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By Mark Salter - September 15, 2009
I think Joe Wilson is a boor (both Joe Wilsons, for that matter, the Republican House member from South Carolina and the former diplomat). I can't watch Glenn Beck for two minutes without being repulsed by his equal parts maudlin and pompous shtick. But members of Congress who are strangers to decorum and polite discourse, unfortunately, inhabit both parties' caucuses, in roughly equal numbers. President Bush labored through his state of the union addresses through loud and persistent boos by Democrats. Maxine Waters recently called some senators "Neanderthals," a term she reserved for moderate members of her own party. She's considerably less charitable to her Republican colleagues. And the ratings wars on cable television are won by self-aggrandizing, close-minded, loudmouthed conservatives and liberals, unless one thinks Keith Olbermann built his audience share on the strength of his good manners and tolerance.
Excesses of zeal by anti-Obama protestors make me ashamed for my country. As did excesses committed by anti-Bush protestors. Today's "birthers," are no more offensive or weird than those who believe the Bush Administration was complicit in planning the attacks of September 11 or invaded Iraq to increase the profits of defense companies. And, yet, it only seems to be rude or asinine behavior on the right that gives the press and other Washington elites the vapors. While on the left it is tolerated, attributed to provocations by the right, or in some cases invested with a virtuous significance it surely lacks.
Many thousands of demonstrators marched on the Washington Mall last Saturday to protest Democratic healthcare reform proposals, and the Obama administration's record spending and centralization of economic power in the federal government. The Washington Post headlined the event as "Lashing Out at the Capitol." I can't recall the Post using a similar verb choice to characterize the expressions of anti- war protestors, some of whom carried posters bearing President Bush's likeness in a Nazi uniform and Hitler moustache.
Political intolerance and incivility by the left and right is as prevalent on the internet as porn, and not that much less a factor in the coarsening of our culture. But for many reporters, anger on the right side of the web is worrying and important story. The Huffington Post is a source.
Maureen Dowd, who usually offers readers little more than a few samples of her apparently limitless supply of silly pop culture tropes, this Sunday denounced Joe Wilson's lack of impulse control and "lovelorn" Mark Sanford's refusal to accept federal stimulus money as racist, and suspects the character defect is shared by most opponents to President Obama's policies.
I'm more than a little familiar with that calumny, having been charged along with other senior members of the McCain campaign and our candidate with the same offense. We were somehow complicit with every intemperate jerk who shouted something obnoxious at any of our campaign events. Our ads about Democratic support for Fannie Mae were racist. Calling candidate Obama a "celebrity" was racist. Shouts of "murderer" or "warmonger" by Obama supporters or our opponent's accusation that Senator McCain was anti immigrant or trying to steal grandma's Medicare went largely unnoticed. And yet it was our candidate who often and publicly denounced crude or outrageous attacks on our opponent. The courtesy was seldom returned. McCain would have fired any staffer who said something or acted in a way that could fairly be described as racist. For his troubles, he was likened by a leading civil rights figure and Obama supporter to the murderers who killed three little African American girls. There was barely a murmur of protest by the press about that injustice.
When a prominent abortion doctor was murdered the shocked outrage in the press and establishment Washington was pervasive and appropriate. As a pro-life Catholic, I'm convinced that people who murder to advance the cause are destined for a special place in Hell. But I don't think it's just my subjective perception that the murder of a disabled pro-life protestor was met with considerably less interest and outrage here.
I despair of the coarsening of our politics and our broader culture. So much so that after a lifetime in politics I'm beginning to think I might have rendered more honorable service to humanity had I worked in professional wrestling. That independents, who decide elections in this country, seem to feel the same way is enough encouragement to hope that perhaps we are still capable of reform. But our political discourse won't begin to recover any civility until we get some referees back in the game, who will call bullshit on both sides. |
Constitution is focus of new GOP House rules
By Philip Rucker and Krissah Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 30, 2010; A01
When Republicans take over the House next week, they will do something that apparently has never been done before in the chamber's 221-year history:
They will read the Constitution aloud.
And then they will require that every new bill contain a statement by the lawmaker who wrote it citing the constitutional authority to enact the proposed legislation.
Call it the tea party-ization of Congress.
"It appears that the Republicans have been listening," said Jeff Luecke, a sales supervisor and tea party organizer in Dubuque, Iowa. "We're so far away from our founding principles that, absolutely, this is the very, very tip of the iceberg. We need to talk about and learn about the Constitution daily."
These are two standout changes on a long list of new rules Republicans will institute in the House when they assume the majority on Jan. 5. After handing out pocket-size Constitutions at rallies, after studying the document article by article and after demanding that Washington return to its founding principles, tea party activists have something new to applaud. A pillar of their grass-roots movement will become a staple in the bureaucracy that governs Congress.
"On November 2nd, voters called for an end to reckless spending and a renewed commitment to the Constitution," said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), a tea party favorite. "These new rules show that Republicans are serious about respecting the Constitution."
But the question being debated in legal and political circles off Capitol Hill is whether the constitutional rules are simply symbolic flourishes to satisfy an emboldened and watchful tea party base.
"I think it's entirely cosmetic," said Kevin Gutzman, a history professor at Western Connecticut State University who said he is a conservative libertarian and sympathizes with the tea party.
"This is the way the establishment handles grass-roots movements," he added. "They humor people who are not expert or not fully cognizant. And then once they've humored them and those people go away, it's right back to business as usual. It looks like this will be business as usual - except for the half-hour or however long it takes to read the Constitution out loud."
House Republican leaders announced dozens of new rules, including several measures designed to increase transparency in the legislative process. Committees will broadcast their hearings and mark-up sessions online, lawmaker attendance will be recorded for each committee hearing and the debt limit will no longer be automatically increased with each new budget resolution.
The reading of the Constitution will occur on Jan. 6, one day after the swearing in of Speaker-designate John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). The 4,543-word document, including all 27 amendments, could be read aloud in just 30 minutes. But the exercise probably will last longer.
The moment seems designed for maximum effect. Many lawmakers will participate, with one representative reading a portion of the document before yielding the floor to another representative to continue reading and so forth. Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said Democratic lawmakers are welcome to participate.
"We always hear members of Congress talking about swearing an oath to represent their constituents, when in reality the only oath we take is to the Constitution," Boehner said in a speech this fall. "We pledge 'to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.' No more, no less."
The House historian's office found no record of the Constitution ever having been read aloud on the chamber's floor, although twice lawmakers have submitted the text into the Congressional Record. Roswell Flower (D-N.Y.) did so in 1882 and Thomas Reilly (D-Conn.) in 1915, according to House Historian Matthew Wasniewski.
The historic nature of next week's reading came as a surprise to some tea party leaders.
"That's pretty extraordinary," said Mark Meckler, co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. "It shows the extraordinary times now. Regular people all across the country are focused on the Constitution, and the message was sent to Congress we want them to do the same."
Akhil Reed Amar, a constitutional scholar at Yale Law School, said he supports the reading. "I like the Constitution," said Amar, author of "America's Constitution: A Biography." "Heck, I'll do them one better. Why only once in January? Why not once every week?"
But he added: "My disagreement is when we actually read the Constitution as a whole, it doesn't say what the tea party folks think it says."
Amar argues that the Constitution charters a "very broad federal power" and is not the narrow states' rights document that tea party activists present it as.
The constitutional authority rule will restart this debate with each new bill. Every measure will require a statement from its sponsor outlining where in the Constitution Congress is empowered to enact such legislation.
This is such a big change to the daily routine on Capitol Hill that Republican leaders distributed a five-page memo to lawmakers outlining how to determine a bill's constitutional authority. They also held training sessions for legislative aides.
The rule has been a top tea party priority; it was the No. 1 recommendation in the movement's "Contract From America."
"It's a big deal," said Brendan Steinhauser, director of federal and state campaigns at FreedomWorks. "That's a very basic starting point for all legislation - not only should we do it, can we afford to pay for it, but can we do it?"
The ongoing debate over the nation's recent health-care overhaul is rooted in questions of constitutionality. The Constitution does not explicitly allow an individual mandate for health care, but supporters of the law make several arguments, including that the Constitution gives Congress the authority to "make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper" to provide for the "general Welfare."
Opponents, however, argue that the courts have never interpreted the Constitution as guaranteeing a right to health care, and they consider the health-care law an overreach that the nation's Founding Fathers would condemn.
This debate about constitutionality has split largely along partisan lines, leading some legal scholars to say the new House rule might be more about playing politics than anything else.
"I see this as a statement of the Republican Party, heavily influenced by the tea party, that we are the defenders of the Constitution and we will exercise our constitutional responsibilities seriously in ways the Democrats did not," said Neil Siegel, a law professor at Duke University.
Interpretations of the Constitution can vary widely. Where a Democratic lawmaker could see constitutional grounds for a bill, say by citing an oft-referenced clause in Article 1 that gives Congress the power to regulate commerce, a Republican lawmaker could argue the opposite.
For tea party activists, this will be the true test of whether GOP leaders are taking the Constitution seriously.
"You can do the talk, but you have to do the walk," said Clifford Atkin, a leader of the New Boston Tea Party in Woodbury, Conn., who likened the increased focus on the Constitution to a religious conversion.
Beth Mizell, who leads a loose affiliate of tea party activists in tiny Franklinton, La., has attended weekend classes on the Constitution that she compared to a church Bible study. She said she is heartened that Congress is taking these steps.
"It may be an olive branch," Mizell said. "People are excited to see that our leaders know there's a relevance to the Constitution in the process. But I don't think it will make people any less vigilant in looking at the laws that are being introduced."
ruckerp@washpost.com thompsonk@washpost.com
© 2010 The Washington Post Company |
The Republican National Committee holds zero debt, after it raised millions in the just-over-a-month surrounding the final days of the 2016 election.
In fact, the RNC held six times more cash on hand at the end of November as in the same time period in 2012.
From October 20 to November 28 the RNC raised $36.6 million, $6 million more than the same period in 2012 when Mitt Romney was the Republican presidential nominee. Romney ultimately lost to President Barack Obama in Obama’s bid for re-election. The RNC also boasted 2016 election period ending cash on hand six times the total in 2012, $21.4 million. 91 percent of the donations came in at under $200. The average donation from October 20 to November 28 was $64.56.
Over the course of the 2015-2016 election season the RNC raised a total $318.8 million used to support now president-elect Donald J. Trump and candidates on down the ballot, the Thursday announcement detailed.
“Our supporters’ generosity on behalf of President-elect Donald Trump helped win the White House, and that enthusiasm has also carried over past Election Day to power a robust post-election fundraising effort,” said RNC Co-Chair Sharon Day upon announcement of the fundraising numbers.
Day highlighted the RNC’s active ground game that covered 13 battleground states with “7,600 staff and trained organizers working to elect Donald Trump president and Republicans up and down the ballot.” She continued, “While we join Republicans everywhere in celebrating victories at all levels, the RNC has its eyes set on the future, and we will continue to leverage our resources toward making sure Republicans keep winning wherever they are on the ballot.”
Day praised RNC chairman Reince Priebus for “strategic direction” and “skillful management” of RNC assets that resulted in no debt after the hard-fought 2016 election cycle. Priebus has been named President-elect Trump’s Chief of Staff.
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana |
It's not a word you want to hear someone who leads your organization – any organization – repeat again and again when tasked with explaining what went wrong.
But at some point during the Toronto Maple Leafs three-wins-in-16 games tailspin that ended their season, "mind-boggling" became coach Randy Carlyle's go-to slogan, the descriptor for his mindset when it came to all the foibles his team couldn't overcome.
One day their lack of effort was mind-boggling.
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The next it was their unpreparedness. Or execution.
Or any other number of other things one wouldn't expect a veteran NHL coach to be boggled by.
On Thursday, with Carlyle granted a curious two-year contract extension and general manager Dave Nonis on hand to explain why, it was there again.
And again. And again.
"It was mind-boggling to us," Carlyle said at one point of the Leafs woeful penalty kill, one of three times he referenced a boggled mind during the conference call. "We had pretty much the same personnel and we couldn't find a way to stop the opposition's power play on a regular rate. Those were the things that were confusing and mind-boggling to a coaching staff."
These were not particularly reassuring words for a fan base already on edge, one that has watched a handful of teams – including two that finished ahead of the Leafs – throw coaches overboard while Nonis stood behind his man.
And they should have been just as disquieting for those in charge, especially considering the penalty kill was an issue that cropped up some six months ago and remains – apparently – unsolved.
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Given all that has gone on, the odd part was that Carlyle was even given the opportunity to offer the same puzzled responses and non-answers after a season that was filled with so many, a year where the Leafs finished as high as they did (23rd in the league) thanks mainly to star individual turns from netminder Jonathan Bernier and top scorer Phil Kessel.
What it speaks to, though, is the fact that Randy Carlyle the myth continues to overshadow Randy Carlyle the reality for Toronto's decision makers, even with new president Brendan Shanahan on board with a fresh set of eyes.
What Nonis and his staff continue to see (and love) in Carlyle is someone who thinks the game like them, who carries the weight of a 1,000-plus game playing career, a Stanley Cup as a coach in 2007 and a reputation as a tough, no-nonsense bench boss with a wealth of experience.
The main reasons a change wasn't made is they couldn't think of anyone better to take over.
All along, this is a group that has refused to believe Carlyle was the issue, despite the lopsided shot differentials, often bizarre personnel decisions and spats with individuals on the team – not to mention the dramatic improvement the group in Anaheim that's still playing hockey has made since he left those parts.
There will continue to be all kinds of justifications coming out from behind the scenes, but ultimately what Thursday really was was a doubling down on the belief that what ails this franchise has little to do with its old school head coach and can be fixed in other ways.
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"If you've seen it being done before, with a lot of the same players, with that coach leading that group, you know it can happen," Nonis said of Carlyle turning things around, referencing the Leafs charmed half season in 2012-13 that seems a distant memory. "I know it has happened before. I know he has reached them before.
"So for me, it's not where we're guessing whether or not he can have success or he can get through to them. We've seen it. I know that it's there. We feel he is the guy that can get through to this group."
So, for the second off-season in a row, Carlyle will be given a remodelled roster, likely with additions that are viewed as Carlyle-type players, just as the two Daves – Bolland and Clarkson – were a year ago.
And he'll have an all-new army of assistants at his disposal, too, with Nonis careful to explain Carlyle will have a say there as part of a three-person panel that includes Shanahan.
This is a coach being given a voice and who will be set up to succeed, in other words, with the extra years on his deal all part of it.
But this is also a vote of confidence that will only go so far. If the Leafs continue to fail in the fall, it will be all but impossible to ignore Carlyle's fingerprints are on the results.
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What's mind-boggling is that it will take that much for management to finally see it. |
Green Party and Corbyn posters in a window in Islington, London, Jeremy Corbyn’s home constituency. Photo: David Holt, Flickr.
On 10 May 2016, The Ecologist published an article by Rupert Read titled “In the Corbyn era, Greens must move from socialism to ecologism”. This article was written in response.
The most recent local elections results represent a mixed bag at best. The Greens continues to make solid and steady progress in the shires, but in urban bastions we at best held steady or at worst fell backwards. Despite this calls for a change in direction of party ideology are misguided.
The Corbyn Effect
The rise of Corbyn has undoubtedly posed a conundrum for the Greens. Suddenly Corbyn has taken policies long shunned by his party, long supported by the Greens, to the heart of the Labour Party. Yet amongst the turmoil, the infighting and churn of the Labour Party it is hard to ascertain what is the policy of Corbyn himself and what is the stance of the wider Labour Party.
Indeed the only clear line Labour is currently able to get out is one of internal strife. Focus groups and polling has time and time again shown that Corbyn has not yet defined himself positively or his message clearly. Either through the drag of internal politics or incompetence of his team (or both) Corbyn has not defined what he is for, and instead is daily being defined by his opponents.
On policy the party has continued to be fractured. The party officially didn’t back the Junior Doctor Strike, but Corbyn spoke after pickets had closed. Corbyn has had to hastily withdraw suggestions of suspending companies paying dividends if they didn’t pay the living wage. There has yet to be a big policy proposal or narrative the party can get behind.
Nonetheless the Green Party has failed to develop its response beyond initially welcoming Corbyn’s election. The party was right to point out that Corbyn’s election showed a wider hunger for the type of politics the Green Party had long espoused. Our next step must be to make the case that we are in fact the better custodian of progressive and radical politics than an unsteady, inconsistent and divided Labour Party.
Progress Made
It’s quickly forgotten by critics but the party garnered its record breaking 1.15 million votes in 2015 on a radically anti-austerity agenda that put social justice at the core of its message. The consistent demands to return to a more ecological based agenda is hungering after an electorate that doesn’t exist, as consistently demonstrated by elections in 1992, 1997 and 2001.
In the last election only 2% of all voters said their primary motivating factor for how they voted was the environment. Indeed only 12% of Green voters said their primary concern was the environment. Undoubtedly the party should do more to boost the salience of the environment in elections, but this is not by playing the doom monger. It’s by showing how the answers to the ecological disaster we have long campaigned on unlock the solutions to the social justice issues voters have at the core of their concerns.
Voices that call for a dramatic change of policy direction risk losing the voters we have gained in search of voters that do not exist. Anti-growth, euroscepticism and “concern” over population growth is not an election platform, it’s a niche poorly attended lecture.
Internal issues
Furthermore, the calls for change of message simply paper over the organisational cracks in the party. Our current levels of revenue, the level of support available to local parties from the national party and indeed adherence to campaign strategy should be seen as bigger concerns than the message we are fighting on.
Areas that have stubbornly refused to follow national election strategy has unsurprisingly failed to make any gains. A change of message should not be the key concern. Increased revenue, better support for target areas and the spread of best practice should be. If the West Midlands Green Party can solidly post gains in the era of Corbyn there is little reason for us not to see it in similar areas.
Meanwhile highlights elsewhere show opportunity for the Green Party. Sian Berry posted a record breaking result for London Mayor. Her campaign of big ideas designed to disrupt a conservative and unimaginative “two horse” race was innovative and shows exactly where the future of the Green Party lies. We can be the party of big radical ideas, whilst the Labour Party’s internal strife means such ideas are out of reach.
Our brilliant party political broadcast bitingly sent up our opponents and shows that the Greens can generate bright and clear messaging that cuts through. Amongst our new cohort of councillors and assembly members there are the message carriers who can carry a radical and positive agenda better than the divided Labour Party.
Moreover it is all too easy to forget that whilst Corbyn represents a sea change for the head of the party, many of the same issues we face with Labour on a local level remain. In London the Greens posted their best results in Lambeth & Southwark, a place where a Labour council is shutting down libraries and demolishing estates. The actions of many Labour councils are massively out of step with the rhetoric Corbyn espouses and we must become the people’s champions in face of local intransigence.
There is a battle for the soul of the Labour Party and it is massively hindering its ability to be an effective opposition. It may prove that the Corbyn project was only a temporary experiment. Either way there is a long term future for the Green Party as a progressive party to challenge a brutal Conservative administration and a divided Labour Party. |
Published online 28 July 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.377
News: Q&A
Russell L. Ciochon and his team are in Indonesia investigating the geological source and age of one of the world's biggest caches of Homo erectus.
Russell L. Ciochon, who heads the American team at the Ngandong site, with a gorilla skull. Tom Jorgensen
In the early 1930s, 14 Homo erectus fossils and 25,000 vertebrate remains were unearthed near the muddy Solo River at Ngandong in Java, Indonesia, by a research team from the Netherlands. Some 80 years later, this remains one of the world's largest caches of this early human. It could also be evidence of the species' swansong. A team has now returned to Ngandong, armed with the original Dutch survey documents, to answer some long-standing questions about the age of the fossils and the ancient sediment that they were buried in. Nature talked to Russell L. Ciochon, a palaeoanthropologist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, while his team was digging at Ngandong.
Why is this fieldwork so important? H. erectus from Ngandong potentially lived in the last part of the Ice Age at the same time that Homo sapiens inhabited other parts of the Old World, and Homo floresiensis (the 'hobbit') was still living in caves on the Indonesian island of Flores. This was a very intriguing period in the saga of human evolution.
According to the Dutch team who discovered them, the H. erectus specimens were deposited by the Solo River. The fact that the present river is so near to the deposits that contained the H. erectus specimens could indicate that the deposits and fossils are far younger than the oldest known H. sapiens in Africa, which would mean that the two species actually coexisted. But attempts to date Ngandong over the past 30 years have proved inconclusive. This is partly because we don't know enough about the Ngandong geology and can't be sure that the dated samples from earlier excavations came from the discovery bed. Our team is the first to focus on the geological context of the fossils1. This was possible because geoarchaeologist Frank Huffman from the University of Texas at Austin obtained the long-forgotten survey documents from the 1930s2.
Indonesian team leader Yahdi Zaim (left) and Rob Scott excavate the bone bed. O. Frank Huffman
What have you found at the site?
During our expedition, we have recovered more than 800 fossils from a bone bed — a geological deposit with a dense collection of bones. The excavations have provided our geological team, which includes Yan Rizal from the Institute of Technology Bandung and University of Iowa geoarchaeologist Art Bettis, with details on the site's sediments that shed new light on how the bone bed was created. We believe that the detailed analysis of the site's geology and the circumstances of burial of the bone bed will provide the crucial information to evaluate the dating and other contentious issues surrounding the remains.
We found no stone artefacts at the site, but these are rare at most Javan H. erectus sites. It is one of the unique features of the Java record that remains to be explained.
What can the fossils tell us about the daily lives of these late members of H. erectus?
Although we don't have direct evidence, we believe that H. erectus exploited the resources in the area, probably by hunting or scavenging. Other clues about their lives can be found by looking at the non-human fossils, and what they can tell us about the ecology at the time. Two members of our team, Yahdi Zaim from the Institute of Technology Bandung and Robert Scott of Rutgers University in New Jersey, specialize in such fossils and found that they are mostly made up of large bovids — ancestors of the Javan banteng and water buffalo — as well as deer, Stegodon (an extinct elephant), rhinoceros, panther, crocodiles and turtles. The large percentage of bovids and deer could indicate that H. erectus lived in an open woodland or grassland environment.
Also, on the basis of estimates from partial skeletons of H. erectus from other sites, we think that the Ngandong H. erectus was probably between 1.66 and 1.85 metres tall — similar to the average human height in the United States today.
The Solo River, which runs near the Homo erectus site. O. Frank Huffman
What can the Ngandong excavation site tell us about the evolution and extinction of H. erectus?
The 14 H. erectus fossils are thought to represent a late stage in the evolution of the species. As a group, they have a significantly larger average brain size than that found in any other H. erectus fossils. Palaeoanthropologists don't like to use terms such as 'advanced' to distinguish one fossil group from another, but that term would certainly apply to the Ngandong fossils. After arriving on Java about 1.6 million years ago3, H. erectus apparently lived in 'splendid isolation' without competition from any other human species.
It is possible that when H. sapiens eventually reached Java, it could have competed with H. erectus for scarce island resources, leading to the extinction of the latter. But it is more likely that some unique geological or climatic event resulted in the extinction of Javan H. erectus, as is the case with most species. However, it does seem that the Ngandong group is the best evidence we have for the last occurrence of this species worldwide.
What has been the most exciting moment of the expedition so far?
The first high point came after several excavation pits were opened. We found boundaries of the original excavations not seen since the 1930s. This revealed untouched bone beds fitting the parameters originally described by the Dutch team. We are reliving the days of the discovery made nearly 80 years ago, and meeting present-day research objectives as we unearth the past.
What is a typical day at the site like?
We've been excavating for 24 days without a break. The days blur together and we often lose track of time. There is a routine to systematic palaeoanthropological excavation: opening an excavation pit, digging down to the bone bed, carefully mapping the strata as we proceed, exposing the fossils, assigning the fossil a number, charting its xyz coordinates, removing the fossil, and then sampling the strata for geological analysis and dating.
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How does the Javan H. erectus compare with those from other sites in the world and where did it actually come from?
We spend a lot of time discussing this question. The earliest H. erectus fossils date to about 1.8 million years ago — appearing nearly simultaneously in both East Africa and at Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia. So H. erectus from Africa and Georgia represent critical comparisons for any Javan H. erectus. It is thought that the species evolved in Africa and spread out of the continent to the Republic of Georgia and to Java over a very short timespan — perhaps less than 100,000 years. However, the most primitive and smallest H. erectus fossils come from Dmanisi. Anatomically, Dmanisi H. erectus shares features with both the African and Javan H. erectus, so it may actually be the centre of origin for the species. If you compare Ngandong H. erectus with those from elsewhere, it is clear that the most derived population is from Ngandong. |
With Live 8 in the hands of Ableton fans, two big questions remain for a lot of aficionados: first, how the heck do you deal with this new warp marker interface, and second, how can you make controller mappings for hardware more effective? Thanks to some enterprising, expert users, we’ve got video solutions to each of those problems.
Warp: Engage
The new Warp Mode in Live may actually be friendlier to new users; it’s existing users, accustomed to the previous way of working, who seem thrown for a loop. (Erm… excuse the pun.) I’m at a bit of a disadvantage myself in that I tend not to do a lot of warping/remixing. But Medway Studios has a set of tutorials specifically geared for people wanting some tips on how to assimilate the new working method:
Part 2:
Our friend Dennis DeSantis of Ableton offers his own take in a video shot at NYC-based music tech learning center dubSpot. This is a pretty good conceptual overview of what the whole thing is about.
Basically, what I’m hearing is that people used to previous versions of Warp Markers, while they find it confusing at first, do like the new system once they understand how it works.
Controllerism
Mark Mosher has been doing fantastic tutorials on his site Modulate This. For one thing, he’s got tips for getting Wacom tablets to work in Live 8 and finally getting text entry support, which means Kore works properly in Live at long last (among others).
Best of all, he has a tutorial that demonstrates how he’s putting together all his controllers – the Notation ReMOTE SL with Automap and the Akai APC40 – and making them function more effectively using some subtle controller changes in Live 8.
What’s interesting to me is that this isn’t so much about unique, proprietary stuff added to the APC integration, but basic feature improvements in Live itself, which could help you be more effective with other controllers, as well. That’s the kind of functionality I like to see, because it helps everyone.
All of this is great, but we are getting a little heavy on the Ableton-only video tutorials. It’s time to pick up the screencasting tools and demonstrate other tools, too. I’ve got some time blocked out this summer for the task. Requests? |
Antigay Russian Neo-Nazi Arrested in Cuba
Homophobic, violent neo-Nazi Maxim Martsinkevich was arrested in Cuba over the weekend and will be extradited to Russia to face charges of extremism.
A Russian nationalist who launched an "antipedophilia" campaign that lured gay men with promises of sexual encounters, then filmed as the victims were harassed, assaulted, and made to "confess" their homosexuality, has reportedly been arrested in Cuba after he fled Russia to avoid charges of "extremism."
Former skinhead Maxim Martsinkevich, also known as "Tesak," or "Cleaver" or "Slasher" in English, was in Cuban police's custody on Saturday, according to Russia's RIA Novosti, a state-run news agency.
Cuban police informed Russian authorities that Martsinkevich had been arrested, and the International Criminal Police Organization is currently arranging for Martsinkevich's extradition to Russia, the nation's Interior Ministry said in a statement Saturday.
Martsinkevich announced on his personal website that he had arrived in Cuba January 9, just one day after giving an interview to a Russian tabloid claiming that Russia's "pedo-lobby" was directing the criminal charges against him.
But BuzzFeed reports the charges against Martsinkevich stem from three videos the neo-Nazi released in December that include "acts in the spirit of skinhead culture," and his support for anti-immigrant riots that broke out in a Moscow suburb. Another Russian newspaper contended the charges arose from videos Martsinkevich posted in which he insults World War II veterans and "fantasizes about what would have happened if Germany had won the war." BuzzFeed notes that none of the reports cite Martsinkevich's antigay videos as the reason for his arrest.
Martsinkevich was released from jail in 2010, after serving more than thee years for his involvement with the nationalist group Format 18, charged with incitement to hatred.
Although they don't seem to be mentioned in the current charges facing the skinhead, Martsinkevich's Occupy Pedophilia campaign has produced a series of videos documenting the violent and homophobic harassment of men the group claims were seeking to have sex with minor boys. The graphic videos often go viral and have also been used to humiliate gay teenagers who responded to false romantic invitations from what they thought were other gay youth in chat rooms. |
Tom Ammiano, San Francisco’s reliably far-Left supervisor, was in the local news today because he’s come out with a new proposal that can be called “the homeless bill of rights“:
Among other things, the proposed law would require legal representation for anyone cited under such laws as San Francisco’s sit/lie law or anti-panhandling ordinance. It would give “every person in the state, regardless of actual or perceived housing status,” the rights to “use and move freely in public spaces,” to “rest in public spaces,” and to “occupy vehicles, either to rest or use for the purposes of shelter, for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” However, one provision of the bill can be interpreted to allow restrictions of those activities as long as they are applied equally to all people, and not just homeless people. That leaves wiggle room for evaluation of local ordinances that would probably not spell their immediate dismissal.
(You can see that Ammiano envisions himself as a modern-day Anatole France (“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”).)
Ammiano’s proposal makes the news in the same week as two other stories about society’s lost souls. The first was the story of Larry DePrimo, the policeman who, frustrated by his inability to aid a barefoot homeless man, went into a shoe store and bought the man a brand new pair of all-weather boots. The second was the story of a crazed man who pushed a father-of-two to his death on the New York subway tracks.
All three stories revolve around a single issue: what should a civilized, affluent society do about those who are too dysfunctional to live a stable life, but are just functional enough to survive on the streets without starving to death?
Any discussion about the homeless has to begin by recognizing that there are two different types of homeless in America. The first type, the one that makes for heart-rending headlines telling us that we must socialize our economy, is the down-on-its-luck family. These families are the economic tragedies, the ones who fell victim to a bad economy and lost first their livelihoods and then their homes. The adults are functional, but have fallen through the cracks, created by bad luck and hard times.
These “working class” homeless are, in theory, quite simple to help. Give them shelter and childcare, and then give mom and dad a job. I understand that the procedure isn’t as easy as the theory. I’m just pointing out that the remedy is a straightforward one, no matter how challenging it may be to implement it.
The second category of homeless people is the more vexing one. These are the ones who are homeless because they have mental diseases or addictions that render them incapable of functioning in normal society under any circumstances. Jeffrey Hillman, who was the beneficiary of Officer DePrimo’s charity, is a prime example (emphasis mine):
It turns out the homeless, barefoot man who captured the hearts of thousands isn’t actually homeless. Jeffrey Hillman, the recipient of a pair of boots given by a good samaritan New York City police officer, has an apartment in the Bronx, officials told the New York Daily News. According to the Daily News, the 54-year-old Hillman lived in transitional housing sites called “Safe Havens,” from 2009 until 2011. He then secured his current apartment through a Department of Veterans Affairs program that helps homeless vets. Barbara Brancaccio, a spokeswoman for the city agency, told the Daily News that outreach services continue to try and help Hillman, but he “has a history of turning down services.”
I know Hillman’s type of homeless. You couldn’t miss this type growing up and working in San Francisco. Because San Francisco has a temperate climate, its downtown streets are dotted with filthy men (plus a few women) who sit on the sidewalks all day begging for handouts.
It is immediately apparent looking at these beggars that they are not simply slackers who prefer begging to work. All of them show the signs of serious illness and advanced substance abuse. Many of them are obviously seriously mental ill, with the scariest ones have long, angry conversations with invisible companions.
The paranoid ones, like Hillman, resist help. They would rather live outdoors, even if outdoors means the mean, freezing streets of New York, Chicago, or Boston, than put themselves in one of the shelters that their delusional minds classify as dangerous. To them, having your own primitive tent, cardboard room, or doorway, complete with tinfoil hat and nearby dumpster for food, is a much safer way to live than anything offered by the “enemies” who surround them.
It is these homeless people to whom Ammiano wishes to extend the virtually unlimited right to live on San Francisco’s streets and in her parks. (Incidentally, in San Francisco they live that way already, simply because the City only intermittently enforces its vagrancy laws.) By advancing this right, though, Ammiano manages to forget about the other people in San Francisco, the ones who are not homeless, who work, pay taxes, go to school, play, and otherwise try to live normal lives within the City.
You see, the problem of homelessness isn’t just a problem for the homeless. It’s a problem for everyone. The parks that used to see children playing while their mothers sat nearby in cheerful, chatting clusters quickly turn into needle, condom, feces, vomit, and bottle strewn bogs, complete with smelly, often violent men and women camped out on benches and under bushes. The streets with the charming, inviting stores are now a dirty, smelly mess, repulsing casual shoppers. Tourists, tired of being importuned by by a Calcutta-like stream of beggars, stay away. And because the homeless carry with them lice and tuberculosis, they create public health risks.
More than that, as I’ve frequently argued, it is psychologically damaging to ordinary people in a community to be told that they must allow a person who is manifestly mentally ill, whether because of disease or drugs, to lie around on the streets. I hew libertarian in most respects, but my support for absolute individual freedom begins to fray when an individual is incapable of caring for himself. Just as I wouldn’t say that a five-year old is free to make her own lifestyle choices, I’m loath to allow free rein to a person so mentally ill that he cannot perform basic human functions, such as seeking shelter or feeding himself. To me, he is as incapacitated as a five year old.
The problem is obvious; the solution less so. In the old days, vagrants were thrown into prison, which had the virtue of giving them shelter and food, but also exposed them to criminals who preyed upon them and left them back on the streets when their sentences ended. Another tactic was for the police to tell vagrants to “move along,” getting them off of one cop’s beat and putting them on another’s.
The 20th century saw a growth industry in “modern” psychiatric institutions, which treated the mentally ill as patients rather than as zoo animals, as was the case in old fashioned “insane asylums.” Sadly, though, too many of inmates suffered terrible abuse in these institutions. Because they’re unpleasant work environments, too many employees were lazy and/or sadistic, and too many of the doctors were mini-Mengeles, viewing the mentally ill as human chimps for experimentation.
The 1960s and 1970s, therefore, saw a coming together of the Left and the Right, both of which groups, for different reasons, believed the asylums were dangerous places for society and for the inmates, and passed legislation to close them down. The law of unintended consequences hit hard when these institutions closed: The mentally ill had no place to go but to their families, who either made them crazy in the first place or who couldn’t cope with their craziness, or to the streets.
I don’t have an answer to the question I posed in this post’s title: How should cities cope with the homeless? I know that I disagree strongly with Ammiano’s push to give the homeless a special set of rights that turns San Francisco’s streets into a vast homeless shelter with no recourse for the regular folks who live in and pay for the City. That’s the wrong approach and, to my mind, a cruel one. As humane people, I believe we have a moral obligation to care for those incapable of caring for themselves. The old psychiatric institution model is a good one, because we know that mandatory treatment can work, but I’m at a loss as to how to prevent the abuse that once-upon-a-time made closing these institutions a reasonable decision.
Do you have any ideas?
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There's a pretty easy narrative to regurgitate about Ryan Braun. It goes something like this: After a disastrous 2013 that ended in July with a 65-game suspension for violating baseball's performance enhancing drug rules, Braun came back in 2014 and had his worst full season, setting career lows in all three triple-slash stats, wRC+ and WAR. For many, it's easy enough to connect the dots and leave it at that, arguing that Braun can't perform when he's "clean," however you define that.
But coming back from PED suspensions hasn't prevented Nelson Cruz or Melky Cabrera from performing well, and clearly Braun's own actions have left him without the benefit of the doubt, which is no one's fault but his own. But to merely take the 30,000-foot view and assume that Braun's time as one of baseball's best hitters is now over because of what's happened over the past 18 months risks glancing past some very positive signs for Braun, ones that indicate he could still be a very productive player in 2015. |
On February 28, fans will get a chance to see whether the stars of the hit cooking anime Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma can match their characters' skill at cooking. The Shokugeki! Maihama-sai ("Food Wars! Maihama Fest") will be held on that day at the Maihara Amphitheater in Urayasu, a suburb of Tokyo, from 1 to 2 PM and from 5:30 to 6:30 PM. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Sōma), Risa Taneda (Erina), Minami Takahashi (Megumi), Natsuki Hanae (Takumi), Yuki Ono (Isami), Saori Ōnishi (Hisako), Takahiro Sakurai (Satoshi) and Junichi Suwabe (Akira) will compete with each other.
To drum up anticipation and ticket sales, Warner Bros. has been posting videos featuring the Food Wars! cast demonstrating their cooking prowess... or not.
As her character, Erina, is most known for her "God Tongue," or ability to accurately discern even subtle nuances in taste, Risa Taneda demonstrates her own ability to discern between four different types of soy sauce provided by her co-star, Minami Takahashi. Takahashi chose them to pair with meat, tsukedon (raw tuna on rice), eggs over rice, and sashimi. True to form, Taneda correctly sorts the sauces — after Takahashi gives her a helpful nudge by telling her she doesn't like sweetness with her eggs.
Takahashi exudes confidence in her own video and claims she can always get her co-star, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, to help her if she runs into trouble. He helps her train her "reporting skills" by having her sample dried sardines in strawberry jam and peanut butter. She compares the former to "being rejected by the sunlit sea" and the latter to a "jungle cruise." Neither combination is very palatable, but she seems to be on good terms with Matsuoka at the end anyway.
Yuuki Ono claims to be better at eating than cooking, and proves it in his demonstration. Wielding Takumi's signature blade, the mezzaluna, he chops up some basil and octopus tentacles, leaving the garlic and chilis unused.
Natsuki Hanae dismisses his opponents as "cowards" and mocks Isami for being too dependent on his older brother. He advises Ono not to get his hand hair mixed up in the food. Telling his viewers not to be scared of fire, he demonstrates the proper way to light fires with a portable stove, gas lighter, cigarette lighter, matches, and a kitchen stove. The trick seems to be yelling "Forno accendere!" with gusto.
Tickets for Shokugeki! Maihama-sai cost 5,900 yen ($48). Matsuoka has demonstrated his cooking skill on the web with a series of videos before, mostly involving variations on the infamous octopus tentacles with peanut butter, but also including Salisbury steak on rice. He appears with co-stars Takahashi, Taneda, and Shizuka Ishigami. |
Early life and family Edit
Bernadotte's birth house in Pau , France Bernadotte was born in Pau, France, as the son of Jean Henri Bernadotte (Pau, Béarn, 14 October 1711 – Pau, 31 March 1780), prosecutor at Pau, and his wife (married at Boeil, 20 February 1754) Jeanne de Saint-Jean (Pau, 1 April 1728 – Pau, 8 January 1809), niece of the Lay Abbot of Sireix. The family name was originally du Poey (or de Pouey), but was changed to Bernadotte – a surname of an ancestress at the beginning of the 17th century. Soon after his birth, Baptiste was added to his name, to distinguish him from his elder brother Jean Évangeliste. Bernadotte himself added Jules to his first names as a tribute to the French Empire under Napoleon I. At the age of 14, he was apprenticed to a local attorney. However, the death of his father when Bernadotte was just 17 stopped the youth from following his father's career.[4]
Early military career Edit
Bernadotte joined the army as a private in the Régiment Royal–La Marine on 3 September 1780,[5] and first served in the newly conquered territory of Corsica. Subsequently, the Régiment stationed in Besançon, Grenoble, Vienne, Marseille and Ile de Re.[6][7] He reached to the rank of Sergeant in August 1785 and was nicknamed Sergeant Belle-Jambe, for his smart appearance.[8] In early 1790 he was promoted to Adjudant-Major, the highest rank for noncommissioned officers in the Ancien Régime.[9]
Revolutionary Wars Edit
Marshal of the French Empire Edit
Bernadotte, as Marshal of the French Empire. On the introduction of the First French Empire, Bernadotte became one of the eighteen Marshals of the Empire, and from June 1804 to September 1805 served as governor of the recently occupied Hanover. In this capacity, as well as during his later command of the army of northern Germany, he created for himself a reputation for independence, moderation, and administrative ability. During the campaign of 1805, Bernadotte—with an army corps from Hanover—co-operated in the great movement which resulted in the shutting off of Mack in the Battle of Ulm. In the Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805) he was posted with his corps in the center between Soult and Lannes, and contributed to defeating the attempt of the right wing of the allies to outflank the French army. As a reward for his services at Austerlitz, he became the 1st Sovereign Prince of Ponte Corvo (5 June 1806), a district of Naples formerly subject to the Pope. However, during the campaign against Prussia, in the same year, he was severely reproached by Napoleon for not participating with his army corps in the battles of Jena and Auerstädt (14 October 1806). Napoleon, on the night of October 13, thinking he had faced the whole Prussian army at Jena, sent orders to Bernadotte and Davout to fall back from Naumburg and get across the Prussian line of retreat. In pursuance of these orders, Bernadotte, separately from Davout, left Naumburg at dawn on the morning of the 14th for Dornburg and marched towards Apolda, which he reached by 16:00. Hampered by the very poor state of the roads, he could not engage in the Battle of Jena, though he effectively compelled the Prussians to retreat from both battlefields by posting his troops on the heights of Apolda. Afterwards, Bernadotte was accused of deliberately refusing to support Davout, who had unexpectedly encountered the Prussian main army at Auerstädt, out of jealousy, and Napoleon, if reminiscences from St. Helena may be believed, once intended to put Bernadotte before a court-martial. In fact, he did what he had been ordered to do, and more fundamental responsibility for his absence rests upon the ambiguous and indirect orders issued by Berthier and Napoleon’s unawareness of the Prussian position. After the Battle of Jena, Bernadotte defeated the Prussians at Halle (17 October 1806) but the headquarters did not much appreciate this victory.[29] When visiting Halle after the battle, Napoleon enigmatically commented “Bernadotte stops at nothing. Someday the Gascon will get caught.”[30] Subsequently, Bernadotte pursued, conjointly with Soult and Murat, the Prussian general Blücher to Lübeck, and aided in forcing his capitulation at Radkow (7 November 1806). When the French forced their way to Lübeck, the city became the target of large-scale looting and rampage by the French soldiers. Bernadotte, struggling desperately to prevent his men from sacking, was given six horses from the Council of Lübeck as their appreciation.[31][32] He also treated captured Swedish soldiers with courtesy and allowed them to return to their home country. The impressed Swedes went home with a tale of Bernadotte’s fairness in maintaining order within the city.[33] Thereafter he marched to Poland and defeated the Russians at Mohrungen (25 January 1807). Since the messenger had been captured by Russians, Bernadotte could not take part in the Battle of Eylau (7 to 8 February 1807). Napoleon rebuked him for his absence but it became acknowledged that it was not due to Bernadotte, but Berthier’s carelessness in dispatching the orderly.[34] After the Peace of Tilsit, in 1808, as governor of the Hanseatic towns, he was to direct the expedition against Sweden, via the Danish islands, but the plan came to naught because of the want of transports and the defection of the Spanish contingent. Being recalled to Germany to assist in the new war between France and Austria, he received the command of the 9th Corps, which was mainly composed of Saxons. Further difficulties with Berthier, and inclusion in his corps of the ill-prepared Saxons combined with his illness to make him beg for release from service. Bernadotte wrote to Napoleon that “I see my efforts perpetually paralyzed by a hidden force over which I can not prevail.” Napoleon disregarded these appeals and Bernadotte proceeded with the campaign, commanding mostly foreign troops with few French. At the Battle of Wagram (6 July 1809), he commanded this corps, of which the division of Dupas formed part. Having resisted on the left wing for a long time an attack from a superior force, he ordered Dupas forward to his support; the latter replied that he had orders from the emperor to remain where he was. After the battle, Bernadotte complained to Napoleon for having, in violation of all military rules, ordered Dupas to act independently of his command, and for having thereby caused great loss of life to the Saxons, and tendered his resignation. Napoleon accepted after he had become aware of an order of the day issued by Bernadotte in which he gave the Saxons credit for their courage in terms inconsistent with the emperor's official bulletin. With Bernadotte having returned to Paris, the Walcheren expedition (July 1809) caused the French ministry in the absence of the emperor to entrust him with the defense of Antwerp with the National Guard.[37] In a proclamation issued to his troops at Antwerp he made a charge against Napoleon of having neglected to prepare the proper means of defense for the Belgian coast. He was deprived of his command of the National Guard, and ordered on his return to Paris to leave for Catalonia and take command of the Army there.[38][39] Refusing to comply with the order, he was summoned to Vienna, and after an interview with Napoleon at Schönbrunn accepted the general government of the Roman states.
Offer of the Swedish throne Edit
Crown Prince and Regent Edit
King of Sweden and Norway Edit
Coronation of Karl III Johan as King of Norway in Nidaros Cathedral , Trondheim Charles John had been regent and de facto head of state upon his arrival, and took an increasing role in government from 1812 onward, with Charles XIII reduced to a mute witness in government councils. Upon Charles' death on 5 February 1818, Charles John ascended as the union King, reigning as Charles XIV John in Sweden and Charles III John in Norway. He was initially popular in both countries. The democratic process and forces steadily matured under the King’s restrained executive power. "Separated as we are from the rest of Europe, our policy, as well as our interest, will make us carefully abstain from mixing in any discussion foreign to the two people of Scandinavia; but my duty and your dignity will always be the rule of our conduct, and both one and the other prescribe to us never to permit interference in our internal affairs." Speech of the King on the day of taking the oaths of allegiance and homage, 19 May 1818.[65] The foreign policy applied by Charles John in the post-Napoleonic era was characterized by the maintenance of balance between the Great Powers and non-involvement into conflicts that took place outside of the Scandinavian peninsula.[66] It made a sharp contrast with Sweden’s previous hegemonic expansionism resulted in uninterrupted wars with neighboring countries for centuries, and he successfully kept his kingdoms in a state of peace from 1814 until his death.[47][67] He was especially concerned about the conflict between Great Britain and Russia. In 1834, when the relationship between both countries strained regarding the Near East Crisis, he sent memorandum to British and Russian governments and proclaimed neutrality in advance. It is pointed out as the origin of Swedish neutrality.[68] His domestic policy particularly focused on promotion of economy and investment in social overhead capital, and the long peace since 1814 led to an increased prosperity for the country.[69] During his long reign of 26 years, the population of the Kingdom was so increased that the inhabitants of Sweden alone became equal in number to those of Sweden and Finland before the latter province was torn from the former, the national debt was paid off, a civil and a penal code were proposed for promulgation, education was promoted, agriculture, commerce, and manufactures prospered, and the means of internal communication were increased.[69][70] On the other hand, radical in his youth, his views had veered steadily rightward over the years, and by the time he ascended the throne he was an ultra-conservative. His autocratic methods, particularly his censorship of the press, were very unpopular, especially after 1823. However, his dynasty never faced serious danger, as the Swedes and the Norwegians alike were proud of a monarch with a good European reputation.[47] Equestrian in Stockholm depicting Charles XIV John. He also faced challenges in Norway. The Norwegian constitution gave the Norwegian parliament, the Storting, more power than any legislature in Europe. While Charles John had the power of absolute veto in Sweden, he only had a suspensive veto in Norway. He demanded that the Storting give him the power of absolute veto, but was forced to back down.[62] Charles John's difficult relationship with Norway was also demonstrated by the Storting’s unwillingness to grant funds for the construction of a Royal Palace in the Norwegian capital Oslo. The construction began in 1825, but the Storting halted the funding after the costly foundation was laid and demanded that the appointed architect, Hans Linstow, construct a simpler palace. This was seen by many as a protest against unnecessary spending and the king's authority. The place itself was not completed until 1849, long after the death of Charles John, and was inaugurated by Oscar I.[71] The main street in Oslo, Slottsgaten, would later be named after Charles John as Karl Johans gate.[72] His popularity decreased for a time in the 1830s, culminating in the Rabulist riots after the Lèse-majesté conviction of the journalist Magnus Jacob Crusenstolpe, and some calls for his abdication.[47] Charles John survived the abdication controversy and he went on to have his silver jubilee, which was celebrated with great enthusiasm on 18 February 1843. He reigned as King of Sweden and Norway from 5 February 1818 until his death in 1844.
Death Edit
The late king on his deathbed Charles John's huge granite sarcophagus. On 26 January 1844, his 81st birthday, Charles John was found unconscious in his chambers having suffered a stroke. While he regained consciousness, he never fully recovered and died on the afternoon of 8 March. On his deathbed, he was heard to say: "Nobody has had a career in life like mine.[69] I could perhaps have been able to agree to become Napoleon’s ally: but when he attacked the country that had placed its fate in my hands, he could find in me no other than an opponent. The events that shook Europe and that gave her back her freedom are known. It is also known which part I played in that."[74] His remains were interred after a state funeral in Stockholm's Riddarholm Church. He was succeeded by his only son, Oscar I.
Titles, styles, honours, and arms Edit
Fictional portrayals Edit
Ancestry Edit
Ancestors of Charles XIV John of Sweden 8. Jean Bernadotte 4. Jean Bernadotte 9. Marie de La Barrère dite Bertrandot 2. Jean Henri Bernadotte 10. Jacques du Pucheu dit de Laplace 5. Marie du Pucheu dite de La Place 11. Françoise de Labasseur 1. Charles XIV John of Sweden 6. Jean de Saint-Jean 3. Jeanne de Saint-Jean 14. Doumengé Habas d'Arrens 7. Marie d'Abbadie de Sireix 15. Marie d'Abbadie, Lay Abbess of Sireix
See also Edit
Notes Edit
References Edit
Further reading Edit |
The Broadbent Institute really, REALLY can't wait to get out and vote.
The left-leaning think tank, which is named after founder and former NDP leader Ed Broadbent, released a video on YouTube Thursday that shows people dropping absolutely everything to go vote.
It was released just one day before advance polls opened on Friday, ahead of the election on Oct. 19.
The humourous video, titled "Can't Wait," shows people in a hospital room, an office, and even apparently in mid-coitus dashing out the door and heading to the polling station.
It comes as Marc Mayrand, Canada's chief electoral officer, sees increased early voting activity, CBC News reported.
He said more people are mailing in ballots, voting from other countries and lining up to cast their choices on campuses than in previous elections.
"This week in the first three days we had 42,000 students who voted," Mayrand said.
So maybe the folks at Broadbent aren't the only ones who can't wait to do their part for democracy.
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West Bromwich Albion have sacked Alan Irvine and are now considering a second approach to Tim Sherwood.
Irvine’s difficult spell at the Hawthorns was finally ended on Monday night, after seven defeats in nine games, and Albion are now searching for their fourth head coach in just over a year.
Jeremy Peace, the chairman, has been growing increasingly concerned by the slump and finally decided to terminate Irvine’s contract after Sunday’s 2-0 defeat at Stoke City, which left the club just one point adrift of the bottom three.
Albion held a board meeting on Monday and opted to part company with the Scot, bringing his six-month spell to a premature end.
Sherwood, who was interviewed for the post in June, is back on Albion’s radar while Tony Pulis, the former Crystal Palace manager, is also expected to come under consideration.
Peace had delayed making a decision on Irvine in the hope of a revival but Albion’s dismal form, and the sheer level of hostility from supporters towards the 56-year-old, has forced Peace into a review of the situation.
Relegation to the Championship would be a nightmare for Peace, who hinted in an interview with the The Telegraph in October that he would be prepared to sell up.
Albion could now return for Sherwood, who left Tottenham Hotspur at the end of last season, even though he expressed reservations over the structure at the Hawthorns.
The 45-year-old is available and also a potential target for Newcastle United, following Alan Pardew’s exit to Palace, and the prospect of managing in the Premier League again would undoubtedly appeal. Michael Laudrup, the former Swansea manager, has been discounted as a possible contender.
West Brom’s defeat at Stoke on Sunday leaves them perilously close to the relegation zone ahead of the tough trip to West Ham on New Year's Day.
They then face non-league Gateshead in the FA Cup at home but Irvine has paid the price after a turbulent spell in charge.
He was appointed in June despite huge opposition from supporters, after he was sacked at both his previous clubs as manager at Preston North End and Sheffield Wednesday.
After a tricky start he masterminded wins over Tottenham Hotspur and Burnley but damaging defeats to Bournemouth in the Capital One Cup and Newcastle, West Ham, QPR and Stoke in the league have proven costly.
Irvine and assistants Rob Kelly and Keith Downing were all targeted by supporters at the Britannia Stadium to force Albion into reluctantly making a change.
Kelly and Downing’s futures remain uncertain but Albion could allow the new head coach to bring in his own backroom team in a bid to secure top flight survival.
While it has proven another turbulent season there is a feeling that Irvine should not be carrying the can for all the club’s problems.
Ever since the exit of Dan Ashworth to the Football Association, there has been scrutiny on the recruitment department and technical director Terry Burton, who was appointed in the summer.
There was a necessary, if misguided, trolley-dash in the summer, in which Albion signed ten players at the end of last season to present Irvine with an uphill task from day one.
Many of the new additions, including £10million record signing Brown Ideye, Georgios Samaras, Sebastian Blanco and Jason Davidson, have failed to impress.
Ideye was allegedly Burton's pick, ahead of other choices such as Emmanuel Riviere and Leonardo UIloa, and the Nigeria striker again looked well off the pace at the Britannia Stadium on Sunday.
Conspiracy theories abound over how many of the ten recruits were made with Irvine's approval yet he was the one that had been charged with building a competitive squad.
Irvine is not blameless, of course, but Albion's problems this season suggest a wider issue at the Hawthorns and one that needs addressing swiftly if they are to avoid annual relegation battles.
After dismissing Steve Clarke, Pepe Mel and now Irvine in just over 12 months they now face a huge decision as they attempt to secure their top flight status.
There is also likely to be huge speculation over the future of England under-21 international Saido Berahino, who is a January target for Liverpool and Spurs.
Berahino, who was called up to the senior England squad by former Albion manager Roy Hodgson in November, is attracting interest from both clubs and a bid next month is expected.
However, there is also frustration within Albion over Berahino’s attitude and conduct since his call-up, with sources claiming he has “taken his eye off the ball” since his promotion.
Albion will demand over £20million in the event of any interest but appointing Irvine’s successor is undoubtedly a more pressing matter. |
The 2018 Times Higher Education World University Rankings’ table for computer science employs the same rigorous and balanced range of 13 performance indicators used in the overall World University Rankings, but the methodology has been recalibrated to suit the individual fields.
This year’s ranking has expanded to include 300 institutions, up from 100 last year, while the threshold for the proportion of staff working in the relevant disciplines has decreased.
View the World University Rankings 2018 by subject: computer science methodology
Several newcomers make the list this year. In some cases this is due to the change in the staff threshold. Stanford University, for example, enters at first place, while the University of Cambridge is now in fifth.
Two Swiss institutions – ETH Zurich and EPFL – still make the top 10 this year but both have dropped places, largely as a result of drops in their scores for teaching environment.
Meanwhile, China’s leading institutions – Peking and Tsinghua – have both risen to take 20th (up from 21st) and 25th (up from 27th) place respectively. The National University of Singapore is still top in Asia, despite falling three places to 13th.
View the full results of the overall World University Rankings 2018
Download a free copy of the World University Rankings 2018 digital supplement
Read our article on the best universities for computer science degrees
To raise your university’s global profile with Times Higher Education, please contact branding@timeshighereducation.com
To unlock the data behind THE’s rankings, and access a range of analytical and benchmarking tools, contact data@timeshighereducation.com |
Ofcom has cleared al-Jazeera of antisemitism and breaching impartiality rules over an undercover investigation that caught an Israeli embassy official plotting to “take down” British MPs regarded as hostile towards Israel.
The media regulator investigated the Qatar-based broadcaster after receiving complaints about The Lobby, a four-part documentary investigating the political influence of the Israeli embassy in Britain.
Clayton Swisher, the director of investigative journalism at al-Jazeera, said in a memo to staff that Ofcom had “fully and completely vindicated” the broadcaster.
The ruling comes as al-Jazeera battles for its future. A coalition of Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, have demanded that Qatar close the TV station as one of the conditions of lifting a blockade of the gas-rich kingdom. Israel also wants to close al-Jazeera’s offices, with the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing it of inciting violence.
Al-Jazeera aired The Lobby in January. The programme showed Shai Masot, an official in the Israeli embassy in London, saying he would “take down” MPs including Sir Alan Duncan, the Foreign Office minister who is an outspoken supporter of a Palestinian state.
The Israeli ambassador subsequently apologised for the comments and Masot resigned.
Ofcom cleared al-Jazeera after concluding it did not make allegations in the documentary that were based on the grounds of individuals being Jewish and that it had included the view of the Israeli government in the programme. It ruled that al-Jazeera had not breached rule 2.3, which relates to offensive matter, and rule 5.5 with regards to impartiality.
The regulator said in its ruling: “It was the view of some complainants that The Lobby fuelled harmful stereotypes about Jewish people controlling or seeking to control powerful organisations. These complainants considered this was antisemitic and offensive.
“We considered that the allegations in the programme were not made on the grounds that any of the particular individuals concerned were Jewish and noted that no claims were made relating to their faith. We did not consider that the programme portrayed any negative stereotypes of Jewish people as controlling or seeking to control the media or governments. Rather, it was our view that these individuals featured in the programme in the context of its investigation into the alleged activities of a foreign state – the state of Israel acting through its UK embassy – and their association with it.”
Ofcom added: “Complainants considered that the programme only took a one-sided view on this matter. However, we considered that the viewpoint of the Israeli government was included in the programme in a number of linked ways.”
An al-Jazeera source welcomed the ruling, saying: “This goes to show that no matter what al-Jazeera’s critics say, its journalism meets and exceeds the highest standards of objectivity and balance. We feel vindicated by the rulings and ever more committed to exposing human rights violations by anyone – regardless of geography, religion, or the power of their lobbies.” |
Sonja Puzic, CTVNews.ca
A doctored image of Canadarm2, Canada’s much-touted contribution to the International Space Station, is being removed from various government websites after The Economist shamed Ottawa for using an image “reminiscent of North Korean propaganda.”
The U.K.-based weekly newspaper with an international audience noted on its website Friday that a large Canadian government logo was photoshopped onto the robotic arm in a photo of U.S. astronaut Stephen Robinson’s spacewalk.
“Of course, countries have long fiddled with photographs to present an image of grandeur,” The Economist wrote. “But the tactic of fairly ham-fisted airbrushing used here seems more reminiscent of North Korean propaganda posters than of Western democracies' typical PR efforts.”
Canadarm2 does have a government logo, but it was not visible in the original NASA photo. The doctored image appeared on several government websites, including Canada’s Economic Action Plan and Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
A spokesperson for the Canadian Space Agency told CTVNews.ca Friday that the photoshopped image came from a poster developed in 2006 for a staff celebration of the Canadarm anniversary. The poster was made for internal use only, and the space agency is trying to find out how it ended up on government websites, Maya-Olivia Eyssen said.
The Canadian Space Agency is working with other government departments to remove the image from their websites, she said.
The image still appears here and here.
Canadarm2 helped assemble the ISS and is now used to move supplies and equipment, as well as assist with the space station’s upkeep. It also captures and docks unpiloted spacecraft when they arrive at the ISS.
The original Canadarm entered space in 1981 on space shuttle Columbia and was retired along with the space shuttle program. |
Retired teacher James Hon Lin-shan participates in an ongoing hunger strike during a demonstration urging the government to cancel a new course called "Moral and National Education," which is to be introduced into the school curriculum. (Kin Cheung/AP)
Hunger-striking Hong Kong students and their supporters have taken control of a city plaza here amid accusations from Communist Party-controlled media of a Western-backed conspiracy by “black hands” intent on sowing chaos.
The standoff — which features echoes of the 1989 pro-democracy protests in China’s Tiananmen Square — marks a dramatic escalation in a long campaign by students, teachers and parents against the introduction of “national education” courses in Hong Kong schools. The courses are part of an effort to boost a sense of shared identity with the rest of China.
The hunger strike itself, launched last week outside government headquarters in this former British colony, involves fewer than 10 people. But thousands of others, mostly teenagers, have flocked to show support, filling a plaza in front of the government complex with banners, tents, sleeping bags and loudspeakers.
Protesters condemn the courses as “brainwashing” and a violation of the “one country, two systems” formula under which Hong Kong was returned to China 15 years ago after more than a century and half of colonial rule.
Officials here strenuously deny this characterization and say their aim is to promote a greater understanding of China, not obedience to China’s ruling party.
Beijing has long pushed authorities in Hong Kong to narrow what opinion polls suggest is a widening gulf between local residents and mainlanders, who have flooded into Hong Kong to shop and, in some cases, give birth in the city’s well-equipped hospitals.
While the vast majority of Hong Kong’s 7 million people are ethnically Chinese, surveys show that bonds of shared identity with the rest of China have grown weaker, not stronger, since Britain pulled out in 1997. According to a poll released this summer by Hong Kong University, Hong Kongers have less trust in the central government in Beijing than at any time since China regained sovereignty.
Alarmed by the national education crisis and facing tough decisions about whether to relax already weak restrictions on the number of mainland visitors, Leung Chun-ying, the city’s recently installed leader, abruptly canceled a trip this week to the Russian Pacific port city of Vladivostok, where he had been due to attend an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting. The trip was to have been Leung’s first overseas since he took office July 1 ; he was selected for the top government post in March by a 1,200-member committee stacked with tycoons and other pro-Beijing grandees.
While Leung and other Hong Kong officials have sought to calm tempers by addressing concerns about the controversial classes, media outlets that reflect the views of China’s Communist Party have added fuel to the fire by denouncing student activists as pawns in an alleged political conspiracy.
Beijing used the same conspiracy-obsessed rhetoric in 1989 to vilify student protesters who gathered in Tiananmen Square — and also staged a hunger strike — to press party leaders for greater freedom and an end to official corruption. The party, divided over how to respond, called in the army to crush the protest in a hail of gunfire.
There have been no signs that the Hong Kong government has plans to use force to end the encampment outside its main office complex in the city’s Admiralty district. But the showdown has highlighted a dilemma faced by Hong Kong officials: They are nominally responsible for all policy decisions, except for foreign affairs and defense, but they face strong pressure from Beijing to curb what Chinese officials and their supporters in Hong Kong view as politically motivated “chaos.”
In an editorial Tuesday, Ta Kung Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper controlled by the party, said students opposed to the classes are part of a “plot by Western anti-China, anti-Communist forces” to “separate Hong Kong youth from their nation and from identification with their country.”
Describing the scene in front of government headquarters as “disgusting,” a separate commentary in the same newspaper fumed that “even more disgusting are the political ‘black hands’ who don’t declare their goals.”
The paper printed a photograph of veteran pro-democracy activist Martin Lee visiting the hunger strikers, citing his appearance as evidence of a conspiracy to use public anger over the education program to boost votes for China’s critics in local elections, due to be held this weekend.
A Hong Kong television station, ATV, echoed the party line with a news commentary Monday that derided the student activists as stooges for pro-democracy politicians allegedly backed by Washington and London. The broadcast drew a flood of more than 10,000 complaints from viewers.
Elsie Leung Oi-sie, Hong Kong’s former justice secretary and a leading pro-Beijing figure, voiced support for the national education courses, which are to start this year in some schools but will not become mandatory for three more years. She told local media that the protesters’ tactics risk pushing Hong Kong into a “state of anarchy.”
Students angrily dismissed the accusations as part of a party-dictated script for dealing with dissent.
“This is not anarchy but a peaceful struggle. We are using our own bodies to oppose the government,” said Gil Lee, a 24-year-old student at Hong Kong’s City University who fasted for more than 90 hours. The government’s plan to teach students about China, he said, “is not education, but a political tool to increase support for the communist government” in Beijing.
Heidi Ma, a 17-year-old student activist with the group Scholarism, scoffed at accusations of manipulation by outside forces. “There are no ‘black hands.’ We are just a group of students,” she said, speaking over the din of loudly amplified speeches delivered from a makeshift stage at the entrance to the government complex. Students, she said, want to keep their distance from the agendas of other groups.
On Tuesday, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movement in China, an organization dedicated to the memory of those killed in 1989 in Beijing, drew loud cheers when it brought a replica of a statue erected in Tiananmen Square to the hunger strikers’ encampment.
But organizers demanded that the so-called Goddess of Democracy replica be removed to avoid playing into their critics’ conspiracy theories.
Ma blamed the incident on “miscommunication” and said the Hong Kong protests should focus on forcing the government to scrap its national education plans and not be distracted by other issues.
“There is nothing wrong with loving your country, but you can’t force people to love,” she said. “What the government wants is thought control and brainwashing.” |
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) on Tuesday pressed NASA on whether ancient civilizations existed on Mars.
Rohrabacher asked a panel of space experts testifying before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology if civilizations could have existed on Mars thousands of years ago.
"You have indicated that Mars had, was totally different thousands of years ago. Is it possible that there was a civilization on Mars thousands of years ago?” Rohrabacher asked.
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Kenneth Farley, a project scientist on NASA’s Mars Rover 2020 Project, said the congressman’s premise behind the question was inaccurate because evidence showed that Mars was significantly different billions of years ago, not thousands.
"There is no evidence that I'm aware of,” Farley said.
"Would you rule that out?” Rohrabacher asked, referring to civilizations existing on the planet.
"I would say that is extremely unlikely," Farley responded.
The hearing was about missions to other planets, including the Mars Rover 2020 project. |
John Hewitt is a neuroscientist who studies the biology of intelligence. He's also a parent. Over the years, Hewitt has periodically drawn upon his scientific knowledge in making parenting decisions.
"I'm a father of four children myself and I never worried too much about the environments that I was providing for my children because I thought, well, it would all work out in the end anyway — aren't the genes especially powerful?" Hewitt says.
He knew intelligence has a strong biological component. If your parents are smart, you'll probably be smart — even without a lot of fuss about the right schools and learning environments.
But recently, Hewitt discovered something that surprised him.
"Well, I may have been wrong," he admits. "It may well be that the environmental boost you can get, or the detriment you can suffer through adversity, may indeed be a little more important at a critical period in adolescence than I had previously thought. And this may especially be true for parents of very bright children."
What Hewitt, director of the Institute for Behavioral Genetics at the University of Colorado, is talking about is a new understanding of the interplay between your genetic inheritance and how you learn from the environment. He credits another researcher, Angela Brant, for coming up with a new insight into this critical period in development.
To understand what Brant found, here's some context: Both children and adults learn things, but children are better than adults at some kinds of learning. Think about trying to learn a new language.
"In language you have specific words and vocabulary," says Brant, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at Penn State University. "And you also have the broad patterns of the language — the syntax. We know that adults can pick up vocabulary words, but they are less able to pick up syntax."
So what is it about children that allows them to grasp the "deep" knowledge of syntax more quickly than do adults? Neuroscientists think the reason children do better at such challenges is that young brains are more receptive to learning.
"Until adolescence there are lots of new connections being made between neurons to store patterns and information collected from the environment," Brant says.
In childhood, the brain adds many synapses in the cortex. This comes at a time when the brain is especially responsive to learning. This is typically followed by cortical pruning in adolescence, as the brain shifts from hyperlearning mode.
Hewitt agrees: "The developing brain is a much more flexible organ than the mature brain."
Learning doesn't stop at adolescence, of course, but the "sensitive period" — where the brain is hyperlearning mode — does appear to come to an end. Learning new things gets harder.
At least that's the typical pattern. But Brant and Hewitt find that for some children, there is an extended learning period. Among some children with very high IQs, the brain appears to stay in learning hyperdrive for an extended period.
Brant, Hewitt and other researchers recently tracked a group of children over time. Some were genetically identical twins, some were fraternal twins, some were non-twin biological siblings, some were adopted siblings.
Using mathematical techniques that allow researchers to disentangle the effects of genetic and environmental influences on individuals, Brant noticed that kids who had higher IQs to begin with seemed to have an extended period in adolescence during which they retained the ability to learn at a rapid pace, just like much younger children.
"I found that twins that had a higher IQ were showing a more childlike pattern of influence during adolescence," Brant says.
Hewitt agrees. "It was as if there was an extended sensitive period in the higher IQ individuals. Or another way of looking at it is the sensitivity to the environment which is characteristic of earlier childhood seemed to end earlier for individuals with lower IQ."
Hewitt and Brant don't know why some teenagers continue to learn at the pace of much younger children. It may be that smart kids gravitate to challenging activities and this keeps them receptive to learning. Or it could be that genes that lead to high IQ also trigger an extended learning period.
Hewitt points out that an extended learning period does not necessarily mean a further increase in IQ. But a very smart teenager with an extended "sensitive period" of learning might be able to pick up a new language or a musical instrument. Such learning can have long-term benefits, Hewitt explains, even if the teenager has the same IQ before and after she learns the language or the instrument.
"Even if in the end the IQ ends up being determined to a large extent by the genes, if there's been a period where the environment makes a difference, that could have lifelong consequences," Hewitt said.
The study, published in Psychological Science, suggests that for many children it may be a mistake to stop learning new things. Even if you're a teenager, it might not be too late to start learning Chinese, chess or the cello.
Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
From pregnancy, let's turn the focus to childhood. There is new research into how genes and the environment interact, as they help shape how small children and adolescents learn. Here's NPR's social science Shankar Vedantam.
SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: John Hewitt is a neuroscientist who studies the biology of intelligence. Hewitt has applied his scientific knowledge to his own children's upbringing.
JOHN HEWITT: I'm a father of four children myself, and I never worried too much about the environment that I was providing for my children because I thought well, it would all work out in the end, anyway; aren't the genes especially powerful?
VEDANTAM: Hewitt and other scientists have found that intelligence has a strong biological component. If your parents are smart, you'll probably be smart, even without a lot of fuss about the right schools and learning environments. But recently, Hewitt discovered something that surprised him.
HEWITT: Well, I might have been wrong. It may well be that the environmental boost you can get, or the detriment you can suffer from adversity, may indeed be a little more important at a critical period in adolescence than I had formerly thought. And this may be especially true for parents of very bright children.
VEDANTAM: What Hewitt is talking about is a new understanding of the interplay between your genetic inheritance and how you learn from the environment. He credits another researcher, Angela Brant, for coming up with a new insight into this critical period in development.
HEWITT: To understand what Brant found, here's some context: Both kids and adults learn things, but children are better than adults at some kinds of learning. For example, Brant said, think about trying to learn a new language.
ANGELA BRANT: In language you have specific words and vocabulary, and you also have the broad patterns of the language - the syntax. We know that adults can pick up vocabulary words, but they're less able to pick up syntax.
VEDANTAM: Neuroscientists think the reason children do better than adults, when it comes to a new language, is that young brains are more receptive to learning.
BRANT: Early on in development, until adolescence, there are lots of new connections being made between neurons to store patterns and information collected from the environment.
VEDANTAM: By adolescence, this sensitive period in the brain comes to an end. Learning new things gets harder - at least, that's what we thought. Brant, at Pennsylvania State University, and Hewitt, at the University of Colorado, as well as other researchers recently analyzed a large number of children and followed them over time. Some were genetically identical twins, some were fraternal twins; some were biological siblings, and some were adopted siblings.
Brant noticed that kids with higher IQs had an extended period in adolescence where they continue to learn things at a rapid pace, just like much younger children.
BRANT: I found that twins that had a higher IQ were showing a more childlike pattern of influence during adolescence.
HEWITT: It was as if there was an extended sensitive period in the higher IQ individuals. Or another way of looking at it, the sensitivity to the environment - which is characteristic of earlier childhood - seemed to end earlier for individuals with lower IQ.
VEDANTAM: Hewitt and Brant don't know why some teenagers continue to learn at the pace of much younger children. It may be that smart kids gravitate to challenging activities, and this keeps them receptive to learning. Or it could be that genes that lead to high IQ also trigger an extended learning period.
The study, published in Psychological Science, suggests that for many children, it may be a mistake to stop learning new things. Even if you're a teenager, it might not be too late to start Chinese, chess or the cello.
Shankar Vedantam, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. |
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I’m certainly an optimist. I think the expected interest rate increase is a mistake, but on balance I don’t think it will push the US back into recession. I suppose I’d say I’m 80-20 growth in 2016. But even that is an unnecessary risk in my view, with essentially no upside from raising rates:
1. It will hurt the unemployed.
2. It will move the Fed further from its 2% PCE inflation target.
3. If you are worried about savers (I’m not) it will lead to lower interest rates in years 2 through 20 than would an easier money policy that led to faster NGDP growth.
The only argument in favor seems to be that rates for savers would be 1/4% higher for a year or two. And that gain is worth all the downsides?
I’m 80% sure this will not push us into a double dip recession, despite the fact that history shows exactly the opposite. Of the 5 previous attempts to exit the zero rate bound (or perhaps I should say what Keynesians regard as the zero bound) 4 were failures, which pushed the economy back into recession and/or deflation. The failures were the US in 1937, Japan in 2000 and 2006, and the ECB in 2011. (That 2011 rate increase wasn’t quite at the zero bound, but generally regarded as close.) In three cases it was a 1/4% increase, and in 2011 a 1/2% increase. The only success was in 1951, when the Treasury-Fed Accord ended the low interest rate pegging policy.
And yet despite all of this history, Alan Greenspan is “baffled”:
Greenspan also said he’s “baffled” that a 25 basis point hike by the Fed would have a major impact on economic conditions around the world.
So almost every previous time central banks do a tiny interest rate increase at the zero bound, it blows up in their face. And yet we are shocked that markets might be a tad worried?
What’s the downside of waiting until the Fed actually needs to raise rates to achieve its target path?
It’s really very simple. Basic monetary theory says that interest rate pegging makes the price level indeterminate. A peg slightly above the natural rate eventually sends you into deflation. A peg slightly below the natural rates starts a cumulative process that sends the economy into hyperinflation. Monetary theory says that a 1/4% can make a massive difference, or it might make very little difference at all (it depends what happens next). If you read any news or opinion articles where the writer wonders how a 1/4% change can be such a big deal, just stop reading. You are wasting your time.
PS. Just as I am a US economy optimist, perceived as a pessimist, I’m a China pessimist perceived as an optimist. I’m currently more pessimistic about China’s growth prospects for 2016 than every single member of The Economist’s expert panel. Every one of them expects at least 6.3% growth for China in 2016. What a bunch of pollyannaish apologists for the Chinese Communist Party!
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This entry was posted on September 04th, 2015 and is filed under China, Liquidity trap, Monetary Policy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site. |
The next commitment in Gary Andersen's first full class is a big one. D.J. Gillins, the four-star quarterback and No. 2 two dual-threat quarterback in the nation according to 247 Sports announced his commitment to Wisconsin Monday while on ESPN Radio 103.7 FM in Georgia.
Gillins missed the 2012 season after tearing his ACL and will be making a comeback for 2013. But according to Craig Powers of SB Nation Recruiting, there was a lot to like about the 6-foot-3, 185-pound quarterback pre-injury.
His tape from his sophomore season of 2011 is very impressive for a sophomore. Evaluating quarterbacks as sophomores is much like evaluating baseball pitchers as sophomores -- it's tough. You have to project how much more arm strength is yet to come with the player's assumed growth and continued physical maturity. For a sophomore, Gillins showed good arm strength. He also showed good touch, floating the ball over the first level of defenders, but in front of the second. Gillins does have some footwork and accuracy issues to clean up, but that is true for almost all high school quarterbacks. He shows impressive athleticism and appears to be a true dual-threat quarterback, though how much his ACL injury has impacted him as a runner won't be known for another year, at which point his senior highlight film will be available. If it returns, Gillins could be a dangerous piece in a spread offense. As a sophomore, he profiled as a recruit who could develop the tools to be a starter at the major college level.
The Badgers were a late entrant in the Gillins sweepstakes and beat out Boston College and Arizona for his services. He now becomes Wisconsin's third consensus four-star commit for 2014, joining offensive tackle Jaden Gault and defensive tackle Craig Evans. Guard George Panos and defensive end Billy Hirschfeld are also four-star commits according to 247.
The Badgers do also have an interest in three-star Hollywood (University School) Fla., quarterback Sean White. But between Gillins and 2015 Sandy (Jordan), Utah quarterback Austin Kafentzis' commitment? The Badgers seem pretty well set at quarterback for years to come.
QB's Gary Andersen has landed so far: Tanner McEvoy, Austin Kafentzis and D.J. Gillins. Pretty impressive list for the #Badgers. — Jon McNamara (@McNamaraRivals) July 8, 2013
With FL QB D.J. Gillins committing, Wisconsin is now the No. 24 overall class in the http://t.co/ImzKinAa81 team rankings #Badgers — Brice Marich (@BriceMarich) July 8, 2013 |
The first flock of games to support Xbox Play Anywhere have been listed. These are the games that will be cross-buy on Windows 10 and Xbox One, which means if you buy one version, you get the other free, and your saved games and add-ons work with both.
Microsoft announced Xbox Play Anywhere during it's E3 2016 press conference, and it sounds like all of the first-party games will support it going forward. The list isn't much of a surprise, then, but it's there for reference nonetheless.
The Xbox Play Anywhere games:
Gears of War 4
Forza Horizon 3
ReCore
Sea of Thieves
Halo Wars 2
Scalebound
Killer Instinct Season 3
State of Decay 2
Ark: Survival Evolved
Cuphead
We Happy Few
Crackdown 3
There's an Xbox Play Anywhere FAQ but it doesn't add anything noteworthy enough to put down here. |
PITTSBURGH, April 3 (UPI) -- A judge ordered psychiatric evaluations Thursday for a Pittsburgh-area woman who allegedly drowned one son in the bathtub and tried to kill another.
During a hearing for Laurel Schlemmer, a prosecutor told Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Manning that doctors at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh report the surviving boy has no brain activity. Daniel Schlemmer, 6, was on life support at the hospital.
Manning also denied bail for Schlemmer. She appeared via videolink from the Allegheny County Jail.
Schlemmer, 40, has been charged with killing her youngest son, Luke, 3, and the attempted murder of Daniel.
RELATED Pennsylvania woman charged with drowning young son in bathtub
Manning said Schlemmer would be evaluated at the behavior unit at the Allegheny County Jail and by a psychiatrist selected by her family.
Schlemmer was arrested Tuesday after police, responding to her 911 call, found the boys at her home in McCandless. An older brother, 7, was at school and her husband at work.
Investigators said Schlemmer at first told them the boys drowned accidentally but then admitted she got in the tub and sat on them. She said she believed she could do a better job with her eldest son, and that the younger boys would be better off in heaven.
RELATED Body found in Washington park identified as man suspected of abducting Relisha Rudd
At least two previous incidents have been reported of Schlemmer harming her children. Northern Regional police were notified by a hospital after the two younger boys were injured when their mother hit them with her car during a visit to her parents.
"Mrs. Schlemmer advised the doctors that she had accidentally run over her two children while moving her vehicle at her parents' home in Marshall Township," Chief Robert Ammann said.
In 2009, Schlemmer admitted leaving a toddler unattended in a car outside a shopping mall.
[Pittsburgh Post Gazette] |
People take photos in Times Square in New York, September 29, 2012. REUTERS/Andrew Burton
(Reuters) - Cellphone users should be allowed to switch their devices to any mobile carrier, the White House said on Monday in response to an online petition against the recent banning of the practice.
More than 100,000 people signed the petition protesting the ban on switching imposed by the Library of Congress, which took effect in January. At issue is whether cellphone buyers, who get new devices at a heavily subsidized price in return for committing to long-term contracts, should be able to take their gadgets with them when they change carriers.
Many in the telecoms industry argue that cellphones should be “locked” - or prevented from moving freely across networks - because of the massive subsidies that carriers provide, effectively putting the devices in the hands of more people.
The petition argued that preventing “unlocking” reduces consumer choice and resale value of phones, which can cost hundreds of dollars without subsidies from carriers like AT&T Inc, Verizon Wireless and Sprint.
“The White House agrees with the 114,000+ of you who believe that consumers should be able to unlock their cell phones without risking criminal or other penalties,” R. David Edelman, a senior advisor for Internet, Innovation, & Privacy to the Obama administration, wrote in the White House’s response.
“This is particularly important for secondhand or other mobile devices that you might buy or receive as a gift, and want to activate on the wireless network that meets your needs - even if it isn’t the one on which the device was first activated. All consumers deserve that flexibility.”
The Library of Congress, which among other things is responsible for setting rules and deciding on exemptions related to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, said on Monday the issue would benefit from further debate and that its intention was not to supplant public policy discussion.
The Library of Congress got involved late last year during a rulemaking session conducted by the Register of Copyrights, which advises the organization. Unidentified participants in the rulemaking process, a technical, legal proceeding that allows members of the public to request exemptions to the copyright act, raised the issue then.
The Library of Congress subsequently decided that cellphones should no longer be exempted from the relevant section of copyright law, triggering the January ban on “unlocking.” |
.223 Remington ammunition and 5.56x45 NATO are closely related and sometimes interchangeable cartridges depending on the firearm they are to be used with. Manufacturers typically offer guidance on this point. In general, the 5.56 NATO ammunition the military uses and is for sale to the civilian market operates at higher pressures than .223 Remington ammo. Most, but not all, AR-15s are chambered for 5.56 NATO and can fire both types of ammo.
Many loads in both calibers follow the M193 or M855 standard, both of which are military specifications. M193 ammo typically fires a 55 grain full metal jacket bullet at 3,240 feet per second, while M855 ammo fires a heavier 62 grain FMJ bullet at about 3,100 feet per second. These common standards are very helpful when sighting in your optics and you'll find both cartridges in-stock and available in cheap bulk packs here at Widener's |
Proponents of a $400 million, 68-turbine wind farm at Collector say most of the village residents support the project, which has moved a step closer to approval.
RATCH-Australia is expected to take two years building the region's latest wind farm near the Federal Highway at Collector. It will generate up to 228 megawatts of electricity, or enough energy to power around 80,000 homes annually.
Chief executive Steve Loxton said the 60-day public exhibition period represented the culmination of years of research.
''Our surveys of local Collector residents confirm that there is strong support for renewable energy and we look forward to, indeed encourage, the participation of the community and other stakeholders during the public exhibition period,'' he said.
''We believe our proposal has significant merit, not only through its contribution towards helping meet Australia's renewable energy target, but also through it contribution to the local community and economy through investment, employment and a $200,000 per annum community benefit fund for Collector, which will be established once the wind turbines are operational.'' |
Heads up Occupy Toronto: Forget about protesting Canada’s growing income inequality on Bay Street. Most of Canada’s richest 1 per cent doesn’t even work in the financial district. Instead, many of Canada’s highest income earners are doctors, dentists and veterinarians, new research shows, according to a study out of the University of British Columbia economics department.
Canada's 1 per cent have been identified by UBC, and it's not mostly financial services workers. Peter, a healthcare worker from Toronto, joins a march past Toronto's financial district as part of the 'Occupy Bay Street' demonstration on Saturday October 2011. ( Chris Young / THE CANADIAN PRESS )
Canada’s richest are much more “Main Street than Bay Street,” said report co-author Nicole Fortin. To be considered one Canada’s one per cent income earners, you need to make at least $230,000 a year. You’re most likely male (82.5 per cent), have a university degree (58 per cent versus 19 per cent of the total population) and work longer than average hours (52 per cent work at least 50 hours a week compared to 20 per cent of the rest of the population). “In the eyes of many, the culprits are to be found at the very place where the Occupy movement started: on Wall Street, or our own Bay Street,” the study said. “But there are just not enough investment bankers and high-flying stock brokers to fill the ranks of the 275,000 individuals in the top 1 per cent.”
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The paper, called Canadian Inequality: Recent Development and Policy Options, reveals there’s no doubt Canada’s wage gap is growing. The top one per cent of Canadians now controls 14 per cent of total income, the paper found, noting they enjoyed just eight per cent in the 1970s. “Such an uneven distribution of income has not been seen since the dark days of the Great Depression when it reached an all-time high of 18 per cent,” the paper notes. It’s not as simple as blaming the financial industry. Still supporters and observers of Occupy Toronto say targeting the financial district as a symbol of wealth concentration still makes sense.
“My sense is be it Wall St. or Bay St., it represents the concentration of wealth. Even if it’s doctors or dentists or people in high income brackets, they are the ones who have the money to invest to accumulate more money. It’s a symbol,” said Winnie Ng, a long-time activist who currently holds the CAW Sam Gindin chair in social justice and democracy at Ryerson University. In the U.S., where the income gap is even higher, Wall St. has become the target of protests partly because excesses in the financial industry led to the recession in 2008, Fortin noted. Many Americans feel the industry escaped unpunished and are frustrated with the pace of financial reform, she added.
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In comparison, Canada came out of the financial crises relatively unscathed with its banks seen as models of good corporate governance. There are other reasons Canada’s income gap is widening, the report found. Recessions, offshoring and technological change have eliminated many good paying lower skilled jobs or lead to lower starting rates for new hires. Minimum wage increases in most provinces have helped the lowest income earners keep pace. Also, unionization rates in Canada have declined less than in the U.K. and the U.S., the paper noted. But a “hollowing out” of good middle-income relatively low skilled jobs, such as auto plant manufacturing, has widened the gap, the study found. The one group that has made gains during this period is women as more of them joined the workforce, got university degrees and took jobs in the relatively recession-proof public sector, such as education and health care. Noting that much of the research has focused on the U.S., the authors say Canada needs to understand its own problem in order to develop the right response. The richest 1 per cent Average earnings: $452,887/yr (versus $36,000 for the other 99 per cent) Gender: 82.7 per cent male Work habits: 50+ hours/week: Age: 35 and 64 years Occupation: Doctors, dentists, vets, senior management, finance industry professionals Source: Canadian Inequality, UBC research paper |
Chef Profile Blog Joined August 2005 10670 Posts Last Edited: 2010-02-14 05:40:46 #1
Parallel Worlds
It is the fool that spends his hour perplexing,
The nature of unexpected vexing,
It is the fool that thinks it is mere chance,
When he finds himself in great happenstance,
We each are linked to an unknown brother,
What befalls one, will befall the other,
Their fates together eternally swirled,
Fighting to control each parallel world.
Introduction
Tandem StarCraft is UMS map inspired by the game "Tandem Chess." In Tandem StarCraft, two separate one versus one games are played, and the objective is the same as in normal melee StarCraft. The catch is that if you destroy one of your enemy's units, your ally on the other map receives that unit help him in his own battles. Likewise, if you lose a unit to your enemy, your ally's enemy will gain that unit to use against him. The first team to lose a player loses the game.
The Map
Download
The map, as shown here, is split in two symmetrical halves. On the left, Player 1 fight against Player 3, and on the right, Player 2 fights against Player 4. The map is extensively decorated, and though the overview of this small picture does not show it, it is quite pleasant in game. The map, as shown here, is split in two symmetrical halves. On the left, Player 1 fight against Player 3, and on the right, Player 2 fights against Player 4. The map is extensively decorated, and though the overview of this small picture does not show it, it is quite pleasant in game.
Rules
-Players on the left map cannot send units to the right, and vice versa.
-Units killed on one map spawn around a civilian on the other.
-If one player loses all his buildings, his ally's units are destroyed.
-If your civilian is killed, you are punished by having all your minerals and gas reset to zero.
-Players on the left map cannot send units to the right, and vice versa.-Units killed on one map spawn around a civilian on the other.-If one player loses all his buildings, his ally's units are destroyed.-If your civilian is killed, you are punished by having all your minerals and gas reset to zero. Tips
-Civilians have low health, but in the early game there is very little threat. Use them to scout for proxies and other cheesy strategies.
-If your ally's opponent is the same race as you, your supply will build up very quickly. Build extra farms to compensate for this.
-Units that die on this map do not actually leave the map. Armies will be traded back and forth and only become bigger each time.
-If you are doing a risky build that involves high tech units such as Dark Templar, make sure your ally has detection in case you lose them.
-Some units are less useful to your ally's opponent than others. If you lose High Templar, and your ally's opponent can't research psi storm, he will only be able to morph them into archons.
DOWNLOAD HERE
-Civilians have low health, but in the early game there is very little threat. Use them to scout for proxies and other cheesy strategies.-If your ally's opponent is the same race as you, your supply will build up very quickly. Build extra farms to compensate for this.-Units that die on this map do not actually leave the map. Armies will be traded back and forth and only become bigger each time.-If you are doing a risky build that involves high tech units such as Dark Templar, make sure your ally has detection in case you lose them.-Some units are less useful to your ally's opponent than others. If you lose High Templar, and your ally's opponent can't research psi storm, he will only be able to morph them into archons. Alternate Versions
Here alternate versions of my release of Tandem StarCraft will be kept. New features, modifications, and cosmetic changes are somethings you might find here.
Frogmelter - Download - Units transfer with research (but not weapon/armor/shield) upgrades that they had when killed. Text colours changed. Urasadon added. Some unit name changes. Could still be buggy (this is 4th revision).
oberon - Download] - Tandem StarCraft on Destination. Currently in testing.
+ Show Spoiler [Version 1] +
Introduction
There exists a popular variant of Chess called "Tandem Chess." In
Wouldn't it be fun if there were Tandem StarCraft? It would, and it is.
The Map
Download Here
Alt:
As you can see the layout of the map is very simple. This is the initial version as a proof of concept, but it is very fun none the less. In the future, a more complex map may be created.
The Rules
All players are Protoss (for the sake of balance on a simple map)
When you kill an enemy unit, your ally receives that unit beside his psi emitter for him to use.
When one player on a team loses all his or her buildings, the game is over and that team loses.
Any unit that tries to fly thru the centre to get to the other side of the map is destroyed.
Advisements
If you have two skilled players, and two not so skilled players, Tandem StarCraft is an excellent way to keep games fresh and interesting. Unlike regular 2v2 where the skilled players would end up doing all the work, in Tandem StarCraft if a skilled player faces off against a weak player, and the same is true for the other side of the map, the weaker player will gain the reinforcements of his skillful ally to help keep the game fun for everyone.
Keeping track of your psi emitter and making sure your enemy doesn't steal it can be an important factor in this game. and enemy who surronds your psi emitter will essentially make his allies units everlasting.
Teching intelligently will be key to success in this matchup. If your opponent gets a dark templar your ally has foolishly lost, you better make sure you have the detection to stop it.
Supply could build up very quickly since essentially units will never leave the map. Make sure you compensate with more pylons than normal.
DOWNLOAD HERE
Alt: There exists a popular variant of Chess called "Tandem Chess." In Tandem Chess two teams of two players each play on two separate boards. If a piece is captured on one board, the player's ally who captured the peice, gets to place the piece on his board anywhere in the centre. The first team to checkmate on either board wins.Wouldn't it be fun if there were Tandem StarCraft? It would, and it is.Alt: http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=0354ff10adeab1c7d9d5c56d04dfa8b0e04e75f6e8ebb871 As you can see the layout of the map is very simple. This is the initial version as a proof of concept, but it is very fun none the less. In the future, a more complex map may be created.All players are Protoss (for the sake of balance on a simple map)When you kill an enemy unit, your ally receives that unit beside his psi emitter for him to use.When one player on a team loses all his or her buildings, the game is over and that team loses.Any unit that tries to fly thru the centre to get to the other side of the map is destroyed.If you have two skilled players, and two not so skilled players, Tandem StarCraft is an excellent way to keep games fresh and interesting. Unlike regular 2v2 where the skilled players would end up doing all the work, in Tandem StarCraft if a skilled player faces off against a weak player, and the same is true for the other side of the map, the weaker player will gain the reinforcements of his skillful ally to help keep the game fun for everyone.Keeping track of your psi emitter and making sure your enemy doesn't steal it can be an important factor in this game. and enemy who surronds your psi emitter will essentially make his allies units everlasting.Teching intelligently will be key to success in this matchup. If your opponent gets a dark templar your ally has foolishly lost, you better make sure you have the detection to stop it.Supply could build up very quickly since essentially units will never leave the map. Make sure you compensate with more pylons than normal.Alt: http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=0354ff10adeab1c7d9d5c56d04dfa8b0e04e75f6e8ebb871 LEGEND!! LEGEND!! |
Apparently, it wasn’t enough for a Cleveland police officer to shoot 12-year-old Tamir Rice less than two seconds after arriving on-scene in 2014 and handcuff his sister when she tried to help him, nor for his mother to be left homeless in 2015 as she waited months for an investigation. It wasn’t enough for Cleveland to actually blame the little boy for his own death, or to present multiple reports which found his killing to be “reasonable”.
On Wednesday, in a letter submitted by the city’s Director of Law Barbara Langhenry, the City of Cleveland actually sued Tamir’s family for $500, which it claims is “past due – owing for emergency medical services rendered as the decedent’s last dying expense”, according to Cleveland Scene.
Tamir Rice: Cleveland says family owes $500 for EMS after fatal police shooting Read more
In the creditor’s claim, the line item expenses coldly break down to $450 for “Advance Ambulance Life Support” – dispatched after Cleveland officers “waited minutes to give first aid” to the boy one of them had shot – and another $50 for “mileage”.
In the coming days, we will likely hear that the city had no choice but to sue the Rice estate, that Cleveland is justified by the very economic and faux moral argument which scoundrels unleash in such scenarios (and which David Graeber tears apart in Debt: The First 5,000 Years): that “one has to pay one’s debts”.
But make no mistake: viewing Tamir as a debtor to a society which killed him is racial capitalism at its worst, which Nancy Leong calls “the process of deriving social or economic value from the racial identity of another person”.
It is the second such grotesque lawsuit against a dead black boy in less than a week by a party charged with his death. Just a few days ago, Chicago Police Officer Robert Rialmo sued the estate of 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier for $10m. According to CNN, the lawsuit alleges that “LeGrier’s actions had forced Officer Rialmo to end LeGrier’s life, and to accidentally take the innocent life of [bystander] Bettie Jones,” which “has caused, and will continue to cause, Officer Rialmo to suffer extreme emotional trauma”.
This again is vulgar racial capitalism: an attempt to extract as much value as possible from black lives, even by those which abuse or terminate them.
In between news of both of these lawsuits, the United States federal government announced that it is suing the city of Ferguson, which attorney General Loretta Lynch said came about after “painstaking negotiations [that] lasted more than 26 weeks as we sought to remedy literally years of systematic deficiencies”. Racial capitalism was at work here, too, as Ferguson shamefully had paid its bills for years by arresting and fining black people and even throwing them in (supposedly unconstitutional) debtors’ prisons. When Ferguson’s “city council rejected the consent decree approved by their own negotiators”, Lynch said, the federal government had no choice but to sue them to comply.
At least this last lawsuit is filed in the name of justice for black people and, according to the Washington Post, the odds are in the feds’ favor: Since the beating of Rodney King in 1991, the Justice Department has launched 67 civil rights investigations against local police forces, and it won all but one of them.
But it is depressing that when something terrible happens to black people, our lives can be reduced to the clinical scale of dollar amounts and court filings.
“The records which slavers have left are remarkable for one thing,” historian Toby Green writes in The Rise of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Western Africa, 1300 - 1589: “their extremely narrow economic focus.” In describing the cold, quantitative and monetary records those in the slave trade left of the human beings they owned, trafficked and sold, Green writes : “Those documents reveal a mindset uninterested in the world beyond the narrow perimeters of profit and survival.”
When the historians of the future look at Cleveland’s lawsuit against a dead black child or a Chicago cop’s lawsuit against a dead teenager, will they, too, think that – when it comes to black lives mattering – we have a mindset “uninterested in the world beyond the narrow perimeters of profit and survival”? That our records render meaningless the lives of the black humans to mere dollars? |
Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” President Barack Obama said he thinks President-elect Donald Trump “has not spent a lot of time sweating the details.”
Obama said, “I think that he has not spent a lot of time sweating the details of, you know, all the policies.”
He added, “I think that can be both a strength and a weakness. I think it depends on how he approaches it. If he — if it gives him fresh eyes, then that can be valuable. But it also requires you knowing what you don’t know. And putting in place people who — do have the kinds of experience and background and knowledge that can inform good decision making. And, look, I’m — I think it’s fair to say that he and I are sort of opposites in some ways.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN |
When Wales lost to Western Samoa in 1991 in Cardiff and became the first foundation union to fail to qualify for a World Cup quarter-final, the joke was that it had been just as well they were not playing the whole of Samoa.
Western may have long gone but Wales face a shoot-out against Samoa in Hamilton on Sunday. Defeat would almost certainly see them perish at the group stage for the fourth World Cup in six, although a group that also includes South Africa and Fiji may see the team that finishes second suffer two reverses.
Wales's narrow defeat by the holders South Africa in Wellington last Sunday, when they missed two late kicks that would have won the match, was the one rousing performance by a Six Nations country in the opening round and it should have yielded more than a mere bonus point.
While the All Blacks are widely criticised for their policy of rotating selection, the New Zealand-born Wales coach, Warren Gatland, named an unchanged starting line-up with the only new face on the bench being the prop Gethin Jenkins, who has recovered from a calf injury.
It is five years since a Wales coach last said "same again". They now face a shoot-out against Samoa in Hamilton on Sunday. Defeat now would almost certainly see Wales perish at the group stage for the fourth World Cup in six, although a group that also includes South Africa and Fiji may see the team that finishes second suffer two reverses.
Wales have had a week to recover from their opening match, but Samoa have just a four-day turnaround for a game that is highly significant to both sides. Wales have a poor record against Samoa and Fiji in World Cups, losing to the former in 1991 and 1999 and the latter four years ago.
"There are no second chances for us," Gatland says, who is returning to his home town. "We are all aware that the bottom line is that it is a game that we must win. It is that important to us. We must match the performance of last Sunday and that is why we have named the same side. We know what to expect from Samoa and we have to match their physicality."
Despite the defeat, last Sunday was probably Wales's best performance since they won the 2008 grand slam under Gatland. Had they not been hit by injuries to five senior players, they would have been able to match the Springboks' resources on the bench that ultimately proved the difference between the sides.
Wales surprised the Springboks with their sustained ferocity. Three players who had made an impact with the Lions in South Africa in 2009, Jamie Roberts, Mike Phillips and Alun Wyn Jones, rediscovered their form of that tour, showing a hardened resolve that proved infectious.
Wales were happy to seek contact, Roberts rarely taking the ball at pace through the channel of the outside-half Morne Steyn, a player not known to relish defending, but they will need to create space against a side who relish head-on confrontation but also play in the right areas. Wales have in the past been vulnerable against Samoa and Fiji because they have traded control for anarchy.
"We have to make sure our patterns are correct," Shane Williams, the Wales wing, said. "This week is going to be even more important than the last one. This is a different Samoa team to the ones we have faced in the past. There is more structure to their game and their set pieces are good, but as soon as you start playing sevens against them you are in trouble."
Gatland has not been afraid to invest in youth. The average age of Wales's back row is less than 23 and Sam Warburton, Toby Faletau and Dan Lydiate have just 37 caps between them, but they eclipsed the vastly more experienced South African loose trio last Sunday and their ability to force turnovers may be decisive against Samoa.
Wales are not known for their tendency to back up performances. If the defeat to South Africa highlighted an inability to defeat the highest-ranked sides that has irked Gatland during his four-year reign, what has also maddened him is inconsistency.
If Wales show the same drive and determination that left South Africa hanging on at times, they will surely win but it is far from a given. What should galvanise them is the knowledge that defeat would surely mean an early ticket home, and while that has not been the case in the past, Wales have become mentally tougher under Gatland. Sunday will show by how much. |
Facebook officially launched its Marketplace on Monday, once again attempting to carve out a piece of peer-to-peer local sales.
The feature, which Facebook has been testing for the past year, allows users to post items they want to sell and casually shop goods for sale in their communities. The tool integrates with Facebook Messenger so users can negotiate and arrange logistics.
Facebook is not facilitating in-app payments at this time but likely will head in that direction, based on the company’s efforts to turn Messenger into a friend-to-friend payment app.
Although Messenger has been a key focus for Facebook in recent years, Marketplace is replacing the chat tool in the Facebook iOS app’s navigation bar. That switch gives some insight into how much of a priority Marketplace is for Facebook.
In Marketplace, users can search specific items or browse items for sale by category. They can also adjust the distance they’re willing to travel for an item, using a built-in location tool.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because Marketplace is nearly identical to Bellevue, Wash.-based OfferUp.
OfferUp has seen tremendous success by challenging Craigslist with its user-friendly, mobile-first marketplace for buying and selling within communities. This David and Goliath story may have a twist ending, with Facebook entering the ring as another giant to fight.
OfferUp’s tremendous growth is the reason Facebook has been trying to tap the local buying and selling space for years. In 2007, the company rolled out its first iteration of “Marketplace” but weak traction led Facebook to shut the feature down in 2014.
Facebook does have a key advantage over Craigslist and (to a lesser extent) OfferUp. There’s a heightened sense of security and accountability when arranging a sale via the Facebook portal because user names and basic information are associated with the transaction.
Scams and safety concerns have always been a problem for Craigslist. OfferUp already uses Facebook authentication to build a sense of trust. Now, it seems, Facebook wants to leverage that trust for its own gains.
Facebook Marketplace is rolling out in the U.S., UK, Australia, and New Zealand on iOS and Android over the next few days. It will be available on desktop and in other countries later this year. |
Open carry demonstrators follow Ferguson protesters (WFAA)
Three members of a Texas open carry group carried rifles over their shoulders as they trailed a small group of Ferguson protesters Wednesday night in Dallas.
About two-dozen demonstrators chanted, “no justice, no peace,” as they marched several blocks into downtown from police headquarters.
They were followed by members of Come and Take It Texas, an open-carry group that has previously made national news by complaining they were being “trolled by skanky topless libtards” during their monthly gun rights demonstrations.
The open-carry advocates insisted they respected the rights of the group protesting the decision by a Missouri grand jury not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
The rifle-toting demonstrators said they followed the civil rights activists to protect private property.
The two groups occasionally spoke cordially during the march as a dozen police cars followed their route.
No arrests were made Wednesday in the Dallas area in connection with the demonstrations.
Seven protesters were arrested Tuesday night as they blocked lanes on Interstate 35 as part of similar demonstrations nationwide.
Texas allows the open carry of most rifles, but not handguns.
Gov.-elect Greg Abbott has said he would sign legislation to allow for the open carry of handguns.
Watch this video report posted online by WFAA-TV: |
An Ontario offshore wind company is seeking $2.25 billion in damages from the provincial Liberal government after the province declared a moratorium on off-shore wind farms.
"Ontario assassinated the company and the offshore industry by stealth through a press release," John Kourtoff, the head of Trillium Wind Power Corp., told CBC News.
The financial damages the company is seeking are to cover the $5.3 million already spent and the lost potential revenue, Kourtoff said.
He said he decided to sue after someone in Premier Dalton McGuinty's office informed him on Sept. 1 that there was "no political appetite to deal with this either before or after the election."
"This was not supposed to be about politics. According to them, there were some studies that were necessary. That's all rubbish," Kourtoff said.
The Ontario government maintains that the suit has no merit and environmental concerns trumped other worries. None of the company's claims have been proven in court.
"In my 17 years in elected office I don't think I've ever seen such a frivolous lawsuit," said Energy Minister Brad Duguid. "This company has no contract with the province at all and it's suggesting that somehow or another the province doesn't have a responsibility to ensure we take every environmental protection."
In February, the Ontario government put a moratorium on all offshore wind development, saying more research was needed to determine health and environmental impacts, particularly with respect to projects in the Great Lakes.
Trillium says the announcement came hours before the company was set to sign a financing deal with a major investor.
The lawsuit claims that the government acted in bad faith and its action amounted to "a confiscation of property rights, without warning or substantive justification" that destroyed the company.
Trillium was planning a wind power project to be the first in Lake Ontario, between 17 and 28 kilometres from shore. It would have delivered enough electricity to power a minimum of 177,000 typical Ontario homes.
Some American states like Ohio are pushing ahead with plans to build wind farms in the Great Lakes, having deemed them both environmentally and economically viable.
Supporters of the project claim that a huge opportunity to create jobs in Ontario has been lost.
The Conference Board of Canada has indicated that the development and operation of offshore wind energy "would add between $4.8 billion and $5.5 billion to Ontario’s economy" by 2026 and would add up to 4,400 jobs per year during the construction phase.
"The real losers in this are people who want to have a job, especially younger people," Kourtoff said. "Are we going to have a province of people scratching lottery tickets, or are we going to have a province of people actually manufacturing things?" |
Luca Bruno/Associated Press
Alvaro Morata followed up his goal for Juventus on Saturday with a "deal with it" celebration.
The Spaniard's shot went in after a mess of a save from Samir Handanovic:
The Inter Milan goalkeeper is definitely going to have to deal with it—Juventus sealed the victory 2-1.
Update: May 20
The fan who owned the sunglasses has been speaking to the Italian media about the incident and admits he was annoyed Morata wore them.
The 27-year-old named Simone spoke to La Gazzetta dello Sport, per Football Italia:
For a huge Inter fan like me, it really wasn’t fun to see a Juve player put them on. I was very angry at conceding the goal, as it completed the comeback and was basically a fluke from Samir Handanovic’s mistake. Morata came to celebrate underneath the Curva where I was. I had my sunglasses in my hand, was agitated at the situation and they flew out of my hand. When I saw Bonucci pick them up and hand them to his team-mate, I tried to call out to them, but they didn’t hear me. After the celebration Morata threw them to the side of the pitch and who knows where they ended up. I haven’t seen them again. Fortunately, I only paid €2 for them at a market stall… It was an accident and I certainly didn’t intentionally throw them.
[Twitter] |
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I thought it would be a few years before we saw hydrogen fuel cells used in camping… but here they are…
One of the award winners at this year’s Outdoor Trade Show was the Hydrogen Fuel Cell USB charger from Brunton.
This phone charger takes lightweight hydrogen fuel cells that releases hydrogen into a reactor to generate power, and only releases water vapour, not fumes.
They estimate that a single hydrogen fuel cell, which just looks like a metal cylinder, is equivalent to 15AA batteries and should be enough for 6 mobile phone charges.
The reactor comes with two hydrogen fuel cells, and more can be purchased (believed to be around £4 each).
Now for most of us family campers, we usually camp with our car, and so a 12V adaptor that fits in the car usually does the trick. Solar powered chargers have also improved recently, and the Coleman CPX Lanterns also come with a USB charging solution. However, the use of hydrogen fuel cells and their promise of ‘clean’ energy has really been only in university research departments. Until now.
We had a play with the Brunton hydrogen reactor at the show. It’s really lightweight and small – ideal to fit in a back pack.
So whilst this is not something high on the list for family camping, it’s a useful bit of kit if you are going to be away from a power source for a while, and it is an interesting piece of high-tech gadgetry aimed at campers and hikers. |
Manchester’s dead: Victims of British regime-change operations in the Middle East
By Robert Stevens
26 May 2017
More details have emerged about the prior familiarity of British intelligence agencies with the Manchester suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, whose murderous assault Monday evening left 22 people dead.
Given Abedi’s connections and his travel movements leading up to the attack, the only explanation for him being able to remain at large for so long is that he was a protected asset—part of a broad network of operatives utilised by Britain and the US to conduct their nefarious operations in the Middle East.
It is the exposure of these operations which accounts for the fury of Prime Minister Theresa May over the US leaking of intelligence information about the UK’s investigation into the bombing. Whatever the specific reasons for these leaks, they have completely undermined the British authority’s original claims that Abedi was an unknown, “lone wolf”. Rather, it is now clear that those killed and maimed while enjoying a pop concert are the victims of British regime-change policy in the Middle East and North Africa.
We know now that British intelligence had received warnings, on at least five separate occasions in the last five years, that Abedi presented a danger, including that he had discussed committing a suicide bombing.
According to new leaks Thursday, Abedi had travelled extensively in the run-up to the attack, including flying from Istanbul to the UK via Germany’s Dusseldorf airport. For years, Turkey has been used as a transit point into Syria by European jihadists, joining Western-led efforts to topple the regime of Bashar Al-Assad.
Several sources, including French intelligence, have made public their conclusions that Abedi had been to Syria and received training there. The Financial Times also reported that a “Turkish official” said that Abedi had travelled through Istanbul on at least two other occasions over the past year. The newspaper reported, “In mid-April he flew from Amsterdam to Libya, while in late May 2016 he flew from Manchester to Libya, transiting through Istanbul Ataturk airport both times.”
Abedi may have travelled through at least two European Union countries on his way from Turkey to Manchester. Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reported that Abedi flew from Dusseldorf to Manchester on May 18—four days before the attack. The newspaper cited German intelligence sources who said that he arrived in Germany from Libya via Prague.
The Guardian reported, “It is known that the 22-year-old travelled to Germany at least twice, including a visit to the financial city of Frankfurt.” It added, “Düsseldorf is in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where Anis Amri, the Berlin Christmas market attacker, spent time.”
Further leaks were reported by the German magazine, Focus. Citing German intelligence sources, it said Abedi flew to Frankfurt from Britain in 2015. Focus said that Germany’s intelligence agency BKA had been told by police in the UK that this visit took place before Abedi undertook paramilitary training in Syria. It reported that he had not been apprehended in Germany, as he was not on any watch list.
There is no innocent explanation for the fact that Abedi was able to travel to Libya, Syria, Turkey and the UK unhindered. It has nothing to do with the spurious claims about the UK having “leaky borders”, or too few border guards. Abedi’s ability to pass through customs without interference can only mean that he had been given the all clear.
For decades, successive British governments have worked with jihadi groups, prepared to use atrocities to achieve their objectives. This has meant that, behind the “war on terror” and the relentless assault on democratic rights that it has entailed, UK authorities have been harbouring Islamist extremist operatives and groups who can be set into motion at the required time, in line with British imperialist foreign policy objectives.
Groups such as Algeria’s Armed Islamic Group (GIA), the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al-Qaeda all had bases in London. Al-Qaeda considered London the nerve centre of its operations in Europe, with the security services collaborating with some of these organisations and their leaders, the most well known being Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada.
Likewise, British imperialism worked closely with Libyan Islamists, supporting them in their opposition to then Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. As former MI5 agent David Shayler revealed, MI6 collaborated with one such organisation, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, in the attempted assassination of Gaddafi in 1996.
For years, a group of LIFG members were active in the Whalley Range district of Manchester, close to Salman Abedi’s home. Salman Abedi’s father, Ramadan Abedi, an airport security officer, was an LIFG member. He and his wife, Samia Tabbal, a nuclear scientist, fled Tripoli in 1991 after he was arrested by the Gaddafi regime. He had been employed in the regime’s internal security service and was reportedly suspected of tipping off members of anti-Gaddafi Islamist groups about pending police raids. The Daily Mail reported, “It appears that Ramadan’s life revolved at several points around toppling Gaddafi...”
After fleeing Libya, Ramadan and his wife lived in Saudi Arabia for a period. They both then went to the UK and applied for and were granted political asylum. They lived first in London and then moved to the south Manchester area, which had become a centre for many anti-Gaddafi elements with which British intelligence maintained the closest links.
Ramadan returned to Libya some time in 2011 in order to fight in the imperialist proxy war that resulted in the overthrow and murder of Gaddafi in October of that year by US/UK-backed “rebels”. This took place after a NATO bombing campaign in which untold numbers were killed nationwide over the preceding eight months. Ramadan went on to become an administrative manager of the Central Security Force in Tripoli, one of the many militias vying for control of the country.
Samia, Abedi’s mother, is a close friend of Umm Abdul Rahman, the widow of a former Al Qaeda commander, Abu Anas al-Libi. Accused of involvement in the 1998 US embassy bombings, the Daily Mail reported that al-Libi “spent five years in Manchester—having won political asylum in Britain in 1995.” The Mail said that “Abdul Rahman went to college in the Libyan capital with Abedi’s mother, who was studying nuclear engineering. She [Rahman] said the two women also lived together in Manchester for a number of years.”
Al-Libi was seized by US forces in Tripoli in October 2013 and died in 2015 of liver cancer before coming to trial. Following the Manchester bombing, Ramadan Abedi and his youngest son, Hashem, were arrested in Tripoli Tuesday night.
Salman Abedi was also known to have been a close associate of one of the main Islamic State recruiters in the UK, Raphael Hostey, who was killed in a drone strike in Syria in 2016. Hostey grew up in Moss Side, just a mile away from Abedi’s home in the Fallowfield district of the city.
In a statement on the bombing, the government of Abdullah Thinni in Bayda, Libya said it had warned the British government it was harbouring terrorists. Thinni’s government was driven out of Tripoli in 2013 by Islamic extremists, including UK-based Libyan exiles. It accused May’s predecessor David Cameron of backing terrorist groups who “have been destroying our cities and towns in an attempt to shape Libya into an exporter of terror to the whole planet.”
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ENCE have revealed their new lineup today, putting an end to speculation on where finnish top AWPer Aleksi "allu" Jalli will be playing.
ENCE eSports didn't wait long after the new year to reveal their new lineup, a quintet of Finns featuring one of the most talked about players in the past month, Aleksi "allu" Jalli, who is also number 19 on our top 20 ranking of 2015.
allu will try his luck at home after European incursions
The team is also bringing on board a support network of well known figures in the Finnish and international scenes, including players turned analysts Joona "natu" Leppänen and Tomi "lurppis" Kovanen, who will be taking on managerial roles.
Joining allu under the ENCE banner will be Tom "stonde" Glad, Juho "juho" Lampinen, Miikka "suNny" Kemppi, and Mikko "xartE" Välimaa, who were seen playing together in MIXCAT and winning ASUS ROG last fall.
natu's statement:
"We've had professional organisations in Finland in the past, but none has ever been able to provide circumstances where the players have had the opportunity to consider themselves as fulltime professional players. We can happily say our team now is in that situation and with our backing we're certain they can simply focus on one thing: playing."
lurppis' statement:
"Finland has never had a CS team with proper backing before, so I am very excited to be a part of ENCE. With allu starring in the team, we know with hard work ENCE can bring Finland back to contention for titles, which is what Counter-Strike is all about."
The players that will be representing ENCE are: |
OTTAWA – Amid concerns from Canadian law enforcement agencies that police will not be ready to apply legalized marijuana laws by July 2018, the federal point-man on pot says it’s important to get the new regime in place as soon as possible.
"I think it’s important that we focus on getting this job done as quickly as we are able. We’ve established a pretty tight timeline, a difficult timeline, but that challenge is I think, an important one and everybody is working hard to get it done," Bill Blair said in response to concerns raised by the police groups Tuesday.
Speaking before the House of Commons Health Committee which is studying Bill C-45, the Cannabis Act, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, Ontario Provincial Police, and the Saskatoon Police Service all said the tight timeline is making them apprehensive about police readiness.
They say more time is needed to make sure police officers are properly trained to enforce the new legal pot regime.
The government had set July 2018 as their target to have marijuana legalized in Canada.
Blair, as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Justice, has been tasked with stickhandling the bill through Parliament.
He acknowledged that the "target date" will require considerable work to meet, but made no indication if government is ready to consider an extension.
The former Toronto police chief said that while he understands and takes seriously the anxiety expressed by law enforcement, the current situation is "unacceptable."
Blair said the rollout will become clearer for stakeholders, like police, once the provinces and territories indicate how they’ll approach legal marijuana in their jurisdictions; and how resources will be allocated.
The federal government recently announced that $274 million has been budgeted to assist police and border officials with enforcing the new legal pot regime.
The police forces also want the federal government to reconsider the portion of the legislation that would allow Canadians to grow up to four marijuana plants at home, saying it could make it easier for youth to access, and that it poses a public safety risk.
"The world is watching Canada throughout this process," said the Canadian Association Chiefs of Police spokesperson Mike Serr at committee on Tuesday.
"We haven’t been able to even start preparing any training packages or training in any sense because we, at this point don’t know don’t know what is going to be encompassed in both provincial and federal legislation, or municipal, so we’re sort of in a holding pattern," said Serr.
"Certainly at the onset we are going to have to insure that our members understand completely the legislation, their authorities under the legislation… so that is where we’re concerned."
Conservative health critic Marilyn Gladu said she’ll be pushing for the bill to be amended to remove the provisions that allow for home growing. She also wants the government to extend the timeline for legalization.
"I think it would be a disservice to Canadians if we didn’t do this properly. This is a big change for us," she said.
Tuesday afternoon, the committee heard about the experiences Colorado and Washington had with legalizing marijuana.
A spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Revenue said that state also rolled out legalized marijuana under a time crunch.
"We were flying the plane as we were building it, and that's unfortunate but yes it was done on a more accelerated timeline than we would have liked," said Michael Hartman.
"It does present challenges, but you are able to work through them if you do it thoughtfully," Hartman said.
The bill, as it’s drafted, would allow adults in Canada to possess and use small amounts of recreational marijuana legally. It sets out the parameters around the production, possession, safety standards, distribution, and sale of marijuana. It also creates new Criminal Code offences for selling marijuana to minors. The proposed federal law spells out that it will be illegal for anyone younger than 18 to buy pot, but leaves the provinces and territories to set a higher age.
The committee of MPs is holding a marathon session of meetings, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. through to Friday, to get a head start on studying Bill C-45, the Cannabis Act, before Parliament resumes on Sept. 18. It’s scheduled to hear from dozens of witnesses over the course of these meetings.
Chair of the House Health Committee, Liberal MP Bill Casey, told CTV News that he anticipates the committee will continue to study Bill C-45 into October. |
The physicist John Archibald Wheeler wrote in 1984:
“...the most revolutionary discovery in science is yet to come! And come, not by questioning the quantum, but by uncovering that utterly simple idea that demands the quantum .” Wheeler, 1984 [1]
“What matches up the many different Bobs with the possible Alices (all observe only one Bob and one Alice) so that ‘reasonable’ stochastic laws emerge from this chaotic mess? A physicist naturally asks for the ‘mechanism’ that has access to the alternatives to accomplish that ‘interaction’ between them. That ‘interaction’ is precisely what QM with its superposition and entanglement and interference between possibilities is, and its necessity demands the quantum.” [2]
The fourth FQXi contest “Which of Our Basic Physical Assumptions Are Wrong?” is now closed. My entry [2] argues that physical actualization of future is the worst offender, and that without it, many profound difficulties will become as trivial as the earth orbiting the sun (no big claim here - it always works out this way with paradigm changes, and who wants to claim that quantum mechnics will not lead to a true paradigm change).
Everett Relativity follows from Special Relativity added to the indeterminism of tautological modal realism. Source: [2]
First request I ask of you today: Go read it please, but be warned. It is the most difficult piece I have ever written. I struggled hard and had to reject some of my own terminology, improving it considerably during these months. The essay changed much since the drafts you may have seen; there is sweat and blood in every line. Many people helped me with making it as clear as possible (thank you Gerhard, Richard, and many more who may not like to be mentioned by name), but because the content cannot be put very differently without destroying the message, it stays to be a difficult read. It can be understood with some effort, as it is self-contained (except for the appendix), and color coding definitions of terms (green) and numbering paragraphs (blue) with extensive cross-references are there to help. I promise that it is worth your effort.
It has to be read twice in order to see that most sentences (which should themselves often be read several times), however strange or clumsy some of them seem, can hardly be put any other way without becoming wrong and/or conflicting with the whole. There is no other way to anticipate a paradigm (the language of which) we do not know (certainly not given a 25k character limit). There is no other way to address the fundamentally wrong, as the contest explicitly asks to do (!), i.e. the meaningless, without violating the main lessons that Wittgenstein taught us, namely, that one has to be silent about the meaningless.
John A. Wheeler
Because of the unavoidable level of difficulty, here the second request I ask of you: Write me here in the comments (or email me) your criticisms and questions. I will put together a FAQ or even write articles about particular issues (probably things like whether I do or do not “believe” in “many-worlds” and suchlike, but maybe there are some surprise topics). Ideally, I would write an article about every single one of the 24 small paragraphs, but time is money. |
The first ever Nexuslab festival day was held on 7 July in Zurich, Switzerland, attended by nearly 170 investors, industry experts and journalists. The event marked the grand finale of the successful first round of Nexuslab, the virtual blockchain startup programme Nexussquared hosts in collaboration with Startupbootcamp.
The Nexuslab pilot programme began on 24th April and culminated in the festival day. In a series of pitch talks, the businesses participating in the programme presented their ideas, illustrating the broad variety of blockchain innovation that is emerging across Europe.
“With the first round of Nexuslab coming to an end, we’re excited to see the journey these startups have undertaken in the past few months. Together with our partners and an international team of mentors, we were able to guide some of the most interesting startups in the European blockchain field from the idea stage to a viable business model. Today, these businesses are standing here, well positioned to attract further funding and ready to shape the future of the blockchain economy in Europe and beyond”, Daniel Grassinger, Managing Director of Nexuslab and co-founder of Nexussquared said.
The presentations by the eight European Nexuslab startups at Zurich’s Kaufleuten venue also pointed to Switzerland’s strong position as a blockchain hub. From trading ownership in music as a form of alternative investment to a banking solution for refugees and creating and signing electronic contracts, festival attendees got a taste of how blockchain technology can be applied to develop tangible business models.
“Nexuslab encouraged us to take risks and pursue our boldest ideas. It was amazing to see how fast all of the startups evolved over the course of the programme. The network we built up with other blockchain entrepreneurs and mentors in a relatively short amount of time is simply invaluable”, Giuseppe Laddomana of Nexuslab participant Paymeabit, an Italian startup, said.
“We entered the programme with an unverified business idea and, with the help of Nexuslab and its mentors, turned our idea into a promising business model. We are proud to finish the programme with our first customer”, Erki Koldits, founder of participating Estonian startup Zlick, a zero-click micropayment solution, said.
The Nexuslab festival also offered leading blockchain thinkers a platform to share their insight into the technology’s future. Fabian Vogelsteller, Ethererum’s lead developer for distributed applications, explained how smart contracts can be deployed to build entire decentralised autonomous organisations, or DAOs, while Roel Steenbergen of Nexuslab partner Rabobank presented his thoughts on how financial institutions can manage disruption. Finally, Ethereum Advisory Board member Bernd Lapp showed how blockchain technology will shape future business models.
With a view to Nexuslab’s future, Daniel Grassinger said: “Our virtual approach combined with in-person hangout sessions and a concluding one-month residency at SwissQ in Zurich has proven a highly effective formula. And we have shown that Switzerland can indeed be a highly attractive place to grow and develop blockchain businesses. Now it’s time to evaluate where we can further improve our concept and make the necessary adjustments. And then, once again, we will be scouting for Europe’s most promising blockchain ideas to kick off the second round of Nexuslab later this year.” |
The Conservative party's election guru Lynton Crosby lobbied a minister against the introduction of plain packaging for cigarettes days before it was announced the London-based Australian lobbyist was to become campaign director for the Tories.
Crosby's London-based lobbying firm, Crosby Textor Fullbrook (CTF), was hired by Philip Morris International (PMI) in the autumn of 2012 because the owner of the Marlboro brand sought to derail plans to sell cigarettes in unbranded cartons, a move health campaigners claim will save lives by making smoking less appealing. Soon after winning the account Crosby made the case against plain packaging to Lord Marland, then parliamentary undersecretary for intellectual property and a former Conservative party treasurer.
On 18 November 2012, the Tories announced Crosby's appointment as their election strategist, giving the Australian lobbyist considerable influence. The following summer, when the government postponed plans to introduce plain packaging, critics were quick to accuse Crosby. But he insisted he had never abused his position, saying in July 2013: "At no time have I had any conversation or discussion with or lobbied the prime minister, or indeed the health secretary or the health minister, on plain packaging or tobacco issues. Any claim that I have sought to improperly use my position as part-time campaign adviser to the Conservative party is simply false."
However, documents released by the Intellectual Property Office under the Freedom of Information Act show he did lobby Marland just before taking up his political role. In an email sent to Marland at 10:32am on 1 November 2012, carrying the subject line "IP [intellectual property] issues and Plain Packaging", Crosby wrote: "My dear Lord. Please find enclosed … a telling opinion from Lord Hoffman plus the view of Peter Lawrence (ex-Patent Division) and an interesting comment on counterfeiting from Crimestoppers.Hoffman is the most telling and concerning from an IP viewpoint."
Hoffman is a former lord of appeal and an expert in intellectual property law. PMI documents obtained by the Observer show that the tobacco giant intended to use intellectual property rights as a major weapon in its campaign against plain packaging.
Hoffman's opinion, commissioned by PMI, argues that "a prohibition on the use of a trademark, which has the effect of disadvantaging those with strong marks against those with weak marks", cannot be justified. Lawrence's article warned that UK "action to deprive brand owners of the right to use their marks would be an unfortunate precedent". The Crimestoppers briefing said plain packaging encourages counterfeiting.
Just over two hours later, Marland forwarded the email and the three attachments to civil servants in his department, saying: "Can we produce a reply please?" The civil servants then sent another internal email noting that the request had been "flagged".
Marland, who has described Crosby as "fantastic", is a close friend of the lobbyist. They worked together on London mayor Boris Johnson's campaigns. "When I was asked to get involved in Boris's campaign for London mayor, the first thing I did was call my friend, campaign guru Lynton Crosby, and ask him to run it," Marland once explained. CTF's website carries a testimony from Marland, calling Crosby "the best [campaign] manager in the world".
The email exchange, released to the Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG) at the University of Bath as part of an ongoing investigation, raises questions about whether Marland discussed the issues forwarded by Crosby with anyone else in government.
"The documents reveal that Crosby was lobbying on the tobacco industry's behalf just days before it was announced he would be working for the Conservatives," said Anna Gilmore, professor of public health at the TCRG. "Both Crosby and David Cameron have serious questions to answer."
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said: "If the tobacco industry, the most profitable and least responsible industry on Earth, manages to block the plan to put cigarettes into plain packs, the prime minister will have a lot of explaining to do."
A spokesman for CTF Partners said: "Lynton Crosby was not working for the Conservative party in any capacity at the time of this discussion and there was no subsequent discussion with Lord Marland. There was no conflict of interest. The email contained documents that the government already had."
The government has yet to make a final decision on plain packaging. |
Content: Hunter’s Legacy
Check price and availability in your Xbox LIVE region
Game Description: Hunter’s Legacy is a 2D Metroidvania platformer starring Ikki, a fierce cat who must save the kingdom of Iripur from the evil Morodir. The game features a non-lineal design where the focus is on exploration and combat in an open world filled with different characters, enemies, and collectibles. Slash your enemies with your mighty twin swords! Aim your bow and charge your attacks to deal even more damage! Roll out of the enemies’ way to counter-attack! Enemies come in many forms and sizes! Battle your foes while you enjoy an adrenaline pumping soundtrack!The level design in Hunter’s Legacy features a verticality that opens many traversing options for the player.
Purchase Hunter’s Legacy for Xbox One from the Xbox Games Store
Product Info:
Developer: Lienzo
Publisher: Lienzo
Website: Hunter’s Legacy
Twitter: @LienzoMx |
Stephen King has had more film adaptations than any other author. When people discuss movies based on his stories, they’re never referred to as horror or science fiction movies. They are simply referred to as Stephen King movies. The man is so prolific that he has become his own genre. Unlike Clive Barker, who has written or produced every adaptation of one of his stories, King usually doesn’t have too much involvement with adaptations of his work. There are simply too many of them and it’s hard to imagine when he would find that sort of time. As such, some of the movies turn out very good, some of the efforts are mediocre, and quite a few turn out to be plain bad.
There are some, however, that – if you’ll pardon the expression – shine through the normal Hollywood politics and budgetary constraints by which they are often bogged down. With over one hundred adaptations to date, it’s natural that some would fall by the wayside and go largely unnoticed despite being very good. These movies all fall into that category. These are five Stephen King movies that either just don’t get the recognition they deserve or are unfairly maligned.
Sometimes They Come Back
Originally published in Night Shift, “Sometimes They Come Back” was a short story that felt like a movie. A high school teacher plagued by his past finds himself with a bunch of new transfer students. These new students are dead-ringers for the gang of thugs that killed his older brother, years ago. They look just the same and they act just the same. What makes the situation even stranger is that his students are dying off in large numbers. And each time a student dies, there’s a new transfer student. Not every major point works as well on the screen as it does on the page. But this telefilm from Friday the 13th Part VI director Tom McLoughlin keeps the core of the story intact and is aware of the confines of its budget. This one spawned two sequels, Sometimes They Come Back Again and Sometimes They Come Back…For More, neither of which is worth a look to anyone besides the morbidly curious.
The Night Flier sounds like the most moronic premise imaginable. And if anyone but Stephen King had created it, it probably would be. This one is about a vampire with a pilot’s license. He stops off on virtually abandoned airstrips, picks off the one or two attendants inside and takes to the skies again. The film adaptation is straight-to-video, so one wouldn’t expect too much. But this movie smartly works major King references into the overall story and shows a great care and respect for both the story and the mythology that King creates. The main performance by Miguel Ferrer is fantastically despicable, so that helps the film along. Ferrer plays a tabloid journalist named Richard Dees who first appeared in The Dead Zone, tasked with finding the story on this supposed vampire. Adding to what already works, the film also benefits from some really great visual FX work.
Silver Bullet
I didn’t realize the general consensus on this movie until I was basically an adult. I grew up renting Silver Bullet. All my friends and I loved it, but that’s small towns for you. The bigger picture can be jarring. Good werewolf movies are hard to come by and I stand by the fact that Silver Bullet at least tells a good story. There are some problems with the film and I see them now, but it still reads like King to me. This is mostly due to the fact that he wrote this adaptation himself, based on his short novel Cycle of the Werewolf. The werewolf FX aren’t anywhere near the level of An American Werewolf in London or The Howling, but they get the job done. The early, quick shots of the beast are particularly effective. Gary Busey also turns in one of his best and most sincere performances in this feature.
The Dark Half
The film adaptation of The Dark Half has a few problems, not the least of which is pacing. In this case, though, it’s both the film and the novel that go largely underrated. This was a period in which King’s output of both movies and books was at an all-time high. It was tough for people to keep up. Without a master like George Romero at the helm, this one would have turned out a lot worse. It was a deeply personal story for King, written under his pseudonym Richard Bachman. He had written several novels as Bachman throughout the late seventies and early eighties, ending with Thinner. Here, it’s Thad Beaumont burying his alter-ego George Stark. But the more violent Stark begins to take on a life of his own after his “death” and goes on a homicidal rampage for which Thad is naturally blamed.
Riding the Bullet
Mick Garris has directed more films, miniseries and TV episodes based on the work of Stephen King than any other filmmaker. He’s basically become known as “The Stephen King guy.” While some of those efforts were widely acclaimed (The Stand) many others (The Shining) were not. Out of that entire body of work, Riding the Bullet is definitely the best. This doesn’t feel like a TV movie at all, it feels like an insightful and eerie indie picture, which is essentially what it is. The plot centers on a young man obsessed with death and the macabre who hitchhikes from his college to the hospital where his mother has just been taken. One of the men who picks him up is a ghost named George Staub who offers the young man a choice: If he wants to survive the night, he must choose between his life or the life of his mother. |
A Thornton man with nine DUI convictions in Colorado and at least three similar convictions in other states is “a classic example” of why Colorado needed a felony DUI charge in Colorado, said Dave Young, 17th Judicial District Attorney.
Eliazar Morales, 54, was sentenced Thursday to six years in prison for his ninth conviction for driving under the influence or driving while ability impaired in Colorado, according to a news release from the 17th Judicial District.
Adams County Judge Cindy Dang also imposed a $2,000 fine. Morales’ prison will serve three years of parole after he’s released from prison, the release said.
“This defendant has demonstrated over and over that he will not stop driving while intoxicated,” Young said. “His actions put people and other motorists in the community at risk. He now has nine convictions for drunk driving offenses in Colorado and more in other states. Mr. Morales’ record and actions provide a classic example of why we need the felony DUI charge in Colorado. With this sentence we know that this dangerous man will be off the streets for the next few years.”
Colorado’s felony DUI law took effect in August 2015.
Morales pleaded guilty to felony DUI in connection with his Oct. 29 arrest, when officers observed him making an erratic U-turn in front of oncoming traffic on Federal Boulevard at West 63rd Avenue in Westminster. Other vehicles had to brake to avoid a collision. Morales then made another U-turn into a shopping center. His blood alcohol content was 0.182, more than twice the legal limit. He was on probation for another DUI conviction at the time.
Morales has nine convictions in Colorado for DUI or DWAI and at least three convictions in other states. His first Colorado DUI arrest was on Sept. 8, 2002. |
This guy is trying to raise money to build dams in Africa by doing 20 half Ironman races. Consequently, he has to travel with his bike a lot. He says that during a recent trip back from Hawaii Delta smashed his bike and won’t even refund the $200 fee he paid them to transport it. This makes him sad.
Here’s his story:
We looked up some information from the Department of Transportation as well as Delta that we hope can help with the issue.
First, here’s how the DOT suggests dealing with damaged baggage.
Airlines assert a limit on their liability for delayed, lost or damaged checked baggage. When your luggage and its contents are worth more than the liability limit, you may want to purchase “excess valuation,” if available, from the airline as you check in. This is not insurance, but it will increase the carrier’s potential liability. The airline may refuse to sell excess valuation on some items that are especially valuable or breakable, such as antiques, musical instruments, jewelry, manuscripts, negotiable securities and cash. Keep in mind that the liability limits are maximums. If the depreciated value of your property is worth less than the liability limit, this lower amount is what you will be offered. If the airline’s settlement doesn’t fully reimburse your loss, check your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance; it sometimes covers losses away from the residence. Some credit card companies and travel agencies offer optional or even automatic supplemental baggage coverage.
We obviously have no idea what this guy’s bike is worth, (probably a lot, it looks really nice) but we looked up Delta’s baggage limit and found this:
For travel entirely within the USA, liability for loss, damage or delay in delivery of baggage is limited to $3,300 per ticketed passenger unless a higher value is declared in advance and additional charges are paid. Carrier assumes no responsibility for fragile or perishable items.
We looked up information about bicycles to see if there were any special rules and didn’t find anything.
Delta’s requirements state that the damage must be reported with 24 hours and a written follow-up be sent within 21 days. It sounds like the damage was reported, so now is the time to write the letter.
If it doesn’t work out, he can file a complaint with the Department of Transportation, here.
Anyone else had to deal with this sort of thing with an airline? Do you have advice for the bereaved former bike-owner? Anything we missed? Anyone want to write a song for him? We hear that is an effective technique.
UPDATE: Delta says, “We will be contacting the customer and working to resolve the issue with the customer. The cause he supports is a extremely important one and we want to be sure he is able to continue his work.” |
Rome, 24 May (AKI) - An Italian anarchist organisation has threatened to carry out attacks that would damage the economy.
"The preparation of action has to be meticulous and studied in the smallest detail to inflict the maximum damage, above all to the economy," said a letter sent to the Il Tempo newspaper and signed by the Kommando Bestia, or Beast Command.
The group claimed to be a cell of the Anarchists Federation (FAI), which took responsibility for shooting the head of a nuclear company in the knee earlier this month.
Giorgio Piccirillo, head of Italy's secret service, on Wednesday giving testimony to a parliamentary committee warned of the return possible "spectacular actions" by the FAI and other domestic terror groups.
After a period of less activity, we can expect a gradual increase in attacks by the Informal Anarchist Federation," Piccirillo told the parliaments' constitutional affairs committee.
The previously unknown 'Olga' cell of the FAI said it shot in the leg Italian nuclear company Ansaldo's boss Roberto Adinolfi in the northwestern port city of Genoa earlier in May.
Extremist left and right-wing Italian terror groups in the 1970s and 1980s planted bombs and carried out political kidnappings. The Red Brigades carried abducted and killed former prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978 |
Oxford University is set to launch a £10 million research programme into medical cannabis. They will be investigating the role of cannabis medicines in treating pain, cancer and inflammatory diseases. The programme is being financially backed by private equity firm Kingsley Capital Partners, who invested the money in the hope of creating an international hub for cannabinoid research.
There have been a number of studies in recent years that have found significant evidence that cannabis can help treat conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS), epilepsy, arthritis and nerve pain. However, most of these studies were conducted in the United States, and unfortunately often not given the same weight as those carried out by our own institutions. Sativex, a prescription drug used by patients to treat MS, is the only licenced cannabis-based product in the country, but is not offered on the NHS, as it was deemed not cost-effective.
Zameel Cader, an associate professor in clinical neuroscience at Oxford said on Radio 4’s Today show:
“We have endogenous cannabinoids in our system that modulate the way in which our synapses operate. They’re really important, they’re pervasive throughout our brain and our immune system, and therefore that’s a fantastic therapeutic opportunity for us. If we can understand better how we can achieve the beneficial effects of cannabinoids while we’re avoiding some of the harmful effects then that potentially could change the way we practice medicine”
These plans for research follow on from widespread calls for the legalisation of medical cannabis, including a report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Reform (APPG), which contributed to 58% of MPs backing medical cannabis. It also has the backing of a number of well-known figures, including Sir Patrick Stewart, who has recently announced he uses medical cannabis daily to treat ortho-arthritis.
Gavin Sathianathan, CEO of Forma Holdings which trades legal medical cannabis in the US, said:
“There is a dearth of research from the UK and having the number one research university in the UK to commit to this is highly significant. And following on from the APPG report last and Mike Barnes’ medical review, this is another step on the path to legalising medical cannabis, or at least demonstrating the benefits of medical cannabis”
The proposed research has the potential to not only find out crucial information about the effects of medical cannabis, but to change the nature of the debate on medical cannabis in our country.
Words by Abbie Llewelyn. Tweets @Abbiemunch |
Over the weekend, Universal hastily re-cut a trailer for the Ron Howard comedy "The Dilemma" after a joke delivered by Vince Vaughn
. The original trailer opens with Vaughn, in a corporate setting, telling a room full of people in suits, "Ladies and gentlemen, electric cars ... are gay. Not homosexual gay, but my-parents-are-chaperoning-the-dance gay." CNN's Anderon Cooper told talk show host Ellen Degeneres he was alarmed when he saw the trailer: "I was shocked. Not only that they put that in a movie, but that they put that in the preview!" It is kind of shocking that someone would say that about an electric car. USA Today's car blogger immediately puts to rest the idea that an electric car could, by any colloquial standard, qualify as "gay":
But, anyway, the issue is obviously not whether electric cars (or, for that matter, dances chaperoned by parents) are gay. They're not. Nor are they straight. The thing about electric cars, or any cars, or any machines I'm aware of, is they don't have sexual desires, unless maybe Google is working on something. Cooper, who has been
, is objecting, of course, to the use of "gay" as a put-down in any situation. In comedy, context, and the constant dance between funny and offensive, is a delicate thing. As to this specific joke, Salon's Tracy Clark-Flory, for one, said its comedic effect
.
Not sure I agree. Watching the original trailer, it's not really clear whether Vince Vaughn's use of "gay" is supposed to indicate that his character is, well, the sort of character Vince Vaughn usually plays, or if it's meant to be funny at face value. The former certainly seems closer to the truth than the latter, in any case. The thing about the "40 Year Old Virgin"
is that those jokes actually are pretty funny, and they're delivered by characters we've been made to like. Which, in context, probably makes that sequence more offensive. Vanity Fair's gay-car-blogger Brett Berk (who, by virtue of his job title, is probably the most authoritative voice on this specific controversy)
that the context is harmless:
Globe and Mail columnist Lynn Crosbie makes the
that crude gay jokes are a key part of how society addresses close male relationships, especially in film:
The timing of all this is poignant, considering that the news lately has been full of disturbing stories about gay teens being bullied, some of whom have
. Strangely, this makes "The Dilemma," by all appearances a marginal dude-bro comedy, one of the most important films of the coming year, as Entertainment Weekly
. Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times
the problem this controversy creates, not just for films containing flippant "gay" jokes, but for free speech in general:
What do you think: Is the controversy overblown, or is Cooper right in being offended by the trailer? And beyond that, when, if ever, is it OK to describe something as "gay"?
E-mail Troy Reimink: treimink@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/troyreimink |
The ancient Mayan civilization existed in the milieu of present day Mexico and Central America from 2600 BC till the Spanish success in the sixteenth century. Considered a piece of the Mesoamerican human progress, which included various indigenous societies in the district, the Mayans made most prestigious discoveries in sectors of science and cosmology that enabled them to make a profoundly complex date-book. They were exceptionally gifted designers and architects who constructed grand structures including royal residences; galactic observatories; sanctuary pyramids; astoundingly straight lifted streets; and reservoir conduits utilizing water weight innovation. The Mayans additionally built up the main finish-composing framework in Mesoamerica and created elastic a few centuries before vulcanization. Moreover, they made innovations of their own, creations like the immense underground repositories that held new water securely in the midst of the dry season.
Here are the 10 noteworthy achievements of the old Mayans human advancement in different fields including space science, arithmetic, design, building and composition:
10. Astronomy
The Mayans discovered careful objective facts of heavenly bodies, recording cosmic information on the developments of the sun, moon, Venus and the stars. In spite of the fact that there were just 365 days in the Haab year, they knew that a year is somewhat longer than 365 days. The Mayans ascertained the length of the year to be 365.2420 days (genuine approx. estimate is 365.2422 days). This is more precise than the estimation of 365.2425 that is utilized as a part of the Gregorian logbook. The Mayans were, along these lines, nearer than our present date-book. Mayans stargazers figured that 81 lunar months endured 2392 days. This gives the length of the lunar month as 29.5308 days, astoundingly near the present day estimation of 29.53059 days. They gauged the 584-day Venus cycle with a slight difference of only two hours. The Mayans likewise took after the developments of Jupiter, Mars and Mercury; and recorded galactic information like obscurations. Mayans cosmic learning was more precise and a long ways in front of Europe.
9. Ball Courts
The Mayans cherished their games, having a great time court in each city, like stadiums that we have today. The recreations were of extraordinary significance to the Maya, frequently playing amid religious celebrations of 20 days. The courts were situated at the foot of sanctuaries, to pay tribute to the Gods and Goddesses. The courts had expansive playing regions; each with a stone loop mounted on the divider toward one side.
The Mayans relished playing an unpleasant game called pok-a-tok, hotchpotch by which the point of the amusement was to take care of business a strong elastic ball through the loop, utilizing just your hips, shoulders or arms. The victors regularly won belonging of the losing group. Be that as it may, the losing groups, regularly played by hostages were relinquished for the sake of the Mayan Gods.
See Also,
8. Chocolate drinks
The Mayans contrived chocolate drinks from smashed cacao beans that were so significant that they were utilized as cash. It was the antiquated Mayans (250-900 C.E.) who were the first to find how delectable cacao beans were when aged, simmered, ground into glue, at that point blended with different fixings. The Mayans additionally utilized bean stew peppers and cornmeal to make a fiery chocolate drink. Sugar was obscure in antiquated circumstances. Express gratitude toward God in light of the fact that nor was present day dental care or other sugar related sicknesses like diabetes or ADHD.
Chocolate simply has that ever-interminable interest to people from Mayans to most Western Cultures today. Promptly, the people with sweet tooth know whom to thank.
7. Hallucinogenic Drugs
The Mayans celebrated and had great pride in their customs and traditions. Every occasion was feted in a grand way, and personnel with special requirements were allowed to perform for the gods and public known as Shamans.
Mayan shamans took stimulating substances to initiate daze like states amid exhibitions and customs in which they endeavored contact with the spiritual world. These substances affected the body in such a way that pain was not felt and energy was always pumped up. A number of these substances were additionally and currently are used as pain relief.
6. Law and Order
In the Mayans Empire, laws were similar and fair in every state. Almost everybody was liable to similar laws, even the lesser nobles. In the event that you violated a law, an authority would hear your case. Should you be discovered blameworthy, you were rebuffed. Disciplines fluctuated with the wrongdoing. In the event that you were discovered guilty of taking from somebody, you turned into a hostage of your casualty.
Murder was uncommon in light of the fact that the discipline was so extreme. On the off chance that discovered guilty of murder, murders could be executed or endure an indistinguishable destiny from their casualty. Be that as it may, the group of the casualty had the alternative of an honor in merchandise or land. They could even be granted a family compound, finish with merchandise, steers, and fields, and leave a whole family with no place to live as the consequence of a discovered blameworthy decision against one individual from that whole family.
5. Mathematics
The Mayans had an extremely proficient numeral framework with which they could speak to expansive numbers. It had only three images: zero (shell shape), one (a dab) and five (a bar). They utilized these three images to speak to numbers from 0 to 19 and numbers after 19 were composed vertically in forces of 20, utilizing place esteems. The Mayans, therefore, utilized a base 20 or vigesimal number framework. The utilization of place esteems and zero made this framework much the same as the one we utilize today. With their framework being vigesimal, the second position had esteem 20 times that of the numeral, the third position had 202 or 400 times the esteem et cetera. The Mayans likewise utilized shorthand to express extensive numbers like 2.4.1.9.9, where the numbers 2,4,1,9 and 9 speaking to coefficients before forces of 20.
Likewise fascinating is that the Mayans autonomously built up an idea of zero in their numbering framework by 36 BC. While not for the most part considered a human progress known for their science, they did, in any case, have a propelled handle of it. A large number of their dates and estimations are shockingly particular.
4. Mayan Art
While not entirely an innovation in essence, Mayan art is broadly considered the absolute delightful art in the world. The Mayans grew exceedingly modern works of art. They made craftsmanship in an assortment of materials, including wood, jade, obsidian, earthenware production, etched stone landmarks, stucco and finely painted wall paintings. Woodcutting is accepted to have been normal however just a couple of curios survive. Stone sculptures are far reaching at Mayans locales. The most celebrated among them, from Copan and Quirigua, are remarkable for their complexity of detail. The urban areas of Palenque and Yaxchilan are well known for their enhancing lintels including the eminent Yaxchilan Lintel 24.
A few Mayans stairways have been enlivened with an incredible assortment of scenes, as at Tonina. Zoomorphs are extensive rocks etched to take after living animals. Mayans Zoomorphs are very confounded help ornamentation, particularly those at Quirigua. The Mayans had a long convention of wall painting, dating to in the vicinity of 300 and 200 BC. Among the best-safeguarded Mayans wall paintings is a full-estimate arrangement of artistic creations at Bonampak. The Mayans likewise made a tiptop chipped curio known as flighty rock, which is actually extremely difficult to deliver.
3. Mayan Calendar
The eminent Mayans datebook depended on the framework basic in Mesoamerican societies. However, it was the Mayans who built up the timetable to its most extreme modernity. The Mayans date-book utilizes 3 distinctive dating frameworks: the Tzolkin (divine timetable), the Haab (common date-book) and the Long Count. Tzolkin joins a cycle of 20 named days with another cycle of 13 numbers, to deliver 260 interesting days. There are a few hypotheses for the 260 day tally of Tzolkin including it being founded on the human growth time frame; the agrarian cycle of the district; and the places of the planet Venus. The Haab was the sun-based date-book with 365 days. It comprised of a year and a half of 20 days in each month, trailed by 5 additional days, which were viewed as unfortunate and known as Wayeb.
The Long Count was a non-rehashing schedule speaking to the number of days since the start of the Mayans period. The privilege most position tallies single days, the following position is a square of 20; the following is a piece of 18 to make the timetable match the estimated 360 days length of a year; the rest of the positions take after their vigesimal number framework.
2. Mayan Writing System
Among the ancient Americans, the Mayans invented the most advanced form of writing, known as glyphs. Glyphs are used to describe or represent a word, sound or even a syllable through pictures or symbols. History suggests that the Mayans used around 700 different glyphs, and astonishingly 80% of the language is understood still today.
The Mayans were highly aware of their history and achievements, and so they wrote about them on pillars, walls, and big stone slabs all the time. They also wrote books about almost everything; like gods, daily life, new leaders and more. These books were made of bark and folded like a fan. Unfortunately, many of the books were destroyed as they were assumed to have depicted the devil and demons by the Spanish. Luckily, a few survived!
The written work arrangement of the Mayans human progress, known as the Mayans script, is accepted to be the main finish composing framework in Mesoamerica, i.e. they could compose all that they could state. As per current information, the most punctual engravings discovered were identifiably Mayans dated to third century BCE. This would make the Mayans the creators of writing in Mesoamerica. This would likewise make the Mayans one of three known civic establishments where composing grew autonomously, the others being China and Mesopotamia.
1. Rubber
All in all, what did the sports enthusiasts Mayans use for a ball? While confirming the skulls of relinquished players were here and there utilized, experts have found that the Ancient Mayans knew how to make diverse evaluations of elastic some time before Charles Goodyear, the tire mammoth, “settled” the material in the mid-nineteenth century. Alongside other Mesoamerican societies, the Mayans made elastic from normal latex and blended in other plant substances to make elastic items with various properties, including bouncy balls.
The Mayans had strange yet effective for agribusiness. These included slice and-consume system of moving development; raised fields, terracing, concentrated cultivating, timberland plants and oversaw fallows. The fundamental staples of the Mayans count calories were maize, beans, and squashes. Different harvests developed incorporate amaranth, bean stew peppers, sweet potatoes, manioc, tobacco and chaya, cotton, cacao, and vanilla. The Mayans took the latex from elastic trees and blended it with juice from morning transcendence vines to deliver elastic. Soonest utilization of elastic in Mesoamerica has been dated to 1600 BCE, a few centuries before vulcanization was produced in the nineteenth century. The Maya, similar to a few other Mesoamerican societies, utilized bouncy elastic balls to play the well-known Mesoamerican Ballgame.
Final Conclusion:
In the advanced age, the Mayans still homestead similar terrains and venture to every part of an indistinguishable stream from their predecessors did from the north in the Yucatan down to Honduras. The claim that the Mayans by one means or another vanished, just on the grounds that their urban areas were discovered surrendered, is wrong as well as offending to the more than six million Mayans who bear on the customs of their precursors. In spite of the fact that the locale was Christianized in the sixteenth century CE triumph and probe, the old ways are as yet seen in a mixture of European Catholicism and Mayan enchantment. An extraordinary arrangement has been found out about the Mayans since the days of investigation and reported the collapse, however, for the Mayans living today, nothing of significance has ever been overlooked and the cycle of life proceeds on. |
Most people will see triangles. You will see the time. Kisai Adjust features 32 LED triangles that show the digital time. A customisable watch design, you can change the display to one of six vivid colors at the touch of a button.
Six Colours in One Watch Design
A futuristic, cyber-punk watch concept that can be customised by the user is now reality. Change the display to one of six different colors, choose 12 or 24 hour mode, view in horizontal or vertical.
In addition, multi-color mode automatically transitions between all six colors in turn whilst showing the time.
There is also a date mode which can be activated by pressing the lower button, an alarm mode and a light up animation which operates between 6pm and midnight and can be turned on or off in the settings. View the video demonstration below to see more.
The Digital Time in a Matrix of Triangles
As easy to read as a digital watch, Kisai Adjust displays the time using triangles that emulate classical digits.
The matte finish on the surface of the minimal stainless steel case and strap creates a clean contrast against the highly polished acrylic lens, beneath which strong LEDs illuminate to show the time.
A USB Rechargeable LED Watch
Kisai Adjust is a USB rechargeable watch. To recharge, connect to your computer with the USB cable provided. A full charge will take 3.5 hours and each charge should last 1 month. The battery can be recharged more than 300 times. Kisai Adjust also has an adjustable strap making it suitable for small and large wrists.
A Limited Edition Watch Design
Each part of Kisai Adjust has been individually designed and manufactured, including the case, strap, lens and uniquely programmed display. Like all watches from Tokyoflash Japan it is a limited edition design which means that it is guaranteed to be an original watch that not many other people own.
Intrigue Beneath the Molded Acrylic Lens
When the time is not shown and the LEDs are dormant, you can sense the inner workings of the watch beneath the smoked lens creating a futuristic, high tech feel.
Technical Specifications
Display Six LED colors in one watch
Modes Single-color mode and Multi-color mode Functions Time and date Modes 12/24 hour mode, horizontal/vertical display mode, alarm mode Strap Adjustable stainless steel strap Minimum Wrist Size 100mm (approx) Maximum wrist size
210 mm (approx.)
Sizing Designed for small & large wrists
Case & Clasp Stainless steel case, & clasp
Case Dimensions
30 mm x 53 mm x 11.5 mm
Weight
150 grams
Water resistance
3ATM
Battery
PL301517 USB rechargeable battery Instructions
English instructions
Warranty
One year warranty
Concept to Reality - A Watch from the Tokyoflash Design Studio Blog
In February 2010, Tokyoflash Japan opened its Design Studio Blog to showcase concept designs and request ideas for new watch designs from fans. The idea for Kisai Adjust was submitted by Nicolas Hélin from Belgium. This is the ninth concept submitted by a fan to become reality.
Find out more about the original concept on the Tokyoflash Design Studio Blog.
Blog reader & watch designer Nicolas Hélin says:
The idea behind Adjust was to tell the time in a simple way, but in a way that looks sci-fi and futuristic at a glance.
I also wanted the watch to look different even when it is "off", and to be modular in a way. I came up with the idea of digits made of triangles, with the same triangles embossed in the lens, and the possibility to change the display.
I felt really honored when I learned that Adjust had been chosen to become an actual watch, and so enthusiastic when I saw the description of the future watch and how it was going to work!
I really appreciated this experience, how Tokyoflash got me involved and shared the challenges and progress in different phases of development.
The result is just amazing. I thank the team that worked hard on it and found solutions to make it so close to the original design. The level of detail, the quality, the finish are truly impressive!
Now thanks to Tokyoflash, thanks to the support and feedback of the fans/visitors of the blog, I wear the watch I once imagined. Thank you, I hope you will enjoy Kisai Adjust!
Download PDF manual |
Image copyright NASA
A new, expandable "room" has been opened up on the space station.
The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (Beam) is a demonstrator for the type of habitats that may be used to build future orbiting labs.
It is possible such rooms could even make for more living space during the many months it would take humans to travel to Mars.
The Beam was taken up to the station last month and connected to a berthing point on the Tranquility module.
Installed in compact form, it had to be inflated - something astronaut Jeff Williams eventually managed to achieve.
The new room will undergo two years of tests.
Engineers want to know if the structure is as robust as traditional metal modules.
Astronauts will not actually go in the Beam that often, given its experimental nature. And when they do, it will be to have a quick look around to check its integrity. Nothing will be stored in the room, either.
Most of the time, the hatch to the Beam will remain closed and controllers on the ground will monitor its status through a series of embedded sensors. These will track temperature, pressure, radiation and impacts.
The Beam has been produced in a partnership between the US space agency (Nasa) and American entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, who built his fortune on the back of a budget hotel chain.
His ambition now is to take that accommodation experience into orbit.
Although the vessel attached to the space station is only a little bigger than a broom cupboard, the businessman has plans for expandable modules that are substantially bigger.
He hopes to rent these out to anyone who wants to use them for science and even tourism - as hotels in space.
Already, Robert Bigelow has a rocket booked for 2020, to take up his BA-330 model, which, as the designation intimates, has a volume of 330 cubic metres (12,000 cu ft). |
CTV British Columbia
It might look like a pile of rubble, but a new installment in downtown Vancouver is actually a piece of art.
At first glance, the lot full of rocks on Georgia Street outside of the Shangri-La Hotel appears to be nothing more than debris from one of the city’s countless construction sites.
But passersby who study it for more than a few seconds slowly start to notice the entire landscape is gently shifting, giving the appearance of an optical illusion.
“Oh! Okay, that’s kind of weird, how it’s kind of moving,” said one pedestrian who walks by the installment every day.
The piece, titled “Calm,” was created by a Chinese artist collective called MadeIn.
The bricks and debris were harvested from a renovated Vancouver synagogue, and the installment was placed at the lot – actually the Vancouver Art Gallery’s outdoor exhibition place, Offsite.
“You don't notice it if you're just walking by or driving by – you need to spend 30 seconds with it. I think any artist deserves at least 30 seconds,” said VAG assistant curator Diana Freundl. “Some people love it, some hate it.”
That’s exactly the point – an art piece should strike a chord with its viewers, according to Freundl.
“It's important for a public work to kind of have that resonance with the public,” she said.
Another pedestrian who stopped to view the mirage-like installment said, “It's not just rocks, it’s more than that…It's really cool.”
The piece will remain in place until the end of September. |
How did a PC classic get reborn as a multiplatform "enhanced edition"? Founding BioWare developer Trent Oster takes us behind the scenes of the development of the Baldur's Gate remake, and all of its complications.
I'm Trent Oster, President of Beamdog / Overhaul Games. We're here to talk about the development of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition. BG: EE (as we like to call it) launched on PC on November 28th and on iPad on December 8th to great fan interest, rocketing to the number 2 spot on iTunes in the U.S. and number 1 in many other App Stores around the world.
Our initial plans were to launch all platforms as close to each other as possible; in retrospect, this was very naive, given the size of our team and the volume of work required. We're working steadily now to build versions for the remaining platforms and to roll out concurrent versions so cross-platform multiplayer can be a reality. We've had great success on the PC and iPad, with great sales and positive feedback from the fans. We're very anxious to roll the remaining platforms out as fast as we can.
From the trenches, the development of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition was an interesting journey. We had early moments of exuberance as we played the first tablet version and proved our theory that Baldur's Gate did indeed kick ass on tablets. We had great moments of insight when we brought people from the modding community in and shared work-in-progress versions with them. We had moments of despair, such as the lost source art and subsequent sacrifices to salvage the deal. We had moments of great distress, such as when we negotiated the September-to-November contract extension for the game. Every day that we had to wait for approval of the new deal terms so we could tell the fans was like torture. We worked incredibly hard to come to terms quickly, but until we had sign-off we couldn't announce the schedule slip.
We had some great moments as a team, such as the first time we saw the new UI scheme in the game and the first time Sam's new music played in an area. It has been a great journey for us and we've formed a strong core team of thirteen people who are capable of some great works. Along the way we had the opportunity to work with some great talents such as Mark Meer, John Gallagher, and Sam Hulick. We've had the opportunity to leverage all the great work from the original title as we try to build something better, something familiar, yet improved. In short, Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition was a challenge, but we've all come out of the development with some sanity remaining and a great understanding of the game, the engine technology and what makes Baldur's Gate the legend it is.
What Went Right
1. Fans and Community
Early on we knew one of the key elements to succeeding with the Enhanced Edition of the game was to bring in as many people from the modding and fan communities as possible. By working with them and listening to them, we could make the right changes and try to improve the game to better meet their needs. Our first few attempts were crude -- an invite-only Reddit, some direct e-mails -- but things rapidly turned around with the launch of the official message boards where we could speak directly with the modders and fans and listen to their concerns.
We shared new content with them as early as possible and acted on their feedback to make the game a better experience for users and a better platform for modding. We did this through hosting a long-running private beta. We would push a new build out to the beta group, have them poke it and respond with suggestions and feedback.
Our core community firmed up quite quickly, with a number of key people stepping forward with well thought-out criticism and thoughtful solutions. We read all the feedback, but we prioritized responding to the in-depth feedback and the community quickly oriented around that model, understanding we give the attention to those who put in the effort. The private beta was composed of hand-recruited community members from this active thoughtful group. We will be forever grateful to all the people on the forums for all the effort they contributed on our journey to make a better Baldur's Gate. |
Wolf Hunt
There are about 638 wolves in the mainland Upper Peninsula. A second hunt will not be held this year, but could in 2015, depending legal challenges. The first limited hunt in 2014 netted only 22 wolves.
(File photo)
LANSING, MI — Wolf hunting opponents declared victory Tuesday night in Michigan, where voters rejected two separate laws that paved the way for an inaugural season last year.
While the victory was decisive, the impact remains unclear.
A third wolf hunting law set to take effect in March or April will reaffirm the authority of the Natural Resource Commission to name game species and establish hunting seasons.
With 93 percent of precincts reporting, Michigan Proposal 1 was headed for defeat, with 55 percent of voters choosing to reject the first wolf hunting law. Proposal 2 was on its way down as well, with 64 percent of voters saying "no" to the second wolf hunting law.
Keep Michigan Wolves Protected, a group funded primarily by the Humane Society of the United States, has vowed to fight the third wolf hunting law in court.
In an email to supporters late Wednesday, campaign director Jill Fritz also called on the Legislature and NRC to honor the outcome of the vote.
“The people of Michigan don't want the NRC setting a wolf hunting season, and they don't want to give the NRC the authority to open new hunting seasons on protected species,” Fritz said. “And the NRC should honor the judgment rendered by voters come 2015.”
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources recommended the state’s first ever wolf hunt last year with the aim of reducing attacks on livestock and discouraging comfort around humans.
There are an estimated 636 grey wolves in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, up from just six in the 1970s. Hunting groups say the NRC, not voters, should decide how best to manage the population.
Jonathan Oosting is a Capitol reporter for MLive Media Group. Email him, find him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter. |
Yes, let's go ahead and suck it up: That guy, James Weeks II (his eponym must be so proud), who disrupted the Libertarian Party convention by stripping down to a thong while announcing his withdrawal from the chairmanship race, is an embarrassment to his party and the larger movement for which it stands.
Such antics, along with what Brian Doherty has rightly called a candidates debate packed with puerile questions better geared for a late-night college bull session, make it easy for conservatives and liberals to troll the LP and dismiss a serious challenge to the played-out politics of the Democrats and Republicans.
Here's the latest version of that, via National Review's Ian Tuttle:
The Libertarian party is a reminder that no one truly grows out of Dungeons and Dragons. Around the Rosen Centre [in Orlando], there are lots of suits-with-sneakers and punk-rock hairstyles and impromptu chants of “Taxation is theft!” Organization-wise, it’s the political equivalent of the cantina scene from Star Wars. Since its founding in 1971, the Libertarian party has been a catchall for political misfits. “We’re weirdos,” says a Georgia delegate who has been in the party since 1972. “We’ve always been weirdos.” No offense, but no kidding. (And in a display of pure, untrammeled, glorious cosmic irony—enough to make me revise my disbelief in Fate—MegaCon, an annual gathering of 80,000 comic book fans, sci-fi cosplayers, fantasy-lovers, and gamers, is taking place over the same 48 hours, and at the very same Orlando hotel.)
Har har har.
And yet...lest we forget, it's the Republican and Democratic parties that are imploding, with the former group split over a candidate who openly mocks handicapped people, has zero grasp of even the most basic policy issues, and calls for the forcible removal of 12 million (his count) illegal immigrants and their children (even if the kids are actually U.S. citizens).
And before "real conservatives" object that they are #NeverTrump, remember that Trump is saying exactly the same stuff they've been calling for over the past 30 years. Here's the editors of National Review's "Against Trump" house editorial from late last year, which called Trump soft on immigration!:
Trump says he will put a big door in his beautiful wall, an implicit endorsement of the dismayingly conventional view that current levels of legal immigration are fine... Trump piles on the absurdity by saying he would re-import many of the illegal immigrants once they had been deported, which makes his policy a poorly disguised amnesty...
The mind boggles that anyone belonging to an ideological movement or party that calls Trump a pushover on immigration has the temerity to mock Libertarians because they still dig Buffy the Vampire Slayer or something. Suits-with-sneakers! Getta load of this!
When it comes to the right wing, the elephant in the room isn't that Trump somehow hijacked or stole the conservative movement and its causes. Rather, it's that virtually everything he stands for is the fulfillment of precisely what Republicans and conservatives have demanded for decades, just with an added dose of crudeness and less fear of the gays. To the extent that his yammerings make any sense, we know Trump is anti-immigrant, bellicose when it comes foreign policy, and is obsessed with a backward-looking vision of "American greatness." If he wants to keep Obama's universal health insurance in place, then he's what, like Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential candidate who was not only endorsed by National Review, but is constantly being pushed by The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol as a cure to what ails the GOP?
On the Democratic side of the aisle, things are just as sad, with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tripping over each other to denounce Uber, Airbnb, and other avatars of the sharing economy, which is a rare bright spot in a generally sluggish economy. Why? Because such "gig" jobs don't come with the gold-plated benefits the GM offered during its protectionist heyday in the 1950s or something. Don't you know that kids are going hungry because we have too many flavors of deodorant? Sanders, whose only play now is to Gillooly Clinton so much that she agrees to raise the minimum wage to $15 rather than her relatively measely $12 per hour. Clinton is a hawk's hawk who, like Donald Trump (at the same time!) called for censorship of the internet because of Islamic terrorism.
At each next rally, she recites her resume lines more loudly for the simple reason that despite 25 years in the public eye, she has no discernible vision for the future of the country she so desperately wants to lead. Clinton is anti-trade and has been attacking NAFTA since 2008 or so, when she tried to outflank Barack Obama on the left. She calls Edward Snowden a traitor, has never met a surveillance program or secret presidential kill list she didn't want to add a few names to, and has the most censorious history of anyone currently running for president. Seriously, look it up.
And yet...and yet, it's the Libertarians who are a joke, because despite no funding and help from ballot-access laws and other schemes designed to silence alternative voices, they have somehow managed to nominate two successful, centrist former governors who believe in economic and cultural freedom, that the government is too big and expensive, that overseas interventions should be less frequent than they have been during the past 15 years, that school choice and reproductive choice and legalizing weed are good things...
Let's stipulate that however silly Libertarians may be, and however much they might desperately want the future to feature only private sidewalks and for Soylent Green to be purchased exclusively with Bitcoin or Ethereum, they are not as batshit crazy and unhinged as Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and the two parties and movements they represent. Yes, we libertarians (big L and small l) like comic books and science fiction and have people who show up at national conventions wearing boots on their heads and strip down to thongs and argue over whether such unannounced nudity contravenes the non-aggression principle. Dunno about you, but when I look at a future in which I can be hanging out with the likes of Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee or Elizabeth Warren and Anthony Weiner or with Vermin Supreme and James Weeks II, I'm happy to choose the latter pair every time.
I think it's effectively impossible that Johnson and Weld will win in the fall, but that's also not the real endgame here either. As I write in a new Daily Beast column, the important thing is to change the general direction in which politics is headed. To the extent that the two major parties are having problems, it's because of who they are and what they represent. Each of the parties is still locked into a mind-set where its people should control large areas of your everyday life—how you do business, say, or whom you can marry. Those days are over for pragmatic reasons (thanks to technology, it's easier than ever to route around government and just get on with your life) and to changes in belief systems (we really are a more live-and-let-live nation, thank god).
Politics is a lagging indicator of where America is headed as a country. For the past half-century or so, we've been trending to greater and greater freedom and possibilities of how to live our lives. We are more comfortable with choices about what to eat, whom to marry, where to live, how to learn, how to express our values through our work and social commitments, and so much more. There is a reason why our identification with the two major parties has been falling over that same time frame: The Republicans and Democrats exist only in yesterday's America and fewer and fewer of us want much to do with such hollowed-visions that only 29 percent identify as Democrats and just 26 percent as Republicans. Johnson and Weld and the Libertarians won't win this time around. Even a post-Kardashian, post-body-shaming America isn't quite ready for a striptease performed at a national convention. But everything they stand for, and that the American people are demanding—more peace around the globe, more choice here at home, the ability to innovate and speak freely—will be absorbed either into both major parties, or by whatever replaces them.
So go ahead and make the Dungeons and Dragons jokes (remember when Al and Tipper Gore freaked out over that back in the 1980s, when they put two Prince songs on the Parents Music Resource Center's "Filthy Fifteen"?), the Star Wars cantina band jokes, and drone on about how important it is that we make Uber more expensive or just it ban it outright and how we really need to bomb more countries because it's all been working out so well and oh my god, don't even get me started about the gays and the trans people taking over all the bathrooms...
You're welcome to your own world, liberals and conservatives, but sooner or later (and whether you realize it or not), you'll be living in a libertarian world that is freer, fairer, and more fun than ever. |
In September 2006, the mayor of São Paulo passed the so-called “Clean City Law" that outlawed the use of all outdoor advertisements, including on billboards, transit, and in front of stores. Within a year, 15,000 billboards were taken down and store signs had to be shrunk so as not to violate the new law. Outdoor video screens and ads on buses were stripped. Even pamphleteering in public spaces has been made illegal. Nearly $8 million in fines were issued to cleanse São Paulo of the blight on its landscape. Seven years on, the world's fourth-largest metropolis and South America’s most important city remains free of visual clutter and eye sore that plagues the majority of cities around the world.
When the law was passed, it triggered wild alarm among city businesses and advertisement groups. Critics worried that the advertising ban would entail a revenue loss of $133 million and 20,000 people would lose jobs. Others predicted that the city would look like a bland concrete jungle with the ads removed.
Photo credit
"I think this city is going to become a sadder, duller place,” said Dalton Silvanom, the lone councilman to vote against the law, and who (unsurprisingly) is in the advertising business. “Advertising is both an art form and, when you're in your car or alone on foot, a form of entertainment that helps relieve solitude and boredom," Silvanom added.
Despite the forebodings, São Paulo’s economy didn’t run aground although the city did look alien and war-torn for a few months following the tear down. The breakneck speed at which the law was enacted caused the city to resemble a battlefield strewn with blank marquees, partially torn-down frames and hastily painted-over storefront facades.
In a survey conducted in 2011 among the city’s 11 million residents, 70 percent found the ban beneficial. Unexpectedly, the removal of logos and slogans exposed previously overlooked architecture, revealing a rich urban beauty that had been long hidden. “My old reference was a big Panasonic billboard,” said Vinicius Galvao, a reporter with Folha de São Paulo, Brazil’s largest newspaper, in an interview with NPR. “But now my reference is an art deco building that was covered [by the massive sign]. So you start getting new references in the city. The city’s now got new language, a new identity.”
Photographer Tony de Marco documented the transformation the city underwent in 2007 in a sequence of images published on Flickr.
Sao Paulo isn’t the only city to have banned outdoor advertisements. Bans on billboards exist in other parts of the world, such as Vermont, Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine in the US, as well as some 1,500 towns. In Europe, the Norwegian city of Bergen does the same and many others have imposed severe restrictions on billboards or declared no-billboard zones within the city.
Sources: Newdream, Businessweek, Adbusters, Economist |
Salman Khan has dispatched 2500 tankers with a storage capacity of 2,000 litres to the drought hit region of Aurangabad in Maharashtra.
Salman Khan has always been known to be a man with a heart of gold.
This gesture comes through Salman Khan's NGO 'Being Human' which has taken a keen interest in aiding the grief stricken families of the drought hit regions in Maharashtra.
The foundation will provide water tankers to the drought affected districts of Marathwada from May 6 to 31, according to an e-mail received recently by the Aurangabad Divisional Commissioner from Salman Khan's 'Being Human' Foundation.
Salman's Being Human would supply 750 water tankers to Beed, 500 each to Osmanabad and Jalna, and 250 each to Aurangabad and Nanded.
People of the Marathwada region have been facing acute water scarcity caused by uneven distribution of rainfall in the state. (With PTI inputs)
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Biochar has been hailed as a useful contributor to reducing the world’s increasing carbon emissions since it stores carbon in the soil1 . It has also been recommended as an alternative to chemical fertilisers, since it remains in the soil to increase productivity for a very long time2. We review what is known about biochar and its use and one of SGA’s supporters, Keith Laker, shares with us his experience of making and using it in his garden. It is claimed that the pre-Columbian Amazonians created rich fertile soils by burning their agricultural waste in pits and covering the smouldering material with soil. This material, called terra preta de Indio, was stored underground. It is believed that it was then incorporated into the soil by earthworms.
How biochar is made
The production of biochar requires that all or nearly all oxygen in the atmosphere is excluded in the process of pyrolysis – in contrast to what happens when biomass (i.e. plant material including grain stalks, wood, grass, bamboo, nut shells) combusts above ground with adequate oxygen supply3. The process used in pre-Columbian days, however, actually produced significant amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases along with the charcoal. In contrast, modern systems control the temperature so that at 400 – 500 oC biomass burns quickly and produces more char along with small amounts of liquids and gases. At temperatures higher than 700 oC, more liquid, energy and gas are produced and they can be harnessed for energy supply. Although some carbon dioxide is produced, it is less than would be released if the biomass had been allowed to decompose in landfill to release methane – a more powerful greenhouse gas.
There are many commercial systems around the world for processing biomass. Many are small scale, suitable for use by communities and farms for processing local waste materials. Depending on the system, different proportions of energy or char are produced. In many instances, systems for energy production have been favoured because of attempts find alternatives to fossil fuels.
What are its benefits to soil?
As well as being a soil sink for carbon, biochar is reported to increase crop production by virtue of its highly porous structure. Since biochar is highly porous it helps retain soil moisture, absorbs nutrients on to the microsurfaces inside particles and retains them, improving the efficiency of added fertilisers4. It improves soil structure for earthworm populations and enhances microbial growth by providing increased internal surface area for growth of bacteria and especially fungi which process soil organic matter making it available to plants 5,6. Since it does not decompose readily, it does not need to be replaced each year.
The downsides
It seems that different biochars have different properties depending on the type of biomass used, which crops it is used for and the type of fertilizer applied along with it. A major criticism is that, because of world demand for fuel, commercial crops low in food productivity are being grown instead of good food producing crops and that forests may be felled just for the purpose of producing biofuel and accompanying biochar.
A personal experience with making and using biochar
An SGA supporter, Keith Laker, writes:
You can make your own biochar using a home-made TLUD (Top lit up draught stove). I made mine from a design in the book The Biochar Revolution and from watching Youtube videos of other people’s efforts. This Youtube link shows a stove made from materials very similar to my own. Watch this youtube video.
TLUD stoves burn waste wood from the top down rather than the bottom up. At the end of the burn process the wood is carbonized but retains its shape.
My TLUD stove is made from a stainless steel bucket, an upturned stainless steel bowl, a ducting connector and a short length of galvanized pipe for the flue.
Holes have been drilled under the bucket to let in limited air when the stove is first lit. The main air source is from the holes drilled around the rim of the upturned bowl.
During the burn process the bucket is fractionally raised off the ground by sitting it on three long nails so a little air can enter through the holes in the bottom.
To light the fire from the top I spread a small amount of citronella lamp oil on the top layer of material and then drop a lit piece of paper, again dipped in lamp oil, down the flue.
The fire burns brightly with virtually no smoke. TLUD stoves can be used as cookers and for heating water in many developing countries. The skill, gained from a bit of trial and error, is knowing when the wood has burned enough to carbonize but not too much so it turns to ash. I use a folded bit of paper inserted under the stove next to the nails. When it starts to scorch I know the heat has reached the bottom of the bucket and the burn process has to be stopped.
The three nails elevating the base of the bucket are removed to stop air coming in from underneath.
The flue and bowl are removed and the fire rapidly begins to die down. I smother the fire by using the heavy lid of my cast iron Cheminea outdoor fireplace which conveniently fits the top of the bucket, and leave it overnight to cool. You can also douse the fire with water to end the burn process.
The result is carbonized wood ready for inoculation.
The charcoal has a very fine and porous structure which powerfully attracts and holds beneficial soil microbes and water. This can mean that when initially applied, it can draw in microbes from the soil. For this reason many biochar makers believe it is better to inoculate the biochar with nutrients such as compost tea, worm juice, Seasol and other organic fertilizers and let it “brew” for about three weeks before adding to the soil7.
The recommendation is four parts compost to one part biochar. My compost is primarily grass cuttings and green waste made in a tumbler. I also add worm juice and castings. Everyone develops their own recipe. The mixture is then left to charge for three weeks before use.
Results? I’ve done some simple experiments where I planted identical seedlings, some with biochar some without. Here is an example of two pots of tomatoes, same species, planted at the same time. The biochar ones are on the left (note the possum guards.
In fact we have never had better tomatoes than we had this year, all either planted with inoculated biochar or have had biochar added later. We planted heirloom Periforme Abruzzese and Tigerellas. They have fruited phenomenally. Likewise our broccoli, cauliflower, beans and silverbeet.
Photos: Keith Laker.
Keith is retired small business owner involved in energy efficient cooling, solar and heating products for typical suburban homes. He founded Breeze Power Natural Cooling Pty Ltd, a natural, whole of home cooling system that partners roof top solar panels. His passion now is improving the life force of the soil in his garden.
References
1. Lehmann J, Gaunt J, Rondon M. (2006) Bio-char Sequestration in Terrestrial Ecosystems – A Review. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 11, (2): 395-419.
2. Woolf D, Amonette J E, Street-Perrott E A, Lehmann J, Joseph S.(2010) Sustainable biochar to mitigate global climate change. Nature Communications 1, Article Number 56.
3. Winsley P. (2007) Biochar and bioenergy production for climate change mitigation.
Zealand Science Review 64: 1-10.
4. Taylor P. (2010) The biochar revolution. www.biochar-books.com/.
5. Laird D A. (2008) The charcoal vision: A win–win–win scenario for simultaneously producing bioenergy, permanently sequestering carbon, while improving soil and water quality. Journal of Agronomy 100 (1): 178-181.
6. Major M. Biochar for soil quality improvement, climate change mitigation and more. (accessed 08-10-2014).
7. Crowley D, McGiffen M, Hale Lauren. (2011) University of California, Riverside. Biochar as a Carrier for Microbial Inoculants. |
× Expand Lisa Graves and Ruth Conniff are bringing together two groups whose shared mission is to expose the attempted takeover of civil society by 'forces of greed.'
Two titans in the world of progressive journalism and investigations have joined forces.
The Progressive magazine and the Center for Media and Democracy have merged and are now operating under the umbrella of the Progressive Inc. Both groups are based in Madison and have national audiences.
The Progressive, which was founded in 1909 by U.S. Sen. Robert M. La Follette Sr. of Wisconsin, will continue to publish a monthly print edition and maintain a daily website, says Ruth Conniff, who joined the magazine in 1991 and took over as editor in September. She is the new editor-in-chief of the magazine and a vice-president of the Progressive Inc.
The Center for Media and Democracy will continue its current projects and investigations, including SourceWatch, which keeps track of advocacy groups, and ALEC Exposed, the group's ongoing expose of the American Legislative Exchange Council's push for corporate-backed legislation around the country. It will also maintain prwatch.org, its reporting site.
Lisa Graves, who has been at the helm of the Center for Media and Democracy since 2009, is president and publisher of the Progressive Inc., and Mary Bottari, who served as deputy director of CMD, has been named a vice-president who will continue to direct research for the organization.
Matt Rothschild, the longtime editor and publisher of The Progressive, will stay on as senior editor.
Conniff (who also writes a column for Isthmus) says the coupling brings together two groups whose shared mission is to expose the attempted takeover of civil society by "forces of greed." While La Follette took aim at corporate monopolies and poor working conditions, the Center for Media and Democracy has exposed the influence of money in politics and policymaking.
"On our side, we have this incredible name and historic tradition of fighting the robber barons," says Conniff. "And CMD is the premier operation fighting the modern robber barons. It's exciting to marry the two. I think there will be a lot of symbiosis."
The staff is now under one roof at The Progressive's longtime offices on East Main Street, a few blocks off the Capitol Square. Some of CMD's research and writings have already appeared in the magazine, and more will come. "Moving that kind of research capacity into The Progressive is exciting for us," says Conniff. "It's like moving a heavy-duty newsroom and research operation into the magazine."
The Progressive has struggled financially in recent years and early this winter laid off five workers. Graves, who will be in charge of keeping the Progressive Inc. afloat, says the two groups have complementary financial models, with the magazine relying primarily on subscriptions and CMD on donors and some foundation support.
"Bringing the two types of revenue processes together will make the organization as a team stronger," she says.
Graves says she is looking forward to expanding CMD's reach through The Progressive's subscription base. "Having [The Progressive's] print platform will be great for CMD's investigations." |
Sen. Barbara Boxer Barbara Levy BoxerHispanic civil rights icon endorses Harris for president California AG Becerra included in Bloomberg 50 list Climate debate comes full circle MORE (D-Calif.) will introduce legislation on Tuesday to get rid of the Electoral College, after 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 lost the presidential election despite leading in the popular vote.
"In my lifetime, I have seen two elections where the winner of the general election did not win the popular vote," Boxer said in a statement. "In 2012, 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 tweeted, 'The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.' I couldn't agree more. One person, one vote!"
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She added that Clinton, whom she supported, is "on track to have received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history except Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaWith low birth rate, America needs future migrants 4 ways Hillary looms over the 2020 race Obama goes viral after sporting black bomber jacket with '44' on sleeve at basketball game MORE."
"The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately," she said.
Clinton is currently leading Trump by nearly a million votes, according to a Cook Political Report tracker of the national popular vote, but Trump won the Electoral College, leading the former secretary of State 290-232.
According to Pew, Clinton would be the fifth person to win the popular vote but lose the election, with the most recent being Al Gore Albert (Al) Arnold GoreOvernight Energy: Trump ends talks with California on car emissions | Dems face tough vote on Green New Deal | Climate PAC backing Inslee in possible 2020 run New climate PAC will back Inslee for president Howard Schultz must run as a Democrat for chance in 2020 MORE in 2000.
Boxer's legislation would amend the Constitution to abolish the Electoral College. Even if it is approved by Congress it would need to be approved by three-fourths of the states within seven years before it would take effect.
Trump called the Electoral College "genius" on Tuesday morning, despite past criticism.
The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2016
The tweet comes after Trump said during a "60 Minutes" interview on Sunday that he still has issues with the Electoral College.
“I’m not going to change my mind just because I won,” the president-elect said. “But I would rather see it where you went with simple votes. You know, you get 100 million votes and somebody else gets 90 million votes and you win.” |
Students at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena have made an awesome looking bipedal humanoid robot using nothing but Legos! “Pinocchio“, as the robot is called, may be suspended from strings, but it can mimic the human gait right down to the swinging leg motion and heel-toe step. It was created to teach the students about robotic walking and programming techniques. This latest creation using a Lego Mindstorms kit demonstrates the versatility of the platform that is slowly shedding its amateur status and producing increasingly impressive devices. Check out Pinnochio in the ultra-brief video below.
We keep running into awesome looking robots built with nothing more than ingenuity and the Lego Mindstorms system. There have been bots that balance on two wheels, function as ATMs, even solve Rubik’s cubes. Now, it looks like the platform is even finding good use in academia. Pinnochio is the student project of Marc Heydenreich and Eric Jabor under the direction of Martin Grimmer of the LaufLabor at Uni Jena. The LaufLabor has used Lego for student projects in the past, including a basketball shooting arm by Sebastian Carthusians and a ball kicking leg by Astrid Hartensetin. Both are available to watch on YouTube. All of these Lego projects bring an element of fun to robotics, but they still teach rigorous programming skills. Pinnochio has the two phase gait (swing/stance) that characterizes proper human locomotion.
The Lego Mindstorms platform has been serving as a de facto learning tool for a while now, helping amateur/semi-professional robotics engineers try out new ideas on the cheap. Perhaps with more projects like Pinocchio the system will find a formal place in robotics education. And who knows, with the right advancements and effort the robot may be made to eventually mimic its namesake – cutting its strings and learning to walk on its own.
[image credit: LaufLabor Wiki]
[source: LaufLabor Wiki] |
After five years in government hands, the mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are facing major changes in Congress.
Lawmakers in both the Senate and House want to wind down the two government-sponsored enterprises that failed in fall 2008, almost dragging the economy down with them before being bailed out with almost $200 billion in taxpayer funds.
Any attempted changes to their status would face fierce lobbying by banks and other companies in the mortgage industry, and will face a tricky path through a Congress that is divided on the role of the government in housing finance. But there are signs that lawmakers are getting serious about trying to address the issue.
On Thursday, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling released a proposal to wind down the GSEs and leave their functions to the private market. The plan would phase out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in five years and scale down the Federal Housing Administration's presence in the mortgage insurance business. The measure would create a new agency to oversee private-sector securitization of mortgages, but the agency wouldn't have any involvement in creating, servicing or guaranteeing them. The key feature of the bill is that it would remove the government backstop for mortgage-backed securities.
That's an important goal for many conservative lawmakers who believe that Fannie and Freddie played a key role in creating the housing bubble as well as the financial panic of late 2008. Rep. Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican who serves on the House Financial Services Committee, called "the government's misguided efforts at allocating mortgage credit through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac" the "core cause" of the financial crisis, and said that the bill "will finally end the largest bailout in history and will put our country back on a path to a sustainable housing finance market."
Others believe that government guarantees play a key role in supporting a liquid secondary market in mortgage securities. In late June, a bipartisan group of eight members of the Senate Banking Committee rolled out a plan that would bring an end to Fannie and Freddie while retaining a federal backstop for privately issued mortgages. The plan, spearheaded by Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., would replace Fannie and Freddie with an agency modeled after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The agency would collect premiums from companies to pay out insurance claims on losses on mortgage securities.
Separately, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and his Republican counterpart, Mike Crapo of Idaho, announced Thursday that they had reached an agreement on a bill to address the finances of the FHA as a first step toward comprehensive housing finance reform. Earlier this year, the Obama administration said that the FHA, which insures more than $1 trillion in mortgages, could need nearly $1 billion from the Treasury later this year to avoid insolvency. Others have estimated far larger shortfalls for the FHA. The American Enterprise Institute's Ed Pinto, a former executive vice president for Fannie Mae, has pegged the FHA's net worth at negative $27.22 billion by generally accepted accounting principles.
Johnson and Crapo did not include any details about their plans for fixing the FHA's finances, saying they would introduce legislation next week. Nor did either senator provide an indication of their plans for reforming housing finance.
Currently, the GSEs and the FHA together guarantee more than 85 percent of mortgage originations and were responsible for more than 99 percent of mortgage originations in 2012, according to the House Financial Services Committee. It's not clear to what extent private investors would be able to support a market for mortgage securities, especially the traditional 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.
For that reason, representatives of the secondary mortgage market industry are more likely to be receptive to the bipartisan Senate bill than to Hensarling's. Hensarling dismissed the housing industry's preferences to Politico, saying that "we need a policy that is principally designed for taxpayers and homeowners."
The lack of a federal role in backstopping mortgage securitization in the House bill would make it hard to reconcile with any legislation coming out of the Senate Banking Committee.
President Obama's position on the GSEs and housing finance is another question. In 2011, Obama's Treasury Department released a report including three options for replacing Fannie and Freddie, ranging from a mostly privatized market along the lines of what House conservatives favor to a system in which the government would offer reinsurance for privately originated mortgage securities. The White House has not, however, put its weight behind major changes to the housing finance market. |
“Pertti did an outstanding job at our recent Development Camp in all facets of on-ice skill development,” said Shero. “He will work with our players in both New Jersey and Albany next season, in addition to scouting and evaluating our current prospects.”
Hasanen, 61, joins the Devils’ organization with more than 35 years of experience coaching hockey teams and developing players, most recently as director of hockey operations and player development for Boston University (HE). He previously served the Terriers as an assistant coach for five seasons (1988-90 & 1995-98). Hasanen’s previous North American experience also includes five years as an assistant coach with Hockey East’s UMass-Lowell (1984-88 & 2000-01), as well as a brief term with Springfield (AHL).
He began his coaching career in 1979 with the Tappara junior club (Fin.). Hasanen has also served as head coach for a number of European professional teams, including time spent in Norway, Italy and Finland. He has also had stints as head European scout with the Los Angeles Kings and Calgary Flames. Hasanen’s NHL career included training camps for the Dallas Stars, Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins, and most recently, last month’s Devils’ development camp.
He is the founder of the Pertti Hasanen Hockey Academy, which is his vision for the most elite camp in the nation. The academy’s mission is to bring his knowledge to hockey players of all ages and genders. |
Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin speaks outside federal court in Honolulu, Wednesday, March 29, 2017. A federal judge in Hawaii questioned government attorneys Wednesday who urged him to narrow his order blocking President Donald Trump's travel ban because suspending the nation's refugee program has no effect on the state. U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson is hearing arguments on whether to extend his temporary order until Hawaii's lawsuit works its way through the courts. Even if he does not issue a longer-lasting hold on the ban, his temporary block would stay in place until he rules otherwise. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)
HONOLULU (AP) — A federal judge in Hawaii decided Wednesday to extend his order blocking President Donald Trump’s travel ban, preventing the government from suspending new visas for people from six Muslim-majority countries and halting the U.S. refugee program.
U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson issued the longer-lasting hold on the ban several hours after hearing arguments.
Hawaii says the policy discriminates against Muslims and hurts the state’s tourist-dependent economy. The implied message in the revised ban is like a “neon sign flashing ‘Muslim ban, Muslim ban’” that the government didn’t bother to turn off, state Attorney General Douglas Chin told the judge.
Extending the temporary order until the state’s lawsuit was resolved would ensure the constitutional rights of Muslim citizens across the U.S. are vindicated after “repeated stops and starts of the last two months,” the state has said.
Watson’s ruling is an affirmation of America’s value of religious freedom and allows Muslims and refugees to face less uncertainty, the state attorney general’s office said in a statement. Chin was traveling to Mexico for a western states attorneys general meeting and heard about the ruling while boarding a plane, said Deputy Attorney General Joshua Wisch, special assistant to Chin.
The government argued the ban falls within the president’s power to protect national security. Hawaii has only made generalized concerns about its effect on students and tourism, Department of Justice attorney Chad Readler told the judge via telephone.
The Trump administration had asked Watson to narrow his ruling to cover only the part of Trump’s executive order involving the six-nation ban. Readler said a freeze on the U.S. refugee program had no effect on Hawaii.
Watson rejected that argument, preventing the administration from halting the flow of refugees.
“It makes little sense to do so,” he wrote. “That is because the entirety of the Executive Order runs afoul of the Establishment Clause, where ’openly available data support a commonsense conclusion that a religious objective permeated the government’s action.”
Watson said in court that the government only argued for that narrower interpretation after a federal judge in Maryland blocked the six-nation travel ban but said it wasn’t clear that the refugee suspension was similarly motivated by religious bias.
Watson noted that the government said 20 refugees were resettled in Hawaii since 2010.
“Is this a mathematical exercise that 20 isn’t enough? ... What do I make of that?” the judge asked Readler.
The government attorney replied that 20 is simply a small number of refugees.
“In whose judgment?” Watson asked.
Hawaii was the first state to sue over Trump’s revised ban. The imam of a Honolulu mosque joined the challenge, arguing that the ban would prevent his Syrian mother-in-law from visiting family in Hawaii.
In his arguments, Chin quoted Trump’s comments that the revised travel ban is a “watered down” version of the original.
“We cannot fault the president for being politically incorrect, but we do fault him for being constitutionally incorrect,” Chin said.
Earlier this month, Watson prevented the federal government from suspending new visas for people from Somalia, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya and Yemen and freezing the nation’s refugee program. His ruling came just hours before the federal government planned to start enforcing Trump’s executive order.
Trump called Watson’s previous ruling an example of “unprecedented judicial overreach.” The Department of Justice didn’t immediately comment on the latest ruling.
Watson wrote that he won’t suspend his ruling if the government appeals. Enforcement of both provisions of the ban is prohibited nationwide until he orders otherwise.
Hawaii’s ruling would not be directly affected by a decision siding with the federal government in the Maryland case, legal experts said. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set a hearing for May 8 to consider the administration’s appeal.
“What a ruling in 4th Circuit in favor of the administration would do is create a split in authority between federal courts in different parts of the country,” said Richard Primus, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Michigan law school.
“Cases with splits in authority are cases the U.S. Supreme Court exists to resolve,” he said. |
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Does the idea of dandruff freak you out? Does peeling skin after a sunburn nauseate you? Well, then here’s a little something you may find even more horrifying, an article filled with bizarre items made throughout history using human skin.
Shoes, handbags, and books have legally been created using human skin, and those are actually some of the more tame creations that have made use of this morbid material. Let’s take a look at the use of human skin to create art and other merchandise and the macabre means that have been used to gather the epidermis of deceased individuals.
A Pair of 19th Century Shoes Made with Revenge in Mind
John Osborne, the third governor of the state of Wyoming, practiced medicine before entering the world of politics. While employed as a surgeon in Rawlins, Wyoming in the late 1870s, Osborne became infatuated with the criminal mind. Obsorne and a fellow physician illegally exhumed the body of George Parrot, a train robber better known as “Big Nose George.” Osborne bore a longstanding grudge against Parrot and wanted to make an example of the deceased thief.
The two physicians studied the brain of Parrot while hiding the rest of Big Nose George’s body in a whiskey barrel for more than a year. Osborne later used patches of skin from Big Nose George’s chest and legs to create a satchel, a purse, and a pair of shoes. Osborne wore the shoes on several occasions, including his inauguration as governor. The shoes are currently on display at the Carbon County Museum in Rawlins, Wyoming.
Victorian-Era Books Bound in the Skin of Convicts
The most mainstream use of human skin to create objects in recent history was in book binding, a practice called anthropodermic bibliopegy. Common in the Victorian Era, anthropodermic bibliopegy used tanned human skin to bind books. Book binders often harvested skin from criminals. They did this partially as a cruel way to punish criminals after their death, as the criminals’ own skin often bound the proceedings of their trials.
One of the more interesting books to surface from this time period came up for auction in 2007. The book included the skin of Father Henry Garnet, an indirect collaborator in the plot to blow up the British Houses of Parliament in 1805. This plot is referenced in the Alan Moore comic book series and the movie V for Vendetta, and effigies of the conspirators are burned on November 5th of each year, Guy Fawkes Day.
For his actions in the plot, the court hanged Garnet and removed his skin to bind copies of a summary of his trial entitled A True and Perfect Relation of the Whole Proceedings Against the Late Most Barbarous Traitors, Garnet a Jesuit and His Confederates. One copy of the book surfaced in 2007 and sold for $11,000 at auction.
A Collection of Human Tattoos
Tales of macabre items made from human skin often center around medical experiments emanating from Nazi Germany during World War II. The true source for many of these items appears to be Buchenwald concentration camp and two of its most despised commandants, Karl Otto Koch and his wife, Ilse Koch, who was known to prisoners as the “Bitch of Buchenwald.”
While stories of lampshades made from the skin of deceased concentration camp prisoners have yet to be proven, horror stories about the treatment of prisoners by German soldiers are common. Soldiers and scientists “shrunk” the heads of at least a few prisoners and routinely performed crude “experiments” on the bodies of the dead. One of the few survivors of Buchenwald, Kurt Koebess, confessed that Ilse Koch asked her husband to remove tattooed segments of skin from prisoners. Isle Koch fervently selected, collected, and preserved the tattoos of deceased prisoners to create a horrifying personal art gallery.
Serial Killer Chic
The 20th Century killer Ed Gein probably created the most bizarre item ever made out of human skin. Gein scoured graves for bodies before becoming the murderer that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.
Gein carefully removed the faces from corpses in order to create masks that he passed off as shrunken heads. He also fashioned a belt studded with human nipples. Gein’s most ambitious creation, however, was a human skin body suit made to replicate the female form in order to satisfy Gein’s desire to become a transsexual.
Maps & Flags in the Name of Art
The artist Andrew Krasnow is well known for shocking art involving dried human skin and organs. He obtains all of the skin he uses legally from medical cadavers as well as using some pieces of his own skin for small displays.
One of Krasnow’s best known works, Palette, is a two foot by two foot map of the United States made from about 10 patches of dried human skin sewn together. An installation entitled American Skin featured a United States flag made of human skin. Republican stalwarts Bob Dole and Newt Gingrinch criticized Krasnow’s series of American flags made from human skin, and the duos’ protests prevented an early 1990s exhibition of Krasnow’s work at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati.
Krasnow prefers to work with the skin of Caucasian men, as he uses the skin to point out that most suffering in North America is a product of the actions of white males over the past three centuries.
Modern Merchandising
Although the use of human skin to create material goods is now banished to the realm of horror movies, a few efforts still exist to create retail accessories out of legally acquired human skin. Hu]man Leather Products (Seriously?) supplies a line of human skin products from willing donors, but the company touts a very long wait time. Human Leather Products offers a wallet for $14,000, a belt for $16,000, and a pair of leather shoes for $27,000.
The 41-year-old author Maksim Aleshin recently tattooed his back with the words “living book” as a publicity stunt for his final novel. Aleshin has met with a surgeon to select patches of his skin that will be used to bind a single copy of his final book after his death. The author hopes to sell it and leave the proceeds to his daughter.
If you are looking for something a little less, well, gross, the company VIP Fibers will allow you to create just about anything out of your pet’s hair. Send in the hair you acquire while brushing your pet, and you will receive yarn created from the hair. Imagine, you could creepily cuddle up with your pet in a blanket made from the pet’s own hair.
Image of Ilse Koch is from the U.S. Signal Army Corps, and the image of Ed Gein’s vandalized grave marker is from Bryanwake/PD. Both images of A True and Perfect Relation of the Whole Proceedings Against the Late Most Barbarous Traitors, Garnet a Jesuit and His Confederates bound in Father Garnet’s flesh are photos taken while the book was in the possession of Wilkinson Auctioneers.
Keith Veronese has a Ph.D. in chemistry and regularly writes for Gawker Media’s science site, io9. His worked has appeared on the Gawker Media sites Lifehacker, Deadspin, Kotaku, and Jezebel in addition to Paste Magazine, AMOG, So Jones, Hip Hop Press, and FormatMag. Keith also has a non-fiction book in the works, Plugged In: Comic Book Professionals Working in the Video Game Industry, which will be released by TwoMorrows Publishing later this year. |
Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition demanding the British government send hospital ship RFA Argus to Gaza to help treat the escalating number of causalities. Downing Street has so far committed a small team of NHS medics.
Currently moored in Falmouth, Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Argus is a 100-bed nautical hospital, which has a “four-bay operating theater with a 10-bed Critical Care Unit, a 20-bed High Dependency Unit and a CT Scanner,” according to the Ministry of Defence website.
Campaigners are pushing the UK government to increase its humanitarian aid to the region as the death toll in Gaza broaches 2,000. Their goal is 75,000 signatures. Israel launched operation Protective Edge on July 8. While the international community works toward a ceasefire, protesters have marched worldwide against the Israeli military operation.
A team of NHS medics will soon be deployed to Gaza to help treat the wounded. Downing Street announced it is sending doctors, paramedics, surgeons and anesthetists, who will initially be stationed with Medical Aid for Palestinians at Al Mokassed hospital in East Jerusalem until they are able to enter Gaza itself.
Petitioners, however, argue the prime minister’s commitment doesn’t go far enough, as they continue to call for the ship’s deployment.
“A team of 15 medical staff will barely scratch the surface,” campaign organizer Veronica Vickery said. “Around 10,000 people have been injured in the conflict and much of the medical and other vital infrastructure necessary for treating casualties has been destroyed.
“News reports during the conflict have told of UK volunteer doctors being held up at the border for a fortnight before being allowed in to do their jobs in Gaza,” Vickery added.
Thousands gathering in London outside the BBC for today's #GazA9 protest. pic.twitter.com/14Gm11ssvh — RT UK (@RTTV_UK) August 9, 2014
West Cornwall Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George has backed the petition and has called upon the Prime Minster to condemn Israel’s actions and to lend greater support to the aid effort.
In a statement, George said he wrote to David Cameron “to urge the government to act quickly to deploy UK MOD assets in support of the humanitarian effort to help the beleaguered people of Gaza.”
“Even those who do not agree with me – and, indeed, Baroness Warsi, and other notables – that the UK should do more to condemn the actions of Israel and to demonstrate international leadership in criticizing the disproportionate and indiscriminate nature of their military campaign, would, nevertheless, support such a humanitarian initiative,” he added.
Hundreds of Italians have signed a similar online petition calling Israel's actions in Gaza a “slow genocide” of the Palestinians and demanding a “Nuremberg trial” for Israel over the “destruction” of Palestine.
The petition calls for Israel to face an international tribunal – a Nuremberg-like trial – for war crimes. Italian activists believe that not only the Israeli military and the government, but also the entire state of Israel and “its accomplices” should be brought to trial over current events, as well as those in the past and “the foreseeable future.”
Meanwhile, British aid agencies have begun an emergency appeal to help the thousands of Palestinians caught up in what they call “a humanitarian emergency affecting virtually every man, woman and child in Gaza.”
The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) said “even before the conflict began the people of Gaza were close to breaking point.” They called on the public to make charitable donations to aid those blighted by the conflict.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled their homes with many needing not only shelter, but also food, water, household items and urgent medical care. |
BROWNSBURG, Ind. – Belardi Auto Racing is pleased to confirm its first driver for the 2018 Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires season. The reigning Indy Lights Team Champions will welcome back American star Aaron Telitz for the coming season, with full intent on running the entire 10-weekend schedule.
Telitz currently has a partial budget for the season, and he and his management team continue talks with prospective marketing partners. The 26-year-old is confirmed to start the season, and will once again be paired with Belardi’s staff of experienced race engineers to pick up where they left off last year, having dominated the wet weather action in the season finale at Watkins Glen.
“I’m incredibly excited about how our team is developing for 2018, and being able to run Aaron again next year is such a huge positive for our organization,” offered team owner Brian Belardi. “As a rookie last year, he showed us his talents immediately, winning the opener at St. Petersburg. As he continued to develop in the car, he became even more impressive. I believe that his performance in the rain at Watkins Glen is a real indication of just how good Aaron is and how good he could become. We’re thrilled to have him back.”
The Minneapolis, MN resident scored a pair of wins during his freshman Indy Lights campaign in 2017, bookending the year with wins in the opening round in St. Petersburg and the wet finale at Watkins Glen. Telitz drove the Soul Red Mazda Scholarship car in his rookie season, having won the title in the 2016 Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires. The two Indy Lights victories from this past year push his Mazda Road to Indy total to 10 wins, adding to a pair in USF2000 and six in Pro Mazda during his 2016 championship season.
“It’s a great feeling to be coming back with Belardi Auto Racing to have another go at the Indy Lights Championship,” Telitz enthused. “This will be the first time in my career that I get to drive for the same team in back-to-back years. The continuity is already there and we will be a force from the drop of the green flag at St. Pete.”
“As always, funding could be a limiting factor for me this season as I will be working to finish out my budget throughout the season,” Aaron continued. “Brian has been gracious enough to work with me and figure out how we can make it work this year. I want to offer a massive thanks to my long-time partner Rice Lake Weighing Systems, who have been with me since Formula Fords and continue to ensure my racing career is able to flourish. Also thanks to Morrie’s Auto Group, PPG, Assured Automotive, Styled Aesthetic, Liberty Engineering, and Bell Helmets, who are all on-board to assist in my run at the championship in 2018. I know that we will have our work cut out for us, but I’m confident that we can get the job done and bring the Driver Championship back to Belardi in 2018!”
Telitz will be back in the car in late January, once the testing blackout has ended. The season will kick-off in less than three months with the opening doubleheader at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on the March 11-13 weekend. Belardi Auto Racing intends to run at least three cars this season, with the potential for a fourth seat for the right driver. |
Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Jan. 30, 2015, 11:19 PM GMT / Updated Jan. 30, 2015, 11:19 PM GMT
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of an attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder drug to treat binge eating.
The drug, Vyvanse, is usually used for ADHD but it’s been shown to help control binge-eating disorder, the FDA said.
“In binge-eating disorder, patients have recurrent episodes of compulsive overeating during which they consume larger amounts of food than normal and experience the sense that they lack control. Patients with this condition eat when they are not hungry and often eat to the point of being uncomfortably full,” the FDA said in a statement.
“Patients may feel ashamed and embarrassed by how much they are eating, which can result in social isolation. Binge-eating disorder may lead to weight gain and to health problems related to obesity.”
The drug is not approved for weight loss, and it’s a Schedule II controlled substance because it has high potential for abuse and dependence. But any doctor can write a prescription for any approved drug for any use he or she sees fit.
"The concern in our country especially is the desperation to lose weight," said NBC's diet and nutrition editor Madelyn Fernstrom. "Everyone will say, 'Oh, I have binge eating disorder'. I think there’s a huge potential for abuse in our country."
IN-DEPTH:
-- Maggie Fox |
Hopes were high for warmer relations between the Russian Orthodox and Catholic churches as President Vladimir Putin flew Monday to Rome for his first audience with Pope Francis. Topping the agenda is likely help for Christians in the Middle East.
Putin, an Orthodox Christian, has repeatedly said that he is a man of faith and his administration has consistently sought closer ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.
His policies “have brought religion to the forefront and triggered positive change in ecumenical relations," said Natalya Pecherskaya, rector of the St. Petersburg School of Religion and Philosophy.
But state interests will come first on the visit, officials said.
"Putin will be meeting Pope Francis as the president of Russia, and then only secondly as a Russian Orthodox [Christian]," said Father Kirill Gorbunov, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow.
As well as his visit with the Holy Father in the Vatican, Putin will meet with Italian president Giorgio Napolitano and Romano Prodi, the country’s former premier and a special UN representative, in Rome. On Tuesday, Putin will travel to Trieste for talks with the Italian government.
The Kremlin announced ahead of the visit that Putin and Pope Francis would focus on the state of international institutions and their ability to respond to crises, as well as the protection of Christian minorities in the Maghreb and the Middle East.
It’s not the first time Pope Francis has addressed topical political issues: before the Group of 20 Summit in early September, the pontiff implored Putin to seek a peaceful resolution to the Syrian crisis, along with other world leaders.
"To the leaders present, to each and every one, I make a heartfelt appeal for them to help find ways to overcome the conflicting positions and to lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution [in Syria]," Pope Francis wrote in his letter to Putin. "Rather, let there be a renewed commitment to seek, with courage and determination, a peaceful solution through dialogue and negotiation of the parties, unanimously supported by the international community."
Yury Ushakov, senior foreign policy aide to Putin, said the Pope’s letter had “served as a constructive background for the discussion of the Syrian crisis during the [G20] summit. Afterward, an interesting and rather positive development happened, taking into account the initiatives suggested by our president.”
In recent months, violent attacks on Christians in Syria, Libya and other hotspots in the Middle East have featured increasingly in media reports.
Christians, who comprise about 10 per cent of Syria's population, are viewed as supporters of President Bashar Assad, fearing the Islamist ideology of some rebels.
“I believe it is all systematic and planned,” Sami Housni, a Christian priest in Damascus, told RT. “Forcing Christians to leave… In Iraq, for instance, less than 200,000 Christians remain. We do have concerns, and we do hope to stay in our land, Syria, which is the cradle of Christianity. We also hope that the Pope and the heads of Christian denominations will call for the renunciation of violence and the adoption of dialogue.”
During Putin’s Vatican meeting there are no plans to pass along any official communication from Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, to the pontiff, Ushakov said.
For nearly a thousand years, tensions have dominated relations between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches, which were split in the Great Schism of 1054.
Last week, ahead of Putin’s trip to the Vatican, Patriarch Kirill met with a senior Catholic archbishop in Moscow.
"We live in an epoch when many of our historic differences should no longer play the negative role they have played in relations between our churches," Kirill told journalists, as quoted by RIA Novosti news agency.
During his years in power, Putin has visited the Vatican three times, meeting with John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Then-President Dmitry Medvedev also paid a visit to Pope Benedict XVI.
Putin’s last visit to the Vatican took place in 2010, when he was Russia’s prime minister.
These visits have formed the backdrop for strengthening ties between Russia and the Vatican – which is, after all, a sovereign state. In 2011, Russia and the Vatican signed a cooperation agreement in the field of child health care, and last month the countries agreed to increase cooperation between their respective academic institutions and museums.
The reason Russian Orthodox Patriarchs and Catholic Popes have not met in recent decades has both ancient and modern roots. There has been a centuries-old dispute between the Russian Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches, and the Russian Orthodox Church says the Catholics wrongfully seized its property in the 1980s and 1990s.
Under Soviet leader Josef Stalin, Eastern Catholic churches were handed over to the Russian Orthodox Church. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Catholics took back more than 500 churches, mostly in western Ukraine. |
LANSING, MI -- Gov. Rick Snyder on Tuesday signed HB 4052, which prevents local governments from requiring things like a local minimum wage or paid sick days from local businesses.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Earl Poleski, was supported by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and other business groups who were concerned about facing a patchwork of regulations across the state.
"The bill continues ongoing work to bolster the state's job creation climate by ensuring that regulations regarding employment matters are uniform across the state. That's more effective than a patchwork of varying local ordinances employers must navigate," said Snyder spokesman Dave Murray.
The bill looks different today than it did when it was first introduced.
As it moved through the Legislature, liberal opponents labeled it the 'Death Star' bill, a reference to a space station used to destroy planets in the popular Star Wars franchise.
Part of opponents' objection to the bill was language that could have eliminated local LGBT protections.
That language was removed, but opponents were concerned about what they said was overly broad language that could have interfered with things like locals setting bar hours. That language also landed on the cutting room floor in a series of changes. In the end, the retroactive nature of the original bill was dropped as well.
That change was enough to win support from Gov. Rick Snyder. He "was supportive after changes were added to the legislation about being forward-looking only and not affecting existing ordinances that are already in place in some communities," said Murray.
Despite a few rounds of changes and multiple trips through both chambers, the legislation proved unpalatable to Democrats and liberal groups.
"Now that the language has been removed that would've opened the door for unintended consequences, the crux of this bill is abundantly clear: it's designed to attack workers and limit local democracy," said Lonnie Scott, executive director of liberal advocacy group Progress Michigan.
The governor on Tuesday also signed House Bills 4271-4274 and 4385, which eliminate regular February election dates.
See a complete list of legislation he signed on Tuesday here.
Emily Lawler is a Capitol/Business reporter for MLive. You can reach her at elawler@mlive.com, subscribe to her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter: @emilyjanelawler. |
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Familiar ingredients PieCrust uses all the ingredients you already like, such as Markdown and Textile for formatting, or Jinja2 and Mustache for templating.
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Super-fast service Because PieCrust is also designed as a lightweight (flat-file) CMS, it can render your pages in less than a few milliseconds in most cases. It means that previewing or generating your website is super fast! |
- San Francisco police released a video this weekend of a 19-year-old man who was arrested in connection with a series of three to four attacks on Asian women.
Although Agustin Garcia was taken into custody on Aug. 12, police are hoping the video of an Aug. 10 assault on a woman on a sidewalk will help find more witnesses to convict him of a hate crime. As of Monday, he was in custody on $925,000 bail.
The video shows a man in a hoodie punching a woman, shoving her the ground and then running back to her, striking her once more in the head.
Garcia was arrested on suspicion of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, battery with serious injuries, terrorist threats, attempted kidnapping and a hate crime allegation, jail records show.
Efforts to reach Garcia on Monday were unsuccessful. His next court date is scheduled for Sept. 15.
His arrest came as the result of police at the city’s Bayview Station investigation of a series of unprovoked attacks against Asian women that happened in the areas of San Bruno and Silver avenues, San Bruno and Arleta avenues and San Bruno and Egbert avenues, authorities said.
In one case, a woman’s nose was fractured, and she had a laceration that needed seven stitches, police said. In another case, a woman's tooth was broken.
Anyone who has had suspicious contact with Garcia or has any additional information to report, please call Sgt. Hurley from the Bayview Station Investigation Team at (415) 671-2300, the SFPD Anonymous Tip Line at (415) 575-4444, or text a tip to TIP 411 with SFPD at the beginning of the message. |
Tomorrow, October 24th 12-1pm and 4-6pm
Wednesday, October 25th 4-6pm
Come join us outside the FCC and encourage employees to do their part in fighting to protect #NetNeutrality!
We'll have flyers and talking points so just bring yourselves and your passion for an open internet!
If you're not in the DC area...
We've got you covered.
Join us for our Twitter Storm tomorrow evening between 7-8pm EST. Below are some sample tweets.
** And for something a little extra, go ahead and tweet at your members of Congress! If you're not sure who they are, use this tool to find out both their names and their twitter handles!
And on the subject of Congress...
Keep the calls coming!
Thousands of people have called in to #SaveTheNet so let's keep the pressure on! And hey, if you've already called your member, go ahead and call some others.
Sample Tweets:
If ur reading this, u need the internet too! Join #TeamInternet & call Congress 2 demand they protect #NetNeutrality battleforthenet.com
Internet freedom isn't just a #digitalrights issue - it's a #humanrights issue. Protect #NetNeutrality now! battleforthenet.com
#NetNeutrality matters to me because ____________ It's time to #SaveTheNet - call Congress: battleforthenet.com
@Representative I'm your constituent & I'm calling on you to protect #NetNeutrality - keep the internet free & open!
I'm your constituent & I'm calling on you to protect #NetNeutrality
Telecoms wanna make the internet restricted access toll roads, road blocks & slow lanes. We say NO! We want #NetNeutrality! @ProtectOurNet
Have you told Congress why you want internet access? Well, they need to hear from you. #SaveTheNet battleforthenet.com @ProtectOurNet
You are receiving this email because you signed the Popular Resistance net neutrality petition in the past.
We must rise together quickly again to defend the Internet!
Solidarity,
Popular Resistance @Representative #NetNeutrality is a #freespeech issue.You are receiving this email because you signed the Popular Resistance net neutrality petition in the past.Solidarity,Popular Resistance |
Adjudin (AF-2364) is a drug which is under development as a potential non-hormonal male contraceptive drug, which acts by blocking the production of sperm in the testes, but without affecting testosterone production.[1] It is an analogue of the chemotherapy drug lonidamine, an indazole-carboxylic acid, and further studies continue to be conducted into this family of drugs as possible contraceptives.[2]
As of 1 May 2007 , adjudin was in phase II human trials.[3]
As shown in mature male rats, the agent induces reversible germ cell loss from the seminiferous epithelium by disrupting cell adhesion function between Sertoli and germ cells.[4][5] It weakens the adhesion between the Sertoli cell and maturing sperm leading to a sloughing and loss of the latter.[6] As it does not affect spermatogonia themselves the loss of fertility is reversible. In experiments hormonal levels (FSH, LH, testosterone) were undisturbed during administration, and normal spermatogenesis returned in 95% of the tubules of rats at 210 days after the drug had been discontinued.[7]
When taken orally, the drug has very low bioavailability. The oral dose effective for contraception is so high that there have been side effects in the muscles and liver. Coupling an Adjudin molecule to a mutant form of follicle-stimulating hormone may solve this problem.[8] The mutant FSH is modified such that it no longer induces Inhibin B production, but the membrane-bound FSH receptors on Sertoli cells still bind to it, delivering the Adjudin directly to the target cells. The adjudin-FSH can be either injected, delivered in an implant, or as a gel.[9]
A study in 2013 indicated that Adjudin, similar to its analogue lonidamine, has properties that inhibit cancer growth by targeting mitochondria and blocking energy metabolism in certain kinds of tumor cells in mice, indicating that it has potential as a drug for cancer therapy.[10]
It was invented by Chuen Yan Cheng.[11][12][13][14] |
Top 5 Most Energetic Players (2013, Last Year)
Note: The following are in no specific order or ranking
Earl Thomas
Thomas was a constant source of movement and intensity. It was his field, and the offensive players stepping on it was an affront to him. Even his walk had an edge. Nearly every practice had him screaming at receivers and Russell Wilson after breaking up a pass.
Richard Sherman
Sherman brought a different kind of energy. He was fun and cocky. His dancing was a mainstay, and always got the crowd laughing and cheering.
Red Bryant
Bryant was extremely physical. More than once in 1v1 pass rushing drills, he would exchange words with the offensive lineman. He and Breno Giacomini came to blows at least once, as Bryant had to be restrained. Bryant was a gentle giant off the field, but had a very nasty edge on it.
Jermaine Kearse
Kearse was in the middle of a breakout camp, and was making highlight reel plays regularly. You could feel his determination. It was infectious.
Doug Baldwin
Baldwin regularly was woofing at the defensive backs and played at game speed. His intensity was obvious and consistent.
Top 5 Most Energetic Players (2014, This Year) Greg Scruggs Scruggs has approached each drill with a ton of effort. He is not vocal, and his results are not always impressive, but his effort has been. While some players stand on the sideline with various ailments, Scruggs has participated in every practice after recovering from a serious knee injury.
Cassius Marsh
Marsh has been run ragged from core special teams work to defensive tackle to defensive end, all while playing some with the first team and some with the second. No player has probably got more snaps in camp than Marsh. He has attacked each one with high effort and often with great results.
Doug Baldwin
Baldwin has had another great camp. He is out-running defenders, and finding the end zone more often. There has not been quite as much woofing, but the energy has been equal to past seasons.
Percy Harvin
Harvin has been electric through most of camp, and draws reactions from the crowd every time he touches the ball. His effort has been notable as well.
TIE – Cliff Avril / Phil Bates
Both Avril and Johnson have brought a similar kind of energy to camp. Avril is bringing maximum effort on each pass rush, and has been giving Justin Britt a headache as a result. It is exactly what the rookie needs. Avril could probably beat Britt at 75% effort, but the message he sends by embarrassing the youngster is clear: “This is what you will face in games, so rise to it.”
Bates has stood out with his performance and his energy. It is clear how determined he is to make the squad. Every snap counts, and he is playing that way.
The Difference
Notice the difference between which players are bringing the most energy to camp. Last year saw many of the core leaders of the team setting the tone. This year has a number of youngsters and role players. None of this is backed up by numbers or proof. Other observers may come up with a different list.
The knee-jerk reaction would be that Sherman and Thomas have eased off the gas after getting their big contracts and some notoriety this off-season. That is not my read. Sherman has had a terrific camp. He has been almost impossible to pass on. If anything, I just don’t see him being challenged right now because he’s playing at such a high level. Maybe he is not as silly this year because his best friend, Brandon Browner is no longer around. Maybe he is trying to make it less about him and more about focus on the team. Maybe the DJ just hasn’t been playing his song. There are plenty of non-distressing reasons for the difference, but it is a difference.
Thomas is a tougher one to assess. I don’t think his intensity can be turned off. I’m not ready to say there is anything wrong with the best safety in football, but I would not mind seeing more of the Thomas stomp and scream. The team benefits from the edge he sets.
The defensive line had a clear emotional leader last year in Bryant and Chris Clemons. I am not one to say that leadership is a major factor in performance, but it would help if Michael Bennett and Avril could step forward. Brandon Mebane is great, but will never be vocal. Kevin Williams is said to be leader, but he will have to earn respect on the field with a new team.
There have been enough injuries that it is hard to be sure how much that has contributed to some of the differences. It drives me nuts when people talk about how Seattle lost a lot of leadership they will need to make up for. They have a locker room full of leaders. A couple of them need to assert themselves and make sure they are setting the standard for others to follow. The talent will take care of the rest.
The energy level at camp yesterday was below my expectations, and got me thinking of who the guys were who brought the most energy each day to practice this year compared to last year. It is not scientific. These are just my observations, but the exercise was revealing, so I thought it might be worth sharing. |
Dogecoin is providing the market participants with ample opportunities to profit from by participating in range trading. I have been maintaining that rallies up to 50 satoshis can be utilized to build short positions for a target of 47 satoshis, and as can be seen, the recent surge to 49.5 satoshis was quickly followed by a drop to the mentioned target.
Even with high volatility hitting the market, Dogecoin is unchanged from yesterday’s level of 47 satoshis.
Image: https://www.tradingview.com/x/zS4BrS0m/
An analysis of the 240-minute Dogecoin/Bitcoin price chart above tells of an extended sideways range which would continue to provide numerous trading opportunities to both buyers and sellers.
Dogecoin Chart Structure
Dogecoin is maintaining a wide trading range of 46.3-50 satoshis, where any approach towards the extremes can be utilized to build positions in the market. The levels near 49.5-50 satoshis are acting as strong supply zones while buying pressure is witnessed near 46-46.3 satoshis.
Bollinger Bands The upper range of the BB has dipped to 48.5 satoshis amid repeated failure of bulls to sustain at higher levels. Further lowering of the upper range will result in increased pressure on Dogecoin. Following the lead of the upper range, the lower range has also dipped to 45.7 satoshis.
Relative Strength Index – The RSI indicator has witnessed a sharp decline from a 1-week high of 65 to 48.2204, indicating strong selling pressure near the higher levels.
From a technical viewpoint, it looks like the bulls and the bears are pretty comfortable with the current Dogecoin range. Traders can employ two strategies to reap huge benefits from the present scenario: buy on dips (when price approaches the floor value) and sell on rise (when price hits the ceiling), however, following the stop-loss is the key to minimizing the risks. Positions must be built keeping the personal risk appetite in mind. Volatility will continue to play an active role. |
(CNN) Heavy rains drenched parts of southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi on Friday, causing dangerous floods that killed at least three people, cut off an entire town, shut down highways and prompted numerous rescues.
In Louisiana, all seven major roads into Greensburg, near Baton Rouge, were under water and the small town largely cut off, according to Michael Martin, director of operations for the St. Helena Parish Sheriff's Office.
Only large National Guard vehicles have been able to get into and out of town, Martin said. At least two dozen high-water rescues were carried out Friday, with stranded residents pulled from cars, rooftops and, in one case, a tree.
Rescue workers in some areas waded through waist-deep flood waters to get stranded residents and their pets to safety.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency, with rain expected for several more days.
A 68-year-old man drowned near Zachary, about 15 miles north of Baton Rouge, according to the emergency management director in East Baton Rouge Parish, JoAnne Moreau.
"We were in the trailer just watching TV and then the water just started coming up," Vernon Drummond, the victim's roommate, told CNN affiliate WAFB
"We were walking out and he slipped and fell. He went under the water. We tried to save him, but we couldn't."
The other victim was an elderly man who was being helped through floodwaters when he slipped into a ditch, according to Moreau. His body has been recovered.
A man in his 50s died Friday in St. Helena Parish as a result of the flooding, according to Chief H. "Butch" Browning, Louisiana State Fire Marshal.
"He was in his truck and was apparently swept off the flooded roadway in swift water," Browning said.
It's not stopping any time soon. #flooding #louisiana #notcool #staysafe A video posted by Sarah M (@smoran715) on Aug 12, 2016 at 6:41am PDT
In Tangipahoa, a low-lying village northeast of Baton Rouge, Police Chief Darrell Martin told CNN that a father and son were swept away by rushing waters. The son was located but his father has yet to be found.
"You just hope for the best," Martin said.
More than 100 residents were evacuated to a shelter at a high school, according to Martin. Many homes have been destroyed.
"This is the worst that I've seen it -- that I can remember," Martin told CNN.
Resident Lance Martin was filling up his truck at a gas station when he got a call that this home was under water. When he got there the flood waters were so high, he couldn't get out of his truck but managed to return to the gas station.
Twenty miles northeast of Tangipahoa, in Amite City, the main thoroughfare, State Route 16, was under several inches of water
In Zachary, a school bus packed with children slid off a road, leaving its front end covered with water, WAFB reported.
The children managed to get out through an emergency exit, according to witnesses.
Torrential rains in Louisiana and southern Mississippi have caused area rivers to rise toward historic crests.
The Tickfaw River in Montpelier crested at record levels in multiple locations, rising nearly 20 feet since midnight. Other rivers in the area -- Tangipahoa, Amite, Comite and Tchefuncte -- are either at major flood stage or expected to reach major flood stage soon.
Estimates of the Louisiana rainfall, which totaled more than 12 inches overnight, indicate somewhere between a 1-in-100-year to 1-in-500-year rainfall event near Zachary and Greensburg.
Baton Rouge Airport recorded 8.18 inches of rain Friday, the wettest August day on record since weather records began over 100 years ago.
A National Weather Service volunteer measured 17.09 inches of rain in Livingston, Louisiana since midnight -- making the deluge a 1-in-1000-year rainfall for that location.
Moreau said the area hasn't seen flooding this severe in more than 30 years. Between 5 and 15 inches of rain have fallen in the parish.
"It's going to be a difficult next couple of days," she said.
In Greenburg, crews in boats and Humvees were busy with rescues, Martin said. Several people were treated for injuries sustained when a tree fell on a car.
"It's real bad," Martin said of the flooding.
#news #weather #flooding #water #rain A video posted by Michael Shaffer⚽️ (@m_shaffer94) on Aug 12, 2016 at 7:57am PDT
Cellphone video taken by resident Ballard Webb showed a brownish stream pouring through a home, with several dogs either wading through water or standing on furniture.
At least 1,300 residents were left without power in East Baton Rouge Parish, with the number rising, CNN affiliate WBRZ reported.
Schools, government offices and many businesses were closed.
⚠️ Move to higher ground! Flash Flood Warning including Amite LA and Kentwood LA until 3:15 PM CDT pic.twitter.com/DakeLfodRE — NWS New Orleans (@NWSNewOrleans) August 12, 2016
In Mississippi, a flash flood watch was in effect through Saturday morning, according to the state's emergency management agency.
Several roads were shut down in various counties and at least five people were rescued in the small town of Osyka in Pike County, just over the border with Louisiana, CNN affiliate WJTV reported.
Just to the north of Osyka, near the city of McComb, more than eight inches of rain had fallen by Friday morning.
11am- Heaviest rain mainly NW of tidal lakes. Thin box = FF Warning. Thick box = #FlashFlood Emergency. #lawx #mswx pic.twitter.com/8Y5qwbJKgo — NWS New Orleans (@NWSNewOrleans) August 12, 2016
There have been flood warnings for several days for portions of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana as the weather system lingered over the Gulf of Mexico earlier in the week. Now, moving west and north, the system has reached land.
In March, heavy rains and storms led to widespread floods that damaged thousands of homes in northern Louisiana. |
A controversial exhibition revealing the influence of Islam in Europe over the course of history has opened in Brussels after a delay caused by the Islamist terror attacks that took 32 lives in the Belgian capital last year.
The exhibition, entitled “Islam. It’s Also Our History” by the Museum of Europe has been previously displayed in several European countries.
But its arrival in Brussels last week had been postponed by the authorities and organizers after the Paris attacks in November 2015 and the bombings in the Belgian capital in March 2016. The organizers also struggled to find a venue for the show as many were hesitant to host an event that was almost certain to attract controversy.
The exhibition finally opened on September 15 at the Vanderborght Building, which is owned by the Brussels city authorities.
“We want to make clear to Europeans that Islam is part of European civilization and that it isn’t a recent import but has roots going back 13 centuries,” Isabelle Benoit, a historian from the Tempora organization, which designed the show, told AP.
The display uses historic and contemporary artwork, daily objects, multimedia and installations to reveal how Islam influenced Europe during the Arab rule of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal), the Ottoman Empire and the Colonial Period.
Read more
But the show also addresses the current situation in Europe, which is gripped by waves of migrants from war-torn Middle Eastern and North African nations as well as the constant threat of Islamist terrorism.
“It turns out that our exhibition comes at a very relevant time in history when the meeting between Europe and Islam is witnessed by citizens from the continent in all its tragic manifestations… Should we cancel it or at least postpone it until happier circumstances? Definitely not, we believe,” the organizers said on the exhibition’s website.
READ MORE: European court backs Belgian face veil ban
“It is precisely because the timing is tragic that it is important to show our contemporaries the extraordinary richness of this history, which has helped to make us what we are. We should not hide what is wrong any more than relativize it, but place it a centuries-old history, which has much more to it than just this,” they added.
Provocative artworks dedicated to modern relations between Islam and Europe have attracted the most attention at the show.
Read more
An installation by Danish artist Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen commemorated thousands of migrants who drowned in attempts to cross the Mediterranean Sea and reach Europe on rafts and rickety boats.
The guests of the display enter a dark room, decorated by screens, which show the bottom of the sea, with rolls of fabric thrown to the floor resembling the bodies of drowned children.
Jean Ulrick Desert from Haiti created burqas, garments used by some Muslim woman to fully cover their face and body in public, in the colors the national flags of the US, UK, France and Germany to show the scale of the immigration.
Meanwhile, an installation by a US artist, Gregory Green, showing a posh Louis Vuitton case with a fake improvised explosive device inside it led to complaints by visiting Muslims
Primary school teacher Nejia Adouiri said it was “very confrontational” that the organizers “wanted to make a link between Islam and what has been happening recently worldwide.”
Adouiri also objected to the bomb-laden Louis Vuitton case being placed at the end the exhibition and therefore helping to form a negative final impression of Islam for visitors.
The organizers told AP that Green’s piece won’t be removed due to the complaints, but added that it may be moved to another location and put in its textual content.
“Islam. It’s Also Our History” exhibition is expected to run in the Belgian capital until January 21, 2018.
Three coordinated suicide bombings took place in Brussels on March 22, 2016, with explosions rocking the city’s Zaventem airport and Maalbeek metro station.
The attacks, which killed 32 and injured over 300 people, were claimed by the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group. |
Well, this may actually be it. After years of thwarting attempts by the site's landowners to toss Irv's Burgers off the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Sweetzer in West Hollywood, Irv's owner Sonia Hong may have to hang up her spatula once and for all. Despite being one of our favorite old school burger stands, Irv's Burgers is slated to shutter at the end of June, according to the site Route 66 News. And the reason, as you might guess, is money.
For nearly a decade now, Hong and her family have fought to keep Irv's alive and cooking -- literally. With her infectiously positive personality and penchant for doodling every customer who ever ordered from her, Hong has become a West Hollywood treasure among everyday eaters and local businesspeople alike. Of course, it helped that her well-griddled double cheeseburgers, brimming with Southern California tradition, have been feeding the neighborhood for generations.
Now that all seems poised to change. Despite winning landmark status back in 2006, Hong has been under near-constant pressure from the folks who own the land underneath her unique burger shack. After attempts in the early 2000's to shuffle off Irv's Burgers in favor of a Peet's Coffee failed, the family that owns the pricey corner lot allegedly returned this year with plans to up the rent to $7000 per month in a bid to scare her off the land. When even that fell through, so the rumors go, Hong was sent a 30-day notice to vacate the premises. Still, she's trying to fight for an extension, and hoping for something much more substantial. |
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Get your a capella version of Dragonborn all sung out now (I know you’re all doing it), Skyrim in Concert is coming!
The first ever orchestral concert dedicated to the music of The Elder Scrolls® V: Skyrim, will premiere at the London Palladium on 16th November. Based on the award winning score by Jeremy Soule, Skyrim in Concert takes concert goers on a nostalgic, musical journey through the landscape of one of The Elder Scrolls’ most popular installments. Performed live by the Winterhold Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, attendees will enjoy brand new arrangements of some of Skyrim’s most epic and moving themes, including Far Horizons, The Streets of Whiterun and the rousing main theme, Dragonborn, as well as more surprises on the night.
The concert celebrates the upcoming launch of Skyrim Special Edition. Developed by Bethesda Game Studios® and winner of more than 200 Game of the Year Awards, Skyrim Special Edition includes the critically acclaimed game and add-ons with all-new features like remastered art and effects, volumetric god rays, dynamic depth of field, screen-space reflections, and more.
Skyrim Special Edition releases on 28th October, 2016, on Xbox One, PlayStation® 4 computer entertainment system and PC. For more information on The Elder Scrolls and SkyrimSpecial Edition, visit http://www.elderscrolls.com
Tickets for the concert go on sale 10am, 4th October, with ticket prices starting from £26.50.
For more details and general ticket sales, visit http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/ |
There it is. Any rational person looking at the future would have thought the backward, savage Middle East, would, in time, look more modern — more like Western countries. Who would have imagined that Europe would morph into the Middle East. Ghastly.
The president of Kühne Logistics University calls the mandatory Arabic proposal “keeping up with reality.” Actually, it’s hurling backwards to the seventh century. That’s the reality.
“Arabic is a world language,” he said. “We have to stay on pace.” Has the Arab world stayed on pace with the modern world? Ask the women in their cloth coffins (burkas).
Learn Arabic in order “to coexist”: in other words, submit.
German University President Floats Idea Of Mandatory Arabic In Primary Schools, By Daily Caller, February 3, 2016: A German “education expert” proposed Wednesday that Arabic becomes a mandatory subject in German schools to enable refugees and Germans to coexist. Thomas Strothotte, president of Kühne Logistics University and a renowned voice in education issues, told Die Zeit that society as a whole would benefit and “keep up” with a new reality from becoming increasingly multicultural. Strothotte has served as president at several German universities and founded two private schools in the city of Magdeburg. “We would appreciate being a country of immigration and multiple languages,” Strothotte said. “Refugee children need to learn German and German children Arabic.” Strothotte believes increased understanding of Arabic will have positive effects on Germany culturally, economically and politically. Strothotte is not the first to call for Arabic classes in the German curriculum. Christian Wiesenhütter, deputy chief executive for the Berlin Camber of Commerce, called Arabic a new “world language” back in 2013, long before the Syrian refugee crisis was on the horizon. Strothotte primarily wanted to boost German business with the idea. “We must finally acknowledge that Arabic is a world language,” he said. “We have to stay on pace.” State-run broadcaster Deutsche Welle started an Arabic speaking radio channel in December. DW Chairwoman Karola Wille said it was “an important signal” during a “difficult phase” when the broadcaster announced the launch two months ago.
The Truth Must be Told Your contribution supports independent journalism Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more. Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible. Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too. Please contribute to our ground-breaking work here.
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CTV Vancouver
A 13-year-old boy who protected his home and little sister from an intruder was honoured Thursday alongside brave Vancouver police officers who went above and beyond the call of duty.
Cory Wong was babysitting his nine-year-old sister at home in the Killarney neighbourhood when a stranger started knocking on the front door in Sept. 2013.
The kids tried to ignore him, but the man moved around the house and started pounding on the back door as well.
“That’s when we got scared and turned off the TV and started phoning my mom,” Cory said.
Before the kids knew it, the intruder had climbed the side of the home and was crawling through a second floor window. Without thinking, Cory, then only 12 years old, sprang into action.
Using only the phone in his hand, the 5’2” tall boy weighing roughly 80 pounds fought the man off.
“I rushed to him and just smashed him in the head many times, right near the eye,” he said.
The phone batteries spilled onto the floor and the burglar tumbled down into a hedge. He fled, leaving a baseball cap at the scene.
When police arrived minutes later, they found the children armed with sticks to fend off further attacks.
For his efforts, Cory was handed a Certificate of Merit at the Celebrating Excellence in Policing ceremony.
“For showing courage well beyond his years and bravely protecting his sister, Cory Wong is awarded the Vancouver Police Board’s highest award for civilian bravery,” said Paul Patterson, senior director of public affairs.
The burglar’s baseball cap provided valuable DNA evidence, Patterson added.
Several police officers also received honours, including two who saved an injured toddler from a man with a knife and others who rescued newborn babies being smothered by their mentally ill mother.
The VPD Counter Exploitation Program was also awarded for its multi-year investigation into an operation forcing young girls and women into prostitution. The probe led to B.C.’s first-ever human trafficking charge. |
Accumulating clinical- and scientific research-based evidence is driving our increased awareness of the significance of the human microbiome (HM) to the healthy and homeostatic operation of the human central nervous system (CNS). HM communities occupy several different but distinct microbial ecosystems on and within the human body, including nasal, oral, and otic cavities, the surface of the skin and the urogenital and the gastrointestinal (GI) tracts. The complex symbiotic inter-relationship between the GI-tract microbiome and its host is strongly influenced by diet and nutrition, and when optimized can be highly beneficial to food digestion, nutrient intake, and immune health (1–6). For example, dietary composition ultimately affects the structure, organization, function, and speciation of the HM occupying the GI tract, in part by supplying multiple substrates for microbial metabolism. Typical Western diets containing high fat–cholesterol, low amounts of soluble and insoluble fiber, and sugar- and salt-enrichment not only impart deleterious nutrition but also dietary constraints on the HM. This in turn impacts the supply of microbiome-generated molecules absorbed into the systemic circulation for transport into the extensive neurovasculature of the CNS. This short communication will focus on emerging ideas concerning the contribution of the GI-tract microbiome to human neurological disease with emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) wherever possible.
It is the HM of the GI tract that contains the largest reservoir of microbes in humans, containing about 1014 microorganisms from at least 1000 distinct microbial species, and outnumbering human somatic cells by about 100 to 1 (1, 7). The total HM has been estimated to encode about 4 × 106 genes versus the ~26,600 genes of the human host, so again the quantity of HM genes outnumbers host genes in the order of about 150 to 1 (4). Of the 55 bacterial divisions currently identified, only two are prominent in mammalian GI-tract microbiota, including the anaerobic Bacteroidetes (~48%) and Firmicutes (~51%), with the remaining 1% of phylotypes distributed amongst the Proteobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, Fusobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Spirochetes, with various species of fungi, protozoa, viruses, and other microorganisms making up the remainder (http://www.genome.gov/pages/research/sequencing/seqproposals/hgmiseq.pdf). Interestingly, microorganisms making up the smallest proportion of the HM seem to have a disproportionately large effect on host health and disease (see below). Of all GI-tract microbiota, bacterial densities of 1011–1012/ml are the highest recorded density in any known microbial ecosystem of any living organism (1, 4, 7–10). There is currently expanding interest in the ability of these high density GI-tract bacteria to influence host innate-immune, neuromodulatory-, and neurotransmission-functions (3, 4, 11–14). Established pathways of GI–CNS communication and mutualism currently include the autonomic nervous system (ANS), the enteric nervous system (ENS), the immune system, and the neuroendocrine system (15–21). Remarkably, neuronal signaling pathways along this bidirectional GI–CNS axis remain incompletely understood despite their important roles: (1) in coordinating metabolic-, nutritive-, and homeostatic-functions, and (2) in their functional disruption in chronic diseases such as anxiety, autoimmune-disease, diabetes, metabolic-syndrome, obesity, and stress-induced and progressive neuropsychiatric diseases including AD (3, 11, 12, 20, 22–24).
Here we list six specific, highly illustrative examples and recent insights into the interactive nature of the HM with a healthy, homeostatic CNS, and examples of a dysfunctional or altered HM contribution to the development of age-associated neurological disease:
(1) studies of the ENS in germ-free “gnotobiotic” mice, i.e., those missing their microbiome, indicate that commensal GI-tract microbiota are critically essential for membrane electrical characteristics, including ion fluxes, action potentials, and GI-tract sensory neuron excitability, thus providing a potential mechanistic link for the initial exchange of signaling information between the GI-tract microbiome and the ANS, ENS, CNS neuroimmune–neuroendocrine systems (4, 5, 20, 23, 25);
(2) GI-tract-abundant Gram-positive facultative anaerobic or microaerophilic Lactobacillus, and other Bifidobacterium (Actinobacteria) species such as Lactobacillus brevis and Bifidobacterium dentium are capable of metabolizing glutamate to produce gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA), the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the human CNS (26). Increased GI-tract GABA appears to correlate with increased CNS GABA levels, but the systemic pathways that contribute to this gut–brain linkage require additional study (3, 26). In CNS dysfunctions in GABA-mediated neuromodulatory and neurotransmission functions have been linked to the development of anxiety, behavioral deficits, epilepsy, defects in synaptogenesis, depression, and cognitive impairment including AD (16, 17, 23, 27–29). Interestingly, epileptic activities including complex partial-seizures and non-convulsive seizures are commonly associated with AD, especially in its early stages, but the contribution of GI-tract microbiome to epileptiform events via GABA modulation is not well understood (30);
(3) the secreted, dimeric, 238 amino acid brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) essential in the maintenance and survival of neurons, has pleiotropic effects on neuronal development, differentiation, synaptogenesis, and the synaptic plasticity that underlies neuronal circuit formation and cognition, and has been found to be decreased in brains and serum from patients with anxiety, behavioral defects, schizophrenia, and AD (27, 31, 32). Interestingly, mice deficient in BDNF have altered development of GI-tract innervations including the vagus nerve, which normally serves as a major constitutive, modulatory communication pathway across the GI–CNS axis (33, 34). In experimental infection models known to lead to significant alterations in the microbiota profiles, BDNF expression was found to be reduced in the hippocampus and cortex of germ-free “gnotobiotic” mice, and the reduction in the expression of BDNF was found to specifically associate with increased anxiety and progressive cognitive dysfunction (20, 31, 32);
(4) glutamate is the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitter in the human CNS; the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor, a CNS-enriched transmembrane sensor that regulates synaptic plasticity and cognition has some intriguing and potentially direct interactions with the HM; for example, the NMDA-, glutamate-targeting, glutathione-depleting, and oxidative-stress-inducing neurotoxin β-N-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA), found elevated in the brains of patients with amyotrophic-lateral sclerosis (ALS), the Parkinson-dementia complex of Guam, and AD, has been hypothesized to be generated by Cyanobacteria of the GI-tract microbiome, and anxiety, stress, chronic intestinal inflammatory disease, or malnutrition may further induce BMAA generation to ultimately contribute to neurological dysfunction (13, 35). Interestingly, BMAA, a neurotoxic amino acid not normally incorporated into the polypeptide chains that constitute brain proteins, has been linked with intra-neuronal protein misfolding, a hallmark feature of the amyloid peptide-enriched senile plaque lesions, and resultant inflammatory neurodegeneration, that characterize AD, ALS, PD, and prion disease (21, 23, 36). These and other HM-resident Cyanobacteria-generated neurotoxins including saxitoxin and anatoxin-α may further contribute to neurological disease, especially over the course of aging when the intestinal epithelial barrier of the GI tract becomes significantly more permeable (13, 37);
(5) the HM not only secretes nutritive molecules, including essential vitamins of the B and K group, but also release molecular factors that may potentially modulate or alter systemic- and CNS-amyloidosis, CNS neurochemistry, and neurotransmission. For example, HM organisms widely utilize their own naturally secreted peptides and amyloids as structural materials, adhesion molecules, and neurotoxins that ultimately function in host auto-immunity and immune-protection. The specific contribution of the HM and bacterial amyloid to protein misfolding and amyloidogenic diseases such as AD are however not well understood, although bacterial components such as endotoxins are often found within the senile plaque lesions that characterize the AD brain (5, 21, 38). The HM further appears to condition host immunity to foreign microbes, including viral infection and xenobiotics, while regulating autoimmune responses that can impact homeostatic metabolic- and neural-signaling functions within the CNS (4, 14, 23, 39). Progressive neurological disorders such as AD have been increasingly linked to altered autoimmune and faulty innate-immune responses (12, 40, 41). An increased incidence of auto-immunity, exposure to pathogens both pre- and postnatally, and findings of antibodies to brain-specific antigens are common in disorders as diverse as anxiety, autism, depression, obsessive–compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease (PD), and AD, together suggesting that differences in exposure and genetic vulnerability toward HM-mediated auto-immunity may be significant determinants of age-related neurological disease course and outcome as humans age (14, 17, 23, 39, 42–46);
(6) secretory products of the GI-tract microbiome and translocation of these signaling molecules via the lymphatic and systemic circulation throughout the CNS are just beginning to be identified. Recent advances in metagenomics, RNA sequencing, metatranscriptomics, metaproteomics, and metabolomics continue to clarify our perceptions of the GI-tract HM and its contribution to health and disease. Just as each individual has a unique “stoichiometrically proportioned” composition of microorganisms in their microbiome, individuals appear to be variably sensitive to age-related neurological disorders such as AD through the concept of “human biochemical individuality” (11, 16, 47). Importantly, dietary and GI-tract HM manipulation and the emergence of personalized medicine may be poised to revise and modernize our remedial efforts in the clinical management of brain disorders including AD, and the progressive transformation to more favorable clinical outcomes (30, 48, 49).
In summary, the human GI tract is a natural habitat for large, diverse, and host-specific microbial communities including multiple species from the kingdoms of Archaea, Bacteria, the Viruses, and other symbiotic microbiota. How humans co-evolved with these complex microbial ecosystems, and how certain microbial species were specifically selected for mutual symbiotic benefit is of extreme interest when assessing critical HM–host interactions involving food digestion, nutrition supply and uptake, metabolic interactions, protection against pathogens and immune system development, maintenance, and dyshomeostasis in both health and disease. To cite another relevant example, abundant evidence suggests that human mitochondria originated from bacteria via endosymbiotic relationships from very early in the evolutionary history of eukaryotes, so cross-reactivity of mitochondria and host immunological responses to selective bacterial GI constituents may have deleterious effects on human mitochondrial function through molecular mimicry (4, 12, 42). This is evidenced by multiple findings in common autoimmune, inflammation-linked systemic, and neurological disorders including ALS, anxiety, diabetes, epilepsy, metabolic disease, obesity, rheumatic fever, schizophrenia, Sydenham’s chorea, PD, AD, and other age-related pathologies, including transgenic animal models for these diseases (2, 4, 12, 23, 44–46, 50–54).
Lastly, since the early investigations of Koch, Metchnikoff, Pasteur, Von Leeuwenhoek, and others on the microbial basis of pathogenicity and disease transmission, Westernized societies have very successfully reduced the incidence of microbial-borne infectious disease, while an environment of autoimmune, cardiovascular, metabolic, and neuroinflammatory diseases continues to flourish. We have only recently begun to truly appreciate the potential for complex and beneficial contributions of the GI-tract HM to host genetics, phenotype, and the development and course of CNS disease. With advancement in next-generation, high throughput sequencing and metagenomic technologies our further investigations into the complex microbial ecosystems within us should yield novel HM manipulative strategies for both the optimization of our health and the more effective clinical management of human metabolic, neuropsychiatric, and neurological disorders.
Acknowledgments
This research was presented in part at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, USA, 9–13 November 2013. Research in the Lukiw laboratory involving the microbiome, microRNA, small non-coding RNA, the innate-immune response, amyloidogenesis, and neuroinflammation in AD, retinal, and prion disease, was supported through a COBRE III Pilot Award, an unrestricted grant from Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB), the Louisiana Biotechnology Research Network (LBRN), and NEI EY006311 and NIA AG038834.
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This post has been updated to reflect the death-toll.
A light aircraft carrying 20 passengers and three crew crashed in a forested, mountainous area in northwestern Nepal on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people, officials said.
Rescuers located the burning wreckage of the plane hours later and found the charred bodies of 17 people, according to Lokendra Singh Guru, a police inspector leading the rescue team. Six others on the plane are also feared dead, he added.
"The wreckage of the plane is scattered around 200 to 300 meters, and we are finding it difficult to search the remaining bodies because it has started snowing," Mr. Guru said.
Earlier, the Twin-Otter 400 series plane lost contact with controllers soon after taking off from Pokhara, a popular tourist town in western Nepal, for the mountain town of Jomsom at 7.50 a.m. local time (0205 GMT), said Bhim Raj Rai, spokesman for Tara Air.
The 20 passengers included two foreigners—one Chinese national and one Kuwaiti—and two infants.
The weather at both the origin and destination airports was favorable, and the plane had been cleared for departure, Tara Air said in its statement.
Aviation safety has been a continuing worry in Nepal due to the country’s mountainous terrain and concerns about standards.
In February 2014, 18 people died when a Nepal Airlines flight crashed in the west of the country. In May 2012, 15 people died when a private carrier crashed while landing at Jomsom.
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This article is about the football club. For the district of Rotterdam, see Feijenoord district
Feyenoord Rotterdam ( Dutch pronunciation: [ˈfɛiənoːrt]) is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam, playing in the Eredivisie. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed its name to SC Feijenoord in 1912, SC Feyenoord in 1974,[1] and Feyenoord Rotterdam in 1978, when SC Feyenoord became a separate amateur team. Since 1937, Feyenoord's home ground has been Stadion Feijenoord, nicknamed De Kuip.
Feyenoord is one of the most successful clubs in the Netherlands, winning 15 Eredivisie titles, 13 KNVB Cups, and 4 Johan Cruyff Shields. Internationally, it has won one European Cup, two UEFA Cups, and one Intercontinental Cup. The club has played continuously in the top tier of the Dutch football system since gaining promotion to Eerste Klasse (the Eredivisie's forerunner competition) in 1921, more times than any other club in the country,[2] including the likes of Ajax and PSV Eindhoven.
Feyenoord is known as a people's club with a huge national support. The club's most successful period in history was the 1960s and '70s, when Coen Moulijn and Ove Kindvall led the club to six league titles, two European trophies, and an Intercontinental Cup, thereby becoming the first Dutch club in history to win both the European Cup and the Intercontinental Cup. In the 21st century, Feyenoord ended an 18-year league title drought in 2017 and won the 2002 UEFA Cup against Borussia Dortmund in its home stadium.
Feyenoord has a longstanding rivalry with Ajax, a clash between two teams from the two biggest cities in the Netherlands, called De Klassieker ("The Classic"). The club's anthem is "Hand in Hand".
As of 2019, Feyenoord will become a multi-sports club; HC Feijenoord, Sportclub Feyenoord (amateur football team), and Feyenoord Basketbal are part of the club.
History [ edit ]
Foundation [ edit ]
The first logo (1912)
The football club Wilhelmina was founded in the pub De Vereeniging on 19 July 1908[3] and played in blue-sleeved red shirts and white shorts.[3] Between 1908, 1910, 1911, and 1912, the club underwent a series of changes of name and team colours, becoming Hillesluise Football Club in 1909,[4] and then RVV Celeritas. Upon earning promotion to the National football association in 1912, the club renamed to SC Feijenoord (after the city district in which the team was founded), and changed uniform once again, adopting the red and white shirts, black shorts and black socks that they still wear today.[5] In 1918, Feijenoord were promoted to the highest level of Dutch football and moved to the ground Kromme Zandweg.[5]
First successes [ edit ]
After 18 years, the formation of the club and a mere three years after they were promoted to the highest level of Dutch football Feijenoord earned their first honours by capturing the national league championship in 1924.[5] The team enjoyed a string of successes in the latter half of the decade, taking divisional titles in 1926, 1927, 1928 and 1929, and winning their second national championship in 1928.[5]
Feijenoord won their first Dutch Cup in 1930 by scoring the only goal in a derby final against Excelsior.[6] They continued to dominate their division with three consecutive titles, but were winless in subsequent championship finals. Five years after their first cup win, Feijenoord took the prize for a second time in 1935, by beating Helmond Sport.[6]
Feijenoord started to attract more fans to their stadium at Kromme Zandweg, and in 1933, they decided to build a new facility. The club moved to the Feijenoord Stadion (nicknamed "De Kuip" or "the Tub") in 1937, playing the first match there on 27 March against Beerschot.[7] During this period Feijenoord won three consecutive division titles from 1936 to 1938, with their third and fourth national championships coming in 1936 and 1938.[8]
During World War II, Feijenoord played their matches at Sparta Rotterdam's Kasteel, as the Nazis had occupied De Kuip.[8] When Het Kasteel was unavailable due to clashes with Sparta fixtures, Feijenoord played at their former ground, the Kromme Zandweg.[8]
Feijenoord's again won a division title with a national championship in 1940, their fifth Dutch title. During the German occupation of the Netherlands, play continued in Dutch football leagues, though the 1945 championship was cancelled as the war came to its conclusion.[9] During this period, Feijenoord's only trophy was a divisional championship in 1943. After the war, Feijenoord did not perform as well as they had in previous decades, not seriously challenging in their division and so missing the national playoff rounds.
On 30 June 1954, the chairmen of the three biggest Rotterdam teams organised a meeting in Utrecht, which was attended by several chairmen of other clubs and a delegation of the KNVB to discuss the start of professional football in the Netherlands.[10] The professional era commenced with the first Eredivisie season in 1954/1955.[11] Feijenoord were one of the clubs participating in the inaugural Eredivisie and have never been relegated.[10] One of the most memorable matches in these first years of professional football was the clash between Feijenoord and the Volewijckers at 2 April 1956, which Feijenoord won 11–4, with nine goals by Henk Schouten. Feijenoord would grow an intense rivalry with Ajax. Matches between the two clubs quickly were dubbed as de Klassieker ("The Classic"). The first memorable Klassieker from a Feijenoord point of view took place at 11 November 1956, when Daan den Bleijker scored four times to give Feijenoord a 7–3 win over their archrivals.[12]
Golden era [ edit ]
Feijenoord claimed their first professional Eredivisie Championship and their sixth Dutch Championship in 1961.[13] On the road to the title Ajax was beaten 9–5 in De Kuip, four of Feijenoord's goals were scored by Henk Schouten.[12] The following season, they played their first European Cup match facing IFK Göteborg. The Swedes were beaten 0–3 in Gothenburg and 8–2 in Rotterdam.[14][15] Feijenoord were eliminated by Tottenham Hotspur in the following round.[16] In 1962, Feijenoord successfully defended their Dutch Championship title and reached the final of the Intertoto Cup 1961-62.[13] where Feijenoord faced arch-rival Ajax in the final and subsequently lost 4–2.[17]
On 12 December 1962, Feijenoord played a decisive match versus Vasas SC in the second round of the 1962–63 European Cup. The first two legs, in Rotterdam and Budapest, both ended in a 1–0 home victory, forcing a replay on a neutral ground to take place.[18] The match was played in Antwerp, where 30,000 Feijenoord fans travelled by bus to see their team play.[18] Also this time, the final score was 1–0; Rinus Bennaars scored the only goal and was immediately nicknamed "The Hero of Deurne", reflecting the neighbourhood in Antwerp where the match was played.[18] The events in Antwerp resulted in an enduring friendly relationship between the fans of Feijenoord and Royal Antwerp.[18]
In 1963, hundreds of thousands of people stood ashore by the Nieuwe Maas and the Nieuwe Waterweg to wave two ships, deGroote Beer and the Waterman goodbye. The ships transported thousands of Feijenoord fans to Lisbon where the club faced Benfica on 8 May 1963 in the European Cup semi-finals.[18] The first leg, held in Rotterdam a month earlier, finished 0–0.[19] Despite Feijenoord eventually losing the match 3–1, this turned out to be the start of the most successful period in the club's history.[20] Feijenoord won the double for the first time in their history in 1965, and managed to win another double a few years later in 1969.[13] The 1965 title secured Feijenoord a spot in the 1965–66 European Cup, where they faced multiple cup champion Real Madrid on 8 September 1965. During the match, Hans Kraay had to leave the pitch injured after 31 minutes, without being substituted. He returned at the start of the second half and scored the goal which resulted in a 2–1 win. During the match, fans' favourite Coen Moulijn was attacked by a Spanish defender. Moulijn then proceeded to chase the defender down the pitch, leading other players, and even fans who entered the pitch, to do the same. The referee could do nothing but to suspend the match at 2–1 in Feijenoord's favour. Two weeks later, Real Madrid comfortably beat Feijenoord 5–0 and eventually won the European Cup that season.[21]
As the 1969 Dutch champions, Feijenoord participated in the 1969–70 European Cup. After winning against Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur 16–2 on aggregate in the first round, the club faced Milan.[16] Feijenoord lost the first leg 1–0 in Italy but overcame the loss in their own stadium with a 2–0 win, securing a place in the quarter-finals, where they faced ASK Vorwärts Berlin.[16]
The tie followed the same pattern as the previous round: Feijenoord losing the first match 1–0 away, then winning 2–0 at home.[16] In the semi-finals, Feijenoord beat Legia Warszawa 2–0 on aggregate, earning Feijenoord their first European final.[16] Feijenoord faced Celtic in the final, held in the San Siro stadium in Milan. Goals by Tommy Gemmell and Rinus Israël resulted in a 1–1 draw after 90 minutes. Three minutes before the end of extra time, Ove Kindvall scored Feijenoord's winning goal, leading Feijenoord to be the first Dutch team to claim a major European trophy.[22]
As reigning European champions, Feijenoord faced Estudiantes La Plata in the Intercontinental Cup.[23] The first match in Buenos Aires' La Bombonera finished in a 2–2 draw. Back in Rotterdam, Feijenoord managed a 1–0 victory (winning goal by Joop van Daele) to win the world club crown, the first Dutch team to do so.[24] Estudiantes player Oscar Malbernat got frustrated and grabbed Van Daele's glasses and trampled on them. "You are not allowed to play with glasses... at least not in South America" was his excuse.[25] As the cup holders, Feijenoord participated in the 1970–71 European Cup despite relinquishing the Dutch title, which was won by Ajax. Feijenoord were eliminated in the first round, following a surprise defeat by the Romanian team UT Arad.[16] In 1971, Feijenoord won their 10th Dutch Championship.[26]
In 1974, the club changed their name from Feijenoord to Feyenoord, as people from outside the Netherlands did not know how to pronounce Dutch ij.[1] Under their new name, they played in the 1973–74 UEFA Cup, reaching the final, following a 4–3 aggregate win over VfB Stuttgart in the semi finals.[16] The opponent in the final was Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs took a 2–1 lead in the first leg at White Hart Lane, but Theo de Jong equalised after 85 minutes and the match ended in a 2–2 draw.[27] Feyenoord then won their match in Rotterdam 2–0, thanks to goals by Wim Rijsbergen and Peter Ressel, and also became the first Dutch team to win the UEFA Cup.[28] As a result, Spurs fans started to riot,[29] introducing Dutch football to the spectre of hooliganism in the process. The remainder of the decade saw Feyenoord win only one more honour: the Dutch Championship in 1974.[9] In 1978, the club divided their professional and amateur sides to form two separate teams, Feyenoord Rotterdam for professionals and SC Feyenoord for amateurs.[30]
Feyenoord won their fifth Dutch Cup in 1980 by beating Ajax 3–1 in the final.[30] In 1984, Feyenoord had another bright season, winning the double for the third time in their history.[30] Key players in the squad from this period included Johan Cruyff, Ruud Gullit and Peter Houtman (who later became the Feyenoord stadium announcer).[31] Cruyff reacted to Ajax's decision not to offer him a new contract at the start of the season and signed for archrivals Feyenoord instead.[31] Cruyff's move to Rotterdam was criticised and increased Ajax's motivation to beat Feyenoord. In the Olympic Stadium of Amsterdam Feyenoord suffered one of their most heavy defeats ever: 8–2.[32] However, Feyenoord later defeated Ajax in Rotterdam 4–1 and Ajax were subsequently beaten a second time in the Dutch Cup.[33] Feyenoord proceeded to win a league and cup double by beating Fortuna Sittard in the cup final.[34]
After the successful season, Feyenoord experienced a lean period and were unable to finish the season in a higher position than third.[35] In the 1989–90 season, the club struggled to remain in the Eredivisie, but eventually managed to avoid relegation.[36] The club had financial problems, and as a result, the staff was not able to recover and their main sponsor, HCS went bankrupt.[37]
When Wim Jansen was appointed as the interim manager to replace Günder Bengtsson and Pim Verbeek after a 6–0 defeat against PSV, the outlook began to improve for the club.[38] PSV, the strongest Dutch club of the period, were knocked out of the KNVB Cup by a Henk Fräser goal in Eindhoven. Feyenoord progressed to the 1991 final, where they beat BVV Den Bosch 1–0 to win the competition.[39] As the cup holders, they faced champions PSV again, this time in the 1991 Dutch Supercup, the first Supercup held since 1949. PSV were beaten 1–0 by a Marian Damaschin goal to add another honour to the club's achievements.[40] They went on to win another Dutch Cup in 1992, beating Roda JC 3–0 in the final.[41] The same year, Feyenoord reached the semi-finals in the 1991–92 European Cup Winners' Cup, beating Tottenham Hotspur in the quarter-finals, before being eliminated by Monaco on away goals, after two draws.[16]
In 1993, Feyenoord secured another Dutch Championship by beating Groningen 5–0 in the last league match of the season.[42] The match was played at the Oosterpark Stadion in Groningen, so 40.000 Feyenoord fans watched the game on giant screens in De Kuip.[42] The title was followed by another two Dutch Cups in 1994 (beating NEC 2–1) and 1995 (beating Volendam 2–1).[6] During the 1994–95 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, Feyenoord reached the quarter finals after beating Werder Bremen in the second round. They eventually lost to Real Zaragoza.[16] In the quarter-finals in the 1995 KNVB Cup, Feyenoord visited Ajax, which would win the 1994–95 UEFA Champions League later that season. Ajax was leading 1–0 when Ruud Heus equalised with a penalty just before full time. In extra time, Feyenoord became the only team to defeat Ajax the same season they won the Eredivisie and the Champions League unbeaten. The goal scored by Mike Obiku was the decider as the new golden goal rule became in use.[43][44] During the 1995–96 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, Everton and Borussia Mönchengladbach were beaten. A total of 14,000 Feyenoord fans travelled to Germany to support the team against Mönchengladbach.[45][46] Feyenoord were eliminated in the semi-finals by a Carsten Jancker-inspired Rapid Wien.[16][47]
Feyenoord made their UEFA Champions League debut in 1997–98, finishing third in their group behind Manchester United and Juventus. However, Juventus was beaten 2–0 in Rotterdam, with both Feyenoord goals scored by Julio Cruz.[48] In 1998, the FIOD-ECD (Fiscal Information and Investigation Service/Economic Investigation Service) visited Feyenoord because of suspected fraud,[49] mainly based on the signings of Aurelio Vidmar, Christian Gyan and Patrick Allotey.[50] This became an ongoing scandal in following years, with club chairman Jorien van den Herik the main suspect.[49] On 25 April 1999, Feyenoord secured their 14th Dutch Championship. 250,000 fans celebrated with the team in the center of Rotterdam. However, later in the evening, heavy rioting started.[51] Prior to the start of the 1999–2000 season, Ajax were beaten in their own stadium when Feyenoord won their second Dutch Super Cup title after a free-kick goal by Patrick Paauwe secured a 3–2 win.[40]
Millennium [ edit ]
During the 1999–2000 season, Feyenoord participated in the Champions League for the second time. This time, the club managed to finish second in their group, behind Rosenborg BK and ahead of Borussia Dortmund.[52] Feyenoord reached the second group stage and secured wins against Marseille (home) and Lazio (away). Chelsea won both clashes and, as a result, Feyenoord had to win their last group match away to Marseille to reach the knockout stages. The final result was 0–0, and Feyenoord were eliminated.[52]
Feyenoord again participated in the Champions League in 2001–02, finishing third in a group containing Bayern Munich, Sparta Prague and Spartak Moscow.[53] This meant Feyenoord continued their European season in the 2001–02 UEFA Cup instead of the second Champions League group stage.[54] The disappointment of failing to reach the second group stage eventually resulted in optimism and celebration. By defeating SC Freiburg and Rangers, Feyenoord faced fellow Dutch club PSV in the quarter-finals.[54] Both matches ended in 1–1 draws, and the clash went into extra time and a penalty shoot-out.[55] Pierre van Hooijdonk, who had a superb season by scoring many free-kicks goals, secured Feyenoord's win by scoring a 90th-minute equalizer before finishing PSV off by scoring the last goal in the penalty shoot-out.[56] A 1–0 win in Milan against Internazionale and a 2–2 return match in Rotterdam then earned Feyenoord a spot in the final, against Borussia Dortmund.[57] Coincidentally, the final was held at De Kuip, and as a result, most spectators inside the stadium were Feyenoord fans. Feyenoord took a 2–0 lead thanks to another free-kick goal and a penalty by Van Hooijdonk.[54] Early in the second half, Márcio Amoroso scored a goal to make it 2–1. Jon Dahl Tomasson then made it 3–1 and things looked good for Feyenoord.[54] Dortmund only managed to score one more goal and the cup was won by Bert van Marwijk's Feyenoord.[54]
A huge party erupted in and outside De Kuip not only because of the title, but also because the final was held several days after Rotterdam's political figure Pim Fortuyn was murdered.[58] Lots of fans were still full of emotion, before and after the match. As a result of Fortuyn's murder, the cup was not officially celebrated in the city centre.[59]
The 2002 UEFA Cup win was the start of a long dry spell for Feyenoord. In the 2002–03 season, the club finish third in the Eredivisie, as well as reach the final of the KNVB Cup, which was lost 1–4 to Utrecht. However, in the following years, Feyenoord disappointed in both the Eredivisie and KNVB Cup.
In between, in 2002 Feyenoord and chairman Jorien van den Herik were both found not guilty. Following the prosecutor's appeal, and despite three years of investigations, the trial verdict was upheld. Nonetheless, the prosecution stated it would not yet abandon its case.[60]
The 2005–06 season ended in disappointment for Feyenoord. The team pursued the Dutch championship for most of the season, but eventually lost out to champions PSV.[61] The newly created Dutch play-offs then proved to be gloomy for Feyenoord. Ajax, which finished several points behind in the regular league, were Feyenoord's opponent in the play-offs. Ajax outclassed them and Feyenoord lost out on a Champions League place.[62]
Feyenoord 100 Years Balloon
In the 2006–07 season, the nightmare grew even bigger. The supporters saw their two star players leave to Chelsea (Salomon Kalou) and Liverpool (Dirk Kuyt). At the same time, it became clear Feyenoord were in an appalling financial state despite earlier comments made by chairman Jorien van den Herik, who claimed that the club was financially healthy. Supporters' unrest grew into anger when Feyenoord bought Angelos Charisteas, a back-up striker of arch-rivals Ajax, with a poor track record, as a replacement for Dirk Kuyt. After continuous protests, Van den Herik resigned and the club began managerial reforms. However, the worst was not over. Feyenoord were banned from European competition following hooliganism prior to and during a match against Nancy,[63] despite an appeal by the club.[64] The season ended in bitter disappointment with a seventh-place finish, causing Feyenoord to miss European football for the first time in 16 years. While desperate supporters started preparing for a dark age, the club surprised friend and foe in the 2007 summer transfer window. A brilliant performance of young Dutch left back Royston Drenthe at the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship had investors flocking to the new investment schemes Feyenoord had established. The club appointed former manager Bert van Marwijk and was able to make a number of high-profile signings, including Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Roy Makaay. Despite the efforts, Feyenoord underperformed once again in the Eredivisie, finishing in a disappointing sixth place. The pain was relieved by claiming the first prize in six years: 100 years after the foundation of the club, Feyenoord managed to win the KNVB Cup after defeating Roda JC 2–0. As Van Marwijk accepted a job as manager of the national team, Feyenoord appointed Gertjan Verbeek as their manager for the 2008–09 season.
Financial problems [ edit ]
In the 2008–09 season, Feyenoord celebrated their 100th birthday and organised many events throughout the year. The old "golden logo" returned as Feyenoord's official logo, which had earlier been presented at the 2007 New Year's brunch.[65] During the summer, a historical tournament was held between Feyenoord and the three opponents they met in the European Cup finals – Borussia Dortmund, Tottenham Hotspur and Celtic – named the Feyenoord Jubilee Tournament.[66]
Midway through the season, manager Verbeek was sacked due to disappointing league results. His assistant, Leon Vlemmings, took over as manager. The results in this period improved slightly, resulting in securing a spot in the playoffs for the final Dutch Europa League slot.
For the 2009–10 season, Feyenoord appointed former assistant manager and Feyenoord footballer Mario Been to take over from Vlemmings. Been, after achieving minor European successes with NEC, was considered the ideal candidate for the job. Former manager Leo Beenhakker, at the time manager of the Poland national team, took over as technical director. Partly because of this position, Beenhakker was able to attract more investors to the club, leading to some unexpected signings, including Sekou Cissé, Dani Fernández and Stefan Babović.
On 24 October 2010, Feyenoord lost heavily to PSV 10–0. In mid-January 2011, Beenhakker resigned after multiple clashes with the Feyenoord directors.[67] His replacement was former Feyenoord player Martin van Geel, who at the time was working as technical director for fellow Eredivisie club Roda JC.[68]
In July 2011, a majority of players in the squad voted to oust Been as club manager; 13 of 18 players voted they had lost all confidence in Been's ability to successfully manage the club.[69] Been's subsequent sacking became global news, if only because reports of Been's firing quickly became a trending topic on Twitter, leaving people around the world to wonder who exactly Been was.[70]
After Louis van Gaal turned down an offer to manage Feyenoord, the club approached former Barcelona defender Ronald Koeman, who had played for Feyenoord during the late 1990s. With his eventual hiring as manager, Koeman became the first to ever serve as both player and head coach at all teams of the so-called "traditional big three" of Dutch football: Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord. Moreover, he played and managed these teams in the same order.[71]
At the beginning of the 2011–12 season, Feyenoord lost valuable players Leroy Fer, Georginio Wijnaldum and André Bahia to Twente, PSV and Samsunspor respectively. In return, the club restocked with players such as Jordy Clasie, Miquel Nelom, Guyon Fernandez and Kaj Ramsteijn, who came mostly from their own youth academy. Two other players were loaned, John Guidetti from Manchester City and Otman Bakkal from PSV. Feyenoord started the season well and played the first match of the Eredivisie against the other Rotterdam club in the league, Excelsior. Feyenoord ended the season by placing second in the Eredivisie, resulting in the third qualifying round for Champions League football.[72]
Revival [ edit ]
On 16 December 2011, it was revealed that Feyenoord had been placed in the more favorable second category (Categorie 2), meaning Feyenoord were no longer in debt, according to the KNVB. They achieved the reclassification following the transfer of several significant players and a large capital injection made by the organisation VVF (Friends of Feyenoord, Vrienden Van Feyenoord). However, to remain in the second category, Feyenoord needed to obtain the same amount of points earned, rounding up to at least 65 points.[73] On 13 April 2012, Feyenoord was officially out of what has been described as the "financial dangerzone" and was officially placed in the second category. According to club chairman Eric Gudde, the placing in the more favourable category came earlier than anticipated; he also congratulated the fans and promised to maintain the same policy until Feyenoord was completely healthy again, saying the club will never fall back into the first category.[74][75]
Despite no longer having to request permission from the KNVB to invest in new players, Feyenoord kept continuing the policy for the 2012–13 season, only contracting players who were either out of contract or available for a low transfer fee. John Goossens,[76] Ruud Vormer[77] and Daryl Janmaat[78] were out of contract and signed a deal with Feyenoord over their respective prior clubs. Mitchell te Vrede[79] played for the affiliated football club Excelsior, as well as for the highest-ranked academy team Jong Feyenoord/Excelsior and was promoted to the main senior team. Harmeet Singh[80] and Lex Immers[81] are were the only two players whom Feyenoord paid a transfer fee for. Singh, a Norwegian midfielder and one of two non-Eredivisie players joining Feyenoord, was purchased from Vålerenga, while Immers joined from ADO Den Haag. The other non-Eredivisie player joining Feyenoord was Omar Elabdellaoui, who was brought in on loan from Manchester City.[82]
On 2 July 2012, Karim El Ahmadi completed his transfer from Feyenoord to English Premier League club Aston Villa for an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of €2.6 million.[83] On 15 July, Aston Villa supports uploaded a picture on Twitter which showed Ron Vlaar, Feyenoord captain since 2010–11, visiting Villa Park – Aston Villa's home ground – in Birmingham. Shortly after, Martin van Geel confirmed Vlaar sought to leave Feyenoord.[84][85] After the incident, Villa did not contact Vlaar, prompting Ronald Koeman to issue Villa a deadline of 23 July to negotiate Vlaar's transfer. On 23 July, Vlaar told the public that he would not leave Feyenoord, and said that he felt he was kept "dangling" by Villa.[85][86][87] However, four days later, Vlaar told the public he would eventually be joining Villa, as he had agreed personal terms and would sign for Villa subject to him passing a medical. On 1 August, Vlaar officially joined Aston Villa, signing a three-year contract. Feyenoord supporters received the news generally mixed, with some congratulating and wishing the best of luck and others feeling betrayed by Vlaar for misleading them.[88] Stefan de Vrij became the new Feyenoord captain, with Jordy Clasie, who because of his good play and tenacity soon became one of the most popular players among the supporters, becoming vice-captain.[89]
On 7 August, Feyenoord was eliminated by Dynamo Kyiv in the third qualifying round of the Champions League following losses in both legs. Feyenoord was therefore demoted to the play-off round of the UEFA Europa League. Koeman said that Feyenoord was the better side over the two legs but had missed a scoring striker, referring to John Guidetti, who had rejoined Manchester City following the end of his loan.[90] On 10 August 2012, Dutch international and Málaga defender Joris Mathijsen joined Feyenoord on a three-year contract. Málaga had made clear to Mathijsen that he needed to find a new club to generate income for the financially-suffering Málaga after Sheikh Al Thani left. Stefan de Vrij remained captain, despite Mathijsen being more experienced at both international and club level.[91]
After drawing the first leg of the Europa League qualifier at home 2–2 against Sparta Prague, Feyenoord was eliminated following a 2–0 loss in the second leg, meaning Feyenoord would not be playing European football in 2012–13.[92] Following these events, Feyenoord loaned Parma and former AZ striker Graziano Pellè[93] and exchanged Jerson Cabral for Twente striker Wesley Verhoek in a straight player swap.[94] Feyenoord ended the season in third, behind champions Ajax and second-placed PSV. Pellè surprised many after scoring 27 goals in 29 matches, prompting Feyenoord to sign him permanently from Parma on a contract lasting until summer 2017.
In the 2013–14 season, Feyenoord recorded the worst start in its history, losing its first three matches to PEC Zwolle, Twente and Ajax respectively.[95] Feyenoord would recover, but its performances were unstable throughout the season. However, because the Eredivisie's other top teams also played inconsistently, Feyenoord remained in the title race, although it eventually finished second, four points behind Ajax.[96] In the UEFA Europa League, Feyenoord was eliminated in the third qualifying round by Kuban Krasnodar, making it Feyenoord's fifth consecutive season without European football.[97]
On 1 February 2014, Ronald Koeman announced he would be resigning at the end of the season. On 3 March 2014, Fred Rutten was named the new manager for the 2014–15 season.[98]
During the summer of the 2014–15 season, Feyenoord lost four of its best players: Daryl Janmaat to Newcastle United, Stefan de Vrij to Lazio, Bruno Martins Indi to Porto and Graziano Pellè to Southampton, with Southampton having just appointed Koeman as its new manager. To replace them, as well as other departed players, Feyenoord signed Warner Hahn from Dordrecht, Luke Wilkshire from Dynamo Moscow, Khalid Boulahrouz from Brøndby, Bilal Başaçıkoğlu from Heerenveen, Colin Kazim-Richards from Bursaspor, Jens Toornstra from Utrecht, Kenneth Vermeer from Ajax and Karim El Ahmadi from Aston Villa.[99]
With new players as well as a new head coach, Feyenoord began the 2014–15 Eredivisie season with just five points after four matches. However, the club was successful in reaching the Europa League group stage for the first time in six years. After losing to Besiktas 5–2 aggregate in the third qualifying round of the Champions League,[100] they defeated Zorya Luhansk in the final qualifying round of the Europa League play-off, 5–4 aggregate.[101]
Feyenoord won with 2–1 against Standard Liège in their first home match in Group G of the Europa League. It was the first victory for Feyenoord in the Europa League group stage in eight years. Feyenoord also beat Rijeka (2–0) and defending champions Sevilla (2–0), results sufficient for Feyenoord's progress to the knockout round for the first time in ten years. In the knockout round, Feyenoord lost to Roma 3–2 on aggregate. After this loss, Feyenoord did not recover. Despite nearly securing a spot in next season's Europa League qualification rounds, they failed to win any of their last five matches, ending the year in the fourth spot, behind AZ. In the play-offs to earn a spot for Europa League, they were eliminated by Heerenveen. After manager Fred Rutten opted not to extend his contract, on 23 March 2015 Feyenoord announced former Dutch international and Feyenoord player Giovanni van Bronckhorst would become its new manager. That summer the club contracted a couple new key players, Eric Botteghin from FC Groningen, Jan-Arie van der Heijden from Vitesse, and Eljero Elia from SV Werder Bremen. Furthermore, Feyenoord welcomed back club legend Dirk Kuyt from Fenerbahçe, on a one-year contract.
After 8 yeards without any prizes, Feyenoord won their 12th KNVB Cup on April 24th 2016. In the competition the team would come in 3rd, a distance behind Ajax, and the champions, PSV. That next summer Feyenoord managed to do some good business in the transfer market. The contracts of starting players like Dirk Kuyt and Eljero Elia were extended. Furthermore, they acquired Nicolai Jørgensen from F.C. Copenhagen for €3.500.000 and Brad Jones was contracted on a free transfer from N.E.C. as a replacement for injured first goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer.
The 2016/2017 season started perfectly, as the first nine league matches were won, and Feyenoord beat Manchester United F.C. 1–0 in the Europe League. That was with a little help from the referee as Nicolai Jørgensen, who gave the assist, was clearly offside. This match, and all of Feyenoord European Home games were played in only a half filled stadium. These measurements were taken to avoid new penalties from the UEFA. In that same week reigning Dutch champions PSV were beaten, 0–1. The first loss of points was against Ajax on October 23rd 2016. The final score was 1–1 after goals of Kasper Dolberg and Dirk Kuyt. A week later another draw followed against SC Heerenveen On November 6th, a weakened team lost for the first time that season; relegation candidate Go Ahead Eagles won, 1-0] In the European campaign Feyenoord struggled, and after losses to Manchester United (4-0)and Fenerbahçe (0-1) the European adventure ended. In the Eredivisie the team booked big victories, such as a 6–1 defeat against Spartaand 0–4 against AZ. With a 5-point lead to second place Ajax, Feyenoord ended the year at the top of the league table.
The second half of the season, Feyenoord started strong, winning the first seven league games of 2017. However, in Arnhem, Vitesse proved to be too strong in the KNVB Cup (2-0). Feyenoord beat PSV at home (2-1)due, to an own goal from PSV-goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet, which was indicated by Goal-line technology. On March 5th, Sparta was the first team to beat Feyenoord in the new year, by a goal in the first minute of the game, scored by Mathias Pogba. Feyenoord recovered quickly and another big win followed when they beat AZ, 5–2, and a week later SC Heerenveen were beat, 2–1. When Feyenoord lost to Ajax, and drew against PEC Zwolle, their lead was decreased to one point. After two more victories from Feyenoord, and a loss for number two Ajax against PSV, the gap was four points with two games to go. One week before the end of the competition, Feyenoord could become champions away at Excelsior, not 4 kilometers from their home stadium. However the team had an off-day and lost, 3–0. One week later, in the final game, the team still became champions by beating Heracles by 3–1. All three goals were made by the team captain, Dirk Kuyt, who would later announce his retirement. This championship was Feyenoord's 15th and the first in 18 years. Feyenoord also was only the second team in the history of the Dutch league to stay at the top of the table the entire season. Because of the championship, Feyenoord was allowed to compete for the Johan Cruyff Shield against cup winner Vitesse in the Kuip on August 5th 2017. After a 1–1 tie Feyenoord beat Vitesse by penalties.
As Dutch champion Feyenoord qualified directly for the UEFA Champions League group stage 2017/2018. They played in a group with Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk and SSC Napoli. Feyenoord lost the first 5 matches, but they won their last home match against Napoli (2-1). Feyenoord was not able to win the Dutch championship again, but they won the Dutch Cup after beating AZ Alkmaar in the final with 3–0.
Location [ edit ]
Logo near De Kuip
Feyenoord are located in the Feijenoord district of southern Rotterdam and is named after the district in which the club was founded.[102] More frequent appearances in international tournaments led the club to change its name in 1974, because foreign fans unfamiliar with the Dutch language did not know how to pronounce ij.[1] Beside Feyenoord, there are two other professional football clubs in Rotterdam: Sparta and Excelsior. Feyenoord is currently playing in the Eredivisie, while Sparta was relegated to the second tier after the 2009–10 season.[103] Two years later Excelsior also relegated from the Eredivisie in the season 2011–12.
From 2017, Feyenoord will participate in the new found e-Divisie. Quinten van der Most will represent Feyenoord as their official e-player.
Stadia [ edit ]
De Kuip [ edit ]
Outside the stadium.
The club's Feijenoord Stadion, located in the IJsselmonde district of Rotterdam, is nicknamed De Kuip, Dutch for The Tub.[104] It was built in 1937 and is one of the major European stadiums.[105] It has 51,117 seats and has hosted a record of ten finals of UEFA club competitions, including the 2002 UEFA Cup Final fittingly won by Feyenoord.[106] Former Feyenoord player Mike Obiku once said, "Every time you enter the pitch, you're stepping into a lion's home."[105] Feyenoord, however, does not own the stadium; it is an organisation on its own.[105]
In 1935, Feijenoord player Puck van Heel hit the first pole on their way into their new stadium. The stadium was opened on 27 March 1937 and Beerschot was beaten by 5–2, Leen Vente scored the first goal in De Kuip.[105] Already in the very beginning the stadium was sold out on several occasions and other events held at de Kuip also gained lots of attendance.[105] During World War II, the stadium was one of the few locations which was not bombed, however the Nazis occupied the stadium.[105] After the war, De Kuip became a popular location once again. In 1949, the attendance record was broken during the match to decide the Dutch championship between SVV Schiedam and Heerenveen; 64,368 fans visited the match.[105]
Besides football, there were also boxing and motorcycle speedway races in De Kuip, which were also gaining popularity. In 1953, people had to hide inside the stadium during the North Sea flood of 1953.[105] On 27 November 1957, Feyenoord played versus Bolton Wanderers during an evening match. It was the first time the floodlights were taken in use.[105] The players entered the pitch in the dark and the fans were asked to light their matchsticks when the floodlights were activated. Since that evening, that match at De Kuip has always been special among Feyenoord fans.[105]
In 1963, De Kuip hosted their first European final (Cup winners' Cup) between Tottenham Hotspur and Atlético Madrid. Nine more European finals would follow in the years after with Feyenoord's win over Borussia Dortmund in the 2002 UEFA Cup final being the tenth and latest.[105] The attendance record of 1949 was broken in 1968 when 65,427 fans visited the Feyenoord–Twente match.[105]
De Kuip in 2006
New stadium [ edit ]
In December 2006, Feyenoord director Chris Woerts announced that Feyenoord were developing plans to build a new stadium which would have a capacity of roughly 90,000 seats. The stadium would most likely be placed on the Nieuwe Maas, the river that runs through Rotterdam, and should be completed by 2016.[107] In May 2008, Woerts announced further details: the club is aiming for a stadium with a capacity of around 100,000 seats.[108] If possible, a capacity of over 130,000 should be realized according to Woerts, which would earn the title of biggest stadium in Europe. The club emphasized its efforts to make it a true football stadium with seats close to the pitch. The stadium will get a retractable roof so that other events can be held as well. According to plans in those days, the stadium should be ready in 2016. Due to financial difficulties for all parties involved and the fact that the Netherlands were not chosen to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the plans for a new stadium have been put on hold. A new stadium will most likely be built in the future, though it will likely not have a spectator capacity greater than 70,000.
In September 2012, Feyenoord confirmed that there will arise a new stadium in 2018. The stadium will be built by builder VolkerWessels, it will cost around €300 million (~£242 million). Another option was a plan made by a consortium of BAM, Eneco Energie and Siemens. But the plan was rejected by the Feyenoord and Stadion Feijenoord direction. The new stadium should be a 63,000 all-seater. Despite the new plans, much of the supporters prefer a renovation of De Kuip. One of those initiatives are Red de Kuip, which is Dutch for Save de Kuip.[109] They made plans of building a third tier on top of the current stadium, increasing the capacity to 68,000. This plan would cost only €117 million (~£94 million).
In 2016, Feyenoord announced their plans for a new stadium called Feyenoord City. The new stadium will have a capacity of 65,000. The city council agreed with the plans of Feyenoord City which also involve new sporting facilities, nightlife and renewed infrastructure. The old stadium 'De Kuip' will be transformed into an athletics track. The project is ought to be delivered in 2022.
Stadium songs [ edit ]
Official Feyenoord hymn [ edit ]
Feyenoord's official hymn since 1961 is called "Hand in Hand".[110] Its melody was written in the 19th century by German Wilhelm Speidel [de]. In 1961, Jaap Valkhoff wrote the lyrics which became popular among Feyenoord supporters who adopted the song as their unofficial hymn.[111] Valkhoff wrote lyrics on the same melody for several other teams as well. Among them were Feyenoord's archrivals Ajax.[112] Nowadays, the song is heard wherever Feyenoord play their matches, but also fans of MVV and Club Brugge have their own version that they sing.[113]
Other songs [ edit ]
When a goal is scored by Feyenoord in their home matches the song I Will Survive, covered by the Hermes House Band (but made famous by Gloria Gaynor in the 1970s) is played.[114]
Feyenoord supporters are known to be creative and have a lot of various songs and chants in their equipment during matches. Among the most important Feyenoord songs are "Mijn Feyenoord" by Lee Towers,[115] "Feyenoord, wat gaan we doen vandaag?" by Cock van der Palm [nl],[116] and "De laatste trein naar Rotterdam" by Dorus.[117] During the 2001/02 season, when Feyenoord won the UEFA Cup, a parody of the song "Put your hands up" by Black and White Brothers was launched, called "Put your hands up for Pi-Air", a tribute to Pierre ("Pi-Air") van Hooijdonk, one of the club's key players at the time.[118] In the 1970s, Coen Moulijn also had a song dedicated to him, "Coentje Coentje Coentje".[119]
Supporters [ edit ]
The supporters of Feyenoord are said to be one of the most loyal supporter groups in the world supporting the team during both good or bad times.[120][121] They are nicknamed Het Legioen, Dutch for The Legion and can be found everywhere in The Netherlands and far across the Dutch borders. Squad number 12 is never given to a player, but is reserved for Het Legioen instead.
Popularity [ edit ]
Feyenoord is a popular club in the Netherlands with a large number of supporters.[122] The team's first training session of a season alone attracts thousands of fans;[123] 20,000 attended 2007–08's inaugural session.[124]
In 1963, about 3,000 fans boarded on two ships, among thousands of others by train or car and they travelled to Lisbon where Feyenoord faced Benfica in the European Cup.[125] When Feyenoord play abroad in European competitions, about 8,000 travel together to support their team.[126] Almost 15,000 fans were cheering for their team in 1996 when Feyenoord played in Germany against Borussia Mönchengladbach.[127] About 40,000 fans visit a regular match at home while top classes against Ajax, PSV and European cup opponents are sold out most of the time.[126] About 250,000 fans showed up when Feyenoord's Dutch championship was celebrated in 1999 at the Coolsingel in the centre of the city.[128] After Feyenoord beat Internazionale in the 2002 UEFA Cup semi-final, Inter midfielder Clarence Seedorf said, "I really enjoyed the atmosphere in the Kuip. As an ex-Ajax player I was really given the bird, but that's all part of the emotions in football. It also illustrates the intense way in which the Feyenoord supporters experience their club's matches."[129] A number of the club's followers acknowledge a very close link with English side Sunderland, although it is an association that is often unwelcome and denied by the authorities. Over 100 Feyenoord supporters attended a function in Sunderland on the evening before their fixture with Newcastle in April 2015 and a similar number of Sunderland fans made the journey to watch the Dutch side in their ultimately delayed fixture against Vitesse.
Beyond the Netherlands, Feyenoord opened a fanshop in the centre of Tokyo, when Japanese player Shinji Ono was a key player at the club, and also in South Korea when Song Chong-gug played for Feyenoord.[130]
Supporters organisations [ edit ]
Coentje, the mascot of the Kameraadjes
Feyenoord have one official fan supporters club, the Feyenoord Supportersvereniging.[131] Independent of the club, FSV has a membership of about 23,000, as of 2006.[131] The FSV act as a liaison between club and fans, produce match programmes, arrange travel to away games and organise supporters' evenings, as well as being involved in the other supporters organisations.[131] Children between 0 and 12 years old can join the Kameraadjes group (English: little comrades).[132]
In 1998, the Feyenoord Supporters Vereniging were wondering about whether or not it would be possible to create more atmosphere inside the stadium mainly during important matches. As a result, a few huge flags were produced and brought into the stadium prior to matches played by Feyenoord.[133] The flags were a success, but people started asking for more activities and a meeting between fans and officials were arranged. In 2000 Harry Veth was given permission to establish a group of five Feyenoord fans called TIFO team Feyenoord Rotterdam.[133] Besides creating more flags and small pieces of paper released from the second platform the team also started to organise bigger activities. The first big activity was held on 10 December 2000 when Feyenoord faced Ajax and 40 fog machines were activated when the players entered the pitch.[133] In the following years many different and various activities were held to improve the atmosphere inside the stadium. Feyenoord's TIFO team became famous abroad as well and the Italian TIFO foundation awarded Feyenoord the Best of TIFO Award 2000/01.[134]
Jeugdproject [ edit ]
Feyenoord's Jeugdproject (Youth Project) concentrate on children between 6 and 12 years of age, playing football at schools and amateur teams.[135] To show the kids the importance of sports and sportsmanship, Feyenoord invite the children to De Kuip to see what sport can do to people: happiness, disappointment, excitement, emotions, fear and cosines, it brings people together.[135] In Feyenoord's Youth Project visiting a match is the central point, but there is also an educative and cultural character included.[135] Feyenoord provide schools and amateur clubs with small teaching books and expect these to be filled in by the visiting youth when they enter the stadium on a match day.[135] The groups that support Feyenoord in the most original way and those who can predict the score correctly are awarded with prizes.[135]
Opening day [ edit ]
A few weeks after the start of the pre-season, yet prior to the start of the competitive season, the club opens its doors for free for all Feyenoord fans to have fun together and to present the squad for the upcoming season.[136] De Kuip already opens in the morning when there are many activities around the stadium mainly for kids and promotional activities for companies which have a partnership with Feyenoord.[136] Fans can also take a stadium tour and walk on the pitch. The activities inside the stadium itself normally start around noon, when there are several performances by various artists. Every year, the new Feyenoord ambassador of the year is announced at opening day.[137] A minute of silence is held for all former Feyenoord players who have died and for known fans who have died in the previous year.[138] Former Feyenoord players return to De Kuip every year to play versus a team of Dutch celebrities.[139] The stadium activities end after the squad for the upcoming season is presented to the fans. This is always a special happening, mainly for the new signings of the team. They will be flown into the stadium with helicopters when a full stadium is cheering for them when they arrive.[137] Once they are there, the other players and club officials enter the pitch one by one. Last but not least, all players are available for autograph sessions afterwards.[137] Feyenoord's open day attracts approximately 60,000 to 70,000 fans towards Rotterdam, coming from all over the Netherlands, while there are only 51,117 seats available within the stadium.[140] The opening day is known as a unique event in the Netherlands.
Notable supporters [ edit ]
Notable supporters of Feyenoord include Craig Bellamy,[141] Gerard Cox,[142], Mark Rutte, Wouter Bos,[143] Jan Marijnissen,[144] Robert Eenhoorn,[145] Arjan Erkel,[146] Dennis van der Geest,[147] DJ Paul Elstak[148] and Raemon Sluiter.[149]
Raemon Sluiter, Lee Towers, Dennis van der Geest, Robert Eenhoorn and Renate Verbaan have all officially been Feyenoord ambassadors. Gerard Meijer is the current ambassador, also being appointed "ambassador for life" on 19 July 2008.
Rivalries [ edit ]
De Klassieker [ edit ]
Ajax from Amsterdam are Feyenoord's archrivals.[150] The two clubs share a long history together and matches between the two clubs are called the Klassieker ("The Classic").[151] The rivalry is not only between the two teams, but also a confrontation between the two largest cities of the country, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, two cities with extreme differences in attitude and culture.[151][dead link][citation needed] The meeting between the two teams is still considered to be the biggest match of the season.[151][dead link] In the past, there have been many clashes between the supporters of both clubs, of which the Beverwijk clash in 1997 is the most infamous, with Ajax fan Carlo Picornie being killed and several others injured.[151] In 2004, Feyenoord player Jorge Acuña was taken to hospital with head, neck and rib injuries after Feyenoord players were attacked by Ajax hooligans during a match between the reserve teams of both clubs.[152] Another Feyenoord player, Robin van Persie, had to be rescued by Ajax coach John van 't Schip and player Daniël de Ridder.[152] In 2005, riots before and after the match occurred in Rotterdam and were considered to belong to the worst in the history of Dutch football.[151][dead link]
Rotterdam derby [ edit ]
Rotterdam is the city with the most professional teams in the Netherlands. Besides Feyenoord there are Sparta Rotterdam and Excelsior and the city is often referred to as "Voetbalstad nummer 1" (English: Football city number 1).[153][154] There is a rivalry between the teams, mostly between Feyenoord and Sparta as Excelsior can be seen as Feyenoord's feeder club, but it is not comparable to other local derbies. The rivalry between Sparta and Feyenoord is mostly seen on the Sparta side.[155] Some Sparta fans have refused to enter Feyenoord's De Kuip stadium, even when Sparta had reached the KNVB Cup final, which was played in De Kuip.[155] In the 1950s there was much more of a rivalry. One of the key factors for these feelings was footballer Tinus Bosselaar, who moved from Sparta to Feyenoord in 1954 before Sparta re-signed him, despite Feyenoord trying to prevent the deal in court.[156]
Feyenoord also have a rivalry abroad against Tottenham Hotspur following several violent clashes between the club's supporters and Tottenham's "link" to Ajax.[citation needed]
Honours [ edit ]
National Titles [ edit ]
European Titles [ edit ]
International Titles [ edit ]
European record [ edit ]
As of 6 December 2017
Domestic results [ edit ]
Below is a table with Feyenoord's domestic results, since the introduction of the Eredivisie in 1956.
UEFA Current ranking [ edit ]
As of 01/10/2018[158]
Rank Country Team Points 61 Feyenoord 22.000
Feyenoord managers [ edit ]
Feyenoord have had managers from all over Europe. In the early years, the club mainly had English managers, as football was already professional there. Feyenoord's first Dutch manager was Engel Geneugelijk (ad interim), while Richard Dombi is seen as the first successful coach. He led the team in three different periods. During the club's weakest period, Feyenoord was managed by two managers at once, the Dutchman Pim Verbeek and the Swede Gunder Bengtsson. Bengtsson was the last foreign manager to lead Feyenoord. Feyenoord's international trophies were won by Ernst Happel, Wiel Coerver and Bert van Marwijk.[159]
Feyenoord chairmen [ edit ]
Although Feyenoord's managers have come from all over Europe, the club's chairmen have been mostly Dutch, with Amandus Lundqvist from Sweden as the only exception. With 28 years, Cor Kieboom was the longest-reigning chairman in club history.[160]
Media [ edit ]
Since 2000 Feyenoord have had its own television programme, shown weekly on SBS6.[161] The show features interviews with players and other team members as well as documentaries about the team.[161] As of the 2006–07 season Feyenoord launched its own Feyenoord TV project on their website with daily news and reports that tells everything about the club.[162] In 1993 Feyenoord introduced their own newspaper, the Feyenoord Krant, the only Dutch club to do so.[163] The newspaper is published fortnightly, with a print run of 25,000. Extra editions are published to coincide with European matches.[163] Inside the newspaper news, background information, interviews, reports and columns by Feyenoord related figures can be found.[163] Feyenoord were one of the latest Dutch teams to open their own official website on 21 May 2001.[164] The site is available in Dutch and English, plus other languages depending upon the nationalities of the club's high-profile players. As of 2007, Japanese and Korean editions are available due to the popularity of Shinji Ono and Song Chong-Gug in their home countries.[165] Since 2004 Feyenoord have shared a website 2 teams 1 goal with UNICEF as part of Feyenoord's children's welfare project in Ghana. To mark Feyenoord's centenary another site was launched in January 2007 to publicise events related to the occasion.[166] Feyenoord also opened official Live.com and YouTube pages in 2006.[161] Feyenoord also offer the option to follow the club with news and statistics on cell phones or email.[161] For each and every home match a daily program magazine is created and children who are members of the Kameraadjes also receive a magazine.[161] At the beginning of the season Feyenoord produce a new presentation magazine, while at the end of the season a Feyenoord yearbook is created.[161]
Current squad [ edit ]
As of 31 January 2019
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
No. Position Player No. Position Player
Out on loan [ edit ]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
No. Position Player No. Position Player
Retired numbers [ edit ]
12 Het Legioen (reserved for the club supporters)
Personnel [ edit ]
Backroom staff [ edit ]
Partnerships [ edit ]
SC Feyenoord [ edit ]
SC Feyenoord are Feyenoord's amateur and youth side, who have played at Varkenoord, directly behind De Kuip since 1949.[11] Sportclub Feyenoord's annual youth trials attract a large number of hopefuls, with thousands of boys attempting to impress the coaches.[11]
The Feyenoord squad typically contains a number of players who joined the club after playing for Sportclub Feyenoord, and several players from Sportclub Feyenoord have progressed to have successful careers at international level, including Puck van Heel, Wim Jansen and Giovanni van Bronckhorst.[11] A number of high-profile managers also started their coaching careers at Varkenoord, including Clemens Westerhof and Leo Beenhakker.[11]
Partnerships with other clubs [ edit ]
As of 2007, Feyenoord currently have three formal partnerships, a satellite club arrangement with nearby Excelsior, a partnership with Hungary's Újpest FC and the Feyenoord Academy in Ghana. The strongest of these partnerships is that with Excelsior, who since 1996 have loaned young Feyenoord players on the verge of the first team.[168] The purpose of this is to allow them to experience regular first-team football, aiding their development while simultaneously strengthening Excelsior's squad. The highest profile players to have played at Excelsior as part of this arrangement are Thomas Buffel and Salomon Kalou, who were both subsequently involved in transfer deals worth several million euros.[169][170] The partnership between Feyenoord and Excelsior was scaled back in 2006, though the clubs still work together.[171]
Feyenoord's co-operation with Újpest started when Hungarian ex-footballer and former Feyenoord player Jószef Kiprich joined the Hungarian team as an under-19 coach and started as a scout for Feyenoord.[172]
The Feyenoord Ghana academy in arose form a visit by Feyenoord chairman Jorien van den Herik to Abidjan to sign the then unknown Bonaventure Kalou, when Van den Herik contacted with the education institute at Kalou’s club.[168] The academy was built in Fetteh, just outside Accra, after go-ahead for and was given by the Chief of Fetteh in 1998. At the academy, young talented African footballers can work on their football skills. In addition to helping their football potential, the students are provided with formal education which is funded by Feyenoord.[168] The Feyenoord Academy currently play their matches in the OneTouch Premier League.
The club have also entered into several other partnerships which are now discontinued, most extensively in Brazil with América and J.J.'s football school in Rio de Janeiro. Other clubs who have previously entered partnerships with Feyenoord include Parramatta Power, Nagoya Grampus Eight, B.93, Helsingborgs IF, Supersport United, Westerlo, KV Mechelen, Breiðablik UBK, Lyn, UKS SMS Łódź, Omiya Ardija and Jiangsu Shuntian.[168][173]
The club also set ties with Indian Super League franchise Delhi Dynamos FC.[174]
On 15 January 2019, Feyenoord announced a partnership with Eerste Divisie club FC Dordrecht which would see players which are not yet ready for the first team loaned out to FC Dordrecht.[175]
As of the 1981–82 Eredivisie season, the KNVB allowed the teams participating in the league to use sponsor names on their shirts in exchange for money. At the time, Feyenoord's shirts were produced by Adidas and the first main sponsor was the Dutch Yellow Pages, Gouden Gids. In the second half of the 1982–83 season Adidas were replaced by Puma as the shirt supplier. As a result, the Gouden Gids name was enlarged and was more visible on the shirts. Gouden Gids sponsored the team until 1984, when Opel became the new sponsor. The deal between Feyenoord and Opel lasted until 1989, but in 1987 Hummel International replaced Puma as the shirt manufacturer.
In 1989, Hummel produced the shirts sponsored by HCS [nl]. In 1990, Adidas began producing Feyenoord's kits, however HCS declared bankruptcy shortly thereafter and could no longer sponsor the club. Stad Rotterdam Verzekeringen then began sponsoring Feyenoord in what would turn out to be a long-term partnership: it remained Feyenoord's main sponsor until 2004, when it was taken-over by Fortis. On January 2007, the parties' sponsorship contract was extended until 2009, with the option of Fortis continuing its obligations for an additional three seasons.[177] In 2000, Kappa began producing the club's kits (replacing Adidas) until after the 2008–09, when it was replaced by Puma.
When Fortis faced near bankruptcy, its assets were divided among several companies. The same insurance branch which previously sponsored Feyenoord became ASR. To help with their brand recognition, it decided to continue Fortis' sponsor obligations, but in 2011, it announced it would stop its sponsorship deal in the 2012–13 season. However, due to an economic recession, Feyenoord had trouble finding a new shirt sponsor. Feyenoord and ASR therefore reached a compromise: ASR would remain sponsor for one more season, giving Feyenoord the time it needed to find another sponsor. After negotiations with several corporations, Opel became the club's new sponsor, signing a contract until 2018.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
[179]
Official sites |
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Five former Blackwater Worldwide security guards pleaded not guilty Tuesday to voluntary manslaughter charges and other crimes stemming from a shooting incident in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqis dead.
Former Blackwater Worldwide security Donald Ball, center, leaves court after his arraignment Tuesday.
Each of the former guards has been charged with 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 counts of attempted manslaughter and one count of using a firearm in the commission of a violent crime.
The five defendants, seated in a row at a courtroom table, remained silent in court, and as they entered and departed the courthouse. A lawyer entered their plea on their behalf.
Attorney David Schertler, speaking for all the defendants outside the courthouse, predicted they will be proved innocent.
"We want to make it clear to everyone these men committed no crime. They were defending themselves on a battlefield in a war zone when this occurred," he said.
If convicted, the defendants would face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each manslaughter count, seven years in prison for each count of attempted manslaughter, and a 30-year mandatory minimum sentence for the firearms charge.
Judge Ricardo Urbina set a trial date for February 1, 2010. He agreed with defense attorneys that preparations for the complex case will require a full year, including the likely need for lawyers to travel to Baghdad to gather information and conduct interviews.
"The United States government had a year and a half to investigate the case, and we did not. So we need a year to catch up," Schertler told reporters.
Lead government prosecutor Kenneth Kohl did not comment outside court.
The Baghdad incident, which occurred September 16, 2007, exacerbated the feelings of many Iraqis that private American security contractors have operated since 2003 with little regard for Iraqi law or life. It also created an extremely delicate political situation for the Bush administration and the Iraqi government.
The five defendants are Donald Ball, 26, of West Valley City, Utah; Dustin Heard, 27, of Knoxville, Tennessee; Evan Liberty, 26, of Rochester, New Hampshire; Nick Slatten, 25, of Sparta, Tennessee; and Paul Slough, 29, of Keller, Texas.
A sixth former security guard, Jeremy P. Ridgeway, 35, of California, has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and attempted manslaughter.
Prosecutors did not bring manslaughter charges for three of the 17 fatalities because they do not believe they have enough evidence to win a conviction in those deaths.
The company of Blackwater Worldwide does not face any charges.
The indictment of the five men represents the first prosecution of non-Defense Department contractors under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA), which was amended in 2004 to allow the Justice Department to prosecute such personnel providing services "in support of the mission of the Department of Defense overseas."
The attorneys for the defendants contend that Blackwater's employees in Iraq are exempt from the provisions of MEJA because the company has a contract in Iraq with the State Department, not the Defense Department.
Also muddying the case are assurances of immunity initially given to the guards by State Department diplomatic security agents, who were investigating the incident before the FBI tried to interview them once it took over.
The State Department maintains its agents did not offer blanket immunity from criminal prosecution, but promised only that the statements the guards made on the scene could not be used against them in any prosecution.
But when the investigation was turned over to the Justice Department to examine possible criminal activity, FBI agents discovered some guards believed they were immune from prosecution and therefore refused to be interviewed again, complicating the FBI probe.
A recently approved U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement pointedly specifies that U.S. civilian contractors will no longer be immune from Iraqi prosecution for crimes committed in that country.
CNN's Terry Frieden contributed to this report.
All About Blackwater Worldwide • Iraq • Baghdad |
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In a perfect example of just how unpredictable the Premier League can be, Tottenham spectacularly failed to break down Swansea on Saturday evening, with Paul Clement’s resolute defence causing frustration for fantasy managers worldwide. The Bookies’ Advantage squad did not escape the disappointment either, having captained Harry Kane, and tripled up on Spurs assets with Dele Alli and the rested Ben Davies. Goals from Mo Salah, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Gabriel Jesus, along with clean sheets from Ben Foster, Ahmed Hegazy and Phil Jones, helped soften the blow somewhat as the the squad registered 55 points for the gameweek. As always, we continue to glean the bookmakers’ offerings for fantasy advantages, so read on as we analyse the clean sheet and anytime goalscorer odds on offer to help you with those all-important transfer, squad selection and captaincy decisions…
Defensive odds
Team Best clean sheet odds Implied chance of a clean sheet Man City 1.83 55% Arsenal 2.15 47% Chelsea 2.25 44% Man Utd 2.3 43% Burnley 2.38 42% Everton 2.45 41% Tottenham 2.5 40% Brighton 2.88 35% Swansea 2.91 34% Liverpool 2.94 34% Newcastle 3 33% Huddersfield 3.5 29% Watford 3.6 28% Southampton 4.85 21% Leicester 5 20% Stoke 5.6 18% Bournemouth 5.8 17% West Ham 6.5 15% West Brom 10 10% Crystal Palace 19 5%
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Having registered 3 shutouts in 5 games, and with just 2 goals conceded, the joint-lowest in the top flight, Manchester City lead the bookies’ defensive rankings with a 55% chance of keeping a clean sheet against Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon. The Eagles sit rock bottom of the Premier League and have failed to score a goal in their opening 5 matches, so Pep Guardiola’s men are expected to bolster their already impressive defensive record. Nicolas Otamendi makes our starting XI after scoring in last weekend’s 6-0 romp at Vicarage Road, with his £5.5m valuation also making him the cheapest route into the City back line.
Arsenal (47%) rank second for the gameweek ahead of their Monday night Emirates clash with West Brom. The Gunners have kept clean sheets in their last 2 outings, whilst the Baggies failed to score at home to West Ham last weekend, and are yet to find the net more than once in a league game this season. Sead Kolasinac has arrived in the Premier League and shown his attacking promise early on, registering 2 assists in his 4 appearances, to emerge as the highest scoring Arsenal defender after 5 gameweeks and starts for our side.
Chelsea (44%) and Manchester United (43%) complete a big-hitting defence for Gameweek 6. Antonio Conte’s men have started to show some of their infamous defensive solidity from last term, conceding just twice in their last 4 and keeping 2 clean sheets in that time. The Blues travel to Stoke this weekend. United, meanwhile, offer fantasy managers the best defence in the league, having conceded just twice (joint-lowest along with City) and registered 4 shutouts. A trip to Southampton, who have blanked in 3 of 5 games this season, bodes well for Mourinho’s men. The cheapest and securest combination from both sides sees us pair Thibaut Courtois with Phil Jones.
On the bench, Rob Elliott (£4.0m – 33%) is once again our backup keeper when he travels to Brighton on Sunday afternoon, with the Magpies keeping 2 clean sheets in their last 3. Ben Mee (£4.5m – 42%) welcomes Huddersfield, who have failed to score in 2 of their last 3 games, to Turf Moor, where the Clarets were notoriously resolute last season, on Saturday. Chancel Mbemba (£4.0m – 33%) made a surprise early return from injury for Newcastle last time out and looks the likeliest ultra-budget defender to play this weekend.
Attacking odds
Player Best anytime goalscorer odds Implied chance of scoring Sergio Aguero 1.55 65% Gabriel Jesus 1.62 62% Alexandre Lacazette 1.83 55% Harry Kane 1.89 53% Alvaro Morata 2.05 49% Alexis Sanchez 2.05 49% Romelu Lukaku 2.2 45% Wayne Rooney 2.6 38% Sandro Ramirez 2.63 38% Tammy Abraham 2.7 37% Dele Alli 2.7 37% Roberto Firmino 2.75 36% Chris Wood 2.8 36% Mohamed Salah 2.8 36% Eden Hazard 2.8 36% Theo Walcott 2.88 35% Jamie Vardy 2.95 34% Kevin de Bruyne 3.2 31% Marcus Rashford 3.25 31% Kevin Mirallas 3.25 31% Andre Gray 3.3 30% Dwight Gayle 3.3 30% Alex Iwobi 3.3 30% Jermain Defoe 3.4 29% Willian 3.5 29% Javier Hernandez 3.5 29% Kelechi Iheanacho 3.5 29% Sam Vokes 3.5 29% Aaron Ramsey 3.5 29% Jordan Ayew 3.55 28% Henrikh Mkhitaryan 3.6 28% Steve Mounie 3.75 27% de Andrade Richarlison 3.75 27% Philippe Coutinho 3.75 27% Christian Eriksen 3.85 26% Jay Rodriguez 4 25% Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting 4 25% Joshua King 4 25% Manolo Gabbiadini 4 25% Salomon Rondon 4.1 24% Tom Ince 4.5 22% Pascal Gross 4.5 22% Christian Benteke 4.5 22% Saido Berahino 4.5 22% Anthony Knockaert 4.5 22% Michail Antonio 4.7 21% Matt Ritchie 4.9 20% Riyad Mahrez 5 20% Andre Ayew 5 20% Robbie Brady 5.25 19% Dusan Tadic 5.4 19% Christian Atsu 5.75 17% Nathan Redmond 5.8 17% Xherdan Shaqiri 6.1 16% Etienne Capoue 7 14% Matt Phillips 7.5 13% Aaron Mooy 7.5 13% Tom Carroll 7.5 13% Andros Townsend 9 11% Ryan Fraser 9 11%
Ahead of a plum home game against Crystal Palace, Sergio Aguero tops the bookies’ attacking ranks, and takes our captain’s armband, with a 65% chance of finding the back of the net. The explosive Argentine been on fire lately, scoring a hat trick last weekend away to Watford, taking his tally to 5 in his last 3 in all competitions. With the Eagles having lost all 5 of their league games to date this season, things look ominous for Roy Hodgson’s charges on Saturday.
As a result of the bookies predicting an absolute rout at The Etihad, we go large on Pep’s attack and select Gabriel Jesus (62%) in a potentially deadly double-up (reminiscent of Suarez & Sturridge 2013/14) with Aguero. The Brazilian starlet has scored in each of his last 3 Premier League outings (4 goals). Alexandre Lacazette (55%) completes our front 3 this weekend, with Arsenal’s record signing taking on West Brom at The Emirates on Monday evening. Lacazette has scored in both of his home appearances for the Gunners this campaign, whilst the Baggies conceded 3 to Brighton’s weak attack on their last road trip.
Dele Alli (37%) is our first midfield pick for Gameweek 6. The former Milton Keynes player scored his third goal of the season in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday, regaining his goalscoring form ahead of an away game at West Ham in Saturday’s early kick off. The Hammers have turned the corner defensively of late with 2 clean sheets on the trot, but have still conceded an average of 2 goals per game in the league this season.
After spending big up front and in defence, we need to find some value in the middle of the park. This sees Alex Iwobi (30%) and Willian (29%) make our starting XI. Iwobi, who started last weekend for the Gunners, and who looks assured of another start this Monday with Danny Welbeck out injured and Mesut Ozil doubtful, forms part of an Arsenal attacking double up for our side. Willian, meanwhile, also looks assured starter with Pedro out injured. Opponents Stoke have conceded 6 goals in their last 3 games in all competitions, and with star defender Kurt Zouma ineligible to face the Blues as part of his loan agreement, Chelsea’s Brazilian could kickstart his season at The Bet365 Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Two midfielders who face off at The Liberty Stadium complete our squad. Richarlison (27%) burst onto the Premier League scene with a goal and an assist in his first 2 matches, but has failed to produce fantasy points since. With Swansea losing both of their home games so far, and conceding 5 goals in the process, Saturday could provide the Brazilian with the opportunity to reignite his early season bandwagon. Tom Carroll (13%) will take to the field against Richarlison, but, as per usual, has to make do with the first spot on our substitutes bench, with his £4.5m valuation and set piece duties making him the perfect enabler.
The bookies also fancy the chances of a number of higher priced midfielders, such as Arsenal duo Aaron Ramsey and Theo Walcott, Belgian big hitters Kevin de Bruyne and Eden Hazard, early season fantasy front runners Mohamed Salah and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and the forgotten Kevin Mirallas, but for a variety of reasons (price, lack of starting security, squad selection restraints) we have to forgo all of the aforementioned players.
Team of the Week
Good luck with your fantasy weekend!
May the odds be with you🙏
Daniel Victory is a Fantasy football and anytime goalscorer betting enthusiast. Enjoys SSS – statistics, strategising and spreadsheets. Follow his great tips on Twitter. |
Nomura on Final Fantasy Versus XIII: ‘It takes time when tackling something new’
"Your patience is greatly appreciated," says Nomura.
Final Fantasy Versus XIII director Tetsuya Nomura commented on the status of his upcoming PlayStation 3 action RPG in the latest issue of Game Informer. But don’t get excited about it.
“We would like to ask for your patience on an official announcement for this title,” said Nomura. “It always takes time when tackling the challenge of doing something completely new, but we are doing our best to bring information to the fans as quickly as we can. Your patience is greatly appreciated.”
Nomura last said Square was almost ready to share new information the title. Final Fantasy Versus XIII was announced for PlayStation 3 in 2006.
Thanks, Final Fantasy Network. |
Problem 1.1: Above, we saw that \(n^2\), a quadratic, had a linear sequence as its finite differences. Prove this for the general quadratic.
If the sequence is \(A n^2 + B n + C\), the finite differences are of the form \(A[(n+1)^2 - n^2] + B[(n+1) - n] + C[1 - 1] = (2A)n + (A + B)\), which is linear
Problem 1.2: What would be the corresponding theorem for cubics? Prove it.
We know that the cubic is of the form \(A n^3 + q(n)\), where \(q(n)\) is quadratic. Our finite differences are \(A [(n+1)^3 - n^{3}] + [q(n+1) - q(n)]\). The finite differences of the second term are linear and of the first are quadratic, so the overall differences are quadratic.
Problem 1.3: Extend the above to general $n$-th order polynomials.
Induct. When you expand \((n+1)^k - n^k\), we get a polynomial of degree \(k-1\); induct downward on \(k\).
Problem 2.1: The "Tribonacci" sequence is defined by \(T_{n+3} = T_{n+2} + T_{n+1} + T_n\) and starting values \(T_1 = T_2 = T_3 = 1\). What is the smallest \(n\) for which \(T_n\) is over 9000? Over \(10^{10}\)? A calculator might be helpful, but don't just brute force the answer.
I warn you, this problem is somewhat hard. Let's begin. We first find the characteristic polynomial, \(P(\lambda) = \lambda^3 - \lambda^2 - \lambda - 1\). Now we need to find roots, but this polynomial does not factor in any nice way. What you can do, however, is estimate. \(P(1) = 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 = -2\), and \(P(2) = 8 - 4 - 2 - 1 = 1\), so we know that our answer is close to 2. We can check \(1.8\) or so, and we find that \(P(1.8)\approx-.3\). Whatever, that's close enough. Now, this \(1.8^n\) term has some coefficient in front of it. I wonder what it is… The sequence starts out 1, 1, 1, 3, 5, 9, 17, 31, so \(A 1.8^8 = 31\). This implies that \(A\approx\frac18\), or that we're about 3 terms behind. Now we just need to find \(n\) such that \(1.8^n=9000\). Well, we can take logs in our head (right?), and we know that \(\log 2 = .693\), \(\log 3 = 1.1\), \(\log 10 = 2.3\), so we know that \(\log 9000 = 6.9 + 1.1 + 1.1 = 9.1\) and that \(\log 1.8 = 2*1.1 + .693 - 2.4 = .59\). We divide to get \(n \approx 9.1/.59 = 91/5.9 \approx 15\). Now, we add the extra three terms to get 18, which is our final answer.
For \(10^{10}\), you can calculate an answer of 41 with the same method. What if I asked for \(10^{100}\)? Well, you'd have to be a bit careful about your math, but you can calculate it to be the 381th term.
Problem 2.2: Given three initial values, what does the sequence \(a_{n+3} = 3a_{n+2} - 3a_{n+1} + a_n\) represent?
Quadratic approximation is the answer. Proof of this follows in the next section.
Problem 3.1: Find a recursive definition for the sequence whose closed form is \(a_n = (n^2 + 1) 2^n + 1\).
Let's abstract that closed form a bit: \((An^2 + Bn + C)2^n + D 1^n\). You should recognize this as being the result of a characteristic polynomial: \((\lambda - 2)^3(\lambda - 1)\). You can multiply this out to get \(\lambda^4 - 7\lambda^3 + 18\lambda^2 - 20\lambda + 1\). Finally, we can get from this the actual recurrence: \(a_{n+4} = 7a_{n+3} - 18a_{n+2} + 20a_{n+1} + a_n\). Note that the exponents in our characteristic polynomial could be bigger — there would be associated coefficients in our closed form, but we'd just set them to 0. In other words, every sequence satisfies infinitely many recurrence relations.
Problem 3.2: A 3rd-order polynomial \(P\) has the property that \(P(1) = 1\), \(P(2) = 18\), \(P(4) = 17\), and \(P(5) = 23\). Find \(P(3)\).
Let's say that \(P(3) = x\). Then we can use our cool polynomial extrapolation formula: \(23 = 4 \cdot 17 - 6x + 4 \cdot 18 - 1\), or \(116 = 6x\), giving you the final answer of \(x = \frac{58}{3}\).
Problem 3.3: Does there exist a quintic \(P\) such that \(P(0) = 0\), \(P(1) = 1\), \(P(2) = -2\), \(P(3) = 3\), \(P(4) = -4\), \(P(5) = 5\), and \(P(6) = -3\)?
Using our polynomial extrapolation formula, we see that \(-3 =6\cdot5 + 15\cdot4 + 20\cdot3 + 15\cdot2 + 6\cdot1 - 1\cdot0\), clearly impossible. Or, you could note that the intermediate value theorem would require our polynomial to have 6 roots, clearly impossible if it were quintic.
Problem 4.1: Verify the formulae for sums of arithmetic and geometric series with inhomogeneous recurrence relations.
The crucial idea is to consider the recurrence relation \(a_{n+1} = a_n + f(n)\). Here \((a)_n\) acts as a sort of accumulator for the function \(f(n)\). And if \(f(n)\) is recursively defined (both arithmetic and geometric sequences are, as shown above), this gives us a way of find the characteristic polynomial for the sequence of sums: multiply by \(\lambda-1\). That gives us the overall formula \(An^2 + Bn + C\), with \(a_0 = a\), \(a_1 = a + (a + d) = 2a + d\), and \(a_2 = 2a + d + (a + 2d) = 3a + 3d\) (note: we've set our sequence to start at 0 here. This simplifies things). Now we have that \(C = a\), \(A + B + C = 2a + d\), \(4A + 2B + C = 3a + 3d\), which gives \(2A = d\), \(B = a + \frac12 d\). This leaves you with \(a_n = a n + d\frac{n(n+1)}2\). I leave it to you to check that this is the same as we derived at the start of the talk.
For the geometric series, we have \(a_{n+1} = a_n + f(n)\), where \(f(n) = a r^n\). Now, the characteristic polynomial for \(f(n)\) is \(\lambda - r\). If we assume that \(r\) is not equal to 1 (otherwise, we're looking at an arithmetic sequence), the characteristic polynomial for \(a_n\) must be \((\lambda - 1)(\lambda - r)\), and so your sequence is \(A r^n + B\) (the \(r=1\) case must be special cased, for then we'd need to \(Ar^n + B\) but \(Anr^n + B\)). Well, \(a_0 = a\) and \(a_1 = ar\), so we have \(A + B = a\), \(Ar + B = a + ar\), giving \(A(r-1) = ar\) and \(B(r-1)=-a\), thus leaving us with \(a \frac{r^{n+1}-1}{r-1}\), which we did indeed have before.
Problem 4.2: What happens to the asymptotic growth rate of a sequence if into its recurrence relation is inserted itself as an inhomogenizing term?
Well, every term asymptotically equal to \(n^k \lambda^n\) gets twice the roots, giving \(n^{2k+1} \lambda^n\). So in general it doubles the polynomial power in front of the largest exponent by two and then multiplies by \(n\) |
It will probably be several centuries before the Northeast United States again suffers anything like the 1965 drought. It was the driest year of a 10-year dry spell that devastated farms and sent municipal leaders into a panic over the drinking supply.
There were actually two droughts: The agricultural drought, and the water-supply drought. Farmers tried to save their crops and fed their livestock in barns, while suburbanites were told not to wash their cars or take long showers.
There was a high pollen count, high fire danger and high prices for produce. Wells dried up. Rivers, ponds and reservoirs became stinking mud holes. The air was so dry foggy mornings disappeared along the coast.
According to climatologist W.C. Palmer, the 1965 drought was "such a rare event that we should ordinarily expect it to occur in this region only about once in a couple of centuries."
The 1965 Drought
The 1965 drought actually occurred during 1961-69, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It began in 1960 in western Massachusetts, where precipitation was below average. Then in 1962 eastern Massachusetts dried up. The rest of the Northeast got little rain or snow.
From 1962 to 1966, 34 out of 46 months had below-average precipitation. The summer of 1964 was very dry. Overdrawn reservoirs weren't replenished.
Then 1965 was the driest year on record since the late 19th century. The 1965 drought was most severe in northeastern Pennsylvania and southeastern New York. That year, Connecticut got only 29.45 inches of precipitation, far below the average of 46.15 inches. Maine was drier than in 1947, when fires destroyed nine communities and a quarter-million parched acres.
By July, communities were declaring water emergencies. Towns banned water use outside, but police and water departments were besieged by people calling to report neighbors who watered their lawns or washed their cars.
Sahara
Golf courses dug wells and dredged ponds. Fairways burnt up as watering was restricted to greens and tees. Brae Burn in Newton, Mass., “may as well be on the Sahara,” reported the Boston Globe. Brae Burn dug 20 test holes to find water. All were dry.
Part of the reservoir in Cambridge, Mass., was mud. In Norfolk, Mass., the 20-acre Kingsbury Pond was a stinking sea of mud. Commuters from the western suburbs in Boston rolled up their windows in summer to avoid smelling the stench of the Charles River. Usually water was discharged into the river to dampen the smell of the raw sewage that flowed into it. Not during the drought.
Herring couldn’t swim from the sea to fresh water to spawn. The Town of Pembroke, Mass., banned herring fishing and helped the fish upstream by carrying them in barrels. By fall, millions of herring spawned in fresh water couldn’t make it back to the sea in the dried-up streams. Trapped in ponds, the seagulls feasted on them.
Pastures, hayfields and cornfields were burned out by the 1965 drought. Dairy farms in Fairfield County, Conn., lost most of their pasture grass, and wells went dry for a third of them.
The honey crop in Vermont was smaller than usual. So was the blueberry crop in Maine. Shade trees, such as the Norway and sugar maple, were damaged. Along Rte. 2 between Concord and Cambridge, Mass., Red Pine needles turned brown.
Emergency
In July 1965, President Lyndon Johnson ordered a study to find out what the federal government could do to help New England. Cities and towns got loans of pumps and pipes to access the deepest arts of reservoirs. Some Massachusetts towns borrowed vintage World War II pipes from Fort Devens and Romulus Air Force Base to reach water beyond normal sources. It didn’t work. The pipe was too expensive to transport.
Rockport, Mass., got approval to use water from a quarry, so long as it was treated twice with chlorine. Also in Massachusetts, Randolph, Holbrook and Braintree banded together to get water from a gravel pit. Fitchburg hired a rainmaker.
The next month, 11 Massachusetts counties were declared drought disaster areas. More than a hundred Massachusetts towns restricted water. Hanover considered a moratorium on building permits. Sandy Pond beach was closed in Ayer after hundreds of dead fish floated to the surface, deprived of oxygen.
Scattered Relief
By September, some parts of New England got rain. In western Massachusetts, rain changed brown pastures to green and grass and alfalfa returning to some farms. Cranberry growers were skating by. Some reservoirs filled to capacity.
The 1965 drought eased in Northern New England except for coastal Maine. In Grand Isle County, Vermont, too much rain left standing water in fields.
Then temperatures dropped.
The water problem worsened in November because the cold locked precipitation above ground. In southeastern Massachusetts, a cold snap destroyed a quarter of the cranberry crop. Cranberry growers didn’t have enough water to flood their bogs and prevent the berries from freezing.
Test wells throughout New England reached record lows and nearly a dozen towns along the coast had to draw down their emergency supplies. On Nov. 1, 1965, the Quabbin Reservoir fell to 59 percent of capacity, a drop of 17 percent in 12 months.
Car washes, service stations and ski areas couldn't get water.
The 1965 Drought Continues
By April 1966, the rainfall shortage increased to nearly 37 inches since the drought started in 1963, reported the Boston Globe. That almost equaled a year's supply of rain.
People thought the drought ended with heavy rain in July and persistent fog along the coast. A dry August ended that hope.
A Boston College scientist suggested detonating dynamite, creating tiny earthquakes, could end the 1965 drought. The disturbed soils would the presence of water and suggest areas for drilling, he said.
By October 1966, farmers said the drought had ended. But the water-supply drought had not. There wasn’t enough water in wells, water tables and reservoirs.
A wet spring in 1967 ended the drought. Above normal rain and snow from February to May filled the reservoirs. On April 25, 1967, Malcolm E. Graf, Massachusetts Water Resources Commissioner, states the four-year drought, worst in New England history, was over.
Photo: Quabbin Reservoir By Solarapex at en.wikipedia, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11535183. This story about the 1965 drought was updated in 2018. |
Studies have shown “morning people” are often more positive, more optimistic and more likely to experience satisfaction in their lives.
Studies have shown “morning people” are often more positive, more optimistic and more likely to experience satisfaction in their lives.
If you commute to work, early starts will see you avoiding the peak hour and enjoying a quieter, more peaceful commute to work.
If you commute to work, early starts will see you avoiding the peak hour and enjoying a quieter, more peaceful commute to work.
There is a lot of power in “quiet time” and early risers often talk about enjoying the quiet time of earlier starts.
There is a lot of power in “quiet time” and early risers often talk about enjoying the quiet time of earlier starts.
How does it work?
You know, if you have some incentive you are less prone to snooze on and on. Moreover, once you have went out of bed, you are less likely to return to it. And this is exactly how "Early Risers Hub" will help you.
You will have the incentive to wake up every day at time, and we have prepared some gamification techniques to get you out of bed and make you start thinking - i.e. wake you up. In the end, you will receive some small rewards every day and learn some new and interesting facts.
Do we have your attention?
Why don't you register now or learn more |
If English is not your first language, you can also choose to sign up and/or receive messages in one of the following language options: Spanish, Russian or Chinese.
ou have the option of adding multiple addresses and phone numbers, such as your home, work, a school, parent, etc. For example, if you are at work and you want to be sure you are notified about an incident at your home, you will get a notification if you have registered your home address. And the same applies if you are at home and want to be notified if something has occurred at work, you will need to be sure you have added your work address to your registration.
If your local phone service is provided by CenturyLink or Frontier, your landline is already in our database |
Nissan Australia CEO Richard Emery has rated the company a fifty-fifty chance to remain in the Supercars category beyond 2016.
Speaking to motoring.com.au following the weekend’s Hidden Valley event, Emery stressed that Michael Caruso’s win on Saturday will have no direct impact on the decision.
Emery remains in discussions with Nissan’s global bosses about the future of the program, which has been run by the formerly Kelly Racing branded team since 2013.
Nissan’s Australian management is understood to be pushing for a continuation with the Kellys and the current 5.0 litre V8, Altima package, but requires global sign-off in order to do so.
Already delayed by key management changes at Nismo, Emery had hoped to have a direction by this month but now says that timeline is not realistic.
“Certainly not in the month of June but I can tell you the meetings and conversations we are having have been intensified during this month,” Emery told the website.
“We are into the nitty-gritty of the conversation so we are close.
“I think it’s still 50:50,” he added of an extension getting the green light.
“We have some key people who understand what we have been doing and the valid nature of the outcomes we have been getting.
“We have got some others who have a global view on it who are just concerned – as you would be – about Australia being out there isolated doing a program that doesn’t fit inside the global program.
“That’s not to say they won’t support regional programs. They do.
“It’s just for us a matter if accumulating the impact of all the things we have been doing.”
Speaking after his win on Saturday, Caruso expressed his confidence that Nissan will continue with the team, paving the way for his own new contract with the team.
Relieved by the victory after a three-year drought, team co-owner Todd Kelly meanwhile stressed that his squad must remain focussed amid the uncertainty.
“All we can do is keep investing and pressing on and making sure we do the best job we can,” he told Speedcafe.com.
Kelly qualified on the front-row for yesterday’s race but fell out of contention thanks to an early hit from Mark Winterbottom. |
Azubu and Hitbox are no more. Both streaming platforms have officially combined and rebranded into Smashcast, which declares itself “the world’s largest independent esports broadcaster outside Asia”. While that is technically true, can a new feature set and alternative approach to advertising surpass the 20 million viewers of its predecessors, and overcome its biggest competitor Twitch?
Smashcast comes right out the bat with a simple layout, aspiring for the lowest-cost technical and service infrastructure compared to the other streaming platforms. It’s viewer engagement feature, named the Hype-O-Meter, is essentially Facebook Live’s floating emoji feature, and as on Twitch it is now possible to integrate a channel with your Discord server. More importantly, the launch includes a 4K content production studio in Vienna, Austria, designed to integrate the firm further with the esports ecosystem.
“The new Vienna production facility is a key next step for us in ensuring the quality of support we provide our broadcasting and publishing partners,” says Martin Klimscha, European Managing Director of Smashcast. “We wanted specifically to ensure that we are differentiated from our competitors not only from our platform and technology excellence, which includes full 4K and 360 VR support, but from the quality of streaming content as well.”
There is also a planned shift in monetization. Smashcast will focus on interactive sponsor-based advertising, virtual goods sales, sponsorships and in-game betting to excel its ARPU. One of the more interesting avenues they’re pursuing is affiliate marketing, which in the esports realm currently enjoys a low competitive keyword market, and an avalanche of betting sites – with the esports bettor industry alone expected to reach $200 million in 2018.
Azubu acquired Hitbox in January 2017 in a deal believed to be worth “tens of millions of dollars in cash”; a bittersweet end to a turbulent year for Azubu. As reported at length by The LA Times, the start-up suffered from staggered funds from its main financer, energy and agriculture investor Lars Windhorst. This resulted in features months overdue, late paychecks for employees, and an early investor pulling out and successfully regaining their $7.5 million injection. The platform also lost out on streaming League of Legends games after it could no longer afford the million dollar rights fees.
The cautious, bootstrapped launch of Smashcast is a solid first step for redemption, and with Azubu’s remaining popularity outside the U.S. (particularly Brazil) and Hitbox’s European market share, the platform has some advantages. It will have multiple mountains to climb though, including Twitch’s exclusivity clause for partners, and emerging competition from social media streaming. |
We love checking out the latest technology and seeing it put to good use. Most of the time, that entails amazing games, VR, and other experiences, but at the GPU Technology Conference we get to see a different facet of the GPU spectrum. Here, it's all about compute, and unlike gaming PCs where it's sometimes difficult to properly utilize even two GPUs, compute can make use of however many GPUs you can throw it. None of these are gaming machines, and considering DirectX 11 doesn't allow the use of more than four GPUs there wouldn't be any benefit to most of the systems we saw. But just how many GPUs can you pack into a single system if you're going after compute?
Velocity Micro workstation with eight EVGA GTX 980 Ti
First up is a desktop workstation courtesy of Velocity Micro. Systems like this were all over the show floor, but the Velocity Micro system caught our eye as it was one of the few to actually use GTX 980 Ti—most were doing GTX Titan X if they used consumer GPUs, while Quadro and Tesla were in the majority of professional servers and workstations. Here, the case is packed with eight GTX 980 Ti cards from EVGA, paired with dual Xeon processors (these were older E5-2660 v3 right now, though newer Xeon v4 models are supported). What's interesting is that the EVGA cards are open air coolers rather than blowers; when asked about this, Velocity Micro said that it was "mainly for show" and that normally they would use reference blowers to help with cooling.
On a related note, we saw a lot of consumer GM200 cards in workstations, which isn't too surprising since there was no high-performance FP64 Quadro card for Maxwell. One of the problems vendors face when using consumer GPUs is that the cards have a relatively short shelf life; in another year, there won't be many GTX Titan X cards around for purchase, assuming a Pascal variant takes its place. Quadro and Tesla are kept in production for much longer, as part of the professional market they cater to. Companies are often faced with needing to balance buying faster consumer hardware that will be phased out sooner, or paying the higher price for professional cards that are clocked slower but will be around for five or more years. And when you can count on cards being around that long, you can do crazy stuff like this:
One Stop Systems GPUltima with 16 Tesla K80
This particular 3U chassis is called the GPUltima and comes from One Stop Systems. Seeing four to eight GPUs in a server is nothing, but sixteen GPUs is another matter entirely. Except, these aren't any old GPUs, they're Tesla K80s, which means each card actually has two GK210 GPUs. That makes this the highest GPU density we saw on the show floor, packing 32 GPUs into a 3U cassis. [Ed—There may have been someone doing more than this, but if so I didn't see it.] Except there's a catch—because there's always a catch.
This particular case doesn't contain any processors; it's all just graphics cards along with a few InfiniBand connectors for networking. The GPUltima is designed to be used with a separate server, and One Stop Systems normally couples it to a dual-socket 2U server. That means the total GPU density is "only" 32 GPUs per 5U, and in a 42U rack—with 2U being used for networking stuff up top—you could fit eight such systems. That yields 256 GPUs per rack, which is still an impressive number, but not the highest density you'll find. There are companies like SuperMicro who make 1U servers that can each house four Tesla K80 cards, so potentially 40 of those 1U servers (plus 2U for networking again) could fit in a single rack, yielding 320 GPUs.
Let's stick with the 128 Tesla K80 GPUs, though. Each has 8.74 FP32 TFLOPS, for a combined 1,120 TFLOPS per rack. Or if you want FP64, you'd drop down to 373 TFLOPS. There's a problem with stuffing that many GPUs into a rack, of course: you still need to provide power and cooling. Just how much power does the GPUltima require? We were told that the typical power use under load for the system sits at around 5000W, though peak power use can jump a bit higher. Each 3U rack comes equipped with three 3000W 240V PSUs (one for redundancy), so a data center needs to be able to supply over 50kW per rack, with 76kW being "safe." The good news is it can also roast marshmallows and hot dogs if you're hungry. (Not really.)
Nvidia's upcoming DGX-1 server with eight Telsa P100 Pascal GPUs can provide up to 170 TFLOPS of performance in a 3U chassis, and with 12 of those in a rack, 2035 TFLOPS per rack. Of course, that's FP16 TFLOPS, so if you need FP32 precision you're looking at 1017 TFLOPS, or 509 TFLOPS for FP64. Using the existing K80, GPUltima is slightly faster on FP32 per rack, but slower on FP64. Perhaps more importantly for the Tesla P100, peak power use should be significantly lower than K80, meaning a full rack of twelve DGX-1 servers should only need around 30-40kW.
If you're wondering what anyone would do with all of those GPUs, they're looking at things like artificial intelligence, weather systems, and other supercomputing tasks.
Let's end with a fun fact: Did you know there's an estimate for how much computing power it would require to simulate a human? Well, there is, though opinions differ by several orders of magnitude. Some estimate it's around 10^16 FLOPS (Kurzweil), but let's just make it interesting and aim a bit higher, like 10^18 FLOPS. That might not mean too much to you, so let's express it as another term: 1 exa-FLOPS (EFLOPS). With up to 2 PFLOPS per rack, DGX-1 would allow us to stuff 1 EFLOPS into 512 racks. Then we just need the right software to make it all work properly. And all of that would only need 15-20MW of power to run, compared with our little brains humming along on just 20W or so of power.
In other words, our fastest modern super computers might not run Crysis, but they're fully capable of playing Crysis. Which is pretty awesome...and perhaps more than a little bit scary. |
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — An officer-involved shooting occurred early Sunday morning in San Francisco, a police spokesman said.
At 11:35 p.m. Saturday, police received a report of a domestic violence incident involving a weapon at an apartment in the first block of Salmon Street in the city’s Nob Hill neighborhood, according to San Francisco police Sgt. Michael Andraychak.
The male suspect was inside with his wife and two children, 5 and 11 years old, Andraychak said.
Officers arrived on the scene and heard yelling. At 11:45 p.m. a shot was fired from inside the apartment, Andraychak said.
The suspect would not release his family and police negotiated with him into the morning. At 2:50 a.m. today, the suspect stopped negotiating and a shot was fired inside the apartment, Andraychak said.
Out of concern for the hostages, officers entered the apartment.
That’s when an officer-involved shooting occurred inside the apartment, Andraychak said.
The suspect, who was shot, was taken to a hospital and later pronounced dead, Andraychak said.
All three victims, the mother and both children, were rescued and received treatment from paramedics at the scene.
According to Andraychak, the shooting remains under investigation by the San Francisco Police Department’s internal affairs division, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, the Department of Police Accountability and the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office.
© Copyright 2017 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed |
Image credit: joshDubya /Flickr
I am currently in the little town with the really big secret: Taiji, Japan, made famous by the Academy Award winning documentary The Cove .
I am here as a volunteer for Save Japan Dolphins and Earth Island Institute. This is my second trip here since the killing season began on September 1st. Although I have seen the movie many times, this week was the first time I was in Taiji during a dolphin slaughter.On October 11, 2010 a pod of dolphins were driven into the cove. The following day, I saw these beautiful creatures swim into The Cove and come out dead bodies. The fishermen are very careful to hide the evidence of their actions, hiding the bodies under tarps and keeping people from filming the slaughter.
SLIDESHOW: Dolphins, Magnificent Mammals
But on this day I got lucky and managed to get close up photos of the fishermen cutting up the dolphins inside the slaughterhouse. They left a door slightly open, and I stuck my camera under it. One of the fishermen eventually spotted me from the grocery store across the street and shut me down, but I got them cutting off the dolphins' fins and chopping up the torsos. It was one of the hardest things I have ever seen and I will never be the same. This is the footage I collected over those two days:
One of the fishermen participating in the killing that day was Private Space, who you will recognize from The Cove. This is footage of my long awaited meeting with the most famous fisherman in Taiji:
Read more about dolphins:
Scientists Say Dolphins Should Be Granted Human Non-Human Person Status
Whaling & Dolphin Hunting Not About What's Being Killed But Who
New Discoveries in Dolphin Communication Reveal Use of Diplomacy to Avoid Fights
Read more from Leilani Munter:
Blood Still Flows at the Cove
13 Dolphins Wait for Freedom
Pro Athletes Visit Gulf Oil Spill, Say "No More Drill, Baby Drill" |
Joseph Henry Nuxhall (; July 30, 1928 – November 15, 2007) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball, mostly for the Cincinnati Reds. Immediately after retiring as a player, he became a radio broadcaster for the Reds from 1967 through 2004, and continued part-time up until his death in 2007. Nuxhall held the team's record for career games pitched (484) from 1965 to 1975, and still holds the team mark for left-handers.
In addition to his 40 years of broadcasting Reds games, Nuxhall is most remembered for having been the youngest player ever to appear in a major league game, pitching 2⁄ 3 of an inning for the Reds on June 10, 1944 at the age of 15 years, 316 days. Called upon for that one game due to player shortages during World War II, Nuxhall eventually found his way back to the Reds in 1952, and the National League All-Star team in 1955 and 1956. Long known as "The Ol' Left-hander", he compiled a career earned run average of 3.90 and a record of 135–117 during his 16-season career, with all but five of his victories being earned with the Reds. Nuxhall died in 2007 after a long battle with cancer.
Early life [ edit ]
Nuxhall was born and raised in Hamilton, Ohio. During World War II, many regular baseball players were unavailable while serving in the military. Meanwhile, Nuxhall was the biggest member of the ninth grade class in nearby Hamilton, Ohio at 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) and 190 pounds (86 kg)—a left-hander with a hard fastball, but not much control. He had already been playing in a semipro league with his father for a few years. Scouts looking to fill out the Reds' depleted roster were following Orville Nuxhall, Joe's father, in 1943. But they were informed that the elder Nuxhall was not interested in signing a professional contract because of his five children. The scouts then became interested in the son, who was only 14 at the time. After waiting until the following year's basketball season was over, Nuxhall signed a major league contract with the Reds on February 18, 1944. General manager Warren Giles intended to wait until school was over in June to add him to the team, but more of his players were inducted into the service in the spring. With permission from his high school principal, Nuxhall was in uniform with the team on Opening Day.
Teenage debut [ edit ]
I was pitching against seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders, kids 13 and 14 years old... All of a sudden, I look up and there's Stan Musial and the likes. It was a very scary situation.[1]
On June 10, the Reds were playing the first place St. Louis Cardinals at Crosley Field and trailing 13–0 in the ninth inning when Manager Bill McKechnie called on Nuxhall to enter the game. He started well, retiring the first batter he faced, Cardinals shortstop George Fallon, on a groundout. But he was unable to get out of the inning, yielding five walks, two hits, one wild pitch and five runs. He spent the rest of the 1944 season in the minor leagues. But unlike Jake Eisenhart, who made his debut for the Reds the same day by getting the last out of the frame, Nuxhall returned to pitch in the majors.
Nuxhall remains the youngest person to play in a major league game in history. During his lifetime, it was believed that a 14-year-old named Fred Chapman pitched five innings in one 1887 game. However, in 2009, the Society for American Baseball Research discovered that this player's name and age were both incorrect. The 1887 player was actually named Frank Chapman, and he was 25 years old at the time of his only major league appearance.[2][3] There have also been sources listing Billy Geer, who played for the 1874 New York Mutuals of the National Association, as having a birth date in 1859, but this is questionable as well, as is whether the National Association was a major league.
Joe Reliford, a 12-year-old batboy for the Class D Fitzgerald Pioneers, became the youngest person to ever play in a professional baseball game in 1952 when he was called on to pinch-hit.[4]
Minor leagues [ edit ]
Following his appearance with the Reds, he was assigned to the Birmingham Barons in the Southern League, but pitched only a third of an inning there (he struck out his first batter, then allowed a hit, five walks, a hit batter and five runs). Nuxhall attended spring training with the Reds in 1945, but decided to remain home until he finished high school the following year. He regained his amateur status and played football, basketball and baseball for Hamilton High School as a senior in 1946, earning all-state honors in football and basketball. Over the next five years, Nuxhall played in the minor leagues with Syracuse, Lima, Muncie, Columbia, Charleston, and Tulsa before returning to the Reds in 1952. Nuxhall briefly returned to the minors in 1962 with the San Diego Padres.
Return to the major leagues [ edit ]
At the age of 23, Nuxhall returned to the majors. He pitched the final three innings of a 1–19 shellacking by the Brooklyn Dodgers on May 21, 1952, allowing one hit and no runs. Four days later, he took over for Herm Wehmeier in the fourth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals, but he allowed two runs on six hits in five innings of work and was credited with the 7–6 loss, his first in the majors.[5][6] On July 13, he made his first career start against the New York Giants. In nine innings of work, he allowed four runs on nine hits, striking out two and walking three, but the Reds lost 4–2.[7] A month later, he received his first win when he pitched three innings in relief of Harry Perkowski as the Reds rallied in the ninth to win 5–4 over the New York Giants. He allowed two hits and one run while striking out and walking two each. [8] Ultimately, Nuxhall played in 37 games, going 1–4 with a 3.22 ERA in 921⁄ 3 innings, having one save while striking out 52 with 42 walks. In the fielding, he had 24 assists with three putouts and one errors and four double plays for a .964 fielding percentage. The following year, he went 9–11 with a 4.32 ERA, having five complete games and two saves in 1412⁄ 3 innings. He had 69 walks and 52 strikeouts. In batting, he had 49 at-bats in 30 games, batting .327 (a career high), having 16 hits and three home runs with eight RBIs, four walks and 13 strikeouts. In fielding, he had six putouts, 18 assists, three errors on a .889 fielding percentage. The next year, he improved to 12–5 with a 3.89 ERA in 35 games and 1662⁄ 3 innings. He had five complete games while having 59 walks and 85 strikeouts. He had four putouts, 29 assists, one error and five double plays for a .971 fielding percentage. He ranked 9th in strikeouts per 9 innings at 4.590, the first of five times he ranked in the top ten over nine seasons. He also ranked in the top ten in strikeouts/walks with 1.441 (9th) and 0.594 in home runs per 9 innings (4th)
Nuxhall blossomed in 1955, going 17–12 with a 3.47 ERA on 257 innings with five shutouts (a career and league high) while striking out 98 and walking 78. He had 12 putouts, 35 assists, three errors, four double plays for a .940 fielding percentage. He was named to the All-Star Game that year. He pitched 31⁄ 3 innings while allowing two hits and no runs with three walks and five strikeouts. Nuxhall ranked in the top ten in numerous categories in the National League that season, such as ERA (7th), wins (3rd), walks & hits per inning (1.237, 7th), innings pitched (2nd), walks (5th), and hits (4th with 240). [9]
The following year, he went 13–11 with a 3.72 ERA in 2002⁄ 3 innings and 44 games, having three saves while throwing 10 complete games. He struck out 120 while walking 87 (a career high). He had six putouts, 31 assists, two errors and three double plays for a .949 fielding percentage. He was named to the All-Star Game once again, although he did not pitch. [10] Nuxhall ranked in the top ten of a few categories in the NL, such as strikeouts (10th), strikeouts per nine innings (5.382, 4th), and walks (4th). The 91–63 record and 3rd place finish by the Redlegs (in which they finished two games behind the Brooklyn Dodgers). This was the closest Nuxhall came to postseason action.
He stumbled the following year, going 10–10 with a 4.75 ERA in 39 games and 1741⁄ 3 innings. He had 99 strikeouts and 53 walks. He had 11 putouts, 20 assists, four errors (a league high), and one double play turned for a .886 fielding percentage. He improved slightly in 1958, going 12–11 for a 3.79 ERA in 36 games and 1752⁄ 3 innings. He had 111 strikeouts and 63 walks. He had six putouts, 29 assists, with three errors and double plays turned each on a .921 fielding percentage. He ranked sixth in hits per nine innings with 8.658 (10th) and strikeouts per nine innings with 5.687 (6th). The following year, he went 9–9 with a 4.24 ERA and one save in 29 games and 1312⁄ 3 innings. He had 75 strikeouts and 35 walks. He had six putouts, 19 assists, with one errors and double play turned for a .962 fielding percentage. For 1960, he did not have the success of the past few years, going 1–8 with a 4.42 ERA in 38 games and 112 innings. He had 72 strikeouts and 27 walks. He had eight putouts, 26 assists, one errors and four double plays for a .971 fielding percentage.
On January 25, 1961, he was traded by the Reds to the Kansas City Athletics for John Briggs and John Tsitouris. In his one season with Kansas City, he went 5–8 with a 5.34 ERA in 37 games and 128 innings with one save, striking out 81 while walking 65. He had his second highest batting average at .292 in 65 at-bats, hitting 19 times while having two home runs and 13 RBIs, striking out 18 times while walking six times. He had 10 putouts, 13 assists, three errors and one double play for a .885 fielding percentage. On December 4, he was released by the Athletics.
He signed as a free agent with the Baltimore Orioles for the 1962 season, but on April 9, 1962 (one day before the season started), he was purchased by the Los Angeles Angels. In five games with the team, he had a 10.13 ERA while having no wins or losses, pitching 51⁄ 3 innings while allowing seven hits, six runs, five walks, and two strikeouts. On May 15, he was released. He signed back with the Reds roughly a month later. He went 5–0 with the Reds in twelve games for a 2.45 ERA with one save in 66 innings, striking out 57 while walking 25.
Nuxhall improved for the 1963 season, going 15–8 with a career low 2.61 ERA in 35 games and 2171⁄ 3 innings (the second most inning work in his career). He had a career high 169 strikeouts along with 39 walks. He had five putouts, 33 assists, five errors and two double plays for a .884 fielding percentage. He won his 100th career game on June 29, beating the San Francisco Giants 7–3, pitching nine innings while allowing seven hits, two walks and 11 strikeouts. [11]
Nuxhall regressed slightly the following year, going 9–8 with a 4.07 ERA in 32 games and 1542⁄ 3 innings, striking out 111 while walking 51. He had five putouts, 20 assists, two errors and one double play turned for a .926 fielding percentage.
For 1965, he went 11–4 with a 3.45 ERA in 32 games and 1482⁄ 3 innings, striking out 117 while walking 31 batters. He had five putouts, 20 assists, two errors and one double play for a .926 fielding percentage. He had five putouts, 13 assists, with no errors and double plays for a 1.000 fielding percentage. On July 30, he pitched in his 441th game for the Reds, passing the team record of 440 games pitched by Eppa Rixey. In a nine inning effort, he allowed eight hits with one runs, eight strikeouts and no walks in a 5–1 win. [12] Nuxhall's final mark of 484 stood until Clay Carroll surpassed it in 1975.
The 1966 season (his 16th season along with his 15th for the Reds) proved to be his last in the majors. He went 6–8 with a 4.50 ERA in 35 games and 130 innings. He struck out 71 and walked 42 batters. He had six putouts, 20 assists, three errors, and one double play for a .897 fielding percentage. His final pitching appearance was on October 2, 1966 against the Atlanta Braves. He pitched in relief of Sammy Ellis in the top of the eighth inning with two outs and the Braves having taken the lead one batter earlier. Facing George Kopacz, Nuxhall got the batter to hit a flyball for an out to end the inning. He was replaced by Don Nottebart for the ninth inning. [13]
Second career [ edit ]
Nuxhall retired from the Reds in April 1967. Under the guidance of Hamilton sports broadcaster Ray Motley, he immediately joined the Reds broadcast team despite his lack of broadcasting experience.
Part of his trademark radio signoff phrase – "This is the old left-hander, rounding third and heading for home" – is displayed on the outside of the Reds' stadium, Great American Ball Park, which opened in 2003. A likeness of Nuxhall (see photo) is one of five statues that decorate the main entrance of the stadium (The others are Ernie Lombardi, Ted Kluszewski, Frank Robinson, and Pete Rose). He was elected to the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1968, and officially retired from the Reds on October 3, 2004, 60 years after his pitching debut, though he still made guest appearances on some game broadcasts. For many years after retiring as a player and during his broadcasting career, Nuxhall pitched batting practice for the Reds. In addition to being called "Nuxy" and "the ole lefthander", Nuxhall was also known as "Hamilton Joe", particularly to locals. He spent nearly 62 of his 64 baseball seasons in the Reds organization as a minor-league player, major-league player or an announcer from 1944–2007; the only exceptions being 1946 (when he was on the "voluntarily retired" list — in reality, he went back to high school), 1961 (when he was dealt to the Kansas City A's) and 1962 (pitching for a few weeks with the Los Angeles Angels before heading back to Cincinnati).
On June 6, 2007, the Reds honored Nuxhall, Marty Brennaman, and Waite Hoyt with replica microphones that hang on the wall near the radio booth. At Redsfest in December, 2007 the Reds announced Nuxhall would be honored throughout the 2008 baseball season – their uniforms would display a dark patch with the word "NUXY" printed in white. On March 31, 2008 the Cincinnati Reds paid tribute to Nuxhall by wearing his #41 jersey for opening day.
In December 2007, Nuxhall was named as one of the ten finalists for the National Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award, an honor bestowed annually on broadcasters who make major contributions to the game of baseball. Of more than 122,000 online ballots cast by fans, Nuxhall received 82,304 votes.[14] Despite this show of support, it was announced on February 19, 2008 that the Frick election committee had voted in favor of the voice of the Seattle Mariners, Dave Niehaus.[15]
His book and character education fund [ edit ]
In September 2004, Orange Frazer Press released Joe: Rounding Third & Heading for Home.[16] A portion of the proceeds from the book benefits the Joe Nuxhall Character Education Fund, which was established in 2003 to underwrite character development programs and projects for children.
Community remembrance [ edit ]
In the days following Nuxhall's death, several radio stations in the Cincinnati area devoted shows to him, and fans left cards, flowers and banners at the statue of Nuxhall at Great American Ball Park. A public visitation ceremony was attended by thousands of fans and several local and national sports and broadcasting personalities. At his visitation held at Fairfield High School, an estimated 6,000 people showed up to pay their respects to Nuxhall and the Nuxhall family.
2008 Opening Day memorial [ edit ]
The Reds remembered Nuxhall on their 2008 Opening Day. Players wore an alternate jersey during their introductions, which bore the number 41 and Nuxhall's name on the back. Aaron Harang, who usually wore the number 39 jersey, was allowed by MLB to wear the number 41 jersey with Nuxhall's name for the entire game. Nuxhall's number 41 was honored by the team displaying it in left-center field over the Reds' bullpen. Reds players wore patches with "Nuxy" and his number 41 on them as a tribute.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Bob Rathgeber (1982). Cincinnati Reds Scrapbook . JCP Corp. of Virginia. ISBN 0-938694-05-7
. JCP Corp. of Virginia. ISBN 0-938694-05-7 Lonnie Wheeler and John Baskin (1988). The Cincinnati Game . Orange Frazer Press. ISBN 0-9619637-1-9
. Orange Frazer Press. ISBN 0-9619637-1-9 Rick Van Blair (1994). Dugout to Foxhole: Interviews with Baseball Players Whose Careers Were Affected by World War II . McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-7864-0017-X
. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-7864-0017-X Greg Rhodes and John Snyder (2000). Redleg Journal: Year by Year and Day by Day with the Cincinnati Reds Since 1866. Road West Publishing. ISBN 0-9641402-5-X
Further reading [ edit ] |
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