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Here’s a word from a journalist to those in politics whose world has gone totally nuts: welcome to bonkersville. We don’t have a constitution that lays out our rules (though we do have the Constitution assuring that we can do what we do). But for quite a few years now the bedrock ethical principles of our profession have been challenged by new models that have altered both the process and content of journalism. Some of this has been a wonderful tonic. And some has been toxic. We’ve been trying to sort out things for a while. Which brings us to the controversial publication of a strangely produced “dossier” involving our president-elect and the Russians. Buzzfeed published it this past week, 35 pages long. It had red-hot but unverified allegations, and it apparently was the subject of intelligence briefings given to Donald Trump and the current president. Those briefings were the subject matter of a CNN story this week. CNN did not print the dossier, which included a mind-boggling sexual escapade. And other publications had the opportunity to print the dossier but did not. Buzzfeed did, later explaining that its move was appropriate in today’s climate. In its short history, Buzzfeed has done some absolutely terrific journalism — great investigative reporting, sharp political work, and some superb tech writing, under the guidance of my former Wired colleague Mat Honan. But it also has broken questionable new ground in muddying the distinction between news and distraction. It was kind of cool that Buzzfeed got about nine hundred billion hits or so from messing with our minds with The Dress, that picture of wedding garb that may have been blue or may have been white? But when I read Buzzfeed’s editor-in-chief Ben Smith triumphal, congratulatory note to his staff where he spoke of a story involving the ambiguity of a dress color as if it were a scoop with the impact of Watergate and the cultural import of the Enlightenment, I couldn’t get out of bed for a week. Still, I am not paralyzed with cognitive dissonance by the fact that Buzzfeed has a light side and serious side. This week’s controversy dealt squarely with its serious side. Standard journalistic ethics dictate that such a dossier, including scabrous accusations of questionable veracity, should be held, or at the least described warily. But Smith justified the move in a note to his staff, a sort of mini-manifesto as to why this was OK in the internet age. The note, which he publicly circulated in a tweet (ah, 2017!), is a gutsy step in redefining the right thing to do in journalism today. I actually have more of a problem with this explanation than I do with the actual publication of the dossier, for which there are reasonable arguments for and against. The line about always erring on the side of publication is a particularly hard one to swallow. It actually makes me a little wobbly because I generally dread situations where something I publish gets all tied up with the word “err.” So much so that I, like most “traditional” journalists, actually take the opposite tack, choosing to forgo the positive consequences of publishing edgy but unverified stuff so we can lay our heads on the pillow knowing that our errors of omission hurt ourselves more than errors of publishing can harm subjects of inaccurate, damaging information. In the context of an anything-goes internet, I can understand why he says it. The sentiment really was best expressed by Nick Denton of Gawker, who was the king of the err-on-the-side-of-publishing ethos, at least until it bankrupted him. Smith and Denton both seem to chafe at the idea that insiders are privy to information when the general public is not. Readers should be free, Smith believes, “to make up their own mind” on the subject. In this case, I’m not sure what we’re making up our minds about. Readers did not have a certain scene in a Moscow hotel room in their minds before Buzzfeed published a paragraph that was guaranteed to go viral in a way that would rival The Dress. Now those images — even though they come with the caveat that they may be total fabrications — are dancing in our heads and have launched ten thousand lousy jokes on Twitter. Personally, I think what CNN did in this case — reporting the news that the dossier was the subject of intelligence briefings but withholding the salacious, quite possibly fictional, details — was just right. That’s not to say that Buzzfeed should be sanctioned for publishing the dossier. Every publication should be free to publish whatever it thinks appropriate, as long as it’s legal. (Remember that Constitution I mentioned? And by the way — no publication should be banned from a press conference or denied credentials because a public official is unhappy with its editorial choices. Just sayin’.) Even in the age of “fake news,” I believe that readers will ultimately determine the credibility of the publications that they consume. Story by story, day by day, publications construct their reputation, and big choices like that have an oversize impact. Buzzfeed now owns its choice, and its leaders seem to be happy with it, so more power to them. Backchannel hasn’t been faced with this kind of situation, so I’m not going to second-guess Buzzfeed. But I do think it’s important to convey to our readers that our content is determined by the worth of our stories rather than their potential to release dopamine. The stories that give us satisfaction are those that appear nowhere else on the Internet and feature deep reporting or original thought. These are high standards and sometimes we may not hit the mark, but that’s what we go for every day. We will try to err on the side of accuracy. More than ever, we believe that must be a reporter’s job in 2017. If we fall short, please let us know. This week provided some examples of how Backchannel works. The Inside Story of BitTorrent’s Bizarre Collapse. Jessi Hempel originally was going to write a short piece for our Follow Up Friday series about this company — for the first Friday in December. But as she kept uncovering details about what happened when the creators of a great technology tried to build a company around it, the story got more ambitious. Phil Schiller on iPhone’s Launch, How It Changed Apple, and Why It Will Keep Going for 50 Years We knew that lots of places would be writing about the iPhone’s 10th anniversary, but since I was there, and actually spoke to Steve Jobs at the event, we figured that the piece would clear our bar for uniqueness. When we landed an interview with Apple senior vp Phil Schiller — the only on-the-record session that Apple conducted for this milestone — we knew our story would stand out from the pack, which is exactly where we want to be. How Netflix Lost Big to Amazon in India. I bet you never heard about the battle between Netflix and Amazon in India. We hadn’t either, so we were immediately interested in this story. Hey, more people are on India’s internet in that country than in the United States, so here is a significant subject and a well-rendered tale that reflects on a global streaming-video competition between those familiar giants. And from last week… Oscar is Disrupting Health Care in a Hurricane. Oscar is a health insurance startup that wants to pull an Uber on the industry. Behind a family drama — one brother is co-founder of a company whose customers all come from Obamacare, the other brother is the top advisor of the president-elect who wants to repeal the law — is an even more dramatic question of whether it is possible to disrupt in such a heavily regulated field, especially in this pivotal moment for health insurance. In this fragile moment for the company, Oscar trusted us to do the deepest dive yet on its effort. One other note: Last week, Medium CEO Evan Williams announced layoffs and a vow to develop a new business model for content on its platform. Though we are now part of Condé Nast, Backchannel was created inside Medium, and some people who lost their jobs were our former colleagues, so the news was particularly saddening to us. But our business team at the Wired Media Group had already been selling ad content, so this does not affect us, anymore than a layoff at WordPress would affect a publication using that content management system. We’re still wide open for business and are anticipating 2017 will be a great year here. |
Comic book fans can be a tough audience. Given your background and your lack of experience in comic books are you worried about how your story will be received? GR: "It’s a little bit terrifying and intimidating to be a queer woman entering the Marvel universe. Internally I’ve been like, man are people gonna read this and tear me apart because of my identities? Because I’m a woman? You read online that folks aren’t too kind. And there’s harassment. Or just the: 'You don’t belong here because you don’t know the history of like every single thing.'" Are you worried about trolls? WM: "Every comic book gets picked apart by the internet. That’s just the way that the internet is." GR: "Am I worried about the trolls? No. I’m worried about not telling the story. I’m worried about little kids out there who wouldn’t get the story because we would be afraid of trolls. That’s ridiculous. And hey, honestly, I was an internet troll when I was 15 and I was scared of coming out. I behaved badly online when I was a teenager for like six months because of the pain of being closeted. So whenever I see internet trolls there is a part of me that’s like damn what are you hurting from? What hurt you? What do you need? Can we talk to you? Where is this pain? So, that’s kind of how I view it." Who did you troll? GR: "Lesbians. On Twitter? GR: "Oh my god, thank you. [I’m 34] I’m talking, like, AOL chatrooms. I was so scared of who I was that I would go into lesbian AOL chat rooms and be like, ‘The lord hates you.’ And then this one Lesbian from a chat room wrote me back and was like, ‘Let’s talk; are you okay? What do you need? I want to understand you.' And that was the first person that made that connection with me. And it changed my whole life. And it put me on the path to find out who I am and why I was channeling my frustrations that way." WM: "There’s also a little bit of trollness in the threat that [the character] America has to face in this first arc. There are aliens. There’s a physical threat. They also kind of represent warped negative emotions. So that leads to America having to step up and use her new powers to face this new threat." How about the art? Over the years there’s been an effort to make comic book art more female friendly — less tits and ass. In Young Avengers, America wears shorts and sweatshirt. Is that something that you guys are maintaining? WM: "Yeah. That’s one of America’s things that people respond to — she’s got such a unique look. She’s got her own sense of fashion, and that’s gonna continue in this book for sure. "We’ve got an amazing artist on this book whose name is Joe Quinones, and he can draw pretty much anything. All his drawings have a lot of personality and character to it. He just drew the Howard the Duck series for us. He made that character so believable and real. He just has a way with people of all types." Will women of other shapes and sizes be represented? GR: "That’s the plan. I love women. I love myself. I feel like sometimes I’m not considered a woman. People assume I’m a masculine kind of person because I wear hats or boots. And to me, womanhood is so flexible and so ever-expanding and how beautiful is it to show all the ways that it manifests? And especially when it comes to Latinas and Black women. Our bodies’ shapes and sizes vary, and are equally supported by the community and equally loved. And so, yes. Yes to that question." |
A serious childhood cancer takes advantage of a quality control mechanism that usually protects cells from stress-induced damage to propel tumor growth, according to a new study led by researchers at UC San Francisco and the University of Pittsburgh. By blocking that mechanism, the scientists were able to kill cells derived from patients with rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), a rare muscle-tissue cancer that affects a few hundred children in the U.S. each year. The study, to be published online during the week of July 18, 2016 in the Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that RMS cells have a unique dependence on a cellular “chaperone” protein called HSP70 (heat-shock protein 70), which helps cells to properly fold badly formed proteins. By co-opting HSP70, RMS prevents the cell death that would usually occur when badly folded proteins accumulate in cells, said corresponding author Trever Bivona, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine and of cellular and molecular pharmacology at UCSF, and a member of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center (HDFCCC). The findings offer a potential new therapeutic pathway to fighting RMS, which is generally treatable in younger patients but can be fatal if diagnosed in older children after the disease has metastasized. In all cases the chemotherapy and radiation treatments that are the current standard of care can have significant long-term side effects. The study was made possible by the Collaborative Innovation Award program of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), which provides funds for diverse, interdisciplinary scientific teams, each headed by an HHMI investigator, to pursue potentially transformative research projects. In 2012, HHMI investigator Jonathan Weissman, PhD, professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology at UCSF, received one of only six Collaboration Innovation Awards to pursue research on the role of protein quality-control systems in cancer. Weissman, an authority on protein folding, assembled an illustrious team for the project. Among others, UCSF’s Peter Walter, PhD, winner of the 2014 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for his seminal work on a cellular quality control system called the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR), and protein-folding expert Jeffrey L. Brodsky, PhD, professor and Avinoff Chair of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, were enlisted, along with UCSF physician-scientists Bivona, a cell biologist who also treats lung cancer patients, and Amit J. Sabnis, MD, a Damon Runyon-Sohn Pediatric Cancer Fellow, who cares for children with cancer at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco. In a further example of the research team’s range, UCSF’s Jason Gestwicki, PhD, who studies misfolded proteins in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, also contributed expertise to the work. “It’s a pretty unique project,” Bivona said. “It wasn’t the basic scientists going off in one direction and the clinical scientists going off in another—it really was an integrated, concerted forward movement of both sides of the table.” Chaperones like HSP70 are produced in response to cellular stress, and protect cells from damage caused by poorly folded proteins. But when chaperones can’t adequately deal with cellular stress, the accumulation of unfolded proteins normally triggers the UPR, which activates additional protective pathways. If these fail, the UPR sends signals that cause the entire cell to be destroyed. For reasons that are not completely understood, Bivona said, HSP70 is present at high levels in some cancer cells, which helps damaged cells survive when they may otherwise be destroyed by the UPR, leading to tumor growth. Many cancers are caused by “fusion genes,” two genes that merge and produce a defective, fused protein product that is likely to activate cell-protective mechanisms. The research group assembled over a dozen cancer cell lines that carried fusion genes, representing lung cancer, RMS, and another type of sarcoma, and administered a recently developed chemical compound called MAL3-101, which is known to inhibit HSP70’s actions. They found that RMS was unusually vulnerable to MAL3-101 treatment—the compound killed more RMS cells than those from any other cancer type. More surprisingly, it even killed RMS cells that did not carry fusion genes. Further experiments showed that the RMS cells were indeed killed via the UPR: after HSP70’s actions were blocked, unfolded proteins built up in the cell, which ultimately activated a UPR-related protein called CHOP, which prompts faulty cells to commit suicide. Though the dominant approach to fighting cancer is to kill cells by targeting cellular pathways affected by “driver mutations” such as fused genes, the MAL3-101 results indicated that it might be possible to stem cancer growth by targeting protective mechanisms like HSP70 directly. This approach may have particular importance for pediatric patients, said Sabnis, co-first author of the new study with Christopher J. Guerrerio, PhD, research assistant professor in Brodsky’s lab at the University of Pittsburgh, because childhood cancers tend to have many fewer mutations than those seen in adults. “This study really identified a whole new area of cancer cell biology,” Sabnis, assistant professor of pediatrics, said. “It shows that HSP70 dependence is a very specific vulnerability for RMS cells and can serve as a therapeutic target. These findings change the paradigm for thinking about how to develop new drugs in these sorts of diseases, because we don’t necessarily need to look for mutations—there are other ways to find targets.” And because compounds like MAL3-101 affect different mechanisms than those targeted by chemotherapy and radiation, HSP70 inhibitors could potentially be used in conjunction with those treatments, a combined approach Sabnis said has proven effective in battles against other deadly diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV. “For the patients, the promise is that it's a new approach to therapy,” Sabnis said. “It’s something that works completely differently from everything else that we’re currently using.” In addition to Weissman, Walter, Bivona, Sabnis, and Gestwicki, coauthors from UCSF include Bivona laboratory members Saurabh Asthana, PhD, Victor Olivas, Jonathan Shue, Anin Sayana, and Jennifer Flanagan. They were joined by Brodsky and Guerrerio, as well as the University of Pittsburgh’s Peter Wipf, PhD. The team also included Adrienne Paton, PhD, and James Paton, PhD, of the University of Adelaide, South Australia. Besides the HHMI Collaborative Innovation Award, the work was funded by the National Institutes of Health, a St. Baldrick's Foundation Fellowship, and a Damon Runyon-Sohn Foundation Fellowship. UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It includes top-ranked graduate schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; a graduate division with nationally renowned programs in basic, biomedical, translational and population sciences; and a preeminent biomedical research enterprise. It also includes UCSF Health, which comprises two top-ranked hospitals, UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco, and other partner and affiliated hospitals and healthcare providers throughout the Bay Area. Please visit www.ucsf.edu/news. |
It doesn't get much better than the folding bike for flexible, convenient two-wheeled human-powered transport, and the Strida 5.0 is near the top of the list for small-wheeled folding bikes. The diminutive, angular folder weighs less than 25 pounds, and can fold and unfold in 5 seconds flat, making it a great option for storage to street to transit and back again. Now, Strida is getting some updates, to be officially unveiled at the upcoming Interbike Expo, September 24-26 in Las Vegas. The new "MAS Special" is the fastest Strida to date. Inventor Mark Sanders has stripped the bike down to its simplest, most elegant form while adding some slick high-performance technology. At the heart of MAS’s speed and agility is the Schlumpf 2 speed drive – a sophisticated Swiss engineered drive system that allows the rider to shift seamlessly between high and low gears with a simple tap of the heel. Keep reading to see more pics of the slick shifter, and the other new versions of the folding bike. Strida 5.0 MAS Special folding bike The MAS Special, above, also includes a custom black anodized finish on frame and parts, an ergonomic racing saddle, and alloy cranks, chain ring, and pedals. Riders interested in similar two-speed performance with fewer bells and whistles will like the "Sport Duo," pictured below, which will offer the same Schlumpf 2 speed drive. Strida 5 Sport Duo folding bike Other new innovations in Strida include the XT, which has larger, 18-inch wheels and a larger frame to accommodate larger riders, plus some new colors. In addition to the brushed aluminum, black, white, yellow, pink, red, blue, special edition cream, and orange (currently only available at the Museum of Modern Art), the 5.0 now comes in eye-opening neon green -- y'know, so drivers will see you better. Strida 5.0, now available in neon green You can see all these slick new features in person at InterBike -- our pals from AreaWare will be there to show them off (booth #245); word on the street is that they'll be available in Spring 2009. Thanks to Noel at Areaware for the tip! ::Strida Read more about Strida and other folding bikes Strida 5: The World's Simplest Folding Bike BuyGreen: Small Wheel Folding Bikes Strida vs A-bike: Folding Bicycles Battle it Out From Sketchbook to Street: The Evolution of Strida Folding Bikes See the Strida in action Hang Your Folding Bike in Your Closet Off To ICFF On a Wing and a Strida |
Reading Time: 5 minutes Match TV offers free World Cup streaming but is geo blocked & only accessible in Russia! Grab a VPN to unblock the channel and enjoy unlimited football matches online! Get PureVPN Football’s mega-event will begin on 14th June where 32 teams from around the world will be competing to claim the glory. 2018 Football world Cup brings back so many memories of the tournament, the tables that turned, and champions that were crowned. There is no better feeling lifting that trophy in front of billion people watching your entire move, thus claiming your eternal glory. Still, you must secure your privacy while watching world’s most popular sporting event from anywhere. Thus, you should find out our list of best VPN services that allows you to witness some of the unforgettable moments of your lives in front of your screens. Predictions 2018 The world’s eyes are rested upon defending champions i.e. Germany trying to defend their crown. However, aging players in the squad and the absence of many great players have decreased the chances of Germany qualifying for the finals. England, on the other hand, is amongst the only 2 teams in the World Cup who does not have a single player in their squad who played club football outside their own country. Therefore, lacking exposure all the same. However, Harry Kane is the player to look out for, who has scored 30 goals in 2017/2018 English Premier League Season. As Football World Cup is being played in Russia, many people assume that Russia will have a home advantage over other countries. Make sure to use the Russian VPN for safe and secure streaming of fifa matches. By looking at the history of previous World Cups, hosting countries have a hard time competing in the world cup, and we’re betting on it. We believe Brazil is a hot favorite this time! Football Superstars in the World of Social Networking There’s no comparison when it comes to superstars that are popular in the field and as well as in the world of social media networking. Currently, Cristiano Ronaldo holds the first place with 73.1 Million followers on Twitter and 122 Million likes on his Facebook page. This has tripled the last time when Football World Cup 2014 was played. The Best and Worst Football World Cup 2014 Moments The defending Champions Spain were sent home in the first round was probably the worst and saddest moment in the World Cup history. There were many expectations from the team having them performed well in La Liga. Recounting the best moment of World Cup 2014 was when Nigeria took on Argentina. The see-saw match for domination was an ultimate nail-biting experience for both Argentinean and Nigerian fans. Thanks to the Legends like Lionel Messi and The Ultimate Equalizer Musa, this will be one of the memorable matches of Football World Cup 2014. Argentina won the match by 3-2 goals. Germany vs Brazil – Best Football Match in History Germany and Brazil met in semi-finals of 2018 Football world Cup in Bela Horizonte, Brazil. The stadium had the capacity of 60,000 people and over 3.5 billion of viewership around the world. Hot favorites Brazil in their home country were beaten 7-1 by ruthless Germans to secure their seat in the World Cup. The game seemed to have ended in 29th minutes of the match where Germans had scored 5 goals by that time. It was then known that Germans are soon to become the World Champions because they defeated the best in their own turf. Awesome on-field and off-field Moments in Football 2014 Pitbull and Claudia Leitte sharing the Host City Tour in Brazil, Robin Van Persie’s leap like a salmon to secure a goal, or Suarez biting an Italian player. These were the spectacular moments of the Football World Cup 2104 and we hope to see some stuff like that in 2018 Football World, except for the biting part. It was thrilling to see so many goals being scored in such a spectacular manner, while ate the same time many goals were saved in the same brilliant manner. Mind-blowing Facts of 2014 World Cup Football 2014 World Cup saw some amazing moments as we discussed above, but there were some interesting facts that you may have probably missed, have a look at them: Average of3 goals per match were scored were scored Goal-line technology was used for the first time The Brazilian and German football teams made it to the Finals 7 times Expensive World Cup ever Shakira and Ricky Martin recorded their songs for the World Cup Germany built its own Hotel and Training Center in Brazil for the 2014 Football World Cup The most expensive player in the 2014 Football World Cup is Lionel Messi who is worth 139.6 million Euros Top 10 Goals in Football 2014 Here are the top 10 goals in Football 2014: James Rodriguez against Uruguay Robin Van Persie against Spain James Rodriguez against Japan Mario Goetze against Argentina David Luiz against Colombia Tim Cahill against Netherlands David Villa against Australia Lionel Messi against Bosnia Lionel Messi against Nigeria Xherdan Shaqiri against Honduras These were undoubtedly the most unbelievable goals in Football World Cup 2014. However, there was one Marcelo’s goal that went down as controversial. Brazil Turned the Tables and Defeated Colombia It was against the odds that Brazil defeated Colombia and got through to the Semi-finals. Despite Brazil was the hot favorite to win against Colombia in their home turf, Colombians tried to outplay them the whole match. But still lost the game 1-2 (Brazil). All were behind the talented James Rodriguez who had a sensational World Cup and was soon to climb the ladder to become the best in the world. Highest Paid Players in Football World Cup 2014 Here is a list of 10 highest paid player in the World Cup 2014: Cristiano Ronaldo Lionel Messi Neymar Wayne Rooney Sergio Aguero Yaya Toure Fernando Torres Robin Van Persie Steven Gerrard Mesut Ozil 2014 World Cup Round of 16, Quarterfinals, and Semi-Finals Round of 16 reflected fierce competition from contenders. Chile, Uruguay, Nigeria, Algeria, Mexico, Greece, Switzerland and the United States were knocked out. Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany, Netherlands, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Belgium proceeded to the next round and commenced the battle in the quarterfinals. Football World Cup 2014 surprised us once again in the Quarterfinals. This time, the underdogs were sent home, leaving the competition wide open. Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, and Argentina emerged victoriously. Classic Matches: Australia vs Netherlands/ Argentina vs Germany/ Russia vs Korea/ France vs Germany These were the classic matches that were played in Football World 2014 and here are a glimpse of the results: Matches Results Australia vs Netherlands 2-3 (Netherlands) Argentina vs Germany 0-1 (Germany) Russia vs Korea 1-1 (Draw) France vs Germany 0-1 (Germany) Top Matches: Netherlands vs Mexico/ Argentina vs Belgium/ Spain vs Netherlands/ Argentina vs Switzerland These were the top matches in the event in terms of skills, suspense, and crowd reaction that were played in Football World 2014 and here are a glimpse of the results: Matches Results Mexico vs Netherlands 1-2 (Netherlands) Argentina vs Belgium 1-0 (Argentina) Spain vs Netherlands 1-5 (Netherlands) Argentina vs Switzerland 1-0 (Argentina) Brazil vs Mexico 0-0 (Draw) Germany vs Algeria 2-1 (Germany) Top 10 Best Saves of Football World Cup 2014 Here are the top 10 goal saves of 2014: Guillermo Ochoa: Mexico vs. Netherlands Julio Cesar: Brazil vs. Chile Keylor Navas: Costa Rica vs. Greece Vincent Enyeama: Nigeria vs. France Keylor Navas: Costa Rica vs. Greece Rais M’Bolhi: Algeria vs. Germany Tim Howard: U.S. vs. Belgium Rais M’Bolhi: Algeria vs. Germany Claudio Bravo: Chile vs. Brazil Diego Benaglio: Switzerland vs. Argentina Watching 2018 Football world Cup Live Online When 2018 Football world Cup begins on 14th June, you’ll be tempting to find ways to stream the mega-event. Not just the event, you’ll be finding ways on how you watch it at cheaper rates and from anywhere around the world. That is not so hard of you’ve done your research, but you don’t have to do any of it, because we have done that for you. Read our guide on how to watch 2018 Football World Cup live online from anywhere How to Watch Football on Kodi Kodi is a free open-software that runs on any platform or device and therefore will stream 2018 Football world Cup. With Kodi add-ons, you can stream Football 2018 alongside all the latest Movies and TV Shows. It can be installed on your smartphone, PC, or tablet, and enjoy watching free content from anywhere. Here is our guide to watch Football on Kodi. How to Watch Football World Cup on Amazon Firestick Amazon FireStick device is cheap, yet full of amazing features that is able to stream Live IPTV channels. Live Sports, Movies, TV Series, and all the latest media content. It can stream Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and so does 2018 Football world Cup. We have provided a complete guide on how to watch Football on FireStick to stream the World Cup live on HD quality. Even you can watch Football World Cup on Apple TV as well by following the guide. How to Watch Football without Cable Watching Football on cable could be very expensive and not so ideal. You’ll find it difficult to stream Football or any other channel outside the comfort zone of your home. How about pursuing cord-cutting options where you can watch Football on both at your home and outside, and at an affordable price? Here is our guide on how to watch 2018 Football world Cup without cable. How to Watch 2018 Football world Cup in USA USA viewers will have a hard time watching Football World Cup on their cable because of the fact that their country hasn’t made it to the World Cup. However, the craze is still there with the people of US and they wants to stream the World Cup online. We have discussed many ways on how to watch 2018 Football world Cup in USA live online from anywhere. How to Watch Football World Cup in Australia Optus Sports and SBS are the official broadcasters in Australia, but you would find it difficult to stream when you’re on the move. Australia presents a lot more options than watching the World Cup on these two channels. You can find it in our guide on how to watch 2018 Football world Cup in Australia live online. The options that we have outlined are much cheaper than the ones offered by the broadcasters. Watching Opening Ceremony of 2018 Football world Cup Opening ceremonies are always extravagant, but pleasant to watch. Football fan or not, all eyes will be on the opening ceremony and they’re really hard to miss. Therefore, if you’re planning to watch the opening ceremony, then do so after viewing our guide on how to watch 2018 Football World Cup opening ceremony live online from anywhere. How to Watch 2018 Football world Cup on Kodi BBC iPlayer Kodi BBC iPlayer is an official Kodi add-on from BBC that features live BBC channels. Since it is free, you are allowed to stream Football on Kodi BBC iPlayer from anywhere. However, first, you are required to install Kodi BBC iPlayer and then follow the guide accordingly. This is to keep in mind that BBC Kodi addon is geo-graphically restricted. Therefore, watching it outside UK would only be possible if you have best VPN for Kodi installed or if you want to directly stream from BBC iPlayer then read our guide on 2018 Football world Cup on BBC iPlayer. The Wrap Up Here in this guide, we shared some new interesting facts about Football World Cup 2014 and our predictions for 2018 Football World Cup. Expand your knowledge on Football World Cup by viewing this guide and enter the upcoming football mega-event with some new craze and hands-on knowledge. |
The Honda Accord is by no means a younger sibling, operating as the senior member of American Honda’s fleet. More specifically, the 2018 Honda Accord will never be viewed as the little brother in the American Honda family, not with these substantial dimensions and MSRPs that reach deep into the $30Ks. But the 10th-generation Accord is still a Honda. Just a Honda. Merely a Honda. Only a Honda. And while you might expect Honda to enjoy technological hand-me-downs from the automaker’s upmarket Acura brand, that’s not the way it works. Not when it comes to the Accord. As a result, we’ll wait and see which hand-me-ups appear on the next all-new Acura, the third-generation 2019 Acura RDX. It’s not just the Accord’s status in the American Honda empire that affords the new midsize car access to higher-end features. Product cadence plays a role, as well. According to American Honda’s senior vice preside Jeff Conrad, “Technology doesn’t slow down for you.” “So while we try to plan for it and we try to use our latest and greatest technologies on Acura,” Conrad tells Automotive News, “certain ones, when we’ve perfected them, if it’s going to go on a Honda, it’s going to go on a Honda.” In other words, Honda has features ready today, and the company will not wait for a new generation of Acuras to release such features. The new Accord is ready, and Honda wants to make it the best Accord it can be. The Accord’s list of features therefore includes the instrument panel’s customizable screen, a head-up display with color, NFC for mobile phones, and fancy climate control functions that glow. You won’t find these items in an Acura. But while timing plays a role, with Acura general manager Jon Ikeda saying the next RDX will enjoy a new round of Acura-first tech features, the 2018 Accord is also the car used to showcase new tech “because it’s such an important car for us,” Conrad says. “The heritage of Accord is tightly wrapped with the history and success of the Honda brand.” On the other hand, the heritage of Acura is not so closely linked with global Honda success. Suffering from hugely decreased demand for its cars, Acura’s sales fell 23 percent between 2005 and 2016, a period in which the U.S. auto industry grew its overall volume by 3 percent. Acura, meanwhile, is a non-entity in most global markets and generates fewer than one U.S. sale for every two U.S. Accord sales. Long gone are the days in which Acura could outsell its Lexus compatriot. In 2017, even Infiniti is outselling Acura. Acura does play up its technological prowess with vehicles such as the NSX and the unusual Sport Hybrid underpinnings in the RLX and MDX. But it’s messaging that’s essentially lost on a premium market that increasingly turns to more verifiably premium brands. Unless Acura can turn the tide by fostering the U.S. sales growth it enjoyed over the last three months, 2017 is on track to be its worst sales year since 2011. The 2018 Honda Accord, however, gets all of American Honda’s limelight. There’s a 10-speed automatic transmission Acura hasn’t yet been granted, a 2.0-liter turbo inherited from the Civic Type R that Acura doesn’t yet have the privilege of using, and even a six-speed manual that the once performance-oriented Acura brand now knows nothing about. [Images: American Honda] Timothy Cain is a contributing analyst at The Truth About Cars and Autofocus.ca and the founder and former editor of GoodCarBadCar.net. Follow on Twitter @timcaincars. |
Avid Steam users and otherwise enthusiastic indie game players are well-acquainted with the Humble Indie Bundle , a semi-annual drive offering collections of independently released computer games for direct download, free of digital rights management (DRM). Two of these bundle drives have been completed thus far, raising over $1.25 million and $1.8 million in sales, respectively.The third bundle drive is currently underway. and has already broken the $1 million mark. This is quite an impressive accomplishment, considering that customers are allowed to pay what they want for the entire package. Those that donate more than one cent (which is greeted with an image of a homeless-looking indie developer with a donation sign) are allowed to split their donation between the developers, the bundle organizers, Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation ( EFF ).While the bundles have done extremely well in the past, it seems that Windows users have repeatedly been the most reluctant to fork over their money: currently, with an average purchase price of $4.78, Windows users average $3.80, followed by Mac users with $6.61 and Linux users with $11.64, matching trends for the past two drives. Windows users do, however, account for the most money contributed.The current bundle comes with the games And Yet It Moves, Cogs, Crayon Physics Deluxe, Hammerfight, and VVVVVV, as well as a bonus sixth game, Steel Storm, that has been added since the first few days of the drive. Purchasers will also have access to the paid version of Minecraft until August 14, and those that spend more than $4.94 (at time of writing) will also get all of the games from the last bundle. Steam codes are included for those looking to add the games to their Steam libraries.The bundle will be available for another six days, so those looking to get in on a good deal while supporting indie developers and/or charities still have some time to do so... hopefully for a little more than $3.80. |
Langsanity lives on. Point guard Langston Galloway — one of the bright developments of an otherwise historically miserable campaign — and the Knicks agreed to terms on a contract for the remainder of this season and a partially guaranteed pact for 2015-16, according to sources. The rookie’s second 10-day contract expired Tuesday. Negotiations hit an impasse the past few days over whether the Knicks were willing to give Galloway guaranteed money for next season. The Knicks initially offered only a non-guaranteed pact for 2015-16 while Galloway sought the $845,000 minimum for second-year players. A compromise was reached between Knicks general manager Steve Mills, who did the hardballing, and Galloway’s reps. According to a source, if Galloway is still with the Knicks July 1, he is guaranteed to receive $275,000. If he is not waived by the start of training camp, he will be guaranteed well more than half of the $845,000. Galloway was briefly a free agent Tuesday morning, technically, and may have gained leverage because some other teams were interested in him after a breakout month of January. Galloway was a natural fit for the Sixers and Pelicans after starring at St. Joseph’s and hailing from Baton Rouge, La., respectively. Galloway already has become a favorite of his teammates and received congratulations via Twitter from fellow point guards Jose Calderon and Pablo Prigioni. Prigioni has been on the trading block, especially since Galloway’s emergence. Prigioni has one year and $1.7 million left on his pact next season but only $275,000 is guaranteed. The Pistons reportedly have expressed interest. Knicks president Phil Jackson is very protective of his cap space, with potentially $32 million available to spend on free agents this offseason. Jackson didn’t exercise the $2 million option on Shane Larkin’s pact for next season — which indicates he does not believe the undersized, speedy point guard is part of the Knicks’ future. Galloway, with his grit on defense and clutch shooting, has become a fan favorite since joining the team three weeks ago from the team’s D-League affiliate in Westchester. It would have been a public-relations black eye had he signed elsewhere, with so little else for the fans to cheer. The 6-foot-2 Galloway, who has started the past four games, is averaging 12.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists and hit two game-sealing 3-pointers last week. The Knicks inquired Wednesday about power forward JaMychal Green, who was not re-signed by the Spurs, but don’t have a roster spot available. Green has two firm offers on the table. It appears the Knicks won’t consider waiving Andrea Bargnani until after the trade deadline to see if he’s needed to make any deal. The Knicks are trying to use their two trade exceptions gained in their three-way deal three weeks ago. |
ATLANTA (AP) — The Latest on the NRA's annual convention (all times local): 3 p.m. President Donald Trump has reaffirmed his support for gun rights, telling attendees of a National Rifle Association convention that "the eight-year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end." Trump is the first sitting president to address the group's annual convention in more than 30 years. He assured the audience he would defend their right to bear arms in a campaign-like speech reminiscent of his election rallies. He says, "You have a true friend and champion in the White House." Trump's appearance in Atlanta sparked protests from people advocating for stricter gun control measures. ___ 2:50 p.m. Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords says the nation needs a president who is serious about preserving the rights of gun owners while also finding solutions to gun violence. And she contends Donald Trump is not that president. Giffords says the majority of Americans want commonsense solutions to prevent gun violence. Her comments on Trump followed his afternoon address to the annual meeting of the NRA. Giffords, a Democrat, was shot in the head in a 2011 shooting in Tucson that left six people dead. She has since co-founded a gun violence prevention organization. Trump was the first president to speak at the meeting since Ronald Reagan in 1983. ___ 2:45 p.m. President Donald Trump is railing against members of the MS-13 gang as he delivers remarks at the National Rifle Association's annual convention. Trump says life is becoming "not pleasant" for the notoriously brutal Central American street gang blamed for a recent series of killings in suburban New York. He says, "Get them the hell out of here, right? Get 'em out." The Trump administration has vowed to crack down on the gang and has accused Obama-era border policies for allowing its ranks to flourish. Trump says that, "For too long, Washington has gone after law-abiding gun owners, while making life easier for criminals, drug dealers, traffickers and gang members." ___ 2:40 p.m. On the eve of his 100-day mark in office, President Donald Trump delivered a campaign-like speech to the annual convention of the National Rifle Association. Trump rattled off a recap of his election night victory, vowed to protect the Second Amendment and drew loud cheers for vowing to build a southern border wall. He said "we'll build a wall" because it's needed to stop human trafficking and drugs. But the president made no mention Friday as to how he would pay for the wall or when construction would start. A number of Republicans have distanced themselves from Trump's signature campaign promise. ___ 2:25 p.m. President Donald Trump is reviving what has been called a racist insult against Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. He's calling her "Pocahontas." That's a reference to claims she made about being part Native American. Trump is speaking at the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Atlanta on his 99th day in office. He'd been talking about having the group's support if he decides to run for a second term. He says he has "a feeling that in the next election you're going to be swamped with candidates," adding: "It may be Pocahontas, remember that." He's also reassuring members that he's fight for them, saying: "you came through for me, and I am going to come through for you." ___ 2:20 p.m. President Donald Trump is urging Republicans to turn out for a special congressional race that is being viewed as a referendum on his presidency. Trump, speaking at the annual National Rifle Convention Friday in Atlanta, called for Karen Handel to take the seat vacated by Tom Price, who resigned to join Trump's Cabinet as health secretary. Handel emerged from a crowded Republican primary field to be the nominee. Trump called such battles "too nerve shattering." Trump will appear at a fundraiser for her later Friday. On June 20, she will face Democratic nominee Jon Ossoff, who used an anti-Trump wave and nearly won the seat outright, finishing almost 30 points ahead of Handel, the top Republican vote-getter. ___ 2:15 p.m. President Donald Trump has taken the stage at the NRA annual meeting — a return to the most powerful gun lobby where he garnered significant support during last year's election. Trump declared to the crowd: "The eight-year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end." Trump is the first sitting president since 1983 to address the NRA annual meeting. It's being held in Atlanta through the weekend. ___ 1:45 p.m. The chief lobbyist for the National Rifle Administration told the group's convention that on Election Day, "our candidate became our president." Chris Cox received repeated ovations as he addressed the NRA's 146th annual meeting. Cox named some of the key appointees in the Trump administration, including newly installed Supreme Court justice Neil Gorsuch, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. The applause was interspersed with boos as he mentioned Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama. Cox said, "The men and women of the (NRA) haven't backed down from a fight in 146 years, and we sure as hell weren't scared of Hillary Clinton." ___ 1:35 p.m. The NRA's leadership forum is under way, about an hour later than planned. It has kicked off with an address by retired Marine Lt. Gen. Oliver North. He's kicking it off with an invocation. It ended with the crowd yelling "Amen!" The group then segued into the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem. President Donald Trump was expected to speak at the event later Friday. ___ 12:35 p.m. People advocating for stricter gun control measures are gathering in downtown Atlanta ahead of President Donald Trump's appearance at the National Rifle Association's annual convention. Protesters are carrying signs supporting background checks for gun sales and criticizing NRA political donations as blood money. Several speakers at an initial gathering at a park near the convention center where Trump is to speak encouraged a crowd of about 70 people to get involved in state and federal politics. Protesters also held a "die-in," lying down on the park's lawn to symbolize victims of gun violence before marching toward the convention center. ___ 12 p.m. Boos erupted inside the NRA convention hall as a clip of a TV ad appeared on giant screens showing images of Hillary Clinton. The ad portrayed Clinton as a habitual liar. It ended with the NRA symbol beside the words "No more lies. Defeat Hillary." At that, the gun-friendly crowded erupted into cheers. During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump falsely suggested Clinton wanted to abolish the Second Amendment. Clinton backed tougher restrictions on gun ownership. Since last year's defeat, Clinton has said she does not intend to run for public office again. ___ 10:55 a.m. No guns at a gun convention? That seems contradictory but at least for the forum where President Donald Trump will speak at the National Rifle Association, attendees aren't allowed to bring in firearms. Guns are allowed in most public places in Georgia, including the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta where the NRA is holding its annual meeting through the weekend. But as with most presidential appearances, firearms aren't allowed. The NRA was providing lockers for free so people could stow their firearms while inside the room where Trump was to speak Friday afternoon. Also, each person entering the hall at the center had to go through metal detectors and have bags inspected. ___ President Donald Trump will become the first sitting president to address a National Rifle Association convention in more than 30 years when he speaks Friday at the group's annual meeting. The president's trip to Atlanta also serves as his first foray into a congressional race since taking office. Trump will attend a private fundraiser for Republican congressional candidate Karen Handel. Trump has been a champion of gun rights and supportive of NRA efforts to loosen restrictions on gun ownership. During the campaign, he promised to do away with President Barack Obama's efforts to strengthen background checks. According to the NRA, the last president to address an NRA convention was Ronald Reagan, who spoke in 1983. Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. × Photos |
Photos: the aftermath of the Mexico City earthquake A devastating 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit central Mexico Tuesday on the exact anniversary of one of Mexico City’s worst disasters, the 1985 earthquake that killed 10,000 people and left thousands more homeless. In the immediate aftermath of a disaster like this, exact figures of damages and fatalities are hard to come by. But there are reports of more than 200 deaths, along with dozens of collapsed buildings, including a school, in Mexico City and neighboring states. Adults and children are still trapped in the rubble. This was a major, life-threatening emergency, and it’s likely to take a long time to clean up and account for it. Here are some of the images coming out of Mexico of the people and places affected by the quake. (This post will be updated with new images this week as they become available.) If you’d like to donate to recovery efforts, the Mexico Report has put together a handy list of organizations involved in the response. September 20 Mario Vazquez/AFP/Getty Images Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images Colonia Condesa Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Marion Vazquez/AFP/Getty Images An aerial view of collapsed Enrique Rebsamen school. Christian Palma/Getty Images Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images People look for family and friends on a list of people rescued from an office building on Calle Alvaro Obregon in Colonia Condesa. Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Mario Vazquez/AFP/Getty Images September 19 Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images Pedro Mera/Getty Images Pedro Mera/Getty Images Hector Vivas/Getty Images Daniel Cardenas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Hector Vivas/Getty Images Hector Vivas/Getty Images Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images Rescuers searching for survivors buried under rubble ask for silence to be able to hear the voices of survivors. Ronaldo SchemidtAFP/Getty Images Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images Rescuers rise clenched fists asking for silence to be able to hear the voices of possible survivors buried under the rubble and debris of a flattened building. Raul Arboleda/AFP/Getty Images Mario Vazquez/AFP/Getty Images Hector Vivas/Getty Images Mario Vazquez/AFP/Getty Images Mario Vazquez/AFP/Getty Images Colonia Condesa Marco Ugarte/AP Stringer/AFP/Getty Images Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images Colonia Condesa Hector Vivas/Getty Images Hector Vivas/Getty Images Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images Reforma Avenue Rebecca Blackwell/AP Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images Rebecca Blackwell/AP Colonia Condesa Hector Vivas/Getty Images Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images People gather around the Angel of Independence monument just moments after the earthquake. Enric Marti/AP |
Looking at the team’s current group of wide receivers, it was clear the Eagles needed to address the position this offseason. On Wednesday, they made their first move in that area, agreeing to terms with veteran Chris Givens on a one-year contract. Entering his fifth NFL season, the 6-0, 203-pound Givens began his career in 2012 when he was drafted in the fourth round by the Rams out of Wake Forest. Most recently, the wideout spent time in Baltimore after a trade this past October sent him from St. Louis to the Ravens. Over the span of the last four seasons, Givens accumulated 1,779 receiving yards on 107 receptions. His best season came during his rookie year when he led the Rams in receiving yards (698) and yards per catch (16.6). That year, Givens also posted a career-high 42 receptions, three touchdowns and set an NFL rookie record by turning in catches of 50 yards or more in five consecutive games. Some of his production that season can be credited to the chemistry he built with the team’s starting quarterback, Sam Bradford, whom he will reunite with in Philadelphia. This addition gives Bradford another target in the passing game that he is already familiar and comfortable with, which in turn should strengthen that area of the game. Currently, the Eagles’ core receivers are Jordan Matthews, Nelson Agholor and Josh Huff. Matthews and Huff each have two years of experience under their belts, while Agholor has only one. The 26-year-old Givens will add a veteran presence to this very young position group. |
It is finally Moving Week for the Mustache family, and we’re right in the thick of it. The new house, while still sporting plain plywood countertops and missing some frilly extras like doors and trim, is finished enough to sustain life so we decided to make the jump as early as possible. But the rush to empty and clean the old place while simultaneously compressing our lifestyle by 1000 square feet has been a very revealing exercise. Despite our best efforts to live a sensible, frugal, and minimalist life over these past eight years, we have somehow still ended up with an absolute shitload of unnecessary crap. Boxes of it. Storage rooms, closets, and nooks full of it. Even now as we try to ruthlessly triage the stuff between sell, donate, recycle and trash bins, the torrent seems unlimited. How did we end up in this odd position? A deeper archaeology of the debris has revealed some useful details. There’s a pair of underused Men’s hockey skates. I haven’t skated since I left Canada in 1999, so these particular bits of life baggage have tagged along for 15 years and 5 US addresses while never seeing a patch of ice. Why do I still have these? Two pairs of rollerblades (his and hers) have a similar history. We’re already up to one medium-sized box. Then there are the sentimental items like photo albums, mementos from high school romances, cute candle holders that never seem to work in your current house, a once-fancy Yamaha player for the antique digital media known as “CDs”, several hundred discs written in this format, a translucent skull with a strobe light mounted inside (?), and a wooden devil pitchfork that I made hastily for a 1997 Halloween costume that somehow never gets lost*. Plus a well-stitched horse head that my older sister made in home economics class sometime in her early teens. And all that is before we get to the real source of Stuff: kid-related objects. I have fiercely avoided buying battery-powered plastic toys throughout my son’s lifetime, but somehow these things have still entered our life by the dozen thanks to the generosity of others. An enormous honking driving “Turbo Rig” that got a few laughs around his third birthday. Various other vehicles, humanoid figures, and swords. A pair of detailed pirate ships that he bought with his own money before realizing that his building kits (most notably Trio and Lego) provide longer-lasting entertainment. My family is living in the happiest and most fortunate of situations, and I actually love the cleansing and organizing effort of moving to a new house. So the above should not be read as a complaint. More of a self-mocking and a reminder that we can do better in curating the things we bring into our lives. After all, most of my own junk turned out to be from my earlier adulthood, when a high income teamed up with a large living space to produce a very low threshold for acquiring new things. In the most recent three years, a stricter approach has delivered much better results. Minimalism – Isn’t That Just for New York City Millenials? Even a casual embrace of Minimalism will bring great improvements to your life, so in reality, every smart person should be dipping their toes in its refreshing waters. There are mental benefits: a clearer mind so you can focus better on the experiences and people that mean the most to you. And financial ones too: with less stuff you can live larger in a smaller space, which frees up hundreds of thousands of dollars over your lifetime. These dollars feed back into your freedom, allowing you to live wherever and however you like. Even a vague and fuzzy adoption of minimalist principles can make a huge difference. Without it, I’d be in a cubicle under fluorescent lights on this fine Monday morning in June, furiously typing brackets and function calls into a compiler, still 26 years from the finish line. Instead, I’m currently sitting under a shade tree, 9 years into retirement and casually typing these thoughts into a thin silver laptop which will promptly be folded closed whenever my family wakes up so I can make them breakfast. So if you haven’t done so already, you might want to change the way you think about new stuff. The tricks that work for me are as follows: A Lifelong Burden When presented with a spiffy new object, most of us think only of the present pleasure it may offer. The Sharper Image Digital Bluetooth Wine Bottle Opener will get you drunk while fostering a futuristic vibe at your parties. I try to look past that first thrill and imagine the rest of the life of that gadget – taking up space, restricting future moves to new homes, causing your worry and pain when it eventually breaks, then finally sitting in a landfill for 100,000 years as it burdens the next 3,000 generations of humans. This scenario should be mentally reviewed for all non-recyclable plastic items and bits of electronics. This applies equally well to gifts: when you give objects of questionable long-term use, you are really handing out lifelong burdens. Similarly, you can safely declare all weddings birthdays, and religious holidays Free from Manufactured Gifts, if you’re the planner. Some Objects Actually Simplify Life Adding a handy Yang to the above bit of bummer Yin, you can acknowledge that we are not perfect and you might as well make the most of the society you are born into. So you can let yourself slip and participate in our group silliness in a thoughtful way. For example, I happen to like certain gadgets like digital cameras, sound recorders, music players, and GPS navigators. I also make good use of a phone and a computer. But nowadays the smartphone has integrated all of these things into a very smooth and humanist single object. Owning this one simple thing lets me forget about many complicated things, so I do it gladly. Similarly, one good resharpenable knife will replace a lifetime procession of cheap ones, a reasonable bike will replace a lifetime of car upgrades (and purchases of ever-larger pants and belts), and a set of core tools and skills will eliminate a lifetime of having to find others to maintain the stuff you do choose to keep around. Sometimes more is less, in a good way. Never, Ever go “Shopping” My greatest ally in buying less stuff, has been not even knowing what I am missing. Since 2000, I have done virtually all shopping online. No shopping malls, no clothing stores, and construction materials only when I couldn’t find an Internet or e-mail based way to get the same stuff. We’ve also been without broadcast TV or radio service, and had no magazine or newspaper subscriptions. This is still no magic shield: Amazon still makes buying stuff far too much fun, and library books, The Economist, Nature, Wired, thoughtful comments and emails from MMM readers, and other geeky online information fountains still provide way more information (both useful and useless) than my limited brain can properly absorb. But making our best attempt at a low information diet can at least allow us to choose which information and products we consume, rather than having them pumped into us. Preventing Works Better than Purging Combining the two points above into a single action, I find that the best cure to a cluttered life is to avoid letting the clutter in in the first place. It’s easier to prevent than it is to cure. So instead of running a “budget”, where you allow yourself a certain amount of waste allowance or “fun money” in various categories every month, I enjoy starting with the idea that Zero is the ultimate budget. Then you carefully evaluate each potential expense and happily admit it only if it truly meets your goals. As a beginner in a debt emergency, this filter will be very tight because very little is worth more than your sanity and freedom. On the other hand, here in my old age with greater wealth, spending on things like luxury food and more expensive experiences is very open, but the acquisition of new objects is still heavily scrutinized because that “lifelong burden” effect never goes away no matter how rich you get. Occasionally I slip, and the pain is noticeable. For example, last year I bought a used “Roku HD” video streaming player, and it didn’t work with my projector**. This device has taunted me from my office shelf ever since, as I have tried to sell it and give it away without success. The lost $45 is negligible, but the mental burden is palpable. I should have known better than to buy the thing in the first place, because I already had a perfectly functional way to watch movies by plugging in the laptop. Still, life goes on and is grander than ever. We are shedding material burden and moving up in the world as we transfer our lives to the new house. I just wanted to share the experience with younger readers so they can learn from our mistakes. A lighter storage closet leads to a lighter heart. Further Reading: This piece in UCLA magazine studies our clutter culture and shares some juicy pictures of houses thankfully much worse than mine. How Big is your Circle of Control, an article I angrily typed out last fall, looks more closely at the benefits of mental minimalism, which is surprisingly similar to careful curation of your physical crap. Footnotes: * And as you can see if you look carefully at the picture at the top of this article, that damned pitchfork made its way to the new house, when a friend found it while helping me move and brought it along for his lawbreaking rooftop couch ride up the hill. ** because of the bullshit invention called “HDCP” copy protection that the movie studios snuck into our consumer products, which ironically makes it much easier to play pirated movies than legally purchased ones unless you happen to have the newest viewing equipment. |
The right foods will help you use your brain to the max, and the more you use it, the more you'll challenge your brain to grow new cells, create new connections, and improve your problem-solving and memory functions. Before I tell you about the many great foods that will keep your brain performing at its peak, remember — eat organic foods that are fresh and as close to their natural state as possible. Also, drink plenty of pure, clean water, which is 85% of your brain's weight. Did you know that water can actually increase your alertness? When you're feeling sluggish in the afternoon, instead of grabbing a caffeinated, carbonated drink, pour yourself a tall glass of distilled water. Finally, pick foods your great, great grandparents would have eaten, and stay away from so-called modern, highly processed foods that are filled with nasty chemicals. Many foods today are genetically modified. So, they are not as nutritious as organic, natural foods. And even worse, they can be dangerous to your health. Foods that Boost Your Brain Power Research suggests that diets rich in berries reduce, or even reverse, declining brain function. Blueberries, in particular, have been shown to have the ability to improve memory and keep your brain "young." [1] [2] They can also help you improve your balance and coordination. Berries are rich in antioxidants which protect your brain cells from oxidation and free radical damage.[3] This means antioxidants may slow down brain aging and prevent disease, while promoting the growth of healthy brain cells. Berries are also some of the most colorful foods you can eat! The Healthiest Berries Blueberries Blackberries Red Grapes Strawberries Raspberries Cranberries Goji Berries Mulberries Boysenberries The South American Acai Berry has more antioxidants than any other berry. Plus, it contains Omega Fatty Acids and is high in protein. Stick to bright colors when choosing other fruits and vegetables, too. Yellow, orange, and green vegetables are rich in beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant that converts to vitamin A in your body. Dark leafy green vegetables and citrus fruits are packed with vitamin C. Both vitamins are linked to improving your memory and reasoning powers and keeping your arteries functioning properly. Foods High in Beta-Carotene & Vitamin C: Mangos Oranges Carrots Broccoli Tomatoes Cantaloupe Rainbow chard Green, Red & Yellow Peppers Vegetables and fruits also contain natural sugars that keep you alert. Your brain needs natural sugars to function at its best. Avocados are rich in good fat and vitamin E, while whole and sprouted grains are rich in fiber. Both are good for your circulatory system. And what's good for your blood flow, is great for your brain. The Importance of Essential Fatty Acids Essential fatty acids are also necessary for maximum brain power, as well as promoting normal brain growth and development. Studies show that eating foods that are high in Omega Fatty Acids can reduce the risk of some disease, too. These fatty acids also help boost memory and your ability to learn new things! Other sources of good Omega fatty Acids are marine plants, such as blue-green algae, and nut or seed oils. All nuts, particularly walnuts, "feed your brain" because they keep your arteries clear and boost serotonin levels. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that controls sleep, depression, memory, and other neurological processes. [4] Raw unprocessed organic olive oil, coconut oil, and hemp seed oil also contain brain healthy fats, fibers, and proteins. I recommend 1-2 tablespoons daily. Foods High in Folic Acid Okra Spinach Lentils Collards Asparagus Black Beans Garbanzo Beans Romaine Lettuce Black-Eyed Peas Sunflower Seeds Did you know that flaxseed and real organic chocolate are brain food, too! They're filled with vitamin E which keeps your brain healthy later in life. Real chocolate also releases dopamine, to enhance cognition and mood. Be sure to eat chocolate that is minimally processed and retains the purest cacao - as close to the bean as possible. That means either 100% organic cocoa powder or a dark chocolate bar with at least 75% cacao content. You'll need to be careful of the chocolate you buy because some chocolate manufacturers use unhealthy and unethical practices. Vitamins & Herbs that Boost Your Brain Power These vitamins and minerals help your memory and reasoning powers while slowing down the signs of aging. Vitamin A Vitamin C Vitamin E Folic Acid B Vitamins Magnesium Some researchers suggest that the herbs ginseng and gingko have a positive impact on your brain, keeping you alert and improving memory. Did you know? Body cleansing can help boost your brain power, too. By eliminating the toxic chemicals and heavy metals that build up in your body from your environment and diet, you can rid your brain of dangerous free radicals that may contribute to disease and poor health. Eating the proper foods enhances your brain functions. And, using your brain for reading and learning new skills, such as a musical instrument, a new language, or computer skills — even conquering crossword puzzles regularly will keep your brain quick and nimble. Note: Processed foods are often too starchy, fatty, and sugary and will do more harm than good for your body and brain. You want raw, organic fruit and vegetables as often as possible. Live foods present your body with beneficial energy as well as their natural nutrients. I also recommend getting a cellphone protector for your phone to reduce any harmful radiation leaking into your brain tissue. †Results may vary. Information and statements made are for education purposes and are not intended to replace the advice of your doctor. Global Healing Center does not dispense medical advice, prescribe, or diagnose illness. The views and nutritional advice expressed by Global Healing Center are not intended to be a substitute for conventional medical service. If you have a severe medical condition or health concern, see your physician. |
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — The chief executive of an Iowa-based brokerage firm admitted in a tell-all suicide note that he carried out an elaborate fraud scheme in which he embezzled at least $100 million from customers over two decades, federal investigators said Friday. FBI agents arrested Peregrine Financial Group Inc. Russell Wasendorf Sr. at a local hospital Friday and he appeared in federal court later in the day on charges of lying to federal regulators. Court documents detail a wide-ranging fraud scheme in which Wasendorf apparently fooled colleagues, customers and regulators by creating fraudulent financial records. Those documents detailed a note found in Wasendorf's car Monday, when authorities found him unresponsive in the vehicle outside the company's headquarters in Cedar Falls. "Through a scheme of using false bank statements I have been able to embezzle millions of dollars from customer accounts," Wasendorf wrote, adding that the fraud had gone undetected "until now." Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Deegan said during the court hearing Friday that Wasendorf could face a wide range of additional criminal charges and decades in prison for what the prosecutor called a $200 million scheme in which Wasendorf embezzled customer funds for 20 years. Wasendorf, who investigators said tried to commit suicide by hooking up a tube to his car's tailpipe, had been hospitalized since Monday. Deegan and the FBI declined comment on his arrest, but Chicago-based lawyer Thomas Breen said FBI agents "removed him from his hospital bed" at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City. Breen said he was on the phone with Wasendorf at the time. The 64-year-old executive walked calmly and was wearing jeans and a polo shirt during his brief court appearance Friday. The judge scheduled a hearing for Wednesday to determine whether Wasendorf should be held in jail pending his trial. Deegan said Wasendorf was a flight risk. Peregrine Financial Group, which marketed itself as PFGBest, filed for bankruptcy Tuesday. It was the same day the industry's top regulator filed civil fraud charges alleging the firm misused customer money and falsely claimed a bank account contained more than $220 million when it actually had about $5 million. The money in that account belonged to customers and was supposed to be kept separate from Peregrine's own money. An affidavit by FBI agent William Langdon said that when authorities found Wasendorf in his vehicle Monday, they also found a suicide note addressed to his wife and a signed statement in which he detailed his fraud. "The forgeries started nearly twenty years ago and have gone undetected until now. I was able to conceal my crime of forgery by being the sole individual with access to the US Bank accounts held by PFG," he wrote, according to Langdon. Wasendorf said he faced "a difficult decision" when his access to capital was limited earlier in his career. "Should I go out of business or cheat? I guess my ego was too big to admit failure," he wrote. "So I cheated, I falsified the very core of the financial documents of PFG, the bank statements." Wasendorf said he used computer software, scanners and printers to "make very convincing forgeries of nearly every document that came from the bank," including statements, letters and other correspondence, the affidavit says. "I could create forgeries very quickly so no one suspected that my forgeries were not the real thing that had just arrived in the mail," he wrote. He said he used "careful concealment and blunt authority" as the company's founder and sole shareholder to hide the fraud. He said he ordered bank statements be delivered directly to him unopened, that he was the only person with access to the firm's online bank account, and he told the bank that he was the only representative they should call, according to court documents. Wasendorf said he also fooled regulators checking how much money his company held by opening a Cedar Falls post office box in 2006 in the name of US Bank, an address he put on the counterfeit bank statements he created. Auditors mailed confirmation forms to the address, and he sent phony documents back showing the accounts contained "the amount I needed to show." "When online banking became prevalent, I learned how to falsify online bank statements and the regulators accepted them without question," he added. Wasendorf confirmed that he wrote the statement and that it was true during an interview with investigators Monday at the hospital in Iowa City, Langdon wrote. He estimated "the amount of loss due to his fraud exceeded $100 million," Langdon added. On Friday, officials from another industry regulator, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, were on site at Peregrine's Cedar Falls offices to examine the firm. The agency regulates broker-dealers that buy and sell stocks. The losses apparently are centered in the part of Peregrine that sold commodity options and futures. The criminal complaint alleges that Wasendorf made false statements to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission about the value of customer funds held by his company from 2010 until recently. Deegan said he would present the case to a grand jury and seek additional charges. Breen, the Chicago attorney, said he'd planned to represent Wasendorf but learned Friday that Wasendorf's assets were frozen, so he'll have to be represented by a public defender. Wasendorf's son, Russ Wasendorf, Jr., the company's president and chief operating officer, also received a copy of the statement from his father admitting to the fraud at his office Monday, the FBI affidavit said. He told authorities he checked his father's claims by obtaining a bank statement that showed a balance of $6.3 million — an account that regulators were told had $221.7 million as of December. The charges are a stunning downfall for Wasendorf. He ran the company for years from Chicago before relocating its headquarters in 2009 to Cedar Falls, where he was a highly regarded businessman and philanthropist. ___ |
Our hearts and hopes are with the passengers and families of AirAsia QZ8501, says US Secretary of State. Our hearts and hopes are with the passengers and families of AirAsia QZ8501. — John Kerry (@JohnKerry) December 28, 2014 Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar says that India was ready to help but it has to be a coordinated international team and has to be coordinated effort. He also says that India has to be part of international team and there were mechanisms for such things. Malaysian PM says that he "called President Joko Widodo and expressed deep concern." Offered Malaysia's fullest support and assistance to Indonesian search and rescue effort," he adds. Called President Joko Widodo. Expressed our deep concern. Offered M'sia's fullest support & assistance to Indonesian search & rescue effort. — Mohd Najib Tun Razak (@NajibRazak) December 28, 2014 AirAsia today changed its bright red logo to grey on its Twitter and Facebook pages, after its aircraft with 162 on board went missing en route from Indonesia to Singapore. Airbus has announced full support to the probe into the disappearance of the AirAsia flight QZ8501. Airbus announced its support in a press release Sunday and said it would provide full assistance to the authorities in charge of the investigation, in line with Annex 13 of an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) convention, according to Xinhua. The AirAsia aircraft that went missing on Sunday on its way to Singapore from Surabaya in Indonesia was delivered to its operator in 2008 and had recorded 23,000 flight hours on 13,600 flights, European aircraft manufacturing consortium Airbus said in a statement, as per Reuters. Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop offered to help Indonesia in the search and rescue mission for the Malaysian plane missing since early morning. Bishop said she made "personal contact" with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi since the AirAsia flight QZ 8501 vanished between Indonesia and its destination Singapore, the Canberra Times reported. Rescuers Sunday evening suspended for the day their search for an AirAsia plane with 162 aboard that went missing early in the morning, Indonesia's transport ministry said. The search will resume Monday, as per IANS. Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai has denied reports that the missing AirAsia plane has crashed in Belintung and its wreckage has been found. "There is plenty of speculation that they have found the plane. At this point in time (5 pm) that is not true. We are still looking for the plane," Liow was quoted as saying by the Star Online, the PTI reported. AirAsia issued an updated statement about the nationality of the crew and passengers. The passengers includes 1 Singapore, 1 Malaysia, 3 South Korea, 1 United Kingdom and 149 from Indonesia. The crew includes one from France and six from Indonesia. [Updated statement] QZ8501 as at 6:54pm (GMT+8) http://t.co/5QBdOXGiwe — AirAsia (@AirAsia) December 28, 2014 India has put three ships and a maritime surveillance aircraft on standby for assistance in the search operation. While one ship is in Bay of Bengal, another two are on standby in Andaman Sea. Along with these, a P-8I aircraft has also been put on standby. The aircraft is used for maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare operations, as per PTI. A British national was on board the AirAsia plane carrying 162 people that went missing in bad weather Sunday en route from Indonesia to Singapore, the Foreign Office confirmed. "We are aware of an incident regarding Air Asia flight QZ 8501. We have been informed by the local authorities that one British national was on board. Their next of kin has been informed, and we stand ready to provide consular assistance," the UK Foreign Office confirmed in a statement, the AFP reported. An Indonesian website has reportedly expressed the possibility that the AirAsia plane had crashed in the waters off East Belitung. However, it further quoted The Bangka Pos news portal which has said that there was no confirmation of the crash site. Meanwhile, no such official confirmation has been made by the authorities so far. AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes tweeted that he is on his way to Surabaya in Indonesia and will give out more information as they get it . On my way to Surabaya where most of the passangers are from as with my Indonesian management. Providing information as we get it. — Tony Fernandes (@tonyfernandes) December 28, 2014 In the wake of the missing plane, AirAsia has changed the colour of its logo from red to grey on Twitter. Indian Navy has kept three ships and one fixed-wing aircraft (Boeing P8-1) on standby to assist the search and rescue operations, according to ANI. Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak said that the country is ready to help in this time of crisis. Very sad to hear that AirAsia Indonesia QZ8501 is missing. My thoughts are with the families. Malaysia stands ready to help. — Mohd Najib Tun Razak (@NajibRazak) December 28, 2014 Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong took to Twitter to speak about the incident. He tweeted, “Saddened to hear of missing flight #QZ8501. My thoughts are with the passengers and their families. - LHL.” Saddened to hear of missing flight #QZ8501. My thoughts are with the passengers and their families. - LHL — Lee Hsien Loong (@leehsienloong) December 28, 2014 US President Barack Obama has been briefed about the situation and the White House has said that it was monitoring the situation. The pilot of the AirAsia flight QZ8501 had reportedly requested for deviation in usual travel route before the plane lost all contact and went missing. The aircraft was flying at 32,000 feet and had asked to fly at 38,000 feet to avoid clouds, according to Reuters news report The AirAsia statement further said that the pilot had a total of 6,100 flying hours and the first officer a total of 2,275 flying hours. An updated statement issued by AirAsia on Facebook states - “The aircraft was on the submitted flight plan route and was requesting deviation due to enroute weather before communication with the aircraft was lost while it was still under the control of the Indonesian Air Traffic Control (ATC).” An emergency call centre has been set up by the airline and friends and family of the passengers and crew can contact on +622129850801 for further information. Meanwhile, Malaysia also offered help in the search of missing AirAsia flight which lost contact with air traffic controllers between Kalimantan and Belitung island. Singapore said on Sunday it has activated its Air Force and Navy to help in the search and rescue operation for the AirAsia jet that went missing on a flight from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore, the AFP reported. A Facebook post by the airline further stated that at present they have “no further information regarding the status of the passengers and crew members on board.” A tweet by AirAsia has confirmed that the flight went missing today morning. AirAsia Indonesia regrets to confirm that QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact at 07:24hrs this morning http://t.co/WomRQuzcPO — AirAsia (@AirAsia) December 28, 2014 The AirAsia flight had 162 people including passengers and crew members when it went missing. Out of these, 149 are Indonesians, three Koreans, one Singaporean, one Briton and one Malaysian on board. The passengeres also included 138 adults, 16 children and one infant. AirAsia flight QZ8501, carrying 162 people on board, went missing after it lost contact while travelling from Indonesia's Surabaya to Singapore on Sunday morning. The Airbus A320-200, which lost contact at around 7:24 am local time today morning, was scheduled to arrive at Singapore at 8:30 am. |
Bullied teen's push to put kindness ahead of good grades Updated After photos of Monique Mastrobattista's bruised face were taunted among peers on social media, the teenager decided to turn her embarrassment into a powerful message for other young people. When Monique Mastrobattista fell down the stairs one afternoon at her school, Albert Park College in Melbourne's inner suburbs, she was left with a badly bruised face. The 13-year-old posted a photo of herself with her friends on Snapchat, telling them that she'd been hurt. It then became a source of torment among fellow students. "They started screenshotting photos and making private group chats and spreading them around, they were laughing about how I fell and looked. "I felt really embarrassed and hurt," she says. This was the tipping point to her leaving the school. Prior to that, she says she often spent lunch time sitting in the toilet because the other girls wouldn't talk to her. "I'd talk to them and they'd just walk off, or ignore you," she says. "It makes you feel like crap, because it's like I'm not worth their time, there's something wrong with me, I'm not good enough for them." 'It was probably the worst thing I've ever said to her' Her mother Jackie says she noticed something was wrong when her daughter's grades were falling dramatically. She was stuttering at home and was obviously anxious. When she found out she was being bullied she admits she gave her daughter "the worst piece of advice". "It's heartbreaking," she says. "I kept saying, you need to toughen up darling, if they're being mean, just be mean back. "It was probably the worst thing I've ever said to her. "She would say: 'You're asking me to go against who I am'." Monique is currently doing school at a distance and has been speaking with a psychologist. Since leaving the school just a few months ago, she started a campaign called Get Kind and wrote a book called My Discreet Bully, which is being launched this week. She says she hopes the book helps parents have a conversation with their children about bullying. "Knowing that bullying is a huge issue, I wasn't going to stand back and watch it control me and other countless lives, when I knew I had the power to do something and help others," she says. "It's helped people feel better about themselves and be happier with who they are." Her mother says parents often focus on encouraging school marks rather than making sure their children are good people. "Parents need to go back to simple things — teach their kids kindness [and] encourage them to do random acts of kindness. It's not always about the grades." "Kindness comes from home." Having been born 12 weeks premature, Jackie says her daughter has "always been a fighter". "Her birth weight was 755 grams," she says. "Her survival rate was 2 per cent, and we were told she's going to have cerebral palsy, she was going to have learning difficulties, she's not going to walk." Topics: author, bullying, youth, human-interest, albert-park-3206, vic, australia First posted |
US Senator from Kentucky, Senate Majority Leader Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr. (born February 20, 1942) is an American politician serving as Kentucky’s senior United States Senator and as Senate Majority Leader. McConnell is the second Kentuckian to lead his party in the Senate, is the longest-serving U.S. Senator from Kentucky in history, and is the longest-serving Republican U.S. Senate leader in history. A member of the Republican Party, McConnell was elected to the Senate in 1984 and has been re-elected five times since then. During the 1998 and 2000 election cycles, McConnell was chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. McConnell was elected as Majority Whip in the 108th Congress and was re-elected to the post in 2004. In November 2006, McConnell was elected Senate Minority Leader; he held that post until 2015, when Republicans took control of the Senate and he became Senate Majority Leader. McConnell was known as a pragmatist and a moderate Republican early in his political career but veered to the right over time. McConnell led opposition to stricter campaign finance laws, culminating in the Supreme Court ruling that partially overturned the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold) in 2009. During the Obama presidency, McConnell worked to withhold Republican support for major presidential initiatives; made frequent use of the filibuster; and blocked an unprecedented number of Obama's judicial nominees, including Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. McConnell later described his decision to block the Garland nomination as "the most consequential decision I've made in my entire public career." In 2015, McConnell was included in the Time 100 annual list of the most influential people in the world. McConnell endorsed Rand Paul in the 2016 Republican primaries before ultimately supporting then-presumptive nominee Donald Trump. In 2016, after being approached by U.S. intelligence community officials, McConnell refused to give a bipartisan statement with President Obama warning Russia not to interfere in the upcoming election. During the Trump presidency, Senate Republicans, under McConnell's leadership, broke records on the number of judicial nominees confirmed; those nominees included Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, each of whom was confirmed to the Supreme Court. McConnell's approval rating, as reflected by both national and statewide poll results, is consistently among the lowest of all U.S. senators. Early life and education (1942–1967) McConnell is of Scots-Irish and English descent, the son of Addison Mitchell McConnell, and his wife, Julia Odene "Dean" Shockley.[2] McConnell was born on February 20, 1942, in Sheffield, Alabama, and grew up in nearby Athens.[3] His ancestor had emigrated from County Down, Ireland to North Carolina.[2][4] McConnell's upper left leg was paralyzed by a polio attack at the age of 2.[2][5] He received treatment at the Warm Springs Institute in Georgia, which potentially saved him from being disabled for the rest of his life.[6] McConnell has stated that his family "almost went broke" because of costs related to his illness.[7] When he was eight, McConnell moved with his family from Athens to Augusta, Georgia when his father, who was in the Army, was stationed at Fort Gordon.[8] In 1956, his family moved to Louisville, where he attended duPont Manual High School.[8] McConnell was elected student council president at his high school during his junior year.[8] He graduated with honors from the University of Louisville with a B.A. in political science in 1964.[9] McConnell was president of the Student Council of the College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.[10] He has maintained strong ties to his alma mater and is still "a rabid fan of the U of L Cardinals football and basketball teams."[10] In 1964, at the age of 22, McConnell began interning for Senator John Sherman Cooper (R-KY), and his time with Cooper inspired him to later run for the Senate himself.[11] In 1967, McConnell graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was president of the Student Bar Association.[10][12] Early career (1967–1984) In March 1967, shortly before the expiration of his educational draft deferment upon graduation from law school, McConnell enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve as a private at Louisville, Kentucky.[13] This was a coveted position because the Reserve units were mostly kept out of combat during the Vietnam War.[13][14] McConnell's first day of training at Fort Knox was July 9, 1967--two days after taking the bar exam--and his last day was August 15, 1967.[10][13] Shortly after his arrival, McConnell was diagnosed with optic neuritis and was deemed medically unfit for military service as a result.[13][15] After just five weeks at Fort Knox, he was honorably discharged.[13] McConnell's brief time in service has repeatedly been put at issue by his political opponents during his electoral campaigns.[13][15] Although McConnell has allowed reporters to examine parts of his military record and take notes, he has refused to allow copies to be made or to disclose his entire record, despite calls by his opponents to do so.[13] McConnell's time in service has also been the subject of criticism because his discharge was accelerated after his father placed a call to Senator John Sherman Cooper, who then sent a wire to the commanding general at Fort Knox on August 10, advising that "Mitchell [is] anxious to clear post in order to enroll in NYU."[13][14] He was allowed to leave post just five days later, though McConnell maintains that no one helped him with his enlistment into or discharge from the reserves.[13][14] According to McConnell, he struggled through the exercises at basic training and was sent to a doctor for a physical examination, which revealed McConnell's optic neuritis.[10] McConnell did not attend NYU.[13][14] From 1968 to 1970, McConnell worked as an aide to Senator Marlow Cook (R-KY), managing a legislative department consisting of five members as well as assisting with speech writing and constituent services.[16] In 1971, McConnell returned from Washington, D.C., to Louisville, where he worked for Tom Emberton's candidacy for Governor of Kentucky, which was unsuccessful.[16] McConnell attempted to run for a seat in the state legislature, but was disqualified because he did not meet the residency requirements for the office.[16] McConnell then went to work for a law firm for a few years.[16] During the same time period, McConnell taught a night class on political science at the University of Louisville.[12][17][18] In October 1974, McConnell returned to D.C. to fill a position as Deputy Assistant Attorney General under President Gerald R. Ford, where he worked alongside Robert Bork, Laurence Silberman, and Antonin Scalia.[12][16] In 1977, McConnell was elected the Jefferson County Judge/Executive, the former top political office in Jefferson County, Kentucky. He was re-elected in 1981 and occupied this office until his election to the U.S. Senate in 1984.[11][16] U.S. Senate (1985–present) Senator Mitch McConnell in 1985 President Ronald Reagan in a meeting with Senator Mitch McConnell in the Oval Office, 1987 In the 1984 Senate election, McConnell defeated his Democratic opponent, Walter "Dee" Huddleston, by the slimmest of margins: about 5,100 votes.[19] He was the first Republican to win a statewide election in Kentucky since 1968, and benefited from the popularity of President Ronald Reagan, up for reelection, who was supported by 60% of Kentucky voters in the same year.[19][20] McConnell began his first term as a junior senator in 1985.[21][22] Senator Mitch McConnell in 1992 In his early years as a politician in Kentucky, McConnell was known as a pragmatist and a moderate Republican.[11][23] Over time, he veered sharply to the right.[11][23] According to ProPublica reporter Alex MacGillis's biography of McConnell, McConnell transformed "from a moderate Republican who supported abortion rights and public employee unions to the embodiment of partisan obstructionism and conservative orthodoxy on Capitol Hill."[23] MacGillis argues that McConnell's transformation was "driven less by a shift in ideological conviction than by a desire to win elections and stay in power at all costs."[23] McConnell has been widely described as having engaged in obstructionism during Obama's presidency.[24][25][26][27] In October 2010, McConnell said that "the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." Asked whether this meant "endless, or at least frequent, confrontation with the president," McConnell clarified that "if [Obama is] willing to meet us halfway on some of the biggest issues, it's not inappropriate for us to do business with him."[28] During Obama's presidency, minority obstruction reached all-time highs, as McConnell insisted that any bill passing through the Senate needed a supermajority (60 votes rather than 50).[29] McConnell justified the obstructionism by falsely claiming that the 60-vote threshold was the historical norm in the Senate.[29] Yale University political scientist Jacob Hacker and University of California, Berkeley political scientist Paul Pierson describe McConnell as the major figure (along with Newt Gingrich) in transforming the Republican Party into a "party geared increasingly not to governing but to making governance impossible".[30] They write, "Facing off against Obama, he worked to deny even minimal Republican support for major presidential initiatives—initiatives that were, as a rule, in keeping with the moderate model of decades past, and often with moderate Republican stances of a few years past."[30] Republicans threatened repeatedly to force the United States to default on its debt, with McConnell saying that he learned from the 2011 debt-ceiling crisis that "it's a hostage that's worth ransoming."[31][27] Political scientists have referred to McConnell's use of the filibuster as "constitutional hardball", referring to the misuse of procedural tools in a way that undermines democracy.[32][30][31][33] By 2013, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid eliminated the filibuster for all presidential nominations except the Supreme Court, nearly half of all invocations to cloture (to end a filibuster) in the history of the Senate had occurred during Obama's presidency.[34] McConnell delayed and obstructed health care reform and banking reform, which were the two landmark pieces of legislation that Democrats sought to get passed early in Obama's tenure.[35][36] By delaying Democratic priority legislation, McConnell stymied the output of Congress. Political scientists Eric Schickler and Gregory J. Wawro write, "by slowing action even on measures supported by many Republicans, McConnell capitalized on the scarcity of floor time, forcing Democratic leaders into difficult trade-offs concerning which measures were worth pursuing. That is, given that Democrats had just two years with sizeable majorities to enact as much of their agenda as possible, slowing the Senate's ability to process even routine measures limited the sheer volume of liberal bills that could be adopted."[36] The New York Times noted early during Obama's administration that "on the major issues—not just health care, but financial regulation and the economic stimulus package, among others—Mr. McConnell has held Republican defections to somewhere between minimal and nonexistent, allowing him to slow the Democratic agenda if not defeat aspects of it."[26] McConnell's refusal to allow Obama to seat a Supreme Court justice was described by political scientists and legal scholars as "unprecedented",[37] a "culmination of this confrontational style,"[38] a "blatant abuse of constitutional norms,"[39] and a "classic example of constitutional hardball."[31] As part of his obstruction strategy and as the leading Republican senator, McConnell confronted and pressured other Republican senators who cared about policy substance and were willing to negotiate with Democrats and the Obama administration.[40] According to Purdue University political scientist Bert A. Rockman, "pure party line voting has been evident now for some time ... but rarely has the tactic of "oppositionism" been so boldly stated as McConnell did."[41] In 2012, McConnell proposed a measure allowing President Obama to raise the debt ceiling, hoping that some Democratic senators would oppose the measure, thus demonstrating disunity among Democrats. However, all Democratic senators supported the proposal, which led McConnell to filibuster his own proposal.[42] Democrats chided McConnell for this, saying it demonstrated an extreme degree of obstructionism.[43] The 2016 book Health Care Reform and American Politics by political scientists Lawrence Jacobs and Theda Skocpol describe McConnell's rationale as follows, "any compromises would undermine the Republican Party's effort to make big gains in 2010 and 2012."[40] According to University of Texas legal scholar Sanford Levinson, McConnell learned that obstruction and Republican unity was the optimal way to ensure Republican gains in upcoming elections after he observed how Democratic cooperation with the Bush administration on No Child Left Behind and Medicare Part D helped Bush's 2004 re-election.[44] Levinson noted, "McConnell altogether rationally ... concluded that Republicans have nothing to gain, as a political party, from collaborating in anything that the president could then claim as an achievement." Hacker and Pierson describe the rationale behind McConnell's filibusters as follows:[30] Filibusters left no fingerprints. When voters heard that legislation had been "defeated," journalists rarely highlighted that this defeat meant a minority had blocked a majority. Not only did this strategy produce an atmosphere of gridlock and dysfunction; it also chewed up the Senate calendar, restricting the range of issues on which Democrats could progress. McConnell knew proposals lost support the longer they were out there, subject to attack. He knew constant delay would drive down the approval ratings of Democrats ... Like Gingrich, McConnell had found a serious flaw in the code of American democracy: Our distinctive political system gives an antigovernment party with a willingness to cripple governance an enormous edge. With the strategic guidance of these two congressional leaders, Republicans launched a self-reinforcing antistatist cycle. First they made government less functional. Then they highlighted that dysfunction to build political support. However, according to University of California, Los Angeles political scientist Barbara Sinclair, McConnell had to manage a balancing act where he "need[ed] to protect his party's reputation so he [did] not want to chance its being seen as responsible for a complete breakdown."[45] A number of political scientists, historians and legal scholars have characterized McConnell's obstructionism and constitutional hardball as contributors to democratic erosion in the United States.[30][39][32][34][46] University of North Carolina historian Christopher Browning wrote:[47] If the US has someone whom historians will look back on as the gravedigger of American democracy, it is Mitch McConnell. He stoked the hyperpolarization of American politics to make the Obama presidency as dysfunctional and paralyzed as he possibly could. As with parliamentary gridlock in Weimar, congressional gridlock in the US has diminished respect for democratic norms, allowing McConnell to trample them even more. Nowhere is this vicious circle clearer than in the obliteration of traditional precedents concerning judicial appointments. Systematic obstruction of nominations in Obama's first term provoked Democrats to scrap the filibuster for all but Supreme Court nominations. Then McConnell's unprecedented blocking of the Merrick Garland nomination required him in turn to scrap the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations in order to complete the "steal" of Antonin Scalia's seat and confirm Neil Gorsuch. Dartmouth political scientist Russell Muirhead characterized McConnell's obstructionism as a corrosive form of partisanship:[48] When the number one goal is electoral victory (or, in this case, another candidate's defeat), base power seeking obscures the larger purposes that make seeking power something respectable. It was not necessarily wrong or unreasonable of McConnell to hope that a Republican would defeat Obama. It was wrong to cast this as the number one goal of the party, prior to everything else—debt reduction, tax policy, foreign relations, and the other issues that make the party something ordinary citizens might have a reason to care about. When low partisanship displaces anything higher ... causes, principles, convictions lose their force and their allure, and become just the veil that makes power-seeking behavior presentable. McConnell has gained a reputation as a skilled political strategist and tactician.[49][50][51][20] However, this reputation dimmed after Republicans failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in 2017 during consolidated Republican control of government.[52][53][54][55] In 2015, Time listed McConnell as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.[56] With a 49% disapproval rate in 2016, McConnell had the highest disapproval rating of all senators.[57] McConnell has repeatedly been found to have the lowest home state approval rating of any sitting senator.[58][59] Committee assignments Leadership From 1997 to 2001, McConnell was chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the body charged with securing electoral victories for Republicans.[60][61] Republicans maintained control of the Senate after both elections. He was first elected as Majority Whip in the 108th Congress[62] and unanimously re-elected on November 17, 2004. Senator Bill Frist, the Majority Leader, did not seek re-election in the 2006 elections. In November 2006, after Republicans lost control of the Senate, they elected McConnell to replace Frist as Minority Leader.[63] After Republicans took control of the Senate following the 2014 Senate elections, McConnell became the Senate Majority Leader.[64] In June 2018, McConnell became the longest-serving Senate Republican leader in the history of the United States.[65] McConnell is the second Kentuckian to lead his party in the Senate[9] and is the longest-serving U.S. Senator from Kentucky in history.[66] 2016 presidential election and Donald Trump McConnell initially endorsed fellow Kentucky Senator Rand Paul during the 2016 presidential campaign. Following Paul's withdrawal from the race in February 2016, McConnell did not endorse another candidate until May 4, 2016 when he endorsed then-presumptive nominee Donald Trump. "I have committed to supporting the nominee chosen by Republican voters, and Donald Trump, the presumptive nominee, is now on the verge of clinching the nomination."[67] However, McConnell disagreed with Trump on multiple subsequent occasions. In May 2016, after Trump suggested that federal judge Gonzalo P. Curiel was biased against Trump because of his Mexican heritage, McConnell responded, "I don't agree with what he (Trump) had to say. This is a man who was born in Indiana. All of us came here from somewhere else." In July 2016, after Trump had criticized the parents of Capt. Humayun Khan, a Muslim soldier who was killed in Iraq, McConnell stated, "Captain Khan was an American hero, and like all Americans, I'm grateful for the sacrifices that selfless young men like Captain Khan and their families have made in the war on terror. All Americans should value the patriotic service of the patriots who volunteer to selflessly defend us in the armed services." On October 7, 2016, following the Donald Trump Access Hollywood controversy, McConnell stated: "As the father of three daughters, I strongly believe that Trump needs to apologize directly to women and girls everywhere, and take full responsibility for the utter lack of respect for women shown in his comments on that tape."[68] With regard to the US response to intelligence findings that Russia was responsible for cyberattacks undertaken to influence the American election, after Trump won the election, Senator McConnell expressed "support for investigating American intelligence findings that Moscow intervened."[69] Prior to the election, however, when FBI Director James Comey, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson and other officials met with the leadership of both parties to make the case for a bipartisan statement warning Russia that such actions would not be tolerated, "McConnell raised doubts about the underlying intelligence and made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics," The Washington Post reported,[70] citing accounts of several unnamed officials.[71][72] In April 2017, McConnell denied knowing of any potential wiretapping of Trump by the Obama administration, saying there was an ongoing investigation.[73] In October 2017, in response to criticism from White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon and other Trump allies blaming McConnell for stalling the Trump administration's legislation, McConnell stated that he was trustful of President Trump as a negotiating partner and cited the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch as an Associate Justice along with other Trump nominees for executive and judicial positions being confirmed as proof that the Senate was supportive of Trump's legislation. McConnell added that the "inter-party skirmish" of the GOP was really about "specialists in defeating Republican candidates in November" and the Republicans' goal was "to nominate people in the primaries next year who can actually win, and the people who win will be the ones who enact the president's agenda."[74] In November 2017, McConnell opposed legislation that would have protected Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.[75] In April 2018, less than 24 hours after an FBI raid on Michael Cohen's (President Trump's personal attorney) office, and after Trump had said that "many people" had asked him to fire Mueller, McConnell reiterated that he opposed any legislation to protect Mueller's investigation.[76] Later that month, McConnell thwarted a bipartisan legislative effort to protect Mueller's investigation.[77] In January 2018, Senators Marco Rubio and Chris Van Hollen introduced a bipartisan bill that would impose new sanctions on Russia in the event the country attempted interfering in another American election. In July, McConnell mentioned the bill as one option on the table for the Senate to respond to President Trump's posture toward the government of Vladimir Putin and asked the Banking and Foreign Relations panels to hold new hearings on the implementation of the bipartisan Russia sanctions bill from the previous year in addition to suggesting potential further steps lawmakers could pursue as part of efforts to counter Russian malfeasance ahead of that year's midterm elections.[78] In March 2018, after President Trump criticized Mueller for hiring investigators who were registered as Democrats, McConnell praised Mueller's selection as Special Counsel and stated of Mueller, "I think he will go wherever the facts lead him, and I think he will have great credibility with the American people when he reaches the conclusion of this investigation, so I have a lot of confidence." He predicted that Mueller was not "going anywhere" and earned praise from Senate Minority Leader Schumer for doing "the right thing" in lauding Mueller's integrity.[79] In June 2018, McConnell said regarding the Mueller investigation: "they ought to wrap it up. It's gone on seemingly forever and I don't know how much more they think they can find out." By that time, the Mueller investigation had been open for just over a year while the average length of 16 special/independent counsel investigations from 1973–2003 was over three years.[80] In July 2018, McConnell's chief strategist said that Trump's attacks on the intelligence community would benefit Republicans in the upcoming 2018 midterm election, both by energizing the Republican base and by drowning out Democrats' messaging on policy.[81] In November 2018, McConnell told reporters that legislation protecting Mueller was unnecessary and a bill by Jeff Flake would not come up in the Senate since Mueller was "not under threat", citing President Trump as having repeatedly stated the investigation would be allowed to finish. McConnell opined that he could not imagine Trump dismissing the investigation and told reporters they were "trying to get me to speculate about things that I'm confident are not going to happen."[82] Campaign finance McConnell led opposition to stricter campaign finance regulations, with the Lexington Herald Leader describing it as McConnell's "pet issue."[17] He has argued that campaign finance regulations reduce participation in political campaigns and protect incumbents from competition.[83] He spearheaded the movement against the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (known since 1995 as the "McCain–Feingold bill" and from 1989 to 1994 as the "Boren–Mitchell bill"), calling it "neither fair, nor balanced, nor constitutional."[84] His opposition to the bill culminated in the 2003 Supreme Court case McConnell v. Federal Election Commission and the 2009 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the latter of which ruled part of the act unconstitutional. McConnell has been an advocate for free speech at least as far back as the early 1970s when he was teaching night courses at the University of Louisville. "No issue has shaped his career more than the intersection of campaign financing and free speech," political reporter Robert Costa wrote in 2012.[85] In a recording of a 2014 fundraiser McConnell expressed his disapproval of the McCain-Feingold law, saying, "The worst day of my political life was when President George W. Bush signed McCain-Feingold into law in the early part of his first Administration."[86] On January 2, 2013, the Public Campaign Action Fund, a liberal nonprofit group that backs stronger campaign finance regulation, released a report highlighting eight instances from McConnell's political career in which a vote or a blocked vote (filibuster), coincided with an influx of campaign contributions to McConnell's campaign.[87][88] In December 2018, McConnell opposed a Democratic resolution that overturned IRS guidance to reduce the amount of donor information certain tax-exempt groups would have to give the IRS, saying, "In a climate that is increasingly hostile to certain kinds of political expression and open debate, the last thing Washington needs to do is to chill the exercise of free speech and add to the sense of intimidation."[89] Criminal justice reform In late 2018, McConnell stalled the passage of a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill in the Senate. As of December 2018, McConnell had yet to endorse the prison and sentencing reform bill. President Trump had endorsed the bill, saying "Really good Criminal Justice Reform has a true shot at major bipartisan support ... Would be a major victory for ALL!"[90] Democratic Senators Dick Durbin and Kamala Harris said that McConnell was the only impediment to the passage of the bill.[91][90] Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said, "If McConnell will bring this up, it will pass overwhelmingly."[92][93] The bill was expected to easily pass the House.[92] Economy In 2010, McConnell requested earmarks for the defense contractor BAE Systems while the company was under investigation by the Department of Justice for alleged bribery of foreign officials.[94][unreliable source?][95] In June 2011, McConnell introduced a Constitutional Balanced Budget Amendment. The amendment would require two-thirds votes in Congress to increase taxes or for federal spending to exceed the current year's tax receipts or 18% of the prior year's GDP. The amendment specifies situations when these requirements would be waived.[96][97] During the Great Recession, as Congress and the Obama administration negotiated reforms of the banking system, McConnell played an important role in preventing the addition of a provision requiring banks to prefund a reserve intended to be used to rescue insolvent banks in the future. When there appeared to be bipartisan and majority support for such a bank-funded reserve, McConnell criticized the provision, referred to it as a "bailout fund" and turned "opposition to it a litmus test for Senate Republicans", according to one study.[98] According to the study, "McConnell's attack, along with his insistence that opposition would be a matter of party principle, undermined the fragile coalition supporting the prefunded reserve, and the White House—fearing that advocating a bank levy as part of the president's broader reform would enable opponents to kill the whole bill—shelved the idea."[98] After two intercessions to get federal grants for Alltech, whose president T. Pearse Lyons made subsequent campaign contributions to McConnell, to build a plant in Kentucky for producing ethanol from algae, corncobs, and switchgrass, McConnell criticized President Obama in 2012 for twice mentioning biofuel production from algae in a speech touting his "all-of-the-above" energy policy.[99][100] In 2014, McConnell voted to help break Ted Cruz's filibuster attempt against a debt limit increase and then against the bill itself.[101] In 2014, McConnell opposed the Paycheck Fairness Act (a bill that "punishes employers for retaliating against workers who share wage information, puts the justification burden on employers as to why someone is paid less and allows workers to sue for punitive damages of wage discrimination") because it would "line the pockets of trial lawyers", not help women.[102] In July 2014, McConnell expressed opposition to a U.S. Senate bill that would limit the practice of corporate inversion by U.S. corporations seeking to limit U.S. tax liability.[103] Environment In 1992, after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had concluded that human activities significantly contribute to climate change, McConnell stated that there was "no conclusive evidence of significant long-term global warming", that there was no scientific consensus on the subject, misleadingly claimed that scientists were alarmed about global cooling in the 1970s, and that climate mitigation efforts would be "the most expensive attack on jobs and the economy in this country."[104][105][106] In 2014, McConnell continued to expressed skepticism that climate change was a problem, telling the Cincinnati Enquirer editorial board, "I'm not a scientist, I am interested in protecting Kentucky's economy, I'm interested in having low cost electricity."[107][108][109] McConnell was the sponsor of the Gas Price Reduction Act of 2008, which would have allowed states to engage in increased offshore and domestic oil exploration.[110] In 2015, McConnell encouraged state governors not to comply with the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan, which was aimed at tackling climate change.[111][112] In December 2014, McConnell stated that the incoming Republican-controlled Senate's first priority would be approving the Keystone XL pipeline, announcing his intent to allow a vote on legislation in favor of the pipeline by John Hoeven and his hope "that senators on both sides will offer energy-related amendments, but there will be no effort to micromanage the amendment process." McConnell disputed that the Keystone XL pipeline would harm the environment by citing fellow Republican senator Lisa Murkowski's claim that the US already had nineteen pipelines in effect and multiple studies "showing over and over again no measurable harm to the environment." He furthered that the pipeline would create high paying jobs and had received bipartisan support.[113] In February 2015, President Obama vetoed the Keystone XL bill on the grounds that it conflicted "with established executive branch procedures and cuts short thorough consideration of issues that could bear on our national interest”.[114] The following month, the Senate was unable to reach a two-thirds majority to override the veto, McConnell afterward stating that the veto represented "a victory for partisanship and for powerful special interests" and "a defeat for jobs, infrastructure, and the middle class."[115] In November 2016, McConnell requested that President-elect Trump prioritize the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline upon taking office during a meeting and told reporters that President Obama "sat on the Keystone pipeline throughout his entire eight years, even though his own State Department said it had no measurable impact on climate."[116] McConnell was one of 22 Republican senators to sign a letter urging President Donald Trump to have the United States withdraw from the Paris Agreement. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, McConnell has received over $1.5 million from the oil and gas industry since 2012.[117][118] Flag Desecration Amendment McConnell opposed the Flag Desecration Amendment to the Constitution in 2000. McConnell offered an amendment to the measure that would have made flag desecration illegal as a statutory crime, not by amending the Constitution.[119] Foreign policy In 1985, McConnell backed anti-apartheid legislation with Chris Dodd.[120] McConnell went on to engineer new IMF funding to "faithfully protect aid to Egypt and Israel," and "promote free elections and better treatment of Muslim refugees" in Myanmar, Cambodia and Macedonia. According to a March 2014 article in Politico, "McConnell was a 'go-to guy' for presidents of both parties seeking foreign aid," but he has lost some of his idealism and has evolved to be more wary of foreign assistance.[121] McConnell stands in front and directly to the right of President Obama as he signs tax cut and unemployment insurance legislation on December 17, 2010. In August 2007, McConnell introduced the Protect America Act of 2007, which allowed the National Security Agency to monitor telephone and electronic communications of suspected terrorists outside the United States without obtaining a warrant.[122] In December 2010, McConnell was one of twenty-six senators who voted against the ratification of New Start,[123] a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russian Federation obliging both countries to have no more than 1,550 strategic warheads as well as 700 launchers deployed during the next seven years along with providing a continuation of on-site inspections that halted when START I expired the previous year. It was the first arms treaty with Russia in eight years.[124] On March 27, 2014, McConnell introduced the United States International Programming to Ukraine and Neighboring Regions bill, which would provide additional funding and instructions to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in response to the 2014 Crimea crisis.[125][126] In September 2016, the Senate voted 71 to 27 against the Chris Murphy–Rand Paul resolution to block the $1.15 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia.[127] The Saudi Arabian-led coalition in Yemen has been accused of war crimes.[127] Following the vote, McConnell said: "I think it's important to the United States to maintain as good a relationship with Saudi Arabia as possible."[128] In November 2018, McConnell stated that the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi "is completely abhorrent to everything the United States holds dear and stands for in the world", reasoning that this contrast warranted a response from the US.[129] He later expressed opposition to a complete fracture in relations between the US and Saudi Arabia as not in the "best interest long term" and added that Saudi Arabia had been a "great" ally of the US as it related to Iran.[130] On December 12, McConnell advocated for the Senate to reject a measure authored by Bernie Sanders and Mike Lee that would end American support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, calling the resolution "neither precise enough or prudent enough." McConnell endorsed a resolution by Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, which if enacted would charge crown prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman with Khashoggi's death, as doing "a good job capturing bipartisan concerns about the war in Yemen and the behavior of Saudi partners more broadly without triggering an extended debate over war powers while we hasten to finish all our other work."[131] Also in September 2016, both the Senate and the House of Representatives overrode President Obama's veto to pass the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which targets Saudi Arabia, into law. Despite McConnell voting to override the President, McConnell would criticize JASTA within a day of the bill's passing, saying that it might have "unintended ramifications". McConnell appeared to blame the White House regarding this as he quoted that there was "failure to communicate early about the potential consequences" of JASTA, and said he told Obama that JASTA "was an example of an issue that we should have talked about much earlier".[132][133] In vetoing the bill, Obama had provided three reasons for objecting to JASTA: that the courts would be less effective than "national security and foreign policy professionals" in responding to a foreign government supporting terrorism, that it would upset "longstanding international principles regarding sovereign immunity", and that it would complicate international relations.[134][135] In January 2017, McConnell signed onto a resolution authored by Marco Rubio and Ben Cardin objecting to United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which condemned Israeli settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories as a violation of international law, and calling for all American presidents to "uphold the practice of vetoing all United Nations Security Council resolutions that seek to insert the Council into the peace process, recognize unilateral Palestinian actions including declaration of a Palestinian state, or dictate terms and a timeline for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."[136] In April 2017, McConnell organized a White House briefing of all senators conducted by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Defense Secretary James Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford regarding threats from the North Korean government.[137] In May 2018, after President Trump called off the North Korea–United States summit, McConnell said that Trump "wanted to make sure that North Koreans understood he was serious, willing to engage, provided they didn't continue to play these kinds of games as they've historically done with other administrations and gotten away with it" and that further progress would be staked on the subsequent actions of North Korea.[138] Trump shortly thereafter announced that the summit could resume as scheduled following a "very nice statement" he received from North Korea and that talks were now resuming.[139] At the Greater Louisville Inc. Congressional Summit, McConnell stated that North Korea would likely pursue "sanctions and other relief" while giving up as little as possible; he added that to achieve a successful negotiation, Trump would "have to not want the deal too much".[140] In August 2018, McConnell said Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been accused of ignoring the genocide of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority, could not be blamed for atrocities committed by the Myanmar's armed forces.[141] Cuba McConnell supported sanctions on Cuba for most of his Senate career, including the trade embargo imposed by the United States during the presidency of John F. Kennedy.[142] In December 2014, McConnell announced his opposition to the Obama administration's intent to normalize American relations with Cuba, calling it "a mistake" and that Congress would be able to intervene due to multiple sanctions having been implemented into law along with any American ambassador to Cuba requiring Senate approval. McConnell noted the US normalizing relations with Vietnam as its government continued repressing denizens as an example of American engagement sometimes not working.[143] In a July 2015 interview, McConnell stated that Obama believed that the US would "get a positive result" by merely engaging Cuba and that he saw no evidence in Cuba changing its behavior.[144] In March 2016, following Obama's travel to Cuba, McConnell said that for Obama "to go down there and act like this is a normal regime, has been embarrassing" while stating that the president believed engagement with Cuba was "going to improve things."[142] After the death of Fidel Castro later that year, McConnell said the passing was an opportunity for the Cuban government to reform itself toward the principles of freedom and democracy, adding that "the oppression" Castro imposed remained in Cuba despite his death.[145] Iran In August 2015, McConnell charged President Obama with treating his rallying for support of the Iran nuclear deal "like a political campaign" and stated his preference for senators spending time in their seats while debating the deal: "Demonize your opponents, gin up the base, get Democrats all angry and, you know, rally around the president. To me, it's a different kind of issue."[146] In a September interview, McConnell stated that the battle over the Iran nuclear deal possibly would have to wait until after the Obama administration was over while vowing to tee another vote on the matter to show bipartisan opposition to the matter. He said the Iran nuclear deal would be a defining issue in the following presidential election in the event that the Republicans still did not have enough votes to overcome a filibuster from Democrats and called the deal "an agreement between Barack Obama and the Iranian regime."[147] In January 2016, as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee weighed consideration of sanctions on North Korea after its test of a nuclear device, McConnell called Iran "an obvious rogue regime with which we have this outrageous deal that they don't intend to comply with" and confirmed the intent of the Senate to look into Iran.[148] In May, McConnell called for Democrats to vote for an underlying spending bill ahead of authorizing the appropriations process to move forward as Democrats opposed the measure on the grounds of a Republican amendment related to Iran. After their third filibuster on the bill, McConnell set up a vote on both the Iran amendment and spending bill.[149] In September 2016, McConnell was one of thirty-four senators to sign a letter to United States Secretary of State John Kerry advocating for the United States using "all available tools to dissuade Russia from continuing its airstrikes in Syria" from an Iranian airbase near the city of Hamadan, and stating that there should be clear enforcement by the US of the airstrikes violating "a legally binding Security Council Resolution" on Iran.[150] In May 2018, after President Trump announced the United States was withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, McConnell said the deal was "a flawed deal and we can do better" and stated congressional optimism to seeing what Trump would propose in its place.[151] Iraq In October 2002, McConnell voted for the Iraq Resolution, which authorized military action against Iraq.[152] McConnell supported the Iraq War troop surge of 2007.[153] In 2010, McConnell "accused the White House of being more concerned about a messaging strategy than prosecuting a war against terrorism."[154] In 2006, McConnell publicly criticized Senate Democrats for urging that troops be brought back from Iraq.[155] According to Bush's Decision Points memoir, however, McConnell was privately urging the then President to "bring some troops home from Iraq" to lessen the political risks. McConnell's hometown paper, the Louisville Courier-Journal, in an editorial titled "McConnell's True Colors", criticized McConnell for his actions and asked him to "explain why the fortunes of the Republican Party are of greater importance than the safety of the United States."[156] Regarding the failure of the Iraqi government to make reforms, McConnell said the following on Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer: "The Iraqi government is a huge disappointment. Republicans overwhelmingly feel disappointed about the Iraqi government. I read just this week that a significant number of the Iraqi parliament want to vote to ask us to leave. I want to assure you, Wolf, if they vote to ask us to leave, we'll be glad to comply with their request."[157] On April 21, 2009, McConnell delivered a speech to the Senate criticizing President Obama's plans to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, and questioned the additional 81 million dollar White House request for funds to transfer prisoners to the United States.[158][159] In July 2011, following the acquittal of Casey Anthony in the murder of her daughter Caylee, McConnell stated the trial showed "how difficult is to get a conviction in a U.S. court" and advocated for foreign-born terrorists to be sent to Guantanamo Bay.[160] Syria McConnell was the only party leader in Congress to oppose the resolution that would authorize military strikes against Syria in September 2013, citing a lack of national security risk.[161] In January 2016, McConnell delivered a Senate floor speech endorsing the Senate voting to approve of a bill requiring additional FBI background checks and individual sign-offs from three high-ranking federal officials before before refugees from either Syria or Iraq were admitted to the United States.[162] McConnell supported the 2017 Shayrat missile strike, saying it "was well-planned, well-executed, went right to the heart of the matter, which is using chemical weapons."[163] In April 2018, following the missile strikes against Syria carried out by the United States, France, and the United Kingdom, McConnell said he found it "an appropriate and measured response to the use of chemical weapons" when asked of the Trump administration's legal justification for the authorization of military action.[164] In January 2019, McConnell joined Marco Rubio, Jim Risch, and Cory Gardner in introducing legislation that would impose sanctions on the government of President of Syria Bashar al-Assad and bolster American cooperation with Israel and Jordan. McConnell stated that the legislation spoke "directly to some critical American interests in that part of the world" and affirmed "that the United States needs to walk the walk and authorize military assistance, cooperative missile defense as well as loan guarantees."[165] McConnell introduced an amendment warning the Trump administration against "precipitous" withdrawals of American troops in Syria and Afghanistan, saying he chose to introduce it "so the Senate can speak clearly and directly about the importance of our nation’s ongoing missions in Afghanistan and Syria."The amendment was approved 70-26 on February 4.[166] Fundraising From 2003 to 2008, the list of McConnell's top 20 donors included five financial/investment firms: UBS, FMR Corporation (Fidelity Investments), Citigroup, Bank of New York, and Merrill Lynch.[167] In April 2010, while Congress was considering financial reform legislation, a reporter asked McConnell if he was "doing the bidding of the large banks." McConnell has received more money in donations from the "Finance, Insurance and Real Estate" sector than any other sector according to the Center for Responsive Politics.[167][168] McConnell responded "I'd say that that's inaccurate. You could talk to the community bankers in Kentucky." The Democratic Party's plan for financial reform is actually a way to institute "endless taxpayer funded bailouts for big Wall Street banks", said McConnell. He expressed concern that the proposed $50 billion, bank-funded fund that would be used to liquidate financial firms that could collapse "would of course immediately signal to everyone that the government is ready to bail out large banks".[167][168] In McConnell's home state of Kentucky, the Lexington Herald-Leader ran an editorial saying: "We have read that the Republicans have a plan for financial reform, but McConnell isn't talking up any solutions, just trashing the other side's ideas with no respect for the truth."[169] According to one tally, McConnell's largest donor from the period from January 1, 2009, to September 30, 2015, was Bob McNair, contributing $1,502,500.[170] Government shutdowns The United States federal government shutdown between October 1 to October 17, 2013 following a failure to enact legislation appropriating funds for fiscal year 2014 nor a continuing resolution for the interim authorization of appropriations for fiscal year 2014 in time. During a fundraising retreat in Sea Island, Georgia weeks later, McConnell stated that Republicans would not default on the US's debt or shut down the government early the following year, when stop-gap government funding and the debt ceiling were slated to be voted on again. McConnell furthered that Republicans were willing to combat tactics of the party’s wing that was opposed to the establishment in addition to responding to individuals who believed words such as "negotiate" and "compromise" were bad things.[171] Trump meets with Congressional leadership in the White House Situation Room on January 2, 2019 In July 2018, McConnell stated that funding for the Mexico–United States border wall would likely have to wait until the midterms had concluded, President Trump tweeting two days later that he was willing to allow a government shutdown.[172] The August approval of a third minibus package of spending bills was seen as a victory for McConnell in his attempts to prevent another government shutdown.[173] In December 2018, after the federal government shutdown commenced, McConnell charged Senate Democrats with turning down a "reasonable request" in their refusal of a bill passed in the House including $5.7 billion for the border in spite of previously offering $25 billion earlier that year as part of a larger immigration deal and that Democrats "brought this about because they're under a lot of pressure—we all know this—from their far left and feel compelled to disagree with the president on almost anything, and certainly this."[174] On January 2, 2019, McConnell met with President Trump, congressional leaders, and Homeland Security Department officials, McConnell relating afterward that they were "hopeful that somehow in the coming days and weeks we'll be able to reach an agreement" while admitting there was still no consensus reached between both sides.[175] By January 23, McConnell had blocked four Senate bills to reopen the government and a bill funding the Homeland Security Department through February 8. McConnell called for Democrats to support a Trump administration-backed measure that included 5.7 billion in wall funding as well as a three-year extension of protections for DACA recipients and some Temporary Protected Status holders, adding, "The president went out of his way to include additional items that have been priority areas for Democrats."[176] The shutdown ended on January 25, when President Trump signed a three-week funding measure reopening the government until February 15.[177] On February 14, 2019, ahead of the Senate approving legislation preventing another partial government shutdown and provide funding for President Trump's U.S.-Mexico border, McConnell announced that President Trump "has indicated he's prepared to sign the bill" and would "be issuing a national emergency declaration at the same time."[178] McConnell said that he had indicated to Trump that he supported Trump's national emergency declaration.[179] Guns On the weekend of January 19–21, 2013, the McConnell for Senate campaign emailed and robo-called gun-rights supporters telling them that "President Obama and his team are doing everything in their power to restrict your constitutional right to keep and bear arms." McConnell also said, "I'm doing everything in my power to protect your 2nd Amendment rights."[180] On April 17, 2013, McConnell voted against expanding background checks for gun purchases.[181] In January 2016, after President Obama announced new executive actions to combat gun violence, McConnell charged Obama with playing politics and panned the administration's record on prosecuting gun law violations as "abysmal". McConnell stated that examinations of the mass shootings "sort of underscores the argument that if somebody there had had a weapon fewer people would have died" and predicted Obama's proposals would fail to keep "guns out of the hands of criminals".[182] In June, after the Orlando nightclub shooting occurred, then the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in American history, four partisan gun measures came up for vote in the Senate and were all rejected. McConnell opined that Democrats were using the shooting as a political talking point while Republicans John Cornyn and Chuck Grassley were "pursuing real solutions that can help keep Americans safer from the threat of terrorism."[183] In October 2017, following the Las Vegas shooting, McConnell told reporters that the investigation into the incident "has not even been completed, and I think it's premature to be discussing legislative solutions if there are any." He stated that he believed it "particularly inappropriate to politicize an event like this" and the issue of tax reform should remain the priority while the investigation was ongoing.[184] Health policy McConnell led efforts against President Barack Obama's health care reform, ensuring that no Republican senator supported Obama's 2009–2010 health care reform legislation.[185][40] McConnell explained the reasoning behind withholding Republican support as, "It was absolutely critical that everybody be together because if the proponents of the bill were able to say it was bipartisan, it tended to convey to the public that this is O.K., they must have figured it out."[185][26][40] McConnell voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly called ObamaCare or the Affordable Care Act) in December 2009,[186] and he voted against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.[187] In 2014, McConnell repeated his call for the full repeal of Obamacare and said that Kentucky should be allowed to keep the state's health insurance exchange website, Kynect, or set up a similar system.[188] McConnell is part of the group of 13 senators drafting the Senate version of the AHCA behind closed doors.[189][190][191][192] The Senator refused over 15 patient advocacy organization's requests to meet with his congressional staff to discuss the legislation. This included groups like the American Heart Association, March of Dimes, American Lung Association. and the American Diabetes Association.[193] McConnell received the Kentucky Life Science Champion Awards for his work in promoting innovation in the life science sector.[194] In 2015, both houses of Congress passed a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act.[195] It was vetoed by President Obama in January 2016.[196] After President Trump took office in January 2017, Senate Republicans, under McConnell's leadership, began to work on a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. They faced opposition from both Democrats and moderate Republicans, who claimed that the bill would leave too many people uninsured, and more conservative Republicans, who protested that the bill kept too many of the ACA's regulation and spending increases, and was thus not a full repeal. Numerous attempts at repeal failed. On June 27, after a meeting with President Trump at the White House, McConnell signaled improvements for the repeal and replacement: "We're not quite there. But I think we've got a really good chance of getting there. It'll just take us a little bit longer."[197] During a Rotary Club lunch on July 6, McConnell said, "If my side is unable to agree on an adequate replacement, then some kind of action with regard to the private health insurance market must occur."[198] In October 2018, after the Trump administration joined Texas leaders and 19 other Republican state attorney generals in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the ACA, McConnell said it was no secret Republicans preferred to reboot their efforts in repealing the ACA and that he did not "fault the administration for trying to give us an opportunity to do this differently and to go in a different direction."[199] In February 2019, when Senator Sherrod Brown and Representative Lloyd Doggett unveiled legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, Brown stated that he hoped for a vote in the House that would "put the pressure" on McConnell.[200] Immigration In 2013, a bipartisan group of senators known as the Gang of Eight worked on immigration reform, introducing legislation that would establish a 13-year pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, with several security benchmarks that have to be met before they can obtain a green card, and require a mandatory workplace verification system for employers. McConnell opposed the bill on the grounds of it not including sufficient border-security measures that would future illegal immigration.[201] In February 2018, McConnell stated his support for an immigration proposal that aligned with President Trump's framework, reasoning the bill which he said had "the best chance" of being signed into law.[202] By this point, he considered the issue to have run its course over three days of floor debate.[203] In 2015, McConnell rebuked then-candidate Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslim immigration to the United States.[204] In June 2018, minutes after the Supreme Court upheld the Trump administration's travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries in a 5–4 decision along ideological lines, McConnell tweeted a gloating picture of him shaking hands with Neil Gorsuch.[205][206] Gorsuch was nominated to fill a vacant Supreme Court by President Trump after McConnell and Senate Republicans refused to hold hearings on Merrick Garland, President Obama's nomination to the court, for almost a year.[205] Judicial nominees According to the New York Times, "From the moment Obama entered the White House, McConnell led Senate Republicans in a disciplined, sustained, at times underhanded campaign to deny the Democratic president the opportunity to appoint federal judges."[207] In June 2009, following President Obama nominating Sonia Sotomayor as Associate Justice, McConnell and Jeff Sessions opined that Sotomayor's seventeen years as a federal judge and over 3,600 judicial opinions would require lengthy review and advocated against Democrats hastening the confirmation process.[208] On July 17, McConnell announced that he would vote against Sotomayor's confirmation, citing her lack of respect for equal justice and furthering that her confirmation would mean there "would be no higher court to deter or prevent her from injecting into the law the various disconcerting principles that recur throughout her public statements."[209] In August, McConnell called Sotomayor "a fine person with an impressive story and a distinguished background" but added that she "does not pass" the most fundamental test of being a judge capable of withholding her personal or political views while serving. Sotomayor was confirmed days later.[210] In May 2010, after President Obama nominated Elena Kagan to succeed the retiring John Paul Stevens, McConnell stated during a Senate speech that Americans wanted to make sure Kagan would be independent of influence from White House as an Associate Justice and noted Obama referring to Kagan as a friend of his in announcing her nomination. McConnell said it was his hope "that the Obama administration doesn’t think the ideal Supreme Court nominee is someone who would rubber stamp its policies" and that question had been raised and needed answering.[211] In a June interview, McConnell did not rule out the Kagan nomination being filibustered by Republican senators, noting that he had "never filibustered a Supreme Court nominee" and calling it premature to definitively answer if any of his fellow Republican senators would.[212] On July 2, McConnell announced his opposition to Kagan's confirmation, citing her falling short of "meeting her own standard for providing the Senate helpful testimony", being "far from forthcoming in discussing her own views on basic principles of American constitutional law", and being unable to convince him that she "would suddenly constrain the ardent political advocacy that has marked much of her adult life."[213] Kagan was confirmed the following month.[214] On February 13, 2016, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died.[215] Later that day, McConnell issued a statement indicating that the U.S. Senate would not consider any Supreme Court nominee put forth by President Barack Obama to fill Justice Scalia's vacated seat.[216] "'The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president,'" McConnell said.[216] On March 16, 2016, President Obama nominated Merrick Garland, a Judge of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, to the Supreme Court.[217] Under McConnell's leadership, Senate Republicans refused to take any action on the Garland nomination.[218] Garland's nomination expired on January 3, 2017, with the end of the 114th Congress.[219] In January 2017, Republican President Donald Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to fill the Court vacancy;[220] Gorsuch's nomination was confirmed on April 7, 2017.[221] In an August 2016 speech in Kentucky, McConnell made reference to the Garland nomination; he said, "One of my proudest moments was when I looked Barack Obama in the eye and I said, 'Mr. President, you will not fill the Supreme Court vacancy.'"[222][223][224] In April 2018, McConnell said the decision not to act upon the Garland nomination was "the most consequential decision I've made in my entire public career".[225] Later that year, McConnell said that if a Supreme Court vacancy would happen during Trump's 2020 re-election year, he would not follow the precedent that he set in 2016 and let the winner of the presidential election nominate a justice.[226] On July 18, 2018, with Andy Oldham's Senate confirmation, Senate Republicans broke a record for largest number of appeals court judiciary confirmations "during a president's first two years". Oldham became the 23rd judge to be confirmed in said period.[227] Addressing the issue, McConnell stated that considering "the things that we've been able to do with this Republican government the last year and a half", the most "long lasting, positive impact" they would have on the country would be the judiciary. The number of circuit court judges "confirmed during a president's first year" was broken in 2017, while the previous two-year record took place under President George H.W. Bush, and included 22 nominations.[228] In July 2018, after President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to replace the retiring Anthony Kennedy as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, McConnell accused Democrats of creating an "extreme" distortion of Kavanaugh's record and compared their treatment of Kavanaugh to that of 1987 Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork.[229] In September 2018, Christine Blasey Ford went public with allegations that she had been sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh in 1982. On September 18, during a private meeting, McConnell warned Senate Republicans that there would be political fallout if they failed to confirm Kavanaugh.[230] After a report came out of Democrats investigating a second allegation against Kavanaugh, McConnell stated, "I want to make it perfectly clear. ... Judge Kavanaugh will be voted on here on the Senate floor."[231] Kavanaugh was confirmed on October 6.[232][233] McConnell afterward admitted the confirmation process was a low point for the Senate, but added that there had "been an awful lot of bipartisan cooperation"; McConnell opined that claims that the Senate was "somehow broken over this [were] simply inaccurate."[234] Net neutrality In December 2010, after the Republicans gained control of the House in the 2010 midterm elections, McConnell delivered a Senate floor speech rebuking the intention of the Federal Communications Commission to instate net neutrality in its monthly commission meeting, saying the Obama administration was moving forward "with what could be a first step in controlling how Americans use the Internet by establishing federal regulations on its use" after having already nationalized healthcare, the auto industry, companies that could be insured, and loans for students and banks and called for the Internet to be left alone as it was "an invaluable resource." McConnell pledged that the incoming 112th United States Congress would push back against additional regulations.[235] In November 2014, after President Obama announced a series of proposals including regulations that he stated would keep the Internet open and free, McConnell released a statement saying the FCC would be wise to reject the proposal and charged Obama's plan with endorsing "more heavy-handed regulation that will stifle innovation."[236] In December 2017, after the FCC voted to repeal net neutrality, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced his intent to force a vote on the FCC's decision, a spokesman for McConnell confirming that the Majority Leader opposed Schumer's plan and favored the FCC's decision to repeal.[237] In February 2018, the Internet Association sent a letter to McConnell and Schumer endorsing the retention of net neutrality as "necessitated by, among other factors, the lack of competition in the broadband service market" and calling "for a bipartisan effort to establish permanent net neutrality rules for consumers, startups, established internet businesses, and internet service providers."[238] Trade In January 2018, McConnell was one of thirty-six Republican senators to sign a letter to President Trump requesting he preserve the North American Free Trade Agreement by modernizing it for the economy of the 21st century.[239] In March, McConnell was asked at a news conference about the Trump administration's intent to impose tariffs on imported aluminum and steel, answering that there was "a lot of concern among Republican senators that this could sort of metastasize into a larger trade war" and that there were discussions between senators and the administration on "just how broad, how sweeping this might be, and there is a high level of concern about interfering with what appears to be an economy that is taking off." McConnell defended NAFTA as having been successful in his state of Kentucky.[240] In July, during a press conference, McConnell said, "I'm concerned about getting into a trade war and it seems like ... we may actually be in the early stages of it. Nobody wins a trade war, and so it would be good if it ended soon."[241] In October, after the United States, Canada, and Mexico concluded talks relating to rearranging NAFTA, McConnell said the subject would "be a next-year issue because the process we have to go through doesn't allow that to come up before the end of this year" along with confirming that the U.S. International Trade Commission would take priority the following year.[242] Electoral history In the graphics below, elections are shown with a map depicting county-by-county information. McConnell is shown in red and Democratic opponents shown in blue. 1984 In 1984, McConnell ran for the U.S. Senate against two-term Democratic incumbent Walter Dee Huddleston. The election race was not decided until the last returns came in, and McConnell won by a thin margin—only 3,437 votes out of more than 1.2 million votes cast, just over 0.4%.[243] McConnell was the only Republican Senate challenger to win that year, despite Ronald Reagan's landslide victory in the presidential election. Part of McConnell's success came from a series of television campaign spots called "Where's Dee", which featured a group of bloodhounds trying to find Huddleston,[244][245] implying that Huddleston's attendance record in the Senate was less than stellar. His campaign bumper stickers and television ads asked voters to "Switch to Mitch".[246][247] 1984 U.S. Senate Republican primary election in Kentucky Party Candidate Votes % +% Republican Mitch McConnell 39,465 79.2% Republican Roger Harker 3,798 7.6% Republican Tommy Klein 3,352 6.7% Republican Thurman Jerome Hamlin 3,202 6.4% 1990 In 1990, McConnell faced a tough re-election contest against former Louisville Mayor Harvey I. Sloane, winning by 4.4%.[248] 1990 U.S. Senate Republican primary election in Kentucky Party Candidate Votes % +% Republican Mitch McConnell (inc.) 64,063 88.5% Republican Tommy Klein 8,310 11.5% 1996 In 1996, he defeated Steve Beshear by 12.6%,[249] even as Bill Clinton narrowly carried the state. In keeping with a tradition of humorous and effective television ads in his campaigns, McConnell's campaign ran television ads that warned voters to not "Get BeSheared" and included images of sheep being sheared.[247] 1996 U.S. Senate Republican primary election in Kentucky Party Candidate Votes % +% Republican Mitch McConnell (inc.) 88,620 88.6% Republican Tommy Klein 11,410 11.4% 2002 In 2002, he was re-elected against Lois Combs Weinberg by 29.4%, the largest majority by a statewide Republican candidate in Kentucky history.[250] 2008 In 2008, McConnell faced his closest contest since 1990. He defeated Bruce Lunsford by 6%.[12] 2008 U.S. Senate Republican primary election in Kentucky Party Candidate Votes % +% Republican Mitch McConnell (inc.) 168,127 86.1% Republican Daniel Essek 27,170 13.9% 2014 In 2014, McConnell faced Louisville businessman Matt Bevin in the Republican primary.[251] The 60.2% won by McConnell was the lowest voter support for a Kentucky U.S. Senator in a primary since 1938.[252] He faced Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes in the general election. Although polls showed the race was very close,[253] McConnell defeated Grimes, 56.2–40.7%.[254][255] The 15.5% margin of victory was one of his largest, second only to his 2002 margin. 2014 U.S. Senate Republican primary election in Kentucky Party Candidate Votes % +% Republican Mitch McConnell (inc.) 213,753 60.2% Republican Matt Bevin 125,787 35.4% Republican Shawna Sterling 7,214 2.0% Republican Chris Payne 5,338 1.5% Republican Brad Copas 3,024 0.9% Personal life McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao , was nominated by President Trump to serve as Secretary of Transportation. McConnell is a Southern Baptist.[256] He was married to his first wife, Sherrill Redmon, from 1968 to 1980, and had three children.[257] Following their divorce, she became a feminist scholar at Smith College and director of the Sophia Smith Collection.[258][259] His second wife, whom he married in 1993, is Elaine Chao, the former Secretary of Labor under George W. Bush.[260] On November 29, 2016, incoming President Donald Trump nominated Chao to serve as the Secretary of Transportation. She was confirmed by the Senate on January 31, 2017, in a 93–6 vote.[260] McConnell himself voted "present" during the confirmation roll call.[261] McConnell is on the Board of Selectors of Jefferson Awards for Public Service.[262] In 1997, he founded the James Madison Center for Free Speech, a Washington, D.C.–based legal defense organization.[263][264] McConnell was inducted as a member of the Sons of the American Revolution on March 1, 2013.[265] In February 2003, McConnell underwent a triple heart bypass surgery in relation to blocked arteries at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.[266] In 2010, the OpenSecrets website ranked McConnell one of the wealthiest members of the U.S. Senate, based on net household worth.[267] His personal wealth was increased after receiving a 2008 personal gift to him and his wife, given by his father-in-law James S. C. Chao after the death of McConnell's mother-in-law, that ranged between $5 and $25 million.[268][269] In popular culture McConnell appears in the title sequence, and as an off-screen character, in season 1 of Alpha House.[270] Host Jon Stewart repeatedly mocked McConnell on The Daily Show for his resemblance to a turtle or tortoise and often imitated him with the voice of the Cecil Turtle from Tortoise Wins by a Hare.[271] References |
Monster Hunter has never enjoyed much western success - and we're the losers. Of all Capcom's modern series, this co-operative action-RPG is one of the deepest, funniest and most rewarding. It lacks the nostalgia and immediacy of Street Fighter 4 or the big-budget production values of Resident Evil, but has something at its core that I find more fulfilling. Call it camaraderie, the rush of a team sport played well - with a sideline in snazzy uniforms. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is available for both 3DS and Wii U; the two versions have the same content and you can play local co-op and share a save between them (eventually - see sidebar below). It's the definitive version of 2009's Monster Hunter Tri, the third entry in the series proper, each numbered Monster Hunter being a game that Capcom refines over the course of years and multiple entries. So the foundation is an old game, but one of exceptional durability and quality - though the first few hours do Ultimate no favours at all. The opening quests are no good, really, too basic for experienced players and too bamboozling for new ones. They're designed to teach the basics slowly; from gathering to fishing and hunting small fry, it's a cascade of little factoids, menus and seemingly unrelated activities in which Monster Hunter's tightly-wound logic is far from immediately clear. This is a game in which you earn success, and in these early stages the earning is hard and the rewards are far from obvious. The weapons are a perfect example. Each of Monster Hunter's weapons is effectively its own class, the use of which dictates a large part of your play style. Hammer users will be going straight for the head and dodging blows, while lance users will be under the monster and constantly poking it. Very little of this is explained in a simple way - and god help the neophyte who decides to pick the bagpipes. The Gigginox is one of the freakiest monsters you face, and its ability to inflict poison alongside high damage meaning it'll also kill you a fair few times - but its hide makes such fine things... Yet from another angle, this is part of Monster Hunter's appeal, for players like me at least. You teach yourself, learning the move set quickly and then learning how to use it slowly. To give credit where it's due, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate does scale up the monsters you face in a way that makes a lot of sense, from the Great Jaggis and Royal Ludroths of its early hunting grounds - powerful but predictable beasts - to the gigantic and deadly creatures that come later. As you begin taking down bigger quarry, returning with the spoils and figuring out Monster Hunter's simple yet voluminous combining and crafting systems, your motivation becomes much clearer. Kill a few more of those fancy Qurepeco birds, for example, and you could make a pretty sweet pair of trousers. The single-player campaign's Moga Village evolves as you progress, and soon you realise it's perfectly equipped to automate the aspects of Monster Hunter that could be boring, like collecting ingredients. Essential stuff like honey can be outsourced to some cats. A hunting fleet can be upgraded and sent to take down monsters and bring back the loot. And then there's your house: who wouldn't want a fountain in the shape of a Lagiacrus? Monster Hunter's two loops are the campaign and co-operative multiplayer, but it's best to think of the former as training for the latter. (One feature of Ultimate that deserves especial praise is its accommodation of determined solo players, incidentally, as all of the co-operative content is accessible on your tod - also useful for clearing up low-level quests and farming monsters.) In contrast to Moga Village, a lazy, Caribbean-style fishing port, co-op missions are accessed from the Tavern. 3DS to Wii U save transfer A key feature of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - transferring game saves between 3DS and Wii U - isn't available until UK launch day and so couldn't be tested. This is because (drumroll please) it requires a separate app to be downloaded on both 3DS and Wii U, which doesn't suggest the most convenient of experiences. If anything goes drastically wrong we'll update things, but bet the house on it being clunky but just about acceptable. For the purposes of this review, I played for a few hours on 3DS with a character called Sadsack, and played the game 'proper' on Wii U. The 3DS game lets you exchange Guild Cards with other hunters through StreetPass. They'll then crop up in your solo tavern and be available for 'hire' on random quests - you send 'em off, and if they're successful later share in the rewards. The tavern is an expression of a sociable theme that runs right through Monster Hunter - and it's part of what makes the big quests so special. When you're gathered with three other hunters and ready to go and take down something big, there's a kind of pre-hunt ritual. Usually some of the hunters will be prancing - unquestionably the finest of many gestures available - while some will be motionless in front of the item box or merchants as they tool up. And then everyone sits down for dinner. It's not even a mini-game, really; each hunter picks a combination of ingredients which will confer certain boosts during the quest and then hogs on it. No hunter goes out without a full belly, and it's hard not to smile and be swept along in the warm daftness of this ritual. Out on the field, it's much more serious business. The multiplayer game sees you increase your Hunter Rank by completing quests, with each stage bringing a slew of new and more dangerous opportunities. The first two Hunter Ranks are perfectly pitched at players new to co-operative questing, setting up large and tough but less deadly monsters, like the Barroth, before turning the screw a little at rank two with quests like hunting a Rathian and a Rathalos. Once rank three is hit, however, the challenge spikes - and by this point, Monster Hunter has you. By now you'll have the know-how and capabilities to start crafting an ultimate weapon or armour set, and begin walking through the fire towards it. When you reach it, of course, there may well be another. None of this would matter if the hunting itself wasn't special, but Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is the very best. Taking on something big really feels like a fight. The first time you face a Barroth, its head-down charge and tail swings will batter you around like a rag doll. The fantastic, booming audio design has roars that make your hairs prickle, intimidating you in a primal way, while the screen blurs and jars to accentuate the effect. Cha-Cha and Kayamba are two small minions that can accompany you through the campaign and, to a limited extent, multiplayer. Each can also be levelled and given their own kit, including a Cha-Cha mask that grills two steaks at once. The screams give Monster Hunter's beasts an unusual level of personality in combination with one other touch: they get injured. As fights wear on, certain bits of a monster's body can be broken, sometimes clean off. Even if this doesn't happen, they'll eventually tire and weaken; after a certain point, these bosses just want to escape. They will fall over their own legs in panic as they try to run away, or limp towards open air and fly as far as possible, and if they get half a chance they'll take a nap or feast on something lower in the food chain. When Monster Hunter switches from the fight to the chase, it changes pace and also location, which means a different kind of fight - and as any hunter knows, a beast is at its most dangerous when cornered. The finish is always a matter of taste. Inexperienced crews strike down the monster and then fall upon the carcass, hacking off the loot in another of Monster Hunter's little rituals. After a bit of practice, you'll start setting traps and bringing them in alive, something that needs careful judgement and timing, but the rewards are worth it. Either way, the end of an epic Monster Hunter quest (and from Hunter Rank 3 onwards, they pretty much all fit that description) feels like winning against the odds. It's a glow. Monster Hunter's endgame, G-Rank, is why people go so mad over this particular series, and rightly so. The monsters become ever more dangerous, with new moves and more unpredictable behaviours, and truly mastering even one of the fights is a daunting task. You craft fabulous armour sets from a Diablos after killing it 10 times because, the next time some dudebro sees you in the tavern, he'll know you're the boss of Diablos. A master-class in precision combat design matched to an intricate system that ties isolated fights together... a fantasy world of such original vision that it disarms and envelops you Both versions use their respective touch-screens, but in the Wii U version, I only use ever used it for pinging locations or chatting between hunts. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate's problems are mostly mere irritants, with two exceptions. The rather basic visual upgrade isn't a huge concern, because what's important about Monster Hunter - the fighting - looks incredible in high definition on Wii U. On 3DS, the 3D effect makes certain monsters look spectacular and goes some way towards alleviating the drop in detail. But many other elements, like the character models in Moga Village or the text on 3DS, are uncomfortably basic, while certain visual effects, such as the lighting in caves, are just awful. You'll get over such infelicities. The major issue is the lack of online play for the 3DS version, which makes it a much tougher recommendation on its own (unless you have three friends in exactly the same spot) and a definite loser to the Wii U release. The second problem, common to both versions, is that during close-up fights with something massive the camera can sometimes go haywire. You can deal with this, mostly, but very occasionally you'll take a hit from it. The core of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, however, is a shining light - a master-class in precision combat design matched to an intricate system that ties isolated fights together. Ultimate's world may be made up of little more than a few villages, a tavern and a handful of hunting grounds, but it has a rich texture to it that far more grandiose titles aim for and miss. It's a fantasy world of such original vision that it disarms and envelops you. There are cats everywhere, countless dinners and silly dances, while grilling a Well-Done Steak triggers a woman's voice saying "sooo tasty" - and by the time you craft that Gigginox vampire outfit, none of this seems disparate. Everything is of a piece, whole and entire, as if the developers set out to make exactly this game and succeeded. That doesn't mean it's flawless. It only means that, sometimes, it feels like it. |
(Courtesy of Blair Thornburgh) If you like bad puns AND redistricting humor, have I got a treat for you. Editor and author Blair Thornburgh unleashed a set of gerrymandering-themed valentines Tuesday on Twitter. “Probably my favorite joke trope is 'stupid Valentine's pun' and I've constantly got gerrymandering on the brain so something just clicked,” she explained in an email. The districts Thornburgh used for her project were featured in a book by Syracuse University geographer Mark Monmonier. Gerrymandering, you may recall, is the process by which lawmakers draw legislative districts to give their party a numeric advantage at the polls. If you're, say, a Republican majority in a state like Pennsylvania, you could conceivably draw congressional districts in such a way as to pack all the state's Democrats in just a handful of districts, giving yourself easy wins in the remaining ones. That's exactly what happened there following the 2010 census and subsequent district redrawing by the state's Republican legislature. In 2012, 51 percent of Pennsylvania voters supported Democratic candidates in the election. But Democrats walked away from that election with fewer than one-third of Pennsylvania's House seats, because so much of their support was highly concentrated in just a few districts. It's worth pointing out that both parties engage in the practice. Maryland's Democrat-drawn districts are among the most gerrymandered in the nation, for instance, and are the subjects of a case working its way through the federal courts. Adding to the complexity, the Voting Rights Act mandates that minority voters make up a majority of the population in certain congressional districts. This gives black voters in say, North Carolina a voice in Congress. But if you pack an overwhelming majority of a state's black voters in just one or two districts, their power is diluted everywhere else. The result is racial gerrymandering. (Courtesy of Blair Thornburgh) North Carolina's racially gerrymandered 12th Congressional District is included in one of Thornburgh's Valentines as it looked in 1990 (nickname: “The Jellyfish Tentacle"). The district does not look much different today. Illinois' majority-Hispanic 4th Congressional District (“Pair of Earmuffs”) also gets the Valentine's treatment. (Courtesy of Blair Thornburgh) Critics of gerrymandering would say that, in many districts, this Valentine message (“I choo-choo-choose my elected officials based on partisan redistricting”) is the opposite of what actually happens: Aggressive gerrymanders allow partisan lawmakers choose their voters, rather than the other way around. (Courtesy of Blair Thornburgh) Rounding out Thornburgh's collection is Georgia's 11th Congressional District, as drawn in 1990 to ensure a black majority (Syracuse University's Monmonier dubbed it the “French Poodle Attacking with a Hatchet"). Following redistricting in 2010, Georgia's 11th is now home to Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R). There are a number of solutions to gerrymandering. You could put redistricting decisions in the hands of an independent commission, as Arizona has done. The Supreme Court upheld Arizona's system in 2015. Getting more bold, lawmakers could instead opt to let computers draw equal-population districts, without any human oversight at all — a computer programmer in Massachusetts created an algorithm to do this in his spare time. Some observers don't like the idea of computer-drawn districts because they wouldn't respect the Voting Rights Act's mandate for majority-minority districts. But as Thornburgh's Valentines suggest, the quest for the perfect majority-minority district can often lead ridiculous squiggly gerrymanders. The Supreme Court heard arguments on this very question in December and is expected to hand down a decision by June. |
“The Underway is a funky, chaotic, and eclectic mix of architecture and ethnicities. What unifies it is a general counterculture vibe – the sense that they are pioneers and iconoclasts. But this independent spirit paved the way for the rise of Los Muertos.” –Exposé on The Underway: Part IV – Days of the Muertos Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of The Underway, the fourth Data Pack in the SanSan Cycle for Android: Netrunner! SanSan is the cradle of high-end tech, home to beautiful beaches, and the host of the World Expo. It is also still recovering from “The Big One,” the cataclysmic earthquake that opened up the San Andreas fault and redefined America’s western coast. However, this event that was disastrous for many was an opportunity for others, some of whom quickly moved their homes and businesses into the new space that was created. Fast-forward, and this new space, now dubbed “The Underway,” is a motley assembly of many different architectural styles, ethnicities, and cultural influences. It’s a hotbed of holographic artists, indie studios, and the birthplace of Jank-Juke-Jazz. It has also become synonymous with gang activity, particularly that of Los Muertos, a street gang whose members are identified by their bioluminescent tattoos and that deals in illegal tech as much as it deals in flesh and drugs. Accordingly, the sixty new cards in The Underway (three copies each of twenty different cards) dabble in an eclectic mix of upgrades, assets, and resources, as well as a handful of illicit hardware and programs. Meanwhile, everything seems to run through Los Muertos, and even as the gang’s criminal influence bolsters the Criminal faction, it pervades everything in this Data Pack. It starts with a new Criminal Runner identity, it reaches outward as other Runner factions are supplied with the sort of tech you don’t normally find in America, and it ripples into every aspect of every card as Corps are forced to deal with the gang’s members in one way or another. A Dangerous Game The Corps of Android: Netrunner may more or less rule the world, but Los Muertos rules the Underway. Still, it’s difficult to know who is or isn’t part of the gang unless they activate their bioluminescent tattoos. Then, it’s easy, as their faces are marked by bright, skull-like lines and decorative swoops or swirls. Their relative anonymity makes them brazen, and it makes them difficult for Corporate problem-solvers. Any given Street Peddler (The Underway, 62) could be part of Los Muertos, ready to participate in the gang’s next Drive By (The Underway, 64). But Corps can’t operate blindly. Were a Corp to miss its mark with a shipment of Defective Brainchips (The Underway, 72) or the services of a Contract Killer (The Underway, 78), it could gain international notoriety and suffer irreparable damage to its reputation. Accordingly, some Corps may seek to expose the gang’s influence, slowly but surely winning the public to their side with Exposé (The Underway, 75) pieces. Others may simply accept the Underway Grid (The Underway, 80) for what it is, a region of SanSan, hidden from the light, where the rules are different, everyone’s life is riddled by secrets, and violence is expected. Viva Los Muertos “Is your neighbor secretly a violent criminal? The answer to this chilling question and more, right after the break.” –Shannon Claire, SSN 5 Since The Big One, the Underway has emerged as a hive of criminal activity. Within its shadows, many Runners have learned their trade and honed their skills. The members of its largest gang, Los Muertos, rule the streets, profiting off their deals in flesh and drugs and tech. For the right price, you can find anything, but you have to be careful about how you get it. Can the Corps clean up the Underway’s streets? Can they burrow in and change its local culture? As Corps and criminals vie for control of the regional business, The Underway Data Pack is certain to lead to all-new forms of subterranean aggression. Look for The Underway to arrive at retailers everywhere in the second quarter of 2015! |
Photo Credit: Indiatimes Washington: The United States issued a travel warning on Monday for its citizens visiting Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, and said extremist elements were also "active" in India. "The US government assesses terrorist groups in South Asia may be planning attacks in the region... US citizens should avoid travel to Afghanistan as no region there is immune from violence," the State Department said. "A number of established terrorist organisations, indigenous sectarian groups, and other militants pose a danger to US citizens in Pakistan. Ex tremist elements are also active in India, as outlined in a recent emergency message," it added. Donald Trump on Monday signed a revised executive order which temporarily bars people from six Muslim-dominated countries to enter the country dropping Iraq from the revised list. According to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Trump signed the order behind closed doors on Monday morning. A 90-day ban on people from Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Somalia and Yemen are the six countries that do not apply to the people who already have valid visas in the new order. As per the order, the individuals who have valid visas either on January 27, 2017 or on the effective date of the executive order are not banned from stepping on US soil. "The 90-day period will allow for proper review and establishment of standards to prevent terrorist or criminal infiltration by foreign nationals," it says. Iraq has been dropped from the list and the order says that Baghdad has agreed to increase cooperation with the US on the vetting of its citizens applying for a visa to travel to America. "Iraqi citizens are not affected by the Executive Order," says the order which will come into force on March 16. |
Image Gallery: Reptiles A small desert rattle snake poised to strike a hand. See more pictures of reptiles. Hulton Archive/ Getty Images You're hiking with a friend. The sun is shining, the birds are singing -- you're feeling one with nature. Then the unthinkable happens -- as you step over a tree log on the trail, a snake beneath it lurches out and sinks its fangs into your calf. Out of all the panicky thoughts that race through your mind, one screams the loudest -- something you learned in the Scouts: If you get bitten by a snake, suck out the venom. Frantically, you turn to your friend and to tell him to start sucking, but he replies, "No way, man! Then we'll both die." Is he right? Or, is he just a big coward who should be crossed off your friend list? Here's your answer: Most likely, your friend wouldn't die from ingesting snake venom. But if he has an open wound in his mouth, the venom could enter his bloodstream, which is very dangerous. On the flipside, his mouth, like any human mouth, is stocked full of germs that could cause infection in your wound. So, either way you slice it, venom-sucking isn't a winning solution. To understand how to treat -- and how not to treat -- a snakebite, you need to understand how venom affects your body. Note that we don't use the word "poison" when discussing snakebites. Poisons are toxic if you swallow or inhale them. Venoms, on the other hand, are only toxic if injected into soft tissues and the bloodstream. So, technically, if you suck the venom out of a snakebite and you don't have an open wound in your mouth, you won't be affected. But that doesn't mean you should do it! Although long considered a viable treatment, experts now strongly advise against sucking the venom out of a snakebite wound. What changed their minds? |
More of your coworkers may soon be regular marijuana users as the law about how people get the drug for health reasons is eased. As of April 1, Canadians who need the drug to control pain will only need a doctor’s prescription, instead of a licence from Health Canada. What this will eventually mean, according to Health Canada, is that the country’s legal marijuana supply industry could grow by 10-fold in the next decade. That would add as many as 450,000 medical marijuana users. Medical marijuana is being grown at Peace Naturals Project, a federally licensed and regulated commercial medical cannabis grower which will produce and distribute medical pot in Canada. ( Keith Beaty / Toronto Star ) The big issue for the workplace is that until now so few people had medical marijuana licences that companies could have zero tolerance policies that included the use of marijuana at work. But that will change as the numbers legally prescribed the drug increase. So, if an employee is impaired as a result of taking the drug, he must be treated like anyone else with a disability. Marijuana is used to reduce nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy patients and people with AIDS. It can also help alleviate pain and muscle spasticity. Article Continued Below Health Canada’s average recommended daily dose for pain control is three to six joints or a similar amount taken orally. That means that to get their daily fix, employees may need to duck out for a toke or two during the work day. MORE ON THE STAR.COM 2014 poised to go to pot: The Star’s Faces of Pot series Lawyer Patrizia Piccolo of Rubin Thomlinson LLP says authorized users of medical marijuana do not have to tell their employer they’re taking the drug. “It’s like any other medically prescribed painkiller like Tylenol 3. It’s legal,” she says. The response by a company could be as simple as allowing more frequent breaks and providing a place where the employees can light up. While there are laws prohibiting smoking tobacco at or near the workplace, these rules do not extend to the use of medical marijuana. Employers may also have to accommodate employees in positions where possible impairment is an issue, by finding other suitable work for them. Article Continued Below However, proving that an employee using medical marijuana is a safety risk can be a challenge for employers. Unlike in the United States, routine workplace drug and alcohol testing is not permitted in Canada because courts and tribunals have ruled that tests revealing drug use are not necessarily an accurate measure of impairment. “You can only justify drug or alcohol testing if there is a good reason to believe the person is abusing drugs. This would not typically be the case in the use of medical marijuana,” Piccolo says. Employers can develop a policy that puts limitations on the drug’s use in the workplace. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s policy prohibits medical marijuana while an officer is in uniform. So, New Brunswick Cpl. Ron Francis who uses marijuana to relieve symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder was ordered to turn in his uniform last year. In a recent Canadian Employment Law Today article, Calgary lawyer Tim Mitchell discusses other things that can be included in company drug policies. “Employers can stipulate that employees cannot come to work impaired; they cannot share their medical marijuana with other employees; and, that unexcused absences or late arrivals will not be tolerated,” he says. Mitchell also foresees future requests from employees to include coverage for medical marijuana under health care plans and workers’ compensation. However, the B.C. Supreme Court recently refused a request for compensation under the old rules. Since 2001, medical marijuana users have been permitted to either grow their own marijuana, authorize someone else to grow it for them, or purchase the drug from Health Canada for $5 per gram. Effective April 1, the only legal source of medical marijuana will be licensed commercial producers who can set their own prices. The Medicinal Cannabis Patients’ Alliance of Canada opposes the new rules for growing and distributing medical marijuana because they anticipate the cost of a regular supply of the drug will become prohibitive for many people. More workplace articles by Sheryl Smolkin Reach Sheryl Smolkin at sheryl@sherylsmolkin.com |
In my previous post, I talked about the aspects of my Sunday night. Today, I will talk about making the perfect rib eye steak. I’m starting off with some general background on the hypothetical “perfect steak” and what others have said about it. Skip to the steps to skip the prelude. Prelude to cooking Both folklore and the internet have lots to say about how to cook the perfect steak. Pan or grill? How many flips? Oil, butter, or dry? Salt, pepper, or a rub? How long should it rest after cooking? All of these questions (and their answers) are found in my favorite guide to pan-seared steak on Serious Eats. They recommend a lot of flipping, butter basting, and cast iron. You can’t win them all - I’m using stainless steel. There are many cuts of steak to choose from, both bone-in and boneless. I’ll make this short: get a rib eye, and get it boneless. Bones aren’t fun to cut out of the meat, and they impair cooking. Meat shrinks as it cooks (this is the difference between uncooked and cooked weight.) Does bone shrink? No. Now a half-done steak has a significant amount of bone that prevents even cooking. I will compromise on the cut of steak selection. If you’re not a fan of that deliciously marbled meat, you can pick up a cut from the loin (strip steak) or try one of the alternative cuts such as flat iron, tri-tip, etc. Regardless of anything I, or anyone else, says, the perfect steak is the one you enjoy the most. Step 1: Buy the meat Stop by the local butcher’s shop and talk to them. Ask them about the differences between grain-fed and grass-fed beef, the different USDA beef grades, and what their personal experience is with a particular cut. They deal with this stuff every day. Don’t avoid asking because of preconceived assumptions. Look for a cut of meat that’s approximately two inches thick, with lots of marbling. Thickness is more important than weight. Marbling is the lines of fat running through the meat. There is a simple formula for this: $$Fat+Meat=Flavor$$ More marbling = more fat = more flavor. Repeat it a few times. Step 2: Preparation Preparation is key. A lot of comments have been made about pulling things to be cooked out of the refrigerator before cooking to allow it to warm to room temperature. Twenty minutes isn’t enough time for that, so I like pulling steaks out of the fridge an hour or more before cooking. Seasoning is simple: kosher salt and lots of coarsely ground black pepper. Season both sides well, and then let it rest at room temperature. The point here is to allow the salt to dissolve into the top layer of the meat and start breaking down the meat. Step 3: Heating things up Get a nice skillet out, either cast iron or stainless steel. Put it on high heat and let it heat up until a drop of water skitters over the surface. Add regular oil (canola or similar), enough to coat the bottom of the pan, but not so much that you’d be frying the steak. Adding the oil after heating the pan prevents it from breaking down as quickly and allows it to serve as a better medium for the steak. While the pan is heating up, take that steak you set aside earlier and pat the sides dry. Aim to eliminate any excess moisture on the surface to promote quicker browning and searing. Also grab an accurate meat thermometer and tongs to have on hand. Lay the steak in the pan. If it’s not sizzling, the pan isn’t hot enough - grab the steak and wait til the pan is hotter. Step 4: Flipping and basting Steps to cooking steak in a pan: Place steak in pan. Wait approximately 30 seconds. Flip steak. Repeat. Build up a nice even crust through regular and repeated flipping of the steak. After 3-4 minutes, start checking the internal temperature of steak regularly. For rare, aim for 120°F (49°C), medium-rare 125°F (51°C), medium 130°F (54°C). Anything more done than medium and you should be making burgers, not steak. Once the steak is 5°F (3°C) away from the target temperature, toss in a few crushed cloves of garlic, a few sprigs of thyme, and a knob of butter (~4 tbsp). At this point, turn the heat down to medium-high to avoid burning the butter. This is about adding color and flavor to the seared steak. A long handled spoon will serve nicely here. Baste the steak in the melted butter, garlic, and thyme. Flip it over and continue basting to improve color and temperature. Once the steak hits the target temperature, remove it immediately from the pan and let it rest on a plate. You can spoon some butter over it as well. Step 5: Serve Letting the steak rest for a few minutes is important. It helps cool the surface to something less tongue-scalding, and it continues to cook the steak slightly. After plating would be a good time to add some of that Beurre Maître d’Hôtel, mentioned earlier, to top off the steak. Dig in and enjoy! Comment on reddit’s /r/food. |
Image caption Leatherback turtles can grow up to weigh a tonne and live to 100 years Thousands of leatherback turtle eggs and hatchlings have been crushed by bulldozers on Trinidad's northern coast, conservationists say. Workers had been called in to redirect a river that was eroding Grande Riviere beach, in front of a hotel used by tourists to watch the turtles. Environmentalists say workers botched the job and destroyed some 20,000 eggs. The mile-long stretch of beach is regarded as a leading nesting sites for the biggest of all sea turtles. Sherwin Reyz of the Grande Riviere Environmental Organisation said vultures and stray dogs ate many of the hatchlings whose shells had been crushed by the heavy machinery. "They had a very good meal; I was near tears," he said. The owner of the hotel who had asked the government to redirect the river because it was threatening his property and the rich turtle nesting areas in front of it also expressed his dismay. "For some reason they dug up the far end of the beach, absolutely encroaching into the good nesting areas," hotelier Piero Guerrini told the Associated Press news agency. The government has so far not commented on the claim. Leatherbacks return to lay their eggs on the beach where they were born and Trinidad's northern coastline has some of the world's densest leatherback turtle nesting areas. |
A Temple University student is recovering after he was shot during an attempted robbery outside a party. NBC10's Monique Braxton spoke to the victim as well as another Temple student. (Published Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014) A gunman shot a Temple University student early Saturday morning as the teen stood outside a North Philly home -- blocks from the college's main campus -- in an attempted armed robbery. The 19-year-old victim was in stable condition at Hahnemann University Hospital Saturday morning after he was shot in the hip while standing outside a home, where a party was taking place, along the 1500 block of North 17th Street around 1 a.m., authorities said. The suspect, a man in his early 20's, tried to get in the party but wasn't allowed inside, investigators told NBC10. He then approached the student and said, "give me everything you got," as he pulled up his shirt to reveal a silver semi-automatic handgun stuck in his waistband, according to a witness account. The victim then charged at the gunman, who pulled out his weapon and fired, according to authorities. "I heard a pop," said a 19-year-old student who was at a house party when the shooting occurred. "Then I just ran outside." The student, who wanted to remain anonymous, told NBC10 he tried to help the victim. "I applied the pressure on his wound," the student said. "I put both my hands right on his hip. Also some kid who was an EMT took out a sweatshirt and covered him up and then the officer showed up and carried him out." Other Temple students received an alert from school officials that included a description of the suspect -- a male who was wearing a red-hooded sweatshirt, a red beanie hat and blue jeans, according to reports. Police later confirmed the description. The shooting occurred within a Temple police patrol area, which was expanded to North 18th Street in September. Photo credit: NBC10.com Dan Jovinelli, a sophomore at Temple who lives across the street from where the shooting took place, told NBC10 he's used to hearing gunfire. "A little piece of you dies in the inside a little bit every time you hear it," Jovinelli said. "Living in this area it happens sometimes. This happened last year on Cecil B. Same type of situation. When I first moved to the area it was a little frightening. But you just want to make sure everyone is okay." The victim, who did not want to be identified, told NBC10 he was "happy to be alive." He is expected to be released from the hospital Saturday night. An investigation is underway. |
An alternative to Operator Mono font Matt McFarland Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 15, 2016 If you’ve heard of the Operator Mono Font, then you’ll know that it contains some of the most fabulous looking ligatures. You’ll also know that this font can cost between $200 and $600 which might be out of your budget. The Atom development environment, configured to use Operator Mono. The family’s distinctive italics make it easier to spot the names of attributes. After watching Dan Abramov’s videos and presentation, I really wanted to try Operator Mono out. In fact I almost bought it, but after a brief thought-bubble including my wife questioning why I would spend that much for a font I decided I would try to find a free alternative. I couldn’t find anything that had the mix of cursive and non cursive text, but I did find FiraCode — which does not have the cursive ligatures but does contain some really nice looking operator ligatures: FiraCode contains ligatures that enhance your operators, in fact it could even compliment Operator Mono. Create your own alternative to Operator Mono in 3 steps: So this morning I spent a few hours playing around with fonts and atom to see if I could make something that would compare to the prestige you see with Operator Mono. Here’s what I came up with: |
Digital Album Digital Album Streaming + Download Check out more of DJ Kristöffer's free music at http://belgianman.com/bands/djkristoffer Immediate download of 14-track album in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire. YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY FOR THIS. It's name-your-own-price, with no minimum. If you want to download the album for free, hit the 'Buy Now' button and just enter 0.00 as your price. However, if you listen to the album and feel like supporting the artist, feel free to throw in some money. No obligation, but it can't hurt. Bandcamp only gives us a certain number of free downloads per month, and individual-track-free-downloads really cut down on that, so I put a minimum price on each track. If you a track for free, download all 14-tracks at once by getting the whole album. Purchasable with gift card Buy Digital Album name your price You own this Send as Gift Share / Embed about I've been working on this album for a while, it contains mashups and sets that I've been working since January. Additionally I made album art for each individual track. —DJ Kristöffer credits released March 30, 2011 Sample List: Rage Against The Machine - Killing in the Name Public Enemy - Bring The Noise Ludacris - Move Bitch Young Bloodz ft. Lil Jon - Damn Nena - 99 Luftballons Notorious B.I.G. - Party and Bullshit Slick Rick - The Show Toto - Africa The Strange Boys - Be Brave Tom Tom Club - Genius Of Love Run DMC - Walk This Way Sister Sledge - He's The Greatest Dancer Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby Eddy Grant - Electric Avenue Sister Sledge - We Are Family Ying Yang Twins - Wait (The Whisper Song) Deniece Williams - Let's Hear It For The Boy Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message MSTRKRFT - Easy Love Javelin - Doug Flutey Notorious B.I.G. - Hypnotize Washed Out - Feel it all Around Snoop Dogg Ft. Pharrell - Drop It Like It's Hot Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing DeBarge - Rhythm Of The Night Cali Swag District - Teach Me How to Dougie Ying Yang Twins ft. Bun B - Git It Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up Aphex Twin - Windowlicker Vampire Weekend - One (Blake's Got A new Face) Big Boi - Shutterbug Ratatat - Mandy Charzard - Charzard Rolls Hard Childish Gambino - Put It In My Video Daft Punk - Television Rules The Nation Beastie Boys - Intergalactic Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream Afrika Bambaataa - Planet Rock Chromeo - You're So Gangsta NWA - Gangsta Gangsta Run DMC - My Adidas Crystal Castles - Magic Spells Yael Naïm - New Soul Chilly Gonzales - Never Stop Lil Jon - Act A Fool Justice - Let There Be Light Eminem Ft. Nate Dogg - Shake That Daft Punk - Revolution 909 Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand The Cataracs And Dev - Like A G6 Sir Mix-A-Lot - Baby Got Back Chromeo - Tenderoni Pussycat Dolls - Bottle Pop (Moto Blanco Club Mix) Wolfgang Gartner - Montezuma Ludacris - Roll Out CeeLo Green - Fuck You Eve feat. Swizz Beats - Tambourine Average White Band - Pick Up the Pieces Kid Cudi - Make Her Say Mystikal - Shake Ya Ass Venetian Snares - Gentleman Roots Manuva - Witness The Fitness Yung Joc - Goin Down Dorrough - Ice Cream Paint Job Outkast - Bombs Over Baghdad Fatman Scoop - Be Faithful Weezer - Say It Ain't So Starfucker - Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second Mike Jones feat Bun B and Snoop Dogg - My 64 Gorillaz - Superfast Jellyfish UGK Featuring Outkast - Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You) Mott The Hoople - All The Young Dudes Ludacris ft. Pharrell - Money Maker Skeewiff - Shake What Your Mama Gave Ya Kool & The Gang - N.T. (Parts 1 & 2) Nas - It Ain't Hard To Tell Chip Tha Ripper - Interior Crocodile Alligator Aphex Twin - Flim license |
Director Uwe Boll, best known for his poorly received video game adaptations like BloodRayne, Far Cry, and Postal, announces his retirement from filmmaking. Uwe Boll, the film director best known for his terrible video game adaptations, has announced his retirement today. Though no one would blame Boll for calling it quits as a result of critical hate or a lack of financial success at the box office, the director cites the economics of filmmaking as a major reason for hanging up the towel. Although many gamers might not know Uwe Boll’s name, they have likely heard of at least one or two of his films. Boll “burst” onto the scene with an adaptation of the horror shooter House of the Dead, and then followed that up with video game adaptation after video game adaptation. Titles like BloodRayne, Postal, and Far Cry were all the work of Uwe Boll, whose sensibilities tend to lean towards the tongue-in-cheek and unintentionally cheesy. But while they might have been cheesy, Boll’s video game adaptations still attracted some mid-tier acting talent like Jason Statham and Ron Perlman. It’s possible that these actors might not have realized what they were getting into, but at the very least Boll deserves some credit for his ability to pitch actors on a project. Moreover, it’s hard not to give Boll credit for pursuing his passions and for finding creative ways to make video game movies for cheap. The director has been using his own money to fund his films since 2005, which is unheard of these days. Unfortunately, it’s unheard of because very few directors make a return on their investment. And it’s now the reason Boll is hanging up the towel. “I’ve been using my money since 2005 and if I hadn’t made the stupid video game based movies I would never have amalgamated the capital so I could say, ‘Let’s make the Darfur movie,’ I don’t need a Ferrari, I don’t need a yacht. I invested in my own movies and I lost money.” Most directors have sworn off adapting video game movies simply because the vast majority of them turn out so bad. And interestingly enough, when gamers cite really bad video game projects they likely pick out one or two of Boll’s films. It may only be a coincidence, but it’s interesting to note that as Boll announces his retirement the video game movie adaptation profile continues to grow. This year saw the release of a Warcraft film and December will bring Assassin’s Creed, one of the first films made in conjunction with a video game studio, and there are even more projects in the pipeline than ever. Microsoft is working on a Gears of War movie with Universal, a Splinter Cell movie has been in the works with Tom Hardy for a while now, and just this week the Uncharted movie found a new director. Granted, there have been many video game films to reach similar points in development and fizzle out, like Halo or BioShock, but it appears studios are going to give it a true effort this time around. And if nothing else, Uwe Boll can take pleasure in knowing that his films will always stand alongside those movies. Source: Metro News |
Share. The series is going back to its roots. The series is going back to its roots. Activision has announced Call of Duty: WWII as the next game in the series. This comes on the heels of various rumors and leaks pointing to the series going back to its historical roots. Sledgehammer Games is developing Call of Duty: WWII. The studio was previously lead on 2014’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, which we scored a 9.1, as well as assisting Infinity Ward on Modern Warfare 3. Co-studio heads and founders Michale Condrey and Glen Schofield previously worked at Visceral on the Dead Space series. Activision previously stated that this year's entry would "...take Call of Duty back to its roots." This is the first time the Call of Duty series has been set in World War II since 2008’s World at War. We’ll find out more about the game on Wednesday, April 26 during the Call of Duty: WWII Worldwide Reveal Livestream. Tune in to IGN at 9:45am PT/12:45pm ET/5:45pm BST on April 26 for our pre-show, as well as a deeper analysis into the game following Sledgehammer’s reveal. Marty Sliva is a Senior Editor at IGN. A girl he was dating once stepped on his PlayStation 4, and now he no longer owns PT. But don't worry, they broke up. Follow him on Twitter @McBiggitty. |
Celebrity subjects the both of you to your fair share of criticism. How do you deal with people attacking you online? Staples: I do not care. Why does it matter what somebody else has to say? Do you care? What if you told the dude at Target, “You bag my groceries horribly.” Do you think he’ll be like, “Fuck, my life is over”? They don’t care; it’s just a job, it’s not that serious. It’s just the Internet. André: I care a lot; I’m very sensitive. I’m an Aries. I need everybody to like me. I’m insecure, and I need the validation of strangers to feel whole. So, I need every single racist 12-year-old on the Internet to like me, or I don’t feel complete. Staples: How many “niggers” do you get a day? André: [Laughs.] Several. I’d say several. How many n-bombs are dropped? It depends on what I post. Staples: But, see, there are different types of n-bombs. You have the nuclear n-bomb, which is like, “Nigger, go back to Africa.” You have the n-car bomb, which is like, “Yo, wassup, nigga? When are you comin’ to Iowa?” André: [Laughs.] It’s a spectrum. I think I get the entire spectrum. Staples: I also saw The Revenant, and they were calling Native Americans “tree niggers,” and that is not cool. I’ve been wanting to say that on-camera for a minute. Motherfuckers are mad at Quentin Tarantino, but you can call someone a “tree nigger” when you’ve murdered almost all of their people? That’s not cool. Let’s not pick on Quentin Tarantino when you’re calling someone a “tree nigger,” because I don’t know if that’s actually a term. I definitely feel like that’s something they made up for that movie. Quentin Tarantino shot a fucking movie with cowboys in Wyoming and they’re saying “nigger” over there, and at this very second, someone just said “nigger” inside of a liquor store or inside of a Cracker Barrel. That just happened right now. I’m not sure they were calling Native Americans “tree niggers.” That sounds like some new shit. André: They were freestyling pejoratives. Eric, you’ve been known to respond to criticism on Instagram and Twitter. André: Yeah, I go in. Do you read the comments? André: Yeah, I do. Staples: Everybody reads the comments. André: You do because you’re like a kid with a sore tooth—you have got to touch it. You can’t get too mad; it’s just lunatics. A lot of them are overwhelmingly positive. Nobody that’s talking shit about you on the Internet would say it to your face. Staples: When you respond to most people who have something negative to say, they just want you to say something to them: “Oh shit, bruh, I didn’t think you’d reply, I fucking love you!” André: Yeah, I get that all the fucking time. I go in on them, and then, “I was just joking man, I love your stuff!” Staples: People have an overbearing need to project their inward doubt and hatred and emotions onto the outside world. I’ve had a lot of people online say they’re going to kill me at my shows. A lot of people say they’re going to punch me in the face—never happened. It’s just people being sad because their life sucks. I feel bad for those people; everybody deserves a right to be happy. But people just look at the wrong thing. We’ve made it so that you have to be special or a celebrity or some shit like that [to be happy]. It’s awful. A shitload of people feel like there’s no value in being an actual human being or a regular person. We’re all alive and doing okay and could be worse, but we make it seem like if you’re not an entertainer or an actor or someone with a high social profile on the Internet that your life is fucking worthless. So, you can’t really get mad at them. They’re going through something. |
He threw a two-hit shutout with 14 strikeouts in his postseason debut in 2010. He then won Game 1 of the World Series, against the Texas Rangers, and threw a gem in Game 5, the one that clinched San Francisco’s first title. His line score was eight innings, one run, 10 strikeouts. Back then, his father would call him after almost every start, and they would talk about what he saw and how Lincecum felt. They would always discuss his mechanics. One day, the feeling was gone, he said. His delivery was in disarray. His velocity started to drop. (His fastball averaged 89.6 miles per hour this year, about 4.6 m.p.h. slower than in his rookie year, according to FanGraphs.com.) His slider and curveball started to lose their bite, too. He had losing records in three of the last four seasons. And over the last three years, his combined E.R.A. was 4.76. Meanwhile, Lincecum stopped talking to his father as much about his delivery. “I guess that’s me maturing in my own way,” Lincecum said. During the 2012 postseason, as the Giants twice rallied to win another World Series title, Giants Manager Bruce Bochy first moved Lincecum to the bullpen, where he thrived. In 13 innings in relief, he struck out 17 batters and only allowed one run. The one game he started — in the N.L.C.S. against the Cardinals — did not go as well. He allowed four runs in a loss. Not surprisingly, Bochy tried a similar tactic again this season: Near the end of August, he again moved Lincecum to the bullpen, in part to give him time to tinker with his delivery. But in this instance, the move did not work. In two of his six appearances, Lincecum allowed a combined seven earned runs. So it seems almost understandable that he has yet to pitch in this year’s postseason, although it is not as if he is in the manager’s doghouse. “He’s done a lot for us,” Bochy said recently. “I haven’t forgotten that.” Lincecum has appeared to take all this in stride. His teammates say that he still sings in the clubhouse and tells jokes and stories in the bullpen. In interviews, Lincecum maintains that he is willing to do anything for the team. |
Parents upset with requirements to buy tablets and laptops for primary school children Posted Parents at some Victorian public primary schools are being asked to buy their children tablets or laptops as part of Bring Your Own Device policies. But many have raised concerns around the cost involved and the safety of the devices in the hands of primary school-aged children. Each school has a level of autonomy when it comes to device requirements and how they are acquired; some schools opt to provide devices and ask parents to pay an annual levy. However for Carol, a parent of three children attending a primary school in Greensborough in north-east Melbourne, that was not an option. She has had to buy an iPad Air 2 for her 10-year-old son, Red — the total cost with the required apps was well over $700. "I think it's quite onerous," she said. "I would've preferred that the school charge a levy given that the technology is made obsolete so often; we're just going to have a stack of iPads piling up at home." The secondary school her son will attend in two years' time requires parents to supply devices also, however they are a "non-Apple" school, rendering her recent iPad purchase redundant. With the first day of school for Victorian students looming, Carol said she felt some apprehension sending her child to school with such an expensive device. "It worries me a fair bit because the school has said that the child takes all responsibility and the school takes no responsibility for the technology. "I think it is a bit rough when you consider we've been told we must provide it. "If he drops it on the first day of school and it's shattered we just have to go and buy another one; it's not covered by the school's insurance." Other Victorian parents and teachers of primary school students told ABC Radio Melbourne they had similar concerns. "I have twin boys. I had to buy them both new iPads at the start of last year. My kids' spelling has gone backwards due to predicted spelling and they do exactly the same homework as my other son three years ago who did not require an iPad. What's the point?" — Emma, Brighton. "Devices are a blight on education. They should be banned from schools. Students should get a laptop in year seven. No devices in primary school. If they want to learn how to play games on an iPad, they should do that at home." — Year two teacher, Boronia. "As a dyslexic student my son could really benefit from the use of iPads or computers in the classroom. In our experience across three schools, teachers are very ignorant of how to implement their use and tech support is virtually non existent." — Sarah, Rowville. Parent Payment Policy revised The Department of Education and Training Victoria recently revised the Parent Payment Policy with a stronger focus on transparency and family hardship, as well as outlining expectations of schools when communicating with parents about personal device plans. Gail McHardy, executive officer of Parents Victoria which represents parents of children in public schools, said the autonomy each school had when determining device requirements had been problematic. "In the past there has been some frustrations shared by families over a number of years because of the release of laptops and netbooks," she said. "Following on from some Federal Government changes around the funding of programs has meant we've resulted in a Bring Your Own Device policy and programs." Schools get caught in political juggle Yet, Ms McHardy was quick to defend the position of primary schools in the decision-making process. "Schools get caught in the middle; they have to meet the demands of a current government but also meet the expectations of a community, but they have budget constraints." She said she was pleased with the revisions of the Parent Payment Policy but said it could go further in encouraging schools to communicate more clearly with families. "Issues around equity needed to be amplified and how families needed to be supported, the policy has certainly done a lot more in that space." Topics: educational-resources, children, primary-schools, internet-culture, states-and-territories, public-schools, schools, education, melbourne-3000 |
Although it sits isolated at the “bottom of the world” Antarctica is one of the most influential continents on Earth, affecting weather, climate, and ocean current patterns over the entire planet. But Antarctica is also one of the most enigmatic landmasses too, incredibly remote, extremely harsh, and covered by a layer of ice over 2 km thick. And as Earth’s global temperature continues to climb steadily higher, the future of ice in Antarctica — a continent half again as large as the contiguous United States — is a big concern for scientists… but in order to know exactly how its ice will behave to changing conditions, they need to know what’s under it. This is where the British Antarctic Survey — using data gathered by NASA’s ICESat and Operation IceBridge missions — comes in, giving us a better view of what lies beneath the southern continent’s frozen veil. A new dataset called Bedmap2 gives a clearer picture of Antarctica from the ice surface down to the bedrock below. Bedmap2 is a significant improvement on the previous collection of Antarctic data — known as Bedmap — that was produced more than 10 years ago. The product was a result of work led by the British Antarctic Survey, where researchers compiled decades worth of geophysical measurements, such as surface elevation measurements from NASA’s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) and ice thickness data collected by Operation IceBridge. Bedmap2, like the original Bedmap, is a collection of three datasets—surface elevation, ice thickness and bedrock topography. Both Bedmap and Bedmap2 are laid out as grids covering the entire continent, but with a tighter grid spacing Bedmap2 includes many surface and sub-ice features too small to be seen in the previous dataset. Additionally, the extensive use of GPS data in more recent surveys improves the precision of the new dataset. Improvements in resolution, coverage and precision will lead to more accurate calculations of ice volume and potential contribution to sea level rise. Ice sheet researchers use computer models to simulate how ice sheets will respond to changes in ocean and air temperatures. An advantage of these simulations is that they allow testing of many different climate scenarios, but the models are limited by how accurate the data on ice volume and sub-ice terrain are. “In order to accurately simulate the dynamic response of ice sheets to changing environmental conditions, such as temperature and snow accumulation, we need to know the shape and structure of the bedrock below the ice sheets in great detail,” said Michael Studinger, IceBridge project scientist at NASA Goddard. Knowing what the bedrock looks like is important for ice sheet modeling because features in the bed control the ice’s shape and affect how it moves. Ice will flow faster on a downhill slope, while an uphill slope or bumpy terrain can slow an ice sheet down or even hold it in place temporarily. “The shape of the bed is the most important unknown, and affect how ice can flow,” said Nowicki. “You can influence how honey spreads on your plate, by simply varying how you hold your plate.” The vastly improved bedrock data included in Bedmap2 should provide the level of detail needed for models to be realistic. “It will be an important resource for the next generation of ice sheet modelers, physical oceanographers and structural geologists,” said Peter Fretwell, BAS scientist and lead author. The BAS’ work was published recently in the journal The Cryosphere. Read more on the original release by George Hale here. Source: NASA Earth |
Defence ministry also claims improved missile technology may have given Pyongyang ability to strike US mainland South Korea has claimed that North Korea has a 6,000-member cyber-army dedicated to disrupting its military and government. The figure is a doubling of its earlier estimate that the North had a cyberwarfare staff of 3,000. Seoul’s defence ministry said in a report that Pyongyang may also have gained the ability to strike the US mainland because of its recent progress in missile technology, which was demonstrated in five long-range missile tests in 2009 and 2012, and is advancing in efforts to miniaturise nuclear warheads to mount on such missiles. The US accused North Korea of a cyber-attack on Sony Pictures over a movie depicting the fictional assassination of the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un. North Korea has denied any involvement in the hacking of tens of thousands of confidential Sony emails and business files. Former South Korean defence minister Kim Kwan-jin said in 2013 that North Korea was operating a cyberwarfare staff of 3,000. The South has accused the North of conducting at least six high-profile cyber-attacks since 2007 and many more unsuccessful attempts to infiltrate the computer systems of businesses and government agencies. The Korean peninsula is still in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. |
The Fugees are one of Hip Hop's gems in the entire genre. No other group was as spiritually uplifting, and no other group before or after the era of the Fugees was creating this kind of blend of funk, reggae, R&B and hip hop all at once. All three members with the de facto Wyclef Jean, Pras and of course the impeccable Lauryn Hill have incredible chemistry together that is undeniably captivating. As much as I give praise to the lyricism of Wyclef and Pras, the star of the album is without a doubt Lauryn Hill, with her cunning lyrical ability filled with swagger, tenacity and demand for attention; not to mention her distinct soulful singing. With this album, we see the upcoming of a star that would be Lauryn Hill, with female emcees on the decline since the late 80's and early 90's along with MC Lyte and Queen Latifah, I would consider Lauryn Hill the top Female MC of all time with incredible talent. This album was created as a listenable movie filled with skits that tie the entire album together. The overall sound of the album is diverse but has an undertone of a hardcore New York backdrop that is similar to many of the mafioso-themed Hip Hop albums that were released during the times such as Biggie's "Ready to Die" or Raekwon's "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...". The album as a whole is filled with social commentary of the human conscious, going through life with contemplations of their surroundings and finding one self. My personal favorites would have to be "Ready or Not", "The Mask", "Fu-gee-la" and "Killing Me Softly". The production is rich of colorful instrumentations mixed with 90's boom bap, jazzy samples, funk and reggae. This is one of Hip Hop's best that any music fan should own. |
PARIS (AP) — Air France has expanded the area around North Korea ruled off-limits for its planes after the country’s recent missile test. The airline says the missile apparently fell about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the trajectory taken by Air France Flight 293, traveling July 28 from Tokyo to Paris. In a statement Thursday to The Associated Press, Air France said such a distance means the flight wasn’t under any danger. But it said that “as a precautionary measure, the company has decided to expand the non-flyover area around North Korea.” The airline said it routinely adjusts flight zones based on evolving threats, and already had a ban on flights over North Korea before the recent test. It didn’t specify the scope of the new no-fly area. |
By M.K. Styllinski “…brain-hacking through social engineering and other processes is already a reality, and hackers are our brains. This ‘neuro-hacking’ can involve acting on the hardware, that is to say on the biological and genetic substrate of the brain, but it can also involve acting on the software, that is to say, on the communication code that we learn from society.” – Lucien Cerise One of the breakthroughs in understanding the level of influence of the Deep State and Overworld dynamics has been through the recent revelations from Wikileaks’ Podesta emails. A veritable Pandora’s Box of connections has led to Pizzagate – now Pedogate – blackmail, corruption, child pornography, sex trafficking, black magick rituals and a plethora of other sordid revelations fanning out from the quest for regime change and the battle for resources in the Middle East. After researchers from all political persuasions and beliefs had been highlighting these horrors for years, these leaked emails, now being sat on by the FBI, are the closest yet to offering proof of the mechanisms which are passed from one Establishment/Deep State generation to the next like a dark baton slippery with blood. Slowly but surely the why, who and how of our Official Culture and the drivers which ensure that humanity remains under the yoke of World State cartels is being revealed in a way that hasn’t been seen before. Oil/Gas, weapons, drugs, and sex/organ trafficking lie at the top of multi-tiered resource pyramid. The financial architecture that perpetuates these unimaginably toxic channels is achieved through a long tradition of social engineering by Elite factions, the puppets & players of which follow a revolving door of power, irrespective of a President and his administration. This is the facade, the entrenched and inevitable outgrowth of the State that permits a shadow government to remain forever at the control panel of perpetual war and social disruption. As top-level power brokers between the CIA, the NSA and FBI jostle for supremacy let’s not forget that overall, these agencies are primarily engaged in a war for our minds as their primary reason for being. However, let’s not imagine that the Wikileaks organisation and their poster-child Edward Snowden are somehow working for the greater good, although many in their staff may think so. I suspect that this period of permitted leaks is very probably nothing more than a psychological operation, a limited hangout of the CIA and thus an attempt to acclimatize populations to the ubiquity of surveillance and intelligence that is literally inside your home, phone, T.V. and anything else connected to the internet and the emerging SMART society. This is one facet of the same social engineering project that we’ll discuss below. It’s a risky game managing the flow of “leaks.” Allow too much information to seep into public consciousness and a momentum begins to emerge, not enough information and they can’t pursue their time-table of phased objectives. Which is why the hacking of lap-tops, smart phones and T.V.’s merely mirrors the hacking of our minds and beliefs – a potentially far more dangerous state of affairs then data mining. For example, the core roots of progressivism and the left have now been infected by ponerological streams of political correctness and narcissism, working in concert with CoIntelpro agents in much the same way as the New Age or Human potential movement as a whole. Thus, social movements such as LGBT, Black Lives Matter and Soros-led “social justice” organisations such as Moveon.org tune into a genuine desire for social equity and “rights” but are created or hijacked early on, driven by Deep State directives that desire the chaos of tribalism as a default setting for society. The younger generation of Millennials – who should be the hope of the world – appear incapable of exploring this dichotomy because they have already been programmed to embody and act out these inverted social-cultural beliefs, ethics and activism. The rise in an epidemic of narcissism in this demographic further encourages feel-good sensation, and a technology-driven buffer to the acknowledgement of nuance, complexity and attention to objective reality. The ability to think outside the box against ingrained conditioning becomes severely limited because it is perceived as an attack against the collective ego mask of self-entitlement. Thus, Millennials and older generations of the well-intentioned (and not so well-intentioned) are already falling into the many traps, the escape from which will be extremely difficult since the these info-tainment led emotional hooks of manipulation offer benign moral imperatives to seduce a collective projection of unresolved shadows out into the world, thus turning ideology and justice on its head. Controlled opposition has therefore been easy to manufacture, backed up as it is by fake news of the corporate media. Those that are paying attention can see this formula everywhere you look: whether it is the BBC or CNN that promote the Establishment’s agenda of anti-Russian rhetoric to University Campuses engaging in an Orwellian re-branding of vocabulary in an tragi-comic and painfully ironic stand against racsim and bigotry. Such tactics focus away from what really matters and into the realm of skin-deep analysis of feeling and sensation. This bio-chemical template that is burned into the young brains of new generations is the neural pathway upon which social engineering functions and thrives. Indeed, it seems much of the left, new age/green and “socially aware” are now the unconscious cultural foot-soldiers of the Deep State. This is why social engineering has been adopted with such pin-pointed skill and precision over the years and why it needs to be confronted and thoroughly explored. The awakening to the nature of the MSM as a monolithic exercise in propaganda and thought control is gaining ground, thanks largely to the internet. It is becoming less easy to monopolise information and applied knowledge in this age of independent news feeds, FOI requests, forum research, whistle-blowers and leaked documents, despite the signs of psyops constantly filtering the truth. There is a real chance for moderates from the left and right (and many shades inbetween) to turn down the volume of their beliefs and collaborate against a common foe – that of institutionalised psychopathy. Which is why the war is being fought through the inner shadows and unresolved issues that we all have. These weaknesses can be exploited and used by the Elite through suitably prolonged exposure to new forms of social engineering. It is for this reason that lines between awareness, knowledge and apathy and ignorance are being drawn. And so to neuro-hacking… One man who has explored the many-headed hydra of mass mind control is French author Lucien Cerise his essays of which have appeared predominantly on Alan Soral’s Égalité & Réconciliation website which offers a fusion of left-right politics and activism. (Remember Dieudonne M’bala M’bala?) These essays have been collated, updated and arranged by Cerise into a book Neuro-Hackers: Reflections on Social Engineering (2016) (Neuro-Pirates Reflexions Sur L’Ingenierie Sociale) published by Kontre Kulture. He notes that “it is not really a collection, but rather a book written over four years [between 2012 and 2015] and in successive layers”. Obviously much of the book draws from a French perspective and how social engineering operates in the French culture. The author provides rich and detailed insights, both philosophical and dialectical, into the causes and effects of our mass mind paralysis in the face of a predominantly Western-backed “soft” totalitarianism. Thus whether you are an American or a European, the revealed dynamics apply across all cultures. In this book you will read about the widespread and systemic use of cognitive infiltration or more appropriately, “neuro-hacking” which describes the institutionalised colonisation of our minds by pathological constructs designed to engineer conformity and compliance to social, cultural and geo-political directives. I have translated key passages from the foreword so that readers can gain an introductory flavour of his work. It might be as well to start with the back cover which provides a synopsis of the contents: “The first question that runs through this collection of texts is: ‘How to hack a brain?’ The second, essential question then immediately follows: “How to protect it?” This is because brain-hacking through social engineering and other processes is already a reality, and hackers are our brains. This ‘neuro-hacking’ can involve acting on the hardware, that is to say, on the biological and genetic substrate of the brain, but it can also involve acting on the software, that is to say, on the communication code that we learn from society. This code of epigenetic origin – this language, or software – comes to us from the socio-cultural bath into which we are plunged since childhood, imprinting on the brain its neuronal architecture. The study of social groups, their mode of construction and the links which structure them has allowed those who want to control crowds to act on its members, to modify their behaviour or even destroy them as individuals and groups – the ones most dependent on others. For individuals disconnected from any group, hierarchy, representation, or stereotype can only survive by developing symptoms of psychosis. By attacking the natural links, Oedipal ties of the masculine / feminine differentiation, but also of the parent / child hierarchy, by abolishing the notion of limits, whose overcoming in psychology is called perversion, it is society as a whole that is attacked. Destructured and made malleable – one can speak of a ‘liquid society’ – it will then be the plaything of a small oligarchy which will have nothing more to fear from the people whose souls it has appropriated.” The author takes his inspiration from Neuro-Slaves, by Palo Cioni and Marco Della Luna, a work of cognitive science and social psychology which reviews the various methods of reducing a population to slavery by targeting the brain and bypassing its defence mechanisms. From a macro-social perspective, one of the most importance principles he believes will counter the present directives of social engineering is the maintenance of a healthy, balanced national self-interest since a national health cannot be secured if we are at the behest of globalist visions, their economic warfare and all that comes with it. In fact, any individual, business or grouping that wishes to maintain a healthy psycho immunological system and to keep alive its spiritual and cultural traditions needs to develop true autonomy, sovereignty and self-determination before it can reach out and engage in the ideal of an “international altruism,” and indeed to allow an emergence of true community at home. In effect, without this independence of mind and natural political pragmatism we are prey to a continual hacking of our neurology, a psycho-virus that seeks to subvert, disinform and hijack constructive forms of perception which would otherwise, quite naturally lead to activities that would denote a rise in public awareness and critical thinking. As one part of an antidote to globalism and the mental conditioning of authoritarian power structures Cerise believes we must create a “firewall” of the mind to protect against the neural hacking of our brains from toxic memes and implanted beliefs. Without this learned defence, this “consciousness-hacking” will continue to keep us slaves via the usual “back door” of “progressive” revolutions using techniques of stealth, gradualism and innumerable addictions to consumerism. Cerise reminds us that our “authoritarian masters” hope to maintain our servitude by destroying our very instinct for survival. It is in this sense, when you strip away all the propaganda and euphemistic verbiage, that Western power structures have become totalitarian and genocidal in their scope due to the core desire of the Elite mind-set “to put an end to the human species”. We could also add to this proposition that they wish to eradicate not only those who are blissfully unaware and happy to follow state authority and its diktats thus acting as virtual energic food for the Deep State machinery, but more importantly, those with a functioning conscience who are resistant to psycho-pathogenic forces impinging on our consciousness. Lucien Cerise’s association with Alain Soral and his online hub Egalite & Reconciliation appears to represent a natural meeting of minds, although quite different in approach. This is not merely due to the potential to reach a wider audience in France but as a welcome addition to the continuing attempt to limit tribalism and extremism in both the left and right whilst attempting to illuminate the Elite’s role in the disruption of a natural critical thinking and exploration of political taboos. Cerise is part of a rich philosophical compliment to Soral’s mission of freedom of the mind, politics and class. Yet, (and perhaps all the more fascinating for it) the latter is a volatile example of a pendulum swing between his experiences of the extreme left (communism) and what is seen as the extreme right (National Front) thereby giving credence to the idea that his own personal dialectic on these issues has offered an integration of the best of each political movement underpinned by rigorous objective inquiry. Whether there is a more alt. right bias and tendency for infiltration from these extreme elements is always the danger in such a reactionary interplay. Soral is clearly no stranger to explosive outbursts and instability. However, although it can never be a fail-safe, a pioneering source of rich socio-cultural discourse and political philosophy is one way to mitigate further intrusions and establish a platform for something better than we have now. For understandable reasons, given Cerise’s “Gaullo-communist” background, establishing closer intellectual and philosophical ties to Alain Soral caused some initial caution when faced with such a controversial figure, as he explains: Why accept an association with such a sulphurous character? Because for me, Soral is part of the furniture, as they say. His work – a kind of missing link between the academic world and that of the mass media – presents an atypical and unclassifiable character that I began to follow in 1985 when, whilst rummaging in a family library, I found a pocket edition of his first book, The Movements in Fashion Explained to Parents (Les Mouvements des modes explique des parents). I was young but I was immediately fascinated by this opus which I have re-read several times from all angles and from its methodological approach which the human and social sciences call semiotics. What is it about? To summarize: when semiotics is applied to social phenomena, it is the deciphering of the profound meaning of the stories they tell and which remain mostly semi-conscious and subliminal. [1] He further explains in the foreword why he chose to extend this association and the intellectual environment that inspired his imagination: After a first purely bookish contact with Alain Soral in the mid-eighties, I crossed paths with him two or three times during the years beginning 2000, at a time when I enjoyed a worldly picnic of social evenings in Saint-Germain-Des-Pres, amongst which were Houellebecq, Beigbeder and those from the journal Bordel by Stephanie Million. During all this time I followed his various publications and interventions with a greedy and even growing pleasure as he became more and more provocative and intolerable for a media more and more politically correct and distant from real life. His criticism of communal organizations always seemed to me salutary. The “communities” form states within the state, introduce fifth foreign columns into the national body and work consciously or unconsciously to dislocate it. * The most fortunate of these communities, irritated to be highlighted, came to pronounce against Soral and his acolyte Dieudonne with a kind of Talmudic fatwa, typical of puritanical dehumanizing centres of power across all eras, whose political correctness is only an avatar, and that always seek to forbid the “propre de l’Homme”[proper to the man; part of man – “Because to laugh is proper to the man.”] that is to say, humour. The hatred against laughter reveals the concentrational dimension of the project of a nourished society that the slaves deride a little by mocking their masters. For my part, not having a turn of mind concerning the observance of dogma, I have never succeeded in taking this verdict seriously, not that I have the taste for provocation but simply because the facts and the real, – the only authorities I respect – stand above all religious tribunals. I admit to being unsettled by Soral and Dieudonne’s approach toward the National Front, but I have since more easily understood the reasons at the time of the 2005 referendum on the European constitution project. I was in the camp of the “nonistes” of the left under the banner of Jose Bove, Olivier Besancenot and Etienne Chourd, which did not prevent me from quickly observing that if our “No” won, it was thanks to the famous “coagulation” with the NF and the sovereignist right in general. This made me think of our commonalities, perhaps more important than those that separated us – and at least one can say that the continuation of events, not only in Greece but everywhere in Europe, gave us good reason. On this basis, it was quite natural for me to go and see what was going on at Egalite & Reconcialition. […] The French right has been heavily pro-American and Atlanticist for decades, so it has its share of responsibility in the current catastrophic situation, but times have changed. Today the coalition and the mutual cross-fertilisation of the l’Action francaise (French Action party) and the Communist Party is the royal and popular way to restructure what the liberal left and the neo-liberal right have since destructured; the reason why the Power and its opponents do everything to prevent the meeting. This political synthesis possesses its founding myths, its currents and its slogans: Cercle, Proudhon, national-Bolshevism, revolutionary nationalism, CNR, Third Way, solidarism, “coagulation”, “Neither Right nor Left: French” or better still, “left of work, right of values”. [2] For Cerise, in order to understand why we continually move away from a more balanced and cooperative political and social contract means that we must pose semiotic questions on the nature of the psychological, subconscious games people play when they follow a particular fashion or movement. He states: “What personal fable are they telling themselves and how do they want to be perceived? To what personal narcissistic myth are they adhering?” It is an approach that “demythologizes and demystifies social movements” and which, in his view, offers the best entry into social engineering. He believes that while sociological semiotics can be descriptive, it can also be prospective in much the same way that marketing and fashion seek to anticipate trends and seize opportunities in order to amplify and exploit, thus allowing control of their development and orientation. The author likens this activity to the “detection of early signs” in criminology as well as the probabilities in the quantum field: Here, the field of study is not the real, but the probability of the real in process of materialisation. Such a method could be a kind of “quantum sociology”, sociology of potential, or events which have not yet arrived in action and exist only at a more or less high probability rate. A fascinating field of research, all in chiaroscuro, that takes place at the dawn of the real, at the junction between night and day, at the boundary between what already exists and what may exist. Social engineering most often consists of identifying these emerging tendencies and shaping them, at least, to modify the course which they would have followed spontaneously, or even to create them ex nihilo by combining, according to an unedited synthesis, between them. This is a kind of cultural filling that meets the memetic on numerous points. [3] The only way to navigate through that “chiaroscuro” of quantum sociology is to strive for authenticity and objective reasoning while we are being assailed by waves of subjective, fake news and science. Those familiar with Andrew Lobaczewski’s insights into macro-social psychopathy or ponerology will see that Cerise’s theories of neuro-hacking naturally aligns with the psychologist’s work. They both highlight the same methods of viral contamination that re-wires our brain circuitry into pathogenic pathways, distorting our psycho-social and ultimately spiritual destiny into a strictly pathological perception and application of reality. Whilst national self-interest with certain provisos, is essential in fostering a natural emergence of local, regional and finally international altruism, to prevent the neural-hacking of our brains and to protect our mental immune system an awareness of social engineering methods and their access points offers the necessary inoculation against such psycho-pathogenic viruses. In these times of tribalism and Hegelian obfuscation, we would do well to ponder on these ever-present social engineers who work best when we are emotionally reactive and asleep to our unconscious desires and beliefs. The deeper our sleep, the more we open our minds to the neuro-hackers without any realisation that such a violation has incrementally taken place. Hence the importance of a individual and collective firewall of awareness: In terms of social engineering, these elements of code constitute the antivirus, even to the point of defending our system against viruses without borders, but without excessive restriction imposed upon the network. In order not to become neuro-slaves, let us protect ourselves from neuro-hackers, but without cutting ourselves off from the global environment where we are de facto, immersed. The task is difficult and assumes the avoidance of two pitfalls. While the Power seeks to expose us to unfiltered transnational migratory flows, it is vital to reformulate our nationalist firewall but without losing sight of the horizon of international cooperation into which we are forced during this period of Globalization in action. The ancestral adage “charité bien ordonne commence par soi-même” (“Charity Begins at Home”) will serve as a guideline because it makes it possible to articulate the ego and the Other while respecting the hierarchy of priorities. Against the negative social engineering of Power and its work of systematic inversion of all values, it is therefore urgent to put things in the right place and to affirm loud and clear that … National self-interest is the condition for international altruism. [4] The French are waking up. Many others within Europe, from different belief and ideologies are also beginning to see how the mass mind is being hacked and implanted with memetic viruses of belief that represent psychological time-bombs. Socially engineered extremism has always been the tactic of choice for the Establishment which is why it is crucial that we learn how to guard against such pathology on both the right and the left. The danger is that we may fall into a Huxleyian vision of the future, whilst a more overtly Orwellian effect may take hold from a reactionary fear of the other; hijacking a positive and pragmatic transformation into a cul-de-sac of true intolerance and bigotry. Obviously, both forms of totalitarianism interpenetrate and the onus is on all of us not to get caught up in any form of dogma and evangelism on either side. Most importantly, we have to cultivate a keen sense of the history of State-sponsored terrorism and its relationship to current sociopolitical dynamics; to be fully aware that WE the people are its enemy. This is where our commonality lies: to breathe life back into the realisation that we are all in the same prison of the mind/body at various levels of awareness. This is how we must work together against those that would divide us. The Neuro-Hackers are at work as I write, finding new ways to set the different tribes of our rich cultures against it each other. We must become experts in erecting firewalls in our own minds, permitting entry to only authentic and constructive information streams so that we may have a healthier immunity to future “malware.” Perhaps then we can protect Truth within ourselves and the hope of expressing it with others in the outer world. * = To avoid confusion, it is well to mention that “communitarianism” to which Cerise refers in the French and European context concerns the formation and extension of tribalism e.g. the Jewish community, the black community, LGBT community, Gay community etc. and their unconscious role in their fragmentation of the social fabric under an Official Culture. In other words, any new grouping or minority can be singled out and hystericised, politicised and used as a tool to control the majority by virtue of their “rights.” A communitariansm that emerges naturally and is a decentralised economic social organisation related to ecology and sustainability obviously has quite a different focus and meaning, albeit also prone to subversion by the State and its pathologies. Notes 1 p.16; Cerise, Lucien; Neuro-Pirates Reflexions Sur L’Ingenierie Sociale(2016) | kontrekulture.com 2 Ibid. pp.18-20 3 Ibid. p.17 4 Ibid. p.20 |
Kevin M. Kruse is a professor of history at Princeton and the author, most recently, of One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America, from which this article has been adapted. In December 1940, as America was emerging from the Great Depression, more than 5,000 industrialists from across the nation made their yearly pilgrimage to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, convening for the annual meeting of the National Association of Manufacturers. The program promised an impressive slate of speakers: titans at General Motors, General Electric, Standard Oil, Mutual Life, and Sears, Roebuck; popular lecturers such as etiquette expert Emily Post and renowned philosopher-historian Will Durant; even FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Tucked away near the end of the program was a name few knew initially, but one everyone would be talking about by the convention’s end: Reverend James W. Fifield Jr. Handsome, tall, and somewhat gangly, the 41-year-old Congregationalist minister bore more than a passing resemblance to Jimmy Stewart. Addressing the crowd of business leaders, Fifield delivered a passionate defense of the American system of free enterprise and a withering assault on its perceived enemies in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration. Decrying the New Deal’s “encroachment upon our American freedoms,” the minister listed a litany of sins committed by the Democratic government, ranging from its devaluation of currency to its disrespect for the Supreme Court. Singling out the regulatory state for condemnation, he denounced “the multitude of federal agencies attached to the executive branch” and warned ominously of “the menace of autocracy approaching through bureaucracy.” Story Continued Below It all sounds familiar enough today, but Fifield’s audience of executives was stunned. Over the preceding decade, as America first descended into and then crawled its way out of the Great Depression, these titans of industry had been told, time and time again, that they were to blame for the nation’s downfall. Fifield, in contrast, insisted that they were the source of its salvation. They just needed to do one thing: Get religion. Fifield told the industrialists that clergymen would be crucial in regaining the upper hand in their war with Roosevelt. As men of God, ministers could voice the same conservative complaints as business leaders, but without any suspicion that they were motivated solely by self-interest. They could push back against claims, made often by Roosevelt and his allies, that business had somehow sinned and the welfare state was doing God’s work. The assembled industrialists gave a rousing amen. “When he had finished,” a journalist noted, “rumors report that the N.A.M. applause could be heard in Hoboken.” It was a watershed moment—the beginning of a movement that would advance over the 1940s and early 1950s a new blend of conservative religion, economics and politics that one observer aptly anointed “Christian libertarianism.” Fifield and like-minded ministers saw Christianity and capitalism as inextricably intertwined, and argued that spreading the gospel of one required spreading the gospel of the other. The two systems had been linked before, of course, but always in terms of their shared social characteristics. Fifield’s innovation was his insistence that Christianity and capitalism were political soul mates, first and foremost. Before the New Deal, the government had never loomed quite so large over business and, as a result, it had never loomed large in Americans’ thinking about the relationship between Christianity and capitalism. But in Fifield’s vision, it now cast a long and ominous shadow.He and his colleagues devoted themselves to fighting the government forces they believed were threatening capitalism and, by extension, Christianity. And their activities helped build a foundation for a new vision of America in which businessmen would no longer suffer under the rule of Roosevelt but instead thrive—in a phrase they popularized—in a nation “under God.” In many ways, the marriage of corporate and Christian interests that has recently dominated the news—from the Hobby Lobby case to controversies over state-level versions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act—is not that new at all. *** For much of the 1930s, organizations such as the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) had been searching in vain for ways to rehabilitate a public image that had been destroyed in the Great Depression and defamed by the New Deal. In 1934, a new generation of conservative industrialists took over NAM with a promise to “serve the purposes of business salvation.” The organization rededicated itself to spreading the gospel of free enterprise, vastly expanding its expenditures in the field. As late as 1934, NAM spent a paltry $36,000 on public relations. Three years later, it devoted $793,043 to the cause, more than half its total income. NAM now promoted capitalism through a wide array of films, radio programs, advertisements, direct mail, a speakers bureau and a press service that provided ready-made editorials and news stories for 7,500 local newspapers. Ultimately, though, industry’s self-promotion was seen as precisely that. Jim Farley, chairman of the Democratic Party, joked that another group involved in this public relations campaign—the American Liberty League—really should have been called the “American Cellophane League.” “First, it’s a DuPont product,” Farley quipped, “And second, you can see right through it.” Even President Franklin D. Roosevelt took his shots. “It has been said that there are two great Commandments—one is to love God, and the other to love your neighbor,” he noted soon after the Liberty League’s creation. “The two particular tenets of this new organization say you shall love God and then forget your neighbor.” Off the record, he joked that the name of the god they worshiped seemed to be “Property.” As Roosevelt’s quips made clear, the president shrewdly used spiritual language for political ends. In the judgment of his biographer James MacGregor Burns, “probably no American politician has given so many speeches that were essentially sermons rather than statements of policy.” His first inaugural address was so laden with references to Scripture that the National Bible Press published an extensive chart linking his text with the “Corresponding Biblical Quotations.” In a memorable passage, Roosevelt reassured the nation that “the money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore the temple to the ancient truths.” When Roosevelt launched the New Deal, politically liberal clergymen echoed his arguments, championing his proposal for a vast welfare state as simply the Christian thing to do. The head of the Federal Council of Churches, for instance, claimed the New Deal embodied basic Christian principles such as the “significance of daily bread, shelter, and security.” When businessmen realized their economic arguments were no match for Roosevelt’s religious ones, they decided to beat him at his own game. |
A mile-deep rift valley that could rival the dramatic chasms of America’s Grand Canyon has been found hiding beneath the ice in West Antarctica. UK scientists behind the discovery believe it is contributing to ice loss. The steep walls of the Ferrigno Rift plunge nearly 1.5 kilometers down at its deepest point. Being about 10 kilometers across and at least 100 kilometers long, it probably goes all the way to the sea. A joint team from the University of Aberdeen and the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge discovered the canyon in the course of an exhausting 2,400-kilometer trek through the region that had only been visited once previously, in 1961. The discovery came as a total surprise when Robert Bingham, a glaciologist at the University of Aberdeen, detected the rift with an ice-penetrating radar system. But what is the connection between the discovery of this ancient, ice-filled rift valley and the loss of ice mass? The canyon is believed to be connected to the warming ocean, which itself impacts upon contemporary ice flow and its eventual collapse into the sea. “We conclude that rift basins that cut across the WAIS [West Antarctic Ice Sheet] margin can rapidly transmit coastally-perturbed change inland, thereby promoting ice-sheet instability,” Robert Bingham and his co-authors from the British Antarctic Survey wrote on July 25 in their Nature article. The ice sheet of West Antarctica is diminishing faster than in any other part of the continent. Some glaciers are shrinking by more than one meter per year. At the same time, it accounts for some 10 per cent of the global rise in the sea level. Understanding these processes is crucial for our ability to predict future behavior of the ice flow, as well as the global rise in sea levels as the climate continues to warm. Over the past two decades, satellite observations revealed consistent and substantial ice losses from around much of Antarctica’s coastline. “What’s particularly important is that this spectacular valley aligns perfectly with the recordings of ice-surface lowering and ice loss that we have witnessed with satellite observations over this area for the last 20 years,” Bingham explained. Diminishing glaciers in various parts of the world are becoming a major concern for scientists. In July, observations from three NASA satellites showed an unusual melting that occurred in a flash over a widespread area in Greenland. Even the island’s coldest and highest point showed signs of melting – on a scale unseen since the beginning of satellite observations some 30 years ago. |
Has Urban Meyer potentially found his quarterback of the future at Ohio State or is it purely coincidental that former Texas A&M quarterback Kyle Allen watched the Buckeyes practice on Wednesday in prep for the Fiesta Bowl? Can confirm that former A&M QB Kyle Allen was at Ohio State practice yesterday. Dead period so no contact with coaching staff. #OSU — Bill Greene (@BillBankGreene) December 31, 2015 Allen, an Arizona native and former five-star prospect, is looking for a place to land next season and has previously said he prefers a Power 5 program where he could come in and compete immediately for the starting job. With Cardale Jones leaving for the NFL after the bowl game and J.T. Barrett being draft-eligible as a third-year sophomore, the timeframe works out for Allen who must take a redshirt year as a transfer in 2016. Barrett isn't expected to leave early, but would likely make the jump after his junior campaign. The Buckeyes do not have a quarterback commit for 2016. Fellow Aggies quarterback Kyler Murray, now at Oklahoma, followed Allen out the door earlier this month to pursue other options. |
Elizabeth Hurley took to Twitter on Wednesday to ask fellow Britons to vote to leave the European Union in the June 23 Brexit referendum. The English actress appears to have also left her clothes behind for the patriotic pitch. “Vote tomorrow-whatever your persuasion. I’m for #Brexit & promise to neither gloat nor whinge. But VOTE!” urged the 51-year-old actress and model who plays the matriarch of a dysfunctional royal family on the E! series “The Royals.” She is perhaps best known, however, for her role as Vanessa Kensington in the 1997 Mike Myers spy parody “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.” Ms. Hurley attached a photo of herself with a suggestive pose in which she clutched a Union Jack pillow to her chest and appeared to wear nothing but high heels. In addition to Ms. Hurley, supporters of leaving the EU can boast Michael Caine, Joan Collins and “Downtown Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes among their ranks, according to the Daily Mirror. “I believe we should be out. It’s about philosophy, it’s about democracy, it’s about democracy versus autocracy, all of those issues,” Mr. Fellowes said. Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission. |
Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email WHEN office workers decided on an early morning feast for a colleague's birthday they looked forward to receiving a tasty treat. They went to the nearest Subway store and hungry staff eagerly placed their orders. But those who asked for bacon rolls were left with a bitter taste in their mouths when the delivery arrived. Their £1.29 sandwiches each contained two tiny rashers of `American style' streaky bacon. "I couldn't believe it," said Stephen Moreton, who works at PayPartners in Stretford. "It was more substandard than Subway. "When it's someone's birthday here they usually bring in cream cakes. "But this time we decided to send out for butties instead. When they arrived we were stunned. "We pulled back the bread and there were two tiny bits of bacon on them - I thought `are they having a laugh?' Pathetic Two of us had brown sauce on them and there was more sauce on the bread than bacon. "I decided to take a picture because it was so pathetic." Payroll manager Stephen 42, then called the Subway shop in the Stretford Arndale centre who supplied their food. Stephen said: "I spoke to the manager there and he said they had done nothing wrong. "He told me that two rashers is the company standard and that they use streaky bacon because Subway is an American firm. He added that if I had sausage and egg on it, it wouldn't look that bad but that's not good enough and I told him. "He admitted it didn't look particularly brilliant but said again it was the company standard and they had done nothing wrong. "I have since been offered a refund but that's not the point. I think they should change their company standard!" When the Manchester Evening News contacted Subway they said the two-rasher rule was not company policy. "A member of staff has of course made a mistake," a spokesman said. "We have apologised about this matter and offered the customer a complete refund for his bacon breakfast." Where do you recommend for the best bacon butty? |
…and the drip, drip, dripping away of our civil liberties continues. The vote was 293 Yays, 129 Nays. As Glenn says: Today, the House leadership has set aside a grand total of one hour to debate the FISA/amnesty bill, and gave its members less than 24 hours from the time it was released yesterday until they have to vote on it today. That’s the same bill which the NYT this morning calls "the most significant revision of surveillance law in 30 years." They’re going to enact massive changes to our spying laws without having the slightest idea what they’re voting on. All they know is that the President demanded this, and that’s enough, because — as Kit Bond says — "when the government tells you to do something, I’m sure you would all agree that I think you all recognize that is something you need to do." In this formulation, "the government" means "The President." You can register your disgust here…we’re well over $250,000 and climbing…. UPDATE: The vote tally on this is not yet up on the House website. But I’ve confirmed the numbers that the total votes was as follows: 293 yes -129 no. Also that the majority of the House Dems voted no – 105 voted yes, 128 voted no. As soon as there is a full vote tally, will get a direct link up and running for everyone. UPDATE #2: Vote tally just went up for the roll call vote on HR 6304. You can find the full list of yays and nays here. UPDATE #3: Make that over $260,000 and counting at 1:52 pm ET. That’s close to $10,000 in an hour. You can register your disgust here if you’d like… |
Hoping to discover why the unusual creatures are upright swimmers instead of horizontal ones, and why the male members experience pregnancy rather than the females, a group of researchers has successfully sequenced the genome of a seahorse species for the very first time. In addition to these anatomical oddities, seahorses also lack tails, teeth, and pelvic fins, and their entire bodies are covered by bony plates – not to mention horse-like heads and a tail that they use to grasp onto corals and seagrasses to avoid being swept away by a current, said Reuters. To better understand these unique creatures, scientists at Germany’s University of Konstanz and colleagues from China and Singapore sequenced and analyzed the genome of a species called the tiger tail seahorse. Their findings were published online Thursday in the journal Nature. “As a seahorse biologist, it is terrifically exciting,” Tony Wilson, an associate biology professor at Brooklyn College in New York who did not take part in the study, told the Los Angeles Times. He went on to explain that the genome sequence could help scientists better understand how the unique traits of seahorses developed, and how they are expressed on the genetic level. Findings may help explain lack of pelvic fins, male pregnancy Seahorses originally diverged from other bony fishes during the Cretaceous period, roughly 100 million years ago, and researchers have long been puzzled by their unusual morphology and odd reproductive patterns, the Times said. While the authors caution that their analysis of the seahorse genome is in its early stages, they have already made some interesting discoveries. For instance, they have learned that the seahorse genome lacks the genes required for the coding of enamel, which would explain why they lack teeth. In addition, the creatures appear to lack the genes that regulate the growth of pelvic fins. To test if this is why seahorses lack pelvic fins, they removed these same genes from a zebrafish, and found that this was indeed the case. The research team also found gene duplications during the evolution of the seahorse, which may explain male pregnancy among these creatures. As they explained in a statement, when a copy of a gene is created, it can fulfill a new function, and in this case, the duplicate DNA might regulate the pregnancy by coordinating the hatching of embryos’ with the male’s brood pouch. Once their embryos hatch, genes activate to allow the newborn fish to exit the brood pouch. The study also uncovered evidence that seahorse DNA and proteins evolved much more quickly than their closest relatives, such as sea dragons and pipe fish. They currently have no explanation for why this is the case, the Times said, but the authors said that their work will help scientists to better understand the genetic underpinnings of the evolution of these unusual organisms. —– Image credit: Thinkstock Comments comments |
Sikkim police have filed a complaint against their counterparts from Bengal. In a scene akin to an American Wild West film, Bengal police officers dressed in plainclothes crossed over from Darjeeling in Bengal to Namchi in Sikkim pretending to be tourists. Fully armed, the officers raided a secret meeting of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha or GJM, the political party spearheading the movement for a separate state - Gorkhaland.They arrested at least nine political activists at the meeting but many including the head of the Morcha, Bimal Gurung, fled. His relative, who was the driver of one of the political leaders expected at the meeting, couldn't get away. He was shot dead, allegedly by these police personnel.West Bengal police could only confirm the nine arrests, saying it had put out lookout notices for Bimal Gurung, GJM's general secretary Roshan Giri and its youth leader Prasant Gurung. Their photos will be put up at airports and railway stations to make it difficult for them to travel.But the Bengal police team too is headed for trouble.Sikkim police have filed a complaint against their counterparts from Bengal. South Sikkim police chief Pratap Pradhan told news agency Press Trust of India that an FIR had been registered against those who killed the GJM supporter in "cold blood". Bengal police have also been told that it cannot take away the people arrested by them unless they "get a court order," Mr Pradhan added.The controversy comes 80 days after shutdown began in Darjeeling and three days after Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met Morcha's Benoy Tamang in Kolkata along with other hill party representatives minus its chief Bimal Gurung.She ostensibly offered an olive branch to the Morcha but many believe that Ms Banerjee has effectively driven a wedge between Mr Tamang and Bimal Gurung, both founder members of the Morcha.The meeting resulted in an ugly fallout between Mr Gurung and Mr Tamang. After the Mamata meeting, on Wednesday, Mr Tamang announced the indefinite shutdown or bandh in Darjeeling would be temporarily lifted from September 1 till September 12.Bimal Gurung reacted angrily to the announcement. From a hideaway, possibly in Sikkim, he sent out a video message saying Mr Tamang was committing treachery against the Gorkhaland cause.On Friday, hundreds of people came on to the streets of Darjeeling slamming Mr Tamang and demanding continuation of the bandh. They also called for Mr Gurung to lead the movement and achieve Gorkhaland. Everything in Darjeeling remained shut.Mr Tamang ended up locked up in his Darjeeling home guarded with tight police security. Last evening, he put out a statement accusing Bimal Gurung and Roshan Giri, the two most visible faces of the movement, of sending off their families abroad or out of Darjeeling so they could pursue normals lives while putting the lives of thousands of ordinary people out on a limb.The Morcha was reported to have held a meeting despite the police raid and decided to expel Benoy Tamang. What happens in the coming days could determine Darjeeling's fortunes. At the moment, they appear bleak. |
On Franz Wright’s “F” Franz Wright’s F is a prickly, quirky, not entirely likeable but somehow fascinating collection that kept reeling me back in for one more poem, even as it elicited occasional snorts of exasperation. Wright, it is obligatory if somewhat annoying to note, is the son of revered American poet James Wright, a sturdy, workmanlike sort of proletarian midwestern postwar poet; Wright fils has inherited his father’s Protestant melancholy but without the latter’s resigned stoicism. There’s something overbred and finicky, sort of continental and jaded and lounge-lizardy in Franz Wright’s sensibility; one gets the sense of a highly sensitive, finely tuned instrument that is easily disabled. If he were a pitcher, he would be an erratic lefty with electric stuff who goes to pieces at the slightest hint of adversity and finds ways to lose. Despite the inconsistencies, though the poems in F often crackle with intelligence and a fierce kind of integrity. The central poem, “Entries of the Cell,” is a fully imagined and realized psychic odyssey that feels moving and hard-won. Some of the others, however, especially the prose poems, can be a little hit-and-miss. B-plus. |
RACISM, RUGBY AND RAIN By Chuck Miller An extended version of this article was originally published in Rugby Magazine, April 10, 1995 In the best of all possible worlds, rugby is a friendly competition between two teams. If that were so, then the only things noteworthy about the 1981 contest between the Eastern Rugby Union Colonials and South Africa might be the Springboks’ 41-0 drubbing of the Americans and a thundering downpour that could have put Noah back in the cargo-hauling business. Yet the contest on September 23, 1981 at Bleecker Stadium involved more than just the 30 men on the field. Others were in a battle royale over the playing of the game, including a former U.S. Eagle rugby player, a mayor who ran virtually unopposed for 40 years, a publicity-sensitive governor seeking reelection, the leader of an anti-racism organization, a United States Supreme Court justice, the U.S. Olympic Committee, and newspaper / television reporters from Albany to Johannesburg. The story begins in early 1980, when former rugby player Tom Selfridge was elected president of the Eastern Rugby Union, the largest of U.S. Rugby’s four territorial unions. He would later meet with South African industrialist Louis Luyt in New York City, and arranged to have South Africa’s national rugby team – the Springboks – come to America for a three-game series, with contests taking place in Chicago, in New York City and in Albany. Within days, people found out more about the team Selfridge was bringing to Albany, and they didn’t like what they heard. The Springboks were the national team of South Africa, all right – a South Africa with an official policy on apartheid. And if there was going to be a message condoning apartheid by a visiting sports team in Albany, there were people ready to counter it with an anti-apartheid protest. And within weeks, other cities were getting the message. In New York City, mayor Ed Koch cited potential problems with crowd control, and rescinded a permit for the Springboks to play the U.S. National team, the Eagles, at Downing Stadium on Randall’s Island. That contest was quickly rescheduled to be played in Rochester. In Chicago, the city council held meetings on South Africa’s apartheid policies and the Springboks’ relation to it; and Chicago mayor Jane Byrne suggested that the game move elsewhere. In Albany, the Springboks were scheduled to play at Bleecker Stadium. The decision as to whether the Springboks and the Eastern Rugby Union All-Stars could play at Bleecker was left to Albany’s long-running mayor, Erastus Corning II. Corning saw the contest’s opposition increase every day. Groups like the Albany NAACP and the newly formed Capital District Coalition Against Apartheid staged vocal protests at City Hall. Boji Jordan, an exiled South African lecturing at an Albany library, said his organization, the Pan Africanist Congress, would be in Albany and would help in any protest planned at the stadium. Jordan’s organization had already been involved in violent, bloody protests in New Zealand, the Springboks’ previous tour stop. Letters poured into City Hall begging Corning to cancel the game. Six different Albany religious leaders, including Corning’s own Sunday clergymen, sent a letter condemning the tour as supporting South African apartheid. And on August 25, 1981, barely a month before the contest, Corning made his final decision. “1 abhor everything about apartheid … Our Constitution guarantees … the right to publicly espouse an unpopular cause … it is wrong to prohibit an individual or group from taking part in a public athletic event because of their beliefs or the policies of their government.” With that statement, Corning allowed the game to be played as scheduled. As expected, the announcement received mixed reactions throughout the city. Free speech advocates and rugby fans hailed his decision, while rival politicians believed Corning had made a huge mistake. And four days after the announcement, Richard Lapchick, the head of an organization dedicated to prevent racism in sport, informed the media that Albany would be a site for a protest march and demonstration by members of SART (Stop the South African Rugby Tour). “Albany is the only city where the mayor has publicly said the stadium can be used, and the only place where the opposition is organized,” he said to the Albany Times-Union. “We feel Albany is the logical site to focus our attention.” Sportswriters at the time had no major league baseball to cover (due to a midseason player’s strike), and Albany’s rugby turmoil became the top sports story of the day. And in time, the rugby reports spilled over from the sports page to the front page of the local newspapers. One television anchorman even asked Selfridge if he could practice with the local rugby team, with the cameras filming him as the George Plimpton of rugby. On a more serious side, the Eastern Rugby Union received calls to stop the Springboks games from another organization – the United States Olympic Committee. The last two Summer Olympics were decimated by boycotts (many African nations in 1976; the United States and its allies in 1980), and the USOC didn’t want a third boycott at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics – even though rugby wasn’t an Olympic sport. “I got called into a meeting with William Simon and the U.S. Olympic Committee,” said Selfridge, “and they said, ‘This Springbok tour is a volatile issue, and since we boycotted the 1980 Olympics, we don’t want to have anything that might cause the Soviets to boycott the Los Angeles Olympics. I told them that they were kidding themselves if they thought that the Soviet Union would come to Los Angeles after we boycotted their Olympics.” And in late August, the Washington Post and the New York Times reported the Eastern Rugby Union received a $25,000 contribution from Louis Luyt, the South African industrialist whom Selfridge worked with to arrange the tour. Richard Lapchick informed the media that in the 1970’s, Luyt had previously funneled funds from the South African treasury to buy international influence abroad. In essence, it appeared that Selfridge had accepted “blood money” to allow the Springboks to come to America. After answering question after question from reporters and sportscasters, most of whom Selfridge felt didn’t know the difference between a scrum and a rugger, he finally decided a full-scale press conference was necessary. All the local media showed up, ready to ask questions about the Springboks, South Africa’s racial policies, and the threat of an Olympic boycott. Selfridge walked into the press room, opened up an athletic bag and pulled objects out of it. “This,” he said to the medal, “is a rugby ball. And these are rugby cleats. And this is a jock strap.” After Selfridge took everything out of the athletic bag, he asked the media, “Now how many sportscasters are here?” Only Mike Kane, a sportswriter for the Schenectady Gazette, raised his hand. Selfridge pointed at him. “I’m buying this man dinner.” As the weeks before the Albany game turned into days, more media outlets set up shop in the area. Local newspaper reporters were joined by national writers from The New York Times. The television stations were now feeding information to the networks. By mid-September, Albany, Selfridge and rugby’s opposition were frequent topics on the ABC show Nightline. Following are some snippets from the September 14, 1981 broadcast: TED KOPPEL: Standing by live in our Los Angeles studio is Peter Ueberroth, president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee. Are you worried, Mr. Ueberroth? Do you think that this is going to have an effect on the 1984 Olympics? PETER UEBERROTH: I think that the South African tour will cause the African nations to band together and talk about a boycott for 1984. It could be joined by some other Third World countries, it could be joined by the Soviet Union … You have to study rugby. It’s not an Olympic sport. It’s an issue that everyone knew, if the South African Springbok team came here it would cause some difficulties. And it’s -to me it’s almost a setup. TED KOPPEL: All right, Tom Selfridge, you’ve got a couple of things that I guess you need to respond to. That $25,000 from the African businessman. Did you take it? TOM SELFRIDGE: Yes. We received a $25,000 contribution from Dr. Louis Luyt … Dr. Luyt’s money went into coaching and into refereeing programs and is not used on the Springbok tour, nor was it any motivation to invite the Springboks … in the last eight years he’s given some two or three million to rugby in South Africa, so that gift is not inconsistent with his athletic endeavors in the past. TED KOPPEL: The central point seems to be that there is just so much at stake, and the government of South Africa is so noxious in its policy of apartheid that decency would have simply required that you don’t play this particular series of games. TOM SELFRIDGE: One of the difficulties as a sporting body is that we extend invitations to other teams on the basis of how well they play the game, and within the spirit of the law. The Eastern Rugby Union clearly does not have a foreign policy. And would South Africa be unacceptable this year, perhaps acceptable next year, and Russia not acceptable? On September 10, the Albany Common Council rubber-stamped Corning’s approval of the contest at Bleecker Stadium. Fifty spectators at the Common Council meeting booed in protest. Meanwhile, New York Governor Hugh Carey received a report that other groups planned to show up at the game – everybody from the Ku Klux Klan to the Black Panthers to the American Nazi Party and the Communist Worker’s Party. In New Zealand, rugby protestors tossed Molotov cocktails and bricks at police. The National Guard might be needed, because the potential existed for a bloodbath in Albany. The New York City contest had been moved to Rochester, and now the Rochester mayor wanted that game canceled. Carey then issued a statement that because of the massive cost for police and crowd control, the Eastern Rugby Union – Springboks game in Albany should be canceled. “I don’t think the games should be played anywhere in the United States,” said Carey, “and that includes Albany.” Based on Carey’s statement, Corning immediately canceled the game, saying that the mayor had no control over the situation if the Governor wanted the match called off. Selfridge was furious. After a year of planning this tour, he had the Springboks on a plane from New Zealand ready for a three-game tour against – nobody? “Mayor Corning calls me,” said Selfridge, “and asked me to come to his office. So I went down to Albany and he said, ‘1′m going to call the Governor and have this clarified.’ So he called and the Governor wasn’t in. So he asked for the next-in-command, and read the press release as it had been given to him, and stated that he would like to know if this was an Executive Order from the Governor’s office. And the person on the other end of the phone said, ‘if that’s how you see it, then that’s what it is. So at that moment, Mayor Corning interpreted hat it was for the City of Albany on the direction of the Governor to not allow the match to take place. So we pursued litigation and sought an injunction to stay the Executive Order.” Saturday, September 19, 1981. The Springboks left their hotel in Chicago at the crack of dawn and drove 80 miles to Racine, Wisconsin to play a 9 a.m. match at a secret location in a city park in an all-black neighborhood. The game had originally been scheduled for noon, but organizers in the rugby community moved the game up to thwart the efforts of protestors. Led by Jesse Jackson, several busloads of protestors were stacking placards in their buses in Chicago just as the game kicked off in Racine, 1 1/2 hours away. The Springboks defeated the Midwest Rugby Union, 46-12, in a game briefly interrupted by an on-field action by a single protestor. Jackson’s buses arrived after both teams had departed. The South Africans then boarded a plane for Albany, ready to play a game they weren’t even sure was still scheduled. Selfridge and the Eastern Rugby Union attorneys went to court to block Carey’s Executive Order. On September 21, despite Carey employing 15 assistant attorney generals to enforce his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Howard G. Munson overturned the Order. “By enjoining the scheduled sporting event,” the Judge ruled, “the Governor of New York seeks to destroy the very constitutional freedoms which have enabled more than a century-long struggle in this country to ensure racial equality.” September 22, 1:00 a.m. At radio station WWWD (3WD) in Schenectady, disc jockey Dale Lane received a phone call from an individual who said that a bomb had been placed outside the temporary Schenectady offices of the Eastern Rugby Union. Lane hung up, figuring the caller was a wacko. Twenty minutes later, a pipe bomb exploded outside the ERU offices, breaking the front door and shattering two windows. “it was real clear,” said Selfridge, “that this wasn’t going to be a movement of protest. This was a movement to stop something. Fortyeight hours prior to the event, a shift took place.” “Albany wasn’t aware that there had been a worldwide movement focused on New Zealand to stop the rugby tour, but the tactics were consistent with stopping rather than protesting something. When the bomb went off, people were beginning to deliver on their threats.” Even the Springboks were becoming apprehensive about the Albany game. According to the South African newspaper Die Vaderland, if there was a flight back to South Africa from Chicago, many players would have been on it. After District Court Judge Munson had overturned Carey’s Executive Order, the State appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Documents were couriered from New York City to Washington, D.C. and a New York State attorney sat in the Supreme Court building, waiting for a decision. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who as an attorney successfully argued the Brown v. Board of Education case that ended state-sanctioned school segregation in the South, issued a one-word ruling on Governor Carey’s Executive Order. “Denied.” With that, Carey’s Executive Order had been overturned by the highest court in America, and the Springboks would play their only U.S. game that was still on schedule. Twelve hundred hardy protestors stood at the rain-sprinkled steps of the Capitol building, while Willye Neal of Schenectady sang “We Shall Overcome” to a chorus of applause. Then, as the rain increased from a sprinkle to a steady teeming, 1,200 protestors walked the 1 1/2 miles to Bleecker Stadium, carrying signs that said “Victory to African Liberation, “‘Stop the Springboks,” and “Defeat White Supremacy.” With the rain splashing off their umbrellas, they chanted, “One, Two, Three, Four, Stop the Springboks, Stop the Tour.” The Albany Chief of Police, John Dale, canceled all vacation time and personal days for September 22. Every available officer was stationed around Bleecker Stadium to keep the protestors in line. “We had police officers on the roof,” recalled Dennis Beach, an Albany police officer. “Every officer was working. All days off were canceled. We had backup on the shifts, and the New York State Police were there.” Some cops even purchased protective cups from the Johnny Evers sporting goods store on Central Avenue near the stadium. Nobody was taking any chances today. Nine arrests were made during the march, mostly on weapons charges and possession of tear gas. A Communist Workers Party member was arrested for possession of a weapon – a gun in his car which was parked near the Springboks’ hotel. He was later told by a judge to leave Albany by midnight and never return. At the stadium, Selfridge stood at the ticket window, exchanging red tickets for autographed blue ones to foil counterfeiters. No tickets were sold at the game since the Executive Order was stayed; the 2,000 people who bought tickets were mostly rugby fans and club members. Television cameras were set up throughout the stadium, ready to bring the contest (and any potential riot footage) to home viewers. All three local news shows rented helicopters to fly over Bleecker Stadium; but none would fly in the continuing downpour. Even the local PBS affiliate, which normally didn’t have its own news department, sent three cameras to the stadium. The game itself was anticlimactic. The home-town Colonials played a conservative contest, holding the Springboks scoreless for the first fifteen minutes. But after the Boks’ first try, the scoring floodgates opened. The mud-caked Springboks defeated the ERU AilStars 41-0 in a game which showed, at least on the field, that the South African team was years ahead of the Americans. Meanwhile, the protestors marched outside the stadium. Pete Seeger sang in an adjacent park, and the police kept on the alert. The rain poured down for hours, and more than one person joked that Corning went up to the City Hall bell tower and called in a favor from the Lord. Corning himself did not attend the game, resting instead at the private and exclusive Fort Orange Club. He later released a statement thanking the police for their efforts and the protestors for keeping the event from becoming violent. When somebody told him the final score was 41-0, he calmly asked, “Who won?” The eyes of the world were on Albany that rainy September evening, but few noticed that the Springboks played their third U.S. game three days later. The visitors played the U.S. Eagles in the game originally scheduled in New York City, but later relocated to the Owl Creek Polo Ground, a private plot of land in Glenville, New York, with the Springboks winning 38-7. The 30 people who showed up at the Glenville contest marks what is officially the lowest crowd ever to watch a professional top-division rugby contest. The game is also notable in that one of the Springboks, fly-half Naas Botha, would later spend a couple of seasons as a kicker for the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys. The game was originally scheduled for Saturday, September 26h, but was moved up to Friday after a rugby club in Evansville, Indiana had been bombed. (The president of the Evansville All-Whites was later charged with arson, in his attempt to collect insurance money). Selfridge ran afoul of the United States of America Rugby Football Union with the day-early Eagle match. USARFU administrators had arrived from all across the country to watch a Saturday afternoon Springboks-Eagles contest, and they were furious when Selfridge rescheduled it for a day earlier. A full-scale investigation into the rugby tour, including Selfridge’s actions, were later conducted. There are numerous epilogues to the game at Bleecker Stadium. The Soviet Union, claiming inadequate security measures in Los Angeles, boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics. Almost every other Communist country joined in the boycott. The Olympics went on anyway, and all the African nations attended (with the exception of South Africa). By 1990, Nelson Mandela had been released from prison, South African president P.W. Botha was replaced by F.W. DeClerk, and South Africa’s political system slowly changed – apartheid was, if not completely eliminated, slowly on the road to extinction. Erastus Corning was re-elected to an unprecedented eleventh term as Albany mayor, but his advanced age prevented him from finishing out his term; two years after re-election, he passed away in his sleep. Hugh Carey, the governor who tried to stop the game with an Executive Order, declined to seek re-election and his lieutenant governor, Mario Cuomo, was elected instead. Richard Lapchick continued to speak out against racism and injustice, both in the United States and abroad. Bleecker Stadium returned to anonymity, hosting the occasional high school football and amateur baseball game. And the South African Springboks eventually returned to the United States twenty years later, playing a match in Houston and defeating the American opponents 43-20. Acknowledgements Much of this article is based on a personal interview with Tom Selfridge. Other sources came from articles written in the Albany Times Union, Schenectady Gazette, Troy Times Record, Albany Knickerbocker News, Washington Post, New York Times, Die Vaderland and a transcript from ABC’s Nightline. |
I swear to you, we really try. Every month we give you crime reads, but there are just so many good books out there it’s inevitable that a few good ones slip by us. So now as we are preparing to say goodbye to 2017, here are eight more crime reads we wanted to let you know about, including true crime, procedurals, and psychological suspense. Think of it as your year-end bonus in book form. Crime Song by David Swinson (Mulholland Books) Crime Song is the second installment in Swinson’s Frank Marr series (which is supposed to be a trilogy), and it’s a rollicking ride down the streets and alleys of Washington, D.C. Despite the setting, Marr is no lobbyist or politician. He’s a full-fledged addict, constantly gobbling pills, snorting coke, smoking cigarettes, and washing it all down with plenty of alcohol. He’s also a retired police detective who is now doing P.I. work, using his old connections on the force when necessary. In this book, Marr gets involved in a personal case when his cousin Jeffrey is murdered and found on Marr’s kitchen floor. His investigation takes him into the bowels of D.C.’s drug trade, as he discovers that Jeffrey was a low-level dealer. Jeffrey’s murder turns out to be part of a complex conspiracy, which Marr is compelled to unravel in order to placate his own conscience, that pesky voice in his head which urges him to do the right thing even as he’s feeding his habit with stolen drugs. Article continues after advertisement Best Day Ever by Kaira Rouda (Graydon House) The narrator of Best Day Ever, Paul Strom, is one of the creepiest protagonists I encountered this year. The novel covers three days in the life of Strom and his wife, Mia, as they travel from their residence in suburban Ohio to their cottage on Lake Erie. Paul promises his wife the best day ever on this trip, but as he narrates their weekend the reader discovers that Paul is not the upright husband, father, and successful ad executive that he pretends to be. He reminisces about his courtship of his wife: “I knew I would do everything in my power to make Mia realize what a catch I was, too. Of course I would succeed, I always do. When you’ve got it, you’ve got it. I’m not bragging, really, I’m just telling you there are some things I’m really good at and this—women—is one of them.” But despite his belief that he has his wife, his sons, and his professional life under control, Paul’s entire existence is going to change over the course of his carefully planned weekend excursion. American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road by Nick Bilton (Portfolio/Penguin) A ripping true crime story disguised as a business book, American Kingpin tells the story of the rise and fall of Ross Ulbricht, the mastermind behind the infamous Silk Road website. Ulbricht, a 26-year-old strident libertarian, started the online marketplace in 2011 with the idea that the Web should serve as a clearinghouse for all kinds of goods and services. The Silk Road, located on the Dark Web, which is only accessible using a browser called Tor, quickly becomes a reflection of the dark side of human nature. Drugs, guns, forged documents, counterfeit money, and other unsavory things were all available on the Silk Road. Once the media starts writing about the site, the U.S. government launches a multi-bureau investigation into the site, trying to find Ulbricht, who goes by the moniker Dread Pirate Roberts, a pseudonym borrowed from the movie The Princess Bride. Bilton skillfully lays out the complicated investigation while also chronicling Ulbricht’s building and maintenance of the site, which was a $1.2 billion dollar industry at its height. Article continues after advertisement Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land (Flatiron Books) Land’s background as a children’s mental health nurse underpins Good Me Bad Me, the story of fifteen-year-old Milly, who has recently been taken from her mother’s care and placed with a foster family. Milly, whose real name is Annie, is haunted by her mother’s crimes: she was a serial killer who preyed on children, and Annie was the one who turned her into the police. Land writes Milly’s struggle with her own and her mother’s demons, constantly prodding the reader into thinking about nature, nurture, and what makes some people just plain evil. Good Me Bad Me is an impressive and thought-provoking debut. The Breakdown by B.A. Paris (St Martins) I was crazy about Paris’s 2016 debut, Behind Closed Doors, a psychological thriller with a great final twist. The Breakdown continues Paris’s winning streak: the story of Cass, who sees a car on a rural road near her house during a downpour, and wakes up to find out someone she knows slightly was murdered on that very road that night. But Cass isn’t sure of exactly what she saw, and it seems like someone may be gaslighting her: she’s suddenly getting mysterious hang-ups on her home phone and she’s forgetting little but vital things. Did she take her pills? Where did she park her car? Did she order an alarm system without remembering signing the contract? And, most importantly, who or what is behind her curious and sudden memory lapses? Does it have to do with the murder, or is her imagination working overtime? Garden of Lamentations by Deborah Crombie (William Morrow) If you are a fan of psychological suspense and have Anglophile tendencies, you should be reading Crombie’s long running Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James series. Each book dives deep into a London neighborhood, and in Garden Crombie explores Notting Hill, famous for its greenery and a hotbed of gentrification (and made famous by the Hugh Grant-Julia Roberts rom-com). Crombie carefully balances two Scotland Yard investigations: James is drawn by personal reasons into the murder of an au pair whose body is found in one of the neighborhood’s private gardens. The au pair, Regan Keating, had done some modeling for a friend of James’s, and her charge, a young boy, is a promising ballet dancer who takes lessons at the same dance studio James’s son Toby does. Meanwhile, Kincaid is faced with the return of his former boss, who alludes to corruption in the department and asks for Kincaid’s help in ferreting out the rotten apples in the Yard. Bones: Brothers, Horses, Cartels, and the Borderland Dream by Joe Tone (Oneworld) If you’ve ever been curious about the world of high-stakes horseracing, Bones, which tells the story of quarter-horse racing in the US and Mexico, is definitely the book for you. But Tone does much more in this book than just opine on the sport of kings. Bones is an impressive piece of reporting on the borderland and the how the drug trade infiltrated the world of horseracing. The book focuses on the travails of two brothers on opposite sides of the border and the law: José Treviño, a former bricklayer who starts a successful horse breeding operation with the help and funds of his brother, a notorious cartel head named Miguel Treviño. Tone also details the investigation of the Treviño family by a gung-ho FBI agent named Scott Lawson, who develops sources in the horse world to try to prove José’s stable is dependent on the profits of his brother’s drug business. Moving seamlessly from the exciting world of horseracing to the seamy world of the Mexican cartels, Bones is both an excellent piece of true crime reporting and an engrossing family saga. The Lying Game by Ruth Ware (Scout Press) Ware first came to crime fiction fans’ attention with her chilling mystery set against a weekend-long bachelorette (or hen, if you’re British) party in In a Dark, Dark Wood. The Lying Game is Ware’s third novel, and she’s grown into a sharp chronicler of female friendship as well as an astute writer of psychological thrillers. Game focuses on the relationships of a group of women who all went to boarding school together in the English coastal village of Salten. The group was notorious in their school days for playing what they called the lying game: telling lies to other students and faculty and laughing behind their backs when they got away with it. But one day a member of their group, Kate, sends an urgent text saying, “I need you,” to her old friends Fatima, Thea, and Isa, who drop everything to return to Salten, where Kate lives in an old structure called the mill house. Kate isn’t lying this time: the mystery which got the women expelled in their senior year, the murder of Kate’s father who also happened to be the school’s art teacher, is heating up again, and in Ware’s expert hands the plot twists and turns quite beautifully. |
There are alarming signs the Zika virus is spreading rapidly in Puerto Rico, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday. Blood banks on the island have seen a steady rise in the portion of donations that have to be rejected because they contain Zika virus. Last week, 1.1 percent of the donated units were contaminated. If that many people are infected with Zika when they go to give blood, it’s a sign of how much virus spread there is going on in Puerto Rico, CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden warned in an interview with STAT. “What this means is that pregnant women in Puerto Rico are really at risk. That’s the bottom line here,” Frieden said. “It isn’t that hundreds of thousands of people will die. That’s not what’s going to happen here,” he said. “It’s that we will have in Puerto Rico and potentially in parts of the US — in travelers and potentially even in some local transmission — we have terrible tragedies that will occur. Change people’s whole lives.” Frieden said the blood bank data suggests that as many as 2 percent of adults in Puerto Rico are getting infected monthly at this point — and it’s not yet high season for transmission. Activity of mosquito-spread viruses typically peaks in the summer. “If current trends continue, thousands of pregnant women will get infected with Zika,” said Frieden. “And there could be between dozens and hundreds of children with microcephaly born [there] in the next year.” The CDC estimates 25 percent of the island’s population could be infected with Zika in its first year of spread there. Puerto Rican women give birth to about 32,000 babies a year. Zika infection during pregnancy — particularly, it appears, in the first trimester — can lead to devastating birth defects. The most notable — and the one that raised suspicions that the Zika virus could affect profound damage in developing fetuses — is microcephaly, a condition where babies are born with unusually small heads and brains that are not completely formed. Over time, researchers in Brazil studying that country’s large cohort of Zika-affected newborns have reported other forms of brain damage, visual and hearing impairment, contorted limbs, and other birth defects, in what is coming to be known as congenital Zika syndrome. Frieden noted it is still not clear if children who were infected in the womb but who appear physically normal at birth will experience development delays later. That has been seen with other viruses that can cause birth defects in babies born to women infected during pregnancy. The primary focus of the CDC’s Zika response is to do all it can to reduce the risk that pregnant women will be infected. Frieden said the agency is working with local partners trying to identify effective steps that can be taken there. HUD, the US government’s department of housing and urban development, is putting screens on the windows of public housing units, he noted. Many homes in Puerto Rico don’t have screens or air conditioning — features scientists believe will lessen the risk of wide spread of Zika virus in the continental US. “We can’t make zero the number of infants who will be affected. But if we can reduce by 10 percent or 30 percent or 50 percent, we will have prevented that many tragedies. And that’s what we’re working to do,” Frieden said. Health authorities in Puerto Rico have already reported one case of microcephaly there. No details were released but the pregnancy did not go full term. Puerto Rico’s department of health reported Friday that 191 pregnant women on the island had tested positive for Zika. But a peculiarity of the disease the virus triggers means that number is almost certainly an underestimate. The majority of people who contract Zika don’t have symptoms; it’s thought only 1 in 5 do. So it’s difficult to know how many people in affected areas have been infected. Eventually scientists will do what’s called a sero-survey, taking blood samples from hundreds of people to look for the antibodies that indicate they were infected with Zika. Studies done after the chikungunya virus — also spread by Aedes mosquitoes — swept through Puerto Rico showed that after the first year the virus was there, a quarter of the population of the island had been infected. It’s too soon to do that work for Zika. Still, looking at the rate at which donated units of blood are testing positive provides a real-time hint of how many infections are taking place. In fact, the estimate it provides is on the low side, Frieden noted, because anyone infected who has symptoms would be turned away if they tried to donate blood. “It’s the closest thing we have to a real time pulse on what’s happening,” he said. “And what we’re finding is very concerning, because this is showing a steady and substantial increase in infections.” This article is reproduced with permission from STAT. It was first published on June 17, 2016. Find the original story here. |
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