no one in the same boat as me, no one who really understands. I feel like I’m a 40-year-old.”
That sounds tough.
She said she only gets to go on about 4 vacations a year because her friends are too broke, and there’s one luxury vacation spot she won’t be going back to.
“In the Maldives, you can’t go and get absolutely hammered and crawl back to your water bungalow. It was more older, honeymooney.”
Don’t you hate that?
Park, who owns two houses and a purple Range Rover, told the Sunday People, “I wish I had no money most days.”
That said, she flaunts her wealth on her Instagram account.
“People look at me and think, ‘I wish I had her lifestyle, I wish I had her money.’ But they don’t realize the extent of my stress. I have material things but apart from that my life is empty. What is my purpose in life?”
If she wins her lawsuit, she plans to donate these winnings to charity. But not the lottery winnings - that money she’s reluctantly keeping. |
Will Davison says he leaves Tekno Autosport “with my head held high” after two Supercars seasons that netted a 2016 Bathurst 1000 victory.
Davison joined the single-car outfit last year, winning Bathurst with owner Jonathon Webb and finishing fifth in the championship.
This season has been tougher, failing to reach the podium and finishing 15th in the points, and it has been expected for some months that Davison would not stay for 2018.
Jack Le Brocq is set to step up from the Dunlop Super2 Series to replace Davison, who is poised to join 23Red Racing when it is born out of Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport.
“I’m sad. I’m a bit numb,” Davison told Supercars.com of finishing with Tekno.
“Obviously feeling optimistic for the future, eyes forward. That’s all you can do.
“We’ve shared some great times, this year has been tough and unfortunately it’s not going to go on here.
“Some great friends I’ve made here, mechanics and Campbell [Little], so many of the small Tekno crew are great people.
“We’ve stuck together this year in tough circumstances and I'm certainly sad to leave here. But I leave with my head held high.
“I could go to the couch, but I’ve certainly got a lot left in me and I’m going to do whatever I can to get back up to the front of the grid.”
Davison finished ninth in both races of the Coates Hire Newcastle 500, his first top 10 finishes since the Townsville event in July.
On Saturday, Davison was fourth in the effective order but had to stack behind Triple Eight’s Craig Lowndes - with whom he shared a bay in 2017 - in pitstops taken under Safety Car conditions on lap 34 and fell to 17th.
“Pretty ordinary, very testing, but that’s the sport we play, the sport we love,” he said of the season.
“The rewards are high and the downs make you stronger. We’ve finished on a good note.
“No champagne, we had a great opportunity for that [on Saturday] and unfortunately a Safety Car fell at just the worst moment.
“Having to queue, we kissed that podium goodbye but we had a good car [on Sunday] and had a good, fun race.
“It was pretty hectic out there and we brought it home P9.
“Could’ve been a few spots better, but ifs, buts and maybes. We had a good car and a good, clean weekend.” |
The cities of Langford, Vernon and Richmond are all leading the charge to reduce the dangers of high-speed traffic with a unique pace car program.
Just like on racetracks, the clearly-marked pace cars would stick to the speed limit on local roads, hopefully encouraging other drivers to do the same.
The program is completely based on volunteer drivers.
The City of Langford received a grant of $1,500 for the program from Parachute Canada, a safety organization based in Toronto.
Parachute says their volunteers sign a “Pace Car Supporters Pledge” and proudly display the official Pace Car emblems on their car. Motorists have already signed up in Langford, according to Parachute.
After that, they drive the speed limit, hoping to encourage others to do the same.
Parachute spokesperson Julie Taylor says the pace cars increase awareness about appropriate speeds, especially in school zones and areas with lots of pedestrians.
“The aim of the program is to increase awareness around speed reduction in the communities particularly in school zones and pedestrian dense areas. By displaying the pace car window cling or bumper sticker on your car, you are actually acting as mobile speed bump, so other cars will slow down as a result of the window cling and the bumper sticker.”
Langford RCMP has so far refused to comment on the program, and Global News was not able to find a single city where the program has been used successfully.
Happy Valley Elementary in Langford has partnered with volunteers, local RCMP and the fire department to use the pace cars in their school zone.
School principal Karen Decicco says she hopes the presence of the cars will remind drivers to slow down.
“People are very aware of the speed and they are trying their best to pay attention to it, but I think this is just a gentle reminder that there’s a school here and there’s lots of children.”
Alan Lamb, Director of the Pacific Traffic Education Centre at the Justice Institute of BC, says the presence of pace cars could frustrate drivers.
“The safest thing is to keep traffic at roughly the same speed, the much discussed 85th percentile. Trying to force people behind these so-called “mobile speed bumps” could cause conflicts, anger, dangerous driving… even road rage.”
On Unfiltered with Jill Krop tonight, Chris Thompson of SENSE BC, an organization lobbying to increase speed limits in B.C., says the “pace cars” could actually become a hazard.
“If they’re doing the speed limit in school zones — that’s one thing, but if they are doing the speed limit where the posted speed limit is vastly slower than the average speed of the car, basically the sticker says ‘I am a hazard, try to avoid me as much as you can,’ and I think they are going to cause huge amounts of road rage.”
Kerry Zado, Deputy Fire Chief of Langford, who is also one of the organizers of the campaign in that city, says that if people are driving the speed limit, there are no issues.
“We’ve told the people who have agreed to do this, that if someone is tailgating or looks aggressive, or needs to get by you, pull over and let them go by. We are not trying to be the police state — that’s not what’s it about. It’s about encouraging everybody to slow down to the speed limit.” |
The fight broke out on Sunday evening when a dog belonging to a 32-year-old woman did its business in a local park, reports Die Welt.
A 33-year-old female passer-by, seeing the dog's owner walk on, demanded that she clean up her dog's mess, police reported.
When the woman refused a shouting match ensued. Before long the 33-year-old had thrown her keys at the dog owner and hit her on the head.
At this point a passing man managed to separate the two women.
But that wasn't the end of it. The dog owner returned a few minutes later with male reinforcements and once again things got violent.
By this point five people were involved in a full blown fist fight. One person was even using a club, police revealed on Monday.
According to town regulations in Bergisch Gladbach, not cleaning up dog poo can carry a fine of 30 euros.
The police are also investigating serious bodily harm due to evidence of serious wounds, swollen arms and ripped out hair as a result of the fight.
This is not the first time this year that enraged Germans have made headlines with an act of protest against dog poo.
In April, locals in Einbeck, Lower Saxony, gathered 250 kg of dogs' leavings from the town's parks and hung it round the neck of a famous local statue in protest against lazy owners. |
Vital Stats:
Vitola: Toro
Length: 6″
Ring Gauge: 50
Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Nicaragua Corojo Habano
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Mexico and Nicaragua
Factory: Plasencia Cigars S.A.
Blender: Enrique Sanchez
Number of reviewers: 5—–Ron (shuckins) Dave (mdwest) Gregg (McGreggor57) Derek (StogieNinja) Milton (mjohnsoniii)
Price: $11.80
Age: 4 Months
Release Date: 2012
Contributed by: House of Emilio
This cigar was reviewed blind (no bands) by a panel of at least 4 reviewers. They did not know what they were smoking beforehand. The scores are an average of all the reviewers' scores with outliers removed.
Initial Impressions
Appearance: 94
“An inviting caramel wrapper with a slight box press. The foot is partially wrapped around the edges giving it a nice presentation.” –Gregg (McGreggor57)
Aroma: 94
“There was a strong tobacco aroma with leather and a hint of sweetness. Can’t wait to fire this thing up.” –Milton (mjohnsoniii)
First Third
Flavor: 90
Strength: Medium
Body/Complexity: Light-Medium
“A smooth start, with a cedar and grass mix on light up. Soon after, a light peppery allspice, with a hint of cocoa shows up to provide a tasty start to the cigar.” –Ron (shuckins)
“The cold draw produced tobacco and dried grass flavors, with just a little bit of black pepper mixed in. Pleasant, but not at all what I was expecting. Lit, the cigar produces very similar flavors and brings a profile that is filled with spice, grass, tobacco and the occasional touch of pepper. The finish is long, and almost a little “cubanesque”, which is surprising. The flavors are light, not bold at all, but are very nice.” –Dave (mdwest)
Second Third
Flavor: 91
Strength: Medium
Body/Complexity: Medium
“The boldness of the first third is dialing back a notch, allowing the oak and leather to settle in to a solid profile. There is a hint of coffee on the finish that provides some additional interest and balance.” –Gregg (McGreggor57)
“Much the same, a nice medium combination of leather, light cocoa and a steady sweetness with some light baking spices in the background. The red pepper is light, but remains as a nice spice on the lips. It’s a medium bodied stick, and while the flavors are not as deep as I’d like them to be, it’s a very pleasant experience overall.” –Derek (StogieNinja)
Final Third
Flavor: 93
Strength: Medium
Body/Complexity: Medium
“The grassiness faded, taking the sweetness with it. The cedar became dry tasting as some of the creaminess left when the allspice picked up more pepper. It became more prominent and provided a nice kick to the cigar as it neared the end.” –Ron (shuckins)
“The flavors stayed consistent going into the final third. There’s still plenty of coffee but the almond had died down a bit. It also began burning unevenly at this point but quickly fixed itself without any assistance. Leather was present along with some floral hints. This has been a very decent cigar.” –Milton (mjohnsoniii)
Overall Impressions
Draw: 98
“Spot on. Never any issues, not too tight, not too lose.” –Derek (StogieNinja)
Burn: 90
“The burn line stayed crooked from beginning to end, but continued to self correct and never needed a touch up. The ash was tight and clung to the stick reliably the entire smoke.” –Dave (mdwest)
Construction: 93
“I was shocked that I didn’t have many problems with this cigar. The box shape was perfect, there were hardly any veins and its wrapper was laid almost to perfection. Its double cap was flawless and overall, the cigar felt good in the hand. No soft spots, but firm enough to give and bounce back when squeezed.” –Milton (mjohnsoniii)
Overall Strength: Medium
Overall Body/Complexity: Medium
Overall Experience: 93
“An enjoyable cigar with decent flavors that I would smoke again.” –Ron (shuckins)
“This stick took me for a ride that I didnt expect. Prior to lighting it I thought I would be smoking something medium to full in strength, with earthy qualities and that the stick would be very much “in your face”. What I got instead was a fairly complex stick that was closer to the mild side of the strength equation with light, but pronounced flavors. Instead of an after an evening meal type smoke, I ended up with a cigar that I think would be extremely nice with a morning cup of coffee. I’ll likely be seeking more of these out once the reveal is done.” –Dave (mdwest)
“This cigar hit a lot of profiles while staying true to the wood and oak. Spicy and bold in the beginning, with a breather of solid flavors in the middle and finishing with a mellow sweetness from the baking spices. The draw and smoke production were an added bonus to this stick. It’s one I would definitely pick up again.” –Gregg (McGreggor57)
“For fans of the profile, it’s definitely recommended. I thoroughly enjoyed the red pepper on the lips. I do generally prefer a deeper, fuller, more complex profile, but setting personal preferences aside, it was quite good, possibly the best in this category I’ve reviewed for BMP. For those looking for a medium bodied cigar with decent flavors and a hint of spice, this’ll do quite nicely.” –Derek (StogieNinja)
“I’m not a huge fan of box-pressed cigars simply because of my luck with their construction. They’re always cracking or pressed too tightly. This one, on the other hand, was excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed this cigar from start to finish. Other than the draw being too open, I don’t have any complaints on this one. Can’t wait to get my hands on a few (now watch, when I do finally get some, I’ll have all the above mentioned issues…smh). Can’t wait to see what it is.” –Milton (mjohnsoniii)
Smoking Time (in minutes): 73
Total Score: 93 (Excellent)
Reviewer Appea-rance Aroma 1/3 2/3 3/3 Draw Burn Constr. Overall Overall 94 94 90 91 93 98 90 93 93 Ron 90 90 90 90 90 95 90 93 90 Dave 95 95 92 92 93 100 90 93 93 Gregg 93 93 90 90 93 98 90 93 93 Derek 95 95 90 95 90 98 90 95 93 Milton 93 93 92 92 93 85 90 97 93
To view the complete scores and notes, click here.
Blind Cigar Review: 1502 | Emerald Toro |
Ofqual finds essay writing services are ‘poor quality’ and unlikely to get A-level students who cheat with coursework a good grade
Students tempted to use essay writing services that claim to guarantee A-grade papers are more likely to receive shoddy work that would fail an A-level, as well as putting them at risk of being caught cheating, according to the exam regulator Ofqual.
An investigation by the watchdog found that online services failed to live up to their claims of high-quality writing and research, despite charging up to £220 for an essay. In many cases, essays were riddled with basic writing and composition errors, and received very poor or failing grades from independent examiners.
One essay “read like the work of an unengaged, untutored and floundering student”, according to an examiner, while another was damned for “Americanised versions, confused punctuation within sentences and errors of grammar and expression”.
Ofqual said that while it had no evidence that students were using the services to submit essays as their own, its chief regulator, Glenys Stacey, said: “Exam boards should also be doing everything they can to stop these essays being submitted into the system and they have a responsibility to ensure their malpractice monitoring systems are effective.”
Exam board representatives said they had seen few or no cases of commercially written essays being submitted.
The report’s authors concluded: “We would suggest that given the exceptionally low quality of the work commissioned, there is probably minimal damage inflicted. If anything, the fact that it is not possible to simply purchase a grade A GCE A-level essay is an exceptionally encouraging outcome.”
Ofqual’s investigation, conducted by the policy consultants London Economics, approached three organisations – Custom Essay, UK Essays and UK Essay Writing Services – and commissioned two essays from each, one a 2,000-word essay on the significance of the National Insurance Act of 1911 from an A-level history paper, and the other a 1,250-word essay on newspaper coverage of Nelson Mandela’s death from an A-level English language paper.
Only one of the six papers received a clear pass mark of B, while the other five received poor or ungraded marks from examiners, who had been briefed on the origin of the essays.
“These essays are poor quality. Anyone who buys them isn’t getting value for money. And more importantly, while there can be valid reasons for students buying these essays, such as essay practice or research, any attempt to pass this work off as the student’s own is cheating,” Stacey said.
The essay writing services defended their work saying they offered research services and not finished essays. “We are extremely disheartened and disappointed by the wholly inaccurate and presumptuous report published by Ofqual,” said Tony Eynon, chief executive of All Answers, which runs UK Essays.
Eynon said the London Economics report was “deeply flawed and inconsistent, using a prejudiced approach in marking the essays”, arguing that the examiners were tipped-off about the source of the essays.
The different services charged between £70 to £220, depending on length and subject. All six essays were delivered on time and only one showed signs of plagiarism. The use of American spellings suggested several of the authors were located outside the UK.
Reviewing the essays and their marks, the report said: “The assessment of the various coursework essays by external examiners was almost universally negative. Although in a number of cases, essays were reasonably well structured and used relatively sophisticated language, the almost universal ignorance of the scope of the work to be undertaken and associated criteria for assessment, combined with the utter lack of in-depth analysis, suggested that the essays were written by relatively competent writers ... who simply addressed whatever essay commissions present themselves.
“Overall, the commissioned essays were considered to be of poor quality and fell well short of what might be expected from a representative student at this stage of their academic career.”
The verdict
A panel of examiners looked at samples from essays provided by internet companies answering an English A-level essay question on Nelson Mandela’s death and the media.
Firm: Custom Essay
Sample:
The narration of the death of Mandela was accompanied with numerous statins [sic] of his achievement and his requirement to all people. Every person or institution wanting to live the legacy left by Mandela would be moved by the text since it reminds each and every person of the importance of being willing to sacrifice for the sake of the world.
Examiner comment:
This essay is crudely structured, poorly written and almost entirely descriptive. The weaknesses in expression and the errors in punctuation, spelling and grammar would restrict it to a GCSE Grade D/E. It is nowhere near A-level standard in my judgment.
Grade: E or Ungraded
UK Essay Writing Services
Sample:
The genre of the texts if largely informatory since it follows the newspaper reporting type of composition. They seek to make the reader know of a certain thing that has happened. They want to bring to the know how the events took place and what they resulted in. generally, it is about presenting news to the readers.
Examiner comment:
The expression is limited. There are a considerable number of stylistic infelicities and a fair number of grammatical errors.
Grade: E
UK Essay
Sample:
In addressing such sensitive political material, these examples of media reporting have had to tread a slippery path between the opposing philosophies and interests of their varied readerships, and what is politically and socially acceptable.
Examiner’s comment:
The conclusion of the essay is entirely generic. Any reader of the final paragraph would be challenged to guess from which subject this writing has been taken. It could be history, politics, citizenship, economics... There is no language content here.
Grade: D or C |
After having his face sliced off one year ago, the Joker makes his horrifying return to Gotham City! But even for man who's committed a lifetime of murder, he's more dangerous than ever before. How can Batman protect his city and those he's closest to? It all leads back to Arkham Asylum... This new hardcover collects the the critically acclaimed tale DEATH OF THE FAMILY from the superstar #1 New York Times best-selling team of writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo. BATMAN VOLUME 3 will have reprecussions that will affect the Batman universe for years to come! Collects BATMAN #13-17 The first printing of this new hardcover will feature a special acetate dust jacket showcasing the face of The Joker. After having his face sliced off one year ago, the Joker makes his horrifying return to Gotham City But even for man who's committed a lifetime of murder, he's more dangerous than ever before. How can Batman protect his city and those he's closest to? It all leads back to Arkham Asylum... This new hardcover collects the critically acclaimed tale DEATH OF THE FAMILY from the superstar #1 New York Times best-selling team of writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo. BATMAN VOLUME 3 will have repercussions that will affect the Batman universe for years to come Collects BATMAN #13-17 |
GWW: First off, thank you for taking time to talk with GWW to discuss your new book, Red Thorn. Can you tell us what the book is all about?
David Baillie: The book is about what happens when Thorn, a swaggering Demi God of the old Scottish pantheon, is freed into the modern world after 1600 years of being locked in a bone prison. We’ll see a lot of the story through the eyes of those around him, at least to begin with, and our viewpoint character for the first arc, Glasgow Kiss, is Isla – a young American with Scottish ancestry and incredible powers.
GWW: How did you come up with the idea that would become Red Thorn?
David Baillie: I was toying with a few different ideas when Vertigo first asked me to pitch, but it was when I proposed a story set in Glasgow that everyone started to get really excited. I really wanted to tell a story set in the modern day in my own country, and to explore the creepier end of Scottish mythology and folklore. With these aims in mind the story very quickly started to spiral into its current epic form.
GWW: How would you describe the two main characters; Thorn and Isla and how what their relationship is like?
David Baillie: Thorn is hot-headed and divine, Isla is hot-headed and human. They want very different things, but because of what they have in common they have little option but to work together at the start of our story.
Thorn is rightly furious about being imprisoned for so long, but I don’t think even he realises just how deep that anger runs. Isla is haunted by the loss of a sister she never even knew, and again – I think it’s a pain that she hasn’t really understood herself.
GWW: Red Thorn is going to deal a lot in Scottish mythology, so what kinds of creatures or mythological figures can we expect to see?
David Baillie: The Red Caps are a fascinating race of creatures that roam the borders, capturing anyone unfortunate to wander near one of their ruined castles. Then, after some horrible murdering, the resulting blood is used to dye their hats crimson. Without this ritual the Red Caps would die out – which of course doesn’t make it any less horrific!
In our first few issues we’ll also meet a Shellycoat – a disgusting river demon covered in rotten fish meat who wraps his naked body in a coat made from noisy, clacking shells. Soon after that you’ll be much happier to meet the kelpies – beautiful water spirits that shift effortlessly between human and equine forms.
There are, of course, plenty others – but I want to leave them as a surprise!
GWW: Now in all the covers we’ve seen, Thorn is perpetually shirtless. Will Thorn ever put on a shirt at all during the course of this book?
David Baillie: Nope. No shirt.
It’s in the contract.
Also – if you have a torso as good as Thorn’s why would you ever cover it up?
GWW: What is something that you want readers to come away with from reading Red Thorn?
David Baillie: I want them to feel the love and loss we, as a team, have felt in telling this story. I’m also kind of hoping that our readers will start speaking in a broad Glaswegian accent.
GWW: To wrap things up, can you please tell us where our readers can find you and your work online?
David Baillie: Meghan and I are on Twitter – @davidbaillie and @meghanhetrick. My website is www.davidbaillie.net – and Meghan has a great facebook fan page.
GWW: Thank you once again for speaking with GWW!
David Baillie: Not at all – thank YOU!
Red Thorn #1 hits shelves November 18th! |
Pro-government militia fighters with Libya’s Shield Brigade fired an anti-tank cannon mounted on a pick-up truck during clashes with gunmen accused of being loyal to the former regime of slain dictator Moammar Khadafy on Sept. 16 in a suburb of Tripoli.
Just three years have passed since an American-led bombing campaign destroyed the regime of Moammar Khadafy in Libya. At first that operation felt like a victory for peace and freedom. By bringing down the dictator, we presumed we had “liberated” Libyans and that they would quickly settle into pro-American democracy.
The speed with which we have been proven disastrously wrong, however, is breathtaking. So is the sweeping scope of unintended consequences that have flowed from this intervention. Not even those who opposed it imagined how far-reaching its effects would be. This is likely to go down in history as the most ill-conceived intervention of the Obama era.
Recent reports from Libya, issued to coincide with the third anniversary of Khadafy’s overthrow and murder, suggest that the state has ceased to exist. There is no central government. According to Amnesty International, “Armed groups and militias are running amok, launching indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas and committing widespread abuses, including war crimes, with complete impunity.” Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, al Qaeda, and the Islamic State back guerrilla factions. The unfortunate United Nations envoy, Bernardino Leon, says he can hardly begin to mediate “because the protagonists are hundreds of militias.” Full-scale civil war is a real possibility, so the worst may be yet to come.
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This could and should have been predicted. Removing a long-established regime is dangerous unless a clear alternative is ready. It produces a power vacuum. Rivals fight for places in the new order. By suddenly decapitating Libya, the United States and its NATO allies made conflict, anarchy, and terror all but inevitable.
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American officials were split over the question of whether to bomb Libya in 2011. President Obama finally favored the pro-bombing faction, making this the first military intervention in American history — perhaps the first ever — to be driven principally by women. Its advocates inside the corridors of power were Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, and Samantha Power, then on the National Security Council staff. They warned that Khadafy was planning to attack an opposition stronghold, Benghazi, and set off a humanitarian catastrophe. Although they may have been right, they grievously overestimated America’s ability to control the effects of bombing Libya. Fighting in Benghazi over the last month has taken more than 200 lives.
By the time we and our allies deposed Khadafy, he had renounced his nuclear ambitions, ceased to threaten our interests, and kept his country stable for decades, albeit with sometimes brutal methods. We promoted his overthrow without thinking seriously about what kind of regime might follow. Guided by a quintessentially American blend of naive optimism and cultural egocentrism, we allowed ourselves to believe we could crash violently into Libya, destroy all the institutions under which it had lived for more than 40 years, and blithely presume that things would somehow work themselves out peacefully and Libya would become “free.”
REUTERS Damaged aircraft is seen at Tripoli International Airport after unidentified war planes attacked targets in the Libyan capital in August.
This was a lamentable failure of strategic imagination. Any wise thinker should have foreseen that wiping away Libya’s governing structure almost overnight would set off civil conflict. Some did, including then-secretary of defense Robert Gates. What no one foresaw, however, was that bombing Libya would do something beyond destroying the Libyan state. It has had effects that are now reverberating far beyond Libya’s borders.
Khadafy’s army included a corps of elite troops from Tuareg tribes in Mali. When he was overthrown, these Tuareg fighters raided his arsenals and drove his heavy weaponry in caravans back to their native Mali. There they used it to set off a conflict that has turned a vast swath of North Africa into an ungoverned area where extremist terror festers and people live under harsh oppression. Weapons from Khadafy’s storehouses have also turned up in the hands of other extremist militias, including Boko Haram in Nigeria, famous for kidnapping schoolgirls. This is part of the legacy of our decision to bomb Libya three years ago.
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Life under Khadafy was hardly free. Most Libyans, however, could live fairly normal lives as long as they stayed away from politics. Today hardly any Libyan can live a normal life. Nor can anyone in regions being terrorized by groups wielding weapons from Khadafy’s looted armories. The sobering legacy of this intervention should give us pause as we consider others.
Stephen Kinzer is a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. Follow him on Twitter @stephenkinzer |
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michele boldrin e brighella 19 ottobre 2015 •
La casa, le tasse, la crescita economica: la follia collettiva d'un paese che crede di vivere ancora nel primo dopoguerra. Anzi no, nel mondo dei Malavoglia e della poetica pascoliana.
Come il dibattito sull'articolo di Giulio conferma, in Italia la "detassazione" della casa (sul perché usiamo le virgolette è oggetto del primo punto) è probabilmente l'unico argomento su cui tutti - dall'estrema destra all'estrema sinistra e passando per quella scia chimica chiamata M5S - concordano. Noi no, per niente.
Anzi: siamo convinti che le follie lette in questi giorni sull'argomento (persino in questo blog, in alcuni commenti al post di Giulio) siano la prova non solo che abbiamo ragione da vendere ma anche che, purtroppo, per questo paese non c'è speranza d’una inversione collettiva di rotta. La stragrande maggioranza vuole vivere in un mondo che obbedisce alle regole socio-economiche del Lazarillo de Tormes. Alternativamente, l'italiano medio oramai assomiglia allo schizzinoso aristocratico decaduto dei vecchi romanzetti anglosassoni. Il reddito è basso e non cresce, quasi tutto il risparmio è stato investito nella casa (o nel debito pubblico, ma quello deve pagarselo lui) dove vive nella (illusoria) speranza di rivenderla ad un ricco americano alla fine della vita. Certo di questo s'indebita alla grande e non sopporta che gli "tocchino la casa". Perché? Perché ha “lavorato tutta la vita per comprarsela” e la casa di famiglia è “sacra”. Patetiche fantasie con finale horror.
Sono così tante e tali le dimensioni lungo cui l’agognata “detassazione” della casa è una follia che, per smontare almeno i principali, questo articolo sarà piuttosto lunghetto. Ci occuperemo, nell’ordine, dei seguenti argomenti:
Tasse vs Imposte, giuste le prime dannose le seconde. In un paese dove il carico fiscale è troppo alto qualsiasi riduzione del medesimo, dovunque avvenga, è salutare e va appoggiata. L’aumento del carico fiscale sul settore immobiliare è la causa della sua stagnazione/declino. Siccome il settore immobiliare è il “volano” dell’economia italiana l'IMU blocca la crescita. La tassazione della casa è socialmente ingiusta perché colpisce i più deboli ed avviene sul patrimonio che è stato acquisito con reddito già precedentemente tassato. È inoltre particolarmente odiosa perché non si può evitare, ossia eludere/evadere. La crescita economica viene dagl investimenti immobiliari. Da cosa dipende il valore della casa. La tassazione della casa in due paesi "neolibbberisti".
Concluderemo illustrando brevemente i principi elementari che dovrebbero ispirare ogni decente sistema di tassazione ed imposizione del patrimonio immobiliare di tipo residenziale.
Tassa vs Imposta
La questione è, dispiace dirlo, abbastanza di lana caprina ma discutiamola comunque. La sua persistente invadenza nel dibattito è dovuta, in parte, al formalismo giuridico che ingabbia, in Italia, ogni dibattito economico e, in parte, al desiderio di “purismo liberale” da cui alcuni sono animati. Sulla casa vengono caricate sia tasse (le quali, secondo la definizione manualistica, sono il corrispettivo di servizi "pubblici" che corrono a carico dei loro diretti utilizzatori) che imposte, le quali sono di ammontare arbitrario e non dovute al finanziamento di alcun servizio specifico. Secondo alcuni le prime (per esempio, TASI) sono legittime le altre no. I commenti a seguito di quello iniziale sul tema hanno già dissipato quasi tutta la nebbia, ma siccome non tutti leggono i commenti permetteteci un riassunto con qualche breve aggiunta.
Si dà il caso che (senza scomodare i principi dell’optimal fiscal policy, che scomoderemo solo alla fine) la distinzione abbia perso senso da tempo. Per le semplicissime due seguenti ragioni.
(i) I “servizi pubblici” (e corrispettivi costi) che l’esistenza di un’abitazione, dove delle persone vivono, genera vanno ben al di là di quei servizi urbani la cui fruizione è immediatamente quantificabile (trasporti, consumo acqua, fognature, spazzatura, eccetera) e che, senza scomodare il fisco, si dovrebbero pagare in base al costo.Per questi basta privatizzare o, almeno, fare aziende pubbliche con il bilancio in pareggio. Fine della storia. Ma i costi pubblici che una casa genera vanno ben al di là di quelli appena elencati, essi includono il servizio di polizia e di difesa della proprietà, i parchi e le altre amenità circostanti, la quantità e qualità di servizi scolastici, i musei e così via. Per evitare sciocche obiezioni: la presenza, per esempio, di scuole di qualità nelle vicinanze della casa beneficia anche chi non ha figli in età scolare per la semplice ragione che potrebbero averne (di figli) i potenziali acquirenti della casa e questa aumenta il proprio valore di mercato grazie alla presenza delle scuole.
(ii) Piaccia o meno (a noi non piace per niente, come argomentiamo alla fine) in Italia il federalismo fiscale non solo non c'è mai stato ma è morto e sepolto. Poiché i comuni e le regioni vengono finanziati dallo stato centrale, i proventi d'ogni tipo di tributo imposto sugli immobili si mischiano nel calderone generale facendo purtroppo perdere d'ogni senso la distinzione in questione oltre al più generale principio della tassazione earmarked.
Ogni riduzione del carico fiscale è buona cosa
Questa baggianata degna del peggior Reagan (quello che, mentre blaterava di “starving the beast”, fece esplodere il debito pubblico USA) gira molto negli ambienti che si autoproclamano “libbberali” con tante “b”. Costoro non riescono a capire che, in assenza di parallele riduzioni di spesa, ogni riduzione del carico fiscale porta o ben all’aumento del debito o ben all’aumento di altre imposte le quali possono facilmente essere (come nel caso) molto più economicamente dannose (a parità di gettito) di quella eliminata. Inoltre l’aumento del debito, scordandosi i gravi rischi che induce ogni qual volta vi sia un temporale finanziario, è comunque semplicemente aumento di tasse future, con il duplice effetto di distorcere intertemporalmente la distribuzione del carico fiscale e di spostarla intergenerazionalmente sui più giovani che non solo raramente possiedono casa ma cercano di lavorare. E vengono tassati, quindi non lavorano, quindi non si comprano la casa, quindi le case perdono valore. Su questo tema (che la detassazione della casa è infatti un volgare furto perpetrato dagli anziani a danno delle nuove generazioni) torneremo alla fine. Rendere gli immobili esenti da tassazione implica tassare altri cespiti patrimoniali o altre attività economiche. La demagogica mossa renziana non riduce il carico fiscale complessivo ma lo aumenta e rende più dannoso, esattamente come non lo fece quella analoga di BS anni addietro.
La tassazione più ingiusta
Qui gli argomenti si sprecano e sono, francamente, uno più imbarazzante dell’altro. Alcuni sono frutto della peggior retorica nazional-pascoliana (le radici, la casa costruita dal nonno con sudore, il rifugio della sacra famiglia, eccetera) e possono solo essere accolti da un sorriso di scherno. Altri, come quello della doppia tassazione, sono palesemente illogici, questo l'ha già sottolineato Giulio Zanella in un commento. Da un lato perché assumono, senza fondamento alcuno ed infatti erroneamente, che sia il reddito (da lavoro, capitale o impresa che sia) ciò che va anzitutto tassato e questo (vedi sotto) fa solo danno. In secondo luogo perché, in presenza d'una qualsiasi forma di tassazione del reddito, qualsiasi altra tassa implica una doppia tassazione! Questo vale per l'IVA come per ogni altro tributo su qualsiasi attività il cittadino compia perché, in essa, viene sempre utilizzato il reddito disponibile, già tassato. Ed infine, perché il principio della doppia tassazione è una favola giuridica italiota priva d'ogni rilevanza economica: personalmente ci va benissimo anche la tripla tassazione se questa minimizza le distorsioni (welfare loss) e massimizza gli incentivi alla creazione del reddito per ogni dato livello di spesa pubblica.
Sugli altri argomenti (quelli del tipo: ma la mia povera nonna che vive nella casa di famiglia ed ha solo X di pensione ed ha difficoltà a pagare l'IMU, povera donna viene massacrata) hanno già scritto abbondantemente Giulio e Sandro nei commenti, a cui rimandiamo.
Noi ci permettiamo solo una nota "sociologica": la reazione isterica di molti, di troppi, al suggerimento di usare meccanismi di mercato per risolvere l'apparente "problema" (che è tale solo perché i meccanismi di mercato in Italia sono bloccati e/o rigettati) è l'ennesimo indicatore di una cultura provinciale e primitiva fondata sulla vuota retorica invece che sulla realtà dei fatti. Una cultura, alla fine, parassitica perché vuole mantenere lo status quo ed i privilegi acquisiti per via politica da chi oggi è anziano ed ha potere elettorale lasciando al freddo, a pagare per tutti, le nuove generazioni che di tali privilegi non godono. Ed è anche una cultura suicida, da cui il declino: perché il valore delle vostre case, cari italiani con più di 50 anni circa, dipende fondamentalmente, come spieghiamo sotto e come dovrebbe essere ovvio, dalla fertilità delle nuove generazioni, dall'arrivo di nuovi immigranti qualificati e dalla crescita del reddito di tutti costoro. Se loro non sono tanti e benestanti le vostre case non se le comprano o le comprano a prezzi inferiori, esattamente come sta accadendo in Giappone dove, almeno, la produttività del lavoro un pelino continua a crescere.
Ed infine, sempre con riguardo ai lamenti pascoliani, la favola del "catasto” su cui andrebbe basata l'equa tassazione (ora senza più virgolette) è una follia tutta italiana che si risolve, come in tutti i paesi civili, in un secondo. A fini fiscali il valore di un bene immobiliare è pari alla media statistica, rilevata negli N anni precedenti, dei prezzi pagati nelle effettive transazioni avvenute nell’area di riferimento per immobili con simili caratteristiche. Se il proprietario non condivide la stima, la contesta e porta elementi oggettivi a supporto della sua tesi, altrimenti avanti così. No, non è vero che ci sarebbero milioni di ricorsi per la semplice ragione che il ricorso costa e vale la pena spendere quei soldi solo se non è frivolo. Punto e fine. Ed il catasto diventa quello che valga la pena che sia: un registro della tipologia delle abitazioni e delle loro caratteristiche fisiche oltre che dei titoli di proprietà o ipotecari che gravano su di esse.
La crescita economica viene dalla detassazione della casa
Una questione fondamentale da comprendere è che ciò che nel gergo comune viene chiamato "investimento immobiliare" ha in realtà nulla o poco a che fare con l’investimento vero e proprio, quello che accresce il capitale di un pase, ossia l’investimento che entra nel PIL e si accumula portando a crescita economica. Se escludiamo le ristrutturazioni o la costruzione di nuovi edifici, la caratteristica dei cosiddetti investimenti immobiliari è di consistere in puri mutamenti (che si compensano nell'aggregato) nella composizione del portafoglio delle famiglie. Dire che un imprenditore ha fatto 100mila euro di investimento in macchinari o in R&D ha un significato molto diverso dal dire che Tizio ha investito 100mila euro in un immobile. A differenza della produzione e acquisto di un nuovo macchinario, la transazione su un immobile non è un investimento per l'economia nel suo complesso, ma è solo il passaggio di mano di un bene già esistente. I movimenti nel prezzo di questo "passamano" sono dati puramente dai cambiamenti nella disponibilità a pagare dell'acquirente. La produzione, qui, non c'entra nulla, perché né il terreno né la casa che su di questo sorge sono prodotti. Esistono già, punto. E ricordiamoci, inoltre, che il prezzo di un immobile è determinato in gran parte, ceteris paribus e soprattutto nelle zone urbane, dal prezzo della terra su cui è posato. Questa osservazione è importante per capire cosa determina, nel medio/lungo periodo, il valore degli immobili: la disponibilità (e quindi, prima di tutto, l'effettiva capacità) di pagare degli acquirenti. Detto in due parole: il valore di mercato di una casa dipende dal reddito di quelli che vogliono andarci ad abitare. Per questo case identiche spuntano prezzi diversi se sono in zone o città diverse.
Ne consegue che gli immobili si apprezzano nel tempo se e solo se aumenta la disponibilità a pagare da parte dei potenziali acquirenti, ovvero se cresce il PIL per capita o cresce il numero delle persone che vogliono acquistare un'abitazione (vedi punto seguente). Si noti che questo ragionamento non è vero per i beni di investimento i quali, non essendo fissi ma (ri)producibili, vedono il prezzo, in condizioni di concorrenza, tendere verso il proprio costo di produzione. È noto, ad esempio, che nonostante la continua crescita dell’economia, e dunque della disponibilità a pagare degli acquirenti, il prezzo reale dei beni capitali (sia le costruzioni che, soprattutto, le macchine) è continuamente sceso durante tutti gli ultimi 60 anni. Avete letto bene: grazie al progresso tecnologico, vero motore della crescita economica, il prezzo dei beni d'investimento "veri e propri" sta scendendo da decenni invece di salire! E sta scendendo tantissimo perché, per quanto si cerchi di tener conto dei miglioramenti di qualità nel calcolo degli indici di prezzo, questi sono quasi sempre superiori a quello che si riesce a misurare. Per rendersene conto basta pensare ai computer, alle automobili, o a qualsiasi altra tecnologia. A determinare i movimenti nel prezzo degli investimenti veri e propri non sono dunque solo le variazioni nelle condizioni di domanda, ma anche e soprattutto le variazioni nelle condizioni dell'offerta, le quali a loro volta contano proprio perché questi sono prodotti nuovi, non sono un mero "passamano" di ciò che già esiste.
Tassare l'attività di produzione "vera e propria" (che si esplicita nell'accumulo di nuovi investimenti o nella fornitura di lavoro) crea distorsioni molto dannose. Queste distorsioni possono danneggiare gravemente l'economia soprattutto quando esse raggiungono, come nel caso italiano di tassazione sul lavoro e sugli investimenti d’impresa, aliquote complessive del 40-50% (o più). Tassare, invece, un bene destinato a non aumentare né diminuire, ma semplicemente a "passare di mano" ha certamente effetti redistributivi (come ne ha, peraltro, qualsiasi tassazione, o qualcuno crede che la scelta di alzare l'IRPEF non abbia effetti redistributivi?), ma non ha però ha effetti distorsivi: il pezzo di terrà lì era e lì rimane, non aumenta né diminuisce, resta sempre e comunque nelle mani di qualcuno che può utilizzarlo come crede.
Da cosa dipende il valore della casa.
Uno degli argomenti più beoti ed al contempo più frequenti a favore della detassazione della casa è che essa giocherebbe un ruolo cruciale per dare inizio alla seguente catena causale, fantasticamente virtuosa:
meno tasse sulla casa => maggiore domanda di case => aumento del prezzo delle case => aumento dell'attività del settore costruzioni => ripresa e crescita dell'intera economia.
Si dà il fatto che ognuna di queste miracolose => viene contraddetta da tutto quanto sappiamo, teoricamente e soprattutto empiricamente, sul funzionamento del mercato delle costruzioni e sul suo ruolo nello sviluppo economico. Esaminiamole nell'ordine in cui appaiono.
- meno tasse sulla casa => maggiore domanda di case => aumento del prezzo delle case. Qui ce ne sono due di freccette e la ragione è semplice. Facciamo finta (ci torniamo subito) che la riduzione del carico fiscale aumenti la domanda di abitazioni. Se questo succede è perché, tolti i tributi, la casa "costa di meno" per chi l'acquista. Ma, è vero al contempo, che chi possiede una casa e la sta vendendo, consapevole di questa riduzione, potrebbe decidere d'incamerarne una parte aumentando il prezzo a cui è disposto a venderla. In altre parole, l’ordine in cui le => operano potrebbe anche essere il seguente: meno tasse => aumento valore/prezzo => minore o uguale domanda. Di conseguenza l’effetto “meno tasse” sulla domanda di casa potrebbe essere compensato dall’aumento del prezzo di offerta. Nella realtà, per effetto delle solite elasticità , succederà una via di mezzo: aumenteranno di un poco i prezzi ed aumenterà leggermente la domanda di case. Di quanto? Lo vediamo subito
- L’ammontare annuale medio dell’IMU pagato sulla prima abitazione è di poco inferiore ai 700 euro (andiamo a memoria, che è tardi, ma siccome il gettito IMU+TASI è di circa 24 miliardi ed in Italia ci sono circa 36 milioni di unità colpite, euro più euro meno il valore è quello). La stragrande maggioranza paga meno di 500 euro perché, ricordiamolo, la media di questa distribuzioni è abbastanza maggiore della mediana. E sulle prime case (oggetto della detassazione in questione) il tributo medio è ancora inferiore, meno di 300 euro. Questo dunque il risparmio, equivalente a molto meno dei famosi 80 euro mensili i quali hanno avuto, come sappiamo, effetto zero sulla domanda di consumi. Per quale ragione dovrebbero cifre ancora inferiori avere un effetto sostanziale sulla domanda di un bene, la casa, il cui prezzo è ordini di grandezza superiore al prezzo del tipico bene di consumo? Mistero della lirica pascoliana. Facciamo finta, ma tanta tanta finta, che questa riduzione duri almeno 10 anni (ci stiamo rovinando) e che il tasso d’interesse con cui gli italiani scontano i risparmi futuri sia zero (ipotesi folle, visto che i tassi sugli scoperti al consumatore viaggiono attorno al 7-8% persino ora, ma fa poca differenza). Bene: 500 per 10 fa 5mila e 700 per 10 fa 7mila. Se avessimo adeguatamente scontato avremmo numeri tra la metà ed un terzo di queste cifre. Risibili a fronte di prezzi delle abitazioni regolarmente superiori ai 150mila e - nelle grandi città, gli unici posti dove tali effetti di domanda sono credibili, 200mila e più. Morale? Servirebbe una elasticità di prezzo a cui solo un allucinato può credere perché tale manovra avesse un qualche effetto sulla domanda di case. Fine della storia, ma consideriamo anche altre due freccette.
- aumento del prezzo delle case => aumento dell'attività del settore costruzioni La crescita della popolazione, che nel decennio 2000-2010 era stata tirata dalla crescita dell’immigrazione, si è fermata. Negli ultimi anni sono più quelli che se ne vanno di quelli che arrivano e non vi sono segnali di recupero della fertilità (che, comunque, l'effetto sulla domanda di case lo avrebbe fra trent’anni). Detto altrimenti: in Italia lo stock di abitazioni a disposizione è lontano dall’essere insufficiente ed, ammesso e non concesso, che la domanda cresca è molto improbabile che possa trainare una ripresa sostanziale delle costruzioni. Se questo avviene è solo per movimenti migratori interni, si abbandonano case nelle aree stagnanti o in declino e si acquistano case nelle città o laddove c’è crescita. Ma se questo è il caso (mobilità territoriale dovuta a crescita della domanda di lavoro in certe aree) ciò che conta sono i redditi da lavoro che, migrando, si possono ottenere non le briciole di risparmio provenienti dalla detassazione. Che un aumento dell'1% (perché a tanto, al massimo, può portare l'eliminazione dell'IMU) possa avere un qualsiasi effeto di offerta in un mercato in cui i prezzi sono calati mediamente tra il 30 ed il 40% è un'ipotesi che solo un allucinato può fare.
- aumento dell'attività del settore costruzioni => ripresa e crescita dell'intera economia. Questa, per un economista che sappia da dove viene e come funziona la crescita economica, è la panzana più gigantesca. La crescita viene da aumenti di produttività, guadagni di efficienza, innovazioni e miglioramenti nell'allocazione delle risorse. A metter giù mattoni siamo buoni tutti e, infatti, il lavoro nel settore è nella stragrande maggioranza scarsamente qualificato, guadagna poco ed ha produttività bassa e non crescente. Basta guardare i dati italiani e non: nella Spagna del boom edilizio a seguito della caduta della bolla immobiliare e la conseguente crisi del settore edilizio la produttività, settoriale ed aggregata, è cresciuta enormemente proprio perché hanno chiuso migliaia di inefficienti (ed inutili) imprese edilizie. Una crescita del settore edilizio che generi occupazione produttiva e salari decenti può venire solo da due cause: una crescita della popolazione ed una crescita del reddito pro-capite. Se non ci sono queste non c'è crescita, punto e fine.
La situazione in due paesi libbberisti.
Il principio base secondo cui tassare la proprietà immobiliare è una scelta fiscale relativamente meno distorsiva trova applicazione razionale in giro per il mondo. Alcuni esempi possono essere istruttivi.
Prendiamo un immobile a caso in vendita nella capitale americana. Per esempio questo, quotato da Zillow. Il prezzo di acquisto si aggira sui 500 mila dollari, ma l’acquirente sa che dovrà poi pagarci sopra, ogni anno, le tasse sulla proprietà. Quanto esattamente? Zillow ci dice (colonna di destra, voce “Tax history”) che le tasse si aggirano sui 4500 dollari annui. Questo, meglio si sappia, è un dato molto basso rispetto alla media USA: se lo stesso immobile fosse stato a Minneapolis quell'importo sarebbe aumentato di circa il 70%! Possiamo ottenere numeri ancora più precisi, grazie al fatto che, agli occhi del legislatore americano, le tasse sulla casa vanno pagate in trasparenza. Prendendo dunque l’indirizzo della casa (1625 S St Nw, unit #1), e copiandolo nel database municipale, scopriamo che al momento la proprietaria dell'edificio è la signora Susan Ellen Kishinchand. Scopriamo anche che nel 2006, il 22 agosto per l’esattezza, la casa era stata acquistata al prezzo di $484.900. Siccome la signora Susan risiede nell’immobile, essa riceve una piccola deduzione (cira $70.000) sul valore tassabile, che per il 2015 risulta essere così stimato in 531 mila dollari, valore che probabilmente salirà a $534 mila nel 2016. Moltiplicando il valore stimato per il coefficiente dello 0.85% (vedi “property tax rate and calculations”) si ottiene il valore finale della tassa per il 2015: $4513. Bravo Zillow, avevi fatto il calcolo giusto. Lo scopo di questo esempio non è solo di mostrare che la signora Susan paga un bel po’ di tasse sulla propria casa di residenza. Lo scopo era anche di mettere in evidenza che sia le tasse sulla casa che il prezzo a cui la signora ha acquistato l’immobile sono di pubblico dominio (già sentiamo le urla disperate dei libbberali domestici). Gratuitamente, senza doversi registrare al sito e tanto meno senza password segrete, notai, agenti immobiliari per accedere ai dati di un catasto da penna e calamaio. A proposito, come vedete i prezzi stimati ai fini fiscali coincidono con quelli di mercato, includendo già le stime per l’anno futuro (2016).
Continuiamo con un altro esempio, Hong Kong. La spesa pubblica ad Hong Kong è molto bassa, e buona parte di essa viene finanziata tramite forme diverse di tassazione sugli immobili. Per la precisione, il 36% circa degli introiti fiscali vengono da tassazione immobiliare (nello specifico, si veda la somma, meno qualche briciola, delle voci “land premium” e “other operating revenue”). In totale, dunque, il governo di Hong Kong incassa dalle varie forme di tassazione immobiliare una valore pari a circa il 9% del PIL. A proposito, ci stavamo dimenticando di dire che la terra, ad Hong Kong, è posseduta (quasi) tutta dallo Stato e da esso è data in concessione, o in affitto se volete, ai cittadini. Anche qui sentiamo le urla di dolore dei nostri libbberali alle vongole (che a HK non ci sono, infatti).
Ci sarebbe poi, fra i moltissimi altri, la Svizzera. Ma su questa ha già scritto chiaramente Franz Forti in questo commento.
Perché è giusto e sano tassare gli immobili.
Per tutte le ragioni dette sopra (perché distorce di meno che altre imposte, perché è meno facile da evadere e quindi riduce i costi sociali di ogni dato gettito fiscale, perché gli immobili generano costi sociali ampi e diversi che vanno finanziati, perché l'attuale livello italiano di tassazione complessiva degli immobili è inferiore a quello dei paesi che funzionano, perché avviene a mezzo di tributi che redistribuiscono un minimo di potere d'acquisto dagli anziani ai giovani e sono questi ultimi oggi che hanno bisogno di lavoro e reddito e dal cui lavoro e reddito dipende la crescita del paese ...) ed anche perché se davvero si vuole costruire un sistema fiscale che responsabilizzi chi governa, raccoglie tributi e con essi dovrebbe fornire servizi, la tassazione degli immobili è un mattone essenziale di tale sistema.
Perché, banalmente, se comuni e regioni devono essere resi fiscalmente responsabili ed autonomi questo può avvenire PRINCIPALMENTE solo tassando gli immobili perché questi sono praticamente quasi le uniche entità su cui comuni e regioni possono esercitare un'imposizione efficace oltre ad essere la fonte dei costi complessivi dei servizi pubblici (li abbiamo elencati sopra) che comuni e regioni dovrebbero, in teoria, offrire. Questo dice, senza tentennamenti, ogni qualsiasi teoria dell'imposizione ottima, questo dice il buon senso ed a questo arriva, banalmente, chiunque abbia interesse al futuro di questo paese. Che è, purtroppo, nero assai visto che la maggioranza della popolazione, egoista e suicida, ha pensato bene di chiedere ai propri governanti di fare esattamente l'opposto. |
Miss Pennsylvania USA Valerie Gatto, a contestant in Sunday's Miss USA pageant, revealed in an interview that she was conceived when her 19 year-old mother was raped at knifepoint. She now travels the country to speak to women about sexual assault awareness and protection. She's hoping that a Miss USA win will give her a bigger platform to spread her message.
Gatto's mother was planning on placing her for adoption until the night before her birth, deciding last-minute to raise her with help from "God and family." Gratto says that her family's deep Christian faith helped her mother cope with the trauma from the attack and give her the strength to raise her.
Gatto began asking questions about her father when she was young. In third grade, she was told the version appropriate for someone her age: “Something bad happened to me. A very bad man hurt me but God gave me you.”
Regardless of how the pageant ends up, Gatto says she feels like she inside she feels she's already won.
“Losing is not an option,” she said. “In my mind, I believe that I’m already Miss USA.”
This story is a great reminder that the circumstances of our birth do not dictate the rest of our lives, and that all life is precious. |
A video from Baton Rouge surfaced online that appears to show a group of cops beating a 16-yo Ja’Colby Davis. The incident that occurred during a local Earth Day event left the teen’s mother terrified by the aggression cops directed against her son. Those moments of the kid knocked to the ground undermine our trust in the police.
The video starts by showing the youngster thrown headfirst to the ground, then grabbed and restrained by the cops trying to get him handcuffed. The boy is seen struggling to cover himself from the strikes he is getting to the head. As one of the cops considered hand-wringing not enough to subdue one unarmed and motionless kid, he drew his Taser and deploys it on Davis. The younger brother of Davis who witnessed his sibling being harassed reported that Ja’Colby’s arrest took him by surprise. He couldn’t understand why the officers were grabbing his brother that way. Since the video was published, didn’t you come up with what outrage would have been sparked be it a white child? Unfortunately, the concern starts growing only when white people find themselves under the tyranny of police. |
Portland Timbers forward Fanendo Adi will likely be back in the starting lineup when the Timbers face the Seattle Sounders at Providence Park Sunday afternoon.
Adi, who has started all but three MLS games this season, was a late scratch from the starting 11 last week against the Sounders after missing the team flight to Seattle ahead of the game.
The 25-year-old striker, who leads the Timbers with 12 goals this season, ended up entering the match at Seattle as a second half substitute and scoring a late goal, but it was too little, too late as the Timbers fell 3-1 to the Sounders.
"We didn't expect to have one change in the last game, but ultimately that was something that was forced and we had to make the right decision there," Timbers coach Caleb Porter said.
Porter would not discuss the specific circumstances that led to Adi being scratched from the starting 11 Sunday.
This is not the first time this season that Adi has made headlines for off-field issues. In June, Adi's representatives told Goal.com that striker was looking to make a move to a more competitive club and that the forward was frustrated that the Timbers would not transfer him midseason.
Still, Porter said that Adi and the club have moved forward from the most recent problem that led to the lineup change last week and he doesn't expect there to be any persisting issues.
Porter is hopeful that the Timbers will be able to have continuity in their lineup in the final eight games of the season as they fight for a playoff berth.
That includes Adi playing an important role.
"With good teams those things are sorted, even though you suffer short-term," Porter said. "You make the right decision because you have to even though you suffer and then you move on from it. I'm confident there will be no issues with that moving forward and that we'll move on from it. There's not going to be any lingering effects from that as well."
-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com
503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg |
The New York Rangers are in serious trouble. This squad has lost five out of the last six, being outscored 16 to 11. Two of those losses came at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens, one of which was a lack luster 17 save shut out.
The easy excuse is that within the last week this squad has lost some major players to the injury bug. Rick Nash, Michael Del Zotto, Ryan McDonough, Aaron Asham, and Darroll Powe are all in the sick bay. Just the loss of those two defensemen would seriously impact any squad, however Del Zotto and McDonough play major roles in generating offense within coach John Tortorella’s system.
However, this squad weathered injuries last season, missing both Marc Staal and Dan Girardi at one point. So, where’s the heart?
On Tuesday night, this Rangers squad played a roller coaster game against the Winnipeg Jets, never leading, and falling short of a rally against a Jets squad that seems to take a special pleasure in tearing through the New York metro area.
Another easy answer is the lack of depth at forward, some of which was lost in the Rick Nash trade, some to free agency. Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov, Ruslan Fedotenko, Brandon Prust, and John Mitchell are all on different teams now. Those are major role players that had chemistry and bought into what John Tortorella was selling – a game of sacrifice, determination, and intensity.
But, anyone looking at this roster figured the Rangers not only into a post season berth, but into a lot of people’s Stanley Cup projections. However, the Rangers look lost. Gone is the grit of last year, and the only forward that seems to be still listening to coach Tortorella is captain Ryan Callahan. That’s unsurprising, considering Callahan plays the same kind of hockey Tortorella preaches. There’s no coach in the league that would be able to change that.
Then there’s the terrible power play. This power play should work. It should be better than it’s 29th in the league ranking. It should be productive. However, it’s not. And unless something drastic happens, as in power play czar Mike Sullivan coming up with something ground breaking, it doesn’t look to improve.
There’s also the completely forgettable play of star center Brad Richards. His nearly invisible 2 goals and 9 assists is hardly the play of a center that is worth his massive contract he signed a little over 18 months ago. Richards’ play seems more that of what would happen if a lost kitten suddenly put on hockey skates. His touch isn’t there, his hockey sense seems to be off, and his leadership seems to be absent. He seems to have amnesty buy out written all over his Untuck’d clothing line.
Why hasn’t the coach taken matter into his own hands and scratched Richards, or any of the other players that don’t seem to be living up to the bill of goods Rangers fans have been sold along with their rising ticket prices and Stanley Cup dreams? Go down the roster, and for the most part there is not a player that is living up to their potential, either individually or as a group.
Other than Tuesday night’s tilt, when in the last week has the outcome not matched the effort? The Rangers as a group has mostly seemed like they have been going through the motions, from their once deadly goaltending tandem, to their star scoring winger, Marian Gaborik.
This indicates one thing. It’s time to do something drastic. Not because it’s time to panic, but because the players are telling you something, Mr. Sather. They’re telling you that Torts company’s message is mostly falling on deaf ears. It’s time to make a change, before you burn another chance to turn things around. Break out the torches and the pitchforks, it’s time to storm the castle.
And that, Rangers fans, is the last word.
Thanks for reading, as always feel free to leave comments below and follow me on twitter @BigMick99. Give the rest of the hockey department a follow while you’re at it – @lastwordBKerr, @IswearGaa and @LastWordOnNHL, and follow the site @lastwordonsport.
photo credit: MattBritt00 via photopin cc |
Siri has been gradually getting better since its debut in 2011, but some of its original creators are set to introduce its successor, Viv, next week — and, by all accounts, Siri better watch her back!
Having operated in stealth mode for more than a year, Viv’s arrival hopes to represent a significant step forward in artificial intelligence as AI assistants take on more of an active role in running our lives.
Apple’s next acquisition? It would be great to think so.
One area Viv reportedly excels in is longer conversations, where a tool like Siri is likely to get lost. The Washington Post, for instance, includes the following anecdote from its time with the team:
“Get me a pizza from Pizz’a Chicago near my office,” one of the engineers said into his smartphone. It was their first real test of Viv … Everyone was a little nervous. Then, a text from Viv piped up: “Would you like toppings with that?” The engineers, eight in all, started jumping in: “Pepperoni.” “Half cheese.” “Caesar salad.” Emboldened by the result, they peppered Viv with more commands: Add more toppings. Remove toppings. Change medium size to large. About 40 minutes later — and after a few hiccups when Viv confused the office address — a Pizz’a Chicago driver showed up with four made-to-order pizzas. The engineers erupted in cheers as the pizzas arrived. They had ordered pizza, from start to finish, without placing a single phone call and without doing a Google search — without any typing at all, actually. Moreover, they did it without downloading an app from Domino’s or Grubhub.
Apple isn’t named in the article as one of the companies interested in Viv, but given the project’s pedigree with creators Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer being co-founders of Siri, it would seem a natural fit. This week, venture capitalist Fred Wilson, founder and managing partner of Union Square Ventures, voiced the opinion that Apple should focus on building up its focus on AI.
In the meantime, both Google and Facebook have reportedly made offers to snap up Viv — with Mark Zuckerberg already an investor in the project through his involvement with the firm Iconiq Capital.
Given the gulf between what Siri was shown being capable of during the initial iPhone 4s presentation and the advanced beta which wound up shipping, I won’t get too excited about Viv without being able to try it for myself. But both Kittlaus and Cheyer are incredibly smart, visionary guys — and as two of the innovators behind the modern AI assistant, they’re absolutely the right people to help usher in the next big breakthrough.
Viv is set to be shown off publicly for the first time on Monday at a major industry conference. No shipping date has yet been announced.
What improvements would you like to see for a truly next-gen AI assistant? Are there any frustrations you regularly have with Siri that you would like to see fixed? Leave your comments below. |
Each winter, Shinto monks living in the mountains of central Japan wait for ice ridges to appear on the frozen surface of Lake Suwa. The ridges, known as omiwatari, are believed to be the footsteps of a male Shinto god crossing the lake to visit a female god who resides on the other side, and their date of appearance is used to predict the weather that will be brought by the spring.
Katsushika Hokusai/Wikimedia Commons 19th century Japanese woodcut showing Lake Suwa. Part of the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji collection by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai.
The Shinto monks have observed this tradition for the past six centuries and have recorded data about the ridges since 1443. Their records, which include the day on which the lake froze and how many days passed before the first ridges formed, are the oldest continuous record of climate data known to man.
Scientists today can use the freezing dates to gain insight into how winter weather has changed in the region. And since the data goes back well into the past, it gives a good picture of how human activity has affected Japan’s winters, too.
In 1954, German and Japanese scientists published a paper in which they broke up the data into two blocks, each two and half centuries long, representing the pre-Industrial and the post-Industrial periods. Their analysis showed that in the post-Industrial period, spanning from the 17th to the 20th century, Lake Suwa failed to freeze over twice as frequently as it did in the pre-Industrial period. Since the mid 17th century, they found, the lake remained unfrozen 27 times, compared to 13 times in the 250 years prior.
This week (April 26), American and Japanese scientists published a paper in Nature in which they analyzed the Japanese data alongside data on the freezing dates of the Torne River, which runs through Sweden and Finland.
“What is important about the two ice records analyzed in this paper is that they were recorded far into the past and included years before and after the start of the Industrial Revolution,” says John Magnuson, who led the study.
The Torne data goes back to the 17th century, when a merchant named Olof Ahlom started keeping records in 1693 of when the river began to melt. The river was important for trade, so local merchants continued to record the dates of ice break up each winter. The tradition continues today, with competitions in which people bet on when the date and time the ice will first begin to melt.
By looking at the two data sets side-by-side, the scientists found that both bodies of water were prone to freeze later, melt earlier, and have shorter ice-cover duration since the Industrial Revolution. While other methods for looking at the effect of the Industrial Revolution on the climate exist, such as paleo climatology or modeling studies, data recorded from direct observation is especially powerful at spreading awareness about climate change, according to Magnuson.
“I think that many people can relate to such apparently simple measures more than they can to more complex analyses,” he says.
Indeed, the warming climate’s effect on these bodies of water is shocking: Lake Suwa remained unfrozen twelve times in the 55-year period between 1950 and 2004, compared to only three times for a 255-year period from 1443 to 1700. And the Torne River experienced nine extreme warm years in the 14-year period between 2000 and 2013 and 10 extreme warm years in the 207-year period between 1693 and 1899.
Despite the increasing frequency of warm winters, the Shinto monks continue to observe tradition. In February 2012, they celebrated the first freezing of the lake since 2008. |
Officials in President Trump’s administration Friday downplayed an intelligence report by the Homeland Security Department that contradicts the White House’s main arguement for implementing a travel ban on seven predominantly Muslim countries.
The report, which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal and Associated Press, determined that the "country of citizenship is unlikely to be a reliable indicator of potential terrorist activity."
The Trump administration has taken the position that immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries should be blocked from the U.S. due to their terror risk. Trump used terrorism a primary justification when he announced the now court-blocked travel ban in late January.
The intelligence report found that in the past six years, foreign-born individuals who were “inspired” to strike in the U.S. came from 26 different countries.
VIDEO: DERSHOWITZ ON WHAT HE EXPECTS NEXT FOR TRUMP'S TRAVEL BAN
Senior White House Policy Adviser Stephen Miller told Fox News' "First 100 Days" Tuesday that a revised version of the travel ban would "have the same basic policy outcome."
A senior administration official told The Wall Street Journal that the DHS report’s assessment overlooked key information and the finished product that the White House requested has not been completed. The White House called the report politically motivated. Officials said it overlooked some information that supported the ban.
“The president asked for an intelligence assessment,” the official said. “This is not the intelligence assessment the president asked for.”
VIDEO: DEMOCRAT FINDS ELEMENTS TO SUPPORT IN TRUMP'S TRAVEL BAN
The draft report determined that few people from the countries Trump listed in his travel ban have carried out attacks or been involved in terrorism-related activities in the U.S. since Syria's civil war started in 2011.
Gillian Christensen, a DHS spokeswoman, does not dispute the report's authenticity, but says it was not a final comprehensive review of the government's intelligence.
“It is clear on its face that it is an incomplete product that fails to find evidence of terrorism by simply refusing to look at all the available evidence,” she said, according to The Journal. “Any suggestion by opponents of the president’s policies that senior (homeland security) intelligence officials would politicize this process or a report’s final conclusions is absurd and not factually accurate. The dispute with this product was over sources and quality, not politics.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report |
When Bats Squeak, They Tend To Squabble
Enlarge this image toggle caption Alex Mita/AFP/Getty Images Alex Mita/AFP/Getty Images
If movies were trying to be more realistic, perhaps the way to summon Batman shouldn't have been the Bat-Signal — it should have been the bat squeak.
New research from the Bat Lab for Neuro-Ecology at Tel Aviv University found that bats are "vocalizing" more information than many researchers previously thought. And researchers were able to decipher what the bats were squeaking to each other about — often they were bickering over things like food, sleep and mating.
"It's not as if now we can understand everything. It's not as if we have a bat-to-English dictionary," says Dr. Yossi Yovel, a neuro-ecologist at Tel Aviv University and a member of the Bat Lab.
"But what we've found is that this cacophony that you could hear ... actually contains much more information than previously believed. So, all of [this] shouting, all of these vocalizations that were previously all categorized as aggressive vocalizations, we can now divide them," Yovel tells NPR's Scott Simon.
"For example, we can classify whether the bats are arguing over food or over mating or over sleeping position or over other contexts," he says. "We can recognize the individuals vocalizing and we can even, to some extent, say who they are vocalizing to."
In a recent study, Yovel, along with researchers Yosef Prat and Mor Taub, monitored groups of Egyptian fruit bats with 24-hour audio and video recording for two and a half months. They say they analyzed almost 15,000 bat vocalizations.
Egyptian fruit bats are one of a small number of animal species to communicate one-on-one within their species, instead of "broadcasting" their message.
Bats do more than argue, Yovel says. But Egyptian fruit bats spend a lot of time arguing.
"Nearly all of the communication calls of the Egyptian fruit bat in the roost are emitted during aggressive pairwise interactions, involving squabbling over food or perching locations and protesting against mating attempts," the researchers write.
"What they're saying is stuff like: Why did you wake me up? Get out of my way," Yovel says. "In the case of mating, it's usually the female protesting against a male who is trying to mate with her."
Context in bat communication was one focus of the study. If we humans say the word "apple," we imagine certain characteristics just from that word alone: a red color, a round shape, a certain taste, Yovel explains. "This is something that is [a] very very important factor in human communication."
He says animals almost never demonstrate this ability. But their research shows that vocalizations between bats have more of this type of context than researchers knew about before.
One goal of the research on bats is to apply it toward general knowledge of how different animals — including humans — communicate. "It's all part of a big question: How complex is animal communication?" Yovel says.
"Identifying context specific calls can be a first step toward the recovering of meaning in animal communication," the researchers write. "Understanding the encapsulated information in animal vocalizations is central to the study of sociality, communication, and language evolution."
So is there a human-bat translator in the works?
"Step by step we are getting closer to deciphering their communication," Yovel says. "I don't think we will — not in my time, at least — be able to really talk with them." |
This wedding season, you are cordially invited to keep your mouth shut when it comes to all things financial, thank you very much. You don’t need an etiquette guide to tell you that asking a bride how much her big day cost is among the bigger wedding faux pas. As much as people revel in nuptial small talk—the venue! the guest list! the bridesmaids!—it’s rare for the chatter to veer into monetarily revealing territory.
Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
"I think the biggest thing that isn’t talked about is parental money," says one recent bride, who we’ll call Meg. (For the record, the wedding was last year in San Francisco and it cost about $16,000, a third of which her mother covered.) "It’s very obvious to me when I go to a wedding where parents are involved with the money and when they’re not. Except nobody talks about that. They’ll talk about the cost of the dress, but they won’t say, ‘My mom gave me $35,000 to spend on my wedding.’"
It's all left to whispers and guesswork, raised eyebrows between friends and the annual wedding cost survey from that nonpartisan think tank known as The Knot. Even concrete numbers can only tell us so much—there’s also all the feeeeeeelings that go along with the money we spend on weddings. This is why Racked talked to more than two dozen women who got married in the past five years (agreeing not to use their real names, so they would give us the full scoop) about how much their weddings really cost.
Even anonymously, it wasn’t the most comfortable topic to discuss. "I was not joking when I said I kind of blacked it out," one bride, Nicole, insists. "Do I have to answer that one?" another newlywed, Charlotte, asks when I get around to inquiring about who paid for her event. Sasha tells me her parents contributed "90," leaving me to fill in the "thousand dollars" part. "I just feel like maybe some of my aunts, if they saw how much we spent and how it all went down, they would hold it over my head," Jocelyn frets. Then there was this request from a bride we’ll call Haley: "Please don’t make me sound like a rich, entitled asshole." No matter if their weddings cost less than $100, more than $100,000, or somewhere in between, nuptial spending tends to get emotional, to say the least.
It also often brings with it a unique problem: "Most people who are getting married don’t have experience getting married," points out Amanda, who tied the knot in Brooklyn last year at the age of 29. She and her now-wife spent $15,000 on the event, $9,000 of which came from family. (Her wife was a grad student at the time and contributed some of her student loan money to the wedding pot.) "So we’re just like, ‘Of course the food will be $50 a plate, right? That’s how much an entrée is when you go out to eat,’" she recalls.
"I think we went into it being kind of naïve, thinking, ‘We’re doing it at the barn, it’ll be super cheap, we’ll just backyard-style it,’" echoes Joanna, who ended up spending $28,000 (about half of it contributed by her and her husband's families) on her Massachusetts wedding last year. "The caterer alone blew that out of the water."
"For us, part of it was trying to adjust to ‘wedding money,’" remarks Alexandra, who got married in Westchester last year; her parents paid. "My husband used to say, ‘You have to think of it as Monopoly money. If you think of it as real dollars, you’ll drive yourself insane so quickly because everything costs extra zeros above what you think it ought to.’"
Once expectations have been adjusted, there is still the matter of cash flow. Mary, 33, and her husband spent $25,000 on their wedding in Alabama last year, foregoing the East Coast city where they live for the less expensive South. She remembers, "There was always kind of this feeling of, ‘We’re not gonna have enough by the time the wedding comes, we can’t pay bills,’ the ongoing anxiety of, ‘Will we be able to save up enough before the wedding actually gets here?’ At the end of the day, we were a little short, and ended up having to put some on credit cards."
Some couples feel safe assuming that no family contribution is forthcoming. "My husband had been married once before, so I think there wasn’t really a question of asking his parents," Michelle, married in Washington, D.C., last year for around $9,000, discloses. Or you can hit the jackpot like Kerry, who had a $100,000 Texas wedding last year at the age of 29: "Since I was a little girl, I knew my father would pay for it," she says. For still others, there’s the sneak-attack windfall. "I was kind of surprised," says Caitlin, whose 2011 destination wedding in Palm Springs came to $40,000. "When we got engaged, my parents—they’re pretty traditional people, so I guess I should have seen it coming—were like, ‘We really want to do this for you.’"
The bride’s family paying for the entire wedding is still "a thing," so to speak, but so are all kinds of arrangements, from splitting the cost among the marrying couple and both sets of parents to the bride taking on most of the financial responsibility herself. "Originally I had wanted to have me, my mom, and my fiancé all do a third," Meg tells me. "But after a month of trying to save, it became very clear that he wasn’t going to be able to do that. I was completely fine with it."
That aforementioned survey from The Knot found that "on average, the bride’s parents contribute 43%, the bride and groom contribute 43%, and the groom’s parents contribute 12% of the total wedding budget (others account for the remaining 2%). Only 12% of couples pay for the wedding entirely themselves."
Most Surprising Expenses "Bands. How much bands cost. They’re so expensive. We spent like $15,000 on ours. I think that was by far one of our biggest costs. We wanted everyone to dance. Our friends had actually used the same band. We heard horror stories about DJs." —Sasha "We spent $15,765 for lighting. I remember both of us being like, ‘This is outrageous that we’re spending so much on this.’ But what I’ve learned, for better or worse, is that good lighting really does affect how the room looks, not only in person, but in pictures." —Celia "Flowers were probably the one that most made me feel like I got punched in the stomach when I saw the numbers. Flowers just felt disgustingly expensive. The florists pitch a lot of that stuff as, ‘Well, yeah, I mean I could work with you on the price, but then you’d have to do low centerpieces.’ And they make it sound like ‘low centerpieces’ means you’re throwing an awful wedding." —Alexandra "I was shocked to find that photography for weddings can be $10,000. Shocked!" —Meg
In the absence of a flush savings account or a sizable family contribution, one way to come up with the money is through old-fashioned sacrifice. "We cut down a lot on eating out," says Lola, 28, who got married last year in Chicago. "We bought groceries religiously, the same time every week, packed our lunch. We didn’t go to as many concerts. He and I love to travel and take road trips and we did none of that for a year." With $7,000 in gifts from Lola’s parents and in-laws, the couple was able to scrape together $25,000 for the ceremony and reception.
"I was so stressed out," Meg says of getting together the cash to reserve her venue, a restaurant in San Francisco. "They needed the deposit to hold the date, and if someone else wanted the date, they would give me 48 hours to come up with the deposit. For months, I wasn't sleeping because I was so worried that someone was going to get that date. I was saving on a weekly basis, so I just didn’t have the upfront $4,000 or $5,000 to give them."
Some brides who didn’t have family help confessed to feelings of jealousy. "I have a lot of affluent friends, and I’ve been to their weddings, and I just didn’t want our wedding to look like we were trying to be something that we weren’t," Meg admits. "It made me feel really bad about myself. I don’t want to be that person." This, of course, is endemic to the whole wedding industry, family money or not.
Alexandra recalls, "Even if you are spending tons of money on something that’s going to be absolutely beautiful, you’re always kind of made to feel as though you’re not doing everything that you could be doing. There’s always some other add-on option that you didn’t take. You can always spend $10,000 more on flowers, and is it really going to make a difference at the end of the day? Probably not, probably no one would notice. But you’re always made to feel like, ‘Ugh! You’re not doing a full cupola of roses? How could you not?’ There’s a lot of pressure to do that stuff. I think my parents maybe succumbed to that a little bit more than I did."
That’s another thing about family contributions—they often come with strings attached. Mary says that the only help she and her husband received was $5,000 from her stepmother. "Unfortunately my dad is passed. My stepmother mentioned that she wanted to do something, that she wanted to help in memory of my father. We sat down and kind of talked about the logistics, what that would mean," she explains. They never did nail down whether the money would be a gift or a loan; Mary’s still not sure which one it is. The couple hasn’t paid the stepmother back, and she hasn’t asked.
For Alexandra, her parents’ covering the cost of her wedding meant constant mediating between them and various vendors. "One of the things that frustrated me the most is that my parents refused throughout the entire process to ever give me a firm number," she laments. "Instead, every single little tiny decision had to be run through my parents, which slowed things down and caused a lot of stress."
Other brides reported parents who demanded guest list additions, church approval, and even specific music. After all, it was their money. "I remember my dad and I had a huge fight about how the return address was going to be formatted on the envelopes," Alexandra recalls. "My mom got a little intense," Amanda adds. "It’s so minor, but she wanted this one song by Darius Rucker, who I despise. I refused to put it on the playlist. She was like, ‘You have to put it on the playlist, we gave you money.’"
Spending your parents’ cash willy-nilly can certainly lead to things getting out of hand. Amy was 28 when she got married in 2013. Her parents paid for the wedding, and they originally budgeted $70,000 for her Palm Beach, Florida affair. It ended up costing $100,000. "There was definitely some mixed emotions," Amy says. "Personally, from the beginning, I would have been fine doing a smaller wedding, but I knew my parents were interested in doing something like this, and I certainly wasn’t opposed to it."
It’s not that these brides regret how much money went into their weddings, exactly. Naomi got married almost five years ago, in her early 20s; her parents and in-laws split the cost of her $50,000 suburban New York wedding. "I’m older and wiser now," she says. "I’m not saying I regret it because I loved my wedding, and it was so beautiful. But because I was young and stupid, I expected such a fancy wedding, and I didn’t even ask my parents where they were financially. They just gave it to me."
It’s situations like these that make some recently marrieds relieved to have avoided parental involvement, and for many, there is wisdom that comes with age. "Having the confidence to make really hard calls about where to cut the budget was something that only someone who has a lot of self-assurance is capable of doing," Meg, who got married when she was 31, says. "I don’t think me in my mid-20s would have had the same confidence to make those decisions."
Erin got married at 28 in 2011, and she and her husband did the whole wedding in Brooklyn for $13,000. "I really wanted to have complete control," she says. "Some parents are super hands-off and ours totally might have been, but I didn’t want anyone to be able to say, ‘Yes, we want this sort of food’ or ‘No, we don’t think you should do that.’ It was totally our party and our event and everything was organized the way that we wanted it to be and I think it was better for that."
While some people opt for cheaper weddings because they would rather put their resources elsewhere (on a honeymoon or a mortgage, for instance), others do so out of necessity. Jackie was 22 and her husband 24 when they got married in the D.C. area; with some family help, they managed to do the whole thing for about $7,000. They used a family friend’s farm as the venue, which had the advantage of being free, and ate off paper plates—"the classiest paper plates of course," she adds.
The couple tried not to get bogged down by wedding one-upmanship. "I don’t think we ever really worried about what our guests would think of our wedding," Jackie tells me. "We thought it would be a perfect reflection of our relationship together and just how our wedding should be. We definitely wanted it to be a celebration for our friends and family as well, but I don’t think that we really ever worried like, ‘Are our guests going to care that they have paper plates?’"
Nina, who got married in 2013, agrees: "Our love, it’s like, there’s no dollar sign on it. We didn’t need to prove anything." She and her husband used $3,000 from Nina’s father and spent an additional $3,000 of their own to pull off an intimate Southern California wedding.
For the few who are lucky enough to be able to afford their dream weddings on their own or who have family help that is non-intrusive, there’s still the problem of making sure your consumption isn’t too conspicuous. Because when you get married, it’s not just your or your family’s money—it’s also your guests’.
Haley was 31 when she got married in 2013 in New York. The wedding cost over $100,000, $30,000 of which came from her parents. "I was aware of the fact that my then-fiancé and I had more financial resources than a lot of my friends," she says. "I really, really wanted us to be able to have a really fun, really indulgent, really elegant, slightly over-the-top, super cool, enjoyable experience without anybody feeling like we were asking them to pay for the privilege of celebrating our wedding. So when it came to my bridal party, it never crossed my mind for a second that I was going to ask any of them to pay for anything."
Haley made sure that the $10,000 she spent on hair and makeup for herself, her bridesmaids, her mother, and her mother-in-law came out of her personal pot. "Mostly it was just that I wanted to be ridiculous about my hair and makeup, and I didn’t want them to have to suffer because I decided that my princess moment was having someone who does hair for W magazine do my wedding hair."
Having to travel to attend a wedding can be a major cost for guests. When she was first considering doing a destination wedding in Palm Springs, Caitlin says she and her husband "asked a ton of people, maybe like 30 of the guests, if that would be fun for them. They were all like, ‘Oh yeah, do it.’"
They also made sure that there was a range of hotel options beyond the pricier Ace, where they were doing the ceremony and where the bridal party was staying: "There are a lot of really affordable hotels along the strip. Some people stayed across the street if they couldn’t afford staying at the Ace. It really worked for a lot of people’s budgets." This is a consideration not everyone makes. "I probably have spent more traveling and going to these weddings and giving gifts than I spent on my own wedding," Erin guesses.
It’s also worth remembering that even at the highest levels, there’s always going to be someone spending more. Celia's 2013 wedding at Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel cost $215,000. She and her husband paid for it themselves, mostly through savings and his healthy salary. "We joke all the time that we were the poorest couple to ever get married there, because you see all these foreign royal families that have their weddings there, or so-and-so owns this sports team," Celia says.
And in the end, people do wind up more or less happy with their decisions. "Even though it sounds like such a crazy-ass number, even to me, the quality of what we got on everything was amazing," Kerry tells me. "We always just wanted to go ahead and do it, even if it cost a fortune," Amanda recalls. "We’re both the first gay people in our families to get married, so it was really important for us to get everybody together and see that it’s normal and we’re loving and we’re very happy and melt their hearts with our vows."
"I thought it was great. It was the best day of my life," Meg remembers. "Seeing all of our friends and family together having a great time even though they’re from all different walks of life, nothing has made me more happy, ever. Plus, I looked super hot."
Six Weddings and What They Cost
SARA & ANDREW
$55 (a couple of beers and a New York state marriage license), paid for by the couple "We literally went to Borough Hall in Brooklyn and had a beer afterward. I find spending lots of money on weddings kind of obscene. We had priced out doing something small, and it still seemed like an enormous amount of money, and we felt like it was not worth it. We thought of getting married in the same vein as securing life insurance or making sure you have a savings account that the other person can access. It wasn’t a big emotional, ceremonial thing; it was just something we needed to take care of." EMILY & SAM
$10,000, contributed mostly by her parents, though his parents and the extended family also chipped in "We maybe had like a thousand dollars between us. It came down to, ‘Are we going to spend money on our rings or are we going to spend money on our honeymoon?’ We got both of our rings off of Amazon with an Amazon gift card. It was awesome. I think our rings cost like 20 bucks together and they’re just the cutest things. We weren’t shy at all about extreme money-saving like that." LAUREN & JESSE
$22,000, the bulk of which ($15,000) came from the bride’s parents "I actually tried to have a dress custom-made. This was absolutely within the budget until things went awry with the seamstress who was doing it. We came to an agreement: I didn’t give her any more money and she didn’t finish the dress and no one left any terrible Yelp reviews. I lost a few hundred bucks on that easily, maybe $600." NATALIA & CHLOE
$38,000, paid for with a combination of gifts from both brides’ parents and student loans "It’s surprising looking back at it and being like, ‘Oh my gosh, we really did spend a lot of money.' What were we thinking? We were both students. We didn’t have any money! But I'm happy that we spent it. Of course, this is my view because I’m not struggling for money at the moment." ISABEL & JUSTIN
$55,000, most of which came from the couple, excluding $5,000 from each of their parents "We both had unrealistic expectations in the beginning of what it could cost. We wanted a wine country wedding, but we didn’t set a budget that made a wine country wedding possible. I was not one of those people that had dreamed about my wedding my entire life and felt the need to have all these things. But once you get into it, all of a sudden you start caring about things you never realized you cared about. Once you commit to it, it’s sad, but an extra thousand dollars here or thousand dollars there? You just become so accustomed to writing these checks, you’re like ‘Eh, what’s another thousand dollars on top of $50,000?’ I definitely think a $55,000 wedding in wine country is a very affordable wedding. It sounds crazy, but it's true." SASHA & TIM
$100,000, which broke down into $90,000 from the bride's family and $10,000 from the couple "We went into it knowing that my parents would cover the majority. We asked them what they were willing to help with, and they gave us a number. Obviously that number expanded."
Editor: Julia Rubin |
PM Narendra Modi, left, shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after a Japan-India Joint press conference at Akasaka State Guesthouse in Tokyo. (Source: AP)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday sought to address concerns of international community over India not signing the NPT by saying that the country’s commitment to peace and non-violence is engrained in the “DNA of Indian society” which is above any international treaty or processes.
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“India is a land of Lord Buddha. Buddha lived for peace and suffered for peace and that message is prevalent in India,” Modi said at Sacred Heart University while replying to a question by a student.
During an interaction, he was asked how India would enhance trust of the international community without changing its stand on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which it has refused to sign despite possessing nuclear weapons.
Modi used the land of Japan, which is the only country to have been the victim of an atom bomb attack, to send out the message on this issue amid moves to have a civil nuclear deal with Tokyo. India refuses to sign the NPT because it considers it as flawed.
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Asserting that India’s “commitment to non-violence is total”, Modi said it is engrained in the “DNA of Indian society and this is above any international treaty”, apparently referring to India’s refusal to sign the NPT.
“In international affairs, there are some processes. But above them is the commitment of the society,” he said, underlining the need for rising “above the treaties”.
To buttress his point, the Prime Minister cited how India undertook the freedom struggle under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi with the entire society being committed to non-violence, surprising the whole world.
He went on to add that India, for thousands of years, has had the belief in ‘vasudhaiva kutumbakam’ (the whole world is one family). “When we consider the whole world as one family, how can we even think about doing anything that would harm or hurt anyone?”
The question was asked in the context of India recently ratifying the Additional Protocol on Safeguards Agreement signed with IAEA, that will allow inspectors of the atomic watchdog easy access to India’s civil nuclear facilities.
During the interactive session, the Prime Minister was asked by another student about how peace could be pursued in Asia despite China’s “expansionist” designs.
“You seemed to be troubled a lot by China,” he quipped while addressing the student amid his observation that they were asking questions like journalists.
Speaking further, he carefully avoided any direct answer to the question and merely said, “India is a democratic country. Similarly, Japan is also a democratic country. If India and Japan together think about peace and positive things, we can make the world realise the strength of a democracy. We should focus on progress and development instead of paying attention to others. If we pay attention to our situation, our condition will be better.”
He then narrated an imaginary story. “Imagine, there is darkness in a room. Someone goes inside with a broom to remove the darkness but he will fail. Another person goes inside with a sword to remove darkness. He will also fail. Another person goes with blanket to remove darkness, but he will also fail.
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Then a wise man goes with a small lamp, the darkness will be chased away. A lamp peace, prosperity and democracy will never be scared of darkness.” |
Gordon Hayward has eliminated the Miami Heat as a free-agency destination, and is focused on either the Utah Jazz or Boston Celtics, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
As of Tuesday evening, neither the Celtics or Jazz organizations have heard anything firm from Hayward, according to multiple reports. The Jazz have been in contact with Hayward's camp, according to the Salt Lake Tribune's Tony Jones. The latest news came after an earlier report indicated the 27-year-old was on the verge of committing to Boston - something that was quickly shot down by Hayward's agent.
The agent, Mark Bartelstein, said that any plan to announce a decision Tuesday - widely expected via The Players' Tribune website - may be shelved.
"We've got to kind of regroup here a bit," Bartelstein told the Boston Globe's Adam Himmelsbach. |
Archbishop Anthony Apuron stands in front of the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica (AP)
A group of former altar boys have filed lawsuits against the Catholic Church in Guam seeking damages for historic child sex abuse allegedly committed by clerics in the Pacific territory.Four men lodged separate claims in the Guam Superior Court on Tuesday, three of which accuse Archbishop Anthony Apuron of molesting them when they were children.Apuron, who denies any wrongdoing, has stepped aside from his duties while he awaits a canonical trial in Rome.The allegations, which emerged earlier this year, date back to the 1970s when Apuron was a parish priest.The fourth lawsuit is from another ex-altar boy who alleges he was abused by former priest Louis Brouillard in the 1950s.All the court cases are seeking unspecified damages from the Church."The lawsuits will cause the Church to remove the cancer caused by these paedophile priests and restore the Catholic Church to its rightful glory," said lawyer David Lujan, who is handling all four cases.Lujan told reporters it would help the plaintiffs by providing "healing of decades-old feelings of fear, embarrassment, shame, hatred and blaming oneself".Guam's government in September lifted the statute of limitation in relation to sex abuse cases allowing the victims to take their cases to court.Senior Catholic officials in Guam had argued against the move, saying it could lead to a flood of claims that could bankrupt the church.But Lujan said there was no threat to the church's survival on the deeply religious island."The lawsuits will not cause the destruction of the church," he said."After all, the church has outlived every empire and civil government known to man. The church will reform itself and become even greater."Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, who was sent to Guam from Rome to run the Agana archdiocese on an interim basis, said no date had been set for Apuron's trial.He confirmed the Vatican had nominated a US cleric, bishop Michael Byrnes, to take over his duties at the end of the month.Byrnes, from Detroit, is technically a "coadjutor archbishop", meaning he serves alongside Apuron, although Hon said he may take over in the long term. "Coadjutors have successions rights when bishops resign retire or are removed. This appointment suggests a more permanent solution," he told reporters. |
Expectations do
expect 1 do
Object . expects ( : something ) . returns 1
Object . something
end
end
There's no (reasonable) way to extend all instances with a new module since the expects method is defined on Object.
method is defined on Object. I didn't want to unconditionally redefine the expects method. Within the framework I call Object#expects, and I don't want those calls to cause invalid warnings. I need a solution that prints a warning when you use Object#expects within an expectation block, but does not print a warning if Object#expects is called from anywhere else.
class Object
def say_hello
" hello "
end
end
say_hello
in_english do
say_hello end
in_spanish do
say_hello end
class Object
def say_hello
" hello "
end
end
class Object
def in_english ( & block )
instance_eval ( & block )
end
def in_spanish ( & block )
instance_eval ( & block )
end
end
in_english do
say_hello end
in_spanish do
say_hello end
say_hello
say_hello
class Object
def say_hello
" hello "
end
end
class Object
module InSpanish
def say_hello
" hola "
end
end
include InSpanish
remove_method : say_hello
def in_english ( & block )
instance_eval ( & block )
end
def in_spanish ( & block )
instance_eval ( & block )
end
end
in_english do
say_hello end
in_spanish do
say_hello end
in_english
class Object
def say_hello
" hello "
end
end
class Object
module InSpanish
def say_hello
" hola "
end
end
include InSpanish
module InEnglish
expects_method = Object . instance_method ( : say_hello )
define_method : say_hello do | * args |
expects_method . bind ( self ) . call ( * args )
end
end
include InEnglish
remove_method : say_hello
def in_english ( & block )
instance_eval ( & block )
end
def in_spanish ( & block )
instance_eval ( & block )
end
end
in_english do
say_hello end
in_spanish do
say_hello end
say_hello
say_hello
class Object
def say_hello
" hello "
end
end
class Object
module InSpanish
def say_hello
" hola "
end
end
include InSpanish
module InEnglish
expects_method = Object . instance_method ( : say_hello )
define_method : say_hello do | * args |
expects_method . bind ( self ) . call ( * args )
end
end
include InEnglish
def say_hello
( @ language || InEnglish ) . instance_method ( : say_hello ) . bind ( self ) . call
end
def in_english ( & block )
@ language = InEnglish
instance_eval ( & block )
end
def in_spanish ( & block )
@ language = InSpanish
instance_eval ( & block )
end
end
in_english do
say_hello end
in_spanish do
say_hello end
@language
say_hello
I was recently working on the integration between Mocha and expectations . Expectations promotes the idea that you should only have one expectation per test ; therefore, I wanted to display a warning if you call Object#expects within an expected block.For example, the following code will print a warning.Usually, I'd use one of the various Alternatives for Redefining Methods , but redefining the Object#expects method had two additional constraints that complicated matters.At first I attempted to solve this problem by aliasing methods and pointing to different method definitions based on the context in which the code was currently executing. This turned into a complicated mess, and also required me to define a few methods that could potentially collide with methods defined by applications using Expectations. After going down that path for a bit it became clear that it would be simpler to define modules and delegate the expects call to the appropriate module based on the context.The actual implementation involves several moving parts, so here's a much simpler example. Start with some behavior defined on Object. This behavior will have been defined by another framework so you cannot (easily) alter the original method definition.Next, you've decided to create a framework that says hello in Spanish also. You still want to be able to return "hello" when English is required, but you want themethod to return "hola" when you are expecting Spanish.Below is the output we are looking for.Currently our code returns "hello" both in English and Spanish.We can make themessage sent to Object return "hola" by removing themethod, defining an InSpanish module, and including the InSpanish module.Now we have Spanish working, but we've lost our English. Remember the actual implementation needed to preserve the original behavior in some circumstances. Themethod is our circumstance where we need to preserve original behavior. This can be done easily enough by Moving the say_hello definition from Object to an InEnglish module Now we have the original behavior of themethod, but we've lost our ability to speak Spanish.The final step is to define Object#say_hello in a way that delegates themessage to the appropriate module instead of removing the method.The final change was setting theinstance variable to the module who'smethod definition was required. As you can see from the printed output, our code works as desired.This isn't a technique that you'll use often, but it's a good trick to know when you need it. If you're interested in the actual application you can check out the expectations framework code |
UNITED STATES - May 2: Classmates Susan Sheppard and Connie Byford of Texas take photos of the U.S. Capitol dome from the Capitol Visitors Center skylight area on May 2, 2013. (Photo By Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call)
WASHINGTON -- Thanks to federal budget cuts known as sequestration, Judy Cohagen of Arlington, Texas, recently saw her income shrink from $370 to $330 per week. She has a question about that.
"I guess I'd really like to know if the $40 a week that was taken from me is making a significant contribution to ending the government's financial problems," she said. "Forty dollars doesn't sound like a lot to a whole lot of people, but $40 when you don't have a lot of income, that's food."
The gap between federal government spending and revenue in the 2012 fiscal year was slightly more than $1 trillion dollars. This year, thanks in tiny part to Cohagen's reduced unemployment compensation, the Congressional Budget Office says the deficit will be more like $642 billion.
Cohagen's token contribution to deficit reduction isn't much of a consolation. "I'd like to know what the congressmen are contributing," she said. "They've got a cushy job and good health care. They're not making any sacrifices. They're making all us little people do it."
Sequestration accounts for $85 billion of the difference between this year's and last year's deficits. Cohagen is one of nearly 2 million long-term jobless facing reduced benefits as a result of the policy, which forced almost every federal agency to trim spending this year. Long-term unemployment benefits are distributed by states but funded by the federal government, so in March the U.S. Department of Labor told states to reduce weekly benefit amounts.
But states have different systems, and are implementing the cuts at different times. The long-term jobless in California got an 18 percent reduction in their weekly benefits starting at the end of April, while Rhode Island implemented a 12.2 percent cut. Instead of a percentage reduction, the long-term jobless in South Carolina will miss benefits altogether during three separate weeks this summer. Last week, Florida sent a letter to unemployment claimants notifying that the third of three "tiers" of federal benefits would be truncated to three instead of thirteen weeks. Some states might just drop the federal benefits altogether.
The Texas Workforce Commission reduced long-term benefits 10.7 percent in the first week of April. Cohagen, 62, is an unemployed data analyst who for the past several years has been unable to find anything but part-time contract jobs. She said the reduction to her weekly income has made her life much more difficult.
"I already had cut my expenses a whole lot because of having to take jobs where I wasn't making so much money," she said. "I cut out the home telephone, I cut out the newspaper years ago. I basically don't go anywhere because if I don't go out I don't spend money."
She said she's started growing lettuce, tomatoes and onions in her yard for some extra food. She resents the notion often propagated by conservative politicians that the government safety net coddles the unemployed, that some people don't have jobs just because they're lazy or on drugs.
"I know these things aren't personal, but when you hear it over and over again it does sort of beat you up a little bit," she said. |
WASHINGTON (31 March 2010) -- About 1.6 million people -- mostly women and children -- die each year from indoor air pollution caused by cooking and heating with wood, dung, coal or crop waste, according to the World Health Organization.
Justin Henriques, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at the University of Virginia and co-executive director of Least of These International (LOTI), thinks he might have an answer to help solve the problem.
The IEEE student member will present findings on his biogas digester system at the IEEE Green Technologies Conference, 15-16 April, at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas. Early registration has been extended to Friday, 2 April. http://www. ieeegreentech. org
Speaking on the ScienceNews Radio Network show Promise of Tomorrow (http://www. promiseoftomorrow. biz/ bizradio/ 032110/ 032110. htm ), Henriques explained how his team updated 1930s biogas digester technology to allow the units to convert animal waste into enough methane gas daily to sustain a household of eight. The difference from previous attempts to utilize such fuel sources, he said, is the compact size, ease of construction, sustainability through easily available materials, low cost and rapid installation via a pre-packaged system.
The fuel Henriques and the LOTI team used in Western Kenya was a mixture of cow manure and water. "Through that anaerobic fermentation process, you actually kill most of the pathogens that would cause sickness from the manure in the first place," Henriques said on the program.
The conference will explore emerging technologies in renewable energy, alternative fuel, alternative vehicle power sources and technologies to promote energy conservation in the home and business. It will also look at the social, economic and political impacts of renewable energy sources, as well as the social and economic impact of new technologies.
IEEE-USA and Oncor, the largest regulated electric delivery business in Texas, are cosponsors of the IEEE Green Technologies Conference. Oncor Senior Vice President Jim Greer, who oversees asset management and engineering, will be a keynote speaker on 16 April and discuss his company's Smart Grid Initiative.
Representatives from the following universities, among others, are participating: the University of Tokyo; Birla Institute of Technology, India; the University of the West Indies at St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago; Southern Illinois University; University of Southern California; Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi; and the University of Texas at Arlington.
### |
The commanding general of the war in Afghanistan says US victory in the region may not be a “sure thing” after all.
“I don’t think there are any sure things in this kind of endeavor,” Gen. David Petraeus told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in an interview published Monday morning. “And I wouldn’t be honest with you and with the viewers if I didn’t convey that.”
The war’s top commander, who this year took the reins from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, hedged by claiming neither he or any other top general could ever be “confident” in success, but he insisted it’s a “reasonable” possibility that should be sought after.
“I think — no commander ever is going to come out and say, ‘I’m confident that we can do this,'” he said. “I think that you say that you assess that this is — you believe this is, you know, a reasonable prospect and knowing how important it is — that we have to do everything we can to increase the chances of that prospect.”
The American public has grown increasingly weary of the nine-year war as instances of violence and corruption continue to surface, and concerns have risen that the war was a mistake and that the United States is no better off as a result of it.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Monday reflected this declining confidence. It also found that the Afghan public increasingly believes US military presence is doing more harm than good, and harbors rising sympathies for the Taliban. More Afghans than one year ago said violence against US and other foreign troops is justified.
Petraeus acknowledged these setbacks but argued the United States ought to try and persuade Afghans otherwise. He also denied rumors that he had considered resigning from the post.
The Obama administration and military leaders this summer begun to back away from the president’s promise of withdrawing troops by July 2011. The White House reportedly hopes to set a new NATO deadline of 2014.
Petraeus also insisted that there has been some progress as some regions of the country are more secure today. But what would victory look like?
“It looks like an Afghanistan that can secure and govern itself,” the general said in the ABC interview. “And it’s one that incrementally demonstrates the ability to do that, not suddenly.” |
The Justice Department has granted immunity to the former State Department staffer who worked on Hillary Clinton's private email server as part of a criminal investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information, according to a senior law enforcement official.
The official said the FBI had secured the cooperation of Bryan Pagliano, who worked on Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign before setting up the server in her New York home in 2009.
As the FBI looks to wrap up its investigation in the coming months, agents will likely want to interview Clinton and her senior aides about the decision to use a private server, how it was set up, and whether any of the participants knew they were sending classified information in emails, current and former officials said.
The inquiry comes against a sensitive political backdrop in which Clinton is the favorite to secure the Democratic nomination for the presidency.
So far, there is no indication that prosecutors have convened a grand jury in the email investigation to subpoena testimony or documents, which would require the participation of a U.S. attorney's office.
Spokesmen at the FBI and Justice Department would not discuss the investigation. Pagliano's lawyer also declined to comment.
In a statement, Brian Fallon, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said: "As we have said since last summer, Secretary Clinton has been cooperating with the Department of Justice's security inquiry, including offering in August to meet with them to assist their efforts if needed."
He also said that the campaign is "pleased" that Pagliano, who invoked his Fifth Amendment rights before a congressional panel in September, is now cooperating with prosecutors. The campaign had encouraged Pagliano to testify before Congress.
As part of the inquiry, law enforcement officials will look at the potential damage had the classified information in the emails been exposed. The Clinton campaign has described the probe as a security review. But current and former officials in the FBI and at the Justice Department have said investigators are trying to determine whether a crime was committed.
"There was wrongdoing," said a former senior law enforcement official. "But was it criminal wrongdoing?"
Clinton has since apologized for what had happened: "Yes, I should have used two email addresses, one for personal matters and one for my work at the State Department. Not doing so was a mistake. I'm sorry about it, and I take full responsibility."
Any decision to charge someone would involve Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, who told Congress when asked earlier this month about the email inquiry: "That matter is being handled by career independent law enforcement agents, FBI agents, as well as the career independent attorneys in the Department of Justice. They follow the evidence, they look at the law and they'll make a recommendation to me when the time is appropriate.
"We will review all the facts and all the evidence and come to an independent conclusion as how to best handle it," she added.
Current and former officials said the conviction of retired four-star general and CIA director David H. Petraeus for mishandling classified information is casting a shadow over the email investigation.
The officials said they think that Petraeus's actions were more egregious than those of Clinton and her aides since he lied to the FBI, and classified information he shared with his biographer contained top secret code words, identities of covert officers, war strategy and intelligence capabilities. Prosecutors initially threatened to charge him with three felonies, including conspiracy, violating the Espionage Act and lying to the FBI. But after negotiations, Petraeus pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information.
He was fined $100,000 and sentenced to two years of probation. FBI officials were angered by the deal and predicted it would affect the outcome of other cases involving classified information.
Petraeus "was handled so lightly for his offense there isn't a whole lot you can do," said a former U.S. law enforcement official who oversaw counterintelligence investigations and described the email controversy as "a lesser set of circumstances."
The State Department has been analyzing the contents of Clinton's correspondence, as it has prepared 52,000 pages of Clinton's emails for public release in batches, a process that began in May and concluded Monday. The State Department has said 2,093 of Clinton's released emails were redacted in all or part because they contained classified material, the vast majority of them rated "confidential," the lowest level of sensitivity in the classification system.
Clinton and the State Department have said that none of the material was marked classified at the time it was sent. However, it is the responsibility of individual government officials to properly handle sensitive material.
The email investigation is being conducted by FBI counterintelligence agents and supervised by the Justice Department's National Security Division.
In a letter filed earlier this month in federal court as part of ongoing civil litigation over Clinton's emails, the FBI confirmed that it was "working on matters related to former Secretary Clinton's use of a private email server." The agency declined to publicly detail the investigation's "specific focus, scope or potential targets."
On Tuesday, FBI Director James B. Comey said he was "very close" to the investigation.
Former federal prosecutor Glen Kopp said it is not surprising that agents want to interview Clinton and her aides.
"They are within the zone of interest of the investigation," he said. |
By George Friedman
Britain controlled about one-fourth of the Earth's land surface and one-fifth of the world's population in 1939. Fifty years later, its holdings outside the British Isles had become trivial, and it even faced an insurgency in Northern Ireland.
Britain spent the intervening years developing strategies to cope with what poet Rudyard Kipling called its "recessional," or the transient nature of Britain's imperial power. It has spent the last 20 years defining its place not in the world in general but between continental Europe and the United States in particular.
The Rise of Britain
Britain's rise to its once-extraordinary power represented an unintended gift from Napoleon. It had global ambitions before the Napoleonic Wars, but its defeat in North America and competition with other European navies meant Britain was by no means assured pre-eminence. In Napoleon's first phase, France eliminated navies that could have challenged the British navy. The defeat of the French fleet at Trafalgar and the ultimate French defeat at Waterloo then eliminated France as a significant naval challenger to Britain for several generations.
This gave Britain dominance in the North Atlantic, the key to global power in the 19th century that gave control over trade routes into the Indian and Pacific oceans.
This opportunity aligned with economic imperatives. Not only was Britain the dominant political and military power, it also was emerging as the leader in the Industrial Revolution then occurring in Europe. Napoleon's devastation of continental Europe, the collapse of French power and the underdevelopment of the United States gave Britain an advantage and an opportunity.
As a manufacturer, it needed raw materials available only abroad, markets to absorb British production and trade routes supported by strategically located supply stations. The British Empire was foremost a trading bloc. Britain resisted encroachment by integrating potential adversaries into trade relationships with the empire that it viewed as beneficial. In addition, the colonies, which saw the benefits of increased trade, would reinforce the defense of the empire.
As empires go, Britain resembled Rome rather than Nazi Germany. Though Rome imposed its will, key groups in colonial processions benefitted greatly from the relationship. Rome was thus as much an alliance as it was an empire. Nazi Germany, by contrast, had a purely exploitative relationship with subject countries as a result of war and ideology. Britain understood that its empire could be secured only through Roman-style alliances. Britain also benefitted from the Napoleonic Wars' having crippled most European powers. Britain was not under military pressure for most of the century and was not forced into a singularly exploitative relationship with its empire to support its wars. It thus avoided Hitler's trap.
The German and U.S. Challenges
This began to change in the late 19th century with two major shifts. The first was German unification in 1871, an event that transformed the dynamics of Europe and the world. Once unified, Germany became the most dynamic economy in Europe. Britain had not had to compete for economic primacy since Waterloo, but Germany pressed Britain heavily, underselling British goods with its more efficient production.
The second challenge came from the United States, which also was industrializing at a dramatic pace — a process ironically underwritten by investors from Britain seeking higher returns than they could get at home. The U.S. industrial base created a navy that surpassed the British navy in size early in the 20th century. The window of opportunity that had opened with the defeat of Napoleon was closing as Germany and the United States pressed Britain, even if in an uncoordinated fashion.
The German challenge culminated in World War I, a catastrophe for Britain and for the rest of Europe. Apart from decimating a generation of men, the cost of the war undermined Britain's economic base, subtly shifting London's relationship with its empire. Moreover, British power no longer seemed inevitable, raising the question among those who had not benefitted from British imperialism as to whether the empire could be broken. Britain became more dependent on its empire, somewhat shifting the mutuality of relations. And the cost of policing the empire became prohibitive relative to the benefits. Additionally, the United States was emerging as a potential alternative partner for the components of the empire — and the German question was not closed.
World War II, the second round of the German war, broke Britain's power. Britain lost the war not to Germany but to the United States. It might have been a benign defeat in the sense that the United States, pursuing its own interests, saved Britain from being forced into an accommodation with Germany. Nevertheless, the balance of power between the United States and Britain completely shifted during the war. Britain emerged from the war vastly weaker economically and militarily than the United States. Though it retained its empire, its ability to hold it depended on the United States. Britain no longer could hold it unilaterally.
British strategy at the end of the war was to remain aligned with the United States and try to find a foundation for the United States to underwrite the retention of the empire. But the United States had no interest in this. It saw its primary strategic interest as blocking the Soviet Union in what became known as the Cold War. Washington saw the empire as undermining this effort, both fueling anti-Western sentiment and perpetuating an economic bloc that had ceased to be self-sustaining.
From Suez to Special Relationship
The U.S. political intervention against the British, French and Israeli attack on Egypt in 1956, which was designed to maintain British control of the Suez Canal, marked the empire's breaking point. Thereafter, the British retreated strategically and psychologically from the empire. They tried to maintain some semblance of enhanced ties with their former colonies through the Commonwealth, but essentially they withdrew to the British Isles.
As it did during World War II, Britain recognized U.S. economic and military primacy, and it recognized it no longer could retain its empire. As an alternative, the British aligned themselves with the U.S.-dominated alliance system and the postwar financial arrangements lumped together under the Bretton Woods system. The British, however, added a dimension to this. Unable to match the United States militarily, they outstripped other American allies both in the quantity of their military resources and in their willingness to use them at the behest of the Americans.
We might call this the "lieutenant strategy." Britain could not be America's equal. However, it could in effect be America's lieutenant, wielding a military force that outstripped in number — and technical sophistication — the forces deployed by other European countries. The British maintained a "full-spectrum" military force, smaller than the U.S. military but more capable across the board than militaries of other U.S. allies.
The goal was to accept a subordinate position without being simply another U.S. ally. The British used that relationship to extract special concessions and considerations other allies did not receive. They also were able to influence U.S. policy in ways others couldn't. The United States was not motivated to go along merely out of sentiment based on shared history, although that played a part. Rather, like all great powers, the United States wanted to engage in coalition warfare and near warfare along with burden sharing. Britain was prepared to play this role more effectively than other countries, thereby maintaining a global influence based on its ability to prompt the use of U.S. forces in its interest.
Much of this was covert, such as U.S. intelligence and security aid for Britain during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Other efforts were aimed at developing economic relationships and partnerships that might have been questionable with other countries but that were logical with Britain. A good example — though not a very important one — was London's ability to recruit U.S. support in Britain's war against Argentina in the Falkland Islands, also known as the Malvinas. The United States had no interests at stake, but given that Britain did have an interest, the U.S. default setting was to support the British.
There were two dangers for the British in this relationship. The first was the cost of maintaining the force relative to the benefits. In extremis, the potential benefits were great. In normal times, the case easily could be made that the cost outstripped the benefit. The second was the danger of being drawn so deeply into the U.S. orbit that Britain would lose its own freedom of action, effectively becoming, as some warned, the 51st state.
Britain modified its strategy from maintaining the balance of power on the Continent to maintaining a balance between the United States and Europe. This allowed it to follow its U.S. strategy while maintaining leverage in that relationship beyond a wholesale willingness to support U.S. policies and wars.
Britain has developed a strategy of being enmeshed in Europe without France's enthusiasm, at the same time positioning itself as the single most important ally of the only global power. There are costs on both sides of this, but Britain has been able to retain its options while limiting its dependency on either side.
As Europe increased its unity, Britain participated in Europe, but with serious limits. It exercised its autonomy and did not join the eurozone. While the United States remains Britain's largest customer for exports if Europe is viewed as individual countries, Europe as a whole is a bigger customer. Where others in Europe, particularly the Germans and French, opposed the Iraq war, Britain participated in it. At the same time, when the French wanted to intervene in Libya and the Americans were extremely reluctant, the British joined with the French and helped draw in the Americans.
Keeping its Options Open
Britain has positioned itself superbly for a strategy of waiting, watching and retaining options regardless of what happens. If the European Union fails and the European nation-states re-emerge as primary institutions, Britain will be in a position to exploit the fragmentation of Europe to its own economic and political advantage and have the United States available to support its strategy. If the United States stumbles and Europe emerges more prominent, Britain can modulate its relationship with Europe at will and serve as the Europeans' interface with a weakened United States. If both Europe and the United States weaken, Britain is in a position to chart whatever independent course it must.
The adjustment British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made in 1943 when it became evident that the United States was going to be much more powerful than Britain remains in place. Britain's willingness to undertake military burdens created by the United States over the last 10 years allows one to see this strategy in action. Whatever the British thought of Iraq, a strategy of remaining the most reliable ally of the United States dictated participation. At the same time, the British participated deeply in the European Union while hedging their bets. Britain continues to be maintaining its balance, this time not within Europe, but, to the extent possible, between Europe and the United States.
The British strategy represents a classic case of a nation accepting reversal, retaining autonomy, and accommodating itself to its environment while manipulating it. All the while Britain waits, holding its options open, waiting to see how the game plays out and positioning itself to take maximum advantage of its shifts in the environment.
It is a dangerous course, as Britain could lose its balance. But there are no safe courses for Britain, as it learned centuries ago. Instead, the British buy time and wait for the next change in history. |
A bill introduced in the Kansas Senate would make it legal for patients with some medical conditions to use marijuana, with a doctor's prescription.
Senate Bill 9 was introduced by Democratic Senator David Haley, of Kansas City. Medical marijuana is already legal in 18 states, plus the District of Columbia.
Haley says it’s an issue of basic compassion.
“This becomes a pretty common-sense approach to that, especially when the alternative is to crowd our jails and prisons with people who only wanted to alleviate personal pain,” he says.
Haley’s bill would allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for conditions including glaucoma, hepatitis C, and pain and nausea associated with cancer treatment.
Previous efforts to legalize marijuana for medical purposes have gone nowhere. Haley thinks the bill can get a fair hearing this year.
“There are constituents in literally every Senate district that think that it's a safe alternative to prescription drugs, that’s already being utilized, and should not be criminalized,” he says.
The bill has been referred to the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. |
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The European Central Bank on Wednesday announced strong demand for a key bank lending program meant to address the eurozone debt crisis.
The ECB allotted €489.19 billion ($643.18 billion) in the first batch of its 3-year loan program -- more than investors expected. The loans will go to 523 banks in the eurozone to support bank lending and liquidity, the central bank said.
The ECB had announced a series of "non-standard" measures earlier this month, designed to boost liquidity for European banks struggling to secure funding in the wholesale market.
But traders had been keeping their eye out for the results of Wednesday's Long Term Refinancing Operation, which allows banks to take out loans for three years at a low rate of 1%.
European markets initially spiked on the news, before pulling back near the end of the session. London's FTSE (UKX) closed down 0.65%, the DAX (DAX) in Frankfurt fell 1.14%, while France's CAC 40 (CAC40) ended 1.04% lower.
The euro also zig-zagged during the day, to stand at $1.303, up 0.39%.
"The biggest concern people had was that the banks were running out of collateral, and did not have liquidity and this solves that problem -- in the short term," said Marc Chandler, a currency strategist for Brown Brothers Harriman.
"There are a lot of banks in trouble that need capital more than loans," added Robert Brusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics. "And while this can provide help to the markets in the short term, having banks get liquidity so they can buy bonds that may not be as safe as they seem could just be postponing the crisis."
The hope is that many of these banks may use some of the funding to buy up the sovereign debt of European nations. However, 10-year yields for German, Italian and Spanish debt rose. Yields on French bonds fell.
On Tuesday, investors cheered positive headlines out of Europe including an upbeat reading on German consumer confidence, and a surprisingly strong auction of Spanish debt -- even as Europe's long-running debt crisis has left many European countries on the brink of possible credit downgrades.
However, Moody's issued a statement on its AAA credit rating on the U.K.'s long-term debt late Tuesday, saying it was "not immune to this crisis."
The ratings agency said the currently stable AAA rating, "has a reduced ability to absorb further macroeconomic or fiscal shocks without rating implications."
Earlier this month Standard & Poor's put 15 members of the euro currency bloc on review for a downgrade, including top-rated Germany and France.
In Asia, markets ended Wednesday's session mixed. Japan's Nikkei (N225) gained 1.5% and the Hang Seng (HSI) in Hong Kong rose 1.9%, while the Shanghai Composite (SHCOMP) fell 1.1%. |
A federal appeals court has dealt another blow to President Donald Trump's executive order temporarily restricting travel from six Muslim-majority countries.
The Virginia-based 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday largely upheld a lower court ruling barring the administration from suspending visas from those countries. The Trump administration previously revised the executive order to better hold up to legal scrutiny than an earlier version did.
Trump has insisted that the measure is necessary to prevent possible terrorist attacks and protect national security. But opponents, and courts in previous rulings blocking its enforcement, have cited past statements from Trump and his advisors signaling that it may target Muslims.
The 4th Circuit ruling said it was "unconvinced" that the order "has more to do with national security than it does with effectuating the president's proposed Muslim ban."
Later Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement that the Justice Department "strongly disagrees with the decision" and would "seek review of this case in the United States Supreme Court."
Trump had previously said that the federal government will take the case to the Supreme Court, if necessary.
The White House has insisted that Trump had the authority to issue the order based on the president's powers to limit certain immigrants. The 4th Circuit ruling said that while "Congress granted the president broad power to deny entry to aliens," the "power is not absolute."
A federal judge in Hawaii also halted the order, and the Trump administration is fighting that decision in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The order affects citizens from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Judges have had to consider whether to consider only the text of the executive order or take into account Trump's campaign statements about temporarily barring Muslims from entering the country.
Following the ruling, the White House said it is confident that the "executive order to protect the country is fully lawful and ultimately will be upheld by the Judiciary."
"These clearly are very dangerous times and we need every available tool at our disposal to prevent terrorists from entering the United States and committing acts of bloodshed and violence," Michael Short, senior assistant press secretary, said in a statement.
"As Judge Shedd's dissent notes, 'the real losers in this case are the millions of individual Americans whose security is threatened on a daily basis by those who seek to do us harm.'"
— NBC News and The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
Story highlights So far this year, there have been more quakes in Oklahoma than California
Experts: Wastewater wells appear linked to many quakes
Scientists worried about a major earthquakes
California may be known for its earthquakes , but so far this year it has been surpassed by an unlikely state: Oklahoma.
Experts say wastewater wells are likely linked to the big increase in the number of quakes recorded in Oklahoma.
Between 1978 and 2008, Oklahoma experienced an average of just two quakes of 3.0 magnitude of greater. In 2014, as of Thursday, there have been about 207 such quakes recorded in the state, according to the U.S. Geological Survey
JUST WATCHED Witness: Earthquake like bombs going off Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Witness: Earthquake like bombs going off 02:03
The upward trend started in 2009, with 20 quakes of 3.0 magnitude or greater, then 43 the following year, and jumping every year with the exception of 2012.
Oklahoma has now surpassed California in quakes, and seismologists see no end in sight, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said.
California has recorded about 140 3.0-magnitude quakes or greater, compared to 207 in Oklahoma.
The oil and gas industry's injection of wastewater deep into the Earth apparently is linked to the shift in seismic activity in Oklahoma, Myers said.
The fracturing fluid seems to be lubricating existing faults that have not moved in recent years, he said. The fracturing process is not creating new faults, but are exposing faults that already exist, he said.
On Wednesday, at least seven earthquakes were recorded in Oklahoma, according to the USGS.
There were no reports of significant damage, but that doesn't mean that these quakes are not of concern to scientists.
"The fact that the number of earthquakes in Oklahoma is even comparable to California is unusual," USGS geophysicist Rob Williams said.
"We've seen swarms of earthquakes over the interior of the U.S., but this is on a completely different scale, for the area where all the earthquakes are occurring is bigger than any previous swarm," he added. "It's not really a swarm, it's really a collection of swarms."
It cannot be ruled out that the spike in earthquakes is a once-every-10,000-years thing, but scientists don't know and a surprised by the numbers.
"Given the rate of earthquakes over the last six months, it's concerning enough to be worried about a larger, damaging earthquake happening, let alone what might happen in the future," Williams said.
Many of these quakes are being linked to wastewater injection, he said.
Some earthquakes have been linked to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, but for the most part, the Oklahoma earthquakes are linked to wastewater wells, Williams said.
Geophysicists have not been able to gather data to pin down the certain set of wastewater wells that are causing the earthquake problem, but they're hopeful to learn more about the problematic wells in the future.
Research into the links between the wastewater wells and quakes started about four years ago, Williams said.
To better gauge the increased quakes, USGS and Oklahoma officials have added monitoring stations, which now stand at 15 permanent facilities and 17 temporary stations.
The Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association last month urged a wait-and-see approach in judging the USGS's assertions on links between wastewater disposal and earthquakes.
"Because crude oil and natural gas is produced in 70 of Oklahoma's 77 counties, any seismic activity within the state is likely to occur near oil and natural gas activity. The OIPA and the oil and gas industry as a whole support the continued study of Oklahoma's increased seismic activity, but a rush to judgment provides no clear understanding of the causes," the industry group said. |
Taken at face value, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s latest fundraising pitch to supporters is either impossible, illegal, or a scam.
In an email his campaign blasted out on Tuesday, Cruz wrote: “I just got off the phone with a few very generous supporters who — after our big win in Iowa last night — have pledged huge support for my campaign.”
The donors “have agreed to match all online donations to my campaign made through the links below,” he said. The page he linked to allowed supporters to give up to $5,400 ($2,700 for the primary election; $2,700 for the general election) and, for a 48-hour period, have their donations matched dollar for dollar.
The email did not say exactly how that would work.
Campaign finance experts, however, say there’s no way Cruz could be doing exactly what he promised without violating the law. That’s because there’s no way “a few very generous supporters” could legally be matching a large number of contributions to the campaign.
The operative rule is that individual donations to campaigns are legally capped. “If this money is going to his campaign, any one of those donors can only give a maximum of $2,700 [per cycle] including any money they have given before,” said Fred Wertheimer, a campaign finance expert at Democracy 21.
Many of Cruz’s most “generous donors” have presumably already hit that limit, which is called “maxing out.”
“I don’t know what he’s doing or how he’s doing it, but the only way that I could imagine he could be doing it that’s legal is if he’s got a bunch of not maxed-out donors who are willing to match the contributions of others until they themselves max out at $2,700,” said Paul Seamus Ryan, deputy executive director of the Campaign Legal Center.
Richard Skinner, a policy analyst at the Sunlight Foundation, speculated that the Cruz campaign could perhaps have lined up a conference call with “like a hundred contributors who have not maxed out.” In that scenario, if each one could still give $1,000 and remain below the cap, they could match $100,000 in donations — but that would be all, and Cruz didn’t say there was a limit beyond which donations would no longer be matched.
Rick Tyler, a Cruz campaign spokesperson, said that he was only “vaguely familiar” with the program, but “you have to get multiple people to agree to do it.”
He then emailed me the following statement: “I am not going to get into specifics about the performance of our match program. Suffice is to say it meets compliance standards for reporting. We have enough donors to match new contributions under the program. This program has been widely used successfully by many campaigns.” He pointed me toward similar email campaigns, including one just the other day from fellow Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee actually offers a triple match.
But if Cruz is telling the truth about the match being covered with only “a few very generous donors” he spoke to on the phone, the only way that could work would be if his campaign is either ignoring the campaign donation limit — or the donors are giving the “matching funds” money to a Cruz-affiliated Super PAC.
Neither of those would be remotely legal.
After recent Supreme Court decisions such as Citizens United and SpeechNow — and with the Federal Election Commission almost totally paralyzed by its three Republican members — there isn’t much operative campaign finance law left on the books. Super PACs, for instance, are allowed to accept unlimited contributions as long as they don’t coordinate directly with campaigns. But it seems that every campaign, with the exception of that of Bernie Sanders, is constantly finding new ways to weasel around that restriction.
One of the few rules still standing, however, is that $2,700 limit to campaign giving. Another is that federal candidates are not allowed to solicit more than $5,000 in Super PAC contributions from any one person.
“If it is not a large pool of donors, if it is truly just a few generous supporters, it does appear that taking him at his word … his strategy runs afoul of the law one way or the other,” Krumholtz said.
The rule about solicitation is outlined in an FEC advisory opinion from 2011. According to the federal statute in question, which dates back to the McCain-Feingold soft money ban of 2002, “a candidate, individual holding Federal office, agent of a candidate or an individual holding Federal office … shall not … solicit, receive, direct, transfer, or spend funds in connection with an election for Federal office, including funds for any Federal election activity, unless the funds are subject to the limitations, prohibitions, and reporting requirements of this Act.”
And there’s no wiggle room. “To direct,” according to federal regulations, “means to guide, directly or indirectly, a person who has expressed an intent to make a contribution, donation, transfer of funds, or otherwise provide anything of value, by identifying a candidate, political committee or organization, for the receipt of such funds, or things of value.”
To solicit “means to ask, request, or recommend, explicitly or implicitly, that another person make a contribution, donation, transfer of funds, or otherwise provide anything of value.”
According to Ryan of the Campaign Legal Center, “If the matching contributions by Senator Cruz’s ‘very generous supporters’ are going to a Super PAC and exceed $5,000 by any one supporter, Cruz is violating the federal law that prohibits candidates from soliciting or directing soft money to Super PACs.”
And it’s hard to imagine Cruz denying he played a part. “The problem there would be that he was on the phone call, strategically planning this campaign,” said Krumholtz. “How do you walk that back?”
Cruz could be counting on the fact that the FEC won’t rouse itself even for such a blatant violation.
“There’s no enforcement of the campaign finance laws — all the campaigns and political operatives know that,” said Wertheimer. “There are three Republican commissioners at the FEC who block enforcement of the laws. So it’s the Wild West without a sheriff.
“As long as you think there is going to be no enforcement of the law, it’s just up to each political operative or campaign to decide what they want to do,” Wertheimer said. “It’s a voluntary system, the way the FEC treats it.”
Of course, there’s one other possibility: that the whole thing is just a fake marketing gimmick, a scam.
Cruz ended the email with a definite whopper. He told his email subscribers that he will “never get — nor do I want — money from the D.C. lobbyists or the special interest billionaires.”
That would be news to billionaire Robert Mercer, the New York hedge funder who originally met Cruz at a meeting of the Club for Growth, a prominent D.C. special interest group, then gave $11 million to Keep the Promise, a Cruz Super PAC.
Another billionaire, energy investor Toby Negegebauer, gave $10 million to one of Cruz’s Super PACs. Farris and Dan Wilks, two billionaire brothers who were enriched by the Texas fracking industry, gave $15 million to a Cruz Super PAC.
As for Cruz’s pledge that he has never received money from D.C. lobbyists, that’s also demonstrably false. A number of lobbyists have given to his campaign for a total of $5,700, according to Opensecrets.org.
They include James Hyland, the president of the Pennsylvania Avenue Group, which instructs visitors to its website: “Even if you are unsure if you need our lobbying assistance, make an appointment to discuss your options.”
There’s also Ed Rogers, chairman of the lobbying powerhouse BGR Group; Andrew Biar, the founder of Strategic Public Affairs; Jewell Patek, owner of Patek & Associates; and Joseph Mondello, principal of the Mondello Group, who was recently arrested after a worker who failed to fix his computer told police that Mondello became enraged, told him, “You’re not leaving until you fix this,” then pulled out a gun and said, “I’m going to kill you slowly.”
Overall, however, Hillary Clinton’s campaign has received far and away the most donations from lobbyists, with Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio as her nearest competitors. |
When I first encountered Persona 3 as a young JRPG fan, it was a revelation. I'd grown up on Final Fantasy and just entered puberty. This JRPG didn't take place in a fantasy world. It was about regular teens just a little older than me gaining special powers based on classical mythology to represent their growth as individuals. I never knew I wanted it, but as soon as I saw a screenshot, I knew it had to be mine. I beat Persona 3 FES, picked up Persona 4 on launch day, played through Persona 3 Portable in Japanese (a language that I do not know) out of fear that it would never come out stateside, and did so again when it eventually came out in English. I became the local Persona evangelist. Persona was easily the definitive nerd property of my adolescence.
It's hard to imagine that Personas 3 and 4 are “old” by pop culture standards, but it's true: Persona 4 came out for the PlayStation 2 in 2008, while Persona 3 happened all the way back in 2006. To put that into perspective, I flunked a midterm in middle school because I stayed up all night beating Rise's dungeon. I'm now in college. In otaku chronology, that's before Naruto Shippuden, the Death Note anime, and Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Doesn't that feel like forever ago? For their age, these games have maintained a consistent level of popularity almost anomalous for contemporary fandom. While cosplayers for the more recent Danganronpa and The World Ends With You have mostly trickled off, Persona characters still swamp conventions. Partially, this is due to Atlus's habit of releasing some new version every year. (Persona 3 had expanded re-releases in 2008 and 2010, a sequel anime, and a currently in-progress film series. Persona 4 had an expansion in 2013, anime for both versions, and a parade of spin-off games. I can't even begin to list the manga.) At the same time, this stuff keeps selling because the material resonates – there's just something about SEES and the Investigation Team that keep drawing people in, no matter how many times their mysteries have been solved.
So why did this previously obscure franchise suddenly explode over the past ten years, and how has it lasted so much longer than the typical anime nerd obsession? I think it's because Persona is not only popular, but important to many people – myself included. Persona 4 is the pinnacle of the franchise's ambitions so far, leaving me with nothing but high hopes for Persona 5, and this is why I think it's so special.
It's About Teens Like You
Persona has stuck around because it “gets” teenagers, their issues, and their struggles. The games try to tell stories their target audience can relate to, and they get better at this with each installment. They cater to a previously underrepresented fantasy – one where you're not brought into the magical world (like in the genre's previously unassailable emperor, the Final Fantasy series), but where the magical world comes to you. In Persona, you (or Yu Narukami, Mr. Perfect self-insert) and your friends covertly deal with this invasion while navigating daily tasks like school, errands, and relationships. Persona's characteristic “social link” system means that your skill in battle increases as you befriend specific characters. Befriending them consists of helping them work through their personal problems. The game is thus designed to teach players to empathize with kids suffering from tribulations like social anxiety, grief, family troubles, and illness.
When you're a teenager, molehills can seem like mountains. While the average video game hero struggles with dead parents, a tragic past, and a heroic destiny, I struggled with school, family, and learning how to date. This is what teenagers can relate to, and while escapist fantasy is all well and good, there's something attractive about art that's rooted in what you experience every day. Just look at the recent boom in young adult literature.
Persona 4 in particular is almost structured like a series of “very special” episodes. The game is divided into a number of dungeons that end with you recruiting another party member. Each dungeon is based on an ersatz version of this new member's problems, decked out with symbolic scenery, music, and enemies. For example, Rise Kujikawa, a pop star and high school freshman, is afraid of being pushed into unwanted sexual situations. Her dungeon – which is made to look like a strip club – features gyrating enemies, scored with lusty sighs. This represents what she fears will happen to her in the entertainment industry, based on what the media tells her she should be, reflected in how the dungeon literally exists behind a TV screen. Her story plays on issues surrounding the sexualization of young teenage girls in the idol industry, and also represents her reaching an age when she first realizes that other people will sexualize her.
Many character arcs deal with gender. Chie Satonaka is a tomboy who feels unattractive in comparison to her more feminine best friend, Yukiko Amagi. Her story leads her to reconcile her girly side with her masculine interests. I know several women who felt reassured in their desirability by Chie's arc. Yukiko, meanwhile, is the heir to a local business. Her family has never asked her what she wants, and she's regularly obligated to work long hours at the expense of her personal life. Her family's disinterest in her own desires frustrates her, and she begins to resent them. While these problems seem mundane, they have serious consequences on Chie and Yukiko's lives. Keeping those problems secret almost ruins their friendship. One of the first things you do in the game is air these issues out and rejuvenate their relationship.
Persona 4 is also famous as one of the few big games to seriously confront the struggles faced by LGBT teenagers. The second dungeon concerns Kanji Tatsumi, a delinquent freshman who dresses in a punk style. It turns out that he's questioning his sexuality and fears that, as a man who loves men, he'll have to act like an okama - the predominant image of gay men on Japanese television. (Examples include Haruhi's dad on Ouran High School Host Club, Fire Emblem from Tiger and Bunny, and Emporio Ivankov from One Piece.) It doesn't help that his interests, which include crafts and cute things, are stereotypically feminine. The game is sympathetic toward Kanji, and has him learn that his sexuality doesn't have to impose anything on his identity or behavior. Although its commentary is somewhat outdated by now (the game ultimately refuses to directly say that Kanji is attracted to men, even after ten hours of wandering through his tortured psyche imagined as a gay bathhouse), it still marked Persona 4 as landmark entry for queer representation in games as of 2008.
This marks only a few of the party members. There's also the very popular Naoto Shirogane, who many people read as an example of trans representation, and more than a dozen other social links. Persona 3's characters are also based on specific issues – such as loss, addiction, and family dysfunction – but the game isn't structured around them resolving their problems in the same way, so they're pushed to the background. Persona 4, with its marriage of structure and theme, perfected the franchise's formula. But there's still room to go up from there!
The Games are Always Improving
While the Persona series hasn't always succeeded in its goals, I can't fault it for lack of ambition. Each game is an improvement over the last, looking at the series' progression from Personas two to three to four.
While the series has always used real psychological ideas to “unmask” characters' various hangups, the mechanics didn't always play into that. The social link and calendar systems hadn't been developed yet, so character interactions only happened after long sections of arduous dungeon crawling. While Persona 2's character work is in many ways the franchise's most daring – the male protagonist can have a romantic relationship with a man, a teenage character is mentioned engaging in drugs and prostitution, descriptions of trauma are more explicit, etc. – it didn't have Persona 3's structure for powerful emotional engagement. There's a reason why 3 and 4 are so big, but not the games before them.
So, just by introducing social links and the calendar system (where players experience most days of the in-game year as blocks of time where they choose to complete certain tasks, such as deepening their relationships with other characters or increasing skills), Persona 3 was an advancement. Persona 4 proceeded to deepen that system by expanding it to party members and increasing the writing quality. It was such a gold standard for the established formula that its expanded re-release, Persona 4: The Golden, could only tack on more fanservice.
By contrast, it's difficult to return to releases before Persona 3 Portable. In Persona 3: FES, you couldn't even form social links with all of your party members. There were also no options to just be friends with your female party members – to complete all the social links, you have to date all of them. Your male party members were by default distant, your female ones by default romantic. Persona 3 Portable, the expanded remake for the Playstation Portable released after Persona 4, rectified this. It took many of Persona 4's additions and wrote them into the game as new routes with a female protagonist. In terms of sheer writing quality, this is the version of the game to play, as it adds a new Persona 4-style dimension to all party members, as well as many more social links. If only Atlus would expand the female protagonist's existence beyond this game...
Persona 5 already looks great. The protagonist is a milquetoast student by day, but a rebellious thief by night. His Persona is Arséne, named for the legendary thief. Alongside his schoolmates and a talking cat, he hunts shadows. The teaser's dominant images are chains against a stark red background. Series director Katsura Hashino commented that “The characters in this game, through sheer force of will, are out to destroy that which suffocates people in today's society and, again, keeps them chained in place. I want players to come away from the game feeling like they have the power to take on the world around them and keep going in life… we're talking about a different sort of freedom that's wet aside from what those previous games have discussed and operates under its own set of thematic principles.” (source)
I believe that the Persona series is the definitive JRPG franchise of the past ten years. What do you think? Why are these games valuable to you, and what are you looking forward to in Persona 5? |
Beyonce performs on stage during "The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour" at the Barclays Center on December 22, 2013 in Brooklyn, NY.
"Beyonce" sold 991,000 in its first 10 days and is (so far) the 12th biggest-selling album of 2013
Beyonce's new self-titled album remains unstoppable on the Billboard 200 chart, as it spends a second week atop the list.
"Beyonce" sold 374,000 copies in the week ending Dec. 22 (down 39%), according to Nielsen SoundScan. It bowed at No. 1 on the previous week's chart, after only three days on sale, with 617,000 sold.
The album was released on an off-cycle Friday, Dec. 13. Its debut on the chart a week ago came from sales in the week ending Dec. 15.
Beyonce Surprises Terminally Ill Fan | 'Beyonce' Review
Thus, in its first 10 days of release, "Beyonce" sold 991,000 and is (so far) the 12th biggest-selling album of 2013. There is one more tracking week left in the year -- the week ending Dec. 29. It's likely that "Beyonce" will finish 2013 among the top 10 sellers (all of which have sold at least 1 million this year).
Holiday Chart Schedule Please note that all Billboard.com and .Biz charts will update on Friday (Dec. 27) at 9am ET. The top 10 of the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 charts will be revealed on Thursday (Jan. 2) and update in full on Friday (Jan. 3).
"Beyonce's" debut was fueled by sales only from the iTunes Store, as the album was exclusively available through the retailer until the end of last week. After that, the set went on sale through all traditional sellers of music, including brick-and-mortar establishments. (Notably, both Target and Amazon.com declined to sell the CD version of the album.)
Impressively, "Beyonce" sold more copies in its second chart week than the diva's last album, "4," did in its debut on the chart. The latter album was released in 2011 and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 310,000. (And, the album was released on a traditional Tuesday, giving the set six days of sales in its debut frame.)
In its second week, "4" sold 115,000 (securing a second, and final, week at No. 1).
Although "Beyonce" became widely available in its second week, its digital sales remain strong (most of those coming from the iTunes Store). Of its 374,000 second week, downloads made up 63% (235,000). It was the top selling digital album of the week, and remains at No. 1 on the Digital Albums chart. (Among the top selling physical albums of the week, "Beyonce" was the No. 3 seller, behind Garth Brooks "Blame It All On My Roots" and One Direction's "Midnight Memories.")
Check Out This Week's Pop Shop Podcast In this week's episode, we talk Beyonce's big surprise and all things 2013. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes HERE.
Speaking of Brooks, his Walmart-exclusive box set spends another week at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, selling 199,000 copies (up 16%). The cumulative sales of the six-CD/two-DVD box -- which sells for $24.96 -- now stand at 681,000. The album, like the rest of Brooks' titles, is unavailable as a download.
One Direction's "Midnight Memories" is No. 3 on the Billboard 200 -- up two spots -- with 166,000 (up 35%). The set has sold 954,000 in its four weeks on sale.
Def Leppard Flattered By 1D's 'Pour Some Sugar'-Sounding Song
The Robertson's "Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas" album rises two rungs to No. 4 with 132,000 (up 22%), while Kelly Clarkson's "Wrapped In Red" slips two positions to No. 5 with 124,000 (down 9%).
Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP 2" climbs two positions to No. 6 (115,000; up 39%), Katy Perry's "PRISM" jumps 9-7 (99,000; up 67%) and the soundtrack to "Frozen" rises 10-8 with 81,000 (up 45%). Michael Buble's "Christmas" returns to the top 10, as it steps 13-9 with 68,000 (up 43%) and Luke Bryan's "Crash My Party" closes out the top 10, rising 14-10 with just over 68,000 (up 44%).
This week's chart represents the final full week of shopping before the Dec. 25 Christmas holiday, so it's natural to see an overall lift in album sales. (Album sales volume is up by 22% this week.) Next week's tracking frame ends on Dec. 29, so there will be two more days of pre-Christmas shopping (Dec. 23 and Dec. 24) in next week's chart. So, we should see the top of the Billboard 200 chart post some sizable numbers again.
Few significant albums were released on Dec. 17 -- the release date that impacts this week's chart -- so relatively few titles debut on the tally. The top debut this week is B.o.B's new "Underground Luxury," which bows at No. 22 with 35,000. His last album, 2012's "Strange Clouds," debuted and peaked at No. 5 off a 76,000 start.
Over on the Digital Songs chart, A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera's "Say Something" remains at No. 1, selling 238,000 downloads (up 2%). That number could grow even larger next week, once the traditional rush of purchases made with newly-received gift cards kicks in. (The chart's sales volume increases dramatically in the weeks after Christmas, as consumers redeem digital download gift cards at retailers like iTunes.)
The top five titles on the Digital Songs chart this week are all non-movers. Pitbull's "Timber," featuring Ke$ha, is No. 2 (213,000; up 14%), Eminem's "The Monster," featuring Rihanna, is No. 3 (193,000; up 10%), OneRepublic's "Counting Stars" is No. 4 (168,000; up 16%) and Passenger's "Let Her Go" is No. 5 (135,000; up 14%).
Lorde's "Royals" rises 7-6 (111,000; up 14%).
Katy Perry's "Dark Horse," which is now officially the third single from her "PRISM" album, gallops 17-7 with just under 111,000 (up 87%). The song concurrently jets 32-25 on the Pop Songs airplay chart (known as Mainstream Top 40 on Billboard.biz).
One Direction's "Story of My Life" slides 6-8 on the Digital Songs chart with 110,000 (up 2%). Like Perry's tune, "Story" is also making gains at top 40 radio. This week, "Story" jumps 15-13 on the Pop Songs chart, making it One Direction's second-highest charting song ever on the tally. Only "What Makes You Beautiful" went higher, reaching No. 3 in June of 2012.
Imagine Dragons' "Demons" descends 8-9 on Digital Songs with 103,000 (up 14%) and Ellie Goulding's "Burn" drops 9-10 with 84,000 (down less than 1%).
Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Dec. 22) totaled 10.6 million units, up 22% compared with the sum last week (8.7 million) and down 17% compared with the comparable sales week of 2012 (12.7 million). Year to date album sales stand at 280 million, down 9% compared to the same total at this point last year (306.2 million).
Digital track sales this past week totaled 21.83 million downloads, up 12% compared with last week (19.57 million) and down 14% stacked next to the comparable week of 2012 (25.5 million). Year to date track sales are at 1.22 billion, down 5% compared to the same total at this point last year (1.28 billion).
Next week's Billboard 200 competes with the same week in 2012 when: Taylor Swift's "Red" held at No. 1 with 241,000 (down 12%), while the soundtrack to "Les Miserables" jumped 33-2 with 136,000 (up 218%).
Billboard holiday chart schedule: Please note that all Billboard.com and .Biz charts will update on Friday (Dec. 27) at 9am ET. The top 10 of the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 charts will be revealed on Thursday (Jan. 2) and update in full on Friday (Jan. 3). |
BEVERLY — An armed robbery occurred on Monday night at a business in the 2400 block of West 103rd Street in Beverly, police said.
Ald. Matt O'Shea (19th) confirmed Tuesday that the incident occurred at the 7-Eleven convenience store at 2421 W. 103rd St.
He also took to Twitter to say that two "mopes" were in custody following the robbery.
Armed Robbery of 7-11 in Beverly (2421 W. 103rd St.) last night. Employee is ok, 2 mopes in custody. Nice work CPD! pic.twitter.com/JVkxwidMII — Matt O'Shea (@mattoshea19) July 28, 2015
The Chicago Police department's news affairs division later confirmed that detectives were speaking to "two persons of interest. Both adults, one male and one female."
The robbery occurred at approximately 10:20 p.m. An unknown, armed male black offender entered a store and demanded cash, police said.
The thief fled in a possible minivan with an unknown amount of money. No injuries were reported, police said.
O'Shea believes the two suspects will also be linked to a recent pair of suburban convenience store robberies. One of these robberies occurred at the 7-Eleven store at 9860 S. Kedzie Ave. in Evergreen Park. The other occurred at the Thontons station at 12052 S. Western Ave. in Blue Island.
"Most importantly, they got them," said O'Shea, commending the work of Chicago Police officers.
O'Shea credited his father for use of the term "mopes," saying his dad often referred to him as such when he was caught past curfew or for some other family infraction.
The store is commonly frequented by Chicago Police officers both on- and off-duty.
"If you are in a scavenger hunt and I said go find a police officer, you should go to 2421 W. 103rd St.," O'Shea said.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here: |
GK contract until 2015
Reading Football Club are delighted to announce that goalkeeper Adam Federici has signed a new contract until the summer of 2015.
Adam's previous contract had less than 12 months to run, so this represents a major signing for the Royals. In a summer when the club have brought in six new faces, securing Adam's long term future takes on the very same importance.
At 27 Adam is a fantastic age for a goalkeeper, and even though he already has experience of the World Cup, Olympics and Barclays Premier League, he will no doubt continue to grow as he returns to the best league in the world.
The Australian international first joined the club in December 2004, and has gone on to make 163(+3) games, scoring one goal.
Chairman Sir John Madejski said, "Adam has been an absolute mainstay of our football club for nearly eight years now, he is part of our backbone and was so vital in getting us promoted again. He has a tremendous pedigree and I'm over the moon he has signed for us once more because he is without doubt one of the best goalkeepers in the country."
Director of Football Nick Hammond added, "This is a very, very important signing for us. Adam was the best goalkeeper in the Championship last year and I think he will prove to be one of the best in the Premier League as well. He is a magnificent example to young players of what can be achieved when hard work and dedication are allied with talent. We are all delighted that he has signed."
Manager Brian McDermott said, "I am really pleased to have secured Adam for another three years. I have known him for a number of years now, it seems like time has flown and he has constantly been developing into a top class goalkeeper. He is a lesson to young pros about what is required to get to the top of your game. His workrate, diligence and desire are second to none and we're delighted he's chosen to commit to us again." |
Until the end of July, the Blue Whale Suicide Challenge was not a term the average Indian was familiar with. But as Mumbai recorded the first casualty of the Blue Whale Suicide Challenge in India not more than a couple of weeks ago, those four lethal words have haunted newsrooms and parents of teenagers alike. As recently as Saturday, two new cases have come to light: One of a 14-year-old boy who was on a bus from his home in Solapur to Pune in order to complete a ‘task’ when he was rescued by the police, and the other of a 13-year-old in Indore who attempted to jump off his school building but was saved by alert classmates and teachers.
Though the boys from Indore and Pune were stopped by vigilant community members, a 15-year-old from West Bengal’s Anandpur, West Midnapore was not so lucky. The 10th grade student had gone in for a bath and when he didn’t come out after a while, his family broke the bathroom door down only to find his lifeless body. A friend later revealed that he had been ‘playing’ the Blue Whale Challenge.
The now infamous online trend relates to an online game, believed to have originated in Russia that provokes people into committing suicide after the completion of certain ‘challenges’. It claimed as its victim a 14-year-old Mumbai boy who jumped to his death from the ninth floor of his residential complex after allegedly participating in the insidious online game that has already taken the lives of hundreds worldwide.
The now infamous online trend relates to an online game, believed to have originated in Russia that provokes people into committing suicide after the completion of certain ‘challenges’. It claimed as its victim a 14-year-old Mumbai boy who jumped to his death from the ninth floor of his residential complex after allegedly participating in the insidious online game that has already taken the lives of hundreds worldwide.
What is the Blue Whale Suicide Challenge?
The Blue Whale Challenge is a 50-day long online game in which participants agree to perform 50 tasks (one per day) that start with seemingly innocuous challenges like watching a horror movie at 3 am, or listening to a particular genre of music. However, the challenges progressively get more and more sinister and culminate in suicide of the participant on the last day by jumping from a tall building. Perhaps the most disquieting aspect of the game is the fact that it requires participants to carve or cut out pieces of skin from their forearm in a certain progression and design that at the end of the challenge resembles a blue whale. While social media platforms are actively fighting against perpetrators of the trend (who are called ‘curators’ and give out the challenges to those who ask for them), the trend has been hard to filter out of social media and interaction between said ‘curators’ and victims isn’t always confined to those platforms. Youngsters have been reaching out to curators with suggestive hashtags such as #CuratorFindMe or simply with posts hashtagging #BlueWhaleChallenge and are then contacted by an online community of curators, who set the specific challenges.
Where does the Blue Whale Game come from?
Like other aspects of the internet underground, not much is known about the source of the Blue Whale Challenge. According to several reports, the noxious game was allegedly first invented by a psychology student in Russia who devised it with the intention of ‘purging’ the world of those he deemed ‘useless’. It claimed its first victim back in 2015 and has since claimed several lives across dozens of countries.
India’s suicide epidemic
It’s one thing to look at the Blue Whale Challenge as a problem on its own. However, the root of it lies elsewhere. It goes without saying that the kind of youngsters drawn such challenges on the internet harbour a latent intent for self-harm that springs from the lack of due attention given to mental health in Indian society, especially among children and schools. According to the latest records, the NCRB puts the total number of suicides in India at 1,33,623 (a 17 per cent increase over the 1,13,934 cases it recorded in 2005). Of this figure, major metropolitan cities alone amount for a disproportionate 14 per cent (with more than one-third of the cases coming out of just the top four metros – Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore). A worrying figure, however, is the number of suicides among children below the age of 18, which stands at seven per cent. And of the total number of suicides countrywide, failure in exams and unrequited love alone make up more than 5 per cent. This despite a number of campaigns and efforts by both government and private players to combat stigma and promote mental health awareness.
What’s being done and how you can help?
As part of ongoing efforts to combat such disturbing online trends, social media networks such as Facebook and Instagram are actively updating their algorithms to weed them out. In fact, those searching online for suicidal problems or for hashtags like the #bluewhalechallenge are now actively directed towards portals which offer mental health support and are even being reported to concerned authorities. But the chunk of the effort should come from friends and family. So, if you know a friend or a family member who has confided about having suicidal thoughts, there are a number of groups and portals that can offer advice on how to help. Below are some popular portals that you can contact, among others: AASRA: 022 2754 6669 or YourDOST: 080 3951 3412
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NEW YORK - Retired New York City bus driver Ronald Ruiz, 70, clutched a wooden cane and occasionally grimaced with pain as he shuffled with difficulty around the cluttered, colorful house he had lived in his whole life.
"It's like a pulling, sort of like a tearing, of my back. Any movement makes me feel like somebody's pulling two different ways to look at my spine, like they're pulling my skin apart," said Ruiz, lifting his shirt to expose three deep scars along his back, the vestiges of two spine surgeries, in 2010 and 2014.
Ronald Ruiz in his home in the Bronx, New York. CBS News
"I roller-skated, played hockey, rode a bike from one borough to another. I don't think there was anything I couldn't do - and didn't do. I used to go to Coney Island--" Ruiz cut off mid-sentence, as his face crumpled and voice broke.
"I get emotional because - I don't do anything," he said, fighting back tears. "It's tough. Real tough."
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 116 million Americans, like Ruiz, suffer from chronic pain. Ruiz has been fighting pain with prescription opioid painkillers for nine years, namely Oxycodone.
He said his current dose was "down" to six 30-milligram tablets daily.
"And I'm almost ashamed to say it, because every day in the paper I read about more people who are on it for different reasons," said Ruiz. "I am addicted because - the addiction of it, I need to have a life. And the pain medications that they're prescribing today are addictive."
Ruiz's daily medication includes six tablets of Oxycodone. CBS News
Ruiz described feeling a sense of guilt and stigma associated with his addiction to prescribed opioid painkillers, since he felt it lumped him in with the broader opioid epidemic plaguing America, including the rise of heroin as a cheaper alternative to opioids like Oxycodone.
"I'm horrified, absolutely horrified - because I feel like I'm almost a part of it," he said. "And I don't want to be a part of - that."
Painkillers and the cycle of addiction
Prescription drug abuse, namely the rise in opioid-related overdose deaths, is considered the fastest growing drug problem in the United States, according to the Journal of Medical Regulation. Opioids were involved in about two-thirds of all the 47,055 drug-overdose deaths in 2014, and 18,893 of those were associated with prescription opioids, according to the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More recently, there has also been a surge in drug overdose deaths involving heroin and synthetic opioids like fentanyl and tramadol. A January 2016 CDC report linked the rise in illicit opioid overdose deaths to the 15-year trajectory of overall rising overdose deaths involving prescription opioid pain relievers.
"The more that opioids are used to treat pain, the more is there an increase in pain," Connie Greene, vice president of the New Jersey-based Barnabas Health Center for Prevention, told CBS News. "The pills and medication is very expensive, and heroin is very cheap, so we're looking at a population that's addicted because of pain medication and a population that's addicted because of street drugs."
Greene describes Barnabas Health's opioid recovery program as "the first in the nation." CBS News
Heroin overdoses have more than tripled in the past four years, while overdoses linked to prescription painkillers doubled in that same period.
"More than 40 Americans die each day from prescription opioid overdoses, we must act now," said CDC Director Tom Friedman in a statement. "Over-prescribing opioids - largely for chronic pain - is a key driver of America's drug-overdose epidemic."
Seated behind her large desk in the Barnabas Health office headquarters in Lakewood, New Jersey, Greene said part of the problem of fighting the opioid epidemic lies in the subjective nature of addiction and pain treatment.
"We're talking about the most abused drugs in this country are used for both anxiety and pain - and [for] both of those, medications is determined the subjectivity of a patient, and what they consider the level of pain to be," she said.
The federal government's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that, in the past year, more than 11 million people aged 12 and above misused opioids, both pain relievers and heroin.
"So that's part of the problem, that people were self-prescribing," said Greene. "Because if my level of pain is 10, my doctor has to do something to address that level for me. And it was the opioids that worked best."
Greene said that opioids became a "quick fix," but that the scope of the opioid epidemic, and the pathway from painkillers to opioid addiciton and heroin necessitated a different approach.
"We as a hospital system, we need to look at other methods of dealing with pain," Greene said.
The Barnabas Health opioid recovery program operates in five hospitals. CBS News
Community approaches to fighting the cycle of pain and addiction
In addition to President Obama's National Drug Control Strategy, implemented initially in 2010, the White House recently pledged to spend an additional $2 billion over the next two years to fight heroin and opioid addiction, mainly through medication-assisted treatment, like methadone clinics, on a state-by-state basis, involving an expansion of state-level prescription-drug overdose prevention strategies.
Recovery specialist Angela Cicchino in Monmouth Medical Center. CBS News
This kind of state-led, behavioral-health driven approach is what Greene's Barnabas Health program is spearheading in New Jersey, where heroin and opioid admissions to recovery programs accounted for around half of all substance abuse admissions in 2015, the highest in at least a decade, according to the state Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services.
In 2014, more than 600 people died of heroin-related overdoses in New Jersey, doubling the amount of deaths from the drug since 2011, according to the state Medical Examiner's Office.
Last January, Barnabas Health implemented the Opioid Overdose Recovery Program in Monmouth and Ocean counties, which were among the counties with the highest number of opioid overdose deaths in the state in 2014. The program works in partnership with law enforcement and health care providers including five hospitals, through grant funding provided by the New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS). It relies on 15 recovery specialists who work with law enforcement and health care systems across five hospitals to reach individuals who were revived from an opioid overdose.
Angela Cicchino, a twenty-something former addict and Barnabas recovery specialist, spoke to CBS News on a recent afternoon, in the Monmouth Medical Center hospital in Lakewood, New Jersey, across the street from Greene's office.
"We come into a room like this, and a lot of the time the family members will be here, maybe outside of the room - sometimes we've had patients who don't have anyone here, they're kind of at the end of the road," Cicchino said. "As a recovery specialist we're trained to get the temperature of all of that: like what's going on, what is their life, what brought them to this place?"
Cicchino was previously addicted to opioids, both heroin and painkillers. CBS News
When an overdose occurs, whether heroin or prescription pain medication, first respondents increasingly use a drug called Narcan, a nasal spray that was previously available through a needle or auto-injector, and reverses an opioid overdose. In May 2013, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed into law the Overdose Prevention Act, permitting physicians to prescribe antidote drugs like Narcan.
Narcan now costs $25 to $40 per dose, and it's currently available for over-the-counter sales in CVS stores in 14 states without a prescription. Recovery specialists like Cicchino are contacted by the hospitals participating in Barnabas' program once a Narcan call has been dispatched, with the aim of immediately getting individuals into recovery and rehabilitation programs.
"That's why this program is so special - the empathy we bring, we represent the hope that they can get out of the addiction," said Cicchino, who grew up in Ocean County and was for years addicted to painkillers, as well as alcohol and other drugs.
Since she began working with the program when it launched three months ago, there have been 135 overdoses in Ocean and Monmouth counties, of which 30 were fatal. The Ocean County Prosecutors Office told CBS News that, thanks to this new recovery program, and the input of recovering addicts, about 50 percent of those revived with Narcan agreed to go into treatment since January- compared to a prior success rate of "virtually zero."
Medical communities and the opioid epidemic
As part of the broader U.S. government response to the opioid epidemic, the CDC last March also issued new guidelines, specifically to doctors, on prescribing opioid painkillers for chronic pain, including opting for non-opioid painkillers as a first choice except where a person is being treated for cancer, and prescribing the lowest dose possible to effect pain relief.
Ruiz says he feels ashamed of the stigma associated with opioid addiction. CBS News
"I don't think that painkillers are awful," said Cicchino. "Somebody who's going through chemotherapy or on their deathbed, I'm not saying they shouldn't be on some kind of pain medication [but] to the 17-year-old who broke their leg at a soccer game, and they're getting prescribed (80-milligram Oxycodone tablets), I think it's a problem. I think that there needs to be more structure to how it's prescribed."
In New York, Ruiz, the retired bus driver, echoed that sentiment.
"I'm hoping that the medical field can come up with something that's not addictive that can help me," said Ruiz, as he browsed through old photo albums, picking out his favorite photographs, of his family, of his days as an amateur hockey player. His youngest daughter, enrolled in middle school, sat beside him.
"I want to push out (painkillers) and I want to stay off," said Ruiz. "I want to have some kind of life without this stuff." |
One injured in structure fire in North Austin Copyright by KXAN - All rights reserved Copyright by KXAN - All rights reserved Building fire on Victor Street. (Courtesy: @shama8) One man injured in fire at auto parts shop in North Austin Building fire on Victor Street. (Courtesy: @shama8) prev next
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Firefighters are busy fighting a structure fire in North Austin on Monday morning.
Copyright by KXAN - All rights reserved Fire on Victor Street. (Courtesy: John Murray)
Copyright by KXAN - All rights reserved Fire on Victor Street. (Courtesy: John Murray)
Black smoke can be seen billowing from the building in the 700 block of Victor Street. According to the Austin Fire Department, the fire started around 11:15 a.m. at a business that does vehicle tint.
Large file rages in North Austin
Austin-Travis County EMS said one person was taken to the hospital due to burns to his face, arms and legs. Everyone else inside the building were able to get out safely.
"I just started pulling customers out. I ran in and got all customers out. By time we got customers and cars out, it was so far gone," said Jeff McCoy, owner of McCoy Customs.
AFD determined the fire was started by a light bulb that failed, causing sparks and set off spilled fuel. "The electrical wires caught on fire, the transformer caught on fire, you have a lot of accelerates," said Fire Specialist David McGuire.
A total of 13 cars were damaged in the fire.
"Yeah there's a great big old fire over here next to the Wells Fargo over here on Breaker lane," said one 9-1-1 caller. One of many who called in on their lunch time drives.
'I'm just passing through. Like a vehicle place that's on fire," said another 9-1-1 caller.
"Yeah, we have a lot of fire units heading that way right now," said an Austin Fire dispatcher. |
Last month in The Atlantic, Olga Khazan’s interview with anthropologist Bettina Shell-Duncan on common misconceptions of female circumcision—also called female genital mutilation (FGM) or female genital cutting (FGC)—attracted a ton of commentary from readers. We compiled and edited the best ones, which in turn attracted more comments. Slātlantican’s takeaway is difficult to disagree with:
The question is not whether or not circumcision should be allowed, but rather, whether it should be done on children too young to participate in the decision. To be sure, like all Westerners, I find FGM to be a horrifying practice. But how often have we caused more damage than done good when we go in to places and try to force our own values? We should limit our efforts to factual educational assistance, nothing more.
Ardea highlights one of those efforts:
Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn in their book Half the Sky featured Tostan, a local organization in The Gambia and other West African nations that is educating people about female genital mutilation and forced child marriage. What this organization does is convince pairs of villages to stop the practice of FGM together, so that each village will have partners who regard girls and women in the other village as marriageable. The desire for social acceptance and ensuring that your children are considered worthy of marriage by potential partners is one of the drivers of FGM. They have convinced over 7,200 villages to give up this practice.
Left aside in our coverage so far are the ubiquitous comments on male circumcision. The two kinds of cutting—on men and women—are different enough to address separately, but scores of readers see them inextricably linked. One of them is Aubrey Terron:
I'm so glad that there is finally some reality being shared when it comes to FGC. But what is NOT in Khazan’s article is the attending attitudes about the MALE genital cutting that these people in Africa and the Middle East also practice, and how the hypocrisy of only attempting to end ONE form of genital cutting invalidates their efforts. If anyone hopes to end genital cutting, they need to get these facts straight and stop approaching the issue as if women are the only ones being harmed.
Lilymanx sees a double standard as well:
Africans who cut their children's genitals are seen as more backward than Westerners who cut their children's genitals. Maybe that is not conscious hypocrisy, but it certainly shows a cultural bias. The effects of cutting on the children do seem to me much worse for the girls than for the boys, but the reason for cutting seems to me to be equally custom-bound and irrational in the two cases.
Or as Thea Larson puts it, “Until America stops cutting the genitals of its males, we need to stop criticizing countries that cut their females.” Caedis zooms out for some global perspective:
Circumcised males are a minority in the world; it's only popular in the United States and a few places (like where FGC is popular). It's popular in South Korea because it was introduced by the US during the Korean War. But if you go across the ocean to UK or any European country, being a circumcised man will probably not get you many favors.
Tyfereth, however, strongly opposes the idea of comparing male circumcision and FGM:
Male circumcision does no harm. FGM does. Male circumcision cuts the foreskin, FGM cuts the clitoris—the two things cut are not even remotely the same. For male circumcision to be equivalent to FGM, the entire tip of the male’s penis would need to be cut off.
Jim Eubanks also cries “false equivalency”:
You can stand against both practices, but constantly trying to claim they are equivalent practices when they are not takes away from the unique seriousness of female "circumcision/mutilation,” as most cases are performed during a traumatic developmental period and remove most sexual sensation, which is not true with male circumcision.
A retort from Tritiumx:
It is a false equivalence in terms of degree, but to say it is not about male sexuality is inaccurate. Male circumcision (as popularized in the United States) was originally proscribed by advocates specifically as a method to prevent male masturbation.
Indeed, according to this short history of circumcision, “To Victorian minds, many mental health issues [in the U.S.] originated with the sexual organs and masturbation”:
Source Sylvester Graham associated any pleasure with immorality. He was a preacher, health reformer, and creator of the graham cracker. Masturbation turned one into “a confirmed and degraded idiot,” he declared in 1834. Men and women suffering from otherwise unlabeled psychiatric issues were diagnosed with masturbatory insanity; treatments included clitoridectomies for women, circumcision for men. Graham’s views were later taken up by another eccentric but prominent thinker on health matters: John Harvey Kellogg, who promoted abstinence and advocated foreskin removal as a cure. (He also worked with his brother to invent the cornflake.) “The operation should be performed by a surgeon without administering anesthetic,” instructed Kellogg, “as the brief pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the mind, especially if it be connected with the idea of punishment.”
Abstaining from “self abuse” may have been the goal of Victorians, but circumcision today obviously doesn't stop masturbation. As Tyfereth dryly puts it:
If my teen years are any indication, male circumcision doesn't prevent masturbation. At all.
Commenter ml66uk, on the other hand, points to how male circumcisions often go horribly wrong in parts of Africa:
The worst forms of female genital cutting are unquestionably worse than the usual form of Western male circumcision, but the worst forms of male circumcision are also far worse than the lesser forms of female cutting. Over 100 males died of circumcision in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa last year, and there were at least two penile amputations and one castration. This site shows gruesome photos of the results. Compare that with this [account of a Muslim infant getting circumcised in a hospital]. Why would that procedure be illegal in most Western countries, yet this [video of an American baby circumcised in a hospital] is legal.
Several of the most outspoken opponents of FGM also oppose male circumcision. Here’s a video statement from Soraya Miré, the FGM memoirist and activist who appeared in our comments section:
And here’s the famed author Alice Walker, who created both a film and book against FGM:
I think [male circumcision] is a mutilation. In working with FGM we often find that the battle is such an uphill one that we hope that the men who are working on this issue of male circumcision will carry that.
Gloria Steinem had this to say during a panel discussion of FGM:
These patriarchal controls limit men’s sexuality too, but to a much, much lesser degree. That’s why men are asked symbolically to submit the sexual part of themselves and their sons to patriarchal authority, which seems to be the origin of male circumcision, a practice that, even as advocates admit, is medically unnecessary 90% of the time. Speaking for myself, I stand with many brothers in eliminating that practice too.
And here’s Ayaan Hirsi Ali, perhaps the most well-known FGM survivor, who recently warned in The Atlantic about the custom increasing within the U.S.:
One particularly passionate reader is Lawrence Newman, who was “cut at age 14 without my informed consent and it destroyed my sexual pleasure”:
Male circumcision is more sexually damaging [than FGM]. More tissue is excised, more nerves are lost, more functionality is lost. The foreskin has been PROVEN to be the primary sexual tissue with almost all pleasurable properties because the glans has virtually no fine touch reception, mostly protopathic sensitivity [i.e. pressure]. By a simple process of elimination, we can deduce that the foreskin is the hub of pleasure.
Anonymous Coward counters with statistics:
Plenty of men as adults have been circumcised and did not see a reduction in their enjoyment of sex. In fact, more say that sex is better than say it is worse: Of the 79 men who'd experienced sex snipped and unsnipped, 43 said sex improved (55 percent) after their circumcisions, 23 said it went downhill (29 percent), and 13 said there was no change or a mix of pros and cons (16 percent). Click here to read women and gay men compare sex with snipped and unsnipped partners. My [unscientific] numbers don't differ much from the latest research: Based on a sample of 84 men who'd been circumcised as adults for medical reasons, a 2005 article in Urologia Internationalis found a 61 percent satisfaction rate, with 38 percent saying that penile sensation improved after the procedure, 18 percent saying it got worse, and the rest reporting no change. "No consensus exists regarding the role of the foreskin in sexual performance and satisfaction," the article's urologist authors wrote.
The rest of that piece by Emily Bazelon is worth reading for its various anecdotes of how circumcision either improved or worsened men’s sex lives. Lawrence Newman dismisses Bazelon’s work:
Men who get cut as adults are more likely to do so for religious or circumfetishist reasons and so will be biased toward circumcision. It's impossible to cut off the foreskin and not cause a drastic reduction in sexual pleasure. The average circumcision removes the ridged band and frenular delta, utterly ruining the penis. Try speaking to adult men who've been duped into getting it done for things like phimosis [when the foreskin cannot fully retract]. I had it done for this and it destroyed my sexual pleasure entirely. Men circumcised at birth don’t understand what I’m saying, because they never got to experience their primary sexual organ. It would be too painful for them to accept the truth.
Anonymous Coward backs Bazelon with a paper from the CDC stating that “several studies conducted among men after adult circumcision suggest that few men report their sexual functioning is worse after circumcision; most report either improvement or no change.” Another study: "Circumcision does not appear to have adverse, clinically important effects on male sexual function in sexually active adults who undergo the procedure." Another study:
Adult circumcision does not adversely affect sexual function. The increase in the ejaculatory latency time can be considered an advantage rather than a complication.
Or as ProudPharisee puts it, “I bet it would help with premature ejaculation,” suggesting that the prolonged sex of a circumcised man would benefit his partner. That’s Ladydonnaland’s view: “Common sense says that an uncircumcised man has issues with stamina and thus a circumcised man can last long enough for the woman to get hers, first.” But Kathryn Warner prefers the uncut:
My partner is uncircumcised and quite frankly is a much better, gentler lover than any I was with before him. He doesn't need to pound to feel sensation, and the foreskin allows smooth gliding. It's easier on a woman’s body when a male is not circumcised.
It’s all subjective, says Guest:
Having a lot of tactile resolution on your penis isn't bad, I suppose, but it doesn't do much good for you, either, unless you plan on reading braille with it. There's nothing special about the nerve endings in your genitals that's different from nerve endings anywhere else. It's the socket in your spinal cord they plug into that seems to be more instrumental, so stimulation of pretty much anything that plugs into those pelvic sockets, such as the prostate, works just fine to generate pleasure, as long as you're in an aroused state. The intensity of the sensation is also modulated in the central nervous system, which is why sexual sensitivity proceeds through several well-defined stages that have nothing to do with the degree of peripheral innervation. Better sex is, both psychologically and physiologically, much more about arousal, trust, and state of mind than it is about the presence of absence of the foreskin. Male circumcision in the developed world has neither significant utility nor significant risk; this is a non-issue.
What about aesthetics? A lot of readers jumped on Ladydonnalands for these comments:
I think uncircumcised penises look like anteaters. So circumcision of man makes an ugly-looking penis look more handsome.
Elaine had a similar reaction: |
Weekly review
The Aerospace Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Amir Ali Hajizadeh called for the withdrawal of foreign warships from the Persian Gulf, local Mehr news agency reported on Sunday.The countdown for the withdrawal of foreign warships from the Persian Gulf has started, Hajizadeh was quoted as saying.The Iranian commander said that regional nations do not need foreign forces' presence in the region and "they themselves can maintain the regional security and stability," said the report.Hajizadeh said Saturday that Iran test-fired two ballistic missiles in the Iranian Bahman month, from Jan. 21 to Feb. 20."We launched two missiles with the range of 1,900 km into the Indian Ocean from the desert area of (Iran's central province of) Semnan," said Hajizadeh.He told reporters that Iran's missiles have a range of up to 2, 000 km, adding that despite possessing the technology, Tehran does not intend to build longer-range missiles since targets of its enemies are already within the reach of the current missiles, according to local Press TV.Recently, the Islamic republic carried out a 10-day missile drill.Iran's ambassador to Iraq Hassan Danaeefar said Saturday that Iran is ready to establish security cooperation with Iraq after a pullout of the U.S. troops from Iraq."Iran is ready to have security cooperation with Iraq, and supply weapons to the country and train the Iraqi security forces.. . after the departure of U.S. troops," Danaeefar was quoted as saying by Mehr.The U.S. is scheduled to pull out its remaining forces from Iraq by the end of 2011. |
In an interviw with Sputnik, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Crimea Dmitry Polonsky explained how the republic won after rejoining Russia, how Western sanctions contributed to its economic development and what the West should focus on.
© Sputnik / Alexey Malgavko Crimea’s Reunification With Russia Real Example of Democracy – Official
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Crimea has been experiencing an upsurge in development following its reunification with Russia thanks to the country’s investment in the republic, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Crimea Dmitry Polonsky told Sputnik on Wednesday.
“Crimea has not developed at such a pace as it has in the past year over the past twenty years,” Polonsky said, adding that the Russian government plans to invest almost 700 billion rubles ($12.1 billion) in the republic’s economy under the current social-economic development program, which will run until 2020.
Polonsky, who is Crimea's Internal Policy, Information and Mass Communications Minister, stressed that during the 23 years prior to the March 2014 independence referendum, Crimea experienced “regression” due to the Ukrainian authorities lack of investment.
“Unfortunately, the 23-year-long tenure in Ukraine has been the time of regression for Crimea. The Ukrainian government did not invest a single penny into Crimea, at the same time it sucked out all possible resources from here," Polonsky told Sputnik, stressing that Russia “is taking an entirely different route” which is making a “drastic” difference on the peninsula. But even if Crimea residents were told not to expect any investment from the Russian government a year ago, they would have "still made the choice of becoming part of Russia," the minister stressed.
According to the minister, the social standards, salaries and the level of medical services in Crimea grew sharply in the past year.
"Salaries of the non-socially protected segments of the population increased significantly – of teachers, of doctors, benefits for those unable to work grew significantly, for the disabled, retirement pensions saw a serious increase," Polonsky said, adding that "the real level of salaries increased almost by 20 percent."
The minister stressed that Ukraine had repeatedly promised to improve the health care system in Crimea, but it "was never functional." Now that Crimea is part of Russia, "real, free health care finally started working," Polonsky said.
Polonsky concluded that in the last year, Crimea accomplished "something that was not done not only in the past few decades, but centuries."
Western Sanctions Stimulate Crimea’s Economic Growth
© Flickr / d1mka vetrov Crimea a Year Since Reunification With Russia: Looking Boldly to the Future
The economic embargo imposed against Crimea by the West is having a reverse effect, boosting development on the peninsula, Dmitry Polonsky told Sputnik.
“Presently we can say that the sanctions are not impeding the Crimean economy hardly at all, on the contrary, they only give it the chance to grow because all of these difficulties make us review, reformat the economy, as well as start implementing modern methods and modern systematic approaches,” Polonsky said.
According to Crimea's Internal Policy, Information and Mass Communications Minister, the economic difficulties that Crimea is experiencing are a chance for modernization and the Russian republic has been using this chance “rather successfully,” developing its tourism, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and IT (information technology) industries and reducing its dependence on imports.
Polonsky told Sputnik that if Crimea accomplishes all tasks put forward in its current development plan, it will be able to provide for itself in five years, which will make it easier for the republic to achieve its broader goals.
“Our target is much broader than this, we do not want to provide just for ourselves, we want to export products that we have produced, and not just agricultural products, but also industrial products and technological products. We want to export these products abroad,” Polonsky said.
The minister expressed confidence that with Russian support, Crimea will succeed in accomplishing its economic development objectives.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a federal law on the development of the Crimea Federal District and a free economic zone on the territory of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol on November 29, 2014.
Polonsky told Sputnik that the law, which will be in force for the next 25 years, establishes a "serious foundation for further intensive development" of the Crimean economy.
Indian Investors Look to Crimea for Pharmaceutical Business Development
Investors from India are currently contemplating several projects in the sphere of pharmaceuticals in the Republic of Crimea, Dmitry Polonsky told Sputnik.
"Several Indian investment projects in the sphere of pharmaceutical development found a positive response here, and I believe that they will start developing actively very soon," Polonsky said.
According to Polonsky, Crimea has been benefiting from the strong friendly ties between Russia and India.
The minister mentioned that the free economic zone in Crimea provides very profitable conditions for Indian business.
Over 90% of Crimea Residents Support Being Part of Russia
© Sputnik / Vladimir Astapkovich Looking Through the Centuries of Crimean History 13
An overwhelming majority of Crimean residents have not changed their minds about becoming part of Russia more than a year after the historic reunification, the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Crimea said in an interview with Sputnik.
"More than 90 percent of Crimeans support becoming a part of Russia with their hearts and now with their minds, as they did a year ago," Polonsky said, adding that Crimean authorities were "very pleasantly surprised" when sociological research showed that the same number of Crimean residents who voted for reunification with Russia confirmed their choice at the end of 2014.
According to Polonsky, the March 2014 referendum was conducted "in the most open way."
"We had monitors from more than 100 countries present. More than 2,500 journalists were registered in Crimea. Such openness as we have demonstrated during the referendum was not seen in the world for a long time," the minister stressed.
West Should Solve Own Human Rights Issues Before Judging Crimea
© Sputnik / Konstantin Chalabov Top-15 Amazing Places in Crimea Worth Seeing 15
Western countries need to focus on human rights violations taking place in Europe and the United States, instead of spreading false reports about the Republic of Crimea, Dmitry Polonsky told Sputnik in an interview.
According to Polonsky, international missions come to the republic to "perform strict tasks and objectives of the western countries that don't accept the events in Crimea."
"They openly lie in their reports, and those so-called international missions, using human rights as a disguise, clearly ignore human rights violations in the western countries," Polonsky said.
The minister stressed that Crimea welcomes everyone, but it is vital that international missions make an effort to understand and then report the truth after they visit the republic.
"Therefore, let them look at themselves and be self-critical, and then come to us and give us advice on how we should live," Polonsky said, adding that authorities of the "so-called civilized countries" do not apply the same human rights criteria for their own populace.He recalled last year's police shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson and the following nation-wide anti-police brutality protests in the United States.
© Sputnik / Konstantin Chalabov Russia Never Sent Troops to Ukraine, Personnel Number at Crimean Base Was Regular - Putin
According to the official, the human rights situation in Crimea, particularly in the inter-ethnic sphere, is stable. Polonsky emphasized that the language of the Crimean Tatar minority group has an official status in the republic's constitution, alongside Russian and Ukrainian.
"Crimean Tatars are a full, integral part of the Crimean society," Polonsky said, pointing out that President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the rehabilitation of Crimean Tatars, as well as other ethnic minorities, who were deported from Crimea by Joseph Stalin in 1944.
"The Crimean Tatars fought for this for quite a long time on the Ukrainian territory, but did not get what they desired," Polonsky said, stressing that now that Crimea is part of Russia, there are no infringements related to nationality on the peninsula "and never will be."
At the opening of a UN Human Rights Council session earlier this month, a number of countries, including Denmark, Austria, Poland and Latvia as well as the European Union's top diplomat Federica Mogherini, criticized Russia for alleged violations of the rights of Crimean Tatars and for illegally "annexing a part of Ukrainian territory."
Representatives of the Russian delegation at the event reminded the council that the March 16, 2014 referendum in Crimea was legal and democratic.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said that while EU officials claim residents of Crimea, especially Crimean Tatars, are subject to human rights abuses, the European Union itself is restricting the freedom of Crimeans, by closing consulates and visa centers of the EU member states on the peninsula.
Crimea adopted a declaration of independence from Ukraine on March 11, 2014, after a coup in Kiev. On March 16, 2014, some 96 percent of Crimean voters chose to rejoin Russia in a referendum.
The West and Kiev refused to recognize Crimea as part of Russia, arguing that the March 2014 referendum was illegal and violated Ukraine's territorial integrity. In a speech following the referendum, Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed out that it was held in full compliance with democratic procedures and international rule of law. |
Judi Trampf (left) and her partner Katy Heyning speak during a news conference in February by the American Civil Liberties Union about the lawsuit challenging the Wisconsin’s 7-year-old ban on gay marriage. Credit: Mark Hoffman
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The nation took another big stride Thursday toward a historic legal showdown over gay marriage, as a federal appeals court in Chicago unanimously struck down bans on same-sex unions in Wisconsin and Indiana.
The decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upholds lower federal court decisions in Madison and Indianapolis and helps set up a seemingly inevitable ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on whether gay marriage bans violate the U.S. Constitution. In the meantime, the decision does not immediately take effect, but it does increase at least marginally the chances that Wisconsin's case is heard by the nation's highest court.
"A degree of arbitrariness is inherent in government regulation, but when there is no justification for government's treating a traditionally discriminated-against group significantly worse than the dominant group in the society, doing so denies equal protection of the laws," Judge Richard Posner wrote in the 40-page decision.
At oral arguments last week, Posner, one of the most prominent federal judges in the country, had sharply questioned the states' arguments that the government and public had a legitimate interest in maintaining marriage in its traditional form.
Also hearing the case were Judges David Hamilton and Ann Claire Williams. Posner was appointed to the appeals court by President Ronald Reagan, Williams by President Bill Clinton and Hamilton by President Barack Obama.
GOP Gov. Scott Walker had no comment on the decision while Dana Brueck, a spokeswoman for Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, a Republican, said the state will appeal.
"The attorney general has always believed that this case will ultimately be decided by the United States Supreme Court," Brueck said.
At a news conference at Milwaukee's LGBT Community Center, some of the plaintiffs were there, including Karina Willes and Kami Young and their infant daughter, Olivia.
"The thing that's most important is to provide a stable home for our daughter," said Willes. She noted that when the baby was born she was not allowed to put her name on the baby's birth certificate.
Julaine Appling, president of Wisconsin Family Action and a vocal supporter of the gay marriage ban, said she was surprised by the speed of the decision, but not the outcome, after hearing the judges' views during arguments last week.
"Essentially what the judges are saying is the 1.26 million voters who voted on this in 2006 are a bunch of homophobic, irrational bigots," Appling said. "I absolutely don't believe that, but that's what the judges are saying."
If Wisconsin and other states continue their losing streak in the courts, then opponents of gay marriage should seriously consider amending the U.S. Constitution to bar the practice, she said.
Madison attorney Tamara Packard saidfor now Wisconsin and Indiana same-sex couples cannot get married. Packard has worked on behalf of gay and lesbian couples but is not directly involved in the cases addressed by the appeals court.
The ruling will not go into effect for 21 days, and during that time the states can seek a rehearing from the three-judge panel or from the full 10-member appellate court, according to Larry Dupuis, the legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, which represented the couples.
The states can also appeal the decision to the Supreme Court and seek a longer stay of the decision through the appeals process. Given what has happened in other states, Packard said, she expects the appeals court to block its own decision until the Supreme Court rules.
The 7th Circuit decision came down with tremendous speed, increasing the likelihood that Wisconsin is among the states whose same-sex marriage bans make it to the Supreme Court. That's because it was issued before the beginning of the high court's term in October.
Nonetheless, the Supreme Court will likely first consider appeals from Utah and Virginia because they are further along in the appeals process, said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law in Virginia.
So far, all appeals courts have ruled against bans since the Supreme Court last year struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which prevented the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages. Tobias said the high court may wait until an appeals court upholds a ban before deciding whether to take cases on gay marriage.
The decision for Indiana and Wisconsin is different from others because the judges based their ruling on arguments that the same-sex marriage bans violated the right to equal protection under the law, Tobias and Packard said. Other rulings have centered on the right of gay and lesbian couples to due process.
In Thursday's decision, Posner took the same outraged tone that he did in last week's oral arguments, saying that Indiana and Wisconsin were hurting the adopted children of same-sex couples without good reason. He swept aside arguments that this could be justified because it was the will of the voters.
"Minorities trampled on by the democratic process have recourse to the courts; the recourse is called constitutional law," he said.
The ruling also dismissed the state's argument that same-sex couples should not be allowed to marry because they can't conceive children together, noting that Wisconsin and Indiana allow elderly couples to marry.
Both states also forbid first cousins to marry but make a specific exception to allow such marriages if the couples are infertile, Posner wrote.
He said the states' legal arguments were "so full of holes that it cannot be taken seriously."
And the decision similarly rejected arguments that gay marriage should be restricted because of tradition, with Posner noting cannibalism and foot-binding are long-standing traditions in some cultures. Posner said he was not considering any possible moral arguments for or against gay marriage because none was advanced by either state.
Milwaukee Catholic Archbishop Jerome Listecki, whose church holds that marriage is exclusively between a man and a woman, voiced disappointment in the decision Thursday.
"Marriage needs to be strengthened, not redefined," Listecki said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the court failed to acknowledge what the people in both Indiana and Wisconsin saw fit to underscore in their state constitutions."
Amid a wave of litigation nationally, eight same-sex couples this year sued to overturn Wisconsin's 2006 amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution banning gay marriage and civil unions. U.S. Circuit Judge Barbara Crabb in Madison agreed with them in June and struck down the ban but stayed her decision to prevent couples from marrying while state officials pursued their appeal.
Several hundred same-sex couples in Wisconsin married before Crabb issued the stay.
The Chicago-based appeals court consolidated the case with one from Indiana, where a district judge in June had ruled against that state's ban on same-sex marriage.
The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver has declared bans in Oklahoma and Utah unconstitutional. In July, the 4th Circuit in Richmond struck down Virginia's same-sex marriage ban.
Last month, the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati heard arguments in cases consolidated from Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. The three-judge panel that heard the case has not yet ruled.
In a separate action Thursday, Van Hollen filed friend of the court briefs along with 16 other states asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take the Oklahoma and Utah cases and decide the issue for the nation.
Mary Burke, a Democrat who is challenging Walker in the governor's race, praised the ruling.
"I believe that every loving couple should have the freedom to marry who they choose, and I'm glad to see that this freedom will soon be available in Wisconsin," she said.
Voters in Wisconsin added the ban to the state constitution in 2006 by a vote of 59% to 41%. Since then, public sentiment has shifted in Wisconsin and nationally. For instance, a Marquette University Law School poll in July showed 56% of Wisconsinites surveyed would vote to repeal the ban.
Annysa Johnson and Georgia Pabst of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
What's next
■ The states can ask the three-judge panel or the 10-member appellate court to review the decision or appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
■ The Supreme Court in coming months is expected to take up one or more of the growing numbers of cases on gay marriage that have been litigated in federal courts across the country. |
46% of players surveyed say the structure and composition of the ICC executive board should be reviewed © Getty Images
More than two-thirds of players polled in a recent survey believe the BCCI has an unfair influence on decision-making within the ICC. The Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA) has renewed its calls for a review of the game's governance after releasing the results of its 2011 player survey, which also revealed strong support for the decision review system and 50-over cricket.
Despite overwhelming approval for how this year's World Cup was run, the findings were not all positive for the ICC. Of the 45 players polled, only 6% believed that decisions at ICC board level were made "in the best interests of cricket", while 49% felt decisions were made according to "party lines or best interests of the country that they are representing". The remaining players were "unsure".
When asked if ICC decision-making was influenced unfairly by the power of the BCCI, 69% said 'yes', while 31% answered "don't know". None of the respondents gave a definitive 'no'. Despite those concerns, 63% said they had confidence in the ICC's ability to govern international cricket, although the FICA chief executive Tim May said the findings raised important issues, with 46% saying the structure and composition of the ICC executive board should be reviewed.
"Players have highlighted that the governance of the game is a serious issue," May said. "FICA have continually advocated for a review of the game's governance. Its present structure is outdated, full of conflicts, cronyism and far from best practice. FICA does believe though that the ICC day-to-day management has improved considerably and are unfairly tarnished as a result of decisions of the ICC Chief Executive and Board Committees."
The call for a review of the game's governance is not new. FICA have been pushing for change for several years, and the former ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed this year said he would be in favour of an independent commission running the game, although he also said the idea that countries always voted in geographical blocs was, based on his time at the organisation, not accurate.
The FICA survey did reveal some good news for the ICC, with 94% of players rating the recent World Cup as "good" or above, compared to only 11% giving the 2007 tournament that level of support. However, the event is still too long, according to 74% of those surveyed, while 72% backed the decision to reduce the number of teams in the next World Cup to 10, and 91% felt the Associate nations should have a chance to qualify.
The majority (82%) of players said the DRS made for better decision-making from umpires at the World Cup, and 97% thought the DRS should be compulsory in all Test matches. Notably, FICA is not affiliated with players from India - the BCCI being the major opponent of the DRS - or from Pakistan or Zimbabwe.
The survey also showed:
32% of players would retire prematurely from international cricket to play exclusively in the IPL and similar Twenty20 tournaments
40% said that given the magnitude of salaries being offered by the IPL, they could envisage a day where they would rank their obligations to IPL and other T20 events ahead of obligations to their home boards
94% believed that superior salaries offered by the IPL would motivate younger players to hone their skills principally to T20
40% said their board schedules too much international cricket
Only 24% of players favour a change in the format of ODIs
39% believe boards schedule too many ODIs, reducing the public's interest in the format
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd. |
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Sigma Alpha Epsilon, a national fraternity that was founded at the University of Alabama, announced permanent cancellation of pledgeship programs in its chapters across the country. SAE has been deemed the nation's "most deadly" fraternity after at least 10 deaths over the past decade. (UA's SAE chapter house/Wikimedia Commons
Sigma Alpha Epsilon, one of the largest college fraternities in the nation, announced unprecedented moves to eliminate pledgeship and initiation in all of its chapters after at least 10 deaths have been linked to hazing, alcohol and drugs at chapter events, Bloomberg News reports.
In a statement on their website, SAE officials called it a "historic decision" that will eliminate pledgeship and the designation of "pledge" -- what initiated brothers call new members -- altogether. SAE says the new rules will be effective Sunday, March 9.
The statement notes that the "concept of pledging" did not exist in the fraternity's original Ritual and Constitution when it was founded at the University of Alabama in 1856. The chapter is now based in Evanston, Ill.
In December, Bloomberg News reported SAE is one of the deadliest fraternities in the country, with members paying some of the highest costs for liability insurance and 15 chapters facing suspension and closure since 2011.
In the extensive statement posted on the site, SAE poses more than 25 hypothetical questions chapters and members might have, including "Are you making this change because of bad publicity?"
"The bad publicity Sigma Alpha Epsilon has received is challenging and regretful because we know that some of our groups have great new-member (pledge) programs and do the right thing," the site reads. "At the same time, we have experienced a number of incidents and deaths, events with consequences that have never been consistent with our membership experience. Furthermore, we have endured a painful number of chapter closings as a result of hazing. Research shows that hazing, which hides in the dark, causes members to lie."
SAE will now implement something called "The True Gentlemen Experience," which is titled after their historic creed. Chapters can extend bids to fellow students, who will almost immediately become members if they accept, as opposed to waiting out a lengthy pledgeship process.
According to the statement, SAE believes the changes won't adversely affect recruitment at all.
In fact, SAE say the recruitment changes should not be a deterrent to any chapters "attracting the right type of man."
"Feedback has shown us that prospective members fail to join fraternities because they do not want to be hazed, assaulted, abused or bullied in order to 'earn' membership," the statement reads. "Those perceptions started when fraternities deviated from their original intent and as a result of decades of incidents that have given the Greek-letter system a tarnished, stereotypical reputation."
Though SAE is currently one of the only major organizations to take such drastic steps, the U.S. fraternity system as a whole has faced the spotlight recently with more than 60 fraternity related deaths since 2005, Bloomberg reports.
In October 2012, UA suspended then cancelled pledgeship for every Interfraternity Council chapter on campus, after university officials received specific allegations of hazing in at least seven houses.
No changes have been made to UA's pledgeship rules or procedures, though. |
7.2 quake off Japan triggers small tsunami
Updated
A strong earthquake has struck off Japan, shaking buildings in Tokyo and triggering a small tsunami.
The tremor struck about 10 kilometres below the Pacific sea floor, about 160 kilometres off Japan's main island of Honshu.
The earthquake lasted for more than 30 seconds, swaying buildings in the capital, shutting down bullet train operations and triggering a tsunami warning.
A 60-centimetre surge was later recorded along coastal areas.
There were no reports of casualties or damage to buildings, with several nuclear power plants in the area given the all clear.
The 7.2-magnitude quake - which struck around noon (local time) in the northern part of Miyagi prefecture - measured a lower five on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of seven.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas.
The country accounts for about 20 per cent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
Topics: earthquake, disasters-and-accidents, japan
First posted |
On the night of June 20, 2013, more than a million people in some 388 Brazilian cities took to the streets in a massive protest movement. The largest of these protests, comprising more than 100,000 people, occurred in Rio de Janeiro and was met with significant police violence. For more than a year prior to this, sporadic protests had been occurring in various Brazilian cities. Led by a “Free Pass” movement that had long been agitating for free public transportation for students, the earlier protests were largely ignored. But by early June 2013, fare increases for public transportation sparked more widespread protests. Many other groups, including the black block anarchists, sprang to the defense of the “Free Pass” protestors and others who came under police attack. By June 13 the movement had morphed into a general protest against police repression, the failure of public services to match social needs, and the deteriorating quality of urban life. The huge expenditures of public resources to host mega-events such as the World Cup and the Olympic Games—to the detriment of the public interest but to the great benefit, it was widely understood, of corrupt construction and urban development interests—added to the discontent
The protests in Brazil came less than a month after thousands of people turned out on the streets of Turkey’s major cities, as anger over the redevelopment of the precious green space of Gezi Park in Istanbul as a shopping center, spread into a broader protest against the increasingly autocratic style of the government and the violence of the police response. Long-simmering discontent over the pace and style of urban transformation, including the wholesale eviction of populations from high-value land in inner-city locations added fuel to the protests. Diminished quality of life in Istanbul and other cities for all but the most affluent classes was clearly an important issue.
The broad parallel between Turkey and Brazil led Bill Keller to write an op-ed piece in the New York Times entitled “The Revolt of the Rising Class.” The uprisings were “not born in desperation,” he wrote. Both Brazil and Turkey had experienced remarkable economic growth in a period of global crisis. They were “the latest in a series of revolts arising from the middle class—the urban, educated haves who are in some ways the principal beneficiaries of the regimes they now reject” and who had something to lose by taking to the streets in protest. “By the time the movements reached critical mass, they were about something bigger and more inchoate, dignity, the perquisites of citizenship, the obligations of power.” The revolts signified “a new alienation, a new yearning” that had to be addressed.
To be sure, the protests in Brazil and Turkey differed from the anti-austerity protests and strikes that dominated in the squares of Greece and Spain. They were different also from the eruptions of violence in London, Stockholm, and the Paris suburbs on the part of marginalized and immigrant populations. And all of these looked different from the “Occupy” movements in many Western cities and the pro-democracy uprisings that echoed from Tunis, Egypt, and Syria into Bosnia and Ukraine.
Yet there were also commonalities across the differences. They were, for example, urban centered, to some degree weakly cross-class, and even (initially at least) inter-ethnic (though that broke down as internal forces moved to divide and rule, and external powers exploited the discontents for geopolitical advantage, as in Syria and Ukraine). Urban disaffection and alienation were quite prominent among the triggers as was the universal outrage at rising social inequalities, escalating costs of living, and gratuitously violent police repressions.
None of this should have been surprising. Urbanization has increasingly constituted a primary site of endless capital accumulation that visits its own forms of barbarism and violence on whole populations in the name of profit. Urbanization has become the center of overwhelming economic activity on a planetary scale never before seen in human history. The Financial Times reports, for example, that “investment in real estate is the most important driver in the Chinese economy,” which in turn has been the main driver of the global economy throughout the world-wide crisis that began in 2007. “The building, sale and outfitting of apartments accounted for 23 percent of Chinese gross domestic product in 2013.” If we add in the expenditures on massive physical infrastructures (road, rail, public works of all kinds) then close to one half of the Chinese economy is taken up with urbanization. China has consumed more than half of the global steel and cement over the last decade. “In just two years, from 2011 to 2012, China produced more cement than the United States did in the entire twentieth century.”
While extreme, these trends are not confined to China. Concrete is everywhere being poured at an unprecedented rate over the surface of planet earth. We are, in short, in the midst of a huge crisis—ecological, social, and political—of planetary urbanization without, it seems, knowing or even marking it.
None of this new development could have occurred without massive population displacements and dispossessions, wave after wave of creative destruction that has taken not only a physical toll but destroyed social solidarities, exaggerated social inequalities, swept aside any pretences of democratic urban governance, and has increasingly looked to militarized police surveillance and terror as its primary mode of social regulation. The unrest attaching to dispossession in China is unknowable but clearly widespread. Sociologist Cihan Tugal has written, “Real estate bubbles, soaring housing prices, and the overall privatization-alienation of common urban goods constitute the common ground of protests in as diverse places as the United States, Egypt, Spain, Turkey, Brazil, Israel, and Greece.” The rising cost of living, particularly for food, transportation, and housing, has made daily life increasingly difficult for urban populations. Food riots in North African cities were frequent and widespread even before the uprisings in Tunisia and Tahrir Square.
This urbanization boom has had very little to do with meeting the needs of people. It has been all about absorbing surplus capital, sustaining profit levels, and maximizing the return on exchange values no matter what the use value demands might be. The consequences have often been irrational in the extreme. While there is a chronic shortage of affordable housing in almost every major city, their skylines are littered with empty condominiums for the ultra-rich whose main interest is in speculating in property values rather than constructing a settled life. In New York City, where half of the population has to live on less than $30,000 per year (as contrasted with the top 1 percent, who had an average annual income of $3.57 million per year according to tax records for 2012), there is an affordable housing crisis because nowhere is it possible to find a two-bedroom apartment for the $1,500 per month that a family of four should be spending on housing given an income of $30,000. In almost all the major cities in the U.S. the average expenditure on housing is way over the thirty percent of disposable income that is considered reasonable. The same applies to London, where there are whole streets of unoccupied mansions being held for purely speculative purposes. Meanwhile, the British government attempts to increase the supply of affordable housing by putting a bedroom tax on social housing for the most vulnerable sector of the population, resulting in, for example, the eviction of a widow living alone in a two bedroom council house. The empty bedroom tax has plainly been put on the wrong class, but governments these days appear to be singularly dedicated to feathering the nests of the wealthy at the expense of the poor and the disadvantaged. The same irrationality of empty dwellings in the midst of shortages of affordable housing can be found in Brazil, Turkey, Dubai, and Chile as well all the global cities of high finance such as London and New York. Meanwhile, budget austerities and reluctance to tax the wealthy given the overwhelming power of a now triumphant oligarchy means declining public services for the masses and further astonishing accumulation of wealth for the few.
It is in conditions of this sort that the propensity to political revolt begins to fester. Universal alienation from a burdensome daily life in the city is everywhere in evidence. But so are the innumerable attempts on the part of individuals, social groups, and political movements to find ways to construct a decent life in a decent living environment. The theme that there must be an alternative takes many forms and produces many quasi-solutions in seemingly infinite guises.
It is in this context that concerned groups of thinkers and practitioners are exploring alternatives, sometimes at small scales but in other instances, in the wake of urban revolts, to encourage the search for better forms of urban living. The do-it-yourself ethos of many social groups cast adrift from the prevailing dynamic of capital accumulation creates possibilities for alliances of urban thinkers and technicians with nascent social movements searching for a good or at least a better life. In Andean nations the ideal of “buen vivir” is implanted in national constitutions even as it conflicts with neoliberalizing practices on the ground. With massive populations deemed surplus and disposable in a context of perpetual land grabbing by developers and financiers, aided all too often by a corrupted state apparatus, many situations arise in which political battles take shape well before some fuse is lit to turn the growing propensity for street revolts into an active reality.
There are popular possibilities and potentialities emerging out of the crisis of planetary urbanization and its multiple discontents. This is so even in the face of the seemingly overwhelming force of endless capital accumulation growing at an unsustainable compound rate and in spite of the power across social classes being wielded by an increasingly visible and intransigent global oligarchy.
So what is it that might emerge from the popular revolts? There are confusing signs and signals but also some important clues. In Gezi Park, for example, it was not only the park that mattered. The “rising class” constructed instantaneous social solidarities, an economy of sharing and of collective social provision (food, health care, clothing), of caring for others (particularly the wounded and the frightened). The participants took evident delight in debating their common interests through democratic assemblies, launched into discussions that went on late into the night, and above all found a possible world of collective humor and cultural liberation that had previously seemed foreclosed. They opened alternative spaces, constructed a commons out of public spaces, and released the power of space to an alternative social and environmental purpose. They found each other as well as the park ; They identified a nascent social order in waiting.
This provides a clue as to what an alternative might look like. The spirit of many (though not all) of these protests and the spirit within the pro-democracy and Occupy movements is to go beyond “the new alienation” that Keller senses is so important to construct a less-alienating urban experience. Visceral resistance to the proposal to pour concrete over Gezi Park to build an imitation of an Ottoman barracks that would function as yet another shopping mall is in this sense emblematic of what the crisis of planetary urbanization is all about. Pouring more and more concrete in a mindless quest for endless growth is obviously no answer to current ills.
But the “rising class” is not all there is. In Turkey the mass of the Islamic working classes did not join in the revolt. They already possessed their own cultural (often anti-modernist) solidarities and hardened social relations (particularly regarding gender). They were not drawn into the emancipatory rhetoric of the protest movement because that movement did not address effectively its condition of massive material deprivation. They liked the combination of shopping malls and mosques that the ruling AKP party was building and did not care about the evident corruption surrounding the building boom as long as it was a source of jobs. The protest movement of Gezi was, as the subsequent municipal elections showed, not cross-class enough to last.
There is no one answer to our predicaments. The urban experience under capitalism is turning barbaric as well as repressive. If the roots of this alienating experience lie in endless capital accumulation, then those roots must ultimately be severed. Lives and well-being must be rerooted in other modes of producing and consuming, while new forms of sociality must be constructed. The neoliberal ethos of isolated individualism and personal rather than social responsibility has to be overcome. The material needs of the masses must be met and combined with cultural emancipation. Taking back the streets in acts of collective protest can be a beginning. But it is only a beginning and cannot be an end in itself. Maximizing buen vivir for all in the city rather than the value of Gross Domestic Product for the benefit of the few is a great idea. It needs to be grounded in urban practices everywhere. |
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has not yet been subpoenaed to testify in an extortion case involving his former friend Alessandro Lisi, according to the mayor's lawyer – who accused police of having "political" motives.
A report in the Toronto Star last week said that Toronto Police are ready to subpoena Mr. Ford in the case involving Mr. Lisi, who allegedly made threats to attempt to obtain the video purportedly showing the mayor smoking crack cocaine. But on Thursday, the mayor's lawyer Dennis Morris said that has not yet happened, and questioned why detectives want to subpoena the mayor now, when Mr. Lisi's case isn't expected in court until March of next year.
"I personally feel it's more political," Mr. Morris said in an interview with the Globe. "The trial's in March, so to subpoena anyone so early is not mandatory. It's not necessary. It's a distraction from the campaign, so I feel there's some political motive behind it."
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The mayor is running for re-election in the October election, and Mr. Morris said that subpoenaing him before that would be "nothing more than an attempt to embarrass the mayor."
Toronto Police spokesman Mark Pugash would not comment Thursday on whether a subpoena is imminent, but described Mr. Morris' allegations as "absolutely wrong."
"He's wrong. This is an ongoing criminal investigation run by an extremely experienced, very persistent investigator. That's what this is about. It has nothing to do with anything else."
Mr. Morris also questioned whether a subpoena is simply investigators' way of meeting one-on-one with Mr. Ford – a meeting the mayor has so far resisted. Toronto Police Detective Sergeant Gary Giroux, who is leading Project Brazen 2 – the investigation that resulted in Mr. Lisi's charges and also targets Mayor Ford – has repeatedly stated that he still wants to speak with the mayor.
"Let's put it this way: Often times in a given case, a crown attorney or police officer would say the crown attorney wants to interview you and get your statement down. Basically it's a back-door way of getting to what we've resisted in keeping with our right to remain silent," Mr. Morris said. "And obviously I'm going to recommend the mayor resist that."
In response, Mr. Pugash called Mr. Morris "absolutely off-the-mark." He declined to elaborate, however, citing the ongoing investigation.
Mr. Lisi, a former friend and driver of the mayor, was arrested in October and charged with drug trafficking and possession. He was also later charged with extortion – charges that followed a long investigation targeting both Mr. Lisi and the mayor.
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This is not the first time members of the Ford camp have accused members of Toronto Police of acting politically with respect to the investigation into the mayor. In November, Mayor Ford's brother Councillor Doug Ford called on Chief Bill Blair to resign, after he revealed that police had a copy of the alleged crack video.
And last week, Chief Blair told reporters he was prepared to take legal action against Doug Ford, after the councillor suggested the chief had leaked information about the subpoena as "payback" for having his request for a contract renewal denied. |
The blog speculated that the device will run the upcoming version of Google’s Android operating system, known as Gingerbread, along with a custom-made “Sony Marketplace” that will enable people to download games designed specifically for the device.
Engadget expects the device to be launched officially next year, and an announcement about the so-called PlayStation phone’s availability could be made at Mobile World Congress in February.
Last week Sony refused to comment. However, Masaru Kato, Sony’s chief financial officer, hinted it may launch a PlayStation phone product on an earnings call over the weekend.
He said, through an interpreter: “As for the new PSP product, as mentioned, I know that you are not asking me to tell you when we will be coming out with a new product, but there is a gaming market based on [the] cellphones, and there are many changes that are being seen [with] Nintendo, as well as ourselves, in the field of the product for the gamers. And there are smartphones and others or even cellphones gaming markets are very popular here in Japan. So the market itself is very... expanding.”
He stopped short of talking about specific products, but also mentioned the company’s interest in tablet computers.
“Of course, we can't talk about specific products, but smartphones and tablets... it is difficult to tell you how we can put the games on them, but they are not going to be planned in different parts of our company.
“When we organized ourselves last April, we introduced network services, and within that umbrella, network services, all of these products are handled. Therefore, the planning and the prototypes for various content [are] all carried out within this... one umbrellas. So we are trying to figure out what we can do as Sony in this market. I think this is as far as I can tell you regarding these products at market," he explained.
Speculation has been rife for some time that Sony would license its PlayStation brand to the Sony Ericsson mobile arm of its business. In July last year, Nikkei, a respected daily business newspaper in Japan, reported that Sony was considering such a product.
Sony was said to have set up a dedicated team to work on the handset, that would bring together the Sony Ericsson division with the multimedia and gaming team behind the PlayStation Portable handheld games console.
Sony is said to be concerned by the threat posed by Apple’s iPhone. Dozens of major games studios, including Capcom and Electronic Arts, are developing games for Apple’s touch-screen device, potentially pitting the iPhone and iPod touch directly against Sony’s PSP console and Nintendo’s hand-held device, the DS.
However, gaming fans will not be getting their hopes up – rumours of a PSP phone first surfaced in 2007, when Sony filed a patent application showing a portable games device with phone capabilities, while in January 2009, Sony was said to have refused to sanction the use of the PlayStation brand by its Sony Ericsson telecoms arm. |
Virtual reality is experiencing a renaissance thanks to the work being done to bring both Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus to market. Combined with the right peripherals, these devices could revolutionize gaming and bring a whole new level of immersion to play. However, it also has some people worried about death.
The more immersed you are in an experience, the more likely you are to react to it realistically. Denny Unger, creative director at games developer Cloudhead Games, believes because of this it won’t be long before we have our first death in VR. By that he means someone actually dying while hooked up to a virtual reality experience.
That may sound extreme, but it’s actually a valid point of view. Unger picks out horror games as the probable first type of VR game to cause a death. We’ve all played a horror game where something appears unexpectedly and it’s combined with audio and visual effects to heighten the emotion of the moment. The reaction of the player is to jump, maybe let out a scream, and their heart rate increases rapidly. It’s great when a game can cause that type of reaction.
With virtual reality, though, such a scenario is going to seem all the more real, meaning the effect on the player will be that much greater. Hook someone up to a VR headset, have them hold STEM packs, and put them on a treadmill, and they soon accept the game as being their reality. If that person has a heart condition, you can imagine how easy it would be to scare them to death.
Virtual reality hardware will ship with the usual warnings about not using it if you have a known medical condition, but just like with the warnings that pop up on existing hardware and software, they will mostly be ignored. Someone dying while playing a game wearing an Oculus Rift is inevitable if it becomes a popular peripheral. However, general concern will only be raised if deaths start occurring on a regular basis.
Cloudhead Games has developed the virtual reality game The Gallery: Six Elements, which has recently been Greenlit on Steam, you can see footage of it running on Oculus Rift below:
[Images courtesy of Global Panorama and BagoGames on Flickr] |
Egypt's army has violently retaken Cairo's Tahrir Square from protesters, less than 48 hours before the former president Hosni Mubarak is to stand trial in the capital.
Armed riot police and soldiers fired into the air as tanks moved in on Tahrir, which has been occupied by demonstrators for more than three weeks. Witnesses said some protesters were taken away.
Activists accuse Egypt's ruling military generals of dragging their feet on any meaningful reform in the country and warned that the revolution that toppled Mubarak earlier this year was in danger of being hijacked by conservative forces.
Eyewitnesses reported swarms of security personnel storming the square from several directions, smashing tents and stalls before dragging away some protesters into military detention. Egypt's cabinet office said "thugs" had been arrested.
Some locals cheered as the sit-in was dispersed, highlighting a growing division over tactics at the heart of the protest movement. Around 30 of the political forces participating in the occupation had decided to suspend their involvement throughout the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began on Monday. But several hundred hardcore demonstrators remained in Tahrir, including some relatives of those killed in the anti-government uprising this year, vowing only to leave when Mubarak had faced justice.
"When normal people beat us in Abbasiya, that was painful," wrote one activist on Twitter, referring to clashes last week which left dozens injured. "To hear that people are cheering [today] because the army beat martyrs' families, that's devastating."
Local news outlet al-Shorouk said military personnel went on to destroy a series of recently installed revolutionary artworks inside Sadat metro station, which lies underneath the square. The move is likely to further exacerbate tensions between revolutionaries and the supreme council of the armed forces (SCAF), which has been forced to defend itself in recent weeks against claims that it is not truly committed to democratic transition or the holding of former regime officials to account.
On Sunday night the army's chief of staff, Sami Anan, denied suggestions that SCAF had cut a deal with the Muslim Brotherhood, guaranteeing the country's largest Islamist group a strong showing in November's parliamentary elections in exchange for the organisation providing political support to the military. Anan accused some media outlets of fuelling sedition and insisted the military was seeking to return to barracks as soon as possible.
He also responded angrily to repeated allegations from protesters and human rights groups that some pro-change demonstrators were being held in military detention and tortured, calling on those making the claims to furnish proof. Several local and international campaign organisations have published details of arbitrary arrests and subsequent military abuses since the fall of Mubarak more than six months ago.
The latest unrest comes as the nation gears up for the beginning of Mubarak's trial, which is due to open on Wednesday. At the weekend the attorney general, Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, issued a formal summons ordering the toppled dictator to be transferred to Cairo from his current location, a hospital bed in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, where the 83-year-old has been under detention since April.
Mubarak will answer a series of charges relating to economic fraud and the unlawful killing of protesters, and will stand in the dock alongside his two sons, his former interior minister, Habib El-Adly, and a number of other senior regime officials. The court case will be heard in a tightly secured police academy on the outskirts of the capital, and broadcast live on state television. |
[+]Enlarge When morphine binds to the µ-opioid receptor, it activates two pathways, relieving pain and causing side effects. PZM21 binds differently and kills pain without causing the side effects. Credit: Adapted from Nature
A new drug candidate, when tested in mice, can kill pain like morphine and other opioids without causing some of those drugs’ serious side effects.
Along with providing powerful pain relief, opioids also are addictive, can cause constipation, and can cause irregular breathing or even halt it. Opioids hit the µ-opioid receptor on neuron surfaces. Binding that receptor triggers two cellular processes simultaneously: a G-protein signaling pathway that causes analgesia and a β-arrestin pathway that leads to constipation and respiratory depression.
A collaborative team has now used structure-based computational drug design to find a compound that can trigger the µ-opioid receptor’s desirable G-protein signaling while avoiding its β-arrestin signaling (Nature 2016, DOI: 10.1038/nature19112). The team was led by Brian K. Kobilka of Stanford University School of Medicine, Peter Gmeiner of Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Bryan L. Roth of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and Brian K. Shoichet of the University of California, San Francisco.
Using computational docking, the researchers analyzed the interactions between a µ-opioid receptor crystal structure determined by Kobilka’s lab in 2012 and over three million molecules from ZINC, a database of compounds likely to hit biological targets. The study focused on compounds with structures distinct from those of existing opioids to make it more likely the molecules would bind the receptor differently and thus activate the pain-reduction pathway but not the β-arrestin one. Through computational screening and assays in cells, they found one such molecule. The researchers then tested numerous analogs of it computationally and in cells to find one with the best activity.
PZM21, the compound that emerged, reduces pain in mice for a longer time than morphine does but does not interfere with breathing or cause constipation.
Researchers at Trevena in King of Prussia, Pa., previously discovered oliceridine, which also kills pain while avoiding opioid side effects. The compound is now in Phase III clinical trials.
However, PZM21 causes a more specific type of pain reduction. It lowers consciously perceived “affective” pain controlled by brain neurons, whereas opioids and oliceridine reduce both affective pain and “reflexive” pain responses controlled at the spinal cord level. Whether PZM21 and oliceridine cause less dependence than opioids remains to be seen.
Jonathan Violin, scientific cofounder of Trevena, says the new study confirms the importance of structure-based drug discovery and supports the idea that biased ligands—drugs that activate one signaling pathway but not another—can lead to improved biological responses. |
GOOGLE may have breached the Terrorism Act by failing to take down extremist material – a Government legal chief claimed yesterday.
Solicitor General Robert Buckland said the disgraced web giant could be guilty of “disseminating” material – breaking criminal law.
Alamy 4 Google may have breached Terrorism Act over extremist material
The powerful Tory told a cross-party Commons Committee: “I think the legislation is clear.
“It is my hope and expectation that these organisations will indeed come to heel and obey the law. But the law is there if necessary.”
He added: “It would be wrong of me to come to a firm conclusion without more information. But I hope I have made the point as clear as I can.”
Rex Features 4 Solicitor General Robert Buckland said the disgraced web giant could be guilty of 'disseminating' material
The extraordinary comment the Government’s second most senior legal officer came as MPs accused ministers of letting Google, Facebook and Twitter off the hook when it came to tackling hate crime.
Home Affairs Select Committee chair Yvette Cooper said it defied belief that recruitment videos put up by banned far-right group National Action were still on YouTube, bought by Google a decade ago.
Home Office Minister Sarah Newton insisted Google had only issued a public apology over placing advertising next to extremist material after being “read the riot act” at a Whitehall summit last week.
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And she said the Government ruled nothing out including legislation to make the web companies “clean up their act”.
Ms Newton said Ministers were studying “very carefully” a German draft law proposing £40 million fines if social media companies fail to take down hate videos within a 24 hour deadline.
She added: “We are not leaving anything off the table, they have been read the riot act and they need to step up and explain what they are going to do.”
PA:Press Association 4 Yvette Cooper said it defied belief that recruitment videos put up by banned group were still on YouTube
But furious MPs said it appeared the Government “lacked teeth” and Google was only beginning to up its game in recent days after seeing a wave of advertisers shelve accounts with the US titan.
Google on Monday issued a stunning apology after Volkswagen, Tesco and Toyota joined 250 companies who have suspended deals with the company.
An investigation by The Times – the Sun’s sister newspaper – had found the companies promoted next to videos posted by hate preachers, rape apologists and homophobic extremists.
Separately yesterday Twitter said it had suspended more than 375,000 accounts for violations linked to the promotion of terrorism during the last six months of 2016.
Eyevine 4 Sarah Newton insisted Google had only issued a public apology after being 'read the riot act'
Last week Google policy chief Peter Barron said the sheer volume of material uploaded to YouTube made it difficult to police.
And he admitted Google never proactively searched for terror or paedo content.
Ms Cooper said: “The Government banned National Action to stop them recruiting people to terrorist activity.
“Yet despite repeated complaints to Google, National Action’s illegal recruitment videos are still available on YouTube.
“We heard from the Minister that the Government asked YouTube to remove National Action videos — yet it appears that Google have completely ignored those requests.
“If this is true, then it seems that one of the richest companies on the planet is aiding and abetting illegal terrorist recruitment activity, and Ministers need to tell us what action they plan to take.” |
A car bombing has killed 12 people and wounded dozens more at an outdoor market in a district north of Iraq's capital, Baghdad, according to police sources.
Police said a parked car packed with explosives blew up on Tuesday morning at a vegetable and fruit market in Rashidiyah town.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which wounded at least 37 people.
Speaking to Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, a medical official confirmed the casualty figures.
Baghdad is on high alert for attacks after a blast in the central Karada district on July 3 killed more than 300 people.
This was the deadliest bombing in Iraq since US-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein 13 years ago.
READ MORE: Displaced Iraqis take final exams amid chaos of war
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS), which holds territory in Iraq, claimed responsibility for that attack.
The bombing in Rashidiyah came as the Iraqi parliament was due on Tuesday to discuss security measures in the capital in the wake of the attack in Karada.
On Monday, visiting US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Washington will send 560 more troops to Iraq to help battle ISIL.
On Friday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi accepted the resignation of interior minister Mohammed al-Ghabban and sacked the city's head of security operations and other senior officials, following the deadly attack in Karada. |
Say bye, bye to Android 4.0.2. In the coming weeks, the Android team will roll out the next version better known as Android 4.0.3. Through the new API that has also arrived, developers will have the ability to integrate their social apps into contacts like Google has done with G+ and Google Talk. You can imagine that this likely means Facebook and Twitter updates showing in you friends’ contact pages as well. In other goodies, apps will now be able to access more camera and calendar capabilities while additional polish was added to graphics, the database, spell-checking, etc.
Social stream API in Contacts provider: Applications that use social stream data such as status updates and check-ins can now sync that data with each of the user’s contacts, providing items in a stream along with photos for each. This new API lets apps show users what the people they know are doing or saying, in addition to their photos and contact information.
Calendar provider enhancements. Apps can now add color to events, for easier tracking, and new attendee types and states are now available.
New camera capabilities. Apps can now check and manage video stabilization and use QVGA resolution profiles where needed.
Accessibility refinements. Improved content access for screen readers and new status and error reporting for text-to-speech engines.
Incremental improvements in graphics, database, spell-checking, Bluetooth, and more.
More: Android 4.0.3 Platform Highlights | Blog |
The latest trailer for Netflix’s Defenders series is a startling change of tone for the MCU. The new superteam strips to skimpy speedos and battles giant gnomes in the name of feminism. Extradimensional robots play chess for the future of the Earth. Friendly Neanderthal apes transform into evil aliens. Also, perhaps worst of all, the heroes are attacked by perfidious porpoises.
Except none of that is true. Obviously, Netflix did not actually create a trailer featuring gnomes or porpoises, perfidious or otherwise. The Defenders show features a street-level team, tackling crime on a relatively mundane level, at least compared to their god-fighting cinematic counterparts in the Avengers. A new generation of television superhero fans are going to associate “Defenders” with low-key, gritty superheroics and a superteam that spends its downtime chatting and hanging out in neighborhood restaurants.
For those who know the original comic book version of the Defenders, that’s ironic. The Defenders started out as one of the more ludicrously cosmic super-groups ever to battle oversized crustaceans in the pages of a Marvel comic.
Writer Roy Thomas more or less created the Defenders by accident in 1970. Thomas had been writing Dr. Strange, which got canceled mid-story. So he decided to tie up loose ends by finishing the arc in the other comics he was writing — namely, Sub-Mariner and The Incredible Hulk.
As it happens, Sub-Mariner, the Hulk, and Dr. Strange are all unsuited for super team-ups. The Hulk is a semi-sentient green glob of muscle who attacks everyone on sight. The Sub-Mariner is the arrogant ruler of Atlantis, and he hates surface-dwellers. He also tends to attack everyone on sight. Dr. Strange is a master of the mystic arts whose adventures involve a whole separate interdimensional mythology that doesn’t have much to do with the rest of the Marvel Universe. To top things off, Roy Thomas (and his early replacement on The Defenders, Steve Englehart) often added the Silver Surfer — a cosmic-powered alien who, like Namor, mostly despised humanity.
The early Defenders had little in common, except that they all hated each other and wore almost no clothes. Since they didn’t think of themselves as a team, just getting them together for each adventure involved improbable logistical improvisation. One issue began with Namor literally hurtling from the sky to fall in front of a startled Hulk. (“It is Namor — the Fish-Man — the one who used to be Hulk’s friend!”)
When the writers do manage to get everyone in one place, the heroes spend as much time fighting each other as the bad guys. The first issues involve a lot of dueling beefcakes, with one character or the other bellowing, “I am your friend!” as they roll semi-nude across the panels.
Even when the Defenders take a moment to stop punching each other, dialogue often centers around competitive boasting. Hulk declares, “I am the strongest one there is!” while Namor intones, “These walls were made for lesser fish… not for Namor!”
In an effort to moderate the chest-thumping, Englehart introduced a female team member — and that’s when things got really weird. Valkyrie has one of the oddest, most disturbing origin stories in superherodom. Originally, she was a woman named Barbara who was a cultist worshiping the Lovecraftian, two-headed, mystical Nameless Ones. When Dr. Strange fought the Nameless Ones, Barbara sacrificed herself to save him, trapping herself in the hell dimension. Dr. Strange and the Defenders accidentally return to the Nameless Ones’ realm to free Barbara, only to discover that loneliness has driven her to become the Nameless Ones’ “mate,” as she puts it.
The Defenders separate Barbara from the Nameless Ones, but this drives her insane. They escape with her into yet another mystical realm, where they’re captured and thrown in prison alongside the old Thor villain the Enchantress. The Enchantress casts a spell, placing the consciousness of the super-feminist Valkyrie inside Barbara’s brain.
So Valkyrie is a feminist-empowered warrior-personality artificially grafted onto a woman driven mad by being sexually abused by a monster from outside space and time. As you’d expect, her characterization vacillated wildly. Sometimes she was presented as confident and strong, boldly shutting down her teammates’ silly chauvinism. At other times, she was written as if her feminism was a kind of false-consciousness alien imposition, making her act belligerent and prickly in spite of herself.
Obviously, Valkyrie, with her convoluted origin and metal bustier, is miles away from the pavement-pounding New York crime-fighters of the Netflix series.
Still, the introduction of the character began moving the Defenders in a marginally more conventional super-direction. Suffering from amnesia and without any friends, Valkyrie — unlike the Hulk, Namor, and the Surfer — actually wanted to be part of a permanent Defenders team. She even moved into Dr. Strange’s home for a while. (Dr. Strange’s girlfriend disapproved, presumably because writer Steve Engleheart was looking for drama.)
Eventually, more conventional heroes joined up as well, including Hawkeye (briefly) and Nighthawk, a former supervillain transparently modeled on Batman. (The Hulk charmingly refers to him as “Bird-nose.”) Namor and Silver Surfer drifted off, taking their exposed pecs with them.
Steve Gerber picked up writing chores in 1974. Gerber, best known for creating Howard the Duck, had his own sense of the absurd, though it was more self-aware than the earliest let’s-throw-Namor-at-the-Hulk-and-see-what-happens approach.
Gerber also had a weakness for more conventional, awkward soap opera dynamics. Nighthawk develops a crush on Valkyrie. Valkyrie discovers her amnesia caused her to forget her husband. Nighthawk snarks petulantly, because Valkyrie’s trauma is all about him. And so on.
The Defenders comic had plenty of other permutations over the years. Dr. Strange remained a constant, for the most part, as Gargoyle, Hellcat — and yes, Luke Cage — rotated in and out. Even if there’s some vague commonality in personnel, though, the television show doesn’t draw on any era of comic book Defenders, and certainly not on the first. That’s for the best, overall; the early comics are an enjoyable mess, but Valkyrie’s origin, for example, doesn’t need to be reproduced for contemporary television viewers.
Whether you love the new Defenders series or hate it, it’s bound to be more coherent than the comics it took its name from. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I will miss Namor boasting about how he’s better than the other fish, and Hulk musing about his mittens. |
Remember back in 2010 when the Supreme Court declared that corporations had free speech, just like real people? As a reminder, in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, SCOTUS declared political spending a form of protected speech and, therefore, corporations could not be prohibited from exercising their first amendment right. In the 2012 election, the “people” let their voices be heard to the tune of more than $3 billion dollars.
Now corporations want another first amendment right afforded to humans – free exercise of religion.
In May of this year, the Green family of Oklahoma filed a lawsuit in federal court, stating their religious rights were being violated due to the mandate in the Affordable Care Act requiring all employers with 50 or more employees to provide insurance coverage that includes birth control.
I should mention that by the Green family, I mean their corporation, Hobby Lobby, Inc.
The ACA requires coverage of more than 20 forms of birth control. Hobby Lobby (and their affiliated company, Madera, Inc.) is only against those that cause “the death of an embryo.”
I guess it is not surprising that a corporation does not know how birth control, or science, works.
The crux of their argument is that because the private owners of a for-profit corporation with 500 stores in 41 states and more than 13,000 full time employees are devout Christians, they shouldn’t be forced to go against their ill-informed beliefs about birth control and be allowed to deny their employees their federally protected right to coverage.
In June, a federal appeals court agreed.
The Denver based Tenth Circuit’s 5-3 ruling stated that the corporations “absorbed” the religious convictions of its owners and the businesses are run accordingly. This gives the corporations protection under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which states that “Government shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability.”
Meaning that when the law applies to everybody — regardless of religious affiliation (or none) — if it burdens a person’s exercise of religion, then it shouldn’t apply to them.
So by osmosis, corporations have the right to exercise their religion.
The question is, how? Are corporations baptized or take communion? How do they fit in those pews?
It should be noted that the judges specifically refer to SCOTUS’ 2010 ruling in Citizens United concluding, “We see no reason the Supreme Court would recognize constitutional protection for a corporation’s political expression but not its religious expression.” The judges call it another form of evangelism.
Last month, the Philadelphia based Third Circuit ruled that the family-owned corporation Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. in Pennsylvania does not have the right to exercise religion, even if its owners are devout. “We do not see how a for-profit, ‘artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law,’ that was created to make money could exercise such an inherently ‘human’ right.”
In other words, corporations are not people. Halleluiah!
The courts are now evenly split on whether or not for-profit corporations can spread the gospel via denying their employees a basic health care need.
There are several other cases wending their way through the courts all over the country, with additional rulings expected in September and October. A judge in the Hobby Lobby case granted an injunction against enforcementof the birth control mandate, setting up a most certain appeal by the government.
There is a good chance the Supreme Court will hear one or more of these cases in the next term.
That’s worked out well before – for corporations. |
The current U.S. population is about 317 million. The current number of employed American workers is 144 million.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, among those paid by the hour, 1.6 million Americans earned the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour in 2012. (The data for 2013 hasn’t been released yet.) Of these, 484,000 are aged 16 to 19.
So . . . the Democrats’ big idea on income inequality is one that will increase wages for . . . 1.1 percent of the workforce.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, although many states and localities require a higher wage by law. SeaTac, the municipality that surrounds Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, now requires $15 per hour. Democrats want to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, an additional $2.85 per hour.
For a minimum-wage employee working 40 hours per week, that’s an additional $114 per week, before taxes.
For a 30-hour-per-week worker, we’re talking about an additional $85.50 per week.
With 1.6 million earning the federal minimum wage, averaging 35 hours per week, this would amount to $159.6 million in higher wages per week. That, times 52 weeks per year, amounts to about $8.2 billion. That may sound like a lot, but we have a $17 trillion economy.
In short, an America with a $10.10-per-hour minimum wage would look indistinguishable from the one we see today on the issue of income inequality, as well as the economic aspect that more conservatives focus on, opportunity for advancement. (Getting that first entry-level, minimum wage may get harder as each employee becomes more expensive to the employer.) The workers making minimum wage may very well appreciate the extra $85 to $114 per week, but it’s not going to have much of an impact on their purchasing power. Small companies on tight margins may find the $2.85-per-worker-per-hour cost more difficult to handle, or may raise prices. Of course, if prices go up . . . that will eat into the budgets of those minimum-wage workers pretty fast, won’t it? |
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Machines are getting more human, but will they ever be like they are portrayed in films?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the science of making smart machines, and it has come a long way since the term was coined in the 1950s.
Nowadays, robots work alongside humans in hotels and factories, while driverless cars are being test driven on the roads.
Behind the scenes, AI engines in the form of smart algorithms "work" on stock exchanges, offer up suggestions for books and films on Amazon and Netflix and even write the odd article.
But AI does not have the greatest public image - often due to sci-fi films that display dystopian visions of robots taking over the world.
Over the next week, the BBC will be looking into all aspects of artificial intelligence - from how to build a thinking machine, to the ethics of doing so, to questions about whether an AI can ever be creative. Read more in our Intelligent Machines special report.
For many, the only reference point they have for AI comes from films. So what is the reality of where we are with the technology, and is it anything like the fictional future we have created?
The all-knowing machine
Image copyright ALAMY/IBM
Hal is perhaps the most famous AI turned bad. Created by Arthur C Clarke for the book and film 2001: A Space Odyssey, Hal stands for Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic Computer.
Designed to control the systems of the Discovery One spacecraft, on which much of the film is set, as well as interact with the crew, it quickly starts taking its own course - one that does not involve humans.
Perhaps the closest we currently have to Hal is Watson, IBM's supercomputer, which can understand natural language and read millions of documents in seconds.
In 2011, it beat the world's two best players of the Jeopardy quiz show.
Unlike Hal, it is currently working in harmony with humans, in diverse fields such as the research and development departments of big companies such as Proctor and Gamble and Coca-Cola - helping them find new products.
It is also being used in a dozen US hospitals, helping oncologists find treatments for cancer.
It has even been incorporated into a toy dinosaur, allowing children their first taste of communication with an AI. They can ask the dinosaur questions and Watson will help it answer them.
The killer robot
Image copyright ALAMY and Boston Dynamics
T-800, the Terminator robot from the films of the same name, has living tissue over a metal endoskeleton and is programmed to kill on behalf of Skynet, an artificially intelligent system that has taken over the world's computers in order to destroy the human race.
No AIs yet being developed have self-awareness and all are programmed to help humankind. The exception to this is military robots, which are increasingly being developed for deployment on battlefields, where their role could be more contentious.
The US military unit Darpa is developing lots of robotic kit, such as exoskeletons to give soldiers superhuman strength and access to visual displays that will help their decision making.
It is also using Atlas robots, developed by Boston Dynamics, intended for search and rescue.
Although there are currently no killer robots, there is a campaign to stop them ever being produced, and the UN has said that no weapon should be operated without human control.
The helpful robot
Image copyright ALAMY and Softtbank
C-3PO is a humanoid robot from the Star Wars films. He is designed to serve human beings and boasts of being fluent in over six million forms of communication.
His main job is to assist etiquette, customs and translation so that meetings of different cultures run smoothly.
In the real world, companion robots are really starting to take off.
Pepper is a humanoid robot, developed by technology firm SoftBank, that went on sale in Japan this summer and sold out almost immediately.
Its big selling point is that it can supposedly recognise human emotions. So if you look sad when you get home from work, it will suggest that you play some music.
It has learnt about human emotions by watching videos showing facial expressions.
Intelligent Machines - a BBC News series looking at AI and robotics
The cleaning robot
Image copyright Rex and iRobot
Wall-E is a little robot from the Disney film of the same name, left to tidy up after humanity leaves the planet in a mess.
Short for Waste Allocation Loader Lift Earth-Class, Wall-E is the ultimate in loveable machines.
Although not as cute as Wall-E, vacuums programmed to clean up are probably the first example of domestic learning robots.
The company iRobot makes the best-known brand, the Roomba, which, as of February 2014, had sold more than 10 million units. It automatically guides itself around home via onboard sensors which also detect obstacles. At the end of cleaning it takes itself back to its docking station to charge.
Anecdotal evidence suggests some people become as attached to them as pets and take them on holiday.
The human-looking robot
Ava - the lifelike android from 2015 science fiction film Ex-Machina, is the ultimate in AIs.
Able to conduct a conversation on any topic, show empathy with humans and look entirely human herself, she also has her own agenda, and it is one that does not involve humans.
This type of AI is the one that people fear the most, and while the cleverness of Ava is very far from being achieved, a few people have experimenting with creating robots that look entirely human.
Robotic engineer Hiroshi Ishiguro made a robotic copy of himself, dubbed Geminoid, to study human-robot interaction.
Image copyright ALAMY and ATR Hiroshi Ishiguro Lab
He used silicon rubber to represent skin - but cosmetic company L'Oreal recently teamed up with bio-engineering start-up Organovo to 3D print human skin, potentially making even more lifelike androids possible.
Prof Chetan Dube, chief executive of software firm IPsoft, has developed a virtual assistant called Amelia, and he firmly believes robotics and AI are about to come together.
He believes Amelia will be given human form indistinguishable from the real thing at some point this decade. |
Illustration by Alex Nabaun
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EVEN the wealthy burghers of Monaco are feeling the pinch. At the principality's Le Metropole shopping mall the winter sales were still in full swing in early February. Upmarket retailers such as Lacoste and Christian Lacroix felt obliged to offer 50% reductions.
The rich will get little sympathy, but they have taken a big hit from the financial crisis. After all, they own a disproportionately large share of the equity and property markets. Many of them derive their wealth directly from the financial sector, working for hedge funds, private-equity firms or investment banks. A survey by Oliver Wyman, a consultancy, estimates that the financial crisis has caused high-net-worth individuals (as the banking industry calls the rich) to lose $10 trillion, or a quarter of their wealth. The annual Forbes list found that the global number of billionaires last year fell to 793 from 1,125, and a report by Spectrem Group, a research company, saw a drop in the number of American millionaires from 9.2m to 6.7m between 2007 and 2008.
A few businessmen who borrowed money against the security of their assets have seen their fortunes almost disappear. In Russia the number of billionaire oligarchs has halved, according to Finans magazine, and the assets of the ten richest tycoons have lost two-thirds of their value. Most spectacularly, one Russian businessman who had reportedly agreed to buy a villa in the south of France for €400m is in danger of losing a €39m deposit after backing out of the deal.
To many people this come-uppance of the rich will seem to be a good thing. The extremes of wealth in “Anglo-Saxon” America and Britain had reached levels not seen since the 1920s. The gains from recent economic growth flowed disproportionately to the wealthy. According to one study by Robert Gordon of Northwestern University and Ian Dew-Becker of Harvard, the top 10% of earners received the vast majority of the benefits of the “productivity miracle” of 1996-2005. Another international study found that only Mexico and Russia had more unequal income distributions than America.
Ajay Kapur, a strategist at Mirae Asset Management, dubbed this state of affairs a “plutonomy”, an economy dominated by the spending of the rich. It was a world where the wealthy might be born in France, work in London, park their money in Switzerland and have their business headquarters in the Cayman Islands. Such people seemed to inhabit a different country from other people, which Robert Frank, a writer, called “Richistan”.
That world of the wealthy emerged from economic and political changes in the early 1970s. Fixed exchange rates were abandoned, financial systems were liberalised, trade unions were confronted and taxes were cut, all of which helped usher in the asset-price booms of the 1980s and 1990s. Some of those who played the markets with borrowed money—the founders of hedge-fund and private-equity firms—became billionaires.
A rebound in profits from the low levels of the 1970s, combined with the use of share options as incentives, allowed chief executives to make fortunes. The opening up of the Russian, Indian and Chinese economies, allied to a boom in commodity prices, created a whole new batch of emerging-market plutocrats.
The size of the accumulated wealth was stupendous. The Forbes 400 richest people in 1982 had a combined net worth of $92 billion; by 2006 they owned $1.25 trillion. To make it onto the first list in 1982, you needed a net worth of $75m; by 2006 you had to be a billionaire. A lot more of this money was self-made; inherited wealth made up over 21% of the first list and under 2% of the 2006 roster. And almost a quarter of the 2006 rich owed their fortunes to the finance sector, compared with less than a tenth back in 1982.
It would have been easy to conclude that the tide of history was simply resuming its usual flow towards greater inequality. For much of the time since records began the normal state of affairs has been extremes of wealth, whether in the hands of aristocratic landowners or industrial entrepreneurs. The period after the second world war, labelled by economists as the “great compression”, when wage differentials narrowed and taxes went up, looked like an historical anomaly.
But now the tide is turning again, reflecting widespread resentment of the mess in which the financial sector has landed the economy. The public may have been willing to tolerate extremes of wealth and pay when the economy was producing growth and jobs, but now it has become more suspicious. Why did bankers enjoy bonuses during the boom years but leave taxpayers to foot the bill during the bust? Why should companies be allowed to dodge taxes and sack workers by shifting operations overseas?
What is happening now could mark one of those sea changes in public policy that seem to come along once in every generation. In the late 19th and early 20th century a decline in American farm incomes prompted a rise of populism and progressivism that led to attacks on corporate trusts in America under Theodore Roosevelt. In the 1930s the Depression led to the New Deal and the re-regulation of the financial sector in America, and the rise of fascism in Europe. Reaction to the economic crisis of the 1970s ushered in the Thatcher and Reagan reforms.
Governments are already trying to deal with public anger about manifestly unfair gains by capping bankers' bonuses. The level of regulation will increase, and taxes will inevitably rise as governments struggle to contain their bulging budget deficits. As President Obama's budget proposal showed, the rich will be tempting targets for those tax hikes.
It is also possible that globalisation may come under threat as governments seek to placate their voters by protecting local jobs and industries. Already banks are being urged to lend money to domestic rather than foreign businesses. The German and American governments are leading an attack on bank-secrecy laws in tax havens. The elite may no longer find it so easy to move itself and its capital from country to country, depending on where the returns are highest and the taxes lowest.
All this may bring a reduction in inequality, especially in the Anglo-Saxon economies where it seemed to have increased most. The big question is whether this will be short-lived, linked solely to the crisis, or turn out to be something more structural. Social safety nets are much better developed than they were in the 1930s, which may make the poor less desperate and constrain their anger at the rich. But the search for scapegoats will be on.
For the moment the pressure is being felt by businesses that service the rich. Ferretti, a top-of-the-range yacht manufacturer, has defaulted on part of its debt; creditors are set to get just 11 cents on the dollar. The decision by Saks, an exclusive retailer, to slash prices during the 2008 holiday season caused consternation among some luxury-goods groups. Sales at Tiffany's American jewellery stores have plunged. De Beers has suspended production at one of its biggest diamond mines.
And even wealthy people who are not feeling the pinch may have become more cautious about spending ostentatiously. Net-a-Porter, an upmarket fashion website, now offers the option of having designer outfits delivered in a brown paper bag.
Those who look after rich clients' wealth are already in trouble. Surveys indicate that the better-off are highly dissatisfied with the service provided by their private banks, which failed to protect them from the market falls of the past 18 months. The fraud that caused investors who handed their money to Bernard Madoff to lose tens of billions of dollars has raised new doubts about the safety of portfolios and about the due diligence undertaken by wealth managers.
All that said, there are still plenty of rich people around. Someone was confident enough to pay $20m for a Degas bronze at an auction at Sotheby's in February. Diners at the Hotel Metropole in Monaco are still willing to shell out €137 for a grand dish of rock lobster.
But the outlook for the rich is no longer the “glad, confident morning” that it seemed just two years ago. In a survey of high-net-worth Americans by Harrison Group in January, 78% said their sense of financial security had been undermined by the crisis; only 46% were optimistic about their own future, against 93% in 2005.
This special report will explain how disparities in wealth and income became so wide in the first place and ask whether that process will now go into reverse. And it will examine how well the rich are coping with the crisis—because that will matter for everyone else too. |
C# Plays Bejeweled Blitz iDanScott Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 24, 2015 Dat score 1,336,950… Totally legit. Kappa. As some of you reading this may or may not already know; over the past day or so I went from having the idea of creating a computer program that would essentially be able to play the popular arcade game Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook, to actually developing it. Now as hard as this problem sounds, it was surprisingly easy and fairly swift to solve. I broke it down in to 3 main steps: Identify the area in which the bejeweled game was being played. Identify what colour was in what square. Check for the possible directions you could move a colour to successfully make a line of 3. The first step was probably the most time consuming of them all as everything from there was just colour management. The Solution I came up with in the end for that was to take a screenshot of the entire screen, and then scan the image from top to bottom using a nested for loop until I found a funny shade of brown that only appears along the Top Edge of the bejeweled grid (for anyone wondering that colour is Color.FromArgb(255, 39, 19, 5)). Once this colour had been found using the bitmap.GetPixel(x, y) function, I broke out of both for loops and knew that was the point where the top left corner of the grid was. I could then use this to construct a rectangle which would extract the bejeweled grid from the full screenshot. The size of the rectangle was calculated using the size of the grid cells (40px², found that out using trusty old paint) multiplied by the amount of rows/columns there were (8, found that out using my eye balls). This resulted in the Rectangle size coming out at 320px².
Obtaining the playable grid.
So the next step from here was to identify what colour resides in what square. To do that I started off by creating a 2 dimensional array of colours (Or Color’s to be politically correct) that was 8 rows and 8 columns to match that of the playable grid. I then systematically looped through the 2 dimensional array of colours in a nested for of x and y values assigning the array the colour of the pixel at the Location (x * 40) + 20, (y * 40) + 22. The x value was decided as it was half way through the gem and 22 was chosen for the y value as certain gems have a white center (Green and yellow) so 22 provided a more accurate reading. With this 2 dimensional array I was then able to generate a visual representation of what the computer was seeing when it was trying to figure out what colour was where.
Displaying the colour grid that the application uses to compare colours. |
GOP backpedals on committee attendance rule
House Republicans have voted to peel back a requirement that would have required them to publicly post committee attendance -- the first reversal on a set of proposed rules the GOP has laid out as it prepares to take control of the House on Wednesday.
The amendment was offered Tuesday evening by conservative Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert and adopted by a voice vote.
Republicans positioned the posting of attendance online as a major step that would help increase accountability and bolster the activity of committees - both major tenets of John Boehner's (R-Ohio) impending speakership. But the quick reversal shows that not everyone in the Republican Conference was ready to embrace this step.
"We've made clear that an open legislative process will be a hallmark of this Congress, and this vote is testimony to that pledge," said GOP spokesman Brendan Buck. "This rules package still provides unprecedented transparency and accountability in the committees." |
Email Privacy is Flourishing in The Netherlands
On Kim’s recent travels to Europe, she pops by the headquarters of Startpage, located in The Hague, to discuss the evolution of their email component of their organization, called Startmail. After many years of being on a privacy mission to keep peoples searches safe, Startmail has been one of the few Email Services that has managed to make PGP, (Pretty Good Privacy), accessible to the average person, without having to be a programmer. Based in The Netherlands, the company is poised to scale the service so that more people around the world can protect their electronic communication from massive surveillance, archiving, third-party interlopers and more. Tough questions are asked of Alex Van Eesteren, Starmails Early Adapter and EU Media Relations Director. If you ever wondered if you are really doing the right thing by using your free email accounts with all of your personal and professional information, this segment will be a useful way to reconsider if it is really in your best interest to use free email accounts. If you have any questions, feel free to write in your comments and enjoy the show. |
Facebook tracks the Web-browsing activities of all visitors to the facebook.com domain even if they are not a Facebook user, according to new research from Europe. The report (PDF) updates work from earlier this year, which found that Facebook's updated privacy policy breached EU law.
The research has been commissioned by the Belgian data protection agency, which is investigating Facebook. It was a collaboration between the Interdisciplinary Centre for Law and ICT/Centre for Intellectual Property Rights (ICRI/CIR) at the University of Leuven and the Department of Studies on Media, Information, and Telecommunication (SMIT) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussels.
This newly found tracking, used to provide targeted advertising, is carried out through Facebook's social widget, the Like Button. A cookie is placed in the browser when someone visits any page in the facebook.com domain, including sections that do not require an account. For visitors that are not Facebook users, the cookie contains a unique identifier, and it has an expiration date of two years. Facebook users receive additional cookies that identify them uniquely. Once those cookies have been set, Facebook will receive them for every subsequent visit to a website that uses Facebook's social widget. That applies whether or not the Facebook user is logged in to his or her account and whether or not the visitor to the third-party site actually uses the social widget.
The researchers suggest "collection or use of device information envisaged by the 2015 [Facebook Data Use Policy] does not comply with the requirements of article 5(3) of the [European Union's] e-Privacy Directive, which requires free and informed prior consent before storing or accessing information on an individual’s device." The problem is that users are not told enough about what information is being collected and how it is being used. Moreover, the authors of the report say: "Facebook also tracks non-users in a manner which violates article 5(3) of the e-Privacy Directive."
The researchers went on to investigate to what extent Facebook's opt-out mechanism allowed people to avoid this tracking. They found that when a Facebook user opts out, Facebook promises to stop collecting browsing information, or use it only specifically for the purpose of showing advertisements. The site continues to track its users when they visit a webpage containing a Facebook social widget even after the user opts out.
The situation for visitors who are not Facebook users is even worse, according to the report. During the opt-out process, Facebook sets a long-term identifying cookie and then uses this to track visits to pages that have a Facebook social widget. In other words: "for those individuals who are not being tracked by Facebook (e.g. non-users who have never visited a page on the facebook.com domain, or Facebook users who clear their cookies after logging out from Facebook), using the 'opt out' mechanism proposed for the EU actually enables tracking by Facebook" (emphasis in original). Given that this behavior is likely to fall foul of EU privacy laws, it's curious that Facebook does this in the EU but does not place a long-term identifying cookie when people visit opt-out sites for US and Canadian users, according to the researchers.
These results will presumably form the basis of the report for the Belgian data protection agency, which means that Facebook may be required to explain why it seems to be breaching European data protection laws in multiple ways. According to information on the new report's webpage, the Belgian data protection commission "is also part of a European task force, which includes data protection authorities from the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. ICRI/CIR and iMinds-SMIT will continue to support the [Belgian] Privacy Commission in the context of its investigation and future updates to the report will also be shared with their German and Dutch colleagues." Facebook may therefore be investigated by data protection authorities in those countries, too.
As if that weren't enough, Facebook must also worry about the outcome of the important case currently before the Court of Justice of the European Union, which hinges on whether the data protection it offers to users in the EU is "adequate." The new research results, if confirmed, are hardly going to help. |
One of the nameless ghouls from Swedish occult rockers GHOST was interviewed on a recent edition of the "Metal Hammer Magazine Show". You can now listen to the chat at this location. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).
On the title of GHOST's third album, "Meliora":
"I think that the super-correct translation [from Latin] is 'for the pursuit of something better,' or 'all things better,' or something like that. It is actually more thematical with the lyrical content and the backdrop that we wanted to paint in front of which we're playing these songs, basically, which was supposed to be, or is supposed to be, a super-urban, metropolitan, pre-apocalyptic, dystopic futuristic thing. The title is more implying, ironically, this zenith that we think that we have reached. We're always building higher, and we're always getting a little bit faster, and everybody keeps earning a little bit more money, and everybody gets a little bit taller and a little bit tighter and a little bit… It's a constant improvement that we're hysterically trying to achieve."
On GHOST's constantly evolving image and lyrical content:
"Some of these things have been with us for many years, just because… Not only was it intended, just from a fan point of view, that we wanted to… for lack of a better way of saying it, to be a sort of an IRON MAIDEN-esque band in the sense that we wanted to revamp our schtick every time that we make a record, basically, just in order to keep it fresh and interesting, so that we could go through eras. And also, that was definitely a necessity, just because we are, also for lack of a better word, a gimmicky band. Like, aesthetically, we cannot live off, or feed off, our actual story the way that a more biographical band can, so we have to tell a story, basically. And what better way is there than to revamp into different eras."
On the "departure" of GHOST frontman Papa Emeritus II and addition of Papa Emeritus III:
"I think he's on some sort of vacation right now. Yeah, he's been relieved of his duties. That means that we have another one of those guys in house now, creating new problems. Different age, different problem."
On being influenced by classic rock bands:
"I suppose we do have have sort of archeological approach to what we're doing. We're trying to find that fine line where we're not all in just a retro band, which is very, very hard to intellectualize, because, obviously, we are embracing a lot of old-fashioned attributes in terms of playing on old-fashioned guitars and looking for a more analog feel as opposed to playing on a seven-string. Yeah, we're slightly retrospectively wallowing in the past. But we like to think that we're trying to create something… a new dish out of old seasoning."
"Meliora" will be released on August 21 via Loma Vista Recordings. The follow-up to 2013's "Infestissumam" was helmed by Klas Åhlund, a prolific songwriter, producer and guitarist who is also a member of the Swedish rock band TEDDYBEARS, and was mixed by Andy Wallace (SLAYER, NIRVANA, SEPULTURA, LINKIN PARK, GUNS N' ROSES).
GHOST will embark on the "Black To The Future" North American headlining tour in the fall. The procession will begin at The Fillmore in Washington, D.C. on September 22. |
About
We're bringing to the world the very first Internet-enabled, wireless Toothbrush! It's a little silicone covered sensor that slides on to the bottom of any ordinary toothbrush. It has a wireless circuit inside with an accelerometer that measures special patterns of forces when you brush your teeth.
The fun part is that it's connected to an app we'll call, Brush Monkey. It's mainly targeting kids and families and getting people to want to brush their teeth, because it's simply a lot of fun. As kids start to brush, we make mom and dad's phone (or your own) start buzzing and making monkey noises. If you brush for two minutes, it makes a monkey go crazy fun.
The wireless Toothbrush is just one of our very first sensors we plan to productize with your help on Kickstarter. We'd like to offer all kinds of other sensors that measure things you do in the way you interact with objects -- different than, and not the "Internet of Things." For example, a sensor on the dog leash measures when you walk the dog. Who didn't put the lid down on the toilet? We can make one for that too. Take your medicine? Play with toys? It's about our actual behaviors and doing things together.
Our sensors will go in little puffy stickers like these. They simply stick on to things like medicine bottles, toilet seats, dog leashes, toys, and almost anything that moves in a certain way. The same base-station you get with the Toothbrush Kit will also work with all our sensor stickers down the road. An API is already released. We'd love to have tech folks out there write your own apps too.
It's working today -- check out a TEDx talk with demo that I gave last summer. But, getting it into mass production is the next hurdle. We know how to get there, but it's going to take some redesigning and momentum to ramp into volume. The design can be made super low cost and we've already established relationships with two factories in China.
We've got a little head-start with some angel funding last year, but we could use your help getting this to the next step, beyond a prototype. It's been a crazy adventure thus far, which took me from Portland, Ore. to Providence, to Cambridge, and then San Francisco. I slept in server rooms and an air-shaft for nearly a year, building, tinkering, and figuring out how I could help people.
We're looking for your help on Kickstarter to bring the Brush Monkey Toothbrush and all these sensors beyond a prototype and now into homes of millions of people. With your support, we can make these sensors inexpensive-enough so that they're available to everyone. Help us help lots of people be more happy and healthy in the everyday things we all do.
Thanks! |
The Ultimate Productivity System!
marie ng Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jan 12, 2016
I’m always on the hunt for the ultimate productivity system, and am constantly trying to refine mine to make sure I get things done, in the most efficient manner possible. Part of the reason is because I’m easily distracted, so it’s even more important that I have a good system in place.
After many years, I think I’ve finally found something that works, and have also figured out why it didn’t work before. I was missing a crucial part of my system — but more on that in a little.
Everybody’s different and you need to find something that works for you, but here’s how I currently manage my time:
Right now I’m using a combination of Trello, David Allen’s GTD philosophy and Sunrise calendar. The calendar is the place for meetings and events. All my To Dos are on Trello, which is organized in a GTD fashion. Here’s my Trello board set up:
My Trello board, laid out using a GTD philosophy
Anything I have to do, goes into the INBOX column. It then gets sorted into one of the other columns, the goal being to move tasks across the board from left to right.
Every day I review what needs to be done and move tasks from the NEXT column to THIS WEEK, to TODAY and then to COMPLETE. The act of manually sorting tasks also serves as a reminder of what needs to be done.
The SCHEDULED column is for tasks that have a due date assigned to them (and the great thing about Trello is that tasks with due dates can be linked easily to a calendar). Lastly, the WAITING column is for tasks that I’ve done but am waiting on someone else to complete it.
Now going back to the part in my system that I felt I was missing…
It’s all well and good to have an organized To Do list, but how do you get the motivation to make your way through that list?
Recently, I came across the concept of ‘timeboxing’. This quote explains it best:
“Timeboxing is simply fixing a time period to work on a task or group of tasks. Instead of working on a task until it’s done, you commit to work on it for a specific amount of time instead.” ~ Litemind
So for example, my task is to write this Medium post. I would like to try and get it done in 1hr, so I would set a countdown timer for 1hr and get to work.
This concept intrigued me as most time tracking services count up like a stopwatch. Time boxing is all about setting a definitive amount of time and counting down to the finish.
Turns out, setting a limit on a task’s time puts just the right amount of pressure on me to get things done. I love it. And it fuels my competitive nature because it becomes like a game to try and beat the clock.
As a next step — and to complete my ultimate productivity system — I went on a hunt to try and find a timeboxing app that could help. Something super simple and minimalist that doesn’t in itself lead to more distraction (a very important quality for productivity apps !). I also wanted something that would work on Apple Watch, since a To Do list on the wrist seems like such a perfect fit.
After a bit of searching, and not finding the holy grail, a friend and I decided we would try and build something to fill that gap.
We created an iOS app called ‘Sloth’. It’s a To Do list, meets countdown timer. For each task you can allot a set time, then start the clock and see if you can beat it. Here’s a few screenshots:
Right now you have manually create your To Do list but we’re planning to add Trello integration in future. We’re almost in the AppStore, but if you’d like to get a sneak peak and learn more about Sloth you can do so here: www.getsloth.com.
So now my ultimate productivity system is complete! With Sloth, Sunrise Calendar, Trello and GTD I feel like I’m whizzing through my To Dos. And it feels great.
If you found my system helpful (or even if you didn’t) I’d love to hear from you. Am always interested to learn how other people get things done and manage their time. And of course would love to hear any feedback you have on Sloth! |
We live in a world of pain and suffering . There is no one who is not affected by the harsh realities of life, and the question “why do bad things happen to good people?” is one of the most difficult questions in all of theology. God is sovereign, so all that happens must have at least been allowed by Him, if not directly caused by Him. At the outset, we must acknowledge that human beings, who are not eternal, infinite, or omniscient, cannot expect to fully understand God’s purposes and ways.The book of Job deals with the issue of why God allows bad things to happen to good people. Job was a righteous man (Job 1:1), yet he suffered in ways that are almost beyond belief. God allowed Satan to do everything he wanted to Job except kill him, and Satan did his worst. What was Job’s reaction? “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (Job 13:15). “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised” (Job 1:21). Job did not understand why God had allowed the things He did, but he knew God was good and therefore continued to trust in Him. Ultimately, that should be our reaction as well.Why do bad things happen to good people? As hard as it is to acknowledge, we must remember that there are no “good” people, in the absolute sense of the word. All of us are tainted by and infected with sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8). As Jesus said, “No one is good—except God alone” (Luke 18:19). All of us feel the effects of sin in one way or another. Sometimes it’s our own personal sin; other times, it’s the sins of others. We live in a fallen world, and we experience the effects of the fall. One of those effects is injustice and seemingly senseless suffering.When wondering why God would allow bad things to happen to good people, it’s also good to consider these four things about the bad things that happen:1) Bad things may happen to good people in this world, but this world is not the end. Christians have an eternal perspective: “We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16–18). We will have a reward some day, and it will be glorious.2) Bad things happen to good people, but God uses those bad things for an ultimate, lasting good. “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). When Joseph, innocent of wrongdoing, finally came through his horrific sufferings, he was able to see God’s good plan in it all (see Genesis 50:19–21).3) Bad things happen to good people, but those bad things equip believers for deeper ministry. “Praise be to . . . the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ” (2 Corinthians 1:3–5). Those with battle scars can better help those going through the battles.4) Bad things happen to good people, and the worst things happened to the best Person. Jesus was the only truly Righteous One, yet He suffered more than we can imagine. We follow in His footsteps: “If you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.’ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:20–23). Jesus is no stranger to our pain.Romans 5:8 declares, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Despite the sinful nature of the people of this world, God still loves us. Jesus loved us enough to die to take the penalty for our sins (Romans 6:23). If we receive Jesus Christ as Savior (John 3:16; Romans 10:9), we will be forgiven and promised an eternal home in heaven (Romans 8:1).God allows things to happen for a reason. Whether or not we understand His reasons, we must remember that God is good, just, loving, and merciful (Psalm 135:3). Often, bad things happen to us that we simply cannot understand. Instead of doubting God’s goodness, our reaction should be to trust Him. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5–6). We walk by faith, not by sight. |
Toyota unveils redesigned '12 Hilux
Jul 15, 2011, 12:07pm ET
by Nat Shirley
The famously rugged Hilux pickup receives new styling inside and out as well as cleaner, more efficient engines.
The Toyota Hilux, a pickup long recognized for its extreme durability (and an excellent choice to aid in surviving an apocalypse), will be the beneficiary of a comprehensive update for the 2012 model year. Significant revisions to the Tacoma-sized workhorse, which is not sold in the U.S., include new exterior and interior styling, a revised multimedia interface, and more environmentally friendly engines.
The Hilux receives new styling from the A-pillar forwards, including a new hood, radiator grille, headlamps and bumper. New wheel designs, along with new side bars and steps for the top-dog Hilux Invincible model, round out the exterior changes.
Inside, the Hilux gets a more car-like upper dashboard design and horizontal instrumental cluster. Uniform dark finishes and a new chrome surround for the instrument binnacle on the Invincible conspire to add a touch of civility to a truck that will likely see a great deal of use in particularly uncivilized environments. The Toyota Touch multimedia unit, standard on upper trim levels, includes a color 6.1-inch touchscreen as well as Bluetooth and a USB port for connecting digital music players.
The Hilux soldiers on with its current powertrains, though both engines have received a new diesel particulate filter to comply with Euro 5 emissions standards, resulting in significantly lower CO2 -emissions and improved mileage. The base engine, a 142 horsepower 2.5-liter diesel four-cylinder, emits 194 g/km and returns 38.7 mpg combined on the European test cycle. The 169 horsepower 3.0 four, also a diesel, pollutes at a rate of 227 g/km for the manual and 203 g/km for the automatic, while fuel economy checks in at 32.8 mpg and 36.7 mpg, respectively. Those desirous of the 5-speed automatic transmission must spring for the Invincible; all other models come only with a row-your-own 5-speed.
Single, extra, and double cab bodystyles will be available, while trim levels, from lowest to highest, include the HL2, HL3 and Invincible. Pricing for the Hilux, which goes on sale in October, starts at �'£16,090 for HL2 4WD Single Cab. |
As you may have heard, e-books and the Internet are leading the charge to burn down libraries, destroying civilization, and generally ruin everyone’s day. While this may be a bit of an exaggeration, there’s no denying the impact that these disruptive technologies have had on how we read and where we buy our content.
This is true even in Japan, which has a rather significant publishing industry and a large pool of eager readers, where physical books and magazines have had high sales well into the 21st century. While the country is known for its technology, Japanese consumers have been slow to adopt new modes of purchasing their texts.
But all that’s starting to change.
As we’ve seen in many locales, the rise of e-book readers and online retailers has opened up access to more and cheaper books for the average person. And with improved distribution, it’s a matter of days–at most–from the time you click “purchase” to the time your new books arrive on your doorstep.
Japan, though initially resistant, has proven not much different. Amazon Japan and Rakuten both have e-book readers and both sell books at prices lower than what you’ll usually find in a store, especially small-to-mid-sized retailers and specialty stores.
In fact, Mainichi Shinbun recently reported on the closing of some of these smaller stores, marking the shift in the retail landscape from brick-and-mortar stores to digital retailers. In the thirteen years between 2000 and 2013, 34 percent of the bookstores in Japan were shuttered.
▼Kaibundo Bookstore, nationally recognized bookstore, before September closure
Even Kobe’s Kaibundo Bookstore, a nationally famous bookstore specializing in maritime publications, felt the crunch and finally went out of business last month, 99 years after opening. On the stores final day of business, a crowd of hundreds gathered, waiting for the shutters to close for good. Hiroyasu Fukuoka, the store manager, stood outside and addressed the numerous people, saying, “Everyone, please buy books at bookstores. If you don’t bookstores will completely disappear from your towns.”
▼Mr. Fukuoka addressing a crowd of hundreds before closing Kaibundo’s doors forever.
Speaking with reporters, the store manager explained the problem by laying the blame on customers. “People are impatient,” he told reporters, adding that customers wouldn’t wait a week for a book to arrive when they could get it from Amazon in a few days. Mr. Fukuoka also added that bookstores used to appeal to customers by offering valuable recommendations and finding rare books. But now the recommendation algorithms are better online–and so is the selection.
Even large chain stores are struggling to keep up with Internet retailers. It seems that the only way for large chains like Maruzen and Kinokuniya to stay competitive is to maintain enormous stocks of books on hand–which can get expensive quickly. Whether or not it’s an effective tactic remains to be seen.
▼Ripuru Naniwa, another nationally recognized bookstore that closed this year.
While avid readers and booksellers alike are fretting about the future of bookstores, Internet commenters have a slightly more cavalier attitude towards the situation.
Amazon and convenience stores are good enough. The extinct bookstores will live on in our hearts. It’s natural selection. Sad as it may be, just give up! I like bookstores as places, but when it comes to actually buying books, I go online. Specializing in a specific field and not bothering to sell country-wide online is no good. Make it so people can get your books online. Right now, Amazon is doing this, and that’s why they’re winning. It’s bizarre how little business sense bookstore owners have. Read a book or something and learn a little! Does he not understand how business works?? No matter how you complain, it won’t change anything. Do something about your distribution system! You’re taking way too long to deliver books. What in the world is the merit of buying at a bookstore? Don’t just stand around crying! Create some reason for us to buy books at your store. If you can’t, you’re just going to go down and down, and it’s only natural that you go out of business.
A harsh lot of folks, these commenters are! But it’s not difficult to understand their point, is it? If you can’t take the papercuts, get out of the book business.
▼Interior of home branch of Maruzen, one of the largest bookstore chains in Japan.
That said, we can’t help wondering if there is some cultural or societal need for bookstores. Isn’t it possible that there is something to justify subsidizing the industry, especially since the Japanese government currently subsidized domestic farmers? It’s hard to say!
Obviously, this is not an issue that Japan is facing alone, and it clearly affects everything from music to clothing. As long as something can be bought online for a few dollars less, that’s where customers will tend to go.
Now the question is: Who can disrupt the disruptive technology?
Sources: Itai News 2Channel, Mainichi
Images: Konohana, YouTube, Maruzen, Yamamori 2Channel News |
KISS Kruise VII sailed out of New Orleans to Costa Maya and Cozumel on Norwegian Pearl from November 5th - 10th, 2017. Fan-filmed video of the band's entire second show on the kruise is available below.
The setlist was as follows:
"Tomorrow And Tonight" (live premiere)
"Sweet Pain" (first time live electric and first time since 1995)
"Shout It Out Loud"
"I Love It Loud"
"Flaming Youth"
"Hot And Cold" (live premiere)
"Say Yeah"
"War Machine"
"Is That You?" (first time since 1980)
"Cold Gin"
"Lick It Up"
"Black Diamond"
"Detroit Rock City"
Encore:
"Rock And Roll All Nite"
"I" (first time live electric since 1982 and first time live since 1995)
Fan-filmed video of the band's acoustic unmasked performance on November 5th can be viewed below.
The setlist was as follows:
"Comin' Home"
"Plaster Caster"
"Do You Love Me"
"Christine Sixteen"
"Hotter Than Hell"
"Hard Luck Woman"
"Shock Me"
"A World Without Heroes"
"Got To Choose"
"Hide Your Heart"
"Goin' Blind"
"Beth"
"Love Her All I Can"
"Every Time I Look at You"
"See You Tonite"
"Nothin' To Lose"
"Calling Dr. Love" |
The Advertising Standards Agency is taking Valve to task for its “misleading” discount of Grand Theft Auto V during its Summer Sale in June.
The store page at the time listed Grand Theft Auto V as having a 25% discount. That wasn’t the case, however. The game had in fact been rolled into a bundle with an in-game “Shark” cash card for GTA Online. Purchasing the two items together resulted in the listed discount, but that’s not how it appeared in the store.
The cash card wasn’t separately listed in the bundle, only referenced in the description. Instead, Grand Theft Auto V was itself marked up in price to include the card, and then the discount was applied to this new higher price. That alone was a pretty poor decision, but it was made worse because you couldn’t actually purchase Grand Theft Auto 5 alone at the time.
Valve claims that Steam’s software had simply gotten confused, and — according to the ASA report — “mislabelled the stand-alone game.” When the error was noticed, the game was returned to individual sale, sans bundled cash card. Still, the original poorly-explained deal remained available for purchase, leaving many customers further confused.
While a similar complaint was made regarding the sale of Wofenstein: The New Order, the ASA chose to uphold only the complaints made regarding Grand Theft Auto V. Their ruling mandates. “The ad must not appear again in its current form,” and that Steam must “ensure their future savings claims did not mislead about the benefits available.”
Nate Church is @Get2Church on Twitter, and he can’t become a wildly overhyped internet celebrity without your help. Follow, then retweet and favorite everything he says. It’s the Right Thing To Do™! |
12 September, 2016. 16:35
ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
HE’S BEEN DROPPED THREE times in three overs and tearaway quick Mark Holloway has had enough – if nobody’s going to help him get the wicket, he’ll have to do it himself.
The first-cum-forth grader is known around the district for his erratic, but often effective right-armed cannon shots and his handy tail end work with the willow.
But after finding a few edges yesterday afternoon during an exhibition match between King Island And Burnie on the famous isle, he was left wondering as the hard-handed first and second slips put down three sitters.
“No, you know what, I told the umpire I wanted to come in around the wicket because I’d been getting fed hot cock by my teammates all afternoon,” he said.
“So I pushed fine leg back onto the rope and brought up square leg. Pulled the second slip out and put him under the helmet and let ‘er rip. Dug ’em in short and angled them in toward his head,”
“Nah fuck the cunt, but. It wasn’t his fault, but I was just sick of the bloke smiling at me like I wasn’t about to try to kill him.”
The 34-year-old corporate lawyer finally got his wicket after four more overs of Tait-like inconsistency, but he managed to get one to swing back into the right-hander and sneak through the gate.
However, his efforts seemingly went unnoticed as the visitors recorded a 314-run lead going into next week.
More to come. |
The Pokémon Company International has announced new concerts for the Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions tour, spanning 30 locations and dates spanning North America. The new dates kick off what will be a world tour visiting the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Australia. More dates will be announced soon, with plans for a European leg of the tour shaping up for spring of 2016.
You can check out the new dates below the break, and head over to the official Pokémon Symphony site to purchase tickets! Hope to see some of you at the Chicago concert!
Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions Tour Announces 30 New Locations and Dates Marking the Beginning of a World Tour
More Dates to be Announced
BELLEVUE, Wash.—March 26, 2015—The Pokémon Company International and Princeton Entertainment announced today 30 new locations and dates for the official Pokémon live orchestral concert, Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions. After sold out performances in Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh, PA and selling 5,000 tickets in Philadelphia, fans across the country will soon get the opportunity to see and hear Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions in a city near them. More information about the new locations, dates, and how to purchase tickets can be found at Pokemon.com/symphony.
Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions is the must-see video game concert of the year, giving fans and newcomers of all ages the chance to experience the evolution of the Pokémon franchise like never before. Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to meet up with friends of all ages to catch, battle and trade Pokémon from your favorite games. All-new orchestral arrangements and carefully timed visuals draw from recent and classic Pokémon video games, including:
Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue
Pokémon Yellow
Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver
Pokémon Crystal
Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire
Pokémon Emerald
Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl
Pokémon Platinum
Pokémon Black and Pokémon White
Pokémon X and Pokémon Y
The upcoming North America tour includes a first set of dates presented by Live Nation Entertainment in conjunction with Princeton Entertainment. Performances will take place in some of the most prestigious venues in the country, including Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, the Theater at Madison Square Garden, The Chicago Theatre and The Greek Theatre, among others. A European tour is scheduled for spring 2016, with additional venue and location details coming soon.
“Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions is a spectacular showcase of the memorable music that has been a hallmark of the Pokémon franchise for nearly 20 years,” said J.C. Smith, director of Consumer Marketing at The Pokémon Company International. “The concert series serves as a thank you to fans and an invitation to share our passion for Pokémon by reliving some of our fondest memories with the brand. We look forward to seeing fans of all ages enjoying this very special Pokémon orchestral event together.”
The Pokémon Company has released a special Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions video, viewable at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmC6Q9OacHg
Visit Pokemon.com/symphony for more Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions news and information.
Visit Pokemon.com, like the official Pokémon Facebook page at Facebook.com/Pokemon and follow @Pokemon on Twitter.
Current Tour Cities:
Baltimore, MD 5/1/2015 Joseph Meyerhoff Hall
New York, NY 6/6/2015 Theater at Madison Square Garden
Cincinnati, OH 6/12/2015 Riverbend Music Center
Cleveland, OH 6/13/2015 Blossom Music Center
Buffalo, NY 6/14/2015 Shea’s Performing Arts Center
Milwaukee, WI 6/19/2015 Riverside Theater
Chicago, IL 6/20/2015 Chicago Theatre
San Diego, CA 7/9/2015 Copley Symphony Hall
Los Angeles, CA 7/11/2015 The Greek Theatre
San Jose, CA 7/12/2015 City National Civic
Vienna, VA 7/18/2015 Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Vancouver, BC 7/22/2015 The Orpheum
Houston, TX 7/25-26/2015 Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Holmdel, NJ 8/20/2015 PNC Bank Arts Center
Boston, MA 8/22/2015 Blue Hills Bank Pavilion
Toronto, ON 8/28/2015 Sony Centre for the Performing Arts
Montreal, QC 8/30/2015 Place Des Arts
Detroit, MI 9/11/2015 Fox Theatre
Indianapolis, IN 9/12/2015 Murat Theatre at Old National Centre
Seattle, WA 9/15/2015 Benaroya Hall
Portland, OR 9/17/2015 Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Mexico City, MX 10/23/2015 Auditorio Nacional
Monterrey, MX 10/25/2015 Monterrey Arena
Sydney, AU 11/20-21/2015 Sydney Opera House
Clearwater, FL 12/3/2015 Ruth Eckerd Hall
Orlando, FL 12/4/2015 Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
Pittsburgh, PA 1/24/2016 Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts
Grand Rapids, MI 2/5/2016 DeVos Performance Hall
About Pokémon
The Pokémon Company International, a subsidiary of The Pokémon Company in Japan, manages the property outside of Asia and is responsible for brand management, licensing, marketing, the Pokémon Trading Card Game, the animated TV series, home entertainment, and the official Pokémon website. Pokémon was launched in Japan in 1996 and today is one of the most popular children’s entertainment properties in the world. For more information, visit www.pokemon.com.
About Princeton Entertainment
Princeton Entertainment has earned an international reputation as a premier producer of concerts combining orchestras with popular recording artists and other elements. Princeton’s productions have set the bar for exciting, new, and creative performances with stars as varied as James Taylor, Idina Menzel, Andrea Bocelli, Aretha Franklin, and Trey Anastasio; its orchestra partners include the New York Philharmonic, The Royal Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Baltimore Symphony and its own American Festival Orchestra. Last year, after signing and completing a touring agreement for The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, two of its key creators, Jeron Moore and Chad Seiter, joined Princeton Entertainment. Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions is the first production from this exciting new creative team. Current touring plans call for the production to reach five continents.
About Live Nation Entertainment
Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, Live Nation Media & Sponsorship and Artist Nation Management. For additional information, visit www.livenationentertainment.com. |
Despite the broken politics of Washington and the denial of science that makes up the daily reality show of the White House, two lessons I learned a long time ago — one as a student, one as a senator — make me an optimist that climate change will soon be a bipartisan issue again in America.
Lesson one came when I was 19 and my college professor, John Morton Blum, taught: “All politics is a reaction to felt needs.” He meant that policy decisions only happen when the people who want something demand nothing less and the people who make it happen decide that they can do nothing less. Decisions aren’t made based on abstractions. “Felt needs” have driven every movement I’ve witnessed in politics since — from ending apartheid in South Africa a couple decades ago to ending an injustice in American communities a couple years ago, where same-sex couples refused to be told by any government who they can marry.
Lesson two came 32 years ago as a student of a different school — the US Senate. My friend Ted Kennedy introduced comprehensive health care legislation each Congress, knowing full well it would never see a vote. Why? Because Ted said good ideas ultimately meet their moment, but legislative moments ripen only if you keep tending to the garden of ideas and advocacy. You have to make the case — again and again.
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At Yale University on Monday, I am convening a conference on climate change that includes CEOs like General Electric’s Jeff Immelt; business leaders, including Bank of America’s Anne Finucane; energy pioneers from Houston; former Republican secretaries of state and the Treasury; scientists, including former energy secretary Ernie Moniz; and Republican senators who all attest that on climate change the “felt needs” are piling up at a digital pace — and bipartisan pressure is “ripening” to push Washington to finally meet them.
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The felt needs of the business community are overwhelming. Rather than regulators and legislators dragging business to the table, businesses are leading the way — and are ahead of Washington. They see a marketplace full of opportunity. Last year was the third consecutive year in which renewable technologies — wind and solar — made up more than half of the new generating capacity added to the US grid.
The energy transformation is global. Last year, roughly twice as much was invested in renewables capacity worldwide as in fossil fuel generation. The government of India plans 100 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2020. China’s Xi Jinping has announced a $361 billion investment in clean energy. No wonder US oil and gas companies wanted Washington to stay committed to the Paris Agreement — drawing a line on climate is also good for their bottom line.
The felt needs of communities and businesses are also ripening a new bipartisan consensus. We can’t prove that climate change caused any single weather event, but scientists tell us that we can expect more of them with greater frequency as the impacts of climate change worsen. Extreme weather events don’t come with a (D) or (R) after names like Harvey and Irma, and there’s nothing political about the havoc increasingly injurious storms have wreaked in places like Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and the Caribbean.
Hurricane Katrina created environmentalists out of business people and civic leaders as never before, because they know that coastal economies cannot endure if we don’t protect and restore wetlands and meet the climate threat. There’s nothing partisan about wildfires burning in the West, which have already charred an area larger than the state of Maryland, or 100-year droughts that hurt farmers and ranchers. Governors like Jerry Brown of California and Jay Inslee of Washington, who live the reality of these challenges every day, attest to the growing demand for action bubbling up among their respective constituents. Across the country, mayors, governors, and business leaders answered President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement with their own pledges to meet the commitments of Paris — or exceed them.
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These are American issues, not partisan ones, and they’re galvanizing a new coalition that doesn’t blur party lines; it erases them. I do remember a time in the Senate when the environment was a bipartisan issue. I believe it will be again, not out of nostalgia but out of necessity — because Americans from every state and every sector of our economy are demanding it. The felt needs are ripening the moment. Now it’s in your hands to make the most of the harvest.
John F. Kerry, former US secretary of state and a former US senator from Massachusetts, is Yale University’s Distinguished Fellow for Global Affairs. |
Microsoft won't release a new console in 2012. That's according to the company's French marketing manager, who recently told French website Le Point that Microsoft has no plans to compete with Nintendo and the Wii U this holiday season. Don't expect a new Xbox and a Wii U this holiday.
"What is certain is that there will be nothing new in 2012," Microsoft's Cedrick Delmas told the website (via Google Translate). Previous speculation pointed to Microsoft releasing a new console as early as this holiday.
Delmas added, "The cycle of the Xbox 360 is by no means complete," noting that the lack of price cuts for the system indicates Microsoft isn't ready to bring on the next console.
The marketing man also discussed Microsoft's position relative to Nintendo and the Wii U, which will be on hand at the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo and will launch worldwide by year's end.
"We are not here to deal with Nintendo, and they are not there to fight against other manufacturers," he said. "Nintendo has placed itself in a different cycle, they advance at their own pace, successfully as we have seen with the Wii, and now it is their turn to present their innovation."
As for the form and functionality of Microsoft's not-yet-announced console, the latest scuttlebutt suggests it will play Blu-ray discs and sport measures to block used games. |
[JURIST] The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] on Thursday rejected [decision; press release] a complaint filed by Yevgeny Dzhugashvili against the Russian Novaya Gazeta [media website] newspaper for allegedly committing libel against his grandfather, Josef Stalin. The case concerns two articles published by the opposition newspaper regarding the execution of prisoners in the Polish Katyn war in 1940, the first of which criticized the Soviet leaders that ordered the executions and called Stalin a “bloodthirsty cannibal.” Dzhugashvili claimed that the defamation violated his right to privacy. The ECHR made a distinction between defaming an individual whose reputation is linked to that of his family, whose privacy is protected under ECHR Article 8 [materials], and the “legitimate criticism of public figures exposed to public scrutiny.”
In this case, the publication by the Novaya Gazeta article contributed to the historical debate of public importance on Stalin and his alleged role in the Katyń massacre. … In addition, the tragedy of Katyń and roles that would have been those of historical figures and their responsibilities are inevitably exposed to public scrutiny and criticism.
This complaint followed Dzhugashvili’s lawsuit in Moscow on the same issue, which was dismissed. The dismissal was affirmed by a Russian appeals court, and the ECHR supported these decisions.
Rights activists and political dissenters throughout the globe have faced defamation actions in response to alleged uncovering of government abuse. In November an official for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [official website] stated [JURIST report] that human rights activists in Burundi have been the subjects of threats and defamation for their current role within the state. In May a Palestinian court announced [JURIST report] that Mohammed Dahlan, leading rival of President Mahmoud Abbas, had been sentenced in absentia to two years in prison for defamation. In 2013 Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] urged [JURIST report] Tunisian authorities to repeal a law that criminalizes defamation. |
An unnamed female politician in western Sweden, presumably Gothenburg since it is being reported by the Gothenburg Post, has been charged with rape of a masculine “child refugee”. The woman, who has been active in local politics, also works at a refugee accommodation centre.
She has admitted having sex with the “child” in her own home over a period of about a month and the “child”, in turn, has admitted having sex with her.
Of course almost none of these “refugee children” are either genuine refugees or genuine children but because, officially, they are, the sexual relationship would be deemed non-consensual on the part of the “child” and therefore rape.
When she, no doubt, defends herself in court by saying “but he isn’t really a child”, this should help blow the lid off the “child refugee” scam.
Source |
In the past year, I’ve noticed an alarming trend of referral spam creeping into my Google Analytics reports. Referral spam is the practice of sending bogus referral traffic to a website or product. It may sound relatively harmless, but referral spam is quickly turning into a serious issue.
Types of Referral Spam
In the context of Google Analytics, referral spam comes in two main flavors: spammy web crawlers and ghost referral traffic.
Web crawlers are robots that visit websites, usually with the intention of indexing content. Most web crawlers identify themselves as such to web servers and are then left out of analytics reports. However, some web crawlers like those from Semalt (boo!) don’t identify themselves as robots and end up showing up in analytics reports as sessions with a 100% bounce rate and 0 second duration. Google recently introduced a feature to filter out known bots and spiders, though it’s definitely not perfect (more on that later).
Ghost referral traffic, arguably the greater of the two referral spam evils, never actually visits a website. In these cases, spammers exploit the fact that Google Analytics now transfers information via HTTP requests directly to Google Analytics servers, meaning someone can “spoof” a session very easily. Ghost referral traffic can be generated by a simple program that sends fake HTTP requests aimed at different Google Analytics properties, so this traffic doesn’t even hit your site. Even more annoying is the fact that this type of spam can be used to spoof organic search results and send false events, as well. See the screenshot below for an example:
Note: For ghost referral traffic, modifying .htaccess won’t help at all since these spammers never actually visit your site -- for more information view Google's Measurement Protocol documentation.
Negative Implications
“A referrer is a simple HTTP header that's passed along when a browser goes from one page to another page, normally used to indicate where a user's coming from. But users can change it, and some people will set referrer at pages they want to promote and visit tons of people around the web -- people see it and say 'Oh, I should check it out'. It's not necessarily a link… there are some people who try to drive traffic by visiting a ton of websites with an automated script and setting the referrer to be the URL they want to promote... there's no 'authentication'… You can’t automatically assume that it was the owner of the URL if you see something showing up in your dashboard. Somebody is trying to do some hijinx.”
- Matt Cutts, Head of Google Webspam Team
So, why is referral spam so bad? For one, it’s screwing up my web analytics data. “Sessions” entering via referral spam skew the data, clouding the accuracy of engagement metrics and inflating traffic volume metrics. Unfortunately, those unaware of spam issues may base decisions based on inaccurate data, especially for sites with low traffic.
Moreover, referral spam makes SEO more difficult for everyone. One aim of referral spam is to have links from sites that publish their access logs. Some websites publish web analytics data publicly, which can include hyperlinks back to the spammer’s designated URL. These backlinks can improve search engine results for that URL since many websites publishing referrer data are presumably trustworthy.
There are also more nefarious opportunities available to referral spammers. If a spammer wanted to send a website unwanted and unqualified traffic, they could simply change the name of the referral URL to the victim’s URL. As mentioned in the above quote from Matt Cutts, referral spam can’t truly be “authenticated” and tracked back to a specific source. With this in mind, referral spam could be used to harm reputations, possibly framing an innocuous website as a spam referrer.
Exposure to malware is another potential threat to anyone curious enough to visit referral spam addresses. With the rise of electronic data theft, it would be simple for referrer spam networks to point to URLs containing malicious software aimed at stealing valuable information.
Finally, no one wants to be advertised to while looking at web analytics acquisition reports.
Solutions
Within Google Analytics, there are multiple options to remove referral spam:
Exclude Foreign Hostnames and Filter Spammy Crawlers
One defining attribute of many ghost referrals is an inaccurate hostname attribution. When reviewing referral data in Google Analytics, the hostname will be completely unrelated to your website (e.g., “apple.com”). With this knowledge, it’s relatively simple to create a filter to only include data with an accurate hostname. For Google Analytics users with only one or a handful of domains, this solution may be the simplest (check here for a quick refresher on regular expressions in GA):
In most cases, substituting your top domain name for example.com will be sufficient. For multiple domains, check your regular expressions with Regex Pal. This filter will also address the recent uptick in direct traffic with a hostname of "(not set)".
That first filter will remove any ghost referral traffic. However, an additional filter will also be required to remove spammy web crawlers (like Semalt) since they actually visit the site and will report an accurate hostname. A solution to remove the two most popular web crawler offenders can be seen below using an Exclude Campaign Source filter:
Featured Regular Expression:
.*(semalt(media)?|buttons\-for\-website)\.com.*
Note: You should always retain an unfiltered view, as data processed by GA filters cannot be reverted.
Filter All Referral Spam Sources
In cases where domains in a measured view can easily change, blocking referral spam may require a more exhaustive referral filter encompassing all offending referral sites. Over the past few months, I’ve created a list of offending sites and updated the filter accordingly, as seen below. As a quick caveat, while this list targets many of the offending referral spam sources, it’s by no means an exhaustive list.
With the discovery of more spam referrals, I've updated the regular expressions below the image, and this solution will now require two Exclude Campaign Source filters.
In prior versions of this blog post, an Exclude Referral filter was recommended, but it has since been updated to reflect a more appropriate filter, an Exclude Campaign Source filter. S/o to Jordan Strauss for pointing out the issue.
Featured Regular Expressions:
.*((darodar|priceg|buttons\-for(\-your)?\-website|makemoneyonline|blackhatworth|hulfingtonpost|o\-o\-6\-o\-o|(social|(simple|free|floating)\-share)\-buttons)\.com|econom\.co|ilovevitaly(\.co(m)?)|(ilovevitaly(\.ru))|(humanorightswatch|guardlink)\.org).*
Update #1 - I've added another regular expression since the first one has reached the 255 character limit.
.*((best(websitesawards|\-seo\-(solution|offer))|get\-free(\-social)?\-traffic(\-now)?|googlsucks)\.com|(domination|torture)\.ml|((rapidgator\-)?(general)?porn(hub(\-)?forum)?|4webmasters)\.(ga|tk|org|uni)|(buy\-cheap\-online)\.info).*
Update #2 - Yet another regular expression to include.
.*((event\-tracking|semalt(media)?|(100dollars|success)\-seo|chinese\-amezon|e\-buyeasy|rankings\-analytics|rednise|video\-\-production|theguardlan|webmaster\-traffic)\.com|traffic(monetize(r)?|2money)\.(org|com)|pops\.foundation|erot\.co).*
Update #3 - Getting pretty tired of having to add new regular expressions.
.*(((free\-)?(floating|get\-your\-social)\-(share\-)?buttons|hosting\-tracker|alibestsale)\.(com|info)|(justprofit|best\-seo\-software)\.xyz|snip\.to|adf\.ly|copyrightclaims\.org|(black\-friday|cyber\-monday)\.ga).*
Update #4 - More regular expressions.
.*((monitoring(-your)?-success|uptime|free-video-tool|hdmoviecams)\.com|(monetizationking|popads)\.net|rank-checker\.online|(marketland|dominateforex)\.ml|(ownshop|topquality|easycommerce)\.cf|increasewwwtraffic\.info|(unpredictable|getlamborghini)\.ga).*
Update #5 - Additional .xyz & .co spam.
.*((eu-cookie-law-enforcement|social-traffic).*\.xyz|teedle\.co).*
Advanced Segments for Historical Data
Since filters only process data moving forward, use advanced segments to review historical data from before filters were implemented. Similar to the above solutions, decide which approach is most appropriate for your site and use regular expressions to remove sessions from referral spam, as seen below:
Featured Regular Expressions:
.*((darodar|priceg|buttons\-for(\-your)?\-website|makemoneyonline|blackhatworth|hulfingtonpost|o\-o\-6\-o\-o|(social|(simple|free|floating)\-share)\-buttons)\.com|econom\.co|ilovevitaly(\.co(m)?)|(ilovevitaly(\.ru))|(humanorightswatch|guardlink)\.org).*
Update #1 - I've added another regular expression since the first one has reached the 255 character limit.
.*((best(websitesawards|\-seo\-(solution|offer))|get\-free(\-social)?\-traffic(\-now)?|googlsucks)\.com|(domination|torture)\.ml|((rapidgator\-)?(general)?porn(hub(\-)?forum)?|4webmasters)\.(ga|tk|org|uni)|(buy\-cheap\-online)\.info).*
Update #2 - Yet another regular expression to include.
.*((event\-tracking|semalt(media)?|(100dollars|success)\-seo|chinese\-amezon|e\-buyeasy|rankings\-analytics|rednise|video\-\-production|theguardlan|webmaster\-traffic)\.com|traffic(monetize(r)?|2money)\.(org|com)|pops\.foundation|erot\.co).*
Update #3 - Getting pretty tired of having to add new regular expressions.
.*(((free\-)?(floating|get\-your\-social)\-(share\-)?buttons|hosting\-tracker|alibestsale)\.(com|info)|(justprofit|best\-seo\-software)\.xyz|snip\.to|adf\.ly|copyrightclaims\.org|(black\-friday|cyber\-monday)\.ga).*
Update #4 - More regular expressions.
.*((monitoring(-your)?-success|uptime|free-video-tool|hdmoviecams)\.com|(monetizationking|popads)\.net|rank-checker\.online|(marketland|dominateforex)\.ml|(ownshop|topquality|easycommerce)\.cf|increasewwwtraffic\.info|(unpredictable|getlamborghini)\.ga).*
Update #5 - Additional .xyz & .co spam.
.*((eu-cookie-law-enforcement|social-traffic).*\.xyz|teedle\.co).*
Note: Advanced Segments can be applied retroactively to historical data, while Filters only process data moving forward. If unfamiliar with segments and filters, a quick comparison summary between the two can be found here. |
GREENVILLE, NC—Aiming to accommodate family members’ preferences and avoid any frustration, local parents Melissa and Ron Walters officially designated the upstairs television for anybody who did not want to watch the Thanksgiving football games on Thursday, sources reported. “You can use the TV in the guest room if you don’t want to watch football,” said Melissa Walters, allocating the nearly 20-year-old television as a secondary viewing option for those relatives, such as her nieces and Aunt Shelly, who had expressed irritation in the past at the television being tuned to the NFL games for the entire afternoon. “That TV doesn’t get the good cable, but I bet you could find the parade if you want to watch that. Or you could always pop in a DVD—there are some good ones in the cabinet up there.” Walters then reportedly commissioned her 13-year-old son, Noah, to run upstairs and get the DVD player working for everyone.
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MMORPGs are looking up in Raptr’s latest most-played report. World of Warcraft held onto the #3 spot (in spite of a 20+% play-time drop), with showings also from Final Fantasy XIV and Star Wars: The Old Republic, but it was Guild Wars 2 at #13 that carried September for the genre.
“Our biggest gainer of September was Guild Wars 2, which jumped eight places due to a major update that added new content to the Gem Store and a week-long discount to the complete Living World Season 2 pack,” says Raptr. “We’ll have to see what kind of boost the game gets from its first expansion pack in late October.”
Guild Wars 2 had actually fallen off the top 20 charts over the summer.
Caveats? We got ’em. Let me just quote myself: |
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami football team was picked to finish second in the Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division according to a poll of 191 media members that were in attendance at the 2016 ACC Football Kickoff last week in Charlotte.
The Hurricanes also received 50 first-place votes to win the ACC Coastal.
Miami enters the 2016 campaign by returning 17 starters and 41 letterwinners from last year's squad, which closed out the regular season on a high note by winning four of its last five games en route to earning a bid to the 2015 Sun Bowl - the program's 39th overall bowl appearance.
Quarterback Brad Kaaya leads the way for the Hurricanes' offense as he returns for his junior season following a stellar 2015 campaign for the Hurricanes in which he threw for 3,238 yards, 16 touchdowns and just five interceptions. Kaaya would eventually go on to earn ACC all-conference honors.
The Hurricanes' junior signal-caller tied for fourth in the ACC Preseason Player of the Year voting.
Clemson was picked as the likely ACC champion on 144 ballots, followed by Florida State with 39, North Carolina with 7 and Louisville with one vote.
For the latest information on the Miami Hurricanes, follow us on Twitter and Instagram, @CanesFootball, or visit our website at HurricaneSports.com.
Season tickets for the 2016 Miami Hurricanes football season are on sale now – visit CanesTix.com or call (305) 284-2263 for more information.
ACC Championship Votes
1. Clemson - 144
2. Florida State - 39
3. North Carolina - 7
4. Louisville - 1
Atlantic Division
(First place votes in parenthesis)
1. Clemson (148) – 1,293
2. Florida State (42) – 1,176
3. Louisville (1) - 961
4. NC State - 704
5. Boston College - 441
6. Syracuse - 426
7. Wake Forest - 347
Coastal Division
(First place votes in parenthesis)
1. North Carolina (121) – 1,238
2. Miami (50) – 1,108
3. Pitt (14) - 859
4. Virginia Tech (3) - 697
5. Duke (2) - 597
6. Georgia Tech (1) -588
7. Virginia -261 |
An illness is not expected to force Philip Rivers to miss his first career start.
But his symptoms are severe enough that the Chargers are adding a third quarterback to their roster, sources said.
Brad Sorensen was promoted Saturday off the practice squad. He'll likely be active Sunday against the Chiefs, serving as insurance the team is hopeful it won't need. Rivers has made 156 consecutive starts since becoming the team's primary signal caller in 2006. It’s the fourth-longest steak in NFL history and second-longest active streak behind Eli Manning (179).
Rivers, who turned 34 on Tuesday, has been on the injury report since a Nov. 29 foot ailment.
After being limited Wednesday, he was a full participant in practice on Thursday and Friday. He was listed as probable to play at Arrowhead Stadium, and that designation remains despite Rivers not feeling well. Similar to safety Eric Weddle, who received six bags of intravenous fluids last weekend due to illness, Rivers is taking precautions to ensure he's fit to see the field.
Sorensen is a 2013 seventh-round pick from Southern Utah. He's yet to attempt a regular-season pass in the NFL.
Kellen Clemens, 32, will serve as Rivers' primary backup. |
The House Republicans and many Democrats voted 255-67 to hold the most politically motivated U. S. attorney general in modern times in contempt of Congress. Keep in mind the nuanced distinction; it was a “contempt of Congress” vote, not what you and I feel: contempt for Congress.
Attorney General Eric Holder failed to pursue blatant New Black Panther Party voter intimidation (all caught on tape), but instead went after Florida for trying to purge its voter rolls of those legally ineligible to vote and meddled in Arizona’s attempt to control its own borders. This speaks to the priority of his Obama-driven political agenda to change the laws rather than enforcing them. To Holder and Obama, everything is about Rosa Parks and re-fighting battles from more than 50 years ago that they neither were a part of nor lived through. They are beneficiaries of affirmative action and discounts on admission, indoctrinated by Ivy League schools that molded the men in their own image.
Holder makes previous Democrat Attorney General Janet Reno look like a piker. You will remember the Elian Gonzalez case, orchestrated by Reno; then came Waco and the Branch Davidians. She left her cabinet position in the Clinton administration for a successful career as a down-lineman in the Canadian Football League.
POLITICAL CARTOONS
45 cartoons on food stamps, taxes, the ‘God Particle’ and more
Perhaps Holder will be forced to resign so he can spend more time suing his family to advance his political agenda.
If GOP candidates are elected in November, they can go back to their type of attorneys general, like crooner and songwriter (with the soothing vocal stylings of the Oak Ridge Boys) John Ashcroft, who seek to codify their view of the Bible into law while calling al-Qaida “religious fanatics.”
Holder was convicted of both criminal and civil contempt of Congress, and Barack Obama invoked executive privilege to protect himself and Holder from scrutiny. The self-proclaimed “most transparent administration ever” does not want anyone asking questions. After the ruling, the Holder Justice Department said it would not prosecute him for withholding documents/evidence. Our government can waste precious time and resources prosecuting baseball players Roger Clemens (twice) and Barry Bonds for lying about something they may have done that could hurt only themselves. But it will not pursue to its logical conclusion a calculated government guns program that resulted in the deaths of two border guards and more than 200 Mexican citizens.
The “Fast and Furious” operation troubles me on two levels. First, our government willingly put thousands of guns into the hands of violent drug gangs – and could not predict the outcome. Second, and more troubling, our government named the operation after dated and dreadful Vin Diesel action movies.
Perhaps Holder can have his folks give loaded guns to 6-year-olds and see what happens. They could call it “Potty Trained and Curious.” Or they could send teenage boys to a retreat with Jerry Sandusky and call it “Baths and Bi-Curious.” The list is endless of what our government officials can spend our money on, for stupid studies they did not get to finish in college while pursuing their humanities majors, yet they cannot apply common sense to pro forma the outcome.
Drug use and trafficking have increased in Obama’s America. Since this is an underground cash economy, away from the crushing regulation of this administration, it has flourished. It just goes to prove that few can make an honest living doing anything above-board and legal any more.
Many speculate that the “Fast and Furious” program, which was passed on by the Bush administration, was a way for Obama to make the case for curtailing our Second Amendment rights by sparking gun control laws. Obama and the statists would love to take our guns because they reduce citizens’ dependence on the federal government. Guns breed a sense of independent self-reliance among their owners of which this administration wants no part.
Obama prefers his Chicago style of government, where only his police have the guns; as long as you pay them a kickback and support them, they will not shoot you.
While actually having the agenda to curb our Second Amendment freedoms, this gun-running program ostensibly was supposed to curb the flow of guns and drugs into the U.S. Smoking Mexican weed is much like being appointed attorney general. At first you feel this euphoria; you are a big deal and above the law. But shortly thereafter, you start to feel that everyone is out to get you and you need the protection of a friend.
Ron Hart, a libertarian syndicated op-ed humorist, award-winning author and TV/radio commentator can be reached at Ron@RonaldHart.com or visit www.RonaldHart.com |
Lawyers for an Indianapolis gun store sued for making an illegal straw sale of a firearm that was used to shoot an Indianapolis police officer argued Wednesday that Indiana gun sellers are shielded from civil lawsuits even when they break the law.
“The General Assembly made that decision. It drew that bright line because it wanted to reach that legislative goal,” argued Chicago attorney James Vogts, who represents the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The foundation is a friend of the court supporting KS&E Guns, 8756 Pendleton Pike, in defense of a lawsuit brought by Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer Dwayne Runnels.
Vogts told justices that shielding gun sellers and manufacturers was “a policy decision (the General Assembly) had the authority to make, they had to the right to make, and they did make it.”
Runnels’ civil case to date has survived KS&E’s motion for judgment on the pleadings, in which its primary defense was Indiana Code 34-12-3-3(2). Passed in 2004, the immunity statute aimed to shield gunmakers and sellers from civil liability. But the majority of an Indiana Court of Appeals panel ruled in Runnels’ favor in March, holding the law doesn’t provide immunity to gunmakers or sellers from lawsuits resulting from their own unlawful acts.
The statute “must be construed the way the Court of Appeals construed it,” argued Jonathan Lowy of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington, D.C., who represented Runnels.
Lowy told justices that reading the statute as KS&E suggests to shield gun dealers from liability for criminal acts would produce an absurd result, derogate common law, overturn 130 years of precedent and potentially deprive Runnels of his constitutional rights. He said under KS&E’s reading, gun sellers would be protected “even if their business model is supplying guns to criminals.”
Runnels was shot in 2011 by Demetrious Martin, a suspect in a shooting and robbery. Runnels returned fire, killing Martin, whose gun was traced to its purchase from KS&E Guns in Indianapolis a couple of months prior.
A felon, Martin could not have legally purchased the gun, but KS&E sold it to Tarus Blackburn after he and Martin visited the store together and Martin told store personnel it was the weapon he wanted. Blackburn later bought the gun and sold it to Martin for a $50 markup in the store parking lot. Blackburn later pleaded guilty to falsifying documents to buy the gun.
Runnels’ case has drawn the support of police chiefs, police unions and the city of Gary.
Justices Steven David and Robert Rucker provided extreme scenarios, such as a gun dealer knowingly selling firearms to someone supplying a terrorist or a person intent on carrying out mayhem. Rucker used the example of a school shooting during the argument that served as an educational program for about 60 teachers from around the state. They pressed Christopher Renzulli, who also argued for KS&E, on whether a gun seller in such cases would ever face civil liability under KS&E’s reading of the law.
Such scenarios represented the “ultimate extreme,” Renzulli said, acknowledging his client’s position was there would be “no exception” in the immunity statute even if a gun sale was illegal.
“The plain language of the statute requires immediate dismissal of this case,” Renzulli said. He said to read the statute otherwise would “eviscerate” its purpose.
Chief Justice Loretta Rush focused on other charges in Runnels’ complaint, such as nuisance and conspiracy, implying these should not be read out of immunity statute. Justices Mark Massa and Geoffrey Slaughter raised the most questions for Runnels’ counsel, Lowy.
Massa said Runnels doesn’t have a claim for damages until the gun is criminally misused and the law says a person cannot maintain an action against a gunmaker or seller. “How is that not clear?” Massa said.
Lowy said actions for the criminal actions of a seller aren’t specifically barred, and reading the law so would raise “serious constitutional issues” for victims such as Runnels.
Wednesday’s oral argument in the case may be viewed here. |
Woman charged with rape for first time in S. Korea
SEOUL (Yonhap) — A 40-year-old woman has been indicted on charges of forcing her husband to have sex with her, prosecutors said Tuesday.
It marks the first time that a wife has been charged with marital rape. The Supreme Court recognized spousal rape as a crime in May 2013.
The Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office investigating the case alleges that the wife, only identified by her surname Shim, locked her husband, surnamed Kim, inside their house for 29 hours and forced him to have sex with her.
Shim allegedly committed the crime with the aim of obtaining favorable evidence to use for divorce procedures, the prosecutors said.
In many countries, such as the United States, Britain, Germany and France, marital rape constitutes a crime. The United Nations said in 2006 that marital rape is a prosecutable offense in over 104 countries. |
What a team.
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has been sending some chilling signals lately about how she plans to deal with America’s $1.3 trillion student debt burden. On at least two separate ocassions now, her department has scrapped Obama-era reforms that were designed to protect borrowers from being gouged or misled by the companies responsible for collecting their loans. All told, DeVos seems less interested in protecting former students than in protecting the predators that have fleeced them for profit.
The trouble signs started flashing in March, when the Department of Education gave a group of student debt collectors permission to once again start slapping heavy fees on delinquent borrowers who were trying to catch up on loan payments. The practice had effectively been banned during the Obama administration. In a pleasantly unexpected turn, all of the organizations affected by the move announced that they would not bring back the penalties. But the incident was still disturbing, both because it demonstrated DeVos’ willingness to side with businesses over borrowers and because it may have involved an astounding conflict of interest.
The controversy centered on a slightly obscure group of nonprofits known as guarantee agencies, which are responsible for collecting and rehabbing defaulted loans that were made as part of the government’s old, bank-based student lending scheme (though the program was discontinued in 2010, there are still hundreds of billions of dollars of loans still outstanding from it). Up until 2015, when the Obama administration determined the practice was illegal, these organizations were notorious for charging high fees to borrowers who had defaulted on their debts but promised to pay up on them within 60 days. These penalties—equal to 16 percent of a borrower’s total loan balance—could be punishing. In one notable case, a Kansas woman sued the country’s largest guarantee agency, United Student Funds, after it charged her $4,500 in fees just to bring her loan current. But following the Obama administration’s clampdown, United Student Funds filed its own lawsuit claiming the penalty fees should have been permitted under the law. That case lingered on through this year.
Now here’s where the conflict of interest comes into play. Until January, United Student Funds was run by a former Bush administration official named Bill Hansen. His son, a former for-profit college lobbyist named Taylor Hansen, just happened to be an adviser to Betsy DeVos at the Department of Education. As Bloomberg’s Shahien Nasiripour reported, Hansen the younger resigned from the agency the day after DeVos issued her decision blessing the guarantee agency fees. This did not go unnoticed: Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, among others, called out the bizarre family connection. A Department of Education spokesman told Bloomberg that Hansen had recused himself from any issues involving United Student Funds’ lawsuit, but it wasn’t clear whether he was also kept out of general conversations involving guarantee agency fees. There was, at the very least, plenty of smoke.
Even if they don’t revive their fees, DeVos’ move could still turn out to be extremely valuable for the guarantee agencies. As Nasiripour notes, executives had worried that the Obama administration had opened their organizations up to class-action suits from students who had been charged the fees before they were deemed illegal. That potentially expensive threat may now be dead.
But it turned out this was just a warmup act. This month, the Department of Education appeared to sweep away the Obama administration’s entire plan to prevent borrowers from defaulting on their debts by improving the government’s troubled system of collecting loans. How come? The secretary seems to think it would cost too much.
Some background, to start: The Department of Education’s system of servicing student loans is an unruly mess. The government contracts with nine different companies and nonprofits to help borrowers pick repayment options and then collect their monthly checks. These organizations are legendary for their inept and negligent customer service—in 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published an extensive report on the industry’s various failings, and this year, that agency sued the country’s single largest servicer, Navient, alleging it shortchanged borrowers by steering them into inappropriate payment plans among other acts of wrongdoing.
The CFPB’s rap sheet against Navient, which was spun off from student loan giant Sallie Mae, in many ways speaks to the fundamentally misaligned incentives that plague the entire loan servicing system. The federal government offers a wide array of repayment plans for student borrowers, some of which cap their monthly payments at a percentage of their income. If their earnings drop low enough, they don’t have to pay anything at all. In theory, having these options around should prevent any former students from defaulting. The problem is that they’re complicated, and a lot of borrowers simply don’t know about them.
In large part that’s because servicers have fallen down on the job. In theory, it’s their job to make sure borrowers know about all their repayment options, including income-based options. But spending time on the phone with customers, walking them through their various options is expensive—customer service agents cost money, after all—and servicers want to keep their costs down. The CFPB says that Navient paid its agents based partly on the average time they spent per call, which encouraged them to quickly dump troubled borrowers into quick-fix options like loan deferment and forebearance rather than work on long-term solutions that might have saved them money or kept them from defaulting.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that problems like these played a central role fueling the student loan crisis of the past decade, in which three-year default rates neared 15 percent.
In 2016, as it prepared to award its next round of servicing contracts, the Obama administration issued a pair of memos laying out a plan to fix the system. The administration intended create a single online platform, designed and run by one company, that all borrowers could use to manage their loans. Other servicers could play supporting roles, and contractors would be both required and incentivized to walk troubled borrowers through all of their potential repayment options in order to ensure they arrived at the right one.
The department also announced that it would make servicers’ past performance the single most important noncost factor when deciding who should be awarded contracts. “Any proven performance failures that involved borrowers being misled, ignored, or provided wrong information must be given particular attention,” then–Education Secretary John B. King wrote. In other words, companies that had previously screwed borrowers would be shut out—which would seem to bode poorly for Navient.
But DeVos seems to have come to the companies’ rescue. Last week, she rescinded both of the Obama administration’s memos, and as the New York Times notes, it’s unclear if the idea of a single loan platform will survive at all. The idea of paying servicers to make sure students pick the right repayment option or picking companies based on their past performance certainly seems to be out.
DeVos’ official letter killing the plans did not offer much detailed explanation for the move, but she suggests it may have been motivated by cost. “The student loan servicing procurement affords us a significant opportunity to improve outcomes and experiences for federal student loan borrowers, as well as demonstrate sound fiscal stewardship of public dollars,” DeVos writes, adding later, “We have a duty to do right by both borrowers and taxpayers.”
DeVos is probably right that the system envisioned by the last administration would be more expensive. After all, crappy customer service is cheaper. “It’s more expensive to do servicing well,” David Bergeron, a former Education Department official now at the liberal Center for American Progress, told me. “The federal student loan system doesn’t spend as much on servicing as a typical bank does on a typical credit card. They spend maybe half of what a bank spends on a typical credit card. And it’s much more complicated. So yeah, it’s more expensive. But at the end of the day, you have to think of the cost and the benefit.”
Bergeron told me that DeVos’ focus on budget savings probably explains why she doesn’t want the department to carefully weigh how servicers performed in the past. “The lowest-cost bidder in student loan servicing is always going to be the one that services the most, because that drives down unit costs. Who is that? It’s Navient,” he said. “There’s this history of performance failures on the part of Navient. And Secretary DeVos is basically saying forget all that. Look at cost. And that will always advantage them.”
The benefit of spending more, of course, would be fewer students defaulting and fewer ruined credit scores. But over the past couple of months, DeVos has demonstrated a basic disregard for the well-being of those who borrow money from the government for school. Thanks to her, it’s now a great time to be issuing student loans and a terrible time to be paying one back. |
Our latest “Press Archive” additions take us back to the mid- to late-1990s, starting when FUNimation’s English dub of the series had not yet hit Dragon Ball Z, and concluding as Viz’s English translation of the manga was just hitting store shelves.
Animeco served as the official anime and manga magazine of the Japanese Animation Society of Hawai’i (“JASH” for short). It was clearly a passion project for the club, with a mix of well-written articles alongside amateur contributions, with a few submissions from outside sources, as well; Curtis Hoffmann (of the Akira Toriyama Super Database) wrote a two-part article on purchasing and handling cels, for example! Like many other anime publications of the day, a look back makes it feels as if Animeco somewhat-begrudgingly began covering Dragon Ball when the series headed stateside. There were clearly some die-hard fans in the club, however, which made for some very enthusiastic coverage.
Animeco Issue #2 (Spring 1996)
The second issue of Animeco featured a massive Dragon Ball overview article, covering the very beginning of the series up through the end of the manga. Of particular note in this article is the liberal use of (accurate!) translations for terms that had no real English dub precedent yet. Additionally, author Eddie A. S. Mak’s analysis of Son Goku as a character lines up perfectly with James Teal’s analysis from Animerica later that year; as we often explain, this is fascinating to read in light of there being no real adult, English-dubbed Goku to leave an impression on anyone.
Animeco Issue #3 (Summer 1996)
The third issue of Animeco, following up on a tease from the previous issue’s feature article, contained an early review of Dragon Ball GT focusing on the first couple episodes. With the exception of one (understandable) bit of confusion regarding the new set of Dragon Balls, Animeco‘s editors once again seem to nail their contemporary coverage of the series. That being said, this article is unfortunately a giant step down in terms of readability and overall grammar compared to the previous feature.
Be sure to check out all of the other Dragon Ball GT coverage in our archive, particularly that from Animerica and Protoculture Addicts for a broader look at the series’ contemporary perspective in America.
Animeco Issue #4 (Fall 1996)
The fourth issue of Animeco continued the Dragon Ball coverage, this time with a review of “Dragon Ball Z Legends” for the PlayStation. The review unfortunately continues the trend of poorly-written articles, but the enthusiasm certainly shines through.
Be sure to check out Gamefan‘s August 1996 review of the same game for other contemporary coverage.
Animeco Issue #10 (Spring 1998)
Jumping ahead to spring 1998, Animeco‘s tenth issue contains a brief reference to and review of Viz’s Dragon Ball manga English translation, which had just kicked off that March.
We have tons of additional content coming to the “Press Archive“, though the response during our recent live streams kicked these a little higher up on the pile. Stay tuned for more live stream announcements, acquisitions and additions to the section, and more! Be sure to connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr. |
SumUp, one of the many European mobile card reader startups targeting small businesses — and taking advantage of Square’s continued absence to acquire users and build out a business — has taken another step designed to expand its reach by announcing a partnership with Revel Systems, a maker of iPad POS software.
Revel Systems provides iPad-based tills to more than 1,000 chain stores and restaurants throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia and Saudi Arabia but it’s aiming to expand into Europe, hence the tie-up with SumUp. After launching last August, SumUp has now rolled out to 10 European markets.
Revel Systems will be using SumUp’s API, which it made available in fall last year, to process debit and credit card and cash payments in Europe. In other markets the company uses payment gateway USAePay, and says it can also integrate directly into Mercury Payment Systems.
In Europe the SumUp mobile payments app will come pre-loaded on Revel Systems tills and users will also get SumUp’s black card reader — which plugs into the iPad to take card payments. The partnership won’t bear instant fruit for SumUp on the customer acquisition front but as and when Revel Systems builds up its customer base in the region, SumUp will also make gains.
Commenting on the tie-up in a statement, Lisa Falzone, CEO of Revel Systems, said it chose to partner with SumUp to offer flexibility to its retail customers — but did not specify what it offered over and above other European mobile payments startups such as iZettle and Rocket Internet’s Payleven.
“SumUp’s technology is aligned with ours because it’s lightweight, secure, and speedy. SumUp is a natural partner for us,” she said. “We’re always looking to forge new partnerships with those businesses that aim to enhance the overall customer experience. Our users are also certain to appreciate the easy SumUp sign-up process and pay-as-you-go billing. We’re looking forward to working with SumUp as we expand to new markets.”
As with the myriad mobile payments players targeting small businesses, SumUp does not charge a monthly fee to businesses using its system but rather takes a 2.75% per card reader transaction charge. SumUp accepts Visa, Mastercard and recently added support for Amex in the majority of its markets.
The Revel Systems tie-up is not SumUp’s first b2b partnership aimed at building out its business. The company has previously announced partnerships with German taxi hailing app Taxi.de and an odd job software platform provider. |
The 11-day-old actors’ strike against video game industry will not end until the companies compromise on their refusal to offer some type of residuals for the most successful games, SAG-AFTRA said today. Claiming that it’s already compromised enough, the union says that now “It’s their turn to be reasonable and compromise.”
“Secondary payments are a core issue for professional performers across all the contracts we negotiate because they enable a freelance workforce to survive between jobs,” the union said. “They also reflect the respect our members deserve for contributing their creativity, voices and likenesses to the games they bring to life.”
The companies remain resistant to paying residuals to actors, the union said, because “they appear to be concerned that if they are seen to compromise with one group of employees, other groups of their employees might get ideas.”
“These companies pay bonuses – and sometimes even game royalties – to their animators and developers, and so they should,” the union said. “The game companies say that they don’t offer residual payments of any kind to programmers, artists, and other people who work on video games.”
The union, however, says that this is “demonstrably not true. Take2 Interactive, for example, reported that it paid about $270 million in internal royalties in their most recent quarterly filing with the SEC. We also know from speaking to developers that many, if not most, video game corporations pay bonuses based on the success of the company. What we have proposed is really no different as applied to freelance workers – we want bonus payments for performers working on the most successful games.”
The main strike issue remains the union’s insistence on establishing back-end residuals payments — or a buy out of those residuals — for performers who work on games that sell more than 2 million units. The two sides came very close to an agreement on the buyout issue, but couldn’t agree on what to call it. Seeking to set a precedent that might lead to residuals in future negotiations, the union asked for an upfront buyout of “secondary compensation,” but the companies refused to call it that. Instead, it offered a nearly identical proposal that it calls “additional compensation.”
Both sides’ plans would have given actors a bonus on top of their regular pay when they work on more than one session per game, topping out at $950 for eight sessions. The union, however, wanted to give the companies the option of paying the upfront bonus or paying residuals for successful games.
“We have tried to accommodate the employers’ concerns by introducing secondary payments into this contract in a way that allows them to preserve their existing compensation practices while allowing for other producers who sign the agreement to use a secondary compensation model in lieu of the additional upfront payments these employers have proposed,” the union said. “Not all game companies can afford to pay the upfront payments that the video game corporations have proposed. Even this modest compromise was rejected out of hand. We have gone as far as we’re going to go in the employers’ direction. It’s their turn to be reasonable and compromise. Now that a successful video game makes more than even the biggest box office blockbusters, there’s no excuse any longer for these employers to cling to a substandard agreement negotiated 20 years ago.
The companies say that “The one economic difference between the parties is the companies’ response to the SAG-AFTRA demand for additional income for performers. But here the difference is more about semantics – not about actual money for performers. The main difference is the terminology – what that additional money is called. The SAG-AFTRA proposal has two options for game producers. The union’s first proposal for an optional ‘contingent fees’ structure is so onerous that no one would elect to use it. The union’s second option is virtually identical in money to the companies’ proposal. While the companies will not call that money a ‘buyout of contingent compensation,’ they will pay it to principal performers who work more than one session on a game.” |
Story highlights BBC chief calls Jimmy Savile case "a very, very grave matter"
LIke American Dick Clark, Savile hosted teen music show for years
Police say they have ID'd more than 200 potential victims
The BBC's handling of the child sex abuse scandal is under scrutiny by lawmakers
Before he died last year, Jimmy Savile was viewed as a kind of UK equivalent to American TV icon Dick Clark, gaining fame by bringing music to generations of teens. Savile was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
He now stands accused as a predatory sex offender.
The shocking allegations have Britain reeling. Countless viewers who grew up watching Savile on TV's "Top of the Pops" and his children's program "Jim'll Fix It" are now questioning their trust in a social institution: the British Broadcasting Corporation.
It's the worst crisis at the BBC in 50 years, says a top correspondent, and the scandal has prompted a wider examination into an alleged culture of sexism stretching back decades within Britain's widely respected public broadcaster.
The scandal has also gripped the British media, with many questioning who knew what and when about the alleged abuse of mostly teenage girls and whether there was any attempt at a coverup.
Police say they have identified more than 200 potential victims, with accusations spanning several decades, and are investigating other suspects in connection with alleged abuse.
Savile died in October 2011 at age 84, soon after being treated in a hospital for pneumonia.
JUST WATCHED BBC in hot seat over Savile scandal Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH BBC in hot seat over Savile scandal 04:08
Savile's favored target was apparently girls in their mid-teens in what one officer, Cmdr. Peter Spindler, said was "alleged abuse on an unprecedented scale."
JUST WATCHED Jimmy Savile's 9-year-old Scout victim Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Jimmy Savile's 9-year-old Scout victim 03:29
The BBC, on whose premises some of the sexual assaults occurred, has found itself in the dock of public opinion seeking to explain how his behavior went undetected for decades.
JUST WATCHED UK TV icon's child sex abuse scandal Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH UK TV icon's child sex abuse scandal 03:07
The national public broadcaster has set up two independent inquiries, and Director General George Entwistle was called before a panel of lawmakers Tuesday to defend its handling of the scandal -- including why the broadcaster decided to drop an investigation into the star last year.
JUST WATCHED Probe into TV star's alleged abuse Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Probe into TV star's alleged abuse 02:51
"There is no question that what Jimmy Savile did and the way the BBC behaved in the years -- the culture and practices of the BBC seems to allow Jimmy Savile to do what he did -- will raise questions of trust for us and reputation for us," Entwistle said.
"This is a gravely serious matter, and one cannot look back at it with anything other than horror, frankly, that his activities went on as long as they did undetected."
Entwistle pointed out that the BBC was not alone in failing to uncover Savile's behavior, with no newspaper exposé published in his lifetime.
Photos: Photos: The life of Jimmy Savile Photos: Photos: The life of Jimmy Savile The life of Jimmy Savile – British radio disc jockey, television star and charity fund-raiser Sir Jimmy Savile poses for a photo at Buckingham Palace, London, after receiving the Order of the British Empire in 1972. Since his death a year ago at age 84, Savile has been knocked off his perch as a national treasure, accused of being a predatory pedophile who used his fame and position to abuse youngsters, sometimes on BBC premises. Hide Caption 1 of 15 Photos: Photos: The life of Jimmy Savile The life of Jimmy Savile – Dancers on the BBC TV show "Top of the Pops" adjust Savile's track suit top for him during the making of the show in 1973. Hide Caption 2 of 15 Photos: Photos: The life of Jimmy Savile The life of Jimmy Savile – Savile poses with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at a National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children fund-raising presentation in 1980. Hide Caption 3 of 15 Photos: Photos: The life of Jimmy Savile The life of Jimmy Savile – Savile pours a cup of tea. Hide Caption 4 of 15 Photos: Photos: The life of Jimmy Savile The life of Jimmy Savile – Savile calls from the Wren House International Telephone Exchange in London in 1975 as part of a "Fun And Happiness Weekend," organized by the National Association of Youth Clubs. Hide Caption 5 of 15 Photos: Photos: The life of Jimmy Savile The life of Jimmy Savile – Savile arrives in London in 1972 on his way to Buckingham Palace, where he is to be awarded the Order of the British Empire. Hide Caption 6 of 15 Photos: Photos: The life of Jimmy Savile The life of Jimmy Savile – The first presenter of long-running music program "Top of the Pops," Savile poses by a portrait of himself in February 1965, while enjoying his regular breakfast of Coke and a cigar in a central London hotel room. Hide Caption 7 of 15 Photos: Photos: The life of Jimmy Savile The life of Jimmy Savile – Savile and his mother pose outside Buckingham Palace in London, where he receive his Order of the British Empire in 1972. Hide Caption 8 of 15 Photos: Photos: The life of Jimmy Savile The life of Jimmy Savile – Savile shows off his Order of the British Empire to members of the "Second Generation" song and dance troupe. Hide Caption 9 of 15 Photos: Photos: The life of Jimmy Savile The life of Jimmy Savile – Savile stands on the sidewalk with his motor home. Hide Caption 10 of 15 Photos: Photos: The life of Jimmy Savile The life of Jimmy Savile – Savile holds a newly-printed "Lucky Jim" poster. The posters feature a portrait of the DJ, along with a text reading: "The Lucky Jim poster can bring you health, wealth, happiness. This is a genuine duplicate signature and what's more Jimmy has actually touched YOUR poster!" Hide Caption 11 of 15 Photos: Photos: The life of Jimmy Savile The life of Jimmy Savile – British Secretary of State for Social Services Norman Fowler presents Savile with a check for half a million pounds in 1982 as the government's contribution to an appeal for a new spinal injuries unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. Hide Caption 12 of 15 Photos: Photos: The life of Jimmy Savile The life of Jimmy Savile – Savile waves with Jersey Holiday Queen Gaynor Lacey at the Jersey Battle of Flowers carnival in 1972. Hide Caption 13 of 15 Photos: Photos: The life of Jimmy Savile The life of Jimmy Savile – Days before his 80th birthday in 2006, Savile prepares for the Great North Run in Newcastle, northern England. Hide Caption 14 of 15 Photos: Photos: The life of Jimmy Savile The life of Jimmy Savile – The funeral cortege of Savile arrives at Leeds Cathedral for a funeral service on November 9, 2011, in Leeds, England. Hide Caption 15 of 15
And he drew a parallel with a furor that has recently gripped the United States, where retired Penn State University football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted of molesting numerous children.
"Mr. Savile has prosecuted his activities, his disgusting activities, in a matter that was very successfully and skilfully concealed, and experts in pedophile behavior have pointed out that's often the case," Entwistle said.
"In the case of the United States, of Jerry Sandusky ... these people build very long-range plans to put them in contact with their targets. These things are institutionally, it seems, very difficult to deal with."
Savile had access to psychiatric hospital
The National Health Service also faces difficult questions over the access Savile was allowed to a number of hospitals. Among them was Broadmoor, a high-security psychiatric hospital where Savile worked as a volunteer and had keys to the wards. In 1988, he was appointed to a senior role there, a move now being investigated by the NHS.
The police may also be asked to explain why past abuse claims against Savile never led to investigations resulting in a prosecution in his lifetime.
Reasons behind the national outrage over the scandal include Savile's privileged position as a broadcaster. At a time when viewers had only a handful of channels to choose from, Savile was a BBC mainstay.
Savile's program aimed at children, "Jim'll Fix It," ran for almost 20 years, airing in the prime Saturday teatime slot. Children wrote in with dreams they wanted the star to make come true -- and at the height of its popularity, the BBC said it was receiving 20,000 requests a week.
The show's theme surrounded famous "fixes" that included an encounter between boxing legend Muhammad Ali and a group of Boy Scouts who also wanted to eat their packed lunches on a roller coaster, resulting in a predictable mess.
Stories of abuse
Victims, male and female, have come forward with harrowing tales of sexual abuse. They also explain how the star's power and fame made it hard for them to speak out.
Kevin Cook, who appeared on "Jim'll Fix It" as a Boy Scout at the age of 9, told of how he was invited into Savile's BBC dressing room after the show. Savile proceeded to undo his shorts and touch him inappropriately -- only stopping when someone else suddenly entered the room and, as abruptly, left.
"He said to me, 'don't you dare tell anyone about this because no one will believe it, because I'm King Jimmy,' " Cook said.
The boy could hardly bear to watch the show when it aired a few months later, to the great excitement of his family. "I just hated the man," Cook said. "I blamed myself for 37 years. That's the worst thing: You do blame yourself."
Harriet Harman, deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party, sympathized with the plight of the victims. "Everyone has been sickened by the vile abuse perpetrated by Jimmy Savile, and it is impossible to overstate the suffering caused to those he abused," she said last week.
Scandal rocks the BBC
Veteran BBC world affairs correspondent John Simpson gave an idea of the sense of disarray within the company during an interview broadcast Monday.
"This is the worst crisis that I can remember in my nearly 50 years at the BBC. ... I don't think the BBC has handled it terribly well. All we have as an organization is the trust of people, the people that watch us and listen to us. ... If we start to lose that, that's very dangerous for the BBC."
The BBC, which has repeatedly expressed its horror over the abuse, is now embroiled in painful internal turmoil, with the two independent inquiries raking over e-mails and conversations for evidence of who knew what when.
One is focused on the culture and practices of the BBC, as well as the safeguards in place for members of the public and staff now and in the past, while the other is scrutinizing why its flagship current affairs program "Newsnight" dropped its investigation into Savile late last year.
On Monday, the BBC said the program's editor, Peter Rippon, was "stepping aside" amid the furor. It labeled an October 2 blog post by Rippon explaining his decision to drop the investigation "inaccurate or incomplete in some respects."
Hours later, another BBC program, "Panorama," broadcast its own probe into the "Newsnight" decision, suggesting that serious allegations had been made to "Newsnight" reporters before the investigation was shelved.
On Tuesday, Entwistle told lawmakers that having watched the program, he was "surprised that nothing further happened" in light of the material dug up by "Newsnight."
Meanwhile, the scandal continues to dominate conversation in homes, workplaces and pubs across the country as people seek to understand how a man widely seen as an eccentric hero could have duped the nation and done so much harm.
The debate is all the more uncomfortable as Savile appears to have used his access to children, through his charity and TV work, as a means to prey on vulnerable young people for decades -- and has gone to his grave unpunished. |
One of my resolutions for 2010 is to write about learning to love yourself after trauma. In thinking about it I realized that I need to back up and talk about why self-love and compassion are so difficult for trauma survivors prior to and in the early stages of healing. I realized I needed to first say something about shame, self-hate and the tendency for survivors of abuse to blame themselves for the abuse.
self-hate
self-blame
self-esteem
self-love
What do we mean when we use these terms and how are they relevant for trauma survivors?
I have written before about how much we all need human connection (see: Family of Choice, Connection Heals, Relationships after Severe Trauma: Making Healthy Choices).
Our very sense of self develops in the context of attachment to caring , “good enough” others. Trauma disrupts this attachment and results in the disruption of basic developmental tasks such as self-soothing, seeing the world as a safe place, trusting others, organized thinking for decision-making and avoiding exploitation. It also often leads to pervasive shame and self-blame.
In Trauma and Recovery, Judith Herman describes how the child’s development occurs within the context of relationship:
The developing child’s positive sense of self depends upon a caretaker’s benign use of power. When a parent, who is so much more powerful than a child, nevertheless shows some regard for that child’s individuality and dignity, the child feels valued and respected; she develops self-esteem. (p. 52)
In other words, a child growing up in such an environment, with their basic needs being met, learns to love themselves.
Many do not have this optimal experience. What about those who experience emotional, physical, sexual abuse or neglect? Early developmental tasks such as trust in self and others, autonomy and the ability to take initiative can be interrupted when the child’s needs are too often unmet. Trauma disrupts the child’s development on a profound level. Judith Herman describes how childhood trauma creates instead a “damaged self”:
Traumatic events violate the autonomy of the person at the level of bodily integrity. The body is invaded, injured, defiled. …Shame is a response to helplessness, the violation of bodily integrity, and the indignity suffered in the eyes of another person. (p. 53)
In my experience, trauma survivors also at times describe feeling that their minds and spirits have been violated.
Abuse begets shame, the felt sense that one is innately bad. It can take the form of believing that you are defective, broken, unlovable, unworthy, stupid, ugly, worthless. In the case of trauma survivors it can also be expressed as blaming yourself for the abuse. In reality it is exactly the reverse! Abuse creates this sense of being bad.
In working with survivors of childhood abuse, it has certainly been my experience that one of the core effects of childhood trauma is to the child’s developing sense of self. This may be even more pronounced when the abuse is pervasive, sadistic and/or committed by primary caretakers or other trusted figures. So often survivors of childhood abuse and neglect grow into adulthood with the entrenched belief that they are to blame for what they have endured.
I want to say right now and very clearly that this is never the case. No child (yes, that includes you reading this!) is ever to blame for the abuse inflicted upon them by others. Period.
So why do so many feel this, on a gut level, with such certainty? I believe there are a number of factors and dynamics that contribute to self-blame.
1. Abuse is by its nature a humiliating, dehumanizing, experience. As described above, the natural reaction to such experiences is a feeling of shame.
2. The illusion of control: believing you are to blame can give survivors a sense of control, however illusory, over the abuse. If you believe it happened because of something you are doing you can maintain hope for change. If only you just figure out the right things to do/avoid doing the abuse will stop, you can imagine. It is terrifying to face the reality that you are powerless in the face of adults who were untrustworthy, out of control and abusive.
3. Many children are told directly and repeatedly that they are to blame. This may happen during the abuse and also at the time of reaching out to others for help. This then gets internalized. Some may replay those messages over and over in their minds as adults, without even recognizing the original source. For survivors with dissociative disorders, some parts may even take on the role of internal critic, repeating and reinforcing the messages of the abusers.
4. Self-blame enables survivors to protect abusers, thus attempting to maintain some sort of attachment with important others. This may be especially the case when the abusers were family members or significant people who had something to offer in addition to abuse at times.
5. Survivor self-blame is reinforced by our culture’s victim blaming.
So you can see there are lots of good reasons why survivors wind up blaming themselves for the abuse and carrying a long-term legacy of shame and self-loathing. Please be compassionate with yourself as you embark upon this topic! No need to blame yourself for your self-blame.
How does childhood shame and self-blame carry over into adulthood?
Why is it a problem?
Why is it so important to learn to love yourself?
And how do you get there?
These are all topics I plan to elaborate upon in coming posts. I look forward to your comments and questions. Once again, remember:
No child (yes, that includes you reading this!) is ever to blame for the abuse inflicted upon them by others. Period.
Kathleen Young, Psy.D. |
The Rock is a first-rate, slam-bang action thriller with a lot of style and no little humor. It’s made out of pieces of other movies, yes, but each element has been lovingly polished to a gloss. And there are three skillful performances: Sean Connery is Mason, an intelligence expert who’s been in prison for 30 years; Nicolas Cage is Goodspeed, an FBI scientist; and Ed Harris is General Hummel, a war hero with a mad scheme to wage chemical warfare against San Francisco.
These are good actors, and they approach the material with the deadly seriousness that a plot this absurd requires. Many movies are not really about their stories at all, but about how they tell their stories, and The Rock is an example. The movie is a triumph of style, tone, and energy—an action picture that rises to the top of the genre because of a literate, witty screenplay and skilled craftsmanship in the direction and special effects.
Hollywood producers often claim credit for work they’ve paid for without really being responsible for. Jerry Bruckheimer and the late Don Simpson, however, deserve their prominent credits on The Rock, because they assembled and guided the package and it bears their unmistakable stamp. Forming their production partnership in 1983, Bruckheimer and Simpson quickly became known for high-tech thrillers in what one critic has called the “swinging dick” genre. Their first production, Flashdance, was indeed about a woman, but then they found their formula: big action stars in glossy f/x vehicles. Others copied their approach, but no one made more (or maybe better) films in their niche; their credits include Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Crimson Tide, and Bad Boys, made by director Michael Bay a year before he began The Rock.
The secret of The Rock may be its humor—and wit, which of course is not the same thing. Nicolas Cage plays a classic fish out of water, a nerd scientist who finds himself in a race against terrorists to defuse a deadly attack against helpless civilians. Sean Connery, who almost always finds a wry humor in his roles, plays his mentor and uneasy partner, and we’re reminded that male partnerships—usually between a veteran and a rookie—have been at the heart of most of the Simpson/Bruckheimer films. (Maybe there was an echo there of the cooler Bruckheimer and the brash, sometimes out-of-control Simpson.) The screenplay, by David Weisberg, Douglas S. Cook, Mark Rosner, and the uncredited writers Aaron Sorkin, Ian La Frenais, Dick Clement, and Jonathan Hensleigh, gives Connery and Cage dialogue that’s clever and fresh enough to give the illusion—rare in this genre—that they are thinking individuals and not simply plot puppets.
The story hook is a mission to break into Alcatraz. Hummel and his men have occupied the former prison island, taken hostages, and threatened to fire deadly rockets at San Francisco. He is angered that 81 men have died under his command and never been recognized, because they were on secret missions the government denied existed. He wants $100 million in payments to their next of kin.
Hummel is respected in Washington, and his demands are taken seriously. The Pentagon assembles a team to break into Alcatraz and neutralize the poison gas missiles. We’ve already seen Goodspeed think fast while sealed into an airtight chamber with a deadly chemical bomb; now he’s assigned to join the task force, even though he’s basically a lab rat with minimal field or combat experience. He’s teamed with Mason, a British spy who, we learn, successfully stole all of J. Edgar Hoover’s secret files (“even the truth about JFK’s assassination”) before being secretly jailed for life without a trial. Mason’s qualification: He is the only man to ever successfully escape from Alcatraz.
Movies like The Rock leap from one action sequence to another. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter how well they fit together. Consider, for example, the entertaining way in which Mason turns a haircut into an opportunity to dangle one of his enemies from a hotel window. And how that leads to a San Francisco streetcar chase inspired by Bullitt, and a crash almost as sensational as the train smashup in The Fugitive.
The Alcatraz footage looks a little like Don Siegel’s Escape from Alcatraz, the 1979 Clint Eastwood movie. While Eastwood negotiated the maze of tunnels under Alcatraz in murky darkness, The Rock provides Alcatraz with a subterranean labyrinth as large and well-lighted as the sewers in The Third Man, and as crammed with props and unidentified metallic machinery as the Alien movies.
The plot moves efficiently between fire fights, explosions, torrents of water, hand-to-hand combat, interrogation, torture, imprisonment, escape, and scientific mumbo jumbo, as the Pentagon prepares to firebomb the island with planeloads of Thermite Plasma (which sure sounds neat). All of these elements are standard issue for action thrillers, but the script adds some deft touches (asked if he knows why he has been released from prison, Mason wryly says, “I’ve been locked up longer than Nelson Mandela. Maybe you want me to run for president”).
What really works is the chemistry between Connery, as a reluctant warrior who has the skills necessary to outsmart the occupying force, and Cage, who can disarm the rockets but is not much in the killing department. An intriguing complexity is added by the Harris character, who is not as one-dimensional as he seems (early in the film, he advises some small children to return to their tour boat).
In a movie that borrows from all the movies I’ve already listed, there are two particularly obvious steals: the hypodermic-needle-plunging-into-the-heart trick, from Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, and the Mexican standoff in which everybody has a gun pulled on everyone else (from QT’s Reservoir Dogs and True Romance, courtesy of old Westerns). Two lifts from Tarantino? Maybe Bruckheimer and Simpson were getting their revenge for the famous Tarantino monologue in Sleep with Me where he analyzed Top Gun as a homosexual parable.
No matter. Director Michael Bay orchestrates an efficient and exciting movie, with big laughs, sensational f/x sequences, and sustained suspense. There are several Identikit Hollywood action stars who can occupy the center of chaos like this, but not many can convince you they think they’re really there. Watching The Rock, you care about what happens. You may feel silly later for having been sucked in, but that’s part of the ride.
Roger Ebert is the film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. |
Tavares Signs
Friday 5 October 2012 16:50
Fulham Football Club is delighted to confirm the free transfer signing of out-of-contract defensive midfielder Mickael Tavares on a short-term deal.
The 29-year-old worked with Martin Jol at Hamburger SV during the second half of the 2008/09 Bundesliga season and has 25 caps at international level with Senegal.
Born in the Paris suburbs of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges in France, Tavares began his senior footballing career at SC Abbeville, scoring nine goals in 26 games in the 2002/03 season.
He then spent time at FC Nantes, FC Tours and Czech Republic outfit Slavia Prague, playing in the Champions League with the latter.
After two seasons in Prague, he headed to Jol’s Hamburg in 2009. During his three years with the German club, he was sent on loan to FC Nuremberg and Middlesbrough.
He made 12 appearances for Boro in the Championship during the 2010/11 season, before returning to Hamburg.
He was available on a free transfer after leaving Hamburg in the summer. |
Major League Soccer (MLS) announced Wednesday the complete regular season schedule for the 2015 season; which marks the 20th season in league history and the first for expansion sides New York City FC and Orlando City SC.
Toronto FC will open the ninth season in club history on Saturday, March 7 in Vancouver against the Vancouver Whitecaps FC. It will mark the ninth consecutive year the team will open the season on the road and the sixth time the club will open on the West Coast.
Toronto FC will host the Houston Dynamo on Sunday, May 10 to open the club’s home schedule. The Reds hold an all-time record of 5-3-0 in home openers. TFC will open the season on the road for the first seven matches due to the expansion and upgrades to BMO Field.
During the 2015 season, Toronto FC will play 24 matches on Saturdays, six on Sundays along with four on Wednesdays. At home the club will play 12 matches on Saturdays, three on Wednesdays and two on Sundays.
The Reds will play expansion sides, New York City FC and Orlando City SC both on three occasions. Toronto welcomes New York on Saturday, July 20 and travels to the Big Apple for matches on Sunday, July 12 and Wednesday, September 16. Orlando City SC will come to Toronto on Wednesday, August 5 and Saturday, August 22, while TFC will travel to Orlando for a match on Sunday, April 26. The Reds will meet defending MLS Cup Champions’ LA Galaxy in Los Angeles on Saturday, July 4.
Toronto will face Canadian rivals, Montreal Impact on Wednesday, June 24 and Saturday, August 29 in Toronto, and close the regular season in Montreal on Sunday, October 25.
For the complete 2015 MLS Regular Season schedule visit mlssoccer.com. Broadcast information along with remaining kick-off times will be announced at a later date. |
Image caption The Office ran for two series and two specials from 2001 - 2003
The Office has been named the best TV show of the past 20 years at the Broadcast Awards.
The excruciating comedy, set in a paper company in Slough, launched the careers of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and generated a hit US spin-off.
Broadcast magazine editor Chris Curtis, said the fact he could "still rattle off" several scenes from the show proved "how influential" it was.
The awards ceremony also saw BBC One named channel of the year.
Citing the success of Sherlock, Call The Midwife and the channel's World Cup coverage, the judges said: "BBC One is a channel with its big guns firing.
"EastEnders is back at the top of its game and The Graham Norton Show is firmly established as TV's premier chat-show. The Christmas specials of Mrs Brown's Boys delivered great comedy numbers, as did the nostalgic glow of Still Open All Hours."
Image caption The Great British Bake Off moved to BBC One last year, with 13.5 million people tuning in to see the finale
Consolidating the channel's success, Match of the Day received a special recognition award, while The Great British Bake Off won best factual programme - repeating its success at last month's National Television Awards.
Bake Off programme-makers Love Productions also won best independent production company, an award that also recognised its work on the controversial Benefits Street documentary for Channel 4.
Channel 4 itself picked up the best news and current affairs prize for its investigation into the kidnapping of 200 Nigerian schoolgirls by terrorist group Boko Haram.
Dispatches: Nigeria's Hidden War was praised for its "outstanding and courageous reporting of an extraordinary story".
Bedlam, a four-part fly-on-the-wall series looking into the treatment of mental health disorders also won Channel 4 the best documentary series prize.
Image copyright Channel 4 Image caption Bedlam followed patients being treated at the world's oldest psychiatric institution, the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
All of the winners were chosen by a jury of industry professionals - including critics, programme commissioners, producers and channel bosses.
The Office, which ran for two series and two specials between 2001 and 2003, won its accolade after an audience vote.
Each table at the ceremony was given one vote, choosing from a shortlist that included Big Brother, Broadchurch, Gavin and Stacey and Life On Mars.
Creators Gervais and Merchant could not be there to receive their prize, but sent their thanks on Twitter, with Merchant deadpanning: "Haven't won anything for a while so thanks guys".
Writing in Broadcast, a trade paper for the television industry, the show's producer, Jon Plowman, recalled that it had gotten off to a shaky start.
"Series one famously had the lowest AI [audience appreciation] of any new BBC Two show that year," he said. "Ratings were rotten too, but they belatedly went up. [BBC Two controller] Jane Root repeated it within a couple of months and it doubled its figures.
"The audience had got that it was okay to laugh even though there was no audience track or obvious jokes.
"It wasn't the first mock-doc, but it helped to make single-camera comedy more acceptable and fashionable."
Image caption Match of the Day celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and recently secured the rights to three more years of Premier League matches
Full list of winners |
Seth Wirick, 30, of Hamilton, Montana (mugshot)
A pastor in Montana has been accused of asking a female church member to not report sexual assaults she alleges were committed by a male parishioner — excusing his attacks as those of a “sex addict.”
Seth Wirick, 30, of Hamilton was jailed on three felony charges of sexual intercourse without consent after the abuse was investigated by the Ravalli County Sheriff’s Department, the Ravalli Republic reports.
In June, the woman reported “alarming behavior” of forceful sexual encounters, after which the defendant would allegedly call himself a “monster” and apologize. Wirick allegedly had forced the victim to perform a sex act while she was recovering from surgery.
She threatened to tell his pastor, because dating was frowned upon in the congregation.
Later in June, one of the pastors at the church “told her he was sorry for the situation, and referred to defendant as a ‘sex addict’ and told her that they are working with defendant to get help for his problem,” Ravalli Deputy County Attorney Meghann Paddock wrote in an affidavit.
“The pastor then asked for all the details of their sex life and specific instances where defendant forced himself on her. Female 1 reported that the pastor urged her not to make any reports to law enforcement, tell other members of the church, or defendant’s place of employment,” the affidavit continued.
The “irate” wife of the pastor also allegedly called the victim, telling her to stop talking about the incident.
A second woman also came forward to authorities, reporting she needed gynecological surgery after she sought medical attention when Wirick allegedly would not stop intercourse when she demanded. She said she broke off her relationship with Wirick after he was accused of sexually assaulting a female co-worker.
Wirick told authorities he has been participating in a study on sexual addiction at the request of his church. Wirick is being held in jail in lieu of $75,000 bond.
His initial appearance in Justice Court is scheduled for January 3. |
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A feature film adaptation of the beloved video game franchise Metal Gear Solid has been in the works for a long while now, but it gained some steam in February 2014 when filmmaker Jordan Vogt-Roberts—fresh off his unique Sundance indie Kings of Summer—signed on to take the helm for Sony. Vogt-Roberts soon thereafter became mighty busy as he took the helm of Warner Bros. and Legendary’s King Kong reboot Kong: Skull Island, but now that that film is about to hit theaters, Vogt-Roberts may have more time to devote to Metal Gear Solid.
But where, exactly, does that movie stand? Is it actually happening? Is it Vogt-Roberts’ next film? When Collider’s own Steve Weintraub caught up with Vogt-Roberts at the Kong: Skull Island press day, he asked the filmmaker for an update:
“Metal Gear Solid is probably the most important franchise to me on the planet. It is such a genius, idiosyncratic work and being able to spend time with [Hideo] Kojima recently has been like a dream. He’s the best and his whole team is the best. We are working on the script. That is a property that I will fight tooth and nail to make sure is done properly because it’s so easy to screw it up and so easy for a studio to try and make it into G.I. Joe or try and make it into Mission: Impossible or try and make it into something that it’s not. Metal Gear Solid needs to be exactly what it needs to be, which is Metal Gear Solid.”
Indeed, as Vogt-Roberts discusses the film his passion for the property becomes perfectly clear. He pointed out that fans might see a taste of his Metal Gear take in Kong: Skull Island, and noted that the video game franchise is unique in that it’s been shepherded by the same creative voice over the course of its lifetime:
“It’s so interesting because unlike a comic book that’s had 40 writers or 100 writers over the course of a decade or two decades or whatever, for decades now Metal Gear Solid has essentially had one voice. So you’re dealing with a highly, highly specific property that’s idiosyncratic to one persona and one person’s point of view and the way in which they interpret sort of culture and Western culture and twist that back around into this super pure amazing property that has a tone that I think is unlike anything else that is out there. I actually think that when people see [Kong] they’ll realize like, ‘Oh tonally there are things that sort of line up with this’ where this can be incredibly serious and dark and intense or it can also be incredibly goofy and kind of take the piss out of itself and be slapstick at times, much like Metal Gear. Luckily there are amazing producers on it, but that’s a property that is so pure and important to my soul, because it’s something that I grew up on, that I would love to shepherd into the film that it needs to be. I think it’d be a massive film, I think it’d be an incredible film, but it needs to be done in a way that completely honors what Metal Gear is because it’s a classic and it’s a seminal work not just in video games, but in media.”
Given that the Metal Gear Solid property revolves around Special Ops, the opportunity to make an R-rated movie is certainly there. But while Vogt-Roberts acknowledges that films like Deadpool and Logan have opened the door to R-rated blockbusters with smaller budgets, he says the Metal Gear Solid movie could go either way: |
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