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ALBANY, NY — Jaime Rios is a Republican, but he loves liberals. His wife is one. Most of his other family members are, too, along with many of his friends. One friend of his, Rios says, is a “really, really, really, really, really left, left, left, left-as-left-can-go person. I think it goes off the radar left.”Decades ago, Rios’ parents emigrated from Colombia, and moved to Long Island, N.Y., where his father had a manufacturing business and where Rios grew up. Rios, 39, stayed close to home, and now works as a software engineer for Nikon. He has dark hair, dark eyes, and an easy-going, quiet manner. He has two young kids. He recently got an iPhone 4. He’s into video games. He used to fix up cars.
Rios did not grow up around guns. In fact, he’d never fired one before a day in 2000 or 2001 when a friend of his, who was a sniper in the Army, introduced him to shooting. The two of them went out to a firing range on the east end of Long Island with a bolt-action rifle.
“When I got to fire that thing, the thing that really caught me off guard was how it smacked me in the face, because of the power behind it,” Rios said. “And then after that, when I was able to actually put shots on a paper target … it was a great feeling. I really loved it.”
Guns became a big part of Rios’ life. He feels strongly enough about them that, last Thursday, he got up well before dawn on a cold, damp day, and met up with several dozen other gun owners and gun rights advocates in a parking lot in Melville, N.Y. Together, they boarded a chartered bus for the roughly four-hour drive up to Albany, N.Y., where there was a big rally scheduled to protest the SAFE Act, the package of strict new gun regulations that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signed in response to the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.
Rios is a competitive shooter. In the years following the outing with his sniper friend, Rios started driving to long-range shooting competitions around Long Island. Later, when his kids came along, he switched to pistol competitions, which took place closer to home. He now owns two AR-15 type semiautomatic rifles, one for competition and one for hunting, and two pistols. In January, when he heard about the SAFE Act, Rios got upset.
“For me, when this law passed … the initial reaction I had was, ‘Oh my lord, all my weapons are now illegal — all of the them,'” he said, his voice taking on a hard edge. “And I was furious that, overnight, all my weapons were illegal.”
Here’s some of what the SAFE Act does: 1) It requires mental health professionals report to officials when they have reason to believe a patient is likely to do something that will harm themselves or others; 2) It provides a stricter definition of “assault weapons” — outlawing, for one, the AR-15 type Bushmaster rifle used in the Newtown, Conn., shooting;Â 3) It limits magazines to seven rounds, down from the current limit of 10; 4) It requires all gun transfers, except those between immediate family, to go through a federal National Instant Criminal Background Check.
Both advocates and opponents of the SAFE Act have described it as the nation’s toughest on firearms. Some gun owners and many proponents of gun ownership, with varying amounts and different kinds of skin in the game, have expressed outrage. Lawsuits have been filed, local resolutions have been passed, and rallies have been organized — like last week’s, which took place in Albany’s Capitol Park and was organized by the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association.Â
Gun groups around the state organized buses to get people to the rally. In Dutchess County, it was the Crum Elbow Sportsmen’s Association. In Ulster County, it was the Federated Sportsmen’s Clubs of Ulster County. In Madison County, it was the Affiliated Conservation Clubs of Madison County. The Melville bus was set up by two groups, the Long Island Second Amendment Preservation Association and Long Island Firearms. Long Island Firearms — “dedicated to the preservation of our second amendment rights on a local level” — counts more than 8,000 members, maintains a website with discussion forums, and organizes monthly firing range meet-ups. All it took for a reporter to get on the bus was an email to Steven Blair, the administrator of the Long Island Firearms website.
“It would be my pleasure to add you on the bus as my guest,” Blair responded, a day after the request was made.
Rios aside, most of the riders on the Long Island Firearms bus were white, middle-aged men. Some younger guys filled out the seats, as did a couple of women. And a few of the guys had brought along their kids. On a forum thread dedicated to filling up the bus, people were discouraged from bringing “camo type items” and reminded to “project exactly who we are – normal, everyday Americans going about the business of protecting our Rights and the Rights of the kids not yet born.”
The bus was a standard coach. Padded seats, televisions overhead. Someone had brought Dunkin’ Donuts coffee for the group. On the way up to Albany, the riders watched “Skyfall,” the latest James Bond movie, and the first chunk of “I Am Legend,” in which Will Smith keeps zombies at bay with his wits and his gun.
At the rally, the riders dispersed into the crowd, and were lost among a sea of camouflage hunting gear, facial hair, yellow “Don’t Tread On Me” flags, and red “Repeal The S.A.F.E. Act” signs. People crowded around a tent selling National Resistance Gear. Large numbers of people joined in sporadic, spontaneous chants of “Cuomo’s got to go!” Anger at Cuomo was everywhere. Several signs compared him to Hitler, or portrayed him as Hitler. Then the speakers got started. A reverend, giving the invocation, said he was there “to give Gov. Cuomo his last rites for his political career.” The day’s headliner, National Rifle Association President David Keene, accused Cuomo of being willing to “sacrifice” the Constitution “on the altar of his own ambition and the ego of Michael Bloomberg.” The speakers, most of them Republican lawmakers, validated the anger that was present in the crowd, and the crowd cheered whenever a speaker offered up a sympathetic argument.
“We do not have a constitutional right to deer hunt,” state Sen. Michael Nozzolio (R) told the crowd. “We have a constitutional right to bear arms.”
Several hours later, the Long Island Firearms crowd clambered back onto the bus, tired and cold, but encouraged after a day spent among like-minded folks. During the ride home, they watched the end of “I Am Legend.” Then they watched “Full Metal Jacket.” Meanwhile, Rios spoke a bit about how hard it is to talk to the liberals in his life about guns.
“The unfortunate thing is that if someone really has something in their head, and they don’t want to hear anything, they don’t hear anything other than themselves talking,” Rios said. “That’s kind of the important thing with most of these conversations. They just hear themselves talking.” |
EMILY MCDERMOTT FOR ARTNEWS
With a headband around his neck, a black dolly, and the appropriate paperwork, last Friday afternoon, the artist Brian Whiteley walked into the NYPD Queens Property Office hoping to retrieve a piece of evidence: his 465-pound Legacy Stone, better known as the Donald Trump tombstone. The Property Office’s governing sergeant immediately asked, “What kind of vehicle you got right now?”
“Nothing,” Whiteley responded.
“A box truck is going to be the only way we’re able to get it to you,” the sergeant continued. “I need a box truck, a basic U-Haul to load it off my dock.” (To avoid being wrapped up in the story, the officials involved in this story asked to remain anonymous.)
Whiteley had moved the headstone only once before, around 3 a.m. earlier this year on Easter Sunday. Disguised as a delivery person who might be going to Tavern on the Green, he unloaded it from a van, wheeled it through Central Park, unwrapped it, and placed it in Sheep Meadow. “I figured a hand truck would work,” Whiteley said as he left the office. “I figured because I was able to push it to the center of Central Park I could do that here.”
EMILY MCDERMOTT FOR ARTNEWS
Only a few hours after Whiteley unveiled the tombstone, which reads “Trump / Donald J. / 1946 – / Made America Hate Again,” park officials confiscated the work and turned it over to the police. Whiteley wasn’t sure of the tombstone’s fate or when he would see it again. “I’ve spent, like, an hour in total with the thing,” he explained. Two weeks ago, however, with the pro bono legal help of Ronald Kuby (the same attorney who negotiated the release of Jeff Greenspan and Andrew Tider’s Edward Snowden bust, which was installed in a Brooklyn park last year), the investigation of Whiteley’s piece of evidence was closed and Legacy Stone was cleared for pickup. Now, all the 33-year-old needed was an appropriate vehicle.
The parking lot of a rental company less than a block away from the property office housed more than 50 box trucks. Whiteley entered the shop and when he began telling employees what exactly he was hoping to move to a nearby storage place, the director of fleet maintenance broke out in laughter. “There’s a Donald Trump bumper sticker on my car, you know that, right?” he said. Outside, a white Toyota Corolla did, in fact, have a “Trump / Make American Great Again!” sticker, but as Whiteley explained, the tombstone is more than just an anti-Trump piece of artwork. He wants the stone to serve as a wakeup call for Trump, to encourage the businessman to consider his legacy. Whiteley did not have a year carved into the stone, to emphasize that there is still time for the candidate to change his ways, and Easter Sunday—being a holiday of resurrection—seemed like an opportune moment to emphasize that point.
“Do you remember the chocolate Jesus about nine years ago?” the director asked. “An artist did a chocolate Jesus, made a whole big whoopla around Easter.” The responsible artist, Cosimo Cavallaro, stored his fragile statue within one of the company’s refrigerated trucks, and employees helped conceal it from the media. Despite political differences, Whiteley and the director soon reached an agreement: Whiteley would pay the company $100 and one of its drivers would transport his Trump tombstone.
Whiteley, who earned his MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York, conceived the idea for Legacy Stone in June 2015, when Trump announced his candidacy. He originally wanted to build a wall around Trump Towers with a Checkpoint Charlie-type entryway, but the scale of that project did not seem feasible. After a mural by the street artist Hanksy of Donald Trump as a pile of feces went viral (Dump Trump, it is called, naturally), Whiteley thought, “This all feels very surface level, and what this guy [Trump] is doing feels like an inborn American terrorist, in a way—trying to turn all of our progress into 1950s white privilege society again.” He wanted to create a more profound statement, and thus, the tombstone was born.
EMILY MCDERMOTT FOR ARTNEWS
Whiteley has a longstanding fascination with death and graveyards—one previous performance piece involved him wearing a clown suit and haunting Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery—but Legacy Stone is Whiteley’s first explicitly political endeavor. Growing up in a small town north of Syracuse, New York, Whiteley’s father was a right wing, “Fox News kind of Republican,” although the family always tried to put politics aside. When Legacy Stone went on view, his father was more scared for his son than offended, particularly when two NYPD officers and a Secret Service agent arrived, unannounced, at Whiteley’s home in South Brooklyn, where he lives with his wife and two young sons. Though he was never charged with a crime, the officers asked Whiteley if he owned a gun, if he attended presidential rallies, and about the books he read—topics typically discussed with potential assassins. “I was being interrogated, looking at the clock because I had to pick my son up [from school], and my in-laws were in town,” he recalled. “It was just like, ‘Welcome to my life.’ ”
The tombstone, which took more than five months and $2,500 to manufacture, led to two related projects: “Trump / Palin Rally,” a series with artist Rebecca Goyette in which the pair dress up as the titular politicians for exaggerated performances, and Trump Supporter Costumes, three extreme adaptations of Ku Klux Klan cloaks. While both of these projects are ongoing, and Whiteley is also in the midst of planning the second edition of his Satellite Art Show in Miami, Legacy Stone remains his main focal point. In September, the tombstone will be displayed alongside eight new, slightly different editions at Christopher Stout Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
Back in Queens, when the truck driver arrived at the property office and a police officer brought the stone into view, Whiteley’s eyes grew wide and a smile spread across his face. “My baby is back! Look at that! It got banged up a little bit, but it’s back, baby,” he said. The sergeant continued to speak, explaining that regardless of his political views, he enjoys dealing with items such as the tombstone because it provides relief from the horrific evidence found at serious crime scenes. “This is entertaining to me,” he said. “I want to deal with this stuff, not the cooler that had a baby in it.”
Whiteley mused about transporting the tombstone a few more blocks, to MoMA PS1’s courtyard, but ultimately decided “the next move should actually be approved.” It was driven to a nearby storage facility, where both employees and other storage unit renters engaged with the solid piece of Vermont granite. “I know you did it as a gag, obviously it’s a gag, but in this day and age, nobody has a sense of humor,” one employee said, before asking, “Can I take a picture with it? It’s going right on my Facebook and then the Secret Service is gonna be knocking on my door.” A man sitting in the corner, waiting for his wife, chimed in, “The way I see it is we’re screwed either way. Different person, same outfit.”
“I don’t know,” Whiteley said. “Some of the stuff this guy says is morally unacceptable. I don’t want my kids hearing that.”
Once the tombstone made its way into an elevator, down a hallway, and into a three-by-five-foot unit, Whiteley pulled down the door and attached a padlock. “If Trump becomes President, God forbid, there will be a wealth of things to speak out about,” he said, but “ideally that doesn’t happen and I can retire this as a one-time political protest piece.” |
After spending two days and a cramped night on a remote aboriginal reserve, the wife of the Queen’s youngest son pledged to rebuild bonds between the Royal Family and Canada’s aboriginal community.
“The First Nations have a unique relationship with the Royal Family, going back many years. This relationship has continued. Even today, our Queen is referred to as the Great White Mother and the enormous respect in which she is held by the people of the First Nations remains,” the Countess of Wessex said after her unusual northern Ontario visit.
“I hope that through my involvement with the proud aboriginal people of this land that the old bonds of our relationship are strengthened.”
Speaking at Nipissing University in North Bay, she directly addressed the challenges and failures of the place of First Nations in Canada and issued a plea for solutions, an unusual role for a visiting Royal.
It came with a dash of emotion — the Countess had just left Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, known as KI, an isolated fly-in only reserve of about 1,300 people, 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay.
The reserve is so lacking in infrastructure, most of the delegation of high-profile women — who included Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, the province’s incoming lieutenant-governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Ruth Ann Onley, wife of Lieutenant-Governor David Onley, filmmaker Andrée Cazabon, who has worked to promote the needs of KI, and others — stayed in community homes.
Like many northern reserves, it has suffered from poor housing and inadequate education, high unemployment, and alcohol and drug abuse.
“The experience of the last 24 hours has been moving, enlightening and uplifting,” the Countess said.
“The people of KI took myself and our delegation into their community and their hearts and shared with us not only their wonderful hospitality and friendship but their stories, their knowledge of the beautiful lake on which they live and also the community issues.
“It is clear that many of these communities are in need of support separate from activities that are government led to allow them to prosper.”
She offered her help in bringing change.
“Canada is a great land of opportunity with a vibrant population, but much of that opportunity and the vibrancy it holds is beyond the reach the First Nations people.”
The Countess also spoke frankly of the sad legacy of residential schools.
“Many of the people who went through the residential school system have been left in a kind of limbo,” she said.
“They are still surrounded by their culture but feel they have no place within it and are haunted by the experiences of a desperately unhappy past. Many of them are living with painful memories, which make living day to day extremely difficult, displaying behaviours not unlike those who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder.
“We need to ask what can be done to relieve their suffering so that they do not follow many of their sisters and brothers into alcoholism, depression or suicide.”
The premier told Nipissing students and staff, and aboriginal community members the KI visit gave her another chance to experience the “joys and the challenges” of life on a remote reserve.
“The impressions and memories … will inspire me and motivate me,” she said.
“All of the mandate letters of my ministers will come out within the next week or so and it will be very clear that my expectations, across government, to make sure that we work in this context to improve our relationships, that that is part of the mandate of this government.
Being on a reserve with a member of the Royal Family was a special reminder of the importance of the treaty between First Nations and government, Ms. Wynne said.
“In 2014, to take it to another level, we need better and more progress on sharing resources, one education, on land-use planning, on housing, on water — and the list goes on. We need to move into a better relationship on all those fronts.”
The KI reserve is on the edge of Big Trout Lake and is closer to the Nunavut border than to Toronto or Ottawa. It is only accessible by air, except from January to March, when temporary winter roads are built over frozen lakes and rivers to allow heavy supplies to be brought in.
Two small planes flew the delegation and a security detail in on Thursday. The Countess and other VIPs met the elders in a traditional teepee, shared in a communal feast of fresh-caught wild game and fish and were served a traditional field breakfast by members of the Canadian Rangers, a military reserve unit largely composed of aboriginals living in the north. They also toured the community’s facilities, particularly its overcrowded and under-resourced school.
Accommodation was so tight the Canadian Rangers, there to organize the ceremonial guards, slept on the floor of a church.
“It’s about reconciliation and gaining a better understanding of each other,” said KI’s deputy chief, Darryl Sainnawap.
“What better way than to have people come live in our homes, to share our strength, our challenges and our history and just teach them about who we are.”
National Post
• Email: ahumphreys@nationalpost.com | Twitter: AD_Humphreys |
It’s no secret that South Korea has an astounding affinity for plastic surgery. While it would be unfair to suggest that the entire population is keen to go under the knife, the percentage of Koreans calling in for a nip and a tuck is literally eye-widening and jaw dropping, in addition to nose elongating and chin altering.
Unfortunately, this attitude towards altered appearances has apparently caused a curious trend in elementary school students. In an effort to appear more like the celebrities they see on TV, grade school students in South Korea are practicing something they call “self-cosmetic surgery.”
Thankfully, even though “surgery” is right there in the name, these young kids are not actually putting themselves under the knife. They are, however, turning to some pretty strenuous beauty regimes in an attempt to meet society’s surgically-achieved beauty standards.
Methods include double-eyelid trainer glasses and the nose straightener, modeled here by our very own Mr. Sato, as well as sort of chin mold, made to “correct” the contours of one’s face. All of the children making use of these various apparatuses appear to be under the impression that the younger they are able to get plastic surgery the better. It’s just that their parents won’t allow it.
Specialists in the field of child development disagree with this attitude. One specifically warns against the use of these so-called beauty products, saying that strong external stressors can badly influence the children’s physical growth. If only it were so easy to explain this logic to a 10-year-old whose most immediately perceived stressors are the opinions of his or her peers.
Source/Top image: Xinhua (Japanese)
Inset images: RocketNews24
▼ These kids had better be careful, or they’ll end up looking like our man here! |
The 16-year-old Jodhpur girl, who was on Monday rescued after she jumped into Kaylana Lake here to complete the last task of the Blue Whale challenge reportedly made another attempt to claim her life by swallowing sleeping pills on Wednesday.
The girl was admitted to an ICU for treatment and later shifted to the general ward.
It is said that the girl feared that if she did not complete the last task her mother will be killed so she swallowed all kinds of pills, including sleeping spills, she found in the house.
As her condition started deteriorating, relatives rushed her to a private hospital where she was admitted to ICU. Doctors said she was now out of danger.
According to doctors, the girl is suffering from severe depression and is completely stuck in the Blue Whale game.
Her treating doctor, Dr KR Dashiki said the girl was also counselled regarding the effect of the Blue Whale game on her mind. "A psychiatrist will be called to give her proper counselling. She accepted her mistake and said that she now regrets what she did and advised children to stay away from this deadly game," Dr Daukia said.
On Monday night, the girl, daughter of retired havaldar from BSF Mandor, attempted to commit suicide by jumping into the Kaylana lake but was fortunately saved by boat driver Om Prakash. Even at that time she was pleading to be allowed to die as she feared that her mother will be killed. |
Booze for the terraces, pink vehicles for the ladies, tough love for the scroungers, pride for the white vans, nurses to attend ailing Scots by the thousand. All is catered for within the sweepingly incoherent stance that the Labour Party has adopted in advance of the general election.
Marx’s famous observation, that history happens, as it were, twice (first as tragedy, then as farce) is one that the party would do well to remember. Because, if this is a re-run for Labour, the precedent suggests a longer term decline.
The last time Labour attempted to regain power from the Tories after a single term, it was led by an eccentric leftist intellectual, Michael Foot. Miliband may have the intellect and the eccentricity, but as his policy-lite posturing has demonstrated, the party remains terrified of a coherent ideological challenge to right wing Tory policy.
This re-run of tragedy for Labour will be rendered farcical by the overwhelmingly weak content of its campaign. The party’s 1983 manifesto, notoriously dubbed the ‘longest suicide note in history’, may have been an attempt by the right of the party to clear out left wing policies such as nuclear disarmament, knowing that the election would be lost anyway. It did however present Labour as a distinct ideological alternative to Thatcherism on a number of issues. In 2015, there are no radical policies in Labour’s bid for power. The acute trauma of electoral politics in the 1980s has, in large part, meant that politics in Britain has scarcely progressed since.
In response, Labour has become trapped by its attachment to a studied silence on major economic issues. Indirectly, this results in an ongoing expression of various forms of identity politics, the roots of which lie in the emergence of a new-left that came to emphasise minority rights and social-cultural emancipation. Though this turn was a welcome and radical development against the forces of conservatism a quarter of a century ago, today it has left a residual husk. A nominal ‘left’ in UK politics tacitly accepts an enormously unjust economic order and denies any legitimate expression of class as a foundation for politics.
Of course, the siloing of the social and the economic is an ultimately false division. The history of Scotland, the north of England and Wales in the past quarter century is an object lesson in this. Labour have done nothing, post-Blair, to recognise the shape of these problems in the heartlands. The drastic and necessary recalibrating of an economy (from one based on a precarious service sector and casino finance that rely on vagazette.com games into a productive one) would take the kind of political will that the Labour Party has not displayed collectively for well over a generation.
The offer of change from all three ‘mainstream’ parties has long been skin-deep. All are entirely unprepared to acknowledge that a Britain that wants to make things cannot continue to harbour an unbridled City. Where previous governments propped up declining heavy industry the last Labour government underwrote the losses of the financial sector. A profoundly anti-social industry was saved by public money and we’ll be paying for it for a long time.
Miliband does not understand that such outcomes have turned politics upside down. Probably because no party mandarin is willing to tell him. Instead, lost in a generation of career politicians, Labour offers an incrementally less brutal regime of austerity. Many, both within and without the party look on at a nominally ‘democratic socialist’ organisation unable to reform Britain because it is too traumatised by Blair’s prolonged deracination to reform itself.
It remains, essentially, New Labour, the party that wanted people to get filthy rich, systematically used public money to underwrite the losses and low pay of private enterprise and stigmatised poverty. Its crassness in government must not be forgotten. The economic problem, at the turn of the century, was solved. Such complacency would see inequality under Labour reach new and obscene levels, a corrosive element last present in the 1920s. Foreign wars would alienate ethnic minorities far more effectively than Tory racism had ever managed.
Miliband’s leadership is the logical, farcical arrival at a destination to which Labour has long been headed. Ed’s tenure has become like a long and drawn out extension of Brown’s Gillian Duffy episode. It is puerile dispatch box sparring and a withering fear of being cast as anti-business. It’s also an obsession with politics as cosmetic gesture: a relentless effort to either patronise or cosy up to whatever group of swing voters a six figure salary strategists has selected. In the meantime Britain is being broken, not by immigrants, not by benefit cheats, but by its own parasitic elites. Almost every institution in Britain: parliament, the press, the financial sector, the monarchy, has displayed profoundly anti-social tendencies. Such behaviour within the highly centralised, moneyed, world of power and privilege is hardly surprising in itself. What is remarkable, is that no mainstream party is proposing the kind of wide ranging, systematic reform that scandal after scandal points to.
Herein lies the depths of the Labour malaise. It must be more Scottish than the SNP, more disparaging of Blair’s immigration policies than UKIP, more safe than the Lib-Dems, more radical than the Greens and more nasty than the Tories. It faces distinct threats everywhere. But nowhere is it prepared to stand and fight. The party long ago accepted that to win in Britain, it would have to do battle on terms that were destined to alienate its core voters and values. This problem is not new. Despite all that the gods gave New Labour in 1997: an unprecedented mandate, money, goodwill, activists and youth, it failed to play the long game that Thatcher’s party quickly grasped. The 1980s was revolutionary for Britain, a class war waged from above, if you like. The only response that can make working people central once again to British society must be, in turn, as ideological and radical in its intent as Thatcherism once was.
The actual nature of what the British left needs is a massive effort to change course. The change has to be a full-scale inversion of Thatcherism: a programme fixed on socialising profit and making the private sector stand on its own two feet. The impetus for such a change is of course the 2008 financial crash. If it was militant labour that propelled the right to victory in the final decades of the 20th century, surely, the recent actions of capital, of markets and banks, is an adequate equivalent for the left to fight back. That such changes represent far too great a leap for the dominant force on the British left, makes the prospect of progressive change increasingly elusive. Labour’s analysis of what is needed for its own victory is premised on leaving austerity unchallenged and the self-evidently insane notion that regulation of Britain’s tax haven economy is not a pressing political concern. Miliband must first go on his knees to the city if he wants to rule the UK: so rotten is the state of the nation.
Who you subsidise says a lot about who you seek to represent. No system anywhere can placate both the needs of predatory financial capital and ordinary working people. Today, Labour remains on the same side as the banks. There are many people within the Labour party who must feel sick at this reality. But they must never again think that the mere possession of power will make a better party more attainable. Indeed, the opposite has been the case. In the meantime Britain desperately needs a change of course with or without the Labour party at its helm.
Christopher Silver is currently writing a book, The Case for a Scottish Media, you can support this project here:
@silverscotland |
DJKit is delighted to present the Pioneer DDJ-RR controller. Modelled on Pioneer’s outstanding range of CDJ digital players, the DDJ-RR is ideal for any amateur or professional DJ who wants a practical two channel controller. It is a worthy successor to the DDJ-RB and comes with a host of easily accessible additional features.
Discover Pioneer DDJ-RR features
Large jog wheels ensure rapid response time and ultra-smooth scratching and you’re certain of faultless mixes thanks to illuminated on-jog indicators showing position, playback and cue point. Plus, fully customisable multi-coloured Performance Pads beneath the jog wheels act as a trigger for all your rekordbox Hot Cues. See master out and channel levels clearly at any time thanks to the Dual VU level meter or jump to any part of a track in one touch with the needle search pad. A brushed aluminium face plate rather than standard black is a smart and stylish addition.
Pioneer DDJ-RR users can access dedicated controls for rekordbox dj features.Use ‘Sequence Load’ to load any sample sequence and then scratch or tweak the sound as if it were track. ‘Slip Mode’ allows playback to continue soundlessly during loops, scratches or reverses and brings the music back in at exactly the right point when you finish. Exit complex sequences at the twist of a dial with ‘Release FX’.
Flexible connectivity with multiple inputs and outputs is a real advantage.Line and phone inputs enable you to use the Pioneer DDJ-RR as a stand-alone 2-channel mixer with turntables or multiplayers while its balanced XLR outputs allow it to be easily connected to club PA systems. It is Rekordbox dvs ready and the Rekordbox DJ Plus Pack is also available from DJKit. To sum up, the Pioneer DDJ-RR is ideal for DJs who want a portable system that offers professional sound quality and exceptional flexibility. |
IKEA LAGAN Turntable Plinth
IKEA sells a range of hardwood counter top available in a variety of materials. I managed to get the beech wood LAGAN series (at least in my country – Singapore) and had it cut up for making of a turntable plinth.
Vintage turntables were sold with flimsy plinths and some even encouraged buyers to build their own. The Lenco is a well designed Swiss made turntable that suffered from one such flimsy plinth. There’s a lot written out there about Lencos and how the sound can be improved with a heftier plinth. This project is details construction of a plinth using the IKEA LAGAN. The end result is shown below.
Life starts as Lagan hardwood counter top from IKEA.
It’s then loving cut up. 😉
The best cuts are chosen for making the plinth.
The cut out is then traced using carbon paper onto the top layer. This cut out would be different for different models of turntable. The below cut out is specific for the Lenco PTP project. More information on the PTP project can be found here.
Next comes cutting up the required parts.
And continue with layers 2 and 3.
Overlay the actual metal pieces as guides for drilling holes. These holes are meant for attaching e-nuts that can be screwed down.
Screwing in the e-nuts. The metal e-nuts are screwed into the drilled holes.
Next, mark out the tone arm mount point. This depends on your tone arm details and can be found as the pivot to spindle distance. It varies depending on the arm length. So, if you are using a 12″ arm, make sure your plinth dimensions can cater for this.
Then comes cutting the hole for layers 2 and 3. Mark out with the first layer on top, and use a pencil to outline. I used a larger hole for these layers as i need to be able to screw down the nut that holds the arm.
Then glue down all layers, using clamps to hold the work piece overnight.
Sand down the edges to get it as even as you can. It’s tough work here…
Apply a finishing layer. In my case, i chose to use an epoxy resin called Crystal Sheen. Depending on what’s available in your locale, you may have something different. But an epoxy resin can give you very nice results and one coat is as good as 50 coats of varnish.
Mounting the parts onto the plinth.
Playing music in the rig! |
Sgt. Jayme Green has patrolled many neighborhoods during his 17 years in law enforcement. Currently, he commands the five-member Topeka Police Department Bicycle Unit.
"I have four guys that work for me. … They are all really pro-active guys and go-getter types … we work well together," he said.
Green also is a singer-guitarist who recorded "Sacrifice," a tribute to fallen officers that he performed on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., during National Police Week in 2015. He was a member of Invictus, a local rock band, in 2011.
Green, who originally hailed from Bedford, Iowa, and earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Iowa State University, recently talked about his experiences with the bicycle unit.
Q: How long have you been a bicycle police officer?
Green: I have been involved with the bicycle unit for over 10 years.
Q: Do you enjoy your work?
Green: I do. I’ve been in law enforcement for 17 years now. I’ve been with TPD since 2003. I can’t imagine doing anything else full time.
Q: What parts of Topeka do you patrol?
Green: Central Topeka, East Topeka and North Topeka. Those are the three areas that we go to most often because they’re easy to get to on a bicycle. We do go southeast, and we do go farther west and even southwest. But when you (go) southeast and southwest, you got a lot of hills and long stretches. It also takes longer just to get there, so we’re spending a majority of our shift just getting to where we (need to) go.
We do have cars assigned to the unit. We can throw our bikes on the cars to transport on a bike rack to a different part of town. But for the most part, we just ride (to the location), because we enjoy riding.
Q: When do you ride your bicycle? What is your shift?
Green: We work generally Monday through Friday, 10 in the morning to 6 p.m. Now that changes if we have weekend events (such as runs, parades or festivals). … Part of being in the bike unit is being flexible and agreeing to change your hours for special events.
Q: Do your legs get sore?
Green: Sure, sometimes. … Yeah, I mean your whole body can get sore. It’s not necessarily the physical activity. It’s the temperature fluctuations, because we ride all year round, 365 days a year, unless the streets are unsafe. If there’s ice or snow on the streets, if there’s lightning in the sky, if it’s a driving rain … we won’t ride in that. (Green said the bicycle unit officers also don’t ride when the temperatures are very cold or extremely hot.).
Q: Do people come out and talk to you? Is it a good tool to touch base with the community?
Green: Yeah, we’re very approachable on bicycles … so people come and talk to us all the time. We get little kids that just want to touch our bikes and say hello, to people that aren’t real happy with something and think that they need to tell somebody. That really adds to what we do everyday.
Q: Do they ever bring you something to drink?
Green: When it’s hot, people bring us bottles of water all the time. Actually, we all carry two water bottles that we keep filled. We have our water spots throughout town that we know we can go. We can go to the hospitals, or the library, Kwik Shops, restaurants. The people in Topeka are great.
Q: Do you ride a bicycle when you’re off-duty?
Green: Not as much as I did before I rode one for work. … I have a mountain bike and a road bike, and I like to ride trails. But because I ride, ‘cause that’s what I do for work, it’s not as much fun to go out and ride.
Q: How do you keep in shape?
Green: I run sometimes. I lift weights everyday. I coach my kid’s baseball, and I hunt (and) fish.
Contact features writer Jessica Cole at (785) 295-5628. |
Manchester United are said to be closing in on signing U.S. youth international Matthew Olosunde.
[ MORE: Latest transfer news ]
Olosunde, 17, is a product of the New York Red Bulls academy and the defender has been training with the Red Devils on and off over the past five months after completing a trial with the Premier League giants in July.
The Daily Mail reports that United are keen to wrap up a deal for Olosunde and are awaiting a work permit and international clearance so they can formally offer him a contract.
After first linking up with United during their preseason tour of the U.S., Olosunde can operate either at right back or center back and has apparently impressed United’s staff as a right back.
[ MORE: Fergie praises Mourinho ]
He has been a part of the U.S. youth setup since the U-13 age group, and the Trenton, New Jersey native would carry on the rich soccer heritage in his area with the likes of Tim Howard, Jozy Altidore, Tony Meola, John Harkes and Tab Ramos all hailing from close to where he grew up. Add in Matt Miazga’s meteoric rise to the U.S. national team and a regular for the Red Bulls this season has seen RBNY’s academy praise nationwide.
If Olosunde was to sign for United at a young age, it would be terrific for the USMNT and Jurgen Klinsmann to have yet another youngster making his way in the Premier League system.
DeAndre Yedlin is currently getting regular minutes at Sunderland on loan from Tottenham, while 17-year-old U.S. U-23 center back Cameron Carter-Vickers is making waves at Tottenham Hotspur, plus Gedion Zelalem is at Arsenal and Lynden Gooch is at Sunderland. What Major League Soccer may think about losing yet another bright prospect overseas remains to be seen, but if United come calling, how hard must it be to stop a talented youngster from joining Louis Van Gaal‘s side?
Expect to hear plenty more about Olosunde as the defender continues his rise through the U.S. youth setup and could seen be nurtured at United.
Below is a video from March this year where Olosunde speaks briefly about playing for the U.S. U-17 side under Richie Williams.
Follow @JPW_NBCSports |
Preppers, have you considered using a turn of the 20th century sawmill as a bug out location? Chances are, you may not even know about the the sawmills or old mill towns.
Let’s talk about some history.
In the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, sawmill towns were established all over the United States. These were fully functioning towns with a church, school, company store, post office, and sawmill. This was a time before heavy equipment. Everything was horse, mule, and man power.
Without heavy machinery, the sawmill had to be brought to the forest. To facilitate moving logs to the sawmill, narrow gauge tracks were built going from the sawmill out into the forest. Some of the tracks would stretch for miles.
Then came the innovation of heavy machinery. With the ability to move trees to the sawmill by truck, fewer mills were needed. A large number of mills mysteriously burned down when they were no longer needed. The fire usually left the concrete foundation and walls.
Over the past century a great number of these old mills have been lost to history. They have been reclaimed by nature, far away from big cities.
Why should you care? Well, many old logging communities and sawmills have a lot in common with each other. They are remote, usually have a stream nearby, have a log pond, and may have the concrete foundations and sometimes concrete walls.
In other words, they have everything a prepper would want in a bugout location.
Water
Those old sawmills were built in a time before electric motors. This meant everything was steam powered.
What is used to make steam? Water.
Because of this, a lot of the old turn of the century sawmills were built near streams. The streams were also used to keep the log pond full.
As the mills were burned down, dismantled or abandoned, the mill pond was reclaimed by nature and is now a wildlife habitat.
Besides fish, frogs, and turtles, the ponds also attract migrating waterfowl.
Depending on location, sometimes beavers, nutria rat, musk rat, and alligators will move into the pond. Raccoons will often visit the pond looking for crawfish.
There is a good chance that over the decades locals put catfish, perch, and maybe even bass in the log ponds. They did this so they could go back later and catch the fish.
So, the mills had a nearby stream and a pond. This means you have running water to filter and a pond for fishing, trapping, and hunting.
Remote
The sawmill was the life of the company town. When the mills went away, the towns died. As the towns died, people moved away to look for work. Chances are the land is now owned by a large timber company or the government.
Locals may only know rumors of an old sawmill off in the woods with no exact details.
During operation, some of the sawmill towns had a population of several hundred people. These days, there may not be a family for miles, or just a few families who live nearby.
Roads to the mills or the old mill towns may be overgrown and reclaimed by nature, but there may be roads or ATV trails going to it.
Foundation and Walls
The mills that burned may still have standing concrete walls, which can be used to help build a semi-permanent shelter.
Bricks can be used to build a fireplace.
There may be pieces of old railroad track that can be used for an anvil. Old railroad spikes can be forged into tools.
Fallen concrete walls should have steel rebar sticking out of them; this can be forged into something useful.
Sawmill Scouting
If you want to know where old mill towns or sawmills may be in your area, let history be your compass. There are various websites dedicated to sawmill history. A local historian would probably know details of local mills.
History books, websites, and historians are often unsure of sawmills’ exact locations. This is where you go into scouting mode and get a hobby.
If nothing else, at least you’ll learn some local history and take the family on an adventure. Few things compare to looking through an abandoned area that has been reclaimed by nature. |
Meet the famous ravens at the Tower of London and learn more about why they are known as the guardians of the Tower, at their lodgings on the South Lawn.
The names of our current Tower ravens are Jubilee, Harris, Gripp, Rocky, Erin, Poppy and Merlina. Ravens are intelligent birds and each of ours has its own personality; they can mimic sounds, play games and solve problems. See if you can spot some of their fascinating behaviour on your visit.
The legend of the Tower ravens
It is said that the kingdom and the Tower of London will fall if the six resident ravens ever leave the fortress. There are seven ravens at the Tower today — the required six, plus one spare!
Charles II is thought to have been the first to insist that the ravens of the Tower be protected after he was warned that the crown and the Tower itself would fall if they left.
The King's order was given against the wishes of his astronomer, John Flamsteed, who complained the ravens impeded the business of his observatory in the White Tower.
See the ravens at the Tower of London
The ravens are free to roam the Tower precincts during the day and preside over four different territories within the Tower's walls.
You might even be lucky enough to witness the ravens snacking — but please be careful and do not feed the ravens yourself, as they can bite if they feel their territory is being threatened.
These magnificent birds respond only to the Ravenmaster and should not be approached too closely by anyone else.
Why are the ravens' wing feathers trimmed?
The Ravenmaster occasionally trims some of the ravens' primary and secondary flight feathers to encourage them to stay at the Tower. All the Tower ravens are able to fly but, with careful feather management, plenty of food and a comfortable new enclosure, they are happy to call the Tower their home.
However, some ravens have gone absent without leave in the past and others have even been sacked. Raven Munin flew off to Greenwich and was eventually returned by a vigilant member of the public after seven days. Raven George was dismissed for eating television aerials and Raven Grog was last seen outside an East End pub.
A diet of meat, biscuits and blood
The ravens are fed twice a day by our Ravenmaster and dine on a special diet of mice, chicks, rats and assorted raw meats. As a special treat, they are given biscuits soaked in blood. |
Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2016 March 21
Alaskan Moondogs
Image Credit & Copyright: Sebastian Saarloos
Explanation: What's happened to the sky? Moonlight illuminates a snowy scene in this night land and skyscape made on 2013 January from Lower Miller Creek, Alaska, USA. Overexposed near the mountainous western horizon is the first quarter Moon itself, surrounded by an icy halo and flanked left and right by moondogs. Sometimes called mock moons, a more scientific name for the luminous apparitions is paraselenae (plural). Analogous to a sundog or parhelion, a paraselene is produced by moonlight refracted through thin, hexagonal, plate-shaped ice crystals. As determined by the crystal geometry, paraselenae are seen at an angle of 22 degrees or more from the Moon. Compared to the bright lunar disk, paraselenae are faint and easier to spot when the Moon is low. |
September 12th, 2013
Some of life’s greatest challenges merely encompass the heaving of your dead carcass out of bed in the morning. Whether we’re lost in a dream, reluctant to face daily objectives, or amassed in fluff n’ stuff, an embedded lack of enthusiasm will spiral our thoughts into a dampening black hole that most likely doesn’t open a much cooler dimension where souls flit around our bodies as shape-shifting familiars or giant angelic mechs save the universe from a psychedelic apocalypse. Le sigh.
For the unmotivated, Mars squares the lunar nodes on the first quarter square of our mutable moon cycle. The square comes from Leo, asking destiny advocates to be creatively expressive, proud, and enigmatic when revitalizing commitments in one’s life.
Many of the same themes touched upon on the new moon are present—Saturn and Pluto still aspect the nodes—thus we see a continuation and maturation of the parchment question: will you read your own instruction manual and take fullest advantage of your destiny? You should be on the second or third draft right about now.
Video games used to come packed with maps, journals, texts, figurines, and more to entice an avid exploration of the story. Nowadays, most are whittled down to unpackaged digital downloading, and nagging onscreen tutorials replace instruction manuals—childish handholding. I know you’re a gift from the Goddess, but you don’t need to tell me what an Amber Relic is every time I pick up an Amber Relic.
The focus we give our own lives tend to similarly vary. Our culture seeks to streamline and perfect the “quest of living” in a way that can be packaged, compartmentalized, and easily accessible to, you know, those of us who aren’t saving countless worlds each year. Don’t know how to proceed? Turn on the television or browse the internet, and you’ll find loads of advertising telling you exactly what to buy when you need it—if they’re doing their job, then that time is often now.
The alternative would be, of course, to simply ask yourself. You know, figure it out. Somehow, we’ve shifted away from individual treatment of needs—from the self for the self by the self—to the robotic polishing of destines en mass.
We fear to accept that our selves alone have the power to answer, activate, and fulfill our needs. There is no prescription, religion, other, belief system, or reality that is justifiably sound enough to encompass every living thing, except perhaps this sentence.
You have the option to lie in bed and let everything happen, just as you have the option to wait a few months until The End drops dead from old age. Fine, if you want to play your game on easy (or not at all). But, we all know that the coolest summon is only attained after hours of chocobo breeding.
When the baby chooses, out of its own will, not to take steps—let’s face it, the ground is much more relaxing—then we have a potential issue. Get up.
Saturn in Scorpio, conjunct with the north node, is also squaring Mars, putting the two powerful planets at odds. Yesterday, Vladimir Putin wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times concerning the US President’s pending attack on Syria. Obama (a Leo) receives harsh criticism from Putin (Scorpio rising) on what would be an extremely unfavorable approach to foreign affairs.
Collectively, we are learning the art of making choices, therein weighed by the judgement of metaphorical gods. Saturn has no patience for subliminal warfare in the vulnerable sign of secret governments. This could well play out to the favor of the public, considering how quickly we gather to expose treachery, Putin’s unprecedented outreach notwithstanding.
Unfortunately, the road to understanding ourselves as a nation is riddled with trauma—it seems to be the only way we learn. At least we’re getting cake. |
Col. Qalandar Shah Qalandari is the most decorated pilot in the Afghan Air Force, recently he took command of a squadron of MD-530F armed helicopters. However, he is disappointed with the rotorcraft.
By Staff Sgt. Perry Aston (USAF) (dvidshub.net) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Speaking to a journalist, Qalandari complained that the American-made helicopter lacked the range to reach areas where the Taliban normally operate. The helicopter is not able to climb high above the mountain ranges that encircle Kabul during summer time when loaded with full fuel and weapons.
One of his pilots complained the FN M3P .50 Cal machine guns keep jamming. It also lack a gunsight.
But Lt. Col. James Abbott, a U.S. Air Force trainer for the MD-530F program, disagrees.
Criticisms are from pilots used to Russian equipment, he said. |
We recently reviewed the Ring Video Doorbell Pro – a smart doorbell with full HD video and security support – including how well it worked with Windows 10 and Mobile. While the app works just fine the lack of significant updates was a little worrying. In that review, I was concerned that Ring may not be 100 percent committed to Windows 10 for future Ring products. Looks like my fears were unfounded. Ring has an update in testing that's a complete overhaul and rewrite for Windows 10 and I got an early look. Here is the forthcoming Ring Video Doorbell 2.0 app for Windows 10. Ring Video Doorbell 2.0 for Windows 10 The updated Ring app for Windows 10 is a complete rewrite using more native, and modern Universal Windows Platform (UWP) controls. The app works on Mobile and PC too, and best of all it is significantly faster to launch and jump into your recorded videos or live view.
Most of the changes so far are in the redesign for streamlined access to your Ring accessories and device management. There are five main sections including: Dashboard – A quick overview of Ring activity like rings, motion, live view, and starred.
– A quick overview of Ring activity like rings, motion, live view, and starred. Devices - Manage your Ring devices and accessories.
- Manage your Ring devices and accessories. Setup - Setup and add new Ring devices.
- Setup and add new Ring devices. Help - Help and support.
- Help and support. Feedback - Leverages the new Windows 10 feedback hub to leave comments/requests. Interestingly, the "setup" area currently states "To set up a Ring device, please use the Ring app on iOS or Android." While that seems like a bad sign, I'm assuming it's just a placeholder until that section is rewritten for the new app. There are not a ton of new features yet as it appears that various components are still being worked on, but there are a few already live including a new "health" area for your doorbell. Health, which is already found on iOS and Android, simply gives a status of your Ring device like battery life (if applicable), voltage, network, signal strength, firmware, etc.
Not yet visible are sharing, new neighborhood feature or security zone management. The app even has a new icon for when minimized that is more in line with Windows 10. When is it coming? Unfortunately, I don't have an estimate when Ring Video Doorbell 2.0 for Windows 10 will be coming, but the beta I'm currently using is very stable with no crashes or red flags in the first 24 hours of usage. I'm hoping we'll see newer Ring features ported to the 2.0 Windows 10 app to keep it feature parity with iOS and Android.
Ring 2.0 running on Windows 10 Mobile.
Either way, it's exciting to see that the company is actively developing a new re-written app for Windows 10 and Mobile users. The faster performance, smarter redesign, and updated graphics should be worth the wait. Ring Video Doorbell Pro review: A smart doorbell for Windows 10 If you were thinking of buying a Ring smart device, hopefully, this peek will reassure you that the company is still committed to Microsoft. I hope that also means we'll see some Cortana and connected devices support native to Windows 10 in the future as well.
New Ring 'health' section for Windows 10. |
CLOSE President Trump wants to have a contest for Fake News Trophy, to see who is the most dishonest news source, Fox isn’t in the running. Buzz60
President Trump speaks during an event honoring the Native American code talkers in the Oval Office Monday. (Photo11: Oliver Contreras / POOL, EPA-EFE)
WASHINGTON — President Trump's attacks on what he calls "fake news" are no longer limited to CNN.
It's CNN International.
Trump's new animosity toward the Cable News Network's global sister channel symbolizes what press freedom advocates say is a disturbing new dimension to the president's feud with the media. They say Trump, instead of defending the First Amendment, is now setting a worldwide example for rulers who would clamp down on press freedom.
"He's definitely sending a dangerous message," said Margaux Ewen of Reporters Without Borders, an international organization devoted to defending press freedom. "I cant speak to his intent, but this new international angle of his attacks against the press is concerning."
Since returning from his Asia trip – during which he said he was "forced to watch" CNN International in the Philippines – Trump has renewed his longstanding feud with the network.
In a tweet on Saturday, Trump said Fox News is much more important in the United States than CNN. "But outside of the U.S., CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly. The outside world does not see the truth from them!" he said.
CNN's response: "It's not CNN's job to represent the U.S to the world. That's yours. Our job is to report the news."
Trump has branded news outlets as "fake news" since before he took office, using a term originally used to describe falsified news stories manufactured for monetary or political gain as an epithet against any news coverage he disagrees with.
He's voiced those complaints not just while in Washington, but also in foreign capitals — often making common cause with leaders who have their own battles with a free press.
► In his first overseas news conference in July, Trump blasted CNN and NBC by name for what he called "biased" reporting — and then suggested that Polish President Andrej Duda has similar problems. Duda, who has drawn the attention of the European Union for his crackdown on a free press, agreed that "media order" was important. Later, Trump tweeted that he would "fight the fake news" with Duda.
► During his Asia trip this month, Trump did not have a joint press conference with Chinese President Xi Jinping after the Chinese vetoed the idea. But then Trump also failed to hold a solo press conference for the entire trip, though he did talk to reporters off camera aboard Air Force One. And for one day in Vietnam, traveling reporters following him were shut out from presidential events entirely.
► When Trump later met with Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines president shut down reporters trying to ask questions by declaring, "You are the spies." Trump laughed.
Trump's latest attack came the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new law requiring selected foreign news organizations to register as foreign agents — an apparent retaliation for the U.S. Justice Department enforcing its existing Foreign Agent Registration act against Russian propaganda outlet Russia Today, or RT.
RT was identified in a U.S. intelligence community assessment as being part of a sophisticated Russian campaign to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.
“Americans have a right to know who is acting in the United States to influence the U.S. government or public on behalf of foreign principals,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Dana Boente said this month in announcing RT's registration as a foreign agent.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment on the Russian action, which could ensnare U.S.-based media reporting on Moscow. "This new international angle of his attacks against the press, in light of the new Russian media law — and we don’t know how that will be put into place — that could potentially compromise international reporters operating in places like Russia," said Ewen.
One outlet that could be subjected to the new Russian media law is Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, chartered by Congress to provide news and information to eastern Europe, including Russia.
"So far, nothing official has been said about whether we would be named," said RFE/RL President Tom Kent. "We’re trying not to speculate and not build hypothetical on top of that."
But he dismissed the Russian implication that U.S. and Russian state media are somehow equivalent.
"I think RT's content speaks for itself," Kent said. "Our mission is, the law says, we need to provide objective, professional news coverage. That's in the law."
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2iYBlw0 |
This is Utriusque Cosmi by Robert Charles Wilson.
You can read the full story online here, courtesy of Clarkesworld Magazine.
Humanity is offered a choice;
“The world won’t last much longer,” Erasmus said in a low and mournful voice. “You can stay here, or you can come with me. But choose quick, Carlotta, because the mantle’s come unstable and the continents are starting to slip.”
and gets uploaded into a sort of galactic consciousness;
The plain wasn’t “real,” of course, not the way I was accustomed to things being real. It was a virtual place, and all of us were wearing virtual bodies, though we didn’t understand that fact immediately. We kept on being what we expected ourselves to be—we even wore the clothes we’d worn when we were raptured up. I remember looking down at the pair of greasy second-hand Reeboks I’d found at the Commanche Drop Goodwill store, thinking: in Heaven? Really?
The protagonist uses slow-time ("saccading") to survive well beyond the rest of the human race;
Apparently, it wasn’t necessary to “exist” continuously from one moment to the next. You could ask the Fleet to turn you off for a day or a week, then turn you on again. Any moment of active perception was called a saccade, and you could space your saccades as far apart as you liked. Want to live a thousand years? Do it by living one second out of every million that passes. Of course, it wouldn’t feel like a thousand years, subjectively; but a thousand years would flow by before you aged much. That’s basically what the Elders were doing.
And there's an enemy gobbling up the universe; |
A couple of people have asked what I think about this paper on Chinese infrastructure that is making the rounds, which claims that China “is headed for an infrastructure-led national financial and economic crisis.” It’s rather an obnoxious paper to read, in that it aggressively attacks a straw-man position that few people actually hold, and makes grand macro claims about China based on rather equivocal micro data. The general conclusion is certainly not wrong, though it is a fairly widely held view: China is very likely over-investing in infrastructure, and this is going to have negative consequences for its future growth and debt dynamics. But the actual content of the paper does not do as much to support this view as the authors claim. Here I will try to explain what I think is wrong with the paper, and outline the real reasons why China’s infrastructure investment is problematic.
The core of the paper is an examination of the performance of individual infrastructure projects in China, which the authors compare to projects undertaken in other countries. (The paper’s dataset is exclusively composed of infrastructure projects in China funded by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. One might therefore wonder whether the findings say more about the procedures of these multilateral institutions than about China’s unique circumstances. But let’s not quibble.) They find that infrastructure projects in China often cost more and take longer to complete than expected, and that planners often do not accurately forecast demand for the completed projects. Yet these seem to be general problems of large construction and engineering projects around the world:
Actual costs were on average 30.6 per cent higher than estimated costs, with a median of 18.5 per cent indicating that the distribution of costs had a heavy skew to the right (i.e. going over budget). … We found no significant differences in cost overruns between China and rich democracies—i.e. on our sample China’s cost performance is no better or worse than that of rich democracies. … Similarly, in terms of schedule overrun China performed better than rich democracies. The average schedule overrun in rich democracies was +42.7 per cent (median = +23.0 per cent) compared to Chinese projects’ average of +5.9 per cent (median = 0.0 per cent). Only one in every two projects encountered a schedule delay in China compared to seven out of 10 in rich democracies. … In the reports we studied for China, the typical BCR [benefit-cost ratio] for transport projects was 1.4 to 1.5, which is broadly in line with many other physical infrastructure assets such as large dams, road, rail, bridge, or tunnel capital investments. In other words, planners expected the net present benefits to exceed the net present costs by about 40–50 per cent.
The authors’ data on individual infrastructure projects tell us that China is basically no worse and no better than the rest of the world in terms of managing infrastructure projects–just like everywhere else, they often run behind schedule and over budget. This is certainly useful information but does not seem like a shocking finding. But if China is no better and no worse than the rest of the world at planning and executing infrastructure projects, it is hard to see how this would lead it into an infrastructure-driven financial crisis. The problem must therefore surely be that China is spending far too much on infrastructure, so that the ordinary problems of project mismanagement are magnified by the scale of its spending.
At this point in the paper I naturally expected the authors to show that China was in fact spending much, much more than other countries on infrastructure. But they don’t. In fact they present absolutely no statistical information about the level or growth rate of infrastructure spending in China. I know, I couldn’t really believe it either. What they do instead is present the usual numbers about the rapid growth of total investment and debt in China, such as the figures on gross fixed capital formation in the national accounts. It should hardly need pointing out that gross fixed capital formation is not the same thing as infrastructure spending; infrastructure is only one component of gross fixed capital formation, most of which is housing and business capital expenditure. (Putting a hard number on China’s infrastructure spending is indeed tricky, but not impossible. According to estimates by the former OECD economist Richard Herd, government and infrastructure sectors have usually accounted for 20-30% of gross fixed capital formation over the past couple of decades.) Since the authors do not establish that China is spending a lot on infrastructure in the aggregate, the conclusion that China’s macro problems from infrastructure spending are much greater than other countries simply does not follow from the micro evidence they present. It would certainly be useful to compare rates of infrastructure investment across countries, but this paper does not do that.
So does that mean infrastructure spending is not an issue for China? Not at all, the issue is very much a real one. I would express it much more simply however: Chinese infrastructure projects generate low financial returns, but have to repay debts at interest rates that are far too high. Here are two numbers to illustrate the point: the average return on assets of state-owned enterprises in infrastructure sectors is around 2%, but the average interest rate that state-owned enterprises pay on their debt is around 5%. It is pretty clear this is not a financially sustainable situation–and note that this is true regardless of what you may think about the broader economic benefits of infrastructure projects, since what matters is the financial returns realized by the project sponsors. And the magnitude is sizable: 6-7 trillion yuan a year, based on Herd’s figures.
It’s an important peculiarity of the Chinese system that so much of its infrastructure is provided by state-owned enterprises, rather than directly by the government. The reasons for this are not totally clear–maybe it helps expedite stimulus spending, or keeps measured government debt low. But the consequences are pretty clear: by channeling a lot of essentially public-sector borrowing through financing channels normally used by private companies, China has created a large financial problem. Since the returns on infrastructure projects are on average not high enough to repay the debt SOEs take out to fund them, if the government does not want the projects to default then it needs to restructure the debt into lower-cost government obligations. This is exactly what is happening now. And since infrastructure investment is still growing by around 20% annually, and returns on infrastructure investment could plausibly fall even further (capacity utilization at thermal power plants is already at a 20-year low due to excess capacity), China will be dealing with this infrastructure debt problem for a while. |
Michelle Malkin (in the weekly Washington Times 12/26/11, P 35) tells us that the Chicago School system does not allow kids to bring lunches from home. The Chicago Tribune further explains that the only exception is if the kid has a note from a doctor requiring something special for health reasons. If I were a Chicago parent, my children would suddenly develop intense food allergies and I would keep looking for a doctor until I found one who agreed.
So why this crazy rule? Is it because school lunches are so nutritious that no kid should miss them? No. The school lunch program of the federal government is a nest of crony capitalism, with a pizza classified as a vegetable to please the pizza makers, and the meat irradiated on order of Senator Harkin to be sure there is a market for old Iowa beef that might otherwise be contaminated.
No, the reason for the Chicago rules is related but different. If students could bring their own food, there might be fewer of the school’s lunch employees affiliated with the super-powerful Service Employees International Union. The union wants more of these employees, not fewer, and also insists on benefits and wages that in many cases are bankrupting the schools.
How about a compromise? The children can bring decent food from home and the unneeded employees can work share with fewer hours. Might as well go that way since the employees are not going to go away and why make the children pay the price? |
Press Conference: ODU football coach Bobby Wilder
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ODU football coach Bobby Wilder talks with reporters on Monday.
Good afternoon to all our 12th Monarchs out there in Monarch Nation! We are coming off a devastating home loss to Florida Atlantic on Saturday. First of all, congratulations to Coach Partridge and his team. They played well and deserved to win. From our standpoint, it was a case of getting down too much too early, as we were down 24-3 with 50 seconds to play in the first half. As we’ve done all year in the close games, we found a way to come back and take the lead, 31-27, going into the fourth quarter, but we didn’t finish the game, and FAU did. They outscored us, 6-0, in the fourth quarter and earned the victory. We were 5-0 in the close games going into Saturday, but we just couldn’t find a way to finish this one. We trailed in all 12 games this year, but we still found a way to be in six of them.
When I think back to this group, I will always remember and respect how resilient they were. They were very young and were down in every game, but every Sunday they would show up with the right attitude and were ready to get right back to work. I was most worried after the stretch of three games when we played North Carolina State, Appalachian State and Marshall all in a row, but these guys came back after the bye week and beat Charlotte and always kept a good attitude. I am very proud of them for that.
I said in the beginning of the year that I thought it would take us at least until the midway point of the year for us to really start figuring out how to prepare and how to understand game plans, and I really felt like at 3-5 is when we started to put it all together. We played the best football we did all year in the last four games. I look back on it and feel like the best football we played was at the end of the season, and that is really encouraging for a young team. I’m really excited about the youth and how we performed at the end of the year.
We currently have 112 players on the team, and 71 of them played this year in games. Of those 71, 49 guys are first or second-year players. Out of the top-25 players on the depth chart in the last game, 19 of those guys will be back next season including nine of the 11 starters on offense, eight on defense and two of our three specialists. In addition, 24 of the 25 backups from Saturday will all be back next year. So 43 of our top-50 will be back, so we are going to be an experienced group next year. We played six true freshmen this season, which means we were able to redshirt 25 of our recruited players. That’s the most we’ve ever been able to redshirt in a recruiting class. Some of them, like Melvin Vaughn, were not by choice, as that was a devastating injury that happened in camp. Then his backup Adam Swann broke his leg. Blair Roberts also redshirted this year with the back, and hopefully he can work back into it next year. Then Christian Byrum and Isaiah Worthy were two guys that played as true freshmen last year that were redshirted this season. I am really excited about having those players back, and this is clearly the most excited our staff has ever been going into an offseason. Out of 112 on the team, we only graduate 12 players. That is pretty exciting for us.
We are going to practice this week, as the rules state that you are allowed to practice up through your league’s championship game. When I talked to the players yesterday, they are all for it. So we will be going to the stadium Friday and Saturday and will basically hold two spring football games. As I told our guys, it’s the start of the 2016 season, and we are going to get better as a team. The kids are all excited about it; nobody in this team meeting wanted the season to be over.
Q: Do you have any hope that Old Dominion may be one of the five, five-win teams to make a bowl game?
A: There are three teams that are 5-6 that play this weekend, so they could potentially earn an automatic slot. Then there are 12 other teams like us who have five wins, and their seasons are over at this point. Four of those teams are actually in Conference USA with Rice, UTEP, Old Dominion and FIU, all finishing at 5-7. But there are two C-USA bowl affiliations that are still open, so there is a possibility there are 15, 5-7 teams when the regular season is over. Conference USA has let everyone know that they are reviewing this with the national committee on how they are going to move forward with it. We let them know that we are all for it, and I told the team that it is a possibility but certainly not a guarantee. The players want to pursue that opportunity because it would be an honor to represent ODU and Conference USA. And with 100 players returning, those additional 15 practices we could get would be invaluable. That’s the approach we are taking with our players. The 2015 season is over, and if we are afforded the opportunity to play again at a bowl game then that will be the start of the 2016 season. That is how we are approaching it.
Q: Even though it was a tough loss, do you think the team realized that they really had a golden opportunity and learned a lot from the Florida Atlantic loss?
A: Yes, I told them in the locker room right after the game that I was really proud of them for putting Old Dominion in the position to be in week 12 and still have an opportunity for postseason. If someone told me that would have happened at the beginning of the season I would have said “I’ll take it!” There were just so many question marks, and we were so young going into the year, but I can’t even put into words how much we grew as a team in the last month. We were placed in so many situations where we really needed to have a sense of urgency, and that is when we played our best football. Traditionally around here November is when we play best, as we have gone 19-4 in that month all-time. As much as Saturday hurt, we will grow from it and be better as a program.
Q: Do you think Shuler Bentley grew a lot in the last few games?
A: Yes, he got much better in the last six weeks of the season. From the amount of time he got to stand back and watch David play and all the time he spent with Coach Whitcomb on the areas he needed to improve, he improved in a lot of spots. What you generally get with a freshman quarterback is some really good drives, quarters and halves, but then you get some inconsistent play. That is what we saw on Saturday. For four straight drives where we scored touchdowns he played as well as a quarterback can play. Then he was one-for-seven in the fourth quarter, but we also had some drops in that quarter. That was the best defensive line we played and is arguably the best in the conference, as they lead the league in sacks. They sacked us seven times. We were hoping we would be able to run the ball a little bit more to take some pressure off him, but we couldn’t. He definitely improved as a player, though, and hopefully he can carry that through into the spring to compete for the starting job.
Thank you very much to all our 12th Monarchs for an unbelievable season and your incredibly loyal support. We continue to be the only team in the history of college football to sell out every game, and it’s all thanks to you.
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- Yamashita worked on overall software- he also worked with Iwamoto on doing firmware for the GamePad and software for connecting GamePad to Wii U- GamePad isn't for processing games- instead, it sends various signals to the console, which sends things back to GamePad- Ito worked on system design, as well as details on sending/receiving images on the GamePad- Mae worked on wireless communication tech- Ibuki worked on industrial design- Nintendo used 3D printing to get prototypes for the GamePad to get a good feel for them- some models were carved by hand- clay was used for some model design- Iwamoto worked on software for controlling the GamePad- there were language and time difference issues within the team that caused issues during development- Nintendo would phone out to NoA and have conversations that would last until 1 in the morning- making a controller that conveyed images quickly and without lag was a challenge- the team worked hard to tackle latency issues- Nintendo worked with various companies to get past these latency issues- the process involves doing a series of actions, compressing Wii U images, sending them wirelessly as radio waves, receive and decompressing them on the GamePad and then displaying them- images were broken down into smaller images to reduce delay- Generally, compression for a single screen can be done per a 16×16 macroblock14. And on Wii U, it rapidly compress the data, and the moment the data has built up to a packet-size15 that can be sent, it sends it to the Wii U GamePad.- data would come in rapidly in small portions, which made it difficult to put them together and deliver quickly- wireless communication issues also cropped up due to users holding the GamePad and moving it around, because of the Doppler effectDoppler effect: This is a phenomenon observed when wave frequencies differ due to relative speeds between an observer and the source of electromagnetic and sound waves.- even the amount of water in the human body can interfere with radio waves- distances you can use the GamePad from will vary, depending on your setup- it may work through walls, depending on materials used- a metal TV stand may deflect radio waves, making for a less usable range- biggest wireless issue was the sending after compression for CG- the team needed more bitrate than they originally thought to make nice-looking images- first image test was a static image- then the team moved onto moving images, like a moving cube and a grid that flew towards you- the moving grid caused such an issue that before E3 2011, Nintendo had an emergency meeting to figure out how they could tackle the issue- it took Nintendo roughly a year to iron out these issues- Nintendo would hold phone calls twice a day to figure out how to tackle this issue- Nintendo also found image issues when bringing screens from TV to GamePad when trying other tests out- at E3, Itoi and Yamashita were working with dev teams to discuss this issue- the issues were most notable with fade-in and fade-out- the noticed this same issue with Mario when coins would fill the screen- Nintendo worked with Broadcom to tackle these problems- there were big changes during the GamePad's development at least 3 or 4 times- original design was flat without grips- changes were made when the team tried playing Super Mario Bros. (NES) with the GamePad and they found it was difficult- the team started from the beginning to make it better- Iwata and Miyamoto lobbied for the changes- the grips that were added weren't finalized until the very end- they were more flat, square shaped- the dev team took a survey to see which style worked better, but the votes ended up divided- a design that wouldn't tire players, was most comfortable in all size hands is what won out- various designs were carved by hand- these designs were tested and proved to be too hard to hold- the team also worked hard to make the controller light- the chassis protects the screen, which was originally going to be made of aluminum and magnesium- the team eventually decided on a resin chassis to slim the controller down- the controller, at 500 grams, is as light as it can be without causing durability issues- the team worked harder on this controller than any other- it was so rough that old employees told new employees that it's not usually this hard to work on controllers- Nintendo had to work on getting the NFC, the TV control button, and the geomagnetic sensor to work together- the dev team was actually shocked that Iwata announce NFC tech, as devs were just tackling it at that time- there are times when the GamePad will display images faster than the TV- the team feels the camera can be a completely new input method for games- the idea for a camera was originally abandoned- talk then came back to capturing still images, then processing 5FPS video, then the team aimed for 30FPS- camera has to perform compression/decompression twice, but does so with little delay- when you draw, the touch input goes to the console then returns as an image on the GamePad |
The above and below photos show Marsha Gay Reynolds, the JetBlue flight attendant who is being accused of kicking off her Gucci shoes and taking off when Marsha was pulled from a security line at Los Angeles International Airport for a secondary screening. Marsha Gay reportedly had good reason to run, because that suitcase in Reynolds grasp held about 70 pounds of cocaine — worth nearly $3 million.
[Photo by Los Angeles Airport Police] According to NBC, 32-year-old Marsha Gay was in custody on Wednesday after Reynolds surrendered to authorities in New York. Marsha was a beauty queen in Jamaica previously, and photos on Facebook and Twitter are circulating of Marsha Gay.
On the Facebook page titled Marshagay Reynolds, Marsha published a note on November 6, 2008, which is titled i rise.
“… out of the huts of history’s shame
i rise
up from a past that’s rooted in pain
i rise
i’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, welling and swelling
i bear in the tide. leaving behind nights of terror and fear
i rise
into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
i rise
bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
i am the dream and the hope of the slave
i rise
i rise
i rise.”
On Reynolds’ Facebook photos page, there are reportedly no photos to show, save for the Facebook profile photo of “Marshagay,” which shows Reynolds in sunglasses and a bikini top. Marsha’s Facebook overview states that Reynolds “Studied English and American Literature, Creative Writing at NYU, Class of 2007.”
As seen in the following photo, Marsha Gay is all dolled up in her beauty queen attire.
A photo shows “second runner up Marsha-Gay Reynolds” from Saturday, August 16, 2008. According to Bonita Jamaica, Reynolds participated in the Miss Jamaica 2008 contest.
As reported by Jamaica Gleaner, Marsha also nabbed a top five spot in the Miss Jamaica Universe 2007 contest.
The photo gallery of Reynolds, as reported by Heavy, shows Marsha-Gay in her bikini attire.
Now Reynolds is being charged with cocaine possession and intent to distribute. The next photo shows the large amount of cocaine bricks that Reynolds is being accused of trying to smuggle past security.
Marsha Gay was missing since Friday, the day Reynolds got nervous after flashing her JetBlue badge — and instead of being allowed through unscathed, was chosen for a random inspection. Marsha Gay began speaking in a foreign language on the phone before Reynolds fled, reports the Los Angeles Times. Marsha acted nervous once she was blocked from whizzing through security, and trailed behind TSA agents who escorted Reynolds to the screening area — then Marsha ran down an up escalator and escaped.
Reynolds left behind condoms, around $5 in cash and took a JetBlue flight to the eastern seaboard on Saturday, where she eventually surrendered.
Due to the large amount of cocaine Reynolds allegedly tried to smuggle, authorities believe it likely wasn’t Marsha Gay’s first attempt at doing so. Reynolds’ situation has renewed the debate over whether airline personnel like Marsha-Gay should undergo the same rigorous screening process as normal travelers.
Meanwhile, folks on social media are noting reports that Reynolds was on a 2004 women’s track and field team. Marsha Gay is being compared to the movie character in the title role of Jackie Brown, wherein a flight attendant was caught smuggling money for an arms dealer.
Because Reynolds studied writing and literature, folks are also noting that Marsha-Gay will have plenty of time to write about her adventures in allegedly smuggling 11 packs of cocaine.
Facebook reports “Marsha Reynolds” as a popular search term, with nearly 70,000 people talking about Reynolds on Facebook as of this writing.
[Photo by Los Angeles Airport Police] |
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As CES was ending last week, I got a chance to pick up Lenovo’s new ThinkPad 8, an 8-plus-inch tablet that bridges the worlds of handheld and desktop. Designed for business use, the ThinkPad 8 is a little heavier than similarly sized tablets, and it doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of strictly consumer options. But it does exceed the field as it can also plug into a USB 3.0 dock and become a respectable desktop machine—and it’s the first Windows 8 pure tablet that has made me think I might actually want a Windows tablet.
There are a few things that are fairly average about the ThinkPad 8. Its eight-hour battery life, when taken out of context, is pretty much standard in the Windows tablet field right now. It’s also a little heavier than most of its competition, weighing 0.9 pounds in its lightest configuration. Its back camera is a pedestrian 8-megapixel device, while the front-facing camera is a mere 2 megapixels—good for a Skype call, but not so much for self-portraiture.
Most of those somewhat banal numbers start to take on new meaning when you look at the whole package, though. The ThinkPad 8's 8.3-inch 1920×1200 pixel display is larger and higher resolution than other Windows tablets of its approximate size. It’s not quite the resolution of the current iPad Mini, but it's close enough that it’s not noticeable thanks to the responsiveness of the processor’s graphics engine. The screen has an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts screen contrast based on indoor or outdoor lighting, and its touch sensors support up to 10-finger touch gestures.
Inside is an Intel Bay Trail T CPU, which runs the full 32-bit Windows 8.1. It comes with 2GB of RAM and either 64 or 128 GB of storage (with a microSD port for additional storage). It has micro-HDMI and micro-USB 3.0 ports for connecting to external monitors and devices. All its configurations come with Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n) and Bluetooth; there's also a global 3G/4G mobile wireless option.
The ThinkPad 8 feels like Lenovo’s other ThinkPad devices. It’s stiff and sturdy thanks to a machined aluminum chassis, and it has the same sort of satin finish ThinkPad notebook users are familiar with. It’s not shiny, but it won’t easily slip out of the hand. I found I could one-hand the device phablet-style with little effort, even with its magnetic cover folded over its back. (The nearly one pound of mass is not so heavy when you realize that the tablet could probably be used as a blunt weapon in a pinch.)
About that cover. The “Quickshot” cover is an extra, much like the iPad’s. But it includes a neat trick—its corner can fold over to expose the 8 megapixel back camera, and this automatically turns on the Windows 8 camera app thanks to a magnetic sensor. It also puts the device into standby mode when the cover is closed over the screen, or it can “tent” the tablet for landscape mode on a desk. Another extra is the ThinkPad USB 3.0 desktop dock, a $179 hub with two DVI-driven monitors, audio and Ethernet ports, and four additional USB 3.0 ports. It will work with any computing device with a USB 3.0 port out.
Without the extras, the ThinkPad 8 will start at $399 (with Wi-Fi only and 64GB storage). It ships this month and should be landing in customer hands soon. We’re hoping to give it a more thorough shakedown in the near future. |
John W. Adkisson / Getty Images Ron Paul in 2012 in Greenville, S. C.
Former Texas congressman Ron Paul has never been at a loss for ways to pass the time. Between his books – he’s got a new one out in September – speaking engagements, the presidential runs, and now his online venture the Ron Paul Channel, his professional pace has tended to belie his 78 years.
The newest of those enterprises is his just-launched subscription-based video “channel,” a platform presenting Paul’s unfettered commentary on the news of the day for which subscribers pay $9.95 a month. That gets them access to a handful of episodes a week featuring the indefatigable libertarian standard-bearer editorializing at length on his favorite subjects and interviewing friendly guests, with Paul broadcasting from Texas and most of the technicians working from California.
Paul, who says he doesn’t technically own the outlet, nevertheless sees its launch as typifying today’s media topography, in which mobile devices level the playing field for would-be publishers and let anyone with a microphone use new media to bypass old gatekeepers.
To help him take the plunge into new media, Paul is relying on an ownership group whose leadership has ties to prominent tech and venture capital firms.
(MORE: Seven Highlights from Ron Paul’s reddit AMA)
“When I left Congress, a lot of people came to me and suggested new ways to do the things I’ve done for a long time,” Paul told TIME. “They had different suggestions for different vehicles, but most of them were really using the Internet, since the Internet was always the friend of our campaigns and for our supporters to get organized. So I went with the group that offered to set up the ability for me to work from Texas and not have to go to New York or travel to communicate. They set this up where I could have an Internet-based program, which was attractive to me.
“We’re doing this because we believe the news is canned. That you don’t get independent analysis. The channel does have similarities to TV-type programming, but it really can’t be a news channel where you’re up on every second of the news around the world, because that costs many millions of dollars, so it’s limited to guests and commentary on policy.”
Indicative of his focus purely on his channel’s content – lots of foreboding about U.S. action in Syria, for example, and Paul’s usual castigation of the surveillance state – Paul did not have a number or estimate of subscribers, and did not immediately recall the name of the ownership group behind the Ron Paul Channel when asked. That group would be a California entity called Social Programming Network, which reported earlier this year it had raised a little more than $4 million in a private offering, according to a regulatory filing.
(MORE: Hallowed Be Thy Name: Ron Paul Tries to Retrieve RonPaul.com)
Social Programming Network’s board of directors includes Jason Goldberg, a film and television producer who’s worked with Ashton Kutcher on productions like the TV show “Punk’d;” venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar, who has invested in companies including Klout, Gowalla, TaskRabbit and Tumblr, among others; and Dan Rosensweig, president and CEO of Chegg and a former Yahoo COO.
A spokesman for the group provided a statement to TIME about its work with Paul, noting that “the Social Programming Network provides a platform for what will become a number of channels to connect communities to content that is otherwise unavailable through traditional media. SPN is not ideological. We are working with Dr. Paul, the Alzheimer’s Association, and a number of other notable leaders and organizations to roll out specific programming on subscriber-based networks.”
Paul’s first interview on the service was with Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who helped break the news on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. And he’s also used his platform to interview his son, Kentucky Republican senator Rand Paul.
Paul said Social Programming Network approached him with the idea for the channel.
“People did have to put up some money, and they had to look at the business sense, but they saw a market decision to be made,” he said. “I think the market is saying there are many people, and many young people, attracted to my ideas who use handheld devices, and these individuals are anxious to get real news. They don’t go to TV sets that much anymore. This is the wave of the future.”
MORE: Ron Paul’s Transition from Politician to Pundit |
Sam Ronan of Ohio is a different kind of DNC chair candidate. A US Air Force veteran, Ronan has never held public office and is about the farthest you can get from being a Democratic Party insider. Nevertheless, Ronan’s bid for the DNC chair position, which some might describe as rather quixotic in its goal to wrest the Democratic Party away from corporate influence, is bringing him a lot of attention from progressives and other left-leaning independents, many of whom are skeptical about whether the Democratic Party is even worth trying to save.
In a recent interview with Real Progressives, Sam Ronan explains in great detail why he’s running for the DNC chair position and lays out what he would do if he wins. A Bernie Sanders supporter in the 2016 Democratic Primaries, Ronan argues that the Democratic Party will be “toast” unless its officials and elected politicians start answering to people instead of working for the interests of corporations.
“I supported Bernie and the Democrats completely brushed him aside,” Ronan said. “The Democrats jacked Bernie over and stole it from him. They didn’t even give his supporters a chance to speak at the convention, which would have gone a long way to earning our respect.”
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Many progressives and other left-leaning independents share this view. In some ways, Ronan, just 27-years-old, represents one possible future for the Democratic Party. Another possible future, which Ronan is actively fighting against, is for the party to continue in its current direction. This could spell serious trouble for the party in upcoming elections, such as the 2018 mid-terms, as many on the left are contemplating leaving the party, and many others have already “Demexited,” leaving the Democratic Party to join with the Greens or become independents.
Sam Ronan understands the motivation behind people leaving the Democratic Party. In the Real Progressives interview, he explains that much about the current Democratic Party is not worth salvaging. He explains, however, that the internal structure in place can be a tool to completely take over and transform the party, and that starting from scratch with third parties and completely abandoning the Democratic Party will leave a power vacuum that will only be filled by the Republicans.
“The structure, the skeleton of the Democratic Party is salvageable,” Ronan explains. “And if we lose that, the Republican party has unopposed, unparalleled power.”
Ronan even goes on to say that people like former DNC chairwoman Debbi Wasserman-Schultz should be ostracized from the party. Ronan contends that the party needs to become a party by and for the people, and that “money in politics has got to go.”
“We need bottom-up growth to push the poison out of the party,” Ronan said.
According to the Washington Times, Bernie Sanders has endorsed Keith Ellison for the DNC chair. Rhetorically, Sanders cites many of the same arguments for choosing Ellison as Ronan argues in his own favor. Many progressives and left-leaning independents, however, are skeptical that Ellison represents anything more than a minor adjustment to the party, rather than the fundamental change that someone like Sam Ronan is saying he wants to bring to fruition. Ellison, a congressman from Minnesota, drew criticism recently after refusing to admit the primaries were rigged against Sanders, a contention that many on the left assume to be an immutable truth.
Sam Ronan is not uncomfortable speaking brazenly about topics such as rigged primaries, corporate influence in the party, and the Democratic Party’s departure from its Rooseveltian, New Deal roots. Ronan says on day one as DNC Chair he would begin working to make things like single-payer healthcare, economic reform, and party primary reform integral to his job managing the party.
Sam Ronan’s DNC chair bid can be described as an uphill battle, to say the absolute least. But if the Democratic Party wants to stop hemorrhaging support and seeks to win elections in the coming years, it may want to seriously consider listening to what Ronan and his supporters have to say.
[Featured Image by Samuel Ronan/Facebook] |
In the aftermath of the deadly mass shooting this weekend inside the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec, we learned that the suspect, 27-year-old Alexandre Bissonnette, was a supporter of several right-wing personalities as well as atheists who have strongly denounced radical Islam, including Richard Dawkins. It has led to several news article attempting to make sense of that connection.
Archives of Bissonnette’s now-removed Facebook page show he “liked” [French nationalist leader Marine] Le Pen, [Donald] Trump, the Israel Defense Forces and Richard Dawkins, among many interests.
The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald said something similar:
… Bisonnette’s Facebook page – now taken down but still archived — lists among its “likes” the far right French nationalist Marine Le Pen, Islam critics Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the Israeli Defense Forces, and Donald J. Trump (he also “likes” the liberal Canadian Party NDP along with more neutral “likes” such as Tom Hanks, the Sopranos and Katy Perry).
Those are all accurate statements, but they’re selectively chosen. This is what you’d expect from people who cherry pick a killer’s Facebook page for signs of a motivation.
But there’s a difference between the anti-Muslim bigotry of Le Pen and Trump and the fair criticism of Islam by the likes of the New Atheists.
You know who else Bissonnette liked on Facebook (besides random staples of youth culture)? Peter Hitchens (the social conservative commentator and brother of Christopher), Pope John Paul II, and apologist William Lane Craig. All of them are Christian.
Yet virtually no article about him seems to include those names. People would rather pick out the atheists as if they contributed to inspiring this act of terror, while all the evidence points to Bissonnette taking the words of the political bigots like Le Pen to heart instead.
Dawkins has always made clear that he opposes bad ideas, not the people who hold those ideas, and he has retweeted articles condemning Trump’s Muslim ban.
It is not Dawkins’ fault — or William Lane Craig’s, for that matter — that a monster like Bissonnette liked their pages. That alone is no reason to include them when trying to connect the dots in his story. |
Didi Kirsten Tatlow is living in China, where her daughter is in second grade. When the music teacher told them, “We’ve chosen your children according to their physical attributes,” she considered it eugenics for music:
Teacher Wang proceeded to describe a program by which a group of 8-year-olds, selected purely on the basis of physical characteristics rather than interest, would build the best band in the world that would travel overseas and wow audiences with the flower of Chinese youth.
“For the best band, we’ve chosen the best students and the best teachers,” Teacher Wang continued.
Mr. Wang, whom parents addressed only as “Teacher,” (a sign of respect common here) stood before a giant white screen on which he projected a power point full of instrument images. “I’ve chosen your kids, one by one, out of a thousand kids.” Mr. Wang was referring to band C, the third in the school which trained the youngest students, some of whom would eventually rise through the ranks to band B and on to A, at which point they would perform at overseas gigs.
“I’ve looked at their teeth, at their arms, their height, everything, very carefully,” Teacher Wang said. “We don’t want anyone with asthma, or heart problems, or eye problems. And we want the smart kids; the quick learners.”
“Your kids were chosen not because they want to play this or that instrument, but because they have long arms, or the right lips, or are the right height, say for the trumpet, or the drums,” he said.
[...]
Two other non-Chinese, 8-year-old friends of my daughter were among the chosen. The Italian mother of one said her daughter had been chosen for saxophone because the girl was strongly built.
“The other girl playing the sax is a Russian, and she’s also pretty built up and strong,” said my friend. (I have omitted their names out of respect for their privacy and that of their children.)
My friend recalled that some of the parents had asked Teacher Wang why he was choosing children in grade 2 now, rather than earlier when they were in grade 1. Teacher Wang’s reply: “Because in grade 1 their teeth are falling out,” she said. My friend said that Teacher Wang had personally inspected each child’s teeth, as if, she said, “they were horses in the market.”
There was discussion of what kind of lips worked best for the trumpet.
And in a statement that shocked both of us profoundly, Teacher Wang said something about how Africans had long arms and so would be good at particular instruments, such as the cello.
The American father of the third girl said a dentist had visited the school to see which students’ teeth were best suited to play wind instruments. His daughter, braces-free, passed and is learning to play the clarinet.
My daughter, who has some wonky teeth and braces, is a drummer. Apart from the teeth, I can see why; she has the mad energy of Animal in The Muppets and loves what the Chinese call “renao,” or “hot noise,” excitement. |
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A living room in green theme with touches of white and earthy tones on the accessories is apparently welcoming, what if the feeling is elevated by a piece in contrasting color?
The red silicone pendant lamp does just that by complementing the space with its color, design and appeal. Easy to install, the lamp stands out for its semi-transparent design creating an aura of glass owing to its resemblance. When turned on, the light is neither opulent nor understating, it is simply pretty like an inverted wine glass casting around some shimmer.
To bring out a different effect from this light a white Edison halogen bulb would be the best choice although the regular ones or the LED bulbs work quite well. While choosing the right spot for this bulb, we might end up with the center for conventional reasons. However corners and sides are good if you want to experiment or be different.
The red colored modern silicone pendant lamp in glass style is a contemporary piece in tune with the prevailing trends, but also good to blend into vintage themes as well. Hang it up in your living room, drawing room, bedroom or vintage themed study and turn on the magic! |
Less than a decade after his invention in 1934, Superman was called on to do battle with what was at the time an unthinkable scourge: A small army of “mechanical monsters,” or, as we would call them now, robots.
In the Fleischer Studios cartoon, these robots were controlled by a nefarious evildoer who sits behind a large bank of dials and knobs, dispatched remotely to seize money and jewels. They overpower Tommy-gun-armed police — but are no match for Superman.
At the time, the idea of an automaton being used to commit crime was a novelty. The entire cartoon, in fact, is a battle between Superman and modern technology: A mechanical monster (imagine!) that can fly (!!) knocks down Superman and entangles him in electrical wires (!!!). The robot was a gauzy, conceptual threat, filling a role that would soon come to be played in comic books by the murky dangers of nuclear energy.
On Saturday, the New York Daily News reported on another gauzy, conceptual threat: an army of robotic social media users being deployed to seize the political conversation from innocent Americans.
The nefarious evildoer pulling the levers of that battalion of bots, according to the Daily News, is Robert Mercer, a tech billionaire who helped revamp Donald Trump’s presidential campaign last summer and who’s often given broad credit for Trump’s victory. Mercer’s hand in the conservative political sphere was subtle until 2016, bankrolling Breitbart News and a “media watchdog” organization. He’s also a major investor in Cambridge Analytica, a firm that prides itself on its ability to leverage data to influence action.
For several weeks, there has been a renewed interest in the question of social media bots, after rampant reports about a sudden influx of followers to the @realdonaldtrump account on Twitter. It was, therefore, probably only a matter of time before Mercer — pro-Trump, private and data-savvy — was given the credit. The Drudge Report gave the story prominent play.
Drudge’s top story tonight: millions of Trump’s Twitter followers are bots under the command of Robert Mercer https://t.co/iF7uKNwsw2 pic.twitter.com/aQWeyaSp2w — Jon Passantino (@passantino) June 11, 2017
These stories, though, including the Daily News’s, tend to be embraced for the same reason that Superman’s monsters were so chilling: The threat is novel and not well understood. There’s another level here, too. Assuming that vocal Trump supporters on social media are not real people reinforces an important political effect as well.
With that in mind, here’s what we know.
Bots exist.
It’s important first of all to define what we mean by “bot.”
A bot is, by definition, not a person. Think of it like the difference between a bank teller and an ATM. Each can do some similar things, but the ATM can do specific things a lot faster and a lot more universally.
On Twitter, a bot is a bit of code that leverages the platform’s programming interface to tweet, retweet or follow another account. For example, the bot @trumphop retweets old Trump tweets at the same time of day and the same day of the year as when Trump tweeted the original.
In the context of influencing politics, the goals are different. As the New York Times’s Farhad Manjoo reported last month, one way that Twitter bots are used to amplify news stories is by creating an artificial flood of interest in a particular story, with the hope that the story gets onto Twitter’s trending topics list. From there, it can get much more national or international attention.
In a way, this is similar to efforts to game attention in other contexts. Efforts to boost a website in Google’s search results, for example, can similarly make something that’s not all that popular or important seem much more so. In the short-attention-span ecosystem of Twitter and the news media, that artificial importance might have a more immediate effect.
Another way that Twitter bots can influence the political conversation is by quickly replying to posts from prominent users. During the campaign, the first response to a tweet from Trump was often from a bot called “PatrioticPepe,” which usually included some anti-Hillary Clinton graphic.
Where bots are apparently less successful is in influencing conversation. While there are bots that manage to lure Twitter users into endless useless conversations, for the most part bots aren’t going to convince someone of a political point with an extended rhetorical argument any more than an ATM is going to get you to sign up for a new savings account.
There are efforts to game news stories, and were during the campaign — but not all of this was automated.
There are a lot of examples of efforts to draw attention to news stories over the course of the campaign, but those efforts are often driven by people, not automated accounts.
In December 2015, Adrian Chen, a reporter for the New Yorker who wrote about Russian influence efforts in 2015, noted that he’d seen a lot of the Russian accounts that he was tracking switch to pro-Trump efforts. But many of those were accounts that were better described as “trolls” — accounts managed by real people that were meant to mimic American social media users. To continue our bank analogy, it’s as if someone set up a fake store front and pretended to be a teller.
Former FBI agent Clint Watts testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in April about the extent to which the Russians were using precisely that strategy to try to boost conflicting or confusing messages on Twitter. Leveraging a mix of bots and trolls, he said, Russian interests tried to promote false or slanted stories from sources, reputable and not, in an effort to muddy the waters of truth. This happened earlier this year when Russian actors apparently planted a fake news story about Qatar that spurred a diplomatic crisis in the Middle East.
We spoke to Kate Starbird, a University of Washington researcher, who noted that Trump and those hoping to muddy the water were able to take advantage of an existing network of conspiracy theorists to great effect over the course of the campaign. Some of the outlets leveraged bots to tweet out their stories, but for the most part, there was a community of people interested in sharing and promoting information that cast Trump in a favorable light and his opponents in a negative one — even if and when the information was obviously nonsense.
The Times looked at a recent example of a popular user in the conspiracyverse who managed to promote an inaccurate story all the way to a Fox News Channel broadcast. There’s no evidence that any bot was required.
It’s not clear how pervasive those efforts are.
All of that said, the extent to which bots and trolls influence the conversation on Twitter isn’t clear.
A study from the University of Southern California cited by Manjoo estimated that a fifth of the accounts that tweeted the most about the campaign last year were automated accounts. How can you tell if an account is automated? A few ways. How does it tweet? Does it only retweet? Tweet an abnormal amount? Did the user set up a profile picture? Are its tweets geolocated?
That statistic, though, is also interesting in its mirror reflection: The vast majority of those who tweeted the most about the 2016 campaign during the election were just humans who tweeted a lot about the campaign.
Another study found that pro-Trump bots were much more prominent online than pro-Clinton ones as the campaign wrapped up. What was the net effect? It’s extremely hard to say.
This is where the Mercer connection becomes irresistible.
Cambridge Analytica, that data firm, has been cast as the magical black box that scientifically squeezed out just enough votes for Trump to make the difference in the election. That depiction is perfectly fine with the company, of course, because that’s its sales pitch. The Guardian has run several stories positioning the company as “a shadowy global operation involving big data” that also made the difference in the U.K. Brexit vote. So there’s your answer, one might suggest: The bots may not have been numerous, but they were smart.
But on its main selling point — the ability to persuade people to take a particular action by triggering psychological cues — reviews are mixed. The company itself couldn’t tell the Times when it had been the difference-maker in a political campaign. We can point to 2016 to that end: The firm started out in the camp of Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), who did not end up as the Republican nominee.
The evidence that Trump’s support is heavily artificial is awfully thin.
So does Mercer control a massive and growing army of bots doing Trump’s bidding? It’s hard to say, but the most commonly cited evidence to that effect — Trump’s Twitter following — doesn’t show anything of the kind.
When some social media users started focusing on Trump’s Twitter following a few weeks ago, claiming, inaccurately, that he’d suddenly seen a surge in new followers, news outlets used a site called Twitter Audit to evaluate his following. Half of Trump’s followers, that tool suggested, were fake.
But that evaluation is both less rigorous than the one used by the researchers in the USC study — and a lot more variable. As of writing, Trump’s Twitter following is estimated to be only 30 percent fake. That’s a lower percentage than, say, @barackobama — or The Washington Post.
It’s also not clear why bots supporting Trump would need to follow him on Twitter anyway. Some have suggested that Trump’s interest in bragging about his social media audience might prompt him or his team to buy fake followers. Possible. But that’s a very different thing than a “bot army.”
The idea that Trump is being followed by millions of bots makes another error: It doesn’t take millions of bots to have the desired effect. A small number of Twitter accounts responding in short order can seem like a flood to an individual user. A number of examples of people being “targeted by bots” with hostile comments, for example, come down to a person receiving a few dozen negative responses. It seems like a lot in the context of normal human interactions; in the streamlined world of online whining, though, it’s trivial.
There’s a reason bots are being blown out of proportion right now.
The Post’s Abby Ohlheiser noted that the conspiracy theories surrounding Trump’s account fit into a broader pattern of Trump opponents seizing on easily debunked information in the early months of his presidency.
In part, that’s a function of the unprecedented distrust and dislike of the president. But it’s probably also a function of the polarization of American politics.
In August, the Pew Research Center found that nearly half of supporters of Hillary Clinton knew precisely zero people who were backing Trump. (A bit less than a third of Trump supporters knew no Clinton voters.) If you don’t know anyone who supports Trump and you see a number of people online who are vociferously supporting him, that would naturally lead to some skepticism.
When you then read news reports about Russian influence on the 2016 election and couple that with this vague idea that robots are swooping in to help bolster Trump’s candidacy and presidency? Well, that’s a perfect Petri dish for a conspiracy theory to blossom.
That’s the undercurrent to all of this. A poor understanding of the role of automated systems is coupled with a ready-made villain to present a chilling threat that demands a heroic response.
It would be fun thing for a superhero cartoon, really. |
Exactly one year ago, on 15 August 2014, I was forced to take the painful decision to abandon my attempt to complete a transit of the Northwest Passage, and turn around. The central section of the Northwest Passage is accessible by one of two gateways: Peel Sound and Bellot Strait.
This time last year both were still blocked by ice and although one or the other may have opened later in the season, the prospect of being forced to spend the winter in the Arctic convinced me to give up… and hope that I would be luckier next time.
As anyone attempting to navigate this challenging waterway will admit, there are three crucial elements that define the Northwest Passage: perseverance, patience and luck. They all bore fruit yesterday when Aventura passed successfully through Bellot Strait and thus reached the Eastern Arctic, and no more serious obstacles on her way to Greenland and the Atlantic.
Bellot Strait can only be negotiated on a favourable tide, so we timed our arrival at its western end to coincide with low water at the start of the ebb.
The 17 miles long strait is renowned for its fierce tidal currents that can attain 9 knots, as we found out when we reached its narrowest part. Helped by a favorable wind and 3 knot current, we were soon sailing at 9 knots.
There was still much ice in the strait, but we had no difficulty in weaving our way through it.
Halfway through the strait we passed Zenith Point. At 72 degrees north this marks the northern extremity of continental America.
Having sailed my former Aventura past Cape Horn, at the continent’s southern extremity, I had now reached its northernmost point.
As we approached the eastern entrance of the strait, the current peaked at close to 8 knots, and we completed the transit of the entire strait in only 90 minutes.
We soon dropped anchor in a bay on the east side of Prince Regent Inlet, the entrance as well as some of the sheltered bay being dotted with stranded bergs.
Too huts of the Hudson Bay Company are still standing ashore, from the days when this was a thriving trading station.
We toasted our success with a bottle of champagne that had been kept for this special occasion since Aventura had left Cherbourg in May last year.
Our plan is to continue north through Prince Regent Inlet into Lancaster Sound, where Aventura will cross her last year’s outward track.
The post A Happy Anniversary appeared first on Cornell Sailing Events & Publications.
This article was syndicated from Cornell Sailing Events & Publications » Aventura’s Logs |
NewsAbortion
“Hey, politicians: The 1950’s called, they want their sexism back.” In retro-style script, so reads the hot pink t-shirt designed by 29-year-old Avengers star Scarlett Johansson to raise money for Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the abortion giant’s political arm.
Johansson’s is the first in a planned series of celebrity-designed t-shirts supporting Planned Parenthood’s “Women Are Watching” campaign, which will target Republican supporters of the Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby decision for defeat in the upcoming midterm elections.
“When I heard that some politicians were cheering the Supreme Court’s decision to give bosses the right to interfere in our access to birth control, I thought I had woken up in another decade,” said Johansson in a statement. She was referring to the Hobby Lobby case, in which justices unanimously ruled that employers cannot be forced to provide insurance coverage for procedures and drugs that violate their sincerely held religious beliefs, as ObamaCare’s HHS mandate had ordered them to do.
“Like many of my friends, I was appalled by the thought of men taking away women's ability to make our own personal health care decisions,” the actress said. “That's when I knew I couldn't sit on the sidelines and why I'm proud to support Planned Parenthood Action Fund's Women are Watching campaign to ensure that young women know the high stakes for women's health and rights this November.”
“Women are watching,” Johansson added, “and we will fight for candidates who will ensure that birth control is affordable and who will protect access to safe and legal abortion.”
Click "like" if you are PRO-LIFE!
Johansson, 29, is no newcomer to pro-abortion advocacy. Previously, the actress appeared in a 2012 MoveOn.org campaign ad blasting Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney for pledging to defund Planned Parenthood. She also spoke at the Democratic National Convention praising the abortion group. In 2006, she attacked then-president George W. Bush for his opposition on abortion, telling Cosmopolitan, “You know, we're supposed to be liberated in this country, but if our president had his way, we wouldn't be educated about sex at all. Every woman would have six children, and women wouldn't be able to have abortions.”
Johansson’s shirt, which sells for $25 at PPAF’s website, will soon be joined by designs from actresses Gabrielle Union, Natasha Lyonne, and Selenis Leyva. Union is currently starring in BET’s Being Mary Jane. Lyonne and Leyva co-star in the Netflix streaming series Orange is the New Black. |
Follow up posted: We posted a follow up story with details from Lima Sky on their side of the story. Read the reply before jumping to any further conclusions.
Earlier today, developers of apps with the word Doodle in their titles started receiving notices from Lima Sky through Apple that they are in violation of Lima Sky intellectual property rights. Lima Sky is most famous for releasing one of the most popular games on the iOS platform, Doodle Jump.
I am as sick of the Doodle meme in iOS games as anyone - it's unoriginal and quite simply boring. But trying to claim that you own the Doodle term or art style seems a bit absurd. Doodle Jump itself isn't even unique - it just got many things right. It's an old art style applied to a game type that's been around forever.
Doodle Jump wasn't even the first app in the App Store with Doodle in the title. There were multiple apps in the iTunes App Store with the word Doodle in their title before Doodle Jump. Some of those include Doodle Kids, uDoodle, Pocket Doodle, and Doodle Chat. Outside of the App Store there are countless examples of games with Doodle in the name that pre-date Doodle Jump.
As of today, their have been 730 applications approved for the App Store with the word Doodle in their title. Unoriginal yes; trademark violation? I don't see how.
It's a rather odd move for a developer that has been so friendly with other developers in the community. This just seems like a frivolous pursuit of small developers on the App Store. And for what? Does Lima Sky want to be the next Tim Langdell? Langdell's claim of a trademark for the word Edge ended in failure when Electronic Arts stood up to him. And in the end he looked like the most evil person in the gaming industry.
We have requested comment from Lima Sky and their lawyers, but have yet to hear back. We're interested to find what their exact trademark claims are and what they are requesting of the developers of other Doodle titles. We'll update this post if we hear back from them.
Update: Developers have started talking about this over at the Touch Arcade forums here. Specifically, Bryan Duke of Acceleroto, developer of Doodle Hockey has a great description of the issue and his experiences.
Update 2: We got a standard form letter back from the lawyers representing Lima Sky confirming that Lima Sky is seeking to have apps with Doodle in the title change their names as they are claiming a trademark on the word Doodle. We'll try to contact the lawyer in charge directly to get a comment later today, after the Verizon press conference.
Update 3: I'm no lawyer. But I've been informed that we're actually talking about trademark here, not copyright. Article corrected.
[photo credit: Flickr user walkn] |
UPDATED
Ceramics professor didn’t retaliate, just made ‘vigorous attempts to persuade’
A public college in Texas is changing its policies on free expression to settle a lawsuit by a student whose pro-gun message it squelched more than a year ago.
Blinn College will also pay $50,000 in damages and legal fees to Nicole Sanders, who was recruiting for her nascent Young Americans for Liberty chapter with signs that read “Defend Gun Rights on Campus” and “LOL” featuring the Barack Obama campaign logo.
Sanders and another activist were sign-waving and collecting names when campus officials told them they needed “special permission” to recruit for the club and questioned whether they could even promote a pro-gun message on campus.
It’s the “ninth consecutive victory” for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s Stand Up for Speech Litigation Project, which sues colleges that infringe on the First Amendment rights of students and faculty, FIRE said in a release Wednesday. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Austin.
RELATED: Gun-rights advocacy is too dangerous for Texas college to allow, lawsuit claims
Ceramics professor Doug Peck, whom Sanders accused of trying to intimidate her against filing a lawsuit against Blinn and starting the Young Americans for Liberty chapter, was dropped from the litigation after he filed a motion to dismiss.
Aside from interim President Ana Guzman, who has since been replaced by President Mary Hensley, Peck is the only defendant from the original suit not named in the settlement.
Training and ‘reasonable diligence’
In return for not admitting liability, the board of trustees at Blinn College agreed to change two policies under which it faulted Sanders: a “student expression” policy that requires students to get permission from officials before distributing material on campus, and a “facilities” policy that requires student organizations to ask for permission a month ahead and “gain approval from four administrators for any on- or off-campus expressive activity,” FIRE said.
That facilities policy limited no-permission expressive activities to a single free speech zone the size of a parking space, as FIRE has described it. Those new policies will be announced within 10 days on Blinn’s campus news page, the settlement agreement reads.
#ThursdayThoughts–> You should hear why Jennifer Nolen chose #Blinn (and then register for May Minimester classes)! pic.twitter.com/66tEiH3coA — Blinn College (@BlinnCollege) April 28, 2016
The agreement also pledges Blinn to revise its “Administrative Procedure for Expressive Activities on Campus.” It says all changes will be implemented within 30 days and will post the new policies on its student services web page.
RELATED: College settles suit rather than try to justify ‘speech tax’ on student group
The settlement mentions exhibits that suggest the college has already devised policy language that satisfies Sanders and her lawyers, but those exhibits are not included in the materials made public by FIRE.
To ensure that incoming students aren’t hassled again by administrators and know their rights on campus, Blinn pledged to train student services personnel and campus police on the new policies within four months. It will use “reasonable diligence” to update student handbooks and catalogs that refer to the “superseded policies” before fall semester.
Need evidence that professor ‘actually curtailed’ her activities
Professor Peck’s motion to dismiss from August, provided to The College Fix by FIRE, argued that Peck’s own First Amendment rights would be curtailed if he remained in the lawsuit.
A public employee whose “retaliatory statement consists merely of vigorous attempts to persuade” cannot be said to have illegally retaliated, the filing said. Sanders named him in the suit only four weeks after their encounter, yet she lacks “some proof that [Peck] actually curtailed” her activities.
Sanders also didn’t allege that Peck “threatened to invoke governmental power to silence Sanders,” nor that Peck “declined to excuse her absences [for a Young Americans for Liberty trip to Washington], that he graded her unfairly, or that he ever threatened to do so,” the filing states.
A spokeswoman for FIRE told The Fix the group left Peck out of its amended complaint after his filing.
No more police and ‘bureaucratic red tape’ just to speak
FIRE said that because the board of trustees approved the settlement, it will apply across all campuses in the Blinn College District, not just the Brenham campus where Sanders was stifled.
The settlement not only brings Blinn in line with the First Amendment but “make[s] it less likely that students will have their rights trampled in the future,” Sanders said in the release.
It also means that the 17,000 students across Blinn’s campuses will no longer “be confronted by armed police officers and forced through bureaucratic red tape when trying to express themselves on the issues they are passionate about, said Catherine Sevcenko, director of litigation for FIRE.
FIRE said its free-speech litigation project has “restored” rights to nearly 250,000 students across the country and secured more than $400,000 in damages and legal fees.
UPDATE: Information on professor Doug Peck’s motion to dismiss has been added to the story.
RELATED: Boise State Suspends Anti-Speech Policies After Gun-Rights Event Fiasco
RELATED: Public university demanded conservative students pay $621 in security fees for Ben Shapiro talk
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IMAGE: Young Americans for Liberty Blinn College |
The government of Huili county in Southwest China's Sichuan province apologized for posting a doctored picture of its officials on Monday, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Chinese netizens strike back at badly doctored image
Click on thumbnail to view (Photos: Internet)
The government website posted a picture of three local officials inspecting a highway project on June 16. The image of the three was patched against a background of a highway, making them appear as if they were floating on air.
The picture was soon widely distributed and criticised on the internet. As a result, the Huili government registered for a micro blog on Monday and apologised for the doctored picture: "A government employee posted the edited picture out of error. ... The county government understands the wide attention, and hopes to apologise and clarify the matter."
The photographer said in an apology that he combined some pictures taken on the day of the inspection because the original shots were not good. |
Two members of the US Army National Guard have been convicted of running a credit card fraud scheme involving bitcoin.
According to the US Attorney’s Office in the District of Maryland, the two individuals, James Stewart and Vincent Grant, were indicted for using bitcoins to purchase stolen credit and debit card numbers of individuals and businesses from foreign websites. The two were first prosecuted last year, as previously reported by CoinDesk.
The defendants were accused of using magnetic strip re-encoding tools to apply stolen numbers to dummy cards, after which they would buy merchandise from Army and Air Force Exchange Service stores at US military bases, as well as other locations in Maryland and elsewhere.
The federal jury found Stewart guilty on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Grant was also convicted for conspiracy to commit access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.
A total of five Army National Guard members were arrested and charged.
Of the other three in the case, Derrick Shelton and Quentin Stewart previously pleaded guilty for committing wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, while Jamal Moody pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Shelton and James and Quentin Stewart face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while Grant and Moody are subject to a maximum seven-and-half year sentence. A mandatory minimum of two years in prison for aggravated identity theft, on top of any other sentence, also apply to all five involved.
US Army image via Shutterstock |
The volcano eruption has damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes [AFP]
The volcano eruption has damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes [AFP]
He has urged residents to not leave their homes unless their was an urgent need to.
A spokesman for Guatemala's disaster agency said television reporter Anibal Archila was killed after being hit by a shower of rocks spewed from the volcano.
Two to three inches of ash accumulated on streets in parts of Guatemala City [AFP]
The spokesman also said three children, aged between seven and 12 years old, have gone missing.
Brenda Castaneda, a resident of the southern village of Calderas, said: "We thought we wouldn't survive. Our houses crumbled and we've lost everything."
Two to three inches of ash accumulated on streets in some parts of the city, and authorities imposed limits on trucks and motorcycles to help speed up traffic.
Eddy Sanchez, the head of Guatemala's seismological institute, warned another eruption could take place "in the coming days" at Pacaya, the most active volcano in Central America.
Sanchez said the volcano has accumulated a lot of energy over several years.
"Like a pressure cooker, it will release the pressure violently," he told reporters. |
ISIS militants in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, where the group has looted historic artifacts to fund its terror operations. Screenshot ISIS is one of the best-funded militant groups on the planet, but it could run into problems long-term if it doesn't keep seizing more territory.
Much of ISIS' money comes from extortion and pillaging — essentially ripping off the people and institutions in conquered territory — and while the group's tactics might bring it windfalls of cash every time it moves into a new city, funding operations requires a constant flow of cash.
"Confiscation makes up a huge part of [ISIS'] revenue picture," J.M. Berger, a Brookings Institution fellow who cowrote the recent book "ISIS: The State of Terror," told Business Insider in an email.
"Confiscation is different from taxation because it's not sustainable. There's only so much you can confiscate before you need to conquer new territories with new wealth."
ISIS has mined places like Palmyra, an ancient city in Syria that the group conquered in May, for artifacts it can sell on the black market. The militants also bring in money from robbing banks. This nets the group hundreds of millions of dollars, but it's all one-time cash.
"Pillage is a central contributor for ISIS's wealth, and its dependence on strip-mining its holdings for revenue and equipment could be its biggest structural weakness, as this approach will yield diminishing returns if ISIS is held to roughly its current geographic limits," Berger said.
While ISIS (also known as the Islamic State, ISIL, and Daesh) aims to take over more territory in the Middle East to grow its so-called Islamic caliphate — which was established after the group took control of Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, in August 2014 — the group is struggling to continue making significant gains as it fights government forces and rebel groups in Iraq and Syria.
And the Iraqi government has reportedly stopped paying the salaries of its employees who work in ISIS-controlled areas in an effort to prevent the militants from taking the money, according to Newsweek.
Reuters
Furthermore, people are reportedly struggling to pay the taxes ISIS imposes on the residents of its territory. ISIS has reportedly raised the prices of everyday necessities like gas, water, and electricity, partly in an effort to drive people to become fighters for the group, whose salaries are higher than those of average citizens living under ISIS control.
This approach is a double-edged sword — as ISIS has seen some success with using money to lure in desperate people with few options, the group is struggling to meet some of the other financial obligations of a functioning government.
For example, Newsweek notes that ISIS has made promises to care for the poor in its caliphate, which it markets as an autonomous state, but the group largely hasn't been able to deliver. |
MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippine government derided Catholic bishops on Sunday as “out of touch” after they used weekend sermons to attack a war on drugs they said had created a “reign of terror” for the poor.
Rev. F. Carlos Ronquillo, a Rector Superior of the National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help gestures as he talks about a pastoral letter from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) about the drug war of President Rodrigo Duterte during a mass at Redemptorist church in Paranaque city, metro Manila, Philippines February 5, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco
Members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) had dramatised President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign and, instead of criticising, should focus on contributing to the “reign of peace” that innocent people now felt, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said.
The church assailed bloodshed that had caused suffering, and said killing people was not the way to deal with illegal drugs.
In a pastoral letter read out on Saturday and repeated to congregations at churches on Sunday, bishops said it was disturbing that many people in the majority Catholic nation were indifferent to the killings, or even approved of them.
Abella, a former pastor, said the war on drugs had made the country safer, “far from the ‘terror’ the bishops paint rather dramatically.”
“The officials of the CBCP are apparently out of touch with the sentiments of the faithful who overwhelmingly support the changes in the Philippines,” Abella said in a statement.
More than 7,600 people have been killed since Duterte unleashed a ferocious crackdown seven months ago, more than 2,500 in police raids and sting operations.
Human rights groups believe many other deaths that police had attributed to vigilantes were carried out by assassins likely colluding with police. The government and police vehemently deny extrajudicial killings have occurred.
The CBCP’s message was read at numerous churches in Manila attended by Reuters, though not all. Church sources said the Archdiocese of Manila issued a circular telling parishes to read the pastoral letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters prior to the first readings.
The drugs war is a contentious issue, with some bishops keen to make a stand and others hesitant to risk a backlash by criticising a campaign that enjoys broad public support.
Duterte has routinely attacked the Church, and as recently as this week called for a “showdown” with priests whom he has accused of having wives, engaging in homosexual acts, graft and child abuse.
In a speech late on Sunday, Duterte shrugged off the bishops’ letter and said there would be no let-up in his campaign.
“You Catholics, if you believe in your priests and bishops, you stay with them. If you want to go to heaven, then go to them,” he said. “Now, if you want to end drugs ... I will go to hell, come join me.”
“GIVE THEM A CHANCE”
Katrina Rufael, an office worker who attended mass at the Baclaran Redemptorist Church, said the pastoral letter was justified.
“We have to oppose the war on drugs, because we cannot just put an end to the life of people who have made mistakes,” she said. “Let’s give them a chance to change.”
Elsewhere in Manila, at the Chapel of the Eucharistic Lord, a packed congregation listened attentively to the plea to stop the killings.
“Life is a gift from God, and only God can take it away,” said Ligaya Reyes, a government worker. “It was a strong statement, it should have been made a long time ago when the killing began.”
Slideshow (4 Images)
The statement was also heard at a chapel in the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters on Saturday. Not all agreed with it.
“They’re not being killed if they just surrender,” said a policeman’s wife, who gave her name as Dolores and said the PNP had been unfairly depicted as murderers for shooting drugs suspects resisting arrest.
“What the president’s doing right now ... he’s doing good. Because for the common people, it’s our safety.” |
“We have all this library content, and we’ve been surprised at how much interest there is in it,” Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal, said recently. “Frankly, if there is one person interested it — and there are streaming costs so you have to make sure you’re covering that — we’ve found it’s a new opportunity for our content.”
The online shows also create new payment opportunities for the writers, producers and actors of TV’s golden years. Royalties for Internet streaming were a pivotal issue in the writers’ strike that halted television production last winter. The Hollywood studios agreed to pay writers a 2 percent cut of the receipts for ad-supported streaming of all shows produced after 1977.
But online streaming isn’t making anyone rich, at least not yet. As Mitchell Hurwitz, the co-creator of “Arrested Development,” put it, the online popularity of his former program is “enormously rewarding in every way except for financially.”
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“Arrested Development,” a comedy that never attracted a sufficient audience on Fox from 2003 to 2006, consistently ranks among the top three series on Hulu, an online video site founded as a joint venture between NBC Universal and the News Corporation last year. Mr. Hurwitz wasn’t aware of his show’s top-ranked status until Jason Kilar, the chief executive of Hulu, mentioned it at a broadcasting conference in Las Vegas in mid-April.
“Isn’t that crazy?” Mr. Hurwitz remarked in an interview last week, still showing surprise. “This was a largely unwatched show when it was on network television.”
“Arrested Development” has had a cult fan base for years, as indicated by its strong sales on DVD. Mr. Hurwitz called it the “perfect show” for on-demand viewing because of hidden gems — jokes that make sense only after the viewer has seen a full season.
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If Web streaming had been widespread a few years ago, Mr. Hurwitz said, perhaps “Arrested Development” could have stayed on the air. He also suggested that the show’s streaming success could enhance prospects for a film based on the series.
Hulu now offers 3,000 full-length episodes of archived television shows, including ones as old as “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” from 1955. “So you could definitely spend some time consuming the content,” Mr. Kilar said modestly. Perhaps surprisingly, four out of five titles in the Hulu library are viewed each day. Clearly, an audience is pursuing the archives.
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“Very talented people spend their lives telling these stories. It’s a bit unusual that they’re only given the stage for a very discrete period of time,” he said.
The archived shows “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “NewsRadio” and “Babylon 5” are also among the most popular shows on Hulu. The broadcast networks present many of the same shows on their own Web sites: for example, NBC.com offers episodes of “The A-Team,” “Miami Vice” and “Buck Rogers” and CBS.com shows “Star Trek,” “The Twilight Zone” and “MacGyver.”
Quincy Smith, the president of CBS Interactive, said he hoped the Web site streams would create community experiences around the shows “one ‘Star Trek’ episode at a time.”
Even TV Land, the cable channel devoted to classic TV, is starting to stream. Episodes of “Gun- smoke” and “The Andy Griffith Show” are now available on TVLand.com.
“The goal is to whet viewers’ appetites, and drive people back to the linear channel,” said Larry W. Jones, the president of TV Land. |
On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on HR 2471: a bill that will update a 1986 law called the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). The original law was written years before the World Wide Web became a real thing that millions of people around the world use, and its authors didn't anticipate the explosion of mobile technologies or consumer data giants like Google and Facebook. As our own Joshua Kopstein pointed out, the sole reference point for our government's guidelines on data privacy is more than two decades old. While that doesn't seem like a lot of time up against the entire span of American civilization, it's an eternity in the age of the internet — a gap that's caused problems for citizens and law enforcement agencies trying to deal with a world that's very different from the one the bill was born into.
"The courts are all over the place."
For starters, electronic searches are not settled as a matter of law. As the Electronic Frontier Foundation tells The New York Times, "the courts are all over the place. They can't even agree if there's a reasonable expectation of privacy in text messages that would trigger Fourth Amendment protection." In recent years, only limited cases have been decided definitively: the Supreme Court ruled in January that law enforcement agents need warrants to track criminal suspects with GPS, but the case left other questions surrounding electronic surveillance unsettled. And considering the proliferation of government requests for private data from companies like Google and Twitter, there's a very clear need for new legislation to deal with electronic privacy.
The new ECPA could help or hinder the privacy of citizens, and we're still not sure what to expect when the bill surfaces for a vote on Thursday in committee. Last week a report from CNET indicated that committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) planned to revise the bill and reverse the ECPA's new protections by allow federal agencies to read email and access other electronic files without a search warrant. Leahy's office denied the report on Twitter, but the full bill and potential amendments won't be public until Thursday's meeting — an important step in getting the bill passed in the Senate on its way to potentially becoming law. |
Soros Fund Management Chairman George Soros smiles before his speech at the Central European University in Budapest, November 3, 2011. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros urged charitable foundations on Monday to do more to tackle the crisis facing African American males.
A new report released on Monday by Soros’ Open Society Foundations and the New York-based Foundation Center said that black men and boys in the United States do not have access to the structural supports and opportunities needed to thrive.
The report, titled ‘Where Do We Go From Here? Philanthropic Support for Black Men and Boys,’ shows that annual funding designated for that specific group has been rising steadily, from $10 million in 2003 to $29 million in 2010. Education is a top funding priority, garnering 40 percent of those grant dollars between 2008 and 2010. California, New York and Georgia are the top three states receiving foundation money explicitly designated for black males.
“It is my hope that this report will motivate other philanthropists and foundations to invest in efforts to improve achievement by African American boys and men,” Soros, founder of the Open Society Foundations, said in a statement. “This is a generational problem that demands a long-term commitment.”
In 2011 Soros and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg each contributed $30 million of their respective personal fortunes to a New York City program designed to improve the life outcomes of black and Latino males.
“To address the plight of black men and boys, it’s imperative that philanthropy put forward solutions that address separate and unequal opportunities they face in all facets of life — education, housing, health, structural employment, and disproportion in the criminal justice/foster care systems,” Reverend Alfonso Wyatt, Former Chair, Twenty-First Century Foundation was quoted as saying in the report. |
Microsoft recently became the latest big name to officially associate with Bitcoin, the decentralized virtual currency. However, the Redmond company did not go all out, and will only support bitcoin payments on certain content platforms, making up a tiny fraction of its business.
What’s the Big Deal With Bitcoin?
Like most good stories, the Bitcoin saga begins with a creation myth. The open-source cryptocurrency protocol was published in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, an anonymous developer (or group of Bitcoin developers) hiding behind this alias. The true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto has not been revealed yet, although the concept traces its roots back to the cypher-punk movement; and there’s no shortage of speculative theories across the web regarding Satoshi’s identity.
Bitcoin spent the next few years languishing, viewed as nothing more than another internet curiosity reserved for geeks and crypto-enthusiasts. Bitcoin eventually gained traction within several crowds. The different groups had little to nothing in common – ranging from the gathering fans, to black hat hackers, anarchists, libertarians, and darknet drug dealers; and eventually became accepted by legitimate entrepreneurs and major brands like Dell, Microsoft, and Newegg.
While it is usually described as a “cryptocurrency,” “digital currency,” or “virtual currency” with no intrinsic value, Bitcoin is a little more than that.
Bitcoin is a technology, and therein lies its potential value.
This is why we won’t waste much time on the basics – the bitcoin protocol, proof-of-work, the economics of bitcoin “mining,” or the way the bitcoin network functions. Plenty of resources are available online, and implementing support for bitcoin payments is easily within the realm of the smallest app developer, let alone heavyweights like Microsoft.
Looking Beyond The Hype - Into The Blockchain
So what is blockchain? Bitcoin blockchain is the technology backbone of the network and provides a tamper-proof data structure, providing a shared public ledger open to all. The mathematics involved are impressive, and the use of specialized hardware to construct this vast chain of cryptographic data renders it practically impossible to replicate.
All confirmed transactions are embedded in the bitcoin blockchain. Use of SHA-256 cryptography ensures the integrity of the blockchain applications – all transactions must be signed using a private key or seed, which prevents third parties from tampering with it. Transactions are confirmed by the network within 10 minutes or so and this process is handled by bitcoin miners. Mining is used to confirm transactions through a shared consensus system, and usually requires several independent confirmations for the transaction to go through. This process guarantees random distribution and makes tampering very difficult.
While it is theoretically possible to compromise or hijack the network through a so-called 51% attack the sheer size of the network and resources needed to pull off such an attack make it practically infeasible. Unlike many bitcoin-based businesses, the blockchain network has proven very resilient. This is the result of a number of factors, mainly including a large investment in the bitcoin mining industry.
Blockchain technology works, plainly and simply, even in its bitcoin incarnation. A cryptographic blockchain could be used to digitally sign sensitive information, and decentralize trust; along with being used to develop smart contracts and escrow services, tokenization, authentication, and much more. Blockchain technology has countless potential applications, but that’s the problem – the potential has yet to be realized. Accepting bitcoin payments for Xbox in-game content or a notebook battery doesn’t even come close.
So what about that potential? Is anyone taking blockchain technology seriously? What about blockchain development services?
Welcome To The Wild-Wild West
Bitcoin and blockchain technology are certainly “out there,” and some developers view them as the next frontier. Developing a use case for bitcoin and blockchain technology applications could prove profitable in the long run, and many are eager to enter the space.
Throw an unregulated, pseudo-anonymous currency into the mix and you have the qualifications for a proper gold rush, backed by speculators and venture capitalists. Selling shovels is the best way to make money in a gold rush, and the bitcoin mining industry has that aspect covered too. It all sounds a bit like a “Wild West Boomtown”, with trigger-happy whisky guzzling outlaws on the prowl for a quick buck - certainly not an environment for the faint of heart.
So what on earth are Paul from IBM and Dominic from Bosch doing in the saloon, dressed like Marty McFly in Back to the Future III?
It’s simple – they are both getting a head start!
Both, Bosch and IBM, are looking into ways of harnessing blockchain technology as part of their Internet-of-Things (IoT) development programs. They are not alone either - remember Microsoft? A few days after Microsoft made its original bitcoin announcement, the company said it was also interested in the technology behind bitcoin for distributed, connected devices (or IoT devices).
Samsung is on board as well, and the Korean consumer electronics giant showed off blockchain tech at CES 2015, alongside IBM.
Samsung and IBM demo out Block-Chain POC. It's lives at #CES pic.twitter.com/2lsgAaRk33 — Paul Brody (@pbrody) January 7, 2015
Forbes recently looked into the matter and made a bold prediction – the business magazine concluded that based on how blockchain technology works, it would likely break free from bitcoin to power distributed apps sometime this year.
In fact, many bitcoin developers are already working on so-called bitcoin 2.0 or bitcoin 3.0 projects. These often have little to do with the original concept, although they usually use some sort of token currency. Ethereum is one example – it is built around blockchain technology, but the emphasis is on smart contracts rather than surrogate currencies. IBM and Samsung are employing Ethereum for their IoT projects. Some of the same people involved in Ethereum development are working on another project, dubbed Storj, a fully distributed peer-to-peer cloud storage network with end-to-end encryption.
Potential Uses And Implications Of Blockchain Technology
There are already thousands of developers and dozens of companies experimenting with blockchain applications, but we have yet to see large scale projects built around blockchain technology that are not bitcoin or “altcoin” related. IoT could bring blockchain technology to the masses. Research firm IDC expects the user base to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.5% this decade, with up to 28.1 billion IoT devices in the wild by 2020, and revenue passing the $7 trillion mark the same year.
The technology is out there, it works, it’s free, and a lot of smart people are tinkering with it. However, so far these alternate blockchain applications have ranged from practical jokes to small experimental projects. The fledgling technology is still in its infancy, and this is to be expected.
The potential is more or less obvious. Decentralizing trust is a big thing, allowing the creation of vast, secure networks without a single point of failure. You can think of them as an additional layer of the internet, a layer that can be used for authentication, signage, secure communications and content distribution, financial transactions and much more.
Blockchain technology could allow developers a simple way of outsourcing security. For example, instead of creating secure IoT devices and networks, much of the heavy lifting could be effectively offloaded to the blockchain, freeing up resources on the client’s side and speeding up development.
The elusive goal for all blockchain developers is to make the technology just as seamless and unobtrusive as internet protocols. For example, how many people realize they are using TCP/IP every time they start browsing the net? This is the ultimate goal - to make the use of blockchain technology invisible to the end user. Blockchain technology can become yet another layer added to various products and services in order to provide more functionality and security, while saving resources and developer man-hours. |
"What we tended to see in the past was officials trying to skirt around the issue, really not wanting to confirm or deny that organ theft took place," she said.
"What we had on Wednesday was a very public admission by an Israeli official that organ theft was in fact taking place.
"But the health ministry said it was a practice that happened in the past and is no longer a problem."
Practice 'continuing'
However, Ahmed Tibi, an Israeli Palestinian member of parliament, told the assembly on Wednesday that he had evidence that organ theft was still taking place.
"You said that it was ended in the '90s. But Fadul Ordul Shaheen who was from Gaza passed away. He died of diabetes this year. When his body was given back to his family, his eyes were bleeding and there was a deep cut through his body," he said.
"The family is saying that both the corneas and the kidneys were taken.
"I am asking you if you're willing to look into this complaint and see if this activity is continuing, if organs are being harvested from Palestinian prisoners."
Yaacov Litzman, the Israeli deputy health minister, said he would investigate the case "with all seriousness" to determine if any wrongdoing was committed.
Tibi later told Al Jazeera that he would continue to pursue the health ministry for answers for the families of those who were affected.
'Highly informal'
The government's admission this week followed the release of an interview with Jehuda Huss, the former head of Israel's forensic institute, in which he said that workers at the institute had harvested skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers.
In the interview, which was conducted in 2000 when Hiss was head of Tel Aviv's Abu Kabir forensic institute, he said: "We started to harvest corneas ... Whatever was done was highly informal. No permission was asked from the family."
Nancy Scheper-Hughes, who conducted the interview, said that she made the article public because of the controversy last summer over allegations of organ harvesting made by a Swedish newspaper.
In August the Aftonbladet newspaper ran an article alleging that the Israeli army had stolen body organs from Palestinian men after killing them.
Israel denied the claims, calling them anti-Semitic, and the incident raised tensions when Sweden refused to apologise for the article, saying that press freedom prevented it from intervening. |
If you have concerns about an inheritance from your spouse, you better hope you don't live in Georgia. At the time of publication, it's the only state that allows one spouse to disinherit the other. However, other provisions under Georgia’s estate laws prevent a surviving spouse from utter destitution, at least for a while.
Elective Share and Community Property Laws In community property states, each spouse owns 50 percent of all property acquired during the marriage. Therefore, when one spouse dies, the other is automatically entitled to her half of the marital estate -- the decedent cannot bequeath that half to anyone else. However, Georgia is not a community property state so spouses in this jurisdiction have no automatic right to anything. All non-community property jurisdictions - other than Georgia - allow a spouse to claim a statutory share of her partner’s estate if he disinherits her, usually about one-third to one-half, which acts similarly to community property protection. This is called an "elective share," but Georgia’s legislature does not recognize elective shares either. If your spouse leaves you out of his will, or if he leaves you only a nominal amount, such as $1, you have no recourse.
Support for One Year Georgia law does permit a surviving spouse to claim a year’s financial support from the estate, but even this recourse is not guaranteed. The exact amount is set by the court based on the spouse's financial needs. The surviving spouse must file a lawsuit with the court to request this money, giving the decedent’s beneficiaries an opportunity to object. Beneficiaries will sometimes do so because the year's support comes off the top of the estate before any of the decedent’s creditors receive payment and before distribution of bequests. The decedent’s beneficiaries receive only what remains. In other words, a spouse's claim for support diminishes their own inheritance. Divorce is never easy, but we can help. Learn More
Intestate Estates Unless a decedent is generous to his spouse in his will, her best chance at inheriting arises if he dies intestate, or without a will. In this case, Georgia’s state code guarantees that his surviving spouse will receive at least one-third of his estate. If the decedent leaves no children, his spouse receives his entire estate. Otherwise, his spouse must share the estate with his descendants. If he leaves one child, his surviving spouse receives 50 percent of his estate and his child inherits the other 50 percent. Because she is guaranteed one-third, if the decedent leaves four children, his surviving spouse inherits her one-third percentage and his four children equally divide the remaining two-thirds of the estate. |
(Reuters Health) - High school and college football players suffer more concussions during practices than during games, according to a new study.
This is simply because there are more practices than games, said lead author Thomas P. Dompier of the Datalys Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention in Indianapolis, Indiana.
When the number of concussions is divided by the number of field appearances, the concussion rate is actually higher during games, he said.
Dompier and colleagues used reports from three large surveillance systems in the U.S. to study concussions in 118 youth football teams, 96 high school programs and 24 college institutions in the 2012 and 2013 seasons.
In total, more than 1,000 concussions were reported. About 66 percent were in high school students.
For youth players age five to 14, almost 54 percent of concussions happened during games, compared to about 42 percent of high school and college concussions, the researchers reported in JAMA Pediatrics.
The rate was highest in college, with almost four concussions per 1,000 participations in a game, compared to 2.4 for youth players and about two for high-schoolers.
The average athlete needs up to two weeks to stop having symptoms like headaches and memory problems, but kids who have had multiple concussions may need longer to recover, with memory and attention problems sometimes lasting a year.
When coaches and football parents are educated about proper tackling technique, equipment fitting, recognize the signs and symptoms of concussion, heat injury, sudden athlete death, and other injuries, practices can be safer, Dompier said.
“From my experience working as an athletic trainer, college coaches rarely schedule full-contact drills during practice focusing more on strategy and tactics,” he said. “At the youth and high school levels, coaches still teach tackling, and in my opinion, most still mistakenly believe the only way they can teach tackling is through player-to-player contact.”
Most youth coaches are volunteers, he noted, but there are practical solutions, like the USA Football’s Heads Up Football coaching certification program.
“The majority are occurring in practices, so we need to figure out what we can do to try to prevent those,” said Dr. Frederick P. Rivara of the University of Washington in Seattle who was not part of the new study.
“They could have more non-collision practices,” Rivara, the editor of JAMA Pediatrics, told Reuters Health by phone.
Policies can also limit how much time is devoted to full or player-to-player contact, eliminating specific drills that create injurious situations such as the Oklahoma Drill, Dompier said.
“A few examples include Pop Warner’s recent improvements to their practice policies, USA Football’s Youth Football Practice Guidelines, and the NFHS also recently released practice guidelines for high school football,” Dompier said. “Minimally, organizations should at least follow those guidelines that are appropriate for their level of play.”
Governing bodies, organization officials, coaches, and parents are starting to take the issue of concussion and other injuries seriously and are taking steps to make not only football, but all sports safer, he said.
“People are more aware that concussions are occurring,” Rivara said. “Secondly they are aware that while the majority get better within two weeks, some do not.”
In Canada, he noted, a rules change increased the age at which body-checking could start, and concussion rates in younger kids went down.
“We’re not suggesting football should stop being played, but we are concerned,” he said.
SOURCE: bit.ly/1zsw8kC JAMA Pediatrics, online May 4, 2015. |
Sunshine and clean, high-altitude air make Denver a magnet for holidaymakers in search of outdoor pursuits, though its craft beers and talented chefs may help put a few calories back on
Denver sprang up 155 years ago when prospectors hunkered down on the banks of the South Platte river near the Rocky Mountains to pan for specks of gold. They established an unlikely future metropolis, now home to two and a half million people. When I was growing up here, Denver suffered a post-1980s oil-bust funk and seemed content with its image as a sleepy stopover. But a 90s revitalisation transformed it, making it walkable, bikeable, even kayak-able, and attracting tech companies, startups, innovative chefs and creatives.
Denver only suffers about 35 overcast days a year. Consequently, Denverites are a sunny, sincere lot, traits so characteristic that whenever I encounter a crabby person, I always ask where they're from. In Denver, happiness is a way of life: a recent Gallup poll measured Colorado second only to Hawaii in its US wellbeing index. It's little wonder we're content in Denver, with a big blue sky, devotion to outdoor exercise that floods us with endorphins, and liberal consumption of craft beer.
If you want to pretend you're a Denverite, wake early and jog around Washington Park or pedal the Cherry Creek or South Platte river cycle paths on a sturdy rental bike from one of over 40 Denver Bcycle stations. True to its reputation as a fitness mecca, Denver was the first US city to launch an extensive bike-sharing programme in 2010. Denverites love their bikes: on Wednesdays hundreds of costumed riders on tricked-out cycles take over the streets with the Denver Cruiser Ride, a roving two-wheeled hootenanny.
Pinche Tacos food cart, Denver. Photograph: Cyrus Mccrimmon/Denver Post via Getty Images
For lunch, head to the always-packed Pinche Tacos at 1514 York Street , where inspired fillings come wrapped in tender corn tortillas. If you're brave, try the sinus-clearing xni pec salsa, which the bartender translated as "so spicy it would make a dog sneeze". You'll leave happy, with messy fingers and spice-tingling lips.
If you're not up for additional vigorous exercise, take a culture break. The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver mounts interactive exhibits such as "Thinking About Flying", which gave visitors homing pigeons to take home and release. For Black Sheep Fridays it throws themed cocktail parties, with an air guitar workshop or a lesson in buffalo butchery.
The new Clyfford Still museum is a striking home for the work of the abstract expressionist whose paintings were rarely shown before. Concrete has never looked so light as it does in the building's delicate, latticed ceiling, permeated with oval holes, letting skylight shift over its floors of blue-tinged wood under Still's bold paintings.
The Kirkland Museum is packed with decorative art, including "futuristic" chairs from Woody Allen's 1973 movie Sleeper. Or seek your art fix on the streets: on the first Friday of each month, the Art District on Santa Fe teems with performances, upscale food trucks and art. Last November, Aztec performers wearing face paint and pheasant feather crowns danced past me down Santa Fe Drive beating hand drums, shell ankle bracelets rattling as they moved.
It's not only oxygen-deprived Denverites who think the Tattered Cover Book Store at 1628 16th Street is the best in the US: it was the only one author Neil Gaiman appeared in during his recent US tour. My friends and I visit the Tattered Cover for our Denver Literary Kidnapping and Drinking Club, attending a reading and then gently coercing the author to come drink tequila with us at Mezcal, also on East Colfax.
For live music, head 10 miles west to scenic Red Rocks, where if you've been exercising properly you can win the uphill race for front general admission seats in the stunning natural amphitheatre, site of U2's Under A Blood Red Sky concert video. Or stay in town and catch bands at a hotspot such as Hi-Dive, Meadowlark Bar, Lion's Lair (2022 East Colfax) or Bluebird Theater.
Rioja restaurant. Photograph: Cyrus Mccrimmon/Denver Post via Getty Images
Dinner options are endless, since lots of talented chefs have migrated here. I've been feasting at Rioja for years, and in May, when the James Beard Foundation named Rioja's Jennifer Jasinski best chef in the Southwest, I thought well, it's about time. Linger serves global street food from a rehabbed mortuary in the bustling Highlands neighbourhood. Try Z Cuisine for savoury Colorado boeuf bourguignon, The Kitchen or Potager for impeccable farm-to-table fare, and The Squeaky Bean for the unexpected: "shaved torchon, dippin dots, torn crouton, currant pate de fruit" anyone?
When in Denver, always save room for beer. Denver brews more beer than any other American city, and tickets to the annual Great American Beer Festival held at Colorado Convention Center from 10-12 October sell out within minutes of going on sale (on 31 July this year).
Don't even mention weak Coors pilsner at Denver's many craft breweries. Visit the Barrel Cellar (1441 West 46th Avenue) home of the Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, where master brewer Chad Yakobson shows off what he learned from his degree in brewing (and distilling) at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. Drink a Red Saison at the Black Shirt Brewing Company (3719 Walnut Street), a Yeti Stout at Great Divide (201 Arapahoe Street), or a Hello, Darkness Black IPA at River North Brewery).
If you're not used to Denver's dry air, strong sun and mile-high altitude, remember, drink half the alcohol and twice the water and bathe in sunblock. Or ignore these rules – even when tipsy you surely can remember that the mountains mark the west. And if you want to fit in, hit the hiking trails next day, hangover and all.
Jenny Shank Jenny's debut novel, The Ringer, set in Denver, her home town, won the 2012 High Plains Book Award in fiction
For more information on holidays in the USA see DiscoverAmerica.com
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T. Andreyeva and M. W. Long conducted the literature review and extracted, synthesized, and analyzed data. T. Andreyeva and K. D. Brownell originated the study. T. Andreyeva led the data interpretation and the writing of the article. All of the authors helped to conceptualize ideas and interpret findings and contributed to the writing and revision process.
Tatiana Andreyeva and Kelly D. Brownell are with the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Yale University, New Haven, CT. At the time of the study, Michael W. Long was a graduate student at the Yale School of Public Health, New Haven.
We reviewed 160 studies on the price elasticity of demand for major food categories to assess mean elasticities by food category and variations in estimates by study design. Price elasticities for foods and nonalcoholic beverages ranged from 0.27 to 0.81 (absolute values), with food away from home, soft drinks, juice, and meats being most responsive to price changes (0.7–0.8). As an example, a 10% increase in soft drink prices should reduce consumption by 8% to 10%.
One timely estimate that can be gained from our review is how altering the prices of soft drinks can alter their consumption, information that is of critical need for policymakers considering soft drink taxes. We compared the sensitivity of estimates across different analytic approaches to modeling food demand. We identify important gaps in the food demand analysis literature and suggest avenues for future research.
We sought to estimate the effects of price changes on consumer demand for major commodity foods included in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans food categories. 13 We identified all published US studies of food price elasticity of demand (the expected proportional change in product demand for a given percentage change in price) and combined their estimates into average estimated price elasticities for 16 major food and beverage groups. Our goal was to provide a comprehensive summary of research on food demand and consumption behavior in the United States over the past 7 decades, with particular attention to differences in price effects across income levels.
Relatively small-scale, cost-neutral approaches to improving nutrition in vulnerable populations include the 2009 changes in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food packages; whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and soy-based milk alternatives were added to these packages, indirectly subsidizing healthy foods for WIC participants. 9 Another larger scale approach is to change prices directly through taxing products such as sugar-sweetened beverages 1 , 10 or subsidizing healthier foods (e.g., a refund on the costs of fruits and vegetables to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants). 11 Some states already tax soft drinks and snacks at higher rates than other foods, but thus far taxes have been small and designed to generate revenue rather than influence consumption. 12
Experimental research in both laboratory and intervention settings shows that lowering the price of healthier foods and raising the price of less healthy alternatives shift purchases toward healthier food options. 5 – 8 Although these studies demonstrate price effects in specific, isolated settings or on 1 or 2 individual product changes, to our knowledge, the expected effects of broader food price changes have not been systematically reviewed. Such information would be helpful in designing policies that change the relative food and beverage prices paid by all or many consumers.
THE INCREASING BURDEN OF diet-related chronic diseases has prompted policymakers and researchers to explore broad-based approaches to improving diets. 1 , 2 One way to address the issue is to change the relative prices of selected foods through carefully designed tax or subsidy policies. The potential of price changes to improve food choices is evident from growing research on how relative food prices affect dietary quality and obesity, particularly among young people, lower income populations, and those most at risk for obesity. 3 Experience from tobacco tax regulation further underscores the power of price changes to influence purchasing behavior and, ultimately, public health. 4
We pooled estimates of price elasticities across studies by food category (if at least 10 studies were available) and computed ranges and means (along with their 95% confidence intervals) for 16 food and beverage categories: beef, cereal, cheese, dairy products, eggs, fats and oils, fish, food away from home (including fast food and restaurant meals), fruit, juice, milk, pork, poultry, soft drinks, sugars and sweets, and vegetables. We had limited statistical power to synthesize estimates for other foods of interest, including fresh fruits and vegetables, fast food, snacks, and candy.
Consumer demand is a function of multiple factors in addition to prices, including product quality, advertising, preferences, and other demand shift variables. Several studies included advertising in their model or provided quality-adjusted and unadjusted elasticity estimates, which we combined because we had insufficient power to consider them separately. We included a decade of data collection, using the median time point for data over multiple decades.
Time series data were represented by monthly, quarterly, or annual data on food prices, consumption, and expenditures over time (derived from the USDA and the US Department of Commerce). Survey data were taken from cross-sectional national household surveys (e.g., Nationwide Food Consumption Survey, National Food Stamp Program Survey). More recent studies have often involved retail scanner data from commercial providers (e.g., ACNielsen) that track supermarket transactions. We excluded estimates from laboratory experiments, which could change real-world price sensitivity among customers. We also considered the type of demand system estimation model used.
Our goal was not to review methodological details of food demand system estimation, which are available in other reviews, 15 – 17 but rather to distill from the existing literature food demand parameters that can be useful to the public health community. In doing so, we accounted for variations in methods and data, which affect individual parameters and may have implications for synthesized average estimates. We segmented studies into 3 mutually exclusive categories based on type of data in estimation: time series, household surveys, and retail scanner data.
We used the following procedure to extract elasticity estimates. When estimates from multiple periods were reported, we selected the most recent data. In studies providing estimates of both compensated and uncompensated demand elasticity, we used uncompensated elasticity because most of the reviewed studies included only uncompensated demand estimates. We rounded final estimates to the second digit and calculated these estimates as absolute values. In studies with estimates from multiple models, we took mean values. We were interested in estimating the elasticity of fruit prices separately from that of vegetable prices. However, many studies included only one estimate for fruits and vegetables combined, and in these instances we had to assume the same elasticity of demand for fruits and vegetables. If a study estimated demand parameters for both low-income consumers and all consumers, we included estimates for the 2 groups.
Data were independently extracted by one reviewer (T. A. or M. L.) and checked for consistency by the other reviewer. Variables assessed were food product, demand estimation model, data characteristics (study design, time, and source), estimates of price elasticity for all foods and nonalcoholic beverages, estimates of cross-price elasticity for major substitutes or complementary foods, demand elasticity for average and low-income households (if available), statistical significance of elasticity estimates, and publication source and year. Synthesizing data on income elasticity of food demand (food demand responsiveness to income changes) was beyond the scope of our review. We did not use price elasticities for specific types of fruits or vegetables in estimating average fruit and vegetable elasticities because, as a result of the availability of substitutes, demand for specific foods such as apples is more elastic than that for an aggregate group that includes all fruits.
In addition to studies published in peer-reviewed journals, our search included working papers, dissertations, and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) technical reports. We retrieved these documents to capture all expert work, particularly USDA studies that appear only in government reports. Tests confirmed the sensitivity of our results to the exclusion of studies from non-peer-reviewed sources. Commentaries, editorials, essays, and consensus statements were excluded. We limited our review to US data because of the possibility of cross-country variations in market, product, and consumer characteristics introducing bias into our interpretations of food price effects in US studies. We included studies focusing on specific population groups or geographic regions to capture all variance in the US data.
Our review included US-based studies estimating the price elasticity of demand for food and nonalcoholic beverages. We reviewed original research articles published in English between 1938 and September 2007. Two independent searches were conducted with the search terms “food and price elasticity,” “price elasticity,” “demand elasticity,” “food demand,” and “price elasticities,” as well as combinations of these terms with “food,” “meat,” “beverages,” and “dairy.” We used a number of databases and search engines to retrieve articles for review, including PubMed, EconLit, JSTOR, and Google Scholar. The reference lists of all retrieved articles were reviewed to identify relevant papers.
We distinguish between uncompensated and income-compensated price elasticity of demand, with the latter assuming that consumers are compensated for price changes through income changes (i.e., compensated models estimate only substitution between products without including any effects on a consumer's overall budget resulting from price changes). We consider both price demand elasticity and cross-price elasticity of demand for a product. Whereas price elasticity reflects changes in the purchased quantity of a commodity with changes in that commodity's price, cross-price elasticity reflects changes in demand for a particular commodity when prices of other products change. The construct of cross-price elasticities is important from a policy perspective in that relative shifts in prices through taxation or subsidies can affect demand for other products not regulated by policies.
Our review of food price elasticities focused on the effects of price changes on primary demand (also called commodity or category demand), which is consumer demand for a category or group of products measured by quantity purchased. By contrast, brand demand reflects purchases of an individual brand or products. In the case of policy decisions such as those involving taxation or subsidies, parameters of primary demand for a category of products (e.g., soft drinks) are necessary to predict the magnitude of policy-induced changes in consumer demand.
The price elasticity of demand is a dimensionless construct referring to the percentage change in purchased quantity or demand with a 1% change in price. It is determined by a multitude of factors: availability of substitutes, household income, consumer preferences, expected duration of price change, and the product's share of a household's income. 14 When the relative change in purchased quantity is below the relative change in price, demand is inelastic (numerically, the absolute value of price elasticity is below 1.0). In contrast, changes in demand that exceed the relative price change reflect elastic demand (the absolute value of price elasticity is above 1.0). For example, when a commodity's purchased quantity falls by 5% owing to a 10% increase in price, the price elasticity of demand is −0.5, reflecting inelastic demand. If the same price increase reduces the commodity's purchased quantity by 15%, demand for the product is elastic (−1.5).
In a more conservative approach to defining the category of soft drinks, we included 7 studies with estimates for soft drinks, carbonated soft drinks, soda, and soda or fruit ades, with a mean price elasticity of 1.00. Further restricting the definition of soft drinks limited the number of available studies for review. Only 2 estimates were available for carbonated soft drinks (1.08) 39 and soda (0.58), 40 along with 1 study with a combined estimate for soda and fruit ades (1.10) 41 and 1 study with separate regular soft drink (1.05) and low-calorie soft drinks (1.26) estimates. 28 Excluding working papers and the single dissertation resulted in a mean price elasticity of demand for soft drinks of 0.93.
Given the heightened interest of legislators in the soft drink category and the importance of estimating price elasticity of demand for soft drinks to forecast tax effects, we calculated alternate elasticity estimates based on different assumptions or definitions of soft drinks as a product. The mean price elasticity for the soft drink category (0.79, absolute value) was based on 14 estimates in which definitions of the category varied; category definitions included soft drinks, carbonated soft drinks, juice and soft drinks, soda, soda and fruit ades, nonalcoholic beverages, other beverages (all nonalcoholic beverages excluding milk and juices), and, in 1 study, beverages (the exclusion of this final study had essentially no effect on the mean estimate, increasing it from 0.79 to 0.82).
For virtually all estimated demand functions, there is evidence of persistence in food purchasing behavior. For beef, the most commonly analyzed food in our review, we found little variation in elasticity estimates across study designs. Type of demand model, data, peer review status (i.e., peer review versus no peer review), study size (multiple versus single categories of foods), and time of data analysis were not significantly related to the estimates in beef analyses (either jointly in F tests or individually in t-test comparisons). Similarly, the estimated parameters for pork, cheese, and vegetables did not vary significantly according to study methodology. There was some variation in how type of demand system model and data affected estimates in studies on milk, fruit, and fish. However, because of the smaller number of data points (e.g., 18 for fish and 26 for milk versus 51 for beef), these findings must be interpreted with caution.
Although the public health community is attempting to increase people's intake of whole grains, existing research offers no data to predict price-induced shifts in purchases of whole grain products. We found no estimates of how quantities of whole wheat bread purchased would react to changes in the price of refined flour bread. Only 1 study estimated price elasticities for diet and regular soft drinks, 28 and the authors did not offer cross-price elasticities (although a number of brand-level studies have examined substitutions between specific brands of diet and regular soft drinks). One study estimated price elasticities for snack food and candy, and 2 studies offered estimates for fast food. 28 , 37 , 38 Despite an increasing focus on nutrient density, we did not identify any studies with elasticity estimates for specific nutrients such as saturated fat.
Of particular importance to policymakers, the available estimates of food price elasticity offer little guidance on a number of key food categories included in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Many of the studies reviewed focused on aggregate food categories, with little (if any) consideration for disentangling healthier and less healthy options within categories. Specifically, in the case of many key foods in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, we did not identify any studies that estimated price elasticities, including cross-price elasticities, to predict within-category shifts between healthier and less healthy alternatives. These foods included whole grain products as well as substitutions between brown and white rice, baked and regular chips, lean and regular types of meat, and reduced-fat and regular cheese.
Only a small number of studies evaluated the effects of income level on demand elasticity, and thus we were not able to identify consistent differences in estimated price elasticities between low-income consumers and consumers as a whole. Of the 9 studies reporting price elasticity estimates for low-income populations, 7 presented data for both low-income and all consumers. One study focusing on milk demand showed that demand was more price elastic in low-income populations (1.2 versus 0.66), and a study on fast food depicted a large difference as well (2.09 versus 0.51). 34 , 35 However, 3 studies including estimates for a broader group of foods reported essentially no difference, with average elasticities of 0.62 for low-income populations and 0.64 for consumers as a whole. 18 , 20 , 36
Because milk is among the 3 leading sources of saturated fat in the American diet, substitution away from whole milk toward milk with lower fat content is one promising avenue for dietary change. 13 We identified 5 studies that evaluated cross-price elasticities for milk with varying fat content. 22 , 26 , 27 , 30 , 32 For a 10% increase in the price of whole milk, increases in purchased quantities ranged between 0.6% and 5% for low-fat or reduced-fat milk and between 0.1% and 2.9% for skim milk. Thus, consumers are more likely to switch to reduced or low-fat milk than skim milk when the price of whole milk increases.
Milk was the most studied category aside from meat (26 estimates). Thirteen studies provided elasticity estimates for specific milk fat levels. Mean elasticities for skim, 1%, and whole milk ranged from 0.75 to 0.79, whereas the mean elasticity for 2% milk was 1.22. 21 – 33 Understanding differences in price elasticity for different types of milk and cross-price elasticity for milk with varying fat content is important in food policy analyses that examine approaches to reducing saturated fat consumption (as recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans).
Mean price elasticity estimates for the 16 food and beverage groups considered, along with their 95% confidence intervals and ranges, are presented in . Overall, our results are consistent with customary characterizations of the demand response to food prices as inelastic; all mean price elasticity estimates were below 1.0 and ranged from 0.27 to 0.81 (all elasticity estimates here and throughout the text are absolute values). Estimates were relatively less inelastic for soft drinks (0.79), juice (0.76), meats (0.68–0.75), fruit (0.70), and cereals (0.60) and most inelastic for eggs (0.27), sugars and sweets (0.34), cheese (0.44), and fats and oils (0.48). Food away from home was most responsive to changes in prices among other categories (0.81) and more elastic than demand for food at home (0.59; however, the latter value is based on 7 studies).
Time series data were used in most studies (99 studies, or 62%), followed by household survey data (34 studies, or 21%) and scanner data (27 studies, or 17%). Only 38 studies were published before 1970. Despite increasing interest in the topic, only 9 studies estimated food price elasticities specifically for low-income groups, with 3 studies examining a broad range of foods. 18 – 20 Consumer demand for meat, particularly beef and pork, has received substantially greater attention than demand for any other food. Of the 160 studies, 31% provided price elasticity estimates for beef; 29% for pork; 14% for poultry; and 10% for fish. Fewer studies provided estimates for milk (15%), cereal (12%), cheese (12%), and fruits or vegetables (11%). For example, we identified only 6 estimates for fresh fruits and vegetables as a combined category (not including studies focusing on individual vegetables or fruits). Other foods were considered in less than 10% of all reviewed studies.
We identified 464 relevant citations in our literature search. After all selected articles had been retrieved and reviewed, 184 studies with data on food price elasticity remained. We excluded 5 international studies, 4 review articles, 3 studies involving experimental data, and 12 studies with brand-level food price elasticities, leaving 160 studies in our review (a list of these 160 studies is available on request).
DISCUSSION
Considerable data are available on price elasticities of demand for certain foods. We found mean price elasticity estimates ranging from 0.27 to 0.81 (absolute values), with the highest price elasticities for food away from home, soft drinks, juice, meats, and fruit and the most inelastic demand for eggs. Higher elasticity estimates suggest greater changes in population purchases as prices shift. From a public health perspective, more elastic demand for food is encouraging if change in demand is a priority (e.g., decreased intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and increased consumption of fruits and vegetables). Such data help bridge the public health and economics communities and begin to establish a vision of where price changes might have the greatest impact on consumer food choices, nutrition, and health.
Although economists have published extensively on the effects of price changes on commodity- and brand-level demand for foods and beverages, substantial gaps in the research base exist. These gaps must be filled to gain a more complete understanding of the public health impact of policies that realign food prices. The studies we reviewed did not assess the effects of price changes on substitutions from unhealthy to healthy food choices for many of the key categories (e.g., whole grains) in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are targets in public health campaigns. There is some evidence to suggest that low-income populations may be more sensitive to price changes than the overall population.3 Still, current data on the role of income are rather limited, and assessments of differences in responsiveness to food prices according to age, education, culture, or ethnicity are not available.
The effects of cigarette taxes on smoking prevalence demonstrate the significant potential of tax policies to modify purchasing behavior.4 The public health benefit of even moderate price increases for unhealthy foods can be compared with the demand effect of moderate changes in the price of cigarettes. For example, a negligible change in the price of cigarettes (0.03% of weekly earnings) reduced smoking prevalence by 0.3% among Australian adults.42 In contrast, the World Health Organization concluded that large tax increases have been the most effective policy for reducing tobacco use.43 In addition, studies of cigarette taxation suggest that young people may be more responsive to price changes and taxes than the adult population.44 This is an important consideration in evaluating the potential effects of food tax or subsidy policies on children's food purchases and childhood obesity.
Food Policy Implications As a result of their negative effects on nutrition and their current taxation status, soft drinks offer a possible target for public health tax policies.1,45 On average, sugar-sweetened beverages contribute 301 kcal (1260 kJ) per day per capita (13% of total daily energy values) to the diets of American adolescents.46 Assuming no substitution of soft drinks with other caloric beverages and no change in other factors affecting purchasing behavior, our estimates of the price elasticity of soft drinks suggest that a 10% tax on soft drinks could lead to an 8% to 10% reduction in purchases of these beverages. Small changes add up. One USDA study that estimated potential weight loss from various tax rates on salty snacks under a range of price elasticities predicted that a 10% price increase from a national sales tax could reduce body weight between 0.2 and 0.99 lb (0.1–0.5 kg) per year while generating approximately $1 billion in tax revenue.47 State governments already target sales taxes at soft drinks and selected snack foods. As of January 2009, 33 states taxed the sale of soft drinks at an average rate of 5.2%.48 Of importance to policymakers, recent surveys show that the public is willing to pay increased taxes if the funds generated are used to address childhood obesity.49,50 Although the potential public health benefits of price changes in specific food categories can be estimated, it is essential to assess changes in consumer behavior as price changes occur. For example, in the event of higher prices resulting from increased taxes, consumers could increase their caloric consumption from fruit juice to compensate for their reduction in soft drink intake, or, more positively, they might generalize the healthy changes they make to other categories of foods. It is also important to consider how governments use revenues generated by changes in economic policies such as taxes. For instance, regressive food taxes could be offset by using revenues to lower the costs of healthy foods, particularly for low-income population groups. Such policies are under consideration. The Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (known as the “Farm Bill”) authorized a $20 million pilot study examining the use of price incentives to promote consumption of fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods among food stamp recipients.11 On the basis of our mean price elasticities of 0.70 for fruits and 0.58 for vegetables, a 10% reduction in the price of these foods would increase purchases on average by 7.0% and 5.8%, respectively. As such, changes in prices alone would probably not increase consumption of fruits and vegetables to the levels recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. However, price changes combined with public education campaigns and other regulations affecting the food environment in institutional and home settings may have a multiplicative effect that could significantly improve diets, particularly among at-risk population groups. Although demand for food is relatively inelastic, the power of small price changes, especially applied to foods most responsive to such changes, should not be underestimated given that their effects accumulate across a population. Our review had limitations. For example, we used combined estimates of price elasticity for fruits and vegetables (which were the only available estimates in many studies), and thus we may have underestimated the separate price elasticities of demand for fruits and vegetables. In addition, none of the studies included in our review were published after September 2007 (when we completed the review). Finally, our synthesis of estimates was a simplified calculation of means rather than a meta-analysis, which could not be conducted given the lack of elasticity estimate standard errors in the literature. |
The government of Ontario has assembled a nominating committee to recommend potential board members for the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan Administration Corporation.
The chair of the committee will be Ellen Mercier who currently chairs the Canadian Payments Association and was chair of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan from 2007 to 2014.
The other two appointees are Carol Hansell, a governance expert and the founding partner of Hansell LLP, and Susan Wolburgh Jenah, the current chair of the initial board of directors of the ORPP AC.
Read: ORPP AC appoints first CEO
The province chose the members based on their backgrounds, skill sets and experience in corporate governance and pension administration.
“The establishment of the nominating committee marks an important milestone in our plan to expand pension coverage to over four million Ontario workers,” said Mitzie Hunter, the minister in charge of the ORPP.
“This highly accomplished committee will ensure that the very best talent is recruited to the ORPP AC board, supporting successful implementation of the ORPP and the effective governance of the corporation.”
Read more: Millennials talk ORPP with retirees in new ads |
– The man who helped Denver Police officers capture a suspect received special recognition on Friday and a new bicycle.
Back in June, Aaron Miripol was riding a B-cycle on the Cherry Creek trail when he saw a suspect run through the creek.
Police knew Jose Delgado, wanted on multiple felony warrants, would run when they confronted him.
“As I keep riding there’s a guy running in front of me, probably 50 meters up, running across the water, and that’s when I realize that’s who they’re running after,” said Miripol.
“I said, ‘Take the bike’ … I said, ‘Take the bike.’ He’s like, ‘Are you sure?’ … I said, ‘Yeah, take it.’ And he got him!”
Delgado was trapped by the walls of the trail when officers finally caught up to him on a footbridge in Confluence Park, tackling him before he could jump back in the water.
On Friday, Denver Police Chief Robert White honored Miripol with his very own bicycle, helmet and bike lock, as a way to say thank you for helping capture the suspect. |
Everyone loves free stuff. Between the thrill of feeling like you're getting away with something and the lack of impact on your bank account, in today's cash-driven world, freebies are something that no one can resist.
The phenomenon has been well-documented on reality shows for extreme couponers, who fill their homes with extra toilet paper and soup cans, all for the sum total of zero dollars. But for those who don't have the inclination to clip coupons -- or the storage space for the results -- free stuff can come in other forms too.
The video above doles out seven tips for finding ways to get meals for free. They range from plausible (taking advantage of birthday specials) to questionable (volunteering at a soup kitchen for the free meal reward), but they do all have the same end result -- a meal that costs you nothing but perhaps a bit of dignity.
Testing out the free stuff waters can be a slippery slope -- websites abound that cater just to your needs -- but if it helps you save a bit of money, there's no real harm in it. Just remember, your friends will want you to foot the bill at some point too. |
Here’s the deal. I spend my money advertising my services (mostly with Google). I figured I’d try giving some of that money to Reddit instead and see what happens.
I worked at Lockheed Martin (7 years) and FLIR Systems (2 years) as a mechanical design engineer. I worked everything from cruise missiles to high-energy laser systems to test fixtures. I craved independence too much to keep that up forever, so for the last 3 years I’ve been flying solo.
Today I work with small businesses, inventors, and startups. I bring high-level talent and experience to projects that otherwise have limited options. I know how to work remotely and use modern web-based collaboration tools designed specifically for CAD projects. I understand the importance of documentation and revision control when developing, prototyping, and manufacturing components. I’m the guy you need, but can’t afford to hire full time.
If you need help with anything that relates to mechanical design, CAD, prototyping/3D printing, mechanism design, etc – schedule a call with me below. If I can’t help, maybe I can point you in the right direction. I love meeting new people and hearing about cool projects (that’s the best part of what I do!).
If you can’t find a time that works, that’s OK. Just Click Here and fill out my contact form. I’ll get back to you ASAP and we’ll take it from there.
-Zack Monninger | Mechanical Engineer
B.S. Mechanical Engineering (UCF ’03) | MBA (UCF ’10) |
Okay, well, my name's Jeff Vogel. I'm 45. I live in Seattle, and I run Spiderweb Software. It's a small indie-game company. It was founded in 1994, so, we've been doing this for over 20 years. We write fantasy role-playing games for Macintosh, Windows, and iPad mainly, sort of old-school, retro-style. We started in '94.
It wasn't called "indie gaming" back then. It was called "shareware," and there wasn't really a worldwide web to speak of. We sold most of our games over AOL, which is an online delivery content service that used to exist.
[Laughs.]
That's pretty much it. I was writing indie games well over a decade before anyone really used the phrase "indie games."
That's something I wanted to ask you about. You wrote a thing last year about that.
Are you talking about my article about the popping of the indie-game bubble?
I indeed am.
That was just about a year ago. Probably the most widely read thing I've written online. A lot of people read that article. There wasn't a lot of argument about it because of my being pretty much unquestionably right.
Okay, so we're a year out from that article. How do you feel about all that stuff you were right about?
Right now it is really difficult to break into indie-game development. It's still possible. People will still try and people will always try, which is great, and there are still fortunes being made. There are still some games that people release and they break through and make a ton of money, but by and large, if you go on Steam and poke around on Greenlight, there’s a lot of junk. There is still floods of indie games coming out and a lot of them -- there's going to be blood on the streets. A lot of people are just going to give up because they have to. There's just too much product and not enough discoverability.
The discoverability is a big part of the problem because I think a lot of the gaming press, who are the people who used to be the ones to find these games and elevated them up and make them visible, just look at the mess of the bajillions of titles that are out there and just sort of throw their hands up in the air. So, there is -- every once in a while a game will poke through and will get attention, but by and large, even worthwhile titles, everyone's just exhausted of picking through the stuff.
I wish that a few gaming websites would just step forward and bite the bullet and say, "Okay, every once in a while we're gonna wade through this garbage and once a week, we're gonna post about one game that you haven't heard of that we think is pretty cool."
I think that that would be fantastic. I think it would help the industry. I think it would help worthy developers. I just kind of don't see it happening. People -- I think that a lot of the time the press latches onto one title and obsesses over it.
I think No Man's Sky is a good example. I'm not saying No Man's Sky is going to be good or it's going to be bad. I think that nobody is quite sure what it's going to be, and that soaks up all the oxygen in the room. I'm never going to wish ill on any indie developer. I hope No Man's Sky comes out and I hope it's fantastic. But there's just a lot of games that just never get seen, and I wish there was more attention paid to rooting out the good ones. I think that if that was done, then people would -- YouTube LetsPlayers are actually better at this, which is one of the reasons YouTube LetsPlays have caught on so much.
Yeah, and also, it's, uh -- you don't have to read. [Laughs.]
Yeah, well, my kids loves the YouTube LetsPlays, and it is my observation that young people today are not big readers by and large.
Do you think kids are getting a better cross-section of what's out there compared to what the written outlets are covering?
I still browse all of the big gaming press sites and I almost never find out about good small titles from them. It's weird. I can't remember the last time I went to a press site and came away going, "Oh wow, there's a new thing and I want to hunt it down."
For years, my best source of recommendations of new things was Penny Arcade. They always wanted to be heavy lifters for helping indies and small creators in a number of media get exposure.
So, I've just been sifting through game press sites really quick to see if I could find one that is pushing a new thing or is pushing something I haven't already heard of a thousand times. I'm getting nothing. Polygon, on its front page, at one point mentioned that the PlayStation's about to get a really obscure indie title no one's ever heard of called Braid. No one's written enough about that.
Oh, what is that?
Apparently, it's the next big thing.
I have to step back from being an asshole to say that Braid is fantastic game, which may have been discussed a certain amount in the past. The biggest article on Kotaku right now is about Game of Thrones, which is apparently a television show. So, yeah. I'm sympathetic. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work to go through all the crap and find something good.
That's why we want you guys to do it. We can't do it. I can't go on Steam and wander through all this garbage. It's like nine out of 10 games on Steam now has "Freddi Fish" in the title. Once again, being a jerk, that is an exaggeration. But if I go into the Steam new releases page now, it's going to be pretty weird and dire.
Well, this is a huge sweeping statement and a big leap, but are we saying people who want to buy games are pretty lazy? Like, no one had really heard of No Man's Sky until Sony plucked it up and put onstage at E3 last year. Do you remember sites writing about it before then? Or the things on the front page of Steam -- are they the things that end up becoming the most popular? Like: "Here it is." "That's fine."
Yeah. Well, someone has to do it. In the end, someone is going to jump into this vacuum and start making recommendations. If it's not Steam, it's going to be Apple. If it's not Apple, it's going be YouTubers. There is money in telling people about stuff they want to hear about. And someone's gonna be making that money.
And in the end, it probably should be Steam because Steam makes the money directly. Steam doesn't have to snuff around for clicks. Steam just -- they can make a game a hit. Steam gets a pretty nice cut and everybody is happy.
You know, I'm picking on the gaming press, and now I feel kind of bad about it. One of my personal philosophies is you shouldn't go around and start criticizing people until you're absolutely convinced there is a problem. And there are already so many more games that I know are good than I have time to play that I'm not sure they need more discovery. If people were discovering more good games and throwing them at me, I'd just be more stressed.
'Cause I don't need to know more good games. I'm still trying to finish Bayonetta, for God's sakes. I don't need another sexy roguelike platformer.
I'm trying to finish Metal Gear Solid 4 before E3 for an interview I’m doing that week.
Oh, well. Enjoy that 40 hours. I don't know if it's really that long. Isn't that game, like, forever long? I've played one Metal Gear Solid and I thought that the bad guy, Revolver Ocelet, had the best bad-guy names ever, and then I finished it. And then I was done with that. It's not my kind of thing.
I'm just saying, I am right there with you -- a full entry and a couple years behind on a series that's about to get extended in a few months.
It's like, I should be playing The Witcher 3. I write role-playing games. I should totally be playing it. I just don't got the 60 hours right now. I want to play it.
But why do you even need to be playing it right now?
I'm between games, and this is when I play to sort of be inspired and get ideas and just see what people are doing. I have tried, like, a million indie role-playing games in the last six months. I've just been having a blast because I almost never finish them because I'm the most jaded role-playing videogamer in exist. But I've just been seeing so much cool stuff and so many good ideas. And The Witcher apparently just does plotting and characterization and interesting thoughtful quests as well or better than anyone, and since that's the kind of thing that I sell in my games, I really should be playing that. I think I'd come away from it really inspired. But -- eh, 60 hours.
But the Internet and gaming now, people act like there’s one true way to write a game and one true way to play a game. The Internet can ruin anything.
One of the things I love about videogames is they're just kinda weird and shaggy and there's so many ways to approach them and so many different ways to appreciate them.
What do you think it is about the intersection of videogames and the Internet --
Oh, no. It's not just the Internet. It's anything that two people can disagree about, the Internet will argue about it until forever. This isn't a new phenomenon.
I was on the Internet in 1988, when you couldn't even transfer images. The whole Internet was one forum and it was called Usenet, and it had a videogame area, and it had a politics area, and it was just text messages. It was like the Internet was so small you could have one forum for the whole Internet.
I remember they created a coffee board on Usenet. This was, like, in 1989, for people just to discuss coffee. It hadn't been created for 47 seconds before there was a flame war -- which was what we called arguments at the time.
Right.
A nasty, vicious argument about whether Starbucks was good or not.
Even in the good old days, the pre-everything, everyone on the Internet had a college degree days, it took them 47 seconds to ruin coffee. Everything that we're going through now may be faster, may be more vicious. There wasn't any Swatting in the old days. But all it is is it's just people. It's stuff that's been there since the very first day. Everyone's always been horrible.
When you're talking to someone you're not in the room with, you'll feel just fine being a jerk to them. And then when you talk to them in person-to-person, in a room, like a human being, all of a sudden they're not that much of a jerk anymore and you have to act like a sensible human being when you run the risk of getting punched in the face.
That seems as good a segue as any to talk about something from your email you said you wanted to discuss. I don't like to do "shots fired," but I do like the idea of talking about "games criticism getting too political."
Before we dive into that, do you want to talk about this Polygonthing that happened yesterday?
By the time this goes up it'll be totally dated and forgotten, but I think the whole thing is so hilarious that it should have an exhibit in the Museum of Videogames. So, okay, there's a game called Rock Band 4 coming out.
And Rock Band, to my mind, is one of the sweetest, funnest most guileless game series ever made. All Rock Band wants to do is let you have fun at a party and give money and exposure to musicians and occasionally teach you a little bit about playing instruments. That's what Rock Band wants. Being mean to Rock Band -- play it. Don't play it. Like. Don't like it. But being mean to Rock Band is like kicking a puppy.
So, Polygon, the No. 1 gaming press outlet for people who hate videogames, sends a previewer to a preview of Rock Band 4 and the previewer has what can only be described as a mid-life crisis nervous breakdown while at the preview and writes about it. And I knew we'd be talking about this, so I have the page up. He spends the whole preview talking about how he spends the time just in a void of existential despair, sitting at the bar "drinking fizzy water, eating puff pastry canapes" instead of looking at the game. Later on in the preview, he writes, "All video games are stupid, of course."
Of course. Not just video games are stupid, which some people might think is a topic that bears discussion. Some people may not in fact be afraid to take all of video gaming and throw it on a fire. But it's not enough to say that. He says, "of course."
Yesterday, I was thinking this is the worst article about videogames ever written.
But I slept on it. Today, I think it is the best article on videogames ever written.
Normally I'm not a huge fan of videogame previews. I want every videogame preview from now on to be written by a person in the middle of a yawning existential crisis. [Laughs.] I just want them to walk into the videogame preview, start screaming, eat everything, just go all Hunter S. Thompson and write a thousand pages of incoherent despair and then they just shoot them full of Thorazine and just cart them away. That would improve videogame previews 1000 percent. I would never miss a videogame preview if this was what happened. God, it's just so funny.
Videogame journalism and videogame press and videogame discussions are so messed up now. This preview is so funny and relatively harmless that I just want to pitch a tent and wait at this article for a little bit before I listen to people shout at each other more because God it's funny. I think everyone should read this preview. It is a masterpiece of something. I swear to God, you'll laugh for days.
I will include a link.
But people have been whining on the Internet for honesty and integrity in games writing and here is an honest piece of something. It's at least honest.
But as a piece of criticism, it's lazy. "I don't like it."
"Fizzy water." Fizzy water! [Laughs.] I wish he would have gone on more. "And then they served us eclairs, but the eclair was a little bit stale." "Oh, now they're doing an Eagles song? Well, the Eagles are stupid. Everybody knows that. And then I ordered a microbrew."
Oh my God, I would read every preview ever written if they were like that. [Laughs.]
Honestly, though, in the pantheon of games writing, previews are the most thankless task. You're seldom able to be critical. You will likely see the word "nevertheless." It's an odd dance where you're shown something that's not really done, and the job typically is to be optimistic and to try to sell it -- to say what you honestly thought and then realize, well, they may still fix it.
I really think that previews are necessary. Sometimes you gotta trust your audience. If you can't trust your audience, just write a little thing that says, "Look. This game's not done. This is just what we thought. You can't be too critical on it because it's just half-done. We're just gonna give you some facts about what the thing's gonna be and maybe in the end it'll suck, but for now this is what they told us it would be."
How about that? That's a pretty good start.
And then eventually you just gotta trust your audience. Any person with a half-dozen brain cells strung together is eventually gonna figure out that previews are previews. They're not gonna give you all the facts. In a sense it's a thankless, weird job because you can't be too mean. But on the other hand, isn't that a gift? It's one time when you can write something and not feel a need to be angry about it. You can live the dream. You can be optimistic about something for a moment.
"Yeah, Rock Band, when you play a song, it's gonna recommend more songs to keep your party going faster. Is it gonna work? I don't know. Is Rock Band 4 ever gonna ship? I don't know. Is the human race gonna exist or get wiped out by a meteorite in August? I don't know. But maybe someday this is gonna happen and we'll get something to look forward to to get you through your stupid life."
I don't have any problem with previews. I don't read them very much. If a game's gonna come out that I care about, I'll look at the preview. But I'm old enough to know it's probably half lies. At least it'll give me an idea what's coming. It'll help the videogame manufacturers make money, and we all on some level want that to happen because we want to keep having videogames. It gives you guys something to write about besides being angry about people, so keep doing the previews, man. Keep doing what you do.
If we support the games, then the PR teams can buy better puff pastries.
Those puff pastries -- that is something that just leaps off the page. Just reading this, I could taste those puff pastry canapes.
[Laughs.]
Oh my God. I will be making fun of this article for 10 years. I'm not young enough to be genuinely angry about it. We've all had that day. I have months at a time where I sit down at a computer and fire up the development environment, and fire up Photoshop and go, "Oh this is stupid." And I just go take a nap.
I've been writing games for 20 years. I am burned out as heck. When I read this article about this guy who just can't take it anymore, I am totally there with him. There are plenty of days where I have written this article. But here's what then happens. I don't publish it. I don't give it to an editor. I don't press the "send it to the world" button. I just put it in a little folder and I don't think about it anymore and I go have a few stiff drinks and I get back to my job. [Laughs.] I don't publish it. Oh my God.
There was no editor for that article. There was no process. There was no thought. That's too expensive. Thought and reflection costs money. All of these sites run on the thinnest of shoestrings. So he wrote a thing that got a lot of people talking about it -- and we are talking about it. I've made him some money with my link. I didn't link to a relink or an archive or whatever. I went straight to the article. I made the guy some money. He still needs to eat. He wrote a really deliciously well crafted piece of clickbait, and I appreciate craftsmanship. He just did the right thing at the right time and he'll get a whole bunch of clicks, he'll make a thousand dollars, and then he gets to stay in his apartment for a month. That's fine.
Okay, okay. I don't want to continue to beat this particular deceased mare. So, you wanted to talk about game criticism and, as you said, "the simplistic identity politics wormhole that has sucked all air out of the room."
[Sighs.] So, I'm just gonna zoom out meta really quick. Everything on the Internet now works on clicks. Everyone from the lowest blogger to The New York Times gets paid by clicks. You write something for 1,000 clicks, you make $n. You write something that gets 2,000 clicks, you make twice that. This is an oversimplification, but that's the basic idea. When you write something, you don't want to be telling the hard truth. You don't want to make the world a better place. You want to get clicked, and that's how you eat. And that's the system.
I think that the system has certain effects on how people communicate and how people think. If you write an article that makes people angry and people get super-angry and they keep going to it and arguing about it and going to that page and arguing about it, that's the most efficient way to make money. And the most efficient way to make people angry is to go to certain sorts of politics and certain sorts of identity politics and just bang the drum and everyone gets mad, and then they'll go to your comments section and they'll get in big arguments and that's more and more and more clicks. And, you know, I can't change the system. It just developed and here it is and we all just have to deal with it in our own ways.
I delete a lot of bookmarks. A lot of websites that I love get infected by it to varying degrees, and I just go there less. When people write a headline -- clickbait is really popular and I think it is a very accurate term. You will see a website like "Five Things You Didn't Know about Cherries" or this next one's a real example from Slate: "You've Been Making Scrambled Eggs the Wrong Way Your Whole Life." Let us tell you the right way. The headlines themselves are designed to make you angry.
The headlines themselves are designed to raise your blood pressure just to click and go, "Oh hell yeah I know how to make scrambled eggs. I'm gonna go to the forums and let's argue about scrambled eggs."
Let's not. Scrambled eggs are fine. Scrambled eggs don't need our help. Videogames are afflicted by this, but everyone's afflicted by this now. Identity politics are the best ways to get the clicks. If I was working for Kotaku, I would write articles all the livelong day that was like -- what's a game? Splatoon. Splatoon's a game that just came out.
"Splatoon's an Example of White Male Privilege." Say I wrote an article with that headline. It doesn't matter what the article is about. People are going to click on that link. It doesn't necessarily -- I don't know. I've never played Splatoon. For all I know it is all about white male privilege. So, if anyone wants a quote to pull out of context: Splatoon is all about white male privilege. There. "Noted Indie Developer Calls Splatoon Racist." [Laughs.] Why not? I need the attention, too. We don’t get a lot of press.
People single out the gaming press for it, but all press works like that on the Internet. And because the Internet is the only press -- in my country now, that's how all the press works. I personally think it kind of sucks but that's just where we are. All of everyone's wants and needs have added up to that and we just kind of have to live with it, but every once in a while, I'm still gonna say, "This isn't great. I'm not enjoying this very much." It won't change anything, but at least once in a while people should say it.
To zoom back in a little bit, what sorts of things specifically in games are getting in the way of meaningful, substantive rhetoric?
You said games. Do you mean games or the games press?
I guess any part of it?
People who write games are just doing what they always do. The people who write games are artists, and every artist has a thing they do and they do that. Art is a direct product of our brains. Every work of art is a direct product of what its creator is like. I have a certain kind of game I write. I write fantasy role-playing games. If you turned me around and said, "Write me a sports game or write a strategy game," I wouldn't do a very good job. I got a thing I do and I've got a sort of story I write. That's how artists work. If you go to Van Gogh and ask him to paint a Renoir, if you go to Renoir and ask him to paint a Van Gogh -- oh, they are painters, they make paintings, which is another thing that used to exist. If you go to Van Gogh and tell him to paint a Renoir, you're going to get a crappy painting.
You can get an artist to change what they do somewhat, but you can only push that needle a little bit.
Games are made by people who love to create, and they go out and they create their thing, and you'll like it or you won't like it. If you don't like it, find something you like and support the heck out of it. If you don't find anything you like, I don't know what to tell you. You have to go write it yourself or you have to wait for it to come along, or you have to accept that other people just don't like what you like.
I am one of the few people who has been lucky enough to be able to say, "I'm looking around, I'm not seeing what I like. I'm going to write what I like." That was how I started Spiderweb Software. That was exactly the situation where I wrote my first game, Exile. I wanted to play a certain sort of game. No one was making it, so I wrote it. Now, only a few people can do that. It's very rare to have the time or the opportunity or the resources, let alone talent, whatever that means.
So, yeah, artists are gonna do what they're gonna do and they put it out in the world and then the press will cover it or not cover it. YouTubers will cover it or not cover it.
From the creator end of it, that's kind of the end of the discussion. You make a game and it gets to the press and the critics and the YouTubers and the Redditors and 4chan and then everyone starts shouting at each other. That's not our fault.
Maybe. But devs also do a fair amount of shouting as well.
But what do you think the games press could be doing to improve the industry in some fashion?
I have to dial back my arrogance a tad here.
Making a living doing press on the Internet is hard. It is a hard, to a certain extent, unsolved problem. I make fun of Polygon, but, man, I would not be the guy in charge of making Polygon make money. I would not want to be the one to figure out how to get Polygon to pay its payroll every month. Internet news is a tough, tough business. I get angry about the clickbait, but but the reason that they do it that way is they have to to survive.
Advertising doesn't make a lot of money and most people just install an ad blocker anyway. So, when I have to say, "What would I have them do?" The thing is I have to reel back and apologize to Polygon. I don't know what they should do.
There's your pullquote: "I apologize to Polygon."
[Laughs.] No, the pull quote now is, "Racist Indie Developer Apologizes."
[Laughs.] "Racist Indie Developer Likes Polygon." That would be on Kotaku.
You said all that stuff about Splatoon, so you can't deny it.
Um, okay. I gotta let myself drop this.
But I don't think I should criticize clickbait until I say what they should do, and I don't know. I can't in good faith give them business advice. That would put them out of business. I don't know what they should do.
And believe me, I've gotten more fun out of this Rock Band 4 article than out of any game article I've read in years. So I don't know. I'm middle-aged, and one of the things I've learned to do is just a lot of times say, "Man, I don't know. Just keep doing that thing you do."
I do think that if more people could do that, the Internet would be a nicer place.
Just chill out, let things and people be?
Yeah. Sometimes you gotta speak up, but I think maybe the line for when you gotta speak up -- you gotta be careful where you draw that line or everyone's just angry at each other all the time. We're all just people. Unless someone is actually going out and killing people serially -- unless someone is actually sending threats. If someone is sending threats on Twitter, I don't care what extreme of the political spectrum is. You're not my friend.
If you read an article on Gamasutra that pisses you off, it's okay to be pissed off. I've read plenty of stuff on Gamasutra the last year that pissed me off. Don't try to put them out of business. They still gotta eat, too. If they're ticking you off so much, go to another site. If that site doesn't exist, go to Reddit or go to -- there's plenty of places to discuss videogames. If you're angry, believe me, I have plenty of problems with the ethics of how Gawker Media does what it does, but you know what I do? I just don't go. If they suck enough for a long enough time, they're gonna go out of business on their own. You don't need to send companies emails like, "Don't you dare advertise on Gamasutra because they wrote about an article about videogames that I disagree with so the people who work there shouldn't be able to feed their children anymore."
What is that? What is that?
I'm totally in favor of saying to the videogame press: What you're doing is not helping. What you're doing is not helping me. That's a fair feedback to say.
But then don't destroy them.
It's a very teenage mindset. I was that way when I was a teenager. I would get in arguments for days over whether PC or Mac was better. I'm never going to get any of those hours of my life back. Now it's just, you know, you use your computer and I use my computer.
You touched on this a little before, but, something from your emails was about the lack of things in the games media about "how to make games more reliably, ways to make games more fun, discussions like that." What's missing to you, and why aren't we seeing more of that?
What I love about videogames is videogames are about games. It is about play. Videogames are a very innocent, silly, trivial -- at the heart of it, it's a silly, trivial, childlike thing. The word I use to describe the videogame industry is "shaggy." It's a bunch of weirdos making weird toys. There's sort of a joy and playfulness to it.
I'll give you an example of a game that I thought was very joyous and playful and silly that I enjoyed immensely. And this is gonna be -- I'm picking this game very specifically. I'm talking about a game called Gone Home.
Now, Gone Home is a game that has been in the middle of a lot of -- there's been a lot of praise from one certain side of the political spectrum. Then it gets lots of anger from other sides of the political spectrum. I loved the game. I think it may be a smidge over-priced, but it was two hours and I had an absolute blast. Because what Gone Home is about, at the very heart of it, is you're at home alone, all of your family's gone, and you spend a couple hours going into their rooms and going through their stuff. You read their diaries and you go through their letters and you go through your parents' underwear drawer and find a condom and it weirds you out. You find out all of their secrets. It's simultaneously creepy because you're in the house in the middle of the night and you don't know what happened, and yet it plays into a very fundamental human fantasy of just going through someone's stuff and reading their diary and reading their secrets. It's cool and playful and even when I -- there's a sort of transgressive quality to what you're doing that really is neat.
I took joy in that, the same sort of joy I take in Bayonetta 2, kicking a giant tentacle monster in the face. Love the heck out of that game. That I play in Rock Band, hacking my way through a tough song on drums. Videogames are a silly, trivial thing.
Academics want to come in and define everything and pin it down, and political people left and right want to come in and make it be about all their political stuff, and in a sense I don't think it's ever gonna work because the people who create games are people who create games. We are silly, trivial people doing a silly, trivial thing. I could not give less of a rat's ass what Ian Bogost feels about any of it. I'm just gonna do what I do.
Isn't having a break or a respite -- isn't that meaningful enough?
Luckily for me, luckily for gamers -- people talk about it, people criticize about it, academics write papers about it, but in the end art is only ever about one thing. It is a conversation between people who create it and people who consume it. I make a thing, you play a thing, you get things from it. Maybe you'll like it, maybe you don't like it, maybe you'll appreciate it in the way I intended to, maybe you'll appreciate it in a totally new way that I totally didn't think about it. But that's how all art works.
Now, off to the side, there are critics. Critics are valuable. Critics give feedback to creators to help the creators understand the effects of what they do is having. Critics say to the consumers, "Well, I know you like it in this way, but did you think about this? Did you notice this? Did you look at it this way?" It can help -- a good critic will help someone who enjoys movies enjoy movies more because they understand them better. That's how the system is supposed to work and I think it's great.
When people talk about, "Should games merely be fun? Or should they have more ludic dissonance?" Or whatever. God. The impossible language these academics have come up with. It's like -- they’re not even going to talk about fun. Game critics don't like to use the word "fun," which I think is weird, but -- you know, fine. It's their job. They have to come up with their own terms nobody understands and then argue about those terms until time itself grinds to a halt.
In the end, I'll make a game and I'll give it to you and it will affect you in some way, or it won't. Sometimes the way it affects you, we classify with the word, "Fun." But it can be fun or it can not be fun and critics can say it's not affecting them the right way or the wrong way. I'm pretty much hands off on the whole thing. The things people will like, people will seek out and buy. Things that people don't like, they will not. Critics will give their opinions on it. And that's pretty much the system. I think it's great.
Over the period of time you've been making games, how receptive do you feel the people who make games are to criticism? Has it changed at all? Have they gotten more welcoming? Less?
I tend to be a sort of a stay-at-home introvert. I don't meet a lot of people who do what I do. I usually just am home hanging out with my friends. I don't go to a lot of conventions. But I have over the years met and talked to a lot of people who make games: board games, card games, comic books. I hang out with a lot of creators. By and large almost every creator I have met is very attuned to people's opinions. In fact, they have to fight to not read people's opinions. They're always paying attention to how people react to it. "What are they saying? How did it make them feel? What did they like? What did they not like?"
Creators care. In my experience, people who make games really, genuinely care about whether they're giving people the desired effect. Yeah.
Do you think there's more that could be done to better criticize games?
I feel like I can't complain because at this point there are so, so many outlets for discussion on games. there so, so many outlets for game criticism, for game discussion, that anyone can find somewhere what they want. If you are of a more -- for example, like, there's a game website called Offworld, which is a much more liberal, feminist place to analyze games. And for people who want that, it's that. And the people there -- and I don't read it a lot, but from what I've seen, they're doing good work. They're making a best faith effort to write about games in an interesting and engaging way. And on the other hand, if you want a different style of game conversation, there's Reddit and 4chan. if you want a different style, then, there's Something Awful or The Escapist. Or the YouTubers.
There are so many places for game criticism. There are so many people voicing their opinion that I think at this point, anyone can find what they want and what people need to do now is calm down and say, "Hey. Those people over there, they've got their jam. They've got their thing. And we over here, we have our thing. We don't need to go to war."
As long as no one's doxing anyone, as long as no one's sending pizzas to anyone's house in the middle of the night, we're all good. We all got a place. We all got people to hang out with.
Once again, this is my middle-aged, liberal live and let live. Life is short. Don't argue about stuff. It's just videogames. It's just vidya.
All these years later, then, what seems weird to you about the videogame business?
Nothing.
I think that the videogames industry has settled into a kind of very rational place. I mean, nothing is perfect. Nothing is ever going to be perfect. A lot of places to buy games. A lot of games being made. No matter what your tastes, I'm sure I could find some games you love. There's a lot of huge outlets. Steam and iTunes and medium-sized outlets like GoG or Origin or whatever. There's so many places to get games. There's so many different sorts of games. A lot of people are making a lot of money. The AAA business is having its weird issues, but the AAA business has always had weird issues.
The only problem I really have with the game industry at this point -- and of course I'm going totally regret this the moment the conversation ends. Someone's going to, "What about this thing? It's horrible." If you went up to me on the street and said, "Wasn't this horrible?" I'd say, "Yeah, that's totally horrible. I just forgot about it."
The way that full-time employees are treated in the AAA business is a problem. It's not okay. I would say that I would avoid getting in a job in AAA game development, except they wouldn't hire me. I'm 45. If you're north of 40, unless you're, like, the biggest name in the world, nobody's hiring you. They want a 22-year-old who you can force into 80 hours of crunch a week. Some kid who doesn't know any better and isn’t thinking about getting married and having children.
I don't want to go on the record as saying there are no problems in the game industry. There are problems in the game industry. There's a harassment problem on the Internet, which is horrible, that is a general Internet problem, not a videogame problem. It's happening all over the place. But I think that a certain extent, the issue of harassment is overstated. If someone sends you a scary tweet, it is still just a tweet. It is 140 characters on a screen. It is upsetting. Believe me. I have been there. It is upsetting to get scary, crazy tweets and scary, crazy emails. It is bad. It makes you want to go to a contractor and find out the price to get a moat dug around your house.
But once again, it's still just glyphs on a screen.
Apart from arresting people who make death threats, I have no solution for it. I have no idea what to do to reduce harassment on the Internet in all fields, over all websites. It’s a problem I honestly cannot think of any kind of solution to. Smarter people can do that.
Are there weird things around today still that you remember puzzling over, like, 20 years ago? Like, they're still around?
The games industry is so unbelievably different now than 20 years ago. Everything is different. When I started, the worldwide web did not exist in any meaningful way. Just to give an example. It took me a long time to be convince someone to give me the ability to accept credit cards because nobody believed you could have a profitable business on the Internet. That is how different is now from when I started.
So, yeah. People complain about how hard it is to get an indie-game company going? Yeah, try it when you can't accept credit cards and there is no web and see how far you get.
[Laughs.]
It's art, and making a living selling art always sucks. There is no artform where people say, "Oh, yeah, you're totally gonna make cash in this job. Just become a musician. You'll just be rolling in cash. Become a writer. They'll be throwing bags of $100 bills at you the moment you walk through the door."
That's not how art works. You go into because you love it and because you're not good for anything else, and then you see if you can cobble a living together somehow.
We're so lucky to begin with videogames now because how often does any human get the ability to deal with an artform when it is so new and so fresh and so unformed and no one has any idea what it can do or where it will go. It's like, I've been playing videogames since there were videogames. Since they started to exist.
I am so lucky to have an artform that I get to experience in its entirety. Like, the whole history of videogames I have gotten to experience. Every advancement I saw when it was new. I got to play the very first platformer just when it was out and go, "Wait, so you press a button to jump over the barrels? That's cool."
It's terrific.
People shouldn't get so angry. No one knows what videogames are going to be like in one year, five years, 10 years. We're all gonna be -- maybe in 10 years, we're all gonna have an Oculus Rift bolted to our face and we're going to spend time talking to our anime boyfriends or girlfriends. That's gonna be videogames, and everyone's gonna go play Pong in virtual reality.
So we've been criticizing the audience and the press. Is there anything about the dev side of things you'd like to explore?
I don't like calling out devs unless I really feel something. There's very little that's really extensively ticked me off lately.
Except for one thing. It's that game developers need to be so much more super-clear about when they're saving your progress. I think that when you try to quit a game, a game should say, "Are you sure you wanna quit? It has been this number of minutes since I've last saved."
That is the one feature I want people to start implementing. I'm playing Bayonetta and I want to quit, but I don't know how long it's been since it's saved. I'd like to say, "Yeah, if you quit now you're gonna miss two minutes of save time." I think that would be a fantastic feature and very easy to implement. That is my one vote for making the world for videogames a better place.
When we started off, you said you were "indie" before "indie" was "indie." A lot of hand quotes there. But do you feel the sites and magazines -- do they really pay attention to people from that time period?
I don't think I deserve that much attention. I think the amount of attention I deserve to the extent that anyone deserves anything is more than zero, but less than a lot of devs. There's AAA indies out there doing really cool, exciting stuff, and I can't say in good conscious that I deserve more press than them. So, I take my press where I can get it.
Oh, it doesn't have to be specific to you. Just in general.
It is my experience that young people do not have a huge amount of interest with listening to old people talk about what it was like when the world was young and I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time! When shareware was sold on floppy disks in a kiosk at the mall and my dad was eaten by wolves!
Nobody cares. I can tell some things that are interesting to me. Nobody cares. They just wanna know next Madden is gonna be like.
Okay, well. I'm here. What's one thing?
Sometimes I wish kids could experience what it is like to be truly unplugged. I grew up in the 1970's, which puts me in the last generation to know what it is like to not have a magic device in your pocket that can call anywhere in the world and talks to the sky.
You went for a walk, and you were cut off from the world. You could just be Alone.
I'm not going to lie to you. Sometimes I genuinely miss it. Sometimes I think people should just spend a week going camping and separating from the clouds of electrons that surround us and drive us mad and make us get furious in arguments about how problematic this episode of Game of Thrones was or wasn't. Is Gone Home really a game?
One second spent arguing whether Gone Home is a game or not is one second of your precious, irreplaceable life wasted. Sometimes I just hang onto memories before any of the Internet happened and it just gives me a little peaceful place in my brain to hide for a minute.
I wish people had that more.
But I'm old. |
Internal Treasury Department emails obtained by The Daily Caller show that in June 2009 a high-ranking Treasury official planned a backroom meeting to discuss the pension plans for 20,000 nonunion Delphi salaried retirees.
Those retirees lost between 30 and 70 percent of their pensions, as well as their healthcare, life insurance and other benefits. Unionized employees working alongside them, however, saw their pensions and benefits made whole.
The Obama administration has blamed this decision on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), a federal government agency that handles private-sector pension benefits issues. But these internal emails indicate the Treasury Department was involved to a greater degree than the administration has conceded publicly.
“Anything new on the PBGC front regarding Delphi?” General Motors official Walter Borst wrote in an email to Treasury officials Matt Feldman and Harry Wilson on June 9, 2009.
“I am meeting with them tomorrow and will have more to report after the meeting.” Feldman replied to Borst, copying Wilson.
Although Treasury officials have pointed to the PBGC during congressional testimony as the decision makers, this correspondence indicates the agency’s involvement in the decision to terminate the pensions.
“Have you guys begun a dialogue with the UAW over your desire to see the hourly plan terminated?” Treasury’s Feldman wrote in another email to GM officials on June 30, 2009, copying Wilson.
“One concern I have is that while the PGBC [sic] is likely to agree to terminate, it’s not clear what position they will take on the Benefit Guaranty. At a minimum this could get messy and the UAW should probably be brought into the loop.”
Borst responded that GM had not “begun any conversations with the UAW pending hearing back from you and the PBGC. We can begin that dialogue but our reading of the benefit guarantee is clear that it’s for the benefit of the retirees and not the PBGC.”
GM’s understanding that “you [Treasury] and the PBGC” would jointly communicate with the automaker about the Delphi pensions is significant. Only the PBGC is legally permitted to make a move toward discontinuing a public benefit pension plan.
Feldman replied with an acknowledgement that it was Treasury, not the PBGC, that was calling the shots. (RELATED: House investigation finds Treasury, Obama officials “clearly involved”)
“Keep in mind we need the PBGC’s help to terminate this plan so we will have to deal with the PBGC,” Feldman wrote. “If you think there is a way to cause its unilateral termination (outside of Delphi going down an 1113 process) let me know.”
A Section 1113 process involves a debtor in bankruptcy that seeks a court’s approval to reject an existing collective bargaining agreement with a labor union.
The email chain was titled “Delphi Hourly Plan.” Delphi’s unionized hourly retirees originally saw their pension plans terminated together with the nonunion Delphi salaried retirees’ plans in a process that commenced on July 31, 2009.
Later, in September 2009, the union retirees’ plans were topped up while nonunion retirees’ plans remained terminated.
These emails contradict July 2012 congressional testimony Feldman gave during an investigation by the subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs.
“As a result of the Delphi Corporation bankruptcy, for example, Delphi and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation were forced to terminate Delphi’s pension plans,” Feldman told Congress. “Which means there are Delphi retirees who unfortunately will collect less than their full pension benefits.”
“The decision that the PBGC made with respect to the pensions,” Feldman continued in his testimony, “was independent of anything that Treasury or I had to say to the PBGC. … “I was not a decision-maker.”
Neither Wilson or Feldman has responded to The Daily Caller’s request for comment
A total of three committees have investigated the Delphi Corporation bankruptcy, starting with the House Oversight Committee. When TheDC published emails in August that documented a greater degree of Obama administration involvement, the House Ways and Means Committee launched its own investigation. (RELATED: Emails show Geithner, Treasury drove cutoff of nonunion Delphi workers’ pensions)
The House Education and Workforce committee rekindled a long-dormant investigation as well. (RELATED: Obama admin threatened with subpoenas for details on Delphi pensions)
The Treasury Department has stonewalled all three committees, prompting each to threaten Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner with subpoenas.
House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Dave Camp has asked President Obama to clarify whether he plans to assert executive privilege over the documents. (RELATED: Congressional leaders tell Obama to turn over documents or claim executive privilege)
Delphi Back Room Deals
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Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator is currently one of the top-selling games on the popular PC gaming service Steam.
In Dream Daddy, you are a recently widowed father with an 18-year-old daughter moving to a new town trying to find love and friendship. You can choose to go on dates with one of the town’s other eligible dads and hopefully have a satisfying ending of which there are multiple kinds. You can also customize your character and even make him transgender. There is also a trans man you can date
The game’s creators, Leighton Gray and Vernon Shaw (a queer woman and a straight man), are deftly aware of taking the subject matter seriously even though the game has an overall light tone since romance is the goal.
“The entire time we were writing the game, we were very, very worried about treating homosexuality as a joke. That was a chief concern, and that’s specifically why we brought on consultants, why we brought our friends, to make sure the game was sincere,” Shaw said in an interview with Kotaku.
Since its release in late July the queer centric game has grown in popularity and currently has over 1,500 very positive user reviews. The game even has popular straight “let’s play” Youtubers making videos of their play-throughs. In an industry that usually caters to white heterosexual males that is a huge step in progress for the LGBT community.
Many LGBT “gaymers” are starved for representation with few and far between games offering same-sex romantic options like in the popular Bioware games, Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Others just want queer characters to play like Tracer from the first person shooter Overwatch who was confirmed in December to be a lesbian in the games official comic book. |
The portrait is too narrow. Thomas Mulcair risks being reduced to stereotype.
There it was again last week, when the New Democratic leader defended himself at a parliamentary committee against misuse of staff. Pens were at the ready for the usual descriptives. Bristling, prickly, short-fused, even if on this occasion they were less evident.
They overwhelm him. His inordinate talent is still recognized – the precision of his mind, his trenchant power of articulation, the depth of his knowledge. And he is by no means falling. The NDP is a force.
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But the burning-man caricature is boxing him in. Mr. Mulcair won't get much further unless the image changes, unless the real man becomes manifest.
And what might that be?
To understand him, a friend was saying, you have to go back to his high-school days. You have to know about the unorthodox priest who mentored him. You have to know about the group that emerged around him.
The mentor was Father Alan Cox, his teacher in Laval, Que., who died six months ago. "He forced us to give back to life," Mr. Muclair once said of him. He was a priest who wore jeans and sweaters and drove an old police car with flashing lights and a radio transmitter. He took the young students on character-building retreats and trips overseas. He took them out of their comfort zone. Don't let the cynics get you down, was the message – change the world.
"He was a very progressive guy, an incredible influence," Mr. Mulcair told me one night over dinner. "He had us out working the poorest parts of town, he got us involved politically, he got us involved in intellectual debate." It may sound maudlin, he said, but he and the group felt a sincere sense of purpose, a responsibility to help the poorest in society. "The high-school group that we formed together, we're still friends."
But if the social conscience, the sense of altruism, is still present in Mr. Mulcair, it doesn't register in the raw political atmosphere of Ottawa. "People don't understand him," said Peter Smoczynski, a documentary filmmaker who attended high school with him. "He comes out of what you might call a grassroots community movement. Cox was a force of nature. His influence is still here."
It wasn't all good. One of Father Cox's class trips to Portugal came to tragedy when a student fell to his death from a hotel window. Mr. Mulcair, 14 at the time, was there.
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The tragedy contributed to an extraordinary bonding, Mr. Smoczynski said: "It was like a dead poets' society bond." Mr. Mulcair, with hair below his shoulders back then, was a leader. "The talent was evident. Watching him debate in the roundtables Cox held, he never needed a script. He retained everything and could make the words dance."
The current image of Mr. Mulcair as a prototypical politician with a giant get-ahead ego is wrong, Mr. Smoczynski said. "He has drive and unfettered determination, but it's toward a belief in principle: Life is truth and all else follows."
His admirers point to his leaving the Quebec Liberal government of Jean Charest as an example of principle he learned from another mentor, Claude Ryan. Mr. Charest wanted to turn a big park over to developers. Mr. Mulcair, as environment minister, said no. Offered a diminished cabinet role, he refused again and resigned.
What would he do next? He could have joined another federal party, but he chose the NDP, which, at the time, was nowhere in Quebec. Against overbearing odds, he won a by-election seat in 2007, giving the party a base to work from. The New Democrats won 59 seats in Quebec in the 2011 election.
There is no doubting his strengths, but many wonder whether it's already too late. A new generation is on the horizon and he has that old-school image. Father Cox, who counselled him along the way, is gone. Mr. Mulcair delivered the eulogy. |
A hurricane with winds in excess of 180 miles per hour is scary enough. But some corners of the Internet are stirring additional panic -- and attracting additional clicks -- by referring to an extreme hurricane category that doesn’t even exist.
The web post appeared as Hurricane Irma was powering through the Caribbean, days ahead of an expected landfall somewhere in Florida. The storm was one of the most powerful to form in the Atlantic Ocean in decades, with sustained winds as high as 185 miles per hour.
Into this maelstrom came a website posing as an arm of CNN (spoiler, it’s not) posting a page headlined, "HURRICANE IRMA could be a Category 6 by the time it hits East Coast."
The advertising-filled page has almost no content of its own -- just an audio recording of a folksy, older-sounding woman rambling, stream-of-consciousness style, about the approach of Irma. At one point, she says, "The wind speeds are way up there into the category 6 territory."
A flurry of other questionable websites also played with the idea of Irma becoming a Category 6 storm.
There is no such thing. The scale used by the National Hurricane Center only goes as high as 5.
Why we use the current scale
The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale was developed by Herbert Saffir, an engineer in Coral Gables, Fla., and Robert Simpson, who headed the National Hurricane Center from 1967 to 1973. The scale used wind speeds as a guide to predict the extent of structural damage.
"Saffir, an engineer and expert on wind damage who helped write the Dade County, Fla., building code, developed the first version of the scale in 1971 for a United Nations report on construction that could stand up to high winds," wrote Jack Williams the founding weather editor of USA Today and co-author of Hurricane Watch: Forecasting the Deadliest Storms on Earth.
As for Simpson, Williams wrote, one of his formative experiences at the National Hurricane Center came with the approach of Hurricane Camille to the Mississippi coast on Aug. 16, 1969. The storm was shaping up to be extremely dangerous, but Simpson grappled with the best way to communicate this to residents in the storm’s path.
"Simpson broke the Weather Bureau's rule against using specific wind speed or surge figures in forecasts -- they were supposed to say things such as ‘strong winds and dangerously high water are expected,’ " Williams wrote. "After it was all over, despite the success of the evacuations, Simpson felt he needed a better way to communicate what a storm is capable of doing. He correlated Saffir's wind damage rankings with the surge potential to create the scale used today."
While officials at the National Hurricane Center began using Simpson’s new scale internally, it only began releasing it to the public in 1975, amid clamor by the media for an easily understandable metric.
Officially, the Saffir-Simpson scale is based on a hurricane's sustained wind speed. "Hurricanes reaching Category 3 and higher are considered major hurricanes because of their potential for significant loss of life and damage," according to the National Hurricane Center. "Category 1 and 2 storms are still dangerous, however, and require preventative measures."
The now-familiar scale of 1 to 5 breaks down as follows:
Category Sustained winds (mph) Types of damage 1 74-95 Very dangerous winds will produce some damage 2 96-110 Extremely dangerous winds will cause extensive damage 3 111-129 Devastating damage will occur 4 130-156 Catastrophic damage will occur 5 157+ Catastrophic damage will occur
The scale has changed in one significant way over the years. In 2010, the federal agency removed references to storm surge from the scale after some surge expectations proved to be off-base. (Storm surge refers to how far open waters reach beyond their normal levels on coastal land.) Instead, the center directs people to more specific forecasts about storm surge.
Unlike the Fujita scale for tornadoes, which runs from 0 to 5, the Saffir-Simpson scale uses measurements taken before a storm hits land. The Fujita ratings are assigned after a storm has hit and the damage is investigated.
Should there be a Category 6?
From time to time, there has been discussion of whether a new category -- Category 6 -- should be added to the scale. That decision would likely fall to the National Hurricane Center after discussions with scientists in the field, said Jill Trepanier, a hurricane specialist in the Louisiana State University department of geography and anthropology.
A simple extrapolation from the existing categories would probably set the threshold for a new Category 6 around 180 mph, making Irma a good candidate for that category if it existed, said James B. Elsner, the chair of geography at Florida State University who also runs a business called Climatek that develops software for hurricane and tornado risk models.
The idea of creating a Category 6 is often met with skepticism, however.
The most frequently cited reason is that Category 6 would add nothing to the understanding of how destructive the storm would be for buildings and other structures.
"Almost no structures can withstand sustained winds over 155 mph," said Michael M. Bell, an associate professor in atmospheric science at Colorado State University. "At those wind speeds, significant damage or even total destruction of most buildings is expected. By this definition, adding a Category 6 would not add any new information, since the strongest criteria for expected wind damage has already been met."
Bill Read, the former director of the National Hurricane Center, agreed in an email with PolitiFact.
And the scale’s co-creator, Simpson, agreed as well, in a 1991 interview. Asked whether the scale should be modified to include categories above 5, he said that above 155 mph, "it's going to cause rupturing damages (to buildings) that are serious no matter how well it's engineered. … That's the reason why we didn't try to go any higher than that anyway."
In fact, several scientists said that a more useful change, if one had to be made, would be to focus less on wind speed specifically, either by modifying the Saffir-Simpson scale to include other factors or by giving added attention to other measurements.
"I personally believe that we need to work on effectively communicating the other hazards that tropical cyclones bring, including heavy rainfall and storm surge," Bell said. Hurricane Harvey, which hit coastal Texas, "did cause significant wind damage as a Category 4, but much of the devastation in Houston and the surrounding areas was caused by inland flooding from sustained rainfall while Harvey was a tropical storm."
Similarly, "much of the damage from Hurricane Katrina was caused by storm surge when the winds were Category 3," Bell said. "These multiple hazards may not be well-correlated with the Saffir-Simpson Category at landfall, and therefore it is an incomplete description of the storm's destructive potential."
Trepanier said there’s no reason why a Category 6 is needed to communicate how fearsome Irma is. "Irma is a beast," she said. "It is safe to say the wind speeds are rare, but I see no benefit in calling it a Category 6. It should be considered catastrophic. And that is how people should refer to it."
So, as of now, there is no such thing as a Category 6 storm. The web post suggesting that Irma is one rates Pants on Fire. |
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
When the Gulf Disaster happened, President Obama had solid majorities in Congress and a free hand. Instead of using it to protect the public, he grabbed for the favor of oil companies and protected their homicidal, ecocidal practices. Can there be any doubt who Barack really is?
2 Years on, BP Gulf Disaster Proves Obama Just As Oil-Soaked A Political Stooge as Cheney or Bush
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
When you knock your cup of coffee over, that's a spill. When a giant oil company orders employees worldwide to evade safety protocols, and incinerates eleven people and discharges anywhere between 300 million and one billion gallons of toxic oil crude and carcinogenic “dispersants” into the air, water, fish, wildlife and people of the Gulf region, it's not a spill. It's a calculated act of murderous, ecocidal vandalism. It's a criminal conspiracy.
When you take pro-active steps to conceal the extent and effects of a murderous criminal conspiracy, steps like lying to the public about the amount of toxins discharged, or using the Coast Guard, the US Navy, federal and local law enforcement to prevent reporters or the public from flying over open waters, wetlands or beaches to gauge the extent of the disaster, you're a participant in the murderous criminal conspiracy.
When you're running for president, and you know giant oil companies have long histories of disregarding public safety, and you make campaign promises to restrict their reckless practices and you shed the promises like old lizard skins once in office in return for big wads of campaign cash you are every bit as much an oil-soaked partner in crime as Dick Cheney and George Bush were when they were in power.
When you restrict the damages recoverable from BP's holdings on five or six continents to just what can be paid for out of its Gulf revenues, you're protecting your cronies, not the public, and ensuring that BP's reckless operations in the gulf of Mexico will continue till more fish, wildlife and livelihoods are destroyed and until more people die in the next preventable disaster. And when you further protect the oil-soaked corporate criminals from liability by appointing the same clown to manage claims against BP that managed claims at the World Trade Center on 9-11, you can't be taken seriously as anything but another oil-soaked corporate stooge yourself.
When the Gulf disaster started and for seven months afterward, President Obama had whopping majorities in both houses of Congress, along with a mandate in the polls to rein in offshore drilling and a host of other homicidal and ecocidal practices of the energy industry. But this president does not use his political capital for the people or the environment or the noble but vague promises he makes on this or that issue from time to time. For another seven months, House Republicans couldn't even call a meeting without Democratic permission, and Senate Republicans could have been steamrolled with minimal effort. But Barack Obama and his Democrats passed no new laws, promulgated no new executive decisions to regulate Big Oil.
Two years after the Gulf Disaster, instead of seeking a corporate death penalty against BP, Haliburton and its co-conspirators, the Obama Justice Department has indicted a single mid-level BP engineer for erasing emails. Can there be any doubt now that our First Black President is nothing but a cynical and relentless liar, a corporate stooge in blackface who expects black and progressive Americans to have his back, while he stabs repeatedly us in ours?
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Bruce Dixon. Find Black Agenda Report on the web at www.blackagendareport.com.
Bruce A. Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report. He lives and works in Marietta GA, and is a state committee member of the Georgia Green Party. Contact him at bruce.dixon(at)blackagendareport.com. |
The Economist, December 23, 1995
[Like most Economist articles, this was published anonymously.]
WHEN George Bush was America's president and Daniel Ortega was Nicaragua's, Mr Ortega threatened to cancel a local peace deal that the Americans had painstakingly brokered. Hearing the news, an enraged Mr Bush grasped for an insult worthy of the offence. "That little man," he snarled repeatedly, dripping contempt. "That little man."
Actually Mr Ortega is 5 foot 10 inches (1.78 metres) tall, which makes him a fraction of an inch taller than the average American--and not that much shorter than Mr Bush, who is 6'2". Yet when Mr Bush was searching for an atomic but not obscene insult, it was stature that he immediately seized upon. In that respect, he was not being presidential: merely, rather, primate. For the primate Homo sapiens tends to sort its males by height.
Every boy knows, practically from birth, that being "shrimpy" is nearly as bad as being a chicken, and closely related at that. Call a man "little", and he is understood to be demeaned. When Mr Bush called Mr Ortega "that little man", his primate-male cerebellum knew what it was doing. It was engaging in what may be the most enduring form of discrimination in the world.
The bias against short men hurts them. It is unfair. It is irrational. So why is it not taken seriously? A serious question: especially if you happen to be short.
First the bad news
On the advice of our lawyers, we pause here for a mental-health notice. Tall men are invited to forge on, as are women (for whom it is weight, not stature, that is life's bane--but that is another story). Short men, however, proceed at their own peril. What follows will depress them.
Height discrimination begins from the moment male human beings become vertical. Give 100 mothers photographs of two 19-month-old boys who resemble each other closely, except that one is made to look taller than the other. Then ask the mothers which boy is more competent and able. The mothers consistently pick the "taller" one. As boys grow, the importance of height is drummed into them incessantly. "My, how tall you are!" the relatives squeal with approval. Or, with scorn, "Don't you want to grow up big and strong?"
Height hierarchies are established early, and persist for a long time. Tall boys are deferred to and seen as mature, short ones ridiculed and seen as childlike. Tall men are seen as natural "leaders"; short ones are called "pushy". "If a short man is normally assertive, then he's seen as having Napoleonic tendencies," says David Weeks, a clinical psychologist at Royal Edinburgh Hospital. "If he is introverted and mildly submissive, then he's seen as a wimp."
Dr Weeks is 5'2", so he may have an axe to grind. But he can prove his point. Turn, for example, to the work of two American psychologists, Leslie Martel and Henry Biller, whose book "Stature and Stigma" (D.C. Heath, 1987) is especially useful.
Mr Martel and Mr Biller asked several hundred university students to rate the qualities of men of varying heights, on 17 different criteria. Both men and women, whether short or tall, thought that short men--heights between 5'2" and 5'5"--were less mature, less positive, less secure, less masculine; less successful, less capable, less confident, less outgoing; more inhibited, more timid, more passive; and so on. Other studies confirm that short men are judged, and even judge themselves, negatively. Several surveys have found that short men feel less comfortable in social settings and are less happy with their bodies. Dustin Hoffman, that 5'6" actor, is said to have spent years in therapy over his small stature.
The western ideal for men appears to be about 6'2" (and is slowly rising, as average heights increase). Above that height, the advantages of extra inches peter out, though very tall men do not, apart from hitting their heads, suffer significant disadvantages. And medium-sized men do fine (though they typically will say they would like to be taller, just as women always want to be thinner). The men who suffer are those who are noticeably short: say, 5'5" and below. In a man's world, they do not impress. Indeed, the connection between height and status is embedded in the very language. Respected men have "stature" and are "looked up to": quite literally, as it turns out.
One of the most elegant height experiments was reported in 1968 by an Australian psychologist, Paul Wilson. He introduced the same unfamiliar man to five groups of students, varying only the status attributed to the stranger. In one class, the newcomer was said to be a student, in another a lecturer, right up to being a professor from Cambridge University. Once the visitor had left the room, each group was asked to estimate the man's height, along with that of the instructor. The results are plotted in the chart above. Not only was the "professor" thought to be more than two inches taller than the "student"; the height estimates rose in proportion to his perceived status.
It is little wonder, then, that when people meet a famous man they so often say, "I expected him to be taller." If you still doubt that height matters, look around. At the palace of William III at Hampton Court, London, you will see door knockers above eye level: the better to make callers on the king (who was, in fact, decidedly short) feel, literally, lowly. Or sit across from your boss in his office, and see who has the higher chair.
Now the worse news
Perhaps heightism is just a western cultural prejudice? Sadly not. In Chinese surveys, young women always rate stature high among qualifications for a future mate. Indeed, the prejudice appears to be universal.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Thomas Gregor, an anthropologist at America's Vanderbilt University, lived among the Mehinaku, a tropical forest people of central Brazil who were amazed by such new-fangled gadgets as spectacles. Among the Mehinaku, attractive men should be tall: they are respectfully called wekepei. Woe unto the peritsi, as very short men are derisively called (it rhymes with itsi, the word for penis). Where a tall man is kaukapapai, worthy of respect, the short one is merely laughable. His lack of stature is a moral as well as physical failing, for it is presumed to result from sexual looseness during adolescence.
"No one wants a peritsi for a son-in-law," Mr Gregor writes. By many measures--wealth, chieftainship, frequency of participation in rituals--tall men dominate in tribal life. They hog the reproductive opportunities, too. Mr Gregor looked at the number of girlfriends of Mehinaku men of varying heights. He found a pattern: the taller the man, the more girlfriends he had. As he explained, "the three tallest men had as many affairs as the seven shortest men, even though their average estimated ages were identical."
He went on to note that the Trobriand Islanders of the Pacific, the Timbira of Brazil, and the Navajo of America were among the many other traditional cultures that also prize male height. "In no case have I found a preference for short men," he said. Among anthropologists, it is a truism that in traditional societies the "big man" actually is big, not just socially but physically.
It is not hard to guess why human beings tend instinctively to defer to height. Humans evolved in an environment where size and strength--and good health, to which they are closely related--mattered, especially for men. Indeed, they still matter, albeit less than they did. Other things being equal, large males are more to be feared and longer-living; an impulse to defer to them, or to prefer them as mates, thus makes good evolutionary sense. Perhaps the impulse is softened in a modern industrial society. But how much? Consider six aspects of a supposedly advanced culture.
Politics. In all but three American presidential elections this century, the taller man has won. By itself this might be a coincidence. And of course some short politicians thrive (examples include France's Francois Mitterrand and Britain's Harold Wilson). But the pattern is still clear, and is also found in:
Business. A survey in 1980 found that more than half the chief executives of America's Fortune 500 companies stood six feet tall or more. As a class, these wekepei were a good 2.5 inches taller than average; only 3% were peritsi, 5'7" or less. Other surveys suggest that about 90% of chief executives are of above-average height. Similarly for:
Professional status. Looking at several professions, one study found that people in high-ranking jobs were about two inches taller than those down below, a pattern that held even when comparing men of like educational and socioeconomic status. Senior civil servants in Britain, for instance, tend to be taller than junior ones. Shorter people also have worse:
Jobs. Give job recruiters two invented resumes that have been carefully matched except for the candidates' height, as one study did in 1969. Fully 72% of the time, the taller man is "hired". And when they are hired, they tend also to earn rather more:
Money. In 1994 James Sargent and David Blanchflower, of America's Dartmouth College, analysed a sample of about 6,000 male Britons whose progress was monitored from birth to early adulthood. Short teenaged boys made less money when they became young adults (aged 23) than their taller peers--even after other attributes, such as scores on ability tests or parents' social status, were factored out. For every four inches of height in adolescence, earnings went up more than 2% in early adulthood. Another survey, of graduates of the University of Pittsburgh, found that those who were 6'2" or taller received starting salaries 12% higher than those under six feet.
Not only do tall people grow richer, rich people grow taller. They enjoy well-nourished childhoods and better health. The stature-success nexus further bolsters the social preference for height. And that preference is expressed in a coin that is even more precious than money, namely:
Sex. Mating opportunities are, at least in evolutionary terms, the ultimate prize of status. And here is the final humiliation for short men. When 100 women were asked to evaluate photographs of men whom they believed to be either tall, average or short, all of them found the tall and medium specimens "significantly more attractive" than the short ones. In another study, only two of 79 women said they would go on a date with a man shorter than themselves (the rest, on average, wanted to date a man at least 1.7 inches taller). "The universally acknowledged cardinal rule of dating and mate selection is that the male will be significantly taller than his female partner," write Mr Martel and Mr Biller. "This rule is almost inviolable." For short men, the sexual pickings are therefore likely to be slim.
So why don't you care?
Is there, then, no good news for short men? No: there is none. And if, having read this far, you do not believe that height discrimination is serious, you are no doubt a tall person in the late stages of denial. Or, perhaps, you cringe at the thought of yet another victim group lining up to demand redress. Surely the notion of SHRIMPs (Severely Height-Restricted Individuals of the Male Persuasion) as an oppressed social group is silly, and the idea of special protections or compensatory benefits for short men preposterous? Actually, no--unless all such group benefits are equally dubious.
In general, the kinds of discrimination worth worrying about should have two characteristics. First, bias must be pervasive and systematic. Random discrimination is mere diversity of preference, and comes out in the wash. But if a large majority of employers prefers whites, for instance, then non-whites' options in life are sharply limited. And second, bias must be irrational: unrelated to the task at hand. If university mathematics faculties discriminate against the stupid, that may not seem fair (not everyone can master set theory); but it is sensible.
In politically correct terms, people who share an unusual characteristic that triggers pervasive and irrational aversion have a strong claim to be viewed as a vulnerable minority group. Is the discrimination against SHRIMPs, then, pervasive? Plainly so. Is it irrational? Except in a few rare cases in which height might affect job performance, obviously. Is it hurtful? Just ask any of the parents who clamour to put their little boys on growth hormones. Will it disappear of its own accord, as people become more enlightened? Be serious. Try to imagine that a century hence, when genetic engineering allows designer children, parents will queue up for shorter boys.
In some respects, indeed, SHRIMPs have it worse than members of ethnic minorities. Jews, Asians and other ethnics often favour each other for jobs, marriages and the rest. If they are disadvantaged within the majority culture, they may at least be advantaged in their own. But short men are disfavoured by more or less everybody, including other short men. If they want to flee, they need to find another planet.
Yet no country seems to have any anti-discrimination protections for SHRIMPs. America now has laws that ban discrimination against 70% or more of its population, including women, the elderly, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Pacific islanders, Aleuts, Indians, and the handicapped--extending to people with back problems or glasses. Britain bans discrimination against women and nearly every ethnic or cultural group, Rastafarians excepted. But SHRIMPs? The whole issue, if it ever arises at all, is simply laughed off.
What accounts for this peculiarity? America's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which oversees the anti-discrimination laws, now boasts a man who has given the subject some thought. He is Paul Steven Miller, who is 4'5" tall. To be exact, he is an achondroplastic dwarf. Medically speaking, a dwarf has a recognisable genetic condition marked by short limbs, average-sized trunk, moderately enlarged head, and so on. This is regarded as a disability in America, and is legally protected against discrimination.
Mr Miller favours protections for such little people. But he opposes extending protections to the "normally" short--men like America's labour secretary, Robert Reich, who is 4'10" and hears no end of it. (Bill Clinton, looking at a model of the White House made from Lego, commented: "Secretary Reich could almost live in there.") Why protect Mr Miller but not Mr Reich? Because, Mr Miller says, one cannot protect everybody. "It would be totally unwieldy to let everybody in." Quite true. But convenient, too, to draw the line so as to include him but exclude a raft of other claimants. Convenience is not a principled reason for leaving short men to suffer their fates.
Indeed, it is hard to find any principled reason. Most of the obvious excuses for excluding SHRIMPs from the list of disadvantaged groups do little but show how arbitrary is the concept of any "group". For example, one might argue that there is no obvious line that demarcates a man short enough to be a SHRIMP. True enough; but in a world where blood mixes freely, there is equally no clear way to distinguish, for instance, a "Hispanic" from an "Anglo", or an American Indian from a "white" man.
Perhaps a "minority group", then, must be an ethnic or hereditary grouping? Plainly not. If women, homosexuals and people in wheelchairs may be minority groups, then surely short men can qualify. American Hispanics have nothing in common except the "Hispanic" label itself (they are mostly identified solely by their names). At least SHRIMPs are all detectably short.
In the West, the past quarter-century has been an era of awakening group consciousness. Blacks and women, Asians and indigenous peoples, homosexuals and the disabled--one by one, all have come to embrace group-based identities and protections. The obese are now reaching for group status; and, in truth, they too have a case. So why not short men? Logically, there seems no way out.
Wee men of the world, unite!
Accordingly, The Economist demands that the European Convention on Human Rights grant SHRIMPs the protections that other disadvantaged minorities have already won. The United Nations should hold global conferences on the status of SHRIMPs. American federal contractors should be checked for height, to see that SHRIMPs get their fair share. Employers should bend over backwards to recruit and promote SHRIMPs, and should be fined for allowing workers to disparage them. Elite universities should make sure that they include sufficient numbers of SHRIMPs among their students and faculties. Not least, newspapers that snidely refer to short men as "SHRIMPs" should be subjected to long lawsuits, and the authors concerned should be sent for sensitivity training (even if they are only 5'7", and write anonymously).
Then again, perhaps not. Knowing that short young men earn less money than other young men is, certainly, interesting. Knowing that only 9% of American Hispanics, as against 24% of non-Hispanics, hold a university degree is also interesting. But what do such facts imply? One does well to remember that they are mere statistical compilations, averages that blur together individuals who have virtually nothing in common. A "Hispanic", for instance, is a mere Spanish-sounding name masquerading as a human being. A SHRIMP, similarly, is no more than a mark on a tape measure. To convert adjectives into nouns--as in "a SHRIMP", or "a black" or "an Asian" or "a homosexual"--is to seize upon a single element of a person's make-up and cast into the background everything else. This kind of thinking may be useful as a tool of social analysis; as a basis for public policy, however, it is treacherous.
For centuries, short men have shrugged their shoulders and carried on. They, at least, still see themselves, and are seen by others, as variegated individuals, not as a monotonal social group. That may be the best approach to all such human characteristics. |
Elon Musk Lays Out His Reasons Against Voting For Trump
As the U.S. presidential election nears its merciful conclusion on Tuesday, Elon Musk came out against Republican candidate Donald Trump last Friday during an interview with CNBC.
“I feel a bit stronger that [Trump] is not the right guy,” said Musk in an interview with CNBC on Friday. ” He doesn’t seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States.” (Source: “Donald Trump’s character reflects poorly on United States, Elon Musk says,” CNBC, November 4, 2016.)
Musk does not feel that the election, however, will have a strong impact on Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock either way, although Musk did support Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s economic and environmental policies, calling them “the right ones.”
Tesla just had its second-most-profitable quarter ever this past Q3, and Tesla stock has been shooting up as a result, supporting what has already been a solid year for TSLA stock.
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While not a passionate endorsement by any means, Musk still appears to favor Clinton in the upcoming election.
Musk is one among many tech luminaries who have come out in support of their favored candidate in this election cycle. Peter Thiel, Musk’s co-founder of PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) and an early investor in Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), is one of the more prominent tech figures to come out in support of Trump.
This particular election campaign has drawn a lot of notable figures into the political sphere, some simply endorsing candidates while others making public shows of backing their candidates.
Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, for instance, promised $20.00 million in donations back in September in order to stop a Trump presidency. (Source: “Facebook co-founder promises $20 million to stop Trump,” L.A. Times, September 9, 2016.)
There has been speculation regarding just how much the results of the election will affect the stock market and a number of holdings. With the election fast approaching, Tuesday will lend credence as to whether there will, in fact, be any sizable shifts in shares following the American presidential nominee.
I’m just glad that this election cycle is finally coming to an end. The nagging question remains, however: what will television news cover once the polls are in? |
Anyone who pays attention to Star Trek lore knows that William Shatner originally offered the role of Spock’s brother Sybok to James Bond actor Sean Connery in his 1989 film “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.”
But apparently that wasn’t even Laurence Luckingbill’s biggest competition for the role. Another actor wanted to take on the renegade Vulcan, and he wasn’t too happy when he lost out on the role.
That actor? Leonard Nimoy.
“He did not say one word to me for quite a long time, other than ‘Hello,'” Luckingbill recently told Star Trek.com. “I found out later he had really, really pushed hard to have this be a double role, a dual role for him.”
Probably thinking back to the days of Spock in a goatee from the Mirror Universe, it seems Nimoy (who had directed the previous two films) had envisioned himself playing not just a half-brother of Spock, but a twin brother.
“I don’t know if this is absolutely true,” Luckingbill said. “That was the scuttlebutt, and I got that from very high up in the food chain of information, that Leonard wanted to play Sybok and play Spock. That would have been a tremendous thing to do that, but since they weren’t twins, they cast me.
“I think Bill wanted a separate actor, and he was right. We were very different people.”
Nimoy apparently kept his distance from Luckingbill — an accomplished stage actor when he was spotted in a PBS special by Shatner himself — for most of the shoot. But the man who continues to be a part of Star Trek today did eventually come around.
“The best compliment I got was, in the last scenes, 20 or 25 weeks later, Leonard looked at me and said, ‘You know, you’re terrific in this,'” Luckingbill said. “I thought that was a great send-off.”
Luckingbill said he knew really nothing of Star Trek when he signed on to the film, except that there was a previous series, there had been previous movies, and that his friend Ricardo Montalban had been in one. But looking back on that experience now more than 20 years old, Luckingbill said fans and critics still don’t really give “Star Trek V” a chance.
The film would go on to gross $52.2 million domestically ($96.6 million today), more than doubling its budget. Yet, it’s one of the lowest-grossing films of the franchise, and ones that many fans say they would rather ignore.
“I know a lot of people criticize Bill for what he didn’t do or what he did do,” Luckingbill said. “Bill invites that because he’s just got a big life and he plays it big. But I found him absolutely wonderful. I liked Bill and, to this day, think he did a good job with that film. He’s a favorite guy of mine.”
Luckingbill, 77, has pretty much retired from screen acting, his last appearance as an unnamed prosecutor in the 2005 television movie “The Exonerated” with Susan Sarandon, Aidan Quinn and Danny Glover. He’s been married to Lucie Arnaz, the daughter of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball (the founders of Desilu Productions, which was the original production shingle for “Star Trek”) in 1980.
To read more of Luckingbill’s interview, including how much he and his late mother-in-law Lucille Ball talked about “Star Trek,” click here. |
In a series of interviews today, Jeremy Corbyn has indicated that Labour MPs will be whipped to oppose military action in Syria, cast doubt over the legality of the strike against Mohammed Emwazi, and said he does not favour a policy of shoot to kill against terrorists in the UK.
Corbyn was again setting out his opposition to military involvement in the Syrian conflict, saying he wanted countries to work towards a “political settlement”. When asked on Sky News whether he would allow Labour MPs a free vote if the issue of intervention came to Parliament, he replied: “I don’t think a free vote is something we are offering.” He also reiterated the stance on ITV.
The Labour leader said that he did not believe that France’s bombing of the Syrian city of Raqqa over the weekend would help the situation. “I don’t think that that bombing is necessarily going to bring about the solution that they believe it might,” he said.
On Friday, Corbyn said that it would have been better if Mohammed Emwazi, also known as ‘Jihadi John’, had been brought before a court, rather than killed in a targeted drone strike. Asked on ITV News whether he would have authorised the strike, he said that he would “only authorise actions which are legal and within the terms of international law”.
Questioned on whether he believed the Emwazi strike was legal, he replied: “I’m awaiting an explanation of where the legal basis was for that incident.”
On the BBC, Corbyn said he would be unlikely to sanction police or security services to shoot to kill in the event of a terrorist attack in the UK similar to the one that occurred in Paris, saying he felt it would be “counterproductive”. He said:
“I’m not happy with a shoot to kill policy in general, I think that’s quite dangerous and I think often can be counterproductive.” |
According to a new report in The Washington Post, President Donald Trump personally called acting National Park Service director Michael T. Reynolds the morning after his inauguration and ordered him to produce photos of the crowd on the Washington Mall that would serve to counter reports that fewer people had attended than four and eight years earlier. According to “three individuals who have knowledge of the conversation,” the Post reported that Trump “also expressed anger over a retweet sent from the agency’s account, in which side-by-side photographs showed far fewer people at his swearing-in than had shown up to see Barack Obama’s inaugural in 2009.” That same morning, White House press secretary Sean Spicer castigated the media for what the administration viewed as false reports about the size of Trump’s crowd. “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration. Period. Both in person and around the globe,” he said, offering no evidence to back up that demonstrably false claim. |
GOOGLE is promoting the idea that ethnic minorities CANNOT be racist toward white people.
The tech giant's search results appear to foreground left-leaning answers to this highly controversial question, rather than giving a view which reflects the fact there is debate over this contentious issue.
Reuters 2 It is not clear whether this is conscious decision from Google, or whether it is a result of the algorithms it uses to compile search results
America is currently locked in a passionate argument about whether some supporters of groups like Black Lives Matter are actually racist towards white people, with people from different sides of the political spectrum offering varying views.
However, Google's search facility offers a rather one-sided solution to this thorny and divisive question.
We searched Google using several terms similar to the phrase: "Can you be racist towards white people?"
Google showed us an explanation which appears to be taken from the Huffington Post.
"Any person can be racist, regardless of their own race," Google's search rankings explained.
"WRONG no they can't racism requires power and prejudice. white people have power to oppress black people because they control the system and ecnomic [sic.] structure in society."
2 Here's what happens if you ask Google 'is it possible to be racist to a white person?'
We also asked if a black person be racist against a white person and were told: "The usage of the word racist relative to a hate speech by blacks on blacks or whites is incorrect. A subjugated group cannot be racist – they can only be prejudicial."
When we asked Google the question "can you be racist towards a white person?" it showed a comment from a blogger called Slapdash Mom.
She wrote: "Prejudice against white folks is not 'racism', it's 'prejudice' or 'discrimination'.
"Racism is something else entirely…it's a system that acts against people of colour in this country (established through slavery and colonisation)…so their [sic.] is a difference."
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The concept that ethnic minorities can be bigoted towards white people is called "reverse racism".
Ask Google what this phrase means and it will offer you an explanation that appears to lay the blame for hatred at the door of a "dominant racial group".
"Reverse racism is a phenomenon in which discrimination, sometimes officially sanctioned, against a dominant or formerly dominant racial or other group representative of the majority in a particular society takes place, for a variety of reasons, often initially as an attempt at redressing past wrongs," the explanation which appears on Google's search results said.
Silicon Valley has come under fire recently for appearing to promote a left-wing agenda. Facebook, in particular, drew particular ire over claims it had allegedly "suppressed Conservative news".
Google recently left Donald Trump off a page which appeared to people who searched for "presidential candidate". It blamed a "bug" for the omission.
A Google spokeswomen said: "Google does not endorse or select responses manually. This content comes from the third-party sites that we do not control. The feature is an automatic and algorithmic match to the search query.
"We welcome feedback, as we’re always working to improve our algorithms. Users and content owners can give feedback on incorrect information through the 'Feedback' button at the bottom right of the WebAnswer." |
SAINT CLOUD – A Muslim couple has invited their friends and neighbors to dine and dialogue in their home in St. Cloud, Central Minnesota, in an event created to bridge differences in the community.
“Sharing a meal to promote understanding is a practice as old as humanity itself,” local author and educator Hudda Ibrahim told SC Times on Sunday, August 27.
Hudda Ibrahim hosted “Dine and Dialogue with a Muslim Neighbor” with her fiancé, Abdi Mahad, in their north St. Cloud apartment building Saturday.
The apartment was filled with Somali and non-Somali friends, neighbors, some of Ibrahim’s current and former students from St. Cloud Technical and Community College, and even Mayor Dave Kleis.
Sharing Sambusas, rice, berries, and fruit, around 65 attendants enjoyed Somali food, some for the first time.
The group also shared one giant sheet cake, which carried the slogan of the event.
Ibrahim and Mahad said they have been noticing the gap and fear between cultures in Central Minnesota more and more in recent months.
“So we decided to host this dinner to bridge that gap and create an environment where understanding, empathy, love, laughter and humor blossom,” she said.
Most importantly, they encouraged people to ask questions to counter stereotypes and correct misconceptions.
“Come to us. Talk to us. Ask us any burning question,” Ibrahim said. “We are more than willing to answer them.”
“I hate Minnesota Nice sometimes,” Mahad said, adding that people sometimes choose to say nothing because they’re worried they’ll say the wrong thing.
“We don’t have to agree over everything,” he added, confirming that despite differences, he still shows love and respect to everybody.
“Both the Bible and Quran mention ‘to love your neighbor as yourself,'” he said.
“If we hold on to our principles of love, respect, and empathy, we can learn to humanize the other.”
The couple hopes to do more dinners like this, and hope the idea spreads to other families and homes.
“We can have a different faith, but we need to celebrate and embrace our diversity,” Ibrahim said.
“I don’t think diversity is weakness. It’s our strength.” |
In just the last two years more data will be created than the previous 5,000 years of humanity put together. The type of data created is expanding rapidly as well, and goes across a wide range of industries, including many you use every day.
Editors note: Predictions sent in from Sencha's CEO Art Landro
In 2015, Art predicted that in 2016 the explosion of data would drastically transform the technology landscape, requiring organizations to visualize all incoming data from IoT devices for rapid decision making and insight into competitiveness and viability. He believes data will remain a key growth area in the coming year.
Read on to learn why, and find out what else Art thinks we have in store for 2017:
In 2017, we will create more data than ever before, creating new challenges around consuming that data to make strategic and tactical decisions.
More data was created in the last two years than the previous 5,000 years of humanity. In 2017, we will create even more data in one year alone. The type of data created is expanding rapidly across a wide range of industries: biotech, energy, IoT, healthcare, automotive, space and deep sea explorations, cybersecurity, social media, telecom, consumer electronics, manufacturing, gaming and entertainment – the list goes on. Yet, recent research has found that less than 0.5 percent of that data is actually being analyzed for operational decision making.
The focus in software will be getting your hands around all that data and being able to use it either strategically to make important long-term decisions, or in real-time to make operational decisions – as there is no value to the data being created if you can’t use it. In order to get ahead and stay ahead of the competition, it will be critical for organizations to leverage web application lifecycle management platforms that have the capability to consume huge amounts of data and present that data in a way that helps them make the right decisions.
The desktop isn’t dead – and it’s here to stay.
Many people predicted that paper would be obsolete by now. It’s not. The same is true for the desktop. In fact, the desktop will be around for another 30+ years. While mobile and tablets will remain important to our everyday lives and simple business processes, people simply do not want to view and analyze data on a small screen.
According to findings of a global survey, “The State of the Modern Web,” recently conducted by Dimensional Research, 80 percent of development professionals believe desktop applications are “absolutely essential” to their business operations. Additionally, the survey found that 81 percent of desktop applications are maintained for more than three years, compared to just 55 percent of smartphone applications. These research results confirm that the desktop is far from dead. The desktop remains the most critical platform for business applications due in part to the massive explosion in the complexity and volume of data, which is driving increased demand for data visualization techniques as users seek to make more informed strategic and operational decisions.
Competition between enterprises and small businesses/startups will heat up.
The number of startups and small software companies building applications that are more flexible, more graphic and more intuitive to replace legacy ERP, CRM and Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems offered by large enterprises will increase. To stay competitive, large software providers such as Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, and Salesforce will need to be much more agile and flexible in building flexible, easy-to-use business critical applications and platforms. We’ll see enterprises adopt a much more open-minded view toward partnerships and what partnerships mean in this digital economy.
CEOs will become more generalists, than specialists, and every company will need a CTO.
As we move deeper and deeper into the Digital Age and technology becomes more prevalent in all industries, CEOs will become more generalists who are focused on building the right teams to succeed, rather than being an expert in every topic. Every company in every industry, from agriculture, mining and manufacturing to logistics, financial services and healthcare, will become a technology company. Additionally, every technology company will need a CTO who has a deep understanding of the company’s technological infrastructure, software development and support needs.
Software developers will rule the digital world.
While developing and building relationships with customers over the last year, I’ve learned that many executives’ number one challenge is finding quality software developers. Today, we live and work in a world where there continues to be massive growth in technological advances and an explosion of technical choices. In this world, developers – specifically, software developers wielding web technology skills and tools that turn ideas into amazing applications which drive operations and businesses around the planet – rule.
According to the previously cited Dimensional Research survey, 76 percent of organizations plan to increase investment in web technologies in 2017. Hiring and retaining quality developer talent will become even more critical as organizations feel the increasing pressure to deliver sophisticated, complex and long-lasting applications quickly, while still providing high quality, long-lived products.
Are you paying more taxes than you have to as a developer or freelancer? The IRS is certainly not going to tell you about a deduction you failed to take, and your accountant is not likely to take the time to ask you about every deduction you’re entitled to. As former IRS Commissioner Mark Everson admitted, “If you don’t claim it, you don’t get it.
Get hands-on experience in performing simple to complex mobile forensics techniques Retrieve and analyze data stored not only on mobile devices but also through the cloud and other connected mediums A practical guide to leveraging the power of mobile forensics on popular mobile platforms with lots of tips, tricks, and caveats.
Write and run code every step of the way, using Android Studio to create apps that integrate with other apps, download and display pictures from the web, play sounds, and more. Each chapter and app has been designed and tested to provide the knowledge and experience you need to get started in Android development. |
Pittsburgh has finalized an agreement with Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi to be its next football coach, a source told ESPN.com on Wednesday.
A news conference is scheduled for Friday.
Narduzzi has coached some of the nation's most productive, physical, blue-collar defenses over the past eight seasons under Spartans coach Mark Dantonio.
Pat Narduzzi has finalized an agreement to replace Paul Chryst at Pittsburgh, according to a source. AP Photo/Al Goldis
The Spartans ranked first in the Big Ten and in the top 10 of FBS in total defense and rushing defense for three consecutive seasons under the 48-year-old Narduzzi, who won the Broyles Award in 2013 as the nation's top assistant coach.
Michigan State has also consistently led or been among the nation's leaders in turnover margin under Narduzzi's watch.
The hiring would be a homecoming of sorts for Narduzzi. He grew up in Youngtown, Ohio, about an hour north of Pittsburgh, and his father, Bill, coached at Youngstown State from 1975 to 1985. Narduzzi inherits a program coming off a fourth straight 6-6 regular season.
Steelers running back Le'Veon Bell, who played at Michigan State, said Panthers players are "going to love him."
"I was an offensive player, so I always went against him in college. But when I watched him react to his defense, I know that our players loved him. They just loved playing for him. He's an overall great guy, a player's coach," he said.
Bell said he's happy Narduzzi will be coaching in the same city as him.
"So, it's crazy that he's going to be right across the street [hallway] from me. I'm just glad I'll be able to reunite with him, so I can support him and he'll support me again," he said.
Narduzzi will replace Paul Chryst, who left for the Wisconsin job earlier this month.
Chryst's decision to leave caused a seismic shift in the Pitt athletic program. Longtime athletic director Steve Pederson was fired the day Chryst was introduced as coach of the Badgers. While a permanent successor to Pederson has yet to be named, whoever gets the job will have to work in lockstep with Narduzzi to give Pitt a needed dose of buzz.
Narduzzi is the program's fifth full-time head coach since 2010, a list that includes Dave Wannstedt, Todd Graham -- who bailed after just one season in 2011 for Arizona State -- and the affable but hardly charismatic Chryst.
Narduzzi inherits a young team that has more than 80 freshmen and sophomores on the roster, including running back James Conner and wide receiver Tyler Boyd. Conner was named the ACC Player of the Year after running for 1,675 yards and a school-record 24 touchdowns, while Boyd is one of the most electrifying skill players in the country. Both will stick around for at least one more season, giving Narduzzi a solid jumping off point as he tries to forge his own identity in his first head coaching job.
ESPN.com Steelers reporter Scott Brown and The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
Inside Hamdeen Sabbahi’s campaign headquarters, no one stands still. If the young volunteers are not welcoming journalists or laying out chairs for a campaign event, they are chattering away on smartphones. One woman paces in front of a wall plastered with photographs of the candidate, reeling off a list of his campaign stops to someone in a back office. Their campaign bus has just returned from a whistlestop tour of Upper Egypt.
It’s a remarkable effort for a candidate who is polling at only 2 percent.
Mr. Sabbahi, a self-styled socialist with bouffant white hair, is the only challenger to former military chief, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Egypt's upcoming presidential election. Mr. Sisi has been hailed by many Egyptians as a national savior after leading a popular military coup last July that ousted an elected Islamist president. Sabbahi doesn't seem to stand a chance.
But inside his headquarters, no one admits to this – although, if pressed, several campaign workers talk of a future role in opposition politics.
The fresh-faced volunteers say they are here because of Sabbahi's lofty ideals of social and economic justice, reminiscent of the 2011 uprising that many of them joined. By now, the idealism of that time is a distant memory. The military coup against president Mohamed Morsi has been followed by an aggressive crackdown on dissent which has landed more than 16,000 people in jail.
Their optimism stands in contrast to the more dour tone of Sisi's high-profile election campaign. He has called for hard work from Egyptians, and hinted at painful austerity measures to come. Sabbahi's program promises economic improvement, without specifying how he's going to achieve it, and an opening up of the political space. Many doubt it can be funded, given the perilous state of Egypt’s economy.
“After the revolution, I needed a candidate who shared my ideals – Sabbahi was the only one," says Mostafa el Hagary, a strategist, as he traces his finger across a monogrammed tablecloth bearing the candidate’s campaign slogan: “One of us.”
Least-bad option
Sabbahi was the wildcard candidate in Egypt’s 2012 presidential elections. Lacking strong ties to either the old regime or the Brotherhood, he came in third with 21 percent of the first-round votes, before a final run-off between the two frontunners. His supporters fell into two broad camps – one revolutionary, the other disillusioned. The latter saw Sabbahi, a longtime political activist, as the least-bad alternative to Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood and Mubarak-era figures.
Two years later, Sabbahi may be better established, but he still draws on a fractured support base with conflicting agendas and aspirations. Many say they will be voting for him because he is the only man willing to challenge Sisi. That kind of constituency is difficult to energize.
“I'm voting for Sabbahi out of necessity, not out of love,” says Mohamed Saleh, a Cairo-based graphic designer. “Usually, I would choose a liberal, right-wing candidate who understands economics and favors capitalist policies. But nobody has offered this, so Sabbahi is the next best thing.”
When it comes to economic programs, Mr. Saleh does not believe he has the luxury of choice. Like many voters, his preference for socialist Sabbahi is based on the fact that he's a civilian, as was Morsi, the only non-military leader of modern Egypt. The Army has framed its decision to push him from power as a necessary choice to put the country back on a "revolutionary path" after a year of Islamist rule.
“Right now, we're only faced with two options: vote for Sisi and Army control, or to go in the opposite direction, whatever that entails,” Saleh sighs.
Others say they will vote Sabbahi merely to send a message to Sisi that he does not have carte blanche.
“I’m voting for Hamdeen [Sabbahi] because I don't want Sisi to win with a landslide,” says one investment banker, who asked not to be named. “That might imply to him that he can get back to old ways when it comes to rights and freedom.”
Sabbahi’s campaign has itself been affected by the crackdown. Already, there have been reports of volunteers being arrested or assaulted on the campaign trail. But campaigners are reluctant to discuss these experiences, apparently for fear of provoking the Sisi campaign, which is backed by the all-powerful police and military.
Playing the long game
A recent poll put Sabbahi’s support at only 2 percent, compared with 72 percent for Sisi. The frontrunner's credentials as the man who rescued Egypt from Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood have been bolstered by an inescapable PR campaign.
Ahead of the May 26-27 vote, Sisi's face fills newspaper and magazine pages and TV broadcasts and is emblazoned on posters and drapes hung over shops and streets across the country.
But back inside Sabbahi’s west Cairo campaign headquarters, the team are doing their best to put a positive spin on the difficulties ahead. They have promised to boost Egypt’s flailing economy, deal with its burgeoning energy crisis head on, free political prisoners, and repeal a law that effectively criminalizes spontaneous protest.
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But that all depends on whether they can put up a decent fight at the polls – and be heard in the aftermath. Campaigners say they are in this for the long run.
“We know that in most wars, the stronger side have often put out messages to say it's going to be a landslide win,” says one man. “We know they’re aiming to kill our morale, but we don’t let that happen.” |
A mother trapped in her car under a mountain of snow wrote goodbye letters to her children, fearing she would not survive Buffalo’s epic winter storm.
“It felt like I was underground, buried in a casket,” Karen Rossi told The Buffalo News of her 13-hour ordeal.
Rossi was driving home Tuesday at 3 a.m. from Mercy Hospital in South Buffalo, where she works as a pharmacy technician, when her car got stuck in a snowbank. A plow passed to her side, covering her car with more snow.
“Sitting in the car, it’s funny what you think about,” she said. “You get punchy. You realize the magnitude of the situation. You never think this is the way you’re going to pass away. I started to think about my life and my family and my daughters.”
Her 17-year-old daughter called her and begged her to keep the tailpipe clear so she wouldn’t die of carbon-monoxide poisoning.
When Rossi’s phone died, she found some paper in her purse and wrote letters to her two daughters.
Eventually, she managed to climb out her window and tunnel a small hole to the surface, through which she waved her red snow brush until a passing motorist spotted it and dug her out around 4 p.m.
And those farewell letters? “My kids don’t even want to see them,” she said. |
Two of the world's largest Internet companies are currently engaged in a legal battle to reveal the scope of their involvement in the controversial NSA spying programs exposed by a former intelligence contractor through a series of high-profile leaks. EFF has now joined a coalition to file a brief in support of Google and Microsoft as the companies seek permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court to reveal aggregate data about the federal government's access to user information.
"A national conversation about the lawfulness of government surveillance programs cannot take place in the dark," EFF Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman said. "At minimum, companies like Google and Microsoft should be able to publicly disclose aggregate information such as how many secret surveillance orders for their customers were received and the type of information sought. Other companies, similarly entrusted with sensitive customer information, should be permitted to do the same."
Here is the text of the joint press release from EFF and our friends at The First Amendment Coalition, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy & Technology, and TechFreedom: |
STATE COLLEGE -- Think Republican lawmakers have it tough, navigating the precarious middle path between Donald Trump and #NeverTrump?
Try being a College Republican.
Less than two months into the semester, the insular world of Penn State student politics has been rocked by endorsement drama, a leak of bawdy and offensive chat messages, 11th-hour squabbling over debates and a series of resignations.
"It's sad that this is our first election," said Reagan McCarthy, a fresh-faced 19-year-old in black rim glasses who took a few minutes off from the phone bank to speak her mind.
Donald Trump, she said, "was not my first, second, third or fourth choice but I guess he's what the people wanted." Voting for Hillary Clinton, however, is anathema to a young woman whose lodestar is Ronald Reagan.
Sitting beside her, the president of Penn State's student GOP can't bring himself to rule Clinton out.
"So many people are pissed off," Michael Straw said of his fellow young conservatives. "It's their first presidential election and this is what they have to choose from? How many people are going to want to come back in 2020 and vote for another pack of fools?"
Straw, a Russian-born U.S. citizen who proudly wears a rainbow flag lapel pin, said Trump's apparent embrace -- or at least tolerance -- of LGBT rights is beside the point. The candidate, he said, disqualified himself through his ignorance on economic and national security issues, as well as his comments about immigrants, women and other minority groups.
Of course, this powwow at Penn State's HUB student center took place before the worst of the sophomoric rancor that has dominated the presidential race came to Happy Valley.
THE RIFT
In August, the student GOP decided -- for the first time in its 76-year history on campus -- not to endorse the GOP's presidential nominee. An informal survey taken after the Republican National Convention found that 72 percent of its members didn't support Trump. They would, however, ramp up volunteer efforts in support of U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey and other Republican candidates in down-ballot races.
The decision wasn't intended to divide the historically close-knit group.
"Anyone who votes Republican, in the end, is a friend of mine," Straw, 21, explained. "Just because this organization doesn't support Donald Trump doesn't mean it's not a home for you."
Of course, the College Republicans -- like their national counterparts -- were taking a calculated risk, even if they didn't fully grasp it at the time. Their ambivalence toward Trump happens to be shared by Toomey, who faces a tough reelection bid against Democrat Katie McGinty.
As recently as Monday, Toomey explained his logic to a room of journalists and lobbyists at a Harrisburg Press Club luncheon. For the record, Pennsylvania's incumbent senator said, he still wasn't endorsing Trump.
He wasn't renouncing him, either.
"Hillary Clinton is completely unacceptable to me. In fact, you could say, she is irredeemably unacceptable," Toomey said, in a cheeky nod to her "basket of deplorables" gaffe.
Having Trump in the White House, the senator said, in his professorial lilt, would allow Republicans to make progress on key policy objectives like repealing the Affordable Care Act, reinstating sanctions on Iran and enacting tax reforms.
"But I have to weigh that against some of the outrageous and offensive things that he has said," Toomey continued, "including several things I criticized at the time he said them . . . I'm taking my time to come to a decision."
In the world of Beltway politics, Toomey risks alienating passionate Trump supporters who've cottoned to the businessman's freewheeling persona, nativist leanings and laissez-faire approach to certain social issues.
At Penn State, the College Republicans risk splintering what has historically been a small group. At last count, the organization has about 50 active members, although they expected that number to grow as Election Day neared.
A relatively new student group -- We Are for Trump Penn State, later renamed the Bull Moose Party -- immediately released its own statement rebuking the student GOP for its non-endorsement. The pro-Trump contingent included former College Republicans who severed ties with the group.
"There are quite a few Trumpsters who are angry at the College Republicans and some College Republicans who can't stand Donald Trump," said Dominic DeCinti, a 19-year-old Enola native who serves as the Trump group's secretary. "But I'm not going to lay into it," he added. "I don't think it's as bad as it seems."
DeCinti said he believed Trump and his supporters get a bad rap.
For all of his bluster, Trump cuts through the hypocrisy of other recent Republicans presidential nominees. He speaks to "normal people," he said. That gets mistaken for bigotry but it doesn't reflect who Trump really is.
"I never found Donald Trump's language offensive," he said. "There are certain things he's said that are wrong, but it's also media spin."
The Trump group, DeCinti said, has fought hard against the negative stereotypes that surround Trump supporters. Its members, for example, show up to meetings and student debates in suits, not unlike the College Republicans.
"We don't want that look -- jean shorts and the best shirt without a stain on it -- of Trump supporters," he said.
Within 24 hours of that conversation, the two student groups would be at the center of a decidedly Trumpian drama involving leaked private messages containing bigoted and vulgar material.
THE LEAK
An anonymous Twitter account called "ActOfOursBringShame" -- a lyric from Penn State's school song -- quietly posted a series of black-and-white screenshots of private chat exchanges for several days before the images went viral in the insular world of student politics. It took more than a week for one of the student media organizations to take notice and it's slowly gathered steam from there.
The chats were taken from GroupMe, a popular messaging app among younger millennials, with titles like "CUCKlidge Republicans" and "Students For Harambe." The latter title refers to an Internet meme centered around the killing of a zoo gorilla that has taken on an increasingly racist undercurrent via social media.
Participants with names like "Jihadist Hunter" and "#BringBackHarambe" bemoaned the College Republicans' non-endorsement in a series of increasingly explicit exchanges.
"I'm [expletive] PISSED tonight," one participant said.
"Yeah, but by not endorsing Trump they are indirectly helping Hillary," another replied. "[In other words], they only help Hillary."
The vitriol inevitably turned to Straw, the student GOP president. One participant shared a photo taken of Straw, apparently without his knowledge, while he sat at a restaurant on campus.
"CR president chilling at fiddle head. Def gay," wrote one participant.
In another exchange, one of the participants said, "I legitimately want to punch the CR president straight in the face."
Elsewhere in the string, participants joked about kidnapping and throwing Straw off one of the many construction cranes that tower over the campus.
One participant took a more nuanced stance: "He's a homosexual. Don't hate on his sexuality. Hate on his cultural-Marxism tainted ideology."
Other chat threads included disparaging remarks about LGBT and other minorities. In one exchange, a participant shared an image of a naked woman. "[Expletive] wrong group me," the sender wrote, then followed: "Wait nvm this is the trump group me I was right originally."
Several sources familiar with the chat thread and the two groups identified screen names and avatar images as associated with members of the Trump group. DeCinti wasn't implicated, the sources said, but several other ranking members were.
To date, the Twitter account used to leak the chats has just 24 followers, but that was enough to ignite the fires of indignation and speculation on Facebook and in the coffee shops of State College.
THE FLACK
The slow-moving scandal caught Chris Baker, the Trump group's 22-year-old director of communications, by surprise.
Baker doesn't quite fit the Trump voter mold: He's carefully groomed with rail-straight posture. He delivers polished answers with the ease of a seasoned Capitol Hill flack. In the spring, he interned for a Democratic candidate and registered as Republican so he could vote for Donald Trump, the only candidate Baker believes will stand up against lobbyists and special interests. When it came to the Senate race, he wrote in "butt cheek" due to his deep-seated mistrust of Toomey's investment banker past.
Now a senior, he attended both College Democrat and Republican meetings but didn't find his place in the Penn State political ecosystem until he tried the Trump group on for size.
"After meetings with the other groups, I knew this isn't something I support because they both blindly follow the rhetoric that comes out of their parties," he said.
In recent months, he's fielded interviews from Fox News, NPR and the BBC for segments on young Trump supporters. On campus, the Trump group developed an iPhone app to coordinate volunteers, get their message out and -- in Baker's words -- "present a united front."
Voters and the presidential election - Centre County 17 Gallery: Voters and the presidential election - Centre County
From the start, Baker said he advised his fellow Trumpsters not to use GroupMe. If the headline-grabbing hacks at the national level taught him anything, it was that the Internet is written in ink -- not pencil -- and nothing is ever 100-percent secure.
"If you say anything out of line, people could sneak in and try to use it against us," he remembers telling the group.
That fear was soon realized.
Baker said he believes the leak must have originated with one of the Democratic groups on campus. One of the screenshots features a drop-down alert--likely a text message--with the words: "We will walk there from the dems meeting."
Trump supporters already have a difficult enough time on campus. The first time Baker wore his red "Make American Great Again" hat, he said, a random stranger snatched it from his head and confronted him with it. He snatched it back and kept walking.
"Many people hate who I am because of the color of my hat," he said.
At least once a month, Baker heads down to the HUB with a sign: "Don't hate me. Talk to me." He was nervous at first, but he's gotten more comfortable walking up to strangers -- and having strangers walk up to him -- to talk Trump.
"These are real conversations, not abrasive conversations," he said. "Once you start doing that, other people start joining in. Maybe you won't convince everyone, but there's always that one where you can change their mind."
Now, Baker finds himself in the position of defending a group that's quickly becoming an even greater pariah on campus.
THE FALLOUT
Baker said he was able to convince several student reporters that there was no story. After all, he argued, the GroupMe chat strings weren't officially sanctioned and contained only a handful of his organization's members. He personally wasn't involved, he said, and doesn't use GroupMe at all.
But even the most persuasive political flack can keep the lid on a story for only so long.
First, a student blogger wrote about it and then a student news website picked it up in the context of this week's campus debates. As the GroupMe chats spread across social media, the images prompted the Penn State Speech and Debate Society to announce that it would no longer host or moderate its debate between the pro-Trump and a pro-Clinton groups.
"We do not believe moderating a debate between these two organizations will establish common ground nor provide an environment for intelligent and open debate," the debate society's student leaders said, in a written statement.
Straw initially deferred comment until his fellow College Republican student leaders had a chance to vote on a public statement. The board ultimately voted not to publicly criticize the Trump group as the Democratic groups and the debate society had.
The issue, Straw said, is not a political one.
"Me being a Republican or a Democrat wouldn't have changed anything," he said Thursday night. "They would've have said the same things regardless but it makes me wonder how they act in public toward other people with my sexuality and other minority groups, as well."
Representatives from the Clinton and Trump groups would eventually take the debate stage, albeit after much behind-the-scenes politicking. Baker said he was confronted by several members of the Democratic groups.
"They were trying to force me, the spokesperson, to admit this private conversation reflects my viewpoints," he said. "They said, 'if you don't do this, we won't have the debate.'"
But the people were already there and time was wasting. On stage, the two sides kept relatively mum about the GroupMe chats.
By Thursday, however, the slow-simmering furor had taken its toll on the Trump group. That morning, two board members who had participated in the GroupMe chats called Baker to announce their resignations.
Neither member could be reached for comment, although requests were submitted through intermediaries.
Baker said he doesn't believe they should have stepped down, but there was nothing he could do. The leak, he said, raises serious questions about privacy -- although he demurred when asked what he thinks about Trump's encouragement of hacks against Clinton.
"(The Democrats) are taking these leaks and trying to tear me down as a Trump supporter," he said. "I tell them, 'let me see your phone, go through your GroupMe's and see if there's anything you won't want to see on Facebook'."
THE CAMPAIGN
So far, neither the original chat messages nor the leak has resulted in any disciplinary action by the university.
"It's important to note that because this was initially done via private channels," said spokesperson Lisa M. Powers, in a written statement, "there is no way for us to know the identities of the individuals involved, or even to know whether they are students or are affiliated with the student group in question."
The university -- like the students and the national GOP leaders -- has its own delicate balance to strike. According to Powers, it has reached out to Straw and is willing to facilitate a conversation between the various parties.
"Free expression is protected by the Constitution, even when we strongly disagree with the opinions expressed," Powers wrote. "We are disappointed with the lack of civility in this instance. We urge everyone to engage in the political process thoughtfully and respectfully."
Straw said he understands and respects why the university won't discipline the individuals who've been implicated in the GroupMe chats. But he wishes it would take a more unequivocal public stance against hate speech.
"Everyone has the right to freedom of speech, but they should condemn what was said. They need to send a message that this should not be the kind of speech students engage in," he said.
Both the College Republicans and the pro-Trump Bull Moose Party are moving on with their separate get-out-the-vote efforts, although the 40-member Trump group hasn't limited itself to down-ballot races.
"We are the counter-movement," DeCinti said, of the larger universe of Trump supporters. "In the '60s, the counterculture was free love and grass. Now, conservatism is the counterculture."
DeCinti said he's troubled by some of Trump's public statements -- particularly his feud with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly -- but he was drawn to the candidate's no-nonsense persona and "America first" policies on foreign trade and limiting immigration.
"I believe America is the greatest nation in the world and the greatest civilization there will ever be," he said. "I believe we've been taken down a bad path, but we can turn it around."
Trump, DeCinti said, is a breath of fresh air after a succession of mediocre GOP presidential tickets.
"The Republican Party is constantly shooting themselves in the foot with poor candidates who, on an intellectual level, believe they have the high ground," he said, "but don't have standing with normal people."
McCarthy and Straw, the College Republicans, don't blame any national politician for the stance he or she takes on Trump.
"With Toomey, it's a double-edged sword," McCarthy said. "If you endorse Trump, sure, you make Trump voters happy, but his base is not Trump supporters. Whatever he does, he'll receive criticism."
For his own part, Straw -- ever the aspiring politician -- said he's still making up his mind between possible Trump alternatives. For that reason alone, he said, he can't judge the deliberations of other Republicans.
"A lot of politicians don't need to make a comment on him," he said. "They're in their own bubbles. They have their own races to run, they're distancing themselves from him and it's every individual's right to do so.
"But it is clear both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are major party candidates who can't get their major parties to like them."
http://www.pennlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/06/donald_trump_10_political_fire.html |
Image copyright AP Image caption Women's rights and civil society activists helped bury Farkhunda at the funeral in Kabul
The coffin of a woman, killed by a mob in Kabul on an apparently false charge, has been carried by women, marking a break with Afghan funeral customs.
Hundreds of people attended a funeral for the woman, named as Farkhunda, demanding her killers be punished.
Farkhunda had been accused of burning the Koran, but an official investigator said there was no evidence for this.
The attack on the woman, as well as the alleged failure of police to intervene, have been heavily criticised.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he had ordered an investigation into the killing.
Footage of the attack, filmed on mobile phones, has been widely circulated on social media.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption The mourners demanded justice for Farkhunda
Image copyright Reuters Image caption A relative said Farkhunda, seen here on a placard at the funeral, was training to become a teacher
A mob, largely made up of men, attacked the woman with sticks and stones, beating her to death before setting her body alight, while police reportedly looked on.
Witnesses said the crowd had accused the woman of burning a copy of the Koran.
The attack, near the Shah-Du-Shamshaira mosque and shrine, is thought to have been the first of its kind in Afghanistan.
At the funeral on Sunday, women's activists carried the coffin, breaking with tradition as men usually perform that role.
An interior ministry official in charge of investigating the case said he had found no evidence that the woman had burnt the Koran.
"Farkhunda was totally innocent," Gen Mohammad Zahir told reporters. He said 13 people, including eight police officers, had been arrested.
Image copyright AFP Image caption A blackened area by the river marks the spot where the woman's body was burned
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The woman was attacked outside the Shah-Du-Shamshaira mosque in Kabul
Earlier claims that the woman was mentally ill have also been contradicted by a relative and a neighbour.
Farkhunda's brother told Reuters news agency that his sister was training to be a religious teacher. He said her father had said she was ill after hearing of her death, out of a desire to protect the rest of the family.
A neighbour of the family, interviewed by the Associated Press, also said the woman had no history of mental problems and had been training as a teacher.
The US has spent millions of dollars on programmes designed to empower and educate Afghan women.
However, women in much of the country still suffer discrimination, and attacks on them often go unpunished. |
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Ben Wright said police have detained and are questioning a suspect
A gunman has shot dead two men and a woman at the Jewish Museum in the Belgian capital Brussels.
A fourth person was seriously wounded, emergency services said.
The attacker arrived by car, got out, fired on people at the museum entrance, and returned to the vehicle which then sped away, Belgian media report.
One person has been arrested and police are hunting a second, officials say. Security has been tightened at Jewish sites across Belgium.
Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo said all Belgians were "united and show solidarity in the face of this odious attack on a Jewish cultural site".
Belgian public prosecutor's spokeswoman Ine Van Wymersch told a news conference that one suspect had been detained at the wheel of his car, although there was no proven connection to the attack.
A second suspect was still being sought, who was thought to have fled on foot, she added.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Belgium's interior minister said all the circumstances pointed to an anti-Semitic attack
Image copyright AFP Image caption The public prosecutor's spokeswoman Ine Van Wymersch said a second person was being sought
Image copyright AP Image caption Police say they have detained one suspect who drove away from the museum around the time of the attack
Foreign Minister Didier Reynders, who was one of the first people to arrive at the scene, said he arrived at the scene shortly after the shooting.
"I heard bursts of gunfire, rushed here and saw the bodies on the ground," he said.
The gunman arrived at the museum at around 15:50 (13:50 GMT) carrying a backpack and opened fire before fleeing in an Audi, local media report.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Foreign Minister Didier Reynders: "I ran to the museum and I saw two people on the ground."
They say one eyewitness may have made a note of the number plate and given it to police.
Brussels Mayor Yvan Mayeur said three men and a woman had been caught up in what he thought was probably a "terrorist act". "It's clearly extremely serious," he was quoted as saying, "and on the Jewish Museum too, which isn't a coincidence".
Eyewitness Alain Sobotik told AFP news agency he had seen two bodies in the lobby of the museum.
One was "a young woman with her head covered in blood", he said. "She was holding a leaflet and looked like a tourist."
Interior Minister Joelle Milquet said everything pointed to an anti-Semitic attack.
Belgium has a Jewish population of some 42,000, about half of whom live in the capital.
Jewish community leader Julien Klener agreed the motive was probably anti-Semitic: "The assumption, and it is an assumption, is that it was someone who didn't try to target the museum but the adjective 'Jewish'".
A number of people were treated for shock after the shooting in the central Sablon area of the city.
Mr Di Rupo expressed his condolences and support for the victims' families. |
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 9: (AFP OUT) U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at the National League of Cities annual Congressional City Conference at the Marriott Wardman Park March 9, 2015 in Washington, DC. Obama spoke about his administration's bid to provide competitive grants to increase high-tech training and jobs. (Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo-Pool/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's policies to allow some undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S. hit another snag on Monday.
Judge Andrew Hanen of the U.S. District Court in Brownsville, Texas, announced that rather than granting or even rejecting the administration's request to move forward with Obama's 2014 executive actions on immigration, he will make no additional rulings until after March 19.
Hanen had initially halted Obama's deportation relief policies through a preliminary injunction last month, as he considers a lawsuit brought by 26 states that contends the policies are unconstitutional.
Obama administration attorneys sought a stay that would allow the policies to go forward in the meantime, and had asked Hanen to rule on their request by the end of the day Monday.
However, the lawsuit has been complicated by allegations that the federal government misled the states about whether the 2014 immigration policies had gone into effect. The Justice Department filed a document last week informing Hanen that about 100,000 undocumented immigrants had been granted three-year work permits between Nov. 24 and the judge's order. Those immigrants qualified for the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was not blocked by Hanen's injunction. But the 2012 program only granted two-year permits -- the plan to expand them to three years was announced in November as part of Obama's executive actions.
For that reason, the 26 states in the suit are now arguing that the administration had implemented some of the policies well before the scheduled February 2015 start date.
The administration did not go ahead with a planned expansion of DACA to other age groups, or with a new program called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents.
In his order Monday, Hanen said the federal government should "be prepared to fully explain" the issue.
"Due to the seriousness of the matters discussed therein, the Court will not rule on any other pending motions until it is clear that these matters, if true, do not impact the pending matters or any rulings previously made by this Court," he wrote.
At the same time, other states are coming to the administration's defense. A dozen states plan to file a request this week for the appeals court to lift the injunction and allow the immigration policies to go into effect, the Washington state attorney general told The Washington Post on Monday.
The state of Washington previously led an amicus brief in support of the executive actions, joined by 11 other states and the District of Columbia. Nearly 30 mayors, along with the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, signed onto a separate amicus brief in January saying the actions are beneficial, both for the economy and for public safety. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson thanked the National League of Cities at their meeting in Washington, D.C., on Monday.
He said the lawsuit and injunction put the administration in an "untenable position," but added that "this is what appeals courts are for." |
Image caption Sports Minister Carál Nί Chuilίn said the board members resigned just before she was to meet them
Nine members of the Sport NI board have resigned with immediate effect.
Sports Minister Carál Nί Chuilίn said they stood down just before she was due to meet board representatives.
They were there to discuss a report by the Head of Internal Audit at the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure and the Department of Education.
Ms Nί Chuilίn said she advised the remaining members at the meeting "of my deep concerns at the issues raised by their staff" with the internal auditor.
'Ongoing challenges'
On Friday, the minister called for the meeting to consider the findings of the report into "serious allegations" about the "leadership, management and the overall culture" of the organisation.
After Monday's meeting, she said she had accepted the board members' resignations, and thanked them "for their efforts in promoting and fostering sport during their time in office".
In a statement, she said: "Given the ongoing challenges in Sport NI, I am taking steps to intervene directly to support both staff and the remaining board members.
"I also wish to advise staff that their concerns are being taken seriously and that they will be fully addressed."
'Unprecedented'
Chair of the culture committee Nelson McCausland said the situation was "shocking and unprecedented".
"That is why we need to get Carál Nί Chuilίn in front of the committee as soon as possible," he said.
"It tells us something about the department and the way that the minister has been running the department," Mr McCausland told BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster.
"We also want to talk to the people who resigned, they have a story as well.
"It is a whole quagmire, we need to get to the bottom of it. The minister owes that to the public, to Sport NI and to the committee."
Ms Nί Chuilίn said she would meet the remaining board members later this week.
No-one from Sport NI was available for comment. |
The nation's top legal minds, citing the Republican senator's poor record on civil rights, say he is an "unacceptable" option for attorney general.
Law professors have an instruction for Congress: Do not confirm Alabama senator Jeff Sessions as U.S. attorney general.
In a petition published Tuesday, 1,226 professors from 176 different law schools in 49 states are urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the Republican politician as head the Department of Justice.
These top legal minds — which include Harvard Law School's Laurence H. Tribe, Stanford University's Janet Cooper Alexander, and Yale Law School's Harold Hongju Koh — point to the senator's problematic history with civil rights as evidence that he is "unacceptable" for the post.
Notably, Sessions was rejected from a federal judgeship in 1986 due to alleged racist remarks. In present day, this group has seen no evidence that he has changed his views.
"Nothing in Senator Sessions’ public life since 1986 has convinced us that he is a different man than the 39-year-old attorney who was deemed too racially insensitive to be a federal district court judge," read the petition, which referenced Sessions's "misguided prosecution" of civil rights activists, his history of denying climate change, and his "repeated opposition to legislative efforts to promote the rights of women and members of the LGBTQ community" as other points of concern.
The letter will also run as a full newspaper ad before the confirmation hearings, which will be held January 10-11, The Washington Post reports.
Six members of the NAACP, including its president, Cornell W. Brooks, also raised their voices against Sessions on Tuesday. The group was arrested for staging a sit-in in Sessions's office in Mobile, Ala., in protest of his nomination.
"We are asking the senator to withdraw his name for consideration as attorney general or for the President-elect, Donald Trump, to withdraw the nomination," said Brooks, according to CNN.
Sessions, who was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump for the post in November, has a lengthy anti-LGBT record. He voted to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage; spoke out against the Supreme Court marriage equality ruling; voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act; is a cosponsor of the so-called First Amendment Defense Act, which would allow discrimination against LGBT people and others in the name of “religious freedom”; voted against the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded the federal definition of hate crimes to include those based on sexual orientation, gender, and disability; and voted against repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Sessions also opposed the Voting Rights Act, has voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, and opposes immigration reform. In 1986, when he was a U.S. attorney in Alabama and was being considered for a federal judgeship, he was dogged by accusations of racism, with former colleagues saying he used the n word and joked that he had no problem with the Ku Klux Klan “until he learned that they smoked marijuana,” The Washington Post reports. Sessions denied that he was racist.
Sarah Flores, a spokesperson for Sessions, recently defended the politician against "false portrayals" of racism in a statement.
"Many African-American leaders who've known him for decades attest to this and have welcomed his nomination to be the next attorney general," she said. "These false portrayals of Sen. Sessions will fail as tired, recycled, hyperbolic charges that have been thoroughly rebuked and discredited." |
Diagnosis of celiac disease requires a tissue sample from the small intestine, which can be extremely unpleasant. Researchers at the Faculty of Medicine have developed a blood test which provides a rapid, painless answer.
As many as 100,000 Norwegians may suffer from celiac disease, which causes the immune system to think that gluten is a virus or bacteria. This causes the body to trigger an unnecessary inflammatory reaction in the small intestine, a so-called autoimmune reaction. Tissue and enzymes are attacked, the villi become damaged and the patient can suffer weight loss, reduced absorption of nutrients and stomach pains.
Unpleasant diagnostics
If you suspect that you have celiac disease, you currently have to undergo an extensive investigation. While consuming gluten-containing foods, you must take a blood test followed by a tissue sample from the small intestine. If you have embarked on a gluten-free diet, you must begin to consume gluten-containing foods again. If you do have celiac disease, this may result in pain and considerable discomfort.
The tissue samples are taken by gastroscopy, which means a tube being inserted down through your throat to the duodenum. The tissue samples must also be taken in order to obtain a definite diagnosis. This can be very unpleasant, and children are put under anaesthetic during this type of examination.
Researchers at the Faculty have now developed a new blood test that makes it much simpler to diagnose celiac disease.
A misunderstanding by the body's immune system
Postdoctoral fellow Asbjørn Christophersen explains:
"When the food that you eat enters the small intestine, it is reduced to tiny fractions and presented to the T cells on so-called HLA molecules.
The HLA molecules present various elements of what you consume, as well as what is inside the cells.
The task of the T cells is to monitor cells to see if they are infected by viruses or bacteria.
In the case of celiac disease, the T cells think that gluten is a virus or bacteria.
"The T cells send a message to the other immune cells to attack not only the gluten protein itself, but also cells, and an enzyme that binds itself to gluten," Christophersen further explains.
Thus your small intestine becomes inflamed.
You only need to see your GP
As soon as the test is approved and released on the market, you will in principle be able to take a blood test at your GP's surgery. The blood sample will then be sent to a laboratory which performs the test.
A reagent composed of HLA molecules and fractions of gluten is added to the sample. A reagent is a substance to which something is added to detect the presence of another substance. In this case the reagent binds itself to the T cells that are in the blood sample. Magnetized antibodies are also added which in turn bind to the reagent.
"When we allow blood cells to flow through a magnetic column, the cells that react to gluten remain suspended in the column while all the other cells flow through it. We observe that celiacs have a much higher number of gluten-reactive T cells in their blood than non-celiacs. The level is more or less independent of how much gluten they eat," says Christophersen.
This means that we can diagnose celiac disease irrespective of whether you are consuming foods containing gluten or not. You can thereby avoid the discomfort that may result from the intake of gluten, not to mention that you avoid the gastroscopy. Diagnosis becomes more effective as well as less unpleasant for the patient.
Building on existing research
The method for detecting cells thatreact to gluten in the blood is based on a method developed by the group at the Marc Jenkins Lab at the Center for Immunology at the University of Minnesota, using mice. The group succeeded in studying rare T cells with very low frequency.
"We have slightly altered the method and use it on humans. We are the first to see the potential of its use for determining a disease," Asbjørn Christophersen explains.
Large-scale clinical trial
The researchers are now conducting a large-scale clinical trial with three groups: celiacs, healthy individuals and persons with symptoms similar to celiac disease.
It is important to include the group with symptoms similar to celiac disease because many of these patients will take the same test. This will also help to show whether these latter patients have signs of a T-cell reaction to gluten such as we observe in the case of celiac disease.
Christophersen hopes to have the test available on the market within a few years:
"We are now in contact with several leading international companies that are interested in using the technique for the diagnosis of celiac disease," he says.
The technique can also play a part in developing a vaccine for celiac disease. The purpose of a vaccine is for the person receiving it to develop so-called regulatory T cells. These are T cells which can suppress the immune system's unwanted response to gluten.
"We are also working to optimize the method further," says Asbjørn Christophersen.
The result of many years of work
Christophersen points out that the work is based on that of his supervisors, Professor Ludvig M. Sollid and Associate Professor Shuo-Wang Qiao.
The research conducted by Sollid's group, the Centre for Immune Regulation (CIR), is at the cutting edge globally with regard to celiac disease. A former member of Sollid's group, Hanne Quarsten, developed the reagent containing HLA molecules and gluten fractions.
"This is the result of many years of basic research ‒ research which to all appearances has not directly helped patients. But based on this research, we have now reached a point where we can give something back to these patients. It is they who have given us blood and tissue samples over a number of years, and this has been crucial material for our research.
The close collaboration with Professor Knut E. A. Lundin at UiO has been a prerequisite for this and many other studies conducted by Sollid's research group.
"Without close contact and access to patients it is also difficult to conduct basic research. Lundin has been a key figure in the development of the diagnostic test as well," Asbjørn Christophersen concludes. |
LOS ANGELES — In the end, it was the audience that got snubbed.
Following the best picture win on Sunday night by “Birdman” — a brainy film seen by fewer than five million ticket buyers in North America — the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences woke on Monday to soft television ratings for its Oscar telecast and fresh signs that its movie awards have become hopelessly detached from movie viewers.
According to Nielsen data, the Oscar broadcast on ABC drew about 36.6 million viewers, down 14.9 percent from roughly 43 million last year. It was the lowest-rated show since 2009, which had about 36.3 million viewers for a ceremony hosted by Hugh Jackman, with “Slumdog Millionaire” in the winner’s circle.
Going into Sunday’s show, the headlines were about the dearth of racial diversity among acting nominees. That gave Neil Patrick Harris, the ceremony’s eager, if ultimately ineffective, host, his first joke of the night, as he opened what he called a celebration of “the best and the whitest — sorry, brightest.”
But the large number of black presenters and performers — including John Legend and Common, who also collected the best song prize for their “Selma” tour de force, “Glory” — helped to douse that controversy. The most honored artist of the evening was notably Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the Mexican director of “Birdman,” who accepted the best picture statuette with a plea for immigrant respect. He also was a co-writer and producer of the film, which is formally titled “Birdman or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance.” |
Over the last month, some well known Russian companies have gone belly up. Vladimir Putin is angry. What is going on over there? Hint: it's not because of sanctions.
On Thursday, Putin lashed out against his own cabinet ministers for not moving to protect regional carrier VIM Airlines. Transportation Minister Maksim Sokolov said it would be "pointless" to even bother saving it. The top staff of the airline are now being investigated for fraud, a usual follow-through in Russia after important entities mysteriously go broke. Official Russia always smells a rat. Company owners are known for taking the money and running to London, or Cyprus. VIM Airlines has at least 10 billion rubles in debt, or around $170 million, and is now hoping that white knight airline Aeroflot can keep it afloat.
Domodedovo airport-based VIM has grounded or delayed numerous flights. The carrier has not paid fuel suppliers, who now refuse to work with them. VIM Airlines is small, but was a buyer of Russian made jets by Irkut Corp. They are the 10th largest carrier in Russia. From January to September, they flew 1.8 million passengers, up 31.4% from last year. They will likely be taken over by Aeroflot. The company's stock is down 5.5% this week. The company was unavailable for immediate comment.
The fallout began in earnest in August. Russia's biggest private lender, Otkritie, was bailed out by the central bank. Like VIM, more fraud is expected.
The central bank did not say how much it was spending on the bail-out, but said it planned to take a minimum 75% stake after evaluating Otkritie's financial position, Reuters reported. Otkritie's financial needs are expected to be larger than the 2011 $14 billion bailout of the Bank of Moscow. That bank folded and got sold to VTB Bank in May 2016. Like Otkritie and VIM, more Russian fraud was to blame. Andrey Fridrikhovich Borodin, the bank's founder, took his millions and hightailed it to London like the rest of the wealthy Russians who have -- together with the Saudis, Emiratis and Chinese -- helped rebuild London's skyline.
The equivalent of as much as 45% of Russia's GDP is held by Russians in places like London, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. Just how much of it is from ill-gotten gains is anybody's guess. London probably doesn't care.
In Moscow, Otkritie is a fixture on the city's skyline. Its blue neon sign is emblazoned on an old Soviet-era building across from the Hotel Ukraine, an ornate property by Stalin as an ode to the Russians who fought and died in World War II. It sits across the Moscow River, where the city's new, steel skyscrapers stand as a testament to the city being home to the greatest number of billionaires in the world.
Over the years, Otkritie was busy buying up Russian mutual funds and insurers, and even a diamond mining subsidiary of Russian oil firm Lukoil. Dmitry Tulin, the central bank's first deputy chairman, said the bank's business practices were "questionable." The Russian central bank has been trying to reel in Russian fraudsters, a perennial if not overwhelming task. "The bank's operations are connected to high risks and need to be seriously changed," he says.
On Sept. 15, the Financial Times reported that Otkritie falsified its accounts by hiding its balance sheet hole with leveraged purchases of eurobonds. Those high priced bonds were used to "sugarcoat its financials", the central bank said.
The following week, state run enterprises said they were withdrawing funds from Otkritie and others in a similar state of financial disarray.
On Sept. 20, the central bank put B&N Bank into receivership, along with its B&N Bank Digital. The central bank is injecting around $6 billion into B&N, and is now the majority owner of the joint.
Unlike Otkritie and VIM, foul play is not the cause of B&N's bailout needs. Its chairman and founder, Mikhail Shishkhanov, told Russian business daily Vedomosti on Monday that the main shareholders would inject 300 billion rubles into the company, also known as Binbank, in order to close the financial holes and keep the bank alive. While it is harder for B&N to tap cheaper capital in Europe because of sanctions, he singled out stricter regulations at the central bank for its problems.
"I've been in the market since 1993 and the central bank did things different then," says Shishkhanov. "Today, they have changed the way they do things and are in hot pursuit of one goal: bank and corporate transparency. Nobody could have guessed that the central bank would be what it is now -- in a good sense -- which is tough and consistent. I know they have to look into these things now so banks are not in trouble and get worse down the road."
Alfa Bank analyst Sergei Gavrilov said in August that two other banks, Credit Bank of Moscow and Promsvyazbank (PSB), could soon be added to the Russian central bank's portfolio of companies. B&N Bank has a 10% stake in PSB. The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development owns another 11.7%. But if that bank fails, the question is whether EBRD can provide any financing to a Russian lender. Russian banks are sanctioned.
Credit Bank said the recent headlines about Otkritie and B&N are scaring depositors. Vladimir Chubar, chairman of the bank, said the situation was "under control. There is no panic."
Famous last words?
Russian private lenders are either consolidating or up for sale. Swedish group Nordea is looking to unload its Russian subsidiary. Many Western-backed venture capital firms have stopped funding new companies in Russia in order to avoid the possibility of sanctions based on lending practices. It is not illegal to lend to Russian companies, other than to Russian banks. Start-ups there have been turning to crypto-currencies to raise funds instead.
No one is blaming sanctions for VIM, Otkritie and B&N's epic fail. Those bailouts are being blamed on Russians for getting carried away with the wiles of capitalism after the fall of communism, and the customary cronyism and kleptomania that's played out again and again in the Russian economy.
The central bank, led by Elvira Nabiullina, a highly respected central banker on the world stage, wants to put an end to all that. She wants to crack down on fraud and get her banks in line with the Basel III accord. Basel III is a global set of reform measures developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision designed to strengthen regulatory, supervision and risk management of domestic banks. The end goal is to avoid massive bank failures like those seen in the U.S. after the popping of the housing market and leveraged mortgage backed derivatives tied to housing. Moreover, if she can successfully crack down on corporate fraud, she may end up succeeding at keeping more Russian money in Russia.
So far this year, Russians have shown they have a penchant for making millions. The country recorded the highest growth rates in the world in the number of dollar millionaires, according to the annual report of the World Wealth Report.
The number of Russian citizens with a net worth of at least $1 million rose 19.7% from 2016. On average, the number of millionaires increased by 7.5% worldwide. The total number of dollar millionaires in Russia remains relatively low at about 182 thousand people compared with 4.8 million people in the U.S. and 1.2 million in China. |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. proposal to consider freeing a jailed Israeli spy caught many American intelligence officials off-guard and will face stiff opposition if the Obama administration decides to go ahead with it in a bid to salvage Middle East peace talks, officials said.
Israeli protesters hold posters calling for the release of Jonathan Pollard, who was imprisoned after being convicted for spying on the United States in 1987, during a demonstration in Jerusalem in this filephoto from November 23, 2005. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Files
Negotiations over the fate of Jonathan Pollard, a former naval intelligence analyst serving a life sentence for espionage, have stoked deep concern in the ranks of U.S. spy services already reeling from leaks orchestrated by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Senior lawmakers, including Senator Dianne Feinstein, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, staked out positions on Tuesday equally hostile to the idea, which started taking shape this week in talks between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“He shouldn’t be released. He should serve out,” Republican Senator Mark Kirk, a former Navy intelligence reservist, said when asked about Pollard’s fate. “I would hope that he would sort of rot in hell in jail for a long time.”
The intelligence community has deterred successive administrations from giving in to Israeli appeals for Pollard’s freedom, but the latest push appears to be gaining momentum.
Some intelligence veterans privately acknowledge that with Pollard having served nearly three decades and being eligible for parole in November 2015, this time it may be harder to convince the Obama administration to drop the idea.
But a half dozen current and former intelligence officials told Reuters they strongly oppose Pollard’s early release, arguing such a move would be a betrayal of the intelligence community, especially when many feel that the United States is not getting enough from Israel in return.
The officials said Pollard provided Israeli contacts with what one former official described as “suitcases” full of highly classified documents, including operational intelligence reporting.
The Pollard proposal has been floated as part of a formula to keep faltering Israeli-Palestinian peace talks alive. Pollard’s release, which would be hugely popular in Israel, would serve as a political incentive for Netanyahu to go ahead with the release of a fourth group of Palestinian prisoners.
Under the proposed deal, Israel may impose a partial settlement freeze, and in return for these steps, the Palestinians would agree to extend peace talks beyond an April 29 deadline and into 2015.
DESPERATE MOVE?
While President Barack Obama has yet to sign off on any deal, Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. peace negotiator, said even considering such a move smacked of desperation over the crumbling peace process.
“Releasing a guy who’s responsible for one of the biggest U.S. national security breaches ever makes it look like they’re panicking over the state of negotiations,” said Miller, a Middle East analyst at the Wilson Center in Washington.
Miller has personal experience with the Pollard case. He was involved in the 1998 Wye River negotiations when Netanyahu, serving an earlier term as prime minister, pressed then President Bill Clinton, to release Pollard as a condition for Israel’s acceptance of an interim peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Clinton initially agreed to review the case, but he dropped the idea after then-CIA chief George Tenet threatened to resign.
Even 16 years later, Miller said an early release for Pollard in the “age of Snowden” would send the wrong signal about the consequences of spying on American soil.
The assessment of many lawmakers was equally blunt.
“It’s hard for me to see how that would jump-start the Mideast peace process,” said Feinstein, a California Democrat. “It’s one thing after an agreement. It’s totally another thing before an agreement.”
Senator Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Pollard should remain behind bars.
But Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat and one of the Senate’s leading advocates for Israel, said Pollard’s sentence was disproportionate to others convicted of spying on allies and that he would “welcome” the convicted spy’s release.
Republican Senator John McCain, who in 2011 came out in favor of Pollard’s release, said he still believed he should go free, but “not as an enticement” in the peace process. “It’s disgusting,” he said. “It’s basically a coercive measure.”
Retired Gen. Michael Hayden, a former director of both the CIA and National Security Agency, said the 105,000-strong U.S. intelligence community would see Pollard’s early release as “a betrayal.”
Hayden also suggested Pollard’s release could foreshadow an effort by the administration to reach a deal with Snowden, who sought asylum in Moscow after leaking tens of thousands of highly classified documents on U.S. electronic eavesdropping.
“It is likely that someone would draw the connection from Pollard to Snowden and then point out that we therefore must expect that this administration might indeed be open to some kind of ‘deal’ there too,” he said.
Slideshow (2 Images)
Pollard, who pleaded guilty in 1987 to spying for Israel, has long been a potential bargaining chip in Middle East negotiations. The Obama administration faces a difficult decision: use him now or wait for a more critical juncture.
A complicating factor, however, may be Pollard himself, who is said to have suffered from health problems in prison.
Uri Ariel, Israel’s hard-line housing minister, told Army Radio he understood Pollard opposed being freed in an exchange for Palestinian prisoners. |
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A U.S. citizen, whose Singapore permanent residence status was revoked after the government identified him as being an agent of foreign influence, said on Tuesday he had appealed the decision to expel him.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said on Friday it had canceled the permanent residence of Huang Jing, a professor at Singapore’s prominent Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, and of his wife, Shirley Yang Xiuping, also a U.S. citizen.
The ministry said Huang interacted with a foreign country with the aim of bringing about a change in the direction of Singapore’s foreign policy and that his wife was aware of his activities. It did not identify the foreign country with which he was said to be interacting.
Huang told Reuters on Tuesday that he and his wife have appealed the decision. He remains in Singapore.
“I did everything required by Singapore law and that’s all I can say,” Huang said. He declined to comment on the nature of the accusations against him.
The Ministry of Home Affairs last week said Huang and his wife could appeal, but if unsuccessful, would have to leave Singapore within a grace period.
The ministry declined to comment on Tuesday. |
Baaa
Middle Reader
Ages 10 and up
By David Macaulay
64 pages
Houghton Mifflin
1985
In the course of his career, David Macaulay has employed several different illustration styles. He’s an amazing artist, regardless of the medium, and a true genius. Seriously, he won the MacArthur Foundation Award—aka, The Genius Award—in 2006. The art in Baaa is black and white and beautifully done. Macaulay uses light and shade perfectly and creates texture and depth with cross hatching and carefully spaced lines.
Though this is a heavily illustrated book, the story is not for younger children. Because of the bleak subject, I’ve categorized it as a middle reader but I think there are many aspects to be appreciated by older children, teens and adults.
Baaa is a parable about overpopulation, borrowing ideas from George Orwell’s 1984 and Soylent Green, the 1973 film. Instead of people, Baaa is sheep. This satirical picture book is grim, fascinating, humorous and clever.
“There is no record of when the last person disappeared. The only person who could have recorded when the last person disappeared was the last person to disappear.”
Sometime later, sheep begin to wander from their pastures into the now deserted towns. After they’ve eaten all the flowers and grass and potted plants, they move into the houses and grocery stores.
When a television in an abandoned house is accidentally turned on, several sheep sit mesmerized by the glow emanating from the screen. Eventually they learn to operate the machines attached to the TV’s and they’re able to watch movies.
More time passes and the sheep learn to speak and read. Slowly, they learn to be more and more like humans. They inhabit the homes the people left behind, and learn to drive cars. They establish schools, travel and pursue careers; leaders emerge from the pack. Times are prosperous and the population increases.
But before long, the lines at markets begin to grow, traffic moves more slowly and grocery items are in short supply. Items must be rationed, but it’s never done fairly. Hungry sheep turn to crime. More and more sheep are unhappy and riots break out.
Just as things seem to be at their worst, there’s a miraculous end to the food shortage and a brand new product on the shelves!
Everyone is eating it and everyone loves it. Soon there’s a shortage of Baaa and the unrest returns. Armed forces return the peace. Baa returns to the shelves. The cycle repeats and the population declines, until there’s just two sheep left. They meet for lunch.
“There is no record of when the last one disappeared.”
View on Powell’s
View on Amazon |
Women finally earned the right to vote 91 years ago today - after 72 years of largely unappreciated, back-breaking, work. It took another 66 years before we elected the first Democratic Senator in her own right - today Barbara Mikulski is the longest serving female Senator. And she shares the chamber with 11 other Democratic women.
I'm proud and lucky to be a part the community of campaign staffers who has worked to get women elected. The work that we have all been able to do is because of the women who paved the way for us and 91 years later, there have been over 100 pro-choice Democratic women elected to the halls of the U.S. Congress, and more than 500 women to state and local office.
And those are the women who are standing up for us fighting everyday - but there aren't enough. We've seen what happens when Republicans are in charge - since day one it's been an all-out war on women and families: they've tried to repeal health care reform, strip funding for family planning, eliminate collective bargaining, gut education, end Medicare, and destroy the economic safety net for many Americans.
If we stand together - just like we've done so many times already this year - we can stop the Republicans and elect people who will fight for us every day. I can tell you right now, 2012 will be game changer if women get to the polls. So on the 91st anniversary of the 19th Amendment, I'm asking women across the country to stand up and pledge to vote in 2012.
The suffragists paved the way for our success - and now, it's up to us to continue their fight. We have the chance to change things in 2012 - by mobilizing our families and friends and getting women to the polls to help elect Democrats up and down the ticket.
With each race we win, each new staffer that is trained, each blog we write, we are working toward that victory, but we need everyone together. There is so much we can do and after 75 years of struggle for suffrage we must be united in standing for those who will always stand for women and families. I want to take this anniversary to thank all of those brave women who came before me, and all of those young women just joining the fight. The suffragists gave us the right to vote in 1920, and in 2012, I'm sure as heck going to use it.
Crossposted from EMILY's List Blog |
A guest at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion claims he gave Secret Service agents the slip to snap a selfie in Trump’s private study — but the president’s security detail insists there was no breach.
“Snuck by secret service to catch this selfie. They might have told us not to go in there,” Joseph Young posted on Instagram on Saturday night, along with a photo of himself alone in the poshly appointed room with a painting of a youthful Trump behind him.
PRESIDENT TRUMP NO LONGER SAFE IN WHITE HOUSE: FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT
But officials say Young didn’t sneak past anyone.
“Those reports are all false,” Secret Service spokeswoman Catherine Milhoan told The Post on Sunday. “No one got past the Secret Service.”
A Secret Service source added to the Web site TMZ that guests were allowed in the study.
Another guest even posted a photo of himself and his mom in front of the Trump portrait, too.
Click here to read more at the New York Post. |
Sexy Doctor Who TARDIS Inspired Corset
This inspired Doctor Who corset is a totally a geek chic outfit that can easily fit to my closet. TARDIS inspired corset – Whats not to like?
This custom made corset will not come in cheep since its available for $225.00 but on the other hand how can you price awesomeness ? 🙂 If you buy this corset there’s no doubt that you’ll get your money’s worth since this corset is 100% custom made for your measurements. The pattern for this corset is custom designed as well and based on Victorian patterns but with a modern twist. The corset is designed to curve up the sides of the bust for a sexy flattering look.
The corset laces in the back with 2 piece silver grommets, which are smooth against the skin, and laces with matching blue satin ribbon.
To complete the look you can also purchase a matching skirt for additional 95$.
For more Dr Who related articles check out the TARDIS Galore: 22 Tantalizing TARDIS Designs & Gadgets, Geeky Doctor Who TARDIS Cake and the 11 Daring Doctor Who Mashups. |
This story was originally published by the Education Writers Association and reprinted with permission.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to make tuition free year at New York’s public colleges and universities for students from families earning less than $125,000 is being touted as a shot across the progressive bow. As the new Congress and White House tout a conservative agenda, the governor is offering a playbook that states could use to capitalize on the liberal currents that crisscrossed the Democratic presidential primaries. At a press event unveiling the plan, Sen. Bernie Sanders called Cuomo’s proposal “a revolutionary idea for higher education.”
Not so fast, said Matt Chingos, a scholar on higher education at the Urban Institute, in an interview. “The Sanders and Clinton plans – they included middle-income people, some upper-income people, but that’s a way to get broad-based political support for a program that’s also going to have significant benefits for low-income people,” he said. “Whereas the Cuomo plan gives zero benefits to low-income people; it’s completely a handout to the middle class.”
Here’s why: The plans proposed by Clinton and Sanders were “first-dollar” programs, meaning that students would receive free tuition on top of what they’d receive in federal grants. Cuomo’s plan is a “last-dollar” proposal – the free-tuition benefits kick in only after all other federal and state grants are applied to a student’s tuition bill. Because lower-income students tend to receive federal Pell grants that max out at nearly $6,000, federal aid covers virtually the entire tuition for a school like SUNY Albany, where tuition is $6,470.
For students who aren’t eligible for federal grants like Pell, which tend to go to those with family incomes of $40,000 or less, the Cuomo plan could provide generous relief. And at the state’s system of public universities, the SUNYs, more than three out of five students don’t receive Pell grants, suggesting that the largest audience for Cuomo’s plan is the students who are more likely to be able to afford tuition in the first place.
Nor is tuition the only expense of attending college, even when excluding room and board. At the State University of New York at Buffalo, various fees add up to $3,000, in addition to the $6,770 tuition bill, and Cuomo’s plan doesn’t cover fees. “It’s sort of a political sleight of hand to say we’re going to cover tuition and forget that tuition doesn’t include fees,” said Chingos. A recent report found that student fees nationally inflated the tuition bill by 27 percent on average. In Massachusetts, student fees are five times higher than tuition at its public colleges.
The New York governor’s initiative, which is by no means a sure thing in the state’s Legislature, also mandates that students enroll in college full-time in order to receive the free-tuition assistance. That can upset plans for low-income students who attend college part-time while juggling work and family obligations. According to 2011 data, 40 percent of the nation’s students attended college part-time, and they graduate at rates that are below average. A press release on Cuomo’s proposal argues encouraging students to study full-time will boost their odds of completing college.
Cuomo’s plan may serve another purpose: encouraging more higher-income students to stay in New York and attend its state schools. A New York Times analysis last summer calculated that the Empire State loses more than 10,000 students a year to colleges in other states, while bringing in fewer than 4,000 out-of-state students. Could dropping the tuition tab for flight-risk students whose families can afford steeper tuitions in other states keep more of them in a New York state of mind?
Maybe, said Chingos. The incentives for a state to entice students to stay are varied, but there’s the potential for long-term economic benefit to the region as talented learners receive educations locally and accept jobs in the area, helping to spur economic growth.
New York’s public colleges, including the CUNY system in New York City, could also gain prestige points. As wealthier students persuaded by free tuition attend a SUNY in lieu of a private or out-of-state college, they could drive up the selectivity of New York’s public universities because students from upper-income backgrounds – the ones who gain the most from Cuomo’s plan – tend to be more academically prepared than lower-income students. “If they keep the institutions the same size, well then, they may change who goes to CUNY and SUNY but they won’t change the number of people who go” to college, Chingos said. |
A group of young American ex-pats with telekinetic and clairvoyant abilities are hiding from a clandestine U.S. government agency. They must utilize their different talents and band together for a final job enabling them to escape the agency forever. Written by Anonymous
Did You Know?
Trivia In Greek mythology, it was Cassandra who was given the gift of prophecy, but also cursed so that no one would ever believe her. In this movie, it is Cassie who is able to see the future but has a hard time convincing those around her. In Greek mythology, it was Cassandra who was given the gift of prophecy, but also cursed so that no one would ever believe her. In this movie, it is Cassie who is able to see the future but has a hard time convincing those around her. See more
Goofs After being freed from the trunk of a car during the shoot-out at the construction site, Nick picks up two guns. He is seen picking them up, holding them in the elevator, and still holding two when he presses against the wall, but as soon as he fires his first shot, he is only holding one gun with both hands. After being freed from the trunk of a car during the shoot-out at the construction site, Nick picks up two guns. He is seen picking them up, holding them in the elevator, and still holding two when he presses against the wall, but as soon as he fires his first shot, he is only holding one gun with both hands. See more
Quotes [ first lines ]
: Dad, what's happening?
: I need you to listen to me, like we're the last two people on the planet, okay Nick? Someday, a girl is going to give you a flower. You got that? A flower. And you have to help her, Nick. You help her, and you help us all. Okay? I know it doesn't make any sense right now, but I believe the woman who told me that. Do you think you can believe me?
[ Nick nods ]
: I love you. Know how I've said that you were special Nick? Turns out that I was right.
See more » Young Nick : Dad, what's happening? Nick's Father : I need you to listen to me, like we're the last two people on the planet, okay Nick? Someday, a girl is going to give you a flower. You got that? A flower. And you have to help her, Nick. You help her, and you help us all. Okay? I know it doesn't make any sense right now, but I believe the woman who told me that. Do you think you can believe me? Nick's Father : I love you. Know how I've said that you were special Nick? Turns out that I was right. |
Invention of antibiotics in the 1940s brought a new ray of hope for people dying from a myriad of infections that we simply do not consider serious any more. Since then, antibiotics allowed to save millions of lives and are still considered the greatest invention of the pharmaceutical industry.
However, nowadays the problem lies in antibiotic overuse for conditions that could be treated with natural remedies for plain colds or viral infections that do not respond to antibiotic treatment at all.
Most cases of colds or flu can be resolved by simple homeopathic and herbal sore throat remedies. However, if you feel that your sore throat symptoms last for several days, you have a fever over 103F, you have trouble swallowing and eating, definitely have your doctor examine your symptoms.
Once your doctor confirms a case of strep throat, you will be prescribed a course of antibiotics for strep throat that will help your body fight bacterial infection and prevent untreated strep throat complications.
If you suffer from chronic bouts of throat infections due to cryptic tonsils conditions, your doctor might recommend you undergo a tonsillectomy, a procedure to remove tonsils. White spots on tonsils are indentations in the tonsil tissues caused by chronic bacterial infections. These become chronic sources of infection that floods your body with toxins and should be removed to stop the vicious cycle of sore throats. Adult tonsillectomy recovery is much more lengthy and painful compared to tonsillectomy on younger patients.
Antibiotics for strep throat carry multiple pros and cons. You can get the most benefits from your antibiotics for strep throat if you religiously take them according to your doctor’s recommendations. If you fail to complete the course of your antibiotics, or you take them at erratic time intervals, chances are your strep throat symptoms will come back.
Appearance of antibiotic resistant bacteria is one of many cons of antibiotics for strep throat caused by drug overuse. Poor intestinal flora, constipation and low immune response could also be attributed to antibiotics for strep throat. |
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Tantra and the Tantric Traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism
Summary and Keywords The term tantra and the tantric traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism have been subjected to a great deal of misunderstanding in both India and the West. There is a diverse range of attitudes toward the tantric traditions, ranging from their emic understandings as paths to liberation to the relatively widespread associations of the tantric traditions with sorcery and libertine sexuality. Likewise, tantric traditions are also extremely diverse, which has made it difficult to develop a definition broad enough to cover the various tantric traditions without being overly broad. There have also been many attempts to discern the origins of the tantric traditions. While there is very little evidence supporting the hypothesis that any of the tantric traditions existed before the 5th century ce, there have been attempts to trace back these traditions much earlier, to the time of the Buddha or the ancient Hindu sages, or even back to the Indus Valley civilization. In overviewing various attempts to date these traditions, it appears that the first tantric traditions to emerge in a distinct form almost certainly first emerged in a Hindu context around the mid-first millennium ce. An overview of the history of tantric traditions, then, should begin with a survey the development of the Hindu tantric traditions, from the mid-first millennium ce up to the colonial period, when tantric traditions in South Asia generally entered a period of decline, followed by a renaissance in the 20th century. The historical appearance of Buddhist tantric traditions occurs a few centuries later, during the 7th century. Buddhist tantric traditions were strongly influenced at their inception by preexisting Śaiva Hindu traditions, but they also drew on a growing body of ritual and magical practices that had been developing for several centuries, since at least the 5th century ce, in Mahāyāna Buddhist circles. The spread of tantric traditions quickly followed their development in India. They were disseminated to Nepal; Central, East, and Southeast Asia; and also, much later, to the West. Tantric Hindu and Buddhist traditions were also a significant influence on a number of other religious traditions, including Jainism, Sikhism, the Bön tradition of Tibet, Daoism, and the Shintō tradition of Japan. Keywords: tantra, Tantrism, Hinduism, Buddhism, South Asia, East Asia, Tibet
“Tantrism” or the tantric traditions originated as a development within Hinduism during the first millennium ce. Over the course of this millennium Hinduism went through a remarkable series of transformations, transitioning from the ancient Vedic tradition into the classical traditions of Hinduism. This period saw the rise of both the tantric and the Bhakti devotional movements. While the latter drew from the tendency toward monotheism seen in late Vedic literature, Tantrism developed from Vedic ritual traditions as well as from the yogic and meditative traditions that developed both within ancient Hinduism as well as in rival Buddhist and Jain traditions. Hinduism as currently practiced is a product of the intermixture of tantric and devotional approaches to practice that developed during the first millennium ce. The connection of contemporary Hindu practices, such as daily worship ceremonies (pūjā, nityapūjā) conducted by many Hindus in private shrines or public temples, to tantric traditions is not well understood by most Hindus or even by scholars, as the rich liturgical literature produced by Hindu traditions have, until relatively recently, been largely ignored.1 While most Hindu traditions have received some influence from the tantric traditions, the focus here will be the Hindu traditions that clearly and unambiguously identify as tantric. But Tantrism, while originating in a Hindu context, is not limited to Hinduism. Early Hindu tantric traditions had a striking impact on South Asian Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions, leading to the development of distinctly Buddhist tantric traditions. They also had a less striking but still real impact on Jainism and several other religious traditions. Buddhist tantric traditions, which emerged during the 7th century ce, were rapidly transmitted to Southeast, East, and Central Asia, leading to the establishment of several distinct East Asian and Tibetan traditions. These, in turn, had an impact on the development of Daoism and Shintoism in East Asian as well as the Bön tradition in Tibet. The tantric traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism have been simultaneously infamous as well as poorly understood. Due to the strong association of tantric traditions with magical practices, and of the so-called “left-handed” (vāmācāra) tantric traditions with sexuality and violent ritual practices, the tantric traditions have, over the past few centuries at least, been associated with black magic in India. Tantric traditions have had a tremendous impact on the practice of Hinduism that is now poorly appreciated by most Hindus; the term tantra is now best known in South Asia in the compound tantramantra, which is the equivalent in modern languages such as Hindi to “abracadabra” or “hocus-pocus” in English, terms that originated in Western magical practices that now designate “mumbo-jumbo, nonsense, gibberish”2 and “magic, trickery, or sleight of hand,”3 respectively. The title Tantra Mantra was given to a recent Hindi horror film featuring black magic.4 The term tantra in modern Indian languages “is frequently used to conjure notions of effective black magic, illicit sexuality, and immoral behavior.”5 Western scholars of Indian culture and history often treated tantric traditions with disdain, using its alleged degeneracy as an excuse to ignore this important aspect of Asian religious history.6
Defining Tantra/Tantric Traditions Tantric traditions are manifold, spanning several religious traditions and cultural worlds. As a result they are also diverse, which makes it a significant challenge to come up with an adequate definition, one that is broad enough to be applicable to all of the tantric traditions, but not too broad, including traditions that would identify themselves as tantric, and thus probably should be excluded from this rubric. The tantric traditions have been given several labels, but there is no single label that is accepted by all of these traditions. The adjective tantric, an English word derived from the Sanskrit term tāntrika, means simply that which relates to the tantras, the genre of scripture that serves as the canonical basis for the various tantric traditions. Tantras are works that primarily focus on ritual and meditative practices, so the term tantric also envelops the practices associated with these scriptures, which were traditionally disseminated by the tāntrikas (the Sanskrit term also designates tantric practitioners), along with the texts.7 So “tantric traditions” are the communities of practitioners who practice, preserve, and transmit through both time and space both the texts and the practices traditionally associated with them. It is important to note the use of this term in a plural form. Tantric traditions are multiple and also originated as multiple, distinct traditions of both text and practice. One of the most important tropes in the history of the dissemination of tantric traditions is that of lineage, the transmission of teachings along an uninterrupted lineage, from master to disciple, the so-called guruparaṃparā. This focus on lineage is found throughout the tantric world; originating in India, this emphasis was transmitted to Tibet and East Asia and remains an important concern of contemporary tantric communities. In the West the tantric traditions have often been labeled “Tantrism,” a neologism coined by Western scholars that does not reflect the self-understanding of any particular tantric tradition. As André Padoux noted, The word “Tantrism” is assuredly a Western creation. India traditionally knows only texts called Tantras. These texts, moreover, fall far short of covering the entire Tantric literature; nor are only Tantric texts called Tantras. India also knows the word tantraśāstra, “the teaching of the Tantras,” as well as the adjective tāntrika, “Tantric,” which is opposed to vaidika, “Vedic,” thereby placing a new form of revelation and rites against Vedic tradition and rites.8 The concept is based upon the tantras, key scriptures in many tantric traditions, but as Padoux notes, not all tantric traditions use the term tantra for their scripture, and the term is also used for nontantric works. We might also add that tantric traditions also use other terms for their scriptures; Hindu tantric traditions also use the terms āgama, jñāna, saṃhitā, siddhānta, vidyā, and upaniṣad to designate scriptures,9 while Buddhist traditions also used the terms sūtra and kalpa for some of their scriptures. So the presence or absence of tantras cannot be taken as a defining characteristic of these traditions. Likewise, while the East Asian tantric Buddhist traditions preserve Chinese translations of many of the tantras, the term tantra itself is not well known by these traditions, nor do they identify themselves as “tantric.”10 But the very term tantra points to an important feature of even these traditions. The scriptures known as tantras, which were transmitted to East Asia, tend to be heavily focused on the description of ritual, meditative, and yogic practices. These traditions tend to be heavily practice-oriented, with the goals of this practice ranging from worldly success to ultimate liberation, however defined. Obviously it would be ideal to define Tantra in terms of a single defining characteristic. Were there a single feature that all tantric traditions shared, this would naturally make it far easier to delineate exactly what the term designates. Such attempts include the Tibetan scholar Tsongkhapa’s (1357–1419 ce) argument that deity yoga, the visualization of oneself as a deity, is the defining characteristic of tantric practice, an argument that was problematized by his contemporary Ngorchen Kunga Sangpo (1389–1456 ce), who noted that not all esoteric works classified as tantras feature this practice.11 While the visualization of oneself as a deity is an important aspect of many tantric traditions, it is not found in all. It is also a somewhat arbitrary definition, as there are also many other elements of tantric practice that are found in most, if not all, tantric traditions. One solution to this problem is to delineate a range of features that tend to characterize tantric traditions. This was done by Teun Goudriaan, who first attempted to define “Tantrism” in terms of union with divinity, much like Tsongkhapa. He defined it as “the systematic quest for salvation or for spiritual excellence by realizing and fostering the bipolar, bisexual divinity within one’s own body.”12 He then went on to list a number of “tantric elements” that characterize this path to practice, including distinct paths of practice (sādhana), the use of mantras and mandalas, visualization and worship of the deities, distinct initiation ceremonies, and yogic practices involving the subtle body. This definition is quite useful as it indicates the range of ritual and contemplative techniques employed by tantric practitioners in order to achieve magical powers (siddhi) as well as liberation. Liberation in the Hindu theistic traditions is generally defined as the attainment of union with or proximity to the supreme deity, while it is defined as the achievement of the awakening of a buddha by Buddhists. For both traditions liberation is characterized by both knowledge and freedom. While we might debate which elements of tantric practice might be included in a definition or taxonomy of Tantrism, it should be noted that tantric traditions of all sectarian affiliations, be they Buddhist or Hindu, are characterized by a strong focus on ritual and meditative practice. From a certain perspective, Tantrism is, as Jean Filliozat stated, “merely the ritual and technical aspect of Hinduism.”13 This makes sense when one considers that tantric ritual largely supplanted the older Vedic ritual system in Hinduism. Likewise, in Buddhism, Tantrism originated simply as the ritual facet of Mahāyāna Buddhism as it came to be practiced in India around the mid-first millennium ce, and it emerged as an independent tradition only when its practitioners developed a self-conscious sense of distinction vis-à-vis mainstream “exoteric” Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions. Hence, as André Padoux argued, “Tantrism” per se is simply an academic category, abstracted from the various forms taken over the course of time by large sections of Hinduism and Buddhism. Depending upon the background, the origins, and the local influences, the evolution was more or less marked by a rejection of orthodox Vedic rules and notions; it included more or less local autochthonous cults and beliefs, local religious behaviors, and magical and/or other practices.14 As there was, however, considerable borrowing among these traditions, there are commonalities that can be found among these traditions, although they are diverse enough to resist reduction to a single defining quality shared by all of them.
The Origins of Tantric Traditions The origins of the tantric traditions is an enigma, largely due to the paucity of historical evidence in India from the period when it seems that they first emerged, during the Gupta dynasty (320–550 ce). This paucity of evidence has led to a great deal of unbridled speculation regarding the origin of these traditions. There is no hard evidence for the existence of tantric traditions prior to the mid-first millennium ce. While it is clear that some aspects of the tantric traditions, such as characteristic practices or iconography, considerably predate the historical formation of these traditions, the various attempts to date Tantrism prior to the first millennium ce are based on very flimsy evidence.15 The tantras themselves, as well as associated scriptures (āgama, saṃhitā, etc.), are understood by their respective traditions to be revealed works, initially taught by deities. In the Śaiva tradition, scriptures are believed to have originated in teachings given by Śiva to his wife, Devī; these teachings were then later conveyed to human sages such as Matsendranāth.16 The Śākta and Vaiṣṇava tantric traditions, on the other hand, hold the Goddess and Viṣṇu, respectively, to be the original divine teacher. Some Buddhist tantric traditions claim that their scriptures were taught by timeless cosmic buddhas and then revealed to adepts.17 These myths, while claiming that scriptures originate in a timeless divine expression, nonetheless point to their revelation as being meditated by great realized adepts (mahāsiddhas) who lived during the early medieval period, around the 7th through 13th centuries, more or less when most tantric scriptures actually came to light. To the extent that tantric scriptures discuss their origins, these disclosures tend to be mythical rather than historical. Treating these myths as history is naturally methodologically unsound. For example, a number of Buddhist tantras, following the textual model of the Buddhist sūtra genre, begin with an opening passage (nidāna) that indicates the circumstances in which the scripture was taught. A number of tantras claim that they were, like the sūtras, initially taught by Śākyamuni Buddha. Despite these origin claims, however, there is absolutely no evidence that any of the Buddhist tantras originated when the Buddha lived, around the 5th century bce.18 These passages represent attempts to legitimate these works as awakened speech (buddhavacana) and cannot be taken as historical evidence. While attempts to root aspects of tantric traditions in the distant past are speculative at best, there is no doubt that these traditions, as they emerged, were heavily dependent on earlier Indian traditions of thought and practice. One of the biggest influences on tantric traditions was the far older Vedic tradition of Hinduism. Vedic Hinduism featured the priestly class, Brahmins, who had the sacred duty to memorize the oral sacred literature of the tradition, the Vedas, and also learn the complex ritual practices the tradition advocated. These rituals focused on offerings to the gods made into a sacred fire, which ranged from largely vegetarian offerings made into small domestic (gṛhya) fires that householders were to maintain to the larger “solemn” (śrauta) rites that required animal sacrifice. This tradition developed circa 1500–500 bce, reaching its peak right around 500 bce, just prior to rise of the renunciant traditions that would challenge it. Although there was tension between advocates of the Vedic tradition and advocates of some of the tantric traditions, the tantric traditions drew heavily from Vedic ritual practice traditions nonetheless.19 This borrowing includes wholesale adaptation of the key Vedic rite of fire sacrifice, homa,20 and the transformation of the Vedic rite of royal consecration, rājyasūya, into the tantric rite of initiation qua “consecration,” abhiṣeka.21 Even the distinctly tantric practice of visualizing oneself as a deity had Vedic precursors; some Vedic rites required ritual identification with the deity, via both inner visualization and outer ritual actions.22 This was a natural outcome of the decline of the Vedic śrauta sacrificial system around the 5th through 13th centuries.23 And its decline was accompanied by the parallel rise of the tantric traditions, which developed new ritual systems that borrowed heavily from Vedic precursors. One of the key factors leading to the emergence of the tantric traditions was the rise of the world-renouncing śramaṇa movement a thousand years earlier around the mid-first millennium bce. This movement, which started within Hinduism but led to the development of rival traditions, namely Buddhism and Jainism, was characterized by its highlighting of the goal of liberation (mokṣa) from cyclic existence (saṃsāra) as the key religious goal, as well as the articulation of distinct paths of practice for reaching this goal. These include, most notably, renunciation and asceticism as a key requisite for liberation. Buddhist and Hindu śramaṇa traditions held that liberation resulted from a process of “awakening” (bodhi) in which the practitioner achieves a special knowledge or gnosis (jñāna) that liberates one from the cycle of awakening. The practice of meditation and yoga were seen as key practices to develop this realization. Tantric traditions inherited this assumption, and many of the contemplative practices, from earlier renunciant traditions. Buddhist tantric traditions, naturally, accepted the cosmological and philosophical frameworks developed by earlier Buddhist traditions, as well as many of their contemplative practices. Hindu tantric traditions, in turn, accepted and further developed the sophisticated cosmological and psychological doctrines developed by the Sāṃkhya school, as well as the contemplative practices developed by its sister Yoga school.24 Both of these traditions facilitated the transmission of ideas and practices developed by Hindu śramaṇa groups. The early first millennium ce also saw another important development in Hinduism, namely, the rise of the Bhakti devotional movement. This development occurred around the same time as the rise of the tantric traditions. It was characterized by tendency toward monotheism, in that devotion to a single supreme creator god was seen as the key to salvation. This tendency is ancient in Hinduism and is very clear in some of the later Upaniṣads dating to the second half of the first millennium bce.25 Relatively early works such as the Bhagavad Gīta, estimated to date circa 100 ce,26 call for devotion to God as the supreme path to liberation. The popularity and explosive growth of devotional Hinduism had a significant effect on the tantric traditions. Devotion to God is a central feature of most Hindu tantric traditions,27 and the Vaiṣṇava Pāñcarātra tradition in particular fused both Bhakti and tantric modes of practice.28 Given Buddhism’s rejection of the notion of a supreme Creator God, one would expect that the Bhakti influence would be less apparent in Buddhist tantric traditions. This may be the case, but while the influence was less, it was not nonexistent. In the Buddhist context devotion is typically limited to the guru, but this is seen as an essential requisite for tantric practice. The necessity of devotion to the guru is strongly emphasized in later works such as the The Fifty Stanzas on the Guru (Gurupañcāśikā).29 The exact time in which tantric traditions emerged in India remains an enigma due to a dearth of historical evidence in South Asia from the first half of the first millennium ce. However, as we will see in the next section below, the available evidence suggests that the 5th century ce was the most likely period in which the first tantric traditions emerged, and they likely emerged first in the context of the Śaiva tradition of Hinduism.
Hindu Tantric Traditions The Śaiva Traditions While the origins of tantric traditions are unclear, available evidence indicates that distinctly tantric forms of Hinduism emerged first among unorthodox Śaiva Hindu traditions around the fifth century ce. Thence it spread to other Hindu traditions, as well as to Buddhism; distinctly tantric forms of Buddhism emerged during the 7th century. It is impossible to precisely date the emergence of tantric Hindu traditions due to the poor state of textual preservation in these traditions; no Hindu tantric manuscripts from earlier than the 9th century have been preserved. Nonetheless, the available evidence points to the 5th century as the most likely time when Śaiva Hindu tantric traditions first emerged. One of the earliest references to tantric texts and/or practices is found in a 423 ce Gaṅgdhār stone tablet inscription. The inscription includes the following reference to a temple to the Mothers (mātṛ): Also for the sake of religious merit, the king’s minister caused to be built . . . this most terrible of abode, strewn with a multitude of [images of] Ḍākinīs [i.e.,] of the Mothers, that drove of joyous over-the-top gong-bangers who are pumped up to the rain clouds [on] the powerful winds raised by the Tantras.30 This is the earliest datable reference both to the term tantra qua ritual manual, as well as to the ḍākinīs, a class of goddesses who are closely linked to the tantric traditions. While we do not know exactly what texts or ritual traditions were being deployed in early 5th century Gaṅgdhār, it was almost certainly Śaiva. This is because the Śaiva tantric tradition is the only tradition for which there is evidence to date to the 5th century. Śaiva literature is traditionally divided into three “paths”: the “supreme path” (atimārga), the “path of mantra” (mantramārga), and the “path of the clans” (kulamantra). The Atimārga was produced by three distinct groups: the Pāñcārthika Pāśupatas, the Lākulas or Kālamukhas, and the Kāpālikas or Mahāvratins. These were ascetic groups who sought liberation and were also reputed to possess magical powers, and they likely constituted the context in which many practices that later came to characterize the tantric traditions first developed. The earliest of these groups, the Pāśupatas, likely formed no later than the 2nd century ce.31 The Kāpālikas, on the other hand, who apparently date to about the 5th century, were a major influence on the development of later Hindu and Buddhist tantric traditions due to the antinomian and violent nature of their observances.32 The earliest tantric tradition to emerge was likely the Śaiva Mantramārga tradition of the 5th century. It was subdivided into the Śaiva Siddhānta tradition, which was widespread throughout India during the second half of the first millennium ce, but later was restricted to South India. It was characterized by public rituals performed by priests. The Mantramārga also included non-Siddhānta traditions that generally focused on the private worship. The latter was subdivided into works of two genres: the Mantrapīṭha, focusing on the deity Bhairava, and the goddess-centered Vidyāpīṭha.33 The earliest Mantramārga works appear to date to the 5th century, around the same time as the Gaṅgdhār inscription. According to Alexis Sanderson, the earliest text corpus of this tradition, the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā, which has come down to us in a Nepalese palm-leaf manuscript of the ninth century, was composed at a time from the fifth to seventh centuries and that the Mūlasūtra (/Niśvāsamūla), which is certainly the earliest work within that corpus, was composed at a time between c. 450 and 550 AD.34 The Vidyāpīṭha tantras are notable for their antinomian nature. They borrow from the older Kāpālika tradition the focus on the charnel ground as the ideal site of practice and are characterized by practices connected with female divinities known as Yoginīs or Ḍākinīs. Both violent and sexual practices are common in these works. The Vidyāpīṭha tantras are poorly preserved, but they appear to have been popular around the 6th and 7th centuries.35 While we have no definitive evidence proving the existence of Vidyāpīṭha texts around this time, there is circumstantial evidence. This evidence includes references to non-Buddhist ḍākinītantras and bhaginītantras that prescribe violent and sexual practices by the Buddhist philosopher Dharmakīrti in his auto-commentary on his Pramāṇavārtika, which was composed around the late 6th to early 7th century.36 The erotic and transgressive practices and the focus on female deities that characterized the Vidyāpīṭha tantras were further developed in a final “path” of Śaiva tantric practice, the Kulamārga or “Path of the Clans,” the clans here referring to the clans of yoginīs into which the initiated male adept or “hero” (vīra) sought entry. This tradition of practice was widely known as the Kaula tradition. According to Alexis Sanderson this tradition shared five features with the earlier Kāpālika and Vidyāpīṭha traditions that set them apart from other Śaiva traditions: 1. Erotic ritual with a female companion 2. Sanguinary practices for the propitiation of the fierce gods Mahābhairava/Bhairava and Cāmuṇḍā 3. The notion that supernatural powers may be attained through the extraction by yogic means of the vital essences of living beings 4. Initiation through the consumption of consecrated liquor 5. The centrality of states of possession37 The Kaula tradition was clearly established by the 9th century and may have originated a century or so earlier. It also was the matrix from which the closely related Śākta tradition developed. It developed four well-known subtraditions. The Eastern transmission focused on Śiva and the goddess as Kuleśvara and Kuleśvarī. From it developed the Trika tradition that focused on a trio of goddesses: Parā, Parāparā, and Aparā. The Northern transmission featured the fierce goddess Guhyakālī; from it developed the Krama tradition, focusing on the goddess Kālī. The Western transmission took the hunchbacked goddess Kubjikā as its central deity, while the Southern transmission focuses on the beautiful goddess Kāmeśvarī or Tripurasundarī.38 These traditions were well established in Kashmir by the 9th century. Particularly important were the nondual Trika and Krama traditions that see no ultimate distinction between the deity and practitioner.39 During the 10th century a new school of Śaivism developed, the Nondual School of Kashmir Śaivism. Alexis Sanderson argues that it was the product of the confrontation of the more conservative Śaiva Siddhānta tradition and the transgressive Kaula tradition. He describes this as follows: By the tenth century the Śaiva scene was dominated by the confrontation of two radically opposed schools: on the one hand, a group of nondualistic traditions, principally the Trika and the Krama, and on the other, the dualistic Śaiva Siddhānta. The nondualists, upholding the doctrine that the world and persons are no more than the play of the power of a universal consciousness-self, operated from within transgressive cults “tainted” by the Kāpālika culture of the cremation grounds and the erotico-mystical soteriology of the Kaulas.40 The Nondual School of Kashmir Śaivism integrated elements of both the transgressive nondualistic traditions and the more orthodox dualistic Śaiva Siddhānta. The end result was a nondualistic system in which the transgressive elements were internalized and hence rendered less offensive to the orthodox. One of the best known Kashmir Śaiva theologians was Abhinavagupta (c. 975–1025 ce). He was a prolific author who wrote a number of commentaries on major works from the Trika and Krama traditions, as well as works in philosophy and aesthetics. According to David White he bridged the divide between the conservative and transgressive schools operating at the time by transforming the way the “hard-core” Kaula practices were understood. In his exegesis of Kaula works he “sublimates, cosmeticizes, and semanticizes many of its practices into a type of meditative asceticism whose aim is to realize a transcendent subjectivity.”41 He thus played the role of domesticating the “hard core” practices, creating in their place “soft core” contemplative exercises. This is apparently the origin of the distinction in the tantric traditions between “left handed” or unorthodox practice (vāmācāra) and “right handed” or orthodox practice (dakṣiṇācāra). A similar development also occurred in Buddhist traditions; a tendency to neutralize the more transgressive elements of tantric practice, often by transforming the practice from external rituals to completely internalized visualizations.42 The last of the major Śaiva tantric traditions to develop is the Nāth or “Split-Ear” Kānphaṭa tradition. It is medieval tradition that grew out of the heterodox Śaiva renunciant orders, namely the Pāśupatas and Kāpālikas.43 While primarily Śaiva in orientation, some Nāths have also assumed Vaiṣṇava and Buddhist identities, and some also drew elements from Sikhism and Islam.44 It emerged around the 12th or 13th century and quickly rose to prominence, “so much so that by the nineteenth century, the term ‘yogi’ was often construed, by India’s British colonizers, to refer to a member of one of the Nāth Yogī orders.”45 This sect produced the tantric texts of the Haṭhayoga tradition that are believed to have been revealed by the great adept Gorakṣa or Gorakhnāth. They produced several tantric scriptures, such as the Gorakṣasaṃhitā, the Khercarīvidyā, and the Haṭhayogapradīpikā, which were composed around the 14th and 15th centuries.46 While a relatively late tradition, they have been a significant influence on the contemporary practice of yoga. They practice a distinct form of tantric yoga involving breath control (prāṇāyāma) and the retention and transformation of sexual fluids via complex yogic exercises.47 The Śākta Traditions The Hindu Śākta traditions are traditions focusing on the Goddess (devī) in one of her many manifestations, as the supreme deity. The Śākta traditions involve both devotional strands and tantric strands, with popular Śākta practice being largely devotional in practice. Nonetheless, the Śākta traditions have maintained strong tantric tendencies, having preserved ritual and contemplative practices originating in Hindu tantric circles.48 The Śākta tradition is closely related to the Śaiva tradition, and the textual basis of many Śākta traditions are rooted in the goddess-oriented Vidyāpīṭha and Kaula traditions. The Kaula tradition, being almost entirely goddess oriented, is as much a Śākta tradition as it is Śaiva. This is because these are clearly overlapping categories. The nondual Śaiva and Śākta traditions both focus on the “bipolar, bisexual divinity within one’s own body,” as Goodriaan described it.49 This divinity is typically conceived as a male deity (Śiva or Viṣṇu) in union with his wife, Śakti. The distinction between Śaiva and Śākta in the Kaula tradition is largely one of emphasis, the deity upon which one primarily focuses. However, the Śākta tradition was not exclusively tied to the Śaiva tradition. The worship of goddesses was a venerable practice widespread throughout South Asia. While goddesses are relatively few in the ancient Vedic pantheon, there was tremendous growth in goddess worship during the first millennium ce, as indicated by the Purāṇa literature composed during this era.50 One of the great works of the early Śākta tradition, the Devī-Māhātmya, which extols the goddess, in her numerous manifestations, as the supreme creator deity. This work was composed around the 6th century, around the same time as the goddess-oriented Vidyāpīṭha tantras were initially circulating.51 The Kaula tantras provide the early scriptural basis for the Śākta tradition. Of particular historical importance is the Kaula Southern transmission, which constitutes the tantras of the clan of the goddess Śrī (śrīkula), and the Northern and Eastern transmission, which gave rise to the tantras of the clan of the goddess Kālī (kālīkula).52 These became by far the most popular Śākta tantric traditions. The former, focusing on beautiful and erotic goddess Śrī, gave rise to the Śrī Vidyā tradition, which is an orthodox, “right handed” tradition that became particularly popular in South India.53 It is also the tradition that gave rise to the Śrī Yantra, a mystical diagram consisting formed by nine interlocking triangles that is probably one of the most widespread and best known tantric images. The Kālīkula tradition, focusing on the fierce goddess Kālī, gave rise to the traditions of practice focusing on Kālī, which are particularly important in East and South India. Kālī remains one of the best known and beloved of Hindu goddesses, despite her ferocious appearance.54 She is also the focus of a considerable devotional tradition.55 Kālī is also included in the ten Mahāvidyās, a group of ten goddesses whose worship remains very popular in Bengal.56 Two of the goddesses included in this group, Tārā and Chinnamastā, originated as Buddhist goddesses who were later absorbed into this Hindu tantric pantheon.57 Śākta communities in northeastern India produced a number of tantras, such as the Cīnācāra Tantra and Bṛhannīla Tantra during the late medieval period, around the 15th and 16th centuries. These scriptures focus on the worship of goddesses and drew from both older Hindu as well as Buddhist works.58 Other Hindu Tantric Traditions The Vaiṣṇava tradition of Hinduism has tended to be far more engaged with the Bhakti devotional mode of Hindu practice and correspondingly less engaged with the tantric mode of practice. However, the Pāñcarātra sect, which dates back to the 5th or 6th century and focused on Viṣṇu qua Nārāyaṇa, produced a number of tantric works, although this sect no longer identifies as tantric. The Pañcarātra tradition claims to have had a canon of 108 texts, revealed by Viṣṇu in His form of Vāsudeva or Nārāyaṇa, most of which are apparently lost.59 While some scholars have argued that the oldest Pāñcarātra texts may date to the 5th century ce,60 Pāñcarātra scriptures are notoriously difficult to date due to a dearth of dateable early commentaries and manuscripts preserved by this tradition. One of the oldest works of this tradition, the Ahirbudhnyasaṃhitā, likely dates to the 8th century.61 There is indication of early influence from Kashmir Śaivism on Pāñcarātra scriptures. But as these works were later preserved by the Śrīvaiṣṇava tradition in South India, there is also evidence of later Pāñcarātra influence on the South Indian Śaiva Siddhānta tradition.62 During the medieval period another tantric Vaiṣṇava tradition emerged in Bengal. Known as the Sahajiyā tradition, it flourished in Bengal around the 16th through 19th centuries. It taught that each individual is a divinity, embodying the divine couple Kṛṣṇa and his consort Rādhā. This tradition integrated earlier Hindu and Buddhist tantric practices within a Vaiṣṇava theological framework.63 A few minor Hindu tantric traditions also deserve a brief mention. The Saura tradition of Hinduism, which focuses on the Sun god Sūrya, produced several tantras, most notably the Saurasaṃhitā that was also known as the Sauratantra. This tradition went into decline during the medieval period and is now almost extinct, and very few copies of this work have survived. The South Indian Vīraśaiva tradition, generally not considered to be a tantric tradition, did in fact produce one tantra that has survived, the Pārameśvaratantra.64 Hindu Tantra in Global Contexts Hinduism, unlike Buddhism, has traditionally been primarily located in South Asia and has not fostered a great deal of missionary activity. However, Hindu traditions were disseminated to Southeast Asia along with Buddhism around the 5th through 11th centuries, and during this time Śaiva tantric traditions were established in the kingdoms of the Khmers and Chams, in contemporary Cambodia and Vietnam, and in Java, in contemporary Indonesia.65 Tantric forms of Hinduism continue to be practiced in the Hindu enclaves in Indonesia, most notably on the island of Bali, the majority of the residents of which are practicing Hindus.66 Tantric Hinduism, in its Śaiva and Śākta forms, has also been disseminated around the world, most notably to Europe and America, by Hindu gurus during the 20th and 21st centuries. This was motivated both by the growing South Asian diaspora communities in the West as well as by growing interest in Asian religious traditions among non-Indian Westerners from the 1960s onward. Many of these gurus have been successful in establishing religious communities abroad, serving both diaspora Indian communities as well as converts to Hinduism.67
Buddhist Tantric Traditions The early history of Buddhist tantric traditions is far clearer than that of Hindu traditions. This is due to the international Buddhist network that led to the rapid dissemination of new Buddhist works. Many works of Buddhist tantric literature were rapidly translated into Tibetan and Chinese, and the date when a translation was made provides us with terminus ad quem for the respective work. While there are still many lacunae in our understanding of the early history of tantric Buddhist traditions, available evidence points to the mid-7th century as the most likely point at which historically datable traditions began to take shape. The earliest known dateable tantric text is the Awakening of Mahāvairocana Tantra (mahāvairocanābhisaṃbodhi-tantra), which was composed around the mid-7th century and was reportedly be one of the texts collected by the Chinese pilgrim Wu-xing (無行) c. 680 ce.68 The Chinese pilgrim Wu-xing also commented on the emergence of a new “teaching about mantra” (真言教法), which was very popular during his time in India.69 The emergence of tantric Buddhist traditions at this times appears to have been the result of a slow process of development of magical literature in Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions over the course of several centuries. For at least two centuries, around the 5th century ce, Buddhists produced a growing number of works focusing on magical formulas known as dhāraṇī and ritual practices that employ them. These gradually became more sophisticated, leading ultimately to the composition of the “esoteric sūtras” and tantras.70 Many of the early Buddhist tantric scriptures, which later were labeled “ritual tantras” (kriyātantra), are basically grimoires, compilations of magical rituals which were purported to achieve various worldly ends. Interestingly, the same is true of the early Śaiva tantric scriptures that were composed around the same time, around the 7th century.71 More sophisticated tantric traditions developed during the 8th century and onward. These new traditions featured practices advocating union with a deity, and they typically claim to promote a secret method for the rapid achievement of Buddhahood. These traditions focused upon scriptures that were later classified as Yoga, Mahāyoga, and Yoginī tantras.72 There was considerable Śaiva influence on the developing Buddhist traditions. The Buddhist Yoginītantras in particular, which focus on female goddesses known as Yoginīs or Ḍākinīs and feature antinomian practices, and which were composed around the 8th century onward, drew heavily from Śaiva Vidyāpīṭha scriptures.73 There was rapid growth and dissemination of the newly emerging tantric Buddhist traditions. Within a few decades after their initial composition, early tantric traditions of text and practice were disseminated to East and Southeast Asia. This was facilitated by the active trade and diplomatic exchanges between India and China during the 7th and early 8th centuries, via overland trade routes via Central Asia and also maritime trade routes via South East Asia. The Sarvadurgatipariśodhana and Trilokavijaya mandalas, and, presumably, their associated practice and textual traditions, were introduced to Java c. 700 ce.74 Moreover, the Central Asian monk Amoghavajra, who journeyed from China to India and back via the maritime route during the mid-8th century, reported that there was a new canon of eighteen tantras, which he attempted to convey back to China and partially translated into Chinese.75 This suggests that there was a very rapid production of new tantric texts and practice traditions around the mid-7th through mid-8th centuries. Tantric traditions were established in China during the Tang dynasty, and thence disseminated to Korea76 and Japan.77 While the institutionalized esoteric Buddhist school did not survive the Wuzong emperor’s (武宗, 814–846; r. 840–846) infamous persecution of Buddhism in the mid-9th century, esoteric Buddhist traditions survived in peripheral areas in China. It appears that tantric Buddhist texts and practices were first disseminated to Tibet during the 8th century, shortly after their initial dissemination to East and Southeast Asia. Buddhists traditions view the 7th century as the time when Buddhism first reached Tibet, although there might have been gradual dissemination of Buddhism into the region earlier. The translation of Buddhist scriptures began, apparently, during the late 7th century and continued with imperial support during the 8th and 9th centuries, with most of the “early” translations made between 779 and 838 ce.78 As evidenced by imperial catalogs compiled during this period,79 as well as tantric manuscripts preserved at Dunhuang, which were assembled around the mid-10th through early 11th centuries,80 a significant number of tantric scriptures and ritual texts were translated into Tibetan during the imperial period. The rNying ma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism is based upon teachings transmitted to Tibet during the imperial period by renowned masters such as the great adept (mahāsiddha) Padmasambhava.81 With the collapse of the Tibetan empire in 841 ce and the consequent loss of imperial patronage, the transmission and translation of tantric works to Tibet appears to have slowed but did not cease altogether.82 Official patronage of translation activity resumed in the late 10th century, when King Lha bla ma Ye shes ‘od is reported to have sent twenty-one novice monks to Kashmir to receive further training. One of them, Rin chen bZang po (958–1055 ce), became a renowned translator, thus initiating the second or “Later Transmission” (phyi dar) of Buddhism to Tibet.83 The Later Transmission period focused on the transmission and translation of “new” tantras and their associated ritual literature. They were considered to be “unexcelled tantras” (bla na med pa’i rgyud), the highest category of Buddhist teaching. Their high status was due to the fact that many of the them (all of them, if creative commentarial strategies are employed) teach “perfection-stage” (Skt. niṣpannakrama; Tib. rdzogs rim) yogic practices involving manipulation of the “channels, winds, and drops” (Skt. nāḍi, prāṇa, and bindhu; Tib. rtsa, rlung, and thig le), the network of subtle channels and the energy centers (Skt. cakra; Tib. ’khor lo) that house the “wind” or vital energy and “drops” of subtle consciousness. Collectively these constitute what was known as the “subtle body” (Skt. sūkṣmadeha; Tib. lus phra ba). Advocates of the new Tibetan traditions based on these scriptures claimed that yogic practices involving the manipulation of the subtle body were requisites to complete awakening. The “new” schools that developed in Tibet beginning in the 11th century were largely based on these “unexcelled tantra” scriptures, also known as mahāyogatantras and yoginītantras, and the exegetical and ritual literature associated with them. They include the Kadam (Bka’ gdams), Kagyü (Bka’ brgyud), Sakya (Sa skya), Jonang (Jo nang), and Geluk (Dge lugs pa) traditions, which were established between the 11th and 15th centuries. Tibetan Buddhists would later play important roles in the dissemination of Buddhism (and associated tantric traditions) to China and Mongolia, and eventually throughout the world, with the diaspora of Tibetan lamas in the 20th century following the Chinese invasion and occupation of Tibet in 1950.
Influence on Other Religious Traditions Tantric Hindu and Buddhist traditions influenced a number of other religious traditions, both within South Asia as well as in other areas of the world. Because tantric traditions first emerged in South Asia, their impact there is naturally the most significant. The South Asian traditions that were influenced by the tantric traditions to some degree include Jainism, Islam, and Sikhism. Daoism and the Shintō tradition in East Asia were influenced by East Asian tantric Buddhist traditions, and the Bön tradition of Tibet was thoroughly transformed by its encounter with tantric Buddhism. Lastly, the “New Age” spiritual movement that developed in the West during the latter half of the 20th century was also strongly influenced by Hindu and Buddhist tantric traditions. While Jainism did not preserve any self-consciously “tantric” traditions, various Jain authors described a variety of tantric meditations and rituals, beginning circa 800 ce. Generally speaking, many Jains were interested in tantric practices, although given the Jain focus on nonviolence as well as strict celibacy for monks and nuns, Jain tantric texts did not advocate any of the transgressive ritual practices involving sex or violence.84 Jains did produce several tantric texts, such as the 11th-century Bhairavapadmāvatīkalpa, which, as the name suggests, evinces influence from Hindu Śaiva-Śākta traditions.85 Jaina borrowed goddesses from the Śaiva Mantramārga tradition, some of which served as lineage goddesses for prominent Jain families. The worship of these goddesses, however, was changed to suit Jain moral teachings. Jains, who worshipped their tantric goddesses with vegetarian offerings only, did not perform animal sacrifices.86 Probably the best known mode of tantric practice during the medieval period is the tantric form of yoga focusing on the subtle body and the movement of vital energy within it. Sufi Muslims in Bengal also developed a form of tantric yoga under the influence of the Nātha and Sahajiyā Vaiṣṇava traditions. The Sufi tantric yoga tradition borrowed the concept of the subtle body and Islamicized it, translating it into Islamic categories. This development occurred rather late; none of the extant texts of this tradition predate the 16th century.87 Tantric yogic practice was also adopted by some Sikhs. One of the best known advocates of this practice was Harbhajan Singh Khalsa (1929–2004), better known as Yogi Bhajan, who widely taught Kundalini Yoga in America and Europe. Yogi Bhajan claimed to be part of a practice lineage going back to Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. While there is no evidence supporting this claim, it appears that, as Michael Stoeber suggests, “some form of Kundalini Yoga was practiced historically by some Sikhs, albeit perhaps secretly and in very small numbers.”88 When tantric Buddhist traditions reached China at the beginning of the 8th century, there was already a long history of borrowing between Buddhist and Daoist communities. Many elements of tantric Buddhist practice were taken up by Daoist traditions. But tantric Buddhists, in turn, also borrowed the Daoist practice of venerating the Big Dipper constellation and developed distinctly tantric modes worshipping this divinity.89 The Shintō tradition of Japan also borrowed elements of tantric Buddhist practice, most notably the goma (Skt. homa) rite of makings offerings into a sanctified fire.90 The Bön tradition of Tibet, the indigenous Tibetan religious tradition, was transformed by its encounter with tantric Buddhist traditions, so much so that it should also be considered a tantric tradition. Tibetan Buddhist traditions borrowed significantly from the Bön tradition, but the Bön tradition was likewise deeply influenced by Buddhism.91 The Bön tradition developed a scriptural canon on Buddhist models and borrowed not only the genre of the tantras but also a number of tantric practices.92 Bön practitioners, for example, developed their own Mahāyoga and Yoginī or “Mother” tantras, based upon the Indian Buddhist models.93 Lastly, the growth of interest in tantric practice in the West has led to the development of a number of new spiritual traditions deeply influenced by Hindu and Buddhist tantric traditions founded by Westerners, which Hugh Urban has labeled “New Age Tantra.” These include Pierre Bernard’s Tantrik Order, Aleister Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis, and Nik Douglas’s New Tantric Order in America.94 These traditions have adapted venerable tantric ideas and practices to meet the needs of spiritual seeker in new and contemporary contexts.
Review of the Literature There are three primary approaches to the study of the history of tantric traditions: textual, archeological, and ethnographic. The first two are most important for the study of history of tantric traditions in general and indispensable for those traditions that are now defunct, which persist only in the textual and archeological record. But as numerous tantric traditions have survived in South, East, and Central Asia, ethnographic studies in these communities are an important additional source of information concerning them. As all of the known tantric traditions have been the products of literate communities, the study of the voluminous texts composed and preserved by these traditions has been one of our largest sources of information concerning them. Many thousands of texts have been composed and preserved by tantric communities, the majority of which have not been edited, studied, or translated. This literature was often ignored by past generations of scholars, some of whom deemed tantric literature as unworthy of study. Moriz Winternitz’s extensive Geschichte der indischen Literatur, for example, devoted only two pages to a very brief discussion of tantric literature.95 Thousands of works of tantric literature have been preserved in South Asia, and several thousand, many for which the Sanskrit original is now lost, were also translated into Tibetan and Chinese and preserved by East and Central Asian communities. Tibetan, Mongolian, Chinese, and Japanese authors have also composed many thousands of original tantric works, such as commentaries and ritual and meditative manuals. Only a small fraction of these works have been critically edited, studied, or translated into Western languages. The study of these texts is an ongoing effort, which, as it proceeds, should deepen our understanding of the history of tantric traditions. However, textual study alone is insufficient. This is partly because exclusive focus on written records leads to a distorted understanding of the traditions that gave rise to them, since these records, arguably, reflect an elite perspective.96 In addition to textual evidence it is important to take into consideration as well archaeological and art historical evidence. This includes epigraphic and numismatic inscriptions as well as the wide range of different types of religious art. Inscriptions indicating the donors who contributed to the construction or fabrication of a temple, monument, or work of art can provide important information regarding the communities who supported tantric institutions. Moreover, some facets of tantric history are only known via archeological evidence. An example of this are the so-called Cauṃsāṭha Yoginī temples, built during the 9th to 13th centuries throughout India, but particularly across the middle of the country. They feature depictions of the female divinities known as yoginīs, many of which are notable for their ferocious and/or erotic appearance. Various attempts have been made to connect these temples to the surviving scriptures, such as Śaiva/Śākta Kaula tantras,97 but no convincing link has been established between these temples and surviving texts. They represent an important aspect of South Asian history that can only be understood via archeological and art historical approaches, although continued research into the large amounts of unstudied or poorly studied texts may also shed light on these temples.98 Ethnographic study of contemporary tantric communities is an additional important source of information. From such study we can gain more information about the texts and practices preserved by the communities. These include questions such as which texts and practices are actually employed by these communities and how the practices as described in the texts compare to those undertaken by contemporary communities. These are important questions, as the study of ritual and contemplative practices via texts alone is problematic at best, if not completely impossible. It is possible that the study of texts alone can lead to an incomplete or distorted understanding of history, and sometimes observing living communities can serve as a corrective to these problems. For example, a number of tantric texts call upon male practitioners to seek out low-caste or outcaste women to serve as partners in courses of practice (sādhana) involving sexual activity. Some of these texts appear to valorize these female partners; Miranda Shaw used this evidence to argue that Indian tantric communities often empowered women to serve as gurus or spiritual leaders.99 It is of course possible that women were able to serve as gurus in early medieval India. However, ethnographic studies of low-caste women who serve as sexual partners for male tantric practitioners have painted a much darker picture of what life is like for such women,100 suggesting that the textual passages that valorize these women should not be uncritically accepted at face value. It goes without saying that our study of tantric traditions should take into consideration all available evidence. While this interdisciplinary approach is beyond the capacity of any individual scholar, the collective works of various scholars employing different methodologies will over time deepen our understanding of these traditions.
Primary Sources There are an unknown number of tantric manuscripts, written not only in Sanskrit but also medieval dialects, the so-called Prakrit and Apabraṃśa dialects, as well as modern languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, and Newari. Many have survived in India despite the climate that is generally not conducive to manuscript preservation. However, the vast majority of surviving tantric works have been preserved by the Newar community of the Kathmandu valley, who have preserved a wide range of tantric Hindu and Buddhist texts and traditions and have been aided by a climate that is far more amenable to text preservation. Many of these surviving texts were originally preserved in monastery and temple libraries as well as private text collections. There are also several collections in Kathmandu that are open to the public, most notably the National Archives of Nepal, the Kaiser Library, and the Asha Archives. Over 18,000 rare manuscripts, many of which are of Hindu and Buddhist tantric texts, were microfilmed by the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project, and these titles are now being cataloged by the successor project, the Nepalese-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project. It is possible to request microfilm or digital scans of these manuscripts through this very important project. A smaller collection of scanned Sanskrit Buddhist manuscripts is freely available online via the Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon, a project sponsored by the University of the West in Los Angeles. A number of tantric works are included in the works available on their website. Many tantric manuscripts from Nepal and India are also owned by university libraries and archives around the world. Lists of library collections containing these manuscripts have been prepared by Dominik Wujastyk and Audrey Truschke. In addition to the resources listed on these websites, the University of Tokyo also has a large collection of tantric Buddhist Sanskrit manuscripts, which are scanned and available on the library’s website. There are a number of resources for those interested in studying the tantric Buddhist literature translated into or composed in the Tibet language. For those interested in studying Tibetan primary texts, one of the best resources is the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center. Like the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project, the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center has sponsored the scanning of many thousands of Tibetan manuscripts, some of which are quite rare. Their collection includes scans of the entire Tibetan canon of translated works from India, the Kanjur (bka’ ‘gyur), Tenjur (bstan ‘gyur), and the rNying ma tantric canon (rnying ma rgyud ‘bum), as well as numerous works by Tibetan masters. Several organizations are working to translate Tibetan Buddhist works to make them accessible to those who do not read Tibetan or Sanskrit. The organization 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha is sponsoring the English translation of the entire Tibetan Kanjur as well as the rNying-ma tantric canon, including translations of all of the canonical Buddhist tantras. These translations, as they are completed, are published as digital texts freely available on their web site. The Tsadra Foundation is also sponsoring the translation of Tibetan works. They are producing digital publications as well apps for accessing these on various devices. A number of tantric works were also translated into Chinese, and these are included in one of the best known and most widely accessible canonical collections of Chinese Buddhist scriptures, the Taishō Tripiṭaka (Ch. 大正新脩大藏經; Jp. Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō). Much (but not all) of this canon has been digitally published by the organization CBETA, and the tantric translations are included among the texts freely available on their website.
Links to Digital Materials • Himalayan Art Resources : One of the best resources for tantric art from South and Central Asia is Himalayan Art Resources, a web resource made possible by the Rubin Foundation. It contains high-quality digital images, freely available for download, of religious art from the Himalayan region. It features Tibetan Buddhist art but also contains images from the Bön and Hindu traditions as well. It features the artwork from the collection of the Rubin Museum of Art in New York as well as art from the collections from several other museums with excellent Himalayan art collections, namely the Los Angeles County Museum, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Guimet Musee National in Paris, the Museum of Culture in Basel, Switzerland, the Tibet House Museum in New Delhi, and the Zanabazar Museum in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.
• The Smithsonian Institution: The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. also has a great deal of tantric art in their collections, much of which is viewable and downloadable from their website. Some of the images from their recent exhibition on yoga are available as well. The catalog for this exhibit, Yoga: The Art of Transformation , edited by Debra Diamond, 101 contains numerous high-quality reproductions of stunning works of art, many of which originated in the South Asian tantric traditions.
• 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha : Provides free access to translations of Tibetan Buddhist canonical texts, including many tantras.
• CBETA : Provides free access to digital versions of canonical Buddhist texts in Chinese translation from the Taishō Tripiṭaka. This includes a good number of tantric works.
• The Nepalese-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project ): Provides access to images of rare manuscripts from Nepal, including many tantric Hindu and Buddhist texts .
• The Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center: Provides access to a wide range of scanned Tibetan texts, including many works on tantric subjects. |
Zoning bylaws are meant to reflect the desired physical composition of an urban area, specifying the permitted uses and standards of individual properties. They outline a site's authorized functions, built form, height, and density, but as the city evolves, mass updates to the zoning bylaws can alter these permissions. The revisions often result in legal nonconforming uses or structures, where the use or built form of a property that complied with previous zoning regulations no longer adheres to the new regulations. This is also known as "grandfathering."
Toronto's zoning map outlines the permitted property uses across the city, image via City of Toronto
While the use or built form of a particular site may be contrary to prevailing attitudes and the public interest, a nonconforming use or structure does not need to be altered to reflect the new zoning rules. The property can continue to operate legally despite not meeting the most recent zoning specifications. It is generally believed that requiring a property to immediately cease its use would be unfair, and in some countries, likely unconstitutional. However, if a property is abandoned or its use is discontinued — usually for six months or one year — it loses its legal nonconforming status. Local restrictions will often prohibit or place strict limitations on the addition and expansion of nonconforming uses and structures.
Have any other construction and development terms that you would like to see featured on Explainer? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below. |
After 21 Nominations, Will Sound Mixer Kevin O'Connell Finally Win His Oscar?
Enlarge this image toggle caption Danny Hajek/NPR Danny Hajek/NPR
If Hacksaw Ridge breaks Kevin O'Connell's Oscars losing streak, he'll have a pile of acceptance speeches to choose from. Over the years, he's earned 21 Academy Award nominations for sound mixing, but doesn't have a single statue to show for it.
Most of his unused acceptance speeches are sitting in a drawer. "I don't pay much attention to that stuff anymore," O'Connell says. "I almost feel like this is like a rebirth for me at this point, you know?"
O'Connell's a re-recording mixer — he brings sound into movies.
"I am merely the front man for a huge team of people that work in putting the sound of a motion picture together," he explains.
O'Connell works out of the mixing stage at Sony Studios in Culver City, Calif. His office is a movie theater. His desk is an audio mixing board that spans the length of the room. He sits behind hundreds of buttons that glow and blink and rows of worn-out audio faders.
His early work includes sound for classic films like Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Grease and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Back when everything was analogue, O'Connell used to mix movies in real-time — he calls those the "pressure cooker days."
"Time is money and the stages were expensive and I'm a 23-year-old guy sitting there working on Poltergeist with Steven Spielberg sitting behind me," O'Connell recalls. "It was nerve-wracking, I have to say. It was really nerve-wracking."
In Poltergeist, he distorted Carol Anne's voice that comes from the TV static.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Danny Hajek/NPR Danny Hajek/NPR
"It's the sound artists that bring those visual effects to life that make you believe that what you're seeing is actually real," O'Connell says.
Like the epic launch in Armageddon or Optimus Prime in Transformers — both Oscar nominated mixes for O'Connell.
He made Maverick's fighter jet come alive in Top Gun.
"When that jet starts to take off, you're focusing on that afterburner sound which is revving up in your face," he says. "And the second it explodes and starts to take off, we immediately pull those jet sounds down and raise up Kenny Loggins' 'Danger Zone' music."
O'Connell thought Top Gun might get him the Oscar that year, but his name was never called.
"It hasn't been the right time for me," he says.
And he's actually OK with that. But when will the right time be?
"The Kevin O'Connell phenomenon can really be explained pretty easily," says awards columnist Scott Feinberg at The Hollywood Reporter. "Sound people — members of the sound branch of the Academy — are the only people who pick the nominees."
That explains O'Connell's 21 nominations. But picking the Oscar winner is up to the whole Academy to decide: actors, make-up artists, visual effects artists all get a say. And Feinberg says not everyone knows what goes into sound mixing.
"[Sound mixing] is a coattail category," he says. "So, if you have a best picture nominee that's also nominated in that category, you can bet that's going to get a lot votes just for being a movie that people liked."
He says that undermines the craft — after all, sound is the other half of the movie.
Take, for example, O'Connell's Oscar-nominated mix for Hacksaw Ridge. While filming the battle scenes, O'Connell says the prop explosions sounded like firecrackers and the prop rifles sounded like cap guns. So his team, including fellow nominees Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace, had to redub all of it. They used historically-accurate audio recordings to recreate one of the bloodiest battles of World War II.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Mark Rogers/Lionsgate Mark Rogers/Lionsgate
"Explosion after explosion," O'Connell says. "We have foreground explosions, background explosions, bright explosions ... Then we have American guns, Japanese guns, then we have the USS Missouri firing 16-inch cannon sounds. Every single sound, every single footstep."
It's such a realistic soundscape that even a group of war veterans who previewed the film at a private screening were convinced — maybe even a little too convinced.
"One veteran said, 'I don't know where you guys got the sound of the whizzing bullets cracking overhead, but ... that triggered my PTSD because I've never heard it until I was in the war, and I've never heard it since,' " O'Connell says. "That sound and feeling took him right back to the battlefield."
So, will Hacksaw Ridge finally be O'Connell's winning mix? Feinberg says he'll have to beat La La Land, and that won't be easy.
But it's been a decade since O'Connell's last nomination for Transformers, and next weekend — win or lose — he'll return to the Academy Awards with a new acceptance speech and hope that number 21 is Oscar gold.
"Hopefully my time will come," he says. "But it's going to come when it's the right time — and hopefully this year it is." |
Taking up professional wrestling at the advanced age of thirty-three, I certainly had no aspirations to reach the lofty heights of other renowned grapplers who didn’t start until they were in their thirties like Bad News Allen, George ‘the Animal’ Steele and most famously Diamond Dallas Page. As previously noted, this whole endeavour was the culmination of a childhood goal, after which, I would be back in my kimono and the business of competitive grappling.
My original intention was just the one match, but, that quickly changed as I discovered how awesome it was performing in front of an audience and the creative freedom I was afforded within the medium. My goal expanded, I wanted to do as many shows as I could, and in the quickest possible time, before my already battle-weary body was completely decimated from the constant ‘bumps’ that were required. With that in mind, I vowed to wrestle whenever and wherever possible.
I had found a home at UKW where I was gaining much need experience (eight matches up to this point), but had no idea how to get booked on other shows. I sought advice from my fellow ‘workers’ on how one might get noticed by different promoters. I was given a number of tips. The most resounding of which was, you have to promote yourself; I needed to establish a social media presence – that of Francis Darwin. My first port of call was setting up a Facebook page – this is where I ran into trouble.
Sat in front of my Mac, about half-way through the creation of said page, my cauliflower ears began to burn, lit up by an unmistakeable sensation of ignominy. Why was I being punished with such an acute sense of shame? Its origin, I discovered after some thought lay at the feet of my gimmick, or at least its implications; Francis Darwin was essentially me, albeit an ego-maniacal version. In creating this page to promote a character that was primary a jiu-jitsu athlete, I felt like I was denigrating something that I love. I didn’t want to feel like I was becoming a parody of myself or disrespecting the art form which had completely changed my life, making a mockery of it as a vehicle to ‘get over’. I didn’t want to be thought lesser of by the wider jiu-jitsu community.
This inner struggle promptly inspired me to immediately stop what I was doing and sketch out this blog post in the hope that it would be cathartic. It wasn’t.
Now, it is worth noting, that my attitude towards pro-wrestling, its norms and time honoured traditions is hardly one of irreverence, I love wrestling’s little idiosyncrasies (and there are many!), but I had come from a very different world. One where, if you put yourself out there online, extolling to all what an incredibly bad dude you are, it wouldn’t take long before most people thought you were a complete penis-hole. In jiu-jitsu your ego is put in check from the moment you first step on the mats and continues to be regulated every single day by cats of all shapes and sizes choking you into submission. Conversely, a healthy sized ego seems like a prerequisite to achieving success in pro-wrestling. This fascinating dichotomy between pro-wrestling and fighting, and my uneasy relationship to it is something that I intend to explore further.
I realise that I am probably being completely pedantic about all of this, but, we all know how this ends, first Facebook and the next thing I know I will be introducing myself as Francis.
Anyway I did it – I created the page – if you would all be so kind as to ‘Like’ it, it will hopefully go some way in helping me progress in my pro-wrestling mission or at the very least it will do wonders in satiating Mr Darwin’s ever-growing ego. |
Liquid Metal is an alloy metal (technically, bulk metallic glass) that manages to combine the best features of a wide variety of materials into one product. Liquid Metal also has high corrosion resistance, high tensile strength, and remarkable anti-wear characteristics. It can be thought of as a super strong thermoplastic — a material that can also be heat-formed.
Given its unique properties, Liquid Metal has been used in a number of industries, including in smartphones. However, it has been limited to small-scale applications (Apple made the iPhone 3G/3GS SIM removal tool out of Liquid Metal). But what would happen if a manufacturer would make an entire case out of single piece of Liquid Metal? We’re about to find out as Turing Robotic Industries (TRI) today announced pre-orders for the world’s first liquid metal-frame smartphone.
The Turing Phone uses its own brand of Liquid Metal called Liquidmorphium, which provides excellent shock absorption characteristics. So instead of making a dent in the smartphone casing or cracking/chipping like plastic when dropped, a Turing Phone should in theory “shake it off” while at the same time protecting the fragile display from breaking. Check out this video below of a Liquid Metal ball bearing versus a stainless steel and titanium counterpart:
The Liquidmorphium frame is further protected by nano-coating technology and features an IPx8 waterproof rating, allowing it to survive water depths of up to 30 feet. But the Liquidmorphium isn’t the only trick that TRI has up its sleeve. The Turing Phone uses the company’s end-to-end authentication system which keeps it “entirely insulated from cyber-threats and privacy intrusions.” We’ll have to take Turing’s word for it, but you can never be too safe when the government is snooping around 24-7-365.
The Turing Phone runs Android 5.1 Lollipop and features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with 3GB of RAM, a 5.5-inch 1080p display that is covered with Gorilla Glass 4, 13MP rear camera with dual-LED flash, 8MP front-facing camera, fingerprint sensor, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and a 3000 mAh battery.
The Turing Phone does not come cheap, with pricing starting at $610 for a 16GB model and escalating quickly to $740 and $870 respectively for the 64GB and 128GB models. But to soften the blow somewhat, Turing is throwing in a Bluetooth headset, Bluetooth speaker, Bluetooth keyboard, and a gaming controller for free to those who pre-order the phone. Pre-orders open up on July 31, but TRI has not yet committed to a shipping date. |
Some people seem to think that "racism" is entirely a white phenomenon. Of course that is not true. Whites are the least racist group in the United States, if not the world. Whites generally do what Martin Luther King claimed he wanted for his children, to be judged on the content of one's character, not the color of one's skin. This is as it should be. We will all be judged one day, so it is best to deal with people based on the content of their character.
Which is a good reason to profile based on group behavior as the atheist race-realist John Derbyshire so correctly advised. We also know that even black Americans know that their fellow blacks are more racist than whites.
But race is not a social construct and Noticing is not an original sin of whites. It is the natural preference of any group for its own members, even if the "other" is a distant cousin.
Which brings us again to the Lion City, the Confucian Dictatorship in the sunny southwest Pacific.
The Diplomat by Mark Fenn February 21, 2014
Does Singapore have a problem with xenophobia? It seems that barely a month goes by these days without news reports highlighting friction between Singaporeans and foreign workers in the tiny, multi-ethnic city-state.
The population has increased dramatically in recent decades thanks to an influx of foreigners, who now make up around two out of five residents. This has put a growing strain on jobs, housing and infrastructure, and raised fears about the dilution of the Singaporean national identity.
It has also—predictably—resulted in an angry backlash, with many taking to social media to disparage foreign workers, from highly paid “foreign talent” to heavily exploited laborers from China and the Indian sub-continent.
(My emphases added throughout). And it is not just petty discrimination or a mere preference for one's own. It is not the typical American reaction, which is "Can't you just speak English?" It gets pretty vicious.
The abuse is often so vicious that in his 2012 national day rally speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong noted the proliferation of posts “tormenting and berating” foreigners, adding: “Very few people stand up to say this is wrong, shameful, we repudiate that. I think that is no good.”
It can even be directed against socially prestigious whites:
In the latest high-profile incident, British banker Anton Casey lost his job and was forced to flee the island last month with his wife — a former Miss Singapore Universe — and son. The hapless Casey received death threats after making sneering comments on Facebook mocking the “poor people” using public transport, though his comments probably had more to do with social class—a subject rarely discussed in Singapore — than with race per se.
Note that even today in the city-state where women are more liberated that mainland China, a Chinese ethnic former Miss Singapore finds white men are more desirable as marriage partners than her fellow Chinese. Obviously there are psycho-sexual issues there, given the shortage of Chinese Singaporean women available for Chinese Singaporean males.
The previous month saw a major backlash on social media after Indian and Bangladeshi workers rioted in Singapore’s Little India district, leading Lee to again warn against “hateful or xenophobic comments, especially online.”
Something my blog reported and endorsed. Rioting is not acceptable behavior and it is neither racist or xenophobic to object to such criminality.
Of more import, though, is the internalized definition of Singaporeanness.
Anyone familiar with Singapore knows that race is a national obsession, and far more than a box to be ticked on official forms. This obsession permeates the country, and Dr Michael Barr of Australia’s Flinders University argues that it is important to distinguish between racism within the mainstream of society and that directed at outsiders.
“Singapore is very racist even towards its own minorities, but this is mostly accepted by the minorities as the cost of living in a society that is safe and prosperous, and which they can genuinely call home,” says Dr. Barr, senior lecturer in international relations and the author of a forthcoming book on Singapore’s leadership.
He argues that after independence in 1963, the government of former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew tried to break down the rigid racial divides inherited from the British, and to create a genuinely multiracial society.
But from the late 1970s it changed course, pushing instead to create a “Chinese” society with Indian and Malay minorities. From then on, race became “the major social identifier for Singaporeans,” and racism “a natural consequence of living in a society where racial stereotypes are encouraged and indulged by the government.”
The reality, of course, is that no national unity is possible based on multiculturalism. Just look at Yugoslavia.
“Unfortunately this has meant that in the 2000s and 2010s, just when foreign workers are moving into the front view of Singaporeans’ consciousness for the first time due to the government’s decision to flood the market with foreign workers, Singaporeans are already well-trained in racial stereotyping. They’ve had a lifetime’s training,” says Barr.
Not so much well trained as just being realists. Malays and Indians just aren't as smart as Chinese, much less Singaporean Chinese. with average IQs of 92, 82, and 108 respectively. Singapore does not want to become a Detroit, much less a Bihar and Sabah.
Nor does it want to be Red China. Chinese Singaporeans are directing their vitriol against their racial cousins from the Mainland as well.
Yet the worst abuse is usually reserved for low-paid construction and service sector workers from China, India, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Mainland Chinese are known as “PRCs” — from the People’s Republic of China —and are often ridiculed for their poor English and perceived lack of social graces by the ethnic Chinese who make up around 75 percent of Singaporeans. Chinese bus drivers who staged an illegal strike in 2012 cited this discrimination as one of the reasons for their unhappiness.
Online forums are full of vicious comments about “PRC scum,” “foreign trash,” Filipino “cockroaches” and so on. An event held by Singaporeans in Sydney to celebrate the city-state’s national day last year attracted attention when locals and other foreigners were apparently refused entry. Summing up the siege mentality of many Singaporeans, one of the attendees wrote on a local blog afterwards that: “Everyone of us were on the same page. There were no PRCs, India Indians, Bangla or Pinoys [Filipinos] to annoy us.”
No mention, though, of how Chinese are treated by Singapore's neighbors. Indonesians routinely riot, targeting Chinese, Christian Chinese, and Christians in general. Malaysia has an official race-based system that favors the bumiputra, sons of the soil, or more accurately Muslim sons of the soil, the Malay race over its ethnic Chinese, ethnic Indian, and Malay Christian citizens. So, it is in this milieu that one must judge Singaporeans.
Singaporeans are tougher on race than Americans, but they are not spilling blood or establishing their own Jim Crow system as in Indonesia and Malaysia respectively. Actually, Singapore's race policy is quite rational and workable. No official discrimination, but letting the cream rise to the top. Or actually putting MLK's prescription to work.
But IQ is a harsh mistress, and reality does set in. Better that Singapore's immigrants accept their lot, it certainly is better than living in India, Indonesia, or Malaysia.
Interesting that the story revolves around complainers from India, Malaysia and the PRC. While the Pinoys just go about their work and lives, thankful to be out of the PI. I guess the Filipinos are smart enough to recognize a good thing. It probably helps that they have the support of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
However, as I've reported, Singapore's leadership, despite its high IQ, does have problems, that of the Slave Power.
However, this growth has been achieved predominantly by adding labor input — importing foreign workers — rather than increasing the underlying productivity of home-grown workers. Foreigners now make up about 38 percent of the total population of 5.3 million. In 1990, that figure was 14 percent, when the total population was around 3 million.
Last year, a government policy paper called for the population to increase a further 30 percent by 2030, to 6.9 million, at which time immigrants would account for nearly half of the island’s population. Thousands of people attended two rare protests against the white paper, holding signs with slogans such as “Singapore for Singaporeans.”
Fueled by angry reactions on social media and websites critical of the government, the issue of immigration has become a political hot potato for the PAP. At the 2011 general election, opposition parties won six seats in Parliament — the most since independence. Kenneth Jeyaretnam, leader of the opposition Reform Party, says there is “no minimum wage and no social safety net, so competition from immigrants has definitely depressed wages and reduced job prospects for Singaporeans.”
“All racism is at bottom economic, and Singapore is no different,” he told The Diplomat. “The rising population has raised the returns to the owners of fixed factors like land. Since the Singapore government owns 80 percent of the land, this benefits them. The surpluses generated from the growth of the economy and the higher population have not been used to compensate Singaporeans but instead gone to the accumulation of foreign assets in our SWFs [sovereign wealth funds].
“If we had a minimum wage and greater protections for our workers then there would be less objection to foreigners. Instead of that, we have senile old men like LKY [Lee Kuan Yew] talking about the need for more Darwinian competition and how admitting more foreigners acts as a spur in the sides of Singaporeans … The reaction to Anton Casey shows that Singaporeans increasingly see themselves as patsies who are being exploited by not very well educated or particularly talented foreigners. Resentment extends to foreigners at all levels and regardless of race, except perhaps for those doing the dirty and dangerous jobs for less than S$20 per day.”
Singapore is performing a delicate balancing act. It wants cheap labor, but wants to preserve the Chinese characteristics and not become another failed State. Therein lies the essential duality of Singapore.
It will need all of its high IQ to solve that problem. Good luck, as this blog supports the Lion City.
But the real lesson: race is real throughout the world. And so is IQ. It would be better that peoples at the lower end just accept that.
They would be much better off. And not so angry. And not so dangerous. |
Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
It’s not easy making it back to the Super Bowl, especially after you lose. There’s been plenty of victims to the Super Bowl curse, most recently being Carolina (SB and 15-1 in 2015, 6-10 in 2016). But, the Falcons won’t fall into that curse and here’s why.
Big Names Still in Tact
The Falcons had many small moves this offseason like every team has, but the main core is still together. After the 2015-16 season, the Panthers got rid of All-Pro CB Josh Norman, and their horrendous secondary was one of the main reasons the Panthers were horrible.
The three biggest names the Falcons lost were Kyle Shanahan (SF), Patrick Dimarco (BUF), and Jalen Collins (10 game suspension). The Falcons will miss Shanahan, but the Falcons have so much talent that it would be hard for the offense to regress substantially barring injury.
Dimarco was a nice player in Atlanta and was one of the reasons Devonta Freeman broke out, but Fullbacks are pretty replaceable and don’t hold the value they use to. New FB Derrick Coleman isn’t a bad player either.
Falcons defense is so stacked.
People forgot we lost Desmond Trufant for most of last season. — Kanye East (@SupaSaiyanEedee) August 2, 2017
With the return of Desmond Trufant, Jalen Collins would’ve been listed at CB4 on the depth chart, behind Trufant, Robert Alford, and Brian Poole. Collins is certainly a nice piece, but he’s not too important. Plus, the Falcons will get him back after 10 games (assuming they don’t cut him).
What matters for the Falcons is that the important pieces are still there. All the skill positions on offense (Ryan, Freeman, Coleman, Jones, Sanu, Gabriel, Hardy Hooper, etc.) are still on the roster. Overall, the Falcons are returning 9 of 11 starters (FB and RG). On the defensive side, the NFL sack leader Vic Beasley Jr., the two leading tacklers Deion Jones and Keanu Neal, and lockdown CB Desmond Trufant is still on the team.
Injuries
Injuries weren’t a big reason why the Falcons lost the Super Bowl, but it definitely hurt the Falcons. All-Pro center Alex Mack played in the Super Bowl with a broken leg, which definitely affected his play. The Falcons best cornerback Desmond Trufant missed the entire playoffs with a torn Pectoral. The defensive line was where the Falcons suffered the worst.
Iron sharpens iron. The defense continues to make the offense better. 🎥 Full Interview – https://t.co/1EEfKW9TEN pic.twitter.com/09TSOUuvre — Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) August 8, 2017
The Falcons in the 4th quarter ran out of steam, and that was in large part due to the lack of depth because of injury. Derrick Shelby (Achilles) missed all of last year, and Adrian Clayborn missed the last two games (torn biceps).
That left guys like Brooks Reed, Grady Jarrett, Courtney Upshaw, and Jonathan Babineaux on the field for too many snaps. Also, Julio Jones played through an entire season with a toe injury. I don’t think you could’ve asked more from Julio, but imagine if he was healthy.
Obviously, there are no excuses for blowing that big of a lead in the Super Bowl, but a fully-healthy Falcons team going into this year will make them a lot more dangerous.
Julio says he has noticed his defense is playing at an elevated level. Mentioned how guys are always "flying around" — Kelsey Conway (@FalconsKelsey) August 7, 2017
Takk McKinley and Dontari Poe
The two biggest acquisitions the Falcons made this offseason was signing Dontari Poe and drafting Takk McKinley. Both will make the Falcons front seven formidably better. Poe is a proven run stuffer and will compliment nicely with Grady Jarrett. McKinley will help take attention off Vic Beasley, which will force teams to make tough decisions on pass protections.
Improved Depth
The Falcons greatly improved their depth this offseason. They drafted TE Eric Saubert in the fifth round, leaving the Falcons with 4 solid tight ends (Hooper, Toilolo, Perkins, and Saubert). Signing Jack Crawford and having Shelby and Clayborn return from injury will leave the Falcons with 6 quality backups.
With that depth, the Falcons can afford to give series off, and guys like Brooks Reed, Derrick Shelby, and Courtney Upshaw will only get 10-15 snaps, which makes their energy a lot better.
Conclusion
Overall, the Falcons will have to deal with the adversity that comes with blowing the biggest lead in SB history, but they’re a better team than last year and have set themselves up in a great position to return. |
Conservationists are urging owners to keep their cats inside, saying this could help save 200 million birds each year in Canada alone.
That figure comes from a 2013 study published by Environment Canada scientists in the Avian Conservation and Ecology journal, which lists cats as the number one killer of birds in Canada.
Death by window collision is a distant second claiming about 25 million birds per year.
Canada's birds dying off
Canada's wild bird populations are estimated to have declined about 12 per cent in the last 40 years, with some populations decreasing by over 95 per cent.
"If we even step back from Canada and we look globally, we know for a fact that cats have contributed directly to the extinction of 34 species of birds. Next to rats and humans, of course, that's the biggest factor," said Ted Cheskey, a conservationist with Nature Canada.
Globally, the number of at-risk bird species has increased from 47 to 87 between 2001 and 2015.
- Ted Cheskey
The causes of decline are complex, but cat predation introduces a significant additional pressure to populations that are already facing challenges such as loss of habitat, pesticides and factors associated with global warming, Cheskey said.
Okanagan valley most at risk
"British Columbia has a very high proportion of species at risk. The Okanagan Valley being perhaps the place where there's the highest density of species at risk in all of the country," Cheskey said.
Cheskey also noted that free-roaming cats pose a significant threat to the province's island-based bird populations.
"Island populations are pretty insular, and often they lack predators as well. When a new predator like a cat is introduced to an island, [it] can be totally devastating."
Well-fed, domesticated cats who have ample toys to play with still pose a danger to avian populations, Cheskey said.
"The hunting action is an instinctive action. They may not eat the birds, but they will still hunt."
"The cats, they're indiscriminate on who they choose to kill. It can be a common bird, but it can be a bird that's perilously close to being wiped out as well. It's a big problem."
National campaign to launch
"Ideally, cats wouldn't be allowed to roam freely. We know that for now that is unacceptable to many cat owners," Cheskey said, which is why Nature Canada plans to launch an awareness campaign later this year.
Many municipalities in Canada already have bylaws that obligate residents to keep their pets indoors, Cheskey said.
"We know it's better for birds and better for cats," said Cheskey, who said the average life span of an outdoor cat is two to five years, compared to fourteen years for an indoor cat.
The campaign will also focus on the importance of spaying and neutering cats to reduce the feral cat population.
To hear the full interview with Ted Cheskey, listen to the audio labelled: Keep your cats indoors, say conservationists. |
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Video title:
Former muslim professor of Islamic Studies demands dogs be removed from Southwest Airlines flight, is dragged off.
Upload date:
September 9 2017
Uploaded by:
Traffick
Video description:
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/09/woman-who-demanded-dogs-be-removed-from-airplane-is-muslim-former-professor-of-islamic-studies Woman Dragged Off Southwest Airlines Flight Over pet allergy. Woman forcibly removed from Southwest Airlines flight. A woman was dragged off a Southwest flight. Woman With Pet Allergy Thrown Off Southwest Airlines Flight. Passenger Dragged Off Southwest Flight After Allergy Claim Causes Delay Woman removed from Southwest plane.“Don’t touch me,” a woman shouts as police drag her off a Southwest Airlines flight in Baltimore. Officers drag woman from LAX-bound flight after alleged dispute about dogs on plane. A woman was forcibly removed from a Southwest flight on Tuesday after she claimed to have a life-threatening pet allergy but refused to leave the plane. While boarding, the woman notified Southwest staff of her allergy after seeing two dogs, one a pet and the other a service animal, on the flight with her. However, she was unable to provide proof that she could fly safely with the animals. Southwest said their policy states that "a customer (without a medical certificate) may be denied boarding if they report a life-threatening allergic reaction and cannot travel safely with an animal onboard." Airline staff asked her to exit the plane multiple times, but she refused. Police officers were called to the plane and removed her despite her objection
Total views:
1,109 |
Sling TV, Dish Network’s OTT-TV service for cord-cutters, is expanding its Sports Extra pack with the addition of Outside Television.
Sports Extra, which costs $5 per month on top of Sling TV’s core $20 per month package, also features ESPNU, beIN Sports, The SEC Network, ESPNNews, ESPN Bases Loaded, ESPN Buzzer Beater and ESPN Goal Line and Univision Deportes.
The addition of the channel, which features shows about outdoor sports and extreme activities such as surfing, kayaking, BASE jumping and climbing, comes about seven months after Dish Network and Outside Television announced a carriage deal, which paved the way for the lifestyle sports network to be added to Dish’s premium Multi-Sport Pack.
As Sling TV adds Outdoor Television to Sports Extra, it’s shedding one as well – Universal Sports Network, which is shutting down. |
Long, long ago, Florida's programs and tickets used "The _____ Game" as titles. I guess that's good enough for our season preview. And this is the last piece in the series.
Florida State Seminoles
2012 season: 12-2 (7-1 ACC)
Coach: Jimbo Fisher, fourth season (31-10)
Last result vs. Florida: Florida 37, Florida State "26" (2012)
Series record vs. Florida: Florida, 34-21-2
Game date: Saturday, November 30, 2013
Game location: Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Gainesville, FL
Who Are You?
The Florida State Seminoles, the Gators' traditional Thanksgiving weekend rivals, will come into this game looking for revenge. Florida dissed them down on their home turf a year ago, and you can bet the Noles will be looking to return the favor this time around in Gainesville. We've already discussed how intense this rivalry is, but it never hurts to reiterate it: these teams hate each other... with a burning passion.
Why Is This Year's Game So Important?
Aside from getting to mock the opponent's arm gestures, both teams really want this win to get the momentum of the rivalry on their side. A Florida win, and it's eight out of ten for the Gators, and two straight. If FSU wins, however, it's the Seminoles who will be on a run, winning three out of the last four. Throw in the recruiting stakes, and the amount of trash both fan bases throw at each other, and well, let's be honest: This game means everything. That's as far as I can go. Define everything for yourself.
Offensive Breakdown
Roster Review
Jimbo Fisher has recently tabbed freshman Jameis Winston as his starter. Now, that could completely change if he performs poorly, and there are eleven games on FSU's schedule before Florida. Behind him is Sean Maguire, who went to Seton Hall Prep (my personal high school rival, but I've met him and he's a nice guy, so I'm rooting for him) and Jacob Coker, both of whom had very good springs. Whoever starts at QB will have an experienced line to work behind: Cameron Erving, Bryan Stork, Tre' Jackson and Josue Matias all return. The wide receiver position is just as experienced. Rashad Greene, Kenny Shaw and Kelvin Benjamin all return. To sum it all up: FSU's offense will be expected to be among the nation's best. Can they finally deliver?
The history of Florida-FSU Tracing the 60-year history of a Sunshine State series.
FSU Offensive Strategy
It seems rather boilerplate and obvious, but FSU has to simply avoid turning the ball over against Florida if it wants to win. It's much easier said than done, but FSU has to establish a balanced attack early and often if they want to beat this Gators defense, even if that's not their style the rest of the year. We saw what happens if the 'Noles don't do that last year: Florida was by far the best team FSU faced on its schedule, and shut down the deep pass. While going for the big strike worked against the likes of Miami and Clemson, it's not going to work against Florida's outstanding cornerback tandem of Louchiez Purifoy and Marcus Roberson.
Winston is going to have to be content with dropping it off to a lot of safety valves and taking what Florida gives him, because this Gators defense is one that you cannot beat with pure speed or pure toughness. You have to be patient and wait for your opportunities. Move the ball slowly and methodically, and take a big play when it's there.
Florida Defensive Strategy
Simple. Harass Winston (or whoever is playing QB in this game) and force him to make quick decisions. Obviously, every team would love to do this against FSU, but Florida actually has the pieces in place to do it. FSU's QB is going to be young, and relatively inexperienced, whether it's Winston or one of his backups, so this increases the chances of creating a turnover. Expect D.J. Durkin to routinely send six, seven, and maybe even eight rushers to try to increase the chances of forcing a turnover.
FSU Offensive Grade: B-
Defensive Breakdown
Roster Review
Defensively, FSU could be in trouble. The 'Noles don't just lose seven starters, they also lose a plethora of backups who provided respectable service over their time at FSU. (Go ahead, FSU fans, point at your absurdly high recruiting rankings over the past few years and tell me again how Fisher simply replaces old pieces with new ones.)
There is certainly some talent in the front seven, between DT Tim Jernigan, Dan Hicks and Mario Edwards on the front line, and Telvin Smith and Christian Jones anchoring the middle level. But this defense loses seven starters from a team that got flamethrowers for three of four quarters on Thanksgiving weekend, so while it's probably fine for the ultra-weak ACC, I doubt it will be enough to slow down Florida's running game.
Unless, of course, this actually is Florida State's year.
FSU's Defensive Strategy
If FSU needs to avoid turnovers on offense, they've got to be twice as desperate to force them against Florida's offense. It's already been established that FSU's defense was comically unable to stop Florida's simple running game; maybe it would have helped if they had to be on the field for fewer plays than the 72 Florida ran? I don't expect Jeremy Pruitt to play too much coverage unless Jeff Driskel has somehow exploded as a Heisman favorite at this point in time. Instead, look for Pruitt to do essentially the same thing that Durkin will do, sending lots of guys in the hope that at least one breaks through and gets to Driskel.
Florida's Offensive Strategy
Anybody who watched last year's game knows exactly what Florida has to do in this year's game: Run the ball and don't turn it over. Even if Driskel has amassed 3,000 passing yards entering this game, why not give him a day off and watch Matt Jones and Kelvin Taylor pound the Seminoles for 200+ yards?
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. FSU's defense was ranked No. 1 against the rush last year, and then Florida ripped them for 244 yards on the ground. And that Florida State defense had Bjoern Werner and Tank Carradine (for most of the game, anyway) to set edges.
Brent Pease will let Driskel strut his stuff at some point, but expect the bulk of the damage to be done on the ground.
FSU Defensive Grade: C+
FSU Overall Grade: B-
Key Matchup
Matt Jones, Kelvin Taylor and Mack Brown vs. FSU's front seven. It's almost a known fact that the Gators' offensive line is going to have its way with FSU's run defense. But the question is the extent of the Gators' dominance in the offensive trenches. This is by far Florida's biggest advantage, and if FSU can keep it the damage to a minimum, they'll be in the game late.
Overview
If only I had a penny for every time FSU fans said, "No, guys, THIS time, we REALLY mean it. THIS is our year!" I'd be able to buy the Yankees. Florida fans do that, too, but the difference is, Florida, you know, actually does have national championship-type seasons every now and then.
FSU can win the ACC, and probably will, just like it did last year, but it's never going to equate to success against any Florida team worth sneezing at. We saw the difference last year, and while the player names will change, the result will not. FSU is simply not an SEC-caliber school. Florida is going to bully FSU, and, coupled with an earlier win over Miami, will secure its second straight Florida Cup.
Projection
Florida 31, FSU 17. |
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