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I could never figure out how my brother and sister-in-law grew such a hugh amout of tomatoes, and they are still growing. Well I finally asked them, here what they said. They bury gutter heat tape under the soil and leave it on. They get an early start, and a late finsh. I live in Palmer, Alaska and it's now Sept 24th and they are still growing tomatoes. you need to buy gutter heat tape only, you can get it at lowe's or home depot and it comes in different lengths. so I'm going to do it. You can bury it below the dirt. They didn't just bury it in one length. they kind of made a s shape out of it under the dirt. they have raised boxes in their greenhouse. and they didn't do that with the other box they have in their greenhouse, for growing cucumbers. It sits on the floor and they had a bad year for their cucumbers. So next year they will also raise the box and put in gutter heat tape. |
A CBS News journalist covered all of Friday night's events until he himself was detained.
Violence breaks out at Univ. of Illinois as Donald Trump cancels rally
We want to show you what he captured on videotape.
Sopan Deb was on the floor of the arena as tensions built - raw emotions on both sides.
He interviews both protesters and Trump supporters.
Police clear the pavilion, and the streets outside are quickly blocked.
Tensions are high. Deb shoots video of an arrest. Police surround a man whose face is bloodied.
Protesters scream at police.
Deb says he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed, without notice or warning.
He was charged with resisting arrest based on a complaint by the Illinois State Police although there is no sign of resisting arrest on the video.
On the tape he identifies himself as a credentialed member of the news media.
The arrest procedure continues, and Deb is placed in the back of a police van while his camera is left nearby.
It was returned to Deb after his release.
Sopan Deb has been covering the Trump campaign for CBS News since Mr. Trump announced his candidacy last summer.
Last night he tweeted this: "I've never seen anything like what I'm witnessing in my life." |
After the breakneck pace of last week, we slow down to Deal With Things in this weeks Outsiders.
We open on Lil Foster coming home, the clan out in droves to greet him. He washes or is baptised in a barrel of water before Emily marks his head with paint, with the double stripe that seems to be his thing. He’s given a gorgeous new coat, hugged and embraced by everyone present. Big Foster, who got no such welcome back, stands in back and looks sad. He rescues his sketch from the prison clothes they’re burning, the one that looks like a reservoir or even an open mine pit, or something.
It’s an amazing parallel to Big Foster’s return. The only ‘washing’ he got was scrubbing the blood of his victims off himself before he came back up the hill.
Wade and a deputy arrest the second guy who escaped during the break out, Wade even tussling with the man before he can take him down. His relief when the man isn’t Lil Foster is palpable, and it’s fun to think what he’d have had to improvise if it had been. Can you imagine? ‘Shit! Quick, hit me hard enough to be convincing but don’t go ham or they’ll never stop chasing you!’
Gwen is weak and tells Big Foster her wound is badly infected, with dark lines spreading from it.
Ooooh girl, you fucked.
She’s their healer and can’t make her own medicines and doesn’t seem to think anything they have would fix it anyway. Farrell wine cleaned up Hasil’s chopped off fingers, just sayin’.
Gwen weakly reminds Big Fos that if she dies, as he’s still her husband he’ll be Bren’in. She believes he’s changed, but worries he still won’t be suitable to take the Oak and lead them. He wholeheartedly agrees, and points out how she should really avoid dying in that instance.
OR, if she does die you immediately pass the Bren’in hood to Right And Proper Bren’in, Lil Foster? No? Guys?
Outside, Emily and others gather, creating an altar out of wood and precious things, praying a chant ‘Obaith wylarn myrr sa’norrwyn’
Despite my calling their language Pidgin Gaelic, turns out its more pidgin Everything than I thought, and ‘Obaith’ is a Welsh word for hope that crosses over into some Gaelic and Celtic dialects, and ‘norrwyn’ means northern friend, so the meaning of their chant is fairly obvious.
Big Fos initially ridicules them, says that praying won’t help Gwen, but they insist they’re giving her their strength, so the mountain can heal her. Penicillin will work faster, but you do you, I guess?
Big Foster gathers his men and decides they’re going down into town for medicine. The cousin I think is Enoch, who was so happy they saved Lil Fos last week, is not Enoch. He’s Phil’up, and he dangerously suggests Gwen is meant to die so Big Fos can be Bren’in. Big Fos slaps the Appalachian out of him, and challenges anyone else to say the same.
Hasil has been ordered to lead them down, and he rightly points out that they just broke a man out of prison. Kind of a huge deal and maybe being seen in town right now is not the smartest thing of all time?
Big Fos wont hear it, rages some more and off they go.
…. Okay, but, big man, Hasil has a really good point.
Wade returns to his station to a heroes welcome, which he shrugs off. Matt pops up like an unwanted verruca to talk up all the astonishing coincidences; Wade wanting Lil Foster to go free, Lil Fos being rescued at the exact right time, by Farrells who apparently learned the prison transport schedules.
Then it turns out Matt knows about the fight club Wade was called to, and that a Farrell fights there. Wade and I are like ‘whaaaaaaaaaaa?’ and Wade asks if he’s being spied on. Matt handwaves off, so Wade leans forward, lets that drawl really stretch and says it’s all Matt’s fault anyway, locking up an innocent man, putting up that stupid fence and provoking an otherwise peaceful people. What did Matt think would happen?
Matt leaves on the vague warning the coincidences are just … they exist. And, he’ll be handling things differently going forwards. Wade knows he’s in trouble.
Ledda is bringing more food and sundries to another Mountain Witness meeting, and is greeted by a crowded room of supportive new members. They cheer and applaud for her. Guess Gordon wasn’t wrong about the attention and support. She’s so happy! Look! Remember it; it’s the last time we’ll ever see it, I’m pretty sure.
She arrives home later to find a worrying Wade. He asks her to say he was at home all night before Coal Day and she will, but asks him to leave the group alone to do their protests, especially now they have momentum.
He tries to point out if he’s called to them, he has to do his job. He reminds her that she has no pets left and the kids could be hurt next, but she steels herself, that if he wants a favour from her, she wants one from him.
Gordon turns up in Haylie’s office and in a brief but hilarious scene, is utterly rebuffed when he tries to turn on the charm with her like he did Ledda. He says at all his protests there’s always a Haylie who is just as used by the company as the mountain will be. He invites her to join him in a hike to see what she’s killing.She asks how often his protests work and he says not often, but sometimes. It’s the war that matters, not the battles. Not to you, you narcissistic asshole. You can afford to bounce from protest to protest and feel good about yourself. For the Leddas in these things, all she has is the fucking battle.
Asa wouldn’t have been like this. Asa would have been genuine. Psychopathic and terrifying, but genuine.
Haylie says that whereever she does her job, she meets Gordons, who always think they can bully or harass or manipulate her into not doing her job — one she’s great at and paid fantastically for. He leaves to regroup.
Guys, I bash Haylie for being a terrifying corporate ghoul, but she is so great. She doesn’t give a shit. It’s amazing.
To my great shock, praying isn’t clearing up Gwen’s septicemia. Well, I never!
Lil Foster goes to see her, and wishes he’d been here to protect her. He understands that she only married Big Fos to survive. It’s a heartbreaking scene. The marriage was already so brutal on Lil Foster, and with what we learn later, it’s just crushing what he’s had to watch happen around him.
Outside, he joins the praying clan, cutting off one of his long braids to leave on the altar.
Hasil leads Big Fos and the crew through his secret route up and down the mountain, and is shocked to find it guarded. This is the ‘around’ way so if they can’t get down here, they’re not getting down at all. Big Foster reacts to this as well as you’d expect, and immediately reveals himself to the guards who give chase, firing guns at the fleeing Farrell.
Enoch is wounded and in the flurry, Hasil manages to break away and get down the hill, while the others drag Enoch back up the hill.
On the Farrell side of the secret route, Phil’up dies of his wounds.
Asa would have handled it better, just saying.
Butch is making a drug delivery to a ‘Steve’ but it’s Wade and the way he delivers ‘Hi, I’m Steeeeve’ is so marvelous, and I love him so much. Butch tells Wade where to find Hasil, is the point of the scene.
Speaking of … Hasil is home and Sally Anne is afraid and angry. He’s afraid to even tell her the nature of the problem, so she declares she’ll stay with Butch and Frida (finally!) for a night, and if Hasil is gone when she comes back, she’ll stay with a cousin in Cleveland. If he’s there, he’s there to stay.
Big Foster is washing himself of Phil’up’s blood, the horrified clan calling him out for his stupidity and general crappiness. UGH, he literally stares at his bloody hands, then his reflection in the bloody waters. We get iiiitttttt, shooowwww.
Sally Anne is with Frida, best-friending it up. She talks about leaving and Frida is fully supportive, but does point out true love is rare and special, and that even she wants to murder Butch sometimes. But, he sees her, he loves her, he accepts her so … that’s something. She’s saying, basically … you do you, but be certain, and know what you are doing — what it could mean.
How and when can I be Frida’s best friend, and why isn’t it right now??
If anything happens to Frida, I will rain down hell.
Big Foster is (creepily) laid on the bed with Gwen, worrying about what a fuck up of a Bren’in he will absolutely definitely be. He goes outside and very politely asks to speak with Lil Foster privately.
Alone, he explains how his father, Foster the 5th (reminder we still don’t know who the 7th was, to make Lil the 8th) was a kind and warm and loving man. He’s the one died the last time the coal folk came. To Big Foster, his dad was the sun, stars and moon. Then he died, and Lady Ray took the Oak. She was mean, and she shamed and Big Foster every day. She made him what he is.
It made him crazy for the Oak, so he’d have the power but he knows now … he’s the demon of the prophecy. Well duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh. He says he tainted the mountain and Lil Foster should kill him, sacrifice him to the mountain to save Gwen.
Lil Foster is literally like ‘Okay, but not here’.
Haylie is in her hotel bar when Gordon arrives to flirt, again, some more. He offers her a CD of local music he’s gathered (from …here? From who??), and she asks how they’re meant to listen to it. He suggests her room and she says ‘That’s gotta be the worst pickup line I’ve ever heard in my life. You want to go back to my room so we can listen to your CD of Appalachian hill people music?’
LOVE. HER.
Gordon wants her to know what she’s killing, but she shoots him down. Until she doesn’t, and suggests he ask again. We cut to her room where they’re falling into bed while his CD plays on her laptop.
Ooooh is he hacking her computer? Oooh.
Wade arrives at Hasil’s house and checks everyone was okay during the breakout before he reveals the hard truth; Hasil has to get out of town. It’s getting too crazy, and Wade can’t protect him. Hasil’s too obvious, walking around town like he is.
Hasil says if he goes he won’t come back, and the unspoken is it means they’ll have no way to get things up and down the hill, or work together. Wade accepts this, compliments the home and then leaves.
Hasil has apparently decided to stay, because he does not ask Wade to get him some meds for Gwen.
Lil Foster leads Big Foster through the woods and talks about Big Foster’s story of how great his dad was. He says he felt that way once, for Big Foster. Until Big Foster revealed his awful abusive side, which included once tying a ten year old Lil Foster to a tree for ten days because the child spoiled a hunt. Lil Fos still has scars from where the ropes cut into his arms.
Big Foster, go down the mountain and like … I don’t know, die by cop. Or in a fire. You despicable shit.
Lil Foster has brought them to the same tree, though he wont kill Big Foster. Big Foster is the demon, but to spill his blood would only taint them more. Big Foster attacks, trying to provoke his son, but Lil Foster doesn’t fight back until Big mentions Gwen. Lil Foster easily takes his dad to the ground, and empties and dismantles his gun in front of him, refusing to shed more blood.
He leaves Big Fos with the weapon and bullets which Big Fos puts back together and is about to use to shoot himself. But, then he sees Elon. The ghost of his dead son watches as Big Foster weeps and apologises for letting him be shot to fucking death because Big Foster wanted to steal somebody’s guns. Elon whispers something in his fathers ear; we don’t hear.
Big Fos thanks him, emotionally, and Elon leaves. Big Foster sees flowers at his feet.
The next morning, the clan continues to pray and not administer any legitimate medical aid of any kind to Gwen. Big Foster joins them, laying his flowers on their altar and kneeling to pray. And they let him.
Haylie wakes up to a post-it note from Gordon, ‘Thanks’ and his number.
In his RV, Gordon has indeed hacked her computer with his CD, and he has access to all her emails from within One World.
Aand I still miss Asa. I miss him more, knowing he’s Big Foster’s kid. I want to know why that wasn’t widely known. Does Lil Foster know Asa was his brother? I need those scenes, guys. I need them.
Sally Anne comes home and finds Hasil. He emotionally explains he’s pretty sure his cousin got killed when he was coming back here. She assumes he wants to go to him, but he shrugs that off. He tells her he has to do something, for his family.
Which means: wear Butch’s clothes, and basically hide until the heat is off. He shows his new look to Frida and Sally Anne who only laugh for a second. To be fair, he looks … well, he looks like 99% of Kyle Gallner’s previous roles, which could almost all be described as ‘Emo skater type’ and it’s hilarious, but Nooooo! He hates it, though the girls reassure him he looks fine, and it’s only until they can get him some of his own things that he likes. Sally Anne promises him she still sees the real him and they start making out, and fall onto the couch. Frida has to hilariously roll out of their way, and just dips out like, ‘I’ll go then? Bye!’.
Oh my god, the love I have.
Ledda has been called to the kids’ school because her one daughter, Hilda got in a fight. Turns out some bratty girl talked smack about Ledda’s group, so Hilda whooped her ass. HELL YEAH, HILDA!
She’s facing suspension and Ledda demands to know what the other girl will face, or is the school okay with her acting like she did? She’s interrupted by a violent coughing fit.
It’s so bad that she’s in the hospital later with Wade. She still doesn’t want treatment, but has realised she has to use her time the right way as it’s very, very short.
My heart. My actual heart. Wade finally accepts this, and promises firmly to take care of the girls, of everything. She cries and he holds her hand, and you guys … My heart.
He tells her gently she must tell her daughters and she begs him to be there, so he brings them into the room. We’re spared the awfulness of watching these tiny, baby girls have their world destroyed all over again, mere weeks after their father’s murder.
The Farrell continue to pray and to their joy, Gwen emerges pale but alive from the house. She is okay and she will live.
So … they prayed her septicemia away?
Huh.
Fuck it, I’m calling it; Asa’s alive. These people are walking off poisoning, bullets to the heart and fatal blood infections — that last one without even herbal medical intervention, mind.
Having an arm off doesn’t mean shit to them. Asa will return. |
The small near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 passed very close to Earth on Feb. 15, 2013, as NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office, Jet Propulsion Laboratory explains
NASA chief Charles Bolden has advice on how to handle a large asteroid headed toward New York City: Pray.
That's about all the United States - or anyone for that matter - could do at this point about unknown asteroids and meteors that may be on a collision course with Earth, Bolden told lawmakers at a U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee hearing.
An asteroid estimated to be have been about 15m in diameter exploded on February 15 over Chelyabinsk, Russia, generating shock waves that shattered windows and damaged buildings. More than 1500 people were injured.
Later that day, a larger, unrelated asteroid discovered last year passed about 27,000km from Earth, closer than the network of television and weather satellites that ring the planet.
Mapped: See every meteor strike to hit Earth
NASA has found 95 percent of the asteroids nearest Earth that are big enough to wipe out civilization - and none poses any immediate threat to humanity.
But before you breathe a sigh of relief, there's also this: NASA admitted that the agency has little idea about the location of so-called "`city killers,'' asteroids smaller than the half-mile-wide "world enders'' but still big enough to crater New York City if it were hit exactly right.
Worse, there's considerable question what NASA and the military could do if scientists did spot a killer rock hurtling toward Earth, officials said at the hearing.
"A big segment of the population thinks it's just a matter of calling Bruce Willis in,'' said U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., a reference to the popular movie Armageddon.
VOYAGER CROSSES INTO UNKNOWN.
BILLIONAIRE RECOVERS APOLLO ENGINES.
"What would we do if you detected even a small one ... headed toward New York City in three weeks? What would we do? Bend over and what?'' said Posey to laughter.
Replied NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden: "If it's coming in three weeks, pray.''
Right now, he said, building a spacecraft to deflect the asteroid would take years, which is why Bolden and John Holdren, the top science adviser to president Barack Obama, both used the hearing as a springboard to champion the White House plan to send NASA astronauts on a mission to an asteroid by 2025.
"That mission will benefit from current efforts to detect track and characterize (near-Earth objects) by speeding the identification of potential targets for exploration,'' said Holdren.
"And in return, such a mission will generate invaluable information for use in future detection and mitigation efforts.''
Prompting the hearing - and another scheduled Wednesday in the Senate - were two reminders last month about the dangers of rocks from outer space.
Earth pelted daily by basketballs
Though encounters with asteroids of any threatening size are rare, Earth is pelted every day with the gravel of the universe.
"Objects the size of a basketball arrive about once per day and objects as large as a car arrive about once per week,'' said Bolden.
These objects burn up in the atmosphere and are often seen as "shooting stars.''peBut bigger strikes can - and do - happen.
In 1908, an asteroid about 50m in diameter knocked down millions of tree in Siberia, and scientists think a massive asteroid about 10km in diameter wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago when it hit near what is now the Yucatan Peninsula.
Holdren said that strikes like the one that hit Siberia are expected to happen only once every 1000 years. But, he added, "the potential consequences are so large that it makes us take the threat seriously.''
Though NASA has found most of the biggest nearby asteroids, officials estimate they've identified 10 per cent or fewer of those about 150m in diameter - big enough to"`devastate the better part of a continent,'' Holdren said.
Bolden said that, with NASA's current budget, it would take until 2030 or later to catalogue space rocks in this range. (NASA spent $US7.8 million on near-Earth-object observations in 2011 and $US20.4 million in 2012, according to agency documents).
"The U.S. has come a long way in its ability to track and characterize asteroids, meteors, comets and meteorites,'' said U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chair of the House science committee.
"But we still have a long way to go.'' |
Ever since the unconstitutional SAFE Act was passed in NY there has been a massive movement to see this law overturned. One of the most controversial parts of the law is the limitation of gun magazines to only 7 rounds.
A federal judge in Buffalo NY has now rejected the 7 round limitation but has upheld parts of the law which banned the in-state sales of “assault weapons” and high capacity magazines.
Chief U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny seemed to understand the arbitrary nature of limiting a magazine round to 7 rounds but still did not fully comprehend the hypocrisy of banning other “high capacity” magazines either or rifles deemed as “assault rifles” just because they look a certain way.
According to WIVB.com,
In his ruling, Skretny found the seven-round limit “tenuous, strained and unsupported” but found that the ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines “do not impermissibly infringe on Plaintiff’s Second Amendment rights” and furthers the state’s “important interest in public safety.”
The judge upheld the laws redefinition of an “assault weapon” which includes any semi-automatic center-fire rifle that has any one military-style feature, like a pistol grip or adjustable stock for instance.
As long as judges like this continue to legislate from the bench those who understand how unconstitutional this law is will make sure it ends up before the Supreme Court. You can count on that.
There are currently numerous law suits out against the SAFE act and sheriffs and gun owners alike in NY are speaking out against the law. The judge in this case apparently did some research on mass shootings to determine that “assault weapons” should be banned even while avoiding the fact that only 4% of all gun crimes are committed with these guns. You can read the entire 57 page ruling here.
This ex-military insider’s shocking secret about the food crisis is revealed and most Americans are not ready. Read more here. (This ad helps us pay the bills)
email |
"Paper or plastic?" is not a question California grocery shoppers will soon be hearing.
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed into law Tuesday legislation that will ban single-use plastic bags in the state, making it the first state in the nation to do so. The move is designed to combat litter and environmental degradation.
"This bill is a step in the right direction – it reduces the torrent of plastic polluting our beaches, parks and even the vast ocean itself," Governor Brown said in a statement. "We're the first to ban these bags, and we won't be the last."
The legislation, introduced by state Sen. Alex Padilla (D), goes into effect Jan. 1, 2015. Beginning next July, the law will prohibit large grocery stores from offering single-use plastic bags to consumers, while paper bags will be offered only for a price of 10 cents or more. A year later, the law will also apply to smaller convenience stores and pharmacies. As part of the law, stores will also be allowed to provide customers with reusable film grocery bags as long as they meet certain requirements for recycled materials, also for a minimum of 10 cents.
For low-income customers who qualify for supplemental food programs, the law will allow stores to provide them with a reusable or recycled bag at no cost.
Proponents of the new legislation include labor unions, retail lobbies, and environmental groups like the Sierra Club, according to Bloomberg. In 2009, California stores purchased about 53,000 tons of plastic bags, but only about 3 percent was recycled, according to CalRecycle.
Activists have lauded the legislation for what they say are its long-term environmental benefits.
"From the thousands of sea turtles that are now safer from plastic bags to the thousands of volunteers who remove these bags from our beaches and rivers, this bill means a cleaner ocean for everyone," Nathan Weaver of the group Environment California said in a statement. "I applaud Governor Brown for signing SB 270 and phasing out single-use plastic bags. Nothing we use for a few minutes should pollute our ocean for hundreds of years."
San Francisco and Los Angeles are among the more than 100 cities and counties in California that already have bans on plastic bags. Cities in other states with bans include Chicago; Austin, Texas; and Seattle.
Among the California cities already prohibiting plastic bags, San Jose has reported 89 percent cleaner storm-water catch systems and 71 percent cleaner creeks one year after implementing its ban, according to a release from Senator Padilla's office.
"We're hoping to see the benefits that we've already seen in other cities and counties," Padilla said in a phone interview. "Literally overnight, we've seen environmental benefits from no longer having plastic bags polluting our parks and communities."
But not everyone is pleased with the impending ban. Plastic bag manufacturers, which Padilla says have posed the largest opposition to the bill, have argued that such legislation would hinder, not help, the environment and the economy.
Bag the Ban, a website funded by South Carolina-based plastic bag manufacturer Hilex Poly, argues that such bans are a "bad idea for America." The website says a ban and tax on plastic bags is "misguided" and could "weigh down the economy, increase costs for consumers and small businesses and leave a larger carbon footprint on the environment than alternatives."
Also, a national coalition of plastic bag manufacturers, the American Progressive Bag Alliance, says it will seek a voter referendum to repeal the California law. It says the law will, among other things, hurt manufacturing jobs.
"If this law were allowed to go into effect, it would jeopardize thousands of California manufacturing jobs, hurt the environment, and fleece consumers for billions so grocery store shareholders and their union partners can line their pockets," Lee Califf, executive director of the trade group, said in a statement.
For its part, the legislation tries to alleviate concerns over job losses by setting aside $2 million in loans to help plastic bag manufacturers change their operations to making recyclable bags.
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Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico have pending legislation that would ban single-use bags, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
• Material from The Associated Press was used in this report. |
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Gary Gardner has been given the chance to salvage his Villa career after being offered a new contract by the club.
Gardner, whose current contract is up at the end of next month, is taking time out to consider whether or not to accept the extension.
The offer is confirmation that Villa are prepared to press ahead with some dealings this summer despite the uncertainty surrounding the club since chairman Randy Lerner announced his intention to sell.
Manager Paul Lambert and chief executive Paul Faulkner have spent the past few days with Lerner in New York discussing how the club will function during the search for a buyer.
Gardner will be handed the chance to recapture the form which made him one of the most promising talents to emerge from the Bodymoor Heath academy in recent seasons.
Villa’s offer also guards against the risk of losing the 21-year-old midfielder on a free transfer under the Bosman ruling this summer.
Now that they have offered him fresh terms they would be entitled to compensation if he turns them down and joins another club.
The 21-year-old midfielder’s claret and blue career has stalled after a series of serious injuries and he is currently battling a foot problem.
Gardner has played just 18 minutes of first-team football under Lambert on the first and last days of the 2012-13 campaign and did not make the matchday squad last season.
He went out on loan to Championship club Sheffield Wednesday in February but made just four appearances before injury struck again.
It is a familiar tale of woe for the Yardley youngster, who had long lay-offs after damaging his anterior crucial ligament in December 2009, again in August 2012 and missed the start of the current campaign with back trouble.
Having been given a senior debut by Alex McLeish as a substitute in a 3-1 win at Chelsea on December 31 2011, the England under-21 international has made five starts and 13 substitute appearances for Villa.
During Lambert’s reign, Gardner has been unable to dislodge Fabian Delph, Ashley Westwood, Karim El Ahmadi and Yacouba Sylla from the central midfield places.
Meanwhile, Villa’s record signing Darren Bent has revealed he will not be turning his season-long loan into a permanent move to Fulham following the Cottagers' relegation from the Premier League.
Bent, who scored six goals in 30 appearances for the Craven Cottage club, has one year remaining on his Villa contract and is due to report back to pre-season training at Bodymoor Heath at the start of July.
“I’ve enjoyed my time down here but obviously it hasn’t gone well,” said Bent.
“I haven’t played as much football as I would have liked.
“When I first came here I hoped it was going to be a case of playing fairly regularly, but it just wasn’t meant to be.”
Bent has not played for Villa since the £24 million signing scored in the final day draw at Wigan the season before last on May 19 2013.
It was his 21st goal for the claret and blues in 63 appearances, including 54 starts and nine substitute cameos. |
The National Security Agency under former President Barack Obama routinely violated American privacy protections while scouring through overseas intercepts and failed to disclose the extent of the problems until the final days before Donald Trump was elected president last fall, according to once top-secret documents that chronicle some of the most serious constitutional abuses to date by the U.S. intelligence community.
More than 5 percent, or one out of every 20 searches seeking upstream Internet data on Americans inside the NSA’s so-called Section 702 database violated the safeguards Obama and his intelligence chiefs vowed to follow in 2011, according to one classified internal report reviewed by Circa.
The Obama administration self-disclosed the problems at a closed-door hearing Oct. 26 before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that set off alarm. Trump was elected less than two weeks later.
How John Brennan's CIA became a big consumer of unmasked intelligence on Americans
WATCH | Circa's Sara Carter looks at a classified document from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
The normally supportive court censured administration officials, saying the failure to disclose the extent of the violations earlier amounted to an “institutional lack of candor” and that the improper searches constituted a “very serious Fourth Amendment issue,” according to a recently unsealed court document dated April 26, 2017.
The admitted violations undercut one of the primary defenses that the intelligence community and Obama officials have used in recent weeks to justify their snooping into incidental NSA intercepts about Americans.
The FISA court opinion READ
Circa has reported that there was a three-fold increase in NSA data searches about Americans and a rise in the unmasking of U.S. person’s identities in intelligence reports after Obama loosened the privacy rules in 2011.
Officials like former National Security Adviser Susan Rice have argued their activities were legal under the so-called minimization rule changes Obama made, and that the intelligence agencies were strictly monitored to avoid abuses.
The intelligence court and the NSA’s own internal watchdog found that not to be true.
“Since 2011, NSA’s minimization procedures have prohibited use of U.S.-person identifiers to query the results of upstream Internet collections under Section 702,” the unsealed court ruling declared. “The Oct. 26, 2016 notice informed the court that NSA analysts had been conducting such queries inviolation of that prohibition, with much greater frequency than had been previously disclosed to the Court.”
Speaking Wednesday on Fox News, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said there was an apparent effort under the Obama Administration to increase the number of unmaskings of Americans.
"If we determine this to be true, this is an enormous abuse of power," Paul said. “This will dwarf all other stories.”
“There are hundreds and hundreds of people,” Paul added.
The American Civil Liberties Union said the newly disclosed violations are some of the most serious to ever be documented and strongly call into question the U.S. intelligence community’s ability to police itself and safeguard American’s privacy as guaranteed by the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure.
“I think what this emphasizes is the shocking lack of oversight of these programs,” said Neema Singh Guliani, the ACLU’s legislative counsel in Washington.
“You have these problems going on for years that only come to the attention of the court late in the game and then it takes additional years to change its practices.
“I think it does call into question all those defenses that we kept hearing, that we always have a robust oversight structure and we have culture of adherence to privacy standards,” she added. “And the headline now is they actually haven’t been in compliacne for years and the FISA court itself says in its opinion is that the NSA suffers from a culture of a lack of candor.”
The NSA acknowledged it self-disclosed the mass violations to the court last fall and that in April it took the extraordinary step of suspending the type of searches that were violating the rules, even deleting prior collected data on Americans to avoid any further violations.
“NSA will no longer collect certain internet communications that merely mention a foreign intelligence target,” the agency said in the statement that was dated April 28 and placed on its Web site without capturing much media or congressional attention.
In question is the collection of what is known as upstream “about data”about an American that is collected even though they were not directly in contact with a foreigner that the NSA was legally allowed to intercept.
The NSA said it doesn't have the ability to stop collecting ‘about’ information on Americans, “without losing some other important data. ” It, however, said it would stop the practice to “reduce the chance that it would acquire communication of U.S. persons or others who are not in direct contact with a foreign intelligence target.”
The NSA said it also plans to “delete the vast majority of its upstream internet data to further protect the privacy of U.S. person communications.”
Agency officials called the violations “inadvertent compliance lapses.” But the court and IG documents suggest the NSA had not developed a technological way to comply with the rules they had submitted to the court in 2011.
Officials "explained that NSA query compliance is largely maintained through a series of manual checks" and had not "included the proper limiters" to prevent unlawful searches, the NSA internal watchdog reported in a top secret report in January that was just declassified. A new system is being developed now, officials said.
The NSA conducts thousand of searches a year on data involving Americans and the actual numbers of violations were redacted from the documents Circa reviewed.
But a chart in the report showed there three types of violations, the most frequent being 5.2 percent of the time when NSA Section 702 upstream data on U.S. persons was searched.
The inspector general also found noncompliance between 0.7 percent and 1.4 percent of the time involving NSA activities in which there was a court order to target an American for spying but the rules were still not followed. Those activities are known as Section 704 and Section 705 spying.
John Solomon John Solomon
Review | The NSA inspector general's highly redacted chart showing privacy violations.
The IG report spared few words for the NSA’s efforts before the disclosure to ensure it was complying with practices, some that date to rules issued in 2008 in the final days of the Bush administration and others that Obama put into effect in 2011.
“We found that the Agency controls for monitoring query compliance have not been completely developed,” the inspector general reported, citing problems ranging from missing requirements for documentation to the failure to complete controls that would ensure “query compliance.”
The NSA’s Signal Intelligence Directorate, the nation’s main foreign surveillance arm, wrote a letter back to the IG saying it agreed with the findings and that “corrective action plans” are in the works. |
In her early 50s, Carolyn Shoemaker began a career in astronomy. While she had no formal training, she did have the support and encouragement of her husband, Eugene “Gene” Shoemaker. Gene was a renowned astrogeologist and one of the founders of the field of planetary science, which studies the geology of planets, asteroids, and other celestial bodies in our solar system.
Together they worked side-by-side for 17 years, taking pictures of the night sky in search of comets and asteroids, and in 1993, along with astronomer David Levy, they made their most significant discovery—Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. In 1994, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which had broken apart, slammed into Jupiter offering astronomers around the world their first opportunity to see the effects of two solar system bodies colliding.
In total, over the course of her career, Carolyn is credited with discovering more than 800 asteroids and 32 comets.
In 1997, while on an annual field trip to Australia, the car Carolyn and Gene were in was in a head-on collision with another vehicle. Gene died from the accident, and while Carolyn was still in the hospital recovering from her injuries, one of his former students, Dr. Carolyn Porco, contacted her to see what she thought of having Gene’s ashes put on the Moon. Carolyn enthusiastically agreed to the idea and with the help of people Dr. Porco knew at NASA, arrangements were made for his cremated remains to go into space as part of the Lunar Prospector mission in January 1998.
To this day, Gene is the only person whose ashes have been placed on the Moon.
Carolyn continued her work as an astronomer following Gene’s death and has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, and received both the Rittenhouse Medal for outstanding achievement in astronomy, and the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal.
At StoryCorps, she talked with her son-in-law, Phred Salazar (pictured in the player above), about working closely with her husband and her decision to make the Moon his final resting place.
Originally aired July 8, 2016, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Top photo: Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker in 1986 sitting in front of an an 18-inch Schmidt telescope photographed by Jonathan Blair. Photo courtesy of J.Blair/USGS.
Above: Photo of the design created by Dr. Carolyn Porco of the inscription etched onto the capsule of Eugene’s remains sent to the Moon. Photo courtesy of Dr. Carolyn Porco. |
Biggest story you missed In what appears to be the highest-level defection to date, Syria's Prime Minister has fled the country
While reports about the alleged Oak Creek killer's troubled past surfaced in the U.S. media, Syria's Prime Minister Riyad Farid Hijab escaped the war-ravaged country, according to opposition and official Syrian sources. Mr. Hijab, the highest ranked official to defect since the conflict began, fled to Jordan with several ministers and military officers, the New York Times reported, citing opposition figures in the country.
The defection might mark yet another turning point in the ongoing conflict, according to White House press secretary. During today's press briefing, Carney told reporters that there was no reason to doubt reports about the defection. "The momentum is with the opposition and with the Syrian people," he added. "It's clear that these defections are reaching the highest levels of the Syrian government and Assad cannot restore his control over the country because the Syrian people will not allow it. The quickest way to end the bloodshed and suffering of the Syrian people is for Assad to step aside to enable a peaceful political transition to a government that is responsive to the aspirations of the Syrian people." |
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Turkish authorities told police officers in London the woman and her children were safe and well, reports Daniel Sandford
A mother and her four children, believed to be travelling from London to Syria, have been detained in Turkey, police have said.
The family went missing from their home in Waltham Forest, east London, last week and were thought to have left via London City Airport, the Met said.
The mother is being held by Turkish Police. The children, aged from four to 12, were said to be safe and well.
The Met said it was liaising with Turkish authorities.
The BBC's special correspondent Lucy Manning said the 33-year-old mother was thought to be trying to join her sister and brother-in-law who travelled to Syria last year.
The brother-in-law is understood to have been a follower of the radical preacher Anjem Choudary, she added.
'Real concerns'
Richard Walton, of the Met's counter-terrorism command, thanked the public and the media for helping to find the family.
He said: "We had very real concerns that she may have been planning to travel with her children to Syria and she has now been detained with the children in Turkey."
Police officers first appealed for information about the family after the woman's husband contacted them on Wednesday to report them missing.
It was thought they had flown from London to Amsterdam last Tuesday.
Detectives later found the family had been pictured on security cameras at London City Airport before their flight.
Several cases have been reported recently in which women and children from the UK are thought to have travelled to parts of Syria, under the control of militant group the Islamic State.
More than 40 women and girls travelled to Syria from Britain in the last year, the Met Police has said. |
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Salford Red Devils are not the only Super League club monitoring developments with Castleford Tigers’ suspended Aussie winger Justin Carney.
Saints are said to be very much in the frame. There has even been talk of either a return to the NRL or a move to rugby union for Carney.
Carney is one of Marwan Koukash’s favourite players and the Salford owner is keeping a watchful eye on developments.
Meanwhile, Robert Lui, the North Queensland Cowboys half back, is the latest high profile NRL star linked with Salford.
He previously played for the Wests Tigers and is coming out of contract.
Salford could bring in five new players but departures seem inevitable.
Reds also have to strengthen their pack.
Cory Paterson has been strongly linked with Leigh for 2016 along with Harrison Hansen and even Rangi Chase.
Salford have said on numerous occasions though that playmaker Chase is not for sale.
Leigh could move for Hansen if they win promotion but failure to do so by the Centurions would probably see the former Wigan back rower staying where he is.
Huddersfield are also looking for an experienced back rower and Catalan Dragons have shown interest in the Reds forward.
The Giants have also been linked with Theo Fages.
Meanwhile, David Furner, who works alongside Tim Sheens as assistant coach with the Australia National team is said to be interested in coming to England working as a head coach.
Furner played for Wigan and has served a good apprenticeship in readiness for stepping up.
Furner was close to the former Wigan boss Maurice Lindsay during his spell with the Warriors. |
Video
An investigation by St George's University and Horniman Museum in London has finally revealed how mermen and mermaid relics (sometimes referred to as monkey fish) may have been made.
They are thought to have been made by fishermen in Japan and East Asia and were bought by sailors as good luck charms or by circus entertainers to display as curiosities.
Early 20th Century scientists were baffled by the specimens, with some claiming them to be mummified mermaids.
They were later believed to be made from the head and body of a monkey sewn on to the tail of a fish, giving rise to the term "monkey fish".
It was not until March 2011 that an X-ray of the Horniman merman (affectionately known as Herman), revealed that the monkey half was in fact made from papier mache.
Using a combination of CT scans, microscopy, X-radiography and 3D printing, the research team have finally managed to piece together exactly how Herman was made.
Dr James Moffatt, a physiology lecturer at St George's University in London, explains the process. |
Australian actors Meegan Warner and Daniel Henshall have become the first cast in AMC‘s period drama pilot Turn, written by Nikita creator/executive producer Craig Silverstein and directed by Rise Of The Planet of The Apes helmer Rupert Wyatt. Based on Alexander Rose’s book Washington’s Spies, Turn is set in the summer of 1778 and tells the story of New York farmer Abe Woodhull, who bands together with a group of childhood friends to form The Culper Ring, an unlikely group of spies who turn the tide in America’s fight for independence. Warner, repped by Armada Partners, Gersh, attorney Chad Christopher and Smith & Jones Management in Australia, will play Mary Woodhull, Abe’s wife who does not want to see their young son grow up to become a soldier anytime soon. Henshall, repped by Resolution and RGM in Australia, will play Caleb Brewster, a former whaler, now Lieutenant in the Second Continental Artillery who is eager to fight back against the oppressive British. This marks the first pilot booking for Jeff Berg’s recently launched agency Resolution. The pilot, from AMC Studios, is executive produced by Silverstein and Barry Josephson. |
Brian Lee Crowley has an innovative idea for governments hell-bent on cajoling businesses to innovate more: Get out of the way.
By Brian Lee Crowley, May 13, 2016
The new government in Ottawa, like every one of its predecessors in the past 30 years or so, believes Canada is not innovative enough. Scarcely a day goes by without some minister patronisingly explaining why business needs to do more to innovate and how Ottawa will be there to help.
Well here is a radical suggestion. Instead of officials telling business how to run itself, perhaps they might ask themselves what obstacles governments create to innovation and then dedicate themselves to removing them.
Hurt protestations of innocence will be the order of the day in response. Why we would never do anything to obstruct innovation. We love it and want to embrace and nurture it officials will murmur, a hint of a tear glimmering in the corner of their eye.
Scarcely a day goes by without some minister patronisingly explaining why business needs to do more to innovate and how Ottawa will be there to help.
But this charade of innocence can only be sustained by hiding behind the obfuscation of an abstract word--innovation-- that sounds warm and cuddly but means nothing specific. “Innovation” is just a fancy way of describing doing new things or doing old things in a new way. And as soon as you put it that way you realise that all too often a synonym for innovation is “disruption.” And there is nothing politicians hate more than something that upends a world their constituents find quite comfortable.
Uber is a classic example. Exponents of innovation will hail Toronto’s recent grudging embrace of this innovative sharing-economy technology, conveniently forgetting that Toronto, like virtually every other city in the country, has spent years fighting the threat it represents to the taxi industry and their own regulatory power. Toronto may be on board now, but almost every other major municipality in the country is still fighting a rearguard action against the inevitable, raising hugely the cost of an innovation that will benefit consumers, lower costs, give better service, open the market to new competitors and make more rational use of the fleet of cars on the road.
On a strict cost-benefit calculation, politicians should have welcomed Uber, Lyft and others with open arms. Instead they stood po-faced at the city gates, egged on by a tiny but well-organised band of taxi owners and drivers, loudly crying “stop” to the march of history. Most of them are still there. Innovation-friendly indeed.
Now let’s talk about health care.
Health care is one of the largest sectors of the economy and with our rapidly ageing population it is going to expand enormously in coming years. Worldwide it is the focal point for almost every innovative field there is: nanotechnology, management science, diagnostic imaging, biotechnology, brain chemistry and more.
There is nothing politicians hate more than something that upends a world their constituents find quite comfortable.
Essentially the system is run, however, by the powerful established interests within it like doctors and nurses and administered by bureaucrats for whom Rule Number One is never do anything that will embarrass the minister.
Yet every important innovation in health care threatens some powerful vested interest in the system. That’s why international comparisons of health care systems consistently show that Canadians have poor access to the latest technologies. We keep costs low and vested interests quiescent by shortchanging patients, who are far less well-organised than the health professions.
Ironically, this is expensive. If we develop innovative drugs to manage conditions that previously could only be treated through surgery, you can be sure that ministers will complain bitterly about the cost of the drug, but surgeons will still get the same or a growing share of the pie at the negotiating table where the health care pie is divvied up.
In fact innovative technologies are so feared as a cost-driver within the health care system that one background study for the Romanow Commission looking at Canada’s health care system a decade ago came up with the perfect solution based on our history to date. The author opined that the simplest way to control the cost of new technologies was not to use them.
In Canadian health care, which may soon represent nearly a fifth of the economy, innovation must go cap in hand and beg to be allowed to help patients. And in doing so it will be opposed by those in the system whose power and livelihood might be threatened, just like those taxi owners fighting Uber.
This is inevitable in a system where the amount of money available is determined in advance through government budgets. Every innovation accepted is a charge against a fixed pie, meaning established interests may be damaged to accommodate the innovation. And it is those established interests who are the system’s gatekeepers.
It is as if Henry Ford, in his drive to bring the automobile within reach of the average person, had to get his assembly line ideas approved by a government committee composed of buggy makers, stable operators, horse breeders and hay growers.
Hardly a recipe for fostering innovation, is it?
Brian Lee Crowley (twitter.com/brianleecrowley) is the Managing Director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an independent non-partisan public policy think tank in Ottawa: www.macdonaldlaurier.ca. |
Remember The Big Dipper Pizza from Pizza Hut? Starting Monday, April 27th Pizza Hut will be offering The Big Flavor Dippers Pizza which takes advantage of all the new options from the Flavor of Now menu which launched last November. Get a one topping Big Flavor Dippers Pizza plus four dipping sauces for $12.99.
The Pizza is designed for dipping, the Big Flavor Dippers Pizza is a nearly two-foot long pizza that’s divided into 24 dipping strips, making the pizza eating experience interactive and fun. The pizza comes with a choice of 10 crust flavors from the new Flavor of Now™ menu, such as Hut Favorite, Toasted Cheddar and Salted Pretzel, as well as four flavorful dipping sauces including Marinara, Ranch, Barbeque and Honey Sriracha.
The Big Flavor Dippers Pizza is one more way to enjoy Stuffed Crust Pizza with more flavor than ever before. As part of the Flavor of Now menu launch in November, Stuffed Crust can be ordered with any of the 10 new crust flavors, and include any of the five new base sauces, four all-new sauce drizzles and five new premium ingredients. |
Youths have barricaded themselves inside Al Aqsa amid protests over access to the site, Islam’s third-holiest site, which is also venerated by Jews as the Temple Mount.
Jerusalem // Israeli security forces entered the Al Aqsa compound on Monday for a second straight day, sparking a stern warning from Jordan’s king.
“Any more provocation in Jerusalem will affect the relationship between Jordan and Israel” which have a 1994 peace accord, said King Abdullah II after talks with visiting British prime minister David Cameron.
“Jordan will not have a choice but to take actions,” he said on the second day of clashes between Muslims and Israeli police as Jews celebrated their new year and protesters vowed to protect Islam’s third-holiest site.
Israeli police fired stun grenades while hitting and kicking demonstrators and journalists as they sought to push back crowds.
They arrested five demonstrators in the compound on Monday and visits went ahead as planned.
Four others were arrested in skirmishes between security forces and protesters in the surrounding alleys of Jerusalem’s Old City.
“Israel is playing with fire,” Palestine Liberation Organisation senior official Hanan Ashrawi said on Monday.
“Clearly, Israel is deliberately creating and escalating a situation of instability, insecurity and violence, thereby incrementally assuring by force its power/security control in preparation for the total annexation and transformation of Al-Haram Al-Sharif.”
Muslims refer to the entire compound as Al-Haram Al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, while Jews venerate it as the Temple Mount.
Muslim protesters fear Israel will seek to change rules governing the site, with far-right Jewish groups pushing for more access to the compound and efforts by fringe organisations to erect a new temple.
Israel seized east Jerusalem, taking it over from Jordanian administration, in the Six Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.
Jordan has custodian rights over the Al Aqsa mosque compound.
The kingdom – the only Arab state with Egypt to have a peace treaty with Israel – recalled its Tel Aviv ambassador in November after similar clashes, returning him to his post three months later.
Amid the heightened tensions in Jerusalem, police said on Monday that an Israeli died after attackers pelted his car with rocks in Jerusalem.
Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the man was injured as he was driving home from a meal marking the Jewish new year and later died of his injuries.
Mr Netanyahu has called an “emergency meeting” of members of his cabinet to discuss ways to curb stone-throwing and petrol bombs following a number of recent incidents.
The meeting will be held on Tuesday night following the end of the Jewish new year holiday, a government official said.
* Agence France-Presse, additional reporting from Associated Press |
Bees captured on Pier 92 at 52nd Street and 12th Avenue on May 20, 2012. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Tom Liddy
HELL'S KITCHEN — It was like something out of a Stephen King novel.
A terrified family found themselves helpless and trapped inside their own vehicle Sunday afternoon, stuck in a parking lot at Pier 92 and engulfed in a massive swarm of bees.
Officials said a call first came in at 3:31 p.m. for a family of three locked inside their vehicle on the uppermost floor of an open air parking garage on West 55th Street and 12th Avenue.
Responders, including the NYPD's resident beekeeper Anthony Planakis, swooped in to find the family's black Volvo SUV immobilized by a swarm of at least 10,000 honey bees.
The family, described as a couple and their child, contacted 911, and help arrived.
Rescuers discovered that a hive had been forming on the passenger's side-view mirror. The NYPD helped the family escape through the driver's side window successfully, without disturbing the bees or inciting stings.
NYPD bee specialist Anthony Planakis captures bees from a car on Pier 92 at 52nd Street and 12th Avenue on May 20, 2012. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Tom Liddy
"The husband, he was scared," said Planakis. "I said 'Don't worry, and get your car washed as soon as possible,'" in order to wash off any scent other bees might be attracted to and try to colonize on, which is a danger, he said.
Planakis was called in around 3:45 p.m. to gather the bees with a special vacuum. He thought that the mobile beehive began forming when the queen drifted off from a larger hive from somewhere nearby. He suggested they migrated from an air conditioning unit or the Hudson River Park.
Planakis said there was already wax building up on the passenger's side mirror of the vehicle.
Several bee infestations have been reported this spring, with two other mammoth masses discovered this week alone, one on Manhattan's Bowery and another in the Westchester Square area of the Bronx.
Until Sunday, no city dwellers had been held hostage by or had potentially dangerous encounters with the insects.
As Planakis pointed out, the bees hadn't yet been seeking out waterfront property.
"They take the most expensive part of Manhattan to start a home," he joked. |
A week after the brutal killing of six Assam Rifles personnel by insurgent groups in Chandel district of Manipur, security agencies launched a psy-op that sent the Home ministry into a tizzy.
A WhatsApp message circulated on Sunday within top hierarchies of Assam Rifles officials and other paramilitary forces stated that Assam Rifles had carried out a clandestine operation inside Myanmar and neutralised militants responsible for the killings. While the bravado in the tone of the message is unmistakable, what has got the Home ministry’s goat is the reference to the prime minister’s name in the massage. It says the operation was carried out at his behest.
Senior officials of the ministry admitted that the message was damaging as it needlessly dragged the PM’s name into an operational matter. Intelligence agencies have traced the origin of the message to a section of Assam Rifles officials who seemed to have taken upon themselves the responsibility of launching a psy-op of sorts to cover up their failure to protect its personnel. The move, however, proved to be counter-productive.
As of now, the fact remains that the claim of conducting the so-called operation in Myanmar is not substantiated. Officials in Manipur are unaware of any such operation. Similarly, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has conveyed to the government that those making such claims are spreading lies.
The reason for this claim is not far to seek. After six jawans were killed by insurgents in Chandel district bordering Myanmar, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is learnt to have conveyed his displeasure to the top bosses of the force. He was particularly irked by the fact that though there was specific intelligence about the possibility of an ambush, Assam Rifles bosses chose to ignore it. Exactly a year back, 16 Army jawans were killed in the same district in an ambush laid by the Khaplang group of Naga insurgents. The Army then claimed to have carried out surgical strikes across Myanmar as retaliation though authorities in Myanmar denied it.
What appears to be worrisome is the subtext of the story in the North East which is clearly indicative of a massive drift in the government’s security strategy in the sensitive parts of the region. There are all indications that Assam Rifles which works under the operational control of the Defence ministry is completely out of sync with the Home ministry. What compounds the confusion is the overbearing influence of the Prime Minister’s Office and National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval in all security matters related to the area.
Nothing illustrates this policy drift more clearly than the manner in which the Naga insurgents (NSCN-IM) are given a free run in Nagaland and adjoining territories, including Chandel district. Intelligence agencies are particularly alarmed over the fact that NSCN-IM, after creating a smokescreen of a peace accord with the Centre, has launched a massive recruitment drive to bolster its ranks. Sources in Nagaland government admit that Issac-Muivah group has been able to raise an army of 6,000 cadres who are being trained openly in various parts of the state.
“Those attending the camps are given assurance that they would be inducted into the central paramilitary forces,” pointed out officials in Nagaland who are alarmed over the development. “What will happen if these freshly recruited cadres with training take to guns against our own forces?” asked a senior police officer who has long experience of dealing with Naga insurgents.
The primacy of North East in the prime minister’s agenda is often over-emphasised.
The framework of the Nagaland peace accord, projected as a great achievement of the Modi government, proved to be nothing more than optics. The draft of the agreement arrived at between Centre’s interlocutor RN Ravi and NSCN-IM general secretary T Muivah on August 3, 2015 at the prime minister’s residence is still shrouded in secrecy.
Modi has frequently toured the region and promised to develop it as an energy hub and a growth centre by launching a slew of developmental initiatives, including linking the region to Bangladesh and making it a window to South East Asia. The BJP’s electoral victory in Assam has further emboldened the government to expand its political footprint in the region which was hitherto inaccessible to the Hindutva forces.
Given the history of insurgency in the region since 1947 any misstep could prove damaging to both the government and the BJP. The chest-thumping and display of hubris by the forces can only aggravate matters in the troubled zone.
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Elizabeth Blackwell (February 3, 1821 – May 31, 1910) was a British physician, notable as the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, and the first woman on the Medical Register of the General Medical Council.[1] Elizabeth Blackwell played an important role in both the United States and the United Kingdom as a social and moral reformer. She acted as a pioneer in promoting the education of women in medicine. Elizabeth Blackwell's contributions remain celebrated through an Elizabeth Blackwell medal that is awarded to one woman every year who has added to the cause of promoting women in medicine.[1] Furthermore, Hobart and William Smith College recently created a statue on their campus honoring Elizabeth Blackwell.[2]
Elizabeth Blackwell was initially uninterested in a career in medicine especially after her schoolteacher brought in a bull's eye to use as a teaching tool.[1] Therefore, she became a schoolteacher in order to support her family. This occupation was seen as suitable for women during the 1800s, however, being a schoolteacher did not interest Blackwell. Blackwell's motivation to go into medicine came after her friend fell ill and suggested that if a female doctor had cared for her, she might not have suffered so much.[1] Blackwell began to apply to medical schools, however, she endured a lot of prejudice due to her gender. She was rejected from all the medical schools she applied to except Geneva Medical College. In 1847 Blackwell became the first woman to attend medical school in the United States.[1]
Elizabeth Blackwell had her inaugural thesis on typhoid fever published in the Buffalo Medical Journal right after she graduated from college in 1849.[3] This article was the first medical article published by a female student from the United States. Her article portrayed a strong sense of empathy and sensitivity to human suffering as well as a strong desire for social and economic justice.[3] This point of view was considered very feminine.[3] Furthermore, in 1857, Blackwell also opened up the New York Infirmary for Women and Children with her sister Emily. She also gave lectures to women about the importance of educating girls.[2]
Early life [ edit ]
Elizabeth was born on February 3, 1821, in Bristol, England, to Samuel Blackwell, who was a sugar refiner, and his wife Hannah (Lane) Blackwell.[4] She had two older siblings, Anna and Marian, and would eventually have six younger siblings: Samuel (married Antoinette Brown), Henry (married Lucy Stone), Emily (third woman in the U.S. to get a medical degree), Sarah Ellen (a writer), John and George. She also had four maiden aunts: Barbara, Ann, Lucy, and Mary, who also lived with them.[4]
In 1832, the family emigrated from Bristol, England to New York because Samual Blackwell had lost their most profitable sugar refinery to a fire.[2] In New York, her father became active in abolitionist work. Therefore, their dinnertime discussions often surrounded issues such as women's rights, slavery, and child labor. These liberal discussions reflected Hannah and Samual's attitudes toward child rearing. For example, rather than beating the children for bad behavior, Barbara Blackwell recorded their trespasses in a black book. If the offenses accumulated, the children would be exiled to the attic during dinner. Samual Blackwell was similarly liberal in his attitude towards the education of his children.[4] Samuel Blackwell was a Congregationalist and exerted a strong influence over the religious and academic education of his children. He believed that each child, including his girls, should be given the opportunity for unlimited development of their talents and gifts. This perspective was rare during that time, as most people believed that the women's place was in the home or as a schoolteacher. Blackwell had not only a governess, but private tutors to supplement her intellectual development.[1] As a result, she was rather socially isolated from all but her family as she grew up.[5]
A few years after the family moved to New York, the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. When Blackwell was 17 her father passed away, leaving the family with very little money.
Early adulthood [ edit ]
The Blackwells' financial situation was unfortunate. Pressed by financial need, the sisters Anna, Marian and Elizabeth started a school, The Cincinnati English and French Academy for Young Ladies, which provided instruction in most, if not all, subjects and charged for tuition and room and board. The school was not terribly innovative in its education methods – it was merely a source of income for the Blackwell sisters.[5] Blackwell's abolition work took a back seat during these years, most likely due to the academy.[4]
Blackwell converted to Episcopalianism, probably due to her sister Anna's influence, in December 1838, becoming an active member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. However, William Henry Channing's arrival in 1839 to Cincinnati changed her mind. Channing, a charismatic Unitarian minister, introduced the ideas of transcendentalism to Blackwell, who started attending the Unitarian Church. A conservative backlash from the Cincinnati community ensued, and as a result, the academy lost many pupils and was abandoned in 1842. Blackwell began teaching private pupils.[4]
Channing's arrival renewed Blackwell's interests in education and reform. She worked at intellectual self-improvement: studying art, attending various lectures, writing short stories and attending various religious services in all denominations (Quaker, Millerite, Jewish). In the early 1840s, she began to articulate thoughts about women's rights in her diaries and letters and participated in the Harrison political campaign of 1840.[4]
In 1844, with the help of her sister Anna, Blackwell procured a teaching job that paid $1,000 per year in Henderson, Kentucky. Although she was pleased with her class, she found the accommodations and schoolhouse lacking. What disturbed her most was that this was her first real encounter with the realities of slavery. "Kind as the people were to me personally, the sense of justice was continually outraged; and at the end of the first term of engagement I resigned the situation."[6] She returned to Cincinnati only half a year later, resolved to find a more stimulating way to spend her life.[7]
Education [ edit ]
Pursuit of medical education [ edit ]
Once again, through her sister Anna, Blackwell procured a job, this time teaching music at an academy in Asheville, North Carolina, with the goal of saving up the $3,000 necessary for her medical school expenses. In Asheville, Blackwell lodged with the respected Reverend John Dickson, who happened to have been a physician before he became a clergyman. Dickson approved of Blackwell's career aspirations and allowed her to use the medical books in his library to study. During this time, Blackwell soothed her own doubts about her choice and her loneliness with deep religious contemplation. She also renewed her antislavery interests, starting a slave Sunday school that was ultimately unsuccessful.[4]
Dickson's school closed down soon after, and Blackwell moved to the residence of Reverend Dickson's brother, Samuel Henry Dickson, a prominent Charleston physician. She started teaching in 1846 at a boarding school in Charleston run by a Mrs. Du Pré. With the help of Reverend Dickson's brother, Blackwell inquired into the possibility of medical study via letters, with no favorable responses. In 1847, Blackwell left Charleston for Philadelphia and New York, with the aim of personally investigating the opportunities for medical study. Blackwell's greatest wish was to be accepted into one of the Philadelphia medical schools.[7]
My mind is fully made up. I have not the slightest hesitation on the subject; the thorough study of medicine, I am quite resolved to go through with. The horrors and disgusts I have no doubt of vanquishing. I have overcome stronger distastes than any that now remain, and feel fully equal to the contest. As to the opinion of people, I don't care one straw personally; though I take so much pains, as a matter of policy, to propitiate it, and shall always strive to do so; for I see continually how the highest good is eclipsed by the violent or disagreeable forms which contain it.[6]
Upon reaching Philadelphia, Blackwell boarded with Dr. William Elder and studied anatomy privately with Dr. Jonathan M. Allen as she attempted to get her foot in the door at any medical school in Philadelphia.[4] She was met with resistance almost everywhere. Most physicians recommended that she either go to Paris to study or that she take up a disguise as a man to study medicine. The main reasons offered for her rejection were that (1) she was a woman and therefore intellectually inferior, and (2) she might actually prove equal to the task, prove to be competition, and that she could not expect them to "furnish [her] with a stick to break our heads with". Out of desperation, she applied to twelve "country schools".
Medical education in the United States [ edit ]
In October 1847, Blackwell was accepted as a medical student by Hobart College, then called Geneva Medical College, located in upstate New York. The dean and faculty, usually responsible for evaluating an applicant for matriculation, were not able to make a decision due to the special nature of Blackwell's case. They put the issue up to a vote by the 150 male students of the class with the stipulation that if one student objected, Blackwell would be turned away. The young men voted unanimously to accept her.[9][10]
When Blackwell arrived at the college, she was rather nervous. Nothing was familiar – the surroundings, the students, and the faculty. She did not even know where to get her books. However, she soon found herself at home in medical school.[4] While she was at school, she was looked upon as an oddity by the townspeople of Geneva. She also rejected suitors and friends alike, preferring to isolate herself. In the summer between her two terms at Geneva, she returned to Philadelphia, stayed with Dr. Elder, and applied for medical positions in the area to gain clinical experience. The Guardians of the Poor, the city commission that ran Blockley Almshouse, granted her permission to work there, albeit not without some struggle. Blackwell slowly gained acceptance at Blockley, although some young resident physicians still would walk out and refuse to assist her in diagnosing and treating her patients. During her time there, Blackwell gained valuable clinical experience but was appalled by the syphilitic ward and those afflicted with typhus. Her graduating thesis at Geneva Medical College was on the topic of typhus. The conclusion of this thesis linked physical health with socio-moral stability – a link that foreshadows her later reform work.[4]
On January 23, 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to achieve a medical degree in the United States. The local press reported her graduation favorably, and when the dean, Dr. Charles Lee, conferred her degree, he stood up and bowed to her.[11]
Medical education in Europe [ edit ]
In April, 1849, Blackwell made the decision to continue her studies in Europe. She visited a few hospitals in Britain and then headed to Paris. Her experience there was similar to her experience in America; she was rejected by many hospitals because of her gender. In June, Blackwell enrolled at La Maternité; a "lying-in" hospital,[9] under the condition that she would be treated as a student midwife, not a physician. She made the acquaintance of Hippolyte Blot, a young resident physician at La Maternité. She gained much medical experience through his mentoring and training. By the end of the year, Paul Dubois, the foremost obstetrician in his day, had voiced his opinion that she would make the best obstetrician in the United States, male or female.[7]
On 4 November 1849, when Blackwell was treating an infant with ophthalmia neonatorum, she spurted some contaminated solution into her own eye accidentally and contracted the infection. She lost sight in her left eye, causing her to have her eye surgically extracted and thus lost all hope of becoming a surgeon.[7] After a period of recovery, she enrolled at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London in 1850. She regularly attended James Paget's lectures. She made a positive impression there, although she did meet some opposition when she tried to observe the wards.[4]
Feeling that the prejudice against women in medicine was not as strong there, Blackwell returned to New York City in 1851 with the hope of establishing her own practice.[4]
Career [ edit ]
Medical career in the United States [ edit ]
Stateside, Blackwell was faced with adversity, but did manage to get some media support from entities such as the New-York Tribune.[7] She had very few patients, a situation she attributed to the stigma of women doctors as abortionists. In 1852, she began delivering lectures and published The Laws of Life with Special Reference to the Physical Education of Girls, her first work, a volume about the physical and mental development of girls that concerned itself with the preparation of young women for motherhood.[4]
The Woman's Medical College of the New York Infirmary. [Announcement, 1868–69].
In 1853, Blackwell established a small dispensary near Tompkins Square. She also took Marie Zakrzewska, a Polish woman pursuing a medical education, under her wing, serving as her preceptor in her pre-medical studies. In 1857, Dr. Marie Zakrzewska, along with Blackwell and her sister Emily, who had also obtained a medical degree, expanded Blackwell's original dispensary into the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children. Women served on the board of trustees, on the executive committee and as attending physicians. The institution accepted both in- and outpatients and served as a nurse's training facility. The patient load doubled in the second year.[4]
Civil War efforts [ edit ]
When the American Civil War broke out, the Blackwell sisters aided in nursing efforts. Blackwell sympathized heavily with the North due to her abolitionist roots, and even went so far as to say she would have left the country if the North had compromised on the subject of slavery.[12] However, Blackwell did meet with some resistance on the part of the male-dominated United States Sanitary Commission. The male physicians refused to help with the nurse education plan if it involved the Blackwells. In response to the USSC, Blackwell organized with the Woman's Central Relief Association. The WCRA worked against the problem of uncoordinated benevolence, but ultimately was absorbed by the USSC.[13] Still, the New York Infirmary managed to work with Dorothea Dix to train nurses for the Union effort.[12]
Medical career at home and abroad [ edit ]
Blackwell made several trips back to Britain to raise funds and to try to establish a parallel infirmary project there. In 1858, under a clause in the Medical Act of 1858 that recognised doctors with foreign degrees practicing in Britain before 1858, she was able to become the first woman to have her name entered on the General Medical Council's medical register (1 January 1859).[14] She also became a mentor to Elizabeth Garrett Anderson during this time. By 1866, nearly 7,000 patients were being treated per year at the New York Infirmary, and Blackwell was needed back in the United States. The parallel project fell through, but in 1868, a medical college for women adjunct to the infirmary was established. It incorporated Blackwell's innovative ideas about medical education – a four-year training period with much more extensive clinical training than previously required.[4]
At this point, a rift occurred between Emily and Elizabeth Blackwell. Both were extremely headstrong, and a power struggle over the management of the infirmary and medical college ensued.[4] Elizabeth, feeling slightly alienated by the United States women's medical movement, left for Britain to try to establish medical education for women there. In July 1869, she sailed for Britain.[4]
In 1874, Blackwell established a women's medical school in London with Sophia Jex-Blake, who had been a student at the New York Infirmary years earlier. Blackwell had doubts about Jex-Blake and thought that she was dangerous, belligerent, and tactless.[15] Nonetheless, Blackwell became deeply involved with the school, and it opened in 1874 as the London School of Medicine for Women, with the primary goal of preparing women for the licensing exam of Apothecaries Hall. Blackwell vehemently opposed the use of vivisections in the laboratory of the school.[4]
After the establishment of the school, Blackwell lost much of her authority to Jex-Blake and was elected as a lecturer in midwifery. She resigned this position in 1877, officially retiring from her medical career.[4]
While Blackwell viewed medicine as a means for social and moral reform, her student Mary Putnam Jacobi focused on curing disease. At a deeper level of disagreement, Blackwell felt that women would succeed in medicine because of their humane female values, but Jacobi believed that women should participate as the equals of men in all medical specialties.[16]
Time in Europe – social and moral reform [ edit ]
Blackwell was commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp in 1974, designed by Joseph Stanley Kozlowski . Syracuse University Medical School collection.
After leaving for Britain in 1869, Blackwell diversified her interests, and was active both in social reform and authorship. She co-founded the National Health Society in 1871. She perceived herself as a wealthy gentlewoman who had the leisure to dabble in reform and in intellectual activities – the income from her American investments supported her.[4] She was rather occupied with her social status, and her friend, Barbara Bodichon helped introduce Blackwell into her circles. She travelled across Europe many times during these years, in England, France, Wales, Switzerland and Italy.[4]
Her greatest period of reform activity was after her retirement from the medical profession, from 1880–1895. Blackwell was interested in a great number of reform movements – mainly moral reform, sexual purity, hygiene and medical education, but also preventative medicine, sanitation, eugenics, family planning, women's rights, associationism, Christian socialism, medical ethics and antivivisection – none of which ever came to real fruition.[4] She switched back and forth between many different reform organisations, trying to maintain a position of power in each. Blackwell had a lofty, elusive and ultimately unattainable goal: evangelical moral perfection. All of her reform work was along this thread. She even contributed heavily to the founding of two utopian communities: Starnthwaite and Hadleigh in the 1880s.[4]
She believed that the Christian morality ought to play as large a role as scientific inquiry in medicine and that medical schools ought to instruct students in this basic truth. She also was antimaterialist and did not believe in vivisections. She did not see the value of inoculation and thought it dangerous. She believed that bacteria were not the only important cause of disease and felt their importance was being exaggerated.[17]
She campaigned heavily against licentiousness, prostitution and contraceptives, arguing instead for the rhythm method.[18] She campaigned against the Contagious Diseases Acts, arguing that it was a pseudo-legalisation of prostitution. Her 1878 Counsel to Parents on the Moral Education of their Children was an essay on prostitution and marriage arguing against the Contagious Diseases Acts. She was conservative in all senses except that she believed women to have sexual passions equal to those of men, and that men and women were equally responsible for controlling those passions.[19] Others of her time believed women to have little if any sexual passion, and placed the responsibility of moral policing squarely on the shoulders of the woman. The book was controversial, being rejected by 12 publishers, before being printed by Hatchard and Company. The proofs for the original edition were destroyed by a member of the publisher's board and a change of title was required for a new edition to be printed.
Personal life [ edit ]
Friends and family [ edit ]
Blackwell was well connected, both in the United States and in the United Kingdom. She exchanged letters with Lady Byron about women's rights issues, and became very close friends with Florence Nightingale, with whom she discussed opening and running a hospital together. She remained lifelong friends with Barbara Bodichon, and met Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1883. She was close with her family, and visited her brothers and sisters whenever she could during her travels.[4]
However, Blackwell had a very strong personality, and was often quite acerbic in her critique of others, especially of other women. Blackwell had a falling out with Florence Nightingale after Nightingale returned from the Crimean War. Nightingale wanted Blackwell to turn her focus to training nurses, and could not see the legitimacy of training female physicians.[12] After that, Blackwell's comments upon Florence Nightingale's publications were often highly critical.[20] She was also highly critical of many of the women's reform and hospital organisations in which she played no role, calling some of them "quack auspices".[21] Blackwell also did not get along well with her more stubborn sisters Anna and Emily, or with the women physicians she mentored after they established themselves (Marie Zakrzewska, Sophia Jex-Blake and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson). Among women at least, Blackwell was very assertive and found it difficult to play a subordinate role.[4]
Kitty Barry [ edit ]
Elizabeth Blackwell, 1905. Courtesy of Blackwell Family Papers, Schlesinger Library. Photograph of an older Elizabeth Blackwell with her adopted daughter Kitty and two dogs, 1905.
In 1856, when Blackwell was establishing the New York Infirmary, she adopted Katherine "Kitty" Barry (1848-1936), an Irish orphan from the House of Refuge on Randall's Island. Diary entries at the time show that she adopted Barry half out of loneliness and a feeling of obligation, and half out of a utilitarian need for domestic help.[22] Barry was brought up as a half-servant, half-daughter.[4]
Blackwell did provide for Barry's education. She even instructed Barry in gymnastics as a trial for the theories outlined in her publication, The Laws of Life with Special Reference to the Physical Education of Girls.[12] However, Blackwell never permitted Barry to develop her own interests. She didn't make an effort to introduce Barry to young men or women of her age. Barry herself was rather shy, awkward and self-conscious about her slight deafness.[4] Barry followed Blackwell during her many trans-Atlantic moves, during her furious house hunt between 1874 and 1875, during which they moved six times, and finally to Blackwell's final home, Rock House, a small house off Exmouth Place in Hastings, Sussex, in 1879.[4]
Barry stayed with Blackwell all her life. After Blackwell's death, Barry stayed at Rock House, and then moved to Kilmun in Argyllshire, Scotland, where Blackwell was buried in the churchyard of St Munn's Parish Church.[23] In 1920, she moved in with the Blackwells and took the Blackwell name. On her deathbed, in 1930, Barry called Blackwell her "true love", and requested that her ashes be buried with those of Elizabeth.[24]
Private life [ edit ]
None of the five Blackwell sisters ever married. Elizabeth thought courtship games were foolish early in her life, and prized her independence.[4] When commenting on the young men trying to court her during her time in Kentucky, she said: "...do not imagine I am going to make myself a whole just at present; the fact is I cannot find my other half here, but only about a sixth, which would not do."[7] Even during her time at Geneva Medical College, she rejected advances from a few suitors.[7]
There was one slight controversy, however, in Blackwell's life related to her relationship with Alfred Sachs, a 26-year-old man from Virginia. He was very close with both Kitty Barry and Blackwell, and it was widely believed in 1876 that he was a suitor for Barry, who was 29 at the time. The reality was that Blackwell and Sachs were very close, so much so that Barry felt uncomfortable being around the two of them. Sachs was very interested in Blackwell, then 55 years old. Barry was in love with Sachs, and was mildly jealous of Blackwell.[25] Blackwell thought that Sachs lived a life of dissipation and believed that she could reform him. In fact, the majority of her 1878 publication Counsel to Parents on the Moral Education of the Children was based on her conversations with Sachs. Blackwell stopped correspondence with Alfred Sachs after the publication of her book.[4]
Last years and death [ edit ]
Blackwell, in her later years, was still relatively active. In 1895, she published her autobiography, Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women. It was not very successful, selling fewer than 500 copies.[4] After this publication, Blackwell slowly relinquished her public reform presence, and spent more time traveling. She visited the United States in 1906 and took her first and last car ride. Blackwell's old age was beginning to limit her activities.[4]
In 1907, while holidaying in Kilmun, Scotland, Blackwell fell down a flight of stairs, and was left almost completely mentally and physically disabled.[26] On 31 May 1910, she died at her home in Hastings, Sussex, after suffering a stroke that paralyzed half her body. Her ashes were buried in the graveyard of St Munn's Parish Church, Kilmun, and obituaries honouring her appeared in publications such as The Lancet[27] and The British Medical Journal.[28]
The British artist Edith Holden, whose Unitarian family were Blackwell's relatives, was given the middle name "Blackwell" in her honor.
Legacy [ edit ]
Influence [ edit ]
After Elizabeth Blackwell graduated from University in 1849, her thesis on typhoid fever was published in the Buffalo Medical Journal.[3] In 1857, Blackwell opened up the New York Infirmary for Women with her younger sister Emily. At the same time, she also gave lectures to women in The United States and England about the importance of educating women and the profession of medicine for women.[2] In the audience at one of her lectures in England, was a woman named Elizabeth Garrett Anderson who later became the first woman doctor in England in 1865.[2] Furthermore, Blackwell played a large role during the civil war in organizing the nurses. In 1874, Blackwell worked together with Florence Nightingale, Sophia Jex-Blake, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Emily Blackwell, and Thomas Henry Huxley in order to create the first medical school for women in England called, London School of Medicine for Women. Blackwell acted as the Chair of Hygiene.[2] Blackwell settled in England in the 1870s and continued with working on expanding the profession of medicine for women. She influenced as much as 476 women to become registered medical women in England alone.[2] Up until her death, Blackwell worked in an active practice in Hastings, England. She still did lectures at the School of Medicine for Women. Throughout her lifetime, she authored, The Laws of Life in Relation to the Physical Education of Girls, The Human Element in Sex, The Religion of Health, and The Moral Education of the Young in Relation. [2]
Honors [ edit ]
Two institutions honour Elizabeth Blackwell as an alumna:
Since 1949, the American Medical Women's Association has awarded the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal annually to a woman physician.[29] Hobart and William Smith Colleges awards an annual Elizabeth Blackwell Award to women who have demonstrated "outstanding service to humankind."[30]
In 1973, Elizabeth Blackwell was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.[31]
The artwork The Dinner Party features a place setting for Elizabeth Blackwell.[32]
In 2013 the University of Bristol launched the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research.
On February 3, 2018, Google honoured her as a doodle in recognition of her 197th birth anniversary.[33]
In May 2018, a commemorative plaque was unveiled at the former location of the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, which Elizabeth Blackwell and her sister Emily Blackwell founded.[34][35]
Jill Platner, a jewelry designer, designed a Blackwell Collection of jewelry inspired by Elizabeth Blackwell.[34][36]
Works [ edit ]
1849 The Causes and Treatment of Typhus, or Shipfever (thesis)
(thesis) 1852 The Laws of Life with Special Reference to the Physical Education of Girls (brochure, compilation of lecture series) pub. by George Putnam
(brochure, compilation of lecture series) pub. by George Putnam 1856 An appeal in behalf of the medical education of women [37]
1860 Medicine as a Profession for Women (lecture published by the trustees of the New York Infirmary for Women)
(lecture published by the trustees of the New York Infirmary for Women) 1864 Address on the Medical Education of Women [38]
1878 Counsel to Parents on the Moral Education of their Children in Relation to Sex (eight editions, republished as The Moral Education of the Young in Relation to Sex )
(eight editions, republished as ) 1881 "Medicine and Morality" (published in Modern Review )
) 1887 Purchase of Women: the Great Economic Blunder
1871 The Religion of Health (compilation of lecture series, three editions) [39] [40] [41]
(compilation of lecture series, three editions) 1883 Wrong and Right Methods of Dealing with Social Evil, as shown by English Parliamentary Evidence [42]
1888 On the Decay of Municipal Representative Government – A Chapter of Personal Experience (Moral Reform League)
(Moral Reform League) 1890 The Influence of Women in the Profession of Medicine [43]
1891 Erroneous Method in Medical Education etc. (Women's Printing Society)
(Women's Printing Society) 1892 Why Hygienic Congresses Fail
1895 Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women – Autobiographical Sketches (Longmans, reprinted New York: Schocken Books, 1977) [44]
(Longmans, reprinted New York: Schocken Books, 1977) 1898 Scientific Method in Biology
1902 Essays in Medical Sociology, 2 vols (Ernest Bell)
See also [ edit ]
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, first woman to gain a medical qualification in Britain
James Barry, possibly the first female bodied doctor (assigned female at birth but living as a man)
List of first female physicians by country
References [ edit ] |
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has teamed up with Twitter to launch a new service that allows government officials to send tweets via SMS in a move to boost e-governance in the world's largest democracy.
The service called Twitter Samvad – which means dialogue in Hindi – was unveiled by CEO Dick Costolo and Modi late Tuesday in New Delhi and is part of the government's Digital India program to transform the nation into a digitally empowered society.
A social media aficionado, Modi is known for his active presence on Twitter, amassing 10.9 million followers since joining the microblogging site in 2009. He is the second most followed politician behind U.S. President Barack Obama.
By enabling tweets to be sent out as an SMS, any Indian with a mobile device, with or without a data plan, is able to receive messages from political leaders and government bodies. Mobile users can activate the service through a missed call to an assigned phone number.
"People who sign up will receive a set of curated Tweets based on the highest engagement throughout the day to stay up-to-date with real-time information about government-related news, policies and activities," Twitter said.
Read More Cramer: Twitter flies higher for the long haul
"And you can use Twitter Samvad during emergency situations to receive live updates from government bodies, such as time-sensitive information and details about rescue efforts," it said.
So far, a total of 16 political leaders and ministries are linked up to Twitter Samvad. Modi was the first leader to kick off the service.
Twitter Samvad is built on the technology of ZipDial, a Bangalore-based mobile marketing and analytics company that Twitter acquired in January.
Political parties including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian National Congress partnered with Twitter and ZipDial to offer a similar service during 2014's general election to make their Twitter accounts accessible to all mobile users in India.
More recently, some local news outlets offered SMS tweets during the presentation of the government's annual budget on February 28.
Twitter's service of SMS tweets activated by a missed call is currently only available in India although the company is looking to roll out the service in other emerging markets. |
Larry O’Brien, fresh off propelling John F. Kennedy to his first Senate term, is busy plotting the young politician's ascent to the presidency, and in Minneapolis, the Westernmost city in the NBA, a professional basketball game is going down to the wire: It's Nov. 22, 1950, and the Fort Wayne Pistons trail the Minneapolis Lakers, the reigning champs, by one point.
But the 7,021 fans who flocked to the arena have dwindled to a small, irate crowd, as boos line the Minneapolis Auditorium. The nailbiter, as it turns out, was borne not from the natural ebb and flow of an entertaining basketball game, but a strategic exploit. Instead of oozing over the dominance of league MVP 6’10” George Mikan, fans are bearing witness to the tactical savvy of Fort Wayne Pistons coach Murray Mendenhall. He gave his point guard Ralph Johnson only one instruction: stall.
For the better part of 48 minutes, under the Pistons’ possession, the ball moves aimlessly from one side of the court to the other. Fans, Lakers’ players, and even the referees (the game’s official paragons for impartiality), implore them to try to score. In desperation, the Lakers resort to intentionally fouling to get the ball back. At the time, however, the rule book awarded a free throw for non-shooting fouls, so the Lakers’ adjustment effectively morphed the game into a glorified free throw shooting contest. In the end, the Pistons alleviate a talent deficiency, eeking out a 19-18 victory over the defending champs. It remains the lowest scoring game in league history.
For coaches, a tactical revolution was born. But professional basketball, a rickety commercial endeavor in its infancy, was dealt its biggest existential threat to date.
In the prophecy of Lakers coach Johny Kundla, ”play like that will kill professional basketball.”
It’s the spring of 1954, and inside the lounge of the Eastwood Sports Center, a bowling alley and coffee shop on the east side of Syracuse, are the three men who tasked themselves with saving the NBA. A half-century later, they have been forgotten in the annals of its history. There’s Danny Biasone, owner of both the bowling alley and the Syracuse Nationals, a central figure in the city’s civic and sporting culture. Beside him is Emil Barboni, the team’s head scout, as well as Leo Ferris, the Nationals GM, and an instrumental force in completing the merger that formed the NBA in 1949.
It’s been eight years, and the league Ferris helped create is perilously close to becoming just another relic of the 1950s. Viewership has plummeted, causing the 18 original teams to dwindle to just nine. As the pace of the game has slowed to a halt, so too has the NBA’s notoriety.
The trio can’t bear to watch the game they love erode at the hands of a statistical revelation, so they’re working on devising their own association.
Not only that, the Nationals, one of the speediest teams in the league, were being stymied from running their ideal offense. They were in search of a solution that would not only save the NBA, but the hopes of their team.
And so it was that, on the back of a napkin, the most important formula in NBA history was born.
It was not the product of a painstaking regression analysis; no lofty arithmetic was required in the process. In fact, they probably didn't even use a calculator. From analyzing box scores from the previous season, they merely deduced that the most entertaining games usually featured each team hoisting about sixty shots, or 120 per game. That number was divided by 48 minutes, or 2,880 seconds, the total time of an NBA game. The end product? 24 seconds.
David Dow/Getty Images
It’s Aug. 10, 1954, and on the westside of Syracuse, a series of owners and executives, from Red Auerbach and Clair Bee to Eddie Gottlieb, Ferris and Biasone, are gathered inside a small, tattered high school gym. The NBA’s leading power brokers, cramped into the metal rafters, nervously anticipated a possible solution to the league’s woes.
Biasone originally organized the first basketball game to incorporate at a different high school, but later opted to change the location to his alma mater, Blodgett Vocational High School. Sean Kirst, a former reporter for the Syracuse Post-Standard infers, “I always thought he must have had sense of the significance of the scrimmage.”
A collection of local college stars, and Nationals players who stuck around town in the summer, like Dolph Schayes and Billy Gabor, comprised the team. Al Cervi, the Nationals’ coach, played and officiated.
Chaos ruled the beginning of the game, and the fears of the pessimists laid bare: The mere notion of a shot clock has struck panic in the players’ minds, and rushed shots start flying off the their fingertips within the first few seconds of every possession. In time, though, an internal metronome begins to develop, and the the players adjust to the pace of the game.
At one juncture, Schayes finds himself with the ball in his hands, with nowhere to go. As the shot clock is set to expire, intuition springs. He slams the ball into the backboard, caroming it into the hands of his teammate, Billy Gabor, which resets the clock and incites the vital question: Does that qualify as a shot?
A timeout is called, and the ruling scions of the league convene to debate the issue. “This basic fundamental rule with the shot clock was decided on their feet,” remarks Danny Schayes, son of the late Dolph Schayes. “They thought about it and thought, if they just allowed people to slam it on the backboard, they could do that all day and make it a strategy.”
Charles T. Higgins/Getty Images
“As you can imagine, any [change] that fundamental was not an easy sell,” continues Schayes, but “the enthusiasm was so immediate that it was adopted right away. It fell into place. It just instantly created a much more pleasing game without fundamentally changing the game. It worked out beautifully.” By tip-off the following season, there was a shot clock being operated in every NBA arena.
The 24-second shot clock has lit the basketball world since its inception. Twenty stubborn years after the NBA, the NCAA would implement a 45-second shot clock, only to reduce it to 35 seconds less than a decade later, and then 30. In 2000, FIBA reduced the maximum length of a possession from 30 seconds to 24.
Of all the potential fixes to today’s game—widening the size of the court, banning intentional fouls, redefining shooting fouls—the length of the shot clock is one of the few rules that remains sacred.
A game that today, is increasingly seen through the lense of near-statistical truths, in an era where algorithms are considered more reliable than human brainpower, was saved on gut intuition. From a napkin-back to a high school gym to a huddle and a snap decision, these are the rules that now govern ballers' lives, an entire multi-billion dollar industry, a cultural artifact.
Sixty shots per team? Sounds about right.
The backboard? Nah, I don’t think it should count.
When the Nationals lost to the Lakers in the 1953 NBA Finals, George Mikan’s dominance down low was tailor-made to suit a slower game. The Lakers dictated the pace, and the Nationals were never able to gather the necessary head of steam. Fast-forward another year, and the Nats found themselves in a wholly different position.
It’s early in the second quarter of Game 7 of the NBA Finals, and the Nationals already trail the Fort Wayne Pistons by 17 points. But unlike seasons past, Fort Wayne can’t grind the action to a halt and seal the game by stalling and turning it into a free throw contest. Nats coach Cervi pulls two starters, Paul Seymour and George King, and inserts Kenville and Dick Farley. They serve as immediate spark plugs, cutting the Pistons’ lead to six by halftime. With twelve seconds left, the game is tied, and the Pistons send King, a weak free throw shooter, to the line. He nails one of two, and Syracuse escapes 92-91, with their first and only championship in franchise history.
None of this happens if they couldn’t amass what has become a defining staple of entertainment in the modern game, the essential consequence of the shot clock: a comeback.
Steven Freeman/Getty Images
Ferris, however, was not able to partake in the spoils of his success. In December 1954, despite the fact that the first-place Nationals were fielding their best team in franchise history, and team revenue was on the rise, the board of directors voted to accept his resignation.
In the intervening years, his contributions were stricken from memory. In its section on the history of the shot clock, even the NBA’s official encyclopedia fails to mention him. Biasone, who was inducted in the Naismith Hall of Fame posthumously, has enjoyed the lion’s share of credit for inventing the formula. But according to Ferris’s family, that interpretation of history has cast a shadow over his contributions.
It’s a summer night in 2014 and inside his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, Christian Figueroa is interrupted from his slumber by the voice of a dead man.
“It said 'Leo Ferris, Leo Ferris, Leo Ferris.'”
Figueroa, Leo’s great nephew, has been grieving the death of Leo’s daughter, Jamie, who succumbed to Huntington’s disease, the same ailment that killed Leo 20 years prior. That, along with his son’s burgeoning interest in basketball, reignited his frustration and reinvigorated a familial quest. “It literally woke me up,” says Christian. “This is what reinvigorated my passion. I had been playing with my son for the last couple weeks and something happened in the middle night that made the connection of like, ‘Oh my God, you still haven’t told your son.’ It reinvigorated in me a desire to share this part of our family history with him. It was almost out of a movie.”
Basketball was developing into a connective tissue for father and son, yet the younger Christian was unaware of his shared ancestry with one of the sport’s vital figures. Forget the Naismith Hall of Fame; he couldn’t walk into the Syracuse Hall of Fame and expect to find a mention of Leo.
Figueroa began tirelessly mining old newspaper articles, compiling a Wikia page with evidence of Ferris’s importance to the NBA and the Nationals. It includes anecdotes from the late Jack Andrews, who reported on the Nats for the Syracuse Post-Standard, and would recall watching Ferris scribble down different formulas on barroom napkins. Another excerpt cites Bob Sexton, the Nats publicity director, crediting Ferris for pushing the shot clock at a team banquet.
Screen shots from Syracuse.com
“Leo was a wizard with numbers all his life,” explains Figueroa. “We know Leo and Danny were trying to get to the bottom of it. They worked for the same goal, but the person who developed the formula and numbers was definitely Leo. This is what Leo was saying for quite a long time before he died. Once he leaves, the narrative of Danny being the sole inventor of the shot clock, nobody was there to dispute that. Certain people took credit for certain things that he’d done. Then, once he became ill, it was harder for him to speak up.”
Years of periodically lobbying the Syracuse Hall of Fame, requesting each new piece of Ferris’s story be added to his file, finally culminated this year into a nomination. He will be inducted posthumously, on Oct. 16.
And there there’s Barboni, who was a World War II trenchmate of Howard Hobson, the basketball coach at the University of Oregon and, later, Yale. In Hobson’s doctoral thesis at Columbia, a 13-year study later named “Scientific Basketball”, he became the first person to advocate for a shot clock. The two organized and coached basketball games with fellow soldiers, and after the war, Barboni kept close tabs on his old pal’s basketball career. So in March 1954, when the Post-Standard ran a banner headline on Hobson’s shot clock proposal being denied by the NCAA, it’s very unlikely that Barboni missed it. Paul Seymour, a former Nat, often said Barboni, too, was never given the credit he deserved.
None but the three could definitively state who had the “Eureka!” moment. History is wrought with blind spots, but this much is clear: Lasting ideas are often the product of the painstaking tinkering of multiple authors, long histories and strong peddling. The trio in the lounge of the Eastwood Sports Center would brainstorm, obsess over every detail, and quibble for hours on end in search of a solution. From Hobson’s mouth to Barboni’s, to the mathematical wizardry of Ferris, and Biasone’s weight with the NBA rules committee, in that moment and in the face of that problem, there might never have been a better combination of people to solve it.
In fact, it may have been one of the only moments that Ferris and Biasone saw eye to eye.
Biasone was, in the words of Danny Schayes, an “old school Italian”—the family patriarch, who ran his team like a family business, and took the utmost pride in the Nationals being a pillar of civic life. He considered bringing the All-Star Game to Syracuse in 1961 one of his crowning accomplishments, because he wanted to showcase it to the rest of the country as a world-class city. In fact, the team was christened the Nationals because Biasone wanted to market the city as the epicenter of American life.
Ferris, on the other hand, was a creative mercantilist. He was constantly trudging ahead, searching for an edge. In 1946, prior to the merger of the NBL and BAA, he was named the general manager of the NBL’s Buffalo Bisons. That offseason, he became the first GM in the history of professional basketball to usher in integration. Earl Lloyd was still a freshman at West Virginia State when Ferris signed William “Pop” Gates and Bobby Daugherty. The halftime show, meanwhile, was in its trial stage. Dog and pony shows, literally, were becoming a regular part of the attraction of an NBA game. Ferris pushed matters further, and in an effort to drive women to the stands, became the first GM to organize celebrity halftime shows. A dog jumping through a hoop is adorable, sure, but it couldn’t drive an audience like Duke Ellington performing on a revolving stage.
As electrifying of a change as it was, the conception of the shot clock represented unifying principles. It was a fusion of new and old, an innovation to be sure, but one dedicated to restoring the game to its original norms—a natural consensus-builder. Where Ferris saw evolution, Biasone saw preservation. And where Biasone was interested in restoring grace, Ferris was interested in capitalizing on it.
Leo Farris (second from left, in back) John Lent/AP
The details surrounding Ferris’s departure are murky, at best—an extension negotiation conducted in bad faith, nondescript quibbles with the team’s board of directors. Before his resignation, rumors were being floated that Ferris wanted to move to Detroit, a notion that surely would have angered Biasone. “He was pragmatic,” says Kirst of Ferris. “He was a businessman.”
In Kenville’s estimation, “the strained relationship between Leo Ferris and Danny Biasone had to do with him leaving.” This much is clear: The two men, at their core, were fundamentally different, Leo the Silicon Valley frontiersman to Biasone’s Rust Belt pride.
The 1954–1955 season was the progenitor to the large–scale corporation that now fields 30 teams and generated $5.9 billion in revenue in the 2015–2016 season. Thanks to the advent of the shot clock, the pace of the game immediately increased, and team scoring shot up by fourteen points per game. By 1958, the average was 106 points per game, and more importantly, attendance had increased by 40%. Early in the shot clock’s inaugural season, the financially strapped Baltimore Bullets were forced to fold. It would be the last time an NBA team ever folded.
League revenue began to swell like never before, as did the NBA’s burgeoning place in the cultural lexicon.
So much so that the shot clock that Biasone so passionately pushed for was threatening to push Syracuse out of the door. To boot, the popularization of commercial air travel opened the floodgates for Westward expansion across industries. The NBA salivated at the notion of pitching a tent in California, and as a result, Biasone had spent years resisting pressure to move the Nationals from Syracuse—the once-glimmering hub of American manufacturing, whose population peaked in 1950—to San Francisco.
By 1963, Biasone grew tired of fighting and sold the team to Philadelphia. He never stopped loving basketball, but in his later years, Biasone grew weary of the NBA’s corporate standing, the way he perceived industry to be distorting the purity of the game.
After Biasone’s death, the Eastwood Sports Center was demolished.
In downtown Syracuse, a monument to the shot clock, erected in 2005, stands in Armory Square. It is the city’s only enduring record of its legacy in NBA history.
The 2004–2005 NBA season gave birth to the pairing of Mike D’Antoni and Steve Nash, a wily, developing floor general who would eventually race his way to two MVP trophies. The moniker, Seven Seconds or Less, was a direct inspiration of their attack: To attempt a quality shot as early as possible, leaving significant time on the shot clock and ending possessions early. They took the league by storm, blitzing opponents on offense and finishing with a 62-20 record.
Basketball, like any self-contained ecosystem, is inextricably destined to change. Over time, manipulations give way to evolution, and the game is turned over on its head. The difference between D’Antoni and Mendenhall, the Fort Wayne coach who devised the stall, is that while Mendenhall threatened to displace the game, the Suns electrified it. They made basketball more fun.
Mendenhall’s innovation was truly a gimmick, designed to flatten talent disparities. D’Antoni’s strategy merely changed the type of talent that was valued, and in doing so, irrevocably changed the course of the game. This past season, the league’s average pace, at 96.4 possessions per game, surpassed those Suns by a half-possession, while the Golden State Warriors, eventual champions, proprietors of D’Antoni’s legacy, used 99.8 possessions per game. And as the rest of the league continues to catch up, even that figure could one day be left in the dust.
It’s June 12, 2017, and the Warriors are squaring off against the Cavaliers. At a breakneck pace, with an aesthetically pleasing style, tailor-made for the digital age, a captive TV audience of over 25 million viewers will watch as the Warriors cruise to their second championship in two years. They will be christened as the gold standard in the so-called “pace and space” era.
The NBA has evolved into a year-round corporate enterprise, a universally recognized American institution. The game’s biggest stars, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry, spar for 48 minutes as titans of industry, like Chris Rock, Snoop Dogg and Aaron Rodgers take in the action from courtside seats that retailed, for the first time in history, at six figures. At halftime, the Jabbawockeez, of America’s Best Dance Crew fame, performed to a sold-out crowd of over 19,000 fans. LeBron nails an off-balance jumper over Durant’s protruding arms, and at the 6:27 mark of the first quarter, Cleveland has already eclipsed the 19-point mark that spawned the NBA’s nightmares. Somewhere in the stands, the ghost of Leo Ferris smiles. |
I've always had a interest in nature since a young age and since early childhood took up angling which lead me to my now almost obsessive passion for freshwater fish. Though i dust of the rods every now and then most of my time now is spent filming and photographing them as I’m a full time wildlife photographer and film maker having worked with BBC Springwatch, The Wildlife Trust, RSPB, The Environment Agency and The Canal & River Trust.
Ruffe an often over looked species
There are 54 species present in the UK from the smallest, the 9 spined Stickleback and some primordial critters like the lamprey. Very few have been filmed some never before and i aim to change this.
Why should you help?
They face many dangers such as Invasive Species, Siltation, Habitat Destruction, Pollution, Barriers to name a few.
Showcasing these fish in a short film most of which the public would of never seen raises awareness for them and puts them in the conservation spotlight. Many nature reserves in the country have wetland habitats but few actually try to improve fish numbers or try to benefit the habitat solely for the fish. The money you donate helps me get the footage and then in turn help the fish by raising there profile
Pike in weeds
If you have locations that would be suitable for filming then please get in touch, needs to be clear water.
End Result
The aim is to film as many of the species with the space of a year, filming species and behaviour never before filmed.
A short film will be produced with clips of each species with insert films showing me going after certain species up and down the country. The film will be shown in Nottingham at a cinema for a private view and at a later date put online.
Contact
Email: jackperks07@hotmail.co.uk
Twitter Account https://twitter.com/RiverFishUk
Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/UkMiniFishStudy?cropsuccess
List of all 54 species
http://jackswildlifephotography.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/freshwater-fish-project-so-i-keep-going.html |
Hot Springs Police Officer Resigns, Arrested for Sexual Assault of a Minor Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Paul Allen was booked into Garland County Detention Center Wednesday (5/3) facing four counts of Sexual Assault in the second degree. [ + - ] Video
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - A Hot Springs Police Officer was arrested this morning for sexual assault of a minor.
Paul Henry Allen faces four counts of second degree sexual assault of minor. He resigned from the force Tuesday, one day before his arrest.
Garland County Deputies arrested him Wednesday (5/3) morning and booked him into jail on a $10,000 bond.
The allegations, as recent as April 17, range from rubbing a 9-year-old girl's bottom to trying to move her hand to his private area before she woke up.
According to the Hot Springs Police Department, Allen resigned Tuesday amid a criminal investigation by State Police and the Sheriff's Office.
According to the warrant, Allen admitted to touching the girl 4-5 times and that he was sorry for what he did and "does not want to go to prison."
Allen will have his first appearance in court May 15. |
The festival is notorious for its high number of drug arrests
IDO homeless run were reportedly on their way to preach against drugs
A Muslim charity group on their way to a Sydney music festival to preach against the use of drugs were stopped and raided by a large number of police.
IDO Homeless Run, also known as The White Coats were reportedly on their way to Stereosonic, a festival notorious for large amounts of drug arrests when over 100 police stopped the men in Lidcombe, west of Sydney on Saturday.
The charity group have since posted a video on their Facebook account explaining the situation and have launched a petition demanding an apology.
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Over 100 police officers stopped a Muslim charity group on their way to a music festival
A bystander witnessing the scene recorded a swarm of police and swat cars block the road and surround a group of men from the charity group.
'They were each searched individually and had their van searched as well with nothing incriminating found whatsoever.
'As time passed, more and more police officers were called down including a SWAT van with armed officers,' reads the online petition.
Frustrated with the manner in which the police conducted the search the leaders of the group attempted to explain their version of events.
‘[IDO Homeless Run attended] as concerned members of the community because we have lost ones down there to drugs and we went down there as a group.
‘On the way there we were pulled over by up to 150 officers, there was coppers with balaclaves, with their guns ready on stand by.
'We complied with all of their orders, they searched our van, they found nothing,'
IDO Homeless Run, also known as The White Coats wanted to preach against the use of drugs at the festival
The charity organisation also posted a video on their Facebook page where they explain that they were approached by police with balaclavas and 'guns ready on standby'
The petition has since gained over 6,000 signatures as they await the request of a public apology by the NSW police.
'They were told they were not allowed to go to the Festival as it would breach the peace, despite their well-founded intentions in assisting troubled youth.
'Although their reason may have been considered valid, the exaggerated response by the NSW Police force was nothing short of intimidating to the boys and caused much public embarrassment to their reputable charity organisation.'
The police allege although their intentions were not meant to harm, they will 'breach the peace' and on that basis they can't allow it to occur.
The petition has gained over 6,000 signatures after it was launched on Saturday night after the raid
Police stopped the group because they will 'breach the peace' and on that basis they can't allow it to occur |
Partial skeletal remains were found on the Big Island of Hawaii last month, near belongings marked with the name of missing woman Jessica Urbina (pictured)
Police on Hawaii's Big Island are trying to identify human remains that were found near personal items belonging to a Canadian woman who has been missing for about 15 years.
Local hunters found partial human skeletal remains last month in a remote area of the island's Puna district, about a half-mile from a subdivision called Hawaiian Paradise Park.
The remains have been sent to a mainland forensic laboratory and it could be a month or two before an identity is confirmed, Hawaii Police Department Lt. Greg Esteban said Wednesday.
Esteban did not specify how long it appears the body had been decomposing, and said all identifying features - including the person's sex - were impossible to ascertain.
He told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald that there was no 'obvious indicators on the remains that would tell us a cause or manner on how this person died.'
When police went to investigate the remains, they found weathered clothing and what appeared to be a sleeping bag. One of the items had a name on it: Jessica Urbina.
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Urbaina traveled to Hawaii in November 2000 and her family reported her missing a year later. The remains were found near the Hawaiian Paradise Park subdivision
The name led police to a missing person's report for her from 2001 at the Honolulu Police Department.
Urbina, of Montreal, Quebec, traveled alone to Hawaii on vacation in November 2000 when she was 21 years old and her family reported her missing a year later. At the time, she was described as being 5-foot-1 and 100 pounds with long black hair, brown eyes and fair skin. She would be 37 now.
A family friend told CTV that she traveled on an open ticket, and that the last person Urbina talked to on the phone was her mother. Urbina's mother noticed 'something wasn't quite right' during their conversation and that's when the family began to worry and reported her missing.
While Urbina has a living sister, both of her parents have since died of cancer.
Police are getting DNA samples from her family, he said. Hawaii County police have also opened a missing person case.
'We just want to emphasize: Until a validation is made, these are two separate investigations,' Esteban said.
'The picture is there and we’re hopeful that somebody will see it and go, "I remember her from several years ago" and contact us with any historical information they may have,' Esteban said.
Police are asking anyone with information to call Lieutenant Esteban at 808-961-2252 or email him at gregory.esteban@hawaiicounty.gov. |
As Bloomberg weighs White House run, Iowa voters ask, 'Who?'
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's latest flirtation with a White House run set the political world aflutter Saturday.
But in Iowa, some people wondered, who?
"I don't know anything about him," said Leslie McCreery, a 70-year-old Hillary Clinton supporter.
FILE - In this Dec. 3, 2015, file photo, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks during the C40 cities awards ceremony, in Paris. Bloomberg is taking some early steps toward launching a potential independent campaign for president. That's according to three people familiar with the billionaire media executive's plans. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly for Bloomberg. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)
Asked whether she was familiar with the three-term New York mayor, Clinton supporter Beverly Williams, 55, said, "No, I'm not."
Bloomberg's standing with politically savvy Iowans, who are used to getting attention from presidential candidates during both the primaries and general election — underscore one of his biggest challenges if he were to make a late entrance into the race. While the prospect of Bloomberg launching a third-party presidential campaign has been speculated about for years, he's largely unknown to many Americans and would be entering the race well after his rivals started introducing themselves to voters.
"Eighty percent of us in Iowa have probably made up our minds," said Angela Lambertz, a 42-year-old from Iowa City, who attended an event Saturday for Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate.
Bloomberg, a longtime Democrat who became a Republican, then switched to independent, is said to be strongly considering a bid if the general election becomes a contest between Sanders and Donald Trump.
Among Iowa voters attending campaign events Saturday, there were few Bloomberg fans.
"The communist? The anti-2nd Amendment mayor?" asked Claudia Springer, 63, of Bloomfield, Iowa, who was attending a rally for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a leading candidate in the Republican race.
Among those who identify with the Democratic race, Jeff Mussman, 59, of Camanche, Iowa, said he was aware of Bloomberg's post-mayoral efforts to promote tighter gun control laws, an effort he opposes.
"You can live in a big city and yeah, you might have to have gun control, but we're living here in the country," said Mussman, who plans to vote either for Clinton or Sanders (despite their support for stricter gun laws).
Bloomberg took hits from small-government conservatives when he tried to ban sales of sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin mocked him at a conservative forum in 2013, taking the stage with a "Big Gulp" soda.
"He's the Big Gulp guy," said Garren Bugh, 42, of Ankeny, Iowa, who also attended the Cruz event. "He's all about, 'I know better than you do.' It's the antithesis of America when we get down to micromanaging what people are drinking."
___
Associated Press writers Steve Peoples and Catherine Lucey contributed to this report from Iowa.
___ |
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - March 17, 2017) -
Editors Note: There are two photos associated with this press release.
Nutritional High International Inc. (the "Company" or "Nutritional High") (CSE:EAT)(CSE:EAT.CN)(OTCQB:SPLIF)(FRANKFURT:2NU) is pleased to announce several significant business milestones that Palo Verde LLC ("Palo Verde"), a company's licensed tenant in Colorado, has achieved.
FLI Product Sales Orders with LivWell
Palo Verde has shipped a large order of FLI cartridges to LivWell, one of the largest companies in the Colorado cannabis sector. LivWell employs hundreds of people in the State of Colorado and has fourteen dispensary locations.
David Johnson, Owner of Palo Verde commented - "We're pleased to be making significant progress on the sales side and have recognition of local players like LivWell. We look forward to building a long term business relationship with them as we continue to add more product lines under Nutritional High's FLI brand."
Jim Frazier, CEO of Nutritional High - "We have reached our first milestone, and now is our opportunity to penetrate the edible market with our first of kind innovative products. As we have taken methodical steps to make sure we had our new infused gourmet products formulated for taste, texture, and overall consumer experience we are pleased to announce that our new "FLI" Brand edible line will be launched in the coming weeks, in addition to the Fli branded cartridges now being shipped."
Product Roll-Out Update
At this time Palo Verde has initiated commercial sales of FLI-branded vape pen cartridges bulk oil distillate. The cartridges utilize ceramic hardware with no cotton wick, which produce no methane off gas, may be used with a wider range of batteries that are currently on the market (including high-power adjustable models) and are more aesthetically pleasing to consumers.
The subsequent MIPs products being introduced are FLI-branded disposable vape pens and gelatin capsules, which can be manufactured using the current infrastructure at the Pueblo facility. The team has also began formulating innovative edible products that will be manufactured at the Pueblo facility once the chocolate enrobing equipment has been installed and properly calibrated. Consistent with Nutritional High's vision, the team is placing emphasis on ability to manufacture the edible products on semi-automated basis in order to meet the market demand once the products are introduced for commercial sale. The edible products are expected to be introduced in the Spring of 2017.
Licensed cannabis businesses in the State of Colorado are subject to residency requirements, which precludes Nutritional High and its subsidiaries from having an interest in any proceeds as a result of production, processing or retail activities in the State of Colorado. Nutritional High is a landlord, and a lender to Palo Verde, and is in the process of entering in to agreements to provide consulting services and license its FLI brand to Palo Verde to ensure that all products produced under the FLI name and/or associated with Nutritional High brand meet or exceed the brand quality standards that Nutritional High is setting.
About Nutritional High International Inc.
Nutritional High is focused on developing, manufacturing and distributing products and nationally recognized brands in the hemp and marijuana-infused products industries, including edibles and oil extracts for nutritional, medical and adult recreational use. The Company works exclusively through licensed facilities in jurisdictions where such activity is permitted and regulated by state law.
For updates on the Company's activities and highlights of the Company's press releases and other media coverage, please follow Nutritional High on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+ or visit www.nutritionalhigh.com.
NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR OTC MARKETS GROUP INC., NOR THEIR REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDERS HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
This news release may contain forward-looking statements and information based on current expectations. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. Such statements include submission of the relevant documentation within the required timeframe and to the satisfaction of the relevant regulators, completing the acquisition of the applicable real estate and raising sufficient financing to complete the Company's business strategy. There is no certainty that any of these events will occur. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be correct. We assume no responsibility to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.
Company's securities have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or applicable state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold to, or for the account or benefit of, persons in the United States or "U.S. Persons", as such term is defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act, absent registration, or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in the United States or any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.
Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause the Company's actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as required by law.
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AP The National Security Agency isn't exactly dispelling the notion that it's spying on lawmakers like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Sanders posed "one very simple question" in a letter Friday to the agency's director, Keith Alexander.
"Has the NSA spied, or is the NSA spying, on members of Congress or other American elected officials?" the senator asked.
He specified that "spying" would include the collection of metadata (information pertaining to a phone call's time, date, length and duration), along with Internet and email history.
An NSA spokesman indicated to The Washington Post on Saturday that when it comes to that type of spying, Sanders and his colleagues are treated like everybody else.
"Members of Congress have the same privacy protections as all U.S. persons," the spokesman told the Post. "We are reviewing Sen. Sanders's letter now, and we will continue to work to ensure that all members of Congress, including Sen. Sanders, have information about NSA's mission, authorities, and programs to fully inform the discharge of their duties." |
If you love Star Wars have we got a 3D printing project for you. MontyBug of the BB8BuildersClub has posted a build record of his model BB-8 droid. The droid is made of 3D printed parts and a little Arduino board to run his lights and Monty spent hours sanding and filling the surfaces. Each piece is separately 3D printed and glued together and the whole thing is about the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.
Sadly the little guy doesn’t roll just yet but Monty is working on it.
Monty is part of the BB-8 Builders Club, a closed Facebook group apparently dedicated to not making BB-8 (although they really are. I suspect it has something to do with litigious Lucasfilm.) The project consists of 100 parts and took 900 hours to print. You can check out an entire series of build videos here or simply bask in the glory of a jolly selection of build images here. Regardless, let the Force live long and prosper. Boop tweet! |
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A ‘‘rambling’’ note expressing hatred for police was found after a man opened fire on a Philadelphia police officer then went on a shooting spree, injuring a second officer, killing a woman and wounding three other people before he was shot and killed by police in an alley, authorities said Saturday.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said police found a note at the scene of the Friday overnight rampage that police believe was written by the gunman and that expressed hatred toward law enforcement and named a probation officer.
‘‘This rambling suggests that he clearly was trying to target a police officer, as he did ... so it just kind of makes it very clear to us what he was out there to do,’’ Ross said.
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He said police believe the gunman acted alone in the violent events, which he described as ‘‘completely bizarre.’’
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The wild chase and shootout through the streets of Philadelphia began about 11:20 p.m. Friday when Sgt. Sylvia Young, a 19-year police veteran, was ambushed while sitting in her patrol car in west Philadelphia; she was shot a number of times in the arm and protective vest, Ross said.
‘‘She didn’t hear him say a word, just walked up on her and started firing,’’ Ross said. ‘‘She did hear about 15 shots or so, and that’s consistent with the scene, where we believe she was struck at least eight times.’’
Officers hearing the shots pursued the gunman, who then fired into a nearby bar, hitting a security guard in the leg, then grabbed a woman and used her as a shield before shooting her in the leg, Ross said. Moments later, the suspect shot into in a car, hitting a man and a woman in the chest. The woman, who was hit seven times, was pronounced dead just before 2 a.m. Saturday, police said.
Ross said two police officers and University of Pennsylvania police officer Ed Miller chased the man into an alley, where the suspect was shot and killed. Miller was wounded.
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Both Miller, 56, and Young, 46, were in stable condition Saturday at Penn Presbyterian Hospital, as were the three other civilians hit by gunfire. Police said Miller was shot in the pelvis and right ankle.
Ross referred to the Jan. 7 ambush shooting of Officer Jesse Hartnett, who was ambushed as he sat in his cruiser at an intersection by a man who investigators said told them he was ‘‘following Allah.’’
‘‘(Young) had to do something very similar ... that Officer Hartnett did, and that is pretty much lean over in the passenger seat to try to shield herself from as many as those rounds as possible,’’ Ross said.
Aside from the officers, the identities of the other people injured in the spree were not immediately released. The suspect remained unidentified.
Mayor Jim Kenney praised officers and pleaded with them to follow Young’s example and wear their protective vests.
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‘‘Thank you for what you do for us every day, and please, please, please, every shift, please wear your vest,’’ he said. ‘‘They will save your life, as we saw tonight.” |
News of the arrest of human rights advocate and community builder, Rodrigo Diamanti, has spread like wildfire across social media. As the popular founder of Un Mundo Sin Mordaza (A World Without Censorship), a network that promotes freedom of expression in Venezuela and around the world, Diamanti is notorious for using methods of nonviolent civil resistance including art, poetry, music, peaceful protests and social media to combat repression. Being the largest Venezuelan nonprofit on social media, it's no wonder his arrest has caused an uproar. Whether that will help him is yet to be seen. His civic activism began years ago as the a founding member of the Venezuela Student Movement, which works for free and fair elections, transparent governance, freedom of expression and association, and reconciliation in Venezuela. Later, Diamanti founded the nonprofit, Futuro Presente, which focuses on the education of young people in public policies.
Diamanti is charismatic, educated, intelligent, ambitious, loyal and resolute. All of these are very complimentary characteristics, so why would a man of this pristine reputation be incarcerated? Very simply, apparently, if you are a Venezuelan opposing the regime of Nicolas Maduro, you are vulnerable to arrest and prosecution -- even if the charges are erroneous. And yes, that is a human rights violation.
Reportedly, charges against Diamanti were not stated at the time of his arrest. He was at the airport preparing to travel when, out of the blue, the Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional (SEBIN) placed him under arrest. From the point of engagement, and as they transported him, he had no idea where he was going and why. At the time of my submission of this article, roughly 18 hours later, Diamanti's lawyers still do not have any information from SEBIN on the cause for his arrest and there seems to be no documentation on file ordering his arrest. This instance of arrest without cause should be alarming to every human rights advocate.
Diamanti joins a growing list of notable figures that have been incarcerated for opposing the authoritative regime of Venezuela's President, Nicolas Maduro. What stands out, however, is the fact that Diamanti is not a politician, and was not part of any active protest, two factors of other high profile arrests. He was just traveling as he often does. There's no doubt amongst his peers that he has been targeted for his work to achieve human rights and liberty in Venezuela. If that's the case, Human Rights Watch (HRW) will have to add Diamanti to their already massive list of severe human rights violations. On May 5, 2014, HRW released a 103-page report claiming that, "...security forces have abused the rights of protesters and other people in the vicinity of demonstrations. Security forces have also allowed armed pro-government gangs to attack unarmed civilians, and in some cases openly collaborated with the gangs." THIS IS ALARMING!
With a government establishing new laws at-will or choosing to reinterpret existing laws to suit their agenda, in which they legalize repression upon protestors, limit the right to protest and obligate mayors to repress protests even if they are members of the opposition, it seems reasonable to expect many more human rights violations out of Venezuela.
You can help. Support Diamanti and other prisoners of conscience by sharing their story and extending support via social media. Take a stand against human rights violations, as a member of the international community is encouraging to anyone on the receiving end of this president and his wretched posse. |
Giorgetto Giugiaro ( Italian pronunciation: [dʒorˈdʒetto dʒuˈdʒaːro]; born 7 August 1938) is an Italian automobile designer. He has worked on supercars and popular everyday vehicles. He was born in Garessio, Cuneo, Piedmont.
Giugiaro was named Car Designer of the Century in 1999 and inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002.[1]
In addition to cars, Giugiaro designed camera bodies for Nikon, computer prototypes for Apple, Navigation promenade of Porto Santo Stefano, and developed a new pasta shape "Marille",[2] as well as office furniture for Okamura Corporation.[3]
Influence on design [ edit ]
Giugiaro's earliest cars, like the Alfa Romeo 105/115 Series Coupés, often featured tastefully arched and curving shapes, such as the De Tomaso Mangusta, Iso Grifo, and Maserati Ghibli. However, as the 1970s approached, Giugiaro's designs became increasingly angular, culminating in the "folded paper" era of the 1970s. Straight-lined designs such as the BMW M1, Lotus Esprit S1, and Maserati Bora followed before a softer approach returned in the Maserati Merak, Lamborghini Calà, Maserati Spyder, and Ferrari GG50.
Giugiaro is widely known for the DeLorean DMC-12, featured prominently in the Hollywood blockbuster series Back to the Future. His most commercially successful design was the Volkswagen Golf Mk1.
In 1976, Giugiaro explored a new taxi concept with the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), which became the 1978 Lancia Megagamma concept. Fiat had commissioned the 1978 concept from Italdesign, asking for a 4-meter, high roof, high h-point, multifunctional, monospace design — but ultimately found the concept too risky for production. In retrospect the Megagamma was more influential than it was itself successful, becoming the "conceptual birth mother of the MPV/minivan movement"[4] — giving rise to such mini/compact MPV's as the Nissan Prairie (1981) and Fiat 500L (2011) as well as larger MPV's including the Renault Espace and Chrysler minivans.
Studios [ edit ]
Designs [ edit ]
Automobiles [ edit ]
Cameras [ edit ]
Firearms [ edit ]
Motorcycles [ edit ]
Other [ edit ] |
You know when you feel the burnout. You look at the screen and you see the cursor blinking, but you can’t start to doing anything. You don’t know really why, but you feel powerless.
Every single day since you wake up your brain is able to a certain number of decisions. If you start to receive more information that your brain can handle you just start to make bad decisions. We can call this phenomenon cognitive load.
In our society, we are encouraged to be multi-tasking persons. But the price to pay by doing this is too damn high! Let’s see, how can we reduce the cognitive load and get better results.
Notifications
Avoid this trap! Turn off all computer and mobile phone notifications while you are doing your best work.
If you really need you can, for example, define a specific hour verify your email, your phone, and any social media.
Make sure you never do this type of things in the morning because will hurt your productivity.
Clean Your Inbox
Inbox zero will make your mind much clearer because you don’t have stuff pending.There are tons of technics to clean your inbox.
Clean your Desk / Work environment
Your desk is just like your inbox. The less information your eyes can see the less your brain need to process. Make your environment clean and minimal. I already wrote about clean your work environment.
Prepare a menu for your week
Make sure you don’t have to choose what you are going to eat every day. Maybe use Sunday to plan all your meals.
Fewer decisions you make, the better.
What to dress?
Make sure you know what you going to dress all week. Don’t decide that in the morning. If you can work every day with specific clothes, it’s even better.
Social Networks
Remove all people you don’t talk with, negative people, etc.
That will save your brain to deal with their negative information. Some people just use Facebook to complain about their life and to show you how the world is a terrible place. So get rid of them.
Give up on news
TV and newspapers are really bad. So much negativity.
What you win with all that information?
What is so important that you need to know?
Maybe you can impress someone with your knowledge, but is that really valuable?
Protect your mindset and give up on traditional news.
Just an example how I apply this:
I’m doing a 28-day super productivity journey, so I decide to post 28 articles during that 28 days. Before I start the journey I sit down for one hour and I pick 28 titles for that 28 articles. Of course, I didn’t know what I would write on each article.
But now I save a lot of time every day because I already have a topic to write about so I don’t feel any pressure to think about something to write about after a hard day of work.
So make sure you always plan ahead! Save your brain for what you really need.
Start your information diet today, don’t wait for Monday!
If you like this article make sure you give me a ❤ |
Scientists at UC San Francisco have been able to directly observe, for the first time, how invasive cancer cells create a beachhead as they migrate to the lung in a mouse model of metastatic cancer. What they saw was utterly surprising: early “pioneer” cancer cells that lodge in the lung generally die, but first they shed zombie-like particles that move around on their own and get gobbled up by waves of immune cells. Many of these immune cells, as if infected by the cancer particles, then burrow into the lung tissue, opening up space for future cancer cells floating through the blood to settle down safely and form new metastatic colonies.
Max Krummel, PhD
“We had always thought that invasive cancer cells that got into a healthy tissue either lived and become metastatic or died and went down the drain,” said UCSF’s Matthew “Max” Krummel, PhD, professor of pathology and senior author of the new study, published in the March 16 online edition of Nature. “To our surprise we see that as cancer cells fragment and die, they’re turning immune cells into partners and paving the way for the next cancer cell that comes along.”
Krummel and his team believe this fundamentally new understanding of how early interactions between pioneer cancer cells and the immune system set the stage for metastatic cancer will lead to better approaches to treating and preventing invasive cancer in humans.
Microscopy Breakthrough
Invasive metastases in crucial organs like the lung, brain, and liver are the cause of the vast majority of cancer deaths, but until recently the process of metastasis itself has been poorly understood. Cancers are known to co-opt immune cells to soften up target tissues for metastatic invasion, but it hasn’t been clear exactly how and why the body’s protective cells turn traitor. One dominant theory has suggested that tumors produce molecular signals that reprogram the immune system and make it easier for new cancer colonies to take root, but how these signals actually interact with the immune response in target tissues is yet to be determined.
Few researchers have been able to directly observe the first stages of metastatic invasion to understand why some new cancer colonies flourish and others wither. But in recent years, researchers in Krummel’s lab have perfected a system for stably imaging cancer cells in the lungs of mice during the first 24 hours after their arrival using 2-photon microscopy. This is a notable achievement, Krummel explains, because lungs move several millimeters back and forth with each breath, which would typically make it impossible for researchers to observe tiny cancer cells a thousandth of that size.
“Prior to beginning these studies it was as if the circulating tumor cells entered a black box and emerged as essentially mature metastases,” said UCSF postdoctoral researcher Mark B. Headley, PhD, lead author of the new paper. “We now quite literally have a window into those earliest moments of metastatic development.”
Headley and colleagues in Krummel’s lab injected melanoma cells into bloodstream of mice and tracked the arrival of these cancer cells in the lungs, where they observed a bizarre and macabre scene unlike anything they had imagined. The early invaders themselves were blown to bits by the power of the blood flowing by, but their shredded remains took on a life of their own.
These fragments, which Krummel calls “headless horsemen,” crawl along the capillary walls and fly through the blood deeper into the lung. The researchers also observed immune cells, alerted to the hubbub, mobbing the zombie cancer fragments and gobbling them up. But these cellular first responders soon began to act very strangely, leaving the capillaries and appearing to create protective nests for future cancer cells within the tissue of the lung itself.
“It’s like the Old West,” Krummel said. “Pioneers didn’t always survive, but our civilization slowly progressed west by building on the foundation laid down by those early settlers. It’s a totally new way of seeing metastasis, and just goes to show that by really looking at something properly for the first time, you can launch a thousand hypotheses that would never have occurred to you otherwise.”
Possibilities for Treatment
Not all immune cells are taken in by the zombie cancer particles, Krummel and colleagues have found. After injecting cancer cells into mice, the researchers observed several distinct waves of immune cells arriving in the lung. Many early-responding immune cells – such as monocytes and macrophages – go on to help later cancer cells get established. Dendritic cells, on the other hand, typically arrive late to the scene, but appear to recognize the cancer as a threat: After ingesting cancer cell particles, they travel to the mouse’s lymph nodes and activate other immune cells capable of returning to the lung and attacking any incipient metastatic colonies.
This realization spurred a new hypothesis about why some invasive cancers take hold and others don’t, Krummel said. “In a successful metastasis, we think there’s an imbalance, where too many cells are getting programmed by the tumor to accept cancer cells as harmless, and too few are getting the message that these cells are dangerous or different.”
This possibility opens the door for new therapeutic approaches for patients at risk of developing metastatic cancer, he said, for instance by trying to suppress the gullible kinds of immune cells in order to prevent them from helping the cancer take root while at the same time enhancing the activity of the more astute dendritic cells to promote an appropriate immune response to get rid of any new colonies.
“By watching these events unfold we have revealed what we believe to be a critical line of communication between the tumor cell and its new home,” Headley said. “We can now begin to study exactly what types of messages are packaged up in these particles and even more importantly how the immune response interprets those messages. Armed with that knowledge someday we will hopefully be able to co-opt or piggyback on those tumor-derived missives for the purposes of better therapies.”
Additional authors included Alyssa Nip, Edward W. Roberts, PhD, Mark R. Looney, MD, and Audrey Gerard, PhD, of UCSF, and Adriaan Bins, MD, PhD, now at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. The research was supported in part by a Department of Defense post-doctoral fellowship to Headley, as well as National Institutes of Health grants U54 CA163123, P01 HL024136 and R21CA167601. The authors declare no competing financial interests.
UCSF is a leading university dedicated to transforming health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. Founded in 1864 as a medical college, UCSF now includes top-ranked graduate schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; a graduate division with world-renowned programs in the biological sciences, a preeminent biomedical research enterprise and top-tier hospitals, UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals. |
Image via Brocketts
It sounds like the plot of a bad B-movie, but it's true. Not only are a group of specially trained bounty hunters going to hunt thousands of rampant Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades--they're getting paid by the government to do it. Burmese pythons are a huge problem in Florida--and their story makes for one of the most fascinating cases of invasive species there is. Brought to the state as pets, the pythons were first released into the Everglades by owners who simply got sick of taking care of them. And sure, it's probably tough to take care of a snake that grows to be 20 ft long--but it's even tougher for a fragile ecosystem to handle 100,000 of them.
That's how many Burmese pythons are thought to be in Florida now, where they've established themselves at the top of the food chain. They eat everything: cats, bobcats, birds, deer--even alligators aren't safe from the pythons. And they're dangerous to people, too--just a few weeks ago, a python strangled a toddler.
And that's where the bounty hunters come in.
Florida Governor Charlie Crist has announced he'll be hiring expertly trained bounty hunters who specialize in hunting down the pythons. The plan was in discussion for some time, but it looks like the pythons just got their official death sentence. Details as to what they'll be doing with the snakes after they're killed weren't available. Which brings us to the tricky question often presented with cases of environmentally devastating invasive species: animal rights enthusiasts will certainly cringe at the idea of knocking off 100,000 snakes whose only crime was to thrive in a foreign land. But the threats presented by the pythons are too great not to take preventative action, and relocating the animals would be costly, difficult, and generally infeasible.
So let's end our B-movie plot with a snazzy tag line, shall we? Something like: "A hundred thousand giant snakes have invaded Florida, consuming everything in their path. Now, only a ragtag band of bounty hunters can stand in their way. Good hunting."
Seriously, though--with any luck, the operation will hopefully help restore the balance of the Everglades ecosystem.
More on Invasive Species
Eating Aliens: Are Invasive Species Ethical Food?
It's Gooey, It's Gross, and It Kills . . . Rock Snot is Invading New York |
The game, called “Dirty Chinese Restaurant,” features players chasing cats and dogs with a cleaver, scavenging for ingredients and dodging immigration officials.
The Toronto-area developer of a video game denounced as racist says the product will not be released as planned.
Big-O-Tree Games of Markham initially defended the game as satire and said last month that it would be released soon for Apple and Android devices.
But the company posted a message on its Facebook page Thursday saying the game would not be released after “careful consideration and taking the time to listen to the publics (sic) opinion.”
The company also offered a “sincere and formal apology” to the Chinese community and said the game was not created “with an intentional interest of inflicting harm or malice against Chinese culture.”
Critics of the game included New York congresswoman Grace Meng, who said the game “uses every negative and demeaning stereotype” she has encountered as a Chinese American. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne also condemned the game, saying such racism has no place in Ontario.
In its statement Thursday, Big-O-Tree Games said it will begin removing all marketing about the game from its social media accounts.
The company, which described itself as a small independent game studio, initially described the game as “mainly satire and comedy influenced by the classic politically incorrect shows we grew up watching, such as: South Park, All in the Family, Sanford & Son, Family Guy, Simpsons, and Chappelle’s Show. We also listen to Jay-Z.” |
The brand-new modern homes of the mid-century were built for the standard nuclear family: one bread-winning father, one stay-at-home mother, and two children (one of each sex, of course). In their dream house, they would enjoy the boundaryless open plan, where mom could prepare dinner with a clear view to her children in the family room. Everyone would then share their meal in the eat-in kitchen—a feature that purported to be the answer to the modern mother’s challenges. The whole kitchen, in fact, was designed to be as labor-saving as a factory, with the housewife positioned as the professional forewoman. High-tech machinery was built in—dishwashers and, later, microwaves sped up operations, and imbued the kitchens with a semi-industrial gleam. It was all part of the new aesthetic. Surveys of home buyers from that time, including one published in 1954 under the title What People Want When They Buy a House, reflected people’s reverence for efficiency:
The busy mother who has to serve, administer, and police three meals a day for a family of children needs to be able to prepare and serve with least lost motion and to be able…to clean up with minimum effort, hence she wants a practical informal eating place in or off the kitchen.
It all sounded very good—her work could be completed more quickly, she’d gain leisure time—but it was complicated. While there were benefits to having domestic work perceived more like a professional occupation, with its attendant needs for tools of efficiency and worker satisfaction, the housewife was not exactly a corner-suite executive. “There were some serious problems with trying to uphold the analogy between the housewife and the factory worker,” says Victoria Rosner, an English professor at Columbia University and the author of the book Modernism and the Architecture of Private Life.
“First, factory work is productive (you make widgets) while domestic work is repetitive and periodic (you clean the floor and there is no work product…and the floor has to be cleaned again tomorrow). So what is efficiency in the home? Not baking more cakes in the same period of time if the family can only eat one. Another problem was the continual raising of standards. If labor-saving devices like the mechanical washer made it possible to do some jobs more quickly, the standards for what it meant to be ‘clean’ were continually raised so that working smarter did not mean working less.” And of course, the biggest problem with this new frame: “The professionalized housewife is stuck living in her workplace.”
And while the mother may have been the chief officer in the kitchen, she was not, ultimately, head of household, and her work was often critiqued by her husband, her children, and especially consumer culture. The solution to keeping up with the work and keeping family members satisfied, said every advertisement, was to buy more stuff. In Redesigning the American Dream: Gender, Housing, and Family Life, urban historian Dolores Hayden notes, “The classic ‘ring around the collar’ commercials of the 1960s dramatized the issue. A husband and his five-year-old son jeered at a woman for using a detergent that could not remove the stains on their shirt collars. Her response—to buy a new product—exemplified the ways that conflict within a family was exploited.” |
Human and animal skeletal remains were among the many items a 4-year-old Husky uncovered while digging in a Northern California home’s backyard on Monday, KCRA reported.
Renters of the Yuba City home called the local police department after discovering the unusual remains their dog, Skye, had found.
“She never digs in the grass or anything, but that one spot. She just wouldn’t leave it alone,” renter Aaron Kind said.
When Kind approached the dog, he saw a “creepy looking” doll head, a machete, and a ceramic or clay pot.
Later the roommates saw a human skull and what appeared to be a jaw bone.
“It went from kind of cool to kind of serious, so we got the authorities on the line,” Kind said.
The remains may have been part of an Afro-Caribbean religious ritual, experts from California State University, Chico stated after an initial examination.
Investigators continued to try to identify the origin and age of the human remains. |
The Dallas Cowboys are taking care of quarterback Tony Romo.
NFL.com's Ian Rapoport reported Friday that the Cowboys and Romo agreed to a six-year, $108 million contract extension with $55 million in guarantees and a $25 million signing bonus, according to the quarterback's agent, RJ Gonser.
The extension goes into effect after the 2013 season, when Romo earns $11.5 million, essentially giving him a seven-year, $119.5 million contract through 2019.
The deal makes Romo the highest-paid player in Cowboys history and tops the $52 million in guarantees that Joe Flacco received from the Baltimore Ravens as part of his six-year, $120.6 million pact.
The Cowboys officially announced Romo's signing Friday night, with team owner Jerry Jones saying in a statement: "We are very confident in this investment and commitment." Added Romo: "Our goal is the Super Bowl, and I am determined and honored to be the guy in this position to help our team do that."
Romo's new contract also gives the Cowboys more salary-cap room, which was an issue earlier this week when the team tried to sign free agents. According to NFL.com's Albert Breer, Romo's previous cap number was $16,818,835. With a $1.5 million base salary for 2013, $5 million prorated off his $25 million signing bonus and $5,818,835 due in dead money prorated off the old deal, Romo's new 2013 cap number is $11,818,835. So Dallas saves exactly $5 million on the cap.
The Cowboys had been talking with Romo's camp on and off after hoping to sign the 32-year-old quarterback to an extension last summer.
As Rapoport reported Thursday, a clause in Romo's contract stipulated that the Cowboys could not franchise-tag him if no deal was reached by the end of the 2013 league year, effectively making him a free agent. That handed significant leverage to Romo, but instead of parting ways, he'll remain with the Cowboys deep into the future.
Romo was set to count $16.8 million against the salary cap in 2013, but a reworked extension will allow the Cowboys to lower that figure and add additional pieces to the puzzle.
For a quarterback with just one playoff win in nine seasons, every little piece will help.
UPDATE: NFL.com's Albert Breer reported that $40 million of the contract is fully guaranteed. Half of that amount becomes fully guaranteed on the third day of the 2014 league year with the other half guaranteed on the third day of the 2015 league year.
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL. |
Goldbugs and Greenbacks
Gretchen Ritter, 1997 Gretchen Ritter, 1997 In some of my articles about novels I've mentioned that, despite having a very good teacher my junior and senior years, I got virtually nothing out of my high school English classes. I'd be really interested to see what I said in my old papers, because in retrospect I can see that I didn't understand any of the books really at all. The same goes for history. What I understood about the battle of the standards in the late nineteenth century went something like this: Western farmers were poor, and in debt to Eastern bankers. They wanted free silver, and voted for the Populist Party. In 1896, the Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan for president, and he adopted the Populists' free silver policy with his "Cross of Gold" speech. He lost, and that was the end of free silver. That was enough to get me a good grade, despite the fact that I didn't know what "free silver" was — I imagine that I took it to mean that Western farmers wanted the government to give them some silver, for free — nor what the "Cross of Gold" speech said, other than that it was about how the gold standard was bad for some reason, possibly because it somehow prevented free silver. I'm pretty sure that's about as much depth as my teacher went into it, too. That became a problem a few years later when I had to teach it myself. When I started taking history students as part of my old tutoring job, I had to do a little research in order to explain the free silver thing better than it had been explained to me back in the day. One saving grace was that, since I was teaching to a test, it was not only acceptable but preferable to give the simplest possible account of things, so the fact that my own understanding remained pretty simplistic wasn't that big a problem. I had a core spiel that could be expanded as needed if the student was bright or, even better, inquisitive. It went something like this: — the SAT U.S. History version — The debate over gold vs. silver vs. greenbacks was really a debate about inflation. Making silver or fiat greenbacks legal tender would have increased the money supply, causing inflation. Debtors like inflation. Debt payments are easier to make if the value of the dollar drops. Creditors, on the other hand, like deflation. The payments they receive are worth more if the value of the dollar rises. The readoption of the gold standard shrank the money supply, causing deflation. So, if you can remember that Western and Southern farmers were debtors, and Northeastern bankers were creditors, you can figure out what standards they would support without having to memorize anything. What does the money supply have to do with inflation?
show ▼ The value of a unit of currency depends on how many units of currency there are in the economy. If there are twenty dollars in the economy, each dollar represents one twentieth of the economy — that is, it entitles the holder to one twentieth of the goods and services in that economy. If we imagine the pool of goods and services in the economy as twenty loaves of bread, then each loaf should cost a dollar. Now imagine that an extra twenty dollars are added to the economy. We now have forty dollars in the economy, so each dollar entitles the holder to one fortieth of the goods and services in the economy. If the pool of goods and services hasn't changed — in this scenario, it's twenty loaves of bread — then that dollar will entitle the holder to half a loaf. In other words, the price of bread will rise to two dollars a loaf. This is inflation. Similarly, if we went back to the beginning and removed ten dollars, leaving us with ten dollars in the economy, each remaining dollar would entitle the holder to one tenth of the goods and services in the economy: in this case, two loaves of bread. In other words, the price of bread will sink to fifty cents a loaf. This is deflation. Deflation sounds great! What's wrong with lower prices?
show ▼ As prices go down, the purchasing power of a given unit of currency increases. When people expect that the value of their money will continue to increase, they become reluctant to spend it: why buy a loaf of bread today if the same dollar will buy two loaves tomorrow? That makes it hard for producers to make any money. And since producers and consumers are pretty much the same people — I guess in this scenario that means that they're all buying each other's bread — the baker who didn't sell any focaccia will get scared that money is going to be tight for the foreseeable future, and will save his money instead of buying his neighbor's pumpernickel. All the bakers will end up lowering their prices in an attempt to attract any kind of business, and the resulting deflationary spiral will land everyone in a depression. Except for a few brief spurts of economic growth, this was the quagmire the U.S. found itself in from the end of the Civil War until very near the end of the nineteenth century. What is the gold standard?
show ▼ In a country on the gold standard, only gold counts as actual money. When the United States went back on the gold standard in 1879, there were still banknotes, but they didn't constitute money in and of themselves; instead, they entitled the holder to a certain quantity of gold. You could literally take a dollar bill like the one at the top of this article down to the mint and trade it in for a coin with 0.04837 ounces of gold in it. of gold was actually the definition of what a dollar was. Why was the gold standard deflationary?
show ▼ The amount of gold in the U.S. economy didn't grow to keep pace with economic growth. In fact, it shrank. Not much gold was being mined and added to the national supply; meanwhile, since gold was the medium of exchange between the U.S. and rich European countries, and the U.S. was a debtor nation, gold flowed out of the U.S. and into the coffers of the Bank of England and its continental counterparts. As the amount of gold in the U.S. declined, so did the number of dollars (for dollars were now nothing more than small quantities of gold), and therefore each dollar represented a greater fraction of the nation's total purchasing power — i.e., it increased in value. People therefore began to hoard gold, anticipating that it would be worth even more in the future. This shrank the gold supply still further, creating a deflationary cycle. Why is deflation particularly bad for debtors?
show ▼ Consider what deflation means for a farmer who's taken out a loan and has to make payments of, say, a hundred dollars a month. Every month that hundred dollars represents a greater fraction of the American economy, and is correspondingly harder to come by. That's for creditors, who get a more valuable payment each month, but terrible for debtors. Debtors would prefer for dollars to be less valuable every month, so our hundred-dollar payment would be easier to make. In short, debtors want inflation. The problem facing American debtors in the nineteenth century was how to bring that about. Increasing the money supply was the obvious answer, but absent another gold rush, there was no way to do that while the country remained on the gold standard. What are greenbacks, and why would they cause inflation?
show ▼ The greenback movement argued for paper money that was itself money rather than merely representing money. Under the gold standard, paper money had value because it could be exchanged for gold, and gold had value because… why exactly? It wasn't because of any inherent property of the metal, which is of very limited use — it was just that people had faith that they would be able to exchange gold for the goods and services they wanted, and so they were willing to accept it in exchange for the goods and services they provided. So why not just skip a step, the greenbackers asked, and have faith that you'll always be able to exchange paper currency for goods and services? If paper currency is itself money, the government can print up as much as people need, and thereby engineer exactly the right amount of inflation to keep the economy humming without overheating. This is (at least theoretically) how American money works today, but in the nineteenth century the greenback movement went nowhere. Why would monetizing silver cause inflation?
show ▼ Until 1873, Americans could bring silver bullion to the mint and have it coined into silver dollars; virtually no one did, because the amount of silver in a silver dollar (about five-sixths of an ounce) was actually worth more than a dollar, so coining it decreased its value. Then Western mines started producing so much silver that the price fell through the floor. The weight and composition of a silver dollar were fixed, as was its face value, but in the heyday of the free silver movement, the silver in the coin was only worth about fifty cents. If silver were monetized, you could take a candlestick with five dollars' worth of silver in it down to the mint and receive ten dollars' worth of silver coins — adding five dollars to the amount of money in the economy, making every dollar worth a tiny bit less, and thereby making debts a tiny bit less onerous. And if a significant portion of the silver mines' output wound up being coined and added to the money supply, inflation would rise dramatically and debts would become significantly easier to pay off. What did the "free" in "free silver" mean?
show ▼ Simply that you could coin as much silver as you had access to, with none of the caps built into such legislation as the Bland-Allison Act and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. Free silver gained more traction than the greenback movement did — as noted, it became a plank of the Democratic platform — but Bryan lost the election in 1896, and during the McKinley administration the Klondike Gold Rush added enough gold to the national supply that the country finally emerged out of decades of economic prostration. But, again, this account is pretty simplistic, and not just because I was trying to make things easier for my students' benefit. Take what I said about the greenback movement (if you read that part). I left out the part about how the supply of greenbacks was supposed to be automatically regulated through the issuance of interconvertible bonds, because no matter how much I read about financial instruments more complex than banknotes and specie, I never come away with more than the sketchiest understanding of them. So I figured that before my presidents series moved on to the twentieth century and left the battle of the standards behind, I should read a book about the politics of finance in postbellum America and try to get a better handle on this stuff. — the actual history book version — Goldbugs and Greenbacks is an academic book, and I confess that I skimmed over some of the minutiae, but the main point it makes applies to virtually any political battle you care to name. Both the conservatives and the reformers, Gretchen Ritter argues, had coherent arguments to make in favor of their positions — but very few people, then or now, arrive at their viewpoints on economics by reasoning from first principles. Nor did people choose sides in the debate based on self-interest. Ideologies may derive from socioeconomic conditions, but once they're out in the world, they spread according to their own rules and are frequently adopted by people who don't benefit from them. If only those who actually benefited from the gold standard had supported it, it would never have been restored after the Civil War — yet it was. And the reason conservatives triumphed in the battle of the standards, according to Ritter's account, is that they were better positioned than the reformers to win supporters the way they're usually won: by playing on people's pre-existing affiliations. The argument for greenbacks The chief underpinning of the greenback movement was producerism. Producerists argued that what differentiates a banknote from any other scrap of paper is not that it represents a certain amount of gold — that just raises the question of what differentiates a gold coin from any other scrap of metal. Rather, what gives any currency its value is the understanding that it represents a certain amount of labor. Without money, we would have to exchange goods and services directly, and the odds of striking an agreement would be low: "I'll teach you algebra if you make me a burrito. You already know algebra? Dang." Meeting everyone's needs requires us to construct chains of trades in which everyone contributes something that someone else wants: I teach you algebra, you knit Xochitl a scarf, Xochitl drives Yitzhak to the airport, Yitzhak gives Zenobia 0.004% of a condominium, and so on down the line until a few thousand deals later someone makes me a burrito. These chains of trades would be virtually impossible to construct in advance, but money allows us to add links on an ad hoc basis. A piece of money serves notice that the holder has performed labor that someone in society found to have a certain value. And our economy is based on the universal acceptance that this credential entitles the holder to claim a commensurate portion of the fruits of other people's labor, in return for passing the credential along and continuing the chain. The upshot of this is that, since money is nothing more than a representation of work performed, it doesn't really matter what form it takes. Therefore, greenbackers argued, paper banknotes can represent labor directly — and should, because unlike gold coins, the number of banknotes can be increased to reflect increases in the amount of labor performed throughout the economy. The holders of capital needed to keep this idea from gaining traction. Not only did it threaten the gold standard whose deflationary power worked in their favor, but it also suggested that granting vast purchasing power to people who hadn't contributed any labor to expand the pool of goods and services was unfair. But what sort of argument could they make on behalf of the idle rich? "The nobility of inherited wealth! The audacity of the gambler! The cleverness of multiplying money through accounting tricks! Surely these deserve a greater reward than mere productivity!" No, once a critical mass of people started to mentally divide society up into producers and non-producers, the game would already be over. It wouldn't be long before they started taking steps to keep the latter group from amassing fortunes by dicking around with the tokens that are supposed to represent value added to the commonwealth. The solution was to get the public thinking along very different sets of axes. Here are a few of them. God vs. man "By common consent of all nations, gold and silver are the only true measure of value. They are the necessary regulators of trade. I have myself no more doubt that these metals were prepared by the Almighty for this very purpose, than I have that iron and coal were prepared for the purposes in which they are being used." —Hugh McCulloch, Secretary of the Treasury 1865-9, 1884-5 Conservatives didn't have to argue that the gold standard had a beneficial effect on the economy if they could get enough people to believe that deviating from it was sacrilege. Yes, the idea that gold and silver were carefully placed in the earth's crust by a deity so that people could dig them up and use them as money is . And the claim that money has "natural and objective" value falls into the category of "not even wrong": to value something is a psychological phenomenon, so to speak of "value" as something that just exists, quite apart from the mind of the person who's doing the valuing, is just gibberish. So is attributing to an object a "purpose" that doesn't depend on the intentions of living beings. It's like saying that everything has a name that is an intrinsic, objective property of that thing, . But in the United States, if one side attempts to win supporters by making logical arguments and the other side attempts to win supporters by saying "we're right because God says so," the logic side might as well pack up and go home. Why did supporters of inflation switch their proposed vehicle from greenbacks, the supply of which could be engineered for maximum benefit to the economy, to the cruder instrument of silver? This is pretty much it. For all its disadvantages, silver was at least immune to theological objections. In fact, silver advocates wound up employing theological arguments themselves, in an attempt to boost silver's legitimacy: "Silver and gold are nature's money, and their uses as such are plainly shown in the Holy Scriptures." —William Oliver, Address to the National Silver Convention And the reason they had to do so was that conservatives had other cards to play: Pride vs. shame "The true policy seems then to retain the gold the better instrument, the most valuable, the cheapest in the end, and export the silver to China, India, and other nations who still adhere to the wooden plows and old fashioned spinning wheels of our less enterprising ancestors." —F.R. Chandler, A Strike for the Revival of Business Advocates of the gold standard benefited from three facts: (a) the world's richest country, the , had been on the gold standard since 1816, and virtually all other wealthy European countries had adopted it in the mid-1870s; (b) the world's poorest countries outside of Africa, and , were on the silver standard; (c) Americans were extremely insecure about their place in the hierarchy of nations. Had the U.S. risen far enough to join the great powers, or was it still a sprawling hinterland half a world away from the real shapers of the world? This argument wasn't really about economics; this was was currency as status symbol, a financial equivalent of designer jeans. Interestingly, the greenbackers had earlier tried wading into these rhetorical waters; future Massachusetts governor Benjamin Butler argued against silver because it would leave the American economy vulnerable to "the caprice of some Indian prince or Chinese merchant." But he also argued against gold, precisely because a gold standard would put the U.S. in the same camp as the European monarchies. Attempting to tap into America's revolutionary tradition and its longstanding isolationism, he declared that the very fact that greenbacks had no value outside national borders was what made them the ideal form of money: they couldn't be siphoned off to London, but could instead be counted on to keep fueling the American economy. "A paper currency," he said, "is the currency for a free people […] strong enough to sustain the measure of the business transactions with each other independent of kings." Future president James Garfield scoffed at this "patriotic dollar." National pride no longer meant doing things our own way; it meant a seat at the table of power, and that required what Garfield called "a currency that can walk like an American all over the world." That's kind of a weird phrasing, given that at the time Americans didn't really do that. But it wouldn't be all that long before it became very much an American thing to walk all over the world, in the Nancy Sinatra sense. Creditors vs. debtors "I suppose, by the brute force of congressional votes and presidential approval, if we should be wicked enough to do it, we might wipe out all debts by a universal law of bankruptcy, which declared that on a certain day all debts should be counted as canceled. But the man who would counsel that, or would counsel the making of a paper dollar that would accomplish the same thing, would be denounced by the world as a villain […]. It is a fearful thing for one man to stand up in the face of his brother man and refuse to keep his pledge; but it is a forty-five million times worse thing for a nation to do it. It breaks the mainspring of faith." —James Garfield I said above that the foundation of the greenback movement, and of the free silver movement that followed it, was producerism. In the agrarian regions where the free silver movement really took hold, "producers vs. non-producers" largely boiled down to "farmers vs. bankers." Farmers went into debt, with high interest rates for Western mortgages and usurious ones under the Southern crop-lien system, putting up their crops and land as security. Ritter quotes a letter to the editor circa 1889 which uses the example of oat farming: right at harvest time, the writer relates, speculators would open up their warehouses and flood the market with oats, causing the price to drop through the floor. Those speculators would then buy up the new crop for a pittance — and then stash it, along with the oats they had just released, back in their warehouses, sending the price skyward and allowing them to make exorbitant profits. Meanwhile, the farmers would be left unable to pay off their debts and forced to give up their land to the banks. Even so, banks frequently failed and were bailed out by the government. When farmers asked for similar allowances, they were told that that would constitute "paternalism" (one of Grover Cleveland's favorite refrains). "Is it paternalism for the government to issue to the farmers of the country money on short time at 1 percent on evidences of wealth, when for a quarter of a century it has been issuing money to the banks at 1 percent on evidences of indebtedness?" one polemicist asked. Stonewalled, the farmers turned to currency reform as their only hope of easing their debts. How could conservatives continue to support a standard that victimized the worker and favored the parasite? The answer: change the terms of the debate. The farmer who spent months doing backbreaking labor and contributed to the nation's pool of goods and services? He's not a producer — he's a debtor! The financier who sent a few telegrams, added nothing to the commonweal, and made a fortune? He's not a non-producer — he's a creditor! A "creditor" connotes someone who conscientiously saved his money, and is now generous enough to help out someone in need; a "debtor" connotes an irresponsible burden to society. As long as the national debate focused on the big picture, on whether the way the economic system ended up allocating purchasing power was just, conservatives were bound to lose. But if it could just be refocused on individual transactions, on the question of whether someone who lent money deserved to be paid back in full, victory was assured. Whenever possible, goldbugs personalized the issue, talked about hypothetical human lenders rather than banks, encouraged people to imagine themselves in the place of the prosperous creditor — much more pleasant than identifying with the struggling debtor. This tactic worked just as well on silver as it had on greenbacks, since both measures were aimed at making debts easier to repay. Here's a Republican congressman arguing that, when silver is allowed to coexist with gold as a monetary instrument, "[…] you can compel a man, who may have sold you gold bullion of 100 dollars' value, to accept for it 100 slugs of silver weighing 412½ grains, 9/10 fine, and worth only $39 — and he cannot by law obtain the value of the gold bullion for the hundred slugs of silver. Why should not the same creditor who has parted with his gold bullion be compelled to accept 100 slugs of copper, worth $3.90, or 100 slugs of iron, worth 39 cents, or 100 strips of paper worth nothing, the same being irredeemable? Has the government any more moral right to compel a man to accept 60 cents of fiat in a silver dollar than 100 cents of fiat in colored paper?" —Rep. Charles Fowler (R-NJ, 1895-1911) This kind of rhetoric swayed many people, right up to Ulysses Grant when he was on the fence about the Inflation Bill. It was less effective on actual debtors, of course. Even though many different banks, brokerage houses, futures traders, and financial players, all pursuing their own individual ends, were responsible for the debtors' plight, from colonial days up to the present American society has been given to conspiracy theory, and Southerners and Westerners began to grumble about the "money power" based in New York City. North vs. South, East vs. West "The capital of the country, as far as it is represented in the currency, flows to the places where it belongs. Therefore, it naturally accumulates in the city of New York." —George Boutwell, Secretary of the Treasury 1869-73 Once again, we have a treasury secretary attempting to pass off human institutions as the products of physical law. It wasn't that humans placed value on gold — gold just inherently had value! And it wasn't that humans constructed an economic system that channeled money to New York — it just naturally flowed there! The difference is that gold had been considered valuable for millennia. The system that channeled money to New York had been created by the National Bank Act in 1864. The National Bank Act of established a network of federally chartered banks that operated under a pyramid reserve structure. Country banks were required to keep a sizeable reserve to cover withdrawals — but some of that reserve could be kept in interest-bearing accounts in "reserve city banks." Those banks in turn could deposit some of their reserve in interest-bearing accounts in the national banks in New York City. The result was that money from all over the country was siphoned off to Wall Street. There it bought luxuries for the financiers, gave them bankrolls to gamble with, and in the best-case scenario, got invested in infrastructure — but even that generally meant that the money went to build railroads and manufacturing facilities in the Northeast. This wasn't just a difference of a few percent: in the postbellum period 35 dollars circulated per capita in Massachusetts, while in Alabama the figure was 35 cents. And so, in a recurring theme in American history, what could have been a conflict between socioeconomic classes devolved into a sectional one. In the West, it wasn't just the bankers who were hated, it was the Eastern bankers; in the South, it wasn't just the bankers who were hated, it was the Northern bankers; in both sections of the country, it wasn't just the bankers who were hated, it was the New York bankers. This was great news for the creditor class: sectional conflict gave them way more allies than class conflict did. I've been writing about the battle of the standards as though the reformers were the good guys and the conservatives were the bad guys. Unsurprisingly, the real picture is more complicated. Backers of the gold standard were able to make a sectional argument to which I'm quite sympathetic: it was okay that more money circulated in Massachusetts than in Alabama, because Massachusetts was better than Alabama. Any extra money that circulated in Alabama in the postbellum period, Northeastern goldbugs argued, would have just ended up swelling the coffers of the Ku Klux Klan. Reform rhetoric out of the South and Plains did tend to be tainted by racism, anti-Catholicism (for Catholic immigrants overwhelmingly settled in Northeastern cities), anti-Semitism ("New York bankers" was often a code phrase meaning "Jews"), and anti-intellectualism. Really, the constituency of the financial reform movement looked an awful lot like Andrew Jackson's base. Jackson's approach to monetary policy was the exact opposite — he forced the U.S. government back onto specie, with disastrous results — but both he and the reformers of the late nineteenth century were motivated by enmity toward central banking. Now, this might seem like another strike against the reformers, given that Jackson was a terrible human being. But one thing Jackson did do, for better or for worse, was to further democratize American society. Elitism was the enemy. Voting was opened up to nearly all white men, because requiring property was elitist; government jobs were opened up to political allies, because requiring expertise was elitist. And in this, too, financial reformers were heirs to Jackson. A big part of the argument for greenbacks was that the money supply would be under the control of officials elected by the people rather than of an unelected, international cabal of bankers. Some went so far as to argue that government control of the currency, right down to direct government issue of paper bills, was not only desirable, but mandated by the Constitution: "[…] the founders of the republic recognized the power to make money and regulated its value as among the essential attributes of sovereignty […]. While Congress has an undoubted right to exercise the powers here enumerated […] there is not a shadow of authority given to that body to delegate them to any class of individuals or corporations, or in any way to divest itself for one moment of the right to exercise them. The states or people granted these powers to Congress for the public good, and not for the benefit of any privileged class of individuals or corporations." —Rep. Alexander Campbell (I-IL, 1875-7) The problem reformers ran into when arguing for the money supply to be put in the hands of the people through its elected representatives was that voters didn't seem to want financial reform. They kept electing politicians who supported the gold standard. Which brings us to the last way conservatives were able to recast the battle of the standards in a manner favorable to them: Republicans vs. Democrats For most of the postbellum period neither major party took a unified position on the currency question. It was a sectional issue, and neither party wanted to risk alienating an entire region of the country. Republicans, as the party of the Northeast, tended to favor the gold standard, but Western Republicans made enough of a clamor for silver that Benjamin Harrison felt it necessary to step up silver purchases. Democrats, as the party of the South, tended to favor easier money, but some of the most adamant goldbugs were Northeastern Democrats such as Grover Cleveland. It was therefore left to the Greenback Party and the People's Party (a.k.a. the Populists) to make a full-throated call for financial reform. These parties won some gubernatorial and congressional elections, and in the 1892 presidential election the Populists even managed to win . But mostly what they did was split the vote. This is always an unstable state of affairs in U.S. politics, as people who have dared to vote for a third party see that all they've done is throw the election to the major party they hate more. They flee back to the lesser of two evils — which will often have co-opted some watered-down form of the third party's ideas — and it's back to a two-party system. In both the greenback and silver eras, the major party that became identified with financial reform was the Democratic Party, and this was a disaster for financial reform. Before the Republicans became the party of the rich, they were the party of free soil, the party of the North. Even after Grant made right-wing economics a hallmark of the Republican Party, many Republicans disagreed with their party on currency issues. Many others had no opinion, and could easily have been won over to the idea of expanding the money supply. But once Republican leaders could tag that as a Democratic idea, those on-the-fence voters were lost. Above, I asked how conservatives could make an argument on behalf of an economic policy that benefited only a small class of investors. Here's one answer: "You shed your blood and lost many of your brothers fighting these traitorous Democrats. To a great extent, you owe your victory to those who pledged their fortunes to fund the Union war effort. Now these same Democrats are proving their disloyalty once again by trying to pay back our heroes with worthless paper." The greenbackers didn't really have a prayer of competing with such emotional rhetoric by talking about wheat prices. As the Civil War receded into the past and the currency issue returned to the forefront under the banner of free silver, the Democratic label once again proved fatal. The one Democrat to be elected president between 1856 and 1912 was Grover Cleveland. He was a gold man through and through, but when the U.S. economy collapsed on his watch in 1893, voters didn't blame the gold standard — they blamed the Democratic Party. When the Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan in 1896, it didn't matter that Bryan's economic policies were the exact opposite of Cleveland's; it had already become accepted wisdom that Democrats couldn't manage the economy. Had Cleveland been a member of the Republican Party, where his economic views would have been very much at home, the Republicans would have been tarred with the same brush and might well have crushed William McKinley, setting American history on a distinctly different course. — the TLDR version — In the late 19th century, one of the main disputes in American politics was over the gold standard. The gold supply was small and shrinking, so an economy based on the gold standard was subject to deflation, which benefited creditors such as banks but hurt debtors such as farmers. Two proposed alternatives were greenbacks — paper money which could be printed in whatever quantities the government chose — and silver, the supply of which was large and growing. Both of these measures would have increased inflation, benefiting debtors and hurting creditors. I used to teach that people therefore supported silver/greenbacks or gold based on whether inflation or deflation would benefit them. However, people don't actually choose their politics based on mere self-interest. Each side in this dispute represented a cluster of concepts, and people chose sides based on which cluster of concepts spoke to them: Gold Silver urban sophistication beats the stupidity of rural life the real America is the countryside, not slums full of wretched immigrants national greatness means becoming a big player on the world stage national greatness means fierce independence from the rest of the world generous, self-disciplined creditors should be favored over irresponsible debtors honest workers who contribute to society should be favored over parasites who just dick around with money the economy should be left to the experts in the financial sector the economy should be put in the hands of the people through their elected representatives things happen the way they are meant to happen things happen the way people make them happen Finally, gold's victory in the battle of the standards was not inevitable. Historical contingency played a key role; put a Republican in the White House in 1893 and free silver probably becomes the law of the land in 1897. Nor was it a final resolution to the question. There was another century after the nineteenth, and during it the gold standard was abandoned by every country in the world. reply via
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Big Brother's Ryan Ruckledge and Hughie Maughan have revealed they were actually together before this year's show.
But according to Ryan, he "wasn't aloud" to reveal their secret connection.
In September the guys announced they were engaged, two months following this summer's Big Brother UK where we all assumed they had first met.
At the time, the couple took to Twitter to announce the news.
"So the cats out the bag me and @hughie_maughan are officially engaged! So happy and can't wait for the future #biggaygypsywedding ??" Ryan tweeted.
Hughie added: "FINALLY me and ryan can announce that we are officially ENGAGED! We are so happy and everythin feels right, huge hi five 2 the doubters"
Their fellow BBUK housemates were quick with their congratulations, as Ryan invited Georgina Leigh Cantwell and Lateysha Grace to be bridesmaids.
Now preparing to celebrate Christmas together, Ryan revealed on Twitter that he and Hughie actually met last year before entering Big Brother.
"It's actually not our first Christmas together we met last year before big brother, but first official Christmas, wasn't aloud to say before," Ryan tweeted.
However he claimed that show bosses didn't know of their connection, which included previously dating.
"No they didn't know we knew each other but me and Hughie have dated in the past well before big brother and then ended up in there together," Ryan explained online.
The former X Factor contestant added: "Yeah we knew each other VERY well if ya get me haha, but must of looked like we never , we dated for a few months a year ago X"
Big Brother is back next year on Channel 5. |
Let's all watch the same Republicans who say we need voter ID laws scramble to criticize Obama for ordering a review of Russian election hacking.
Republican-controlled, so-called “Red” states have been passing voter ID laws for years now. The debate that has sparked over them is about whether these efforts to “certify” and “legitimize” the vote are actually just new version of poll taxes. Those of us on the left routinely point out that an extra ID to vote is just another barrier in the way between a voter and their constitutional right to exercise their voice. 2016 was the first election to be held without the 1964 Voting Rights Act in place, and we saw key states flip for Donald Trump that had gone to Barack Obama just four years prior.
It’s hard to know right away if voter suppression played a part in this year’s election, but one thing I know for sure is that I expect the same people howling and moaning about needing to ensure our elections are free from voter fraud will not be pleased at what President Obama ordered today. Then again, right-winger hypocrisy is sort of abundant these days. They harangued Bill Clinton over a consensual tryst with Monica Lewinsky, but then they elected a man who was caught on tape literally admitting to serial attempted sexual assault.
You can’t make that shit up if you try, and as a satirist, I try, every single day to make that kind of shit up.
As reported in The Huffington Post today, President Obama has ordered full-scale review of reports that outside forces, including those from Russia meddled in the election.
President Barack Obama has directed U.S. intelligence officials to produce a review of security breaches during the 2016 election and expects to receive results before he leaves office on Jan. 20, his homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco, told reporters Friday. (source)
Before any right-wingers get their panties in a bunch, presuming that Obama is just making the need for a review up out of thin air, remember, as again reported by HuffPo, that intelligence officials believed way back in October, a month before the election, that hackers from Russia and elsewhere were attempting to influence the election.
The U.S. intelligence community announced on Oct. 7 that it believes hackers supported by the Russian government were responsible for meddling in the election process, including by targeting the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton adviser John Podesta and other notable political figures like former Secretary of State Colin Powell. (source)
Now, I’m not saying I know or believe that Russia or any other country had a hand in hacking and/or influencing our election. What I know is that our intelligence officials believe that Russia pulled some shit. I think, as an American citizen, it’s in all our best interests to keep our elections free from outside meddling. I would hope that no matter which political party you affiliate with, that you’d believe in that concept too.
The simple truth is that if you go looking for evidence of the kind of voter fraud conservatives want voter ID laws passed for, you’re going to be looking a long time. And you’ll probably come up empty handed. Back in August of this year, The Washington Post reported on just how rare in-person voter fraud — the kind of thing that voter ID laws are ostensibly designed to protect against — really is.
Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt looked at 14 years of voting and found 31 possible incidents of in-person voter fraud, comprised of approximately 241 fraudulent ballots. (source)
Now, you might be thinking that’s some good evidence there to support the theory that in-person voter fraud happens. And sure, while even the WaPo article points out that these cases were far from proven to be actual voter fraud, let’s just say that all of them were. This next bit isn’t going to make you feel very good if you support voter ID laws.
So that’s 241 ballots — out of 1 billion cast. That’s what the ticker above is sorting through, 1 billion imaginary ballots, 40 per second. Now the question: How often do you think that it will find a match? That is to say, on average, how long would you need to let the tool above run in order to find one of the 241 fraudulent ballots out of the 1 billion? (source)
241 out of one billion. Look, I tried to put that into my calculator, to divine the percentage of potentially fraudulent ballots out of a billion votes cast, and my calculator literally laughed, gave me the finger, and said, “Go do something else with your life.” We really can safely assume that voter fraud wherein someone goes to cast a ballot in someone else’s name, thereby needing a voter ID to prove one’s stated identity is mythological as tax cuts for the wealthy trickling down to the plebs.
The right is trying like hell to paint the notion of Russia interfering in our elections as the same kind of conspiracy-theory nonsense they buy into about pizza parlor pedophile rings. They want us all to believe that we’re the crazy ones for just wanting the stories checked out and either confirmed or squashed. I get it, they just won the White House for the first time in nearly a decade and have a vested interest in keeping it. But I don’t think they understand it only helps their cause if we investigate the hacks and find Trump still won “fair and square.”
The simple, unvarnished truth is that if Republicans really do care about the integrity of our elections, they’ll support Obama’s directive. They’ll admit that at the very least there’s evidence worth investigating. I’m not even saying we should overturn the results of the election unless we find something truly damning, like Trump and crew ordered the hacks and knew they were trying to steal an election.
We need to feel in this country that our elections are as purely run as they can be. If Republicans get to wag their finger and stomp their feet over voter fraud they can’t even prove exists, then we on the left are entitled to have our government investigate the more concrete evidence of outside hacking and meddling into our elections. Otherwise, we’re going to assume that the Republicans are just playing shallow political theater with the voter ID laws and truly do just want to suppress the vote in their favor.
…but Republicans are never, ever hypocritical right?
Right?
Follow James on Twitter @JamboSchlarmbo. |
President Trump walks with Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), left, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), right, to the Senate Republican Policy Luncheon on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
President Trump is cajoling Republican senators on the golf course. He is taking Democratic senators for rides on Air Force One. He is calling up fierce critics such as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to find common cause. He is deploying his daughter and adviser, Ivanka, to pitch activists and swing suburban voters. And he is using his megaphone, Twitter, to boast about it all.
On tax policy, the most consequential legislative fight of his presidency so far, Trump has emerged as a relentless salesman, proclaiming one promise after another. The tax cuts will be "big," he tweets. "Historic." "The biggest TAX CUT in the history of our country."
But for all the bustle emanating from the White House, most of the policy action is at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, in the Capitol, as Republicans try to rush through a sweeping tax cut package by the end of the year.
Lawmakers are relying on the president to build public pressure. But on policy details, legislators are focused inwardly as they endeavor to write a bill that could pass the Senate.
Republicans narrowly control the Senate, where some tensions are boiling over tax policy details as well as Trump's leadership in general. In the House, the administration faces other challenges — including that some GOP lawmakers are tuning out Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The secretary typically would serve as the administration's chief negotiator on anything related to tax policy. But House Republican leaders have made clear to the White House in recent weeks that they do not want Mnuchin, who has struggled to command respect on Capitol Hill, trying to negotiate with rank-and-file lawmakers, according to three people with direct knowledge of the situation.
National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn is acting as a key interlocutor with Capitol Hill on tax cut legislation. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn — whom Trump considers a master salesman and who gained firsthand experience with corporate tax policy during his years as a Goldman Sachs executive — is serving as a key interlocutor with Capitol Hill, along with White House legislative affairs director Marc Short. White House officials said Mnuchin and Cohn are working in tandem, with the treasury secretary playing a more behind-the-scenes role in shaping the policy and promoting it.
[Step one is done. But Republicans are still a long way from a tax bill becoming reality.]
Hungry for a signature piece of legislation to sign, Trump is fully invested in the tax fight, his advisers said.
"President Trump is incredibly engaged and knows this issue really well," said Hope Hicks, the White House director of communications. "To him, it represents so many different tenets of his core campaign promises — job growth, economic development, bringing jobs and money back home from overseas, helping the forgotten men and women."
Trump spends long stretches of his day working in his private dining room, just off the Oval Office, where he sits at the head of a table with a stack of newspapers and a phone beside him. The television often is turned to cable news, and advisers come and go for impromptu huddles. When the topic turns to the tax cut push, which happens more and more these days, Trump sometimes yells to his assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, to get one of the "big six" lawmakers on the phone to talk about his new idea, according to aides.
Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and a White House senior adviser, speaks during a town hall meeting on tax reform in Richboro, Pa., on Monday. (Rich Schultz/AP)
But Trump is learning that his willfulness has its limitations, with many other forces within the Republican Party driving the process. As much as the president wants a win, congressional Republicans are asserting themselves as they turn to the details of legislating.
One of the most intense periods in the tax fight will come in early November. Legislators will release the bill, lobbyists will start picking it apart — and Trump will be half a world away, on a 12-day tour of Asia.
Lawmakers seem to be okay with that. Asked if he was concerned that Trump might tweet something that disrupts the carefully planned rollout of the tax legislation, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) deadpanned Thursday: "He's going to be in Asia."
Ryan went on to say that he is "working very, very closely with the White House."
But Trump intends to stay involved while overseas, getting regular updates from staff and perhaps tweeting his views. Cohn will stay behind to work with Congress, and Vice President Pence and some Cabinet secretaries plan to do media interviews and hold public events to galvanize support, White House officials said.
It is difficult to overstate the stakes for Republicans. The party has a unified government — controlling both chambers in Congress and the White House — but after a series of defeats is under intense pressure to prove it can govern effectively ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
"For Republicans, this is existential," said Stephen Moore, a Heritage Foundation economist who advised Trump during last year's campaign.
For Trump specifically, Moore said, "this is the big prize. He's all-in on the tax bill. Having worked with him, I don't think he cares too much about the exact details of this. I think he wants a bill that helps the middle class and cuts the corporate tax. All the rest is just window dressing to him."
[Major divisions remain as GOP near its tax deadline]
David Stockman, who worked as President Ronald Reagan's budget director the last time major tax reform was passed, in 1981, said Trump and congressional Republicans are "barely out of the batter's box."
"Trump is living up to his reputation as the great disrupter," Stockman said. "I don't see the tax bill happening before year end. Even if something passes next year, it will be a pale shadow of what people are talking about and what the market seems to have priced in."
On Wednesday, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) plans to release his draft of the tax cut legislation, holding a committee vote on the measure the following week.
The tax plan is based on several broad ideas, but many provisions remain unresolved. Trump and GOP congressional leaders want to slash the corporate tax rate far below 35 percent and simplify the taxes paid by families and individuals. They want to expand the child tax credit, eliminate the estate tax, and incentivize companies to bring money and jobs back to the United States.
The tax plan would add at least $1.5 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years and, according to numerous budget experts, provide disproportionate benefits to companies and the wealthy. These are just some of the key issues Republicans are trying to address before they bring legislation to the House and the Senate for votes, worried that a few unhappy Republicans could kill the bill.
One of those potential dealbreakers is Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.), who met with Pence in his West Wing office this week.
MacArthur said in an interview that he tried to convince Pence that the GOP tax plan could drive up taxes for people in his state. Pence heard MacArthur out but was noncommittal, telling him Trump wanted to cut everyone's taxes.
That was not the answer MacArthur was looking for, he said. He wanted substance and a commitment to detailed changes that would help New Jersey. The congressman then voted Thursday to try to block a GOP budget plan in an effort to thwart the entire tax cut push until his concerns were addressed.
He did not succeed.
Asked if the House Republican leaders were sympathetic to the points he tried to make to Pence at the meeting, MacArthur said, "They are only sympathetic to votes."
Many of the decisions about the bill are being made by Brady and his colleagues, which is one reason Pence did not have the power to promise MacArthur that he could make changes.
Mnuchin and Cohn were able to persuade Ryan to back away from a demand that would have included a new way of taxing imports amid concerns that the change could drive up prices on items such as clothing, electronics and automobiles.
But the administration made concessions in other areas. It fell to Mnuchin and Cohn last month to persuade a disappointed Trump to agree to a target for the corporate tax rate that was higher than the president had wanted.
Trump had insisted for more than a year that the corporate tax rate should be lowered from 35 percent to 15 percent, but congressional Republicans stressed that this was not possible, as it would add too much to the debt. Trump ultimately agreed to a rate of 20 percent, which the White House views as an achievement, considering that some House Republicans argued that the rate should be closer to 25 percent.
Still, there are other examples of GOP leaders ignoring some of Trump's demands. The biggest flash point came this week, when Trump announced in a Monday tweet that 401(k) plans would not be affected by the tax bill, apparently reacting to news reports that House Republicans were considering such changes.
[Trump who? Republicans seem to be totally ignoring the president on taxes.]
White House aides said the president is especially attuned to how the bill will play with middle-class voters and wanted to make clear that he would protect the popular retirement program. But several senior congressional Republican aides said they were rattled by Trump's unexpected declaration. And two days later, Brady told reporters that there still could be changes to these retirement accounts.
Trump has tried to personally win over key Republican senators. He played golf with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney on Oct. 15 at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, where the three men chewed over tax policy.
Trump also has golfed several times recently with Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who is emerging as a central mediator between the president and Senate Republicans. And Wednesday, Trump called McCain — who earlier this month blasted Trump's "half-baked, spurious nationalism" — to talk about taxes, and the two made plans to get together soon with Graham, according to a White House official.
Ivanka Trump, meanwhile, pitched her child tax credit idea at a town hall meeting in Bucks County, Pa., outside Philadelphia. "It can't just be about cutting taxes," she said.
Ivanka Trump met recently with Grover Norquist, an anti-tax activist with deep influence among Republican lawmakers, to discuss the idea. Norquist said he told her that he respected her efforts but that the plan may not be passable.
"She may not be able to get the size or scope of what she's looking at, but this process isn't about getting everything in this specific bill," Norquist said, recalling how he described his outlook to her. "It takes time, and there will be more than one plane out of Casablanca on taxes."
The president has been trying to woo some Democratic senators to back his tax plan, targeting a handful who are running for reelection next year in states that he won handily.
In late September, Trump invited Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) to fly with him to Indianapolis for the president's tax speech. During their conversations on Air Force One, Trump pledged to Donnelly that they could work together on taxes and build a bond, leading the senator to feel cautiously upbeat about the prospect of finding consensus, according to four people familiar with the exchanges.
Donnelly's mood soured, however, once Trump gave his speech at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. The president seemed to threaten the low-key, moderate senator — in front of a large home state crowd — by warning that "we will campaign against him like you wouldn't believe" if Donnelly voted against the tax bill.
White House aides characterized Trump's remarks as well-intentioned, good-natured ribbing, but Donnelly felt burned by the experience and has since had little engagement with the White House, according to the people familiar with the episode.
[Deficits, schmeficits: House conservatives cast aside fiscal warnings to make way for tax cuts]
On Oct. 18, Trump gathered a bipartisan group from the Senate Finance Committee at the White House. With cameras rolling, the president leaned over the dark wooden table in the Cabinet Room to promise the "largest tax cut in the history of our country."
He then joked with Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the committee's ranking Democrat: "I'm sure we'll have unanimous support. I have no doubt, right? Right, Ron? I think. Right?" Senators chuckled.
But once the press corps left the room, there was an immediate disconnect between Trump and some of the Democrats, according to Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.).
"I said to him very directly, 'It's good to have this meeting, but I have to tell you, this plan, in my judgment, is a giveaway to the rich,' " Casey recalled in an interview, adding that he rattled off statistics from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center to make his point.
Casey said he and other Democrats there wanted to make clear to Trump that bipartisan support could not be willed by the president's liveliness. It had to be carefully negotiated, he said.
"But I just don't see it happening," Casey said.
When Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) asked Trump to support two of his proposals on how to craft a middle-class tax cut, such as expanding the child tax credit, Trump seemed excited by the idea and said a new set of working groups could be set up.
But later Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) pushed back against Brown's suggestion and said that while he welcomed Democratic input, the committee structure currently in place would drive the talks, according to three people who were briefed on the discussions.
As the meeting wrapped up, Trump vaguely warned that he may hound senators who vote against the bill by visiting their states and rallying against them ahead of the midterm elections.
"He said if those people didn't support a tax cut, it could be pretty tough," recalled Casey, who is up for reelection in 2018. "I'll just say, maybe he was offering a price." |
One of professional wrestling’s most popular performers shocked the community today when Daniel Bryan announced suddenly on Twitter that he was retiring, effective immediately. Tonight on Raw, Bryan told the Seattle audience—many of whom were seen openly weeping—that “I don’t want to be doing this any more than you don’t want me to be doing this.”
Bryan had spent months in an attempt to get cleared for a return to wrestling, but WWE concussion expert Dr. Joseph Maroon—you remember him from downplaying the role of CTE in professional football—has reportedly refused to give Bryan the O.K. to return despite Bryan getting cleared by his own doctors. Wrestling observers have reported Bryan—real name Bryan Danielson—underwent a new kind of concussion test that convinced the WWE superstar that his career should come to an end, and Bryan confirmed that test in his appearance:
Within the first five months of my wrestling career, I’d already had three concussions. For years after that, I would get a concussion here and there, or here, or there, and it gets to the point when you’ve been wrestling for 16 years that it adds up to a lot of concussions. It gets to a point where they tell you that you can’t wrestle anymore. [...] I have loved this in a way that I have never loved anything else. But a week and a half ago I took a test that said maybe my brain wasn’t as OK as I thought it was. And I have a family to think about, and my wife and I want to start having kids soon. [...] I’ve been angry, I’ve been sad, I’ve been frustrated, and all that. But when I woke up this morning, I felt nothing but gratitude. [...] You guys got behind me in a way that made me feel like I was more than just me. And for that, I’m grateful.
The show opened with a brief tribute to Bryan’s career, and continued airing highlight reels throughout the night:
The show continued on WWE Network; given that Bryan’s off-script and out-of-character admission that pro wrestling “is fiction” at last year’s Hall of Fame ceremony was wiped from WWE’s archives, there’s some question as to whether a very non-kayfabe sight like this would pass the bookers’ muster for Raw proper. Either way, one fairly ridiculous thing seems clear: the scripted world of pro wrestling cares more about its athletes’ brain health than the NFL does.
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Ajax a short form of Asynchronous JavaScript and XML is a set of techniques used by many modern and popular web sites. This technique allows portions of a Web page to be updated without refreshing the entire page, a significant advance in the development of websites and web-based applications. For example, a site might allow you to rate a product or item by clicking on a star image. With Ajax, your vote could be registered without having to load the entire page again. In this post, we are listing down 15 Beautiful Web Designs Empowered With Ajax Techniques for your inspiration. If you like this post so please spread the word as much as possible via twitter.
You are welcome if you want to share more web designs empowered with Ajax techniques that we have missed here and you think our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at SmashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter as well.
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BBC
MSNBC
White House
Ajax Whois
iGoogle
NetvibesÂ
Pageflakes
Protopage
My Live
My Yahoo
eskobo
Symbaloo
Pingle
Inbox
Shelfari |
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean doctors perform operations without anesthesia in clinics where hypodermic needles are not sterilized and sheets are not washed, the human rights group Amnesty International said in a report released on Thursday.
“Five medical assistants held my arms and legs down to keep me from moving,” the report quoted a 24-year-old North Korean defector as saying, describing how his left leg was amputated without anesthesia after a train accident. “I was in so much pain that I screamed and eventually fainted from pain.”
Other defectors told similarly horrific stories. One said her appendix was removed without anesthesia and her hands and feet were bound to prevent her from moving during the procedure. Others told of entire cities with no ambulances.
Drawn from interviews with more than 40 North Koreans who had defected over the past six years, as well as with health professionals who had worked with North Koreans, the report depicted a North Korean health system in dire straits.
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Long cut off from most of the world, North Korea has been pushing its people even deeper into isolation. Rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula after the North’s nuclear test last year and the North’s presumed role in the sinking of a South Korean warship in March have driven away potential aid donors. The government’s botched currency reform late last year also worsened chronic food shortages in the North. |
FAA, police investigating gun-firing drone in Clinton
CLINTON >> Connecticut authorities say a video showing a drone firing a handgun in the woods has prompted investigations by police and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Clinton police say the 14-second YouTube video was posted by 18-year-old town resident Austin Haughwout. He’s the same teen who made news last year by posting a YouTube video showing him being assaulted by a woman upset about him flying a drone at a state beach.
WFSB-TV reports Haughwout’s father said his son created the drone with a college professor as part of a project, after making sure he wouldn’t break any laws.
Police say it appears no state laws were broken. FAA officials say they’re trying to determine if aviation regulations were violated.
Austin Haughwout didn’t immediately return messages Friday night from The Associated Press. |
It was less than 48 hours ago when Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, joined millions marching in Paris to pay tribute to the 17 people killed by ISIS-supporting extremists. Then, almost the moment he got back, things changed, and as the FT politely paraphrases what transpired, the "country’s president struck a much more confrontational tone." That's one way of putting it. Another is that the former PM and current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of NATO-member Turkey did the unthinkable: accused the west, and French citizens in particular, of staging the Charlie Hebdo murder in order to blame Muslims, even as the mayor of Ankara said "Mossad is definitely behind such incidents . . . it is boosting enmity towards Islam."
"The duplicity of the west is obvious,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a press conference on Monday evening. “As Muslims we have never sided with terror or massacres: racism, hate speech, Islamophobia are behind these massacres.”
His punchline: "The culprits are clear: French citizens undertook this massacre and Muslims were blamed for it,” he added.
The FT is confused: "Although political leaders in Turkey have repeatedly condemned the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine, a Jewish supermarket and a policewoman, a parallel narrative has emerged in the country, with conspiracy theorists blaming the murders on foreign intelligence agencies rather than radical Islamists."
It's not just the French who were said to be behind the attack: so is Mossad:
Melih Gokcek, mayor of Ankara for the ruling AK party, said on Monday that “Mossad [the Israeli intelligence service] is definitely behind such incidents . . . it is boosting enmity towards Islam.” Mr Gokcek linked the attacks to French moves towards recognising Palestine. Ali Sahin, a member of Turkey’s parliament and foreign affairs spokesman for the AK party, last week set out eight reasons why he suspected the killings were staged so that “the attack will be blamed on Muslims and Islam”.
But back to Erdogan:
In his own remarks on Monday, Mr Erdogan added: “Games are being played throughout the Islamic world”. He expressed bewilderment that French intelligence services had not followed the culprits more effectively.
The FT is further confused that Turkey is not the only place which has dared to offer conspiratorial theories: Russia is too.
In Russia, some pro-Kremlin commentators sought to link the killings to geopolitical machinations by the US. Komsomolskaya Pravda, one of Russia’s leading tabloids, ran the headline: “Did the Americans stage the terror attack in Paris?” and posted a series of interviews on its website that presented various reasons why Washington might have organised the attack. In one interview, Alexander Zhilin, head of the pro-Kremlin Moscow Centre for the Study of Applied Problems, claimed the terror attack was US retribution against President François Hollande for a January 6 radio interview in which Mr Hollande urged the EU to lift sanctions against Russia. Washington used the attacks as “a quick fix for consolidating” US and EU geopolitical interests in Ukraine, Mr Zhilin claimed.
The FT is most stunned that in Russia the events in Charlie Hebdo are being equated to the 9/11 tragedy:
“For the last 10 years, so-called Islamist terrorism has been under the control of one of the world’s leading intelligence agencies,” Alexei Martynov, director of the International Institute for New States, a think-tank, told pro-Kremlin internet outlet LifeNews. “I am sure that some American supervisors are responsible for the terror attacks in Paris, or in any case the Islamists who carried them out.”
Whatever could have given the Russian this idea... |
According to the fourth quarter 2015 RLB Crane Index, 220 cranes currently dot the Sydney skyline. A whopping 170 of these cranes were devoted to residential projects, some of which will become the tallest buildings in the city. The rate of growth shows no real signs of slowing down either; new development applications lodged with City Hall totalled $7.4 billion AUD worth of investment. With its urban makeup constantly changing, we take a look at some of the largest towers planned for Australia's biggest metropolis.
Sydney Crown, image via Wilkinson Eyre
Located on the northwestern edge of Sydney's central business district (CBD), Barangaroo is a former port facility undergoing a massive transition into a bustling mixed-use neighbourhood. The $6 billion AUD waterfront redevelopment is being managed by the Barangaroo Delivery Authority on land owned by the New South Wales government. The parcel has been split into three distinct areas: Barangaroo Reserve, Central Barangaroo, and Barangaroo South. Acting as an extension of the CBD, the Lendlease-developed Barangaroo South will include a number of tall skyscrapers, including the 271-metre Sydney Crown.
Sydney Crown, image via Wilkinson Eyre
Designed by Wilkinson Eyre, the 70-storey hotel and casino complex will include 350 guest rooms plus luxury apartments and retail. As the first six-star international hotel to be constructed in Sydney, it will finally surpass the Chifley Tower as the tallest building in the city, a record the 53-storey tower has held since 1992.
One Sydney Harbour, image via Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Within the same precinct, Renzo Piano Building Workshop promises to bring two residential towers to life. One Sydney Harbour's 71- and 60-storey glass towers are the last pieces of the puzzle to come together. A trio of office towers designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, the International Towers, will also join the emerging waterfront skyline. Construction on those three buildings has already begun, and the entire Barangaroo South district is scheduled for completion in 2021.
International Towers, image via Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners
Though Sydney Crown appears locked in to become the tallest skyscraper in the city, the 78-storey 505 George Street will top out at a height just nine metres shorter. Developed by Coombes Property Group and Mirvac, who have hired Crone Architects, the project will contain 629 residential units and over 10,000 square feet of retail.
505 George Street, image via Crone Architects
In addition to world-famous architects making their mark on the city, major international developers are also investing in the country. China's largest real estate developer, Greenland Group, unveiled plans to build a 245-metre building with 66 floors. The Sydney Greenland Centre features a design by BVN Donovan Hill and Woods Bagot, who have proposed a rectangular glass tower atop the existing Art Deco Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board building. That building is being converted into a 180-bed hotel which is due for completion in 2016. The residential tower will forgo any floor numbers with "four" in them, as the number has a similar pronunciation to "death" in Mandarin. The tower is being marketed as a 82-storey building as a result. Now under construction, completion of the full project is expected in 2019.
Sydney Greenland Centre, image via Woods Bagot
Several of the towers listed above exceed Sydney's longstanding height limit of 235 metres. After 40 years, there is increasing pressure to raise the limit so that more growth can be accommodated in the central core. Technically, developers can build up to 257 metres, though they would have to sacrifice ten percent of floor space to do so. That is putting a strain on developers hoping to add more office space and residential units to the city. New South Wales Premier Mike Baird is hoping to lift the restriction, pointing to other cities like Melbourne who are building towers exceeding the supertall mark.
Additional images and information on the projects above can be found in the Database files linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads or leave a comment at the bottom of this page. |
NCM Fathom Events and CBS Home Entertainment are coming together again to celebrate Season 2 of the iconic series Star Trek: The Next Generation in a special one night big screen event. This special event will also include exclusive looks at the extensive restoration taken to make Season 2 look better than ever before, never-before-seen interviews with the original cast members, a behind-the-scenes look at the artists who created the original FX elements and photography and a reunion with the original cast members, captured in December 2011, as they celebrate 25 years of this unforgettable series. <br />Star Trek: The Next Generation – A Celebration of Season 2 is the first opportunity to see a transcendent digital presentation and the world premiere of the extended cut of The Measure of a Man in select movie theaters nationwide on Thursday, November 29th at 7:00 PM (local time). |
This is such a great gift for a guy – make a faux leather frame using paper bags and Mod Podge. It's such a sophisticated look for less!
So sometimes we get a little girly around here and the Man Podgers have to bring us back to reality with tutorials that are acceptable for dudes. I have four brothers, so I get it.
If you are a dude, or even if you need a more masculine touch to your decor, I think you will appreciate this project from Walter.
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Do you REALLY think you can make a decoupage frame look like faux leather? Yes, it can be done . . . with Mod Podge. Take a look for yourself and learn how I made this masculine decoupage picture frame.
I was inspired by a recent trip to Ralph Lauren; there were so many vintage leather props in the shop like mail carrier bags, belts and boots . . .
And thus a idea was born…”I can do that” with Mod Podge!
DIY Faux Leather Frame
Gather These Supplies
Brown rice papers and torn brown paper bags
Mod Podge Gloss
Round tip brush
Metal ruler
Superfine Japan Colors (Rose Pink)
Mineral spirits
Polycrylic
I used an old neglected flat frame. I first measured the width of the face of the frame – then I cut pieces of rice paper to fit the first layer of the frame.
For the second layer, you'll prepare strips of paper bag by tearing with a ruler:
Decoupage the rice paper onto the frame and let dry.
Crinkled the torn paper bag strips and then uncrinkle (not completely, but mostly). Use the round tip brush to apply the Mod Podge into the crevices and place on top of the decoupaged rice papered frame
***DO NOT SMOOTH OUT THE CRINKLES***
Press the paper right on top with your fingers and let dry.
When I studied Furniture Design in college, I used Superfine Japan Colors all the time. The quality and color(s) are very rich and elegant!
Take a plastic cup, fill it with a half a teaspoon of Rose Pink and a 1/4 cup of mineral spirits and stir until the paint is smooth and slightly watery. Use a sponge brush and apply over the decoupaged frame.
The results are out of this world! Some of the irregular patterns from the crinkling absorbed the paint in an inconsistent pattern (that's what you want; it gives more of a rich leather look!).
Superfine Japan Colors dry fast, though I would let it dry for at least a day before sealing with Polycrylic.
Look at the gorgeous and masculine rich texture this frame has! I inserted a image from the Graphics Fairy and hung the faux leather frame above my dressing table. I could see this type of frame in Ralph Lauren shops . . . that would be nice, don't you think?
Don't forget to visit me on Etsy, at my blog or on Twitter. |
The new Travancore Devaswom Board President, Prayar Gopalakrishnan, who took charge just two days ago has stoked up a controversy on the issue of impurity of women who, if menstruating, are not allowed to enter the Sabarimala temple, which has roused the ire of women across Kerala state.
In Kerala, Sabarimala temple authorities have long stuck to an archaic principle that militates against gender equality by denying menstruating women entry into the temple. Menstruating women are considered unclean and impure by the temple authorities.
Addressing reporters at the Kollam Press Club on 13 November, Gopalakrishnan stated that women will be permitted to Sabarimala after the invention of a machine which can scan and judge their purity, Newsminute reported.
"A time will come when people will ask if all women should be disallowed from entering the temple thourghout the year. These days there are machines that can scan bodies and check for weapons. There will be a day when a machine is invented to scan if it is the 'right time' (not menstruating) for a woman to enter the temple. When that machine is invented, we will talk about letting women inside," he said, according to Newsminute.
He also wanted security to be tightened so no unclean women could enter the temple surreptitiously. In 2006, Girija Lokesh, popular Kannada film and TV actress, admitted that she violated Sabarimala regulations by entering the sanctum sanctorum of the temple in 1987.
In December 2010, the crime branch of Kerala police chargesheeted Kannada actress Jayamala who had claimed that shehad entered the sanctum sanctorum of Sabarimala temple and touched the idol of Ayyappa.
The new Devaswom board chief's comments drew angry reactions from women's rights activists. Sudha Ramalingam, a senior lawyer said: "I can't comprehend this. How can a machine determine the purity of women and what is the standard? How can a machine judge the purity of women? How scientific is it?" Newsminute quoted her as asking.
"It seems to be ridiculous. I am against the view that menstruating women are impure. People must first understand what woman and womanhood is and must talk with sensitivity," she told Newsminute.
Poet and activist Ravi Shankar pointed out: "There could also be a machine that scans and finds out whether men have led a celibate, teetotaler, vegetarian life for 41 days before entering the temple. This will help reducing the crowd by 90 per cent." |
Though testing for Alden Ehrenreich’s co-stars for the upcoming Han Solo spin-off has been slow and steady, the “Star Wars” anthology pic may be getting closer to adding another lead.
Sources tell Variety that “Selma” and “Creed” star Tessa Thompson, “Power Rangers” Naomi Scott, and Zoe Kravitz tested in London this week for the female lead in the yet-untitled project.
With production not starting till early 2017, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller have taken their time in meeting with talent for the mystery female character as well as the role of Lando Calrissian. This would mark the second round of tests; a previous round took place earlier this summer. While it seems like a decision is on the horizon, sources it could still be a couple weeks till one is made.
As for the role of Calrissian, reports had surfaced that “Atlanta” star and creator Donald Glover was high on the list, but Disney and Lucasfilm still wanted a second round of tests to be certain on their decision. Solo’s friend was played by Billy Dee Williams in “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi.”
The film is not only one of the more highly anticipated upcoming pics but also one of the more closely guarded projects in town. The casting of Solo was one of the largest and longest processes since Universal’s search for Christian Grey in “Fifty Shades of Grey.” Ehrenreich eventually won the part that Harrison Ford originated.
The pic is set to bow in theaters on May 25, 2018. |
Alice Tan Ridley stars in the first episode . She’s been singing American gospel and R&B in New York subway stations full-time since 1992, when, after 21 years in New York raising a family and teaching handicapped children in the public school system, she decided to change it up. The podcast intersperses recordings of her subway performances with her reflections on the role of singing in her life. Her voice rises from the background noise of trains and conversation. As the background noise melts away, a sample from her album kicks in with a strong drumbeat. It’s a song called “You’re Better Than That,” and she says it’s inspired by the saying that it takes a village to raise a child.
StreetMusicMap , a crowdsourced global map of street music performance launched in 2014, recently rolled out a new podcast showcasing New York City’s cast of musical characters. Since the Brazilian journalist Daniel Bacchieri created the site in 2014, more than 700 collaborators have contributed video , recordings, and geographic details about buskers around the world. With the new podcast, StreetMusicMap Radio, the “global report on street music” digs a little deeper into the stories of individual artists, giving them a space to tell their own stories beyond what you hear in their songs.
“You ever heard the saying?” she asks. “When your parents are not there, there are other parents looking at what you’re doing and they’ll… tell you if you’re doing something wrong or if you’re being a good person. So that’s where that song came from. ‘You know you’re better than that. Your mama taught you better than that.’”
It’s a song about community, guidance, and the way lives are shaped in public. In some ways, Ridley’s like a parent in the village—only instead of warning against bad behavior, she’s urging commuters to loosen up and feel some emotion. “What I do is let people know that it’s alright to sing a song,” she says. “Songs is like crying. When you cry you have a good cry, and after that good cry, everything is over, you’re solid again, you’re moving on.”
The second episode profiles Michael Taliaferro, or “Bongo,” who has been playing his djembe on New York City subways since 1994. Born and raised in Baltimore, he says he’s been a world traveler since he was 17. In one recording, his voice comes crackling and clear to address a crowd, and he introduces himself and his subject: drum culture and ethnomusicology. Then it’s quiet, and he speaks into a microphone, telling how he came to New York in ‘94 to play a few gigs with Richie Havens with no permanent job or long-term plan. That’s when he started playing on the trains. When he explains the history of drums as communication tools and signals for war and celebration, you can tell he’s refined the speech over years. |
Update: The headline and neighborhood has been changed to reflect the correct location.
One of the most recognizable properties in Detroit is now up for sale. The Geodesic Domes, which sit near Michigan Central Station in Mexicantown, are basically shells at this point. Could they find a new life with the right new owner? The domes are zoned for both residential and commercial. One has an attached garage. At 4,000 square feet, they’re listing for $399,000.
They were built by Leo Gillis, Jack White’s brother. Gillis lived in them for a while, but sold them in 2012 (there are some interior pics here). It was going to be an event space, but it never came to be. These photos show more of the interior, or how it was ransacked and gutted.
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The price is a bit perplexing, and it will be interesting to see who buys them and what becomes of them. It could be an incredible residence or ... you tell us. What would you like to see in these domes?
They’re listed through Chad Hooks at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. |
Being a critic can be a difficult business, not to mention being the one critic that some Chicago theaters say they will no longer invite to review their shows.
Hedy Weiss is the longtime theater and dance critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and a regular on-air contributor to WTTW-Ch. 11's "Chicago Tonight." In the last week, a petition calling on theaters to stop inviting Weiss to productions in the wake of her June 13 review of "Pass Over" at Steppenwolf Theatre has garnered more than 3,500 signatures.
The petition at Change.org was created by a group of local artists calling itself the Chicago Theater Accountability Coalition, which claims 70 of the city's 200-some theaters have agreed not to offer Weiss complimentary tickets to review a show (part of a longstanding and common arrangement between theaters and arts presenters and members of the media covering their work, including the Tribune). After suggesting the names of those theaters would be released this week, co-founder Sasha Smith said Thursday her group is not planning to release the list because "at this point it is just already public knowledge (which theaters stand with the coalition), and the list keeps growing and expanding day by day, so at this point it's sort of a moot point to release one specific list."
Some theaters have posted public statements about their positions on the controversy. Steep Theatre representatives announced on Facebook they will suspend offering complimentary tickets to Weiss, reversing a decision theater leadership made more than a month ago when they were asked by members of the arts community to stop inviting her to their productions. Artistic Director Peter Moore said the company revisited the issue after the "Pass Over" review and determined "it's a stance that we felt we needed to take." He added that the theater may reconsider its position if Weiss responds to the criticism.
On its Facebook page, the Broken Nose Theatre posted a link to the petition and said it already has a policy of "not inviting any critic who utilizes their reviews to unapologetically espouse and propagate racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise bigoted and malicious views."
But according to two sources in the Chicago theater community who asked not to be named, the theater coalition, known as ChiTAC, made repeated phone calls and sent emails to local theaters asking that they join the petition. Some theaters reportedly felt pressured to do so. Smith said the coalition's main course of action was writing letters and the movement "has always been about love, respect and protection."
"We don't want to fracture this community. We want it to be as strong as it possibly can (be) for every member of this community. We want to build this community up and continue these hard conversations. If there's any pressure, or rather if anyone is feeling pressure, it's because these conversations are hard, they're difficult to have and we have to look at ourselves internally and ask, 'Well, what is the right thing for us to do?'"
WTTW Chicago Sun-Times theater critic Hedy Weiss appears on Chicago Tonight on WTTW in May. Chicago Sun-Times theater critic Hedy Weiss appears on Chicago Tonight on WTTW in May. (WTTW) (WTTW)
Weiss has not commented publicly. But Sun-Times Publisher and Editor Jim Kirk, Managing Editor Chris Fusco and Editorial Page Editor Tom McNamee met with Steppenwolf Artistic Director Anna D. Shapiro and Executive Director David Schmitz Tuesday, days after Shapiro and Schmitz said in a statement that Weiss' review "once again revealed a deep-seated bigotry and a painful lack of understanding of this country's historic racism."
Speaking Thursday about the meeting, Kirk said: "We had a productive, wide-ranging discussion about the growing and ever-changing arts scene in Chicago. We remain committed to providing readers with thoughtful and incisive reporting and criticism across this important sector of the city."
On Friday, the Sun-Times published a statement by its editorial board in support of Weiss (“We stand by our critic and a vital Chicago theater scene”). The statement acknowledged that Weiss's review had offended some readers, particularly those in the Chicago theater community: "Could Hedy have been more nuanced in her comments? Should her review of “Pass Over” been edited better? Was it tone-deaf? We are all free to complain, defend and debate." It further acknowledged the paper could do better in finding journalists of color to cover the arts. But, it continued, "Hedy Weiss is a theater critic of integrity who writes from a place of honest good faith." In taking on her detractors, the board took issue with Steppenwolf's statement, which it called "surprising." And although it described the subsequent meeting with the theater as worthwhile, it said that: "Nothing she wrote comes close to what Steppenwolf assessed as 'deep-seated bigotry.'" It said the paper would buy its own tickets to performances to which Weiss was not invited, as necessary.
In a statement Friday, Shapiro and Schmitz said the Sun-Times leadership embraced an invitation to meet with ChiTAC and the League of Chicago Theatres. The Steppenwolf directors described their own meeting with ChiTAC founders as "powerful and urgent."
Weiss, in her review, praised elements of "Pass Over," which is a play by New York playwright Antoinette Nwandu that riffs on "Waiting for Godot" by swapping the usual protagonists for two young black men, who are alternately seduced and terrorized by two white characters, the second of whom is a police officer. The review took issue with Nwandu's choice of villain. Weiss wrote: "No one can argue with the fact that this city … has a problem with the use of deadly police force against African-Americans. But, for all the many and varied causes we know so well, much of the lion's share of the violence is perpetrated within the community itself."
The first public reaction to Weiss' review came from ChiTAC, followed by the letter from Steppenwolf. That "once again" referred to what Shapiro and Schmitz deem Weiss' track record of insensitivity and worse. The folks at ChiTAC also write of what they called Weiss' lengthy pattern of "racism, homophobia, and body shaming found in her reviews."
Weiss' critics point to what they feel are some notable transgressions over the years. These include a 2004 review of Tony Kushner's play "Caroline, or Change," in which she referred to the playwright as writing "in the classic style of a self-loathing Jew"; a 2013 review of a work about the racial profiling of Muslims in which Weiss cited the Boston Marathon bombing and wrote, "What practical alternative to profiling do you suggest?"; and of body-shaming for this, about a recent production of "Mamma Mia!": "Theresa Ham's character-defining costumes make the most of the many 'real women' figures on stage, just as the gold and silver spandex outfits outline the perfect bodies of the terrific chorus dancers." |
A Swedish-Jewish intellectual said she was “not the least bit surprised” to learn of a report in the Israeli press on Tuesday about a teacher in Malmö who was fired for being a Jew.
Annika Hernroth-Rothstein told The Algemeiner that the only thing “baffling” about the incident recounted in the report is how “out-in-the-open” it was.
Hernroth-Rothstein, well-known in Sweden for her pro-Israel activism and both personal and public battles against antisemtism in Europe, was responding to a story that appeared in the Hebrew news site nrg about “A,” a decades’-long Israeli ex-pat who claimed she was let go from her position on the grounds that she would be hated by both Swedish and Arab children.
According to nrg, “A” posted on Facebook a description of her experience with the principal of the school where she had only begun working in February.
“Listen, ‘A,’ you know that I’m on your side,” she recounted her employer saying to her. “And it’s really unpleasant for me to say this to you, but I think that problems are liable to arise here as a result of your origins.”
“A” said he explained, “It won’t be easy for you here. Most of the Swedish pupils are racists. They hate everybody, but especially Jews, so it could easily be that you will be getting it from them and the Arab pupils. I suggest you seek employment elsewhere, far from schools. And you know that I’m telling you this because I care about you.”
“A” told nrg that Malmö “has become a place I no longer recognize. I feel the way I did when I arrived here 39 years ago – like a tourist. Though the buildings and streets are familiar, everything else has changed.”
“A” said that the “situation has grown increasingly worse since Operation Cast Lead,” referring to the three-week IDF incursion into Gaza – from December 2008 to January 18, 2009 – to stop terrorist rocket-fire into Israel and weapons smuggling into the Hamas-controlled enclave.
“I felt all choked up” during the conversation with the principal, she wrote on Facebook. “But I managed to stop the tears. I was silent, and not only because I couldn’t breathe, but because I already knew which ‘problems’ could arise. I understood that even the many scarves I would have to wear to hide my Star of David wouldn’t help. I would have to keep quiet when asked about my background.”
She continued: “On the way home, alone in a train car, I allowed the tears of my frustration to flow. I was angry with myself. I was angry with my frustration. I was angry with my tears. I was angry about maybe having to find other work, not as a teacher. Above all, I was angry at Sweden in 2016. When I arrived home, I began to look for another job.”
According to nrg, “A” moved to Malmö with her Swedish husband, whom she met in Israel, when he served as a member of the UN Peacekeeping Force. The couple divorced about a decade later, but she remained in Malmö, where she accumulated a number of academic degrees and became an integral part of the city.
“Malmö is lost to us,” Hernroth-Rothstein told The Algemeiner. “And by that I mean Sweden, not merely Jews. This is a city that represents an accelerated version of what we see going on in the rest of the country and the continent today, because of its relatively small size and the fact that the highly problematic areas — those densely populated by Arab immigrants — are in the middle of the city.”
She went on: “The Malmö orthodox rabbi has long sounded the alarm and filed numerous police reports citing harassment, both physical and verbal. Yet the answer, from both politicians and intellectuals, has been to condemn the Jewish state and excuse antisemitism by saying that it is the logical consequence of Israeli military actions. The fish rots from the head, and Malmö is an excellent example of this, as it has sold out and abandoned its once significant Jewish population.”
Hernroth-Rothstein said that Swedish municipalities have started segregating communal swimming pools, due to the complaints by young women that immigrant men molest them when they go swimming. This, she said, “is how Sweden responds to the violation of human rights and transgression of the Swedish law — it adapts to the perpetrator and abandons the victim, and I see the same thing happening to us Jews in Sweden today. Indeed, the teacher in question will likely receive neither a public apology nor compensation, but she is asked to adapt to the perpetrators and accept this reality. There is no excuse for this travesty of justice.” |
Saturday, March 10, 2012 Paris-Nice: Thomas De Gendt solos into Nice as Leipheimer crashes out of contention by Ben Atkins at 12:04 PM EST
Categories: Pro Cycling, Race Reports and Results, Paris-Nice Stage-long attack sees Belgian triumph alone; Movistar puts Omega Pharma-Quick Step leader under pressure on the final descent Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) continued what has been an incredible Paris-Nice for the Dutch ProTeam, with an epic solo victory between Sisteron and Nice. The Belgian escaped the lethargic peloton, 48km into the 219.5km stage, with former Estonian champion Rein Taaramäe (Cofidis), and managed to build up a lead that peaked at 12’40” in the mid part of the stage.
Contrary to the usual scenario however, with De Gendt and Taaramäe trailing race leader Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) by 15’44” and 31’07 respectively at the start of the day, the peloton did not bother to chase the two breakaways; instead a battle for the podium ensued between fourth place Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma-Quick Step).
With Leipheimer already having crashed twice, and chasing back to the peloton on the final descent of the Col de Vence with four of his teammates, the Movistar team moved to the front to try to stop him coming back. A third crash, as all five Omega Pharma-Quick Step riders came down into a Gendarme’s motorbike that was blocking the outside of a corner, saw the end of the American’s challenge. He remounted, but rolled down the rest of the descent, his race over; Valverde had won the battle and moved up to third overall.
Up ahead De Gendt, who had dropped Taaramäe on the climb to the Col de Vence, rode on to take a solo victory on Nice’s iconic Promenade des Anglais; Taaramäe came in 6’18” later, while John Degenkolb (Project 1t4i) led the peloton over after a massive 9’24”.
"This morning I thought most of all to save strength for tomorrow,” said De Gendt at the finish. “But I found myself in the right break and once it was gone I realised I was in for a long day.
“[On the] Col de Vence, I asked Taaramäe to take his turn and he wouldn’t,” he explained. “It got on my nerves and that’s how I went. The finale was one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen with such a splendid view.
“We’re all in great shape at Vacansoleil,” he added. “We have a great team spirit, we work hard and Paris-Nice is a race within our reach. We don’t have the level to compete in the big Tours so we focus on this kind of event and I’m convinced [my teammate] Lieuwe Westra is going to win tomorrow.”
Wiggins was safely in the group, along with second place Westra and - apart from Leipheimer - the rest of the top ten. The British champion still leads Westra by six seconds, and now Valverde by 18, with just the final stage time trial to the top of the Col d'Èze to come.
The mountains continue but the Mediterranean is on the horizon
With the hills and mountains of the Centre region now well and truly behind them, the peloton was now faced with the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and the Alpes-Maritimes before they could dip its toes in the warm waters of the Mediterranean. Contrary to recent usual practice however, the finish on Nice’s iconic Promenade des Anglais would not be the end of things, with the 9.6km time trial to the Col d'Èze awaiting.
After several breakaway attempts in the first hour, Taaramäe - who had only recently hit the deck - escaped with De Gendt after 48km.
By the time De Gendt led Taaramäe over the top of the 2nd category Col des Lèques after 73.5km, the peloton - led by the Belgian’s Vacansoleil-DCM teammate Frederik Veuchelen in the polka-dot jersey - was 8’25” behind. The 3 points he received for third place gave Veuchelen an unassailable lead in the mountains classification; he now just needed to finish the race to take the jersey.
With De Gendt 15’44” behind Wiggins in the overall standings, Team Sky was allowing the Belgian plenty of leeway. Over the top of the 2nd category Col de Luens after 91km, the peloton was 12 minutes back; Evgeni Petrov (Astana) was 1’10” in front of the field at this point, having attacked on the climb.
The 3rd category Côte de Peyroules after 99km saw De Gendt and Taaramäe allowed even more time, with their lead now up to 12’40”.
The long descent that followed saw Petrov reeled in but, more significantly, Leipheimer crash for the first time. The American came down with Adrian Saez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), but two teammates paced him back to the peloton without too many problems.
Through the intermediate sprint at Tourrettes-sur-Loup, after 150km, the two leaders’ advantage was still as high as 11’50”, but surely this would come down as they began the climb to the 1st category Col de Vence a few kilometres later.
The final climb begins but the peloton is still not interested
De Gendt, weary of Taaramäe’s unwillingness - or inability - to contribute any longer attacked and dropped the Estonian. The last time the climb had been used in Paris-Nice it had been used as a springboard to victory by the late Xavier Tondo, and it looked now as De Gendt was about to do the same. Over the top - with 165km down, and 54.5km to go - the Belgian was more than a minute ahead of Taaramäe; Luis Angel Maté (Cofidis) led the peloton over the top a massive 11’35” back.
As the peloton hit the descent, a crash saw Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) come down for a second time. Most of the American’s team dropped back to pace him back up again, but the Movistar team was now on the front, trying to get Valverde onto the podium ahead of the next day’s mountain time trial.
With 30km to go De Gendt’s lead was 1’45” back to Taaramäe, and still 11’30” to the peloton; Movistar had the bit between its teeth now though, with Leipeimer still struggling to get back on.
Inside the final 22km De Gendt was 2’40” clear of Taaramäe; the real battle now though, was between Valverde and Leipheimer; the Movistar-led peloton was now 11’15” behind De Gendt, but Leipheimer and his Omega Pharma-Quick Step teammates were at 12’10”, 55 seconds further back. The American was not only on the verge of losing his podium spot, but at this rate would be lucky to end the day in the top ten.
As the descent continued the Movistar and Omega Pharma-Quick Step teams seemed locked together, 55 seconds apart. Leipheimer though, seemed to be having trouble staying with his four teammates as they swept around the winding curves.
With De Gendt at 15km to go, the American was just passing the 25km banner, but the Belgian team’s work appeared to be paying off, and the gap had come down to 40 seconds.
Disaster strikes Leipheimer as De Gendt solos to glory
Suddenly disaster struck the American, as the five members of Omega Pharma-Quick Step all came off on the outside of a corner, hitting a Gendarme’s motorbike as he guarded a sheer drop. Dries Devenyns appeared to be the worst off physically, as directeur sportif Wilfried Peeters tried to work out if his rider had suffered a concussion; Leipheimer’s race was over though, and after a few moments he remounted and rolled gently away with Tony Martin at his side.
Despite having despatched its big rival, and having elevated Valverde to the podium for tonight at least, the Movistar team kept the pressure on right to the bottom of the descent. There was no way that the Spanish team was going to catch De Gendt, with the Belgian still 10’50” clear with 10km to go, but they might be able to put another of Valverde’s rivals under pressure on the technical twists and turns.
De Gendt meanwhile, was on the flat coastal roads and heading towards Nice. He was beginning to look tired but, providing he could hold off an equally exhausted Taaramäe, some 3’35” behind him, he had the stage in the bag.
Sure enough, as De Gendt entered the last five kilometres, his gap to the Estonian was growing and, as Movistar began to relax the pace behind, his gap to the peloton began to open up a little.
The Belgian gave a ‘thumbs up’ to the peloton as he cruised along the sunny Promenade de Anglaises, then sat up to take a well-earned solo victory.
As the peloton hit the flat coast road, Movistar allowed Team Sky to take over, and the British team line up in front as they rode into Nice.
Taaramäe just about managed to stay away, crossing the line some 6’ 17” later, puffing his cheeks and sitting up to enjoy the fact that he was getting the applause of the crowd all to himself. After a long sprint from DE Gent’s Vacansoleil-DCM teammate Romain Feillu, John Degenkolb took the sprint for third some 9’23” later.
Leipheimer, along with Omega Pharma-Quick Step teammates Tony Martin, Kevin De Weert, Nikolas Maes - but not Dries Devenyns, who had abandoned - rolled in after 16’50”, losing the American more than seven minutes to his former rivals and dropping him down to 39th overall.
Result stage 7
1. Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM
2. Rein Taaramäe (Est) Cofidis @ 6’18”
3. John Degenkolb (Ger) Project 1t4i @ 9’24”
4. Greg Henderson (NZl) Lotto-Belisol
5. Thor Hushovd (Nor) BMC Racing Team
6. Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team
7. Romain Feillu (Fra) Vacsansoleil-DCM
8. Simon Clarke (Aus) GreenEDGE-AIS
9. Xavier Florencio (Spa) Katusha Team
10. Grega Bole (Slo) Lampre-ISD
Standings after stage 7
1. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Team Sky
2. Lieuwe Westra (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM @ 6s
3. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team @ 18s
4. Simon Spilak (Slo) Katusha Team @ 37s
5. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team @ 39s
6. Maxime Monfort (Bel) RadioShack-Nissan @ 46s
7. Arnold Jeannesson (Fra) FDJ-BigMat @ 1’06”
8. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-Quick Step @ 1’16”
9. Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) Team Astana @ 1’21”
10. Angel Vicioso (Spa) Katusha Team @ 2’24”
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It’s funny how many similarities the worlds of science fiction and politics share. Both are run by nerds, and hold galas where the respective wonks from both parallel universes can convene and try to impress each other with obscure facts.
And the science fiction and political worlds are prone to internal strife between competing factions, battles in which some sides will turn to vile acts to win the day.
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Come with me back to 2015, when some in the world took President-elect Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE’s campaign as a nothing more than desperate public relations move. That summer sci-fi geeks converged on Spokane, WA for WorldCon 73, on of the longest running literary conventions in the world. It’s basically the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner meets the Academy Awards, meets a Star Trek convention. You likely remember the guys who liked Star Wars a bit too much in high school. The go to these things.
The climax of the convention is the presentation of the Hugo Awards. Past winners include Starship Troopers, Dune, Ender’s Game, and American Gods.
The 2015 show was the scene of a fight started by a small but noisy cabal of alt-right malcontents referring to themselves as the Rabid Puppies, who used an army of Facebook trolls and Twitter eggs conjured from the cesspools of 4chan and Reddit to flood our little community of science fiction book geeks like a rampaging horde.
The Rabid Puppies attacked the Hugo Awards for encouraging diversity and inclusiveness in the kind of literature sci-fi geeks consume, enjoy, and recognize.
At the center of this revolt was Theodore Beale, more commonly known by his pen name, Vox Day. Beale’s name would re-emerge this campaign season after Trump’s son retweeted him.
Beale, an obscure author of sci-fi works, was already notorious in fandom for his outspokenly white-supremacist and misogynistic views. Beale’s toxic brew of racism, xenophobia, and girls-are-icky rhetoric resonated with the sort of basement-dwelling Mountain Dew addicts who complain about the “friend zone.”
And Beale, like another politician we know, wasn’t beyond engaging in public trolling to cast aspersions at a public figure. GamerGate and the Birther controversy are both rooted in the propensity of old white men to do everything and anything to protect their stranglehold on the franchise.
Beale’s minions harassed and threatened to rape or kill female gaming journalist and designers. And on the heels of that controversy, Beale tried to hijack the Hugo Awards, because Beale didn’t win an award. Feels familiar, doesn’t it?
The Rabid Puppies and Beale passed themselves off a silent majority, and used online mockery, harassment, and propaganda to mount a virtual occupation. The Rabid Puppies stacked the Hugos with ideologically-charged nonsense written by partisan hacks and incompetents.
Any of this sounding familiar yet?
The response to the Rabid Puppies was a mix of anger, desperation and disbelief.
Most didn’t recognize it at the time, but the Hugos, like GamerGate’s assault on videogame journalists before it, had become another proxy battle in the ongoing culture war between the forces of progress and inclusiveness, and the retrograde conservatism threatening to spread across the western world.
The initial pushback to the Rabid Puppies was unfocused and confused. Infighting and finger-pointing hampered the resistance. There was no coherent strategy. Should ardent sci-fi fans let the whole thing burn itself out; should we engage in dialogue and use reason and compassion to bring them into the fold. But the Rabid Puppies were after blood. They wanted revenge, not negotiation.
You’re starting to see a familiar pattern here.
Eventually through some savvy politics, the majority wrestled back control of WorldCon 73. The very next year, Rabid Puppy influence over the nominations had already begun to ebb. More women and POC won major awards.
But the lesson still sits with me.
It’s easy to forget now, but the facts are the forces of fascism and intolerance are exactly like the hordes of GamerGate and the Rabid Puppies. They are loud, angry, aggressive, shameless, and without scruples. The include the same types of people who voted for Brexit in the UK and Trump in America.
But they are also a clear minority. Nearly three million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE over Donald Trump. More Americans voted for Democratic Senators. It is only through exploitation of the rules in violation of the spirit of American democratic ideals that the forces of intolerance and bigotry “won” their majorities.
This has been true for more than a decade.
This makes them vulnerable to our superior numbers should we have the foresight and resolve to set aside our petty bickering and unify in an organized fashion and agree to a coherent plan of counterattack.
And they know it. That’s why they are constantly introducing new legislation at the state level to limit early voting, close polling places, require ID to vote, and sought to gut the Voting Rights Act. They fear our numbers. They work to keep us fractured and divided.
Don’t let them. We are stronger together.
Patrick Tomlinson is an author and regular contributor to the Hill on state, local and national politics. Follow him on Twitter @stealthygeek.
The views expressed by Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill. |
San Fernando Valley, 1977. Jack Horner is a renowned director of porn, all his movies financed by "Colonel" James. He has his regular stable of cast and crew, most who have issues in their lives. They include: actress Amber Waves, who acts as the mother figure to the group in the absence of being a real mother to her biological son, about who she has told no one in her porn circle; actor Reed Rothchild, who wants to live up to his on-screen alpha male status; actor Buck Swope, who works as a stereo salesman on the side and whose country & western style seems to be problematic in getting ahead; actress Rollergirl, a high school drop-out who never takes off her skates; and assistant director "Little" Bill, whose marriage is threatened by his wife being both a nymphomaniac and an exhibitionist. Their collective lives are punctuated by excess in everything, whether it be sex, cocaine use, or the need to amass flashy material possessions. Into their lives comes Eddie Adams, a seventeen year old high school dropout from a dysfunctional family in Torrance. Eddie, who renames himself Dirk Diggler, is Jack's latest discovery, and whose success in the industry is largely predicated on being well-endowed. Because of the validation he receives for the first time in his life, Dirk is easy prey to be sucked into the excesses of the group. Although largely an innocent beyond the few dollars previously earned here and there by showing his penis to anyone who would pay, Dirk also changes as a person as he displays more and more bravado in relation to the amount of validation he receives. The next few years lead to changes in the group, not only because of changes in technology, namely the advent of video, but as the excesses in their lives start to take their toll, and as their association with the business may affect what their post-porn life will look like. |
Chip Kelly recently pulled off somewhat of a coup in Philadelphia, taking control of the front office shortly after the 2014 regular season ended. With former GM Howie Roseman re-assigned to deal more with contracts and cap, Kelly promoted the 31-year-old Ed Marynowitz to VP of player personnel. The excellent Sheil Kapadia profiled Marynowitz Thursday, and much of what he said echoed the philosophy that Seattle's built under Pete Carroll and John Schneider. I recommend reading Kapadia's excellent article before continuing as I'm only going to highlight a few passages here. As many on twitter have noted, here's what Marynowitz said:
This is a size/speed league. [Nick Saban and his staff at Alabama] believed the SEC was a size/speed league. There's enough statistical data that will support that in terms of players that are playing at a high level. There's a certain prototype.
A large portion of the best players in the league are also great athletes. As I detailed a few weeks ago, the four current 3 sigma athletes in the NFL are all excellent players. This is anecdotal evidence, but the idea holds up under more rigorous scrutiny. There are not many elite non-QBs who test poorly.
Marynowitz worked for Saban at Alabama before coming to Philadelphia in 2011, and he details their philosophy below.
So there's a certain prototype at each position. We try to build the same thing here, whether it's at inside linebacker, outside linebacker, corner, safety. There's a prototype, and there's a model that fits what we do.
I've written before about the Seahawks and prototypes, an application that I refer to as "roster mirroring." If the backups on a team fit into the same athletic class and build as the starters, then the scheme used to maximize the strengths of the starters should also serve the players waiting on the bench. Next Man Up works much better when the incoming player resembles the starter they're replacing.
Marynowitz also spoke on a general height/weight/speed model and trimming the draft pool of potential Eagles, summing it up with the following quote:
If you have seven draft picks, do you really want to waste one, especially in the top three rounds, on a guy that history is telling you... typically these guys with these types of measurables don't produce at this level?
As Chris Brown tweeted, this is an application of Bayesian reasoning, which you can read about here.
The application of athletic comparisons is frequently debated, but this quote does a good job of relating how they should be used. There are between 2,000 and 3,000 players who test at either the NFL Combine or pro days during the pre-draft season. The idea is to take the best possible bet, and if a certain prospect has athletic comparisons that show significant issues at the NFL level, I'd prefer to move on to the next player.
We don't have to be right about every player. Missing on a prospect who ends up overcoming the odds is frustrating, but it happens. I'm more concerned about not being wrong, and that means thinning the pool of possible selections. Kapadia reports that the Eagles only have around 150 players on their final draft board, summing it thusly:
The specific approach can shrink the pool of potential prospects, but Kelly, Marynowitz and others find more danger in trying to gamble on exceptions.
Pete Carroll has spoken before along the lines of "if you keep making exceptions, your whole team ends up being made of exceptions." Notably, Seattle and Philadelphia had 2014's two highest-ranked SPARQ rosters by my pSPARQ calculations.
This is less about individual evaluations and more about macro-level team roster strategy. As I wrote in my first post on 3SA, a large group of superior athletes will ultimately perform better than a large group of averages athletes. Analytics matter most when used over a large number of decisions, the small percentages adding up to meaningful and significant added value. By generally selecting players from an athletic pool and taking fewer shots on the exceptions, it's possible to obtain more value in the long run.
Marynowitz did note that exceptions aren't necessarily discarded from the board, but that they "better be exceptional in a lot of other areas" to be considered.
Kapadia goes on to interview Marynowitz about how the team views scheme fit and culture in prospect evaluation. It's excellent and well worth taking the time to read if you ignored my advice at the start of this article.
The article makes clear that analytics don't make every decision in the Philadelpha front office; still, the Eagles do subscribe to an analytical ideology which plays a significant role in shaping their draft board and roster composition.
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I'll be back next week with the final SPARQ update and a few articles searching out roster mirroring candidates for Seattle in the upcoming draft. |
Hurricanes Hire Mark Morris as Checkers Coach
Author: Paul Branecky Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The Checkers' vice president of communications, Paul Branecky has been covering hockey in North Carolina since 2006, including five seasons with the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Carolina Hurricanes have hired Mark Morris to be the second head coach of the Checkers’ AHL era.Concluding a search that began with their decision to not renew the contract of Jeff Daniels in April, Charlotte’s parent club made the hiring of the 57-year-old Morris official on Friday. The Hurricanes also announced the Geordie Kinnear would remain with the Checkers as assistant coach.“Mark is an experienced head coach whose teams never had a losing record in 21 seasons at Clarkson and with Manchester,” Hurricanes General Manager Ron Francis said in an official release . “He is a proven teacher of the game who has been a part of developing successful NHL players.”Morris, who has 21 seasons of head coaching experience with Clarkson University (1988-2002) and at the AHL level with the Manchester Monarchs (2006-2014), is the only coach to win more than 300 games at both the collegiate and professional levels. He served as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Florida Panthers last season. He ranks 10th in AHL history with 338 victories.While with Manchester, the top affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings, the native of Massena, NY, posted a record of 338-224-66, making the playoffs in seven of eight seasons and earning club records for games coached (522), regular-season wins and postseason wins (35). Notable players coached during his tenure there include Matt Moulson, Teddy Purcell, Jonathan Quick, Brian Boyle, Jonathan Bernier, Tyler Toffoli, Tanner Pearson and reigning AHL MVP Brian O’Neill.With Clarkson, Morris went 306-156-42 in the regular season and 39-19-1 in the postseason, including nine appearances in the NCAA tournaments and one in the Frozen Four. NHL players produced during his tenure there include Kent Huskins, Willie Mitchell, Craig Conroy, Todd Marchant and former Hurricane Erik Cole.Prior to becoming a head coach, Morris was an assistant at Union College and St. Lawrence University for one and three seasons, respectively. In his playing days as a defenseman, he completed four seasons at Colgate University from 1977-81 before playing three professional campaigns with the CHL’s Dallas Black Hawks and the AHL’s New Haven Nighthawks from 1981-84. |
A 12-year-old girl who was found walking naked and eating out of trash cans in a Temecula neighborhood appeared to be staying inside her mother's car for hours at a time, according to a resident.
Dominique Prado, who lives in the neighborhood, told the Press-Enterprise that she and her husband last week saw the girl naked and shoeless, holding a piece of bread. The couple got food for the girl and called 911.
Prado said police later told her that the girl's mother kept her naked in the car so she would stay there while the woman worked as an aide in a local school, the Press-Enterprise reported.
The mother, Tracy Betts, was arrested Friday after officers, acting on tips, found the girl sitting without clothes in a car parked near Vail Elementary school. |
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WEST ALLIS -- On Tuesday evening, August 11th, world famous wire walker Nik Wallenda successfully completed his longest walk EVER at the Wisconsin State Fair.
Ahead of the wire walk, there was one question on the minds of nearly everyone gathered at the Milwaukee Mile. Will he make it?
"What if he falls? You just don`t know what`s going to happen and I think that`s exciting." Mary Downing said.
"I understand this is gonna be the longest walk that he`s ever done," Amber Daugherty said.
Wallenda's death-defying wire walk was the main event at the Wisconsin State Fair on Tuesday evening.
From 1:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. Monday morning, Wallenda's crew was out near the Milwaukee Mile -- assembling the 1,560-foot-long high wire. The wire is the width of a nickel.
Wallenda says the hardest part of any wire-walking stunt is just taking that first step, because every wire feels different. On Monday, he said the key Tuesday would be endurance.
"It will take a lot of endurance. The first half of that cable is downhill, which is intimidating, which is a good way to describe it. I will feel alive when I get on that wire. That`s where I feel at home," Wallenda said.
On the ground were more than 100 volunteers holding tight to wires.
"It`s really kind of cool to be able to be a part of it. Just lean back and sit on the ropes and keep it tight for him as he walks by," Paige Dellisse said.
There seemed to be more nerves among the crowd on Tuesday evening than up on the high wire.
"I was pretty sure somebody was going to die. Probably him -- but you know, maybe somebody else -- but definitely him," one spectator said.
After about 40 minutes, Wallenda calmly reached the end of the wire -- and the answer to everyone's question was answered: He made it.
Nik Wallenda is a seventh-generation member of a famous family of daredevils. He's made a name for himself -- walking across Niagara Falls and between skyscrapers in Chicago.
His longest walk prior to the walk at the Wisconsin State Fair was across the Grand Canyon. During that walk, Wallenda experienced 52 miles-per-hour wind gusts.
"I`ve got dreams of walking over an active volcano, of course always outdoing myself in distance and height," Wallenda said.
The last Wallenda to perform in the Milwaukee area was Karl Wallenda in July of 1974.
"That`s my great-grandfather. Very cool," Wallenda said.
Karl Wallenda walked across County Stadium -- even doing a handstand on the high wire.
"That was his thing. That was what my great-grandfather did. He always did a handstand. I do everything I do to really honor my ancestors and to honor him," Wallenda said.
CLICK HERE to learn more about Nik Wallenda.
CLICK HERE for more on Nik Wallenda's Wisconsin State Fair show. |
'A master in your field, a gentleman in life' - Tributes paid to Dubliners legend Eamonn Campbell
The former Dubliners member (70) was touring with The Dublin Legends in Holland and Belgium when he fell ill late last week.
His family released a statement confirming that Eamoon died on Wednesday night after a short illness, surrounded by his wife and family.
The statement continues, "Eamonn started his career over 50 years ago in his hometown of Drogheda, Co Louth. He first came to prominence as a guitarist with Dermot O’Brien and His Clubmen in the 60’s.
"He became the go-to session guitar player in Ireland and played on countless recording sessions for practically every act in Ireland. In the studio he honed his production skills and he was behind some of the biggest hit records ever in Ireland.
"Among others he played on and produced 'The Fields of Athenry' by Paddy Reilly, 'A Bunch of Thyme' by Foster and Allen and 'The Irish Rover' by The Dubliners & The Pogues. It was this last record that led him being asked to join The Dubliners as their guitarist on a full time basis.
"After The Dubliners stopped touring, following the death of Barney McKenna, Eamonn continued to tour and record with The Dublin Legends.
"Sean Cannon, singer with The Dublin Legends said, 'I am devastated. We have spent the last 30 years together touring and playing concerts. He was a great player with a great feel for Irish music.'
"Gerry O’Connor, banjo player, added 'I have not come to terms with it yet. He was such a lovely guy. Always had a big smile on his face. He just adored playing live. He is a huge loss.'
"Paul Watchorn, singer, said 'we always had such a good time in Europe. A little bit of sightseeing and then the concert. That’s what he loved most. Playing live. He was a real musicians musician and he always knew what the audience wanted to hear. Devastated.'"
Eamonn is survived by his wife Noreen and children, Francis, Paddy, Eamonn Jnr, Emma-Jane, Ciara and Niamh and by his grandchildren.
Former footballer Paul McGrath is among those paying tributes to the musician:
There will be a good session in heaven tonight, RIP Eamonn #dubliners pic.twitter.com/607coHYkoE — Paul McGrath (@Paulmcgrath5) October 18, 2017
I'm so sad to hear of the passing of the great Eamonn Campbell, a brilliant guitar player who played with the Dubliners for many years 🌹#Rip pic.twitter.com/L3fShKXUpC — Frances Black (@frances_black) October 18, 2017
#EamonnCampbell regaled us with hilarious stories last time we met on our New Years Eve special. The end of an era. #EamonnCampbellRIP pic.twitter.com/er22AkKw4z — john creedon (@johncreedon) October 18, 2017
So sad to hear of the sad passing of Eamonn Campbell. Working with him & the rest of The Dubliners on Rocky Road to Poland was a privilege — Pamela Blake (@PamelaABlake) October 19, 2017
Very sad to hear about Eamonn Campbell's passing. A lovely gentle soul and a true Dublin legend. @dublinlegends1 #dubliners Deepest condolences to his devastated family and many friends. Rest in Peace Eamonn. @RTERadio1 pic.twitter.com/yeXL5vKHfL — Darren Holden (@darrenholden72) October 18, 2017
Eamonn Campbell RIP, no better guitar player anywhere, our condolences to Eamonn's family and friends #dubliners — The Wolfe Tones 🇮🇪 (@wolfetones) October 18, 2017
Very sad to hear about the death of The Dubliners guitarist Eamonn Campbell. Bet there was some session upstairs last night RIP pic.twitter.com/yp4Y9HplIf — Andy Nolan 🤙🏻 (@AndyNolanBCS) October 19, 2017
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For many years, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were regarded as little more than a nerdy curiosity by the financial world. But with the rise of Bitcoin and Ethereum, the process of cryptocurrencies becoming a recognized asset class has begun.
One person at the forefront of this transformation is Ari Paul. Previously a portfolio manager at the University of Chicago's $8 billion endowment, he recently left to start the cryptocurrency hedge fund BlockTower Capital. He joined us for an insightful conversation about one of the biggest trends in the industry.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Ari's background as a portfolio manager at the University of Chicago
The difficulties of investing in cryptocurrency for a large endowment
Why he started the cryptocurrency hedge fund BlockTower Capital
How to construct a cryptocurrency portfolio
The hedge fund vs the VC model in the cryptocurrency space
Why cryptocurrencies represent an exceptional investment opportunity
The operational complexities of running a crypto hedge fund
Why an avalanche of institutional money is entering the blockchain space
Links mentioned in this episode:
Support the show, consider donating:
Watch or listen, Epicenter is available wherever you get your podcasts.
Epicenter is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.
Views: 7,627 |
Live+3 stats are in and it’s very good news for Nashville and CMT. The Season 5 premiere of the hit country music drama delivered CMT its most-watched original telecast in network history.
On CMT alone, the premiere drew more than 2 million viewers, notching a .80 rating with adults 18-49 and .93 rating with adults 25-54. With women, the series pulled a 1.03 rating in the 18-49 demo and 1.26 in 25-54.
Across both CMT and Nick at Nite, the premiere drew more than 3.1 million viewers, notching a 1.34 rating with adults 18-49 and 1.76 rating with women 18-49. The premiere also did well on social, ranking as No. 1 on Nielsen Social Content ratings series and specials. The new social aftershow NashChat reached more than 1 million fans via a Facebook live chat on CMT’s page.
Set against the backdrop of the city’s music scene Nashville follows Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton) and Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere), both of whom face personal and professional challenges as they navigate their paths as artists and individuals. Also starring are Clare Bowen as Scarlett O’Connor, Chris Carmack as Will Lexington, Charles Esten as Deacon Claybourne, Jonathan Jackson as Avery Barkley, Sam Palladio as Gunnar Scott, Maisy Stella as Daphne Conrad and Lennon Stella as Maddie Conrad.
Produced by Lionsgate, ABC Studios and Opry Entertainment, Nashville is executive produced by Thirtysomething creators Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick; Steve Buchanan and Callie Khouri.
New episodes air Thursdays at 9 PM on CMT. |
poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201706/3968/1155968404_5469591016001_5469540971001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true The notion that President Donald Trump might dismiss Robert Mueller earned a frosty reception from Paul Ryan. Ryan: Trump should 'let Robert Mueller do his job'
Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday delicately warned Donald Trump against firing special counsel Robert Mueller, encouraging the president to let the ex-FBI director “do his job” probing the Russia controversy.
The Wisconsin Republican, speaking to reporters during a news conference, cast doubt on reports that Trump is considering axing Mueller, adding that he has full “confidence” in Mueller.
Story Continued Below
"I think the best advice is to let Robert Mueller do his job," Ryan said, arguing that an independent investigation would allow Trump to be “vindicated” when an investigation clears him.
Chris Ruddy, a friend of the president's who runs the conservative website Newsmax, said Monday on PBS that Trump was "considering perhaps terminating" Mueller, who was appointed last month as a special prosecutor to oversee an investigation into the Russian government's interference in last year's election and the possibility of collusion between the Kremlin and Trump associates.
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In a statement, press secretary Sean Spicer said Ruddy, who was at the White House Monday, did not discuss Mueller with the president. Trump’s outside legal team, which has taken over for White House staff in handling all matter related to the Russia probe, has refused to rule out the possibility that the president might fire Mueller.
The notion that Trump might dismiss Mueller also earned a frosty reception from Ryan Tuesday morning during a radio interview.
“I'd be surprised if he did that,” Ryan told Guy Benson, the fill-in host for conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “I think he should let Bob Mueller do his job, do his job independently, and do his job quickly, because I think that that's what he would want to have happen.”
Mueller’s hiring initially earned almost unanimous praise, even from those in Trump’s corner, but the move’s luster has seemingly begun to fade for some of the president’s most staunch supporters. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a high-profile campaign surrogate for the president, initially wrote on Twitter that Mueller was a “superb choice” whose “reputation is impeccable for honesty and integrity.”
But by Monday, Gingrich had changed his mind on Mueller, writing online that “Republicans are delusional if they think the special counsel is going to be fair,” pointing to FEC reports showing that the special counsel has hired staff who donated to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, too, said Muelller should be fired since former FBI Director James Comey testified last week that the president was not under investigation while he was at the bureau.
Outside the circle of GOP commentators, Mueller’s support seemingly remained intact. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Monday that it would be a “disaster” if Trump were to fire the special prosecutor, while his colleague, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), said such a move would be “extraordinarily unwise.”
Ryan echoed those sentiments, adding that allowing Mueller to work unfettered would ultimately be to the president’s benefit.
“I think we should let Bob Mueller do his work and get to the bottom of it, and get to the bottom of it quickly so that he can be vindicated, get to these things,” the speaker said on the radio program. “Let's not forget what this is originally all about. Russia is up to no good. Russia is trying to meddle into our elections.”
CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to reflect that Chris Ruddy had not spoken to the president. |
More people may be visiting hospital emergency departments this year as health benefits from Obamacare went live, according to a survey of physicians published Wednesday.
The American College of Emergency Physicians polled more than 1,800 emergency room doctors last month, and 46 percent reported increases in patients coming through their doors since Jan. 1, the day coverage took effect for millions under Obamacare. Twenty-seven percent said the number hadn't changed and 23 percent had seen a decline since Jan. 1. Over the next three years, 86 percent of these doctors believe emergency room use will increase.
The survey findings underscore the challenges beyond extending health coverage to more people, including improving access to primary care and changing the habits of patients accustomed to using the emergency room as a one-stop-shop for medical care. One of Obamacare's selling points was its potential to reduce costly emergency room visits for care that could more efficiently be delivered in a doctor's office or other setting, especially for patients who previously were uninsured. Increases in ER visits may provide critics fodder to contend the law isn't fulfilling that promise.
"Coverage does not equal access," said Rebecca Parker, an emergency room doctor in Chicago who is on the board of directors at the Irving, Texas-based American College of Emergency Physicians. "Just because you gave somebody Medicaid doesn't mean that there's a place for them to go in terms of a primary care, outpatient facility," she said.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, there will be nearly 30,000 too few primary care physicians in the United States to meet patient demand next year, and that gap will widen in the future as more people gain coverage and the population ages.
Patients with and without health insurance seek care from hospital emergency departments for a variety of reasons, including knowledge that hospitals offer a wider array of services than a doctor's office.
A federal law dating to 1986 forbids hospitals from turning patients away from emergency rooms regardless of their ability to pay, which attracts individuals who lack the means to afford medical care elsewhere. In addition, emergency departments lure patients who don't have access to a nearby doctor, or when physician offices are closed at night and on weekends. And patients don't have the medical expertise to tell whether symptoms like chest pains mean they're having a heart attack or indigestion.
Most of the patients who visit the emergency room actually should be there, or at least can't be blamed for going to a hospital when experiencing pain or illness that might be serious, Parker said. "The majority of folks do belong in a kind of acute care setting, which is what we provide," she said. Based on her observations, an increase in emergency department visits could be explained by newly covered patients seeking medical care they postponed while uninsured and choosing a provider they know will treat them, Parker said.
While a survey of emergency department physicians' impressions lacks hard data about patient behavior and can't be considered conclusive, the results are consistent with studies about the effects of Massachusetts' 2007 health care reform law and a 2008 expansion of Medicaid in Oregon. Trevor Fetter, CEO of the for-profit hospital chain Tenet Healthcare, told CNBC this month that his company's facilities also are seeing an uptick in emergency room visits.
Another recent survey, however, reports the opposite is occurring in Arkansas this year. Forty-two hospitals in the state told a legislative committee that emergency department visits are down 2 percent so far this year, and that the number of emergency room visits by uninsured patients fell by 24 percent.
Likewise, nearly a quarter of the doctors who responded to the American College of Emergency Physicians survey observed fewer visits to their facilities, and more than one-quarter report no change, Parker said. Emergency departments seeing a smaller number of patients may be those doing a better job educating individuals about the availability of non-emergency care at other settings, such as urgent care clinics, she said.
The information released by American College of Emergency Physicians is the latest indicator of how the Affordable Care Act's coverage expansion is affecting patients and the health care industry. |
The Pittsburgh Steelers have now wrapped up their second of two joint training camp practices with the Detroit Lions at Saint Vincent College and apparently wide receiver Antonio Brown wasn’t too happy with a call made by a referee late in the Wednesday session.
According to several reports on Twitter, Brown made an incredible catch in the end zone on one particular play but the official ultimately ruled him out of bounds. Brown then proceeded to complain “vociferously” about refs not throwing flags during practice and that outburst reportedly included him using words that you can’t say on television.
Several media reports on Twitter indicate that Brown nearly got himself thrown out of practice as a result of his actions and the referee informed the Steelers wide receiver that he would have been ejected had he acted the way he did during a game.
The referee reportedly told the members of the media who were present Wednesday that he’s still going to report Brown to the league even though all of this took place during a practice.
Brown is a very competitive player and I assume head coach Mike Tomlin will have a word or two with him later this evening. The Steelers star wide receiver isn’t expected to play Friday night in the preseason opener against the Lions so at least we don’t have to worry about him getting ejected in that contest.
We’ll have to wait and see if the league has any response.
It’s worth noting that starting this season, any player who is flagged for two specific unsportsmanlike conduct fouls in a game will be automatically ejected.
11-yr NFL official Terry Brown on Antonio Brown at Steelers-Lions practice READ @TribLIVE:https://t.co/iUn9wObLzw pic.twitter.com/B04jE7sZM0 — Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) August 11, 2016
AB with remarkable catch on corner route in EZ vs Lawson. But rules INC. — Alex Kozora (@Alex_Kozora) August 10, 2016
AB complaining, um, vociferously about refs not throwing flags — Chris Bradford (@PghBradford) August 10, 2016
Antonio Brown just almost got ejected from practice for some NSFW words towards an official. #Steelers — Chris Mueller (@bychrismueller) August 10, 2016
Ref said he would've ejected him if it was a game. AB wanted a penalty on an end zone catch out of bounds. Didn't get it. Went off #Steelers — Chris Mueller (@bychrismueller) August 10, 2016
Ref told us (reporters) that he's still going to report AB to the NFL even though it's just a practice. #Steelers — Chris Mueller (@bychrismueller) August 10, 2016
Antonio Brown to official: ‘you ain’t thrown a flag yet.’ — Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) August 10, 2016 |
50 Years Ago Today – How Philip Ippolito Landed His Airplane On The George Washington Bridge
The world was amazed in 2009 when Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger landed his hobbled jetliner on the Hudson River without any loss of life. It was an incredible feat of savvy piloting.
A forgotten episode of amazing aeronautical maneuvering occurred 50 years ago when on Sunday, December 26, 1965, 19-year-old Philip Ippolito of the Bronx, made a successful emergency landing on the top level of the George Washington Bridge.
Ippolito had rented a 34 foot wide Aeronca Champion single prop plane for $10 per hour for two hours from Ramapo Valley Airport in Spring Valley, NY. He planned on a morning joy ride to visit a former flight instructor friend in Red Bank, NJ. Along with Ippolito was a friend, passenger, Joseph F. Brennan Jr., 39. The pair departed from Spring Valley at 9 a.m.
About 20 minutes into the flight at an altitude of 3,100 feet over Manhattan, the engine began to falter. Ippolito kept trying to revive the engine but it was not working. With the plane losing altitude rapidly and the engine sputtering, Ippolito looked over the icy Hudson River and thought of trying to make a water landing. He asked Brennan if he could swim to which Brennan replied, “Not a stroke.”
Ippolito quickly thought about his options on where to make an emergency landing. The New Jersey Meadowlands, which Ippolito thought would be too soft and swampy from recent rain and the George Washington Bridge looming a couple of miles ahead to the north with relatively light traffic. With no time to lose, Ippolito turned the plane around and headed for the bridge.
As the plane approached the bridge, the engine had completely conked out. Battling wind gusts of up to 28 miles per hour, Ippolito banked the plane to the left, weaving it successfully through the bridge’s suspension cables, each 89 feet apart, and headed towards New Jersey as he descended to the bridge’s roadway. Ippolito made his way towards the two unused lanes of the bridge’s center roadway where a small divider was set up to separate east and westbound traffic.
Ippolito glided in at 90 miles per hour and as he touched down the plane’s wingtip barely clipped a tanker truck which ruined what would have been a perfect landing. The impact with the truck spun the plane around and forced the nose to grind into the roadway. As the plane came to a halt a couple of hundred feet later, the windshield shattered, the propeller bent and pieces of the wing and struts were scattered along the road.
The driver of the tanker truck Woodrow Leone told the New York Times, “I was driving along about 40 when I happened to glance in my side view mirror and I saw this plane coming up on me from the left. It was a funny feeling I didn’t know what to think or do.”
Emerging from the plane, Ippolito had bruises all over his body and Brennan lost a tooth and had a deep gash on his chin. Other than that, there were no other injuries and both men were released from Columbia Presbyterian Hospital the following day.
Maybe the most incredible thing about the entire incident is that after the plane crashed, traffic kept moving.
Drivers on the bridge who witnessed the landing slammed their cars to a halt to stare in disbelief. But as jaded as New Yorkers are, drivers quickly resumed their trips. When the the Port Authority police arrived they kept traffic flowing as they told rubberneckers to move on, there’s nothing to see here!
In 1967 the Federal Aviation Administration concluded their investigation of the crash and charged that Ippolito had failed to check the fuel tank cap which came off during the flight causing the plane to lose fuel and the engine to sputter. The F.A.A. claimed that when Ippolito landed he was not in an emergency situation, implying the entire episode was a stunt! Elizabeth Bowers, the F.A.A. hearing officer, concluded Ippolito could have made a safe landing at Teterboro Airport five miles away instead of the George Washington Bridge, which was not an appropriate place to make an emergency landing.
Ippolito’s pilot license was suspended for six months. Upon appeal in April 1968 Ippolito was vindicated and his suspension was overturned. |
The Great Barrier Reef (Photo: Nathan Hughes Hamilton/CC BY 2.0)
As it turns out, the Great Barrier Reef, might not be the only great thing sitting in that portion of the ocean. According to Smithsonian and other outlets, a newly-mapped reef also lies in the waters near the famous Great Barrier Reef. But it isn’t made of coral.
The existence of this reef has been known about for decades, but, up until recently, its exact scope and scale has never been truly known. But with the use of new laser mapping technology, the natural formations have become much more clear, and appear to be much grander than previously imagined.
What’s been hiding beneath the Great Barrier Reef? A deeper, massive reef. https://t.co/4MV6FQtZgq — Smithsonian Magazine (@SmithsonianMag) August 30, 2016
Just beyond the Great Barrier Reef, it turns out, there are huge swaths of doughnut-shaped mounds known as bioherms, that cover over 2,000 miles of deep-sea real estate. The mounds are formed from algae which become flakes of limestone when they die, piling up on each other and creating new geologic structures. These structures easily overshadow the nearby coral reefs in terms of size, and are three times larger than researchers even estimated.
While the scale of the newfound reef is impressive in its own right, scientists are also hoping that by studying the bioherms they can gain more insight into the ecosystem surrounding the endangered Great Barrier Reef. |
On October 16, 2004, President George W. Bush signed the Israel Lobby's bill, the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act. This legislation requires the US Department of State to monitor anti-semitism world wide. To monitor anti-semitism, it has to be defined. What is the definition? Basically, as defined by the Israel Lobby and Abe Foxman, it boils down to any criticism of Israel or Jews. Rahm Israel Emanuel hasn't been mopping floors at the White House. As soon as he gets the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 passed, it will become a crime for any American to tell the truth about Israel's treatment of Palestinians and theft of their lands. It will be a crime for Christians to acknowledge the New Testament's account of Jews demanding the crucifixion of Jesus. It will be a crime to report the extraordinary influence of the Israel Lobby on the White House and Congress, such as the AIPAC-written resolutions praising Israel for its war crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza that were endorsed by 100 per cent of the US Senate and 99 per cent of the House of Representatives, while the rest of the world condemned Israel for its barbarity. It will be a crime to doubt the Holocaust. It will become a crime to note the disproportionate representation of Jews in the media, finance, and foreign policy. In other words, it means the end of free speech, free inquiry, and the First Amendment to the Constitution. Any facts or truths that cast aspersion upon Israel will simply be banned. Given the hubris of the US government, which leads Washington to apply US law to every country and organization, what will happen to the International Red Cross, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and the various human rights organizations that have demanded investigations of Israel's military assault on Gaza's civilian population? Will they all be arrested for the hate crime of "excessive" criticism of Israel? This is a serious question. A recent UN report, which is yet to be released in its entirety, blames Israel for the deaths and injuries that occurred within the United Nations premises in Gaza. The Israeli government has responded by charging that the UN report is "tendentious, patently biased," which puts the UN report into the State Department's category of excessive criticism and strong anti-Israel sentiment. Israel is getting away with its blatant use of the American government to silence its critics despite the fact that the Israeli press and Israeli soldiers have exposed the Israeli atrocities in Gaza and the premeditated murder of women and children urged upon the Israeli invaders by rabbis. These acts are clearly war crimes. It was the Israeli press that published the pictures of the Israeli soldiers' T-shirts that indicate that the willful murder of women and children is now the culture of the Israeli army. The T-shirts are horrific expressions of barbarity. For example, one shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a crosshairs over her stomach and the slogan, "One shot, two kills." These T-shirts are an indication that Israel's policy toward the Palestinians is one of extermination. It has been true for years that the most potent criticism of Israel's mistreatment of the Palestinians comes from the Israeli press and Israeli peace groups. For example, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and Jeff Halper of ICAHD have shown a moral conscience that apparently does not exist in the Western democracies where Israel's crimes are covered up and even praised. Will the American hate crime bill be applied to Haaretz and Jeff Halper? Will American commentators who say nothing themselves but simply report what Haaretz and Halper have said be arrested for "spreading hatred of Israel, an anti-semitic act"? Many Americans have been brainwashed by the propaganda that Palestinians are terrorists who threaten innocent Israel. These Americans will see the censorship as merely part of the necessary war on terror. They will accept the demonization of fellow citizens who report unpalatable facts about Israel and agree that such people should be punished for aiding and abetting terrorists. A massive push is underway to criminalize criticism of Israel. American university professors have fallen victim to the well organized attempt to eliminate all criticism of Israel. Norman Finkelstein was denied tenure at a Catholic university because of the power of the Israel Lobby. Now the Israel Lobby is after University of California (at Santa Barbara,) professor Wiliam Robinson. <http://www.counterpunch.org/henwood04292009.html>Robinson's crime: his course on global affairs included some reading assignments critical of Israel's invasion of Gaza.<http://www.counterpunch.org/henwood04292009.html> The Israel Lobby apparently succeeded in convincing the Obama Justice (sic) Department that it is anti-semitic to accuse two Jewish AIPAC officials, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, of spying. The Israel Lobby succeeded in getting their trial delayed for four years, and now Attorney General Eric Holder has dropped charges. Yet, Larry Franklin, the DOD official accused of giving secret material to Rosen and Weissman, is serving 12 years and 7 months in prison. The absurdity is extraordinary. The two Israeli agents are not guilty of receiving secrets, but the American official is guilty of giving secrets to them! If there is no spy in the story, how was Franklin convicted of giving secrets to a spy? Criminalizing criticism of Israel destroys any hope of America having an independent foreign policy in the Middle East that serves American rather than Israeli interests. It eliminates any prospect of Americans escaping from their enculturation with Israeli propaganda. To keep American minds captive, the Lobby is working to ban as anti-semitic any truth or disagreeable fact that pertains to Israel. It is permissible to criticize every other country in the world, but it is anti-semitic to criticize Israel, and anti-semitism will soon be a universal hate-crime in the Western world. Most of Europe has already criminalized doubting the Holocaust. It is a crime even to confirm that it happened but to conclude that less than 6 million Jews were murdered. Why is the Holocaust a subject that is off limits to examination? How could a case buttressed by hard facts possibly be endangered by kooks and anti-semitics? Surely the case doesn't need to be protected by thought control. Imprisoning people for doubts is the antithesis of modernity. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentionshttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0307396061/counterpunchmaga He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com |
Carl Cori with his wife and fellow-Nobelist, Gerty Cori , in 1947.
Carl Ferdinand Cori, ForMemRS[1] (December 5, 1896 – October 20, 1984) was a Czech-American biochemist and pharmacologist born in Prague[3][4] (then in Austria-Hungary, now Czech Republic) who, together with his wife Gerty Cori and Argentine physiologist Bernardo Houssay, received a Nobel Prize in 1947[5][6][7][8][9] for their discovery of how glycogen (animal starch) – a derivative of glucose – is broken down and resynthesized in the body, for use as a store and source of energy. In 2004 both were designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark in recognition of their work that elucidated carbohydrate metabolism.[10][11][12][13][14] [15]
Education and early life [ edit ]
Carl was the son of Carl Isidor Cori [de] (1865, Brüx (Czech: Most), R.Bohemia, Imp.Austria–1954, Vienna), a zoologist, and Maria née Lippich [de] (1870, Graz–1922, Prague), a daughter of the Italian-Bohemian/Austrian physician Ferdinand (Franz) Lippich [de] (1838, Padova–1913, Prague).[16][17]
The Cori [de] Family came from the Papal State (later Republical Rome, today's Central Italy) to the Royal Bohemian Crownland,(Monarchical Austria at the end of the 17th century. Carl Ferdinand's grandfather Eduard Cori (1812–1889)[18] was an administrative officer and beekeeper in Brüx, and grandmother was Rosina Trinks (?–1909).[19] Carl Ferdinand's younger sister Margarete Cori (born 1905) was a lecturer of Prague and the wife of the Bohemian geneticist Felix Mainx (1900, Prague–1983, Vienna).[20][21]
He grew up in Trieste, where his father Carl Isidor was the director of the Marine Biological Station. In late 1914 the Cori family moved to Prague and Carl entered the medical school of Charles University in Prague. While studying there he met Gerty Theresa Radnitz. He was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army and served in the ski corps, and later was transferred to the sanitary corps, for which he set up a laboratory in Trieste. At the end of the war Carl completed his studies, graduating with Gerty in 1920. Carl and Gerty married that year and worked together in clinics in Vienna. Their only child, Tom, married Anne, a daughter of the American constitutional lawyer and anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafy.[22]
Career [ edit ]
Carl was invited to Graz to work with Otto Loewi to study the effect of the vagus nerve on the heart (Loewi would receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1936 for this work). While Carl was in Graz, Gerty remained in Vienna. A year later Carl was offered a position at the State Institute for the Study of Malignant Diseases (now the Roswell Park Cancer Institute) in Buffalo, New York and the Cori's moved to Buffalo. In 1928, they became naturalized citizens of the United States.
While at the Institute the Coris’ research focused on carbohydrate metabolism, leading to the definition of the Cori cycle in 1929. In 1931 Carl accepted a position at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. Carl joined as professor of pharmacology and in 1942 was made professor of biochemistry. In St. Louis, the Cori's continued their research on glycogen and glucose and began to describe glycogenolysis, identifying and synthesizing the important enzyme glycogen phosphorylase. For these discoveries, they received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1947.
Gerty died in 1957 and Carl married Anne Fitz-Gerald Jones in 1960. He stayed on at Washington University until 1966, when he retired as chair of the biochemistry department. He was appointed visiting professor of Biological Chemistry at Harvard University while maintaining a laboratory space at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he pursued research in genetics. From 1968 to 1983 he collaborated with noted geneticist Salomé Glüecksohn-Waelsch of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, until the 1980s when illness prevented him from continuing.[23] In 1976 Carl received the Laurea honoris causa in Medicine from the University of Trieste. Carl shares a star with Gerty on the St. Louis Walk of Fame[24]
Awards and honors [ edit ]
In addition to winning the Nobel Prize, Cori won the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1946 and in 1959, the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art.[25] Cori was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1950[1] and the Carl Cori Endowed Professorship at Washington University is named in his honor, currently held by Colin Nichols.[26] |
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images A sign advertising live lobsters for sale is displayed on the side of the road on July 21, 2012 in Portland, Maine. Lobstermen hope to make at least $4 a pound to turn a profit but prices this year have been as low as $1.25 a pound.
Who says global warming doesn’t have an upside? One of the unpredictable effects of changing sea temperatures appears to be a radical rise in lobster populations. As a result the price of lobster has plummeted to around $2 a pound. Yes, lobster is now cheaper than chicken or hamburger. And now the lobster industry is in the unexpected position of having to aggressively market the things, after lo these many years of selling them at luxury prices. It changes the way we think about lobster, both for good and bad.
(MORE: Lobster Is Now Cheaper Than Deli Meat)
First, the good: as I suggested in last week’s column, expense impacts our experience of food as anybody knows who has ever had their tasting menu turn to ashes, dreading the massive bill to come. I find that lobster tastes much, much better when it’s cheap. For one thing, you can eat more of it; and lobster is something that you need to eat a lot of. By this, I don’t mean that you ought to order four-pound lobsters, of the kind that boozy stockbrokers buy in bad steakhouses. Lobsters, like most animals prized for their delicacy, get coarser as they get older and a four-pound lobster is by no means young.
In contrast, a good one-pound Maine lobster is a wonder, tender and ephemerally briny in the most delectable way. But it doesn’t explode with flavor, like caviar, or fill you up, like prime rib. It needs to be eaten in quantity, and with abandon, to really enjoy it. Spaghetti carelessly loaded with a ton of lobster meat in a spicy fra diavalo sauce, an overheaped lobster roll, or a half dozen tails broiled like shrimp on an outdoor grill: these, in my opinion, anyway, are much more satisfying ways to eat lobster than dipping each little tiny forkful into butter, one prissy bite at a time.
(MORE: Lobster Prices Are at Record Lows, But Only in New England)
The newly careless consumption of lobster isn’t merely a freak of warming waters, by the way: it harks back to the bounty of the virgin American coasts, when lobsters were so plentiful that they were considered garbage, fit only for prison grub and workhouse victuals. The truth is that we have all been brainwashed when it comes to lobster, conditioned to think of them as a luxury food — the oceanic side of surf and turf, a tidy tail positioned next to filet mignon on the signature dish of the American high life.
Of course, as with beef, one can never talk about lobster without bringing up the issue of how it lives and die — the dark side of the crustacean glut. One of the reasons we allow ourselves to boil this particular animal alive is that it’s a special treat, an occasional, celebratory splurge. But what if it isn’t? With lobster as cheap as chicken, do we still really feel okay with torturing the things to death?
(MORE: Fourchu Lobster: The Little Crustacean That Could)
The late David Foster Wallace, in his classic essay about lobsters, “Consider the Lobster,” said it best: “after all the abstract intellection, there remain the facts of the frantically clanking lid, the pathetic clinging to the edge of the pot. Standing at the stove, it is hard to deny in any meaningful way that this is a living creature experiencing pain and wishing to avoid/escape the painful experience.” Dropping them in boiling water or, worse still, broiling or grilling them alive, which people do all the time, requires a deadening of compassion, or even the idea of compassion. This might be a false, anthropomorphic empathy. Maybe, as seafood chefs are so wont to say, they don’t feel a thing. Many food experts insist that if you chop lobsters in the head with a knife it kills them instantly. But lobsters don’t have the same kind of nervous system we do. Maybe the knife just immobilizes them. Who the hell knows?
There’s a reason that chickens and pigs tend to be the victims of some of the most lurid examples of abuse. They’re cheap. It’s hard to make a profit on chicken, and some producers do everything they possibly can to cut costs, and almost never “consider the chicken” in the process. I wonder if the same thing won’t happen on the lobster side. Not that it would be easy to make their treatment much worse: the stress the creatures feel in those bubbly tanks is the reason they are restrained with rubber bands. Those bands are the lobster equivalent of a padded cell.
Of course, all this comes from me in my pensive mode. When I go to the store later, or to a good lobster house, I’ll be sure to eat twice as much as usual. After all, it’s only half price.
MORE: Gastrocats Beware: Luxury Foods Aren’t Worth It |
The latest hospital waiting list figures show that 534,947 patients were waiting at the end of September for inpatient, day case treatment, or to be seen at an out-patient clinic.
The total number is up by around 3,000 on the August figure but the waiting list for gastrointestinal checks is down.
According to the National Treatment Purchase Fund, 78,696 people were waiting last month for inpatient or day case treatment.
A further 17,984 were waiting for a gastrointestinal check, which is a reduction of around 300 on the previous month's figures.
A total of 438,267 people were waiting to be seen at an outpatient clinic, up by over 3,000 on the August figures.
Speaking in Limerick today, the Minister for Health Simon Harris said he expects the HSE to deliver on the commitment to halve the number of people waiting over 18 months for inpatient or day case treatment, by the end of the year.
He said waiting lists remain a major issue but it makes sense to target patients waiting the longest. |
Crystal Williams was sentenced to 99 years in prison for the starvation death of Josiah Williams in 2012. (Photos: WOAI/KABB)
SAN ANTONIO (WOAI/KABB) - A woman will be spending the rest of her life in prison in the death of her five-year-old stepson.
Crystal Williams remained stone faced Tuesday as she was sentenced to 99 years in prison. She pleaded guilty one week before she was sentenced.
Crystal Williams is one of three people charged with serious bodily injury to a child in the death of Josiah Williams. Josiah Williams's family spoke Tuesday in the courtroom and they say after Crystal's sentencing they feel justice for Josiah.
"This is the day that our family was hoping for, your judgment day, today your faith was in someone else's hands," says, family cousin, Barbara Perez
Crystal Williams will serve 99 years in a Texas state prison. She plead guilty to charges of felony serious bodily injury to a child. Prosecutors say Williams, along with Josiah's father, Charleston Williams and step Grandmother Gloria Proo starved and beat him in their care in 2012.
"What kind of mother did you have to think your actions were justified?" Perez asked.
Josiah was living with his maternal grandmother in June of 2012 when his father came and took him to live with him and his step mother Crystal. Prosecutors say for nearly 6 months they locked Josiah in a room, denying him food, water and the ability to use the restroom.
"Only a truly wicked person could continue through all his cries you heard, his pleas and continued hurt. I hope every time you close your eyes you see his face," said Perez.
Josiah's mother was in prison when he died. Tuesday, she was able to face the woman who was the last person to see her son alive.
"You ruined my sons life, you ruined my life, and you ruined my family's life for having to see those pictures," says, Josiah's mother, Carlotta Belleza.
Josiah's father and step grandmother are still awaiting trial. Their court date has not been set. Crystal Williams is eligible for parole after 30 years. |
On the web, there is a palpable buzz of failed or unsuccessful Lean initiatives (or organizations that fail Lean if you prefer that point of view). No wonder, to be honest, as many of these initiatives can at best be characterized as programs. And more often they are even no more than a collection of disjointed projects.
Staff is trained, external consultants are brought in – often trained by another external consultant in another company going through a similar “program” – and off we are. We start identifying waste and we might even create a current state value stream map. Enough potential to fill an action list covering several pages, and so our Lean program is born.
What a joke! In doing so, a Lean initiative will never transcend the character of being only a program: a collection of projects and actions to eliminate problems. And calling these projects and actions “kaizens” really doesn’t make it more Lean. And this is only further emphasized by pursuing the apparently required “quick wins” to win over the company’s management. What is the alternative? A system-based Lean transformation, sometimes referred to as Shikumi.
Lack of Coherence
As a result of the widespread approach described in the introduction, it is often difficult to see any coherence. Although clearly, here and there parts of the organization are engaged in initiatives with a Lean character, these initiatives do not seem to be very much related. They often are focused on addressing individual and currently perceived problems. Problems are symptoms, and symptoms can be different across plants, customers and product lines.
Programs also tend to “run out of problems”. It sometimes may even seem as if we have difficulties filling the project pipeline. And associates are wondering what will come next, after this Lean wave has passed, as they have no idea where the road leads. Most of them probably will think: “this as well will blow over”.
Shikumi: the Envisioned System
Most of these types of Lean initiatives are in sharp contrast with some of the Lean transformations that I have had the chance of playing a part in. Those definitely were not a collection of incoherent projects or improvement actions based upon current issues. No, those were real transformations towards a holistic system based upon a clear and tangible vision on each element and aspect of that system. (I wrote about the systemic nature of Lean in my earlier post about top-down and bottom-up Lean). The Japanese concept used for this is “shikumi”.
Shikumi signifies a system; more specifically a holistic system, composed of elements and aspects. Shikumi materializes certain underlying principles through the system’s tangible and detailed policies, methods, rules and standards. According to Frederick Stimson Harriman on LinkedIn’s “TPS Principles and Practice” group, Shikumi means setting up things so that they will react in a desired way in certain circumstances. This also makes it into a more organic system; a nervous or self-regulating system, which Toyota’s famed kanban system is also sometimes referred to. Shikumi-zukuri refers the creation of such a system.
In the pursuit of using less Japanese words, Shingijutsu consultants in the US “translated” the Japanese word shikumi into the abbreviation SiQmi, meaning the Systematic Integration of Quality, Material and Information. Pronouncing SiQmi aloud sounds a lot like shikumi. SiQmi or shikumi is a system of standard work that supports your process, according to Bob Emiliani.
Shikumi as the Target of Hoshin Kanri
In my experience, based upon the envisioned shikumi, company-wide initiatives are set up and rolled out across the whole organization through which the intended shikumi is realized. The shikumi in fact precedes the policy deployment process. Only in that way, hoshin kanri cannot degenerate into the definition and management of a seemingly unrelated set of initiatives that it often is. It shouldn’t; it should be the way in which we realize our shikumi. The realization of our shikumi represents the concretization of our thinking about our business and about achieving results in critical areas of performance. Like that, our thinking has become “our way” of doing.
Functional, not Lean Leadership
An interesting aspect of developing the company’s shikumi, is that it is developed (in an integrated way and from an overall business perspective of course) by the various functional departments that must provide leadership in their respective area (e.g., quality, production control, logistics, maintenance and so on). So, these functional leaders bear the responsibility for the functional policies (rooted in Lean thinking) and the deployment thereof; not – as I witness quite often – (centrally positioned) Lean coaches, engineers or managers. We shouldn’t need Lean functions; we should have Lean “inside”.
Then, in fact, how can we even expect a Lean coach to master all functional aspects of successfully running a business? Nevertheless, I regularly see Lean coaches thundering through the functional china shop like a bull. Not a good idea: this will stand in the way of the best possible policies. And it will also reduce the feeling of ownership for these policies. And before we realize it, we may have created yet another functional silo (viz., the Lean silo).
Too Many Masters of the Ship
Still, there does exist a problem with many functional departments: they often develop into a bloated bureaucracy. The proliferation of (often obscure) titles and hazy job descriptions often exemplify this. They spend their days in meetings with other functional managers with similarly interesting titles. And they are all highly educated and smart. As a result, they are quickly engaged in having chats about all kinds of new concepts and technologies in their knowledge area; and never conclude. In fact, truth probably is, they speak more with their peers than with associates on the shop floor. But when are we actually going to convert a crisp, productive and robust functional policy into actually applied methods on the shop floor? Perhaps you can also hire too many smart people…
In this context, the following short anecdote springs to mind. One of my previous managers once told me: “Rob, I hired you because you are considered to master your functional area. I myself, our division and plant managers aren’t. It is therefore only logical that we accept your guidance in this field and deploy your policies across our plants. But when they turn out not to be productive, maybe we should hire someone else. But we won’t waste our time on discussion between experts. Let’s never forget we are here to profitably bring a product to market”. Simple, decisive, focused and clear for everyone.
Shikumi: the Road to Success
As far as I’m concerned, this could well be a good lesson for all involved in Lean initiatives. Don’t approach Lean as a program of incoherent projects. Nor approach it as a toolbox with a collection of seemingly unrelated improvement tools. In the long run, this won’t work. It will maybe only create the illusion of becoming a Lean organization. But, alas, there is only one road that can really lead to success in the end I think; viz. the road of shikumi. This is the road of systems thinking. On this road, true functional leaders pilot the whole organization safely into the future. And they do so through sound and solid policies and their disciplined deployment. |
The Daily Chum: Where the Sharks most need to upgrade in the 2017 draft With the draft lottery in the books, let’s take a (quick) look at San Jose’s organizational depth.
The New Jersey Devils won the 2017 NHL Draft Lottery, the Kings moved down a slot and the Sharks (unaffected by the whole thing) will pick No. 21. So where does Team Teal most need to upgrade with their seven picks in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft? Great question!
This is subject to change depending on who San Jose loses to Las Vegas in the upcoming expansion draft, but let’s take a look at the Sharks’ organizational depth to best answer that question. I’ll look at players under contract and RFAs when considering San Jose’s depth at each position. As always, your mileage may vary.
Center (10, 9 pro)
Logan Couture (NHL)
Tomas Hertl (NHL)
Chris Tierney (NHL, RFA)
Danny O’Regan (AHL)
Rourke Chartier (AHL)
Tim Clifton (AHL)
Ryan Carpenter (AHL, RFA)
Jon Martin (AHL)
Maxim Letunov (NCAA)
Left Wing (8, 7 pro)
Joe Pavelski (NHL)
Mikkel Boedker (NHL)
Noah Rod (AHL)
Adam Helewka (AHL)
Marcus Sorensen (AHL, RFA)
Nikita Jevpalovs (AHL, RFA)
Rudolfs Balcers (WHL)
Right Wing (12, 8 pro)
Jannik Hansen (NHL)
Timo Meier (NHL)
Kevin Labanc (NHL)
Joel Ward (NHL)
Joonas Donskoi (NHL, RFA)
Melker Karlsson (NHL, RFA)
Alex Schoenborn (AHL)
Barclay Goodrow (AHL, RFA)
Dylan Gambrell (NCAA)
Noah Gregor (WHL)
Manuel Wiederer (QMJHL)
Joachim Blichfeld (WHL)
Defense (17, 13 pro)
Brent Burns (NHL)
Marc-Edouard Vlasic (NHL)
Paul Martin (NHL)
Justin Braun (NHL)
David Schlemko (NHL)
Brenden Dillon (NHL)
Dylan DeMelo (NHL)
Mirco Mueller (AHL, RFA)
Joakim Ryan (AHL, RFA)
Jeremy Roy (AHL)
Julius Bergman (AHL)
Cavan Fitzgerald (AHL)
Nick DeSimone (AHL)
Mark Shoemaker (OHL)
Karlis Cukste (NCAA)
Adam Parsells (NCAA)
Goalies (7, 4 pro)
Martin Jones (NHL)
Aaron Dell (NHL)
Troy Grosenick (AHL, RFA)
Mantas Armalis (AHL, RFA)
Marcus Vela (NCAA)
Jake Kupsky (NCAA)
Mike Robinson (NCAA)
The differentiation between left wing and right wing notwithstanding, the Sharks have a pretty balanced roster. That is, until you look at their stable of non-professional prospects. San Jose has six forwards, four defenders and three goaltenders outside of the NHL and AHL ranks right now.
It’s also worth noting some of the players on my fake depth chart are restricted free agents and likely won’t be retained, so these lists will get a bit thinner. With all those caveats in mind... where do the Sharks stand? It’s a bit of an interesting time for Doug Wilson as many of San Jose’s prospects graduate from junior to the AHL. The Sharks have their first-round pick, but then a long gap until the fourth round.
That means Wilson might draft for need in the first round (or at least, keep need in mind) but by the time those late picks roll around it’ll be all about best available. Probably. I hope. Go find those gems, Douglas.
The Sharks look okay in both the defensive and goaltending department right now, so I’ve gotta think they look for more scoring. I’ve seen a few different players listed here from the boy-wouldn’t-that-be-nice (Nick Suzuki) to the slightly more realistic (Kristian Vesalainen). I’m also a big fan of Kailer Yamamoto, but at 5’7” I’m wary of the Sharks using a pick on a guy that may not end up being valued highly enough in the organization to get a fair shake.
So what do you think? What position do you think the Sharks should go after in the upcoming draft?
As an aside, this is my last Daily Chum (and last day) with Fear the Fin as I’ll be stepping aside. Thanks to everyone who’s followed along for the past couple of years — you’ll be in good hands with Marcus until a permanent replacement is named. Go Sharks! |
“We know more about the Ford family than we do about congestion in the GTA,” McCallion complained to her fellow councillors at a general committee meeting.
Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion lashed out in frustration Wednesday over all the attention Rob Ford’s ongoing scandal has generated at the expense of a pressing GTA issue.
McCallion was upset that residents across the GTA weren’t paying attention to Monday’s Metrolinx announcement on its final Big Move funding proposals to the province.
They said they were frustrated by the lack of information that got out to the public about the specifics of the proposed tools, including corporate parking levies, a 1 per cent HST increase, higher development fees and a gas tax hike, to pay the $2 billion annual bill for the Big Move.
Mississauga, which wants to build a $1.6 billion LRT under the regional transit strategy, has planned a series of consultations with residents before it will advise the province ahead of its final transit funding decision, expected next year.
“If you’re listening to the media, over there in the big hamlet we have next door to us, something’s going on in the mayor’s office, there’s some video,” Iannicca complained to the Star after the meeting. “How does it impact somebody’s life in Cooksville (an area of Mississauga)? It doesn’t. And the big issue that will impact their lives, the LRT at Highway 5 and 10: ‘Oh, something happened, well, we kind of missed it.’”
Iannicca said he agrees that allegations of Ford smoking crack are extremely newsworthy, but he said it was frustrating Monday when many of his residents in a downtown ward hadn’t heard the Metrolinx news.
McCallion has made the Big Move and her city’s planned LRT, from the lakeshore through downtown and north into Brampton, the number one item on her agenda, in what she has said will be her final term. She’s been preaching its importance in the GTA to Premier Kathleen Wynne ever since Wynne became a front runner for the job. |
In IT Blogwatch, bloggers fight for the right to privacy and portability. Your humble blogwatcher selected these bloggy morsels for your enjoyment. Not to mention demonic 'peareidolia'...
Jason Calacanis has an excoriating poker metaphor :
Over the past month, Mark Zuckerberg, the hottest new card player in town, has overplayed his hand. Facebook is officially ... uncool, amongst partners, parents and pundits. ... Zuckerberg and his company are–simply put–not trustworthy. [He is] an amoral, Asperger’s-like entrepreneur ... clearly the worst thing that’s happened to our industry since, well, spam.The entire industry went from rooting for Zuckerberg to hating him ... in under 18 months. Peter Rojas and Matt Cutts have turned off their Facebook pages, and more intelligent people everywhere are talking about doing so. More.
Krishnan Subramanian likens Facebook to Sarah Palin :
I strongly feel that Facebook has gone rogue. ... Many pundits are upset that Facebook treats users' privacy with complete disdain. ... I have added ... value to the Facebook platform from my participation. ... Asking me to leave if I don't like their newly introduced terms is not reasonable. ... Facebook doesn't support complete data portability. ... Asking me to leave my data behind and go elsewhere now is no different from someone who ... asks me to leave my wallet. More.
Eric Eldon [Inside Facebook] digs into the changes and criticisms in more detail:
Fairly or not, critics are advocating for ... restrictions on how Facebook handles user privacy ... even recommending that users leave the site. ... There could still be a tipping point, where the build-up of issues finally convinces people to leave en masse. ... The changes ... are misleading to the portion of users who have filled out their interests assuming everything would stay private. ... Facebook ... [does] not clearly explain to users how the features can be used. ... "Like" has more than one meaning. ... Facebook is clearly sharing some data without user permission. And ... has made the process for opting out more complicated. ... Facebook's changes have made some information open that users likely assumed would stay private. More.
Facebook's Elliot Schrage, VP for public policy , says they're all "confused":
Nobody at Facebook wants to make our users' lives more difficult. We want to make our users' lives better. ... Despite our efforts, we are not doing a good enough job communicating the changes that we're making. ... But it's certainly fixable. ... We will soon ramp up our efforts to provide better guidance to those confused about how to control sharing and maintain privacy. ... My biggest concern ... has been the incorrect perception that we don't care about user privacy. ... If Facebook is going to succeed - and we will - it's ... because we'll do the best job of responding to your questions and concerns. More.
But Xeni Jardin [Boing Boing] calls the response "lametastically lame" :
[It] has about as much teeth as a chicken. ... What was published today feels like a big [masturbation] ... and no real answers for anyone. Pathetic. Why was there no attempt ... to poke at ... this guy's wiggle-words?
Facebook's bottom line seems to be: "If you're using our service to share intimate details of your life with friends and family, you'll take whatever we give you, and we'll change that whenever we want without warning." More.
Instead, Maxwell Salzberg offers the open source Diaspora project :
[Facebook] could be almost entirely replaced by a decentralized network of truly personal websites. ... Diaspora aims to be a distributed network, where totally separate computers connect to each other directly, will let us connect without surrendering our privacy. ... Owned by you, hosted by you, or on a rented server. ... Will aggregate all of your information: your facebook profile, tweets, anything. ... [With] an easily extendable plugin framework. ... Decentralizing lets us reconstruct our "social graphs" so that they belong to us. Our real social lives do not have central managers, and our virtual lives do not need them. ... Direct and secure. ... We are currently raising money. ... We would love your help. More.
And Harry McCracken [Technologizer] is the king of the one-sentence summary :
Facebook has a history of asking for forgiveness rather than permission, and now says the default for everything is "social"-so the best way to keep things private is to keep them off the service, period. More.
UPDATE: Richi Jennings weighs in with his own opinions.
And Finally...
Demonic face on canned pear; consumer complains to Heinz
[hat tip: Mark Frauenfelder, via Arbroath]
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Richi Jennings, your humble blogwatcher Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, you can follow him as @richi on Twitter, pretend to be richij's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itbw@richij.com. You can also read Richi's full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
This story, ""Kill Your Facebook Page" Backlash Gains Speed" was originally published by Computerworld . |
Folklora is the most prestigious heritage of a nation. İn its true sense, folklore is a nation's spirits, psychology, and history. It is an invaluable treasure, the reflector of a nation's wishes and desires, imagination and thinking, and the inner world. To add up more, "The folklore gifted such wisdom to the geniuses of the East that on the one hand it amazes the people and on the other hand earns respect for its accuracy and preciseness" (2,13)*. It becomes difficult to understand, perceive a nation's psychology, true history, its specific place in the history of humanity, the stages of development, lifestyle, outlook, believes and faith, customs and traditions without being aware of its folklore.
Folklore is the main force, which provides a nation's integrity in its spirits, mind and conscience, doesn't let a nation apart into pieces, forget its own roots, ancestors, which are immortalized and turned to live memories in epics, tales, bayatis and legends (7, 3-4).
From this point, the folklore of an Azerbaijani-speaking elat (a part of nation living as a group. The term can be applied to place and people) -which had to separate from its roots for certain social- political reasons and later on settled down amongst Arabs and Kurds, in the North of Iraq, mainly in Kirkuk region and numbered 600 thousands in the 60 of XX century, but now totals up to 2,5 millions -is an essen- tial issue to study (30, 8; 83, 36, 53; 25,13)
We don't use the term "Azerbaijani-speaking country" coincidentally. Including "The Great Soviet Encyclopedia" (20,277), "The Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary" (61,26), and the foreign sources show that there are Azerbaijanis living in Iraq.
Karl Menges, a famous Turkologist writes in his book "Turkic languages and Turkic nations": "Azerbaijanis also live in the north of Iraq. They are more than 100 thousands." (38, 12-13).
Prof. Jalal Ertuq, a Turkish researcher writes on this issue: "2,5 million Turkman-Azerbaijanis live in Arbil and Kirkuk regions nowadays (28, 8)". It should be noted that they inhabited compact mainly in Kirkuk country: Kirkuk city, Tuz Khurmau (gaza), Altun Korpu (nahiya), taze Khurmatu (nahiya), Bashir, Boyuk Hasar, Bilava Garabulaq, Gizilyar, Yayji, Yarvali, Yengija, Kerkuz, Kumbatlar, Leylan, omar Mandan, Tarjil, Gokteppe, Tisin, Tokhmakhli, Turkalan, Chardakhli, as well as "Bayat koylari" (Bayat villages), and Kifri (gaza), which includes 64 regions; Garateppe (nahiyya), Daquq (nahiyya), Abud, Jambur, Birauchili, Bastamli, Galkhanli, Garanaz, Amirli, Aski Kifri, Zangili, Yeshilteppe, Kahriz, Kingirban, Kotaburun, Lagum, Ashtokan, Priahmad, Sayyad, Suleyman beg (muratli), tel Manzil, Ushtepe, Khasadarli, Hasarli, Jabarli and other city, region and villages. Besides, they also live in Khanagin (gaza), Shahraban (gaza), Dalli Abbas (nahiya), Mandali (nahiya), Garaghan, Gizliarbat, Gizilja, Susuzbulag vilages, the regions Dilaya county, in Arbil city, the center of arbil county, tilafar gaza of Mosul county, Mosul city and also in Baghdad, the capital city of the country.
It should be noted that frequent changes are introduced to the administrative-territorial divisions of the country. For example, Tuz Khurmatu gaza, which was a part of Kirkuk county, now belongs to Salahaddin county, and Kifri gaza became adjacent to Diyala county. Some villages were either totally eliminated or adhered to some other villages.
Some researchers consider that uniting the Turkman inhabited territories with arab inhabited territories carry political reasons (22, 17).
As in the past, they still call both themselves and us -Azerbaijanis "Turkman" (18; 29; 19; 9; 79).
It is important to point out that the notion "Turkman" which was widely used during the State of Atabeys, the State of Garagoyunlus, The State of Aghgoyunlus, The State of Safavid carried a different meaning from what it means today. Therefore Prof. A. Damirchizadeh writes in his book "A History of Azerbaijani Literary Language": "At that time the notion "Turkman" carried a different meaning from what it does today. This is the reason why the Azerbaijanis living around Baghdad are called turkman (9, 72).
The conclusion of the study of the other sources completely affirms Prof. A. Damirchizadeh's opinion on this issue.
Academician V. Bartold writes that "Kitabi-Dadam Gorgud" (Book of My Grandfather Gorgud) belongs to "Caucasian Turkmans"-Azerbaijanis (32, 6).
According to the history after Shamsaddin eldaniz conquered Azerbaijan and Iraq "he overcame all the great leaders and suborinated most of them. He wiped out all the rebellious Turkman leaders" (10, 45).
This term can be come across in the works of our poets Nasimi and Khatai:
Qrebin nitqi baglandı dilinden,
Seni kimdir deyen kim, turkmansan?
How could the Arab dare to doubt you,
To overlook you, cause you are Turkman?
Nasimi
Getdikce tükenir erebin kuyi-maskeni,
Bağdad icre her nece kim türkman qopar.
The Arabs lose their space,
As Turkmans make Baghdad home
Khatai
S. Longrig, an English historian writes that after taking control over Shirvan, Shah Ismayil Khatai smashed turkmans at the battle near Nakhichevan (32, 16).
The term "Turkman" is widely used in a Kirkuk researcher Ata Tarzibashi's researches as well. This well-known folklore scholar shows that the khoyrat (bayati) first emerged in the Turkman inhabited areas of Iraq, during the period of the State of Aghgoyunlu and the State of Garagoyunlu it gained fame and spread to Turkey, to the north of Iran, especially to Tabriz, where mostly Turkmans lived, and to the territory which used to be called Azeri or Azerbaijan ahr wab inhabited by Turkmans (19, 8; 64, 203).
Academician Ziya Bunyadov's book "The State of Azerbaijan Atabeys" includes some significant information about the notion "Turkman". Te book tells that Toghrul III and goes against his uncle Gizil Arslan. Gizil Arslan ruins the troop of Toghrul III and Izatdin Hasan, which was composed of Turkman. They run from the battlefield to Izzatdin Hasan's fortress - Karkhin, which was near Kirkuk (8, 84).
Hidayat Kamal Bayatli, Kirkuk scholar also discloses his own attitude to the issue: "And a part of Iraq Turkmans, who are originally Azeri Turks, were immigrated to Iraq by Shah Ismayil Khatai in 1505-1524, the Christian calendar (22, 20).
There is no doubt that under the term "Turkmans", these scholars meant Azeris and Iraqi turkmans. It isnt't surprising that in his interview to "Qardashliq" magazine (Brotherhood), Heydar Aliyev, the late ex-President of Azerbaijan Republic stated his opinion on this issue: "Exploring the history, I came to believe that Southern Azerbaijan, Northern Azerbaijan and Iraqi-Turkmans are the parts of a whole" (20, 4).
An important point should be noted out here. The matter is that some researchers used the term "Turkman" and some "Turkmen". While Ata Tarzibashi, Shakir Sabir Zabit, Ibrahim Daquqi, Rza Damirchi, Sinan Said, Movlud Taha Gayachi and some other wellknown Iraqi scholars used the term "Turkman", lately A. Benderoghlu prefers the term "Turkmen". This notion was referred as "Turkmen" in the books published by "The Department of Turkmen Culture" and in the newspaper "Yurd" (Motherland) both of which lead by him. Although before the researcher used the term "Turkman" in his books "a Step in the Iraqi-Turkman literature", and "Turkmans in Revolutionary Iraq", while editing our book "Iraqi-Turkman Folklora" (56), he ewplained that since Arabs also use "Turkman", he prefers the term "Turkamen" for the sake of differentiation. True, Arabs also spell this term as "Turkman", however A. Benderoghlu's point is wrong and harmful. Because modifying the term "Turkman", which was originated at the period of "Kitabi-Dadam Gorgud" (The Book of My Grandfather Gorgud), this way is not acceptable.
İn the meantime, Prof. F. Zeynalov and Prof. S. Alizadeh, the researchers of "Dada Gorgud" write: "It is an important fact that in the Drezden version this word is pronounced as 'Turkman'. It is obvious that Turkmans, the Azerbaijanis living in Iraq - are the population inhabited in Kirkuk (32, 250).
Prof. Mahir Nagib, a researcher from Kirkuk paid a special attention to this issue in his article "A work for a Devotee", which was translated into Ottoman Turkish and addressed to our book "Iraqi-Turkman Folklora", published in Turkey: "A reader will notice that honored G. Pashayev is differentiating 'Turkmen' from 'Turkman'. Even the Azeri version of the book is called 'Iraqi-Turkman Folklora'. G. Pashayev's conclusion, which benefited from various sources should be supported. But the term Turkman is out of use in Turkey and Iraqi Turks are referred as 'Turkmen', that's why we had to use the term 'Turkmen'" (57, 12).
One can see, Prof. Mahir Nagib also supports the idea of using the term "Turkman".
Fortunately, A. Benderoghlu realized his mistake and starting from 2003 he is using the term "Turkman" in his newspaper "Yurd" and other publications.
Note that there is a dispute among the researchers over the etymology of the term "Turkman". Since XI century this term was referred as "Turkmanand" in the Persian and Tajic sources, which is translated into Turkish as "Turk" and "Manand" - alike (in Persian), so it means "Turkishlike" (1, 76; 71, 176-17; 29, 24). For Abulgaüzi, as common people couldn't pronounce "Turkmanand", they used the term "Turkman" (1, 76).
Some other sources show that since they were interpreting between the Arabs and Turks, who didn't know Arabic, they were referred as "tarjuman" (translator), and as the time went on, the word was used as "Turkman" (24, 9).
Some other researchers believe that Turk+man, Turk+men means "Turkic person", "Turkic soldier" (16, 18-19).
As known, semi-nomadic Turkman used to be called Tarakama. Since the notions of "Oghuz" and "Turkman" fall into the same ethnic category, Abulgazi Bahadir Khan Khivali, one of the first few experts, who talked about "Dada Gorgud" boys (chapters), brought this issue onto the table in his work "Shajareyi-Tarakima" (Genealogy of Tarakima) (1; 30).
It is possible to consider that "Turkman" is derived from "Tarakimun", the incorrect plural form of "Tarakama" in Arabic (33, 27).
But we credit the researchers, who explain the word "man" as magnificence, greatness, purity, reality, greatness, and strength (24, 10). If we take into consideration that the term Turkman existed for a long time, its being used in the meanings of "Great Turk", "Majestic Turk", "Mighty Turk", "Real Turk" sounds natural.
The use of "man" in the meanings of great, heavenly, grand in the words; gojaman (experienced person), azman (a giant person), ataman (a sharp person), shishman (an overweight person), kechaman (a big lizard) in both Azerbaijani and Kirkuk dialect also supports this idea.
We have to mention that there are fundamental differences between the Iraqi-Turkmen dialect and the Turkmen language in the Central Asia. In Turkmen language initial length of vowels are widespread and it changes the words' meanings. For example: bas (head); baas - yara (bruise), qor (see), qoor (grave) etc. This is characteristic neither for Azeri language nor Kirkuk dialect. In dental sounds. The are found in Arabic and English, as well as in Turkmen language. But there are no such sounds in Turkman dialect and Azerbaijani.
The sound g, which is widely used in both Azeri and Iraqi-Turkman dialect, is not available in Turkmen language. While Turkmen language distinguishes itself in some other cases as well, the phonetic structure of Azeri language and Iraqi-Turkman dialect coincide (52, 14-16; 82, 355; 53)
Therefore A. Benderoghlu, the Iraqi researcher writes: "Iraqi-Turkman dialect corresponds to Azerbaijani language. But there are small differences in Iraqi-Turkman dialect. They are almost unremarkable and shouldn't be considered something major" (7, 14).
Interestingly, in 1995, the world-wide famous Prof. Ihsan Doghramaji, who is originally from Arbil, was giving continuous speech in Arbil dialect, more precisely in Azerbaijani in the Academy of Sciences, but he sensed that the guests from Turkey didn't understand him well enough, and suddenly he turned to the president of the Academy: "If you don't mind, I'd talk to the guests from Turkey in their own dialect about our academy." (30, 149).
When the TV correspondent asked him: "How do you feel about celebrating your 80th jubilee in your second motherland - Azerbaijan?" - Doghramaji gave a polysemantic and well-thought answer: "Azerbaijan isnt't my second motherland. It is one of my two motherlands. There is nothing more natural and more real than celebrating your birthday in your own motherland" (30, 153).
As one can see, rightfully Ihsan Doghramaji considers Azerbaijan his own motherland and Azerbaijani language his mother tongue.
Doubtlessly, we are the parts of a whole and therefore although we consider Nasimi and Fizuli our own, and they think of these poets as Iraqi-Turkman poets, none of us contradicts the other on this issue.
Perhaps this is the reason that Nizami was introduced as Iraqi poet in his books, "Khosrov and Shirin" (1934), "Treasure of Secrets" (1934), "Seven Beaties" (1937), "Igbalname" (1939), which were published in Tehran, in Persian in the first part of the 20th century and are on display at the permanent exposition of Nizami Ganjavi in the Museum of Azerbaijan Literature. Only in the book "Leyli and Majnun" (1939) he was introduced as Iraqi-Ajam poet.
All these are telling us about a nation, whose fate subjected to scattering in the difficult terms of life. Fazil Hussein and Sinan Said, the Kirkuk researchers note that, first time the issue of this elat's being Turkman and speaking Azerbaijani turned to a subject of discussion in the first part of XX century, when the fate of Mosul county became subject to question while the Ottoman rule ended in Iraq and Iraq turned into a colony of England. The Turkish government considered them Turkish, but the England insisted that they were Turkmans. The English government proved that this elat didn't belong to Ottoman, their dialect wasn't similar to Turkish language, but to Azerbaijani language. England believed that territory long before the emergence of the Ottoman Empire (13, 93-99; 64, 35).
From this point the representative of the "East-India" company, Edmonds' travel to the Turkman inhabited territory in 1820 is interesting: "We arrived in Guruchay (Dry river) at 8.20. There were the tents of Bayat Turkmans' here. Hasan bey, the head of the ashirat (tribe), who sometimes was referred as "Garagush bey" (Eagle bey) invited me to have meal. He was well aware of the existence of the ashirat (tribe/elat) of Boyuk (Great) Bayat in Khurasan, but he couldn't define the exact date, when this branch of the ashirat moved to this country" (14, 267).
We come across various historical facts about Iraqi Turkmans' origin and their settling date in Iraq. Many researchers believe that they moved from Azerbaijan.
We also think that, starting from early Middle Ages till the middle of the 16th century and afterwads in certain periods we lived together with Iraqi-Turkmans in the same territory, under the same power, but because of certain social-political reasons we had to split. As a number of substantial researches have come out lately on the history of Iraqi-Turkmans and Azerbaijan, we become more convinced in our conclusion (66; 10; 68; 37; 38; 24).
In the meantime, we don't reject the fact that the bloody wars, political interests and other reasonscaused some other streams of movement as well. Moreover, this took place in both directions. As Abulgazi Bahadir Khan states, thousands of Turkman families left Iraw and came to Shamakhi (1, 99).
Tabari, the Arabic historian and Prof. Subhi Saatchi think that the first movement of Turks to Iraq happened in 45, the Hijri calender (76a, 167; 68, 20).
Prof. S. Buluch, the Turkish scholar, also writes about this issue: "In the first centuries of the Hijri calendar Azerbaijani Turks passed through Tabriz-Sultaniyya and settled down in Kirkuk" (58, 109).
Shakir Sabir, the Kirkuk researcher thinks that their movement to Iraq started in VII century and they already forme their own blocks in Iraq in 745, the christian calendar (72, 37, 39).
Ibn-al-Asir, the Arabic historian of the 12th-13th centuries writes: "Many Azerbaijani Turks led by Abu Mansur Baktash and Abu Ali İbn Dahgan moved to Iraq and settled down in Tilafar, Mosul and the neighbouring areas" (26, 136).
Mustafa Javad, a well-known Iraqi researcher writes in his book "The History of Turks in Iraq" that Turks' movemen to Iraq started in the year of 32 in the Hijri calendar and divides this movement into seven stages. İn the period of Amavis, especially Abbasis Turks's being incomparably good at shooting, brave in battles, tolerant to the hordship brought high prestige to them, strengthened their position and made them the dirivin force in Iraq. In Mustafa Javad's categorization Saljug period falls into the fourth stage and in this period thousands of Oghuz Turks entered and settled in Iraq, formed Turkman khanates, and other khanates such as Artiglilar in Mardin, Atabeys in Mosul, Zeynalabdins in Arbil, Gipchags in Kirkuk, Gara (Literally: Dark/Black, Means: Great) Aslanlis in Diyarbakr, and the khanates in Daghistan and Azerbaijan. According to the researchers' writings, the bayat tiribes inhabited around Gara Tapa (Black Hill) and Daquq entered Iraq in the fourth stage. The rule of Teymuris and Jalairs marks the beginning of the fifth stage. Mustafa Javad categorizes the period of the State of Garagoyunlu and the State of Aghgoyunlu in the sixtth stage. The seventh stage consists of the period of the State of Safavid (46).
Prof. Subhi Saatchi divides these movements into seven stages and calls the last stage "Ottoman Period" (62, 31-106).
According to Ershad Hormuzlu, a Kirkuk researcher, the biggest movement of Turkmans to Iraq happened during Toghrul bey's authority (1040-1063). In the Christian year of 1055 they numbered even more. As the continuous stream of Turkmans to Iraq turned to a Turkic-speaking area (24, 25).
It is undeniable that starting from the date that Shamsaddin Eldaniz took over the control in 1136 and afterwards during the periods of his predecessors; sons - Mahammad Jahan Pahlavan and Gizil Arslan, the relations with Iraq tightened (74, 53-58, 59).
During Shamsaddin eldaniz's period the state and troop of Iraq and Azerbaijan united under the same power and the nation lived in peace (66, 127). He used to rotate between Azerbaijan and Iraq back and forth. His trip to Iraq ended in 1175, and after a while upon his return to Azerbaijan, died in Nakhichevan. And Jahan Pahlavan and Gizil Arslan became executive authorities of Iraq, Azerbaijan, Arran, Rey, Isfahan, Hamadan and other counties (10, 74). Daquq, Arbil, Kirkuk and other places that inhabited by Turkman, and Ganja, Nakhichevan, Tabriz and other cities were united under the same power during the period of the State of Atabeys (10, 234, 238; 66, 134).
Starting from the execution of the last Abbasi khalifa in 1258 all the neighbouring cities and villages including Baghdad turned to Azerbaijan's county and accept its authority (8, 73). Since that period the connection between the Azerbaijanis living in Bahgdad, Kirkuk, Mosul and Arbil and the Northern and Southern Azerbaijan grew closer. This relation becomes even stronger during the periods of Jalairs in XIV century, and the State of Garagoyunlu and the State of Aghgoyunlu in XV century. The territory of the State of Garagoyunlu included Azerbaijan, Armenia, Western Iran, Iraq, Kurdustan, etc. The capital was Tabriz. The major cities were Tabriz, Maragha, Ardabil, Nakhichevan, Ganja, Baghdad, Arzinjan etc (4, 54). During the period of the State of aghgoyunlu, especially during the power of Uzun (Tall) Hasan the borders extended till the Kur River, Garabagh County, Arab-Iraq, Acami-Iraq, the borders of Persia and Khurasan including Arzinjan etc (23, 221; 27, 81; 28, 62; 36, 3; 37, 97, 172).
Therefore in his letter to te European states Uzun Hassan indicated with especial emphasis: "...Iraq, all of the Persia till the doors of India, ... Mazandaran, Gilan, ... Azerbaijan, Baghdad - all these belong to me. I am the ruler of these territories" (37, 103).
Interestingly, S. Longrig, the English researcher writes that during the rule of Uzun Hasan the capital of the countr, was Tabriz in summer and Baghdad in winter (32, 20).
As his grandfather Uzun Hassan, Shah Ismail Khatai also aimed to unite Azerbaijan and Iraq under the same power and reinstate the united Azerbaijan. His capturing Baghdad in 1506 with this purpose made Ottoman Empire very restless. Ottoman Empire was cautious about the growth of Safavid. For this reason it launched a war against Safavids with a great force and overcame in the famous battle, Chaldiran (38, 143). This defeat caused an incredible anount of losses to Safavids. One of them was the loss of Baghdad.
Afterwards Azerbaijani rulers attempted to take Baghdad back by all means (38, 143). From this standpoint the facts by Shakir Sabir, the Kirkuk researcher and A. Mammadov, an Azeri scholar are quite attractive. Prince Bayazid joins a revolt against his father Sultan Suleyman of a refuge. Sultan Suleyman promises a great amount of gifts to Safavid to have his son bak for execution. Shah (King) Tahmasib puts a condition that Baghdad should be annexed to Azerbaijan again (36, 78). But Sultan (King) Suleyman doesn't accept this condition.
In the war of 1533-1535, between Azerbaijan and Turkey, Azerbaijan lost all Iraqi territories including Baghdad (38, 161, 162).
But starting from Shah Abbas's rule, in a timeframe from 1623 to 1638, Baghdad, kirkuk and other places were united under the Safavid authority, but again in 1638 the Ottoman authority took control over these territories (71, 85; 36, 3; 24, 30) and from 1732 to 1743 the control was switched between the Ottoman Empire and Azerbaijan back and forth. During 1734-1746, these territories were totolly under the control of Azerbaijan, but as Longrig, English historian writes, in 1746 Baghdad, Mosul, Kirkuk and other cities lost khan (referring to Azerbaijani authority) and gained sultan (referring to Ottoman authority) forever (32, 20).
Afterwards our connection with Iraq came down to almost nothing. Therefore Azerbaijani rulers attempted to gain back the tribes taht inhabited in Iraq. Mirza Jamal Javanshir writes on this occasion: "After Nadir Shah was assassinated in 1747, Panah Khan along with his accompanists went till Iraq and Azerbaijan borders to welcome the Garabagh people... Their visit ended up with failure" (29, 14-15).
It should be mentioned that not only Garabagh tribes, but also other Azerbaijani tribes from both south and north inhabited here.
At the end the quoted sources have been given in an alphabetical order. As seen we have used code. The first figure indicates the source, the second indicates the page. Between them there is a cçomma. Sources have been separated by semicolon. |
One man in Utah started a petition Friday to change the mascot of a new high school, arguing that the name will likely become the butt of a dirty joke.
The mascot for Farmington High School, expected to open in 2018, is set to be a phoenix, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
But according to the petition, resident Kyle Fraughton is concerned that when supporters yell “Go Phoenices!” at events, it’ll sound like they’re saying a totally different word. And as of Tuesday night, more than 3,000 people agreed with him.
STUDENT TOLD SWEATSHIRT AND JEANS VIOLATED SCHOOL’S DRESS CODE
“We were horrified to hear that the phonetics of the word Phoenices are far too close to the word penises," Fraughton wrote on the petition. “I don’t mean to be crass, but don’t want there to be confusion around the point I am trying to make.”
Fraughton said he first realized the similarity when he and some neighbors were practicing their cheers and looked up the correct plural form of “phoenix,” which can be “phoenices.”
He argued on the petition that people will easily make the connection, just as he did, and it will be used against the school in the form of crude humor.
“With this scenario playing out, there will be a never ending barrage of references to male anatomy directed at our children as they participate in any kind of sports against other schools,” he wrote. “In an effort to be funny and get under the player’s skin, opposing student bodies will most certainly chant things such as, “Go Phoenices!” That will just be the beginning as it doesn’t take much imagination to figure out how vulgar this could get.”
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Fraughton then proposed that students, who chose a phoenix as their mascot, be allowed to vote a second time so the Davis County School District doesn’t “bear the responsibility of our children being bullied.”
Chris Williams, a rep for the school district told Fox 13 Now, "We don’t see anything about the plural version of phoenix having anything to do what’s going to be happening at the school or on the football field."
"We think students are going to rise to the occasion," Williams said. |
Long past midnight on the last day of the legislative session, a hasty, quiet step on an obscure issue sowed the seeds of the stalemate now gripping the Capitol, blocking a special session and putting nearly 10,000 state workers at risk of layoffs.
It was 3 a.m. In a Capitol corridor, GOP House Speaker Kurt Daudt, a top aide for DFL Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk and a few other legislative leaders were engaged in a tense conversation on a surprise amendment to allow counties to outsource audits.
Approved by the House, the measure — which would gut the role of the state auditor, Democrat Rebecca Otto — had never been heard in the Senate. Yet that night, Sens. Sandy Pappas and Jim Carlson, leaders of that bill’s conference committee, were being instructed by Bakk’s chief of staff, Tom Kukielka, to approve the controversial change.
“Do it,” Kukielka said, according to one senator’s recollection of the conversation. Pappas and Carlson told the Star Tribune that Daudt and Kukielka had insisted the change was a crucial part of top leadership’s final agreement.
That single action triggered a chain of events culminating in the ongoing impasse and further exposing a rift between Bakk and Gov. Mark Dayton, who has vowed to protect the role of auditor, a post he held in the early 1990s.
The behind-the-scenes maneuvering that led to the policy change has surprised many at the Capitol, including Senate Democrats and even lobbyists for the counties, who say privatization was not their priority this year.
Gov. Mark Dayton
Some Democrats in particular are livid over the deal Bakk and Daudt apparently cut, saying they were pressured to vote for bills containing provisions they ordinarily never would have supported.
“Many of us feel disrespected, taken for granted, and that we were played for fools and pawns in some game of power that only a select few caucus members are playing,” Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, wrote to Bakk last week in an e-mail obtained by the Star Tribune.
Exactly why Bakk and Daudt agreed to give the counties the option to hire private auditors is unclear. Daudt, however, is a former county commissioner who has lobbied for the change before, arguing that it saves local governments money.
Bakk, meanwhile, is from the Iron Range, where some DFLers were harshly critical of Otto’s 2013 vote against exploratory mining leases in the region. In an interview with the Star Tribune, Bakk denied any political motive for limiting the auditor’s office: “The mineral leases, or her action on that, meant zero to me,” he said. “She was the only ‘no’ vote, so her vote didn’t make any difference. It was like a vote of protest. I didn’t quite understand why anyone cared, to be honest.”
Bakk, Daudt respond
Daudt, between meetings with Lt. Gov Tina Smith Thursday, denied that he and Bakk agreed to push through the privatization language.
“Bakk and I didn’t necessarily have an agreement that the language would be in the bill,” Daudt said. He insisted that Sen. Tom Saxhaug, DFL-Grand Rapids, and Rep. Sarah Anderson, R-Plymouth, brokered that amendment.
In an interview, Saxhaug offered a different version of that late-night event. “Leadership told us that this was the way it had been negotiated,” he said.
Bakk also denied any direct involvement and said he had no knowledge of the hallway conversation involving his aide.
He declined to make Kukielka available for comment, saying, “We have a provision in our employee manual that staff do not talk to the press.”
Bakk in recent days has tried to assuage members of his caucus, blaming the impasse on the Association of Minnesota Counties. In an e-mail to DFL senators Thursday night that was obtained by the Star Tribune, Bakk wrote: “I know, and echo, many of your sentiments when I tell you that I remain concerned that the House GOP refuses to accept any alteration to the Association of Minnesota Counties changes to the State Auditor’s authority.”
Two representatives for the counties’ lobbying group disputed that account, and other sources corroborated their position.
“We decided early on to stay out of it,” said Matthew Hilgart, a lobbyist and policy analyst for the Association of Minnesota Counties. He added: “When we saw this included [the final night], we were surprised.” The original House legislation, he and the group’s executive director Julie Ring said, was drafted without their involvement.
Anderson, House chair of the conference committee, said DFL senators should not have been surprised by the amendment.
“If conferees were surprised, that’s their fault,” she said, arguing that the privatization language was contained in spreadsheets of the state government bill.
The Star Tribune obtained eight spreadsheets — known in the Capitol as “side-by-sides” — which showed that the Senate never agreed to the House position on county audits.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk
Fight ‘to the very end’
As the impasse has dragged on this past week, Dayton’s weak negotiating position has become clear. GOP leaders said that if the governor didn’t like the bill, he should have vetoed it. Dayton said he approved it to limit the number of state employees facing possible layoffs in the event of a government shutdown. He immediately made it known that repealing the auditor job changes was one of his conditions for calling a special session.
Otto meanwhile has lobbied furiously to undo the move since mid-May, when the state government conference committee approved the privatization language.
Otto already must await the outcome of a committee decision to require the Legislative Auditor to review “the efficiency of examinations” conducted by her office. That report is due in mid-January, before the 2016 legislative session convenes.
The state auditor is required to audit many local governments, including Minneapolis, St. Paul, the Minnesota State High School League, watershed districts and other entities. A law change some years ago allows 28 counties to hire private auditors, but the state auditor retains oversight, can require additional documentation and guide private firms on compliance issues.
Without fees from the remaining 59 counties, the state auditor’s office has said it would be unable to cover overhead costs, rendering it unable to complete many of those tasks.
David Schultz, a Hamline Law School professor with two decades of experience studying the Minnesota Constitution, said the privatization change likely violates two of the constitution’s provisions.
“The Legislature probably cannot enact a law that strips away powers from a constitutional office and thereby undermine the core functions of the auditor’s office,” Schultz said. “It’s one branch [of government] telling another branch how it has to act, in ways that might violate that separation of powers provision, by rendering it impossible to do her [Otto’s] job.”
House Speaker Kurt Daudt
He said there’s strong precedent on the legal question. In 1986, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that a law transferring the state treasurer’s duties to the finance commissioner violated the separations of power clause.
Earlier in the week, Otto said she would “fight this until the very end to make sure that this function is preserved.”
After the late-night hallway conversation, Pappas and Carlson were left with a difficult choice. If they dug in, they would hold up the closing of a major budget bill that funds many aspects of state government and some 7,000 state jobs. Their refusal would have threatened an on-time conclusion to the end of session.
Carlson said he and Pappas hoped Dayton would veto the legislation. He had vetoed similar legislation before.
In the end, Carlson and Pappas settled for a symbolic protest. They did not sign the final conference committee report, and Pappas voted against the overall bill on the Senate floor. |
Harambe, a 17-year-old western lowland gorilla, was killed Saturday after a four-year-old boy crawled through a barrier and fell into the moat in the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. The gorilla dragged the boy around before emergency responders shot and killed the gorilla. The boy sustained non-life threatening injuries. (Photo: Jeff McCurry/ Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden)
At 17, Harambe, the gorilla shot and killed Saturday after a child fell into Gorilla World at Cincinnati Zoo, was relatively young: Gorillas can live 40 to 50 years in zoos.
The 450-pound silverback western lowland gorilla was born at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas, on May 27, 1999, and came to Cincinnati in September 2014.
A post on the Gladys Porter Zoo's Facebook page from Sept. 18, 2014, bids farewell to the primate. It reads: "With a mixture of sad and happy feelings, we are preparing #Harambe, one of our #Silverback #WesternLowlandGorillas, for the journey to his new home. The #CincinnatiZoo and big, new adventures are waiting for you, big boy!"
A Cincinnati Zoo blog post from April 14, 2015, noted that Harambe had gotten too old to remain at Gladys Porter and had come to the Cincinnati Zoo to join a social group with females Chewie and Mara, who were both 19 at that time.
Happy 17th birthday to silverback gorilla Harambe! https://t.co/FeITuw0hPbpic.twitter.com/FrfWUSKacV — Cincinnati Zoo (@CincinnatiZoo) May 27, 2016
"He demonstrates intelligence and curiosity, using sticks and things to reach for items outside his grasp,” Ron Evans, curator of primates at the Cincinnati Zoo, said of Harambe in 2015.
Evans is part of the Species Survival Program management group for the species. That group manages the 360-odd gorillas in Association of Zoos and Aquariums facilities, with a goal of keeping the animals genetically diverse so that their populations are healthy and viable into the future. At 17, Harambe was not quite at breeding maturity, but the zoo had hoped to breed him in the future, director of the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden Thane Maynard said Saturday.
"It'll be a loss to the gene pool of lowland gorillas," Maynard said. "The loss of a breeding male is a big deal.
"Harambe was a good guy," he added.
Children pause at the feet of a gorilla statue where flowers and a sympathy card have been placed, outside the Gorilla World exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, Sunday, May 29, 2016, in Cincinnati. On Saturday, a special zoo response team shot and killed Harambe, a 17-year-old gorilla, that grabbed and dragged a 4-year-old boy who fell into the gorilla exhibit moat. Authorities said the boy is expected to recover. He was taken to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. (Photo: John Minchillo, AP)
His short time at the Cincinnati Zoo was commemorated by flowers left next to a gorilla statue Sunday.
"We are so sad that you had to kill one of your gorillas we love the gorillas," read the card, headed "With Deepest Sympathy" and written in a child's handwriting, on a bundle of carnations.
Harambe was one of 10 western lowland gorillas at the Cincinnati Zoo. They are a critically endangered species in the wild, with their numbers estimated at fewer than 175,000.
There are about 765 gorillas in zoos worldwide.
Read or Share this story: http://cin.ci/1VoQ5Ca |
PITTSBURGH, May 24 (UPI) -- New recommendations highlight lifestyle changes as a key to managing acute gout symptoms, U.S. rheumatologists said.
The recommendations from the American Society of Clinical Rheumatologists, published in Postgraduate Medicine, encourage gout patients to consume a balanced diet of fresh fruit and vegetables, low-fat dairy products, nuts and grains.
More importantly, patients should limit their intake of high fructose corn syrup, a common ingredient in many processed foods and drinks, and purine-rich foods, particularly red meat, beer and shellfish.
Gout, a form of arthritis, is caused by an accumulation of uric acid crystals in the body. Uric acid crystals can form in the joints when there are abnormally high levels of uric acid in the body.
"The new guidelines help patients by simplifying the steps they can take to manage their condition," Dr. N. Lawrence Edwards, a professor of medicine, rheumatology and clinical immunology at the University of Florida, and chairman of the Gout & Uric Acid Education Society, said in a statement. "Gout is a life-long disease which requires constant treatment and attention, but it can be controlled through a commitment to weight loss, lifestyle changes and taking medications as directed." |
Dear Bakers,
We still have a few people with unclaimed or pending rewards. Of course, we would like to ensure everyone get theirs. So far we have been solving the issues case by case but we needed for a more global announcement, thanks for your understanding.
It has been long wait for the game itself, it may have been long wait for the very few people with shipping issues (Sometime parcel returned to us up to 4 times! Dear Customs!). But we hope it was worth the wait.
Please take a look at the few cases below:
A. PHYSICAL REWARDS
Parcels are long shipped now, if you didn't receive anything, it means something got wrong. If you are awaiting for any physical reward and didn't receive it yet, please contact us @ WM's Magical Game Factory along with your baker nickname so we can figure a solution.
Please note: For any shipments that would be solved now, the actual shipping would only occur in September as shipping staff is in vacation (but the costumer support staff isn't aren't, so don't wait to contact us, it may take time to figure out the issue).
Please also read the "important notice" note at bottom of this announcement.
http://www.magicalgamefactory.com/en/faq/contact-support_5/
B. DIGITAL REWARDS
If you have pledged for any digital reward and didn't receive it yet, we had issued all the download keys more than a year ago by email. So please check your email twice and if nothing in your mailbox, contact us @ WM's Magical Game Factory along with your baker nickname for a solution.
Please also read the "important notice" note at bottom of this announcement.
http://www.magicalgamefactory.com/en/faq/contact-support_5/
C. VITA
As we moved office over a year ago, we temporary had to return the Vita development kit to Sony as required by contract. However at the time we asked it back, they would no longer provide Vita development kit to such our small companies. As we can't control whenever we will get another development kit and already made numerous attempt at it, we consider this version of the game cancelled (reward-wise, at least). We understand the disappointment but we hope you understand the situation which is not in our hands.
Only if you have swapped your reward for a sony VITA game, please contact us @ WM's Magical Game Factory along with your baker nickname so we can get you a solution.
Please also read the "important notice" note at bottom of this announcement.
http://www.magicalgamefactory.com/en/faq/contact-support_5/
D. ANDROID
Regarding Android version of the game, game should be released very shortly hopefully in September.
Only if you have swapped your reward for a Android version of the game, please contact the support @ WM's Magical Game Factory for further instructions. Please do NOT wait the release of the actual game on Android.
Please also read the "important notice" note at bottom of this announcement.
http://www.magicalgamefactory.com/en/faq/contact-support_5/
E. DVD
Regarding the DVD. As stated previously, we will group the making-of with our other games so it get a bit more interesting to watch. An email with instructions will be sent to you, when available. Thanks for your patience!
-----------------
IMPORTANT NOTICES:
- For any digital rewards that weren't claimed or activated (except DVD), we can't warranty support by the September 30th 2016 as we can't issue nor control any download codes past this date (nor the availability of the platform at all! SEGA wins!).
- For any physical rewards that weren't claimed (except DVD), we can't warranty support by December 30th 2016 as we can't keep forever the products in stock in good condition and most of those are limited items with absolutely no cheat on the quantities.
- Any physical reward received defective, please contact us asap because the actual warranty of the product ends by December 30th 2016, don't wait!
Thanks for your understanding and support! |
President Trump’s started the 90-day clock that will give the FAA the right to set a national standard for pilot drone operations in all 50 states.
The White House issued an Executive Order authorizing the Secretary of Transportation to work with state, municipal and tribal authorities to establish a national ‘Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program’ within the next 90-days. The UAS standard will harmonize regulation to “promote safe operation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and speed the development of UAS technologies” for private and public applications.
President Trump added in his statement: “Our Nation will move faster, fly higher, and soar proudly toward the next great chapter of American aviation.”
The use of UAS, referred to as drones, by individuals and organizations is regulated by a jumble of federal and state laws, plus several states passed laws allowing counties, cities, and towns to also regulate UAS. Consequently, it is not unusual for agriculture, commerce, emergency management, human transportation, and other economic sectors to be subject to 3 or 4 levels of laws, according to the Rupprecht Law’s regulatory blog.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration that has jurisdiction of the skies, has restricted operation to a height of under 400 feet and must be in “line-of-sight. The FAA has also approved over 1,300 commercial distance waivers and issued a permanent exemption to CNN to fly over crowds. But operators in all cases must comply with all federal, state and municipal drone, and aviation laws. Some counties even require that operators must gain permission from impacted homeowner associations.
The FAA requires commercial drone pilots to pass a rigorous test to be licensed. But to understand how fast the industry has taken off, the U.S. already has over 37,000 licensed drone operators and over 1 million registered drones.
Ark Industrial Research reveals that the current price to deliver a 5-pound package distances of up to 10 miles on the same day is $12.92 by UPS; $8.32 by FedEx Ground; and $5.25 by U.S. Post Office Next Day Priority. But they estimate that the cost to deliver the same package in 30 minutes would be $.88 by Amazon Drone.
Ark projects that Amazon already has over 400 million Amazon Prime shipments to US customers that would qualify for drone delivery. Given the low cost of quad-copter commercial drones and its infrastructure support, Amazon could cover most metropolitan markets for an investment of about $130 million and about $350 million in operating costs. If Amazon priced the service at $1, the company would break even in the first year and generate about a 50 percent return on investment.
Under the proposed Department of Transportation pilot programs, innovation zones will be established for testing complex UAS operations and to integrate drones for the “delivery of life-saving medicines and commercial packages, inspections of critical infrastructure, support for emergency management operations, and surveys of crops for precision agriculture applications.” |
Last week I had the good fortune to be invited to some meetings in Rhode Island with Swarovski Optik. I also got to do some great birding with the other folks who were there. On August 1st we drove to Chatham and took a boat out to the sandbar that is South Beach (eBird checklist) to see the gulls, terns and shorebirds that nest and roost there. Jumping out of the boat, we still had a couple hundred feet to walk through the water since it was so shallow and with Hudsonian Godwits swirling on one side of the beach and a flock of Red Knots, Sanderlings and dowitchers down the other direction, I had to scan before I even hit dry land.
Once we were able to get on to the sand and bird, we started finding lifers for Birding is Fun’s Robert Mortensen. The second best thing to finding lifers is helping other people find lifers!
My target bird for the day was Roseate Terns since they nest on the beach and are generally found in good numbers. It took us a while, but eventually we saw the pure white flash of one flying overhead. Soon I had the call down and was picking them up in every tern flock we came to. One fun surprise was seeing adult Roseate Terns feeding begging chicks. Even the young birds are distinctly whiter/frostier on their back.
So I had my expected lifer down and was enjoying seeing them all over. The flash of white compared to the Common Terns was very obvious once I got the hang of it. Now it was time to get serious and see what else we could find. Our next shot of excitement was when Clay Taylor and Robert saw a short-legged tern that looked good for Arctic. Unfortunately it took off and disappeared into a large tern flock before we could get a good look. It wasn’t long however until we happened across the bird you see in the video below. It definitely looked short-legged and short-billed but the real clincher is shown in the video where it spreads its wings and shows the distinctive black tips to the outer primaries. Forster’s and Black Terns rounded out the species of terns we found on the beach.
A little bit of seawatching proved successful when we spotted a Cory’s Shearwater flying south out over the ocean towards the boat that was trying to tag Great White Sharks (no luck while we were watching). It was nearing the end of our time on the beach and we were starting to get thirsty and sunburnt so we headed back to where the cooler was. There were a bunch of shorebirds nearby so I started scanning in hopes of finding White-rumped Sandpiper that some people needed. I spotted this gull, smaller than the Laughing Gulls, petite overall that was looking straight away from us. Bonaparte’s Gull, easy ID. Whoops, the bird turns and I can see that there is some smudging on the neck that is distinctly not like any Bonaparte’s I have ever seen. My mind is churning and I first leap to Black-legged Kittiwake, it has darker smudging on the neck. At this point, the gull turns broadside so we can see how petite it looks…and it rearranges it wings showing off a very distinctive white triangle…SABINE’S GULLLLLLL!!!!! A very unexpected second lifer for the day. The satisfying part about this bird is that it stuck around for me to get great looks and then to arrange myself and do some digiscoping with the Casio g’zOne LTE I am testing out through the Swarovski STX 85. You can get an idea for the different views I was getting of the bird after I first spotted it in the video below.
There is some debate over whether the bird is a non-breeding adult or an advanced first summer bird. I’ll leave it up to you to help me out. Hopefully the screen grabs below and video above help.
Birding South Beach was a fantastic experience. I didn’t even have time to thoroughly enjoy the harbor seals and gray seals, or keep my eye on the boat off shore that was trying to capture great white sharks. That will have to wait until my next visit. Thanks to all the great people I had the chance to bird with, let’s do it again! |
All the Open Source codes under GPL licence from Jolla's operating system are packed into a public tar-file, earlier available only as a hardcopy ordered directly from Jolla Oy.
This is one step forward in the company openness, however there are still steps to take
Link to the Sailfish OS packages
http://images.formeego.org/jolla/sources/
Please note that these packages doesn't include any 3rd party propiertary code or Jolla's propiertary code. Sailfish OS is a full Open Source operating system, but Jolla has included more code into their phone - which they are not ready to share. The unshared part includes for example the Alien Dalvik by Myriad (Jolla's Android support), hardware drivers by Qualcomm and the buttonless User Interface by Jolla.
SDK packages for developers are shared here:
Content, latest version:
Loading Sailfish OS content...
Please note that these packages doesn't include any 3rd party propiertary code or Jolla's propiertary code. Sailfish OS is a full Open Source operating system, but Jolla has included more code into their phone - which they are not ready to share. The unshared part includes for example the Alien Dalvik by Myriad (Jolla's Android support), hardware drivers by Qualcomm and the buttonless User Interface by Jolla.SDK packages for developers are shared here: http://releases.sailfishos.org/sdk/latest/
Link this post to your friends. Sharing is Caring!Link this post to your friends. Sharing is Caring!Source:, shared officially by https://twitter.com/JollaHQ Published: August 22, 13:14 UTC |
A makeshift campsite near a river in Golden Bay has been abandoned by those who lived there, leaving behind piles of rubbish.
Cars and campsites have been abandoned at a popular freedom camping spot in Golden Bay as illegal campers clear out for the winter, leaving piles of rubbish behind.
Dozens of campsites and self-made structures have been abandoned in the rubbish-strewn bush along the riverbank at Reilly St, located behind the Takaka Memorial Library.
Residents are concerned the area is being turned into a "shanty town" and one has called for a community meeting to take action.
NINA HINDMARSH Leander Rose, 18, sits at his campsite where he lives on the edge of the riverbank.
Laura Manson said she saw the issue as a larger social problem.
READ MORE:
* Gates block riverbank at controversial freedom camping spot in Takaka
* Takaka dairy farmer caught in middle of freedom camping row
* 'I wouldn't go in there by myself': Officer told not to patrol rowdy freedom camp
* Council frustrations prompt Takaka residents to take action on freedom camping
* Tasman District Council boosts freedom camping enforcement budget
"It's similar to the reasons for shanty towns throughout the world, they are mostly economic reasons," she said.
NINA HINDMARSH Piles of rubbish in the forest along the riverbank.
"Council should call a community meeting and we should have police, mental health and community workers present, because I think we have a social problem on our hands, which is bigger than the individuals living there."
Manson said we shouldn't underestimate the effects of substance abuse, mental health, and people's past traumas.
"There are other reasons people drop out of society than just being freeloaders — I'd like the solution to bring our community together, rather than divisive and hurtful like it has been."
NINA HINDMARSH A fire pit, chili bin, rubbish and car seats in the bush at Reilly st.
The area has been occupied by up to 400 illegal campers a night during the summer sleeping in their cars and tents along the riverbank, in the carpark, and along the side of the road.
Another group, known as the River Tribe, have also been living permanently along the riverbank in self-made structures, tents and tree huts.
They claim to be grass-roots revolutionaries living in harmony with nature.
NINA HINDMARSH Remnants of a kitchen.
When Stuff visited on Tuesday, there were dozens of rubbish piles littered throughout the bush and three abandoned cars, including one with all its windows smashed in.
Two of the cars had been blocked in by the gate and a rock wall the Tasman District Council erected in April as a solution to the problem of people staying at Reilly St.
At least 12 campsites in the bush appeared to have been abandoned.
NINA HINDMARSH Piles of rubbish and recycling abandoned at a campsite in the bush along the riverbank.
However, 18-year-old River Tribe occupant from Germany, Leander Rose, said there were actually 11 people living there, and only about 4 campsites had been abandoned.
Rose said he moved into the River Tribe about six weeks ago, right after a big flood cleared many of the former occupants out.
"There was basically no warning and then the big flood came and everybody was scrambling," he said.
NINA HINDMARSH An abandoned handmade clay oven.
"A lot of people's stuff was flooded away and after that a lot of people had to go to carpark and stay there because they didn't have anywhere to live. After that, another flood took a bunch of stuff and that really 'sieved' people out."
Rose said people had just walked out after the flood, leaving all their belongings.
There were still new campers arriving and moving into abandoned campsites and building new structures out of the old materials.
NINA HINDMARSH An old campsite where someone is apparently living.
"Everybody who comes here can build their own shelter out of what's left," he said. "We are definitely producing way less trash than people in town."
Rose said Takaka was known as "Stuck-aka" to the River Tribe because "everybody gets stuck here".
"The spirit of the forest and the people who come here is very special. We all understand that living in the forest means not living inside the system."
NINA HINDMARSH Self-made structures and piles of rubbish abandoned. When Stuff visited on Tuesday, this campsite had just had a new camper move into it the day before.
Residents and business owners frustrated with the mess at Reilly St installed compost toilets, portaloos, signage and recycling bins over summer.
Golden Bay resident Sebastian Roberts organised a community working bee for this Sunday to tidy up the area.
"Just want to tidy up the land peacefully and not taking any bias. Plain and simple," he said.
However, Rose said "they should really take care they don't clean up people's homes".
The campers were "poor travellers" who couldn't afford to buy the expensive council rubbish bags. However, if the council supplied them with bags they would clean up the mess, he said.
Tasman District Council spokesperson Chris Choat said it was making arrangements for the cars to be removed and provide Roberts with a key to the gate.
"If there is rubbish to be removed we will not be charging Sebastian's group for the disposal at the RRC."
He said the landowner, dairy farmer David Rose, could call the police and trespass the illegal campers if he was concerned.
However, Rose said there was still a difference of legal opinion about who owned the land.
"Our lawyers say that we don't have title to it. They have just started talking directly to council about it."
If it was found to be Rose's land, he said the responsibility to move them off would fall on him.
"If there is still any legal argument about land ownership, the police don't want to be involved anyway." |
"We didn't see a single house that was not hit. The entire infrastructure, tracks, fields, roads -- was in total ruin," an anonymous soldier says, describing his days in the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli incursion last winter. "Nothing much was left in our designated area … A totally destroyed city ... The few houses that were still inhabitable were taken by the army … there were lots of abandoned, miserable animals." The destruction continued daily, he testifies, though Palestinians -- fighters and civilians -- had fled the area.
So much lay in ruins, says another Israeli soldier, that it was hard to navigate. "I entered Al Atatra [in the northern Gaza Strip] after seeing aerial photos and didn't identify anything … I remembered that 200 meters further on down the track there should be a junction, with two large houses at the corners, and there wasn't. I remembered there was supposed to be a square with a Hamas memorial … and there wasn't. There was rubble, broken blocks." Later, he says, he was in an operations room where soldiers were directing air strikes. Landmarks that were supposed to serve the pilots as reference points had already been destroyed, he says, making it harder to direct the planes, more likely that they would hit the wrong building.
The two soldiers are among 26 whose first-hand accounts appear in Operation Cast Lead, a book released today in Hebrew and English by the Israeli veterans' group, Breaking the Silence. Half the soldiers were serving in the regular army at the time of the fighting; half were called up as reservists. To protect them, their names do not appear -- only their words. A brief introduction notes that the Israel Defense Forces spokesman's office has argued consistently since the war that if any moral problems arose in Israel's conduct in Gaza, they were due to "delinquent soldiers." The soldiers' testimony presents a very different picture -- of a policy set by top commanders that led to unnecessary civilian deaths and massive physical damage.
This isn't the first time soldiers' stories have challenged the official accounts. In March, the Yitzhak Rabin Academy -- a pre-army training course -- published a transcript of its graduates discussing their experiences in Gaza. They described incidents in which innocent Palestinians had been shot, amid a wider atmosphere of using unrestrained firepower. Following a brief probe of the specific incidents, the chief army prosecutor ruled that the soldiers were merely repeating rumors, and closed the case. The wider question of military policy wasn't investigated. After a flurry of public debate, the affair blew over. Breaking the Silence is aimed at reviving that debate by putting much more evidence, clearly eye-witness, before the Israel public.
Breaking the Silence began five years ago, when soldiers who had served in Hebron in the West Bank created an exhibition of photos and video testimony to bring home to other Israelis the moral dilemmas of occupation duty. The original exhibition was funded by the veterans' discharge bonuses. Since then, says Mikhael Manekin, one of the group's leaders, Breaking the Silence has continued collecting soldiers' testimony, conducting tours for Israelis in the West Bank, and running other educational activities aimed mainly at young Israelis. The goal, as Manekin puts it, is " accountability and… transparency."
The group's new effort is a grunt's-eye view of last winter's conflict, which began when after ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas government in Gaza expired. Responding to heavy rocket fire from Gaza, Israel first launched an air campaign, then invaded the Strip in early January. The IDF reported 1,166 Palestinian deaths, most of them "terror operatives." Amnesty International's statistics show over 1,400 Palestinian dead, including hundreds of children and other civilians. Three Israeli civilians were killed, and ten soldiers -- four from friendly fire. "You have to remember where we were operating, in a place where Hamas turned neighborhoods into war zones and public buildings into armories," Israeli chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazy said in March, explaining the havoc in Gaza.
That argument has resonated publicly because the army has had internal restraints in the past, including an ethical code that every soldier is supposed to know. "I've been critical of the military for years," says Manekin, who completed his regular service as an infantry lieutenant, "but there were certain moral boundaries that you could identify. Gaza worked differently."
A key element of the difference: Throughout the testimony, soldiers explain that there were no clear "rules of engagement" -- instructions from commanders on when to open fire, when to fire warning shots, when to shoot to kill. Normally, such orders are given even before a soldier begins guard duty. In briefings before going into Gaza, they were vague at best.
One soldier describes the instructions from his brigade commander and other officers as, "Shoot if you like. If you're afraid, or you see someone, shoot … we were not ordered to open fire only if there was real threat." Another soldier states, "There were no clear red lines… we were told to enter every house under live fire. A grenade or two, shooting, and only then we enter." Yet in the field, Hamas fighters offered much less resistance than expected. And the assumption that all civilians had heeded leaflets warning them to flee proved wrong. Meanwhile, troops had instructions, Manekin says, that would "theoretically make sense only in situation where everyone on the front is a combatant."
The "shoot first, ask no questions" attitude, soldiers repeatedly state in the testimony, was aimed at eliminating all risks to Israeli forces. "The goal was to carry out an operation with the least possible casualties for the army, without its even asking itself what the price would be for the other side. This was the thrust of things that we heard from more than one officer," as one soldier says. Any army, of course, seeks to minimize casualties. At the same time, the IDF's ethical code (in Hebrew here) does require a soldier "to do all he can" to avoid causing death or injury to non-combatants. It's clear from the testimony that soldiers in Gaza did at times take risks to fulfill that requirement -- but it appears that their orders did not encourage them to do so.
As a result, soldiers report, immense firepower was used. When sniper fire was detected inside refugee camps, one soldier reports, "at times we directed combat helicopters and tank fire at the house that was supposedly the source of fire" from over a kilometer away. Others describe the use of white phosphorus shells against houses suspected of containing explosives. Such shells create a canopy of intense fire above the target. They succeeded, according to the soldiers, in detonating the explosives. But Manekin notes that the radius of the fire would be much larger than one house -- and that some of the incendiary material can remain in the area, flaring up later if someone touches it. International law severely restricts use of the weapon. An Israeli Foreign Ministry statement in late January stated that "there was no illegal use of phosphorus" in Gaza. The testimony gives reason to question that.
The soldiers' testimony deals with how the Israeli army fought in Gaza, not with the separate question of whether the operation itself was justified. And even in terms of how the battle was conducted, there's no laboratory-style control -- no way of knowing how Hamas's fighters would have behaved had the Israeli army been more selective in its fire.
A lengthy response from the IDF spokesman, published today, stresses that because the accounts were given anonymously, "a detailed examination that could lead to an investigation is not possible." There is a dilemma here: Breaking the Silence says that it promises anonymity so that "whistleblowers won't be turned into scapegoats." But by focusing on whether individual incidents can be investigated, the army response misses the more important question that the book raises: the policies set at the top.
In pure military terms, Manekin says, "everything can be justified … Hamas justifies terror on a military basis." But he adds, "The boundaries we put on ourselves aren't just survival boundaries, but survival as what? What kind of human beings do we want to be? Under the justification of 'In war, everything's allowed,' it's very easy to [reach the level of] Hamas, and we don't want to be there. We think our society should have much higher standards." |
The late Tejano music pop icon Selena Quintanilla-Pérez would have turned 46 on Sunday. Selena was murdered at age 23 by the president of her fan club.
But 22 years after her death, Selena still has a large and dedicated fan base. Events marking her birthday in Austin include movie parties at Alamo Drafthouse locations, a Selena tribute at the Sahara Lounge and a Selena trivia night at the Dog and Duck Pub.
During SelenaFest! at the High Ball on Sunday, Austin Mayor Steve Adler will declare April 16, 2017 Selena Day in Austin.
City of Austin Music Program Coordinator Stephanie Bergara helped to make that declaration happen. She's the lead singer and manager of the Selena tribute band Bidi Bidi Banda, which is performing at SelenaFest! We spoke with Bergara about Selena and her cultural legacy. |
In a very appropriate development for a day like today, a new virtual reality experience called Weed VR has been announced. The project is blazing a trail to be the world’s first virtual reality dispensary for marijuana. It will allow customers the chance to inspect and shop for various strains from the comfort of their home and place orders from partner retailers.
According to the Weed VR team: “We provide a custom service for licensed producers by creating realistic 3D representations of [their] products. [Interested retailers should] contact us today to reserve your virtual shelf space or request a demo.”
The full description for Weed VR on its newly launched website reads:
Welcome to the world of WEED VR. Yep, that’s right… WEED VR! Fasten your headset, grasp your hand controllers and explore our curated collection of highly detailed virtual buds. Browse, touch, inspect, select, grind, roll, even place an order with your favorite retailer. Hang out in the lounge and sample your selection. We’ll even roll it for you. How about we teleport you to the couch now? … Yeah, you heard right… teleport. Immerse yourself in our intimate virtual dispensary space. No lineups, no hassles, with the freedom to browse at your leisure.
This service comes at a time in the US when more and more states are approving marijuana for both medical and/or recreational use. This increased legality is creating fertile soil for new startups and creative business ideas involving weed to take root.
Dispensaries are getting much nicer in those parts of the country where weed is embraced, but you’ll still see the occasional terrifying storefront with armed guards standing outside, according to…friends. The chance to shop for your product of choice at home without sacrificing the ability to inspect it may therefore be an opportunity customers will jump at.
Weed VR is not yet available and will be “coming soon” to both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive; or, should we say, the THC Vive.
Would you buy weed in VR? Let us know in the comments below. |
Democrats spar over NSA at presidential debate, with Sanders acknowledging Snowden had ‘played very important role’ in ‘educating the American public’
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders sparred over Edward Snowden during Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate with both calling for him to face trial, but with the Vermont senator saying he thought the NSA whistleblower had “played a very important role in educating the American people”.
'I am still standing': Hillary Clinton rises above the Sanders revolution at debate Read more
Clinton was unmoved by public approbation for Snowden, who exposed the depths of US and UK surveillance to media including the Guardian in 2013.
“He broke the laws of the United States,” she said. “He could have been a whistleblower, he could have gotten all the protections of a whistleblower. He chose not to do that. He stole very important information that has fallen into the wrong hands so I think he should not be brought home without facing the music.”
Snowden has said he did not believe he was granted adequate protection from reprisal under whistleblower laws. Laws protecting whistleblowers in intelligence agencies are written differently from laws protecting others who oppose their employers – including in the government – on grounds of conscience, and are generally considered comparatively weak.
Sanders – Clinton’s main challenger for the Democratic nomination – was more lenient. “I think Snowden played a very important role in educating the American public,” the Vermont senator said. He, too, said that Snowden had broken the law and suggested that he ought to be tried. “I think there should be a penalty to that,” he said. “But I think that education should be taken into consideration before the sentencing.”
Jim Webb, the Virginia senator and former secretary of the navy, said the decision should be left to the courts, and Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor, agreed with Clinton. Lincoln Chafee, the former Rhode Island governor, was the only candidate to say he would bring Snowden back to the US as a hero; that answer drew a positive response online.
Clinton’s claim that the information Snowden made public “has fallen into the wrong hands” could be reference to a disputed Times of London story that the leak exposed undercover agents. It could also refer to Snowden’s own admission that inadequate redaction of classified images he supplied to the New York Times was “a fuck-up”.
Ewen MacAskill, the Pulitzer prize-winning Guardian journalist who worked on the Snowden story, has pointed out that no evidence has ever been put forward suggesting that the Snowden documents were hacked or that Snowden himself handed the material to any person or agency other than reputable news outlets.
Bernie Sanders to Clinton: people 'are sick of hearing about your damn emails' Read more
When moderator Anderson Cooper asked Clinton whether she regretted voting for the Patriot Act, she gave a flat: “No.”
“I don’t,” she said. “I think that it was necessary to make sure that we were able after 9/11 to put in place the security that we needed.” Clinton did allow that the act’s notorious section 215, which allowed for essentially unlimited data collection, had been interpreted overbroadly.
The provisions of the Patriot Act, a law broadening the powers of American intelligence and law enforcement agencies passed just weeks after 9/11, have widely been criticized as too broad and being without accountability. Among them are the expansion of the secret Fisa court system and a framework for the standards for the collection of personal information from citizens who are not suspected or accused of any crime.
Sanders – who voted against the act multiple times, including against its original incarnation in the House of Representatives – said unequivocally that he would end bulk data collection by the NSA.
Clinton demurred. “It’s not easy to balance privacy and security but we have to keep them both in mind,” she said.
Additional reporting by Ed Pilkington in New York |
Contest entry for Made with ~ AzaleasDolls 's Heroine Fanart CreatorFull view please :3 (You might have to download)Story: [link] (My apologies to the judges that the text and dolls are separated... It was just too much text to do it otherwise.Don't worry, I don't plan to make my next entry so wordy :3And also less outfitsAbout the oufits:1st: Princess Caroline in her travel clothes, on her way to her prince's castle.2nd: Caroline swapped with her maid Ina, so she's wearing her clothes.3rd: Caroline in the goose-girl clothes. It's basically a typical maid outfit in the colours of the prince's royal house.4th: Caroline in a beautiful dress by her soon-to-be husband's tailors. Again in the blue/white colours of that royal house. This is the one she wears at the party.5th: Her wedding dress. This one she brought with her from her country, so it's sporting that orange colour, instead of blue. |
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More than 2,500 sick and disabled benefit claimants have died after being found 'fit for work' in just two years, shock figures reveal today.
The Tories have finally released the total - burying it under immigration figures - after 250,000 people signed a petition calling on them to end the cover-up.
Iain Duncan Smith's officials tried to stop the figures being released in full, mounting a legal challenge to publish only 'age-standardised' numbers instead.
The stand-off saw him launch a blistering attack on Labour MPs including Debbie Abrahams, who've been demanding the figures for months.
But he's now performed a U-turn and issued the devastating figures today.
They show 2,650 benefit claimants died shortly after being found 'fit for work' between December 2011 and February 2014.
Find out what you can do if you're wrongly declared 'fit to work' here.
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The figures also appear to show more than half (1,360) had appealed the decision to throw them off sickness benefits before they died.
Nearly all the deaths (2,380) were people on Employment and Support Allowance - which the Work and Pensions Secretary claims is meant to be a 'short-term' benefit.
The rest (270) were on Incapacity Benefit (IB) or Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA).
They were told to come off the benefit and transfer onto the lower-rate jobseekers' allowance - despite some being badly disabled.
Tragic cases included diabetic dad David O’Mar, 58, who died just two weeks after being declared fit for work - a case Labour's Kate Green raised at the despatch box.
Find out how some law students helped sick and disabled claimants win back £600,000 here.
(Image: Matthew Horwood)
The 'frightening and disgusting' figures have been slammed by Jeremy Corbyn, who said Iain Duncan Smith should resign.
Labour leadership rival Andy Burnham added: "These are shocking figures that for the first time show the human cost of this Government's punishing benefits regime.
"It raises serious questions about this Government's punitive approach to people on benefits."
Shadow work and pensions minister Kate Green said: "These figures should be a wake-up call for the Government. Ministers need to focus on sorting out the assessment process so that everyone can have confidence in it, and providing support for disabled people who can work in order to help them do so."
And Labour MP Debbie Abrahams, who's campaigned on the issue, said: "The Government should be ashamed.
"They should also apologise to claimants and families of those that have died for the distress they must have caused."
Mencap spokesman Rob Holland, who leads the Disability Benefits Consortium, demanded an investigation and reform over the figures.
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"We know the fit for work test is failing disabled people with devastating consequences," he said.
"Wrong decisions can mean people are left with little or no support at all, in some cases struggling to pay for their homes and basic essentials like food and heating."
Tom Pollard of mental health charity Mind added: "Some of those we represent are so worried about losing their financial support that they contemplate taking, or attempt to take, their own lives."
It's not been made clear how soon the claimants died after coming off sickness benefits. For many it appears to have been less than two weeks.
Officials have also refused to give a measure of how the deaths compare to the population at large.
(Image: Daily Mirror)
Other figures today show another 6,700 ESA claimants died in two years after being put in the 'work-related activity group', meaning they could move towards a job.
They were more than twice as likely to die as people in the general population - around 5 deaths per 1,000 people compared to 2.4.
That's despite the Budget docking that same group's benefits by £30 a week, making them the same as people on jobseekers' allowance.
Today's mammoth release covers 11 years of data from 2003 to 2014 and shows overall death rates among benefit claimants have fallen.
Deaths among all benefits claimants have fallen from 8.2 per 1,000 people in 2003 to 7.2 per 1,000 people in 2013.
The national rate is around 2.4 per 1,000 people.
Tories claim it's 'irresponsible' to draw a link between someone dying and their benefits being stopped.
The last figures were released by the DWP in 2012 after a Freedom of Information campaign by the Mirror's investigative team.
They showed 1,300 ESA claimants died within six weeks of being placed in a 'work-related activity' group between January and November 2011.
In April the Department for Work and Pensions was ordered to release fresh figures by the Information Commissioner watchdog.
But instead of releasing them it appealed to a tribunal with a letter that says the real number of deaths is 'likely to be misinterpreted'.
Officials added: "Incorrect conclusions were likely to be drawn as to causal links between assessment outcomes and mortality.
"Such misinterpretations would be contrary to the public interest, particularly given the emotive and sensitive context of mortality statistics."
The department now appears to have reversed that decision.
A DWP spokesman said today: "The mortality rate for people who have died while claiming an out-of-work benefit has fallen over a 10-year period.
"This is in line with the mortality rate for the general working-age population.
"The Government continues to support millions of people on benefits with an £80bn working-age welfare safety net in place." |
'The majority of the stuff that has been written about Kilkenny over the years is positive, but when Brian has no control, he gets edgy. His big fear is the insidious danger of complacency and softness creeping in and he always saw the media as a vehicle for creating those issues. When Martin Fogarty was involved, he used to co-ordinate and organise all media requests but Brian always had the final decision. We were always told to say nothing. Sean Cummins, who was on the panel for a few years, came out with a comment once which encapsulated everything Brian thought, and wanted us to feel about the media. 'Treat them like mushrooms; fill them with shit and keep them in the dark.'
Jackie Tyrrell,
'The Warrior's Code'
It's okay, Brian. No need to apologise. We've been shat on by bigger than you. Who? That's a good question. Ummm . . . well, there was he-who-must-not-be-named, obviously . . . and Lance Armstrong, naturally . . . and that one time with Roy Keane. Ummm . . . let's see now . . . Greg Norman springs to mind . . . and Ernie Els and Dave Brailsford and Bradley Wiggins . . . and we've put up with it from Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho for years.
So no hard feelings. And no complaints. We don't expect to be treated with decency or respect. We've read your bible and spread your babble.
"Winning ugly is still winning."
"A winner never quits, and a quitter never wins."
"If you don't see yourself as a winner, then you can't perform as a winner."
"Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing."
We get it. We understand. It's nothing personal. This is how winners do business.
So it's probably naïve of us to expect more from an amateur game and amateur players. And it's possibly unjust of us to dwell on the negatives when there were so many positives about last week, and it's probably unfair of us to hold different people to different standards.
But we do.
The game had finished almost an hour when they arrived in the interview room under the Hogan Stand. Stephen Cluxton, perhaps the greatest goalkeeper in the history of the game, had just won a fifth All-Ireland. Jim Gavin, perhaps the greatest Dublin manager of all time, had just completed a three-in-a-row and a fourth All-Ireland title in five years. But it was hard to tell from their deportment. And from the moment they sat down you had to pinch yourself and wonder.
When did winning become so completely and utterly joyless?
Twenty minutes had passed since Stephen Rochford had left the room. For the second successive year he had witnessed his team lose the All-Ireland by the narrowest of margins and though absolutely crushed he could not have been more gracious: "You just tip your cap to Dublin," he said. "Today is really about them. In fairness, it's a phenomenal achievement to win three-in-a-row and sincere congratulations to Jim and Stephen."
Cluxton doesn't do phenomenal and there was no surprise when he sat down and parried the bouquets thrown at him: "I'm just holding on to my jersey," he announced, modestly. "I have to chat to this man here (Gavin), see if he wants me for next year. Once January comes around I'm going to be battling against another goalkeeper to try and win the jersey. That's just the way it is."
The surprise was Gavin.
Okay, so we've laughed for years at the mask he wears at these things - the constant deflection, the comic understatement, the refusal to engage.
"It's not about me, it's about the team."
Sure, Jim.
"It's not about this year, it's about next year."
Fine, Jim.
"It's not about this generation, it's about the next generation."
Right, Jim.
We understand all that, we get it. And not only do we get it, we really admire Jim Gavin for it. We know that just beneath the façade is a truly decent man with the kindest of hearts. We've seen the photograph of Gavin in '95. We love the photograph of Gavin in '95. It's the portrait of a man who has reached his Everest; a testament to sport and the joy it can bring.
What we do not understand is what happened to him last Sunday.
Maybe it's just me. Maybe I've just grown tired of all the psychobabble about 'sticking to the process' and 'staying in the moment' and - sweet Jesus! - taking 'one game at a time'. Maybe it's wrong to expect emotion when you've done three-in-a-row. Maybe there's no place in sport these days for compassion or empathy. Because Jim wasn't showing any.
"How's the heart?" Someone joked, as he pulled back a chair.
"Fine, how's yours?" He snapped.
It was as if he had been stung by a wasp. But what if he had tried this: "Oh boy! I'm ready for a transplant. What a contest! What an incredibly exciting game. Fair dues to those Mayo lads, they really put it up to us. But we came through, because that's what champions do."
Would that really have hurt Dublin's chances next year?
He was then asked if he had any sympathy for a Mayo team who had come so close, yet again, to slaying the ghost of '51. "We've been there," he chirped. "We were there ourselves this year in a national final and we lost by a point and it is tough!"
The lack of empathy was astonishing.
Later he was asked about the final minutes of the game when three Mayo players were wrestled to the ground after Dean Rock's free, a scenario, as Vincent Hogan observed in Monday's Irish Independent, that was unlikely to have been instigated by a team trailing by a point. But Gavin was conceding nothing.
"I think it was like that from the start," he replied, impassively. "It was a very physical game, a lot on the line. Both teams going hard at it. I wouldn't expect anything else from either team."
Twelve minutes it lasted. And as the captain and the manager exited the room, you were reminded of other years and what winning really sounds like: The happiness. The joy. The laughter. The tears. But not this day. Today the winners had sounded like losers. It was a dispiriting end to a glorious day.
In the final chapter of The Warrior's Code, his outstanding autobiography, Jackie Tyrrell tells a story about a conversation with Brian Cody in November 2016. Eight weeks had passed since the defeat to Tipperary in the All-Ireland final and Tyrrell had spent most of them mulling about Cody's decision to leave him on the bench that day.
They arranged to meet at the Springhill Hotel at 5.0pm on November 8. This is how Tyrrell describes what happens next:
"We sat down in the little coffee dock in the lobby. There was some small talk about the club before I inhaled deeply and said what I had come to say. 'Look Brian, I'm considering my future and I wanted to touch base with you before I made my decision. What would your thoughts be if I decided to go back?'
"Brian was sitting back in his chair. He shuffled up, into a more upright position. 'You've had an unbelievable career up to this point,' he said. 'But the team is taking a different shape now. There will be a lot of changes.'
"Brian sat back in his chair. I sat up. 'I appreciate your honesty,' I said. 'I just wanted to have that conversation with you before I made any decision. Whatever I'm doing, I'll keep you in the loop.' And that was it. Like a click of the great man's fingers, the show appeared to be finally over.
"A waitress just came over and asked us if we would like to order tea or coffee, or anything from the evening dinner menu. We politely declined as we both got to our feet."
Tyrrell had first met Cody in fourth class at primary school. Between them, they had won 22 All-Irelands with Kilkenny. Their final meeting had lasted exactly seven minutes. Think about that. What does it tell us about winning? What do we learn when it becomes the only thing? All that time. All those games. All those medals . . . and they didn't even share a cup of tea!
Sunday Indo Sport |
This sentence-final "with" is not to be lumped together with the other sentence-final prepositions that strict grammarians still try - against popular convention -- to drum out of us. Every nun in elementary school scolded me that "What music are you listening to?" must be rearranged so that the preposition is in its proper place, right in front of its object: "To what music are you listening?" or "Whom are you talking with?" must be "With whom are you talking?"
This regional use of "with" has a different explanation: the preposition "with" hasn't been moved around in the sentence; rather, the object of the preposition "with" is just dropped. I would argue that dropping the "us" as in "Are you coming with?" is efficient and harmless. It doesn't really matter to the meaning; everyone knows what you are saying. I think I'll start saying this, just for fun and to see if anyone notices.
In another linguistic marker, I was relieved to see and hear that "pop" is the hands-down favorite over "soda" in South Dakota, just as it is in Holland MI .
Several readers from the Minnesota region wrote in that they had, like me, begun wavering over the years on the use of soda versus pop. Writes one:
"I grew up drinking pop, but now I drink soda (usually with something interesting in it.)"
And another comments:
"My friend that lived in Texas said 'coke' was generic and when you were asked if you wanted a 'coke' folks often would say 'What kind', i.e. pepsi, root beer seven-up..."
I didn't believe this until I looked at the survey data for Texas:
And then there's the Sioux Falls nice-factor. People in the Midwest are famously nice, South Dakotans among them. You can sometimes catch that in the language.
One day, my husband and I were riding around the 20-mile bike path that encircles Sioux Falls, past the soccer fields, around the airport, skirting the prison, along the Falls, and ending up in walking distance to a few brewpubs in the revitalizing downtown. We didn't have helmets. (SD doesn't require helmets, thanks in part to the influence of the thousands of motorcyclists who rally every year in Sturgis, SD.)
On the Sioux Falls bike path, one serious rider screeched to a halt next to us, when we had stopped temporarily. I instinctively braced myself for a rebuke, "GET A HELMET!", which I would hear when I rode in my pre-helmet days on the Crescent Trail in Washington DC. But instead, the Sioux Falls rider started in with a friendly litany of: "Are ya lost? Can I help? Ya need some direction?"
I also heard plenty of "You betcha's", a phrase that sounds generously, perhaps even excessively cooperative and nice coming from grocery store checkers, or as a response to "Thank you." |
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