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With less than two months left until Election Day, you might be wondering, “How much money have accounting firms been throwing around this election cycle?” No? Just me? Okay, then, well this should be fun.
Here’s what Open Secrets, a website run by the Center of Responsive Politics, has for contributions by the accounting industry’s political action committees so far:
As you see in the image, this data is based on the most recent Federal Election Commission filings available.
The $8.1 million in PAC contributions is already more than was paid in 2014 and 2012 and the portion going to Republicans (64%) is the highest it’s been since 2006. Of the big donors (i.e. $1M+), Deloitte gave the largest portion to Republicans, about 69%.
Each PAC has its own individual page (e.g. AICPA) that includes a summary, a list of recipients of the PAC’s money, the donors to the PAC, detailed expenditures plus other information. Twenty thousand dollars was the largest sum contributed. The PACs of the AICPA, Deloitte and PwC all gave $20k to at least one individual.
Comparatively speaking, the accounting industry hasn't given a lot to candidates. Open Secrets lumps accounting in the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate sector, and its contributions make up just over 10% of the total contributions of $75.4 million. Of that group, insurance has contributed the most, over $26 million. None of the PACs above break the top 20, although Deloitte is close.
We'll keep an eye on the activity leading up to Election Day, but in the meantime, feel free to peruse and point out anything interesting or discuss the activity in general. |
As organizations such as WikiLeaks and DCLeaks continue to release emails that appear to originate from individuals close to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her campaign, a group of former top national security officials and outside experts are warning “members of the media to stay engaged and to think critically about the facts they consume and disseminate.” The group notes that “what is taking place” in terms of the leaking of private emails “follows a well-known Russian playbook,” and “it is imperative that we focus on the broad disinformation campaign that is already underway.”
In multiple email dumps, WikiLeaks published a trove of what appear to be hacked emails from Clinton campaign manager John Podesta. Politico reported that “there have been no bombshells,” adding that Podesta and the Clinton campaign have “neither verified nor denied the authenticity of the emails.”
National security and cybersecurity experts have been saying for months that Russian intelligence services were most likely involved in the hacks -- and the U.S. government has now formally accused them of attempting to “interfere with the U.S. election process.” Yet right-wing media, including one of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s closest allies, Roger Stone, have cheered for Russian espionage and the hacking of private emails of American citizens. Fox News has even credulously reported on the illegally obtained documents. Donald Trump himself has said he is not convinced Russia is behind the leaks, which an unnamed intelligence briefer for Trump called a “willful misrepresentation” of reality, given the information Trump received in his intelligence briefings.
A group of 16 former top national security officials and outside experts have penned a letter saying they are “concerned that an ongoing Russian influence operation is targeting the 2016 U.S. election.” The signatories of the letter note that American “debates on critical national security issues will be targeted” by Russian intelligence “in an effort to sway public opinion away from our national interests.” The experts conclude, “There is no amount of short-term partisan gain or perceived media scoop that could justify that outcome,” imploring “members of the media to stay engaged and to think critically about the facts they consume and disseminate.” From the October 6 letter: |
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats were having a perfectly quiet week, buoyed by the warm and fuzzy feelings brought on by two straight victories, when all of a sudden ... Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny.
News that quarterback Johnny Manziel had given the Ticats a 10-day deadline to offer him a contract — as is his right as a member of the team's exclusive negotiation list — began yet another round of will-he-or-won't speculation from media outlets on both sides of the border. The team, trying to prepare for yet another crucial contest on Friday at home against Saskatchewan, did its best to play down the latest drama in a season absolutely chock full of it.
"We're focused on this game. It's very important that we win this game. I don't have any comments about players that aren't here," head coach June Jones said. "Upstairs will answer some of those questions for you, I'm sure. It doesn't do me any good to deal with that."
Linebacker Simoni Lawrence did what he usually does when with faced with, well, almost every situation. He laughed.
"I'm focused on the Saskatchewan game. Johnny Manziel ... if he comes, he comes, if he doesn't, he doesn't," Lawrence said, the smile broadening. "I don't know what to say about this ... I don't care."
Kent Austin, vice-president of football operations, who faced the media in August when news of Manziel's workout with the club first surfaced, was nowhere to be found on Thursday, the team electing not to make him available.
After an 0-8 start, Austin's decision to step down as head coach, the Art Briles fiasco and a couple of rounds of Johnny-gate, Jones says his players have become masters of tuning out the noise.
"How can it be a distraction when we've had as much as we've had already?" Jones asked, his usual deadpan delivery now the perfect comedic tool. "This is a minor thing."
The game, however, is a big deal for both clubs. The Ticats have edged back into the East Division race with those two straight victories and can get themselves into the thick of it with another win. The Riders, meanwhile, have won three of their last four and are suddenly a factor in the West.
But there was drama in Saskatchewan this week, too. Quarterback Kevin Glenn did very little at practice this week after suffering a bruised hand in last Saturday's loss to Winnipeg and grainy, TMZ-like video of Glenn using kitchen utensils and hand tools would not have felt out of place in the ensuing coverage. Riders head coach Chris Jones, predictably, has played coy, saying Glenn is a game-time decision. |
One of the greatest time investments that you can make is in performing community service. Not only is this something that can increase awareness of you and your business, enhance your reputation, and fill you with positive energy, but it is also something that can make a lasting difference in the lives of people in your neighborhood and surrounding areas.
There are a tremendous amount of organizations that attempt to make a difference in peoples’ lives every day, and chances are high that they could all use some help with skills that you have to offer. From youth coaching to soup kitchens, the difficult economic times of late have impacted nearly every one of them. Many of these programs could use any kind of support that can be offered, especially around this time of year when the need for them becomes even more obvious.
The returns of doing this kind of work are generally obvious, but consider what helping your community can do for you: The positive energy will translate directly to your work, impacting everything in good ways. The associations you can build with so many people by dishing out soup for those in need. Teaching positive life lessons to children who are learning to play basketball under your coaching tutelage. The extra one on one time with your son or daughter while building a habitat house that would otherwise be spent in front of a TV. Plenty of other community members will be out there with you, helping you to positively influence the future of your community, and gaining respect for you.
In providing aid to your community, everyone benefits. Our lives are busy, but consider donating some of your time to a cause that is near to your heart—Contemplate making it a resolution for the upcoming new-year. If you have trouble finding a good local cause, check your local public schools. Many state cutbacks have left them lacking in a lot of programs, and they could use a volunteer or two also. |
Hundreds of email addresses from the Obama White House and key federal agencies appear to have been uncovered in a leaked list of clients who use Ashley Madison, the website that encourages people to sign up for a chance to cheat on their spouse.
Hackers broke into the cheating website, and late Tuesday, Wired.com reported that information on 32 million users was posted on a "dark" website used by well-known hackers. The data includes much of the personal information of the alleged users, and one link made available breaks the data down into how many clients come from various government websites.
According to that link, thousands of members of the U.S. military appear to be clients of Ashley Madison. But there also appear to be hundreds of users from other key agencies, including the White House.
The company confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday that some of the data released was authentic, but said it never stored credit card data on its website.
CSOOnline.com noted that some of the email addresses appeared to be fake, but still noted that many government officials would appear to be at risk of getting in trouble now that the list is out.
The list says there are 44 emails registered on the Ashley Madison site with a "WhiteHouse.gov" address.
The largest non-military user of Ashley Madison appears to be the Department of Veterans Affairs. The leaked summary shows 104 emails from "va.gov."
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is close behind, with 88 emails. The U.S. Postal Service shows 52 emails, and the Department of Homeland Security has 45.
The cheating website also has 42 emails registered from the Social Security Administration, 33 from the State Department, and six from the IRS.
The Federal Aviation Administration has 17 emails on the list, and the Labor Department has 15.
Hackers initially said they would release the data if the Ashley Madison website wasn't taken down. The company's slogan is "Life is short. Have an affair," and it promises its customers complete discretion when they sign up.
If the list does contain information from federal workers, it would be their latest hacker problem. Weeks ago, the Office of Personnel Management said personal data on 22.1 million current and former federal workers was stolen.
Gov. workers caught in sex scandals http://washex.am/1E4znBx in Politics on LockerDome |
@allah (cc) - Criminal Complaint about 200,000 Twitter Users
TV producer and presenter Serdar Tuncer filed a criminal complaint about a Twitter user alias @allah (cc) and also about almost 200,000 users following his tweets. Lawyer Bolaç told bianet, "No prosecutor should open a case for such a reason".
TV producer and presenter Serdar Tuncer filed a criminal complaint about a twitter user with the pseudonym @allah (cc). Tuncer also complained about almost 200,000 users who follow his tweets regularly on the online networking service.
Tuncer claimed that the user @allah (cc) and his readers mocked Islam and other divine religions and humiliated believers.
The complaint read, "The correspondence between the person called @allah (cc) and his readers contains humiliation and insults against Islam and Muslims. A reaction in society occurred that will arouse indignation by reason of the actions of the suspects because Islam, Muslims and believers in monotheistic religions were subjected to insult and humiliation. For these reasons I apply by attorney to open a public trial for punishment under Article 216/3 Turkish Criminal Law (TCK) on 'denigration of religious values'".
@allah (cc)'s tweets
Tuncer, who also presents Ramadan programs on TRT, showed a number of tweets as examples for humiliation of religion by @allah (cc). Here are some of the posts on Twitter he quoted:
* We have been god for so many years and we are still cooking pasta with tomato sauce.
* We admit it, no doubt, we did not create the biscuit-chocolate men.
* Fortunately, we created sour cherry.
* Don't draw demons throwing wood into the fire any more since we are heating hell electrically.
* With my present mind I would not have created the little finger of human beings.
* Our side over here is very safe because there is no police.
* It is hard work to be god since we cannot ask a question.
"Writings do not contain insult"
Article 216/3 TCK foresees, "Anyone who openly denigrates the religious values of a part of the population shall be sentenced to imprisonment of from six months to one year, where the act is sufficient to breach public peace".
Lawyer Efkan Bolaç expressed his opinion that no prosecutor should consider such a complaint. "The tweets quoted as examples in the petition do not contain humiliation, hatred or a breach of public peace. Nobody is being insulted. No prosecutor should open a trial for such a reason", Bolaç stated.
Bolaç emphasized that there was no crime and even if an offence had been committed, the readers of @allah (cc) could not be included in this. "Lodging a criminal complaint about 200,000 people because they read a certain [Twitter] account cannot find a response in law", he said.
@allah (cc) replied on Twitter when Tuncer's complaint was announced:
"Only god can judge me" (IC/VK) |
A New Westminster man is behind bars after he allegedly attacked two men on Sunday.
The first incident happened around 9:30 p.m. near the bus loop at Eighth and Columbia streets. Police allege the suspect went up to a man, started talking to him and then stabbed him. He fled the scene, and the victim was taken to hospital, according to a press release from the New Westminster Police Department.
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Twenty minutes later officers were called to the 700 block of Columbia Street for reports of a second stabbing. A suspect was arrested at the scene. Investigators believe the same man committed both attacks, according to the release.
The victims – both men; one from Surrey and one from Burnaby – were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Two counts of assault with a weapon and two counts of assault causing bodily harm have been laid against 35-year-old Jonathan Rex Jennings of New Westminster. Jennings remains in custody at this time. His next court appearance is scheduled for July 5.
Police are asking anyone who may have witnessed the attacks and have not spoken with investigators yet to call the non-emergency line at 604-525-5411 as soon as possible. |
Romelu Lukaku wins PFA Fans’ Player of the Month Award for August & September
Manchester United’s Romulu Lukaku has been voted the PFA Bristol Street Motors Player of the Month for August and September.
In a vote run by fan engagement experts, Snack Media, the giant Belgium striker won 53.7% of the vote, convincingly knocking Spurs and England goal machine Harry Kane (15.8%) into second place.
In the first of four divisional votes carried out over four days on Snack’s digital and social network, it was clear that Lukaku’s superb goal scoring start to his Old Trafford career has resonated not just with The Red Devils, but with fans of all teams.
The former Everton striker opened his Red Devils career with seven goals and one assist in his opening seven Premier League appearances.
The voting period covered both August and September and there is no doubt that it’s was only Kane’s zero return in August that prevented him from pushing his Premier League rival a little further.
The other contenders from the final short list polled as follows:
Alvaro Morata – 15.6%
Kevin De Bruyne – 7.6%
Sergio Aguero – 5.1%
David Silva – 2.2%
The Championship vote opens at 10 am on Wednesday October 4th, to vote go to: https://www.footballfancast.com/pfa-awards
Fan of the Championship? Place your vote in the PFA Championship Player of the Month Awards below… |
Rumors are circulating that the New York Giants will most likely retain the services of defensive coordinator Perry Fewell. Since they will stick with head coach Tom Coughlin for at least another season, owner John Mara has given him full authority to do what he wants in regards to his coaching staff.
The Giants defense was one of the major areas of weakness for the team the majority of last season. Coughlin’s beliefs are it had nothing to do with Fewell as he did the best he could do with what he had to work with. Due to the sudden rash of devastating injuries to key defensive players, Fewell is getting the benefit of the doubt in that he’s still the right man for the job.
Injuries can cripple a team and the Giants suffered a lot on the defensive side of the football due to not having their main starters in the lineup.
It should also be noted that the main cornerbacks of the Giants in Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Prince Amukamara and Jayron Hosley all were out due to injuries.
If the Giants had been healthy, especially on defense, perhaps they would have had much better results last season. Regardless while we can’t go back in time, truth of the matter is Fewell didn’t win much praise from fans of the organization but those within the franchise believe if he had a healthy defense, things would have been better.
With the 2015 NFL Draft on the minds of many heading into the offseason, the Giants must make sure to add quality depth and instant contributors on defense to give Fewell the players he needs to succeed. Fewell and his defensive schemes did look good to end the season on a high note but he must bring more aggression in 2015 if the Giants are to be successful.
Overall, the latest rumors believe Coughlin will keep his coaching staff in tact for the most part to be together for the 2015 NFL season. Hopefully it’s the right decision to ensure the Giants are contenders in the NFC East once again by bringing back their tough defensive ways back into the mix. |
Now playing: Watch this: Overkill: $3M missile destroys $200 drone
We've heard about people shooting down drones buzzing over their property, but this takes things to a whole new level: A store-bought quadcopter drone has been shot down by a Patriot surface-to-air missile.
"That quadcopter that cost 200 bucks from Amazon.com did not stand a chance against a Patriot," said Gen. David G. Perkins, commander of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command, in a speech posted to YouTube on Monday by the US Army and first reported by the BBC.
The missile wasn't fired by the US, but by someone Perkins described as an ally "dealing with an adversary," suggesting it wasn't a test.
Patriot missiles are radar-guided missiles designed to shoot down other missiles, meaning they're suited to small, fast-moving targets like drones. However, Perkins explained that while the Patriot made short work of the quadcopter, it wasn't a very economically sound way of dealing with malicious drones. A single Patriot missile can cost around $3.4 million (roughly £2.7 million or AU$4.4 million).
Describing small unmanned aerial vehicles as a commander's problem rather than an air defense problem, Perkins suggested alternative methods for tackling enemy drones such as electronic warfare and cyber measures. You can see Perkins' talk below, with the relevant section starting about 14 minutes in. |
A Brooklyn car service owner is using her spare space to help control the pet population — with on-site vets that have spayed and neutered thousands of cats.
Big Apple Car in Bath Beach, which dispatches 225 luxury car drivers to jobs around the city, has a surgery room on its first floor where the doctors sterilize kitties for free on Sundays and Mondays.
The operation would normally run several hundred dollars at a veterinarian. The vets are paid by the nonprofit The Toby project.
The base also has about 20 frisky cats up for adoption in a sanctuary created in its basement by the nonprofit Ferals in Peril.
The group rescues the cats largely in the Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, and Bay Ridge sections of Brooklyn.
It doesn’t run an animal shelter, but uses the car base space as a temporary home for kitties that are neutered or spayed while it finds homes for them.
Big Apple Car’s president Diana Clemente adores cats and offered the animal rescue group the space to spay and neuter cats in 2011, as well as to provide sanctuary for them.
The animal lover began working in the black car industry as a teenager, working first as a telephone operator when she was sixteen.
She is a volunteer with the Hampton’s Animal Rescue Fund.
“I go down there on my break and play with them,” said Big Apple manager Marie Franc.
“It is unusual, but I think of it like this– anyone who can help an animal should have a special place in Heaven.”
Since the car service turned into an animal haven, over 9,000 cats have been spayed and neutered at the base.
Some of their staff have fallen in love with the cats and adopted them as well.
“I commend Ms. Clemente for her compassionate work on this very necessary cause,” said Nora Constance Marino, who serves on the TLC’s board of commissioners. “As a longtime animal rights advocate, and a former volunteer in the City’s animal shelter, I’ve seen firsthand the unnecessary euthanasia of cats. We need more in our communities to do what Ms. Clemente so selflessly is doing.”
The head of the TLC also gave the base accolades.
“Our licensees are an integral part of the communities they serve,” said Commissioner Meera Joshi. “And Big Apple’s commitment to this compassionate work really shows the depth of their caring and professionalism.” |
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Embed it on your website by copying and pasting the code below into your source code:
<a href="http://www.tomorrowfinance.com.au/blog/how-the-banks-make-money-from-home-loans/"><img src="http://www.tomorrowfinance.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/banks-money-home-loans.jpg" alt="How do the banks make money from home loans?" width="640" height="3406" border="0" /></a><br /> Produced by <a href="http://www.tomorrowfinance.com.au/">Tomorrow Finance</a>
What the Frac?
How banks make money from home loans.
Fractional Reserve Banking refers to a banking system which requires the commercial banks to keep only a portion of the money deposited with them as reserves. The bank pays interest on all deposits made by its customers and uses the deposited money to make new loans.
How it works in Practice.
John deposits $10,000 into Bank A. Bank A keeps 10% ($1,000) as reserves, and loans out the rest 90% ($9,000) to Jane Jane deposits $9,000 into Bank B $10,000 (John’s deposit) + $9,000 (Jane’s deposit). The banks just created $19,000 on a $10,000 deposit in just a few steps. If you do this operation 50 times, John’s initial $10,000 turns into $99,525!
As the amount of money kept in the bank is generally only a little fraction of the deposit, bank runs can occur when large numbers of people demand their deposit, causing banks to become insolvent, unless the central bank intervenes.
Total debt on home loans.
According to the Fed, total mortgage debt outstanding currently stands at $13.4 trillion.
Mortgage debt by property type is: - One-to-four family residences (76%) - Multi-family residences (6%) - Non-farm non-residential (17%) - Farm (1%)
Mortgage debt by holder type: - 32.8% major financial institution - 7.4% individual / others - 37.7% federal / related agencies - 22.1% mortgage pools or trusts
For more information on how you can save money on your home loan visit our homepage.
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Thousands descended upon Virginia's Capitol Monday for the annual Lobby Day. By far the most attention centered on the debate over gun rights.The General Assembly will consider many gun bills this session. Background checks at gun shows, and a one-handgun per month purchase limit were among many others introduced on behalf of the McAuliffe administration.With the 2015 legislative session underway, Virginians for and against the state's current gun laws spoke out at rallies Monday. Both sides used safety as their ammunition.Pro-gun forces held a rally during the morning. Many attendees wore orange "Guns Save Lives" stickers and a speaker assailed Gov. Terry McAuliffe and other gun-control advocates as "gun grabbers."Virginians with concealed carry permits gathered in Capitol Square and cheered on the Second Amendment.
"Firearms can be used to protect my life, and my family's life," said Stephen Kim.
"Gun control laws don't work because criminals don't care what the laws are," Emily Miller said.
Miller believes that limiting gun rights makes America a more dangerous place.
"A gun is a tool, and this fight that we're all in, this fight is for freedom. Freedom for the Bill of Rights," she said.
Miller argues the Founding Fathers included the Second amendment for a reason.
"There is this mentality that the Constitution is this old document, it doesn't really count anymore. As you all know, it's a living breathing document, just as important as it's ever been,” she said.
In the afternoon, gun-control backers wore yellow "Background Checks Save Lives" stickers and displayed a string of red paper hearts representing the more than 800 gun deaths in Virginia last year.
Families impacted by gun violence stood with democratic lawmakers in favor of tightening certain restrictions. Under Gov. McAuliffe's platform they want to see that people with abusive backgrounds do not have access to guns.
"It's simply indescribable if you've never been through it," said Peter Read. He lost his daughter Mary in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.
"Had her whole life ahead of her, was looking to go into elementary education,” Read said. “That wound never goes away."
Lisette Johnson said she felt trapped to a verbally-abusive husband, and almost died after 21 years of marriage.
"I lost two liters of blood, both my lungs were collapsed, a bullet nicked my heart,” Johnson said. “Trauma doesn't magically disappear."
These survivors, who have the support of Democratic lawmakers in the commonwealth, believe the answer lies in restricting access to guns. They are calling on the General Assembly to reinstate the one-handgun per month limit, and mandate background checks at gun shows. But most of all, take away firearms rights from people with violent pasts.
"People who demonstrate a pattern of violence shouldn't have access to firearms," Johnson said.
Yet another group called on lawmakers to protect gun rights as they are.Virginia's General Assembly is controlled by the GOP, so some of the more left-leaning bills introduced this session could lack support.
The Associated Press contributed to this article. |
Global Wind Energy Council head Steve Sawyer anticipates investments in renewables
The fact that Argentina has one of the best resources for renewable energy in the world isn’t something new for investors, who have kept an eye on the country for a long time to carry out solar and wind projects. Nevertheless, investments have been long delayed and the sector’s potential remains to be exploited, with less than one percent of the country’s energy matrix now based on renewables
But the situation seems to be changing now. Representatives from the world’s leading companies in renewables spent last week in Buenos Aires meeting with government officials and considering potential investments. Argentina has agreed to have eight percent of its matrix based on renewables by 2017, according to the recently passed Renewable Energy Law.
In an interview with the Herald, Steve Sawyer, head of the Global Wind Energy Council — which groups together the main wind energy companies — said he expected major investments in the country but conditioned them to the government improving the economy. At the same time, Sawyer said Vaca Muerta’s shale resources should be left in the ground.
Why did you decide to come to Argentina, after long years without any investment in renewable energy?
We and everyone else in the wind industry have always known that Argentina has the best wind resources in the world. But the business climate here has been rather difficult. There have been a few false starts. We are always looking for new markets but Argentina didn’t appear on the radar because investors have been burned here so many times. But after the elections we agreed we should give it a shot. It’s the best opportunity we ever had in Argentina
How’s the business delegation formed?
The full list includes 24 representatives from a dozen companies such as Acciona, DNV, Envision, Gamesa, Iberdrola, K2, MAKE, Mainstream and Siemens. Most of the firms are already investing in Brazil and Chile. We want to meet as many people as we can in a short period. After that, we will put together a plan.
Could we expect any investment announcements after the trip?
All the companies are interested in carrying out investments in renewables in Argentina. But whether they make investments or not will depend on the macroeconomic fix, which is in the works. If that doesn’t happen, all bets are off. The government will launch an auction in two or three months and I’m confident the companies will take part in it.
Based on your conversations with business leaders, are they confident over the changes in the country?
Everybody has wanted to invest here for a long time. But the conditions haven’t been the best ones for a variety of reasons. That’s now changing but we’ll have to see how deep the changes go and how fast they happen. The government will try to do anything possible to make it an investable country again.
Will it be expensive to develop wind projects in Argentina?
The first project won’t be cheap but after you build the market, costs will drop. Wind is the cheapest way to add new generation capacity in many parts of the world and with Argentina’s wind resources it should be here as well. It will take time to get there. Some wind farms have already been built here and there are a lot of projects in the pipeline waiting for investors.
Does the holdouts legal battle have to be solved for investments to come?
It has to be fixed. Nothing can happen until that’s fixed.
How would you describe Argentina’s potential in renewables?
The whole Southern Cone is filled with renewable resources, whether it’s wind, solar or hydro. There’s no reason why anything south of the Amazon shouldn’t be powered with a combination of the three and quickly. Brazil has done great in the wind sector and Chile is developing it as well. Brazil’s crisis could be positive for Argentina as the investors could come here instead where the wind is better
Is Patagonia the main area with potential in Argentina for wind energy?
It could be but as the technology has developed more, the resources in Buenos Aires, Río Negro and Neuquén province are also important. You wouldn’t need to start in Patagonia. Reaching eight percent of the matrix with renewables will be a challenge for Argentina. It can be done but the important thing is to build a long-term and sustainable industry.
Could Argentina reach 100 percent renewables at some point?
Sure, it could. It has the resources. The government should start shutting down coal plants and replacing them with wind, solar and hydro. There are plenty of untapped hydro resources in Argentina.
That would also mean not exploiting Vaca Muerta?
Renewables and shale can live at the same time but only up to a certain point. You can’t do both in the long term. Two-thirds of the fossil fuel reserves have to stay in the ground according to the Paris deal. Argentina signed it and has committed publicly to that.
By Fermín Koop
http://www.buenosairesherald.com |
After a year of hard work on a version for the KDE platform 4, the KMyMoney team is happy to announce the immediate availability of the first release candidate. Unlike previous versions, this one is recommended for general use. The feedback provided by previous beta releases makes us confident that it is as stable and rock-solid as previous stable versions.
Throughout this effort, our focus has been to maintain feature-parity compared to the KDE3 stable version. We know that many of you keep using KDE3 for the sole purpose of running KMyMoney, so we devised a plan to produce a version for KDE4 as fast as possible and at the same time keep the high level of quality that your financial data deserves. If you upgrade to this new version and you notice no changes, other than some style eye-candy here and there, we can say we fulfilled our goal.
Over the last 5 months, 4 beta versions were released, putting our developers, translators, packagers, and those of you brave enough to test it, under a big stress. This has payed off, allowing us to uncover much of the strength and weakness of this new platform, and even finding bugs in the current stable version.
This release candidate is not the end, but an important milestone in that plan. The final milestone will be the release of a final stable version together with KDE SC 4.5 in August. After that, we'll point our efforts to add new features and get the best out of this new platform.
We did manage to add some new features along the way:
Works with the latest version of AqBanking
Runs in all operating systems supported by KDE
Runs natively on the KDE platform 4
The documentation is better, even if we know it still needs more work
A lot of effort has gone into finding and fixing bugs. However, we need your feedback to make the stable release the best ever. Please try it and let us know if you find errors, a missing feature or even just annoyances.
Feel free to open reports on https://bugs.kde.org and assign them to the project called 'kmymoney4'.
At the same time, we provide a maintenance release for the stable KDE3 code. Version 1.0.5 includes fixes to bugs we found during the development of the KDE4 version and which we simply backported
Thank you! |
Posted on by steveblank
Sometimes financial decisions that are seemingly rational on their face can precipitate mass exodus of your best engineers.
We Hired the CFO
Last week as a favor to a friend, I sat in on a board meeting of a fairly successful 3½ year-old startup. Given all that could go wrong in this economy, they were doing well. Their business had just crossed cash flow breakeven, had grown past 50 employees, just raised a substantive follow-on round of financing and had recently hired a Chief Financial Officer. It was an impressive performance.
Then the new CFO got up to give her presentation – all kind of expected; Sarbanes Oxley compliance, a new accounting system, beef up IT and security, Section 409A (valuation) compliance, etc. Then she dropped the other shoe.
“Do you know how much our company is spending on free sodas and snacks?” And to answer her own question she presented the spreadsheet totaling it all up.
There were some experienced VC’s in the room and I was waiting for them to “educate” her about startup culture. But my jaw dropped when the board agreed that the “free stuff” had to go.
“We’re too big for that now” was the shared opinion. But we’ll sell them soda “cheap.”
Unintended Consequences
I had lived through this same conversation four times in my career, and each time it ended as an example of unintended consequences. No one on the board or the executive staff was trying to be stupid. But to save $10,000 or so, they unintentionally launched an exodus of their best engineers.
This company had grown from the founders, who hired an early team of superstars, many now managing their own teams. All these engineers were still heads-down, working their tails off, just as they had been doing since the first few months of the company. Too busy working, most were oblivious to the changes that success and growth had brought to the company.
The Elves Leave Middle Earth – Sodas Are No Longer Free
One day the engineering team was clustered in the snack room looking at the soda machine. The sign said, “Soda now 50 cents.” The uproar began. Engineers started complaining about the price of the soda. Someone noticed that instead of the informal reimbursement system for dinners when they were working late, there was now a formal expense report system. Some had already been irritated when “professional” managers had been hired over their teams with reportedly more stock than the early engineers had. Lots of email was exchanged about “how things were changing for the worse.” A few engineers went to the see the CEO.
But the damage had been done. The most talented and senior engineers looked up from their desks and noticed the company was no longer the one they loved. It had changed. And not in a way they were happy with.
The best engineers quietly put the word out that they were available, and in less than month the best and the brightest began to drift away.
What Happened?
Startups go through a metamorphosis as they become larger companies. They go from organizations built to learn, discover and iterate, to predominately one that can execute adroitly having found product/market fit.
Humans seem to be hard-wired for numbers of social relationships. These same numbers also define boundaries in growing an organization – get bigger than a certain size and you need a different management system. The military has recognized this for thousands of years as they built command and control hierarchies that matched these numbers.
Wake Up Call
The engineers focused on building product never noticed when the company had grown into something different than what they first joined.
The sodas were just the wake-up call.
As startups scale into a company, founders and the board need to realize that the most important transitions are not about systems, buildings or hardware. It’s about the company’s most valuable asset – its employees.
Great companies do this well.
Lessons Learned
Be careful of unintended consequences when you grow
Recognize the transition boundaries in company size
Preserve and manage an Innovation Culture
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture | |
Janna Basler, a former University of Missouri official who bullied a student journalist during racial protests at the public university in November 2015, is the focus of an embezzlement investigation at the school, The Missouri Times reports.
In an article published Wednesday, the news outlet reported “multiple sources have confirmed to The Missouri Times that while Basler was leaving the university, she became the target of the embezzlement probe that was first identified by an employee in the Greek Life office in mid-July.”
Citing university policy, a Mizzou official told The Times the institution doesn’t “discuss reasons why an individual has left the university” when asked about Basler’s departure.
The Times, a publication focused on Missouri politics and government, is published by Scott Faughn, a former mayor who publishes other Missouri community newspapers.
A July 26 report from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch stated Mizzou “turned over a case of possible embezzlement to police after a preliminary, internal review.” A university statement said a “former staff member” was involved in the probe and that the individual was terminated.
The Post-Dispatch further reported that “a statement from Mizzou said the case involves possible misappropriation of funds from student organization accounts affiliated with the Office of Greek Life.” The dollar amount surrounding the possible embezzlement is apparently unknown.
Basler, the former associate dean of MU Student Life, disappeared from a staff page without an explanation in early July. Mizzou officials later confirmed she was longer employed at the university.
Her disappearance from the school webpage came amid departmental reorganization and cuts at the public university, which has seen a steep enrollment drop since the November 2015 race protests that garnered national attention.
During the 2015 protests when she served as director of the Office of Greek Life, Basler intimidated a student journalist and told him to “back off.” Basler was suspended for her actions, but was later reinstated and received a promotion.
Read The Missouri Times article and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch report.
MORE: Mizzou official who bullied student journalist disappears from staff page
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A Critical Look: How Science Cast Doubt on a Sculpture Attributed to Gustav Klutsis Chris McGlinchey Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 9, 2016
Figure 1: Formerly described as a work by Gustav Klutsis from 1922. “Maquette derived from Radio Announcer drawings by Gustav Klutsis.” Completed c. 1950–77
In 1922, the Moscow-based Latvian-born artist Gustav Klutsis (1895–1938) designed a series of dynamic communication devices for Moscow’s streets and squares. Sparked by the historical coincidence of two events in the early life of the Soviet Union — the fifth anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and the Fourth Congress of the Communist International (Comintern) — these devices, called “radio orators,” were to display pro-Soviet agitprop slogans and both still and moving images and offer newspapers and journals for sale. Though never fully realized, we know of Klutsis’s ambitions to imagine a means of revolutionary communication that would activate and agitate the populace thanks to a series of drawings in which he envisioned the details of the radio orator in extraordinarily diverse, intricate, and complex ways. Most of these drawings now reside in the collections of The Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga; the Costakis Collection of the State Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, Greece; and the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. In 1979, The Museum of Modern Art acquired a three-dimensional rendering related to the project: a work known as Maquette for Radio-Announcer, dated 1922, and said to have been made by Klutsis (Figure 1, above). The Maquette was purchased from an art dealer in Paris just as it was about to be featured in the landmark exhibition Paris/Moscow 1900–1930 at the Centre Georges Pompidou. Since its acquisition, the Maquette has often been on view at MoMA, typically in galleries devoted to the Soviet avant-garde. It was believed to be the only extant sculpture by Klutsis. In 2010, Jodi Hauptman, Senior Curator in MoMA’s Department of Drawings and Prints, and Maria Gough, The Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. Professor of Modern Art at Harvard University and an authority on Klutsis’s work — her book on the radio orators, How to Make a Revolutionary Object, is due out from Inventory Press next year — began collaborating on an exhibition devoted to Klutsis’s radio orator drawings. Given the opportunity to study a work by Klutsis, and with the idea that the Maquette would play a role in the exhibition, they partnered with members of MoMA’s David Booth Conservation Center and Department to look closely at the object’s making and history. As MoMA’s curatorial/conservation partnerships have been tremendously fruitful, the curators and the Conservation team — Senior Conservator Karl Buchberg, Conservator Lynda Zycherman, and I — were especially excited about what this investigation would yield. The Scientific Investigation We began by examining the work together, one observation provoking another, and each of us brought our own expertise to bear. We noted and took stock of the Maquette’s basic materials: paper, wood, string, brads, and white, red, and black paint. As a conservation scientist, I use analytical tools to understand the composition of a work of art and how it is made. Many of these tools have greatly improved in recent years, wholly transforming the field and our approach to works of art. For the Maquette, I examined many components, used a variety of analytic tools, and traveled across the globe to study works by Klutsis. Each step, whether with the object or with other works by Klutsis, and each part of the examination, whether with my own eyes or through the lens of the latest scientific technologies, provided information about the construction of the Maquette. After the initial visual examination, I began my work by testing the bright white paint that can be seen in one of the speakers, the sound drivers at the base of each speaker’s interior, the antennae, and the wooden structure. X-ray fluorescence detected titanium and X-ray diffraction and Raman spectrometry were used subsequent to this discovery because they are able to differentiate the various crystal structures of titanium dioxide. Through these tests, I found that the pigment used on the Maquette was rutile titanium white, a pigment that was only available after Klutsis’s death in 1938. I wondered if the presence of titanium white indicated a later touch-up or repair, but it appears to be the first application of paint in many areas, a detail that can be seen in the way the paint fills the pores in the oak. The discovery of the titanium pigment and its application raised questions about the Maquette’s authorship and dating, casting doubt on Klutsis’s role in its making. So, even after an embargo on loans from Russia to the US forced the postponement of the planned exhibition, research continued, and I took the lead on investigating the issues raised by the Maquette. I traveled to Riga, Moscow, and Thessaloniki, where I could study examples of Klutsis’s drawings. Together, these visits enabled me to study the breadth of his artistic career and also concentrate on his radio-announcer works. By traveling with handheld X-ray fluorescence equipment (XRF), I was able to identify the elemental composition of the pigments used in these drawings directly, without having to remove any samples. This was a highly efficient approach that allowed me to analyze his most important drawings in a short time. With those works I was able to confirm that he used zinc white throughout his career, never a titanium-based white.
Figure 2: Detail of speaker and box composed of paper from c. 1920 or earlier
Further analysis of the sculpture’s elements using microscopes and a variety of spectroscopic tools revealed that the Maquette includes both some materials available during Klutsis’s lifetime and many more available only after his death. Only two parts could possibly date from the early 1920s, when the Maquette was believed to have been made: one speaker and the small box on which it is glued (Figure 2, above). This determination was made by taking small samples of paper fibers from hidden areas and examining them under a microscope. The paper fibers were found to consist primarily of mechanically prepared softwood and some grass fiber, traits indicative of paper made in the 1920s or earlier. Interestingly, no titanium was detected in the white paint of this earlier speaker. The other speaker, however, is unlikely to date from the early 1920s by virtue of the level of softwood bleached kraft-process fiber identified. Likewise, the sculpture’s four antenna “fins” with text and graphics use papers that were most likely produced after 1950, an assessment based on the large amount of hardwood bleached kraft fibers found in two separate samples. Dating of samples from the white oak base using bomb carbon analysis was undertaken, but proved inconclusive. While the papers used in the two speakers differ in age, both appear to have been glued up at the same time, later than the supposed date of the work. The border between the black-and-white graphic bursts emanating from the sound-driver inside each speaker has a coating of polyvinyl acetate (PVA), a material that was not available in 1922. This was detected using a microscope fitted with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). FTIR is a useful way to classify the organic components of an unknown material, and it works particularly well for polymers like PVA. The purpose of the coating may have been to act as a barrier to prevent paint-bleed as subsequent applications of adhesive and paint were applied to finish the speaker, or it may have helped give a clean edge as the paints were being applied. Regardless, the attachment of both sound-drivers is so strong that paper fibers from the interior of the speaker pulled away in areas that did not have this coating (Figure 3, below). This observation confirms that the coating goes into the deepest recesses of the speaker and was most likely applied when the paper was flat. PVA became available in Germany in the late 1930s and it is unlikely that Klutsis would have had access to this material prior to 1938. All of this suggests that the speakers were assembled some time after Klutsis’s death. Thus, even if some of the elements were made in the 1920s, they could not have existed as a three-dimensional structure at that time. When taking into account the date of the paper used for the construction of the antenna fins, the earliest date the work could have been assembled is 1950.
Figure 3: From left: detail of speaker made from ca. 1920s paper; detail of speaker with paper from ca. 1930s with titanium containing pigment. In both instances the bright white sound driver disc at the base of the speaker is painted with titanium white. The polyvinyl acetate (PVA) coating goes behind the forward-facing flange of the sound driver that contacts the speaker. In areas where the PVA is missing the paper fibers of the speaker have pulled out to reveal thin areas of white paper evident in the image. |
Are you sitting down? If not, then you should be because these covers are going to knock you off your feet. The Orbit Art Department has again delivered some positively breathtaking jackets. Enjoy this preview of our Fall and Winter line-up with more to follow over the next few months.
Click on the images below to see a larger version and appreciate each cover in its full glory. Let us know which books are headed to your wish list!
Art Credit: Ancestral Machines: Illustration by Steve Stone, Design by Kirk Benshoff; Ancillary Sword: Illustration by John Harris, Design by Kirk Benshoff; Age of Iron: Illustration by Larry Rostant; The Autumn Republic and The Crimson Campaign: Photo-Illustration by Gene Mollica and Michael Frost, Design by Lauren Panepinto; City of Eternal Night: Design by Lauren Panepinto; The City Stained Red: Design by Lauren Panepinto; Dance of Ghosts: Illustration by Gene Mollica, Model Bryce Birmingham, Design by Kirk Benshoff; Daring: Photo by Shirley Green, Design by Wendy Chan; Deadly Spells: Photo by Shirley Green, Illustration by Don Sipley, Design by Lauren Panepinto; The Falcon Throne: Illustration by Raphael Lacoste, Design by Kirk Benshoff; The Inheritance Trilogy: Design by Lauren Panepinto; Prudence: Photo by Shirley Green, Illustration by Don Sipley, Design by Lauren Panepinto; Red Blooded: Photo by Shirley Green, Illustration by Rob Shields, Type by Chad Roberts; Symbiont: Design by Lauren Panepinto; Parasite: Design by Lauren Panepinto; Truth and Fear: Design by Lauren Panepinto, Photo by Arcangel Images; War Dogs: Design by Lauren Panepinto, Photo by Arcangel Images |
Scientists Say Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Made Earth's Surface Act Like Liquid
Enlarge this image toggle caption Mark Garlick /Getty Images/Science Photo Library RM Mark Garlick /Getty Images/Science Photo Library RM
When the asteroid believed to have killed off the dinosaurs smashed into Earth some 66 million years ago, its sheer force made the planet's surface momentarily act like a liquid.
The asteroid ripped open a 60-mile-wide hole. From miles deep in that abyss, rock hurtled upward to a height twice that of Mount Everest and then collapsed outward to form a ring of mountains.
And it all happened within 5 minutes — 10 tops, as Sean Gulick, a geophysicist at the University of Texas, Austin, tells The Two-Way.
Gulick helped lead a team of researchers that drilled for samples of that mountain ring in the Chicxulub crater off the coast of Mexico earlier this year. Their initial findings were recently published in the journal Science.
He says these samples immediately settled a major debate about how a planet's surface behaves during an asteroid impact — and how the mountain ring, known as a "peak ring," is formed.
Some researchers have argued that the process is dominated by melting on the surface, which would mean that the ring is mainly formed from material moving from side-to-side. "So things collapse in from the sides, fairly shallow, and in that model this ring of peaks are created by shallow material kind of moving towards the center and being uplifted," he says.
Others have suggested that it was a much more dramatic kind of movement, involving the fluid-like propelling of material from deep within the Earth's crust. Gulick says there was a very clear moment during the expedition when the team knew this theory was correct.
"It was just so obvious, even on the drill floor when we're out there, out in our hard hats and so on, looking at these cores coming up," Gulick says. The researchers were seeing pink granite that is typically found deeper within the Earth — and not the limestone that would have been on the surface during the Cretaceous Period.
"And it was just plain as day," he says, "and everybody staring at it went, 'Wow, there's the answer. It's from deep.' "
Gulick likens the rapid process to what happens when you toss a rock into a pond:
"It makes a hole initially as the rock penetrates into the pond. And the sides will sort of collapse inward toward the hole while the center kind of rebounds up like a big water droplet rising up. "If you picture all of this happening in a slightly slower-moving fluid than water would be, you can envision that the center that rebounds upwards and splashes upwards would kind of collapse outwards. So just as the sides are falling in, this rebounding center is sort of collapsing outwards to create ... this ring of mountains, made from material that ultimately came from fairly deep."
It's worth noting that even though the rock behaved like liquid, Gulick says it remained solid. However, the materials were "either shocked or damaged so much that they're able to temporarily lose their cohesion and move like a slow-moving fluid." Big questions remain about how that physical process actually works, he says.
The pink granite that emerged from about 6 miles deep in the Earth might provide hints about how life came back to ground zero after the asteroid's impact erased most of the species on the planet.
The rock is "completely shot through with fractures and faults," and is much more porous and less dense than typical granite, Gulick says. Those nooks and crannies could have provided a habitat for microbial life. He says the "pore spaces and the hot fluids and the interesting chemistry that takes place in the wake of an impact" could be hospitable to these microscopic creatures.
Gulick's team thinks the fluid-like movement "is probably the right way to think about impact processes" on the moon or on crater-dotted planets such as Mercury or Venus.
And he says that if we're looking for evidence of life on other planets, these findings indicate that crater sites would be a good place to start. |
The week before chemotherapy began, I sat in a brightly lit exam room with an oncology nurse. She handed me a stack of papers and pulled up a chair.
“So,” she began. “You should read through these to get all the side effects, but some are more common than others.”
I sat through her ten-minute spiel about mouth sores and how they’re so painful that some patients need feeding tubes inserted. Nausea. Partial hearing loss. Peripheral neuropathy. Hair loss, duh. I listened, not bothering to read through the papers, which still felt hot from the printer. Never did she say anything about chemo brain.
I was first diagnosed with hepatoblastoma, a rare form of liver cancer, when I was 23. My surgeons removed it and gave me the option of chemo, which — like any 20-something given the option of chemo — I declined. But when it returned, two years later, I didn’t have a choice. Not only did I have to undergo chemotherapy, I needed a regimen that my oncologist called “spicy.” (It was more like “burn-your-gums-off.”)
The side effects were, for the most part, brutal but bearable. But none of them accounted for my sudden stupidity. I first noticed it at work. As a beauty editor for a magazine, my primary job was to write. A few weeks into chemo, I began to make odd mistakes. I switched similar-sounding words, like “with” and “which.” Sometimes, I’d find random half-sentences in my stories, and I’d quickly backspace, backspace, backspace before anyone noticed. Once in a while, I just wrote nonsensical stuff, like “hair blow dryer could possibly what.”
Before long, the weird stuff began happening all the time. I lost my oven mitt in my 400-square-foot apartment. (It was in the garbage.) I poured boiling water into my bottle of multivitamins instead of the mug I’d readied. I wished my best friend happy birthday a full three days after her actual birthday — not because I’d forgotten, but because I truly believed her birthday fell on April 28. I wrapped up a day at work and left without my purse (and keys, and wallet). Another day, I toted my yoga mat halfway to the office before I wondered why I was dragging a yoga mat to the office.
I thought I was losing my mind — which is why I was relieved when an on-staff psychiatrist at my cancer hospital mentioned chemo brain, a common side effect among cancer patients. Chemo brain makes you hazy, forgetful, and — at least in my case — especially prone to Spoonerisms (in which you accidentally switch the first consonants of two words, like “lad buck” instead of “bad luck”). Finally, I had an explanation for everything that had been happening. And a bonus: Just saying “chemo brain” makes people feel so bad for you that they won’t say anything when you hand in a draft littered with spelling errors.
The good news, sort of, is that at least it wasn’t all in my head: Recent research has discovered a scientific basis for chemo brain. In a study published earlier this year in the journal Brain Imaging and Behavior, researchers conducted brain scans and neuropsychology tests on 92 women. Roughly a third of the participants had had surgery for breast cancer and were waiting to begin chemo, another third had had surgery for breast cancer of the same severity and were awaiting radiation only, and the remainder were healthy, age-matched women who served as the control group.
The study authors focused on the subjects’ verbal working memory, testing it at three different points: one month before the chemotherapy group began treatment, one month after chemotherapy had begun, and 12 months after the first session (which was also seven months after the chemotherapy group had finished their treatment).
While the radiation patients and control group saw improvements over the course of the study, the chemotherapy patients saw their verbal memory decline over time. Throughout the study, members of the chemotherapy group also showed signs of variability in neural efficiency that, over time, became statistically significant compared to the participants. According to study co-author Marc Berman, Ph.D., the director of the Environmental Neuroscience Laboratory at University of Chicago, the inconsistency of neural function can lead to deficits in memory, attention, planning, and decision-making.
Multiple factors may contribute to chemo brain, which can kick in before treatment even starts (in this study, the chemo group performed the worst in verbal memory even at the first test). “The distress of receiving a cancer diagnosis can harm cognitive and affective processes, making it hard to concentrate,” Berman says. “In some sense, we’re identifying pre-chemo brain.” Secondly, the drugs used in chemotherapy are so powerful that they could potentially alter brain physiology, both during and after treatment. Plus, a major side effect of chemo is extreme fatigue, which can cause mental sluggishness.
To add insult, this doesn’t even end when chemo stops. “This fatigue likely persists for a while after treatment,” says Berman. “It takes a while to regain one’s mental and physical strength.” Post-treatment, patients may worry about cancer returning, and the stress and anxiety of this can have lasting brain and behavioral effects. (There’s even a word among cancer survivors called “scanxiety,” the panicky feeling of wanting to throw up before, during, and after your scans for fear that they’ll reveal a recurrence.)
But there are steps one can take to mitigate chemo brain. Literal steps, outside. “Other work has demonstrated that interacting with nature, like a walk in a park, can benefit individuals who have been recently diagnosed with cancer,” Berman says. “It suggests that interacting with natural environments could help to restore attentional abilities, particularly for those under mental fatigue.” Meditation may offer similar benefits, too.
Fortunately, my commute at the time took me on a walk though a park. I also adapted to my new mental fuzziness. I went through my work with a fine-toothed comb. Sometimes, I’d ask a co-worker to double-check a draft before I sent it to my editor. I wrote so. Many. Lists.
I finished chemo two years ago. But to this day, I struggle with those Spoonerisms, and I still swap similar-sounding words. I even did it while writing this essay — so meta! But I can’t complain. Isn’t a brain that functions at half-mast better than a brain that doesn’t function at all?
And, on the bright side, I didn’t get a single mouth sore. |
Prince at the Fox Theatre in Detroit on Thursday, April 9. (Photo: NPG Records/Chelsea Lauren)
An adventure that started with a notice just before midnight last Friday culminated just after midnight this morning, when Prince wrapped up a masterful, ageless performance at the Fox Theatre.
It was a funky 21/ 2 -hour marathon that included the most genuine sort of encore you're apt to see, as a relentless, screaming Detroit crowd drew Prince and his band back out to the stage 10 minutes after the show's apparent planned finish.
Nimble and sharp in a gold outfit Thursday night, the 56-year-old dynamo offered a set of songs seasoned with time but bristling with energy, happy to celebrate his career's biggest hits while offering more adventurous stuff for the diehards.
The diverse Fox crowd — the lucky 5,000 who scored the high-demand tickets — had a week to gear up following the show's abrupt announcement last Friday, and they seemed to arrive with energy pent up since Prince's 2004 Detroit visit.
"It seems like only yesterday," he said as the night began. "They tell me it's been 11 years. If that's the case, we're going to play 17 hits in a row, until I see tears!"
There were minimal bum notes on a night that wound up with far more than 17 songs: With his tight, versatile 3rdeyegirl trio behind him, Prince offered a little of everything, tapping deeper corners of his catalog, performing surveys of pop-funk history, and reinventing familiar fare.
The onstage ensemble grew and shrunk throughout the night, occasionally stripped down to a bare essence — drums and keyboard for "When Doves Cry" — and expanding to a full complement of horns and backup singers for ebullient numbers like "U Got the Look." Prince himself was mobile, operating with a guitar at the center mic, heading to a keyboard for stretches and even strapping on a bass.
"Let's Go Crazy" had kicked it all off, evolving into a frenzy of guitar and strobe lights for the first of the night's lengthy solo sections. Prince was in a musically playful mood all evening, unpacking his songs' arrangements, twisting the pieces into new forms, and leading the band through extended breakdowns.
Singer Judith Hill opened the show last night at the Fox Theatre and joined in during a few songs of Prince's set. (Photo: Chelsea Lauren, NPG Records)
The showmanship was in full gear — a "Little Red Corvette" that saw him twirling and moving with sultry swagger at center stage, an emotive "Nothing Compares 2 U" that sent him to the floor. All came with a voice that still seems to be serving Prince well, as he rolled through the falsetto curlicues of "Kiss" and nailed the plaintive screech on songs like "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?"
He paid tribute to a city that's long been a hotspot through his four-decade career.
"You've always been so good to me, Detroit," he said. "You've got a beautiful city and beautiful people. Please take care of it for me so I can come back."
That next time, he offered, could perhaps be at the Palace — though in the mercurial world of Prince, who has undertaken a tour of spontaneous, surprise shows, anything is possible.
He worked to give Thursday night a community party feel, often bringing up the house lights, leading the crowd's arm-waving, working call-and-response moments, and at one point welcoming a handful of fans to dance onstage.
One downer note: Fox security staffers, saying they were acting on the artist's instructions, spent the evening doggedly policing audience members with cell phones. Not just fans shooting video or photos, but anyone with an illuminated screen. (Ticket buyers had been alerted ahead of time about the ban.)
That went out the door midway through when Prince asked fans to light up the Fox with phones aloft, sticking with it through "1999." But that would have been no consolation for fans already removed from the theater, including at least one escorted out by Detroit police.
Those who were around, though, got to see a show that grew more special as it unfolded. Keeping up with the multiple encores became a blur, as Prince and company ducked offstage to promptly return for another round. All seemed to be finished after a twofer that included a guitar-driven "She's Always in My Hair" and a reliably epic "Purple Rain," which has been closing most of Prince's recent concerts. A smattering of fans confidently headed for the exits.
But most of the crowd stayed put, and for 10 loud minutes, whistles, screams and chants filled the Fox. It had been 11 years since Detroit had seen Prince, and this crowd wasn't going to let him go away easily.
Prince at the Fox Theatre in Detroit on Thursday, April 9. (Photo: NPG Records/Chelsea Lauren)
He and the band eventually reemerged to a roar, digging through their repertoire to concoct a 13-minute jam packed with "Act of God," Janet Jackson's "What Have You Done For Me Lately," Starguard's "Which Way Is Up" and the Jackson 5's "Dancing Machine."
They worked for another 20 minutes as the clock edged past midnight, with Prince manning his digital piano for "Forever in My Life" and navigating his sampler through quick renditions of hits like "A Love Bizarre" and "Pop Life." And finally, with a heart-tugging "The Love We Make," Prince bid farewell to a Detroit audience that won't want to be waiting another 11 years.
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Jason Peters turns 34 in January and is currently the third-oldest offensive lineman in the NFL. While Peters has had a tremendous career and is arguably a Hall of Fame talent, his career is clearly in decline and he has experienced multiple injuries this season to his ankle, back, quad, and elbow.
In 2016, Peters will count for $9,300,000, of which the Eagles can save $6,300,000 by releasing or trading him. And so, Peters' return to the team is anything but a sure thing. Peters, however, knows where he wants to be.
"I'm an Eagle, man. I'm going to retire here," said Peters.
This past week, Peters came under scrutiny when it was reported that he took himself out of the season-ending loss against the Washington Redskins. Peters denied those accusations.
"I banged my elbow up," he said. "I didn't want to go out there and continue to hurt it, so that's when (Dennis) Kelly went in. (The media) tried to say I came out, took myself out and all that, but I was banged up. Sproles chipped me. He wasn't trying to chip me, but he chipped my elbow, and it swelled up on me. We were getting blown out, so they sat me down. I (played hurt) in the Tampa Bay game, the Detroit game, so for them to say that, that's not true."
With Peters' career potentially winding down, there has been talk about a potential move to guard. There's a near 0% chance the Eagles will pay Peters $9.3 million to play guard, and Peters isn't ready for that talk yet either.
"I can still play tackle," said Peters. "I'm the best we got. Who are they going to put there? Who's better than me in this locker room? Nobody. Who can they draft better than me? Nobody. Who can they pick up batter than me? Nobody. I mean, you're going to get beat here and there. That's part of it. Part of this offense (is that) I'm one-on-one every play. 90 plays, 80 plays. Get beat one or two times, that's just part of it. They get paid too."
The reality is that if the Eagles are realistic about their Super Bowl aspirations next season (they shouldn't have any), they could try to find a trade partner that is a legitimate contender in need of a tackle. They wouldn't get a ton for Peters, but with a large number of holes to fill, every lottery ticket counts.
Follow Jimmy on Twitter: @JimmyKempski
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What could be simpler than a glass of orange juice? The beverage holds a place in the pantheon of wholesome American breakfast foods, on equal footing with toast, cereal, and eggs. It's pure and natural, ads tell us, and we buy both the sentiment and the product. More than 620 million gallons of orange juice are sold per year in the United States, according to market research from Nielsen.
Author Alissa Hamilton would have us take another look at the glass on the breakfast table. That simplicity is actually the result of a complicated process - juice stored in tanks for long periods, then goosed with flavor packs to taste like fruit again. Her book, "Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice," due out in May from Yale University Press, reveals that orange juice, with its image as a natural Florida product, bears the fingerprints of chemists and is often shipped from South America.
Hamilton traces the history of the drink, first processed in the United States in the early 1900s as a canned juice that was said to taste like "battery acid." World War II ushered in the age of palatable processed orange juice, with the military seeking a source of vitamin C that soldiers would readily consume. In 1948, frozen concentrate was born, too late for the war effort but in time to help revive an ailing citrus industry, which was struggling with a surplus of fruit.
A further boost from Bing Crosby, who crooned about Minute Maid in radio ads, and OJ was on its way to becoming America's favorite breakfast drink. Since then, the citrus industry and its technologies have changed. The FDA tussled with manufacturers to set standards for orange juice. What remains constant? Marketing - some of it deceptive, says Hamilton.
If orange juice isn't harmful, it also isn't what it's portrayed to be. Consumers have a right to know what they are consuming, Hamilton says, and that is at the heart of her story. Ideas spoke with the author, a Woodcock Foundation-funded food and society policy fellow, by phone at her home in Toronto.
IDEAS: You write that the first question everyone asks when they hear about the book is whether orange juice is good for us. So - is orange juice good for us?
HAMILTON: I tell people if you like it, drink it, but not because you think it's good for you. You'd be better off with a whole orange than a glass of orange juice. It has more fiber and more vitamin C. But I'm not a dietitian. The book is not about whether you should drink orange juice and whether it's healthy. It's about how little consumers know about how popular and - in the case of orange juice - seemingly straightforward foods are produced and the repercussions for agriculture. |
Well, next year just got funnier: Chris Rock will tour the globe.
“Tonight, I am announcing that I, Chris Rock, am going on tour,” Rock announced on Facebook Live tonight. “The Total Blackout tour is coming to your town in 2017… First time in nine years, haven’t done it in awhile. Been a little busy, You know, writing Pootie Tang 3 and everything. But hey, it’s time.”
The title of the tour takes its name from a tweet that Rock posted prior to hosting this year’s Academy Awards, which he promised would be a #blackout. Considering he was arguably the best host the Oscars had seen in, oh, two decades, these round of dates should be quite a hot ticket for 2017.
Consult the full itinerary below, which curiously consists mostly of Trump states, and watch the announcement above. Additional dates will be announced shortly.
Tickets go on sale via Ticketmaster on December 7th. If you can’t make it, odds are it’s going to be turned into something for Netflix, especially considering he was just paid $40 million by the streaming service for two specials.
Chris Rock 2017 Tour Dates:
02/14 – Durham, NC @ Durham Performing Arts Center
02/16 – Cincinnati, OH @ Aronoff Center for the Arts
02/18 – Columbus, OH @ Palace Theatre
02/21 – Niagra Falls, ON @ Fallsview Casino Resort
02/22 – Niagra Falls, ON @ Fallsview Casino Resort
02/23 – Niagra Falls, ON @ Fallsview Casino Resort
02/24 – Reno, NV @ Reno Events Center
02/25 – Phoenix, AZ @ Comerica Theatre
03/03 – Denver, CO @ Bellco Theatre
03/05 – Richmond, VA @ Altria Theater
03/10 – Minneapolis, MN @ Orpheum Theatre
03/24 – Birmingham, AL @ BJCC Concert Hall
03/25 – New Orleans, LA @ Saenger Theatre
03/29 – Hollywood, FL @ Hard Rock Live
04/06 – Tulsa, OK @ River Spirit Casino Resort
04/07 – Thackerville, OK @ Global Event Center at WinStar World Casino
04/08 – St. Louis, MO @ Peabody Opera House
04/14 – Tampa, FL @ David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Performing Arts
04/19 – Cleveland, OH @ State Theatre
04/22 – Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun
04/28 – Detroit, MI @ Fox Theatre
05/03 – Indianapolis, IN @ Murat Theatre
05/05 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Benedum Center
05/13 – Sugar Land, TX @ Smart Financial Center
05/14 – Austin, TX @ Bass Concert Hall
05/17 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Benedum Center
05/25 – Cherokee, NC @ Harrah’s Cherokee Resort Event Center
05/26 – Atlanta, GA @ Fox Theatre
06/03 – Atlantic City, NJ @ Borgata Event Center |
Democracy is coming to the American workplace, slowly. Twenty-four states now have right-to-work laws, but Big Labor continues fighting them tooth and nail, often with the same underhanded tactics it uses to harass independent-minded workers in states without right-to-work statutes. That's why Congress should focus like a laser on the National Labor Relations Board.
Right-to-work laws guarantee that workers cannot be forced to join a union or pay dues to one as a condition of employment. But unions are in charge of administering these laws. Well -- surprise! -- they typically make it as difficult as possible for workers who resist unions and do as little as required to inform workers of their right-to-work options.
Consider the case of Joshua Sterrett of Indianapolis. He quit the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in January under his state's newly-adopted right-to-work law. But dues continued to be deducted from his paycheck after he quit the union. Meanwhile, Julie Huffman, also of Indianapolis, has been trying for over a year to get the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) to stop taking dues money out of her paychecks. In both cases, the unions allege the workers failed to submit the proper paperwork.
Here's the thing: The CWA only allows workers to opt out during an annual two-week period. The UFCW's is just five days. If workers miss either, they are stuck paying dues for another year. And they have to keep doing this every year. This is similar to how unions in non-right-to-work states frustrate workers who try to invoke their rights under the Supreme Court's Beck ruling. Beck allows workers to object to their dues money being used for political purposes.
Sterrett and Huffman have lodged unfair practice complaints with the NLRB. Under normal circumstances, they have a good chance to win, too, since earlier board precedents take a dim view of these practices. So then why do unions continue doing things that will likely be penalized? Because the NLRB decides these on a case-by-case basis, rather than by issuing a blanket prohibition. In a Beck case involving the CWA that the NLRB decided earlier this month, the board issued a ruling that doesn't count as a precedent. The board added insult to injury by refusing to order the union to pay back the dues it unfairly took prior to the case being filed.
So there is little incentive for unions to stop using such tactics since every case requires workers seeking to exercise their rights to engage in a drawn-out court battle. Many workers have never even been told they have such rights. Senate Republicans should resist President Obama's move to fill all five positions on the NLRB board with new nominations. Three of the nominees are the current members who support the status quo and who would become the ruling quorum if their nominations are approved by Senate. At the very least, Republicans should wait instead until the Supreme Court rules on the constitutional legitimacy of the recess appoinments of NLRB members Sharon Block and Richard Griffin. |
AP / Bleacher Report
Former WWE star Hulk Hogan has been trolled by Internet pranksters into retweeting pictures of Premier League footballers, including Danny Welbeck, Jack Wilshere and Romelu Lukaku.
@HulkHogan this is me and my mate, we know you're not racist and support you Hulk! pic.twitter.com/cZAtc8Moq5 — Joe (@WHU_Boulcott) July 27, 2015
@HulkHogan this is me and my mate, we know you're not racist! Ignore the press and haters we love you brother!! pic.twitter.com/Lvk0Gqi3Cb — Ethan Morley (@ethanmorleyy) July 27, 2015
The tweets started as supposed fans of Hogan sent apparent messages of support to the former WWE star, who was dropped by the wrestling organisation last week after a leaked audio recording revealed him making racial slurs against African-Americans.
The prank Twitter posts started on Sunday but continued into Monday, as Hogan remained oblivious to the real identity of the individuals in the photos.
@HulkHogan i am Ivorian and i love you brother, you're not a racist, u are the best, don't let the media get to you! pic.twitter.com/Op04YxEXFd — Hulkfan17 (@WarDesperados) July 27, 2015
@HulkHogan me and my brother Andrey are life long hulkamaniacs can we get an RT BROTHER. pic.twitter.com/5XXNbucegM — Craig (@KoscielnyFC) July 27, 2015
Hi @HulkHogan me & my dad are fully behind you, keep your head up through these horrid times #TeamHogan pic.twitter.com/H8RqZ08jnp — Red Is In The Blood (@IDontLikeSpurs) July 27, 2015
Hogan even retweeted a photo of former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand with Canadian rapper Drake, neither of whom were recognised by the 61-year-old.
@HulkHogan Everybody says stuff from time to time, don't forget, me and my dad will always have your back brother pic.twitter.com/rtogY2EbOI — Monkey D. Jiggy (@Jackel_Ramzilla) July 27, 2015
Clearly no fan of Premier League football, it's somewhat surprising that no one has come to Hogan's aid to let him know he's been messed about.
[h/t Independent] |
Guyism.com
In a despicable act of sportsmanship, it appears Seattle Seahawks fans threw popcorn on San Francisco 49ers linebacker NaVorro Bowman as he was carted off after a gruesome leg injury.
NFL.com writer Gregg Rosenthal was the first to point out the incident:
Seahawks fans threw food at Bowman on his way out. — gregg rosenthal (@greggrosenthal) January 20, 2014
@BMDriver1 it was popcorn — gregg rosenthal (@greggrosenthal) January 20, 2014
Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman commented on the incident in his column for MMQB:
One thing I can’t accept is what I read after the game about Seahawks fans throwing food at 49ers linebacker Navorro Bowman as he was being carted off the field with his knee injury. If it’s true, it’s beyond terrible. That’s as low as it gets. I’m sure whoever did this is in a small minority of fans, because I don’t think that kind of action is an accurate representation of the character of the 12th man. Navorro Bowman is a great player who plays the game the right way. When he went down, I dropped to a knee and prayed for him. He deserves better than having food thrown at him as he’s carted off a field. All players deserve better than that.
To make matters worse, the preliminary assessment on Bowman is a torn ACL.
Thanks to A. Isaac of Guyism.com for the GIF. |
It’s night time in the big city
The city lights reflect off the Burnett River
Working girls share an inside joke
“We’re gonna take a few ticks of the clock to look at heart and hearth. We’ll look at family trees, family dinners, family planning, and family jewels. There’ll be Dutch uncles, grandfather clocks, kissing cousins, sons of a gun, and maybe a couple of SOBs. It’s all in the family. Let’s get it goin.’”
Singers and Songs
Lonzo and Oscar: I’m My Own Grandpa
I’m My Own Grandpa Memphis Jug Band: Aunt Caroline Dyer Blues
Aunt Caroline Dyer Blues Clannad: Two Sisters
Two Sisters Peter Tosh: Shame and Scandal (In the Family)
“He was a brilliant singer and one of the best guitarists to come out of Jamaica…he was a proselytizer of the healing powers of marijuana…he was kinda like the Dr. Phil of ganja.”
The Olympics: I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate
I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate Elvis Presley: Little Sister
“You know, people used to go into the studio when they had a song or two, when they had something to say. Nowadays, people just go into the studio ‘cause they got time to kill. They sit around, they order sushi, get some Starbucks, wait for inspiration to hit, and the records sound like that. There’s some records that take two years to make and you listen to ‘em, and there’s nothin’ on ‘em! This record, I guarantee you, took less than two hours to make, and wasn’t even the A side. You be the judge. What would you rather listen to? A whole record about nothin’ or a 45 called Little Sister?”
Boozoo Chavis: LA Women Love Uncle Bud
“It’s kind of ironic: we’re doing our family show, and this is probably the least family-oriented song we’ve ever played. It is not for the pusillanimous listener, so if you’re listening with young children please send them out of the room for a few minutes. Unless you’re listening in the car. In that case turn the radio down for a while.”
The Flamin Groovies: Second Cousin
Second Cousin The Wild Tchoupitoulas: Brother John
“As good as that record sounds, you gotta see what they look like! That, my friends, is what I call showmanship.”
Rilo Kiley: A Better Son / Daughter
A Better Son / Daughter Willie Mabon: The Seventh Son
The Seventh Son Cliff Bruner and His Texas Wanderers: Bring It On Home To Grandma
“The question I have is, ‘Bring WHAT on home to grandma?”
Sly and The Family Stone: Family Affair
“A weary skeptical record, with a darkness born of drug use. This song was all over the radio and its power could not be denied”
—-
(Complete episode Notes available at The Bob Dylan Fan Club)
—-
Comments
comments |
Carnivorous Sheep Profile Blog Joined November 2008 Baa? 13985 Posts Last Edited: 2010-10-08 00:58:02 #1
mod edit: real story and first hand account here On October 06 2010 06:32 SLoGgErDoGgEr wrote:
this is what really happened that morning
so it was midnight, I was at one of my friend's room with bunch of other ppl , drinking like crazy since it was our last night, Nyoken(who came over to watch wcg from arizona didn't have a room to stay so i let him stay for couple of days) wanted to go to sleep, so we went back to my hotel room. my room was right next to flash/jaedong's room , so we stopped by and said bye or whatever and went back to the room. few seconds later jaedong/flash/kal comes over saying that they wanted to hang out more and stay up since they have to wake up early in the morning, but my real roommate was already sleeping so we had to go over to their room instead.
we were just talking crap, having fun etc etc and later on jaedong was like "let's go to spa, it opens at 6 am, since no one will be there it's gonna be ok" so we're like yea w/e maybe we can do that so we went down around at 6:10amish (nyoken had to go to sleep since he didn't wanna swim with his underwear on) , anyways we were relaxing in a spa..and all of sudden flash goes into pool saying that he loves to swim, and kal follows. and i just went in too (spa was kinda small for us to fit in) so we were swimming, we were swimming back and forth, and all of sudden Kal stops in the middle of a pool(3 meters depth) and started struggling himself, at one point we thought he was fking around but as the time goes by we're like wtf , is he actually serious? so i went there to save him, and all he had to do is just let me do the job but instead he kept pulling me down into the water, and i kept trying to fight him in the water so that i can grab him to the ground, but he kept pulling me down and i was drowning at the same time. flash comes over and finds out how serious the situation was and he tried to grab kal at the sametime, and now KAL pulls flash down too, and 3 of us started drowning in the water, and jaedong from a spa sees us and comes to us pulls out his hand towards me, and i had to let kal go since i, myself was already drank so much water, and couldn't do anything but drowning, jaedongw as like 10 cm away from me, i tried to grab it but i was so exhausted, but somehow i pulled up all my power to grab his hand, and he pulled me towards him and i survived, and at the same time flash gets kal towards the ground and saves him
it was so scary since we couldn't touch the ground with our feet and didn't know what to do when they're no one around us. it was a very serious situation, i honestly don't understand all the comments that has been made here, everyone loling rofling when this thing could have been worse :/
well i just summarized up very quick now, sorry if my post isn't too grammatically written but here u go
+ Show Spoiler +
STX’s star player Kal almost drowned during his trip to the USA, but was luckily saved by his companions.
Kal went to LA to participate in WCG 2010 Grand Finals, and all games ended at 5am, and he, along with Flash, Jaedong, etc., went to the swimming pool in the hotel they were staying at.
Their flight is at 13:00, so they went to the pool at 6:00, when it just opened.
Kal didn’t expect the pool’s water to be so deep, and he fell into the pool. An American referee that went with them and the others all assumed Kal could swim, so they were unaware of the danger.
Only after 10 seconds of struggling did the others notice something was wrong, and the American referee said “he needs help,” so he jumped into the pool to try to help him, but apparently this referee’s swimming abilities weren’t great either, and was unable to help him.
At this time, Flash, who was swimming near by, swam towards Kal. Flash, who had learned to swim since a young age, told Kal to hold on to him, and then swam both of them back to the shore, and successfully rescued Kal. The American referee got help from Jaedong, who also didn’t know how to swim, from the shore. [T/N: wat?]
Even though no one was hurt, this was still a dangerous incident. Kal even thought “am I going to die like this?” He also said “Flash’s swimming skills, if slightly worse, I really don’t know what would’ve happened.”
After everything ended and they returned to South Korea, Kal announced this. “Flash is my savior, really thanks to him. I feel like I got new life. I will do my best to live my best now.”
http://www.playsc.com/bbs/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=214548&extra=page=1
http://news.naver.com/sports/index.nhn?category=e_sports&ctg=news&mod=read&office_id=236&article_id=0000032383&date=20101005&page=1
O___________O STX’s star player Kal almost drowned during his trip to the USA, but was luckily saved by his companions.Kal went to LA to participate in WCG 2010 Grand Finals, and all games ended at 5am, and he, along with Flash, Jaedong, etc., went to the swimming pool in the hotel they were staying at.Their flight is at 13:00, so they went to the pool at 6:00, when it just opened.Kal didn’t expect the pool’s water to be so deep, and he fell into the pool. An American referee that went with them and the others all assumed Kal could swim, so they were unaware of the danger.Only after 10 seconds of struggling did the others notice something was wrong, and the American referee said “he needs help,” so he jumped into the pool to try to help him, but apparently this referee’s swimming abilities weren’t great either, and was unable to help him.At this time, Flash, who was swimming near by, swam towards Kal. Flash, who had learned to swim since a young age, told Kal to hold on to him, and then swam both of them back to the shore, and successfully rescued Kal. The American referee got help from Jaedong, who also didn’t know how to swim, from the shore. [T/N: wat?]Even though no one was hurt, this was still a dangerous incident. Kal even thought “am I going to die like this?” He also said “Flash’s swimming skills, if slightly worse, I really don’t know what would’ve happened.”After everything ended and they returned to South Korea, Kal announced this. “Flash is my savior, really thanks to him. I feel like I got new life. I will do my best to live my best now.”O___________O Translator Baa! |
Labyrinth: The Computer Game is a 1986 graphic adventure game developed by Lucasfilm Games and published by Activision. Based on the fantasy film Labyrinth, it tasks the player with navigating a maze while solving puzzles and evading dangers. The player's goal is to find and defeat the main antagonist, Jareth, within 13 real-time hours. Unlike other adventure games of the period, Labyrinth does not feature a command-line interface. Instead, the player uses two scrolling "word wheel" menus on the screen to construct basic sentences.
Labyrinth was the first adventure game created by Lucasfilm. The project was led by designer David Fox, who invented its word wheels to avoid the text parsers and syntax guessing typical of text-based adventure games. Early in development, the team collaborated with author Douglas Adams in a week-long series of brainstorming sessions, which inspired much of the final product. Labyrinth received positive reviews and, in the United States, was a bigger commercial success than the film upon which it was based. Its design influenced Lucasfilm's subsequent adventure title, the critically acclaimed Maniac Mansion.
Overview [ edit ]
A goblin guard corners the player character. The "word wheels" and gray "radar" bar appear in the bottom section of the screen. On the wheels, the player has combined the verb "ask" with the noun "wall", resulting in a comedic message at the top of the screen.
Labyrinth: The Computer Game is a graphic adventure game in which the player maneuvers a character through a maze while solving puzzles and evading dangers.[2] It is an adaptation of the 1986 film Labyrinth, many of whose events and characters are reproduced in the game.[3][4] However, it does not follow the plot of the film.[5] At the beginning, the player enters their name, sex and favorite color: the last two fields determine the appearance of the player character.[5][6] Afterward, a short text-based adventure sequence unfolds, wherein the player enters a movie theater to watch the film Labyrinth. The game then changes to a graphic adventure format. Jareth, the main antagonist, appears on the projection screen and transports the protagonist to a labyrinthine prison.[6][7]
The player's goal is to locate and destroy Jareth within 13 real-time hours; otherwise, the protagonist will be trapped in the maze forever.[6][7] While traveling the maze, the player passes through a series of scrolling hallways that contain doors, enemies and other things.[6] A "radar" bar on the screen allows the player to see each hallway in miniature form: the locations of all doorways, items and characters in a given hallway are displayed.[6][8] Unlike other adventure games of the period, Labyrinth does not feature a command-line interface. Instead of typing commands, the player selects them from two scrolling "word wheels", one for verbs and one for nouns.[1][5][9] For example, the verb "congratulate" may be selected in one wheel, and the noun "Jareth" in the other: this inputs the command "congratulate Jareth".[1] Based on the player's items and location, the available verbs and nouns change context-sensitively.[5]
Development [ edit ]
Lucasfilm Games began to design Labyrinth: The Computer Game in 1985.[10] Company head George Lucas had requested a tie-in video game for the movie of the same name, which was under production at Lucasfilm.[9] As was common with Lucasfilm Games projects, Lucas himself provided very little direction to the team.[11] Labyrinth was the first licensed game developed by the company: earlier products, such as Rescue on Fractalus! and The Eidolon, had been original intellectual properties. According to project leader David Fox, working with a license "frees you up in some ways and restricts you, too".[12] With their adaptation, the team was not pressured to reuse events and characters from the Labyrinth film; but they "felt obligated" to follow the source material.[4][13] Because they saw the film as an adventure story, they chose to set their adaptation in the adventure game genre. However, Fox disliked the genre's then-reliance on text parsers and syntax guessing, and so he created the word wheel menus as a replacement. They were meant to supply "a limited set of words that still let you do a lot of things", in order to streamline the game without hampering the player's freedom.[4] The game's visual design was shared by Lucasfilm's Habitat, a massively multiplayer online game under production at the time.[11][14]
Douglas really liked the word "adumbrate", meaning "to prefigure indistinctly or foreshadow", so it ended up on the verb list[.] ... You had to "adumbrate the elephant" when you were stuck in a prison, and an elephant would come and break a hole in the wall, freeing you. Definitely one of those things that was far funnier in the brainstorming session than in the game. David Fox on the influence of Douglas Adams[15]
Early in development, the game's team was screened a rough cut of the film. Afterward, they were sent to London by Lucasfilm management for a one-week brainstorming session with Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.[4][10] Adams had worked previously with Infocom, during the development of his book's 1984 video game adaptation.[15] Also present at the meetings were writer Christopher Cerf (a friend of the film's director, Jim Henson) and Brenda Laurel of Activision, the game's publisher.[12] The team worked extensively with Adams during this period. Laurel later wrote, "Every day a fresh blast of his wild and intelligent humor stoked up the creativity of the team." In her view, the pinnacle of the meetings was Adams' idea for the opening sequence.[10] He suggested a reference to The Wizard of Oz's famous transition from black-and-white to color: a transition from a text-based format to a graphical one.[12]
Fox was given the job of taking notes during the trip. Although he had hoped for a complete design to emerge from the meetings, he returned from London with only "sheets and sheets of ideas", through which he sifted to find usable concepts.[4] However, all of the material influenced the game, and many of Adams' suggestions were used.[4][15] Retrospectively, Fox felt that the opening sequence was a mistake: he called it "tedious" and believed that it alienated potential fans.[12] Labyrinth was released in 1986 for the Commodore 64, Apple II and MSX.[1][2]
Reception [ edit ]
In the United States, Labyrinth was more commercially successful than the film upon which it was based.[10] Commodore Magazine's Mark Cotone lauded the game's puzzle design, detailed graphics and newcomer-friendly interface. He believed that experienced players would enjoy its depth and challenging puzzles.[7] Keith Campbell of Commodore User praised its animation and dubbed it "a superb game"—which he found unusual, given its status as a tie-in product. However, Campbell hesitated to call it an adventure game, and he wrote that the word wheels were "rather tedious" for genre veterans.[16] Roy Wagner of Computer Gaming World summarized Labyrinth as a "very well done [game] with an excellent user interface".[14]
Writing for Computer & Video Games, Matthew Woodley praised the game's variety and interface. While he disliked its long loading times, he believed that they were "a small price to pay for such a brilliant game".[5] However, Labyrinth was criticized by the three reviewers of Zzap!64. Although he praised its visuals, co-reviewer Paul Sumner called the game too slow-paced for an action title and too simplistic for an adventure. Co-reviewer Julian Rignall considered it to be boring and "a real disappointment", given Lucasfilm's strong track record.[8]
Legacy [ edit ]
Labyrinth was the first adventure game produced by Lucasfilm, which became a critically acclaimed and commercially successful developer in the genre.[2][3] The game's technology and mechanics influenced the company's subsequent title Maniac Mansion, whose "SCUMM" engine was reused in many Lucasfilm adventure games.[11][17] The word wheels were a predecessor to that game's point-and-click interface.[3][11] Gary Winnick, an artist for Labyrinth, went on to lead the production of Maniac Mansion with Ron Gilbert.[18] Fox contributed to Maniac Mansion as well, and he later directed Lucasfilm's Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders.[4] Retrospectively, writers for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation regarded Labyrinth as a solid first attempt, but as inferior to "the real classics" made afterward by Lucasfilm.[2] |
Programme curated by Jay Weissberg, Mariann Lewinsky and Peter Bagrov
The world has spoken in hushed tones about the armenian genocide, and world cinema has largely kept that silence. Indeed, few films capture this indescribable tragedy, which in truth cannot be fully represented.
Soviet cinema was unable to fill the palpable void. While Hamo Beknazaryan, the father of Armenian cinema, was joined by other Armenian directors in filming the lives of disparate nationalities now united in the USSR, none of them could address the painful events of Armenia’s past due to Soviet suppression of any nationalist agenda it couldn’t control.
In the decades before the first Armenian feature on the genocide, Nahapet (1977), very few films dared address the subject. Three post-war titles (not in the programme) deserve mentioning, beginning with the 1945 full-length documentary Fatherland (Gurgen Balasanyan, Levon Isahakyan and Hrayr Zargaryan), which used archival footage of the genocide to support Stalin’s political plans at the end of WWII (though these were later changed). During the post-Stalinist thaw, Grigor Melik-Avagyan’s feature What’s All the Noise of the River About? (1958) related the story of a refugee from the genocide who tries to return to his homeland on the other side of Mount Ararat.
Among the features of the 1960s, Hello, It’s Me (Frunze Dovlatyan, 1965) received attention thanks to its Cannes screening. Though not about 1915, the drama uses memory as its key element, designed to awaken the nation’s consciousness: says the hero, “recollections are not burdens, but hunger for the past”. The film’s opening shows the ‘chess fever’ from the 1963 world championship, when crowds gathered awaiting the victory of their compatriot Tigran Petrosyan; the protagonist, engaging in a dialogue with his alter ego, summarizes that scene of the masses, calling it the “wounded pride of the nation and a collective expedition to the past – mass remembrance”. Also in 1965 citizens of Soviet Armenia took to the streets demanding a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the genocide – thanks to these protests the Communist leadership agreed to build the Monument to the 1,5 million victims.
The armenian genocide is a bloody page of history that has not been rectified even a century later. Apart from archival images, the program showcases Armenian-produced films including the nation’s first feature Namus (1926), along with Kikos (1931) and Kurdy-Ezidy (1932), representing the early Soviet period. Thanks to increased discussion of national rights in the late Brežnev period a film like Nahapet (1977) with its explicit genocide theme became possible. It was screened in Cannes in 1978 in the section Un certain regard. The Despoiler (1915), in its 1917 reedition linked by rewritten intertitles to the genocide, is included in the section A Hundred Years Ago.
Siranush Galstyan |
• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.
A suicide bomb in Pakistan’s turbulent northwest apparently targeting a prominent Islamist politician killed at least 10 people Thursday when it hit the politician's convoy, but failed to hit the politician himself. While police identified the bomber as a local student, the killed politician's party leadership pointed the finger at the US and at the Pakistani government.
The attack, which killed police and companions of the party leader and cleric Maulana Fazlur Rehman, but did no harm to him, was the second time that the hard-line Islamist Jamiat-e-ulema-e-Islam – Fazl (JUI-F) party came under attack in two days, Reuters notes. The first attack killed 12 people at a JUI gathering in the northwest town of Peshawar before Mr. Rehman arrived. While the BBC describes his party as close to militant organizations, Reuters says that Rehman is a “firebrand” critic of the US-Pakistani government alliance to fight terrorism, but is still wary of militant violence.
Today’s bomb exploded near Rehman’s car in the town of Charsadda when the leader was on his way to attend a public gathering. Pakistan’s The News reported that police had found remains of the suicide bomber and his student card identified him as a local resident.
At a rally after the attack, the JUI Secretary General Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidri blamed the CIA and Blackwater for the attack, as well as Pakistan’s government for giving them "free reign" in the northwest. He accused the Pakistani government of giving free reign to US agents to target local leaders who speak out against the CIA’s drone program and said the JUI-F would hold protests on Friday to condemn the two recent attacks, according to the Pakistani newspaper The Dawn.
Awareness of covert US work in the country has been heightened lately because of the recent furor over CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who was working under the guise of being a low-level US embassy employee when he killed two Pakistani men in Lahore in what he says was self-defense. Mr. Davis was was put in Pakistani custody but was released in mid-March, possibly after the US government paid "blood money" to have him freed.
After the second attack, Rehman went forward with a planned public meeting at the playground of a public high school and criticized the local government for not protecting them, The Dawn reported: |
And his loss is a significant victory for a growing group of frustrated House Republicans who have been plotting to shake up the GOP leadership structure ahead of the 114th Congress. Those plans have centered on ejecting Boehner from the speakership and then hoping for a consensus candidate to emerge who could either challenge Cantor for the top job, or at least slide in behind him as majority leader.
The earth-shattering upset in Virginia’s 7th District Tuesday night means that Cantor, the House majority leader who has long been considered the heir-apparent to Boehner as speaker, won’t be back in the next Congress.
Eric Cantor is gone, and if they’re not careful, John Boehner and Kevin McCarthy could be next.
But Tuesday night’s shocker turns those plans upside down. Cantor’s loss not only means there will be a vacant spot in leadership, it also invites more dramatic action from that clutch of conservatives who have grown increasingly disenchanted with a leadership team that they view as out of touch — demographically, ideologically, and strategically — with the membership of the House Republican Conference.
Those conservatives, suddenly smelling blood in the water, might now be emboldened to push for a wholesale change in leadership — ousting Boehner and McCarthy in this November’s conference elections, and entering the next Congress with a new top three.
“It should frighten everyone in leadership,” one conservative House Republican, who exchanged text messages on condition of anonymity, said shortly after Cantor’s defeat was official. “They haven’t been conservative enough. We’ve told them that for 3 years. They wouldn’t listen.”
The GOP lawmaker added: “Maybe they will listen now.”
Indeed, if Cantor’s defeat offers a silver lining for Boehner and McCarthy, it’s that they now have a five-month audition to convince those conservative members that they won’t be ignored any longer. Boehner’s fate may already be sealed, as earlier this year National Journal reported that between 40 and 50 members have verbally committed to electing a new speaker. But McCarthy, who is perhaps the most personally popular member of the leadership team, may have an outside shot of retaining his job as majority whip. (He may not want it now that Cantor, his best friend in Congress, has been fired.)
Asked whether Cantor’s defeat means he and his fellow conservatives will attempt to clean house and bring in an entirely new leadership team, the House Republican answered: “Not necessarily. The policies are what count. Not the people.”
It’s a nice sentiment, but Washington is driven by relationships, and the group of young conservatives whose energy has dictated the mood within the House GOP since 2010 is likely to determine who holds the key leadership posts in 2015. The most ubiquitous name is that of Jeb Hensarling, the Texan and Financial Services chairman whom conservatives have spent the past several months trying to convince to challenge either Boehner or Cantor. Hensarling has denied interest in doing so, but Cantor’s loss will only energize the recruitment efforts.
Another lawmaker worth watching is Rep. Tom Price, who is set to succeed Rep. Paul Ryan as chairman of the Budget Committee. Price’s allies have long argued that the ambitious lawmaker will be satisfied with his chairmanship next year and won’t throw away that opportunity to run for a leadership post; that thinking could change very quickly in the weeks ahead.
And, of course, there’s Ryan himself, who has long denied interest in the speakership — likely to avoid conflict with his friend Cantor — but who now enjoys a wide-open path to the speaker’s office.
Still, there’s no question that policy is important, and, indeed, the policies coming from the majority leader’s office have been increasingly problematic for some conservatives. Cantor has been emphatic in conversations with colleagues that he wants to pass serious immigration reform, especially something that helps young illegal immigrants who were brought here by their parents — or, as Cantor calls them, “the kids.” This image of Cantor as soft on immigration has hardened in recent months, prompting Dave Brat, his primary challenger, to attack the majority leader for supporting “amnesty.”
If the immigration talk wasn’t enough to rankle some of the conference’s most conservative members, Cantor made more enemies by muscling a flood-insurance bill through the House earlier this year, over the objections of many Republicans, including Hensarling, whose Financial Services Committee has jurisdiction over the matter. (Some members saw Cantor’s actions as deliberately intended to weaken Hensarling, who has emerged as the consensus choice of conservatives looking to vault one of their own into the uppermost echelons of leadership.)
Perhaps most egregiously, Cantor infuriated a sizable bloc of House Republicans in March by approving a maneuver that allowed a controversial Medicare-reimbursement bill to pass the House without a recorded roll-call vote. As members seethed over the alleged trickery, Cantor’s office dismissed the visceral backlash, angering some members who were longtime supporters of the majority leader. Before that, the only rumblings of a leadership shakeup involved Boehner; soon after, however, members began suggesting that Cantor was no longer a shoo-in to succeed him as speaker.
“I’m getting used to being deceived by the Obama administration, but when my own leadership does it, it’s just not acceptable,” Rep. Matt Salmon of Arizona said after the episode.
Another House Republican who is friendly with Cantor put it more bluntly: “If there’s another vote like [that], Eric won’t be speaker. Ever.”
Still, Cantor hasn’t exactly been a foil to tea-party Republicans in the House; to the contrary, some feel the majority leader is their strongest ally on the leadership team, and have endorsed his ascension to the speakership. Cantor has spent years carefully building relationships and delivering favors for members of his conference, knowing he would need their support if he were to become speaker.
But even the conservative members who like Cantor personally are celebrating tonight — not because he was their top target but because the majority leader embodies a leadership team they view as weak, reactive, risk-averse, and ideologically diluted.
After the House Republicans’ first term in the majority was ruined by open internecine warfare, a dozen conservative malcontents tried — and failed — to oust Boehner at the dawn of this 113th Congress. The speaker responded by spending considerable time and energy last year restoring relations with the right wing of his conference, and as a result, 2013 was relatively harmonious for the House GOP. (Boehner even won a standing ovation when announcing the House GOP’s surrender 16 days into the government shutdown.)
But the disillusionment was quickly rekindled in this second session. A large faction of House Republicans came into 2014 determined to produce a proactive agenda, and pleaded with leadership to address four areas in particular — health care, taxes, privacy, and welfare spending — so as to strike a sharp election-year contrast against Democrats. Boehner’s team rejected that approach, opting instead to play it safe and avoid missteps that could cost Republicans a chance to win the Senate.
“There are no big ideas coming out of the conference. Our leadership expects to coast through this election by banking on everyone’s hatred for Obamacare,” one Republican lawmaker who has been organizing the anti-Boehner rebellion said earlier this year. “There’s nothing big being done. We’re reshuffling chairs on the Titanic.”
The approach taken by Boehner and Cantor may yet help Senate Republicans take back the majority. Ironically, it also might have ensured that they won’t be around to work across the Capitol with them. |
Pyongyang warned Seoul on Thursday that military action would be taken over the cross-border propaganda leaflets spread by South Korean activists, the Yonhap news agency reported.
MOSCOW, October 23 (RIA Novosti) - Pyongyang warned Seoul on Thursday that military action would be taken over the cross-border propaganda leaflets spread by South Korean activists, the Yonhap news agency reported.
According to Yonhap, the North Korean Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland has issued a statement, sharply criticizing the South Korean authorities for not doing enough to block the spread of the leaflets.
On October 10, the two Koreas exchanged artillery fire after South Korean activists fired large balloons carrying 200,000 anti-Pyongyang leaflets over the border into North Korea.
North Korean authorities have repeatedly urged Seoul to stop such actions and have threatened to shell the area where the activists are carrying out their launches. Pyongyang has also threatened Seoul that it would put off the long-awaited high-level talks.
In mid-October, South and North Korea concluded their first high-level military talks in seven years, although no agreement was reached on a number of issues, including the latest violations of the disputed Northern Limit Line (NLL) – a demarcation line drawn in 1953 by the United Nations following the end of the Korean War.
The Korean Peninsula is formally in a state of war, as no peace treaty was ever signed after the Korean War of 1950-1953. Relations between North and South Korea worsened in 2010, when the South Korean Cheonan warship was sunk in the Yellow Sea. A South Korean investigation determined the vessel was hit by a North Korean torpedo. |
With Super Bowl 50 coming soon to Silicon Valley, San Jose plans to piggyback on the hoopla by “activating” Plaza de Cesar Chavez, one of the city’s most iconic parks.
Activate a park?
Think live jazz and programmable light displays to seduce passers-by. Think Tuscan piazza as a backdrop for serendipitous encounters. Think Adirondack chairs, a beer garden and food trucks. These are props in the city’s effort to not just celebrate the big game but use the plaza as a pop-up experiment in its $300,000 campaign to rethink its public spaces.
“Super Bowl is great, but Super Bowl will come and go while San Jose and Cesar Chavez plaza will remain,” says Danny Harris, San Jose’s program director for the Miami-based Knight Foundation, which is partnering with Adobe Systems and the city on the temporary “Winter at Plaza de Cesar Chavez” as well as San Jose’s fledgling plan to draw more residents to their parks, starting this spring with the city focusing on St. James Park. “We’re more interested in the long-term implications of having a park, driven by design, become a place of civic engagement.”
And the activation has begun. Crews from the city’s parks department along with installation teams from Philadelphia-based Groundswell Design Group have descended on Cesar Chavez, a three-minute walk from the Marriott Hotel, where the NFC team will be staying the week before the Feb. 7 game.
An iconic sporting event expected to draw hundreds of millions of viewer around the globe, this year’s Super Bowl 50’s historic status offers San Jose powerful leverage to not only entice people to party but hopefully create a legacy that will change the way a park can be integrated more cohesively into its surroundings. That effort to enliven San Jose’s parks is being jump-started with a $150,000 grant from Knight, matched by city funds.
Kim Walesh, the city’s director of economic development and co-chairwoman of the San Jose Sports Authority, says using the game as a near-term way to help change the public perception of its parks over time became an integral part of the planning process early on.
“We started out a year and a half ago with a small team trying to figure out how to ensure San Jose has an official role in this huge event and how we can use the Super Bowl experience to move San Jose forward in a number of ways,” Walesh said. “Having Super Bowl here in Silicon Valley provides us not just a way to build on our reputation as a tourist destination but also a way to move city projects forward that have been sort of floating around for a long time.”
Cesar Chavez Park, located smack dab in the middle of downtown and surrounded by a rich array of popular visitor destinations, was like the light bulb going on.
“We knew that with one of the teams staying at the Marriott, there’d be a lot of visitors and media in and around the park,” she said. Using it as a temporary party site fit in well with the fact that “the city, going back three or four years, has put an emphasis on not just having parks as green places on a map but as inviting places that people really want to go to and hang out at.”
And so the plan was hatched: Jazz up Cesar Chavez for a Super Bowl bash, even though the NFL’s notoriously restrictive merchandising policies prevent organizers from actually calling it such and test out things like a cafe and beer garden as future draws for other parks in the city.
“Sometimes doing things like that on a permanent basis seems so big and daunting,” Walesh said of the larger parks project. “But doing it incrementally like this, using Super Bowl as the hook, it’s easy to get people on board” and hopefully accept eventual large-scale change in the city’s urban core.
The Cesar Chavez project was inspired, albeit on a more modest scale, by a park-improvement effort in Philadelphia called Spruce Street Harbor Park, where Groundswell’s David Fierabend said a Knight Foundation grant helped transform a neglected space on the Delaware River into what the Huffington Post called one of the best urban beaches in the world.
Just as that pop-up experiment turned into a permanent and popular park, Groundswell and its partners hope to work their magic here in San Jose, starting with the Super Bowl party. “Master plans are great,” said Fierabend of a city’s long-term planning vision, “but what happens in the meantime when these parks aren’t active? How can we revitalize them in a low-cost way but also get a lot of bang for the buck?”
In San Jose this week, that starts with new grounds preparation and trees strung with LED lights that will be programmed to the music, a mini football field, ping-pong and picnic tables, Adirondack chairs and hammocks for relaxing, and more, said Rafael Gomez with the city’s parks department.
Meanwhile, the first of three Groundswell teams is stringing up the light display, Fierabend said, getting everything in place for Friday, Jan. 29, when the park begins its run through Super Bowl Sunday on Feb. 7.
As Knight’s Harris puts it, “Super Bowl traditional creates a sense of urgency for the host cities to spend money and put their best face forward. With the Cesar Chavez Park project, we want to try and keep the momentum going once Super Bowl 50 is gone.”
Contact Patrick May at 408-920-5689 or follow him at Twitter.com/patmaymerc |
I think I'm a pretty typical mom. I have three adorable kids. I wear comfy jeans to parent involvement meetings at school. I use cloth diapers, amber teething necklaces, and have a Beco, a Moby, and two Ergos (which obviously means I'm way into baby wearing!).
For all intents and purposes I have the perfect suburban mommy resume. With one enormous exception. I keep a huge secret from my family, neighbors, and friends. After a long day of story time at the library, playing with moon sand, and finger painting… I go to work. I don't have a typical mom job. Not by a long shot.
I'm an escort.
Not an escort of the Ford Motor Co. variety. But an honest to goodness escort. The sort they make jokes about whenever Eliot Spitzer's name comes up.
I have sexual contact with men and am paid for the time I spend with them.
Scoop those jaws up off of the floor, moms and dads, because it's true. And it could happen to you.
I don't mean you'll be trafficked into sex work by some skeevy creeper on the internet — I mean that you may some day be in a position you never dreamed you'd be in doing things you never saw yourself doing in order to make ends meet.
Let me rewind to the beginning.
I was a well-educated stay-at-home mom. My husband didn't make millions but he made enough that if we lived frugally, we were comfortable without an additional income. Then one day, he pulled the rug out from under me. He informed me that he had fallen in love with another woman. And then he left. Just like that. Years of marriage down the drain. Three children, a dog, and a cat together. None of that was enough to make him stay.
So there I was, a young single mom with three children, an apartment, and pets to provide for. I tried getting jobs, but nothing worked. The salary was never high enough and the hours were never acceptable. I have one school-aged child, a toddler, and an infant. I could have put the youngest two into daycare, but there would be nobody to walk my school-aged child to and from school safely. I have no family, no close friends, no support network, no church, no friendly neighbors, absolutely nothing.
I tried to go to the government, but there was no help there. Every job I could find made enough to disqualify me from welfare programs (no Food Stamps, no Temporary Assistance, no Daycare Assistance, nothing) but never enough to make ends meet. My biggest problem was my student loans. None of those public assistance organizations take student loan repayment into account. I spend more on repaying my student loans than all of my other bills COMBINED. If I default on those, I'll never be able to get ahead. The interest and penalties will continue to build, and I'll be financially sunk. I don't get to file bankruptcy on student loans.
Then one day I bumped into an old college girlfriend at the grocery store. We spent some time catching up and I asked her, out of the blue, if she was still in the escorting business. You see, she put herself through college without a single loan, and without having to work her fingers to the bone in order to make ends meet. She did it by escorting. When I asked her back then how she did it, and she told me, I was horrified. I still adored her, I just couldn't believe how a person could do such a thing.
My, how I have changed in the few years that have passed.
Here I spent all of these years of marriage living frugally and getting an education while raising my little family, and it all blew up in my face.
So my friend from college gave me the contact info that I needed to get involved with her coordinator in the business. I researched. I made calls. I read blogs. I lurked on forums. I was so afraid. But already the collections calls were coming in, my pantry was empty and I knew if I was going to make it, I was going to have to do something that horrifies most people — something that used to horrify me, too.
And you know what? It's not horrible. I don't hate my life. In fact, sometimes I think I have it better than most American moms. I work on the evenings and weekends the kids are at their father's place (a total of two weekends and four weekdays every month). They never even know I'm gone. Then when they are with me, I get to be a devoted single stay-at-home mom.
I'm very careful to have various safeguards in place and I work with a top-notch company that caters to extremely wealthy clients. I don't put ads on the internet, I don't hook up with people on Craigslist, nothing like that. I'm about as safe as I can possibly be in the unsafe world of a sex worker.
It's not an easy job, it's not glamorous, and I know that most people reading this will be looking down their noses just SURE that they would never do anything so demeaning or degrading.
It's not an easy job, it's not glamorous, and I know that most people reading this will be looking down their noses just SURE that they would never do anything so demeaning or degrading. But I'm happy that I am able to provide for my kids. I'm glad we're not living in a homeless shelter, begging in the streets. I'm glad they are warm, I'm glad they have food in their bellies, and I'm relieved that I can provide them with the basics that they need, and a few extra goodies when they've been especially well-behaved.
Being a parent is hard work. If it weren't for my kids, I'm not sure what I'd be doing right now. One thing is certain: when I say that I would do anything for my kids….I mean it. |
On October 10 Community Development staff presented a Real Estate Development Update to the City Council, providing an overview of projects under construction, proposed new projects, and development opportunity sites in San Leandro. The update highlighted many of the exciting projects underway or planned, representing hundreds of millions of dollars of investment. These projects will not only improve the built environment, but also create opportunities for hundreds of quality jobs and over 1,000 new housing units.
Some of the largest projects are in the industrial area, where the City is experiencing record low vacancy rates. As a safe community located near the Oakland Airport, Port of Oakland, Interstates 880 and 580, with access to Lit San Leandro high speed internet, San Leandro is a great place to locate a business, particularly in the growing field of advanced manufacturing.
Several key industrial sites are proposed for redevelopment, representing the first Class A industrial development in the community in several decades. The 161,000 square foot Comstock Industrial Center is already under construction at 2388 Williams Street (@ Doolittle Dr), with several strong tenants being considered. The existing location of the Sears outlet store at 1980 West Avenue 140th (@ Wicks Blvd) is being prepared for a full remodel to prepare for a new tenant, Friant, a custom office furniture manufacturer, which will employ over 100 people. New industrial buildings geared towards manufacturing are also being proposed to replace existing, outdated buildings at 2756 Alvarado St. (@ Aladdin Ave.) and 2000 Marina Blvd. (west of Merced St.). The largest redevelopment site is the location of the former Kraft / Yuban coffee plant, where the developer is considering several industrial scenarios at the 30 acre site. In addition to the millions of dollars of investment, these projects will also bring public improvements, including utility undergrounding, street widening, and new landscaping.
Anyone who has visited Downtown San Leandro recently can see that there is significant construction activity underway, including the San Leandro Tech Campus and Marea Alta housing development on either side of the BART station. A number of exciting new housing and commercial developments are also in the works. A fourth office building is planned for the Creekside Plaza complex at San Leandro Blvd. and Davis St., as well as the second and third office buildings and a potential housing project at the Tech Campus along Alvarado St. Planning is also underway for a top-tier mixed-use development at East 14th St. and Callan Ave., with potential for over 100 housing units and ground floor retail, potentially including a specialty grocer. Several new infill housing developments are also on the way, including 60 units at Washington Ave. and Thornton St.
The City will also be selling three sites previously owned by the Redevelopment Agency. Two of the sites are located in Downtown, including the Town Hall Square site at Davis, East 14th St., and Dan Niemi Way. This long-planned development site offers the opportunity for a mixed-use retail, office, and residential, as well as the opportunity to open the development up to San Leandro Creek. The second site is at Washington Ave. and Parrott St., where there is potential for a smaller-scale residential and retail development. The third site is the former Fire Station #11 at 2101 Marina, which is zoned for neighborhood serving commercial uses. These properties will be offered for sale in the coming month through a public Request for Proposals (RFP) process and more detail on the development plans should be available in 2017.
You can view the full presentation HERE. |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two of America’s leading auctioneers of guns said they refused on ethical grounds to handle the sale of the 9 mm pistol that George Zimmerman used to kill unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin.
The firearm is so toxic that another auctioneer, the man who sold the revolver used to kill John F. Kennedy’s assassin, said he would want no part of it had he been approached by Zimmerman.
Zimmerman, a onetime neighborhood watch volunteer, is trying to sell the Kel-Tec PF-9 that he used to shoot the black Florida teenager in 2012, a case that convulsed the country and ignited debates on race relations, gun control and American justice.
A jury acquitted Zimmerman, who was protected by Florida’s “stand your ground” self-defense laws.
Two auctioneers, Wes Cowan of Cowan’s Auctions in Cincinnati and James Julia of James D. Julia Auctioneers in Fairfield, Maine, both said on Friday that Zimmerman called their establishments recently hoping to consign the gun with them. Both turned him down.
Cowan said he never returned the call. Julia said he instructed his employees not to accept the gun.
“The man is despicable and I would have nothing to do with his gun,” Julia said.
Cowan said: “Morally and ethically, no, I wouldn’t do it.”
Zimmerman could not be reached for comment, but told Orlando TV station WOFL this week the gun was his to sell and he would not be “cowed” by critics.
The gun may be valuable to history buffs, gun enthusiasts or opponents of the Black Lives Matter civil rights movement that Martin’s death helped spawn.
Others who apparently retain vitriol for Zimmerman have placed false bids on the gun in an online auction on the United Gun Group’s website, bidding it up to $65 million on Friday with bidder names such as “Racist McShootFace.”
The handgun used in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin is seen this handout photo provided by the State Attorney's Office on May 17, 2012. Courtesy State Attorney's Office/Handout via REUTERS
Herman Darvick, a collector and auctioneer, said there was no such backlash when he helped Ruby’s brother sell the .38 Colt Cobra that killed Lee Harvey Oswald on Nov. 24, 1963, two days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The gun sold for $220,000 in 1991.
Darvick said selling the Zimmerman gun was outside the bounds of acceptable behavior.
“No, I wouldn’t touch it,” Darvick said. “If anything, it should go to a black history museum. He shouldn’t get a penny for it.”
NEGATIVE PUBLICITY
Another antique gun dealer, who was not approached by Zimmerman, said he would turn it down just as he refuses to sell Nazi memorabilia.
Sean Rich, owner of Tortuga Trading and well known as an antique firearms consultant on the History Channel TV show “Pawn Stars,” said the negative publicity for an auctioneer would outweigh any profit.
“That’s one of the reasons I choose not to deal with Nazi material. You have to draw the line somewhere,” Rich said.
But guns used by gangsters and gunslingers from the past are more acceptable, the dealers said, in part because of the passage of time and the lore surrounding personalities such as Jesse James, prohibition-era bootleggers or Bonnie and Clyde.
Rarely do history’s most infamous guns go on sale. The Mannlicher-Carcano rifle from the Kennedy assassination is held at the National Archives. John Wilkes Booth’s Deringer, used to kill President Abraham Lincoln, is on display at the Ford’s Theater Museum.
The Deringer would get $1 million to $2 million at auction, Julia estimated. About 10 years ago, he sold the law enforcement rifle that killed outlaw Clyde Barrow for $69,000. He said he would have to think about selling Jack Ruby’s gun, given the chance.
That gun has belonged to South Florida real estate developer Anthony Pugliese III, who bought it at Darvick’s auction, but he had to give up formal ownership when he pleaded guilty to a fraud charge last year, according to Doug Marek, general counsel for his firm, the Pugliese Company.
Slideshow (2 Images)
Marek declined to say who formally owned the gun now but offered, “It hasn’t gone far.”
In any case, there are no plans to sell the gun, Marek said.
“Reportedly, it’s the most valuable gun in private possession,” Marek said. “It’s clearly worth millions.” |
curi Profile Joined May 2009 United States 260 Posts #2 Reserved for possible updates. twitch.tv/curi42
Trump Profile Joined April 2010 United States 68 Posts #3 That's some great analysis. Friendship is Magic! <3
eASe. Profile Joined January 2011 Singapore 3 Posts #4 Great writeup, seems like board control is usually more important than card value when given the choice between the two.
iEchoic Profile Joined May 2010 United States 61 Posts Last Edited: 2013-11-26 19:09:56 #5 I enjoyed this article and think the analysis is worth reading. Not much else to say on the analysis, it was well-done.
About the conclusion: the statement that skill is a factor is certainly true, and the statement that even the best players make mistakes is certainly true - but the statement "skill is the biggest factor in deciding games" hasn't been demonstrated. Skill and luck are the two factors at play, but is skill 30%? 50%? 75? This is obviously very difficult to quantify - but until it's been quantified, the above statement is a guess. The fact that we'd have a different champion if the last draw of the game was different doesn't bode well for that prediction.
There is only one way this question will be answered in the future: tournament results. If we see the same people winning TL Opens consistently, then we'll have our answer. Until that point, it's up-in-the-air. I personally don't think we'll see it with the current format. vileEchoic -- clanvile.com
AsmodeusXI Profile Joined July 2007 United States 21 Posts #6 Great article. Really fun and in depth analysis. I wonder if the players themselves would agree! TL > RL. BNet: Asmodeus#1187 - LoL: DJForeclosure - Steam: asmodeusxi | www.n3rddimension.com
Hondelul Profile Joined December 2010 122 Posts #7 Fantastic analysis.
Little mistake in the article: Game 4 Turn 5/6 has the wrong pictures.
Mistake rating:
I probably wouldn't have noticed these mistakes during the stream, could just watch some games but they looked good.
With such a deep analysis there would for sure be some mistakes found.
curi Profile Joined May 2009 United States 260 Posts #8 On November 27 2013 04:12 AsmodeusXI wrote:
Great article. Really fun and in depth analysis. I wonder if the players themselves would agree!
On November 27 2013 03:57 Trump wrote:
That's some great analysis.
twitch.tv/curi42
monk Profile Joined May 2009 United States 1140 Posts #9 On November 27 2013 04:13 Hondelul wrote:
Fantastic analysis.
Little mistake in the article: Game 4 Turn 5/6 has the wrong pictures.
Mistake rating:
I probably wouldn't have noticed these mistakes during the stream, could just watch some games but they looked good.
With such a deep analysis there would for sure be some mistakes found.
Thanks, fixed! Thanks, fixed!
AsmodeusXI Profile Joined July 2007 United States 21 Posts #10 On November 27 2013 04:14 curi wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 27 2013 04:12 AsmodeusXI wrote:
Great article. Really fun and in depth analysis. I wonder if the players themselves would agree!
Show nested quote +
On November 27 2013 03:57 Trump wrote:
That's some great analysis.
I meant Artosis and Kripp specifically, but his comment also wasn't there when I commented. I meant Artosis and Kripp specifically, but his comment also wasn't there when I commented. TL > RL. BNet: Asmodeus#1187 - LoL: DJForeclosure - Steam: asmodeusxi | www.n3rddimension.com
awesomoecalypse Profile Joined August 2010 United States 532 Posts Last Edited: 2013-11-26 19:35:41 #11
Really liked this point
Nice thread.Really liked this point Artosis topdecks a kill. Some people saying topdecking is lucky, but when you're ahead and trying to finish the game for several turns, and a lot of cards in your deck would work, I don't think it was really very lucky.
The notion that topdecking a win is somehow cheap or lucky may be true for certain situations, but in a deck built around stalling for powerful lategame finishers, and that therefore includes a number of potential game ending cards, eventually drawing one of those cards in the lategame isn't really getting unusually lucky. A mage who wins by topdecking a Pyroblast Pyroblast not drawing at least one of them over 9 turns are fairly low. The "lucky" win in such a scenario isn't the Mage who eventually topdecks Pyroblast Pyroblast Pyroblast doesn't draw or topdeck Pyroblast The notion that topdecking a win is somehow cheap or lucky may be true for certain situations, but in a deck built around stalling for powerful lategame finishers, and that therefore includes a number of potential game ending cards, eventually drawing one of those cards in the lategame isn't really getting unusually lucky. A mage who wins by topdecking adrawing at least one of them over 9 turns are fairly low. The "lucky" win in such a scenario isn't the Mage who eventually topdecksdraw or topdeck He drone drone drone. Me win. - ogsMC
curi Profile Joined May 2009 United States 260 Posts #12 I agree. It's when mage draws pyro on turns 8 AND 9 that you get to complain :D twitch.tv/curi42
ReketSomething Profile Joined November 2008 United States 80 Posts #13 Great analysis! These articles are all really nicely written and formatted. Go TL! Thats awesomeGreat analysis! These articles are all really nicely written and formatted. Go TL! Jaedong :3
SultanVinegar Profile Joined May 2009 United States 14 Posts #14 Thanks so much for putting the time into this analysis everyone! I'll be looking to incorporate these lessons into my own play. I'm a Flash man.
necrosed Profile Joined March 2011 Brazil 12 Posts #15 I'm excited to see big TL support for Hearthstone! Great write-up, keep up the good work! Shadow of his former self.
Lin of Koi Profile Joined June 2012 Netherlands 10 Posts #16 Very insightful, can't wait to see the full TL squad participate in a broadcasted tournament!
willoc Profile Joined February 2011 Canada 631 Posts #17
Thank you for the article. Very nice. On November 27 2013 04:09 iEchoic wrote:
About the conclusion: the statement that skill is a factor is certainly true, and the statement that even the best players make mistakes is certainly true - but the statement "skill is the biggest factor in deciding games" hasn't been demonstrated.
My thoughts as well. Very circumstantial evidence so far and I am still personally leaning towards wins being based on more RNG rather than skill.
My thoughts as well. Very circumstantial evidence so far and I am still personally leaning towards wins being based on more RNG rather than skill. Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid!
laerteis Profile Joined August 2012 United States 20 Posts #18 Quite simply the best analytical Hearthstone article yet produced. Excellent work and thank you. support Axiom eSports http://www.axiomesports.com/
HolyArrow Profile Joined August 2010 United States 69 Posts Last Edited: 2013-11-26 23:44:57 #19 Awesome thread, very educational! I was previously of the opinion that the game was a bit too luck-based, but this thread helped alleviate some of those fears
Chezus Profile Joined January 2011 Netherlands 39 Posts #20 Great read, great analysis, great thread. Truly. Well done! Many pats on the back are deserved.
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ASUS quietly launched the new GeForce GTX 960 equipped with DirectCU3 cooling solution.
ASUS GTX 960 with DirectCU3 cooler
This is the first product with DirectCU3 solution available for purchase. This cooler was first shown at Computex with recently announced GTX 980 Ti, but it was slightly modified version for STRIX series. The card you see here is the pure DirectCU III model.
ASUS GTX960 DC3 is factory-overlocked to 1228/1291 MHz (based/boost) with memory clock at stock 7 GHz. ASUS GTX960 DC3 has 2GB GDDR5 memory across 128-bit interface.
Just like any other GTX960 it comes with GM206 GPU and 1024 CUDA cores. Card is equipped with three DisplayPorts 1,2, HDMI 2.0 and DVI-I output.
Card is available for 1700 Chinese yuans, which equals around 270 USD.
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NBA all-star LeBron James seems unaware of the fact that insulting a large percentage of your fans as ignorant morons because of their political affiliations leads to ruin, a hard lesson that the NFL is very quickly realizing.
Showing solidarity with the social justice cause celebre of athletes kneeling during the national anthem, James hit President Trump on Twitter over the weekend for lambasting the protests and calling for boycotts against the NFL. However, his rhetoric against the President went a particularly ill-advised direction when he trashed his supporters during a press conference on Monday.
According to James, his home state of Ohio "made a mistake" voting for Trump because they were "uneducated."
"No matter whether you voted for him or not, you may have made a mistake and that’s OK, if you voted for him. It’s OK. I’ve done things for my daughter and realized I shouldn’t have gave my daughter that many damn Skittles. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that," he said.
Then he hit at his own fans in the state of Ohio for giving Trump the vote, echoing Hillary's "basket of deplorables" comments.
"At the end of the day, I don’t think a lot of people was educated," he said. "And I think that’s one of the biggest problems that we have. When it becomes vote time, people are just not educated on either the individual or what’s going on in the state of the world right now. ... I don’t think a lot of people are educated and they make choices and say things that are uneducated."
As Hillary learned, calling people stupid is not exactly the best recipe to win them over to your side. To LeBron, though, whether the states were "educated" or not matters little to him, because in the end, they all made the mistake of not voting for Hillary.
"And am I saying that the people of Ohio wasn’t educated?" he ponderd. "Am I saying that some of the other states that voted for him was uneducated? They could have been or they could not have been. But that doesn’t mean it was the right choice."
Though LeBron supports the athletes taking a knee during the National Anthem, he will not be doing the same, since he says people know where he stands.
"What I say, I think it should hit home for a lot of people that know where I stand," he said. "I don’t believe I should have to get on my knee for me to even further what I’m talking about."
LeBron also does not believe that kneeling for the National Anthem represents any sort of hostility against the United States or the troops, saying that it's not about "disrespect of the flag and our military and everybody who has made this world free. It is about equality and people having the option, the freedom, to speak about things that they feel that’s not just." |
By EDRi
Public consultations are an opportunity to influence policy-making at an early stage, and to help to shape a brighter future for your digital rights.
Below you can find the public consultations which EDRi finds relevant in 2017. (Find the past the ones from 2016 here). We will update the list on an ongoing basis, adding our responses to the consultations and other information that can help you get engaged. (Note: The Consultations are listed in order of the deadlines – latest first.).
Public consultation on fake news and online disinformation by the European Commission
Deadline: 23 February 2018
EDRi’s response
Public consultation on New Study of Content Regulation in the Digital Age by UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of expression and opinion
Deadline: 20 December 2017
EDRi’s response
Public consultation on the review of the directive on the re-use of Public Sector Information (PSI Directive)
Deadline: 12 December 2017
Public consultation on Transparency of legislative work within Council preparatory bodies by European Ombudsman
Deadline: 01 December 2017 > Deadline extended: 31 December 2017
> Deadline extended: EDRi’s response
Public consultation on tackling illegal content online for the European Commission
Deadline: 31 October 2017 > Deadline extended: 15 November 2017
EDRi responded.
Public consultation on draft BEREC report on the impact of premium content on ECS markets and the effect of devices on the open use of the Internet
Deadline: 8 November 2017
Public consultation on draft BEREC Work Programme 2018
Deadline: 8 November 2017
Public consultation on draft BEREC Preliminary report in view of a common position on monitoring mobile coverage
Deadline: 8 November 2017
Public consultation on Developing internet universality indicators by UNESCO
Deadline: 31 October 2017
EDRi’s response
Public consultation on improving cross-border access to electronic evidence in criminal matters
Public consultation on the interoperability of EU information systems for borders and security
Deadline: 19 October 2017
Public consultation on transformation of Health and Care in the Digital Single Market
Deadline: 12 October 2017
EDRi’s response
Public consultation on the Database Directive
Deadline: 30 August 2017
EDRi’s response
Public consultation on the roles and responsibilities of internet intermediaries by the Council of Europe
Deadline: 25 August 2017
EDRi’s response
Public consultation on media pluralism and transparency of media ownership by the Council of Europe
Deadline: 25 August 2017
Public consultation on Draft BEREC Report on IP-Interconnection Practices in the context of Net-Neutrality
Deadline: 5 July 2017
Public consultation on Draft BEREC Strategy 2018-2020
Deadline: 5 July 2017
EDRi’s response
Public consultation on BEREC’s Draft Net Neutrality Regulatory Assessment Methodology
Call for contributions to the European Commission’s notification procedure (TRIS) on the German bill on enforcement of social networks
Deadline: 28 June 2017
EDRi’s response
Feedback to the Draft Final Report “Trade SIA in support of negotiations on a plurilateral Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA)” and its annexes conducted by Ecorys and CEPR for the European Commission
Deadline: 2 June 2017
EDRi’s response
Public Consultation on Whistleblower Protection
Deadline: 29 May 2017
EDRi’s response
Public Consultation on Civil Law Rules on Robotics
Deadline: 30 April 2017 > Deadline extended: 31 May 2017
> Deadline extended: EDRi’s response
Public Consultation on Building the European Data Economy
Deadline: 26 April 2017
EDRi’s response
Public Consultation for the review of the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA)
Deadline: 12 April 2017
Public Consultation on the BEREC Medium-Term strategy 2018-2020
Deadline: 5 April 2017
EDRi’s response
Questionnaire on options for a multilateral reform of investment dispute resolution
Deadline: 15 March 2017
EDRi’s response
Feedback to the Draft Interim Technical Report “Trade SIA in support of negotiations on a plurilateral Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA)” and its annexes conducted by Ecorys and CEPR for the European Commission |
You’ve got to be kidding.
In the aftermath of his defeat in Georgia’s sixth congressional district, where he lost to former Georgia’s former secretary of state Karen Handel after spending roughly $32 million, Democrat Jon Ossoff gave a new demonstration of chutzpah. Check this out:
Democrat Jon Ossoff on the reportedly $40 million spent in the Georgia election: "We need campaign finance reform." https://t.co/88GDR13Hqu pic.twitter.com/FjS5JWTC1x — Morning Edition (@MorningEdition) June 20, 2017
Considering how the money was spent in the most expensive congressional race in history, that was a rather outrageous statement, and people noticed:
Remind me who had more money and where it came from. https://t.co/hxxsE560bQ — Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) June 21, 2017
Guy who blew $30 million trying to get elected in a district where he doesn't reside calls for campaign fiscal restraint. #SoundsLegit #MAGA https://t.co/cPHFxWaizJ — Sen. Frank Niceley (@SenFrankNiceley) June 21, 2017
You might go back and forth-with this; you might first claim that Ossoff spent more money on the race overall than Handel did; but then Ossoff might counter by saying if you were just looking at how much money was spent on Handel and Ossoff from outside groups, he had a point, as Handel received roughly $19 million from outside groups while Ossoff received roughly $7.5 million.
But here’s the real elephant in the room that Ossoff conveniently ignores; see tweet at the bottom of the article. Notice anything? Look at the top of the list. How about the fact that of the roughly $19 million Handel received, roughly $7 million came from the Republican Party? In other words, Ossoff’s campaign spent roughly $30 million, the most in congressional history, and the GOP stepped in and decided to back its candidate to make sure she won the seat.
If Ossoff is complaining that a party shouldn’t have the right to support its own candidate, that is the most ridiculous claim of all. |
13-year NBA veteran guard Earl Watson is considering retirement, according to a report by David Pick of Sportando.com.
Earl Watson, I’m told, is mulling retirement. His camp couldn’t confirm though. — David Pick (@IAmDPick) May 31, 2014
Watson spent last season with the Portland Trail Blazers after signing a deal on July 10, 2013. He averaged 0.5 points, 0.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 24 appearances for the team.
He was drafted by the Seattle SuperSonics with the No. 39 pick in the second round of the 2001 NBA draft out of UCLA. Watson has also suited up for the Memphis Grizzlies, Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Indiana Pacers and Utah Jazz.
With a head coaching vacancy in Utah, Watson has let it be known that he’d be willing to take the job, according to Chris Haynes of CSNNW.
If he were to land the position, he’d at least have the support of swingman Gordon Hayward:
“I’m definitely pulling for Earl to get the job,” Jazz forward Gordon Hayward told CSNNW.com via phone Friday morning. “He’s a great guy and has a great basketball mind. If he did become our coach and I got to play under him, it would be great because I know how hard he’ll work and prepare us. He’s a true professional and I think no matter where he ends up, he’ll be a great head coach in the NBA.”
Jason Kidd of the Brooklyn Nets has proven that players can make the transition from being an on-court talent to a sideline general and be successful.
Perhaps Watson will be the next to take that plunge. |
As noted by National Review's David French, boycotts are usually much "more noise than substance." However, this was not the case with a boycott launched at Target after the retail giant made a liberal statement by announcing their controversial transgender bathroom policy last April, which opened their fitting rooms and restrooms to "gender identity" as opposed to biological sex.
"We welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity," reads the statement from Target, posted in a company blog. "Everyone deserves to feel like they belong."
The swift and fierce blow-back from consumers against the company's liberal activism hit the company – hard. Business Insider reports:
The boycott cost the company millions in lost sales and added expenses. Shopper traffic and same-store sales started sliding for the first time in years after the blog post, and the company was forced to spend $20 million installing single-occupancy bathrooms in all its stores to give critics of the policy more privacy. [...] Sales fell nearly 6% in the three quarters after the post compared with the same period last year, and same-store sales have dropped every quarter since the post.
A petition rebuking Target's new policy was signed by over 1.4 million people, who accused the retail giant of putting women and children at risk in order to promote their liberal agenda.
The anti-Target movement gained even more momentum in large part due to corporate watchdog group 2ndVote. The conservative group launched an #AnywhereButTARGET campaign in November, asking conservatives to cast their second vote with their wallets by abstaining from the store.
"2ndVote is marking the start of the Christmas shopping season by launching the #AnywhereButTARGET campaign to allow conservatives direct communication with Target and highlight alternative retailers for Christmas shopping," read 2ndVote's press release.
“Conservatives have many other options to Target this season and that’s why we’re choosing #AnywhereButTARGET,” said executive director Lance Wray. “When a company as large and well-known as Target chooses to insert itself directly into such a radical movement that seeks to ultimately destroy religious liberty and completely goes against our conservative values, it’s our role as an organization to give conservatives a way to communicate directly with the company.”
Not only did Target feel conservatives' disapproval in their pocketbook, the boycott lead to the company spending $20 million on single-occupancy bathrooms in an attempt to skirt their bold trans policy. Clearly, conservatives can make a significant impact on the culture by voting with their wallets. |
Caracas, July 15th 2013 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Both opposition and government parties presented steps over the weekend for selecting candidates for the Dec. 8 municipal elections.
Coordinators of the opposition party Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) confirmed on Saturday that the party would run on a single unity ballot in order to maximize vote total.
“The unity ballot will facilitate the vote to the elector, decrease confusion, and allow us to take advantage of the lessons of April 14," when the MUD’s single ballot for Henrique Capriles achieved over 7 million votes, the party’s executive secretary Ramon Guillermo said.
The MUD will likely focus on economic issues in an effort to win 30%-40% of mayoral posts currently held by the left-wing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), whose candidates won 80% of the 335 posts in the previous municipal elections in 2008.
Meanwhile, Governor of Carabobo state and member of the PSUV National Directorate Francisco Ameliach announced that the party would name its municipal candidates later this week. In a speech last month to the PSUV, President Nicolas Maduro suggested that the party would select its candidates with leaders of the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP), as opposed to conducting internal primary elections.
At the close of the Street Government in Apure state yesterday, Maduro called for unity to ensure electoral victory and “consolidate peace and tranquility in the country.”
During the program, Maduro also approved of the first expropriation under his government on a plot of land in Barrio March 19 of Apure’s Birauaca district, in order to build public housing for 213 families.
After reading a proposal from the state’s governor to expropriate the land for families “that have their stake in it [the land] and should be attended to by the Great Venezuela Housing Mission,” Maduro said, “As there is a debate about who owns the land: whether he or she is here, or there, it now doesn't belong to anyone. It belongs to the people.”
Yesterday also marked the beginning of the “Military Street Government” in which military officials examine military equipment and facilities across the country. The project is the initiative of new Defense Minister Carmen Melendez, the country’s first female to serve in the capacity. |
Chronicled, a Silicon Valley based start-up, has unveiled a new method to verify the authenticity of high-end sneakers. Instead of using labels which can often be copied to a point where it is difficult to easily verify, a smart tag containing a PKI chip hosts an encrypted private key with the public key stored on Ethereum’s blockchain.
Buyers can easily verify authenticity by scanning the tag with their phone, prompting an app download which further allows for registration of the sneakers and their owner’s details. According to a press release:
“The blockchain registration functions as a digital deed of title for… sneaker[s] that cannot be forged, but can be transferred in the event of a sale or trade, proving authenticity and provenance of the sneakers into the secondary market.”
The counterfeit market is estimated at almost $2 trillion worldwide, with 75% of high end sneakers on eBay estimated as fake. The merging of encryption, smart tags and Ethereum’s public blockchain promises to address this problem once and for all as, according to Chronicled, the tags “can not be duplicated” and “are tamperproof”:
“The antenna inside will break if a tag is removed, so a smart tag cannot be removed and then placed on a counterfeit item.”
The technology was showcased last month with Mache Customs, one of the more influential high-end custom sneaker designers, launching a collection equipped with the smart tag in honour of Kanye West and his daughter. More recently, the encrypted smart tag was used in a limited edition from Major, a Washington based sneaker shop, which released “MAJOR Reebok Phase 1 Pro USA” to celebrate today’s Independence Day.
This is one of the first application of blockchain technology that solves a real problem in a unique and previously unavailable method, promising to transform titles, ownership and authentication in a way that is easy to prove and verify, making enforcement of property rights a much more accessible process. George Hallam, External Relations at the Ethereum Foundation, stated:
“The services Chronicled are offering highlight the ever-closing gap between the promise of blockchain technology and its actual utilisation in the real world.”
If the concept takes off in other markets, title registration and authenticity verification may be one of blockchain’s killer apps as any valuable property, from bikes to cars to even gadgets, such as phones or laptops, can be secured by a global and decentralized tamper proof blockchain.
There may, however, be scalability concerns as it would require the capability to handled tens, if not hundreds, of millions of daily transactions, but, unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum developers believe Ethereum’s blockchain can scale to unlimited transactions. Hallam, likewise, was not concerned about any scalability limits, welcoming, instead, the non-currency uses of Ethereum:
“At the Ethereum Foundation, we welcome demonstrations of the versatility and capability of the Ethereum platform and its underlying technology.”
Interest in blockchain technology exploded in 2016 with numerous start-ups, banks, giant tech companies and consortium’s racing to apply this new innovation and bring its currency and non-currency based advantages to the high-street.
As billions pour in, Chronicled may be just the first to solve a real problem by using blockchain’s technology. More may follow, merging a number of new capabilities, from cloud computing, data analytics, wireless sensors, smart contracts and blockchain technology, to bring what some now call a fourth industrial revolution, a term used to describe the connection of physical items, such as smart tags, to the digital, online, world. |
A Brandon, Man., man is facing several charges in connection with an Amber Alert in northern Ontario involving a two-year-old girl, Ontario Provincial Police say.
The toddler was found safe and the Amber Alert cancelled early Sunday morning.
Police were called to reports of a domestic dispute in the township of Chapple, Ont., in the Rainy River District near the Manitoba border, on Saturday just before 7 p.m.
When officers arrived they learned that a man had fled with the young girl.
An Amber Alert was issued and officers were deployed throughout the area.
"The safety of young individuals is paramount and when you have somebody that can't protect themselves and a situation that unfolded like it did last night, it's a very scary situation that we want to be able to fix as quickly as possible," said Const. Darren Manion.
Manion said the suspect was headed east towards Kenora, Ont., when he was spotted by officers who were actually returning from an extensive search for a different child in the Rushing River Provincial Park.
"Several officers were returning from Kenora with our emergency response team in regards to another call and they located the suspect vehicle on their way back," he said.
Ontario AMBER Alert has been cancelled.<br><br>The child has been found safe. —@AMBERAlertONT
The man was arrested, and the girl was found safe.
The Amber Alert was cancelled around 5:30 a.m.
A 37-year-old Manitoba man has been charged with assault, choking, mischief and taking a vehicle without consent. He was also charged with drunk driving.
Manion said the investigation is ongoing and there may be further charges. |
Photo by Elizabeth Miller
Our trail through the Pawnee National Grasslands winds through a beige moonscape, past fins of blond earth and the tan flanks of bluffs in the great eastern plains of Colorado. Footprints fill these dry sandy creek beds instead of running water. We hike straight out and back to the Pawnee Buttes, sandy pillars that erupt out of an otherwise flat landscape. We see a few hikers, then fewer, and by the time we arrive at the East Butte, there’s just one group of four huddled at the base of the butte. Their voices are the only sound we hear as we approach, other than the wind hissing over the dry grass.
The longer we hike, the more colors emerge from the landscape—there’s rust, sage, gold, emerald, lavender, pink.
“If you just get out of your car and look around for 20 seconds, there’s nothing there, and you get back in your car and you just drive through it,” Trevor Pellerite, president of the Colorado Prairie Initiative, says of the Pawnee grasslands. “But if you spend an hour walking around, you’ll notice there are ants going about their business, and there are grasshoppers on the sunflowers, and there are birds eating all the bugs, and there are five different kinds of raptors, and there are herds of antelope—it’s the fastest animal on the planet, and you get to watch it. It’s just this wide open space where there’s so much going on and it’s all in perfect sync.”
Pellerite fell in love with wide open spaces working as a ranch hand and hunting guide in eastern Montana. Now, through the Colorado Prairie Initiative, he campaigns for better care of these places and the wildlife that find a home here, advocating for reintroduction of bison and eradication of invasive Russian thistle (a.k.a. tumbleweed). The Colorado Prairie Initiative has also been pressing federal agencies to responsibly and sustainably manage the oil and gas resources that lie beneath what’s left of the Great Plains.
New technology and increasing demand for those minerals has called for the reassessment of how the federal government oversees them. The U.S. Forest Service has recently completed a two-year process to assess existing oil and gas development on Pawnee National Grasslands to determine how to handle more leases in that area. Their decision proposes oil and gas companies use horizontal drilling methods to access oil and gas without leaving a footprint on the grasslands. All un-leased lands on the Pawnee National Grasslands to be available to lease—yielding royalties of more than $240 million—with a stipulation against locating wells and well pads on those lands.
Below the Surface
The Pawnee National Grasslands encompasses a 30-by-60-mile area of prairie in northeastern Colorado. The place is popular for camping, bird watching and hiking, and it includes the geologic anomaly of the Pawnee Buttes. Land ownership is a checkerboard: Those who still own and ranch or farm on the land, and public land purchased back from those tired of working on these arid plains that often yield more in dust than in corn or cattle. All of it sits over the top of the Denver-Julesberg Basin, considered by energy companies among the hottest oil and gas plays in the country.
It’s not the only energy source at work here. On the northern horizon, windmills stretch out into the haze, sending electricity back to cities to the south. Public Pawnee land has 62 currently active oil and gas wells. Driving through the area, it’s easy to count more wellheads than that, and condensate tanks to collect oil or gas or produced water cluster together up to 30 at a time. Most of those wells are situated on private land and have provided ranchers and farmers with a financial boost in a cash-strapped time.
Oil and gas exploration in this area dates to 1950, but the real run on minerals here began in 2009, around the time horizontal drilling technology was developed and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, became the prevailing method for accessing oil and gas in shale reserves. That technology made possible the decision signed off by the Arapaho Roosevelt National Forest and Pawnee National Grassland that opened the way for the Bureau of Land Management to lease 44 parcels for oil and gas development in the Pawnee National Grasslands last month. One of the major oil and gas companies working in the area, Noble Energy, also announced it plans to dedicate more than 60 percent of its onshore drilling budget to developing Colorado’s oil and gas reserves. But these and future wells here will be established outside the grasslands and drill up to two miles into it.
“Allowing the leases to take place, but not allowing any surface occupancy, they can go underneath the grassland to retrieve those resources and not have to necessarily build as many wells on private land,” says Reghan Cloudman, public affairs specialist for Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grasslands.
This plan was seen as posing the least risks of adverse environmental impacts to wildlife, scenery, fisheries and recreation as well as the risks of soil, surface water and groundwater contamination. Associated effects of oil and gas, including traffic from well sites, emissions, road development and pipelines, are also expected to be limited. The forest supervisor contends the plan reduces the environmental impacts of the activity by consolidating it.
The options considered included banning leases altogether, but according to the Forest Service’s analysis, that course of action might have created inefficiencies in accessing minerals that increased surface land disturbance, wells and well pads by 10 percent to 50 percent.
“It’s kind of counterintuitive. When you think ‘no leasing’ you think no impact, but for the overall landscape we would likely see more oil and gas facilities on private land than if we chose the no surface occupancy,” Cloudman says. “We chose this because it allows for the extraction of the oil and gas resources while providing the most protection for our surface resources that we as the Forest Service are responsible for.”
Banning leasing would also fail to foster development of resource-based industries, as called for by the guiding legislation for the Forest Service, and cost the federal government their 12.5 percent royalties on 412 million barrels of oil and 815 thousand cubic feet of natural gas. The Forest Service estimates $241 million in federal royalties; 1,600 direct, indirect and induced jobs; and a $99.7 million per year contribution to the region’s economy for 30 years.
The Forest Service received an estimated 2,500 letters on the project. Much of the public concern centered on the use of fracking on the grasslands, Cloudman says, but that’s a matter for the Bureau of Land Management. Environmental and hiking advocacy groups have objected that ongoing oil and gas development may further compromise the shortgrass prairie ecosystem and the experience for those who hike, bird watch or hunt there.
“You’re talking about industrializing land and putting in heavy equipment and dangerous equipment in areas that have been previously undeveloped. This isn’t the factory going in on a city block. This is virgin landscape,” says Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy program director for WildEarth Guardians, which has formally objected to the Forest Service’s decision. “When you look at the national grasslands, they are these truly vital remnants of what the Great Plains used to be. They’re undeveloped, unindustrialized and relatively untouched. They are critical hotspots for biodiversity and for the outdoor recreation that they provide.”
The grasslands are within a nine-county area that’s above the recommended level for ozone, a key component of smog. And whatever the short-term boost from revenue from leases and royalties, Nichols says, the long term social costs of carbon and methane created by new wells will far outweigh those benefits. The Forest Service’s plan has some merits in terms of protecting the grasslands, he says, “But when you look at the region as a whole, it’s a zero sum outcome. The minerals are still going to be developed. The wells are going to be drilled on land that’s next to the grasslands.”
Paying the Rent
Not everyone out here agress with Nichols, however. Leonard Ball’s family has been cattle ranching in the national grasslands since 1914 and he still runs about 400 head of black angus cattle on his 15,000 acres. The impacts of the oil and gas boom of the last few years are minimal, he says, and he’s confident that the industry is well-regulated and safe.
“As far as oil and gas,” he says, “It’s been the best thing that has ever happened to the landowners in northeastern Colorado. It has saved us.”
When his grandfather bought the Lazy S Over S ranch property, he got the mineral rights with it for an extra $1 per acre. A few years ago, Ball was able to lease those mineral rights to an oil and gas company. It wasn’t even a very good well, he says, but it’s made a big difference.
“We’re 100 years old this year, and it actually put money in the bank to where we’re debt-free, and we’ve never been debt-free,” he says.
Companies rent access to the land and pay a percentage, usually 12 to 15 percent, of whatever comes out of the well. Some farmers and ranchers, who were coming out of an era in which cattle prices dropped and hay prices soared, got $200,000 to $250,000.
Pawnee isn’t on the way to anything. You might not even be able to get to the Pawnee Buttes on purpose—one of the signs is barely legible and the directional arrow totally obscured by dust. What makes it worth fighting for? Pellerite’s biggest worry is that when people look at it, they say what they first see: Nothing.
“I think a lot of people just think of it as an open space that’s between snowboarding and Chicago. It’s so much more than that,” he says. “It’s one of the most imperiled ecosystems on the planet and it needs protection. There are plenty of responsible methods to use and areas to go to for oil and gas, and I just don’t think the shortgrass prairie needs to be one of them. And if it is, then so be it, but it needs to be done in a way that protects this ecosystem.”
Elizabeth Miller has been covering environmental issues for Boulder Weekly since 2011. |
Being beautiful has never been so easy—or so delicious! We’ve partnered with NeoCell to offer 10,000 readers a free sample of Beauty Bursts, their yummy, collagen chews. Plus, four lucky winners will recieve a 6 month supply of Beauty Bursts. No purchase required to enter or win. Just fill out our entry form!Below, the official rules.1. Eligibility: YouBeauty’s NeoCell Sweepstakes (the “Giveaway”) is open only to individuals who are legal residents of the fifty (50) United States (including the District of Columbia) who are 18 years of age or older at time of entry. Employees of YouBeauty, its advertising or promotion agencies, those involved in the production, development, implementation or handling of Giveaway, any agents acting for, or on behalf of the above entities, their respective parent companies, officers, directors, subsidiaries, affiliates, licensees, service providers, prize suppliers any other person or entity associated with the Giveaway (collectively “Giveaway Entities”) and/or the immediate family (spouse, parents, siblings and children) and household members (whether related or not) of each such employee, are not eligible. All U.S. federal, state and local laws and regulations apply. Void in Puerto Rico and where prohibited by law.2. Sponsor: The Giveaway is sponsored by NeoCell and YouBeauty, 648 Broadway, Suite 705, New York, NY 10012 (“Sponsor”).3. 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Drawing: At the conclusion of the Giveaway, NeoCell will send one Beauty Burst sample to the first 10,000 eligible entries received during the Entry period, and four winners will receive a 6 month supply of Beauty Bursts. NeoCell will send out the Beauty Bursts within 30 days of contest close.7. Requirements of Winners: Except where prohibited, the winners will be required to complete and return an affidavit of eligibility and liability/publicity release and IRS W-9 form (the “Affidavit/Release”) within a specified time period. If a winner fails to sign and return the Affidavit/Release within the required time period, an alternate entrant will be selected in his/her place in a random drawing of all entries received.8. Four (4) winners will each receive one (1) six month supply of NeoCell Beauty Bursts. Approximate retail value of the prize is one hundred and twenty dollars ($120.00). No cash or other substitution may be made, except by the Sponsor, who reserves the right to substitute a prize with another prize of equal or greater value if the prize is not available for any reason as determined by the Sponsor in its sole discretion. The winners are responsible for any taxes and fees associated with receipt or use of a prize.9. General Conditions: In the event that the operation, security, or administration of the Giveaway is impaired in any way for any reason, including, but not limited to fraud, virus, or other technical problem, the Sponsor may, in its sole discretion, either: (a) suspend the Giveaway to address the impairment and then resume the Giveaway in a manner that best conforms to the spirit of these Official Rules; or (b) award the prize at random from among the eligible entries received up to the time of the impairment. The Sponsor reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Giveaway or to be acting in violation of these Official Rules or in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner. Any attempt by any person to undermine the legitimate operation of the Giveaway may be a violation of criminal and civil law, and, should such an attempt be made, the Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law. The Sponsor’s failure to enforce any term of these Official Rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision. In case of a dispute as to the owner of an entry, entry will be deemed to have been submitted by the authorized account holder of the screen name from which the entry is made. The authorized account holder is defined as the natural person who is assigned to an e-mail address by an Internet access provider, online service provider, or other organization responsible for assigning e-mail addresses for the domain associated with the submitted e-mail address. Except as noted in these rules, information collected from entrant is used only for the purpose of the prize drawing and to notify winners, and will not be re-used, sold or shared in any manner by Giveaway Entities or any third parties. Once the Giveaway has ended, all information supplied by entrant will be removed from the database. In the event of any discrepancy between the privacy policy and these Official Rules, these Official Rules shall control and govern. By entering the Giveaway, entrant agrees to all of the terms and conditions of the Sponsor’s Privacy Policy, which is available here.10. Release and Limitations of Liability: By participating in the Giveaway, entrant agrees to release and hold harmless the Giveaway Entities from and against any claim or cause of action arising out of participation in the Giveaway or receipt or use of any prize, including, but not limited to: (a) unauthorized human intervention in the Giveaway; (b) technical errors related to computers, servers, providers, or telephone or network lines; (c) printing errors; (d) lost, late, postage-due, misdirected, or undeliverable mail; (e) errors in the administration of the Giveaway or the processing of entries; or (f) injury or damage to persons or property which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from entrant’s participation in the Giveaway or receipt of any prize. Entrant further agrees that in any cause of action, the Giveaway Entities’ liability will be limited to the cost of entering and participating in the Giveaway, and in no event shall the Giveaway Entities be liable for attorney’s fees. Entrant waives the right to claim any damages whatsoever, including, but not limited to, punitive, consequential, direct, or indirect damages.11. Disputes: Except where prohibited, entrant agrees that any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of, or connected with, the Giveaway or any prize awarded shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively by the appropriate court located in New York. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, entrant’s rights and obligations, or the rights and obligations of the Sponsor in connection with the Giveaway, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of New York, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules (whether of the New York or any other jurisdiction), which would cause the application of the laws of any jurisdiction other than New York.12. Giveaway Results: To request names of winners, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to NeoCell Beauty Bursts Sweepstakes List, YouBeauty, 648 Broadway, Suite 705, New York, NY 10012. Requests must be received by September 30, 2013. |
For the next time… Staying safer in the streets
Why wear a mask? It allows us to take action without fear of immediate identification. It’s not enough to cover half our face. Even if we get away, the police may use photos or video to charge us later. It’s best to cover our hair, face, arms, tattoos, and hands. Cloth gloves are best because they don’t transfer print, unlike plastic gloves. Make sure there are no identifying features on your clothes, shoes, or backpack; it’s nice to have a change of clothing. If we bring any materials with us, let’s wipe them down with rubbing alcohol to remove fingerprints. Bragging and storytelling are natural, but they’re easy to use against us. Don’t post anything on Facebook that we wouldn’t show a cop. The same goes for Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr. Remember that police will read our texts and call-log if they arrest us. If you are arrested, invoke your right to remain absolutely silent; name, address, birthdate and no more.
8.5 x 11″ | PDF |
After seeing a relatively evenhanded rundown on Guyism.com about my viral blog post last week, I wrote a follow-up piece for the website to discuss the incredible aftermath:
I’m Quin, AKA the blogger who wrote that polemical break-up text post, unleashing a digital conflagration of fury from an army of Internet warriors, convinced I’d ruined some guy’s life.
Many publications ran libelous headlines to the contrary, so please indulge me in telling you: no, the sexts were never sent to the boss, the guy never lost his job, and the hyperbolic text response I bloviated back to him was nothing more than an empty, obviously exaggerated threat, dripping with satire and blogged about for levity.
He knew these things immediately upon reading the texts, and not for one second feared for the security of his job. He and I laugh about this now, the incommensurately visceral response so much of the public commented, tweeted, emailed, and otherwise reblogged.
The guy asked for exclusivity two days prior to that correspondence, by the way. That fact is largely edited out in mass journalism, because who wants a sane villain?
So let’s get to the heart of the matter.
I hate to tell you this, but, published or not: this is how women talk about you. My post went viral, mostly via rancorous male commentary, because it struck a nerve.
Organized crime is scary. It isn’t something you expect from “ladylike” women. Nonetheless: we analyze your every move, wondering what that means for our relationship’s longevity. Your “how are you?” text after a year of silence? That gets a full hour. Indeed, a three hour, six-person roundtable brunch went into Googling “douchey WASP names” just to find the perfect pseudonym for my ex in my second memoir. We are laborious, thoughtful creatures. What we aren’t? Flibbertigibbet emotional breakdowns who can’t handle the truth.
The post went viral because it’s a scenario every person who has ever dated has faced. I said something nearly all women have wanted to say at some point. They were just too scared of the vitriolic backlash—we fear being labeled “Crazy,” because, once assigned, that’s a pretty difficult moniker to lose. We are forever pigeonholed as emotionally unhinged, no matter how off base (or exploitative).
It’s in my nature to withstand strong criticism. My dad’s family duck’n’rolled out of communist China, and my mom is a scrappy Scots-Irish Army brat from the wrong side of the tracks. America is built on barrier-breakers. Uninformed groupthink and slander are strong, negative forces, but criticism is in my blood; constructive criticism, my backbone. If you’re a Libertarian living in DC right now, like I am, you have definitely dealt with worse.
So, was this “victimless crime” justly avenged? That would depend on what you consider fair. I’ve sparked an international dialogue about gender roles, etiquette, civility, cyber courtship, and racial stereotypes. All this, and I didn’t even have to twerk up against a married man or get peed on in an adult video.
In the “women” column, I count that as a win.
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ZAGREB (Reuters) - Croatia’s parliament adopted a law on Friday granting compensation to rape victims in the 1991-95 war of independence from Yugoslavia.
Verica Martinovic, 55, who said she was raped during the 1991-95 war of independence from Yugoslavia, poses for a picture in Vukovar, east Croatia, April 19, 2015. REUTERS/Antonio Bronic
The victims, whose exact number remains unknown, will receive a one-off payment of 100,000 kuna ($14,504), and a monthly allowance of 2,500 kuna. They will also be entitled to free counselling, legal and medical aid.
“Such legislation is rare in the world, and it is the first of its kind in this region whereby the victims will get a dignified one-off financial compensation,” Matic War Veterans Minister Fred Matic told lawmakers last week.
The law, which takes effect from next January, was endorsed by 86 deputies while three abstained.
Croatia became independent in 1991 but then had to fight a rebel Serb minority, backed by the Yugoslav army, who opposed its independence.
In 2008, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution that said rape and other forms of sexual violence could constitute war crimes, following reports of mass rapes in Croatia’s neighbour Bosnia and in Rwanda.
“This law will be a model for all other countries at war, which will have to deal with this issue and can now look up to Croatia,” Marija Sliskovic, the founder of Women in the Homeland War civic group, told Reuters.
Ruzica Barbaric, a 63-year old Croatian woman who was raped after Serb troops captured the eastern town of Vukovar in November 1991, said financial compensation was welcome but not the final step.
“It will come in handy, I have a small pension. But if I got billions, it could not pay for what we went through,” she told Reuters in Vukovar, a town on the Danube that has been rebuilt since the war but remains burdened by ethnic tensions.
“The law and the compensation are worth nothing if the perpetrators continue to walk free. I want them to answer for their crimes, to say why they came to Vukovar to kill and rape.”
Most Serb rebels, except the top political and military leaders, have been included in a blanket amnesty Croatia declared in 1995, and many have stayed on in Vukovar.
In neighbouring Bosnia, about 20,000 women are believed to have been raped during the 1992-95 war. Those in the autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation can get monthly payments as civilian victims of war.
In the Serb Republic, Bosnia’s other half, they have to go through a lengthy legal process of proving the crime, which has discouraged most victims.
In Kosovo, another region of former Yugoslavia torn by conflict in the 1990s, parliament passed a law in 2014 that envisages benefits for the rape victims but the government has yet to define the benefits.
($1 = 6.8944 kuna) |
The New York Times has Republican nominee Donald Trump at a 54 percent chance of winning some time after 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Earlier in the night Clinton was projected to win by a handy margin, but the forecast changed to a toss-up and then switched to favor a Trump win. The chart below illustrates the quick and dramatic turn in the NYT forecast.
Update: Trump now has 54 percent chance of victory – @nytimes projections https://t.co/bzSWocfsnI pic.twitter.com/0crefN1mBM — David Beard (@dabeard) November 9, 2016
Trump is considered likely to win North Carolina and Florida, two huge pickups that could swing the race. Real Clear Politics has Donald Trump at a 49.4 percent chance of winning, and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton at a 46.6 percent chance of winning as of 9:30 p.m. Tuesday evening.
For live updates on the New York Times election predictions >>>
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In July 2014, Oakland's City Council voted to decriminalize pinball. For many hobbyists and operators, this was long-awaited, but for casual players, the lifting of the ban raises more questions than it answers.
Oakland was one of the last major cities to drop its ban; after New York City lifted its restrictions in 1976, most municipalities followed suit. In Oakland's case, the City Council’s efforts to criminalize internet sweepstakes cafes reacquainted them with the ban, which began after the repeal of Prohibition.
Photo: Gregory Wild-Smith/Flickr
In the 1930s and 1940s, pinball machines had a plunger, a few holes with varying point values, and not much else. It wasn’t the immersive playing experience it is today, but it was good for gambling — an activity the government was cracking down on at the time.
Police and politicians staged photo ops depicting themselves smashing pinball machines; in New York, confiscated machines were melted down to make bullets and police nightsticks. According to Michael Scheiss, director of the Pacific Pinball Museum, Oakland police would "gift" confiscated machines to Alameda officers.
As pinball went underground, designers introduced features like flippers and add-a-ball that transformed it from a game of chance into one with rapid strategy played for its own sake. It’s very likely these changes afforded the game some reprieve, as the pinball business flourished.
Photo: Evan P. Cordes/Flickr
In 1976, pinball designer and author Roger Sharpe gave a demonstration to the New York City Council to show that players don't rely on luck, inspiring a repeal of their ban.
Even today, jurisdictions vary; Cambridge, MA requires 500 square feet of space for each machine, arcades in Connecticut are limited to four pinball machines each, and San Francisco requires special permits. Courts have upheld the right of local governments to confiscate pinball machines and their earnings in the event of a failure to pay taxes.
In 2017 Oakland, pinball can help promote nightlife and give bar owners a little something extra to help with the rent. Players who visit a bar with pinball typically play each machine multiple times at 75 cents to $1 per play.
A tournament of 16 people playing 4 rounds generates around $56 of quarters in less than two hours, not including beer, pizza, or extra games before or after league play. Some leagues, like Belles and Chimes in Oakland and Mission Pinball Club in SF, have seasons comprising several weeks.
According to PinballMap, a database for players to find pinball games, at least 14 establishments in Oakland have pinball machines. Here's a look at some of Oakland's best places to try out your panic flip. |
Shaun Johnson has had a mixed start to the 2017 season.
New South Wales coach Laurie Daley believes his Warriors counterpart Stephen Kearney may need to drop or bench Shaun Johnson to get the best out of the enigmatic playmaker.
The Warriors have made an ordinary start to the NRL season, winning just one of their four games with Johnson also struggling for consistency.
Despite not being at his best, the 26-year-old former Golden Boot winner became the Warriors' all-time record points scorer earlier this month.
MATT ROBERTS/GETTY IMAGES NSW coach Laurie Daley thinks Shaun Johnson should be benched or dropped.
Kearney has no shortage of options for the halves spots, even though Kieran Foran has yet to make his debut and is battling with a hamstring injury.
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Junior Kiwi Mafoa'aeata Hingano and utility back Tuimoala Lolohea are also capable of playing in the halves.
Johnson has shown his class in big international games, but Daley feels he may need the reality check of a demotion to stir him into unleashing his full potential on a regular basis.
"Sometimes I think you may have to do to something a little bit different with Shaun, maybe to get the best out of him," Daley told Fox Sports.
"Either play him elsewhere, starting him off the bench, not select him.
"He's the most influential player in that team when they've got the ball.
"He hasn't reached his talent yet.
"Something needs to happen with Shaun to take his game to the next level and I think sometimes players need a bit of a reality check." |
Barcelona (ACN).- Comparing Catalonia's self-determination process with the Nazi regime has become one of the arguments the Spanish nationalists have been using over the last two years, repeated in extreme-right television stations and even at the Spanish Parliament. Such an offensive and dishonest comparison outrages most of the Catalan society because of its total unfairness in describing the current democratic and peaceful self-determination process and for trivialising Nazism and the suffering of its victims – including hundreds of Catalans who died in concentration camps. Now, the controversy has reached the European Parliament. Last week, the Spanish nationalist party UPyD sent a letter to all 751 MEPs comparing the current situation in Catalonia with that of "Italy and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s", in order to discredit the self-determination process and prevent EU institutions from intervening in it. The CDU MEP Ingeborg Grässle was outraged by such a letter and she urged UPyD "to at least apologise", while she added that "any politician in Germany should have immediately resigned" for making such a statement. The European Commission already warned Spanish authorities against trivialising Nazism in September 2013, but nothing has been done so far and comparisons have continued. In 2008 the EU approved rules against xenophobic and hate speech which Member States should have implemented by 2010. However, such rules have not yet been transposed into Spanish legislation. In addition, on Wednesday, a group of civil society organisations filed a complaint to the Public Prosecutor Office in Barcelona for dozens of calumnies against Catalonia's self-determination process and for the comparisons with the Nazi regime.
The German Christian-Democrat Member of the European Parliament, Ingeborg Grässle, reacted to the letter sent last week by another MEP from the Spanish nationalist and populist party UPyD, Beatriz Becerra, in which she compared Catalonia's self-determination process with Nazism. "Trivialising" the Nazi regime "is a shame for the victims", emphasised Grässle. The CDU MEP asked the UPyD "to respect the victims" and "to at least apologise" for such a comparison, which is "inappropriate and false". "Any politician in Germany would have to immediately resign if such a language were used", stressed Grässle, who chairs the Budgetary Control Committee of the European Parliament.
UPyD compared Catalonia's situation with that of Germany in the 1930s
Becerra sent a letter last Thursday in which she said that the current situation in Catalonia is like the one "in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s". The UPyD MEP urged European institutions "to defend democracy", "which means stopping [Catalonia's] illegal consultation vote". However, so far, no Court has declared such a consultation vote illegal, as Spain's Constitutional Court has temporarily suspended it while it reaches a definitive decision, stressing the suspension was not a prejudgement of the final decision. Furthermore, Becerra added that "Catalonia has never been a European nation" and that has "always been part of Spain", while she added that "only 23% of Catalans" want a self-determination vote. However, all the polls published in the last 2 years indicate that between 70% and 80% want to hold such a vote. Those percentages coincide with the last Catalan Parliament elections (held in November 2012), when 80% of the elected MPs backed self-determination.
Democrats cannot trivialise Nazism, states the CDU MEP
"I was very upset with [the statement saying that] anyone who does not follow the law is using Nazi methods", stated the CDU MEP. "I was astonished in the way such a comparison was made", Grässle added. "In a democratic country, calling your political enemies Nazis is totally out of line". "What happened in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s and afterwards was so cruel and so terrible that such a language should be never used", she stated. "Try to solve your problems in a fair and democratic way, but please do not use these types of examples", Grässle asked Becerra, because the Nazi regime "continues to be very painful" for the German people, the victims and their relatives.
The Christian-Democrat politician added that she was hesitating about whether to answer Becerra or not, but finally she decided to do so considering the implications of the comparison and how upset it had made her. The German representative decided to react to ask UPyD "to respect the victims" of the Nazi regime. Moreover, because "calling somebody else Nazi means that the atmosphere is totally poisoned and something must be done urgently, now that it is still possible". "Democrats cannot treat each other in this way".
Despite the controversy, Grässle did not want to react "in favour or against" Catalonia's self-determination process and the plans to hold such a vote in November. However, she admitted that "the way in which Scotland's referendum took place" offers a great lesson. "It was done in a very fair way" and "I admire the British and also the Scottish people for the way they solved such a difficult question and how they treated each other", she emphasized. "Come to your own conclusions and try to solve the problem in a democratic way, treating the others as democrats and not as people who do not deserve to be called people", the CDU MEP concluded.
Spanish nationalists often compare Catalonia's self-determination process with Nazism
However, Becerra's statement is far from being the first time that UPyD and other Spanish nationalist politicians have compared Catalonia's self-determination process with the Nazi regime or dictatorships. In fact, such a comparison is recurrent on several TV and radio talk shows (mostly in extreme-right media but also in other ones). However, the comparison is also recurrent among politicians.
The UPyD leader and former MEP, Rosa Díez, also compared Catalonia's political situation with that of Nazism, and she did so before the plenary of the Spanish Parliament, in April 2014, when representatives from the Catalan Parliament were presenting a motion to transfer the powers to organise a legal referendum on independence to the Catalan Government. Díez made one of the bitterest speeches ever witnessed in the Spanish Parliament, saying that people in Catalonia were brainwashed and indoctrinated, and comparing Catalonia to Nazi Germany and to totalitarian regimes. On top of this, on Monday, another UPyD MEP, Maite Pagazaurtundúa, compared Basque pro-independence supporters with "national-populism", in a clear reference to the Nazi national-socialism.
The PP has also compared Catalonia with dictatorial regimes and Nazism
Moreover, on the 5th of September, the 'number 2' of the governing People's Party (PP), María Dolores de Cospedal, stated that the current political situation in Catalonia "is totalitarianism and a dictatorship; an undercover one, but even so, it is one". It was not the first time that she has made such a comparison in the last few months. The statement is quite ironic coming from the Secretary General of a party that was founded by a former minister of Franco's dictatorship, who also controlled the police in the months while the dictatorial regime was still in place after the dictator's death.
Also recently, the day 1.8 million Catalans peacefully formed a colossal V-shaped demonstration in Barcelona asking for independence, the leader of the PP in Sabadell's City Council – which is one of Catalonia's main cities – compared the rally with Mussolini's Fascism and Hitler's Nazism. Esteban Gesa published on Twitter a picture of a group of Italian Fascist forming a V-shape, another image of a Nazi propaganda banner with the swastika and a V for 'victory' and a third picture of the Catalan V-shaped demonstration. Gesa linked the 3 images by adding that "things always come in threes". On this occasion, this member of the PP apologised for his comment later on. Such apologies are rare.
Furthermore, the Spanish Government's Delegate in Catalonia, María de los Llanos de Luna, who is also a PP member, paid tribute to Spanish soldiers who fought in the Nazi army during World War II in an official ceremony. In May 2013, De Luna (who is Mariano Rajoy's main representative in Catalonia) gave a diploma of honour to a brotherhood of soldiers and supporters of the 'División Azul' (known as 'Blaue Division'), an infantry-division of Spanish volunteers who fought in the Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front. Such an episode represents the main collaboration between Franco's dictatorship and Adolph Hitler, as well as the Condor Division – which bombed Gernika – and the arrest of the Catalan Government's President Lluís Companys by the Gestapo. On top of this, the 12 members of the brotherhood who attended the diploma ceremony were wearing the Falange uniform, the Franco's Fascist party, which was the only one allowed in Spain during the 40-year dictatorship and which is still legal.
The European Commission already warned Spain in September 2013
The European Commission already warned Spanish authorities against trivialising Nazism. In September 2013, the Commission Vice President, Viviane Reding, said that "the intentional public condoning, denial or gross trivialisation of the Nazi crimes is to be made criminally punishable". Reding was replying to Catalan MEPs, who complained against De Luna's tribute to the Blaue Division. Back then, the Commission Vice President added that Brussels will start to punish Member States that do not prosecute "incitement to violence or hatred". However, comparisons have continued after Reding's words.
In addition, neo-Nazi attacks against Catalan Government's offices or pro-self-determination events have also happened. In September 2013, a week after Reding's statement, a group of Fascists broke into the Catalan Government's representation in Madrid on Catalonia's National Day. The attack happened on the afternoon that 1.6 million Catalans had formed a 400-km-long human chain, imitating the 'Baltic Way', to ask for independence. The Fascists insulted and intimidated the people present at the Catalan Government's representation, who were participating in a small institutional ceremony in celebration of that day. Furthermore, Fascist supporters have also attacked the presentation of Súmate, a group of Spanish-speakers who support Catalonia's independence. The attack took place in Mataró, a Catalan coastal town in Greater Barcelona. Both episodes ended without leaving anyone injured, although there were some tense moments.
Catalan civil society organisations ask the Public Prosecutor Office to act
On Wednesday, the week after the UPyD letter and after the reaction of the CDU MEP, a group of Catalan civil society organisations have filed a formal complaint to the Public Prosecutor Office in Barcelona, which is a body linked to the Spanish Justice Minister, for the trivialisation of Nazism and for the threats, insults and calumnies against Catalonia's self-determination process. They have also presented the 'Manifesto for the democratic dignity against the trivialisation of Nazism'. They emphasised that comparing the current self-determination process with the Nazi regime, the Holocaust, Goebbels' propaganda or Fascism represents "incite to hate", which can be prosecuted in court. Furthermore, they consider that it is particularly worrying that this is done by politicians and journalists in public institutions, audio-visual media or social media. In fact, many talk-shows of extreme-right wing or Spanish nationalist television stations and radios have been making similar comparisons for the last two years.
The complaint has been filed on the 74th anniversary of the execution of Lluís Companys, the Catalan President who was arrested by the Nazi Gestapo and executed by Franco, once the Civil War had already ended. Companys, who was a member of the left-wing independence party ERC (currently Catalonia's second largest party), was the only president of a democratically elected government to be executed during World War II in the whole of Europe. |
2016's Biggest Box Office Winners, So Far By Sean O'Connell Random Article Blend By all accounts, this summer blockbuster season has been a disappointment. But that hasn't stopped people from flocking to the theaters. Five of the current Top 10 movies on the 2016 box office charts were released over the summer... though that means that an additional five movies that came out long before the usually lucrative summer season managed to strike gold. The data suggests that the summer no longer stands as the only time in which a movie can hit and hit big. Deadpool collected bank in February, as did Zootopia. Meanwhile, movies that clung to traditional hot spots -- like Independence Day: Resurgence -- suffered under the weight of mediocre reviews and apathetic crowds. We recently looked ahead at the 21 movies that we hope will revive 2016 after this lackluster summer frame. But before we put the summer season in the books, let's look back at the 10 box office winners of 2016 so far. These are not movies that managed the most profit, because they kept their budgets down. These are just the 10 movies, according to Box Office Mojo, that have sold the most tickets in 2016 so far. How many of these did you see? If you skipped them, tell us why in the comments section below. Kung Fu Panda 3 Released back in January, the animated Kung Fu Panda 3 demonstrated real staying power for the Jack Black-led franchise, which quietly dominated the early frame of 2016 to the tune of $143 million. Even better for the series, this sequel did gangbuster business overseas, pushing the global box office take to $519 million, all but guaranteeing that a fourth Kung Fu Panda will be in the works before we know it. Even better, this movie was good. Quality is not being sacrificed by a series pandering to little kids. It's not Pixar, but it's far better than your average animated feature film. X-Men: Apocalypse With all due respect to Bryan Singer, I completely forgot there was an X-Men movie in theaters this summer until I started putting this list together. Hitting theaters over the Memorial Day weekend, Singer's follow up to the popular X-Men: Days of Futures Past pushed its domestic cume to $155.4 million -- good for seventh place (out of nine films) on the overall X-Men scale. Not great. These mutants were outclassed by another foul-mouthed Merc, who'll show up much later on this list. Suicide Squad The jury is still out on David Ayer's Suicide Squad. As we have covered in recent weeks, critics weren't overwhelmed by the DC super-villain team up, but audiences continue to head to theaters to check it out. So far, Squad has earned nearly $238 million at the box office, but the night is young, as they say. We recently reported that Suicide Squad was expected to lead the box for a third weekend, and there's no real competition on the horizon. Could it eventually overtake Batman v Superman as DC's top earner this year? Would that be a total shock? Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice This one was supposed to be a slam dunk. Putting Batman (Ben Affleck) into his Superman sequel, Zack Snyder was combining, arguably, the two most popular superheroes on the planet in one movie for the first time. With Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to boot! And yet, here _Dawn of Justice _sits, at number 7 on the annual Top 10, with it looking likely that it'll get passed by Suicide Squad in weeks. What happened? The post-mortem continues, because there are several reasons Dawn of Justice only earned $330 million domestically to date. Plus, with Rogue One, Fantastic Beasts and Doctor Strange all on the way, is it possible BvS isn't even in the yearly Top 10 when all is said and done? The Secret Life of Pets When it comes to animated movies, if you build it (and it's halfway decent), they will come. Families need distractions in the summer season, because when it's hot, two hours in the air conditioning watching ANYTHING will do. That being said, with $340 million in tickets sold domestically, Secret Life tapped into a rabid audience... to the point where we already have movement on a Secret Life of Pets 2. Zootopia From this point forward, you are going to hear a recurring word on this list: Disney. The Mouse House is having an incredible year, diversifying its successes across its various properties, from Marvel to Pixar, to its own traditional animation. Zootopia, which has earned $341 million, is an original idea set in a city populated by domesticated animals. But it was the spunk of Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), the smarmy charms of Nick Wild (Jason Bateman), and the creativity of the film's vision that kept crowds returning week after week to enjoy this incredible feature. The Jungle Book Switching over to live-action -- well, sort of -- Jon Favreau's Disney remake The Jungle Book crushed the competition this spring with its vivid CGI interpretation of the classic Disney cartoon. Not a full-blown musical, The Jungle Book mixed some familiar tunes into the more mature telling of an orphaned boy who's raised by wild animals. In my opinion, the stellar 3D helped sell a ton of extra tickets, leading to a $363 million haul and a fourth-place landing on the charts to date. Deadpool How did this happen? The superhero movie no one wanted to make became the foul-mouthed comedy no one wanted to miss. Credit Ryan Reynolds and director Tim Miller for continuing to believe in the unorthodox screenplay by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, turning Deadpool into a $363 million smash hit in the United States. The movie also devoured overseas records, and paved the way for Deadpool 2, which likely will build on this film's success by introducing fan favorites such as Cable and Domino. Captain America: Civil War Essentially The Avengers 2.5, Civil War rounds up almost every available Marvel hero into a battle of wills over the Sokovia Accords, basically pitting Captain America (Chris Evans) against Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) in a battle that is both personal and global. Earning $407 million to date, Captain America is the fourth-highest grossing Marvel movie, but not this year's highest-grossing film. That shocked me. I'm even more surprised, truthfully, at the movie that pushed Civil War from the top of its perch. Finding Dory Pixar swims to the top of the ranks with the unexpectedly brilliant Finding Dory. Not that I expected Finding Dory to flop. Pixar has set a standard, and even their disappointments are generally pleasing to a certain extent. But so much time had passed since Finding Nemo, and I wasn't sure how hungry audiences were for the further adventures of Ellen Degeneres' forgetful fish. Well, Dory has banked an impressive $477 million domestically, making it the movie, to beat for the rest of 2016. The movies that just missed the Top 10 The films that almost made the Top 10, and still might by the time they are finished playing out in theaters, include: _Star Trek Beyond _- $142 million Jason Bourne - $131 million Central Intelligence - $126 million The Legend of Tarzan - $125 million Ghostbusters -- $122.6 million Fred Savage Wasn't Thrilled That Deadpool Kidnapped Him Blended From Around The Web Facebook
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What does satire do? What should we expect of it? Recent events in Paris inevitably prompt these questions. In particular, is the kind of satire that Charlie Hebdo has made its trademark—explicit, sometimes obscene images of religious figures (God the father, Son, and Holy Spirit sodomizing each other; Muhammad with a yellow star in his ass)—essentially different from mainstream satire? Is it crucial to Western culture that we be free to produce such images? Do they actually work as satire?
Neither straight journalism nor disengaged art, satire alludes to recognizable contemporary circumstances in a skewed and comic way so as to draw attention to their absurdity. There is mockery but with a noble motive: the desire to bring shame on some person or party behaving wrongly or ignorantly. Its raison d’ȇtre over the long term is to bring about change through ridicule; or if change is too grand an aspiration, we might say that it seeks to give us a fresh perspective on the absurdities and evils we live among, such that we are eager for change.
Since satire has this practical and pragmatic purpose, the criteria for assessing it are fairly simple: if it doesn’t point toward positive change, or encourage people to think in a more enlightened way, it has failed. That doesn’t mean it’s not amusing and well-observed, or even, for some, hilarious, in the way, say, witty mockery of a political enemy can be hilarious and gratifying and can intensify our sense of being morally superior. But as satire it has failed. The worst case is when satire reinforces the state of mind it purports to undercut, polarizes prejudices, and provokes the very behavior it condemns. This appears to be what happened with Charlie Hebdo’s images of Muhammad.
Why so? Crucial to satire is the appeal to supposed “common sense” and a shared moral code. The satirist presents a situation in such a way that it appears grotesque and the reader who, whatever his or her private interests, shares the same cultural background and moral education agrees that it is so. The classic example, perhaps, is Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal of 1729. Swift’s target was Protestant England’s economic policy in Catholic Ireland and the disastrous poverty this had created. After paragraphs of statistics on population and nutrition, we arrive at the grotesque:
I have been assured … that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust.
By selling their children for food, the pamphlet claims, the poor can save themselves an expense and guarantee themselves an income. Disoriented, every reader is made aware of a simple principle we all share: you don’t eat children, even Irish children, even Catholic children. So, if those children are not to be left to starve, something else in Ireland will have to give.
This appeal to what we all know and share becomes more difficult when satire addresses itself to people from different cultures with different traditions. In this regard, the history of Charlie Hebdo is worth noting. It grew out of a left-wing magazine, Hara Kiri, later Hebdo Hara Kiri (where Hebdo is simply short for hebdomadaire—weekly), which was formed in 1960 to address national political issues and subsequently banned on a number of occasions. When it was banned in 1970 over a mocking headline about Charles de Gaulle’s death its editors reopened it under a different name to avoid the ban, calling it Charlie Hebdo to distinguish it from a monthly magazine, Charlie, that some of the same cartoonists were already running. Charlie was Charlie Brown, but also now, comically, Charles de Gaulle. Its focus was on French politics and when it was felt to have overstepped the mark the democratically elected French government was in a position to impose a temporary closure. It was a French affair.
Wound down for lack of funds in 1981, Charlie Hebdo was resurrected in 1991 when cartoonists wanted to create a platform for political satire about the first Gulf War. With this explicitly international agenda the relationship between satirists, readers, and targets became more complex. The readers were the same left-wing French public, used to seeing fierce attacks on all things sacred, but the targets sometimes lay outside France or at least outside mainstream French culture. In 2002 the magazine hosted an article supporting controversial Italian author Oriana Fallaci and her claims that Islam in general, not just the extremists, was on the march against the West. In 2006, Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons of Muhammad and reprint of the Danish cartoonist Jyllands-Posten’s controversial Muhammad cartoons led to the paper’s selling 400,000 copies, rather than the normal 60,000 to 100,000. Popularity and notoriety had arrived through mockery of a target outside French culture but with which an aggrieved minority in France now identified.
Sued by the Grand Mosque, the Muslim World League, and the Union of French Islamic Organizations, the paper’s editors defended themselves, insisting that their humor was aimed at violent extremists, not at Islam itself. Islamic organizations didn’t see it that way. While President Chirac criticized satire that inflamed divisions between cultures, various politicians, Hollande and Sarkozy included, wrote to the court to defend the cartoonists, Sarkozy in particular referring to the ancient French tradition of satire. Eventually the court acquitted the paper and freedom of speech was upheld. But the effect of the cartoons had been to inflame moderate areas of Islam. The ancient French tradition of satire was creating more heat than light. It was also uniting French politicians usually opposed to each other against a perceived threat from without.
It is said, by contrast, that Christian leaders have now grown used to their religion being desecrated and pilloried in every way. This is not entirely the case. In 2011 Charlie Hebdo noted that while Muslims had sued the paper only once, the Catholic Church had launched thirteen cases against it. In the 1990s, writing satirical pieces for the Italian magazine Comix, I had my own experience of the difficulties of attacking the church through satire. In this case too an issue of cultural blindness was involved. Reacting to yet another Vatican condemnation of abortion, even in cases of rape, I suggested that if the Catholic Church really cared about abortion it might perhaps change its position on contraception and actually manufacture condoms with images of the saints, or perhaps even prickly hair-shirt condoms, or San Sebastian condoms, so that lovemaking would be simultaneously an indulgence and a penitence, and people would be mindful of their Lord even between the sheets. Comix refused to publish.
This was not, I believe, a question of self-censorship or lack of courage on the magazine’s part. The editors of Comix were perfectly ready to attack the Church on issues of abortion and birth control. They just didn’t think that the idea of people having sex with condoms showing their favorite saint was the right way to go about it. Too many of their readers—mostly Catholic by culture if not practice—would be offended; it would not help them to get distance and perspective on the debate. Knowing Italy and Italians better now, I reckon they were right. It was my Protestant background and complete carelessness about images of saints and virgins that made me unaware of the kind of response the piece would have stirred up.
Most likely, however, that same Italian public would have had no problem with the drawings of Muhammad that provoked the massacre at Charlie Hebdo last week; because they, like me, but unlike the vast majority of Muslims, set no value on the image Muhammad. When I see Charlie Hebdo’s cartoon entitled “Muhammad overcome by fundamentalists,” showing a weeping Muhammad saying, “It’s tough being loved by assholes,” I smile and take the point. For a Muslim reader perhaps the point is lost in the offense of a belittling representation of a figure they hold sacred.
Where we’re coming from and who we’re writing to is important. Not all readers are the same. In The Satanic Verses (1988), Salman Rushdie includes a dream sequence where the prostitutes have the names of Muhammad’s wives. There are also various provocative reinterpretations of Islam, but certainly nothing that would disturb a Western reader, and in fact the novel was on the shortlist for Britain’s Booker Prize for fiction without even a smell of scandal in the air. Only as publication was approaching in India and the paper India Today ran an interview with Rushdie did the controversy begin in earnest, with riots, deaths, and eventually the Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa calling for Muslims to kill Rushdie.
It is, in short, this mixing of cultures and immediate globalization of so many publications through the Internet that makes satire more problematic as the Swiftian appeal to the values we share becomes more elusive. In the Inferno Dante could imagine Muhammad in hell, his body obscenely split open—“from the chin right down to where men fart”—as fit punishment for his crime of religious schism. The Divine Comedy was not intended for publication in India. Needless to say any such representation of Christ would have been unthinkable.
The following questions arise: Now that the whole world is my neighbor, my immediate Internet neighbor, do I make any concessions at all, or do I uphold the ancient tradition of satire at all costs? And again, is a culture that takes mortal offense when an image it holds sacred is mocked a second-rate culture that needs to be dragged kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century, my twenty-first-century that is? Do I have the moral authority to decide this?
In his response to the attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris, the cartoonist Joe Sacco makes the distinction between the right to free expression and the sensible use of it. One might be free, he says, to draw—as he does to illustrate—a black man falling out of a tree with a banana in his hand, or a Jew counting money over the entrails of the working class, but of what possible use are these images? And actually of course we’re not free. In Italy and Germany it is illegal to display certain images that recall Fascism and Nazism. Denial of the Holocaust is a crime in France. In the United States and Britain, our freedom—in practice—to indulge in racist, anti-Semitic, misogynist, and homophobic insults has been notably limited, at least since the late 1980s when notions of “political correctness” became increasingly pervasive. Even Charlie Hebdo fired a cartoonist for anti-Semitism. None of these restrictions have proved a great loss, at least for me.
Joe Sacco’s take on the tragedy in Paris is smart. In raising the question of the usefulness or otherwise of a cartoon, rather than remaining fixated on the question of freedom of speech, he reminds us of the essentially pragmatic nature of satire. However grotesque and provocative its comedy, its aim is to produce an enlightened perspective on events, not to start riots. At this point, and notwithstanding a profound sense of horror for the evil and stupidity of the terrorist attack on the magazine’s offices, one has to wonder about Charlie Hebdo’s pride in constantly dubbing themselves a “Journal Irresponsable.” The current edition of the paper shows Muhammad in such a way that his white turban looks like two balls and his long pink face a penis. The Prophet is being dubbed a prick. He holds a Je suis Charlie placard and announces that all is forgiven. The print run was extended to five million copies after a first run of three million sold out; this up from a standard run of 60,000. Is it likely this approach will help to isolate violent extremists from mainstream Muslim sentiment? |
Geoffrey Kabaservice is author of Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, from Eisenhower to the Tea Party.
Democrats and liberals have become intoxicated by the idea of impeaching President Donald Trump in the two weeks since he fired the FBI Director James Comey. “The House must begin the impeachment process before Donald Trump puts us at risk again,” prominent Democratic donor J.B. Pritzker told the New York Times last week. “The case for impeaching Trump—and fast,” read a Vox headline on Monday. These optimists probably aren’t just excited to get Trump out of office; they are also undoubtedly excited about what such a scandal would mean for the long-term prospects of the Republican Party, already torn apart by internal squabbles, an unruly base and constant games of legislative chicken. Once the relatively straightforward matter of impeachment is disposed of, they imagine, a new progressive age will dawn and the Democrats will lead a grateful populace into the broad, sunlit uplands of enlightenment.
Flashbacks to November 7, 2016, anyone?
Story Continued Below
Leave aside, for the moment, inconvenient considerations such as the fact that the special counsel’s investigation may take years, that it may not come up with any unambiguously impeachable offense committed by Trump, and that a Republican-controlled Congress is highly unlikely to oust the leader of their party. Assume instead that through some improbable concatenation of circumstances, Trump actually could be impeached. Would the results be to the Democrats’ liking?
We have only two real examples of this last resort of last resorts in American politics. One was Bill Clinton, whose impeachment became such a transparently partisan charade that when the House filed impeachment charges against him in December 1998, he saw his popularity soar. The other example is Richard Nixon, which is undoubtedly what some Democrats are hoping to recreate as they plan “Impeachment Marches” in early July. And they might be remembering how poorly the GOP fared after Watergate as the national scandal pushed Republicans out of office, boosted a new crop of liberal Democrats and resulted in a raft of reform legislation. Here’s what they’re forgetting, though: Ultimately, the aftereffects of the biggest scandal in American politics ended up helping the Republican Party—giving us unprecedented levels of polarization, distrust in government institutions and, leading, ultimately, to President Donald Trump.
In the short term, of course, Republicans took a beating. After Nixon resigned in August 1974, the stench of Watergate continued to hang over the Republican Party, which dropped 49 seats in the House and five in the Senate during the 1974 midterm elections. The biggest losers in 1974 were conservative Republicans, whom the public identified with Nixon and his crimes.
All of this was good news for Democrats. Many of the 71 new House Democrats, known collectively as the “Watergate babies,” were strongly liberal and iconoclastic, and they brought a new reform spirit to Congress. They overturned the seniority system in Congress and overthrew several of the long-serving Southern Democratic committee chairmen who had acted as a brake on liberal legislation. Nixon’s successor as president, Gerald Ford, lost the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter. More broadly, Watergate energized the forces of dissent and contributed to the breakdown of the Cold War consensus that had made muscular anti-Communism the unquestioned foreign policy of both parties. The post-Watergate period, from 1975 to 1980, was the last in which the left had a determinative impact on American politics.
But in the long view of hindsight, the principal beneficiary of Watergate and Nixon’s resignation was the conservative wing of the Republican Party.
Nixon was, despite the popular conception of him today, a centrist Republican—and because of Watergate, he may have been the last one. Nixon’s sensibilities were populist-conservative, but operationally he acted as a moderate and even occasionally as a progressive, for example when he created the Environmental Protection Agency and proposed national health insurance that would have covered more people than Obamacare. In 1997, I interviewed Elliot Richardson, who as attorney general played a key role in bringing down Nixon but felt history had wrongly remembered the 37th president. “Most people don’t really get the fact that the Nixon administration was to the left of the Clinton administration,” Richardson told me. “Even the Eisenhower administration was to the left of the Clinton administration.”
From the time he entered the executive branch as Dwight Eisenhower’s vice president, Nixon aimed to modernize the Republican Party and make it representative of the broad middle swath of American political opinion. In doing so, though, he sided with Republican moderates far too often for conservatives. Prominent leaders of the conservative movement publicly suspended their support of Nixon in 1971, angered by his welfare reform proposals, his advocacy of Keynesian economic policies, his opening to Communist China and his pursuit of détente with the Soviet Union. Conservatives even backed Ohio Rep. John Ashbrook’s quixotic campaign against Nixon in the 1972 Republican presidential primary. Right-wing journalist M. Stanton Evans judged that “Nixon has made impressive strides toward the political liquidation of American conservatism. ... Nixon has taken the country further left than [1968 Democratic presidential nominee Hubert] Humphrey, given the realities of American party politics, could ever have managed to do.”
And ironically, it was Watergate that redeemed Nixon in the eyes of these disapproving hard-line conservatives. Here’s the recollection of a participant in the 1973 annual convention of Young Americans for Freedom, the leading right-wing organization on college campuses in the 1960s and ‘70s:
“No matter how much movement conservatives disapproved of Nixon on other grounds… Watergate was one thing they liked. M. Stanton Evans, a long-time advisor to YAF and a mainstay at their conventions, put it this way: ‘If I’d known he’d been up to all that stuff, I’d have been for Nixon all along.’”
The more liberals demonized Nixon and called for his ouster as the Watergate evidence piled up, especially after the October 1973 “Saturday Night Massacre,” the more conservatives belatedly came to his defense. This last-second shift allowed conservatives to pose as Nixon loyalists just as the president was on his way out and to condemn the Republican moderates who contributed to the impeachment effort as traitors.
Rep. Thomas Railsback, who in 1974 was a Republican moderate from Illinois and is now one of the last surviving members of the House Judiciary Committee who voted to impeach Nixon, recently recalled, “I personally liked Richard Nixon. He campaigned for me.” However, faced with the evidence of Nixon’s crimes, “I reached a point—a number of us did—where we all felt that [voting to impeach] was the most important decision of our lives.” But after Nixon had resigned, he told me, “Some people left the room or turned their backs on me when I went back to Illinois. I got picketed by a Republican precinct committeeman. There were some Nixon people who didn’t like what I had done, voting to impeach a Republican president.”
Railsback’s willingness to follow his conscience in the Watergate crisis was a critical factor in the right-wing primary challenge that ended his political career in 1982. Conservatives charged that moderates’ independent judgment made them “Republicans in Name Only” and launched a wave of primaries against them in the post-Watergate years. That period marked what the New York Times’ Thomas Edsall recently termed “the onset of a purge of moderate Republicans from Congress.” Nixon had thrown the organizational weight of the Republican Party against primary challenges, knowing that the conservative who could topple a moderate was usually too far to the right to win a general election. With Nixon gone, the conservative id was no longer checked by the GOP superego.
But it wasn’t just a surge of conservatives in the immediate wake of the scandal: Watergate and Nixon’s resignation advantaged conservatives and disadvantaged Republican moderates in broader, more structural ways that bent the arc of political history for decades to come. Disgusted moderate Republicans withdrew from political activity after Watergate while conservatives built up their infrastructure of think tanks, pressure groups and fundraising organizations. The liberal-driven 1974 Campaign Reform Act allowed conservatives, with the extensive lists of contacts they had developed since Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential run, to make extensive use of direct mail solicitations and create the first political action committees, or PACs. Conservatives’ resources soon dwarfed those of moderates. Not long after Watergate, Oregon’s moderate Senator Robert Packwood was lamenting the rise of “narrowly targeted massive spending organizations dedicated to the defeat of a candidate whose sole sin was to vote his conscience.”
The move toward binding state presidential primaries also disadvantaged moderates, since the right wing was able to dominate those elections (which historically have been low-turnout contests) through superior organizational muscle and the ideological zeal of its followers. Wonder why an oddball extremist like Christine O’Donnell was able to win the 2010 GOP senatorial primary in Delaware? Because less than a third of the state’s registered Republicans bothered to vote in the primary and O’Donnell won by just over 3,000 votes—before going down to dismal defeat in the fall, protesting “I’m not a witch” in response to ads that revealed her earlier dabbling in sorcery. If electoral participation rates were still at pre-Watergate levels, extreme candidates rarely would prevail in primaries outside of the most partisan states.
Ford made a dramatic comeback in the two months before the 1976 election and lost only narrowly to Carter. In all likelihood he would have won reelection if he had not sparked public outrage by pardoning Nixon—an action that historians have defended but which at the time looked like collusion or corruption. With the defeat of Ford, a moderate Republican, the way was clear for these newly empowered conservative Republicans to have their own man in the White House and consolidate control over the party. That man, of course, was Ronald Reagan, whose candidacy and election reinforced the conservative argument that, as he put it in his first inaugural address, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
It was fashionable to say, after Nixon was forced from office, that the system had worked. But the impeachment crisis and its aftermath produced a corrosive public cynicism about politics and government, reflected in sinking voter turnout rates and a decline of citizen confidence in American institutions that still has not recovered.
Donald Trump is the ultimate product of our enduring post-Watergate cynicism. Throughout his campaign, he painted a picture of a country suffering disaster at home and humiliation abroad, in which nothing worked and no one could be trusted aside from Trump himself. Would this dark view of America have had any real traction prior to the national collapse in confidence that followed Watergate?
Reactionary politics flourish in times when Americans believe their institutions are broken. And is there any reason to doubt that an even deeper wave of cynicism would follow from a Trump impeachment? |
Data Shows Contraception Lowers Abortion Rates and Saves Billions, but Why Do Republicans Continually Fight to Deny Women the Right to Birth Control
Claire Anderson Blocked Unblock Follow Following Sep 5, 2017
Imagine if we had a clear-cut, scientifically proven solution to significantly lower the rate of abortions in the United States. At the same time, the solution allows women to regulate their menstrual cycles and gives women and families a way to easily plan for children.
Common sense would tell us that this is a win-win for everyone involved. Abortion rates plummet, unplanned pregnancies go down, and a variety of women’s health issues would be better controlled.
The solution: Make birth control free for anyone wanting it.
Guttmacher came up with a figure of about $13.5 billion in savings per year to federal and state governments thanks to free birth control and family planning programs. To reach this, they took the cost of providing contraceptives and informational outreach projects and compared it to the costs that state and federal governments would spend on government assistance for those who would have an unplanned pregnancy, and the resulting children.
The study also found that of the over 2/3rds of women who take birth control regularly, they were only responsible for about 5% of America’s unplanned pregnancies. The other approximately 1/3rd of child-bearing aged women who either took it irregularly or not at all were responsible for 95% of the 3.1 million unwanted pregnancies, of which, 700,000 ended in an abortion.
Assuming even half of the women who do not use contraceptives regularly were to start when provided with an easy and free method of birth control, there would be about a reduction of around 1.3 million unplanned U.S. pregnancies according to the 2010 numbers. There would also likely be around 300,000 fewer abortions every year, coming close to cutting the baseline number in half.
Even getting out of the social sphere, it would save billions of dollars a year on top of what governments already save with free and subsidized contraceptive programs. Reducing government spending and getting rid of abortion are two of the main issues of the Republican Party platform, then why is it that they refuse to even consider a program that would seemingly make everyone happy?
It’s a question that most Republican politicians refuse to answer outright, even when asked. When they do give a response, it’s usually related to the government overstepping its bounds.
Which, if you think about it, is particularly rich coming from those actively seeking to keep contraceptives out of the hands of those who need them the most. Few things give women more freedom than the ability to choose when and if they want to have a baby.
This is hardly a handout since the government would be getting a positive return on its investment in the form of fewer people requiring governmental assistance. Society as a whole would be better off with women having the ability to control their own bodies, regardless of socioeconomic status.
It’s important to ask ourselves and our lawmakers why they aren’t taking what should be a common sense step to making the U.S. a better place for both women and men (we all pay taxes). |
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The Republican plan for lower income people after Obamacare is repealed to tell them to stop buying iPhones and purchase their own health care according to Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT).
After it had been pointed to Chaffetz that access doesn’t equal affordability when it comes to coverage, the Congressman from Utah responded with one of the most out of touch replies one will ever hear.
Video:
Chaffetz said on CNN’s New Day, “We’re getting rid of the individual mandate. We’re getting rid of those things that people said that they don’t want. And you know what? Americans have choices. So maybe they gotta make a choice. Getting that new iPhone that they love that want to spend hundreds of dollars on, maybe they should invest it in their own health care. They gotta make those decisions themselves.”
This is what Republicans don’t want to tell poor people. Access does not equal affordability. There is a reason why the word affordable is missing in the title of the House Republican Obamacare replacement plan.
When Rep. Chaffetz talks about giving people a choice, he is referring to the choice between having health insurance and paying the rent or mortgage. Chaffetz is talking about the choice between being able to buy food or be able to see a doctor.
The choice isn’t about whether or not to buy the new iPhone or have health insurance. For lower income Americans receiving Obamacare subsidies or Medicaid, they can’t afford a new iPhone. The people who can afford to stand in line for new Apple products can afford new health insurance.
Chaffetz was asked about lower income people, and his answer revealed that lower income people are going lose their health care coverage because if a person has to choose between health insurance or keeping a roof over their head, they’re going to pick the option that doesn’t leave them homeless.
The other revealing aspect of Chaffetz’s answer is his example was an admission that the Republican plan is going to harm the economy. If a person has to take money from groceries or other spending to pay their health insurance, that is less money going back into the economy.
The underlying ideology behind the Republican plan is rooted in a belief that poor people are poor because they waste their money, which is not true.
The House Republican Obamacare replacement is going to cost people more money for less health care.
The members of Congress who are making decisions about the health care for the country are out of touch with reality and must be stopped before they cause grave harm to millions of people in the United States.
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Game Collector Found MOONWALKER Missing Chiptune Thriller Music for the SEGA Genesis!!
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In my personal opinion, probably one of the best discovery in video game history! This random dude just so happens to find an extremely rare Sega Genesis game cartridge of Moonwalker which includes the full Thriller chiptune music as it should have been when the game first got released back in the 90s! Question is, is it legit?! I believe it is so! Thank you for being awesome in watching my video! -------------------- ---🐺 Communicate with me on my Social Media! 🐺--- 👾Vid.ME: https://vid.me/DarkWolf80s 👾Twitter: @DarkWolf80s - https://twitter.com/DarkWolf80s 👾FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/darkwolf80s/ 👾Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+DarkWolf80s 👾Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darkwolf80s/ 👾Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/darkwolf80s 👾SNAP Chat: @DarkWolf80s - https://www.snapchat.com/add/darkwolf80s -------------------- -- Intro Music By Boom-Beats: https://soundcloud.com/boom-beats --Support YOUR FAN Shoutou!t-- Atomic Punch! Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeldJxsHTM9ycdUT4SJsa7Q Paper Mario Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM3E4TtOnhE&t=4s #DarkWolf80s #DW80s #SEGA #SEGAGENESIS #Moonwalker #GameCollectorFindsMissingThriller #GamecollectorfoundThrillerChiptune #missingthrillermusic #missingthriller #chiptune #rev00 #rev01 #genesisdoeswhatnintendont #genesisdoesad #moonwalkersega #moonwalkermegadrive #nintendo #nintendoswitch #nintendo3ds #mario #spawnwave #spawnwavemedia #switch #sonicmania #sonicthehedge #reviewtechusa #doom #doomswitch #snesmini #snesminiclassic #retrogamingtube85 #rgt85 #tutorial #deutsch #pokemon #vidmecommunity #vidmeexclusive
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Stuart Heritage reimagines the exchange of letters between the former culture secretary and David Cameron relating to her resignation following her expenses scandal
LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER
9 April 2014
Dear Prime Minister,
It is with the thinnest possible veneer of synthesised guilt that I have been convinced to tender my resignation as a member of the cabinet.
I am very grateful to you for inexplicably having my back throughout this mess, but the present situation has become a distraction from the vital work this government is doing to distract the public from the ongoing abuse of government expenses.
I have been a member of the Conservative party for more than 30 years. I know that our party understands the importance of giving everyone the opportunity to succeed regardless of where they come from, so long as they come from my immediate family and prefer having a nicely decorated house to being able to sleep at night.
I am immensely proud of what my team have been able to achieve during my time in government: uniting our great arts and cultural institutions in unanimous agreement that I should resign; putting women front and centre of the continuing expenses scandal; putting in place the legislation to enable all couples to have the opportunity to marry regardless of their sexuality. I mean, there was that time I voted against a move to allow ministers to introduce regulations banning harassment on grounds of sexual orientation, but that was way before you made me look after gay people. Besides, accurate recollections have never exactly been my strong point, have they?
Did I mention that I went to a comprehensive? Because I totally did.
Implementing the recommendations made by Sir Brian Leveson on the future of media regulation wasn't the success I'd hoped it to be, either. I mean, seriously, what's the point of limiting the freedom of the press if I can't even bully editors into shutting up about my dodgy mortgage? Still, whatever. I get the message. I'll lie low for a bit.
I will continue to support you and the work of the government as you move forward. Ensuring the best future for people of Basingstoke who I'm directly related to has been my priority throughout the past nine years. Whether on the front or back benches, I will continue this work. But, who are we kidding, it'll probably be the front benches, right?
I did mention I went to a comprehensive, didn't I?
The only reason I became an MP was that I wanted to give something back. Sadly, there was some disagreement about the exact amount. I owe my husband, my mother, my father and my three children a great deal. Less than I owe everyone else, admittedly, but a great deal nonetheless.
I haven't actually said sorry for anything here, have I? Never mind!
Maria Miller
REPLY FROM THE PRIME MINISTER
9 April 2014
Dear Maria,
Thank you for your letter. About bloody time, too. Now, keep your mouth shut and we'll have you back here in a month or two. Still on for cocktails next week?
PS: Stop saying "distraction" on TV. You have no idea how annoying it is.
David Cameron |
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Do you want more readers for your books and articles? There is a cornucopia of free and effective promotion tools for writers on the Internet. You can achieve these marketing goals through online activities in a fun way, as most writers already like to hang out in cyberspace, networking and blogging.
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1. Join Book Communities
As an author it is a MUST to be a member of these communities and a free (other than your time) way to introduce your book(s) and show your book titles. Join Goodreads, Wattpad, Scribd, BookMoch or Shelfari. More on my blog about book communities and for direct links. Post snippets (or chapters) of your book to excite potential readers at Wattpad – see my blog about Wattpad: 15 million readers before the book was even published.
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2. Use Your Signature
Never send out an email without your author’s signature. You have probably heard this advice before, but: do you use the gains of e-mail signatures to market and promote your books?
Every day you send out emails to friends, business colleagues, your lawyer or accountant, potential clients, potential readers … If you have an email signature, you are constantly sending people “passive” marketing, spreading the word about you, your brand and your books. Create your email signature right now!
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3. Involve Social Networks
Show up on Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Facebook and Linkedin (be at least on Google+ and one more of these networking sites). Click on “public” when posting on Google+ and your content will be immediately picked up by Google’s search engines. If you share interesting links (and your blog posts), and offer great free information, you will quickly become a favorite in these social networks. Your followers and connections on Social Media will later become your fan base, read and subscribe to your blog posts and newsletters and read / buy your books.
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4. Comment on Other Blogs
Take the time to find bloggers who write about topics similar to those you write about. When they have something good to say or you can add something to what they have written, leave a comment on their blog. Each time you do so, you leave behind a link to yourself, your website, or your blog. If people who read your comment find what you have written interesting, they will click on the link to find out more about you. They may then decide to become regular blog readers or subscribers, newsletter subscribers, or book buyers.
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5. Start and Maintain a Blog Yourself
Blogs serve as the best tool for increasing online visibility as these are constantly updated and thus attractive for search engines. The more visible you, your book, your website, and your blog become, the more traffic (readers) your blog will attract. This means more buyers for your book now or when it is released. To create a successful blog, write about something you feel passionate about and do so often and consistently. That’s all it takes.
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6. Contribute Content to e-Zine Article Directories
Recycle parts of your blogged book manuscript or blog posts into short articles you can post in content farms or e-zine article directories, such as Ezinearticles.com, Amazines.com, or Blogs of the Week and many more. Almost all have a resource box for a short bio and a link back to your website, book, blog, or subscription form. These articles are picked up by other bloggers, newsletter editors, e-zine editors, etc., and each time your resource box is featured. Readers click on your links to find out more about you, subscribe to your blog and newsletter or purchase your book. You can even use an e-zine article distribution services, such as http://www.submityourarticle.com, and get your articles distributed to hundreds of e-zine directories at once, making it available to hundred- thousands of new readers and possible book fans.
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7. Optimize your Amazon Page
The first step of all you can do to climb up to bestseller status:
– “autograph” Kindle books
– choose the best categories for your books and update them regularely
– add tags/keywords/subjects to your book listing for more exposure
– add lots of reviews, “About the Author” and additional information to your Amazon sales page
– get the most out of your Amazon Central account, create a brilliant authors page
– find out which part of your books your customers highlight the most on the Kindle and post it on your website or blog.
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No Money? No Problem!
Success in social media book marketing, using the tools described here, doesn’t require any financial investment. Depending on your level of involvement, it may demand a strong time commitment, at least in the beginning. Yet, as more you use these marketing tools, as faster you can handle them and as more visitors and buyers you will get.
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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
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Hyper Smash
Pingate |
President Paul Kagame his wife, Jeanette Kagame, look on as attendants place a symbolic coffin in a mass-burial site in Nyanza, near Kigali, on April 7, 2009 to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the 1994 genocide that killed 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus. (Thomas Rippe/Associated Press)
They call Rwanda the "land of a thousand hills." But sometimes it can feel like the land of a thousand questions.
For one, how is it possible that these apparently gentle, quiet people could massacre — in the most brutal manner imaginable — more than 800,000 of their friends, neighbours and colleagues over the course of just three months?
Jim Handman is Executive Producer with the CBC show Quirks & Quarks. He is teaching journalism this summer at the National University of Rwanda.
And how can they now coexist, side-by-side, building the "new Rwanda"?
Yes, the Rwandan genocide is 15 years behind us this month. But that doesn't feel like such a long time in the history of something so horrible.
To seek some answers, I went with some colleagues to the Genocide Museum in the capital, Kigali.
It is a fairly new, modest building, surrounded by memorial gardens. On the main floor is a highly detailed and well-presented chronology of the genocide, its history, context and aftermath.
It contains some video testimony from survivors and the families of victims as well as some graphic photos of corpses.
It also exhibits some damning descriptions of how the world turned its back on Rwanda during the genocide.
Where was the UN?
Rather than come to Rwanda's aid, the UN actually pulled its troops out of this central African country at the height of the massacre, leaving its presiding officer, Canadian general Romeo Dallaire, hung out to dry.
Dallaire, now a senator, has said that he could have stopped the slaughter with just 5,000 troops and the proper mandate.
Instead, the UN decreased his force from 2,500 to just 250 helpless peacekeepers, who were forced to stand by and watch the genocide unfold.
One of the posters in the museum notes that the number of European troops that came to help evacuate Westerners in that spring and summer would have been enough to stop the genocide — had they stayed.
The French come under particular attack, since they arrived near the very end and their attempt to set up a so-called safe zone in the country, under a controversial mission called Operation Turquoise, appears to have helped some of the Hutu killers escape.
The most moving part of the museum is the final room, filled with large blow-up pictures of some of the many children who died in the genocide.
It lists their names, favourite pastimes and hobbies, and the manner in which they were killed: decapitated with a machete, speared, smashed against a wall.
It is difficult to read and I skip most of them.
Not alone
On the second floor is an exhibit dedicated to the other genocides of the 20th century: the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, the Khmer Rouge slaughter of one-quarter of the population of Cambodia, and the Bosnian wars of the 1990s.
It is a brilliant idea — to show that this kind of unspeakable horror is not just a product of some kind of primitive, African savagery. But rather a product of man's inhumanity to man, of which no group has a monopoly.
It leaves a strong and lasting impression, as well as a sense of despair.
To understand more about what happened here, we go on another day to the Genocide Memorial at Murambi, about a half-hour drive from Butare, where we are living.
There are many of these memorials around the country, but this one marks the location of one of the largest single massacres of 1994. As many as 50,000 Tutsis sought refuge here, during the height of the killings, at a technical college on a hillside.
They were surrounded by the Hutu army and a Hutu militia, known as the Interahamwe.
For the sheltering Tutsis, their food and water was cut off for two weeks. And then the militia and soldiers moved in to kill — 50,000 men, women and children slaughtered in a day.
Rooms of skeletons
The memorial consists of room after room in the college filled with skeletons, carefully placed on large white wooden tables.
The bodies have been coated with lime to preserve them and they glisten white in the light. The smell of the odour-control balls in the rooms is overwhelming.
But what you notice most are the number of tiny bodies — babies, children, teens — many with smashed skulls.
They have all been exhumed from the mass graves on the site and placed in the rooms where they were slaughtered. The impact is overwhelming and incomprehensible.
Behind the college is a grassy area with a sign that reads: "Here the French troops played volley (ball) during Operation Turquoise."
The sign is just metres away from a huge mass grave and you can't help but conclude these soldiers must have known what had gone on at that spot.
They must have seen the blood in the rooms. The graves would have been fresh.
A wife remembers
We were taken on a tour of the rooms by a woman who works there, herself a survivor of the massacre. She tells us, in French, that her husband, a Tutsi, saved her life.
She is a Hutu, who was married to a Tutsi. When the militia came to kill them, her husband showed them her identity card, which identified her as a Hutu — and they made her run away with the baby on her back.
Then they murdered her husband and her other two young children.
She tells us that she works here at the memorial as a duty to the memory of her family.
She is unemotional and direct. She does this every day. We come away numb.
Collective responsibility
One of the many writers on Rwanda that I have read in recent weeks noted that the genocide could have been much more efficient.
After all, the Rwandan army (entirely Hutu) was very well armed, by the French, with the latest weaponry.
But instead of shooting Tutsis and moderate Hutus, the militia killed them with primitive weapons — machetes, spears, hoes, clubs — one at a time.
The idea, it was said, was to involve as many people as possible in the killings, to spread the blame and the responsibility.
That might explain why more than one million Hutus fled the country when the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front invaded and stopped the genocide.
What now?
At this point, it seems, Rwanda is still coming to grips with the aftermath of the killings.
In 2001, the government established a system of community courts, known as Gacacas, to try those responsible.
The crimes range from robbery and looting to rape and murder. There are 12,000 of these courts in a country of only eight million people and the result is that those who are judging know the accused very well.
At the Gacacas, sentences have been handed out, although many people who expressed guilt were pardoned and allowed to return to their communities.
The president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, has said that if they incarcerated all the people involved in the genocide, they would have no country left.
The leaders of the genocide are being tried at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in Arusha, Tanzania. But the process there is painfully slow.
In fact, only last week was the former governor of Kigali convicted of genocide, murder and rape, and sentenced to life. It had taken 15 years to bring him to justice.
The government of Rwanda is also frustrated with the European countries that refuse to extradite alleged Hutu killers who have been given asylum in their countries. Britain is one of them.
But it applauds Canada for recently convicting a Montreal man for his involvement in the massacre.
When you drive in the countryside, you often see groups of men in pink jumpsuits, working in the fields beside the highways. They are "genocidaires," men who have been convicted of crimes related to the genocide and are now in prison. We are prohibited from taking their pictures.
We ask people here if something like this could happen again.
They say yes — if the Hutu majority takes power again. That seems unlikely. The Tutsi minority now controls the government and the military and they are committed to the idea of erasing ethnic identities.
They want a country where everyone is just a Rwandan. It is a noble ideal, but is it realistic? We can only hope.
Postscript: A few days after this story appeared, someone threw a grenade at the Genocide Museum in Kigala from a passing motorcycle. Two passersby were injured.
It was the third attack on the museum in just over a year. Significantly, perhaps, grenades were a favourite weapon of the Hutu militias during the genocide. They would be tossed into churches and rooms where Tutsis were hiding. |
In our current culture, millennials move from job to job in order to climb the ladder. The average time spent at a company is just two years. For baby boomers and other generations, this has not been the norm. Loyalty and dedication to a single company or career drove, and still drives, much of their working lives. AOL’s original series Lifers features these dedicated, loyal workers who have been in their jobs for years and years. Will they retire? Are they prepared to?
Fred Vautour, 63, of Waltham, Mass., grew up in a broken home and without a lot of support, and his childhood experiences drove his choices later in life: He knew that he wanted to work “not just for the money but because you want to be your best at what you do.”
Vautour ultimately took a job at Boston College as a janitor on the overnight shift. All five of his children went on to be accepted at the prestigious New England college — and because of their father’s employment there, they were able to go to school completely free of tuition.
Vautour’s job has saved his family more than $700,000 in tuition.
Working the graveyard shift — or from midnight to 7 a.m. each day — Vautour has been on the job for 23 years, and in that time he has missed only three and a half days of work.
“You never really get used to working the night shift, but you just adjust to it,” Vautour explains.
He notes that his commitment to his job was about understanding the value of its benefits — primarily, free college tuition for his children — over the pursuit of opportunities for higher wages. And getting to see his two daughters and three sons all graduate without student debt has been immeasurably rewarding.
“He is so passionate about work and about getting us to be the best people we can be,” Vautour’s daughter Amy says. After completing her undergraduate degree at BC, Amy ultimately went on to earn her master’s degree from Boston College too, in higher education.
His daughter Alicia, the youngest of his five children and who earned a degree in nursing from the school where her father has worked all these years, agrees: “The biggest thing I learned from him was dedication.”
For his part, Vautour says he hopes that one day his grandchildren will know that their grandfather “did a lot on my own” — and that his hard work was seen and appreciated by his children, who are passing down those values to their own children now too.
“It’s the trickle-down effect,” Vautour explains.
See the stories of more Lifers:
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. |
Press Release from The Israel/Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) of the Presbyterian Church (USA):
During its 222nd biennial General Assembly, which took place in Portland, Oregon this week, the Presbyterian Church (USA) continued its strong support for Palestinian rights with the passage of a series of overtures. An overture calling on real estate company RE/MAX to stop selling properties in Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law and official US policy passed without opposition. In addition, the General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the use of boycotts and other nonviolent measures in support of oppressed peoples throughout the world. These actions follow the historic vote of the General Assembly in 2014 to divest from companies that profit from and sustain Israel’s nearly 50-year-old military occupation of Palestinian lands, as well as the endorsement of a boycott of goods made in settlements.
Just prior to the Assembly, the CEO and co-founder of RE/MAX, Dave Liniger, announced in a letter sent to the overture advocates of the Presbytery of the Redwoods that the company has “recently taken action to ensure that RE/MAX, LLC will no longer receive any income from the sale of Jewish settlement properties in the West Bank.”
“We’re pleased that RE/MAX is acknowledging that its operations in the occupied territories are problematic from a legal and moral point of view, but we’re waiting to see what this means in practical terms,” said Marita A. Mayer, the overture advocate. “RE/MAX must follow up this statement with concrete action to fully end its complicity in Israel’s occupation and theft of Palestinian land.”
In addition to the RE/MAX overture, the plenary of the General Assembly supported by over 70% a continuing study of the global grassroots BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanctions) movement for Palestinian rights and freedom. Rejecting attempts to categorically reject BDS and choosing instead to engage in prayerful study, the General Assembly recognized the historic commitment of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to nonviolent strategies for social change.
The plenary also approved a report submitted by the church’s Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) supporting measures that revoke tax deductions and 501(c) 3 status to organizations that promote and finance illegal Israeli settlements, encouraging Congress to investigate the use of US-made equipment in Israeli human rights violations, and supporting the enforcement of laws requiring the correct labeling of settlement products.
The Israel-Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) of the Presbyterian Church (USA) welcomes the advances made at this year’s General Assembly towards supporting a just and lasting peace in Israel and Palestine, and looks forward to continuing our work towards that end moving forward. |
At the start of the campaign, you have a single base: Phoenix Point. You also start with a single aircraft, which has its travel distance limited by its fuel supply. In the example above, the range of the aircraft is shown by the two-tone orange circle. The centre, lighter circle is the safe distance for making a return trip. The outer, darker circle means a one way trip. You won't have enough fuel to return unless there is somewhere else where you can refuel.
Within your travel range, you can see a number of question-marks. These represent unknown points of interest and could be a number of things;
They could be one of the many isolated Havens spread around the world (there will be approximately 100-200 to discover per game). These could belong to one of the 3 major factions, or they could be independent Havens. Some of these will be extra special, as you may run into some of our Immortalization Edition backers here, as creating your own Haven and its leader is one of the perks for supporting Phoenix Point at this level. The major factions could be your allies or your enemy. Your actions and diplomacy throughout the campaign will decide this. Independent Havens will likely be willing to offer you precious resources or personnel in exchange for protection.
It could be an inactive base belonging to The Phoenix Project. These bases will offer somewhere for you to refuel your aircraft, and may contain new technologies for you to utilize, or facilities to aid your war effort.
They could be scavenger sites. These places are a rich source of much needed supplies and resources, and may even have the odd vehicle lying around which you can repurpose. Be extra careful though; these sites are generally overrun with alien creatures.
It could be a mysterious alien built structure. What is their purpose? How did they get there? That is something better left for your discovery.
Probably the most terrifying, it could be a colossal alien Behemoth, roaming the land and devouring all in its path. You must risk great sacrifice to stop these mighty beasts at all costs as even Havens are on their menu. |
It seems a little silly to talk about a player struggling three games into an 82-game season, but with how quickly Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkić took to his new team after being acquired from Denver during the middle of the 2016-17 season, seeing the 7-0 Bosnian and Herzegovinan get his 2017-18 season off to a tough start has been somewhat jarring.
After averaging 15.2 points on 51 percent shooting, 10.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.9 blocks and 1.3 steals in his first 20 games in Portland, Nurkić is averaging just 13.0 points on 35 percent shooting along with 4.3 turnovers in the first three games of the 2017-18 campaign. While his defense has good — he’s third on the team in defensive rating — his play on the offensive side of the ball has been a bit uneven in the early going.
“So far defensively, I think I’m here,” said Nurkić. “Obviously my second half in Milwaukee was how I should look on offense basically. But I think I’m right there.”
Nurkić’s performance in the second half of Saturday’s 113-110 loss to the Bucks in Milwaukee looked much more similar to what Trail Blazers fans saw last season, with the center putting up 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting, seven rebounds, two assists and a block in 16 minutes. In the 10 quarters preceeding the second half in Milwaukee, Nurkič shot a combined 9-of-30 from the field.
“There is no excuse man,” said Nurkić of his very early season performance. “I play a little bad, shots just didn’t fall in. If they fall in everybody looking good. I know I’m way better player than that and I’m going to keep improving myself.”
It’s also worth considering the differences between the Trail Blazers now and when Nurkić went on his impressive run after joining the team prior to the 2017 trade deadline. At that time, Ed Davis was hobbled by a shoulder injury which would end his season prematurely, Noah Vonleh was starting at power forward and the playbook was culled considerably in order to make the game easier for Nurkić. But now, Davis is healthy, Vonleh, who saw his production increase playing alongside Nurkić, is out with a shoulder injury and the Portland’s playbook is being fully utilized. All those changes, along with simply missing shots that he should be making, helps to explain why the “Bosnian Beast” hasn’t looked quite the same to start the season.
“The way how we play just a little bit different for me, that’s how I feel,” said Nurkić. “But right now we have a full playbook list and that’s different. Before I play ten plays, this just my adjustment. I’m getting there, I’m going to be better with this. There is nothing in my mind that should keep me out. Whatever the team need from me, I’m going to be here man. The game will come when they need me, I’ll be here.”
Nurkić won’t have to wait long considering the Trail Blazers are hosting the New Orleans Pelicans in their home-opener Tuesday night at the Moda Center. With all-stars Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins holding down the Pelicans’ frontcourt, the Trail Blazers will need Nurkić at his best on both sides of the ball in order to extend their win streak in season openers to an NBA record 17 games.
“It’s way easier to play in front of my fans than anybody else," said Nurkić. "We not pick and choose the games, every game is going to be hard. You can see that around the league right now. We care about ourselves and what we can do to be game-by-game and that’s how we looking. We prepare each game so we’re not going to fall away. (Tuesday) going to be a big game for us. And (shucks), I’m excited to finally play at home. That’s what we’re looking for.” |
Arcata >> Standing outside the door from their locker room to the Redwood Bowl field as the clock headed toward 2:30 p.m., Humboldt State football players were unsure of what they were about to hear regarding the future of their program.
Come 2:35 p.m., the tone at one of Division II’s best football venue’s had swiftly swung toward jubilation.
After months of uncertainty, Humboldt State football is sticking around after President Lisa Rossbacher announced to a crowd of several hundred at the Redwood Bowl on Tuesday afternoon that the program will see a 91st season come 2018.
Those same players who had no idea what to expect all of a half-hour earlier experienced emotions from shock to jubilation to just about everything in between.
“It means a lot because I’ve had countless people in my life that have meant so much to me been brought to this community through football,” said HSU linebacker Connor Cox, an Arcata High School grad who grew up around the Jacks program. “I think it’s just huge for the community now because we get to keep bringing those people and so much more to our community. Now, everybody else can experience the same thing. It’s just huge.”
The uncertainty about the football program’s future has been there for months, and was only taken up a few levels right before the 2017 season opener against Azusa Pacific on Sept. 9.
Ever since HSU’s season-ending loss to Great Northwest Athletic Conference champion Central Washington on Nov. 11, it simply became a waiting game.
Rossbacher announced at an Associated Students meeting that a decision would come on Dec. 1, but a death in the family pushed the decision back once more.
The Jacks got their long-awaited answer on Tuesday.
And it was one that even the most optimistic of players might not have expected.
“The last few weeks have been hectic,” HSU offensive lineman James Bain said. “Not only with finals, but the whole situation with Lumberjack football. This meeting came up with President Rossbacher and we really did not feel too good about it going into it. But the tide has changed and the Jacks are back, baby.”
Coaches weren’t recruiting due to the fact they didn’t want potential players to commit to a program that might not be around come the 2018 season.
And players were left to ponder their futures as well.
It was a simple question with a not-so-simple answer: Do they wait everything out and see what the decision is or do they try and find another school to play at and enroll as quickly as possible?
“I’ve played football basically my entire life and I definitely wanted to play my last year somewhere. If it wasn’t here, then probably somewhere else that wanted to take me. That played a huge role in my decision,” said HSU defensive lineman Daniel Lavulo, a transfer from College of San Mateo who joined the team this season. “I thought it was done for sure. I talked with [defensive coordinator Barry Sacks] yesterday and he was saying the same thing. We were talking about a plan to go to another school. Then the announcement was made and I think it caught everybody off-guard.”
Like Lavulo, a lot of players sought permission from Humboldt State to be recruited by other schools as the possibility of the football program being cut became more and more of a possibility.
However, with Tuesday’s news, those who have gotten a release from Humboldt State to be recruited by other schools now have to decide if they want to continue with the plan or stay in Arcata.
Or, as head coach Rob Smith put it, the Jacks are going to have to start recruiting by re-recruiting some of their own players.
“It’s switched up a lot of things on my decision,” Lavulo said. “It’s been a hard process, definitely, because I’ve never been put in this situation before. I’ve talked to some of my old coaches about it and started reaching out to schools. Now that there’s been an announcement that they’re going to keep football, it changes the whole thing.”
Cox, who just finished his junior season of eligibility, chose to wait until a decision from Rossbacher before plotting his next move.
“It is stressful with school going on and then all of this going as well. It is a lot to process,” Cox said. “I feel like I can now focus, at least, so I know a lot of the guys are feeling the same way. … I’m pretty ecstatic. It’s pretty unexpected right now because of what we’ve been hearing around campus and during the football season. I almost feel caught off-guard, but it’s a good feeling, it’s a good feeling.”
But after playing a season with so much uncertainty hanging over their team’s head, the Jacks can do what they’ve wanted to do all along.
And that’s focus on football.
“With the whole situation, we don’t know what recruitment is going to be like for us,” Bain said. “We lost a lot of key guys [who were seniors on the 2017 team], so the guys who are seniors now have to really stick together if we really want to make this thing happen. Otherwise, it could go south really quick for us.”
Danny Penza can be reached at 707-441-0528 |
(02/29/12) Monsanto employees are on the backs of their heels this month attempting to stave off negative press arising from a recirculation of the 1999 story of how Monsanto genetically modified foods were banned from their very own factory cafeteria in Britain (a pharmaceuticals factory in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire England since closed down due to protests). The original story provides referenced quotes with named sources but the Monsanto blog says the story "wasn't true". No explanation is offered by Monsanto regarding sourced quotes, such as this one: "In a notice in the canteen, Sutcliffe Catering, owned by the Granada Group, said it had taken the decision "to remove, as far as practicable, GM soya and maize from all food products served in our restaurant. We have taken the above steps to ensure that you, the customer, can feel confident in the food we serve." [1] When you consider the truth of what people eat at Monsanto, the Gates Foundation and Rockefeller University cafeterias, along with the activities of their founders, the denial antics are recognized to be nothing more than a thinly veiled hypocrisy,which points to much more serious underlying issues.
In their blog post dated February 10, 2012, Monsanto's anonymous blog author, Monsantoco describes Monsantos's present cafeteria logic. First, it's noted, "All foods can be found in Monsanto cafeterias – conventional and organic. None of it is singled out as conventional or organic." The author explains that there was a recall issue regarding spinach, "And for the record, the spinach in question in both cases was – organic." [2] So, to summarize, organic foods do actually now make up a large portion of the Monsanto cafeteria food, but as long as they don't actually tell that specifically to the clients, then the supposed 'food anonymity' implies that Monsanto does not have a double standard. In this case, however, the introduction of organic food is illogical. If customers are not supposed exercise 'food discrimination' and choose between organic and GM foods, then why introduce organic food at all, if it is truly the 'substantial equivalent' of the Monsanto garbage that they are trying to force on the rest of us? The hypocrisy is heightened the more you learn about the friends of Monsanto in high places, what they eat and what they promote.
Food hypocrisy is easy to detect because eating is something we do frequently and often publicly. A comment was posted February 22, 2012 regarding an application for a deputy director position at the Gates Foundation headquarters in Seattle. In the context of a three week interview process, it was noted, "They have a great cafe in a beautiful atrium. There is a coffee bar and a great selection of food. All food is organic. However it's not particularly cheap." Bill Gates outlined his planned "digital revolution" of the world's food supply in Rome, Italy on February 23, 2012. He was grilled by reporters regarding his heavy promotion of genetically modified foods, to whom he retorted, “You should go out and talk to people growing rice and say do they mind that it was created in a laboratory when their child has enough to eat?” [3] This seems to be a false dichotomy: 'Eat poisonous genetically modified food or die of starvation.' The third option, food freedom and the choice to eat natural food, will unfortunately not be an option for the masses if Bill Gates and friends have their way. The Gates Foundation website states in bold letters, "ALL LIVES HAVE EQUAL VALUE". But if this were true in their eyes, then why is the cafeteria where the Gates Fund people eat completely void of GE foods while they propose that others don't need a choice? This all goes to show that some people are considered more "EQUAL" than others in Bill's world. Or, in the language of Michael Taylor and the evidently corrupt US FDA, some are more "substantially equivalent" than others. [4] In the US, there is no GE labeling of produce, no choice, just as the Monsanto execs have desired all along.Food hypocrisy is easy to detect because eating is something we do frequently and often publicly. A comment was posted February 22, 2012 regarding an application for a deputy director position at the Gates Foundation headquarters in Seattle. In the context of a three week interview process, it was noted, "They have a great cafe in a beautiful atrium. There is a coffee bar and a great selection of food. All food is organic. However it's not particularly cheap." [5] Did you catch that remark? This person interested in an elite position at the Gates Foundation became privy to the fact that all the food the Gates Fundies generally eat is completely organic. If Bill Gates enters their local cafeteria with the munchies, he apparently has no choice - Gates eats organic. Like Monsanto, they likely feel the need not to loudly publicize their subtle 'food discrimination' because they heavily promote GMO foods around the world. But the interviewer posted the truth on the Internet and a webpage copy has been made.
a nonprofit organic farm and education center at a converted family estate designed to serve an organic restaurant in NYC. David Rockefeller offered, ''If the restaurant is as good as I hope it will be, it would be quite a great temptation to go there often -- even though we have quite a good cook at home.'' However, in 2006, the Rockefellers began heavily promoting harmful genetically engineered agriculture for other people's use. The Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a joint $150 million Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), which adulterated Africa's natural cassava, a food staple there, with GE cassava What about Bill's good friend David Rockefeller? In 2002, the Rockefellers fundedRockefeller offered, ''If the restaurant is as good as I hope it will be, it would be quite a great temptation to go there often -- even though we have quite a good cook at home.'' [6] So, I guess that implies his family supports organic foods close to home.in 2006, the Rockefellers began heavily promoting harmful genetically engineered agriculture for other people's use. The Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a joint $150 million Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), which adulterated Africa's natural cassava, a food staple there, with GE cassava .[7] This promotion of GE crops and pesticides also managed to produce a by product of super weeds. And in 2008, a Monsanto GE corn was introduced to Africa as "The Water Efficient Maize for Africa" (WEMA) program, supported by hefty donations from Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.
Though helping to promote hazardous GE crops abroad, wealthy 'philanthropists' seem to be a bit more cautious closer to home. Warren Buffet is listed as a client for Haute Chefs LA and their menu section states, "Always buy organic.. Buy local: Always use the Farmers Market first before using your local markets." [8] David Rockefeller also seems to be a bit more cautious closer to home. For example, if David Rockefeller has the munchies in NYC he can stop into his Rockefeller University, but, interestingly enough, Monsanto's bovine growth hormone won't grace his lips. Why? Because Monsanto's unhealthy GMO milk is banned in Rockefeller's cafeteria. The cafeteria website states, "Only rGBH-free milk, Only cage-free eggs" and, "Organic food options" are available. [9]
Other than food hypocrisy, what do Bill Gates, David Rockefeller and the Monsanto team have in common? They are all invested in the Svalbard seed vault, the "Doomsday Seed Vault" in the Arctic for the protection of unadulterated, natural seeds. Other than food hypocrisy, what do Bill Gates, David Rockefeller and the Monsanto team have in common? They are all invested in the Svalbard seed vault, the "Doomsday Seed Vault" in the Arctic for the protection of unadulterated, natural seeds. [10] This fact brings the issues of hypocrisy and deception to a whole new level. The plot thickens. The Natural News site recently published the documented historical involvement of the Gates family with eugenics [11] and the Rockefeller's connection with eugenics is well known. Are there signs that food is being used as a softkill eugenics tool?
The 'humanitarian' Gates Foundation purchased 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock in 2010 [12] and Gates heavily promotes what has been widely labelled as "The World's Most Evil Company" in 2011. [13] Contrary to the propaganda, GE crops have been shown to have less yields, not more, [14] they require a lot more water, and the production of GE biofuels is exacerbating the world's food crisis. Studies in Russia [15] and Austria [16] have shown that genetically modified foods produce infertility in rodents. Also, a study in France published December 19, 2011 .has shown that Monsanto's Roundup weed killer causes infertility and testicular damage in rodents as well. [17] And keeping this in mind, Gates has publicly committed to an audacious plan of capping the world's population at 8.3 billion people, as noted at a TED conference on March 8 2010. [18]
So, there are signs that GE food is a handy eugenics tool and it is a powerful control tool as well. Gates' recently defined 'digital revolution against hunger' seems to be nothing more than an attempt to get people 'on the grid' wherein they may be controlled and manipulated. People living in poor undeveloped countries, in secluded rural locations and in jungles, are essentially the last free people on earth. Gates is advocating that the United Nations use a registration system "report card" and "score card" system to "help" the farmers. [19] We are basically seeing the establishment of a totalitarian food policing system with this proposal.
The scriptures have outlined the Beast economic system of food control in black and white in Revelation 13.16-18, and, whether Gates, Monsanto and Rockefeller are aware of it or not, this is what they are apparently helping to bring to pass. In reality, thousands of Indian farmers have already committed suicide due to the alarming debt and indentured servitude resulting from farm contracts with Monsanto. [20] On February 14, 2012, it was reported that GMOs may cause widespread umbilical cord deformities, according to CNN Hero of the Year ‘Mother Robin’. [21] Though helpful for his population reduction statistics, these types of issues aren't brought up in Gates' public speeches, nor are they mentioned by the MSM news conglomerates, which are no doubt grateful recipients of Gates' generous donations. [22]
References
[1] The Independent, GM food banned in Monsanto canteen , http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/gm-food-banned-in-monsanto-canteen-737948.html
[2] Monsantoblog, What’s Served in Monsanto’s Cafeterias?, http://monsantoblog.com/2012/02/10/whats-served-in-monsantos-cafeterias/
[3] Inquierer Technolgy, Microsoft founder urges digital revolution against hunger, http://technology.inquirer.net/8585/microsoft-founder-urges-digital-revolution-against-hunger
[4] AntiCorruption Society, Planetary Destroyer: Monsanto, http://anticorruptionsociety.com/2012/01/20/planetary-destroyer-monsanto/
[5] Glassdoor, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Interview Questions & Reviews, Deputy Director at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Posted Feb 22, 2012) Interviewed Apr 2011 in Seattle, WA (took 3 weeks), http://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Bill-and-Melinda-Gates-Foundation-Interview-Questions-E9097.htm
[6]The New York Times, A Rockefeller Cafe? Big Plans for Estate, And a Few Murmurs
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/22/nyregion/a-rockefeller-cafe-big-plans-for-estate-and-a-few-murmurs.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
[7] Food First, Food First Policy Brief No. 12., http://www.foodfirst.org/files/pdf/policybriefs/pb12.pdf
[8]
Haute Chefs LA,
Client and menu pages, http://www.hautechefsla.com/
[9] Rockefeller University, Food Services, http://www.rockefeller.edu/about/sustainability/food/
[10] Global Research, "Doomsday Seed Vault" in the Arctic, http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23503
[11] Natural News, Bill Gates, Monsanto, and eugenics: How one of the world's wealthiest men is actively promoting a corporate takeover of global agriculture, http://www.naturalnews.com/035105_Bill_Gates_Monsanto_eugenics.html
[12] Organic Consumers, Global Small Farmers Denounce Gates Foundation Purchase of 500,000 Monsanto Stock Shares, http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_21606.cfm
[13] Mother Earth News, Is Monsanto the World's Most Evil Corporation?, http://www.motherearthnews.com/natural-home-living/is-monsanto-the-worlds-most-evil-corporation.aspx
[14] Common Dreams, Bill Gates: We Need Genetically Modified Seeds
Gates' yield-increasing claims widely refuted by studies, http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/23-2
[15] Natural Health 365, Genetically Modified Soy Linked to Sterility, Infant Mortality,
http://www.naturalhealth365.com/food/lorem-ipsum-is-simply-dummy-text.html
[16] Mail Online, Why eating GM food could lower your fertility
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1085060/Why-eating-GM-food-lower-fertility.html
[17] Greenmedinfo, "A glyphosate-based herbicide induces necrosis and apoptosis in mature rat testicular cells in vitro, and testosterone decrease at lower levels.", http://www.greenmedinfo.com/article/glyphosate-based-herbicide-induces-necrosis-and-apoptosis-mature-rat-testicular-cells-vitro-
[18] Youtube, Bill Gates wants a Billion Dead! Vaccines and Health Care will do the Job!, Gates' TED presentation, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUJMR3BUm2s
[19] Wtop, Gates to UN: World must help poor farmers more, http://www.wtop.com/?nid=628&sid=2758916
[20] Daily Mail, The GM genocide: Thousands of Indian farmers are committing suicide after using genetically modified crops, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082559/The-GM-genocide-Thousands-Indian-farmers-committing-suicide-using-genetically-modified-crops.html
[21] Holy Hormones Journal, GMOs may cause widespread umbilical cord deformities according to CNN Hero of the Year ‘Mother Robin’ http://holyhormones.com/iconic-woman/womens-politics/gmos-may-cause-widespread-umbilical-cord-deformities-according-to-cnn-hero-of-the-year-mother-robin/
[22] Natural News, The Gates Foundation donated $1.5 million to ABC's News Project "Be the change; Save a Life," extolling the virtues of ensuring Africans don't starve. http://www.naturalnews.com/034859_Bill_Gates_mainstream_media_influence.html#ixzz1nh14Inz7
(Article revised March 14, 2012)
Search terms: What does Bill Gates eat? What does David Rockefeller eat? What does Warren Buffet eat? Food as a Eugenic tool, organic elitism, the politics of food, food fascism, planned population reduction, Monsanto bans GM food, Bill Gates bans GE food, Gates GMO, softkill genocide, GE food health problems, world's richest men, Gates - Monsanto GE update, Gates Rockefeller Buffet Monsanto connection, Bill Gates owns Monsanto stocks, Gates bans Monsanto in cafeteria, Bill Gates' hypocrisy, studies in Austria and Russia show GE foods produce sterility , global food police,
Gates and the Svalbard seed vault
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Bread and pasta lovers tired of hearing from their carnivorous friends on the Paleo diet about the evils lurking in that plate of spaghetti can take heart: Here’s yet another academic rebuttal to the Paleo fad that will make you feel better about not trying to eat like a caveman.
“Reconstructions of human evolution are prone to simple, overly tidy scenarios,” writes Ken Sayers, who studies primate and human evolution at Georgia State University. “Like much of our understanding of early hominoid behavior, the imagined diet of our ancestors has also been over-simplified.”
Sayers’ opinion piece, which appeared over at The Conversation on Tuesday, is a follow-up to research he and Kent State University anthropologist C. Owen Lovejoy published in The Quarterly Review of Biology last December. The pair looked at the fossil record as well as chemical and archaeological evidence to try to determine what some of our earliest ancestors ate. They also incorporated a bit of “optimal foraging theory,” which uses mathematical models to predict how certain animals would find food in the wild based on various parameters.
RELATED: Bad News for Paleos: Study Finds High-Protein Diets Are as Risky as Smoking
The crux of their findings? What our hirsute forebears ate 6 million to 1.6 million years ago was no doubt entirely different from what modern-day fans of the Paleo diet eat. The diet varied so much depending on place and circumstance that it’s almost impossible for anthropologists to generalize what early hominids, who adapted to living in a range of environments, ate on a regular basis.
“Hominids didn’t spread first across Africa, and then the entire globe, by utilizing just one foraging strategy or sticking to a precise mix of carbohydrates, proteins and fats,” Sayers writes. “We did it by being ever so flexible, both socially and ecologically, and always searching for the greener grass (metaphorically), or riper fruit (literally).”
True, our ancestors weren’t kicking back around the fire noshing on Doritos and Dr. Pepper. If anthropologists have labored to point out that our modern ideas about what our distant forebears were eating are based more on myth than on science (see evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk’s Paleofantasy), most nutritionists at least cautiously endorse the Paleo diet’s rejection of highly processed foods that have been stripped of vital nutrients, the rampant consumption of which has been linked to a host of chronic, diet-related ills.
But as Sayers’ research suggests, anyone trying to approximate the diet of our primitive ancestors would likely have to start by replicating a sort of feast-and-famine cycle with respect to various food groups—because foraging in the wild means dealing with seasonal flux in the availability of different types of food. It would also mean dramatically expanding our notion of what’s edible.
“[P]lants’ underground storage organs (such as tubers), sedges, fruits, invertebrate and vertebrate animals, leaves and bark were all on the menu for at least some early hominids,” Sayers writes, noting that while evidence shows that hominids 2.6 million years ago were eating antelope, the question of whether the animals were hunted or scavenged “is hotly debated.”
That our earliest ancestors may have been subsisting on a diet of bugs and bark, or the prehistoric equivalent of roadkill, flies in the face of what is the oft-unstated, perhaps even subliminal, attraction of the Paleo diet, particularly among men: the image of the lean, fleet, proud early hunter, perfectly attuned to his natural environment, gorging on a feast of freshly killed beast—which, for today’s Paleos, apparently equates to eating plenty of bison steak.
“[T]he idea that our more ancient ancestors were great hunters is likely off the mark, as bipedality—at least before the advance of sophisticated cognition and technology—is a mighty poor way to chase game,” Sayers writes. “The anthropologist Bruce Latimer has pointed out that the fastest human being on the planet can’t catch up to your average rabbit. Another reason to be opportunistic about food.”
Instead of thinking of ourselves as somehow prehistorically aligned with the mighty hunters of the African plains—lions, say, or cheetahs—we might do better to look to the foraging habits of other animals for clues to how our ancestors ate. Sayers cites research that has found the back teeth of hominids were “bunodont,” that is, “low with rounded cusps,” suggesting our distant cousins were perhaps more omnivorous, like bears, which have similar teeth, as do pigs.
But eating like a hog in the name of good health is a lot less attractive than gorging on bacon. |
Community
Police Patrol Blotter – Weekend Edition
Friday, July 18, 2014 – Sunday, July 20, 2014
Friday, July 18, 2014
Incidents 304 Reports 34
#006 Possession of a Meth Pipe
Officer Foster was patrolling Canyon Heights in response to numerous complaints of drug dealing in the area. He contacted a 41 year old adult male, Fremont resident and arrested him for possession of a meth pipe.
#023 Suspicious Circumstances
At approximately 3:20 p.m., Officer’s Perry and Martinez responded to a call where an REI employee was riding his bicycle to work when he saw another subject, later identified as a 34 year old adult male (Fremont resident), riding a bicycle that he recognized had been stolen from the REI store the day prior. The REI employee followed the suspect and watched him park the bicycle inside a business. The employee went back to REI, called the police and described what had happened. Officer’s Perry and Martinez contacted the suspect on Yale Way and asked him about the bicycle. The male admitted to riding the bicycle and agreed to retrieve it. As he entered the business, the officers are overwhelmed with the smell of marijuana emanating from the business. The male comes back outside with the bicycle and when Officer Perry starts to check him for any outstanding warrants, he decides to run. Officer Perry gets in his car and is able to round up the fleeing man very quickly. Turns out he is on probation and a check of the business reveals a major marijuana grow. Southern Alameda County Major Crimes Task Force Agents Holt and Mattson are contacted and arrive a short time later to take over the grow investigation. Officer Perry arrests the 34 year old adult male for three outstanding drug related warrants, as well as for on-view charges of receiving known stolen property, admitting to being the caretaker for the cultivation of marijuana plants without a permit or medical marijuana card, possession of a controlled substance and obstructing/resisting arrest.
#025 Misc. Public Service
At about 4:36 p.m., a resident on Castanos Street called to report that a massive banner had fallen from the sky and landed on a house located on Jacinto Dr. The banner was covering the house and was also laying across PG&E power lines. Fremont Fire responded and contacted PG&E in order to safely remove the banner. PG& E responded to the scene and cut the ropes, Fremont Fire then pulled the banner down. There was some visible damage to a meal arbor/gazebo in the backyard of one of the residences. Officer Huiskens contacted the Hayward Air Traffic Control Center and they advised they were aware of the incident and had been contacted by the pilot. The pilot arrived on Jacinto and explained to Officer Huiskens that he had used a new rope to secure the banner, but obviously it failed. The pilot collected the 45’ X 90’ foot sign and apologized for the trouble. Officers left the scene at approximately 6:10 p.m.
#001 Possession of Cocaine
At approximately 12:55 a.m., Officer Greenberg-Bobbitt was detailed to check on possible shots fired in the area of Alexander St. and Garden Way. Upon arriving, Officer Greenberg-Bobbitt located several subjects in the area, near a vehicle. One of the subjects quickly turned away from the officers and placed his hand near his front waistband of his pants. A small baggy of cocaine was later located in his pants. His vehicle was then searched and another small baggie of cocaine was located in the vehicle. The 20 year old adult male, Fremont resident, was arrested for possession of the cocaine and booked into the Fremont Jail. No evidence of gun fire was located.
#034 Warrant Arrest and Public Drunkenness
At approximately 10:30 p.m., Officer Snyder conducted a pedestrian stop on a 23 year old adult male, Oakland resident, in front of Washington Hospital. The adult male was found to be too intoxicated to care for his own safety and he had an outstanding traffic warrant. He was arrested for being drunk in public as well as for the outstanding warrant.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Incidents 256 Reports 34
Parking: Community Service Officers Goralczyk and Anders patrolled the area of Stanford Lane (Mission Peak) and issued several citations for various FMC and vehicle code violations.
#012 Driving without a License Arrest
Officer Kindorf conducted a traffic enforcement stop at Maywood St/Stanley Ave and arrested/cited an adult male for operating a motor vehicle without a license.
#013 Driving without a License Arrest
CSI Gaziano conducted a traffic enforcement stop at Robin St/Victoria Ave and arrested/cited an adult male for operating a motor vehicle without a license.
#020 Vandalism Arrest
At approximately 3:10 p.m., Officer Haugh responded to Walmart (Albrae Street) in regards to a female being detained by security for committing a theft. The female had taken a PS3 game out of its box and then placed the box back on the shelf. Due to Copyright laws, WalMart cannot resell the game since the original packaging had been destroyed. The desired prosecution was for vandalism. The 54 year old adult female was placed under citizen’s arrest for vandalism and booked into jail.
#029 Drunk in Public Arrest
Officer Hernandez arrested a 57 year old adult male for public intoxication at the Ardenwood Union 76 station.
#028 Warrant Arrest
At approximately 7:35 p.m., Officer Roberts conducted a pedestrian stop behind the Chase Bank at 5 corners and arrested a 31 year old adult male, Hayward resident, for an outstanding misdemeanor warrant.
#026 Vehicle Code Violations and Warrant Arrest
At approximately 6:55 p.m., Officer Haugh conducted a vehicle stop in the area of Delaware Dr. and Fremont Blvd., for a driver who was actively talking on his cell phone and abruptly changing lanes. The 25 year old adult male was arrested for the vehicle code violations as well as for an outstanding warrant out of Santa Clara Co.
#023 Burglary and Forgery Arrest
Officer Candler responded to Fry’s Electronics in regards to a suspicious person attempting to use fraudulent identification. In the end, a 45 year old adult male, Berkeley resident, was arrested for burglary and forgery.
#001 Felony Battery
Officers responded to Coach’s Bar on the 40900 block of Fremont Blvd., after receiving several calls of a battery in progress. A dispute in the bar escalated into a couple badly beating and stomping a male. The assailants fled but were contacted a short time later in the area of Chapel and High St. The suspects were identified as a 23 year old adult male and a 21 year old adult female. The victim was hospitalized with moderate injuries to his face and head. The suspects were arrested for assault with a deadly weapon. Investigated by Officer Hernandez.
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Incidents 268 Reports 40
#013 Driving without a License
Officer Singleton conducted a traffic enforcement stop on HWY 680 @ Washington Blvd. and arrested/cited a 27 year old adult male, San Jose resident, for operating a motor vehicle without a license.
#008 Auto Burglaries
A performer at the St. James festival (34700 block of Fremont Blvd.) was unloading equipment when he noted a male subject inside his vehicle. The suspect, described as an Asian male adult, 5’8 thin build with short black hair, fled with the victim’s iPad and other electronics and entered an awaiting black vehicle driven by an unidentified male. The victim ran up to the suspect vehicle at which time the driver placed the car into reverse and attempted to strike the victim. The victim jumped out of the way and the suspects fled northbound on Fremont Blvd. A canvass of St. James’ parking lot yielded two additional auto burglary victims. Officer Riechers handled the investigation.
#025 Drug Arrest
Officer Stillitano conducted a traffic enforcement stop and arrested a 20 year old adult male, Fremont resident, for possession of illegal drugs (suspected cocaine).
#030 DUI Arrest
Officer Layfield conducted a traffic enforcement stop and arrested a 36 year old adult male, Fremont resident, for DUI (drugs).
#031 Possession of Illegal Weapon
Sgt. McCormick conducted a traffic enforcement stop and contacted a 32 year old adult female, Hayward resident. Sgt. McCormick conducted a probation search and located a “switchblade” in the vehicle. The female was arrested/cited for the violation.
#038 Vehicle Code Violation
Officer Luevano stopped a 23 year old adult male near Hoagy’s Steakhouse and cited him for possessing marijuana in a vehicle.
#001 Vehicle Code Violation
Officer Luevano stopped a 50 year old adult male, Fremont resident, near Ozark River/Mohawk River and cited him for driving with a suspended license.
#002 Vehicle Code Violation
Officer Harvey stopped a 56 year old adult male and cited him for driving with a suspended license.
#008 Warrant Service
Officer Chahouati contacted a 54 year old adult male near 5-corners and arrested him for a warrant.
#009 Commercial Burglary
Officers responded to a commercial burglary at the Max Gas Station on Mission Blvd. at Las Palmas. The front window was smash by a rock. Loss includes approximately 480 packs of cigarettes. Investigated by Officer Chahouati.
#010 Commercial Burglary
At approximately 5:20 a.m. officers responded to a window smash break-in at a corporate office located on the 3500 block of W. Warren. The loss is unknown at this time. Investigated by Officer Hartman. |
Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump took to Reddit yesterday to participate in an AMA (ask me anything) in the pro-Trump sub-reddit, r/The_Donald.
The AMA, for the most part, royally sucked. Trump answered a total of 12 rather weak questions and stuck to broad generalities rather than diving into specifics. Curious though — and far more interesting than the AMA itself — was the post-AMA thread where r/The_Donald subscribers accused Reddit administrators of censoring the Trump session by artificially inflating (upvoting), or deflating (downvoting) the vote counts, as well as shielding it from the front page — a move that would have brought the mostly-liberal Reddit en masse to take over the Q&A session.
In addition, we found out that mods banned more than 2,200 accounts during the event, a move the moderators bragged about afterward. Mods banned any account created within the past month, and any that asked questions they felt were hostile, although there were no clear-cut guidelines of what constituted a hostile question.
One Redditor asked why Trump refused to share his tax returns before promptly being banned.
I asked @realDonaldTrump on his AMA why he wont share his tax returns… I got immediately banned. pic.twitter.com/LhmDKNvFzj — Patrick (@Thegetawayplan9) July 27, 2016
In fairness, the chance that Trump answered a legitimate question probably wasn’t all that good to begin with. One of the 12 Trump managed to respond to was: “Are you getting tired of winning?”
Trump’s response?
“I am never tired of winning, and as your president I will win for you, the American people. I’m with you!”
He might as well have just responded to every question about Rampart.
via Engadget
on Reddit
Read next: Report: Apple's rigid negotiating tactics cost us 'skinny bundles' for Apple TV |
The obesity epidemic has afflicted men and women equally, but weight gain causes women to lose far more sexual market value than men do. What will happen to dating now that two-thirds of the nation’s women are overweight or obese?
Men Are Judged On Everything—Women Are Judged On One Thing
Weight gain in the population is causing plenty of anguish for all of us, but when it comes to romance, each gender is affected very differently. Men are lucky, or unlucky if you will, in that no single factor determines their overall desirability. Women like tall men, certainly, and they like them handsome, but a nice looking 19-year-old, awkward pizza delivery boy generally has a hard time getting laid.
On the other hand, a plain looking, semi-charming multimillionaire with a yacht likely does pretty well for himself. In a woman’s eyes, a global judgment is made involving height, facial appearance, wealth, ambition, personality, family and social networks, talents (music, art, athletics), and even the opinions of other men and women. The relative weighing of all these factors is fairly even. A very handsome man needs less to get by, but he needs something. A shorter, not so attractive guy with a lot of other things going for him will still do okay.
For women, however, beauty and youth are paramount. Other elements, such as mental health, personality, and intellect do matter, but their relative importance is far less. No level of other attributes can overcome unattractiveness in a woman. A great personality will move a woman up a notch in the dating pool, but only a notch. Yes, some men like “curvy” women, but these women are still quite fit and never is a widely sought-after women going to be fat. With so many overweight women nowadays, thinness has become the single most important beauty standard.
The Disparate Impact Of Being Fat
Although both genders have gained substantial amounts of weight in the past 60 years, the effect on attractiveness and desirability is not the same. A man can be 35 pounds overweight and this might bring him down a notch, but plenty of bigger gentlemen have very desirable wives and girlfriends. Such a man simply has other qualities which make him of value. On a 1 to 10 scale, his 35 pounds drop him from an 8 to a 6 or 7, hardly catastrophic.
But a woman who is 30 pounds overweight, drops from an 8 to a 4. In fact, with so many overweight men, a truly normal-weight man appears too thin to many people. In 1970, the average man weighed around 165 pounds; now the average is 191. If you meet a guy who is around 5’ 10” and 165, he may look skinny. It is instructive to look at male movie stars from the 1950s and earlier. Men like Humphrey Bogart, Laurence Oliver, and Fred Astaire were all quite thin.
One way to view the epidemic is to imagine that an entire generation of young men lost their ambition, that all they wanted to do was to hang out and play video games, that they were perfectly happy in dead-end jobs, making little money, smoking weed, and looking at porn. This is a net negative, analogous to weight gain in women, for men’s dating desirability. In fact, a popular book claims such an epidemic currently exists among young men.
If this epidemic of un-ambitious young men really exists, can it be accounted for by the scarcity of slender, attractive women? Why are young men driven to achieve? Evolutionary biology hypothesizes that males pursue achievement to attract women. But if there are so few desirable women, a young male may conclude that all efforts toward self-improvement and success are futile. With so few thin women, even years of herculean effort will not provide him a reasonable chance to mate with someone highly attractive. So why bother?
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Out In Public
In social settings, I am often amazed to see zero or maybe one woman of a truly normal body weight. Average weights have gone up so much that one cannot see “average” as normal. Earlier in the 20th century, the average woman was 5’ 4” and 122 pounds. Now she is 5’ 4” and 144 pounds in some studies and 155 pounds in others. Today, a woman 5’ 4” and 120 pounds is considered skinny, but this is a perfectly healthy and attractive weight. Some Asian women at 5 ‘ 4” are under 100 pounds and healthy. In fact, the current average Chinese woman is 5’ 4” and 125 pounds, suggesting that about half of all Chinese women 5’ 4” tall weigh less than that.
One sees many more ethnically mixed couples these days, with successful, attractive white males matched with Asian females. This change is most likely driven by the obesity epidemic. When a man is considering a long term relationship, including marriage, one of his greatest fears is that his wife will gain weight and become unattractive. Bad eating habits and even a little bit of pudginess in a 28-year-old could translate to a very overweight woman of 40 after the kids are born. The rise in the desirability of Asian women is due to their lower rates of obesity.
Why do men value attractive partners? Well, you might say it is because it is more fun to have sex with a pretty woman. But another, perhaps more important reason, is that the type of woman a man is able to attract is an advertisement, a direct reflection of his worth in society. Watch a reasonably normal-sized man leave a building with his overweight girlfriend or even a platonic friend. He often walks ahead of or behind her. He cringes at the thought that people will see them together and conclude that he is such a loser that this is the “best he can do.” A woman might have a less attractive man, but a $90,000 sports car, a nice suit, a powerful job, any of these things will make up for his big gut. If a woman is fat, nothing can compensate for the problem.
In The Land Of The Fat….
The obesity epidemic has made many women vastly less desirable romantic partners compared to most men. Fatness just doesn’t knock as many points off a man’s sexual market value as it does a woman. “The end of men” may well be a rational response to the scarcity of thin women where some men conclude it is no longer worth the effort to work hard and gain wealth in the hopes of having sex with slender, attractive women.
The repercussions for society are substantial. Although there are many reasons for the decline in marriage rates, one reason is that men don’t want to marry overweight women. They worry enough about a woman gaining weight after the wedding or when kids come along. Imagine starting out with someone overweight? I am often amazed that when I see a wedding, the bride is much more likely to be slender than chance would suggest. The few remaining thin women can easily seek out men who will marry them. The rest are likely to go unmarried or to marry men incapable of earning a living. From a matchmaking perspective, the appropriate fit for an overweight woman is not an overweight man, it is an unemployed one.
Men now focus on body size even more exclusively than they used to. This is because normal-sized or slender women are so rare. In dating settings, you can be a woman with an unattractive face, bad personality, mentally ill, and a substance abuser, but look around — you may be the only normal-sized, non-overweight woman in the room. Every man there wants one thing: a slender woman. You are in the land of the fat, where the one thin girl is queen.
Read More: Pornstars Are Proof That Female Obesity Is Vastly Underestimated |
MOSCOW (The Borowitz Report)—In a sweeping act of official censorship, the Russian government has banned all Meryl Streep movies from the country, effective immediately.
Moviegoers at Moscow’s Kinoteatr 16 movieplex were taken aback on Monday night when government agents stormed the projection booth and seized a copy of “Florence Foster Jenkins,” the 2016 Streep film that was unspooling.
But the full force of the ban was not felt until Tuesday morning, when the Ministry of Internal Affairs ordered police to go door to door, confiscating Streep DVDs from Russian citizens.
“I was terrified,” Vasily Dmitrovic, who lives in St. Petersburg, said. “They broke down my door. My wife was screaming. They would not leave until I handed over ‘Mamma Mia!’ ”
In an appearance on state television, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered no reason for the ban, other than to say that Streep was “overrated.” |
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Prosecutors dropped a capital murder charge against a Texas man accused in the death of his 2-year-old daughter after investigators learned her then-5-year-old brother said he caused her death, authorities said Thursday.
Anthony Michael Sanders, 33, was accused of smothering his daughter, Ellie Mae, at their home in the Fort Worth suburb of Watauga in 2015. Investigators believed Sanders held his hand over her mouth, possibly out of anger for interrupting his computer games.
Jailed since April 2016, Sanders denied responsibility. He said he found his daughter not breathing after his son reported she wouldn't wake up.
Prosecutors learned in August that the boy, now 7, told his mother he was responsible, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported . She didn't believe her son but decided to tell authorities about the claim. Investigators say the boy cried as he told them that he accidentally rolled a heavy pillow onto his sister's face while they played and that he was unable to move it. He said the pillow had something zipped inside that made it heavy.
At one point the child told investigators that he hadn't told anyone else about the circumstances of the death because he was "afraid that he would get in trouble."
Court records indicate the boy made a reference during a counseling session a year or two ago that he "killed his sister," but the counselor didn't address the statement and the boy wasn't asked why he said it.
Tim Moore, Sanders' defense attorney, said his client was "elated" that the charge was dismissed.
"He has denied it from the beginning," Moore said.
An arrest warrant affidavit had stated the girl had bruises on her body and other injuries, but Moore said Sanders isn't responsible and will not face any new charges.
A spokeswoman with the Tarrant County district attorney's office said that prosecutors won't discuss the dismissal of the capital murder charge or other aspects of the case at this time.
An official with the Tarrant County medical examiner's office said it was possible for a 5-year-old to overpower a 2-year-old and that the boy's claim that he smothered his sister with a pillow could not be disproven, according to a court filing.
___
Information from: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, http://www.star-telegram.com |
To mark International Women’s Day and in solidarity with the ongoing boycott of the Hyatt Andaz West Hollywood, a number of organizations showed up at a rally in support of Andaz housekeepers. Groups that joined included California and Hollywood chapters of the National Organization for Women, Stonewall Democratic Club, Democratic Advocates for Disabilities Issues and the Democratic Women of the San Fernando Valley.
Andaz hotel employee and union member Jim Lair Beard was there passing out leaflets describing the working conditions and drawing attention to the fight for a safe and fair workplace at the Hyatt Andaz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxThrn4NngM
For more on how you can support the Hyatt Andaz workers, click here.
Related Stories:
Iron Chef Gets Caught Up In Union Fight [Video]
Faculty Demand Hyatt Reinstate Fired Housekeepers
Photo: Screenshot taken from the above video |
This page is no longer relevant but is kept for historical purposes.
This page is primarily intended for Mercurial's developers.
Rebase Project
Introduction
When contributing to a project, sometimes there is the need to keep some patches private, while keeping the whole repository up-to-date.
In those cases it can be useful to "detach" the local changes, synchronize the repository with the mainstream and then append the private changes on top of the new remote changes. This operation is called rebase.
In general, this extension allows to move revisions from a point to another, some common scenarios are shown in the section "Scenarios".
This feature has been implemented as part of SummerOfCode/2008.
Current implementation
This project is distributed along with Mercurial release 1.1 as RebaseExtension. The original project code can be found here.
Current version's features: |
Story highlights Whitman is in Utah for Mitt Romney's annual Experts and Enthusiasts summit
Trump has occasionally drawn comparisons to Hitler during his campaign
Washington (CNN) Billionaire and major Republican donor Meg Whitman on Friday compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, two sources in the room told CNN.
The Hewlett-Packard CEO's remarks at Mitt Romney's Utah retreat of top Republican supporters and fund-raisers came as she and news anchor Campbell Brown grilled House Speaker Paul Ryan over his endorsement of Trump. Ryan, unlike several other prominent GOP officials at the retreat, chose to endorse him but has simultaneously sought to distance himself from Trump's rhetoric about minorities.
The sources said Whitman was referring to Trump's rhetoric within a historical context.
In response, Trump told CNN he doesn't want Whitman's support, though he didn't respond to her references to Hitler and Mussolini.
"I never met Meg Whitman, but the job she is doing at Hewlett-Packard is not a very good one," he said in a statement via his spokeswoman, Hope Hicks. "Based on the disastrous campaign she ran in California, and the tens of millions of dollars she wasted, I have learned a lot from her. I do not want her support." |
Are you excited? I'm excited. Which is a minor miracle after the slog that was the 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace. Spurs with that title winning mettle in a season when the title is likely to again go to the leaders rather than the chasers. But here we are. Still in it. Still wanting it. Still believing. No matter what the remaining fixture list is suggesting (compare it pound for pound and ours is massively more difficult than theirs), we are not letting go. Which is reason enough to be excited. If you love Tottenham and love football, I can't see how it can get any better than this. Well, aside from perhaps an FA Cup final appearance. Ho hum.
I'm not going to waste time on player ratings and go deep into analysis. There is little need. Firstly, the games intensity as a spectator was magnified beyond the point of true enjoyment thanks to the necessity of requiring the three points. To also bounceback from Saturday and keep the impossible dream alive. It also gives us a quite spectacular foundation for Sunday afternoon. The narrative is deliciously implosive.
Draw or win and Tottenham Hotspur finish about the enemy for the first time since the 95 season. No last day nerves. No virus. No suspect goal-keeping displays.
We. Finish. Above. Them.
Now I hear you, there's no trophy for this but let's not pretend we don't care. Sure, it doesn't define our existence. If anything it's an emotional release to be able to gloat and brag, giving them a little taste of what it's like to be in our shadow for once. Irony not lost, they could still win the FA Cup. They might even turn up at White Hart Lane. Which would be a miracle for them considering how jammy they've been and how fragmented their moral is/was/who knows.
I guess that's where the doubt lingers for us. Having experienced far too many gut wrenching moments in the past. But there's no way I'm going to let any of the potential outcomes ruin my day by over-thinking them. I'm going to church and imma gonna drop some hallelujahs!
Finishing above them because we're finishing second is the real objective. To want to finish first. To define ourselves by improving rather than comparing. Mauricio Pochettino is right with his call to arms, to not care about others and to only focus on what we do. Because that's what we can control. Considering it will most likely be the last ever NLD at the Lane, on so many levels it will be incomprehensible in terms of occasion and atmosphere.
Win and it will be glorious. Lose and what we deserve, in terms of our progress and intent, will be left in bitter ruins. For Arsene Wenger, he's on a quite desperate path to redemption (which is insane when you put into perspective what he's achieved at that club over the past couple of decades). He's gone to three at the back (nigh revolutionary for him), beat City at Wembley and although they're not a finely tuned machine they're managing to get something out of the working cogs they have.
F**k history. F**k the apologetic failures. Physiologically, we need this. We have to have it. The players, the supporters. Everyone involved at the club. It's a monkey on our back and it needs getting rid of.
You hyped yet?
As for the Palace game? It was an infuriating experience. There was obvious baggage from the weekend before. Credit to Big Sam and his team. They got their gameplan spot on. Plenty of physicality. They got in our faces, closed down players and the space around them. It often got congested and narrow. Be it a mixture of the discomfort the opposition were dishing out and the 4-2 defeat still strong in memory, we also lacked the usual finesse. Spurs were, perhaps a little rattled with shape and application. Which made for untidy viewing. Lots of stray balls and disconnectivity with pass and movement.
The defence appeared uneasy, Zaha toying with the ball in and around the box. Andros also looking to cause damage. I thought at times Benteke wasn't trying that hard (in my head I was hoping he was going for the soft approach to appease our Belgium contingent). Yet none of this was in anyway a preview to an ominous collapse. It might have been had Wanyama got a second yellow. We got lucky. The referee was all over the shop, indecisive and erratic.
Poch made changes at half-time, removing Victor for his own protection and bringing on the much maligned Sissoko. Son replaced Dembele who looked out of sorts. Palace lost Zakho to injury and that was key to gradually disassembling their resolve at the back.
We dug deep. We slowly but surely pushed Palace back and took a grip of the game and dictated its tempo. When you don't play well and still win, you've got to be grateful it's a trait we have. After several limp efforts, Christian Eriksen scored out of nothing.
Look closer and it was crafted superbly well. Harry Kane, deep, grafting to get the ball out and Spurs pushing forward for Eriksen to take advantage of the space around him. He knew several seconds before what he was going to do. Head twisting, checking that he still had the room to line up a shot when he received the ball. It was subtle. He caressed the dipping shot towards goal. I almost froze trying to work out how easy it was before screaming out in unexpected delight. In an ugly game, we were blessed with something beautiful.
What I loved about this was...pretty much everything. This game, in its early stages, felt like West Ham away last season. A lull that would prove costly. Considering how buoyant Palace have been and how determined they were, this was a quality three points. Sure, they will argue about tired legs but Spurs were up against two foes; The home team and our often predicted fragile mindset when the pressure is on. Also Big Sam seems to think the extra almost dozen games we've played this season are somehow inconsequential.
Kane and our manager both stating how unbelievable it felt in the aftermath. The importance of it. Think of it this way, we're in a position these-days where this team has made every single game imperative to the course. Every single game matters. It's stressful, right? But it's no longer unusual. The hunger to achieve, even when Chelsea have practically been crowned champions half a dozen times this season, is relentless. In context, it was hardly DVD material but it was a good hard fought performance which provides us with the catalyst on Sunday.
Shout out to Sissoko. He did a number on Zaha that probably went unnoticed (someone had to point it out to me tbf) thanks to his usual leggy touch. I did enjoy his time-wasting late on. Walker didn't have a good one. Most of our players lost their individualism in amongst it but collectively they all pulled together the longer the game went on. So I applaud that. As long as this was the only dip in form we'll witness from now and the end of the season, I'll be content.
74 points. Eight successive league win. This season has seen us push on. Eriksen's stats and performances illustrate a new reality of consistency, something he was often criticised for lacking. Kane, a genuine all-round team player. Leads from the front, leads from the back. Dele Alli, that spark of energy in and around the box. It was all low-key at Selhurst but hoping for a white hot White Hart Lane. Surely there is no other viable option for all involved.
All we can do is win our remaining games. Mostly against teams that hate us. You know the tagline for this already. The hard way is the only way is the Spurs way.
Bring it on then. It's time for our own redemption. As much as this is about them lot down the road it's more about us moving on, finally moving on and burying all the misdemeanours and heartbreaks. Too often, we've given them a helping hand. Too often, we've let it slip away. But we've never turned away from any of it. We've never turned our backs on this club. We've never given up. We've always wanted a team, this team. A proper side that can turn up and fight and outplay. We don't just want to win on points, we want to knock them the f**k out.
Give me Sunday, give me the sermon. Preach and open up the heavens. Every single fabric of my existence is screaming for it. |
The town of El Fuerte, Mexico, nestled between the Sea of Cortez and Copper Canyon, is no stranger to its heroes. After all, the town is the home to the origin of the legendary hero of the people, Zorro, known as the “Fox” in Mexico. The fact remains that the residents of El Fuerte still need heroes today. Located in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico, the area is surrounded by notorious drug cartels. Poverty is a major concern and many of the people of El Fuerte, especially the children, are malnourished and in need of medical attention.
Enter LIGA (Spanish for league) and the Flying Doctors of Mercy. Since 1934, these volunteers have been the protectors of the oppressed in El Fuerte as well as other locations where the need for medical assistance is great. The Flying Doctors of Mercy have been creating miracles deep in the heart of Mexico, where only the employed can afford medical and dental care. With modern donated equipment, LIGA volunteers treat tens of thousands of people every year, and provide millions of dollars in services to the local people. LIGA consists of audiologists, physicians, surgeons, podiatrists, anesthetists, nurses, translators and others from all corners of the globe. Dedicated professionals depart in aircraft from California, Arizona and Nevada for their flights to historic El Fuerte. Even the pilots, many volunteering their time and their aircraft, pitch in to help complete the missions.
A number of local doctors and nurses have a share in this life saving work. Dr. Craig Diehl, a pediatrician who has been helping families grow for the past 25 years in Lake Havasu, is one of those volunteers. “I love working with kids, and I feel they deserve a break in life—they don’t have to be sick due to lack of medical care,” explains Diehl. When Diehl first heard about the Flying Doctors of Mercy about three years ago, he knew he wanted to pitch in.
Dr. Diehl shares his first experience with LIGA, “It was a little intimidating. We had to check in at customs in Mexico, and you’re in a small plane, and you’re greeted at the small airport by the locals—soldiers with rifles. I don’t speak Spanish, so everything was handled through an interpreter.” El Fuerte is a small town, maybe 30,000 people, deep in the heart of drug cartel country. And yet, notes Diehl, “The people are as warm and friendly as you will ever find. They’re also very appreciative of the medical assistance.” In the rural parts of Mexico, many families can’t afford to take their kids to a doctor unless it is a dire situation. “I usually see kids that are malnourished, have parasites, or may have been born with heart defects.” The first time he went down to the clinic, he was shocked by the sight of 300 to 400 people standing in line waiting to see the doctors and nurses. “I couldn’t believe how many children there were. In a way, it’s heartbreaking to see young kids so sick—especially when some antibiotics or vitamins can really help out.” Diehl explains that the arrival in town of the Flying Doctors of Mercy is a really big deal. A local DJ in town announces over the radio that the doctors are going to be in town and what types of doctors. “I guess that explained why there where so many kids at the clinic when I went down. Knowing a pediatrician was in town was a big deal.”
One of the exciting aspects of working the clinic in El Fuerte is that it is pure medicine. “In El Fuerte it’s all about the patient, there’s not a lot of legalities or paperwork, it is pure clinical medicine where I can see 50 or 60 patients in a day and its straight diagnosis and treatment.” Another aspect of working a clinic in a rural area in Mexico is seeing ailments that you might go an entire lifetime of practicing in the United States that you might never see. On my first trip to El Fuerte, my fourth patient, a young child, was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy. I’ve read about it, but in my 25 years of practicing in the states, I’ve never seen a single case.” Medicine transcends the language barrier in El Fuerte, “I don’t speak any Spanish, but the parents know that we’re all there to help and that we have the skills to properly diagnosis and treat their kids. The smiles on their faces tell me everything I needed to know.”
Want to know more about LIGA: Check them out at www.LIGAInternational.org |
Over the last few years, analysts and academics worried about peak oil have been on the defensive.
The fracking revolution has brought an abundance of oil and gas that no one thought possible a decade ago. So we can declare peak oil dead, right?
Chris Nelder, an energy analyst who’s written extensively on the subject, has a simple answer: no.
In this week’s show, we’ll talk with Nelder about predicting the messy oil market and get his thoughts on the long-term viability of unconventional fossil fuels.
Later in the show, we’ll talk about Bank of America’s decision to phase out its coal investments. And then we’ll finish with a discussion of Hawaii’s plan to get 100 percent of its electricity from renewables.
This podcast is sponsored by ReneSola, a Tier 1 solar cell and module manufacturer with a decade of experience in the cleantech industry.
The Energy Gang is produced by Greentechmedia.com. The show features weekly discussions between energy futurist Jigar Shah, energy policy expert Katherine Hamilton and Greentech Media Editor Stephen Lacey. |
Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) is a rare genetic connective tissue disorder. There are many genetic and symptomatic variations of EB, but all share the prominent symptom of extremely fragile skin that blisters and tears from minor friction or trauma. Internal organs and bodily systems can also be seriously affected by the disease. EB is always painful, is often pervasive and debilitating, and is in some cases lethal before the age of 30. There is no treatment or cure. Daily wound care, pain management and protective bandaging are the only options available.
EB affects 1 out of every 20,000 live births and those born with it are often called Butterfly Children because as the analogy goes, their skin is as fragile as the wings of a butterfly. While many who live with the milder forms of EB can lead long and productive lives, the list of manifestations and secondary complications in the more severe forms is long and requires multiple interventions from a range of medical specialists. Those forms of EB result in disfigurement, disability and early death, in some cases in the first few months of life.
EB can result from a genetic mutation in one of 18 genes. These mutations, or errors in the genetic code, do not allow the body to either produce an essential protein or produce a working form of the protein. EB can also be an autoimmune disease in which the body produces antibodies to the structural components of the skin. The severity of EB in general is dependent upon many factors including type, subtype and inheritance pattern. Due to the fact that EB has been categorized as encompassing 5 major types and 31 subtypes, it has commonly been referred to as a group of disorders. EB affects both genders and every racial and ethnic background equally.
EB is PAINFUL – Wounds caused by the disorder may never heal and they are prone to life threatening infections.
EB is PERVASIVE – It affects internal organs as well as the eyes, nose, mouth, throat and anus. The list of secondary complications is long and requires multiple interventions from a range of medical specialists. Some typical complications complications are: infections, anemia, failure to thrive, growth retardation, inability to swallow, corneal abrasions, contractures, depression, anxiety, malnutrition, constipation, premature tooth decay and a particularly virulent form of cancer.
EB is DEBILITATING – In some forms of EB repeated injury and scarring lead to deformity and lack of function in the hands, in the feet and in the mouth.
EB is LETHAL – Some will lose their battle in the first year of life, others may succumb to squamous cell carcinoma in their teens, others from bacterial sepsis (blood infection), cardiomyopathy, renal failure, or dehydration to name a few causes.
Recessive Dystrophic EB – Rafi’s Diagnosis
In Rafi’s case, her body, before transplant, did not produce Collagen 7, the primary building block of something called anchoring fibrils. Think of Rafi’s skin as Velcro. Velcro has latches that intertwine and hold the two pieces together. Those latches are analogous to anchoring fibrils. Rafi does not have those latches, or anchoring fibrils and thus her two layers of skin are unable to bind together. Therefore, her skin blisters and tears with any friction or trauma. Just wearing underwear is enough friction to cause wounds on her.
She has dystrophic EB because of the lack of collagen 7. The lack of this protein, or complete absence of it, means Rafi can’t produce those anchoring filbrils so the epidermis cannot anchor to the dermis. She is considered recessive because both Jackie and I are carriers, something we did not know until she was born. In short, Rafi got two bad copies of the gene, thus resulting in a much more severe form.
Children with Rafi’s diagnosis unfortunately live a difficult life and even worse, her life expectancy isn’t long. 10% died before they were 10, 40% lose their battle before the age of 20 and 72% before 30.
Unfortunately, Rafi has the most severe subtype of Recessive Dystrophic EB, generalized severe, what they used to call Hallopeau-Siemens. From Jo-David Fine, MD, MPH from Vanderbilt University, an internationally known EB expert:
“The most severe subtype of generalized RDEB is referred to as the Hallopeau-Siemens variant. Cutaneous disease activity is present at birth. Patients characteristically develop milia, have absent or dystrophic nails, and develop extensive atrophic scarring. The oral cavity is severely involved with widespread erosions, blisters and soft tissue scarring. Microstamia, ankyloglossia, and caries are marked. Multifactorial anemia and growth retardation are both profound in these patients. A characteristic feature of RDEB-HS is the development of progressive acral contractures and partial or complete mitten deformities (pssudosyndactyly) of the hands and feet…….these musculoskeletal deformities may occur in the first few years of life, but more often occur with increasing age. Disfiguring scaring alopecia of the scalp may occur in some patients. The esophagus, small intestine, and anus may be severely involved, as can the urethra, bladder, vagina, and kidneys (the latter presenting as glomerulonephritis)…… Patients with RDEB-HS are at risk of death during early childhood as a result of overwhelming bacterial sepsis, secondary to widespread denudation of the skin. Patients with RDEB-HS are also at very high risk of developing and eventually dying from skin-derived squamous cell carcinomas during young to middle adulthood”. |
Reader “Fletch” had a comment on the post I wrote yesterday, “To uniquely protect Islam against mockery, Sydney newspaper suggests that Muslims be considered members of a race rather than a religion.” As you may recall, I criticized the Sydney Morning Herald‘s op-ed calling for Muslims to be included among special ethno-religious groups that, considered “races,” are covered by “hate speech” laws in Australia. (Religions in general are not.) I also claimed that Muslims are not a race by anybody’s construal of the term, and this proposal was just a way to uniquely insulate Islam from criticism.
I also claimed (with a bit of hyperbole), that no religion deserves respect, but qualified that by saying that we shouldn’t respect those faiths (nearly all of them) whose truth claims are untestable or wrong and their god-derived moral codes questionable. I do have more respect for, say, Quakers, than I do for the more theistic faiths. Quakerism, however, is almost the same as secular humanism.
But I did make this comment:
Catholicism and Islam are no more deserving of respect than are Scientology or Christian Science. Why is the claim that someone was nailed to the cross, killed, revived, and now is the sole vehicle for eternal salvation in Heaven any more deserving of respect than the claim that the overlord Xenu stashed people in volcanoes and then blew them up, releasing body thetans that now afflict us? Or that disease is merely an instantiation of misguided thinking, and can be cured by prayer. None of the bases of these faiths—their fact claims—survive the merest scrutiny, and none of their behavior claims, including assertions about the afterlife or the efficacy of prayer, are credible to someone not brought up in the asylum. In fact, severe ridicule of doctrine (not “adherents”) is the appropriate response to most religions; or, if you’re not into mockery, calm analysis and rejection of their claims.
Well, Fletch didn’t like that, and tried to post the following. I decided to put it above the fold and get readers’ comments, so I could email the whole lot to him. (I suspect his email address is bogus, but I’ll try). To wit:
I agree and disagree with this column. I agree that Islam is not, and should not be considered, a race; however, I disagree with your assertion that “None of the bases of these faiths—their fact claims—survive the merest scrutiny”. Christianity actually does survive this scrutiny. You just throw off this flip statement because you haven’t really studied it. Look at people like Lee Strobel – the former award-winning legal editor of the Chicago Tribune. He looked into Jesus and Christianity from the point of a reporter after his wife’s conversion. What he found so convinced him, that he became a Christian. Or look at J. Warner Wallace, a former homicide detective who worked on cold-cases for 15 years. He approached the death of Jesus like a cold case and the gospels as eyewitness accounts, and he also came to the conclusion that, yes, what the Gospel accounts say are reliable. He also became a Christian as a result. As C.S Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien said, the Bible is a myth, but that it is also true. That is the difference between Christianity and your overlord Xenu. As Lewis puts it – “Myth in general is … at its best, a real though unfocused gleam of divine truth falling on human imagination. The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens — at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences. We pass from a Balder or an Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical Person crucified (it is all in order) under Pontius Pilate. By becoming fact it does not cease to be myth: that is the miracle”.
As most of us know, there’s no extra-Biblical evidence for the existence of someone who either was a divine Jesus (apparently Fletch’s belief) or even a secular preacher on whom the Biblical Jesus was modeled. The rest is commentary.
I didn’t know about Lee Strobel, who apparently wrote five books on apologetics, including The Case for Christ and The Case for The Real Jesus, but I simply can’t be bothered to read every such book that the goddies throw in my face. However, I found a pretty fair review of The Case for Christ by Jeffery J. Lowder on the Secular Web. Lowder, after a non-“strident” but critical review, concludes this:
Case for Christ is a creative, well-written contribution to Christian apologetics. Moreover, Strobel is to be commended for summarizing the work of so many leading apologists for Evangelical Christianity in such a compact and easy-to-read format. Yet Strobel did not interview any critics of Evangelical apologetics. He sometimes refutes at great length objections not made by the critics (e.g., the claim that Jesus was mentally insane); more often, he doesn’t address objections the critics do make (e.g., the complete inauthenticity of the Testimonium Flavianium, the failure of Jews to produce the body is inconclusive evidence for the empty tomb, etc.) Perhaps this will be a welcome feature to people who already believe Christianity but have no idea why they believe it. For those of us who are primarily interested in thetruth, however, we want to hear both sides of the story.
I’m sure there’s at least one reader who has read Strobel’s books, and if you have weigh in below. If Strobel was a true journalist, and was convinced by the evidence, it’s odd that—as Lowder notes—he doesn’t even deal with the objections to the “real Jesus” story. If you’re weaving an evidence-based tale, it’s always best, as we scientists know, to take up possible objections to your case before others do!
As for J. Warner Wallace, author of Cold-Case Christianity and now adjunct professor of apologetics at Biola University, his book appears to be based purely on whether Scripture seems reliable to a detective (see here for his case). Apparently it does. But if the case for Christianity (or rather the divinity of Jesus) is best made by Wallace and Strobel, yet refuted by many others, including the Biblical scholars Bart Ehrman and Richard Carrier, then one should hardly commit one’s life to the doctrine.
I wonder what Fletch would think of The Case for Muhammad, which seems much stronger than The Case for Christ?
Anyway, if you want Fletch to read your comments, put them below, and in a day or so I’ll direct him to all of this. |
New York’s Sex Diaries series asks anonymous city dwellers to record a week in their sex lives—with comic, tragic, often sexy, and always revealing results. This week, a 24-year-old female engaging in a secret S&M affair with her boss. 24, straight, UES.
DAY ONE
8:20 a.m. A car service waits for me outside. It is taking me to the airport. From the airport I will fly to somewhere in the middle of the country. He will be waiting …
10:30 a.m. He is my boss, also my lover, also my master, and also my sub. Master, because I am completely under his spell; sub, because he likes to be dominated and emasculated. I have a first-class ticket to Bumblefuck USA. I normally wouldn’t check a bag, but this time I did. That’s because it’s filled with sex toys and dirty G-strings. He likes to sniff and sometimes wear my dirty G-strings. When Orange Is the New Black had that plotline, I was cracking up.
2:00 p.m. I check into my hotel suite. He has his own suite at another hotel. We are careful about these things. He is unattached, but the president of the company I work for. He is 45-ish (I’m not sure). It is a pharmaceuticals company. Things could get dicey fast if we ever got caught.
4:00 p.m. I join the team at a meeting. My role is executive assistant—not to him but someone else. He is in the meeting, though. We barely exchange glances.
6:00 p.m. The team eats in the hotel restaurant and I stay quiet. If only they knew …
8:00 p.m. I walk over to his hotel with my bag of leather and lace. We have a system. We have a knock.
8:10 p.m. Now I know the drill, but a few months ago, I was green. Six months ago, I made small talk. Now I know that when I walk in, I better have an insult ready. “You made a fool out of yourself at dinner,” I say. “You dumb, worthless piece of shit.”
8:15 p.m. His body melts. This is his true pleasure. Annoyingly, his phone keeps ringing …
8:30 p.m. Aggravated, he picks up his phone. His sister needs his attention about a family matter. His mood gets thrown off. I pack up and go home. Ho-hum.
10:00 p.m. I watch Joy on my iPad and fall asleep.
DAY TWO
9:00 a.m. I arrive at our onsite meeting wearing animal-print J.Crew trousers. He is not around today, which I already knew. He has other meetings to attend to.
3:00 p.m. I get the text from him. He is saved in my phone as “Dry Cleaners.” He simply writes: “No.” That is our system: Either he writes “Yes” and adds a time or simply “No.” I don’t mind that it’s a no. It’s a lot of work pleasing him. I enjoy it very much, but it’s a lot of work.
8:00 p.m. After another boring restaurant dinner, I’m back in my room thinking about him. He is “normal” with other women he dates. No whips, leashes, dirty G-strings, no whipping him with tampons, no abusive language. I know I’m his only outlet for this stuff. I am young and not looking for anything serious, so I like what we have. The few people who know about it refuse to believe that I truly like it, but I do, so just hush.
DAY THREE
7 a.m. I am running on the treadmill at the hotel gym. I know he’d want my underwear post-workout. He likes when I tell him he’s a dirty, worthless piece of shit and he’s the equivalent of rancid panties. Sometimes he likes to wear the panties. I text him a picture of me at the gym (without my face). He texts back. “Yes.” That means the coast is clear. I stop running immediately, go upstairs, remove my panties, put the panties in a big cloth laundry bag (all I can find), run across the street to his hotel, and leave it with the concierge to deliver immediately.
9:15 a.m. He texts a smiley face.
10:00 a.m. My boss is leaving this afternoon. I convince her that I’d like to stay the night to see an old friend. Really it’s because he’ll still be here tonight.
9:00 p.m. I am in his hotel room. He’s opened a bottle of wine. We are in his bed playing with the toys I packed us. I put on a strap-on—per his request—and make him suck my dick. I shove it down his throat until he gags. I tell him he ruined the business trip and he’s getting fired. He is very, very hard. He isn’t always hard, but tonight he is. I know he wants to take advantage of the erection so I tell him to stop being such a pussy-loser and to stick his little cock (which is actually a decently big-sized cock … but the insult of “little cock” turns him on) inside me.
10:00 p.m. We fuck in a pretty standard way from this point on. He gets on top of me and pumps for about a minute, pulls out, and cums all over my neck.
DAY FOUR
I fly home and work from my apartment. It is an uneventful day. I don’t communicate with him. I don’t see friends. That is the one element of my situation with him that I find frustrating. It is all so weird and private that I find myself becoming more and more isolated.
DAY FIVE
9:00 a.m. We have a company-wide meeting and my boss is a stress case over it. I know He will be speaking at the meeting. I can’t wait to watch him. He once had me tell him he was ugly and illiterate—while whipping him—before a meeting, but it doesn’t look like that’s happening today. That was back when he would tell me exactly what to do to arouse him. Now I’m more instinctive.
10:30 a.m. I watch him conduct the meeting. Zero eye contact. I feel heat between my legs.
7:00 p.m. I actually have a blind date tonight—a guy my mom’s friend set me up with. I don’t have to clear it with Him, but if we end up communicating this weekend, I will certainly let him know that I was out with someone much stronger, younger, taller, and with a bigger, harder dick. Whether any of that is true or not is beside the point.
11:00 p.m. The date was good. I was pleasantly surprised. One weird thing happened: He kissed me good-night and I realized I don’t know how to kiss “normally” anymore. I had to fight back the urge to say something mean. I had to pretend I was an actress playing the part of a gentle kisser. It was very odd. I’m not sure if this guy was into me, but I wouldn’t mind going out with him again. And nooooo, I did not mention my affair with Him.
DAY SIX
11:00 a.m. On Saturdays, I always visit my grandmother in Queens. She makes us sandwiches and we talk. She knows I am having a secret affair with someone but obviously not all the details. She makes the whole thing fun to talk about and not so … dark. Today I tell her about the Normal Guy I went out with too. She’s happy hearing about him. I lie and tell her he’s already asked me out again. In reality I haven’t heard from him.
5:00 p.m. I pick up a bottle of wine on my way home from Grandma’s. The normal dude texts me. He’s going to a BBQ in my neighborhood, conveniently. It is the most “normal dude” text ever. I tell him that I’ll possibly meet him. Not sure I’m in the mood …
The absolute truth is I’d rather wait home for Him to text me. I usually hear from him a few times per weekend. Sometimes we have long text sessions that are as sick as you can imagine. I often masturbate while getting him off, telling him he’s disgusting, a gross pig, a dickless idiot, whatever I can come up with. Sometimes I go to his apartment on weekends, but we usually meet up at various hotels during the week. I once Uber’ed it to Philadelphia, where he was staying for work, to see him for the night.
8:00 p.m. I blow off Normal Guy at the Normal BBQ.
DAY SEVEN
7:10 a.m. I sleep with my phone on, always, waiting for Him to text. He texts this morning—Dry Cleaners!—while working out at the gym. It starts with “?????”
7:12 a.m. “I’m glad you’re working out, you looked like fucking shit this week. Don’t text me until you’ve run 2 miles.”
7:40 a.m. “Tell me you love me,” he texts, presumably after the running. Sometimes he wants real affection and not the hard-core emasculation stuff. I follow his lead. “I love you,” I text. Next, he wants a picture of my pussy, then my asshole. Then we banter a little about his upcoming week, to see if there’s any room for me. It looks like Tuesday night he’s staying at a Westchester hotel …
3:00 p.m. I spend the rest of the day doing ordinary stuff like getting a pedicure and reading the newspaper on my couch. I’m just a girl … in love with a boy … who likes me to pee on his face. Just kidding. We haven’t done that. Yet.
Want to submit a sex diary? Email sexdiaries@nymag.com and tell us a little about yourself. |
SAN JOSE, Calif. – The San Francisco Bay Area hasn’t hosted a US men’s national team game in seven years, but the San Jose Earthquakes hope the completion of their permanent home will change that.
Speaking with reporters at the Quakes’ rebrand and 40th anniversary celebration on Thursday night, team president Dave Kaval revealed that he has had “numerous conversations” with U.S. Soccer over potentially scheduling a USMNT game at the Earthquakes’ new 18,000-seat stadium, which is scheduled to be completed at the tail end of calendar 2014.
“I think it could be a venue that hosts a lot of events,” Kaval said, “and not only for the men, but for the women as well.”
The USMNT hasn’t appeared in the nation’s sixth-biggest market since 2007, when they faced China in a pre-Gold Cup friendly at Spartan Stadium. The USWNT, however, did play a friendly against New Zealand at San Francisco’s now tenant-less Candlestick Park last October.
In addition to their own home stadium, the Earthquakes will also appear in the first official event at nearby Levi’s Stadium – the 68,500-capacity new home of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers – when they face the Seattle Sounders there on August 2.
Kaval added that the club would support and could potentially promote a men’s national team there, or any venue in the Bay Area. The Quakes have also hosted midsummer games the past three seasons at 50,000-seat Stanford Stadium, and have played games previously at San Francisco's AT&T Park and Oakland's O.co Coliseum.
“What I’ve pushed to [U.S. Soccer] is that we need [a game] in the market, not necessarily that we need to be in our stadium,” he said. “As long as it’s in our market, I think it promotes soccer here, and we’ve been very, very vocal about that. And I think hopefully, even this year maybe, there might be a game somewhere.”
U.S. Soccer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from MLSsoccer.com.
Jonah Freedman is the managing editor of MLSsoccer.com. |
NOTE: This article contains a photograph that shows a dog's corpse, and video of police shooting dogs. Although the images do not show graphic injuries, reader discretion is advised.
On Thursday, December 10th at roughly 10AM, officers with the City of Chester Police Department and local animal control killed a one year old dog named Bear. Bear's owner, Chester resident and mom Christie Fry, told Puppycide Database Project that when she confronted police immediately after the shooting, the officers "laughed in [her] face" while telling Fry: "Well you don't have a dog anymore. He's done now!"
Bear
According to Ms Fry, Bear was secured in his back yard using a cable leash-line the morning of his shooting. Bear's home was next door to an abandoned home that was the scene of construction from time to time. It wasn't unusual for Bear, still a puppy, to bark at the construction workers next door. So when Christie Fry was awoken by Bear's barking on Thursday, she wasn't worried until his barking was punctuated by gunshots.
"Thank god the kids were at school."
Christie ran outside to confront the shooter, who was among a number of City of Chester Police Department as well as the local animal control. The animal control officer accused Bear of breaking off of his leash line and attacking him, forcing him to wrestle the dog through yard separating Fry's property from the abandoned home next door. But Christie immediately doubted the animal control officer's accusation:
"Bear has dug up most of my yard & the yard next door is a disaster. If this guy was on the ground wrestling with my dog as he claims, that nice fresh khaki jacket he was wearing would have been destroyed. When Bear jumped on me, even once, I'd have pawprints on my clothes. There's just no way!"
Further complicating animal control's narrative was the fact that there was no mention of Bear biting anyone in the associated incident report filed by Chester Police. Christie told PuppycideDB that the Animal Control officer on the scene alleged that Bear had pounced on him, knocking him to the ground and initiating a struggle:
"[The animal control officer] told me, '[Bear] didnt bite me, he knocked me down'"
Why had Bear been shot if all that would have been needed to restrain him was to knock on the door of the home he was in front of?
A photograph of the scene, included below, shows just how close Bear was to his own home when Chester police killed him. Bear's corpse is mere feet away from his dog house. According to Christie, police made no attempt to knock on her door prior to killing Bear.
The scene of the killing, showing police photographing Bear's body
Nearly as shocking as Bear's killing is how Christie alleges police treated her in the immediate aftermath of the incident:
"[...]I hear 2 gunshots. As I'm getting up I hear the third. As soon as I'm standing, I can see out my side window. Police. Fourth shot. I look at what they're doing & see my dog on the ground. My dog starts screaming. I scream. More shots. Five, six, seven, eight. There's 2 cops taking turns shooting him with smiles on their faces. I run out yelling 'What the hell!!!!!' They said 'Is this your dog?'. 'Yes!!', I replied. 'What happened??!!' The officer said (& I quote!!) 'Well you don't have a dog anymore. He's done now!' & laughed in my face."
It remains unclear why the City of Chester Animal Control or Police Department were on the scene to begin with. There have been no allegations that Bear bit or attacked any of his neighbors. Christie believes that the officers may have been looking for another dog, a Brindle Pit Bull, that has been loose in the neighborhood for months and that occasionally showed up in her yard. Christie told Puppycide Database Project investigators:
"If they got a call about a loose dog, it wasn't mine."
This is not the first time that Chester PD has been responsible for the shocking, and possibly reckless and avoidable, killing of a dog.
In 2013, Chester police opened fire on three dogs in front of the local high school, in the process releasing what NBC News called a "hail of bullets" to kill the dogs. The shooting occurred during lunch time on Friday directly in front of Chester High School, leaving students at risk for stray bullets and ricochets. Video of the event appeared on Youtube, and can be seen below:
Fry has started a GoFundMe page in order to raise $3,000 for legal representation. Meanwhile, Puppycide Database Project has requested a statement from the Chester Police Department on the shooting, which has yet to comment on Bear's killing or allegations that the police laughed at Ms. Fry when questioned.
Puppycide Database Project will continue to update this story with further information as it becomes available.
UPDATE 12/15/2015 12:30 PM EST: The City of Chester Police Department is refusing to offer comment on the killing, and now claims that "it is not owned by the Chester Police Department of the City of Chester". It appears that they deleted our request for comment from their Facebook page, instead claiming that the City of Chester Police Department Facebook page is not a place to make "official" requests for statements and that the page is "for the cops by the cops". The page itself is registered as a "Police Station" and a "Government Organization", not a union or benevolent organization. |
Bill Britt
A California medical marijuana patient who suffers from epileptic seizures smokes at home. (Associated Press)
ALBANY -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he has serious concerns over a bill that would legalize medical marijuana in New York just hours before the midnight deadline.
The Democrat stymied the efforts of supporters of the so-called Compassionate Care Act Monday, saying that the measure should ban smoking the drug, cut down the number of illnesses it can be prescribed for and require that the program be evaluated in five years.
"If we can address the concerns, there will be a bill," Cuomo told public radio's "Capitol Pressroom" while defending his suggestions. "But I'm not going to be part of a system that is just going to wreak havoc."
Sen. Diane Savino, the Staten Island Democrat who sponsored the measure, says the bill already addresses many of Cuomo's concerns.
Negotiations between Cuomo's office, the Assembly and the Senate began late Thursday and are due before midnight so the Legislature can vote on the bill before the session concludes Thursday.
State Sen. Diano Savino said her bill already addresses Gov. Andrew Cuomo's concerns. (Staten Island Advance)
Under the Compassionate Care act, smoking would be banned for anyone under the age of 21, although the drug could still be consumed through a vaporizer, edible or oil. The bill would also allow patients with one of 20 diseases to be administered marijuana under the supervision of a health care professional. Cuomo wants the legislation changed so only doctors could prescribe the drug.
Savino called Cuomo's position on smoking marijuana disingenuous, citing his executive order to allow 20 hospitals statewide to administer the drug.
Gabriel Sayegh, of the state Drug Policy Alliance, also lashed out at the governor's requested changes, first reported in the New York Daily News.
"It's disappointing to have the news of these concerns come out at the very last minute in a leaked Daily News article," Sayegh told The Associated Press. "It's hard to imagine the governor's serious about getting this done."
While advocates doubt Cuomo's commitment to the Compassionate Care Act, the Democrat says he would waive the required three-day period a bill has to be on a lawmaker's desk before it can be voted on.
"Medical marijuana if done well is a good thing, if it is not done correctly it is a public health and public safety disaster," Cuomo said.
Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos, who controls the upper chamber with a faction of Democrats, was non-committal.
"I'm not ruling it out, not ruling it in," the Long Island senator told reporters. "But I've learned never say never." |
PASADENA, Calif. — Several Oregon players are facing team discipline after celebrating their Rose Bowl win Thursday night by mocking Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston and allegations of sexual assault that have followed the 2013 Heisman Trophy winner the past two years.
Video taken from the field as Oregon celebrated its 59-20 win in the College Football Playoff semifinal showed at least three players chanting "No means no!" to the tune of a chant used by Florida State fans. The short video, uploaded to Vine by Bear Heiser of Fox Sports West, quickly drew strong reactions on social networks.
The video shows running back Kadi Benoit, linebacker Torrodney Prevot and a third player wearing a "WON NOT DONE" shirt participating in the chant.
Reached by The Associated Press, Heiser said the video was taken on the field as Oregon players celebrated the win from a podium. He shared a longer, 27-second video with the AP that showed the chant initiated somewhere off-camera. The players in the shorter video, as well as wide receiver Chance Allen, joined in.
Oregon coach Mark Helfrich said in a statement to The Associated Press that the behaviour was inappropriate.
"This is not what our program stands for, and the student-athletes will be disciplined internally," Helfrich said.
Winston was never charged after a woman accused him of raping her in 2012. The case has gone through lengthy proceedings, with Winston recently cleared of violating Florida State’s student code of conduct.
Oregon athletes have also faced sex assault allegations. Three former basketball players were suspended in June for a minimum of four years after a freshman student filed a report alleging they sexually assaulted her. Prosecutors decided there wasn’t enough evidence to charge the players, who said the sexual contact was consensual. |
The Flash S1x21 “Grodd Lives” Share:
WARNING! SPOILERS!
There have been a lot of villains that I’ve wanted to see brought to the small screen in The Flash, and most of the main character’s rogues gallery has been done pretty well. We’ve had Captain Cold and Heat Wave already, along with the likes of the Reverse Flash & The Trickster, but Gorilla Grodd was probably my most anticipated out of the lot, because I was very excited to see how the show would handle it, and having already received a few hints and teasers (with the special effects used to bring Grodd to life in a way that was virtually the same as the animals that Clarke and Lexa encountered in the Survival of the Fittest episode on the CW’s excellent show The 100), but seeing him in full form was fantastic. The special effects could have been poor, but it’s great to see how well they were handled, and it’s good to see that the Grodd-centric episode of the season didn’t disappoint.
Even though this was a Grodd-centric episode and we got a big battle between him and The Flash, we didn’t quite get as much of the monster in the episode as you might have expected from all the anticipation leading up to it, which was good because there is always the risk of over-exposure of the character. It also gives him plenty of room to show up in future seasons with there being so much that we don’t know about, because he’s clearly not going to be a one-and done villain given his status in the comics as one of The Flash’s most iconic Rogues. However, it looks like that Grodd is the sort of villain that doesn’t need that much exposure anyway, lest he fall into the same category as Doctor Who’s The Weeping Angels, who were great on their first appearance which ended up still being one of the best-ever episodes of Doctor Who’s rebooted series, but then they ended up becoming less and less scary each time they showed up. Hopefully that won’t be the case here if the show looks at the character again.
Grodd wasn’t the only villain who got his shine in the spotlight as well, and we got some great scenes between Tom Cavanagh’s Dr. Wells and the kidnapped Eddie Thawne. It was great to watch Cavanagh going full-out with the villainous approach, as he ripped into Eddie when he revealed that not only was he the only Thawne for generations who would not be remembered as somebody who had actually done anything, but also, he wouldn’t even get Iris, as explained via the newspaper which again brought up Iris’ surname as being Iris West-Allen. Now that Eddie’s another present-day person with knowledge of the future there’s no doubt going to be ramifications on the timeline particularly in Season 2. Will Eddie pursue Iris anyway even though ‘history’ tells a different story? Assuming that is, Eddie even makes it out of Season 1 alive, as we’re more than likely going to see a death before the end of the season given Arrow’s track record of killing off people unexpectedly. At this rate the most likely death seems to be pointed in Joe’s direction, which would be a real shame because Jesse L Martin has been excellent.
Keeping with the West family, we got the expected fallout from last week’s episode when Iris found out Barry was The Flash, which finally, finally gets the only character who wasn’t already in the know in the know, and it’ll be very interesting to watch these developments as the series progresses. Hopefully this will go towards improving someone who has arguably been the show’s weakest character up to this point.
I think it’s safe to say then, that Grodd Lives was another really strong entry into the show. It rocked, and there were a lot of developments here that made this episode really enjoyable. It’s a credit to how awesome this show has been that there hasn’t actually been a disappointing episode of The Flash so far, especially when you consider how weak the first seasons of both Arrow and Agents of SHIELD (up until the HYDRA reveal, anyway) were, and it’s great to see that one of the best comic book shows on TV is only getting better and better as we edge towards the finale. |
October’s voter registration changes measured against last November continue to show Republican strength, almost across the board. Certainly in the “battleground” states, the Democrats are looking at a very bleak picture. A reminder that these are net changes—some states have seen voter registration increases, some decreases as rolls are purged—but the key is the net gain or loss of one party against the other. Also, keep in mind Virginia, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Texas and Georgia, to name a few, do not register by party so it is impossible to track the changes in those states. However, with that in mind . . . .
*AZ Rs net +11,160
Both parties gained, and the Republican edge was down slightly from last look, but still holding very strong. So much for Arizona “going purple.” If this rate of changes holds, Arizona Republicans could have a net gain of an additional 25,000 voters by election time in 2018.
*CO Ds net +1298 This represents a continuation of the trend in Colorado that was surprisingly interrupted by a nearly flat month last period. It appears the Colorado Democrat march is back on track and, with Delaware and New Jersey, are the only real “battleground” states I’ve been tracking that is trending D. But only Colorado in the past several elections has truly been considered a battleground.
*DE Ds net +651
Delaware is an odd state in that both parties gained slightly, and the D gain of 651 is a small increase from last month.
Trending: REVEALED: Kamala Harris’ Father Admitted She Is Descended From Slave Owners
*FL Rs net +61,857 Since the election, Republicans have seen a net shift of nearly 62,000 in their direction. This represents a further net gain of about 6,000 since my last report, meaning that Republicans are gaining ground at the rate of about 6,000 per month. If this were to hold through 2020, Florida would be a Republican state.
*IA Rs net +70,801 Democrats can pretty well forget about Iowa, a state Obama carried and George W. Bush lost. This massive level of change bodes extremely well for neighboring Wisconsin and Minnesota, where we cannot track these changes, but which have some of the same demographics.
*NC Rs net +61,752 This is up another 1,000 since last month, and shows the Tar Heel State continues to turn back to the Republican Party as the Democrats are losing significant registrations. When combined with the 2016 3% black voting shortfall, North Carolina presents another bleak picture for the Democrats in the near future.
*NJ Ds net +14,000 This was a shocker, but I was reminded that there is a major Democrat voter registration drive on for the governor’s race. Last report had the Garden State closing quite a bit.
*NM Rs net +12,975 New Mexico continues its Republican trend, up 165 over last month. But every month has shown steady net Republican gains. Given that there likely won’t be a Gary Johnson in the race in 2020, New Mexico is absolutely in the toss up column right now, and by 2020 could be lean Republican.
*NV Rs net +8,338 Since the last report, Republicans gained another net 600. Yet another state where Republicans are slowly and steadily chipping away at the Democrat registration advantage, and another state where Johnson won’t be around to bail out the Democrat.
And the biggie:
*PA Rs net +109,101 Pennsylvania’s shocking march away from the Democrats is breathtaking: Democrats were down another 22,000 since last month and Republicans are surging. Once again, Pennsylvania’s numbers likely speak to Michigan.
And, a reminder that in my last report, NH was R net +6,511 and ME was R net +1,201.
In short, among the truly contested states in 2016, the only ray of hope for the Democrats is Colorado, and even there, the trends have flattened some. They have stabilized New Jersey and Delaware, but Republicans continue to gain significant ground in Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, North Carolina, Iowa, Nevada, and above all, Pennsylvania. If these trends continue through 2020, Florida would be have a slight Republican registration edge, North Carolina would be nearly even, and New Mexico would be close enough that it could never be taken for granted. Moreover, Pennsylvania and Iowa would be solid Trump states.
The remarkable thing about the Republican trending states is that they have moved steadily ever since last November, in almost every case without a single break. Democrats continue to lose voters, and they are not becoming independents. All of this appears to be due to Trump and Trump alone, as the Republican Party has not offered any reasons to embrace it. |
Thugs stamped on father-of-one and scarred him for life with boiling water then bragged about torture in text messages
WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES
Tamlyn Stanhope, 33, Keeley Brewer, 18, and 15-year-old carried out brutal attack in Popley, Basingstoke, Hampshire
Neighbours heard victim Simon Christian beg 'please don't burn me again'
Mother-of-two Brewer later sent text saying abuse was 'too funny '
Two women and a 15-year-old girl left a man scarred for life after carrying out a brutal attack during which he had boiling water poured over him.
Tamlyn Stanhope, 33, Keeley Brewer, 18, and a teenager who can't be named for legal reasons, laughed and joked as they kicked and stamped on terrified victim Simon Christian, a court heard.
The 35-minute torture session was even filmed on a mobile phone by mother-of-two Brewer who later bragged in a text message that the abuse was 'too funny'.
Sickening: Tamlyn Stanhope, left, and Keeley Brewer, right, carried out the attack on victim Simon Christian, 29, for 'a considerable period of time'
Mr Christian, who had previously been a friend of Stanhope's, spent three weeks in a specialist burns unit and was left with lacerations to his head as well as badly burned, raw and peeling skin.
Stanhope, from Popley, and Brewer, from Basingstoke, pleaded guilty to causing grievious bodily harm with intent.
They were jailed for eight and seven years respectively.
The 15-year-old also pleaded guilty to the charge and will be sentenced at a later date.
Winchester Crown Court heard how Mr Christian, 29, had visited Stanhope's home in July this year before an argument broke out.
Victim: Simon Christian suffered severe burns in the attack
The pair stamped on their victim and kicked him before hitting him over the head with a fryer.
Rob Welling, prosecuting, said Mr Christian had been tortured by Brewer and Stanhope for a ‘period of considerable time.’
He said: 'Each took different roles and each understood and recognised what the other was doing.
'Over a period of considerable time, they tortured Simon Christian to the point where they ended up pouring boiling water over him on a number of occasions where he was in no position to defend himself.'
Neighbours heard the attack and one reported hearing the victim plead: ‘Please don’t burn me again.’
When police officers arrived they found Mr Christian in a ‘dishevelled state’ and covered in blood.
The court heard Brewer later sent text messages in which she bragged about the abuse, saying it was ‘too funny.’
She also received a text advising her to clean up the evidence, to which she responded ‘blood’s gone and I don’t think he will remember.’
Adrienne Knight, defending Stanhope, said her client believed Mr Christian had tried to steal money and she asked him to leave, but he had refused.
Both defendants claimed that Mr Christian had behaved in a provocative way, including urinating at the front door.
Defending Brewer, Karen Dempsey claimed that Mr Christian had ‘pinned down’ the 15-year-old on a bed upstairs.
Permanently scarred: Victim Simon Christian was left with horrific injuries after having boiling water poured on him during the attack by Stanhope, Brewer and a 15-year-old girl
Sentencing the women, Judge Paul Burrell said Stanhope had lashed out to ‘get justice’ and ‘humiliate’ Mr Christian after a ‘certain amount of non-violent provocation.’
He added: 'You opened the door and launched a ferocious and cruel attack. All three of you lost control.
'The pouring of boiling water was quite horrific. Simon Christian could easily have died.'
Mr Christian, who is in a relationship with 20-year-old Ellie Wilks, is now coming to terms with his life-changing injuries.
The father-of-one will not be allowed out in the sun for two years because of the scarring and he is awaiting keyhole surgery on his wrist, which was broken. He is also seeing a phychiatrist.
Speaking after the case, he said: 'I have broken both my legs before and my back, and I would rather go through that again than being burned.
'It’s a whole different type of pain. The burns were a couple of centimetres away from my eyes and that was a scary thought.'
He explained he had been drinking with Stanhope, who considered a good friend, before the attack and had been invited back to her house.
Things turned ‘nasty’ following an argument, but he denied claims that he provoked them in any way.
He said: 'I’m not a violent person. I’m not big enough to be violent.'
Jailed: Tamlyn Stanhope and Keeley Brewer were locked up for eight and seven years respectively by a judge at Winchester Crown Court |
A report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) finds that the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) do not measure the effectiveness of treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), calling into question millions of dollars spent to improve service members’ mental health. The report also found that neither agency has kept pace with the growing demand for PTSD treatment. Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, was chair of the IOM committee. “Mental health,” he said, “is among the most important factors behind successful re-entry after military service, and we don’t know if treatments are working.”
An estimated 5 percent of service members have been diagnosed with PTSD; for veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, it is 8 percent. In 2012 the DOD and VA spent $294 million for PTSD care. If treatment demands continue to climb, the total cost for PTSD could exceed $500 million by 2017.
“In many respects,” said Dr. Galea, “our findings that neither the DOD nor the VA has a system that documents patients’ progress and uses standardized instruments to chart long-term treatment are not surprising. We are hopeful that the report will provide a blueprint for where we need to get to.”
Read the full story, and watch a video, on the Mailman School’s website. |
It’s clear from Arsenal’s odds for winning the league, which currently stand at 40/1, that they are having far from a vintage season. Indeed, in terms of Premiership aspirations, it seems like the Gunners’ campaign is virtually over already.
In order to find out where Arsenal’s problems might lie, I have compared their games so far this season with data for the corresponding games last season (ignoring the Man Utd game, as I cannot see any value in looking at a game that Arsenal lost 8-2).
We can compare this season to last, using a sample of seven corresponding fixtures.
[fancylist]
1257 Final Third Passes (FTP) this season vs 999 last season
972 final third passes completed (FTPC) this season vs 677 last season
5 goals this season vs 8 goals last season
115 shots this season vs 113 last season
57 shots in the box this season vs 74 last season
176 crosses this season (including crosses from corners) vs 129 crosses last season
[/fancylist]
This term, then, Arsenal have notched 1 goal per 194 completed passes in the final third; Last season they averaged 1 goal per 84 final third passes.
The data speaks for itself: 77% final third passes completed this year, against just 67% last year in the same seven-game sample. Yet in spite of this, last year Arsenal scored 3 more goals. In short, Arsenal may be more accurate with final third passes than last season, but they appear to be less penetrating for all that.
The sale of Robin van Persie appears to be seriously hurting the team and, barring the goals against Southampton and West Ham, Arsenal are simply not scoring enough.
It is clear that Arsenal are having more shots from outside the box, suggesting one problem that might be addressed by Arsene Wenger. And while Arsenal may be making more crosses this campaign, fans should not get too excited. Last season in the corresponding sample, Arsenal played a more narrow game, it’s true, but were more direct as a result, and managed to score more goals.
Arsenal desperately need to sign a goal scorer to replace RVP’s 30 league goals in 38 games last season. This is not a controversial opinion, of course, but the data makes that need even more abundantly clear.
Here is a detailed statistical overview of Arsenal’s statistics for corresponding games during the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 seasons:
[table id=91 /]
In conclusion, Arsenal have clearly been poor this season in the final third and will have to sign a goalscorer in the January transfer window if they hope to improve in this area. |
Stay tuned for big news on Wednesday, Quakes fans.
The Quakes are set to announce the naming rights partner for the New Stadium.
Our new home, set to open at the beginning of the 2015 season, is currently under construction on Coleman Avenue in San Jose. With the steepest-raked seating in Major League Soccer, the largest outdoor bar in North America and a two-acre fan zone and double-sided video board, the New Stadium will provide the best possible fan experience in the league.
New Stadium season tickets are still available. Fans are encouraged to secure by December 1 for benefits such as having your name etched in our new stadium Devotion Wall, an opportunity to have your face on the back of our 2015 jersey and inaugural season commemorative tickets. Fans should visit www.sjearthquakes.com/showyourdevotion or call 408.556.7700 for more information. |
Miren Browser isn’t exactly a unique proposition – after all, Android’s Market boasts dozens of third-party browsers – but this new contender boasts a shedload of features alongside one of the slickest interfaces we've seen.
It’s much easier to use than many of its rivals, which are feature-packed but often fiddly. Open a page in Miren and it’ll default to its full-screen view – which automatically hides Android’s status bar, too – so you can take advantage of every one of your device's precious pixels.
Navigation options are both useful and unobtrusive, hidden in the corners of the screen and fading from view if they're not in use. The right-hand corner houses a button to open Miren’s address bar as well as a handy loading dial, and the bottom-left corner provides a back button. The top of the screen provides links to your tabs alongside a small symbol to open a new page.
Desktop-style features are present elsewhere to make life easier. Chrome users will be familiar with the eight thumbnail images of your favourite sites that appear on boot, and they're present here, too, alongside links to your bookmarks, history and downloads. Those eight thumbnails can also be customised with links to either a selection of bookmarks or simply the sites you visit most.
Delve into Miren’s intuitive interface and more options become available. A small star beside the address bar lets you easily bookmark a page, and the address bar will bring up likely URLs and search suggestions once you've started typing - an invaluable feature that'll be familiar to any Chrome or Firexox users.
The settings menu is divided into basic and advanced modes, with the former providing simple text side, image loading and cache-clearing options and the latter allowing you to delve into much more detail.
Flash can be disabled, for instance, if you’d prefer the full iPhone browsing experience, and a whole range of page zooming, pop-up blocking and encoding settings can be tweaked. Privacy and security options include clearing your cache, history, cookies and form data, and your passwords can be remembered or cleared with the click of a button.
Miren has options beyond those of other Android browsers, too. Your bookmarks and data can be automatically backed up to your phone and imported from your SD card, and the full-screen mode’s floating buttons can be deactivated or set to automatically fade from view if you’re not using them. There’s even a neat option to pause all downloads if you’re not longer using Wi-Fi, to ensure that you don’t incur high data charges. The only thing we're missing, at least on the surface, is the option to enable desktop rather than mobile versions of sites.
It has almost all the options you'd want, packed into one of the best interfaces we've seen of any browser on the Android platform. It's free, available right now and is our Android App of the Week - so what are you waiting for?
Want more great Android apps? Check out our previous Android Apps of the Week or read our 36 Best Android Apps feature |
Results are IN! Promising Data re: TWO New Hyperhidrosis Treatments
Late breaking news hit the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) conference in Vienna this month. Not one but TWO California-based companies, each currently developing new hyperhidrosis treatments released effectiveness results for their products.
Both of these companies support the International Hyperhidrosis Society’s not-for-profit programs -- which is a smart move because readers, like you, know we bring the latest hyperhidrosis news right to email inboxes and that we are committed to data, balance, and improving quality of life for excessive sweating sufferers.
Research and new treatment development in hyperhidrosis is moving faster than ever – because patients and healthcare providers are demanding it! Keep making your voices heard, especially about the need for flexible options for the full range of hyperhidrosis situations!
Dr. David Pariser, co-founder of the International Hyperhidrosis Society, former president of the American Academy of Dermatology, and professor of dermatology at Eastern Virginia Medical School broke the research news in Vienna and here’s what you should know:
DRM04 is a small-molecule topical (applied on top of the skin) anticholinergic for the treatment of underarm excessive sweating (hyperhidrosis) being developed by Dermira (Menlo Park, CA).
New clinical results show that patients treated for four weeks with DRM04 reported significant improvements in their hyperhidrosis-related quality-of-life compared to patients who received placebo.
Previously released data indicates that 72-77% of patients using DRM04 experienced a 50% or more reduction in their measured sweating volume after applying DRM04 (via a topical wipe) once daily for 4 weeks. Patients also reported significant improvements in disease severity. In these studies, DRM04 has been shown to be generally “well-tolerated" with side effects that were primarily “mild to moderate” in severity. Additional results are expected in peer-reviewed forums in the future.
“We are pleased to add to the growing body of evidence that suggests DRM04 may be a safe and effective treatment option for patients with primary axillary hyperhidrosis,” says Eugene A. Bauer, MD, chief medical officer of Dermira.
What’s next for DRM04? There will be a study looking at DRM04’s long-term safety in patients using it for at least 12 months. Pending those results, Dermira intends to apply for FDA approval of this topical axillary hyperhidrosis treatment later in 2017.
THVD-102 is a combination oral treatment (taken twice per day by mouth) under development for BOTH primary and secondary hyperhidrosis by the company TheraVida of San Mateo, CA. It is the only oral, systemically-acting drug (working in the body as a whole) for hyperhidrosis currently in the works (that we know of).
THVD-102 includes both the oral medicine oxybutynin, (which is sometimes used to treat hyperhidrosis, but can have side effects like dry mouth that limit its long-term acceptability) and a delayed-release version of another oral med called pilocarpine. Pilocarpine works to combat oxybutynin’s side effects, including dry mouth.
In a clinical trial in primary focal hyperhidrosis, THVD-102 was shown to limit sweating and to reduce dry mouth to a statistically significant degree as compared to oxybutynin taken alone. According to TheraVida, the same results cannot be achieved by taking currently-available oxybutynin and pilocarpine meds together because regular formulations don’t include THVD-102’s proprietary technology, which enables pilocarpine’s delayed release and custom dosing to reduce the frequency and severity of dry mouth and, possibly, other side effects.
“A well-tolerated, oral treatment for hyperhidrosis would address an important unmet need for patients and physicians,” says Benjamin F. McGraw, III, PharmD, Chairman and CEO of TheraVida, Inc.,
“Hyperhidrosis has historically been an undertreated skin condition. As a result, millions of patients have been suffering silently,” notes Dr. Pariser. “New treatment options that are safe and effective are needed that provide clinical benefit and ultimately improve a patient’s quality of life. While current treatments are lacking in many ways, I’m very encouraged by these studies’ results.”
The International Hyperhidrosis Society is following the development of these potential new treatment options closely.
Watch this news blog for updates as they become available. We are the only non-profit, 501(c)3, organization focused solely on hyperhidrosis patients and the healthcare professionals who care for them. Thank you for supporting our work as we enter our 14th year of advocating for and informing the hyperhidrosis community.
And remember, you can help the treatment development process by getting involved in research studies. |
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