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On Wednesday's edition of The Daily Show, "religions scholar" Reza Aslan continued his audacious attempt to fundamentally change how religion has been understood from time immemorial. For Aslan, religion isn't so much a system of belief in the supernatural, but instead a sort of cultural identity that's extremely pliant depending on the personal and cultural whims of believers. To wit, "The thing about religion that people have to understand is that it's far more a matter of identity than it is just a matter of beliefs and practices. I mean, those things are important, but when you say, 'I'm a Jew,' 'I'm a Muslim,' 'I'm a Christian,' you're making an identity statement far more so than a statement of the things that you believe." ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website This assertion is not even wrong. It's gibberish masquerading as profundity. Are not "the things that you believe" very much part of one's identity, be they religious, political, or cultural in nature? When one speaks of "Muslim identity," for example, does that not entail an identity that involves believing in Allah and that Muhammad is his prophet? ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website The answer to both questions is most assuredly yes. It's true that members of the same faith don't all believe the same things, but they do all share a base set of beliefs that shapes their worldviews to varying degrees. When Muslims gather at mosque or Christians at church, they are there in their capacity as people who believe similar things regarding the supernatural and/or morality. By shifting focus away from belief to some vague "identity" as a measure of religion, Aslan is engaged in a supreme act of obfuscation, and in the process has made himself a walking contradiction. Consider what he told Jon Stewart later in the interview: “Part of the problem is that there is this misconception that people derive their values from their scriptures. The truth is it is more often the case that people insert their values into their scriptures. I mean, otherwise, every Christian who read the Bible would read it exactly the same way. In this country, not 200 years ago, both slave owners and abolitionists not only used the same Bible to justify their viewpoints, they used the same verses to do so. That’s the thing about scripture, its power comes from its malleability. You can read it in any way you want to.” As a believer (in Islam) Aslan isn't doing himself any favors. The entire premise of the Quran (and the Bible) is that, as far as believers in these texts are concerned, they are the word of god. Saying of scripture, "You can read it in any way you want to,” lays waste to the whole enterprise of religion, whose purpose it is to impart (immutable) moral wisdom on those who adhere to it. So if people bring their values to religion, then what is the point of religion? If god's promulgated will is just something that's adjusted in accordance with the prevailing social and cultural norms of the time, then god's will means nothing; or better yet, god's will is what we say it is because we made it up in the first place. Lastly, Aslan took aim at those who fault religion for many of the world's problems: "[I]f you’re going to blame religion for violence in the name of religion, then you have to credit religion for every act of compassion in the name of religion, you have to credit religion for every act of love in the name of religion, and that’s not what people usually think. They focus very much on the negative.” Unfortunately for Aslan, his perspective here essentially lowers religion to a human undertaking, which, although it is, it is not intended to be. If religion is just as capable of inspiring bad acts as good acts, then it has utterly failed in its purpose of providing a workable moral framework. It can be argued that despite our changing moral norms, god hasn't changed his, and that we humans just seem to be misunderstanding it. But if that's the case, then god hasn't done a very good job of explaining himself in his holy texts. At least not to the point where we can all agree not to hurt each other in his name. Follow me on twitter |
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but sometimes it asks a thousand questions, too. Like this picture, taken at a dairy farm in Granby, Quebec. Canada. Advertisement Modern industrial agriculture, which is dominated by factory farms is so far removed from actual farming, that even including the word “farm” to describe it is a misnomer. Unlike actual farms, most of the animals living in today’s meat factories never get to see the grass or the sun. From the time, they are born they are removed from their mothers and deprived of even the most basic expressions of love. They grow up indoors in warehouses or in crowded, muddy runs, living their whole lives chained and standing in puddles of their own filth, literally waiting to die. If they are lucky, they will be fed a reasonably nutritious diet before being shipped off to slaughter, while the unlucky ones will be fed fillers, hormones, antibiotics and even the dead remains of their own kind. Dairy cows have the added indignity of being artificially inseminated, experiencing pregnancy and anticipating motherhood over and over again, only to have their calves taken away after birth. There is nothing farm-like about it. It is a gruesome expression of the human dominance that is destroying this planet. Most cats, by comparison, enjoy a different type of existence, overall. They are a one of a kind species, in that they are the only domestic animal that humans have not found a way to enslave. We keep them in our homes for companionship, mainly, and if we’re lucky, they’ll keep the mice away. Cats were worshiped as gods back in ancient Egypt, and it seems as though they still hold on to a bit of that nobility. Today most cats, even house pets, manage to enjoy some level of independence in their lives. How ironic then, that the independent cat in this photo is choosing to spend its day giving love to cows! Studies have shown cows to be highly intelligent creatures with excellent problem-solving abilities, complex social structures and a deeply emotional connection to the world around them. Cows have excellent memories and reach out for the love of their human handlers. They too were considered sacred among the ancients. While the Hindu people once found them divine because of their docile dispositions and willingness to share milk, they are now being exploited for those very same qualities. Advertisement Advertisement This photo of the sweet cat offering the cows some love shows us that that these two very different species are not that different when it comes to the need to be loved. The sad reality, however, is that the cat will possibly live out her life experiencing the love and respect of human beings and the dairy cows will be used as nothing more than a commodity. The Sanskrit word Namaste means “I bow to you” and is more commonly translated to mean “the divine light in me recognizes the divine light in you.” This wise feline shows this principle in action, recognizing the dairy cow’s right to love and offering it to them. If only more humans behaved this way, what a wonderful world it would be. |
From Linus Torvalds <> Date Sat, 20 Oct 2012 12:41:06 -0700 Subject Linux 3.7-rc2 For the last few months, it's almost become a habit of mine to make the occasional release from the airport while flying out somewhere. And this is another such one. Go free PDX airport wireless! Anyway, it's been roughly a week, and -rc2 is out. The most noticeable thing tends to be fixing various fallout issues - there's lots of patches to finish up (and fix the fallout) from the UAPI include file reorganization, for example, but there's also some changes to how module signing is done etc etc. In pure lines, the uapi stuff (even with rename detection) dwarfs everything else, and the diffstat of -rc2 is very unusual. Instead of the normal "65% drivers, random everything else", it's "50% arch patches (largely uapi header files), 30% include (more uapi header file changes, and 20% everything else". But the appended shortlog is fairly readable, because the uapi changes don't dominate there. Nothing really particular stands out. DRM and USB driver changes, and various random fixes all over.. Have fun, and go forth and test, Linus --- Al Viro (2): fix a leak in replace_fd() users bury SEL_{IN,OUT,EX} Alan Stern (1): USB: fix port probing and removal in garmin_gps Alex Deucher (5): drm/radeon: fix compilation with backlight disabled drm/radeon: allocate PPLLs from low to high drm/radeon: update comments to clarify VM setup (v2) drm/radeon/cayman: set VM max pfn at MC init drm/radeon: check if pcie gen 2 is already enabled (v2) Alexander Shiyan (1): serial: sccnxp: Allows the driver to be compiled as a module Alexandre Pereira da Silva (1): usb: gadget: lpc32xx_udc: Fix compatibility with STOTG04 Alexis R. Cortes (1): usb: host: xhci: New system added for Compliance Mode Patch on SN65LVPE502CP Andi Kleen (1): FRV: Fix const sections change Aneesh Kumar K.V (1): powerpc: Build fix for powerpc KVM Antony Pavlov (1): MIPS: JZ4740: Fix '#include guard' in serial.h Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo (4): perf python: Initialize 'page_size' variable perf python: Link with libtraceevent perf hists browser: Add back callchain folding symbol perf python: Properly link with libtraceevent Arnd Bergmann (9): SCSI: ARM: ncr5380/oak uses no interrupts SCSI: ARM: make fas216_dumpinfo function conditional mm/slob: use min_t() to compare ARCH_SLAB_MINALIGN USB: EHCI: mark ehci_orion_conf_mbus_windows __devinit pcmcia: sharpsl: don't discard sharpsl_pcmcia_ops pinctrl: samsung: use __devinit section for init code pinctrl: sirf: remove sirfsoc_gpio_set_pull function spi/s3c64xx: use correct dma_transfer_direction type ARM: s3c: mark s3c2440_clk_add as __init_refok Ashish Chavan (1): ASoC: codecs: da9055: Minor improvement in ALC calibration process Axel Lin (2): gpio: mvebu: Add missing breaks in mvebu_gpio_irq_set_type drivers/video/backlight/lm3639_bl.c: return proper error in lm3639_bled_mode_store() error paths Ben Collins (1): USB: ehci-fsl: Return valid error in ehci_fsl_setup_phy Ben Skeggs (1): drm/nouveau/bios: fix typo in error message Benjamin Herrenschmidt (1): Revert "powerpc/perf: Use pmc_overflow() to detect rolled back events" Benoit Cousson (1): ARM: OMAP2+: clock data: Add dev-id for the omap-gpmc dummy fck Bill Pemberton (2): staging: dgrp: check for NULL pointer in (un)register_proc_table staging: dgrp: check return value of alloc_tty_driver Bjørn Mork (2): USB: option: blacklist net interface on ZTE devices USB: option: add more ZTE devices Borislav Petkov (1): x86, MCE: Remove bios_cmci_threshold sysfs attribute Bryan Wu (1): MAINTAINERS: change email after moving for LED subsystem maintaining Carlos Maiolino (2): ext3: fix possible non-initialized variable on htree_dirblock_to_tree() ext3: ext3_bread usage audit Catalin Marinas (5): uapi: Allow automatic generation of uapi/asm/ header files arm64: Select MODULES_USE_ELF_RELA arm64: Fix the update_vsyscall() prototype arm64: Ignore memory blocks below PHYS_OFFSET arm64: No need to set the x0-x2 registers in start_thread() Chris Ball (1): ARM: pxa: Fix build error caused by sram.h rename Chris Wilson (2): drm/i915: Disallow preallocation of requests drm/i915: fixup i915_gem_object_get_page inline helper Chris Zankel (3): xtensa: fix memmove(), bcopy(), and memcpy(). xtensa: minor compiler warning fix xtensa: add missing system calls to the syscall table Christian König (3): drm/radeon: allocate page tables on demand v4 drm/radeon: don't add the IB pool to all VMs v2 drm/radeon: separate pt alloc from lru add Corey Minyard (3): IPMI: Remove SMBus driver info from the docs IPMI: Fix some uninitialized warning IPMI: Detect register spacing on PCI interfaces Cyrill Gorcunov (1): pidns: remove recursion from free_pid_ns() Dan Carpenter (1): x86/cache_info: Use ARRAY_SIZE() in amd_l3_attrs() Daniel J Blueman (1): x86, amd, mce: Avoid NULL pointer reference on CPU northbridge lookup Daniel Vetter (5): drm/i915: paper over a pipe-enable vs pageflip race drm/i915: disable wc gtt pte mappings on gen2 drm/i915: rip out the pipe A quirk for i855gm drm/i915: fixup the plane->pipe fixup code drm/i915/dvo-ch7xxx: fix get_hw_state Dave Airlie (2): drm: fix warning on 32-bit. nouveau: fix warning on 32-bit build. David Ahern (1): perf tool: Precise mode requires exclude_guest David Daney (1): MIPS: Make __{,n,u}delay declarations match definitions and generic delay.h David Henningsson (1): ALSA: hda - Always check array bounds in alc_get_line_out_pfx David Hooper (1): x86/reboot: Remove quirk entry for SBC FITPC David Howells (23): UAPI: (Scripted) Disintegrate arch/sh/include/asm UAPI: (Scripted) Disintegrate include/linux/hsi UAPI: (Scripted) Disintegrate include/linux/usb UAPI: (Scripted) Disintegrate arch/xtensa/include/asm Unexport some bits of linux/fs.h UAPI: (Scripted) Disintegrate arch/parisc/include/asm FRV: Fix VLIW packing constraint violation in entry.S FRV: Fix incorrect symbol in copy_thread() FRV: Fix linux/elf-fdpic.h UAPI: Make uapi/linux/irqnr.h non-empty UAPI: Remove empty conditionals from include/linux/Kbuild UAPI: Remove empty non-UAPI Kbuild files UAPI: Place comments in empty arch Kbuilds to make them non-empty UAPI: The tile arch uses the generic ucontext.h file UAPI: Put a comment into uapi/asm-generic/kvm_para.h and use it from arches UAPI: Make arch/mn10300/include/uapi/asm/setup.h non-empty UAPI: Make arch/sh/include/uapi/asm/hw_breakpoint.h non-empty UAPI: Make arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/sigcontext.h non-empty UAPI: (Scripted) Disintegrate include/linux/dvb UAPI: (Scripted) Disintegrate arch/hexagon/include/asm MODSIGN: perlify sign-file and merge in x509keyid MODSIGN: Cleanup .gitignore MODSIGN: Move the magic string to the end of a module and eliminate the search David Miller (1): perf tools: Fix build on sparc. David Rientjes (3): thermal, cpufreq: Fix build when CPU_FREQ_TABLE isn't configured mm, mempolicy: fix printing stack contents in numa_maps fs, xattr: fix bug when removing a name not in xattr list David S. Miller (4): sparc64: Like x86 we should check current->mm during perf backtrace generation. sparc64: Add global PMU register dumping via sysrq. MAINTAINERS: Add explicit section for IPSEC networking. sparc64: Fix bit twiddling in sparc_pmu_enable_event(). Deepthi Dharwar (3): cpuidle/powerpc: Fix target residency initialisation in pseries cpuidle cpuidle/powerpc: Fix smt_snooze_delay functionality. cpuidle/powerpc: Fix snooze state problem in the cpuidle design on pseries. Dmitry Kravkov (1): bnx2x: fix handling mf storage modes Egbert Eich (1): drm/radeon: Don't destroy I2C Bus Rec in radeon_ext_tmds_enc_destroy(). Eric Dumazet (1): ipv6: addrconf: fix /proc/net/if_inet6 Felipe Balbi (1): usb: dwc3: gadget: fix 'endpoint always busy' bug Fengguang Wu (1): firmware/memmap: avoid type conflicts with the generic memmap_init() Geert Uytterhoeven (2): staging: serial: dgrp: Add missing #include <linux/uaccess.h> serial/8250_hp300: Missing 8250 register interface conversion bits Greg Kroah-Hartman (2): tty: serial: sccnxp: Fix bug with unterminated platform_id list USB: usb.h: remove dbg() macro Guennadi Liakhovetski (1): ASoC: fsi: don't reschedule DMA from an atomic context Guenter Roeck (1): hwmon: (coretemp) Add support for Atom CE4110/4150/4170 H. Peter Anvin (1): x86, suspend: Correct the restore of CR4, EFER; skip computing EFLAGS.ID Hendrik Brueckner (1): smsgiucv: reestablish IUCV path after resume Henrik Rydberg (1): usbdevfs: Fix broken scatter-gather transfer Jacob Shin (1): x86: Exclude E820_RESERVED regions and memory holes above 4 GB from direct mapping. James Bottomley (1): [PARISC] asm: redo generic includes Jan Kara (1): quota: Silence warning about PRJQUOTA not being handled in need_print_warning() Jani Nikula (1): drm/i915: fix non-DP-D eDP backlight cleanup and module reload Janusz Krzysztofik (1): ASoC: ams-delta: Convert to use snd_soc_register_card() Jason Gunthorpe (1): ARM: Kirkwood: fix disabling CACHE_FEROCEON_L2 Jiri Pirko (1): vlan: fix bond/team enslave of vlan challenged slave/port Johan Hovold (19): USB: ark3116: fix NULL-pointer dereference USB: cyberjack: fix port-data memory leak USB: belkin_sa: fix port-data memory leak USB: cp210x: fix port-data memory leak USB: pl2303: fix port-data memory leak USB: cypress_m8: fix port-data memory leak USB: kobil_sct: fix port-data memory leak USB: io_edgeport: fix port-data memory leak USB: f81232: fix port-data memory leak USB: keyspan_pda: fix port-data memory leak USB: io_ti: fix port-data memory leak USB: kl5kusb105: fix port-data memory leak USB: iuu_phoenix: fix port-data memory leak USB: oti6858: fix port-data memory leak USB: ti_usb_3410_5052: fix port-data memory leak USB: ssu100: fix port-data memory leak USB: spcp8x5: fix port-data memory leak USB: iuu_phoenix: fix sysfs-attribute creation USB: io_ti: fix sysfs-attribute creation John Johansen (1): apparmor: fix apparmor OOPS in audit_log_untrustedstring+0x1c/0x40 Jon Hunter (1): ARM: OMAP2+: Allow kernel to boot even if GPMC fails to reserve memory Jussi Kivilinna (1): crypto: aesni - fix XTS mode on x86-32, add wrapper function for asmlinkage aesni_enc() KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki (1): hold task->mempolicy while numa_maps scans. Kees Cook (4): hwmon: (pmbus) remove CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL Documentation/hwmon: remove CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL kernel/sys.c: fix stack memory content leak via UNAME26 use clamp_t in UNAME26 fix Kenneth Graunke (1): drm/i915: Set guardband clipping workaround bit in the right register. Kim Phillips (3): of/address: sparse fixes of/irq: sparse fixes of/platform: sparse fix Kuninori Morimoto (4): ARM: shmobile: armadillo800eva: __io abuse cleanup ARM: shmobile: r8a7779: use __iomem pointers for MMIO usb: renesas_usbhs: fixup __usbhs_for_each_pipe 1st pos usb: renesas_usbhs: fixup interrupt status clear method Laurent Pinchart (2): usb: gadget: Make webcam gadget select USB_LIBCOMPOSITE MAINTAINERS: Add maintainer entry for the USB webcam gadget Linus Torvalds (4): xen: Fix annoying compile-time warning kbuild: Fix module signature generation remap_file_pages: correctly handle the case of a NULL vm_ops pointer Linux 3.7-rc2 Linus Walleij (3): pinctrl/nomadik: provide stubs for legacy Nomadik pinctrl/nomadik: always use the simple irqdomain ARM: dts: compile Integrator device trees Luca Tettamanti (1): drm/radeon: use %zu for formatting size_t Marc Gauthier (2): xtensa: copy_thread with CLONE_VM must not copy live parent AR windows xtensa: fix missing return in do_page_fault for SIGBUS case Marc Zyngier (1): arm64: fix alignment padding in assembly code Marcin Slusarz (1): drm/nv50/fb: fix double free of vram mm Mark Brown (4): ASoC: bells: Correct typo in sub speaker DAI name for WM5110 ASoC: wm2200: Use rev A register patches on rev B ASoC: wm2200: Fix non-inverted OUT2 mute control ASoC: bells: Correct typo in sub speaker DAI name for WM5110 Mark Zhang (1): ARM: tegra30: clk: Fix output_rate overflow Markus Trippelsdorf (1): tty: Fix bogus "callbacks suppressed" messages Martin Peres (3): drm/nouveau/hwmon: fix the initialization condition drm/nouveau/pm: fix a typo related to the move to the therm subdev drm/nouveau/pm: do not stop reclocking if failing to set the fan speed Matthew Garrett (2): ACPI: Reorder IPMI driver before any other ACPI drivers IPMI: Change link order Mauro Carvalho Chehab (2): DocBook/media/Makefile: Fix build due to uapi breakage [media] Kconfig: Fix dependencies for driver autoselect options Max Filippov (7): xtensa: ISS: fix specific simcalls xtensa: ISS: fix rs_put_char xtensa: fix boot parameters parsing xtensa: reorganize SR referencing xtensa: fix unaligned usermode access xtensa: Use Kbuild infrastructure to handle asm-generic headers drm/nouveau: only call ttm_agp_tt_create when __OS_HAS_AGP Maxim Kachur (1): ALSA: emu10k1: add chip details for E-mu 1010 PCIe card Mel Gorman (1): mm: compaction: correct the nr_strict va isolated check for CMA Michael Walle (2): ARM: kirkwood: fix LEDs names for lsxl boards ARM: kirkwood: fix buttons on lsxl boards Michal Marek (1): kbuild: Fix accidental revert in commit fe04ddf Ming Lei (2): USB: cdc-acm: fix pipe type of write endpoint lib/dma-debug.c: fix __hash_bucket_find() Namhyung Kim (3): perf tools: Fix segfault when using srcline sort key perf tools: Remove warnings on JIT samples for srcline sort key perf hists browser: Fix off-by-two bug on the first column Nicolas Boullis (1): usb: acm: fix the computation of the number of data bits Olof Johansson (1): of: add stub of_get_child_by_name for non-OF builds Paul E. McKenney (1): printk: Fix scheduling-while-atomic problem in console_cpu_notify() Paul Mundt (2): sh: Wire up kcmp syscall. sh: Fix up more fallout from pointless ARM __iomem churn. Paul Walmsley (1): ARM: OMAP: resolve sparse warning concerning debug_card_init() Peter Meerwald (1): ASoC: fix documentation in soc-jack Peter Ujfalusi (4): ASoC: twl6040: Fix Stream DAPM mapping ASoC: omap-abe-twl6040: Fix typo of Vibrator ASoC: omap-mcpdm: Remove OMAP revision check ASoC: dmaengine: Correct Makefile when sound is built as module Peter Zijlstra (1): perf: Require exclude_guest to use PEBS - kernel side enforcement Rafael J. Wysocki (1): MAINTAINERS: Add Rafael's address to ACPI maintainers Ralf Baechle (7): mm: huge_memory: Fix build error. MIPS: tlbex: Deal with re-definition of label MIPS: R5000: Fix TLB hazard handling. MIPS: Hugetlbfs: Handle huge pages correctly in pmd_bad() MIPS: Restore pagemask after dumping the TLB. MIPS: hugetlbfs: Fix hazard between tlb write and pagemask restoration. MIPS: JZ4740: Forward declare struct uart_port in header. Randy Dunlap (2): docbook: networking: fix file paths for uapi headers drm: radeon: fix printk format warning Richard Kuo (1): Hexagon: Copyright marking changes Richard Weinberger (1): linux/coredump.h needs asm/siginfo.h Rodrigo Vivi (1): drm/i915: HSW CRW stability magic Russell King (1): ARM: fix oops on initial entry to userspace with Thumb2 kernels Rusty Russell (1): kbuild: sign the modules at install time Sachin Kamat (1): arm64: Remove duplicate inclusion of mmu_context.h in smp.c Sarah Sharp (4): USB: Enable LPM after a failed probe. usb: Don't enable LPM if the exit latency is zero. usb: Send Set SEL before enabling parent U1/U2 timeout. usb: trival: Fix debugging units mistake. Sasha Levin (2): net, TTY: initialize tty->driver_data before usage SUNRPC: Prevent kernel stack corruption on long values of flush Sebastian Hesselbarth (6): ARM: dove: Add pcie clock support ARM: dove: Fix tauros2 device tree init ARM: dove: Fix clock names of sata and gbe ARM: dove: Restructure SoC device tree descriptor ARM: dove: Remove watchdog from DT ARM: dove: Add crypto engine to DT Sebastien Guiriec (1): ARM: OMAP4: devices: fixup OMAP4 DMIC platform device error message Shawn Guo (1): ARM: dts: imx6q-arm2: move NANDF_CS pins out of 'hog' Sivaram Nair (2): ARM: tegra: rename tegra system timer ARM: tegra: add tegra_timer clock Stefan Raspl (1): qeth: fix deadlock between recovery and bonding driver Stefano Babic (1): usb: musb: am35xx: drop spurious unplugging a device Stephen Warren (1): dtc: fix for_each_*() to skip first object if deleted Steven Rostedt (2): lib tools traceevent: Add back pevent assignment in __pevent_parse_format() tools lib traceevent: Fix missed freeing of subargs in free_arg() in filter Takashi Iwai (4): ALSA: ac97 - Fix missing NULL check in snd_ac97_cvol_new() ALSA: hda - Clean up superfluous position_fix list entries ALSA: hda - Fix registration race of VGA switcheroo ALSA: hda - Stop LPIB delay counting on broken hardware Tero Kristo (1): ARM: OMAP: clockdomain: Fix locking on _clkdm_clk_hwmod_enable / disable Thomas Friebel (1): drm/radeon: fix spelling typos in debugging output Tobias Klauser (1): pinctrl: bcm2835: Use existing pointer to struct device Tony Lindgren (2): ASoC: Fix wrong include for McPDM ARM: OMAP4: Fix twd_local_timer_register regression Tony Prisk (3): dtb: fix interrupt assignment for ehci/uhci on wm8505 usb: Missing dma_mask in uhci-platform.c when probed from device-tree usb: Missing dma_mask in ehci-vt8500.c when probed from device-tree Trond Myklebust (1): NLM: nlm_lookup_file() may return NLMv4-specific error codes Vivek Gautam (1): usb: dwc3: shutdown usb_phy when removing the device Wei Yongjun (3): pinctrl: remove duplicated include from pinctrl-bcm2835.c pinctrl: fix return value in bcm2835_pinctrl_probe() pinctrl: remove duplicated include from pinctrl-xway.c Will Deacon (2): arm64: ptrace: make structure padding explicit for debug registers arm64: ptrace: use HW_BREAKPOINT_EMPTY type for disabled breakpoints Willy Tarreau (1): drm/i915: remove useless BUG_ON which caused a regression in 3.5. Zhao Hongjiang (2): ext2: fix return values on parse_options() failure ext3: fix return values on parse_options() failure Zijie Pan (1): sctp: fix call to SCTP_CMD_PROCESS_SACK in sctp_cmd_interpreter() jerin jacob (1): MIPS: CMP: Fix physical core number calculation logic -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/ |
Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End has largely been showcased so far through a number of trademark epic set-pieces and high-action gameplay segments. And while those moments will still play a major role throughout the upcoming game, the developer is more keen than ever to strike a balance between the spectacle and the intimate. In a long-form interview, creative director Neil Druckmann recently told the Official PlayStation Magazine UK that while the studio’s design philosophy in the past has been to “go bigger”, going any bigger than where they went in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception would simply “become comical” and a “parody of itself”. As a result, the team have shifted their approach somewhat, taking in a lot of knowledge gained from their time spent working on The Last of Us. According to Druckmann, creating the iconic and touching photobooth scene from Left Behind required as much work as the Uncharted 2: Among Thieves’ collapsing building set-piece – and was just as important to the game’s narrative. Seeing the success of that particular scene in particular has changed the way Naughty Dog look at the composition of Uncharted 4. “We’re going to have the big spectacle set-pieces, but the thing that The Last of Us and Left Behind gave us is the confidence to create these small, intimate moments where there isn’t a threat of death, but it’s another way to get to know the characters through interactivity,” Druckmann said. “I’m excited to see how fans react to that new balance of spectacle versus intimate moments.” |
The town of Plauen in Saxony has banned asylum seekers from attending a disco at the local cultural centre after a number of violent incidents and sex attacks on young girls. Every Wednesday the cultural centre in Plauen puts on a dance night for local residents, but in recent weeks every dance has required police presence because of the actions of young asylum seekers. According to the centre’s spokesman, Tommy Ziegenhagen, “there were no more Wednesdays without the police”. As a result, asylum seekers have been banned from participating, Freiepresse reports. According to Ziegenhagen, the more asylum seekers who showed up for the dance night, the more problems there were. There were reports of bags and wallets being stolen, girls were sexually harassed, and one girl was almost raped by a group of young men whilst she was on the toilet. Violence was also an issue with some of the young migrants attacking each other and other guests with beer bottles. Many neighbours also complained about the high level of noise. Sex Attacks, Brawling, Theft: Far Left Youth Club Admits Migrant Outreach Failed https://t.co/J1fgNZPfrA pic.twitter.com/vjSCQq8bdW — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 17, 2016 The doorman now requires identification in order to let anyone in the free event. Those who do not have residency documents are told they can not enter. Since the ban, Ziegenhagen has said the security situation has become much better. “We could not guarantee security anymore,” he said. The asylum seekers are still allowed to use the cultural centre at any other time as the dance night was a sponsored event, rather than something put on by the cultural centre itself. The case has some paralels to events at a left-wing club on Conne Island in Leipzig last year. The pro-migrant left-wing club invited asylum seekers to engage in various activities like building bicycles and other workshops to promote “integration”. Young Migrants Wreak New Year’s Eve Havoc in Bavarian City https://t.co/V3qXYgMUBO pic.twitter.com/EnEcY2RCXy — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 3, 2017 As the asylum seekers came, the number of sex attacks on Conne Island increased. Sexual harassment toward female members of the club became so great that many chose to avoid events. The club organisers blamed a language barrier for the increase in sex attacks and other violence saying they had not been able to properly explain to the migrants how to behave. Sex attacks at swimming pools by asylum seekers have also plagued Germany and neighbouring Austria. Whilst some towns and municipalities have attempted to ban asylum seekers as a result of attacks, many faced massive amounts of pressure from left-wing groups who were against the bans. |
Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world A fake customer service account, pretending to be US superstore Target, has been putting transphobic people in their place. The store introduced an inclusive restroom and changing room policy last month, which allowed trans people to use the facilities of the gender they identified with. Since then, it has faced a barrage of abuse and threatened with several boycotts. Taking to social media, a number of small minded individuals have attacked the store for its policy and said that they no longer plan to shop there. This is where ‘Target Customer Service’ steps in. The parody account has been putting people in their place and it’s hilarious. Check out a few of the responses below: Someone needs to go back to school Some of them are a bit confused Hopefully, Sharia will just do her thing Turns out Walmart don’t like you either Bet you Target sell a cream for that Manners are important It seems that cousins raise the best kids If all else fails…just get sassy! Since the introduction of the policy, a number of conservative groups have attempted to take action over it. This includes the American Family Association who organised a petition of over 660,000 signatures. After Target announced its discontinuation of separating toys based on gender, many took to its Facebook page to complain and hilarity ensued when they were trolled by this ‘customer service’ account.. This woman probably didn’t expect to be greeted with THIS response when she tried to troll Campbell’s Soup over a pro-gay ad. |
The Consolidated PBY Catalina, also known as the Canso in Canadian service, is an American flying boat, and later an amphibious aircraft of the 1930s and 1940s produced by Consolidated Aircraft. It was one of the most widely used seaplanes of World War II. Catalinas served with every branch of the United States Armed Forces and in the air forces and navies of many other nations. During World War II, PBYs were used in anti-submarine warfare, patrol bombing, convoy escort, search and rescue missions (especially air-sea rescue), and cargo transport. The PBY was the most numerous aircraft of its kind, and the last military PBYs served until the 1980s. As of 2014, nearly 80 years after its first flight, the aircraft continues to fly as a waterbomber (or airtanker) in aerial firefighting operations in some parts of the world. Naming [ edit ] The designation "PBY" was determined in accordance with the U.S. Navy aircraft designation system of 1922; PB representing "Patrol Bomber" and Y being the code assigned to Consolidated Aircraft as its manufacturer. Catalinas built by other manufacturers for the U.S. Navy were designated according to different manufacturer codes, thus Canadian Vickers-built examples were designated PBV, Boeing Canada examples PB2B (there already being a Boeing PBB) and Naval Aircraft Factory examples were designated PBN. In accordance with contemporary British naming practice of naming seaplanes after coastal port towns, Royal Canadian Air Force examples were named Canso, for the town of that name in Nova Scotia.[citation needed] The Royal Air Force used the name Catalina and the U.S. Navy adopted this name in 1942.[3] The United States Army Air Forces and later the United States Air Force used the designation OA-10. U.S. Navy Catalinas used in the Pacific against the Japanese for night operations were painted black overall; as a result these aircraft were sometimes referred to locally as "Black Cats". Design [ edit ] Background [ edit ] The PBY was originally designed to be a patrol bomber, an aircraft with a long operational range intended to locate and attack enemy transport ships at sea in order to disrupt enemy supply lines. With a mind to a potential conflict in the Pacific Ocean, where troops would require resupply over great distances, the U.S. Navy in the 1930s invested millions of dollars in developing long-range flying boats for this purpose. Flying boats had the advantage of not requiring runways, in effect having the entire ocean available. Several different flying boats were adopted by the Navy, but the PBY was the most widely used and produced. Although slow and ungainly, Catalinas distinguished themselves in World War II. Allied forces used them successfully in a wide variety of roles for which the aircraft was never intended. PBYs are remembered for their rescue role, in which they saved the lives of thousands of aircrew downed over water. Catalina airmen called their aircraft the "Cat" on combat missions and "Dumbo" in air-sea rescue service.[4] Development [ edit ] As American dominance in the Pacific Ocean began to face competition from Japan in the 1930s, the U.S. Navy contracted Consolidated, Martin and Douglas in October 1933 to build competing prototypes for a patrol flying boat.[5] Naval doctrine of the 1930s and 1940s used flying boats in a wide variety of roles that today are handled by multiple special-purpose aircraft. The U.S. Navy had adopted the Consolidated P2Y and Martin P3M models for this role in 1931, but both aircraft were underpowered and hampered by inadequate range and limited payloads. Consolidated and Douglas both delivered single prototypes of their new designs, the XP3Y-1 and XP3D-1, respectively. Consolidated's XP3Y-1 was an evolution of the XPY-1 design that had originally competed unsuccessfully for the P3M contract two years earlier and of the XP2Y design that the Navy had authorized for a limited production run. Although the Douglas aircraft was a good design, the Navy opted for Consolidated's because the projected cost was only $90,000 per aircraft. PBY waist gunner mounting port side gun blister. Consolidated's XP3Y-1 design (company Model 28) had a parasol wing with external bracing struts, mounted on a pylon over the fuselage. Wingtip stabilizing floats were retractable in flight to form streamlined wingtips and had been licensed from the Saunders-Roe company. The two-step hull design was similar to that of the P2Y, but the Model 28 had a cantilever cruciform tail unit instead of a strut-braced twin tail. Cleaner aerodynamics gave the Model 28 better performance than earlier designs. Construction is all-metal, stressed-skin, of aluminum sheet, except the ailerons and wing trailing edge, which are fabric covered.[6] The prototype was powered by two 825 hp (615 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1830-54 Twin Wasp radial engines mounted on the wing’s leading edges. Armament comprised four .30 in (7.6 mm) Browning AN/M2 machine guns and up to 2,000 lb (910 kg) of bombs. The XP3Y-1 had its maiden flight on 28 March 1935, after which it was transferred to the U.S. Navy for service trials. The XP3Y-1 was a significant performance improvement over previous patrol flying boats. The Navy requested further development in order to bring the aircraft into the category of patrol bomber, and in October 1935, the prototype was returned to Consolidated for further work, including installation of 900 hp (670 kW) R-1830-64 engines. For the redesignated XPBY-1, Consolidated introduced redesigned vertical tail surfaces which resolved a problem with the tail becoming submerged on takeoff, which had made lift-off impossible under some conditions. The XPBY-1 had its maiden flight on 19 May 1936, during which a record non-stop distance flight of 3,443 mi (2,992 nmi; 5,541 km) was achieved. The XPBY-1 was delivered to VP-11F in October 1936. The second squadron to be equipped was VP-12, which received the first of its aircraft in early 1937. The second production order was placed on 25 July 1936. Over the next three years, the design was gradually developed further and successive models introduced. The aircraft eventually bore the name Catalina after Catalina Island; the name was coined in November 1941, as Great Britain ordered their first 30 aircraft.[7] Mass-produced U.S. Navy variants [ edit ] Model Production period and distinguishing features Quantity PBY-1 September 1936 – June 1937 Original production model. 60 PBY-2 May 1937 – February 1938 Minor alterations to tail structure, hull reinforcements. 50 PBY-3 November 1936 – August 1938 Higher power engines. 66 PBY-4 May 1938 – June 1939 Higher power engines, propeller spinners, acrylic glass blisters over waist guns (some later units). 32 PBY-5 September 1940 – July 1943 Higher power engines (using higher octane fuel), discontinued use of propeller spinners, standardized waist gun blisters. Self-sealing fuel tanks introduced during production run. 684 PBY-5A October 1941 – January 1945 Hydraulically actuated, retractable tricycle landing gear, with main gear design based on one from the 1920s designed by Leroy Grumman, for amphibious operation. Introduced tail gun position, replaced bow single gun position with bow "eyeball" turret equipped with twin .30 machine guns (some later units), improved armor, self-sealing fuel tanks.[8] 802 PBY-6A January 1945 – May 1945 Incorporated changes from PBN-1,[8] including a taller vertical tail, increased wing strength for greater carrying capacity, new electrical system, standardized "eyeball" turret, and a radome over cockpit for radar. 175 An estimated 4,051 Catalinas, Cansos, and GSTs of all versions were produced between June 1937 and May 1945 for the U.S. Navy, the United States Army Air Forces, the United States Coast Guard, Allied nations, and civilian customers. PBN Nomad [ edit ] The Naval Aircraft Factory made significant modifications to the PBY design, many of which would have significantly interrupted deliveries had they been incorporated on the Consolidated production lines.[9] The new aircraft, officially known as the PBN-1 Nomad, had several differences from the basic PBY. The most obvious upgrades were to the bow, which was sharpened and extended by two feet, and to the tail, which was enlarged and featured a new shape. Other improvements included larger fuel tanks, increasing range by 50%, and stronger wings permitting a 2,000 lb (908 kg) increase in gross takeoff weight. An auxiliary power unit was installed, along with an improved electrical system, and the weapons were upgraded with continuous-feed mechanisms.[9] 138 of the 156 PBN-1s produced served with the Soviet Navy. The remaining 18 were assigned to training units at NAS Whidbey Island and the Naval Air Facility in Newport, Rhode Island.[10] Later, improvements found in the PBN such as the larger tail were incorporated into the amphibious PBY-6A. Operational history [ edit ] A radar-equipped PBY-5A from VP-6(CG) over Greenland, in 1945. Roles in World War II [ edit ] Around 3,300 aircraft were built, and these operated in nearly all operational theatres of World War II. The Catalina served with distinction and played a prominent and invaluable role against the Japanese. This was especially true during the first year of the war in the Pacific, because the PBY and the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress were the only American aircraft with the range to be effective in the Pacific. Anti-submarine warfare [ edit ] Catalinas were the most extensively used anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of World War II, and were also used in the Indian Ocean, flying from the Seychelles and from Ceylon. Their duties included escorting convoys to Murmansk. By 1943, U-boats were well-armed with anti-aircraft guns and two Victoria Crosses were won by Catalina pilots pressing home their attacks on U-boats in the face of heavy fire: Flying Officer John Cruickshank of the RAF, in 1944, for sinking U-347 (although the submarine is now known to have been U-361[11]) and in the same year Flight Lieutenant David Hornell of the Royal Canadian Air Force (posthumously) against U-1225. Catalinas destroyed 40 U-boats, but not without losses of their own. A Brazilian Catalina attacked and sank U-199 in Brazilian waters on 31 July 1943. Later, the aircraft was baptized as “Arará”, in memory of the merchant ship of that name which was sunk by another U-boat.[12] Maritime patrol [ edit ] A PBY-5A of VP-61 over the Aleutian Islands in 1943 In their role as patrol aircraft, Catalinas participated in some of the most notable naval engagements of World War II. The aircraft's parasol wing and large waist blisters provided excellent visibility and combined with its long range and endurance, made it well suited for the task. A RAF Coastal Command Catalina, piloted by Ensign Leonard B. Smith of the U.S. Navy and flying out of Castle Archdale Flying boat base, Lower Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, located on 26 May 1941, some 690 nmi (1,280 km; 790 mi) northwest of Brest, the German battleship Bismarck, which was attempting to evade Royal Navy forces as she sought to join other Kriegsmarine forces in Brest.[N 1][14][15][16][17] This sighting eventually led to the destruction of the German battleship. On 7 December 1941, before the Japanese amphibious landings on Kota Bharu, Malaya, their invasion force was approached by a Catalina flying boat of No. 205 Squadron RAF. The aircraft was shot down by five Nakajima Ki-27 fighters before it could radio its report to air headquarters in Singapore.[18] Flying Officer Patrick Bedell, commanding the Catalina, and his seven crew members became the first Allied casualties in the war with Japan.[19] A flight of Catalinas spotted the Japanese fleet approaching Midway Island, beginning the Battle of Midway.[20] A Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Canso flown by Squadron Leader L.J. Birchall foiled Japanese plans to destroy the Royal Navy's Indian Ocean fleet on 4 April 1942 when it detected the Japanese carrier fleet approaching Ceylon (Sri Lanka).[21] Night attack and naval interdiction [ edit ] Squadron Leader Leonard Birchall aboard a Consolidated Catalina before being shot down and captured near Ceylon by the Japanese During the Battle of Midway four USN PBYs of Patrol Squadrons 24 and 51 made an attack on the occupation force of the Japanese fleet on the night of June 3–4, 1942.[22] The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) also operated Catalinas as night raiders, with four squadrons Nos. 11, 20, 42, and 43 laying mines from 23 April 1943 until July 1945 in the southwest Pacific deep in Japanese-held waters, bottling up ports and shipping routes and forcing ships into deeper waters to become targets for U.S. submarines; they tied up the major strategic ports such as Balikpapan which shipped 80% of Japanese oil supplies. In late 1944, their mining missions sometimes exceeded 20 hours in duration and were carried out from as low as 200 ft (61 m) in the dark. Operations included trapping the Japanese fleet in Manila Bay in assistance of General Douglas MacArthur's landing at Mindoro in the Philippines. Australian Catalinas also operated out of Jinamoc in the Leyte Gulf, and mined ports on the Chinese coast from Hong Kong to as far north as Wenchow. Both USN and RAAF Catalinas regularly mounted nuisance night bombing raids on Japanese bases, with the RAAF claiming the slogan "The First and the Furthest". Targets of these raids included a major base at Rabaul. RAAF aircrews, like their U.S. Navy counterparts, employed "terror bombs", ranging from scrap metal and rocks to empty beer bottles with razor blades inserted into the necks, to produce high pitched screams as they fell, keeping Japanese soldiers awake and scrambling for cover.[23] Search and rescue [ edit ] Catalinas were employed by every branch of the U.S. military as rescue aircraft. A PBY piloted by LCDR Adrian Marks (USN) rescued 56 sailors in high seas from the heavy cruiser Indianapolis after the ship was sunk during World War II. When there was no more room inside, the crew tied sailors to the wings. The aircraft could not fly in this state; instead it acted as a lifeboat, protecting the sailors from exposure and the risk of shark attack, until rescue ships arrived. Catalinas continued to function in the search-and-rescue role for decades after the end of the war. Early commercial use [ edit ] Flight steward Max White at work on board a Qantas Empire Airways Catalina aircraft en route from Suva to Sydney in January 1949 with young passenger Jennifer Grey Catalinas were also used for commercial air travel. For example, Qantas Empire Airways flew commercial passengers from Suva to Sydney, a journey of 2,060 miles (3,320 km), which in 1949 took two days.[24] The longest commercial flights (in terms of time aloft) ever made in aviation history were the Qantas flights flown weekly from 29 June 1943 through July 1945 over the Indian Ocean, dubbed the Double Sunrise. Qantas offered non-stop service between Perth and Colombo, a distance of 3,592 nmi (4,134 mi; 6,652 km). As the Catalina typically cruised at 110 kn (130 mph; 200 km/h), this took from 28 to 32 hours and was called the "flight of the double sunrise", since the passengers saw two sunrises during their non-stop journey. The flight was made in radio silence because of the possibility of Japanese attack and had a maximum payload of 1,000 lb (450 kg) or three passengers plus 143 lb (65 kg) of military and diplomatic mail.[25] Post-World War II employment [ edit ] An Australian PBY [named "Frigate Bird II" - an ex RAAF aircraft, registered VH-ASA] made the first trans-Pacific flight across the South Pacific between Australia and Chile in 1951 by (Sir) Gordon Taylor,[26] making numerous stops at islands along the way for refueling, meals, and overnight sleep of its crew, flown from Sydney to Quintero in Chile after making initial landfall at Valparaiso via Tahiti and Easter Island.[27] With the end of the war, all of the flying boat versions of the Catalina were quickly retired from the U.S. Navy, but the amphibious versions remained in service for some years. The last Catalina in U.S. service was a PBY-6A operating with a Naval Reserve squadron, which was retired from use on 3 January 1957.[5] The Catalina subsequently equipped the world's smaller armed services into the late 1960s in fairly substantial numbers. The U.S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command used Catalinas (designated OA-10s) in service as scout aircraft from 1946 through 1947. The Brazilian Air Force flew Catalinas in naval air patrol missions against German submarines starting in 1943. The flying boats also carried out air mail deliveries. In 1948, a transport squadron was formed and equipped with PBY-5As converted to the role of amphibious transports. The 1st Air Transport Squadron (ETA-1) was based in the port city of Belem and flew Catalinas and C-47s until 1982. Catalinas were convenient for supplying military detachments scattered along the Amazon. They reached places that were otherwise accessible only by helicopters. The ETA-1 insignia was a winged turtle with the motto "Though slowly, I always get there". Today, the last Brazilian Catalina (a former RCAF one) is displayed at the Airspace Museum (MUSAL) in Rio de Janeiro.[28] A PBY-6A Catalina drops a load of water from its bomb-bay doors Jacques-Yves Cousteau used a PBY-6A (N101CS) to support his diving expeditions. His second son, Philippe, was killed in an accident in this aircraft that occurred on the Tagus River near Lisbon. The Catalina nosed over during a high-speed taxi run undertaken to check the hull for leakage following a water landing. The aircraft turned upside down, causing the fuselage to break behind the cockpit. The wing separated from the fuselage and the left engine broke off, penetrating the captain's side of the cockpit.[29] Paul Mantz converted an unknown number of surplus Catalinas to flying yachts at his Orange County California hangar in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Super Cat standard. It is additionally fitted out for survey work for Geoterrex Inc An OA-10A converted by Steward-Davis Inc to theirstandard. It is additionally fitted out for survey work for Geoterrex Inc Steward-Davis converted several Catalinas to their Super Catalina standard (later known as Super Cat), which replaced the usual 1,200 hp (890 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp engines with Wright R-2600 Cyclone 14 engines of 1,700 hp (1,300 kW). A larger, squared-off rudder was installed to compensate for the increased yaw which the more powerful engines could generate. The Super Catalina also had extra cabin windows and other alterations.[30] Chilean Air Force (FACH) Captain Roberto Parragué, in his PBY Catalina FACH No. 405 called "Manu-Tara", which means Lucky Bird in the Rapanui language, undertook the first flight between Easter Island and the continent of South America (from Chile), as well as the first flight to Tahiti, making him a national hero of France as well as of Chile. The flight was authorized by the Chilean President in 1951, but a second flight he made in 1957 was not authorized, and he was dismissed from the Chilean Air Force. Of the few dozen remaining airworthy Catalinas, the majority are in use as aerial firefighting aircraft. China Airlines, the official airline of the Republic of China (Taiwan) was founded with two Catalina amphibians. Platforms are folded out and deployed from Catalinas for use in open ocean fishing and Mahi Mahi tracking in the Pacific Ocean. Catalina affair [ edit ] The Catalina Affair is the name given to a Cold War incident in which a Swedish Air Force Catalina was shot down by Soviet fighters over the Baltic Sea in June 1952 while investigating the disappearance of a Swedish Douglas DC-3 (later found to have been shot down by a Soviet fighter while on a signals intelligence mission; it was found in 2003 and raised 2004–2005). Variants [ edit ] Prototype Model 28 flying boat, later re-designated XPBY-1. A U.S. Army Air Forces OA-10 and crew. Canadian Vickers SA-10A Catalina 44-33939 (USN BuNo 67903), USAF 4th Rescue Group, Hamilton AFB, California, 1952. Sold in 1958 to Cuban Air Force as 191 A United States Coast Guard PBY-5A at Tern Island in 1953 US Navy [ edit ] XP3Y-1 Prototype Model 28 flying boat later re-designated XPBY-1, one built (USN Bureau No. 9459). Later fitted with a 48-foot-diameter (15 m) ring to sweep magnetic sea mines. A 550 hp Ranger engine drove a generator to produce a magnetic field.[31] XPBY-1 Prototype version of the Model 28 for the United States Navy, a re-engined XP3Y-1 with two 900 hp R-1830-64 engines, one built. PBY-1 (Model 28-1) Initial production variant with two 900 hp R-1830-64 engines, 60 built. PBY-2 (Model 28-2) Equipment changes and improved performance, 50 built. PBY-3 (Model 28-3) Powered by two 1,000 hp R-1830-66 engines, 66 built. PBY-4 (Model 28-4) Powered by two 1,050 hp R-1830-72 engines, 33 built (including one initial as a XPBY-4 which later became the XPBY-5A). PBY-5 (Model 28-5) Either two 1,200 hp R-1830-82 or −92 engines and provision for extra fuel tanks (with partial self-sealing protection). 683 built (plus one built at New Orleans), some aircraft to the RAF as the Catalina IVA and one to the United States Coast Guard. The PBY-5 was also built in the Soviet Union as the GST. XPBY-5A One PBY-4 converted into an amphibian and first flown in November 1939. PBY-5A (Model 28-5A) Amphibious version of the PBY-5 with two 1,200 hp R-1830-92 engines, first batch (of 124) had one 0.3in bow gun, the remainder had two bow guns; 803 built including diversions to the United States Army Air Forces, the RAF (as the Catalina IIIA) and one to the United States Coast Guard. PBY-6A Amphibious version with two 1,200 hp R-1830-92 engines and a taller fin and rudder. Radar scanner fitted above cockpit and two 0.5 in nose guns; 175 built including 21 transferred to the Soviet Navy. PBY-6AG One PBY-6A used by the United States Coast Guard as a staff transport. PB2B-1 Boeing Canada built PBY-5 for the RAF and RCAF from 1942. 240 built. PB2B-2 Boeing Canada built version of the PBY-5 but with the taller fin of the PBN-1. 67 built. Most supplied to the RAF as the Catalina VI. PBN-1 Nomad Naval Aircraft Factory built version of the PBY-5 with major modification including a 2ft bow extension, modified hull lines with a modified step, re-designed wingtip floats and tail surfaces and a revised electrical system. A total of 155 were built for delivery to the RAF as the Catalina V although 138 were Lend-Leased to the Soviet Navy as the KM-1 Swedish Air Force Consolidated PBY Catalina on display at the Swedish Air Force museum in Linköping, Sweden PBV-1A Canadian Vickers built version of the PBY-5A, 380 built including 150 to the Royal Canadian Air Force as the Canso-A and the rest to the USAAF as the OA-10A. USAAF [ edit ] OA-10 United States Army Air Forces designation for PBY-5A, 105 built; 58 aircraft survivors re-designated A-10 in 1948. OA-10A USAAF designation of Canadian Vickers-built version of the PBV-1A, 230 built. Survivors re-designated A-10A in 1948. Three additional aircraft from Navy in 1949 as A-10As. OA-10B USAAF designation of PBY-6A, 75 built. Re-designated A-10B in 1948. RAF [ edit ] Catalina I Direct purchase aircraft for the Royal Air Force, same as the PBY-5 with six 0.303 in guns (one in bow, four in waist blisters and one aft of the hull step) and powered by two 1,200 hp R-1830-S1C3-G engines, 109 built. Catalina IA Operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force as the Canso, 14 built. Catalina IB Lend-lease PBY-5Bs for the RAF, 225 aircraft built. Catalina II Equipment changes, six built. Catalina IIA Vickers-Canada built Catalina II for the RAF, 50 built. Catalina IIIA Former U.S. Navy PBY-5As used by the RAF on the North Atlantic Ferry Service, 12 aircraft. These were the only amphibians that saw RAF service. Catalina IVA Lend-lease PBY-5s for the RAF, 93 aircraft. Catalina IVB Lend-lease PB2B-1s for the RAF, some to the Royal Australian Air Force. Catalina VI Lend-lease PB2B-2s for the RAF, some to the RAAF. RCAF [ edit ] Canso-A RCAF designation for PBV-1A Other Users [ edit ] GST Soviet built version of the PBY-5 ("Gydro Samoliot Transportnyi"). Steward-Davis Super Catalina ("Super Cat") Catalina converted to use 1,700 hp Wright R-2600 Cyclone 14 engines, with enlarged rudder and other changes. Avalon Turbo Canso Proposed turboprop conversion of Canso water bombers, powered by two Rolls-Royce Dart engines. Operators [ edit ] Surviving aircraft [ edit ] Specifications (PBY-5A) [ edit ] Orthographically projected diagram of the PBY Catalina. Data from Encyclopedia of World Air Power[32] Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II[8] Handbook of Erection and Maintenance Instructions for Navy Model PBY-5 and PBY-5A Airplanes.[33] and Quest for Performance[34] General characteristics Performance Armament 3x .30 cal (7.62 mm) machine guns (two in nose turret, one in ventral hatch at tail) 2x .50 cal (12.7 mm) machine guns (one in each waist blister) 4,000 lb (1,814 kg) of bombs or depth charges; torpedo racks were also available See also [ edit ] Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era Related lists References [ edit ] Notes [ edit ] ^ Smith was one of nine American officers assigned to the RAF as special observers. Citations [ edit ] Bibliography [ edit ] Bridgeman, Leonard. “The Consolidated Vultee Model 28 Catalina.” Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II . London: Studio, 1946. ISBN 1-85170-493-0. . London: Studio, 1946. ISBN 1-85170-493-0. Cacutt, Len, ed. “PBY Catalina: Ocean Patroller.” Great Aircraft of the World . London: Marshall Cavendish, 1989. ISBN 1-85435-250-4. . London: Marshall Cavendish, 1989. ISBN 1-85435-250-4. Creed, Roscoe. PBY: The Catalina Flying Boat . Annapolis, Maryland: US Naval Institute Press, 1986. ISBN 0-87021-526-4. . Annapolis, Maryland: US Naval Institute Press, 1986. ISBN 0-87021-526-4. Crocker, Mel. Black Cats and Dumbos: WW II's Fighting PBYs . Huntington Beach, California: Crocker Media Expressions, 2002. ISBN 0-9712901-0-5. . Huntington Beach, California: Crocker Media Expressions, 2002. ISBN 0-9712901-0-5. Dorny, Louis B. US Navy PBY Catalina Units of the Pacific War . Botley, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2007. ISBN 1-84176-911-8. . Botley, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2007. ISBN 1-84176-911-8. Freeman, Elmer (1984). Those Navy Guys and Their PBY's: The Aleutian Solution . Spokane, Wash.: Kedging Publishing Co. ISBN 0-9632463-0-5. Gaunt, Coral and Robert Cleworth. Cats at War: Story of RAAF Catalinas in the Asia Pacific Theatre of War. Roseville, NSW Australia: J.R. Cleworth, 2000. ISBN 978-1-86408-586-0. Roseville, NSW Australia: J.R. Cleworth, 2000. ISBN 978-1-86408-586-0. Greenhous, Brereton et al. The Crucible of War 1939–1945: The Official History of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Vol. III. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994. ISBN 978-0-8020-0574-8. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994. ISBN 978-0-8020-0574-8. Gunston, Bill (1986). American Warplanes . New York: Crown Publishers Inc. ISBN 0-517-61351-4. Hendrie, Andrew. Flying Cats: The Catalina Aircraft in World War II . Annapolis, Maryland: US Naval Institute Press, 1988. ISBN 0-87021-213-3. . Annapolis, Maryland: US Naval Institute Press, 1988. ISBN 0-87021-213-3. Kinzey, Bert. PBY Catalina in Detail & Scale . Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc., 2000. ISBN 1-888974-19-2. . Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc., 2000. ISBN 1-888974-19-2. Knott, Richard C. Black Cat Raiders of World War II . Annapolis, Maryland: US Naval Institute Press, 2000. ISBN 1-55750-471-7. . Annapolis, Maryland: US Naval Institute Press, 2000. ISBN 1-55750-471-7. Legg, David. Consolidated PBY Catalina: The Peacetime Record . Annapolis, Maryland: US Naval Institute Press, 2002. ISBN 1-55750-245-5. . Annapolis, Maryland: US Naval Institute Press, 2002. ISBN 1-55750-245-5. Miller, Nathan (1997). War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II . New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-511038-8. Petrescu, FLorian Ion and Reilly Victoria Petrescu. The Aviation History . Stoughton, Wisconsin: Books on Demand, 2012. ISBN 978-3-84823-077-8. . Stoughton, Wisconsin: Books on Demand, 2012. ISBN 978-3-84823-077-8. Ragnarsson, Ragnar. US Navy PBY Catalina Units of the Atlantic War . Botley, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1-84176-910-X. . Botley, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1-84176-910-X. Scarborough, William E. PBY Catalina in Action (Aircraft number 62) . Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc., 1983. ISBN 0-89747-149-0. . Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc., 1983. ISBN 0-89747-149-0. Scarborough, William E. PBY Catalina: Walk Around . Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc., 1996. ISBN 0-89747-357-4. . Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc., 1996. ISBN 0-89747-357-4. Wagner, Ray. The Story of the PBY Catalina (Aero Biographies Volume 1). San Diego, California: Flight Classics, 1972. ISBN 978-0-911721-30-0. |
Sunset Overdrive developer Insomniac Games said that the game will be running at 900p resolution and 30 frames-per-second. In an interview with IGN, Insomniac Games’ Ted Price said the game breaks a lot of the rules established by other open-world games and that it’s the biggest game they’ve ever made. On the subject of resolution, Price said, “What happened for developers not using the Kinect is that there was a slight boost in CPU power that we got to take advantage of. This game really does push the limits when it comes to the number of enemies on screen, so it was useful for us to have more CPU juice to help with physics, navigation and AI. “We’re running at 900p and 30 fps native. This is a game with a lot on the screen and we made the choice to be at 900 because we wanted to push the level of detail, action, the size of the city and the views you can experience as move around. What’s great about Sunset Overdrive is if you can see it, you can go there.” Sunset Overdrive is out October 28 on Xbox One. |
Stephen Amell finally met Josh Donaldson, made good on his promise to hit a BP home run Jon Cram, MLB.com / Real-Time Correspondent Green Arrow, aka Stephen Amell, aka a doorman from a single episode of "Degrassi: The Next Generation," has been campaigning pretty hard for Josh Donaldson's All-Star case. He's been making Facebook videos to get out the vote and generally expressing his love for the Blue Jays third baseman. He even asked fans to draw pictures of he and Donaldson high-fiving (they obliged). But on Sunday, Amell got to meet his favorite ASG candidate in person: Look at them, sitting together like old friends. Amell even took BP with the Blue Jays, something he'd been working on for a while. When the actor took some practice hacks earlier in the month, he said he was sure he could "go yard in a Major League ballpark." And guess what? He was right: It seems like Amell generally gets want he wants (see above! He got that high five!). For example: I asked @BringerOfRain20 to hit a homer today. There's video. You're welcome. - Stephen Amell (@amellywood) June 28, 2015 Of course, Donaldson obliged: Your browser does not support iframes. Vote Donaldson (it's what Stephen Amell wants you to do): Esurance MLB All-Star Ballot Photos by Jon Cram, MLB.com / Real-Time Correspondent. Gemma Kaneko has been a writer for Cut4 since the end of her term as Witch President in 2014. She is the proudest Tigers fan in New York City. |
Art + Seeds = Awesome! For this weekend’s giveaway (Friday 8/12 through Sunday 8/14) we are giving away some special prize packs from the Hudson Valley Seed Library – artist designed seed packs, called Art Packs, which celebrate the diverse stories of seeds and their stewards. Our first grand prize winner will receive a selection of 12 fall appropriate Art Pack varieties, one 10-gallon Red Planter and a length of 15 feet of row cover for frost protection. The runner-up will win a selection of 5 fall-appropriate Art Pack varieties. To enter, just leave your answer to the question: “Which of the art packs featured on http://www.seedlibrary.org/art-packs.html is your favorite?” on the comments section of our Facebook Hudson Valley Seed Library giveaway post anytime from Friday August 12 through midnight Sunday August 14 as well as share the Facebook giveaway post on your timeline. The winner will be drawn at random from all qualified entrants, and notified through Facebook. (See rules for more information.) Here’s a fun video that will give you a sneak preview of what the Art Packs are all about: For more information on the Hudson Valley Seed Library visit their website and connect with them on social media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ seedlibrary Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ seedlibrary Twitter: https://twitter.com/ seedlibrary Good luck and happy gardening! UPDATE 8/21/16: Congratulations to Rachel Ray & Sylvia Escott-Stump! Save Save Save Save Save Save Save Save |
Introducing Converse.AI Chatflow! Tony Lucas Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 10, 2016 We are extremely excited to announce the launch today of the next generation in Bot building capability, making building bots as easy as child’s play. Since we launched our public beta in June, we have had great feedback from our users regarding the UI, and the use cases that they would like to enable, and this has all fed directly into the ongoing work we were doing to building the next generation of Converse.AI. Of particular interest to us was how use cases were rapidly evolving from just straight conversations, to include workflow requirements, including making decisions, manipulating data, and interacting with internal or third party tools, within the flow of the conversation. Converse.AI Chatflow enables these scenarios and so much more. It is a new (and very shiny!) graphical UI that allows users to easily build complex templates (now called Chatflows) through a drag and drop interface. It also enables users to easily integrate Chatflow modules to perform tasks as required, including HTTP Calls, filter, manipulate and store data, or even create rich media output for networks like Messenger or Slack Not only this, but we have built integration modules to the systems you asked for the most. So you can simply drag and drop third party modules such as Hubspot, Mixpanel, or Clearbit . You can even take payments directly within the flow of a conversation using our Stripe integration! This means you can track users, analyze behavior, build qualified leads, and take payments, all through a conversation with a bot. And this is just the beginning. We have a whole raft of integrations and modules we are going to be rolling out over the next few months. If there are any you would specifically like to see then let us know! Why have we done all this? We understand that building bots for customer engagement through a messaging conversation is a new challenge for businesses. We want to enable companies to engage as quickly and easily as possible with their users, without having to worry about all the underlying technology, or having to lose or compromise on the capabilities they already have today with their other channels. By being able to create conversations with Chatflow, dragging and dropping modules, businesses can save time and money to build the conversations in any channel, to solves their unique problems, in minutes. This interface will also mean that less technical members can also be able to build a conversation, even a non-linear, complicated conversation. Now we have launched the new UI and Chatflow, we will also have a series of blog posts which will detail a few of our internal and external integrations that will make modeling your conversation significantly easier. In the meantime, why not check out how quickly and easily you can create a conversation? You can sign up here: www.converse.ai |
Tremors felt by residents of New Jersey Shore and Long Island today prompted speculation that an earthquake had occurred—but the US Geological Survey confirmed that the rumbling sensations were caused by a sonic boom. A sonic boom is a shock wave felt when something travels faster than the speed of sound. When asked what had caused the sonic boom, a USGS representative told Gizmodo, “We don’t know that for sure.” Advertisement Meanwhile, a local ABC affiliate is reporting that a military aircraft from the McGuire Air Force Base broke the sound barrier, causing the tremors. However, a spokesperson from New Jersey’s McGuire Air Force Base told Gizmodo that the base does not house aircraft capable of breaking the sound barrier. While the North American Aerospace Defense Command conducted a military drill in Florida yesterday, it denies involvement in today’s sonic boom. A NORAD spokesperson told Gizmodo that NORAD is not conducting any activity in the region today. The Department of Defense denied involvement as well, and suggested I call the FAA. Advertisement “The FAA is referring calls to the military,” an FAA spokesperson told me via email. What the fuck! Contrary to reports on Twitter, the New Jersey State Police denies that it informed troopers of military activity causing the boom. “That didn’t come from us,” a spokesperson told Gizmodo. Advertisement This isn’t the first time residents of New Jersey have experienced a sonic boom. In 2012, South Jersey experienced a sonic boom after a military exercise. If it was a military exercise and not a very poorly executed Cloverfield marketing campaign, it wouldn’t be the first time the military blasted US residents with sonic booms. Poor Oklahoma City experienced sonic booms eight times a day for six months in 1964 during an FAA test. Update 7:10pm: Tyler Rogoway from Jalopnik’s Foxtrot Alpha is reporting that this was likely a Navy F-35C. From Rogoway: The U.S. Navy has said the sonic boom was very likely caused by the F-35C, the Navy’s version of the Joint Strike Fighter, that was executing test maneuvers in the area today. The F-35C is currently flying test flights out of Navy’s premier test base, Naval Air Station Patuxent River, located in Maryland. Advertisement If that’s the case, I don’t know why the Department of Defense told me it wasn’t involved. Rude. Image: Wikipedia |
Rowan Williams says UK’s commitment to world’s poorest people is ‘something to be proud of, not a political football’ Rowan Williams, the former archbishop of Canterbury, has made a powerful defence of Britain’s aid budget, which he describes as a “badge of honour”, in an rare intervention during a general election campaign. As chair of Christian Aid, Williams issued a statement on Friday amid speculation that the Conservatives will drop an existing commitment, enshrined in law, to spend 0.7% of Britain’s gross national income on aid in the party’s election manifesto. British electors face a choice between “little Britain and global Britain”, the former archbishop said. “Britain’s political and social landscape is in flux, and we face great choices about the soul and future of our nation. We can choose to turn inwards and struggle more and more urgently to protect ourselves; or we can look outwards, recognising that our good is bound up with that of others,” he said. The UK’s commitment to “the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people is something to be proud of, not a political football”, he added. He acknowledged that the aid budget should not be above debate, and the effectiveness of direct aid should be scrutinised. But, he said: “We British are known for standing up for the underdog and standing firm when things get tough … Aid is not about creating dependence but helping people become valued partners and co-workers for a safe and equitable world. “And the continuing levels of public generosity from British people in response to successive emergency appeals shows how deeply rooted these impulses are in our national identity and our sense of responsibility to the wider world.” Referring to the election and Brexit negotiations, he said: “As we debate the future of our country, our relationship to the EU and our new relationship with the world, we should wear our aid budget as a badge of honour that sets a standard for others to follow.” Williams concluded by calling on the leaders of all parties to “hold firm on the promise we have made, and stand up for their belief in a bigger Britain”. The international development bill, passed two years ago, made Britain the first G7 country to meet the UN’s spending target, set in 1970. Since calling the election, Theresa May has dodged questions on whether her party’s manifesto will maintain the commitment. Labour believes May wants to cut the £12bn budget. Earlier this week, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates warned May that abandoning the pledge would reduce the country’s influence in the world and mean more lives lost in Africa. “The big aid givers now are the US, Britain and Germany – those are the three biggest and if those three back off, a lot of the ambitious things going on with malaria, agriculture and reproductive health simply would not get done,” the Microsoft founder said. Williams, who stepped down as archbishop of Canterbury four years ago, has criticised other government policies on moral and social justice grounds. In February, he called on the government to rethink its ending of the so-called Dubs Amendment, by which child refugees were given safe passage to Britain. Along with other faith leaders, he publicly opposed Brexit ahead of last year’s referendum, saying the EU was vital to preserving peace, fighting poverty and tackling the migration crisis. |
When working on the forthcoming Gilmore Girls revival, Lauren Graham had a serious case of nerves. And no, it wasn't from drinking too much coffee, keeping in character with her caffeine-addicted alter ego Lorelai Gilmore — in fact, it was the exact opposite. "I got to work one day and I was like, 'Am I drinking enough coffee?' " the actress recalled to reporters earlier this year. There was "incredible amounts of pressure. (Pause.) In a good way." The beloved drama's die-hard fan base will soon be able to weigh in on just how Graham & Co. did. Netflix will release all four 90-minute installments of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life on Nov. 25, more than nine years after the original series went off the air and 11 months after the long-rumored project officially got the green light. Although revivals for beloved TV franchises like The X-Files and Full House have become a popular trend in recent years, there was extra incentive for all involved to resurrect Gilmore Girls from the TV grave. The original series, centered on the extremely tight (and sometimes bizarre) bond between a young mother and her only daughter, premiered on The WB in 2000. It soon amassed a cult following thanks to its rapid-fire dialogue, pitch-perfect pop culture references and intriguing romances (Jess vs. Logan, Luke or Christopher?). However, series creator and showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband, executive producer Dan Palladino, abruptly departed the show at the end of season six. Under new leadership, season seven struggled creatively and viewership subsequently dipped. "The whole thing was odd," said Graham, who was a producer on the final season. "It just didn’t feel the same." Gilmore Girls was canceled in May 2007, after the season — now series — finale had already been shot. "So there was no closure to it, no party, no goodbye exactly, and so it always sort of felt like the musician stopped playing in mid-piece," she continued. "It wasn’t quite like saying goodbye and then saying hello again. It was like we never really said goodbye." The series lived on in repeats on ABC Family (now Freeform), but it was Gilmore Girls' debut on Netflix in October 2014 that drew a whole new wave of viewers to the series. The renewed interest came as reunion projects for series like Sex and the City and Arrested Development had become more common. "The conversation started immediately, really," Graham said. "We kept getting asked, kept getting asked and, I don't know, this just felt like the right way to do it. So I think both timing, the time that had passed and creatively, it felt like, kind of, it couldn’t have ended up better. I'd rather have done this than a feature film. We got to cover more ground." One big topic the revival will address is the absence of Richard Gilmore. Edward Herrmann, who had portrayed the family patriarch, died of brain cancer in December 2014, and the revival will subsequently show all three Gilmore women dealing with Richard's passing. "The show itself just feels a little more grown-up and with the loss of Ed, it had to be a little more emotional because we're all dealing with that," Graham said. Graham felt aptly prepared to dive into deeper territory on Gilmore Girls after spending the previous six seasons starring on another family drama, the Jason Katims tearjerker Parenthood, which wrapped a year before Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life went into production. "Parenthood was so different. The language was much looser, they didn’t mind if we improvised, it was so emotional," she said. "I had never really tapped into any of that, so I feel like all that, I brought here." Offscreen, Graham's life has also changed in the years since she left Stars Hollow. For one, she wrote her first book, 2013's Someday, Someday, Maybe, and is about to release her second, a memoir, Nov. 29. "Time is a real big teacher," Graham said. "But the fact that I was in a more stable place in my life, just relationship-wise. Back in Gilmore Girls, I was buying my first house…." That maturity is something that will be reflected onscreen, particularly now that the youngest Gilmore, Rory, is in her early 30s versus her early 20s. "I think, appropriately, they're doing their own thing a little bit more so when they come together, its still super gratifying," Graham said. "They aren’t maybe quite as attached because they don't need to be. I'm interested in her life but I maybe take a little bit more of a step back and yeah, I think we have slightly more separate journeys because she's older and doesn’t need me in the same way. It would be creepy if she did. (Laughs.)" Because of the renewed interest in the show in recent years thanks to both the series accessibility on Netflix and the show's 2015 reunion at the ATX Television Festival, Graham said the Gilmore Girls team felt more pressure working on the new episodes. "I went home one day and my boyfriend's an actor [Peter Krause] on another show [The Catch]. Some people he works with were super fans. They were like, 'She better say I smell snow!' I was like, 'Oh God,' because not only just the specificity but the anger behind it, like if you let us down," Graham said with a laugh. But for everything that's changed, Graham insists much will remain the same when viewers return to Stars Hollow. "It was like doing that same show but almost as if we'd been doing it every day for 10 years and then you pick us up here," Graham said. "How it might have changed and also, then just the perspective of, 'Thank you. Wow, we're doing something you already, some of you, are excited about.' You never do that in TV." Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life premieres Nov. 25 on Netflix. |
News in Science Carrots & Night Vision Parents have lots of tricks to get their kids to eat their vegies. One often-used persuasive tale is that if they don't eat their carrots, they'll go blind, or at the very least, not be able to see in the dark. The parents are telling a little white lie, but there is in this little fib, as there is in all good mythconceptions, a small seed of truth. Carrots came from around Afghanistan. They had reached the Greeks and the Romans before the birth of Christ, and by 1300 AD had reached northwestern Europe, India, Japan and China. In the Middle Age in Europe, they were used as a medicine to cure most maladies, including sexually transmitted diseases and snakebites. Carrots are involved in vision, thanks to their link to Vitamin A. You can get Vitamin A from some animal products (such as fish and liver), but not from vegies. However, many of the yellow vegetables and fruit are yellow because of coloured chemicals called "carotenes" - as are the feathers of canaries, and the shells of lobsters. Once you eat these yellow vegies, your liver converts the carotenes to a family of chemicals that go under the name of Vitamin A. If you don't have enough Vitamin A, you won't have healthy skin, a healthy immune system - and good vision. The Vitamin A travels in the blood to the retina (in the eye) where it is converted into a chemical called "retinal". When light hits this retinal chemical, it changes shape. This starts off a process, which ends with electricity travelling to the visual centres at the back of the brain - which turn the electricity into the wall-to-wall sensation that we call vision. No Vitamin A means no retinal in your retina, which means no electrical signals travelling to your visual centres. So, if you don't get enough carotenes or Vitamin A in your diet, eventually you will suffer problems in your vision. This was the basis of the myth started by the Royal Air Force, the RAF. In the Battle of Britain, in 1940, the British fighter pilot, John Cunningham, became the first person to shoot down an enemy plane with the help of radar. In fact, in WW II, he was the RAF's top-scoring night fighter pilot, with a total of 20 kills. Some pilots were better flying in daylight, while others, like Cunningham, were better at night. His nickname was "Cats' Eyes". The RAF put out the story in the British newspapers that he, and his fellow night pilots, owed their exceptional night vision to carrots. People believed this to the extent that they started growing and eating more carrots, so that they could better navigate at night during the blackouts that were compulsory during WW II. But this story was a myth invented by the RAF to hide their use of radar, which was what really located the Luftwaffe bombers at night - not human carrot-assisted super-vision. On one hand, not enough Vitamin A will make you unable to see at night. But lots of Vitamin A can be poisonous - and it definitely will not give you super-human vision at night. The device that told the RAF night fighter pilots where the incoming bombers would be was the invention called "radar" (from RAdio Detection And Ranging). In a radar unit, an antenna sends out a brief burst of radio waves (say with a peak power of one million watts), then stops transmitting. It switches off, and then listens for the very weak echo, as some of the radio waves bounce off the metal skin of the plane and return to the antenna. They can be as weak as one millionth of a watt. The time interval between the transmitted and received signals gives the distance to the plane. At the beginning of WW II, France, the UK, the USA, the Soviet Union, Italy, Japan and Germany each had explored and researched radar - but only the UK had developed a fully-functioning network. This network was called "Chain Home", and operated 24 hours per day from September 1938 until the end of the war. But why did the German Air Force see pass the obvious radar towers on the English coast, and fall for this blatant "carrot-super-vision" myth? Because this myth, that carrots would make their eyes better, already existed in German folklore. ^ to top |
The motion of fluid flow has captured the interest of philosophers and scientists for a long time. Leonardo da Vinci made several sketches of the motion of fluid and made a number of observations about how water and air behave. He often observed that water had a swirling motion, sometimes big and sometimes small, as shown in the sketch below. We would now call such swirling motions vortices, and we have a systematic way of understanding the behavior of fluids through the Navier–Stokes equations. Let’s first start with understanding these equations. We have all seen special effects and visualizations of fluids in movies. The special effects are meant to give the viewer a realistic look at the motion of water or air. Since the focus in movies is on aesthetics, the flow may not be accurate. So, how does one go about writing code that will simulate fluid flow? In general, the answer is quite complicated, but with a few assumptions can be made more tractable. Assuming that the simulation will take place under normal conditions, that is, at a reasonable temperature and at sea level, the equations that govern the motion of a fluid are: These represent a time-dependent system of partial differential equations (or PDEs, for short) that can be solved with appropriate boundary conditions. u (m/s) , v (m/s), and w (m/s) represent the different components of the velocity; p (N/m2) represents the pressure; ν (m2/s) is the viscosity of the fluid; and ρ (kg/m3) is the density of the fluid. Fluids obeying this system of PDEs are called incompressible fluids. Solving the above system in general is difficult. Many people might decide at this point that the problem is much too complicated, and they don’t have the time or expertise to write specialized code to do this. This may have been true in the past, but with Mathematica, the simulation can be done using a number of built-in functions and visualization in a couple of lines. In this blog post, we”ll look at some techniques to help in simulating fluid flow and we’ll visualize the motion of the flow. Even though the problem seems intimidating, a lot of information can be gathered by just looking at the system. Let’s use an understandable example. Consider a square box where the top lid is allowed to move in the horizontal plane. When the top lid is not moving, the air (or fluid) inside is stationary. However, when the lid starts moving, the motion of the lid makes the fluid circulate inside the box. Now, even without understanding how the flow will move, we can make a qualitative guess about what might be happening inside the box. Here is a sketch of that. The top lid drags the fluid below it, which generates a swirling motion. This initial swirling motion can instigate its own swirling motion, like a big gear turning smaller gears. For the flow in a box, the Navier–Stokes equations can be simplified. First, we assume that the flow is not changing in time, and second, that it is not changing in the z direction. This simplifies the equations to: This leads to three unknowns and three equations. If the velocities, pressure, and coordinates are non-dimensionalized as where a characteristic velocity U 0 (m/s) and a characteristic length L (m) are used, the equations become where Re is called the Reynolds number and is defined as As it turns out, the behavior of a flow can be described, to a large extent, by just this one number. The non-dimensionalization helps generalize the problem. So now the box can be made as large or as small as desired, and the top lid can be made to move fast or slow simply by changing the Reynolds number. This number can also be used to describe whether the fluid inside the box is water, air, or any other substance of your choice. The Reynolds number is a very useful quantity in the field of fluid mechanics. This number can also be used to compare and characterize different flows. What does this mean? Suppose an engineer wanted to test the performance of a Boeing 747. It would be highly impractical (not to mention expensive) to run tests on the real airplane. The engineer can instead perform the tests on a model airplane with the Reynolds number of the model and the actual plane kept the same. This is the basis on which all wind-tunnel experiments are performed. Now, back to the problem at hand. How can one solve the above system? As of now, there are no known analytical solutions, so the only choice is to obtain a solution using numerical methods. The challenge in obtaining a numerical solution is to figure out the treatment of the derivatives. The general idea/algorithm is as follows: 1) Take the domain and discretize it. This means that the solution u(x) is computed at discrete points x i , and the solution is to be found at u(x i ). 2) The derivatives are expressed as some linear combination of u(x i ). 3) The final system is changed from a system of differential equations to a system of algebraic equations for u(x i ). These can be solved using one of many root finding algorithms. Let’s follow the algorithm outlined above. The first step is to discretize the domain. This means that we have to define a set of grid points on which the solution will be found. This is done as: At each of these grid points, the velocities u(x i , y i ) and v(x i , y i ) and pressure p(x i , y i ) have to be computed. This means that each point contains three unknowns. We can give each unknown a name. The second step in the algorithm is to find an approximation to the derivatives. The derivatives need to be approximated as: This form of approximation is called finite difference approximation. The coefficients can be computed using the traditional Taylor series. NDSolve has a utility function called NDSolve`FiniteDifferenceDerivative that automatically computes these coefficients. Here is an example: The function NDSolve`FiniteDifferenceDerivative can also be used to get the result in a matrix form. Having a matrix representation would make it easier to code. As an example, let’s get the first-order derivative for Sin(x) where x ∈(0,1). So, with the help of NDSolve`FiniteDifferenceDerivative , the system of PDEs describing the flow can be converted to a system of nonlinear algebraic equations. For discretization, we need the differentiation matrices for the first and second derivatives in x and y. The accuracy of the finite difference approximation can be specified by the option “ DifferenceOrder “. A value of 4 would mean that the approximation is 4th-order accurate. With the variables defined and the matrices computed, the nonlinear algebraic equations are constructed as: Notice that the Reynolds number is taken to be 100 (this can, of course, be changed). There is one additional step (which turns out to be an important step) to account for the boundary conditions. To do this, we need to find the grid points that lie on the boundary AND the equation numbers associated with them. This can done as: Now that the boundary positions are known, the following boundary conditions need to be applied: Since the equation numbers associated with the boundaries are known, incorporating the boundary conditions involves a replacement of the discretized governing equations with the boundary equations. With the discretization complete, we can proceed to solving the system. To do this, all the discretized equations should be joined into one large system of equations. This means that the final system to be solved will be 3n where n is the number of grid points. The 3 comes from the fact that we are solving three unknown variables at each grid point. So for a 100 x 100 grid, we will simultaneously solve 30,000 equations. The function FindRoot can be used to solve this system. Remember that the velocities are computed at discrete points. Using the function Interpolation , the discrete solution can be converted into a black-box continuous function. We can visualize the interpolation using LineIntegralConvolutionPlot , which generates very attractive flow visualizations. > We can construct a number of helper/utility functions in order to put the code in a reusable form. With the help of the utility functions, the main solver function is relatively compact. The main solver function now consists of five parts. The functions of each of these parts are described as comments. Note that the main solver function “ DrivenCavitySolver ” takes in four arguments. These arguments are: Reynolds number, the domain, grid points in each direction, and the differentiation order. Having it in this form makes it easy to play with code. For example, the aspect ratio of the box can be changed to make it narrow or wide, and we can see what happens to the flow as a result of that change. With the function now in hand, a number of interesting questions can be answered and different tests can be performed. The most obvious question that one can ask is: “What happens to the flow when the Reynolds number is increased?” Here are some results that easily answer this question through simulation and visualization. Comparing the four flows, the common characteristic is a large central vortex dominating the flow. The differences between the four flows are seen in the secondary vortices. As the Reynolds number increases, the bottom-left vortex starts increasing in size, and eventually, when the Reynolds number is high enough, a third vortex starts forming at the top-left of the box (look at the fourth plot). We can therefore suspect the presence of more vortices as the Reynolds number is increased. What we are viewing is a steady-state flow, which means that the flow does not change from one point in time to the next. This doesn’t mean that the flow is not moving! To visualize the actual motion of the flow, the box can be seeded with mass-less particles, and the particles are tracked in time as they are carried by the flow. This again can be done very easily using NDSolve . The first step is to generate a flow. Let’s choose the flow at Reynolds number 2,000. This simulation will take a couple of minutes. The box is seeded with 400 particles equally spaced throughout the box. The results of tracking the trajectories of each of these particles are called pathlines. Using NDSolve , each individual particle can be tracked as it is carried by the flow. Let’s select a time window of 10 time-units to see how the particles move during that time period. The evolution of the particles can now be visualized using the function ListAnimate . To view the full content of this page, please enable JavaScript in your browser. Another idea for visualization is to release a continuous stream of dye at one location in space for a short period of time. The location can be determined by the experimenter. We will choose the location to be near the bottom-right of the box. A simple modification to the equations can achieve this effect. To view the full content of this page, please enable JavaScript in your browser. Let’s experiment a little bit more. What happens when the aspect ratio is changed? If the aspect ratio is 2, then the movement of the primary vortex generates a second major vortex below it. As the strength of the primary vortex increases, it will tend to push the secondary vortex toward the left wall. Notice that if there is enough strength in this secondary vortex, it will generate its own vortex—the vortex at the bottom-left of the box. What if the box is now made wide instead of narrow? If you were to google “2D Navier Stokes Solver,” you would find hundreds if not thousands of papers and many algorithms. This can be overwhelming. My motivation for writing this short code was to see what results (if any) I could get if I were to take the raw equations and just solve them. With all the functions that Mathematica has to offer, and with a little numerical knowledge, I was able to get a prototype working pretty quickly. More importantly, Mathematica allowed me to explore the dynamics of the flow rather than sitting and coding for hours. I will be the first to admit that it is not optimal code, and many more features can be added to it. However, the ability to get something up and running quickly was empowering. Download this post as a Computable Document Format (CDF) file. |
Central Florida head coach and acting athletic director George O'Leary. (Photo: Nelson Chenault, USA TODAY Sports) Central Florida coach George O’Leary, who was named the school’s interim athletics director in June, has expressed a strong desire to assume the position full time and step down as football coach at the end of this season, according to two people who have communicated directly with school officials about the situation. The people spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because the matter was supposed to be private. The school was prepared to go through a standard national search for its next athletics director after Todd Stansbury departed for Oregon State earlier this year. Plans changed, however, once O’Leary approached school President John Hitt and other power brokers at UCF with the transition idea. Now the process is on hold as school officials consider the possibility. Hitt is fiercely loyal to O’Leary, who has built UCF into one of the better football programs outside of a Power 5 conference and led the Knights to a 12-1 season in 2013 including a victory in the Fiesta Bowl. However, there is significant concern among others at UCF about whether the 69-year old O’Leary, who has no prior experience in athletic administration and has been coaching in either college or the NFL since 1980, is up to the job, particularly with Stansbury and a handful of other senior-level staff members departing in recent weeks, leaving the department short-handed and somewhat in disarray. “No one (on ground level) tracking with the president on this,” one person said. This would potentially be a bad time for UCF to have its athletic department in chaos, particularly if the Big 12 decides to expand. Because of its location and large alumni base, UCF is part of a group of teams that constantly comes up in conference realignment speculation. O’Leary’s tenure has not been without controversy. The University of Central Florida Athletic Association was found negligent by a jury in the death of UCF football player Ereck Plancher, who collapsed and died following a conditioning drill supervised by coaches in 2008. The original damages of $10 million were reduced to $200,000 by a Florida Supreme Court earlier this year. If O’Leary were to become the athletics director, both people with knowledge of the situation said his plan would be to promote offensive coordinator Brent Key to head football coach. Key played under O’Leary at Georgia Tech and has been at UCF as an assistant since 2005. The Knights open the season Thursday against Florida International. O’Leary was not made immediately available for comment by a UCF spokesperson. |
One of the world's longest high-speed railways has started operating in China, linking the country's prosperous eastern coast to the less-developed southwest, the state Xinhua news agency has reported. Just how many tunnels does China's #Shanghai-#Kunming high speed rail run through? Watch footage taken along part of the route pic.twitter.com/Dma3iKaKmH — People's Daily,China (@PDChina) December 28, 2016 The 2,264-kilometer Shanghai-Kunming rail line runs across the five provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan. It cuts the travel time from Shanghai to the capital of Southwest China's Yunnan province Kunming from 34 to 11 hours. The #Shanghai-#Kunming high-speed railway, the longest east-west high-speed railway in China, starts operation on Wednesday pic.twitter.com/B3Mi1BZuL1 — China Xinhua News (@XHNews) December 28, 2016 According to train driver Wang Jinda, the trains can travel at speeds up to 330 kilometers per hour. In 2012, China started operating another high-speed link, the 2,298-km Beijing-Guangzhou line which stretches north to south. READ MORE: China to build 'world’s largest' high-speed railway station under Great Wall The country has more than 20,000 km of high-speed rail lines and expects to more than double that to 45,000 km by 2030. 570 meters above valley! World’s highest bridge in SW China's Guizhou ready to open for #Shanghai–Kunming High-Speed Railway pic.twitter.com/PWNrLXPWc1 — People's Daily,China (@PDChina) December 23, 2016 Beijing is also actively developing its own high-speed train technology. In the summer it set a new speed record with a train reaching 840 km per hour on a test run. Two trains were tested at the same time to prove the quality of Chinese technology. The trains, known as Golden Phoenix and Dolphin Blue zipped past each other with only 1.6 meters of space between them. China tests two 420 kmph bullet trains at once https://t.co/5WZs2R6xxtpic.twitter.com/ZROdGU6blC — RT (@RT_com) July 15, 2016 China recently unveiled plans to build the world’s deepest and largest high-speed railway station as part of its preparations for hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics. The station will be constructed directly underneath Badaling – the most-visited section of the Great Wall of China, which attracts tens of thousands of visitors a day. The three-floor underground station will be located along the railway which is currently being built to connect the cities of Beijing and Zhangjiakou. The track will stretch 174km and is expected to be finished by 2019. READ MORE: China to build 400km/h train for Russia's high-speed railway China is also developing a new generation of trains capable of reaching speeds of 400 kilometers per hour for Russia's Moscow-Kazan high-speed railway. Beijing plans to provide a $6 billion loan for the route which in future may become a part of a $100 billion high-speed railway connecting the two countries. WATCH MORE: |
There are several major exceptions in the assignment of numbers in the six digit numbering system. In the 1960s, there were a block of six-digit numbers beginning with 00 that were assigned to an antisubmarine drone helicopter known as QH-50C and QH-50D. The reason for this odd system seems to have been lost in history. Another major exception is a set of non-sequential numbers beginning with 198003 and ranging up to 999794. These numbers were usually assigned to aircraft that came to the Navy from the Air Force, the Army, or even from foreign organizations. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to these assignments--in many cases they were derived by modifying the Air Force aircraft numbering system. In other cases, they were constructed out of manufacturer's construction numbers. For example, the Marine Corps F-21As that were leased from Israel in 1987 for dissimilar air combat training were given bureau numbers derived from the aircraft's three-digit construction number prefixed by 999. The US Air Force has an entirely different serial numbering scheme, based on aircraft procurements within each fiscal year. Occasionally, aircraft are transferred from the USAF to the Navy. If the transfer is anticipated to be permanent, it is usually the case that the transferred aircraft are given brand new Navy bureau numbers. However, if the transfer is anticipated to be only temporary, the original USAF serial numbers are often retained in Navy service, but sometimes it happens that aircraft loaned to the Navy are assigned brand-new bureau numbers. Unfortunately, the system is not always consistent. Not every assigned bureau number necessarily indicates an actual aircraft in Navy service, because program cancellations often took place before actual delivery. In the pre-war years, assigned bureau numbers that were cancelled before delivery were not reassigned, although this was quite often done with late World War II numbers. There are occasional situations in which a bureau number batch was successively allocated to two or even three separate aircraft orders, only to have them all cancelled before delivery. A Bureau Number is assigned to an aircraft when it is initially ordered, not when it is actually delivered to the Navy. The total number of serial numbers assigned (by now over 165000) does not reflect the actual number of aircraft delivered, because of large-scale contract cancellations at the end of World War II and other program changes in recent years. In 1940, so many aircraft were being ordered as a result of President Franklin Roosevelt's rearmament program that it was found necessary to terminate the second series at 7303 in order to avoid confusion with aircraft having late numbers in the original series that were still in service. A third (and final) series of Bureau Numbers was started with 00001 (using 5 digits from the beginning). When the third series reached 99999 in 1945, it was allowed to continue into six digits. This series of numbers continues in the present day. It has now reached over 165000. In May of 1917, at the time of US entry into WW 1, this was changed to a sequential numerical list, irrespective of type. For some reason, the number 51 was taken as a convenient starting point. The old prefix letters were retained for a short time, but no longer had any relationship to the serial numbers. On May 19, 1917, the prefix letters were officially abandoned and replaced by the single letter A for Aeroplane. These numbers were initially termed "building numbers", but were later termed "designating numbers". In later years, they came to be known as Bureau Numbers (BuNos), since they were assigned by the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics after that organization was established in 1921. The A-prefix was deleted from the numbers at the end of Fiscal Year 1930 (after OJ2, A-9204). In March of 1914, this manufacturer-based designation system was abandoned and was replaced by a two-letter type and subtype classification scheme. The first letter was the type or class--A stood for Heavier Than Air, B for Free Balloon, C for Dirigible, and D for Kite Balloon. A second letter was used to designate the subtype--for example AH was a hydro airplane, AB was a flying boat, and AX was an amphibian. All of the surviving aircraft acquired under the original scheme were redesignated and reserialed. A separate sequence of serials was assigned to each type/subtype classification. The system had to be quickly adapted to accommodate different types of airplanes obtained from the same manufacturer--Curtiss had to be given another letter, C, to distinguish its flying boats from its pontoon seaplanes, the letter D was assigned to Burgess and Curtis (no relation), and E was assigned to Curtiss amphibians. The United States Navy acquired its first aircraft in 1911, a Curtiss Triad pusher floatplane. Originally, the US Navy assigned serial numbers to its airplanes sequentially by manufacturer, a separate sequence of numbers for each manufacturer. The serial number had two parts. The first part was a letter which designated the manufacturer-- A for Curtiss, B for Wright, etc. The letter was followed by a number to show the sequence of procurement from each manufacturer. For example, the first Curtiss-built Navy airplane was serialed A-1, the second A-2, etc. In the Navy, these Block Letters or Numbers were affixed to the Bureau Number rather than being attached to the official designation as was the practice in the USAF. However, unlike in the USAF, the Block Letter or Number was most often used strictly on official records and was very rarely painted on the aircraft itself. When the Block Letters or Numbers do appear on the aircraft, they usually appear as a suffix to the the full six-figure BuNo that appears either on the rear fuselage or fin, with the letter or number appearing in smaller characters than the BuNo itself. In addition to Block Numbers. the Navy also often used Block Letters to denote different production standards. although these don't seem to be related to any USAF-style designation. . There were various letter styles and combination of letters that were used. The differing styles appear to have no particular significance and probably existed because of the lack of any firm USN directive on the subject. Sometimes the sequence started with the letter 'A' or 'a", with the first change in production standard being denoted by 'B', then 'C', etc, until 'Z' was reached. If letters beyond 'Z' were required, it sometimes happened that the letters are started over from 'A', but on other occasions the next change was denoted by 'AA' to 'ZZ' . In order to avoid confusion with the number zero, the letter 'O' is skipped. Block Numbers normally progressed in increments of 5 starting with -1, then -5, -10 and so on. Intermediate numbers were reserved to denote field modifications carried out after the aircraft's delivery, although the use of these seems to be exclusive to the USAF, and there is no known record of any USN aircraft having such intermediate numbers. Exceptions to the 'plus 5' rule of progression were fairly frequent, the prime examples being the McDonnell Banshee, Demon, and Phantom and the LTV Corsair II, whose Block Numbers progressed in single increments -1. -2, -3 and so on. In the immediate postwar years, like the USAF, the US Navy/Marine Corps often used a production block system to keep track of minor production line changes that were not deemed sufficiently drastic as to call for a new aircraft configuration sequence number. This system continued after the adoption of the unified designation system in 1962. Just like the Air Force, the Navy/Marine Corps did not use production block designations for all of their aircraft, and there was considerable variation in the systems used from one aircraft type to another. In the immediate postwar years, a scheme was adopted in which the designation and the BuNo of the aircraft were painted in very small letters on the rear fuselage. Since this number is seldom readily visible at any distance on most Navy and Marine Corps aircraft, the last four numbers of the BuNo were often painted in large characters on the fuselage sides or on the vertical tail, but there were occasions in which the entire BuNo was replicated. This number became known as the modex. There is some controversy as to the origin of the name "modex". One possibility seems to be as follows. When naval aircraft fly in their own controlled areas, they are identified by their "Call Sign" -Nutgrass 122, Tigertail 012, Black Eagle 601, Lima Whiskey 05, etc. However, in civilian-controlled airspace these call signs mean little and don't meet Air Traffic Control Standards. So, instead, these naval aircraft are identified by NAVY (or MARINE) and the last four digits of the BuNo. Also the transponder identifies (or "Squawks) the aircraft on the Radar screen the same way. Since there are various "Modes" that the Air Traffic Control System uses, we get the name MODEX, plus the last four digits of the BuNo. In addition, most Navy and Marine Corps aircraft are identified in squadron service and for maintenance purposes by something known as a side number or side letter. The side number is painted on the nose of each aircraft. I am not sure how the side numbers are derived--I have seen one-digit, two-digit, and three-digit displays, but never more than three. The side number sometimes consists of the last three digits of the BuNo, but on other occasions it has nothing to do with the BuNo--each Wing seems to have its own set of numbers and numbering schemes, and their is considerable variation in side number format from one aircraft type to another. In addition, there is a color coding scheme associated with the numbers. According to one of my sources, the digits in the side numbers beyond the first one are in octal format (the digits going from 1 to 7, then from 10 to 17, 20 to 27, etc), with digits 8 or 9 never being used. This was supposedly done because maintenance actions were originally recorded on punched cards and had to be processed through IBM electronic accounting machines and computers which could only handle octal numbers. Curiously, the side numbers remain in octal format to this day even though computer systems have since been upgraded many times. However, I have seen side numbers beyond the first digit that do indeed have an 8 or a 9, so this restriction must not have been universal. Another possible explanation for the origin of the octal side-number system is the nature of the early IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) systems. With the arrival of the Navy's E-2A airborne early warning aircraft, the side numbers changed from base-10 to base-8 numbering (e.g 500, 501, 502,..., 507, 510, 511, etc). The E-2As automatic tracking system required such a change, since its computers could only deal with base-8 numbrs. IFF is used by controllers for 'positive control'. There are several modes: two entered by the pilot at the direction of the controller, one for squawking altitude, and one reserved for military use. Early transponders were set by positioning toggle swithces ON or OFF, with there being four columns of 3 switches for a 4096 code or two columns of three for a 64-code. 4096 is the number of different four-digit numbers that can be created without using an 8 or a 9 and including 0000 which should never be used by airplane transponders. In such a scheme, there are 12 binary swiches. IFF can only handle three binary places, thus 8's and 9's are not used. IFF systems at that time (and I think they still do) used the octal system and the highest "squawk" in mode 2 was 7777, mode 1 and 3 was 77. Hence the appearance of octal numbering system on aircraft. There are no doubt a few reasons why octal rather than decimal is used, for one thing it accurately reflects the underlying "bit-oriented" nature of the codes. If decimals were used then for mode "A" (civilian, "3" military) only numbers ranging from 0 through 4096 would be useable, probably harder to understand than the ability to use any 4-digit number (0000-7777). Also, a previous military mode (mode "1") only allowed 6 bit codes (00-77), upward compatilbility is simplified if considered to be a doubling of the number of digits than if it were a case of suddenly being allowed to use numbers in the range 64 to 4096. The latest addition to radar technology, Mode-S, expands the squawk codes from 12 bits to 24 bits thus making it possible to permanently assign codes to individual aircraft without duplication. However, despite being a recent invention these codes are still represented using octal (as 8 digits) or hex (as 6 digits/letters). The following is the side number scheme for carrier air wings. Generally, the first digit identifies the type of aircraft, and the remaining 2 digits represent the individual aircraft within a particular wing. Carrier-based fighter squadrons typically have three-digit side numbers 1XX or 2XX (both sets of numbers are used if there are two fighter squadrons in the carrier wing). Numbers beginning with 1 are colored red and those beginning with 2 are colored yellow. Usually, the squadron CO's plane is numbered 101 or 201, the executive officer's plane 102 or 202, and subsequent planes numbered in order of pilot seniority. Sometimes, 100 or 200 is used to represent the CAG's (Commander of Air Group) plane, if there is one. I even have heard of a side number of 000, which was supposedly applied to the Admiral's plane. Light attack aircraft have numbers begin with 3 (light green) or 4 (medium blue). Heavy attack aircraft have numbers beginning with 5 which are colored dark green. Fixed wing aircraft belonging to VAW squadrons have numbers 60X that are painted maroon, although they are fairly rarely used. VAQ squadrons used numbers 61X which were painted dark blue in color, but this was changed a few years ago to 5XX, usually starting at 500. The color is usually black, with the exception of CAG aircraft which can be almost any color. VS squadrons use numbers 62X and 63X, with a light blue or dark red color, but S-3 squadrons also used side numbers 70X or 71X with a solid black color. Helicopter squadrons use numbers 70X or 71X, with a green color. Some sources say that 3xx, 8xx, and 9xx are reserved for Fleet Replenishment Groups (RAGs), but this seems not always to have been the case, since at least one A-7 light attach squadron used 3xx. For example, all F-14 squadron carried either 1XX (and also 2XX if there are 2 F-14 squadrons in one air wing). The XX begins at 01 and increases from there. In some cases, the last 2 digits of this number are also painted on the tail and wings of each aircraft, as well as on the upper trailing edges of the flaps. This helps flight deck personnel on aircraft carriers in identifying different planes on the deck, especially when they are packed close together. Marine aircraft normally use two-digit side numbers unless they are assigned to a carrier, in which case they adopt a three-digit code as listed above. However, when they are assigned to amphibious assault ships they still use a two-digit scheme. Land-based Navy aircraft also use side numbers, but these are usually the last three digits of the BuNo. Less predictable were the side numbers assigned to Test Center, Air Station, and ship aircraft. However, ship aircraft usually have side numbers that are the ship's hull number. For example, when the carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) had a C-1 assigned to it, the aircraft had "67" as the side number. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has any additions or corrections to these modex and side numbers. |
When discussing religion, I find it interesting how even the most thoughtful and carefully-argued apologetic eventually comes down to simple, blind faith. However many clever arguments and justifications the believer puts forward, sooner or later there comes a point where those arguments have to be reasoned from first principles, and the first step, the basis of all subsequent beliefs, is reached from reasoning which more or less amounts to “just because”. There’s not necessarily anything wrong with that – ultimately, we all have to begin with unprovable axioms, even if they’re almost universally agreed, or appear self-evident. For example, I believe that the laws of physics are consistent throughout space and time, that other people really exist and aren’t figments of my imagination, and that the universe didn’t spring into existence last night, with the whole of history and everyone’s memories created at the same time. They all seem like pretty reasonable conclusions to me, but even so, there’s no way of proving them. So I don’t have any problem with unprovable axioms (except that they’re a frustrating roadblock if you’re interested in watertight logic), but I think – even though I can’t prove it – that they make more sense in some situations than others. What prompted me to write this post is a discussion about the problem of suffering. It all followed the usual pattern, with back and forth between some people pointing to examples of suffering and other people trying to find reasons why an omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent deity might allow them to happen, and lots of debate about the logical consistency of the various arguments. Eventually, the apologetic argument generally came down to a belief that there must be a reason, even if it wasn’t obvious what that was, because God wouldn’t allow it otherwise. It struck me that this is very similar to when Christians try to justify genocide in the Bible. Most people, if faced with evidence that God allowed or – worse – ordered vile acts like this, would conclude that either the evidence was wrong or God is a monster. But there are some who attempt to redefine their terms – if God does it, it’s clearly not so bad, or it is bad if we do it but the rules don’t apply to Him, or even that His victims were asking for it – not an argument with a particularly distinguished history, regardless of its merits in this case. Similarly, Christians generally end up acknowledging that there is suffering, but rather than amending their speculative, unprovable view of God (i.e. that He’s omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent) they suggest that He must have a reason for allowing suffering, even if we can’t know it. To me, this looks uncannily like Stockholm Syndrome. However unpleasant or abusive God must be if their beliefs are correct, and however responsible He is for their current suffering, they still want to justify His actions and excuse His crimes. They believe He could stop all their suffering, they know He doesn’t, but nevertheless, He must be a nice guy and have His reasons. Alternatively, why not try Battered person syndrome on for size, to explain why Christians continue to worship a God who, if He exists and has anything like the power they believe, looks very much like a serial abuser. Have a look at these common beliefs and attitudes: Additionally, repeated cycles of violence and reconciliation can result in the following beliefs and attitudes: The abused believes that the violence was his or her fault. The abused has an inability to place the responsibility for the violence elsewhere. The abused fears for his/her life and/or the lives of his/her children (if present). The abused has an irrational belief that the abuser is omnipresent and omniscient. With very minor changes, that looks to me like a perfect description of Christian belief: We’re all sinners, which is why there’s suffering in the world. God can’t force unregenerate sinners to change, or to love Him. If we don’t do the right things and plead with the abuser, He’ll condemn us to hell not just in this life, but for all eternity. And point 4 speaks for itself. Maybe atheists should be setting up shelters for battered believers. Advertisements |
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With all the noise this game keeps making, I’m sure you have wondered if Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds for Mac will ever happen. The game just smashed Steam’s peak user record of all time with over 1.34 million simultaneous users (the previous record belonged to Dota 2 with 1.29 million concurrent players) and I can’t help but wonder: Why can’t I get in on the fun? After all, Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds(or PUGB, in short) was created using the Unreal Engine 4, an engine others have used to support the Mac platform. So why not support macOS too? It could so easily become one of the best FPS games for MacOS… These questions are usually left unanswered, but this time Brendan Green, the game’s creator himself, answered. Too bad it wasn’t what we wanted to hear… In an interview during this year’s Gamescom, when asked if there would be a Linux version, this is what he had to say (translated using Google Chrome): There’s just not enough Linux players. The same is true for Mac. We just do not have enough resources at the moment. Is not on the roadmap. I’m sorry. And so it seems we will miss out on the hottest game of the year. But could PUBG for Mac eventually happen? I usually don’t even write about games that maybe someday could make it to our platform of choice. I don’t like clickbait articles and I don’t want to waste your time. When a developer doesn’t even take the time to acknowledge it and reply to related questions, it usually means they don’t even care and will most likely never support it. This time it’s different. It’s great when developers take the time to at least acknowledge that other platforms exist. Brendan Green himself did, and in spite of giving an answer we didn’t want to hear, there will be no more uncertainty surrounding it… Where does that leave us? It definitely sucks to miss on all the action, but instead of complaining because they won’t take my money, I suggest you check Fortnite Battle Royale instead. It’s not only the most popular game of the year by far, it’s also a generous free-to-play game that isn’t pay-to-win and officially supports MacOS. In fact, we tested the game on more than two dozen machines to help you figure out if you can run Fortnite on Mac. The answer? You probably can and you should. |
For the first time in the country’s history, Chilean voters elect an openly gay councilman, and in the same municipal elections re-elect a trans council member for a third term Jaime Parada has made history by becoming the first openly gay man elected to Chilean municipal government. Parada was elected as councilman to Providencia, a commune in Chile’s capital city Santiago, with nearly 6% of total votes. Parada told Gay Star News: ‘This election was symbolic. Chile’s focus was on Providencia, one of the country’s most conservative municipalities.’ The gay councilman is already active in the fight for LGBT rights as the spokesman for Chile’s Movilh (Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation), one of the nation’s leading sexual rights groups. Parada said: ‘My campaign used a sexual diversity discourse to challenge the mayor of Providencia Cristián Labbé, a recognized homophobe. This generated a lot of attention from voters.’ Cristián Labbé, a colonel who served under Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship, was not re-elected as Providencia’s mayor. According to Parada: ‘Left-leaning and centrist forces came together to defeat the former dictator sympathizer who served as mayor for 16 years.’ ‘My victory is interesting in the third-wealthiest municipality in Chile, because it symbolizes a change in areas that are typically reticent to change.’ In the same municipal elections, Chilean voters also elected two transgender council members to office. Transgender councilmember Alejandra Gonzalez was re-elected for her third term in Lampa, also in the Santiago Metropolitan Region, and councilmember Zuliana Araya won her bid as councilmember for the coastal province of Valparaiso. Araya dedicated her victory to homophobic government officials, specifically naming politician Ignacio Urrutia who pushed for the exclusion of homosexuals from serving in the armed forces. |
BULLARD, Texas — Investigators say a 10-year-old East Texas girl reported missing from church has been found dead in a water well and a relative was held as the lone suspect in the slaying. Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith says firefighters Sunday recovered the body of Kayla Gomez-Orozco of Tyler from a well beside a home near Bullard. Gustavo Zavala-Garcia CBS DFW Authorities say Gustavo Zavala-Garcia is the only suspect in the 10-year-old’s death. The Dallas Morning News reports that Zavala-Garcia is Kayla’s uncle. Smith says the suspect has been jailed without bond on a federal immigration hold. Kayla was last seen Tuesday night at a church in Bullard, 100 miles southeast of Dallas. Smith says the investigation led to the relative’s home several miles away. The body was located Saturday. The Amber Alert for the missing 10-year-old was discontinued Saturday evening after the discovery of the body. FBI agents had recently called for the public’s assistance in the search efforts and even offered a $60,000 reward for her return. Smith declined to release a cause of death or a possible motive, pending charges. |
(CNN) In the past week I have seen flowers and candles carpeting a street in Munich , the tranquility of a small Bavarian town shattered by a suicide bomb and a small church in suburban France sealed off after its octogenarian priest had his throat cut . Before these horrific events, there was a knife-wielding teenager on a German train . And before that, much deadlier attacks in Nice Brussels and last November, in Paris. This year has seen an accelerating pattern of attacks linked to ISIS in Europe and beyond -- from Turkey to Bangladesh , the United States to Indonesia. According to the group IntelCenter, which tracks acts of terrorism, there has been a significant attack directed or inspired by ISIS every 84 hours since June 8 in cities outside the war zones in Iraq, Syria, Sinai in Egypt and Libya. CNN's own tracking of attacks supports that conclusion. More than half of those attacks have been beyond big cities in places "not traditionally under threat of terrorist attacks," says IntelCenter. This rash of random, low-tech but deadly attacks has fueled public unease in Europe and eroded faith in governments to tackle the threat of terrorism or discern who might turn to violence. It has also diminished trust in justice systems accused of leaving too many dangerous people at large. Despite twice trying to go to Syria, Adel Kermiche -- one of the 19-year-old attackers who killed the priest in France -- was released from custody and allowed out of his home for four hours a day. Despite repeated efforts to deport him, the Ansbach bomber -- Daleel Mohammad -- was still in Germany. In my week-long journey across Northern Europe, that public unease was never far from the surface. Callers to German radio stations said they were apprehensive of visiting a mall. A shaken teacher who knew one of the attackers in France told CNN: "I never thought for a day in my life that a young person would commit a terrorist act here in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray." In Ansbach, a picturesque town in Bavaria, stunned locals drifted past the scene of the suicide bombing at a café, where abandoned drinks and playing cards bore silent witness to the moment of terror the night before. These attacks have also prompted fundamental social questions. Respect for openness, liberal democracy and due process are being eaten away by a toxic mixture of extremism and psychosis. Fear breeds civic distrust Intelligence analysts Flashpoint Partners say there is "more coordination between potential lone actors or small unofficial cells with jihadi media -- a way to guarantee that their message is disseminated and to prove their allegiance to ISIS without necessarily joining its ranks." The consistent public message from ISIS over the past year or so has been: "Don't come to Syria; kill the unbelievers at home." These attacks, and the expectation of more, have fed not only the mood of growing anxiety. They have become part of a combustible political debate. I witnessed this in its rawest form at the site of the Munich killings. A young relative of one of the Turkish victims called out "Allahu Akhbar" in prayer, which was met by a torrent of abuse from some right-wingers present, provoking the Turks to yell "Your sisters will be next." Police moved in swiftly to keep the two groups apart. In a poll after the attack in Nice, more than two-thirds of the French people questioned said they did not trust the government to combat terrorism effectively, a sharp increase over the previous year. Prime Minister Manuel Valls was booed by some of the crowd when he attended a memorial service for the victims. JUST WATCHED French resort town reels from terror attack Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH French resort town reels from terror attack 01:36 "The government will have to answer the question: how flagged individuals, including one under judiciary control for attempting to wage jihad in Syria, were let free to commit such attacks?" asked former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, widely thought to be eying another bid for the top job next year. France has deployed 4,000 troops in Paris; another 6,000 beyond. Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer has called for similar measures in Germany. But it seems even 100,000 troops could not guard against these random attacks. The answer, to Sarkozy and others on the right, is internment without trial for anyone suspected of jihadist sympathies. It would be a dramatic departure from the cherished tradition of due process, but according to recent polls conducted for Le Figaro, such a move has the support of at least three-quarters of French citizens. Is EU migration really linked to escalating terror? JUST WATCHED Many Germans no longer want migrants in their country Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Many Germans no longer want migrants in their country 02:19 The outbreak of terror attacks in Northern Europe has also translated into growing hostility toward migration. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maziere pointed out that none of the recent attacks in Germany had been carried out by refugees who arrived last year. Nor was the attack in France. But that has not changed a perception among some that the tide of mass migration will end badly. The far-right Alternative fuer Deutschland party is polling at some 20% in Chancellor Angela Merkel's home state of Mecklenburg ahead of state elections in September. Merkel has again insisted that "we can manage" the influx and integrate refugees into German society. A year ago her decision not to send would-be migrants back to their first point of entry into Europe led tens of thousands -- from Syria, Iraq and elsewhere -- to head for Germany. The slogan "Refugees Welcome" was on banners at city halls and football matches across Germany. It was a remarkable display of generosity toward those fleeing violence and persecution. But the welcome has worn thin. Merkel is on the defensive . She -- like French President François Hollande -- must face the voters next year if she wants another term. Some within her own coalition now cry "We told you so" -- among them Bavarian Premier Seehofer. Merkel has promised more decisive action to deport those whose requests fail and better detection of those becoming radicalized. But the scale of the problem is enormous. According to German government statistics from March, about 400,000 asylum applications were still being processed. But half of those whose requests had been rejected -- nearly 170,000 people -- were still in Germany, among them Daleel Mohammad. And sociologist Armin Nassehi, who examines migration issues at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, says many young male migrants are more vulnerable than most to manipulation or emotional instability. "The central problem is that refugees have much more complicated life situations. They are people with traumatic experiences on the one hand and not knowing what will happen them to the future on the other," he told CNN. Hard choices ahead The core of the issue is this: how much is Europe prepared to compromise its way of life -- the freedoms and rights taken for granted for generations -- to do battle with random terrorism? How many public places become fortresses? How many events are canceled (as the French interior minister has recommended) if adequate security cannot be guaranteed? How much must be spent on the militarization of policing? And how many powers of arrest and detention should a government possess without reference to the courts? The state of emergency in France declared last November is set to run another three months at least. As she visited the site of a makeshift memorial outside city hall in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray on Wednesday, 23-year-old Meggy Simane paused for thought. "It's a problem for everyone," she said, "the gay community amongst us, the Jewish communities, all walks of life. We are all different with our own cultures but at the same time we are all the same." A 19-year old who lived just a few streets away from Meggy thought very differently. |
A 49-year-old man has been arrested after walking into the office building at 80-02 Kew Gardens Road in Kew Gardens and claiming he had a bomb. According to police and District Attorney Richard Brown spokesman Kevin Ryan, Scott Sansonkin allegedly entered the lobby of the building 11 a.m. and said the bomb in his bag was set to explode in two hours. He was arrested without incident and the building was evacuated as a precaution. Ryan said Sansonkin, whose last known address is on Woodhaven Boulevard on the border of Forest Hills and Glendale, was charged with falsely reporting an incident, second-degree placing a false bomb or hazardous substance, and second-degree harassment. He was taken to an area hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. Police said the device was not a real bomb, but the "very crude, inoperable" device was made to look legitimate. According to Ryan, Sansonkin has a history of threatening to blow up the large, black-glass building that fronts Queens Boulevard. In November 2008, he was arrested for threatening the Federal Bureau of Investigations office inside the building with a fake bomb. He was tried federally and spend an unknown period of time in prison. |
From the cover of a magazine this year, the actor Alec Baldwin threatened to leave New York City. The place has changed, he said. As he discovered on Tuesday, for instance, some police officers no longer recognize him. Or if the two young officers did, it did not deter them from writing him up for riding his bicycle the wrong way on Fifth Avenue near 16th Street, or from taking him to the precinct station house when he could not provide identification. The police said Mr. Baldwin became belligerent with the officers, who soon placed him in handcuffs and charged him with disorderly conduct. At the 13th Precinct station house, the commander confirmed his identity, the police said, based on Mr. Baldwin’s “prior police contacts.” Indeed, the entire episode played into the melodrama that periodically swirls around the actor when he steps outside, from altercations with paparazzi to being kicked off an airplane for refusing to shut off his smartphone. |
VIDEO: Hurricane Irma brings home long-lost dog Copyright by WSAV - All rights reserved Video WBBH Staff - FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. (WBBH) -- Pete Mayher lost his yellow lab, Wizzer, five years ago on Fort Myers Beach. "A lot of people figured he was dead, washed up, but there was a glimmer of hope that I'd see him again," Mayher said. Over the years that glimmer faded, until three weeks ago, when Hurricane Irma ripped thru Southwest Florida. "When animal services called me and she said we have Wizzer, I really couldn't even talk I was so choked up," Mayher said. A good samaritan found the 14-year-old dog lying in a puddle on the beach, and brought him to Lee County Domestic Animal Services. Copyright by WSAV - All rights reserved Wizzer after Hurricane Irma [via WBBH] |
Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal was adamant Friday that she isn’t resigning over a Facebook post calling for President Donald Trump’s assassination. Chappelle-Nadal, a University City Democrat, has faced calls by Missouri’s top Democrats and Republicans demanding she resign from the legislature over a comment she posted on her personal Facebook Thursday: “I hope Trump is assassinated.” Among those calling for her resignation were the chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party and U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill. Chappelle-Nadal deleted the comment and said posting it was a mistake. She said she posted the comment out of frustration with Trump’s statements about recent events in Charlottesville, Va., where an alleged white supremacist drove his car into a crowd near the city’s downtown mall, killing a 32-year-old woman. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to The Kansas City Star But in a series of tweets after the calls from her fellow Democrats to resign, she struck a defiant tone. “I am not resigning,” she said. “When (people of color) are respected by this (White House) & they are willing to do real work, I’ll sit down with them. People are traumatized!” SHARE COPY LINK During a press conference about infrastructure held at Trump Tower on Aug. 15, President Donald Trump said that “both sides,” including the “alt-left” were to blame for the violent rally in Charlottesville, VA. She then retweeted statements of support along with racist comments she began receiving after news broke about her Facebook post. One person sent her a message on Twitter that was just the N-word over and over again from a Twitter account called “KillMaria69.” She also tweeted a link to a website, “I Stand With Maria.” “Out of anger and frustration, I said something that could have been reframed,” she said on the website. “And I refuse to shy away from the hypocrisy and chaos our country is enduring under Trump.” Lt. Gov. Mike Parson’s office said Friday that he would call for Chappelle-Nadal’s expulsion from office under Article III, Section 18 of the Missouri Constitution, which allows the Senate to expel a member with a two-thirds vote. Gov. Eric Greitens endorsed her removal by Senate vote in a statement Friday: “Senator Chappelle-Nadal said she hopes the President is killed. Republicans and Democrats have called on her to resign. Her response: ‘Hell no.’ Last night, in an interview, she refused to apologize — twice. “If she will not resign, the Senate can vote to remove her. I believe they should.” Both Senate President Ron Richard, a Joplin Republican, and Senate Majority Leader Mike Kehoe, a Jefferson City Republican, echoed the call for resignation and said that if Chappelle-Nadal continues to refuse she may be kicked out. “The process of expulsion is a significant, rarely used step that should not be taken lightly,” Kehoe said. “We are researching the detailed steps involved in the expulsion process and will be prepared to move forward as necessary.” Also calling for her resignation was House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty, a Kansas City Democrat and the highest-ranking black lawmaker in Missouri. “Suggestions of violence have no place in our political discourse, and an elected official who expresses hope for someone’s murder has forfeited the right to hold office,” McCann Beatty said. “Given state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal’s repugnant social media post suggesting the president should be assassinated, she must resign.” The Missouri Legislative Black Caucus said in a statement that it “does not condone the derogatory remarks made by Sen. Chappelle-Nadal nor do we condone the recent comments made by President Trump.” “Although we hold both offices in very high respects, their inappropriate behavior and disturbing comments only act as catalyst for more violence and racial division in our country.” McCaskill, who on Thursday called for Chappelle-Nadal’s resignation, said Friday that she had not spoken with the state senator since the Facebook post. McCaskill told reporters that leaders of the Democratic Party have spoken in one voice against Chappelle-Nadal’s comments. “There’s nothing we can do to force her to resign, but we can continue to reject that kind of advocation of violence,” McCaskill said. “That’s the problem we have now. “We need to bring people together. We need to quit trying to separate people and bring people together, so I just think it’s incumbent on all of us to continue to work toward those goals and I just think it’s unfortunate she’s not taking the advice of those leaders.” |
LOS ANGELES — The self-proclaimed Most Dominant Ever returned to the site of his peak dominance, flanked by a cast of basketball royalty so large that a horde of handlers struggled to get everyone to squeeze into a single picture frame. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, James Worthy, Luke Walton, A.C. Green, Gary Payton, Derek Fisher, Robert Horry, Brian Shaw and more than a dozen other notable former Lakers assembled outside the Staples Center on Friday to honor Shaquille O’Neal, who teamed with Bryant to bring three consecutive championships to Southern California from 2000 to 2002. Officially, the group of luminaries, and the hundreds of fans decked out in purple and gold, were there to witness the unveiling of a gigantic 1,500-pound statue that is suspended above the Staples Center walkway, not far from similar tributes to Abdul-Jabbar, West and Magic Johnson. Unofficially, everyone was glad to take a moment out from another discouraging Lakers campaign to reminisce on better days. O’Neal, decked out in a light blue and yellow suit, delighted in the familiar company, offering individual messages to everyone from Bryant to Fisher to Slava Medvedenko. He stood up to thank Abdul-Jabbar, who recalled Michelangelo and the Lincoln Memorial as he ran through the 30,000-year history of statues, and laughed as Jackson told yarns about O’Neal’s love for jet skis and rapping. When the curtain dropped, revealing a bronze statue depicting him forcefully dunking the ball and swinging on the rim, O’Neal’s eyes lit up with the child-like glee that helped make him, for a time, the biggest star in basketball. Adam Pantozzi/Getty Images “Here’s a guy who played with a lot of force, a guy who wanted the crowd to go crazy,” O’Neal told a small group of reporters after the ceremony, when asked to describe what the statue represents. “There’s two things that made a crowd go crazy: a deep, contested three and a dunk. I always tried to dunk to intimidate my opponents and to make the crowd go crazy.” The crowd—which milled around “Shaqtown,” an LA Live street that was converted into a playhouse with a Ferris wheel and plenty of Shaq-related signage—was treated to a family reunion rather than a fireworks display. O’Neal and Bryant, whose 2004 divorce shaped basketball history nearly as much as their eight seasons together, shared laughs and pleasantries. Abdul-Jabbar was alone in poking at their issues, and he did so in jest. "Some people thought the odds of Kobe Bryant showing up today were the same as Shaq hitting a free throw," the NBA’s all-time leading scorer said, earning chuckles before quickly moving on. O’Neal called Bryant “brother” and emphasized their mutual respect, noting that Bryant was next up for a statue tribute. He did mention their “battles,” and later told reporters that the pair will be remembered as “the most enigmatic, controversial, dominant one-two punch ever created,” but he was wholly uninterested in re-airing dirty laundry. He kept the focus on the three titles they won, rather than the titles they could have won, and pointed to Bryant’s alley-oop pass in Game 7 of the 2000 West finals against the Blazers as his favorite Lakers memory. “When I first got here in 1996, we always won 50, 55, 60 games, but we never got over the hump,” O’Neal said. “Then we got there, Game 7, and [Portland] got out to a big lead and we thought it was happening again. But we made that historical comeback, Kobe crosses Scottie Pippen and throws the lob, and I sealed it.” In a brief statement, Bryant returned the compliments and opted against mentioning his 5-to-4 edge in championship rings. Indeed, he even pushed back against the long-standing assumption that he took issue with O’Neal’s lighthearted personality and approach to the game. “Before tip-off, something happens, the switch goes off for him,” Bryant said. “He’s no longer joking around, he’s no longer playing around, he’s not smiling. He’s out there trying to dominate. I remember the playoffs in San Antonio. We were going into the arena. He and I were sitting next to each other and he leans over to me. ‘Bring it to me early.’ I’m like, ‘Alright, what’s going on?’ He said, ‘When I was a kid, David Robinson wasn’t very nice to me.’ I said, ‘Say no more. This series is in the bag.’” Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images Although he steered clear of regrets and second thoughts at his celebration, O’Neal isn’t completely satisfied with his impressive list of accomplishments, which includes four titles, three Finals MVP awards, the 2000 MVP, 15 All-Star selections and the No. 7 spot on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. Like Lakers fans, who are left pondering how many more titles O’Neal and Bryant could have won together had they avoided personality conflicts, O’Neal looks back on some of his individual achievements and feels short-changed. “LeBron [James] and myself are similar,” O’Neal told SI.com earlier this month in Atlanta. “We could be MVP every year. But [the voters] don’t give it every year and he’s already got four. [I should have won] three, easily. Kobe should have won three, too. [I should have won] the two that Steve Nash got over me. It pisses me off. [Nash] knows.” For the record, O’Neal retired in 2011 with five top-three MVP finishes, eight top-five finishes and 13 top-10 finishes. He was runner-up to Robinson in 1995, runner-up to Nash in 2005, and injured for a good chunk of the 2006 season when Nash won his second MVP. Even O’Neal’s sole MVP win remains a sore spot, though, as he was one vote shy of becoming the first unanimous MVP in NBA history. Warriors guard Stephen Curry claimed that honor last year. “The one where that crazy dummy Fred Hickman f---ed up my historical [unanimous MVP] so now Curry gets the first unanimous,” O’Neal said. “That bothers me a lot.” O’Neal, now a commentator at TNT, admitted to reporters Friday that he “definitely misses playing.” With his Hall of Fame induction complete, his No. 34 jersey hanging in the Staples Center rafters, and now his statue out front, O’Neal’s legendary status is secure. But the competitive spirit that drove him to punish Robinson and the Spurs, to prove to Abdul-Jabbar that he was a champion, and to butt heads with Bryant continues to seep through. Beneath the jokes and pranks, O’Neal still wants his due. “What also bothers me that I missed 250 games because I would have been at 33,000 points,” O’Neal told SI.com earlier this month. “I just got passed up by Dirk [Nowitzki] and LeBron is about to pass me too. Forget the free throws, I missed like three seasons worth of games.” Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images Although his point is well-taken—he didn’t play in more than 20% of his teams’ possible games during his 19-year career—the specific mention of 33,000 points is curious. These Lakers greats—Shaq, Kobe, Kareem, Magic, Phil and Jerry—have all been so famous and so successful for so long that there’s no telling which old wounds and grudges still linger. Honestly, it’s getting hard to keep up with the soap opera. Jackson, for example, shared the stage with Lakers executive Jeanie Buss a few months after their long engagement was called off. The Hall of Fame coach also stood near Fisher, whom he fired last year as coach of the Knicks. Jim Buss, the recently-deposed Lakers executive who is now engaged in a legal fight with Jeanie over the future of the team, was conspicuously absent. Appropriately, much was left unsaid at the unveiling. Only West, the Hall of Fame player turned longtime executive who brought O’Neal to LA on a seven-year, $120 million contract in 1996, momentarily interrupted the feel-good afternoon with a lament about what could have been. “[The day you were traded to the Heat] was a real sad day for me,” he recalled, addressing O’Neal. “I always thought you would end your career with the Lakers, but sometimes that doesn’t happen in the NBA.” There was no need to belabor the point, and West didn’t. Best not to go too far digging up buried hatchets. But here was the necessary acknowledgment that O’Neal had been denied a storybook ending. As O’Neal’s statue hangs, satisfying selfies for years to come, so too does West’s alternate history. The one in which O’Neal avoids his late-career tour through Miami, Phoenix, Cleveland and Boston. The one in which he and Bryant kept delighting Lakers fans by trading punishing dunks and deep, contested threes. The one in which he rides into the sunset down Sunset with five, six or seven championships to his name. |
A recent article brought to light how General Soft Drinks Ltd (the main suppliers of Coca Cola and affiliated products in Malta) extract 40 per cent of the water it needs to produce its beverages free of charge from public freshwater resources . While other major beverage companies in Malta prefer to not use groundwater and pay for mains water, GSD prefers to adopt the cheaper route whilst promoting itself as an ambassador of water conservation. When it comes to groundwater, Malta is as critical as it gets. Apart from the being the most water poor country in the EU, it is listed as one of the top ten water poorest countries in the world alongside Bahrain, Jordon, Kuwait, Libya, Maldives, Qater, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Such is the result of an overpopulated island country that does not regulate the illegal abstraction of water from its aquifers, increasing the probability of saltwater intrusion (a process where seawater enters rocks and mixes with freshwater). It is quite shocking that GSD is not paying for 40% of the water it uses in its manufacturing process, especially when it made a total revenue of €25,196,503 by the end of 2013. It would be extremely difficult to estimate how much this revenue translates into volume of water, since GSD’s products include both carbonated and non-carbonated drinks of differing packaging. However, a very crude estimation is worth my time, especially if it will produce a figure of how much water GSD is abstracting from public sources at zero cost. It can be rationalised that small cans (0.33L) and bottles (0.5L) are more popular than larger bottles (1.5 L) since they are more easily accessible on a daily basis, whilst the latter are generally purchased at supermarkets for domestic consumption. As such, each size of beverage would roughly account to a third of sales respectively. The average retail price from a supermarket (the cheapest place to purchase such goods, and hence the most realistic comparison) would be 0.67c for a can, 0.97c for a 0.5L bottle and 1.45c for a 1.5L. Wholesale price is generally up to 40% cheaper when the supermarkets purchase the beverages from the company (GSD). As such, the prices now become 0.40c for a can, 0.58c for a 0.5L bottle and 0.87c for a 1.5L To make the calculation as realistic as possible, I will remove around €10M from the revenue to cover for variables such as income from sources such as syrup kegs that are purchased by restaurants, pubs and other similar outlets. These in fact do contribute to a significant proportion of the company’s revenue. The rest is simple mathematics, where we see how GSD’s total revenue is made up from these single units. It is estimated that in 2013 GSD has sold 12.5M cans, 8.7M 0.5L bottles and 5.8M 1.5L bottles. This gives as a crude estimate of 17.2M litres of beverages being sold by GSD in 2013. As such, GSD abstracted an estimate of 17.2 M litres of ground water in 2013, of which 6.9M litres came at no charge But figures aside, GSD is now feeling the need to contribute to water conservation in Malta, through a recent announcement of an investment of approximately €575,000 by the Coca-Cola Foundation for water conservation measures in Gozo. The issue here boils down to government enforcement once again. GSD claims that it adheres to all legal requirements in terms of water abstraction – so they are technically not breaking any laws. This operation appears to be sanctioned by the Maltese authorities, despite the fact that the Maltese government effectively stands to gain if GSD is made to pay for all the water it uses. Such an episode continues to verify how Maltese governments value money above the environment, supporting corporate entities at the detriment of the general public. Ultimately, no matter how much money GSD throws at water conservation, they cannot reverse a situation in which the amount of groundwater abstracted surpasses the rate of recharge (the rate at which water is returned to aquifers after rainfall). They should simply use the money they are investing in this sham of a conservation effort and pay for their water like other companies. Advertisements |
New Song Video \ In The Lionsong In The Lionsong On New Song Video \ Harmony Storm Harmony Storm New CD World Without End In the Studio in March New Song Release New Song Release Video from the Gasworks CD launch show. Peter rocking at The Artword Artbar Peter is going through an inspired period. Here is another new tune, again on the mighty stick Dulcimer.I went to the UK last Fall to attend a 24-7 Prayer conference and go on a pilgrimage with some Hamilton friends to Lindisfarne, Durham Cathedral and the Northumbria Prayer Community. Having lymphoma seemed to motivate me to want to write a song while there (one doesn’t know one’s length of days at the best of times, let alone after the diagnosis I’d received earlier). I resolved to write words to go with a melodic sketch undeniably shaped by such Dylan jeremiads as Trouble in Mind, When Ya Gonna Wake Up? and The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar.While a title for this sketch was in place, I resisted taking down lyrics until I was in the UK; but I should know better that songs don’t often work that way. Instead, what wanted to drop in was a simple melody emerging from a daily singing of Psalm 8 with my pilgrim friends in our Birmingham hostel, as well as a deep fondness for this Hamilton-like city that had taken a hold of us. In the 90 or so minutes it took to straighten out a car rental miscue, I was able to take a final stroll with Denise Dulcimer along Birmingham's enchanting canals to see what else might download.Before too long, glossolalia syllables morphed into “in the lion song” and a full two thirds of a lyric dropped into the banjo-esque licks that had gotten hold of my fingers in the cafeteria of Hatter’s Hostel. Subsequent pilgrim strolling through the thin places of Holy Island, Durham and Northumbria easily yielded the remaining words, the loose ends being tied up in Newcastle the night before our flight home. TIGHarmony Storm is another recent composition played on the stick dulcimer.This was the name of a band I was in back in the 80’s, and as I was returning from the cancer clinic a number of months ago having learned I was to undergo radiation treatments, I resolved that this was a title that needed a song. A melodic sketch and rhyme structure dropped into place before I’d completed the 20 minute drive home.The lyrics also came quickly tumbling into place over the following weeks. Around this time I came across the word “jeremiad” in Clinton Heylin, Dylan biographer and creator of some of the liner notes for Trouble No More (v. 13 of the Bootleg series which covers the so-called Gospel period of His Bobness). This word held a deep intrigue for me (Merriam-Webster defines it as “a prolonged lamentation or complaint”), and got me wondering if this is literary form that’s had an inextricable magnetic pull on what I feel drawn to write about.As far back as the early ’80’s when I wrote News From On High (recorded on a demo tape with Harmony Storm and then again 25+ years later for my 2009 Gracious Window record) the “fire in my bones” besetting Jeremiah whose name is stamped on this literary form seems, in part, to also be my lot as one whose craft is writing songs. So I’ll try it on for size with this song, trying at least to curb the prolonged haranguing qualities that can cause the jeremiad form to be caricatured and miss the mark. TIGPeters new CD is ready. World Without End: Songs for Pilgrimage. Original arrangements of Joseph Gelineau’s settings of the Grail Psalter.With Darcy Hepner on sax, Carl Horton on the Hammond B3, Clark Johnston on bass. With recording engineer Trevor Titian. Great to work with this elite group of musicians. You will be hearing Tig on piano for this song (a first). Stay tuned.Have You Seen Evangeline played on the Stick Dulcimer. Recorded and filmed by John Farr.Here's a new song: Ancient Thirst. I'm playing the Stick Dulcimer, newly setup and tweaked by luthier Mike Spicer. Recorded and filmed by John Farr.Bond So Strong.With John Lewis on guitar and Andrew Tigchelaar on bass. |
After more than 12 hours of debate on December 15 and 16 markup for the Stop Online Piracy Act (HR 3261), or SOPA, as it’s better known, about the only clear conclusion is the House Judiciary Committee is not made up of nerds, as member after member on the public record disavowed ever being a nerd. However, according to the opponents of the bill, nerds are exactly what they need in order to ensure this bill does not trample all over the Internet and our First Amendment rights. The hearing began with an hour-long reading of Chairman Lamar Smith’s (R-Texas) manager’s amendment. As we noted earlier, the amendment makes a number of changes that would help to narrow the amount of lawful content impacted by the takedown orders in SOPA. Unfortunately, the changes don’t go far enough. There is still a chance that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and even search engines will end up removing access to entire websites for containing just the smallest portion of infringing content, thereby also removing content that is protected under the First Amendment to the Constitution. In the two-day course of the markup, only about half of the 55 amendments submitted were discussed. Most of the beneficial amendments, many of which were proposed by Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), were easily defeated by a two-to-one margin. Five amendments did pass on voice votes, though those amendments make only small changes and do not address our main concerns with the bill. The second day came to an abrupt end after Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) requested additional hearings, one classified and one public, in order to hear from “the nerds”: Internet engineers and security experts who were noticeably absent from the initial hearing on SOPA last month. Before calling a temporary adjournment to the markup, Chairman Smith acknowledged that the committee did not have all the facts on the potential impact of the bill and said he would consider holding an additional hearing. It’s not clear what effect, if any, such an additional hearing would have on the formulation of the bill not being considered. Many opponents of SOPA declared a victory when the markup was delayed, assuming no movement would be made until Congress came back after the New Year. However, the full committee markup is now scheduled to continue at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, December 21. But we also expect the House to leave on its holiday break before then, so it is also possible that the markup will not reconvene until January. In any case, members of the House Judiciary Committee need to hear from their constituents now more than ever. Let them know that there is a way to slow down online piracy without impeding free speech on the Internet. Tell Congress to oppose SOPA and work to find a better solution to stop online piracy without restricting lawful online content. Learn more about free speech online: Sign up for breaking news alerts, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. |
In direct--and predictable--contradiction to his campaign rhetoric of accommodation and compromise, George "Shrub" Bush begins his illegitimate regime like countless other coup figureheads--with cynicism and an iron hand. How firmly will the forces of democracy oppose him? Remember that Bush was allowed to take power precisely because the "New Democrats" lack the strength or character to stand up to the hard right. Predictably, their performance at the dawn of the Shrub years is already discouraging. Indeed, if the nation and its natural environment are to survive at all, clear and powerful resistance must come from where it always comes--the grassroots--but with far more conviction than we've seen in many a decade. The clearest sign of the Bush hard line comes with his chief law enforcement officer. Attorney General nominee John Ashcroft is a carbon copy of countless martial strongmen installed in Third World countries by the father of the new president and the national security apparatus Bush Sr. once ran. The former Missouri Senator (who was beaten for re-election by a dead man) is the creation of the corporations and fundamentalist church groups that paid for his losing campaign--and for that of his new boss. Ashcroft is pro-corporation (especially tobacco), pro-gun, pro-military, pro-death penalty, pro-welfare for religious schools, and an ardent fan of the Confederacy. He is anti-black, anti-choice, anti-feminist, anti-gay, anti-speech, anti-poor, anti-green and anti-labor. In short, he's a poster child for the Bush junta, a humorless gray cabal of old economy types whose primary agenda will be to further the Reaganite redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich while raping the natural planet along the way. They'll add billions in church and corporate welfare. In the name of "liberty," they'll erase as many individual rights and freedoms as their dominance of a bought Supreme Court can facilitate. Star wars is only the most visible of the massive military and other scams this militant right-wing crew intends to foist on the public in the coming years, to the benefit of their corporate and fundamentalist sponsors. We can also expect an escalated drug war, new jungle bloodshed in Central America, heightened tensions with China and Russia, and a relentless assault on the natural environment and basic freedoms of speech and the press. All are sure to come. The regime has been pre-bought by more than $350 million in contributions made to the Bush campaign in a larger national "election" that cost some $3 billion, much of that paid to electronic media, whose opposition to campaign finance reform is thus guaranteed. Alongside Ashcroft is Gale Norton as Bush's Secretary of Interior nominee. A fanatic "property rights" cultist, Norton says the public can't impose environmental or other restrictions on private property owners. Thus she opposes the Clean Air and Water Acts, the National Parks system and all other communal attempts to preserve the natural environment and other life support systems essential to our collective survival. Norton's ideology got new swagger last week from the U.S. Supreme Court, which used a "states' rights" argument to vastly weaken the Clean Water Act in a case involving a landfill in northern Illinois. By the usual 5-4 margin, the right-wing majority said the federal government could not overrule the states to save a body of water, even though that natural entity is part of a larger national eco-system. For pure hypocrisy, the Supreme Court ruling is hard to top. It's a reminder of who, exactly, is taking control of the White House--and how. The Y2K electoral theft History will recall that in the election of 2000, George W. Bush lost the nationwide popular vote to Al Gore by some 539,947 votes, plus the uncounted thousands in Florida. Not to mention another 2.6 million votes that went to Green Party candidate Ralph Nader. History will note that, in a dozen different ways, Bush almost certainly lost the popular vote in Florida. Had Bush's brother not been governor there, Gore would have won the state's electoral votes and the electoral college. Had Bush's cousin not been perched at Fox News--and was the first network election chief to call the state for Shrub--the other TV networks might not have followed suit and instead covered the race properly on election night. History will further note that with its fraternal Republican Governor and a Republican Secretary of State that was Bush's campaign chair, the state of Florida waged a systematic and effective campaign to disenfranchise blacks and Jews who were known to be supporting Gore by margins of four-, five- and even nine-to-one. Black citizens were removed from the voter rolls en masse by false charges that they were felons, a move choreographed by a sophisticated computer firm hired with state money to do just that. African-Americans were stopped from reaching the polls by police who demanded various forms of impossible identification. African-Americans were booted from actual voting stations by phony requirements reminiscent of the old poll taxes and other scams used by the descendants of John Ashcroft's beloved Confederacy. Voting machines in black and Jewish districts conveniently malfunctioned and made a mockery of democracy. Only the old Soviet Joe Stalin could aptly describe the Florida outcome: "It doesn't matter who casts the votes, only who counts them." To make sure those votes were counted for a Bush victory, the United States Supreme Court stepped in. On a Saturday, the high court ruled that the Florida recounts must stop. On the following Tuesday, it ruled there was no time to resume the recount. To justify its demand that George W. Bush win the election, the conservative majority used a series of tortured and inconsistent arguments that essentially imposed federal control on the state's electoral process. The Supreme Court demanded, among other things, a uniform standard for counting ballots when no such a doctrine has ever existed in federal law. The court trashed the very states' rights philosophy so-called conservatives have used for two centuries as a cover to oppose federal guarantees of such inconvenient luxuries as civil rights, civil liberties, voting rights and environmental protection. In short, the federal imposition used to guarantee Bush's victory is in direct ideological contradiction to the states' rights arguments the same justices used to overturn the ecological protection of those waterways in Illinois. Also lost in the shuffle were the Supreme Court Justices' own conflicts of interest. Both Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor had long since made public their desire to retire from the bench, along with their unwillingness to do so with a Democrat in the White House. The wife of Justice Clarence Thomas and the sons of Justice Antonin Scalia all had direct personal interests in a Bush victory based on jobs they held at the time of the decision. Scalia also made known his desire to become Chief Justice, which could only happen if Rehnquist resigned under a Republican president, such as George W. Bush. The electoral debacle of the year 2000 thus forever bankrupted any residual credibility remaining to the conservatives' arguments for states' rights. From now on, decisions such as the Illinois wetlands destruction will be tagged with the footnote that the court remained firm in its commitment to states' rights--except in cases involving the election of a Republican president to the White House. Except for his intellectual mediocrity and exceptional meanness of spirit, history will remember Rehnquist only for his signature theft of the Y2K election, and the permanent damage done to the Supreme Court's once-towering credibility as an incorruptible institution of last resort. A Shrub in deed How will history remember George W. Bush? Liberal pundits expect a field day with Shrub's obvious lack of intellectual and oratorical fire power. His voluminous malapropisms already rival those of his father. Smug Democrats assume his lack of charisma and bandwidth will automatically render him an ineffective, one-term failure. Having inherited the family business, whenever a really tough decision comes along, he'll call his father. Poppy's cabinet is his personal missile shield. But one need only remember Ronald Reagan to recall the danger of underestimation. Liberals branded Reagan "an amiable dunce." But he was neither. Ronnie's most decidedly un-amiable programs were brutal to the poor, the environment, women, people of color, the people of Central America. His lack of bookish intellect did not stop him from charming the media and enough of the American public to enforce the most destructive social agenda since Calvin Coolidge. Though his popularity ratings were far below those of Bill Clinton, he managed to run up the biggest financial, educational and ecological debt in national history and to imbue an entire generation with a deep-rooted sense of materialistic cynicism. In short, Reagan's rightist accomplishments were staggering. Can Shrub repeat? Those who assume his deer-in-the-headlights demeanor dooms him to failure might recall his debates with Al Gore, where the obviously brighter but terminally arrogant Vice President flashed his brittle core and lost an election that had been handed to him on a silver platter. In so doing, Gore revealed the real black hole of the coming era--the New Democrats. The signal moment came last week, when--despite howls of rage from the Congressional Black Caucus--not one of the 50 Senate Democrats could muster the common decency to force a public debate over the most obviously stolen American election since 1876. Eight years ago, when a legitimately elected Bill Clinton assumed office, Republican zealots waited nary a nanosecond to launch a full bore partisan attack over everything from gays in the military to the new president's persona. For two full terms, conservatives waged an unrelenting assault on every particle of Clinton's moderate agenda, capping it off with a full-blown impeachment over his endlessly entertaining love life. Clinton obliged by fighting hard for nothing except NAFTA and a wildly creative redefinition of what constitutes sex. The New Democratic agenda was a corporate-funded moderate Republican charade dressed in baby boomer blue-jeans. Clinton-Gore proposed a feeble national health care plan, then tossed it at the first sign of corporate opposition. They dismantled the welfare system (for the poor, not the corporations) in ways no Republican could have dared. They compiled a truly horrendous record on civil liberties in general and wiretapping in particular. They escalated the drug war, jacking the U.S. prison population to a staggering two million while arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court, in the administration's dying days, that state referenda for medical marijuana should be overturned. Clinton-Gore did greatly aid the environment by vetoing, for eight years running, the nuclear power industry's attempt to flood the highways and railways with high-level radioactive waste headed to Nevada. But they broke their promise to shut the WTI toxic waste incinerator in East Liverpool, which became a symbol for the administration's lack of green integrity and nerve. Perhaps the most telling moment came in the Shrub debates, when the Texas oil man accused Gore of failing to implement an energy policy. The accusation could hardly have been more hypocritical--except that it was accurate. For eight years, right into the Gore campaign, the administration talked a good game about fighting global warming and pushing renewable energy sources over fossil fuels. But Clinton-Gore's tangible accomplishments were marginal at best. They fudged on everything from auto efficiency standards to government purchases of recycled paper to utility deregulation to reactor safety. Clinton failed even to restore to the White House roof the solar panels installed by Jimmy Carter then removed by Reagan. In the waning moments of his regime, with political costs lowest and exposure at its peak, Clinton indulged in a showy (but welcome) outburst of conservationism. His high-profile creation of millions of acres of national monuments, roadless wilderness and protected forests came like rain after an interminable drought. But why at the end of his term, and not at the beginning? And why did he flinch from using the National Monuments Act to protect the Alaska Wildlife Refuge, soon to be pillaged by Shrub's hate-nature oil assault team? Green salvation Which brings us to the real reason the New Democrats leave the White House with such an excruciatingly short list of tangible accomplishments: Money. Bill Clinton's campaign genius has been to wed the hard realities of corporate cash with the slick gloss of social commitments. When push came to shove, he could always manage to ditch just enough of the social agenda to keep him funded, but not too much to blow it with the public. Al Gore's downfall was his inability to simultaneously dance to contradictory tunes. He raised so many millions that when George W. Bush astonishingly accused him of spending more on his campaign than the Republicans, Gore simply sighed and groaned, but had no comeback. For all his populist prattle, his soul was sold. Because he couldn't double-dip like Clinton (and because he was too uptight to let Elvis campaign for him) Gore will (gratefully) fade into history along with Mike Dukakis and Walter Mondale. Clinton still runs the New Democratic Party. His brilliant celebrity wife will dominate those 50 Senators, bide her time, learn the ropes, expand her base and, sooner or later, her time will come. And the New Democrats will become ever more besotted with corporate money and the illusions of social justice. But they will not stand up to the Bush junta. There have already been gutter fights over appointees like Linda Chavez and Gale Norton. But the heavy lifting, as usual, will be left to those outside the mainstream--in this case, those who supported Ralph Nader and the Green Party. For years to come, the New Democrats will scapegoat Nader for the Y2K debacle. They will point to Nader's 90,000 votes in Florida and thousands more in New Hampshire as the deciding factor. They will ignore the fact--as they did last week in the U.S. Senate--that Gore actually won both the popular and the electoral vote. And that Nader had nothing to do with Bill Clinton's dalliance with Monica Lewinsky, or the spring crash of NASDAQ, or the untimely explosion of warfare in the Middle East, or the failure of Clinton-Gore to carry their own states of Tennessee and Arkansas (not to mention the perennial Democratic stronghold of West Virginia), any one of which could have put Gore in the White House. Nor did Nader cause Gore's pathetic showings in three debates (from which Nader was in fact physically removed), or Jeb Bush's theft of Florida, or the Supreme Court's cynical intervention. The New Democrats will also suppress the fact that even though Gore was a miserable candidate who ran a miserable campaign, the election still had to be stolen by Bush, pure and simple. Not that Nader didn't try to meet Gore halfway. Nader met with the new "green" VP in 1993, then offered to convene a national grassroots gathering for him. In a conference call a week before the 2000 election, Nader told me he wrote Gore a dozen times and called him three times in the lead-up to last November. But Gore refused to meet him. Nonetheless, it will be convenient for the New Democrats to point to every Shrub transgression as something that would not have happened had Ralph Nader not run for president. And then to do nothing about it. Most important, the New Democrats will forget the moment that Al Gore had the election wrapped up. At the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, Gore stole Nader's thunder and ignited the activist constituency. Gore gave the speech of his life, a straightforward populist call to action, perfectly designed to bring the truly committed back into the Democratic fold. In fact, Gore endorsed the agenda perfected over the past 35 years by none other than America's leading consumer activist. Gore soared to a 15-point lead. And then he wilted, as if his corporate sponsors panicked, and ripped up his roots. Gore gracelessly helped bar Nader from the debates, then lost them. Instead of co-opting the green agenda, Gore and his flunkies attacked the messenger, as if their chief opponent was a 66-year-old bachelor flying coach with his nephew, charging admission to his speeches. "Only Al Gore can beat Al Gore," David Letterman said, because it was never clear what he stood for, other than for Al Gore. Slick Willie could pull it off. Stiff Al couldn't. We can expect the New Democrats to fight the fringe battles over appointments and the like. But the only Americans who'll reliably resist the brunt of the Shrub assault are precisely those the New Democrats trashed, along with those the Bush junta so methodically disenfranchised. The thousands of young and aging activists who paid to hear Nader rant. The 2.6 million who voted for him. The millions more who grudgingly voted for Gore but loathed his short-changed agenda and are ready to fight it out as the corporate New Democrats aren't. The same millions who expected a fair national hearing on how this election was stolen, and were denied it by a spineless Senate. After the early skirmishes, and except for the easy battles, the New Democrats will roll over for the Bush junta. Their money comes from the same corporations. They won't withstand a focused, massively financed right-wing juggernaut intent on substituting raw muscle for the lack of a popular mandate. That's the way they do it in the Third World. Who will stop them here? Copyright © 2001 Columbus Alive, Inc. ### |
Putting Indiana in the top spot last week didn't exactly work out well -- not after Tom Crean's team went down the road to IPFW and lost, 24 hours after being elevated to No. 1 in the Power Rankings. Power Rankings are compiled primarily by what has happened on the court, and Indiana, as of last week, had the most impressive victory of any top-25 team, a win over Kansas in Hawaii. Now the Hoosiers have the most unimpressive loss, which is why they have fallen out of the top 10. It's a tough call among three teams for the top spot. Kentucky is blowing teams out, albeit against lesser competition (the Wildcats' tough portion of the nonconference slate begins in December). Villanova has the most impressive victory of the three, at Purdue. North Carolina won the Maui Invitational with wins over Chaminade, Oklahoma State and Wisconsin. The two surprises -- and a pair of newcomers -- are South Carolina and Butler. Frank Martin's Gamecocks knocked off Michigan and Syracuse, while Chris Holtmann and the Bulldogs took down Arizona in Las Vegas. Twenty-four hours after the Hoosiers were tabbed as No. 1 in the Power Rankings, they lost to ... Fort Wayne. AP Photo/Michael Conroy 1. Kentucky Wildcats Record: 6-0 Last week's ranking: 2 The competition hasn't been great, but UK has been routing teams. In fact, the Wildcats have won their first six games by at least 21 points. It's just the third time in school history that has happened. The past two wins -- over Cleveland State and UT Martin -- have come without Isaiah Briscoe (back injury). 2. Villanova Wildcats Record: 6-0 Last week's ranking: 3 Jay Wright's team has won its past three without Phil Booth, who is dealing with a left knee injury. Wright said Booth won't play Tuesday against Penn, the start of Big Five play, but is hopeful he will return against St. Joe's on Dec. 3. 3. North Carolina Tar Heels Record: 7-0 Last week's ranking: 7 The Tar Heels pounded Chaminade, Oklahoma State and Wisconsin to win the Maui Invitational, which bodes well for UNC fans. The past two times Roy Williams has claimed the event, the Tar Heels have won the national title -- in 2005 and 2009. 4. Kansas Jayhawks Record: 5-1 Last week's ranking: 4 Bill Self sent a message to his starting big men, Carlton Bragg and Landen Lucas, following wins over UAB and Georgia. He went with a four-guard lineup in a rout of UNC Asheville, inserting big man Udoka Azubuike for Lucas and guard Lagerald Vick for Bragg. The duo combined for 32 points and 12 boards. 5. Duke Blue Devils Record: 6-1 Last week's ranking: 5 We're seven games into Duke's season, and we've yet to see the frosh trio of Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum and Marques Bolden. But it was irrelevant in routs of William & Mary and Appalachian State. 6. Xavier Musketeers Record: 6-0 Last week's ranking: 8 The Musketeers had never played Northern Iowa before and wound up playing them twice in one week. The first was a win in the title game of the Tire Pros Invitational in Orlando, and the latest was a resounding 64-42 victory at the Cintas Center. Chris Mack is starting to get much-needed depth with the return of versatile forward Kaiser Gates. 7. Gonzaga Bulldogs Record: 6-0 Last week's ranking: 9 Sophomore guard Josh Perkins shined for the Zags in their run to the championship of the Advocare Invitational. Perkins had 18 in the win over Florida and was 3-of-6 from beyond the arc in the victory over Iowa State. 8. Baylor Bears Record: 6-0 Last week's ranking: 12 Scott Drew just finished beating Louisville's Rick Pitino, Michigan State's Tom Izzo and VCU's Will Wade to win the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. Add a victory over Oregon, and the Bears have as impressive a résumé thus far as any team in the country. 9. Louisville Cardinals Record: 5-1 Last week's ranking: 6 Pitino's team blew a 22-point lead against Baylor in the championship game at the Battle 4 Atlantis and wound up losing to the Bears. The Cardinals' starting perimeter trio of Donovan Mitchell, Quentin Snider and Deng Adel is 20-of-90 (32 percent) from 3 thus far. 10. Creighton Bluejays Record: 6-0 Last week's ranking: 10 Greg McDermott's team is the only one that has shot at least 50 percent in every game this season. Talented redshirt freshman Justin Patton leads the way, having made 31 of 40 shots from the field for a 78 percent clip. 11. UCLA Bruins Record: 7-0 Last week's ranking: 17 Freshman Lonzo Ball is the best passer in the country, but it's still Bryce Alford who takes the big shot, as shown when he delivered the dagger in a win over Texas A&M to claim the Wooden Legacy on Sunday night. 12. Indiana Hoosiers Record: 4-1 Last week's ranking: 1 Tom Crean's team got dropped by a Summit League team. Indiana had OG Anunoby for only 13 minutes due to illness, but that's no excuse for losing to the Mastadons, even in Fort Wayne. 13. Saint Mary's Gaels Record: 5-0 Last week's ranking: 11 The Jock Landale show continues. The junior Australian was 18-of-21 from the field in a pair of wins over UAB and San Jose State. 14. Purdue Boilermakers Record: 5-1 Last week's ranking: 14 The Boilermakers made 37 of 75 (49 percent) 3s the past three games -- wins over Utah State, Auburn and NJIT. Sophomore big man Caleb Swanigan has four straight double-doubles, tied for the most in a row since Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson back in 1993-94. 15. Virginia Cavaliers Record: 6-0 Last week's ranking: 15 The Cavaliers' defense has been ridiculous thus far, allowing an average of 41.3 points through the first six games. Senior guard London Perrantes was the MVP of the Emerald Coast Classic after wins over Iowa and Providence. 16. South Carolina Gamecocks Record: 6-0 Last week's ranking: NR The Gamecocks posted back-to-back wins over top-25 teams for the first time since 2008-09 by beating Michigan and Syracuse. South Carolina held Michigan to 46 points and Syracuse to 50. 17. Florida Gators Record: 6-1 Last week's ranking: 19 The Gators were just 2-of-19 from 3 in the loss to Gonzaga. They are shooting a putrid 29 percent from beyond the arc this season. 18. Butler Bulldogs Record: 6-0 Last week's ranking: NR This is the third straight year the Bulldogs have knocked off a top-10 team. It was North Carolina in 2014 in the Bahamas, Purdue last season in the Crossroads Classic and, this time, Arizona to win the Las Vegas Invitational. 19. Wisconsin Badgers Record: 5-2 Last week's ranking: 21 The two losses have come at Creighton and in Maui against a top-five North Carolina team. In the two setbacks, the duo of Bronson Koenig and Nigel Hayes is 7-of-34 from beyond the arc. 20. Rhode Island Rams Record: 5-1 Last week's ranking: 23 Hassan Martin is heating up, with a career-high 31 against Belmont, but E.C. Matthews has cooled off lately after a sizzling start. Matthews, who missed nearly all of the past season with a torn ACL, has averaged just 7.5 points per game the past two contests after making 72 percent of his shots through the first three games. 21. USC Trojans Record: 6-0 Last week's ranking: 25 The Trojans were picked seventh in the Pac-12 preseason poll -- and depth could be an issue. For now, Andy Enfield's team is healthy and talented. 22. Iowa State Cyclones Record: 5-1 Last week's ranking: NR The Cyclones came back from an 18-point deficit against Gonzaga and had a chance to win the game, but were unable to get a shot off on the final possession. Deonte Burton is a tough mismatch. He finished with a career-high 29 points in the loss. 23. Notre Dame Fighting Irish Record: 6-0 Last week's ranking: NR It's the third-best start in the Mike Brey era for the Irish, and guys such as Matt Farrell and Matt Ryan have made sure the Irish, who lost Demetrius Jackson and Zach Auguste off last year's team, haven't missed a beat. 24. San Diego State Aztecs Record: 3-1 Last week's ranking: NR Both Malik Pope and Max Hoetzel made their season debuts in the win over Cal after missing the first three games, including the loss at Gonzaga. The pair combined for 25 points and a dozen boards. 25. Oklahoma State Cowboys Record: 5-1 Last week's ranking: NR Sure, the Cowboys got blasted by UNC, but the Tar Heels are a top-five team. Jawun Evans is arguably the best guard in the country, and Oklahoma State has knocked off UConn and Georgetown. Dropped out: Syracuse Orange, Arizona Wildcats, Oregon Ducks, Michigan Wolverines, West Virginia Mountaineers, Seton Hall Pirates |
Angelika Graswald will be home for Christmas her release from prison where she had been confined since a conviction related to her fiancé's 2015 drowning death. Graswald admitted that she had sabotaged her boyfriend's kayak and then watched as he was submerged in freezing waters of the Hudson River outside New York City in April 2015. Now the victim's grieving mother, is expressing outrage that her son's killer is free. “I'm praying that he didn't know what she was doing to him and it was over quick,” Mary Ann Viafore told Inside Edition. “She took his life and she shouldn't have a life. Now, she's going to have a chance to go home and be with her family.” The grieving mom said his son's fiancé has a fiery temper and she actually gave him a black eye once. “She would smack him and he wouldn't do anything,” she claimed. Vincent Viafore even joked about her violent streak before going on vacation with her to her native Latvia. “If I don't come back, you know she bumped me off,” he wrote his sister in a disturbing email. “There was a funny face so it was half serious,” his mom said. Graswald admitted removing a drainage plug to sabotage his kayak. She also told police she could have saved him when his craft capsized in choppy waters. “I wanted him dead and now he's gone. And I’m OK with it,” Graswald told police. Graswald has been behind bars for two-and-a-half years. She was facing murder and manslaughter charges but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide, making her eligible for parole almost immediately. Graswald, who was sentenced to 16 months to four years in jail in November, was released Thursday from the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, the state Department of Corrections said. She says she is going to claim a $250,000 life insurance payout, which has angered Viafore's mother. “Life is just not the same your whole world changes in an instant and it will never be the same again. Ever,” the victim’s mom said. She added that there's only one way to describe the woman who could have been her daughter-in-law: “A psychopath.” RELATED STORIES 'Son of Sam' Serial Killer David Berkowitz Hospitalized for Heart Surgery: Reports Has 'Party Monster' Reinvented Himself? 20 Years After Manslaughter Sentence, Michael Alig Looks Forward 40 Years After 'Son of Sam' Arrest, Detective Reveals How Cops Finally Ended His Reign of Terror |
Get the biggest What's On 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 It is the perfect platform to celebrate a comedian who became a national treasure. Manchester’s Victoria Station will become Victoria Wood Station for an hour of music and memories to pay tribute to the Prestwich -born comedian. The comedy legend who died in April, aged 62, was a former pupil of Bury Grammar School and patron of Jessie’s Fund, which was established by her old school friend, Lesley Schatzberger, in memory of her daughter, and which helps disabled children to communicate by using music. All proceeds from the event, on June 4th, called ‘Have You Seen ‘Er’ will be donated to Jessie’s Fund. It will be presented by singer and actor Sue Devaney who worked with Victoria on the Dinnerladies TV series. The city’s LGBT+ community choir will be performing their own special LGBT version of the Ballad of Barry and Freda, entitled The Ballad of Carrie and Freda, Barry and Fred. Read: Read: The station concourse will stage the event which runs from 2pm-3pm. The café will be serving tea, two soups, spiced ham and piccalilli sandwiches and a selection of macaroons. Manchester’s newly-installed Lord Mayor will pay tribute to Victoria on behalf of the City of Manchester, and the ladies of the county’s WIs will be selling specially-made tribute Victoria Wood Sponges in aid of Jessie’s Fund. Fans will be encouraged to come dressed as their favourite of her characters. Lesley Schatzberger, Director of Jessie’s Fund, says ‘I’m really looking forward to the HAVE YOU SEEN ‘ER tribute to Victoria Wood, in Manchester, where we both grew up. Nationwide there’s been a massive outpouring of love and respect for Victoria in the weeks since she died, but she has an extra special place in the hearts of Mancunians. “Victoria was a fantastic Patron, and said ‘I was delighted to become a Patron of Jessie’s Fund because it’s mission seems to me abundantly clear: that music is there for everybody, it helps everybody, no matter what their physical limitations or their difficulties with vision, hearing, or communication.” |
Relativity Media has released the third official trailer for their upcoming fantasy-action drama Immortals, starring Henry Cavill, Freida Pinto, John Hurt, Kellan Lutz, Isabel Lucas, Luke Evans and Stephen Dorff and Mickey Rourke. Here’s the official plot synopsis for Immortals: Visionary director Tarsem Singh (The Cell, The Fall) and producers Gianni Nunnari (300), Mark Canton (300) and Ryan Kavanaugh (The Fighter) unleash an epic tale of treachery, vengeance and destiny in Immortals, a stylish and spectacular 3-D adventure. As a power-mad king razes ancient Greece in search of a legendary weapon, a heroic young villager rises up against him in a thrilling quest as timeless as it is powerful. The brutal and bloodthirsty King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) and his murderous Heraklion army are rampaging across Greece in search of the long lost Bow of Epirus. With the invincible Bow, the king will be able to overthrow the Gods of Olympus and become the undisputed master of his world. With ruthless efficiency, Hyperion and his legions destroy everything in their wake, and it seems nothing will stop the evil king’s mission. As village after village is obliterated, a stonemason named Theseus (Henry Cavill) vows to avenge the death of his mother in one of Hyperion’s raids. When Theseus meets the Sybelline Oracle, Phaedra (Freida Pinto ), her disturbing visions of the young man’s future convince her that he is the key to stopping the destruction. With her help, Theseus assembles a small band of followers and embraces his destiny in a final desperate battle for the future of humanity. |
If ever a screenshot could be called prescient… A few weeks back, Australian censorship body the OFLC (here represented by the chap smacking Australia in the gob) refused to classify Left 4 Dead 2, banning the game from being sold anywhere in the country. In the OFLC’s view, the zombie shooter “contains violence that is high in impact and is therefore unsuitable for persons aged under 18 to play.” Publisher EA and developer Valve are still in the process of appealing this decision, but if that falls through (a verdict is due on October 22), Valve has a solution: censor the hell out of its game. Valve’s Gabe Newell has revealed that a heavily edited version of Left 4 Dead 2 has now been submitted, and has passed the OFLC test gaining an MA15+ rating. Says Newell: “We think Left 4 Dead 2 is a lot of fun. It’s a game for adults. But we’re aware that different countries have different restrictions, and we want to make the choices that make the game the most fun for that country.” As it turns out, some big cuts have been made in this sanitized version. News.com.au reports that the OFLC found “the game no longer contains depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment.” So Left 4 Dead 2 WILL be coming out in Oz now, though it’s likely to be a nicer, less gory version, with more kittens or something. The original build could still make it out, but we won’t know until a decision is made on EA and Valve’s appeal. It’s plain which version Valve want to see released, and Newell was quite clear about this: “Our goal is not to ship this second version. The goal, of course, is to get the original version through the Board via the appeal process. If that fails, then the edited version is the back-up plan.” Obviously, the elephant in the room is the OFLC’s inefficient rating system. Australia desperately needs an R18 classification for games, and until that happens, expect this story to be repeated again and again. [News.com.au, via VG247] |
Srinagar: A terrorist, who was captured alive by security forces after a fierce gunbattle in Kashmir on Tuesday, is a Pakistani national, said Home Ministry sources on Wednesday. According to NDTV, he has been identified as Bahadur Ali, resident of Pakistan's Lahore city. MoS (Home) Hansraj Ahir also later confirmed his identity. It has been confirmed that terrorist who was captured alive in Kupwara, is from Pakistan: Hansraj Ahir, (MoS, Home) pic.twitter.com/HtRR4RYKe5 — ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2016 Bahadur Ali was captured alive by the security forces while four other Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists were killed in the gunbattle near Nowgam sector in Kupwara district. Bahadur Ali, alias Saifullah, is 22 years old and has been trained by LeT in guerilla warfare. Three AK-47 rifles, two pistols and Rs. 23,000 in Indian currency were also recovered from him by the security forces. This was the second time in two months a Pakistani terrorist has been captured alive in the frontier district. The terrorists had entered in Valley from Teethwal area of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir a day before, sources in the Home Ministry said. They had moved into the Tangdhar sector and from there to the Leepa Valley. Later, they had holed up in a forest area, where the encounter took place. |
ERA estimators estimate how well a pitcher pitched in the present, and pitcher projections estimate how well a pitcher is expected to pitch in the future. Naturally, we’d expect projections to more-accurately predict pitchers’ future performances, since that’s what they’re designed to do. But it appears that ERA estimators can figure future performance quite well — and SIERA, in particular, has actually done a better job projecting pitcher performance that than traditional projections. Projecting pitchers is harder than projecting hitters. Not only do pitchers’ skill levels change often, but simply estimating a pitcher’s skill at any given time is challenging. Differentiating their performances from that of their fielders’ — and removing luck — are difficult tasks necessary to isolate pitchers’ true talent. Testing an ERA estimator’s ability to predict future ERA is the most common method of assessing its reliability, because if it is similar to a pitcher’s future ERA, then it is probably picking up a pitcher’s true skill level. The most common metrics for testing an ERA estimator are correlation with future ERA or the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) with future ERA. The difference between using correlation and RMSE is that the correlation studies how much two numbers move together, while RMSE studies how close they are. Say you were a general manager a year ago, and you saw two pitchers on the trading block who were coming off sub-3.00 ERAs. Their names were Jaime Garcia and Mat Latos. You knew both were due for a reversion to the mean. If you wanted to target the superior pitcher, you would want the ERA estimator with the superior correlation with future ERA. But if you were more interested in pinpointing each of their future ERAs to determine how competitive your team would be if you got either, the ERA Estimator with the superior RMSE should be your focus. In other words, the pitching metric with a best correlation with future ERA ranks them correctly, while the pitching metric with the best RMSE is better at predicting their performance in an absolute sense (rather than relative to other pitchers). But you might wonder: why not just use a future ERA projection? The implicit assumption is that if you only want to predict future performance, you might as well factor in several years of data, aging, park effects and changes in skill level that a more sophisticated system would recognize. But I would strongly argue that doing a projection requires two steps: 1) Figuring out how well a pitcher actually pitched 2) Figuring out how this will change If you don’t do the first step well, what can you expect from the second step? Consider the following test for 2011 that shows the correlation of future ERA with several ERA estimators and projection systems. ERA estimators are presented in red and pitcher projections are presented in blue. Estimator(N=258 pitchers) Correlation of 2010 Statistic with 2011 ERA* SIERA .480 ZiPS .470 xFIP . 438 ERA .424 Marcel .420 PECOTA .413 FIP .402 tERA .396 Oliver .371 *For all tables, I use only pitchers with 40 IP in both years. SIERA actually tops the three most commonly cited projection systems in correlation with future ERA. In fact, you would have done a better job just looking at park-neutral SIERAs in 2010 than all four projection systems’ park-adjusted ERAs. Interestingly, 2010 ERA itself didn’t fare that badly when ranking pitchers’ 2011 ERAs — and it actually topped Marcel, PECOTA and Oliver. What if we look at RMSE? This will penalize ERA estimators that let luck play too large of a role, even if the estimators appropriately rank pitchers. But here, we again see that SIERA tops the pack, and xFIP actually beats all three projection systems — plus PECOTA and Oliver — rather handily. Estimator(N=258 pitchers) RMSE of 2010 Statistic with 2011 ERA SIERA 1.048 xFIP 1.069 ZiPS 1.071 Marcel 1.076 FIP 1.132 PECOTA 1.155 Oliver 1.168 tERA 1.171 ERA 1.221 Just to make sure that this discovery wasn’t a 2011 quirk, I looked at the previous six years. Note that PECOTA has changed architects several times, but this will aggregate their performances. Also note that I left out Oliver because it wasn’t available for all six years. Estimator(N=1,576 pitchers) Correlation of Statistic with Next Year’s ERA(2006-2011) SIERA .428 ZiPS .402 PECOTA .394 tERA .384 Marcel .377 xFIP .375 FIP .355 ERA .328 Over time, it appears that SIERA is the best at ranking pitchers — though tERA does edge Marcel. ZiPS is best among projections, though PECOTA’s strong 2007 and 2008 performances kept the aggregate score close. Estimator(N=1,576 pitchers) RMSE of Statistic with Next Year’s ERA(2006-2011) SIERA 1.126 Marcel 1.132 PECOTA 1.141 ZiPS 1.143 xFIP 1.148 FIP 1.212 tERA 1.236 ERA 1.387 The lesson learned from the last RMSE table is that, over time, projections do a better job being closer to future ERA than ERA estimators — other than SIERA. But SIERA remains on top. It’s worth noting that the reason Marcel tops PECOTA and ZiPS here is that Marcel has a far lower standard deviation (.527 for Marcel, versus .652 for PECOTA and .721 for ZiPS). It might not rank pitchers as effectively, but it predicts their performances better simply by assuming that all pitchers are more average than they appear. When Ubaldo Jimenez or Javier Vazquez fall back to earth, Marcel catches them; but Marcel also expected Tim Lincecum and Cliff Lee to regress significantly, as well, while ZiPS took a stronger stand on both. This made ZiPS better at correlation and Marcel better at RMSE. What’s particularly interesting about this discovery is that ERA estimators should have far inferior correlations and RMSEs. Projection systems use several years of performance to understand a pitcher’s true talent level. ERA estimators only use one year of data. Ryan Vogelsong had a very low 2.71 ERA in 2011, but his SIERA was only 3.97. That’s well and good, but years of ERAs and SIERAs both hovering around 5.00 suggest an even harder crash in 2012 — unbeknownst to Vogelsong’s 2011 SIERA. Using more data and more highly regressed data should significantly benefit projection systems. But that extra information isn’t enough to overtake the benefit of SIERA. The reason this is happening is because we still aren’t incorporating the lessons of ERA estimators properly into developing projections. ERA estimators give a truer estimate of how well the pitcher actually pitched. If we continue to ignore the interplay between different pitching skills and their effect on runs prevention, we will fall short in our ERA projection. First we need to understand the information contained in strikeout rate as it pertains to BABIP, HR/FB and situational pitching. We need to know what information is and isn’t contained in batted ball data. And we must comprehend how all of these statistics combine to affect run prevention. Once we know all of these, then we can understand how well a pitcher is pitching at the moment — and this can be carried forward to predict how well a player might pitch in the future. When predicting the future, using several years of SIERA will do better than one year, and adding park effects and aging to previous years’ SIERAs will also help. Most importantly, regressing SIERAs towards the mean is necessary if we’re interested in approximate talent level, rather than just rankings. After all, the gap in RMSE is small between SIERA and projection systems, but SIERA’s correlation advantage is far larger. At this stage, using SIERA as a jumping off point appears to be the best method to project pitcher performance. |
A south Indian newspaper has offered its readers “scientifically proven” advice on how to conceive a boy, including eating plenty of mutton, never skipping breakfast and always sleeping with your face turned leftwards. The advice, which ran on Tuesday in the Kerala newspaper Mangalam, highlights the deep-rooted and often deadly preference for male children that persists in Indian culture. India's missing girls: fears grow over rising levels of foeticide | KumKum Dasgupta Read more Admitting its methods might not be guaranteed to work, the column suggested that women looking to conceive boys needed to ensure they never missed breakfast, and ate much more than their normal intake throughout the day. Mutton and dry grapes were the best food for women, while men needed to avoid eating food with high acid content, it said. It also advised readers to attempt procreation on only the first, third, fifth or seventh days of the week, when sperm were “scientifically” shown to be stronger. The column was translated from Malayalam by the Indian feminist website the Ladies Finger, which “recommended” the advice to its readers, “especially if, God forbid, the blood moon sacrifices conducted by your extended family for a male heir haven’t worked out yet”. A preference for boys is deeply ingrained in many of India’s cultures, and tens of thousands of girls are thought to be aborted each year. The result is a heavily distorted gender ratio, with India’s most recent census finding there were 940 girls born each year for every 1,000 boys. The disparity is worst in Haryana, a state in the country’s north, where just 830 girls are born for every 1,000 boys. Ranjana Kumari, a leading activist in the movement against female foeticide, said efforts were under way in five Haryana districts to change community attitudes about the economic potential of women, which she said was the most potent way of dissuading people from aborting female foetuses. “What works best is changing the image of girls in our society. Showing that girls can be educated, employed, take care of their families,” she said. Kumari said Kerala was one of India’s most progressive and educated states, so it was surprising that they were “tolerating such stupid, unscientific lies” as those published in Mangalam. The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has been vocal about the need to end the practice, comparing foeticide to Ravana, a demon king from Hindu scripture whose effigy is ceremonially burned each year. In a speech this year to mark the ceremony, he ranked sex-selection alongside terrorism, caste discrimination, religious hatred and corruption as the main “evils” in Indian society. |
Share this... Things are so bad for the warmists in the USA that they now have to hope that radical German papers will carry the day for them. This is really quite pathetic. Yesterday German left-wing online Die Zeit, a favourite among German “intellectuals”, attempted to bring the hockey stick back from the dead by granting washed-up climate scientist Raymond Bradley an interview. The following are excerpts of the interview. I think Al Gore or moveon.org provided the answers for Bradley. “The curve is robust” Die Zeit poses the question: “Does the hockey stick chart need to be corrected?” Bradley answers: No, the curve is robust. It was only one of hundreds of charts in the IPCC report. But the climate deniers in the US industry tried to bury the credibility of the IPCC by casting the curve into doubt. Some US Congressmen, who are marionettes of the oil industry, demanded that we provide detailed information about all financial information for the last few years. It hasn’t been easy with them breathing down our necks.” I don’t know what the aim of all this is. Of course the German public hardly sees the other side of the science, which is usually in English and rarely filters through the German media. Citizens have to rely on their one-sided media, like Die Zeit. Germany is a bit like the North Korea of climate information. Warmists are hoping Germans will remain oblivious nd keep believing in the coming doomsday. Obviously Bradley is hoping that the many duped Germans are somehow going to rescue him from the mess he and his team are in. It’s not easy being one step away from permanent disagrace. Die Zeit then asks: “Since then, several comissions have confirmed your climate diagram. Has anyone apologised to you?” Now what does that tell you about Die Zeit and Die Zeit readers? I guess they’ve never heard of “Climategate” or the Medieval Warm Period. (Now readers outside of Germany are probably getting an idea of just how far from reality German has drifted). Bradley answers: No, instead the attacks continue. Michael Mann, the lead author of the curve, is still under investigation. In mid November he had to fight to keep all his e-mails during his time at the University of Virginia from being made public.” I’ll refrain from comment here. Bradley then goes on to say that at this stage he no longer feels threatened. But he did some years ago, as “people used the power of the state to intimidate the scientists”. Bradley also does not expect any progress in Durban. As far as the future of US politics, he is not too optimistic, and warns: Only when Obama gets re-elected and is supplememnted by a new majority in Congress will anything change. As long as the Tea Party dominates, it’s going to be difficult for Obama. Die Zeit is regarded in Germany as a leading “intellectual” paper. And, if you linked to their article, you’ll notice they’re still using the old disgraced hockey stick, and believe oil companies are behind the skeptics, that sea level rise is accelerating and all the other myths. This all reminds me of an old lone Japanese soldier marooned on a desert island, still hiding because he thinks WWII hasn’t ended yet. Really – I’m not kidding when I say Die Zeit is an intellectual paper in Germany. Now you know the sorrowful state of German “intellectuals” (and Ray Bradley). |
[byliner] Eru Rerekura, Te Manu Kōrihi reporter - eru.rerekura@radionz.co.nz A Northland marae says an agreement it has signed with an electricity generator will provide positive benefits for the whole community and see Ngāwhā become the geothermal hub of the north. The Ngāwhā marae komiti has signed a deal with Top Energy that it hopes will lead to development at and around the geothermal field near Kaikohe. The company is applying for consent to expand its geothermal power plant at Ngāwhā and the agreement addresses concerns the komiti had about the project. Photo: D Tukariri NMTK.Copyright An advisor to the komiti, Chris Webster, said the komiti was inspired by partnerships between Māori entities and commercial parties in the central North Island such as the Tuaropaki Trust and Taupo milk products business Miraka. She said the agreement recognised that the hapū of Ngāti Rangi had kaitiakitanga responsibilities, and would provide educational grants and employment in an area where jobs were hard to find. "Ngāwhā Marae Trust will become the geothermal seminar marae of the north," Ms Webster said. "We've got educational scholarships and we've also got the right to develop the field independent of Top Energy if and when that decision is to be made. "So, it's a mighty big success for a little marae and it's a mighty big achievement to help turn around the bad statistics of the Far North." The deal also ensures that Top Energy will make information available to the komiti relating to details of the power station's geothermal resource use. Top Energy and the Komiti will also work together to investigate the potential for commercial opportunities at Ngāwhā on land collectively owned by hapū members. "There is a long and successful history of iwi and hapū entities working with power companies to develop resources," said Ms Webster. Top Energy has also agreed to assist with the restoration of historic sites of particular significance to the komiti. "We're delighted to have forged the basis for a robust, constructive and long-term relationship with the Ngāwhā marae komiti and wish to particularly thank it and their project advisor, Chris Webster, in enabling this agreement to be reached," said Top Energy chief executive Russell Shaw. |
Bethesda’s recently announced Skyrim and Fallout 4 Creation Club is more like a system for outsourcing new content for those games than it is a way to monetize existing or new user-created mods, company spokesman Pete Hines told Gamespot in a recent interview. Content from the Creation Club, Hines said, would be treated more like “mini DLCs in some way, although that’s probably not even a great point of reference.” “They are internally created, or internally created along with external developers,” Hines said. “They're fully internally developed and work the same across all three platforms. They're guaranteed to work with your save games. They don't turn off Achievements or Trophies, unlike mods. They're guaranteed to work with all DLC. They'll be localized as needed. They will be put out and created as official content from the studio." Hines went on to liken the content creation to the sort of low-level work Bethesda’s internal studios might outsource. "Like, we need a whole bunch of flower pots; we don't just make flower pots all day, [Bethesda developers] focus on the bigger stuff and outsource the flower pots for somebody else to make,” he said. “This is, in some ways, a lot like that--it's all official content, we don't have any issues with platforms like what kind of things are you or are you not allowed to include in what you do because it's coming from us. It's QA'd by us. It's managed by us as official content and then put up and made available." While no prices have yet been set for Creation Club content, Hines said it’s not meant to be “high price point stuff; it’s supposed to be small things you can add to your game.” Bethesda Games Studio is launching Creation Club for PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One this summer. |
New Jersey has become a partisan battleground over gun rights following a brutal incidence of violence that has pitted many domestic-violence advocates in the state against gun-rights enthusiasts — and, as it turns out, the governor himself. Gov. Chris Christie is reportedly sitting on a domestic violence bill that would reinforce legal protections for abuse victims by forcing alleged abusers to surrender their firearms. The 2016 presidential hopeful has yet to comment on why he's dragging his feet on the bill, but sources suggest it may have something to do with his newfound push for gun rights as he hops onto the conservative campaign trail. Current laws in New Jersey already require domestic abusers to surrender their firearms. However, New Jersey Democrats, led by Assembly Women and Children Committee Vice-Chair Gabriela M. Mosquera, have said the bill would provide law enforcement and courts more authority and resources, ensuring that these firearms are surrendered in a more timely and efficient manner. "The purpose of this legislation is to get the firearms away from abusers," Mosquera said in a press release back June as the bill made its way through committee. "The intent of this bill is very simple. It’s just taking those firearms away from individuals that have propensity to abuse individuals." Meanwhile, the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs denounced the bill last month, calling it "overbroad, off-target, and fundamentally flawed" in a press statement posted on the organization's Facebook page. Christie has yet to publicly comment on whether he will sign or veto the domestic-violence bill. He has 45 days to either sign off or veto the legislation. New Jersey is a strange state to orchestrate a gun-rights campaign. The state already has some of the toughest provisions on the books, including a seven-day waiting period for purchasing a handgun, and up to a 30-day waiting period for receiving the handgun permit, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. But the murder of 39-year-old Carol Browne by her ex-boyfriend, a convicted felon with a well-documented abusive past, has sparked a debate over these firearms provisions, and whether they ended up causing Browne more harm. Browne, a hairdresser, was stabbed to death on June 3 by her ex-boyfriend, Michael Eitel, on the driveway of her own home in Berlin Township. She had a restraining order against Eitel at the time, according to the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, and was also waiting on her handgun permit, which was already days past the 30-day limit. As such, gun-rights activists have turned her murder into a talking point, including Christie, who’s been molding a more conservative platform for his 2016 presidential campaign. In late June, Christie responded to Browne’s murder by issuing an executive order requiring the state to expedite the permit application process for victims of domestic violence, including individuals who have a restraining order against their abusers. The measure would limit the waiting period for a handgun permit to 14 days. Christie saw his move as striking a balance between gun rights and domestic violence advocates, touting the measure as a way to protect the right to self-defense. "The Constitution grants and our courts have affirmed the individual right to bear arms as a fundamental right, and that is all the more important for those who are victims of violence or under threat," the governor said in the executive order. He added that the measure was a "common-sense step" to "protect the rights of victims and people at risk of violent acts by giving them priority." Darren McCollester/Getty Images News/Getty Images But the governor still won't move on the Democrat-backed bill safeguarding victims of domestic violence. His inaction on the bill has frustrated New Jersey Democrats, who believe the governor's executive order is just smoke-and-mirrors politics. "He [Christie] quickly released his executive order as a way of showing he is serious about victims of domestic violence," Mosquero recently told Mother Jones. "He could have signed our bill the same day. I'm not sure what he's waiting for." Still, it's a strange move for Christie, who has long been known as a supporter of gun control, much to the dismay of his conservative peers. Christie has even gone on Fox News, plenty of times, to defend his state's strict gun laws. But considering that the governor's recent executive order loosening the permit waiting period, it appears the New Jersey governor may be looking to appease gun-rights lobbyists as he begins his journey to win over conservative America.The domestic violence legislation lingering on his desk, however, is troubling, considering the unfolding debate in New Jersey to strengthen protections for victims, who are more likely to be killed when there is a gun in the home, according to research from the National Institute of Justice. Earlier this year, former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords traveled to New Jersey to deliver this simple message for Christie and his colleagues: "Dangerous people with guns are a threat to women. Criminals with guns, abusers with guns, stalkers with guns — that makes gun violence a women's issue. ... We stand for responsibility." The governor's office has not responded to Bustle's request for comment on the bill. The Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs also did not respond to our request for comment. Images: Getty Images (1) |
More than 200 members of Congress follow a conservative think tank and the country’s largest business organization, according to an analysis of congressional Twitter accounts. A report by Quorum Analytics found that 205 members of Congress follow the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 203 members follow the Heritage Foundation, making them the two most followed non-media and non-government accounts by members. The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now Heritage Foundation was an early adopter of Twitter, joining the social network in 2007 and making the site a key component of its online presence. “Members of Congress and their staff are a primary audience for Heritage, which is why we’ve made it part of our mission to communicate our policy research on Twitter,” Rob Bluey, vice president of publishing at the Heritage Foundation, told TIME. “We know it’s a platform influencers in Washington use to consume news and information.” Beyond those two outside groups, most members follow media outlets and reporters, as well as government Twitter handles. The member of Congress with the most members following is Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, with 280 members following. The most popular news organization account is The Hill with 372 members following. Contact us at editors@time.com. |
Matthew Handrahan Editor-in-Chief Friday 12th July 2013 Share this article Share Companies in this article EA Phenomic Electronic Arts has closed EA Phenomic, the 60-person strategy developer behind Spellforce and Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances. The situation at Phenomic was brought to the attention of GamesIndustry International by a number of sources with knowledge of the studio and its employees. EA would not comment on the specifics of Phenomic's position, but offered the following statement regarding the ongoing internal restructuring in the company as a whole: "As part of EA's realignment in recent weeks, we have announced internally a small adjustment to some development staff to better focus our teams against priority growth areas. The decision to let people go is not something we take lightly and we are working to ensure that impacted employees are treated fairly and with respect for their contributions to EA, and with assistance to find other job opportunities. "These are hard but essential changes as we focus on delivering great games and showing players around the world why to spend their time with us" The EA representative also told us that the company has no plans to move away from free-to-play or strategy games. EA Phenomic is based in Ingelheim am Rhein, near to Frankfurt, Germany. At its peak, the studio employed 60 people. The company was established as "Phenomic Game Development" in 1997 by Volker Wertich, who had been instrumental in the development The Settlers while at Blue Byte Software. Phenomic then established the Spellforce franchise, before being acquired by Electronic Arts in August, 2006, and renamed "EA Phenomic". The studio worked primarily on real-time strategy games, including BattleForge in 2009, Lord of Ultima in 2010, and Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances last year. The latter was a free-to-play browser version of the classic series that entertained 1 million players in its first two months. |
Dave Jordano's fascination with Detroit's marijuana dispensaries borders on obsession. He's photographed more than half of them, and remains fascinated by their bright colors, neon signs, and cheeky names like "House of Dank." “I just love this entrepreneurial spirit of all these individuals having their own say in what these shops should look like, what their names are, what strains they sell, what they profess to heal and cure,” Jordano says. “Everyone’s got their own thing going, and it’s very independent.” Detroit's Marijuana Dispensaries celebrates 82 of Motown's most eclectic weed shops, which sprouted after Michigan legalized medical marijuana eight years ago. The law didn't specifically address dispensaries, but many cities gave them tacit approval. In some cases, establishing a dispensary required nothing more than the same permit needed to run a medical supply store. The Michigan Supreme Court ruled dispensaries illegal in 2013, prompting Detroit to begin requiring dispensary owners to obtain licenses, submit to background checks, and meet health regulations. The city also relegated dispensaries to industrial and commercial zones and banned them from operating within 1,000 feet of schools, liquor stores, and other places. The rules caused 22 dispensaries to shut down. Medical Marijuana Dispensary #48, Westside, Detroit Dave Jordano Jordano's fascination started in January while working on his series Detroit Nocturne. After seeing a few, he started noticing them everywhere—in old hair salons, pharmacies, even strip clubs. “Once you get them on your radar, you drive down the street and you go, ‘Oh there’s one, there’s one, there’s another,” Jordano says. According to estimates, Detroit has 150 dispensaries. Jordano made six trips from his home in Chicago between January and July, roaming the city with his Hasselblad H5D-50. The high contrast of each scene led him to make multiple exposures, ranging from an eighth of a second for the bright lights to three minutes for the deep shadows. Using Photoshop, Jordano blended three or four exposures to nail the highlights, midtones, and dark areas. The process is similar to HDR, but the end result doesn’t look as cheesy. The photos capture a unique moment in the history of a city struggling to rebuild its economy and cultural identity while adapting to changing attitudes toward marijuana. For now though, Mr. Smiley's and Sea Weed are still open for business. |
Mars One Contracts Paragon for Mars Life Support Systems Press Release From: The Fun Star Posted: Monday, March 11, 2013 AMERSFOORT, THE NETHERLANDS, MARCH 11th, 2013 - Mars One has taken a bold step toward their goal of establishing a human settlement on Mars in 2023 by contracting with its first aerospace supplier, Paragon Space Development Corporation(R). As required by the U.S. Department of State, a Technical Assistant Agreement was successfully executed and Paragon began work on February 25th, 2013. Under the contract, Paragon will perform a conceptual design study as the first step towards developing life support and space suit systems for the Mars One mission. "The first human mission to land on Mars is going to be one of the greatest stories of our generation," says Mars One co-founder Arno Wielders. "Mars One will achieve this goal by maturing existing technologies that have been under development by the aerospace industry for decades. Signing Paragon as a supplier signifies a shift into the engineering and technical phase of our program, and brings us a major step closer to our goal." "We are extremely proud to have been selected by the Mars One team to provide such a vital role on the project," states Grant Anderson, Paragon Sr. VP of Operations, Chief Engineer, and Co-Founder. "The objective of this conceptual design study will be to provide a well-defined pathway to mature the technologies and architectures required for long-term human habitation in the Martian environment." The contract will enable the initial conceptual design of the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) and Mars Surface Exploration Spacesuit System. During this study, Paragon will identify major suppliers, concepts, and technologies that exist today and can be used as the baseline architecture for further development. The ECLSS will provide and maintain a safe, reliable environment for the inhabitants, providing them with clean air and water. The Mars suits will enable the settlers to work outside of the habitat and explore the surface of Mars. Gary A Lantz, Paragon Program Manager adds: "Our approach is to assess existing technologies with input from established industry experts, such as spacesuit manufacturer ILC Dover, and to define an achievable baseline architecture for the ECLSS and Spacesuit System. Paragon will build on its 20 years of experience performing similar work for customers such as NASA and major aerospace prime contractors." Bas Lansdorp, Mars One Co-Founder on the journey ahead: "Though much of the technology needed to enable a manned mission to Mars exists today, the process of maturing it to flight readiness is laden with obstacles. At Mars One we thoroughly believe in the feasibility of our manned Mars mission, but we are well aware that the mission's success is also dependent on securing finances to facilitate technological progress. We are, therefore, grateful to sponsors, donors, and other partners from all walks of life that contribute to our ambition to land humans on Mars in 2023." Mars One is a not-for-profit organization that will establish a permanent human settlement on Mars in 2023 through the integration of existing, readily available technologies from industry leaders worldwide. Unique in its approach, Mars One intends to fund this decade-long endeavor by involving the whole world as the audience of an interactive, televised broadcast of every aspect of this mission, from launch to landing to living on Mars. Paragon Space Development Corporation joins the engineering disciplines of environmental control, life support, and thermal control to provide premier products and services for the world's most challenging life support needs, such as human spaceflight and first responder personal protection. For more information please visit: www.mars-one.com www.paragonsdc.com // end // More news releases and status reports or top stories. Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. |
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