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A Nigerian mother and her Irish-born daughter have lost their appeal claiming the child’s right to education under the Children’s Act 2015 outweighs the State’s entitlement to deport them. The mother and daughter, now aged nine, remained in Ireland illegally after deportation orders were made in 2009. The High Court correctly held the child’s right to education while here did not prevent their deportation, the three judge Court of Appeal ruled on Tuesday. However, it disagreed with the weight given by the High Court to an European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment concerning Norway’s entitlement to operate immigration policy on the basis of identifying children with conduct of their parents. Ms Justice Mary Irvine said the ECtHR’s decision did not mean the Irish courts should “ignore the fundamental values associated with family life” as protected by Article 42 of the Constitution. The Courts should strive to ensure the European Convention on Human Rights is not used to reduce the level of protection of those rights. It is “quite wrong” to treat ECtHR judgments as having similar binding status to those of the Supreme Court or Court of Justice of the EU, she said. The Constitution requires the State to recognise the family rights of non-citizens as well as citizens and to protect them “given that these rights derive not from citizenship but from their nature as human beings”. The Court of Appeal decision concerned a woman who was heavily pregnant when she came here alone in 2008. Her daughter was born four days later. After applications for asylum and subsidiary protection were refused, the Minister for Justice ordered deportation of mother and daughter in late 2009. They went into hiding for about five years until 2014 when the mother instructed solicitors to apply for revocation of deportation. In May 2015, a month after the Children’s Act 2015 came into force, the Minister refused revocation. Leave for judicial review was then sought, primarily grounded on Article 42A of the 2015 Act which requires the State, as far as practicable, to protect and vindicate the “natural and imprescriptible rights of all children”. In the High Court in May 2016, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys rejected their challenge but permitted them appeal his decision. He refused an injunction restraining deportation pending appeal but the Court of Appeal later granted an injunction until the appeal was decided. All three appeal court judges agreed the appeal should be dismissed. The president of the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice Sean Ryan, said while the obligation to protect the natural and imprescriptible rights of all children applies to immigration decisions, the entitlement to an education does not create an entitlement to remain in the State if a person is here unlawfully. Article 42A does not bar deportation of a child undergoing primary education here and a contrary view would make the State’s immigration policy “impossible to implement”, he held. He also disagreed the Minister was required to address the circumstances of this mother and child individually, not jointly, and to compare educational opportunities for the girl here and in Nigeria before deciding whether to revoke deportation. In her separate concurring judgment focussing on the High Court’s refusal of an injunction preventing deportation before the appeal was decided, Ms Justice Irvine upheld that refusal but disagreed with part of the High Court rationale for it. In relation to a family’s bid for orders restraining deportation pending a full hearing of their main case, she disagreed with the High Court a parent’s evasion of deportation orders can he held against their child. |
Edit: While WalcomS7 no longer writes for Blasterhub, we encourage you to view the content on his Youtube channel! Ever since the Nerf MEGA line was released, things have gotten more interesting in the foam-flinging ecosystem. Big darts with bigger springs and bigger plungers for the biggest performance. The initial launch was rocky with the dart-chewing MEGA Centurion, but now things have finally settled with the line delivering a few promising blasters. With the first fully-automatic flywheel powered behemoth blaster in the line clocking in at $80, could the MEGA Mastodon be worth it? Well, the entire blaster could be summarized in one way: an unforgettable experience. When I initially found the MEGA Mastodon in stock, I called the nearest store and asked them if they would hold one for me. When I saw the five-foot nothing girl struggling to carry this box up to the counter, I instantly started to giggle: the box is massive. Even carrying this thing out to the car and preparing for the trek home was an event. Fitting of such a blaster (it’s supposed to be one of the biggest blasters ever released), “MEGA” is not painted on it’s side as much as it’s completely molded into the plastic. Featuring a 24-dart, rotating barrel with full-auto flywheel power, the Mastodon is nothing to be scoffed at. This blaster packs some decent value: 24 MEGA darts in the box, a rather nice carrying strap, and some extra plastic bits such as shields and plastic railings to protect the dart drum and bulk-up the blaster, and a thin yet serviceable carrying handle. The plastic pieces all snap on with little effort, with only the grey drum shields seemingly permanent while the others can be removed. The massive rotating turret itself comes in three pieces that slide together and, in my experience, seem to only fit together in one-way to limit any potential screw-ups. While the plastic shielding looks to be non-removable after snapping in, the bottom rail piece is completely removable, if it’s not to your liking. To power this beast, you need to feed it six D-cell batteries. Six. That’s going to cost you another $8-14, depending on where you’re shopping for batteries, and adds a ton of weight to the already massive blaster. It’s a good thing it comes with the carrying strap (which is very similar to Nerf’s own bandoleer, minus the dart or magazine holders), because fully loaded, this blaster is not only bigger than a child, it weighs about as much as one. It’s nearly impossible to hold this by the grip one-handed without that strap, so it was a great addition in the box. The performance of the MEGA Mastodon is impressive considering the batteries it taps into. The firing speed is great, surpassing that of the Nerf N-Strike Elite Rapidstrike of lore. The actual power and distance are in-line with the rest of the MEGA series, but it is using flywheels, which is something different compared to every other MEGA blaster. The time it takes for the flywheels to rev-up is pretty lengthy, but these are issues that could be fixed by rewiring with a more competent battery source. The blaster also features active-breaking, so the motors do wind down quickly. Operation is about as straightforward as it gets: just load up the open-faced drum, pull the flywheel rev trigger until the motors reach maximum spin, and pull the trigger to fire off darts in automatic fire. While the rate of fire is impressive, it isn’t entirely hard to rattle off single shots either. Something unexpectedly awesome is how the blaster actually bucks and kicks with each shot, giving it recoil and adding to the overall experience. The reasoning for this becomes more clear once you open the blaster up, which may be easier said than done because of some solvent-welding located in the grip of the blaster (requiring some cutting and marring up the beautiful blaster shell). Once inside, you’ll see a few things. For one, there’s a big empty space for some unknown reason. Two, there are lots of wires. Three, there are gears. The gearbox that drives the full-auto feature is powered by a single motor but incorporates some massive (but beautifully designed) gearing to index the rotational turret and prime back a firing pin, of sorts. Once the gear slips, the firing pin hits the back of a dart, which flings it into the flywheels, giving it power and sending it off at your target. Just the flywheels themselves are 2-inches across and concave to give the darts the traction they need to fly forward, with the gap being fairly generous between each flywheel (something you might not want if you’re looking for more power). Because of it’s massive size, there’s plenty of room for integrations of other blasters somewhere down the line. Flywheels can be overvolted to produce faster spin and deliver more power to the dart, and motors can even be replaced completely to add some more torque to the dart. While you may be tempted, perhaps increasing the firing speed isn’t the best option here as the drum takes some time to load and only holds 24 darts. But that’s not to say the gap the drum encompasses can’t be used to adapt a magazine well from something like the BuzzBee Boss or Tyrant to convert it into a quick-changing magazine reloading option. The Mastodon is a large blank canvas just waiting to be art’d upon, so who knows what the future holds? If all that mod potential just passes over your head, don’t fret: the Mastodon is a very competent stock blaster. Fast firing speed, good ranges, and the ability to top-up the blaster on-the-fly because of it’s open-face drum means you can deliver intimidation to whatever stands in front of the barrel. The question still remains though: is it a good value? After all, the blaster is very expensive. After the apparent failures and questionable value of the Nerf Rhinofire, Cam ECS, and Centurion, it’s good to see an expensive blaster that offers so much. In my mind, the experience of having such a thing is well worth it, and the blaster is good enough to keep around and use when the foam needs to fly. If you can’t purchase one yourself, at least go out of your way to try one and feel the sheer glee that comes just from seeing it in person. Just hope you’re not the one staring down the barrel. Too many words for you? Not enough time-traveling Nerf backstory? Watch my silly unboxing and teardown here. Want to see more of those beautiful internals? I’ve got all those pictures here. |
Residents of a New Brunswick community say strange green bugs are taking over their properties- and no one seems to know what they are. People in Upper Kingsclear, N.B., a community located approximately 20 kilometres west of Fredericton, say they started noticing the bugs at the beginning of June. Resident Kayla Hunt told Global News that no one in the community has seen them before. Hunt said no one seems to know what type of bug they are, or where they came from. “They are annoying ’cause they land on you. Like, if you’re just sitting in the backyard relaxing, they’ll land kind of all over you and they’re annoying cause they’re in the pool, they’re in the filter, they’re where every you go-they’re in the rain gutters that’s kind of caused a blockage if it rains,” Hunt said. These #bugs are showing up at homes in Upper Kingsclear & residents want to know what they are @Global_NB pic.twitter.com/fbNy64mJCI — Adrienne South (@AdrienneKS) July 17, 2016 Hunt told Global News that neighbours are wondering the same thing. “Nobody really knows [what they are]. One of the neighbours had posted on Facebook, ‘you know I have these green bugs everywhere, not sure what they are, does anyone kind of know? And we had a whole bunch of people say ‘hey I have those all over my property or my yard too’, but nobody kind of knows what they are,” Hunt said. David Cairns, who lives down the road from Hunt, says he has them on his property as well. Cairns says they’re all over his property and says he’s not sure how to get rid of them. “I washed the vehicles today and you just nicely get them washed and they’re, you can just see them, they’re all over the place. Really not in any particular area, they’re just all over the place,” Cairns said. Replies to a neighbour’s post on Facebook indicted that they could be stink bugs, but Hunt told Global News she’s touched the bugs and squashed them and hasn’t smelt anything unusual. Hunt has a garden and says she’s been inspecting her plants frequently, but she hasn’t been able to notice any damage to her plants. Hunt says the bugs become lazy and tend to hide on rainy days, but she’s still noticed them around her pool. Staff from the Upper Kingsclear Fire Department also told Global News they have seen the bugs around the fire station, but they’ve only found ones that are already dead. Global News attempted to call several pest control experts but were unable to reach anyone on Sunday June 17, 2016. |
Starting in mid-2016, Eipix Entertainment embarked on a new path in game development – VR mobile gaming. Even though our developers had the opportunity to work with a new medium which came with its own set of rules before, VR technology proved to be a whole different animal. VR is a multimedia intermediate in its infancy, even though the idea has been around for 30+ years. We are all excited to be at this party, but no one really knows what we’re celebrating. It is definitely evolution at work, though the main question remains this: are we evolving the machine, or our own perception? HOW VR TECHNOLOGY SHAPED THE GAME VR was a completely new technology for the development team that worked on Althora, the game designated as the first Eipix VR project. Although VR technology offers developers a unique way to share a world with players, it also imposes some pretty strict limitations. These limitations made the team push the boundaries of their creativity and problem-solving skills in order to present their idea of a space adventure to the player. There are many factors to consider when creating a remarkable and immersive VR experience. One of them is the 15-20 minutes time frame before the device overheats. The game, level, and visual design had to be structured to fit within this boundary. Of course, there was also the matter of motion sickness to consider. The team didn’t kill two birds with one stone – they took out the entire flock, and the stone in question was the main character’s helmet. The helmet was designed to ground the player, significantly reducing motion sickness; it shows the correct temperature of the device, and it is a virtual representation of the real Gear VR headset that the player is wearing, adding an extra layer of immersion. Regarding immersion, the team had to consider the best way for the player to interact with the game environment. The Gear VR touch pad (located on the right side of the device) was briefly considered, but this idea was disregarded because holding the hand in an upright position would tire the player too much. Instead, the player’s gaze became the main controller: the player moves by looking at locators within the game level and interacts with objects in general just by looking at them long enough. The team decided on a low poly art style in order to achieve the best visual experience with as few polygons as possible. This was a spectacular success. The visual goal for the game was a distinctive environment that presents the biome of the island location with ease. One of the big challenges for the production team was optimization, which is difficult in itself, and more so when optimizing for a mobile VR game. The team set a goal of 60 FPS, which is the standard for a truly immersive experience with minimized chances of motion sickness. Despite a series of difficulties, the team managed to make the frame rate go from 30 FPS to a solid 60 FPS in just two weeks. THE ALTHORA STORY The road from the first brainstorming session to the actual release of the game was a long one, but the team thoroughly enjoyed every step of the way. The first idea for the game was a VR survival game, which gradually shifted to a puzzle adventure IN SPACE (originally thought up to be nonlinear and set on a single alien island). The game design wasn’t strictly defined in the beginning, so production started almost simultaneously with pre-production, and there was a lot of back-and-forth in the pipeline. Still, a valuable lesson in game design, project management and teamwork was learnt from the process. The whole team had a part to play in game design, so it was truly a group effort. Part of the team thought the focus should be on gameplay only, and others believed that the story should be pushed forth at all times. From this mix emerged a one-of-a-kind product. There were many different ideas throughout the process of development. Some were abandoned in order to make room for further improvements, and some fit the team’s vision perfectly and just had to make it into the final version. For instance, in an early version of the game, the player could go through transition caves, while the next level loaded in the background. However, the team liked the transitions so much that they decided to incorporate them into the game and abandon the use of asynchronous level loading. The basic environment, which included only rocks and architecture at first, needed to be enriched with plants and wildlife. The team carefully considered the type of animal that might live on an alien world of floating islands, and finally settled on a flying whale. The whale was there in order to look impressive at first, but it soon became an important part of the gameplay experience. The whale ride from island to island was an endless source of fun for the whole team. THE RENAISSANCE OF SOUND We aren’t reinventing the wheel when we say that sound plays a huge role in player immersion and the creation of a perfect illusion, but this is doubly true when talking about VR games. In order to build a conforming sonic experience, the team had to keep the intermediate in mind – the VR headset. The person wearing the headset is supposed to get the impression of being “inside” a virtual space. Any break in this audiovisual continuity could potentially jeopardize the overall experience. The positioning and virtualization of sound are important, they have to relate to what the player sees and does – this is achieved through spatialization. The Oculus Native Spatializer was selected for the job as the most complete spatial audio technology at the time (and extensively documented, too). Creating the emotional aesthetic of Althora was a very important step in audio worldbuilding. The soundtrack is comprised of pleasant acoustic and electronic musical sounds that develop in a schizophrenic way throughout the game. As for ambience sounds, when you switch from a fixed flat screen to a motion-dependent spherical view, it is crucial to keep one thing in mind – people need to feel safe when they play a VR game. The Althora audio team worked on making Althora a relaxing experience without jump scares or harsh sounds, with less transients and more air and transparency. THIS SIDE OF THE LOOKING GLASS In the eyes of the team, Althora will never be completely finished, as they could always find new ways to improve and enhance the Althora experience. Just two weeks before the game’s release, a new first level was created from scratch. There was a lot of enthusiasm during the development process, resulting in a lot of overtime and working after hours. It often seemed that the team’s enthusiasm was at its highest whenever there was a deadline approaching, and new effects, models and animations were added just hours before a build – and it all worked somehow. The Althora project was a broody experience. It took an open mind and a willingness to deal with severe development technology limitations. But at the end of the day, what really matters is that this was a huge step for Eipix production, a test of mental strength for the team, and an insightful experience. Everything taken into account, each and every member of the Althora team would do it all again in a heartbeat. Althora was released on May 11th, 2017. It is currently featured on the Oculus Store, and if you wish to give it a go you can do so here. |
The Magic Kingdom colors almost every scene of The Florida Project. Sean Baker’s achingly beautiful and heartbreaking new film is set in Florida (obviously), very close to Disney, and nearly everything in the background advertises the The Most Magical Place On Earth. Tourist trap stores with huge painted signs advertising Disney merch constantly lurk in the periphery. But the characters in The Florida Project occupy their own kingdom, one comprised of rundown motels and abandoned buildings. These might seem like squalid conditions, but Baker finds a way to make them seem warm and welcoming without ever trying to glamorize them. The sunsets are fierce and gorgeous, lush pinks and reds and golds, vast and seeming to stretch on for infinity. They feel like home. At the center of The Florida Project is Moonee (Brooklynn Prince, astoundingly good here), an adventurous child who rules over the kingdom that is the motel she lives in with her struggling mother Halley (Bria Vinaite). By day, Moonee frolics wildly through the motel courtyard and beyond with her friends Scooty (Christopher Rivera) and Jancey (Valeria Cotto). Whenever films deal with children as the primary characters they run the risk of treating the kids too precociously, or worse, portraying the children as mini-adults. The Florida Project never makes this mistake – the kids here always seem like kids. They’re occasionally bratty, occasionally cruel, but altogether good. They find adventure and fun wherever they can, and it’s often a joy to sit back and watch them act out. Brooklyn Prince’s performance as Moonee is the glue that holds all of this together. The Florida Project plays coy with just who its main character is at first – at the start of the film, all of the kids seem to be receiving equal time. Yet as the film progresses, it becomes more and more about Moonee, and about how her world is in danger of falling apart while she remains cheerfully oblivious. I’m not sure how much of Prince’s performance as ad libbed, but all of it feels 100% genuine; the type of raw, lightning-in-a-bottle performance that actors twice her age can only dream of. An outsider might look at Moonee’s living conditions and worry, but to Moonee, every day is a wonderful adventure. There’s so much to do, and there are so many waffles to eat. Baker keeps the camera low to the ground often, putting us firmly into the visual field of a child – we’re down there with them, and the whole adult world is looming above. That adult world includes Bobby, the kindly motel manager played by Willem Dafoe. Dafoe is an acclaimed actor with an impressive career, yet it cannot be overstated how phenomenal he is in this movie. There’s an unmitigated goodness to Bobby, a weary but kind soul who wants to do the right thing. A character like this would be easy to cheapen and turn maudlin, but Baker’s script and Dafoe’s performance never performs this disservice. It’s a quiet performance, and much of the power comes from the somewhat sad, knowing glances Dafoe gives to the world around him. But just as often there’s kindness – Bobby can grow frustrated with the kid’s shenanigans, yet he’s always willing to give them a second chance. Moonee’s mother Halley will never be a candidate for parent of the year. She sells knock-off perfume and stolen goods to make ends meet, and when that isn’t enough, she turns to even less desirable methods. It would be easy to portray this characters as a monster; a terrible person doing terrible things. But that’s not how The Florida Project works. Halley is flawed, yes – at times almost devastatingly so. But Baker doesn’t judge her, and Vinaite’s performance – blunt and at times even abrasive – is pitch-perfect. Halley is flawed, yes, but she’s trying. Everyone here is trying. Trying hard to get through their day to day lives; trying to find magic in a frequently unmagical kingdom. Late in the film, Moonee and Jancey are sitting on a tree having lunch. Baker keeps the camera in close on the two girls, not really giving us a good look at the tree they’re perched on. “Do you know why this is my favorite tree?” Moonee asks her friend. “Because it tipped over and it’s still growing.” At this point, Baker cuts to a wide shot, showing a huge, sprawling, toppled willow. It’s a breathtaking moment, and the line lingers, perfectly summing up the characters in the film. They may have all fallen at one point, but they’re still growing. The final moments of The Florida Project unfold breathlessly – tension is mounting, and there’s the queasy sense that something terrible is about to happen, like a destructive storm about to break. And then Baker does something magnificent – he follows Moonee and Jancey on one last adventure before the credits roll. Is it real or is it fantasy? It doesn’t matter. It’s magic. We can all do with a bit more magic in our kingdoms. /Film Rating: 10 out of 10 |
S Lalitha By Express News Service BENGALURU: The wait is finally over! President Pranab Mukherjee will formally inaugurate the 10.5-km stretch of the Green Line between Mantri Square Sampige Road and Yelachenahalli Metro stations on June 17. Commercial operations will begin the next day. This will mark the completion of the 42.3km network of Phase-1. Setting the ball in motion for the D-day, Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) K A Manoharan gave the formal authorisation for the running of trains on Wednesday evening. Kochi Metro will also be launched on the same day by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Aluva. The authorisation letter was signed by Manoharan at 6.45 pm. It will be handed over to the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRCL) on Thursday morning. “I am giving the authorisation today with conditions attached. BMRCL will fulfil them before they go ahead with the launch,” Manoharan told Express. Trains have been cleared to run at a maximum speed of 80 kmph but they generally run a little less than the certified speed, which would be 75kmph, he informed. An official communication to the State government from New Delhi on Wednesday confirmed the President’s arrival in Bengaluru on June 17. “The inauguration will take place by late afternoon only. We are working out other details of the function and will confirm them in a day or two,” a highly placed source said. Mahendra Jain, Additional Chief Secretary, Urban Development Department, said, “The BMRCL staff went around Metro stations on Wednesday to inspect and finalise on a specific station. It is not decided yet.” Easy conditions Asked about the conditions which need to be met, the CMRS said they were minor in nature which could be completed in a short time. “Passenger amenities like lifts and escalators need to be completed at Krishna Rajendra Market and Chickpet Metro stations. Sufficient space has to be identified to install firefighting and electrical equipment at these stations. Minor civil works are pending,” the CMRS explained. The entrances which are not ready at these stations are not big matters of concern as Metro, he added. BMRCL MD Pradeep Singh Kharola said, “The minor pending works would be completed by June 10.” Asked about the preparatory steps being taken, he said, “We are now posting security personnel and housekeeping staff at all the new Metro stations. Each station will have over 40 of them. Ten ticket operators will be posted at each station during this weekend.” |
Last week at Mobile World Congress, Nokia announced a couple of new Lumia Windows Phone devices to further populate their Lumia family. Nokia now has devices across the pricing and specification spectrum to meet the needs of everyone. As Kevin and I were chatting on MobileTechRoundup show #291 this weekend, I had realized that I didn't have a firm grasp of the differences between all the Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices, so thought I would put together a summary post and gallery. There are variants for US carriers, but let's just stick with the core series as announced by Nokia. We have the 520, 620, 720, 820, and 920. All these devices run Windows Phone 8, so the software experience is about the same across the device lineup. I recommend Nokia for Windows Phone buyers due to their free included services and exclusive apps, such as Nokia Music, HERE Drive, multiple camera lenses, ESPN Hub, and more. We have also seen Nokia rolling out software updates much faster than any other Windows Phone manufacturer. |
Support for this video player will be discontinued soon. Read in a while The FIM has released the following provisional 2015 entry list for the MotoGP™ World Championship. # Rider Nat. Team Machine 4 A. DOVIZIOSO ITA DUCATI TEAM DUCATI* 6 S. BRADL GER NGM FORWARD RACING FORWARD YAMAHA 8 H. BARBERA SPA AVINTIA RACING DUCATI 9 D. PETRUCCI ITA PRAMAC RACING DUCATI* 17 K. ABRAHAM CZE CARDION AB MOTORACING HONDA 19 A. BAUTISTA SPA FACTORY APRILIA GRESINI APRILIA* 25 M. VINALES SPA TEAM SUZUKI MotoGP SUZUKI* 26 D. PEDROSA SPA REPSOL HONDA TEAM HONDA* 29 A. IANNONE ITA DUCATI TEAM DUCATI* 35 C. CRUTCHLOW GBR CWM LCR HONDA HONDA* 38 B. SMITH GBR MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 3 YAMAHA* 41 A. ESPARGARO SPA TEAM SUZUKI MotoGP SUZUKI* 43 J. MILLER AUS CWM LCR HONDA HONDA 44 P. ESPARGARO SPA MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 3 YAMAHA* 45 S. REDDING GBR MARC VDS RACING TEAM HONDA* 46 V. ROSSI ITA MOVISTAR YAMAHA MotoGP YAMAHA* 50 E. LAVERTY IRL DRIVE M7 ASPAR HONDA 63 M. DI MEGLIO FRA AVINTIA RACING DUCATI 68 Y. HERNANDEZ COL PRAMAC RACING DUCATI* 69 N. HAYDEN USA DRIVE M7 ASPAR HONDA 76 L. BAZ FRA NGM FORWARD RACING FORWARD YAMAHA 93 M. MARQUEZ SPA REPSOL HONDA TEAM HONDA* 99 J. LORENZO SPA MOVISTAR YAMAHA MotoGP YAMAHA* TO BE CONFIRMED FACTORY APRILIA GRESINI APRILIA TO BE CONFIRMED OCTO IODARACING TEAM TBC * Factory Option |
Saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Kamasi Washington is set to drop his behemoth of a record via the boundary-defying Brainfeeder label on May 5th. Aptly titled The Epic, Washington’s forthcoming album features 172 minutes of music spread across three volumes with a 32-piece orchestra and a 20-piece choir. Adding to the sheets of sound is a 10-piece band consisting of Thundercat (bass), Ronald Bruner Jr. (drums), Miles Mosley (bass), Tony Austin (drums), Brandon Coleman (keys), Cameron Graves (piano), Ryan Porter (trombone), and Patrice Quinn (vocals). We’ve had a chance to preview The Epic and it just might be one of the standout records of 2015 across all genres. That’s a pretty heavy statement considering that this year has yielded instant classic records like To Pimp A Butterfly, which happens to be an album that Washington also plays on. Brainfeeder label boss and super-producer Flying Lotus, who featured Kamasi Washington in Cosmogramma as well as his 2014 magnum opus, You’re Dead, has this to say about the saxophonist: |
You may want to look like your favorite movie star or singer, or have the perfect look for Halloween, but choosing to change the look of your eyes with contact lenses could cause a lot of damage to your eyesight if you get them without the input of your eye care professional. Decorative contact lenses are sometimes called, among other names: fashion contact lenses Halloween contact lenses colored contact lenses cosmetic contact lenses theatre contact lenses Decorative contact lenses just change the look of your eyes. They do not correct your vision. They can temporarily change your brown eyes to blue or make your eyes look like cat eyes or vampire eyes for Halloween. Did you know that these decorative contact lenses are actually medical devices? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration oversees their safety and effectiveness, just like contact lenses that correct your vision. Just like corrective contact lenses you should never buy contact lenses from a street vendor, a beauty supply store, flea market, novelty store or Halloween store—and you should always have a prescription. Before stepping out with your new look, here's what you need to know. Know the Risks Pseudomonas eye infection. Image courtesy of Thomas Steinemann, MD and MetroHealth Medical Center Wearing decorative contact lenses can be risky, just like the contact lenses that correct your vision. Wearing any kind of contact lenses, including decorative ones, can cause serious damage to your eyes if the lenses are obtained without a prescription or not used correctly. These risks include: A cut or scratch on the top layer of your eyeball (Corneal Abrasion) Allergic reactions like itchy, watery red eyes Decreased vision Infection Blindness When wearing any type of contact lenses, be aware of signs of possible eye infection, which include: Redness Pain in the eye(s) that doesn't go away after a short period of time Decreased vision If you have any of these signs, you need to see a licensed eye doctor (optometrist or ophthalmologist) right away! An eye infection could become serious and cause you to become blind if it is not treated. You can avoid some of these risks by getting any type of contact lenses from your doctor. Be sure to follow the directions for cleaning, disinfecting, and wearing the lenses that your doctor gives you. If your doctor doesn't give you any directions — ask for them! Dos and Don'ts Do get an eye exam! A licensed eye doctor will examine your eyes to make sure the contact lenses fit properly. The fit of your contact lenses is very important. A wrong fit can cause damage to your eyes. Be sure to always go for follow-up eye exams. Do get a prescription! Your eye doctor will write you a prescription for all contact lenses, including decorative lenses. The prescription should include the brand name, correct lens measurements and expiration date. Do follow the contact lens care instructions! Follow the instructions for wearing, cleaning and disinfecting your contact lenses that come with your contact lenses. If you do not receive instructions, ask an eye doctor for them. Do seek medical attention right away and remove your contact lenses if your eyes are red, have ongoing pain or discharge! Redness, pain and discharge from the eyes are signs of an eye infection. If you think you have an eye infection from your contact lenses, remove them and see an eye doctor right away. Don't share your contact lenses with anyone else! You wouldn't share your toothbrush would you? All eyes are not the same size and shape and your contact lenses are fitted just for you. Don't buy any contact lenses without a prescription! If you don't see an eye doctor and get a prescription, then the contact lenses you get may not fit properly and may not work well. They could even damage your eyes. Sometimes wearing contact lenses can damage the top layer of your eyeball (cornea). Even if you aren't having any problems now, the lenses still could be causing damage to your eyes. By having regular checkups and buying contact lenses with a prescription, you will reduce the chances of any undetected damage to your eyes. Buying Decorative Contact Lenses You can buy contact lenses, including decorative contact lenses, from your eye doctor, on the Internet or from a mail-order company. It's very important that you only buy contact lenses from a company that sells FDA-cleared or approved contact lenses and requires you to provide a prescription. Anyone selling you contact lenses must get your prescription and verify it with your doctor. They should request not only the prescription, but the name of your doctor and their phone number. If they don't ask for this information they are breaking federal law and could be selling you illegal contact lenses. Remember — Buying contact lenses without a prescription is dangerous! Right now there are a lot of products that you can buy without a prescription but they may not be safe or legal. Never buy contact lenses from a street vendor, a beauty supply store, flea market, novelty store or Halloween store. It's your job to make sure you protect your eyes by having an eye exam, getting a prescription and buying contact lenses from a legal source. Additional Information For more information about decorative contact lenses, go to: |
OAKLAND — A federal jury has found that Eureka Police Officers used excessive force against Martin Frederick Cotton II during a violent altercation that preceded his 2007 in-custody death, leading to a $4.5 million judgment against the city. Cotton, 26, died Aug. 9, 2007, just hours after being involved in several violent altercations at the Eureka Rescue Mission, the last of which involved Eureka Police Department officers. Cotton died several hours later after being found breathing shallowly in a holding cell in the Humboldt County jail. The Humboldt County Coroner’s Office said Cotton died of a subdural hematoma due to blunt force trauma, but stopped short of determining the cause of that trauma. On Friday, according to court records, a federal jury in Oakland found that EPD officers Adam Laird and Justin Winkle used excessive force against Cotton, while officer Gary Whitmer did not. Further, the jury found that Laird, Winkle and Whitmer “were deliberately indifferent” to Cotton’s serious medical needs when they failed to get him medical treatment before booking him into the Humboldt County jail. Authorities have previously said that Cotton was too combative to be medically screened at the jail. The jury also found that the city failed to adequately train its police officers in obtaining medical care for arrestees who have had force used against them and that the officers involved acted “maliciously, oppressively or in reckless disregard” of Cotton’s constitutional rights. The judgment awards $4 million from the city to Cotton’s daughter, Siehna Cotton, and $500,000 from the city to Cotton’s father, Martin Cotton Sr. Under the judgment, Laird and Winkle were also found personally liable for $30,000 each and Whitmer was found liable for $15,000, all to be paid to Martin Cotton Sr. Cotton had been held in Humboldt County jail for seven days on an outstanding warrant from Siskiyou County when he was released from custody at about 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2007. Shortly before 5 p.m., he arrived at the Eureka Rescue Mission and was reportedly involved in a pair of altercations, leading police to be called to the scene. When police arrived, they quickly became involved with Cotton in what was, from all accounts, a violent altercation. Witnesses described seeing cops use pepper spray, batons, kicks and punches to subdue him. “I thought it was just brutal,” said Shannon Flowers, who witnessed the altercation, in a previous interview with the Times-Standard. “When I heard he died the next day, I cried.” Then-EPD Chief Garr Nielsen was adamant that his officers acted appropriately when faced with a violent, noncompliant suspect, who toxicology reports later showed was under the influence of a high dose of LSD at the time of the altercation. Cotton, Nielsen maintained, was very alive and very combative when EPD officers booked him into the Humboldt County jail. In the wake of the incident, however, Nielsen changed EPD policy to require that any suspect involved in an altercation — with police or others — be treated and evaluated by a medical professional before being booked into jail. Officials also claimed that Cotton could be seen on a surveillance video thrashing violently in his holding cell at the Humboldt County jail prior to his death and said the fatal subdural hematoma he suffered may have been self-inflicted. Humboldt County refused numerous media and California Public Records Act requests seeking disclosure of the video, citing security concerns. Friday, local attorney Nancy Delaney, who represented the city of Eureka in the case, could not be reached for comment. Eureka City Manager David Tyson and Mayor Frank Jager said they hadn’t seen the judgment or consulted with Delaney and could not comment on the verdict. Interim Police Chief Murl Harpham — who took the position after Nielsen was fired without cause in June — did not respond to messages seeking comment. Cotton’s estate also brought suit against the county of Humboldt but that portion of the suit was settled on the eve of trial, according to local attorney Bill Bragg, who represented the county in the case. The county paid Cotton’s estate $100,000 under the settlement, according to County Administrative Officer Phillip Smith-Hanes. When initially filed, the claim sought unspecified damages in an amount large enough to act as a deterrent. “Because of the intense trauma and loss that the parents and child of Martin Cotton II suffer as a result of the unwarranted, violent and untimely death of their son and parent (respectively) … and because of the severity of the unlawful actions of the above named defendants, damages must be set in an amount sufficient to resound through officialdom and to deter such depraved and unlawful conduct,” the claim stated. Thadeus Greenson can be reached at 441-0509 or tgreenson@times-standard.com. |
Director Joss Whedon shared a heartwarming message on his Twitter account Sunday in honor of Mother’s Day, the day when sons and daughters across the United States celebrate, remember, and express gratitude for the sacrifices that all mothers make to care for their children on a daily basis. “Today I gratefully give my mother the gift of having been dead for 25 years and not having to see what a tub of f*ckery our country’s become,” the 52-year-old Avengers director tweeted. Today I gratefully give my mother the gift of having been dead for 25 years and not having to see what a tub of fuckery our country's become — Joss Whedon (@joss) May 14, 2017 Of course, Whedon’s tweet raised some eyebrows among his followers, who questioned whether the famously anti-Donald Trump activist would really rather prefer his mother be dead than to live under the Trump administration. Shame on you. Nothing I would want more than to have my mother back despite how bad things may be. A mother's life and love trumps all. — Austin Petersen (@AP4Liberty) May 14, 2017 Normal people: Happy Mother's Day, I miss my mom every day. She was the greatest.@joss: Glad you're dead mom so you don't see Pres Trump. — Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) May 15, 2017 Get some help! Politics 24/7 has led you to tweet one of the sickest tweets ever! I HATED Obama, but I didn't let it consume me FFS. — Lisa (@Flyingright1) May 15, 2017 Just a few weeks ago, Whedon had promised to “be quiet for a bit” on the social media platform after he made a sexual joke at the expense of a group of young cancer survivors who had met with House Speaker Paul Ryan. The director said he had “inadvertently offended everyone except” the people he had been trying to offend, and apologized. But that incident was hardly the only time the director has found himself in hot water over his Twitter messages. In January, Whedon wrote on Twitter that he wanted Paul Ryan to meet an unfortunate end at the hands of a rhinoceros, and also compared Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, to a breed of dog. In April, the director expressed fear that the Trump administration would begin arresting and murdering gay people based on their sexual orientation, as is currently happening in Chechnya. Whedon — who produced possibly one of the most widely-viewed anti-Trump commercials during the 2016 campaign with help from Avengers stars Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson —had deleted his Twitter account in 2015 after feminists derided the portrayal of Black Widow (Johansson) in his film Avengers: Age of Ultron. He re-joined Twitter in September 2016 to launch his anti-Trump campaign ad and related “Save the Day” PAC. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum |
U.S. Customs and Border Protection detected more than one ton of marijuana disguised as carrots at the Pharr International Bridge. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents found half a million dollars' worth of marijuana disguised as carrots this week. On Sunday, they stopped the tractor-trailer at the Pharr International Bridge along the Texas-Mexico border near the Gulf of Mexico. Mixed in with real carrots, they found more than 2,800 orange, carrot-shaped packages. Inside those packages there were nearly 2,500 pounds of marijuana with a street value of $499,000, officials said. Photo credit: U.S. Customs and Border Protection "Once again, drug smuggling organizations have demonstrated their creativity in attempting to smuggle large quantities of narcotics across the U.S./Mexico border," said Port Director Efrain Solis Jr., of the Hidalgo/Pharr/Anzalduas Port of Entry. "Our officers are always ready to meet those challenges and remain vigilant towards any type of illicit activities." The case is under investigation by agents of Homeland Security Investigations. |
By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Contributing Writer Writer Thomas Harris’ creation Hannibal Lecter, first introduced as Hannibal Lektor in the novel RED DRAGON, has been played on film by a number of actors – first Brian Cox in MANHUNTER, then Anthony Hopkins in his Oscar-winning turn in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, followed by HANNIBAL and the MANHUNTER remake RED DRAGON and finally by Gaspard Ulliel (and, as the child Hannibal, Aaran Thomas) in the Hannibal-as-a-young-man prequel HANNIBAL RISING. Producer/show runner Bryan Fuller has adapted HANNIBAL for television. Now in its second season on NBC, Fridays at 10 PM, HANNIBAL chronicles the adventures of the brilliant cannibalistic serial killer/psychiatrist in the days before he was caught. Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen portrays Hannibal with gravity and panache – along with a healthy dose of combined physical grace and menace. At the end of last season,Hannibal had successfully pinned all of his homicidal handiwork on FBI consultant Will Graham (Hugh Dancy). However, Will is onto Hannibal, while at the same time,Hannibal likes Will and appears to be trying to convince the younger psychologist that he actually needs Hannibal’s help. We know from a flash-forward at the beginning of Season 2 that Hannibal will brutally tangle with Will’s erstwhile FBI boss Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne), but we’re still learning how this comes to pass. The Copenhagen-born Mikkelsen starred in the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee THE HUNT, as well as having significant roles in some big English-language films including CASINO ROYALE, KING ARTHUR, CLASH OF THE TITANS and THE THREE MUSKETEERS. At a Q&A event NBC holds for the Television Critics Association, Mikkelsen remains available afterward for some additional friendly interrogation by the press. AX: Did you watch any of the earlier incarnations of Hannibal? MADS MIKKELSEN: I think we all watched that, growing up, right? We were certain from the beginning that we could not detach ourselves from the character. Obviously, he’s a man who loves anything beautiful – beautiful music, beautiful people, beautiful wine – so we had to address that, but we had to detach it from what Anthony did. Obviously, it would be creative suicide to go down his path. He was so wonderful, and if you try to copy something like that – but I think any actor would make it his own, regardless of if it’s me or somebody else, but it was a conscious choice that detached us. AX: Can you say what you’re bringing to Hannibal? MIKKELSEN: A lot of it is already in Bryan’s scripts. He’s already given life to the character to a certain degree, and then it’s up to me to step into those shoes. As I said before, any actor would color it somehow, and I’m coloring it – I’m trying, to a degree, to make him human. What he does is absolutely not human, but his emotions are true and honest. AX: You’ve compared Hannibal to Lucifer. Is he becoming more Luciferian or less Luciferian as you go along? MIKKELSEN: He is Lucifer. He is the fallen angel. The thing about him is that he’s honest – he’s honest with his emotions regarding Will. He’s having a hard time here trying to regain his friendship. That’s uphill, of course. But that’s his main target in this season. AX: Do you think Hannibal qualifies as a psychopath by regular psychiatrist standards, or is he something else? MIKKELSEN: I don’t think he is a psychopath. I mean, reading about psychopaths, they normally have a traumatized childhood or something they’re struggling with. He doesn’t have that. He’s as happy as you can get. He’s a happy man. I have rarely given life to a character that is as happy as him, I must say. AX: What would you say Hannibal’s relationship is like with his erstwhile psychiatrist Dr. Bedelia du Maurier, played by Gillian Anderson? MIKKELSEN: That’s obviously a very unique and kinky relationship that they have, and we will address it a little more in this season. I think she has been a very important partner for him, in a sense that we will see a different side ofHannibal, and he will be quite emotional with her to a degree. Why he’s doing that, we don’t know. And I think that’s just his little space of freedom where he can be what he is. AX: You have a background as a dancer. How much does that inform your acting style, if at all? MIKKELSEN: Any character I do will have a certain tempo or a certain pace or an energy, but I’m not super-conscious about it. Obviously, carrying himself the way he does,Hannibal, it’s probably something to do with my background [laughs], but it’s not the kind of thing I do deliberately. AX: Mark Ryan, who was the sword master on KING ARTHUR, has talked about how great you were doing sword fights. Will you get to do any fighting with blades in HANNIBAL this season? MIKKELSEN: Well, as you can see, we have some blades in the fight between me and Laurence – there are some knives coming into the picture – but I must say, he was not too bad himself. AX: What do you think of Hannibal’s clothing and decorating style? MIKKELSEN: It’s fantastic for me, because I normally walk around in running shoes, so for me, it’s a big transformation when I go in the trailer and I dress up like Hannibal – it’s a big difference for me, a big change. He’s having [his clothes] handmade from his tailor, and he does love that period. You can see in his house – everything has a kind of Art Deco style to it, and obviously filled out with some bird skulls and rhinoceros skulls and whatever [laughs], so he is from a different time. And so the suits are following him in that sense as well. AX: We see a lot of Hannibal preparing meals. Do you cook a lot in real life? MIKKELSEN: Not really. I’m good at Asian food – I’m good at chopping. AX: Do you have a favorite scene or sequence you’ve gotten to do so far as Hannibal? MIKKELSEN: There are so many. I do enjoy the little intimate scenes with Will. They’re starting out as a small, small friendship and it becomes bigger and bigger, and now obviously it’s broken, and now we have to mend it, repair it, and there have been quite a few scenes where Hannibal is playing his cards wrong, and Will is getting the upper hand in this season to a degree, and it’s quite interesting. Related: Interview with HANNIBAL star Hugh Dancy gives the scoop on Season 2 Follow us on Twitter at ASSIGNMENT X Fan us on Facebook at ASSIGNMENT X Related Related Posts: |
The State Department’s Inspector General has concluded that Hillary Clinton and her senior aides ignored repeated warnings that her private email system was vulnerable to hackers when she was Secretary of State. The IG also finds, in the report set to be released Thursday morning, that Clinton failed to comply with Federal Records Act requirements to turn over her work e-mails when she left office in 2013. The report, copies of which were provided to the State department and Congress ahead of its public release, will drive continued criticism of Clinton’s unorthodox e-mail arrangement as she seeks the White House, and could fuel civil cases brought by watchdog groups seeking access to her e-mails. The IG found evidence that hackers tried to breach Clinton’s server, but were unsuccessful. The report finds that the technical specialist Clinton used to manage the server had twice shut the system down when it came under attack. On January 9, 2011, the report says, the specialist wrote a top Clinton aide that “someone was trying to hack us and while they did not get in i didn’t want to them them have the chance to.” Another attack occurred later the same day, the report says. The FBI has been investigating since last August how classified information made it onto Clinton’s unclassified private server. The investigation is in its final stages and there is no indication criminal charges against anyone are likely, or that classified information was compromised or that the system was actually breached. Clinton’s senior aides have been interviewed by the FBI, and the former Secretary is expected to be interviewed soon. Clinton’s critics have accused her of endangering national security and intentionally thwarting rules and laws enforcing government transparency. In a statement, her campaign said that “there is no evidence of any successful breach of the Secretary’s server” and that “Clinton’s use of personal email was not unique, and she took steps that went much further than others to appropriately preserve and release her records.” The Federal Records Act requires government officials to comply with rules that they hand over all their work e-mails to their employers when they leave government. Clinton only turned over more than 30,000 pages of work e-mails to the State Department 21 months after she stepped down in 2013. The State IG report says Clinton responded in person to a top department security official in 2009 after he sent a classified memo to her chief of staff describing the vulnerability of Blackberry devices to hackers. The report also says Clinton received a March 11, 2011 email from the State cyber security team warrning of a “dramatic increase since January 2011 in attempts by [redacted] cyber actors to compromise the private home e-mail accounts of senior Department officials.” Multiple organizations are suing the State Department for access to Clinton’s e-mails, and some claim she intentionally thwarted the Freedom of Information Act in keeping all her work e-mails on her private server. One group, Judicial Watch, has asked a federal judge to subpoena all of Clinton’s e-mails to ensure she isn’t hiding anything. The judge in that case has said he may subpoena all her documents, potentially including any recovered personal e-mails which Clinton sent and received on the system. Preventing those personal e-mails from becoming public appears to have been a contributing factor in why Clinton set up the private server to begin with, according to one e-mail exchange made public by the State IG report. In November 2010, the report says, Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff emailed her that “we should talk about putting you on state email or releasing your email address to the department.” Clinton responded, “Let’s get separate address or device but I don’t want any risk of the personal being accessible.” View this document on Scribd Contact us at editors@time.com. |
Stocks across Europe closed deep in positive territory on Wednesday, rallying back from an initial crash as the shock of the fact that Donald Trump is the next president of the United States. All of Europe's biggest bourses were significantly down soon after the European open, crashing lower thanks to the uncertainty that a Trump presidency brings to the markets. Trump and his economic positions are seen as far less predictable than those of Hillary Clinton, and do not always follow party orthodoxy. As such he is perceived as more of a political risk than Clinton, causing the huge reactions in the markets overnight, which have continued into European trade. While a Clinton victory would've likely boosted stocks a bit, John Higgins, chief markets economist at Capital Economics argued earlier that a Trump win would pull things in the "opposite direction." Despite crashing in early trade, stocks in Europe rallied in the afternoon, gaining quickly after the US markets opened at 2.30 p.m. GMT (9.30 a.m. ET). At the European close, several indexes were more than 1% higher, swinging as much as 4% from their opening prices. Germany's DAX, probably the most watched index on mainland Europe, finished the day up more than 1.6%, having initially been dragged almost 3% lower by banking and automotive stocks. Here's how it looked at the end of the European trading day: Investing.com The Euro Stoxx 50 broad index, which tracks Europe's biggest companies, closed up more than 1.1%: Investing.com In Britain, the FTSE 100 blue-chip index finished 1.05% in positive territory, climbing from a 2% loss at the open as the initial shock of the vote: Investing.com "A Trump Presidency will probably have mixed implications for businesses in the US. Trump advocates lower corporate taxes, but he has also suggested that he would try to curtail the ability of companies to freely move capital out of the country," HSBC's chief US economist Kevin Logan said in a note circulated on Wednesday morning. Earlier, both the US futures markets, and Asian assets tumbled on news that Trump was pulling away from Clinton. Both Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures hit a limit-down, or the maximum amount by which they're permitted to fall before trading restraints kick in. They have been halted until the market opens on Wednesday. Stocks, commodities, and higher-yielding currencies were all hammered in Asian trade. The scale of some of the declines seen was enormous, even exceeding the carnage that was witnessed after the UK Brexit vote just five months ago. The Nikkei in Japan, thanks in part to the yen ripping higher on the back of heightened risk aversion, closed the session down 5.36% at 16,251.54. |
$\begingroup$ This is not an answer, just a bit too long to be a comment. I didn't write the code for finding supreme primes, but I think it is simple. All supreme primes $x$ are of the form: $$x = \sum_{k=0}^n 10^k + 10^w\times(p-1) = \frac{10^{n+1} - 1}{9} + 10^w\times(p-1) \tag{1}$$ where $p$ is a prime number, and $0\le w \le n$. Therefore you only need to explore varying three parameters: $n,w,p$. Moreover, the search can be restricted so that $n + p$ (digit sum) and $n + 1$ (number of digits) are prime numbers (see comments). Defining $q = n +1$, we have to search pairs of prime numbers $p,q$ such that $p + q - 1$ is also a prime number (see comments). Having found such a pair, search for a $w$ in the range $0\le w\le q - 1$ such that $x$ in (1) is prime. Just to clarify (there was some confusion in the comments), note that an $x$ of the form (1) may not be a supreme prime; indeed we still need to know that $x$ itself is prime. |
Despite trading Matt Barkley and seemingly having a spot open for a third quarterback, the Philadelphia Eagles on Saturday released former Florida Gators signal caller Tim Tebow, according to ESPN‘s Adam Schefter. Tebow, who lasted through four preseason games with the Eagles – his fourth NFL team, showed improvement from his stint with New England two years ago but apparently not enough to remain with Philadelphia into the season. Many believed Eagles coach Chip Kelly would retain Tebow for gadget plays, two-point conversions and to serve as an emergency option at quarterback. Instead Tebow, who resigned from his post with the SEC Network in order to return to the league, is without a job entering the 2015 season. Tebow finished the fourth preseason game, his only extended action, 11-of-17 for 189 yards with two touchdowns, including a long 45-yard completion, and a fourth-down interception; he also took four carries for 32 yards, with a long gain of 17. Whether he will ever see action on an NFL field again remains to be seen. If not, these are his final highlights. "We didn't feel like [Tim Tebow] was good enough to be the #3 QB right now." http://t.co/qyrO1fb9vm — NFL (@NFL) September 5, 2015 Other cuts Philadelphia also released defensive back Jaylen Watkins, the team’s No. 101 overall pick in the fourth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. Watkins was injured for a large part of 2014 and inconsistent during the 2015 preseason. He will likely catch on with another team. The Miami Dolphins released kicker Caleb Sturgis, the team’s fifth-round draft choice two years ago, and running back Mike Gillislee. The Oakland Raiders released undrafted free agent defensive tackle Leon Orr. |
The number of banks at risk of failing made up nearly 12 percent of all federally insured banks in the final three months of 2010, the highest level in 18 years. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said Wednesday that the number of banks on its confidential "problem" list rose to 884 in the October-December quarter, up from 860 in the previous quarter. Those are banks rated by examiners as having very low capital cushions against risk. Twenty-two banks have failed so far this year. And more banks are at risk, even as reported the industry's highest earnings as a group since the financial crisis hit three years ago. Only a small fraction of the 7,657 federally insured banks about 1.4 percent with assets of more than $10 billion are driving the bulk of the earnings growth. They are the largest banks, including Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. The big banks accounted for about $20.6 billion of the industry earnings of $21.7 billion in the fourth quarter. The total earnings compared with a net loss of $1.8 billion in the same quarter of 2009. The agency said bank earnings were buoyed in the latest quarter by reduced charges for soured loans. Most of the big banks have recovered with help from federal bailout money and record-low borrowing rates. On the other side, many smaller banks are struggling. Last year, 157 U.S. banks were brought down by the soured economy and mounting loan defaults. That was the most in one year since 1992, the height of the savings and loan crisis. They were mostly smaller or regional banks. The failures compare with 25 in 2008 and three in 2007. They cost the federal deposit insurance fund an estimated $21 billion in 2010. Smaller and regional banks depend heavily on making loans for commercial property and development sectors that have suffered huge losses. Companies shut down in the recession, vacating shopping malls and office buildings financed by the loans. Overall, banks' net income reached a three-year high of $87.5 billion in the October-December quarter. That contrasted with a loss of $10.6 billion in 2009. But Bair said banks need to lend more vigorously as the economy recovers. Bank industry revenue remained fairly strong through the financial crisis, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair noted, but there is little "upward momentum." "A key reason why revenues haven't grown faster is that loans have not been growing," Bair said at a news conference. "It's not going as at fast a pace as I would like to see." The problem is partly due to continued uncertainty about the economy on the part of bankers, Bair said. But she added: "I also think that banks need to get back to the basics of making loans." Loan balances declined at a majority of U.S. banks in the October-December quarter, falling by $51.8 billion, or 0.4 percent, from the July-September quarter. A change reported Monday by Bank of America for results from its FIA Card Services subsidiary for 2009 and 2010 caused the FDIC to significantly revise its industry earnings for the three past quarters. For the January-March quarter of 2009, industry net income was revised to a $6.5 billion net loss from the previously reported $7.6 billion profit. The net loss in the April-June quarter of 2009 widened to $12.7 billion from $3.7 billion, and net income in the July-September quarter of 2010 increased to $24.7 billion from $14.5 billion. The FDIC's deposit insurance fund, which fell into the red in 2009, posted a slight improvement in the October-December quarter. Its deficit narrowed to $7.4 billion from $8 billion in the third quarter. Bair said the agency expects the balance to turn positive this year. The spate of bank failures that began to accelerate in 2008 are expected to cost the insurance fund about $100 billion through 2013. The FDIC is backed by the government, and deposits are guaranteed up to $250,000 per account. Also, the agency still has tens of billions in loss reserves apart from the insurance fund. |
As I get older and I see the institutions of British society twisted and distorted to fit the extreme neo-liberal agenda, I find myself advocating all kinds of responses which I would have found anathema even a decade below. One f these is that I definitely believe that the BBC should be abolished as a public funded institution, and the BBC poll tax (aka license fee) abolished. The extent of BBC bias during the referendum campaign was breathtaking. I have worked, and specifically reported on the media, in dictatorships which had a less insidious and complete bias than the BBC has against Scottish independence. The relentless anti-Corbyn propaganda shows that the BBC exists to reinforce the neo-liberal narrative at all costs, both at home and abroad. Laura Kuenssberg achieved levels of disdain and ridicule in her report on Shadow Cabinet appointments this evening that ought to disqualify her forever from employment anywhere but Fox News. This was followed by “Reporting Scotland” and a long propaganda piece against the idea of a second referendum, replete with lies about pledges of “once in a lifetime”. I do not think in the 21st Century we need a state broadcaster. If you want right wing propaganda, you can watch it on Murdoch, without paying a compulsory tax for it. I don’t want to watch baking, “celebrities” I have never heard of dancing, or people abseiling to win a holiday in Jamaica. If I did, I am sure I could find someone to provide it commercially. The more worthwhile parts of the BBC’s output could be maintained or commissioned as arts spending and broadcast on commercial or internet platforms. You do not actually need a state broadcaster to have symphony orchestras and just a minute. Even the Tories are occasionally right about something, and they are right that the BBC is a hugely bloated organisation, with 107 bureaucrats who earn over 100,000 and 23 who earn over 200,000. Forget all the ideas about reform. Just chuck the worthless bunch out on the street. |
One of the most anticipated books of 2017: New York Times Book Review, New York's Vulture, Bustle, and BookRiot. From best-selling author David Sedaris, for the first time in print: selections from the diaries that are the source of his remarkable autobiographical essays. For nearly four decades, David Sedaris has faithfully kept a diary in which he records his thoughts and observations on the odd and funny events he witnesses. Anyone who has attended a live Sedaris event knows that his diary readings are often among the most joyful parts of the evening. But never before have they been available in print. Now, in Theft by Finding, Sedaris brings us his favorite entries. From deeply poignant to laugh-out-loud funny, these selections reveal with new intimacy a man longtime fans only think they know. Tender, hilarious, illuminating, and endlessly captivating, Theft by Finding offers a rare look into the mind of one of our generation's greatest comic geniuses. |
Reviewer #1: This manuscript reports an interesting and potentially important finding on functional heterogeneity and developmental origin of bone marrow stromal cells. We thank the reviewer for finding our study interesting and potentially important, and for the suggestions that have helped to improve the paper. However the main and potentially ground breaking finding, i.e. that Nestin+ MSC are derived from neural crest and support hematopoiesis rather than building the bone itself, is not supported by the data presented, that are of poor quality and do not allow to draw final conclusions on the developmental origin of these cells. We apologize if the quality of the images examined was suboptimal. Although we provided images covering wide bone marrow areas to convincingly illustrate our findings, these images also had good resolution and might have lost it during the compression and conversion to pdf. Nevertheless, we now provide insets from low magnification pictures with increased resolution. We have also shown high magnification details to facilitate viewing. We have provided new data that further and fully support the main conclusion of our study already stated in the title that the neural crest is a source of MSCs with a specialized HSC niche function: 1) Higher detail images from triple transgenics showing neural-crest-derived cells co-labeled with Nestin-GFP, providing additional proof of a neural crest origin for a subset of Nestin-GFP+ cells (although other populations marked by Nestin-GFP+ might contain cells from other origins). 2) Functional data showing the enrichment in mesenchymal stem cell activity (CFU-F) and HSC niche features (Cxcl12 mRNA expression) within sorted bone marrow neural-crest-derived stromal cells, which are also enriched in endogenous Nestin mRNA expression. 3) Flow cytometry data showing that the majority of bone marrow cells derived from the neural crest are indeed stromal Nestin-GFP+ cells. Moreover, the manuscript is poorly written, difficult to follow and would greatly benefit from careful editing and, at least in some parts, re-writing. We apologize for this. We have re-written some parts and have revised the whole manuscript to make it more accessible to the broad readership of eLife. Following the suggestion by Reviewer #3, we have also included a table indicating the numerous mouse strains used, to help the reader. 1) Authors report that a small but increasing fraction of GFP+ also express CD31 and that this fraction increases with age. Since Nestin is not known to be expressed in endothelial cells, a co-staining with also anti-nestin antibody should be performed and co-localization investigated at confocal level, since this bears important implications on the fidelity of the GFP transgene. Although nestin was originally identified as a neural stem cell marker in the developing central nervous system (Lendahl U et al. 1990 Cell), later studies have detected nestin expression in many other cell lineages, most pronouncedly during development (for a review, please see Wiese et al. Nestin expression, a property of multi-lineage progenitor cells? Cell Mol Life Sci (2004) vol. 61 (19-20) pp. 2510-22). Many studies have reported nestin expression in endothelial cells, especially in proliferating vascular endothelial cells. Please see (among others): Ono N et al. Dev Cell. 2014 May 12;29(3):330-9. Wroblewski J et al. Differentiation. 1997 Feb;61(3):151-9. Sugawara K et al. Lab Invest. 2002 Mar;82(3):345-51. Mokrý J et al. Stem Cells Dev. 2004 Dec;13(6):658-64. Kim E et al. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2014 Jul 17;55(8):5099-108 In fact, nestin has been recently proposed as a marker for newly formed blood vessels (Matsuda et al. World J Gastroenterol (2013) 19 (1) pp. 42-8). In light of this emerging literature, we have carefully analyzed the nestin+ endothelial subset to avoid some potential confusion, although the population of interest was the stromal CD31- Nestin-GFP+ population, which is highly enriched in mesenchymal progenitors. The other reason for using this marker to visualize blood vessels was to substantiate the perivascular or sub-endothelial localization of these mesenchymal progenitors. Regarding the fidelity of the GFP transgene, we already showed in Figure 1F of the manuscript that Nestin-GFP+ cells are clearly enriched in endogenous Nestin mRNA expression. In the new Figure 7J we also show that bone marrow CD45- CD31- Ter119- Tomato+ cells sorted from 1-week old Wnt1-Cre2;R26-tomato;Nes-Gfp triple-transgenic mice are highly enriched in endogenous Nestin expression, compared with bone marrow CD45- CD31- Ter119- Tomato- cells. In the new data provided in new Figure 4D-F we show that the majority of neural crest cells tracked using two different drivers, Wnt1-Cre2 and Sox10-CreERT2, are in fact Nestin-GFP+ PDGFRa+ MSC-enriched cells which contain most bone marrow mesenchymal activity (CFU-F) at early postnatal stages. All this data convincingly demonstrate endogenous nestin expression in the cell population of interest in this study. 2) The text describing data presented in Figure 2B is particularly confusing and almost impossible to interpret: “These mice and newborn Nes-gfp embryos were analyzed for osterix protein expression, which marks cells committed to the osteoblastic lineage. In contrast, cells genetically traced by the regulatory elements of Osterix gene do not only comprise osteoblastic cells, but also adventitial reticular cells, vascular smooth muscle cells, adipocytes and perineural cells (Liu et al., 2013). Unlike cells derived from lateral plate mesoderm, fetal limb bone marrow Nes-GFP+ cells did not express osterix protein (Figure 2A-B) and therefore could not be considered osteoblast precursors.” Whereas osterix protein marks osteolineage cells, Osterix mRNA or cells marked by the regulatory elements of Osterix promoter do not only contain osteoblastic-committed cells, but also a variety of other cells in the bone marrow, including adventitial reticular cells, vascular smooth muscle cells, adipocytes and perineural cells. This has been clearly shown in a study cited in our manuscript (Liu et al., 2013). This is likely explained by the fact that different stem cells (including MSCs) actively transcribe differentiation factors which are not translated into proteins, which that does not imply lineage commitment but allows them to rapidly differentiate in response to stimuli. This explains some contradictions in the field. We have reworded the corresponding section to reduce confusion. Unlike mesodermal derivatives, Nes-GFP+ did not express highly osterix protein and they did not contribute significantly to fetal osteocytes. We therefore conclude that these cells were not osteoblast precursors (even though they might show Osterix mRNA expression). After describing the Hoxb6-CreERT mice (labelling lateral mesoderm derived cells) the Authors show no co-localization of Nes-GFP and Osterix, and then “presumed” co-localization of Hoxb6 (i.e. lateral plated) derived cells and Osterix (Figure 2B). They conclude that because Nestin-GFP+ cells do not co-localize with Hoxb6 labelled cells they cannot be of lateral plate origin. This is a crucial point and particularly weak. First of all, at the magnification shown it is impossible to draw any conclusion. In A', very few GFP+ cells are visible and in an area where they are quite distant from Osx+ cells. Hoxb6-CreERT line would only label cells that express this transgene at the time that tamoxifen were administered. Together with limited recombination efficiency, this might explain why few GFP+ cells were observed using this mouse line and induction regimen. However, most of these cells labeled with cytoplasmic GFP also had nuclear osterix protein (please be aware of the different location of the fluorescent signal; new Figure 2B in the revised manuscript, also Author response image 1 below). This is in sharp contrast with the virtual absence of osterix protein in stage-matched Nestin-GFP+ cells (new Figure 2A). Author response image 1 Download asset Open asset Expression of osterix by bone marrow cells of the Hoxb6-derived lineage. High magnification detail of E18.5 Hoxb6-CreERT2;RCE bone marrow (BM) stained with anti-osterix (red). Embryos were induced with tamoxifen at E10.5 to trace limb mesoderm with Hoxb6-Cre driver. Asterisks indicate nuclear osterix-positive cells also marked with GFP. Dashed line indicated the bone contour. Scale bar: 50μm. On the other hand, in B' only a very small minority of HoxB6 derived cells express Osx (and at that magnification it is hard to be sure): in most case the colour overlap seems partial, as it may originate from two cells one above the other. Even assuming that there is co-localization in few cells, what about all the others Osx+ cells? Even though recombination is never 100% efficient, one would conclude that the very large majority of Osx expressing cells do not derive from lateral mesoderm. Maybe they originate from paraxial mesoderm, but then another Cre would be required or the origin of Osx expressing cells remains largely unidentified in this work. The degree of recombination using HoxB6-CreER driver line is only partial, which might be due both to the time window when tamoxifen was administered and to limited recombination efficiency by this Cre line. This might underestimate the real contribution of lateral mesoderm to osterix+ cells. Although it is possible, as suggested by the reviewer, that other mesodermal sources contribute to osteoprogenitor cells, this possibility would not affect the conclusions of our paper and also falls outside its current and already wide scope. We have taken the advantage of this genetic system to visualize mesodermal derivatives (in this case, lateral plate) and have demonstrated that this population, unlike Nestin-creERT2-traced cells, overlaps with embryonic skeletal precursors expressing osterix protein (an accepted marker of osteoprogenitor cells). We have also shown an abundant contribution of mesoderm to mature skeletal cells in long bones. This is in sharp contrast with the virtual absence of osterix protein in the Nestin-GFP+ population and the absence of Nestin-creERT2-traced fetal osteoblasts or chondrocytes. Therefore the main conclusion of this part, that nestin+ cells do not significantly contribute to fetal osteochondral cells, is fully supported by our data. 3) The overlap between Nestin-GFP and Nestin-Cre derived cells is only minor and, again, at that magnification it is impossible to draw solid conclusions. It is possible that Nestin-Cre derived cells have turned off the expression of Nestin gene, but then what have they become? Conversely, many Nestin-GFP+ do not seem to have originated from cells previously expressing Nestin. Even the example at “high” magnification (Figure 2D) shows one cell (**) that is clearly double labelled and another example (*) where there are two neighbouring but clearly distinct cells. These data are not convincing at all of a reliable lineage tracing. The overlap between Nes-GFP+ cells and Nes-creERT2-traced cells depends on the developmental stage, tamoxifen dose and stage of administration, the time between tamoxifen administration and analysis, and the strength of the reporter mouse. We have replaced former panel 2D, based on KFP mice, a weak reporter line, by the Rosa26-Tomato reporter which provides a much stronger signal. Nes-gfp;Nes-creERT2;Rosa26-Tomato triple-transgenic mice show a consistent labeling and significant overlap of GFP+ and Tomato+ cells when tamoxifen is administered at perinatal stages and the analysis is performed within few days/weeks. We have provided additional images at higher magnification to better support our conclusions (new Figure 2C-C and Author response image 2). Author response image 2 Download asset Open asset Overlap of Nestin-GFP+ cells with Nestin-CreERT2-labelled cells in the bone marrow. Representative confocal projections of skull bone marrow, showing the endogenous fluorescent signals of Tomato in red (upper right) and GFP in green (lower right); their corresponding overlay is indicated in orange/yellow. Nestin-gfp;Nestin-CreERT2;R26-Tomato triple-transgenic mice were treated with tamoxifen (4 mg, oral gavage to mother) at neonatal stage (P0) and were analyzed after 2 weeks. Asterisks indicate double-positive cells. 4) Data on Wnt1-Cre appear more convincing, but again, a high magnification of a double-labelled cell at the confocal level would be necessary, especially for osteocytes (Cartilage staining is quite convincing even at low mag). We have stained osteocytes with phalloidin in bone marrow sections from Wnt1-Cre2;R26-tomato mice. The pictures shown with high magnification clearly confirm the presence of phalloidin+ neural-crest-traced osteocytes in the neonatal long bones (new Figure 4B). We have also included a complete section of a long bone from Nes-Gfp;Wnt1-Cre2;R26-tomato triple-transgenic mice that does not only illustrate neural-crest-derived chondrocytes in the outermost layer of both diaphyses, but also abundant neural-crest-derived cells in the endosteal bone marrow region (new Figure 4C). However, FACS analysis shown in Figure 4E has problems. The Wnt1-Cre/Tomato clearly shows a dim (continuous with background) and a very bright population, both gated together to show that 62% of these are Nes-GFP+. I would have liked to see whether the Nes-GFP+ cells are equally represented in the bright and the dim populations. This is critical because the results are highly dependent on the specific gating. We have provided the negative control to substantiate the gating strategy (new Figure 4E). We have also reanalyzed the data and have performed additional experiments in Wnt1-Cre2;R26-Tomato;Nes-Gfp triple-transgenic mice analyzed at neonatal stage. As the reviewer states, two stromal populations can be distinguished based on Tomato fluorescence intensity. Although both Tomato+ stromal populations contain Nes-GFP+ PDGFRα+ MSC-enriched cells, these cells are progressively enriched in the Tomatodim population with age (new Figure 4–figure supplement 2C-D). Most importantly, the IF shown in Figure 4D is highly unconvincing and does not support the claim that Nes-GFP+ are derived from Wnt1 expressing cells. The very few Tomato+ cells do not really co-localize with GFP+ cells and the examples shown in D look like at most closely located cells. We admitted in our manuscript the heterogeneity of the Nes-GFP+ population, which does not only contain neural-crest-derived cells but also endothelial cells. In the revised manuscript we have provided more clear images showing Nes-GFP+ Tomato+ cells (new Figure 4C-C and Author response image 3). Author response image 3 Download asset Open asset High magnification confocal image from 1-week old Wnt1-Cre2;Tomato;Nes-Gfp BM section, showing co-localization of NC-derived Tomato+ cell with Nes-GFP (arrowhead). We have performed additional experiments that fully support our main message that neural-crest-derived nestin+ MSCs have a specialized function in forming the HSC niche in the bone marrow. We have analyzed Cxcl12 and Nestin mRNA expression in Tomato+/- GFP+/- bone marrow stromal cells sorted from P7 Wnt1-Cre2;R26-Tomato;Nes-Gfp triple-transgenic mice. Among neural-crest-traced cells, Nes-GFP+ BMSCs were particularly enriched in the expression of Cxcl12 and endogenous Nestin (Figure 7I-J). We have measured MSC activity (CFU-F) in Tomato+/- GFP+/- bone marrow stromal cells sorted from P7 Wnt1-Cre2;R26-Tomato double-transgenic and P7 Wnt1-Cre2;R26-Tomato;Nes-Gfp triple-transgenic mice. When plated at equal cell density, colonies were only detected in the neural-crest-derived cells (new Figure 4D and Figure 4–figure supplement 1F). These results fully support our original contention. Finally, the FACS analysis for Sox10-Cre also shows that gating has included both bright cells, clearly separated from the negative peak and the shoulder of this. I would like to see whether the bright cells only are GFP+. The reviewer is correct that different levels of Tomato intensity were also detected in Sox10-creERT2 mice, but both Tomatobright and Tomatodim bone marrow stromal populations stromal contained Nes-GFP+ PDGFRα+ MSC-enriched cells. We have reanalyzed our data gating on the Tomatobright population, as requested. The Tomatobright population contains a high percentage of Nes-GFP+ cells, also including PDGFRα+ cells (new Figure 4–figure supplement 2E). 5) The final sections of the Results, though also suffering of the poor quality of the images, are more convincing but less original. Furthermore DTR experiments are tricky, first because killing Nestin expressing cells may have also consequences in other tissue and possibly systemic effects. In addition, and this criticism applies to all of these studies, developmental biologists seem to be unaware of the “bystander effect”, well studied by gene therapists, where killing a specific cell, often causes the death of the nearest cells, thus mudding the results. We hope that the revised images show the quality level expected by the reviewer and us. We agree that selective cell depletion experiments might have some bystander effects; for this reason we already showed in our manuscript the normal bone marrow histology and blood vessel architecture of experimental Nes-creERT2;iDTA mice (Figure 7–figure supplement 1B) as a proof of the absence of noticeable bystander effects. To further substantiate this, we have included in the response to the reviewer bone marrow sections of Nestin-CreERT2;iDTR and control iDTR mice injected with tamoxifen and diphtheria toxin to demonstrate that cell deletion using this inducible Cre line is not associated with noticeable abnormalities in bone marrow histology or vascular leakage of FITC-dextran (green, please see below) previously intravenously injected in the mice (Author response image 4). Author response image 4 Download asset Open asset Intravital microscopy of mice previously injected with FITC-dextran (green) to demonstrate the absence of vascular leakage (upper panels). H & E staining of bone marrow sections showing a normal histology of the bone marrow (lower panels). Reviewer #2: The manuscript by Isern et al describes the results of experiments examining the developmental origins (fetal, neonatal and adult) of the mesenchymal cells that are osteogenic and that support the hematopoietic system in the bone marrow. The experiments mainly utilize the nestin-gfp reporter mouse model in addition to other mouse models in which induced recombination mediated reporter expression defines specific neural crest derived populations. The manuscript is filled with information but it is sometimes difficult to understand how it is related to the main question. For example, it is not explained why CD31 immunostaining is performed on nestin gfp tissues; what cell types does it mark? Convention is the endothelial and hematopoietic cells express CD31, not MSC. The Discussion provides some information about levels of CD31 expression but this comes rather late in the manuscript. We are currently lacking robust and specific MSC markers for immunofluorescence. We have used CD31 marker for two reasons: 1) To mark blood vessels, since Nes-GFP+ cells are closely associated with them. 2) To distinguish the small fraction of perinatal bone marrow Nes-GFP+ CD31+ cells from the majority of Nes-GFP+ CD31- cells, which contain the population of interest in our study. Please see also Response to Major Comment #1 by Reviewer 1. In the Results section that describes BM nestin+ cells do not contribute to fetal endochondrogenesis, the RCE reporter is used, what is this? No definition is provided. The RCE acronym stands for Rosa26 CAG EGFP, an EGFP reporter allele which is expressed upon Cre-mediated recombination from the hybrid CAG promoter in the Rosa26 locus (Sousa et al. Characterization of Nkx6-2-Derived Neocortical Interneuron Lineages. Cerebral Cortex (2009) vol. 19 (Supplement 1) pp. i1-i10). We have defined it as “…a sensitive reporter that drives stronger GFP expression than other reporter lines (Sousa et al., 2009)…” . Also, later in this paragraph, the sentence beginning with “In contrast, cells…” seems misplaced and confusing, making this text and results hard to follow. We have moved this to the Discussion and have re-written this paragraph. Please see response to the similar Major Comment #2 by Reviewer 1. Similarly, it is not understood why a Wnt Cre line was used. What is the rationale? I seem to miss the connection. It would be helpful to reorganize and perhaps move some information from the main text to the Discussion or leave it out if it is not directly related to the question. It would be helpful to the reader if the manuscript could be more direct in describing the experimental rationale. We apologize for not being sufficiently clear. We have rewritten the manuscript to better explain the rationale of each single experiment and have made an effort to better link contiguous sections. Altogether, the authors have done a large amount of work to show that there are different component populations of mesenchymal cells that contribute to the development of the long bones, bone marrow and the supportive hematopoietic microenvironment. This is an important set of results that supports a new conceptual model for the development of the hematopoietic supportive microenvironment. We thank the reviewer for considering that our results importantly support a new conceptual model for the establishment of stem cell niches. Reviewer #3: This manuscript identifies the ontological source of an important bone marrow (BM) niche cells previously identified by the senior author. These cells are the Nestin-GFP+ (Nes-GFP+) cells in the adult BM that are a source of MSC and niche support. The Mendez-Ferrer group has extended this work to the developing fetal and early postnatal bone and observed exciting and enlightening results. They demonstrate that trunk neural crest cells are the developmental source for Nes-GFP+ MSC in the BM, in addition to their known contributions to peripheral sympathetic neurons and Schwann cells. Interestingly, all three of these cells types are important BM niche components. As such they share an ontological relationship that could theoretically extend to other niche components elsewhere in the body. Nes-GFP+ cells were characterized in the developing bone (E17.5), at P0 and at P7 with a variety of lineage tracing and Cre deletion transgenics in addition to cell surface IHC and flow cytometry. From a wide array of models they show: 1) Nes-GFP+ cells do not exhibit osteochondral progenitor activity. Nes-GFP- cells that derive from lateral plate mesoderm possess this activity in fetal bone. 2) Neural crest contribution to postnatal BM-MSCs was definitively demonstrated by genetic fate mapping with Wnt1-Cre2 and Sox10-CreERT2. 3) Cell surface and mRNA-seq studies of PDGFRa+/- and Nes-GFP+/- cells revealed that there are two Nes-GFP+ neural crest derived cells in postnatal BM. Schwann cell precursors are in the PDGFRa- fraction while PDGFRa+ cells contain the MSCs. 4) Neural crest cells migrate along developing nerves to the fetal bone before commitment to the Schwann cell lineage and give rise to niche forming MSCs. 5) Cxcl12 expression was shown to be 80 and 20-fold higher in Nes-GFP+ cells compared to Nes-GFP- and endothelial cells respectively. 6) Conditional deletion of Cxcl12 in Nes-GFP+ cells led to a significant 30% reduction in CFU and a non-significant decrease in repopulating HSC. The experiments are well performed and described. With minor exceptions the figures are clear and well presented. I have only minor suggestions and comments about the paper. The reviewer appreciates the very thoughtful and extensive discussion that attempts to resolve some apparent controversies in the field. I believe the manuscript is a significant contribution the HSC niche field. So many different transgenic strains of mice, here at least 12 gets confusing with all the acronyms and the lack of good explanations, here a table would have helped. We thank very much the reviewer for appreciating the relevance of our study and for the very positive criticism. We have included a table containing a detailed summary of all the mouse strains used in supplementary procedures (Supplementary file 3). |
Image caption Johnny Depp (left) and Tim Burton first worked together on Edward Scissorhands in 1990 Blockbusters have never been the same since Tim Burton's Batman. How will Dark Shadows, his latest venture, fare in a cinema landscape that he helped define? Summer releases like The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man and current box-office champion The Avengers are testament to the pulling power of the comic book blockbuster. Back in 1989 though, when Tim Burton's original Batman film first hit cinemas, the big-budget superhero "event" movie as we know it today was a relatively untested property. With its Gothic shadings, outrageous villain and emphasis on its title character's psychological make-up, the film was a genuine pop-culture phenomenon that spawned a slew of imitators. Looking back from a distance of more than two decades, does the 53-year-old ever feel like he gave birth to a monster? "I laugh about it now because, at the time, Batman was quite difficult to get made," says Burton from beneath his trademark shock of unruly, greying hair. "Back then they said it was too dark. But it looks like a light-hearted romp compared to nowadays." The irony is that Burton's current offering, the blackly comic fantasy Dark Shadows, will have to compete for audiences with The Avengers. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Johnny Depp speaks to the BBC's Lizo Mzimba at the Dark Shadows UK premiere Known in the UK as Marvel Avengers Assemble, the superhero ensemble piece is the latest in a long line of comic book-inspired features that have sought to emulate Batman's now legendary success. It seems improbable that Dark Shadows will challenge The Avengers' dominance, with US tracking site Box Office Mojo declaring the film "has absolutely no chance of stealing the top spot". Yet its director remains sanguine about such matters, telling the BBC News website that "you never can predict". "You don't go into a movie going, 'This is going to be a big money-making thing'," he shrugs on the day after Dark Shadows' London premiere. "You do something because you love it. Everything else is out of your hands. "I've been lucky in my career in that I've had success and I've had failure," continues the man who has enjoyed plenty of the former with such titles as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland. "I'm equally surprised if a movie does really well or if it does really badly." 'Creepy and campy' Both Charlie and Alice starred Burton's regular collaborator Johnny Depp, who has joined forces with him again on Dark Shadows. Based on a 1960s US daytime soap opera which the director has described as a "supernatural EastEnders", it tells of a vampire resurrected after 200 years who finds the world very different from the one he remembers. Image caption Pfeiffer previously played Catwoman in Batman Returns Both Depp and Burton were fans of the original TV show and of its blood-sucking protagonist Barnabas Collins, played by the late Canadian actor Jonathan Frid. "When Johnny was a kid he wanted to be Barnabas Collins," says the director. "For the first time since I've worked with him, it was a character that was really in his heart." Actress Michelle Pfeiffer also has fond memories of the programme but insists prior knowledge is not a prerequisite for appreciating its current incarnation. "Like most of Tim's films it has this big red stamp on it," she says of Shadows, which saw her working with Burton for the first time since Batman Returns in 1992. "It's kind of creepy and dark, it's funny and campy and it has a weird sweetness to it." The film's producers - who include Depp himself, Britain's Graham King and veteran Hollywood mogul Richard Zanuck - will be hoping that will be enough to entice cinemagoers. Critical reactions have been mixed, with several reviewers opining that the film has many of the same elements as previous Burton-Depp pair-ups. 'Familiar' "This is the eighth film that Tim Burton has made with Johnny Depp, and boy does it feel like it," was the verdict of Metro pundit Larushka Ivan-Zadeh. The Guardian 's Peter Bradshaw, meanwhile, said "the Gothy, jokey 'darkness' of Burton's style is now beginning to look very familiar". Image caption Shadows also sees a contribution from Tim Burton's partner Helena Bonham Carter (left) It seems unlikely, however, that the Sweeney Todd director will cast off the stylistic and tonal tropes that have served him so well in the past. Frankenweenie, his next feature, is a case in point, being a full-length animation about a young man who uses science to bring his pet dog back to life. Out in October in the UK, the film was inspired by a black-and-white short Burton made in 1984 which led to a parting of ways with his then-employer Disney. It may give him some satisfaction, then, that the new Frankenweenie is being released by the self same studio. "I loved doing it in live action, that was great, but the idea of doing it in stop-motion felt exciting and new to me," Burton explains. "I also loved going back to my original drawings, which over the years have expanded with different characters and kids and monsters." Dark Shadows is out now in the UK and Ireland. |
JaffyDOS is a custom kernal for the C64/SX64 with enhancements for SD2IEC. Filebrowser and Kernal modifications by: jani@worldofjani.com 2017-07. Version 1.2 (Recommended) * Includes saveroutine fix from v1.1. * Filecopy works again with files up to 201 blocks. 2017-07. Version 1.1 (Obsolete. Don’t use) * Quickfix for those who experienced problems. * Saveroutine fixed. Some games bank out basic before saving and could cause the save to fail (e.g. highscore). * Filecopy temporarily limited to 152 blocks because of the savefix. 2017-04. Version 1.0 (Obsolete. Don’t use) * Initial release. Features: * Jiffydos protocol and DOS wedge. * Customizable color scheme. * Customizable F-Key assignments. * Built in filebrowser(FB) supporting 590 entries. * Built in file copier. * md64/md71/md81 to make a d64/d71/d81 image. * CRSR moves to beginning of the line when executing F-Key. * When loading a file, the start- and end address are displayed. Tape- and RS232 support are not available. Use the patcher to create JaffyDOS ROM. You must provide an original Jiffydos ROM and be a licensed Jiffydos user to use JaffyDOS in your system. You can purchase Jiffydos from http://store.go4retro.com/ Thanks to Tom-Cat, Erhan and Lemming for feedback and extensive testing. Your help made it possible! 🙂 Additional testing for version 1.1 done by Snear and Marty/Radwar. Disclaimer: No warranties whatsoever, use it at your own risk 🙂 JaffyDOS v1.2 Patcher Size: 9.11 KB. 753 downloads JAFFYDOS PATCHER Enter the filename of the original Jiffydos ROM. Create a personal color scheme or select one of the predefined schemes. The F-key commands can be re-assigned. JAFFYDOS INSTRUCTIONS Default F-key assignments: (customizable with the patcher) F1 = @"$" DIR<CR> F3 = % LOAD and RUN<CR> F5 = @"CD/: CD directory/mount diskimage<CR> F7 = @"CD F2 = / LOAD<CR> F4 = @"XS/: Mount swaplist<CR> F6 = @ "S: Scratch file F8 = @FB: Start FileBrowser<CR> <CR> Executes the command automatically after pressing the F-Key. DOSWedge Commands: @ Read disk drive error channel @$ Display disk directory @#device Set device number @C:newfile=file Copy a file on the same diskette @I Initialize disk drive @N:diskname,ID Format (NEW) disk @N:diskname Short NEW @Q Disable JaffyDOS @R:newname=oldname Rename file @S:file Scratch file @UJ Reset disk drive @V Validate disk /filename LOAD program £filename LOAD program %filename LOAD and RUN program ↑filename Load and RUN program ←filename Save program 'filename Verify program <SHIFT>+<RUN/STOP> Load & run first program on disk <CONTROL>+<D> Default drive toggle SYS 64000 Re-enable JaffyDOS functionkeys and commands New DOSWedge Commands: &filename Verify program $ Display disk directory @8 Set device number to 8 @9 Set device number to 9 @1x Set device number to 1x @FB Start FileBrowser (or @F) @MD64"filename.d64 Make .d64 image @MD71"filename.d71 Make .d71 image @MD81"filename.d81 Make .d81 image Make image; D64, D71 or D81: * Use single quote only in the command. * Max 16 chars in filename+extension(.D64/.D71/.D81). * File extension is mandatory. * You must mount and format the diskimage afterwards. SD2IEC Supported commands: See the SD2IEC readme-file here JaffyDOS does not require extra quotes in some of the commands. Additional commands which are not mentioned here but are referenced in the Jiffydos manual, have been removed to fit the new features in JaffyDOS. Filebrowser: CRSR UP = Up one position. CRSR DOWN = Down one position. CRSR LEFT = Up 10 positions. CRSR RIGHT = Down 10 positions. F1 = Go to First entry in the list. F2 = Refresh. F3 = Go to Last entry in the list. F7 = Quit. RETURN = Load & Run / Enter dir / Mount image or swaplist. Backspace = Exit dir / Unmount image. $ = Display "real" dir. +/- = Increase/Decrease device number. CBM C = Filecopy. Load(copy) file into memory, see below. CBM V = Filecopy. Save(paste) file to disk, see below. * 590 entries allowed in directory. * Remembers last position when returning from a directory or unmounting an image (one level). * Files with extension .D64/.D71/.D81/.M2I/.DNP are mounted as disk images using @CD: * Files with extension .LST are mounted as a swaplist using @XS: * Character set is changed to uppercase when entering a diskimage. Filecopier (for small files, only available in FileBrowser) 1. Hold down the CBM-key and press “C”. Selected file will be loaded into memory. 2. Go to destination location with filebrowser. 3. Hold down the CBM-key and press “V”. File is now saved into current location. * A file can be copied from/to the SD2IEC filesystem, a mounted image or swaplist, or from/to another device number/type. * It is not possible to copy(CBM-C) a directory or a disk-image. * Selecting / copying multiple files is not supported. * You can not paste(CBM-V) if a file has not been loaded or if the copy phase resulted in an I/O error. * I/O Errors will be reported. * Max filesize: 201 blocks. (exceeding the size will cause a crash). * File can be re-saved(CBM-V) several times at multiple locations. * You have to re-load a file (CBM-C) if you exit and return to FB. |
There have been rumors of an actual Apple television ever since Steve Jobs told his biographer that he'd "cracked" the interface problem, but it's never been anywhere close to reality — you can't make a successful TV without actual TV programming, and getting that programming has usually meant you have to plug in a cable or satellite box. It doesn't matter who builds your TV if you're forced to use Comcast's cable box; you'll never see Apple's interface anyway. (Or Google's, or Microsoft's, or whatever — every company that's tried to attack the TV market by replacing or hacking the cable box has quickly failed, often in spectacular fashion.) What Apple and the others have really needed is deals with all the TV networks to pipe in their channels directly, but it's never been able to get them — many TV networks are owned by cable companies, and no cable company wants to give up control of that primary interface, where it can bombard you with ads and movie rentals and other crap that makes money while chewing at the fabric of your soul. But that might all change soon. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler just proposed a rule change that would require cable and broadcast networks to sell their programming to any company that wants to be a TV provider, not just cable or satellite companies. That means Apple could set up an internet TV service and get all the channels it needs to actually replace your cable box — not just a handful of streaming deals like it has now, but a full-on TV package. Microsoft could do the same thing and properly integrate live TV into the next version of the Xbox One, instead of the ill-fated IR blaster hack shipping now. And Google could actually deliver on the promise of Google TV, instead of wiping out so hard it almost crushed Logitech into a fine powder. a wonky legal rule change that could have huge effects This is a wonky legal tweak — Wheeler just wants to expand the definition of "multichannel video programming distributor" so that it's not specifically tied to cable and satellite companies — but it will have huge effects. Allowing tech companies to properly compete against the entrenched interests of cable companies will rapidly improve the quality of our TV experience: we'll see better integration with our other devices, new interface ideas that actually work, and we'll finally finally be able to ditch our gigantic crappy cable boxes. The new rule isn't a done deal yet; Wheeler just proposed the change today, and there's a lengthy process to go through. But it's an important change to make; TVs haven't meaningfully evolved since the DVR first came out, and it's time to tear down the barriers that have kept the tech industry at bay for so long. Also, somewhere Gene Munster is doing a happy dance. |
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - Officials say negotiations to resolve a northern Idaho mining strike that has been ongoing since March appear to have become deadlocked. The Coeur d'Alene Press reports that negotiators from the Hecla Mining Company and the United Steelworkers Union have met 21 times since about 250 union members went on strike from the Lucky Friday Mine in Mullan. Luke Russell, a vice president of the mining company, says progress has not been made since mid-October. Union spokesman David Roose says that the latest proposal from the company is nearly same as the proposal from March. The company sent a letter last week to the striking miners, claiming the union was misinforming its members. The letter called for a vote to settle the dispute. ___ Information from: Coeur d'Alene Press, http://www.cdapress.com |
Last Tuesday, Ohio Rep. Robert Mecklenborg -- a self-described "Catholic boy from the west side of Cincinnati" -- stood on the House floor to champion the most radical anti-abortion legislation in the country. "We marvel, don't we?" he said, before voting for the "heartbeat" bill. "We marvel at the march of the penguins as they go to propagate their species under very, very difficult odds and conditions. We marvel at the leaping salmon as they return to their ancestral homes." He also marveled over the mating habits of loggerhead turtles. You're not alone if you don't quite see the parallel of wildlife to women's lives. Not once have I ever looked at a woman of reproductive age -- including our three daughters and daughter-in-law -- and thought: Why, you're no different from fish, birds or reptiles. I can, however, see how linking women's sex lives to images of prancing penguins makes it easier for some men to pretend we aren't really human. Once you've convinced yourself that we women only recently shed our scales and fins and started walking upright, you can give yourself permission to break all kinds of rules. Which brings us to a recent development in the life of Rep. Mecklenborg. In a way, this isn't exactly breaking news. The events in question happened more than two months ago. However, blogs and news outlets -- and reportedly the House Republican leadership -- found out only last Wednesday. That's exactly one day after Mecklenborg's feisty critters speech. On Saturday, April 23 -- in the wee hours of the morning after Good Friday -- an Indiana state trooper pulled over Mecklenborg, who was driving in Dearborn County, with temporary Kentucky license plates. The officer stated in his report that he stopped Mecklenborg for a burned-out headlight, but then suspected he was intoxicated after he smelled alcohol and noticed the state rep's "glossy, bloodshot eyes." Mecklenborg refused a chemical test, and then failed three field sobriety tests. After a blood test, he was charged with drunken driving. The 59-year-old married father of three also tested positive for Viagra. Mecklenborg was not alone that evening. His passenger was a 26-year-old woman who is neither his wife nor one of his children. In his incident report, the police officer noted that Mecklenborg's inebriated state "endangered a person." By "person," we can assume he means a human life. Mecklenborg, a Republican who represents western Hamilton County, pleaded not guilty. His court date is set for later this month. He did not return my calls to his government or law offices, but he did offer an explanation, sort of, to WLWT-TV in Cincinnati on Thursday: "Being human, I have made a mistake and this has caused great hurt to my family, and I'm deeply sorry for that. I've served tirelessly and well my constituents and I want to apologize to them as well. While the discovery process in this case goes on, I am entitled to the same presumption of innocence as any other citizen." When asked about his young passenger, Mecklenborg said, "I understand the interest in the DUI part, I guess, but the rest is a personal matter." A personal matter? Perhaps this is Rep. Mecklenborg's eureka moment. Pro-choice Americans have always argued that a woman's sex life is a personal matter, and that any decisions involving her body are her business. We understand only too well why Mecklenborg would rather we stop asking questions about his private life. Unfortunately for Mecklenborg, he is an elected official who has hinged his political ambitions on making the private lives of women his business. Questions loom. Why was Robert Mecklenborg with this young woman? How did he meet her? Where did he meet her? Where was he going with her? Why was he driving a car with Kentucky plates in the state of Indiana? Why didn't the news of his arrest come straight from him, and right away, instead of more than two months later? It's a personal matter, he said. We marvel, don't we? We marvel at a man willing to pause for a personal exception in his march over the rights of so many other women of reproductive age. |
Rolling Stone, journalist found responsible for defamation in University of Virginia rape story By David Walsh 8 November 2016 On November 4, a federal court jury in Charlottesville, Virginia found Rolling Stone magazine, journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely and Wenner Media responsible for defamation, with actual malice, in a case related to the article “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA.” The article appeared online in November 2014. The case against Rolling Stone was brought by Nicole Eramo, the former associate dean of students at the University of Virginia. Eramo claimed that Erdely’s article maliciously portrayed her as indifferent and uncaring in relation to sexual assault allegations and interested only in protecting the university’s reputation . The jury members agreed with her, 10-0. After deliberating for less than two hours on November 7, the jury awarded Eramo $3 million in damages, $2 million to come from Erdely and $1 million from Wenner Media. Eramo originally sued f or $7.85 million. “A Rape on Campus” was a lengthy and sensationalistic piece, focused on the alleged horrific gang rape of a then-18-year-old female student, “Jackie,” at a UVA fraternity house in September 2012. Erdely’s article identified the alleged ringleader of the attack and named the fraternity involved, Phi Kappa Psi. Erdely’s piece further accused the university of mishandling the case and exhibiting “institutional indifference” to sexual violence. The World Socialist Web Site in December 2014 correctly characterized the Rolling Stone article as “a defamatory travesty of journalism.” We noted that the piece, entirely based on the claims of one young person, was “a mass of unsubstantiated allegations and anecdotes, stereotypes and dubious statistics.” The WSWS commentary added, “There is almost nothing in the article that can be pinned down as fact. It is neither convincing nor believable.” Erdely’s deplorable article, as we noted at the time, provoked an uproar. The fraternity house alleged to have been the scene of the crime was picketed and vandalized, and the university suspended all fraternity activity on the campus until January 2015. UVA President Teresa A. Sullivan and various Democratic Party politicians issued demagogic statements largely corroborating the claims that the UVA campus was a hotbed of sexual assault and sexual violence. The New York Times refused to exclude itself from this moral effluvia. Columnist Nicholas Kristof pontificated, “We collectively are still too passive about sexual violence in our midst, too willing to make excuses, too inclined to perceive shame in being raped.” However, certain journalists who were paying attention began to pick apart the alleged episode. A Charlottesville police department investigation ultimately found no evidence of an attack. Rolling Stone began to back away from the article in December 2014, noting “discrepancies” in the piece. As a damage control measure, the magazine’s management commissioned Steve Coll, dean of the Columbia School of Journalism, and two colleagues to investigate the writing and publication of “A Rape on Campus.” The release of their results, sharply critical of Rolling Stone ’s reporting, editing, editorial supervision and fact-checking, prompted the biweekly magazine to retract Erdely’s piece in April 2015. What neither the Columbia School of Journalism’s investigation nor any leading voice in the media today will explain is how such a smear job came to appear in a publication that has prided itself for decades on its exposés and “hard-hitting” investigative journalism. To grasp that, one would have to look critically at the social dynamics of present-day America and the pivotal role that identity politics—the upper-middle class politics of race, sexuality and gender—currently plays. Erdely and the Rolling Stone editorial staff had a certain conception of American campuses as places plagued by rampant sexual assault and they largely constructed their story around that, regardless the gaping holes in the article’s research, the implausibility of the narrative, and the likely damage to various individuals and institutions. In this effort, they were working with the tacit support of the Obama-Biden administration (whose policies on sexual assault Erdely praised in her original article), which has been shoring up support within the affluent petty-bourgeoisie by its supposed forcefulness on this issue. As we have noted more than once, the fact that the Obama White House is responsible for war, death and misery on a massive scale in the Middle East and has presided over the immiseration of wide layers of the American population is of next to no concern to the warriors on sexual violence. The defamation trial has shed some light on the shoddy methods, carelessness and irresponsibility of Erdely and Rolling Stone and brought out significant facts about the social attitudes of the various participants. In his opening statement, Tom Clare, one of Eramo’s attorneys, said, “This case is about a journalistic failure.” According to the [Virginia] Cavalier Daily, Clare argued that contrary to the Rolling Stone article’s suggestion that Eramo was uncaring toward Jackie, she “arranged meetings between Jackie and police.” The newspaper reported further that Eramo’s attorney told the jury, “ Rolling Stone knew about these meetings—and included a reference to them in an early draft—but did not include any reference to them in the published article.” Various witnesses testified as to Eramo’s humane and concerned conduct. Clare also contended that the magazine “did not check key facts of Jackie’s story,” and “pushed Jackie to participate in the story, only to blame her once the story starting falling apart after its publication.” On the witness stand, Eramo described her work with sexual assault survivors over the years and her awards for that work. She noted that these efforts were devastated by the Rolling Stone article. She told the court, “I was portrayed [by Erdely’s piece] as someone who would manipulate young women to not report rapes.” Eramo added later, reading from a letter she had written to the magazine following the publication of “A Rape on Campus,” “Perhaps more egregious and shocking were the threats that I received expressing hope that I be killed or raped.” Even during the trial, Eramo was heckled as a “rape apologist” when she went outside during the lunch break. In court, she said she had also received threats aimed at her daughter. Eramo explained that her ultimate goal was to hold Rolling Stone accountable. She asserted, according to the Cavalier Daily, that the magazine had “molded her into what they needed to fit its narrative without regard for the consequences on her life and career. ‘I want to restore my reputation as best I can,’ she said in court. ‘I want to show the real impact on a human being’s life.’” In her testimony, Sabrina Rubin Erdely provided some insight into the conditions of a well-heeled journalist. Endeavoring to prove that Erdely was not under pressure to produce her article on the University of Virginia case, her attorney, Scott Sexton, asked about her career. Erdely replied, “I feel very blessed as I advanced through my career. Once I got to Rolling Stone, I had contracts [worth] more than the average journalist makes.” The Cavalier Daily continued, “Erdely said there was no financial pressure on her while writing ‘A Rape on Campus,’ as she knew she was being paid on a monthly basis, regardless.” She had signed a contract with Rolling Stone guaranteeing her $300,000 for seven feature articles. Under cross-examination, Erdely acknowledged that there were discrepancies between her notes and the final article. In addition, Eramo’s legal team made clear that the Rolling Stone journalist simply paid no attention to Jackie’s changing story (and, frankly, psychological instability and unreliability as a source), failed to contact the fraternity in question, made no effort to question the alleged rapists, and so forth. There is no innocent explanation for such an approach. CBS News reported that in Clare’s closing statement, he argued, “Once they [Erdely and Rolling Stone] decided what the article was going to be about, it didn’t matter what the facts were.” He concluded his summation by asking the jury members to hold the defendants responsible for their actions. In the course of the trial, the jury was shown a May 2016 deposition by Jann Wenner, founder of Rolling Stone, who remained unrepentant about publishing the original article. Wenner claimed, absurdly, that “We did everything reasonable and appropriate, up to the highest standards of journalistic [to] check on this thing.” In regard to the magazine’s official retraction of the article in April 2015, Wenner expressed his disagreement with Managing Editor Will Dana’s action. He said in his deposition, “Will Dana’s retraction is inaccurate. I do not stand by it.” Remarkably, addressing Eramo directly, Wenner declared, “It was never meant to happen this way to you. And believe me, I’ve suffered as much as you have.” In his self-involvement and general social obliviousness, Wenner personifies what has become of the American “counter-culture” of the 1960s. He co-founded Rolling Stone in 1967, at the height of the protest era, supposedly to give a younger generation and its new music a voice. The magazine, thoroughly tamed decades ago, and related enterprises have made Wenner (reportedly worth $700 million) and numerous others fabulously rich. Unsurprisingly, the Rolling Stone publisher was an enthusiastic endorser of Barack Obama in 2008, gushing that the Democratic Party candidate possessed “the kinds of gifts that appear in politics but once every few generations.” He added, “There is a sense of dignity, even majesty, about him.” This election year, Wenner claims to be nearly as keen on Hillary Clinton. His endorsement editorial in Rolling Stone in March suggested that Clinton was “one of the most qualified candidates for the presidency in modern times.” If nothing else, the Rolling Stone-University of Virginia fiasco demonstrates that subordinating the great social questions in America to the issues of gender and sexual violence is a false perspective and inevitably entails false and exaggerated claims. To substantiate the politically charged claim that Erdely and Rolling Stone were self-servingly attempting to prove—that a “rape culture” prevails in America—obliged them to make things up. The trial in Charlottesville establishes that much. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. |
Psychedelic clown (Shutterstock) A Washington man on a week-long acid trip faces multiple charges after going on a drug-fueled crime spree that ended when one of his victims drove him to McDonald’s so he could get a soda. George Jacobson,23, is charged with multiple crimes including robbery, kidnapping, burglary, and theft of a firearm and is currently being held in Pierce County Jail with bail set at $1 million, according to Fox 13. According to authorities, they received their first report on Jacobson’s antics on Sept. 26 after receiving two callas from home owners who encountered him on their property. The first victim found Jacobson in his barn holding a single black rubber boot. Asked what he was doing, the homeowner said Jacobson walked outside, bent down, and put his hands in the air. After the homeowner threatened to “sic his dogs on him,” Jacobson reportedly ran off. Jacobson then showed up inside a neighbor’s house where he drew a gun on the woman of the house, while muttering “mean neighbor.” Asking him what he wanted, Jacobson requested the woman make him a sandwich, which she did. As he ate the sandwich, Jacobson showed the woman the boot explaining he was on a “spiritual journey” and the “boot contained his jewels.” The woman’s husband arrived a short time later and they convinced him to leave, and drove him to the end of their driveway where they dropped him off. After returning home, the couple discovered Jacobson had stolen a handgun from their house. Police responding to the two calls were unable to locate Jacobson using K9 tracking dogs. Jacobson was spotted once again on Oct. 3 rummaging through a car at the Brighton Creek Conference Center before running off leaving items such as knives in the car. A short time later he entered another home, taking the homeowner’s wallet and keys, before stealing her car and driving it into a ditch a few miles down the road. Jacobson then entered another house where pointed a gun at the homeowner and demanded he be given a ride. Jacobson requested the victim drive through a McDonald’s so he could get a drink, after which the driver dropped him off and he was taken into custody by police. Police said Jacobson explained that he “prefers meth,” and had taken a batch of acid causing him to go on a bad trip. Jacobson said he didn’t remember anything about the week other than taking a person’s car and being driven through a drive-thru by a “nice man.” According to police, Jacobson has a history of felonies including robbery. He is expected in court this week. |
Most people support slavery A less sensationalist headline is that most people accept oppression at a level that is so close to slavery as to be functionally identical ... Should we vote to end civilization in 2100? This post is a philosophical exploration of solutions to climate change, government debt explosion, and selective entitlements (for current ... McDonalds super bonds vs Pizza Pizza This summer McDonalds issued bonds at record low yields which as far as I know continue to trade below US debt of the same maturities. The... Economic justification for taxes and some little known facts 1. No matter what the corporate income tax rate, all corporations will contribute net $0 in taxes over their lifetime. The taxation philoso... Institutions that invest in stock market - extreme liability Institutions that invest client and members funds in the stock market are very likely investing in pyramid schemes and thus very likely to b... The imperative need for social dividends Social dividends are a citizen's basic right to an equal share of surplus tax revenue . This is a variation of basic income. Basic inc... The most profound lie in finance and economics A profound lie is one that affects observable reality. One that shapes social policy at both individual and collective decision-making leve... Unconditional Loan Income (UBI pilot programs) Many jurisdictions around the world are proposing basic income pilots, and there is an interesting private study initiative from Ycombinator... The minority shareholder discount to Corporate NPV Net Present Value is a fundamental mathematical principles of finance that is used to value projects and whole companies. NPV provides a ... |
The $100,000 fine issued to Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin and threat of further draft pick punishment was meant to serve multiple purposes - above all others, it was to be a deterrent against being on the field during a live play that no coach or any other personnel on the sideline should possibly be able to ignore. Not only did it not even take a full half for an NFL coach to ignore the deterrent, but a coach did so against Tomlin's Steelers. CBS Sports posted a picture - illustrating the report from Fox's Jay Glazer - that Dolphins special teams coach Darren Rizzi clearly committed a similar sideline infraction while Steelers safety Troy Polamalu returned a missed field goal at the end of the first half. No penalty was called, even though Rizzi was clearly on the field and way outside the area he was supposed to be in (which the league pointed to as the main reason behind Tomlin's fine). Moreover, Rizzi reportedly tripped the official (Tomlin never made contact with anyone during his incident). With the penalty after the return, Pittsburgh should have had an untimed down from Miami's 25-yard line. That would either have been a 42-yard field goal attempt, or a shot at the end zone. The Steelers lost the game 34-28. Part of the league's reasoning behind the threat of removing or altering the placement of a draft pick owned by the Steelers was due to Tomlin possibly having cost the Ravens a chance to score a touchdown, and thus potentially affecting a playoff and draft pick tiebreaker (that is deep on the list of tiebreakers, but there nevertheless). This situation appears to be no different in terms of the rule violated, but CBS Sports and Glazer indicate Rizzi was fined $10,000 and no other action is apparently expected. One can argue a higher standard is held for Tomlin, which is understandable, but the stature of the person who interfered and made contact with an official while on the field during a live play has no relevance. If the Steelers end up with some kind of draft pick penalty due to Tomlin's error against Baltimore, the same argument can be made on behalf of the Steelers in this instance. A 42-yard field goal is certainly within Shaun Suisham's range, and Ben Roethlisberger can throw a football 25-30 yards to the end zone. Therefore, the lack of a penalty on the play potentially cost the Steelers points. On a separate level, it is absolutely inexplicable that no flag was thrown, and clearly, the league keeping the fine quiet shows they're aware of it. This should compel the Steelers to protest in some form to the league. Multiple wrongs were clearly done here, and by the league's own mandate against Tomlin, it should take this seriously as well. |
This item has been corrected. Apple Pay could certainly be the nail in the wallet’s coffin, similar to what the iTunes model was for music when it was introduced in 2001. And this on the heels of the Twitter “buy” button, another move by a major tech titan to occupy the payments space via a mobile device. These payment systems are built to integrate with daily activity for many consumers, a useful approach that however will not work in developing nations. As Apple Pay is rolled out over the coming months, the service will essentially encourage consumers t0 expedite purchases by making credit card payment a process that can be done entirely via one’s mobile device. Western nations’ consumers have easy access to banking facilities, but this is not the case for emerging markets. An often overlooked barrier to entry is that payment structures can pose an obstacle to an interested consumer. Upstream’s “The Next Mobile Frontier Report” revealed that more than one in five (21%) consumers in developing nations do not have access to credit or banking facilities, negating the possibility of a typical credit card payment service. These nations clearly hold great opportunities, but require a vastly different approach. Given that Apple Pay is designed to tie to credit card companies and accompanying banking facilities, Apple Pay in emerging markets would likely need to also focus on service providers and billing cycles on a location-by-location basis, since one credit card or service does not uniformly work for all consumers. Localization matters Given the lack of traditional payment structures, a localized payment approach is sorely needed. We’ve found that the preferred way to purchase content for nearly half (44%) of Nigerian consumers is through their mobile operator. Across Nigeria, Brazil, India, China and Vietnam, 19% of consumers say they would like to purchase mobile content using a credit card and 10% would do it via a debit card. In the same way Apple is looking to shift mobile payments through its payment platform, it could make a powerful change in emerging markets by teaming with local operators whenever necessary, and Apple Pay strictly when appropriate. In Nigeria, many consumers look to their mobile phone providers specifically for payment purposes, while in China (23%) and Brazil (31%) consumers prefer to use a credit card. Unlike the way Apple Pay has been unveiled universally across the US, tailoring the service to local needs and desires will be far more important. Where Apple goes, others follow Consumers in emerging markets report they are interested in spending money with Apple, if they don’t already. In China, Apple is the number one brand consumers would like to spend money with, and is preferred over any other by 72% consumers. In other nations including India, China and Vietnam, Apple is among the top three brands. In China and Vietnam, consumers also indicate that Apple is the brand they would like to purchase their next device from. The future of the company in emerging markets may very well hinge on how it responds to this clear demand. Apple Pay’s approach in emerging markets would need to be tailored to the ways in which consumers make their purchases, but also to what they are purchasing. For example, across Brazil (78%), Nigeria (94%), India (80%) and China (83%), music is highly-demanded content, while education services are more popular in Nigeria (56%) than in other nations. Health services are uniformly desired across all nations, with 48% to 63% consumers expressing interest in them. The right approach will be to target payment methods according to the desired content. For example, in Brazil, 51% of consumers polled want to access travel services in the future. In the same country, 36% Brazilians find that content is often too expensive, while 20% cannot find it in a local language. Considering that 31% of Brazilians prefer to purchase content using a credit card, which is significantly favored over any other purchase method, Apple would need to provide accessible travel-related content in the local language that can be purchased via a credit card. Ultimately, it has been established that Apple has great cache in developing nations, but unless it addresses the more complex nuances of the content desired and payment methods available, it will not be enough to succeed. Correction: A previous version of this post stated that Apple Pay had been rolled out across Western nations. This article is part of Quartz Ideas, our home for bold arguments and big thinkers. |
To pass the time, hacker Brandon Wilson - who normally messes around with graphics calculators - decided a few months back he'd take a look under the hood of Activision's Skylanders action figures, see what makes them tick. After playing around with the figure's RFID bases, he collected his research and stored it in a .zip file on his personal website. And thought nothing of it. Then one day Wilson comes home from work to find someone waiting at his door to hand him a legal notice from Activision, accusing him of all kinds of nefarious hacking deeds and demanding he take down all his work at once. Wilson claims that the majority of accusations levelled against him by Activision are completely inaccurate. Many of them allege he is reverse-engineering the Skylanders RFID code, is working with others to hack the game, and collaborating those efforts on a messageboard. He reckons Activision's lawyers seem to be unable to tell the difference between the original creator of a thread, who makes the boasts that have attracted their attention, and Wilson, who leaves a single message and says nothing of hacking or reverse-engineering. Advertisement You can read Activision's letter here, while Wilson has made his response public here. skylanders portal documentation [brandonw, via Geek] |
Remember that live-action Super Mario Bros. movie from 1993? Haven't you yearned for a sequel these last twenty years to finally bring closure to that thrilling cliff-hanger ending? No? Well too bad, it's getting one! Sort of. The fine folks at Super Mario Bros. Archive, a fan site dedicated to preserving the film, have been working on a sequel hand-in-hand with screenwriter Parker Bennett. After two years, they're ready to share the fruit of their labors with the masses in the form of a webcomic series. A preview of the comic is now live on their site. The comic is expected to delve into the backstory of the Mushroom Kingdom and the rise of King Koopa, as well as give Princess Daisy a more engaging role. Say what you will about the movie, it's made its mark on gaming history in many ways. It's taught film makers what not to do with video game adaptations, and taught John Leguizamo that Bob Hoskins can't control his British accent when his hand's been smashed by a door. I just hope Nintendo and Disney (who currently owns distribution rights to the film) don't send SMBA a cease and desist letter. At least not until the comic's done. If the comic becomes a success, perhaps someday Super Koopa Cousins will finally be released. That's been on my Christmas list nineteen years in a row. |
Huge U.S. Spy Complex Revealed in Mexico Mexican Magazine Proceso reveals the location of a US Military-Intelligence Megaplex in Mexico City. -Megaplex includes offices for the CIA, FBI, DEA, Defense Intelligence, BATF, Department of Treasury and others. – U.S. Intelligence Operatives will no longer have to disguise themselves as diplomats. – Mexico will now have a Military ‘Liaison’ for NORTHCOM. – U.S. is now in charge of all tactical efforts against the drug war, counter-insurgency, and counter-terrorism in Mexico. – Obama and Hillary Clinton are credited for the creation of the Office of Bi-lateral Intelligence in Mexico (OBI). Translated by Mario Andrade With the approval of Felipe Calderón’s Administration, the U.S. Government finally got what it always wanted: To set up a super spy center in Mexico City. It was the escalation of the drug war in the country what opened the door to all U.S. intelligence agencies, including the military, to operate out of the Federal District without having to disguise their agents as diplomats. The establishment of the Office of Bi-national Intelligence (OBI) was authorized by Calderon, after negotiations with Washington, which began under the government of his predecessor, Vicente Fox Quesada. The creation of the super spy center was authorized by the director of the Center for Investigation and National Security (CISEN), Guillermo Valdés Castellanos, without taking into account any objections from the Mexican military. Through the OBI, Calderon has given the green light to U.S. Intelligence agents to spy on organized crime syndicates and drug cartels. They can also spy on Mexican government agencies, including the Secretariat of National Defense, Navy, and the diplomatic missions in Mexico. The building headquarters, which includes offices from the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Treasury is located at 265 Paseo de la Reforma Avenue, approximately 250 meters from the U.S. embassy. The most significant presence at the OBI building is that of the Pentagon, which includes the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and the National Security Agency (NSA). It is followed by the U.S. Department of Justice, also with three agencies: the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). With two services, there is the Department of Homeland Security: Coast Guard Intelligence (CGI) and the Bureau of Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE), while the Treasury Department has officers of the Bureau of Intelligence on Terrorism and Financial Affairs (TFI) . In addition, the OBI opened two remote offices: one in Ciudad Juarez and one in Tijuana, housing U.S. agents and “task force commanders” who coordinate operations against drug trafficking with the support of Mexican Government personnel. It is not known how many intelligence agents from the U.S. are operating in Mexico with the authorization of the Mexican Federal Government, since the creation of this center was announced on August 31st. The maintain that the exact number is “classified.” The building occupied by the OBI in the Federal District is right next to the Mexican Stock Exchange and is part of what the security and intelligence services in Mexico define as a “soft target area” in reference to the possibility of an attack on U.S. interests in Mexico. At this strategic point for Washington in the Mexican Federal District, there are also facilities for transnational corporations such as Ford, American Airlines, as well as Marriott and Sheraton hotels, among others. The building where the OBI is located gives the impression of an ordinary business facility, with banks, insurance, telecommunications, commercial offices and private offices. The only thing that stands out is the entry and departure of U.S. citizens. The building directory lists the names of the occupants all the way up to the 21st floor. However, after the 22nd floor, there are three penthouses that are only listed as “occupied.” And on the roof there is a dozen satellite dishes placed just above the logo of the telecommunications company Axtel. “It’s the best covert location for the agencies to operate,” said the source that provided the location of the OBI. The ordinary appearance of the building is the way in which the United States often disguise intelligence centers around the world. The reception and parking are guarded by private security services, while Federal District Police provide outside support. Furthermore, the city government has installed special surveillance cameras with sirens to observe the movement of pedestrians and vehicles outside the building. The scope and power of the OBI in Mexico is similar to the El Paso Intelligence Center, in Texas (EPIC), which dates back to 1974 and operates exclusively to combat drug trafficking, weapons and money laundering on the border between Mexico and United States. EPIC has been credited for creating the strategies launched against drug trafficking and organized crime in Mexico. Among the most successful are Operation White Tiger, which was used to investigate the activities of the Hank Rhon family in 1997, the capture and extradition, a year earlier, of Gulf Drug Cartel Leader Juan Garcia Abrego, and the discovery of narco-graves in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, in 1998. Subordination Overrun by drug trafficking, the government of Felipe Calderón agreed to the establishment of the OBI in Mexico a proposal of the then head of National Intelligence in the United States, Admiral Dennis Blair, who last March was accompanied by Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, during his working visit to Mexico. According to the formal agreement, the new U.S. office workers interact with their Mexican counterparts, under the coordination of the State Department and the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE). For the Pentagon, the strong presence of its agents in Mexico is intended to merge the intelligence and espionage services of both countries to identify and exploit the vulnerabilities of drug trafficking organizations and organized crime gangs. Under this directive, issued on 18 March by Gen. Victor Eugene Renuart, then head of Northern Command (NORTHCOM), Mexico has carried out several operations against drug traffickers. Since then, among some of the actions taken the drug lords have been the killing of Arturo Beltran Leyva, (aka El Barbas), Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel, and Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen (aka Tony Tormenta), in addition to the arrests of other drug lords, such as Edgar ‘Barbie’ Valdez Villarreal. Since the killing of Beltran Leyva in December of 2009, U.S. intelligence services, mainly the DEA, have mentioned their participation in various operations, against the very Arturo Beltran Leyva, Barbie Valdez, Teodoro Garcia Simental (aka El Teo), Jose Gerardo Alvarez Vazquez (aka El Indio or El Chayán), operator of the Beltran Leyva organization and Carlos Ramon Castro, a drug dealer who worked for several organizations. As part of the Mexican government’s need to justify the militarization of the fight against drug trafficking, the Pentagon has strengthened its cooperation with the Mexican military. In early 2009, just as the Department of State and the Mexican Exterior Relations Secretariat (SRE) fine-tuned the details for the establishment of the OBI, the U.S. Department of Defense stepped up military training for Mexicans in Mexico and in several U.S. military bases. The training has been an unprecedented event in the history of military relations between the two countries. For the first time, the Pentagon has brought counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism expertise from Iraq and Afghanistan to their offices in central Mexico. In the case of Mexico, the training courses are developed and run by the Defense Department, and are focused on intelligence and tactical operations against drug trafficking, terrorism and the implementation of counterinsurgency tactics. In addition to the courses offered in Mexico, the Mexican military has significantly increased the number of special forces troops in the Army, Air Force and the Navy to attend specialized intelligence training in U.S. military bases. Liaisons The main example of this cooperation is the presence -for the first time in the bilateral relationship- a member of the Mexican Army as a “liaison” between the Mexican military (Central Command) and the Northern Command in Colorado (NORTHCOM), according to a military source who spoke to the Mexican magazine Proceso. On Wednesday 10, The Washington Post published on its front page a note informing that the liaison will also serve as deputy commander of the Institute for Security and Cooperation in the Western Hemisphere at Fort Benning, Georgia. From the sixties to the eighties, these facilities housed in the so-called School of the Americas, which went down in history as a supplying center for Latin American dictators, which are characterized by the systematic violation of human rights. A U.S. official, who told the Post on condition of anonymity, said that given the seriousness of the drug violence in Mexico, “we have received direct instruction from the President (Barack Obama) and the highest levels in government, to really examine what more can be done in this counter-narcotics cooperation with Mexico.” The establishment of the Office of Bi-national Intelligence (OBI) implies that for the first time in the history of Mexico, surveillance, supervision and qualification of work against organized crime between federal government agencies, including the military, rests in part on foreign officials. According to the document unveiled by the White House on March 25, 2009 on the establishment of the OBI, the office is also responsible for overseeing the proper use of resources that Washington provides the Calderon administration in combating drug trafficking through the ‘Merida Initiative.’ “We will be coordinating our efforts with the government of Mexico through high-level contacts, which in part are related to the new intelligence services responsible for overseeing the implementation of Merida Initiative,” according to the document released by the White House (published by Proceso). A year later, on March 23, 2010, Hillary Clinton announced during her working visit to the Federal District, in the context of the implementation of Plan Merida, the establishment of two “pilot programs” in the Tijuana-San Diego and Ciudad Juárez-El Paso corridors. The two governments declared in a joint statement, that in the case of Ciudad Juárez, the program considers the development of “a model for the Mexican Government to collect and analyze tactical intelligence” as well as to “take action against drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and other criminal activities.” However, the actual operations of the OBI in security and intelligence services, Mexicans will be subordinates of the U.S.. Agencies of the U.S. Government will play the role as experts in intelligence work, apart from previous advisory roles in order to increase Mexico’s ability to use information resources against drug cartel operations. [ad] |
U.S. stocks closed higher Thursday, with all three indexes rallying, as investors wagered that the U.K. will choose to remain in the European Union in a historic referendum with far-reaching implications. A pair of polls released earlier showed support for “remain” slightly ahead while bookmakers also indicated a 76% probability of a vote to remain in the EU. “It’s too close to call but voters almost always favor the devil we know to the devil we don’t know, so I expect us to wake up to find that the U.K. is still in the EU,” said Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank. The S&P 500 index SPX, -0.05% gained 27.87 points, or 1.3%, to close at 2,113.32, regaining the psychologically important 2,100 level. Financial stocks led the gains, advancing 2.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.28% jumped 230.24 points, or 1.3%, to finish at 18,011.07. Goldman Sachs Group Inc.. GS, +0.00% rose 3.1%, leading the gainers in the blue-chip index. The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.07% climbed 76.72 points, or 1.6%, to close at 4,910.04. Global market moves on Thursday showed that “the ‘remain’ vote is largely priced in,” said Joe Higgins, managing director at TIAA Global Asset Management. In that sense, if Britain votes to stay it could “feel anticlimactic,” whereas if the Brexit vote wins, volatility should spike, Higgins said. “A relief rally could ensue in the coming weeks, but substantial upside is likely to be limited by the same factors that have been weighing on the markets,” said Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives at Schwab Center for Financial Research. The U.S. market has been hemmed in by tepid corporate earnings and uncertainties over the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy. And while the U.K. maintaining its membership in the EU is better for a sluggish stock market, the end of the Brexit debate may not be the panacea that investors have been seeking, according to analysts. “Investors will remain uncertain about the state of the economy and politics will continue to bring emotions into investing. Ultimately, investors are concerned about more than this singular event,” Albert Brenner, director of asset allocation strategy at People’s United Wealth Management, said in a note. Broadcasters won’t be conducting exit polls, so investors will likely have to wait for the actual results to trickle out overnight and during the morning, London time. The final result is expected around breakfast time in the U.K., or sometime around 2-3 a.m. Eastern time. Read: When will we know the result of the Brexit vote? Financial stocks were buoyed by the climb in Treasury yields, as rising yields are traditionally viewed as boosting bank profitability. Analysts thought that if the stay-in-the-EU group prevails, it will dampen demand for safe-haven assets such as bonds, which could lead to higher bond yields. Still, there could be “some bargain hunting” in the increased appetite for financials, said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors. The sector is trading at a significant discount to the broader market, as expectations for interest-rate hikes have recently declined, he added. The CBOE Volatility Index VIX, +1.22% which had spiked to above 20 in the previous session on Brexit jitters, eased back to 17.66. Stocks in Europe climbed, while Asia closed mixed. The pound GBPUSD, -0.2104% jumped to a six-month high. The dollar was lower against most other major currencies, with the ICE dollar index DXY, -0.10% down 0.2%, while Treasury yields TMUBMUSD10Y, +0.40% rose to a three-week high and oil prices CLQ6, +0.00% moved higher. Other economic news: U.S. jobless claims fell to an eight-week low, indicating strength in the labor market. A reading of manufacturing sentiment rebounded in June from the weakest reading in six-and-a-half years in May, according to data from Markit released Thursday. New-home sales declined in May, an expected pullback after an outsize jump in April. Movers and shakers: Shares of Red Hat Inc. RHT, +0.12% dropped 1.7% after the software company late Wednesday gave a downbeat guidance for the year. Bank of America Corp. BAC, +0.82% rose 3.2% after sources said the bank is moving closer to settle a case with U.S. regulators. Macy’s Inc. M, +2.43% gained 1.7% after announcing that Jeffrey Gennette will succeed Terry Lundgren as chief executive officer in the first quarter of 2017. Barnes & Noble Inc. BKS, +0.00% jumped 7.9% after the bookstore late Wednesday said its loss widened during the final quarter of its fiscal year. Tesla Motors Inc. TSLA, +5.67% fell 0.1% as investors mostly rejected its explanation for its surprise SolarCity Corp. US:SCTY bid. BlackBerry Ltd. US:BBRY jumped 3.9%, shaking off weak earnings results, while cloud communications company Twilio TWLO, +2.17% soared 92% in its debut as a publicly traded company. --Sara Sjolin contributed to this article. Providing critical information for the U.S. trading day. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Need to Know newsletter. Sign up here. |
When a number of my former students approached me with the idea to nominate the international space station for the Nobel Peace Prize, I must admit I initially waived it as an interesting but unrealistic idea. I have in many of my lectures told students about my earlier days, when I worked with astronauts in Star City in the early ’90s, and explained to them the growing respect between Russians and Americans during that period. In my view, space is indeed a strong catalyst for peaceful international cooperation, but a potential Nobel Peace Prize winner? Still, the more I thought about it, the more I started to see the logic behind this thought. In order to be sure that there was no basic obstacle I looked into the roots of the Nobel Prize and the original thoughts behind it. Alfred Nobel established in his (third) testament, signed on Nov. 27, 1895, five prizes each year. When his will became public, this came as a shock to his family and a legal fight ensued, certainly fueled by the considerable amount of the heritage. It took in fact several years before the first Nobel Prize was awarded, in 1901. In his last will and testament, Alfred Nobel describes one of these prizes, now generally known as the Nobel Peace Prize, as follows: “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Although the original text specifies “person,” the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 25 times to collectivities, such as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which has received the Nobel Peace Prize twice, in 1954 and 1981, and the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has been honored three times, in 1917, 1944 and 1963. More recently, in 2013 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. From this perspective and in view of the precedents, it seems clear that ISS could be a viable candidate. This being clarified, the second step is to reflect on why ISS would be a potential competitor for the prize. Space activities have been used at a number of occasions as a visible show of international cooperation. The very first example, right in the middle of the Cold War, was the docking in 1975 between an American (Apollo) and a Russian (Soyuz) spacecraft in 1975. I have had the privilege to know both commanders of this mission, Alexei Leonov from the Russian side and Thomas Stafford from the American side. We shall not forget that both of them were military pilots and rather trained to fight each other than to cooperate with each other. Fate forced them to work together in a joint mission where their lives depended on each other. This creates a bond for the rest of one’s life. And indeed, when I met them again in 2011, I met two very close friends, friends for life. Technically speaking, one could argue that such docking required only a good interface control document with limited knowledge of both systems. The same cannot be said about the cooperation at ISS, though. Let us go back to the history of ISS. As early as Jan. 25, 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, in his State to the Union address, directed NASA to develop a permanently occupied space station, with the specific instruction to invite other countries to participate in the project. On Sept. 29, 1988, a multinational governmental agreement was signed between the United States, the European Space Agency, Japan and Canada for the building of the Space Station Freedom. On Jan. 25, 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton invited the Russians to join the project, noting in his State of the Union address, “Instead of building weapons in space, Russian scientists will help us to build the international space station.” At that moment, a historical step was made to build the most impressive and complex international project ever undertaken with such a diverse number of partners. On Nov. 20, 1998, the first element of ISS, Zarya (Russian for “dawn”) was launched by a Proton rocket, and two weeks later Unity (Node 1) was attached to the station after delivery by the Space Shuttle Endeavour. This was the start of a very complex and successful multinational building program. It also represented a completely new way of international cooperation, as the elements composing the station are interdependent. Hence, thousands of engineers had to work together all over the world and learn to trust each other fully. An important aspect of this is the ultimate human factor in such an endeavor: namely, the astronauts. In order to prepare for joint missions, the so-called Phase One was introduced, involving a number of U.S. astronauts in missions to the Russian space station Mir, as well as having a number of Russian cosmonauts as part of the U.S. shuttle crews. Seven U.S. astronauts were involved in long-duration missions onboard Mir. These are the real roots of closer interpersonal contacts, via astronauts and cosmonauts but also via the hundreds of supporting people around them. The U.S. astronauts were received with skepticism by the Russian space specialists, but I have witnessed the rapid change when both sides started increasingly to appreciate the skills of the other side. It was a clash of cultures, technical as well as social. One of the events I still think made a considerable breakthrough was the flight of Shannon Lucid in 1996. This remarkable astronaut spent 179 days onboard Mir together with two relatively young cosmonauts with such a serenity and sense of good mood that it really impressed the seasoned Russian space community. It is this mutual respect that is the indirect key of the important contribution of these joint space programs. Not only astronauts but also thousands of other specialists learned to work together in the ISS era all over the world, requiring common standards and agreements on a common time and language. Since 2000 multinational crews have been onboard permanently, doing excellent scientific work in microgravity conditions. There is, however, another dimension to this. ISS can be seen at night with the naked eye, and millions of people have been looking at this platform, a symbol of international and peaceful cooperation, over more than 13 years now. This physical link with the station from all around the world is giving hope that humanity will be able, on a broader scale, to peacefully undertake bigger and bigger projects. In analogy how, no doubt, space cooperation worked as a catalyst in the Cold War period, ISS could become a steppingstone to even more global cooperation. Exploration to other celestial bodies such as Mars will be too expensive, even for the present ISS partners, and will require including new partners such as China and India. We can but hope that this next step will lead to such global cooperation, giving humanity a new source of inspiration toward a more peaceful global society. What more arguments are needed for a Nobel Peace Prize nomination? Walter Peeters is a professor and president of the International Space University. |
Internal resistance State of charge (SOC) Can determine the overall health of the battery Internal resistance SOC Open-load voltage Voltage at 1 amp and 18 amps Battery status of 'Good', 'Fair' or 'Bad' FIRST Tech Challenge Version Overview (am-3430): This version of the Battery Beak is designed with FIRST Tech Challenge teams in mind. When you order this version, your Battery Beak will arrive configured for the 12V 3Ah NiMH batteries used in FIRST Tech Challenge. You will also receive the new SB-50A to Tamiya and PowerPole cable necessary to connect to your batteries, whether you left them stock or converted them to PowerPole connectors. One - FIRST Tech Challenge Battery Configured Battery Beak One - SB-50A to Tamiya Adapter (am-2070a) Note: Don't use both the Tamiya and PowerPole connectors at the same time. It will form a complete circuit, which could damage your batteries. Vex Version Overview (am-3431): This version of the Battery Beak was made for Vex users! Your Battery Beak will come configured for Vex's 7.2V 3000mAh NiMH batteries, and it will have the adapter cable you need to connect to Vex batteries. If you use the 2000 mAh batteries, you can reconfigure your Battery Beak in seconds to support the different capacity. Instructions are in the (PDF). One - Vex Battery Configured Battery Beak One - SB-50A to Tamiya Adapter (am-2070a) Note: Don't use both the Tamiya and PowerPole connectors at the same time. It will form a complete circuit, which could damage your batteries. The Battery Beak is produced by Cross the Road Electronics. This is a battery load tester, capable of delivering an 18 amp load and measuring:The Battery Beak supports all battery chemistries but has additional features to determine battery health for both Lead Acid and NiMH chemistries in a variety of voltages and capacities. The Battery Beak mates directly with the SB-50A connector used in the FIRST Robotics Competition, but we've created bundles for FIRST Tech Challenge and Vex Robotics users to give them the same great experience. These bundles ship with the Battery Beak configured for the correct battery type and with the appropriate adapter cable for those battery terminals.The high resolution OLED display displays all the information you need for a quick decision on battery health:The internal resistance measurement is useful in determining if any bad cells are present. When the Battery Beak is used to track a battery's internal resistance over time and compared to its manufacturer specs, it is possible to determine when to take a battery out of service before a failure occurs. The built in powerdown feature allows the Beak to be connected to your battery indefinitely without draining your battery. The housing of the Beak is a durable ABS/Polycarbonate blend and mates directly to the Anderson SB-50A connector.Included with this part is the Battery Beak and a stylish lanyard.Please contact Cross the Road Electronics support at support@crosstheroadelectronics.com for warranty issues or Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) for this product. |
When University of the South biology professor David George Haskell was hiking with friends Sunday at Stringer’s Ridge near Chattanooga, he ran into a familiar face: Sen. Bob Corker. Haskell, who was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his 2012 book “The Forest Unseen,” writes in a blog post that he told Corker he was “deeply ashamed” to be from a state with a senator who would not denounce Donald Trump for boasting of sexual assault. Corker’s response, according to Haskell: “If you don’t like it, then you should leave the state.” When contacted, Haskell confirmed to Pith that Corker told him to leave the state multiple times, and said he had three witnesses with him. The full blog post is worth a read, but some other reported quotes from our Republican senator: “It’s people like you who won’t accept the results of the election who are deeply dividing this country.” “What have you ever done to contribute to this state?” Haskell, a U.S. citizen who immigrated from Britain more than two decades ago, concluded the post with a challenge for Corker. “Take your silence in the face of Trump’s vile words back to your Chattanooga mansion and ponder why a group of hikers — immigrants, women, LGBTQ, and Latinos — would be so distraught to see your smirking countenance sauntering through the woods. Yes, we are ashamed of you. No, we are not leaving.” Calls and emails to Corker's office have not yielded a response as of this writing. We'll update if and when they do. Update: 5:30 p.m. Corker's side of the story from spokeswoman Micah Johnson: |
Perth's Kwinana Freeway will be permanently flooded by 2100, oceanographer warns Updated Climate data modelling has found key infrastructure near Perth's Swan River, including part of the Kwinana Freeway, is at risk of permanent flooding by 2100 due to rising sea levels. Infrastructure likely to be affected by sea level rise: Kwinana Freeway Riverside Drive Langley Park Old Swan Brewery apartments WACA stadium Gloucester Park Maylands Peninsula Golf Course The study by University of Western Australia masters students examined data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and Fremantle tidal gauge records to predict what impact a rising sea level would have on the Swan River until 2150. Professor of Coastal Oceanography at the UWA Oceans Institute Charitha Pattiaratchi said the most vulnerable areas for flooding were on reclaimed land — including Langley Park, Riverside Drive and Kwinana Freeway in South Perth. "Most of the low-lying area around the Swan River is all reclaimed land. It didn't exist 100 years ago," Professor Pattiaratchi said. "If you actually go to the Supreme Court Gardens, there are rings where they used to tie ships." The report said Fremantle's mean sea level was expected to rise 23 centimetres by 2050, and 83 centimetres by 2150, under a climate change model of medium severity. However Professor Pattiaratchi said the Swan River water level could rise significantly by 2025, due to a peak in the 18.6-year lunar tidal cycle and the possibility of a La Nina weather system. He said if the two events occurred simultaneously, the Swan River could rise by as much as 20 centimetres — which is more than the entire water level increase for the past century. "What we are predicting to happen in 2050 can happen in the next eight years," he said. The report estimates the Freeway will flood at least four times per year by 2050, with more frequent and severe storm surges exacerbating a steady increase in the mean sea level. "By 2100, the Freeway will be underwater all the time," Prof Pattiaratchi said. 'We need to be looking at solutions' Dr Kerry Trayler, who is the principal scientist in the Rivers and Estuaries Division of the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, said more frequent flood events in the Swan River would be caused by two trends. One of these trends would be increasingly severe summer storms, causing upstream flooding, and the other, estuarine flooding from rising sea levels and storm surges. "We need to be looking at solutions that are around the world. We're not dealing with this on our own," Dr Trayler said. "There's a lot of places that are a lot more low-lying than us that are moving a lot more quickly than we are to look at this central problem, so we can learn from them, and I think that the beauty of the UWA report is it brings that into that local setting." Dr Trayler said mitigation strategies could include retreat — moving key infrastructure away from the shoreline — or retractable walls next to the Freeway. Main Roads considers rock barriers, river walls In a statement, Main Roads said it was aware of the "potential future risks" posed by a rising sea level on the Como section of Kwinana Freeway and other road infrastructure. The agency said a number of options were being considered as part of the Kwinana Freeway Foreshore and Infrastructure Protection Strategy, which covers the area from Mt Henry Bridge to Narrows Bridge. The options include beach renourishment, rock barriers and river walls. The UWA report proposes a much more significant investment — a storm surge barrage located at Fremantle Rail Bridge or Blackwall Reach — at a cost of between $185 million and $493 million. The authors estimate the cost of the barrage would be recovered by 2030, and it would likely be closed 38 times a year to prevent flooding by 2050. Professor Pattiaratchi said the storm surge barrier could be part of a broader discussion about mitigating flood risks. "Are we just going to say, we'll just do some mitigations so that the Freeway is open, but some other areas will get flooded?," he said. "It's a whole lot of policy decision-making which needs to be taken into account before you actually go to build a barrage." Topics: storm-event, storm-disaster, floods, climate-change, south-perth-6151, perth-6000 First posted |
Thanks to everyone who has donated so far to the project! I just wanted to let you all know that I've added an actual physical reward to the mix. It will be a custom Nintendo 64 controller that has been hacked to have a USB plug on the end, allowing it to be attached directly to your OUYA so you can really play games the way they were intended! Now, this is a very limited offer because I will be assembling these controllers by hand. They will be usable not only on the OUYA, but also on PCs, laptops, tablets - any device that supports a standard USB joystick. The joystick case will also have the Mupen64Plus OUYA logo right on the front! (logo artwork not yet decided on) The number of these controllers that I can assemble is obviously limited, so get locked in while you can! |
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has an interesting perspective on the differences between the political systems of America and China — and what he should and shouldn’t be saying about the matter. As Jon Ralston reports, from an interview with Reid: Only Harry Reid, when asked about whether he still thought the lame-duck tax cut deal was a good one, would begin his serpentine answer thusly: “I am going to go back to Washington and meet with the president of China. He is a dictator. He can do a lot of things through the form of government they have. Maybe I shouldn’t have said dictator. But they have a different type of government then we have and that is an understatement.” First, you might wonder what Hu Jintao has to do with the question I asked. (Reid would later make clear he was comparing China with America, where compromise is essential in “the best system ever devised to rule the affairs of men and women.”) Sure, what Reid said is not exactly false. But still, this might not be the right thing for a top American leader to say when Hu is embarking on a major state visit to this country. |
Photo by Brian Roettinger An overwhelmingly large crowd greeted Local Natives as they took to the stage for their Sunday afternoon set at this year’s Lollapalooza. The LA-based indie rock outfit had appeared at the Chicago festival twice before, but this time felt different. For one, vocalist and guitarist Taylor Rice, vocalist and keyboardist Kelcey Ayer, vocalist and guitarist Ryan Hahn, drummer Matt Frazier, and bassist Nik Ewing practically oozed with confidence. This was especially apparent during the set’s closing number, “Sun Hands”, when Rice launched his body into a sea of outstretched hands. OK, so crowdsurfing at a festival may seem like a bit of a cliché. But for Local Natives, it speaks to something bigger than the moment itself. It speaks to a revitalized band that has discovered a potent blend of energy, optimism, and unrelenting happiness — even as the rest of the world seems to be falling apart. “We just had this realization of looking at the world around us and seeing that there’s an arrow of progression over time,” Rice says over the phone, reflecting on how his band remains upbeat amid so much political and social upheaval. “I think the minds and hearts of younger generations have a clearer idea of what the world needs from them.” The same could be said for Local Natives. The band’s forthcoming third album, Sunlit Youth, finds them in a sunnier state of mind than their darker sophomore effort, Hummingbird. “That was a heavy time that we really just needed to get out of our system,” says Ayer of that 2013 album, which was largely inspired by the loss of his mother. By contrast, Sunlit Youth came about after the band had finished wrapping up a tour and just needed to find some joy and happiness again. Rather than dwell on the past, they shifted into a gear of almost childlike wonder, delving into unfamiliar territory as they traveled both near and far to write and record portions of the album. They also leaned on each other more than ever, building upon their historically democratic approach to the creative process. “We have so many cooks in the kitchen,” Ewing admits. “When [someone] brings a song forward, we all get our hands on it. We’re all just trying to find the coolest and best song in whatever ideas are presented.” Ayer agrees: “I think there’s a story like that with every song, where someone starts writing and then another person takes it and flips it on its head, and then more people come in and stretch that idea, and things just kind of snowball.” The snowball effect certainly worked this time around, resulting in a loose, creatively ambitious album that feels miles apart from the band’s 2010 debut, Gorilla Manor. If Sunlit Youth sounds like it belongs to a bigger world than its two predecessors, well, that’s because Local Natives didn’t stay so local for this one. On the contrary, they turned the whole world into their studio. Two years ago, the band’s members were returning home to Los Angeles following a successful tour behind Hummingbird. For the first time in years, they were there to stay — or so they thought. As they became reacquainted with LA, Rice says the city felt like a “new world.” At the same time, returning to their roots reminded them of why they wanted to start a band in the first place. “We were connecting with that euphoria that comes with having ideas and making them come to life,” explains Rice. While they felt more grounded being back home, their urgent desire for new challenges didn’t keep them in one place for long. As Rice recalls, the need to constantly open themselves up to new experiences soon crept back, prompting a series of trips to destinations near (Ojai, Joshua Tree) and far (Nicaragua, Thailand). “The main thing with these trips was to stir the pot creatively,” Hahn notes, but traveling also played a role in shaping the ethos of the record. In short, nothing was off limits. Local Natives were free to go out on any limb that felt right, resulting in sonic experiments ranging from the R&B-colored “Coins” to the lo-fi “Jellyfish”(recorded in the living room of a rented home and featuring the sound of cereal being poured in the background) to the politically charged pop anthem “Fountain of Youth”. As the title suggests, “Fountain of Youth” is probably most indicative of the band’s energetic new approach. The evocative track — “the quickest a song has ever come together for me by far,” says Rice — begins with the frontman whispering, “I think we better listen to these kids.” By the end, he’s the one begging to be heard, chanting: “We can say whatever we want! We can say whatever we need!” And Rice definitely says what he wants, declaring his political inclinations within a single, powerful line: “I have waited so long, Mrs. President.” He wrote the line prior to the current election cycle, though he admits that Hillary Clinton was already pegged as the frontrunner at the time. But the meaning goes beyond Clinton (the band actually participated in a free concert for her rival, Bernie Sanders) and has more to do with the possibility of any woman becoming President of the United States or anything else, for that matter. “That’s one of the things I see a lot of progress in, feminism and our culture pushing towards trying to have a more gender-equal society,” Rice says. “I think we’re going in the right direction, but there’s still a lot to do.” This emphatic call-to-action feels right at home on Sunlit Youth, an album whose running theme is “claiming agency over our world and our own lives.” “We just wanted to be a part of something that feels more positive and hopeful, and speaks to the energy of what feels like a new groundswell of people trying to make change for the better,” Hahn says. “I can definitely see and witness that we’re collectively in such a healthier and happier mind space,” adds Ewing. He believes the band’s internal change illustrates how there is “infinite room to improve ourselves and improve the world around us.” Speaking of improvement, Local Natives’ Lollapalooza set suggests that they have finally entered into the top tier of festival acts. They still have some work to do before they reach headliner status, but they’re well on the way and have their priorities in order. “One thing about our band is that we’ve been together for so long,” Hahn says, noting that they’ve been friends since as far back as junior high. “We’ve got this family relationship going on.” Family is what got the band through their darkest hour and all the transitions that came with it. Some of those transitions show up in lead single “Past Lives”, a track Hahn says helped “[remind] people that we existed.” But such a reminder seems almost superfluous for a band that shines as bright as Local Natives. Whether working the crowd at Lollapalooza or making a record that reflects their unbridled optimism, they can always be counted on to shed some light. |
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mike Ashley told MPs 'I have nothing to hide' Sports Direct's founder Mike Ashley has admitted workers at its Derbyshire warehouse were paid below the minimum wage and its policy of fining staff for being late was unacceptable. HMRC is investigating the firm over the minimum wage issue, Mr Ashley told MPs. An internal investigation had discovered "some issues" with working practices at the warehouse, which he had "hopefully" addressed, he said. The firm had "probably" outgrown his ability to run it, Mr Ashley agreed. He said much of what he'd found out, after starting an internal investigation into how staff were treated at its Shirebrook distribution centre six months ago, was an "unpleasant surprise". Image copyright Getty Images "I can accept the criticism of some of the things that you've said to me today would actually lead me to believe that it's definitely outgrown me... that's shocked me what you've said to me today," Mr Ashley said. He was addressing MPs following a Guardian report last year that workers at the sportswear chain's warehouse had been subjected to rigorous searches and surveillance, leading to staff receiving under the minimum wage. And a BBC investigation found ambulances were called out to Sports Direct's complex at Shirebrook, in Derbyshire, 76 times in two years. 'Culture of fear' "In the warehouse there is a culture of fear," Luke Primarolo from the Unite union told MPs at the hearing. "People are scared because they are working under a system where they know they could lose their employment at any moment," he added. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mike Ashley told MPs: "I've got nothing to hide" Union officials said the Derbyshire distribution centre operated a "strike system" for misdemeanours where staff were given "a strike" for things such as spending too long in the toilet, excessive chatting or taking a day off sick. Once an employee had six strikes they were automatically dismissed. "When you have people under that much fear they come into work ill and that creates a significant health and safety risk," said Steve Turner, assistant general secretary of Unite. Security checks In one case, he said an employee had given birth in a toilet at the warehouse, due to fear of losing her job if she called in sick. He said workers had likened the conditions to a "gulag", or "labour camp" and described the conditions as "19th century working practices". Mr Ashley defended the disciplinary system, saying it was necessary but had to be executed correctly. His test, he told MPs, was whether you would want your son and daughter working in that system. "If the answer is no, it should be changed," he said. Image copyright PA Image caption Sports Direct's Shirebrook warehouse From the scene: Sarah Sturdey, BBC current affairs reporter It's been said Mike Ashley is often kept away from the media because of his tendency to speak openly and sometimes too frankly. And having protested loudly about not needing to defend himself to MPs, the usually outspoken and bombastic boss of Sports Direct showed a more human side. Before a packed public gallery, which included ex-Sports Direct workers, he admitted some of his employees may have been paid below the minimum wage last year, before security checks at the company's warehouse in Shirebrook were streamlined. But to a certain extent, he did hold up his hands and said an internal investigation would "go on forever". He also said he would allow "impartial people" to carry out a review of the company if he was asked to. Mike Ashley said too, in response to allegations a woman who wanted a contract was sexually propositioned by managers: "Honestly - they're repugnant, they're disgusting - what do you want me to say? Would you like it if you were me?" So what now for Mike Ashley and Sports Direct? It seems like the boss is keen to make some changes. "You people are pushing against an open door, you're not pushing against a closed door with me. So 90 days then I'll write to you to say it's different." One ex-employee told me he was sceptical things would really change. Image caption Mr Ashley founded Sports Direct in 1982 Mr Ashley, said the main problem he had found was the time-consuming security checks staff had had to go through after finishing work. He admitted this had led to staff being effectively paid less than the minimum wage "at a specific time". He insisted that this had now been addressed. "The process is in place so that genuinely shouldn't happen. You should be finishing your shift and walk through," he told MPs. Union officials earlier said they were in discussions with the firm and HMRC over backpay for this period, but said any agreement would only apply to warehouse staff directly employed by the retailer, which totalled 200 people. The remaining 3,000 staff were supplied by agencies, they said. 'Not Father Christmas' The Newcastle United owner blamed much of the firm's problems on the firm's rapid growth, saying the internet hadn't existed for the retailer 10 years ago. As a result, he said the firm was "too big" for him to know everything that happened, an admission that alarmed one investor. Piers Hillier, chief investment officer at Royal London Asset Management, which has an 0.18% holding in the firm, said it suggested "significant corporate governance failings amongst the management". "Mr Ashley frequently suggested at the hearing today that he has no oversight or knowledge of large parts of the company's business; this is extremely concerning for investors. "It is critical that these issues are addressed and the likelihood of this being achieved will be greatly increased by strengthening independent oversight on the board." Mr Ashley, who had only agreed to appear in front of MPs on Sunday after initially calling the committee "a joke", pledged to implement a number of changes to working practices within 90 days, including moving more staff onto permanent contracts. "You're pushing against an open door," he told MPs. But he was also careful to manage expectations, warning: "I'm not Father Christmas, I'm not saying I'll make the world wonderful." |
It got even harder to be a low-income woman in Texas over the weekend. Following a federal appeals court ruling on Friday that will leave the state with just nine abortion clinics, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a budget proposal that will effectively oust Planned Parenthood from Texas' Breast and Cervical Cancer Services program, which provides cancer screenings for uninsured, low-income women. Abbott's anticipated move marks a win for Texas conservatives, who have tried repeatedly to eliminate all taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood in an effort to further reduce abortion access in the state. The organization has already been targeted with regard to cancer screenings before, with state lawmakers prohibiting the nearly two dozen clinics involved in the screening program from accepting taxpayer dollars if they also provide abortion services. In accordance with the budget provision the governor signed off on Saturday, any clinics affiliated with abortion providers will no longer receive funding for cancer screening services. Advertisement: “It’s really incredible how low the governor and some of the state legislators will go when you start throwing women out of cancer screening programs and making it impossible for them to continue to go get services where they have before,” Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards told the Texas Tribune. Antiabortion advocates of the measure, however, have lauded the move to effectively cut off low-income Texans' access to basic, live-saving healthcare. Joe Pojman, executive director of the anti-choice group Texas Alliance for Life, called Abbott's endorsement a "big victory." “We think the money is far better spent on the numerous alternative providers that are available throughout Texas,” Pojman told the Tribune. “I don't think that [Planned Parenthood] will be missed at all when they leave the program, because there’s such a vast network of providers -- many of whom provide a far higher level of services.” According to recent estimates, Planned Parenthood provides cancer screenings, often an entry point for other much-needed healthcare services, to 10 percent of the 33,000-plus women currently enrolled in the Breast and Cervical Cancer Services program. Last year, the organization received an estimated $1.2 million in funding, some of which might still go to some Planned Parenthood clinics should the program fail to find other cancer screening providers in certain parts of the state. More from the Texas Tribune: |
Pop the popcorn in the microwave according to the package directions. Once it is cooled, place it in a large mixing bowl. On the stovetop, melt butter over medium heat. Once it is melted, stir in ¾ of the mini marshmallows. Save some for later. Stir until all marshmallows are melted. Pour the marshmallow mixture over the popcorn and stir until it is well integrated. Be careful, the mixture will be hot at first. Once the popcorn and marshmallows are mostly cool, mix in the rest of the mini marshmallows and the sprinkles Once the mixture is fully cooled, take a handful and form it into a snowball, just as you would when making a real snowball. You can add more candy and sprinkles to the fully formed snowballs to make them look extra magical. |
0 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard Rep. Joe Barton defended his anti-global warming position on C-SPAN today by arguing CO2, carbon dioxide should not be regulated because it is not a pollutant. He said that since CO2 is in Coca-Cola it is safe for people and should not be regulated. Here is the video from Think Progress: “I would also point out that CO2, carbon dioxide, is not a pollutant in any normal definition of the term. … I am creating it as I talk to you. It’s in your Coca-Cola, you’re Dr. Pepper, your Perrier water. It is necessary for human life. It is odorless, colorless, tasteless, does not cause cancer, does not cause asthma. There is nobody who has ever been admitted to the hospital for CO2 poisoning, so it is not a pollutant. ” Barton also went on to discuss the theory of climate change, – “If you think greenhouse gases are bad, life couldn’t exist without greenhouse gases. … So, there is a, there is a climate theory — and it’s a theory, it’s not a fact, it’s never been proven — that increasing concentrations of CO2 in the upper atmosphere somehow interact to trap more heat than the atmosphere would otherwise.” Of course Barton’s argument ignores that nobody is disputing that CO2 isn’t a pollutant. It is not the CO2 itself that causes the problem. The climate change occurs based on high concentrations of carbon dioxide, which is something, that the deniers like Barton conveniently ignore. The high concentrations of CO2 do lead to more pollution, which leads to more people developing conditions like asthma. The Republicans who deny that climate change is occurring must think that we are all stupid. Barton earned the nickname “Smokey Joe” in 2003 from the Dallas Morning News because he has long been in the back pocket of the nation’s biggest polluters, and the argument that he is using here is one that might fool a toddler, but most people are smarter than this. In essence, Barton is trying to change the debate to make it about CO2 instead of CO2 levels. If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human: |
Saints Row: The Third is likely to get even more ridiculous, as THQ today announced Enter the Dominatrix, a stand-alone expansion to last year's over-the-top open-world crime game. Anyone up for another dose of Saints Row: The Third? Set for release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, Enter the Dominatrix will introduce super powers to the world of Saints Row. The game will see the Third Street Saints targeted by aliens who view their leader as the only possible impediment to their plans for world domination. To eliminate that impediment, the aliens kidnap the gang's leader and trap him in a virtual replica of Third Street Saints stomping ground Steelport nicknamed the Dominatrix. The original Saints Row: The Third launched last November to a strong critical reception. The game picked up with the Third Street Saints after the gang had grown to the point of becoming a brand, complete with licensed sneakers, energy drinks, and bobbleheads. However, that success put them at odds with a criminal fraternity called the Syndicate, drawing the group into a new turf war. The game has been added to four times through downloadable content, but Enter the Dominatrix will be the first stand-alone expansion for Saints Row: The Third. |
1. Getting into position and taking shots is more important than clearing stress or taking actions. Modified attack dice hit a lot, unmodified attacks hit sometimes, but a ship with no shots never hits. 2. Create a victory condition. Identify the biggest threat in your opponent’s squad and the best opportunities to remove attack dice and utility. Relentlessly pursue targets until you tip the balance in your favor. 3. Do not change your target. A half-damaged ship still shoots with full strength. Focus on one target and follow up until it is destroyed. 4. Pilot skill is worth the investment. 5. Plan your ships’ maneuvers in the order that they move. 6. Learn how your squad wants to fly. Then, learn how it wants to fly against different squads. If you only have one plan, it’s not a very good one. 7. Use range and angles to divide enemy fire. Never let an entire swarm fire on a single target. 8. Your dice will betray you, especially your green dice. 9. Boost and barrel roll can be used to recover from minor mistakes, not major ones. 10. Player skill wins games. No list makes up for bad flying (except Super Dash). 11. Be respectful of other players, and especially of their time. You owe your opponent the best game you can fly. |
Now that we are in the middle of the various freezes in preparation for GNOME 3.8, it is a good time to talk about some of the things that happened over the last six months. One such thing is the integration of ownCloud in GNOME. Go to the Online Accounts panel in Settings (hit the super key or the Activities button and type “online”) to enable your ownCloud account, and you will be able to access your calendars, contacts and files from GNOME. Calendars and contacts can be accessed via CalDAV and CardDAV from their respective tabs in Evolution. Files in your ownCloud storage show up as volumes via WebDAV in Nautilus and GtkFileChooser. Many thanks to Milan Crha for making the necessary changes to hook up Evolution with ownCloud in time for 3.8.0. Advertisements |
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