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The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS, ; French: Service canadien du renseignement de sécurité, SCRS) is Canada's primary national intelligence service. It is responsible for collecting, analysing, reporting and disseminating intelligence on threats to Canada's national security, and conducting operations, covert and overt, within Canada and abroad.[3] It also reports to and advises the Government of Canada on national security issues and situations that threaten the security of the nation. Its headquarters are located in Ottawa in a purpose-built facility completed in 1995.[4] CSIS is responsible to Parliament through the Minister of Public Safety, but is also overseen by the Federal Court and the Security Intelligence Review Committee.[5] History [ edit ] Prior to 1984 security intelligence in Canada was the purview of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Security Service. However, in the 1970s there were allegations that the RCMP Security Service had been involved in numerous illegal activities. As a result of these allegations, in 1977, Justice David Macdonald was appointed to investigate the activities of RCMP Security Service. The resulting investigation, known as the McDonald Commission, published its final report in 1981, with its main recommendation being that security intelligence work should be separated from policing, and that a civilian intelligence agency be created to take over from the RCMP Security Service.[6] On June 21, 1984, CSIS was created by an Act of Parliament. At the time it was also decided that the activities of this new agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, should be subject to both judicial approval for warrants, as well as general review by a new body, the Security Intelligence Review Committee, as well as the office of the Inspector General (which was disbanded in 2012). Its de facto existence began on July 16 under the direction of Thomas D'Arcy Finn.[7] At first, the main emphasis of CSIS was combating the activities of various foreign intelligence agencies operating in Canada.[8] For example, it has been engaged in investigating economic espionage involving Chinese operations throughout Canada.[9] While the threat posed by foreign intelligence agencies still remain, CSIS over the years has focused more and more on the threat to Canadian security and its citizens posed by terrorist activity. Insignia [ edit ] CSIS is one of several federal departments (primarily those involved with law enforcement, security, or having a regulatory function) that has been granted a heraldic badge. The badge was created in July 1984 (pre-dating the creation of the Canadian Heraldic Authority), and received Royal approval in June 1985.[10] On December 21, 2016, a CSIS flag was raised for the first time by the Director at the national headquarters. The flag displays the CSIS badge on a white field.[11] Mission and operations [ edit ] CSIS is Canada's lead agency on national security matters and for conducting national security investigations and security intelligence collection. CSIS collects, analyzes intelligence, advises the Government of Canada on issues and activities that may threaten the security of Canada and its citizens.[12] These threats include terrorism,[13] espionage and foreign interference in Canadian affairs,[14] proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,[15] and information security threats.[16] The agency is also responsible for the security screening program.[17] There is no restriction in the CSIS Act on where CSIS may collect "security intelligence" or information relating to threats to the security of Canada. The agency may collect information on threats to Canada or Canadians from anywhere in the world. While CSIS is often viewed as a defensive security intelligence agency, it is not a domestic agency. CSIS officers work domestically and internationally in their efforts to monitor and counter threats to Canadian security. There is a distinction between "security intelligence" and "foreign intelligence". Security intelligence pertains to national security threats (e.g., terrorism, espionage). Foreign intelligence involves information collection relating to the political or economic activities of foreign states. According to Section 16 of the CSIS Act, the agency collects this type of "foreign intelligence" within Canada. CSIS is neither a police agency nor is it a part of the military. As an intelligence agency, the primary role of CSIS is not law enforcement. Investigation of criminal activity is left to the RCMP and local (provincial, regional or municipal) police agencies. CSIS, like counterparts such as the United Kingdom Security Service (MI5) and the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is a civilian agency. CSIS is subject to review by the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC) as well as other legislative checks and balances. The agency carries out its functions in accordance with the CSIS Act, which governs and defines its powers and activities. Canadian police, military agencies (see Canadian Forces Intelligence Branch), and numerous other government departments may maintain their own "intelligence" components (i.e. to analyze criminal intelligence or military strategic intelligence). The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade maintains a Security and Intelligence Bureau to review and analyze overtly acquired information. The bureau plays a coordinating and policy role. While not an intelligence agency, it is responsible for the security of Department of Foreign Affairs personnel around the world.[18] However, these agencies are not to be confused with the more encompassing work of larger, more dedicated "intelligence agencies" such as CSIS, MI5, MI6, or the CIA. As Canada's contributor of human intelligence to the Five Eyes, CSIS works closely with the intelligence agencies of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Under the post–World War II Quadripartite (UKUSA) Agreement, intelligence information is shared between the intelligence agencies of these five countries. Permission to put a subject under surveillance is granted by the Target Approval and Review Committee. Security Liaison Officers (SLOs) of CSIS are posted at Canadian embassies and consulates to gather security-related intelligence from other nations. This information may be gathered from other national intelligence agencies, law enforcement services and other sources. SLOs also assess potential immigrants to Canada for security issues. CSIS has been named one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers" by Mediacorp Canada Inc. for the years of 2009–2011, and was featured in Maclean's newsmagazine.[19] Organization [ edit ] Regional [ edit ] CSIS headquarters is located in Ottawa, Ontario and is responsible for the overall operations. Regionally, Canada is broken down into six subordinate regions; the Atlantic, Quebec, Ottawa, Toronto, Prairie, and British Columbia Regions.[20] These regions are responsible for investigating any threat to Canada and its allies as defined by the CSIS Act. They liaise with the various federal, provincial, municipal and private sector entities found within their areas of responsibility. They also conduct various outreach programs with different community and cultural groups, universities, and private sector organizations in an effort to provide a better understanding, and to clear up any misunderstandings of what CSIS' role is.[21] All these regions also border the United States and they therefore maintain contact with their U.S. federal counterparts.[22] Atlantic Region [ edit ] The Atlantic Region encompasses the four Atlantic provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island and is the smallest of the six CSIS regions. Its main office is located in Halifax, with two district offices in Fredericton and St. John's. Quebec Region [ edit ] This region is responsible solely for the province of Quebec. Its main office is in Montreal, with one district office in Quebec City. Ottawa and Toronto Regions [ edit ] These two regions are responsible for operations in Ontario (except for NW Ontario). There are four district offices located in Niagara Falls, Windsor, Downtown Toronto and at Toronto Pearson International Airport.[23] Prairie Region [ edit ] Geographically, this represents the largest of the six regions and encompasses the area of Ontario north and west of Thunder Bay, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the three northern territories of Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. The regional office is located in Edmonton with three district offices located in Winnipeg, Regina and Calgary. British Columbia [ edit ] This region is responsible for the province of British Columbia. Its main office is located in downtown Burnaby with a district office at the Vancouver International Airport. Branches [ edit ] CSIS is functionally divided into four branches:[24] Counter-Intelligence Counter-Proliferation Counterterrorism Research, Analysis and Production (RAP) Research, Analysis and Production [ edit ] The RAP was reorganized in 1996-1997 in order to better coordinate with the Intelligence Assessment Secretariat of the Privy Council Office.[25][24] It has four sub-divisions: Counter Intelligence, Foreign Intelligence, Counter-terrorism and Distribution.[25] Oversight [ edit ] The activities of CSIS are regularly reviewed on behalf of Parliament by the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC). It is also under the portfolio of the federal Minister of Public Safety. SIRC have access to all CSIS information, classified and open, with the exception of Cabinet Confidences. The Office of Inspector General was disbanded in 2012, whose previous function was to provide an annual classified report on CSIS' operational activities for the Minister.[26] Controversies [ edit ] In several instances, CSIS has been accused of misrepresenting facts to the Courts.[27] In 2013, CSIS was censured by Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley for deliberately misleading Canada's Federal Court to make it possible for them to allow other agencies to spy on Canadians abroad, which is not allowed by Canadian law.[28] "Justice Mosley has found that CSIS breached its duty of candour to the Court by not disclosing information that was relevant," the Federal Court stated in a press release.[29] CSIS has also been involved in cases where evidence has been mishandled or omitted from the Courts. In 2009, it was alleged that the service did not disclose information that their confidential informants, which CSIS had been relying on to gather information about their targets, were either deceptive,[clarification needed] or failed lie-detector tests.[30] This was not an isolated case, and in several other instances, the agency mishandling of evidence has also called for investigation.[31][32] CSIS has, at times, come under criticism,[by whom?] such as for its role in the investigation of the 1985 Air India bombing. The Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182, headed by Justice John Major, is underway. Two Canadian courts have publicly criticized CSIS for destroying wiretap evidence. One court impressed upon the importance of wiretap evidence from CSIS in establishing guilt. The second focused on its exculpatory value.[citation needed] From 1988 to 1994, CSIS mole Grant Bristow infiltrated the Canadian white-supremacist movement. When the story became public knowledge, the press aired concerns that he had not only been one of the founders of the Heritage Front group, but that he had also channelled CSIS funding to the group.[33] In 1999, classified documents were stolen from the car of a CSIS employee who was attending a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game. The Security Intelligence Review Committee reportedly investigated this incident.[34][35] On September 18, 2006, the Arar Commission absolved CSIS of any involvement in the extraordinary rendition by the United States of a Canadian citizen, Maher Arar.[citation needed] The Commission found that U.S. authorities sent Arar to Jordan and then Syria (his country of birth) based on incorrect information which had been provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to the U.S. government. Arar was held by the Syrians for one year and was tortured. The sole criticism of CSIS leveled by the Commission was that the agency should do more to critically examine information provided by regimes which practice torture.[citation needed] On March 31, 2009, CSIS lawyer and advisor Geoffrey O'Brian told the Committee on Public Safety and National Security that CSIS would use information obtained by torture if it could prevent another attack such as 9/11 or the Air India bombing. Testifying before the same committee two days later, Director of CSIS Jim Judd said that O'Brian "may have been confused" and "venturing into a hypothetical", and would send the committee a clarifying letter.[36] Two weeks later CSIS announced that Judd would be retiring in June, five months before the end of his five-year term.[37] CSIS has come under attack on a number of occasions for what is seen by some as very aggressive tactics. A vociferous critic of the Service, Lawyer Faisal Kutty, writes as follows: "Showing up at homes and workplaces unannounced; speaking with employers; offering money and favors for "information"; intimidating and threatening newcomers; questioning about specific institutions and individuals; inquiring about a person's religiosity; and discouraging people from engaging lawyers are some of the recurring themes that I have come across from clients. The problem is so severe that the Council on American Islamic Relations (Canada) has distributed almost 30,000 Know Your Rights guides and organized 27 workshops across the country on dealing with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)."[38] Prominent Canadian national security lawyer Barbara Jackman has also been critical, categorizing the research by CSIS as "sloppy" and that its officers are "susceptible to tunnel vision".[39] In 2017, several CSIS members accused the organization of being racist.[40] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] Coordinates:
Don’t expect a gold mine of emails on Hillary’s private account. Why not? Because she doesn’t know how to type. That’s right. She writes everything out in longhand. Really. Anyone who has spent time in meetings with her knows about her endless yellow pads. So her emails will most likely turn out to be very short and quick. She wouldn’t spend a lot of time pecking out long letters. No way. That’s why the Benghazi Committee needs to also look very closely at the emails on private accounts that Hillary’s closest aides, Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, maintained. Anything more than a few lines were most likely written by someone else on her behalf. There’s a reason why Hillary set up and used private emails with them for official business: all the important emails were likely written by her staff. Without access to them, we won’t know what was going on. The Clintons never used the White House computer for their own work. Hillary even wrote (or copied) her book manuscripts in long hand. Although ghost writer Barbara Fineman was paid $120,000 for writing It Takes A Village, she proudly waved hundreds of hand-written pages on yellow legal pads to pretend she wrote it all herself. She never acknowledged Fineman’s work. Bill can’t type either. When I wrote his 1995 State of the Union Speech, I typed it on an IBM Selectric that the White House dug up from the basement. He told me that he didn’t want me to put it in the official computer system, because then his staff would see it. So, he carefully copied every word in his distinctive left hand penmanship. I still have a copy of it. Then he pretended that he had written it himself. The Clintons have figured out every which way to avoid disclosure of what they want to keep private. So don’t expect a smoking gun in Hillary’s emails. Look, instead, to Huma, Cheryl, Jake Sullivan, and Philippe Reines — if they still exist.
WASHINGTON — At a historically black college in South Carolina last week, Bill Clinton gushed about his wife’s resume as a “change-maker.’’ Chelsea Clinton was slated to be close on his heels, speaking Saturday to women at an African-American church. And the campaign’s first TV spot in the state, which began airing Thursday? It features Eric Holder, the country’s first black attorney general, testifying to Hillary Clinton’s record on civil rights. While the world focuses this week on New Hampshire — where Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has a solid, perhaps insurmountable lead — Clinton is racing to shore up African-American support in her “firewall,” a string of racially diverse states in the Deep South that she is counting on to stop the Sanders surge. Advertisement A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist poll shows Clinton leading in the first of these states — South Carolina, which votes Feb. 27 — by a 37-point margin. That lead relies heavily on the support of black voters, who prefer Clinton over Sanders by 74 to 17. Get Today in Politics in your inbox: A digest of the top political stories from the Globe, sent to your inbox Monday-Friday. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here Whether Sanders can maintain momentum in the primaries after New Hampshire will depend on how much black support he can pry away from Clinton. If he can’t demonstrate that he can build a more diverse coalition, his liberal movement probably will fizzle. So the 74-year-old senator from one of the whitest states in the country is trying to broaden his appeal. With tens of millions in small donations pouring in over the Internet, Sanders is spending heavily to build a campaign organization in South Carolina. He is airing ads on black radio stations about his record of fighting racism, from his college years to his career in the Senate, and in favor of criminal justice reform. His campaign is paying more than 100 black organizers $15 an hour — the national minimum wage he is advocating for — to go door to door. Half of his South Carolina team had previously worked on Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns. Advertisement “What Sanders is doing here has forced the Clinton campaign to step up their game and understand that they cannot take the voters of this state for granted,” said Gilda Cobb-Hunter, a longtime state legislator who is African-American and who is choosing to remain neutral in the race. “I don’t foresee Sanders winning South Carolina, but I do expect he will get double digit support in the black community, and that in and of itself may be a victory.” Sanders, a democratic socialist, nearly upset Clinton in Iowa, and he has a strong lead in polls in New Hampshire. But those states are two of the least diverse in the country — very similar, in fact, to Vermont. The Clintons, who got their political start in Arkansas, have long relied on black voters for support. To help highlight her commitment to minorities and send a signal to her supporters in states like South Carolina, Hillary Clinton planned to touch down in Flint, Mich., on Sunday — two days before voting starts in New Hampshire — to draw attention to the plight of families poisoned by lead in their water. Flint’s population is more than 50 percent African-American. “It’s important for Secretary Clinton to win South Carolina decisively to demonstrate her strength within communities of color,” said Jaime Harrison, the first African-American to chair the South Carolina Democratic Party and who remains unaligned with either candidate. Advertisement Polls help explain her underlying strengths. Likely Democratic voters are tilted toward church-going black women older than 45. More than half consider their political ideology as moderate to conservative; only 10 percent consider themselves to be “very liberal.” The campaign recently announced that a slew of high-profile African-American women, from politicians to actresses, would blanket the state in coming weeks to mobilize their networks in support of Hillary Clinton. Obama beat Clinton by nearly 30 points in South Carolina 2008. But Sanders is no Obama. The Sanders campaign, when discussing the Clinton firewall, prefers to describe it as including not just states with large black populations, but also Nevada, which has a Democratic caucus Feb. 20, a week before South Carolina’s. Nevada has a large Latino population and lots of unionized casino and hospitality workers. Clinton’s campaign launched its first Spanish-language radio spot in Nevada on Friday, and Bill Clinton was dispatched there Friday and Saturday to pump up enthusiasm. Tad Devine, one of Sanders’ top strategists, said internal campaign polls in Nevada, which he declined to share with the Globe, show that Sanders is beating Clinton among Hispanics under 50 years old. “We can really test the firewall starting in Nevada,” Devine said. “South Carolina is the same thing.” After the South Carolina primary comes March 1, the “Super Tuesday’’ of 2016, with 11 states across the country holding primaries. Devine said the Sanders campaign might start expanding and adding resources in Virginia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and even Arkansas. He also feels good about Minnesota, where Sanders recently held a rally that attracted thousands; Colorado; and, of course, Vermont. He believes the campaign can make inroads as well in Massachusetts, where Clinton beat Obama last time. “What we’ve begun to see in the wake of Iowa is there’s a lot of movement,” Devine said. In South Carolina, Sanders drew the endorsement last week of a high-profile state legislator who represents the Columbia metropolitan area, one of five black state lawmakers so far who are supporting Sanders. (Clinton has endorsements from 16 black state legislators.) Justin Bamberg, one of the five, made headlines recently when he flipped his endorsement from Clinton to Sanders. The head of the state’s Young Democrats, an African-American woman, also scooted from Clinton to Sanders. “He’s passionate about making racial issues, economical issues, and social issues in our communities change for the better,” said Bamberg, 28, an attorney who is representing the family of Walter Scott, the unarmed black man shot in the back by a white police officer last spring. Still, there are skeptics about Sanders’ ability to make a dent in Clinton’s support. “A delicate but necessary question is how Senator Sanders manages to identify with the black community,” said Rev. Joseph Darby, the presiding elder of the Beaufort district of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, who has not endorsed a candidate. “I appreciate his message of a rising tide floating all boats, but I don’t get the feeling that he gets that there will still be some racial prejudice that affects how things play.” Sanders responded clumsily last summer when protesters associated with Black Lives Matter interrupted one of his speeches and he threatened to leave the stage. He has since made amends, meeting with activists and speaking more forcefully about racial inequality. Some critics, however, balk at his endorsement of Bill Press’s new book, “Buyer’s Remorse: How Obama Let Progressives Down,” whose cover features a quote by Sanders. They see it as a repudiation of the country’s first black president. “That’s not going to help in South Carolina or the South,’’ said Bakari Sellers, a former state representative who cochaired Clinton’s millennial group. “This primary is about protecting and voting on the legacy of Barack Obama.” During Thursday’s debate, Sanders made the effort to align himself with Obama after drawing criticism from Clinton. “Do I think President Obama is a progressive?” he said. “Yeah. I do.” Sanders’ campaign and black supporters cite his long history of fighting for racial justice, marching with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and being arrested for protesting institutional segregation as a leader of the Congress of Racial Equality when he was a student at the University of Chicago. On Wednesday, Bill Clinton sought to counter Sanders’ claim that his wife was not progressive enough. Addressing a crowd of more than 800 at Allen University, a historically black college in Columbia, the former president spoke about his wife’s first job out of law school, working for civil rights activist Marian Wright Edelman at the Children’s Defense Fund in South Carolina. He recalled Clinton and Edelman working to stop African-American teenagers from being thrown into adult prisons. “She was sent to South Carolina to do something more relevant to the present day, when there are too many people in prison, especially people of color, who did not do anything worth these prison sentences,” Bill Clinton said. “She hadn’t been elected to anything, but she sure did make good things happen.” Tracy Jan can be reached at tracy.jan@globe.com . Follow her on Twitter @TracyJan . Annie Linskey can be reached at annie.linskey@globe.com . Follow her on Twitter @AnnieLinskey
"History sucks. Okay, that’s unfair, but it was never my subject. My confidence of the accuracy of historical events goes down exponentially with the paper trail. The idea that history is written by the victors highlights the biases of the past. Books are burned. Records fade. Who should I trust for an accurate portrayal of events two thousand years ago?" Heuristic - This is the identification of relevant material to use as sources of information. These can range from the obvious, such as a historian of the time's account of events he witnessed personally, to the much less obvious, like a medieval manor's account book detailing purchases for the estate. Everything from archaeological finds to coins to heraldry can be relevant here. The key word here is "relevant", and there is a high degree of skill in working out which sources of information are pertinent to the subject in question. Criticism - This is the process of appraisal of the source material in the light of the question being answered or subject being examined. It involves such things as determining the level of "authenticity" of a source (Is it what is seems to be?), its "integrity" (Can its account be trusted? What are its biases?), its context (What genre is it? Is it responding or reacting to another source? Is it using literary tropes that need to be treated with scepticism?) Material evidence, such are archaeology, architecture, art , coins etc needs to be firmly put into context to be understood. Documentary sources also need careful contextualisation - the social conditions of their production, their polemical intent (if any), their reason for production (more important for a political speech than a birth certificate, for example) , their intended audience and the background and biases of their writer (if known) all have to be taken into account. Synthesis and Exposition - This is the formal statement of the findings from steps 1 and 2, which each finding supported by reference to the relevant evidence. In April last year Grundy, the usual writer of this blog, postedcommenting on the release of Bart Ehrman's critique of the Jesus Myth hypothesis,. Unlike the majority of actual historians, many prominent atheists find Jesus Mythicism convincing and many of them are unhappy with the generally sceptical and highly renowned Ehrman for criticizing this idea. Grundy, for his part, stated frankly "I honestly have little knowledge as to whether or not Jesus existed", though added "I tend to think he did". That said, he made it clear why the overwhelming consensus of historians and other relevant scholars that the Jesus Myth idea is junk was underwhelming for him:Since history actually is my area, I responded by making some critical comments on this attitude and some points about how history , as an academic discipline, is studied. Grundy, unlike many so-called "rationalists" I've encountered over the years, was happy to listen, and he invited me to expand on my points in this guest post.I should begin, however, by pointing out that I am an atheist. I have been an atheist for my entire adult life, am a paid up member of several atheist and sceptical organizations and have a 21 year online record of posting to discussions as an unbeliever. I note this because I've found that when I begin to criticise my fellow atheists and their grasp of history or historiography, people tend to assume I must be some kind of theist apologist (which doesn't follow at all, but this happens all the time anyway).After 30+ years of observing and taking part in debates about history with many of my fellow atheists I can safely claim that most atheists are historically illiterate. This is not particular to atheists: they tend to be about as historically illiterate as most people, since historical illiteracy is pretty much the norm. But it does mean that when most (not all) atheists comment about history or, worse, try to use history in debates about religion, they are usually doing so with a grasp of the subject that is stunted at about high school level.This is hardly surprising, given that most people don't study history past high school. But it means their understanding of any given historical person, subject or event is (like that of most people), based on half-remembered school lessons, perhaps a TV documentary or two and popular culture: mainly novels and movies. Which is why most atheists (like most people) have a grasp of history which is, to be brutally frank, largely crap.Worse, this also means that most atheists (again, like most people) have a grasp of how history is studied and the techniques of historical analysis and synthesis which is also stunted at high school level - i.e. virtually non-existent. With a few laudable exceptions, high school history teachers still tend to reduce history to facts and dates organized into themes or broad topics. How we can know what happened in the past, with what degree of certitude we can know it and the techniques used to arrive at these conclusions are rarely more than touched on at this level. This means that when the average atheist (yet again, like the average person generally) grasps that our knowledge of the past is not as cut and dried and clear as Mr Wilkins the history teacher gave us to understand, they tend to reject the whole thing as highly uncertain at best or subjective waffle at worst. Or, as Grundy put it, as "crap".This rejection can be more pronounced in atheists, because many (not all) come to their atheism via a study of science. Science seems very certain compared to history. You can make hypotheses and test them in science. You can actually prove things. Scientific propositions are, by definition, falsifiable. Compared to science, history can seem like so much hand-waving, where anyone can pretty much argue anything they like.In fact, history is very much a rigorous academic discipline, with its own rules and methodology much like the hard sciences. This does not mean it is a science. It is sometimes referred to as one, especially in Europe, but this is only in the broader sense of the word; as in "a systematic way of ordering and analysing knowledge". But before looking at how the historical method works, it might be useful to look at how sciences differ from it.The hard sciences are founded on the principle of probabilistic induction. A scientist uses an inductive or "bottom up" approach to work from observing specific particulars ("mice injected with this drug put on less fat") to general propositions ("the drug is reducing their appetite"). These propositions are falsifiable via empirical testing to rule out other explanations of the particulars ("the drug is increasing their metabolism" or "those mice are more stressed by being stuck with syringes") and so can be tested.This is all possible in the hard sciences because of some well-established laws of cause and effect that form a basis for this kind of induction. If something is affecting the mice in my examples above today, it will affect them in the same way tomorrow, all things being equal. This allows a scientist to work from induction to make an assessment of probable causation via empirical assessment and do so with a high degree of confidence. And their assessment can be confirmed by others because the empirical measures are controlled and repeatable.Unfortunately, none of this works for the study of the past. Events, large and small, occur and then are gone. A historian can only assess information about them from traces they may, if we are lucky, leave behind. But unlike a researcher from the hard sciences, a historian can't run the fall of the Western Roman Empire through a series of controlled lab experiments. He can't even observe the events, as a zoologist might observe the behaviour of a gorilla band, and draw conclusions. And there aren't well-defined laws and principles at work (apart from in a very broad and subjective sense) that allow him to, say, simulate the effects of the rise of the printing press or decide on the exact course of the downfall of Napoleon the way a theoretical physicist can with the composition of a distant galaxy or the formation of a long dead star.All this leads some atheists, who have fallen in to the fallacy of scientism and reject anything that can't be definitively "proven", to reject the idea of any degree of certainty about the past. This is an extreme position and it's rarely a consistent one. As I've noted to some who have claimed this level of historical scepticism, I find it hard to believe they maintain this position when they read the newspaper, even though they should be just as sceptical about being able to know about a car accident yesterday as they are about knowing about a revolution 400 years ago.Just because history is not a hard science does not mean it can't tell us about the past or can't do so with a degree of certainty. Early historians like Herodotus established the beginnings of the methods used by modern historical researchers, though historians only began to develop a systematic methodology based on agreed principles from the later eighteenth century onwards, using the techniques of Barthold Niebuhr (1776-1831) and Leopold van Ranke (1795-1886).The Historical Method is based on three fundamental steps, each of which has its own techniques:The key difference between this method and those used in the hard sciences is that the researcher lays all this material, its analysis and his conclusions out systematically, but the conclusions are a subjective assessment of likelihood rather than an objective statement of probabilistic induction. This subjectivity is what many trained in the sciences find alien about history and lead them to reject history as insubstantial.But the key thing to understand here is that the historian is not working toward an absolute statement about what definitely happened in the past, since that is generally impossible except on trivial points (eg there is no doubt that Adolf Hitler was born on April 20 1889). A historian instead works to present what is called. In other words, the argument that best accounts for the largest amount of relevant evidence with the least number of suppositions. This means that the Principle of Parsimony, also known as Occam's Razor, is a key tool in historical analysis; historians always favour the most parsimonious interpretation that takes account of the most available evidence.For example, regarding the existence of Jesus, it is far more parsimonious to conclude that Christianity's figure of "Jesus Christ" evolved out of the ideas of the followers of a historical Jewish preacher, since all of our earliest information tells us that this "Jesus Christ" was a historical Jewish preacher who had been executed circa 30 CE. People have tried to propose alternative origins for the figure of "Jesus Christ", positing an earlier Jewish sect that believed in a purely celestial figure who became "historicised" into an earthly, historical Jesus later. But there is no evidence of any such proto-Christian sect and no reason such a sect would exist and then vanish without leaving any trace in the historical record. This is why historians find these "Jesus Myth" hypotheses uncompelling - they are not the most parsimonious way of looking at the evidence and require us to imagine ad hoc, "what if" style suppositions to keep them from collapsing.Managing this process of systematic historical analysis requires training, practice and a degree of skill. Without these, it's very easy to do something that looks a bit like historical analysis and arrive at flawed conclusions.Take the initial heuristic process, for example. I've come across many atheists who don't accept that a historical Jesus existed on the grounds that "there are no contemporary references to him and all references to him are later hearsay" or even that "there are no eyewitness accounts of his career". So they rule out any evidence we do have referring to him on the basis that it is not contemporary and/or from eyewitnesses. But if we ruled out any reference to an ancient, medieval or pre-modern person or event on these grounds, we'd effectively have to abandon the study of early history: we don't have contemporary evidence for most people and events in the ancient world, so this would make almost all of our sources invalid, which is clearly absurd. Given that we have no eyewitness or contemporary sources for far more prominent figures, such as Hannibal, expecting them for a peasant preacher like Jesus is clearly ridiculous. No historian of the ancient world would regard this as a valid historical heuristic.Atheists can often make similar elementary errors in the criticism of sources as well. There is no shortage of lurid material on the horrors of the Inquisition, with whole books detailing vile tortures and giving accounts of hundreds of thousands of wretched victims being consigned to the flames by the Catholic Church. In the past, nineteenth century writers took these sources at face value and until the early twentieth century this was essentially the story of the Inquisition to be found in textbooks, especially in the English-speaking (i.e. substantially Protestant) sphere.But much of this was based on sources that had severe biases - mainly sixteenth and seventeenth century Protestant polemical material, usually produced in England which, as a political, religious and economic enemy of Spain, was hardly going to produce unbiased accounts of the Spanish church and crown's use of the Inquisition. Uncritical use of this material gives a warped, enemy's-eye-view of the Inquisition that has been substantially overturned by more careful analysis of the source material and the Inquisition's own records. The result is that it is now known that in the 160 years of its operation in Spain, the Inquisition resulted in 3,000-5,000 executions, not the hundreds of thousands alleged by uncritical nineteenth century writers like Henry Charles Lea. Basing an argument on the earlier, uncritical accounts of the Inquisition might suit many atheists' agendas, but it would be bad history nonetheless.Finally, historical synthesis and exposition requires at least an attempt at a high degree of objectivity. An analyst of the past may have personal beliefs with the potential to bias their analysis and incline them towards certain conclusions. Worse, these beliefs could make them begin with assumptions about the past and so make them select only the evidence that supports this a priori idea. Historians strive to avoid both and examine the evidence on its merits, though polemicists often don't bother with this objective approach. All too often many atheists can be polemicists when dealing with the past, only crediting information or analysis that fits an argument against religion they are trying to make while downplaying, dismissing or ignoring evidence or analysis that does not fit their agenda. Again, this is bad history and rarely serves any function other than preaching to the converted.So, for example, until the early twentieth century the history of science was popularly seen as a centuries-long conflict between forward thinking scientific minds trying to advance knowledge and human progress but constantly being persecuted and suppressed by retrograde religious forces determined to retard scientific progress. Again, in the mid-twentieth century historians of science reassessed this general idea and rejected what is now referred to as the "Conflict Thesis", presenting a far more complex, nuanced and well-founded analysis of the development of science that shows that while there were occasional conflicts, which were rarely as simple as "science versus religion", religion was usually neutral on the rational analysis of the physical world and often actively supportive of it. Overt conflicts, such as the Galileo Affair, were exceptions rather than the rule and, in that case as in many others, more complicated than simply “religion” repressing “science”.We atheists and freethinkers regularly deride believers for their irrational thinking, lack of critical analysis and tendency to cling to ideas out of faith even when confronted by contrary evidence. Unfortunately, it’s a lot easier to talk about being rational, and criticise others for not being so, than it is to practice what we preach. Everyone has their biases and “confirmation bias” - the tendency to favour information that confirms our prior beliefs - is an innate psychological propensity that is hard to counter even when we are aware of it. This means that atheists can, in many cases, be as bad as believers in accepting appealing ideas without checking their facts, holding to common misconceptions in the face of contrary evidence and liking neat, simple stories over messy, complex and more detailed alternatives that happen to be more solidly supported by the evidence.The idea that the medieval Church taught the earth was flat, that Columbus bravely defied their primitive Biblical superstition and proved they were wrong by sailing to America is a great story. Unfortunately, it’s historical nonsense – a fable with zero basis in reality. It’s bad enough that I have had the experience of intelligent and educated atheists repeating this story as an example of the Church holding back progress without bothering to check if it’s true. What’s worse is that I have also experienced atheists who have been shown extensive, clear evidence that the medieval Church taught the earth was round and that the myth of medieval Flat Earth belief was invented by the novelist Washington Irving in 1828, and they have simply refused to believe that the myth could be wrong.Neat historical fables such as the ones about Christians burning down the Great Library of Alexandria (they didn’t) or murdering Hypatia because of their hatred of her learning and science (ditto) are appealing parables. Which means some atheists fight tooth and nail to preserve them even when confronted with clear evidence that they are pseudo historical fairy tales. Fundamentalists aren’t the only ones who can be dogmatic about their myths.One of the main reasons for studying history is to get a better understanding of why things today are as they are by grasping what has gone before. But it only works with a good grasp of how we can know about the past, the methods of analysis used and the relevant material our understanding should be based on. It also only works if we strive to put aside what we may like to be true along with any preconceptions (since they are often wrong) and look at the material objectively. Atheists who attempt to use history in their arguments who don’t do these things can not only end up getting things badly wrong, but can also wind up looking as stupid or even as dogmatic as fundamentalists. And that’s not a good look.writes historical book reviews on the Armarium Magnum blog and is a regular contributor to online fora on ancient and medieval history, atheism and the history of religion. He is a subscribing member of theand a former state president of the
13 13 Shares Aeon-Pool.com has flirted with and even achieved at times more than 50 percent of the total Aeon network hash rate. This is bad because of the 51% Attack. You can read up on it in the previous link on why this could lead to a compromised Aeon network. Aeon-Pool.com does not seem to care about reducing the amount of total network hash rate they control. When they get close to the 50% threshold they make a half ass gesture of raising the pool fee from 1% to 2%. So if you are reading this blog because you are interested in mining aeon then please research other pools before starting. I personally mine on https://aeon.hashvault.pro though the Aeon Reddit community always has people posting their pools.
Let the rumors start to fly as fast as a 97 mph fastball. In the midst of negotiating a new contract, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson didn't squash the idea of playing baseball during the NFL offseason in an interview with HBO's "Real Sports" that will air April 21. "I never want to kill the dream of playing two sports," Wilson said. "I would honestly play two sports." Seahawks QB Russell Wilson hasn't let the possibility of playing professional baseball go. AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi Host Bryant Gumbel pressed Wilson on what is preventing the 26-year-old from becoming the latest two-sport star. "I don't know," Wilson said sheepishly. "I may push the envelope a little bit one of these days." Wilson, who was a two-sport star at NC State, has spent a day at Texas Rangers spring training in Arizona each of the past two years. On March 28, he hit a home run during batting practice. The former second baseman in college and in the minors was acquired by the Rangers during the Rule 5 draft in December 2013, which allows teams to draft players who have never been called up to the big leagues after spending at least four years in another franchise's farm system. Wilson was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles out of high school and then in the fourth round by the Colorado Rockies in 2010. In two years in Colorado's farm system in 2010 and 2011, Wilson hit .229 in 315 at-bats, according to MLB.com. He hit .228 and had 15 stolen bases in 61 games with an on-base percentage of .366 in 2011 for Class A Asheville.
Anderson Silva is one of the top two fighters in the world pound for pound in terms of accomplishment, ranked by most either #1 or #2 depending on whether he or Georges St. Pierre has fought more recently. He is also well known as one of the finest strikers in the sport. This is in part due to his ability to utilize a full Muay Thai and boxing arsenal without simply being taken down and submitted, as many truly elite strikers who enter the sport are, and also due to some of his more memorable and creative knockouts. Last time we spoke about Anderson's counter jab against fellow southpaw Yushin Okami (click to read). This time we will talk about one facet of Anderson's most memorable performance in the eyes of many fans; his lopsided destruction of former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Forrest Griffin. To set the scene, Anderson Silva had just gone 5 rounds with Jiu Jitsu ace Thales Leites. Leites refused to meet the champion in the centre of the cage, and Anderson refused to attack Leites on the ground. What followed was a game of cat and mouse where neither man stepped up to play the role of the cat. The match was cringeworthy and dented the image of Anderson Silva as an unstoppable knockout artist. To bounce back from this woeful main event, Anderson needed to win convincingly over a world class opponent. To this end, the UFC matched him against Forrest Griffin. Griffin, a light heavyweight who lacked speed and power in his own weightclass, was known almost entirely for his heavy low kicks and decent Jiu Jitsu, which he had used to wrest the light heavyweight title from Quinton Jackson a year earlier. Despite his relatively small number of recorded victories by TKO, Forrest was always keen to trade punches on the feet. He was tenacious, always moving forward, and lacked the power, speed or ground game to trouble Anderson. He was therefore, the perfect opponent. Griffin had, however, only been TKOd three times previous to his meeting with Anderson, and had taken Quinton Jackson's best shots. In spite of this toughness, Silva's dismantling of the American was masterful. Silva's entire gameplan focused around Forrest's bad habit of dropping his left hand following a punch - never bringing it back high as a slower fighter should to protect his chin and temple. This provided the hole for Anderson to work with his stronger, right hand. After the jump we shall examine Anderson's: - Counter Right Hook - Step out Right Hook - Finishing Right Jab Counter Right Hook There is a point to establish straight off of the bat, and it's a basic principle of striking; your left hand protects you from your opponent's right, and your right against his left. If one of the hands is too low, the opponent's corresponding hand will strike over it with ease. If one of the hands is too wide or too tight to the centre line, the opponent's corresponding hand will strike past it. Most fighters are competent at keeping their hands in position when they're moving, but once they begin punching, many fail to recover their guard completely. This is the mistake that Forrest Griffin has made often throughout his career, and one that Silva and his camp were well aware of. At the beginning of the bout, Forrest opened with a few probing jabs and a half hearted 1 - 2 - high kick. Throughout this, Forrest was pulling his jab back far too low. When the lead hand is not punching it should always be in position to either parry or block the opponent's right straight. When fighting a southpaw (particularly a right handed one like Anderson Silva), the right hook is an additional concern that makes pulling the jab back correctly even more important. Notice how even when pawing with his jab, Forrest returns it very low and holds his chin high (top left and right stills). Silva is drawing back to a similar hand low position, but he is fully aware of it and only does so because he is 1) at a distance or 2) because he wants to draw a counter. Forrest's complacent lead hand means that when Anderson actually steps into range while Forrest is jabbing, ducking under the punch (bottom left still) Anderson can easily fire back the right hook over the top (bottom right stil). This early attempt about 1:40 into the first round only glances Forrest, but it served as an indicator for the performance to come. Step Out Right Hook Despite Forrest's promise to charge right at Anderson (something that the UFC brass clearly wanted when putting this match together) he was understandably cautious and measured in the opening minutes. Where Anderson would normally sit back and do the bare minimum to win on points against an inactive opponent (as he did against Patrick Cote, Thales Leites and later Demian Maia), he showed unusual anxiety to get the match going against Forrest Grifffin. Pushing forward with a flurry of blows, Silva ended in an orthodox stance with a jab that fell short (top left still). From here Griffin fired back his jab, which Anderson leaned away from (top right still) and Griffin began to circle out to his left. Griffin circled at a suitable distance from Anderson to avoid Anderson's right hand, but Anderson stepped towards him with his right foot into a southpaw stance, weaving his head low as he did so to avoid Forrest's pawing (bottom left still). This is an unusual technique, as many fighters aren't comfortable or capable of switching stances to any great degree of success - something which I discussed in my Ultimate Southpaw Guide: Switch Hitting. This change of stance also allowed Anderson to get closer to Forest as the latter circled out. Forrest, panicked by Silva's pressure began pawing and pushing with his left hand (bottom left still) and Anderson leapt forward with a right hook over the top (bottom right still). Utilizing this sort of pressuring movement is important for counter punchers, to bait the sort of flustered attack that they can counter.This entire sequence is one that can be readily adapted to any striker's training - pressuring the opponent backward and switching stances to catch them with a hook as they circle out - and I have laid it out (along with over 70 others) in clear instruction in my ebook, Advanced Striking: Tactics of Boxing, Kickboxing and MMA Masters. Finishing Right Jab After Griffin returned to his feet, he was clearly worried about his lead hand. The top left still shows Forest with his hand to his temple, he assumed this posture several times, tapping his head as many boxers do when they have been hit, attempting to remind themselves to keep their hand up. But immediately he went back to attacking Anderson, this time with running punches, and Anderson countered with his right hand over the top of Griffin's left yet again (top right still). While Griffin was clearly in desperation mode, he was still not keen to attack Anderson. Anderson, for his part, wasn't keen to attack Forrest, and so, just as with Okami, his hands came down. By dropping his hands Anderson could bait the attack that he wanted (not being a fighter that uses his hands much to block anyway) and bring his hands in from the blind angle, below Forest's vision. The fight ending punch was yet another right hand over Forest's low returning left, as Forest ran at Anderson with punches and Anderson pulled his head back and countered over Forest's left straight retraction with his own right. Against an opponent who was clearly supposed to make Anderson look good and rebuild the Silva brand, Anderson Silva still exceeded all expectations. No-one had ever manhandled Forest Griffin so easily, completely and technically. Indeed the final knockdown didn't knock Griffin out cold, he simply fell to the floor, then weakly raised his arms when Anderson moved in to strike him. Griffin was left emotionally and mentally broken by Anderson's tight counter game and wanted no more after he was caught with the final punch. Through all of this - an elite level countering gameplan, executed to perfection - Anderson Silva still made it appear to all as though he were making it up in the heat of the moment. The techniques of Anderson Silva and over 70 other techniques used by 20 world class strikers can be learned in Jack Slack's ebook Advanced Striking: Tactics of Boxing, Kickboxing and MMA Masters. Jack Slack blogs at www.FightsGoneBy.com and can be found on twitter @JackSlackMMA.
Thomas "Tommy" Lucchese (pronounced [lukˈkeːse]; born Gaetano Lucchese, December 1, 1899 – July 13, 1967) was a Sicilian-born American gangster and founding member of the Mafia in the United States, an offshoot of the Cosa Nostra in Sicily. From 1951 until 1967, he was the boss of the Lucchese crime family, one of the Five Families that dominates organized crime in New York City. Early life [ edit ] Gaetano Lucchese was born on December 1, 1899, to Baldassarre and Francesca Lucchese in Palermo, Sicily.[1] The surname "Lucchese" suggests family origins from the Sicilian city of Lucca Sicula. In early 1911, the Lucchese family emigrated to the United States,[2] settling in Manhattan's Italian neighborhood of East Harlem.[3][4] Lucchese's father, Giuseppe, worked hauling cement. Lucchese worked in a machine shop until 1915, when an industrial accident amputated his right thumb and forefinger.[5][6][7] 107th Street gang [ edit ] After his accident, Lucchese spent more time with his friends. Lucchese along with Charlie "Lucky" Luciano, formed the 107th Street gang. Members of the gang stole wallets, burglarized stores, and engaged in other hustles. The 107th Street gang operated under the protection of Bronx-East Harlem family boss Gaetano "Tom" Reina. By the age of eighteen, Lucchese had started a window washing company in East Harlem; anyone refusing to buy window washing would have their windows broken.[4][6] In 1920, Lucchese was arrested in Riverhead, Long Island, on auto theft charges. During his booking, a police officer compared Lucchese's deformed hand with that of Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown, a popular Major League Baseball pitcher.[8] The officer nicknamed Lucchese "Three Finger Brown", an alias that Lucchese always disliked.[5] In January 1921, Lucchese was convicted[9] of auto theft and sentenced on March 27, 1922, to three years and nine months in prison.[2] Lucchese served thirteen months at Sing Sing Correctional Facility before he was paroled.[4] It would be Lucchese's only conviction.[6][7] Lucchese was released from prison in 1923, three years into prohibition. His old friends Charlie Luciano, Frank Costello, and Meyer Lansky had become partners with Jewish gangster Arnold "the Brain" Rothstein selling bootleg alcohol. During the 1920s, Lucchese became a strong ally of Luciano's and became a top member of Gaetano Reina's crime family.[6] In August 1927, Lucchese was arrested under the alias of "Thomas Arra" and charged with receiving stolen goods.[7][9] On July 18, 1928, Lucchese was arrested along with his brother-in-law, Joseph Rosato, for the murder of Louis Cerasulo; the charges were later dropped.[5][7][9] Castellammarese War [ edit ] In 1930, the Castellammarese War was being fought between two rival crime bosses in New York, Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. At this time, Lucchese and Tommaso Gagliano were both leaders in the Reina family, which was aligned with Masseria.[10] However, Reina decided to secretly change his allegiance to Maranzano because Masseria was demanding a large share of Reina's ice distribution business. Gagliano then told Masseria about Reina's betrayal in hopes of becoming the new boss of the Reina gang. On February 26, 1930, Masseria gunman Vito Genovese shot and killed Reina outside his mistress' apartment.[10] Masseria then made his ally Joseph Pinzolo boss of the Reina gang, ignoring Gagliano. Angry about being used, Gagliano and Lucchese formed a splinter group within the gang with Stefano Rondelli, Dominick Petrilli, and Joseph Valachi. Their group was aided by a general hatred of Pinzolo within the gang. On September 9, 1930, Pinzolo was lured to a Manhattan office leased by Lucchese. Pinzolo was then shot and killed by either Girolamo Santucci or Dominick Petrilli. Luckily for the conspirators, Masseria attributed the Pinzolo killing to Maranzano. Masseria then appointed Gagliano as the new gang boss. At this time Charlie Luciano, one of Masseria's top lieutenants, along with his allies, the "Young Turks", secretly planned to end the Castellammarese war. Luciano began with secretly negotiating with Maranzano.[6] Luciano persuaded Gagliano and Lucchese to secretly switch sides to Maranzano and they planned to destroy Masseria. On November 5, 1930, the Masseria-allied "Manfredi family" (later called the Gambino crime family) boss Alfred "Al Mineo" Manfredi and underboss Steve Ferrigno were murdered in the Bronx by Gagliano and Maranzano gunmen. At this point, Maranzano believed that Lucchese and Gagliano were now his men, but in actuality, their loyalty was only to Luciano. Lucchese became one of Luciano's favored hitmen and was alleged to have participated in at least 30 murders. On April 15, 1931, with the connivance of Luciano, a hit squad of Vito Genovese, Albert Anastasia, Joseph Adonis and Bugsy Siegel shot and killed Masseria at a Coney Island restaurant.[10] With Masseria's death, the Castellammarese War was over and Maranzano was the victor. Mob reorganization [ edit ] After Masseria's murder, Maranzano restructured the Sicilian and Italian gangs in the United States into a group of crime families modeled after the Mafia families of Sicily. Gagliano was awarded most of the old Reina family, with Lucchese as his underboss.[10] Soon after Masseria's death, Maranzano grew suspicious of Charlie Luciano's growing power and arranged his murder. However, Luciano discovered the plot and moved to kill Maranzano first. On September 10, 1931, Lucchese met Maranzano at his office under the pretense of discussing a business matter. However Lucchese's true purpose for being present was to identify Maranzano to Jewish hitmen impersonating police and Internal Revenue Service agents, who then murdered him. After Maranzano's death, Luciano created a national Mafia Commission to rule the new Cosa Nostra families and adjudicate disputes. As family boss, Gagliano received a commission seat. However, despite its democratic trappings, Luciano held the real power in the Commission. Underboss to Gagliano [ edit ] Due to Luciano's reforms, the New York city underworld entered a long period of peace. Luciano was soon arrested in 1936 on compulsory prostitution charges and then deported in 1946. Gagliano would keep his family during a tough time, being outnumbered in the Commission by an alliance of the Bonanno, Magaddino, Profaci and the Mangano families. The Gagliano family, during WWII, was involved in black market sugar, gasoline rations, stamps, and meat.[citation needed] From 1932 onward, Gagliano kept a very low profile; almost nothing is known about him from then onward. He preferred to issue his orders through close allies, particularly Lucchese, who was the family's public face. In 1946, Lucchese attended the mob Havana Conference in Cuba as Gagliano's representative. On January 25, 1943, Lucchese became a naturalized United States citizen in Newark, New Jersey.[1][2] Lucchese formed an alliance with Louis Buchalter and together they controlled the garment district.[11] Boss of the family (1951−1967) [ edit ] In 1951, Gagliano died of natural causes. As underboss and de facto street boss for two decades, Lucchese was the obvious successor, and the family was quickly renamed the Lucchese crime family. Lucchese appointed mobsters Stafano LaSalle as underboss and Vincenzo Rao as consigliere. That same year, Lucchese formed an alliance with Luciano crime family underboss Vito Genovese and Anastasia crime family underboss Carlo Gambino with the long-term goal of gaining control of the Commission. Lucchese became one of the most well-respected Cosa Nostra bosses of the Post-War era. He maintained close relationships with New York City politicians, including Mayors William O'Dwyer and Vincent Impellitteri. Lucchese concentrated on the core Cosa Nostra values of making money, keeping a low public profile, and avoiding criminal prosecution. The Lucchese family came to dominate Manhattan's garment district and the related trucking industry by gaining control of key unions and trade associations. Lucchese was a very popular boss, and for years his family was the quietest and most peaceful family in New York. Alliance with Gambino and Genovese [ edit ] On November 17, 1952, U.S. Attorney General James P. McGranery initiated denaturalization proceedings against Lucchese. In its filing, the government claimed that Lucchese did not reveal his entire arrest record when applying for citizenship in the 1930s.[2] In 1957, Lucchese and his allies decided to attack the bosses of the Luciano and Anastasia crime families to gain Commission control. On May 3, 1957, gunman Vincent Gigante slightly wounded Costello. Shaken by the assassination attempt, Costello soon retired, leaving Genovese as boss.[12] On October 25, 1957, Albert Anastasia was assassinated in a hotel barbershop; Carlo Gambino became the new family boss.[13] In 1957, Genovese called a national mob meeting to legitimize his control of the Luciano family. The meeting was held at rural home of mobster Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara in Apalachin, New York. On November 14, 1957, the New York State Police raided the meeting and arrested 61 fleeing gangsters.[14] Lucchese had not yet arrived in Apalachin and therefore avoided arrest. However, his consigliere Vincenzo Rao, Gambino, Genovese and other mob leaders were detained. Genovese's humiliation motivated the new alliance of Luciano, Costello, Lansky, Gambino and Lucchese to set up Genovese's later elimination. Two years later, with the help of the alliance, Genovese was arrested on narcotics trafficking charges. Genovese was convicted and sent to prison, where he died in 1969.[14] With the alliance backing him, Gambino now controlled the Commission. On April 8, 1958, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1952 denaturalization ruling against Lucchese on a legal technicality. However, the next day, U.S. Attorney General William P. Rogers brought a new case against Lucchese.[15] Lucchese and Gambino [ edit ] In 1962, Carlo Gambino's oldest son, Thomas Gambino, married Lucchese's daughter Frances.[16] Over 1,000 guests attended the wedding, at which Carlo Gambino presented Lucchese with a $30,000 gift. In return, Lucchese gave Gambino a part of his rackets at Idlewild Airport (now called John F. Kennedy Airport).[17] Lucchese exercised control over airport management security and all the airport unions. As a team, Lucchese and Gambino now controlled the airport, the Commission, and most organized crime in New York City.[18][19][20] War with Bonanno and Profaci [ edit ] In 1962, Lucchese and Gambino began to back the Gallo crew from the Profaci Family in the war against their boss, Joe Profaci. Both Gambino and Lucchese saw the war as a way to take over rackets that were under control of the Profaci family, because the Profacis were too involved in their war. On June 6, 1962, boss Joe Profaci died of cancer and his underboss Joseph Magliocco became the new boss and kept fighting the war against the Gallo crew. Magliocco had support of most of the Profaci family and support from other family boss Joe Bonanno of the Bonanno Family. The war finally came to an end in 1963 when Gallo crew capo Joe Gallo was arrested. Joe Magliocco and Joe Bonanno decided they needed revenge on Lucchese, Gambino, Magaddino for the Gallo war and the Bonanno war. They decided they needed to have them killed so Magliocco ordered capo Joe Colombo to kill all three bosses (Tommy Lucchese, Carlo Gambino, and Stefano Magaddino). Joe Colombo went to the Mafia Commission instead and talked about the plot to murder them. Magliocco showed up to the Commission and was stripped of his boss title and forced into retirement. Joe Colombo became the new boss of the Profaci Family, now the Colombo Family. Joe Bonanno decided to go into hiding and his last ally, Joe Magliocco, died of high blood pressure. Even Bonanno's ally from Tampa, Florida, boss Santo Trafficante, turned against him. The Commission then stripped Joe Bonanno of his boss title and put in capo Gaspar DiGregorio as the new boss. Upset by the Commission's decision, Joe Bonanno started a war; it was later called the Banana War (1964–1968). The war continued for years and in October 1964, Joe Bonanno was kidnapped by Buffalo crime family members Peter and Antonino Magaddino. Buffalo boss Stefano Magaddino (who was also a cousin to Bonanno) asked him to retire and end the war, but Joe Bonanno refused and continued the war. Just as he began to see victory, Bonanno suffered a heart attack and was finally forced to retire. The Commission had won and put in another capo, Paul Sciacca, as the new boss of the Bonanno Family. Death and burial [ edit ] Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal On July 13, 1967, Lucchese died of a brain tumor at his home in the Lido Beach area of Long Island. The funeral service was held at the Catholic Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church in Ridgewood, Queens. Lucchese was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York. Over 1,000 mourners, including politicians, judges, policemen, racketeers, drug pushers, pimps, and hitmen, attended the ceremony. Undercover policemen photographed the attendees.[21] At the time of his death, he had not spent a day in jail in 44 years. Lucchese's first choice as a successor had been Antonio "Tony Ducks" Corallo, but Corallo was in prison when Lucchese died. Lucchese's second choice, Ettore Coco, was also in legal trouble and served a short time as boss. Another possible candidate was consigliere Vincenzo Rao, but he too was dealing with criminal charges. The Commission finally selected capo Carmine Tramunti as temporary acting boss until Corallo was released from prison. In popular culture [ edit ] In the 1981 television miniseries "The Gangster Chronicles" – Lucchese was portrayed by Jon Polito [22] In the 1981 film Gangster Wars – Lucchese was portrayed by Jon Polito[23] Notes [ edit ] Sources [ edit ] Bureau of Narcotics, Sam Giancana, United States Treasury Department. Mafia: The Government's Secret File on Organized Crime . Skyhorse Publishing, 2009. . Skyhorse Publishing, 2009. Harrell, G. T. For Members Only: The Story of the Mob's Secret Judge . Arthur House Publishing, 2009. . Arthur House Publishing, 2009. Volkman, Ernest. Gangbusters: The Destruction of America's Last Great Mafia Dynasty . New York, Avon Books, 1998. . New York, Avon Books, 1998. Ragano, Frank and Raab, Selwyn. Mob Lawyer. Scribner, 1994.
A MAN WAS arrested after he allegedly stabbed his brother at about 10:50 a.m. Monday, Feb. 17, at a home in the 3300 block of North Osceola Avenue, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police. Responding officers who toured the area in search of a suspect discovered an open door to Andy’s Auto Clinic at Belmont and Olcott avenues and saw a man leaving with a sweatshirt hiding his sleeveless T-shirt, according to police. Three witnesses who were in the business, including former 36th Ward alderman John Rice, reported that the man ran into the body shop "begging for a change of clothes because people were looking for him and trying to kill him," police said. The suspect’s 23-year-old sister-in-law woman reported that during an altercation over borrowing money, the man stabbed his brother in the stomach with a steak knife, according to police. The 24-year-old brother was admitted to Lutheran General Hospital in serious condition, police said. The suspect was identified by police as Michael C. Angstrem, age 26, of the 3300 block of North Osceola Avenue. A MAN WAS arrested after a break-in at a home in the 5200 block of North Lamon Avenue at about 11:50 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police. A 61-year-old man reported that he returned home with his 61-year-old wife and saw two men standing near the front door of his home holding his television set, according to police. The man reported that the men dropped the television set and fled east to the alley and he chased them until they dropped pillowcases containing items from his home and split up, according to police. A witness reported that the men were picked up by a Dodge vehicle with Iowa license plates driven by a third man, police said. Following an investigation one man was arrested in connection with the incident, according to police. The suspect was identified by police as Derrek Ray, age 30, of Iowa. A MAN REPORTED that he was robbed at about 1:45 a.m. Monday, Feb. 17, in the 6600 block of West Albion Avenue, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police. The 25-year-old man reported that two men approached and that one of them displayed a handgun and took a credit card, his cell phone valued at $300 and $65 in cash, according to police. A MAN REPORTED that he was robbed at about 4 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 13, in the 4800 block of North Lipps Avenue, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police. The 51-year-old man reported that three men approached him and one of them pressed a gun to his neck and he took out $90 from his pocket and his wallet containing $1,410 in cash and credit cards, according to police. A MAN REPORTED that he was robbed at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11, in the 6100 block of North Elston Avenue, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police. The 43-year-old man reported that after he left the Esquire Motel, a sport utility vehicle stopped and two men punched him on the head and took his cell phone and his wallet containing $600 in cash and credit cards, according to police. A WOMAN reported that she was robbed at about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11, at Chase Bank, 5606 W. Montrose Ave., according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police. The 31-year-old woman reported that after she swiped her card in order to enter the lobby to withdraw money from the automated teller machine, a man entered behind her, said that he had a gun and took $200 and her cell phone, according to police. THE OWNER of Yolanta’s Deli, 5914 W. Higgins Ave., reported on Feb. 11 that the business was robbed at about noon Wednesday, Jan. 26, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police. The 49-year-old woman reported that a man entered the business, displayed a handgun and took two cartons of cigarettes, an unknown amount of cash and phone cards, according to police. A MAN WAS arrested for allegedly impersonating a Chicago police officer at about 1 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14, in the 8600 block of West Foster Avenue, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police. A security officer at Dirksen School reported that he saw a man placing signs on school property and that when he told him to stop, the man said that he was a police officer but would not show him credentials, according to police. Officers found a police hatband in the man’s car, police said. The suspect was identified by police as Peter Rivera, age 55, of the 4800 block of North Strong Street. A WOMAN reported that her home in the 4900 block of North McVicker Avenue was burglarized between 8:50 a.m. and 5:35 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police. The woman reported that a burglary alarm went off in the house and that when she returned home she discovered that a rear window was broken and that 10 watches valued at $1,500, six knives valued at $3,000, two computers valued at $300, a tablet valued at $150, a laptop computer valued at $550, and women’s watches and rings valued at $5,000 were missing, according to police.
I never thought I’d be doing a blog post on AWS, but given the process documentation on Google’s side was missing a few crucial information, I saw a great opportunity. I recently discovered that the Google Apps Admin Console lets you configure custom SAML apps to do one-click login to third party apps that support SAML SSO Authentication. One of the examples was AWS and I was curious to give it a shot. Once you understand it, it’s quite simple and I’m currently working on Active Directory Federation for a work project, but that’s a whole other animal for another blog post. To start the setup, head over to the Google Apps Admin Console. Once you’re there navigate to the ‘Apps’ tab and then SAML apps. Once inside SAML Apps, go ahead and add a new app by clicking on the + icon and selecting Amazon Web Services. On the next screen, make sure to select Option 2: Download IDP metadata and save the file on an easily accesible location Once you have the IDP Metadata file saved, we’re going to create an IAM Identity Provider and an IAM Role in AWS. The role will designate what permissions will the SAML Federated user have within AWS. To start, fire up the AWS Admin Console on a new tab and head to the IAM module. Once in the IAM Module, select Identity Providers from the left sidebar and then Create Provider. Select SAML from Provider Type and give it a name such as ‘GoogleApps’ (Note there are no spaces). When it asks you for the metadata document, go ahead and select from your hard drive the IDP Metadata file you downloaded from Google in the previous step. Verify the information, and finish off the wizard. With the provider configured, we’re now going to create a Role which will define the permissions. Click on the Roles tab on the left sidebar and Create a New Role. Whatever you name the Role will be what will be displayed next to the login name on the AWS Console, I went with GoogleSAML, but you can use Google or GoogleSSO or just SSO, or what ever you’d like. In Step 2, select ‘Role for Identity Provider Access’ and then ‘Grant Web Single Sign-On (WebSSO) access to SAML providers’ Once you select the WebSSO option, on Step 3 select the previously created Identity Provider and go ahead to the next step, you can leave the Establish Trust Relationship intact and advance to the next step. In Step 4 is where you define the policies your Federated Users will have. If you want to give Federated users specific permissions, create a Policy and then apply it to the Role. Creating a Policy is outside the scope of this blog, but you can read the AWS Documentation on it. To make things simple, I chose the AdministratorAccess policy, which grants Administrator Access to anyone logged in with a Google Federated credential inside my domain. Once you select the policy you’d like to apply, review your settings and Create the Role. With the Role Created, it’s now time to get our hands a bit deeper. We’re going to use the Google Admin SDK APIs and the API Explorer to create a custom field in the Google Apps profile that will have the Role ARN and the Identity Provider ARN that will be passed on to AWS when doing the SAML Handshake. The following scenario only applies if you have a few users (up to five) since you’ll be manually adding the Schema to each user, if you have more users, use the real API’s to bulk update the users. To get the customerId: If you only have one account in your Google Apps account and it’s the one you’re currently logged into, your customerId will be displayed in Step 2 of the SAML App Creation, where you downloaded the IDP Metadata. It is the string of characters in the SSO URL that follow idpid= (eg. https://accounts.google.com/o/saml2/idp?idpid=Ab1cde23f) If you have more users, you’ll need to use the API or API Explorer and have Super Administrator privileges to extract their customerId. On the API Explorer list, use the ‘directory.users.get‘ API to input the user’s email address under userKey, then Authorize and Execute. If you get a ‘Insufficient Permissions’ error. Click on the OAuth 2.0 toggle on the top right corner off and on again, that should fix the permissions. Make sure to grant access if prompted. You’ll find the “customerId”: parameter towards the bottom half of the response. Once you have the customerId, get back to the list of API’s and select the directory.schemas.insert API. Insert the customerId of the Google Apps account, and then in the body put SAML as the SchemaName, then click the green + above to add a new array and put AWSAccountID as the fieldName, and STRING as the field type. I’ve included a video below that describes this process. Once you’re done, hit Execute. (Note: If the request fails, make sure you’re authenticated and authorized – to make sure, click on the OAuth 2.0 toggle on the top right to ‘off’ and the back to ‘on’ and make sure to allow the API to make changes) The response should look similar to this Now we need to populate the newly created fields with the AWS info. For that we’ll use the directory.users.update API Input in the user’s email as the userKey, then select ‘customSchemas’ as a property, click Add, enter the name of the Schema (which should be SAML) on the first blank and then click the Add inside the parenthesis to add a field. Specify the Field Name (which should be AWSAccountID), and for the Text of the field you’re going to go back to AWS, grab the Role ARN followed by a ‘,’ and then the Identity Provider ARN. It should look something like this arn:aws:iam::012345678:role/GoogleSAMLDemo,arn:aws:iam::012345678:saml-provider/GoogleAppsDemo The video below shows describes the process in a visual way Once you’re done, hit Execute. (Note: If the request fails, make sure you’re authenticated and authorized – to make sure, click on the OAuth 2.0 toggle on the top right to ‘off’ and the back to ‘on’ and make sure to allow the API to make changes) If your request was successful, you should see the newly added customSchema at the bottom of the response Repeat this step for every user you’d like to be able to login to AWS via the SAML SSO. (Optional) If you’d like to really verify your customSchema was added to the profile; head back to the API Explorer list, use the ‘directory.users.get‘ API to input the user’s email address under userKey. This time use SAML as the customFieldMask and ‘custom’ as the projection. If your request was successful, the customSchema should be listed at the bottom of the request. Now we’re ready for the final steps! Head back to the Google Admin Page, Close the current New SAML App pop-up, refresh the page and click the + button to initiate the Wizard again. Select Amazon Web Services and you can skip Step 2. On Step 3, you can rename your module however you’d like. The Application Name is what will be shown to your users, so you can either keep it the same or change it to your liking. Leave Step 4 intact, and make sure the ACS URL and Entity ID are set to https://signin.aws.amazon.com/saml Lastly, on Step 5 we’re going to map the field we just created to the SAML Request. For the first row, choose Basic Information – Primary Email. On the Second Field, find the SAML option we created and on the next field select AWSAccountID Go ahead and click finish. You now have your SAML App created! We now need to enable it. You can enable it for everyone on your organization or just a specific OU. Once your app is enabled, it’s time to test it! Go ahead and click on the External Launch icon. You should be redirected to the AWS Management Console and you should see that you’re authenticated with SAML credentials. Great! Your SAML App now works. But how do your users get to it? At the top of every Google page there’s the app switcher. If you open it, and scroll down to the very bottom, you should see your newly created SAML App. If you click on it, it should take you to AWS with one click login. You can also login using the new Google Apps User Hub (found at https://apps.google.com/user/hub) and you will see custom deployed apps the end of the list. …and there you have it. One click login to AWS from anywhere in the Google ecosystem. You can hook any app that accepts SAML into Google, the setup will vary by app, but it should all be similar in a nutshell. If you have any questions about what I covered in this article, feel free to leave a comment, shoot me an email, or a tweet (@fmisle) – and I’ll try to help as best as I can.
Unhappy with the way Washington’s running things? Score one for God. New research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology has found that when citizens lose their sense of political stability, they often look to a higher power to feed that psychological need. As the researchers put it: Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad free Although the reach of government pales in comparison with the potential reach of God, these two external systems represent the broadest sources of order and control that exist in the developed world. When a political system fails to serve this fundamental need, people turn to religious belief to provide the reassurance they crave. The study was based on four separate experiments from around various countries (including ones in Malaysia, Canada, and the U.S.), each gauging the test population’s belief in a divine power after reading one of two fake news articles: either an optimistic piece touting the country’s political stability, or an article suggesting that the nation’s government was about to fail. Test subjects were then asked a series of questions, including “To what extent do you think the events in the universe unfold according to God’s, or some type of nonhuman entity’s, plan?” The result: people who read the negative piece are more likely to believe in a controlling God. Adjacent research is similar but with slight variations. In a Canada-based study, participants read another two articles (ostensibly from Science magazine) that either entertained or disproved the existence of God or a God-like entity. They were then asked questions about their current national government and—surprise, surprise—“When God was depicted as a source of control and order, participants less ardently defended the legitimacy of their government.” Here’s the most fascinating bit though: in all the research done, the U.S. is the one exception to the rule. Said researchers, Religious commitment does not appear to be waning as secular systems develop and stabilize, [which is] almost exclusively limited to the United States. Why? Perhaps it’s due to the number of immigrants arriving from the near-constant instability of less developed nations. Or it could be because we’re so deliberately messed with by our government. (Don’t believe us? Check out the graph below, depicting the relative level of our terror alerts against election periods.) If today’s election doesn’t go your way, well, you can always go to church.
After Charles "Moonie" Birchfield threatened to blow his girlfriend's head off with two assault-style rifles, he laid the guns down to gather his belongings, a detective testified Monday. It turned out to be a fatal mistake. His girlfriend, Michelle Horn, took the clip out of one gun - an AK-47 - and left the apartment with the other weapon - a .45 caliber long-gun - and sat in her car about 50 yards from the unit, the detective said. After a few more brief confrontations between the two, Birchfield was dead, the detective said. Birmingham Homicide Detective Marcus Robinson testified Monday at a preliminary hearing for Horn about Birchfield's shooting death At the end of the hearing Jefferson County Circuit Judge Virginia Vinson said she found probable cause for the charges of capital murder, shooting into an occupied dwelling, and shooting into an unoccupied dwelling against the 36-year-old Horn. The judge forwarded the case to a grand jury for possible indictment. Capital murder charge for woman who shot, killed boyfriend during fight over ex-girlfriend Michelle Horn, 36, is charged with capital murder in the Feb. 16, 2016 shooting death of 27-year-old Charles Burchfield. Horn is charged in connection with the Feb. 16 shooting death of Birchfield, 27, outside the apartment they shared in the 1600 block of Warrior Road. Horn called 911 and told a dispatcher she had shot her boyfriend, Robinson said. When police arrived, they found Burchfield dead on the ground near the couple's unit. Whitney Moore, a woman who lived at the apartment, told police that Horn and Birchfield argued that morning about other women calling Birchfield on his cell phone, Robinson testified. Birchfield got two guns - an AK-47 and a .45-caliber assault-style gun and began threatening Horn and Moore to "blow their heads off," Robinson said. While Birchfield was packing up his belongings, he laid the two guns down on a couch, he said Moore and another witness reported. Horn then took the clip out of the AK-47 and then took the .45-caliber rifle and left the apartment, the detective said Moore and another witness reported. Horn got in her vehicle outside the apartment and backed up about 50 yards, the detective said the witnesses report. Witnesses reported that the couple continued to argue, with Birchfield coming out of the apartment at least twice to confront Horn while she remained in the car, Robinson said. On two or three occasions Horn fired the .45 caliber rifle, all while sitting in the car, the detective said based on witness reports. In all, she fired about five rounds based on shell casings found at the scene. Bullets struck an occupied apartment and one unoccupied apartment. One of the times Horn fired came after Birchfield picked up the empty AK-47, and from the apartment, used the scope to point a laser at Horn, Robinson said witnesses reported. The last gunshots from Horn came after Birchfield stepped out and threw a brick at the car Horn was driving, Robinson said. Horn stayed at the scene after calling 911. Deputy Jefferson County District Attorneys Kechia Sanders and Riggs Walker are prosecuting the case. Horn, who remains free on bond pending trial, is represented by attorneys Kevin Roberts and Beverly Scruggs. Roberts declined to say what Horn's defense strategy will be but said there are some facts that came out at the hearing that will be useful. Birchfield's family attended Monday's hearing and wore t-shirts commemorating him. Birchfield's mother and stepfather declined comment.
Amazing percentage of drug possession sentences in 2014 were illegal aliens [Video] Donald Trump certainly nailed it on the illegal immigrant issue, didn’t he? This doesn’t even show statistics for this year, which I bet have exploded and are off the charts entirely. Millions of Americans feel very, very strongly about illegal immigration and Donald Trump is campaigning on winning our country back from a silent coup brought on by both sides of the political aisle and the Washington Cartel. These statistics, as alarming as they are, don’t include primary federal offenses, and they don’t include local convictions or sentences, which is where most rape and murder cases would appear. Do the math. From the Washington Examiner: Of the more than 2,200 people who received federal sentences for drug possession in fiscal year 2014, almost three-quarters of them were illegal immigrants, according to new data from the United States Sentencing Commission. Trending: The 15 Best Conservative News Sites On The Internet Illegal immigrants also made up more than one-third of all federal sentences, that data said. The commission’s data showed a slight decline in the total number of illegal alien sentences from 2013 to 2014, but still showed that the illegal population is a major contributor to federal crimes in America. In 2013, illegal immigrants were responsible for 38.6 percent of all federal sentencing, and that dropped to 36.7 percent in 2014. But the sentencing of illegal immigrants for drug possession jumped significantly. In 2013, 1,123 illegal immigrants were sentenced on convictions of simple possession, and made up 55.8 percent of those cases. In 2014, 1,681 illegal aliens were sentenced, and they made up 74.1 percent of the total. Illegal immigrants were also 16.9 percent of all federal drug trafficking sentences. The data became public just as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has pushed for tougher immigration laws, and has cited last week’s shooting death of a California woman at the hands of an illegal immigrant as the latest example of the need for more enforcement. Illegal immigrants were 20 percent of the kidnapping/hostage taking sentences in 2014, 12 percent of the murder sentences, and 19.4 percent of national-defense related sentences. As expected, illegal immigrants made up vast majority of sentences for immigration-related crimes — 91.6 percent. Overall, 27,505 illegal immigrants were sentenced in federal court in 2014, down from 30,144 the prior year. All the non-citizens are combined — including legal and illegal aliens, extradited aliens and those with unknown status — contributed to 42 percent of all federal sentencing in 2014. The commission’s statistics only include primary federal offenses, and don’t include local convictions or sentences, which is where most rape and murder cases would appear. America had way more than our share of criminals before all this border nonsense mushroomed. Now, our prisons are overflowing with illegal alien criminals and rape and murder is the norm out there. The gangs are ruling more and more territory and to live in any major city now is akin to playing Russian roulette. Our government is allowing thousands of felons to prey on Americans and do as they please. They are deported and let back in. Most are never even deported. Those that make it to prison don’t stay there long and many, many of their crimes just go unchecked. Is it any wonder that when someone like Trump stumps on this issue, he is lionized and treated like a rock star? America is furious over this and voters are willing to follow anyone who will stand up and take on that issue. As Mark Steyn said, “So, if Donald Trump is the only guy willing to bust beyond those bounds, we owe him a debt of gratitude.” Exactly right. You Might Like
Not Only Will The NSA Store All Our Data In Bluffdale, Utah, Now They'll Get A Tax Break On Their Electricity Too from the uh,-wait-a-second dept "We are quite concerned [about] this," Harvey Davis, NSA director of installations and logistics, wrote in the April 26 email, obtained through a Utah open records law request. In a follow-up email Davis sent 31 minutes later, he explained: "The long and short of it is: Long-term stability in the utility rates was a major factor in Utah being selected as our site for our $1.5 billion construction at Camp Williams. HB325 runs counter to what we expected." It knows now, according to Rick Mayfield, director of MIDA, who announced yesterday that an attorney from MIDA was negotiating with one from NSA to write an amendment exempting the datacenter from the increased power tax. It isn’t clear if the exemption would be for six years or be permanent. The Utah Legislature would vote on the bill when it comes back into session in January. “What we didn’t understand was the prior administration made a promise that for six years there wouldn’t be an increase,” By now, I assume many of you are quite familiar with the NSA's new data center in Bluffdale, Utah . Among other features, part of the site's claim to fame was the amount of electricity it would need -- leading local power company Rocky Mountain Power to build the NSA their very own substation -- just for the center. Lucky them. Of course, power doesn't come cheap, and James Bamford's article about the center estimated the energy costs to be around $40 million per year. However, that cost went up a bit due to a Utah state law that came into effect on April 1st (no, seriously) that would add a 6% tax on energy bills. That means, if the $40 million estimate was correct, it would be an additional $2.4 million per year for the NSA.And the NSA threw a complete hissy fit , sending a series of complaints to Utah Governor Gary Herbert's staff about the lawThe NSA also claimed that former governor John Huntsmann had promised them that there would be no tax increases on the facility for the first six years. Utah officials insisted that they had been quite clear all along about the possible impact of this bill, but the NSA apparently didn't pay attention. But, of course, this is the NSA, and what the NSA wants... the NSA gets. The Utah Military Installation Development Authority (who helped create this tax) claims that it didn't know about this mysterious "promise" of no tax increases for six years:So, not only do the NSA get to keep spying on us, but they get to do it for tax breaks. Filed Under: bluffdale, nsa, nsa surveillance, tax break, utah
If you think things are bad now for the nation, take a closer look at what happened in Wisconsin and brace yourself. (Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout) In the weeks since Trump’s inauguration, many observers have exclaimed, “We’ve never seen anything like it!” Of course, no analogy is perfect, but we certainly have seen actions “like” Trump’s throughout history. And at present, one comparison in particular jumps out: Scott Walker, the Republican governor of Wisconsin. Matt Rothschild, the executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which exposes the role of money in politics in Wisconsin and advocates for clean government, has tracked the course of Walker’s slash-and-burn governorship to the letter. He says that as president, Trump has so far been vividly reminiscent of Walker. “It seems like Reince Priebus [who came to the Trump administration out of Walker’s political machinery in Wisconsin] has been printing up copies of Walker’s playbook and handing it out not only to Trump but to the Republican leadership in Congress, as well,” Rothschild, who worked at The Progressive magazine as its editor and publisher for the better part of 32 years, added. If you think things are bad now for the nation, a closer look over what happened in Wisconsin shows us that we need to brace ourselves. Scott Walker’s Shock and Awe In 2010, while running his first campaign for governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker gave little to no clue of the reactionary proposals that he would begin putting forth promptly upon taking office. For example, he made no mention of attacking the rights of unions to engage in public sector collective bargaining. It is worth noting that in 1959, Wisconsin became the first state to authorize public employees to bargain. Lobbyists for unions worked on legislation for several decades afterwards. Anti-union legislation was nearly nonexistent. But that trend changed abruptly when Walker took office. Shortly after his inauguration, Walker was caught on tape telling a right-wing billionaire funder that he intended to “divide and conquer” the unions by introducing legislation that would destroy collective bargaining. Not long after Scott Walker was inaugurated, he told his cabinet that he was going to “drop the bomb.” The bomb was Act 10 — the legislation to grievously curtail the power of public sector unions in Wisconsin. The Act stipulated that the unions could bargain only for wages up to the rate of inflation, and that they couldn’t bargain on working conditions. He has been plowing ahead with that plan ever since. In 2015, Walker and his Republican legislature pushed through a bill making Wisconsin a “Right-to-Work” state. How did Walker accomplish this wholesale attack on organized labor? “The tactic was to attack everyone at once, like a political carpet bombing, so that people were put on the defense on every public issue at the same time,” Charity Schmidt, who was one of the leaders of the Teaching Assistants’ Association (TAA), which played a crucial role in the protests and occupation early on, told Truthout. Schmidt, who is now an organizer for the South Central Federation of Labor AFL-CIO of Wisconsin, explained that Walker’s multipronged push made it more difficult to resist, since people and groups were each struggling to defend the issue most immediate to them. It made the solidarity that had been built during the Wisconsin Uprising difficult to maintain and put into strategic action. “[The multi-issue attack] severely limited official methods of convincing Republicans to break from party line even when common sense begged for it,” Schmidt said. “It is no mistake that Reince Priebus was behind Walker and now Trump in developing Republican Party strategy.” “We knew when Walker was elected that there would be a shift in state politics toward austerity policies and defunding public education and services, but few foresaw how severe and swift that shift would be,” Schmidt explained. “The attacks were immediate, and just like Trump, he wasted no time in announcing controversial legislation, and started with acts that would be the most polarizing.” She explained that Act 10, which was aimed at destroying public unions in the very state that birthed AFSCME [American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees], was an example of Walker’s divide and conquer politics at the onset. “Policies such as this, and his funding cuts to the University of Wisconsin (UW) also solidified his base by fueling a politics of resentment, [pitting] rural against urban Wisconsinites, non-union workers against union members, those connected to the UW System and those who aren’t, and so on,” Schmidt said. Legislation that erodes the power of unions, abortion rights, fewer regulations on firearms, slashing taxes and government spending, and expanding school-choice programs in an effort to hobble public schooling are all happening apace. The slew of attacks has had significant repercussions — not only for organized labor, but for workers in general. “He has attacked worker’s compensation and unemployment compensation, both of which were born in Wisconsin,” John Matthews, the executive director emeritus of the Madison Teachers Union told Truthout. “In addition to effectively ending public sector bargaining, his legislation has caused about an 18 percent loss in income to public employees by forbidding their employers from paying the employee’s share into the retirement system.” Walker’s legislation also required that public employers not pay more than 88 percent of health insurance premiums. “Employees get hit very hard with Walker’s legislation [Act 10] because they have very limited bargaining rights relative to wages and they lost the employer paying the employee’s share into the retirement system and they cannot effectively bargain wages,” Matthews added. Walker has approached politics as a game of handing down mandates. “Walker didn’t want to negotiate with organized labor,” Rothschild said. “He wanted to crush it.” Destroying the Unions With Republican governors and legislatures now controlling more states, some are seeking advice from Wisconsin. Kentucky’s State Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer spoke glowingly of some words of wisdom he received from a senior Republican lawmaker in Wisconsin: “Move quickly.” Today, in 25 states, Republicans hold both the governorship and majorities in both chambers of the legislature — and many GOP lawmakers are acting at the same lightning-fast speed that Walker did when he took power in Wisconsin. The strategy of union busting in Wisconsin is something we should expect on a national level now. In Wisconsin, Act 10 also said that unions had to “recertify” every year, with a majority of members voting in favor of keeping the union (regardless of what percentage of the members actually cast ballots). Other clauses said that employers were prohibited from taking union dues out of workers’ paychecks, and that union members would essentially take a 10 percent pay cut because they’d have to contribute to health care and pensions in ways they weren’t before. “This was an all-out assault on the public sector unions, which were the strongest and most politically powerful in the state, though Walker tried to couch it as a ‘budget repair’ bill,” Rothschild explained. However, thanks largely to the immediate response by the TAA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and by Madison Teachers Inc. (MTI, the local teachers’ union Matthews represented), protests began around the Capitol Square. Due to around-the-clock work by dedicated organizers, they mushroomed into the largest protests in Wisconsin’s history. More than 100,000 protesters gathered around the Capitol Square on the weekends and several hundred people occupied the Capitol Building, sleeping there for several weeks. However, according to Rothschild, the massive protests that mobilized against Walker early on failed primarily because labor leadership decided to pour money and resources into the Democratic Party channels rather than allowing the movement to be truly grassroots. Moreover, Walker aimed to make public sector unions as ineffective as possible by limiting their capacity for political action. Act 10 prohibits public employers from deducting for wages an employee contribution toward the union’s political action fund, and forbids the employer from deducting a fair share fee from non-members, as existed prior to Act 10. Walker also rolled out the policy of drug-testing public workers as a condition of their receiving unemployment benefits, another strategy that is being deployed nationally now. Walker has also proposed eliminating the labor, judicial and education oversight commissions. As a result, according to Matthews, “The loss of income to Wisconsin public employees has caused huge morale problems — and the loss of revenue among businesses, since public employees have far less disposable income.” Most labor protections for public employees are now gone in Wisconsin. “Unions have, effectively, been destroyed,” Matthews said. Walker’s Slash and Burn According to Rothschild, in going after the unions, Walker wasn’t simply aiming to attack labor policies. He was also working to dry up the main source of money for the Democratic Party. By destroying AFSCME and the Wisconsin Education Association Council (the state teachers’ union), he accomplished his goal, leaving the Republican Party solidly in control of the state for years to come. “There was this sick symbiosis going on,” Rothschild explained. “The right-wing corporate sector essentially paid for Walker to get elected, and then he delivered whatever policies they wanted to see enacted. And once he had proven his loyalty, they gave him more money, which kept him in office and enabled to keep delivering the goods to them.” Wisconsin’s labor movement has been effectively devastated, along with the following more egregious laws that have been passed: Imposed onerous voter ID requirements and limited the hours of early voting. Rewrote the campaign finance law to allow wealthy individuals to give much more, to legalize coordination with outside “issue ad” groups, and to allow corporations, for the first time in 100 years, to give to political parties. Gerrymandered Wisconsin’s districts in one of the most blatant efforts in modern US history. A panel of federal judges, in a recent landmark case, ruled this gerrymandering unconstitutional and ordered the legislature to redraw the maps. Destroyed the Government Accountability Board, the nonpartisan agency that regulated campaign donations, ethics and lobbying. He replaced it with an Ethics Commission and an Elections Commission, with partisan appointees. Changed the law on special prosecutors by prohibiting them from investigating elected officials. Boosted the private school voucher program. Drastically cut back on funding for the University of Wisconsin, and decimated tenure protections at the University Wisconsin. Refused federal funds for expanding Medicaid, while passing massive tax cuts for corporations. Passed a concealed carry law for guns and eliminated the 48-hour waiting period for purchasing a gun. Cut funding for family planning and imposed onerous restrictions on abortions. Effectively dismantled Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources and scrubbed any mention of climate change from state websites. It is easy to see that the Trump administration is already racing forward with its own multi-issue attack. The Future in Trumpistan Based on his experience with Walker and watching the parallels thus far, Rothschild provided several warning signs for the country to heed as the Trump administration continues to consolidate power. “He’s going to keep moving fast, he’s not going to compromise, and he’s going to play on the politics of resentment,” Rothschild explained. “Walker, during the Act 10 debate, actually made a “fairness” argument by saying it was unfair that his brother-in-law, who worked hard in the private sector, didn’t even have health care or a pension, and these public sector workers are complaining about just having to contribute to their health care and pensions.” Rothschild gave an ominous warning for national unions. “He’s going to go after federal labor unions and protections,” he said. While the jury is still out on how Trump might personally be going after organized labor, as Rothschild implies, what is clear is that the now Republican-dominated House and Senate will ensure that the White House continues forward along a multi-decade systemic attack against unions, a strategy launched in 1947 with the Taft-Hartley Act. That law began the wholesale restriction of labor unions, and the eroding of union power continues to this day. “For the country, it signaled all-out war on the labor movement and on progressive politics in general,” Rothschild said. “State after state that was under the control of a Republican governor and a Republican legislature started to copy Walker’s playbook.” And now Trump is doing the same. “Walker told him essentially to do to the country what Walker had done to Wisconsin,” Rothschild concluded. “Be ‘bold,’ move fast, despite the opposition that will arise.” In early January, Gov. Walker told the media he spoke with Vice President Mike Pence during a visit to the White House about Act 10. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Walker said he and Pence talked about “what we’ve done here in Wisconsin, how they may take bits and pieces of what we did with Act 10 and with civil service reform, and how they could apply that at the national level” for federal workers. “It’s something that they’re interested in,” Walker said. “It’s certainly something we’re willing to offer our assistance on, particularly if it helps improve not just the nation, but in turn helps improve the ability to be better stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars here in Wisconsin.” And that is exactly what we are seeing. “Trump’s going to encourage Republicans in the legislature to bend the rules to get their way,” Rothschild continued. “Already, he’s told Mitch McConnell to go nuclear. And already, a Senate committee has voted on cabinet nominees while the Democrats were not even present, which actually happened in Wisconsin, too, to get Act 10 passed.” A slash-and-burn strategy matches up with the inner circle with which Trump has surrounded himself. In fact, Steve Bannon, his chief strategist and senior counsel, told the Daily Beast in 2013, “I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.” In addition to Trump, GOP state legislatures are emulating Walker’s strategy. “Act 10 is now being introduced in Iowa, [as it is already being introduced in other states, including Washington] and in my opinion, will soon be promoted by Trump for federal employees,” Rothschild explained. Matthews issued an urgent warning to workers across the country. “Public employees across the nation should be preparing for Trump to copy Walker’s promotion of anti-worker, anti-union legislation,” he said. “Employees and unions must engage in every election, lest they be run over by the right-wing machine.” Schmidt drew a direct parallel between Walker and Trump as far as their willingness to “wield all power of the state to bulldoze over the democratic process of government to get what he and his funders want.” “With [Walker’s] announcement of the so-called Budget Repair Bill, which became Act 10, came a threat to call in the National Guard should there be any work stoppages or actions against it, just as Trump threatened to call in the National Guard in Chicago,” she said. Schmidt also cautioned against relying on normal political processes to resist Trump. Once the Walker administration took hold, she said, it “became obvious that we couldn’t count on politics as usual in fighting his radical measures, as they were willing to subvert the democratic process to reach desired goals. Government just suddenly ‘worked differently.'” Once the usual political approach of holding up the veneer of clean politics in Wisconsin fell away, and when Walker won the recall election in 2012, Schmidt said that was the point at which “he was further emboldened to continue on his draconian path.” The Trump administration has yet to really begin fully enacting its policies. However, given what we’ve seen thus far, anyone who wants to protect our rights, our liberties and our planet should take heed of what Walker has done — and continues to do — in Wisconsin.
An editorial in the Kansas City Star yesterday makes some interesting points about responding to short-term disasters, preparing for long-term disasters, and problem of money. ... it hardly requires an expert to behold the devastation in Joplin and see that, while charitable resources are essential, private donors will not be able to fund all that is needed. Joplin needs new school buildings, a new power grid, massive work on its hospital. And that's only the beginning. This brings us to a rather shameful debate now taking place in, of course, Congress. To its credit, a key House panel has approved an additional $1 billion in federal relief money to respond to a spring of natural disasters. But as soon as cries for help were heard, lawmakers pounced on the chance to make partisan points. House Republicans are starting to demand that disaster relief funds be balanced with cuts in other areas of federal spending, essentially using human tragedy to advance their political agenda. One suggestion is that we should cut a program encouraging the production of more fuel efficient cars, a program brought about by economic and long-term national security concerns. Here's the big picture: If the United States is to the point at which helping disaster victims means cutting other needed programs, it's time to rethink the way we're running this country. Today, Americans have the lightest total tax burden they've had since 1958. One result of that low tax burden, and the resulting inadequate federal and state revenue, is that the Federal Emergency Management Agency faces a $3 billion shortfall. And that's before the Joplin bills arrive. Overly optimistic projections during good times brought us to this point. Pandering politicians agreed to tax cuts that this country could not afford. But that's the past. Going forward, we must be able to agree it is un-American to scramble and bicker over priorities every time nature strikes.
Top 15 Discoveries & Implications of Wikileaks CIA Vault 7 – So Far Vault 7 has been the subject of a curious and cryptic set of tweets from Wikileaks over the course of the past month or so. Now we know why. In bombshell news, in the greatest leak in Wikileaks history, in the greatest leak in CIA history, a total of 8,761 documents has been released in a series that has been dubbed Vault 7. Even for seasoned conspiracy researchers, the documents are fascinating and horrible at the same time. It confirms the suspicions and knowledge of many investigators. Now we have the proof to substantiate our hunches and intuition. The CIA has been caught with its pants down: spying on its citizens, bypassing encryption to steal their messages, hacking into their electronic devices to listen on their conversations, using US consulates abroad to conduct spying operations, remotely hacking into vehicles (to perform undetectable assassinations) and much more. Some will be shocked, but really, let’s remember the true nature and purpose of the CIA: a rogue agency that overthrows foreign leaders, install puppet regimes, imports drugs, runs guns and assassinates anyone who gets in the way of its agenda, including US presidents. Wikileaks has stated that it has only released less than 1% of its Vault 7 series, so this is literally the tip of the iceberg. Imagine what else is to come … Here are the top 15 discoveries and implications of Vault 7 so far: Vault 7 Discovery/Implication #1: CIA = Virus & Malware Factory The CIA is not just a rogue agency that runs illegal drugs and weapons, assassinates people, starts wars and conducts regime change. It has also spent untold millions or even billions of dollars developing what is probably the most sophisticated cyber warfare/hacking/spying department on the planet, equalling or even surpassing that of the NSA. Wikileaks reveals that the CIA has its own “hacking division” that is run by its CCI (Center for Cyber Intelligence) which by the end of 2016: “… had over 5000 registered users and had produced more than a thousand hacking systems, trojans, viruses, and other “weaponized” malware. Such is the scale of the CIA’s undertaking that by 2016, its hackers had utilized more code than that used to run Facebook. The CIA had created, in effect, its “own NSA” with even less accountability and without publicly answering the question as to whether such a massive budgetary spend on duplicating the capacities of a rival agency could be justified.” Snowden’s leaks were already bad enough, showing that the NSA was an agency above the law that monitored, surveilled and spied upon just about anyone it wanted, since most people on the planet are within its reach in one way or another. Now, we have confirmation that the CIA is engaging in exactly the same kind activity, or perhaps even worse. Could there be any possible doubt left by anyone that the MIC (Military Intelligence Complex) runs the US Government and the world? Vault 7 Discovery/Implication #2: Bypassing Encryption You know how all these companies promise encryption and some even charge more for the service? Guess what? It doesn’t matter! Vault 7 leaked docs shows that the CIA is getting audio files before they get encrypted. The CIA can hack into your phone, compromise your operating system and suck up your messages before they’re encrypted and sent. It doesn’t matter what precautions you’ve taken. Encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and many more are vulnerable. Vault 7 Discovery/Implication #3: Bypassing Computer Operating System The CIA can hack your computer. In fact, every part of your computer can be bypassed, including your operation system. Per Wikileaks: “The CIA has developed automated multi-platform malware attack and control systems covering Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris, Linux and more, such as EDB’s “HIVE” and the related “Cutthroat” and “Swindle” tools.” Vault 7 Discovery/Implication #4: Smart TVs become Spy TVs It was obvious to anyone with half a functioning brain cell that smart TVs were basically spy TVs (see The SMART Deception), but now we have the proof. In the Vault 7 docs, the CIA has a program called Weeping Angel (read ’em and weep) that it developed with the MI5/BTSS (British Security Service). It details how the CIA can hack Samsung smart TVs and then place them in fake-off mode so that an unsuspecting owner falsely believes their TV is off – when really it is on, recording all sounds in the room and transmitting them via the net to a covert CIA server. Vault 7 Discovery/Implication #5: MicroSoft MicroSpy Software Bill Gates is the agenda-man for the New World Order. Clearly he sold out a long, long time ago. Kim Dotcom has been particularly vocal, calling for Gates to come clean (ain’t gonna happen) and admit how much he helped the CIA (and the MIC in general) by helping them build backdoors in the software. The CIA turned Microsoft software into spyware, using exploits that were built into the system: “The CIA also runs a very substantial effort to infect and control Microsoft Windows users with its malware. This includes multiple local and remote weaponized “zero days”, air gap jumping viruses such as “Hammer Drill” which infects software distributed on CD/DVDs, infectors for removable media such as USBs, systems to hide data in images or in covert disk areas ( “Brutal Kangaroo”) and to keep its malware infestations going. Many of these infection efforts are pulled together by the CIA’s Automated Implant Branch (AIB), which has developed several attack systems for automated infestation and control of CIA malware, such as “Assassin” and “Medusa”.” Vault 7 Discovery/Implication #6: Skype is Vulnerable Vault 7 reveals that conversations on Skype are converted to text then uploaded to a CIA cloud for data assortment and analysis. Vault 7 Discovery/Implication #7: iPhones and Androids are Vulnerable Both Apple iOS and Android systems are vulnerable. Snowden already told us this, but Vault 7 re-confirms that iPhones and Android are easily hackable. The CIA has been creating all kinds of malware to spy on practically every piece of electronic equipment you own. Vault 7 Discovery/Implication #8: Breaking “Zero Day” Commitment by Hoarding Vulnerabilities Wikileaks notes that Obama had promised the technology industry (after much lobbying) that the US Government would disclose any vulnerabilities as soon as it had discovered them (thus the term “zero day”). Yet the CIA stockpiled these vulnerabilities because it wanted to retain the advantage of knowing how to hack into systems and devices, which endangers everyone else who uses them: “”Year Zero” documents show that the CIA breached the Obama administration’s commitments. Many of the vulnerabilities used in the CIA’s cyber arsenal are pervasive and some may already have been found by rival intelligence agencies or cyber criminals. As an example, specific CIA malware revealed in “Year Zero” is able to penetrate, infest and control both the Android phone and iPhone software that runs or has run presidential Twitter accounts. The CIA attacks this software by using undisclosed security vulnerabilities (“zero days”) possessed by the CIA but if the CIA can hack these phones then so can everyone else who has obtained or discovered the vulnerability. As long as the CIA keeps these vulnerabilities concealed from Apple and Google (who make the phones) they will not be fixed, and the phones will remain hackable.” Vault 7 Discovery/Implication #9: Hijacking All Sorts of Vehicles – for Assassination Of all the discoveries, this one is explosive – literally. Vault 7 exposes that the CIA has the ability to remotely hijack all kinds of vehicles (including cars and planes), which means it can carry out undetectable assassinations. This casts a new light on the suspicious death of Michael Hastings, whose car burst into flames and ran into a tree at high speed. It also makes one wonder about the deaths of JFK Jr. (son of John F. Kennedy) and former US senator Paul Wellstone, both of whom died in suspicious plane accidents. Vault 7 Discovery/Implication #10: Using US Consulate in Germany as a Spy and Hacking Base You can imagine how impressed the Germans are with the US now. Remember when it was revealed that Obama was hacking the cell phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel? Now we learn that the CIA, in flagrant violation of international law, has been using the US consulate in Frankfurt, Germany, as a base for its spying and hacking activities, many of which in this case required a close physical proximity to the target. From Wikileaks: “CIA hackers operating out of the Frankfurt consulate ( “Center for Cyber Intelligence Europe” or CCIE) are given diplomatic (“black”) passports and State Department cover. Your Cover Story (for this trip) Q: Why are you here? A: Supporting technical consultations at the Consulate. A number of the CIA’s electronic attack methods are designed for physical proximity. These attack methods are able to penetrate high security networks that are disconnected from the internet, such as police record database. In these cases, a CIA officer, agent or allied intelligence officer acting under instructions, physically infiltrates the targeted workplace. The attacker is provided with a USB containing malware developed for the CIA for this purpose, which is inserted into the targeted computer. The attacker then infects and exfiltrates data to removable media.” Vault 7 Discovery/Implication #11: CIA-Electronics Supplier Collusion Another aspect to consider with this is CIA collusion with electronics manufacturers and suppliers. We know the CIA owns the MSM, Hollywood, the Communication Industry, etc. Wikileaks reports that the CIA’s Mobile Device Branch created technology to infect and control smartphones. Do they possess a backdoor into the software and hardware of all smartphones? Vault 7 Discovery/Implication #12: Fiscal Damage The CIA has caused worldwide damage that can be estimated in millions or maybe even billions of dollars, since they can’t now control the malware they have created. The CIA has lost control of the monster it created. We are all vulnerable. How much data will be hacked, how much privacy stolen and how much money will it cost to prevent and repair this breach? Vault 7 Discovery/Implication #13: Project Umbrage: The Framing of Foreign Nations like Russia Well well well. Remember all that brouhaha about Russia hacking the US elections? It was all lies and propaganda, but many people fell for it. Now look at this. The CIA has been using a program called Project Umbrage under which it manipulates code to make it look like it comes from somewhere else like another nation. You could call it false flag cyber terrorism. In other words, the CIA clones the hacking procedures of Russia to create false flag hacking attacks, and then says with a straight face that the attacks “are consistent with what we would expect from Russian hackers”. That may be technically truthful (but what deceit!) – however only because the CIA has first intentionally mimicked those techniques with a motive to frame an innocent party or country. As YouTuber Joe in General writes: “The CIA’s Remote Devices Branch gathers and maintains a large library of attack techniques stolen from malware produced in other countries, including Russia. One particular attack technique is the ability leave behind fake digital “fingerprints” that make it look like a CIA initiated cyber attack was done by someone else. At this early stage, its unclear if this is WikiLeaks’ interpretation of one thing the CIA could do, or if there’s a specific place in the document where the CIA mentions this use of UMBRAGE.) This is HUGE. The ability to create a digital false flag calls into question anytime in recent history that the CIA has accused another country of hacking. “We have proof that Russia hacked the U.S election.”” Vault 7 Discovery/Implication #14: The CIA-NSA Turf War For some time, we have known about the rivalry or turf war going on between the CIA and NSA in their struggle to become the preeminent military intelligence agency. Another implication of Vault 7 is that we now know for sure that the CIA has a hacking system that is at least equivalent to, if not better than, that of the NSA. The spying, criminality and illegality of the NSA is already miles past the line of what is acceptable in a free, open and just society. Now the CIA has doubled the criminality? Where’s the line here? What are the other 16-17 agencies doing? What’s the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) doing to us? What about the creepy NRO (National Reconnaisance Office), who sports mottos such as “Nothing is Beyond Our Reach” and “We Own the Night” (see above)? Are all these agencies in some kind of selfish, macho competition to see who can enslave us the fastest? Vault 7 Discovery/Implication #15: CIA Above the Rank of President JFK found out the hard way that presidents don’t tell what the CIA to do. The CIA tells the president what to do. The image above is interesting proof showing that the CIA is further up in the hierarchy that the Executive Branch. Reactions The timing of this release is interesting, given it occurred right after Trump accused Obama of wiretapping – an accusation in itself which is totally unprecedented. When has a sitting president ever even come to close to accusing a former president of any crime like that? Trump has been vindicated, but only in a certain sense. The CIA has no need to single him out when it can literally spy on anyone who owns a smart phone, smart TV or computer, or who uses Skype or WhatsApp. Melissa Dykes of Truthstream Media suggests the leak may cause more apathy or learned helplessness, and that may be true, but it really depends on people’s attitudes in response to this information. Sadly and predictably, many US Government officials have reacted by scampering to find who did the leaking, rather than address the magnitude of the content of the leaks themselves. Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword The CIA has lived by the sword ever since its inception. It has always played with fire. Now it has lost control of a big chunk of its weapons – its cyber weaponry. The implications of Vault 7 are monumental yet hard to comprehend at this point. What this means is that any nation hostile to the US (and there’s a long list of invaded and subverted nations the CIA has left in its wake since 1953) can now use these weapons against America. It also opens the door to genuine criminal thief-hackers who are just out to steal information and money. What the CIA has done is not just negligent. It’s not even just reckless – it’s brazenly criminal and utterly unaccountable. They Want TOTAL INFORMATION CONTROL The CIA is just another tool for the people who run the world. They want total information control. They want to know what you’re thinking. And they may already have the capacity to do that. This is just the beginning. Wikileaks has only released 1% of Vault 7. Multiply the revelations so far by 100. What do you get? They want to know what you’re thinking and control your every act. They want you to be a completely controllable slave. No one could be that evil? Oh yes they could, or rather, the dark force controlling them could. Have a critical mass of people finally awoken to this horrible fact yet? Can the Vault 7 leak get us to the point where we can fully face this reality? ***** Want the latest commentary and analysis on Conspiracy, Geopolitics, Natural Health, Sovereignty, Consciousness and more? Sign up for free blog updates! Makia Freeman is the editor of alternative media / independent news site The Freedom Articles and senior researcher at ToolsForFreedom.com, writing on many aspects of truth and freedom, from exposing aspects of the worldwide conspiracy to suggesting solutions for how humanity can create a new system of peace and abundance. Sources: https://wikileaks.com/ciav7p1/ https://wikileaks.com/ciav7p1/cms/page_20251151.html http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/russian-hack-supposedly-confirmed-cia/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es2gXuE1RNo *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La3AiTmIWwY
D3 Tech Tip \| Submitted by D3 TECHNOLOGIES. If you have a multi-level assembly and you want to select all components that are either hidden or suppressed, then it is easy to do using the search options. Select the Search Tool at the top of the browser. It will bring up a dialog box for you to define criteria for your search. Select the items you want to search for, in this case Visible. Make sure you set condition to No and pick Add to list. Select the other items to search for, in this case Suppress State and make sure the Value is set to Suppressed. Also under Define more criteria be sure it is set to Or, and then pick Add to list. Select the Find Now button and see the results in the tree. It will find all of the hidden or suppressed components in the tree even if they are deep in a subassembly. You can then delete them or turn back on with a right click. You can save the search in case you want to use it again in the future. Select Save Search and type in a name. The next time you go to do a search hit Clear Search, Open Search and pick the one you want to use. This Tech Tip was written by Michael Hahn, Implementation Consultant at D3 TECHNOLOGIES. For questions and comments, please content D3: d3tech.net/about/contact
EXO was one of the featured guests on the October 1 episode of SBS’s “JYP’s Party People,” where they candidly discussed their thoughts on music, their success, and experiences. While discussing their future goals, Baekhyun opened up about how idols and fans of idols are still viewed as inferior by many in Korean society. “If you say that you’re an idol, there are still so many people who hold prejudiced views,” Baekhyun explained. “It’s the same for fans. There appear to be many people who make the distinction between, ‘are you the fan of an artist or the fan of an idol?’ People who like idols are negatively seen as and called bbasooni [a derogatory term that roughly translates to insane female fan]. Honestly, don’t delineate fans that way. For us as EXO, it becomes a question of ‘how will we overcome this wall?'” See Also: EXO Members Open Up About What Drives Them Through Difficult Times As Celebrities Host Park Jin Young advised, “Your popularity has to change to acknowledgement. Changing just that one syllable [in Korean] is not an easy task. It’s something really difficult to achieve. It’s not something that can be changed just by being talented because you have to break people’s preconceived notions as well.” Baekhyun expressed his confidence that EXO would get there eventually, saying, “I believe in our members and myself. If we have our dependable fans beside us, wouldn’t it happen one day?” Xiumin chimed in, “EXO’s rival is last year’s EXO.” “You all are very kindhearted. That’s the only word I can think of right now,” Park Jin Young commented. “With your kind of teamwork and mindset, I think it is completely possible.” Check out the full episode of “JYP’s Party People” below! Watch Now Source (1)
We’ve all heard that U.S. healthcare services cost more and deliver less “value for the money” than European systems—i.e., less mortality benefits for the amount of money spent. Is this true? And where does the price difference come from? David Squires at The Commonwealth Fund recently collected data to compare healthcare spending, supply, utilization, prices, and quality in thirteen (mostly European) industrialized countries, and sought the answer to the question: why is U.S. healthcare spending so high? And does the U.S. healthcare system really deliver less quality for the dollar than the healthcare systems of other industrialized nations? The premise First, a look at the spending data. The U.S. does appear to spend more both per-person and as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) as compared to other industrialized nations. In the year 2006, each American’s healthcare cost $6,714, as compared to the $2,880 median among industrialized nations participating in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), after adjusting for cost of living. As a percent of a country’s GDP, the U.S. also spent almost 16% of its GDP on healthcare as compared to between about 7% and 11% among other industrialized nations. That spending is not, however, increasing at a particularly unusual rate. U.S. healthcare spending was rising at 3.6% between 1996 and 2006, lower than the OECD median of 3.9% and the very high levels of 4.3% and 4.8% in the UK and New Zealand, respectively. More interestingly, while the U.S. has the highest overall spending and the lowest percentage of the population covered by government programs (nearly every other country in the analysis had 100% public healthcare coverage), the cost for the public sector was also highest in the U.S.: $3,074 per person of taxpayer public spending on healthcare in America, versus $2,027 per person as the OECD median after adjusting for cost of living differences. Less surprisingly, private health spending was also highest in the U.S., at $2,783 per capita versus the OECD median of $141 (yes, that’s one-hundred fourty-one). Out of pocket, Americans spend $857 per person, which is only less than the Swiss, who pay $1,305 out of pocket; the OECD median was $483 as of 2006 (the latest data available in a comparable format). What we’re paying for Where is all this money going? As David Squires of the Commonwealth Fund has explained, there have been at least five dominant theories: (1) that the U.S. is wealthier so we just pay more in our economy; (2) that we have an older and sicker population; (3) that we utilize more healthcare (e.g., go to doctors, hospitals and emergency rooms more); (4) that the costs comes from our use of more technology; or (5) that we charge higher prices for the same goods and services. Let’s test each of these theories against the data. Does higher income necessarily result in greater healthcare spending? Actually, the U.S. seems to be an outlier from the overall curve between GDP and healthcare spending per capita. While most countries do spend more when they have more money, the U.S. disproportionately spends more, by about $3,000 per head. Do we simply have an older and sicker population? Actually, the proportion of the population older than age 65 is 13% in America (see graph below), which is lower than the OECD median of 16% and much lower than Japan’s 23%. Also, our population does not necessarily seem to be more ill. Among key healthcare risk factors such as smoking, Americans actually do better in most cases. Only 16% of Americans smoke, as compared to the OECD median of 22% and the 28% rate in The Netherlands. Similar trends exist for alcohol use and related healthcare risk factors. The one exception to this rule is our obesity rate, which is at a whopping 34% among adults, though this does not seem to sufficiently explain the overall heavier health expenditures (sorry for the pun). Do we simply use a lot more healthcare? The average number of physician visits per person in the U.S. is 4, below the OECD median of 6.4, and far below Japan’s 13 visits per person. Similarly, we have fewer hospital discharges at 131 per 1,000 people versus the OECD median of 160 and France’s 263 per 1,000. The average hospital stay per person is also lower in the U.S., at 5.4 days versus the OECD median of 5.9 days and Canada’s average of over one week. So do we simply use more expensive technologies? Are doctors murdering our pocketbooks with their tests? In fact, Americans get less MRI scans per person than Japan, and have fewer hip and knee replacements and cardiac catheterizations than many European countries. The distribution of our spending among various sectors—basic medical care, diagnostics, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, and nursing homes—is not actually very different from European countries (we actually spend far less of our healthcare expenditures on nursing homes, at only 6.2% as compared to 20% in Switzerland, and slightly more than European countries on basic care). The highest cost technologies don’t seem to be disproportionately used by us. This leaves the last theory: do we pay higher prices for the same care? Among prescription drug costs, we pay far more than any other country, at least 20% more than Canada and over 60% more than New Zealand. For the same MRI’s and CT scans, we also pay more: $1,080 is the commercial average cost for an MRI in the U.S. as compared to $599 in Germany; at CT of the head costs $510 on average in the U.S. versus $272 in Germany. For a hip replacement, we again pay the most: $1,634 among public payers and $3,996 among private payers, versus $1,046 and $1,943 respectively in Australia. And physicians’ incomes are the highest: $187,000 on average among primary care doctors in the U.S. versus $93,000 in Australia; and $442,000 among orthopedic surgeons in the U.S. versus $154,000 in France. So overall, our spending is out of proportion to our income, our population is younger than most of Europe, and we have fewer hospital stays with only typical technology use. This leaves us with the theory that higher drug and imaging prices, along with higher physicians’ fees and income are driving our healthcare costs. Do we get more in return? The results of this hefty spending on the same drugs and (perhaps better) doctors doesn’t seem to clearly correlate into better outcomes. Mortality rates in U.S. hospitals after admission for a heart attack, for example, are just average—at 4.3% as compared to just 2.3% in Denmark. Similarly depressing results are available for respiratory diseases, cancers, and surgical or medical mistakes. And overall we have the highest rate of death that would be amenable to healthcare intervention (deaths among people less than 75 years old that are from heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and bacterial infections); the U.S. has 96 such deaths per 100,000 people as compared to France’s 55 deaths. The most obvious conclusion from this analysis is that a single-payer health system can contain costs and streamline clinical management protocols to avoid the unnecessary testing and procedures of private fee-for-service systems like the U.S. system, as well as incentivizing prevention. Nearly every other country in the analysis had a 100% government-based health insurance system, except for Germany at 89.5% (the U.S. has just 27.4% of the population covered through public-sector programs). As the single payer, the government needs to prevent disease to maintain a budget, rather than having the incentive of making money from managing a disease (doing procedures, ordering tests) but not preventing it, as in the fee-for-service private U.S. model. It can also bulk-purchase goods and supplies and help equalize salaries between current public sector rates and private sector networks that feed off of mutual referral systems and inflated pricing. Caveats There are a several important limitations to this type of “cross-national” (e.g., horserace) analysis. First off, there’s always the risk of “ecological fallacy” in assessments that do not incorporate individual-level data—that is, the people who are spending more are not necessarily the people having the higher mortality, hence the correlation between spending and results may be an artifact of some other factors we haven’t accounted for (though that seems doubtful). Secondly, we don’t have the advantage of randomization as we do in a clinical study; all sorts of other sociodemographic factors affect the incidence of disease between countries. As we discussed earlier, social welfare spending, income inequality and accessibility of high-risk consumer products (e.g., tobacco, alcohol, poor food quality) all have a tremendous impact on disease rates beyond the control of the healthcare system—affecting the burden on that system. This is evidenced by the high U.S. obesity rate that translates into a high number of patients with chronic cardiovascular disease and diabetes that may increase spending as avoided deaths increase disease prevalence (that is, because people are chronically ill, and not dying, there is higher cost, but that cost may be a “good thing” in that it keeps people alive; we don’t want a low prevalence of disease simply by allowing everyone who gets ill to die). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the nature of “universal healthcare” is somewhat different between different countries. We should be cautious that even within Europe, systems like Germany that have some degree of private insurance are quite different from systems like the U.K. where the National Health Service was once quite universally dominant and is now under flux with calls for reform (despite evidence that it works much better than the post-reform version would) from the new conservative government. So there is not always universality within “universal” healthcare systems in Europe; each system is itself dynamic and complex during the years of this analysis.
It’s Friday afternoon, it’s Summer and you’re itching to get home. We know, we know; it can be hard to keep focused. Since you’re spending your time this afternoon on BGR instead of working – as well you should – we figured we’d give you a nice little tidbit to take home with you this weekend. As if a sweet Nokia N78 NAM giveaway isn’t enough! How about a little something from one of our Apple ninjas? Would that do the trick? We just received unconfirmed word that Apple is going to be shaking things up a bit when it comes to iPhone 3G distribution here in the US. By shake up, we mean that Apple has supposedly secured deals with both Best Buy and Radio Shack to sell the iPhone 3G in their stores. Best Buy already offers other Apple products so this would hardly be a stretch. Again, this is definitely still tagged with “rumor status” but it comes from a ninja who has definitely done well for us in the past. No word if this will start from the July 11th launch date, or possible be a couple weeks / months out. Unlike you, our ninja can now go home and start enjoying his weekend a bit early.
Supreme Court Could Become an Election Issue Permalink No matter how the Supreme Court rules on the Affordable Care Act, the Court itself could become an election issue, especially if it overturns all or part of the act along partisan lines, with all the Republican appointees voting to overturn it and all the Democratic appointees voting to sustain it. But even if one justice does not follow the party line, the Court is going to come in for a lot of criticism from the losing side. But a 5 to 4 decision along partisan lines is the worst possible outcome, both for the Court itself and for democracy, since it would then become obvious to everyone that the key to winning cases is not having the better case or even the better lawyer, but having more justices from your side than from the other side on the Court. In this light, it is useful to take a closer look at the current justices. Ruth Ginsburg 79 Antonin Scalia 76 Anthony Kennedy 75 Stephen Breyer 73 Clarence Thomas 63 Samuel Alito 61 Sonia Sotomayor 57 John Roberts 57 Elena Kagan 51 Justice Appointed by Sworn in Law school Religion Marital Age Ruth Bader Ginsburg Clinton (D) 1993 Columbia Jewish Widow 79 Antonin Scalia Reagan (R) 1986 Harvard Catholic Married 76 Anthony Kennedy Reagan (R) 1988 Harvard Catholic Married 75 Stephen Breyer Clinton (D) 1994 Harvard Jewish Married 73 Clarence Thomas Bush 41 (R) 1991 Yale Catholic Married 2x 63 Samuel Alito Bush 43 (R) 2006 Yale Catholic Married 61 Sonia Sotomayor Obama (D) 2009 Yale Catholic Divorced 57 John Roberts Bush 43 (R) 2005 Harvard Catholic Married 57 Elena Kagan Obama (D) 2010 Harvard Jewish Single 51 The table above shows a few unusual characteristics of this Court. To start with, there are no Protestants on it. Three of the four Democratic appointees are Jews and the other one, like all the Republican appointees are Catholics. This is the first Court in U.S. history without any Protestants. The other noteworthy feature is that every justice is the product of an Ivy League law school, with Harvard beating Yale 5 to 3 and Columbia scoring one seat. It is difficult to imagine a more elite Court. Furthermore, all but Kagan were Court of Appeals judges prior to their appointments to the Supreme Court. Kagan was Solicitor General. Historically, it wasn't always like this, with a Court full of non-Protestant, Ivy League, judges from the Court of Appeals. Just to provide some perspective, here is the lineup at the Supreme Court just after President Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren to the Court in 1953. Warren, a Republican, went on to lead one of the most activist Courts in history, starting with its decision to ban segregated schools. Justice Appointed by Sworn in Law school Religion Job before appointment Earl Warren Eisenhower 1953 University of California Protestant Governor (R-CA) Hugo Black F. Roosevelt 1938 University of Alabama Protestant Senator (D-AL) Harold Burton Truman 1945 Harvard Unitarian Senator (R-OH) Tom Clark Truman 1949 University of Texas Protestant Attorney General William Douglas F. Roosevelt 1939 Columbia Protestant SEC chairman Felix Frankfurter F. Roosevelt 1939 Harvard Jewish Professor at Harvard Robert Jackson F. Roosevelt 1941 Albany Law but no degree Protestant Attorney General Sherman Minton Truman 1949 Indiana University Catholic Court of Appeals judge Stanley Reed F. Roosevelt 1938 U. Virginia but no degree Protestant Solicitor General In comparison with the current Court, we see that Protestants dominated, Ivy League schools did not (in fact, two justices did not even have a law degree), and only one of the nine had been on the Court of Appeals. What is even more amazing in our current exceedingly partisan environment is the appointment of Sen. Harold Burton (R-OH) by President Truman. When Justice Owen Roberts retired in 1945, Truman decided that it would be a nice gesture to appoint a Republican, so he picked the senator from Ohio, Burton, whom he knew well. The Senate unanimously confirmed Burton the same day as Truman announced the appointment and he took his seat on the Court the next day. In the event of a Supreme Court vacancy this year, it is unlikely that President Obama will nominate Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) and even less likely that the Senate would unanimously confirm him the same day with no hearings at all. A priori, one might think that a court loaded with experienced appellate judges who graduated from the finest law schools in the land with highest honors would be far better at interpreting the constitution than a court full of politicians and cabinet officers, not to mention people without a law degree. In reality, recent Supreme Court decisions have often been bitter 5-4 rulings along ideological lines whereas Brown v. Board of Education, which outlawed segregation in schools, was 9-0, written by the Republican Chief Justice and signed by all the Democrats. How can it be that Antonin Scalia (Harvard Law School, 1960, magnum cum laude) and Stephen Breyer (Harvard Law School, 1964, magnum cum laude) virtually never agree on what the constitution means, even though they probably took the same courses and had the same professors at Harvard? The truth, which nobody wants to say out loud, is that the constitution, adopted in 1787, is silent on most of the issues that are currently contentious so the justices just go with their personal ideology and then try to find some phrase in the constitution that justifies it. Even more peculiar is that the justices who most emphasize strictly interpeting the constitution seem to enjoy invalidating laws duly passed by Congress and signed by the President even though nothing in the constitution authorizes the Court to invalidate laws. In the most famous case of judicial activism in all of U.S. history, Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court decided to invalidate a law, nobody complained much, and they have been doing it with impunity ever since, even though nothing in the constitution itself gives them this power. Barring some fairly unexpected event, the seat most likely to become vacant next is that of Ginsburg, arguably the most liberal justice of all. Not only is she the oldest, but she has had both colon cancer (in 1999) and pancreatic cancer (in 2009). Furthermore, her husband of 56 years died 2 years ago. In the event of her retirement or death (or anticipation thereof), conservatives will fight to the finish to get a conservative justice to replace her so they will no longer be dependent on the unpredictable Anthony Kennedy. Of course, liberals will try to preserve the seat at all costs. Ginsburg has never talked about her future plans, but in the event she is in the minority of a 5 to 4 decision on the ACA, she could decide to resign on the spot, worried about a President Romney replacing her. If she resigned this summer, President Obama would no doubt immediately nominate a successor and the Senate Republicans would filibuster the nomination, no matter who it was. Romney would then come under pressure to name his nominee, but he would never do that because any choice he made would alienate some voters. The net outcome of a Ginsburg retirement would be to put the Supreme Court front and center in the Fall campaign, possibly even overshadowing the economy. On the whole, such a development would help the Democrats, who would rather have the election be about the culture wars than about the weak economy. But all this depends on Ginsburg, of course, and how much she fears Romney replacing her. Of course, like the young invincibles who don't have health insurance, don't want it, and certainly don't want the federal government forcing them to get it, she may think she will last forever (or at least until 2017). But she knows better. It will interesting to watch what she does this year. It could have a big effect on the election. Absent a Ginsburg retirement, the bottom line here is that it is likely the presidential election will be fought over the economy, which the President has relatively little power to influence, rather than Supreme Court appointments, over which the President has complete control. If you like this Website, tell your friends. You can also share by clicking this button Previous headlines
Spread the love Plano, TX — Police officer Jeff Willis is facing disciplinary action after a video surfaced of him violently threatening teenagers because they were smiling at him and not taking him seriously enough. Luckily, one of the passengers in the car was able to get some video footage of the encounter to expose how completely ridiculous officer Willis was acting. The teenagers were at a car meet near the Dallas North Tollway and Spring Creek Parkway when Willis pulled them over because one of the passengers allegedly flipped him the middle fighter from the window. The video begins with officer Willis yelling at the teenagers to stop smiling and then threatened to “drag” the young men out of the vehicle if they did not take the situation, and his authority, more seriously. When one of the young men asked the officer “What did I do?” Willis responded by saying “I don’t know. I just don’t like you, I just don’t like you.” The driver, unable to contain himself, began laughing and said to Willis “Have a great day, officer.” That is when Willis became more aggressive, and made physical threats against the teens, saying “Keep going. Say something else and I’ll drag you out of the car.” Before finally allowing the teens to leave, Willis shouted “Asshole!” and made more threats, but once one of the young men mentioned that he had been recording the whole time, the officer backed off and let them go on their way. John Vibes is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the counter-culture and the drug war. In addition to his writing and activist work, he organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference, which features top caliber speakers and whistle-blowers from all over the world. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his Facebook page. You can find his 65 chapter Book entitled “Alchemy of the Timeless Renaissance” at bookpatch.com.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has apparently bowed in apology to China for atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers during World War Two. However, not all is as it seems. A very realistic Abe robot has appeared at the China International Robot Show in Shanghai, offering a stiff smile and unlimited bows to onlookers, many of whom took selfies with it and shared pictures on social media. Many netizens presumed Abe’s gesture was political and others questioned whether the manufacturer should ridicule the leader of a neighbouring country in such a way. “If the Japanese did this to Chinese leaders, would you accept it?” asked one user on Weibo, China’s Twitter. However, another user said: “If the Americans can make a movie to ridicule Kim Jong-un, why can’t we make a robot to ridicule Shinzo Abe?” China is set to hold a major military parade on September 3 to mark the 70th anniversary of the allied victory over Japan in World War Two. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping said on Friday that President Xi Jinping has invited Abe to watch the parade in person. However, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said a press conference on Monday Abe has not received such an invitation. Japanese media earlier said Abe is unlikely to apologise for Japan’s war crimes in his speech marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the war.
In 2012, then-Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren penned an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal in which he claimed that “Christians in [Gaza and the West Bank] suffer the same plight as their co-religionists throughout the region.” While the diplomat was looking to capitalise on more recent developments in the Middle East – like Netanyahu did at the UN, with his “Hamas is ISIS” mantra – Oren’s claim that Christian Palestinians are being driven out by Muslims is a familiar one. Israel and its supporters have tried to use Christian Palestinians for propaganda point-scoring for some time. For example, back in 1997, and during Netanyahu’s first stint as prime minister, Israeli media cited government sources for reports about the alleged “brutal and relentless persecution” facing Christians in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas. Assessing the coverage in an article for Arab Studies Quarterly the following year, Donald Wagner claimed that Christian Zionists were cooperating with the prime minister’s spokesperson “to exaggerate and politicize accounts of Christians being persecuted and circulated it to the international press.” Almost two decades on, and similar efforts continue. This despite a number of surveys in recent years that indicate the reasons for the shrinking Christian population are rooted in the political and economic conditions of Israeli occupation and apartheid regime. In 1993, 88% of Christian Palestinians asked about emigration specified the economic situation. Fast forward to 2006, and three quarters of Christian Palestinians surveyed cited political conditions and employment as the reason for emigration. In a separate poll of Bethlehem residents conducted the same year, 78% of Christian respondents said “Israeli aggression and occupation” was “the main cause of emigration”. Meanwhile, in a 2008 survey on reasons for emigration, 1 in 3 cited “lack of freedom and security”, 1 in 4 said “deterioration of economy”, and only 0.8% chose “fleeing religious extremism.” But Christian Palestinians are not just affected by Israeli apartheid, they are also resisting it – and in so doing, give the lie to Zionist divide and rule strategies. Here are three examples. Firstly, they are returning to, and trying to defend, their lands – in the Galilee and in the West Bank. In 1948, Iqrit – close to the Lebanese border – was ethnically cleansed by Israeli forces, its residents promised that they would be able to return. This promise was never kept, and their homes were demolished. Since the 1970s, the displaced villagers “have resumed religious ceremonies in their churches whilst still living in enforced exile” – and in 2012, “a group of youth from Iqrit took matters into their own hands by starting an ongoing action to live inside the village church.” It’s not just the youth of Iqrit – in April, a Palestinian Christian family tried to hold a baptism in a church at al-Bassa, “now the industrial zone of the northern Jewish town of Shlomi”, and were attacked by Jewish residents. Shlomi’s mayor, Gabi Naaman, described efforts to renovate or use the church as “trespassing”. Meanwhile, in Beit Jala, part of the greater Bethlehem urban area, local Christian Palestinians have been at the forefront of efforts to protest Israeli land confiscation policies, including through the holding of a weekly mass at the threatened site. Secondly, Christian Palestinians with Israeli citizenship have been resisting renewed efforts at fragmentation and division by the state, as “Christian Arabs” are targeted for military enlistment. Just a few days ago, PM Netanyahu visited Upper Nazareth (a majority Jewish town created on the expropriated lands of Nazareth) to attend an Israeli Christian Recruitment Forum event, a group headed by Father Gabriel Nadaf. Earlier this year, representatives of Orthodox national institutions denounced efforts to recruit Christian Palestinians for the Israeli army, and stressed that “those who call for recruitment and encourage Christian youth to join the occupation army do not represent the church and do not represent Christians of whom the majority reject the army recruitment in its entirety.” Palestinian youth in general have been involved in resisting conscription and national service, activism that has prompted repressive measures by the state – including house arrest for social media posts. Thirdly, Christian Palestinians have also been involved in developing theological responses to Israeli occupation, both for their own communities, and also as a way of communicating with Christians in the West. One prominent example is the Kairos Palestine document, the work of local leaders, clergy and theologians, which addressed fellow Palestinians, Israelis, and “Christian brothers and sisters in the Churches around the world”, in an appeal for solidarity. Kairos Palestine recently marked the fifth anniversary of its launch with a conference in Bethlehem, whose themes included theology, advocacy, youth work, popular resistance, tourism/pilgrimage, and solidarity. Then there is also the long-standing work of Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, and the more recent, Western evangelical church-targeting Christ at the Checkpoint. The former was established around the work of Palestinian theologian Naim Ateek, while the latter is directed and shaped by young Christian Palestinian scholar Munther Isaac. Whether it is looking to return to or keep their land in the face of Zionist colonisation, resisting efforts at divide and conquer, or grounding their communal resistance in a contextualised theology, Christian Palestinians are responding to the “crisis” of Israeli Apartheid in a myriad of ways. They thus highlight both the dishonesty of the Israel lobby’s propaganda, and the true nature of Israeli policies that view both Muslim and Christian Palestinians as part of the same colonised population to be controlled, corralled, or expelled. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
They put up 600 lost dog posters over four days and spent 60 hours pounding the pavement. In fact, the Petersens were so determined to find their beloved Ralphie — they were mistaken for burglars. "We spent so much time on the streets that we had the cops called on us for prowling," said Evan Peterson. His wife, Nicole, even took three days off work to look for her nine-kilo "furbaby." Though the Calgary couple were persistent, they say posting a photo of Ralphie on YYC Pet Recovery helped them track the little dog's adventures from Bankview to the Currie Barracks construction site. The Facebook page helps owners reconnect their lost pets through tips. Janice ter Borg, a volunteer administrator for YYC Pet Recovery, says it's as simple as Facebook page members spreading the word through social media, amplifying the information to thousands of people. 17,000 followers Though she's not sure how many people have been reunited with their pets through the Facebook page, ter Borg says, "We get so much feedback from people who have ... found pets, lost pets." YYC Pet Recovery had about 1,200 followers before the 2013 Alberta flood. "It just blew up from there," says ter Borg. Today, the page has over 17,000 followers and reaches anywhere form 28,000 to 60,000 people a week. Cats and dogs are typically the types of animals that go missing, but there have also been plenty of reunions with turtles, bunnies, ferrets, parrots and doves. More tips Ter Borg says even though it's illegal to let your cat roam freely in Calgary, it's becoming a big problem in the city. She says, sadly, lost kitties are often not found because people just assume they're outdoors cats. If you're not on Facebook, you can still take steps to find your pet. Be sure to report your lost pet to Calgary Animal Bylaw Services and with the Calgary Humane Society, where you should also show up in person regularly to see if your pet has been brought in. You can also call vets in your area, as well as post on Kijiji and hang posters.
Cheuk Hei Ho breaks down Maurizio Sarri’s tactics at Napoli looking at how the Italian giants use passing, blindside movements, and mental overloads to overcome the opposition. When you watch Napoli’s games under Maurizio Sarri, one thing that will jump to your mind is that they play a lot of passes, especially short passes. Napoli passed 11.5 times per percentage of possession last season, leading all 134 teams in the top flight of seven leagues in Europe (Bundesliga, Eredivisie, La Liga, Liga NOS, Ligue 1, Premier League, and Serie A). They play 28% more passes per possession than average (8.6) in these seven leagues. The number jumps to 39% if we only measure short passes. Interestingly, Napoli used very few dribbles: they dribbled once about every 40 passes, a number that ranks them 4th lowest among 134 teams. Therefore, Napoli used a lot of short passes without needing to dribble the ball to create chances. Jorginho’s position during the build-up Jorginho plays as the central defensive midfielder in Sarri’s system. Last season Jorginho shared this position with Amadou Diawara. Diawara is more physical and a better defensive player while Jorginho is a better passer. Both players can send dangerous vertical passes forward if not marked. The following breakdown focuses on Jorginho, but applies to Diawara as well. Napoli often sets up their offensive phase through gradual build-up. Both Raul Albiol and Kalidou Koulibaly can carry the ball forward. The midfielders, especially Jorginho, are their primary pass target. When the center backs have the ball, Jorginho often occupies a strategic position and places himself slightly behind the opponent’s first line of defense: Many teams that focus on possession-based football often have their central defensive midfielder to drop in-between the two center backs to facilitate build-up (such as Pep Guadiola’s teams). Napoli is unusual in that the central defensive midfielder almost never drops to the same line as the center backs. The idea for Jorginho’s position is that by positioning himself behind the opponent’s first line of defense, he is often in their blindsides, making it very difficult for them to cover him using their covershadows. If the opponent wants to cut off the passing lane towards him, they have to either use the first or second line of the defense to chase Jorginho: If the opponent’s strikers focus on marking Jorginho, they basically give up their first line of the defense. Albiol and Koulibaly can often find clear passing lanes upfront, or carry the ball upward. Another option for Napoli is to have other midfielders like Marek Hamsik or Allan to drop back to receive the ball. If the opponent uses their midfielders to pressure Jorginho, they will leave a lot of the space behind, making it very easy for Napoli to exploit. Napoli’s 2-5 or 3-4 shape during the initial build-up Another way that Napoli builds up their offensive phase is to generate overloads with the four defenders and three midfielders. Napoli always lines up in a 4-3-3 formation, but their back seven players rarely play in the 4-3 configuration in the offensive phase. Instead, they often play in a 2-5 or 3-4 shape: In the 2-5 configuration, both full backs will push up to the midfield and form a 5-men midfield to maximize the width of the attack. In the 3-4 configuration, the full-back on the ball-close side will push up to the midfield while the full-back on the opposite side will drop back with the two center backs to create a back-three to maximize passing lanes. The three-midfielders are critical during the build-up. Just like Jorginho uses his positions to confuse and distort the opponent’s lines of defense, Napoli’s three midfielders often stay very close to each other and operate in the spaces between the opponent’s first and second line of defense. They can either lure or overload the opponent’s defenders. Insigne’s blindside movement Compared to Jose Callejon and Dries Mertens, Lorenzo Insigne is a more important piece in Napoli’s build-up. Mertens is the striker and Callejon is a classical winger. Both players mostly connect the ball on the last few passes in the chance creation. Insigne, on the other hand, often switches position with his teammates during the build-up. He is an inverted winger and often drifts inside. Moreover, Napoli’s most successful way to penetrating the opponent’s defense is to use the left flank, with the combinations between Faouzi Ghoulam, Hamsik, and Insigne. Like most of Napoli’s players, Insigne mostly operates in the space between the lines. However, he is their best player in utilizing blindside of the defenders: Fake-run Napoli’s players are always moving in the offensive phase. This article summarizes some of the positional rotation concepts they use to open the opponent’s defense. Here I break down another concept that Sarri uses with his players’ movement: fake-run. It is unlikely that Napoli’s players deliberately decide when to do a fake-run or a real-run. What they have in mind during a game is to move constantly and the players only look for an open passing lane in different scenarios. One important point to note is that Napoli’s players most often move vertically but not horizontally without the ball (other than when the wingers moved centrally to release the full-backs). Moreover, they also often operate in the space between the lines. Again, this set-up allows them to take advantage of the blindside of opponent’s players. The opponents always face Napoli player’s movements and have to make decisions on whether to defend/chase/tackle a player or not at a frequency more than they used to. The end result is that the opponent often loses the defensive shape they prefer. The discussion above focuses on players’ movements while the following discussion focuses on how Napoli uses the passes very differently from 99% of the teams in Europe. The way they use passes is the reason why Sarri is one of the most innovative, if not the most innovative coach in the world. Pass to diffuse pressure These quick exchanges of short passes between Napoli’s players do not look practical on the surface, but they are important for Napoli to advance the players: Imagine when a player carries the ball forward by himself. A defender will be willing to tackle a player carrying the ball by himself. However, when a player advances the ball by Napoli’s way of quick pass exchange, at least two defenders need to commit to mark them in order to mount a successful tackle. This tactic is a way for Napoli to advance the ball while minimizing the pressure upon their players. Pass to speed up the game Napoli uses passes to minimize dribbling. Dribbling is hard compared to passes: The average dribble success rate in Serie A last season is about 61% while the success rate of short passes is about 85%. Moreover, dribbling is slow. Just think about the how long it takes for a player to run with vs. without the ball. In other words, these short passes increase the speed of Napoli’s attack. Second passer as a facilitator Napoli play a lot of backward passes. The goal of these passes is to find and use a second passer / facilitator that has a better passing range to facilitate ball progression. They often use the center backs or Jorginho (who is similar to the center backs and often positions behind the other players). The improved passing range is generated by the wider angle these players enjoy. These extra passes also produce a temporal window where other Napoli players can use different movements to generate passing lanes. Moreover, the constant passes produce numerous changes of the trajectory of the ball and the ball movement becomes unpredictable for the defenders to handle. Mental overloads This breakdown focuses on the most innovative tactic designed by Sarri. Again, Napoli’s players plays a lot of quick short pass exchanges between each other. The idea here is that these passes are itself distractors. In psychological science, it is argued that movement per se does not attract attention, unless it is meaningful. However, in a football game, ball movement is significant. In fact, it is the most meaningful aspect of a match. A defender will almost certainly deploy some attentions to the movement of the ball. Attention is a limited resource. When you use some of it then you have less on other things. A cognitive / psychological phenomenon is called change blindness, where a change in the visual field is not detected even when the visual ability is not affected. A daily example is distracted driving: you paid less attention to driving when you are talking on the phone. The scenario of Napoli’s quick passes is very similar to this behavior. They play so many quick passes and the ball moves so fast and unpredictably that it can attract the attention of the defenders. Napoli’s players take full advantage of this temporal lack of attention to them and often find themselves unmarked in the dangerous area. This tactic is one reason why Napoli seems to be able to penetrate any team with ease. This tactic is innovative. Take a minute and think about regular overload: Overload is a numerical advantage where the defense is overwhelmed temporally and spatially. What Napoli and Sarri are doing is to generate a “mental overload” scenario, a situation that overwhelms the defense’s cognitive / mental ability to deal with the movement of the ball and the players. Tactic like that is a spectacular display of football. Here I tried to deconstruct Napoli’s tactics (only focus on the offensive phase) and showed why Sarri is one of the most, if not the most entertaining, innovative and creative coach in the last five years. Although I broke down their tactics individually, they are often carried out together. For example, fake-run and blindside movement can also cause confusion and can be classified as mental overload. If he continues to improve, Sarri is surely destined to be in the same class as Arrigo Sacchi and Marcello Lippi.
Beyond the Sundance praise, however, The Birth of a Nation seemed poised for success because of its weighty historical subject matter, and its presentation was frequently compared to another Oscar winner, Mel Gibson’s Braveheart. The field beyond The Birth of a Nation is nonetheless rich and different; despite the absence of an obvious blockbuster, there’s a swath of films that seem certain to inspire passionate support and (hopefully) provide a nominee list that isn’t just comprised of familiar faces. La La Land / Summit Entertainment First, there are the festival hits, films that have peaked in recent weeks after successful premieres at Telluride, Venice, or Toronto. Perhaps the most hyped is La La Land (December 2), which won the pivotal People’s Choice Award at Toronto, a common bellwether for the Oscars that in recent years has gone to winners including Room, The Imitation Game, 12 Years a Slave, and Silver Linings Playbook. Directed by Damien Chazelle (Whiplash), the swoony LA-set musical (with original music and lyrics from the Broadway duo Pasek and Paul) has drawn raves for its lead performers Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Moonlight / A24 Telluride saw the debut of Moonlight (October 21), the second film from the independent director Barry Jenkins, who made a small splash in 2008 with his debut Medicine for Melancholy. A powerful coming-of-age story about a young black man, Moonlight is best seen with as little preparation as possible; it’s a film that’s difficult to capture in a few words, or in a single moment. For that reason, it might seem like a more difficult play for Oscar voters—but in a year when Hollywood’s representation is under so much scrutiny, and with critics firmly declaring it one of the must-see movies of the year, it could be a surprise hit. Hidden Figures / Fox Moonlight is a beautiful, singular film, but it shouldn’t have to solely carry the burden of easing the Academy’s embarrassment after its last two years of all-white acting nominees. There are many other exciting projects due starring ensembles of color, like Fences (December 16), an adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer-Prize winning play, which has Denzel Washington directing and starring alongside Viola Davis; Hidden Figures (December 25), a biopic about the African American NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), who calculated the trajectories for the Apollo 11 flight; and Loving (November 4), which stars Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga as the couple who named the Supreme Court case that made interracial marriage legal in America in 1967. Jackie / Fox Searchlight Most of these films seem primed to appeal to voters, who love prestige projects from A-list actors and directors, adaptations of beloved works, and worthy biographical films that address the nation’s past. Other movies along those lines: the Sundance hit drama Manchester by the Sea (November 18), Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (November 11), an unusual Iraq War film based on a novel by Ben Fountain; Live by Night (December), a Ben Affleck-directed 1920s crime film inspired by a Dennis Lehane book; Jackie (December 9), which focuses on Jacqueline Kennedy (Natalie Portman ) in the days after her husband’s assassination; and Lion (November 25), an inspiring tale starring Dev Patel based on the nonfiction hit A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley. Silence / Paramount Pictures One of the longest-gestating adaptations is Scorsese’s Silence (December 23), a film he’s been trying to make since the early 1990s. Based on Shusaku Endo’s 1966 novel, the film explores a fascinatingly ambiguous period of 17th-century Japan, in which Portuguese missionaries spreading Christianity in the country were persecuted by the ruling shogunate. A stirring work about belief in the face of unimaginable suffering, it’s well-suited to its director, who has long struggled with his own Catholic faith, and could garner buzz for its stars Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson, and Adam Driver. 2016 is certainly filled with movies in search of a wider audience, but Scorsese’s ultimate passion project could end up the one that stands out the most. We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.
The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the city of Miami can sue Bank of America and Wells Fargo under federal housing law for allegedly engaging in discriminatory lending practices toward minority borrowers. But in the same ruling, it set a high bar for cities claiming that they too were victims, down the road, of that discrimination. In its lawsuit, filed in 2013, Miami contended that the two banks’ targeting of prospective black and Latino homeowners for riskier, less favorable mortgage loans ultimately drove a wave of defaults, foreclosures and a fall in property values in the city. As a result, Miami argued, it was left with less tax revenue and a rash of blighted homes that forced it to funnel more municipal resources into the affected communities. The Supreme Court held in a 5-to-3 decision that Miami counts as an “aggrieved person” under the Fair Housing Act and therefore may use the law to pursue its claims against the banks. “Here, we conclude that the City’s claims of financial injury in their amended complaints — specifically, lost tax revenue and extra municipal expenses — satisfy the ‘cause-of-action’ ... requirement” in the law, wrote Justice Stephen Breyer. He explained that other localities and nonprofit groups had previously been permitted to rely on the Fair Housing Act to sue over financial injuries, and that Congress had nonetheless chosen not to rewrite the law to prohibit lawsuits by such entities. Breyer was joined in the majority by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. A host of civil rights groups, localities, legal scholars and the Obama administration supported Miami’s stance in the case. The ruling, however, wasn’t a slam dunk for Miami. The justices sent the case back to a lower court to determine whether Bank of America and Wells Fargo’s lending practices were indeed the “proximate cause” of Miami’s losses. The difficulty here is that “the housing market is interconnected with economic and social life,” the Supreme Court said. Acts of housing discrimination may have ripple effects far beyond what Congress intended to address in the Fair Housing Act. “Nothing in the statute suggests that Congress intended to provide a remedy wherever those ripples travel,” Breyer wrote. “And entertaining suits to recover damages for any foreseeable result of an FHA violation would risk massive and complex damages litigation.” In a separate opinion that partly agreed and partly disagreed with the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas all but predicted that Miami won’t be able to show that the banks’ lending practices led to its troubles ― largely because there are far too many other factors separating cause and effect. “In light of this attenuated chain of causation, Miami’s asserted injuries are too remote from the injurious conduct it has alleged,” Thomas wrote. In his view, the city’s diversion of more municipal resources to certain neighborhoods had nothing to do with preventing housing discrimination, which is the purpose of the Fair Housing Act. For the same reason, Thomas added, the law wouldn’t allow homeowners who didn’t face foreclosure to sue the banks for unleashing urban blight that might drive down their property values. Thomas’ opinion was joined by Justices Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito. Justice Neil Gorsuch, who wasn’t on the court when it heard the case in November, didn’t participate in the decision. Miami officials welcomed the ruling. “We look forward to litigating this case further in the Trial Court,” City Attorney Victoria Mendez said in a statement. Bank of America spokesman Lawrence Grayson similarly referenced the ongoing litigation. “Bank of America is committed to the goals and intent of the Fair Housing Act. We believe these claims are without merit and we will continue to defend our interests in this matter,” he said. Tom Goyda, a spokesman for Wells Fargo’s consumer lending unit, sounded a more confident note.
Republicans are expected to win the White House under two economic models that have accurately forecast presidential elections for decades. A third model run by Moody’s Analytics predicts Democrats will win the White House, in part because of President Obama’s rising approval rating. ADVERTISEMENT The three models are being challenged like never before by the presence of GOP presidential front-runner 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, whose campaign has shaken up politics. Trump’s fights with Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzTrump unleashing digital juggernaut ahead of 2020 Inviting Kim Jong Un to Washington Trump endorses Cornyn for reelection as O'Rourke mulls challenge MORE and his other GOP rivals have electrified his supporters but have turned off other voters. A Washington Post-ABC poll last week found that 67 percent of registered voters held an unfavorable view of the outspoken billionaire. That has given hope to Democrats that even with a weakened 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 as their nominee, their party could cruise to victory. “As economists this is a very unusual election and there’s a lot more uncertainty introduced this time around that could upset the balance and the historical relationship of how marginal voters vote,” said Dan White, an economist with Moody’s Analytics who oversees the firm’s monthly election model. Ray Fair, a Yale professor who launched his model in 1978, told The Hill that while all elections include unruly features that an economic model can’t pick up, “this one seems particularly unusual.” “If there’s any time in which personalities would trump the economy it would be this election,” Fair said. Fair’s model has correctly forecast all but three presidential races since 1916 but was wrong in 2012, when it predicted a narrow loss for Obama to Mitt Romney. It relies on just three pieces of information: per capita growth rate of gross domestic product in the three quarters before an election, inflation over the entire presidential term and the number of quarters during the term growth per capita exceeds 3.2 percent. Given the sluggish economy, his model doesn’t show enough growth under Obama to predict a Democratic win in the election. In his most recent forecast from January, his model predicted a 45.66 percent share of the presidential vote for the Democratic candidate, less than the 49 percent it predicted in 2012. The other two models, unlike Fair’s, consider the incumbent president’s approval rating. In both cases, Obama’s improving favorability helps his party’s chances of winning the White House. But only one of those models predicts a Democratic win. Emory University’s Alan Abramowitz, whose model has correctly predicted every outcome since 1992, forecasts a Republican win. It measures the incumbent president's job-approval rating by the end of June of the election year; the economy's growth during the first half of year, especially during the second quarter; and how long the incumbent party has been in the White House. By this methodology, the Democratic candidate can expect to receive 48.7 percent of the vote — with Obama's approval rating at 50 percent — according to his most recent calculation. But since that prediction, Obama’s approval rating has ticked up to 52 percent. Moody’s arrives at a similar result, but one that is better for Democrats. That model, which hasn’t missed an election since it was created in 1980, awards Electoral College votes to each party based on state-by-state outcomes. The most important economic variable is income growth by state, including job and wage growth, hours worked and the quality of the jobs being created in the two years leading up to an election. The model also factors in home and gasoline prices on a state level, as well as presidential approval numbers. The Moody’s equation also includes an additional dummy variable that penalizes Democrat incumbents, stemming from the theory that Democrats and Democrat-leaning independent voters are more likely to switch sides and vote for a Republican candidate than vice versa. Moody’s latest model, set for release this week, shows that the Democratic nominee would take 332 electoral votes compared to 206 for the Republican nominee. The main driver of the change was the president's approval rating, a first-time variable added into the model this year, White said. The president's approval rating has risen 3 percentage points since the first model was released in August. White says the unruly GOP primary may be helping Obama. “The gains lately could be construed as a reflection of what a mess the primary process has become in recent weeks,” he said. Trump, who has high unfavorable ratings among some voter groups, could be giving Obama’s approval rating a boost. Abramowitz told The Atlanta-Journal Constitution last week that “all the noise being made by the presidential campaign, especially by the Republican campaign, has taken attention away from what may turn out to be more significant for the general election — 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’s rising approval rating.” His research has found that the president’s approval rating is an essential predictor of the election results even when the president is not on the ballot, and Obama's has risen to its highest level in many months. White said that one of the most frequently asked questions he gets is whether a Trump variable could be added into the model to test out how his brand of fireworks factors in. No way, he said. “The model doesn’t know or care if there are two or 10 candidates,” he said. “It knows the economics and whether marginal swing voters will keep the incumbent party in or not.” In fact, their models are designed to sweep away the effects of boisterous personalities and the usual ebbs and flows of a long presidential campaign season and instead track specific economic factors that voters deem most important. Justin Wolfers, an economics professor at the University of Michigan and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has researched the reliability of economic models, said that while every election is different the “point of the statistical models is to try to find the underlying similarity across all of them.” “So the logic that says that these models should have worked over the past few decades also says that they should work in this election cycle, too,” he told The Hill. “There's no reason to think the models should do better or worse in 2016,” he said.
(CNN) -- She was 24, a newlywed who moved to Orlando, Florida, with her husband just a few months before she vanished in May 1994. In the 15 years since, there have been no clues or signs of Melisa Brady Sloan, despite periodic searches. Melisa Sloan has been missing since May 1, 1994. Police in Orlando, Florida, are seeking the public's help. The native of Louisville, Kentucky, was close to her family and a devoted nurse working long hours at Orlando Regional Hospital. She disappeared just 10 days before she was due in court to testify against her husband in a domestic violence case. "She loved him and wanted to work things out with him," says Melanie Brady Drury, Sloan's sister. It was a whirlwind romance, Drury said. The two met in Louisville, where Melisa was a nurse and John Sloan was a night security guard at the same hospital. He said he had just been discharged from the Army Special Forces. They dated only a few months before marrying quickly. Within weeks of the wedding, they moved to Orlando. Her family was concerned about the move because they barely knew this new man in Melisa's life. "He was very controlling of her, and that's when the physical violence between them began," Drury said. In early spring 1994, Melisa Sloan called police, saying her husband had beaten her up at their home. According to Drury, Melisa left him and went back to her family in Louisville, but returned a couple of weeks later hoping to work things out. Nancy Grace Nancy Grace is on the case. 8 & 10 p.m., HLN see full schedule » The first week of May, her mother tried calling Sloan but could not reach her for days. On May 7, she finally spoke with her daughter's husband, who said, "She'll call you when she's ready," Drury said. It was then that the family grew worried and reported Sloan missing to police. According to police, Melisa Sloan was with a good friend when she was last seen by anyone other than her husband. She and the friend, a paramedic who worked at the hospital, left work together to go to a street fair, and Sloan did not return home until 2:30 a.m., police said. Watch for more details on the case » The next afternoon, she was captured on a video surveillance camera withdrawing $20 from an ATM. At the Sloans' apartment, police found none of Melisa's personal items, clothes or shoes. The apartment looked as if she had never lived there. All that was left was an old bathrobe, hung on the back of the bathroom door, and her beloved cat, police said. "She would never leave that cat behind, that cat was like her baby," said her sister, Drury. As police searched the home, they found that one of the bedrooms was unfurnished, with only a rifle and knife propped against a wall, said Detective Andre Boren of the Orlando Police. "We searched for days in the woods behind their apartment," Boren said. Three searches have been conducted over the years on the land behind the Sloans' home. The 1-square-mile parcel is federal property. Nearly 75 percent of the property has been searched, Boren said. According to investigators, there was no activity on Melisa Sloan's credit cards, bank accounts, Social Security number or driver's license. Her car was left parked in front of their home. Police quickly focused on John Sloan and named him a person of interest in his wife's disappearance. The phone listed in Sloan's name has been disconnected. He did not respond to e-mails from CNN, or to messages sent through his father. Police say John Sloan has not cooperated with them since the initial questioning. When police first came to the Sloan's home when she was reported missing by her family, he told police his wife had packed up and left with another man. Since then he has refused to speak with police. Last year, homicide detectives attempted to question Sloan in Bellingham, Washington, a city near the Canadian border where he now resides with his new wife and family, but he walked away without answering questions from police. Forensic tests on the Sloan home and Melisa Sloan's car were completed, but police found no evidence of foul play in the car. However, they did find small blood stains in the Sloan home. Investigators have requested DNA samples from Melisa Sloan's family. "We are not resting until we solve this case, and I believe the key to this case is her husband," Boren said. "We've made contact with his current wife, who is now aware of the situation, and we hope she will shed some light for us." Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Melisa Brady Sloan is asked to call the Orlando Police Department at 321-235-5300. All About Missing Persons • Nancy Grace
A pedestrian walks past the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv August 5, 2013. The United States extended embassy closures by a week in the Middle East and Africa as a precaution on Sunday after an al Qaeda threat that U.S. lawmakers said was the most serious in years. The United States initially closed 21 U.S. diplomatic posts for the day on Sunday. Some of those reopened on Monday, including Kabul, Baghdad, Algiers and Israel. (REUTERS/ Nir Elias) JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel on Wednesday said it had foiled an "advanced" al-Qaida plan to carry out a suicide bombing on the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and bomb other targets, in what analysts said was the first time the global terror network's leadership has been directly involved in plotting an attack inside Israel. The Shin Bet intelligence agency said it had arrested three Palestinians who allegedly plotted bombings, shootings, kidnappings and other attacks. It said the Palestinian men, two from Jerusalem and one from the West Bank, were recruited by an operative based in the Gaza Strip who worked for al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri. The State Department said the U.S. was not yet able to corroborate the Israeli claims. While a number of groups inspired by al-Qaida have carried out attacks against Israel before, this appeared to mark the first time an attack was directly planned by al-Qaida leaders. The Shin Bet said the Palestinians planned on attacking a Jerusalem conference center with firearms and then kill rescue workers with a truck bomb. Al-Qaida also planned to send foreign militants to attack the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv on the same day using explosives supplied by the Palestinians, it said. It said five men whose identity and nationality were not disclosed were to fly into Israel with fake Russian passports to attack the American embassy. It was not clear where the men are located. The Palestinian operatives had planned on several other attacks, it said. One included shooting out the tires of a bus and then gunning down passengers and ambulance workers. The agency said it the plot was in "advanced planning stages" but gave no further information on how close the men got to carrying it out. It said the Palestinians from Jerusalem had used their Israeli resident cards to scope out and gather intelligence on targets. They were arrested in the past few weeks, it said. A number of al-Qaida-inspired groups have carried out rocket attacks from Gaza and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, as well as shootings in the West Bank. Israeli intelligence calls these groups part of a "global jihad" movement. Aviv Oreg, a former head of the Israeli military intelligence unit that tracks al-Qaida, said the plot marked the first time it has been directly linked to an attempted attack in Israel. "This is the first time that Ayman al-Zawahri was directly involved," he said. "For them, it would have been a great achievement." The Shin Bet said the three suspects made contact with al-Qaida over the Internet. It said they planned on traveling to Syria — where various jihadist groups are battling the forces of President Bashar Assad — for training. Oreg said that many foreign fighters fighting the Assad regime are from Chechnya and predominantly Muslim parts of Russia and speculated that the militants with the phony documents would be from there. Al-Zawahri's location is unknown, but he was last believed to be in Pakistan. He is the subject of an intense manhunt and is not believed to personally go online or pick up the phone to discuss terror plots, experts say. Last year, a threat that began with a message from the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to al-Zawahri led to the closures of embassies across the Middle East and Africa, a U.S. official said at the time. The message essentially sought out al-Zawahri's blessing to launch attacks. Al-Qaida-inspired groups are on the rise in the Gaza Strip, which is run by the Islamic militant Hamas. These groups accuse Hamas of being too lenient because it has observed cease-fires with Israel and has stopped short of imposing Islamic religious law, or Shariah, in Gaza. In the West Bank, Israel and the Palestinian Authority of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have cracked down on Islamic militants. Three Salafis, members of a movement that advocates a hard-line interpretation of Islamic law, were killed in a shootout with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank last November. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said U.S. investigators and intelligence officials were not yet able to corroborate the Israeli information and declined comment on specifics of the case. "Obviously we're looking into it as well," Harf told reporters Wednesday. "I don't have reason to believe it's not true. I just don't have independent verification." She said there were no plans to evacuate the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and was not immediately aware of stepped-up security measures there in light of the arrests. ____ AP writer Lara Jakes in Washington contributed to this report.
The British arm of the European People’s Party (EPP) has compared the ballot paper for the UK referendum on EU membership to that used by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler to force the annexation of Austria. In an incendiary blog post on his party’s website, Dirk Hazell, chairman of the EPP’s British Committee, called for the UK’s Electoral Commission – responsible for the voting slip – to resign. Hazell is the leader of the 4 Freedoms Party, or UK EPP, which was set up after the British Conservatives left the group to form the European Conservatives and Reformists group. “That 1938 ballot paper goes down in infamy as how not to do it,” Hazell told euractiv.com yesterday (14 March) “But I think in one way the referendum paper is worse than the Hitler ballot paper in that it is subliminal.” The EPP, which is affiliated to the 4 Freedoms Party, distanced itself from Hazell’s comparison to the ballot paper Hitler used in the 1938 Anschluss referendum. That rigged vote led to the Third Reich swallowing Austria with 99.7% support. Spokesman Siegfried Muresan said, “The EPP believes this is an unacceptable comparison given the UK is a fully-fledged democracy. “The EPP will not interfere in the UK referendum. It is completely up to the people of the UK to make their choice and we trust that the referendum […] will fully comply with the highest democratic standards.” The EPP is the largest group in the European Parliament, and counts German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk as members of the same centre-right political family. ‘Biased mess’ Hazell, a former chairman of the London Conservatives who ran unsuccessfully to become an MEP in the 2014 European elections stood by the comparison when contacted by EURACTIV yesterday (14 March). “This is not deciding who is catering officer of the lower Tiddlemarch tiddlywinks club,” Hazell said. “This is major constitutional change and they’ve made a biased mess of the ballot paper.” Anything as brazen as the Hitler paper would make the British public do the opposite, he added, but the Electoral Commission had reflected the 1938 slip’s “visual basis”. Hazell said the Hitler reference was aimed at engaging a British audience. “Everybody knows that all Brits are obsessed by Hitler,” he said. His other blog posts on the subject had not drawn media attention but a reference to the Fuhrer had, he pointed out. Claims Hazell’s blog claims that the Leave option in the Brexit ballot paper is more central than the word Remain, giving it a psychological advantage. That is similar to Hitler’s placing of ‘Ja’ in the centre of his ballot paper, according to the UK EPP leader. Hitler’s ‘Ja’ also benefited from emphasising clear space to the left of the desired choice, said Hazell. The Brexit paper was “getting on for twice as bad as Hitler’s” in terms of emphasising a similar space, he wrote. Hazell goes on to point out other alleged similarities between the two papers, arguing that “leave” is unfairly central on the British ballot. He said, “People who are undecided could be influenced. What we want is the British people to have an honest ballot paper.” Hazell said the ballot paper used in the Scottish referendum on UK membership was a good example of a fair paper. It was neutral and concise, numbering just eight words compared to 51. The Electoral Commission has responsibility for the wording and design of the paper. It said, “We made clear recommendations about the question that should appear on the ballot paper for the EU referendum, which was based on the now well-established approach we have used at other recent referendums and includes research conducted with voters. “We welcome the fact that the UK Parliament accepted our recommendation.”
Barbarian Europe Origin of Odin by Edward Dawson, 1 January 2014 There has always been something a little odd about the Norse and/or German god called Odin, O∂inn, Wodan or Wotan. For one thing his name was not a personification of some natural or supernatural force. For another, Norse tales about him describe a magician, not a god. Normally this might invite curiosity and investigation, but this time an analysis from another direction also led very inevitably to him. It's easy to be fascinated by names and their meanings, and the current author is no exception. Names and words in general change over time. When analysing Celtic names, there were several times when a hard 'g' or hard 'k' sound has been encountered where older or related forms of the same name had a 'w' sound. The first example was 'coed' or 'goed' in Welsh, which means a forest. In English the cognate is 'wood'. The shift in Welsh pronunciation during the Dark Ages meant that 'w' became a 'gu' or 'gw' sound. Wenet (Venedotia in Latin) became Gwynedd (in North Wales). The British tribe called the Votodini (Wotodin) by the Romans became Guotodin and then Gododdin. The problem was that a forest was already called a coed in Brythonic and Gaulish before the Romans arrived. From this it could be concluded that such a 'w' to 'gu' or 'ku', or 'gw' or 'kw' shift had occurred twice in Celtic languages, the first shift occurring in pre-history. The first written mention of Celts is by the Greeks, who called them Celtoi. Later they referred to the Celts as Galatians. In both cases a hard 'k' or 'g' followed by an 'l' and a 't' are in the name. So if the original name began with a 'w', where is the evidence? The evidence is in what Germans have always called them: 'Wahl'-ish. Apparently the 't' sound was softened to 'th' and then dropped. So what does all this have to do with Odin? Quite a lot. Imagine how much of a surprise it was to realise that the word for the very same god was used by the German Lombard/Langobardi tribe: Godan. According to Paulus Diaconus (de Gestis Langobardorum (History of the Langobards), i. 9), it was written 'Godan', or 'Guodan' (Appendix II, page 327 in the PDF version): "...Then the leaders of the Wandals [Vandals], that is, Ambri and Assi, moved with their army, and said to the Winniles: "Either pay us tributes or prepare yourselves for battle and fight with us." Then answered Ybor and Agio, with their mother Gambara: "It is better for us to make ready the battle than to pay tributes to the Wandals." Then Ambri and Assi, that is, the leaders of the Wandals, asked Godan that he should give them the victory over the Winniles... Guodan is again very suggestive of that 'w' to 'gu' shift that is being proposed here. Were the Lombards a mixed Celt/German population? And if so, what was the real meaning of the word? Was it a German word or a Celtic word? What were they describing? A magician, yes? Strabo's work contains this key passage: "...Amongst [the Gauls] there are generally three divisions of men especially reverenced, the Bards, the Vates, and the Druids (para pasi d' hōs epipan tria phula tōn [p. 270] timōmenōn diapherontōs esti, bardoi te kai ouateis kai druidai). The word 'ouateis' ('wateis') is most definitely not the Latin word 'vates'. Strabo was writing in Greek, and he used the Celtic words, bards and druids (in Greek spellings, of course), so ouateis is also the Celtic word, and a close cognate to vates in Latin. This woodcut is entitled 'Odin Rides to Hel', being an illustration by WG Collingwood from The Elder Edda or Poetic Edda FOLLOWING PAGES: Tribal Allegiances Germanic or Gaulish? The Origins of the Huns RULERS OF EUROPE: Angles Venedotia Votadini Vandals Baeldaeg's Folk Celtic Tribes Germanic Tribes Kvens EXTERNAL LINKS: History of the Langobards (PDF) Proto-Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Indo-European Dictionary Translator Indo-European Etymological Dictionary by J Pokorny Shamanism in Siberia Strabo (Book VII, Ch II) Julius Caesar (Ch 50) An Asian shaman, possible inheritor of the same traditions as the Norse A vates is a diviner, a type of magician. And as anyone knows who has actually done magic, divination and evocation/invocation are very closely related activities. You cannot successfully divine without summoning. Etymology So what does this have to do with Odin? The older form of his name is pronounced Wotan or Wodan. So the Latin vates - noun, masculine - seer, prophet. The cognate in Irish is fāith, where the 'v' became an 'f' as it normally does in Gaelic. The Celtic word is highly likely to havebeen close to the Latin. Pokorny states: Anglo-Saxon - Wōden - (prop. n.masc) is given as a reflex (a cognate) for vates. From Etymonline: god. Old English god, 'supreme being, deity', from proto-Germanic guthan (cf. Du. 'god', German 'Gott', Old Norse 'guð', Goth 'guþ'), from proto-Indo-European ghut - 'that which is invoked' (cf. Skt. huta - 'invoked', an epithet of Indra), from the root gheu(e) - 'to call, invoke'. This seems to be a related word. From the Proto-Indo-European Etymological Dictionary by Fernando López-Menchero: wātis = poet wetwos = old And quite revealingly, from the Indo-European Dictionary Translator: qdnos = magic. (this author begs to differ with the translator, as this should begin with 'qw' or 'kw', then a vowel, then '-dnos'.) One has to wonder if Wotan was not a name, but instead a title or job description, 'diviner' and 'magician'. The proposition here is that this is exactly what it was. So how did this become a deity? Odin in history There is plenty of evidence that it was customary among Indo-Europeans to deify powerful and influential individuals. It's been less than two thousand years since Roman emperors were elevated to the status of gods. And indeed, the Catholic Church's habit of sanctifying (making into saints) their best churchmen is a possible outgrowth of that same custom. A fascinating side of this in India is that a god is called a deva, but a godlike non-deva is an an-sura (asura). 'An-' is a negative prefix used the way we say non- or not-. Sura appears to be a very old name for a god. Whether it is older than dewas (deva), or younger or concurrent is unknown. The name of the non-gods who were gods appears in both Hindu and Norse/Germanic traditions. The Hindu Asura are the same 'tribe' of godlike beings which the Norse call Aesir and the Saxon call Os. The name is apparently quite old, but how old? These Asura appear to be lesser beings, men in fact, who became as gods, and the Hindu stories lend credence to the idea of the Aesir being men who were elevated to godhood. (See Tribal Warfare of the Gods in Scandinavia for a more in-depth examination of Aesir and the Norse gods). The Sámi are the likely source for Germanics learning their magic. As with many Eurasian shamanic drums the Sámi drum, above, shows the same division of the worlds that the Norse talk about: a higher world or worlds, a lower world or worlds, and a middle world? Odin is given in many royal genealogies, a direct expression of descent from the god. And let there be no mistake in this, because the line of descent is often through Balday as Odin's son (ASC), a name known in Norse tales as the god Baldur/Baldr, a son of Odin [known in the royal descent of the Angles as Bældæg or Baeldaeg - see his entry in the lists via the links in the sidebar]. There must have been one hell of an impressive magician, a wotan, at some point for them to deify him, because the tough, militant German tribes appear to have had little respect for unmanly men. And the practice of magic was considered unmanly. The Norse word which has come down to us for this unmanly magic is 'sei∂r'. In Norse literature, in the Lokasenna, Loki criticises Odin for practicing Sei∂r, implying it was for women. Three possibilities seem to exist for its origin, and one of them is favoured here. It was either: 1. native to the Germans 2. adopted from the Celts 3. adopted from the Finns The German tribes were at one time restricted to what is now Denmark (and even most of that may have been conquered by Celts at one point), and maybe a small area farther to the north of that, on the Jutland peninsula, plus southern Sweden, and a small area of the southern tip of Norway. RELATED LINKS: Tribal Warfare of the Gods in Scandinavia They would have encountered various Finnish/Kvennish tribes, Sámi, etc to their north, and Celts to their south. While tribal era Germanic religion has its source in all three of the options listed above, The third of them is favoured here as the source of Sei∂r because of the 'unmanly' aspect of sei∂r. To the north and north-east of the Indo-Europeans, and extending far into Siberia, there existed a broad band of many peoples who practiced shamanic magic. That magic was often gender-bending, ie. men acting as women and vice-versa. The Finnish tribes were at the far western edge of that spectrum of shamanic practice. And the Finns were famous among the Norse as magicians. In Shamanism in Siberia by M A Czaplicka, part 3, chapter 12, the author mentions numerous instances of male shamans wearing women's clothes, women's hair styles, and other female customs. There would be no connection to this except that in Germany by the Roman writer Tacitus he states: "It will be sufficient to name the most powerful of them - the Arii, Helvecones, Manimi, Elysii, and Naharvali. In the country of the latter is a grove, consecrated to religious rites of great antiquity. A priest presides over them, dressed in woman's apparel..." Strabo (Book VII, Chapter II) describes German women killing captives and divining from the blood, and Julius Caesar (Chapter 50) their dependence on divining before battle. There would be great benefits in the form of influence and power for any man who adopted the female role of magician; and from Tacitus we have testimony that such did occur. The theory being put forward here is that, at some point in the pre-history of Scandinavia, there was at least one period in which a priesthood took social control of the Germans there (effectively kings, whatever they were actually called). If you read the cosmology of Siberian tribal people (the last survivors in the practice of Eurasian traditions), it shows startling similarities to the cosmology recorded in the Eddur. Priests tend to talk shop with each other. And the German priests evidently picked up techniques and cosmology from non-Indo-Europeans, probably the Kvens/Finns. Whoever was the Wotan (the magician-priest, a title not a name) most likely used his skills to assist his tribe(s), converting a basic 'hit enemy over head' group into a craftier, better motivated culture, with the priests sending the armies into battle after sacrifice and the divination of success. The few descriptions of Wotan in the Eddur seem to fit better as Asian shamanism than Indo-European. To muddy the gender issue even more, a small silver figure dated to around AD 900 was found in Lejre in Denmark in 2009. It showed a seated Odin, identified by his two ravens and two wolves, and the figure is dressed in women's clothes. Male shamans in Siberia were reported by M A Czaplicka as wearing a pair of circles on their shirts, to represent breasts. Wotan appears to have been nothing more than a deified shaman, a magician and diviner. The Lejre Odin, named after the location in Denmark in which it was found and dated to around AD 900-960 This standing stone was found on the island of Gotland, immediately to the east of modern Sweden, and depicts Vikings with their boats and armaments, which were a development of those of the early Germanic settlers around the Scandinavian coastal regions Appendix Pokorny's work, the Indo-European Etymological Dictionary: In ancient India the alternative name for a deity (a deva, from proto-Indo-European deiwos) was sura. The word means shining or blazing. A second type of god, however, was the ansura or asura. These were 'not-shining' gods. The name is used by several Indo-European peoples, including the German tribes, who shortened the word to Os or As (Old Norse Aesir). Wotan is the Norse chief of the 'not-shining' an-sura. Here's that name. Root / lemma: sā́uel-, sāuol-, suu̯él-, suel-, sūl-, (sweĝhuel-) English meaning: sun German meaning: 'Sonne' Note: Root / lemma: sā́uel-, sāu̯ol-, suu̯él-, su̯el-, sūl-, (seĝhuel-): 'sun' derived from a compound of Root / lemma: se- : 'reflexive pronoun' + Root / lemma: ĝhel-1 (and ghel-ö), also as i-, u- or n-stem; ĝhelǝ- : ĝhlē-, ĝhlō- : ĝhlǝ- (ĝhwel-): 'to shine; green, gold, blue, sun'. Note: next to which su̯en-, sun-, thus of old l/n-stem; su̯el- 'smolder, burn' is probably identical with it. Material: Note: Oldest cognate illyr.-alb. (ĝhel-) diell 'sun' [alb.-illyr. ĝh- > d- shift]; Phonetic evidence: see Root / lemma: gʷel-1 : 'to stick; pain, death': gr. δέλλιθες 'Wespen', Hes.; βελόνη f. 'Spitze, Nadel', ὀξυβελής ὀιστός Hom.; aber βέλος n. 'Geschoß' wohl eher zu βάλλω, s. öber den sekundören Zusammenschluß mit letzterer Sippe unter 2. gʷel- 'herabtröufeln; werfen'; uber ὀβελός, ὀβολός, ark. dor. ὀδελός 'Spitze, Bratspieß, Mönze' s. Schwyzer Gr. Gr. I 295; gr. Kret. (seĝhuel-) ἀβέλιος Hes. (i.e. ἀ̄Fελιος), gr. hom. (heuu̯eli-os) ἠέλιος, att. (zero grade) ἥλιος, dor. (heu̯eli-os) ἀέλιος, ἅ̄λιος [common gr. -kw- > -p-, -gw- > -b- phonetic mutation] : Old Indian ved. (suu̯el) súvar, Gujarati surdj 'sun' : (seĝhuel-) got. sugil, ags. sygel, sigel from proto germ. sugila-, as.swigli 'bright, radiating' from swegila-, ags. sweg(e)l n. 'sky, heaven, sun', swegle 'bright, radiating'. 1. Old Indian ved. (suuel) súvar n. = (zero grade) av. hvarǝ 'sun, light, sky', Gen. (suu̯ela) súraḥ = jav. (suuelio) hūrō, Old Indian sū́rya- (sūlii̯o-) m. (compare gr. ἥλιος), sūra- m. 'sun'; therefrom Old Indian sūrta- 'light, bright', Old Indian svárṇara- m. 'bright space, ether', av. x ̌arǝnah-, ар. -farnah-'shining fame, magnificence'; Other forms in Indo-Aryan: (suu̯el-a)suu̯ar- [in names] 'sun(god)' (Near-Eastern IA); Av.: OAv. huuarǝ̄ [n] (< húuar) 'sun' (gen.sg. xvǝ̄ṇg < huuánh); LAv. huuarǝ (gen.sg. hū < huu̯ánh, next to hūrō = Ved. sū́ras), Sogd. (Man.) xwr 'sun', Middle Persian xwr 'sun', New Persian xwr 'sun', Oss. xūr / xor'sun' Maybe Afghan lmar, Waziri lmer, myer 'sun' from Old Indian svárṇara- m. 'bright space, ether'; Armenian arew, aregak, arev, Singhalese ira 'sun'. Main Sources Indo-European Dictionary Translator Julius Caesar (Ch 50) Paulus Diaconus - de Gestis Langobardorum (History of the Langobards) Pokorny, J - Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Proto-Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Shamanism in Siberia Strabo (Book VII, Ch II) Text copyright © Edward Dawson. An original feature for the History Files.
CLOSE Solar Over Louisville seeks to increase solar power usage to 2 megawatts by next year. The Courier-Journal One man's drive for cleaner energy has run up against historic preservation guidelines in a Louisville neighborhood. Buy Photo The solar panels on the roof at 173 William Street in Clifton. March 30, 2016 (Photo: By Michael Clevenger, The Courier-Journal)Buy Photo Story Highlights Panels should not be visible from the street, city says. Homeowner contends they need to be on south facing roof for optimal performance. Dispute comes as largely coal-fired city embraces a push to make clean solar power mainstream. A Louisville resident's rooftop solar installation has collided with one neighborhood's historic preservation requirements, setting what city officials described as a first-of-its-kind architectural design battle. The dispute comes as a largely coal-fired city begins to weigh just how much it will embrace making clean solar power mainstream. In a sign of solar's growing pains, however, city planners have told Clifton resident Mark Frazar that the solar panels he installed in December 2014 on his William Street home violate historic preservation rules because they are visible from the street. He was fined $100, and, after an appeal, his case has been set for a hearing by an architectural review board April 13 to determine whether they need to be removed. "They are hanging their hat on visible from the street," saying that's not allowed, said Frazar, a project manager for an architectural firm, in an interview. "That's certainly making it pretty difficult." Frazar has spelled out his case in correspondence obtained by The Courier-Journal through the Kentucky Open Records law. "I ask you to take into account our need for lower energy consumption and renewable energy sources," and conditions specific to his home, he wrote to city planners. Solar panels need southern exposure, he said. At his home, he limited panels to a south-facing roof atop a rear, second-story camelback portion of his shotgun-style 19th-century home. For their part, city officials insist their policies in neighborhoods with historic preservation rules do not hinder residents from adding solar panels. Frazar should have sought what the city calls a certificate of appropriateness, said Develop Louisville spokesman Will Ford, who said this was the first time solar panels have gone before an architectural review committee after those solar panels had already been installed. "If the homeowner would have consulted with the urban design team before installing the solar panels, they could have worked as a team to find a solution for the location of the solar panels on the property," Ford said. "Solar panels are treated like other proposed exterior changes in a historic district. "Solar panels are not discouraged in historic districts, but they must fit within the guidelines of the historic district." City solar push Frazer said he was not aware of any limits on solar panels when he reviewed the guidelines in 2014. Seven Louisville neighborhoods have been designated historic districts, requiring government oversight of exterior alterations, demolition and new construction and installation of solar panels: Butchertown, Clifton, Cherokee Triangle, Limerick, Old Louisville, Parkland and West Main Street. His challenge comes at a time when Mayor Greg Fischer has blessed a Solar Over Louisville effort that seeks to persuade Louisvillians to install 2 megawatts of solar capacity this year. That's roughly enough capacity for 333 typical homes, said Nancy Givens with Solar Over Louisville. The Louisville Metro Council also last year passed a strongly worded resolution in support of solar power, encouraging the discussion and promotion of solar use on public and private buildings. Frazar included that resolution in his appeal. In August, The Courier-Journal reported that solar installers acknowledged that workarounds in historic districts are possible in some situations, but sometimes the limitations mean not enough panels can be put on a roof to cover a home's electricity needs, or the panels cannot be installed for optimum efficiency. Frazar has support from the David Coyte, land-use and preservation chair of the Clifton Community Council. "I am more than sympathetic," said Coyte. "My position is that if we don't allow such things (as solar panels) there won't be a future to value the history we are seeking to protect," citing concerns about global warming and a need for cleaner energy. "We should welcome and support anyone in Clifton who is seeking to develop alternative energy resources," he said. Buy Photo The solar panels on the roof at 173 William Street in Clifton on the yellow house second from left. March 30, 2016 (Photo: By Michael Clevenger, The Courier-Journal) Records show that Frazar did consult with city officials after he was cited last year but with less than satisfactory results. Frazer in January told officials that moving the panels to the rear roof would have cost $3,000 and would have made the panels 30 percent less productive. Fifty feet from curb "Initially, I expected a return on investment at 11 years (but) those two factors might push it closer to 25," he wrote. "For those reasons, I really feel I have no choice to appeal to the board to maintain the current location." He said he avoided the part of his roof that was closer to William Street, keeping the panels 50 feet from the curb. They are mounted "low and tight" to a new metal roof that was designed to reflect roofing common to the 1890s, he wrote. Further, "one can't help note that the routine installation of satellite dishes, antenna and both ground and window mounted air conditions ... that are "generally more obtrusive to the historic profiles of homes and businesses than are solar modules." Frazar asked city officials to recognize that when homes on his street were built, there were no utility poles, transformers, telephone wires or electric and gas meters - and there were outhouses out back. "It seems to me that that with changing energy needs there must be some greater allowance for even these small but historic structures to adapt to the times." Reach reporter James Bruggers at (502) 582-4645 and at jbruggers@courier-journal.com. If you go: Clifton Architectural Review Committee 6:30 p.m. April 13 Develop Louisville, 444 South Fifth St., Room 101 . Read or Share this story: http://cjky.it/1MVv2PV
CALGARY — The Calgary Stampeders locked up some key young Canadian talent on Thursday, announcing they’ve agreed to a contract extension with defensive lineman Ben D’Aguilar. D’Aguilar was due to become a free agent on Feb. 9. In 2015, his third season with the Red and White, D’Aguilar appeared in nine regular-season games and recorded four tackles, one special-teams tackle and one fumble recovery. The Hamilton product saw action in both of the Stamps’ playoff contests and made a pair of special-teams tackles. “Ben has battled through injuries during his time with the Stamps but when he’s been on the field, he’s shown the ability to be a difference-maker on special teams,” said Hufnagel. “I look forward to seeing him play a full season and for him to be a contributor both on special teams and on defence.” In 31 career regular-season games, D’Aguilar has 25 special-teams tackles, two defensive tackles, two fumble recoveries and one forced fumble. He was Calgary’s second-round draft selection in 2013 after a standout career at McMaster University. “Calgary is home for me now and I’m very happy to be staying home,” said D’Aguilar. “I’m eagerly awaiting the new season.”
For many photographers, shooting the Olympics is a dream assignment. For the next few weeks, veteran Getty shooter Streeter Lecka will be on the ground in London to capture the games in all their athletic glory. Before the action got under way, he gave us a tour of the gear he'll be using to get shots of everything from gymnastics to rowing. You can keep up with Streeter and the rest of the Getty shooters at their Live From London site. How many bodies did you bring with you? I actually brought four bodies all together. In the bag that I'll take on a daily basis will be the two Canon 1D Xs. The other two are the older 1D Mark IVs which I'll use as remote cameras. How much of a beating do you expect them to take over the course of the games? I'll give them a run through the ringer on this one for sure [laughs]. By the time we're done with the next couple weeks, they're probably going to need to go into Canon Professional Services to get checked up. Especially the older cameras. A lot of times we'll put the remote bodies in places where they might get a little wet or otherwise beat up. How much do you rely on the remote shots? 99% of the time, the pictures I make are going to come from the hand-held. The remotes are really there in case I want to try something unique or different. It's really just icing on the cake if you get something from that. How do you fire them? I've got four Pocket Wizards, but normally I'll only be carrying around two of them. How many frames do you expect to shoot in an average day? To be honest, I'm not sure, but I would say it will probably be somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 depending on what events I'm doing. You have to consider the speed at which things are happening and then you're only picking and choosing a handful of images. What is your lens selection like? I have a 400mm F/2.8, which is my big lens that I'll be using all the time. I have two 70-200mm lenses. One is the newer F/2.8L IS II and I also have an F/4. If I'm shooting something outdoors during the day, the F/4 will be fine. But anything that's going to be shot at night or in a dark arena, I'm going to bring the F/2.8. As far as wide angle lenses are concerned, I'll take a 16-35mm F/2.8 and a 15mm fisheye lens as well.
Project 39: Unit testing with XCTest Written by Paul Hudson @twostraws Description: Learn how to write unit tests and user interface tests using Xcode's built-in testing framework. Need help? I put together answers for 600 of the most frequently asked questions I received from readers into one place: the Swift 4 Knowledge Base. It answers basic and advanced questions, and provides lots of free code you can re-use however you please. If you hit problems, try searching there first. If you're still having problems, you can post to the Hacking with Swift subreddit where you can expect an answer fairly quickly, or you can find me on Twitter where I'll do my best to help. Project files The project files for Hacking with Swift are all available on GitHub, where you can view them, fork them, or download them: click here for the GitHub repo.
The consequences haven’t always followed a predictable pattern, reflecting an evolving definition for what’s out of bounds, or at least politically survivable. “We are in the middle of a debate that is determining where the boundaries are, and the actions of the individuals are helping determine where those boundaries are,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on political rhetoric. Each resignation or ouster defines new norms, but it’s a messy business. Kelly Dittmar, a political scientist with the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, frames the national conversation academically. In any good policy process, the first step to addressing the problem is defining it. She points to Anita Hill’s testimony during the 1991 confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Hill’s account of his boasts about his sexual prowess and repeated propositions of her divided the nation. Many people disbelieved and targeted her — a disheartening setback for anyone who’d hoped victims and accusers would no longer be vilified. “At that point, it was just being willing to say that sexual harassment existed and that it was a problem,” Dittmar said. “Now we’re in, at least to me, the stage of trying to define what actually counts as sexual harassment and who gets to be the arbiter of that.” Changing tolerance Sexism and sex scandals in Washington are nothing new. But the flood of recent allegations reflects a growing intolerance of misconduct. A recent CNN poll indicates Americans view the problem more seriously than two decades ago. Seven out of 10 say it’s a “very” or “extremely serious problem,” nearly double from a CNN/Time poll conducted in 1998. Sixty percent of respondents said a politician facing credible allegations should resign. Mark Jones, a Rice University political scientist, said the lens through which Americans view allegations has changed. The Bill Clinton intern sex scandal, and many previous ones, he said, were seen more from the viewpoint of marital infidelity and immorality. “Now it’s viewed much more as harassment and abuse of power,” he said. Another change, Jones noted, is that parties are generally quicker to abandon the accused as Americans move toward a zero-tolerance policy.
The recent Netflix crackdown on cross-border watchers has plenty of Canadians fuming. That's because they're now blocked from hopping virtual borders to watch Netflix shows restricted to other countries. Some other Canadians are fuming too, but they have a different target. Complaints about the crackdown have sparked a backlash by people who feel the whiners got what they deserved. "Hammer them good, Netflix," commented one reader on a CBC article about the issue. "So tired of people expecting the world for $9.99 a month." Yes, border hoppers broke Netflix's rules by, say, sneaking into its rich U.S. library to watch shows and movies not offered in Canada — such as the Canadian hit TV series Degrassi. But here's the problem: for years, Netflix customers freely hopped borders with no repercussions. Then in mid-January, the company suddenly changed its tune and started fiercely hunting down border hoppers. So don't affected customers have a right to be upset — even if they were defying company policy? Because, for years, Netflix led border-hopping customers to believe that sneaking into other countries' libraries wasn't really a problem. "Netflix has jilted us customers because it changed a long-standing practice," says David Ellis, who teaches communications at York University and has been a Netflix customer since the company arrived in Canada in 2010. He also enjoyed border hopping until Netflix recently blocked his access. 'Take your [$9.99] and shut up' Netflix states in its policy that customers have to stick to shows available in their own country. That's because Hollywood studios often insist on geographically restricted licensing agreements. So some people believe customers now cut off from border hopping got their just deserts. "Seriously. Take your [$9.99] and shut up," commented a CBC News reader, referring to the monthly price of membership. "Because a show exists in the world doesn't entitle you to watch it for [$9.99] a month," echoed another. "People are getting upset because Netflix finally cracked down on a way to cheat the system," chimed in another reader. But that's the point — people are upset because Netflix "finally" cracked down. A 'wink-nudge thing' For three years, customer Myron Groover freely and easily accessed Netflix shows restricted to other countries. Groover uses a virtual private network, or VPN, which hides his location because he wants to protect his identity online. The VPN also enabled him to hop borders and watch TV series such as Sons of Anarchy and Bob's Burgers, available in Netflix's U.S. library but not in Canada. Groover, who lives in Hamilton, believes Netflix purposely turned a blind eye to the fact he and many other customers were skirting company rules. "It wasn't just laissez-faire, they were absolutely cognizant of fact that a lot of people were getting around geoblocking," he says. "It was kind of this wink-nudge thing." That was until the crackdown. Now Groover can only access Netflix Canada, and only if he shuts off his VPN . "They changed the whole business model," he says. "It's justifiable that consumers are going to be upset about that." People are complaining they've been blocked from watching Netflix shows not offered in their own country. (Allana Mayer) 'Semi-sanctioned' border hopping No, Netflix had never openly condoned hopping borders. It was more subtle than that. According to Sony Pictures emails leaked following a recent cyberattack, company executives complained back in 2013 that Netflix wasn't doing enough to stop abusers. One suggested the company "semi-sanctioned" border hopping, because it led to more Netflix subscribers. "Netflix are heavily resistant to enforcing stricter financial geofiltering controls," added the executive in the email. "Netflix can and should do a much better job," echoed another Sony official in a second memo. Why so effective now? In January 2015, Netflix stated publicly that detecting cross-border watchers was difficult, likening it to "playing a game of whack-a-mole." Yet somehow with this new crackdown, the company's actions are proving quite successful. Border-hopping customers across the globe are now crying that their access has been blocked. Could it be new technology? When CBC News asks Netflix about the crackdown, it tells us it has nothing more to say and refers us to a company blog on the issue. The blog implies that Netflix has something new up its sleeve to detect border hoppers. "This technology continues to evolve," it states. But the company has refused to provide details about what methods it's using and if anything has changed. Hollywood made them do it? To be fair, Netflix most probably had no choice when it introduced the crackdown. Many tech experts speculate that the company's hand was forced by pressure from rights holders to stick to its territorial licensing agreements. But perhaps the company could have handled its crackdown in a more customer-friendly way. York instructor Ellis argues Netflix should have searched for a better solution than suddenly blocking viewers' access. "If we have to agree to this so-called set of rules, the territorial approach to making money that Hollywood has always thrived on," says Ellis, "then we have to have a discussion about a much better remedy." In a way, Netflix agrees. It's investing more money in original programming and has stated that "licensing content across the world" is the ultimate solution. But, until we reach this utopian state, the company says it's committed to the crackdown. And it expresses no remorse for confusing border-hopping customers who for years freely watched what they wanted. According to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, those across the globe who enjoyed sneaking into each others' libraries are just "a very small but quite vocal minority."
The defamation lawsuit discusses how Oliver created a "villainous" portrait of Murray, 77, who "needs a lung transplant" and who "does not expect to live to see the end of this case." HBO has been hauled into court over a June 18 broadcast of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, which covered President Donald Trump's generous treatment of the coal industry. The plaintiff in the defamation case is conservative coal baron Robert Murray, Murray Energy and other associated coal companies. In a complaint filed in West Virginia Circuit Court, first obtained by The Daily Beast, Murray alleges his reputation was harmed when Oliver stated that there was no evidence an earthquake caused a deadly 2007 mine collapse and implied that Murray had lied about it. The lawsuit also cites alleged implications that Murray Energy sacrifices safety and the health of its employees for profits and takes issue with the refusal of Last Week Tonight to regard information supplied or pointed out by Murray. Then, there's the humor. "Instead," reads the complaint (read here), "Defendants continued their ruthless character assassination and attack on Plaintiffs' business reputations by describing Mr. Murray as someone who 'looks like a geriatric Dr. Evil' and arranging for a staff member to dress up in a squirrel costume and deliver the message 'Eat Shit, Bob!' to Mr. Murray." This is a dangerous time for media companies to poke at corporate interests. Murray's lawsuit was filed as ABC is engaged in a $5.7 billion trial in South Dakota for calling a company's beef product "pink slime." ABC is being represented by attorneys who previously handled for HBO — and won — a 2015 trial over a Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel report alleged to have tarnished a company that used child labor in India to stitch soccer balls. A spokesperson for HBO told The Daily Beast, "While we have not seen the complaint, we have confidence in the staff of Last Week Tonight and do not believe anything in the show this week violated Mr. Murray's or Murray Energy's rights." Murray has been legally aggressive against media companies. He is presently suing The New York Times over an editorial that discussed the deadly mine collapse and engaged in an important case with Reorg Research over the identity of anonymous sources informing a report about collective bargaining and negotiations with debt holders. The latest lawsuit talks about how Oliver created a "villainous" portrait of Murray, 77, who "needs a lung transplant" and who "does not expect to live to see the end of this case." According to the complaint, "this callous, vicious, and false attack upon Mr. Murray and his companies was Defendants' most recent attempt to advance their biases against the coal industry and their disdain for the coal-related policies of the Trump Administration."
The funniest comedians are more likely to die young, according to a new scientific paper. Researchers found the difference was especially pronounced in double acts and comedy teams – with the funniest member three times more likely to die sooner than the straight man. Professor Simon Stewart and Professor David Thompson examined 53 male British and Irish comedians born between 1900 and 1954. Their sample included both individuals and those in comedy partnerships such as Morecambe and Wise or Monty Python. But women were excluded to avoid differences in longevity due to gender. All comedians were given a subjective score from 1 (relatively funny) to 10 (hilariously funny). The 23 with the highest ranking scores were deemed as ‘elite comedians’. Of those, 18 (78 per cent) had suffered a premature death, compared to 12 (40 per cent) who are still alive. The mean age of death for the elite group is 63 years. For everyone else the mean is 72. As an example, Ernie Wise lived to 73, while Eric Morecambe, died at 58. Professor Stewart, director of the Mary MacKillop Institute of Health Research at Australian Catholic University, said his research team were surprised by the strength of their findings. And he said mental health issues such as mania and depression help shape the talents of elite comedians and may explain their reduced lifespan. ’It is sobering to think that many of the people who make us laugh the most are vulnerable to emotional and psychological distress that leaves them at risk of a premature death,’ he said. ‘The fate of our elite comedians reminds us of the importance of achieving a balance between our mental and physical well-being. Many of the people we think of as most vibrant and strong in their public persona may be struggling at the personal level. ‘Ultimately, our comedians may well pay a high individual price for making us all laugh – knowing that laughter is good medicine overall and we would be the poorer for not having them as a key component of our community.’ Published: 8 Dec 2014
PROVINCETOWN, Mass., Oct. 30 (UPI) -- A large blue shark that washed up on a Massachusetts beach and regurgitated its own stomach has hope of survival thanks to some quick help from the public. The Center for Coastal Studies said the 6-to-7-foot blue shark was found on a Provincetown beach Tuesday morning and it appeared to have regurgitated its stomach, which the center described as "a relatively common stress reaction." Residents used buckets to pour water on the shark while plans to tow the predator back into the water were finalized. Harbormaster Rex McKinsey, who contacted the Center for Coastal Studies, was among those organizing the rescue. "[CCS] told me, 'If you could ease the stomach back into the mouth, that would be good.' Well, that sounded pretty dangerous to do by hand, so a cane was employed," he told the Dodo. Blue shark stranded in Provincetown Harbor. Regurgitated stomach visible on bottom left. CCS image. Posted by Center for Coastal Studies on Tuesday, October 27, 2015 McKinsey identified the shark as a female, but Charles Mayo, a senior scientist at the Center for Coastal Studies, said the fish appeared to be a male. McKinsey and Mayo were able to tow the shark back out into the water, where it swam away. Preparing to move the shark into the shallows. Provincetown Harbormaster Rex McKinsey in the yellow jacket, Scott Landry to his right. Volunteer Lane keeps the shark wet. CCS image. Posted by Center for Coastal Studies on Tuesday, October 27, 2015 "It swam, but my guess is it's probably not going to do very well. It's probably been on the beach for too long," Mayo told the Boston Globe. "But we've given it as much hope as we can, so we'll see." McKinsey said he was more hopeful about the shark's prospects after 48 hours passed without the predator washing back up on shore.
Ruby, Serialization, and Enumeration In which a curious backtrace uncovers scandalous truths about ActiveSupport and Ruby’s IO object. Square Engineering Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 25, 2014 Written by Xavier Shay. We came across an interesting Ruby puzzler the other day. Code that had been working fine had started failing during serialization with a scary looking backtrace from within activesupport: json.rb:128:in `each': not opened for reading (IOError) from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:128:in `to_a' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:128:in `as_json' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:159:in `block in as_json' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:159:in `each' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:159:in `map' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:159:in `as_json' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:50:in `as_json' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:159:in `block in as_json' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:159:in `each' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:159:in `map' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:159:in `as_json' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:50:in `as_json' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:159:in `block in as_json' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:159:in `each' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:159:in `map' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:159:in `as_json' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:50:in `as_json' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/json/encoding.rb:34:in `encode' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/json/encoding.rb:21:in `encode' from /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rb:37:in `to_json_with_active_support_encoder' from test.rb:15:in `<main>' The issue was isolated to a particular change to a class that was being serialized inside a larger data structure (which I’ve further simplified): require 'active_support/all' class Metric attr_reader :timestamp, :value def initialize(timestamp, value) @timestamp = timestamp @value = value @logger = Logger.new($stdout) end end metric = Metric.new(Time.now, 5) puts metric.to_json The addition of the @logger variable was causing the problem, even though it was never used! Commenting out that line made the problem go away. This is certainly non-intuitive. What is going on? Let’s find out. One of Ruby’s best features is the transparency of its libraries. We have the full path to the source of the exception right there in the backtrace. Opening up /gems/activesupport-4.1.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/object/json.rbin your favourite editor (obviously your path will be different) gives a major hint: this file is monkey-patching a number of core classes to support serialization. module Enumerable def as_json(options = nil) #:nodoc: # ... end end class Hash def as_json(options = nil) #:nodoc: # ... end end # ... and many more! Looking at the Metric code above, how did it know how to serialize the object to JSON in the first place? Sure enough, elsewhere in json.rb (which also appears in our stack trace): class Object def as_json(options = nil) #:nodoc: if respond_to?(:to_hash) to_hash.as_json(options) else instance_values.as_json(options) end end end Metric does not implement to_hash, so all of its instance variables are being included in the JSON representation. That explains why the unused @logger variable was the difference between success and failure. An easy fix then is to implement to_hash. Even if @logger was serializing correctly, it is unwanted in the JSON output. However that still doesn’t explain the opaque error: not opened for reading (IOError). The quickest way to track that down, since we already have json.rbopen, is to add some quick debugging output before the line that failed: module Enumerable def as_json(options = nil) #:nodoc: puts self.inspect to_a.as_json(options) end end This is why library transparency in Ruby is particularly amazing: you can also modify them in-place and see the results immediately! In this instance a single line is output: #<IO:<STDOUT>> That explains it. For better or worse, IO objects in Ruby are enumerable. The semantics here are questionable: to_a is indeed part of the Enumerable interface, but making an IO into an array doesn’t really make sense. And having each chunk on line breaks is somewhat arbitrary anyway. This mismatch has historically dogged Enumerable and uses of that interface. Take this gem from rspec-expectations: if String.ancestors.include?(Enumerable) # 1.8.7 # Strings are not enumerable on 1.9, and on 1.8 they are an infinitely # nested enumerable: since ruby lacks a character class, it yields # 1-character strings, which are themselves enumerable, composed of a # a single 1-character string, which is an enumerable, etc. # # @api private def enumerable?(item) return false if String === item Enumerable === item end else # @api private def enumerable?(item) Enumerable === item end end The comment says it all really! Funnily enough, the caller of this method has to special case IO as well: def surface_descriptions_in(item) if Matchers.is_a_describable_matcher?(item) DescribableItem.new(item) elsif Hash === item Hash[ surface_descriptions_in(item.to_a) ] elsif enumerable?(item) begin item.map { \|subitem\| surface_descriptions_in(subitem) } rescue IOError # STDOUT is enumerable but `map` raises an error item.inspect end else item end end String is no longer Enumerable since Ruby 1.9. Should IO follow in its footsteps?
Ōkami, painterly and poised, was a fairy-tale told with elegance and style. You played as a wolf god but this was a game rooted, not in the mystical, but in the pastoral. Wave a celestial paintbrush and you could revive wilted plants, raise vines, and even summon the sun. Such magic was localised, alas: shortly after Ōkami's release, Capcom shuttered the game's developer Clover Studio. A few weeks later its director, Hideki Kamiya, struck out on his own, co-founding Platinum Games (initially known as Seeds). It took three years to build, but when Bayonetta emerged in 2009, it showed Kamiya in a very different mood. Furious, playful, lascivious and grand, the game's Sarah Palin-esque star wore slick leathers, thick-rimmed frames and a demon-possessed hairdo. Yes, this was break-up game development writ large. Here was a boisterous counterpoint to Ōkami's tender refinements, a screaming f**k-you to constraints of genre, of style and even physics. Golden LPs, special records dropped by certain enemies, unlock new weapons, which can alter the action's rhythm in intriguing ways. Bayonetta, a witch in weaponised heels (a pistol is strapped to each stiletto) streaks across the screen like a jutting spinning top. Attacks are strung together like notes on a stave, each combination resulting in a different piece of flamboyant footwork. You can leave the phrasing to chance or muscle memory; the key is that you look out for the tell-tale glint of an incoming enemy attack (accompanied by a warning 'ting'). Tap the evade button and Bayonetta will cartwheel out of the way. Leave the evasion to the last moment and the world around you turns purple. Time slows, but the witch is unaffected. She continues her attacks in real-time. In this way, defensive moves become the set-up for still grander offensives, and even the most modest of encounters becomes an opportunity for rapturous showboating. There are shades of Kamiya's earlier work here, most obviously Devil May Cry, a game which shares a talent for player-directed virtuosity (in both games combos can be maintained with pitter-patter bullet shots that link the fisticuffs). Both games also share a camp, gothic aesthetic. But Bayonetta is a more streamlined beast, the dead weight all but stripped away. Its barmy cutscenes can be skipped, leaving just a string of delicious battles with a set of ingredients that can be mixed however you choose. The emphasis, as you might expect from a battle system so flexible, so refined, is on performance; each set-piece scuffle is carefully monitored and scored (the Pure Platinum medal is reserved for a skirmish in which you take no damage whatsoever). Lollipops restore Bayonetta's health, but will lower your ranking. Bayonetta in her secretary-cum-sex-worker attire reflects the broader character of a game that discards the dark, dry anime tone of Kamiya's earlier work for something more irreverent. The presentation teeters between whimsically exaggerated femininity (Bayonetta bleeds rose petals and, when executing a double jump, she momentarily sprouts exquisite butterfly wings) and icky objectification, particularly when it comes to those clinging, horny cutscene shots. The character was designed by a woman, Mari Shimazaki, who wanted to capture the vintage splendour of 1960s American models, but nevertheless, Kamiya has admitted that Bayonetta is something of a male fantasy, his "ideal woman". One of Bayonetta's best known and most controversial moves involves her clothes slithering up her body. To a point the characterisation counterbalances the sexist overtones: Bayonetta, whichever way you look at her, is a strong, inspiring lead. With its cutaway stylization and hammy voice acting, her story is ludicrous and often illegible. But what the approach lacks in sense it gains in sensation. One of the game's earliest and most memorable fights takes place in an abandoned graveyard: Bayonetta spars with angels, accompanied by a lounge version of "Fly Me To the Moon", while her Joe Pesci-esque friend crouches quivering behind a gravestone. Later, you might pick up a trumpet that fires shot like a Victorian blunderbuss. The riotous feel serves the game well, allowing for humorous quips and wry visual gags that revel in the silliness of the scenario in a way Devil May Cry never quite dared. It's not a beautiful game, even in its crispest, ambient occlusion-drenched new form on PC, launched earlier this week. Next to the more cohesive, enduring look of Ōkami or even Kamiya's earlier game, Viewtiful Joe, Bayonetta can seem a little wanting. But it is a striking game, thanks to a combination of whip-tight animation and the sheer imagination of its set-pieces and locales. Those finishing moves, whereby you knee an errant cherub into a spectral guillotine, before slamming the blade down, stick in the memory like pornographic snapshots, elevating your pulse if not your spirit. Seven years on, Bayonetta stands tall. It runs exquisitely not only on PC but also on Xbox One, where, after installing a 7GB patch - one gig for each year - the game feels as slick and responsive as ever. This is a game that endlessly rewards dexterity and a creativity of approach, asking you string together finger-wrenching acrobatic attack combos against a parade of grotesque angels. As well as doing your utmost to keep the combo count rising, you'll summon giant chainsaws, crushing tombstones and even a Trojan wooden horse to finish foes off in spectacular style. Technically accomplished, strategically rangy and infused with rare imagination, Bayonetta represents the pinnacle of the Japanese action game - and a galling challenge to rival studios, yet to be surpassed.
The Bay Area housing crisis is getting worse so quickly, we barely have time to react. Locally, Berkeley rents are up over 30% year over year, and the median home price is now over $1 million. A recent analysis said that to comfortably cover your housing costs in Berkeley requires an annual income of $119,014. And on campus things are getting desperate for students, and increasingly faculty and staff too. Throughout the Bay Area low-income families are getting crushed, and subsidized housing programs are being overwhelmed by need. Working families are facing increasingly brutal commutes from the Central Valley, or in extreme cases living in garages. Things have gotten so bad that even the people who work at the nonprofits that help house low-income families can’t afford to stay. Now for the really bad news. This is our fault. For decades, you and I have made it illegal to build the housing that our community needs. Zoning laws feel like the air we breathe – invisible, ubiquitous, almost a natural part of our environment. With the country’s first comprehensive zoning law turning 100 years old next year, it’s a good time to reflect on what are arguably the most powerful laws we control at the local level. The zoning movement in the US was driven heavily by communities trying to protect property values and exclude minorities and immigrants, in the face of rapid urbanization. ”The Racial Origins of Zoning in American Cities” documents how zoning created the legal framework for segregation. Many early zoning laws were explicitly racist, including in California where early zoning laws directly targeted Chinese laundries. The zoning movement has succeeded as planned. Researchers have found overwhelming evidence that the stricter a region’s zoning laws, the more segregated it is likely to be. This largely flows from rules that favor single-family homes and restrict the development of lower-cost, high density housing. The data on restrictive zoning and cost is equally unambiguous in showing that zoning and other land use controls are heavily responsible for high housing prices. This should not surprise anyone familiar with the fundamental principles of economics – restricting supply of something makes prices go up. But the politics are tricky, particularly in places like Berkeley – we are used to thinking that anyone arguing that we have “too much regulation” just wants to advance an agenda that goes against the interests of low-income working people. But with zoning we’re talking about regulations that significantly increase inequality, since restricting the supply of housing transfers wealth from renters to owners. Now for the good news. Leading liberal voices like Paul Krugman are starting to speak out and helping people understand that zoning liberalization is, well, liberal. And because zoning laws are local, we have tremendous power in our own community to make a huge difference. We can loosen zoning restrictions in a way that is consistent with our values, and in the process serve as a model for the rest of the Bay Area. In our uniquely messy Berkeley way we are starting to figure this out. The recent approval of 2211 Harold Way, which will create over 300 units of badly needed, transit-oriented housing, plus funding to support an additional 100 units of subsidized housing for low-income renters, is a triumph of progressive zoning reform, and our friends in Oakland are taking note. We have the opportunity to get these wins throughout the City if we collectively make it a priority and build on the downtown model – upzoning for high density housing near public transportation with strong affordable housing requirements. In the meantime, we are all complicit in a housing crisis driven heavily by our zoning laws, that our City representatives create and enforce on our behalf every day. Which means we are all complicit in the increasing suffering our housing crisis is causing. As the famous Howard Zinn quote goes, you can’t be neutral on a moving train. Berkeleyside welcomes submissions of op-ed articles. We ask that we are given first refusal to publish. Topics should be Berkeley-related, local authors are preferred, and we don’t publish anonymous pieces. Email submissions, as Word documents or embedded in the email, to editors@berkeleyside.com. The recommended length is 500-800 words. Please include your name and a one-line bio that includes full, relevant disclosures. Berkeleyside will publish op-ed pieces at its discretion.
Mildred Dresselhaus, a professor emerita at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose research into the fundamental properties of carbon helped transform it into the superstar of modern materials science and the nanotechnology industry, died on Monday in Cambridge, Mass. She was 86. Her death, at Mount Auburn Hospital, was confirmed by her granddaughter Leora Cooper. No cause was given. Nicknamed the Queen of Carbon in scientific circles, Dr. Dresselhaus was renowned for her efforts to promote the cause of women in science. She was the first woman to secure a full professorship at M.I.T., in 1968, and she worked vigorously to ensure that she would not be the last. In 1971, she and a colleague organized the first Women’s Forum at M.I.T. to explore the roles of women in science. Two years later she won a Carnegie Foundation grant to further that cause.
Dear all members of GeekHack, As many of you know, Ive been on an unannounced hiatus from GH for the past year, and hopefully this post can clear up a lot of the concerns. There were a series of downers I went through that took away from leisure time, including all online activity. For most of the past year, I had 2 jobs, and worked well over 40 hours/week. I wasnt happy with either of them, and recently just decided to leave one of them. Its not exactly where I wanted to be after finishing grad school. Im still part-time, and very recently just started a side business that I hope to build up. During these times, I also had a family death, which I dont wish to go into detail about. The last major thing is around the end of last year, Ive been a victim of identity theft and fraud, which caused all sorts of hassles and difficulties. As a result, I took quite a financial blow that at this point, there is very little chance to recover it. Im still trying to fight it up to this day, but there seems to be little I can do. These compounding issues has given me much anxiety, and eventually started to affect my well being. I know it probably seems extremely irresponsible to leave so many people in the dark, but my real life dealings during these times had a higher importance. To everyone who's affected by my disappearance: I'm incredibly embarrassed, and I'm deeply sorry. Im not asking for forgiveness, but only that you understand. As I get past this phase, youll see me slowly come back to this forum more often. Ill be back later this weekend to address more specific forum-related stuff. Sincerely, WhiteFireDragon
After building 18 robots, here are some of the things I have learned the hard way. Separate Power Supplies If you have the space, you will save yourself a lot of trouble if you use separate power supplies for the microcontroller and its circuits and the motors. The fluctuating voltage and electrical noise that the motors produce can wreak havoc with the microcontroller and sensor inputs to produce very inconsistent responses in your robot. Trouble Shooting I find it best to first build the complete circuit of the robot on a breadboard. Components rarely fail or are defective. If your design is valid, and the circuit does not work, it is almost always a mistake in your wiring. For information on how to do fast circuit prototyping, see here: http://www.inklesspress.com/fast_circuits.htm I then mount all the motors and sensors on the robot body and program the microcontroller to control them. Only after everything is working well, do I try and make a permanent soldered version of the circuit. I then test this while it is still separate from the robot body. If that works, I then mount it permanently onto the robot. If it stops working, it is often the fault of noise problems. Noise Problems One of the biggest problems I have encountered is electrical noise that renders a circuit useless. This is often caused by the electrical or magnetic noise that can emanate from DC motors. This noise can overwhelm the sensor inputs and even the microcontroller. To solve this, you can make sure the motors and the wires to them, are not close to any input lines going to your microcontroller. Pic 7 shows Sparky, R-12, a robot I made that uses a basic Stamp 2 as the microcontroller. I first tested it with the main circuit board away from the robot and after doing the basic programming, everything worked fine. When I mounted it right above the motors, it went crazy and was totally inconsistent. I tried adding a grounded copper clad board between the motors and circuit but that made no difference. I eventually had to physically raise the circuit 3/4" (see blue arrows) before the robot would work again. Another common source of devastating noise in small robots can be pulsating signals. If you send PWM signals to servos or motors, the wires can act like antennas and send signals that can confuse your input lines. To avoid this, keep microcontroller input and output wires separated as much as possible. Also keep wires carrying power to motors away from input lines. Magnet Wire The problem of wire thickness in very small circuits can be solved by using 30-36 gauge magnet wire. I've used 36 gauge wire for some projects, but found it so wispy, it was hard to strip and use. A good compromise is 30 gauge magnet wire. Regular magnet wire can be used, but I prefer the heat strippable magnet wire. This wire has a coating that can be stripped by merely soldering it with enough heat to melt the insulation. It takes up to 10 seconds to strip the coating while soldering. For some delicate components such as soldering to LEDs or ICs, this can be a damaging heat. The best compromise for me, is to use this heat strippable magnet wire, but strip it somewhat first. I first take a sharp knife and slide it across the magnet wire to peal off the coating and then rotate the wire around until it is stripped fairly well around its diameter. Then I solder the stripped wire end until it is well tinned. Then, you can solder it quickly to any delicate component with less chance of heat damage. Thin Solder When components are very close together, it can be difficult to solder them without blobbing over and shorting nearby pads and wires. The best solution is to use a small tipped adjustable heat soldering iron (1/32") and the thinnest solder you can find. Standard solder is usually .032" in diameter which works fine for most things. Using thinner .015" diameter solder allows you to easily control the amount of solder on the joint. If you use the least amount of solder necessary, it not only takes up the smallest volume, but it also allows you to solder a joint as quickly as possible. This reduces the chance of overheating and damaging delicate components like ICs and surface mount LEDs. Surface Mount Components Surface mount components are the ultimate in miniaturization. To use SOIC sized ICs I usually use thin solder and magnet wire. To see a fairly easy way to make SOIC breakout boards or circuits see here: http://www.inklesspress.com/robot_surface_mount.htm Gluing on Components Instead of Soldering Some surface mount components can also be directly glued onto circuit boards. You can make your own conductive glue and use it to glue on LEDs and ICs. See: https://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Conductive-Glue-and-Glue-a-Circuit/ While this works, it can be somewhat difficult because capillary action tends to wick the conductive glue under the surface mount LEDs and other components and short them. Gluing On Components Using Non-Conductive Glue I have been recently experimenting with gluing on components onto copper circuits boards and conductive fabrics using glue that does not conduct. See Pic 8 for a picture of a 12 volt light bar (unlit and lit) using surface mount LEDs that were glued on with non-conductive glue. I discovered that if you put a thin film of clear nail polish on the copper traces and then physically clamp on the LED and let it dry for 24 hours, you will be left with a good mechanical joint that is electrically conductive. The nail polish glue effectively shrinks and clamps the led contacts to the copper traces forming a good mechanical connection. It must be clamped for the full 24 hours. After that, you can test it for conductivity. If it lights up, you can then add the second layer of glue. For the second layer I use a clear contact cement such as Welders or Goop. This thicker glue surrounds the components and also shrinks as it dries to securely insure a good solid connection to the copper traces. Wait 24 hours for it to dry before testing again. Being dubious about how long it would last, I left the blue LED light bar in Pic 8 on for seven days and nights. The resistance of the circuit actually decreased over time. Months later, the bar still fully lights with no evidence of increased resistance. Using this method, I have successfully glued very small surface mount LEDs--0805-- size and larger onto copper clad perfboard. This technique shows some promise in making really small circuits, LED displays and robots.
Late last night/early this morning I was contacted by Eigil Söderin, the editor of the Swedish newspaper ETC. The purpose of Söderin’s contact was to ask interview questions about recent activism from AVfM that centered on a controversial Swedish video which depicted a group of young women murdering an innocent man and celebrating their actions with dance and orgasmic joy. The questions were relevant, if a little superficial, so I thought they deserved to be answered. As I don’t know when the interview will be published, or under what editorial “flavor,” I thought it best to share the unedited questions and answers here with AVfM readers. Why is A Voice For Men is offering a bounty of 1000 dollars for the confirmed identity of one or more of the individuals in the video? Because the video is advocating murder. In the commentary field of your blog the infioramtion[sic] of the people behind the video is now posted. What are you going to do with the information? We will continue to gather as much more information as possible, and once the information is confirmed, we will then write articles profiling each of these individuals for public view and disseminate that information to as many people as possible, particularly targeting Swedish readers where possible. Are you advocating violence against these people? No, it is the individuals in the video who are advocating violence. If some one of your readers act violently against these people aren’t you somewhat responsible? Absolutely not. What the purpose of Register-Her? Two-fold. One, to provide a public record of women who commit crimes like rape, murder and false allegations. Two, to provide a public record of individuals the promote hatred based on sex, as the individuals in the video are doing. Do you know the swedish blog “Genusnytt” by Pär Ström? Yes, I have heard of the blog. Do you know Pär Ström personally? No, I do not. Sweden is a “country deep in the grip of overt, totalitarian radical feminist rule”, what do you mean? Those are not my words, so I cannot comment on them directly. I can tell you, though, from the perspective of many western men who are involved in the men’s rights movement, that Sweden has a reputation for having a very strong and oppressive form of feminist governance. Julian Assange, whom your government is now helping persecute on behalf of other corrupt western leaders, through a fraudulent rape charge, has called Sweden the “Saudi Arabia of feminism.” Surely this criticism is not new to you? The fact that the SCUM Manifesto, written by a man hating feminist who attempted to kill two people was adapted into a play and given the OK for Swedish High School students says something about the deplorable state of your countries politics. Your questions themselves are part of the problem. Why are you asking an American about Swedish politics when it is Swedes and Swedish politics that support their young citizens for making videos that call on others to “do your part” by killing innocent men? That video is a sick abomination. Why are you talking to me instead of pressing the people who made it? I saw that Pelle Billing is a writer on your blog, is he a friend of yours? What kind of contact do you have with him? I have no contact with Dr. Billing. ♦ And that is how the interview went in its entirety. There are a couple of matters of concern here. The first point is that of the intent of Söderin’s questioning. How the information he was given is presented will be the ultimate determinant of whether there is cause for concern, but there appears to be a focus here on protecting the anonymity of bigots engaged in spreading a violent and hateful ideology. I hope that is not the case. The other concern I have is over questions about Pelle Billing and Pär Ström, neither of which do I have a personal or professional relationship with. And with that I want to add a note addressed to the people of Sweden. A Voice for Men is a loosely organized, standalone activist community of men and women concerned with the problem of misandry (the hatred and marginalization of men and boys). We do not have any official affiliation with other men’s organizations, either in North America or Europe. So if, in the future you see any attempt to establish a connection to bloggers in your country who may happen to share our concerns about the state of men and boys, be advised that you are being led away from the real issue here, which is why some Swedish citizens are making videos that advocate the murder of innocent people based on their sex, and into a witch hunt that is an intentional distraction. Of course it is up to you what you choose to believe, but I do ask you to watch this video and ask yourselves who you think is the real problem here.
Matt Cain just threw the 22nd perfect game in baseball history, which is of course an amazing accomplishment. But, through the way he dominated on the way to his perfect game, Cain actually joined an even more exclusive club – guys who have posted a Game Score above 100 in a nine inning game. Before tonight, only nine pitchers had ever racked up a game score of 100 or better in nine innings. It was more common back when starters kept going when a game went to extras, but we want to compare apples to apples, so those are out. Sorted by Game Score — an imperfect measure, for certain, but one that does okay for this purpose — here are the 10 best nine inning performances of all time. Player Date Tm Opp IP H R BB SO HR GSc Kerry Wood 5/6/98 CHC HOU 9 1 20 105 Nolan Ryan 5/1/91 TEX TOR 9 2 16 101 Sandy Koufax 9/9/65 LAD CHC 9 14 101 Matt Cain 6/13/12 SF HOU 9 14 101 Brandon Morrow 8/8/10 TOR TBR 9 1 2 17 100 Randy Johnson 5/18/04 ARI ATL 9 13 100 Curt Schilling 4/7/02 ARI MIL 9 1 2 17 100 Nolan Ryan 7/15/73 CAL DET 9 4 17 100 Nolan Ryan 7/9/72 CAL BOS 9 1 1 16 100 Warren Spahn 9/16/60 MLN PHI 9 2 15 100 In terms of raw performance, this matches Sandy Koufax’s perfect game from 1965 as the best perfecto ever, and matches one of Nolan’s Ryan no-hitters where he did most of the work himself. The only nine inning game in history with a higher game score was Kerry Wood’s 20 strikeout one-hitter. It’s pretty amazing that most of us were alive to see both. Baseball!
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — It's decided: Former President Ferdinand Marcos can be buried at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani (LNMB), the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday. Voting 9-5, Supreme Court spokesperson Ted Te said the high court dismissed all the petitions challenging the proposed burial of the former strongman Marcos at the Heroes' Cemetery. He said the Supreme Court dismissed the petitions based on five main reasons: There was no grave abuse of discretion on the part of President Rodrigo Duterte in ordering the burial of Marcos at LNMB because it was done in the exercise of his mandate. There is also no law that prohibits the burial of Marcos' remains at the LNMB President Duterte has the power to reserve for public use and for specific public purposes, any of the lands under public domain. Marcos' remains, under regulations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, can be interred at LNMB because he was a former president, commander-in-chief, soldier, medal of valor awardee, and legislator. The Supreme Court disagreed Marcos was "dishonorably discharged," saying the disqualification only pertains to the military Marcos cannot be disqualified from burial at LNMB because he was not convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude. SC Spokesperson Theodore Te: Under AFP regulations, Marcos qualified to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani \| https://t.co/CaczwF9CtH pic.twitter.com/QMHBqDoAO6 — CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) November 8, 2016 How the justices voted Associate Justices Arturo Brion, Presbitero Velasco Jr, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Mariano del Castillo, Jose Perez, Teresita de Castro, Jose Mendoza, and Estela Perlas-Bernabe dismissed the petitions to block the burial of Marcos at LNMB. Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, Associate Justices Marvic Mario Victor Leonen, Francis Jardeleza, and Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa agreed with the petitions preventing the burial of Marcos at LNMB. Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes inhibited himself from the case. Marcos family 'deeply grateful' Former Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said their family is grateful to the Supreme Court for its decision to allow his father to be buried at the LNMB. Marcos also thanked President Duterte's "kind gesture of unwavering commitment" to the rule of law. "It is our sincerest hope that this will lead the nation towards healing," he said. Former senator Bongbong Marcos talks to CNN Philippines about the SC decision on his father's burial https://t.co/sDo55hwVGt pic.twitter.com/ksFpPTis4U — CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) November 8, 2016 Related: Bongbong Marcos says SC decision 'answer to my prayers' He added that although it is a national concern, his father's burial is a family decision and will ultimately be decided by his mother, Imelda Marcos. Marcos said their family will start discussing the interment details on Wednesday. Ilocos Gov. Imee Marcos speaks to reporters after the SC rules in favor of her late father's burial at the LNMB https://t.co/UP47kfiLxH pic.twitter.com/4CqFEkcOue — CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) November 8, 2016 Petitioners, martial law victims, pro-Marcos react Some of the petitioners said they were prepared that the high court may reject their claims, but the decision hurt nonetheless. "Naniwala kami na meron kaming konting tsansa sa Supreme Court," petitioner Aida Santos said. [Translation: We believed we have a chance in the Supreme Court.] Another petitioner, Fe Mangahas, quoted President Duterte as saying that the burial issue is a political decision. But she asked how Filipinos will explain burying a dictator at the Heroes' Cemetery. Martial law victim Felix Dalisay said they will make sure Marcos' grave at the LNMB will not be covered in tears but in their spit. Related: Human rights victims protest hero's burial for Marcos Marcos addressed the anti-Marcos protesters, "I hope they accept the decision of the Supreme Court, that they see beyond their political concerns." Cherry Cobarrubias, a Marcos loyalist, told CNN Philippines she is praying for the petitioners who are heartbroken over the Supreme Court decision. "Pinagdadasal ko sila. [I'm praying for them.] We have to forgive each other. We have to move on," she said. The Libingan ng mga Bayani was established in 1947 to pay tribute to Filipino soldiers and fallen heroes, and to serve as a final resting place for former Philippine presidents, war veterans, notable government statesmen, dignitaries, and national artists. Watch: Who deserves a hero's burial? Barry Gutierrez, the lead counsel of the petitioners against Marcos' burial at the Heroes' Cemetery, told CNN Philippines that his group will study the Supreme Court's decision before planning their next moves in the legal arena. "We need to take a look at the decision at how the Supreme Court actually justified this outcome before we decide with finality what we are going to do at the legal arena," he explained. Gutierrez raised the possibility of filing a motion for reconsideration before the Court. The lead counsel said the Anti-Marcos camp will continue an education campaign against the former president. "If there's a silver lining to all this, it's the fact that it has rejuvenated interest in a discussion on the Marcos dictatorship, martial law, [and] what Marcos really was." "Despite the ruling of the Supreme Court and despite our intense disappointment with the outcome, by no means is this issue over," he pointed out. Supreme Court's delays The Supreme Court decision puts to rest the issue of a hero's burial for Marcos, which has been a divisive one for over 25 years. The Supreme Court has issued a status quo ante order (SQAO), which was extended twice, on the burial decision. The order, first issued in August, prevented Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, the Department of National Defense, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and others from proceeding with preparations for the hero's burial. In September 7, the high court extended the SQAO, postponing the initial plan to bury Marcos on September 18 — the late president's 99th birthday. Solicitor General Jose Calida argued before the Supreme Court that Marcos is qualified to be interred at the Heroes' Cemetery because there is no longer a "national trauma" caused by the martial law. As proof, Calida cited the 14 million Filipinos who voted for Marcos' son, Bongbong Marcos, for vice president in the last elections. He lost by more than 200,000 votes to Leni Robredo. For the second time, the Supreme Court extended its stay order to November 8 because several justices were still writing their separate opinions on the issue. The long road to a hero's burial Marcos's remains have been interred and preserved in an airconditioned family mausoleum in Ilocos Norte since 1993. Marcos died in exile in Hawaii on September 28, 1989, three and a half years after he was deposed by the People Power revolution. Watch: Exhibit on Marcos' ill-gotten wealth People Power swept his opponent and the symbol of opposition to the Marcos dictatorship — the housewife Corazon Aquino — to the presidency from 1986 to 1992. Following her death in 2009, her son Benigno Aquino III, won the elections and served as president from 2010 to 2016. Aquino was succeeded by Duterte, who won the presidential elections in May. Duterte has always believed the issue on Marcos' burial has been a source of division among Filipinos. CNN Philippines correspondent Anjo Alimario, senior correspondent David Santos contributed to this report.
Poet E. Pauline Johnson and athlete Fanny (Bobbie) Rosenfeld are among five women on the short list to be chosen as the iconic Canadian woman to be featured on the next series of banknotes, the Bank of Canada said Thursday. The final selection and the denomination of the bill on which she will appear is to be announced on Dec. 8 by Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz. The new regular circulation banknote — the first in a forthcoming series — is expected to begin appearing in 2018. Here is the short list of women still under consideration: Viola Desmond (1914-1965): A black businesswoman from Nova Scotia who famously challenged racial segregation at a film theatre in her home province. E. Pauline Johnson (1861-1913): A poet and writer whose performances reflect both English and Mohawk traditions and who is recognized as helping to shape Canadian literature. Elizabeth (Elsie) MacGill (1905-1980): The world's first female aircraft designer. She worked as an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War. Fanny (Bobbie) Rosenfeld (1905-1969): An Olympian who won gold in the relay race and silver in the 100 metre dash at the 1928 summer Olympics. Idola Saint-Jean (1880-1945): A Quebec journalist, educator and feminist who fought for the women's vote in Quebec. The five women were selected by independent advisory council from a list of 12 names, which were drawn from 461 eligible nominees submitted by Canadians. "The advisory council had the difficult task of selecting only five outstanding Canadian women from a vast field of strong choices, and I commend the members for their excellent work," Poloz said in a release. "I am also delighted that this entire process encouraged a meaningful conversation among Canadians about the many exceptional women who have shaped our country." The Famous 5 and Thérèse Casgrain appeared on the back of the $50 bill between between 2004 and 2012. (Bank of Canada/CBC) The selected person will not be the first Canadian female to appear on a banknote. The Famous 5 — Emily Murphy, Irene Marryat Parlby, Nellie Mooney McClung, Louise Crummy McKinney and Henrietta Muir Edwards — who fought for women's rights in Canada, and Thérèse Casgrain, a Quebec feminist, were featured on the back of the $50 bill between 2004 and 2012.
Singapore Airlines on Monday announced the launch of a Teochew menu aboard selected flights departing from Singapore across all cabin classes, which will be available for a four-month period. SINGAPORE: It has served up Peranakan delights before and now Singapore Airlines (SIA) is offering customers a taste of home in the form of bak chor mee (minced meat egg noodles) and braised duck. A special menu of Teochew dishes was launched on Monday (Oct 31), and will be available on selected flights departing from Singapore across all cabin classes for a four-month period, according to the airline. Advertisement Cold crab, pig trotter jelly and hei chor, served in First Class and Suites. (Photo: Singapore Airlines) Passengers in First Class and Suites could be served cold crab, pig trotter jelly, steamed pomfret and or nee (yam paste), while those in Business Class could tuck into Teochew porridge served with braised duck and salted egg, bak chor mee and fried png kueh (traditional Teochew glutinous rice cake, served with a sweet dark soy sauce). Advertisement Advertisement Steamed pomfret, braised pig trotter with braised green mustard vegetables, served with chai poh kway teow. (Photo: Singapore Airlines) Premium Economy Class and Economy Class passengers could get a taste of braised duck on rice, served with egg, beancurd and preserved vegetables; or stir-fried pork with shacha sauce on rice, served with vegetables. Teochew-style braised duck with egg and beancurd served with stewed salted vegetables and steamed rice. (Photo: Singapore Airlines) “Chinese cuisine is richly diverse and we are delighted to showcase the delicious flavours one can expect from a Teochew meal to our international travellers, while offering those familiar with the cuisine a little taste of home while travelling with us,” said Singapore Airlines' senior vice president of product and services, Mr Marvin Tan. The flag carrier also revealed that conceptualisation of the menu started more than half a year ago. “In the lead up, SIA's inflight services team conducted extensive research, curated dishes from many renowned Teochew restaurants in Singapore as well as conducted numerous meal tasting sessions,” said vice president of inflight services, Ms Angeline Khoo. SIA introduced "Singapore Heritage Cuisine" for three months in 2015 to celebrate the nation's 50th birthday, serving up Peranakan dishes such as Nonya nasi lemak and ayam tempra to passengers. In April, it rolled out the option of "deliciously wholesome" meals, which include dishes prepared with whole grains, fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as lean meat. It was offered to customers as more are opting for healthier meal choices, said Ms Khoo. A "Deliciously Wholesome" meal: Duo of watercress salad and smoked trout with shaved fennel, apples and yuzu jelly in a maple vinaigrette. (Photo: Singapore Airlines) “Teochew cooking methods, which often involve steaming, poaching, double boiling and slow braising to deliver a delicate yet refined dining experience, will provide our customers with healthier meal choices,” she added. Singapore Airlines will offer Teochew cuisine on selected flights departing from Singapore to destinations in Australia, Europe, New Zealand and North Asia.
Geraint Thomas won road race gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow Double Olympic track champion Geraint Thomas has signed a two-year contract extension with Team Sky. Thomas was in the final months of his current Team Sky deal, having joined the British-based team when they were formed in 2010. The 29-year-old became the third British rider to win the prestigious week-long Paris-Nice stage race in March. "Signing again was an easy decision. Team Sky feels like home," he said. "From the other riders to the staff, I love it here." Geraint Thomas (left) supported Team Sky team-mate and eventual winner Chris Froome at the 2015 Tour de France Cardiff-born Thomas is expected to be a part of Team Sky's bid to win a fourth Tour de France in July. He switched his focus to stage races this season and won the Volta ao Algarve in February. In March he claimed his first Paris-Nice title, joining Tom Simpson and Bradley Wiggins as British winners of the race. "I've only really just started when it comes to trying to win stage races," Thomas added. "I'm learning all the time about how to get in the best shape for them and how to lead a team. "It's about keeping that progression going, and Team Sky is the best place to do that. I'm just super happy being part of the team." Thomas, who won team pursuit gold at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, became the first British rider to win Belgium's formidable E3 Harelbeke race in March 2015. In June 2015 he was second in the Tour de Suisse, finishing five seconds behind winner Simon Spilak. The following month he finished a career-best 15th in the Tour de France, in which he supported team-mate and eventual winner Chris Froome. From strength to strength Team Sky principal Sir David Brailsford said Thomas was a "great ambassador" for Team Sky and for Wales. "Geraint is one of the most versatile bike racers in the world. He has demonstrated this by winning on the track, in the Classics and now in stage races," Brailsford said. "I still believe the best is yet to come from Geraint and we will enjoy supporting him to see just how far he can go." "He has gone from strength to strength and winning Paris-Nice this year was another step up. "I think it gave him real confidence and now he can set his sights on developing his performances in the Grand Tours."
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 "This is vastly the one that is going to be targeting the iPad 2," Apple's counsel said. "This is going to be launched on the market with the velocity of a fire hose and [the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is] going to just come in and take away iPad 2 sales so quickly that by the time we get to final hearing the full impact of the patent infringement will be [felt] to the detriment of Apple and to the benefit of [Samsung]." Samsung has requested sales data showing the effect Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales have had on iPad 2 sales in other countries. Apple has refused and Justice Bennett has sided with Apple. Analyst firm Gartner and other analysts have recently said that the iPad 2 would take the lion's share of tablet sales globally for some time to come despite the presence of other tablets such as Samsung's. The comments by Apple in court come as research firm IDC today said that tablet shipments to Australia and New Zealand doubled in Q2 from the previous quarter, with 420,000 units shipped. Australia contributed 87.5 per cent of the total shipments, while the rest went to New Zealand. IDC said the doubling was driven by multiple launches of Android-based devices similar to Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1. Samsung argues that its tablet will be largely competing with other Android-based models and that consumers would be deciding whether they wanted Apple's iOS or Android, rather than deciding by comparing the Galaxy Tab 10.1 with the iPad 2. "People will choose either to stick to Apple because you like Apple and you like the operating system and you like the link to iTunes and so on. Or you want a completely different system and you'll move in the direction of Android," Samsung's lawyer said. Apple disputes this, arguing the Galaxy Tab will only get market share by taking share away from Apple and that other Android competitors from brands such as Motorola and Acer were irrelevant. Justice Bennett said the Galaxy Tab 10.1 would compete with both iPad 2 and Android. "It must be that the initial competitor will be Apple and then there will also be competition within the Android system between the Android players," she said. Apple also raised concerns that every Galaxy Tab sold would cost it future app sales as the users would become "Android people". Apple's iTunes App Store dominance would be challenged if customers were "seduced" or "sapped away by the Galaxy Tab and its infringements". "They'll then be Android people and the investment in the apps that they make to purchase on their Galaxy Tab will be something they can't use on an Apple product," Apple's lawyer said. The case has now been narrowed to concern two Apple patents. Samsung has filed a separate cross-claim accusing Apple of infringing several of its own patents. Samsung's lawyers have criticised the fact that Apple did not seek injunctions against previous Samsung products that would by their logic also infringe its patents. Apple's response to this was that, because Samsung is a significant supplier to Apple, it "engaged in negotiations in the first instance". "We're not the first Android on the market and other people are getting in fast. It's critical that we're a first mover not dribble in behind everybody else. It's blossoming at the moment," Samsung's lawyer said. Similar Apple v Samsung cases are running all over the world. In other jurisdictions Samsung has raised the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey as an example of "prior art", since an iPad-like tablet device appears in the film. Today in court Samsung clarified that the film is "not relied on as prior art because look and feel is not an issue [in this case] - it would be relevant to a design case". Apple is seeking to expedite the case and have a full hearing in November, fearful that any temporary injunction will expire and Samsung will be allowed to launch its tablet in competition with the iPad 2. Apple sent Samsung a letter seeking its agreement on several matters including the early hearing in exchange for it reducing the number of patents in its case. But Samsung called it "opportunistic and wildly untenable". Samsung's lawyers said they needed more time to prepare their case challenging the validity of Apple's patents and completely rejected Apple's requests for permanent injunctions on several patents which would mean other future Samsung products may be blocked from entering the market. Samsung said it would need until next year to firm up its case but Apple's lawyers bristled at this suggestion, arguing they were "just met with a brick wall which is to [Samsung's] immediate advantage, not ours". Apple is worried that Samsung will have released future product revisions before this case is resolved. Justice Bennett made it clear that she would only be making a decision on the Australian version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, no other products. She is not expected to make a final decision on whether to grant a temporary injunction until at least next week. The full hearing is likely to be later in the year. Loading The hearing continues this afternoon. This reporter is on Twitter: @ashermoses
The White House more or less doxed citizens who took the time to submit feedback to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity by publishing 112 pages of public comments (pdf) without first redacting any personal information. Some of the emailed comments expressed outrage, some commenters dropped f-bombs, one sent goatse, but they were published in full, including those that showed citizens’ “email addresses, home addresses and phone numbers.” The comments were in response to a letter sent out by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity to all 50 states. It asked for a trove of personal information on each voter in the U.S. Requested information included “dates of birth, political party (if recorded in your state), last four digits of Social Security number if available, voter history (elections voted in) from 2006 onward, active/inactive status, cancelled status, information regarding any felony convictions, information regarding voter registration in another state, information regarding military status, and overseas citizen information.” Numerous states refused to comply, and the ACLU, EPIC and other organizations filed suits against the commission. On Thursday, when the public comments were published, the White House said any other member of the public could submit written comments, but those comments may be posted to the public, “including names and contact information.” As the Washington Post pointed out, about half of the emails published were already submitted prior to July 5, when the Commission’s Federal Register notice soliciting comments said the written comments, including names and contact information, may be publicly posted. Many of comments made it clear that they didn’t want their voter data released, didn’t want their personal information to be made public. By not redacting any personal information, the commission, chaired by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Chris Kobach, further inflamed privacy concerns that first flared after the request for sensitive voter data from each state. “This cavalier attitude toward the public’s personal information is especially concerning given the commission’s request for sensitive data on every registered voter in the country,” ACLU staff attorney Theresa Lee told NPR. In reply to the outrage, Marc Lotter, press secretary to Mike Pence, told the Washington Post, “These are public comments, similar to individuals appearing before commission to make comments and providing name before making comments. The Commission’s Federal Register notice asking for public comments and its website make clear that information ‘including names and contact information’ sent to this email address may be released.” Lotter didn’t mention the fact that commenters submitting before July 5 had no idea their names and addresses would not be redacted. “Whether or not it’s legal to disclose this personal information, it’s clearly improper, and no responsible White House would do this,” former Deputy Secretary of Labor Chris Lu told Engadget. If the commission is this irresponsible and disrespectful in regards to the privacy of those who submitted comments, how can it be trusted to handle nationwide voter information under the guise of investigating alleged vote fraud in the 2016 election? The widespread voter fraud is something Trump says existed since he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. The commission will meet on July 19 in Washington, D.C. The public may not attend except virtually via livestream on the White House website, and therefore will not be able to comment.
A million words have already been written analysing the coming state election in Uttar Pradesh. Most analyses have been based on personal visits, interviews, anecdotes and caste arithmetic. This column aims to analyse the election through the lens of economic growth. This approach has obvious limitations.GDP is not the only determinant of political outcomes. But for what it is worth, this approach suggests that the BJP has a good chance of ousting the Samajwadi Party. Anti-incumbency has always been strong in this poorly governed and relatively slow-growing state.GDP growth under Akhilesh Yadav has been slower than under Mayawati (see table). A study by the ET Research Bureau some years ago suggested that if GDP growth slows down under a new government, then two-thirds of such governments get voted out. This significant, though not infallible, indicator favours the BJP in Uttar Pradesh.Historically, winning elections had little to do with economic development and a lot to do with combining or breaking with sundry castes and votebanks to form a winning coalition — what Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh called ‘jod-tod’ (join-break). They were also influenced to some extent by local issues such as scams, droughts, social conflicts, subsidies and giveaways.But in the last decade, several CMs have won repeatedly by stressing development that yielded rapid economic growth. Examples are Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Naveen Patnaik in Odisha, Manik Sarkar in Tripura, Shivraj Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh and Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh.These chief ministers also played games with votebanks and freebies, but their victories were based overwhelmingly on policies stoking fast growth.Why does fast growth matter more now? Because ‘fast’ today means more than twice the speed during the bad old days of the Hindu rate of growth, when even the fastest states barely crossed 5 per cent. Economic reforms in 1991 helped accelerate growth, but the immediate beneficiaries were the advanced states, which were best placed to take advantage of the slashing of red tape.The poor states, contemptuously called Bimarou — Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha and UP — did not accelerate much in the 1990s. Indeed, Bihar’s chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav opposed fast growth, which he thought benefited mainly the upper castes.He won three elections in a row by ignoring development in favour of caste war, humiliating the upper castes while raising the dignity, status and extralegal clout of the backward castes and Muslims. When asked why Lalu neglected roads, he famously replied, “If I build a road, whose car will run on it, and whose buffalo will the car kill?”Greater dignity won Lalu three elections. But then voters wanted other things. Nitish Kumar came to power in 2005 promising to end Lalu’s ‘jungle raj’ and restore livelihoods ruined by the goonda-filled slow growth era of Lalu. By jailing gangsters, restoring confidence in economic activity and building roads as never before, Kumar accelerated GDP growth in Bihar to an average of 8 per cent per year. Ignoring the drought hit first year of that term, average growth in the remaining four years was as high as 10.4 per cent.He won again in 2015, focusing this time on rural electrification. In this term, GDP growth averaged 10.9 per cent, well above the all-India average. This time, he was also aided hugely by an alliance with Lalu and the Congress.How does this compare with outcomes in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh? In Mayawati’s first term (2007-12), GDP growth averaged 6.87 per cent. This was far slower than in Nitish’s Bihar, but nevertheless an improvement on earlier trends. This owed something to record all-India growth as well as her taming of Samajwadi Party goons.But she never paid the attention to economic development that Nitish did, never achieved the same growth rates, gained a reputation for high corruption, and so was defeated in the 2012 state election. Akhilesh Yadav is credited with substantial development efforts in Uttar Pradesh in his term, especially in roads and electricity. Yet, the average GDP growth rate in his first four years in office was only 5.96 per cent, below Mayawati’s average and nowhere near Nitish’s average.We do not yet have data for his final year. But the state would have been hit adversely by demonetisation. He can try blaming the BJP for this. But a Times Now poll in the state suggested that 64 per cent of voters thought demonetisation was a correct policy.Some caution is required in interpreting these statistics. The Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) periodically changes its reference year for growth data taking into account recent changes in economic structure.For a long-time series, one has to go back to the old CSO series with the base year 2004-05. This yields data till 2014-15. A new series based on 2011-12 gives data from 2012-13 onwards. This column uses the old series until 2014-15 and the new series for 2015-16. This patching may distort the calculations slightly. The new series also yields much less impressive figures for Bihar than the old series. With all these caveats, the statistical picture goes against Akhilesh Yadav.DISCLAIMER: Views expressed above are the author's own.
Eleven people were arrested today occupying the Department of Immigration and Border Protection’s Lee Street office in Sydney to highlight what they see as the Federal Government’s contradictory stance on violence against women. Around 20 students and refugee advocates entered the building foyer shortly before midday demanding a 23-year old Somali woman’s desperate plea for access to abortion services in Australia be met after she was allegedly raped while being held in immigration detention on Nauru. “Malcolm Turnbull has made addressing domestic violence a feature of his government, but if he is concerned about violence inflicted against women then he must end the violence against refugees in the government’s care,” said Erima Dall, a spokesperson from the Sydney University Campus Refugee Action Collective. “It is simply grotesque that a woman who has been raped and needs an abortion is so far being refused passage to Australia.” Pressure has been mounting on Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to allow the woman to receive medical care in Australia, and the Greens Spokesperson on Immigration Sarah Hanson-Young wrote to Dutton today “requesting that he act urgently”. “Here we have a 23 year old refugee, left stranded on Nauru by the Australian Government, and after allegedly being raped and assaulted by a local man, she needs assistance and care,” Hanson-Young said. “Minister Dutton and his department have known for weeks that this young woman needs to be transferred to Australia to terminate this unwanted pregnancy. “She has been pleading with Australian authorities for weeks and they have done nothing. “Abortion is illegal on Nauru and the only option this young woman has for a safe and legal termination is to be brought to Australia. “Sadly their lack of action has meant she will now need a late-term abortion. “She is scared, distressed and physically unwell. Leaving her in Nauru is simply unacceptable. Erima Dall said it would be “a shocking act of violence” for Turnbull to “force her to give birth, or leave her to some other fate” on Nauru. This morning Labor leader Bill Shorten said that he is “deeply shocked” by the revelations, first aired on ABC’s 730 program, and that the government should not be “acting like robots with no hearts” and must ensure the woman gets the care she needs. He described the situation as a “travesty of justice”. Another woman who was also allegedly raped on Nauru is reported to have waited four hours for police assistance. These are the latest in a rising tide of allegations of sexual assault in Australia’s offshore immigration detention network. New Matilda understands the protestors occupied the Department of Immigration and Border Protection building for around 90 minutes, before police moved in and made arrests. “About midday… police from Sydney City Local Area Command were called to a building on Lee Street, Sydney, following reports of a protest,” a spokesperson for New South Wales police told New Matilda. “A number of people were directed to leave the building; 11 people failed to comply and were arrested.” Marco Avena, one of the demonstrators who left after police issued protestors with a move on order, said the activists “entered the building and started chanting, then some staff decided to stop serving customers”. “They started filming and eventually security and staff made them leave the building,” he said. “After maybe five or ten minutes of them telling us [to leave]they closed the reception area that we had occupied. “Slowly more police arrived out the front of the building until eventually we received a directive to leave, and then we were issued with a move on order.” The concern expressed over the woman seeking an abortion, who has been identified by media as ‘Abyan’ (not her real name), follows significant movement this week around the conditions of asylum seekers held on Nauru. On Sunday the Nauruan government announced that the detention facility would become an “open centre” the following day, meaning the people held there will be free to roam the island. Then on Monday, it announced it will process the 600 asylum seekers still held at the centre by the end of this week. But Dall maintains that “offshore processing and so-called ‘re-settlement’ on Nauru will never be safe”. “The constant rapes and attacks we have seen are not an accident – offshore processing is designed to be a horrible deterrent,” she said. While details are still emerging about the exact changes to detention on Nauru, safety of asylum seekers in the community has been a major issue since people started to be released from closed detention. Those found to be refugees and allowed into the community are not eligible to stay in Nauru permanently. Cambodia, which has agreed to take a number of refugees from Nauru, has facilitated the settlement of just four people since signing a Memorandum of Understanding — at a price of $55 million — with Australia in September 2014. “As long as the Australian government continues to dump vulnerable people beyond the reach of justice, they will continue to be preyed upon,” Dall said. Hanson-Young said “Turnbull needs to pull his Immigration Minister into line and get this woman the help and care she urgently needs”. “If Malcolm Turnbull wants to end the suffering of the refugees on Nauru he must bring them to Australia and get them off the prison island.” Police said the 11 protestors arrested were taken to Day Street Police station in Darling Harbour. *This story was updated at 6pm
The US Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has provided $188m to the Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority (METRO) in Texas to build the North and Southeast light rail lines. The North line will include a 5.3-mile extension from its existing endpoint at the University of Houston Downtown to Crosstimbers Street, while the 6.6-mile Southeast line will stretch from Smith Street in downtown Houston to the Palm Center. Of the $188m grant, $94m will be used for the North line, which will involve the addition of eight new stations, an expansion of the existing rail operations centre and procurement of 22 light rail vehicles (LRVs). The remaining $94m will be spent on the Southeast Corridor project, which will include the construction of ten new stations, a new vehicle storage and wash facility, and the purchase of 29 LRVs. "Houston METRO received a $900m grant from the FTA to extend the North and Southeast lines by an additional 12 miles, which is being carried out at a total cost of $1.6bn." In November 2011, Houston METRO received a $900m grant from the FTA to extend the North and Southeast lines by an additional 12 miles, which is being carried out at a total cost of $1.6bn. According to METRO, each of the new lines that are being built have already been provided $450m through the FTA’s New Starts capital transit discretionary grant process. The North and South lines will be joined by a third project, the locally funded East End line; all three lines are due to be completed in 2014. The new light rail lines, which are scheduled to open for service in 2015, are intended to provide alternatives to the congested Interstate 45 and US Route 59. Image: The two federally funded lines will be joined by a third locally funded project, the East End (Green) line. Photo: courtesy of Jackson Myers.
Vazquez agreed with the DNC that a POLITICO article about Spicer spending time on the fifth floor of Trump Tower on election night raised enough questions to warrant his deposition. \| Getty Judge allows DNC to depose Spicer on election night activities A federal judge said Wednesday that he’ll allow the Democratic National Committee to depose Sean Spicer, the former Republican National Committee communications director and White House spokesman, on whether he violated a 35-year-old consent decree barring the RNC from engaging in ballot security or voter suppression efforts. But the judge, Michael Vazquez, denied a DNC request for an evidentiary hearing on whether the RNC violated the consent decree. Story Continued Below The consent decree, which originated from RNC actions in New Jersey’s 1981 gubernatorial election, is set to expire on Friday, but its future is uncertain. Vazquez said he’s not yet ready to rule on whether it will expire on Friday. “I’m going to reserve on the drop dead date of the consent decree and we’ll go from there,” Vazquez, who was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, said during a conference call with attorneys for both parties. Vazquez said that despite comments from high-ranking Trump campaign officials about poll watching efforts in the lead-up to the 2016 election, the DNC had presented no evidence that the RNC participated in them. “As far as what’s before this court, you’ve presented me with no evidence of actual voter suppression efforts on the day of the election, much less tying it to the RNC,” Vazquez told DNC attorneys. “The DNC has a lot of resources and I know this was a big concern. Where is the evidence that there were ballot integrity measures and other suppression going on on Election Day, and then a reasonable inference that the RNC was involved in those?” But Vazquez agreed with the DNC that a POLITICO article about Spicer spending time on the fifth floor of Trump Tower on election night — the nerve center of the campaign’s poll-monitoring operation and data war room that day — raised enough questions to warrant his deposition. Spicer at the time worked for the RNC. Party staffers had been given strict instructions to avoid the floor, POLITICO reported. “It would seem as though there’s a lot unanswered by the article and a deposition of Mr. Spicer would be able to address those clearly,” Vazquez said. Vazquez said the deposition should not last more than four hours and gave permission for a “targeted” search of Spicer’s emails from that day relating to his presence on the fifth floor. Still, Vazquez warned Democrats not to get their hopes up, saying he’s unlikely to grant them further depositions. “I want to give you a realistic expectation that I’m not going to be inclined to grant any additional discovery unless, through material issue of the consent decree, you have real evidence that what he said was not accurate,” he said. Spicer was also the RNC’s chief strategist at the time. In the run-up to the 2016 election, Democrats claimed that statements from RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence and Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway all indicated that the RNC and Trump campaign were in cahoots, after Trump called for his supporters to travel to “certain areas" to monitor the polling places. The 1982 consent decree arose from alleged voter intimidation by Republicans in New Jersey’s 1981 gubernatorial election. Republicans, some of whom were armed off-duty law enforcement officers wearing armbands, showed up at urban polling places and challenged voters. The display was blamed for suppressing the black vote, allowing Republican Tom Kean to squeak out an extremely narrow victory over Democrat Jim Florio.
President-elect Donald Trump indicated in a new interview that he will soften his hardline position on undocumented immigrants in favor of the so-called DREAMers—those who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents at a young age. In an interview with Time, Trump did not waver on his promise to roll back President Obama’s executive orders with regard to immigration, but he softened his often harsh tone when it comes to immigration reform. “We’re going to work something out that’s going to make people happy and proud,” Trump told the magazine for its Person of the Year feature. “They got brought here at a very young age, they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they’re in Never-Never Land because they don’t know what’s going to happen.”
The anticipation was building even before the start of the five-day festival on Thursday, said Heidi Rosenau, a Lindy hop enthusiast and an administrator at the Frick Collection. “It began,” she said, “with a lesson taught by godlike Swedes” last weekend. While dancers in places like California and Britain played important roles in the revival of the Lindy hop, dance historians say Swedes were essential. “The thing about godlike, I’m not really sure,” said Catrine Ljunggren, a Swedish-born swing dancer and instructor. “But we were pretty much the first people who took it seriously again after the ’30s and ’40s.” So seriously that there is even a camp devoted solely to teaching the dance. The organizers expect more than 2,000 dancers from 47 countries to attend the festival, which includes workshops and competitions. “It’s pretty international now,” said Donna Skiff, the director of the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. “It’s a fun dance, and you don’t have to have real ballet training to do it. It means people without all that training can participate in dance, and people at all age levels. I’m amazed that the ones we’ve had here for performances, they’re young. They’re, like, teenagers. They dress the part. They look like that era.”
An elderly woman died after she was unable to call for help because the phone company had disconnected the mobile she kept for emergencies. Sheila Secker, 78, had been given the pay-as-you-go phone by her son, but as she had not used the phone for some time it had been cut off. When the grandmother collapsed in her home in December, she could not contact her family and died in hospital a few days later, the Sunday Times reports. Cancelled: As Sheila Secker had not used her pay-as-you-go phone for any chargeable services, Vodafone retired her number without warning Mrs Secker's son Steve told the newspaper how his mother had owned the mobile phone for 14 years, and recently topped up the credit, but had not made any calls. Shortly before her fall, Mrs Secker moved into a new home, near York, and had yet to have a landline installed, so relied on her mobile. Mr Secker told the Sunday Times' Money section how the family raised the alarm the next day after not hearing from his mother, and emergency services were called. Mrs Secker died in hospital on New Year's Day. When Mr Secker contacted Vodafone he was told his mother's number had been retired, and that a 'glitch' in the system had allowed the elderly woman to continue to 'top up' her credit. Take heed: Most major mobile phone operators regularly 'recycle' numbers when they have been out of use for a three to six months 'What I cannot fathom is, if Vodafone has retired a number, how can it permit money to be taken as a top-up,' Mr Secker, 46, told the Sunday Times. 'This is nothing more than a rip-off to add insult to injury'. Most major phone operators regularly 'recycle' phone numbers when they have been out of use for a certain time. A Vodafone pay-as-you-go mobile is put into 'semi-quarantine' if no chargeable calls or texts are made for 90 days. After a further 90 days the number is disconnected, and 270 days later the number is recycled and given to another customer, with any credit on the phone lost. EE retires a pay-as-you-go number after 180 days of inactivity and O2 disconnects a pay-as-you-go phone after six months of no chargeable services. Tesco Mobile allows six months of inactivity before sending the customer a text to remind them to use their phone again, or their number will be lost.
On Thursday morning, I listened to an interview with the CEO of "a big data intelligence company" called Dstillery; it "demystifies consumers' online footprints" to target them with ads. The CEO told public radio program Marketplace something astounding: his company had sucked up the mobile device ID's from the phones of Iowa caucus-goers to match them with their online profiles. Via Marketplace: "We watched each of the caucus locations for each party and we collected mobile device ID's," Dstillery CEO Tom Phillips said. "It's a combination of data from the phone and data from other digital devices." Dstillery found some interesting things about voters. For one, people who loved to grill or work on their lawns overwhelmingly voted for Trump in Iowa, according to Phillips. When I heard this, I wondered how the company was doing this. Did they have employees at all the caucus locations holding phone-sniffing devices? The idea that phone-toting people could walk up to vote and immediately have their real world identities matched with a profile based on their digital trail would indeed be, as Marketplace headlined its piece, a "new frontier in voter tracking." But that's not how it works. The pairing of caucus-goers with their online footprints was more roundabout than that, explained a Dstillery spokesperson by email. What really happened is that Dstillery gets information from people's phones via ad networks. When you open an app or look at a browser page, there's a very fast auction that happens where different advertisers bid to get to show you an ad. Their bid is based on how valuable they think you are, and to decide that, your phone sends them information about you, including, in many cases, an identifying code (that they've built a profile around) and your location information, down to your latitude and longitude. Advertisement Yes, for the vast majority of people, ad networks are doing far more information collection about them than the NSA—but they don't explicitly link it to their names. So on the night of the Iowa caucus, Dstillery flagged all the auctions that took place on phones in latitudes and longitudes near caucus locations. It wound up spotting 16,000 devices on caucus night, as those people had granted location privileges to the apps or devices that served them ads. It captured those mobile ID's and then looked up the characteristics associated with those IDs in order to make observations about the kind of people that went to Republican caucus locations (young parents) versus Democrat caucus locations. It drilled down farther (e.g., 'people who like NASCAR voted for Trump and Clinton') by looking at which candidate won at a particular caucus location. As USA Today noted, "the results are interesting, if scientifically inexact." Because I think this is a fascinating look into how online and offline tracking can be combined, here's the full Q&A: Fusion: How did Dstillery gather mobile ids from phones in Iowa? Dstillery: For most ads you see on web browsers and mobile devices, there is an auction among various programmatic advertising firms for the chance to show you an ad. We are one of those buyers, and we are sent a variety of anonymous data, including what kind of phone you have, what app you are using, what operating system version you’re running, and sometimes – crucially for this study – your latitude and longitude (lat/long). We identified the caucusing locations prior [to] the Iowa caucus and told our system to be on the lookout for devices that report a lat/long at those locations during the caucus. Advertisement So when we received an ad bid request that our system recognized as being at one of the caucus sites, our system flagged that request and captured that device ID so we could use it for this. This is roughly equivalent to exit polling for the smart phone age. Fusion:How many caucus locations did it gather from? Dstillery: We gathered data from across ~90% of the caucus sites for both parties. Advertisement Fusion: How many mobile ids was it able to match to its database? Dstillery: We identified about 16,000 devices at the various caucus sites. [Editor's note: Approximately 350,000 Iowans caucused.] Fusion: Which mobile id does Dstillery use for consumer tracking? Dstillery: We use the anonymized advertising IDs provided by the devices themselves as identifiers in our system. Generally speaking this means Android's Advertising ID or iOS's IDFA. Advertisement Fusion: What's the range of information associated with a mobile id? Dstillery: The data we receive from those auction messages is fairly limited. To build out that rich information set that you are referring to (we call them 'Crafted Audiences'), we need to see a device several times across many different sites. We then use some pretty sophisticated machine learning techniques to extrapolate behaviors. We can only do this because we see such a broad view of digital behavior. In other words we know that seeing you on sites A, B and C mean that you are likely a New Mom, but seeing you on A, D and E mean that you are Health Conscious. We have hundreds of crafted audiences – including credit checkers, wrestling fans, new movers, CEOs and even things like DIYers and cigar aficionados. And generate more crafted audiences all the time. Advertisement One thing that isn't in the data is personal identifiable information. The data and system are completely anonymous. We have no idea, for example, what your name is. All we see are behaviors and everything we do is based on analyzing those behaviors writ-large. Fusion: Does Dstillery do its real world association of mobile ids with consumer attributes in other settings or was this a one-off? Dstillery: This application is an extension of what we do every day in our core business. Our entire mission as a company is to find the right consumer at the right time with the right message. We had to do some special setup and analysis due to the caucus dynamics, but this sort of experiment – seeing things in the data that no one else has before – is our bread and butter.
Storytelling as Organizing: How to Rescue the Left from its Crisis of Imagination In an editorial in In These Times' November 2009 issue, reflecting on the right’s success at re-framing the healthcare reform debate in its favor, Kevin O’Donnell wrote, “When it comes to messaging, Republicans believe in science. Democrats don’t.” To their detriment, “Democrats cling to the idea, disproved by science and electoral experience, that if you present the facts, people will reason their way to the right conclusion.” Republicans, on the other hand, know to use “simple words, short sentences and a heavy dose of repetition.” Must one be this cynical in order to win a campaign or a policy battle? Is the way to beat conservatives on important issues to “race to the bottom,” debasing rhetoric, and treating the public as imbeciles? Fortunately, for those looking for a more generous understanding of public discourse, there’s Re:Imagining Change: How to Use Story-based Strategy to Win Campaigns, Build Movements, and Change the World (PM Press, 2010), by Patrick Reinsborough and Doyle Canning. Reinsborough and Canning provide another way of looking at “the battle of the narrative.” Like O’Donnell, any experienced activist knows that framing the issue matters to any campaign's success. But rather than “dumbing down” progressive campaign messaging, Reinsborough and Canning argue for a story-based strategy that deconstructs dominant narratives and constructs new ones that challenge assumptions and move citizens to action. The authors encourage readers to re-imagine both how change can happen and what can be changed. They introduce a series of concepts “to win campaigns, build movements, and change the world” based on Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci’s notion of hegemony, which posits that powerful interests exert control through dominant culture so that the status-quo becomes “common sense.” If campaigns are to change the status-quo, the authors argue, they must be communicated in ways that fall outside the narrative categories created by the status quo. Just as a successful campaign can change the material conditions of society, Reinsborough and Canning argue, so can it change the way society thinks—it creates change on the level of meaning. In the same way that a direct action physically interrupts a target’s business-as-usual, a campaign has a deeper impact when it also interrupts the dominant narrative about the campaign issue. Consider Re:Imagining Change’s example of Greenpeace’s Save the Whales Campaign. When Greenpeace activists took action by literally placing themselves between whaling ships and the whales, it “showed it was the activists, not the whalers, who were the courageous people on small boats risking their lives—not to kill whales, but to save them. In this new narrative, whales were not big and evil; rather it was the giant whaling ships that were the dangerous monsters. The whales were the helpless victims and became sympathetic and worthy of protection...The story changed and the roles of hero, victim, and villain shifted.” Successful campaigns utilize a “meme,” or a unit of “self-replicating cultural information such as slogans (Just Do It!), iconic images (Abu Ghraib torture), catch phrases (“wardrobe malfunction”) or symbols (the peace sign). Just as engines of dominant culture create memes, so can social change groups. Re:Imagining Change's accessible language and hands-on exercises make it ideal for busy community and political organizers. My favorite feature of the book is the “Reflections” box included in each chapter. An example: What are some assumptions in the dominant culture you think need to be changed? Make a list. You can carry this assumption list with you and keep a running tab of times when they show up, or when you surface new ones. Choose one assumption to work with for the moment...Are there institutions where it lives? Are there ways it is felt in popular culture? Now think about actions you could take to challenge that assumption and change the story. Are there physical points of intervention that could expose this assumption? The exercise pushed me to step back and consider a campaign that my organization, Arise Chicago, and other worker centers around the country are engaged in. The fight against the exploitation of low-wage earners is not new, but our “anti-wage theft campaign” is because of its use of the “wage theft” meme. Before, institutions like the Department of Labor and the mainstream media referred to the phenomena of worker exploitation as “non-payment of wages.” Several years ago, however, worker centers designed the “wage theft” meme. This meme overthrows the dominant assumption that wages are the property of the boss, to be shared with workers. Rather, in this new narrative, wages are the property of workers that have been stolen by the boss. The wage theft meme is deeply effective, because a common defense narrative spun by an employer caught for not paying his workers is that these are hard economic times; that in a difficult business climate everyone has to tighten their belts—that the boss is doing everything he can to keep things running. The public is sympathetic to this defense. The employer is understood as benevolent; he is the job provider, the one who can save our economy—the workers, protesting, are ungrateful! They should be thankful to be employed at all in this bad economy! The audience of this dominant narrative will identify with the employer, who is the one struggling to stay alive in this economy. The workers are troublemakers, trying to take wages away from the employer, a property owner, just like you and me! But through the wage theft meme, workers, not employers, become the victims of the bad economic climate. The boss, not the workers, becomes the unreasonable one. The self-respecting public will identify with the righteous worker who is trying to stand up for their right to recover their private property. Using the wage theft meme, when my organization fights an employer who is not paying minimum wage, overtime wage, or wage at all, we also are fighting some of the assumptions embedded in the dominant narrative about labor. Accordingly, the media has begun to use the meme when they report on our campaigns and legislators have incorporated the phrase “wage theft” in the names of bills. All of this is to say that Re:Imagining Change has inspired me to evaluate the choices we’re making in designing and communicating our organizing campaigns. Other progressive organizers should strive to do the same. The left is losing the battle over narrative, which means we often lose the larger war over legislation and fiscal policy. Think of common current rhetoric surrounding climate change legislation (“it kills jobs”), public sector jobs (“we have to cut back to decrease the deficit”), gender parity (“it will result in frivolous lawsuits”), etc. Indeed, Sally Kohn of Movement Vision Lab writes: “Over the past year, much of the left has jealously ogled the Tea Party and its apparently up-out-of-nowhere grassroots movement energy.” Kohn locates the origin of this energy in the proliferation of “an attractive story of power and vision—a story in which everyday activists can see themselves and engage.” That the left needs to develop strong, compelling, narratives is clear. Re:Imagining Change is the resource that can show us exactly how to do so.
California isn't technically the first state to enact a kill switch measure; that honor belongs to Minnesota. However, the combination of a large population and an important role in the tech world will make this law tougher to ignore, since phone makers risk giving up a huge potential audience if they flout regulations. There isn't much danger of that happening when most major brands have already embraced the technology, but this should keep any stragglers in line. Is it a good idea? That's a tougher call -- while studies suggest that mandatory kill switches could save money by deterring crooks, there are concerns that the requirement could both hinder progress in anti-theft systems and complicate any phone launches. It's too late to back out, so we'll just have to see how this safeguard works in practice.
Taxpayers in South Florida are spending millions of dollars every year to jail people accused of crimes as petty as panhandling and public drinking. A homeless man arrested for sleeping on Fort Lauderdale’s public beach spent 42 days in the Broward County Jail — at a cost of about $5,880 to the county — because he could not afford a $25 bond, court records show. He ended up being charged a $50 court fine. Another man spent 65 days in jail after being arrested once for panhandling in Fort Lauderdale and another time for drinking a beer on a city bench. Both charges carried $25 bonds, but it cost the county some $9,100 to house him. Their stories are not unusual. Broward’s jails held 3,696 inmates on Thursday, including 40 on bonds of $500 or less. Consider that each person in the jail costs $50,000 or more over the course of a year, roughly $135 to $140 a day in Broward and Palm Beach counties, county officials say. “We just can’t continue in this county to take everybody to the county jail,” Broward Chief Judge Jack Tuter said. To cut costs, South Florida counties now are looking for ways to avoid locking up people for nonviolent misdemeanor crimes. Since 2015, Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties have passed laws that give police officers the discretion to issue citations to people caught with less than 20 grams of marijuana. The citations carry some combination of fine, community service and/or treatment, but no criminal charge. Broward commissioners are considering extending the practice to offenses such as petit theft, possession of drug paraphernalia, trespassing, possession of alcohol by a person under 21, disorderly conduct and littering. A person would not be eligible if they were charged with a misdemeanor connected to a felony, domestic violence, another violent crime or driving under the influence. In Palm Beach County, the Criminal Justice Commission has received a $2 million MacArthur grant to find ways to reduce the county’s jail population. Ideas include: -- Dropping warrants for low-level offenses that are more than 10 years old. -- Directing homeless people charged with minor offenses to housing and social services instead. -- Sending out reminders of court dates to defendants. (About 14 percent of the people jailed in 2016 were there because they missed a court date.) -- Doing a better job identifying low-risk individuals who can be released while awaiting trial. Miami-Dade is ahead of its neighbors, implementing a program in 2010 that lets people avoid jail on minor crimes. In 2016, the county issued 6,796 adult citations. Most — 3,623 — were for marijuana possession, followed by 1,182 for possession of drug paraphernalia, 482 for violating park regulations and 311 for underage alcohol possession. When Palm Beach County commissioners approved marijuana citations in 2015, figures showed it cost $322,245 for the county to jail people between 2009 and 2015 for low-level marijuana possession. That amount increased to $1.1 million when a marijuana arrest was combined with other misdemeanor infractions. All three counties already have juvenile citation programs that help keep kids out of court on nonviolent misdemeanor. Those programs are models for the adult program Broward wants to implement. Kristina Henson, executive director of Palm Beach’s Criminal Justice Commission, said her county thinks it will have more impact to make the current system run better than to add a new adult citation program. "We’re not done. This has been the product of two year's worth of data and work," Henson said. "We’re just starting to look at the full picture of the types of people who are coming into our system." A 2016 study by James Austin, president of the JFA Institute, which evaluates criminal justice practices, found that Broward’s jail housed many homeless people on bonds of $100 or less, despite the non-serious nature of their charges. On one day in August 2016, the jail held 818 people in minimum security awaiting trial, he said. “This large number begins to suggest that there is a significant number of pretrial defendants who could be safely released to the community under the supervision of the [Sheriff’s Office] or could be assigned to alternative housing,” Austin concluded. Broward Commissioner Dale Holness said his goal is “to ensure that we don’t continue to put low-income people in jail and prison as much as we do.” The citation program would help with that, while ensuring that justice is served, he said. “This would hold them accountable for their actions,” Holness said. “They’re not getting off scot free.They’ll pay a price.” Broward officials hope to do more than just reduce the jail population. They also want to prevent blemishes on otherwise clean records, blemishes that could make it more difficult for people to get jobs. Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein said using citations will allow police the “opportunity to stop the behavior, to cite the behavior, to fine or remedy the behavior without branding that young person for the rest of their life.” lbarszewski@SunSentinel.com, 954-356-4556 or Twitter @lbarszewski
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Before David Fizdale could win over the hearts and minds of the Memphis Grizzlies, he first turned his attention to the decor. Long, blue tunnels throughout the interior of the FedEx Forum were painted white with basic styling. Words of drive and encouragement appeared on the walls of various facilities. When the Grizzlies come into work, they now walk halls lined by those to whom they are accountable; to make it to the heart of the arena means passing photos of Marc Gasol, of Tony Allen, of Vince Carter, of JaMychal Green. There is a symbolism behind every aesthetic choice and the Grizzlies themselves have taken note, down to the now-uniform practice undershirt and the coaching staff’s identical polos. “Nobody's different,” Mike Conley said. “Everybody is held to the same standard.” Already there are rules and there are consequences. Fizdale is far from a coaching authoritarian but he invests in organizational consistency. Memphis had found its lasting identity by way of a long-standing core and an organic catchphrase. Grit and grind had its time. What’s now under construction is the team’s cultural architecture—and God, as was said by German builder Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is in the details. Grizzlies players have met with sleep specialists, invested more heavily in sports science, and overhauled the menu of the team chef to cut down on sugar. The ever-picky Conley is reeling—adjusting to a life of plain oatmeal and simple, lean proteins. “We’re all hunting for some chicken fingers and french fries somewhere,” Conley said, “but can’t find it around here at all.” Twitter: @memgrizz This kind of regiment originates with the Heat, where Fizdale spent his last eight seasons as an assistant coach. Erik Spoelstra maintains strict organizational standards in Miami. Among his highest priorities, however, was making the team facility an environment that players would be loathe to leave. The look and feel of the place matter. Even the offerings of the kitchen contribute; it might not satisfy every player’s palate, but professionals tend to respect those organizations that respect them and their bodies. Team operations in Miami—and, by model, in Memphis—are structured to provide education and resources to players on even minor factors related to their performance. “That’s what he has come in with and is trying to implement in your mind,” Gasol said of Fizdale. “The little things in every part of your life and every facet of your life matter.” Trust can build naturally when players believe that their coach sincerely has their best interest at heart. The Grizzlies have been polite since parting ways with ex-coach Dave Joerger this summer but the vibe around the team is palpably different. Some of that is the preseason ease of a group that has yet to be put to the test (the search for a grumbly, hopeless NBA training camp is forever ongoing). The arrival of Chandler Parsons, even through his rehabilitation, gives the Grizz a lighter element and real prospects. Even a conservative timetable to return from multiple knee injuries could not sour the excitement of the biggest signing in franchise history. Gasol’s spry movement since recovering from a navicular fracture in his right foot has also lifted spirits. Positivity is to be expected under the circumstances, but it means something that the Grizzlies—to a man—will mention Fizdale holding every player to the same basic criteria. It means something that when Gasol is asked of his first impressions of of his new coach, he responds simply: “He does what he says.” Infer from that what you will. For Fizdale, that kind of statement suggests he already has some capital with the leaders of this group. There is faith in his follow-through. He’ll need it. These days, the motivational speaking circuit features regular stops in NBA training camps. Many teams bring in outside voices for inspiration: an Olympic medalist, a renowned survivalist, a retired general. The Memphis Grizzlies invited a dog. Navy SEAL teams deployed to particularly dangerous areas will often go accompanied by an expertly trained dog and its handler—in some cases without any established relationship with either. The SEALs have trained together. They’ve scrambled for their lives together. They’ve broken bread together and shared in the horrors of war together. Then they are asked to trust their lives, immediately and completely, to a German Shepherd. That bond can sometimes be all that stands between the SEALs and the concealed explosives their companion has been raised to detect. “That's the message I wanted to get across to these guys with all the new faces and me being new,” Fizdale said. “We don't have a lot of time to feel each other out. I'm their sniffin' dog. So I need them to understand: trust me when I'm leading you down this path that I'm gonna look out for you.” Joe Murphy/NBAE/Getty Images Within weeks of making the comparison, Fizdale would ask a once-elite defensive team to abandon its style, shift a plodding offense to a more modern approach, and move former All-Star Zach Randolph to the bench. The latter is a fascinating development, both in that Fizdale had the juice to make the move before his team had played a single meaningful game and with the way he sold Randolph on the change. “He's embracing that role,” Fizdale said. “I told him, 'Most likely, no one's going to pay you to be a starter from here on out, so let's audition you for what you're going to be for the rest of your career.' And it really clicked with him.” Fizdale is right about Randolph’s NBA future. He’s also a touch more blunt than one might expect—a factor that shouldn’t be lost given the politics of this kind of decision. Randolph has thus far approached the move with a respectful nod. Anything for the good of the team. Credit Randolph for that much, though talk of sacrifice before there are real stakes has only the merit of a campaign promise. There should be no doubt that Randolph wants to do right by his team. He also, by his own admission, feels that he’s still a starting-quality player. If those views come into conflict—say, with an early losing streak or a poor start by his replacement JaMychal Green—the internal conversation around Fizdale’s decision could become more complicated. • Subscribe to The Crossover's Open Floor Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud or Stitcher This is where culture pays dividends. It’s also where it helps to have the longest-tenured core foursome in the NBA. This will be the seventh season that Gasol, Conley, Randolph, and Allen suit up as teammates. During that time, Randolph and Gasol have each played on three different contracts. Memphis has made the playoffs in each of their seasons together and climbed out of the first round thrice, including to the Western Conference finals in 2013. The friendship among them is real—spanning years, basketball trials, and even joint family vacations. “We spend a lot of time together,” Gasol said. “We care about each other. We help each other.” And when the time comes, they speak frankly with each other. NBA team dynamics are fraught with the politics of credit. Everyone wants to be appreciated for their skills, featured, and paid accordingly. Memphis isn’t immune to those influences but is, through the continuity of its leadership, shielded from it. “It's obviously impressive to see how they can say things to each other and not personalize it and just be able to move on,” Fizdale said. Constructive criticism can be issued without the thought of some other agenda. Disagreements can be had without bile or baggage. Even as the Grizzlies evolve beyond grit and grind, the connections forged in that ethos survive in a valuable, progressive function. The next step is simple: A seven-year core accustomed to a particular, definitive style of basketball must transform everything they've ever know about playing together. These Grizzlies made their name on blunt force. Randolph and Gasol broke down opponents, pounding the post until they distressed the hardwood beneath their feet. An oppressive defense picked up the moment that bludgeoning—and the ensuing wrestle for the rebound—left off. Allen would invade the personal space of a superstar scorer while Conley hawked the ball. Wherever a possession went, Gasol was there to put his giant frame in the way of its intended destination. Theirs was a deliberate sort of authority—narrow, to be sure, but painfully effective. Joerger correctly identified a need for change. The NBA had evolved not only into a smaller, faster league, but one uncompromising in its exploitation of limited teams and players. Fluid, versatile defenses could stand up to the Grizzlies’ battery. Smart, free-flowing offenses could strain even their best defensive efforts. So Memphis tried to run a variation of its offense picked up at a faster pace. A few weeks of quick, concerning losses brought Joerger’s experiment to a decisive end. The idea folded with the skepticism of the Grizzlies themselves, who had known success playing a more conservative style. “When you're in a new system, you can't just commit to it,” Gasol said. “You've got to believe in it. When you commit to something, when things go bad you're gonna go back to your tendencies. 'Let's go back to that, we know that works.’” Melissa Majchrzak/Getty Images And it did work—all the way until the Warriors solved the Grizzlies with speed and matchup control in the 2015 playoffs. It’s fair to wonder whether this Memphis team might go through a similar progression. Fizdale has no intention of walking up the ball into first-option post-ups. During preseason action, he has constantly waved his team forward—reminding Randolph to dive rather than spot-up and prodding guards to attack. Green was made a starter with speed and fit in mind. “Playing Marc and Zach together is not a formula for pace,” Fizdale said. “So why even mess around with it?” Everything about this approach grates against years of established tendencies. For their entire careers, Gasol and Randolph have played in systems that called for the first big down the floor to run into the post on the strong side. Fizdale wants the opposite; by running the first big to the weak side of the floor, there should finally be room for Conley, Parsons, and other creators to attack the rim. Getting to that relatively basic point requires conscious adjustment in the way the Grizzlies navigate the court. Learning to run sometimes means learning where. Yet NBA players, as Fizdale said, “are always hunting for comfort.” That instinct derailed Memphis the last time it tried to play faster. Perhaps it could do the same if this revamped offense doesn’t click quite as intended—a possibility while the Grizzlies find their footing. Even the staple grit-and-grinders, however, have since been forced to confront the realities of a changing league. Those champion Warriors who outclassed the Grizzlies in 2015 went on to win 73 games the following year and have since added Kevin Durant, veering further into the small-ball zeitgeist. Cleveland upset Golden State in the 2016 Finals not by blunt size, but with agile bigs and positional flexibility. Memphis’s burden of proof might finally be satisfied. “It made it a lot easier on everybody's mind to accept when you see Golden State, when you see the way Cleveland can play, you see how different teams can play and win championships by playing this way,” Conley said. “We could continue to try to play and win our way, but the league has changed and become a fast-paced, stretched league. We can't continue to try to force our style upon people.” The build comes gradually—with 2-on-0, then 3-on-0, then 4-on-0 drilling of positioning and function. Everything Memphis does is still best understood as a collaboration between Gasol and Conley. Their dribble hand-offs are a critical engine that has simply been recontextualized; slight adjustments in spacing and tweaked principles of movement will make one of the most dynamic connections in the game all the more impossible. Gasol has a complete game at the elbow: the set shot for opponents who back off, the vision to throw no-look passes against antsy defense, mammoth screens, an emerging three-point game to work the pick-and-pop, and deep chemistry with one of the shiftiest, trickiest off-ball movers in the game. “The hand-offs that we do—I can read his body,” Gasol said of Conley. “I can read his legs, his feet, and how they're positioned. I don't even need to look at his hands or face. Just by looking at his lower body I know what he's trying to do because we've done it so much. So once I see him slow and kind of take a step one way, I know if he's gonna keep going or if he's gonna stop and pop back or if he's gonna go backdoor.” The hope is to introduce Parsons, once fully cleared, into a sort of three-man game. Gasol and Conley have rarely had a shooter like Parsons (41.4% from three last season) to balance the wing and have never worked alongside such a fluent playmaker. Those possessions that would dead-end with the Grizzlies of old will now have the resources to develop fully—particularly with Gasol spacing the floor out to the three-point line. Hannah Foslien/Getty Images Gasol working beyond the arc, by the way, is more than just training camp fluff. Every year there are stories of some big finally adding that element to his game only to abandon it a few weeks in or shoot threes in such meager numbers that it never really registers. To contrast, Fizdale has installed three-point shooting quotas for Gasol—four attempts a night was the word in camp—and threatened to pull him from games if he passes up looks. The early results are promising; Gasol took 5.1 threes per 36 minutes in the preseason (a rate similar to what Kyle Korver, Marvin Williams, and DeMarre Carroll averaged last year) while making nearly half those shots. There may be a Boshian evolution in him yet. Already Gasol is gunning for Conley and Carter’s records in team shooting games and calling out his makes with the ball still in the air. RT @alexiskmorgan: Marc Gasol always loves the Around The World drill during practices. pic.twitter.com/6bIK87JHSE #GCM — Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) October 9, 2016 Working from the top of the floor is standard for Gasol, but his stepping back to the three-point line allows Memphis to fully explore its options with Parsons. Fizdale wasted no time in comparing his intended role for the 6'10" forward to LeBron James’s utility with the Heat—a connection that was part of the free agent pitch to Parsons in the first place. “I see Chandler as that kind of player,” Fizdale said. “Multi-skilled, can post mismatches, can run pick-and-roll, can set pick-and-rolls, can come off catch-and-shoots, defensively have great versatility. “The only difference,” Fizdale said, “is that LeBron is a Greek god and Chandler is a high-level athlete.” Getty Images (2) Inverting the floor in this way—by bringing opposing centers out of the paint with Gasol and working Parsons inside—provides a fulcrum for position–less basketball. Fizdale is a believer as much on philosophical grounds as strategic ones. A traditional, top-heavy team structure is isolating to both the central creators (who regularly face double and triple teams) and those players hidden away as afterthoughts. A more fluid, position–less system, by contrast, sacrifices some accessibility to activate all five players on the floor. “When you know that the offense isn't just predicated on one guy and that every movement you make gives you a chance to be a part of the action, to make you a weapon, it’s empowering,” Fizdale said. Consider this in the context of a player like Allen. The game within the game for Memphis over the past few seasons was finding ways to camouflage the least-threatening scorer on the floor. Allen’s shooting presents a liability that can’t be left static; any moment that Allen stands still is an open invitation for his defender to leave him. He has to screen, he has to cut, and he has to distract—all of which are more feasible if the Grizzlies can open up the floor with their pace and shooting. The current plan is to have Allen also assume more ball-handling responsibility for the Grizz this season, a development born of the need to make him a live threat and the team’s lack of a proven backup point guard. Shifting into that kind of role also opens up some different possibilities for Conley to work off the ball. The goal is to move the players on the floor around in such a way that they’re allowed to flex a more complete game. Allen doesn’t need to be able to break a defense down off the dribble. He simply needs to help maintain the momentum of the system and move things along from one option to the next. “He's been so upfront with me,” Allen said. “He's telling me what he expect out of me, he telling me what he wants improve, he's keeping me engaged with the game itself. I like that.” Fizdale has cited a variety of influences for his offensive approach but clearly honed in on one coaching tree in particular: the minds behind the 2011 Dallas Mavericks. As an assistant with the Heat team that lost to those Mavs in the Finals, Fizdale saw in agonizing detail what their flexible system could accomplish. “I respect the people that I lost to,” Fizdale said. Rick Carlisle and Terry Stotts, now head coach of the Trail Blazers, are among his most immediate influences. Jason Kidd, head coach of the Bucks and and point guard on that title team, spent time with Fizdale in Chicago this summer going through the ins and outs of the offense. Dwane Casey, current head coach of the Raptors, lent Fizdale his counsel as well. Similarly, Fizdale combed through film of teams with Spurs lineage: the Hawks under Mike Budenholzer, the Jazz under Quin Snyder, and San Antonio itself. “Their systems are all predicated on man movement and ball movement,” Fizdale said. “They also caused me a lot of pain.” He hopes to pay it forward. The full nuance of those kinds of systems takes months—if not years—to develop. Memphis will need time. Yet already the Fizdale Grizzlies made more threes in a single preseason game (17) than in any game in franchise history. Already they’ve climbed into the top 10 in preseason pace after four straight seasons plodding through the muck. And already they’ve begun to assume a new identity, even before the marquee acquisition of their summer logs a single minute. Changing the structure of the Grizzlies’ defense was, in some ways, an even taller order. Since the core four assembled in 2010, no team in the league has won more games while scoring 90 points or fewer than Memphis. Some of that is pace. Most of it is defense. Fizdale looked at that system—the very same that once made the Grizzlies a contender and helped turn Gasol into the Defensive Player of the Year—and saw a relic of a passing era. “You can't just be a paint team anymore,” Fizdale said. “You can't just sit back and think you're gonna pack the paint in and win games. You've gotta guard that three-point line. You've gotta limit the number of attempts that teams get from the three-point line cause these guys are shooting the hell out of the ball now.” The only way to do that is to supply constant pressure, even in those situations that past Grizzlies teams tended to approach more conservatively. Going under a ball screen will not be generally allowed. Dropping—where the big man defending a pick-and-roll steps back to protect the paint—will be kept to a minimum. Fizdale wants the Grizzlies playing up and into their opponents on the perimeter to the point where they’re more concerned with the defender in their face than the operations of their offense. These are huge changes requiring mental rewiring. All of the rhythms and timing that Memphis worked for years to perfect become obsolete with this kind of development. Hannah Foslien/Getty Images “There's going to be a lot more switching required, just like all the NBA is doing. We just need to be prepared," Gasol said. "Obviously you can adapt, game to game, so you want to have as many tools in your toolbox as you can. So whatever the game plan demands on that day, you have the tools to do that.” Overhauling a system on this scale is an investment. Memphis is giving up a way of defending that’s proven to work in the most general sense for greater leverage in the matchups that matter. The only chance the Grizzlies have of containing the most dynamic offenses in the league is to meet them on their terms well beyond the arc. Such a change is feasible because Allen, even at 35, and Conley are a scourge to a live dribble. Toggling between pick-and-roll coverages could pan out because Gasol, Green, and Brandan Wright are all so light on their feet. Parsons, Carter, James Ennis, Andrew Harrison, and rookie Wade Baldwin can all contribute something with the range of positions they could plausibly cover. Depth and injury are looming issues, but a healthy Grizzlies defense has the functionality to work. Gasol will be entrusted to make sure that it does. Fizdale appointed the fiery Spaniard as the sole captain of the team to establish the importance of his leadership. The position, Gasol admits, comes with a personal learning curve. “I have a tendency to get frustrated with guys sometimes because they don't do the right thing or they make too many mistakes,” Gasol said. Stable veterans are easy. Clueless rookies or oblivious role players, on the other hand, have drawn Gasol’s ire to the point where he will physically reposition them at times while barking orders. “I take defense very serious,” Gasol said. “I know that defense has a lot to do with attention, paying attention to details and being tied together to the next guy and all that. So when a mistake on that happens, I know you're not concentrating. I don't allow that.” Actually leading this team will demand that Gasol process that emotion. His frustrations have never been especially discrete; when good and pissed, the All-NBA center defaults as forthright. Memphis will need him tempered as it grooms its young point guards, establishes its systems, and integrates new full-time starters at both forward spots. Fervor and composure needn’t be mutually exclusive. There is a time and a place for each, and it’s up to Gasol to delineate the difference. “I’m working on it,” Gasol sighed. No team in the Western Conference has a fate so variable as the Grizzlies. For all that’s been done to improve Memphis’s prospects, its absolute floor is a cold, dark place—a reckoning of the three consecutive max contracts given to veterans with real injury history. Conley takes a beating over the course of a season. Gasol has Grizzlies fans so spooked about his foot that he now tweets Biggie GIFs and Joker memes to calm them. Parsons, whose addition could prove transformative, has still yet to be fully cleared seven months after his second straight season-ending knee surgery. These hazards are implicit in the team’s construction, as was the choice to spring for a single top free agent this summer rather than make plays for youth or depth. Memphis moved in with Parsons, injuries and all, because this franchise was much better positioned to strive than to submit. “Sometimes,” Fizdale said, “you've gotta take a risk.” Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images Fizdale recalls Grizzlies owner Robert Pera telling team officials not to hesitate if they thought they could land Parsons. That they ultimately did is a tribute to what Memphis had in store: veteran talent, real opportunity, and the pitch of a coach who told Parsons he could do more. There is no ecosystem in the NBA quite like this one. Veteran players are learning entirely new approaches while breaking out solutions for themselves mid-practice. Film sessions have become dialogues among peers while coaches quietly preside. A star point guard was given the reins to coach actual preseason play down to the lobbying of officials. Memphis has unreservedly pushed in its chips and still finds room for its players to take ownership of their process. This is culture at work—the kind that can only be drawn out of old friends, so long on the cusp, finding for themselves the joys of something new.
Iranian Paralympian athletes have stood atop the podium in the 2016 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics Asia-Oceania Championships in the United Arab Emirates. On Saturday, Iran’s Alireza Mokhtari Hemami vied for the top honor in the men’s discus throw F51-53 category at the Dubai Police Club Stadium, and managed to pocket the gold medal with a throw of 22.71 meters. Indian competitor Amit Kumar Kumar threw 9.87 meters to receive the silver. Sausi Arabia snatched the bronze in this category. In the men’s javelin throw F11-13 division, Iranian Nour Mohammad Arekhi recorded 42.09 meters and bagged the silver medal. Zhu Pengkai, a representative from China, threw 57.69 meters to steal the show and be awarded the gold medal. Chinese Taipei’s Chiang Chih-Chung also settled for bronze with a throw of 51.49 meters. Also on Saturday, Iran’s 22-year-old athlete Arash Khosravi clocked 24.64 seconds in the men’s 200m T11 class to claim the gold medal. Indonesian sportsman Abdul Halim Dalimunte received the silver medal with a time of 25.53 seconds, and Suphachai Songphinit from Thailand earned the bronze. Iranian Paralympian athlete Ahmad Ojaghlou (file photo) Additionally, Ahmad Ojaghlou participated in the men’s 400m T47 competitions, and registered a time of 50.09 second to clinch the gold medal. India’s Sandeep Singh Singh and Pradeep Uggl Dena Pathirannehelage clocked 50.67 and 51.12 seconds, and earned the silver and bronze medals respectively. Also in the men’s shot put F42/44 discipline, Iran’s 48-year-old athlete Mahdi Asghari won the gold medal with his best attempt of 11.60 meters. Indian sportsman Santhamuthuvel Kesavan received the silver medal with a throw of 11.84 meters, and Ali al-Bishi from Saudi Arabia earned the bronze with 10.73 meters. Additionally, Ali Elahi picked up a gold medal for the Islamic Republic of Iran in the men’s 1,500m T13 class with 4:20.36 minutes. Iran topped the medal count table with a total of 40 (23 golds, ten silvers and seven bronzes), and China stood second with 30 (16 gold medals, 9 silvers and five bronzes). India finished in the third spot, having collected twelve gold, ten silver and nine bronze medals. The 2016 IPC Athletics Asia-Oceania Championships began in Dubai, the UAE, on March 6, and finished on March 12. The tournament brought together about 300 athletes from almost 30 countries. A total of 29 athletes, 23 sportsmen and six sportswomen, represented the Islamic Republic of Iran at the 2016 IPC Athletics Asia-Oceania Championships.
Net neutrality legislation unveiled by Republicans today would gut the ability of the Federal Communications Commission to regulate the broadband industry. As expected, the bill forbids the FCC from reclassifying broadband as a common carrier service, preventing the commission from using authority it has under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. This is the statute the FCC uses to regulate landline telephone providers. Further Reading Republicans in Congress make plan to preempt FCC on net neutrality The bill—full text here—also targets a portion of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Section 706 of the Act instructs the FCC to accelerate deployment of broadband to all Americans “by removing barriers to infrastructure investment and by promoting competition in the telecommunications market.” The FCC is considering using this authority to preempt state laws that limit the rights of cities and towns to build broadband networks. That will be off the table if Republicans get their way. The bill text amends communications law “to prohibit the Commission or a State commission from relying on section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 as a grant of authority.” It also defines broadband as an “information service,” preventing the FCC from treating broadband providers as common carriers. Obama could veto the bill even if it passes through Congress. The FCC is expected to vote on reclassifying broadband providers and enforcing net neutrality rules on February 26. The bill released today does include the major net neutrality principles supported by President Obama and the FCC. It would prohibit paid prioritization, throttling, and blocking of “lawful content and non-harmful devices,” while requiring transparency of network management practices. The bill defines paid prioritization as “the speeding up or slowing down of some Internet traffic in relation to other Internet traffic over the consumer’s broadband Internet access service by prioritizing or deprioritizing packets based on compensation or lack thereof by the sender to the broadband Internet access service provider.” There are some exceptions, though. The bill allows broadband providers to offer “specialized services… other than broadband Internet access service that are offered over the same network as, and that may share network capacity with, broadband Internet access service.” Specialized services will be legal unless they are “offered or provided in ways that threaten the meaningful availability of broadband Internet access service or that have been devised or promoted in a manner designed to evade the purposes of this section.” One ambiguous line could be interpreted to allow “user-directed prioritization,” in which paid prioritization of certain Internet services is allowed in cases when consumers have specifically approved it. “Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit consumers’ choice of service plans or consumers’ control over their chosen broadband Internet access service,” the bill says. AT&T has supported user-directed prioritization. Republicans also want to make sure ISPs can seek out and prevent copyright infringement. “Nothing in this section… prohibits reasonable efforts by a provider of broadband Internet access service to address copyright infringement or other unlawful activity,” the bill says. The House and Senate Commerce Committees have set up hearings on the bill for Wednesday next week. In a press release, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) said, “This thoughtful path forward ensures that consumers remain number one and in control of their online experience. By clearly outlining the appropriate rules of the road and leaving twentieth century utility regulation behind, we can be sure that innovators continue full throttle in bringing remarkable new technologies to all Americans.”
C Programming Notes At its most basic level, programming a computer simply means telling it what to do, and this vapid-sounding definition is not even a joke. There are no other truly fundamental aspects of computer programming; everything else we talk about will simply be the details of a particular, usually artificial, mechanism for telling a computer what to do. Sometimes these mechanisms are chosen because they have been found to be convenient for programmers (people) to use; other times they have been chosen because they're easy for the computer to understand. The first hard thing about programming is to learn, become comfortable with, and accept these artificial mechanisms, whether they make ``sense'' to you or not. In fact, you shouldn't worry if some (or even many) of the mechanisms used for programming a computer don't make sense. It doesn't make sense that the cold water faucet has to be on the right side and the hot one has to be on the left; that's just the convention we've settled on. Similarly, many computer programming mechanisms are quite arbitrary, and were chosen not because of any theoretical motivation but simply because we needed an unambiguous way to say something to a computer. In this introduction to programming, we'll talk about several things: skills needed in programming, a simplified programming model, elements of real programming languages, computer representation of numbers, characters and strings, and compiler terminology. [A German translation of this essay is also available.] Skills Needed in Programming Simplified Programming Model Real Programming Model Elements of Real Programming Languages Computer Representation of Numbers Characters, Strings, and Numbers Compiler Terminology Read Sequentially This page by Steve Summit // Copyright 1995, 1996 // mail feedback
Just as there are individual records that figure to last for decades (e.g. Wayne Gretzky 's 92 goals in a season), there are team standards also likely to stand the test of time. Some are locked in (Philadelphia's record of 24 ties in 1969-70 is one, given that games now end in shootouts); others are achievements that will be nearly impossible to top no matter what the circumstances. Here are a few marks that don't figure to be broken any time soon: Consecutive playoff series won: 19 (New York Islanders, 1980-84) The Montreal Canadiens own the record for consecutive Stanley Cups with five from 1956-60. But that was in the Original Six era, when teams had to win just two series to take home a championship. The 1976-79 Canadiens won four straight Cups but needed to win only three series each year, a total of 12. The Islanders' dynasty of the early 1980s went nearly half a decade without losing a series. The Isles won their opening-round series against Los Angeles in 1980 and didn't lose until falling to the Edmonton Oilers in the 1984 Final. They won four consecutive championships, covering 16 series, as well as capturing three more in '84 before losing to the Oilers. No team since the Islanders' dynasty ended has won more than two consecutive Cups or nine playoff series in a row. Given that no team has won back-to-back Cups since Detroit did it in 1997 and '98, this mark could last for generations. Longest streak without a regulation loss: 35 games (Philadelphia Flyers, 1979-80) The Flyers opened the 1979-80 season by beating the Islanders 5-2, lost 9-2 in Atlanta two nights later -- and then went on the greatest run of any team in NHL history. For nearly three months -- 35 games -- they didn't lose, winning 25 times and playing ties in 10 other games. Philadelphia started the streak with three straight wins, then won nine in a row after a 6-6 home tie against Montreal on Oct. 21, 1979. The Flyers had four other sets of back-to-back wins and had won four in a row when they came to Met Center on Jan. 7, 1980, to face the Minnesota North Stars in the second of a back-to-back series after winning 4-2 at Buffalo the night before. The North Stars emphatically ended the streak with a 7-1 victory. The Flyers later had unbeaten streaks of 10 and nine games on the way to finishing first in the overall standings -- though they lost to the Islanders in the Stanley Cup Final. No team before or since has come close to the Flyers' record; No. 2 on the list is the 1977-78 Montreal Canadiens, who went 28 games without a loss. Highest points percentage (70 or more games): .825 (Montreal Canadiens, 1976-77) The '76-77 Canadiens may not own the record for the longest unbeaten streak -- their longest stretch without a loss was "only" 21 games -- but no team in the past 62 years (since the season was expanded to 70 games) has done a better job at bringing home points than that Montreal team. The Canadiens started their season by blasting Pittsburgh 10-1 and kept on rolling. They set a League record (since broken) with 60 victories and added 12 ties while losing only eight times in 80 games. Their 132 points (out of a possible 160) are still the most by any team in one season (the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings had 131 of a possible 164), and they set an NHL record by losing just once in 40 home games. The Canadiens outscored their opponents 387-171. Three of the Habs' eight regular-season losses, including the only one at home, came at the hands of the Boston Bruins -- making the sweep of their archrival in the Stanley Cup Final that much sweeter. Longest non-shutout streak: 264 games (Calgary Flames, Nov. 12, 1981-Jan. 9, 1985) The Calgary Flames heard plenty of boos from the fans at the Stampede Corral when they were embarrassed 7-0 by the visiting Blues on Nov. 10, 1981. Little did they know that their team would go more than three full seasons without seeing a "0" at the end of the game. Two nights after the embarrassing loss to the Blues, Calgary began the longest consecutive-game scoring streak in NHL history by edging the Quebec Nordiques 3-2. Win or lose, the Flames kept scoring until Jan. 11, 1985, when the Nordiques blanked them 4-0 at the Colisee in Quebec. The Los Angeles Kings came close to matching the Flames' mark, having scored in 261 consecutive games before Calgary preserved its line in the NHL record book with a 5-0 win at L.A. on Oct. 25, 1989. In contrast, no team has gone as much as one full season without being shut out since the 2006-07 Buffalo Sabres scored in all 82 games. Largest margin of victory: 15 (Detroit Red Wings, Jan. 23, 1944) The 1943-44 New York Rangers had been decimated by World War II -- GM Lester Patrick had wanted to suspend play when the war broke out but was talked out of it by his fellow owners, who felt a five-team League wouldn't be viable. But the Rangers were coming off back-to-back wins when they arrived at the Olympia for a meeting with the Red Wings one night after whipping the Maple Leafs 5-1 in Toronto. Little did they know that they were going to take the worst beating in NHL history. The crowd of 12,293 roared as the Wings scored twice in the opening period and blew the game open with five goals in the second. But that was just a warm-up for the third period -- the Wings scored eight goals against a beleaguered Ken McAuley, including three in the final eight minutes by Syd Howe. The eight third-period goals were only one fewer than the Rangers' shot total for the full game. Had the final horn been a second later, the Wings would have had another goal -- the puck went into the net an instant after the game ended. The 15 goals are the most scored by a team since the red line was introduced in 1943. The Wings also set a mark by scoring 15 consecutive goals. Most shots on goal in a game: 83 (Boston Bruins, March 4, 1941) More than 70 years after the Bruins made life miserable for Chicago goaltender Sam LoPresti, no team has come close to matching Boston's fusillade against the Hawks late in the 1940-41 season. Amazingly, LoPresti made 80 saves, though the Bruins got three pucks past him and won 3-2. Since that night, the Bruins are the only team to come within hailing distance of their own record. They had 73 in a 3-3 tie with Quebec on March 21, 1991 and 72 in an 8-2 victory against the first-year Buffalo Sabres on Dec. 10, 1970. No other franchise has broken 70 shots in a game since then, and the most shots by a team in one game in the 21st century is 61 by Toronto against the Islanders on Nov. 23, 2009. Fewest points in a season (70 or more games): 21 (Washington Capitals, 1974-75) The expansion Washington Capitals lost their first two games, both on the road, then tied their home opener against Los Angeles on Oct. 15, 1974, and earned their first win two nights later by edging the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 on a third-period goal by Jack Egers. That gave the Caps three points after four games -- a very respectable showing for a new team. Unfortunately for the new franchise, that win was the highlight of their season. The Caps went more than a month before beating the California Golden Seals for their second win, and didn't win their third game until topping Toronto 3-1 on Dec. 15. Only by winning twice in their final five games were the Caps able to break the 20-point mark for the season; their 8-67-5 mark also set a record for the fewest wins in a season. In 1992-93, the first-year Ottawa Senators and second-year San Jose Sharks came close to the Caps' mark but finished with 24 points. No other team has had less than 30 points; the fewest by any team in the last 15 years is 39 by the first-year Atlanta Thrashers in 1999-2000.
Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates said Sunday that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will donate more money toward its goal to stamp out malaria from the world. The announcement is considered as the latest development in Gates’ broader plan to fight tropical diseases. According to Gates, the foundation will increase its budget to tackle malaria by 30 percent to spend more than $200 million a year, which will be in addition to the foundation's other endowments toward the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Associated Press, or AP, reported, adding that the Gates foundation will commit more than $500 million in total this year to fight various diseases, including pneumonia, and diarrheal and parasitic diseases in poor countries. “I really do believe that malaria can be eradicated in my lifetime,” Gates said, while speaking at a global health conference in New Orleans on Sunday. According to him, the foundation's plans also include developing a drug or vaccine to eliminate malaria in people who carry the disease without showing symptoms. The foundation's plans to eradicate malaria, which kills more than 600,000 people each year, also includes a $156 million award to the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, or MVI, in building new vaccines that will interrupt the cycle of the malarial parasite's transmission. “This new grant for the MVI program will help ensure that PATH can continue its effort to implement an organization-wide strategy aimed at supporting control, then elimination, and ultimately eradication of malaria,” Steve Davis, PATH's president and CEO, said in a statement. In addition to malaria, the Gates foundation pledged $50 million for research on Ebola treatments, tests and vaccines. Some countries and groups have contributed to help contain the Ebola virus, but a larger effort is needed to stop the outbreak, which has killed about 5,000 people in eight countries this year, Gates said. "We're likely in the next several decades to have an epidemic that's more transmissible than this Ebola epidemic," Gates told AP, and called on all countries to strengthen their health care systems and invest in the development of new drugs and vaccines.
As for the prayers, I just didn’t want to do it. I would lie and tell them I am menstruating, so I cannot pray. But the Boko Haram leaders knew I was lying so they would beat me. One day, the boy who teaches us the Quran — his name was Adamu Yusuf — beat me so bad that I had bloody bruises all over my legs. I was crying. The Boko Haram leader of the house heard me crying, and he called me by the new name they had given me, Fatima. He asked, “Fatima why are you crying?” I told him that Adamu Yusuf had beat me. The leader scolded Adamu and said he should not beat women and girls. He said they are to do the work of God and beating people like this is not good. But Adamu Yusuf liked to beat us. He even beat a pregnant woman. The Boko Haram leader was so angry, and he shouted at Adamu that pregnant women should not be maltreated. He said, “Pregnant women are our mothers. If you beat them, God will surely punish you, because we are to do the work of God.” That’s how they kept us there in that house. I think there were about 200 women and girls there. They kept us under heavy guard, especially the younger girls like me. Then one day in December, they told us we will soon be getting married. We cried and pleaded. The Boko Haram fighters became angry and asked us why are we crying. They said we are still behaving like infidels who refuse to marry their strong fighters. They told us, “Who do you think you are? Are you too good to get married to us? We are doing the work of God.” They called us into a room one afternoon and introduced us one by one to some of the Boko Haram fighters. They introduced me to a guy they call “One Arab,” because he looked like an Arab man. His hair was long, and he had light skin. My other friends Zeinab — who was born with the name Sarah — Katturah and Maryam were also led to meet some of the men there. Maryam was to be married to Maman. Katturah was supposed to marry Mallam Ramat. And Zeinab was given to Direban Sambisa. We called him Sambisa because he was always driving back and forth to the Sambisa Forest. Sambisa is where Boko Haram has their main camp. The Boko Haram fighters asked me, “Do you see this man, ‘One Arab’?” I said yes. They said, “You will marry him in a few weeks’ time. We will marry all of you off.” We fell down and starting crying and pleaded to them. We told them we are not ready to get married. They started shouting at us. They leader came and told us it is final, we will get married, and we should stop crying because we are not better than them. He asked us, “Do you think you are better than those Chibok girls that we kidnapped?” He said the Chibok girls are enjoying their matrimonial homes. He said the Chibok girls have accepted the message of Boko Haram and have turned against their parents. He said the Chibok girls are ready to slit their parents’ throats if they ever see them again. He told us we must accept true Islam because even the Chibok girls have accepted the religion. Then he told us to stop crying or they will kill us. He said, “Fatima, wherever you go, even if you run all the way to Yola, we will run after you and kill you.” He said I can never escape. Then he started talking about President [Goodluck] Jonathan, and he said Jonathan is an infidel and that they will slit his throat. By that time, my friends and I were planning our escape. Many other girls had tried to escape, but they were always caught at the gate. They would not let us go anywhere. We tried to ask them if we can go out into the bush to look for vegetables to cook soup, but they refused. They said girls from our tribe have long legs and we run fast so they will not be able to catch us if we escape. One day, some of the girls made food. I was in the bedroom when I heard the Boko Haram guards ask for some. They said girls from our tribe are good cooks. So the girls gave food to the guards, and the guards fell asleep. As they slept, the girls went to get a blanket to throw over the barbed wire fence. They climbed up a ladder and jumped over the fence. That’s how they escaped. But the guards woke up and realized what happened. The guards were so angry. They asked us what did the girls put in the food that made them fall asleep. I said I didn’t know. They went outside the compound looking for the girls, and they returned with the pregnant one. She told me she could not run fast enough because of her pregnancy, so she asked a woman in a village down the road to shelter her. Boko Haram went to the house and asked the woman if she is hiding anyone there. The woman said yes, and Boko Haram grabbed her. The Boko Haram men told her she cannot go anywhere and the child she is carrying in her womb belongs to them. When the pregnant woman returned to the house, she became so obedient and would always follow Boko Haram’s instructions. They were very pleased with her behavior and her excellence in studying the Quran. So they gave her some money and took her out of the compound. I never saw her again. There was one day, I was not feeling well. My body was aching, and I became ill. The Boko Haram people brought their doctor, and the doctor connected me to a drip and gave me four injections. I started to feel better. I decided it was my time to escape. It was getting nearer to the wedding day, and I wanted to leave the house. Me, a girl named Janet, another girl named Hassana and another named Hadja went to the well to fetch water. We told the other girls in the house that we want to wash our clothes. Then we wore a full veil, the one that only exposes the eyes — the niqab. We wanted to try to look like Boko Haram’s wives, because they wear a niqab. We took our clothes and tied some of them around our bodies so we can have a change of clothes. We disguised these clothes under the niqab to make it appear as if we were carrying babies on our backs. The guards were not around, so we quickly threw a blanket over the barbed wire, climbed up the fence and jumped. We were finally outside the compound! We walked out and saw some Boko Haram members standing by the roadside. They greeted us with “Assalamu alaikum.” We responded with “Wa alaikum assalam.” They asked, “Who are you?” We told them, “We are the wives of the rijale” — the strong men, because that is how the Boko Haram refer to themselves. So they allowed us to pass. As we walked along, one of the girls became worried and said we will get caught and get killed. She pleaded for us to go back to the house. We said no. We told her the Boko Haram members will not remove our veils to check our faces. So we continued trekking. We saw an old man, and we asked him how to get to Cameroon. He showed us the way. As we walked, we saw so many destroyed villages, burned-down houses, rotting corpses. We even saw cracked tombstones at graveyards and overturned coffins. We saw another set of old people. They asked us where are we going. We told them we are looking for the road to Cameroon. The old people pointed to the road to Cameroon, and they told us not to remove our niqab until we reach a village called Palam. They said once we reach Palam, we must take off our niqab because the villagers there will kill us because they will suspect we are from Boko Haram. They advised us to avoid the main road and go through the guinea cornfields. So we walked through farm fields, and the sun was burning. We were sweating in the niqab, and the prickly grasses kept getting caught on our fabric. We were too tired. Then we saw a Boko Haram man driving toward us on a motorbike. He was carrying a machete. We ran so fast but he was after us, yelling, “I will kill you. You are the type of people who will report us in Yola.” The man’s motorbike skidded off the road, and he tumbled off but started running after us. Hassana, the oldest of us, shouted to keep running and not look back. I couldn’t keep up, so I stopped to hide under some leaves. I dropped the clothes I had placed on my back, my Christian baptismal card and my photographs. The Boko Haram man who was chasing us couldn’t find us, and we heard him stop. We were lucky he did not have a gun, or else he would have just shot us. We saw some women sitting by the roadside in Palam, and we asked them to show us how to get to Cameroon. They asked us where were we coming from. We lied and told them we were living in the mountains and ran out of food. We asked the women if we can remove our niqab. They told us not to remove it because some Muslims living in the area will notice and will alert Boko Haram. We left the women, and after some time, I removed the niqab, but my friends kept theirs on. We saw a Christian woman roasting groundnuts, and she asked, “Who are you?” We told her that we had escaped from those people. She pointed at the road to Cameroon, and we continued. The niqab became too heavy for my friends, so they took off their niqab and handed it over to some old women we saw standing by a tree. It was nighttime. We reached a village called Palam B and saw so many burned houses and a burned church. My friends and I decided to sleep in Palam B. We entered a compound and saw a Muslim family praying. We decided not to stay with a Muslim family, so we left. We saw a Christian woman, and we asked if we can stay with her. She refused. We asked her if there is anyone around from Gulak. She told us to go farther down the road and we will see a woman from Gulak. We soon saw a woman from Gulak, and she gave us a room to sleep in. She said villagers in Palam B have been anxious because new Boko Haram recruits in the village had delivered a letter from Boko Haram threatening to kill them. We stayed with her for two days, until she told us we had to leave because she learned that Boko Haram knew we were in the town because of the niqab that we had given to the women on the street. She told us to run straight to Cameroon and not to pass through a village called Sina, because villagers there will kill us once they realize we had lived with Boko Haram. We left, and on our way, we met a man who asked us if we had cellphones. I was the only one. But Boko Haram had deleted everything that had been in my phone, including all the Christian songs I had saved. They put in their own war chants and messages. The man advised me to throw away the phone. He warned us that farther down the road, we might meet some people who will strip us naked and search us. If they find anything on us that looks like it came from Boko Haram, they will kill us. Moving toward the Cameroonian border, we did not see a single person. We were all alone, surrounded by more burned houses and churches. Then we saw a Muslim woman resting under a tree with her children. She told us that she fled from Michika and is on her way to Cameroon but will return to Nigeria to join her husband in the city of Jos. My friends and I accompanied the woman and her children to Cameroon. We arrived at the border on a Tuesday, and there some teenage boys harassed us, saying we cannot enter until we give them money. We explained to them that we are running for our lives and we don’t have money. The boys blocked our way and said if we don’t give them money, they will report us to the Cameroonian soldiers. The Muslim woman gave money to the boys, and we were allowed to enter Cameroon. We slept in the street because the people were not friendly and they did not want to help. When we woke up, we decided to leave Cameroon, but Zeinab was still suffering from a leg injury she got when we jumped over the fence from the Boko Haram house in Gulak. Her leg was swollen, and we had to leave her. We told the Muslim woman that we are leaving. She blessed us, bought food for us to eat and then gave us 500 naira. She helped us to try to get a ride to Mubi, but none of the drivers were willing to take us there. So we told her goodbye, and we walked several kilometers to Mubi. In the market there I met a girl I used to know from Sabon Gari. She was so happy to see me. I told her my story, and she gave me money for my friends and me to pay for transportation. Later we heard that Boko Haram is on its way to Mubi. Everyone in the town began to panic. We searched for a ride, but there was no room in anyone’s car. So we gathered along with other people who were walking, and we walked until we reached a town called Maiha. I went to a parking lot to look for a vehicle to take us to Yola and heard someone call me by my native name. I looked and saw a man I used to know in Sabon Gari. He asked me why I looked so dirty and tired. I told him everything that happened, and he took my friends and me to his home to meet his wife and children. They took care of us. They, too, had been displaced by Boko Haram. He gave me money for transportation, and on Jan. 18, my friends and I were in a car on the way to Yola. My friends and I sat on the road once we arrived in Yola. We were not used to the city, and we were confused. I saw a girl who I know from home, and she was excited to see me. She told me that I have an uncle who is staying at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church. I went to the church, and now I am safe. Apagu has since relocated out of the northeast out of fear that Boko Haram members will come after her.
R’S gaffer Harry Redknapp and skipper Clint Hill have been shortlisted for the monthly gongs in the SkyBet Championship. Redknapp’s men have started the new campaign at a blistering pace, winning four of their opening five matches and drawing the other – an unbeaten run that sees them sitting pretty in second place at the end of August. Hill has played an integral role in the R’s impressive start, providing the assist for Andy Johnson’s goal at Bolton Wanderers, before notching the only goal of the game against Leeds United prior to the international break. The other nominees in the Manager of the Month category are Burnley gaffer Sean Dyche, Eddie Howe of newly-promoted Blackpool and Blackpool boss Paul Ince. Hill is joined in the Player of the Month category by freescoring Watford front-man Troy Deeney, Nottingham Forest midfielder Andy Reid and Huddersfield goal-ace James Vaughan. The judging panel comprises Sky Sports Football League expert Don Goodman, Football League Head of Communications John Nagle, League Managers’ Association Director Olaf Dixon, and Sky Bet Head of Football Paul Wiggins. The winners will be announced tomorrow (Friday).
Under a new law, doctors in Pennsylvania can access information about chemicals used in natural gas extraction—but they won’t be able to share it with their patients. A provision buried in a law passed last month is drawing scrutiny from the public health and environmental community, who argue that it will “gag” doctors who want to raise concerns related to oil and gas extraction with the people they treat and the general public. Pennsylvania is at the forefront in the debate over “fracking,” the process by which a high-pressure mixture of chemicals, sand, and water are blasted into rock to tap into the gas. Recent discoveries of great reserves in the Marcellus Shale region of the state prompted a rush to development, as have advancements in fracking technologies. But with those changes have come a number of concerns from citizens about potential environmental and health impacts from natural gas drilling. There is good reason to be curious about exactly what’s in those fluids. A 2010 congressional investigation revealed that Halliburton and other fracking companies had used 32 million gallons of diesel products, which include toxic chemicals like benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, in the fluids they inject into the ground. Low levels of exposure to those chemicals can trigger acute effects like headaches, dizziness, and drowsiness, while higher levels of exposure can cause cancer. Pennsylvania law states that companies must disclose the identity and amount of any chemicals used in fracking fluids to any health professional that requests that information in order to diagnosis or treat a patient that may have been exposed to a hazardous chemical. But the provision in the new bill requires those health professionals to sign a confidentiality agreement stating that they will not disclose that information to anyone else—not even the person they’re trying to treat. “The whole goal of medical community is to protect public health,” said David Masur, director of PennEnvironment. He worries that the threat of a lawsuit from a big industry player like Halliburton or ExxonMobil for violating a confidentiality agreement could scare doctors away from research on potential impacts in the state. “If anything, we need more concrete information. This just stifles another way the public could have access to information from experts.” The provision was not in the initial versions of the law debated in the state Senate or House in February; it was added in during conference between the two chambers, said State Sen. Daylin Leach (D), which meant that many lawmakers did not even notice that this “broad, very troubling provision” had been added. “The importance of keeping it as proprietary secret seems minimal when compared to letting the public know what chemicals they and their children are being exposed to,” Leach told Mother Jones. The limits on what doctors can say about those chemicals makes it impossible to either assuage or affirm the public’s concerns about health impacts. “People are claiming that animals are dying and people are getting sick in clusters around [drilling wells], but we can’t really study it because we can’t see what’s actually in the product,” said Leach. At the federal level, natural gas developers have long been allowed to keep the mixture of chemicals they use in fracking fluid a secret from the general public, protecting it as “proprietary information.” The industry is exempt from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory—the program that ensures that communities are given information about what companies are releasing. In 2005, the industry successfully lobbied for an exemption from EPA regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act as well, in what is often referred to as the “Halliburton Loophole.” The Obama EPA has pressed drillers to voluntarily provide more information about fracking fluids, but the industry has largely rebuffed those appeals. The latest move in Pennsylvania has raised suspicions among the industry’s critics once again. As Walter Tsou, president of the Philadelphia chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, put it, “What is the big secret here that they’re unwilling to tell people, unless they know that if people found out what’s really in these chemicals, they would be outraged?” This story was produced by Mother Jones as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
The signposts will need replacing, the mayor said. They had been erected last October, when his village officially completed its name change after the May 2014 referendum. In a handful of recent incidents, he said, extremists painted offensive graffiti onto the facade of the town hall, and damaged public benches and other parts of the village. “A name change, sadly, doesn’t only bring about positive consequences and the respect it deserves,” Mr. Rodríguez Pérez said. “There are some people who want us to forget the Jews — and certainly not get closer to Israel — but we will not bow to any attempt to create a threatening environment here.” As part of the overhaul, the village’s authorities have also been promoting its Jewish roots. There is an archaeological project to dig up the remains of a synagogue and other buried evidence of the historic settlement. And in June, Castrillo’s mayor will lead a delegation of seven officials from the village on a weeklong visit to Israel, during which Castrillo is to be named the twin village of an Israeli community, Kfar Vradim.
Figuring out the smartest places to store your stuff is time well spent—mostly because it results in time you don't spend cleaning. Here are 10 smart storage solutions for your excess cords, shoes, spices, and all kinds of computer stuff. Photo via Instructables. 10. Make Your Shoes Float Advertisement Formal shoes, work boots, summer wear, running shoes, the spare brown pair—even those with minimal fashion sense can end up with lots of these suckers. You could pick up one of many hanging/sliding shoe storage solutions, but we dig both the look and convenience of this DIY "floating" shoe rack. For a slight upgrade, This version goes one better, hiding the hanging hardware entirely out of sight. (Original posts: one, two). Make a floating shoe rack One of my favorite DIY bloggers, Not Martha, has come up with a great project: a floating shoe rack. Read more Read 9. Keep Your Cats and Their Necessities Hidden Advertisement Cats are great, generally low-maintenance creatures, but the stuff they need and like does take up some space. Avoid sacrificing a room or closet to mother nature's needs with some litter box modifications. The ideas for turning big cupboards, entryway shelves, and under-sink spaces all come from IKEA modifications, but other furniture builds and storage bins can be adapted, too. As for providing some space for Whiskers McMeowerton when he's not taking care of business, you can convert a bookcase into a cat tree, or fulfill every cat's cardboard fantasy by converting a box into a kitty chaise lounge. (Original posts: furniture, entryway, under-sink, cat tree, cat chaise). 8. Get Your Bike Off the Floor Advertisement Biking is a lot more fuel-efficient than driving, but keeping a bike assembled in your home isn't space-efficient. Avoid paying for pricey bike mounts with some DIY offerings, like a few tension cables, a very cheap, board-based version, a modification of an IKEA storage pole, and that pole's carpet-friendly cousin. (Original posts: DIY, revisited, IKEA, carpet-friendly). 7. Make Your Filing Cabinet Actually Useful Advertisement If your filing cabinet serves more function as unintended shelf space than an actual filing destination, it probably needs some work. Gina showed us her extreme filing cabinet makeover, touching on the physical changes she made to make paper shuffling more convenient. Jason gave us a tour-de-force of his filing system workflow, which gave order and purpose to his old documents and made him actually want to file things away. Photo by Matthew Cornell. 6. Declutter Your Spices and Make Them Accessible Advertisement Having spices you can read, see the fill level of, and easily access saves you time while cooking, and money on unnecessary purchases, as suggested by the Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. Then there are the magnetic spice racks, which hang your dried goods both under a shelf and on the wall. Then, for those with quite a few spices to grab, there are the minimalist, all-access shelves that most anyone can make themselves. (Original posts: DIY spice jars, magnetic under-shelf, magnetic wall, minimalist). 5. Stash Your Headphones Without Tangled Wires Advertisement Headphones, of both the big-can and inner-ear variety, get tangled and never quite tuck away neatly. Not without some crafty assistance, anyways. Try installing a coat hook under your desk for a hidden-but-available hiding place. For your earbuds, first learn the "devil's horns" wrapping method (R.I.P., Dio), then keep them together and close by with an old vinyl badge clip, or other makeshift wrappers. 4. Stash Your Peripherals When Not in Use Advertisement USB headsets, USB cables, and other sometimes necessary gear will creep its way into your workspace if there's nowhere to put it all. MAKE points us to a DIY iMac monitor shelf, utilizing the space between a flatscreen monitor and a wall to tuck away items so they're within reach but out of sight. There's also a commercial version, if you don't like building your own mini-shelves. This Slashdot thread contains the thoughts of some very hardcore peripheral geeks on tidying up their wares (think velcro ties, not plastic zips), and our featured workspaces have provided some inspiration before, like these hollowed out shelves, or this IKEA cabinet-turned-workspace. (Original posts: monitor shelf, IKEA cabinet). Floating Monitors and Hidden Peripherals Today's featured workspace is full of surprises like monitors that seem to float in the air on … Read more Read 3. Store Stuff Vertically with DIY Shelving Advertisement If your home or apartment didn't come with great shelving, don't give up on it. Whether it's books, gear, or just general stuff that needs a new home, you can give it space with "Hungarian" square shelves (as demonstrated in this workspace), more simply-made DIY shelving, or compression bookcases that don't require any wall drilling. Lots more ideas and inspiration can be found at our full shelving collection. (Original posts: Hungarian, DIY, compression). 2. Tuck Your Cords Away Advertisement We've covered far too many cord management tricks, techniques, and one-offs to cover inside one list item, but here's an attempt. Adam and Gina have both detailed their own comprehensive cord clean-ups, and we've posted a notably cordless dorm workspace. Gina previously rounded up 10 cable control tips, and our full cord management tag page is getting regularly updated. Don't let your cords litter your space and distract your mind—bend them to your will. 1. Hide Your Cables in Plain Sight Advertisement If you can't find a space or a compartment to tuck your cords into, do the next best thing—consider creatively arranging them in plain sight. If design and sketching isn't your forte, you don't have to get quite so fancy—something like a green cable "flower stem", or an equivalent cable-as-hanging-platform idea, can fly just as well. If it's a short distance and a flat space, and you're willing to spend a little bit on style, we've dug the idea of FlatWire, too. (Original posts: creative display, flower stem, FlatWire). What's the most clever storage solution you've come across? What stuff can you just not find a smart way to store? Share your links and vent your material frustrations in the comments.
from front to back: Tutti Rouge Nichole, Pour Moi strapless, Comexim Elena and Ingrid from front to back: Tutti Rouge Nichole, Pour Moi strapless, Comexim Elena and Ingrid 2. No local store available? Go online! For some, this is the only way! But fear not... If you've followed my tips until now, you probably already know your starter size, as well as some hints of your breasts main characteristics! With that, you can ask for help before you jump right in! Where? I'd say the best place is A BRA THAT FITS !, a nice bra fitting forum, full of helpful bravangelists, eager to help! Just post your calculated sized, shape and the kind of bra(s) you're looking for! Don't be shy, the bra lovers community is here to help! Based on the recommendations, you can either pick a store that has easy returns, and try on a few models and sizes, or see if any of the models is available at ebay or amazon - who usually offer a great variety and nice prices - and give it a shot! from front to back: Curvy Kate Jewel, Panache Porcelain Grace, Ewa Michalak S Syrena, Curvy Kate Cascade, Fauve Coco 3. The first bra was a failure? Keep going! Success or not, you will always be able to use that bra to compare with others, by identifying what's good and what's bad about it! Is it too wide? Is it too big? The shape is wrong? You need narrower wires, perhaps. Maybe a shallower shape... By assessing your new bra, you'll get a lot of clues on where to go next... Again, you can ask for help online, or take the matter into your own hands by using step number 4! from front to back: Cleo by Panache Lucy, Parfait by Affinitas Charlotte, Panache Porcelain Grace, Panache Black Loren and Ardour 4. Compare, compare, compare! Comparison is of major importance when it comes to bra fitting, because it allows us to indirectly access if a certain bra will fit or not based on certain characteristics! So, even if your first bra was not quite right, you can get insight on the differences you'll need in your next bra! Likewise, a fter you found a bra that works, it's easier to buy new ones, and also to exclude others! Why? This site is a giant database that features reviews and measurements of a lot of models and brands, allowing you to compare bras, seek for similar models and also get personal recommendations, based on our measurements. Let's give an example: I own a Cleo by Panache Lucy in 28FF, one of my first (awesomely) fitting bras! When I search it on Bratabase, this is the result: In this page, you get a lot of valued information, like the mean measurements of the bra, bras with similar measurements ("these will also fit") and "bras that have the same cut"! The two measurements that majorly define how the bra will fit in the cup are: CUP WIDTH = 5,2 inches and the CUP DEPTH = 9,3 inches, in this case! Since Lucy in 28FF fits me so well, I can usually trust that a bra with similar measurements will also fit! Putting it to practice: Imagine that I wanna decide which size of the Curvy Kate Bardot should I order! I type my usual size, 28FF, and check the measurements: As you can see, the CUP WIDTH and CUP DEPTH of Lucy and Bardot are very similar, so 28FF would probably be the best size to go for! Bratabase also offers the option to directly compare the two (or more) bras!
Romney's healthcare plan may be more revolutionary than Obama's Instead of getting coverage at work, more Americans would shop for it on their own. That would mean more choices — and more risk. Conservative healthcare experts say changes along those lines would bring the benefits of competition to healthcare and that basic restructuring is needed. Critics and independent analysts say the impact would probably leave a larger number of Americans without insurance. The centerpiece of Romney's plan would overhaul the way most Americans get their health coverage: at work. He would do so by giving Americans a tax break to buy their own health plans. That would give consumers more choices, but also more risk. In public, Romney has only sketched the outlines of a plan, and aides have declined to answer questions about the details. But his public statements and interviews with advisors make clear that Romney has embraced a strategy that in crucial ways is more revolutionary — and potentially more disruptive — than the law Obama signed two years ago. WASHINGTON — As he pushes to "repeal and replace" President Obama's healthcare law, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has turned to proposals that could alter the way hundreds of millions of Americans get their medical insurance. "There are significant changes that should be made," said Dr. Scott Atlas, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution who is advising the Romney campaign. Romney's plan follows a lead set by President George W. Bush, who unsuccessfully pushed for a healthcare overhaul. It adopts proposals long championed by conservative healthcare experts. It also sharply contrasts with Romney's last foray into healthcare reform. As governor of Massachusetts, Romney successfully pushed a law that guaranteed coverage for all state residents and included a requirement that people buy insurance — an individual mandate similar to Obama's. Romney moved away from that plan during the Republican primaries and has shown no signs of returning to it. Indeed, his emerging plan would make it all but impossible for any state to follow Massachusetts' example. While offering consumers more choices, Romney's plan would give companies strong incentives to stop providing insurance to workers. It also would overhaul the 46-year-old Medicare and Medicaid programs for the elderly, poor and disabled. The plan could swell the federal deficit; a similar plan backed by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) during the 2008 presidential campaign would have cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years, on par with the price tag for the Obama healthcare law. Romney now regularly criticizes Obama's healthcare law as government overreach and an attack on American free enterprise. "It's easy to forget how often candidate Obama assured us under 'Obamacare,' nothing in our insurance plans would have to change," Romney said recently at the National Rifle Assn. annual meeting. But unlike Obama's healthcare law, Romney's plan could fundamentally change the rules for the more than 150 million Americans who get insurance through their employers. These workers get a large tax break because their health benefits are not taxed. Businesses that provide insurance also get a break because their contributions to their employees' health plans aren't taxed. In place of that system, Romney would give Americans a tax break to buy their own health plans, regardless of whether their employers offered coverage. "This gets greater consumer choice so that people can buy what they want, not just what their employer wants to give them," Romney said last year while explaining his plan at the University of Michigan.
For the first time the Swedish Armed forces have released a list of the nations responsible for violating the country's territory over the past five years. Despite recent media rhetoric, the statistics reveal that the US is responsible for the highest number of territory violations in recent times. According to the data, released upon request to Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Sweden's territory was violated 42 times over the past five years. © AP Photo / Claudio Bresciani Stockholm Sub-Syndrome: Swedish Defense Chief Sure Borders Were 'Violated' Contradicting recent speculation about alleged Russian incursions into Swedish territory, the statistics revealed that US forces had entered Sweden's border seven times, more than any other country. Among the most high-profile American incursions was in June 2014, when a US Boeing RC-135 Rivet Joint jet entered Swedish airspace without permission while trying to evade a Russian jet, which had approached the US aircraft near Russia's borders. Joint second on the list was Germany and Russia, who both breached Swedish territory six times over the same period, while Norway (five), Monaco (three) and the Netherlands, Poland and Qatar (two) all recorded multiple incursions into Swedish territory. Figures Tell a Different Story The figures, which were released as part of a pledge for greater transparency in Sweden's armed forces, paint a very different story to the media coverage of such incursions and close calls. While Sweden's armed forces have accused Russia of acting aggressively in Europe, the release of the official statistics have shown that in fact the US, other NATO nations and allies of Sweden are collectively responsible for the overwhelming majority of territory breaches. Back to the Cold War? (Close Military Encounters Between Russia and the West in 2014) http://t.co/KHZPyiaeih pic.twitter.com/71Z5QYWZKA — Abel Riu (@abelicc) February 5, 2015 Russia has hit back at such allegations, pointing to the build up of NATO resources in eastern Europe as an aggressive tactic adding to tensions across the continent. The increase in military operations and close encounters between Russia and NATO states since early 2014 was documented in the report 'Dangerous Brinkmanship' by London-based think tank, the European Leadership Network, which found that incidents between the two had jumped to Cold War levels. The report criticized all parties involved in the incursions and called on leaders to take steps to improve dialogue and reduce tensions, warning that there was a "danger of losing control over events" which could ultimately result in conflict.
With a sleekly elegant profile by Espen Øino International, Kometa is the perfect combination of speed, space and style. What makes Kometa different from every other yacht in the world is a fusion of three totally different concepts. These include the revolutionary fast displacement hull, a ground breaking fixed pitch propeller shape unlike anything yet fitted to a yacht and a Rolls Royce central booster jet, all coordinated by Heesen engineers and Dutch hydrodynamic specialists Van Oossanen. Advanced technology can also help guests in cases of misadventure. The Heesen Rapid Reaction System has alarm buttons in strategic positions on every deck for use in the event of a person falling overboard. When activated, self-inflating buoys are launched into the sea, a marker illuminates on the chart plotter and an alarm sounds to inform the bridge team. Kometa is built to the highest safety rating and this additional system gives families on board complete peace of mind.
A BYU Student hit by a car late last month woke up in the hospital recently as her family sang hymns at her bedside. Lexi Hansen, an 18 year-old BYU student suffered critical head injuries after being hit by a car while crossing a street on Feb. 26. In an interview with ABC News, Marcia Hansen, the teen’s mother, said tests indicated her daughter had essentially been brain-dead when she was brought to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo. Lexi was in a coma for several days but on Sunday, March 2nd, the Hansen family believes they witnessed a miracle. “We had the most amazing experience today at the end of everyone’s fast,” the family wrote on the Pray for Lexi Facebook Page. “Lexi opened her eyes and kept them open for nearly an hour while we sang hymns to her as a family. While we were singing, she hand signed, ‘I love you,’ moving her arm around so that everyone could see. She then reached for each person’s hands individually so she could squeeze them. We could hardly sing due to the tears streaming down our face. We knew we were witnessing a miracle.” “It was a very powerful and spiritual moment and we know it was because of all the prayers and fasts offered in her behalf,” the posy continued. “Our God is indeed a God of miracles. We love our Lexi!” Lexi continues her recovery, at the time of this publishing the most recent post on the Pray For Lexi Facebook page says, “Today Lexi was able to sit by herself without any support for a little bit. This is a pretty big deal, as she usually has two people supporting her. She was also able to get up and walk a few steps for the first time since her surgery. We're hoping to get her moved back to rehab soon.” h/t ABC News, LifeNews.com
Chris Taylor's last game for Blackburn was on 21 March against Brighton Jordan Rhodes continued his fine form in front of goal as he scored twice to give Blackburn Rovers victory over Ipswich Town. Rhodes gave the hosts the lead from the spot early on after Hope Akpan was fouled in the box by Larsen Toure. Four minutes later, Rhodes doubled their lead when he rose to nod home Craig Conway's cross past Dean Gerken. Blackburn keeper Jason Steele did well to keep out Daryl Murphy's powerful low drive as the hosts held on for the win. Rovers enjoyed a fine start to the match as Rhodes scored from the spot after just 12 minutes when Toure upended Akpan. Their lead was doubled as Rhodes latched on to Conway's cross to head home and bring his tally to seven goals this season. Murphy gave the visitors their best chance of finding their way back into the game when he struck a low shot goalwards but Steele produced a fine save. Rhodes came close to claiming his hat-trick when he curled an effort from 20 yards out which had Gerken beaten and cannoned against the post. Ipswich were denied a consolation late on as Steele saved Jonathan Parr's effort to keep a clean sheet. Blackburn manager Gary Bowyer: "I think it's probably the most complete performance since I've been in charge. "We came out of the traps ever so well, scored two goals very quickly and continued to play some excellent stuff. "We got to half-time and knew with the firepower Ipswich have got, that we were going to be under the cosh in the second half and that proved to be the case. "We still created some great chances but the resilience we showed, to come out of that game with a clean sheet - Ipswich are going to be right up there this season - it's very, very difficult to pick out any one individual." Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy: "It's become a bit of a bad habit of ours, giving teams goal starts and two-goal starts and it's got to stop. "I can't just give you one answer why we are defending the way we are and I've been at pains to put that right this week - but we just didn't start well. "I have to say they started well. They played like us when we were in our pomp last season, playing 4-4-2, people blocking things and stopping us playing. They did it better than we did. "He (Rhodes) was outstanding, his all-round performance. He messed us around, bumped us, nudged us, blocked things. His goals won the game but his all-round performance was outstanding."
Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. “YOU can do nothing against a conspiracy theory,” sighs Etienne Davignon. He sits in a lofty office with a stupendous view over Brussels, puffing his pipe. He is an aristocrat, a former vice-president of the European Commission and a man who has sat on several corporate boards, but that is not why some people consider him too powerful. He presides over the Bilderberg group, an evil conspiracy bent on world domination. At least, that is what numerous websites allege; also that it has ties to al-Qaeda, is hiding the cure for cancer and wishes to merge the United States with Mexico. In reality, Bilderberg is an annual conference for a few dozen of the world's most influential people. Last year Bill Gates and Larry Summers hobnobbed with the chairman of Deutsche Bank, the boss of Shell, the head of the World Food Programme and the prime minister of Spain. One or two journalists are invited each year, on condition that they abstain from writing about it. (Full disclosure: the editor of The Economist sometimes attends.) Because the meetings are off the record, they are catnip to conspiracy theorists. But the attraction for participants is obvious. They can speak candidly, says Mr Davignon, without worrying how their words might play in tomorrow's headlines. So they find out what other influential people really think. Big ideas are debated frankly. Mr Davignon credits the meetings for helping to lay the groundwork for creating the euro. He recalls strong disagreement over Iraq: some participants favoured the invasion in 2003, some opposed it and some wanted it done differently. Last year the debate was about Europe's fiscal problems, and whether the euro would survive. The world is a complicated place, with oceans of new information sloshing around. To run a multinational organisation, it helps if you have a rough idea of what is going on. It also helps to be on first-name terms with other globocrats. So the cosmopolitan elite—international financiers, bureaucrats, charity bosses and thinkers—constantly meet and talk. They flock to elite gatherings such as the World Economic Forum at Davos, the Trilateral Commission and the Boao meeting in China. They form clubs. Ethnic Indian entrepreneurs around the world join TiE (The Indus Enterprise). Movers and shakers in New York and Washington join the Council on Foreign Relations, where they can listen to the president of Turkey one week and the chief executive of Intel the next. The world's richest man, Carlos Slim, a Mexican telecoms tycoon, hosts an annual gathering of Latin American billionaires who cultivate each other while ostensibly discussing regional poverty. Davos is perhaps the glitziest of these globocratic gatherings. Hundreds of big wheels descend on the Swiss ski resort each year. The lectures are interesting, but the big draw is the chance to talk to other powerful people in the corridors. Such chats sometimes yield results. In 1988 the prime ministers of Turkey and Greece met at Davos and signed a declaration that may have averted a war. In 1994 Shimon Peres, then Israel's foreign minister, and Yasser Arafat struck a deal over Gaza and Jericho. In 2003 Jack Straw, Britain's foreign secretary, had an informal meeting in his hotel suite with the president of Iran, a country with which Britain had no diplomatic ties. But Davos is hardly a secretive institution: it is crawling with journalists. The other globocratic shindigs are opening up, too. Even Bilderberg has recently started publishing lists of participants on its website. Some American organisations, such as foreign-policy think-tanks, are also well placed to exert global influence. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, for example, has established itself as one of the most globally trusted talking-shops, with offices in Beijing, Beirut, Brussels and Moscow, as well as Washington—though it has yet to fulfil the vision of its founder, Andrew Carnegie, who wanted it to abolish war. The key to wielding influence, says Jessica Mathews, Carnegie's president, is “very simple. You hire the best people.” In countries where think-tanks are subservient to the state, such as China and Russia, foreign outfits such as Carnegie enjoy a reputation for independence. If they can back this up with useful knowledge, they can sway policy. For example, Carnegie scholars advised the authors of Russia's post-Soviet constitution. And when relations between American and Russia grew frosty under President George W. Bush, Carnegie's Moscow office helped keep a line of communication open between the two governments. Such meetings are “an important part of the story of the superclass”, says Mr Rothkopf, the author of the eponymous book. What they offer is access to “some of the world's most sequestered and elusive leaders”. As such, they are one of “the informal mechanisms of [global] power”. Some globocrats think the importance of forums like Davos is overstated. Howard Stringer, the boss of Sony, is the kind of person you would expect to relish such gatherings. Welsh by birth, American by citizenship, he took over Japan's most admired company in 2005, when it was in serious trouble, and turned it around in the face of immense cultural obstacles. He says he has enjoyed trips to Davos in the past but will not attend this year. He can learn more, he says, by listening to his 167,000 employees. On the face of it there seems much to be said for the world's shakers and movers meeting and talking frequently. Yet for all their tireless information-swapping, globocrats were caught napping by the financial crisis. Their networks of contacts did throw up a few warnings, but not enough to prompt timely action. Jim Chanos, a hedge-fund manager who made his first fortune betting that Enron was overvalued, warned the G8 finance ministers in April 2007 that banks and insurance firms were heading for trouble. He made another fortune when bank shares crashed, but is still furious that his warnings were politely ignored. He thinks it an outrage that several senior regulators from that period are still in positions of power. And he accuses some bankers of “a wholesale looting of the system” by paying themselves bonuses based on what they must have known were phantom profits. He thinks they should be prosecuted. Globocrats failed to avert the crisis, but they rallied once it struck. Rich-country governments acted in concert to prop up banks with taxpayers' money. In America the response was led by a well-connected trio: Hank Paulson, George Bush junior's treasury secretary and a former boss of Goldman Sachs; Tim Geithner, Barack Obama's treasury secretary and a former boss of the New York Federal Reserve, as well as a veteran of the IMF, the Council on Foreign Relations and Kissinger Associates; and Ben Bernanke, of Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Princeton and the Bush White House, who is now chairman of the Federal Reserve. The bail-outs were unpopular everywhere, but may have prevented the world's banking system from imploding. Governments are now trying to craft rules to prevent a recurrence. Lots of people have offered advice. Among the weightier contributions was a report from the Group of Thirty (G30), an informal collection of past and present central-bank governors. The Volcker Report, advocating a central clearing mechanism for derivatives trading and curbs on proprietary trading by banks, helped shape America's Dodd-Frank financial-reform bill. The G30 is influential because it consists of people with experience of putting policies into practice, says Stuart Mackintosh, its director. So when it makes recommendations, they can be turned into action, he adds.
Residents have been evacuated from their homes in Leyland after bomb disposal teams were alerted to an incident. The security operation started this morning after reports of a man with a suspicious device at a property in Mendip Road. Bomb squad officers have been sent to the scene and local residents have been evacuated to South Ribble Tennis Centre and the nearby Hayrick pub. Some parents have collected their children from nearby Manor Lane Primary School although officials say the school remains open despite the police operation. Donna Hamilton, 36, lives next door to the house where officers are focusing their investigation. She said: “At about nine o’clock this morning I saw all the police down the street. “They got some step ladders and put them up against the flat. I got told to get out.” Photo Ian Robinson'Siege on Mendip Road in Leyland'Armed police officer at the scene Mum-of-two Laura Burns, 22, Mendip Road, was one of the residents evacuated. She said: “I got a knock on the door at about 11 o’clock this morning. “I saw the police from my window and went to see what was going on. I was told to get out my house and take my kids with me. Kirsty Bayley, 28, has a child at nearby Lancaster Lane Primary School. “I heard about what was happening so went to pick up my child. I didn’t want to take any chances.” Photo Ian Robinson'Siege on Mendip Road in Leyland Eddie Stevenson, 23, lives with his 47-year-old dad on Mendip Road, said: “I came out the house and wasn’t allowed back in. “I can see loads of police and there are some at the back of the house with shields looking like they’re about to go in.” Lancashire Constabulary would not confirm details of incident but said officers were dealing with a “police incident.” A spokesman for Lancashire Police said Mendip Road and Hunters Road had been closed for “safety reasons”. Police attended the scene at 10am on Friday and the roads were closed soon after.
Former ARU supremo John O'Neill has called for a historic clash between the British and Irish Lions and an Anzac XV to be staged at Twickenham in 2015 to commemorate the centenary of World War I. O'Neill believes unique circumstances of the 2015 world rugby schedule present an ideal opportunity for the Lions and a combined Wallabies-All Blacks side to play on or around Armistice Day, and honour fallen Commonwealth soldiers in the Great War. "2015 is the centenary anniversary of Gallipoli and the rugby league guys and everyone are talking about how we're going to commemorate it," O'Neill said. "The 2015 World Cup finishes on October 31, and as close as possible to November 11 - Remembrance Day - the British and Irish Lions should play a combined Wallabies-All Blacks side at Twickenham. It would be a fantastic event." O'Neill said he'd had informal discussions about the idea with several parties before leaving the ARU last October, and had intended to press the idea hard with Lions bosses when they arrive in June. He wants his successors at the ARU to lobby for the Lions-Anzacs blockbuster, which could see Trans-Tasman combinations like Will Genia and Dan Carter uniting at the home of rugby. "I can't speak on the ARU's behalf now, so it is up to somebody else," O'Neill said. "It wouldn't be hard. The Lions never play at home, but to commemorate 100 years since World War I and Gallipoli ... "You can't do it on April 25 because that's in the middle of Super Rugby. "But a couple of weeks after the World Cup, assembling the British and Irish Lions to play the Anzacs at Twickenham would be a wonderful way to commemorate the 100 years." History and tradition would need to flex enormously for the Lions-Anzacs to happen, not least for the fact the Lions have only ever played as a touring side. But the Lions have shown some willingness to embrace new - and profitable - ideas, playing the Barbarians in Hong Kong before arriving in Australia. Proposed North-South battles are often scuttled because of tight international calendars but players would be on leave and free to remain in London and play in November after the 2015 World Cup. Twickenham would undoubtedly be a sell-out. This would be hugely attractive in a World Cup year, when there are no Test tours allowed and nations tend to suffer huge financial losses. Though not discussing the prospect of them playing against the Lions, IRB boss Brett Gosper said recently he was sceptical an Anzac or combined SANZAR team could tour the north in the same fashion as the Lions. "There have been discussions around that for a long time. But I think the Lions have such a history and a tradition, it would be very hard to replicate that with a southern team's tour in the north. It doesn't mean you shouldn't try but people have talked about it, and the realisation is it would be a very hard thing to do,'' Gosper said. Gosper said the potential creation of a "Ryder Cup'' style points battle between north and south could re-energise discussions, however. "We are certainly looking at the possibility of in those windows, June and November, of maybe applying a points system; a bit like Ryder Cup, to increase the competitiveness between the northern and southern hemisphere. Those matches are never friendlies, but it might help them not just feel like one-offs,'' Gosper said.
ANALYSIS/OPINION: After the horrific carnage unleashed by the terrorist attack in Manchester, England, some of the reactions were inexplicable. We’re used to jihadis celebrating the horror of mass murder, but it’s still perplexing to hear Western leaders and media reissue their bizarre insistence that we need to get used to the sick and depraved. For some, perhaps it’s a reflection of a sense of hopelessness in the face of a savage enemy that has been allowed to flourish; considering the passive and useless attitude of the previous American president and rhetoric of his admirers, it’s not surprising the left remains stuck in dangerous cynicism. Consider BBC anchor and frequent U.S. news show guest Katty Kay. On Tuesday morning after the attack, the Daily Caller reported, “Kay told MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ … that Europeans have no choice but to get used to terrorists murdering their families because ‘we are never going to be able to totally wipe this out. … Europe is getting used to attacks like this, Mika. They have to, because we are never going to be able to totally wipe this out,’ Kay said.” Ms. Kay continued, “As ISIS gets squeezed in Syria and Iraq, we’re going to see more of these kinds of attacks taking place in Europe, and Europe is starting to get used to that.” Ms. Kay’s defeated sentiment isn’t new. While not her intention, she articulated not the reality of our situation, but the policy preference of failed western leadership. In 2004, Sen. John Kerry, then the Democratic presidential nominee, was interviewed by The New York Times. When asked “What it would take for Americans to feel safe again,” Mr. Kerry answered, “We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they’re a nuisance.” Even with the Sept. 11 attacks just a few years earlier, making the nature of the Islamist terror threat clear, Mr. Kerry exposed the left’s surrender to carnage and chaos. The suggestion that terrorism should be viewed as a nuisance indicates an acceptance of it as a regular part of our lives. All normal human beings reject the grotesque suggestion we simply adapt, but his comment wasn’t a lark. It ended up being one of the first articulations of liberal Western leadership’s strategy of management of the scourge, abandoning the idea of destroying it. Fast forward to August 2016. Sensing that terrorism was an actual problem, Mr. Kerry had another idea. Speaking in Bangladesh he noted, “If you decide one day you’re going to be a terrorist and you’re willing to kill yourself, you can go out and kill some people. You can make some noise. … Perhaps the media would do us all a service if they didn’t cover it quite as much. People wouldn’t know what’s going on.” Genius. Let’s just not mention it, and everything will be OK. A month later, the viral nature of this menacing naivete was affirmed by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a Muslim and son of Pakistani immigrants. Touring New York when the Chelsea terrorist bomb exploded, Mr. Khan blithely noted to a reporter, terrorism is “part and parcel of living in a big city.” Like riding the subway, going to a baseball game, enjoying the ballet? Sure, let’s add getting blown up by the occasional bomb pressure cooker. Just a few months later, London suffered the horrific Westminster terrorist attack in which an Islamist used a car and a knife to murder people. And now, Manchester. A terrorist attack at an event appealing to young people, as of this writing, killing 22 and wounding over 50. In every city where terrorists strike, local citizens transform into super heroes, as was the case in Manchester. People coming together in the midst of horror to help one another is magnificent, and worthy of celebrating, but it’s safe to say everyone in the world who had to deal with terrorism wished they hadn’t had to face it at all. We still prefer our “part and parcel” normal to be safe and sound, void of mass murdering maniacs. Breitbart reported, “Europe, the United Kingdom, and Russia have witnessed terror attacks or attempted attacks every nine days in 2017 on average, analysis of security incidents has revealed.” “Attacks and attempted attacks have taken place in Austria, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Norway, and Germany. Security services in Britain — population 65 million — are known to be tracking 3,500 potential terror suspects or persons posing a threat. Meanwhile Belgium, with its population of just 12 million, is tracking around 18,000 potential jihadists,” revealed Breitbart. The importance of President Trump’s Middle Eastern and European trip is now even more clear. In 2015, then-President Barack Obama eliminated the word “destroy” when referring to actions against the Islamic State terror group, or ISIS. All that was left was the intention to “degrade” the terrorist scourge, as though our only hope was to try to keep in check a cancer that was metastasizing around the world. Mr. Trump’s remarks in Riyadh made it clear that is not good enough. Accepting terrorism as a “nuisance” or simply a part of big city living is obscene and is rejected. The president’s remarks in Saudi Arabia and Israel, and no doubt through the rest of his tour, make it clear the United States and our allies must view ISIS, al Qaeda and other terror-mongers as something to be destroyed. The president’s approach is one that can bring both Islamic nations and Europe out of a self-imposed coma and back into a world that has dispatched mass-murdering fascists and their ideology before. And we will do it again. • Tammy Bruce, author and Fox News contributor, is a radio talk show host. Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
'This is going to be big,' says Sen. Whitehouse UPDATED: Hearing now scheduled for Wed., March 4th... Brad Friedman Byon 2/25/2009, 10:13am PT [Updated at end of article, with details on hearing announced for next week.] The Senate is quietly preparing plans to investigate allegations of torture under President George W. Bush, according to comments published Wednesday by Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). The Senate Judiciary Committee could announce a hearing to consider various plans to probe allegations of torture as early as today, according to Salon's Mark Benjamin, citing Committee Chairman Pat Leahy and members of his staff. Leahy's office told Raw Story Wednesday morning that a press release would be sent out shortly. Sen. Whitehouse said he's "convinced" the investigation will move forward. "Stay on this," he told Benjamin. "This is going to be big." Whitehouse, Senator from Rhode Island, is "spearheading" the efforts, and as a member of both the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, "is privy to information about interrogations he can't yet share," the magazine noted. Neither Salon's nor RAW STORY's coverage made it completely clear whether the Senators are discussing an idea that is different from Leahy's previously-floated "Truth Commission" --- where immunity would be granted to many who testify, in questionable exchange for making "the truth" known --- though this investigation does seem to be distinct from that one. We'll try to keep our eye out for Leahy's press release today, in case it offers some clarity. [Update: See details of Leahy's announcement added at bottom of article.] One point from Salon, also worth highlighting, is that the tenacious Sen. Whitehouse seems keen on using this investigation to help disprove the often asserted notion that the Bush, um, "enhanced interrogation" policies saved lives, despite the lack of evidence supporting that wishful thinking, and the growing body of evidence and testimony --- from those who actually know --- which plainly disputes it. Retired Maj. Gen. Tony Taguba, who led the investigation of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, is quoted from a recent interview as disputing those who have claimed --- from the comfort of their keyboards --- that torture saved lives: "Some of those activities were actually not effective and those who thought so were in the academic or pristine settings of their offices," Taguba told Salon. "What would they know?" Whitehouse adds: "It is important to prove the point, because they keep saying, 'We saved lives. We interrupted plans. We did this, that and the other.'...Well, when you drill down, there is never a fact there. It turns into fog and evasion." Again, with Whitehouse on both the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, with access to much more information than has been made public to date, he oughta know. At least slightly more so than the Wingnuts who rule the public airwaves and, with it, the public "debate" on these issues to date. UPDATE 1:34pm PT: On the Senate floor today, Leahy announced his plans for a hearing next Wednesday, March 4th at 10am ET (including a live webcast), called "Getting to the Truth Through a Nonpartisan Commission of Inquiry." Details follow...As RAW STORY reports (with video): He called his commission a "middle ground" for both sides of the aisle to meet in. "Such a commission's objective would be to find the truth. People would be invited to come forward and share their knowledge and experiences, not for the purpose of constructing criminal indictments, but to assemble the facts, to know what happened and to make sure mistakes are not repeated," Leahy said. "While many are focused on whether crimes were committed, it is just as important to learn if significant mistakes were made, regardless of whether they can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to a unanimous jury to be criminal conduct. We compound the serious mistakes already made if we limit our inquiry to criminal investigations and trials." ... Though Leahy stressed that his commission would not be about just prosecuting criminal cases, Glenn Greenwald speculated that the presence of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island on any fact-finding war-crimes commission might result in prosecutions anyway. Whitehouse is on both the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committee. "Critically, he is also a former federal and state prosecutor and thus instinctively considers lawbreaking to be wrong no matter who is doing the lawbreaking," writes Greenwald.
We’re proud to present the interview with Vincent Dérozier from Ubisoft Quebec. Vincent is a seasoned level artist, who worked on some of the biggest titles in Assassin’s Creed series: Assassin’s Creed Unity and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. He talked about his job, creation of beautiful materials and challenges of working on big projects with lots of restrictions. Introduction My name is Vincent Dérozier and I’m a Level Artist at Ubisoft Quebec. Like many people, I’ve always been fascinated by art, especially from the entertainment industry. I’ve developed a strong passion for drawing and naturally landed at Emile Cohl, a famous art school in Lyon. This excellent institution is specialized in traditional art, video games, animation and comics. It’s basically the place where I trained my eyes and developed my critical thinking. After four years with the strong support of my great family and wife, I joined the video game industry at Ubisoft Annecy, in France. I learned many things about modeling, texturing, technical constraints, history, construction techniques, level design, level art, pre-production, art direction and even relationship skills. It was wonderful to work in an environment where everyone teaches and communicates with each other. After five incredible years and contributions to six titles, I moved to Canada to pursue new adventures. Since moving to Canada I have had the privilege to work on titles like Test Drive Unlimited 2, 4 Assassin’s Creed Multiplayer across four games in the series, Assassin’s Creed Unity and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. What is My Job? On Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, I worked as a Level Artist on the opening scene, the first sequence, with mainly two other artists and one mission designer. I worked from the high level conception until debug and I was in charge of both Level Art and Level Design. Most of my environments were made with already existing props or architectural pieces and materials, making specific objects only when needed. Because of my drawing background, I have always been passionate about textures and materials. Texturing in the Game Industry Today, the job of a texture artist is well defined: you are responsible of the surface rendering of an object in the engine. That job has been evolving throughout the years. As an example, we are not working on one single texture anymore, but on a material which has infinite numbers of layers linked with a shader. Depending on your engine and technical limitations of the platform you are working on, you will put visual information in different textures. If you are working on powerful engines like the Unreal Engine or the CryEngine with PBR rendering, you will be allowed to build complex and deep materials. Again, that new way of texturing is not so different but it allows us to work in a cleaner, more efficient way because the breakdown of material is more logical and the render is more realistic. The main challenge in games is the budget (time, vertices and materials). As frustrating as it could look, we called it “freeing constraints” at the Annecy Ubisoft Studio. You don’t have unlimited time? Then, make a smart break down of your scene. You don’t have an infinite number of vertices for your meshes? Then, just be clean when you work. You want to be able to project shadows according to the orientation of a high resolution surface project on a lighter one? Let’s create an amazing texture stratas called the normal map. Thanks to “freeing constraints”, normal map, blending material shaders and baking techniques were created. That’s what I love so much about the video game industry and especially about texturing. It’s all about ninja secrets you will only figure out when you face annoying constraints. Using Substance Tools Depending on your project requirements, you can create parts of a material with Crazybump, Knald, NDO or ZBrush. Tools are only tools, but the way and time you are using each one can make a big difference in a game. The Substance Suite is an amazing and powerful tool. During the development of Assassin’s Creed Unity, I ended up having to do or retake several materials in a very short time for Arno’s headquarters. Usually, I would have worked with Photoshop, photobashing stratas and creating height maps by hand or sculpts. But time was running out and a close colleague of mine was learning about Substance Designer, a stunning piece of software. Substance Designer is just a tool but it is designed for one goal: creating materials in a fast and iterative way. To understand why that software is so powerful, you have to understand what a nodal system is. It’s not just an amazing amount of ugly pastas going in every direction for no reason and creating material in a magical way. Nodes are like the layers and the effects created in Photoshop, but in a more dynamic way because everything is automatically updated. With Substance Designer, you can create materials out of nowhere, blend them according to mask, add baked volumes on top of it, and if you need to update something, the software updates all the stratas in real time. Whatever project or company you are working for, using Substance Designer as a tool for iteration and hard work are always the key to success in order to reach a high level of quality. Main Workflow for Material For the past two years, I’ve been almost exclusively using Substance Designer for materials. Let’s take my last material as an example, ground dirt. After gathering a lot of references and deciding the overall look and ratio of my material, I started with the biggest and main shapes of my height map. Those are totally procedurals and only made with noises and simple blends or transformations: Then I added the “medium details” which is feeding the overall material without breaking the big shapes I created before: Here, I added the last details to finish my neutral ground surface: I created some rock shapes, threw them everywhere on the surface in order to have a much more organic feel than what my brain can do on its own: Now that the surface is coming along, why don’t we just walk on it to add footprints everywhere? Just as if some bad guys were searching for Nathan Drake! I created a very simple foot Alpha and, again, splattered it of my height map in an organic way: Now, let’s add some water. I created a grey value, blended it in a Max mode and played with the grey value of my plane. The effect is like if I was in ZBrush, putting a simple plane through my sculpt: The biggest difference with ZBrush is that I can now reuse every node, stratas or mask and link them with each other to create my Albedo, Roughness, or Metallic. If I change anything at any step, everything will be updated: Beginners’ Guide Like a lot of colleagues already mentioned here, you need to be hard on yourself. Seek for critics, accept them instead of finding excuses and avoid negativity, especially your own. The video game industry is a great place to work and to live in. Try to not be intimidated by the work of others, just try to reach their level. Vincent Dérozier, Level Artist at Ubisoft Quebec INTERESTING LINKS
My Basic Understanding of mio and Asynchronous IO Written by Herman J. Radtke III on 12 Jul 2015 I needed async IO for a Rust project I was working on. My server needs to read some bytes from a client and then send those bytes back to all registered clients. I decided to use mio, the Rust async IO library, to build a server. All the examples I found showcased reading from a socket and then writing back to that same socket. Also, many of the examples had caveats about unhandled edge cases and used a lot of unwrap . Over the next three posts, I am going to walk through everything I learned about async (or evented) IO as it relates to mio, how I setup my server and talk in depth about some of the ways I thought about handling errors. Let us start with the an overview of how async IO works within the context of mio. How mio Exposes Async IO I initially thought the mio library was a Rust wrapper around libev. To my surprise, I realized mio is a replacement for libev. The name mio (metal IO) starts to make a lot more sense. The mio library is interfacing directly with epoll if you are on linux and kqueue if you are on FreeBSD (or OS X). The mio event loop interface expects us to know how the epoll/kqueue implementations work. Mio gives us complete control over how the async IO works, but it also means there is quite a bit to learn. After a decent amount of a reading, I believe I have a basic understanding of what some of the affordances mio exposes actually do. Registration The EventLoop object provided by mio is our main point of contact. Interaction with the event loop is in the form of the register , register_opt , reregister and deregister functions. These functions allow our code to control how the event loop interacts with the incoming client connections. All the functions, with the exception of deregister, require four arguments: a TcpStream socket for our client connection, a Token to identify connections, an EventSet to control what events we are notified of and a PollOpt to determine how we should be notified. The deregister function only needs the socket. Understanding how these functions work are key to understanding how to use mio. The concept of registering with an event loop is fairly straight forward, especially once you start looking at the code. It is the arguments to these registration functions that are more dense. I am going to assume you understand the basics of how a socket works and how to read and write bytes using that socket. The other arguments require some more in-depth discussion. Tokens I found the use of tokens strange at first. I am more familiar with the use of callbacks to deal with asynchronous events. Mio uses tokens as an alternative to callbacks in order to achieve the design goal of zero allocations at runtime. The Token type is really just a tuple struct wrapper around usize . This means it is cheap to compare and copy. This will be important later when we start using the Token type. A Token is used to identify the state related to a connected socket. We register with the event loop using a token. Later on, the event loop will specify this token when notifying us of an event. A feedback loop of sorts is created. The Token is stored, along with the connection state, in the connection slab. I am going to discuss the connection slab when we start looking at the code. Trying to explain it without code feels overly complicated. EventSet (Formerly Known As Interest) The EventSet object represents the set of events we are interested in being notified of. Until recently, the EventSet type was name Interest . The 0.3.x branch still refers to it as Interest . There are four types of events: readable - Tells the event loop we want to read data from a client connection. writable - Tells the event loop we want to write data to a client connection. hup - Tells the event loop that we want to be notified when a client closes the connection (hangs up). error - Tells the event loop that we want to listen for errors. If you are curious as to why Interest was renamed to EventSet , you can read the full discussion that ultimately resulted in the change. Essentially, epoll and kqueue have slightly different interfaces and this change made it easier for people using the mio library to handle those differences. The EventSet type removed the notion of a read hint that is present in many mio examples currently out there. Write Notifications One thing that confused me a lot was when to use writable. A lot of the examples are just echoing back what the client sent them or they are performing some very simple task. In these cases, you do not need to register EventSet::writable() if you want to immediately write back to the socket you just read from. You can just perform the write as part of the current readable event. If you are performing an expensive task between the read and write, you may want to handle this differently. Whether you are reading or writing from the socket, you also need to be aware that the kernel might not be ready for your read or write. I Would Block You [edit: I updated this section to replace the word block with more correct language like reject and not ready.] Even though we are using asynchronous IO, the kernel is not always ready for our reads and writes. When the kernel’s internal send or receive buffers are full and it needs to flush them we will be asked to try again. Typically, the kernel communicates try again to us in the form of an error. In Rust, we have std::io::ErrorKind::WouldBlock . In C, it is referred to as EAGAIN . This error is the kernel’s way of letting us know it is not ready for our read or write and they we need to try again. This WouldBlock error must be handled. In mio, we are provided with the traits, TryRead and TryWrite , which catch WouldBlock and treat it as a 0 byte read. These traits are convenient to use as our error handling can now assume any Err(_) is an unexpected error. More about this when we get to some code samples. You might be wondering what it means to try again when the kernel is not ready for our read or write. In order to understand this, we need to understand the polling options. Poll Options The PollOpts exposed by mio really tripped me up at first because I did not understand how epoll/kqueue worked at all. There are basically two different polling options, or triggers, we can use. By default, mio will specify PollOpt::level() when registering with the event loop. Level-triggered polling is what you would expect from a straight-forward polling implementation. If you are familiar with select() in C, this is basically the same thing. The downside to level-triggered polling is that we are expected to handle the events immediately. If we do not handle them immediately, then the event loop will notify us constantly of the event and we end up wasting resources. What most people opt for is edge-triggered, PollOpt::edge() , polling. Edge-triggred polling means that when we receive a read or write event, the event loop will automatically deregister our connection. This means we can get notified of an event and then have the option of handling it now or later. If more events come in for that connection, the event loop will queue those up for us until we register again. This requires us to have to manage the state of our connections, but gives us the flexibility we really want. We can also combine edge-triggered polling with another option: PollOpt::oneshot() . Not only does this option sound super cool, it also guarantees that only one thread will be woken up. This allows us to be thread-safe when reading or writing. Thread safely unlocks the ability for allows us to write multi-threaded epoll processes on top of mio. For my server, I decided to register connections using PollOpt::edge() \| PollOpt::oneshot() when registering with the event loop. Trying Again Now that we are familiar with what events we can be notified of and what our polling options are, we need to revisit the notion of trying our read or write again when the kernel not ready for us. Using edge-triggering, a read or write event means our connection will be deregistered from the event loop. To try again, we need to first save our work and then reregister our connection with the event loop, using our token, so we can be notified after the kernel is done flushing. Next Steps We now have the necessary context to start using mio. It took days for these concepts to really sink in with me. If you grok this already, you are awesome. If not, give it time! I am going to apply these above concepts to actual code in my next post. If you want to get started before my next post, I would start with test echo server that is part of the mio test suite. There is also the getting started documentation that mio provides, though it is somewhat out of date for the 0.4.x branch. There are also a few projects that are abstracting a lot of the details needed to get mio working. These can be great example to learn from. The two I have looked at are: Reactor - Evented polling + network utilities to make life easier mioco - Allows handling mio connections inside coroutines Sources In addition to reading the mio soure code and example code, I did a lot of reading about epoll itself. Here is a list of some sources I used to get more familiar with epoll/kqueue:
Student leaders have pulled the mat out from 60 University of Ottawa students, ending a free on-campus yoga class over fears the teachings could be seen as a form of "cultural appropriation." Jennifer Scharf, who has been offering free weekly yoga instruction to students since 2008, says she was shocked when told in September the program would be suspended, and saddened when she learned of the reasoning. Staff at the Centre for Students with Disabilities believe that "while yoga is a really great idea and accessible and great for students … there are cultural issues of implication involved in the practice," according to an email from the centre. The centre is operated by the university’s Student Federation, which first approached Scharf seven years ago about offering yoga instruction to students both with and without disabilities. The centre goes on to say, "Yoga has been under a lot of controversy lately due to how it is being practiced," and which cultures those practices "are being taken from." The centre official argues since many of those cultures "have experienced oppression, cultural genocide and diasporas due to colonialism and western supremacy … we need to be mindful of this and how we express ourselves while practising yoga." The concept of cultural appropriation is normally applied when a dominant culture borrows symbols of a marginalized culture for dubious reasons — such as the fad of hipsters donning indigenous headdresses as a fashion statement, without any regard to cultural significance or stereotype. But Scharf, a yoga teacher with the downtown Rama Lotus Centre, said the concept does not apply in this case, arguing the complaint that killed the program came instead from a "social justice warrior" with "fainting heart ideologies" in search of a cause celebre. "People are just looking for a reason to be offended by anything they can find," said Scharf. "There’s a real divide between reasonable people and those people just looking to jump on a bandwagon. And unfortunately, it ends up with good people getting punished for doing good things." There were about 60 students who participated in the free program. Acting student federation president Romeo Ahimakin denied the decision resulted from a complaint. Ahimakin said the student federation put the yoga session on hiatus while they consult with students "to make it better, more accessible and more inclusive to certain groups of people that feel left out in yoga-like spaces. … We are trying to have those sessions done in a way in which students are aware of where the spiritual and cultural aspects come from, so that these sessions are done in a respectful manner." Scharf offered a compromise, suggesting she change the name from yoga to "mindful stretching," since that would reflect the content of the program and would "literally change nothing about the course." "I’m not pretending to be some enlightened yogi master, and the point (of the program) isn’t to educate people on the finer points of the ancient yogi scripture," she told the Sun. "The point is to get people to have higher physical awareness for their own physical health and enjoyment." According to email correspondence between Scharf and the centre, student leaders debated rebranding the program, but stumbled over how the French translation for "mindful stretching" would appear on a promotional poster, and eventually decided to suspend the program. Student federation official Julie Seguin sympathized with Scharf over e-mail, defending the use of the term "yoga," and saying, "I am also still of the opinion that a single complaint does not outweigh all of the good that these classes have done." Seguin said "labeling the CSD’s yoga lessons as cultural appropriation is questionable (and) debatable" and called on further discussion with the student executive. @OttSunHelmer
Pin +1 Share 27 Shares The scientist, Abraham Lesnik, of suburban Los Angeles, worked in the development of anti-missile systems for aircraft and held a Department of Defense security clearance of Secret, Special Access, according to his resume filed in court papers. He was charged for unlawfully retaining classified information on a computer at home. The criminal charging document stated: The United States Attorney charges: 18 U.S.C. § 793(e) On or about October 3, 2006, in Los Angeles County, within the Central District of California, defendant Abraham Lesnik, having unauthorized possession of, access to, and control over documents and writings relating to the national defense of the United States, (document summarizes ten Secret and one Top Secret documents) did willfully retain the same and failed to deliver them to an officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive them. The FBI did not allege Lesnik ever gave any documents to anyone or expressed indications of disloyalty to the United States, merely that he allowed classified documents, including the following, to exist on an unsecure computer inside his home. The judge in the case even stated, similar to the Clinton case: Lesnik clearly had ‘no intention of selling the information or showing it to anyone else.’ Lesnik asserted he took the materials, some of them marked “top secret,” simply to make it easier to work at home. The US Attorney asked for a four year sentence, but in light of his guilty plea and full cooperation with investigators, the judge sentenced him to a felony conviction, three years probation, and a $25,000 fine. Link to the official DOJ press release, #08-092. From the NYSUN: “It is of great concern to the government any time an individual violates the rules governing possession of classified information,” a Justice Department spokesman, Dean Boyd, said. The prosecution is expected to argue that the scientist repeatedly flouted the rules and put vital national secrets at risk. In court, Lesnik said convenience was his motive. “I brought classified documents from my workplace to my home so I could work on them,” he said, according to the Associated Press. His defense said it plans to seek probation and no jail time. There are many similarities to the Clinton situation, but Lesnik’s was arguably much less severe. Comments
WASHINGTON -- The association representing gun retailers has rejected a call by 13 Democratic senators and nine police organizations to stop selling guns to purchasers who haven't been cleared by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The 13 senators, citing last week's movie theater shooting in Lafayette and other recent mass shootings, made their request in a letter to the nation's largest gun retailers, even if the check takes longer than the allowed three days. A similar request was made Friday (July 31) by a partnership of nine police and law enforcement associations. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents gun dealers, said the focus shouldn't be on the "back-end of the background check system." Instead, it said, that the focus should be on ensuring that states submit all disqualifying criminal and mental health records to the background check system and that the system gets "the support it needs at the federal and state level." It said 99 percent of delayed background checks eventually end in the approval of the transaction. The foundation said that Louisiana is one of 14 states that has taken steps to report disqualifying mental health information - a 2013 law that says any court determination that a person is mentally unfit to stand trial, an involuntary commitment to a mental institution, or a court order restricting or prohibiting possession of a firearm, should be sent to the NICS database. But it ranks only 42nd, according to the foundation, in the number of per capita disqualifying reports submitted to the NICS database. The 13 Democratic senators and the coalition of nine police and law enforcement agencies said more steps are needed to deal with people who are able to purchase guns, despite criminal or mental health backgrounds. "The gunmen who committed the callous attacks in Charleston, Chattanooga and Lafayette should not have been able to acquire firearms," said Jim Johnson, chairman of the National Law Enforcement Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence, a coalition of police organizations that includes the Major Cities Chiefs Association. "Yet, reports indicate that the three alleged perpetrators were able to buy guns either through federally licensed gun dealers or through an online website listing firearms for sale, demonstrating the need to both strengthen and expand background checks." It makes three recommendations. Background checks should be expanded to cover both purchases from federally licensed firearms dealers and private sellers. Currently, only sales from licensed dealers are included in the background check requirement. As proposed by the Shooting Sports Foundation, states and federal agencies should share all disqualifying information to the background check system. Gun sellers shouldn't sell a gun until the transaction is cleared by the background system, even if it takes more than the currently permitted three days. "Last year, the FBI reported more than 2,500 guns were sold to people who should have been barred, but sales proceeded nevertheless," said Johnson, the Baltimore County (Md.) Police chief. "As the Charleston shooting rampage painfully shows, there are some cases where more time to investigate before a firearm is transferred would mean more lives saved." The 13 Democratic lawmakers, led by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., wrote to the heads of Cabela's, EZ Pawn, and Bass Pro Shops - three large firearms dealers that currently sell guns after the three-day deadline passes, even if the transaction had not yet been cleared by the instant background system. "You have a duty to ensure that your products do not get into the hands of dangerous individuals like the Emanuel AME Church shooter," the senators wrote. "After the horror inflicted upon the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, no responsible gun retailer should transfer a gun without first conducting a complete background check." Officials with Cabela's, EZ Pawn and Bass Pro Shops did not respond to a request for comment. But the association that represents gun dealers, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, responded by asking states to do a better job providing information about people who should be denied the right to purchase a gun. "If the senators had called us prior to publicly releasing a letter we still have yet to receive, we would have been happy to explain this more effective solution," the foundation said. Still, Johnson said the Lafayette shooting, which left three dead, including the 59-year-old shooter, who reportedly had mental health issues, shows the need to do much more. "Our hearts are with the families and loved ones of Mayci Breaux and Jillian Johnson, (the two victims of the Lafayette shooting) who were laid to rest this week," Johnson said. "We wish all those injured in this horrific attack rapid recoveries." He also said that gun violence is on the rise in many American communities including New Orleans. "Tragically, guns in the wrong hands are claiming too many lives in communities all across the United States," he said. Mike Reed, spokesman for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, said the 2013 state law mandating the reporting of mental health cases has resulted in 1,708 cases reported to the National Instant Criminal Background system. "The legislation we passed requiring courts to send mental health determinations to NICS has been in place for just over a year," Reed said. "Prior to us passing that law, Louisiana courts were not required to report any mental health determinations to the NICS database. We are pleased Louisiana now has a law on the books requiring courts to submit these records and would encourage other states to pass mental health reporting laws like this one. The law allows for courts to retroactively report mental health adjudications and we are in the process of verifying with the courts and agencies that they are properly complying with the law." But he said that Jindal, a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, rejects additional gun control legislation. "We don't need more restrictions on the constitutional gun rights of law-abiding citizens," Reed said.
Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he waves to a group of supporters in Richmond, Va., on Oct. 14, 2015. \| AP Photo Poll: Trump, Clinton boast big leads in New York New Yorkers Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both boast double-digit leads in the state, according to a NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released on Monday, as the two frontrunners try to shake off recent bruising losses. The Manhattan billionaire has the support of 54 percent of Republican voters surveyed, while Ohio Gov. John Kasich has 21 percent and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has 18 percent. Trump is hoping to haul in a big number of delegates after being outfoxed by Cruz in a number of states. In order to win all of New York’s 95 delegates, Trump would have to win at least 50 percent statewide and each of the 27 congressional districts. Story Continued Below More than half of New York Republicans surveyed (64 percent) say that Trump should still win the nomination even if he doesn’t hit 1,237 delegates on the first vote at the Republican National Convention in July. Twenty-eight percent believe someone else should be nominated under those circumstances. On the Democratic side, Clinton (who was a U.S. senator from New York) has the support of 55 percent of likely Democratic voters, compared to 41 percent for Bernie Sanders. Clinton is striving to break Sanders' hot streak at next week's primary in New York, after the Vermont senator won eight of the last nine contests. The poll also found that roughly one third (30 percent) of likely Democratic voters who back Sanders say that they wouldn’t vote for the former secretary of state in a general election, while 15 percent of Clinton backers would not vote for Sanders. The telephone poll of 259 likely Republican primary voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 6.1 percentage points. The poll of 557 likely Democratic primary voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points. The survey was conducted April 6-10.
By Mysterious Anonymous Since I made it to the Spring Street Courthouse again to see Friday’s performance, SJD asked me to write up my impressions as a community representative. I had a super-busy weekend so I didn’t think there would be anything left to say by the time I found time, but I came up with an editorial angle that might be more entertaining to people who have come to read this site not because they have read about John Steele on Techdirt and Ars Technica, but because they were actually threatened by Steele \| Hansmeier, Prenda or one of their other guises. I had seen John Steele previously at the April 2 hearing where he plead the 5th, but I had never actually seen him perform, and the take-home lesson from last Friday’s hearing is… John Steele is an idiot. I had assumed Wright was simply calling Steele’s bluff by scheduling a hearing on Steele’s motion for reconsideration. Surely, given Steele’s history of trying to avoid Wright’s courtroom, Steele was bound to no-show even with his own motion scheduled for a hearing, giving Wright justification to deny the motion by default. But Wright’s plan was far more devious than that. After briefly chewing Steele out for filing documents that have nothing to do with anything, Wright had Steele staring at his own request to substitute counsel (or in Steele’s case go pro se) that had an incorrect mailing address… When Steele was there to complain about not being served by mail… Things went all downhill. Steele basically couldn’t put a sentence or an argument together. As covered in detail elsewhere, Wright had gone over Steele’s filings in meticulous detail, found the inconsistencies, and grilled Steele with pointed and specific questions. Steele was desperate, pathetic, grasping for straws. He could barely answer any of Wright’s questions and never had a straight, specific answer, it was always an appeal to emotion, or his rights, or a wild conspiracy to deny Steele said rights. Wright repeatedly asked him to make an argument, explain a problem, and/or state some facts to back up anything he was saying, and Steele just couldn’t do it. He did manage to keep talking, we all know Steele can’t keep his mouth shut, and that is true no matter how deep of a hole he digs himself. Steele’s mouth kept running but the garbage coming out became less and less intelligible. It sounded like “blah blah blah MY RIGHTS blahbaddy blah 5TH AMENDMENT blah blah blah PATTERN OF FRAUD blah.” The incoherence, paranoia, ego. Unbelievable. John Steele is so full of shit that I won’t even try to describe how full of shit he is. If you had tried to explain to me that a person could be that full of shit before I saw John Steele performing in Los Angeles, I would not have believed it was possible. For those who have been intimidated and scared by Steele in the past: There is no evil genius here. There is no master plan, no craft, no clever, no intelligence. Just a bully who got lucky a few times bluffing laypeople with no understanding of the law. Now that he must practice his profession against real opponents he is a complete and utter failure. Such a failure that Wright joked about the Ninth Circuit having a reserved parking space for him. Such a failure that many attendees were wearing government ID badges. Investigators from the DOJ and IRS? Maybe. We can hope. But they looked a bit young to be seasoned investigators, so I think it is likely that John Steele has become a celebrity in the courthouse, and anyone who could slip away from work was there to watch him make a fool of himself. John Steele has become the Court Jester of the Central District of California. He brings shame to the University of Minnesota for having such low standards it awarded him a JD. He brings shame to the state bar exam preparers of Illinois that created an exam so weak that John Steele could pass it. He brings shame to every lawyer in every state where Prenda has filed cases, for having such collectively low standards and ethics that they call this scum their peer. I would like everyone who has been threatened by Steele, intimidated by Steele, harassed by Steele, who has lost sleep because of Steele to know that John Steele was very, very unhappy on Friday. John Steele was mad. John Steele was worried. John Steele wore a deeply concerned and unhappy face that I wish all of you could have seen (I had to work to suppress the urge to break courtroom protocol and try to sneak a picture of Unhappy John Steele; it would have made great memes). I was grinning from ear to ear the whole time, and like many other attendees could not keep from chortling and snorting with derision, glee and surprise at the contemptible foolishness of John Steele. John Steele is struggling to deal with all the trouble John Steele has made for himself and behaved like he’s coming apart at the seams. His final words in the courtroom, a bellowed “It’s called cutting and pasting!” are a suitably pathetic example of how ridiculous this sad excuse for a man has become. Everyone who has worked with or for Prenda should read this, and read everything else about Friday and their current state of affairs, and be scared. Very, very scared. Because their mastermind is a clueless buffoon of little ability who went all in with an empty hand and had his bluff called. Update SJD, 7/16/2013 On 7/9/2013 John Steele filed an apoplectic reply to Ranallo/Pietz/Heller response. The caveat is that, as a manual filing, it was stamped only on Friday (right before the hearing), and appeared on Pacer only today. You’ve read the story above, now read Steele’s BS through the glasses of Friday’s event: it is entertaining. SJD, 7/18/2013 Judge Wright issued an order on Steele’s motion for reconsideration, denying it and referring a purported attorney John Steele to Pro Se Clinic! This is probably the second-best (after the “Star Trek order”) by Wright in this case:
Police have confirmed that two shooting deaths that happened in Conception Bay South last night and a body that was found in a Mount Pearl cemetery this morning are a double murder-suicide. The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary said around 7 p.m. Tuesday, they responded to gunshots that were fired at a health clinic in Villa Nova Plaza in C.B.S. A woman, 35, and a man, 45, were pronounced dead at the scene. The next of kin have been notified, but police said they will not disclose the victims' identities. The woman was shot inside the clinic, while the man was shot outside, sources told CBC News. The complex includes retailers and office space for doctors and physiotherapists. Police removed boxes from the home of shooter Brian Dawe on Chaytors Road in Conception Bay South on Wednesday afternoon. (Photo by Marilyn Crotty) During the investigation on Tuesday night, RNC officers secured the area around Villa Nova Plaza, and traffic on the town's main road was blocked for several hours. Police said they identified a person of interest, and later confirmed that a body that was discovered Wednesday morning at the Anglican cemetery on Kenmount Road, about 14 kilometres away from where the double homicide took place, was the killer. The firearm that police believe was used in the slayings at Villa Nova Plaza has been recovered. The RNC said it doesn't believe there is a public safety concern, since the incident was not a random act. Const. Talia Murphy said the three individuals were known to each other. "The person of interest and the female had at one point been involved in a relationship," she said. "Right now, it's still too early to tell what the full extent of the motivation behind this incident was," she added. The shooter has not been identified by police, but multiple neighbours identified him to CBC News as 43-year-old Brian Dawe of C.B.S. Neighbours, workers shaken Dawe lived on Chaytor's Road in C.B.S., in the Chamberlains neighbourhood. Jillian Crotty, one of his neighbours, said she didn't see him much during the day. Crotty said Dawe's former partner moved out of the house five years ago, and he's been living with his mother there ever since. She said he usually spent his time in his shed at night, and that he sold furniture and appliances out of his home. Crotty said she wasn't entirely surprised Dawe was involved in a shooting, because of what she described as "suspicious activity" around the house for years. Nonetheless, Crotty said she's still dealing with shock. "I don't even think I'm coming to terms with it yet," she said. "For something to happen here in C.B.S., I mean, quaint, little town, and everybody knows each other — at least we thought [we did]." People who work in Villa Nova Plaza were also shaken by the incident. Jerry Lazarov, who runs Pronto Pizza, said one of his employees wouldn't come into work on Wednesday. "This is almost 20 years now [we've been] on this plaza, and the first time something shocking like this has happened," he said. "I tried to reach my delivery driver, who is supposed to be delivering today … and he said, 'No, it's too risky.'" Police officials had made the unusual move Tuesday night of urging residents in the surrounding area to stay inside and lock their homes. Overnight, they scoured the area for signs of a suspect. Denise Sullivan, who lives in the area with her young family, said she's having a hard time explaining what has happened to her children. "It's terrifying, you know, so many questions. We were actually in town, came home, and learned of [the warning from police] when we were at the end of the driveway of our house," she said. "And it was just, get inside, lock the door, turn off the lights get upstairs, and the kids were pretty scared. They all wanted to sleep with me last night in my bed, so it's pretty nerve-wracking," she said. Police patrol home Earlier Wednesday morning, armed RNC officers were seen at Dawe's home. The connection to the homicide investigation wasn't immediately clear, and police eventually left the scene. Later, the RNC noted that reports of a standoff at that location were false. Education officials kept three neighbourhood schools closed Wednesday morning: Topsail Elementary, Villanova Junior High, and Holy Spirit High. They were re-opened for afternoon classes. The council meeting at the nearby town hall was interrupted when councillors learned of the killings. Police kept lines up around Villa Nova Plaza in Conception Bay South, N.L., where two people were fatally shot on Tuesday evening. (Amy Stoodley/CBC ) "Cold shivers of course go up your spine ... when you learn a shooting has taken place, not just in your community, but just next door to where we were holding our public council meeting," said Ken McDonald, mayor of the town of about 25,000 southwest of St. John's. The RNC called in multiple units to investigate the shooting. "The manhunt was huge. They were looking for the shooter as far down as Topsail," said CBC reporter Amy Stoodley. Stoodley added that revelations of the shooting and news that the suspect was at large had unnerved many people in Conception Bay South. "People were pretty panicked," she said, adding that many people were anxious when they encountered police roadblocks and could not immediately join their families on the other side.
Alpha magazine is out with its annual "rich list" detailing the successes of the highest earning hedge fund managers in America. The news once again is that it's good to be a successful hedge fund manager: the top 25 earned a collective $21.1 billion this year. Even within that group there's considerable inequality. The top earner, David Tepper, took home $3.5 billion which is about five times as much as either of the two men tied for the tenth slot. How does that look in context? Well, it's about 0.13 percent of total national income for 2013 being earned by something like 0.00000008 percent of the American population. Another way of looking at it is that this is about 2.5 times the income of every kindergarten teacher in the country combined.

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