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Why it matters: If we did, even though the mandate has never been popular, our polling shows that the public does not necessarily want to eliminate it as part of tax reform legislation, once they understand how it works and what the consequences of eliminating it might be. The back story: Republicans have targeted the ACA mandate because they want the $318 billion in savings the Congressional Budget Office says they would get to help them pay for their tax cuts. (The change would save money because fewer people would get federal subsidies on the ACA marketplaces or apply for Medicaid coverage.) They have also targeted the mandate because they think it's so unpopular. Our polls have consistently shown that the mandate is the least popular element of the ACA and in the abstract, more Americans (55%) would eliminate the mandate than keep it (42%). Yes, but: When people know how the mandate actually works, and are told what experts believe is likely to happen if it's eliminated, most Americans oppose repealing it in the tax plan. When people learn that they will not be affected by the mandate if they already get insurance from their employer or from Medicare or Medicaid, 62% oppose eliminating it. When people are told that eliminating the mandate would increase premiums for people who buy their own coverage, as the CBO says it will, they also flip, with 60% opposing eliminating the mandate. And when they're told that 13 million fewer people will have health coverage – another CBO projection – 59% oppose eliminating the mandate. The bottom line: Many people change their minds when they learn more about facts and consequences, which happens as the lights shine brighter on them in legislative debates. This happened to the “skinny repeal" proposal, and it would happen to single payer. But as the tax legislation rushes through Congress and heads to the final negotiations, there is almost no chance for the public to grasp the tradeoffs that would come from eliminating the mandate and who is affected and who is not. If they did, the polling suggests, eliminating the mandate might prove far less popular than Republicans seem to think it is. |
Miraculously, he survived the parachute landing without breaking any bones and fully recovered. As Whelan pointed out in his book, doctors determined that Edgar experienced a force of 20 negative Gs for 0.4 seconds in order to induce the damage to his eyes. While this event punctuated the power of rotor and raised awareness, it also gave scientists data to further explain the way waves function. They later determined that Edgar had experienced a rare kind of rotor where the wave dissipates all of its energy in one horrific oscillation. Besides the risks of severe rotor encounters, any time a glider pilot ventures past 30,000 feet the danger increases dramatically. All you have to do is the simple math to arrive at the potential conclusions. At 35,000 feet the FAA figures the pilot has 30 to 45 seconds to react coherently without oxygen. At 45,000 feet the time of useful consciousness is more like five to 15 seconds. Assuming there is an oxygen failure and your glider has, say, a maximum descent rate of 2,000 feet per minute, you won't get anywhere near a safe altitude in time. That's where the bailout bottle or a backup oxygen system comes in handy, as long as you notice the failure immediately and can react before the narrow window slams shut. If that's not enough, at these altitudes the maximum speed at which the glider falls apart and the minimum speed at which it stops flying come together in the thin air, creating a narrow edge the glider pilots have to ride. They call it the coffin corner. The forecast continues to look less conducive for wave development over the next couple of days, and I begin to realize that my initial contact with the wave might be all that I'll see. After chasing some hawks and other gliders around the valley, I pay a visit to High Country Soaring across the street from Soar Minden. Mike Bradford, a regular who sits in the office, owns a casino but realizes extreme wave soaring can be a gamble where the odds are in favor of the house. Once when he was at 38,800 feet he noticed his friend in the rear seat was unconscious because the oxygen mask was leaking around his beard and they were at the limits of the diluter demand oxygen system. They descended to 25,000 and his friend went into convulsions. At 14,000 he was semiconscious. After they landed the man was groggy for hours and Bradford said his friend now has slight memory problems. Given the risks and cold temperatures, Bradford only goes wave soaring once a year. Yet the statistics bode well for wave pilots who care to wager. A review of NTSB accident reports back to 1983 showed no fatalities that were attributed to waves. Besides Edgar's famous in-flight breakup, there was one death during but not associated with the Sierra Wave Project and that was because of an oxygen problem. But there's another factor that Bradford brings up — the potential damage to expensive racing gliders. When wave pilots want to come down, they come down fast, and the gel coat finish cools at a faster rate than the fiberglass, eventually causing cracking. While Soar Minden and High Country Soaring have brought a degree of professionalism and added safety to the area by offering wave checkouts, they are also the ones who end up with the expensive repair bills from pilots who don't want to risk their own craft. Outside High Country's hangar is a huge box, containing a Stemme glider fresh from the factory, owned by global adventurer Steve Fossett — another regular. Fossett himself plans to leave a mark in the world of soaring by going after the altitude record that currently stands at 49,009 feet, set by Robert Harris in 1986. To take things to the next level requires a quantum leap in technology and expense. An ambitious team with help from NASA is planning to build a glider capable of soaring to the far reaches of the stratosphere, possibly beyond 100,000 feet. The project was dreamed up by retired test pilot Einer Enevoldson after high-altitude research confirmed the existence of stratospheric waves. The project's goal is purely scientific; to figure out the complex atmosphere by making the turbulent transition from mountain to stratospheric waves, while Fossett's record attempt will remain a sidebar to the mission. Called Perlan , the 95-foot-wingspan glider is named after rare mother-of-pearl clouds. It will require spacesuits (the team has acquired five from the Air Force used in the SR-71 and U-2 programs), an autopilot to keep the glider on course in the thin air, and a drag chute to allow it to descend to a lower altitude so that it can regain control if it gets upset by turbulence. Fossett is putting up funding and will act as a pilot along with Enevoldson for the first phase. The team has modified an existing two-place Flugzeugbau 505M glider and will use it to study stratospheric waves over either New Zealand or Sweden. The glider has been outfitted with a 24-hour oxygen supply and a full array of avionics. The team hopes that by drumming up enough attention, it will ensure funding for Perlan. For the past year, Fossett has been learning about mountain waves over the Sierra Nevada by flying with Carl Herold, known locally as "Mr. Wave." Herold probably has more wave cross-country time than any other pilot in the world and has been conducting wave camps for decades. A retired aerospace engineer, Herold once managed an average groundspeed of 190 knots in high winds while flying a glider from Mojave, California, to Minden. He also is no stranger to 40,000 feet and believes he has personally experienced stratospheric waves. Herold flies with a transponder in his Schempp-Hirth Nimbus 3D glider so that he can show up on radar and has no problem getting block altitude assignments from controllers when he's not in wave windows. Besides training Fossett, Herold is specializing in avionics and aircraft controls on the Perlan project. "Steve's not a daredevil. He really puts the faith in the people he's working with to fly safely," Herold says. After five days of waiting and hoping, the wave doesn't come back. As I head from Reno to Las Vegas on an airliner, conforming to the seat in a puddle of disappointment, we cruise above 30,000 feet, precisely where I had wanted to be in a glider. The stories, the scientific discoveries that lay ahead, the brief meeting with the powerful wave intrigues me even more as I gaze out the window at the inhospitable environment. But as I look around at the other passengers I realize they have no idea that engineless craft have been even higher than this. As Herold, who occasionally uses mathematical terms to describe such things as cumulus clouds, puts it, "People don't know how much energy is up there." My work here is not done. Minden, I shall see you again. Originally appeared in AOPA Pilot magazine. Photos by Nate Ferguson. In 1951 and 1952 a small group, including such soaring legends as Bob Symons and John Robinson, modified two Pratt-Read gliders and routinely exceeded 40,000 feet as part of the project. They literally gave meaning to the words applied science. The pilots flew in a frigid, unpressurized environment in meteorological conditions that were not fully understood. But in a follow-up popularly called the Jet Stream Project, where glider pilots studied the jet stream with the assistance of B-29 and B-47 bombers, Larry Edgar found out what rotor can do. On April 25, 1955, his glider quickly disintegrated around him at 17,000 feet as he tried to avoid a swelling roll cloud. Then things became quiet. All he heard was wind noise, and he felt as if he were suspended in space, but he couldn't see because of the G-forces, he wrote in Soaring magazine shortly after the experience. He pulled the ripcord and started to worry about being pulled back up. He had lost his helmet, boots, gloves, and oxygen mask, and the hose was broken off of his bailout oxygen bottle. As his vision slowly came back in one eye, he saw pieces of fabric and plywood from the Pratt-Read being carried up past him, disappearing in the roll cloud. |
Dream in pixels We have to admit that once we built our dream house in Minecraft our regular world house paled in comparison. Alas, a building of that magnificence in our neck of the woods would cost far more than the amount of bananas we make as ThinkGeek monkeys. We must continue to build our dreams in pixels... If you dream of living in your own Minecraft creations, we think you'd like to sleep by the warm glow of the Minecraft Redstone Ore Light. It's guaranteed to keep the boogie oogie pigmen from coming out of your closet to murder you in your sleep. Tap once for low light, a second time for medium, and a third time for bright. (Five is right out.) ((Actually, tapping it five times will bring you back to low.)) Of course, you could get a truckload of these and start building your own Minecraft-inspired bedroom... Product Specifications |
The supreme ruler of the United States, or sovereign, was always intended by the founders to be “We the people”! This was the reason that the framers of our Constitution put those words in large bold letters to symbolically emphasize that point! The overwhelming number of Americans, regardless of political affiliation, today agrees that “We the people” are no longer the sovereign! Our power has been coopted by an oppressive federal government, and their endless laws and regulations, with NO hope of reforming itself! There was one primary reason that the framers put checks and balances into the political structure of our government! They knew, based on the logic of some of the most brilliant philosophers in history, that, despite our many technological advances, the true nature of man has never, nor will ever, change! There will always be some/many within our society, and our government, that will have malicious intent. That malicious intent in the hands of those with power will often result in that power being abused against the people, and/or with only selfish regard, regardless of political party! The result of the fallible nature of man is, that despite the amazing document that the framers of the Constitution gave us; the Supreme Court has repeatedly misinterpreted it over the ages! This has given us a nearly completely different Constitution than the one that the framers so carefully crafted, but unfortunately is what we follow, for the most part today, instead of the original intent of the Constitution! But the framers of our Constitution gave us recourse to deal with an out of control federal government in the second part of Article V of the Constitution expressly intended for our current circumstances. Article V gives us the ability to restore the checks and balances that have been breached by the out of control federal government, which has NO motivation to control itself! Article V states: The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, [or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof…] The bracketed segment is the relevant part. To clarify, it’s states upon application of two thirds (34) of the State legislatures; Congress SHALL call a convention for proposing amendments. They have NO choice in the matter, as Alexander Hamilton referred to in Federalist 85. It is simply a meeting to discuss proposing amendments that still must be ratified by three fourths (38) of the States! It is NOT a Constitutional Convention, or “Con-Con” as some of the naive opponents refers to it as. Historical precedent has proved that ALL 34 applications have to have virtually the same subject, which is why, despite over 400 previous applications; there has NEVER been an Article V Convention of States! To oppose the effort of the Convention of States Project is to oppose the restoration of Liberty as the framers envisioned it! There are other Article V efforts from both sides of the aisle, but they have NO chance of success due to lack of sufficient support to get the requisite 34 States due the lack of coordination to achieve matching applications of the same subject they wish to achieve! The Convention of States Project is the ONLY effort that is coordinated to restrict the size, scope, and jurisdiction of the federal government in a coordinated Grassroots effort! If you believe in the sovereignty of the people, as individuals, to restore the necessary checks and balances the framers intended, then it is your DUTY to learn about the Convention of States Project with an open mind, and join us to reinstitute those checks and balances on Washington, and power to the people! The new restrictions will restrict those in both parties. Rightfully so, because integrity and character, or the lack thereof, don’t know parties as James Madison referred to in Federalist 51! Please go to www.conventionofstates.com for more information, and to sign up to support the project by letting your states legislators know that you want them to call for an Article V amendments convention of States, or donate money for the effort if you can! There is NOTHING to fear! If there is even a chance of moderate success then we MUST do our duty, as the framers did! We don’t need to risk our lives as they did. The checks and balances built into the Article V process restrict the so-called “runaway convention”! I’m much more afraid of our runaway federal government than the virtually impossible runaway “Con-Con” (Constitutional Convention)! Benjamin Franklin was asked by a woman, as he was leaving the one true Constitutional Convention, Mr. Franklin, What did you give us? He replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” It’s up to “We the people” to ensure the success of our republic! |
Introduction The Basics of Vedanta Online Course is primarily based on the teachings of our teachers: James Swartz (Ramji), Swami Dayananda Saraswati and Swami Paramarthananda. It is designed for people who are new to the spiritual path but have a strong desire for Self-Realization or freedom. This course is also equally suited to someone who has a long history of spiritual seeking, and has become tired of going from one Guru to another, chasing an ever-elusive enlightenment experience, and has never come across a traditional exposition of Vedanta on enlightenment with its unique capacity to give knowledge of the Self. Because only knowledge can give the deep understanding that everyone is already free and complete. Main Purposes of this course 1. To provide the reader with a proper understanding of traditional Vedanta, a means of Self-Knowledge in the form of words and sentences, which has been tried and tested over the centuries. 2. To introduce the Vedantic method of Self-Inquiry through which one can discover the real meaning of the word “I”, while fully accepting the need for preparing a qualified mind in which the Universal values have been assimilated. 3. To explain the practical Vedantic tools which help spur a student’s spiritual growth leading to a higher degree of assimilation of Self-Knowledge. The Structure The Basics of Vedanta Course is presented in modular units and consists of a logical sequence of 8 modules. Every module is organized around a well-defined topic; for e.g. “What is Enlightenment”, and includes many sub-modules. Each sub-module is a self-contained, independent unit consisting of an introductory description of the main goal of the text, the main text, graphical images, summary, and in some cases practical exercises and videos. We strongly recommend that you start your studies from the 1st module, and move sequentially from module to module. It is advisable not to skip modules or sub-modules, and move forward only after full understanding and comprehension of the current module. While reading the text you will encounter some Sanskrit words. Sanskrit cannot be avoided in any Vedantic text because sometimes there is no accurate translation of the word in English. We are planning to provide a small glossary of various Sanskrit words in the near future. Personal Guidance As you study this course many questions and doubts may arise. Some questions will be answered as you read on, but some may remain unanswered. At such a stage you require a teacher. Since we are not qualified Vedanta teachers, we cannot perform the role of a Vedanta teacher for the readers of this course. However we can help the readers in the following ways: 1. We can answer technical questions related to the Vedantic terms, graphical images etc. used in the course. 2. We can direct readers to external websites, audio talks, videos or books where their questions may be answered. 3. We can provide information on upcoming seminars or retreats of other Vedanta teachers. |
The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The First War (1296–1328) began with the English invasion of Scotland in 1296, and ended with the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328. The Second War (1332–1357) began with the English-supported invasion by Edward Balliol and the 'Disinherited' in 1332, and ended in 1357 with the signing of the Treaty of Berwick. The wars were part of a great crisis for Scotland and the period became one of the most defining times in its history. At the end of both wars, Scotland retained its status as an independent state. The wars were important for other reasons, such as the emergence of the longbow as a key weapon in medieval warfare. The First War of Independence: 1296–1328 [ edit ] Background [ edit ] Edward I and Edward, Prince of Wales King Alexander III of Scotland died in 1286, leaving his three-year-old granddaughter Margaret (called "the Maid of Norway") as his heir. In 1290, the Guardians of Scotland signed the Treaty of Birgham agreeing to the marriage of the Maid of Norway and Edward of Caernarvon, the son of Edward I, who was Margaret's great-uncle. This marriage would not create a union between Scotland and England because the Scots insisted that the Treaty declare that Scotland was separate and divided from England and that its rights, laws, liberties and customs were wholly and inviolably preserved for all time. However, Margaret, travelling to her new kingdom, died shortly after landing on the Orkney Islands around 26 September 1290. With her death, there were 13 rivals for succession. The two leading competitors for the Scottish crown were Robert Bruce, 5th Lord of Annandale (grandfather of the future King Robert the Bruce) and John Balliol, Lord of Galloway. Fearing civil war between the Bruce and Balliol families and supporters, the Guardians of Scotland wrote to Edward I of England, asking him to come north and arbitrate between the claimants in order to avoid civil war. Edward agreed to meet the guardians at Norham in 1291. Before the process got underway Edward insisted that he be recognised as Lord Paramount of Scotland. When they refused, he gave the claimants three weeks to agree to his terms, knowing that by then his armies would have arrived and the Scots would have no choice. Edward's ploy worked, and the claimants to the crown were forced to acknowledge Edward as their Lord Paramount and accept his arbitration. Their decision was influenced in part by the fact that most of the claimants had large estates in England and, therefore, would have lost them if they had defied the English king. However, many involved were churchmen such as Bishop Wishart for whom such mitigation cannot be claimed.[1] On 11 June, acting as the Lord Paramount of Scotland, Edward I ordered that every Scottish royal castle be placed temporarily under his control and every Scottish official resign his office and be re-appointed by him. Two days later, in Upsettlington, the Guardians of the Realm and the leading Scottish nobles gathered to swear allegiance to King Edward I as Lord Paramount. All Scots were also required to pay homage to Edward I, either in person or at one of the designated centres by 27 July 1291. There were thirteen meetings from May to August 1291 at Berwick, where the claimants to the crown pleaded their cases before Edward, in what came to be known as the "Great Cause". The claims of most of the competitors were rejected, leaving Balliol, Bruce, Floris V, Count of Holland and John de Hastings of Abergavenny, 2nd Baron Hastings, as the only men who could prove direct descent from David I. On 3 August, Edward asked Balliol and Bruce to choose 40 arbiters each, while he chose 24, to decide the case. On 12 August, he signed a writ that required the collection of all documents that might concern the competitors' rights or his own title to the superiority of Scotland, which was accordingly executed.[note 1] Balliol was named king by a majority on 17 November 1292 and on 30 November he was crowned King of Scots at Scone Abbey. On 26 December, at Newcastle upon Tyne, King John swore homage to Edward I for the Kingdom of Scotland. Edward soon made it clear that he regarded the country as a vassal state. Balliol, undermined by members of the Bruce faction, struggled to resist, and the Scots resented Edward's demands. In 1294, Edward summoned John Balliol to appear before him, and then ordered that he had until 1 September 1294 to provide Scottish troops and funds for his invasion of France. On his return to Scotland, John held a meeting with his council and after a few days of heated debate, plans were made to defy the orders of Edward I. A few weeks later a Scottish parliament was hastily convened and 12 members of a war council (four Earls, Barons, and Bishops, respectively) were selected to advise King John. Emissaries were immediately dispatched to inform King Philip IV of France of the intentions of the English. They also negotiated a treaty by which the Scots would invade England if the English invaded France, and in return the French would support the Scots. The treaty would be sealed by the arranged marriage of John's son Edward and Philip's niece Joan. Another treaty with King Eric II of Norway was hammered out, in which for the sum of 50,000 groats he would supply 100 ships for four months of the year, so long as hostilities between France and England continued. Although Norway never acted, the Franco-Scottish alliance, later known as the Auld Alliance, was renewed frequently until 1560. It was not until 1295 that Edward I became aware of the secret Franco-Scottish negotiations. In early October, he began to strengthen his northern defences against a possible invasion. It was at this point that Robert Bruce, 6th Lord of Annandale (father of the future King Robert the Bruce) was appointed by Edward as the governor of Carlisle Castle. Edward also ordered John Balliol to relinquish control of the castles and burghs of Berwick, Jedburgh and Roxburgh. In December, more than 200 of Edward's tenants in Newcastle were summoned to form a militia by March 1296 and in February, a fleet sailed north to meet his land forces in Newcastle. The movement of English forces along the Anglo-Scottish border did not go unnoticed. In response, King John Balliol summoned all able-bodied Scotsmen to bear arms and gather at Caddonlee by 11 March. Several Scottish nobles chose to ignore the summons, including Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, whose Carrick estates had been seized by John Balliol and reassigned to John 'The Red' Comyn. Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick had become Earl of Carrick at the resignation of his father earlier that year. Beginning of the war: 1296–1306 [ edit ] The dethroned King John, whom a Scottish chronicler dubbed 'toom tabard' ('empty coat') The First War of Scottish Independence can be loosely divided into four phases: the initial English invasion and success in 1296; the campaigns led by William Wallace, Andrew de Moray and various Scottish Guardians from 1297 until John Comyn negotiated for the general Scottish submission in February 1304; the renewed campaigns led by Robert the Bruce following his killing of The Red Comyn in Dumfries in 1306 to his and the Scottish victory at Bannockburn in 1314; and a final phase of Scottish diplomatic initiatives and military campaigns in Scotland, Ireland and Northern England from 1314 until the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328. The war began in earnest with Edward I's brutal sacking of Berwick in March 1296, followed by the Scottish defeat at the Battle of Dunbar and the abdication of John Balliol in July.[3] The English invasion campaign had subdued most of the country by August and, after removing the Stone of Destiny from Scone Abbey and transporting it to Westminster Abbey, Edward convened a parliament at Berwick, where the Scottish nobles paid homage to him as King of England. Scotland had been all but conquered. The revolts which broke out in early 1297, led by William Wallace, Andrew de Moray and other Scottish nobles, forced Edward to send more forces to deal with the Scots, and although they managed to force the nobles to capitulate at Irvine, Wallace and de Moray's continuing campaigns eventually led to the first key Scottish victory, at Stirling Bridge. Moray was fatally wounded in the fighting at Stirling, and died soon after the battle. This was followed by Scottish raids into northern England and the appointment of Wallace as Guardian of Scotland in March 1298. But in July, Edward invaded again, intending to crush Wallace and his followers, and defeated the Scots at Falkirk. Edward failed to subdue Scotland completely before returning to England. There have been, however, several stories regarding Wallace and what he did after the Battle of Falkirk. It is said by some sources that Wallace travelled to France and fought for the French King against the English during their own ongoing war while Bishop Lamberton of St Andrews, who gave much support to the Scottish cause, went and spoke to the pope. Notable figures from the first War of Independence as depicted by the Victorian artist William Hole Wallace was succeeded by Robert Bruce and John Comyn as joint guardians, with William de Lamberton, Bishop of St Andrews being appointed in 1299 as a third, neutral Guardian to try to maintain order between them. During that year, diplomatic pressure from France and Rome persuaded Edward to release the imprisoned King John into the custody of the pope, and Wallace was sent to France to seek the aid of Philip IV; he possibly also travelled to Rome. Further campaigns by Edward in 1300 and 1301 led to a truce between the Scots and the English in 1302. After another campaign in 1303/1304, Stirling Castle, the last major Scottish-held stronghold, fell to the English, and in February 1304, negotiations led to most of the remaining nobles paying homage to Edward and to the Scots all but surrendering. At this point, Robert Bruce and William Lamberton may have made a secret bond of alliance, aiming to place Bruce on the Scottish throne and continue the struggle. However, Lamberton came from a family associated with the Balliol-Comyn faction and his ultimate allegiances are unknown. After the capture and execution of Wallace in 1305, Scotland seemed to have been finally conquered and the revolt calmed for a period. King Robert the Bruce: 1306–1328 [ edit ] Bannockburn Monument plaque On 10 February 1306, during a meeting between Bruce and Comyn, the two surviving claimants for the Scottish throne, Bruce quarrelled with and killed John Comyn at Greyfriars Kirk in Dumfries. At this moment the rebellion was sparked again.[4] Comyn, it seems, had broken an agreement between the two, and informed King Edward of Bruce's plans to be king. The agreement was that one of the two claimants would renounce his claim on the throne of Scotland, but receive lands from the other and support his claim. Comyn appears to have thought to get both the lands and the throne by betraying Bruce to the English. A messenger carrying documents from Comyn to Edward was captured by Bruce and his party, plainly implicating Comyn. Bruce then rallied the Scottish prelates and nobles behind him and had himself crowned King of Scots at Scone less than five weeks after the killing in Dumfries. He then began a new campaign to free his kingdom. After being defeated in battle he was driven from the Scottish mainland as an outlaw. Bruce later came out of hiding in 1307. The Scots thronged to him, and he defeated the English in a number of battles. His forces continued to grow in strength, encouraged in part by the death of Edward I in July 1307. The Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 was an especially important Scottish victory. In 1320, the Declaration of Arbroath was sent by a group of Scottish nobles to the Pope affirming Scottish independence from England. Two similar declarations were also sent by the clergy and Robert I. In 1327, Edward II of England was deposed and killed. The invasion of the North of England by Robert the Bruce forced Edward III of England to sign the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton on 1 May 1328, which recognised the independence of Scotland with Bruce as King. To further seal the peace, Robert's son and heir David married the sister of Edward III. The Second War of Independence: 1332–1357 [ edit ] After Robert the Bruce's death, King David II was too young to rule, so the guardianship was assumed by Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray. But Edward III, despite having given his name to the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton, was determined to avenge the humiliation by the Scots and he could count on the assistance of Edward Balliol, the son of John Balliol and a claimant to the Scottish throne. Edward III also had the support of a group of Scottish nobles, led by Balliol and Henry Beaumont, known as the 'Disinherited.' This group of nobles had supported the English in the First War and, after Bannockburn, Robert the Bruce had given them a year to return to his peace. When they refused he deprived them of their titles and lands, granting them to his allies. When peace was concluded, they received no war reparations. These 'Disinherited' were hungry for their old lands and would prove to be the undoing of the peace. The Earl of Moray died on 20 July 1332. The Scots nobility gathered at Perth where they elected Domhnall II, Earl of Mar as the new Guardian. Meanwhile, a small band led by Balliol had set sail from the Humber. Consisting of the disinherited noblemen and mercenaries, they were probably no more than a few hundred men strong. Edward III was still formally at peace with David II and his dealings with Balliol were therefore deliberately obscured. He of course knew what was happening and Balliol probably did homage in secret before leaving, but Balliol's desperate scheme must have seemed doomed to failure. Edward therefore refused to allow Balliol to invade Scotland from across the River Tweed. This would have been too open a breach of the treaty. He agreed to turn a blind eye to an invasion by sea, but made it clear that he would disavow them and confiscate all their English lands should Balliol and his friends fail. The 'Disinherited' landed at Kinghorn in Fife on 6 August. The news of their advance had preceded them, and, as they marched towards Perth, they found their route barred by a large Scottish army, mostly of infantry, under the new Guardian. At the Battle of Dupplin Moor, Balliol's army, commanded by Henry Beaumont, defeated the larger Scottish force. Beaumont made use of the same tactics that the English would make famous during the Hundred Years' War, with dismounted knights in the centre and archers on the flanks. Caught in the murderous rain of arrows, most of the Scots didn't reach the enemy's line. When the slaughter was finally over, the Earl of Mar, Sir Robert Bruce (an illegitimate son of Robert the Bruce), many nobles and around 2,000 Scots had been slain. Edward Balliol then had himself crowned King of Scots, first at Perth, and then again in September at Scone Abbey. Balliol's success surprised Edward III, and fearing that Balliol's invasion would eventually fail leading to a Scots invasion of England, he moved north with his army. In October, Sir Archibald Douglas, now Guardian of Scotland, made a truce with Balliol, supposedly to let the Scottish Parliament assemble and decide who their true king was. Emboldened by the truce, Balliol dismissed most of his English troops and moved to Annan, on the north shore of the Solway Firth. He issued two public letters, saying that with the help of England he had reclaimed his kingdom, and acknowledged that Scotland had always been a fief of England. He also promised land for Edward III on the border, including Berwick-on-Tweed, and that he would serve Edward for the rest of his life. But in December, Douglas attacked Balliol at Annan in the early hours of the morning. Most of Balliol's men were killed, though he himself managed to escape through a hole in the wall, and fled, naked and on horse, to Carlisle. Edward III invades Scotland, from an edition of Froissart's Chronicles In April 1333, Edward III and Balliol, with a large English army, laid siege to Berwick. Archibald Douglas attempted to relieve the town in July, but was defeated and killed at the Battle of Halidon Hill. David II and his Queen were moved to the safety of Dumbarton Castle, while Berwick surrendered and was annexed by Edward. By now, much of Scotland was under English occupation, with eight of the Scottish lowland counties being ceded to England by Edward Balliol. At the beginning of 1334, Philip VI of France offered to bring David II and his court to France for asylum, and in May they arrived in France, setting up a court-in-exile at Château Gaillard in Normandy. Philip also decided to derail the Anglo-French peace negotiations then taking place (at the time England and France were engaged in disputes that would lead to the Hundred Years' War), declaring to Edward III that any treaty between France and England must include the exiled King of Scots. In David's absence, a series of Guardians kept up the struggle. In November, Edward III invaded again, but he accomplished little and retreated in February 1335 due primarily to his failure to bring the Scots to battle. He and Edward Balliol returned again in July with an army of 13,000, and advanced through Scotland, first to Glasgow and then to Perth, where Edward III installed himself while his army looted and destroyed the surrounding countryside. At this time, the Scots followed a plan of avoiding pitched battles, depending instead on minor actions of heavy cavalry – the normal practice of the day. Some Scottish leaders, including the Earl of Atholl, who had returned to Scotland with Edward Balliol in 1332 and 1333, defected to the Bruce party. Following Edward's return to England, the remaining leaders of the Scots resistance chose Sir Andrew Murray as Guardian. He soon negotiated a truce with Edward until April 1336, during which, various French and Papal emissaries attempted to negotiate a peace between the two countries. In January, the Scots drew up a draft treaty agreeing to recognise the elderly and childless Edward Balliol as King, so long as David II would be his heir and David would leave France to live in England. However, David II rejected the peace proposal and any further truces. In May, an English army under Henry of Lancaster invaded, followed in July by another army under King Edward. Together, they ravaged much of the north-east and sacked Elgin and Aberdeen, while a third army ravaged the south-west and the Clyde valley. Prompted by this invasion, Philip VI of France announced that he intended to aid the Scots by every means in his power, and that he had a large fleet and army preparing to invade both England and Scotland. Edward soon returned to England, while the Scots, under Murray, captured and destroyed English strongholds and ravaged the countryside, making it uninhabitable for the English. Although Edward III invaded again, he was becoming more anxious over the possible French invasion, and by late 1336, the Scots had regained control over virtually all of Scotland and by 1338 the tide had turned. While "Black Agnes," Countess-consort Dunbar and March, continued to resist the English laying siege to Dunbar Castle, hurling defiance and abuse from the walls, Scotland received some breathing space when Edward III claimed the French throne and took his army to Flanders, beginning the Hundred Years' War with France. In the late autumn of 1335, Strathbogie, dispossessed Earl of Atholl, and Edward III set out to destroy Scottish resistance by dispossessing and killing the Scottish freeholders. Following this, Strathbogie moved to lay siege to Kildrummy Castle, held by Lady Christian Bruce, sister of the late King Robert and wife of the Guardian, Andrew de Moray. Her husband moved his small army quickly to her relief although outnumbered by some five to one. However, many of Strathbogie's men had been impressed and had no loyalty to the English or the usurper, Balliol. Pinned by a flank attack while making a downhill charge, Strathbogie's army broke and Strathbogie refused to surrender and was killed. The Battle of Culblean was the effective end of Balliol's attempt to overthrow the King of Scots. So, in just nine years, the kingdom so hard won by Robert the Bruce had been shattered and had recovered. Many of her experienced nobles were dead and the economy which had barely begun to recover from the earlier wars was once again in tatters. It was to an impoverished country in need of peace and good government that David II was finally able to return in June 1341. David II (lower left) captured at Neville's Cross, from an edition of Froissart's Chronicles When David returned, he was determined to live up to the memory of his illustrious father. He ignored truces with England and was determined to stand by his ally Philip VI during the early years of the Hundred Years' War. In 1341 he led a raid into England, forcing Edward III to lead an army north to reinforce the border. In 1346, after more Scottish raids, Philip VI appealed for a counter invasion of England in order to relieve the English stranglehold on Calais. David gladly accepted and personally led a Scots army southwards with intention of capturing Durham. In reply, an English army moved northwards from Yorkshire to confront the Scots. On 14 October, at the Battle of Neville's Cross, the Scots were defeated. They suffered heavy casualties and David was wounded in the face by two arrows before being captured. He was sufficiently strong however to knock out two teeth from the mouth of his captor. After a period of convalescence, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he was held prisoner for eleven years, during which time Scotland was ruled by his nephew, Robert Stewart, 7th High Steward. Edward Balliol returned to Scotland soon afterwards with a small force, in a final attempt to recover Scotland. He only succeeded in gaining control of some of Galloway, with his power diminishing there until 1355. He finally resigned his claim to the Scottish throne in January 1356 and died childless in 1364. David II pays homage to Edward III Finally, on 3 October 1357, David was released under the Treaty of Berwick, under which the Scots agreed to pay an enormous ransom of 100,000 merks for him (1 merk was ⅔ of an English pound) payable in 10 years. Heavy taxation was needed to provide funds for the ransom, which was to be paid in instalments, and David alienated his subjects by using the money for his own purposes. The country was in a sorry state then; she had been ravaged by war and also the Black Death. The first instalment of the ransom was paid punctually. The second was late and after that no more could be paid. In 1363, David went to London and agreed that should he die childless, the crown would pass to Edward (his brother-in-law) or one of his sons, with the Stone of Destiny being returned for their coronation as King of Scots. However, this seems to have been no more than a rather dishonest attempt to re-negotiate the ransom since David knew perfectly well that Parliament would reject such an arrangement out of hand. The Scots did reject this arrangement, and offered to continue paying the ransom (now increased to 100,000 pounds). A 25-year truce was agreed and in 1369, the treaty of 1365 was cancelled and a new one set up to the Scots' benefit, due to the influence of the war with France. The new terms saw the 44,000 merks already paid deducted from the original 100,000 with the balance due in instalments of 4,000 for the next 14 years. When Edward died in 1377, there were still 24,000 merks owed, which were never paid. David himself had lost his popularity and the respect of his nobles when he married the widow of a minor laird after the death of his English wife. He himself died in February 1371. By the end of the campaign, Scotland was independent and remained thus, until the unification of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland to create the single Kingdom of Great Britain was completed in the Treaty of Union of 1707. Major battles and events [ edit ] Important figures [ edit ] Scotland [ edit ] England [ edit ] Other important figures [ edit ] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] Notes ^ [2] The writ required the collection of ".... all the charters instruments rolls and writs whatsoever that might concern the rights of the competitors, or his own pretended title to the superiority of Scotland, to be carried off and placed where he should appoint; and these to be put into the hands of five persons, two Scots and three English; and these last to act by themselves, if the two first happened to be hindered." Citations |
6. Ferrari Missed Out 5. Clarkson Doubled As A Car Salesman 4. James May Used To Have Normal Hair... 3. ...And Isn't The Sensible One After All? 2. The Ford Fiesta Isn't Watertight? 1. Lotus Designed The TG Track However, the BBC show was last year recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as being the most widely watched factual television programme…. It’s shown in 212 countries, and ranks incredibly highly among the most illegally downloaded TV shows...you guessed it...in the world. Consequently, a great deal is known about Top Gear and its presenters, but with any luck, we think we might’ve unearthed a few tidbits of info’ you may not have known before.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_jzNGUVkXo Jezza originally wanted to take aon the trio’s latest US road-trip, to do battle with Hammond’s Viper and May’s Vanquish. However, as Ferrari wasn’t able to deliver the goods, he was forced to take a, a car he’s since called the best he’s ever driven. Similarly, JC was forced into aafter thehe was scheduled to drive for the track-day challenge was damaged. So, even TG doesn’t have free reign over whichever car they so choose…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfdktvDuIlU TG doesn’t bill itself as a legitimate consumer advice show, chiefly because they spend most of their time. However, TG does have a track record when it comes to shifting cars. After therace was broadcast, Aston reportedly took ain a matter of days. Moreover, theallegedly became an overnight success after JC’s glowing review. Most recently, searches for used Subarus skyrocketed after the team’s African adventure.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SADOTynwOE Those of you who’ve been watching “new” Top Gear since the very beginning may remember that Cpt. Slow only joined the team at the beginning of Series Two, after Jason Dawe was unceremoniously dropped from the ticket. This wasn’t May’s first appearance on TG, however. He appeared in a few episodes of “old” TG in 1999 (when he had proper hair), where he filmed theThis isn’t the only skeleton in Slow’s closet, however. In 1992 he wasafter studiously editing the articles to create a hidden message. The first letter of each article in the magazine’s Road Test Yearbook formed a part of May’s message. It read: "So you think it's really good, yeah? You should try making the bloody thing up; it's a real pain in the arse." You probably knew this one, but it was justgood…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e7R3y-qwZ0 Remember the first of “new” TG’s “sensible” road tests? Jezza put a little lime green (or “Squeeze” as Ford called it) Fiesta through a host of “real life” tests. He was, and helped the Royal Marines with a. TG actually usedFiestas to make that film, at least one of which was completely waterproofed for use in the final scene. Rumour has it Ford of China wanted to use the Fiesta’s water-wading capabilities as a selling point - until Ford of Europe told them...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CRV6xDpkZo We’ve spent many an hour at CT longing for our very own testing facility. When TG was commissioned in 2002,stepped forward to design the now famous circuit around the. It has since been used by McLaren as an official testing facility. |
In 2013, more favoured than opposed fracking in Britain. Since then, public sentiment has reversed With David Cameron’s new all-Conservative cabinet now in place and Parliament back in session, much of Westminster’s attention will once again turn back to governing. One major issue facing the next Parliament is Britain’s future with fracking, the controversial drilling technique credited with the recent boom in US shale oil and gas drilling. The Conservative party has shown support for the use of fracking, but it faces opposition from local communities and environmental groups. YouGov’s latest research shows that fracking proponents may be facing an increasingly sceptical public. A new survey conducted for the Sunday Times shows that, provided with a description of how the process works as well as some of its potential benefits and risks, opinions now lean against the use of fracking in Britain. 43% say shale gas extraction should not happen in the country while a third think it should. This suggests an insignificant shift against fracking since January but a much larger change from surveys in previous years, when as many as 44% of British people supported the use of fracking and only 29% were opposed. Since 2013, the issue has risen in profile and some MPs have called for a fracking ban. The latest survey also asked respondents how they would feel about fracking in their own area, which has been met with particular opposition in the past. This continues to be the case, with 49% opposed to fracking in “a town or village near you” and 27% in support. Respondents remain on balance opposed, 44% to 32%, even if £1,000,000 is paid to the local council, and are even slightly opposed, 40% to 36%, when the sum rises to £10,000,000. Really green? The new Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Amber Rudd, has been described as “really green and no-nonsense”. The new poll suggests the public also remain broadly sympathetic to some “green” concerns, especially relating to climate change. Only 12% are “most supportive” of using fossil fuels to meet Britain’s future energy generation needs, while 46% prefer renewable energy sources – though 24% back nuclear power, which has been opposed by some environmentalists. 58% say the government should encourage the building of onshore wind farms, but only 37% want the government backing onshore wind. Rudd has indicated the Conservative party will withdraw government subsidies for onshore wind farms. 59% believe in man-made climate change, consistent with past surveys and even a modest increase from 2013, when around half believed. Half the public (50%) and the majority of adults under-40 also believe the government should do more to try and tackle climate change, against a third who say it’s already doing enough (21%) or too much (13%). PA image See the full Sunday Times results |
Thanks to It and Stranger Things, it makes sense that any scifi or fantasy property that revolves around scrappy kids would get put on the fast track. And a new one has entered the fray, plucked from the same era that inspired those two hits: a remake of 1986 kid-meets-aliens adventure Flight of the Navigator. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Joe Henderson—showrunner on Lucifer, which returns Monday to Fox—will put the Devil aside temporarily to pen a script for the reboot. The original film, a Disney release, is about a 12-year-old Florida kid who goes missing in 1978 and turns up in 1986, having not aged a day. The reason: aliens (led by Max, who’s voiced by Paul “Pee-Wee Herman” Reubens), who end up needing his help to fix their broken ship so they can return home, no thanks to the interference of NASA along the way. So far there’s no word on how Henderson might change the story, or if the new Navigator will update its setting to the present day or even the future. Advertisement After a proposed Disney version of the remake failed to launch in 2009, this new Lionsgate-made version of the film will be produced by the Henson Co., which will no doubt bring its puppet expertise in helping craft the movie’s cast of alien and robot characters. |
After several days on display and complaints from parents, the superintendent ordered a holiday display taken down at Barnard Elementary School.VIDEO: School takes down religious displays after parents raise concernsWhile the display at Barnard, called “A Wiccan Yule,” is now gone, the controversy it created still lingers.“If you plant a seed, it's liable to grow,” said Charles White, the great-grandfather of a Barnard student.The bulletin board with pictures of candles and a pentagram was put up by a teacher so students could learn about Wicca and the religion’s holiday traditions.Wicca is a religion based on witchcraft traditions that predate Christianity.“I’m glad they took it down because I don't believe in witchcraft," said Everett Barker, the grandfather of a former student. "That's more or less the devil worship."Not everyone in the small town agrees, including the mother of a Barnard student who asked not to be identified.“I was actually pretty mad about it," the mother said. "I think it should have been left up. It's culture."The school superintendent declined to comment on the display’s removal. After several days on display and complaints from parents, the superintendent ordered a holiday display taken down at Barnard Elementary School. VIDEO: School takes down religious displays after parents raise concerns Advertisement While the display at Barnard, called “A Wiccan Yule,” is now gone, the controversy it created still lingers. “If you plant a seed, it's liable to grow,” said Charles White, the great-grandfather of a Barnard student. The bulletin board with pictures of candles and a pentagram was put up by a teacher so students could learn about Wicca and the religion’s holiday traditions. Wicca is a religion based on witchcraft traditions that predate Christianity. “I’m glad they took it down because I don't believe in witchcraft," said Everett Barker, the grandfather of a former student. "That's more or less the devil worship." Not everyone in the small town agrees, including the mother of a Barnard student who asked not to be identified. “I was actually pretty mad about it," the mother said. "I think it should have been left up. It's culture." The school superintendent declined to comment on the display’s removal. AlertMe |
Sarah Slocum loves her Google Glass. She wears the gadget on her face for more than 12 hours a day and enjoys showing others how to use it. With the wink of an eye she can take a picture, or use her voice to command it to record video. The device is, she says, “the future”. So it was with some shock that she discovered there are those who disagree. Rather forcibly in fact. On a recent outing to a bar in San Francisco, the 34-year-old technology writer says she was attacked by people who told her “F--- Google!”, accused her of “killing this city” and ripped the hi-tech gear from her head. The incident has become a touchstone for a wider debate in San Francisco, where a section of the otherwise tolerant, liberal and peace-loving population appears to have had enough of the inexorable march of technology. Bars and coffee shops have begun putting up signs banning Google Glass devices. Special buses that take employees to work in nearby Silicon Valley have been picketed. Hundreds of demonstrators recently gathered outside Twitter’s headquarters to protest about tax breaks for the company. Protesters hold signs while demonstrating in front of the Twitter Inc. headquarters in San Francisco, California, U.S. (Bloomberg) And, most of all, there is anger over spiralling rents and evictions as young tech workers colonise previously low-income areas. Miss Slocum is one of several thousand “explorers” across the world road-testing Google’s latest gadget. As with any late-night bar fracas, there are conflicting accounts of what happened at 1.30am in Molotov’s, a dimly lit, cash only bar. But she insists she was not recording anyone or invading their privacy, simply demonstrating the device to some interested patrons, when some other customers began rolling their eyes. She said: “A few minutes later ... they cursed at me. I started feeling threatened. At that point I decided I was going to turn on the camera and start recording this hateful, threatening behaviour. “Then a guy and a girl charged me. The guy started waving his hands and trying to grab the Glass. I couldn’t believe they were behaving that way. All I could do was say, 'I’m recording you. I’m recording you’. They were calling me the B-word.” After a hiatus, someone threw a dirty bar rag at her, she said, and a woman came over and said: “You’re killing this city.” Curses were exchanged and, according to Miss Slocum, a man ripped the device off her face and ran out of the bar with it. She pursued and grabbed him, regaining the Glass after a scuffle. What was perhaps more telling than the incident itself was the reaction after she detailed her encounter on Facebook and said it constituted a “hate crime”. There was some of the sympathy one would expect, but many blamed her for having taken a recording device into a bar in the first place. Google Glass (Rex) In the days that followed, a series of bars and coffee shops banned the device. At The Willows, which is popular with young technology types, a sign in the window shows the Glass with a red line though it. “Our patrons have expressed concern with being recorded while enjoying themselves,” it reads. One customer said: “The Google Glass is extreme tech. You don’t know you’re being recorded. People want some privacy.” The furore follows another divisive controversy in San Francisco, that of its “Google Buses”, which has pitted technology workers against residents of traditionally low-income areas such as the formerly bohemian and artistic Mission district. Giant, air-conditioned, internet-equipped buses with tinted windows now glide past the thrift stores and second-hand book shops there, taking workers to their jobs 30 miles away at companies such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Apple and Yahoo. Watching them go by, long-time residents see a visible reminder of the “one percenters” in their midst as they are forced to rely on a more rickety, century-old public transit system. It has led to protests, bus tyres being slashed and stones hurled. Signs have been taped to the vehicles reading “F--- off Google”. A recent study found the average passenger on these buses is a 30-year-old man earning more than $100,000. But when The Telegraph visited a pick-up point in the Mission at 7am, the people didn’t look very happy about it. A line of workers stood against a wall attempting to look inconspicuous, wearing earphones and staring determinedly down at their smartphones in silence. The question “Excuse me sir, do you work for Google, are you getting on the bus?” elicited the wary response: “Er, I’m very sorry, I don’t feel comfortable talking about it.” Even anonymously? “No.” One employee eventually broke ranks but still declined to give his name. He said: “This a real problem and there’s a big internal dialogue going on in our companies about what to do, whether to make the buses look different, and also about rent control. The free market people don’t agree with rent control, but someone put a brick through one of the bus windows recently so they’re worried. “You have all these nerds who grew up feeling fairly victimised and now they are in positions of extreme privilege and wealth. But they’re getting picked on and a lot of them feel like they’re right back at high school again being bullied. People are upset.” Tony Robles, who runs a Mission housing advocacy group for the elderly and disabled, and who has been involved in peaceful protests against the buses, said: “Do you honestly think I want to get up at 6am and chase a bus? It’s reached boiling point. We’re seeing the rise of the tech-washed digital human. This insulated world they live in is creating a lot of resentment with long-time residents, the people that contribute culturally to our city.” Mr Robles said the technology workers were “aloof” and like “shadows” but the main problems were caused by “mean-spirited speculators” buying properties and evicting long-term tenants, so that rents can be raised astronomically. In San Francisco, 23.4 per cent of residents are below the poverty threshold, according to a recent study. In December alone, rents went up by 10.6 per cent. In the Mission, a two-bedroom apartment recently went on the market for $10,000 a month, which probably had the regulars at Molotov’s spluttering into their $2 beers. Google, whose motto is “Don’t be evil”, knows it has a problem and is determined to make San Francisco love it again. Last week it donated $6.8 million to the city, which will allow underprivileged children to ride public buses free of charge for the next two years. Miss Slocum believes differences will be resolved. “I’m really excited about the time we’re living in,” she said. “Every day there is some new invention that’s going to dramatically change our lives.” |
I can remember watching the Olympics as a 10-year-old and being so inspired by the spectacle that I restaged the events in my backyard, excitedly competing (against myself) to set a series of make-believe world records. When it was announced in 2005 that London had won its bid to stage the 30th Olympiad, I was pleased: now the Olympics really would be coming to my backyard. But I didn't expect to feel excited. And as the opening ceremony grew closer, and the stories of mismanagement multiplied, I feared the worst. I was wrong. Most of us were wrong. The last two weeks have been amazing. I'm embarrassed to admit how many times my eyes have welled up. And even more embarrassed that the cause has usually been a British medal. "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel," Samuel Johnson said. I've not often felt proud of being British. But pride of some sort seems to have affected most of the country. There are different kinds of pride contained within it: civic or county pride (Yorkshire has had a great Games), ethnic pride (in seeing black British or mixed race athletes win gold), family pride (as felt by parents, partners and children). But they all come under the one flag. What's wonderful about the crowds waving their union flags inside Olympic venues or sitting in front of giant screens across the country is how diverse they are, yet how united. The Games have been the most inclusive event in Britain in my lifetime. They've reclaimed the flag from the bigots and sectarians who use it to divide us one from the other. They'd done so by highlighting qualities we can all celebrate – not the worthless tat of celebrity culture, but physical prowess, mental agility, tactical skill, speed, endurance, dedication and hard work. Pride is a dangerous thing, a precursor to arrogance and hubris. We should not start deluding ourselves that we're the third most powerful nation on Earth just because we're sitting third in the medals table. Luckily, most Brits have a saving sense of irony. The Games are only games. Those pink and purple outfits the Olympic volunteers wear set the tone. So did the humour in Danny Boyle's opening ceremony. There's been something ever so slightly camp about these Olympics, a joke we can share, something to enjoy together but not to be taken too seriously. Runners in yellow shoes? That chap on the motorbike leading out the cyclists in the keirin? Britain winning medals? Pull the other one. Humour wasn't much in evidence in the build-up to the Games. Columnists solemnly declared it our moment of truth, the 17 days that would tell the world, and ourselves, what Britain stood for. The completion of the Olympic Park venues ahead of schedule might have been taken as a good sign; the procession of the Olympic torch as a measure of the public's enthusiasm for the Games; Bradley Wiggins's victory in the Tour de France just a week before as a mark of how well our athletes might perform. But the mood was sceptical. Slightly panicked, too, as if a sporting festival begun 2,000-odd years ago in Athens might lead to Armageddon. Would London be able to cope with the influx of visitors? What impression of Britain would our guests have if they suffered long queues at passport control, overcrowded trains and traffic gridlock caused by VIP lanes? Boris Johnson's voice could be heard at tube stations, warning of disruption. And motorway signs urged those travelling to Olympic events to allow plenty time and plan their journeys carefully. But who were these people? It seemed very few people in Britain had succeeded in getting tickets, no matter how many hours they'd spent on the Locog website. Resentment mounted. I felt it myself, not just for failing to get tickets, but because of what was happening where I live in south London, where most of Greenwich Park was closed for three months in order to stage the equestrian events and where ground-to-air missiles were installed on Blackheath. The missiles were allegedly there to combat any terrorist attack, but their mere presence was scary. At the 1972 Munich Olympics, 11 Israeli athletes and coaches had been shot dead. Would security be any tighter 40 years on? When G4S admitted that it could not provide the 10,000 security staff it had been paid millions of pounds to recruit, the omens looked grim. The spiralling cost of the Games, the bullying demands of corporate sponsors, the ineptitude when a bus bringing a visiting team from Heathrow to Stratford got lost because the driver couldn't operate his satnav – Sebastian Coe's great dream was threatening to become a nightmare. And it wouldn't stop raining. The opening ceremony lifted spirits. Even if you missed the history lesson underpinning it, about our transformation from smock-clad-peasants-round-a-maypole feudalism, through smoking-chimneys industrial revolution, to digital togetherness, the spectacle was terrific. Children trampolining on NHS beds while the Queen parachuted into the Olympic stadium with James Bond – it was eccentric, bonkers even, but very GB. Our early hosting when competition began wasn't encouraging, however. The North Korean women's football team walked off the pitch when the South Korean flag was displayed instead of their own. Worse was the sight of rows of empty seats. Was it foreign sports federations that were failing to use them? Or corporate sponsors? Whichever, it was a disgrace. Miserabilism was growing, and things weren't much brighter for Team GB. After Mark Cavendish failed to deliver on the first day, Lizzie Armitstead in the cycling road race and Rebecca Adlington in the 400m freestyle gave us a modicum of respectability, with a silver and a bronze. But next day it got worse again, when Tom Daley and partner screwed up their fourth dive. Our swimmers took their failures in good heart; one recommended swimming as a way of staying fit. This wasn't the ruthlessness billions of lottery money had been spent on. Even Ben Ainslie, one of our gold certs, was struggling. By the end of the fourth day, Team GB was a lowly 20th in the medals table. Though our athletes praised the crowd for their tremendous support, the pressure seemed to be getting to them. Home disadvantage. Day five brought a gold at last, for our women double scullers. And the sun came out for Bradley Wiggins. Team GB climbed to 11th in the medals table. Next day was even better. Three golds – Chris Hoy and team in the cycling, Peter Wilson in the double trap (clay pigeon shooting), and a gold and silver in the men's canoe slalom. By the end of the day we were up to fifth in the table. Still, no one could have predicted what happened last Saturday, 4 August 2012, a day to match or even eclipse 30 July 1966 in British sporting history: six gold medals in one day, and three athletics golds (Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah, Greg Rutherford) in a single evening session. The roar in the Olympic stadium was extraordinary. Over at Wimbledon, as Andy Murray reached the tennis final, a new chant went up: Gee-Bee clap-clap-clap, Gee-Bee clap-clap-clap. When the men's football team went out the way our national teams always do – in a penalty shoot-out in the quarter finals – it seemed inconsequential, comical even, not a cause for grief. There was too much else to delight in. The delight isn't just a matter of winning medals, but it helps. And British success has continued through the second week: the fabulous Brownlee brothers, Chris Hoy, Laura Trott, Jason Kenny, Nicola Adams, Jade Jones and many more. Bums on seats were always a good bet for British medals; our boats, bikes and horse riders tend to do well. But gymnastics? Boxing? Taekwondo? The triathlon? Our national self-image has been severely challenged. We thought we were losers. And we're not. Some of the failures were equally enthralling. So, too, was seeing the joy of less privileged nations as their athletes won gold, or hearing stories of competitors overcoming adversity (injury, bankruptcy, bereavement) during their preparations. Accusations of cheating have been few. And if Team GB has benefited in those sports where judges give marks (equestrianism, boxing, gymnastics), that's par for the course with host nations. There have been few drug scandals, so far. One US coach insinuated that 16-year-old Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen's world record was "disturbing". But when 15-year-old Katie Ledecky won the 800m freestyle for the US, he kept his mouth shut. Another swimming gold was won by 15-year-old Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte, trained in Plymouth. Teenage success has been a big story at these games. At 23, Rebecca Adlington says she's now too old. Have the Games been an escape from reality? Not for athletes and their coaches but for the rest of us, yes, of course. The economy's still a mess, Syria is at war with itself, and David Cameron is prime minister. But for 17 days we could forget all that. The broadsheets and tabloids became one long sports section. Even the news on Radio 3 one day began with a couple of sports stories. If we'd landed on Mars no one would have noticed. We did land on Mars? I must have missed it. Those of us without tickets had to rely on television and Radio 5. This was the first digital Olympics, and the red button gave us unprecedented freedom: the right to roam, if only the length of the sofa. With due allowance for jingoism, the BBC coverage was generally excellent, and atoned for its performance at the Queen's diamond jubilee. Inevitably some of the commentary was vacuous ("He gave that everything" – it's the Olympics, stupid, why wouldn't he?) and I swear I heard Tim Henman say that Andy Murray beat Roger Federer by forcing him into unforced errors. But few athletes were described as having medalled, and none of having podiumed. The women commentators and analysts (Hazel Irvine, Denise Lewis and, above all, Clare Balding) came out top, overshadowing John Inverdale and that bland punster Gary Lineker. And the athletes were so well behaved. Win or lose, they'd walk straight from competing to give interviews. Goldie Sayers, the British javelin thrower, broke down with an injury during her event, then broke down in tears in front of the camera. Victoria Pendleton was tearful too. Some of the losers spoke of the four-year "journey" they'd been on and apologised for letting us down. They needn't have. The vast majority of Olympic competitors are bound to leave empty-handed. For many of those athletes who broke into smiles as they entered the stadium during the opening ceremony, that was as good as it got. By next lunchtime, some of them had already been eliminated. Much of the talk about legacy and the next generation is hollow. It is hard to see how young people in my area, for instance, will have been inspired by the dressage event at Greenwich. And I'm not sure I want them to be inspired by the shooting competitions that took place in Woolwich. But plenty of other Team GB successes are inspiring. And we've also learned about sports we don't excel at, such as handball, which ought be introduced at every school in the country (all you need is a ball and a set of goalposts). We're as sports mad as the Aussies just now and we should build on that. Academic achievements won't suffer if PE is given more time on the curriculum. They might even flourish. Mens sana in corpore sano. Come Monday, many of us are going to feel very flat. But there are images that will live on: the amazement on sculler Katherine Copeland's face (reminiscent of Kelly Holmes in Athens) when she realised she'd just won gold and mouthed to her partner Sophie Hosking "We're going to be on a stamp"; the Russian high jumper Ivan Ukhov failing to find the competitor's vest he'd removed after a previous jump and clearing the bar in a floppy T-shirt instead; the women heptathletes linking hands as they paraded round the stadium with Jessica Ennis; Usain Bolt's sprint double and David Rudisha's 800m world record; Bradley's sideburns, Jessica's smile. Most of us alive today won't experience another Olympics in this country. Like all good things – like parties, like the 100m, like life itself – the Games will soon be over, and far too quick. But the Paralympics are still to come. And I have tickets for those. |
Get the biggest politics stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Ukip have selected a 21-year-old student and former Lib Dem activist to stand against Nick Clegg in the 2015 election. Joe Jenkins, a student from Oxford, studying in Dundee is chair of Ukip's national student wing and a former member of the Liberal Democrats. He left the party over their u-turn on University tuition fees. The local Labour candidate accused Ukip of 'parachuting' Jenkins in to a seat where he won't understand local issues. Jenkins says he wanted to challenge the seat to expose "the outright betrayal of students by the other political parties and especially Nick Clegg." “I was a Lib Dem member but left the party due to the lies and betrayal from MPs like him." Sheffield Hallam was once a Lib Dem stronghold, with Nick Clegg holding the seat with a 15,000 majority in 2010. But the Cleggmania that saw huge queues of students at polling stations has fallen away, and Labour are now neck-and-neck in the polls. ElectionForecast.co.uk has the Lib Dems just two points ahead of Labour on predicted vote share, with Ukip on just 7%. Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now Labour candidate Oliver Coppard described Ukip's policies as "divisive and backward looking" and said "Given that this guy is being parachuted in from who knows where I don't know how he looks to understand local issues in any meaningful way" Mr Jenkins is in his final year studying politics at the University of Dundee. He founded Ukip Students after visiting the NUS conference and "seeing delegates vote to oppose Ukip." Neither The University of Sheffield Students' Union or Sheffield Hallam University Student's Union has a Ukip society. "I want to galvanise the young people of Sheffield Hallam" he said. "And show them that there is still hope and that political engagement will not result in lies and deceit." Jenkins told the Guardian he had actively campaigned for the Liberal Democrats at the 2010 election. "I campaigned and told all my friends to vote for the Liberal Democrats," he said. "Because ‘when we go to university it’ll be free’. And then for me to turn around and tell my friends, ‘Oh, sorry, they lied to me too’ – it was ridiculous. I’ll never forgive them for it." Ukip say they'll scrap tuition fees for science, medicine, technology, engineering and maths degrees, conditional on "academic performance" and graduates living, working and paying tax in the UK for five years after completing their degrees. The party have also pledged to scrap the target of 50% of school leavers going to university. |
Caceres in hospital after crash By Football Italia staff Juventus defender Martin Caceres is in hospital after a car crash last night in Turin, but is not in serious condition and avoided fractures. “He arrived in hospital with a cut to the head, which was immediately stitched up, and one to the cheekbone. He did not sustain any fractures,” read a statement from Juventus. “Caceres will remain in hospital today and should be released tomorrow.” It is reported he has a heavy bruise on his leg that will keep him off the field for 30 days and might even undergo plastic surgery for the cuts to his face. The Uruguayan was travelling in Turin down Via Nizza at around 3.20am local time on his Porsche Cayenne. A car coming from Corso Dante sped up as the traffic lights were about to turn red, did not respect right of way and the two vehicles collided. It’s claimed Caceres and his car were sent flying on to the entrance of the underground station. The 25-year-old was taken to the trauma unit at the Maria Adelaide hospital in Turin, but his condition is not serious. Caceres was on the bench in last night’s 2-0 victory at Bologna. |
By Stephanie Wasko Special to Federal News Radio Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) introduced a bill Thursday reducing the amount new federal employees would have to pay toward their government retirement funds. The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the largest independent federal union, as well as the National Active and Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) Association announced their support for the legislation, which would repeal the last two increases in retirement contributions. “Let’s stop unduly burdening our federal workers, and start asking wealthy corporations to pay their fair share,” Edwards said in a press release. Advertisement Under the bill, all employees’ pension contributions would revert back to the 0.8 percent that employees hired before 2013 are paying now. Edwards also wants to close corporate tax loopholes for companies that are incorporated overseas but managed and controlled in the United States, as a way to off-set the increased contributions by the government. The Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) covers most of the federal workforce and often is held out as a model pension program, according to NTEU. Currently, employees hired in 2013 pay 2.3 percent more than those hired before them, while new employees hired in 2014 pay 3.6 percent more than pre-2013 employees, according to NARFE’s press release. NARFE said the increased contributions would result in $21 billion less in take-home pay for new employees over 10 years. Colleen Kelley, president of NTEU, said even with increased retirement fund requirements from new hires, benefits for these employees remain the same. This makes the increased financial requirements “little more than a selective tax on federal employees,” Kelley said. The increases came at a fiscally challenging time for federal employees who were experiencing frozen salaries, sequestration and furloughs, said Joseph Beaudoin, president of NARFE. “Federal employees have contributed more than $120 billion toward deficit reduction,” he said, “and passage of this bill would be the first step toward reversing this trend and ensuring we can continue to recruit and retain the best and brightest into public service. Providing our public servants adequate compensation is about more than just fairness, it is about maintaining an efficient and effective federal government.” Stephanie Wasko is an intern with Federal News Radio. RELATED STORIES: President’s 2014 budget includes pay increase, but retirement changes loom large Federal retirees shouldering retirement burden TSP? Maybe… FERS? No! NTEU ad campaign spotlights work of federal employees Copyright © 2019 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area. |
The Israeli army thwarted a large-scale infiltration attempt along the Gaza border, during which 13 armed Palestinians emerged from a tunnel on the Israeli side of the border at dawn Thursday, an army spokesperson said. The spokesperson described the attack as in line with a series of other thwarted attacks over the past 10 days of warfare, including two infiltration attempts from the sea near Kibbutz Zikim, a tunnel near Kerem Shalom, and a drone attack earlier this week. The IDF action that stopped the infiltration attempt before it was sprung “was obviously a huge success,” said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up The gunmen, he said, emerged from the tunnel early Thursday some 250 meters inside Israel. Lying flat on the ground, in an open area two kilometers from Kibbutz Sufa in the Eshkol Region, the 13 armed men were spotted by what Lerner termed “different sensors.” Realizing that they had been discovered, they attempted to run back underground but were struck by Israeli aircraft. Lerner said some had been hit but he could not state how many. Israeli military sources said the gunmen evidently planned to attack the kibbutz, killing and possibly kidnapping civilians. The tunnel is part of a network of underground channels, laboriously dug, as offensive lanes into Israel. In June 2006 two Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush that began via a tunnel in the same region, and a third, Gilad Shalit, was captured and taken back to Gaza. His exchange, five and a half years later, for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, is considered one of Hamas’s crowning achievements. In the years since that assault several complex tunnels have been discovered, including, most recently, one that was found and bombed on the eve of Operation Protective Edge. Lerner said he did not believe the attack was a significant shift in the tide of the 10-day-old campaign. At 10 on Thursday morning a five-hour humanitarian ceasefire is to go into effect. Hours after the tunnel attack was thwarted, the IDF published footage of the incident: |
Representatives for NHL prospect Jimmy Vesey disputed the Nashville Predators' account of events that led to the decision to have the 2012 draft pick become an unrestricted free agent rather than sign an entry-level contract with the team. Hobey Baker Award winner Jimmy Vesey was originally selected by the Predators, but the Sabres have acquired those rights. Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images Vesey's representatives, Peter Fish and Peter Donatelli said in a statement released Wednesday that it was "ultimately determined by what was best" for Vesey, who was the No. 66 overall pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. "The decision to become an unrestricted free agent was ultimately determined by what was best for Jimmy Vesey's hockey career," Vesey's representatives said in the statement. Vesey, the statement said, also wanted to graduate on time from Harvard. "This election, although unrelated to the determining hockey factors, will also allow Jimmy to graduate from Harvard University this spring. Jimmy and his family are very proud and pleased that this will indeed happen. The Harvard community and alumni have rallied around him. Jimmy is very appreciative of this support and the fact that he will now be able to graduate." On Monday, Predators general manager David Poile said the organization had already received confirmation from Vesey that he would sign after his season concluded at Harvard. Poile said then it was a "shocker" to learn of Vesey's decision to become a free agent and that the team did not make a move at the trade deadline because assistant GM Paul Fenton was told by Vesey last month that he planned to join the team. Vesey's reps say the Predators were told of his decision a few days before the deadline so the team could conduct business unrelated to him. "After being fully advised of his options and upon the recommendation of his advisers and counselors, Jimmy Vesey shall become an unrestricted free agent on Aug. 15, 2016. The Nashville Predators were informed of this decision," the statement said. "Nashville now claims and it has been widely reported that they were without knowledge of this possibility and that this lack of knowledge precluded the hockey club from acquiring a player at the trade deadline. This contention is not accurate. The Nashville Predators were informed prior to the trade deadline that they should conduct their business as they saw fit and that the potential of signing or not signing Jimmy Vesey should not be a factor in their decision." The statement goes on to say that money didn't factor into Vesey's decision. "The club has further claimed that the decision to elect unrestricted free agency is bizarre and does not make sense financially. If this election was based solely in regard to money Jimmy would have signed after his third college season, burned a year off of his entry level contract, and been eligible for both signing bonus and salary compensation. A full analysis of his options was conducted. Whether Jimmy will lose any money is speculative at best." It's been speculated that Vesey, 22, a North Reading, Massachusetts, native, could sign with either the Toronto Maple Leafs, where his father works as an amateur scout, or with the Boston Bruins, where GM Don Sweeney is a Harvard alum. The pool of suitors will be larger than two teams, however. |
A Ukip MEP believes that British Muslims should sign a special code of conduct and warns that it was a big mistake for Europe to allow "an explosion of mosques across their land". Gerard Batten, who represents London and is member of the party's executive, told the Guardian on Tuesdaythat he stood by a "charter of Muslim understanding", which he commissioned in 2006. The document asks Muslims to sign a declaration rejecting violence and says parts of the Qur'an that promote "violent physical Jihad" should be regarded as "inapplicable, invalid and non-Islamic". Critics said his comments represent the "ugliest side of Ukip" and "overlap with the far-right", in spite of the efforts of party leader Nigel Farage to create a disciplined election machine ahead of the European elections. Asked on Tuesday about the charter, Batten told the Guardian he had written it with a friend, who is an Islamic scholar, and could not see why "any reasonable, normal person" would object to signing it. Batten also repeated his view that some Muslim texts need updating, claiming some say "kill Jews wherever you find them and various things like that". "If that represents the thinking of modern people, there's something wrong, in which case maybe they need to revise their thinking. If they say they can't revise their thinking on those issues, then who's got the problem – us or them?" he added. Gerard Batten cuts a distinctive figure at the European parliament, where he is an MEP for the UK Independence party. Photograph: Jean-Marc Loos/Corbis Asked why Muslims have been singled out, rather than followers of other faiths, Batten said: "Christians aren't blowing people up at the moment, are they? Are there any bombs going off round the world claimed by Christian organisations? I don't think so." In a separate video interview from 2010, Batten also proposed a ban on new mosques across Europe, suggested Muslim countries should not be "appeased" and warned of the threats of having "two incompatible systems living in the same place at the same time". Farage's effort to rid the party of "Walter Mitty" types comes after a stream of controversies, including the party's suspension of a councillor for blaming flooding on gay marriage and the ejection of MEP Godfrey Bloom following comments about women and sending foreign aid to "bongo-bongo land". With Ukip hoping to top the polls in May's European elections, Batten is top of the party's MEP candidate list for London, having passed a round of psychometric testing to make sure his views were acceptable. However, Batten – Ukip's spokesman on immigration and a former candidate for London mayor – appears to have held some controversial positions on Islam for some time. His "proposed charter of Muslim understanding" was written in 2006 by Sam Solomon, a former Muslim who converted to Christianity, with a foreword by the MEP himself. In a press release from the time, published on Ukip's website, Batten calls on Muslims to sign a five-point affirmation, in which they would promise to accept equality, reject violence in the name of religion, and accept a need to "re-examine and address the meaning and application of certain Islamic texts and doctrines". Asked on Tuesday whether he still believed Muslims should sign the charter, Batten said: "I don't suppose the pope would disagree with it or the archbishop of Canterbury or anybody else. So why should they feel aggrieved that they might be asked to sign. They don't have to. If they don't believe in those five points, they don't have to sign it." In the 2010 interview, Batten suggests a ban on new mosques in "our cities" and warns it was wrong to have allowed so many already. "They don't allow Christian churches or Hindu temples to be built or any kind of non-Muslim place of worship in many of their countries and certainly not in the heartland of their religion," he said. "Well, if they don't allow it, why can they expect to see their religion tolerated somewhere else? Asked about his views on the building of mosques, Batten told the Guardian: "Why do we allow the wholesale building of mosques by a religion that refuses in its heartland to acknowledge other people's right to worship a different religion?" And pressed on whether he was confusing individual Muslims with the actions of some Muslim states, he said: "They should be protesting about people being arrested in Saudi Arabia for carrying a Bible. Maybe that's what they should be getting upset about and protesting about. Showing they are in the same mindset as the rest of us." Rehman Chishti, the Conservative MP for Gillingham and Rainham, said Batten's position was "shocking", particularly the "charter of understanding" suggestion that parts of the Qur'an should be rendered "inapplicable". "If Nigel Farage had any credibility, he would quite clearly not allow this individual to stand for office in Ukip," he said. Sadiq Khan, Labour's shadow London minister, also said he was "appalled at the ignorance that Gerard Batten appears to have shown when speaking about the faith that I and hundreds of thousands of British Muslims practice". Mary Honeyball, a Labour MEP for London, said that Batten "represents the ugliest side of Ukip". "Batten's views overlap with the far-right. The idea that Muslims should be singled out in the way he suggests is a relic from a darker, more prejudiced time," she said. Some of Batten's other controversial views include bringing back the death penalty for certain crimes. He has also sought to highlight the issue of powerful politicians attending the secretive Bilderberg conference and immigration of Romanians and Bulgarians. In a statement to the Guardian, Batten later said: "I would expect the fundamentalists to agree with me that democracy is incompatible with fundamentalist Islam. Moderate Muslims have to decide which side of the argument they are on. "Who is in favour of jihad? Apart from the jihadists of course? I was, and still am, happy to speak out against it. It is amusing that the Guardian equates being opposed to extremism and jihadism as 'overlapping with the far-right'. So are left-wing liberals in favour of jihad? If not, do they overlap too?" It comes the day after Ukip distanced the party from Mujeeb ur Rehman Bhutto, its former Commonwealth spokesman, who was revealed by BBC Newsnight to have once been part of a kidnapping gang. |
by RUSS STEWART It’s "fizzler" time — that dreaded, painful moment, usually about a week before the election, when delusional candidates have an epiphany and realize that defeat is imminent. Their campaigns have fizzled, due to lack of endorsements, workers and contributions, candidate flaws, or all of the above. With the Feb. 24 municipal election imminent, here’s a recitation of fizzlers and winners. Mayor: Have no doubt, the entire array of anti-Emanuel candidates have famously fizzled. A bunch of underfunded nobodies cannot topple a mayor like Rahm Emanuel, who will spend more than $25 million. Having gone snap, crackle and pop are Chuy Garcia, Bob Fioretti, Dock Walls and the self-hyped Willie Wilson, who was supposed to be the "second coming" of Harold Washington. Fioretti, the white 2nd Ward alderman, carefully compiled an anti-Emanuel voting record, which presumably appealed to "progressives," unions and teachers. All through 2014, as Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis pondered a mayoral bid, Fioretti was the back-up. When Lewis decided not to run, Fioretti got into the race, expecting to inherit her coalition. He hasn’t. Emanuel sent several mailings into predominantly white wards blasting Fioretti for his support of Rich Daley’s parking meter deal. Fioretti’s candidacy is dead on arrival. Wilson, a wealthy black businessman, promised to self-fund up to $3 million. He was supposed to pay top dollar for black precinct workers (like Bruce Rauner did) and fund the Democratic committeemen. It hasn’t happened. His candidacy has been a total bust. Every committeeman is supporting Emanuel. Garcia, a Southwest Side Mexican American who has compiled a certifiably liberal record as an alderman, state senator and county commissioner over 30 years, has fizzled as a credible anti-Emanuel alternative. The city’s Hispanic vote is barely 15 percent, and the North Side Puerto Rican bosses are with Emanuel. Emanuel’s mailers have pummeled Garcia as a tax hiker and tax cheat (for taking two property tax exemptions). Polling stats confirmed by several sources put Emanuel at slightly over 50 percent, enough to avoid an April 7 runoff, Garcia at 20 to 22 percent, Fioretti at 8 to 10 percent, and the combined Wilson-Walls vote at a paltry 10 percent, with 5 to 10 percent of the voters undecided. Polling also gives Emanuel half the black vote. That is decisive. That means that he wins. Emanuel is running poorly (barely half against Garcia) along the white Lakefront, and is drawing only a bit over half in the predominantly white North Side and Northwest Side wards, with Fioretti and Garcia splitting the rest. "Rahm is neither likable nor popular," one area Democratic operative said. "He’s lucky Toni Preckwinkle didn’t run, but the year to beat him will be 2019, not 2015." My prediction: Rahm won with 55.3 percent of the vote in 2011 in a turnout of 588,956; he’ll win with 51 percent on Feb. 24 in a turnout of 540,000. Not much of a mandate. Given Chicago’s insoluble pension and fiscal problems, there won’t be a third term. Aldermen: Early voting has altered the dynamic. In the past, a candidate would "peak" 10 days before the election, flooding the ward or district with a mailer every other day for 2 weeks and workers. Voters weren’t focused until then. Now, as voting starts 15 days early, candidates must unleash mailers in mid-January and continue the barrage, and that takes money. First, the mailers only go to "likely" voters, meaning those who voted in 2011, 2012 or 2014. Every ward has a census population of about 55,000. When minors and non-citizens are factored out, that leaves 20,000 to 30,000 registered voters per ward, of whom just half vote in non-presidential elections. Some households have three or four voters, others just one, so divide 10,000 to 15,000 "likely" voters by two and that means each mailing numbers 5,000 to 7,500, at a cost of 80 to 90 cents each for printing and postage, or about $5,000 a pop. The pieces are multi-colored and printed on heavy laminate stock, so no envelopes need be opened. Second, there is no hand-me-down factor. It’s scan and toss. In multi-voter households, the first one to the mailbox or mail chute usually throws the piece in the trash. They don’t save it for other family members, so there is a huge no-contact problem, even with a multiplicity of mailings. Third, there is an "appreciation" factor. Among political insiders, it is thought that, for non-incumbents, each direct mailer boosts name recognition by 10 percent, while for incumbents each mailer solidifies at least 5 percent of their prior base. Any election with an alderman on the ballot is a referendum on the incumbent. Incumbents can raise money needed for up to 10 mailers ($50,000, or get independent expenditures for attack pieces from political action committees and unions. Incumbents, even long-timers, and especially poor performers, need to resell and redefine themselves and to negatively define their opponents (think Emanuel). Challengers need to introduce themselves and give voters a reason to oust the incumbent. In races without an incumbent, where voters have a choice, giving them a reason not to vote for their opponent is as important as giving them a reason to vote for them. The equation is simple: money equals mailings equals victory. Fourth, there’s the psychology of the runoff. A well financed alderman who can’t get more than 50 percent of the vote in the municipal election is in deep trouble. That means that half the voters wanted someone else and likely will vote for the surviving challenger in the runoff. Historically, in Chicago aldermanic runoffs, incumbents lose two-thirds of the time. When the primary field is upwards of six, runoffs are inevitable. Fifth, there are moneyed players. Non-fizzling candidates can raise $50,000 to $100,000, but Emanuel’s Chicago Forward super PAC and his Chicagoans for Educational Reform PAC are spending millions on ads and mailers to beat anti-Emanuel aldermen, while the public-sector Service Employees International Union and Chicago Teachers Union are spending a like amount to save them. Sixth, a saturation point is reached. Mailboxes are over-clogged. It used to be that a third of voters decided a week before the election; now they decide a month before the election and vote early. Those who haven’t mailed are fizzlers. Here’s a look at some area contests: 45th Ward (Portage Park, Jefferson Park, Gladstone Park, Old Irving Park): Voters need shovels to unclog their driveways and mailboxes. By campaign’s end, nearly 35 pieces will have been mailed. The candidates are incumbent John Arena, police lieutenant John Garrido (who lost to Arena by 30 votes in 2011), self-styled "45th Ward Mom" Michelle Baert and lawyer Mike Diaz. Baert and Diaz have fizzled. Arena has an abrasive do-it-my-way personality, which is offset by his anti-Emanuel voting record, which is popular in Portage Park. The pro-Arena SEIU political action committee paid for more than 15 pieces, the most memorable blasting Garrido and Baert as Republicans and saying that Garrido "attended Tea Party events." They want to bring the Bush-Cheney "mess" to Chicago, the mailings blared, as if one Republican out of 50 aldermen can make any mess. How about Emanuel and the Obama "mess"? The mailings also hyperventilated about Baert voting in the 2012 Republican primary "when Obama was on the ballot." Chicagoans for Educational Reform ripped Arena for backing the 2012 budget, which closed some mental health clinics; it will have five mailers. Garrido will pay for six, Arena for 10 to 12 and Baert for one, plus newspaper inserts. Diaz has gone to ground. Union and internal polling puts Arena at or near 50 percent, Garrido around 30 to 35 percent, Baert at 10 to 15 percent and Diaz near zero. Garrido said his polls show him at 34 to 36. An Arena-Garrido runoff would be fascinating and convoluted. Will Emanuel’s PACs spend big bucks to elect a non-Emanuel "Republican" alderman? The SEIU and the CTU will spend another $100,000 to re-elect Arena. Arena ekes out a win with 51 or 52 percent of the vote on Feb. 24. 38th Ward (Portage Park, Dunning): It’s a "free pass." Anti-Emanuel Alderman Nick Sposato had his 36rh Ward dismembered by the City Council and merged into Alderman Tim Cullerton’s 38th Ward. Sposato was supposed to lose, but Cullerton retired. Sposato has raised more than $200,000 (for more than a dozen mailers), and the SEIU PAC has dumped another 10 pro-Sposato mailers into the ward. Emanuel’s PACs are missing from the race. The other six candidates, Jerry Paszek, Tom Caravette, Cullerton-backed Heather Sattler, Carmen Hernandez, Mike Duda and Belinda Cadiz, have all fizzled. Only Sattler has sent out any mailings (two). My prediction: Sposato will get more than 50 percent of the vote on Feb. 24. 39th Ward (Sauganash, Forest Glen, Mayfair): The 2011 remap cut out heavily Democratic Albany Park (with lots of Hispanics) and added territory along Elston Avenue to the ward. Incumbent Marge Laurino has a 100 percent pro-Emanuel voting record. Laurino and her late father have been an alderman since 1964. Opponents Robert Murphy and Joe Laiacona rip the incumbent for poor services. ‘She’s an equal-opportunity alderman," Murphy said. "Every area of the ward is equally neglected." Can the combined Murphy-Laiacona vote exceed 50 percent? It won’t happen. Laurino with 55 percent of the vote. 41st Ward (Norwood Park, Edison Park, Oriole Park): Pro-Emanuel Alderman Mary O’Connor has emerged from hibernation, with six mailers in mid-February. Neither Joe LoManto nor Anthony Napolitano has fizzled, but it’s doubtful they can jointly amass the 50 percent of the vote necessary to force a runoff. O’Connor with 51 to 52 percent. 40th Ward (Budlong Woods, Peterson Park): Pat O’Connor, Emanuel’s floor leader, has been an alderman since 1983, but his "shelf life" and tie to Emanuel are causing problems. He should defeat Dianne Daleiden 70-30; instead it will be closer to 55-45. Elsewhere, ward bosses are struggling. Dick Mell, who was the 33rd Ward alderman for 38 years, handed off the job to his daughter Deb Mell in 2013. The CTU is backing teacher Tim Meegan. Polls show Mell at under 35 percent. In the new Hispanic-majority 36th Ward, Assessor Joe Berrios is backing Omar Aquino against Luis Arroyo’s guy, Gil Villegas, with teacher Chris Vittorio and Al Zaragoza also running. A Villegas-Aquino runoff looms. In the Austin area 29th Ward, with eight candidates running, incumbent Deborah Graham will be in a runoff. Send e-mail to russ@russstewart. com or visit his Web site at www. russstewart.com. |
Is Norman Lamb standing? North Norfolk MP knows his first opponent in Liberal Democrats’ leadership race should he stand Norman Lamb. Picture: Liberal Democrats. Liberal Democrats North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb knows his first opponent in the Liberal Democrats’ leadership race should he stand. Share Email this article to a friend To send a link to this page you must be logged in. Former business secretary Sir Vince Cable has become the first contender to throw his hat into the ring to replace Tim Farron as the party’s leader. Mr Lamb is still undecided about whether he will run for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats. Sir Vince, 74, returned to the House of Commons as MP for Twickenham in this month’s General Election, having been one of the highest-profile casualties of the party’s collapse in support in 2015. Meanwhile, hotly tipped East Dunbartonshire MP Jo Swinson, 37, has ruled herself out of the race, saying she will fight for the deputy leadership instead. Declaring his candidacy on the Lib Dem Voice website, Sir Vince said he is ready to “work with like-minded people in other parties” to secure a second referendum on any Brexit deal, with the option to stay in the EU if the agreement on offer is not good enough. He described Brexit as an “iceberg” about to hit the UK economy and said the party should “warn of the dangers ahead and the need for a new course”. Despite the disappointment of the Liberal Democrats securing only 7.4pc of the vote and 12 seats in the election, Sir Vince insisted “the political winds are moving in our favour”. He said: “There are big opportunities ahead. The Conservatives are in disarray and in retreat. The Labour Party outperformed expectations but complacently believes that ‘one more heave’ will see it into office. “But an economic policy based on offering lots of free things lacks economic credibility and will be found out. Investing in infrastructure, rather than borrowing for everyday running costs is credible. There is a big space in British politics which I am determined that we should occupy.” Sir Vince previously served as acting leader following the resignation of Sir Menzies Campbell in 2007, but declined to stand for the top job at that point. If elected, he would be the party’s oldest ever leader and the oldest leader of a major party since Sir Winston Churchill, who was 80 when he stepped down as Conservative leader. |
Anna Diaz | January 03, 2014 As cannabis becomes more acceptable worldwide, and we see the evils of prohibition dying a slow and painful death, there are still people who want to pretend they are morally superior to those they might consider to be "weed parents." These folks have likely been sold a bill of goods regarding cannabis use, and have fallen for the stereotypical stoner banter that has infected our society due to decades of misinformation and lies. They may want to look down their nose at you because you enjoy weed, and they may even not want their spoiled brats to play with your kids any more, as a result. Our conditioning over the decades of criminal prohibition has resulted in most folks being shy, or hiding, their affinity for pot. It is natural for many to fall into the trap of feeling ashamed because we like weed. We have been told for so long that we are bad people and (gasp) criminals, that we are inclined to accept these criticisms and not stand our ground on the issue. Well....times they are a changin.' As parents, I do believe cannabis gives us a moral higher ground (pun intended). I believe the days of being secretive about our love for the weed are over. I think we can begin to stand up loud and proud, and not only be forthcoming about our cannabis use- but also be proud of it. First and foremost, cannabis IS a safer alternative. So by choosing to use cannabis over one of the more dangerous alternatives, like booze or some pill, is a smart and responsible choice for you to make as a parent. Anyone who has had one too many drinks and have done something regrettable cannot deny that there are real dangers to alcohol consumption. Ask a parent, if their kid was sleeping over at your house, would they rather you drink a bottle of wine to relax, or smoke a little joint? Any parent who has a brain will deduct that your being drunk is a much larger risk to their child being under your supervision than if you puffed some herb. We have NOTHING to be ashamed of. Parents who choose cannabis are good parents who likely are more relaxed, creative, and understanding than parents who choose other methods of "taking the edge off." I have never been "out of control" or "irresponsible" due to my using cannabis. My use of it enhances my life in so many great ways, from the movies I watch to the food I eat. Smoking some pot helps me to explore parts of my creative side that I would not even know existed if it were not for the mind expanding capabilities of this safe and enjoyable plant. Weed is not only safe, it can also be very helpful in making a complex world less burdensome. I am tired of the ridiculous lies and exaggerations that our society has created around cannabis use. The idea that weed makes a person lazy and stupid is just not founded in any sort of truth. Just this morning I was watching an episode of Morning Joe on MSNBC and had to hear the right-leaning and elitist pundit Joe Scarborough say, "Pot makes you dumb." Right after making this bold assertion. Scarborough admits he has never even tried cannabis, and after being prodded admits that alcohol makes people dumb too. The funny part is that Scarborough always likes to brag about the music he listens to and play some killer grooves for his intros and breaks. Does he know that the "dumb people" who write those songs most all used pot to enhance their creativity, thus allowing them to make those songs he claims loves so much? Stupid stoners... But these are the misconceptions we face. It is up to us as parents to shift this paradigm. We have to stand proud of our cannabis use and not shy away from having that conversation. we must address it head on, and I am not even above taking a little elitist position of our own to make our point. Why can't we look down our nose at parents who drink or who use pills? Mostly because we are not rude and choose not to interfere on other's lifestyle choices. But if I were, as a parent who solely uses cannabis, I think I am a better parent than those who solely use booze. Sorry. I am passing judgement. Weed makes me a more thoughtful and introspective person. Booze makes most people irresponsible, lowers their inhibitions, and skews their moral compass. Weed just does not do that. I will take hungry and laughing over stumbling and slurring your speech on any day. But I am not trying to create a divide. I am just demanding equality and respect. I know plenty of parents who drink and are great parents. I know parents that use anti-anxiety medicines effectively to help them get through their day, and it does not make them a bad parent. Just like my choice to use cannabis does not make me a bad parent. There are good and bad parents in all walks of life, and even that is relative to who you are and what your values are. Being a WEED PARENT though is something that is an evolving deal. We have to recondition our society to think differently. We have to show by real life example that weed parents are awesome. We must embrace our future and work towards ending the stigmas associated with cannabis users. We like weed and we are good parents. Anything else is unacceptable. Do you like this post? |
A toddler in a preschool class is escorted to the door by a patient adult after he dawdles behind his classmates in Montreal. In another shot, a woman tries on a pair of shoes while chatting with a seemingly friendly clerk in a shop. In Burnaby, B.C., a man sighs and puffs on a cigarette in what seems to be a private backyard. These are just a few of the shots from people's private lives anyone can peer into on dozens of sites online that stream footage from unsecured webcams. A quick scan on sites like Shodan, NestCam Directory and Insecam displays thousands of livestreams, hundreds of which are in Canada. Some of the feeds have been left unlocked on purpose, like the public cameras that allow people to see the slope conditions at a ski resort near Banff. But others are more troubling. An unsecured webcam shows the interior of a daycare or preschool in Montreal. (Photo: Insecam) On Wednesday, CBC News tipped off the Cape Breton-Victoria School Board that its Panasonic HD security cameras were broadcasting faces of staff and students online. One of the cameras clearly showed boys entering and exiting the washroom, while another was pointed at the school's playground. And on Thursday, a Vice journalist was browsing one of the unsecured webcam sites when he spotted a Brantford police car being worked on in a body shop. He contacted police who confirmed their car was at the shop, and said they would investigate. The fix for this kind of security breach is an easy one — camera owners need to put a password on the device so it can't be easily accessed, or change the password if it's currently set to the default one that comes with the device. "My strong advice to anybody who has a video surveillance system, whether they're individuals or businesses or public bodies, is: go to that website and see if your system's there," Nova Scotia privacy commissioner Catherine Tully told the Hamilton Spectator. Follow The Huffington Post Canada on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Also on HuffPost |
(Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post) Today, on the Bold and the Burgundy: a popular Redskins Hall of Famer believes the current Redskins coach should not return next season, while publicly lobbying for a role in the new administration. “These guys are coming in here with their kids, hiring them, everybody’s making millions and having fun, but nobody’s really winning,” Green said over the weekend on SiriusXM NFL Radio with Dan Koppen and Zig Fracassi. (Audio here.) “And so, it is frustrating for us. We’ve been losing 20 years here, and we were a team used to winning. And it’s not the owner, because the owner’s not playing and the owner’s not coaching. It’s very frustrating. And I put the onus right where it belongs. [Mike Shanahan] said last week, I take the blame, I didn’t have them ready to play. Well you know what, you’re supposed to have them ready to play, and that goes for anybody.” Then Green was asked whether he believes Mike Shanahan should or will be back in 2014. “I don’t think he should be, I don’t think he will be,” Green said. “Obviously I don’t run the team. I’m not even involved with them. But based on the way it is, I think he probably will be gone. And if he’s not, they’ll have to work through that. But I’d like to see them start over. It’s just not a good situation for the future of the team.” And yet, Green remains very optimistic. “I’m very optimistic about the potential for this team to be changed,” he said, proving my point. “People can only go down so far, particularly when you have a guy who was a self-made millionaire, billionaire in Dan Snyder. This guy is not about losing. He’s about winning, and it’s a matter of time. He’s going to get the formula in place with the right people, and this thing is going to come around. Shoot, I wouldn’t even mind being a part of it myself, and I guess it’s because the last three games I’ve gone to. I hadn’t gone to three games since I retired, but I’ve gone to about three or four games this year, and it’s kind of gotten back in my blood, made me more disappointed but more excited about what could potentially be. I’ve got some opinions about what I see. And I certainly don’t think I know everything, and I may be wrong in what I’m saying, but this is the way I see it.” So what role would he want? “I’d like to be somewhere where some decision-making is taking place, primarily as it relates to personnel,” Green said. “You know, I could obviously always coach the secondary, but that would probably be my last choice. I don’t believe you need to bring these coaches who have been around forever and recycle them and give them $25, $30 million, and they come in here and just enjoy it and then fly off to retirement. I’m not against them personally, but I think there’s some young people out here — even some of our ex-players that are coaching — that can come in here, who won’t cost you $7 million, who will have the heartbeat of the team and of the city and have the passion and the leadership and the experience. And I’d like to be part of that. That would be fun, and then win a championship. That would be awesome.” |
This feature was originally published in the PCMag Digital Edition and has been updated. Blockchain isn't a household buzzword, like the cloud or the Internet of Things. It's not an in-your-face innovation you can see and touch as easily as a smartphone or a package from Amazon. But in a world where anyone can edit a Wikipedia entry, blockchain is the answer to a question we've been asking since the dawn of the internet age: How can we collectively trust what happens online? Every year we run more of our lives—more core functions of our governments, economies, and societies—on the internet. We do our banking online. We shop online. We log into apps and services that make up our digital selves and send information back and forth. Think of blockchain as a historical fabric underneath recording everything that happens—every digital transaction; exchange of value, goods and services; or private data—exactly as it occurs. Then the chain stitches that data into encrypted blocks that can never be modified and scatters the pieces across a worldwide network of distributed computers or "nodes." Think about a blockchain as a distributed database that maintains a shared list of records. These records are called blocks, and each encrypted block of code contains the history of every block that came before it with timestamped transaction data down to the second. In effect, you know, chaining those blocks together. Hence blockchain. A blockchain is made up of two primary components: a decentralized network facilitating and verifying transactions, and the immutable ledger that network maintains. Everyone in the network can see this shared transaction ledger, but there is no single point of failure from which records or digital assets can be hacked or corrupted. Because of that decentralized trust, there's also no one organization controlling that data, be it a big bank or a tech giant like Facebook or Google. No third-parties serving as the gatekeepers of the internet. The power of blockchain's distributed ledger technology has applications across every kind of digital record and transaction, and we're already beginning to see major industries leaning into the shift. First up are the big banks and tech giants. Big business will always drive innovation, and the rise of blockchain-based smart contracts (read on for a deeper explanation) turns blockchain into a middleman to execute all manner of complex business deals, legal agreements, and automated exchanges of data. Companies such as Microsoft and IBM are using their cloud infrastructure to build custom blockchains for customers and experiment with their own use cases, like building a worldwide food safety network of manufacturers and retailers. On the academic side, researchers are exploring blockchain applications for projects ranging from digital identity to medical and insurance records. At the same time, dozens of startups are using the technology for everything from global payments to music sharing, from tracking diamond sales to the legal marijuana industry. That's why blockchain's potential is so vast: When it comes to digital assets and transactions, you can put absolutely anything on a blockchain. A host of economic, legal, regulatory, and technological hurdles must be scaled before we see widespread adoption of blockchain technology, but first movers are making incredible strides. Within the next handful of years, large swaths of your digital life may begin to run atop a blockchain foundation—and you may not even realize it. Beyond Bitcoin Blockchain is the data structure that allows Bitcoin (BTC) and other up-and-coming cryptocurrencies such as Ether (ETH) to thrive through a combination of decentralized encryption, anonymity, immutability, and global scale. It's the not-so-secret weapon behind the cryptocurrency's rise, and to explain how blockchain came to be, we have to begin briefly with the legacy of Bitcoin. On Oct. 31, 2008, Bitcoin founder and still-mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto (a pseudonym) published his famous white paper introducing the concept of a peer-to-peer (P2P) electronic cash system he called Bitcoin. The Bitcoin blockchain launched a few months later on Jan. 3, 2009. For Jeff Garzik, it started the way many a buzzy idea in the tech community has over the years: with a post on "news for nerds" and OG tech aggregator Slashdot.org. Garzik is the CEO and cofounder of enterprise blockchain startup Bloq, but has spent years as a Bitcoin core developer. He was also recently elected to the Board of Directors of The Linux Foundation (as the first member with a blockchain and cryptocurrency background). In July 2010, Garzik was working on Linux at enterprise software company Red Hat when what he calls "The Great Slashdotting" occurred. One viral post introduced programmers, investors, and tech nerd-dom at large to the concept of Bitcoin, and by extension, to blockchain. Garzik had always been fascinated with the goal of making seamless digital payments work on a global scale and across borders. When he realized how Bitcoin's underlying technology worked, he said it "knocked him on his bum." "I had already thought to myself about how someone might create a decentralized version of PayPal. When Elon [Musk] and Peter Thiel and the other founders created PayPal, they had this vision of a global ledger that could easily and cheaply add entries between users like a database entry. That vision met reality with banking laws and cross-border friction, with legal hurdles and regulations not only in the U.S. but around the world. It made that kind of decentralized global currency impossible, or so we thought. "Bitcoin turned all of that on its head," Garzik went on. "From an engineering perspective, the proof of work was this very elegant way to elect a leader, the block creator, in this decentralized and potentially adversarial system. Bitcoin layered on top of that engineering a set of economic and game-theory incentives that paid you in the script of the system itself, creating this virtuous cycle where it's in your best economic interest to to follow the consensus rules and create the longest, strongest chain possible. I didn't realize until that post on that day how elegantly it could be done." It's important to understand why Bitcoin and blockchain are not the same thing. In Garzik's TEDx Talk (above), he described Bitcoin as "an organism." It has layers, like other software. On top of the public Bitcoin blockchain sits billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency, but beneath that is a ledger just like any other blockchain. That decentralized ledger technology, and its myriad potential uses for securely transferring data and digital assets over the internet, is the subject of this feature. For a deeper dive into the nuances of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum and the complex political dynamics at work in those communities, check out our explainer on why blockchains fork. Garzik said Bitcoin was just the first demo application of what blockchain can do. In this case, it built a monetary revolution on the back of an all-seeing ledger, one that's everywhere and nowhere at once, and gave the cryptocurrency its power. Blockchain for Beginners People often get bogged down in technological complexity when trying to understand blockchain, but the basic concept is a simple and universal one. We have facts and information we don't want accessed, copied, or tampered with, but on the internet, there's always a chance it could be hacked or modified. Blockchain gives us a constant—a bedrock we know won't change once we put something on it and where a transaction will be verified only if it follows the rules. The Nakamoto white paper explains the basics of "mining" data into a block, then using a hash (a time-stamped link) to chain those blocks together across a decentralized network of "nodes" that verify each and every transaction. The other key innovation in the white paper is using what's known as the proof-of-work (PoW) model to create distributed "trustless" consensus and solve the double-spend problem (ensuring cryptocurrency isn't spent more than once). A "trustless system" doesn't mean it's a system you can't trust. Quite the opposite. Because the blockchain verifies each transaction through PoW, this means no trust is required between participants in a transaction. Where does the proof-of-work come from? The miners. A P2P network of Bitcoin "miners" generates PoW as they hash blocks together, verifying transactions that then go into the ledger. In the 2016 book Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World, authors Don and Alex Tapscott explain Nakamoto's Bitcoin model about as succinctly as one can: "Bitcoin or other digital currency isn't saved in a file somewhere; it's represented by transactions recorded in a blockchain—kind of like a global spreadsheet or ledger, which leverages the resources of a large P2P network to verify and approve each Bitcoin transaction. Each blockchain, like the [Bitcoin blockchain] is distributed: it runs on computers provided by volunteers around the world. There is no central database to hack. The blockchain is public: anyone can view it at any time because it resides on the network… and the blockchain is encrypted… it uses public and private keys (rather like a two-key system to access a safety deposit box) to maintain virtual security." Note that nothing is completely unhackable, particularly when you don't use it as intended. Blockchain's security works not only because it's encrypted but also because it's also decentralized. Victims of the biggest blockchain breaches and cryptocurrency heists (Mt. Gox in 2014 and Bitfinex in 2016) were targeted and pilfered clean because they tried to centralize a decentralized system. Ethereum has seen a number of hacks and security incidents as well. Last year's DAO hack was traced to exploited loopholes in smart contracts written atop an established blockchain. More recently South Korea's largest Ethereum exchange was hacked, and an Israeli startup's initial coin offering (ICO) was hijacked when their website was hacked. These issues all stemmed from vulnerabilities in systems connected to the blockchain, not within the blockchain itself. Blockchain's underlying security and encryption model is a sound one. How that security is executed is a story for another feature. So we've explained how the network functions and how security works, but how do the blocks actually connect to one another? Why does a blockchain get stronger the longer it gets? Where does the immutability come in? The Tapscotts' explanation continues: "Every ten minutes, like the heartbeat of the Bitcoin network, all the transactions conducted are verified, cleared, and stored in a block which is linked to the preceding block, thereby creating a chain. Each block must refer to the preceding block to be valid. The structure permanently time-stamps and stores exchanges of value, preventing anyone from altering the ledger… so the blockchain is a distributed ledger representing a network consensus of every transaction that has ever occurred. Like the World Wide Web of information, it's the World Wide Ledger of value… This new digital ledger can be programmed to record virtually everything of value and importance to humankind: birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, deeds and titles of ownership, educational degrees, financial accounts, medical procedures, insurance claims, votes, provenance of food, or anything else that can be expressed in code." The concept of immutability is maybe the most crucial to understand when trying to wrap your head around blockchain and why it's important. An object that once created can never be changed has infinite value in our editable, ephemeral digital world. Harking back to the "strength in numbers" principle, the more nodes a blockchain is distributed over, the stronger and more trusted it becomes. It's verification on top of verification to infinity. Bloq's Garzik talked about how the network effect of blockchain is key to its immutability, and why it's the reason the public Bitcoin blockchain is still the most popular and trusted blockchain out there: "The immutability factor is very much dependent on the network effect," said Garzik. "You see that with Bitcoin very specifically. The cost of creating a new digital asset is essentially zero. Therefore you have to demonstrate an overwhelming amount of value in overcoming that network effect if you want to convince someone to switch away from the Bitcoin blockchain, which not only has a good track record but high security value from a technical perspective. Security and immutability are a direct function of the economics—how much investment there is in the ecosystem, and how many people are using it." Public vs. Private Blockchains People within the industry talk a lot about public versus private blockchains. On a basic level, public blockchains are cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, enabling peer-to-peer transactions and, therefore, a revolution in seamless global payments. Interacting with public blockchains fundamentally requires tokens, and comes with its own rules of engagement, agreed upon by the P2P network. Private blockchains (those being built by distributed ledger consortium R3, for example) use blockchain-based application development platforms such as Ethereum or blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) platforms such as those offered by Microsoft and IBM, running on private cloud infrastructure. Brian Forde, Director of Digital Currency at the MIT Media Lab, likens public versus private blockchains to the relationship between an open-source technology, such as Linux, and companies like Red Hat that build on that tech for enterprise use. Public blockchains like Bitcoin were the open-source movement that started it all, and private blockchains such as R3 are taking that technology and commercializing it for businesses. "A private blockchain is an intranet, and a public blockchain is the Internet. The world was changed by the Internet, not a bunch of intranets. Where companies will be disrupted the most is not by private blockchains but public ones," said Forde. Bloq's Garzik echoed a similar thought when explaining the difference between public and private blockchains, but he uses the open-source analogy a bit differently. Bloq bills itself as a "Red Hat for blockchain" of sorts, but its platform is built atop the Bitcoin blockchain rather than a private or "permissioned" one. (Permissioned blockchains include an access control layer governing who can participate in the network.) Garzik's biggest question when looking at cloud providers and others building private blockchains and BaaS offerings is: Who's running that network? "On the private and permissioned side, it's very much a question of who the referees are. I use that term specifically because what blockchains really provide is a neutral, level playing field for the execution of rules," said Garzik. "Those rules are applied to transactions that the actors create from that network. For Bitcoin, it's rules like the monetary supply; the number of transactions that can fit into a block. All of that forms the economic incentives and ultimately consensus rules that everyone in the network complies with and cross-checks to create this system of checks and balances. "Some of the other blockchain networks, whether it's [open-source project] Hyperledger, Ethereum, or a bank chain [such as R3] are opening the question of trust and trust shifting," Garzik went on. "It's less about the technology, and much more about a rapid, near real-time adjudication of rules between actors on a network. That's what blockchains do." Once you understand what a blockchain is and how it works, the next question an everyday tech user would have is how it'll affect them. If you're not a business that's building a blockchain-based product or service, why should you care? As Don Tapscott explained it in Blockchain Revolution and in a 2016 TED Talk of his own, it's because blockchain brings us from the Internet of information into the "Internet of value." From his TED talk: "For the past few decades, we've had the Internet of information," says Tapscott. "When I send you an email or a PowerPoint file, I'm actually not sending you the original; I'm sending you a copy. That's great, and it has democratized information. But when it comes to assets; things like money, financial assets like stocks and bonds, loyalty points, intellectual property, music, art, a vote… sending you a copy is a really bad idea. If I send you $100, it's really important that I don't have the money afterward. "Today, we rely entirely on big intermediaries; middlemen like banks, government, big social media companies, credit companies, and so on to establish trust in our economy," Tapscott continued. "These intermediaries perform all the business and transaction logic of every kind of commerce, from identification and authentication of people through to clearing, settling, and record-keeping… they capture our data, which means we can't monetize or use it to better manage our lives, and our privacy is being undermined… so what if there were not only an Internet of information, but an Internet of value. Some kind of vast, global, distributed ledger running on millions of computers and available to everybody, and where every kind of asset from money to music could be stored, moved, transacted, exchanged, and managed, all without powerful intermediaries." That, in a nutshell, is blockchain. What Are Smart Contracts? If you think of blockchain as an operating system for data, then smart contracts are its killer app. Smart contracts add complex logic and rules atop a blockchain that can automate traditional contract management and digitize the world around us the same way apps like Uber are automating away the need to wave your hand in the air to hail a cab. You can't talk about the future of blockchain without explaining the role smart contracts will play. If the world is going to run on blockchain, much of it will rely on smart contracts to execute the data exchanges and program in rules to govern how each code-triggered agreement works. Smart contracts are also a flexible mechanism that can serve as the blockchain middleman for all manner of agreements and data exchanges, down to something as simple as verifying someone's identity to ensure they're of legal drinking age. "Think about getting carded at a bar," said Jerry Cuomo, Vice President of Blockchain Technologies at IBM. "From an identity perspective, I can imagine a blockchain managing verification of a citizen's identity. A smart contract could ensure something like my daughter going out for her 21st birthday and the bouncer only being able to see her age, not her address. Blockchain could set up a centralized identity verification system that could make the world safer for dads like myself." Identity management is an application to watch, but the list goes on and on. The Chamber of Digital Commerce, the leading trade association that represents the blockchain industry, runs the Smart Contracts Alliance. The Chamber and Alliance (in collaboration with Deloitte) released a white paper entitled "Smart Contracts: 12 Uses Cases for Business & Beyond" detailing a dozen broad areas and industries where smart contracts could change the game. In a broad legal sense, smart contracts provide what Bloq's Garzik calls ""adjudication-as-a-service:" a real-time version of the court system that, for finance scenarios, can cut time on deal closings, banking and securities transactions, and even global trade finance from weeks or months to days, hours, or minutes. On the digital identity front, the white paper calls smart contracts a "user-centered Internet for individuals" giving users control over the data, digital assets, and online reputation associated with them. Blockchain also affords the ability to decide what personal data is and isn't shared with businesses—the same concept behind the driver's license analogy. Beyond identity, the white paper also talks about how smart contracts can be applied to getting a mortgage and instantaneously processing auto-insurance claims. In the medical research field, they can serve as a mechanism to ensure better patient privacy in clinical trials while promoting more open data-sharing in the cancer research community. Another of the paper's use cases is land titling. Countries around the world, including Ghana, Georgia, and Honduras, that are typically rife with property fraud and land disputes are already implementing smart contracts to facilitate property transfers and land ownership. Real-world smart contracts are also gaining traction in a few other interesting ways. Everledger is a blockchain-based fraud-detection system for valuable physical assets, particularly jewelry and diamonds. It uses a hybrid blockchain that combines the Bitcoin blockchain with its own private blockchain to build smart contracts that certify physical diamonds. It combats the sale of conflict diamonds by keeping a transaction history for each gem. "Everledger takes a diamond or a piece of art and hashes it to the blockchain," said MIT's Forde. "For something like a diamond ring, Everledger takes an image of it—like a unique diamond fingerprint—which can then be scanned against the blockchain to verify it's the same one." Once you open the door of tracking and manage physical assets, smart contracts can tackle the whole supply chain. IBM and Walmart are even partnering in China to track the movement of pork (seriously) to keep people from eating tainted meat. You can also use smart contracts for digital content such as music. Mycelia, a "collective of creatives, professionals and lovers of music" founded by musician Imogen Heap, is a blockchain-based protective ecosystem pushing smart contracts as a way for musicians to share free-trade music and to ensure the profits go back to the artists. Mycelia is an example of blockchain and smart contracts' potential for digital rights management (DRM). Smart contracts in digital music files or other copyrighted material might enable artists to better sell directly to consumers without the need for labels, lawyers, or accountants, with royalties paid out automatically. A sleeping giant in this conversation is the effect smart contracts could have on the Internet of Things. Think about all the data smart devices collect. Fitness trackers collect your body's vital statistics. Thermostats collect temperature data. Alexa has records of every search and request you've ever asked of her. If the IoT ran on a blockchain, and smart contracts governed that real-time data, it could create a whole new class of lending and other usage-based agreements, according to Erin Fonte, Head of the Financial Services Regulatory and Compliance Practice Group at corporate law firm Dykema. "If you had smart and connected cars that could report back actual usage stats, you could tie pricing into real-time usage and have it automatically adjust over the length of your vehicle lease and financing," said Fonte. Think about how connected devices enable mobile payments without traditional credit card swiping at the point of sale. Instead of swiping your card at a terminal, you touch a thumb to your iPhone to use Apple Pay. The automated payment system is authenticating individuals and providing verifiable legal proof of transaction authorization, just as a smart contract using those same two permissions—authorization and permission—in an IoT device can make a transaction legally enforceable against a buyer or seller, which is particularly applicable in machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. "Amazon Dash buttons are a prime example," said Fonte. "It's one little branded button you stick in your house, and then you don't have to log onto Amazon to reorder. Just press the button, and it repeats its last order. For connected homes and cars, blockchain's ability to monitor, collect, and make sense of data for transactions will drive the ability for humans to authorize machines to carry out activities like this as agents. The next step is that you don't need a button. Manufacturers will create customer and end-user [smart contract] agreements on the back end. "Your washing machine will have that feature built into the product itself." How We Build a Blockchain-Based World Blockchain is still in its infancy. Before we see widespread adoption on the scale the technology is capable of, a lot needs to happen. We must have buy-in from government (which in the U.S. means working state-by-state on policies and legislation). The industry has to clear a labyrinth of legal and regulatory hurdles before blockchain can power better banking, identity, records, or anything else requiring official documentation that now runs on legacy government systems or even (still) on paper. We also need open standards to tie the blockchain industry together. The most prominent coalition working to make that happen is the Hyperledger project. Hyperledger is an open-source initiative to create an open, standardized, and enterprise-grade distributed ledger framework and code base to be used across industries. Overseen by The Linux Foundation, its members include tech companies (Cisco, IBM, Intel, Red Hat, Samsung, VMware, and more), big banks (JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and so on), blockchain startups such as Bloq, and a host of others. The project recently released the first production-ready version of Hyperledger Fabric as a foundation for building blockchain apps. Big blockhain players like Microsoft are beginning to get into the standardization game as well, with Redmond releasing its own Coco Framework to work with existing protocols and build more powerful governance and data confidentiality into private blockchains. "The Linux Foundation is the key layer of governance for shepherding and maturing open-source products," said Garzik. "There are many blockchain peddlers out in the market right now, and one of the biggest pain points we see is incompatibility; a large bank that has merged 10 businesses over the past decade and has a lot of halfway-compatible internal legacy systems. That's where the foundation and Hyperledger really come to the fore. As young as the blockchain industry is, the kind of technical standards-making we need for interoperability has so far been absent." Another important Hyperledger member is R3, the wealthy elephant in the room when it comes to blockchain standardization. R3 is a consortium dedicated to research and development of advanced distributed ledger technologies for global financial markets. It also represents most of the biggest banks and financial institutions on the planet: Barclays, Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, the Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS, Bank of America, Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, and a number of others. We're already beginning to see the kind of blockchain-based international trading R3 is after. Last fall, the first cross-border transaction between banks using multiple blockchain applications took place between the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Wells Fargo, resulting in a shipment of cotton to China from the United States. R3 is also becoming an example of how difficult standardizing blockchain can be. Goldman Sachs and Santander both left R3 in late 2016 in the midst of big-bank jockeying over control of a new funding round for the consortium. R3 is doing just fine, though. The consortium announced a new $107 round of funding in May. As Ethereum and the value of the Ether currency have exploded in popularity in the past year, standardization efforts have emerged around its blockchain platform as well. The membership of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance has amassed more than 150 enterprise organizations since its launch in February, spanning tech corporations, banks and financial institutions, blockchain and cryptocurrency startups, industries such as healthcare and energy, and even a few governments. Few know the challenge of pushing for blockchain adoption better than Perianne Boring, president of the Chamber of Digital Commerce. The Chamber is currently engaged in lobbying and advocacy efforts in 14 states and counting. In North Carolina, the chamber's efforts helped pass the North Carolina Money Transmitter Act in July 2016, which updates the state's existing laws to include a defined "virtual currency." Boring said the law is a big win for blockchain and digital currency but still only a drop in the bucket of patchwork state-by-state regulations and the even more muddled web of federal agencies. In the past year, Chamber representatives have testified at cryptocurrency regulation hearings in New Hampshire, lobbied regulatory proposals in New York and Washington states, and made official comments on virtual currency acts and regulatory frameworks from the Uniform Law Commission and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS). "How is digital currency supposed to be regulated? This is a huge national debate around how states can effectively regulate digital currency and money transmission, and every state has its own opinion and a completely different way of doing things," explained Boring. "New York says businesses need a separate digital currency license to operate in the state. North Carolina said that's way too complicated and regulatory overkill, and decided instead to amend their existing money transmission laws to incorporate digital currency. We prefer the latter approach." Boring also stressed the importance of keeping blockchain technology and policy on the same page. The Chamber is also a Hyperledger member, and Boring said the Chamber will work to actively bring Hyperledger into policy discussions, to ensure lawmakers understand the pros and cons of regulations. Yet as difficult as overcoming entrenched legacy systems and regulations can be, we already have a blueprint of how it can be done. Over the past two years, the state of Delaware has shown how governments can legislate, sanction, adopt, and implement blockchain technology to power core services. As with much of the legislation, regulation, and business drivers behind blockchain, it starts with fintech (financial technology). More than a million companies and 66 percent of Fortune 500 companies are incorporated and legally headquartered in Delaware, in large part because of the state's largest export: uncertified shares (meaning the ability to own shares in a company without holding the actual stock certificate). In partnership with blockchain fintech company Symbiont, the Delaware Blockchain Initiative announced in 2016 will completely automate stock issuance and recordkeeping on a blockchain ledger. 'Before the Delaware Blockchain Initiative, there was no technological solution to support digital representation of share ownership," explained Symbiont CEO Mark Smith. "From what can only be described as a forward-thinking agenda from the state, they embraced that they could reimagine how to deliver their marquee service on a distributed ledger, using Symbiont's technology to create a new type of share and change the way a corporation works from now into the foreseeable future." A little finance background: The genesis moment of a private equity is when you incorporate a company. As Smith explained, now companies will have the ability to carry that equity all the way from incorporation up to and including an initial public offering (85 percent of IPOs happen in Delaware), all via the blockchain, with complete financial transparency for state lawyers and regulatory agencies. The entire process will run automatically on smart contracts. Overstock Bets Big on Blockchain E-commerce retailer Overstock.com became the first publicly traded company to issue stock on the blockchain this past December, selling 126,565 shares through its subsidiary, t0: the first-ever blockchain-based trading platform for stocks and securities. Overstock has been developing t0 for more than two years to serve as a distributed immutable ledger for capital markets. Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne has called t0 a blockchain version of Wall Street, and in a Q&A with PCMag, the outspoken executive talked about how the platform works, making history with t0, and how blockchain could turn capital markets into Game of Thrones. "I think what's going to happen is similar to what English common law did over a century ago. Blockchain is going to disrupt all kinds of legal work, notary publics, contracts, lawyers, judges, you name it," said Byrne. "You're going to start seeing open-source, self-executing contracts gradually improve over time. What the Internet did to publishing, blockchain will do to about 160 different industries. It's crazy." Read our entire interview with Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne here. Even greater implications lie in what the Delaware Blockchain Initiative is doing beyond digital shares. At the Consensus blockchain technology summit this past year, Delaware Governor Jack Markell gave a keynote speech announcing the initiative and laying out a blockchain roadmap for the next five years, including a new joint effort with Symbiont to digitize and store the entire Delaware Public Archives on a blockchain ledger in 2017. Symbiont's Smith, who is also a co-chair of the Chamber of Digital Commerce's Smart Contracts Alliance, explained how Delaware is building cryptographic document control that will ultimately overhaul how city, county, and state municipalities share information that in many cases still exists on paper in filing cabinets. Smith's first conversation with Delaware officials was in October 2015, and between then and now, the state has gone from knowing nothing about blockchain to embracing it in its biggest export and mobilizing to push new legislation and initiatives around it. "The state is completely reimagining how it stores and distributes public records to its citizens. Land and property titling, licensing, birth and death certificates, automobile VIN numbers, heavy machinery and luxury good registrations, all these things are being incorporated into Symbiont's technology stack behind the Delaware blockchain," said Smith. "Distributed ledger technology is not a silver bullet—it's not going to solve every problem—but it does solve some very big ones. "When [Delaware] Governor Markell came out publicly announcing the initiative, he said he wanted to challenge us to use this powerful technology," Smith continued. "Delaware should serve as a blueprint for many other states, each of which could operate a node right next to Delaware and build critical mass and momentum from a government perspective that could lead to other nations joining in." Potchain: Where Blockchain Meets Marijuana Medical and recreational marijuana is being legalized in more and more states across the U.S. This new, fast-growing sector of the economy presents challenges we haven't dealt with before, partly because even in states where it's legal, there are still a lot of things cannabis-related businesses can't do. Blockchain is helping fill in gaps for entrepreneurs, particularly when it comes to banking and legal protection. Current federal banking regulations still preclude banks from doing business with cannabis companies, leaving them without a dedicated banking system. Tokken, a digital bank startup, gives cannabusinesses a bank account and blockchain-based transaction history that's linked to brick-and-mortar banking institutions and seed-to-sale systems, with Tokken as the middleman. More interesting is what Medical Genomics is doing on the science side of the potchain. The life sciences company is mapping and sequencing the DNA of different cannabis strains, then storing and registering that info on the Bitcoin blockchain. The company lists this information on its public-facing Kannapedia strain database, but of far greater importance is how the company uses blockchain-based strain DNA as intellectual property (IP) protection for growers. The government makes it very difficult to obtain trademarks and patents for weed strains. But a blockchain provides irrefutable legal proof a grower can use to prove ownership of a strain if challenged by other growers or the pharmaceutical corporations that will ultimately enter the legal industry. Check out the whole story for more on how blockchain is blazing a new trail for the legal cannabis industry. Welcome to Our Blockchain Future The change blockchain represents to our digital world is tectonic. Blockchain is broad and coming to the fore on such a massive scale that explaining it often falls back on the abstract, rather than grounding it in the kind of foundational change the technology will have on the culture of how we interact online. The Web 1.0 was a read-only Internet of static web pages. Web 2.0, where we are now, added dynamic user-generated content and the rise of social media. Web 3.0 has many definitions, but one of the most popular is that of connective intelligence: where the next generation of applications, data, concepts, and people are connected by an unmediated fabric where you don't need a trust broker like a bank or tech company in the middle to ensure privacy and security. In blockchain, we finally have the technology to power Web 3.0. "The first four decades of the Internet brought us email, the World Wide Web, dot-coms, social media, the mobile web, Big Data, cloud computing, and the early days of the Internet of Things," the Tapscotts write in Blockchain Revolution. Through that lens, MIT's Brian Forde said, we can understand where blockchain fits into our lives. "People have forgotten how powerful it is not to have to worry about what email app you use. When I email you, it doesn't matter if you're using Gmail or Outlook or Yahoo—you just give me your email address and go. Now think about sending money today. If I want to send you $20, we're going to play a game of 20 questions. Do you have PayPal? How about Venmo?" said Forde. "Imagine if we still chose our cell phone carriers and ISPs based on whether your friends and family were using Sprint or AT&T," Forde went on. "That's still the world we live in today for most digital services. You joined Facebook because your friends did. You're not going to sign up with a new payments startup if your friends are all on PayPal. It's going to be incredibly powerful for consumers to have more choice when everything running on blockchain just works." 10 Blockchain Startups to Watch Tons of innovative startups are pushing the envelope of what's possible with blockchain technology. Here are other 10 exciting companies to keep an eye on as the space evolves: Abra: A blockchain-based digital wallet that lives on your smartphone. Augur: Through Augur's BlockCypher: This company is a cloud-based Web services platform for blockchain apps. What Bluzelle: Between Bitcoin, Ethereum, and all the other blockchains out there, the industry already has interoperability issues. Brave: Founded by Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich, Credit Dream: Access to credit can be difficult to come by in developing nations, and carry enormous interest if you're lucky enough to get it. Currently active in Brazil, Enigma: A stealth startup from MIT Media Lab, Slock.it: is the manifestation of how blockchain and the IoT fit together. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, the startup is embedding smart contracts in connected cars, homes, and other IoT devices with the goal of enabling anyone to rent, sell, or share their connected property without a middleman. Think about renting your apartment on Airbnb with Slock.it automatically opening and locking your door. Plex: uses the Ethereum blockchain, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to give insurance companies real-time remote diagnostics on cars and drivers. Zcash: As cryptocurrencies go, Tons of innovative startups are pushing the envelope of what's possible with blockchain technology. Here are other 10 exciting companies to keep an eye on as the space evolves:A blockchain-based digital wallet that lives on your smartphone. Abra allows you to send or receive funds from any source in the world, without requiring bank accounts or transfer fees, using its own community of "tellers."Through Augur's decentralized prediction market , you can bet on events in the real world. Using blockchain-based tokens, you can make wagers on pretty much anything, from the score of a game or winning lottery numbers to whether or not an Antarctic ice shelf will collapse (that's a real betting market on the site).This company is a cloud-based Web services platform for blockchain apps. What Amazon Web Services (AWS) is to cloud infrastructure, BlockCypher wants to be for blockchain.Between Bitcoin, Ethereum, and all the other blockchains out there, the industry already has interoperability issues. Bluzelle is middleware that supports all blockchain protocols and smooths out banking and payments transactions in what CEO Pavel Bains describes as the "Red Hat of blockchain."Founded by Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich, Brave is a new kind of browser that automatically blocks ads and trackers and instead helps drive publisher revenue through blockchain-based micropayments. As ad revenues for the digital media industry continue to decline, Brave's micropayments model could be an answer.Access to credit can be difficult to come by in developing nations, and carry enormous interest if you're lucky enough to get it. Currently active in Brazil, Credit Dream is a mobile-based blockchain platform for connecting investors in any country to loan borrowers in any country for affordable, verified loans.A stealth startup from MIT Media Lab, Enigma takes the blockchain's privacy and security advantages and rolls them into a decentralized cloud platform that guarantees privacy. Enigma encrypts and protects data even when you share it with others, allowing data to be stored, shared, and analyzed without ever being fully revealed to any party. Slock.it is the manifestation of how blockchain and the IoT fit together. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, the startup is embedding smart contracts in connected cars, homes, and other IoT devices with the goal of enabling anyone to rent, sell, or share their connected property without a middleman. Think about renting your apartment on Airbnb with Slock.it automatically opening and locking your door. Plex uses the Ethereum blockchain, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to give insurance companies real-time remote diagnostics on cars and drivers.As cryptocurrencies go, Zcash is the most exciting one this side of Bitcoin. Zcash uses something called zero-knowledge proofs to create truly anonymous digital transactions. While it's mined on a public blockchain just like Bitcoin, Zcash provides a fully anonymous cryptographic key in which no private information needs to be exchanged. Next to Bitcoin, it currently has the highest price of any cryptocurrency. Blockchain is taking root within a wide swath of industries. To discover which ones, all you need to do is follow the money. A Deloitte survey released in December 2016 polled blockchain-knowledgeable senior executives at organizations with $500 million or more in annual revenue. Of the 308 respondents, 28 percent reported that their companies have already invested $5 million or more in blockchain technology, with 10 percent investing $10 million or more. Although the fintech industry was early to show interest in blockchain and accounts for a significant amount of investment and activity, the survey revealed other industries aggressively pursuing blockchain. Within the consumer products and manufacturing industry, 42 percent of respondents said they're planning to invest $5 million or more in 2017, compared to 27 percent in the media and telecoms industry, and 23 percent in financial services. Put together, 30 percent of consumer manufacturing and media/telco industry respondents said their companies have already deployed blockchain into production. Yet the industry the Deloitte report identifies with the most aggressive deployment plans is healthcare and life sciences: 35 percent of respondents in that industry say their companies plan to deploy blockchain in production within the next calendar year. When you look at some of the blockchain healthcare initiatives already out there, that stat starts to make a lot of sense. One exciting project Forde pointed to is MedRec, an MIT initiative creating a blockchain to serve as a digital family history of medical records.Think about sitting down in a doctor's office and being asked your family medical history for a certain illness. You might, off the top of your head, have no idea of the answer. But with MedRec blockchain, families and medical providers can create a shared medical history that can be passed from generation to generation. "With medical records, we're all asked that question: Is there any family history of this? The answer is usually 'I don't know,'" said Forde. "What's interesting here, as a result of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), we now have this mandate for electronic health records, and the government subsidizes doctors to get those records. But that data is still siloed. There needs to be a technology or protocol allowing all that data to be shared, regardless of provider. MedRec helps facilitate that. It's not just about the interoperability of your data; it's also about the protection of your data from fraud." Forde said the project is also evolving as a way for hospitals and medical practices to interface with consumer tech. Think about all the real-time health data collected by wearables and fitness trackers and even apps like Apple Health. MedRec is exploring the possibility of using blockchain to give doctors and hospitals access to that data, if you consent. "You've got Fitbit, Apple Watch, all this consumer tech collecting data on your blood pressure, heart rate, etc," said Forde. "Then you go to the hospital or your doctor and they have their own system. You see the allergist and they've got their own system, and none of it is connected. If there's no interoperability between any of these systems, how are you going to get the best possible care?" The federal government recognizes blockchain's potential for health care, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is already doing something about it. The HHS Blockchain Challenge gathered more than 70 submissions of academic papers on blockchain usage in health IT and health-related research, announcing 15 winners this past September spanning organizations including Deloitte, IBM, MIT (MedRec was one of the winners), and The Mayo Clinic. The winners, who presented to the HHS for possible development and implementation, proposed blockchain solutions for everything from health insurance claims and payments to data interoperability and Medicaid applications. The Chamber of Digital Commerce, which participated in the challenge, sees blockchain's potential to transform healthcare and beyond. "HHS received so many amazing ideas," said the Chamber's Boring. "In the healthcare industry, we are seeing a huge influx of interest and a lot of major problems blockchain is addressing, from patient privacy and electronic health records to tracking pharmaceuticals and doctor shopping. Blockchain technology is also extremely powerful when it comes to victims of identity theft. Blockchain provides for an unprecedented level of privacy and security that can be leveraged to confirm your digital identity as we do more and more of our daily activities online." That notion of identity is key. Through the digital "wallet" a blockchain creates around not only virtual money but the pieces of data that make up your identity, blockchain will act as a gatekeeper of sorts to how we interact with the digital world. Blockchain-based identity is being explored and experimented with in a host of ways, from the IoT governance model to more secure voting, and in the case of Blocksafe, as a way to reduce gun violence by securing firearms with "smart locks." "These digital wallets will become control centers," explained Bloq's Garzik." In a multi-chain, multi-network world, you wind up with a digital experience that secures itself with several factors of authentication.Then once [the blockchain verifies] that I'm Jeff, it'll say things like, 'Do you want to send your autonomous car from home over to your wife's office? Do you want to unlock the door for a guest coming over? Are you allowed to drink at this bar? Are you licensed to carry a gun?'" One of the futures envisioned in Blockchain Revolution is a "second era of democracy": one in which blockchain technology can create the conditions for fair, secure, and convenient digital voting that galvanizes the citizenry by removing so many of the systemic voting roadblocks plaguing our current system. Putting democracy on a blockchain is complicated, but startups including Follow My Vote and Settlemint are already laying out frameworks centered around blockchain-based tokens serving as votes, dropped in digital wallets for each candidate. At a time in America when the integrity of our voting process is under intense scrutiny, blockchain—as with every manifestation of the technology laid out in this feature—could provide a new way forward. The book points to a 2015 paper published by the University of Athens introducing DEMOS, an end-to-end e-voting system, and an organization and "political app" in Australia called Flux that's already using blockchain voting to try to transform the political process. When I spoke to Don Tapscott for this story, he discussed how the opportunity to "reinvent democracy" speaks to the universal power of what blockchain can do. "Young people didn't vote in [the 2016 presidential] election because they're not engaged. We urgently need to fix this. In the book, we argue for a new era of democracy based on accountability, smart contracts, and a culture of public deliberation and active citizenship enabled by the blockchain," said Tapscott. "We should move many things onto blockchains. I think governments could move toward creating a blockchain-based identity. Think about your health records, your academic records, your citizenship and ability to vote, all unified and facilitated via blockchain. As a voter, you need 100 percent assurance that your vote was counted for the person whom you voted, that it can't be reallocated, and that it was private. In e-voting, only blockchains can guarantee that level of assurance. "But it goes far beyond e-voting," Tapscott continued. "Leaders could come to power with a smart contract where they're accountable to citizens and have to abide by the terms of the contract. There are opportunities everywhere. Look at the different hats we all wear every day. You're a parent, a consumer, a listener of music, an employee, a voter, a citizen. Blockchain affects you in every way." |
JNS.org – In 1884, Anglican clergyman William Hechler called upon Jews throughout the world to return to the land of Israel. After a series Russian pogroms, Hechler formed a committee of Christian Zionists to help move and settle Russian Jewish refugees in Turkish-ruled Palestine. Since then, Christian Zionist support has been integral to the foundation and maintenance of the state of Israel. Examples include Pastor John Hagee, who has donated millions of dollars toward the cost of bringing Jews from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia to Israel. Similarly, Reverend Jerry Falwell has said, “I firmly believe God has blessed America because America has blessed the Jew…America must continue to stand with Israel.” When tourism to Israel reached its lowest point during the second Palestinian intifada, Christian tourists visited Israel at a rate that was sometimes greater than that of their Jewish counterparts. Chris Mitchell of the Christian Broadcasting Network noted how, amidst the daily terror attacks, evangelical Christians continued to visit Israel. Mitchell called it “a real signal to Israelis that the Evangelicals are their friends.” The importance of Israel to the Jewish people cannot be overstated. The Holocaust showed that Jews must have a homeland of their own, so that they will never be at the mercy of anti-Jewish bigots who seek their annihilation. Not only has Israel succeeded in becoming a refuge for Jews from all over the world, but it is the only country in the Middle East in which Christians can live in peace and practice their religion freely. Israel has therefore proven itself to be an invaluable ally to Christians, as well. Current Western policy towards Middle Eastern Christian refugees has been an abysmal failure. Despite Secretary of State John Kerry designating the Islamic State as being responsible for genocide against Christians and Yazidis, President Barack Obama still hasn’t prioritized efforts to rescue them. Out of all the Syrian refugees admitted into the US, only 0.5 percent were Christians, while even fewer were Yazidis. For the first time in history, Iraqi Christian militias are working together to retake their historical homeland in the Nineveh Plains from Islamic State. According to retired Lt. Col. Sargis Sangari, CEO of the Near East Center for Strategic Engagement, there is a military force consisting of 20,000 Yazidi, Christian and Assyrian Christian men, stretching from the Nineveh Plains to the Sinjar Mountains. But defeating Islamic State is not enough to ensure the safety of Christians in the region. “As of three days ago, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) met to discuss independence for Kurds, to declare autonomy,” said Sangari. “After Mosul is liberated, it will be up to the Christians to decide whether they want to join the KRG or the state of Iraq.” Sangari went on to say that for Assyrians, autonomy is the only way to ensure their survival. “Otherwise, you will have a situation in which [Assyrian] families are split up between the Kurds, the Sunnis and the Shi’a [Muslims],” said Sangari. “This will be disastrous for Assyrian Christians, after having just suffered through genocide.” If a Christian state is formed, Israel would also gain an invaluable ally in the region. Assyrian Bishop Mar Awa Royel recently proclaimed that he wished to see a free Assyria become a strong ally with Israel. According to the bishop, Israel could serve as a successful model of statehood for Assyria. As was the case with the rebirth of Israel in 1948 — when Jews throughout the world came together to rebuild their state — Assyrians, Yazidis and all Mideast Christians must now do the same. With Israel at the forefront of supporting this effort, the Jewish state will not only gain a much-needed ally in a region engulfed by Islamic extremism, but helped protect their Christian brethren in the Middle East. Bradley Martin is a fellow with the Haym Salomon Center news and public policy group, and deputy editor for the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research. |
Update: On May 19 Cecily McMillan was sentenced to three months in jail and five years of probation, plus community service. Click on the word Guardian and the words Huffington Post to see articles on the sentencing. RIKERS ISLAND, N.Y. — Cecily McMillan, the Occupy activist who on Monday morning will appear before a criminal court in New York City to be sentenced to up to seven years on a charge of assaulting a police officer, sat in a plastic chair wearing a baggy, oversized gray jumpsuit, cheap brown plastic sandals and horn-rim glasses. Other women, also dressed in prison-issued gray jumpsuits, sat nearby in the narrow, concrete-walled visitation room clutching their children, tears streaming down their faces. The children, bewildered, had their arms wrapped tightly around their mothers’ necks. It looked like the disaster scene it was. “It’s all out in the open here,” said the 25-year-old student, who was to have graduated May 22 with a master’s degree from The New School of Social Research in New York City. “The cruelty of power can’t hide like it does on the outside. You get America, everything America has become, especially for poor people of color in prison. My lawyers think I will get two years. But two years is nothing compared to what these women, who never went to trial, never had the possibility of a trial with adequate legal representation, face. There are women in my dorm who, because they have such a poor command of English, do not even understand their charges. I spent a lot of time trying to explain the charges to them.” McMillan says Grantley Bovell, who was in plainclothes and did not identify himself as a police officer, grabbed her from behind during a March 17, 2012, gathering of several hundred Occupy activists in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park. In a video of the incident she appears to have instinctively elbowed him in the face, but she says she has no memory of what happened. Video and photographs — mostly not permitted by the trial judge to be shown in the courtroom — buttressed her version of events. There is no dispute that she was severely beaten by police and taken from the park to a hospital where she was handcuffed to a bed. On May 5 she was found guilty after a three-week trial of a felony assault in the second degree. She can receive anything from probation to seven years in prison. “I am prepared mentally for a long sentence,” she told me this past weekend when I interviewed her at the Rikers Island prison in the Bronx. “I watched the trial. I watched the judge. This was never about justice. Just as it is not about justice for these other women. One mother was put in here for shoplifting after she lost her job and her house and needed to feed her children. There is another prisoner, a preschool teacher with a 1-year-old son she was breastfeeding, who let her cousin stay with her after her cousin was evicted. It turns out the cousin sold drugs. The cops found money, not drugs, that the cousin kept in the house and took the mother. They told her to leave her child with the neighbors. There is story after story in here like this. It wakes you up.” McMillan’s case is emblematic of the nationwide judicial persecution of activists, a persecution familiar to poor people of color. Her case stands in contrast with the blanket impunity given to the criminals of Wall Street. Some 8,000 nonviolent Occupy protesters have been arrested. Not one banker or investor has gone to jail for causing the 2008 financial meltdown. The disparity of justice mirrors the disparity in incomes and the disparity in power. Occupy activists across the country have been pressured to “plea out” on felony charges in exchange for sentences of years of probation, which not only carry numerous restrictions, including being unable to attend law school or serve on a jury, but make it difficult for them to engage in further activism for fear of arrest and violating their probation. McMillan was offered the same plea deal but refused it. She was one of the few who went to trial. “I am deeply committed to nonviolence, especially in the face of all the violence around me inside and outside this prison,” she said in the interview. “I could not accept this deal. I had to fight back. That is why I am an activist. Being branded as someone who was violent was intolerable.” McMillan’s case is as much about our right to nonviolent protest as it is about McMillan. It is about our right to carry out such protest without being subjected to police violence intended to crush peaceful and lawful dissent. It is about our right to engage in political organization without our groups being monitored and infiltrated by the security and surveillance state. It is about our right of free speech and free assembly, guaranteed under the Constitution but effectively stripped from us in a series of judicial rulings and through municipal ordinances that make it impossible to protest in many U.S. cities. Judge Ronald A. Zweibel was caustic and hostile to McMillan and her defense team during the trial. He barred video evidence that would have helped her case. He issued a gag order that forbade the defense lawyers, Martin Stolar and Rebecca Heinegg, to communicate with the press. And, astonishingly, he denied McMillan bail. The judge also assiduously protected Bovell against challenges to his credibility. He refused to allow the jurors to hear about or see the excessive police violence that was used to clear the park the night McMillan was arrested — violence many activists say was the most indiscriminate and abusive ever inflicted during the Occupy movement. He hid Bovell’s history of misconduct as a police officer from the jury. Bovell has been investigated at least twice by the internal affairs section of the New York City Police Department, the Guardian newspaper reported. Bovell and his police partner, in one of the cases, were sued for allegedly using an unmarked police car to strike a 17-year-old fleeing on a dirt bike. The teenager said his nose was broken, two teeth were knocked out and his forehead was lacerated. The case was settled out of court for a significant amount of money. There is also a video that appears to show Bovell relentlessly kicking a suspect on the floor of a Bronx grocery. In addition, Bovell was involved in a ticket-fixing scandal in his Bronx precinct. And Austin Guest, 33, a Harvard University graduate who was arrested at Zuccotti Park on the night McMillan was assaulted, is suing Bovell and the NYPD because the officer allegedly intentionally banged his head on the internal stairs and seats of a bus that took him and other activists in for processing. The judge barred the running down of the teenager on the dirt bike and Bovell’s alleged abuse of Guest from being discussed in front of the jury. The case has galvanized many activists, who see in McMillan’s persecution the persecution of movements across the globe struggling for nonviolent democratic change. McMillan was visited in Rikers by Russia human rights campaigners of the group Pussy Riot. Hundreds of people, including nine of the 12 jurors and some New York City Council members, have urged Judge Zweibel to be lenient. Some 160,000 people have signed an online petition calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to intervene on her behalf. But so far pleas like these have failed to mollify the corporate state’s determination to use the McMillan case as a tool to prevent any new mass movements. “I am very conscious of how privileged I am, especially in here,” McMillan said. “When you are in prison white privilege works against you. You tend to react when you come out of white privilege by saying ‘you can’t do that’ when prison authorities force you to do something arbitrary and meaningless. But the poor understand the system. They know it is absurd, capricious and senseless, that it is all about being forced to pay deference to power. If you react out of white privilege it sets you apart. I have learned to respond as a collective, to speak to authority in a unified voice. And this has been good for me. I needed this.” “We can talk about movement theory all we want,” she went on. “We can read Michel Foucault or Pierre Bourdieu, but at a certain point it becomes a game. You have to get out and live it. You have to actually build a movement. And if we don’t get to work to build a movement now there will be no one studying movement theory in a decade because there will be no movements. I can do this in prison. I can do this out of prison. It is all one struggle.” McMillan has been held in Rikers’ Rose M. Singer Center, Dorm 2 East B, with about 40 other women. They sleep in rows of cots. Nearly all the women are poor mothers of color, most of them black, Hispanic or Chinese. McMillan is giving lessons in English in exchange for lessons in Spanish. McMillan has bonded with an African-American woman known as “Fat Baby” who ogled her and told her she had nice legs. Fat Baby threw out a couple of lame pickup lines that, McMillan said, “sounded as if she was a construction worker. I told her I would teach her some pickup lines that were a little more subtle.” McMillan, who is required to have a prison activity, participates in the drug rehabilitation program although she did not use drugs. She is critical of the instructor’s feeding of “positive” and Christian thinking to the inmates, some of whom are Muslims. “It is all about the power of positive thinking, about how they made mistakes and bad choices in life and now they can correct those mistakes by taking another road, a Christian road, to a new life,” she said. “This focus on happy thoughts pervades the prison. There is little analysis of the structural causes for poverty and oppression. It is as if it was all about decisions we made, not that were made for us. And this is how those in power want it. This kind of thinking induces passivity.” McMillan was receiving 30 to 40 letters daily at Rikers but during the week before the interview was told every day that she had none. She suspects the prison has cut off the flow of mail to her. Because my pens and paper were confiscated during the two-hour process it took to enter the prison, after the visit I had to reconstruct the notes from our conversation, which lasted an hour and a half. The entry process is normal for visitors, who on weekends stand in long lines in metal chutes outside the prison. My body was searched and my clothing was minutely inspected for contraband, and I had to go through two metal detectors.During the interview a guard asked McMillan to roll down her sleeves and admonished her once for crossing her legs. “You scratch a hole in the crotch,” McMillan said, running a fingernail up and down the crotch seam of her jumpsuit. “You make a small hole. And when the visitor slips you a cigarette you push up your vagina. I am learning a lot in prison. I have gotten very good at hiding books on my way to medical and stealing food to bring back to the dorm.” “It is hard to read, it is hard to write,” she went on. “There is constant movement and constant noise.” She was working Sunday on the statement she would read in court Monday. She said it draws heavily from Leo Tolstoy’s “The Kingdom of God Is Within You.” McMillan had just finished writing a message to supporters who planned to rally in her support Sunday afternoon in New York City. She told them: I came to New York the summer of 2011 to go to school — Rikers Island was definitely not on my list of intended experiences. Though I did call myself “a radical” that title stretched only as far to include plans to start a socialist student chapter and study welfare policy with aims of improving it. Within 1 week, these plans were railroaded by the Occupy Wall Street Movement — and for the following 3 months, I did little else. Like many, the eviction of Zuccotti left me lost, searching for that infectious energy that bound so many together in efforts to transform the world. Like many, I’ve spent the time since trying to understand what we had & striving to get back to it. Like many I point to a lack of militancy in our movement — a commitment of one’s entire being — personally, politically, emotionally & physically — to the greater good. But I examined what action those beautiful words entailed, I exchanged “militancy” for the concept of “love ethic” — a distinction born of the belief that fights between “usses and thems” run counter to the collective “we”. “We” being human society with each person as an integral part — that must be seen, heard, felt & loved — in order to transform the whole. Like many, I found my beliefs easy to come by but difficult to act on. I always strived, but often struggled, to see, hear, feel, to love — even as I expected as much in return. I began to question, “If it is such a struggle to solidify amongst a few, how can we hope to strengthen love ethic across the many?” Unlike most, when my trial began: friends formed a support structure, comrades came to court, journalists reported injustices. When the verdict was read, cries of outrage were heard, the news spread, & sympathy was shared from around the world. Unlike most, during my weakest hour, I had never felt more supported. Though I had never ever felt more oppressed, I had never felt so loved. I stand resolved to keep fighting, because your love ethic props me up and allows me to do so. Unlike most, I am blessed with the support of so many. And though I am thankful, I am also thoughtful of the many forced to face such oppression alone. I know you have already done so much, but I’m going to ask for one thing more: If you feel safe enough to share, please raise your hand if you have suffered police violence? If you have suffered sexual violence? If you have suffered the violence of the justice system? If you have suffered the violence of the prison system? Oppression is rampant. Take a moment to try & really see, hear, feel the suffering of the many around you. Now imagine the power of your collective love ethic to stand against it. Only through the pervasive spread of such a love ethic by the many for the many — not just the privileged few — will we finally have ourselves a movement. McMillan takes comfort from her supporters and her family and from those of her heroes who endured prison for a just cause. She reads and rereads the speech Eugene V. Debs made to a federal court in Cleveland before he went to prison for opposing the draft in World War I. His words, she said, have become her own. “Your honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth,” Debs said. “I said it then, as I say it now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” |
With SWELL in hindsight, every one wants to know how to get some XRPs so they can take the benefit of price-SWELL. You see what I did there? *wink* *wink* The best way to buy some ripple is through Litebit if you want to use Fiat currency. I am using this website since quite some time and it has been very helpful for me in buying several cryptocurrencies. Here is a glimpse of what all you can buy – You can also set a price alert. Very helpful if a currency is volatile. Where will you store this bitcoin you ask? Well, there are several wallets to use from. I recommend to use Gatehub or Ledger Wallet If you want to learn more about available possible Bitcoin wallets, click here. To earn free bitcoins click on the link below right away. https://freebitco.in/?r=7273427 |
Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window) Click to share on Flipboard (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season is over, but work on 2017 is already underway. Eight IndyCar drivers will take part in a Firestone tire test Thursday, Oct. 13, at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois (suburban St. Louis). The test on the 1.25-mile oval will work to determine the optimal tire compounds for the June 17, 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series race at Gateway. That race will mark the return of the IndyCar Series to Gateway, which previously raced there from 2001 through 2003 (as well as the defunct CART Series racing there from 1997-2000). Current IndyCar driver Helio Castroneves is the only active driver who has won at Gateway, having taken the checkered flag in 2003. Among drivers scheduled to test are Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal, Ed Carpenter, James Hinchcliffe and Mikhail Aleshin. New Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden is also among the field, having been confirmed to test by Team Penske president Tim Cindric in a conference call earlier this week. The test is not open to the public. If Thursday’s test is impacted by rain, it would be pushed back to Friday, Oct. 14. Follow @JerryBonkowski |
Let’s talk about rejection. It should join death and taxes in the inevitability department, because everyone experiences it in one way or another in their lives. Some rejections are negligible (a left swipe on Tinder), some are heartbreaking (being turned down by your crush), some seem like they’ll shatter your soul down to the atomic level (limited theatrical release of Shin Godzilla not coming to your city). Every single one is unique, and they all hurt in some way. I’m just 25 years old, but I’ve faced my fair share of rejection. I busted my tail and sank over 100 hours into preparing, applying, and interviewing for my dream job, only to be unceremoniously shot down. My first summer after graduating college, I shot off hundreds of job applications without any peep of response, and for the few interviews I did get, all but one were followed up with “We decided to proceed with a candidate that better fit our needs.” In my occasional returns to OKCupid (I’m not ashamed to admit using it), most of my opening messages go unanswered. Dozens of pitches for articles on popular websites were shot down. Book outlines submitted to literary agents fizzled (but hey, even Harry Potter faced that brick wall). More recently I’ve had to savor requests for blog interviews going unanswered. It all starts to blur together in a hazy fog of “Thanks but no thanks.” But hey, I know I’m not unique, and there are plenty of people who’ve faced many more than I have. Just ask published writers or artists, they all have rejection letters to share. The 2008 economic crisis gave us single job openings with over one hundred applicants, so there were plenty of “Thank you for applying and we wish you luck with your job search…” emails to go around. Pickup artists share a legend of a man that loitered at an LA bus stop every weekday and asked every woman stepping off the buses to sleep with him, which meant his rejections would number in the millions if the story were true. Rejections suck, but face it, they’re going to happen. The good news is you can fight the death grip they hold. The Science of Rejection You know that dull ache in your gut, chest, or wherever else you feel when you get the cold shoulder from a crush? There may be no physical ailments (unless you were creepy and got pimp slapped in comical anime fashion), but that pain is very real. According to a study by the University of Michigan Medical School, the brain reacts to social rejection the same way it reacts to injury. In this case, the researchers found the participants’ brains released opioids (No, they weren’t giving them heroin) in response to rejections in an online dating setting. It’s not just ‘all in our heads.’ There is an evolutionary precedent for the fear and pain of rejection. Friends blowing you off on Saturday may be an ultimately harmless affair, but in the early days of humanity, ostracization meant death. Rejection from the clans meant facing a world of predators and harsh climates alone. Our brains evolved this painful physiological response to rejection to protect us. Despite the reduced danger of saber-tooth cat attacks though, the mind has yet to catch up and drop the now-unneeded adaptation. The nature of social interaction has changed immensely since the days of mammoth-skin tunics and flint spears. Instead of spending our entire lives with a clan of eight to ten, we encounter dozens, sometimes hundreds of people on a daily basis. Interaction with these many people carries a chance of, you guessed it, social rejection. The age of Internet only amplifies the speed and volume of rejections we can receive. Dozens of jobs can be applied for in a single day. Multiple attempts at asking crushes out can fall flat. We can plan several auditions that get nothing but crickets in return. Sharing a blog post in several places can get no responses at best and sharp rebuke at worst. It’s no wonder people develop a fear of rejection. For someone lacking to resilience to refusal, it’s a continuous needle jab day after day after day. How do we develop that resilience? Grow Your Grit This may sound contradictory to fortifying yourself against the pain of rejection, but the first step is acknowledging it hurts. There’s no need to carry shame for a natural reaction have little control over. Your brain will naturally inflict torment on you for spurns that matter little in the long run. The shame of feeling depressed over rejection adds another negative emotion to the ones you already feel. So first, just stop, take a deep breath, and acknowledge you are hurt. Give yourself space to feel angry, disappointed, or depressed. Journal about it. Talk to a friend or family member. Developing resilience to this completely natural reaction requires a cool head and a clear mind. Consider it reconnaissance for your mind to map out this emotional fog of war. So what’s the silver lining in this inevitable dark cloud of emotional pain? Unlike the real danger of physical injury, this pain can’t kill you. To beat it, you have to reframe which rejections matter and which ones are pointless fluff. We must condition our brains to worry about the ones that matter and let slide the ones that don’t. To do that, we have to return to our cave person brains once again. Determine Threat Level Think about the rejections that bother you, in whatever forms they take. Write them down, make an inventory. It can be specific occurrences (for example, turned down by a YouTube channel you wished to join) or ‘in general’ situations (difficulty getting a date/relationship). Write as many as you can think of. You may even think of some you didn’t think bothered you. Next, go through the rejections one by one. Try to divorce yourself from any emotional baggage attached to it and ask the simple question: What danger does this pose to my life or livelihood? There are ones that do matter and warrant concern. Job applications turned down are an important concern if you need the money to keep your home or put food on the table. Rejections from colleges or training programs affect career prospects. A longterm, serious relationship ending affects living situation, personal property, and sometimes even family. The majority of the rejections you list out, I wager, don’t matter. So-called ‘friends’ who ignore or ditch you cause no physical harm. When you text your crush and get the old seen-not-replied in return, your health isn’t taking a hit. Negative comments on your YouTube video may hurt, but they’re usually nothing that would seriously affect your life (aside from death threats, of course). By acknowledging their lack of danger/true importance, you defang the dread. You become less afraid to take risks that could result in social rejection. You build resilience to that painful reaction. You conquer those fears. Look Outward, Not Inward The next step is to learn from those rejections. With a cool head, you can objectively look at your actions, the situations, and the outcomes to determine how you can do better next time. A little bit of objective thinking and analysis can improve the outcomes, or in simpler terms, help prevent rejection, rather than just avoid it. Return to your list of rejections, and select a situation in particular you want to rectify. Write out what you did to initiate the interaction, all of the steps you took. Write about how you felt when you acted. Then, shift focus outward and try to think of as many outside factors that affected the situation. You must try to figure out the full story, not just your part in it. For example, a girl you tried to ask out may have had a stressful day when she ignored your message. Perhaps, especially in nerdy social circles, she had bad experiences with creepy guys. The dream job you applied for may have received dozens, even hundreds of applicants. If you made it to the interview stage, perhaps the company decided you weren’t compatible with their culture and teams, even if you were completely capable. The magazine or website that you submitted a story or article to could have decided that particular piece didn’t fit with their guidelines and brand. Most of the time, the reason for rejection has little reason to do with you. This also helps ease the pain. Acknowledging outside influences reduces the ‘responsibility’ you feel for this ‘failure.’ Psychologist Guy Winch, Ph. D., claims that the rejection itself only inflicts about 50% of the pain, and our negative self perception does the rest. Set the Course Once you’ve figured out the things that are out of control, it’s time to focus on the things that are. Think about your actions, and consider different ways to act in the future. If your goal is job hunting, try rewriting your resume and researching interview tips. If your goal is dating, try different approaches to meeting and asking out people. If the goal is acceptance by a group or publication, research what they want in particular for their content. It’s entirely likely your second, third, or fourth attempts will fail despite the change in tactics. The important thing here is to retain your own autonomy and power, to remember that you have the power to make a change and try something different instead of running in circles. Confidence to devise a new approach is worth exponentially more than giving up or not trying at all. Go Forward, Without Fear Rejection hurts, there’s no denying that. It can eat at your soul. It can make you feel invaluable, incapable, or unlovable. The good news is that the pain is not a flaw in your character, but a natural reaction that can be challenged and eventually overcome. Our modern world can fire rejections at you like a gatling gun, but with the right perspective and attitude, each little strike can make you stronger. Keep trying, it gets better. Eventually. Oh, and if you were wondering, I said the word ‘rejection’ 33 times. |
Don’t worry, be happy. It’s not us, it’s Mexico, right? That’s the basic message that the head of Donald Trump’s business advisory board, Stephen Schwarzman, presented to the Trudeau cabinet during their Calgary retreat, days before the president opened up his full-blown “Wall War” with Mexico and then followed up with his shattering immigration order banning immigration from some mostly Muslim countries. Set aside—if possible—the fact that the president wants to rip up NAFTA, hire only American workers, punish companies that move outside of the U.S. and generally kickstart an age of protectionism that would make his political antecedent Andrew Jackson blush, but apparently Canada will be the exception. “Canada is very well-positioned for any discussions with the United States,” Schwarzman said, looking so placid and reassuring. “I don’t think [Trudeau] should be enormously worried because Canada is held in very high regard.” Well, not “enormously worried,” anyway. Should these words reassure the Trudeau government? Lay them over the political mantra that Canada’s ministers and ambassador have repeated since the election—that 35 U.S. states and nine million Americans depend on trade with Canada, that we don’t have a sizable trade deficit with the U.S. or that Canadian workers are not paid less than U.S. workers—and you really start to believe the Trump era will disrupt the whole world … except us. Exceptional Canada. But as the man himself likes to say: Wrong. Before you buy the Canadian case for the mutually beneficial status quo, it might be wise to take a closer look at folks like Schwarzman, the CEO of the massively powerful Blackstone Group. He has a net worth of almost US$11 billion. Forbes ranks him the 113th richest man on the planet. In a profile of him published in the Guardian back in 2007, when Schwarzman was known as the “King of Wall Street” and lived in a 35-room Manhattan apartment with 13 washrooms and 11 fireplaces, writer Andrew Clark quoted an interview of Schwarzman describing how he approaches a big negotiation. “I want war, not a series of skirmishes,” Schwarzman said. “I always think about what will kill off the other bidder.” War. Kill off the other bidder. That’s how you become the King of Wall Street. That’s how you become the chief of the business advisory board for President Donald J. Trump. That’s how you approach a “big negotiation,” like, say, NAFTA. You are a predator atop the financial food chain. To believe that people like Schwarzman or Trump, or Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross (net worth US$2.5 billion) or Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (the former CEO of ExxonMobil whose net worth is a modest US$150 million), will leave Canada alone, that they will look for a better deal with everyone except their second-largest trading partner, is not just naïve—it’s like jumping into a pool filled with great white sharks because you’ve convinced yourself they’re vegetarians. Of course, not everyone was convinced by the Schwarzman charm. “We should be really concerned about Trump’s ‘Buy American’ ideas,” the ever-pragmatic Derek Burney told me. Burney was the Canadian ambassador to the U.S. and a key player, alongside Brian Mulroney, in negotiating NAFTA. “My watch word is ‘vigilance.’ Don’t react to the president’s rhetoric, but to pragmatic proposals. And we have not seen those yet. I’m saying, ‘cool it,’ and frankly, that’s what Canada’s ambassador David MacNaughton has been saying recently. He’s right. Let’s get to a table and understand what they are looking for, let’s understand the difference between executive orders and substantive change that might require congressional support on this.” Burney’s point about a jumpy reaction is critical. In the early weeks of the Trump’s presidency, the world has reacted to Trump’s Twitter feed as much as to his executive orders. “Trump has demonstrated he can get a lot done with bluster and cajoling on Twitter, so why would he need to negotiate?” Burney says. “His pronouncements have everyone off balance—’What’s the next tweet and who is it is aimed at?’ That’s not a negotiating position, that’s a terror tactic. The truth is, the U.S. and Canada are totally integrated and the U.S. will do damage to themselves if they hurt Canada. The protectionist crew in the Trump camp may not get it yet, but American CEOs, governors and Congress get it. The other good news is that with a guy like Rex Tillerson, the new secretary of state, you don’t need to start a meeting with a map. He did so much work here with ExxonMobil. He is like George Shultz was under Reagan. He will be important for Canada.” That doesn’t mean things will be status quo. The U.S. war of words with Mexico is dangerous, and Burney, among others, is convinced the first thing that Canada has to do is abandon the Three Amigos relationship. “We should not indulge in ridiculous posturing—like getting together with Mexico to defend our interests, when Canada has very different economic interests than Mexico. It is a fundamental error to conflate them.” The NAFTA era as we know it is coming to an end. There might, in fact, be a totally new arrangement made, what trade lawyer Mark Warner calls “NAFTA +1,” the one being the United Kingdom. “Renegotiating NAFTA is mostly a threat because once it is opened I am not sure it can be limited just to Mexico. We should probably be giving some thought to the NAFTA + 1, the U.K. post-Brexit, or NAFTA without Mexico but including U.K. Article 2204 [of the NAFTA agreement] provides for accessions. We need to prepare for the possibility that the U.S. walks away from NAFTA, and we would have to try to renegotiate a NAFTA minus Mexico under the ‘fast-track’ negotiating authority that Obama got for TPP.” Warner believes the first big challenge will be determining if Canada is scrapping NAFTA altogether and starting from scratch or just polishing a few key issues. “We need to identify areas where we might make new demands if NAFTA is opened up: services, government procurement, digital economy, business visas, energy. We need to decide whether we fight over proposed changes to Chapter 19 dispute panels or whether we give Trump an easy face-saving win there to save the deal itself. On rules of origin, do we play along with Trump in tightening the rules—unions would love that—or do we recognize that Japanese auto investment is now a huge part of the domestic industry and they might not invest here under those rules?” Warner is also skeptical that Canada should push hard for a free trade deal with China while trying to work with the Trump administration. I asked Canada’s new ambassador to China, John McCallum, if Canada’s plan to press ahead on more trade with China could have blowback from the Trump government, and he replied that Canada can “walk and chew gum at the same time.” Maybe. But this ain’t as easy as walking, and trade with China and the U.S. is bigger than bubblegum. “On China, I don’t think the U.S. will look kindly on Canada blessing their state-owned enterprises (as we already seem to be doing re: investment) and I can see that bleeding into NAFTA renegotiation talks,” Warner said. “So I think the Trudeau government is not going to get leverage by pursuing these bilaterals and will have to push them off gently into their next term.” There are other worries as well. Dairy and poultry farmers who function under Canada’s supply-management system are already being targeted by dairy farmers in the U.S. Under Trump, the U.S. will likely want our protections broken down, even as they erect their own. “I expect the U.S. will focus on all the protections and exclusions we obtained in 1993 in NAFTA: dairy, telecom, airlines, energy and procurement,” said Ian Lee, associate professor at the Sprott School of Business in Ottawa. “I cannot see how Trump and ‘America first’ can or will accept that Verizon is denied entry to Canada. And the second-largest population of dairy cows in the U.S., at 1.7 million cows is in Wisconsin, the home state of Speaker Ryan, who strongly supports the Wisconsin dairy farmers. The Trudeau government must ruthlessly decide what must be obtained at all costs from the U.S., such as guaranteed access to the U.S. market or public health care being exempt from challenges versus what are we willing to give up to gain what we want. And only the extremely naïve believe that we will not have to give up anything.” Depending on what side of the political fence you are on, this is either good or bad. Some, like Lee, want to destroy supply management and open markets, while others, on the left and on the right—political lobbying makes strange bedmates—will fight to keep them. Best-case scenario? Trump has so many fires to put out—the trade and border issues with Mexico, the immigration ban on seven largely Muslim countries, whatever media war over facts and alternative facts he happens to be in—that he doesn’t have time to burn down the relationship with Canada. But in the first weeks of his presidency it is clear that Trump moves very quickly, often with no apparent planning, and often with no regard for long-term consequence, logic, or strategy. For Canada, a country betting that rational pragmatism and our exceptional relationship with the U.S. will win the day, that’s an exceptional worry. |
A lot of things have clicked for the Kia Tigers this season, chief among them being their offense’s record production. Kia’s fearsome lineup features three of the Korean Baseball Organization’s top-10 hitters by batting average, and five of the top-20 hitters by wRC+, and is a driving force behind the team’s domination of the standings, currently sitting in a comfortable 1st place at 64-34-1, five games up on the second-place NC Dinos. A major force behind the dominance of the Kia offense has been the unexpected emergence of their new center fielder Roger Bernadina, in his first season in the KBO. Just a season ago, Bernadina was toiling in the minor leagues, playing with the Las Vegas 51s, the New York Mets’ Triple-A affiliate. The difference between the old Bernadina, a failed prospect who played seven partial seasons in Major League Baseball, mostly with the Washington Nationals, and the current Bernadina, who hits leadoff for the Kia Tigers’ offensive juggernaut, is stark. Roger Bernadina career stats, 2008-2017 league years G AVG OBP SLG wRC+ WAR MLB 2008-14 548 0.236 0.307 0.354 81 1.2 KBO 2017 95 0.320 0.383 0.551 135 3.9 In less than a fifth of the games played, Bernadina has already accumulated over three times his MLB WAR and hit over half as many home runs (19 to 28). By wRC+ he has been the 16th most productive player in the KBO this season, and by WAR, he has been the 6th best position player in the league. On Thursday night he hit for the cycle, becoming only the third foreign player to do so in the KBO. Quite a jump for someone who was a career 81 wRC+ hitter in the MLB. Which of course begs the question: What’s changed? In less than a season, how has Roger Bernadina improved this much? It isn’t plate discipline; Bernadina is actually walking slightly less (7.7 percent in the KBO versus 8.2 percent in the MLB) and swinging more (50.3 percent vs 42.1 percent). His strikeouts are down from 21.3 percent in the MLB to 17.4 percent in the KBO, but that change may be more a function of the leagues themselves (the MLB’s higher overall K% means Bernadina’s mark is about league average in both leagues) than any adjustment Bernadina himself has made. Bernadina also still profiles as the same type of hitter, hitting a majority of his batted balls on the ground, with a moderate preference to pull. He never displayed particularly drastic platoon splits, hitting roughly the same against lefties and righties, and this tendency is also unchanged. Though his batted-ball characteristics would have made him a reasonable shift candidate, shifts were almost never employed against him in the MLB, so his increased numbers in the KBO are also not the result of the KBO’s relative lack of defensive shifts. The biggest difference is the change in Bernadina’s batting average on balls in play. His current KBO BABIP is .353, a drastic increase from his career MLB BABIP of .288. On one hand, Bernadina profiles as the type of hitter than might naturally run a higher BABIP. He runs well, having rated as a positive baserunner and base-stealer in both his time in the MLB (59 steals, 83% success rate, 8.9 BsR) and the KBO (21 steals, 81% success), and the fact that he is primarily a ground-ball hitter should give him ample opportunity to take infield hits and run a higher BABIP. However, his track record shows this to not be the case. BABIP is a statistic that takes a long time to stabilize, and as such his career average is more indicative of him as a player than his current 2017 outlier mark. With no other changes in batted-ball profile or batting approach, Bernadina’s increased BABIP, and by extension increased offensive production, is more likely the result of fortunate circumstances and luck than any real change in skill. That being said, simply acknowledging that Bernadina has been lucky this season does not diminish his performance. Regardless of whether he is performing to his expected outcomes or not, he has been a productive member at the top of the Kia Tigers’ lineup and, perhaps even more interestingly, has hit better as the season has progressed. |
Reliable sources report that the Canadian Labour Congress is set to consider a policy resolution that would dramatically alter its approach on copyright and intellectual property policy. The resolution will apparently be brought forward to the Congress Executive Council next Monday with the possibility of consideration by the full CLC Council immediately thereafter. It should be noted that the CLC has traditionally recognized the need for a balanced approach and that support for ratification of the WIPO Internet treaties comes primarily from U.S. pressure. For example, consider the CLC's comments on IP policy within the context of the Security Prosperity Partnership with the United States and Mexico. Following the Montebello meeting in 2007, the CLC said the following: In what appears to be a war against copyright infringement, Leaders have committed multiple law-enforcement agencies at different levels of government to collaborate on this apparently critical threat to North American competitiveness. The Action Strategy will depend upon the sharing of best practices from the private sector and “new innovative border enforcement techniques” to detect the trade in pirated and counterfeit goods within North America and arising from “third countries”. Once again, we must ask why this issue has been raised as the focus of this highly militarized discourse and concerted effort on the part of industry and government security forces. The answer is that IPR protect business interests and the right of corporations to sell products. The increasing reliance on security forces, however, is not going to protect freedom of speech or nourish the creative spirit in North American communities by committing public support to cultural industries, schools for the creative arts, educational institutions. Nor have Leaders redoubled their efforts to ensure freedom of expression. Rather, as if they hadn’t already been granted more than enough protection from NAFTA, the largest corporations who own copyrights, trade marks, patents and claim protection for trade secrets will be able to count on the full support of state security forces to protect and extend their already extensive private property rights. As a society, Canada would benefit from an open debate on whether or not to strengthen IPR protections, especially when it comes to issues of social concern. For a society, it is not helpful for a debate over the production of knowledge wrapped in a discourse of criminality, piracy, theft and counterfeit as the NACC suggests. The issues of law-making and law enforcement should not be conflated in this way. While some might quibble with some aspects of this statement, it is clear that the CLC recognizes the need for an open debate and the preservation of free expression. Yet the CLC proposed resolution reportedly states the following: WHEREAS, counterfeiting and copyright piracy continue to harm Canadian workers. Counterfeiting and piracy – also known as intellectual property (IP) theft – cost the Canadian economy an estimated 22 billion dollars each year; WHEREAS, IP theft also exacts an extensive human toll. IP theft robs Canadian workers of jobs and wages, as income that could have been used to expand the workforce or pay higher salaries is siphoned off to pad the coffers of international organized crime syndicates; WHEREAS, counterfeiting also poses a grave threat to the health and safety of Canadian workers; WHEREAS, since counterfeiters and copyright pirates don't pay taxes, governments at all levels are deprived of tax revenues our workers rely on for vital services; WHEREAS, the evidence that Canadian workers are harmed by IP theft is powerful; WHEREAS, this critical issue requires a far-reaching response involving legislative and regulatory reform, policy change, and allocation of proper resources to combat the problems. The Canadian government must be given the structure and resources to mount a sustained attack on this pervasive problem, both within Canada and internationally. The criminal and civil laws in Canada must provide adequate deterrence. And consumers must be educated that counterfeiting and piracy are not victimless, nuisance crimes, but instead strike at the heart of our long term economic security; WHEREAS, as unions representing thousands of these workers, we urge the Canadian Government and all Members of Parliament and the Senate to work together to pass comprehensive legislation and enact the policy changes that would bolster the ability to address this growing threat; NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, accordingly, we urge the enactment of broad legislative measures that can really make a difference. Any such measures should include: Amending the Copyright Act consistent with international standards to (i) conform with the World Intellectual Property Organization’s “Internet” Treaties and ratify the Treaties; (ii) enact a strong legal framework governing the responsibility and liability of online service providers that ensures they play a role in preventing copyright infringement, including providing rightsholders with an expeditious and effective means to stop the widespread dissemination of infringing material; This is a remarkable about-face for the CLC, which would moves from an open discussion approach to quoting with support the counterfeiting claims that have no evidentiary basis, calling for the ratification of the WIPO Internet treaties that is strongly opposed by consumer and education groups, and moving toward the enforcement-based approach that they have long criticized. With only a few days left before this unbalanced resolution is considered, those concerned with the resolution should voice their views with the CLC. |
Vienna has installed pedestrian crossing lights depicting straight, gay and lesbian couples as the city prepares to host a series of events linked to themes of tolerance – including the Eurovision Song Contest, won in 2014 by the cross-dressing Austrian singer Conchita Wurst. The city has started setting up walk, don’t walk lights that show pairs of figures instead of the usual stick men. Some depict a man and a woman; others, two women or two men. The lights are being erected at 47 crossings and will stay up until June. Vienna hosts several events linked to tolerance during that time, including the Life Ball, Europe’s biggest charity event for Aids and HIV research, and the Eurovision Song Contest. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Another of Vienna’s same-sex traffic lights. Photograph: Dieter Nagl/AFP/Getty Images Pedestrians were neutral to positive when asked whether they liked the concept. “I think this is a great idea,” said Clemens Bendtner. “The topic of equality and equal treatment is a very important issue, and it is getting some attention through the campaign.” But not all Austrians are as accepting. The Freedom party has announced it is lodging a criminal complaint against Vienna council member Maria Vassilakou, who is in charge of traffic issues in the city. Party officials say the lights contravene traffic regulations and are a waste of taxpayers’ money at a cost of €63,000. The city in turn says that the lights conform to laws and are meant not only to show tolerance. Municipal officials say they also hope the signals will draw more attention from pedestrians and reduce jaywalking. The Associated Press contributed to this report |
The opening of horror sequel “Blair Witch” has the best prospects of topping the second weekend of Tom Hanks’ “Sully” with as much as $23 million this weekend in more than 3,000 theaters — though it could be a tight contest. Universal’s romantic comedy sequel “Bridget Jones’s Baby” is also launching with expectations in the $12 million to $16 million range at 2,920 sites. Open Road’s biopic “Snowden” will debut with forecasts in the $8 million to $10 million range. And Warner Bros.’ “Sully,” which overperformed with $35 million on its opening weekend, may show enough staying power to lead the pack, given its appeal to older moviegoers. Hanks’ “Captain Phillips” declined just 36% in its second weekend in 2012 and his “Bridge of Spies” decreased only 26% in its second frame. Lionsgate is forecasting that the third film in the “Blair Witch” franchise will finish in the $15 million to $18 million range, but rivals are predicting significantly higher numbers, noting that the horror sector has seen solid performances throughout the summer from “The Conjuring 2,” “The Purge: Election Year” and “Don’t Breathe.” Lionsgate revealed “Blair Witch” in July at Comic-Con at what had been billed as a screening of “The Woods,” releasing a poster and trailer. The updated story, directed by Adam Wingard, is set in the remote Maryland woods where three filmmakers disappeared 20 years ago. “Blair Witch” centers on a group of college students venturing into the Black Hills Forest in Maryland to uncover the mysteries surrounding the disappearance of the sister of one of the students — who many believe is connected to the legend of the Blair Witch. At first the group is hopeful, especially when a pair of locals offers to act as guides through the dark and winding woods, but as the endless night wears on, the group is visited by a menacing presence. The first film, 1999’s “The Blair Witch Project,” was directed by Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick with a production budget of $60,000. After debuting at Sundance, Artisan released the movie, which became a box office sensation with nearly $250 million in worldwide grosses. The 2000 sequel, “Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2” was directed by Joe Berlinger and followed a group of people going into the woods to investigate the witch and coming unglued. Artisan budgeted $15 million for the film, which grossed $48 million worldwide. “Bridget Jones’s Baby” is a $35 million production from Universal, StudioCanal, Miramax and Working Title with Renée Zellweger in the third installment in the series, a dozen years after “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason” was released. The film also marks the return of Colin Firth, with Patrick Dempsey and Emma Thompson as newcomers. Sharon Maguire, who also directed the original “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” is the helmer in the new movie in which Bridget is unexpectedly pregnant. Reviewers have been enthusiastic with an 88% Rotten Tomatoes score. Both “Bridget Jones” movies grossed more than $200 million abroad. “Bridget Jones’s Baby” is being released in 40 territories this weekend. “Snowden,” directed by Oliver Stone and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as N.S.A. whistleblower Edward Snowden, is opening on 2,400 screens. The drama, which carries a $40 million price tag, will premiere Wednesday night at over 800 theaters in a Fathom event with a live broadcast Q&A with Stone and Gordon-Levitt in New York, and Snowden via satellite from Moscow. Pure Flix documentary “Hillsong: Let Hope Rise” is expected to take in about $3 million on its debut in 815 locations. |
Tomas Rosicky's future has again been brought into question this week as the midfielder has spoken whilst on international duty about his frustration at the club. Rosicky's contract was due to end this summer and that would have led to an expected free transfer but Arsenal had an option to extend and they took it. That he hasn't featured much since has left Rosicky confused and frustrated. He explained that he was hugely disappointed to miss out on the FA Cup final squad but stated he'd remain professional. In today's edition of Czech newspaper iDNES (you would be surprised the lengths we go to) there's a lengthy interview with the midfielder's parents. That may sound slightly strange but given that the Belgian media have been interviewing the mothers of all their players, it now seems perfectly natural. The conversation inevitably swung around to Arsenal and Mr and Mrs Rosicky aren't thrilled with their son's situation. Although they stop short of criticising the club or Arsene Wenger, it's quite touching to see how upset they seem about the situation. At Arsenal things have changed, how much are you bothered when he doesn't play? Mama: A lot. Papa: It's horrible. All he wants to do is to be able to play. And when he isn't on the pitch, or even among the substitutes, I'm so sorry. Mama: You see, my husband takes this much worse than me. Papa: Excuse me, but I don't see any reason why he should not play. The Rosicky parents sound like any other parents and are clearly concerned about their son, despite him being 34 years of age... it's quite touching. There was also a little insight provided on why Wenger chose to extend Rosicky's contract and it sounds like he wants the player around the place to help with the development of youngsters. When asked about his son being national captain, Mr Rosicky said "It's natural authority, otherwise his manager Wenger wouldn't have extended his contract. Wenger knows what effect Tomas can have on youngsters." Asked whether they think their son can continue on with the Czech republic and play at Euro 2016 in France, the answer from Rosicky's parents are sure: Papa: I am convinced. Mama: I have no doubt. Tweet |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Internal Revenue Service issued final rules on Tuesday for the individual mandate of President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul, one of the most contentious elements of the U.S. law set to go into effect next year. A Tea Party member reaches for a pamphlet titled "The Impact of Obamacare", at a "Food for Free Minds Tea Party Rally" in Littleton, New Hampshire in this October 27, 2012 file photo. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi//Files A centerpiece of Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is a requirement that all individuals carry some minimum health insurance or pay a tax. The new system aims to provide insurance through state marketplaces and subsidies for tens of millions of Americans who lack it. If individuals choose not to carry insurance, they are subject to a penalty, starting at $95 per person per year or 1 percent of income in 2014, whichever is greater, and eventually reaching $695 per person or 2.5 percent of income by 2016. The IRS, which is administering parts of the law involving revenue collection, released the final rules spelling out the details of what constitutes minimum essential coverage, and how individuals are responsible for spouses, children and other dependents, among other topics. The individual mandate is distinct from the employer mandate, which imposes a fee on most large employers that do not offer a minimum level of coverage. The Administration delayed that provision, putting off the effective date until 2015. Backers of the law say that, unlike the employer mandate, the individual mandate is essential to ensure enough individuals are enrolled in the system to allow the online marketplaces to function. The rules announced on Tuesday offered good news to employees getting health coverage through a union-sponsored plan. They clarify that these employees will not be penalized, said tax lawyers who reviewed the rules on Tuesday. The IRS rules also said employees getting healthcare coverage from a temporary staffing agency are safe from penalties. The 2010 healthcare law, backed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat, passed without any backing from the Republican Party, which is still is trying to derail the legislation, with little success. “I believe the individual mandate will go into effect,” said Tim Jost, a professor at Washington and Lee University law school, who backs the law. “It is important for people to remember that it is phased in and the first year it has very little bite. Basically the idea is to make people realize that it is there.” That is very different from the employer mandate where the fees will be in full force immediately upon the effective date, he added. |
Update: The Mariners have announced that Nintendo of America plans to sell its majority stake in the club to other members of the current ownership group. As part of that transition, John Stanton will replace Howard Lincoln as the Chairman and CEO. Imminent ownership changes will result in CEO Howard Lincoln’s resignation or retirement from the Mariners, sources tell 710 ESPN Seattle’s Mike Salk and Brock Huard. The information has not been confirmed by the team. John Stanton, who has been a minority owner since 2000, is expected to become the new point person for the ownership group, according to Salk. Sign up for breaking sports updates The Mariners have announced a 3 p.m. Wednesday news conference at Safeco Field. The team has not stated what the news conference will cover, but did say in a press release that the news will be announced at the conference. The conference will be broadcast live on 710 ESPN Seattle and 710Sports.com. Lincoln, 76, has been the organization’s CEO since September 1999, overseeing two playoff teams in 16 seasons, including the 2001 Mariners that won an MLB record 116 games in the regular season. The Mariners have had seven winning seasons under Lincoln, last winning over 90 games in 2003. He’s been credited with helping get Safeco Field built to prevent a Mariners move to Florida in 1990s, as well as explanding the team’s footprint in Japan, a market from which they’ve signed star players including Ichiro Suzuki, Hisashi Iwakuma and Kazuhiro Sasaki. Lincoln said last September that he was taking a pay cut after the Mariners had finished with a losing record for the ninth time in his tenure. “I certainly feel responsible for the performance of the team and the overall performance of the franchise and when we have losing seasons like this I accept responsibility the only way that I can, and that is to take a financial hit,” he said after the press conference announcing new general manager Jerry Dipoto, according to the Associated Press. Lincoln’s expected move would be the second big change to the Mariners front office since longtime majority owner Hiroshi Yamauchi died in 2013. Chuck Armstrong retired after 28 years as president and COO of the franchise at the end of 2014. He was replaced by Kevin Mather, who was previously their vice president of finance and ballpark administration for 18 years. Salk said Lincoln’s exit signals a continued belief in Mather. “Mather I think has been a difference maker for the last two years since stepping into that job. I thought he made the call at the right time with Jack Zduriencik,” said Salk, noting last year’s dismissal of Zduriencik after an up-and-down seven years as Seattle’s general manager. In addition to his time with the Mariners, Lincoln was the chairman and CEO of Nintendo of America from 1994-2000. Nintendo of America has been the majority owner of the Mariners since 1992, and Lincoln played a role in the formation of the ownership group that bought the team from a group headed by Jeff Smulyan. Lincoln previously was an attorney in Seattle and joined Nintendo in 1983 after representing the company in a successful lawsuit defense in 1981. Stanton, a pioneer in the wireless industry who once was chairman of the company that eventually became T-Mobile, is a former minority owner of the Seattle Sonics. Salk is encouraged by the possibility of Stanton taking over the CEO role. “If he ends up becoming the next CEO or whatever the title is, to me that’s good news,” Salk said. “This is the creation of a new culture: a culture of winning, which is something I think every single Mariners fan in this city desires.” Lincoln’s departure might have been in the works for some time. “I think they’ve been preparing for this eventuality for a while now and I see this as essentially good news down the pike,” Salk said. Eric Mandel contributed to this report. |
How Does bitJob Compare to Other Job Portals? Upwork? Fiverr? Ethlance? Find out why bitJob is the best engineered platform for students. Elad Kofman Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 22, 2017 When it comes to looking for work online, there are an abundance of options. From LinkedIn to Indeed to Craigslist to Fiverr, many offer unique functionalities and access to employers and employees. But even though there are more options than ever for finding a job online, finding quality, well-paying work is harder than ever. This is especially true for students. The reason for this is most job sites, even the newer ones, are hampered by their centralized structure. They don’t offer an even playing field for students because they’re not specialized for a student’s lifestyle. Many members of the bitJob community reach out to us asking what makes bitJob different, both in the traditional online employment marketplace and as a blockchain-based portal. With that in mind, we’ve broken down a comparison between bitJob and some of the other services that make similar claims. First, bitJob vs. Centralized Job Markets… Quality: bitJob provides a professional quality guarantee to employers who source labor through the portal. On apps like Fiverr, there is no such guarantee, and the work often suffers because of it. Labor: On sites like Upwork and Taskrabbit, employing freelancers is often prohibitively expensive. bitJob is a global marketplace where everyone is assured of fair pay for fair work. Employer Relationships: The key to a vibrant ecosystem is a “win-win” mentality. Because bitJob places equal importance on the perspective of student workers and student employers, everyone benefits from the exchange, which means more jobs for everyone. Long-Term Projects: Whether you need to make a quick buck over the weekend, or you’re looking for a part-time job to last a whole semester, bitJob will be able to accommodate your needs. That kind of flexibility just isn’t available on Fiverr. Job Browsing: Many freelancer-focused job portals don’t even allow users to browse for jobs! Instead, users are forced to wait for potential employers to contact them. At bitJob, we encourage employers and students to get to know each other. Anti-Monopoly: Often on freelancer portals, a select few top-tier professionals monopolize the best opportunities. bitJob is built to find the right kind of job for everyone, regardless of your past experience or qualifications. Student Ecosystem: The STU Token will be the fuel of the entire bitJob ecosystem, which will grow to include a vibrant marketplace of products ranging from books for classes to spring break travel, all offered at an exclusively discounted rate only for students. And bitJob vs. Cryptocurrency Job Markets… Built for Students: bitJob is unique as the only employment portal on the blockchain that is engineered to help students find work while they’re still in school, and that’s why it’s completely free for students to use. Sharing Ecosystem/Economy: As mentioned, the STU Token will be the fuel of the entire bitJob ecosystem, which will grow to include a vibrant marketplace of products ranging from books for classes to spring break travel, all offered at an exclusively discounted rate only for students. Paypal Functionality: Although bitJonb runs on the STU Token, student workers will be able to quickly and seamlessly withdraw their earnings into fiat currency through Paypal. This is a huge upside not available on Chronobank or Ethlance. Built for Mainstream Adoption: You don’t need to be a blockchain expert or obsessive to understand or use bitJob. That’s why it has unlimited potential for user adoption. Online Jobs: If you find the job online and get paid online, you should be able to do the work online. Isn’t that what decentralization is all about? Not 100% Decentralized: As blockchain enthusiasts, we understand the importance of a decentralized world. However, a project that supports the livelihood of people all over the world needs stability, and we feel that the bitJob organizational structure is the perfect mix of decentralized egalitarianism and centralized leadership. _____________________________________ We are working around the clock to support our global community! bitJob Crowdsale Main Event is scheduled for September 12th. Join our movement! Be the movement! |
Writing a blog is hard when you have family in town and are constantly entertaining. Monday, November 27 Christmas Village in Baltimore Sunday-Thursday 11AM – 7PM, Friday and Saturdays 11AM – 8PM Christmas Village in Baltimore 501 Light St, Baltimore Christmas Village is BACK again for our 5th anniversary! We are so excited to launch our new events while continuing our older traditions! You can look forward to our new Ho Ho Happy Hour, Business Lunches, and our crowd favorite wine tastings in cooperation with Boordy Vineyards! Did we mention that we will be the ONLY place at the Inner Harbor where you can visit Santa every day we’re open?! There’s so many exciting things happening at Christmas Village this year, you don’t want to miss out! All Weekdays incl. Holidays: FREE of admission. Baltimore’s Dollar or Less Days – Dec 9th and 10th, 2017: Holiday Passes for the whole 2017 Christmas Village season are $1 at this weekend! Here are the prices for other weekend days! Adults (age 18+): 5$ / Kids (under 18): free Wine Tastings by Boordy Vineyards at Christmas Village 4PM – 7PM Christmas Village in Baltimore 501 Light St, Baltimore Hey wine lovers! Christmas Village will be hosting Wine Tastings in cooperation with the well-known Maryland Winery, Boordy Vineyards every Monday and Wednesday from 4-7pm. You can look forward to live music and our friend, Garrett, from the Vineyard will be there to walk everyone through the pairing and the different wines they offer! So if you’re an experienced wine taster or just starting out, this is an event you don’t want to miss! Come over for a classy evening with fine wines and cheese. Along with the wine tasting you’ll also receive a souvenir Boordy Vineyard wine glass, a ticket for a tour through the vineyard and a season pass for the Christmas Village 2017 to come back and stroll the market for free as often as you want too! Buy Tickets Here Maryland Monday 4PM – 10PM The Nickel Taphouse 1604 Kelly Avenue, Baltimore Every Monday from 4pm to close, enjoy a crab cake sandwich and Evolution Draft Beer for $15 Magnificent Mondays 5PM – 11PM Birroteca 1520 Clipper Road, Baltimore Join us every Monday for Apertivo Hour all night at the bar only. $3.50 EVO Drafts, $5 Red and White Wine, $5 Wedding Bar Cocktails. Haenyo: Chase St. Chillin pt. 2 & 3 5PM – 10PM Café Andamiro 241 W. Chase st., Baltimore We’re going back to Café Andamiro on November 20th and 27th for two-night dinner series. We’ll huddle together in Ran and Bomin’s cozy space and eat warm rice porridge called ‘juk’, a wintertime tradition and a dish of increasing popularity in Korea. To make juk, we’ll simmer rice in homemade bone and vegetable broths until smooth and consistent. Bowls will be topped with oysters, beef, and colorful winter veggies among others. It’s cold now and because we can’t wrap everyone in blankets (we can still try, anyway), we’ll serve warm juk – the next best thing. Dinner service will run from 5-10 p.m. each Monday and reservations will not be necessary. We will take orders at the counter and call your name when your food is up – tables will be first come, first serve. As always, there will be vegetarian and gluten-free options. The BIG Indie Showcase! 7:30PM – 9:30PM The BIG Theater 1727 North Charles Street, Baltimore As the improv scene in Baltimore grows, more and more independent teams find themselves looking for a home. The monthly Indie Showcase delivers that at the BIG Theater with performances from three indie teams each month, alongside a BIG special project. Come see longtime indie favorites as well as new teams striking out on their own. The debut lineup features Toe Money, Topiary, Scrapple and Casually Dope. Buy Tickets Here Metal Monday – Upstairs at Ottobar 9PM – ? Ottobar 2549 N Howard St, Baltimore Every Monday night…’Metal Monday’ – DJ’s spin Thrash, Death, Stoner, Doom, Classic Metal, & More! Plus, special theme nights, movies, drink specials, ticket giveaways to area metal shows, etc! Tuesday, November 28 Giving Tuesday GivingTuesday is a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration. Celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving. One of the best ways to get involved is in your own community. We’ve created a directory to help you find organizations, charities, events and more in your own community. Benefit Baltimore Market 2017 5PM – 9PM Peabody Heights Brewery, LLC 401 E 30th St, Baltimore This Giving Tuesday come out to Peabody Heights Brewery for a makers market with food trucks and beer all while supporting Baltimore City non-profits. Benefiting: Bikemore, Blue Water Baltimore, Open Works, Village Learning Place, and Youth Empowered Society. Taster Tuesdays 5PM – 10PM Birroteca 1520 Clipper Road, Baltimore 6oz tasting glass pours of any draft beer for $2. Brews and Board Games at The Windup Space 6PM – 11PM The Windup Space 12 W North Ave, Baltimore Join us for Brews and Board Games at The Windup Space! Some board and card games, both classic and contemporary, are provided for anyone to play. Feel free to bring your own as well if you have something special in mind. Come bring some friends, meet some new ones, drink some dranks (alcoholic or non) and play some games! As always, winners of all games get prizes: Cheap Ass Prizes!, Free drinks!, 2-for-1 drinks!, 3 Actual Good Prizes, generously provided by: Canton Games, THIRD EYE COMICS, and re:gen! FREE to attend, but please buy some beer/cocktails/soda to support this event! Stop on by between 6 and 11. Invite your friends! Game Night! “The Last Jedi” Edition 6PM – 9PM Star Track 120 Penn St, Baltimore Happy Holidays To Everyone! This Month’s Game Night Is A Thanksgiving Special As Well As Star Wars Edition. We Wanted To Bring The Warmth And Holiday Spirit To All Participants & Make Sure Everyone Feels The LOVE! We Have A PS4 & Games Available For You To Play! This Is Apart Of Our Monthly “Gamers” Meet Up Allowing Us To Better Engage With All Parts Of The Community. Garment Construction 101 – PJ Pants 6PM – 9PM Domesticity : Fabric Shop & Craft Studio 4321 Harford Rd., Baltimore Come make your first sewn garment just in time for the holidays! We’ll walk and talk you through a pair of loose fit unisex pajama pants. This versatile pattern can be used for children-adult, xs-xl, so make them for yourself, a loved one, or the whole family! This class will reinforce your basic sewing knowledge while teaching you the basics of garment construction as you create your own comfy pants. Buy Tickets Here 9th Annual Holiday WineD Up! Extravaganza 6:30PM – ? Wine Market Bistro 921 E Fort Ave, Baltimore A walk-around wine & food tasting featuring over 25 wines from around the world paired with our amazing hors d’ouerves. All wines featured will be available for retail to go sale at 20% off. Call 410-244-6166 for tix (39$ pp, all food , wine and tip included) OR Buy Tickets Here Macrame Making Workshop with Beckyjane Sews 6:30PM – 8PM B.Willow 220 West 27th, Baltimore Join B. Willow and Beckyjane Sews for a beginner macrame workshop! She’ll be teaching how to make a macrame plant holder for all your 4″-6″ hanging plants. There will be a variety of colors of American-made macrame cording to chose from. She will be there to walk you through this fun and easy design for beginners. For the second half of the workshop we will be potting up a plant of your choosing, (succulent/cacti/tropical) in a 4″-6″ terra cotta for you to add to your macrame! Walk away with a beautiful new plant and colorful macrame to hang it in! $50 ticket includes all supplies! All workshop attendees receive 15% off plants during/after the workshop! Buy Tickets Here Mosaic Tile Workshop 7PM – 9PM Luann Carra Art & Wellness 1918 Fleet St, Baltimore Mosaic tile workshop! This two hour workshop will teach you the basics of the art of mosaic. I have lots of tile, pottery, mirror, etc. to choose from to create your own beautiful piece of art! A great gift for the holidays! Call 410-802-9918 to register. Backbar Movies- Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi 7PM – 10PM Paulie Gee’s Hampden 3535 Chestnut Ave, Baltimore Road to Star Wars VIII. We’ll be showing a Star Wars Movie every Tuesday until December 5th, at 7pm in the Back Bar. $10 gets you a beer, shot and cheese pizza. Two for One Margaritas. Two for One Red Wine. Two Dollar Union Anthem Golden Ale. The Worst Of Us / Infinite Solutions / Deity / Burdened Hearts 7PM – 11PM TheDepot Baltimore 1728 N Charles St, Baltimore The Worst Of Us hits Baltimore for the first time ever! Join us in checking them out! Bands playing: The Worst Of Us, Infinite Solutions, Burdened Hearts, Deity, and As Embers Fall. $10 18+ Yoga with your DOG 7PM – 8PM The Dog Chef Cafe 863 N. Howard Street, Baltimore Join Marissa Walch, fitness professional and dog lover; and the Dog Chef Cafe in Mt. Vernon for Yoga with your Dog! This will be the first class held at the Dog Chef Cafe and we are excited to work together. How does this work you ask?!?! Some poses will be with your dog, some poses are normal and the rest is go with the flow… Bring your own MAT and then possibly a small towel for your dog to sit next to you unless you want your pup on your mat with you too – all are welcome, please make sure all dogs are ON A LEASH! Sign-Up Here Improv Conservatory: State Capitals, Nature’s Dirt, Old City 7:30PM – 9PM Baltimore Improv Group 1727 North Charles Street, Baltimore See the NEW Fall BIG Improv Conservatory Teams! The Conservatory throws together players for 4-month stints of intensive coaching, rehearsal, and performance; you reap the benefits watching the talent flourish before your eyes! Nature’s Dirt, State Capitals and special guest, Baltimore Improv Grouphouse troupe Old City Improv will take us to a new time and place. Buy Tickets Here Tuesday Trivia 8PM – 10PM Frank & Nic’s West End Grille Frank & Nic’s & Charm City Trivia night! Win prizes including gift cards, Frank & Nic’s Shwag, and more!! Taco Tuesday specials all day! Bingo Tuesday’s 8PM – 10PM Delia Foley’s 1439 S Charles St, Baltimore Fall is upon us and so is bingo! We are happy to announce that bingo will become a staple event at Delia Foley’s on Tueaday nights for the rest of 2017. Join us every week for some Tuesday night fun, great drink specials, and $3.00 off all egg roll starters and combos. Bingo will spread across six rounds over two hours with prizes for each round and a grand prize for the blackout round winner(s). Delia Foley’s will be providing gift cards, bar swag and cool prizes rotating each week. This is a free event to play and open to the public, so if you want to get your drink on every other week, play some bingo and win some swag and gift cards come on down. Just a reminder to come early on Tuesday’s, we fill up before bingo starts! Winter Season Baltimore Cornhole 8PM – 10PM Delia Foley’s 1439 S Charles St, Baltimore Baltimore Cornhole is back at Delia Foley’s starting Tuesday 11.21! We will be running a seven week season including playoffs every Tuesday night (excluding the second of every month). First, second, and third place prizes for league champions. Each team consists of two or three person teams and will play three 21 point games per night. Register Here Fiesta Latina 8:30PM – 12AM Sajoma Restaurant 1708 fleet st, Baltimore Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This Tuesday Nov 21st, we won’t have Fiesta Latina, but we will be back next Tuesday the 28th! It’s here! Fiesta Latina, every Tuesday night at Sajhoma, with our new format! Come party with us to the best Salsa, Bachata, Merengue, Cumbia, Kizomba and more! Come and try our authentic Dominican Food!!! You won’t be disappointed! Wednesday, November 29 Wine Wednesday 5PM – 10PM Birroteca 1520 Clipper Road, Baltimore Join us on Wednesday Nights through April, for some great wine specials. Featuring: 1/2 off all wine by the glass, Special Wine Parings, Select $20 Bottles. Traditional Basque Cider Dinner 6PM – 8:30PM La Cuchara Baltimore 3600 Clipper Mill Rd St 125, Baltimore nspired by our most recent trip to Spain and our experiences in the “Sagardotegis” of Basque Country, we are excited to recreate a traditional Basque sagardotegis dinner with special cider pairings poured from poirrons throughout the meal. Chef Ben Lefenfeld will be cooking over our wood burning grill to bring our guests the following delicious menu…Tickets – $79/pp + Tax & Gratuity – Warm Fresh Txorizo, Baguette, Dijon – Wild Mushrooms Cooked on the Wood Grill, Garlic, Parsley – Salt Cod Omelette – Whole Grilled Rockfish, Burnt Garlic Viniagrette – Bone in Txuleton Ribeye, Mesclun Greens, Onions, Red Wine Vinegar – Walnuts, Membrillo, Ossau Iraty, Petit Basque – Cider Poached Pears, Gin Creme Pattissiere Buy Tickets Here Adventures in the Meadhall 6:00PM – 10PM Charm City Meadworks 400 East Biddle St., Baltimore We’ll be opening our doors a second time for a Dungeons & Dragons night at the new Meadworks taproom. All experience levels welcome; no characters, dice, or books required. There will be multiple games available, so bring yourself out, even if you’re running late or leaving early. Drop-in drop-out whenever you’d like with no need to attend prior or future sessions. Doors Open: 6:00p. Games Start: 6:30p – 8:00p. Games End: 9:30p – 11:00p. Vegan and Vegetarian Wednesdays! 6PM – 9PM Laughing Pint 3531 Gough St, Baltimore Wednesdays we are celebrating the Vegans and Veggies out there! Our new Chef Toure Stoney is re-vamping our menu and adding some delicious dishes. Succulent Building Workshop 6:30PM – 8PM B.Willow 220 West 27th, Baltimore Join us for an evening of succulent building. $35 ticket includes all supplies. For beverages during the workshop, feel free to BYOB! Learn everything necessary to grow happy, healthy succulents. Each workshop attendee will choose from a variety of repurposed, vintage containers to plant in. Buy Tickets Here Kitchen Table Series – Southern Comfort 6:30PM – 8:30PM Wit & Wisdom 200 International Dr, Baltimore Description – Wit & Wisdom is excited to announce the return of the Kitchen Table Series! Join us at our intimate counter-style table for a 4-course interactive experience that brings guests up close and personal to our talented culinary team. Craving a little down-home comfort? Satisfy your soul with delicious and wholesome Southern comfort classics created by Executive Chef Zachary Mills. Optional wine pairings are available for purchase. Tickets include tax and 18% gratuity. Buy Tickets Here Persephone’s Statue Unveiling – 7 Course Sicilian Dinner 6:30PM – 9:30PM Sotto Sopra Restaurant 405 N Charles St, Baltimore On this very special fall evening, Salvatore Rizzuti, world renowned sculptor, has flown in from Sicily to officially present Sotto Sopra’s owner and chef, Riccardo Bosio, his commissioned statue of Persephone. In Greek mythology, Persephone represents new beginnings with spring vegetation, life and harvest in the fall when the ground goes dormant, death. Rizzuti’s statue of Persephone is carved of two woods, cypress and olive, representing the cycle of life and in loving memory of Riccardo’s mother, Renata. $65 per person (excludes beverages, tax and gratuity) Reservations/Tickets: 410-625-0534 El Otro Beso Argentine Tango Group Classes 7PM – 9PM Emmanuel Episcopal Church 811 Cathedral St, Baltimore Six week series of group classes in Fundamental Argentine Tango. If you can walk, you can tango! No partner or previous experience required. Six classes as low as $47 (student signing with friend online)! Advanced Fundamentals classes follow 8 PM – 9 PM (Fundamentals A and B prerequisite). Register Here GLCCB Fundraiser: Drag Queen Bingo! 7PM – 10PM Points South Latin Kitchen 1640 Thames St, Baltimore The GLCCB invites you to a night of bingo and draq queens – the perfect recipe for a night of fun. AND if we reach our fundraising goal of $1000, GLCCB Board President Jabari Lyles will appear…in drag! Heavy Seas & Vinyasa Please! 7PM – 8:30PM Heavy Seas Alehouse 1300 Bank St, Baltimore Tickets are on sale now for Beer & Yoga at Heavy Seas! There will be an hour long Vinyasa Flow with Briyana Patel, a brief energy workshop by Reiki Practioner Lauren Bailey, and most importantly, BEER provided by Heavy Seas Ale House. Buy Tickets Here Mario Kart 8 Tournament 7PM – 1AM Hi Score – Baltimore’s Gamer Happy Hour 1400 Warner St, Baltimore Our 17th edition of HIscore we bring to you: A Mario Kart 8 Tournament for Wii U! Winner gets $75. 100% FREE 2 ENTER! Currently it will be 1v1 matches unless we can find 2 more wii U controllers. We will also be rocking Destiny 2 online play, Overwatch Online play, Wolfenstein II free play, and South park Fractured but Whole play along with DDR and guitar hero in the back room on the BIG SCREEN!! Bunk Buddha November Residency w/ Catullus – The Jauntee 8PM – 1:30AM The 8×10 10 E Cross St, Baltimore Bunk Buddha hosts the November Residency at The 8×10! Week 5 finale will feature Catullus and The Jauntee! Buy Tickets Here Last Fall Bingo! 8PM – 10PM Smaltimore- Burgers, Sushi and Craft Beer 2522 Fait Ave, Baltimore Each week we will discount drafts from a particular brewery for bingo night. The games will spread across six rounds over two hours with prizes each round and a grand prize for the blackout winner(s). Smaltimore will be providing gift cards and swag to the winners of each round plus some cool prizes from the brewery and one grand prize for the blackout round. This event is free [to play] and open to the public – so if you want to get your drink on, play some bingo, and win some swag and gift cards come on down November 29th! Salsa y Bachata Wednesdays 8PM – 12:30AM Sangria Patio Bar 930 North Charles Street, Baltimore Sangria Patio Bar – the best weeknight dancing in Charm City is at Sangria. Dance Lessons with Brandon $5 per class. 8:00 PM Bachata. 8:45 PM Salsa. Dance with DJ Raj starting 9:30. Punks for Puerto Rico w Old Bay Thrashers, The Stifled & more 8PM – 1AM TheDepot Baltimore 1728 N Charles St, Baltimore Artists Compound presents Punks for Puerto Rico! A Benefit for HHH Finca Organica in Puerto Rico. A $5 donation is greatly needed, and appreciated. We will also be collecting clothing, toys and canned goods for local charities, so bring all the things! Featuring: Old Bay Thrashers, The Stifled, and Urban Crater. Thursday, November 30 Mussel Mania 4PM – 10PM The Nickel Taphouse 1604 Kelly Avenue, Baltimore Enjoy unlimited mussels all night long, only $25 per person. Ho Ho Happy Hour at Christmas Village in Baltimore 5PM – 7PM Christmas Village in Baltimore 501 Light St, Baltimore Who doesn’t love Happy Hour after a long day at the office? You’re all in luck! Come take advantage every Thursday from 5-7pm for discounted drinks and food! There will be $4 draft beers, $5 mulled wine and a discounted dish that is different every week for the full German experience! There will also be live music and tons of photo opportunities! Grab your friends! Grab your co-workers and get into the German Christmas spirit with us! Charm City Food Adventures Soul Food Dinner 5PM – 10PM Modern Cook Shop-Fells Point 901 South Wolfe St, Baltimore $29 dinner includes 2 meats and 2 sides with unlimited beer and punch. DJ spinning old school soul music. Vegetarian options available. No tickets required, reservations via ModernCookShop.com strongly encouraged. Featuring: Fried Chicken, Fried Fish, Ribs, and Smothered Pork Chops. Sides: Mac n Cheese, Collard Greens, Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Candied Yams, Black Eyed Peas, and Green Beans. Cold Weather Companions 6PM – 8PM Bin 604 604 South Exeter Street, Baltimore As the weather changes, our palates ususally change with it. When there’s a chill in the air, doesn’t a nice glass of red or a full-bodied white sound like it will warm you right up? Or maybe Port is what you need after coming in from the cold. Whatever you fancy, we’ve got you covered tonight! Tickets are $10 with a $5 credit toward featured wines. Buy Tickets Here Light up Belvedere Square 6PM – 7PM Belvedere Square 540 E Belvedere Ave, Baltimore Join us on Thursday, November 30th at 7pm at the Belvedere Square Christmas Tree as we light the Square for the holiday season! Enjoy special treats and sales around the Square and join the students from the Music Workshop around the tree from 6-7pm as they play your favorite holiday music. Censored Artist Talk 6PM – 7PM The Motor House 120 W North Ave, Baltimore The removal of several controversial works of art from the public sphere has ignited debate across the country. Motor House’s latest gallery show, “Censored”, explores a few of these works with the goal of promoting open, and often tough conversation. The works of Paul Rucker, Stephen Towns, Lynn Hunter, and images of the Confederate and Christoper Columbus monuments are included in this exhibition. Join us for a special artist talk about the exhibition with Stephen Towns and Lynn Harper. Hundredth w/ Spotlights, Tennis System, Gleemer at Metro Gallery 6PM – ? Metro Gallery 1700 N Charles St, Baltimore Featuring: HUNDREDTH, Spotlights, Tennis System, and Gleemer. Buy Tickets Here Wine Tasting 6:30PM – 8:30PM Tavern on the Hill Mount Vernon 900 Cathedral St, Baltimore Just in case you are unable to make the wine tasting on November 9 than you can join us for ANOTHER wine tasting on November 30. $25 gets you 5 tastings paired with small plates and discounts on bottles and cases. Pay in advance or at the door. We hope to see you for this fun event!! Waverly Brewing Co. Tap Takeover 7PM – 10PM Wit & Wisdom 200 International Dr, Baltimore Calling all craft beers lovers! On Thursday, November 30th, Waverly Brewing Company will be taking over our taps and running the lines for the night. Guests can enjoy Waverly Brewing Company brews poured by the team themselves, along with lite bites, including chicken and waffle skewers, falafel sliders and more, by Chef Zack Mills, as well as live entertainment by local rock band Dirty Vacant all while taking in fantastic views of the Harbor. Ticket prices include taxes and 18% gratuity. Buy Tickets Here Free Film at the SNF Parkway: Manila in the Claws of Light 7PM – 9:15PM The SNF Parkway / Maryland Film Festival 5 West North Avenue, Baltimore Community Night Screening – Free and Open to the Public presented by MdFF with Support from The Park School of Baltimore. Free admission! This recently restored classic of Filipino cinema will be introduced by acclaimed Baltimore-based documentary filmmaker Ramona Diaz (IMELDA, MOTHERLAND), award-winning Asian-American filmmaker and parent of Park School alumna. MANILA IN THE CLAWS OF LIGHT (Lino Brocka, Philippines, 1975, 124 minutes) Julio Madiaga goes to the city to look for his long lost love, Ligaya Paraiso. His search leads to a radical shift in his character–from a naive country boy to an angry young man thirsting for justice. CD Release Show of Snark & Despair (B’more version) 7:30PM – 10PM Creative Alliance 3134 Eastern Ave, Baltimore Seth Kibel, with special guests David Kitchen, Flo Anito, Billy Coulter, Black Betty, and Chris Urquiaga. Known throughout the Mid-Atlantic region for his skill on woodwinds and his ability to cross genres, Seth Kibel has a brand-new album of original tunes featuring talented guest artists, progressive political commentary, dark humor, and much-needed musical therapy for these strange and trying times. The songs on this album traverse a wide landscape of musical styles, including blues, swing, klezmer, bossa nova, reggae, and more. Come commiserate with Seth and his friends as they celebrate the release of this record with performances from David Kitchen, Flo Anito, Billy Coulter, Black Betty, Chris Urquiaga, and more. Not only will the album be performed in its entirety, but you’ll hear plenty of other tunes, both familiar and new, reflecting our current unprecedented political morass. No admission charge if you can show proof of residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue! Buy Tickets Here Impropourri: Bring Your Own Troupe Show! 7:30PM – 8:30PM The BIG Theater 1727 North Charles Street, Baltimore FREE SHOW. Every Thursday Night, we throw our doors open for any troupe that wants to come and play. Bring a troupe, put your troupe’s name in the blue bucket, and you’re part of the show. Or, come by your self, and we’ll try to team you up with other players. See you here! Charm Kitty Game Night 7:30PM – 10PM Charm Kitty Cafe 3300 Clipper Mill Rd, Baltimore Come play board games with cats for two hours! We have some cat-themed board games but feel free to bring your own game if you’d like. Buy Tickets Here H.T. Darling’s Incredible Musaeum Presents: The Treasures of New Galapagos, Astonishing Aquisitions from the Perisphere Thursdays-Sundays Nov. 16-Dec 17, 8PM Thurs-Fri, 7PM Sat-Sun The Peale Center 225 Holliday St., Baltimore In this remount of the hit immersive theater experience by Submersive Productions, you are invited to the Grand Opening of H.T. Darling’s new exhibit of artifacts from the planet New Galapagos. By interacting with the curious inhabitants of the museum, the building, and the exhibition itself, each audience member must choose their own path through the evening’s strange events. Musaeum is recommended for ages 12 and above. Making the most of your experience will require you to ascend and descend at least two staircases (and more if you choose). Standing and light walking will also be necessary. Seating and gentle guidance will be available throughout the space for those who may require it. We expect the experience to last about two hours from the posted start time. Beverages and snacks will be available. Buy Tickets Here Mr Burns: A Post-Electric Play Fri-Sat 8PM – 10PM, Sun 4PM – 6PM, Nov 30 – Dec 17 923 S East Ave, Baltimore Cohesion Theatre Company is proud to announce the second production of their 2017/18 theatrical season, Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, an exploration of survival, memory, and storytelling set it a nuclear wasteland of the future. Lance Bankerd will direct this inventive and extraordinary piece. The New York Times said “Anne Washburn’s downright brilliant Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play has arrived to leave you dizzy with the scope and dazzle of its ideas…. It has depths of feeling to match its breadth of imagination.” Buy Tickets Here Bmore BeatClub ft Kelson of 92Q 8PM – 1AM Maryland Art Place 218 W Saratoga St, Baltimore Join us at 218 W. Saratgoa for the last BeatClub of 2017 November 30th at 8pm! To wrap up the year in a big way we will be joined by 92QJams Baltimore‘s Kelson The Urban Informer! As usual the open mic segment allows producers to sign up and play beats at random while any MC raps. Host & local legend Eze Jackson holds us down all night with the assistance of in-house DJ Casey MooseJaw Frank. This month we change the format by having 2 producer sets followed by a DJ fueled dance party/networking session. Our featured producers are Boom Bap Society’s Wendel Patrick, & two Baltimore based producers doing a duet LinoBeatz & Casey MooseJaw Frank. The Get Down‘s super DJ & producer DJ FLEG will wrapup the night. Buy Tickets Here Manners Manners, The Two Youths, O Paradiso, $100 Girlfriend 8PM – 11PM The Windup Space 12 West North Avenue, Baltimore The Two Youths (NC) https://thetwoyouths.bandcamp.com/track/chewing-gum O Paradiso (NYC) https://oparadiso.bandcamp.com/ Manners Manners https://mannersmanners.bandcamp.com/releases $100 Girlfriend https://youtu.be/lgd-rRsyYTA The Bangladesh Project: R. House 8PM – 10PM R. House 301 W 29th St, Baltimore The groovalicious Bangladesh Project will be rockin’ R. House Thursday November 30th from 8p-10p! Come enjoy a whole warehouse of great food, fabulous drinks, and a phenomenal 2 hour performance from the soulful scions! CDs of their latest album, Big Bang Theory, will be available. Friday, December 1 B&O’s Magical Holiday Express December 1 – December 31 Monday-Saturday, 10am-4pm / Sunday, 11am-4pm B&O Railroad Museum 901 W Pratt St, Baltimore Trains are magical during the holidays! There is no better place to be a child than at the B&O Railroad Museum! All aboard the B&O’s Magical Holiday Express, a holiday spectacular celebration in the B&O Roundhouse devoted to trains of all sizes and shapes, holiday festivities, and a winter wonderland of family fun and activities. There is something to see and do every day at this annual holiday event! NEW this year – walk through a 30 foot Christmas tree in the center of the B&O’s historic roundhouse and enjoy all new holiday decorations! Purchase admission on-site! Holiday Pop Up Studio at Zeke’s 4PM – 8PM Zeke’s Coffee 4719 Harford Rd, Baltimore Don your ugly christmas sweater, bring the kids and take photos for your holiday cards! Or just for fun! Formal or funny, whatever you want goes. Spend First Friday in Hamilton-Lauraville with us! Each mini session is 10 minutes long and includes as many shots as can be taken in that time. Holiday backdrop and props provided. You’ll get three (3) 4×6 prints right on the spot, and web sized digital images sent to you instantly. Holiday cards, mugs, etc. are available for order as well. Mini sessions are $20 if booked in advance. $25 day of. Get your choice of times by reserving in advance here on Eventbrite. Bratwurst Eating Contest – Christmas Village in Baltimore 6PM – 7PM Christmas Village in Baltimore 501 Light St, Baltimore Christmas Village in Baltimore will host its 3rd Annual Bratwurst Eating Contest! It will take place on the main stage inside the heated tent. Do you have what it takes to devour 10 bratwursts in 15 minutes? Then please sign up! It is an amateur competition – just for fun, don’t take it too seriously. To sign up for the contest, email at entertainment@baltimore-christmas.com The winner will be rewarded with a prize and a travelling challenge cup! This Eating Contest will be the Kick-off for our well-known German American Weekend from December 2 – 3! Come back on that weekend for more Bratwursts and more fun! Baltimore Brew Night! 6PM – 11PM Diamondback Beer 1215 E Fort Ave, Baltimore Baltimore Brew Club and Diamondback Beer team up, raising pints and raising funds for refugee work based in Baltimore. For each pint we drink, $1 will be donated! No cover, but for the best deal, sign up for a Baltimore Beer Passport before the event using code ‘WELCOME’, $17, and 100% of the proceeds will be donated! Passport holders receive a bonus 6oz pour with purchase of a beer at the event, along with ~$100 of additional beer offers redeemable across the city. If you haven’t already, you can sign up here: www.baltimorebrewclub.com Come drink with us and support a good cause! The benefiting non-profits are Refugee Youth Project and World Relief. Sharp Dressed Man Holiday Party! 6PM – 9PM Christopher Schafer Clothier 1400 Aliceanna St, Baltimore We’re looking forward to the inaugural Sharp Dressed Man Holiday Party!We’re currently in the process of looking for items or our auction. Please let us know if you would like to donate or help us find items for the auction. In the mean time, invite friends you think might be interested in having a great time! Ride For The Feast Kick-Off Party at Metro Gallery 6PM – ? Metro Gallery 1700 N Charles St, Baltimore Ride For The Feast Kick-Off Party at Metro Gallery. A Benefit concert for Moveable Feast. With musical guests: Orchester Praževica, Sac Au Lait, and Barrage Band Orchestra. Doors 6pm // Show 7pm // ALL AGES // $10 Admisison Happy Hour with Plan B 7PM – 8PM Baltimore Improv Group 1727 North Charles Street, Baltimore Start the weekend right, with friends and laughs – for only $5. Every Friday at 7 p.m. kick back with Baltimore Improv Group’s longest-running troupe, Plan B, for a special HAPPY HOUR show. They’ll delight and surprise you while creating scenes, characters – sometimes, even songs – on the spot. Bring your favorite coworkers, your favorite friends, heck bring your favorite party hat and enjoy yourself as we do the work. You’re off the clock. Buy Tickets Here H.T. Darling’s Incredible Musaeum Presents: The Treasures of New Galapagos, Astonishing Aquisitions from the Perisphere Thursdays-Sundays Nov. 16-Dec 17, 8PM Thurs-Fri, 7PM Sat-Sun The Peale Center 225 Holliday St., Baltimore In this remount of the hit immersive theater experience by Submersive Productions, you are invited to the Grand Opening of H.T. Darling’s new exhibit of artifacts from the planet New Galapagos. By interacting with the curious inhabitants of the museum, the building, and the exhibition itself, each audience member must choose their own path through the evening’s strange events. Musaeum is recommended for ages 12 and above. Making the most of your experience will require you to ascend and descend at least two staircases (and more if you choose). Standing and light walking will also be necessary. Seating and gentle guidance will be available throughout the space for those who may require it. We expect the experience to last about two hours from the posted start time. Beverages and snacks will be available. Buy Tickets Here First Friday featuring Brewer’s Art 7PM – 10PM Atomic Books 3620 Falls Rd, Baltimore This First Friday, to celebrate the release of their St. Festivus in cans, we’ll be featuring The Brewer’s Art. That means Happy Hour prices on their beer all night. Lenore LeNoire/Joseph and the Beasts/Portfolio Day 7PM – ? The Motor House 120 W North Ave, Baltimore Portfolio Day is a Baltimore-based group combining synth-pop, rock and dance elements; a post religious experiment. A 5-piece pop/rock band hailing from Baltimore, MD, Lenore LeNoire combines impactful rhythms, soaring melodies, and electronic elements to form a unique sound that supports singer Jillian Lebrun’s evocative dream-themed lyrics. Joseph & The Beasts traffic in counter-rhythms that build from muted valleys to fevered crescendos. Shifts in time give way to sprawling valleys of fuzz-drenched keyboards, before soaring vocals erupt into a fervor-filled maelstrom. $10 advance, $12 at the door, All ages! Buy Tickets Here Baltimore Square Dance in Hampden 7:30PM – 11PM Baltimore Square Dance 905 West 36th Street, Baltimore Baltimore’s best old-timey dance party, the Baltimore Square Dance in Hampden, returns to The Ideal Arts Space on the Avenue, Friday, December 1 for a hilariously fun night of square dancing, live Old-Time music and pure silliness. All are welcome – no experience necessary. It’s a great way to meet people and hang out with friends. Plus, it’s BYOB. Spread the word and tell your friends. We can use your help getting the word out! Live Old-Time Music from Sam Gleaves, Tyler Hughes, Hasee Ciacco and Emily Mann with calling from Susan Taylor. All dances will be taught. Beginners are welcome! $12/$7 student Mr Burns: A Post-Electric Play Fri-Sat 8PM – 10PM, Sun 4PM – 6PM, Nov 30 – Dec 17 923 S East Ave, Baltimore Cohesion Theatre Company is proud to announce the second production of their 2017/18 theatrical season, Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, an exploration of survival, memory, and storytelling set it a nuclear wasteland of the future. Lance Bankerd will direct this inventive and extraordinary piece. The New York Times said “Anne Washburn’s downright brilliant Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play has arrived to leave you dizzy with the scope and dazzle of its ideas…. It has depths of feeling to match its breadth of imagination.” Buy Tickets Here Prim and Proper 8PM – 10:30PM Zissimos Bar 1023 W 36th St, Baltimore Acts: Alyssa Cowan, Angela Hamilton, Natalie McGill, Katie McKelvie,Krystal Pistol, Sarah Roche, Michele Sometimes, Kerene Tayloe, Rose Vineshank, Davine Ker Bring your white gloves and veiled fascinators, and prepare to sip fancy drinks…we’ve got a very prim and proper evening planned for you tonight! It’s an all-woman showcase with some of the most well-bred divas we know! We’ll start off with standup from host Davine Ker, then take a lazy stroll down the lane with the rest of the ladies! $5 cash at the door, or buy them online up until 7:30 PM the day of. This show is presented upstairs at Zissimos Bar by Charm City Comedy Project. Buy Tickets Here Friday Night Swing with Anna Cecilia and the Big Time! 8PM – 12AM Mobtown Ballroom 861 Washington Blvd, Baltimore We, your humble servants at the Mobtown Ballroom, are dishing up a night of incredible swing and jazz with Anna Cecilia and the Big Time, a band we’ve been itching to book for months. There’ll be a beginner drop-in swing dance lesson at 8 and the band goes on it 9. Don’t miss it. Anna Cecilia & the Big Time marry masterful musicianship with the rich tradition of the American songbook. Anna Cecilia’s impeccable vocals lead the Big Time’s lively rhythms through swingin’ tunes and soulful blues, compositions both traditional and original. Together, the Swedish chanteuse and her stellar band create an entertaining experience that at once captivates listeners and compels bodies to dance. Consider The Source at The 8×10 w/ Deaf Scene – You Bred Raptors 8PM – 11:30PM The 8×10 10 E Cross St, Baltimore Consider the Source at The 8×10 with special guests Deaf Scene and You Bred Raptors? Buy Tickets Here Deceased w/ Rat Infested* Optimist Prime* Nuclear Tomb @TheDepot 8PM – 1AM TheDepot Baltimore 1728 N Charles St, Baltimore Domestic Terror Promotions presents: Deceased (VA Death Thrash) Optimist Prime (MD Melodic Death) Rat Infested (VA Crossover Thrash) Nuclear Tomb (MD Thrash) Abe Ovadia Trio at An Die Musik 8PM – & 9:30PM An die Musik 409 N Charles St, Baltimore As Musicvox Guitars describes, Abe Ovadia is a “jazz phenom, one of the most innovative guitarists of our time.” Having emerged as one of the preeminent guitarists on the New York City jazz scene, Times Square New York City says, “You can always count on him to happily claim the responsibility of playing some world-class jazz.” He holds a bachelor’s degree from Berklee College of Music, and a master’s from New York University’s highly acclaimed jazz performance program. He is also a recipient of the Best Guitarist of 2016 Award from Hot House Jazz Magazine. Friday Salsa Bachata Kizomba Zouk – The All Black Party 8:30PM – 1:30AM Game 1400 Warner St, Baltimore This Black Friday at Game is not for shopping. It’s for a great night of music and dancing where everyone is dressed in black attire. Here’s your chance to step out and turn heads in your coolest black numbers. It’s been a great year and we have expanded to two rooms of fun. Front room for Salsa, Mambo, Cha cha, Merengue, and Bachata. Back room for Kizomba, Zouk, and Bachata. Dance to your heart’s content on Friday, December 1st. If you’ve got dance game, then this is where you need to be. Come out to play with us at Game! Salsa lessons with Niss Albaig of SalsaNow start at 8:30 pm for beginners and 9:15 pm for partnering patterns. Kizomba or Zouk lesson at 9:15 pm with guest instructors. This Friday’s DJ is DJ Mambo Soul! He will move your body and trigger your soul to dance non-stop, plus he takes beautiful photos during the night. DJs and dancing starts at 10 pm until closing. $10 Cover includes admission, lessons and dancing. Jazzffluenza First Friday Jazz at 13.5% Wine Bar 8:30PM – 12:30AM 13.5% Wine Bar 1117 W 36th St, Baltimore First Friday Jazz by Jazzffluenza at 13.5% Wine Bar, Hampden’s hippest spot! Great food, great drinks, great service, and live jazz all night starting at 8:30. Can it get any better? Oh that’s right, no cover charge! Retro Music with a Live Dj In The Pub 9PM – 2AM Grand Central Nightclub 1001 N Charles St, Baltimore Come see what all the buzz is about! Join us EVERY Friday & Saturday night in the pub with a live dj! Dj Amsies Presents PUMP: A Free DANCE PARTY 10:30PM – 1:30AM The Crown 1910 N Charles St, Baltimore Dj Amsies Presents PUMP. No cover Special Guest: DJ SHSHUNJ http://soundcloud.com/spoolsofgossamer DJ Amsies https://soundcloud.com/amyreidmusic Saturday, December 2 Olde Tyme Christmas 8AM – 7PM Fell’s Point Main Street 1632 Aliceanna Street, Baltimore Join us for a traditional Christmas celebration that will charm and delight you, your family, and friends! The Fell’s Point neighborhood will be arrayed in fragrant green garlands, red bows, and twinkling lights! Schedule of Events: St. Nick arrives in Fell’s Point via boat – Broadway Pier, 9:00 a.m. Breakfast with St. Nick – Fell’s Point neighborhood, 9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Pictures with St. Nick for children & pets – Sagamore Pendry Hotel, 11:30am – 2:00pm Eggnog Contest – Fell’s Point neighborhood, 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. “Joyous Voices” – Strolling Carolers – Broadway Square, 2:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Lighting of the Tree – Broadway Square, 5:30 p.m. Parade of Lighted Boats – Ann Street Wharf/Broadway Pier/Bond Street Wharf 6PM Free Yoga 8:15AM – 9:30AM Belvedere & Co. 1 E Chase St, Baltimore Come experience the Conservancy’s sponsored free Yoga – in the Ballroom at the Belvedere at 1 East Chase St. Bring your own mat and water bottle. Appropriate for all levels. Cylburn Mansion: Holiday Open House 10AM – 4PM Cylburn Arboretum Association 4915 Greenspring Ave, Baltimore Join us for our annual Holiday Open House. Wander the first floor of the historic Cylburn Mansion dressed in holiday finery. See turn-of-the-century wood work, marble fireplaces and European plaster work set off by seasonal decorations. Take a stroll on the grounds and enjoy the winter gardens, then drop into the mansion. Join us in the Greenhouse Classroom from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm for our poinsettia sale! You can choose from different varieties of poinsettias, all grown in Cylburn’s greenhouses, as well as decorated wreaths, table arrangements, and other winter decorations designed by our head gardener and volunteers. Open Board Gaming 10AM – 6PM Canton Games 2101 Essex St, Baltimore Come play games with us! Every Saturday, Canton Games hosts free open board gaming. Just show up, play some games and have fun! We have a huge demo library available to play, but we also encourage people to bring in your own favorites! Through the Wardrobe: The Magical Gardens of Narnia – Poinsettia Wednesday – Sunday, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm until Dec31 Rawlings Conservatory & Botanical Gardens 3100 Swann Dr, Baltimore Holiday Display — Through the Wardrobe: The Magical Gardens of Narnia. This year’s show will feature many of your favorite poinsettias from years past, as well as some exciting new cultivars, in a setting that celebrates C.S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia. Santa Arrives on Sunday, December 3 at 1:30 pm. And, YES, we will have many colors and sizes of poinsettias available for sale! Come early and often for the best selections. Donations appreciated! $5 per person suggested. German American Weekend – Christmas Village in Baltimore Sat & Sun 11AM – 7PM Christmas Village in Baltimore 501 Light St, Baltimore Once again we will be celebrating our famous German American Weekend, featuring highlights like German Beer and the Washingtonia Schuhplattler. Enjoy various German choirs, dance groups and musicians! Learn German dances. Colonial Christmas Celebration at Mount Clare 11AM – 4PM Mount Clare Museum House 1500 Washington Blvd, Baltimore Experience the holidays of years past at Mount Clare Museum House’s annual winter celebration. Special programs include self-guided tours, live musical performances and a demonstration. Purchase your fresh cut greens in the forecourt for holiday decorating. Looking for the perfect gift? The museum store is filled with merchandise to satisfy your holiday shopping list. Fun for the whole family! Admission: free for members, $5.00 for non-members Shiny Happy Things Workshop with Bob Benson 11AM – 2PM American Visionary Art Museum 800 Key Hwy, Baltimore Join the creator of the Blinged-Out “Universal Tree of Life” (shining outside of AVAM’s Main Entrance) in making your own FLASHIES: dynamic, sparkling decorations made from mirrors and marbles and such. Each participant will receive instruction on cutting and assemblage and will leave this workshop with at least two finished decorations to keep and dangle. For beginning and continuing students. Check out http://shinyhappythings.com/to see more of Bob’s work. REGISTRATION: Advance registration & payment required, please call (410) 244-1900 to register for this workshop. Don’t delay, space is limited! Brunch at the Bufalo 11:30AM – 2PM El Bufalo Tequila Bar & Kitchen 2921 O’Donnell St, Baltimore The week is over! Still hung over from that Friday blowout? Want to kick off the weekend right? Then come on down to El Bufalo to get your Saturday Brunch on with some Drag Queens! Show starts at 12 noon. $20 bottomless drink where you can mix and match your mimosas, bloody mary’s and tequila sunrises or $10 show fee. Email elbufaloevents@gmail.com to make a reservation, you know you wanna get that good seat! Kwanzaa Family Day 2017 12PM – 3PM Creative Alliance 3134 Eastern Ave, Baltimore An unforgettable Kwanzaa celebration of African heritage and ancestry! Honor African-American and Pan-African heritage! FREE SCHEDULE: NOON Kerplunk! drum activity and face painting 12:30 PM Theater doors open 1 PM Libation and history of Kwanzaa by WombWorks 1:20 PM Sheena Black dances and explains African influence on various cultures 1:30 PM Urban Foli performs drums 1:50 PM Intermission. Snacks are for sale 2-2:30 PM Workshops: Drum w/ Urban Foli or Dance w/ Sheena Black 2:30-3PM Workshops: Drum w/ Urban Foli or Dance w/ Sheena Black 3:05 -3:10PM Open Minds Anansi Finale Cardinal Tavern + One-Eight Distilling Mixology Brunch 12PM – 2PM Cardinal Tavern 901 S Clinton St, Baltimore Come join us Upstairs at Cardinal Tavern Saturday December 2 from 12-2 for a very special Mixology Brunch with Washington DC’s One-Eight Distilling. Our Mixology Brunch Class will feature 3 Cocktails taught to you by Cardinal Tavern Bartenders. Your ticket to this Brunch also gets you a Plate from the Cardinal Tavern Kitchen. We are excited to have Rob Flores in from Blueprint Spirits to give some backstory and samples of One-Eight Distilling’s Gin, Whiskey, Bourbon, and Vodka. Buy Tickets Here Binology 103: All Things Pinot 2PM – 3:30PM Bin 604 604 South Exeter Street, Baltimore The Pinot family has many distinct personalities that create incredibly diverse and exciting wines all around the world. Noir, Grigio, Gris, Blanc, Meunier, and more will be explored in depth to show you what makes these some of the world’s most popular wines! Tickets are $39. Buy Tickets Here The 24th Night of 100 ElvisES 4PM- 1AM Lord Baltimore Hotel 20 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore The 24th Night of 100 ELVISes will be on Saturday, December 2, 2017. There are 5 areas of ELVIS entertainment at the Lord Baltimore Hotel. All doors open at 4PM. The Lord Baltimore’s grand & spectacular Calvert Ballroom will host at least 12 bands & 12 Elvis tribute artists. All entertainers will perform all Elvis music, all night. The Jungle Room & the Viva Las Vegas Lounge will offer more non-stop Elvis entertainment. In the Ballroom, no song will be duplicated. Buy Tickets Here Open House & Holiday Party for Art By Barton 5PM – 10PM 4401 Fait Ave, Baltimore We’re putting on an open house and holiday party! Join us at our studio, which we’ve filled with original artwork, friendly people, great food, and drinks. Meet Charlie Barton and see the studio of a local Baltimore artist. Feel free to bring your friends. We hope to see you there. Meet & Greet with Charlie Barton. Open Studio. Food & Drinks. Live Music. 15% Off All Work JAM Session – Year 5! A Benefit for Lung Cancer Patients 6PM – 1AM The Sidebar 218 E Lexington St, Baltimore The 5th annual John and Amy Mewhiney Cancer Foundation Benefit Show is go! Join us at the Sidebar for a night of fun, raffles and music all to benefit lung cancer research and patients in our area. Mark your calendar now and get ready for another great night of music with us! Doors 6pm. Music at 7pm. $12 at the door. Mobtown Ballroom 2nd Dance Recital for Glory 6PM – 1AM Mobtown Ballroom 861 Washington Blvd, Baltimore The Mobtown Ballroom’s dance recital, known far and wide to be one of the greatest events of all time, is happening again on December 2nd, 2017. Structured like a children’s dance recital, this is a recital for people of all ages. It is meant to give people of all levels of dancing an opportunity to perform and inspire each other in a fun, enthusiatic, and supportive environment. The evening will include: -Performances by instructors -Lindy Hop class performances -Performances submitted by you, the great people of the Mobtown Ballroom Mozart & Martinis: Concert & After-Party 7PM – 11PM Baltimore Symphony Orchestra 1212 Cathedral St, Baltimore Join the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for an evening of Mozart and martinis! Hear the BSO and the University of Maryland Concert Choir bring down the house with Mozart’s Requiem led by Marin Alsop! Then join us after the concert in the Meyerhoff lobby for a Gothic-inspired after-party complete with live entertainment from DJ Landis Expandis. Enjoy $6 martini specials and food from Pinch Dumplings. Buy Tickets Here BIG Holiday PARTY 7PM – 12AM Baltimore Improv Group 1727 North Charles Street, Baltimore Join us for a Baltimore Improv Group’s party to kick off our holiday season at The BIG Theater. Kicking off the BIG Winter Season! 6pm Pre Show Open House – Hangout session for the early birds 7-10pm Saturday Night Improv Show LINEUP : 7pm Casually Dope 8pm Rubin Armando (One night only!) 9pm Hot & Heavy – GUS with special guest Sad Trombone 10pm Holiday Party featuring music by Big Infinite – Night owl gathering There’s an option for everyone. See a show, hang out before the shows if that’s your thing. Or stay after for some music. Board games. Gratitude tree. Spacez for deep thought and conversation. It’s all available! Christopher Walken impressions highly encouraged. Please invite your troupe, classmates, students, fans, and affiliates. Buy Tickets Here H.T. Darling’s Incredible Musaeum Presents: The Treasures of New Galapagos, Astonishing Aquisitions from the Perisphere Thursdays-Sundays Nov. 16-Dec 17, 8PM Thurs-Fri, 7PM Sat-Sun The Peale Center 225 Holliday St., Baltimore In this remount of the hit immersive theater experience by Submersive Productions, you are invited to the Grand Opening of H.T. Darling’s new exhibit of artifacts from the planet New Galapagos. By interacting with the curious inhabitants of the museum, the building, and the exhibition itself, each audience member must choose their own path through the evening’s strange events. Musaeum is recommended for ages 12 and above. Making the most of your experience will require you to ascend and descend at least two staircases (and more if you choose). Standing and light walking will also be necessary. Seating and gentle guidance will be available throughout the space for those who may require it. We expect the experience to last about two hours from the posted start time. Beverages and snacks will be available. Buy Tickets Here Kipyn Martin and Allison Shapira pay tribute to Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell 7:30PM- 10PM An die Musik 409 N Charles St, Baltimore Tickets: $15 in advance / $18 at door Joan & Joni is a tribute to Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell performed by singer/songwriters Allison Shapira and Kipyn Martin. In Joan & Joni, Allison and Kipyn bring to the stage many of Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell’s well-known originals and folk songs, as well as a few hidden gems. They also highlight the impact these legendary women have had on their own songwriting and performance. Buy Tickets Here Matt Ellin // Sea Offs // june pastel // Nina Gala 8PM – 11PM Joe Squared 33 W North Ave, Baltimore come out of the cold and into the warm and healing glow of music (!!) featuring . . . Matt Ellin: introspective, lo-fi daydreams – come find yourself Sea Offs: (philadelphia): earnest and powerful dream folk – be transported to the peaceful hills & valleys of pennsylvania june pastel: soulful and bright soundscapes – feels like heaven Nina Gala: a little tender, a little gritty – electric now have some drink, have some za, bring your friends, come vibe with us Vespertine Movement 10-Year Anniversary 8PM – ? The 8×10 10 E Cross St, Baltimore Mark your calendars! VM is thrilled to perform a 10-year reunion/anniversary show at the stage where it all began, The 8×10, on Saturday, December 2nd! We’re proud and eager to share the stage with three great local artists, Jackson Dean, Gordon Fog, and Fake Madrid! Buy Tickets Here BAR FIGHT 8PM – 2AM The Windup Space 12 W North Ave, Baltimore A HEMA event. In a bar. What could possibly go wrong? BAR FIGHT is an informal exhibition, drinking, demo, freeplay, drinking, learning, teaching, sparring, and drinking event for anyone interested in Historical European Martial Arts. Doors at 7:30. Starts at 8. $5 for spectators and $10 for fighters. SOULstice: A Very Goldberg Christmas Cabaret [part two] 8PM – 10PM Single Carrot Theatre 2600 N Howard St, Baltimore From the goofballs that brought you Heart Attack: A Valentine’s Cabaret and SAD! A Really Tremendous President’s Day Cabaret comes SOULstice: A Very Goldberg Christmas Cabaret (Part 2)! Join our hostesses for a festive whirlwind of song, dance, and spiked cider! Regular Admission: $15. VIP Admission: $25 includes table seating at the front and a free cocktail! Buy Tickets Here Mr Burns: A Post-Electric Play Fri-Sat 8PM – 10PM, Sun 4PM – 6PM, Nov 30 – Dec 17 923 S East Ave, Baltimore Cohesion Theatre Company is proud to announce the second production of their 2017/18 theatrical season, Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, an exploration of survival, memory, and storytelling set it a nuclear wasteland of the future. Lance Bankerd will direct this inventive and extraordinary piece. The New York Times said “Anne Washburn’s downright brilliant Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play has arrived to leave you dizzy with the scope and dazzle of its ideas…. It has depths of feeling to match its breadth of imagination.” Buy Tickets Here Judith Berkson with Frank London & Michael Winograd 8PM – 11PM Creative Alliance 3134 Eastern Ave, Baltimore Creatuve Alliance at B’nai Israel. Join us for our continuing series of sacred music inside B’nai Israel’s majestic sanctuary. Tonight, Judith Berkson takes an open-minded musical approach to an ancient repetoire. Judith Berkson takes an avant garde approach to an ancient Hebrew repertoire backed by two of the great klezmer innovators of our time. Buy Tickets Here Lou Room Live & Saturday Anightilation 8PM – 10:30PM Zissimos Bar 1023 W 36th St, Baltimore Acts: Topiary, Dad Joke, Imaginary Friends ,Chris Hudson. What’s got our hearts beating so fast? It’s Lou Room Live, the night of the month we just can’t wait for! Get pumped for a serious party, packed with acts to satisfy your need for an adrenaline rush. Come get your swerve on with comedian Chris Hudson! Then we’ll get sweaty on the floor with new BIG Conservatory team Imaginary Friends, then order bottle service with DC duo Dad Joke (Marc Reber and Mikael Johnson) before we fall into the back of a limo with Bmore indie troupe Topiary! Then grab some drinks and stick around for an hour of improv/sketch house team Championship Arm Wrestling at 9:30 PM! $5 cash at the door, or buy them online up until 7:30 PM the day of the show. This show is presented upstairs at Zissimos Bar by Charm City Comedy Project. Buy Tickets Here Swing Underground at The Elk Room 9PM – 1AM The Elk Room 1010 Fleet Street, Baltimore Deep acoustic swing vibes by the Baltimore Swing Drop. Show at 9, no cover. Tomas Drgon – rhythm guitar/vocals Luke Chohany – solo guitar Zach Serleth – contrabass Centurion Comedy 9PM – 11:30PM Atomic Books 3620 Falls Rd, Baltimore $5.00. Live from the Eightbar in Atomic Books, it’s Centurion! Centurion is a stand-up comedy showcase featuring exactly one hundred minutes of quality stand-up comedy from some of the best comedians in Baltimore. With host Ian Salyers Asthma Castle, End It, The Bali Llamas at Ottobar 10PM – ? Featuring: The Bali Lamas, End It BCHC, and Asthma Castle. Buy Tickets Here The Camp Beemore Slumberless Pajama Party 10PM- 5AM Creative Labs 1786b Union Ave, Baltimore Join Camp Beemore for the Slumberless Pajama Party of your dreams. This party will have DJs from 10pm – 5am in an arts warehouse decked out with a game room, a blanket fort, and tea parties all night long. Come party in your PJs and get cozy with us. Camp Beemore is a Baltimore-based themecap that strives toward the Princles of Burning Man. This is a Leave No Trace event, so please be courteous and use the trashcans! Bring Your Own Cup or pay $2 for a biodegradable one. $10 presale, $15 at the door (unless you donate a stuffed animal or other toy that we will donate to a charity holiday drive after the event – if you donate, it will remain $10). (Bring cash for popcorn and/or cups!) Sunday, December 3 Holiday Art Expo 7AM – 12PM Baltimore Farmers’ Market & Bazaar Beneath the Jones Falls Expy at Holliday & Saratoga Streets In honor of its 40th anniversary, the Baltimore Farmers’ Market & Bazaar will host a special event on the first Sunday of every month known as “First Sundays.” From April until the Market closes in December, market-goers can celebrate the first Sunday of the month with special guests, performances, cooking classes and giveaways. Just in time for the holidays, visit the Baltimore Farmers’ Market & Bazaar for all of your gifting needs. We’ll be bringing in an abundance of local crafters, artists, and artisans. Cylburn Mansion: Holiday Open House 10AM – 4PM Cylburn Arboretum Association 4915 Greenspring Ave, Baltimore Join us for our annual Holiday Open House. Wander the first floor of the historic Cylburn Mansion dressed in holiday finery. See turn-of-the-century wood work, marble fireplaces and European plaster work set off by seasonal decorations. Take a stroll on the grounds and enjoy the winter gardens, then drop into the mansion. FREE admission. Merry Mart 2017 11AM – 5PM Merry Mart – Holiday Craft Show Creative Alliance 3134 Eastern Ave., Baltimore Merry Mart is a juried craft show held at the Creative Alliance on Sunday, December 3rd. Shop local high-quality, handmade work in a variety of media. German American Weekend – Christmas Village in Baltimore Sat & Sun 11AM – 7PM Christmas Village in Baltimore 501 Light St, Baltimore Once again we will be celebrating our famous German American Weekend, featuring highlights like German Beer and the Washingtonia Schuhplattler. Enjoy various German choirs, dance groups and musicians! Learn German dances. Queens Who Brunch 12PM – 2PM Nest Nightclub 2022 North Charles Street, Baltimore These Queens know how to brunch! Starting Oct. 15, join Lizzie Beaumont and Betty Whitecastle every Sunday for Queens Who Brunch! Featuring Diamond Taylor and Brie Devine/Ryan Scott! $34 tickets get you an all-you-can-eat buffet and the show! Reservation of 4 will receive a complementary pitcher of mimosas! Featuring our build-your-own Bloody Mary Bar! Buy Tickets Here BRB Holiday Show 12PM – 6PM The Windup Space 12 W North Ave, Baltimore BRB (Baltimore Record Bazaar) HOLIDAY SHOW! 25+ Vendors selling MUSIC all forms; Vinyl, Tapes, CDs, etc. + FREE ADMISSION / DJ’s / DRINKS / FOOD by Baby’s On Fire + WITH; Normal’s Books & Records, El Suprimo Records, Own Guru, Mikie Love’s Discount Vinyl Shanty & Turntable Emporium, Protean Books & Records, Joe’s Record Paradise, Wax Atlas, Dimensions In Music,Kabukiman’s Treasure Dojo, & Many More! Jazz Brunch 12:30PM – 3PM Corner Restaurant and Charcuterie Bar 850 W 36th St, Baltimore Good Music, Good Food and Drink, Good Company Mayor’s Annual Christmas Parade Starts at 1PM Presented in Medfield – Hampden beginning at Poly / Western High Schools and crossing Cold Spring Lane, continuing south on Falls Road to 36th Street, turning East on 36th Street, turning North on Chestnut Avenue and ending at 37th Street. Paint Your Pet Fundraiser 2PM – 5PM Illusions Bar & Theater 1025 S Charles St, Baltimore The first round was so much fun that we’re doing it again! Admission is $50 and the artist will sketch out your pet on a canvas and help you with anything you need! To reserve your seat please send payment via PayPal to wingsoflovekuwait@gmail.com or contact us to send cash or check. Illusions Bar will be open for drink purchases and we will have finger foods. Once payment is made we will give you the email to send your picture to! Metal Matinee 2PM – 8PM TheDepot Baltimore 1728 N Charles St, Baltimore Faith or Fear Messenger Infernal Lust 4:15 Exemptus 3:15 Earthworm 2:15 4th Annual Winter Craft Fair 3PM – 8PM Baltimore Free Farm 3510 ash street, Baltimore Over 20 vendors! A cozy woodstove! Food and beverage will be available. This year’s craft fair will be better than ever! Letitia VanSant, Georgie Jessup & Santa Claus: Christmas Show 5PM – 7:30PM An die Musik 409 N Charles St, Baltimore Letitia Van Sant and Georgie Jessup perform original and obscure Christmas songs in the round with your musical hosts Geoffrey Himes & Willem Elsevier Special guest appearance by Santa Claus. Buy Tickets Here Sparkling Swine Sunday 5PM – 10PM Birroteca 1520 Clipper Mill Rd, Baltimore $20 Sparkling Wine and Charcuterie flights. Holiday Table Styling Workshop 5:30PM – 7PM B.Willow 220 West 27th, Baltimore Join us at our workshop table for an evening of holiday home styling. You’ll create a beautiful table or mantle arrangement with a variety of natural materials, which will add a lush feel to your dining or living area. Added bonus- with proper care, it will last long beyond the season! BYOB, All attendees receive 15% off plants. Buy Tickets Here An Evening of Holiday Songs & 5 Course Dinner 6PM – 9PM Sotto Sopra Restaurant 405 N Charles St, Baltimore Sotto Sopra Restaurant has gathered our Broadway Night singers to entertain you with the holiday season’s most beloved songs and a five course dinner curated to tantalize your taste buds. The restaurant will be in full holiday regalia, all illuminated by the glow of our candle lit tables, ideal for gatherings with friends, family or even office holiday celebrations. We might not have “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” though we assure you a wonderful meal featuring seafood throughout. Reservations/Tickets 410-625-0534 $58 per person Patapsco Delta Boys Trio 6PM – 9:15PM Germano’s Piattini and Cabaret at Germano’s 300 S High St, Baltimore Dinner seating is at 6:00 PM – music is scheduled from 7:30-9:15 PM with a short break, and you should buy tickets ahead of time to be guaranteed a seat. The tickets are cheap enough ($10), and ticket proceeds go to your local musicians. Buy Tickets Here H.T. Darling’s Incredible Musaeum Presents: The Treasures of New Galapagos, Astonishing Aquisitions from the Perisphere Thursdays-Sundays Nov. 16-Dec 17, 8PM Thurs-Fri, 7PM Sat-Sun The Peale Center 225 Holliday St., Baltimore In this remount of the hit immersive theater experience by Submersive Productions, you are invited to the Grand Opening of H.T. Darling’s new exhibit of artifacts from the planet New Galapagos. By interacting with the curious inhabitants of the museum, the building, and the exhibition itself, each audience member must choose their own path through the evening’s strange events. Musaeum is recommended for ages 12 and above. Making the most of your experience will require you to ascend and descend at least two staircases (and more if you choose). Standing and light walking will also be necessary. Seating and gentle guidance will be available throughout the space for those who may require it. We expect the experience to last about two hours from the posted start time. Beverages and snacks will be available. Buy Tickets Here Mr Burns: A Post-Electric Play Fri-Sat 8PM – 10PM, Sun 4PM – 6PM, Nov 30 – Dec 17 923 S East Ave, Baltimore Cohesion Theatre Company is proud to announce the second production of their 2017/18 theatrical season, Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, an exploration of survival, memory, and storytelling set it a nuclear wasteland of the future. Lance Bankerd will direct this inventive and extraordinary piece. The New York Times said “Anne Washburn’s downright brilliant Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play has arrived to leave you dizzy with the scope and dazzle of its ideas…. It has depths of feeling to match its breadth of imagination.” Buy Tickets Here Holiday Movie Screening: Gremlins 8:30PM – 12:30AM The Crown 1910 N Charles St, Baltimore Rule 1: Keep them out of direct light. Rule 2: Don’t give them water, not even to drink. Rule 3: And most importantly, do NOT feed them after midnight. If you’re thinking this sounds more like the set up to a horror/thriller flick, you’re right. 1984’s Gremlins smashed ideas of what holiday movies were supposed to be. Enjoy! – Lindsey Advertisements |
Jewish dual allegiance – the notion that Jewish citizens of, say, Britain, France, the United States or some other country could be as loyal, or even more loyal, to a foreign state, Israel, than they are to their own country – is understandably a sensitive and inflammatory subject. The idea that some of your compatriots are potentially traitors creates distrust in society, undermines social cohesion and, in the worst cases, could lead to religious and racial strife. Consequently, to encourage dual allegiance among Jewish citizens, or to sow doubt about the loyalty of the Jewish citizens of countries whose populations are predominantly non-Jewish, is not just amoral but criminal. Yet, this is precisely what Israel has been doing for decades through its absurd claim that it is the state of all Jews – a claim that allows it to confer rights on Jews who are not actually yet citizens or present in Israel. Recently, in what seems to be a concerted attempt by Israel and its Zionist American backers to create a ghetto of disloyalty to the United States among American Jews, the Israeli Foreign Ministry, acting through the Israeli American Council (IAC), has been distributing tens of thousands of leaflets to Jewish Americans asking them to indicate where their allegiance would lie in the case of a crisis between the two countries. The IAC is a private non-profit group established in Los Angeles in 2007. In September it announced plans to expand by establishing new branches throughout the United States, funded by Las Vegas casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, one of the biggest financial backers of both Binyamin Netanyahu and failed US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Why, you might ask, would Israel want to promote disloyalty among US Jews or sow disharmony and hatred between Jewish and non-Jewish citizens of the United States? The answer is simple: to create anti-Semitism in the US and thereby back its fallacious raison d’être argument as the haven of last resort of Jews the world over. |
The FBI’s report is breathtaking in its summation of Hillary Clinton’s reckless abuse of her office and the classified material with which she was entrusted. Following the FBI’s release of its Clinton email investigation summary report, shark investor Mark Cuban claimed on Twitter that the document dump “clears [Hillary Clinton] 100pct.” It does nothing of the sort. In fact, it almost certainly implicates her beyond a shadow of a doubt as a willing and eager participant in a premeditated and serial criminal abuse of classified information. This is not up for debate, any more than Bill Clinton’s extramarital sexual escapades are up for debate: only foolish people can deny it at this point. Apparently there is simply a die-hard class of Americans, of which Cuban seems to be a member, who will remain convinced to the bitter end that Hillary Clinton is innocent of all criminal wrongdoing in this affair. The facts are there, they are homespun and uncomplicated, and they are undeniable. But that doesn’t seem to make much of a difference to many folks. If Hillary Clinton admitted on national television, cackling and wild-eyed as ever, that she sold American nuclear codes to Mohammad Bagheri for a few hundred bucks, a substantial number of the American people would still claim her direct admission exonerated her completely. This is American politics in 2016. In reality, Clinton is not exonerated: she is wholly incriminated, and by the FBI’s own (albeit tacit and unenforced) admission. Nobody can really make an intellectually justifiable appeal to the contrary. It is simply jaw-dropping that anyone could believe Clinton “cleared” of anything at all. The FBI’s report is breathtaking in its summation of Clinton’s reckless abuse of her office and the classified material with which she was entrusted. Let’s Run Down the Evidence Clinton claims she had followed proper protocol regarding recordkeeping for her emails. The Department of State’s Office of Inspector General, on the other hand, determined that Clinton’s “method of preserving record e-mails” was “not appropriate.” OIG also determined that Clinton “should have surrendered all e-mails relating to state business” prior to her departure from State, something she plainly did not do. According to multiple State Diplomatic Security Service agents, Clinton brought her personal mobile device into a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) at the State Department, even though it was illegal to do so. According to multiple Clinton aides, Clinton had personal computers in the SCIFs at both her Chappaqua and Whitehaven residences. This was just as illegal as bringing a Blackberry into the SCIF at State. On Clinton’s personal e-mail server were nearly 100 e-mail chains containing nearly 200 e-mails, ranging in classified status from Confidential to Top Secret, drafted on unclassified systems. She did not initially surrender 12 of the chains to the State Department and FBI even though Clinton insisted both that she had never transmitted classified information on her server and that she had surrendered all work-related e-mails to the proper authorities. The classified material in these chains concerned not just the State Department but the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the FBI. In June 2011, Clinton explicitly requested that classified material be sent over non-secure fax; she directed an aide to remove any “identifying heading” to cover up this deception. (Fully one-third of the FBI’s investigation into this matter, on page 25 of the primary report, is redacted.) Clear Examples of Gross Criminal Negligence These violations are bad enough—they would surely be enough to land anybody else in prison for a long time—but the entire affair was overshadowed by a stunning level of criminal negligence by just about everyone involved, Clinton included. The FBI was unable to “recover all server equipment.” Because of this and “the lack of complete sever log data for the relevant time period,” the FBI was only able to conduct a limited forensic analysis of Clinton’s systems. Consequently, the FBI had to piece together their investigation from “witness statements, e-mail correspondence, and related forensic content found on other devices.” Clinton covered her tracks so cleanly that the FBI was forced to assemble a slipshod, cobbled-together investigatory profile of her e-mail system. The FBI believes Clinton’s e-mail may have been “potentially vulnerable to compromise” in the first three months of usage, from January to March 2009. It wasn’t until late March that year that her private domain received an SSL certificate (and even then the SSL only encrypted login credentials and not the actual server content). At the beginning of Clinton’s tenure at State, her IT specialist, Bryan Pagliano, spoke with an unidentified official who advised that any e-mail from a state.gov account to Clinton’s private sever be transmitted via a Transport Layer Security tunnel for added security. Pagliano claims this protocol was never implemented (the FBI was not able to determine it one way or another). To establish a secure server, Pagliano implemented a Remote Desktop Protocol; he eschewed a Virtual Private Network, which would have been more secure, and the FBI acknowledges that RDP has “known vulnerabilities” hackers could exploit. There was at least one “successful compromise of an e-mail account on the server.” On January 5, 2013, multiple IP addresses “matching known Tor exit nodes” were able to access an e-mail account on the server belonging to a former staffer of Bill Clinton. The FBI has not yet been able to determine the responsible party in the successful hacking attempt. The FBI candidly admits it does not have one single mobile device from the 13 Clinton used to send e-mail via her private server. “As a result,” the bureau concludes, “the FBI could not make a determination as to whether any of the devices were subject to compromise.” Any one of those dozen-plus devices could have been hacked, but nobody knows it for sure (on at least a few occasions, a Clinton aide destroyed the secretary’s used mobile devices with a hammer). At one point Clinton received a phishing e-mail that contained a link she may or may not have clicked on. If she had, “[her] device may have been infected, and information would have been sent to at least three computers overseas, including one in Russia.” Much of this paragraph in the FBI’s report is also heavily redacted. She’s a Great Big Liar, and She Knows It A great many of these revelations prove Clinton lied, repeatedly and with intent, in previous public statements and official testimonies. Clinton even appears to lie within the context of the report herself: in the second document the FBI released, she claims she “would keep her BlackBerry outside of the SCIF.” The testimony of State Diplomatic Security Service agents directly contradicts this claim. Clinton is not ‘cleared’ in any sense of the word. It is really quite obvious that Clinton is not “cleared” in any sense of the word. The FBI’s report is damning, and it underscores the howling absurdity of FBI Director James Comey’s recommendation not to indict. There is every reason to indict Clinton, to prosecute her, and probably to find her guilty of criminal negligence at the very least, if not outright willful violation of multiple critical federal statutes. How can any sane grown-up really conclude otherwise at this point? We are, it is popularly held, a nation of laws, not men: in America, nobody is above the law, not even high-ranking federal officials. This is not a partisan matter; it is not an issue of squabbling sectarian politics. Hillary Clinton broke the law, demonstrably, repeatedly, and unquestionably. In America, if you break the law, you see the inside of a courtroom; if you’re found guilty, you do jail time. Hillary Clinton assuredly deserves the former; she quite probably deserves the latter, as well. Clinton herself can deny this; reasonable, sensible people can no longer. |
FRENCH FOOTBALL FEDERATION (FFF) president Noel Le Graet has admitted he is “even more worried” about safety at Euro 2016 following Friday’s attacks in Paris. Latest figures from French officials report 128 people were killed and another 99 remain critical after what appeared to be co-ordinated terror acts in the French capital, including several fatalities outside the Stade de France. A blast was heard during France’s 2-0 friendly victory over Germany, with fans and players kept inside the stadium long after the game had finished. Friday’s events come just 10 months after the terror attacks on the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which left 12 dead. And Le Graet has expressed his concerns for safety around Euro 2016, which is just seven months away. “A lot of precautions were taken, but we can see that terrorists can strike at any moment. We were already worried about the Euros; now we worry even more. But now, my thoughts are with the families,” Le Graet said. Several weeks ago, Jacques Lambert – chairman of Euro 2016 SAS, a joint venture between the FFF and UEFA that is responsible for all operational aspects of the tournament — outlined his fears about the possibility of Euro 2016 being targeted. Lambert said: “From the start, we knew security would be key to the competition’s success. The attacks of January didn’t change much. The risk of attacks against France, and I say France not just Euro 2016, was identified from the start and was among the 12 risks in the application dossier and structured the work between the ministry of the interior, the government and Euro 2016 SAS. “What has really changed is the progression of the terrorist risk in comparison to the other risks. It’s not a theoretical risk anymore, it’s a possible risk. There has been an action.” |
Police in Spain are investigating the bizarre death of a British man who was found semi-naked, bound to a bench outside of an airport with sandwich meat placed on his body and his genitals in an open tuna can, according to British media. According to the BBC, the 51-year-old man was found Friday bound to a bench outside of Malaga airport. The British broadcaster reported the man’s body was found with his hands tied behind his back. He had been stripped of his clothing from the waist down. The Metro U.K. reported the victim was found with deli meat placed on each of his buttocks and his genitals placed in an open can of tuna. According to the Daily Mail, Steven Allford was found face-down with his legs bound to a bench between the airport’s train station and the terminal building. Citing a source close to the investigation, the British tabloid reported police the man may have choked on his own vomit. “There were no obvious signs of violence on his body but the position he was found in suggested foul play,” the Daily Mail quoted the source as saying. “It is not known if what happened was done after or before death.” The newspaper also reported investigators were trying to determine if food was placed on the man’s body by a passerby as some sort of a “sick joke.” No arrests have been made. |
No one would admit to being afraid—they were men of the Night's Watch, after all—but Jon could feel the unease. Four empty villages, no wildlings anywhere, even the game seemingly fled. The haunted forest had never seemed more haunted. –George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce For Family Honor, the third Chapter Pack in the War of Five Kings cycle for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game! The War of Five Kings has already begun to shape the future of Westeros. Robb Stark marches on Lannister holdings, even as Tywin Lannister menaces the Riverlands from Harrenhal. To the south, Stannis Baratheon lays siege to Storm’s End and Renly Baratheon calls upon the might of Highgarden to break his brother’s armies. Yet in the midst of these kingly conflicts, another drama unfolds far to the north. From Castle Black, the Night’s Watch rides forth in a great ranging and ventures beyond the Wall to confront Mance Rayder and brave the fury of the wild. If they fail to defend the realms of men, the consequences could reach far beyond the icy heights of the Wall. For Family Honor is an upcoming Chapter Pack in the War of Five Kings cycle that continues to follow the storyline of A Clash of Kings. Throughout this Chapter Pack, you’ll find plenty of new cards that support the major themes of the cycle. New Kings and Crowns invite you to stake your own claim to the Iron Throne, even as other cards heighten the importance of loyal cards—the characters you can truly trust, the locations that would never fall, the events and tactics that you utterly control. Finally, For Family Honor introduces iconic characters to join the game, including Ser Edmure Tully, a House Tyrell version of Renly Baratheon, and Hot Pie. Night Gathers… In A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, the Night’s Watch are known for their differences from the other factions in the game. Unlike the Great Houses of Westeros, the Night’s Watch has sworn to hold no lands. Their greatest deeds go unsung and unnoticed. Their war is not against the other Great Houses. Instead, they struggle against the nameless threat that stirs in the lands beyond the Wall. The unique perspective of the Night’s Watch is more than just skin deep: it shapes every battle they fight. While the other Great Houses ride out with a fanfare, challenging their foes on the field of battle and in dark intrigues, the Night’s Watch cares about only one thing—defending The Wall (Core Set, 137) and protecting the rest of Westeros. For much of the faction’s life up to this point, the primary source of power for the Night’s Watch has been The Wall. Of course, if an enemy leaves an opening in his forces, the Night’s Watch can take advantage of it, but their first priority is to defend The Wall. Now, For Family Honor offers the Night’s Watch an additional way to gain power from defense with Thoren Smallwood (For Family Honor, 45). At first glance, Thoren Smallwood appears fairly typical for a Night’s Watch Ranger—though it is important to note that his higher cost offers him protection from The First Snow of Winter (No Middle Ground, 79). The real reason you want Thoren fighting for the Night’s Watch, however, lies in his Reaction: “After you win a challenge as the defending player, gain 1 power for your faction.” As we noted above, the Night’s Watch is a primarily defensive faction, but in most cases, the only reward you gain for defending is to deflect another challenge that could kneel The Wall. Now, however, successfully defending actually brings you closer to your victory condition—and when you combine Thoren with cards like For the Watch! (No Middle Ground, 67), you’ll be able to gain power much faster than you otherwise could. You’ll need more than Thoren Smallwood to defend The Wall, and the Night’s Watch can draw men from across the realm of Westeros. Bastards, thieves, lords, and knights all become brothers when they take the black and join the Night’s Watch. Now, you can call the dregs of the realm to join the Watch with Night Gathers… (For Family Honor, 46). This loyal event can be played in the marshaling phase, and it allows you to choose any opponent whose reserve value is lower than yours. Until the end of the phase, you can marshal characters from that player’s discard pile as if they were in your hand! Using the strengths of your opponent’s faction against him is just one of the ways Night Gathers… can turn the tide of a game. Not only does this powerful event give you access to additional characters with powerful abilities, it allows you to shore up holes in your defenses almost on command. For instance, if you know you’ll need more power icons or intrigue icons to defend The Wall, Night Gathers… allows you to choose the best-suited characters from your opponent’s discard pile. The characters you find may have been discarded and cast aside by their owner, but they’re still worth their weight for the Night’s Watch. … And Now My Watch Begins As Lord Commander Mormont leads the Night’s Watch into the wild, the great lords of Westeros crown kings and fight wars across the rest of Westeros. Whether you support your chosen faction with Hot Pie (For Family Honor, 57) or you lead your armies into battle, you can enter a new chapter of A Clash of Kings with this new Chapter Pack. Look for For Family Honor at your local retailer in the third quarter of 2016! |
If you do business in Europe, GDPR affects you. Don't leave it too late to think about compliance. With only a few months to go before the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) becomes enforceable across Europe, time is running out to begin your implementation process. This 30-minute webinar with digital law specialist Heather Burns offers actionable guidance for beginning the GDPR compliance process. You will come away equipped with a 15-point action plan to help you prepare for GDPR adoption across all levels of your business. If you've already made a start on your GDPR preparation, this webinar presents an opportunity to confirm you haven't missed a crucial step. Heather's advice will include which of your processes need immediate review, what new documentation you'll be obliged to produce, and the new role you may legally be required to appoint. This 30-minute webinar will take place on Thursday 23rd November at 3.30pm (GMT). Please register your attendance above to receive the link. |
A handful of companies offer free and paid online reputation management services for consumers and businesses, including Reputation.com and Brand Yourself. In addition to using these services, or in lieu of them, both small and midsize businesses and enterprise digital marketers can take strategic steps to ensure their companies' online reputations are solid. [Related: Mastering the Business Basics of Online Reputation Management] The following 15 tips and eight tools are all valuable and effective ways to help manage your organization's corporate reputation online. Top 15 Online Reputation Management Tips 1) Monitoring your online reputation regularly will "increase the chance that by the time there's negative content out there, it will be overshadowed by the content you want to be seen," says Jason Brietstein, founder, Brandamos. 2) Google your company's name and see what shows up. "If there are any sites that are negative or that you don't control, try to push them down in the search results with your own profiles on social media sites," as well as with Wikipedia, BBB.org, and CrunchBase (if relevant), says Takeshi Young, SEO team lead for EntirelyPets. 3) Several experts suggested using Google Chrome's Incognito mode to search for your company or brand names. Incognito strips out some, though not all, of the personalized search results Google serves to recognized users and presents a more generic view that's closer to what others might see. 4) Look at the first three pages of your search results, not just the first page, because a negative piece of content on page 3 can eventually make its way to page 1. 5) Create a spreadsheet that contains all of the search results from the first three pages of your search. Indicate which results are positive, negative or neutral, as well as which ones you control or influence and the ones you don't. This establishes a baseline for your online reputation that you can later use to assess your reputation enhancement efforts. Take screen shots of each Google search results page at the beginning and periodically repeat the exercise. [Related: Busting the Top 15 SEO Myths of 2014] 6) Immediately respond to unhappy customers on social media and directory sites such as Yelp. "Try, if you can, to respond publicly," says Daniel Scalco, owner, Digitalux. "Showing compassion and owning up to any mistakes you make goes a long way toward repairing the damage and proves to anyone viewing the conversation that you take customer service seriously." "Give yourself time to think about the response" to a negative review, says Jayme Pretzloff, marketing director, Wixon Jewelers. "Don't go on the defensive. Try to understand why the client had a bad experience. Respond to the review to address not only the upset client, but also to reassure other readers that the client's experience isn't routine." 7) If someone mentions something positive about you on a site such as Yelp, reward him or her with a coupon, freebie or a simple thank you. "People will remember and they'll become brand evangelists," according to Clayburn Griffin, senior SEO content strategist, 360i. 8) Brandon Seymour, owner, Beymour Consulting, suggests getting as many positive online reviews as possible. "Not only do consumers usually trust online reviews, but Google usually gives higher search result placement to listings with a higher number of positive reviews." 9) If your customers are active on Twitter, "make sure you have someone on your team [who is] dedicated to responding to them," says Young of EntirelyPets. "Customers on Twitter generally expect a quick response to their requests." 10) Optimize brand video with your company name on YouTube, which is widely considered to be the second largest search engine. "In some cases, Google ranks YouTube videos higher than actual websites," according to Brandamos's Brietstein. "Google Images also display for some search results," Brietstein says. "In some of our clients' cases, there are negative images, such as mug shots, that rank for their names." Posting video and image content related to your business or personal name can help push the negative content further down in search results. 11) Be cautious about your personal activities, both past and present. "More reputations have been compromised by nonbusiness activities than actions taken on the job," says Karen Kessler, founding partner, Evergreen Partners."It's the doctor's social calendar that gets her in trouble, not her dermatology practice. The CEO's out-of-control behavior as a Little League parent caught on someone's cellphone video is what goes viral, not a decision to downsize the company." Even if you're a Boy Scout now, Kessler says, "you have to worry about what you've done in the past." Be on the lookout for "old friends who, in a fit of nostalgia, post photos or reminiscences of wild escapes of their youth — the usual sex, drugs and rock-and-roll stuff — and who drag you into it, linking your name to the good times on their social media site." 12) Andrew Herrault, lead strategist, Connective Insights, says quality content is key. "The more awesome blog content you publish and promote, the more authority your brand name will carry. It will also serve to help push down in search results any negative reviews you may have accumulated." 13) Connect with the media. "Developing relationships with journalists locally and in your field should be part of your overall marketing and reputation management plan," says Anthony Kirlew, co-founder, Imagine WOW! "You should also use trusted resources such as Help a Reporter Out, which can help you get positive media exposure." 14) You should claim all of your online directory and review site listings right away, according to Josh Rubin, owner, Creative California. If someone else, such as a disgruntled employee, claims or has access to those accounts, "it could cause major (reputation) issues down the road." 15) Focus is essential. "Monitoring your online reputation can be a huge, ongoing responsibility, and the bigger the brand, the bigger the job," says Chase Anderson, online operations director, Clicks and Clients. As a result, focus on monitoring "the biggest portals" such as Facebook, Twitter and Yelp. Top 8 Online Reputation Management Tools 1) The no. 1 tool for online reputation management, according to the digital marketers we consulted, is Google Alerts. The free service lets you set up automated email alerts for your business name, product name and high-level executives' names, so you'll know as soon as a new mention is posted online. 2) Brand Yourself "is a good site for helping you manage your online reputation if you don't have much experience with SEO," according to EntirelyPets' Young. "It provides recommendations for things you can do to optimize your site so it shows up higher in the search results for your brand terms." Other experts recommend Reputation.com for online reputation management. [Related: Top 25 DIY Tips for Better SEO] 3) You should use platforms that help you monitor your online reviews, such as ReviewPush, Sendible and Trackur, as well as any other sites specific to your industry, according to Herrault of Connective Insights. 4) The Google My Business toolset is impressive and it includes great visualizations of your reviews, according to Digitalux's Scalco. "Gaining favorable reviews on your Google My Business page will increase your chances of making it into the local search results." 5) Social Mention is useful for monitoring your reputation on social media, according to Seymour of Beymour Consulting. It's a free service that lets you "see who's talking about your brand on social media and more importantly, what they're saying, Seymour says. "It even provides a breakdown of brand sentiment, which can help businesses identify and address negative brand mentions." Social Searcher, another free tool, can help you monitor mentions of your business on social media, says to Paul Shapiro, SEO director of GroupM. 6) Shapiro suggests using services such as NameChk or KnowEm to create online profiles across social networks for your business to help outrank negative content. 7) IFTTT lets you set up customized processes and automatic alerts in addition to Google Alerts. For example, with IFTTT, "if someone is asking a question about your vertical industry on AskReddit, you can get an email alert so you know to respond, further cementing your place as an industry expert," says Griffin of 360i. 8) There's no tool that "provides as many actionable insights into your website as Google Analytics," according to Guy Martin Smalley, founder of Bowery Creative. "It can be used to monitor referral traffic, see geographically where your visitors are coming from, and monitor exactly what they're doing when they get to your site." For example, if you spot a surge in traffic, Google Analytics can help you see exactly where it's coming from. The traffic could be coming from a positive article about your company — or from a terrible review. Either way, you should be aware of the source. For more advice on how to manage your organization's online reputation, read "Mastering the Business Basics of Online Reputation Management." |
Like you, I became frustrated with Arturo Fuente. Sure, they make great cigars, but my god are they hard to find. The Fuente Fuente OpusX is the most elusive. This Dominican dandy is so rare that it is one of the favorite brands of counterfeiters. What good is it to finally have a great non-Cuban cigar if you can¿t ever get the damn things? And the cost! OpusXs are over $20 a smoke, providing, of course, you can find one. Enough is enough, I said. I decided to fight back by growing my own tobacco and rolling my own cigars. A quick Internet search, and I found a source for seeds of the best cigar tobacco plant in the world, Havana 688. A few more clicks of the mouse and I was buying every book Amazon.com had on growing tobacco. In short, without too much trouble, I was in business. Ever see those neat Fuente ads in Cigar Aficionado? They like to talk about the long tradition in the Fuente family for growing cigars. Tradition? I will show you tradition! I will be growing my tobacco in a small garden plot (a respectful but discreet distance from the septic tank) in the state of Virginia. Virginia¿s tobacco-growing tradition goes back to 1612, when John Rolfe, who had arrived in the colony two years before from England, began experimenting with planting tobacco. From that time, the ¿jovial weed,¿ the ¿bewitching vegetable,¿ the ¿precious stink,¿ as tobacco was known at the time, would serve as the basis of the Virginia economy for the next 200 years. Rolfe would later marry Pocahontas and secure his place in every fourth-grade history book. But the real accomplishment had already been made when he planted those first seeds in the rich Virginia soil almost 400 years ago. My seeds arrived within a few days, and in mid-March the Virginia cigar crop was officially on its way. The first surprise was the seeds themselves. You might think that tobacco seeds would be big, imposing things, something akin to a pumpkin or watermelon seed or even a corn kernel. Nope. Tobacco seeds are very small, tinier than the head of a pin; they look a lot like ground black pepper. Drop the seed container and you lose them for certain. Plant them outside and you run the risk of a sudden gust of wind, or worse, a strong rain washing them away. Because the seeds are so small, they aren¿t actually ¿planted¿ at all. Instead, they are sprinkled on top of the soil. Plant them more than one-sixteenth of an inch in the ground and you can forget about ever getting a mature plant. To avoid these potential nightmares, I elected to plant the seeds indoors in little containers for the first few weeks, then transfer them outside when the tiny plants looked as if they could make it on their own. It was a great plan that would require some finessing that the Fuentes never needed to confront¿negotiations with my wife for every square inch of window space in the house. It all looked like a scene out of Little Shop of Horrors: tiny plant containers were everywhere. Within two weeks, I had very small green buds poking up out of the containers. Within three weeks every container had at least five or six tobacco plants emerging. I thinned some out and started planning for the next stage, transferring them outside. I knew I needed some help on deciding when it would be best to do the transfer, and how to prepare the ground for tobacco (the information in my tobacco-growing books was rather limited). Quick as you can say ¿Cohiba,¿ I was back online, writing to the Virginia Cooperative Extension office for advice. Ask these guys a question on how to plant tomatoes and they will gladly give you reams of information. Need to kill some aphids on your roses? They have a million possible solutions. But ask them about growing tobacco for cigars, and you are on your own. Virginia may once have grown the world¿s best tobacco, but the state apparently has forgotten the long-lost art. Three weeks later, I started rotating my seedlings outside on sunny days to condition them for the upcoming transfer. That¿s when disaster struck in the form of a two-year-old girl from Tucson. When I wasn¿t looking, the little terror had toddled over to the flat of seedlings that I had placed outside and was quite busy pulling them out, one by one. (What is it about women and cigars, anyway?) I saved about three-fourths of the ¿crop.¿ I still had about 50 plants ready to transplant and it was time to prepare my field. Tobacco is not the easiest crop to grow. It needs lots of fertilizer and an abundance of potassium. For this reason, early farmers in Virginia had first burned off the existing fields, thereby creating a sufficient amount of potassium in the soil. Instead of setting my neighborhood on fire, I bought several bags of potassium and spread it around liberally. I also bought a giant container of Miracle Gro. Ever see the picture of the guy who sprayed it on his tomato plants and ended up with tomatoes the size of basketballs? I had to believe that Miracle Gro would help create the biggest tobacco crop in North America. More importantly, the chances of the Fuentes using Miracle Gro on their plants in the Dominican Republic had to be small. Here was my chance to get a leg up with good ol¿ American know-how. With the ground prepared and the seedlings ready for transplanting, I faced the next big problem of all tobacco growers: labor. Tobacco is one of the most labor-intensive crops to grow, requiring an unbelievable amount of attention and care. The plants have to be watched daily for bugs and disease. Harvesting is done in stages, and for fine cigars, the leaves are harvested at different times and picked individually. Once harvested, the leaf-curing process is nightmarish and labor-intensive. Worse yet, absolutely no part of the process can be mechanized. Not surprisingly, Thomas Jefferson urged Virginians to grow other crops. Tobacco growers, Jefferson noted, were ¿in a continual state of exertion beyond the power of nature to support.¿ When you consider the labor involved in growing tobacco, you begin to understand why most of the finer cigar tobacco is grown in areas with exceedingly low labor costs such as Cuba, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. Nobody could ever make a decent cigar if you paid workers the American minimum wage. It¿s just not possible. For my crop I decided to rely on conscripted labor. I invited my young professional friends over when work needed to be done, plying them with alcohol and barbecue. I quickly set up a schedule for a Planters Party, Harvest Party, Curing Party and Rolling Party. In hindsight, the cheap labor was not all that skilled: lawyers, business leaders and technology CEOs make poor field hands. The work did get done, but more often than not it was I who was out in the field late at night tending the crop. Shortly after the plants were established, I doused them on a weekly basis with enough Miracle Gro to turn them into redwoods. Slowly, they began to grow. Soon I had very respectable plants of three to four feet. Then disaster struck again. This time it was the tobacco hornworm, which awoke from a long slumber in my Virginia field to gorge again on fine Virginny tobacco. This worm is a truly nasty bug that devours tobacco leaves until it swells to several thousand times its original size. A small bug will become gargantuan within a day if unchecked. I immediately noticed that 10 percent of my crop was infected. Doing some quick math, it didn¿t take too long to figure out that my entire crop would be lunch for the hornworm if I did not act, and act fast. But what to do? Cuban and Honduran tobacco are heavily fumigated with God only knows what kind of chemicals. The average cigar smoker has absolutely no clue as to how heavily the average tobacco crop is fumigated. Ever see those reviews of cigars that state that a cigar has a ¿peppery¿ taste? Well, if you ask me, chances are that peppery taste is the residue of chemicals with which the farmer bombarded his crop. I thought I could apply advanced concepts of organic farming by using some organic pesticides. Sure, I might lose some tobacco, but on the positive side I could boast that my tobacco was totally organic and no pesticides were used. So I mixed up a solution of lemon juice, habanero pepper, Tabasco and soap. I sprayed every bug I saw and waited patiently for them to start squirming. They didn¿t. The next day, the hornworms, considerably larger than the day before, were doing the macarena across my tobacco leaves. They loved the pesticide and were thriving. This was getting serious. A couple more days and I would be growing nothing but stalks. Worse yet, at the geometric rate the hornworms were growing, they would soon become a threat to livestock and children. Tougher measures were needed. Organics were out. Instead, I went to the local tree nursery and bought every product that Ortho makes for killing bugs. I mixed them all together into a nasty Ortho cocktail and sprayed every bug in sight. I have not seen a bug since. It was then time to prime the plants by pinching off sucker stocks (additional shoots that rob nutrients from the leaves) and the flowering crown in order to channel the plant¿s energy into the production of larger leaves. This is a lot like pinching off tomato plants, with one big exception: the tobacco plant is very gummy, and an incredibly sticky resin quickly adheres to your hands. This resin is easily removed¿by continually washing your hands with lava soap for three days. Getting rid of it any sooner is impossible. Weeks passed and the plants prospered. Harvest time arrived in July and my friends were once again summoned to the fields. My plants, admittedly on the steroid of Miracle Gro, topped out at about five feet high. Each leaf was handpicked and sewn together with others. This method is called the ¿sewn sunshine¿ method of harvesting. The process starts with picking (¿pulling¿ in tobacco jargon) the lower leaves and working your way up. I tried to keep the big leaves together, but as the alcohol began to take hold of my ¿workers,¿ the discipline began to slip. I wanted to cut the beer ration, but with temperatures in the low 100s and humidity at an all-time high, I didn¿t dare. It would have been mutiny for sure. Still, when we were finished, we had a lot of tobacco leaf ready for the next stage of the process. Each green bundle was then hung from a pole. Once each pole was covered with leaves, I suspended them from my basement¿s rafters. There they hung for several weeks until they turned a rich shade of brown. I then packed them in a big cardboard box to ferment. Many people think you can smoke the leaf as soon as it turns brown. Not true. Tobacco has to be very carefully cured before it can be transformed into a cigar. If the leaves get too hot you end up with expensive compost. But if the fermentation is not allowed to progress properly, the leaves dry up and crumble to dust. Great cigars require an unusually high degree of craft, science and sorcery to get them just right. I was beginning to think that I would never see a single cigar out of the mess that now occupied half of my basement. Each week I carefully inspected the leaves. They seemed to be doing OK. I carefully stripped off a few that showed signs of mildew, reshuffled the bundle and repacked it. I kept up this process for several more weeks and then stored the entire eight-pound bundle of tobacco in my humidor. What was left looked pretty good to me, but at this point, how would I know? By this time I had thousands of hours of backbreaking manual labor behind me for a small bag of tobacco. I had no idea how to properly roll the cigars and, alas, that lost art had long ago left Virginia. In the hands of a good roller, tobacco is magically transformed from a weed into a thing of beauty. In Cuba, the master cigar rollers are people of great merit and distinction. Long ago, America viewed good cigar rollers as artists as well. But that time has passed. Except in Florida. Virginia may have lost the art of good cigar rolling, but it is alive and well in Miami amidst the Cuban exiles. After checking around I found a small shop called the Tobacco Factory that was owned by a young Cuban named Rudy Rodolfo. His family has been in the tobacco business for more than a hundred years, and when I told him that I needed a good roller for some tobacco that I had grown in my Virginia backyard, he was, to say the least, a bit skeptical. ¿Let¿s see if it is any good first,¿ he said while unwrapping my bundle of treasure and inspecting each leaf. I waited in total panic. He concluded the inspection with a long ¿Hmmmm,¿ adding, ¿Looks pretty good. I can¿t believe you learned how to do this from a book.¿ I told him of my grandiose plan to make a better cigar than the Fuentes. He smiled kindly and said, ¿There is only one way to really know. Let¿s roll a couple and see how they smoke.¿ He lit up a leaf and took a nice, full puff. My tobacco was, of course, very young, and as such would probably burn poorly. Rodolfo told me not to be surprised if the taste was rather strong; it takes time to mellow, which is why good cigars are aged a few years, much like fine wines. He was a bit surprised to see that my tobacco burned nice and even. I got another long ¿Hmmmm,¿ but the mood was a lot lighter. By this time, the entire shop was surrounding my small bundle and waiting for Rodolfo to make his final pronouncement. He took another puff, then asked the group, ¿Can you believe this guy? This is good tobacco!¿ We quickly got down to business. Rodolfo recommended that we use a good Dominican wrapper on my tobacco and make robustos. I needed to stretch the crop as much as possible, since I had promised all the ¿field hands¿ a box each as further compensation. If we made robustos, Rodolfo estimated that I would get about 20 boxes. As a small, gnarled little man approached us, Rodolfo introduced me to Jose Hernandez, who was once the number one roller for Partagas in Havana. Rodolfo said he would have Hernandez roll my cigars and guaranteed that they would look better than anything Fuente can produce. It would take him a couple of weeks to roll all my tobacco, just the time I needed to design a cigar label. I decided to name my cigars Virginia Blues. George Washington originated the term to describe his most loyal and dependable soldiers who served with him during the French and Indian War. The Virginia Blues were no summer soldiers or sunshine patriots who quit the cause when the going got rough. They stuck it out, endured all the hardships, and gained the everlasting respect of Washington for their bravery and loyalty. The original Virginia Blues had all the qualities I hoped to emulate with my cigars: loyalty, pride, determination. I liked that. I liked that a lot. I went back online to find a printer willing and able to help me design a cigar band. I talked to half a dozen printers who had some experience with bands; most were very skeptical about printing a small run of 500. I begged and pleaded with an excellent printer and cigar lover in New York named John Sabatino of Master Image. He told me that he was sick of guys asking him to print counterfeit cigar bands like Cohiba. When he realized that I wanted bands for new cigars that for the first time would have the words ¿Handmade in Virginia,¿ he warmed to the idea, gave me a good price, and quickly helped me design a respectable label that he then produced. They looked great. Invites were sent to all who worked on the crop, announcing the birth of Virginia Blues, the rarest and most expensive cigar in America. We had a wonderful party and presented each of the field hands with a box of the finished product. In all, I had 650 cigars for my efforts. I didn¿t want to think about what they had cost me to make; let¿s just say that each cigar was a lot more expensive than an OpusX. My good fortune to find a master roller was certainly evident; the cigars looked better than anything I had ever seen. The Dominican wrapper was just beautiful and each cigar was as well rolled as any Cuban cigar I had laid eyes on. They were gorgeous. My fellow aficionados, who earlier were a bit skeptical of my endeavors, were amazed. We put several to a taste test and everyone was pleasantly surprised. The burn was consistent; the ash was nice and tight. In short, Virginia Blues were a hit! I now appreciate a fine cigar far more than ever before, and I learned some very valuable lessons about cigars. For starters, there is no such thing as an expensive handmade cigar. When you examine all the steps that are required to make a cigar¿growing the tobacco, curing it, rolling it, and aging it to perfection¿it is indeed a remarkable process, and whatever price the consumer pays for such a cigar is well justified. Second, I learned that the art of making a cigar is nothing but high sorcery, its secrets carefully hidden. But I had overcome the odds, perhaps with luck, maybe with persistence, but in the end I was able to produce a fine cigar. As I sat with my friends, smoking a cigar made from the first premium cigar tobacco grown and rolled in Virginia in more than 50 years, I was content. I had beaten Fuente. The OpusX was no longer the rarest cigar in America. That position of honor is now occupied by Virginia Blue. You think it is hard to find an OpusX? Well, just try to get your hands on a Virginia Blue. There are only 25 boxes. Five are being reserved for the future weddings of my two daughters and for the births of their offspring, so that leaves 20. Eighteen boxes were given to the field hands. One was given to the senior senator from Virginia, John Warner, whom I hoped appreciated the gesture. The last box was sent to Marvin Shanken, the editor and publisher of Cigar Aficionado. So if you want to get the rarest cigar in America, you¿re going to have to beg one from one of these people. Good luck! Douglas Doan is a West Point graduate and has a master¿s degree from Harvard, a perfect education for a tobacco grower. He is busy planning next year¿s crop in Great Falls, Virginia. |
As of this writing, 85% of precincts have reported [1], and Bernie Sanders is maintaining a 21% lead over Hillary Clinton, 60%-39%. He'll probably end up receiving 10 of the 16 district delegates and 15 of the 21 bound to the primary's outcome. The exit poll results are still subtly changing, but the data has coalesced around one central conclusion; undecided voters, those which did not indicate a preference in pre-election polling, chose Bernie. The table below reflects the current breakdown of the gender demographic, in the exit poll, at this exact point in time. I want to be clear that these numbers may change, but I don't expect them to change significantly: This next table, is a direct copy of our final polling projections, with an additional column to represent the number of undecided voters; it's a simple subtraction as the projected totals do not sum to 100%: This final table represents the deviation of the exit polls versus our projections: The evident conclusion is that undecideds chose Bernie. If we look at each data point in the deviation table, it's less than 2% for 3 of 4; I would call these projections accurate. Where the numbers differed were in Bernie's projected female support. He not only got all of the undecided females but actually attracted more female support than the expectation. To restate this, roughly 5% of females were undecided and Bernie appears, at least empirically, to have won them all. If we look at the overall projections, the same sort of trend holds for undecideds. There were 3-4% undecided depending on which of our projections you choose to observe. The overall outcome, currently, is basically our projection plus the allocation of all undecideds to Bernie. |
Sanders: Not enough to say, 'I'm a woman, vote for me' US Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Nov. 17, 2016. (Photo11: Saul Loeb, AFP/Getty Images) Bernie Sanders says that just being a woman isn't enough to get you elected. Sanders was speaking to supporters in Boston Sunday when he was asked how a woman could become the second Latina senator in history. "It's not good enough for somebody to say 'hey I'm a Latina vote for me' that is not good enough. I have to know whether that Latina is going to stand up with the working class of this country and is going to take on big money interests," Sanders said. "It is not good enough for somebody to say, 'I'm a woman, vote for me.' No That is not good enough," the Vermont senator continued. "What we need is a woman who has the guts to stand up to Wall Street, to the insurance companies, to the drug companies, to the fossil fuel industries." Sanders — who competed against Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primary but campaigned for her during the general election — called for candidates who are able to speak to working people. "The working class of this country is being decimated — that's why Donald Trump won," Sanders said. "And what we need now are candidates who stand with those working people, who understand that real median family income has gone down." Sanders ran as a Democrat for president but is an independent in the Senate. Last week he became the Democratic Party's "outreach" chair where he will lead the charge in trying to reach working-class voters. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2gdMLd8 |
A Florida woman has been charged with armed robbery after she allegedly pulled a gun while having sex with a man driving a car. Amanda Jean Linscott, 26, met the victim, whose name has not been released, when she and a friend visited a pub in Port Charlotte on Sept. 3, WINK reports. Later that night, the two women went with the man to a private residence, according to authorities. Linscott's friend and the victim reportedly had sex, then the two women left. The man says Linscott's friend had said she needed money, so he gave her $120. Later that night, he called the friend's cell phone and they planned to meet up at a convenience store. When he arrived at the store, though, only Linscott was there. Linscott told him her friend had abandoned her. Then, he says, he and Linscott got into his car, where she started having sex with him as he drove. He told police that Linscott then asked for cash, and when he said he had already given all of his money to her friend, she held a revolver up to his head. He says he punched her in the face so that she would let go of the weapon, according to WTSP. The man lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a palm tree. His car went flying through the air, Fox 4 reports, then skidded across two front yards. |
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