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Volcanism has played a more extensive role in shaping the surface of Mercury than scientists had thought. This result comes from multispectral imaging data gathered in January 2008 by MESSENGER, the latest spacecraft to visit the sun's innermost planet. MESSENGER data has also identified and mapped surface rock units that correspond to lava flows, volcanos, and other geological features. At the same time, the spacecraft's suite of instruments has confirmed an apparent planet-wide iron deficiency in Mercury's surface rocks. MESSENGER (short for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) is the first spacecraft to visit Mercury since NASA's Mariner 10 made three flyby passes in 1974 and 1975. MESSENGER, which is operated for NASA by the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, will make two more Mercury flybys (Oct. 6, 2008 and Sept. 29, 2009) before going into orbit around the planet, March 18, 2011. Mercury and MESSENGER form the subject of 11 papers in a special section devoted to the January flyby in the July 4, 2008, issue of the scientific journal Science. Mark S. Robinson of Arizona State University is the lead author for a paper in the issue which spotlights data on composition variations in Mercury's surface rocks using their multispectral colors. Robinson, a professor of geology in ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration, part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is a co-investigator on the MESSENGER geology science team. Besides Robinson, the multispectral paper has 12 additional co-authors from other institutions. "We have now imaged half of the part of Mercury that was never seen by Mariner 10," says Robinson. "The picture is still incomplete, but we'll get the other half on October 6." Back in 1974-1975, the orbital trajectory that let Mariner to make three passes at Mercury limited it to photographing less than half the planet's surface. This left the rest of Mercury unknown until MESSENGER's arrival in January let scientists begin to fill in the gaps. Lava plains MESSENGER's big-picture finding, says Robinson, is the widespread role played by volcanism. While impact craters are common, and at first glance Mercury still resembles the moon, much of the planet has been resurfaced through volcanic activity. "For example, according to our color data the Caloris impact basin is completely filled with smooth plains material that appears volcanic in origin," Robinson explains. "In shape and form these deposits are very similar to the mare basalt flows on the moon. But unlike the moon, Mercury's smooth plains are low in iron, and thus represent a relatively unusual rock type." The Caloris plains, he adds, cover at least a million square kilometers (390,000 square miles), or big enough to engulf Arizona, Nevada, and California put together. The plains' size implies the existence of large sources of magma in Mercury's upper mantle. Multispectral imaging also shows that besides lava flows, Caloris has "red spots," which also appear volcanic. "Red spots have diffuse boundaries and sometimes lie centered on rimless depressions," Robinson says. "Right now they look to be caused by explosive, pyroclastic eruptions." In addition, Robinson notes, three major rock units stand out in MESSENGER's multispectral imaging. "We mapped the new hemisphere using moderate resolution images of 5 kilometers [3 miles] per pixel," he says. "As on the Mariner hemisphere, we saw three major units defined by their colors. These units are relatively high-reflectance smooth plains, average cratered terrain, and low-reflectance material." Where's the iron? The low-reflectance material is particularly enigmatic, says Robinson. "It's an important and widespread rock that occurs deep in the crust as well as at the surface, yet it has very little ferrous iron in its silicate minerals." That, he says, makes it unusual. "You expect to find low-reflectance volcanic rocks having a high abundance of iron-bearing silicate minerals, but that's not the case here." One possible solution, he says, is that iron is actually present but invisible to MESSENGER's spectrometers because it's hidden within the chemical structure of minerals such as ilmenite. Solving the paradox should help scientists unravel Mercury's history. "If you want to understand how a planet has evolved," Robinson explains, "you need to know about the minerals in its crust and mantle. Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to drill into Mercury for a long time to come. All we can do is study its volcanic rocks in detail. They give a glimpse into the planet's mantle." "Right now," says Robinson, "it looks as if Mercury formed with a deficiency in ferrous iron. But we'll know more about its bulk composition, and thus its history, once MESSENGER gets into orbit in 2011. That's when the surface rocks can be studied much more closely, using the full set of instruments." Besides Robinson, the other authors are Scott L. Murchie, David T. Blewett Deborah L. Domingue, S. Edward Hawkins III, Ralph L. McNutt Jr., Louise M. Prockter (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory), James W. Head (Brown University), Gregory M. Holsclaw, William E. McClintock (Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado), Sean C. Solomon (Carnegie Institution of Washington), Timothy J. McCoy (National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution), Thomas R. Watters (National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution).

Glasgow indie-pop band Belle and Sebastian is booked to play St. Paul's Palace Theatre tonight. But the show almost didn't happen. At 10:23 a.m., lead singer Stuart Murdoch tweeted: "S-, we left Richard in North Dakota. Anyone want to be a hero and get him to St Paul, Minnesota, somehow. The gig hangs in the balance." That would be Richard Colburn, Belle and Sebastian's drummer since 1996. The plea sent fans to social media, some to try to help and others to make jokes and the inevitable "Home Alone" references. "I left my heart in San Francisco, and my drummer in North Dakota" wrote Twitter user Jamie Campbell‏. On Facebook, Erik Mathison lamented "Charge the tour manager! Rule #1 of tour manager's job: don't leave anyone behind." Also on Facebook, Transmission DJ Jake Rudh summed up his feelings with a photo of Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson in the film "Fargo" with the caption: "For Pete's sake." By the time Ellen Shafer, a publicist in Fargo, had actually found a volunteer to drive Colburn from Fargo, Murdoch had tweeted again with the update "we're getting him in a car to Bismarck, a flight to Minneapolis. We should be OK for tonight." Belle and Sebastian's publicist said Murdoch wasn't available for an interview as "they're dealing with the situation and there won't be much downtime" before tonight's performance. When asked how this happened, she responded: "They left him at a rest area in North Dakota, but I'm not sure the exact details. Trying to find out but I think the managers are trying to deal with it as we speak!"

If you've suspected that there's something unhealthy about the relationship between Bella and Edward in the phenomenally successful Twilight series, then it turns out that you're exactly right. In fact, there are fifteen examples of unhealthiness. Livejournal user kar3ning was reminded of something after going to see New Moon recently: According to the National Domestic Violence hotline, these are some signs that you may be in an emotionally or physically abusive relationship. Does your partner: * Look at you or act in ways that scare you? Check. * Control what you do, who you see or talk to or where you go? "Stay away from the werewolves. I love you." * Make all of the decisions? Check. * Act like the abuse is no big deal, it's your fault, or even deny doing it? "If I wasn't so attracted to you, I wouldn't have to break up with you." * Threaten to commit suicide? "I just can't live without you. In fact, I'll run to Italy and try suicide by vampire if anything happens to you." * Threaten to kill you? On their first date. These are some more signs of an abusive relationship. Has your partner... * Tried to isolate you from family or friends. Bella doesn't have time for anyone else! * Damaged property when angry (thrown objects, punched walls, kicked doors, etc.). Check. * Pushed, slapped, bitten, kicked or choked you. Does tossing her through a glass table count? * Abandoned you in a dangerous or unfamiliar place. "We're breaking up. And I'm leaving you in the forest." * Scared you by driving recklessly. Check. * Forced you to leave your home. She had to run away with him to flee from the other vampires in the first movie, and she had to drop everything and run to Italy in the second. * Prevented you from calling police or seeking medical attention. Check. Even in the hospital, nothing is a big deal. * Views women as objects and believes in rigid gender roles. Well, they are Mormon... (I know, I know, cheap shot.) * Accuses you of cheating or is often jealous of your outside relationships. Check, wolf-boy. Now I'm pissed. According to the NDVH, "If you answered ‘yes' to even one of these questions, you may be in an abusive relationship." This list is fifteen.

Why does college cost so much? It’s a question parents, students, and politicians often ask and the answer is often elusive. There is much speculation about what is exactly to blame for college costs that tick up more and more every year above the rate of inflation and well above lagging family incomes. You’ve probably heard about a lot of reasons for the price surge: tenured professors, climbing walls, luxury dorms, too many administrators, overpaid presidents. But it’s almost impossible to isolate one or two causes. Trying to dissect a university’s budget is nearly impossible. Money is constantly moving from parts of a university that make money (large English lecture classes for freshmen) to subsidize those segments that lose money (small senior chemistry labs). But every year, researchers at the Delta Cost Project, which is run by the American Institutes for Research, attempt to make sense of higher education spending by explaining in detailed reports where the money to pay for college comes from and where it’s spent. Its latest report was released this month. Here are two key reasons its researchers said colleges costs continue to rise even in an era of low inflation: 1. Students demand more services outside the classroom and colleges are providing more amenities to attract applicants. In the past decade, spending on student services, which includes everything from mental health services to career counseling to staffing student recreation centers with climbing walls and lazy rivers, grew by more than 20 percent at private colleges and the top public universities. Spending on classroom instruction pales in comparison to what is spent outside the classroom when the cost of student services is combined with academic and institution support, which includes things such as libraries and technology. At some private colleges, for instance, 58 percent of the dollars go to student and institutional support services, compared with just 42 percent that is spent on actual instruction. On many campuses, this expansion of student services is what has driven a 28 percent expansion of the higher education workforce since 2000, according to a separate report from the American Institutes for Research. In many cases, however, that is probably money well spent if a college is trying to stay in business. In 2013, a group of researchers from the University of Michigan found that while top-ranked schools have an incentive to spend money on academics to attract smart students, everyone else is better off focusing on what they called “college as a country club.” The study said country club amenities differentiate less-selective campuses for prospective students who care more about the “resort” experience of college. 2. Students are shouldering much more of the cost of their degree at public colleges and universities. As late as 2001, when I covered North Carolina higher education as a reporter, a state resident could go attend classes on the flagship campus at Chapel Hill for around $2,000 a year in tuition and fees. Today, tuition and fees are approximately $8,500. That’s largely because states like North Carolina have been getting out of the business of higher education. According to the Delta Cost Project, student tuition dollars at public research universities covered around 50 percent of educational costs in 2008. Today, they cover nearly 63 percent. Meanwhile, when measured per student, state spending on instruction at public colleges is at its lowest point since 1980. Sure, in actual dollars, spending on higher education by the states is up, but it hasn’t kept pace with the rise in enrollment during the last decade, especially as more students go to public colleges. If the current trends continue, beginning in 2022 spending on higher education will reach zero in states such as Colorado and Alaska, and by the 2030s in South Carolina and Massachusetts. It’s popular political rhetoric right now to suggest college tuition be free, even at Harvard University, where a group of candidates for the Board of Overseers wants to end tuition for undergraduates. But all those proposals do is shift the costs to the federal or state government, or in the case of Harvard to its massive $38 billion endowment (which might not be a bad idea). By essentially capping tuition at zero and saying students have no skin in the game for their education, states in particular will carry most of the responsibility in paying for higher education. If recent history is any indication, states can’t be always trusted to do the right thing. Just look at California in recent years, where public universities turned away tens of thousands of qualified students for a lack of state funds. Another suggestion to cut costs for students has been for higher education to follow the playbook of the airlines and now the cable companies and unbundle their services. Right now, students pay for the complexity of a university campus whether or not they use all the services. One concern about unbundling higher education is that colleges and universities really don’t know which individual pieces of the overall experience actually provide the most value for their students. The individual parts could end up not equaling the value of today’s whole. And for financially needy students, the services they need the most—such as academic advising or tutoring—might end up costing the most if wealthier students forgo those services. Finding solutions to reducing college prices seems just as difficult as figuring out why they are rising in the first place. But with family incomes lagging as college prices continue to rise, the time for finding workable solutions is running out for an increasing number of students.

Looking for news you can trust? Subscribe to our free newsletters. I understand why net neutrality is a big deal for internet service providers, who oppose any new rules that restrict what they can do and how much they can charge. Ditto for content companies like Google, who support net neutrality because they don’t want to be extorted by ISPs for access to high-speed pipes. Ditto again for activists who believe internet access should be on a level playing field for everyone. But it’s also become a bête noire of the tea party crowd, and it’s a lot less clear to me why these folks care. But maybe I’m overthinking it. Perhaps they oppose net neutrality simply because President Obama supports it. Here’s the latest evidence on this score: Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has written to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler asking for all documents related to communications and meetings involving White House and agency officials concerning the issue….Republicans have charged that Obama unduly influenced Wheeler’s proposal. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) said Wheeler “succumbed to the bully tactics of political activists and the president himself.” ….Chaffetz said in a letter dated Friday that he was investigating reports indicating “views expressed by the White House potentially had an improper influence” on development of Wheeler’s proposal. He cited a Wall Street Journal article last week that reported that two White House aides led a “secretive effort” to build support from outside groups for tough net-neutrality regulations. Chaffetz must really be desperate. Does he seriously think that the president of the United States isn’t allowed to try to mobilize outside support for his policy proposals? Or even that the White House isn’t allowed to lobby FCC commissioners? That’s just crackers. But Chaffetz is a certified up-and-comer in the Republican ranks, and I guess that means he has to make sure his tea party bona fides never get rusty from disuse. This time, though, he’s really digging through the bottom of the barrel. Unless he wants to join up with the crazytown contingent for good—something he’s managed to avoid so far—he should think twice about dumb theatrics like this. He’s better off when he keeps at least one foot planted in realityville.

Microsoft And Sony Double Down On Patent Trolling; Dump More Cash Into Intellectual Ventures from the because-innovation-is-for-suckers dept "If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today... A future start-up with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose." Last fall, we noted that the world's largest patent troll, Intellectual Ventures, was running out of cash , which is somewhat incredible, given that it had previously claimed to have raised $6 billion in investments (though many of its earliest deals with tech companies were categorized as "investments" when they were really promises not to sue, combined with access to the patent bank) and a further $3 billion in licenses. It should take a long time to spend $9 billion when your company producesthat has ever been brought to market, but that's IV for you. As we noted in that story last fall, many of the tech companies that initially "invested" in Intellectual Ventures had no interest at all in re-upping, as they felt that the whole thing had been a bait-and-switch . They were initially told it was a "patent defense fund," not a giant patent troll itself.However, while many of the companies have indeed avoided giving IV any more money, it appears that Microsoft and Sony were quite happy to dump a lot more cash into IV , which has now ramped up its patent buying efforts again (as well as its lobbying and political contributions in an effort to kill off patent reform). Microsoft, of course, has always been close to IV, seeing as it was started by the company's former CTO, Nathan Myhrvold, who is also a close friend of Bill Gates (who has directly helped IV get some patents). Similarly, Microsoft has become one of the most aggressive patent abusers over the last decade, increasingly relying on its stock of patents to make money from other people's innovations, rather than innovating on its own.It is similarly no wonder that the company somewhat famous for having nearly all of its major success based on copying the work of others, is now trying to stop anyone else from doing the same without paying a massive tax. There was a time when Bill Gates said:And, now, via Intellectual Ventures and its own patent holdings, Microsoft seems to be trying to make sure Gates' prediction is a reality. It all fits in to the same paradigm we've observed for years . When you're young, you innovate. When you're old, you litigate. Microsoft appears to have given up on innovation, but is ramping up on litigation, and re-investing in patent trolling via Intellectual Ventures is merely the latest step. Filed Under: innovation, patent trolling, patents Companies: intellectual ventures, microsoft, sony

And So We Meet, Again: Why The Workday Is So Filled With Meetings Enlarge this image PW Illustration/Ikon Images/Getty Images PW Illustration/Ikon Images/Getty Images The ouster of Bryan Stockton from his perch as CEO at Mattel this week came as the toymaker's best-known brands like Barbie stagnate and it loses business to Web-based games. Stockton himself said last year that Mattel lacked an innovative culture and blamed it in part on something specific: bad meetings. That's a common and persistent corporate ailment. Scott Ryan-Hart is a cartographer for the Ohio Department of Transportation, where a typical meeting can last more than two hours. "I would be needed for 15 minutes in the middle of it," Ryan-Hart says. "So I have an hour before and an hour after that I'm still kind of sequestered in this meeting and I can't get out of it." This annoyed Ryan-Hart, until about a year ago when he took up superhero doodling during meetings, which he tweeted under the hashtag "#Meetingfromhell." His boss wasn't a fan. "He was not super happy with it," Ryan-Hart says. Then again, his colleagues have their own vices. "I'm usually sketching ... the person next to me is doing email, someone else is reading reports that they have to get done," he says. This behavior, says Steven Rogelberg, should sound alarms to the meeting leader. Rogelberg teaches industrial/organizational psychology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "You're basically getting tremendous amounts of feedback. You're getting feedback that you're running a really bad meeting," Rogelberg says. The average American office worker spends more than nine hours of every week preparing for, or attending, project update meetings, according to the results of a survey released last week by the software firm Clarizen and Harris Poll. That's up nearly 14 percent from the last survey four years ago. Experts say poorly run meetings grind away at employee engagement and make companies less reactive by bogging decisions down in human red tape. Some companies, including Mattel, try to create limits around the size, duration or frequency of meetings. But meetings often last longer than they need to, Rogelberg says, because managers don't understand Parkinson's Law. This is the idea, backed up by research, that tasks take as long as the time allotted. If you budget two hours, it takes two hours. But, "given the same agenda," Rogelberg says, "they give the group half as much time ... and lo and behold, when they're given half as much time at the onset, they finish in half as much time! And the quality of the meeting is just as good." Al Pittampalli is an author and an expert on "meeting culture." He says at their best, meetings are the lifeblood of an organization. "They're the place where we make the most important decisions, express the most important messages, the most important communications on the most important matters of the day," he says. But as a consultant, Pittampalli sees meeting culture run amok. He sees "not just marathon meetings, but meetings that are done to prepare for meetings, and meetings that are done to prepare for meetings to prepare for meetings. It is a waste of time — it's what I call a weapon of mass interruption." It's also expensive to waste employee time. So why does the practice persist? "One of the biggest problems in organizations is that the meeting is a tool that is used to diffuse responsibility," Pittampalli says. He says meetings alleviate the anxiety of making tough calls by delaying decisions, instead of making them. Bad meetings also recur because, in many cases, the people leading them don't know how to run a good one. There's a lack of self-awareness among meeting leaders. The vast majority self-report that they believe they're conducting meetings well, while the vast majority of participants disagree. Yet Pittampalli says no one speaks up. "Nobody is willing to give feedback to their boss," he says. And so the endless meetings go on, and on, and on.

TORONTO — A private Christian university that forbids sexual intimacy outside heterosexual marriage will be in Ontario’s top court this week, seeking a green light for its proposed law school after the province’s law society denied it accreditation. It’s the latest legal battle for British Columbia-based Trinity Western University, which is fighting similar cases at appeal courts in Nova Scotia and British Columbia. The case that will be heard Monday at Ontario’s Court of Appeal sees the university go up against the Law Society of Upper Canada, with both sides arguing the other is being discriminatory. At the core of the dispute is Trinity Western’s “community covenant” or code of conduct, which the Evangelical Christian institution requires all students to agree to. This appeal is about protecting the members of a minority religion in our pluralistic society It includes requiring students to abstain from gossip, obscene language, prejudice, harassment, lying, cheating, stealing, pornography, drunkenness and sexual intimacy “that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.” The university notes, however, that it does not ban admission to gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender students or faculty, and said its community offers “an environment in which sexual minorities are supported, loved and respected.” “This appeal is about protecting the members of a minority religion in our pluralistic society. TWU serves Canada’s evangelical Christian community. It’s law school will allow evangelical Christians to study and contemplate the law according to, and in an environment that supports their beliefs,” lawyers for the university argue in documents submitted to the appeal court. “The LSUC refused to accredit TWU because of those religious beliefs, and not because TWU’s students would not meet appropriate standards of learning, professional competence and professional conduct.” The law society voted in April 2014 not to accredit the university’s proposed law school, citing its controversial covenant as discriminatory. The university applied for judicial review of the decision but was dismissed by an Ontario court, paving the way for its latest round of legal sparring. The university argues that the law society infringed not only on freedom of religion rights, but also on freedom of expression, freedom of association and equality rights with its decision. “The LSUC’s decision is incorrect and, at the least, unreasonable,” lawyers for the university wrote. “Absent any evidence that the Community Covenant will impair TWU’s graduates from being appropriately educated, competent or ethical (and there is none), there is no basis for the LSUC to violate TWU’s and its students’ fundamental constitutional rights in the name of the ’public interest.”’ The Law Society of Upper Canada, however, found Trinity Western’s covenant highly problematic. “Accrediting TWU would violate the law society’s core commitment to equality of individuals and groups of diverse beliefs and backgrounds, and would discriminate against individuals based on sexual orientation, gender, marital status and religion,” the society’s lawyers argued. “The appellants are not entitled to compel the law society to abandon its policy of ensuring equal access to the legal profession, or to violate its obligations of equality under the Charter and the Code. The society further argued its decision does not infringe on the university’s rights. “The law society has determined that it is in the public interest not only to have equal access to the profession, but also to have a profession that is diverse and reflective of the population of Ontario. Hence, the law society has adopted policies that promote equity and diversity and combat discrimination on any basis.”

Today House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith sent congressional subpoenas to several attorneys general and nonprofit organizations—including the Union of Concerned Scientists—demanding access to correspondence among these groups and between these groups and the attorneys general offices. This is the first Congress in which the House Science Committee Chair has universal subpoena power, meaning that he/she does not need to work with or even inform the minority party before issuing subpoenas. UCS raised concerns about this expansion of power early on, and the record shows that indeed those concerns were warranted as the Chairman Smith’s actions have proven to be an abuse of power. Why are the attorneys general investigating ExxonMobil? Recent investigations by InsideClimate News and the LA Times, along with advocacy groups, have revealed documents showing that ExxonMobil scientists knew about climate change and its global risks by the late 1970s and possibly even the 1960s. The company appears to have been at the cutting edge of climate research, and yet chose to wage a decades-long disinformation campaign rather than warn the public and its own investors of climate change risks. Several state attorneys general (AGs) have launched investigations into whether or not these actions constitute fraud. Doesn’t ExxonMobil have the right to free speech? The First Amendment gives wide protections but is not absolute. The AGs are investigating fraud. As New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman has said, “The First Amendment does not give you the right to commit fraud.” Is UCS working with AGs on their ExxonMobil investigation? UCS has long investigated the role that the fossil fuel industry has played in undermining public understanding of climate science. Here is a timeline documenting these activities starting from 2007. UCS has provided the AGs with publicly available research and information produced by UCS scientists and others on climate science, climate impacts, and the role of fossil fuel companies in undermining science. Who is working with Lamar Smith in trying to undermine the AG investigations? It’s not entirely clear, as, ironically, Chairman Smith has not been terribly forthcoming with information about who he’s talking to. That said, the first letters from Chairman Smith were sent the same day as the New York Times printed a full-page advertisement sponsored by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a free-market think tank that has been funded by ExxonMobil and has regularly misrepresented climate science. Is Chairman Smith protecting the ability of scientists and companies to pursue scientific research? The chairman and other members of Congress keep claiming that they are protecting the right to “fund and conduct scientific research free from intimidation and threats of prosecution.” But as we continue to point out, our concerns are not with the conduct of research—but rather with how fossil fuel companies have misrepresented and cast doubt upon such research, and in doing so, may have misled their investors and the public. By attempting to interfere in these investigations, the chairman is directly undermining efforts to hold accountable those who intentionally misrepresent or suppress scientific information. His actions are contrary to the very principles he claims to hold dear. Is UCS being transparent about its activities? UCS has been working for years, publicly, to expose activities by the fossil fuel industry and their allies that undermine climate science, mislead the public, and shield oil companies from accountability. We’ve put together a timeline here. Recent work by UCS and by major media outlets have exposed a long history on the part of oil companies of concealing what they know about climate change. We have met with state attorneys general and their staff to provide them with relevant information. Our efforts on this have been open and transparent, widely available online and in public forums. Our work to hold fossil fuel companies accountable is an exercise of our Constitutionally-protected rights of speech, association and petition. Compelling disclosure of private communications would violate those rights. In addition to having extensive publicly available material on our work, UCS offered to brief the Science Committee on our work to hold companies accountable for their actions. A subpoena is at odds with Chairman Smith’s request for dialogue. How else has Lamar Smith used subpoena power? At the beginning of this Congress, new House of Representatives rules gave Chairman Smith an unusual and unprecedented level of power to issue subpoenas. He has been empowered to use subpoenas unilaterally, without consultation with the minority. We raised concern about how these powers would be used in January 2015, long before we were targeted, because of the potential for abuse. Last fall, Chairman Smith subpoenaed scientists working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) over a peer-reviewed Science article on climate change they authored. NOAA offered to brief the Committee and sent their study and methodologies, but Chairman Smith demanded years’ worth of internal communications from the authors, claiming wrongdoing without evidence. The science community was united in expressing opposition to the way Chairman Smith carried out his inquiry, including a letter from seven major scientific societies stating “grave concern” that his actions could “threaten to inhibit the free exchange of ideas” and “have a chilling effect” on scientific research. The subpoena is still in effect but has not been enforced. More broadly, this Congress has been aggressive in its use of subpoenas and investigatory power without evidence of wrongdoing, leading many to see these tactics as political weapons rather than legitimate oversight. This has the potential to erode the power of congressional subpoenas if they are seen as political tools instead of investigatory tools. What has been the communication between the committee and the groups it is targeting? On May 18 Chairman Smith and 12 members of the US House Science Committee sent request letters to UCS and other nonprofits demanding that they hand over all email correspondence with 17 attorneys general offices and other nonprofit organizations. UCS rejected the request. In an earlier blog post, I put the letters in context: they are an abuse of power and part of a coordinated effort to derail the attorneys general investigations into ExxonMobil’s actions. On June 17, Chairman Smith sent UCS, other nonprofits, and attorneys general a second letter repeating the intrusive demand first made in May, and citing case law related to the McCarthy/House Un-American Activities Committee as justification. UCS again rejected this request. On July 6, Chairman Smith sent a third letter, threatening to subpoena the recipients but inviting a dialogue. UCS responded to the third letter and offered to brief the committee. But Chairman Smith then proceeded to issue a subpoena within hours of our offer. These actions suggest that this investigation is more about public relations and political theater than fact finding. UCS President Ken Kimmell has responded with a statement, noting that “We won’t be intimidated by this tactic and will continue to provide states, our colleagues and the public with the best available scientific evidence on climate change and other critical issues.” Posted in: Global Warming, Science and Democracy Tags: house science committee, The Exxon Climate Scandal Support from UCS members make work like this possible. Will you join us? Help UCS advance independent science for a healthy environment and a safer world.

ORLANDO, Fla. — When Dr. Joseph Ibrahim heard that the attack at the Pulse nightclub may have been linked to terrorism, he caught himself fearing any kind of link to his own Muslim, Middle-Eastern roots. Please, he thought, don’t let Ibrahim appear anywhere in the gunman’s name. Dr. Ibrahim — who heads the trauma unit at Orlando Regional Medical Center, and generally goes by Joey — had already spent hours repairing gunshot wounds in the bodies of Latino men and women, many of whom were the sons and daughters of immigrants, too. Yanked from bed by a phone call at 2:15 a.m., he was doing what he had trained for. His old friends from his hometown in Tennessee were pulling for him. But it was hard to escape the pairing: the son of one Muslim immigrant from the Middle East trying to save the lives of mostly gay Latinos whom another son of Muslim immigrants tried to kill — all in a chunk of verdant Florida built on Disney joy. “Maybe we’re a target because of our diversity and tolerance,” Dr. Ibrahim said after a morning of surgery on Wednesday. “Here you constantly see people from all over the world, and it’s wonderful.”

EUROPEAN COMMISSION Brussels, 14.9.2016 COM(2016) 593 final 2016/0280(COD) Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on copyright in the Digital Single Market (Text with EEA relevance) {SWD(2016) 301 final} {SWD(2016) 302 final} EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM 1.CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL •Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The evolution of digital technologies has changed the way works and other protected subject-matter are created, produced, distributed and exploited. New uses have emerged as well as new actors and new business models. In the digital environment, cross-border uses have also intensified and new opportunities for consumers to access copyright-protected content have materialised. Even though the objectives and principles laid down by the EU copyright framework remain sound, there is a need to adapt it to these new realities. Intervention at EU level is also needed to avoid fragmentation in the internal market. Against this background, the Digital Single Market Strategy adopted in May 2015 identified the need “to reduce the differences between national copyright regimes and allow for wider online access to works by users across the EU”. This Communication highlighted the importance to enhance cross-border access to copyright-protected content services, facilitate new uses in the fields of research and education, and clarify the role of online services in the distribution of works and other subject-matter. In December 2015, the Commission issued a Communication ‘Towards a modern, more European copyright framework’. This Communication outlined targeted actions and a long-term vision to modernise EU copyright rules. This proposal is one of the measures aiming at addressing specific issues identified in that Communication. Exceptions and limitations to copyright and neighbouring rights are harmonised at EU level. Some of these exceptions aim at achieving public policy objectives, such as research or education. However, as new types of uses have recently emerged, it remains uncertain whether these exceptions are still adapted to achieve a fair balance between the rights and interests of authors and other rightholders on the one hand, and of users on the other. In addition, these exceptions remain national and legal certainty around cross-border uses is not guaranteed. In this context, the Commission has identified three areas of intervention: digital and cross-border uses in the field of education, text and data mining in the field of scientific research, and preservation of cultural heritage. The objective is to guarantee the legality of certain types of uses in these fields, including across borders. As a result of a modernised framework of exceptions and limitations, researchers will benefit from a clearer legal space to use innovative text and data mining research tools, teachers and students will be able to take full advantage of digital technologies at all levels of education and cultural heritage institutions (i.e. publicly accessible libraries or museums, archives or film or audio heritage institutions) will be supported in their efforts to preserve the cultural heritage, to the ultimate advantage of EU citizens. Despite the fact that digital technologies should facilitate cross-border access to works and other subject-matter, obstacles remain, in particular for uses and works where clearance of rights is complex. This is the case for cultural heritage institutions wanting to provide online access, including across borders, to out-of-commerce works contained in their catalogues. As a consequence of these obstacles European citizens miss opportunities to access cultural heritage. The proposal addresses these problems by introducing a specific mechanism to facilitate the conclusion of licences for the dissemination of out-of-commerce works by cultural heritage institutions. As regards audiovisual works, despite the growing importance of video-on-demand platforms, EU audiovisual works only constitute one third of works available to consumers on those platforms. Again, this lack of availability partly derives from a complex clearance process. This proposal provides for measures aiming at facilitating the licensing and clearance of rights process. This would ultimately facilitate consumers' cross-border access to copyright-protected content. Evolution of digital technologies has led to the emergence of new business models and reinforced the role of the Internet as the main marketplace for the distribution and access to copyright-protected content. In this new framework, rightholders face difficulties when seeking to license their rights and be remunerated for the online distribution of their works. This could put at risk the development of European creativity and production of creative content. It is therefore necessary to guarantee that authors and rightholders receive a fair share of the value that is generated by the use of their works and other subject-matter. Against this background, this proposal provides for measures aiming at improving the position of rightholders to negotiate and be remunerated for the exploitation of their content by online services giving access to user-uploaded content. A fair sharing of value is also necessary to ensure the sustainability of the press publications sector. Press publishers are facing difficulties in licensing their publications online and obtaining a fair share of the value they generate. This could ultimately affect citizens' access to information. This proposal provides for a new right for press publishers aiming at facilitating online licensing of their publications, the recoupment of their investment and the enforcement of their rights. It also addresses existing legal uncertainty as regards the possibility for all publishers to receive a share in the compensation for uses of works under an exception. Finally, authors and performers often have a weak bargaining position in their contractual relationships, when licensing their rights. In addition, transparency on the revenues generated by the use of their works or performances often remains limited. This ultimately affects the remuneration of the authors and performers. This proposal includes measures to improve transparency and better balanced contractual relationships between authors and performers and those to whom they assign their rights. Overall, the measures proposed in title IV of the proposal aiming at achieving a well-functioning market place for copyright are expected to have in the medium term a positive impact on the production and availability of content and on media pluralism, to the ultimate benefit of consumers. •Consistency with existing policy provisions in the policy area The Digital Single Market Strategy puts forward a range of initiatives with the objective of creating an internal market for digital content and services. In December 2015, a first step has been undertaken by the adoption by the Commission of a proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on ensuring the cross-border portability of online content services in the internal market. The present proposal aims at addressing several of the targeted actions identified in the Communication ‘Towards a modern, more European copyright framework’. Other actions identified in this Communication are covered by the ‘Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down rules on the exercise of copyright and related rights applicable to certain online transmissions of broadcasting organisations and retransmissions of television and radio programmes’, the ‘Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the cross-border exchange between the Union and third countries of accessible format copies of certain works and other subject-matter protected by copyright and related rights for the benefit of persons who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print disabled’ and the ‘Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on certain permitted uses of works and other subject-matter protected by copyright and related rights for the benefit of persons who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print disabled and amending Directive 2001/29/EC on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society’, adopted on the same date of this proposal for a Directive. This proposal is consistent with the existing EU copyright legal framework. This proposal is based upon, and complements the rules laid down in Directive 96/9/EC, Directive 2001/29/EC, Directive 2006/115/EC, Directive 2009/24/EC, Directive 2012/28/EU and Directive 2014/26/EU. Those Directives, as well as this proposal, contribute to the functioning of the internal market, ensure a high level of protection for right holders and facilitate the clearance of rights. This proposal complements Directive 2010/13/EU and the proposal amending it. •Consistency with other Union policies This proposal would facilitate education and research, improve dissemination of European cultures and positively impact cultural diversity. This Directive is therefore consistent with Articles 165, 167 and 179 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Furthermore, this proposal contributes to promoting the interests of consumers, in accordance with the EU policies in the field of consumer protection and Article 169 TFEU, by allowing a wider access to and use of copyright-protected content. 2.LEGAL BASIS, SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY •Legal basis The proposal is based on Article 114 TFEU. This Article confers on the EU the power to adopt measures which have as their object the establishment and functioning of the internal market. •Subsidiarity (for non-exclusive competence) Since exceptions and limitations to copyright and related rights are harmonised at EU level, the margin of manoeuver of Member States in creating or adapting them is limited. In addition, intervention at national level would not be sufficient in view of the cross-border nature of the identified issues. EU intervention is therefore needed to achieve full legal certainty as regards cross-border uses in the fields of research, education and cultural heritage. Some national initiatives have already been developed to facilitate dissemination of and access to out-of-commerce works. However, these initiatives only exist in some Member States and are only applicable on the national territory. EU intervention is therefore necessary to ensure that licensing mechanisms for the access and dissemination of out-of-commerce works are in place in all Member States and to ensure their cross-border effect. As regards online exploitation of audiovisual works, to foster the availability of European works on video-on-demand platforms across the EU, there is a need to facilitate negotiations of licensing agreements in all Member States. Online distribution of copyright-protected content is by essence cross-border. Only mechanisms decided at European level could ensure a well-functioning marketplace for the distribution of works and other subject-matter and to ensure the sustainability of the publishing sector in the face of the challenges of the digital environment. Finally, authors and performers should enjoy in all Member States the high level of protection established by EU legislation. In order to do so and to prevent discrepancies across Member States, it is necessary to set an EU common approach to transparency requirements and mechanisms allowing for the adjustment of contracts in certain cases as well as for the resolution of disputes. •Proportionality The proposal provides for mandatory exceptions for Member States to implement. These exceptions target key public policy objectives and uses with a cross-border dimension. Exceptions also contain conditions that ensure the preservation of functioning markets and rightholders' interests and incentives to create and invest. When relevant, and while ensuring that the objectives of the Directive are met, room for national decision has been preserved. The proposal requires Member States to establish mechanisms aiming at facilitating the clearance of copyright and related rights in the fields of out-of-commerce works and online exploitation of audiovisual works. Whereas the proposal aims at ensuring a wider access and dissemination of content, it does so while preserving the rights of authors and other rightholders. Several safeguards are put in place to that effect (e.g. opt-out possibilities, preservation of licensing possibilities, participation in the negotiation forum on a voluntary basis). The proposal does not go further than what is necessary to achieve the intended aim while leaving sufficient room for Member States to make decisions as regards the specifics of these mechanisms and does not impose disproportionate costs. The proposal imposes obligations on some information society services. However, these obligations remain reasonable in view of the nature of the services covered, the significant impact of these services on the online content market and the large amounts of copyright-protected content stored by these services. The introduction of a related right for press publishers would improve legal certainty and their bargaining position, which is the pursued objective. The proposal is proportionate as it only covers press publications and digital uses. Furthermore, the proposal will not affect retroactively any acts undertaken or rights acquired before the date of transposition. The transparency obligation contained in the proposal only aims at rebalancing contractual relationships between creators and their contractual counterparts while respecting contractual freedom. •Choice of the instrument The proposal relates to, and in some instances modifies, existing Directives. It also leaves, when appropriate and taking into account the aim to be achieved, margin of manoeuver for Member States while ensuring that the objective of a functioning internal market is met. The choice of a Directive is therefore adequate. 3.RESULTS OF EX-POST EVALUATIONS, STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONS AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS •Ex-post evaluations/fitness checks of existing legislation The Commission carried out a review of the existing copyright rules between 2013 and 2016 with the objective to “ensure that copyright and copyright-related practices stay fit for purpose in the new digital context”. Even if it started before the adoption of the Commission's Better Regulation Agenda in May 2015, this review process was carried out in the spirit of the Better Regulation guidelines. The review process highlighted, in particular, problems with the implementation of certain exceptions and their lack of cross-border effect and pointed out to difficulties in the use of copyright-protected content, notably in the digital and cross-border context that have emerged in recent years. •Stakeholder consultations Several public consultations were held by the Commission. The consultation on the review of the EU copyright rules carried out between 5 December 2013 and 5 March 2014 provided the Commission with an overview of stakeholders' views on the review of the EU copyright rules, including on exceptions and limitations and on the remuneration of authors and performers. The public consultation carried out between 24 September 2015 and 6 January 2016 on the regulatory environment for platforms, online intermediaries, data and cloud computing and the collaborative economy provided evidence and views from all stakeholders on the role of intermediaries in the online distribution of works and other subject-matter. Finally, a public consultation was held between the 23 March 2016 and 15 June 2016 on the role of publishers in the copyright value chain and on the 'panorama exception'. This consultation allowed collecting views notably on the possible introduction in EU law of a new related right for publishers. In addition, between 2014 and 2016, the Commission had discussions with the relevant stakeholders on the different topics addressed by the proposal. •Collection and use of expertise Legal and economic studies have been conducted on the application of Directive 2001/29/EC, on the economic impacts of adapting some exceptions and limitations, on the legal framework of text and data mining and on the remuneration of authors and performers. •Impact assessment An impact assessment was carried out for this proposal. On 22 July 2016, the Regulatory Scrutiny Board gave a positive opinion on the understanding that the impact assessment will be further improved. The final Impact Assessment takes into account comments contained in that opinion. The Impact Assessment examines the baseline scenarios, policy options and their impacts for eight topics regrouped under three chapters, namely (i) ensuring wider access to content, (ii) adapting exceptions to digital and cross-border environment and (iii) achieving a well-functioning marketplace for copyright. The impact on the different stakeholders was analysed for each policy option; taking in particular into account the predominance of SMEs in the creative industries the analysis concludes that introducing a special regime would not be appropriate as it would defeat the purpose of the intervention. The policy options of each topic are shortly presented below. Access and availability of audiovisual works on video-on-demand platforms: A non-legislative option (Option 1), consisting in the organisation of a stakeholder dialogue on licensing issues, was not retained as it was deemed insufficient to address individual cases of blockages. The chosen option (Option 2) combines the organisation of a stakeholder dialogue with the obligation for Member States to set up a negotiation mechanism. Out-of-commerce works: Option 1 required Member States to put in place legal mechanisms, with cross-border effect, to facilitate licensing agreements for out-of-commerce books and learned journals and to organise a stakeholder dialogue at national level to facilitate the implementation of that mechanism. Option 2 went further since it applied to all types of out-of-commerce works. This extension was deemed necessary to address the licensing of out-of-commerce works in all sectors. Option 2 was therefore chosen. Use of works and other subject-matter in digital and cross-border teaching activities: Option 1 consisted in providing guidance to Member States on the application of the existing teaching exception in the digital environment and the organisation of a stakeholder dialogue. This was considered not sufficient to ensure legal certainty, in particular as regards cross-border uses. Option 2 required the introduction of a mandatory exception with a cross-border effect covering digital uses. Option 3 is similar to Option 2 but leaves some flexibility to Member States that can decide to apply the exception depending on the availability of licences. This option was deemed to be the most proportionate one. Text and data mining: Option 1 consisted in self-regulation initiatives from the industry. Other options consisted in the introduction of a mandatory exception covering text and data mining. In Option 2, the exception only covered uses pursuing a non-commercial scientific research purpose. Option 3 allowed uses for commercial scientific research purpose but limited the benefit of the exception to some beneficiaries. Option 4 went further as it did not restrict beneficiaries. Option 3 was deemed to be the most proportionate one. Preservation of cultural heritage: Option 1 consisted in the provision of guidance to Member States on the implementation of the exception on specific acts of reproduction for preservation purposes. This Option was rejected as it was deemed insufficient to achieve legal certainty in the field. Option 2, consisting in a mandatory exception for preservation purposes by cultural heritage institutions, was chosen. Use of copyright-protected content by information society services storing and giving access to large amounts of works and other subject-matter uploaded by their users: Option 1 consisted in the organisation of a stakeholder dialogue. This approach was rejected as it would have a limited impact on the possibility for rightholders to determine the conditions of use of their works and other subject-matter. The chosen option (Option 2) goes further and provides for an obligation for certain service providers to put in place appropriate technologies and fosters the conclusion of agreements with rightholders. Rights in publications: Option 1 consisted in the organisation of a stakeholder dialogue to find solutions for the dissemination of press publishers' content. This option was deemed insufficient to ensure legal certainty across the EU. Option 2 consisted in the introduction of a related right covering digital uses of press publications. In addition to this, Option 3 leaves the option for Member States to enable publishers, to which rights have been transferred or licensed by an author, to claim a share in the compensation for uses under an exception. This last option was the one retained as it addressed all relevant problems. Fair remuneration in contracts of authors and performers: Option 1 consisted in providing a recommendation to Member States and organising a stakeholder dialogue. This option was rejected since it would not be efficient enough. Option 2 foresaw the introduction of transparency obligations on the contractual counterparts of creators. On top of that, Option 3 proposed the introduction of a remuneration adjustment mechanism and a dispute resolution mechanism. This option was the one retained since Option 2 would not have provided enforcement means to creators to support the transparency obligation. •Regulatory fitness and simplification For the uses covered by the exceptions, the proposal will allow educational establishments, public-interest research institutions and cultural heritage institutions to reduce transaction costs. This reduction of transaction costs does not necessarily mean that rightholders would suffer a loss of income or licensing revenues: the scope and conditions of the exceptions ensure that rightholders would suffer minimal harm. The impact on SMEs in these fields (in particular scientific and educational publishers) and on their business models should therefore be limited. Mechanisms aiming to improve licensing practices are likely to reduce transaction costs and increase licensing revenues for rightholders. SMEs in the fields (producers, distributors, publishers, etc.) would be positively affected. Other stakeholders, such as VoD platforms, would also be positively affected. The proposal also includes several measures (transparency obligation on rightholders' counterparts, introduction of a new right for press publishers and obligation on some online services) that would improve the bargaining position of rightholders and the control they have on the use of their works and other subject-matter. It is expected to have a positive impact on rightholders' revenues. The proposal includes new obligations on some online services and on those to which authors and performers transfer their rights. These obligations may impose additional costs. However, the proposal ensures that the costs will remain proportionate and that, when necessary, some actors would not be subject to the obligation. For instance, the transparency obligation will not apply when the administrative costs it implies are disproportionate in view of the generated revenues. As for the obligation on online services, it only applies to information society services storing and giving access to large amounts of copyright-protected content uploaded by their users. The proposal foresees the obligation for Member States to implement negotiation and dispute resolution mechanisms. This implies compliance costs for Member States. However, they could rely in most cases on existing structures, which would limit the costs. The teaching exception can also entail some costs for Member States linked to the measures ensuring the availability and visibility of licences for educational establishments. New technological developments have been carefully examined. The proposal includes several exceptions that aim at facilitating the use of copyright-protected content via new technologies. This proposal also includes measures to facilitate access to content, including via digital networks. Finally, it ensures a balanced bargaining position between all actors in the digital environment. •Fundamental rights By improving the bargaining position of authors and performers and the control rightholders have on the use of their copyright-protected content, the proposal will have a positive impact on copyright as a property right, protected under Article 17 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (‘the Charter’). This positive impact will be reinforced by the measures to improve licensing practices, and ultimately rightholders' revenues. New exceptions that reduce to some extent the rightholders' monopoly are justified by other public interest objectives. These exceptions are likely to have a positive impact on the right to education and on cultural diversity. Finally, the Directive has a limited impact on the freedom to conduct a business and on the freedom of expression and information, as recognised respectively by Articles 16 and 11 of the Charter, due to the mitigation measures put in place and a balanced approach to the obligations set on the relevant stakeholders. 4.BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS The proposal has no impact on the European Union budget. 5.OTHER ELEMENTS •Implementation plans and monitoring, evaluation and reporting arrangements In accordance with Article 22 the Commission shall carry out a review of the Directive no sooner than [five] years after the date of [transposition]. •Explanatory documents In compliance with recital 48 of the proposal, Member States will notify the Commission of their transposition measures with explanatory documents. This is necessary given the complexity of rules laid down by the proposal and the importance to keep a harmonised approach of rules applicable to the digital and cross-border environment. •Detailed explanation of the specific provisions of the proposal The first title contains general provisions which (i) specify the subject-matter and the scope of the Directive and (ii) provide definitions that will need to be interpreted in a uniform manner in the Union. The second title concerns measures to adapt exceptions and limitations to the digital and cross-border environment. This title includes three articles which require Member States to provide for mandatory exceptions or a limitation allowing (i) text and data mining carried out by research organisations for the purposes of scientific research (Article 3); (ii) digital uses of works and other subject-matter for the sole purpose of illustration for teaching (Article 4) and (iii) cultural heritage institutions to make copies of works and other subject-matter that are permanently in their collections to the extent necessary for their preservation (Article 5). Article 6 provides for common provisions to the title on exceptions and limitations. The third title concerns measures to improve licensing practices and ensure wider access to content. Article 7 requires Member States to put in place a legal mechanism to facilitate licensing agreements of out-of-commerce works and other subject-matter. Article 8 guarantees the cross-border effect of such licensing agreements. Article 9 requires Member States to put in place a stakeholder dialogue on issues relating to Articles 7 and 8. Article 10 creates an obligation for Member States to put in place a negotiation mechanism to facilitate negotiations on the online exploitation of audiovisual works. The fourth title concerns measures to achieve a well-functioning marketplace for copyright. Articles 11 and 12 (i) extend the rights provided for in Articles 2 and 3(2) of Directive 2001/29/EC to publishers of press publications for the digital use of their publications and (ii) provide for the option for Member States to provide all publishers with the possibility to claim a share in the compensation for uses made under an exception. Article 13 creates an obligation on information society service providers storing and giving access to large amounts of works and other subject-matter uploaded by their users to take appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure the functioning of agreements concluded with rightholders and to prevent the availability on their services of content identified by rightholders in cooperation with the service providers. Article 14 requires Member States to include transparency obligations to the benefit of authors and performers. Article 15 requires Member States to establish a contract adjustment mechanism, in support of the obligation provided for in Article 14. Article 16 requires Member States to set up a dispute resolution mechanism for issues arising from the application of Articles 14 and 15. The fifth title contains final provisions on amendments to other directives, the application in time, transitional provisions, the protection of personal data, the transposition, the review and the entry into force. 2016/0280 (COD) Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on copyright in the Digital Single Market (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 114 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments, Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee, Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions, Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, Whereas: (1)The Treaty provides for the establishment of an internal market and the institution of a system ensuring that competition in the internal market is not distorted. Harmonisation of the laws of the Member States on copyright and related rights should contribute further to the achievement of those objectives. (2)The directives which have been adopted in the area of copyright and related rights provide for a high level of protection for rightholders and create a framework wherein the exploitation of works and other protected subject-matter can take place. This harmonised legal framework contributes to the good functioning of the internal market; it stimulates innovation, creativity, investment and production of new content, also in the digital environment. The protection provided by this legal framework also contributes to the Union's objective of respecting and promoting cultural diversity while at the same time bringing the European common cultural heritage to the fore. Article 167(4) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union requires the Union to take cultural aspects into account in its action. (3)Rapid technological developments continue to transform the way works and other subject-matter are created, produced, distributed and exploited. New business models and new actors continue to emerge. The objectives and the principles laid down by the Union copyright framework remain sound. However, legal uncertainty remains, for both rightholders and users, as regards certain uses, including cross-border uses, of works and other subject-matter in the digital environment. As set out in the Communication of the Commission entitled ‘Towards a modern, more European copyright framework’, in some areas it is necessary to adapt and supplement the current Union copyright framework. This Directive provides for rules to adapt certain exceptions and limitations to digital and cross-border environments, as well as measures to facilitate certain licensing practices as regards the dissemination of out-of-commerce works and the online availability of audiovisual works on video-on-demand platforms with a view to ensuring wider access to content. In order to achieve a well-functioning marketplace for copyright, there should also be rules on rights in publications, on the use of works and other subject-matter by online service providers storing and giving access to user uploaded content and on the transparency of authors' and performers' contracts. (4)This Directive is based upon, and complements, the rules laid down in the Directives currently in force in this area, in particular Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, Directive 2006/115/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, Directive 2009/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, Directive 2012/28/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council and Directive 2014/26/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council. (5)In the fields of research, education and preservation of cultural heritage, digital technologies permit new types of uses that are not clearly covered by the current Union rules on exceptions and limitations. In addition, the optional nature of exceptions and limitations provided for in Directives 2001/29/EC, 96/9/EC and 2009/24/EC in these fields may negatively impact the functioning of the internal market. This is particularly relevant as regards cross-border uses, which are becoming increasingly important in the digital environment. Therefore, the existing exceptions and limitations in Union law that are relevant for scientific research, teaching and preservation of cultural heritage should be reassessed in the light of those new uses. Mandatory exceptions or limitations for uses of text and data mining technologies in the field of scientific research, illustration for teaching in the digital environment and for preservation of cultural heritage should be introduced. For uses not covered by the exceptions or the limitation provided for in this Directive, the exceptions and limitations existing in Union law should continue to apply. Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC should be adapted. (6)The exceptions and the limitation set out in this Directive seek to achieve a fair balance between the rights and interests of authors and other rightholders on the one hand, and of users on the other. They can be applied only in certain special cases which do not conflict with the normal exploitation of the works or other subject-matter and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the rightholders. (7)The protection of technological measures established in Directive 2001/29/EC remains essential to ensure the protection and the effective exercise of the rights granted to authors and to other rightholders under Union law. This protection should be maintained while ensuring that the use of technological measures does not prevent the enjoyment of the exceptions and the limitation established in this Directive, which are particularly relevant in the online environment. Rightholders should have the opportunity to ensure this through voluntary measures. They should remain free to choose the format and the modalities to provide the beneficiaries of the exceptions and the limitation established in this Directive with the means to benefit from them provided that such means are appropriate. In the absence of voluntary measures, Member States should take appropriate measures in accordance with the first subparagraph of Article 6(4) of Directive 2001/29/EC. (8)New technologies enable the automated computational analysis of information in digital form, such as text, sounds, images or data, generally known as text and data mining. Those technologies allow researchers to process large amounts of information to gain new knowledge and discover new trends. Whilst text and data mining technologies are prevalent across the digital economy, there is widespread acknowledgment that text and data mining can in particular benefit the research community and in so doing encourage innovation. However, in the Union, research organisations such as universities and research institutes are confronted with legal uncertainty as to the extent to which they can perform text and data mining of content. In certain instances, text and data mining may involve acts protected by copyright and/or by the sui generis database right, notably the reproduction of works or other subject-matter and/or the extraction of contents from a database. Where there is no exception or limitation which applies, an authorisation to undertake such acts would be required from rightholders. Text and data mining may also be carried out in relation to mere facts or data which are not protected by copyright and in such instances no authorisation would be required. (9)Union law already provides certain exceptions and limitations covering uses for scientific research purposes which may apply to acts of text and data mining. However, those exceptions and limitations are optional and not fully adapted to the use of technologies in scientific research. Moreover, where researchers have lawful access to content, for example through subscriptions to publications or open access licences, the terms of the licences may exclude text and data mining. As research is increasingly carried out with the assistance of digital technology, there is a risk that the Union's competitive position as a research area will suffer unless steps are taken to address the legal uncertainty for text and data mining. (10)This legal uncertainty should be addressed by providing for a mandatory exception to the right of reproduction and also to the right to prevent extraction from a database. The new exception should be without prejudice to the existing mandatory exception on temporary acts of reproduction laid down in Article 5(1) of Directive 2001/29, which should continue to apply to text and data mining techniques which do not involve the making of copies going beyond the scope of that exception. Research organisations should also benefit from the exception when they engage into public-private partnerships. (11)Research organisations across the Union encompass a wide variety of entities the primary goal of which is to conduct scientific research or to do so together with the provision of educational services. Due to the diversity of such entities, it is important to have a common understanding of the beneficiaries of the exception. Despite different legal forms and structures, research organisations across Member States generally have in common that they act either on a not for profit basis or in the context of a public-interest mission recognised by the State. Such a public-interest mission may, for example, be reflected through public funding or through provisions in national laws or public contracts. At the same time, organisations upon which commercial undertakings have a decisive influence allowing them to exercise control because of structural situations such as their quality of shareholders or members, which may result in preferential access to the results of the research, should not be considered research organisations for the purposes of this Directive. (12)In view of a potentially high number of access requests to and downloads of their works or other subject-matter, rightholders should be allowed to apply measures where there is risk that the security and integrity of the system or databases where the works or other subject-matter are hosted would be jeopardised. Those measures should not exceed what is necessary to pursue the objective of ensuring the security and integrity of the system and should not undermine the effective application of the exception. (13)There is no need to provide for compensation for rightholders as regards uses under the text and data mining exception introduced by this Directive given that in view of the nature and scope of the exception the harm should be minimal. (14)Article 5(3)(a) of Directive 2001/29/EC allows Member States to introduce an exception or limitation to the rights of reproduction, communication to the public and making available to the public for the sole purpose of, among others, illustration for teaching. In addition, Articles 6(2)(b) and 9(b) of Directive 96/9/EC permit the use of a database and the extraction or re-utilization of a substantial part of its contents for the purpose of illustration for teaching. The scope of those exceptions or limitations as they apply to digital uses is unclear. In addition, there is a lack of clarity as to whether those exceptions or limitations would apply where teaching is provided online and thereby at a distance. Moreover, the existing framework does not provide for a cross-border effect. This situation may hamper the development of digitally-supported teaching activities and distance learning. Therefore, the introduction of a new mandatory exception or limitation is necessary to ensure that educational establishments benefit from full legal certainty when using works or other subject-matter in digital teaching activities, including online and across borders. (15)While distance learning and cross-border education programmes are mostly developed at higher education level, digital tools and resources are increasingly used at all education levels, in particular to improve and enrich the learning experience. The exception or limitation provided for in this Directive should therefore benefit all educational establishments in primary, secondary, vocational and higher education to the extent they pursue their educational activity for a non-commercial purpose. The organisational structure and the means of funding of an educational establishment are not the decisive factors to determine the non-commercial nature of the activity. (16)The exception or limitation should cover digital uses of works and other subject-matter such as the use of parts or extracts of works to support, enrich or complement the teaching, including the related learning activities. The use of the works or other subject-matter under the exception or limitation should be only in the context of teaching and learning activities carried out under the responsibility of educational establishments, including during examinations, and be limited to what is necessary for the purpose of such activities. The exception or limitation should cover both uses through digital means in the classroom and online uses through the educational establishment's secure electronic network, the access to which should be protected, notably by authentication procedures. The exception or limitation should be understood as covering the specific accessibility needs of persons with a disability in the context of illustration for teaching. (17)Different arrangements, based on the implementation of the exception provided for in Directive 2001/29/EC or on licensing agreements covering further uses, are in place in a number of Member States in order to facilitate educational uses of works and other subject-matter. Such arrangements have usually been developed taking account of the needs of educational establishments and different levels of education. Whereas it is essential to harmonise the scope of the new mandatory exception or limitation in relation to digital uses and cross-border teaching activities, the modalities of implementation may differ from a Member State to another, to the extent they do not hamper the effective application of the exception or limitation or cross-border uses. This should allow Member States to build on the existing arrangements concluded at national level. In particular, Member States could decide to subject the application of the exception or limitation, fully or partially, to the availability of adequate licences, covering at least the same uses as those allowed under the exception. This mechanism would, for example, allow giving precedence to licences for materials which are primarily intended for the educational market. In order to avoid that such mechanism results in legal uncertainty or administrative burden for educational establishments, Member States adopting this approach should take concrete measures to ensure that licensing schemes allowing digital uses of works or other subject-matter for the purpose of illustration for teaching are easily available and that educational establishments are aware of the existence of such licensing schemes. (18)An act of preservation may require a reproduction of a work or other subject-matter in the collection of a cultural heritage institution and consequently the authorisation of the relevant rightholders. Cultural heritage institutions are engaged in the preservation of their collections for future generations. Digital technologies offer new ways to preserve the heritage contained in those collections but they also create new challenges. In view of these new challenges, it is necessary to adapt the current legal framework by providing a mandatory exception to the right of reproduction in order to allow those acts of preservation. (19)Different approaches in the Member States for acts of preservation by cultural heritage institutions hamper cross-border cooperation and the sharing of means of preservation by cultural heritage institutions in the internal market, leading to an inefficient use of resources. (20)Member States should therefore be required to provide for an exception to permit cultural heritage institutions to reproduce works and other subject-matter permanently in their collections for preservation purposes, for example to address technological obsolescence or the degradation of original supports. Such an exception should allow for the making of copies by the appropriate preservation tool, means or technology, in the required number and at any point in the life of a work or other subject-matter to the extent required in order to produce a copy for preservation purposes only. (21)For the purposes of this Directive, works and other subject-matter should be considered to be permanently in the collection of a cultural heritage institution when copies are owned or permanently held by the cultural heritage institution, for example as a result of a transfer of ownership or licence agreements. (22)Cultural heritage institutions should benefit from a clear framework for the digitisation and dissemination, including across borders, of out-of-commerce works or other subject-matter. However, the particular characteristics of the collections of out-of-commerce works mean that obtaining the prior consent of the individual rightholders may be very difficult. This can be due, for example, to the age of the works or other subject-matter, their limited commercial value or the fact that they were never intended for commercial use. It is therefore necessary to provide for measures to facilitate the licensing of rights in out-of-commerce works that are in the collections of cultural heritage institutions and thereby to allow the conclusion of agreements with cross-border effect in the internal market. (23)Member States should, within the framework provided for in this Directive, have flexibility in choosing the specific type of mechanism allowing for licences for out-of-commerce works to extend to the rights of rightholders that are not represented by the collective management organisation, in accordance to their legal traditions, practices or circumstances. Such mechanisms can include extended collective licensing and presumptions of representation. (24)For the purpose of those licensing mechanisms, a rigorous and well-functioning collective management system is important. That system includes in particular rules of good governance, transparency and reporting, as well as the regular, diligent and accurate distribution and payment of amounts due to individual rightholders, as provided for by Directive 2014/26/EU. Additional appropriate safeguards should be available for all rightholders, who should be given the opportunity to exclude the application of such mechanisms to their works or other subject-matter. Conditions attached to those mechanisms should not affect their practical relevance for cultural heritage institutions. (25)Considering the variety of works and other subject-matter in the collections of cultural heritage institutions, it is important that the licensing mechanisms introduced by this Directive are available and can be used in practice for different types of works and other subject-matter, including photographs, sound recordings and audiovisual works. In order to reflect the specificities of different categories of works and other subject-matter as regards modes of publication and distribution and to facilitate the usability of those mechanisms, specific requirements and procedures may have to be established by Member States for the practical application of those licensing mechanisms. It is appropriate that Member States consult rightholders, users and collective management organisations when doing so. (26)For reasons of international comity, the licensing mechanisms for the digitisation and dissemination of out-of-commerce works provided for in this Directive should not apply to works or other subject-matter that are first published or, in the absence of publication, first broadcast in a third country or, in the case of cinematographic or audiovisual works, to works the producer of which has his headquarters or habitual residence in a third country. Those mechanisms should also not apply to works or other subject-matter of third country nationals except when they are first published or, in the absence of publication, first broadcast in the territory of a Member State or, in the case of cinematographic or audiovisual works, to works of which the producer's headquarters or habitual residence is in a Member State. (27)As mass digitisation projects can entail significant investments by cultural heritage institutions, any licences granted under the mechanisms provided for in this Directive should not prevent them from generating reasonable revenues in order to cover the costs of the licence and the costs of digitising and disseminating the works and other subject-matter covered by the licence. (28)Information regarding the future and ongoing use of out-of-commerce works and other subject-matter by cultural heritage institutions on the basis of the licensing mechanisms provided for in this Directive and the arrangements in place for all rightholders to exclude the application of licences to their works or other subject-matter should be adequately publicised. This is particularly important when uses take place across borders in the internal market. It is therefore appropriate to make provision for the creation of a single publicly accessible online portal for the Union to make such information available to the public for a reasonable period of time before the cross-border use takes place. Under Regulation (EU) No 386/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council, the European Union Intellectual Property Office is entrusted with certain tasks and activities, financed by making use of its own budgetary measures, aiming at facilitating and supporting the activities of national authorities, the private sector and Union institutions in the fight against, including the prevention of, infringement of intellectual property rights. It is therefore appropriate to rely on that Office to establish and manage the European portal making such information available. (29)On-demand services have the potential to play a decisive role in the dissemination of European works across the European Union. However, agreements on the online exploitation of such works may face difficulties related to the licensing of rights. Such issues may, for instance, appear when the holder of the rights for a given territory is not interested in the online exploitation of the work or where there are issues linked to the windows of exploitation. (30)To facilitate the licensing of rights in audiovisual works to video-on-demand platforms, this Directive requires Member States to set up a negotiation mechanism allowing parties willing to conclude an agreement to rely on the assistance of an impartial body. The body should meet with the parties and help with the negotiations by providing professional and external advice. Against that background, Member States should decide on the conditions of the functioning of the negotiation mechanism, including the timing and duration of the assistance to negotiations and the bearing of the costs. Member States should ensure that administrative and financial burdens remain proportionate to guarantee the efficiency of the negotiation forum. (31)A free and pluralist press is essential to ensure quality journalism and citizens' access to information. It provides a fundamental contribution to public debate and the proper functioning of a democratic society. In the transition from print to digital, publishers of press publications are facing problems in licensing the online use of their publications and recouping their investments. In the absence of recognition of publishers of press publications as rightholders, licensing and enforcement in the digital environment is often complex and inefficient. (32)The organisational and financial contribution of publishers in producing press publications needs to be recognised and further encouraged to ensure the sustainability of the publishing industry. It is therefore necessary to provide at Union level a harmonised legal protection for press publications in respect of digital uses. Such protection should be effectively guaranteed through the introduction, in Union law, of rights related to copyright for the reproduction and making available to the public of press publications in respect of digital uses. (33)For the purposes of this Directive, it is necessary to define the concept of press publication in a way that embraces only journalistic publications, published by a service provider, periodically or regularly updated in any media, for the purpose of informing or entertaining. Such publications would include, for instance, daily newspapers, weekly or monthly magazines of general or special interest and news websites. Periodical publications which are published for scientific or academic purposes, such as scientific journals, should not be covered by the protection granted to press publications under this Directive. This protection does not extend to acts of hyperlinking which do not constitute communication to the public. (34)The rights granted to the publishers of press publications under this Directive should have the same scope as the rights of reproduction and making available to the public provided for in Directive 2001/29/EC, insofar as digital uses are concerned. They should also be subject to the same provisions on exceptions and limitations as those applicable to the rights provided for in Directive 2001/29/EC including the exception on quotation for purposes such as criticism or review laid down in Article 5(3)(d) of that Directive. (35)The protection granted to publishers of press publications under this Directive should not affect the rights of the authors and other rightholders in the works and other subject-matter incorporated therein, including as regards the extent to which authors and other rightholders can exploit their works or other subject-matter independently from the press publication in which they are incorporated. Therefore, publishers of press publications should not be able to invoke the protection granted to them against authors and other rightholders. This is without prejudice to contractual arrangements concluded between the publishers of press publications, on the one side, and authors and other rightholders, on the other side. (36)Publishers, including those of press publications, books or scientific publications, often operate on the basis of the transfer of authors' rights by means of contractual agreements or statutory provisions. In this context, publishers make an investment with a view to the exploitation of the works contained in their publications and may in some instances be deprived of revenues where such works are used under exceptions or limitations such as the ones for private copying and reprography. In a number of Member States compensation for uses under those exceptions is shared between authors and publishers. In order to take account of this situation and improve legal certainty for all concerned parties, Member States should be allowed to determine that, when an author has transferred or licensed his rights to a publisher or otherwise contributes with his works to a publication and there are systems in place to compensate for the harm caused by an exception or limitation, publishers are entitled to claim a share of such compensation, whereas the burden on the publisher to substantiate his claim should not exceed what is required under the system in place. (37)Over the last years, the functioning of the online content marketplace has gained in complexity. Online services providing access to copyright protected content uploaded by their users without the involvement of right holders have flourished and have become main sources of access to content online. This affects rightholders' possibilities to determine whether, and under which conditions, their work and other subject-matter are used as well as their possibilities to get an appropriate remuneration for it. (38)Where information society service providers store and provide access to the public to copyright protected works or other subject-matter uploaded by their users, thereby going beyond the mere provision of physical facilities and performing an act of communication to the public, they are obliged to conclude licensing agreements with rightholders, unless they are eligible for the liability exemption provided in Article 14 of Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. In respect of Article 14, it is necessary to verify whether the service provider plays an active role, including by optimising the presentation of the uploaded works or subject-matter or promoting them, irrespective of the nature of the means used therefor. In order to ensure the functioning of any licensing agreement, information society service providers storing and providing access to the public to large amounts of copyright protected works or other subject-matter uploaded by their users should take appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure protection of works or other subject-matter, such as implementing effective technologies. This obligation should also apply when the information society service providers are eligible for the liability exemption provided in Article 14 of Directive 2000/31/EC. (39)Collaboration between information society service providers storing and providing access to the public to large amounts of copyright protected works or other subject-matter uploaded by their users and rightholders is essential for the functioning of technologies, such as content recognition technologies. In such cases, rightholders should provide the necessary data to allow the services to identify their content and the services should be transparent towards rightholders with regard to the deployed technologies, to allow the assessment of their appropriateness. The services should in particular provide rightholders with information on the type of technologies used, the way they are operated and their success rate for the recognition of rightholders' content. Those technologies should also allow rightholders to get information from the information society service providers on the use of their content covered by an agreement. (40)Certain rightholders such as authors and performers need information to assess the economic value of their rights which are harmonised under Union law. This is especially the case where such rightholders grant a licence or a transfer of rights in return for remuneration. As authors and performers tend to be in a weaker contractual position when they grant licences or transfer their rights, they need information to assess the continued economic value of their rights, compared to the remuneration received for their licence or transfer, but they often face a lack of transparency. Therefore, the sharing of adequate information by their contractual counterparts or their successors in title is important for the transparency and balance in the system that governs the remuneration of authors and performers. (41)When implementing transparency obligations, the specificities of different content sectors and of the rights of the authors and performers in each sector should be considered. Member States should consult all relevant stakeholders as that should help determine sector-specific requirements. Collective bargaining should be considered as an option to reach an agreement between the relevant stakeholders regarding transparency. To enable the adaptation of current reporting practices to the transparency obligations, a transitional period should be provided for. The transparency obligations do not need to apply to agreements concluded with collective management organisations as those are already subject to transparency obligations under Directive 2014/26/EU. (42)Certain contracts for the exploitation of rights harmonised at Union level are of long duration, offering few possibilities for authors and performers to renegotiate them with their contractual counterparts or their successors in title. Therefore, without prejudice to the law applicable to contracts in Member States, there should be a remuneration adjustment mechanism for cases where the remuneration originally agreed under a licence or a transfer of rights is disproportionately low compared to the relevant revenues and the benefits derived from the exploitation of the work or the fixation of the performance, including in light of the transparency ensured by this Directive. The assessment of the situation should take account of the specific circumstances of each case as well as of the specificities and practices of the different content sectors. Where the parties do not agree on the adjustment of the remuneration, the author or performer should be entitled to bring a claim before a court or other competent authority. (43)Authors and performers are often reluctant to enforce their rights against their contractual partners before a court or tribunal. Member States should therefore provide for an alternative dispute resolution procedure that addresses claims related to obligations of transparency and the contract adjustment mechanism. (44)The objectives of this Directive, namely the modernisation of certain aspects of the Union copyright framework to take account of technological developments and new channels of distribution of protected content in the internal market, cannot be sufficiently achieved by Member States but can rather, by reason of their scale, effects and cross-border dimension, be better achieved at Union level. Therefore, the Union may adopt measures in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives. (45)This Directive respects the fundamental rights and observes the principles recognised in particular by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Accordingly, this Directive should be interpreted and applied in accordance with those rights and principles. (46)Any processing of personal data under this Directive should respect fundamental rights, including the right to respect for private and family life and the right to protection of personal data under Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and must be in compliance with Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Counciland Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. (47)In accordance with the Joint Political Declaration of 28 September 2011 of Member States and the Commission on explanatory documents, Member States have undertaken to accompany, in justified cases, the notification of their transposition measures with one or more documents explaining the relationship between the components of a directive and the corresponding parts of national transposition instruments. With regard to this Directive, the legislator considers the transmission of such documents to be justified, HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE: TITLE I GENERAL PROVISIONS Article 1 Subject matter and scope 1.This Directive lays down rules which aim at further harmonising the Union law applicable to copyright and related rights in the framework of the internal market, taking into account in particular digital and cross-border uses of protected content. It also lays down rules on exceptions and limitations, on the facilitation of licences as well as rules aiming at ensuring a well-functioning marketplace for the exploitation of works and other subject-matter. 2.Except in the cases referred to in Article 6, this Directive shall leave intact and shall in no way affect existing rules laid down in the Directives currently in force in this area, in particular Directives 96/9/EC, 2001/29/EC, 2006/115/EC, 2009/24/EC, 2012/28/EU and 2014/26/EU. Article 2 Definitions For the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions shall apply: (1)‘research organisation’ means a university, a research institute or any other organisation the primary goal of which is to conduct scientific research or to conduct scientific research and provide educational services: (a)on a non-for-profit basis or by reinvesting all the profits in its scientific research; or (b)pursuant to a public interest mission recognised by a Member State; in such a way that the access to the results generated by the scientific research cannot be enjoyed on a preferential basis by an undertaking exercising a decisive influence upon such organisation; (2)‘text and data mining’ means any automated analytical technique aiming to analyse text and data in digital form in order to generate information such as patterns, trends and correlations; (3)‘cultural heritage institution’ means a publicly accessible library or museum, an archive or a film or audio heritage institution; (4)‘press publication’ means a fixation of a collection of literary works of a journalistic nature, which may also comprise other works or subject-matter and constitutes an individual item within a periodical or regularly-updated publication under a single title, such as a newspaper or a general or special interest magazine, having the purpose of providing information related to news or other topics and published in any media under the initiative, editorial responsibility and control of a service provider. TITLE II MEASURES TO ADAPT EXCEPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS TO THE DIGITAL AND CROSS-BORDER ENVIRONMENT Article 3 Text and data mining 1.Member States shall provide for an exception to the rights provided for in Article 2 of Directive 2001/29/EC, Articles 5(a) and 7(1) of Directive 96/9/EC and Article 11(1) of this Directive for reproductions and extractions made by research organisations in order to carry out text and data mining of works or other subject-matter to which they have lawful access for the purposes of scientific research. 2.Any contractual provision contrary to the exception provided for in paragraph 1 shall be unenforceable. 3.Rightholders shall be allowed to apply measures to ensure the security and integrity of the networks and databases where the works or other subject-matter are hosted. Such measures shall not go beyond what is necessary to achieve that objective. 4.Member States shall encourage rightholders and research organisations to define commonly-agreed best practices concerning the application of the measures referred to in paragraph 3. Article 4 Use of works and other subject-matter in digital and cross-border teaching activities 1.Member States shall provide for an exception or limitation to the rights provided for in Articles 2 and 3 of Directive 2001/29/EC, Articles 5(a) and 7(1) of Directive 96/9/EC, Article 4(1) of Directive 2009/24/EC and Article 11(1) of this Directive in order to allow for the digital use of works and other subject-matter for the sole purpose of illustration for teaching, to the extent justified by the non-commercial purpose to be achieved, provided that the use: (a)takes place on the premises of an educational establishment or through a secure electronic network accessible only by the educational establishment's pupils or students and teaching staff; (b)is accompanied by the indication of the source, including the author's name, unless this turns out to be impossible. 2.Member States may provide that the exception adopted pursuant to paragraph 1 does not apply generally or as regards specific types of works or other subject-matter, to the extent that adequate licences authorising the acts described in paragraph 1 are easily available in the market. Member States availing themselves of the provision of the first subparagraph shall take the necessary measures to ensure appropriate availability and visibility of the licences authorising the acts described in paragraph 1 for educational establishments. 3.The use of works and other subject-matter for the sole purpose of illustration for teaching through secure electronic networks undertaken in compliance with the provisions of national law adopted pursuant to this Article shall be deemed to occur solely in the Member State where the educational establishment is established. 4.Member States may provide for fair compensation for the harm incurred by the rightholders due to the use of their works or other subject-matter pursuant to paragraph 1. Article 5 Preservation of cultural heritage Member States shall provide for an exception to the rights provided for in Article 2 of Directive 2001/29/EC, Articles 5(a) and 7(1) of Directive 96/9/EC, Article 4(1)(a) of Directive 2009/24/EC and Article 11(1) of this Directive, permitting cultural heritage institutions, to make copies of any works or other subject-matter that are permanently in their collections, in any format or medium, for the sole purpose of the preservation of such works or other subject-matter and to the extent necessary for such preservation. Article 6 Common provisions Article 5(5) and the first, third and fifth subparagraphs of Article 6(4) of Directive 2001/29/EC shall apply to the exceptions and the limitation provided for under this Title. TITLE III MEASURES TO IMPROVE LICENSING PRACTICES AND ENSURE WIDER ACCESS TO CONTENT CHAPTER 1 Out-of-commerce works Article 7 Use of out-of-commerce works by cultural heritage institutions 1.Member States shall provide that when a collective management organisation, on behalf of its members, concludes a non-exclusive licence for non-commercial purposes with a cultural heritage institution for the digitisation, distribution, communication to the public or making available of out-of-commerce works or other subject-matter permanently in the collection of the institution, such a non-exclusive licence may be extended or presumed to apply to rightholders of the same category as those covered by the licence who are not represented by the collective management organisation, provided that: (a)the collective management organisation is, on the basis of mandates from rightholders, broadly representative of rightholders in the category of works or other subject-matter and of the rights which are the subject of the licence; (b)equal treatment is guaranteed to all rightholders in relation to the terms of the licence; (c)all rightholders may at any time object to their works or other subject-matter being deemed to be out of commerce and exclude the application of the licence to their works or other subject-matter. 2.A work or other subject-matter shall be deemed to be out of commerce when the whole work or other subject-matter, in all its translations, versions and manifestations, is not available to the public through customary channels of commerce and cannot be reasonably expected to become so. Member States shall, in consultation with rightholders, collective management organisations and cultural heritage institutions, ensure that the requirements used to determine whether works and other subject-matter can be licensed in accordance with paragraph 1 do not extend beyond what is necessary and reasonable and do not preclude the possibility to determine the out-of-commerce status of a collection as a whole, when it is reasonable to presume that all works or other subject-matter in the collection are out of commerce. 3.Member States shall provide that appropriate publicity measures are taken regarding: (a)the deeming of works or other subject-matter as out of commerce; (b)the licence, and in particular its application to unrepresented rightholders; (c)the possibility of rightholders to object, referred to in point (c) of paragraph 1; including during a reasonable period of time before the works or other subject-matter are digitised, distributed, communicated to the public or made available. 4.Member States shall ensure that the licences referred to in paragraph 1 are sought from a collective management organisation that is representative for the Member State where: (a)the works or phonograms were first published or, in the absence of publication, where they were first broadcast, except for cinematographic and audiovisual works; (b)the producers of the works have their headquarters or habitual residence, for cinematographic and audiovisual works; or (c)the cultural heritage institution is established, when a Member State or a third country could not be determined, after reasonable efforts, according to points (a) and (b). 5.Paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 shall not apply to the works or other subject-matter of third country nationals except where points (a) and (b) of paragraph 4 apply. Article 8 Cross-border uses 1.Works or other subject-matter covered by a licence granted in accordance with Article 7 may be used by the cultural heritage institution in accordance with the terms of the licence in all Member States. 2.Member States shall ensure that information that allows the identification of the works or other subject-matter covered by a licence granted in accordance with Article 7 and information about the possibility of rightholders to object referred to in Article 7(1)(c) are made publicly accessible in a single online portal for at least six months before the works or other subject-matter are digitised, distributed, communicated to the public or made available in Member States other than the one where the licence is granted, and for the whole duration of the licence. 3.The portal referred to in paragraph 2 shall be established and managed by the European Union Intellectual Property Office in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 386/2012. Article 9 Stakeholder dialogue Member States shall ensure a regular dialogue between representative users' and rightholders' organisations, and any other relevant stakeholder organisations, to, on a sector-specific basis, foster the relevance and usability of the licensing mechanisms referred to in Article 7(1), ensure the effectiveness of the safeguards for rightholders referred to in this Chapter, notably as regards publicity measures, and, where applicable, assist in the establishment of the requirements referred to in the second subparagraph of Article 7(2). CHAPTER 2 Access to and availability of audiovisual works on video-on-demand platforms Article 10 Negotiation mechanism Member States shall ensure that where parties wishing to conclude an agreement for the purpose of making available audiovisual works on video-on-demand platforms face difficulties relating to the licensing of rights, they may rely on the assistance of an impartial body with relevant experience. That body shall provide assistance with negotiation and help reach agreements. No later than [date mentioned in Article 21(1)] Member States shall notify to the Commission the body referred to in paragraph 1. TITLE IV MEASURES TO ACHIEVE A WELL-FUNCTIONING MARKETPLACE FOR COPYRIGHT CHAPTER 1 Rights in publications Article 11 Protection of press publications concerning digital uses 1.Member States shall provide publishers of press publications with the rights provided for in Article 2 and Article 3(2) of Directive 2001/29/EC for the digital use of their press publications. 2.The rights referred to in paragraph 1 shall leave intact and shall in no way affect any rights provided for in Union law to authors and other rightholders, in respect of the works and other subject-matter incorporated in a press publication. Such rights may not be invoked against those authors and other rightholders and, in particular, may not deprive them of their right to exploit their works and other subject-matter independently from the press publication in which they are incorporated. 3.Articles 5 to 8 of Directive 2001/29/EC and Directive 2012/28/EU shall apply mutatis mutandis in respect of the rights referred to in paragraph 1. 4.The rights referred to in paragraph 1 shall expire 20 years after the publication of the press publication. This term shall be calculated from the first day of January of the year following the date of publication. Article 12 Claims to fair compensation Member States may provide that where an author has transferred or licensed a right to a publisher, such a transfer or a licence constitutes a sufficient legal basis for the publisher to claim a share of the compensation for the uses of the work made under an exception or limitation to the transferred or licensed right. CHAPTER 2 Certain uses of protected content by online services Article 13 Use of protected content by information society service providers storing and giving access to large amounts of works and other subject-matter uploaded by their users 1.Information society service providers that store and provide to the public access to large amounts of works or other subject-matter uploaded by their users shall, in cooperation with rightholders, take measures to ensure the functioning of agreements concluded with rightholders for the use of their works or other subject-matter or to prevent the availability on their services of works or other subject-matter identified by rightholders through the cooperation with the service providers. Those measures, such as the use of effective content recognition technologies, shall be appropriate and proportionate. The service providers shall provide rightholders with adequate information on the functioning and the deployment of the measures, as well as, when relevant, adequate reporting on the recognition and use of the works and other subject-matter. 2.Member States shall ensure that the service providers referred to in paragraph 1 put in place complaints and redress mechanisms that are available to users in case of disputes over the application of the measures referred to in paragraph 1. 3.Member States shall facilitate, where appropriate, the cooperation between the information society service providers and rightholders through stakeholder dialogues to define best practices, such as appropriate and proportionate content recognition technologies, taking into account, among others, the nature of the services, the availability of the technologies and their effectiveness in light of technological developments. CHAPTER 3 Fair remuneration in contracts of authors and performers Article 14 Transparency obligation 1.Member States shall ensure that authors and performers receive on a regular basis and taking into account the specificities of each sector, timely, adequate and sufficient information on the exploitation of their works and performances from those to whom they have licensed or transferred their rights, notably as regards modes of exploitation, revenues generated and remuneration due. 2.The obligation in paragraph 1 shall be proportionate and effective and shall ensure an appropriate level of transparency in every sector. However, in those cases where the administrative burden resulting from the obligation would be disproportionate in view of the revenues generated by the exploitation of the work or performance, Member States may adjust the obligation in paragraph 1, provided that the obligation remains effective and ensures an appropriate level of transparency. 3.Member States may decide that the obligation in paragraph 1 does not apply when the contribution of the author or performer is not significant having regard to the overall work or performance. 4.Paragraph 1 shall not be applicable to entities subject to the transparency obligations established by Directive 2014/26/EU. Article 15 Contract adjustment mechanism Member States shall ensure that authors and performers are entitled to request additional, appropriate remuneration from the party with whom they entered into a contract for the exploitation of the rights when the remuneration originally agreed is disproportionately low compared to the subsequent relevant revenues and benefits derived from the exploitation of the works or performances. Article 16 Dispute resolution mechanism Member States shall provide that disputes concerning the transparency obligation under Article 14 and the contract adjustment mechanism under Article 15 may be submitted to a voluntary, alternative dispute resolution procedure. TITLE V FINAL PROVISIONS Article 17 Amendments to other directives 1.Directive 96/9/EC is amended as follows: (a)In Article 6(2), point (b) is replaced by the following: "(b) where there is use for the sole purpose of illustration for teaching or scientific research, as long as the source is indicated and to the extent justified by the non-commercial purpose to be achieved, without prejudice to the exceptions and the limitation provided for in Directive [this Directive];" (b)In Article 9, point (b) is replaced by the following: "(b) in the case of extraction for the purposes of illustration for teaching or scientific research, as long as the source is indicated and to the extent justified by the non-commercial purpose to be achieved, without prejudice to the exceptions and the limitation provided for in Directive [this Directive];" 2.Directive 2001/29/EC is amended as follows: (a)In Article 5(2), point (c) is replaced by the following: "(c) in respect of specific acts of reproduction made by publicly accessible libraries, educational establishments or museums, or by archives, which are not for direct or indirect economic or commercial advantage, without prejudice to the exceptions and the limitation provided for in Directive [this Directive];" (b)In Article 5(3), point (a) is replaced by the following: "(a) use for the sole purpose of illustration for teaching or scientific research, as long as the source, including the author's name, is indicated, unless this turns out to be impossible and to the extent justified by the non-commercial purpose to be achieved, without prejudice to the exceptions and the limitation provided for in Directive [this Directive];" (c)In Article 12(4), the following points are added: "(e) to examine the impact of the transposition of Directive [this Directive] on the functioning of the internal market and to highlight any transposition difficulties; (f) to facilitate the exchange of information on the relevant developments in legislation and case law as well as on the practical application of the measures taken by Member States to implement Directive [this Directive]; (g) to discuss any other questions arising from the application of Directive [this Directive]." Article 18 Application in time 1.This Directive shall apply in respect of all works and other subject-matter which are protected by the Member States' legislation in the field of copyright on or after [the date mentioned in Article 21(1)]. 2.The provisions of Article 11 shall also apply to press publications published before [the date mentioned in Article 21(1)]. 3.This Directive shall apply without prejudice to any acts concluded and rights acquired before [the date mentioned in Article 21(1)]. Article 19 Transitional provision Agreements for the licence or transfer of rights of authors and performers shall be subject to the transparency obligation in Article 14 as from [one year after the date mentioned in Article 21(1)]. Article 20 Protection of personal data The processing of personal data carried out within the framework of this Directive shall be carried out in compliance with Directives 95/46/EC and 2002/58/EC. Article 21 Transposition

By Chris Betros and Rena Iwama Japan’s first Hooters restaurant and sports bar opened at Tokyu Plaza by Akasakamitsuke subway station on Oct 25. It has taken nearly five years of negotiations between Hooters Japan and the company’s head office in Atlanta to bring the famous franchise to Japan. Since the first Hooters opened in 1983 in Florida, the company has expanded to now operate in 455 locations in 44 U.S. states and 28 countries. In Japan, the brand’s logo, uniform, menu and ambiance will be the same as back in the U.S., as will the menu of seafood, sandwiches, salads and spicy chicken wings. And of course, no Hooters would be complete without the famous sexy Hooters girls. These are busy times for Mitsuo Tanabe, one of the partners of Hooters Japan. Originally from Tokyo, Tanabe joined hooters Japan four years ago after having spent 18 years at McDonald’s Japan as a store manager and operations manager. Japan Today visits the Hooters restaurant to get an eyeful and hear more about the business. Why has it taken so long for Hooters to open its first restaurant in Japan? I think the headquarters in the U.S. spent a long time making a decision because they were very sensitive about which company should get the franchise and what the potential for Japan might be. They didn’t want to pick a company that operated nightclubs or cabarets, for example, and they didn’t want a company that already ran several restaurants. They turned down offers from those sorts of companies. What they were looking for was a company that could differentiate Hooters from those nightlife places. How strict is HQ on the operation in Tokyo? Of course, they have minimum rules on the concept, menu, uniforms, interior design and so on. They sent a management team over here and some Hooters girls to train our girls. Is the menu the same as in the U.S.? Yes, but one small addition is that we offer a pasta lunch here, which is different from the U.S. I think that our customers come here expecting an Americans dining experience. As time goes by, we may think of including some original items for Japanese consumers. We are open from 11 a.m. until 11 p.m., so you can dine all day. Of course, the image of Hooters has a lot to do with the famous Hooter girls, doesn’t it? That’s true, but we’re not emphasizing the overt sex appeal of the girls, although, of course, we expect lots of guys to come here to see the girls. It’s not the image of Hooters that we want. Instead, we want to emphasize the restaurant’s qualities as being healthy, friendly and hospitable. How many Hooters girls do you have? We have 40, including 10 foreign girls from the U.S., Europe and other places. We’ll probably hire 10 more. Even before we started advertising for waitresses, girls had seen our home page and we got more than 400 applications from girls of all ages. A lot of them were big fans of Hooters. Some were models and comfortable with the exposure that they’ll get as Hooter girls. Basic English, a friendly manner and good communication skills are the main requirements for the girls. Will they be eligible for next summer’s Miss Hooters world contest in Florida? Yes, one Japanese waitress will be selected to represent Hooters Japan at the contest. It won’t be management that picks her. Rather, our VIP customers will vote for the winner. How hard was it to find this location for your first store? We were looking for a long time. There are some conditions from head office. Hooters can’t be in a basement and it can’t be up high in a building because those locations are associated more with nightclubs rather than with family restaurants. What are your expansion plans? We plan to open one a year until we have 10. The next one will be in Tokyo and then we will start looking at the greater Tokyo metropolitan area. Somewhere like Ginza or Shinagawa would be good. Roppongi is not at the top of our list, although somewhere like Tokyo Midtown would be OK. But we don’t want to be on the main Roppongi street because then the restaurant runs the risk of attracting the wrong sort of people off the streets. We have to think of the girls’ safety. How are you marketing the restaurant? We have only done limited advertising, mainly in the Japanese language version of Daytona magazine. That is popular with middle-aged readers who love American culture. We have been fortunate in that many media have come to us. However, our rule is that they do not focus on the Hooter girls. Amid the recession, is now a good time to open a restaurant? Yes. For one reason, property prices have gone down, making it easier for us to acquire locations. Another reason is more psychological. Workers have lost their energy. Hooters – with its positive and energetic vibes -- will pep them up. For more information, visit www.hooters.co.jp © Japan Today

It Takes a Village… MRP’s relationship with local communities By Faithe McCreery Two summers ago, upon returning home from my first two sessions volunteering with the Maya Research Program, I couldn’t wait to meet up with an archaeology friend/schoolmate of mine who had also just returned from her first field school. We got together at a café just off campus to trade stories over coffee: me extolling on the adventure that was archaeology at Blue Creek, and my friend filling me in on the goings-on at her field school in highland Peru. All in all, our experiences had much in common. We’d both had a fantastic tic time, surrendering ourselves to the deep-seated and life-long love of archaeology. We’d both enjoyed the unpredictability of communal living, the joy of eating bagged lunches in the field, and the feeling of healthy exhaustion that follows a long day of good, hard work. But my friend shared something else that day, something that shocked me so much, I’ve never quite gotten over it. Apparently, the local people who lived near her program’s excavations were not at all happy with the archaeological field work that was going on there. In fact, they saw the archaeologists as such an encroachment on their community that at night they would come out to the site and remove datums, just to confuse operations. Now, I want to make it clear that my objective in writing this is not to criticize my friend or her field school, or to make any generalizations about archaeology in Peru or elsewhere. (In fact, I know archaeologists who have done great work in Peru –including many individuals from our very own MRP–without incident.)I clearly didn’t get the whole story there, I never will, and it’s not my place to judge someone else’s well-meaning actions. The point is, it was really disheartening for me to break the bubble of naiveté and to realize that there are places out there where archaeologists don’t have the best relationship with the surrounding community –because when it comes down to it, for MRP our relationship with the local community is vital. Most of the land around Blue Creek is owned by Mennonites who migrated to Belize from Canada in the 1950s. (This can be quite a shock to newcomers, who don’t expect to hear Low German spoken around them in the midst of a Central American country!) While most Mennonite settlers were originally farmers, today the Mennonite community of Blue Creek has diversified; for example, Mennonite families own the Linda Vista shopping center and the Delicacy Café close to MRP’s base camp. There are two factions of Mennonites in northern Belize: the people who live in Blue Creek –who don’t particularly stand out in appearance and who use modern conveniences such as cars and the Internet– are less conservative than the people from the town of Shipyard, who dress in traditional clothing such as bonnets and plain dresses and travel via horse and buggy. The important issue here is that the Mennonites who live in and around Blue Creek have had ample time and opportunity to get to know the archaeologists of the Maya Research Program, since MRP has been operating in their community for over two decades now. MRP and the local Mennonites don’t see eye-to-eye on everything. The bulldozing of archaeological sites in the name of clearing pasture land, for one thing, is a major issue of contention, and it’s the reason MRP is working so hard to purchase sites such as Grey Fox which are in imminent danger of destruction. However, in my experience, the relationship between MRP-ers and the Mennonites of Blue Creek is pretty darned good. It’s a Mennonite woman, Margaret (the sweetest lady ever, by the way) who has been cooking meals for our rough, hungry throngs each summer over the past two decades. MRP staff and volunteers buy food and supplies from Mennonite-owned businesses, and in the process, we get to know the people there. (One retired MRP volunteer even makes it a habit to bring baby clothes down for a little boy who was adopted by a Mennonite family a couple of years ago and is just a bit younger than his own grandson.) Mennonite families show up to MRP barbeques, and our director’s son, Mikey, spends his days with the local Mennonite children while we’re all out in the field working. As Tom Guderjan put during one of his twilight lectures last summer, the Mennonite community doesn’t necessarily appreciate archaeology the way that we do, but they appreciate what it means to us. I think I can state confidently here that MRP is more of an addition to the community of Blue Creek, then, than an infringement. MRP forges connections with Belizean individuals of Maya descent, as well (which only makes sense, right?). Some very nice Maya ladies help out Margaret in the kitchen, as well as working really hard every day to keep the MRP base camp clean and sanitary for us. (Like I said, we’re a rough crowd –and the tropical climate of Belize doesn’t do anyone any favors in terms of sanitation.) More familiar to most of us volunteers are the men who make the daily commute to Blue Creek from the nearby town of San Felipe, to help us excavate in the field. We often refer to our San Felipe friends affectionately as “the guys” –and every volunteer at MRP will tell you that we would be absolutely lost without them. The guys from San Felipe are the hardest workers I’ve ever met –and I know I’m not just speaking for myself here. They tell us about other jobs they’ve had in the past, or during other times of the year, at which they have to haul huge bags of rice or cut down sugar cane from the field, and it makes me feel weak just hearing about it. The physical strength that these guys bring to the field every day can really put a poor American student to shame. But we don’t hire the guys just to move dirt; they’re not manual laborers. As the team leader Tim likes to say during his first-night orientation talk with a new crew, the guys are some of the best archaeological excavators we’ll have the chance to meet. They have lived and worked around Maya sites for years, and they know what they are doing much better than we volunteers do. (One man, Pete, has worked for MRP for so long that his sons, Henry and Vernon, work with us too.) I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to stop in the middle of my work, call over Henry or Vernon to take a look at what I’m doing, and ask, “What the heck is going on here?” Their knowledge of ancient architecture is uncanny, and they’re always glad to give advice or help steer a confused volunteer in the right direction. The guys also like to bring music players out to the field to help the work go by faster, and they often talk to us about their families and all kinds of other topics. (If you’re ever fortunate enough to work in the field with Ricky, I guarantee he’ll keep you laughing all day.) I could get all “anthropologist” here and talk about neocolonialism or the power structures of Western academia–but it’s the weekend, and I’m not being graded on this. So I’ll skip the diatribe. Just suffice it to say that, when you’re pulling someone’s own history and ancestors and material culture out of the ground, it feels pretty good to know that you have not just their consent, but their actual help. This is about conscience. Which brings me back to the café just outside the University of Washington, where my friend shared the sad story of going to a field school that didn’t have an awesome relationship with the community. I know that this friend is a good person, and a good archaeologist. Her crew got some important work done, and they had a great time doing it. But after volunteering with the Maya Research Program, I just can’t imagine what it’s like to work in a community where you’re not particularly welcome. MRP has created collaborative relationships with local populations that last for decades –long before or after most volunteers will come and go. I take pride in the fact that when I put on my archaeology boots, I’m not stepping on the toes of the people around me. That kind of pride, if you ask me, is worth its weight in jade. About the Author: Faithe Miller McCreery will earn her B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Washington, Seattle in December 2012. She was the only kid in Mrs. Ehrhardt’s second-grade class to bring in small-scale replicas of Egyptian sarcophagi for show-and-tell –and since then her inner archaeology nerd has only intensified. Faithe has volunteered with the Maya Research Program for the past two summers and has plans to go back in 2013 as well. If you can catch her out of the classroom, there’s a good chance she’s working with archives and artifacts at Seattle’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. She has high hopes of earning her M.A. in Museology one of these days. Advertisements

Female Employees Give Male Colleagues Simulated Blowjobs At Chinese Company Event Female employees at Tencent, the Chinese Internet giant, gave their male colleagues simulated blowjobs on stage during a company event. Now, Tencent is facing a huge PR crisis after a 7-second video was leaked online, showing 2 female workers on their knees performing an action resembling a blowjob. The game’s goal is for the female employees to open the bottles of water with their teeth, while the bottles are wedged between the legs of their male counterparts. The party was held by Tencent’s instant messaging department before the annual Chinese New Year break. People started to accuse the company of sexism and discrimination, leading to an entire online debate against the company’s practices during parties. “How could a company treat its workers in this way? Do they not have any sense of decency?” asked one Weibo user. “Why would these women allow themselves to be shamed in this way? What would their fathers say?” says another person. “If they don’t do this, then they would be out of job. We must change this kind of disgraceful male chauvinistic culture!” The company released a statement apologizing for what occurred during the annual party and promised that such incidents will never happen in the future. They also added that the employees responsible for this incident have been sanctioned. RELATED STORIES: Bloomberg wrote that Tencent, the Chinese giant, has no female executives, board members or division chiefs. This is very common with top companies in China. In 2015, Alibaba had to withdraw a job advertisement for a woman candidate looking like Sora Aoi, a very popular porn star in China. The position was meant to ‘motivate’ her coworkers. The same year, another key player in China, Baidu, celebrated International Women’s Day with a series of doodles portraying women in demeaning stereotypes. In 2016, a Baidu Senior Executive was demoted after a sexist presentation where he said: “If a girl says to me, ‘The air conditioning in my dorm doesn’t work, and I don’t want to go home,’ what does she mean? I think it means she wants to kiss and have some sex.” (Source)

Detroit Red Wings prospect and prized defenseman Vili Saarijarvi is expected to sign with the Flint Firebirds of the Ontario Hockey League on Wednesday, a source with knowledge of the decision told MLive. Saarijarvi, 18, arrived in Flint on Sunday to meet with Firebirds officials for the first time since being taken ninth overall in the Canadian Hockey League's Import Draft on June 30. A third-round selection of the Red Wings in this year's NHL draft, Saarijarvi already was signed to play with a men's hockey team in his native Finland. Saarijarvi signed a three-year, entry-level contract with Detroit on July 3 and participated in the team's development camp in Traverse City. Red Wings officials publicly have said they prefer the 5-foot-10, 163-pound defenseman close by so they can monitor his development. Flint is approximately 70 miles northwest of Detroit. Vili Saarijarvi Saarijarvi played for the Green Bay Gamblers of the United States Hockey League last season, scoring six goals and adding 17 assists in 57 games. He would provide an immediate boost to an already strong defensive unit that includes former OHL Goaltender of the Year candidate and Carolina Hurricanes prospect Alex Nedeljkovic and defenseman Alex Peters, a third-round pick of the Dallas Stars in the 2014 NHL draft. Firebirds general manager Terry Christensen has referred to Saarijarvi, of Rovaniemi, Finland, as an offensive defenseman and remained hopeful last week that he would sign to play for Flint. MORE: The Firebirds posted these photos of Saarijarvi with the Firebirds staff on Tuesday afternoon at the General Motors Assembly Plant in Flint. -- Aaron McMann covers sports for MLive.com and The Flint Journal. Contact him: amcmann@mlive.com; on Twitter @AaronMcMann.

Process Interactive Grid with PL/SQL only - without a table Released APEX version Database version October 2017 5.1 or higher 11.2 or higher Most Application Express developers already have played with the Interactive Grid component introduced in the latest version 5.1. And indeed - Interactive Grid makes it more than easy to get an editable tabular form on a table or view. In Page Designer, just drag the component onto your page, add the SQL query, make it editable in the Attributes section ... and you're done. Interactive Grid for the EMP table But with Interactive Grid you can do even more. In practice there is sometimes the requirement for a tabular form - but there is no table. End users just enter data from scratch - and that is to be processed with custom PL/SQL code. The editing capabilities of interactive grid would come in handy here, but ... it seems, we don't have a SQL query for the data to be displayed. There is no table or view to select data from; we just want to display a few empty rows or rows with some sample or template data. for the same reason there is no table or view to execute DML statements (INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE) on. So it seems that interactive Grid will not be able to process the end user inputs. So at the first glance it seems that Interactive Grid cannot be used here. But that's wrong: We will be able to use Interactive Grid - we just have to change a few attributes, and use SQL and PL/SQL properly. Let's first have a look at the SQL query to be used as the region source. There is no table to select from - so we just generate rows ... select level as id, level as grid_row, 'First Name ' \|\| level as firstname, 'Last name ' \|\| level as lastname, sysdate as datum, cast(null as varchar2(4000)) as text from dual connect by level <= 3 Use that SQL query in order to create your interactive grid. Then navigate to the individual columns and change their settings as follows. Change the column ID to Hidden and declare it as Primary Key . to and declare it as . Change the GRID_ROW column to Display Only . column to . For the TEXT column, use a text area and make sure that the maximum length is set to 4.000 (and not to zero (0)). Then make the interactive grid editable and allow the INSERT and UPDATE operations. DELETE does not make any sense in this context. Interactive Grid gets ediable: INSERT and UPDATE are allowed Now run your page. The preliminary result should look as follows. An interactive grid without a table - just with some generated data Of course, you can further configure your interactive grid - just as you need it. But in this example, we'll now focus on the processing the end user inputs. As stated above, we just want to execute PL/SQL code - there is no connection to any table or view at all. PL/SQL code can do anything - there are no limits. Let's simulate some fancy PL/SQL processing: The end user inputs will be converted to some comma-separated format, stored in a text area item (PX_RESULT) and simply displayed. Thus we'll be able to verify, that everything works as we expect it. Create another Static Content region on your page (below the interactive grid). Add a text area item named PX_RESULT and a button to submit the page to that region. The results of processing end user inputs will appear in the "Result" region Then, in Page Designer, navigate to the Processing section, then to the Save Interactive Grid Data process and change it as follows: Change the Target Type to PL/SQL Code ; since we want to have PL/SQL code executed. to ; since we want to have PL/SQL code executed. Turn Lock Row off (set to No ). off (set to ). Also turn Prevent Lost Updates off; we don't need this. off; we don't need this. Finally store the following PL/SQL code: begin :PX_RESULT := :PX_RESULT \|\| :ID \|\| ',"' \|\| replace ( :VORNAME , '"' , '\"' ) \|\| '",' \|\| replace ( :NACHNAME , '"' , '\"' ) \|\| '",' \|\| '"' \|\| :DATUM \|\| '","' \|\| replace ( :TEXT , '"' , '\"' ) \|\| '"' \|\| chr ( 10 ) ; end ; New Settings for the "Save Interactive Grid Data" process This Save Interactive Grid Data process will be executed once for each changed or new interactive grid row, appending a line with comma-separated values to the PX_RESULT content. Thus we want to clear that element at the very beginning of processing. So create another process which is being executed before the Save Interactive Grid Data process. That process is just supposed to clear the PX_RESULT page item. Clear page item PX_RESULT at the beginning of page processing Finally turn off the Save button which has been automatically generated by interactive grid. We don't need that button here, because we want to submit the page when the end user has finished entering data. As an alternative you also might to disable the toolbar completely - for such a form for data entry from scratch we might not need it at all. Disable the "Save" button or even the whole tool bar Now it's time to test what you have build. Run the page, enter data for a few rows and click the Submit Page button. The result should look as follows. Interactive Grid: enter some data from scratch After Page Submit the data has been processed with PL/SQL From here, you can do almost anything: On the processing side, you are within the PL/SQL domain: You might process the data and finally store it some tables, call web services or do whatever you need. Thus interactive grid is much more than just a tabular form on a table; your application can do anything with the end user inputs. And, of course, you can also apply any client-side customization to the interactive grid. Use item type plug-ins or custom javascript code to change interactive grid behavior as you need it. On John Snyders' Blog you'll find several ideas, concepts and good advice. Have fun trying these things out! back to blogs.oracle.com/apex

Feminist News All \| National News \| Global News July-01-10 CPC "Truth in Advertising" Legislation Introduced Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) introduced a bill yesterday that would regulate the misleading advertising practices of Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs). The Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services Act (see PDF) would require the Federal Trade Commission to create and enforce rules to prohibit CPCs' deceptive advertising practices, such as advertising under the term "abortion services." The act expressly defines abortion services to mean "providing surgical and non-surgical procedures to terminate a pregnancy, or providing referrals for such procedures." Maloney first introduced the Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services Act in 2006. The current bill has 11 co-sponsors in the House. On the state and local levels, similar laws have been referred to as "truth in advertising laws." According to a 2007 press release, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Henry Waxman (D-CA) conducted an investigation of CPCs in 2006. This investigation found that CPCs mislead their clients because those who sought counsel were told that abortions could lead to mental illness, breast cancer, and infertility. "An unintended pregnancy is an especially difficult time to encounter deception, and deceptive practices should be outlawed. Women shouldn't have to face the added stress of deciphering whether or not the clinic they choose offers legitimate medical services," Maloney said yesterday in a press release. Currently, there are an estimated 3,500 CPCs nationwide, most of which are affiliated with one or more national umbrella organizations. CPCs pose as legitimate health centers and offer "free" pregnancy tests. Some CPCs coerce and intimidate women out of considering abortion as an option, and prevent women from receiving neutral and comprehensive medical advice. These clinics are typically run by anti-abortion volunteers who are not licensed medical professionals. Media Resources: Congresswoman Maloney Press Release 6/1/2007, 6/30/2010; Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services Act; Feminist Daily Newswire 4/9/10

Indy Eleven hired multiple Statehouse lobbyists in its quest for a publicly financed stadium, but the biggest bang for the soccer team’s buck might come from winning over Mayor Greg Ballard. The Indiana Senate’s fiscal gatekeepers derailed Indy Eleven’s immediate hope for a brand-new $82 million downtown stadium. A compromise bill that could see a final Senate vote within days would allow Indiana University to borrow $20 million to renovate—or even rebuild—Indy Eleven’s current home, the Michael A. Carroll Track and Soccer Stadium. And Ballard will make sure it’s no humdrum makeover. “We’re still committed to helping out,” Chief of Staff Jason Dudich said. The Mayor’s Office doesn’t know at this point how much the city would contribute, or to which aspect of the project, but Dudich is working closely with Paul Okeson, a former chief of staff to Ballard who now works for Indy Eleven team owner Ersal Ozdemir’s Keystone Construction Group. The city’s lobbyist registry lists Okeson as talking on behalf of Indy Eleven to the Metropolitan Development Commission, City-County Council and Capital Improvement Board of Managers, as well as the Mayor’s Office. Indianapolis City-County Council Democrat Zach Adamson said he doesn’t think the city’s financial support is appropriate, now that Indy Eleven’s home would be the property of IU. Adamson is an Indy Eleven season-ticket holder, but he said, “I just don’t know how we’re going to rub two nickels together and get a dollar.” But the city set a precedent for contributing money to university-owned projects in 2014 with a $10 million contribution to fixing up the IU Natatorium. The city’s money, drawn from the downtown tax-increment finance district, will go toward street improvements on the IUPUI campus. That in turn frees up money in the university budget that otherwise wasn’t available for the swimming pool, which is set to host U.S. Diving trials in June 2016. Similarly, IU had no plans to invest in the Carroll track stadium, which is approaching obsolescence, Tom Morrison, vice president of planning and facilities, told the Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee, which advanced the current version of the soccer stadium bill. The university is likely to come up with a package of campus improvements that would cost much more than $20 million, Dudich said. “They might want a whole different facility in that area,” he said. Indeed, a minor amendment filed by Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Buck Creek, as the stadium bill advanced to the full Senate added language so the bond revenue could be spent on Carroll stadium “or its successor.” The bill was scheduled for a second reading April 2 and could see a final vote the week of April 6. Lobbyist-spending reports for the six-month period beginning Nov. 1 aren’t yet due, but in the last 12-month cycle, Indy Sports and Entertainment (the team’s parent) spent about $59,000. Okeson said he’s put a significant number of hours into the stadium project, and that will be reflected in the next report. Okeson began talking to the Mayor’s Office, and Ballard’s deputies spoke in support of the bill, weeks before Okeson registered as a lobbyist with the city in mid-March. Before then, Okeson said, his talks with the city didn’t count as lobbying because there was no specific request on the table. Now, the bill explicitly states that the city may contribute beyond the state’s $20 million. Adamson Adamson From the beginning, Indy Eleven pitched the stadium as a multipurpose facility that could host other field sports and concerts. Neither the Capital Improvement Board, which manages other downtown sports and entertainment venues, nor the Indiana Sports Corp., which promotes those venues, had identified such a hole in the city’s portfolio. But Ballard sees the benefit. “The mayor wants a multipurpose facility,” Dudich said. “This investment not only helps Indy Eleven, it also helps a bunch of other organizations.” Ballard made the same argument about the $6 million World Sports Park that the city created on the east side, primarily to host elite-level cricket matches. Adamson, a member of the council Public Works Committee who blasted Ballard for spending Rebuild Indy infrastructure funds on the cricket fields, said he still doesn’t understand why Indy Eleven can’t make use of existing sports venues. “Do we have to have separate facilities for every organization?” he asked. Hershman and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, were skeptical that Indy Eleven’s original pitch warranted public financing—or at least, state backing. The compromise Hershman brokered would repay the state through sales, income and admissions taxes collected at the stadium, as well as innkeeper’s taxes on Ozdemir’s downtown hotel development. Indy Eleven President Peter Wilt embraced the compromise bill when he appeared before the Senate committee, but the team wasn’t finished suggesting tweaks. The Mayor’s Office is assisting that effort as well. The bill says IU must have a 20-year lease with Indy Eleven, but could include a buyout provision if the team departs early. Eliminating that buyout provision could make it possible for the team to pursue a larger stadium sooner than 20 years from now, Dudich said. Another question that remains to be answered, he said: “How willing is Indy Eleven to sign a 20-year lease?”•

(Gothamist) The MTA is warning that it will be forced to "pull back" its emergency response "Action Plan" if it does not receive more funding from the city to repair the crumbling subway system, according to statements made by MTA board members during a committee meeting on Monday. During a presentation on the current status of the repair work, Tim Mulligan, the MTA's acting president, warned that without addressing the "underlying funding" of the program, the MTA would have to "pull back and look at how we prioritize or how we limit or scale down the efforts going forward, which is certainly not our priority... but is a reality forced upon us by the fiscal consequences." For the second time in two months, board members appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo attacked the city for its refusal to help pay for the $836 million rescue plan, which MTA Chairman Joe Lhota unveiled over the summer. While both Lhota and Cuomo insist that the cost should be split 50/50 between the state and the city, Mayor Bill de Blasio has refused to split the bill, maintaining that the city already pays its fair share to the state-run transit authority. “After making record contributions to the MTA, City riders are sick of this charade," City Hall Press Secretary Eric Phillips told Gothamist. "The State and MTA holding New York City trains hostage to avoid their responsibility represents a new low in government effectiveness. The Governor should return the money he siphoned from the MTA and fix the subways he runs." (In the past six years, Cuomo has diverted $456 million of operating money specifically earmarked for MTA riders, according to the mayor's office.) While that back-and-forth has been going on for months now, there was at least one new development at Monday's meeting: TWU President and board member John Samuelsen raised the possibility of riders and workers taking "legal action to force City Hall to rethink its obligations" and accused the city of "abrogating its responsibility to the MTA and the riders." Asked how New Yorkers could plausibly sue the city over the operation of a state-run agency, Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Governor Cuomo's office, replied via email, "Why don't you ask the guy who said it???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????" Reached for comment, TWU spokesperson Pete Donahue said that "We are strongly considering legal action," but would not elaborate. Here's last page of letter from @transportworker John Samuelsen to his fellow MTA board members pic.twitter.com/7VmXBuQWL0 — Dan Rivoli (@danrivoli) October 23, 2017 At this MTA board meeting there's a lot of talk about how productive the $836m action plan has been but absolutely no evidence supporting it — Aaron W. Gordon (@A_W_Gordon) October 23, 2017 In the wake of Monday's threats, some transit advocates and politicians have renewed the charge that Governor Cuomo is using the transit crisis for his own political gain, effectively holding subway-reliant New Yorkers hostage. "Governor Cuomo's threat to scale back on necessary subway improvements is a transparent attempt to shift blame and accountability for our transit woes onto the Mayor, even though the Governor himself controls the MTA," John Raskin, Executive Director of the Riders Alliance, said in a statement. "Governor Cuomo is holding millions of transit riders hostage in his dispute with the Mayor, even after he acknowledged that the subway system is in a state of emergency and promised to fix it. Queens-based State Senator Mike Gianaris, whose Millionaire's Tax proposal has the support of Mayor de Blasio, echoed the Rider's Alliance statement. "The MTA is a state agency—everybody knows that," he told Gothamist. "What cannot be allowed to happen is for New Yorkers to continue to suffer because of the political games going on at the agency." The senator also said the MTA's argument is deliberately missing the point, considering the amount of money the agency is currently spending to modernize over 30 subway stations throughout the system—an initiative aimed at making certain stations "cleaner and brighter," according to the governor, that does little to address the subway's underlying problems. As part of the ongoing repairs, both the 30th Avenue and 36th Avenue N/W stations in Astoria will shutter for eight months beginning on Monday. "At a time when we face a crisis of subway reliability and accessibility, the MTA chooses to spend hundreds of millions of precious dollars on cosmetic improvements that will do nothing to improve subway service or accessibility," Gianaris said. "While it will be more pleasant for subway riders to stare at more beautiful stations while they wait longer and longer for delayed trains, the MTA’s inattention to the larger problem is bordering on scandalous."

Yung Money Talks Contributor Kyle Larson Everything we did as I was growing up revolved around racing. Even before I started racing we would go to 70-80 races up and down the west coast to watch. A lot of my early memories are of either being in the car on the way to races, or at the race track itself. My parents didn’t force racing on me at all. I played a little bit of little league baseball and had fun with it from what I can remember, but I always knew that racing was the path I wanted to take, and they were supportive of that. Mom and Dad did a ton for me in my kart career. Everybody races for their parents in karts, but my dad took care of all of our stuff, engine rebuilds, all of the maintenance work and the setups. He would write press releases after every race, which no one did back then in the karts. We had a website that my mom took care of, so my dad would write press releases and she’d post them on there every Monday. My parents weren’t retired back then like they are now, so they were working nine to five jobs and doing anything they could to help grow my career, which was great. Even now my mom still video tapes every open wheel or kart race that I run. My dad handles a lot of my finances and makes sure I’m not making any bad decisions. My parents were always great for me and they taught me to always be respectful of people. I may not act like I respect my parents all of the time, but who doesn’t? I feel like they’ve made me a good person and that’s the main thing in life, and in racing. I’m extremely thankful for everything they’ve done. I know I don’t tell them that enough, but I don’t think there are too many drivers out there who have had parents work as hard for their kid as mine have. A YOUNG FAN I remember as a kid I had a checkered flag pillow that I would cruise around the pit areas at races with and get all of the drivers to sign. I slept on that pillow, honestly, probably until I moved out. It’s cool to see those pictures that my mom took back in the day of me getting autographs; Kasey Kahne, Brent or Bud Kaeding, Paul McMahan, or even pictures from the Chili Bowl with guys that I’m really good friends with now. I look like I’m six and they still kind of look the same age. Pictures of me with like Brady Bacon or Bryan Clauson are funny to me now. I think seeing how veteran racers interacted with me as I grew up as a fan affected how I treat fans today. Those racers had no idea who I was but they treated me well, and you notice and recognize that when you’re that young. When you grow up in their shoes and become a race car driver yourself you try to respect your fans like they respected me. Fans are honestly what make this sport go so you have to take care of them, be nice and respectful, sign all of the autographs, take all of the pictures, and present yourself well. WHO I CHEERED FOR Roger Crockett and his family were good friends with my family growing up. My mom has videos from when I was one or two years old of me going to his race shop. Roger’s dad and my dad are good friends through building and racing fun karts and slot cars. The Crockett family was very good to my family and to me at a young age, so I was always a big Roger Crockett fan growing up. When it came to the Outlaw guys Jac Haudenschild was my favorite. I mean everybody loves him. Joey Saldana was also someone I always cheered for. I loved his elbows up driving style and I’ve always been a big Joey Saldana fan. As much as Sammy Swindell and I have gotten into it over the last few years I’m still a huge Sammy Swindell fan. What he can still do in a race car is amazing and what he does, as both a hero and a villain, is big for our sport. I always liked Jeff Gordon in NASCAR. He grew up in Vallejo, which was only like an hour and a half from me. My background is obviously very similar to his in terms of running midgets and sprint cars. I was also a huge Tony Stewart fan as well. I really just rooted for any dirt guy in NASCAR. All of those racers turned out to be great, great people as I found out from growing up and competing against them. It’s funny how you have run-ins as you get older. I’ve watched so many of the California guys since the time I was in diapers. When I finally got to race against them I found out that some of them race you pretty dirty, and it surprises you because they were so nice when you were a fan. OUTLAW KARTS I’m pretty thankful that my parents got me started in Outlaw Karts. The karts are such a handful to drive and that’s why I think you see so many people transitioning successfully from the karts to full-size sprint cars. You have a 500cc two-stroke in a 300 pound kart with a 150 pound driver in it, and the power to weight ratio is very similar to a 360 sprint car. You can pull your front wheels off the ground and you can spin the rear tires very easily. The competition in the karts had been so tough for a long time and it’s getting really tough again. You get to race some awesome tracks like Cycleland Speedway near Chico, California, which is dead slick in the middle, with a little bit of moisture on the bottom and a cushion that allows you to throw slide jobs. You learn to be really patient on the bottom, or you can learn to rip the fence like Rico Abreu. It’s really cool, now that I’m living in North Carolina, because we have Millbridge Speedway there. When I first moved to North Carolina I’d go to Millbridge and there would be maybe four or five Open 500cc karts, and now they’re getting 20-30 on a regular night and they get close to 100 karts for their big races. To see how fast it’s all grown throughout the East Coast and throughout the Midwest in such a short time is really cool, because when I started outlaw karts in 1999 it was strictly West Coast. RACING ONLINE I don’t race online nearly as much anymore but I feel like it helped me a ton in my development as a driver. I think it’s one of the main reasons you see younger racers being a lot better than usual at a younger age. A lot of the kids who plan on racing for a living are homeschooled now so they have a lot more time to sit on their computer and race, which is kind of how I was. I started homeschooling when I was 15. The school gave me a desktop computer so I just used that for my rFactor racing. Kevin Swindell and I would race, along with some other online friends that we made. Kevin and I would probably get on the computer at like 4 pm (he was on Eastern time, I was on Pacific) and we’d play for 12 hours or more. Even though the cars don’t drive the same, you’re still putting yourself in racing situations. It helps with hand-eye coordination and it improves your footwork. A lot of the race tracks aren’t exactly similar to their real-life counterparts but you get a sense for the track’s shape and banking. I used to race online all of the time. Now I don’t have the time for it really. I’ve been trying to get back into iRacing stuff. I’ll get on for an hour or two, a couple of times a week. The technology has developed so much that online racing is becoming very close to real life racing. They are coming out with dirt for iRacing, which should be awesome. But every track that is on iRacing is laser scanned so you feel every bump in the track. It is insane how close the tracks are to real life. They’ve developed virtual reality headsets that look like goggles. You can put those on now and it looks 100% like you’re sitting in the race car. You can move around and it’s just like you’re sitting in the race car. All of this stuff I’m talking about really helps young racers. I think on iRacing now, you see a lot of K&N kids on there all of the time, even Camping World Truck racers and Xfinity racers are on there. Myself, I’m getting back into it. Denny Hamlin is on there all of the time and he’s got a really expensive simulator at his house. As I said earlier, technology has developed a lot over the last three or four years, and it’s a benefit that has allowed anyone to get a better racing experience. IN A SPRINT CAR AT A YOUNG AGE I started racing outlaw karts when I was seven, and worked my way through the classes over the next seven years. I was able to meet David Robinson Jr. (Ryan Robinson’s father and a former sprint car champion) and I guess he could see that I had some talent. He started talking to sprint car owners about me, and luckily Dave and Debbie Vertullo gave me a shot in a sprint car when I was 14. We went to Marysville Speedway in February and did a little test so I could get the hang of it, and for the Vertullos to see if I was capable. It went really well and they asked my parents if it would be OK for me to race some with them. At that time 14 year-olds were not legally allowed to race sprint cars in California. But some of the promoters had heard about me and were aware of what I was doing in outlaw karts. Also, at 15 Shane Golobic had been allowed to race the year before at Petaluma Speedway, so that helped open the door. I had to get partially emancipated so that I could sign release forms, and get letters of recommendation by some veterans including Jimmy Sills, and then I was able to go sprint car racing. I guess when you’re as young as I was, and you’re winning in karts like I was, you get kind of confident. You think you can move up and hang with those guys. When I got to sprint cars, my first race was awful. We went to Placerville Speedway for a Civil War show. I think I beat a couple of cars in qualifying and then wrecked in the heat race. I transferred out of the C, and then I was lapped traffic in the B. I got run over by somebody and hit by another car. It destroyed the car. I was pretty upset with myself after the first race, fighting back tears and whatever. I had Larry Shelton (Holly Shelton’s dad) as my crew chief that night. He is a well-respected veteran crew chief in California, and was known to be hard on drivers. Larry wasn’t the best guy for a young kid so he didn’t last very long as my crew chief; one night to be exact. Larry and I are still good friends, but we look back on that and have a good chuckle every now and then. Following that first night I second guessed myself. I think I was kind of over sprint car racing for a few days. The Vertullos believed in me and didn’t want to let it end there, so a couple weeks later we went back to Placerville. I think we ran sixth or something like that. Later in the season I won my first race there four days after I turned 15. I haven’t looked back since. GETTING SOME SUPPORT I was super lucky to meet Rich Stadelhofer, and Rico, at Rico’s family’s outlaw kart track. Rico has a super nice track at his ranch and they invited me to come out and race outlaw karts there. I was 15 and in my second year of running sprint cars. So, I went to Rico’s and raced there, had some fun, and I met Rich Stadelhofer. He came out to Calistoga, where we were racing the next night and he watched me run a sprint car. Rich slowly started helping us out with the Vertullos, and it materialized into a really big sponsorship for someone racing on the West Coast. Near the end of the following year the Vertullo’s and I parted ways and I really didn’t know what I was going to do. Rich put a deal together with the Kaeding’s, where he owned the engines and basically paid the operating expenses, and we went racing. We would run 360’s at Watsonville on Friday nights and Golden State Challenge Series 410’s on Saturday’s. We won maybe 10 races that year, finished second in points at Watsonville to Tommy Tarlton, and won the Golden State Challenge Series championship, beating Brent by just a few points. Meeting Rich, and him getting me involved with the Kaeding’s, really got my name out there to another level. I think when you’re racing for a guy like Brent Kaeding, who’s done so much for the sport and is a Hall of Famer, and you do well, people notice. Meeting Rich, and racing with the Kaeding’s, really opened the door for me getting to race with Keith Kunz and Pete Willoughby. Looking back, meeting Rich Stadelhofer was probably the single most important moment in my career in terms of me becoming a successful race car driver. It was THE turning point. A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN I was told after the fact that I had caught the attention of Keith Kunz at the 2010 Oval Nationals, and he and Pete Willougby had their eye on me when I drove for Glenn Crossno at Chili Bowl in 2011. During the heat race I was checked out. I probably had a half lap lead in the heat and, because I was young and dumb, I just kept going faster and faster and faster. I finally biked it up and flipped all by myself. I bent the rear of the chassis pretty badly in the crash. We probably could have kept running the car, but it wouldn’t have been very safe. Once we were back to the trailer Pete came over and was trying to figure out a way to get me into one of their backup cars that they had. Unfortunately, though, Chili Bowl rules state that the car you enter is the car you have to race, so my Chili Bowl was done. Here it was Tuesday of the Chili Bowl, and it was the lowest moment of my career. It is funny how things in life work out, because on that same day Keith and Pete had made up their mind that I was the guy they wanted to help turn their program around for the full 2011 season. I kind of thought that Keith and Pete would see the wreck and not want to put me in their car, but at the end of the Chili Bowl they asked me if I might want to run for them at a USAC Western States Midget race in Tucson that was coming up. About a week after Chili Bowl Pete gave me a call and asked me to race for them full time. I told him I’d let them know. I came to find out later no one had ever told them that before. Usually, it was just an immediate yes from anyone they asked. At the time I wanted to race sprint cars pretty badly, and I had a possible deal for me to run throughout the Midwest with a good sprint car team. So, I was waiting to see how that would materialize. It went nowhere though, and about a week later I got hooked up with Keith and Pete. And the rest is history. Keith and Pete are two of the greatest car owners that I’ve ever raced for, and I’m fortunate enough that I can call them up whenever I want. Even when they have a roster full of drivers they’ll figure out a way to put me in a sixth, seventh, or an eighth midget. It doesn’t get any better than Keith Kunz when it comes to turning wrenches on midgets, so I’m very thankful to race for them whenever I can. SWEEPING THE 4-CROWN The 2011 4-Crown experience was awesome, and another turning point in my career. I’d been to Eldora Speedway once before to watch but I had never raced there. I watched the World of Outlaw race the night before and I was just really looking forward to getting my first chance to run Eldora. I remember thinking it was cool that my debut there was coming at such a big race. 4-Crown was my second chance to get to race with the Hoffman team. I’d won the Ultimate Challenge at Oskaloosa my first time ever racing for them a few weeks before. I was hoping to do well in that car because that team had such a great history at Eldora. I thought I would have a really good shot at winning the midget race, but I was a little unsure about the Silver Crown race. In hot laps, though, we were fast in each car, so I was encouraged. I was able to get to the lead quickly in the midget portion for Keith and Pete and lead every lap of the event. Bryan Clauson was chasing me pretty hard so I knew I had to limit my mistakes because he was so smooth, never made mistakes, and pounced on you when you did. Surprisingly, Bryan ended up making a couple of mistakes that race. After the race, Bryan told me he’d gotten into the backstretch wall and bent his Jacobs ladder, and he had a hard time getting to me after that. So, we won the midget race, which was the one I felt like we had the best shot at winning. You can’t win all three races unless you win the first one, but after that I was confident going into the sprint car race. I can’t remember where I started, probably somewhere around ninth or 11th, but I know I started on the inside of a mid-pack row. I honestly wasn’t moving forward quickly enough in the early laps. I picked off a couple of cars, but soon tire wear became an issue. People kept blistering their tires and blowing out their right rears. For some reason, my right rear stayed together even though it was blistered kind of badly too. Guys started dropping like flies and that happened at about the point when I’d found a good line. I found I could enter higher into turn one and carry a lot more speed off of turn two and down the backstretch. I was able to start passing cars, and I was getting cautions at the right time. We got a late caution and restarted right behind Dave Darland. I had my line figured out in one and two, where he was still running a little bit lower. I got a big run off of two and I almost actually drove around him but I kind of crossed over, clipped his rear bumper, and got him out of shape. It wasn’t planned but it worked. I was able to slide him into three and cruise the next lap to get the win. It was a race I really shouldn’t have won, but I did. It ended up being the key to sweeping the 4-Crown. It was a big, big win because I felt like after I won that sprint car race that I had the Silver Crown race kind of locked up. My confidence was high at that point, and I knew that Keith had our car really, really good. Early on in the night, we qualified quick time and I’d felt really good in hot laps. I started on the front row with Levi Jones, and he got the jump and I fell in line. I was a lot faster than him from the start and I was able to get by him early. I always tell everybody that race was the most perfect race I’ve ever run. I never made any mistakes that whole race. Most races you kind of think to yourself that you made a small mistake here or there, but nothing costly. Or you think about big mistakes that cost you lap times or wins. But in that race I didn’t make one mistake. I was able to just cruise the whole time. In the Silver Crown cars you have spotters. Pete was my spotter and I just remember that he was really calm on the radio, and it kept me calm. It really helped me hit my marks every lap. I’m sure Pete smoked two packs of cigarettes in that feature though. It was cool. It was a huge feat to win all three races my first time racing there. To do something like that at a place like Eldora was something special, so yeah, I’ll always love that race and I love that race track. I haven’t honestly raced there much since then, other than the NASCAR Truck race, but wish I could do more. ELDORA BITES BACK In 2011 I had a great year, and winning the 4-Crown really helped take my career to the next step. I was beginning to race stock cars in 2012 and I wasn’t racing USAC midgets full-time. I ran the K&N East Series race at Loudon, New Hampshire and won it. The people at NASCAR were great and they hurried victory lane up for me. Smoke then hustled me to a helicopter to go race at Eldora. We went straight from Loudon to the airport in the helicopter, and then I hopped on Tony’s jet and went straight to Eldora. I got there in time to qualify the Silver Crown car I was going to run for Tony. I earned quick time in Silver Crown qualifying with no practice, which was an awesome feeling. We won that night in the midget after blowing up coming to the finish line. Would another sweep be possible? In the sprint car race, I was once again starting around mid-pack. Up top in turn one and two can get a little choppy at Eldora and I just caught a hole wrong in the early going. I bounced a couple of times and rode the wall. I felt like everything was going to be fine. But then something caught wrong and turned me sideways and I started flipping about as softly as you can possibly flip at Eldora (although there are no soft ones there). Another driver was left with nowhere to go and he hit me right on the downtubes, and probably just inches from getting me in the cockpit. It was pretty scary. It was also the first race, including heats and mains, that I didn’t win in the Hoffman car. That one hurt really bad. The initial hit hurt, but then I started flipping. I landed on the nose one time really hard and got some major whiplash. I hit my head on the steering wheel, I think. I used to run a little nose piece on my helmet and it shattered that. I was checked and cleared by the track medical staff, and I still had the Silver Crown race to run. It was the first time I was going to get to race for Tony, and I wanted to be out there. I was going to start on the pole and was definitely fast enough to win the Silver Crown race. I was sitting in the trailer just trying to convince myself to race. And then my neck started swelling and looked like I had a baseball in it, so I decided not to race. It probably wouldn’t have been smart to run it. I didn’t know if I had a serious injury or what, so I just decided to try to make an intelligent decision. It probably wouldn’t have been smart to run it, especially if I was involved in another incident. I went to the hospital with my parents, got some x-rays and got checked out. It turned out everything was alright but I was sore for a few days. The biggest thing, though, was the disappointment of not getting to race for Tony, as I haven’t had an opportunity to race for him since. TAKING DOWN THE OUTLAWS My first World of Outlaws win came in 2011 in the Gold Cup at Chico. 2011 was a really fun year for me. It was the first year I got to venture out into the Midwest. I got to race at a lot of different race tracks and I learned a lot. I developed a lot as a driver that year and I was fortunate to win a lot of big races throughout the Midwest. I had built a lot of momentum throughout the summer. When I wasn’t running for Keith and Pete I would fly back to California and race with the Kaeding team, which I had run for full-time the year before. I would run King of the West shows for them, or whatever was racing out there. Gold Cup is a race that every local driver wants to win, but it had been something like 30 years since a true local had won the race. I don’t remember much about the beginning of the night but we did everything right to put ourselves in a position to win. We won the heat and won the dash, and started on the pole of the feature. Chico was a tough track to pass on that night. It was pretty hooked up around the bottom, and the middle to the top was a little slick, so you kind of had to fight for the bottom. I had to hold off Jason Sides on some double-file restarts, and that was difficult because in California we didn’t do double-file restarts. The only time we did them was when the Outlaws would come to town, and those guys were all so good at them. I was nervous on every restart I had because Jason would try to control the pace and would try to pinch me down. Fortunately, I was able to get clear of Sides on every restart, pass a couple of lapped cars and eventually get the win. It was definitely one of the most special wins to me. I went to a lot of Outlaw races when I was growing up and I always wanted to win one so bad. To get the first one out of the way was really cool. I remember I was tearing up in my helmet after getting the checkered. My dad was crying, but my dad cries all of the time when I win big races. The California fans were loving it too. Seeing the emotion of everyone on the team was pretty special, and something I’ll never forget. TAKING ADVANTAGE OF OPPORTUNITIES When I first moved to Indiana I wasn’t there full time, but I was there a lot of the time. I was living in Columbus, Indiana and really all I was doing was racing USAC midgets and Silver Crown cars for Keith and Pete. There were a lot of weekends where I didn’t have much going on, and I was extremely bored in Columbus. As a result, I would try to get whatever non-wing sprint car ride I could get in my spare time. I got to run for Jeff Walker a little bit the first year I was out there, and wrecked a lot of stuff. I think I raced maybe three races for him. I finished second at a Bloomington USAC race, but I flipped at Gas City and then destroyed a car at Kokomo. Not surprisingly, my career with Jeff Walker didn’t last very long. Following that I don’t think I ran much non-wing sprint car stuff for a while. Then I went with Keith and Pete to the Belleville Midget Nationals and we swept both nights. I went to Knoxville the next night just to watch the USAC sprint cars, and had no plans to race until the next weekend in California. I’d heard that the Hoffman’s were struggling with their driver heading into Knoxville. The driver flipped that night and the next morning Kirk Spridgeon got me in touch with the Hoffman’s. One night later we won $15,000 at Oskaloosa. It was huge, as that was definitely the most money I’d won up to that point. Oskaloosa started that relationship off really well and about a month later we won 4-Crown together. HITTING THE ROAD Up until 2011, I’d spend most of my career in California. 80% of the time the tracks out there are really hooked up or rough quarter miles. By then, I was racing a lot more out in the Midwest where they didn’t use the water truck as much, so I got to experience racing on slick tracks against some pretty tough competition. I got to see a lot of new places, race for different people, and I really learned a lot. I feel like that year I took myself from being a good local racer to being a good racer nationally. But it took some time. It’s not like I got to Indiana and started winning right away. I think it took me until June to win my first race. Once I got that first win I got some confidence in myself that I could go out there and beat the Bryan Clauson’s and Dave Darland’s in a non-wing sprint car or midget. Confidence was everything for me back then. I came back to California with a lot more experience and confidence, and I knew that I was one of the best drivers in the Nor-Cal area. HANDLING FINANCES When I ran a sprint car from the ages of 14 to 16 I never really made a lot of money. I was paid 30% for a top five finish. I didn’t get paid often, but I was still making some money. I got my driver’s license, and I could pay for gas in my parents car, and at least get around. As I turned 17 and 18 I started winning more. At that point, I was making real money, probably $30,000. I’ve never really thought about how much I made then, but in 2011 I won some big races and I made over $100,000, which is insane for an 18 or 19 year-old. My dad just always kind of took care of all of that, and would just sort of oversee everything, and put it away for me. I didn’t really think about money a whole lot then. Even though I was making good money I didn’t really think about what to do with it. Now, I definitely spend a lot, but back then I feel like I was really good at saving my money. My father always kind of tried to teach me to save money. Back in those days, when you’re a race car driver and you’re going through the season and you’re winning races every now and then, you’ll get like $1500. You decide you want to go spend a few hundred bucks and get yourself something. The problem is that when you get to the offseason you’re not making any money for about three months. My father would always try to remind me of that reality anytime I wanted to spend money. He would scare me a little bit by saying things like “are you sure you have enough money to pay your taxes?” Even now, my dad watches out for me to make sure the money I’m owed is coming in, and the money going out is accountable. I’m sure my dad doesn’t have fun doing it, but at the same time I kind of think he likes being able to watch out for me, and I appreciate it. TROPHY CUP I don’t remember how old I was when I first went to Trophy Cup, but before I started racing sprint cars, it was always one of my favorite races. The race has such a unique format. The feature on Saturday night is totally inverted based on points earned in qualifying and heats over the preliminary nights, so the fastest drivers are always starting at the back of the field in a 50 lap race. Tulare is my favorite track. It’s a really exciting track and the perfect race track for the Trophy Cup format, because there is always lots of passing. You don’t necessarily have to win the race to win the main event, because the big money (which is $20,000 to win) goes to the driver who earned the most total points. It’s always fun to follow along as the drivers come from the back of the field. It is a race within a race because of the points gained as you move forward. Each position is so important, and I always felt like the excitement builds throughout the race. Some guys that start in the back try to get to the front quickly and they’ll look like the sure winner of the whole deal. And then you’ll have someone methodically pick their way through the field and sometimes they steal the win in the last lap or two. Each year it seems like it comes down to the very end, and I think that’s why I’ve always liked that race. Tulare had always been my best race track and I was always really, really fast there. I spent my first couple of years racing there tearing up equipment. The place even sent me to the hospital in my early days. It was still my favorite track, but I could just never put together the perfect weekend at Trophy Cup. I’d always qualify too badly on my preliminary night and lose my shot at winning the event. Finally, in 2013 I was able to get a lot of points heading into Saturday night’s main event. I qualified well and got through my heat on Friday. I think we maybe finished third in Friday’s feature and that set me up in a good spot for Saturday night. Tim Kaeding and I were tied for the points lead heading into the finale. I started in the last row and I was able to get to the front pretty quickly. I knew all I really had to do was beat Tim and I would win the points deal. Or, at the least, another guy or two would have to beat me by a few spots. I got to second with 8 laps to go. I date Brad Sweet’s sister, Katelyn. Brad was leading the race in the late stages. I didn’t have to beat Brad to win Trophy Cup, but I wanted to win pretty badly. I knew what was on the line if I wrecked, or whatever. I threw a big slider on Brad in turn one after we got the white flag, and then he crossed me over and we drag raced down the backstretch. He actually had me cleared by the end of the backstretch and I just assumed he would short slide himself to the center of the corner and not leave me a lane. Fortunately for me, he pulled off to the bottom of turn three and slid across the corner really slowly. I was grinning in my helmet because I knew I had a shot to squeeze around him on the outside. The door closed at the very last second and we made contact. I was able to claw my way to the finish line and win with the car destroyed. The rear end was knocked out, I had a flat tire and I ripped the wing pretty much off the car. I tore up a lot of stuff, just to get the race win. I was honestly lucky that the red flag didn’t come out, or I would have lost the whole point deal and the $20,000. I think it was such a crazy finish that the flag man probably didn’t know what to do and luckily he just threw the checkered flag. It took Brad and his parents probably a couple of days to get over that one, and Katelyn as well. But it’s funny. We still joke about that race a lot. Brad and Katelyn’s mom are so competitive, and she still gets fired up when that race gets brought up. THE DREAM BECOMES A REALITY When you’re a young kid you think that you can do anything in the world, and that’s great, but it’s not necessarily how things turn out. I always had the confidence you need to make it to NASCAR someday. I knew early on that I could at least make a living racing sprint cars in California. You can look to people like Kyle Hirst, and he’s made a good living just racing locally in California. I would say that when I was around 15 or 16 years old that I knew that racing was what I had to do to make a living. I’ve never had a real job and there’s no way I could work a nine to five job. I knew I’d need to make it in racing. As far as really knowing I had a shot to race in NASCAR though, I would say the reality of that possibility didn’t hit until 2011. Whenever you get to go race for Keith Kunz you know that if you can just do a good job that you will meet the right people. NASCAR teams pay attention to what goes on in USAC midget racing. I think once I started racing for Keith I knew I had a really good shot to go far in racing. Racing with and against talented teammates When I joined Kunz in 2011 I had teammates, but they weren’t the caliber that they have there now, so I wasn’t too concerned. I was always kind of out running my teammates then, and even in 2012 when Rico was brought in. Rico was new to midgets so he didn’t run up front a lot right away, and at that point Christopher Bell wasn’t there yet. Now, I only get to run five or so midget races a year. So, if I get outrun by my teammates it doesn’t hurt my feelings because I can accept that I don’t do this all of the time. I should get beat by Tanner Thorson or Rico, although I still hold my own when I do get to race a midget. You look at someone like Tanner, who I don’t think won until his third year on the team, or maybe the end of his second year. If Rico hadn’t been there, and Bell hadn’t been there, he probably would have been racking up 10 wins a year. Teammates are good because they drive you to be better, but it’s also bad in a way too as it can get your confidence down in a hurry. Carson Macedo did a really great job last year, but now he is probably not going to race for the team this year. It’s tough. Tanner’s the best on the team now, but when you’re just as fast as he is and he’s finding ways to beat you, it can get frustrating. Jamie McMurray and I, in NASCAR, work great together. We always help each other out, and you have to in NASCAR. I still want to beat him every time I’m on the track. I want to beat him in practice, qualifying and the race. One of my goals going into every race is to make sure I outrun my teammate. I think Bell went through those difficulties in having to be teammates with William Byron. I know he was frustrated. You believe you’re getting the same stuff as everyone else on the team, so if you get outrun you ask yourself “Is it me? Or am I not getting the same equipment as him?”. It gets really frustrating when you’re watching your teammate win a lot. THE NEXT JEFF GORDON? If I could give families any advice for their young kids in racing I’d say not to rush them too quickly. But if you look at my career it probably looks like I got rushed along. It’s hard to say. But the one thing you find, with whatever young kid it may be, they either have it or they don’t. It’s different these days. It’s hard to just get rides, so you just have to take advantage of every opportunity that you get. It really doesn’t matter whether you’re being rushed along or if you’re towards the end of your road to making it to NASCAR, a driver has to take opportunities when they are presented. I don’t know if there’s a right or wrong way to go about bringing up a young racer. For me, having fun was emphasized by my parents. Every kid and every parent handle situations differently, and either things are going to fall your way in terms of luck or breaks, or they won’t. Being in the right place at the right time, and winning races, are the most important keys, however. HAMMER DOWN I’m always aggressive in the race car. Especially on restarts. Restarts are the only opportunity you get in a race where everybody is close together. You can make the biggest gains possible in the shortest amount of time. I’ve always known that and have tried to be aggressive on starts. If you look at myself and Kyle Busch in NASCAR, our restart stats are well beyond most other drivers in terms of positions gained. Thankfully, I race for great race teams on dirt. Every time I’m in a sprint car I feel like I have a shot to win, or at least have a car capable of winning. I do everything I can to try and win. As I’ve grown up and gotten a little bit more mature I’ve gotten better at accepting a sixth place finish. But still, since I just don’t get to run dirt stuff a whole lot anymore, I just really try to win every time I’m out there. Lately, it’s gotten me into some trouble. If you look at my preliminary night this year at the Chili Bowl I should have just taken a second place finish in the feature. I got to racing, though, and as a result I was in the D Main on Saturday night. My driving style can definitely bite me sometimes, but it helps me more often than not. Every part of driving a race car is technical, especially a sprint car. I feel like when you play it safe in a sprint car it’s easier to make bigger mistakes than when you’re running a curb on a wall or something like that. When you are going faster you have more downforce and you’ve got more grip. I don’t want to say it’s more difficult to make a mistake in that situation, but I think it makes it easier to get into a rhythm. For me, it’s also good motivation knowing that if I don’t rip a curb hard that Paul Silva will rip my ass. Obviously, I don’t race sprint cars a lot anymore, so I watch a lot of races on DirtVision or on The Cushion and it can sometimes be frustrating to watch. You’ll be watching your friends and thinking “Run it in a little bit harder”, or “Run it in a little bit higher”. You know the little things they can do to be that little bit faster. THE LARSON-MARKS #2 I’ll probably be a little more involved in the Larson-Marks World of Outlaws team this coming year. I’m hoping to help the team out a bit more financially. I really enjoy that aspect of racing, being involved with the team. I love sprint car racing, but I don’t get to go to a lot of races. So, it’s nice to feel like you are a part of every race. I feel like we’ve got the best, or at the very least, the second best driver in Shane Stewart. The first year with the Outlaws we ran second in points, won a lot of races, and were consistently up front. Last year we had a lot of speed but the consistency wasn’t really there. The team still won eight races, so it was a decent year. But hopefully we can get back to how we were the first year we did the tour. We have Bob Curtis back on our team for this year, which I think is going to be great. Absolutely everybody who works on the World of Outlaws tour is an exceptionally hard worker, but there’s nobody that works as hard as Bob. He doesn’t have much of a background in terms of being a crew chief, but he’s been around so long and has been with so many top teams. I’m hoping between his and our notebooks he can take that next step and make our race cars even faster. An Outlaw season is tough, long and grueling. Every driver relies on confidence quite a bit, but I feel like Shane does especially. He needs to know that his car is going to be bad ass every time it hits the track, and if he truly believes it he’s almost impossible to beat. As long as we can keep his confidence up I think we’ll have a great year, and that we can definitely challenge Donny Schatz for a championship. RACING THE BEST IN NASCAR There’s a lot of racers in Cup that have made it there either through their parents helping them a lot, or hooking up with a sponsor when they were young. And, honestly, there’s nothing wrong with that. People give the Dillon brothers crap all of the time, but they’re both really good drivers. Austin’s won a Truck and an Xfinity championship. He can and will win Cup races, and maybe even a championship someday. Fans talk about spoiled rich kids in racing all the time. What I hope they realize is that it doesn’t matter how much money they spend, they’re not going to stay in the sport long if they aren’t producing and running up front. I feel like we have at least 30 incredible drivers in the Cup Series, and you can’t take that away from the ones that had good financial backing behind them early in their careers. There’s no hiding that there are rich families or supporters in NASCAR. You can take someone like Daniel Suarez, whose sponsor is Arris. The guy behind Arris is like the second richest guy in the world. But Daniel still had to race well enough to become an Xfinity champion, and he deserves to be a Cup racer based on his talent. I am proud of myself for making it without having to spend a dime. There’s not many of us these days in Cup. I think the last guy to make it this way before myself would probably be Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. He definitely got there by taking advantage of great opportunities, along with his talent. THE PROCESS OF MAKING MY DIRT SCHEDULE In 2012, when I started running the K&N East Series, Chip Ganassi Racing was cool with everything that I wanted to race. Even in 2013, when I was a rookie in the Xfinity Series, CGR still let me run a lot of dirt races. Whenever I wanted, I could get done with a NASCAR practice or race and get to a dirt race track and just stay busy racing, which was awesome. Once I moved to Cup in 2014 they had me back my dirt schedule down quite a bit. Even I wanted to back it down because I wanted to take it seriously and focus 100% on NASCAR. I think I only ran one sprint car race (Kokomo) in my first year of Cup. In the offseason, I raced Turkey Night, Chili Bowl and Yuma. I didn’t really debate much with CGR at that time to run a bunch of dirt races. I also knew that I had to stay safe and make sure that I could be a NASCAR driver for a long time. But it means a lot to me to be able to race often, and I was kind of bored after not racing sprint cars or midgets that year. The following year I asked more often and I was able to race a couple more races, but not too many. During the middle of that year we started putting together something like an insurance policy that would allow me to run 25 dirt races a year. That way, if I got hurt, Chip would be covered. The team has been super accommodating. Chip doesn’t necessarily like that I race all of this stuff, but he understands that I love it. I think he understands that I truly feel like it makes me a better driver on the NASCAR side. I have always felt the more you race the better you become. There is no other Cup owner out there that lets their driver go race the way I get to, so I’m very thankful for that. It’s one of the main reasons I’ve stayed with Chip – he’s a racer too. WHY NASCAR STARS COME BACK TO THEIR SPRINT CAR ROOTS We don’t have the horsepower in Cup that we do in a sprint car, and a sprint car weighs half as much. They are just wild race cars. There’s nothing on the planet that’s as fun to drive as an open wheel, dirt car. I’ve never driven a dirt late model or a modified, but I can imagine they are a blast to drive as well. When it comes to competition, I think friendships are closer in dirt track racing than they are in pavement racing. There’s not so much intense setup work that goes into dirt racing like there is in pavement racing. In pavement stuff, everyone is so secretive and on edge. If you get into somebody they want to fight you, while in sprint car racing you just kind of get over it really quick and move on to the next race. As a result, I think you build bigger and better friendships in dirt racing. In the end, it all comes back to the racing. You just can’t beat sprint car racing. THE ADVANTAGES/DISADVANTAGES OF A SPRINT CAR BACKGROUND IN NASCAR I don’t know how much being a sprint car driver really matters when it comes time to drive in NASCAR. We’re all really good drivers in Cup and it really doesn’t matter what kind of background you come from, I don’t think. Talent is talent. If I had to say the kind of things a sprint car driver may struggle at I would say it’s racing at a place like Martinsville or Richmond. I’ve gotten better at these places, but in general, any track where you have to use a lot of brakes, stop and make a u-turn, and take off again, are where my weaknesses lie. I struggle with those kinds of places because in sprint cars and midgets it’s all about how fast you can enter the corner. At those kind of tracks it’s about how consistent can you be each lap, how consistently can you hit your marks, and how little you spin your tires on exit. For whatever reason, even when I feel like I’m not spinning my tires, they always look worse than others when we go to short tracks. I can be really fast on a short run, but I can also get murdered on a long run. I also think there are a lot of places and circumstances where being a sprint car driver really helps me excel. Fans might be shocked, but road course racing is one area where I really think being a dirt track guy helps. When we race on ovals we don’t have any ride height rules so our cars are just stuck to the track. You don’t really feel the car roll side to side or the suspension moving as much. On road courses you can feel the car flexing up, and when it gets grip it will pick the front end up. So you can “feel” your traction a lot better. In oval racing, you’re kind of relying on aerodynamics and stuff like that, so road course racing is one aspect of NASCAR where I think dirt track racing helps a lot. When we go to “drivers” tracks, where you have to be really aggressive, it helps a lot to have a sprint car racing background. Tracks like Bristol, or anywhere that you can run the wall, like at Homestead, it feels a lot like running a cushion on a big half-mile in a sprint car. When it comes to being strict with your mind, hands and feet, or tracks that you have to hit the bottom every lap, those are the places that I feel like I personally struggle at. I can visually see other sprint car guys struggle at those places too. THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 I hope one day I’ll be able to compete in the Indianapolis 500. The Indy 500, to me, is the biggest race in the world. It trumps the Daytona 500, or any other race in the world for that matter. I think because my dad is such a big Indycar fan that it makes me want to run it even more. I guess just the way I was raised, I always understood the importance of that race. I haven’t bugged Chip about it as much anymore. It was more of like a joke between us before, but I think he kind of got annoyed by it, so I stopped asking about it. He did always tell me to worry about winning a Cup race first, so I’m glad I’ve gotten that out of the way. Now that I’ve won a Cup race I’d like to do it. It’s just tough. By the time May rolls around, if you don’t have a win in Cup, then running the 500 would be really sketchy. If you had a win early in the season, and knew you were locked into the Chase, you could go to the Indy 500 and race hard, and not be scared of wrecking or getting injured. I feel like for some reason every year our Cup team hasn’t started off really well, and May is kind of the time when our team really starts to get going. It would be terrible to break your wrist or something in the 500, be out for a couple of weeks, and lose a shot at making the Chase based on points. I think if our team could get to the point where we are truly racing with a shot at the win each and every week, and feel like we have a legitimate shot at winning at least half of the races, at some point I feel like Chip would probably let me run the 500. But until our team gets to that point, probably not. Just to start the Indy 500 would be really special. I wouldn’t necessarily be going there to win, because that would be a lot to expect, but I think to be a part of it would be really cool. CELEBRATION TIME I’m not a big celebration guy, but I feel like fans like it so I’m kind of obligated to do it now. When I was growing up and racing karts, my sister’s ex-boyfriend, Pete Johnston, had crazy victory celebrations. He would do donuts so fast it looked like a helicopter was about to take off. He’d have the steering wheel out the left side and his other arm out the other side. He just did bad ass celebrations. When you’re racing karts you don’t want to copy somebody, and I would just rarely ever celebrate. Once you get to sprint cars, other than a wing dance there’s not really a whole lot of celebrations you can do. I think when I started doing the wheel out the side was when I was racing midgets in New Zealand a few years ago. Even though people thought it was original, it wasn’t, because I stole it from Pete. But now, it’s kind of stuck as my signature celebration. I do it most times on dirt if I feel like it’s a prestigious race to win. Nobody had done it in NASCAR, so I did it there. I caught a lot of flack for it with NASCAR. Mike Helton told me I should never do it again after I won my first Xfinity race. They felt it was dangerous, which I get, I guess. So now I rarely celebrate anymore in NASCAR. However, when I won my first Cup race, I was like “Screw it!”. It was my first Cup win, and if I got in trouble, I got in trouble. I actually think NASCAR kind of liked it though, and felt like I did a pretty good burnout and a good celebration. I’m not sure if I’ll keep doing it or not. Everybody keeps doing burnouts when they win now, and to me it’s played out. I like the idea of just pulling straight to victory lane. My dad always said celebrations are like rubbing your competition’s nose in it. It’s always funny to get tweets from people complaining that I didn’t celebrate, and that’s what they came for. You came to see a good race, I hope you didn’t just come for a burnout. A RETURN TO KNOXVILLE Getting a chance to return and compete in the Knoxville Nationals last year was huge. I love racing at Knoxville and now I don’t get to do it at all, really. Last year my schedule worked out perfect. The NASCAR off weekends just fell at the best times of the year for sprint car racing. The second off weekend fell right before Ohio Speedweek, so I was able to run six of the eight nights. We finished on the podium I think five out of the six nights, and winning two races was great. The next off weekend landed right during the Knoxville Nationals week, which fell just perfect for me. I got to run Oskaloosa and then the Knoxville Nationals. Knoxville is a tough place, but it’s especially tough during the Nationals. Every team has all of their best stuff ready and there’s no other place like Knoxville. It’s just so hard to go and race a sprint car there when you don’t do it on a weekly basis. I was happy just to make the feature. I won the B-Main and we started deep in the field, and ran all of the way up to 5th. I think the second half of the race went non-stop. I needed some cautions. I was extremely fast but I needed some help to get the field bunched back up. It didn’t work out the way I needed it to, but it was just awesome to run the Knoxville Nationals and run in the top 5. Any time you go to the toughest sprint car race in the world, and do that, it is pretty cool. Unfortunately, this year the schedule frickin’ sucks in terms of sprint car racing. I can’t run Knoxville or Ohio Speedweek, so it’s a bummer. OWEN I don’t think becoming a father has affected my racing at all. If anything, I think I have more fun now at the races. It’s fun to get to take Owen to pretty much every one of my races. He’s two years old now and he LOVES racing. It’s just so much fun to watch him have a good time. I feel like I’m somewhat in my parent’s shoes, watching myself grow up, which is a neat experience. Owen knows what a track looks like from the outside before we even get to it. If he sees a set of grandstands he starts making engine revving noises and saying “Race! Race! Race!”. He goes crazy. He loves going to NASCAR races. There’s a lot of time to kill, and he LOVES going through the tech area with the team. This year the team is making him his own crew shirt, so the whole experience is awesome and he really loves it. I feel like I’m watching myself grow up through him. FINALLY! My first NASCAR win at Michigan had been a long time coming. We finished second in my fifth race during my rookie year of racing Cup in 2014. At that point, I realized that maybe I could actually win a Cup race in my first year. We had some really good finishes throughout the season. Unfortunately, we also had a lot of DNF’s and didn’t make the Chase, but we ended the year extremely fast. I felt like I legitimately had a shot at winning three or four of those races so I wasn’t too concerned going into that offseason. As 2015 began, I felt we would get a win just because we had been really fast to close out the year before. But we didn’t start the year off very good at all in 2015. It was disappointing to start that year and struggle to run in the top 15. We went to a couple of tracks where I’m really good and I thought we had the speed to win, but we just didn’t get it done. 2015 ended up just being really frustrating because I had really high hopes of winning. In 2016, we had a new crew chief come in; Chad Johnston. We struggled again during the first couple of months, but once he got what he wanted from the organization we picked up a lot of speed really quickly. At the first Kansas race, I ran top three all race long, and then I got crashed at the end. The next race was at Dover and we probably should have won that one if I was more aggressive. We went to the All-Star Race at Charlotte the next week and made it in by like an inch in the Showdown, which is like the B-Main. I almost won the All Star Race and a million bucks later that night, but we got beat by Joey Logano. It was really cool to feel like we could win races and be competitive again. We stayed pretty good but kind of tapered off just a little bit as the season progressed. We got back to hitting it hard right before the Chase. Really, our main focus was to make the Chase, and we had a good shot at “pointing” our way in. At Watkins Glen, I was going to finish fourth or fifth, but AJ Allmendinger got into me in the last corner and spun me out. I lost something like 26 points in that race, which really killed our shot at making the Chase through the points standings. We went to Bristol the next week, which is my favorite race track on the NASCAR schedule. I felt like we were the fastest car there, with our best chance to win a Cup race and make the Chase. But then we ran into bad luck like I usually do there. For the race at Michigan, we ran the 2017 rules package. We had been really good with that package, and that’s the package we raced at the All-Star Race when we almost won. We ran it at the first Michigan race and we ran third. I was confident going into the race but you never really know how much other teams have gained on those one-off rules packages implemented between the other races. I remember Chad and the rest of our team were super, super confident going into that race. Aerodynamically the team had made a lot of gains. I was confident about things and we were good, really good, from the first lap that we hit the race track. It really looked like it was going to come down to Chase Elliott and myself on Sunday. You could kind of see that it was going to play out between Chase and I all race long. I was able to beat him on a couple of clutch restarts, which is an area where I’ve struggled a lot, and still struggle to this day. It was just a big relief to get the win. Also, it was big as we were still feeling the effects of losing Bryan Clauson just a few weeks before. We were locked in the Chase for the first time too, so that was awesome. We kind of got on a roll after that, as we finished third the next week and second the week after that. I was feeling really good going into the Chase, and then I ran into my normal NASCAR bad luck. We were running fifth late in the first Chase race in Chicago and had a tire come apart with eight laps to go and we finished 20th. At Dover, we had battery issues and went like three laps down, and that killed our shot at continuing in the Chase. But we ended our year well like we always do, with another great run at Homestead. So hopefully we can just start this year off strong and I think we can get a couple more wins. WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? I’m 24, and I’ll be 25 this July. Besides winning NASCAR races and championships, my main goal in racing is to run a season with the World of Outlaws some day in my future. Fortunately, I’m in Cup at a young age. I feel like if I can run for another 12 years in Cup, I’d still be in my mid-thirties and I could still go Outlaw racing. You never know, if I’m Jimmie Johnson in 12 years I’m probably not going to quit Cup. It’s just really tough to try and foresee your future when you’re this young, and this early into the game. But I definitely want to race with the World of Outlaws. And hopefully, at that time the World of Outlaws are as big or bigger than they are now. And hopefully, Donny Schatz is still racing when I get there because I’d love to run a season or more with Donny. You never know how things will play out though, so it will be interesting to see where my career takes me. Stay tuned!

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has settled charges it filed today against New Jersey-based bitcoin swap execution facility (SEF) TeraExchange. The charges stem from a non-deliverable forward contract executed on 8th October on TeraExchange, which is provisionally registered as a SEF. The transaction took place under the active guidance of TeraExchange, without any associated trading fees or collateral requirements, the agency said. According to the CFTC, these actions constitute wash trading and prearranged trading in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act. The agency defines wash trading as the act of “entering into, or purporting to enter into, transactions to give the appearance that purchases and sales have been made, without incurring market risk or changing the trader’s market position”. Prearranged trading constitutes an act of “trading between brokers in accordance with an expressed or implied agreement or understanding”, according to the CFTC. Press materials from the time indicate that one of the parties was Australian bitcoin mining firm DigitalBTC, whereas the other was an unidentified “hedging counterparty”. The exchange facilitated the prearranged transaction and then went on to “[create] the impression of actual trading interest in the bitcoin swap” in a 9th October press release,” according to the CFTC. “Neither Tera’s press release nor the statements at the Global Markets Advisory Committee (GMAC) meeting indicated that the October 8 transactions were pre-arranged wash sales executed for the purpose of testing Tera’s systems,” the agency said in a press release. This, the agency said, was different from a situation in which an exchange would openly declare that it was testing its systems, stating in its order: “These facts should be distinguished from a situation where a SEF or other designated contract market runs pre-operational test trades to confirm that its systems are technically capable of executing transactions and, to the extent that these simulated transactions become publicly known, makes it clear to the public that the trades do not represent actual liquidity in the subject market.” The CFTC has ordered TeraExchange to refrain from further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act. No monetary penalty was levied against the company. The move comes shortly after the CFTC settled charges against bitcoin options trading platform Coinflip. In that same ruling, the agency stated that, under its interpretation of the law, bitcoin and digital currencies are commodities. TeraExchange did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This article has been updated with additional information about the settlement. The full CFTC order can be found below: CFTC Docket No. 15-33 US capitol building image via Shutterstock

A 2-year study by Indian Council of Medical Research concluded that the condoms made according to International standards are too large for Indian men. The study claims – 50% of the penises measured were smaller than the International standard for condoms. 1 out of 5 condoms either falls off or tears during sex 60% of Indian men have penises which are between three and five centimetres shorter than international standards used in condom manufacture. The study concludes my suggesting condom manufacturers to make customized condoms for Indians. The study was done on 1200 Indian men from different areas of the country. Over 1,200 volunteers from the length and breadth of the country had their penises measured precisely, down to the last millimetre. The scientists even checked their sample was representative of India as a whole in terms of class, religion and urban and rural dwellers. The conclusion of all this scientific endeavour is that about 60% of Indian men have penises which are between three and five centimetres shorter than international standards used in condom manufacture. Source: news.bbc.co.uk It seems like different sizes of condoms are available in India, but people are not made aware about it. Mr Puri said that since Indians would be embarrassed about going to a chemist to ask for smaller condoms there should be vending machines dispensing different sizes all around the country. “Smaller condoms are on sale in India. But there is a lack of awareness that different sizes are available. There is anxiety talking about the issue. And normally one feels shy to go to a chemist’s shop and ask for a smaller size condom.” Source: news.bbc.co.uk But then again, I doubt if a guy would go into a store and ask – “Is this the smallest you have?”

Native American fashion designer Bethany Yellowtail had an epiphany while attending the protests at Standing Rock in 2016. “As I was in these spaces where I normally would not have been, I saw these friends, and women, and sisters, my relatives who maybe would not step into a leadership role,” she says. “I saw them bloom and I saw them blossom into these women they were always meant to be. They stepped into their own power.” The Los Angeles designer channeled the moment of inspiration into the latest collection of her B.Yellowtail line, which she recently debuted at the World of Wonder Storefront Gallery in Hollywood. Among her brightly colored dresses and intricately patterned women’s wear, she based a particular piece on ledger art. Originally drawn on tanned bison skin, then transferred to paper after the near eradication of the buffalo in the late 1800s, ledger art recorded everyday life for the Plains tribes, as well as battle exploits, relationships and the encroaching cultural changes — and erasure — brought by Manifest Destiny. For what she says is her favorite of her latest collection, Yellowtail collaborated with illustrator Wakeah Jhane to capture the ledger art style, depicting seven women of various ages sketched on a long skirt. Yellowtail says that the skirt has a deeper meaning. “Indigenous people think about their actions today and how they will affect our grandchildren and seven generations forward. Everything you do affects them,” she says.

In the late 90s, Göteborg based Swedish composer Magnus Birgersson created Solar Fields, a project considered like one of the most productive and creative in the Scandinavian electronic music scene. As a high-tech sound designer and multi-instrumentalist, Magnus Birgersson developed Studio Jupiter, a living museum of machines in which he builds his unique sound universe, poles apart from current trends in the genre; with Solar Fields he explores the wide possibilities of electronic music from depth to floating atmospheres, cultivating contrasts and subtlety with brio. In an interview Magnus recalls: “Music happened to me the day I was born. Been having music and instruments around me in the family from the very beginning. I started to play piano in the 70’s. During this period I also got introduced to synthesizers. In the mid 80’s I started to hook up synthesizers to computers and I’ve been doing that since then. I have also been involved in all kind of different projects, from guitar player in rock bands to pianist in jazz funk bands, and keyboard player in drum & bass bands.” He currently collaborates with Vincent Villuis aka AES Dana on H.U.V.A. Network and T.S.R. in the company of Daniel Segerstad and Johannes Hedberg from Carbon Based Lifeforms. Under moniker Solar Fields, he composed 12 albums and appeared on over 60 various compilations.

A Baltimore police detective was shot in the head with his own gun at close range while struggling with a man and died with his radio still clutched in his left hand, the city's top law enforcement official said Wednesday. Detective Sean Suiter's death came a day before he was set to testify before a grand jury in an ongoing federal investigation of police corruption and drug shakedowns by an elite gun recovery unit. Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said he was assured by prosecutors and the FBI that Suiter, an 18-year veteran of the force, was not a target of the investigation that has led to the indictments of eight current officers. Four have pleaded guilty to racketeering charges. Davis said Suiter's testimony was to have been about an incident several years ago involving some of the indicted officers. The commissioner sought to dispel notions Suiter was targeted the afternoon of Nov. 15 and said evidence gathered so far refutes the notion of a conspiracy. "The encounter with a man was a spontaneous observation of a man behaving suspiciously and a spontaneous decision to investigate his conduct," Davis said. But, he said, "I understand the speculation that exists." Suiter and his partner were in the Harlem Park neighborhood canvassing about a December 2016 triple killing when they happened to twice notice a man acting suspiciously within a span of about 20 minutes, Davis said. Members of the Baltimore Police Department gather near the scene of the shooting death of Detective Sean Suiter. (Patrick Semansky/AP) The department's chief spokesman said Suiter, 43 and a married father of five, was not lured to Bennett Place, where he was shot, and that he had no appointment set there. Davis said Suiter confronted the man in an empty lot between two rowhouses but did not say what made him stand out. [Baltimore police detective fatally shot investigating triple killing] The mystery surrounding Suiter's death continues after a week with no arrests, no detailed description of the shooter and the fact that it appears only one gun was involved. A funeral for Suiter, who is originally from the District, is scheduled for Wednesday. Davis said there was evidence found on Suiter's shirt that indicated a struggle he called "brief and violent" and lasted mere seconds. Suiter made a radio transmission before he was killed that included what Davis said he believes are gunshots in the background. The commissioner said the words in that call have not been deciphered but that the recording is being analyzed with help from the FBI. "He was clearly in distress," Davis said of the sounds on Suiter's radio call. Authorities have previously stated that investigators found three shell casings that matched Suiter's weapon, which was recovered at the scene. An autopsy Sunday ruled the death a homicide, Davis said, and also provided information about the trajectory of the bullet that caused police to return to the crime scene for another search. That repeat search recovered the bullet that killed Suiter, Davis said Wednesday. Suiter's partner, who has not been named publicly by the department and is considered a police witness in the shooting, Davis has said, took cover at the sound of gunfire and called in the shooting on his cellphone. The partner has been continually talking with detectives, Davis said, and provided the spare description police said they have of the suspect as a black male wearing a black coat with a white stripe. A reward for information leading to Suiter's killer has reached $215,000, and Davis urged people to come forward. In the days since the shooting, police have focused on Harlem Park, a small and violent patch of depressed real estate west of downtown in a city that ranks near the nation's top in homicides per capita. Police kept the crime scene active for five days, restricting residents' movements as they searched for the killer. The neighborhood is marked by more vacant houses than occupied homes. "There is nothing we won't consider," Davis said. "Right now, the evidence that's available to us is indicative of a homicide." He said it would be entirely plausible for it to be coincidental that Suiter was killed in a random encounter unrelated to his pending grand jury appearance. "It's a very dangerous area," Davis said. "He was following up on a brutal murder in 2016. Detective Suiter was not interviewing schoolteachers and mailmen." The commissioner said conspiracy theories swirling around the investigation are "certainly a distraction for leadership" and are "very hurtful for the Suiter family and friends." Suiter was a U.S. Navy veteran who had grown up in Washington and lived with his wife and family in Pennsylvania. The commissioner said he met with homicide detectives Monday night on the investigation and that "they are determined to get it right."

Getty Images Updates from Sunday, Oct. 5 The Texans announced Arian Foster is active for today's game: Updates from Friday, Oct. 3 Texans.com's Deepi Sidhu has the latest on Foster: Updates from Thursday, Oct. 2 Deepi Sidhu of HoustonTexans.com passed along comments from Bill O'Brien on Arian Foster's status for Week 5: Updates from Sunday, Sept. 28 Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle spoke with Arian Foster on how he felt during Week 4: "I just wasn’t 100 percent healthy out there (Sunday),” said Foster, who was initially a game-time decision. “I didn’t feel 100 percent myself, so I got some third downs in at the end of the game, just to try to help out. I’m glad I could make my play when my number was called.” Texans coach Bill O’Brien said the Texans spelled Foster, partially because of Blue’s rise. “We tried to manage (Foster’s) snaps (Sunday), coming off of missing a week there,” O’Brien said. John McClain of the Houston Chronicle earlier confirmed Arian Foster is active for Week 4: Ian Rapoport of NFL Network previously reported the pre-game expectation for Foster: Updates from Friday, Sept. 26 Mark Berman of Fox 26 updated Arian Foster's status from the Texans' injury report: Earlier, Deepi Sidhu of HoustonTexans.com passed along comments from Bill O'Brien on Foster's status for Week 4: Updates from Thursday, Sept. 25 FOX 26's Mark Berman has the latest on Foster's status: Updates from Wednesday, Sept. 24 Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle passed along comments from Bill O'Brien on Calvin Johnson's status: Updates from Monday, Sept. 22 Drew Doughtery of HoustonTexans.com reported the latest on Arian Foster: Deepi Sidhu of HoustonTexans.com also passed along more from Foster: Updates from Sunday, Sept. 21 Pat Hanlon of Giants.com confirms Arian Foster is inactive for Week 3: Ian Rapoport of NFL Network previously reported the pregame expectation for Foster: John McClain of the Houston Chronicle added: Original Text Houston Texans running back Arian Foster, 28, is questionable for Week 3 as he works through a hamstring injury. CSN's Dave Zangaro and Texans Radio host Deepi Sidhu have the details: The three-time Pro Bowler is entering what might be a seminal season in his career. After scoring double-digit touchdowns and rushing for more than 1,000 yards in each of his previous three years, Foster ran for only 542 yards and one score in 2013. He missed the last eight games of the season after suffering an injury that required back surgery and also struggled through other maladies. Doctors cleared Foster for full participation in organized team activities in April. He had been a fixture at Texans facilities ever since, participating in non-mandatory workouts and showing up to training camp looking fully recovered. Thomas B. Shea/Getty Images "I can tell you the surgery wasn't as major as it sounded," Foster told Bleacher Report's Mike Freeman. "That's why I rebounded so quickly. I also worked my ass off. I'm expecting to do bigger things and bounce back." The Texans hope to receive a positive prognosis on Foster's latest injury. When healthy, Foster ranks among the best running backs in football. He's a powerful ball-carrier who fights his way through holes and gains consistent yardage despite not having an elite downfield burst. He's also an effective pass-catching option who has twice amassed more than 600 receiving yards in a season. With question marks surrounding Ryan Fitzpatrick's ability to lead a cogent passing game, Foster's health is possibly more important than it's ever been. First-year head coach Bill O'Brien has developed a reputation as something of a quarterback whisperer, but Fitzpatrick's mediocre career resume speaks for itself. The Texans need an effective Foster in the lineup to have any chance of challenging in the AFC South. Despite a miserable 2013 season, Houston has a solid core that could hang around .500 or even compete near the top of a wide-open division. Foster's injury puts that on hold for now. Once there is a firm prognosis, the Texans will have a better outlook of what lies ahead. Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.

Former Obama UN Ambassador Samantha Power Samantha Jane Power'Dear Attorney General Barr': Advice from insiders Heather Nauert is the wrong choice for UN ambassador Khashoggi editor on Trump Saudi statement: 'This is a new low' MORE on Monday apologized for not using the term "genocide" to describe the Ottoman Turks' massacre of Armenians. "I am very sorry that, during our time in office, we in the Obama administration did not recognize the #Armenian Genocide," Power said in a series of tweets. I am very sorry that, during our time in office, we in the Obama administration did not recognize the #Armenian Genocide — Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) April 24, 2017 Power, who served as Obama's UN ambassador from 2013 to 2017, blamed "ongoing Turkish denial" for leaving an "open wound." "Almost every Armenian-American family was touched in some way by the genocide," Power said. ADVERTISEMENT Former President Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaWith low birth rate, America needs future migrants 4 ways Hillary looms over the 2020 race Obama goes viral after sporting black bomber jacket with '44' on sleeve at basketball game MORE had promised during his campaign to use the label to describe the mass killings by Ottoman forces of the Armenian in the 1910s, but reversed course in office. The Turkish government has long fought efforts to label the killings a genocide. Turkey is seen as a key NATO ally, in particular in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Armenian-American groups, though, have long urged the U.S. to use the term. Power's remarks came the same day that President Trump released a statement marking the atrocity, but also kept course with past administrations by declining to call it a genocide. Trump called the killings "one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century." “I join the Armenian community in America and around the world in mourning the loss of innocent lives and the suffering endured by so many," Trump said in a statement. To date, Power is the only Obama official to express regret over the decision not to use the term genocide. Earlier Monday, Obama also made his first public remarks since leaving the presidency, attending an event in Chicago.

Special By By Tim Sandle Dec 4, 2017 in Business A new blockchain based technology allows creators to protect their intellectual property and prove that it's theirs. According to co-founder Eric Klein, the platform even aims to replace lawyers in the future. To discover more about this new application of blockchain technology, Digital Journal spoke with Digital Journal: How important is blockchain technology becoming in the world of business? Eric Klein: Blockchain allows registration of information in a secure, transparent, and efficient method of data transactions between participants, without the need for intermediaries. This technology is built in a way that all data transfers that are registered in its environment, is recorded and irreversible by private entities, hackers or even governments - make it resistant for changes and reliable as evidence. DJ: Why are you developing blockchain solutions for intellectual property? Eric Klein:We took the blockchain based solution into implementation. Our groundbreaking technology for processing data, using a multi-layer index hashing algorithm, will be implemented on blockchain for the first time. We use the natural features of Blockchain technology in our favor, meaning that every data's transformation is secured completely and unchangeable, which enable the creators to easily prove that their creation is actually their own only. After all, a creation is not yours if you can’t prove it. First, the system authenticates data that is uploaded to the platform, which is then linked to a transaction on a blockchain via smart contracts. It timestamps it to provide an immutable record and keeps track on sharing the same data by other entities to prevent plagiarism. If this is not enough, since we expect many creators to be interested in protecting themselves, the project's, By-product, is a marketplace that will allow all artists to trade their works and bypass the mediator. DJ: Are thefts of intellectual property a growing concern? Eric Klein:Throughout eleven years of experience in the media industry, I dealt with copyright infringement on a daily basis, such as illegal downloading of original content. Recently we are witnessing a flourishing industry of copyright infringement - China has the Highest online piracy rate of 91 percent, cost U.S. firms $48 billion in 2009; followed by Columbia with 90 percent and Russia with 80 percent online piracy rate. DJ: Do you think your technology will allow interested parties to side-step lawyers? Eric Klein:I believe that within five years the need for intermediaries and lawyers will decline drastically, and creators will have a lower cost for registering their copyright in NKOR than in standard use through a lawyer or DRM software. they will spare themselves the legal tangle. It follows that legal claims in that field may be avoided in the first place. Mediators, including attorneys for intellectual property registration, will be required in a reduced manner. DJ: How is your fundraising campaign going? Fortunately, our venture aroused curiosity among investors right from the start; Even before the white paper was written to the end, a sum of more than $1 million has already been raised from various businessmen. We intend to raise another $40 million in an ICO fundraising. The revenues will be used to finance the further development of the NKOR ecosystem and its ongoing operations, as well as to attract additional strategic partners to the NKOR’s team to further its expansion. Part of the revenues will be held in a vesting schedule for the founding team that will ensure an incentive for them to perform well and remain with the company. DJ: Have you attracted any big backers? Eric Klein:Recently, Andrey Yashunsky, Partner at Da Vinci Capital, invested in NKOR's venture and has joined the advisory board. Da Vinci Capital is a private equity firm specializing in growth capital, buyouts, and middle market investments. Along with Yashunsky, David Mickler, co-founder of Quintessentially Ventures, joined us on board. Quintessentially Ventures is a community consists of sophisticated Angels in 60 offices worldwide, which invested in 40 projects in a total sum of $70 million. Last but not least is Yohai Rayfeld, the chairman of the successful mobile-payment parking solution, Pango, serving over 1.7 million cars with more than 4 million monthly transactions. DJ: What is your marketing campaign strategy? Eric Klein:The field of copyright has a wide angle and so does our marketing strategy. We seek to address several key interrelated sectors due to the lack of a solution to the copyright problem, beyond the built-in appeal to the business community for financing. We turn to the legal, cultural, art and crypto industry and to anyone who was at the beginning of developing the Blockchain technology. We do not endorse Digital Hard Sell. The campaigns that run on Facebook cause disgust and we try to avoid it. We work with investors behind the scenes, strive to reach out to the Blockchain community through conferences. We believe in openness with the public, especially since the platform will return to the public after 4 years and eventually, will be having no profit from any transaction. DJ: Do you have any competitors in this area? Eric Klein:The main competitor for NKOR's platform is DRM (Digital Rights Management) solutions. Securing content with Digital Rights Management comes with heavy financial expenditures, while NKOR charges a symbolic fee of a few pennies for every data's transaction. For that matter, an annual license of one of the leading DRM Software in the market can be purchased at a minimum of $2500. At the moment, Middle-class simply don't have the money to prove their copyright and NKOR can help them with a cheaper, simpler, and more efficient solution. While its main aim is to prevent piracy, almost all DRM systems can be cracked. For instance, the famous action role-playing game, Shadows of War, was protected against piracy in the anti-tamper protection software, Denuvo. Only one day after the game was released, it was cracked by hackers. DJ: How are you ensuring that your company stands out? If so, how are ensuring that you’ll stand out?NKOR is based on Blockchain technology that is built in a way that all data transfers that are registered in its environment is recorded and irreversible by private entities, hackers or even governments - make it resistant for changes and reliable as evidence. DRM techniques that include online registration help companies track purchases made by a user, intruding on their privacy. In contrast, NKOR uses the natural features of Blockchain - allows registration of information in a secure, transparent, and efficient method of transactions between participants, without the need for intermediaries. The new project, established by the company NKOR , is in the midst of the development process and it is currently raising funds — to date some $1 million has been raised.To discover more about this new application of blockchain technology, Digital Journal spoke with Eric Klein, Co-Founder, and CEO of NKOR . Klein's experience with the media industry has meant he has needed to deal with copyright infringement on a near daily basis, including illegal downloading of original content.Blockchain allows registration of information in a secure, transparent, and efficient method of data transactions between participants, without the need for intermediaries. This technology is built in a way that all data transfers that are registered in its environment, is recorded and irreversible by private entities, hackers or even governments - make it resistant for changes and reliable as evidence.We took the blockchain based solution into implementation. Our groundbreaking technology for processing data, using a multi-layer index hashing algorithm, will be implemented on blockchain for the first time.We use the natural features of Blockchain technology in our favor, meaning that every data's transformation is secured completely and unchangeable, which enable the creators to easily prove that their creation is actually their own only. After all, a creation is not yours if you can’t prove it.First, the system authenticates data that is uploaded to the platform, which is then linked to a transaction on a blockchain via smart contracts. It timestamps it to provide an immutable record and keeps track on sharing the same data by other entities to prevent plagiarism.If this is not enough, since we expect many creators to be interested in protecting themselves, the project's, By-product, is a marketplace that will allow all artists to trade their works and bypass the mediator.Throughout eleven years of experience in the media industry, I dealt with copyright infringement on a daily basis, such as illegal downloading of original content.Recently we are witnessing a flourishing industry of copyright infringement - China has the Highest online piracy rate of 91 percent, cost U.S. firms $48 billion in 2009; followed by Columbia with 90 percent and Russia with 80 percent online piracy rate.I believe that within five years the need for intermediaries and lawyers will decline drastically, and creators will have a lower cost for registering their copyright in NKOR than in standard use through a lawyer or DRM software. they will spare themselves the legal tangle. It follows that legal claims in that field may be avoided in the first place. Mediators, including attorneys for intellectual property registration, will be required in a reduced manner.Fortunately, our venture aroused curiosity among investors right from the start; Even before the white paper was written to the end, a sum of more than $1 million has already been raised from various businessmen. We intend to raise another $40 million in an ICO fundraising.The revenues will be used to finance the further development of the NKOR ecosystem and its ongoing operations, as well as to attract additional strategic partners to the NKOR’s team to further its expansion.Part of the revenues will be held in a vesting schedule for the founding team that will ensure an incentive for them to perform well and remain with the company.Recently, Andrey Yashunsky, Partner at Da Vinci Capital, invested in NKOR's venture and has joined the advisory board. Da Vinci Capital is a private equity firm specializing in growth capital, buyouts, and middle market investments.Along with Yashunsky, David Mickler, co-founder of Quintessentially Ventures, joined us on board. Quintessentially Ventures is a community consists of sophisticated Angels in 60 offices worldwide, which invested in 40 projects in a total sum of $70 million.Last but not least is Yohai Rayfeld, the chairman of the successful mobile-payment parking solution, Pango, serving over 1.7 million cars with more than 4 million monthly transactions.The field of copyright has a wide angle and so does our marketing strategy. We seek to address several key interrelated sectors due to the lack of a solution to the copyright problem, beyond the built-in appeal to the business community for financing. We turn to the legal, cultural, art and crypto industry and to anyone who was at the beginning of developing the Blockchain technology.We do not endorse Digital Hard Sell. The campaigns that run on Facebook cause disgust and we try to avoid it. We work with investors behind the scenes, strive to reach out to the Blockchain community through conferences. We believe in openness with the public, especially since the platform will return to the public after 4 years and eventually, will be having no profit from any transaction.The main competitor for NKOR's platform is DRM (Digital Rights Management) solutions. Securing content with Digital Rights Management comes with heavy financial expenditures, while NKOR charges a symbolic fee of a few pennies for every data's transaction. For that matter, an annual license of one of the leading DRM Software in the market can be purchased at a minimum of $2500. At the moment, Middle-class simply don't have the money to prove their copyright and NKOR can help them with a cheaper, simpler, and more efficient solution.While its main aim is to prevent piracy, almost all DRM systems can be cracked. For instance, the famous action role-playing game, Shadows of War, was protected against piracy in the anti-tamper protection software, Denuvo. Only one day after the game was released, it was cracked by hackers.If so, how are ensuring that you’ll stand out?NKOR is based on Blockchain technology that is built in a way that all data transfers that are registered in its environment is recorded and irreversible by private entities, hackers or even governments - make it resistant for changes and reliable as evidence.DRM techniques that include online registration help companies track purchases made by a user, intruding on their privacy. In contrast, NKOR uses the natural features of Blockchain - allows registration of information in a secure, transparent, and efficient method of transactions between participants, without the need for intermediaries. More about blockchain, Intellectual property, Copyright, Data protection More news from blockchain Intellectual propert... Copyright Data protection

Researchers have uncovered a group of individuals who are cracking Bitcoin wallets secured through the Brain Wallet technique and emptying their funds. The discovery comes only a week after another group of researchers discovered a faster and more cost-effective way of breaking Bitcoin "brain wallets," which were first analyzed and proved to be insecure at last year's DEFCON security conference in Las Vegas, USA. In their investigation, researchers scanned the Bitcoin blockchain for Bitcoin wallets secured through the Brain Wallet technique by attempting to brute force their private keys using a 300-billion-password cracking dictionary assembled from various sources. Only 884 accounts used the Brain Wallet technique "Surprisingly, we identified a relatively small number of brain wallets in use: fewer than 1,000 total," the researchers noted. But the good news stops here. Looking into the 884 brain wallets they found, all but 21 wallets were drained of their Bitcoin in less than 24 hours after their owners deposited funds inside them. The total losses amount to around $100,000 / €90,000, stolen between September 2011 and August 2015, up to the DEFCON presentation that presented the attack scenario and after which most users stopped using the Brain Wallet technique to secure their wallets. The DEFCON presentation affected so much of the Bitcoin landscape that the Brainwallet.org service decided to shut down for this reason. Thieves stole around $100,000 worth of Bitcoin As for the Brain Wallet-draining attacks, researchers said that they discovered 1,895 distinct transactions, affecting 863 wallets, which sent stolen funds to 48 different accounts. All these 48 wallets received payments larger than $100 / €90 (in Bitcoin), and 13 accounts received payments from at least 20 different (robbed) wallets. Some of these accounts belonged to the same owner, and the researchers say they found 14 different drainers behind these transactions. A breakdown of the drain operations can be viewed at the end of this article. The Bitcoin Brain Drain: A Short Paper on the Use and Abuse of Bitcoin Brain Wallets research will be presented in more depth at the Financial Cryptography and Data Security conference in Barbados, on February 25, 2016.

Flying high: Cambridge scored the maximum possible overall rating Louis Ashworth The University of Cambridge has expanded its dominance of The Guardian’s league table of UK universities, seizing the top spot for the sixth year in a row, and increasing the number of subject tables it leads to 12. Cambridge was trailed by Oxford and St Andrews in second and third place, which were followed by a tie for fourth place between Loughborough (climbing seven places this year) and Surrey. Oxbridge’s dominance of the top of the table was continued from last year. Cambridge received the maximum overall score of 100, followed by the University of Oxford with 95.4. Cambridge was ranked as the best university in Britain for several subjects, including Medicine, Law and History. The league tables also see Cambridge take second place for studying Politics, behind St Andrews and one ahead of Oxford. The University of Cambridge scored comparatively lowly for course satisfaction, coming 36th in the table. Oxford came sixth for the same metric. Guardian rankings – The top five universities in the UK: 1) University of Cambridge 2) Oxford University 3) University of St Andrews 4) University of Surrey/Loughborough University The Guardian ranks universities based on results acquired from the annual National Student Survey (NSS), according to their the student/staff ratio; spending per student; what grades applicants need to get a place; graduate career prospects; a “value-added” score system which compares entry qualifications with final grades; and finalist satisfaction rates. The table is noted for placing a strong emphasis on student experience, with no weighting given for quality of research. Cambridge scored highly in ratings for student satisfaction, staff-to-student ratios and graduate prospects. Research for the table found that 89.6 per cent of Cambridge students are employed within six months of leaving University – second only to Imperial College London, where 90.1 per cent have careers within the same time frame. It follows the announcement that Cambridge topped the Complete University Guide rankings this year, also for the sixth time in a row.

Grass that may help tackle global warming by cutting the level of methane given off by cows is being developed by scientists reports the latest issue of the Society of Chemical Industry’s (SCI) magazine Chemistry & Industry. Scientists at Gramina, a joint biotech venture by Australia’s Molecular Plant Breeding Cooperative Research Centre and New Zealand rural services group PGG Wrightson Genomics, are developing a grass that will not only cut the amount of methane cows burp up when chewing the cud but also grow in hotter climes. This means that farmers should be able to maintain dairy herds’ productivity and profitability in the face of a changing climate, while cutting down their gaseous burps and reducing their contribution to global warming. Combating greenhouse gas emissions produced by the agricultural industry is a priority. The UK’s DEFRA has just announced a roadmap aimed at helping the dairy industry reduce its potential impact on the environment in line with Britain’s target to cut its greenhouse emissions by 20% by 2010. By 2015 the roadmap plans to have 20-30% of milk producers trialling new technology to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calculates that methane makes up 14.3% of humanity’s contribution to global warming and data from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US shows that atmospheric methane levels may be rising again after a 10 year period of stability. A single dairy cow can produce between 550-700L of methane a day and it has been estimated that methane from cattle in the UK could account for as much as 3% of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Cows’ production of methane is down to the microflora in their gut that helps them to digest their food. As these microbes break down the grass’ cellulose, methane is produced as a by-product, the majority of which is burped up. David Beever, international nutrition director of Richard Keenan UK, said: ‘You don’t actually hear the cows burp, but they are permanently releasing methane.’ Gramina will use sense suppression technology to prevent the expression of the enzyme O-methyl transferase. Suppressing this enzyme leads to an increase in the digestibility of the grass without compromising its structural properties and therefore less burps and less methane. Gramina has already tested this modification in temperate grasses in the lab and glasshouses and is now planning field trials. However, some scientists suggest that a cow’s absolute methane emissions might go up. Alistair Macrae, a lecturer in farm animal health and production at the University of Edinburgh, UK, says a diet too rich in highly digestible carbs can actually increase the amount of methane a cow belches out. This is because gut microflora convert more of these sugars into propionic acid, which creates a more acidic environment resulting in more methane. Ian Givens, a professor of animal science, at the University of Reading, UK, says that more digestible forage could push up a cow’s absolute methane emissions but productivity gains would mean less methane per unit of milk. Beever agrees and says, ‘It could increase methane emissions but it could also increase milk yields, effectively cutting the amount of methane produce per litre of milk.’

Photo: Fox Searchlight Ever wonder what TV show Natalie Portman watches with her beautiful husband once she’s put her beautiful child to bed in Paris? Turns out, the same one as many of us, Broad City — though most other fans of that show don’t come away with conflicted feelings about their career choices. As Portman admitted on the eve of the Toronto Film Festival, that happened to her after Broad City made a joke at the expense of a movie many people love to loathe, Garden State. Portman was talking about her career Wednesday night as part of a public conversation in honor of the 40th anniversary of TIFF when the moderator, festival artistic director Cameron Bailey, brought up the movie that commercialized whiny hipster shit as a genre of film (to paraphrase my esteemed colleague Jesse Fox’s defense of Garden State). Portman explained how much she’d loved shooting the film. “Zach had never made a film before,” she said. “No one was telling me to make that movie. Everyone was like, ‘Okay, here’s the weird offer you got.’” Yet it was exciting to her. She’d made it in her senior year at Harvard when she was 20 or 21, and she got to spend 25 days playing a wacky female character on this really fun shoot while all her college friends were writing theses. “Although,” she added, “I’ve been insecure about it recently because of Broad City. Does anyone here watch Broad City?” she asked the audience. “Best show. If you haven’t watched it, watch it. And on the show there’s a really dorky character who’s a gym instructor, like an Equinox guy or something, and he’s the worst. And he’s like, ‘Oh my God, I love Garden State! I donated all my money to Zach Braff’s Kickstarter.’ And I’m like” — Portman buried her head in her hands — “‘Oh my God.’ So now, because the people I think are the coolest think it’s really lame I’m kind of insecure about it.” She’s also had some hindsight about becoming part of the manic pixie dream girl phenomenon. At the time she signed on for Garden State, she said, all she was thinking about was how the character of Sam, an adorable pathological liar with epilepsy, was unlike anything she’d ever been offered. “When I read it I was like, ‘Oh, this is a character that’s wacky and interesting, and no one’s ever given me a chance to play something like this. It’s this sort of unusual girl,’” Portman said. “So that was my incentive to make it. But of course I see that trope and I think it’s a good thing to recognize the way those female characters are used. I mean, I appreciate that people are writing characters that are interesting and unusual, rather than some bland female character as the girlfriend in a movie, but when the point of the character in this movie is to, like, help the guy have his arc, that’s sort of the problem, and that’s why it’s good that they’re talking about it, because it certainly is a troubling trope.”

International protests have begun -- with some demonstrators threatening jihad -- in advance of a Florida church's plan to burn copies of the Koran on Sept. 11. Roughly 100 Indonesian Islamists protested outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta on Friday, Agence France-Press reported, with some threatening holy war if the plan to burn Korans on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks comes to fruition at the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla. "No one will be able to control this reaction," Roni Ruslan, of Hizbut Tahrir, a radical organization than advocates Islamic law, told Agence France-Press. "We urge the U.S. government and Christian leaders to stop the crazy plan from this small sect. It's an insult to Islam and to 1.5 billion Muslims around the world." Protesters at the U.S. Embassy shouted chants of "God is greater" while holding signs that read "Destroy Burners of the Koran," among others, according to AFP. Meanwhile, Pastor Terry Jones has said he intends to proceed with plans to burn the holy text next month. The church's website even features a blog posting that provide visitors "Ten Reasons to Burn a Koran," including its teaching that Jesus Christ was "NOT the Son of God" and claims that Islam is "not compatible" with democracy and human rights. "The attitude towards women in Islam as inferior possessions of men has led to countless cases of mistreatment and abuse for which Moslem men receive little or no punishment, and in many cases are encouraged to commit such acts, and are even praised for them," read another. "This is a direct fruit of the teachings of the Koran." FBI, state and local law enforcement agencies are monitoring the threats of violence promised if the church follows through on the event, Gainesville Police Department Maj. Rick Hanna told the Gainesville Sun. "We're on top of this, and we are taking it serious," Hanna told the paper, adding that agencies will have "all hands on deck." Evan Kohlmann, who tracks radical militant websites for the New York-based firm Flashpoint Global Partners, told the Gainesville Sun a homicide bomber has threatened to drive a truck into the church. Others have discussed setting the building on fire, he said. "It's hard to tell how serious the discussions are, but they're talking about it," he told the paper. One posting on a jihadist website indicated a desire to bomb the church if Jones' plan comes to fruition, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. "Now, I wish to bomb myself in this church as revenge for the sake of Allah's talk," the posting by an individual identifying himself as Abu Dujanah read. "And here I register my name here that I want to be an intended martyr."

130 dogs were rescued from Rainbow’s End Animal Sanctuary in Apple Valley, CA two weeks ago, now they may be at risk of being euthanized. On June 18, Devore Animal Shelter rescued the dogs from the animal sanctuary after reports of bad living conditions and treatment of the animals. The dogs were not appropriately fed, medical needs were not attended to and they had very little communication with humans. Unfortunately, a number of the dogs have already been euthanized because of medical reasons and the others were taken to Devore Animal Shelter. The Devore is now saddled with paying the medical expenses for the dogs and making room for new dogs to enter the shelter. If the shelter does not find sponsors for the dogs, they will have no other choice but to euthanize them. Before Devore took on the abused animals, it was able to solicit help from other shelters and people to adopt the dogs that were at Devore to make room for the 130 from the sanctuary. According to Devore, the puppies and dogs rescued from Rainbow End’s Animal Sanctuary are not suitable for pets because they need so much attention. They will only release them to rescue groups with proper paperwork. Devore will only release one or two dogs at a time to other rescue shelters. The rescued animals range from newborn pups to 11-years-old, both male and female are available. Brian Cronin, chief of animal care and control said a criminal complaint has been filed against the animal sanctuary. “It’s extremely concerning when a self-proclaimed animal sanctuary fails to fulfill its commitment to the homeless animals it has accepted,” Cronin said in a statement to Fox. Devore is hoping to get assistance for the remaining 130 animals rescued from the sanctuary and not have to euthanize them. Any rescue group looking to rescue the Apple Valley dogs can call 909-386-9820. The Devore Animal Shelter is located at 19777 Shelter Way, San Bernardino, CA 92407. The compelling photo is not of the actual animals but of what could have been had someone not stepped in and if more shelters do not come forward and assist with these poor animals. By: Veverly Edwards Source 1

plot twist: the pyramids, great zimbabwe, all the neat stuff that was built in meso-america like the nazca lines REALLY WERE built by the indigenous cultures. BUT the status of zeus, temple of artemis, colossus of rhodes, parthenon, etc were built by aliens puzzled except the Greeks aren’t white (they were culturally and genetically closer to Egypt and the Persian diaspora than “white” cultures) and your insistence that European history, philosophy, banking, and politics cannot be founded on the backs of a nonwhite culture is just as racist and imperialist. Unless you mean “white” to be “culturally dominant” and even then you’re wrong, because Greek supremacy and and cultural dominance was never as widespread as history books seemed to paint it to be - really, they only (barely) dominated the Mediterranean region, even though they knew the world to be much, much larger and their period of true dominance was from the end of the second Persian war to the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. The Greek Golden Age was a generation long. The great “Greek Empire” that history books love to tout never fucking existed and your view of ancient race relations is entirely based on modern American race relations, which is ahistoric, fucked up, and racist.

Super easy, healthy, and incredibly delicious, this cozy red lentil soup is seasoned with Mediterranean spices and a touch of harissa for some kick! This naturally vegan and gluten-free soup is perfect for chilly evenings. This soup was one of my favorite things to cook when I was in law school. It’s go so much going for it! For one thing, it’s a pretty cheap meal (and funds were low back then). For another, the quick throw-stuff-in-a-pot-and-let-it-simmer approach to cooking was perfect during exams time. I wasn’t the only one that was a big fan of this soup back then. At some point a mouse moved into the kitchen of the house I was renting, residing somewhere beneath my oven. Whenever this soup was cooking, he’d pop his little head out of one of the burners that weren’t then being used and turn his nose up in the air, sniffing away. MY LATEST VIDEOS! I didn’t really mind. It was cute and I took it as a compliment. I did get a little nervous at times that I’d light a burner without realizing he was approaching, so I got in the habit of banging on the stove top to scare him away before lighting up, just in case. We eventually did have to relocate the mouse and his family. I just wasn’t comfortable with the thought of them scampering all over my dishes and utensils while I wasn’t looking. I’m happy to say that we caught them all with humane traps and relocated them to Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, where they (as far as I’m concerned) lived out the rest of their little mouse lives happily. Why Red Lentils? I love the flavor and texture of split red lentils, but they’ve also got the advantage of quicker cooking time compared to other types of lentils. About 20 minutes of simmer time is all it takes for these lentils to completely soften up and fall apart. Make sure your red lentils are split. Usually the ones available at supermarkets are, but occasionally I come across some that aren’t. If your lentils aren’t split, they’ll take much longer to cook, and your soup will have a completely different consistency. How to Make Red Lentil Soup Start by sautéing some onions in olive oil. Give them a chance to soften up, and then add some garlic and spices. Sautéing the spices for a minute (but no longer!) brings out their flavors. Finally, add some broth, tomatoes and your red lentils. Let everything simmer for a bit, until the lentils are soft. Add a squeeze of lemon juice. If you like your soup on the spicy side, stir in some harissa paste at the end. FAQ & Tips for Making Perfect Mediterranean Red Lentil Soup Feel free to adjust the spices and seasonings to your liking. Use more harissa if you like extra kick, or leave it out if you’re not into heat at all. Use more harissa if you like extra kick, or leave it out if you’re not into heat at all. Is this soup gluten-free? It sure is! It sure is! Leftovers of this soup keep very well for about 3 days in the fridge. The soup may thicken up a bit over time, but I personally like that! If you don’t, just thin it with a bit of broth or water. The soup may thicken up a bit over time, but I personally like that! If you don’t, just thin it with a bit of broth or water. Can I make this soup with another type of lentil? Perhaps, as long as the lentils you use are split. If they’re not split, the tomatoes could prevent them from cooking fully. Check out my video to see just how easy this soup is to make! Like this recipe? If so, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter. And please stop back and leave me a review and rating below if you make it!

When asked if the questions were intended to be incendiary, Bailey wrote: "Absolutely not! That's not mine or the show's thing. Look, not a huge fan of these controlled 5-7 minute interview junkets they run in the first place but I was curious about the brother and sister thing. You have a white sister and black brother wouldn't you want to know how that happened? I did. The other Fantastic Four franchises explain the relationship so I figured with this new hipster version they'd have some different backstory. "My partner's (Southside Steve) conversation about Kate's hair is something that came up while Michael B Jordan took a phone call so I think they were kind of just going back forth in a playful way. As for him complimenting her toes and why people are upset about that...sorry...no idea. Steve likes girl's toes. People should be appreciative when they get complimented. Those that are upset on Twitter I guess don't get enough of them. Who knows?"

A man named Jim died at work today. I watched it happen. I came out and there he was supine on the tarmac as though enjoying a particularly fine patch of sky. A security guard knelt beside him, pumping his dying chest. Jim’s body rocked slowly like an unmoored ship, rippling with each compression in plain sight of us all. I felt embarrassed for him. To die like that. Sun, pavement, flesh. No matter how gently I handle them there is no coming away clean, no avoiding the inevitable mental thumb sticking to mental forefinger, no escaping the viscid mess. That day watching Jim, I thought of my father and the bicuspid valve that may one day take his life. I thought of my grandfather’s headstone. A security guard told me it reminded him of a suicide he’d witnessed more than twenty years earlier. Strange how the dying are always compounded. Death has a way of calling up death. And of barbing the hooks on our endless questions, whirring out like fishing line across time and space: Why? Why him? Why now? They float to us on the illimitable ocean of experience, calling up monsters from the deep, asking can you look at this and still say God is good? You see this question burning in the eyes of the newly-bereft: The primacy of the personal militating against anything outside its own experience, thumping its chest against all-comers, declaring, I am, my pain exists, and all else be damned. But what is more universal than death? Tens of thousands have died today and will continue dying tomorrow. And it’s not as though human beings have cornered the market on dissolution. Seen any road kill lately? Ever dispatched a spider in the bathroom? How many millions of bacteria are dying inside your small intestine right now? To be part of a great world system of the dying—so what? What consolation does this commonness bring? As every mourner knows, we experience death most keenly not in the universal, but in the particular—this mother has passed away, this friend. And it’s true. Something unique has happened. A hole in our existence emerges, a void, the destruction in a peculiar way of possibilities and relationships. The obdurate selfishness of pain crying to be heard above all others—“Woe is me”—contains within it a truth as elemental as the hills: the self-ness of grief. Grief is, and always must be, personal—even in its universality. Where does this leave those who sit, like Rachel, on the eternal mourners’ bench refusing to be comforted? Our answers to these questions are important, never more so than in a world with a maelstrom of opinions on offer about death’s role in human existence. Some conceptions of evolution see death as advancement, weakness flushing down and out of the drain of existence. Others see death as the ultimate expression of personal choice, the birthright of an unalloyed sovereign self whose very existence hinges on the freedom to make such unencumbered decisions. Some Christians see death as God’s will, a punishment for evil, perhaps, though usually and more simply a way of calling his people home. Other believers see death as a brutal consequence of the fall, somehow ransomed through the work of Christ on the cross. Simplest of all, many see in death nothing but unreflective causality, equivalent in tone to a shoulder shrug: It happens. As I watched Jim on the pavement none of these thoughts were on my mind. There was too much chaos—blinking lights, people shouting, firemen and paramedics. Gradually one thing became certain, however. His death was attracting quite a crowd. Why does it fascinate us so? It is the same today as it ever was: Fires, car accidents, and all other violence attract onlookers and busybodies. As Jim lay exposed, a man jostled forward, looked, slipped a cameraphone from a void of fabric, and clicked a picture. Then he walked away. There was no uproar. No judgmental looks at what was surely a gross breach of decorum. The crowd did not notice. Why should they? It was only a slight aberration from what we were all doing anyway. Devouring with our eyes the sight of this man as he slipped away, curious in spite of ourselves, unable to look away. Death as spectacle. It’s sickening, isn’t it? All our talk about it, all our philosophizing and theology, the question ever-circling around the plughole of our minds. We live in a world saturated with the stink of it. On a certain level the logic of death binds us, enfolds us, contains us—and who hasn’t, at some point or another, worn-out and wearied, soul-crushed beneath the weight of mortality, wished to be free from it all? Cameraphones in hand, God help us, echoing St. Paul, we cry: “Who will rescue us from this body of death?” For the Christian, so much depends on the answer to this question. And make no mistake: The answer is, after all, a who and not a what. It is not an answer that will satisfy, perhaps, the implacable among us. But it is an answer, like grief itself, rooted in particularity, in this man, in this Jesus. We do well to remember death is not our friend. We do well to remember God is not served by its awful power nor does he need it, being perfectly sufficient in himself, to display his glory. It is not an accomplice. It is an enemy—the last enemy, in fact, according to Paul. And God refuses to be party to the spectacle, refuses to stand aloof, to watch, to hold in contempt, to remain unmoved in the audience. That is the comfort we cling to: a God who himself bears scars. He joins us on the mourners’ bench and makes himself the greatest spectacle of all on our behalf—the spectacle of God before man crucified. In the work of Jesus, in the spectacle of the cross, we see a God who participates, and through participation, ushers in, at last, the end of death as spectacle. The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but not Our Lord. And so when death comes, as it will, and we see on the news another genocide, or another tsunami, and people shouting or screaming and blood spattered on the pavement, or when we watch our own loved ones wasting with cancer and wired with tubes and inscrutable blinking machines, or see a beloved father or mother lowered coldly into the grave, or read of forty million babies silenced in the womb, I do not think we can comfort ourselves with the belief that one day all these things will make sense, that God will synthesize all disparate strands into one seamless fabric, and that we will find the glorious purpose that necessitated the suffering of the innocent. Nowhere do we see Jesus calling us to himself, saying: “Come, see my logic, and all will be well.” Instead we have the triumphant “Behold, I make all things new,” and tears being wiped away, and lions lying with lambs, and death nonexistent, and no mourning, or crying, or pain, and the passing away of former things. This last point bears special notice. The victorious Christ is not a natural extension of the status quo, the logical next step in a process that began with the first atom exploding outward to create all matter. He is not a geological system or a mathematical equation like the wheeling sun or the tides of the sea. No: The victorious Christ is the greatest disruption, the striking off of shackles from a fettered world. He liberates us from the cruel facts of our existence in this present world. He is the end of death itself. As people ahead of time, it is the Christian’s responsibility to proclaim now that which we know will be proclaimed on bended knee from the lips of all creation—that Jesus Christ is Lord. This demands a type of seeing, a type of imagination. It requires the eyes of faith—a looking forward in hope to the King coming on the clouds with fire and Heaven descending from above, to the One who will judge the living and the dead, who holds time in his hand, and who promises to put all things under his feet. When I saw death plant his white flag onto Jim’s face, I did not see a friend, but an enemy. And a conquered one at that. Let me proclaim it as I should. Joshua John Mackin lives in Brooklyn. Become a fan of First Things on Facebook, subscribe to First Things via RSS, and follow First Things on Twitter.

It's one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's favourite turns of phrase: "Canada's strength comes from our diversity." In his official statement after the alleged terrorist attack in Edmonton he invoked it, and whether the occasion is celebratory, tragic or anything in between, he never misses an opportunity to say that diversity is our strength. He's made it his brand identity, because the line's a political winner. But it misses something about what makes our society strong, and what Islamist-inspired terrorists, fascists on the right and so-called anti-fascists on the left all seek to destroy. By race, religion, language, sexuality, lifestyle and ethnicity, Canadians are visibly diverse. You see it every time we walk down the street. But that diversity of appearance hides a deeper and more powerful unity of purpose and desire. Beneath the visible differences, there's our common humanity, and our shared hopes for our lives in this country. What we share is what makes Canada possible. Story continues below advertisement Read more: Jagmeet Singh makes history with NDP leadership victory on first ballot Opinion: NDP opts for a leader who will shake things up with Jagmeet Singh Also: What we know so far about the suspected terrorist attack in Edmonton There are those who aim to set us against one another, using religious or racial difference – our diversity – as a spark for conflict. But Canadians of all races and faiths are largely united in a desire to live in a country of peace, order, good government and equality before the law, and in wanting to ensure that Canada remains a place where people of many origins and beliefs can be neighbours without fearing one another. Much of the rest of the world is not like that, and most Canadians oppose anyone who seeks to undermine this rare thing we have. Canada's diversity is a fact. Canada's unity as a liberal, democratic society, built on a diverse population, is an act. On Sunday, only hours after someone allegedly inspired by the so-called Islamic State launched a terrorist attack in Edmonton, the New Democratic Party elected Jagmeet Singh as its leader, marking the first time that a member of a visible minority has been at the head of a major national party. The events are related, in that they represent two possible futures: one where points of difference are points of hatred and deadly conflict, and one where what we share transcends differences in how we look, what we wear and how we pray. Mr. Singh's leadership is being taken as a symbol of Canada's changing demography – and that changing demography is a fact. But the ability of a group of voters who mostly do not practise Mr. Singh's religion or share his background to nevertheless choose him as their representative? That is the kind of act that makes this country possible. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement And Mr. Singh, for all that is different about him compared to previous leaders, was elected because of all that he has in common with his fellow, non-Sikh Canadians. He did not run for NDP leader in order to turn Canada into – to quote the famous heckler who ironically helped him win – an Islamic state, or a Sikh state. NDP voters of all faiths – and none – could vote for him because he espoused a vision of a shared Canada. There are, of course, people who have other ideas about this country. We saw them staging small but noisy protests in several parts of Canada last weekend: People on the far right, who oppose immigration by certain groups, and people who call themselves anti-fascists, but who tend to behave like fascists. Neither group likes Canada the way it is. The former wants to focus on those superficial things, like skin colour and religion, and keep out those who aren't of their kind. The antifas, for their part, have a history of opposing the things that make Canada liveable: democracy, tolerance and the rule of law. The people in black hoodies with their faces covered gained prominence during Toronto's G20 protests; their idea of political speech involved smashing windows and spray-painting slogans. Both of these groups know that their level of popular support is almost nil, which is why they feed off one another. When fascists and anti-fascists meet to protest and counterprotest, their hatred hides the fact that they are really a mutual admiration society. They have to be, because nobody else likes them much. But the more they succeed in capturing our attention, the more anti-democratic radicals of the left have a hope of positioning themselves as the answer to the rise of the anti-democratic far right, and vice versa. As for anyone inspired by Islamic State, their only hope is that acts of random terror will provoke a backlash against innocent Canadians who just happen to share the same faith or ethnicity as a terrorist, which will eventually lead to our society becoming polarized along religious lines. We can focus on differences as the measure of what makes us who we are, or we can celebrate differences while recognizing that what makes our society possible is all that we share. It's our choice.

Castiel is about to have one of his basic human needs met. Shannon Lucio (The O.C.) has been tapped to guest star on Supernatural as a love interest for Misha Collins’ newly-anthropomorphic alter ego, TVLine has learned exclusively. PHOTOS \| Fall TV Spoiler Spectacular: Exclusive Scoop on Supernatural, Plus 44 Other Returning Faves Lucio’s character, April Kelly, turns up in Season 9’s third episode, airing Oct. 22. At Comic-Con over the summer, Collins teased that the ex-angel would be submerged in the “whole gamut of the human experience” this season, including — but not limited to — “eating, defecating and fornicating.” VIDEO \| Supernatural Exclusive: Dean Goes On a Life-or-Death Head Trip to Rescue Sam Fun fanboy fact: Lucio appears in the premiere episode of ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Supernatural returns Wednesday, Oct. 8.

"What we really need is a Manhattan Project for cybersecurity." It’s a sentiment that swells up every few years in the wake of some huge computer intrusion—most recently the Sony and Anthem hacks. The invocation of the legendary program that spawned the atomic bomb is telling. The Manhattan Project is America’s go-to shorthand for our deep conviction that if we gather the smartest scientists together and give them billions of dollars and a sense of urgency, we can achieve what otherwise would be impossible. A Google search on "cyber Manhattan Project" brings up results from as far back as 1997—it’s second only to "electronic Pearl Harbor" in computer-themed World War II allusions. In a much-circulated post on Medium last month, futurist Marc Goodman sets out what such a project would accomplish. "This Manhattan Project would help generate the associated tools we need to protect ourselves, including more robust, secure, and privacy-enhanced operating systems," Goodman writes. "Through its research, it would also design and produce software and hardware that were self-healing and vastly more resistant to attack and resilient to failure than anything available today." These arguments have so far not swayed a sitting American president. Sure, President Obama mentioned cybersecurity at the State of the Union, but his proposal not only doesn’t boost security research and development, it potentially criminalizes it. At the White House’s cybersecurity summit last week, Obama told Silicon Valley bigwigs that he understood the hacking problem well—"We all know what we need to do. We have to build stronger defenses and disrupt more attacks"—but his prescription this time was a tepid executive order aimed at improving information sharing between the government and industry. Those hoping for something more Rooseveltian must have been disappointed. On Monday, we finally learned the truth of it. America already has a computer security Manhattan Project. We’ve had it since at least 2001. Like the original, it has been highly classified, spawned huge technological advances in secret, and drawn some of the best minds in the country. We didn’t recognize it before because the project is not aimed at defense, as advocates hoped. Instead, like the original, America’s cyber Manhattan Project is purely offensive. This revelation came by way of the Russia-based anti-virus company Kaspersky. At a conference in Cancun this week, Kaspersky researchers detailed the activities of a computer espionage outfit it calls the "Equation Group," which, we can fairly surmise from previous leaks, is actually the NSA’s Tailored Access Operations unit. NSA's cyber capabilities have been broadly known since the German news magazine Der Spiegel published a leaked 50-page catalog of NSA spy gear and malware in late 2013. But the one-page catalog descriptions didn’t convey the full flavor of the NSA’s technology. For that, somebody had to actually get their hands on that technology—capture it in the wild—and take it apart piece by piece, which is what Kaspersky did. The result is impressive. The company has linked six different families of malware—"implants," as the NSA calls them—to the Equation Group, the oldest of which has been kicking around since 2001. The malware has stayed below the radar in part because the NSA deploys it in limited, cautious stages. In the first stage, the agency might compromise a web forum or an ad network and use it to serve a simple “validator” backdoor to potential targets. That validator checks every newly infected computer to see if it’s of interest to the NSA. If not, it quietly removes itself, and nobody is the wiser. Only if the computer is a target of interest to the NSA does the validator take the next step and load a more sophisticated implant from a stealth NSA website like suddenplot.com or technicalconsumerreports.com. That’s where it gets interesting. The top tier of NSA malware discovered by Kaspersky is a generation ahead of anything previously reported in the wild. It uses a well-engineered piece of software called a bootkit to control the operating system from the ground up. It hides itself encrypted in the Windows registry, so that anti-virus software can’t find it on the computer’s disk. It carves out its own virtual file system on your machine to store data for exfiltration. There are update mechanisms, dozens of plug-ins, a self-destruct function, massive code obfuscation, hundreds of fake websites to serve as command-and-control. One of the NSA’s malware plug-ins can even reprogram your hard drive’s firmware, allowing the implant to survive a complete disk wipe—a feat that’s been demonstrated by computer scientists under laboratory conditions but never before seen in the wild. "The group is unique almost in every aspect of their activities," Kaspersky concludes. "They use tools that are very complicated and expensive to develop, in order to infect victims, retrieve data, and hide activity in an outstandingly professional way." If you combine Kaspersky’s malware analysis with the Snowden revelations, you start to see just how strong a position the US has on the chess board of cyber espionage, and how hard it has worked to get there. Other countries use computer intrusion for spying, but not with the NSA’s $10 billion budget, and no public analysis of Chinese or Russian attacks has ever found a capability comparable to the Equation Group’s. The US has made the strategic choice to put its resources into engineering better attack tools and an infrastructure to support them. In a way it’s a smart choice. It’s a truism that the cyber battlefield is asymmetric—a defender has to get it right every time, while an attacker only has to succeed once. If the US spends a billion dollars in cyber defense, it will still be vulnerable. But spend it on cyber attack, and you get the most advanced computer espionage and sabotage tools that history has ever seen. It all makes sense in a 1970s Rand-Corporation-nuclear-game-theory kind of way. But we can stop pretending now that the government is ever going to have a "Manhattan Project" that improves the state of the art in computer defense. That would undermine the very attack system it has spent billions of dollars and a decade-and-a-half building. Despite the popular can-do appeal, a defensive Manhattan Project isn’t just unlikely. It’s a moon shot.

Commenting on the meeting of the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said Moscow is reflecting on its possible actions once the United States delivers defensive weapons to Ukraine, an UNIAN correspondent in Moscow reports. Read alsoPoroshenko says U.S. supports deployment of UN peacekeepers in Donbas"It's now autumn of 2017, and we see how the word "lethal weapons" is being used by the ‘president of peace’ almost on a daily basis," Zakharova said, hinting at President Poroshenko. “I think that this is an occasion to reflect on Ukraine’s current situation… Of course, we are reflecting on possible developments," Zakharova said. At the same time, the spokesperson noted that President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko won the votes claiming he would become "president of peace", saying that his main task was to bring peace. Read alsoPoroshenko, Guterres discuss peacekeepers in Donbas, human rights in CrimeaZakharova believes that for many people the concept of Minsk accords is becoming hazy, but, in fact, it is today's reality. According to her, the parties should do their best to adhere to this course. "Now, a Russian draft resolution on the participation of the UN peacekeeping forces is being discussed and finalized in the UN. There has been a lot of speculation on this issue, there was a lot of speculation in the Ukrainian media that peacekeepers will allegedly be deployed across the entire Donbas," she said. Read alsoKlimkin says Russians must not be among UN peacekeepers in Donbas"I would like to recall what it’s all about. This is a very important issue. They will be deployed along the contact line where the OSCE observers are located, in order to ensure their security. No more and no less. All double reasoning is inadmissible - here it is necessary to be extremely clear," said Zakharova. She noted that it was too early to say, which draft resolution would be put to a vote and when such vote could take place. Read alsoKremlin furious over draft UN Resolution calling Russia "aggressor state"As UNIAN reported earlier, on August 22, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko declared his intention to present the idea of deploying a peacekeeping mission in Donbas at the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly, which launched its work in New York September 12. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on September 5 he considered the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Donbas "quite appropriate," but only along the line of contact and with the aim of protecting the OSCE mission. At the same time, he stressed the issue could not be resolved without direct contact with representatives of pro-Russian militants in Donbas. Following that, Russia sent a draft resolution to the UN leadership regarding the deployment of peacekeepers in Donbas. In turn, Petro Poroshenko said on September 7 that the UN peacekeepers should be deployed throughout the temporarily occupied territory, including an uncontrolled section of the border with the Russian Federation. On September 8, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov elaborated on Putin’s statement about peacekeepers along the line of contact in Donbas. “It’s not the UN forces, it’s the mission to facilitate protection of OSCE observers. It is fully in line with the logic of Minsk agreements,” said Lavrov.

I call BS on that. Your eyes are slaved to each other. If you see very different things with each eye for any length of time, you get sore eyes and start to get serious eye fatigue. You can, however, train yourself to watch one eye then the other rapidly. Set up pool balls so you can find your blindspot, and be aware of it. Practise crossing your eyes. Get to work looking at autostereograms, stereograms and then try cheating at the "spot the difference" competitions. Learn to pull one eye as the one you are paying attention too, then switch for the other one. And learn to drive with one eye shut - the lack of depth perception makes it rather fun! Then switch eyes. :-) If you want to get really OTT, get some of the contacts that block the fovea centralis, so you cannot see anything out of the highest resolution part of your eye. After 10 seconds of that, you'll have a sore head. After ten minutes, you'll feel sick. After 10 days... You'll have the kind of perception that no-one outside "Heros" has. You can even get a set of mirrors and turn your world upside down. Your eyes actually show everything to your brain the wrong way up, but the brain learns to reverse it. After about 3 to 5 days, your brain will re-reverse things for you.

OMAHA -- When social worker Courtney Anderson got the urgent call, she knew another child was being abandoned to the state. She spotted a boy, 12 years old, sobbing in a chair at the emergency room registration desk. Standing behind him was a woman, also crying. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," the woman told the boy over and over. "Please don't leave me," he begged. Anderson introduced herself and began asking the woman the boy's name, his address and school, but the woman said she was in a hurry. She got ready to leave and hugged the boy, who asked through his tears, "Will you come see me?" "I will if I can," the woman said and ran out the door. When Nebraska legislators passed a bill creating a safe haven to help overwhelmed parents and guardians, they were thinking of babies and toddlers who had been abandoned by young mothers. Instead, 35 children -- typically adolescents -- have been dropped at the hospital door, most recently a 5-year-old boy on Thursday night. The legislature opened a special session on Friday to fix the law. Discussion is expected to begin Monday to set an upper age limit of days or weeks for parents to deliver babies to the state without repercussions. By next weekend, the old law probably will be history, but the unexpected images of adults from half a dozen states dumping their kids in Nebraska has revealed a largely hidden crisis across the country. "They'll close the books, but they'll still be dealing with the same issues," said Tom Rawlings, the state children's advocate in Georgia, home of Tysheema Brown, who drove 15 hours to drop her 12-year-old in Lincoln. She later told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "I ran out of fight. I ran out of hope. I never ran out of love for my child." "Looking back, a number of us would have voted differently," Sen. Mike Flood (R), the speaker of the Nebraska legislature. "But it has uncovered a bigger issue. It demonstrates a need for families in crisis." In Nebraska, the adults who dropped children on the doorsteps of hospitals and police stations typically told social workers they were at wit's end. In some cases, they blamed stress in their own lives. In other cases, they said the child had become depressed or uncontrollable.

If you wanted to be sure that you are talking to an atheist, what would you listen for? Asking about god, or about atheism, is pretty direct. Would you get a direct answer? Atheists dubious about god may not be sure what to say to you. Why not just ask, “Do you accept atheism?” The atheists are the ones who like atheism, right? Not so fast. If atheism had the same sharp meaning for everyone, atheists would all see how to agree with atheism. Obviously, they don’t. Counting nonreligious people has never been easy. For example, bad polling has been reporting how few unbelievers can be found, yet up to 20% of Americans no longer believe in God. It’s only natural to suppose that ‘atheist’ and ‘atheism’ necessarily go together. Wouldn’t that be like any other pairing of an ‘-ist’ person and an ‘-ism’ belief? An X-ist believes in X-ism, one would think. A pacifist had better be committed to pacifism, for example. How could someone saying that he is a pacifist also say that pacifism really isn’t his thing? You’d suppose that this person is confused about the point of being a pacifist. What could we make of another person feeling uncertain about atheism yet comfortable with being called an atheist? Next, imagine someone proudly endorsing atheism yet unwilling to be called an atheist. Confusing indeed. All the same, for some “isms” the simplistic equation of ‘-ist’ = ‘-ism’ doesn’t work. It is fallacious to assume that every ‘ist’ endorses the corresponding ‘ism’. Confusion about who is getting called an atheist is commonly found in the secular world. It’s a sign of the times, and it’s not even the fault of secular people, really. Religions used to reliably declare who the atheist was: the unbeliever, someone who didn’t worship the true God. Around the world, you don’t hear that sort of talk as much. Only vast religions completely dominating their societies, or small sects feeling vastly outnumbered, still speak that way nowadays. Where multiple religions and religious denominations warily live in the same neighborhood, such as a pluralistic country, one less frequently hears the condemnations of ‘atheist’ thrown around. It can still happen, of course. When an evangelical Christian taunts Muslims as ‘atheists’, or a Muslim taunts Christians as ‘infidels’, perhaps they think that worshipping the ‘wrong’ god practically amounts to having no god. Over the centuries, most religions have lowered their hostility and calmed their tone, saving the accusation of ‘atheist’ for only those people who don’t believe in any religion’s deity. The godless worshipped no god, and the Greek word for ‘godless’ was ‘atheos’. Among dictionaries that track the most commonly used meaning for words over modern times, the Oxford English Dictionary reigns supreme. The Oxford English Dictionary records this primary definition for ‘atheist’: “1. One who denies or disbelieves the existence of a god.” OED definitions offer synonyms, but they don’t stutter. The OED isn’t just repeating itself about ‘atheist’, since denying a thing has a different meaning from disbelieving. To disbelieve something, don’t believe it. You don’t have to think that it is incorrect. To disbelieve P isn’t the same as believing not-P. When I’m in a state of disbelief about an idea, I’m not already thinking that the idea is entirely wrong. I don’t have to deny the idea. I’m simply not believing it because it seems questionable or uninteresting to me. None of this is news to religions. Religions have never been fooled about who unbelievers truly were. Open unbelief wasn’t hard to notice, eventually. However, counting loud-mouthed atheists isn’t the same thing as measuring unbelief across the realm. Religions did want to know who was opening defying god, of course. And religions are also troubled by secret unbelief – people unable to believe in God in their hearts but perfectly able to don a pious disguise and behave religiously in public like everyone else. Quiet disbelief is a kind of atheism, and secret atheism is atheism all the same. Modern pollsters have largely replaced brutal inquisitors, but the same problem remains. Counting the people able to say, “I don’t believe in God,” or something like, “Categorize me with atheism,” couldn’t total up all genuine atheists. Still, pollsters must do their best. If pollsters could honestly report the large number of people not saying that they believe in God, that would be the most accurate measurement possible through simple question-and answer methods. And all those people are atheists, because they either deny or disbelieve in God. Saying “I don’t what to think about god,” or “I have no opinion on God,” or “I have no idea about God,” or “I don’t have a belief either way,” are all indicators of unbelief. Not believing in a god is a very common way to be an atheist – you simply don’t believe in any god. Only misinformation and myth stand in the way of using English words correctly. The typical ‘myths’ about atheism are usually more like clever pieces of disinformation than legends. Three myths dominate discussions about identifying atheists, in particular. The biggest myth is very common no matter whether one is religious or nonreligious. Two additional myths, one spread by religionists and one spread by atheists, confuse what should be a simple matter. Myth One. The first myth is that every atheist has to endorse atheism. That’s the ‘ist’ = ‘ism’ fallacy. Because a person can be an atheist without ever telling anyone about their unbelief, or ever telling another person that they shouldn’t believe either, it just isn’t true that endorsing atheism in general is required for personally being an atheist. There is no “solemn oath” test for being an atheist – there is no written test, no swearing in, no public affirmation, not even a private ceremony. Myth Two. Because so many religionists commit the fallacy in myth one, they spread the next myth: Atheists foolishly think they know there is no god. Since atheists say that atheism is correct (supposedly), and atheism says there is no god, then all atheists are saying that it is correct that there is no god. Religion’s defenders are delighted to depict atheists as thinking they know no god exists. Any supernaturalism just smart enough to avoid self-contradiction is beyond strict disproof, so atheism looks intuitively wrong. No one should be sure there is no god, religionists keep repeating, so atheists seem irrational. Throwing charges of irrationality around is so much easier than showing how long-discredited theological arguments actually succeed. Myth Three. Because so many atheists commit the same fallacy involved with the first myth, and they see how the second myth is real trouble for them, they think that redefining ‘atheism’ is the escape route. They can spread the third myth: Atheism is simply “not having belief about god.” The burden of proof appears to lift off atheists, who are simply not believing instead of believing something about God, so that the justification burden seems to fall entirely on religion. Atheists can say, “The faithful must prove that God exists, while we don’t have to demonstrate a single thing.” They don’t even have to explain atheism to each other. If atheists keep busy reasoning and justifying how gods probably don’t exist, then that would be re-assuming a burden. What tactics remain for debating religion with believers? No wonder derogatory and dismissive attitudes seem the only options, especially for those feeling hostility towards religion already. Throwing charges of irrationality around is so much easier than learning enough about religion and theology to accurately expose their failings. Waking up from these myths means that religious and nonreligious people have to learn more about each other. Just as importantly, it means that being an atheist doesn’t require subscribing to atheism. There are plenty of people unable to think that a god exists, yet they aren’t the sort of people who suppose that others should agree. They feel unsure, or just don’t care, about what others should or shouldn’t think about God. Fortunately, to disbelieve god, no assertion or expression of belief about god is needed at all. A person just has some set of beliefs about the world that has no place for a deity, so that this person doesn’t believe that a god exists. If a person happens to not believe in god while they are comfortable with their other beliefs, that’s enough to be an atheist. For example, an agnostic is an atheist, since the agnostic has other firm beliefs that leave god’s existence beyond estimation or simply uninteresting. The agnostic just doesn’t feel comfortable telling others how they should deny god. Perhaps, as far as an agnostic can tell, it is possible that other people could have information making god-belief plausible for them. Yes, all agnostics are atheists. The only way to avoid being an atheist is to think that a god is real. An atheist is a godless unbeliever: a denier or disbeliever in god. Setting aside today’s polemical and accusatory labels to return to the plain meanings of words is so liberating, for everyone involved. Letting go of pure rhetoric also permits atheism to return to what it always was: Atheism is an ‘ism’ that recommends disbelief in god for everyone. I define atheism as this assertion: “Believing that no god exists is reasonable, for any person.” Or, put negatively, “No one is reasonable for thinking that a god exists.” These are statements of atheism, NOT definitions about who is an atheist. Atheists don’t have to accept either of these two assertions. Again, not all atheists affirm atheism. Only atheism undertakes a burden of reasoning (not proof!) that aims at showing how believing in god fails to be reasonable. Atheism universally recommends disbelief in god. Atheists individually can speak about their own godlessness as they please. Advocating atheism is one thing, while being an atheist is another. Haven’t plenty of nonbelievers been trying to express this idea? It’s time to take more seriously what atheists are saying about god, as well as what they aren’t saying. Being godless is just about what a person regards as real and what they don’t. Whether people want to publicly deny god is their own business. A person can live a secular life without taking a confrontational stance against religion. More and more Americans are doing just that. Living this secular life has become a permanent part of America’s pluralistic landscape. I’d say that’s a fact that should be recognized by everyone.

Close Hours before Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 Edge+, a leaked photo was posted online that reveals a version of the Galaxy Note 5 with a microSD card slot for expandable memory. One of the missing features that most users have been complaining about regarding the Galaxy Note 5, along with the rest of the current flagship devices of Samsung, is that the smartphones were released without a microSD card slot. There were concerns that with the removal of the expandable memory feature in the Galaxy S6, the feature will also be removed from the next iteration of Samsung's high-end phablet. With the release of information regarding the Galaxy Note 5 and the official unveiling of the device along with the Galaxy S6 Edge+, the fears of consumers were confirmed that the phablet will not have a microSD card slot. However, the leaked photo gave hope to customers that a version of the Galaxy Note 5 will include the much-requested feature. The supposed Galaxy Note 5 version featured a dual-SIM model in the leaked images, with the picture coming from Hong Kong-based ePrice. Upon closer inspection of the image, one of the two SIM card trays will also function as a microSD card slot, as the microSD logo is stamped onto the tray. The microSD card slot is located on the left side of the smartphone because the receptacle for the S pen stylus is located on the right side. The tray looks too big to house a microSD card, but there could be an adapter that will come with the version of the Galaxy Note 5 for that specific purpose. It is not clear why Samsung would not do something similar for all variants of the Galaxy Note 5. If Samsung did not want to release dual-SIM functionality for the versions of the device for the United States, it could still have used the same design to instead add a full-fledged microSD card slot to the phablet instead of a second SIM tray. It is also not clear for what territory the Galaxy Note 5 featured in the leaked image is for, though assumptions are that it would be for the Chinese market. Alternative sources, however, are pointing out that the smartphone in the image resembles the dual SIM version of the Galaxy A8. As such, the truth behind the leaked image remains to be seen until Samsung makes a confirmation. ⓒ 2018 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Image caption Twenty-two manufacturing sites were discovered in Northern Ireland Nearly a third of all illegal fuel sales detected in the UK in 2012/13 were in Northern Ireland. The figures, released by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), show that of 388 detections in the last year, 128 were in Northern Ireland. Of the 49 manufacturing sites discovered, 22 were in Northern Ireland. However, the figures to do not include illegal fuel premises found just across the border in the Republic of Ireland. In the Republic, according to figures reported by a Dail (Irish parliament) committee that investigated the issue, the authorities lose about 150m euro each year. Fuel intended for farmers and some industries is sold at a tax-discounted rate and coloured with a dye to identify it. Launderers remove the dye and sell the fuel on as fully-taxed road diesel. HMRC says the fuel being sold is often substandard and can seriously damage car engines. The chemicals used by the gangs and the toxic waste they produce damage the environment. Customs said there has been a big increase in the detection of illegal fuel sales from so called "pop up garages" across the UK.

Twenty-five years ago, Chris Oliveros, a Montreal-based cartoonist, launched the micro-publishing company Drawn & Quarterly. Over the years, D+Q, as it's known, grew into a major force. Oliveros has announced that he is retiring soon, but his imprint continues—now headed by his long-time second-in-command, Peggy Burns, and by Tom Devlin. True to its self-imposed mandate to publish “the world’s best cartoonists,” D+Q has just issued “Drawn and Quarterly: Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels,” a seven-hundred-and-seventy-six-page magnum opus featuring new work by the likes of Kate Beaton, Chester Brown, Michael DeForge, Tom Gauld, Miriam Katin, Rutu Modan, James Sturm, Jillian Tamaki, and Yoshihiro Tatsumi alongside previously unpublished work from Guy Delisle, Debbie Drechsler, Julie Doucet, John Porcellino, Art Spiegelman, and Adrian Tomine. Here is “Development Hell,” by Michael DeForge: 6 See here for yesterday’s strip, “Keeper o’ the Comics,” by Gilbert Hernandez, and tune in tomorrow for “Callisto,” by Diane Obomsawin. © Michael DeForge. Excerpted from “Drawn & Quarterly: 25 Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics and Graphic Novels.”

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/CBS News) — With great fanfare, United Airlines boarded passengers onto its final 747 flight at San Francisco International Airport Tuesday. The jet rolled out onto the taxiway with a small gathering of airport workers cheering it on. It got to the end of the runway, ready for takeoff. Then it waited and waited and waited. Finally, passengers began to comment on the KPIX 5 livestream on Facebook that the pilot announced the take-off has been delayed by a maintenance issue with the air conditioning. The delayed was confirmed by tower transmissions to the plane. The issue was cleared up and the jet lifted off on its historic flight nearly an hour after its scheduled 11 a.m. take-off. The snafu marred what was to be a historic day — United’s last remaining 747 making its final flight from San Francisco to Honolulu. United began flying the 747 nearly 50 years ago and the plane evolved into the workhorse of the airline’s international travel routes. But now more efficient planes has been built — the 747 has become obsolete Capt. Tom Spratt and Capt. David Smith will be at the controls for the final flight. After flying 747s for years, the pair know the historical significance of their mission. “It really feels like I’m losing a family member,” Spratt told CBS News on the eve of the flight. Here is a @united 747 #QueenOfTheSkies at Honolulu HNL in the 1970s. Aloha #UA747Farewell. Hawai‘i will miss you! pic.twitter.com/Usvuut15GC — Hawaii Aviation (@HawaiiAviation) November 7, 2017 Smith recently brought his dad — a retired 747 pilot – -on a recent flight that brought him back to when he was a kid. “I still remember my first 747 ride where the seats in the very nose of the aircraft were first class,” he said. “Going up the spiral staircase and sitting on the sofas is something that will never be done again.” In 1966, Pan Am asked Boeing to build it the biggest airplane at the time. Starting from scratch and nearly bankrupting the Seattle-based company, Boeing’s humped-back jumbo jet made its first flight three years later. All the best to our friends at @united as they fly their final 747 flight. SFO-HNL. It truly was the #QueenOfTheSkies. #UA747Farewell pic.twitter.com/rTas67vvEf — Pan Am (@FlyPanAm) November 7, 2017 It entered full service throughout the industry in 1970 and was an instant sensation. “Your airline wasn’t an airline unless you had a 747,” said Boeing corporate historian Michael Lombardi. “Because of its size, because of its — the economy, because of its range, it made flying affordable.” A huge crowd & personal stories as @United retires 747 after 47 years #UA747Farewell pic.twitter.com/cwmXS3SRAP — Sean Lewis (@seanlewiswgn) November 7, 2017 United flew its first 747 flight from San Francisco to Honolulu in 1970. In its lifetime, 747s have carried presidents, world leaders and popes. It was also used to ferry the Space Shuttle across the country. In its heyday, more than 1,500 747s were delivered to airlines around the world. Henry Hartveldt will be among the passengers on Tuesday’s flight. “We’re saying goodbye to a plane that is an icon of air travel and epitomized commercial flying when it, frankly, was a more gracious, more pleasant experience than it is for many today,” he told CBS News.

jessica-pratt Jessica Pratt, 34, was found safe on Tuesday morning, police said. (Photo by NOPD) New Orleans police said the Iowa woman reported missing last week has been found in good health. Jessica Pratt, 34, contacted 8th District detectives on Tuesday morning, police said. Pratt had traveled from Des Moines to New Orleans on Feb. 6 to work at local clubs in the week leading up to Mardi Gras but had been missing since Feb. 13, authorities said. Pratt's family contacted police to say that she had not been heard from since and had not used her credit card or cell phone either. They said she had been staying at a hotel in the 2800 block of Tulane Avenue, police said. Family members also told detectives that Pratt suffers from a medical condition and was likely in need of her medication, adding that the woman usually stayed in touch with her family. Pratt appeared to be in sound mental and physical condition when she contacted authorities on Tuesday, police said.

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